South Africa: Water challenges prioritised in Limpopo

Water and Sanitation Deputy Minister, Dikeledi Magadzi, says the department will hasten the process of ensuring that the community of Ga-Malekana in Sekhukhune, Limpopo, has access to water.

This follows complaints by the residents of Ga-Malekana village, that despite their proximity to De Hoop Dam, years after the completion of the multi-million-rand dam, they still struggle to access potable water at their households.

As a result, some have resorted to illegally connecting water to the main pipeline that distributes water from the dam to Jane Furse, which unfortunately leads to infrastructure destruction and water losses.

Addressing the community, political and traditional leaders at a meeting on Friday, Magadzi assured the residents that her department is working hard to ensure their access to water.

She said the political leadership of the department had been instructed by President Ramaphosa when he appointed them to prioritise water and sanitation, and get to the root-cause of the problem of water services in the country.

Minister Mchunu, Deputy Minister Mahlobo and I are working around the clock to address water challenges throughout the country. As a result, we stretch ourselves to different parts of South Africa to try and address water issues and we are confident [we will] get it right, Magadzi said.

In the past two months, Minister Senzo Mchunu and his deputies have visited the Free State, Northern Cape, Eastern Cape and Limpopo to meet the leadership of water parastatals, Mayors and Premiers to discuss their respective water challenges.

Mchunu is scheduled to soon visit the Giyani Bulk Water Scheme with a view to find a speedy solution to the project.

Meanwhile, Mchunu is today visiting Maluti-a-Phofung Local Municipality in QwaQwa and later in the week, from 5 to 7 October, he is scheduled to visit Gauteng with the purpose of getting to the bottom of water challenges and to find ways of addressing them. SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2021-10-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
South Africa: R5.8 billion insurance claims paid to July unrest hit businesses

The South African Special Risk Insurance Association (Sasria) has to date paid out R5.8 billion in claims to businesses that suffered damages during the July unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

This was on Monday revealed by the National Treasury and Sasria in a joint statement. The two said that work had been underway to address the damages incurred and assist businesses to start operating again.

In the wake of the unprecedented chain of events that saw businesses looted and razed, government unveiled various interventions to support the affected establishments.

Sasria has made important business interventions, namely capital and reinsurance restructure, and government, as the sole shareholder, has committed to stand in as the entitys insurer of last resort. Government committed to enable Sasria to meet all its policyholder commitments.

In the statement, Sasria Managing Director, Cedric Masondo, said: Our discussions with National Treasury are in line with the desired determination of the best medium that can inject capital, as we look at how to be future-proof ready and acknowledge the lessons learnt during the unfortunate unrest in July.

The National Treasury has indicated that R3.9 billion will be disbursed to Sasria following the conclusion of the recently tabled Special Appropriation Bill parliamentary processes. This was intended to assist Sasria in meeting its obligations until the end of the current financial year, which ends on 31 March 2022.

The National Treasury said it was aware that additional government support would be required and was working closely with Sasria to finalise the actual financial support need.

They said the final additional support was dependent on how swiftly Sasria can finalise the total claim amounts.

It is expected that the additional support which has been flagged in the recent special appropriation will be concretised in the 2022 Budget, reads the statement.

They reiterated that Sasria had sufficient reserves, including through its reinsurers, to meet all valid claims. While the parliamentary processes for additional government support is being finalised, Sasria remains liquid and continues to trade as usual.

Sasria in the statement said almost 100% of claims notifications had been received and were in the process of loss adjustment. Since July, the two revealed that claims amounting to over R5.8 billion had been paid.

All claims below R1 million to be settled and paid in full quicker, and the Agent companies are working extremely hard to make sure that these claims are paid as quickly as possible, they said.

Sasria and Treasury said the Association was determined to settle 80% of all claims between R1 million and R30 million by the end of October 2021.

Sasria has started paying interim payments as proposed by Loss Adjusters on all big claims (above R30 million) and is determined to make sure that at least 30% of total claim value for big claims is paid in the next couple of weeks.

We would like to assure clients that we have added resources to reduce any possible delays in the processing of claim payments. We are confident that in two weeks, we would have attended to all outstanding reports and made necessary payments, Sasria said.

It has engaged with industry partners and reached an agreement that the damaged properties will rather be rebuilt, than do cash in lieu payments. Collaborative work with loss adjusters and the industry would be done to ensure that the buildings are rebuilt.

Sasria continues to play a key role in the insurance industry. We urge clients to continue and maintain their policies with Sasria and would like to assure them of our determined resilience to maintain our excellent relations, said Masondo.  SAnews.gov.za

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South Africa: Former Ngqushwa Municipality officials in court over corruption, fraud

Former Ngqushwa Local Municipal Manager, Misiwe Phyllis Mpahlwa (54), and her co-accused have been each released on R1000 bail after they were arrested on allegations of fraud and corruption.

Mpahlwa, the municipalitys director of corporate services Mkhuseli Wiseman Mxekezo as well as former acting Chief Financial Officer, Tinus Matthysen (66), were last week arrested by the East London based Hawks' Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team for allegations of fraud, corruption and contravention of Municipal Financial Management Act (MFMA).

They were released on bail on Friday.

Eastern Cape Hawks spokesperson Captain Yolisa Mgolodela said it was alleged that Mxekezo deliberately or negligently created irregular expenditure by signing a memorandum dated 11 December 2019 for an event that would be held on the 12 December 2019 without procurement processes being followed. The expenditure was an amount of more than R273 000 for a Christmas event for the elderly people of the Peddie community.

She said: It is further alleged that Matthysen failed to prevent the irregular, unauthorised fruitless and wasteful expenditure by approving payments to service providers without necessary documentation while he was on leave. Matthysen is reported to have been complying with the instruction for him to effect the payment by the municipal manager at the time, Misiwe Mpahlwa.

Mgolodela said the arrest of the trio was subsequent to the arrest of Busisiwe Mfunda (34) on 29 July 2021. She also appeared before the Peddie Magistrates' Court on the same day and was released on R1000 bail.

Mfunda was alleged to have signed a memorandum as an applicant requesting for procurement of goods and services for the said Christmas event.

It is further alleged that after approval, she went on to source the quotations from various fictitious service providers for her personal enrichment by bypassing the supply chain office, she said.

Mfunda will thus be joining her co-accused at the same court on 6 October 2021 pending further investigations.  SAnews.gov.za

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South Africa: NW Premier mourns passing of Naledi Local Municipality Mayor

North West Premier Bushy Maape says he is deeply saddened by the tragic death of Naledi Local Municipality Mayor, Neo Skalk.

The Mayor died in a car accident on Sunday, 3 October 2021.

According to the police, the Mayors vehicle was involved in a head-on collision on N14 just outside Vryburg.

The Mayor and the driver of another vehicle were certified dead on the scene of the accident.

Maape said the passing of Skalk came as a shock.

He passes away at a time when government is seeking to remodel local government, particularly the implementation of the District Development Model. He was going to be of great service in seeing to the success of this model."

Maape has described the Mayor as a hard worker, who was dedicated to serving the people of Naledi Local Municipality in the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District.

According to the Premiers statement, Skalk rose to prominence in politics in 1983 when he was arrested with other chief organisers of student protests at Bopaganang High School.

He was subsequently found guilty and was banned from enrolling at all schools in the Vryburg District.

He is one of the longest-serving Councillors of the ANC since the dawn of democracy.

The late Mayor has been described as a dedicated public representative, whose service in various roles and responsibilities in local government spans over two decades, including as the Chief Whip of the Naledi Local Municipality between 2000 and 2006.

In 2011, he was elected Speaker of the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District, a position he held until he was elected Mayor of Naledi Local Municipality in 2016.

The Premier has offered his condolences to the Mayors family, friends, colleagues, residents of Naledi Local Municipality and the North West residents.  SAnews.gov.za

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South Africa: Women Economic Assembly to empower women

In a bid to tackle inequality in key sectors of the economy, President Cyril Ramaphosa will on Wednesday launch the Women Economic Assembly (WECONA) which will put major sectors under the spotlight to evaluate the level of participation of women-owned businesses.

The Assembly will be launched during a hybrid event to be attended by businesswomen, government leaders and officials, private companies, civil society organisations and other stakeholders.

The private sector, civil society, womens organisations, businesswomen and government have partnered to form the WECONA  an initiative to facilitate the participation of women-owned businesses in core areas of the economy.

This initiative emphasises the participation of women-owned enterprises on the entire value chain to foster sustainable economic development.

Women Economic Assembly national convener and co-chairperson, Futhi Mtoba, says the Assembly will activate, coordinate and monitor government and private sector actions towards preferential procurement for women-owned businesses.

The initiative seeks to connect and inspire innovation, thought leadership and action to transform value chain eco-systems, as well as to obtain a deep, common understanding and detailed articulation of sector specific value-chain eco-systems.

This will enable businesswomen to identify entry points and opportunities for sustainable economic participation, Mtoba said.

The Assembly aligns with the outcomes of Pillar 5 of the National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide. Pillar 5 calls for the need to create more economic opportunities for women who are vulnerable to abuse due to poverty, unemployment and social inequality.

Recognising that women-owned businesses still account for 1% of public procurement, while Agenda 2063 of the AU calls for this allocation to be at least 25%, the Women Economic Assembly sets out to contribute substantially to easing the plight of vulnerable sectors of our economy.

Unlocking market access through preferential procurement has a direct multiplier effect to economic growth and increased access to income.

Women have been disproportionately affected by the economic and social fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily because the pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing structural inequalities and gender norms. Women are also over-represented in the hardest-hit sectors within the informal economy, making them vulnerable to job losses and lack of social security protection, Mtoba added.

Mtoba says public procurement helps domestic industry start-ups by propelling industrial growth, securing technology transfer and innovation.

Preferential procurement can help small firms achieve goals of equitable distribution of resources; enable sustainable development and play a significant role in promoting gender equality and poverty reduction.

This Assembly will facilitate the convergence of stakeholders to contribute to a movement of economic emancipation for all the women of South Africa in their diversity, using innovation, creativity and thought leadership to transform the economic system.

The Women Economic Assembly also aims to build a long-term framework of monitoring and a measurement index.

It also presents an opportunity for businesses to derive benefit from greater equality for women as espoused in the UN global compact on Womens Empowerment Principles, particularly, Principle 5, in terms of which, business is required to implement enterprise development, supply chain and marketing practices that empower women.

It is time that, as women, who constitute 52 percent of the population, we play an equitable role in the human and social development of our own country. The Women Economic Assembly is not a once-off event but an annual national programme that will be strengthened and enabled by complimentary pre- and post-assembly activities, Mtoba said.  SAnews.gov.za

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South Africa: Advancing women's economic empowerment key to equality

President Cyril Ramaphosa says the economic empowerment of women will bring the country closer to its Constitutional aspiration of meaningful equality between men and women.

The President was addressing the nation through his weekly newsletter ahead of the Womens Economic Assembly expected to be held in Johannesburg later this week.

President Ramaphosa said that although other sectors like justice, sports and culture have been making progress to level the playing field between men and women, economic empowerment  a key milestone in realising equality  still remains elusive.

There are more men in employment than women. Men are more likely than women to be in paid employment, and women are more likely to be doing unpaid work. The most recent employment numbers show the unemployment rate of black African women is the highest at 41% percent, more than 4 percentage points higher than the national average, he said.

President Ramaphosa said the upcoming Womens Economic Assembly offers an opportunity to engage on ways economic equality can be attained.

The President said delegates from government, civil society and the private sector are expected to come together at the assembly in an effort to develop a common plan of action for advancing womens economic empowerment.

The Womens Economic Assembly will consider how supply chains can be used to benefit women-owned businesses, address the policy impediments to womens economic empowerment, and improve access to financing for women-owned businesses, especially rural enterprises.

A number of economic sectors, such as automotive, agriculture, mining and energy, will present commitments and action plans to enhance the participation of women-owned businesses. Some government departments and state-owned enterprises will also present their commitments, he said.

Government support of womens empowerment

President Ramaphosa said government has been at the forefront of supporting women-owned businesses through government procurement, establishing frameworks, holding capacity building workshops for female led businesses and connecting women to opportunities for participation in public procurement.

He added that although it is critical, public procurement is not the only sector government has been actively involving women in.

Women continue to be prioritised for work opportunities through a number of public employment programmes. In the first phase of the President Employment Stimulus, for example, 66% of participants were women.

Of the 206 000 hectares of state land released in the last year, 54 000 hectares  comprising 78 farms  were made available to women beneficiaries. However, we need to do more to improve womens access to productive land for farming, and the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development aims to allocate at least 50% of allotted state land to women, he said.

He highlighted that for womens economic equality to be realised, the private sector needs to come on board.

For us to realise our ambitious goals, business needs to be on board. The financial services sector must work to broaden access to credit and digital financial services like e-commerce and online banking. Lack of financing impedes the expansion and sustainability of many women-owned businesses, especially SMMEs.

We also need to address the inadequate representation of women in managerial positions in the private sector. Some 67% of managerial positions are held by men compared to 33% by women. Even though we have solid policies that outlaw gender discrimination in the workplace, wage differences between men and women persistwomen earn R72 for every R100 earned by a man, he said.

The inaugural Womens Economic Assembly is expected to be held on Wednesday with President Ramaphosa billed to address the gathering.  SAnews.gov.za

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RTHK: US trade envoy expects talks with China

The United States said it will soon have "frank conversations" with China on trade as Washington believes the Asian giant has not honoured its commitments under a 2020 agreement, but raising tensions between the economic powers is not the goal.

"China made commitments intended to benefit certain American industries, including agriculture, that we must enforce," US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in a speech on Monday.

However the point of the negotiations in the coming days is "not to inflame trade tensions with China," Tai said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.

She also warned that President Joe Biden's administration is "prepared to deploy all tools and explore the development of new ones" to "protect ourselves against the waves of damage inflicted over the years through unfair competition."

Tai announced the launch of "a targeted tariff exclusion process" for exemptions from customs tariffs imposed on US$370 billion worth of Chinese goods a year implemented under former president Donald Trump.

The punitive tariffs, imposed in retaliation for Chinese trade practices deemed "unfair," are criticised by many companies.

In August influential US business groups urged Biden to reduce the surcharges, pointing out that American industries faced "increased costs" as the tariffs are paid by importers.

A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the tariffs "will remain in place" for the duration of the exemption procedure.

Biden, who took office in January, asked Tai to conduct a comprehensive review of US trade strategy towards China and the tariffs initiated by Trump.

"We continue to have serious concerns with China's state-centred and non-market trade practices" that were not addressed in the "Phase One" agreement signed early last year to calm a trade war between the countries, Tai said.

"As we work to enforce the terms of Phase One, we will raise these broader policy concerns with Beijing."

The deal signed by Trump and Tai's opposite number, Vice Premier Liu He, committed Beijing to adding an extra US$200 billion in purchases of US exports, including energy, agricultural and manufactured products through 2021.

However, critics say this had not happened, although the Biden administration official did not specify the extent of the shortfall, while indicating that Washington is unsatisfied.

"There are some commitments that have not been met and we think the results overall of the agreement have been mixed," the official said, while stressing the US objective "is not to escalate trade tension."

Tai's speech highlighted the administration's strategy of teaming up with allied democracies in its competition with China.

Trump, who rejected traditional US alliances, sparked worldwide market anxiety with his trade war.

However, he ended up producing limited concrete results, let alone progress on the deep-seated problems that the United States and its allies say plague their trade ties with China. (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2021-10-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
News  Headlines

Foreign investors remain optimistic about Vietnams economy: official
Erdogan approves controversial bill removing lawmakers' immunity

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave his approval Tuesday to legislation that will strip the legal immunity of more than 130 parliament members, in a move widely seen as targeting pro-Kurdish lawmakers.

GALLERY

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks at the Presidential palace in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, 29 February 2016.

Istanbul (dpa) - Erdogans approval, reported by broadcaster NTV and other outlets, is needed for the bill, which has the power of constitutional amendment, to become law and paving the way to prosecutions.A two-thirds majority in parliament approved the measure last month.The United States and the European Union have expressed concerns over the immunity bill.The measure was widely seen as targeting the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), as more than 50 of their 59 members in the 550-seat house would be affected. However, the bill could have implications for all four parties in the legislative house.Turkeys Constitutional Court last week rejected an appeal against the legislation by lawmakers from the HDP and some from the centre-left Republican Peoples Party (CHP), which is split over the matter.The far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has largely backed the immunity bill, which was initiated by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). The AKPs key founder, Erdogan, has repeatedly called for HDP members to lose their legal protection.Erdogan has alleged tight connections between the HDP and the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), something the legal party denies.
Merkel: Europe must stay united on refugee crisis

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on her European partners Sunday to find a common solution to the refugee crisis.

GALLERY

"I am very optimistic that the European path will be successful," Merkel said, stressing it was not time to think about alternatives such as national border closures.

Berlin (dpa) - Merkel said in a television interview with broadcaster ARD that she is using all her power to find a European solution and to address the causes behind the migration, especially in Syria.Merkel said she had no "plan B" for a national solution to the refugee crisis if Europe fails to reach an agreement with Turkey to slow the flow of refugees into Europe."I am very optimistic that the European path will be successful," she said, stressing it was not time to think about alternatives such as national border closures.Merkel said keeping Europe united and demonstrating humanity were her top priorities and urged Germans to have patience."This is a very important phase in our history," she said.A special migration summit is planned for March 7 between the European Union and Turkey - the last stop for many migrants before reaching Europe. The 28-country bloc expects steps from Ankara to curb the flows.Europe has been struggling to deal with a migration surge that brought more than 1 million people to the continent in 2015. Many are asylum seekers fleeing the war in Syria, but economic migrants have also joined their ranks.
Cameron vows to change the culture on use of tax havens

Prime Minister David Cameron promised to "tighten the law and change the culture" by cracking down on tax evasion and discouraging "aggressive" tax avoidance on Monday, following the British use of tax havens revealed in the Panama Papers.

GALLERY

British Prime Minister David Cameron addresses employees of Siemens Rail Automation facility in Chippenham, Britain, 02 February 2016. Cameron during his visit promoted his efforts in the Britain-EU relationship.

London (dpa) - Britains tax authority and national crime agency will examine possible tax evasion and money laundering by British companies and individuals identified in leaked documents from the Panama-based Mossack Fonseca law firm, Cameron told parliament.But people should "defend the right of every British citizen to make money lawfully," he said, placing his government "at the forefront of international action to tackle the global scourge of aggressive tax avoidance and evasion."Cameron has faced political pressure since his fathers offshore investment company, which legally avoided British taxes by registering in tax havens, was named last week in leaked documents from the Panama Papers.He told parliament he sold his shares in one of his fathers funds in early 2010, shortly before he became prime minister, "because I didnt want any issues about conflict of interest."Cameron has admitted fault for his widely criticized response last week, when he gave a series of brief statements on his links to the Panama Papers rather than a full disclosure."I accept all of the criticisms for not responding more quickly to this issue last week," he said on Monday.Replying to Cameron in parliament, opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called for a "credible and independent investigation" of tax avoidance through tax havens.Corbyn said Cameron had still "failed to give a full account" of his financial affairs, despite publishing summaries of his tax returns on Sunday, and said the prime ministers handling of the Panama Papers leak showed the public "no longer have trust in him."David Gauke, financial secretary to the Treasury, said earlier that the Panama Papers showed "tax evasion is part of a wider set of international criminality ... together with money laundering, illicit finance and evading sanctions.""The new taskforce announced today will further tighten the screw on those who think they can get away with dodging tax thats due in this country," Gauke said. "Our message is clear: there are no safe havens."Before Mondays announcement, police and tax officers were already investigating 700 "current leads with a link to Panama," the government said.The government will also introduce new legislation to "hold companies who fail to stop their employees facilitating tax evasion criminally liable," Cameron said.Cameron then came under renewed pressure after he published tax summaries on Sunday that show a 200,000-pound (280,000-dollar) gift from his mother. He had previously admitted to having inherited 300,000 from his father and sold shares in his fathers offshore investment fund for some 30,000 pounds.He initially said his fathers registration of offshore funds in tax havens was "a private matter."Cameron then made statements saying that he and his immediate family held no offshore assets and would not benefit from offshore holdings in the future.
Trump congratulates Erdogan on Turkish referendum victory

US President Donald Trump congratulated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday for his victory in a referendum expanding presidential powers, as the US State Department urged Turkey to abide by its constitution and international agreements.

GALLERY

Washington (dpa) - Trump spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a phone call that also included discussions about Syria and about "the need to cooperate against all groups that use terrorism," the White House said Monday evening.The two leaders agreed on "the importance of holding Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accountable," the White House said. Trump and Erdogan also discussed the campaign against the extremist group Islamic State.Meanwhile, hundreds of people took to the streets of Istanbul on Monday to protest the result of Sundays controversial referendum, in which the "yes" camp won by a slim margin. State Department spokesman Mark Toner noted the concerns raised by European election observers, who found in a preliminary assessment that there was an "unlevel playing field" in the referendum campaign."We look to the government of Turkey to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of all its citizens - regardless of their vote on April 16 - as guaranteed by the Turkish constitution and in accordance with Turkeys international commitments," Toner said.The US is also "committed to strengthening" its relationship with Turkey, Toner said. "The United States continues to support Turkeys democratic development, to which commitment to the rule of law and a diverse and free media remain essential," he said.Toner encouraged political participants "on both sides to focus on working together for Turkeys future and to maintain a meaningful political dialogue."When asked if US President Trump had concerns about the observers initial assessment, White House spokesman Sean Spicer pointed to a report expected from electoral monitors in 10 to 12 days."I think wed rather not get ahead of that report and start to make decisions without knowing," Spicer said. "There were observers there, as there routinely are, and Id rather wait and see."For his part, Erdogan slammed the election monitors initial assessment. "This country has carried out the most democratic election - something not one country in the west has ever experienced," he said.
Strong vitality of BRI wins wide praise

China Daily) 09:46, October 04, 2021

Fruitful results reflect President Xi's vision of 'shared dream for a better life'

On Oct 3, 2013, President Xi Jinping proposed building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road during a speech at the Indonesian parliament. A month earlier, he had put forward the strategic framework for building the Silk Road Economic Belt.

The Belt and Road Initiative, as the two together are known, has become the most well-received international public good and the largest platform for international cooperation over the past eight years. As of Aug 23, more than 200 cooperation agreements with 172 countries, regions and organizations have been signed under the BRI framework.

As the world faces the combined impacts of changes unseen in a century and the COVID-19 pandemic, the BRI has demonstrated strong vitality and creativity and will continue to provide impetus for the global economic recovery and contribute to global sustainable development, observers said.

Xie Fuzhan, president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that Belt and Road construction, which aims for the common development and prosperity of all, has brought concrete benefits to countries and regions along the routes.

The outcomes in the past eight years have shown that the BRI conforms to the trend of the times, the law of development and the interests of all countries, thus enjoying broad prospects, Xie said at a seminar in September.

Statistics from the Ministry of Commerce show that from 2013 to 2020, the trade volume of goods between China and countries participating in the BRI surpassed $9.2 trillion. China's direct foreign investment to participating countries reached $136 billion, and 330,000 local jobs were created by BRI programs invested in by Chinese companies.

"Thanks to the BRI, East Africa now has its first motorway, the Maldives has built its first inter-island bridge, Kazakhstan is connected to the sea, Southeast Asia is constructing a high-speed railway, and the Eurasian (region) is benefiting from the longest-distance freight train service," Cong Peiwu, the Chinese ambassador to Canada, said in June.

The fruitful results reflect President Xi's comments at a welcoming banquet in honor of guests attending the first Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in 2017.

"The Belt and Road Initiative embodies our shared dream for a better life. The initiative weaves into a common vision the dreams of different countries and peoples. We will work to translate this vision into reality and deliver greater happiness and well-being to our people," Xi said.

Despite the pandemic, China's nonfinancial outbound direct investment in 58 countries participating in the BRI rose 18.3 percent to $17.79 billion in 2020, and none of the key projects involved in the BRI have been suspended due to COVID-19, according to Chinese authorities.

The Belt and Road is also being developed into a model of health for protecting people's safety and wellbeing, as BRI participant countries helped each other to effectively alleviate the shortage of medical supplies amid the pandemic.

As of May, China has offered anti-pandemic assistance to more than 120 BRI partners and provided vaccines to more than 90. The China-Europe freight train, an important part of the BRI, had transported a total of 11.05 million items of medical material as of the end of March, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Xu Xiujun, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of World Economics and Politics, said that the principles for BRI cooperationopenness, inclusiveness and transparencyand of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, have been highlighted amid the pandemic.

"Countries are increasingly aware that mankind is a community with a shared future, and the BRI is one of the important platforms to build this community," Xu said.

As President Xi has said on various occasions, the BRI is a public road open to all, and all interested countries are welcome to cooperate and share in its benefits.

Speaking via video link at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference in April, Xi said that going forward, China will continue to work with other parties in high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

"We will follow the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, and champion the philosophy of open, green and clean cooperation, in a bid to make Belt and Road cooperation high-standard, people-centered and sustainable," he said.

Luo Zhaohui, chairman of the China International Development Cooperation Agency, said that China's foreign aid will make new contributions to the joint construction of the Belt and Road.

China's international development cooperation will continue to give priority to the countries involved in the BRI and provide stronger impetus, greater space and better paths for Belt and Road construction so as to make it an important "propeller" for global sustainable development, Luo said at the Sustainable Development Forum 2021 on Sept 27.

Nadia Helmy, a political science professor at Egypt's Beni-Suef University and an expert on Chinese politics, told CRI Online that, through the BRI, China is providing a new way for realizing international business prosperity and deepening regional cooperation, thus making the process of globalization more inclusive.

The BRI is an epoch-making initiative and a path to win-win cooperation, she said.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Bianji)
Airshow China displays nation's confidence, openness

Xinhua) 09:48, October 04, 2021

-- China is further displaying its unremitting pursuit of aerospace dream and commitment to wider opening up at the Airshow China 2021.

-- China has been working hard to master independent key and core technologies in its aerospace sector, to safeguard national security, economic development, and people's livelihood.

-- The Airshow China is a platform for global companies to cooperate with China, the world's second-largest civil aviation market with strong post-pandemic prospects.

-- Exploring the sky and universe has been a never-ending dream of the nation.

ZHUHAI, Guangdong, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- China is further displaying its unremitting pursuit of aerospace dream and commitment to wider opening up at the Airshow China 2021, attracting the world's attention with moves far beyond inspiring acrobatic flights.

China unveiled an array of new military and civilian aircraft, its latest space exploration achievements, and a series of cutting-edge electronic technologies and products at this year's Airshow China, or the 13th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province.

About 700 companies from around 40 countries and regions brought thousands of exhibits to participate in the airshow both online and offline.

An AG600 large amphibious aircraft performs during the 13th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, or Airshow China 2021, in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, Sept. 28, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Dawei)

SERVING THE NATION, PEOPLE

Rounds of cheers broke out among the audience for the amazing flight shows, including flights of the J-20 stealth fighter jets powered by domestically developed engines, the water-dropping performance of the AG600 large amphibious aircraft, and an independent flight of the Wing Loong-2 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

All these aircraft highlighted China's independently developed core and key technologies.

A J-20 stealth fighter jet performs aerobatics during the 13th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, or Airshow China 2021, in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, Sept. 28, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Dawei)

The J-20 was among the array of new aircraft brought by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force to the airshow. Others included a new high-altitude reconnaissance drone, WZ-7. The Y-20 heavy transport aircraft and 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 airshow.

A Wing Loong-2 large unmanned vehicle (UAV) is displayed during the 13th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, or Airshow China 2021, in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, Sept. 28, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Dawei)

China has been working hard to master independent key and core technologies in its aerospace sector, to safeguard the national security, economic development, and people's livelihood.

"Wing Loong performed the large UAV's first airshow flight. The great progress comes from the development of the country's complete aviation industry, and also from the advancement of key technologies," said Li Yidong, chief designer of the Wing Loong series UAV and deputy general manager of AVIC (Chengdu) Unmanned Aircraft System Co., Ltd.

"Wing Loong has started to serve the people in emergency rescue support, meteorological monitoring and artificial precipitation missions," Li said.

Boeing's exhibits are seen during the 13th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, or Airshow China 2021, in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, Sept. 29, 2021. (Xinhua/Deng Hua)

SHARING OPPORTUNITIES

The aerospace industry not only reflects a country's sci-tech and manufacturing strength, but also connects a long industrial chain with many industrial players globally.

The Airshow China is a platform for global companies to cooperate with China, an open aerospace power and the world's second-largest civil aviation market with strong post-pandemic prospects.

"China is a big market, and is continuously opening up. Boeing is very bullish on the Chinese market," said Sherry Carbary, Boeing China president.

"We continue to look for opportunities to invest in China in support of our customers," she said.

At the airshow, Boeing and local partners announced plans to create two new production lines for converted freighters in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. The plan will add capacity for the 767-300 Boeing Converted Freighter (BCF) to help meet strong market demand.

Airbus' exhibits are seen during the 13th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, or Airshow China 2021, in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, Sept. 29, 2021. (Xinhua/Deng Hua)

Airbus Helicopters signed a strategic cooperation agreement and a contract with State Grid General Aviation Company to enhance its support and service capability with more localized solutions in China.

"I really love the energy and excitement about the airshow. We have brought here some really new and interesting things, such as connected aircraft solutions and green aviation technologies. We're signing many new cooperation agreements with customers and partners," said Steven Lien, president of Honeywell China and Aerospace Asia Pacific.

China is the U.S. aerospace giant's second-biggest market. "The wider opening up of China and its economic vitality will enable us to do even more of what we've been doing for the past decades here, and we are sure to continue to accelerate," Lien added.

Honeywell's exhibition hall is seen during the 13th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, or Airshow China 2021, in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, Sept. 29, 2021. (Xinhua/Deng Hua)

NEVER-ENDING PURSUIT

Exploring the sky and universe has been a never-ending dream of the nation. Thanks to the unremitting efforts in the space exploration and aviation sector, the dream has gradually come true.

At the airshow, a long queue lined up at the booth of the China National Space Administration (CNSA). Lunar soil, together with the Chang'e-5 re-entry capsule and the sealed container that brought the lunar soil back to Earth, attracted thousands of visitors every day.

"The booth has been a super popular spot since the opening of the airshow as countless introductions were given every day. Kids and teenagers are so excited to see what's on the moon," said a guide.

People look at the parachute and return capsule of the Chang'e-5 probe on display during the 13th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, or Airshow China 2021, in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, Sept. 29, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Dawei)

The Mars exploration mission is also a carrier of this Chinese dream. On May 22, China's first Mars rover Zhurong drove down a ladder and landed on the surface of Mars, making China the second country after the United States to operate a rover on the red planet. Zhurong's small steps on the red planet marked a huge leap for China's deep space exploration.

According to Wu Yanhua, deputy director of the CNSA, China has operated 152 launch missions, sending 341 spacecraft into orbit, and signed 44 space cooperation documents with 14 countries and two international organizations over the past five years.

China has carried out various cooperations with countries including Russia, Brazil, Germany, Italy and Pakistan in missions exploring the moon, Mars and outer space, Wu said.

"It is our dream to explore the universe and make better utilization of the universe for the benefit of mankind, which cannot be realized without persistent efforts and cooperation with countries all over the world," Wu said.

A new high-altitude reconnaissance drone, WZ-7, is displayed at the 13th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, or Airshow China 2021, in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, Sept. 29, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Dawei)

More Chinese youths are taking up the missions of their predecessors. David Hong, a Hong Kong student at Shenzhen University, said he was considering a career in the aerospace industry after watching the airshow.

"I am so proud of my country. It is an honor to have the opportunity to witness the cutting-edge technologies and talk with the engineers and developers. I would be excited to be part of the aerospace industry and contribute to my country and my people," said Hong.

(Web editor: Shi Xi, Liang Jun)
U.S. urges for more vaccination against COVID-19, with help of mandates, guidelines

Xinhua) 10:08, October 04, 2021

The United States has seen its first notable decline in COVID-19 metrics in more than three months, with coronavirus-related hospital admissions and average daily new cases dropping by more than 30 percent over the last month, local media reported.

NEW YORK, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The United States is making progress against the current surge of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the country is not out of the woods yet, the medical advisor to the White House Anthony Fauci told ABC on Sunday, two days after the national death toll of the coronavirus surpassed the grim milestone of 700,000.

"We certainly are turning the corner on this particular surge," said the nation's top infectious disease expert. "But we have experienced over now close to 20 months surges that go up and then come down, and then go back up again. The way to keep it down, to make that turnaround continue to go down, is to do what we mentioned: get people vaccinated."

"When you have 70 million people in the country who are eligible to be vaccinated, who are not yet vaccinated, that's the danger zone right there," added Fauci. "So it's within our capability to make sure that that turnaround that we're seeing, that very favorable and optimistic turnaround, continues to go down and doesn't do what we've seen multiple times before, where it goes down and then it comes back up."

The United States has seen its first notable decline in COVID-19 metrics in more than three months, with coronavirus-related hospital admissions and average daily new cases dropping by more than 30 percent over the last month, reported the television network.

White flags honoring the lives lost to COVID-19 are seen on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Oct. 2, 2021.(Xinhua/Liu Jie)

According to The New York Times' update, the seven-day average of confirmed cases of the pandemic stood at 108,009 nationwide on Saturday, with its 14-day change striking a 27-percent fall. The COVID-19-related deaths were 1,882 on Saturday, with the 14-day change realizing a 6-percent decrease.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated on Sunday that 214,870,696 people have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, making up 64.7 percent of the whole U.S. population; fully vaccinated people stood at 185,143,698, accounting for 55.8 percent of the total. A total of 4,742,750 people, or 2.6 percent of fully vaccinated group, received booster shots.

MANDATES WORK

American Airlines, Alaska Airlines and JetBlue are joining United Airlines in requiring employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19, as the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden steps up pressure on major U.S. carriers to require the shots, reported CNBC on Saturday.

The airlines provide special flights, cargo hauling and other services for the government. The companies said that makes them government contractors who are covered by Biden's order directing contractors to require that employees be vaccinated.

On Friday, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor denied a request from four New York City public school teachers to block Mayor Bill de Blasio's mandate requiring all Department of Education (DOE) staff to take COVID-19 vaccines.

"Our vaccine requirement for NYC school staff has now been reviewed in state courts, federal courts, and the Supreme Court and upheld," Dave Chokshi, the city health commissioner, tweeted in response to the news. "Vaccination will keep students and staff safer."

A student of Montrara Ave. Elementary School has a COVID-19 test in Los Angeles, California, the United States, on Aug. 16, 2021. (Xinhua)

Except for school staff, health workers make up the front groups that need to be vaccinated. In New York State, as of Thursday, 92 percent of its more than 625,000 healthcare workers were inoculated, up from the 73 percent on Aug. 16 when the Sept. 27 deadline was set for vaccinations, according to Governor Kathy Hochul.

Since former Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a vaccine mandate for New York healthcare workers more than a month ago, hospital employees in the state have been getting vaccinated at more than twice the rate as all New York adults, according to data provided by the state health department and the CDC.

FAN AND MASK

The CDC released recommendations on Saturday for the upcoming holiday season, including the idea of using a window fan to keep air at an indoor party as fresh as possible.

The agency appears to be suggesting that circulating air indoors can ward off the airborne coronavirus, or at least reduce its chances of spreading during home gatherings.

"If celebrating indoors, bring in fresh air by opening windows and doors, if possible," said its holiday celebrations guidance. "You can use a window fan in one of the open windows to blow air out of the window. This will pull fresh air in through the other open windows."

Earlier this week, a CDC study found that schools without masking requirements are 3.5 times more likely to have a COVID-19 outbreak than those that required masking when the school year began.

After analyzing data from almost 1,000 K-12 public schools in Maricopa and Pima counties in Arizona, the researchers highlighted the importance and effectiveness of mask mandates in preventing COVID-19 infections in schools.

"Until all children are eligible to receive COVID vaccines, masking is the next best defense against contracting and spreading the SARS-CoV-2 virus," Yale Medicine pediatrician Leslie Sude was quoted by the health information portal Verywell as saying.

(Web editor: Shi Xi, Liang Jun)
HKSAR fully restores security normalcy: chief administration secretary

Xinhua) 10:25, October 04, 2021

HONG KONG, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong has fully restored its normal order of security with the removal of water barriers outside the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government headquarters on Sunday, said John Lee Ka-chiu, chief secretary for administration of the HKSAR government.

Lee said in a blog post that the clearance at the headquarters which symbolizes the core of the HKSAR government, points to a secure, stable and confident Hong Kong, adding that similar barriers in other locations have been or will be removed as well.

In his post, Lee said that compared to the riots in 2019, in this year's National Day, Hong Kong residents held various activities to joyfully celebrate the holiday.

With the immediate effects of the national security law in Hong Kong, anti-China forces have been reduced across the board, and external forces dare not to intervene in Hong Kong affairs blatantly, he said.

The principle of "patriots administering Hong Kong" has restored rationality in the Legislative Council (LegCo) and stopped it from being a tool for foreign agents to paralyze or subvert the HKSAR government any more, Lee said, adding that the current-term LegCo is expected to pass over 40 ordinances and allocate funding of 280 billion Hong Kong dollars (36 billion U.S. dollars) to stimulate Hong Kong's construction, development and employment.

Lee said the restoration of security consolidates the foundation for Hong Kong's development and prosperity, noting that he is highly confident that Hong Kong has a bright future with unlimited opportunities brought by programs such as China's 14th Five-Year Plan, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Qianhai plan, as well as joint efforts of the HKSAR government, the general public and all sectors.

(Web editor: Shi Xi, Liang Jun)
U.S. should unfreeze Iranian assets to show goodwill in nuclear talks: Iran's FM

Xinhua) 10:32, October 04, 2021

TEHRAN, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said on Saturday that he demanded the United States to show the "true will" of reaching an agreement with Iran by liberating part of Iranian assets frozen abroad under U.S. sanctions.

"If (U.S. President Joe) Biden's intentions are serious, he must first issue a serious signal, and one of those signs is to release at least 10 billion U.S. dollars of our own money," Amir Abdollahian said in an interview on Iran's IRIB state TV.

The Iranian chief diplomat said he recently sent that request during the UN General Assembly in mid-September when U.S. officials "tried to contact" him through different mediators.

Iran will "soon" return to negotiations over the 2015 nuclear agreement, but the United States "must show their true intention and will," he added.

Concerning Western governments hastening Iran to resume talks quickly, the minister said Iran's current administration, which assumed office in late August, needed a "reasonable amount of time" to prepare its negotiating team and strategy.

The precise composition of Iran's new negotiating team is currently being finalized, and the overall approach of the current administration to the nuclear negotiations is nearly completed, he said.

On Thursday, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell voiced confidence at a news conference in Qatar's capital Doha, that talks to reactivate the 2015 nuclear agreement will resume "within an acceptable period of time."

Amir Abdollahian added if Iran's Western counterparts in the negotiation do not "show their true intention and will," the current Iranian administration will not "be idled at such a negotiating table."

Regarding the location and the format of negotiations, the foreign minister said he has no problem in continuing the talks in Austria's capital Vienna on the same format that was used in the previous six rounds, between April 6 and June 20.

Gilad Erdan, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, said last week that the United States and its allies were increasingly considering a "plan B" to "stop Iran's nuclear program."

On this matter, the Iranian minister said that Western countries should make more efforts to the Iranian side that it will actually benefit from the nuclear agreement instead of talking about a "plan B," which is "some kind of a threat."

The diplomat also pointed out that Iran has made progress in its nuclear technology, which can make a contribution in the field of "peaceful nuclear science" for the world.

(Web editor: Shi Xi, Liang Jun)
Iranian president extends congratulation on PRC's 72nd founding anniversary

Xinhua) 10:51, October 04, 2021

The photo shows Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi congratulates the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. (Iranian Presidential Website/Handout via Xinhua)

TEHRAN, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has congratulated China on the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and voiced Iran's wish to expand ties with China as a comprehensive strategic partner.

"China's glorious achievements in recent decades have been due to the unity and solidarity of its great nation" and wise leaders for national growth and development, Raisi wrote in a message published on the Iranian president's official website on Sunday.

A flag-raising ceremony to celebrate the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China is held at the Tian'anmen Square in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Chen Zhonghao)

The Iranian president said that "China's sustained commitment to the priority of development on the global political agenda reflects China's vision of a just, people-oriented international order that benefits all countries, especially developing ones."

Iran and China, as two great peace-loving civilizations and comprehensive strategic partners, he wrote, can help bring about "true multilateralism" through strategic and win-win cooperation.

"I hope that in the new chapter of relations between the two countries, we will see the promotion and expansion of cooperation in various economic, political and cultural fields," Raisi added.

The PRC was founded on Oct. 1, 1949.

(Web editor: Shi Xi, Liang Jun)
Chinese company BYD looks to Brazil as contributor to sustainable urban mobility

Xinhua) 11:21, October 04, 2021

CAMPINAS, Brazil, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Chinese company Build Your Dreams (BYD), a manufacturer of solar batteries and electric vehicles, is looking to Brazil as a contributor to sustainable urban mobility, an executive has said.

Brazil is "one of the main markets for cars and buses (and it) can be a global player in this change," Marcello Von Schneider, institutional director and head of BYD Brazil's bus unit, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The remarks came as BYD's factory in Campinas is about to deliver a batch of electric bus chassis to Sao Jose dos Campos of Sao Paulo State as part of the city's zero-pollution fleet.

"We brought 100 percent Chinese technology adapted to the Brazilian market. These vehicles were developed in Brazil with Chinese and Brazilian engineering," Von Schneider said. "This exchange of knowledge and technology is a victory not only for China but for Brazil."

The Brazilian executive noted BYD also offers other types of vehicles in Brazil.

"We offer electric trucks, we have a delivery of urban cleaning trucks in November, electric vans for deliveries for logistics companies and photovoltaic panels, as we are the main manufacturer in Brazil," he said.

The fight against global warming needs contribution from the transportation sector, according to Von Schneider.

"Brazil can be a pioneer and leader in this process," the executive pointed out. "Bus operating companies are doing the math on the economy (which points to) having electric vehicles."

"One of these buses running for a year is equivalent to planting 800 trees. Multiply that by 1,000, 2,000," he added.

(Web editor: Shi Xi, Bianji)
COVID-19 is a harsh test for businesses and the whole economy which compels companies to adapt and change to not only survive but also recover and grow stronger as soon as the pandemic is under control.

Each business will have a different way of solving this problem.

At a typical large-scale enterprise like Vinamilk, dual goals (stabilise production and prevent the disease) are implemented based on three key spearheads: Governance, Technology and People.

Flexible management for speedy response

For most businesses, even short-term production plans are usually drawn at least six months in advance. However, continuous outbreaks of COVID-19 have changed this significantly.

According to Vinamilks CFO Le Thanh Liem, businesses had to change their planning from a 6-month or 1-year plan to a less than 3-month plan. The management board must closely monitor and regularly update the market situation to make timely decisions.

For example, at the initial stage of the pandemic in Vietnam, Vinamilk had to find ways to reduce inventory to optimise cash flow. But at the time when the disease intensified, disrupting the supply chain and causing input materials to be in short supply, Vinamilk adjusted its strategy to increase inventories to promptly supply production activities.

"If keeping inventory at a normal level, it will not meet the plan implementation of the next quarter," Liem said.

In addition, Vinamilk has taken advantage of its nationwide production and distribution system to stabilise production even when some localities had to implement social distancing measures.

Technology increases flexibility

One of the most profound and obvious impacts of COVID-19 is forcing businesses to move from offline to online. At this time, technology comes to the fore in ensuring smooth business operations.

At Vinamilk, the employment of technology and investment in digital transformation has been implemented for many years.

For example, the ERP system (enterprise resource planning) was employed 15 years ago which helped facilitate sales and distribution activities, improving business efficiency. The cashless payment system also helped Vinamilks payment system run smoothly.

Vinamilks factories and farms all apply automation and 4.0 technology, ensuring systematic and remote management.

"Vinamilk's supply chain operates entirely on the information technology system, connecting from the input - the purchase of raw materials - to the final output - the product to the consumer," Vinamilks representative said.

The company also equips technologies, tools and software to support communication and remote work including e-Office, online browser system, solutions to help employees access company data from home and digital signatures to ensure smooth operation in the company and with partners even during the "work-from-home" time.

People - the decisive factor

Confronting COVID-19, human issues have become more important than ever. The critical issue at this time is to ensure the health and safety of employees to maintain stable business and production amid the pandemic.

From the beginning of 2020, Vinamilk has established a professional support committee for COVID-19 prevention and control, disseminating information and guiding employees to comply with the preventive measures while being online 24/7 to support problems related to the disease. The company also provides employees with preventive tools and nutritional products.

In addition, Vinamilk also makes employees feel secure to work with full salary and welfare payment policy; enhancing support for employees at three on-site units; and proactively supporting employees in testing and vaccination.

Braving challenges, Vinamilk still rose six notches to 36th position in the worlds Top 50 dairy producers by total sales in the 2021 ranking by UK-based Plimsoll Publishing Ltd. The company also appeared in Brand Finance's Top 10 Most Valuable Milk Brands in the world with a valuation of 2.4 billion USD.

Even when the pandemic is under control, the market picture will never return to the way it was before. Businesses need not only strength and endurance, but also flexibility and sensitivity to find development directions when the economy returns to "new normal"./.

VNA
The Communist Party of China and state leaders Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji, Han Zheng and Wang Qishan, attend a reception to celebrate the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China along with nearly 500 guests from home and abroad in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 30, 2021. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

BEIJING, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- Amidst fluttering flags and floral decorations on the streets and public squares, the People's Republic of China (PRC) celebrated its 72nd birthday, rejoicing the fruitful achievements of the past year and envisioning a bright future ahead.

The year 2021 marks the centenary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and China has realized the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, with absolute poverty eliminated.

After realizing this first centenary goal, China has embarked on a new journey under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, toward the second centenary goal of fully building a great modern socialist country by the time the PRC turns 100.

A HARD-EARNED VICTORY

On July 1, Xi declared the realization of the first centenary goal when he addressed a gathering in Tian'anmen Square to celebrate the CPC's centenary.

Achieving moderate prosperity, or Xiaokang in Chinese, was an aspiration for a well-off life held by the Chinese people for generations. At the time the PRC turns 72, this has become a reality.

Measured by multiple standards such as the economy, democracy, science and education, culture, society and people's lives, moderate prosperity lays a solid foundation for the world's most populous country to realize national rejuvenation.

The most prominent achievement was the eradication of absolute poverty, a milestone made possible after an unprecedented nationwide war against poverty led by Xi. In the past eight years, the final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line had all been lifted out of poverty.

On Feb. 25, Xi announced that China had secured a complete victory in its fight against poverty.

"Today, we are closer, more confident, and more capable than ever before of making the goal of national rejuvenation a reality," Xi said.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivers an important speech at a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC in Beijing, capital of China, July 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

A NEW JOURNEY

"We have laid a solid material foundation to embark on a new journey and achieve new and higher goals by our unremitting endeavors since the founding of the New China, especially over the four decades since the reform and opening up."

Xi made the remarks when addressing the opening of a study session at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee in early 2021, calling for efforts to ensure a good start for fully building a modern socialist country.

He urged the officials to accurately understand the new development stage, act on the new development philosophy and accelerate the establishment of the new development paradigm to drive high-quality development during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) period.

-- Sci-tech innovation

China's 14th Five-Year Plan placed great emphasis on sci-tech self-reliance and self-strengthening.

On June 23, Xi spoke with the three astronauts stationed in Tianhe, the core module of the space station independently built and operated by China.

"The construction of the space station is a milestone in China's space industry, which will make pioneering contributions to the peaceful use of space by humanity," he told the astronauts via a video call.

This year, Xi has inspected several sci-tech companies, where he repeatedly highlighted the importance of self-reliance in the field of high-level sci-tech innovation.

Just days before the National Day, Xi called for efforts to speed up China's upgrade toward a major world center of talent and innovation, saying that never in history has China been in greater need of talented people.

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

-- Rural vitalization

Capitalizing on its victory in eradicating absolute poverty, China is ramping up efforts to propel rural vitalization, which is "a major task in realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," as Xi put it.

The country has been working to foster rural industries, promote the application of agricultural technologies and build beautiful countryside.

In the past year, Xi emphasized promoting rural vitalization in various spots across the country, be it a Tibetan carpet factory in Qinghai, an embroidery workshop of the Miao ethnic group in Guizhou, a tea farm in Fujian or a grape farm in Guangxi.

Rural China has great potential and can play an important role in fostering the country's new development paradigm of "dual circulation," which has a strategic basis on expanding domestic demand, he said, emphasizing that the key to rural vitalization lies in developing industries that suit local conditions and benefit local people.

Xi also attaches great importance to promoting rural living environments to ensure residents in such areas have better access to high-quality services and facilities, with "toilet revolution" pushed further and improving local conditions and rural waste treatment high on agenda.

-- Common prosperity

Common prosperity is an essential requirement of socialism and a key feature of Chinese-style modernization, Xi said, calling for adhering to the people-centered development philosophy and promoting common prosperity while pursuing high-quality development.

Rather than being egalitarian or having only a few people prosperous, common prosperity refers to affluence shared by everyone, both in material and cultural terms, and shall be advanced step by step.

Efforts will be made to properly deal with the relationship between efficiency and fairness, make basic institutional arrangements on income distribution, adjust excessive incomes and prohibit illicit income to promote social fairness and justice, according to the 10th meeting of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs held in August.

-- Green development

One of the key characteristics of China's socialist modernization is human-nature harmony, Xi pointed out.

He has repeatedly underscored the importance of environmental protection in inspection trips and chaired several high-level meetings on advancing ecological civilization this year.

Xi stressed the importance of improving global environmental governance, actively responding to climate change and creating a community of life for man and nature, in his statement delivered via video at the general debate of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September.

Xi also reiterated the commitment he made last year that China will strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.
China and Japan have one of the most important relationships in Asia. And with Fumio Kishida assuming the leadership in Japan, opportunity for cooperation and conflicts lie together.

Kishida, who served as foreign minister of the country previously, is known for his more peaceful and balanced approach to Tokyo's relationship with Beijing. But his decision to keep the foreign and defense ministers from the Suga cabinet in his new administration shows that there's mounting pressure to affirm a hawkish position on China.

Outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga had toughened Japan's foreign policy toward China, including pressing on several red lines regarding the Taiwan region and seeking to advance military encirclement of China with the U.S. and other countries. The new premiership of Kishida provides a positive opportunity for such dialogue to take place. However, the appointment of hawkish officials from the Suga administration in key foreign policy-related positions risks the continuation of an increasingly uncertain and tense relationship which will not be good in the long run for either country.

It is now up to Beijing and Tokyo to rectify their differences, "agree to disagree" and put relations back on the right track, striving for greater "strategic stability" as opposed to pursuing dangerous adventurism, militarism and tension.

The two countries represent Asia's two largest economies, pose the largest bilateral trade volume, are the largest two investors and thus represent the cornerstone of all growth and prosperity in this region of the world. Although the two countries struggle with longstanding historical differences and alternative geopolitical perspectives, both nations are obligated to live with one another, to make daily realities work and prevent crisis escalation.

To put it plainly, neither nation can afford to transform the other into a military adversary. Economic interdependence between the two is both inevitable, necessary and desirable.

That is not what is happening. Japan's foreign policy has been slipping into a "strategic danger zone" through closer coordination with the United States in a military capacity, engaging in provocations over China's Taiwan region and an escalation in hostile rhetoric. Only two years ago did Chinese President Xi Jinping meet former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe in Osaka for the G20 summit, where the latter proclaimed to wish to open a "new age of Japan-China relations hand in hand with President Xi." Abe had his differences with China, yet he understood the need to make relations work and be mutually beneficial.

Yet as Washington turned against Beijing, Tokyo decided to follow. A moment for both nations to heal historical rifts was lost. After Abe's resignation, Suga only proceeded to push Japan further on the anti-China trajectory.

As a result, it is time to stop the downward trajectory in China-Japan relations and find a new strategic bottom line. There is no reason to believe the U.S. will alleviate pressure on Tokyo regarding Beijing, but this does not mean that China and Japan couldn't find greater surety in each other or that Japanese foreign policymakers should give up hope or optimism that they can still benefit and prosper from their relationship with China. China remains the largest possible, closest and most convenient market in the world for Japanese businesses, products and services. Is this worth to be abandoned for confrontation and conflicts? Is it that rewarding to be subjugated to the hegemonic interests of the U.S., who had effectively and arguably deliberately sent Japan's economy into decades of stagnation?

The dream of imperial nostalgia and militarism cannot take Japan forward, but a more peaceful, more stable and more reassured relationship with China can. It is hoped that Kishida can pursue a reasoned, pragmatic and balanced approach to Tokyo's needs and not fan the flame of confrontation.

Let's make this work.
The China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, or Airshow China, concluded on Sunday in Zhuhai City, south China's Guangdong Province.

Dozens of aerobatics were performed by China's top air display teams, providing eye candy for the audience, while the public debut of the J-16D electronic warfare jet and other equipment showcased the latest technology development in the Chinese army to enthusiasts. Many Chinese enterprises also received orders from global clients after displaying their latest product at the show.

The airshow sold an upper limit of 40,000 tickets for its public days and each one of them was completely sold out.
The documents showed that national leaders on five continents hid assets, often in other countries, with the investigation exposing more than twice as many offshore account holders as the Panama Papers, an examination five years ago by the investigative journalists of hidden financial assets at offshore entities across the world.

The investigation of nearly 12 million documents from 14 sources was led by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, with 650 journalists from around the world working on the project. The Washington Post, one of the news outlets that helped conduct the investigation, said the files included private emails, secret spreadsheets, clandestine contracts and other records that revealed financial schemes and who was behind them.

The documents, dubbed the Pandora Papers, exposed the offshore holdings of 35 current and former country leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Jordan's King Abdullah.

Current and former leaders from throughout the world have amassed vast wealth and secret real estate holdings across the globe, hundreds of investigative journalists reported on Sunday after months of combing through millions of previously undisclosed documents.

The new material comes from 29,000 offshore accounts at 14 separate financial-services companies operating in countries that include Switzerland, Singapore, Cyprus, Belize, the British Virgin Islands and elsewhere. Among the account owners, the Post said, are more than 130 people Forbes magazine lists as billionaires and more than 330 public officials in more than 90 countries and territories.

"Off-shore" refers to a time when remote island nations were the primary locales where people put money to shield it from government regulators, tax authorities, creditors, investigators and others. "The offshore financial system is a problem that should concern every law-abiding person around the world," Sherine Ebadi, a former FBI officer worked on dozens of financial-crimes cases, told the Post.

The records showed that the Jordanian ruler spent US$106 million on luxury homes along the Pacific Ocean in Malibu, California, Washington and other locations, while millions of dollars in property and cash were secretly held by the leaders of Kenya and the Czech Republic. Czech leader Babis, facing an election later this week, used an offshore investment company to buy two villas in the south of France for more than $16 million, according to the records.

The records showed that a luxury waterfront apartment in Monaco is the residence of a Russian woman who reportedly had a child with Putin. The Post said representatives of Abdullah denied any impropriety or use of public funds, while none of the Kenyan, Czech or Russian leaders commented on the reports, nor did the Russian woman.

In recent years, U.S. presidents have imposed financial sanctions on oligarchs in Russia for what the U.S. Treasury has called malign activity. The Pandora Papers showed that those targeted have often made substantial efforts to evade the effects of the sanctions by shifting ownership of their assets. Nonetheless, the documents showed that the sanctions caused financial losses, including for Kremlin officials.

The documents, according to the BBC in Britain, said that Blair and his wife, Cherie, saved $421,000 in stamp duty when they bought a London office from an offshore company that owned the building. The BBC said Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, his family and close associates have secretly bought more than $540 million worth of property in Britain.

For years, international tax havens have been a favorite of the wealthy looking to hide assets. But the Post said the Pandora Papers showed that in recent years foreign, political and corporate officials have moved some holdings to even more secret American trust companies, including in the Midwestern state of South Dakota.
A report in The Economist says COVID in 2020 has brought an abrupt halt to the steady rise of the rate of lIfe expectancy.

The test is not available to the public yet as it undergoes more trials but Vatic is seeking approval for its sale directly to the public.

The company, Vatic, said in a statement that its test is "extremely accurate" and has not returned a single false positive result in its test group. "This is so important for getting life back to normal," the company said. Vatic said its "mission was to design a test that people won't mind using multiple times a week." Tests results are available in 15 minutes, the company said.

A British company says it has developed an easy-to-administer, saliva-based test that can detect whether a person is infectious enough to pass along the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

 Impact on Life Expectancy

Researchers in Britain, Denmark and Germany said that between 2019 and 2020 life expectancy dropped in all but two of the 28 countries surveyed.

Life expectancy rose in Denmark and Norway and for women in Finland. Meanwhile, male life expectancy fell by more than a year in Italy, Poland and Spain and fell by more than two years in the United States.

Another report in The Economist says that the death rate from COVID in the U.S. "is about eight times higher in America than in the rest of the rich world" due to vaccine hesitancy and other factors. The report said, "America's antipathy to vaccines and continued resistance to other interventions, particularly among Republicans, is worrying. YouGov's poll indicates that, among those who voted for [former U.S. President] Donald Trump in 2020, 31 percent say they will not get vaccinated, 71 percent strongly disapprove of President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate and nearly 40 percent never wear a face mask. That remains a deadly combination."

"The pandemic has destabilized societies, economies, and governments. It has shown that there is no global security without global health security," World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said about COVID-19 in a recent address to ambassadors and representatives to the European Union's political and security committee.

"The fastest and best way to end this pandemic is with genuine global cooperation on vaccine supply and access," Tedros said. "The longer vaccine inequity persists, the longer the social and economic turmoil will continue, and the more opportunity the virus has to circulate and change into more dangerous variants. We need a global realization that no country can vaccinate its way out of this pandemic in isolation from the rest of the world."

The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported Sunday it had recorded 234.6 million global COVID infections and nearly 5 million deaths.

 Protests in Romania

Thousands marched Saturday in Bucharest, Romania, to protest restrictions that begin Sunday to combat a jump in coronavirus infections.

The European nation of 19 million is seeing a shocking rise in the daily number of coronavirus cases. A month ago, the number was about 1,000 new cases a day. On Saturday, Romania reported more than 12,500 new cases, its highest number since the pandemic began in March of last year.

Protesters, mostly maskless, gathered outside government offices, shouting "Freedom, freedom without certificates," and "Down with the government," according to Reuters. One sign read, "Green certificates = dictatorship," The Associated Press reported. The demonstration was organized by Romania's far-right AUR party, the AP said.

The rising cases have strained the nation's hospitals -- intensive care beds are nearly full -- and the protests angered some medical workers. "The situation in hospitals is serious," Beatrice Mahler, hospital manager of Bucharest's Marius Nasta Institute of Pneumology, told The Associated Press. "We have patients hospitalized in beds in the hallway -- all with extremely severe forms of COVID-19."

The restrictions scheduled to take effect Sunday include requiring masks be worn in public, and that shops close at 10 p.m. local time. Public spaces such as restaurants, theaters and gyms, can remain open -- some at only partial capacity -- for customers who have COVID-19 passes, meaning they are fully vaccinated, or show proof they have had the illness caused by the coronavirus.

Romania has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the European Union, 33.5 percent of all adults are fully vaccinated, second only to Bulgaria. There is a weekend curfew in effect for unvaccinated Romanians, and there are plans to make vaccinations mandatory for health care workers, Reuters said.

Since the pandemic began, Romania has recorded nearly 1.25 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 37,000 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
The guidance comes as some EU member states have already begun administering booster shots, while others are still debating how broadly to use boosters in their populations.

The agency said people with a severely weakened immune system should be given a third dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine at least 28 days after they have received their second shot.

The European Medicines Agency said in a statement Monday that a booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine "may be considered at least 6 months after the second dose for people aged 18 years and older." "Decisions for boosters will be taken by public health bodies at the national level," it added.

The European Union's drug regulator has approved the use of booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for those 18 and older but left it to individual countries to decide whether or not to recommend the shots for widespread use.

 New Zealand's Elimination Strategy

In another development Monday, New Zealand announced that it would abandon its COVID-19 elimination strategy. "This is a change in approach we were always going to make over time," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday. "Our delta outbreak has accelerated this transition. Vaccines will support it."

The arrival of the highly contagious delta variant made it difficult for the country to repeat its accomplishment last year of reducing the number of COVID-19 cases to zero. Authorities reported 29 new cases on Monday.

The majority of New Zealand's COVID-19 cases were in Auckland, which has endured a 50-day lockdown. "It's clear that a long period of heavy restrictions has not got us to zero cases. But it's OK... elimination was important because we didn't have vaccinations," Ardern said during a news conference. "Now, we do. So, we can begin to change the way we do things."

The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center has recorded 4,383 COVID-19 infections in New Zealand.

 Global Cases

There have been 235 million COVID-19 cases worldwide and nearly 5 million deaths since the start of the pandemic, Johns Hopkins reported Monday.

In New York City, a COVID-19 vaccination requirement took effect Monday for everyone who works in the city's schools. Mayor Bill de Blasio said 95 percent of public school workers had received at least one vaccine dose as of Monday morning, in line with the vaccine mandate. School staff who do not show proof of vaccination are being placed on unpaid leave. "Every adult in our schools is now vaccinated, and that's going to be the rule going forward," de Blasio said. The New York City school district is the largest in the United States.

In Indonesia, officials said the country would reopen the resort island of Bali for some international travelers beginning next week.

Israel said Sunday that only people who have received two COVID-19 vaccinations and a booster shot or who have recently recovered from COVID-19 will be considered fully vaccinated on their digital vaccine passports. Officials hope the new measure will prompt Israelis to get their booster shots. Without a third dose recorded on their vaccine passport, people will not be allowed into indoor venues.
Press Release

October 4, 2021 Gordon welcomes calls to continue Senate probe on COVID-19 procurement deals Senator Richard J. Gordon today welcomed the mounting calls for government officials to cooperate with the ongoing Senate's probe into the alleged anomalous procurement of medical supplies and equipment for the country's COVID-19 response. Gordon, who chairs the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, said he is taking heed of the calls to pursue the Senate investigation to the fullest extent of the law and ferret out the truth behind the alleged anomalies in the government's COVID-19 response. "Our business, church, academe, and medical leaders have spoken up. We have to heed the advice of these major organizations and personalities. Like them, it is also our foremost resolve to get to the bottom of these anomalies and hold erring individuals accountable for their sins to the Filipino people," he said. "We all owe it to our people, especially our healthcare workers, who have suffered long enough during this pandemic. The Senate will not renege on its duties to uncover the facts based on the evidence presented to us," he added. Last Oct. 3, seven big business groups and six universities issued a statement calling on the government to conduct their proceedings with "integrity, transparency, and respect, and in compliance with our laws and established procedures." These groups include the Management Association of the Philippines, Makati Business Club, Shareholders Association of the Philippines, Judicial Reform Initiative, Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University and its affiliate schools, and De La Salle Philippines. Other groups have also issued a similar statement of support to the Senate investigation. Among them are St. Paul University Manila, San Beda High School Batch 1962, and Vinzons Policy Center, among others. Last Oct. 2, convenors of the pro-democracy coalition 1Sambayan also denounced Duterte's order barring his Cabinet officials from attending the Senate investigation into the deals the Procurement Service - Department of Budget and Management entered with Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation. Gordon, a lawyer by profession, said he and other senators are affording with due respect and courtesy the resource persons who are invited to explain their role in the alleged anomalous government procurement transactions. "We respect Cabinet members asked to appear before the Senate, including those executives of companies involved in these transactions. I expect all resource persons to speak the truth and not hide behind their lies and evasive answers," he said. Mr. Duterte has earlier ordered members of the executive branch not to attend the Senate hearings and directed the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines not to cooperate with the Senate in implementing its orders. During the recent Senate probe, the PS-DBM was questioned for purportedly favouring Pharmally Pharmaceutical in the COVID-19 response procurement deals despite its questionable financial, technical and legal capacity. The government through the PS-DBM purportedly purchased face masks from Pharmally at P27.50 a piece, double than the price offered by the local manufacturer.
Four people have been found reportedly dead in Oman after Tropical cyclone Shaheen hit the country on Sunday causing other damages as well as, reports say.

A child who had been swept away by water was found dead, the state news agency said, and another missing person was also found dead.

Two Asian workers were killed when a hill collapsed on their housing area in an industrial zone, the state news agency added. The cyclone was carrying winds of between 120 and 150 km per hour (75-93 mph) according to authorities who also added that the wind was throwing up waves of up to 10 meters (32 feet).

Video footage from Omani broadcasters showed vehicles submerged as people tried to make their way through muddy brown floodwater, Zawya notes.

Authorities delayed and rescheduled flights to and from the airport of its capital city Muscat to Sunday evening or until further notice due to the storm.

The governorates of Muscat, North and South Al Batinah, Al Buraimi and South Al Sharqiya received most effect of the cyclone.

The Gulf country has declared a two-day national holiday on Sunday and Monday and shuttered schools.
According to a press release published by Terma on September 29, 2021, the firm has been awarded a contract to supply third-party Electronic Support Measures (ESM) systems integrated with our C-Flex Patrol for 6 vessels.

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Electronic Support Measures or ESM systems (Picture source: Terma)

Terma will provide an Electronic Warfare (EW) solution that not only gives the Indonesian Navy the ability to capture, compile and utilize EW data across multiple ships, but also brings advantages in many other areas with the commonality in design and future expansion potential. As part of the overall system design, the company is also in close cooperation with a UK EW data management specialist, who will provide a shore station for ESM data processing, storage and dissemination. This combination of system solutions will allow the Indonesian Navy to establish a fully functional ESM database for their fleet.

On the same day, Terma was also awarded another contract for the upgrade of existing C-Guard systems with Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) capabilities for the Sigma-Class Corvettes of the Indonesian Navy. In this program, the company will in collaboration with a partner provide an upgrade to enhance the existing AAW (Anti-Air Warfare) capable C-Guard system with ASW capabilities. This C-Guard ASW upgrade program is a follow-on from the previous ASW upgrade contract awarded in 2019 for the same class of ships.

The newly established Service and Operation Office in Surabaya will play a vital part in the project execution team. These two contracts further consolidate the firm's position and relevance in Indonesia and are a testament to the crucial role that Terma Indonesia plays in the development of the company in the country.

The Sigma class is a Dutch-built family of modular naval vessels, of either corvette or frigate size, designed by Damen Group.

Sigma stands for Ship Integrated Geometrical Modularity Approach. The basic design of the Sigma Patrol Series can vary as the hull segments are designed as components. Ships can vary in the number of hull segments and in the order in which they are placed. The ship's dimensions of length and beam lead to the individual SIGMA type names: the SIGMA 9113 is 91 m (298 ft 7 in) long 13 m (42 ft 8 in), the SIGMA 10513, is 105 m (344 ft 6 in) in length again with a beam of 13 m (42 ft 8 in).
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Convicted ex-penitentiary official Korshunov seeks release from prison through illness

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

13:35 04/10/2021

MOSCOW, October 4 (RAPSI)  Ex- deputy director of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) Oleg Korshunov convicted of embezzlement has filed a motion seeking to release him because of grave illness, the courts press service has told RAPSI.

Moscows Lefortovsky District Court will hear the petition on October 20.

In December 2020, the Moscow City Court upheld a 9-year prison term passed on Korshunov in a case over supplies of sugar and motor fuel for FSIN. However, the court reduced an 8-year jail sentence of another defendant Svetlana Alekseyeva by 6 months but banned her from holding public posts for 6 years.

According to the sentence, Korshunov was convicted of embezzling over 155 million rubles (over $2 million) for assistance in conclusion of state contracts on sugar and fuel deliveries. The contractual prices were above-market; supplies were conducted through firms under the control of Korshunovs friends.

In November, the Second Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction dismissed Korshunovs appeal against a 7-year prison sentence given to him in another case. In July 2019, Korshunov received the prison term and was fined 900,000 rubles (about $14,000). In addition, he was divested of his service grade and forbidden to hold public offices for 3 years.

Investigators claimed that in 2015 Korshunov had conspired with CEO of Russian footwear company Datse Group, Smbat Arutyunyan, and the head of state-run production company FSIN Russia Vitaly Morusov. Allegedly, Korshunov ordered to use prisoner labor to manufacture footwear from cheap materials provided by Datse Group. Later, he allegedly facilitated signing of a state contract with FSIN Russia. Korshunov and Morusov pleaded not guilty.

Korshunov was appointed to the post of FSIN deputy head in March 2014. He has been bestowed the rank of Full State Counsellor 2nd Class of the Russian Federation. In October 2017, President Vladimir Putin relieved him of the post.
Dawn, 4 October, 2021

WHAT did Afghan kids study after Mullah Omars Taliban were ousted in 2001? What was their school curriculum and, most importantly, how does it differ from PTIs controversial Single National Curriculum (SNC)? When the Taliban government permitted boy-schools to reopen last week, these questions somehow popped into my mind.

Quick answers were unavailable because the Afghan ministry of educations website has been taken down. But, fortunately, Google helped locate several hundred Afghan school textbooks on various websites. Their printed versions had been distributed for free in schools. Textbooks are, of course, supremely important in developing countries as the primary vehicles for delivering education.

As an outsider, my initial expectations were low. Twenty-first century Afghanistan is largely tribal and backward, consumed by external wars but equally by countless feuds between families, tribes and religious sects. It has two national languages and six to eight regional languages. Wouldnt Afghan education be utterly messed up? Inferior to Pakistans, the inheritor of a well-developed colonial-era system?

My assumptions were spectacularly wrong. Browsing the textbooks, I had accidentally stumbled into a world unknown to even qualified Pakistani education experts. While readers who know Dari-Farsi and Pashto (the primary languages of these books) should double-check, I think their opinions will not differ greatly from those, such as me, who can only comprehend these languages via written Urdu.

Though weak and corrupt, the former Afghan government has left behind excellent school textbooks.

First: I examined science books for classes 1-12. These cover mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and computer science. Geology is taught from class 10 onward, an unusual addition which implicitly recognises that Afghanistans future lies in mineral wealth. The expositions are clear and pleasing with systematically organised graphs and coloured illustrations. Although the end-of-chapter problems are simpler than in O-A level books, the content and quality competes well.

Pakistani textbooks are very different. For years my colleagues and I have begged our education authorities to drastically revise locally published textbooks. All are faulty in content, poor in pedagogy and badly presented. The reader is invited to revisit my Dawn article of 2015 titled Burn these books please, a failed attempt to bring the Sind Textbook Board to its senses.

Such pleas proved fruitless and Pakistani school textbooks remain the worlds shoddiest. Dr Anjum Altaf, former Lums dean, recently analysed the Pre-I Mathematics Primer. Written under SNC guidelines, this was forced upon all schools, public and private, some weeks ago. To quote from his five-part page-by-page review, the Primer is woefully inadequate and someone would have to try really hard to make anything worse. It is an unforgivable cruelty to have children subjected to it although some would surely survive it.

Second: Recognising Afghanistans sectarian divides, and to prevent every mullah going his own way, Islamic Studies (Hanafi) is taught separately from Islamic Studies (Jafari). Religious matters are strictly kept out of secular subjects but the religious textbooks are comprehensive. They teach Quran, Seerat-un-Nabi (life of the Prophet [PBUH]), akhlaq (ethics), tafsir (interpretation), tajweed (pronunciation), fiqh (jurisprudence), etc. Special books for use in madressahs cover usual topics in math, science, English, and world history. But they are simpler and less detailed than those for ordinary schools.

This two-level system  and keeping religious matters confined to religious books  makes sense. But Pakistans SNC goes oppositely: religious topics permeate books teaching Urdu, English and general knowledge. Quite senselessly, madressahs and ordinary schools are yoked together. While all students should know how the modern world works, 99 per cent of madressah students will never use math or science professionally. So why use the same books and force students to take the same exams? This means the PTI government is shooting for a lowest common denominator, lower than even the existing one.

Third: In seeking to build an Afghan identity in a linguistically diverse country, former governments hit upon speakers of one language being taught the basics of another. Dari/Arabic script is used in classes 1-12 for teaching Pashto through Dari but, equally, Dari through Pashto. For classes (1-9), Dari and Pashto are also used for teaching regional languages: Balochi, Uzbek, Tajiki, Turkmen, Arabic and Pashayee.

In contrast, starting with Bengali, Pakistan has discouraged local language learning from 1947 onward. Where can one find an officially published book using Urdu to teach Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi, Punjabi, Hindko, Seraiki, Brahui, Shina or Kashmiri? Instead, Urdu is imposed upon all. But, quite comically, most political leaders and functionaries have insufficient grasp over any one language. Inadequate self-expression leads to their speaking an unpleasant mixture of English and Urdu often called Minglish/Urdish.

One does not know who wrote and produced the hundreds and hundreds of officially authorised Afghan textbooks. Exceptions aside, names of authors are absent. But, with so much local content, they could not be foreigners. No credits or funding sources (was it USAID?) are given, perhaps for security reasons. To make the books more palatable, the stamped publication date for all books is set to Hijri-1398. This translates into 1978, the year before the Soviet invasion. But the high quality electronic printing technology suggests they are very recent.

Will the current textbooks continue to be used in Talibanic Afghanistan? Very probably, yes! For one, history textbooks soft-pedal Taliban atrocities from 1996-2001. For another, Kabuls warrior-rulers cannot create quality education material into the foreseeable future. Thousands of diligent, intelligent Afghan teachers and editors worked hard to produce that which presently exists. Most must have fled.

The governments of Karzai and Ghani were weak and corrupt. Even if artificially nurtured and pumped up, they have left behind a solid legacy for Afghanistans forthcoming generations. One cannot dismiss it all as foreign aid because Pakistan too has been the recipient of American aid for most of its history.

This suggests that Pakistans leaders  the prime minister and his education minister particularly  should study the Afghanistan model before they further dismantle the Pakistani education system. Their replacement, the SNC, will reduce quality further while keeping educational inequalities intact. Pakistans participation in the modern world will nosedive. But our national leaders only give orders. They do not think, listen, or read. Twenty years later, Pakistanis will ask: what legacy did these people leave behind?

The writer is an Islamabad-based physicist and writer.

[This article originally appeared in Dawn on October 2nd, 2021, and is reproduced here for educational and non commercial use]
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying's Remarks on Taiwan-related Statement Issued by US State Department Spokesperson

2021/10/04

Q: On October 3, US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price issued a statement saying that the US is very concerned by China's provocative military activity near Taiwan, which is destabilizing, risks miscalculations, and undermines regional peace and stability. The US urges China to cease its pressure and coercion against Taiwan. It will continue to assist Taiwan in maintaining a sufficient self-defense capability, and maintain the commitments as outlined in the Three Communiques, the Taiwan Relations Act, and the Six Assurances. What is China's comment on that?

A: Taiwan belongs to China and the US is in no position to make irresponsible remarks. The relevant remarks by the US side seriously violate the one-China principle and the stipulations of the three China-US joint communiques and send an extremely wrong and irresponsible signal.

For quite some time, the US has been making negative moves by selling arms to Taiwan and strengthening official and military ties with Taiwan, including the launch of a $750 million arms sale plan to Taiwan, the landing of US military aircraft in Taiwan and frequent sailing of US warships across the Taiwan Strait. These provocative moves undermine China-US relations and regional peace and stability. China is firmly opposed to them and has taken necessary countermeasures.

The one-China principle is the political foundation of China-US relations. On the Taiwan question, the US should abide by the one-China principle and the stipulations of the China-US joint communiques rather than something cooked up by itself unilaterally.

"Taiwan independence" leads nowhere. China will take all necessary measures to resolutely crush all attempts at "Taiwan independence". China has firm resolve and will to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The US should correct its mistakes, earnestly abide by the one-China principle and the stipulations of the three China-US joint communiques, prudently and properly handle Taiwan-related issues, stop supporting and emboldening separatist forces of "Taiwan independence", and take concrete actions to safeguard rather than undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
Earthshine annual mean albedo 19982017 expressed as watts per square meter (W/m2). The CERES annual albedo 20012019, also expressed in W/m2, are shown in blue. A best fit line to the CERES data (20012019) is shown with a blue dashed line. Average error bars for CERES measurements are of the order of 0.2 W/m2. CREDIT Goode et al. (2021), Geophysical Research Letters

Warming ocean waters have caused a drop in the brightness of the Earth, according to a new study.

Researchers used decades of measurements of earthshine -- the light reflected from Earth that illuminates the surface of the Moon -- as well as satellite measurements to find that there has been a significant drop in Earth's reflectance, or albedo, over the past two decades.

The Earth is now reflecting about half a watt less light per square meter than it was 20 years ago, with most of the drop occurring in the last three years of earthshine data, according to the new study in the AGU journal Geophysical Research Letters, which publishes high-impact, short-format reports with immediate implications spanning all Earth and space sciences.

That's the equivalent of 0.5% decrease in the Earth's reflectance. Earth reflects about 30% of the sunlight that shines on it.

"The albedo drop was such a surprise to us when we analyzed the last three years of data after 17 years of nearly flat albedo," said Philip Goode, a researcher at New Jersey Institute of Technology and the lead author of the new study, referring to the earthshine data from 1998 to 2017 gathered by the Big Bear Solar Observatory in Southern California. When the latest data were added to the previous years, the dimming trend became clear.

Two things affect the net sunlight reaching the Earth: the Sun's brightness and the planet's reflectivity. The changes in Earth's albedo observed by the researchers did not correlate with periodic changes in the Sun's brightness, so that means changes in Earth's reflectiveness are caused by something on the Earth.

Specifically, there has been a reduction of bright, reflective low-lying clouds over the eastern Pacific Ocean in the most recent years, according to satellite measurements made as part of NASA's Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) project.

That's the same area, off the west coasts of North and South America, where increases in sea surface temperatures have been recorded because of the reversal of a climatic condition called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, with likely connections to global climate change.

The dimming of the Earth can also be seen in terms of how much more solar energy is being captured by Earth's climate system. Once this significant additional solar energy is in Earth's atmosphere and oceans, it may contribute to global warming, as the extra sunlight is of the same magnitude as the total anthropogenic climate forcing over the last two decades.

"It's actually quite concerning," said Edward Schwieterman, a planetary scientist at the University of California at Riverside who was not involved in the new study. For some time, many scientists had hoped that a warmer Earth might lead to more clouds and higher albedo, which would then help to moderate warming and balance the climate system, he said. "But this shows the opposite is true."

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When Pluto passed in front of a star on the night of August 15, 2018, a Southwest Research Institute-led team of astronomers had deployed telescopes at numerous sites in the U.S. and Mexico.

This was done to observe Pluto's atmosphere as it was briefly backlit by the well-placed star. Scientists used this occultation event to measure the overall abundance of Pluto's tenuous atmosphere and found compelling evidence that it is beginning to disappear, refreezing back onto its surface as it moves farther away from the Sun.

The occultation took about two minutes, during which time the star faded from view as Pluto's atmosphere and solid body passed in front of it. The rate at which the star disappeared and reappeared determined the density profile of Pluto's atmosphere.

"Scientists have used occultations to monitor changes in Pluto's atmosphere since 1988," said Dr. Eliot Young, a senior program manager in SwRI's Space Science and Engineering Division. "The New Horizons mission obtained an excellent density profile from its 2015 flyby, consistent with Pluto's bulk atmosphere doubling every decade, but our 2018 observations do not show that trend continuing from 2015."

Several telescopes deployed near the middle of the shadow's path observed a phenomenon called a "central flash," caused by Pluto's atmosphere refracting light into a region at the very center of the shadow. When measuring an occultation around an object with an atmosphere, the light dims as it passes through the atmosphere and then gradually returns. This produces a moderate slope on either end of the U-shaped light curve. In 2018, refraction by Pluto's atmosphere created a central flash near the center of its shadow, turning it into a W-shaped curve.

"The central flash seen in 2018 was by far the strongest that anyone has ever seen in a Pluto occultation," Young said. "The central flash gives us very accurate knowledge of Pluto's shadow path on the Earth."

Like Earth, Pluto's atmosphere is predominantly nitrogen. Unlike Earth, Pluto's atmosphere is supported by the vapor pressure of its surface ices, which means that small changes in surface ice temperatures would result in large changes in the bulk density of its atmosphere. Pluto takes 248 Earth years to complete one full orbit around the Sun, and its distance varies from its closest point, about 30 astronomical units from the Sun (1 AU is the distance from the Earth to the Sun), to 50 AU from the Sun.

For the past quarter century, Pluto has been receiving less and less sunlight as it moves farther away from the Sun, but, until 2018, its surface pressure and atmospheric density continued to increase. Scientists attributed this to a phenomenon known as thermal inertia.

"An analogy to this is the way the Sun heats up sand on a beach," said SwRI Staff Scientist Dr. Leslie Young, who specializes in modeling the interaction between the surfaces and atmospheres of icy bodies in the outer solar system. "Sunlight is most intense at high noon, but the sand then continues soaking up the heat over course of the afternoon, so it is hottest in late afternoon. The continued persistence of Pluto's atmosphere suggests that nitrogen ice reservoirs on Pluto's surface were kept warm by stored heat under the surface. The new data suggests they are starting to cool."

The largest known nitrogen reservoir is Sputnik Planitia, a bright glacier that makes up the western lobe of the heart-shaped Tombaugh Regio. The data will help atmospheric modelers improve their understanding of Pluto's subsurface layers, particularly regarding compositions that are compatible with the observed limits on heat transfer.

Eliot Young will discuss these results at a press conference Monday, October 4, at the 53rd American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences Annual Meeting.

For more information, visit https://www.swri.org/planetary-science.

About SwRI:

SwRI is an independent, nonprofit, applied research and development organization based in San Antonio, Texas, with approximately 3,000 employees and an annual research volume of nearly $696 million. Southwest Research Institute and SwRI are registered marks in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. For more information, please visit newsroom.swri.org or www.swri.org.



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Leading by five lengths before turning for home, Diggin A Trench had built up just enough separation from his foes to secure this week's victory in the Open Handicap Pace at Marquis Downs.

Diggin A Trench led through early fractions of :28.1 and :57.1 and began to open up on his foes by five into the backstretch on the way past three-quarters in 1:25.1 while favourite Appoggiatura (Clayton Baybrook) advanced alongside Wink N Win (Blake Piwniuk) and took over second-place on the final turn. Diggin A Trench then held off Appoggiatura's late rally down the stretch to prevail by a half-length in 1:56.1.

Gilles Bouvier drove the winner of the $3,000 feature race that opened the Sunday afternoon program. Sent off at even-money, Diggin A Trench paid $4 to win.

Diggin A Trench, who went winless in 19 starts last year, has recorded a pair of wins from four races so far at the Marquis Downs meet for trainer Lance Ward and owner Jaime Ward of Sherwood Park, Alta.

The nine-year-old gelded son of Armbro Trench is now a 15-time winner with $66,286 banked lifetime.

To view Sunday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Sunday Results - Marquis Downs.
Woodmere Skyroller laid in waiting and found herself a newly minted track record holder in the Atlantic Aged Pacing Mares Series final on Sunday afternoon (Oct. 3) at Red Shores at the Summerside Raceway.

Driver Corey MacPherson was patient in the $15,617 Atlantic Aged Pacing Mares Final presented by Standardbred Canada as Woodmere Skyroller sat third while race favourite Dreamfair Zenfire (driven By Marc Campbell) laid out splits of :27.4, :56.3 and 1:24.4. Woodmere Skyroller got rolling at that third station and ground out the victory by a head in 1:53.1, rewriting the former 1:54 aged pacing mare track record held by All Chocolate. Kevin MacLean trains the winning mare for owner Reg MacPherson of Stratford, P.E.I.

The day featured a pair of $23,100 Lady Slipper Gold divisions for three-year-old pacing fillies with Mystifying winning the fastest split in 1:55.3 for driver Gilles Barrieau, trainer and co-owner Darryl MacLean and partners Gordon MacLean and Stephen Downey.

Tobins Brownie won the other Gold division in 1:56 for trainer/driver David Dowling and owners Carl Peterson, Alex Quinn, Amy Lakie and Brittany Watts.

The lone $11,575 Lady Slipper Grassroots division for sophomore fillies was won by Stonebridge Search (Ken Murphy) in 1:58.1.

Lady Slipper two-year-old trot action saw wins by the streaking Up Helly Aa (Ken MacDonald) in 2:03.4 and Gettin Allfiredup (Campbell) in 2:04.4 in the $12,350 divisions.

Dusty Lane Milo (Barrieau) won a $12,115 Lady Slipper three-year-old trot division in 2:02.1 while the other split was claimed by Fireball Friday (Myles Heffernan Sr.) in 2:06.3.

Sunday's $3,200 Preferred 2 Pace went to Woodmere Ideal Art (Jason Hughes), who notched his third win in a row with a 1:56.4 effort.

Live racing continues on Thursday evening at Red Shores Charlottetown at 6 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday afternoons at the capital oval for Atlantic Breeders Crown Weekend with 12:30 p.m. opening post times. The Atlantic Breeders Crown banquet is Saturday night. Guests attending the sold out banquet must provide proof of double vaccination as outlined in the guidelines from Chief Public Health and Province of P.E.I.

To view Sunday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Sunday Results - Summerside Raceway.

(With files from Red Shores)
Meadowlands Racetrack has hosted some famous match races in the past including Forrest Skipper vs. Falcon Seelster in the 1980s and more recently Bunny Lake vs. Worldly Beauty in 2003, but a different kind of match race had the track apron buzzing late last month.

Hosting a "Baby Gender Reveal Party" for an expecting couple, Meadowlands Racetrack joined in the celebrations by staging a match race to reveal the sex of their baby to the parents and their family and friends.

Racing heads apart down to the wire in the non-wagering (for pari-mutuel purposes) quarter-mile sprint, the blue-adorned #2 horse edged out the pink-laden #7 revealing 'It's a boy!' to parents Chris and Ariana Connelly and their family and friends cheering from the rail. Following the race, driver Corey Callahan presented the happy couple with a congratulatory blue bouquet of flowers as they celebrated in the winner's circle.

Providing an experience the family will remember for a lifetime, the match race was hosted with the assistance of the Mark Ford stable.
Coptic Solidarity Commemorates the Deaths of 27 Copts at the 10th Anniversary of the Maspero Massacre





NEWS PROVIDED BY

Coptic Solidarity

Oct. 4, 2021



WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, 2021 /Standard Newswire/ -- Ten years ago, on October 9, 2011, the Egyptian Army murdered 27 Copts and injured 327 others for peacefully protesting the destruction of a church, in what became known as the Maspero Massacre. Coptic Solidarity's virtual Zoom program will honor the rally participants, heroes, and martyrs from that day. Register today to join the program on October 8th at 2pm EST to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Maspero Massacre.



The public worldwide is invited to join in this commemorative event, which is critical to maintaining the memory of those Coptic martyrs and the rights for which they advocated. Ten years later, the Egyptian governmnet has yet to recognize the massacre or to hold any of the perpetrators accountable, despite arriving on the heels of President el-Sisi releasing a new human rights strategy for Egypt.



Confirmed guest speakers include:

Fr. Filopater Gamil Aziz - Priest, Coptic Orthodox Church; Survivor of Maspero Massacre



Prof. Dr. h.c. Heiner Bielefeldt - Chair of Human Rights and Human Rights Policy, Institute for Political Science of University of Erlangen-Nuremberg; Former UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion or Belief



Ms. Mary Daniel - Sister of martyr Mina Daniel, a leading Coptic activist killed during the Maspero Massacre



Dr. Frederick A. Davie - Commissioner, US Commission on Intl. Religious Freedom; Executive Vice President of the Union Theological Seminary



Dr. Robert P. George - McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence & Director, James Madison Program, Princeton University; Former Chair of USCIRF



Mr. Mohamed Gohar - Founder of 25TV who hid 17 Copts in his office building during the Maspero Massacre



Dr. Leila Souief - Mother of prisoners of conscience, Alaa Abd El Fattah and Sanaa Seif; Assistant Professor at Faculty of Science Cairo University



Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett - President of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice: Former Chair of USCIRF

Registration is required to attend the event and information to join the call will be sent to registrants just prior to the start. Register today!



Coptic Solidarity is an organization seeking to help minorities, particularly the Copts, of Egypt. We support those in Egypt working for democracy, freedom, and the protection of the fundamental rights of all Egyptian citizens, and advocate in cooperation with the affiliated organizations in Canada and in Europe (Solidarite Copte). For more information, contact Lindsay Griffin at 801-512-1713 or coptadvocacy@copticsolidarity.org.



SOURCE Coptic Solidarity



CONTACT: Lindsay Griffin, 801-512-1713, coptadvocacy@copticsolidarity.org


The Abu Dhabi Government will showcase more than 100innovative initiatives and projects in the field of digital transformation at the 10th time in Gitex Technology Week, taking place from October 17-21 at the Dubai World Trade Centre.



A total of 31 government and academic entities will be part of the Abu Dhabi Government pavilion aiming to create a unique experience for all visitors through a unified platform for all government entities.



The Department of Government Support  Abu Dhabi (DGS), represented by the Abu Dhabi Digital Authority (ADDA), the government entity that leads the digital transformation of Abu Dhabi government, organized a virtual preparatory meeting with representatives from the participating government entities to coordinate efforts and finalise preparations.



The meeting emphasised the importance of taking into account Covid-19 precautionary measures, including social distancing and the compulsory wearing of face masks, in order to safeguard the safety and health of visitors and exhibitors.



Ali Rashid Al Ketbi, Chairman of the Department of Government Support  Abu Dhabi, said: Gitex Technology Week 2021 is a unique opportunity to emphasize the readiness and development of Abu Dhabis digital infrastructure, shedding light on its digital capabilities and resources that support and enhance customer confidence, including citizens, residents, visitors and investors.



Al Ketbi pointed out that Abu Dhabis advanced infrastructure and skilled and knowledgeable talents are the key pillars to enriching the quality of life of the community and establishing an inspiring environment to motivate its members to innovate and contribute to building the future.



The Abu Dhabi Government participation focuses on four key pillars: Government Services, providing a smooth and seamless experience designed to meet the needs of customers through digital channels and service centres; Government Solutions, promoting cooperation and supporting joint initiatives across various governmental entities and institutions to maximize the value of the initiatives outputs; Data & Artificial Intelligence, taking advantage of the safe and effective sharing of data in order to support the decision-making process and enhance government pro-activeness; and Ecosystem Enablement, driving socio-economic growth by accelerating integration with digital systems, applications, stakeholders, customers, and business partners.



Dr Mohamed Abdelhameed Al Askar, Director General of the Abu Dhabi Digital Authority, said: This year, the Abu Dhabi Government celebrates its 10th participation in Gitex Technology Week 2021, one of the biggest technology events to showcase the latest innovations and technology.



The event is an important platform to showcase more than 100 innovative initiatives and projects in the fields of Government Services, Government Solutions, Data and Artificial Intelligence, and Ecosystem Enablement, all of which have been carefully developed to further strengthen Abu Dhabis digital capabilities, enabling, supporting and delivering a digital government that is proactive, personalized, collaborative and secure.



With our presence at Gitex Technology Week 2021, we further emphasise our support to innovations and adoption of the latest digital solutions and initiatives that can enhance the emirates position as one of the pioneers in government digital transformation, Dr Al Askar added.



By participating at Gitex Technology Week 2021, the Abu Dhabi Government aims to bolster strategic public-private partnerships, explore new areas of collaboration, and leverage the capabilities of major technology companies to support the emirates digital agenda.



The Abu Dhabi Government has also introduced the Abu Dhabi Government Virtual Pavilion Experience, which will give users the ability to make virtual visits to the Pavilion from anywhere in the world, viewing sessions and events taking place live with a dedicated technical support team to help solve any challenges they may encounter during their virtual visit.



This is in addition to introducing the Virtual Assistant service to enable users to connect and interact with the 31participating government entities as well as partners from the academic sector, and access details about events and activities taking place at the Pavilion.



Throughout Gitex Technology Week 2021, the Abu Dhabi Government Pavilion will host a series of special events, including the launch of innovative digital initiatives as well as the signing of agreements and MoUs to strengthen strategic public-private partnerships, facilitate the digital transformation process and secure important investment opportunities for private sector companies.



The Abu Dhabi Government participation in this years edition of Gitex Technology Week complements its participation last year with 24 government and academic entities, in addition to global technology companies when the Pavilion attracted more than 10,000 visitors. In 2020, the Pavilion witnessed the signing of 12 agreements and MoUs and showcased 88 innovative projects and initiatives in the field of digital transformation.  TradeArabia News Service
The Retreat Palm Dubai MGallery by Sofitel has promoted Nrupen Pottavatri from executive sous chef to executive chef, and welcomed Mouin Al Najjad as the new sous chef of Bait Al Nakhla.

Pottavatri, with more than 15 years of experience gained in UAE and India, has been with The Retreat Palm Dubai since November 2017, starting out as sous chef. He was promoted to the role of executive sous chef after eight months.

In his role, he will continue to head the culinary team of the hotels four dining venues - Vibe all-day dining restaurant, the Arabic dining outlet Bait Al Nakhla, Chapters Cafe, and Ripples Juice Bar.

He is also in-charge of Rayya Nutri, a part of Rayya Wellness brand which offers a range of healthy food and beverage products including customised healthy meal plans.

Working closely with Pottavatri is Al Najjad, who will lead Bait Al Nakhlas kitchen team. Prior to this, he was the Arabic chef at Lapita Hotel at Dubai Parks and Resorts.

Cluster General Manager Samir Arora expressed his confidence on the culinary team.

He said: We congratulate Pottavatri on his promotion, and welcome Al Najjad to The Retreat Palm Dubai family. Pottavatri has been instrumental in developing the hotels healthy culinary offers over the past four years, especially spearheading the launch of Rayya Nutri.

"Moreover, we have received exceptional feedback on Bait Al Nakhlas authentic Middle Eastern dishes, thanks to Al Najjad. We are indeed fortunate to have such skillful chefs at the helm of kitchen operations.-TradeArabia News Service
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has called for an end to wildly inconsistent Covid-19 travel restrictions that are stalling the recovery of air transport.

The aviation body urged governments to implement simplified regimes to manage the risks of Covid-19 as borders re-open to international travel.

"Travel restrictions bought governments time to respond in the early days of the pandemic. Nearly two years later, that rationale no longer exists. Covid-19 is present in all parts of the world. Travel restrictions are a complex and confusing web of rules with very little consistency among them. And there is little evidence to support ongoing border restrictions and the economic havoc they create," stated the Director General Willie Walsh.

Testing results for UK arriving passengers demonstrate that travelers are not adding risk to the local population.

"Of the three million arrivals between February and August only 42,000 tested positiveor fewer than 250 a day. Meanwhile, the daily case count in the UK is 35,000 and the economyapart from international travel - is wide open. People should be just as free to travel," stated Walsh.

In the last months, several key markets that had previously been closed have taken steps to open to vaccinated travelers. Among markets that were previously closed, Europe was an early mover, followed by Canada, the UK, the US and Singapore.

Even Australia, which has some of the most draconian restrictions, is taking steps to re-open its borders to vaccinated travelers by November.

IATA supports these moves and encourages all governments to consider the following framework for re-opening borders:

*Vaccines should be made available to all as quickly as possible

*Vaccinated travelers should not face any barriers to travel

*Testing should enable those without access to vaccines to travel without quarantine

*Antigen tests are the key to cost-effective and convenient testing regimes, and

*Governments should pay for testing, so it does not become an economic barrier to travel

Simplified Risk Management

A recent survey of the top 50 travel markets, accounting for 92% of global traffic, reveals an urgent need for simplification of the various measures governments are using to manage the risks of Covid-19.

"There is far too much complexity in the way borders are re-opening. The potential for a global re-connect could be hijacked by bureaucracies favoring stand-alone made-at-home solutions over approaches that work across borders," stated Walsh.
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Kishanganj is a Muslim majority district in Bihar. Lately, the district has been in focus after Hindutva leaders started comparing the region with Kashmir with section 370. A TCN Ground Report looks at what is behind these controversial claims.

Sami Ahmad | TwoCircles.net

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BIHAR  Kishanganj is one among the 250 most backward districts of India in the Nitish Kumar ruled Bihar. An official of radical Hindutva organization Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) recently mischievously compared the place with Kashmir saying that the district was becoming more like Kashmir with section 370.

Separated by around 2000 kilometres, this eastern part of India has probably just one thing in common with Kashmir; it is predominantly Muslim, an estimated 70 per cent of 1690948 people counted in the census of 2011. Kishanganj, the only Muslim majority district of Bihar alongside other district of Seemanchal area has come under target of Hindutva radicals. Seemanchal constitutes other districts like Araria, Katihar and Purnea where the Muslim population is considerably high.

What is the objection?

According to an official of VHP Ashok Kumar, the number of Hindus is decreasing in the district as Rohingya and Bangladeshi infiltrators are increasing. This radical leader alleged that the local Muslims were providing land for the infiltrators. The situation in Kishanganj is becoming like that of Kashmir with section 370. Hindus are feeling unsafe. If there is no security guarantee for the daughters of Hindus and Gau-Mata, then we would organize a Hindu Maha Panchayat (mega congregation of Hindus), threatened Kumar.

This could have been dismissed as a one-off statement of a lesser-known person. But the matter is deep and delicate. Deep because the radicalized Hindutva forces have been manufacturing this propaganda of infiltration of Bangladeshis for a long time. The only change in this discourse is the addition of alleged Rohingya infiltrators. Delicate because a recent Patna High Court order has compelled the state government and consequently the district administration to issue such directives which can create huge problems for the Muslim community. The threat is that any radical element can target the Muslims and brand them as illegal migrants.

In a letter issued by the Kishanganj district administration the following part of the Patna High Court is mentioned: In fact, we are of the considered view that such process of sensitizing people, more so along with the border areas, must be carried vigorously both through electronic and print media as also associating the public-spirited persons/N.G.O.s for the deportation of illegal migrants is of paramount importance and in the national interest. This order was passed on August 18, 2021, in the case Cr. WJC no 390/2020 of a Bangladeshi woman Vs. The State of Bihar & others.

Interestingly, while the two Bangladeshi women kept in Nari Niketan at Patna were deported and ideally, the case should have been closed. The two women were caught at Patna Railway Junction who had claimed that they were trafficked and being taken to Mumbai. The court did not close the case and asked the state government not only sensitize the people to identify the illegal migrants but also ordered them to make a detention centre.

Many legal minds argue that while there is no study on the number of illegal migrants, an order for establishing a detention centre is beyond comprehension.

Nine days later, the home department of the Bihar government issued a letter that became the basis of local directives of at least two districts of Bihar regarding the so-called illegal migrants. It is not clear whether this letter has been sent to all the districts of Bihar, or, other districts that have issued a similar directive.

The district magistrate of Kishanganj, Aditya Prakash has asked in that letter addressed to the district public relations officer to treat it as extremely important and directed to ensure all necessary action through electronic and print medium to spread public awareness to inform the local administration after identifying the suspect or illegal migrants residing at different places, particularly the border areas. This letter refers to the letter sent by the home department on August 28.

Similarly, another viral letter of Siwan S.P. talks in a general notice that if you know any foreigner, more so Bangladeshi, living illegally near you, then inform the local police station and help in legal action against them. This is letter is signed on August 29, 2021. Noticeably, Siwan has no international border.

Many argue that the administrative directives are similar to the National Register of Citizens (NRC) by proxy which is bound to cause problems to the Muslim community. This is considerably more dangerous to the Assam NRC as the orders ask to sensitize people and thus giving a right to anyone to allege that someone is an illegal migrant.

Seemanchal has five MLAs of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM). AIMIMs President Asaduddin Owaisi tweeted on September 7 that the Bihar government is implementing NRC through back door tagging the two government directives. He argues that similar misuse of legal provisions had been done in Assam too.

According to him, several renowned Indians were framed and they faced immense problems and the Sangh Pariwar is spreading the lie that the citizens of Seemanchal are infiltrators. He reminded the chief minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar that no one would be ousted from the country and that everyone is Indian. Then, why this NRC is being implemented through the back door, questioned Owaisi.

The recent diatribe, courts order and administrative order have made the issue quite complex. But the Hindutva radicals have been at it for long.

Local journalist Tanzil Asif told TwoCircles.net that this is not a new thing for them to put forward such communally divisive propaganda. Senior BJP leader and a junior minister at the ministry of home affairs, Nityanand Rai had claimed during the by-poll for Araia parliamentary seat in 2018 that if the RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal of Lalu Prasad) won, Araia would become a den of ISI (Pakistani spy agency). A minister in current Nitish Kumars government Ram Surat Rai recently claimed that the infiltrators are coming in big numbers to Seemanchal who are buying land with the help of local brokers.

AIMIMs Bihar President and MLA from Amaur, Akhtarul Iman told TwoCircles.net that there is no problem if illegal migrants are identified but suggests that the onus should be on the person who identifies someone as non-Indian. Why Indians should prove that they are Indians in India, their homeland? he asks.

Akhtarul Iman said that what the administrators need to do is to put those behind bars who are spreading the propaganda of foreigners to divide the area into communal lines and hatred of the Muslim community.

He further said that since Kishanganj has a border with the neighbouring West Bengal, some Bengalis do come here and also the local language Surajpuri has some similarities to Bangla but that is never proof of being a Bangladeshi.

There is no Bangladesh in the area, he maintains.

He said that Seemanchal was a prosperous area at the time of independence but successive governments apathy and neglect has made the area pitiable on the developmental front, including Kishanganj.

Incidentally, Kishanganjs literacy rate was one of the lowest in Bihar at 57.04 in the 2011 census. The official website of the Kishanganj district mentions only one place as a tourist place that is Mahananda river, which is six kilometres away from the Kishanganj city railway station. The Mahananda river is a mixed bag of fortunes as it brings heavy miseries with its flood.

Kishanganj has a proposed centre of Aligarh Muslim University where around 20 thousand students can study but that too is mired in controversy. Its fate is hanging in balance as the National Green Tribunal has stopped the construction of the campus of the centre alongside Mahananda. Currently, it is being run in a few small buildings with just a couple of courses.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is yet to make any official statement on the situation of Seemanchal but one of his party Janta Dal Uniteds officials and former MLA Mujahid Alam argues that a proposal against NRC has been passed by the Bihar Legislative Assembly, adding, Those should go to the Supreme Court to seek relief against the Patna High Courts order. Though he assures that if any genuine person is famed they would oppose.
Help India!



Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) Vice President Prof. Salim Engineer demanded the government to give a compensation of rupees one crore each to the families of the deceased and urged the government to refrain from deploying illegitimate means for stopping the farmers to exercise their democratic right to protest.

NEW DELHI  Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) on Monday condemned the Lakhimpur Kheri violence in Uttar Pradesh that claimed the lives of eight people including four farmers and injured several others.

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Expressing grief over the incident, the JIH offered its condolences to the bereaved.

In a media statement, JIH Vice President Prof. Salim Engineer said, It is being said that the violence was not an accident but a deliberate conspiracy. Using this incident as a pretext, the farmers agitation is being labelled as illegal and put down by using force. The incident has made it plain for the people of Uttar Pradesh and the whole country that their fundamental rights are being crushed using different methods and ploys. We demand a high-level inquiry into the entire episode.

The JIH Vice President pointed out that the farmers who are agitating peacefully are being oppressed by elements that are aligned with the government. The people of India are observing these developments closely. Such incidents stand condemned in any functioning democracy. he said, adding, We demand that the UP government must allow the law to take its course against all those involved in the killing of the farmers, no matter how well they might be politically connected.

Prof. Salim Engineer demanded the government to give a compensation of rupees one crore each to the families of the deceased. The government must refrain from deploying illegitimate means for stopping the farmers to exercise their democratic right to protest. Such authoritarian behaviour sullies the image of the country and our dream to be an ideal functioning democracy is not realized, he added.
Help India!

Hundreds join in calling for greater striving towards peace, pluralism and justice.

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TCN News

WASHINGTON, D.C.  The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), an advocacy organization dedicated to safeguarding Indias pluralist and tolerant ethos, participated yesterday in events across the United States marking the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, including celebrations in Dallas and Chicago.

The birth anniversary, commonly referred to as Gandhi Jayanti, is a homage to the life and legacy of one of modern historys most iconic human rights defenders.

The celebrations saw participation by hundreds of people and included food and other festivities.

In Dallas, around 200 attendees listened to speeches by IAMC National executives, chapter leaders, youth volunteers, as well as from the Mayor of the City of Kennedale, Brian Johnson. The Dallas event included performances of patriotic songs on India as well as poems honouring Mahatma Gandhi. IAMC chapter president Yusuf Dadani also introduced the IAMC Dallas team to the community.

[Todays celebration] was an excellent outdoor event on a beautiful day that pulled the community together, said Noor Baig, Vice President of IAMC Dallas. We had a great turnout with a lot of energy and enthusiasm.

As we [gather] here today, we have to be vigilant, said Mayor Johnson, referring to the rise of nationalistic movements in Europe, the United States, and India. What authoritarian governments tend to do is take people that are different and make them the enemy. They make them the outsiders. And we have to unite  if we stay silent, then this is going to continue to grow.

Syed Ali, President of IAMC stated in his remarks, Mahatma Gandhi and non-violence are synonymous. During Indias struggle for independence from British rule, Gandhi taught the world how to stand up for ones rights and achieve victory over a formidable enemy without resorting to violence. He also reiterated that in India today, the values that Gandhi stood for  namely, peace, pluralism, social justice, and equality for all citizens  are being undermined and threatened by an ideology that was responsible for his assassination and one that is aiming to subvert Indias constitution.

Less than six months after Indias Independence, Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a fanatic Hindu nationalist and a staunch supporter of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), who believed that Gandhis efforts to bring peace between Hindus and Muslims were detrimental to the goals of Hindutva, the supremacist ideology that is driving much of the religious persecution and mass violence against minorities in India.

Throughout his life, Gandhi consistently advocated for Hindu-Muslim unity and the preservation of a pluralistic and secular India. By contrast, the Hindutva movement seeks to transform India, a constitutionally secular state, into an ethnoreligious Hindu Rashtra (Hindu nation).

IAMC said that Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi has himself been a member of the RSS since the age of eight, and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is an affiliate subsidiary of the RSS.

Mr Modi has paid the usual perfunctory tribute to Gandhi. In a telling sign of how far India has gone down the path of fascism, it was Gandhis assassin Nathuram Godse who was trending on Twitter, said.

IAMC said that it reaffirms its commitment to the values Gandhi upheld and laid down his life for, the values of peace, pluralism, justice, equality, and unity among all Indians.
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A report by the activist group denounces violence against those who have returned to the country. Blame laid at door of nations in the area and Europe because they encourage repatriation. Syria and Russia claim the areas under government control are safe. Violations include rape or other forms of sexual violence, arbitrary or illegal detention, torture and ill-treatment.

Damascus (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Dozens of Syrian refugees, who decided to return to their country of origin in the last four years, have been victims of forced detention, torture and disappearances in mysterious circumstances in the hands of government security forces. This is what emerges in a report published today by the activists of Amnesty International, according to whom it would be proof that "a return to the homeland" for those who once fled "is still not safe".

In a report entitled Youre going to your death," the group compiled what it calls "violations" committed by Damascus intelligence against 66 returning refugees, including 13 children, between mid-2017 and the spring of 2021. This list also includes five cases of detainees who died in police custody and 17 other people whose fate remains shrouded in mystery.

The authors also challenge claims by some states that parts of Syria are now safe and allow for the repatriation of refugees. Denmark, Sweden and Turkey are named for having loosened assylum and refugee support, encouraging, in various ways, the return of those who have fled. Criticism is also directed at Lebanon and Jordan, among the nations hosting the largest number of Syrian refugees in relation to their population.

In Lebanon and Turkey, refugees suffer discrimination by local governments and live in dramatic conditions. Ankara has deported numerous refugees in the last two years, with increasingly frequent expulsions confirming a hostile climate with respect to a past of welcoming in the name of the common Muslim root promoted by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Syrian government and its main ally, Russia, claim that the country is now safe - at least in the areas controlled by Damascus - and launch repeated calls for the return of refugees, accusing the West of disincentivizing repatriation with "fake news". Amnesty International calls on Europe to stop all practices, direct or indirect, that encourage a return to Syria and asks Beirut, Ankara and Amman to prevent deportations.

The report documents serious violations against refugees who have returned from Lebanon, Rukban (an informal refugee camp on the Syrian-Jordanian border), France, Germany, Turkey, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. It is based on interviews collected among dozens of Syrians, including refugees and their families and friends, along with lawyers, humanitarian workers and human rights experts. In some cases, violations include rape or other forms of sexual violence, arbitrary or unlawful detention, torture and ill-treatment.
The Philippine president could give way to his daughter Sara, the current mayor of Davao. More twists are not to be excluded in the coming months. For now, Dutertes daughter seems unwilling to take the reins of the PDP-Laban.

Manila (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced that he is leaving politics at the end of his term of office; contrary to statements he made less than a month ago, he will not seek the office of vice president in next year's elections.

Standing for the vice-presidency "would be a violation of the constitution to circumvent the law, the spirit of the constitution, Duterte said.

The Philippine constitution bars presidents from running for a second six-year term, but allows them to run for the office of vice president.

Dutertes party, Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), is instead fielding Senator Bong Go for the post of vice president.

Duterte's daughter Sara Duterte-Caprio, the current mayor of the city of Davao, could run for president, but she has indicated that she has no intention of running for president.

Christina Garcia Frasco, who serves as Duterte-Carpios spokesperson, made the announcement after the Minister of Energy Alfonso Cusi said that Sara Duterte-Carpio could be the PDP-Labans candidate.

Mayor Sara Duterte has already filed her Certificate of Candidacy for Mayor. Not being a member of PDP-Laban, she is not privy to the partys sudden change of plans, Frasco told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Mayor Sara has no intention of becoming a member of PDP or of being its standard bearer now or in the near future, she added.

Duterte senior said he was in favour of the Sara-Go ticket for the elections of May 2022.

Sara Duterte-Caprio noted that she had agreed with her father so that they were not both candidates for government office.

However, more surprises might be in store.

In the Philippines, would-be presidential candidates have time until 8 October to file their papers. However, the deadline for replacing a candidate is 15 November.

Given Dutertes precedents, further twists are possible.

Duterte ran for Mayor of Davao in 2015 and then quit to run for president the following year, which he won. His daughter eventually took up the post of mayor he left vacant.

According to some observers, Sara's eventual victory in the presidency could protect her father from the investigation by the International Criminal Court for crimes committed during his "war on drugs".

Over the past few weeks, the PDP-Laban faction represented by former boxer Manny Pacquiao has allied itself with two other parties, the People's Champ Movement (PCM) and the Progressive Movement for the Devolution of Initiatives (PROMDI).

Pacquaio will be their presidential candidate, but public opinion polls indicate that Sara Duterte-Carpio is still the favourite, despite a recent drop in support.
Since his accession to the throne he has bought luxury homes in California, London and Washington. A network of companies with offices in tax havens used to hide the real estate transactions . Lawyers defend legality and deny us eof public money. Fears of a new escalation of protests in the Hashemite kingdom.

Amman (AsiaNews) - Luxury residences in California and London, purchased through offshore properties for a total value of about 100 million euros. King of Jordan, Abdullah II, is also on the long list of 35 heads (or former) heads of government and 400 high-level officials, in addition to celebrities scattered in 100 countries, who over the years have accumulated large amounts of money or assets through investments and companies in tax havens.

The Hashemite monarch joins the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the President of Chile Sebastian Pinera, the President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a woman "close" to the Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The "Pandora papers" investigation, which is reminiscent of the 2016 "Panama Papers" investigation, is the result of a long process of research and analysis of documents by the investigative reporters of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (Icij), which led, in these hours, to the publication of the first articles.

In the documents - more than 11.9 million tax and financial reports, for a total of 2.9 terabytes (TB) of data - so far released, almost a hundred billionaires and about 30 thousand offshore accounts emerge; the analysis concerns only bank accounts, excluding other real estate, jewelry and other valuables.

As far as the Jordanian monarch is concerned, the documents reveal a network of companies attributable to King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein and used to purchase 15 luxury homes since his rise to power in 1999. They include properties in Malibu in the U.S., London and Ascot in the United Kingdom.

The lawyers have stressed in a note that the purchases were made without violating the laws and, above all, without using public funds. However, the affair will certainly not help to calm the spirits of a population that has taken to the streets several times in the recent past against poverty and corruption, ending up by attacking not only the government and prime minister, but the monarchical institution itself and the king.

In recent years Jordan, thanks also to the solid relations between the king and the West, of which it is an ally in a Middle Eastern area of precarious equilibrium, has received substantial international aid, especially from the United States and the United Kingdom.

In 2019, the London government prepared a five-year aid plan worth about 760 million euros for the Hashemite kingdom. In addition, Abdullah is accused of building his fortunes between 2003 and 2017 while at home fueling an authoritarian regime that suppressed popular protests, imposed austerity and raised taxes. And in June 2020, he enacted a law aimed at targeting citizens who send money abroad.

Among the disputed properties at least four apartments in Georgetown, a wealthy suburb of Washington, purchased between 2012 and 2016. An investment according to experts made to allow his son - and crown prince - Hussein to benefit from all the comforts during his years of study at Georgetown University, attended in the same years.

There is also a seven-room villa in Malibu, in a neighborhood for multi-millionaires overlooking the Pacific in which Anthony Hopkins, Julia Roberts, Simon Cowell, Gwyneth Paltrow and Barbra Streisand live (or have lived) just to name a few of the most famous. The property was purchased in 2014 by Nabisco Holdings SA, a British Virgin Islands company, for a sum of 29 million euros.

The revelations contained in the papers risk fueling new protests against the Hashemite kingdom's top leadership. A dissident, interviewed by the BBC, says that King Abdullah governs the nation from outside thanks to a "remote control", while a former government official says that the monarch spends four to six months a year away from his country.

Annelle Sheline, an expert on the Middle East, adds that for a citizen who struggles to support his family and is out of work to know that the monarch has invested money abroad for a long time is a huge blow to his image and credibility.
He will have to manage the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and revive the economy. Former foreign minister expected to continue cooperation with U.S. to counter China's rise in the Indo-Pacific.

Tokyo (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Parliament today elected Fumio Kishida as its new prime minister. The vote was little more than a formality given that the Liberal Democratic Party, which chose Kishida as its leader last week, has a majority in both branches of the legislature. The 64-year-old former foreign minister garnered 311 votes out of 458 in the lower house, and 141 out of 241 in the upper house.

"This is the real starting point. I will go forth with a strong sense of determination, with a strong resolution," Kishida said at a press conference."

The government formed by the new premier will have to manage the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and revive the economy. With about 60 percent of Japan's population fully vaccinated and Covid-19 cases on the decline, Kishida's first challenge will be to prevent another surge in infections, and phase out anti-Covid restrictions to allow even foreign travelers to return.

Kishida, who comes from a family of politicians in Hiroshima, promised an economic package of "trillions of yen" within the year and criticized "Abenomics," the previous economic policy named after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Unlike his predecessor Yoshihide Suga, who had retained many ministers from the Abe administration, Kishida chose 13 new faces, including Daishiro Yamagiwa, minister for economic policy, and Takayuki Kobayashi, who will take on a new role for the country's financial security. The inauguration ceremony will be held at the Imperial Palace and will be followed by a press conference in the evening.

Suga resigned after just over a year due to criticism in his handling of the pandemic. Kishida is expected to continue cooperation with the United States to counter China's rise in the Indo-Pacific.

It is unclear whether there will be any change of direction in the social sphere under the new government. In the past, Kishida had asked for more time to discuss the possibility of married couples taking on different surnames and said he was "undecided" about the possibility of legalizing same-sex marriages.
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Research News

Could AI help optimize aneurysm surgeries?

Members of the QAS.AI team (from left): Kelsey Sommer, chief operating officer; Vincent Tutino, chief financial officer; Ciprian Ionita, CEO; and Mohammad Mahdi Shiraz Bhurwani, the companys lead AI scientist over summer 2021. Photo: Douglas Levere

By CHARLOTTE HSU

The neurosurgeon is always going to be the driver. Our AI will provide valuable data and predictions to help the surgeon make informed decisions. 

A company founded by UB researchers is looking to employ artificial intelligence (AI) to improve treatment of vascular lesions in the brain, starting with intracranial aneurysms.

Called QAS.AI, the startup is developing software for the operating room. The program is trained on data from past surgeries and uses live video-data analysis to forecast how likely a selected treatment method is to succeed in a new patient  all while a procedure is going on.

The goal is to provide real-time information to aid in decision-making during operations on intracranial aneurysms, which are bulges in arteries that can sometimes leak or burst. Ruptured aneurysms can lead to problems that can include stroke, coma or death.

QAS.AI has received $256,000 from the U.S. National Science Foundations Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program to support development of its software.

We want to see patients get the best health care, says Kelsey Sommer, QAS.AI chief operating officer and a UB PhD candidate in biomedical engineering. The main potential benefit is to reduce the rate of re-treatment. Re-treatment, involving another surgery, can come with so many complications and adds additional treatment cost. If we can improve outcomes from the initial surgery, the hope is that patients wont have to come back in.

The neurosurgeon is always going to be the driver. Our AI will provide valuable data and predictions to help the surgeon make informed decisions, says Ciprian Ionita, QAS.AI CEO and assistant professor of biomedical engineering and neurosurgery. The software is based on research done in his lab, and UB has filed a patent application covering the technology.

In the future, the team hopes to expand the softwares capabilities to target treatments for other vascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis and ischemia, Ionita says.
The Pandora Papers has revealed names of 700 Pakistani individuals and members of Prime Minister Imran Khan's cabinet, inner circle, including cabinet ministers, their families and major financial backers, who have secretly owned an array of companies and trusts holding millions of dollars of hidden wealth, according to Internation Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

The documents revealed on Sunday more than 700 Pakistani names.

Among those whose holdings have been exposed are Khan's finance minister, Shaukat Fayaz Ahmed Tarin, and his family, and the son of Khan's former adviser for finance and revenue, Waqar Masood Khan. The records also reveal the offshore dealings of a top PTI donor, Arif Naqvi, who is facing fraud charges in the US, according to ICIJ.

Pakistan's civilian government and military leaders who have been hiding vast amounts of wealth in a country plagued by widespread poverty and tax avoidance, said ICIJ.

According to ARY News, "the owner of two offshore companies registered at a similar address as of Prime Minister Imran Khan has revealed that they were registered by him on a different address and denied any role of the premier in this regard."

According to the ICIJ, Pakistan's elites use of offshore services that rivals the findings of the Panama Papers, which led to Sharif's downfall and helped propel Imran Khan to power three years ago.

The revelations are part of the Pandora Papers, a new global investigation into the shadowy offshore financial system that allows multinational corporations, the rich, famous and powerful to avoid taxes and otherwise shield their wealth. The probe is based on more than 11.9 million confidential files from 14 offshore services firms leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and shared with 150 news organisations around the world, according to ICIJ.

In 2007, Pakistani General Shafaat Ullah Shah's wife acquired a $1.2 million apartment in London through a discreet offshore transaction. Notably, he had been a close aide of then-president Pervez Musharraf.

The document has also revealed many key military leaders of Pakistan and intergenerational wealth transfer.

The findings offer a portrait of an unaccountable military elite with extensive personal and family offshore holdings.

Pakistan Prime Minister is surrounded with people - cabinet ministers and their families, donors and other political allies - who have holdings hidden offshore, according to ICIJ.

Pakistan's Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin and some members of his family own four offshore companies.

Omer Bakhtyar, the brother of Khan's minister for industries, Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar, transferred a $1 million apartment in the Chelsea area of London to his elderly mother through an offshore company in 2018, as per ICIJ.

Faisal Vawda, Khan's former minister for water resources set up an offshore company in 2012 to invest in UK properties. He resigned in March amid a controversy over his status as a dual US-Pakistan national. The financial backers of Imran Khan are prominent in leaked documents, according to ICIJ.

The files detail the offshore activities of more than 29,000 accounts. Among them: More than 130 Forbes list billionaires and over 330 public officials around the globe.

The Pandora Papers expose the ill-gotten wealth of elites, accumulated through tax evasion & corruption & laundered out to financial "havens".

Imran Khan said that he will launch an inquiry over the matter, He tweeted, "The UN SG's Panel FACTI calculated a staggering $7 trillion in stolen assets parked in largely offshore tax-havens."

(ANI)

Also Read: Imran Khan vows probe: Release of Pandora Papers ruffles Pakistani politics
Its a big move for us, because were at a place now where we dont have to be in one of those big corporate office buildings, said Richard Edelman, 67, president and CEO of the PR firm started by his father 69 years ago. Were much better placed in something that is a former warehouse, thats funky and its got high ceilings.
I was a kid during the Iranian hostage crisis when I had my first experience with racism, she said. I mean, I can tell you the exact spot on the street where it happened. We were in the family car, windows rolled down, on Michigan Avenue, right in front of the Fine Arts theater. Traffic is crawling, its super hot. Two white guys roll up beside us. They seemed old to me but they were probably in their 20s. They pointed right at me, this little girl, and one had a genuine snarl and he screamed, Go home, you (expletive) (expletive) Iranian! I was gobsmacked. First of all my parents never used that language so I didnt know it. It was scary, traffic moves and they pull ahead  it all probably happened in a second. But it felt longer, and I thought: How do they know we live in Batavia? Thats what I thought the Go home meant. Did it say Batavia on the license plates? My next thought was, Why Iranian? Oh, is that person being racist or prejudiced or something? So then I thought: Wow, I guess racists are really bad at geography.
Bond of course will be back, as the end credits remind us. As the movie itself reminds us  twice, in a bit of office politicking involving 007s official designation once he slumps out of retirement  its just a number. Well, thats a lie, just as for many characters in No Time to Die, the title lies like a Connery-era Bond girl on a bearskin rug. My own moviegoing history with Bond started with Roger Moore and the inarguably racist and inarguably popular Live and Let Die, at age 12. I remember my parents getting a sitter three years earlier so they could see Diamonds Are Forever. I remember seeing The Spy Who Loved Me with my dad a few years later. (Its the best of the Moore outings.) I remember seeing Craig in Casino Royale 15 years ago and feeling gratified that we were back on planet Earth, with relatively human-scaled crises. (What is testicle-smashing if not a human-scaled crisis?)
A couple of other glitches in Sundays performance of the Britten occurred, though it was difficult to determine whether pianist or orchestra was at fault. More important, though, Malone unmistakably was gathering momentum and poise with each variation. By the time he reached the sixth, a Nocturne, there was no missing the tonal beauty of the silvery accompanying figures he played across the length of the keyboard, while orchestra concertmaster Carin Wiesner Hoffman unspooled long, silken lines on her violin. Malone and friends now were creating hauntingly ethereal music, the scores plaintive quality reminding me of the heroism Malone has shown through most of his life, including on this occasion.
By 2001, the store had a second, high-quality show, hoping to persuade girls and their parents to return. A sequel of sorts, it was called "Circle of Friends: An American Girls Musical. Whereas the first show had stayed within the historical context of the American Girl dolls, the new one had a contemporary, birthday-party setting and was designed to offer tools to helps girls resolve the conflict in their lives  by looking at the struggles and achievement of girls in various periods of American history, the show insisted, a girl could find solutions to many of her own worries. By this point, American Girl had created its own ensemble of performing girls, held to professional standards and at least 40 strong.
Areefa Mohamed, 35, a massage therapist based in the New York City borough of Queens, who found herself underemployed during the pandemic, says COVID laid bare just how different she and her boyfriend of 6 1/2 years are, which led to many disagreements. His normal is far from my normal, Mohamed said. The pandemic enabled Mohamed to spend a lot more time with her boyfriend, who lives in Clifton, New Jersey, and works in finance in New York, but it wasnt all blissful. They found themselves for the first time fighting about everything from dinner and bedtime routines to TV habits.
We felt that for the safety of both the people in the parade, and really the hundreds of thousands of people who crowd together to watch the parade, it was better if we postponed it, lets say, until next June, parade coordinator Tim Frye told the Tribune when the decision was announced Sept. 1.
About 3:55 a.m. Monday, three men suffered gunshot wounds while standing on a sidewalk in 8800 block of South Parnell Avenue in Gresham, authorities said. A 33-year-old man was taken to University of Chicago Medical Center with wounds to the left leg and back. He was listed in serious condition. A 28-year-old man was shot in the right leg and took himself to Advocate Trinity Hospital before being transferred to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in fair condition, authorities said. Another man, 27, suffered wounds to his ankles and took himself to Jackson Park Hospital where he was listed in good condition, authorities said.
In a statement about the fatal shooting, authorities said they were dispatched to 7756 S. Carpenter, Street at 7:26 a.m., and responding officers encountered a man who was involved in a dispute with someone else in the apartment. Officials said a knife was recovered from the unit where the shooting occurred but did not say whether anyone had been holding it.
A recent convert to Islam, Osadzinski admittedly had a confused identity that he was exploring on the fringes of the internet, his lawyers said. But he spoke only rudimentary Arabic, confessed ignorance about basic concepts that came up in online chats, and was largely led on by comments made by the governments confidential informants and agents, according to his attorneys.
Inciting public fear for something that is over seven weeks in the future, and might never happen, is Machiavellian. Moreover, with the majority of pilots already vaccinated, no pilot shortages have already occurred, and if there was such a shortage during the holidays, it most likely would be caused by the delay in vaccinations, not by the vaccinations themselves.
Despite all the failings of Donald Trump, the kind of inept, narcissistic, scorched-earth opponent who should have been toast, Democrats did not enjoy a sweeping rise to power in the last election. In fact, they barely squeaked by in the Senate, winning only because Georgia election rules mandated a runoff. They were not expected to gain both of those seats after the first go-round, and they probably only did so because the spurned Trump started to enact his signature mischief, casting evidence-free doubt on electoral fairness and basically telling his people to stay home rather than enable a corrupt system.
OHares status as an international and domestic hub hasnt changed. The airport served a prepandemic total of 84.6 million passengers in 2019. Eventually, COVID-19 will be fully corralled and traveler flow through OHare will get back to normal. City Hall should care what businesspeople, tourists and families moving through OHare think about the feel and look of the airport. If the perception continues to worsen, corporations may think twice about relocating here. Airlines might move flights elsewhere. Tourism could suffer. None of thats good for a metropolis that aspires to be one of the worlds great global cities.
Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker has strongly supported Bidens actions to deal with COVID-19. Pritzker has mandated vaccinations and testing for educators, health care workers, college and university students and workers in congregate care settings, while also calling on the private sector to do more to require workers to get vaccinated. Republicans seeking to challenge Pritzker next year have criticized the governor for imposing statewide mitigation orders rather than permitting local control.
This Northgate 21 model by Ed Dart, who briefly worked for architect Paul Schweikher, is in its nearly original state of unpainted wood and Chicago common brick paired with plenty of glass, said historian Dan Fitzpatrick, the managing director of the Schweikher House Preservation Trust in Schaumburg and an expert on Chicago-area midcentury modern architects. Original modernist houses like these generate so much interest to todays buyers, as fewer and fewer remain in their original condition, as shown by a sale price well above ask and a dozen offers. Original modernist homes like this Dart provide a living experience in harmony with nature among simple, yet beautiful building materials.
Mathus, who has been there for two and a half years, makes $15.15 an hour in his role when he is working, but he was placed on unpaid administrative leave Friday for conduct unbecoming an officer and treatment of an employee after he got into an argument with village staff over frustrations regarding a new position and new hires elsewhere in the village when the police cannot get needed resources.
As the latest smash hit to reflect China's efforts in developing rural areas, the 24-episode online series "On the Way to Hope" is "a highly realistic work on the theme of rural vitalization," experts said at a seminar held Sept. 26.

A poster for "On the Way to Hope." [Image courtesy of Tencent Video]

Starring Cao Jun and An Yuexi, the story follows a Shanghai university graduate's return to his hometown, a far-flung village nestled in the mountainous areas of Guizhou province, to conduct academic research. After meeting locals still struggling under the weight of poverty, the protagonist declines a generous job offer in a big city, instead opting to stay in the village and lead a team tasked with helping villagers forge a better life. Meanwhile, his girlfriend, a Shanghai native, finds work in the village as a teacher, helping the students to expand their horizons and satisfy their thirst for knowledge

The series began its run on the streaming site Tencent Video on the evening of Sept. 15.

Fang Fang, a Tencent Video executive, said the company recognizes the importance of literary and artistic works that mirror contemporary themes, and are more than willing to use its platform to call for and promote the development of rural vitalization projects, opening a window onto the country's rural vitalization story.

"We hope to use authentic narratives to reenact the process of contemporary rural development, use the vivid plot to resonate with the audience, and through the conflict-filled plot, trigger discussions amongst viewers, which is a breakthrough for the long-standing stereotype about rural TV dramas," she said.

Meanwhile, veteran scriptwriter Rao Jun revealed that "90% of the story comes from real life," adding, "I am not really the screenwriter of this drama, because it is these village officials and the normal people who are struggling for a better life that help me create this story."

"On the Way to Hope" portrays a series of real problems in the countryside, reflecting that China's countryside remains an important source of new stories and new ideas, while also refreshing public opinion about online dramas.

A seminar is held in Beijing for the online series "On the Way to Hope." [Photo/China.org.cn]

During the seminar, famed literary critic Zhong Chengxiang praised the series as "a realist work for making a portrait of the times, for making a record of the times, and for displaying the illustrious virtue." He went on to call it an "online literary series for the new era with Chinese characteristics, a milestone."

Zhang Xiuying, head of the admissions and examination department of the Education Bureau of Bijiang District, Tongren, Guizhou province, served as inspiration for one of the characters in the series' fictional village of Baiguo and said she was deeply moved by the story. "This drama ignited a flame in the hearts of young urban talented people from big cities to participate in rural vitalization, and meanwhile it strengthened the determination of us, the officials stationed in mountain areas and rural villages to continue working there. "
You are here: China

Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Sunday reported two asymptomatic cases of COVID-19, according to local authorities.

The cases were both detected during regular nucleic testing in the city of Horgos, and have been sent to a designated hospital for medical observation, according to the regional COVID-19 prevention and control headquarters.

Local health authorities have traced 192 close contacts of the asymptomatic cases and have placed them under medical observation.

Epidemiological investigations and further nucleic acid testing are also underway.
You are here: China

The National Health Commission dispatched a working group Monday to guide COVID-19 response efforts in the Kazak Autonomous Prefecture of Ili, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Ili reported two locally transmitted asymptomatic COVID-19 cases on Sunday.
 Flash

The South Korean government expressed hope for the resumption of inter-Korean dialogue following the restoration of communication lines, the unification ministry said Monday.

The government believes that the connection of the inter-Korean communication lines has laid the foundation for stabilizing the situation on the Korean Peninsula and restoring inter-Korean relations, the ministry said in a statement sent to reporters.

Through the stable management of the communication lines, the government hopes to resume dialogue as soon as possible, begin and advance substantive discussions on improving inter-Korean relations and making peace take root on the Korean Peninsula, it added.

South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) restored their direct communication lines Monday after a two-month suspension.

The inter-Korean communication lines, which had been severed for over a year, were briefly back in operation in late July, but the DPRK refused Seoul's regular calls again two weeks later in protest against the joint military drills by South Korea and the United States.

Hours earlier, DPRK state media announced that all the north-south communication lines would be back to normal operation as of 9 a.m. on the day.
 Flash

A rapid COVID-19 testing center is seen in London, Britain, Aug. 30, 2021. [Photo by Ray Tang/Xinhua]

A new pre-print study released online recently has provided strong evidence to support the "natural spillover" hypothesis on COVID-19, with results that are hard to reconcile with the "lab leak" hypothesis.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, could have spilled from animals to people multiple times, according to the preliminary analysis of viral genomes sampled from people infected early in the pandemic.

The latest analysis, posted on the virological.org discussion forum, is based on a detailed examination of the genetic sequences of two early lineages, known as A and B, which have key genetic differences, obtained from people infected in late 2019 and early 2020.

"It is a very significant study ... If you can show that A and B are two separate lineages and there were two spillovers, it all but eliminates the idea that it came from a lab," a Nature news article quoted Robert Garry, a virologist at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, as saying.

If confirmed by further analyses, the findings would make the "lab leak" hypothesis less likely, researchers have said.
Left-Wing Radicals Win 'Genius' Awards



NEWS PROVIDED BY

The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights

Oct. 4, 2021



NEW YORK, Oct. 4, 2021 /Christian Newswire/ -- Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on recent recipients of the "Genius Grants:" The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation annually present a Fellowship to those deemed worthy of what is known as their "genius" award. The winners this year have much in common: 72% of the winners are hard-core left-wing writers, artists and activists. In keeping with the zeitgeist, almost all are consumed with race, and do not look kindly on the United States.



Many are socialists, though none will turn down the $625,000 grant that was made possible by the capitalist system that they abhor.



The superstar of this year's awards is Ibram Henry Rogers, better known as Ibram Xolani Kendi. His main contribution to America is promoting racism in the name of fighting it. He likes to boast how much he hates capitalism, though that hasn't stopped him from charging $20,000 an hour for one of his virtual presentations. He is filthy rich.



Here is a list of this year's "geniuses."



Hanif Abdurraqib, music critic, essayist, and poet Abdurraqib focuses heavily on the subject of race. In one piece for The New Republic, he complains that Ohio has embraced white supremacy. Also his social media is littered with accusations that America is a racist country.





Abdurraqib has also been critical of American efforts in the War on Terror. "There is no retaliation like American retaliation, for it is long, drawn out, and willing to strike relentlessly, regardless of the damage it has done. Sept. 11 is used as a tithe in our church of brutality, even 15 years and endless bombs down the road."

Daniel Alarcon, writer and radio producer Alarcon is critical of America defending its border. While most of his social media is in Spanish, there are several accusations that American border security is racist and harmful to oppressed immigrants.

Marcella Alsan, physician-economist Alsan contends that legacies of discrimination perpetuate racial disparities in healthcare usage and health outcomes. She once tweeted that "CDC Director Declares Racism A 'Serious Public Health Threat.'"





In a 2006 article, Alsan complained about the Catholic Church is opposed to using condoms to combat AIDS in Africa, thus subjecting them to hardship.

Trevor Bedford, computational virologist During the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests/riots in 2020, Bedford took to social media to say that they did not increase the potential risk of spreading Covid-19. He also tweeted that systemic racism and police brutality were greater threats to public health.

Reginald Dwayne Betts, poet and lawyer Betts maintains that the American justice system is racist. An ex-con, he says "we live in a country that's too punitive when certain people commit crime."





His social media is full of accusations that America is a racist country.

Jordan Casteel, painter Casteel invites the viewer to consider "blackness" as a concept and social construct through her experimental use of color. She uses her art to call attention to systemic racism.

Don Mee Choi, poet and translator Choi focuses on grappling with the effects of military violence and the U.S. imperial legacies on the Korean Peninsula. She blames American imperialism for much of the suffering in the world.

Nicole Fleetwood, art historian and curator Fleetwood is a prison reform activist who has called to "abolish the carceral state." She regularly praises BLM and condemns the police as racists.





In a 2020 interview with Asia Art Tours, Fleetwood spoke out against the "extractive capitalism" present in both prisons and museums.

Cristina Ibarra, documentary filmmaker Ibarra uses her films to unearth and portray complicated colonial legacies and cross-border tensions that continue to exist in the community. Her films depict intergenerational life, displacement, labor struggles, and community violence, often from the perspective of Chicana and Latina youth.

Ibram X. Kendi, racist expert When Amy Coney Barrett was nominated to be a Supreme Court Justice, Kendi attacked her for adopting two children from Haiti. He likened her to "white colonizers" who "adopted" black children so that these "savage " children could be "civilized."





"When I see racial disparities," Kendi opines, "I see racism." However, "racial discrimination is not inherently racist." Indeed, he argues that "The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination." He wants to defund the police.

Daniel Lind-Ramos, sculptor and painter Lind-Ramos art embodies social history and religious rituals. His work focuses on the Afro-Antillean heritages and promoting multiculturalism.





Lind-Ramos' art also focuses on religious aspects. Some of his works involve the inclusion of altars that are a tribute to the afro-Caribbean religions worshipped by Cuban Yoruba slaves, and are meant to unveil the taboos on colonial history that continue to produce anxiety and divide the Puerto Rican society according to skin color and dependency complexes.

Monica Munoz Martinez, public historian Martinez specializes in histories of racial violence, policing on the US-Mexico border, Latino history, women and gender studies, and restorative justice. She is also "cofounder of the nonprofit organization Refusing to Forget, which calls for a public reckoning with racial violence in Texas."





Martinez's book The Injustice Never Leaves You in 2019 was named a Five Books Best Book on white supremacy. She has also claimed the Texas Rangers are an institution of white supremacy.

Desmond Meade, civil rights activist Meade has worked to change disenfranchisement laws and other barriers preventing formerly incarcerated citizens from fully participating in civic life.





He has complained about a Florida law that returns voting rights to felons only after they have paid all the financial debts they have incurred because of the crimes they have committed calling it an example of "racist Jim Crow policies." He has also used social media to promote the notion that whites are racist and America is a racist nation.

Safiya Noble, internet studies and digital media scholar Noble supports Black Lives Matter and defunding the police. Further, she wants to ensure that governments and law enforcement cannot use technology to promulgate racism and other forms of injustice.

Alex Rivera, filmmaker and media artist Rivera is best known for his films about labor, immigration, and politics. His works primarily focus on downtrodden immigrants suffering at the hands of border enforcement policies





Rivera's social media has multiple complaints about Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol. He also has many tweets advocating for amnesty and other measures to mitigate the "hardships" endured by immigrants. He frequently frames the argument that white "Anglos" are oppressing poor Hispanics and other immigrant groups.

Jacqueline Stewart, film scholar, archivist, and curato Stewart's work focuses on black-made movies, black movie-goers, and systemic racism in film.





In a 2020 opinion piece for CNN, Stewart argued in favor of HBO Max to continue streaming Gone with the Wind because the film show cases America's racist attitudes and offered a perfect teaching moment for whites to confront their deeply held racist beliefs. In the same piece, she complains about police brutality and praises the rioters for calling attention to systemic racism. Following the piece, HBO Max invited her to provide a new forward to Gone with the Wind and a warning that the film is deeply racist and apologize for past abuses.

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, historian and writer Taylor is the author of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation (2016). In this work, locates the origins of BLM not just in police and vigilante violence, but also in the growing polarization between black politicians and ordinary black people. Taylor argues that black elected officials are often complicit in perpetuating systemic racism. Embedded within the dynamics of capitalist democracy, they create policies that support the economic status quo rather than the needs of their black constituents.





Taylor was a member of the International Socialist Organization, a revolutionary Trotskyist non-profit.





Taylor wants the police to be defunded and argues that America is a systemically racist country. Also, conservatives are the root of all evil. In one tweet, she shared a video of Amy Coney Barrett with the caption "White Power."

Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, choreographer and dance entrepreneur In 1984, Zollar founded Urban Bush Women (UBW). This is an activist group that uses dance to fight back against inequality.





In 1993, UBW put on a performance called LifeDanceIII... The Empress (Womb Wars). The performance takes up women's cry against sexual violence, medical butchery, and the denial of women's rights to control their own bodies, and Zollar recounts her deeply personal experience with abortion. Womb Wars presents abortion as a spiritual act. These award winners are basically apolitical or at least not radicals. Ibrahim Cisse, biological physicist Joshua Miele, adaptive technology designer Michelle Monje, neuroscientist and neuro-oncologist Taylor Perron, geomorphologist Lisa Schulte Moore, landscape ecologist Jesse Shapiro, applied microeconomist Victor J. Torres, microbiologist John D. MacArthur, whose capitalist ventures are responsible for the Foundation, was not a race-baiting anti-American left-wing activist. He was a businessman who created Bankers Life, a prominent insurance company. But like so many other successful capitalists, he did not lay down guidelines for his Foundation, and like so many others, what he created was hijacked by the Left and turned into a radical enterprise. What we are witnessing is the sabotage of America by the ruling class. Their penchant for national suicide is stunning. They have become the enemy of the common man. Contact Kristen Mack, Managing Director, Communications at MacArthur Foundation: kmack@macfound.org SOURCE The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights



CONTACT: 212-371-3191, pr@catholicleague.org



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Coptic Solidarity Commemorates the Deaths of 27 Copts at the 10th Anniversary of the Maspero Massacre





NEWS PROVIDED BY

Coptic Solidarity

Oct. 4, 2021



WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, 2021 /Christian Newswire/ -- Ten years ago, on October 9, 2011, the Egyptian Army murdered 27 Copts and injured 327 others for peacefully protesting the destruction of a church, in what became known as the Maspero Massacre. Coptic Solidarity's virtual Zoom program will honor the rally participants, heroes, and martyrs from that day. Register today to join the program on October 8th at 2pm EST to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Maspero Massacre.



The public worldwide is invited to join in this commemorative event, which is critical to maintaining the memory of those Coptic martyrs and the rights for which they advocated. Ten years later, the Egyptian governmnet has yet to recognize the massacre or to hold any of the perpetrators accountable, despite arriving on the heels of President el-Sisi releasing a new human rights strategy for Egypt.



Confirmed guest speakers include:

Fr. Filopater Gamil Aziz - Priest, Coptic Orthodox Church; Survivor of Maspero Massacre



Prof. Dr. h.c. Heiner Bielefeldt - Chair of Human Rights and Human Rights Policy, Institute for Political Science of University of Erlangen-Nuremberg; Former UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion or Belief



Ms. Mary Daniel - Sister of martyr Mina Daniel, a leading Coptic activist killed during the Maspero Massacre



Dr. Frederick A. Davie - Commissioner, US Commission on Intl. Religious Freedom; Executive Vice President of the Union Theological Seminary



Dr. Robert P. George - McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence & Director, James Madison Program, Princeton University; Former Chair of USCIRF



Mr. Mohamed Gohar - Founder of 25TV who hid 17 Copts in his office building during the Maspero Massacre



Dr. Leila Souief - Mother of prisoners of conscience, Alaa Abd El Fattah and Sanaa Seif; Assistant Professor at Faculty of Science Cairo University



Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett - President of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice: Former Chair of USCIRF

Registration is required to attend the event and information to join the call will be sent to registrants just prior to the start. Register today!



Coptic Solidarity is an organization seeking to help minorities, particularly the Copts, of Egypt. We support those in Egypt working for democracy, freedom, and the protection of the fundamental rights of all Egyptian citizens, and advocate in cooperation with the affiliated organizations in Canada and in Europe (Solidarite Copte). For more information, contact Lindsay Griffin at 801-512-1713 or coptadvocacy@copticsolidarity.org.



SOURCE Coptic Solidarity



CONTACT: Lindsay Griffin, 801-512-1713, coptadvocacy@copticsolidarity.org


This report on the global electric boats market covers the important factors driving the growth of the market, untapped opportunities for manufacturers, trends and developments shaping the dynamics of the market and other insights across various key segments. The market is categorically divided into five segments based on type, battery type, boat type, power output and region. The market value is taken in US$ Thousand for all the segments. The report identifies the drivers and restraints affecting the growth of the market. Changing trends and customer preference patterns are also analysed and incorporated in the report to equip the client with exhaustive information about the market, resulting in better decision making. Macroeconomic factors that directly or indirectly impact the growth of the electric boats market are also presented in the report.

Towards the final section of the report, a competitive landscape has been included to provide report audiences with a dashboard view. The report provides detailed market share analysis of the electric boats market on the basis of key manufacturers in the market. Comprehensive profiles of manufacturers are also included within the scope of the report to evaluate their strategies, key offerings and recent developments in the electric boats market.

To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-5121

The market is segmented as given below:

By Type

Pure Electric

Hybrid

By Boat Type

Small Size

Medium Size

Large Size

By Battery Type

Lead Acid

Lithium Ion

Nickel based batteries

By Power Output

Below 5KW

Between 5KE to 30KW

Above 30KW

By Region

North America

Latin America

South East Asia (SEA) and Pacific

Western Europe

Eastern Europe

Japan

Middle East and Africa (MEA)

China

India

Download Methodology of this Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-5121

Exhaustive Research Methodology

Extensive primary interviews were conducted to identify the type of companies (Tier I, Tier II and Tier III) as well as the type of boat manufacturing (pure electric, hybrid), revenue of the company through sales of electric boats and the total employee strength. Market volume is inferred through in-depth secondary research and validated from industry experts through primary interviews. Each interview is thoroughly analysed and average market volume is deduced and reconfirmed prior to incorporating in the report. The price of electric boats is deduced by product type, where the average price of each product is inferred across all the assessed regions. Market value of the electric boats market is thus calculated from the data deduced by the average selling price and market volume.

For the 10 year forecast of the market, various macroeconomic factors and changing trends have been observed, which give an idea about the future of the market. Other important factors considered to arrive at market forecast include the size of the current market, inputs from the supply side and demand side and other dynamics shaping the scenario of the market. During the compilation of the report, the forecast is conducted in terms of CAGR, while other important criteria such as year-on-year growth and absolute dollar opportunity have also been incorporated presenting the client with clear insights on future opportunities likely to emerge in the electric boats market.

For Complete TOC @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-5121

Other important parameters such as market attractiveness index and impact analysis of the drivers and restraints for each region are included in this report providing insights about the dynamics, growth, performance and untapped opportunities in the electric boats market. In-depth profiling of major electric boats manufacturers are included in the final section of the report detailing the strengths, weaknesses and competitive strategies of each manufacturer.
Market Overview:

Global positioning system (Gps) was originally developed by the U.S. government for the military. Within a few years, the government allowed their usage by civilians. GPS satellite data usage is free and globally accessible, as long as the device and accompanying software are bought or rented. Nano GPS chip solutions are a pint-sized invention within the broader phenomenon of GPS solutions. Nano GPS chips are equipped with features such as a real-time clock, noise amplifiers, surface acoustic waves, a temperature-controlled crystal oscillator, a power management unit, and radio frequency shielding, which contribute to the growth of this technology.Global Nano Gps Chipmarketwas valued, in 2018 USD XX million and in 2028 is expected to reach at USD XX million with growing CAGR of XX%.

Market Dynamics:

Manufacturers have been investing in extensive research and development to find out how to minimize the size of the compact global navigation satellite system module without affecting the products efficiency, sensitivity, power consumption, and performance. Individuals who need to keep track of their elderly parents use nano GPS chip trackers as well, which boosts the demand for them. Solar collar GPS trackers are designed for animals such as cattle, dogs, camels, elephants, and horses for wildlife tracking. Government initiatives to protect wildlife are contributing to the usage of this technology.

However, urban areas have a poor satellite signal, which is either non-existent or severely weakened by meteorological conditions a significant hindrance for the global nano GPS chip technology market.

Download Research Sample with Industry Insights @ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/sample/3313

Market Players:

Nano Gps Chipterminal market consist of various players, few key players of the market are OriginGPS Ltd., Shenzhen Esino Technology Ltd., Shenzhen Zhonghe Electronics Co., Ltd, Dragon Bridge (SZ) Tech Co., Ltd, VLSI Solution, Analog Devices Inc., Fujitsu, OLinkStar Co., Ltd., Unicore Communications, Inc., and ATMEL Corporation and others.

Market Segmentation:

The Nano Gps Chip market is segmented into application, type and region. Based on the type, the market is bifurcated into sensitivity, low power and others. Moreover,on the basis of application the market is segmented into personal computers (PC), personal digital assistant (PDA), tablets, smartphones and others.

Direct Purchase this Market Research Report Now @ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/checkout/3313/Single

Further, on the basis of region the market is segmented into North America, Europe, APAC, Latin America and Middle East & Africa.North America is expected to dominate the Nano Gps Chip market throughout the forecast period due to rising technological advancements and increased adoption of Nano GPS chip applications across various industry verticals.

Market segmented based on type:

 Sensitivity

 Low Power

 Others

Market segmented based on application:

 Personal Computers (PC)

 Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)

 Tablets

 Smartphones

 Others

Market segmented based on region:

 North America

 US

 Canada

 Mexico

 Europe

 UK

 Germany

 France

 Rest of Europe

 Asia-Pacific

 China

 Japan

 India

 Australia

 Rest of Asia-Pacific

 Latin America

 Brazil

 Rest of Latin America

 Middle East and Africa (MEA)

 South Africa

 Saudi Arabia

 Rest of MEA

Request for Sample with Complete TOC and Figures & Graphs @ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/requesttoc/3313
Europe Computer Numerical Control Machine Market Growth & Trends

The Europe computer numerical control machine market size is expected to reach USD 37.27 billion by 2028, expanding at a CAGR of 7.4% from 2021 to 2028, according to a new study conducted by Grand View Research, Inc. The rising demand for multi-axis computer numerical control (CNC) machines equipped with automatic tool changers is expected to drive the growth of the market over the forecast period. CNC machines facilitate the production of components in lesser time and with greater accuracy. Advances in automation technology over the past few years have allowed manufacturers to introduce solutions that can potentially reduce a significant amount of repetitive work, and subsequently, the machining time.

Suppliers and buyers are struggling to maintain a seamless flow of goods and services as a result of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent restrictions being imposed as part of the efforts to arrest the spread of coronavirus. Developing countries are particularly facing the direct consequences of supply chain disruptions and restricted trading activities. The outbreak of the pandemic has also resulted in the cancellation of several product launch events in 2020, thereby depriving manufacturers of the opportunity to showcase and market their new products and technologies. However, manufacturers have started convening online events to showcase their new products and technologies. For instance, in August 2020, Biesse Group had hosted the Inside In Action, a new hybrid, digital, and live online event to bring all divisions onto a common platform.

Europe is considered the hub of automobile production. European countries, such as Germany, Spain, France, and the U.K., are home to some of the largest automobile manufacturers. The strong emphasis on increasing the production capacity of various vehicles, such as cars, trucks, cranes, and carriage vehicles, is expected to drive the growth of the market over the forecast period.

Market players are putting a strong emphasis on strengthening their position in the market and are hence pursuing various strategies, such as new product development, strategic collaborations or joint ventures, and mergers & acquisitions. Most of these strategies are aimed at expanding the geographical reach, tapping untapped geographies, and enhancing the product offerings. For instance, in November 2020, AXYZ Automation Group announced the addition of the new AXYZ Innovator Router to its CNC machine lineup. AXYZ Innovator Router is an entry-level CNC router designed to deliver high performance and precision accuracy and is targeted at prototyping shops, woodworking shops, sign & graphics shops, and educational institutions.

Request a free sample copy or view report summary: Europe Computer Numerical Control Machine Market Report

Europe Computer Numerical Control Machine Market Report Highlights

The milling machines segment is anticipated to expand at the highest CAGR from 2021 to 2028. The ability of milling machines to perform operations on slots, gears, shafts, spiral surfaces, and several other curved surfaces, is expected to drive the demand for these machines

The automotive segment is expected to grow significantly over the forecast period owing to the presence of several automotive manufacturers in Europe

Italy is anticipated to register the highest CAGR from 2021 to 2028. The strong manufacturing industry in Italy, which comprises a few multinational companies and several SMEs, is expected to play a decisive role in driving the growth of the CNC machine market in Italy

Access Press Release@ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/europe-computer-numerical-control-cnc-machine-market-analysis

Europe Computer Numerical Control Machine Market Segmentation

Grand View Research has segmented the Europe computer numerical control machine market based on type, end-use, and country:

Europe CNC Machines Type Outlook (Volume, Thousand Units; Revenue, USD Billion, 2018 - 2028)

Lathe Machines

Milling Machines

Laser Machines

Grinding Machines

Welding Machines

Winding Machines

Others

Europe CNC Machines End-use Outlook (Volume, Thousand Units; Revenue, USD Billion, 2018 - 2028)

Automotive

Aerospace & Defense

Construction Equipment

Power & Energy

Industrial

Others

Europe CNC Machines Country Outlook (Volume, Thousand Units; Revenue, USD Billion, 2018 - 2028)

Germany

Italy

France

List of Key Players in the Europe Computer Numerical Control Machine Market

Amada Machine Tools Co., Ltd.

Amera-Seiki

DMG Mori Co., Ltd.

Dalian Machine Tool Group Corporation

FANUC Corporation

Haas Automation, Inc.

Hurco Companies, Inc.

Okuma Corporation

Shenyang Machine Tool Co., Ltd.

Yamazaki Mazak Corporation

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.
Hours after Samantha and Naga Chaitanya (#ChaySam) announced their separation on Saturday evening, ending their four years of marriage, Nagarjuna (Naga Chaitanyas father) issued a statement.

Samantha and Naga Chaitanya

The actorproducer took to his Twitter to share the news while describing the separation as unfortunate.

His tweet reads: With a heavy heart, let me say this  whatever happened between Sam and Chay is very unfortunate. What happens between a wife and husband is very personal. Sam and Chay, both are dear to me. My family will always cherish the moments spent with Sam and she will always be dear to us. May god bless them both with strength [sic].
Reddy said that the people of Telangana gave Rao two chances, but he has systematically destroyed democratic values.  DC/MK Gandhi

HYDERABAD: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A. Revanth Reddy said that students played a key role in the formation of Telangana State but the TRS government is letting them down and killing their aspirations.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has directed the police to target students during Congress partys jung siren protest, he alleged, and added that they would lodge complaints with the SC/ST Commission against attacks on dalit students.

Earlier, Revanth Reddy along with senior leaders Mohammad Ali Shabbir, Damodar Rajanarsimha, Prasad and Malreddy Ranga Reddy offered floral tributes to the statue of Telangana movements first martyr Srikantha Chary at LB Nagar on Sunday.

They called on party leaders and activists, who were injured during the jung siren agitation, at various hospitals in the city.

Speaking to reporters, Reddy said that the people of Telangana gave Rao two chances, but he has systematically destroyed democratic values.

He said MLA tickets would be given by the Congress only to hard working and loyal leaders as a befitting recognition for their commitment. This is evidenced by the fact that NSUI president Balmuri Venkat is being fielded in the Huzurabad byelection.
What will the Chinese government do to solve the coal shortages in Northwest China? By Crofton Lee

Since the founding of The Peoples Republic of China, the Chinese government has controlled the price of coal, setting mandatory restrictions on consumption. Instead of allowing the coal economy to change and grow according to the laws of supply and demand, the Chinese government tightly governed all aspects of the coal market. In order to allow to devote more energy into its industrial plants, the government would set a price ceiling on coal, and provide subsidies to cover the cost. These policies have allowed China to exponentially increase its production of coal. From 2015 onwards, however, China has begun to decrease its overall coal output. This is almost directly related to the Paris agreement on climate change, which was reached in 2015 and called for a stabilization of [global] temperatures somewhere between 1.5C and well below 2C (Economist). Because China sits atop the list of carbon emitters, they needed to make significant change in order to help achieve these global temperature goals. These changes have not been without consequence, however. During the coronavirus-induced lockdown, China shut down many coal plants, with the idea of transferring to more green energy sources like hydropower or solar power. After the pandemic, however, Chinas economy has resumed strong growth, but coal mine output has failed to keep up, resulting in a major coal shortage. Chinas electricity generation has increased by 616 Terawatt-hours (13%) in the first 8th months of 2021. Likewise, Consumption growth in the service sector has increased by 22% and primary industries by 20%, with manufacture and residential user consumption increasing by 13% and 8% respectively. However, coal mine production has only increased by 6% compared with 2020 (Reuters). As a result, the supply of coal has plummeted, and can no longer meet the enormous demand. According to an article written by John Kemp, an online market reporter, coal prices have more than doubled, from $90 per ton to $210 per ton. As a direct result of this coal shortage, the Chinese government has started a mandatory coal rationing program in multiply northeastern provinces. The government has taken control of all basic home thermostat systems, setting a heat limit at 26C, or 78.8F. According to BBC, some people were taken to local hospitals after they used stoves in poorly ventilated rooms for heating. In other cases, residents of high-rise buildings have had to climb down 10-20 flights of stairs as a result of a stoppage of elevator functions. One video circulating social media shows cars traveling on one side of a busy highway in complete darkness, as the power cuts have shut off traffic and street lights. Seeing the harsh consequence of the governments decisions brings to question who gives them the choice of how to spend electricity. It would make far more sense to allot a specific quota of electricity to families, while reserving a portion of available electricity for public utilities. This allocation of resources would benefit families by allowing them to choose how to ration their own electricity, while also lessening governmental responsibility. A decision like this, however, would result in a loss of control for the government, something that the Chinese administration of today would never let happen, especially not in a situation like this, where they feel the need to clamp down even more to prevent further shortages. Instead, Chinas energy bureau has made efforts to source coal from Inner Mongolia, so as to lessen the pressure on local coal plants. These plans have been met with varied amounts of success, and China might need to rely on imported coal from neighboring nations to solve the energy crisis. Consequently, the government risks losing much of its precious control over the coal market. No one knows for sure just how much time will pass before these coal shortages end, but the clock is ticking for the Chinese government, and as the shortage time lengthens, they drift closer and closer to a loss of precious control over a highly desired commodity. (c) 2021 Crofton Lee. Home
Debunking the post-modern musings of Professor Matthew McManus (Part 1): Exposing the pseudo-intellectualism of a radical progressive By J.R. Werbics

So who is Canadian Professor Matthew McManus? Well, if you are not a progressive, there is a good chance you have never heard of him. For this oversight you will be forgiven. He is certainly not a household name in certain academic or political circles. But he has become a rising star in radical progressive thinking online. Now, I have to be honest with you. This article began as a simple review of his book, The Rise of Post-Modern Conservativism. It was this work that brought Professor McManus to my attention. But as I slowly made my way through this book, then subsequently researched his background, his online presence, his other books and peer-reviewed articles, I found out something even more interesting than his idea called post-modern conservativism I became fascinated by an intellectual enigma. From one review of The Rise of Post-Modern Conservativism, it is stated that McManus himself is a rare figure, being closely linked with a number of self-declared socialists and communists who make up the online left, yet demonstrating an unwavering patience for more moderate factions on the Left. He has a Twitter account and a website called l eft2right.webflow.io . Here he describes himself as a progressive who takes a hard look at the conservative movement from the perspective of the great (his words), Peter Lawler. But before I discuss who Professor McManus is any further, I believe it is vitally important to discuss the context, in particular the political, social, and economic backgrounds, in which he has risen. In 2016, those who identify as progressive in the Western world were blindsided by a revolution they did not see coming, one that built slowly and quietly in the postmodern digital estate over a period of years, beginning with the Great Economic Collapse of 2008 as a backlash to the failures of globalization, austerity, and an overall sense of being powerless. This online populist uprising eventually found real form and substance in the United Kingdoms referendum on whether or not to leave the European Union. And the answer was leave. Thus were Brexit and a populist revolution born. Now, if that were not enough for the progressive mind to come to terms with, in the fall of 2016, the American people voted Donald J. Trump into the White House and handed both houses of Congress to the Republicans. To those who identified as Left-leaning, this revolution not only brought to a screeching halt their long march through the institutions of the western world, but reversed many of the inroads and policy victories that had been secured over the years in Europe and America. With their world crumbling all around them, the Left began to mobilize on a level never before seen. In the United Kingdom, Remain, the side that lost the fair, legal, and democratic referendum, also became a rallying cry that brought together progressives from every walk of life. Other, similar academics sympathetic to Remain, quickly joined their allies in the legacy media, along with Liberal, Labour, and European Union politicians, and began to engineer a grassroots movement that had as its ultimate goal stopping the United Kingdom from leaving the European Union. At the same time in America, the Resistance was born. Perhaps the book that best captures and details the organization of this historic social movement birthed by the election of Trump is The Resistance by Professors David S. Meyers and Sidney Tarrow. In Canada, progressives too joined with their American friends in solidarity, and formed an intellectual, political, and social front of Resistance against the populist revolution. However, by 2018, all progressive and Left-leaning voices realized that the gains achieved by the populists were proving impossible to reverse. It was collectively decided that progressive groups from around the world would begin to coordinate their activities in all manner of ways. It was an all-hands-on deck mentality, with the attitude that anything goes and that whatever it takes to regain the upper hand in this fight was acceptable. It was in this powder keg of political and social agitation that Professor McManus started to make a name for himself. Professor McManus began by writing interesting and timely articles about a number of progressive topics, taking aim at their ideological enemies. The professor has published many articles in a number of online magazines such as Aero, Merion West, Philosophical Salon, Post Millennial, New Politics, Jacobin, The Hill Times, Ottawa Citizen, and the Spectator. He has also published a number of peer-reviewed articles in reputable online periodicals as Quillette, McGill International Review, Canadian Forum on Civil Justice, Political Critique, Inside Policy, and Critical Legal Thinking. In each article a little more light is shed upon his foundational thinking and his understanding of postmodernism. And here is where a little scrutiny and research brings forth some very interesting and disturbing facts. No sooner had I started reading the introduction of The Rise of Post-Modern Conservativism, than I found certain facts claimed by Professor McManus did not hold up. First, he calls the United Kingdom a founding member of the Eurozone, which is flat-out wrong. The United Kingdom always remained firmly outside of the Eurozone due to its retention of its own currency. If Professor McManus meant the European Union, here too, his facts are false. That designation goes to France, West Germany, Italy, Luxemburg, and the Netherlands and their 1957 Treaty of Rome. The United Kingdom did not enter into agreement with The European Communities until 1973. Now, beyond this factual error within the first five pages of the introduction, there is a more serious problem regarding a published work from the University of Wales Press. When searched for, it seems not to exist. It was due to these factual errors and misleading claims that I began to look at all the work of Professor McManus more closely. For instance, many of the articles published by Professor McManus have been on a website called Marion West. What is Marion West? Well, that question reveals some interesting oddities of its own. If researched a little, one finds that this website is relatively new, and many of Professor McManuss friends publish on it. When it comes to his major works, there are now two books published in his name (The Rise of Post-Modern Conservativism) and A Critical Legal Examination of Liberalism and Liberal Rights), both published by Palgrave Macmillan. And there is yet a third book to be published this year entitled, Making Human Dignity Central to International Human Rights Law: A Critical Legal Argument. It is available for pre-order on amazon.ca and is due out in the early part of 2021, though the book apparently has yet to find a publisher. His most professional articles are published on Quillette. They are well edited and very readable. But when it comes his book The Rise of Post-Modern Conservatism, the opposite is true. As with any book of its kind, it is filled with documented facts and interpretations taken from other peoples work. One can even say that it over indulges in a lot of name-dropping. But there are very few or no specific footnotes within or examples given to back up what Professor McManus states. Now, if this were a body of work by a professor who had been tenured for a number of years, it would not elicit such research. But this is a body of work produced by a man who had only had his PhD for three years! Another interesting fact about Professor McManus is that the person who wrote the introduction to his latest book, A Critical Legal Examination of Liberalism and Liberal Rights, is a graduate student at the University of Toronto. Now, as he is a visiting professor who holds a position at Whitman College, one would think he would be able to find an expert in the field of liberal rights. These factual errors and publishing irregularities (and there are far too many more to list here), have shown that Professor McManus has a habit of incorporating false facts or narratives within some of his work. To my mind, much of Professor McManuss work crosses the line into pseudo-intellectualism. *** In 2018, a three-person academic team consisting of Helen Pluckrose, James Lindsay, and Peter Boghossian set out to expose this pseudo-intellectualism that had found its way into a number of fields within the humanities of our post-secondary institutions. Their project and what it revealed has become known as the Sokal Squared scandal. All three believed, and set out to prove, that many peer-reviewed articles were not to be taken seriously. As they point out, This is the primary point of the project: What we just described is not knowledge production; its sophistry. That is, its a forgery of knowledge that should not be mistaken for the real thing. The biggest difference between us and the scholarship we are studying by emulation is that we know we made things up. It was also around this time that the Resistance began to expose themselves and their true beliefs as they tried to counter the gains of the populists. In late 2018 or early 2019, the New York Times editorial board published an editorial that argued for another referendum about the United Kingdoms role in the European Union. It argued in favour of the position of the Remain campaign, that a peoples vote be held. In hindsight, this editorial is incredible. That the New York Times would actively argue for the undermining of democracy flies in the face of the values and principles that progressives have always said that they stand for. In that sense, then, it is beyond ironic that those same undemocratic chickens that the New York Times hatched and unleashed in Trafalgar Square should return home to roost at their Capitol Building in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021! It is into this academic peer-review scandal that Professor McManus published The Rise of Post-Modern Conservativism. When properly understood, what Professor McManus did was to incorporate his work for the Resistance with his ability to create work that effectively delegitimizes his ideological opponents. Professor McManus had, in the words of the Sokal Squad, created politically biased research that rests on [a] highly questionable premises [that] gets legitimized as though it is verifiable knowledge. It then goes on to permeate our culture because professors, activists, and others cite and teach this ever-growing body of ideologically skewed and fallacious scholarship. But The Rise of Post-Modern Conservativism is no simple article. Professor McManus takes the process of delegitimizing and deplatforming ones political or ideological opponents to the next logical level. He gives direction to his fellow progressive Social Justice Warriors as to the location of the next battlefront. In The Rise of Post-Modern Conservativism, the very core of ones intellectual or ideological enemies are now the target, the end result being that there is no need for these abhorrent ideas, concepts, and opinions need be taught in any academic circle. Now, this may seem like mere nitpicking, but when all these irregularities, discrepancies and new ways of creating censorship are looked at holistically, it gives rise to a number of other questions that in many respects dwarfs what the Sokal Squad exposed. These questions range from the micro level to the macro, and reverberate through a number of academic, political and social environments. For starters, it calls into question the core of post-secondary education here in Canada. Specifically, the issue of credibility leads to questions of accreditation and qualification. Which itself leads to the issue of performance and qualification in our post-secondary educational system for those who teach. And for Canadian academics who call themselves conservative, it creates an adversarial environment where their ideas are the target, which in turn feeds into new narratives that revolve around the issue of institutional bias and discrimination. In closing, the next two parts of this article will try to offer up some answers to these many questions and concerns that emanate from Professor McManuss work. With this foundation now firmly established, I can now discuss the false narrative or interpretation Professor McManus has created through his own personal definition of what he calls post-modern conservativism. Coming next: Debunking the Postmodern Musings of Professor Matthew McManus (Part 2): Unraveling a Mystery: What is Postmodern Conservativism? J.R. Werbics is a filmmaker, author and member of the Canadian Philosophical Association. Home
Examining the Polish-Canadian community on the 65th anniversary of the Polish October (1956) By Apolonja (Pola) Kojder and Mark Wegierski

October 2021 is the 65th anniversary of the Polish October 1956. Displaying remarkable political realism, Poland was able to avoid a Hungarian-like catastrophe, yet move the Communist regime towards significant reform, called at that time, The Thaw. Led by the new Secretary-General, Wladyslaw Gomulka, who himself had been briefly jailed during the Stalinist period, the nationalist elements in the Communist regime triumphed over the Stalinists. Never again would Stalinist henchmen mass-murder Polish patriots. We would like to mark this important occasion by commenting on the Polish-Canadian community today. Although, according to the statistics of the 2016 Canada Census, there are over a million persons of Polish descent in Canada, that group has a comparatively minor impact on Canadian society, politics, and culture, especially today. Canadian Polonia (the Polish-Canadian community) seems to have a perennial misapprehension of what constitutes objective cultural influence and power in today's Canada. There seem to be a greater number of artists, sculptors, etc., than writers. The community is organizationally weak and faces a chronic lack of funding, whether from private individuals or government cultural and multicultural support. Some types of writing have almost immediate social and political effects. There are currently no opinion-columnists on staff in the major Toronto newspapers, who could be identified as belonging to the Polish-Canadian community, nor do any such opinion-columnists in any major newspaper in the country come to mind. There are also very few authors of books by recognized publishers. What can one say when even the post of the President of the Canadian Polish Congress is a volunteer position.

Kmiec There are, currently, only a few M.P.s who could be identified as emphatically belonging to the Polish-Canadian community, in the Canadian Federal Parliament. One of them is Calgary-area Conservative M.P. Tom Kmiec. Also, in the Ontario Parliament, two dynamic women were elected as Progressive Conservative M.P.P.s in 2018  Kinga Surma (Etobicoke-Centre) and Natalia Kusendova (Mississauga-Centre). In 2011-2015, there were two Polish-Canadian M.P.s from the Conservative Party, Wladyslaw Lizon and Ted Opitz. During the 1970s, Stanley Haidasz represented the Parkdale-High Park riding (then the Toronto-area riding with the highest proportion of persons of Polish descent) as a Liberal, being named as Minister of State for Multiculturalism. His successor in the riding was the Liberal, Jesse Flis. Because of the prominence of Haidasz and Flis, Polish-Canadians tended to support the federal Liberal Party in earlier decades. The main waves of Polish immigration to Canada could be identified as pre-World War I; interwar; post-World War II; 1956-1979; Solidarity era; and post-1989. Before World War I, Poland had endured Partition (harsh foreign occupation under Tsarist Russia, Prussia/Germany, and the Habsburg Empire) since 1795. Independence was regained only in 1918. The Polish Second Republic fell before the savage onslaught of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union (then Hitlers ally) in September 1939 (when World War II began). Betrayed by America and Britain at the Yalta Conference, Poland was assigned to the Soviet sphere of influence (to be officially called the Peoples Republic of Poland) -- along with the wrenching displacement of her frontiers in a westward direction. The largest group of Polish immigrants to Canada in the post-World War II period were the Polish ex-soldiers who had served in the Polish armed forces under Western Allied command. Among their greatest military achievements were the contribution of the Polish pilots to the aerial Battle of Britain in 1940; and the storming by the Polish Second Corps of Monte Cassino in Italy, the impregnable German positions blocking the road to Rome, in 1944. The Polish ex-soldiers who came directly to Canada in the late 1940s were required to work for two years on remote farms. Conditions there were sometimes none too pleasant. In consequence of the death of Stalin in 1953, the coming to power of Wladyslaw Gomulka in October 1956 essentially polonized the regime. The disturbances of 1968-1970 brought Edward Gierek to power, whose economic policies initiated a short period of considerable prosperity. Nevertheless, the election of the Polish Pope in 1978 galvanized the opposition, culminating in the flowering of the independent trade-union movement, Solidarity. On December 13, 1981, Communist General Jaruzelski declared martial law and attempted to crush the Solidarity movement, which went underground. Finally, the impetus of Solidarity was one of the factors that helped to initiate the massive transformations that resulted in the collapse of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe in 1989. The Polish Third Republic was proclaimed. The arrival of Polish-Canadians increased the intra-European diversity of Canada. It could be argued that the initial definition of multiculturalism in Canada was mostly meant to refer to other European groups, apart from the English and French, especially Eastern and Southern Europeans. That definition has been mostly eclipsed since the 1980s, with the arrival of huge visible minority immigration. Apolonja (Pola) Kojder is the main author of Marynia, Dont Cry: Memoirs of Two Polish-Canadian Families (University of Toronto Press, 1995). She lives in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. Mark Wegierski is a Toronto-based writer and historical researcher, published in Calgary Herald, Ottawa Citizen, and The Hill Times (Ottawa), among others. They were both born in Canada of Polish immigrant parents. Home
Nurse Champi wins national BAME Apprenticeship Award

A student on the Senior Leader Degree Apprenticeship programme is celebrating after winning an award at the BAME Apprenticeship Awards 2021.

Champika Dona, a Clinical Matron at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust who joined the University of Exeter Business School programme in 2018, won in the Health, Medical and Social Care category at the awards ceremony in Birmingham last week.

Champi, who gained her nursing qualification in Sri Lanka before emigrating to the UK in 2006 and working at Yeovil District Hospital for 12 years, has been described as an inspiration by colleagues, and while receiving the award on stage was hailed as dedicated, ambitious and committed to achieving her goals and a great example of how apprenticeships can change your life.

Throughout her career Champi has been focused on developing her skills and achieving her potential as a healthcare professional, and the University of Exeter Business Schools Senior Leader Degree Apprenticeship programme allowed her to develop the academic skills necessary to take her career to the next strategic level.

She has since spearheaded several quality improvement initiatives, including projects that promote diversity, inclusivity and the transformation of services within the NHS.

She has also created her own Nurse Champi YouTube channel to share her learning and inspire other Sri Lankan nurses.

Champi said the Degree Apprenticeship programme had given her the confidence to contribute ideas and influence colleagues within the health trust as well as build a wider network of working relationships.

She thanked her NHS colleagues, her tutors at the Business School as well as her family for their support through her career journey.

Champi added: The Senior Leadership Degree Apprenticeship programme has been instrumental in shaping me into a skilled leader, teacher and mentor, alongside offering opportunities for developing my strategic vision and honing my other managerial skills.

It is genuinely gratifying that others have said they look to me as a role model for their own career journey, and I feel I have more to give, particularly to nursing colleagues from BAME communities, and will work tirelessly to build a bridge to enable them to achieve the success they deserve.

Champika Dona (centre) with fellow Business School finalist Shumailla Dar (left) and Oli Young (right)

Oli Young, Chief Diversity Officer at the University of Exeter Business School, paid tribute to Champis drive and determination, saying: Champi is such a positive role model and inspiration to her fellow students, colleagues and faculty here at the University of Exeter Business School.

We are very proud to have a played a part in her success, and are confident the Senior Leadership Degree Apprenticeship programme will continue to act as a springboard to further opportunities throughout her career.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that President Joe Biden's failure to secure the southern border would result in the deaths of American children as drug traffickers exploit the country's vulnerability.

Pompeo's remarks came just days after the Drug Enforcement Agency issued a public safety warning last week about an alarming spike in the number of fraudulent prescription pills containing fentanyl discovered in the United States.

According to the DEA, the bulk of the fake pills are produced in Mexico using ingredients provided by China and then smuggled into the United States. More than 9.5 million fake pills have already been confiscated this year, which is more than double the number collected in the previous two years.

Southern border failures are due to Biden's weak policies

Last week, the federal agency also revealed that 1.8 million fake fentanyl pills were recovered after a two-month operation that resulted in 810 arrests, as per NY Post. The pills containing the lethal synthetic opioid have the potential to kill more than 700,000 people, according to DEA Administrator Anne Milgram.

The DEA also confiscated almost 1,500 pounds of fentanyl powder, which could be used to create tens of millions of more pills.

After rolling down or repealing several of former President Donald Trump's immigration measures, the Biden administration has struggled to manage the influx of illegal immigrants at the southern border.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas allegedly questioned his colleagues if the agency was prepared to handle up to 400,000 migrants crossing the border in October, nearly double the 21-year record set in July.

Per Daily Mail, despite public attempts to seem in command of the situation at the southwest border, a phone discussion last week between Mayorkas and senior officials reveals a Biden administration trying to handle a growing crisis.

On the conversation, Mayorkas questioned if the border was prepared for a worst-case scenario of 350,000 to 400,000 migrants crossing the border next month, according to two DHS officials.

Even the lower estimate would be a record, but 400,000 border crossings are roughly double the 21-year high of 210,000 set in July. More than 208,000 contacts occurred along the southern border in August.

The projections were not based on internal intelligence. Instead, Mayorkas and others inside the DHS were concerned about increasing border crossings if a court-ordered repeal of the Title 42 expulsion program went into force.

Read Also: Fake COVID-19 Vaccine Card Selling On The Rise; What To Do When You Lost Your Proof of Vaccination?

Val Verde County to sue Biden administration

Val Verde County elected authorities voted overwhelmingly to sue the Biden administration for the border issue. Officials attended a meeting and agreed to join forces with other border counties suing President Joe Biden.

During the discussion, county commissioners highlighted the more than 30,000 migrants who had crossed the border illegally in recent weeks, particularly the 16,000 migrants, primarily from Haiti, who landed at the Del Rio International Bridge.

The county's decision follows that of Loredo's Democrat mayor. In many interviews, Pete Saenz emphasized that the United States needed to do more, adding, "We need to truly secure the border, it was working under Trump, call it whatever you want, but it was working," KTSM reported.

Related Article: Joe Biden Tries To Break Deadlock Over Multi-Trillion Economic Agenda; Psaki Admits President Will Not Get Full Spending Proposal

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Sen. Kyrsten Sinema was forced to lock herself inside a bathroom after young activists ambushed and confronted her regarding her stance on the Build Back Better program, insisting that she carve a "pathway to citizenship."

The young activists encountered Sinema in a classroom that the lawmaker at Arizona State University was teaching. During the confrontation, the activists said they supported Sinema during the elections and argued that they would not support her anymore if she did not give them what she promised.

Ambushed by Young Activists

Later, the young activists initially confronted Sinema at her ASU classroom before following her to the bathroom. They continued to shout their demands even after the lawmaker locked herself inside a stall, calling for support for United States President Joe Biden's Build Back Better program.

The incident was captured on video using a mobile phone where one of the activists could be heard saying that the country needed the Build Back Better program right now. "I was brought here to the United States when I was three years old and in 2010 my grandparents both got deported because of S.B. 1070. And I'm here because I definitely believe that we need a pathway to citizenship," another activist said, Yahoo News reported.

The activists were later identified as members of the social justice group Living United for Change in Arizona. They continued to follow Sinema from the bathroom when she went back to her classroom. They said they would not have resorted to such tactics if the Democratic representative delivered on her commitments.

Read Also: Donald Trump Seeks Federal Judge's Help To Have His Twitter Account Restored; Ex-POTUS Banned From Platform Following US Capitol Riot

The group of young activists said that Sinema has been difficult to contact amid widespread criticism of her opposition to the Build Back Better program. During the recent incident, video footage captured the moments where activists could be heard chanting to pass the Build Back Better and, "Undocumented! Unafraid!" The Daily Beast reported.

The situation comes after Sinema faced protesters in Phoenix, where she was called a "Clown of Arizona." On Saturday, the incident occurred at a fundraiser in the Royal Palms, a pricey resort, and had activists arguing the lawmaker should have been in Washington voting on bills to make the United States a better country.

Failure to Support the Bill

Later, a small group gathered in front of the luxurious resort where the fundraiser was being held and called on Sinema to support Biden's Build Back Better program. On Saturday, the incident came as the Democratic representative criticized Democratic leadership, describing what she said was an "inexcusable" failure to agree on the bipartisan infrastructure bill. She said that the move betrayed the American people's trust.

The moderate Democrat said that it was inexcusable for the United States White House to fail to agree on the Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act. She expressed her disappointment for communities across the nation that would have benefitted from the legislation. Sinema added that the blocking of the bill denied Americans access to millions of good-paying careers, safer roads, cleaner water, reliable electricity, and better internet services, Fox News reported.

Related Article: Vaccine Mandates Boost Inoculation Rates Amid Opposition, Requests for Bans

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Taliban said a blast near the major mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, killed at least two people and wounded many more.

Bombing Outside Kabul's Mahor Mosque

According to the Taliban, an explosion outside Kabul's major mosque killed at least two Afghan civilians and injured others on Sunday, the latest in a series of bombings aimed at undermining the insurgents' capacity to provide security to the capital and other towns.

In a recently published article in MSN News, the blast at the Eid Gah Mosque was the city's first significant assault since the Islamic State attacked Kabul's international airport in late August, killing hundreds of people trying to flee the country. There has been no formal claim of responsibility as of Sunday night.

Two individuals were killed in the explosion, according to Qari Muhammad Saeed Khosti, a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry, but he warned that the number might increase. Khosti stated, "I don't have a precise number of victims. We've started our investigation."

Furthermore, the blast happened outside the mosque's gate, on a highway between Kabul and Logar province, as Taliban militants and others gathered for a monument to commemorate the mother of Zabihullah Mujahid, the acting deputy information minister and a senior spokesperson.

Read Also: Lawmakers Urge Joe Biden To Resign After the Horrifying Bombing Attacks at Kabul Airport

Taliban Spokesman Denied Reports of Heavy Casualties

The Taliban's deputy spokesperson, Bilal Karimi, rejected claims of significant fatalities. There were no Taliban militants among the dead, he added. Three individuals were apprehended by Taliban security forces, and investigations were ongoing. "Usually, such assaults are carried out by Daesh terrorists, but it is too early to tell who was behind the bombing," Karimi added, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State, according to a published report in The Washington Post.

Meanwhile, four people were injured in the explosion on Sunday, according to a tweet from a hospital in Kabul. According to social media reports, the explosion killed up to 12 individuals and wounded more than 30 others, but the Taliban spokesman denied that there were no heavy casualties among the group.

Separately, Twitter briefly banned Mujahid and Karimi's accounts on Sunday without giving a reason. Mujahid has a little over 400,000 followers on Twitter. Karimi has around 66,000 followers on Twitter.

Feud Between Taliban and ISIS-K

In many parts of the nation, the Taliban are fighting the Islamic State-Khorasan, or ISIS-K, the Afghan offshoot of the network headquartered in Syria and Iraq. The late-August airport assault, which included two suicide bombs, killed 13 US service personnel and about 170 Afghan civilians during the tumultuous conclusion of the US military departure from Afghanistan after two decades, according to a report published in BBC News,

ISIS-K, which opposes the Taliban, has claimed responsibility for a spate of bombings in eastern Afghanistan in recent weeks. The explosions mainly occurred in and around Jalalabad, the capital of Nangahar's eastern province and a recognized ISIS-K stronghold. While both are Islamist organizations, ISIS-K accuses the Taliban of being too moderate.

On the other hand, the Taliban is also said to be split among its ranks about who should get the greatest credit for defeating the US and how authority should be distributed. It has publicly refuted rumors of opposing groups battling.

Related Article: 12 US Service, At Least 60 Afghans Die After a Suicide Bomb Attack and Assault at Kabul Airport



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A hiker claims to have spotted Brian Laundrie, the lover of Gabby Petito, a 22-year-old travel blogger whose death was deemed a homicide by investigators in a case that has riveted America.

Dennis Davis, a Florida engineer, claimed he thought he spoke with Brian Laundrie on a road near the Appalachian Trail in North Carolina, near the Tennessee border.

Laundrie, who had been sought by authorities in connection with her death while on their cross-country road trip, was charged last week with using her bank debit card illegally. In June, the pair set out on their journey in her van, uploading videos on social media along the way.

Laundrie, 23, was served with a search warrant after a grand jury in Wyoming indicted him on a single count of illegally using the card and Petito's personal identification number. He was not charged in connection with her death, as per The independent.

Brian Laundrie's sister met him twice

The actions of the still-missing Brian Laundrie upon his return to Florida without Gabby Petito, as well as statements made by his sister during the September search that led to the discovery of Petito's death, are still being investigated.

According to a story, attorney Steve Bertolino claimed that sister Cassie Laundrie saw her brother Brian twice following his return to his parents' North Port, Florida, home on September 1.

Law enforcement is still looking for Brian Laundrie, who was reported missing by his parents, who say he went to the vast Carlton Reserve in Sarasota on September 14 with a bag but left behind his money and phone. Three days later, on September 17, police were notified, and a multi-day hunt for Laundrie started.

They expressed concern that he could have hurt himself. They insist they have no idea where he is. Petito's corpse was discovered on September 19 in a secluded camping location in Wyoming. Her death was eventually declared a homicide by a coroner, as per Orlando Sentinel via MSN.

While Laundrie has not been charged in Petito's homicide, the FBI issued an arrest warrant for him last week, charging him with unauthorized use of a debit card, alleging he used a Capital One Bankcard and someone's personal identification number to make unauthorized withdrawals or charges totaling more than $1,000 during the time Petito was missing. They didn't specify who owned the card.

Read Also: Private Jet Crashes Into Connecticut Factory Killing Couple Doctor, Unborn Child, and Two Pilots

Dog The Bounty Hunter makes own search for Brian Laundrie

Meanwhile, Dog the Bounty Hunter claims tips are still coming in as he searches for Gabby Petito's wanted fiance Brian Laundrie - but he isn't sharing any leads with law police, according to the TV personality.

Dog, whose real name is Duane Chapman, joined the search for Laundrie, 23, late last month at the request of his followers, shortly after Gabby's remains were discovered at a Wyoming campground on September 19.

Dog claims he has received over 2,000 possible leads in the case in the days afterward and has been combing Fort De Soto Park in Pinellas County, Florida since last Tuesday. The Bounty Hunter was then challenged to explain how his search differs from that of police and the FBI, who have so far concentrated their efforts in Carlton Reserve.

Dog then stated that he will not be collaborating with police authorities on his own inquiry into Laundrie's disappearance. Dog was spotted wading into marshy waters within Fort De Soto on Sunday, brandishing a Taser.

In an Instagram post, he was accompanied by a team of investigators on boats. Lyssa Chapman, Dog's daughter, also revealed yesterday on Twitter that she had joined the desperate hunt for Laundrie, The Sun reported.

Related Article: Brian Laundrie's Parents Might Go Missing Next; Family Attorney Denies Any Knowledge on Client's Old Cellphone



@YouTube

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After its chief medical examiner allegedly declined to get vaccinated against COVID, a New York county is moving autopsies to another hospital.

Chief Medical Examiner Refused To Get COVID-19 Vaccine

In a recently published article in Newsweek, on August 28, the state issued an order mandating hospital and nursing home employees to get at least the first dose of the COVID vaccination by September 27. Different groups both accepted and chastised the mandate.

On Friday, officials with Rensselaer County stated that Dr. Michael Sikirica had refused the vaccination, requiring the county to transfer the corpses to a different hospital than usual. Officials, prosecutors, and police officers will now have to go to Glens Falls Hospital, which is approximately 50 miles away, rather than Albany Medical Center, which is considerably closer.

Sikirica conducts autopsies for the county at Albany Medical Center while not being employed there. He's also done autopsies in the counties of Albany, Schenectady, Saratoga, Warren, and Washington. In murder cases, prosecutors depend on him to describe the manner in which homicide victims died, according to a published article in MSN News.

Read Also: Hospital in New York Cancels All Baby Deliveries; Maternity Workers Quit Their Job Due to COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

Albany Medical Center Did Not Give Any Comments

Sikirica is not conducting autopsies in Albany, according to Rensselaer County spokesperson Richard Crist. Crist said that the county does 100 to 120 autopsies each year.

The Albany Medical Center and Rensselaer County were approached for comment, but they received no answer at the time of publishing. "Consistent with our policy, doctors who do offer services on our site must be vaccinated," Glens Falls Hospital spokesman Matt Markham said, according to a published article in OLXPraca.

Healthcare Workers Prompted Legal Actions Against the Vaccine Mandate

The state's vaccination requirement for healthcare employees has led several physicians and nurses to sue the state. Last month, a group of 17 healthcare professionals sued the state, alleging that the state had violated their constitutional rights by denying them religious exemptions from the vaccination requirement.

The lawsuit stated that the same front-line healthcare workers who were hailed as heroes by the media for treating COVID patients before vaccines were available, including the Plaintiffs, in this case, are now vilified by the same press as pariahs who must be kept out of society until they are forced to be vaccinated against their will.

Judge David Hurd issued an order in response to the complaint, temporarily prohibiting New York from implementing the vaccination requirement and giving the state until September 22 to reply to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Utica. Hurd postponed oral arguments later in September and prolonged the interim halt until October 12.

Vaccine Mandate for Healthcare Workers in Some Hospitals

Tom Quatroche, president and chief executive officer of the medical center, said they support the state's vaccine mandate. However, they also admitted that they need more time to strategize on addressing the effects and reality of requiring their healthcare workers to get at least one dose of the vaccine.

Administrators placed one-fifth of the corporation's long-term care facility employees on unpaid leave after New York's vaccination requirement went into effect last week, workers who risked their jobs rather than get vaccinated.

Related Article: New York Vaccine Mandate Goes Into Effect, Forcing Healthcare Workers To Get Inoculated Amid Staffing Shortages

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United States officials expressed their warnings against the Chinese government after several dozen of its warplanes entered Taiwan's defense zone in what is considered to be the largest incursion that has been conducted by Beijing in history.

Authorities said that at least 77 fighter jets were sent by the Chinese military over to Taiwan, with two waves being conducted on Saturday, one in the morning and one in the evening. On that day, 39 military aircraft flew into Taiwan's air defense zone. The situation came after 38 other planes, which included nuclear-capable bombers, went into the zone on Friday.

China's Continued Incursion Into Taiwan

The situation comes as China is known to view Taiwan as a breakaway province despite the latter considering itself a sovereign state. For more than a year, Taiwan officials have expressed their discontent over Beijing's continued missions near the island.

On Saturday, Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang said that China has repeatedly engaged in military aggression near the nation, damaging regional peace. However, the Beijing government, where the People's Republic of China has ruled for 72 years, has so far not made any comments regarding the incident, BBC reported.

Read Also: Joe Biden's Border Failures Prompt American Children To Die as Drug Cartels, Mike Pompeo Claims

Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said that the group of warplanes sent by China included 26 J-16 fighter jets, 10 Su-30 fighter jets, two Y-8 anti-submarine warning aircraft, and one KJ-500 airborne early warning and control plane. The island's air force, in response, scrambled its own aircraft, issued radio warnings, and deployed air defense missile systems to keep the invading forces at bay.

The region's defense ministry also released information regarding the location of all the Chinese flights on Saturday. The post showed that all of the aircraft sent by Beijing was in the extreme southwestern part of the island's Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).

Taiwan's Airspace

While the incursions did not violate Taiwan's airspace, which spans 12 nautical miles from its coast, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration defined the ADIZ as a country's "designated area of airspace over land or water within which a country requires the immediate and positive identification, location, and air traffic control of aircraft in the interest of the country's national security," CNN reported.

Several analysts said that China's flights did not provide an imminent threat of war over Taiwan but did suggest Beijing's continued aggression and signaling on the sovereign island. For some time, the Chinese government has expressed its intentions to absorb the self-ruled island and did not rule out military aggression to conduct its plans.

An Australian analyst of Chinese military policy, Adam Ni, who is currently based in Germany, said that on Oct. 1, which is China's National Day, Beijing sent a message of its determination to reclaim Taiwan. He added that the Chinese government was not hesitant to use force if necessary to achieve its goals. Ni said that Beijing's actions were to assert its power and showcase military strength.

Taiwan's ADIZ dates back to the 1950s, which outlines how the island's authorities assert the right to hold control over aircraft within the airspace to identify themselves and their purpose. A security analyst, Chieh Chung, who works with the National Policy Foundation in Taipei, said the situation was very worrisome, the New York Times reported.



Related Article: Melania Trump Slams Former Senior Aide Over Upcoming Memoir; Stephanie Grisham Calls Ex-FLOTUS 'Rapunzel'

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Footage of Putin's new ship-killer cruise missile tests designed for excellent standoff distance is the latest weapon to threaten the west. Like China, Russia knows the US Fleets are a threat in open war, so these weapons are meant to whittle down that advantage.

A new ship-killer missile called the 'Vulcan' was test-fired by the Russian Navy as an addition to its current arsenal to keep a near-peer competition with the west.

The technological gap is getting close in all aspects, but in anti-ship missile technology, Moscow has beaten the US to the gun in hypersonic weaponry.

A threat to the American fleet

Army General Sergey Shoygu, the Defense Minister of Russia, posted the actual test video of the launch, which has a range of 250 miles plus, as a beyond the horizon function and essentially fire and forget weapon, reported the Express UK.

Testing was done from a Russian Varyag class cruiser in a Pacific naval drill and fired at a target at high velocity in scenarios that would simulate an actual military engagement.

Russia has been testing its newest arms, earlier a test done on September 15 by the Arctic Expeditionary Group with the same goal of broadcasting to the US Administration of its readiness.

Old Cold War design for a new Great Power Conflict

Designated the P-1000 Vulcan updated from an older version developed in the cold war but had less significant range.

One of high effective anti-ship missiles P-1000 Vulkan like Granit have logic of search main ship in group of ships at range to 700 km. P-1000 had two types of launch engine - standart and more advancedhttps://t.co/8KFSl5ONDR pic.twitter.com/sJHUeCyoIn  MilitaryRussia.Ru (@DnKornev) June 4, 2020

The missile is being launched from ships, and the Granit-type cruise missile is launched from Omsk nuclear subs. Putin tests new ship killer cruise missiles along with recent submarine-based launches.

Read Also: Russia Warns US: Deploying Hypersonic Missiles in Europe Will Result in Retaliation and World War III

NATO and the US will not be confident when these aircraft killing weapons offer an asymmetrical threat to more ships or having an aircraft carrier.

As a response to the Russians, Britain has revealed that laser weapons are in the pipeline to combat missiles that are getting dangerous on the future battlefield.

Last September 14, The British Ministry of Defense (MoD) said that a laser prototype would be mounted on a Type 23 Frigate of the Royal Navy.

Lasers will not use kinetic rounds or ammunition. Instead, it fires laser beams from unmanned drones, and other similar weapons will be placed on Army Wolfhound armored vehicles to test it on this platform.

The MoD

An official, the Defense procurement minister, Jeremy Quinn, remarked that Direct Energy Weapons (DEW) or lasers are an integral part of the future equipment programs. One of the goals is to be a world leader in the manufacture, and use of lasers for future warfare, cites Sky News via Yahoo.

The MoDs, Shimon Fhima, chief of strategic programs, mentioned the UK must develop DEW weapons for its benefit.

Calling the use of laser tech to keep par with other armed forces, have the new type armament to attack the land, sea, and air, with options to innovate battle strategies from conventional arms, noted News 7 Trends.

He added that technologies should be researched and developed by scientists and engineers to all the UK to use such advanced systems for its good.

Vladimir Putin tests a new ship killer cruise missile called Vulcan as his next surprise for NATO ships and the vaunted US navy, making it clear he means business.

Related Article: Putin Boasts Latest Russian Superweapon; Nuclear Torpedo Concerns the West

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White House infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci has recently drawn criticism after suggesting that Americans may need to spend Christmas alone this 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

During an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) suggested that it's still "too soon to tell" whether the Americans could celebrate the Christmas holidays in groups this year.

Coronavirus Situation in Christmas

"We've just got to concentrate on continuing to get those numbers down and not try to jump ahead by weeks or months and say what we're going to do at a particular time," Fauci said. "Let's focus like a laser on continuing to get those cases down."

Fauci also noted that COVID-19 vaccines and booster shots remain the best weapons in curbing the spread of the virus.

His remarks were not well received by many critics, with one calling out Fauci for his lack of comments over indoor award events.

"Has Fauci weighed in at all on the indoor maskless award shows? If not, why not?" Stephen Miller, a contributing editor for The Spectator, wrote on his Twitter account.

Has Fauci weighed in at all on the indoor maskless award shows? If not why not? https://t.co/VESVyoabwj  Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) October 3, 2021

Chuck Ross, a reporter for the Washington Free Beacon, also slammed Fauci's comments and questioned whether he had the authority to stop Americans from getting together for the holidays.

"It's bad enough that Fauci says these ridiculous things, but it's worse that journos keep framing questions to him as if he has any say over whether we get together for Christmas," Ross wrote.

COVID-19 hospitalizations and infections across the United States have seen a recent decline by more than 30% over the past month.

Read Also: Joe Biden's Border Failures Prompt American Children To Die as Drug Cartels, Mike Pompeo Claims

Change in Number of Coronavirus Infections

As of Sept. 27, the seven-day moving average of new reported cases stood at 110,232, down by 30.9% from the 159,515 seven-day average reported on Aug. 27. During the same period, new coronavirus-related hospitalizations dropped to 8,507 from 12,330, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The U.S. also took nearly four months before it surpassed the 700,000 mark in COVID-19 deaths on Friday, a large majority of which occured in unvaccinated Americans. During the earlier outbreaks, the country reached the 500,000th death just 34 days after surpassing the 400,000 mark.

COVID-19 is now the deadliest pandemic in modern American history, surpassing the estimated 675,000 people who died of the Spanish influenza in 1918 and 1919.

The coronavirus-related deaths recorded in the last three months were mostly reported in the Southern states where vaccination rates are lagging, including Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas.

The people who died in the past three months were also reported in every age group under 55, according to The New York Times.

As of Monday, health officials in the U.S. have reported 43,683,076 cases and 701,170 deaths, according to COVID-19 data from Johns Hopkins University.

Of the total number of deaths, 5,226 occured in residents who were fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the CDC's data on breakthrough cases.



Related Article: Vaccine Mandate: New York County's Chief Medical Examiner Refuses To Get COVID-19 Vaccine; Human Bodies Subject of Autopsies Relocated To Another Hospital

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Donald Trump has reportedly been pressuring Texas Governor Greg Abbott to pave the way for an election review bill to move forward in the state.

Last week, the former POTUS urged the governor to add a bill to an ongoing special session of the Texas legislature that would make it possible to review the 2020 election results by partisan actors.

Trump wants an accurate audit and not a weak risk-limiting vote-counting in Texas

Trump also expressed his disdain over a planned state audit of four of the largest counties in Texas, announced by the Secretary of State's office last week.

According to CNN, Melania Trump's husband has been lobbying for a strong and real audit of the votes from the 2020 election. And he's not satisfied with a weak risk-limiting audit that he believes is happening in the four counties within the state.

Read Also: Donald Trump Defends Supporters Prosecuted On Jan. 6 Capitol Riot Investigation; Melania Continues To Ignore Issue

Donald Trump has Greg Abbott's support

Before Trump's demands, Abbott even said he is open to recounting because it's a fundamental aspect of democracy.

"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," he said via Reuters.

Abbott initially agreed to recount the four biggest counties in Texas, namely, Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, and Collin. Of the four, Trump only won in Collin, and the rest of the counties voted for Joe Biden.

Arizona, Wisconsin 2020 election votes recount

Meanwhile, Arizona already completed a Republican-led audit of the votes from the 2020 election. With the help of Cyber Ninjas, it was confirmed that Biden won in the state by a landslide. In fact, the POTUS received more votes than what was initially announced.

According to the BBC, the Arizona state shelled out $150,000 for the audit, which was done by a group that didn't have any experience. Cyber Ninjas are not also certified by the federal government to test voting systems.

However, the auditing of votes won't didn't end there. According to reports, Wisconsin also agreed to recount the votes after Trump expressed his concern about election fraud. After all, he lost to Biden by more than 20,000 votes.

As of press writing, Trump has not stopped spreading false claims about the elections. He and his entire team are convinced that the election was rigged because he was confident he won in the red states.

Donald Trump still banned from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube

Following his loss, the ex-POTUS has been spending most of his days at home in Mar-a-Lago. He has not been posting anything on social media because he was banned from Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube earlier this year.

Last week, Trump urged Twitter to reactivate his account, and he plans to take the matter to court.

Earlier this year, Trump was banned from the three social media platforms amid claims that he could incite further violence at the US Capitol. After all, his supporters barged into the Capitol to prevent Biden from being declared the winner of the 2020 election.

Related Article: Donald Trump Says He Wrote A Letter To Joe Biden 'From The Heart'

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A Brooklyn federal jail guard is asking the court to give him a no-prison sentence even after he sexually abused one of the inmates where he was working for months.

According to reports, Carlos Martinez's lawyer wrote in a sentencing memo filed in Brooklyn General Court that his client didn't exercise sound judgment during the time of the abuse. The lawyer also said that his client regrets what he did and is feeling remorseful for what happened.

However, his victim, "Maria," asks the court not to grant the former federal jail guard pardon. The victim also said that she wants justice and to see Martinez deal with the repercussions of his actions while he's in prison.

Brooklyn jail guard's rape victim seeks justice

According to NY Daily News, Martinez worked at the Brooklyn jail years ago. And the rape incident happened on several occasions between 2015 and 2016.

He would reportedly ask Maria to go to his office in the Metropolitan Detention Center to clean. And while she's there, he would violently sexually abuse her. To ensure that he wouldn't get caught, Martinez scanned the surveillance camera in his office so that no one would see him in the act.

Read Also: Rape Victim Re-Victimized? College Demands List Of Every Sex Partner From Rape Victim

Following a recent court hearing, Brooklyn federal prosecutors ask judge Edward Korman to sentence Martinez to 20 years behind bars. The former warned also asked the judge to sentence Martinez to life in prison.

The former jail guard has been spending time in jail throughout the past four years. And he will continue to stay in jail up until Wednesday's sentencing.

More rape cases in New York prisons earlier this year

This is not the first time that a prison employee from New York was accused of raping someone.

According to Syracuse, a New York state corrections officer was arrested in May after raping someone multiple times between 2009 and 2011.

Steven Gogger was charged with first-degree rape, third-degree rape, first-degree criminal sex act, third-degree criminal sex act, and first-degree sex abuse.

Gogger was asked to turn over all his guns after his arrest, and an order of protection was also ordered against him. Gogger was also held on a $10,000 bail, a $20,000 secure cash bond, or a $100,000 partial bond.

In February, WKBW reported that New York prison guards raped female prisoners and assaulted them. The jail officials were also accused of covering up the incident.

According to the publication, the rape and assault incidents took place over the last five years at five different prisons in the Big Apple. Two of the five prisons are the Albion Correctional Facility and the Lakeview Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility in Brocton.

It was also pointed out that some of the complaints made by the victims had to do with prison guards that have been arrested before.

James W. Castonguay was charged with sex crimes at Albion Correctional in September 2020. David F. Stupnick was arrested in May and was charged with multiple sex crimes.

James W. Beam Jr. and Matthew A. Antolini were both charged and arrested on different occasions. By law, inmates cannot comply with sexual activity with an officer, the lawsuit states.

Related Article: Death of Flight Attendant Causes Online Outrage, Sparks Talks On 'Rape Culture,' 'Victim Blaming'

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Thousands of Brazilians flocked to the streets of Brazil last weekend to call for the impeachment of President Jair Bolsonaro amid his mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to reports, Brazil has reported 600,000 deaths since the pandemic started in March 2020. And the country has the highest death toll after the United States.

Due to the pandemic, over 14 million Brazilians are also unemployed, which results in the worsening of the economic condition in the country.

However, even though the unemployment rate in Brazil is currently at its peak, the prices for food, oil, and other basic necessities continue to rise.

Brazilians are calling for the president's impeachment

On Saturday, demonstrators marched to the front of the National Congress with huge signs urging Bolsonaro to resign in tow.

According to CNN, the protests against the president serves as the opposition's response to a rally held in favor of Bolsonaro last month.

However, last weekend's rally was much smaller compared to the one that took place on Sept. 7 in support of the president.

Center-left politician and third runner-up in the recent presidential elections, Ciro Gomes attended last week's rally in Rio de Janeior. Gomes was also joined by opposition leader, congressman Alessandro Molon.

In Sao Paulo, a rally also took place over the weekend. And the gathering was attended by second runner-up Fernando Haddad and former president Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva's Workers Party.

Read Also: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro Fights To End Use Of Face Mask Despite Country Topping 200 Million COVID Cases

Will Jair Bolsonaro be impeached like Dilma Rousseff?

If the Brazilian protesters will succeed, Bolsonaro could become the second president to ever be impeached in the country.

In 2016, the first female president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff was impeached after five years in office after she was found guilty of breaking Brazil's budget laws.

Rousseff received a 61-20 vote, but the numbers were not enough to have her disqualified from her political rights.

Other than Rousseff, three former Brazilian presidents, Deodoro da Fonseca, Getulio Vargas, Janio Quadros, and Fernando Collor resigned from their posts.

Jair Bolsonaro's COVID-19 response criticized

Thousands of Brazilians are not pleased with how Bolsonaro is handling the COVID-19 pandemic.

The president has not been vaccinated, and he makes public appearances without a mask on.

"It is very painful to see that health and education are being destroyed, and there are many starving people in the country. We need Bolsonaro out of the government, his time has passed," Marilena Magnano, a Brazilian resident, told the Associated Press.

Brazilian president's approval ratings declined in recent months

Over the years, Bolsonaro's approval ratings have declined considerably. However, he is still more popular compared to the other presidents that came before him and that were eventually impeached.

Since he was named as the president of Brazil, over 130 impeachment requests have already been filed. However, lower house speaker, Arthur Lira has not opened the proceedings.

Brazil's Supreme Court recently approved several investigations into the president.

Last month, Bolsonaro uttered harsh words while at the celebration of the country's independence. He said that only God can remove him from power, and Bolsonaro also lashed out at Congress and the Supreme Court for persecuting him and his political allies.

According to BBC, Bolsonaro is known for giving impassioned speeches where he portrays himself as the victim. But following several calls for impeachment, the president's rhetoric reportedly became more belligerent.

And last month's rally on Independence Day was reportedly done to show Brazilians that he can still draw in huge crowds of supporters.

Next year, Brazilians will elect a new president. It is unclear if Bolsonaro will win, but he won't go down without a fight.

Related Article: Brazilian President Bolsonaro Leads Lockdown Protests Despite Nearly 500,000 Dying From COVID-19

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A Facebook whistleblower finally revealed her identity during an interview on Sunday.

Frances Haugen, 37, worked at Facebook as a product manager on the company's civic misinformation team during the 2020 election.

Before she resigned from her post on May 6, she decided to copy thousands of internal documents that would expose what was happening within the company. During her interview on "60 Minutes," Haugen said that she became so disturbed by the actions of Facebook last year that's why she decided to leak the documents to lawmakers and regulators.

Facebook allegedly lied about making progress on social issues

The former Facebook employee's evidence reportedly showed that Facebook has been lying about making significant progress on important social issues such as hate, violence, and misinformation. Haugen and her lawyers also claimed that Facebook lied to their investors about their actions.

Read Also: Facebook Announces Lifting Of Ban On Political Ads, Follows Google Just A Week Later

Facebook allegedly only focused on making a revenue

According to the whistleblower, Facebook only focuses on one thing, and that is to make money. And they will optimize online engagement for their interest.

"When we live in a data environment that is full of angry, hateful, polarizing content it destroys our civic trust, it consumes our trust in each other, it erodes our ability to desire to care for each other. The version of Facebook that exists now is tearing our societies apart and causing ethnic violence throughout the world," Haugen said via the Huffington Post.

Haugen also slammed Facebook for dropping election safety protocols that were part of the "Civic Integrity" program too quickly. After all, Facebook was used to plan the Jan. 6 Capitol riot that could have otherwise been prevented.

Prior to her appearance in the documentary, Facebook released a statement saying that the evidence shown does not show that Facebook and other social media platforms are the primary cause of polarization.

'The Facebook Files' detail alleged lies made by the company

Nick Clegg signed the memo via The New York Times, Facebook's vice president of policy and global affairs, also said that the increase in polarization in the US dates back to a time even before the advent of social media.

Before Haugen's identity as Facebook's whistleblower was made public, she also shared the internal documents that she gathered with one publication.

The Wall Street Journal published a series of stories called "The Facebook Files," and they revealed Haugen's claims.

According to the report, Facebook claims that its rules apply to all users. However, Haugen's documents show that some companies are exempt from the rules.

Facebook uses a cross-check of the XCheck system to perform quality control measures for high-profile accounts. This reportedly shields several VIPs from the company's normal enforcement. And some of these VIPs allegedly use the exemption incite violence and harassment.

The documents also alleged that Facebook knows Instagram is toxic for many teen girls suffering from body image issues. But in public, Facebook has allegedly been downplaying the negative effects of Instagram.

And when Facebook tried to make its platform healthier, they failed. Instead, the platform became an angrier place for everyone.

Related Article: Facebook Messenger App Spying On Your Cellphone? Mobile Users Freak Out After Reading Terms of Service

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The FluBot malware is back with new hacking strategies. The latest tactic sends scam messages to Android users to download a "security update" against FluBot, when in truth, the link downloads the very malware itself!

Many people on the internet are probably familiar with the sneaky and creative nature of FluBot. This is an Android malware that steals passwords, bank details, personal data, and other sensitive information from infected devices. FluBot also exploits Android permissions on the device, so it could spread itself to other victims.

Once a device gets infected, FluBot usually stays undetected from virus scans, making it difficult to remove.

Android FluBot Tricks Victims to Install Malware, Steal Bank Accounts

FluBot generally uses SMS messaging strategies for its scams.

Previously, the attacker would send messages claiming to be a courier delivering a parcel. FluBot would use notable brands like Amazon, DHL, FedEX, and the Royal Mail (in the U.K.) to make its messages sound convincing. The message would then notify the recipient about a missed delivery, instructing them to install an app to organize re-delivery. The app would then install the FluBot malware.

More recently, FluBot used its own notorious reputation to scare users in their messages. New Zealand's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT NZ) recently tweeted a warning about FluBot scam messages.

UPDATE: The installation page for #Flubot has changed to look like a warning page. If you see this page close the page IMMEDIATELY and DO NOT click Install security update. Advisory update to follow. pic.twitter.com/TDam5HEphz  CERT NZ (@CERTNZ) September 30, 2021

The image showed this particular message: "Android has detected that your device has been infected... You must install an Android security update to remove FluBot."

Keep in mind that this scam "warning" also explained that "FluBot is an Android spyware that aims to steal your financial login and password data from your device." FluBot is notably being honest with its agenda to properly instill victims with fear to download the fake security link.

Read Also: New Android Malware Lets Hackers Use Your Device Remotely, Steal Data: 9 Ways to Prevent TangleBot

FluBot is a persistent malware problem existing around the world. It exploits its ability to spread through an infected device's contacts and address book. That being said, users are generally safe from the malware as long as they do not click the link.

There are other ways to check and protect your smartphone device from FluBot malware infections.

How to Remove FluBot Malware

According to ZDNet, anyone who fears being infected with FluBot malware should immediately contact their bank and discuss any unusual activity on the account. Users should also change their online account passwords, preferable from a different and uninfected device like a laptop or tablet.

Users should also perform a factory reset on their infected devices. This would ultimately clean up any traces of the FluBot hiding in the system. Note, however, not to immediately restore backup data because this data might still carry corrupted files. Users should also perform a thorough security check on all their bank accounts, social media accounts, and other related accounts.

More tips how to remove FluBot is available on this article.

UPDATE: The installation page for #Flubot has changed to look like a warning page. If you see this page close the page IMMEDIATELY and DO NOT click Install security update. Advisory update to follow. pic.twitter.com/TDam5HEphz  CERT NZ (@CERTNZ) September 30, 2021

Related Article: New Android Malware Infects 10 Million Users, Steals Money: Full List of Apps With GriftHorse Trojan Found in Google PlayStore
Intellexa, a leading intelligence company, demonstrates how forming a holistic solution is essential to derive intelligence from data, helping law enforcement agencies win the digital race against criminals.

Technology is advancing at a rapid pace in the digital age, and with these advancements come new challenges. The digital space is now filled with information and encrypted systems that could be found on any phone or personal computer. These have allowed criminals of all kinds the ability to operate without the fear of being caught by law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Tal Dilian's intelligence firm, Intellexa, was established to combat this exactly.

As a result of growing criminal activity, some solutions to this problem were developed by intelligence companies that specialize in collecting data to catch criminals and protect civilians.

Overcoming challenges in the digital space

The field of intelligence and data collection and analysis has recently experienced a major shift. Data collection technologies alone is no longer a sufficient product that intelligence companies can provide to help law enforcement agencies. It has become increasingly hard to track and predict criminal behavior based on intelligence gathering and data alone.

Intelligence companies have had to adapt to the new reality within the industry to provide data collection, analysis and optimization. The importance of forming a holistic approach in the field of Intelligence has become integral to verifying its correct use and application.

Developing a holistic intelligence platform that combines data with insights became increasingly necessary to assist official law enforcement agencies to fend off crime. To answer this need, a leading Intelligence agency, Intellexa, demonstrates its innovative solution with a comprehensive intelligence insight platform.

The need for alternative intelligence strategies

Recent events have revealed a gap in the Intelligence market, leaving many law enforcement agencies, governmental intelligence agencies, and official commerce investigation companies to fend for themselves when it comes to fighting criminals operating in the digital space.

Criminals operating in the digital space have become a real and constant threat to law enforcement and authorities due to their operations under multiple encrypted communication ecosystems. Pedophilia, human trafficking, drug dealing, money laundering, and terror are just a few examples of the threats that are posed by their use of complex digital communication systems. This has made the collection of real-time data a nearly impossible task.

While most intelligence companies provide the collection of data and its delivery to their clients, they are primarily occupied with one part of the equation. An insightful intelligence report requires a holistic approach which ties the intelligence collected from different sources to create a macro image that ensures an effective intelligence strategy - providing a complete analytical picture from raw data.

Intellexa: Data-driven intelligence solutions

To answer this need, a leading Intelligence company, Intellexa, has developed an innovative solution with a comprehensive intelligence insight platform. Intellexa works with official law enforcement and intelligence agencies to provide a deep, insightful, and actionable intel image that helps them ensure civilians' safety. The company will be showcasing its platform in the 22nd session of the Milinpol convention for Homeland Security and Safety hosted in Paris this upcoming October.

Founded by Tal Dilian and a group of like-minded friends, Intellexa offers innovative intelligence services which were built on the core value that dictates that everybody is entitled to feel safe and secured in their lives. The company's intelligence system provides a complex solution that is more than just an intelligence-gathering network but is a one-stop shop for all of its clients' intelligence requirements.

Intellexa develops and integrates technologies that empower law enforcement and intelligence agencies in their work, all while making sure the data collected will be out of sight for any form of illegal use. The company does so by carefully choosing its clients and ensuring that the insights that they are provided with are obtained and analyzed in the most advanced methods. Doing so minimizes human error while helping LEAs create an actionable strategy that will ensure the protection of civilians by winning the digital race.

With data-driven intelligence and analysis, Intellexa's holistic technological solution can greatly improve the workflow and efficiency of law enforcement and intelligence agencies. This increased productivity means that they can continue to focus on keeping civilians safe without worrying about the dangers posed by criminals utilizing the digital space.




A bus purchased by a group of investors seeking abolishment of short-selling turns in a street in downtown Seoul. Korea Times file
This image features King Sejong the Great who invented Korean writing system, Hangeul. gettyimagesank



This is the first in a two-part Hangeul Day article series revisiting the meaning of the Korean alphabet in the age of artificial intelligence._ ED



By Kang Hyun-kyung





Yi In-hwa's science fiction thriller "2061"
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speaks during the second day of a session of the Supreme People's Assembly, the North's parliament, at the Mansudae Assembly Hall in Pyongyang, Sept. 29, in this photo released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) the next day. Yonhap





South and North Korea restored their direct communication lines Monday, about two months after they were suspended due to Pyongyang's protest against an annual combined military exercise of South Korea and the United States.







The move raises hopes for the resumption of inter-Korean dialogue that has been stalled amid a drawn-out deadlock in denuclearization talks and the Korea peace process.







The two sides had contact through a military hotline and a separate joint liaison office channel, according to related authorities here.







Hours earlier, North Korea's state media announced that the lines would be back to normal operation as of 9 a.m. on the day.







The South's government immediately expressed hope for the resumption of inter-Korean dialogue.







The reconnection of the communication lines is viewed as having "laid the ground for bringing the relations between the two Koreas back on track," the unification ministry said in a statement.






In this photo provided by the Ministry of National Defense, a South Korean military officer makes a test call to his North Korean counterpart, Monday, as North Korea restored cross-border communication lines Monday morning after being cut off for 55 days. Yonhap



By Kwon Mee-yoo



North Korea restored direct communication hotlines between the two Koreas, Monday, 55 days after shutting them down to protest against the annual South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises in August. But the restoration is not entirely welcomed, as critics say the South is allowing itself to be dragged around by the North's decision and the hotlines can be severed again anytime Pyongyang decides to do so.



North Korean leader Kim Jong-un announced last week the restoration of cross-border communication lines and North Korean state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) announced the restoration early Monday.



South Korea's Ministry of Unification and Ministry of National Defense said it successfully talked with its North Korean counterparts via the eastern and western direct military communication lines and the liaison office at 9 a.m. The unification ministry added that the reconnection "laid the ground for bringing the relations between the two Koreas back on track" with the hope to resume dialogue with Pyongyang.



The inter-Korean hotlines, established in 1971 as an important means of communication between the two Koreas, have been severed and restored repeatedly according to the ups and downs of inter-Korean relations.



In recent years they were suspended in June 2020 when North Korea blew up a border liaison office and cut off all communication lines in a fit of rage against anti-Pyongyang airborne leaflets that drifted in from South Korea.






Unification Minister Lee In-young, left, poses during his courtesy visit to German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Monday. Courtesy of Ministry of Unification



Unification Minister Lee In-young said Monday that South and North Korea's restoration of cross-border hotlines marks a "new beginning" in efforts to improve ties.



Lee spoke to Yonhap News Agency during a visit to Berlin to mark the 31st anniversary of German reunification.



Earlier Monday, the two Koreas restored their communication lines 55 days after they were cut off by the North in protest of annual military exercises between South Korea and the United States.



Lee had previously told reporters that Seoul would push to hold high-level talks with Pyongyang before the end of the year.



"We have to do things in order, from building a video conference system to ensuring a stable (connection) through test calls, and then discussing anew the items that we have already come up with," the minister told Yonhap on Monday.



He noted that Seoul had already proposed a video conference system the last time communication lines were restored and that it will need to remind the North to help materialize it.



Asked what needs to be done to ensure the two Koreas jointly participate in next year's Beijing Winter Olympics, Lee said not everything has to start from scratch.



"There are roads that we've already taken quite some distance," he said, referring to the denuclearization talks held between Pyongyang and Washington from the two countries' Singapore summit in June 2018 until right before the Hanoi summit in February 2019.



In Seoul's case, the minister said it had a history of talks with Pyongyang from the Panmunjom summit in April 2018 through the Pyongyang summit in September that year.



"That's what's been suspended, so if we take that into consideration, all we need to do is talk and discuss which of our agenda items we'll begin working on," he said.



Unlike January 2018, however, when the two sides agreed on a North Korean delegation's visit to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, only days after restoring their communication lines, Lee said having in-person meetings could be difficult due to the COVID-19 pandemic.



"That's why we should start with video conferences," he said.



Asked if he is also planning video reunions between families separated by the Korean War, he said, "That would be an item that comes next." (Yonhap)




A bottle of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is ready to be administered at a hospital in Seoul, Friday. As of Sept. 25, 0.6 percent of Koreans who received their first COVID-19 vaccine shots did not get their second injections by the scheduled dates. Yonhap



By Kwon Mee-yoo



As Korea tries to reach its target vaccination rate of 70 percent by October, some people who received their first doses are giving up on getting their second shots, thus failing to achieve full vaccination.



According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), Sunday, 0.6 percent of those who received their first COVID-19 shots did not receive their second ones by the scheduled dates as of Sept. 25.



Those who suffered from side effects of the first shots and heard of stronger side effects of the second doses have declined to receive their follow-up injections despite not being fully vaccinated. The rate also includes those who missed their appointments for the second shots as well.



A number of petitioners posted on the Cheong Wa Dae website claiming that their family members or friends have died or became seriously ill after COVID-19 vaccination, especially after their second shots, increasing fears among some people.



According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), side effects after the second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine "may be more intense than the ones you experienced after your first shot."



The CDC adds that the more intense side effects are "normal signs that your body is building protection and should go away within a few days."



The CDC states that people should get the second shot even if they have side effects after the first injection, unless a vaccination provider or doctor tells them not to.



Korean experts also recommend getting the second shot despite the side effects, as the stronger reaction means the second dose is boosting the immune system.



"If you suffer a serious side effect after receiving the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, you should avoid the second shot. However, those who have common side effects such as fevers, muscle pain or diarrhea should get the second dose," said Kim Woo-joo, an infectious disease specialist at Korea University Guro Hospital.



Kim also advised people to consult a doctor about getting a second shot if they suffer serious side effects from the first one.



Meanwhile, 52.5 percent of Korea's population is fully vaccinated and 77.3 percent received their first shots as of Saturday.


Soldiers buy bus tickets at Dong Seoul Bus Terminal, Monday. Yonhap



By Lee Hae-rin



A massive outbreak of COVID-19 infections has hit a military unit in Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi Province, and most of the confirmed patients had been fully vaccinated, according to the health authorities, Monday.



It is the largest number of breakthrough infections here in one location.



As of Saturday, 46 soldiers in the 184-member unit tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Central Disease Control Headquarters and Ministry of National Defense. Of them, 36 were fully vaccinated  33 had received two Pfizer shots and the remaining three, first AstraZeneca and Pfizer second.






President Moon Jae-in / Yonhap



South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Monday sent a letter congratulating Japanese Prime Minister-elect Fumio Kishida on his election as he proposed joint efforts to develop relations between Seoul and Tokyo.



"President Moon hopes that the two countries will set an example for cooperation as neighboring countries and as the closest countries in terms of their geography and culture, and as they share basic values in democracy and principles of market economy," presidential spokesperson Park Kyung-mee said.



Moon's office also said that South Korea is ready to hold dialogue with Japan's new Cabinet.



Kishida, a former foreign minister, was elected prime minister in a parliamentary vote earlier in the day to succeed Yoshihide Suga, as Seoul seeks to improve relations with Tokyo strained amid protracted rows over wartime history and trade.






Jakob Skaarup Nielsen, CEO of Healthcare DENMARK, poses at the Danish Embassy in Seoul, Sept. 29. Courtesy of Embassy of Denmark in Korea



Healthcare DENMARK CEO seeks cooperation on smart hospitals



By Kwon Mee-yoo



Denmark is one of the first countries in the world to lift all COVID-19 restrictions. As of Sept. 10, the country concluded that COVID-19 is "no longer a critical threat to society" due to the country's high level of vaccinations.



"Denmark officially shut down on March 11, 2020. On Sept. 10, exactly 18 months later, Denmark declared COVID-19 an endemic disease, meaning it's not a critical disease for the society," Jakob Skaarup Nielsen, CEO of Healthcare DENMARK, said during an interview with The Korea Times, Sept. 29.



Nielsen visited Korea recently for six days to boost cooperation between Denmark and Korea in the fields of healthcare and life science, paying special attention to smart healthcare infrastructure featuring information and communications technology (ICT), and to share Danish experiences with the pandemic.



As public health officials in Korea are discussing shifting to a so-called "living with COVID-19" strategy as the pandemic continues, Denmark's experience might lead the way, he said.



"So in Denmark right now, we have no restrictions. (There are) no masks and everyone can sit together. People can shake hands again and kids go to school normally. The interesting thing is how quickly people can let go of all this. In the first week or two, it was a little bit awkward whether to shake hands or not. But now in Denmark, it's like COVID was never there."



The government is still tracking COVID-19 cases, but "everything is under control," according to Nielsen.



Nielsen argues that Denmark's early return to normalcy is possible through the country's high vaccination rate. As of the end of September, more than 75 percent of the total Danish population were fully vaccinated and among the eligible people over the age of 12, the rate was 84 percent.



For Nielsen, vaccination is the key to ending the pandemic, but it is also important for the Korean government to weigh the situation and take the right measures.



"It is always a question about weighing. Is the measure you take correctly related to the risk? In Denmark, we are accepting that COVID is in Denmark, in the world, so we can never get to zero. But we have to find a level where young vaccinated people get COVID, but the society keeps on going," Nielsen said.



Denmark has three principles in dealing with COVID-19 at the government level.



"Principle no. 1: 'hope' is not a strategy, meaning you have to have a plan. No. 2: 'soon' is not a time, so you also have to know how to implement the strategy with the right timing. And the third one: 'some' is not a number, meaning we tried to minimize the number of people who have the coronavirus, who get seriously sick and die from the coronavirus," Nielsen said.



In fact, Denmark's COVID-19 statistics are similar to those of South Korea. As of Sept. 29, Denmark had reported some 358,000 cumulative cases and 2,652 deaths, while Korea has some 311,000 cases and 2,481 deaths. However, Denmark has a population of 5.8 million, which is only about one-tenth of Korea's population of 51.8 million.



"If you look at the numbers, South Korea did very well. We have almost the same number of cases, but Korea is 10 times bigger (in its population). South Korea did relatively much better than Denmark, but in an international perspective, (Denmark) has done very well too."





Jakob Skaarup Nielsen, left, CEO of Healthcare DENMARK, and Kwon Soon-man, president of Korea Health Industry Development Institute, pose after signing an MOU on healthcare cooperation at Danish Ambassador to Korea Einar Jensen's residence in Seongbuk District, Seoul, Sept. 29. Courtesy of the Embassy of Denmark in Korea



Innovation in healthcare



Healthcare DENMARK is a non-profit organization that promotes Danish healthcare services internationally. Nielsen, a career diplomat, took the post in March with the aim of strengthening international cooperation.



Crown Princess Mary is a patron of Healthcare DENMARK, reflecting the royal family's responsibility for taking care of health services.



"Denmark is one of the oldest kingdoms in the world, and it is the royal family's role for the society to look after the healthcare of citizens. Her Royal Highness is very committed to supporting healthcare partnerships between Denmark and other countries, both in the public and private sectors," Nielsen said.



Denmark is a leading country in innovation and technology in the healthcare sector, and medical and health science is one of Denmark's largest export areas, accounting for 22 percent of all exports in 2020.



"The Danish healthcare system is public, meaning there's equal access for everybody and universal coverage. So whether you are taxi driver or you are the Queen of Denmark, you go to the same hospital, see the same doctor and get the same treatment. In order to have a sustainable healthcare system, there has to be a good and close dialogue between the public and the private," Nielsen said.



"Healthcare DENMARK is a public-private partnership. On the public side, it has three key ministries  the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Business and Growth. On the regional level, the Danish regions are responsible for all the hospitals and the municipalities who take care of the elderly. We have a number of private companies that are also our partners in the health and care sectors."





Healthcare DENMARK CEO Jakob Skaarup Nielsen, right, takes a photo of an autonomous mobile robot delivering medicine at the Keimyung University Dongsan Medical Center in Daegu, Sept. 28. Nielsen visited the hospital to take part in the 2021 Health-Tech Workshop, co-hosted by the Embassy of Denmark, Healthcare DENMARK and the hospital, to introduce the Danish Super Hospital project and to boost Danish-Korean cooperation in healthcare technology. Courtesy of the Embassy of Denmark in Korea
Democratic Party of Korea presidential contender Lee Jae-myung announces his election platform at a community center in downtown Seoul, Monday. Joint Press Corps



Lee cruises past ex-prime minister despite land development scandal



By Nam Hyun-woo



Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung is close to becoming the presidential candidate representing the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), maintaining a solid lead over three rivals despite increasing suspicions about a land development scandal in which the opposition bloc claims he was involved.



In the DPK's regional primary vote in Incheon over the weekend, Lee won 53.8 percent of the ballots, outpacing former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon's 35.4 percent, former Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae's 9.2 percent and Rep. Park Yong-jin's 1.4 percent. Party members living in the city who have voting rights participated in the vote.



In a separate vote open to the public and general DPK members, Governor Lee also secured 58.1 percent of the ballots, consolidating his lead over former Prime Minister Lee's 33.4 percent.



In nine regional elections and two polls on the general public conducted so far, Governor Lee has bagged 545,537 ballots, or 54.9 percent, while former Prime Minister Lee has garnered 341,076 votes, or 34.33 percent.



To select its presidential candidate, the DPK collected a voter list of 2.16 million people and the turnout so far stood at 65.96 percent. If the turnout remains at this level, approximately 1.42 million people will vote in the DPK primary.



The DPK primary outcome signifies the final choice for the party's presidential candidate only if a contender secures more than half of the total votes, or 710,000 ballots. Since Governor Lee has won more than 540,000 ballots so far, approximately 170,000 are required for the 56-year-old to make it into the presidential election. If he falls short, the party will hold a two-way vote between him and former Prime Minister Lee.



The remaining primary rounds look to be in Governor Lee's favor. On Oct. 9, a tally of 165,000 voters in Gyeonggi Province, Lee's home turf, will be revealed, and on Oct. 10 it will be followed by Seoul with 144,500 voters and a general poll with 305,800 voters.



"I shouldn't be confident about any particular region," Lee told reporters after the Incheon round. "The public is wise and cool-headed, so I must not be complacent and should do my best."





Democratic Party of Korea presidential contender Lee Jae-myung speaks during the party's primary round in Incheon, Sunday. Joint Press Corps



Lee's solid lead came amid suspicions raised by the opposition bloc that the governor was involved in a land development project scandal in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, when he was the mayor of the city.



Yoo Dong-gyu, former acting president of Seongnam Development Corp., was arrested on Sunday following suspicions over the apartment complex development project in the city's Daejang-dong. The project faced mounting questions and suspicions as a newly established small asset management firm, Hwacheon Daeyu, raked in profits of more than 1,000 times its investments in a suspicious dividend structure after the company was selected by Seongnam Development Corp. to run the project just a day after submitting a bid in 2015.



The main opposition People Power Party (PPP) has claimed Yoo is a close confidant of Governor Lee and has called on the governor to withdraw his candidacy, claiming that the case should be investigated by an independent counsel.



Governor Lee said Monday that he feels regretful that "an official under my command was involved in a disgraceful case," but denied the opposition's claims that Yoo was his close aide.



"If a public servant should resign over the misbehavior of a subordinate, all public servants in the country will have to resign," Lee said. "If I did something legally wrong, I should be responsible, but this case is about taking moral responsibility on mismanaging subordinates."





Yoo Dong-gyu, former acting president of Seongnam Development Corp., sits in a vehicle heading to Seoul Detention Center, Sunday, after the Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant on charges of breach of trust and bribery in connection with a land development project in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. Joint Press Corps
Yoon should make sincere apology for degrading politics



Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl, now the leading presidential contender of the opposition People Power Party (PPP), has triggered controversy for having the Chinese character for "king" written on his left palm. Yoon was seen with the mark during three recent live television debates among the PPP's presidential contenders.



Yoon's rivals from the opposition party and even the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) have raised the suspicion that Yoon was relying on shamanistic rituals with the goal of maintaining the upper hand over other hopefuls in the presidential primary race. Yoon explained Sunday the symbol was written "by his supporters for him to do well in the debate with the self-confidence and spirit of a king."



He refuted the allegation that such an act had ritualistic implications as "speculation." "In retrospect, I think it would have been better for me to have erased the mark before the debate began," he said. Yoon's explanation raised a further dispute as it contradicts previous remarks made by an associate who said they had attempted to erase the character, "but to no avail."



In the face of growing criticism, Yoon's camp urged the people to regard the case with "generosity," saying they could not ignore the wishes of his supporters. Rep. Hong Joon-pyo, who is chasing Yoon closely in the PPP primary contest, alleged Yoon had a shaman helping him in the presidential race, describing the character as similar to a talisman on his hand.



It is nonsense for a presidential hopeful running in a primary to cherish the character of "king" written on his palm as a blessing. King refers to the supreme ruler in a monarchic state with absolute power inherited from his predecessor, in reigning over the people. Given this, it is totally inappropriate to use it in relation to the president of a democratic nation, who is the country's No. 1 "civil servant" dedicated to the people.



Yoon should have pondered about the meaning of the character "king" and refrained from such reckless behavior. His "absent-mindedness" deepens skepticism over his caliber and qualification as a presidential aspirant of the main opposition party.



A primary debate is a significant procedure in the presidential election which is key to the political process in a democratic society. The debate is an official stage where the contenders are supposed to get a public appraisal of their qualifications to run for the presidency. It is a discourtesy to the people to have the character for "king" seen on his palm repeatedly, deepening skepticism that Yoon might have an outdated political philosophy.



Yoon cannot avoid criticism for having downgraded and even caricatured the election process. Oftentimes, Yoon has been the target of criticism for his slips of the tongue on major national issues in diverse areas. We hope Yoon will never again commit mistakes that will downgrade his dignity as a statesman running in the presidential election of a democratic state.


By John Burton





The past month has seen an escalating inter-Korean arms race with both Koreas testing their most advanced military systems.



In mid-September, North Korea fired several solid-propellant ballistic missiles to test a new rail-based launch system that would make it more difficult to target and destroy them in a pre-emptive strike. This test followed the test of a new cruise missile.



Pyongyang then capped off its activity last week by claiming that it had launched a "hypersonic" missile, the latest status symbol among leading military powers, including Russia and China. The next-generation Hwasong-8 missile can reportedly fly over Mach 5, five times faster than the speed of sound, and is meant to overwhelm current missile defense systems.



While the Western media gave much attention to the North Korean missile tests as another example of Pyongyang's hostile intent, there was less overseas press coverage given to South Korea's test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), matching North Korea's recent development of a similar weapon.



The SLBM test coincided with the launch of a new 3,000-ton SLBM submarine built by Daewoo Shipbuilding. The Navy also launched a new frigate equipped with improved anti-submarine torpedoes.



More advanced weaponry appears to be in Seoul's pipeline. There was official confirmation that it was developing its own cruise missile. The South Korean military plans to spend $1.3 billion next year on the development of defense technology, including conventional arms such as an advanced amphibious assault vehicle for the Marines.



The Korean Peninsula appears to be heading toward its own localized version of Mutual Assured Destruction, or MAD, policy that once governed U.S.-Soviet relations during the Cold War.



North Korea's expansion of its military arsenal reflects its quest for regime survival. Pyongyang believes that it is surrounded by hostile powers, including the U.S., South Korea and Japan. It is even suspicious about the future intentions of China, its erstwhile ally.



Pyongyang's recent muscle-flexing reflects its displeasure over joint U.S.-Korean military exercises this summer. It also sends a message to Washington to ease economic sanctions.



South Korea's military build-up is partly in response to the looming threat from the North. But it also reflects concerns about the future of its defense alliance with the U.S., which was sorely tested during the Trump administration, and fears that it may become embroiled in growing tensions between Beijing and Washington. Like Pyongyang, it worries about the growth of China's regional hegemony.



Although President Moon Jae-in may talk of conciliatory measures toward North Korea, such as calling for a formal end to the Korean War, he has also been pushing ahead with an ambitious modernization of the armed forces.



This direction reflects long-standing nationalist views among progressives that South Korea should reduce its defense dependence on the U.S. and forge an independent foreign policy.



It also has the added benefit of creating a robust local defense industry that could compete against the world's biggest arms suppliers, including the U.S., Russia and China. Seoul has publicly proclaimed that it aims eventually to become the world's fifth-largest arms producer.



Moon's defense plan is patterned after the one propagated by former President Roh Moo-hyun, under whom Moon served as chief of staff. Previously, South Korea's military structure was heavily tilted toward the army, whose troops would be expected to do much of the ground fighting in a second Korean War while the U.S. would provide air and naval support.



But Roh sought to introduce a more balanced structure among the army, navy and air force to make the country less dependent on U.S. military protection. Moon has increased defense spending for the navy and air force. The SLBM submarines are one example of efforts to create a "blue water" fleet able to operate in international seas. The share of defense spending in the national budget is now the biggest since the mid-1980s, when the military ruled the country.



Seoul is also developing the so-called "Kill Chain" defense system, which involves assembling a strike force of ballistic and cruise missiles, air power and commando units to destroy North Korea's nuclear arsenal.

From Pyongyang's perspective, Seoul appears to be laying the foundation for possible "decapitation strikes" to take out the North Korean leadership.



Although North Korea has a bigger military on paper, with more aircraft, tanks, artillery and warships than South Korea, most of these weapons are outdated and would be no match for Seoul's more modern armed forces. It is the main reason why Pyongyang wants to build up its nuclear force as a cost-effective way to reduce spending on large conventional forces.



This build-up is setting the stage for a classic action-reaction dynamic where breaking the cycle of rearmament on both sides will be difficult.





John Burton (johnburtonft@yahoo.com), a former Korea correspondent for the Financial Times, is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and consultant.






By Kim Jae-heun







Hyundai Glovis, a logistics company and affiliate of Hyundai Kia Automotive Group, has launched its "ECOH" eco-friendly brand to accelerate its expansion of sustainable business areas, including batteries for hydrogen and electric vehicles (EVs).







The company will create value in green energy businesses and tap into its existing strength in the logistics business.







The brand name ECOH is a combination of "Eco" and "Human."







Hyundai Glovis plans to help build a hydrogen value chain by producing, storing, distributing and supplying the gas as a special supply chain management firm.







First, it will expand the number of its hydrogen shipping centers to nine by 2030 and supply clean gas to over 360 filling stations nationwide.







It also plans to export hydrogen to Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East.







Hyundai Glovis has already established a consortium with leading domestic companies and formed strategic ties with global ammonia producers.







Ammonia, a compound of hydrogen and nitrogen, is considered the most efficient hydrogen storage and transportation medium. Hydrogen can be extracted from ammonia after being shipped across the ocean.







Green hydrogen will be transported on two very large gas carriers (VLGC), and Hyundai Glovis will consider building extra ships based on business expansion.







Hyundai Glovis is also interested in storing and transporting liquefied hydrogen. It plans to start that business by 2024. Some domestic firms have shown their willingness to participate in the liquefied hydrogen retail business as the method of liquefying and transporting high-pressure hydrogen gas is receiving much attention.







"We are preemptively fostering domestic hydrogen logistics and global hydrogen maritime transportation businesses considering the growth potential of the hydrogen economy," a Hyundai Glovis official said.


Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Chairman Chey Tae-won, right, accompanies President Moon Jae-in during a ceremony to mark the 48th Commerce and Industry Day at the KCCI headquarters in central Seoul, March 31. Korea Times file



Business, political sources say any dramatic improvement in bilateral relations is unlikely



By Yi Whan-woo



The Korean business community has made a "reconciliatory gesture" to Japan, under the newly-elected Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, after tit-for-tat retaliatory measures that have aggravated bilateral relations over the past couple of years.



Business and political sources, however, said any dramatic improvement in bilateral relations was unlikely, noting Kishida is an ally of the former hawkish Prime Minister Shinzo be who masterminded a series of trade curbs against Korean firms.



Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Chairman Chey Tae-won formally sent Kishida a congratulatory letter Sunday that addressed hope for a course change in bilateral economic cooperation.



The gesture made by the KCCI, the country's largest business lobby group, is a step ahead of the Moon Jae-in administration.



According to Cheong Wa Dae, a presidential letter congratulating the new Japanese leader was scheduled to be sent after Kishida formally took office, Monday, following his victory in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election last week.



"I expect the new prime minister to expand bilateral cooperation for a new course of government-to-government relations," Chey, also SK Group chairman, wrote in the letter. "Entrepreneurs from the two countries will hopefully discuss measures to strengthen friendship and economic cooperation by freely visiting each other's country when the COVID-19 crisis is settled."









He said the two were "the geographically closest neighbors that also lead in regional trade and the manufacturing sectors" and accordingly, expressed hope for them to "benchmark each other's advantages and jointly overcome challenges concerning bilateral ties."



Separately, KCCI Executive Vice Chairman Woo Tae-hee also underlined a need for actively running multiple dialogue channels.



He noted the entrepreneurs of the two countries will "go beyond government-to-government cooperation," as seen from the credit support in the 1960s to 70s, technology in the 80s and monetary policy in the 90s, for civic exchanges to thrive in the post-pandemic world.





Newly-elected Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, also the leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, is celebrated by fellow lawmakers at a general assembly of an extraordinary Parliamentary session in Tokyo, Monday. EPA-Yonhap
An HMM container ship is docked at Busan New Harbor on Aug. 25. Yonhap



By Kim Hyun-bin



Freight rate hikes and collective actions imposed by local shipping companies are set to be among the key agenda items addressed during this year's government audit.



Late last month, the Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee passed a revised bill stating that collective actions by shippers will not be subject to the antitrust act. The revised bill countered the 800 billion won ($674 million) in fines imposed by the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) on shipping companies.



The KFTC expressed concerns about the revised bill, claiming it runs counter to global trends and could spark worries of abuse in other industrial sectors.



Since 2018, the antitrust regulator has investigated allegations that HMM and others colluded to fix higher freight rates for a Southeast Asian sea route.



After expanding its investigation into foreign firms in May, the regulator informed 23 local and foreign shippers that they may face fines adding up to 800 billion won in total for allegedly violating the Fair Trade Act.



Many lawmakers have voiced concerns that the passage of the revised bill could impact the country's competition law.



"If a bill that is made specifically to hinder an ongoing investigation is passed by the National Assembly, there are worries it could damage the country's Fair Trade Act," said ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Rep. Oh Gi-hyoung, a member of the National Policy Committee.



"If it is passed, how can we go forth with collective actions made against freight costs in the future?"



All eyes are on whether the KFTC will continue to maintain and enforce the 800 billion won in fines against the 23 local and international shippers.



The fines are around 8.5 percent to 10 percent of sales that were made through price fixing from 2003 to 2018. The total fines on 11 local shipping companies stand at 560 billion won, ranging from 3.1 billion won to 230 billion won depending on the sales of each firm.



Local shippers have protested fiercely against the regulator's move. They claimed they had no choice but to take collective action to compete against global shipping powerhouses and that their collective actions on freight rates and other contract conditions were allowed under the country's Maritime Shipping Act.



The global leaders in the shipping industry have engaged in fierce price competition, forcing smaller and less influential shipping companies to file for bankruptcy and then drastically raising freight rates which relayed the burden onto freight shippers and consumers in the past.



Local and overseas shippers believe the fines are in violation of the Marine Transportation Act and the Fair Trade Act.



The country's Fair Trade Commission also said it will not regulate collective actions or conditions permissible under other laws.



However, the regulator believes the move by the shipping companies cannot be viewed as a justifiable act as they failed to meet certain criteria under the law, including informing and obtaining written agreements from shippers of the changes, reporting the changes to the minister of oceans and fisheries and allowing shippers to bail out of the agreement at any given time.


Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party's leader Fumio Kishida arrives at the party's headquarters in Tokyo, Oct. 4. AP-Yonhap



Japan's parliament on Monday elected Fumio Kishida, a former moderate turned hawk, as prime minister. He'll face an economy battered by the pandemic, security threats from China and North Korea and leadership of a political party whose popularity is sagging ahead of a fast-approaching crucial national election.

With his party and its coalition partner holding a majority in both houses, Kishida won by a comfortable margin against Yukio Edano, head of the largest opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. After being sworn in at a ceremony in the royal palace, Kishida was to hold his first news conference as prime minister and chair his first Cabinet meeting later Monday.



He replaces Yoshihide Suga, who resigned after only one year in office as his support plunged over his government's handling of the pandemic and insistence on holding the Tokyo Olympics as the virus spread.



Kishida is expected to make a policy speech in parliament on Friday but is looking to dissolve the lower house to hold elections on Oct. 31, Japanese media reported. Observers see the early date as a move to take advantage of his government's fresh image to rally support.



Jun Azumi, senior Constitutional Democratic Party lawmaker, criticized Kishida over his plan to dissolve the house in just over a week. "It's like a delicatessen that forces customers to buy without a chance to try samples."



A former foreign minister, Kishida, 64, used to be known as a moderate but turned hawkish on security and more conservative on gender equality and other issues, apparently to show loyalty to influential conservatives in the Liberal Democratic Party and win their support. He is firmly entrenched in the conservative establishment, and his victory in last week's vote to replace Suga as the party's leader was a choice for continuity and stability over change.



Kishida replaced all but two of Suga's 20 Cabinet members and 13 will hold ministerial posts for the first time, according to the lineup announced by new Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno. Most of the posts went to powerful factions that voted for Kishida in the party election. Only three women are included, up from two in Suga's government.



Veteran female lawmaker Seiko Noda, one of four candidates who vied for the party leadership race, became the minister in charge of the nation's declining birthrate and local revitalization. Another woman, Noriko Horiuchi, became vaccinations minister, replacing Taro Kono, the runner-up in the party leadership race.



Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi, who is former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's younger brother, were retained, ensuring continuity of Japan's diplomacy and security policies as the country seeks to closely work with Washington under the bilateral security pact in the face of China's rise and growing tensions in the region, including around Taiwan.





Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, bottom, walks near Fumio Kishida, rear center, who was elected as Japan's prime minister at the parliament's lower house in Tokyo, Japan, Oct. 4. AP-Yonhap



Kishida supports stronger Japan-U.S. security ties and partnerships with other like-minded democracies in Asia, Europe and Britain, in part to counter China and nuclear-armed North Korea.

Kishida created a new Cabinet post aimed at tackling the economic dimensions of Japan's national security, appointing 46-year-old Takayuki Kobayashi, who is relatively new to parliament.



Finance Minister Taro Aso was shifted to a top party post and replaced by his 68-year-old relative, Shunichi Suzuki.



Japan faces growing nuclear and missile threats from North Korea, which last month test-fired ballistic missiles capable of hitting targets in Japan. Kishida also faces worsening ties with fellow U.S. ally South Korea over history issues even after he struck a 2015 agreement with Seoul to resolve a row over the issue of women who were sexually abused by Japan's military during World War II.



South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Monday sent a letter to Kishida, congratulating his election as prime minister and offering to work together to improve ties. In the letter, Moon said South Korea wants to strengthen cooperation on economy, culture, personnel exchanges and other sectors, Moon's office said.



An urgent task at home will be turning around his party's sagging popularity, hurt by Suga's perceived high-handedness on the pandemic and other issues.



He'll also have to ensure Japan's health care systems, vaccination campaign and other virus measures are ready for a possible resurgence of COVID-19 in winter, while gradually normalizing social and economic activity.



Kishida said last week that his top priority would be the economy. His ''new capitalism'' is largely a continuation of Abe's economic policies but he aims to raise incomes.



Voters welcomed new, and slightly younger, faces in the new government.



A 28-year-old designer Karen Einaka said she hoped the new government takes into consideration younger people's opinions and allows younger politicians to play important roles.



At least, "Kishida looks more energetic than Suga,'' said business owner Makoto Okubo. (AP)




In this file photo taken on Jan. 17, 2020, Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi poses for pictures during a welcoming ceremony for China's President Xi Jinping at the Presidential Palace in Naypyidaw. AFP-Yonhap



Myanmar's detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday asked a judge to reduce the frequency of her court hearings due to strained health, her lawyer said, but assured the public there was no concern about her condition.



Suu Kyi, who is on trial and attending court sessions in multiple cases since her overthrow in a Feb. 1 coup, requested hearings in each case be handled every two weeks, not every week, chief lawyer Khin Maung Zaw told media.



Asked by Reuters about the status of her health, he said Suu Kyi, 76, was suffering from tiredness from her busy schedule and there was no indication of illness.



"She is tired. At her age, it is not convenient to sit for hearings every day of the whole week," Khin Maung Zaw said by phone.



"She doesn't have any disease nor specified sickness. It is not a concerning situation. She is just tired."



The health of the Nobel laureate is closely watched in Myanmar, where she spent many years in detention for challenging its military rulers.



She is charged with a litany of offences, including breaking coronavirus protocols, illegally importing and possessing two-way radios, incitement to cause public alarm and violating the Official Secrets Act.



The cases are being handled by courts in several cities and her allies fear the multiple legal cases, which they dismiss as nonsense, could tie her up in proceedings for years.



Suu Kyi has also been accused in court by a former politician of accepting big bribes and gold bars, allegations she on Monday told the court were "all absurd," according to her lawyer.



Suu Kyi last month was unable to appear for one session in court, complaining of feeling dizzy and unwell, which her legal team dismissed as motion sickness. (Reuters)




Outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks at a ceremony to mark the 31st anniversary of Germany's Unification Day, in the city of Halle, Germany, Oct. 3. Reuters-Yonhap



Angela Merkel urged Germans on Sunday to forge a common future that draws on their diverse backgrounds, harking back to the 2015 decision to admit 1 million refugees that was a defining moment of her long chancellorship.



Merkel appeared close to tears during an address to mark the 31st anniversary of reunification that may be the last before she steps down, although talks to build a new ruling coalition following last month's election could take months.



She said the freedoms that came with German reunification 31 years ago had brought "so many new opportunities" for people from the former Communist East, where she grew up, but that many of them suddenly "found themselves in a dead end".



With a voice that betrayed her emotion, she recalled how a journalist had written last year she "wasn't a true born German" after she told reporters in 2015 that "if we have to start apologizing" for showing a friendly face during the refugee crisis, "then this is not my country".



"Are there two kinds of Germans and Europeans - the original and the acquired, who have to prove their affiliation every day anew and can fail the exam with a sentence like the one in the press conference?" she asked.



The 2015 refugee crisis, when Merkel opened Germany's doors to some 1 million migrants fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, was the most controversial act of her time in power and fuelled the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).



Asking, "what is my country?", Merkel said "each and every individual must be able to feel heard and belong."



She called for a Germany "in which we shape the future together", adding: "Be open to encounters, be curious about one another, tell each other your stories, and tolerate your differences. This is the lesson from 31 years of German unity."



Merkel described her decision last year, on the 30th anniversary of Germany's reunification, to restrict civil liberties to curb the spread of the coronavirus as "one of the most difficult experiences" of her time as chancellor.



Merkel took power in 2005  when George W. Bush was U.S. president, Jacques Chirac in the Elysee Palace in Paris and Tony Blair British prime minister. She plans to step down once a new government is formed following last Sunday's elections. (Reuters)




Customer Analytics - Software Engineer Austin , Texas , United States Marketing Summary

Posted: Aug 27, 2021 Weekly Hours: 40 Role Number: 200214349 Imagine what you could do here. At Apple, new ideas have a way of becoming great products, services, and customer experiences very quickly. Bring passion and dedication to your job and there's no telling what you could accomplish. The Product Marketing Customer Analytics team is seeking a data engineer to support customer analytics with advanced, scalable and robust architecture, tools, data products, and critical data pipelines that are optimized for rapid business intelligence, data analysis, and data science. Key Qualifications Proficient in Spark

Experience with MPP databases preferred

6+ years of experience in data engineering and ETL pipeline development.

3+ years of Spark development.

6+ years of experience in Big Data Technologies (Hadoop, MapReduce, Hive etc...).

Experience on Kubernetes, Docker preferred. Description Develop and automate large scale, high-performance, scalable platform (batch and/or streaming) to drive faster analytics Ability to design large-scale, complex applications and frameworks with excellent run-time characteristics such as low-latency, fault-tolerance and availability Experience in building and maintaining custom frameworks to support engineering/analytics needs Knowledge of continuous integration, testing methodologies, TDD and agile development methodologies. Partner with analytic consumers and data scientists to build and improve new/existing constructs and solve data engineering problems @ scale. Good knowledge of Data formats (Parquet, ORC etc.) and consensus management systems Exposure to structured or unstructured storage and distributed caching. Deploy inclusive data quality checks to ensure high quality of data. Experienced Engineer or Contributor or Committer to open source technologies is plus. Evangelize high quality software engineering practices towards building data infrastructure and pipelines at scale. Structured thinking with ability to easily break down ambiguous problems and propose impactful solutions. Communication Strong documentation and technical writing skills. Attention to detail and effective verbal/written communication skills. Education & Experience Prefer: BS/MS in Computer Science Quantitative Finance, Math, Physics or a related Engineering degree




Software Engineer -Java Austin , Texas , United States Machine Learning and AI Summary

Posted: Sep 9, 2021 Role Number: 200281552 Imagine what you could do here. Apple is a place where extraordinary people gather to do their best work. Together we craft products and experiences people once couldn't have imagined - and now can't imagine living without. If you're motivated by the idea of making a real impact, and joining a team where we pride ourselves in being one of the most diverse and inclusive companies in the world, we'd love to hear from you! The Self-Service Engineering team is looking for a keen Java Software Engineer who has passion about technology and solving complex issues through innovative ideas/techniques. In this role you will design, build and deliver Java Backend Services powering the platform used by our customers every day. You will work closely with peers, cross functional teams, business leaders and other partners across Apple to implement new solutions. The candidate must be able to work independently, understand the needs and the solutions for sophisticated architecture with limited supervision. Key Qualifications 2+ years of experience in Java, Spring, Multi-Threading, REST, Data Caching, NoSQL technologies

Strong Object Oriented and Functional Programming skills and proficiency in Java

Understand security concepts and build reliable and safe distributed applications

Exposure to applications performance tuning and caching solutions

Ability to successfully multi-task and support multiple, concurrent projects

Excellent problem solving, critical thinking, and interpersonal skills

Ability to learn new technologies in a short time

Enthusiastic about technology and eager to know more about underlying working with the attitude "how things work" in general. Description In this role you will Develop critical backend services, review code, collaborate with peers on solutions/deliverables High standard for code quality and testing. Drive documentation and effectively communicate technical design and architecture of the system. Raising the bar to deliver best in class solutions by going extra miles and not settling on obvious solutions and ability to take calculated risks. Work with vendors, cross functional teams and internal partners. You will have the opportunity to innovate, make decisions and cultivate your ideas with peers, management and other engineering team. This will require individuals to be highly motivated and have a passion for engineering phenomenal solutions Education & Experience - BS or MS in Computer Science, or equivalent experience




AI/ML Rotation Program Seattle , Washington , United States Machine Learning and AI Summary Posted: Aug 19, 2021 Weekly Hours: 40 Role Number: 200277997 Imagine what you could do here. At Apple, new ideas have a way of becoming extraordinary products, services, and customer experiences very quickly - and making the kind of impact that changes people's lives. Bring passion and dedication to your job and there's no telling what you could accomplish. The people here at Apple don't just craft products - they build the kind of wonder that's revolutionized entire industries. It's the diversity of those people and their ideas that inspires the innovation that runs through everything we do, from amazing technology to industry-leading environmental efforts. Play a part in the next revolution in human-computer interaction. Contribute to a product that is redefining mobile computing. Create groundbreaking technology for artificial intelligence. Work with the people who created the intelligent assistant that helps millions of people get things done - just by asking. You will also have a unique and rewarding opportunity to contribute to cool projects around Apple, and use your data science, machine learning, natural language, computer vision and artificial intelligence skills to transfer your ideas into solutions for some of the most challenging technical problems in the next generation of products that will surprise and delight millions of people. We want new ambitious team members to join the AI/ML Rotation Program at Apple. Key Qualifications Strong Computer Science fundamentals including familiarity with basic algorithms and data structures

Strong object-oriented programming and design skills

Excellent problem solving, critical thinking, and communication skills Description Apple's central AI/ML org is looking for engineers who are passionate about using machine learning to build new user experiences. The team you will join is looking for someone with a combination of strong programming skills and a creative, user-focused mindset. We seek a true team player who can collaborate with engineers in several technical areas. In this role, you should be able to thrive in a fast-paced environment with rapidly changing priorities and get up to speed quickly in new technical areas. SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDE: - A wide range of software engineering tasks across multiple domain areas - Machine learning projects involving state of the art modeling techniques - Collaborate with cross functional teams to gather requirements, understand dependencies, define an architecture, and implement solutions to well-defined projects - Work with multiple teams across the organization to gain a broad understanding of the Siri architecture Education & Experience BS/MS in Computer Science or equivalent




Product Designer Santa Clara Valley (Cupertino) , California , United States Design Summary

Posted: Sep 16, 2021 Weekly Hours: 40 Role Number: 200286438 The media and services design team is looking for a product designer to design interfaces for internal tools. These tools are the platform that allows content experts within Apple to manage, modify, and publish services content. We are looking for an outstanding human interface designer who is passionate about user experience design and wants to shape the vast machinery behind the curtain that ultimately helps deliver content to millions. Key Qualifications Experience designing all aspects of large-scale content management systems including content creation, editing, localizing, and publishing.

A portfolio of work that showcases excellence in interaction design, visual design, and problem solving.

Outstanding ability to communicate your ideas to designers, engineers, product managers, and leadership through story telling, visuals, and presentations.

Able to work independently and in a team environment.

5+ years of design experience with a focus on Web, iOS, and macOS interfaces.

Ability to clearly communicate concepts and designs through sketches, wireframes, high fidelity comps, and prototypes, using Sketch, Figma, Photoshop, Keynote, and similar tools.

Expertise documenting interaction details, visual design specifications, and QA of the implemented product.

Experience in handling several complex projects simultaneously.

Flexible and comfortable with ambiguity and change during a project.

A passion for Apple, our products, and our customers is a must. Description Description The ideal candidate will have a passion for designing elegant experiences for the web and desktop. The position requires deliverables to be provided under tight deadlines and with input from many cross-functional stakeholders. Strong collaboration skills are a must, as well as coolness under pressure, problem solving, attention to detail, and the ability to cope with rapid change. Above all, the role requires a dedicated individual who understands Apple's high standards and design aesthetic to the core. Education & Experience BFA or BA


Extrusion Machine Operator

Day Shift: 5:00am  3:30pm Monday-Thursday

Swing Shift: 3:15pm  1:45am Monday-Thursday

Overtime may be required

KEITH Walking Floor Systems provide horizontal loading/unloading solutions for bulk materials, pallets, bales and rolls. The companys state of the art production facility in Madras, Oregon operates using Lean Manufacturing practices. We are seeking high performance team members with a commitment to quality work with a positive attitude.

Responsibilities include setting up and operating machines. Read and follow specified layouts, procedures, and operating charts. Record process settings and part dimensions. Make minor adjustments to machine controls. Check completed parts to meet quality control standards. Perform machine maintenance. Operate forklift, crane or other related machinery. Maintain 6S in area. Communicate with team leaders regarding setup, controls, and operating sequences.

Minimum Qualifications : Minimum of 18 years of age. Pass employer performance tests. Proficient in reading a tape measure, pressure gauge, level, square and calipers. Ability to work in a team-oriented, collaborative environment focusing on quality and attention to detail.

Physical requirements include ability to sit or stand for 8 to 10 hours at a time. Lift 25 lbs. repetitively and up to 80 lbs. occasionally. Production facility exposed to continual machine noise.

Compensation and Benefits

Salary: DOE

Benefits: Medical, Dental, Vision, Pharmacy Health Plan. Short Term Disability and Life Insurance.

Paid Vacation Time. Paid Holidays. 401K Retirement Plan with employer contribution.

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Automation Engineer - Video Engineering Santa Clara Valley (Cupertino) , California , United States Hardware Summary

Posted: Oct 2, 2021 Role Number: 200295342 Imagine the impact you can make. A billion users will use the technologies you helped craft almost daily. At Apple, you will have the opportunity to work on products that are always leaders in the industry and occasionally, change the world! The Video Engineering group at Apple is responsible for creating the image/video core technologies used in almost all Apple products and services. Key Qualifications 2+ years of SQA, or related software engineering experience

2+ years of Python, Perl, or Shell Scripting experience

2+ years of Source control, CI, and automation experience

Excellent problem solving and good reasoning skills

2+ years of software development experiences on iOS, macOS, or Linux/Unix

Test Application, Test Tools, or XCTest development experience

2+ years of C/C++/Obj. C or Swift development experience

Standout colleague with positive attitude and proactive personality

Positive thinking, dedicated, inventive, and willing to take challenges Description Mac Video Codec team is seeking an experienced, self-motivated quality engineer with a passion for making the macOS experience the best it can be. You will work with the latest Apple products, ensuring that the media experience is the best in the world. In this role, testing efforts will target image & video compression, decompression and post-processing technologies for desktop platforms, working closely with engineering teams to ensure product quality. The QA effort includes test planning, hands-on functional testing, bug reporting/regression, maintaining test guidelines, and development and execution of automated tests. Besides, test apps and tools development and/or XCTest development will also be another focus of this role. You should have a strong interest in learning new technologies, excellent communication skills, and the ability to drive complex and challenging projects. Strong collaboration with engineering teams and an ability to thrive under pressure, are key skills required to succeed. Education & Experience BS or MS degree in EE, CS, or related field


On this day 40 years ago, in the face of Tory intransigence, the hunger strike by Republican political prisoners in Ireland came to an end. Decades on, only revolutionary class struggle can provide a future free from oppression and sectarianism.

On 3 October 1981, the remaining Irish Republicans on hunger strike in the North of Ireland were ordered to stand down. The last six, out of twenty-three prisoners who refused food throughout 1981, were given life-saving medical intervention.

The strike had ended after a seven-month campaign of cruelty from the British state, allowing ten men to starve to death, by refusing to grant the elementary democratic rights they demanded as prisoners of a political conflict.

The youngest to die were Patsy OHara (Irish National Liberation Army, INLA) and Thomas McElwee (Provisional Irish Republican Army, PIRA), both at the age of 23. Like many others, they had joined the Republican cause so young because they saw no way out of the oppressive sectarian Six County state other than through struggle.

They had seen their friends and relatives imprisoned without trial, tortured and abused, and innocent civilians massacred by British soldiers and loyalist paramilitaries. In the Republican cause they found a way to fight back, and once in prison joined the only means of resistance they felt they had left: the hunger strike.

Irish prisoners struggle

The Irish Republican movement has a long history of hunger strikes and prisoners campaigns. In 1917, President of the Irish Republican Brotherhood Thomas Ashe died from attempts to force-feed him and break his hunger strike in Mountjoy Prison. Ashes funeral was attended by 30,000 people at the dawn of Irelands 1916-23 revolutionary period.

There were Republican hunger strikes in British prisons and internment camps throughout the War of Independence and after, when control was passed over to the Free State. The youngest hunger striker ever, May Zambra, joined a 1923 hunger strike at 17 years old. Due to the Civil War, some anti-Treaty prisoners were not released until 1932, and many found themselves interned again during the Second World War.

The common thread throughout these campaigns was opposition to criminalisation: demanding recognition of the political basis for their imprisonment. Those who were interned without trial through Operation Demetrius in 1971, or convicted by juryless Diplock Courts after 1973, demanded and won the right to be treated as prisoners of war.

In 1976, however, the British government under Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson announced the withdrawal of political status for new Republican prisoners. In the Long Kesh prison, internees had been allowed to freely associate, maintain a command structure, and wear their own civilian clothes. It was these rights, under the title Special Category Status that Irish Republicans imprisoned in the H-Blocks would fight the prison regime to restore.

Wilsons policy meant the re-introduction of criminalisation: new Republican convicts would be classified as ordinary decent criminals and not as political prisoners. They would have to wear a prison uniform, do prison work, and have the privileges of education and visitation curtailed.

At the time, the British establishment was reeling from the collapse of the Sunningdale Agreement, forced by the reactionary general strike called by militant loyalists. They demanded a Protestant state for a Protestant people and no power-sharing with nationalists, rejecting the terms brokered by the British government.

The situation was getting out of control, and the British state stepped-up repression of Republicans to appease Paisleys No Surrender mobs  who were preparing for all-out civil war.

The Blanketmen

The first convicted under the new policy was Kieran Nugent, who began the Blanketmen protests in September 1976. Offered a prison uniform, he refused, declaring that the guards would have to nail it to my back. Instead, he wore only a blanket, and hundreds of other prisoners followed suit. By 1979, up to a third of Republican prisoners had joined the protest.

Through relatives and sympathisers, a campaign on the outside was formed, headed by the National H-Block Committee. It was supported by Republicans, socialists, trade unionists and human-rights campaigners. The movements five basic demands were:

The right to not wear a prison uniform. The right to not do prison work. The right to free association with other political prisoners. The right to access education material and courses. The restoration of remission (i.e., no additional time in jail as punishment for the protests).

The protest led to a war within the prisons. The Blanketmen were beaten by the guards whenever they left their cells to use the bathrooms. Republican women in Armagh prison were allowed to keep their own clothes, but still suffered mistreatment. To protect themselves, the prisoners then refused to leave their cells, and protested assaults from prison guards by smashing furniture.

Denied new washing facilities and having all their possessions confiscated, they were left with only blankets, mattresses, and a bucket for a toilet. When the prison guards ceased emptying the prisoners buckets, these medieval dungeon-like conditions became host to the dirty protest, as excrement and menstrual blood was daubed on the blank prison walls.

On the outside, the National H-Block Committee would also suffer a campaign of terror, with six members murdered by loyalist death squads. Bernadette McAliskey (nee Devlin), the widely-known socialist and civil rights campaigner, narrowly survived an attempt on her life in January 1981. The likelihood of British state collusion in these killings and attempted murders has been covered up.

The British governments attitude would only harden after 1979, with the election of Margaret Thatchers Conservative government. She would refuse any concession of political status, insisting, crime is crime is crime, it is not political. Her government would go on to obstinately blame the IRA for the prisoners tragic deaths, while also labelling them all terrorists.

Escalation

After years on the blankets, the prisoners decided that they would have to escalate their campaign. The idea of a hunger strike was proposed, and initially refused by PIRA and INLA commanders.

After Thatcher's election in 1979, the attitude of the British government toward Republican prisoners hardened to the point of callousness / Image: The National Archives

Only a few years earlier, Republican prisoners Michael Gaughan (d.1974) and Frank Stagg (d.1976) had died in English jails while on hunger strike for political status and repatriation to Ireland  the former as a consequence of brutal attempts to force-feed him. It is a considerably dangerous form of protest, and having Volunteers slowly die in prison after years of fighting had the potential to depress the movement rather than inspire it.

Moreover, the leadership of the Provisional IRA had considered the prisoners struggle a secondary issue to their plan of bombings and armed attacks. The conception of the leaders of the PIRA Army Council was essentially apolitical and militaristic  they thought their key task was to beat the British militarily, and questions like prisoner status would be resolved automatically. Other forms of struggle were considered a potential distraction.

The prisoners carried a tremendous authority and symbolism for the Republican struggle, however, and their determination to fight could not be so easily sidelined. The Irish Republican Socialist Movement was also split over whether to prioritise mass political struggle or force of arms.

In October 1980, after hundreds had volunteered, seven H-Block prisoners began a hunger strike that would last for 53 days. They were joined by three prisoners in Armagh Womens Prison, who refused food for 54 days. Starving in a bare jail cell with only blankets to cover themselves, the hunger strikers suffered greatly through the freezing winter.

The symptoms of starvation include hallucinations and delirium, diminished sight and speech, and unbearable headaches and stomach pains.

PIRA prisoner Sean McKenna was on the brink of death before the British government agreed to negotiate on the prisoners demands. The British government played a cruel psychological game, cutting other prisoners off from being able to contact McKenna, and then dangling the carrot of negotiations in front of the prisoners.

The strike was called off and McKennas life was saved, but Thatcher still refused to fully concede. The promise to negotiate was merely a callous ruse by the British to dent the will of the prisoners. Instead of civilian clothes, the prisoners were given civilian-type uniforms. A new hunger strike would begin again next year.

1981 hunger strike

Despite the reservations from Republican leaders, PIRA prison commander Bobby Sands began the 1981 hunger strike on 1 March. Sands joined the Provisionals at the age of 18, after he lost his apprenticeship and his family was forced to move home due to intimidation from loyalist gangs.

While on hunger strike, Sands was chosen to stand in the Fermanagh by-election in April. Facing a consolidated Unionist vote behind the Ulster Unionist Party, nationalist parties agreed a united front around the prisoners campaign, with Sands as the Anti H-Block candidate.

Winning the election, Bobby Sands became the MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone. The Tories rejoinder was to ban prisoners from standing for parliament. Twenty-six days later, however, Sands died in prison on 5 May. He was 27 years old.

Bobby Sands death provoked a wave of anger, with riots and protests across the North. 62 were killed by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and the army on Anti H-Block demonstrations in the following months. 100,000 mourners attended Sands funeral in West Belfast on 7 May. While Thatcher condemned him as a criminal, the barbarism of her policy in Ireland was exposed before the eyes of the world.

There were mass protests in solidarity with the hunger strikers in several countries  from America to Europe to Asia. Thousands marched in Milan and Paris. The International Longshoremens Association trade union in New York City boycotted unloading British ships for 24 hours. A march of thousands burned a blood-stained effigy of Thatcher on the British Embassys doorstep.

After the death of a second hunger striker, Francis Hughes, on 12 May, a crowd of 8,000 people stormed and burned the British Embassy in Dublin. Two hunger strikers were elected to the Dail Eireann in June, causing a hung parliament. The relationship between the British and Southern Irish Governments reportedly deteriorated to new lows as Thatcher refused to relent.

One by one, eight more men would die after Sands and Hughes: five more members of the PIRA and three from the INLA. Their hunger strikes lasted from forty-six to seventy-three days; the oldest to die was only 29.

Legacy

While Sinn Fein and the PIRA leadership had initially opposed the action, they quickly saw the potential of the burgeoning mass movement around the National H-Block Committee. Sinn Fein had become divided over the question of whether to prioritise political or military means to remove the British from Ireland: the ballot or the bullet?

The anger generated by the deaths of the hunger strikers had led to a whirlwind of calls for retaliation. PIRA Volunteers demanded action, and there was a sharp increase in activity. 600 extra British troops were posted in the North of Ireland to deal with the guerrilla offensive. The INLA was also swept up in this mood, despite attempts within the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) to subordinate it to the partys political activity.

Contrary to the militarists policy, however, were leaders in Sinn Fein who wanted the end of the policy of abstention (refusing to take seats in British or partitionist legislatures) and give the party more focus on winning elections.

This conflict would result in a compromise in 1986, with the party resolving to combine the two methods  the ballot and the bullet. But this was only a stepping stone to the complete acceptance of reformist methods. It would mark the beginning of Sinn Feins pursuit of the peace process and tacit acceptance of the sectarian state.

Sinn Fein has since turned much of the history of the 1981 hunger strike into a legend, placing itself at the middle of the struggle and airbrushing out the involvement of the IRSP, socialists like Bernadette McAliskey, trade unionists, and others.

The hunger strike generated tremendous sympathy for the H Block prisoners. On the back of its electoral success after the hunger strike, Sinn Fein increasingly turned towards reformist methods / Image: public domain

Once Sinn Fein had seized control of the movement, they limited its scope to supporting the basic Republican demands, and marginalised the trade unions and socialists. What could have been a genuine solidarity movement against British imperialist oppression was channelled into support for the Provisional IRA.

Much of the Irish left found it difficult to connect with the anger surrounding the hunger strikes. They tended to view support for the hunger strike as support for the PIRA and reactionary sectarian violence, and rejected the idea that the movement could have broad working-class support beyond Northern Catholics.

The Workers Party (Official IRA)  which had split from the Provisionals in 1969 over the rejection of armed struggle and the question of socialist versus sectarian politics  went so far in the opposite direction as to shamefully condemn the hunger strikers as common sectarian criminals!

Sinn Fein and the PIRA leadership declared victory when the hunger strike was called off in October 1981. The families of the prisoners had asked for it to end, and the British government had secretly offered to partially fulfil their demands. Thatcher had called the hunger strike the Republican movements last card to play. But what she and the British ruling class really feared was the rising mass movement.

Sinn Fein used the momentum of the Anti H-Block movement to contest the 1982 NI Assembly election (despite calls for a Republican boycott) and to win the 1983 election in West Belfast for Gerry Adams. It was clear they were on the up  trending towards replacing the moderate Social Democratic and Labour Party as the top nationalist party. They had stood aside for Bobby Sands in the 1981 by-election, and twenty years later were overtaken by Sinn Fein.

The peace process

The subsequent legend is that after the hunger strike, Gerry Adams led the party and the Provisional IRA down the path of peace, winning a power-sharing government that all the martyrs for Irish freedom can be proud of. The reality is that the Provos were forced to admit that a military campaign against Britain was never going to be victorious, and that the working class were exhausted by the conflict.

Across the sectarian divide the working class had an honest desire for peace. This does not mean it was neutral in the conflict or passive, but tired of tit-for-tat sectarian bombings and killings that led nowhere. Only a genuine Marxist revolutionary tendency could have explained the way forward then, as now.

Despite Sinn Feins apparent turn after the hunger strike towards democratic methods, and radical leftist posture, it never broke its sectarian line of only appealing to Catholic or Nationalist voters. The new community politics paradoxically strengthened sectarianism, as it became institutionalised in the new Stormont Assembly after 1998.

The leaders of Sinn Fein were not wrong to drop the abstentionist policy in the wake of the 1981 hunger strike. But rather than the mass movement being used as a mere launchpad for electoral success, the new platform provided by seats at Westminster and the Dail ought to have been used to spread, enhance, and radicalise the mass movement.

Many of the leaders of Sinn Fein and the PIRA had drawn the conclusion that the tactics of armed struggle had failed. Instead of encouraging a political reassessment within Republicanism and a return to the revolutionary socialist ideas of James Connolly, these leaders attempted to nudge the movement towards electoralism.

Forty years after the hunger strike ended, the idea that reform through Stormont can achieve an end to sectarianism, genuine equality and improved living conditions for the working class  much less a 32 county socialist republic  has been completely shattered.

This reformed partitionist legislature, and many of its features like a Unionist veto over laws and mandatory coalition, were staunchly opposed by the 1981 hunger strikers. Now, however, the petition of concern, power-sharing with the DUP, and an entrenched (but equal) sectarian divide are hailed as signs of progress by Sinn Fein.

It is a blockage on progress, as the dismal history of the Assembly over the past 20 years will attest. The petition of concern has been a reliable weapon for the DUP to try and prevent the Assembly legalising abortion, equal marriage for same-sex couples, or passing an Irish language act.

Sectarianism vs socialism

Sectarian division has only worsened, with frequent hate crimes and riots leading to so-called peace walls erected between neighbours.

The promised peace dividend of the Good Friday Agreement has not materialised, as the North of Ireland continues to be economically stagnant, with record poverty and deprivation. The Assembly collapses whenever there is a political crisis or the parties renege on their commitments.

Bobby Sands and his comrades made the ultimate sacrifice in the struggle against oppression and imperialism. Only the establishment of a Socialist United Ireland can put an end to these scourges once and for all / Image: Shermozle, wikimedia commons

Young people feel they have no future in this sectarian state and many choose to emigrate.

No honest person wants a return to the violence and terror of the Troubles. But young people are entitled to ask if the peace process has delivered what was promised. Irish Republicans are entitled to ask if Sinn Fein politicians have betrayed what the hunger strikers died for, in order to get ministerial offices and cushy privileges for themselves.

Most Republican prisoners, and especially the INLA Volunteers, saw themselves as fighters for a revolutionary cause that would establish a democratic socialist Republic across the whole of Ireland. While we may not have agreed on every tactic or detail in their programme, we cannot doubt the sincerity and bravery of those who died on hunger strike while locked up in a British jail.

It has been said before that Ireland has too many martyrs. Countless lives have been lost trying to break the chains of imperialism and capitalism, which continue to cause so much pain and anguish. Ireland can have a future free from poverty, exploitation, oppression and sectarianism. But this is only to be found along the path of revolutionary class struggle.

In joining this cause we honour those who have made heroic sacrifices, whilst taking up the struggle for the overthrow of imperialism, the establishment of a Socialist United Ireland, and the world-wide emancipation of the working class.
As the world toboggans towards an environmental catastrophe created by the capitalist system, how is Ireland  one of Europes most polluting nations  responding to the crisis? By using state repression against young environmental activists. We say: protest is not a crime! Drop the charges against climate activists!

On 19 March, Orla Murphy (then aged 19) walked up to the Department of Foreign Affairs building in Dublin and splashed pink paint against the building before spray painting the words, No More Empty Promises on the front of the building. Meanwhile, her friend, fellow activist and supporter of the Irish Marxists (the IMT in Ireland), Zac Lumley, live-streamed her protest.

For this justified protest at the inaction of the Irish state, gardai arrested both Orla and Zac, applying extremely harsh bail conditions amounting to 3,000. Zac was, naturally, unable to get this money at short notice and as a result spent three nights in prison, while Orla refused to sign her bail conditions and was imprisoned for five weeks. Since their release, both have had to face harsh bail terms. These include Zac being banned from much of Dublin city centre and Orla being banned from Dublin entirely, being banned from approaching government buildings, and having to sign in at a police station every day  Zac alone has had to sign on 112 times since March. The latter condition has only recently been relaxed in Zacs case so that he can continue his studies in Oxford, Britain.

Orla and Zac were arrested following a protest at the Department of Foreign Affairs against the inaction of the Irish government on climate change / Image: Extinction Rebellion Ireland

The two now face serious charges of criminal damage, which could potentially include custodial sentences. We believe this outrageous prosecution of two activists  who caused an insignificant amount of superficial damage to a building in their fight against the cataclysmic damage the ruling class are doing to our planet  is an attempt to intimidate young environmental activists across Ireland.

It proves once more that the first job of the capitalist state  in Ireland and elsewhere  is not the defence of the democratic right to protest, nor the right to a civilised existence on this planet free from the horrors of climate change. Its sole purpose is to defend property and the right of the very profiteers who have caused the environmental crisis to go on enriching themselves.

We call upon environmental activists, socialists, and trade unionists internationally to raise their solidarity with these young comrades and to help repel this assault on the democratic right to protest. Scroll to the end of this article to find out how you can help.

No more empty promises

Like millions of school students worldwide, Orla and Zac had been involved in the school strike movement from its inception. In her last year in further education, Orla undertook this action to bring attention to the fact that Ireland, which currently holds a seat on the UN Security Council, and indeed holds the presidency of that UN Security Council, has done nothing to highlight the biggest threat to the security of billions of people: the degradation of the environment by the capitalist class. The climate catastrophe that the world is being plunged into by capitalism threatens to displace hundreds of millions of people, to wipe small island nations off the map, to increasingly stoke national wars for limited resources  in short to rob the youth of a future and to plunge humanity into barbarism.

Among the nations of Europe, Ireland is the third biggest emitter of greenhouse gas per capita. Only a year and a half ago, the Green Party was elevated in the polls in the January 2020 elections, on the back of the Climate Strike movement and the aspirations of hundreds of thousands of young people. Scandalously, the same party then came to the rescue of the two traditional, pro-capitalist parties in Ireland: Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. In their every act since that election, they have utterly betrayed the aspirations of those who elected them. Now the Greens sit at the table of government, defending the interests of the capitalist polluters in the Dail, while young climate activists face the prospect of jail time for fighting for climate justice.

In its short time in power, this governments record has been appalling: doling out saccharine promises whilst continuing to give full backing to the biggest polluting capitalists. In 2020, an NGO ranked Ireland the third lowest EU nation in terms of combating climate change. This was actually up from previous years on account of certain verbal commitments by the Irish government to clean up its act. But these verbal commitments arent worth the paper theyre written on. In Orlas words, which she painted in bold letters on the side of the Foreign Affairs building, we say, No more empty promises!

The only concrete environmental proposals that have emerged from this FF-FG-Green coalition have merely been disguised, green austerity such as taxes on fuel aimed at ordinary commuters. Meanwhile, new energy-intensive data centres are being opened in Ireland, with some predicting that these server farms could consume 70% of Irelands electricity by 2030.

What are the government doing to ensure that the surge in electricity usage that it predicts from these data centres wont come at the expense of greater fossil fuel burning? Well, they are currently looking into what they call Corporate Power Purchase Agreements (CPPAs), which would allow massive corporations to buy power directly from renewable suppliers. These corporations would then be able to flaunt their green credentials, whilst the rest of society will take whatever energy is left (if there is any!) from the grid. Such agreements dont imply any extra green electricity supply. They literally amount to a policy of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, as do all the policies of the ruling class.

For mass action! For a socialist solution to climate change!

The eye-opening figures of electricity usage by the giant server farms dotted across Ireland further demonstrate that the real polluters are the capitalist giants of the IT industry, agribusiness, and other sectors. No amount of individual lifestyle changes, or for that matter green austerity, can ever make a dent in emissions or environmental degradation. On a world scale, 100 companies are responsible for 71% of greenhouse gas emissions, whilst just 20 companies are responsible for 55% of single-use plastic waste.

The only solution to this crisis lies in the complete, planned reorganisation of the world economy to place human need and the environment at its heart. The problem is there is no planning under capitalism. The market is completely anarchic, with each capitalist operating only for profit. Indeed, each capitalist must operate to make the greatest possible profit if they are to outcompete their competitors and stay in business. Everything that fails to appear on the balance sheet is an externality to be ignored.

Only by taking big agribusiness, the IT giants, and all the other monopolies, including and above all the big banks, out of the hands of the tiny clique of private capitalists who now own them and uniting them in an economic plan under the democratic control of the working class can we bring about the sharp change of direction needed to mitigate climate change.

Orla (left) and Zac (right) were subject to harsh bail conditions and now face serious charges of criminal damage for their protest / Image: Extinction Rebellion Ireland, Twitter

But the Irish ruling class will not give up their wealth voluntarily. And the Irish state exists to defend that wealth. As Zac explained, Under capitalism, action on the climate and ecological crises is impossible, as profit accumulation is sought at all cost to the environment, health and human life. The only solution is revolution, with the working class taking power to plan the economy democratically, for the interest of humanity, not profit.

Only the mass mobilisation of the working class around a socialist programme can challenge the capitalist polluters. But without a fighting lead from the labour movement and with no party offering a clear way forward, it is no wonder that young people will bravely attempt to take matters into their own hands through individual acts of direct action. This is wholly understandable, but in itself it does not contain the solution to the crisis.

The state and the ruling class will happily ignore such individual acts. In other cases, as we see with Orla and Zac, they will even attempt to demonise, criminalise and make an example out of militant youth. Groups like Extinction Rebellion have made a principle out of the tactics of direct action and civil disobedience. However, our tactics must flow from the movements political programme.

Eamon Ryan, leader of the Green Party. His party did well in the 2020 election on the back of anger amongst young people regarding climate change. However, the party subsequently helped prop up a FF-FG government / Image: Oireachtas

Only the organised working class can challenge the capitalist system and the destruction it is wreaking by carrying out a socialist revolution. It is therefore necessary to move forward from individual direct action to mass direct action. The school strike movement has shown the way. Again, however, the ruling class has simply ignored striking school students and could continue to do so.

However, should the working class more broadly, taking its lead from the school students, also commit to a programme of strike action and mass mobilisation, the ruling class would have to sit up and pay attention. Not a lightbulb shines, not a wheel turns without the kind permission of the working class. Ultimately the power not only to bring this system to a halt, but to abolish capitalism and reorganise society on a socialist basis lies collectively in the hands of the working class.

The tactics of the movement must follow from this understanding about the role of the working class in transforming society. Mass strike action by the school students generates sympathy amongst working people in general, their parents. That sympathy can and must be transformed into active participation and action. It should also be noted however, that certain acts of direct action and civil disobedience tactics by the environmental movement can have the opposite effect.

The Fridays for Future movement and young environmental activists can play an important role in this process by connecting up with the workers movement, injecting the same militant, fighting spirit that weve seen among school students. The most radical workers and youth need to get organised and bring revolutionary, socialist ideas and militant methods into the workers movement.

Protest is not a crime!

In the past few years weve seen a number of instances where the Irish state has attempted to beef up its repressive powers and to resort to police methods to criminalise protest.

Just a few years ago, in 2014, we saw peaceful water charge activists including Paul Murphy TD accused of false imprisonment after staging a sit-down protest in Jobstown in front of a TDs car. The defendants faced collusion by politicians, gardai, the media, the court system and the whole establishment in an attempt to secure extremely serious convictions. Only public outrage following a campaign in solidarity with the accused scuppered the wrath of the establishment and secured a verdict of not guilty.

Faced with the repression of the Irish state, we call upon environmentalists, socialists and trade unionists in Ireland and internationally to raise their voices in solidarity with Orla and Zac. The establishment wants to turn protest into a criminal act. The real criminals are big business, who have committed wanton destruction to the environment in their pursuit of profit, and the millionaires club of politicians who have aided and abetted them.

Sign the petition for charges to be dropped. Send an email of protest to the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Minister for Justice. Hand in letters of protest to Irish embassies and consulates on 12 October. Post pictures and messages of solidarity with Orla and Zac using hashtags #ClimateProtestNotACrime and #NoMoreEmptyPromises

We say: Drop the charges! Protest is not a crime!

Model email

Address your email to: dpp@dppireland.ie, eamon.ryan@oireachtas.ie, heather.humphreys@oireachtas.ie

Copy in: irishmarxists@gmail.com

Dear Sir/Madam,

We are writing to you to express our alarm that the state has decided to prosecute two young environmental activists, Orla Murphy and Zac Lumley.

It is a scandal that at a time when the world is careening towards a climate catastrophe that the state in Ireland is subjecting young climate activists to harsh bail terms and serious criminal charges. The superficial and insignificant amount of damage caused by the protest that led to Orla and Zacs prosecution pales into utter insignificance next to the destruction being wrought to the Earths climate.

We call upon the Justice Minister to intervene and for the DPP to drop all charges against Orla and Zac immediately.

With COP26 around the corner and Ireland among the worst polluters in Europe, the eyes of environmental activists, trade unionists and young people everywhere are on the Irish government.

Yours faithfully,

[Insert your name, country, and your organisation if applicable]
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-03 21:34:48|Editor: huaxia

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Afghan Taliban members stand guard at the site of a blast in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Oct. 3, 2021. At least two civilians were killed and four others wounded after an explosion occurred at the middle of a crowd outside a big mosque in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, on Sunday, a Taliban spokesman confirmed. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

KABUL, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- At least two civilians were killed and four others wounded after an explosion occurred at the middle of a crowd outside a big mosque in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, on Sunday, a Taliban spokesman confirmed.

Sayyed Khosti, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, told local media that the blast occurred in Police District 1 of Kabul, adding that the authorities will soon arrest the perpetrators behind the attack.

"A bomb explosion occurred at a civilians' aggregation near the gate of Eidgah Great Mosque this afternoon. Unfortunately the blast caused casualties among the civilians," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid wrote on Twitter.

The Italian War Victims Emergency Hospital tweeted that four wounded people were admitted to the hospital in central Kabul.

Earlier in the day, Mujahid, who also serves as deputy minister of information and culture, said that a prayer ceremony was underway for his deceased mother in the Eidgah Great Mosque Sunday afternoon.

Unofficial sources said at least 35 people were affected by the explosion. They said Taliban security personnel arrested three suspects following the attack near the blast site.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

The country has witnessed a spate of bomb attacks staged by the militants affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) outfit since Taliban's takeover in mid-August. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-04 03:40:42|Editor: huaxia

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Oil stains the Huntington Beach in Orange County, California, Oct. 3, 2021. A massive oil spill off the Orange County coast in Southern California prompted the closure of a 9-kilometer long beachfront area on Oct. 3, and crews from California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) are cleaning up the pollution from facilities in federal waters. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- A massive oil spill off the Orange County coast in Southern California prompted the closure of a 9-kilometer long beachfront area on Sunday, and crews from California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) are cleaning up the pollution from facilities in federal waters.

Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley told local KTLA news channel Sunday morning that the incident was first reported Saturday and oil was still leaking about 5 miles (about 8.05 kilometers) off the coast of Huntington Beach from the broken pipeline.

"It's still leaking and the responsible party for this is underway right now trying to repair the leak from the pipeline," Foley said, referring to the platform Elly, a facility sitting in federal waters off the Los Angeles County coast and processing crude oil production from two other platforms.

All these platforms are located on top of a large reservoir of crude oil known as the Beta Field, which sits in waters overseen by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The spill, equal to about 126,000 gallons of post-production crude, is a "potential ecological disaster," Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr told CNN Saturday.

The United States Coast Guard (USCG) said in a statement that a unified command, consisting of Beta Offshore, the Coast Guard, and Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) from CDFW, had been established to respond to the incident.

"Members of the public are asked to avoid any oiled areas. Trained spill response contractors are working to clean up oil. Public volunteers are not needed and could hinder response efforts. We request that members of the public stay away from the area." the statement said, adding that the cause of the spill, volume and type of oil are under investigation.

The oil slick was "reported to be approximately 13 square miles (33.7 square kilometers) in size, 3 miles (about 4.82 kilometers) off Newport Beach." the USCG said in an earlier twitter.

Local authorities urged people to avoid the beach areas around Huntington Beach and Newport Beach, saying "the spill has significantly affected Huntington Beach, with substantial ecological impacts occurring at the beach and at the Huntington Beach Wetlands."

By Sunday morning, "we've started to find dead birds & fish washing up on the shore," Foley tweeted.

Debbie McGuire, executive director of the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach, was quoted by the local newspaper Orange County Register that staff in the center had prepared masks, goggles and IV fluids to stabilize the animals injured by the pollution.

McGuire said the first batch of wounded birds were sent to the center Sunday noon, including three pelicans, a ruddy duck and a surf scoter.

The oil spill also prompted the cancelation of the final day of the Great Pacific Airshow. The 5th annual air show began Friday morning at the Huntington Beach Pier and drew about 1.5 million visitors to the beach on Saturday. The event was scheduled to run through Sunday afternoon.

The last major oil spill hit the Southern California area was 30 years ago. In 1990, the American Trader oil tanker spilled 417,000 gallons of crude, killing fish and approximately 3,400 birds and polluting popular beaches along the Orange County coast.

California has been taking a tough stand to protect its coast from the offshore oil and gas development since 1994 when the state legislature passed the California Coastal Sanctuary Act. It prohibits the state from entering into any new leases within state tidelands.

In 2017, the California Senate passed a resolution opposing new oil or gas drilling in federal waters located offshore California.

In 2019, when the Donald Trump administration planned to lease sales along the country's coast and vastly expand offshore oil drilling from coast to coast, the Golden State passed a law prohibiting new leases for new construction of oil and gas-related infrastructure, such as pipelines, within state waters if the federal government authorizes any new offshore oil leases. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-04 11:18:21|Editor: huaxia

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A rapid COVID-19 testing center is seen in London, Britain, Aug. 30, 2021. (Photo by Ray Tang/Xinhua)

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, could have spilled from animals to people multiple times, according to the preliminary analysis of viral genomes sampled from people infected early in the pandemic.

If confirmed by further analyses, the findings would make the "lab leak" hypothesis less likely, researchers have said.

LONDON, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- A new pre-print study released online recently has provided strong evidence to support the "natural spillover" hypothesis on COVID-19, with results that are hard to reconcile with the "lab leak" hypothesis.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, could have spilled from animals to people multiple times, according to the preliminary analysis of viral genomes sampled from people infected early in the pandemic.

People walk along the River Thames in London, Britain, Aug. 30, 2021. (Photo by Ray Tang/Xinhua)

The latest analysis, posted on the virological.org discussion forum, is based on a detailed examination of the genetic sequences of two early lineages, known as A and B, which have key genetic differences, obtained from people infected in late 2019 and early 2020.

"It is a very significant study ... If you can show that A and B are two separate lineages and there were two spillovers, it all but eliminates the idea that it came from a lab," a Nature news article quoted Robert Garry, a virologist at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, as saying.

If confirmed by further analyses, the findings would make the "lab leak" hypothesis less likely, researchers have said. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-04 18:20:20|Editor: huaxia

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White flags honoring the lives lost to COVID-19 are seen on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Oct. 2, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

"We're going to protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated co-workers," Biden said after announcing the mandate against the backdrop of a fourth wave of the virus surge, driven largely by the highly contagious Delta variant in the country.

by Matthew Rusling

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- U.S. business groups have many unanswered questions over President Joe Biden's sweeping vaccine mandates to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed over 700,000 Americans.

Biden, who prioritized handling the pandemic after assuming office, announced last month sweeping new federal vaccine requirements for as many as 100 million Americans, including private-sector employees as well as health care workers and federal contractors.

"We're going to protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated co-workers," Biden said after announcing the mandate against the backdrop of a fourth wave of the virus surge, driven largely by the highly contagious Delta variant in the country.

U.S. President Joe Biden is seen on a screen as he delivers remarks before receiving his COVID-19 vaccine booster shot in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Sept. 27, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

BUSINESS CONCERNS

The U.S. business groups have expressed frustration with the mandate, which stipulates that companies with over 100 employees must require vaccinations of most employees or pay for weekly testing -- which could be expensive -- for those choosing not to get the jab. Harsh fines could be imposed for infractions.

Lobby groups that represent the nation's largest corporate giants are not at odds with the order itself, yet they took issue with the administration's move of shutting them out and not including them in the process.

"The administration has refused to engage in any substantive dialogue about their plan," said Ed Egee, vice president of government relations and workforce development at the National Retail Federation, as quoted by the U.S. political publication The Hill.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which is responsible for the implementation of the vaccine-or-test requirement, failed to meet any business groups or labor unions that seek to influence the process, or want more information about the new rules, according to The Hill.

Recent weeks also saw the Consumer Brands Association, which represents 1,700 U.S. brands, urge the Biden administration to accelerate federal guidelines and clarify how businesses are expected to implement the new vaccine orders.

A woman registers to get vaccinated outside a mobile vaccine clinic in New York, the United States, on Aug. 31, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

In a letter to the White House, the Consumer Brands Association outlined some of the most critical questions which need to be answered immediately, "not in the weeks federal agencies have signaled it may take, or in the months industry has experienced throughout the pandemic," the group said on its website.

"Federal agencies must ... Promptly answer questions and partner with the private sector if we are to realize successful implementation of the administration's COVID-19 Action Plan and achieve our shared goal of increased vaccination rates," wrote Geoff Freeman, Consumer Brands president and CEO.

"Government guidance earlier in the pandemic routinely lagged weeks or months behind initial announcements and often conflicted with state and local requirements," the statement said.

The Coalition for Workplace Safety, which is led by groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Retail Federation, and National Association of Manufacturers, asked OSHA in a letter last week to reconsider the agency's "decision" to exclude outside groups from the process, Bloomberg Law reported earlier this week.

A pedestrian wearing a face mask passes in front of Pfizer's World Headquarters in New York, United States, on Aug. 23, 2021. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua)

POTENTIAL TROUBLE FOR BIDEN

The business groups were also concerned about how vaccination status should be verified, how to deal with religious exemptions, whether those working at home will need to be vaccinated, and who will pay for testing.

While those who violate the OSHA requirements may face a maximum fine of 13,653 U.S. dollars, they may even be fined with as much as 70,000 dollars, if Biden's sweeping 3.5 trillion social spending bill is passed, Bloomberg Law reported.

Republicans have expressed outrage over the mandate, arguing that the decision to get the vaccines should be a personal one.

Politically, experts and media said the White House is keen to show a decrease in case numbers in the lead-up to next year's midterm elections.

Clay Ramsay, a researcher at the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland, told Xinhua: "What can really hurt Democrats in the midterms is not having enough results on the ground to show for their efforts (to control the spread of COVID)."

John Walsh, a retired attorney in the state of Pennsylvania, told Xinhua that the government should not mandate vaccines.

But at the same time, some pockets of the United States are being hammered by the Delta variant, which impacts those who have not been vaccinated. Many have fallen victim to misinformation on the vaccines that has run rampant on social media.

Mary Rogers, who works in a small company in the DC area, said she would "feel safer" if her company had a vaccine mandate.

But while Biden successfully oversaw a campaign to get around 50 percent of the population fully vaccinated in his first few months in office, that effort has stalled.

As of Sunday evening, the COVID-19 fatalities in the United States topped 701,000 with over 43 million infections. The grim number comes as the president has hit an all-time low in the polls after his botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The failure to control the spread of the Delta variant could mean big trouble for Biden and his party, experts say.

The current 7-day average of new COVID-19 cases was 106,395, and 55.9 percent of the U.S. population were fully vaccinated as of Sunday morning, showed the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.

Some people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 will still get sick because no vaccine is 100 percent effective. Experts continue to monitor and evaluate how often this occurs, how severe their illness is, and how likely a vaccinated person is to spread COVID-19 to others, according to the CDC website. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-04 18:49:46|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday sent a congratulatory message to Fumio Kishida on his election as Japanese prime minister.

Xi pointed out that developing a good-neighborly friendship and cooperation between China and Japan, which are separated only by a strip of water, serves the fundamental interests of the two countries and two peoples, and also contributes to peace, stability and prosperity of Asia and the world.

China and Japan should abide by the principles established in the four political documents between the two countries, strengthen dialogue and communication, and enhance mutual trust and cooperation, in an effort to build a China-Japan relationship that meets the requirements of the new era, Xi added.

On the same day, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang also sent congratulations to Kishida.

Li said in the message that the two sides should maintain political consensus, strengthen exchanges and cooperation, push for sound and stable development of bilateral relations along the right track and jointly welcome the 50th anniversary of the normalization of China-Japan diplomatic ties next year. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-04 20:03:30|Editor: huaxia

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A child waves the Chinese national flag while posing for photos on a bridge in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Oct. 2, 2021. Strict epidemic prevention and control measures have been imposed at the city's main shopping malls, tourist attractions and other sites where mass gatherings take place during the ongoing National Day holiday. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao)

HARBIN, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Pan Lili, a community worker in China's Suihua City, Heilongjiang Province, is working through her National Day holiday from Oct. 1 to 7.

Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province has recently seen another COVID-19 outbreak. On Sept. 21, the provincial capital Harbin reported its first recent case of COVID-19, which was subsequently identified as the Delta variant.

By Saturday, there were 83 local cases in Heilongjiang Province, the provincial health commission said.

Community workers like Pan Lili are among the frontline staff battling the spread. Pan is responsible for assisting in epidemiological investigations, distributing materials for home-quarantined residents, and organizing nucleic acid testing.

"At first, I felt fear and panic when the epidemic broke out. Now, with enough experience, I can handle it with great calm," Pan said.

Cui Hongping, a nurse who also lives in Suihua City, is also working through the holiday. She and her team are responsible for Suihua's citywide nucleic acid testing campaign. The 100-member team has tested approximately 30,000 people in the course of each campaign.

Though Cui's allergies caused her hands to rupture and swell with the frequent application of hand sanitizer at work, she did not lose her focus. She put on gloves and kept working.

"My job as a nurse requires me to work to keep the people healthy and safe," she said.

Mass nucleic acid testing is an important measure for targeted COVID-19 containment. By Oct. 3, Suihua had carried out four mass nucleic acid testing campaigns, with a total of over 8.61 million tests performed, local authorities said on Sunday.

In Bayan County, Suihua City, and other regions of Heilongjiang Province that have been impacted by this outbreak, many medical workers, traffic police and volunteers are working through the holiday. Their efforts have helped control the outbreak to a limited scope.

Through targeted COVID-19 containment measures, most Chinese people, including those in Heilongjiang Province, are able to enjoy a safe and jubilant National Day holiday.

Tourists enjoy a raft ride at the Maoyan River scenic area during the ongoing National Day holiday in Zhangjiajie, central China's Hunan Province, Oct. 3, 2021. (Photo by Wu Yongbing/Xinhua)

Some 16 million passenger trips were made by rail on Friday, the first day of the weeklong holiday, and 127 million trips are expected to be made over the full course the holiday, according to China State Railway Group Co., Ltd.

On Shanghai's Bund, a "zipper" wall of police has appeared again. Due to the large number of tourists, police formed a human wall, diverting tourist flows with a traffic light system to prevent the dangers that can occur in crowds.

"A lively National Day holiday highlights the wisdom of China's COVID-19 management. Putting 'people first, lives first,' China is launching precise policies to minimize the impact of the pandemic on people's lives," said Qu Wenyong, a professor at Heilongjiang University.

"Workers on the frontline of pandemic control have demonstrated the Chinese people's love for family and country, and the spirit of solidarity of the Chinese people," Qu added. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-04 22:26:54|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on Oct. 4, 2021 shows the Ever Given container ship berthed at a ship-repairing dock of Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province. The Ever Given container ship which blocked the Suez Canal for nearly a week in March arrived in Qingdao on Monday for repair. (Xinhua/Li Ziheng)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-04 17:17:29|Editor: huaxia

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ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia's incumbent Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was sworn in on Monday for a new five-year term in office.

The swearing-in ceremony was held as part of the first day of the Ethiopian House of Peoples' Representatives (HoPR)'s new five-year term.

Abiy's ruling party Prosperity Party's won a landslide victory in national elections held in June.

He then was appointed by the HoPR and the lower house of the Ethiopian parliament as prime minister

Following his appointment, Ahmed is expected to form a new cabinet, which will form the new federal government structure.

Ahmed was first appointed as the country's prime minister in April 2018.

He had served the East African country at different high-level positions, including as minister of science and technology.

Ahmed's Prosperity Party secured more than 400 out of 436 parliamentary electoral constituencies, according to the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-04 22:21:40|Editor: huaxia

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by Tafara Mugwara and Zhang Yuliang

HARARE, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese manufacturer and distributor of advanced agriculture machinery and technologies is helping advance Zimbabwe's agriculture sector by introducing smart technologies to increase the country's agricultural productivity.

Debont Corp., one of the companies that exhibited at this year's edition of the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show which ran from Sept. 27 to Oct. 1, is aiming to bridge Zimbabwe's technology gap in the agriculture sector through technical skills transfer.

The agriculture machinery and solutions supplier showcased its latest collection of smart machinery such as irrigation equipment, no-tillage precision planters, center pivots, automotive pilot systems among other equipment.

Li Weiwei, Africa Regional manager for Debont and Managing Director of China-Aid Agricultural Technology Demonstration Center (CATDC) in Zimbabwe, said while Zimbabwe has made notable strides in the agriculture sector over the years, there is still a need to speed up the adoption of new technologies.

"That's why we are here, and we brought the machinery, and all will be tested if they are suitable for the local market requirements, and we would also want to try our best efforts to bring more high level, high standards machinery to Zimbabwe," he told Xinhua.

Li said besides supplying high-tech machinery, Debont is engaged in educating local farmers on how they can increase productivity through new technologies.

"After the show immediately we will arrange some field days and we will try to teach and train local farmers who are willing to know these new things. Then on field day we will try to do the practice and show farmers what we are doing and see the performance of the machines," he said.

In addition, Li said agricultural modernization will boost labor productivity and increases agricultural surplus thereby increasing incomes and improving nutrition.

Debont is a system integrator specializing in modern agricultural production processes, including providing integrated solutions in agricultural engineering, supplying agricultural equipment, contracting of agricultural projects, and operating agricultural projects.

In Zimbabwe, Debont is currently running the CATDC located at Gwebi College of Agriculture near Harare.

CATDC was established in 2011 through the China-Aid program focusing on farmer training and technical skills transfer.

The center also functions as a base of agriculture high-yield technology demonstration, agriculture, machinery and irrigation technology training and promotion, and a platform of international cooperation on agriculture between Zimbabwe and China.

Over the past 10 years, CATDC has provided training courses to more than 3,000 Zimbabwean farmers.

The Zimbabwean government identifies the agriculture sector as the engine for economic growth and recognizes the need for large-scale investments in the sector through the adoption of smart technologies.

The growing population and changing climatic patterns have increased the necessity of smart technologies and modern machinery to maximize agricultural productivity.

In this regard, China has been assisting Zimbabwe to improve the production of crops such as tobacco by imparting valuable knowledge and technology transfer.

Agriculture forms the backbone of Zimbabwe's economy, with the sector contributing approximately 17 percent to the country's economy.

In addition, agricultural activities provide employment and income for 60 to 70 percent of the population, supply about 60 percent of the raw materials required by the manufacturing sector, and contribute approximately 40 percent of total export earnings, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Measures adopted by the government to increase crop output have started to bear fruit, as the country is for the first time in nearly two decades expecting to be corn and wheat sufficient, slashing the import bill significantly.

Experts say Zimbabwe can further consolidate its strength in agriculture by learning from China in the field of agricultural science and technology. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-04 22:31:43|Editor: huaxia

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LUSAKA, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Officials from Zambia's Finance and National Planning Ministry on Monday held bilateral talks with officials from the European Union (EU) on enhancing development cooperation.

The Zambian delegation was led by Finance and National Planning Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane while Rita Laranjinha, Managing Director of the EU External Action Service-Africa Division led the delegation from the EU, according to a release.

According to the release, the two sides discussed the Zambian government's thrust in addressing economic, debt and fiscal challenges.

It adds that the two parties also dwelt on areas of convergence between the government and the EU development priorities. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-05 00:07:39|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Kenya plans to expand its tax base through leveraging technology, a government official said on Monday.

Nelson Gaichuhie, chief administrative secretary of National Treasury, told journalists in Nairobi the country is keen to simplify tax procedures through the enhancement of the tax Internet portal and the M-service mobile application.

"Through adoption of technologies, we hope to increase the number of taxpayers by an additional two million from the current 6.1 million," Gaichuhie said during the launch of the taxpayers month.

He added that the automation of tax procedures will also enhance the country's revenue mobilization drive.

The official noted that taxation of digital services will also bring in more revenues by widening the tax bracket.

Githii Mburu, commissioner general of Kenya Revenue Authority, said that the country will drive tax compliance through investment in modern technologies that enhance operational efficiencies.

Mburu noted that technology will also help to fight against tax evasion in order to boost domestic revenue mobilization.

He revealed that automation of customs procedures is also expected to facilitate international trade and result in additional tax collection. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-05 00:32:01|Editor: huaxia

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KHARTOUM, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Sudanese security forces are surrounding a site in a residential area south of the capital Khartoum, where a terrorist cell took shelter, official SUNA news agency reported Monday.

"Clashes took place today (Monday) between the Sudanese security forces and a terrorist cell that stationed in Jabra residential neighborhood in the capital Khartoum," the report said.

"The security forces exchanged heavy gunfire for a few hours with the terrorist group which took shelter on the roof of a building in the area. Details were not known yet," it added.

According to SUNA, there was circulated information about injuries among the security forces and the arrest of a number of terrorists.

In the meantime, the Sudan Tribune website quoted a police source as saying that the violent clashes resulted in the death of one member of the security forces, while some members of the cell, including foreigners, were arrested.

According to the source, at least six members of the terrorist cell have been arrested so far, while the security forces are still pursuing another one. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-05 01:15:18|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- A United Nations official on Monday stressed the need for open access to scientific information, basic science research and innovation on COVID-19 to help reduce the spread of the disease in Africa.

Hubert Gijzen, regional director for eastern Africa at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said that all resources developed on COVID-19 should be made available in a transparent manner.

"The open access to scientific information will empower journalists and the public with fact-checking tools on COVID-19," Gijzen said during the launch of COVID-19 health information portal for media practitioners in Kenya's capital Nairobi.

Gijzen said that there was a need for information that is verified, relevant and reliable, but also in languages and formats that are easily understood.

He said the platform should help tackle misinformation and disinformation around the COVID-19 pandemic online and offline through equipping media practitioners with safety and security mechanisms and fact-checking skills and competencies.

Mutahi Kagwe, cabinet secretary in the Ministry of Health said the pandemic demanded effective and well-coordinated public communication to enhance public response and elicit cooperation.

Kagwe noted the pandemic fight has been hampered by diffusion, misinformation and conspiracy theories revolving around its preventive measures.

He said that correct and timely information needs to get to all segments of society in terms of the preventive measures and the roles and responsibilities of different players in curbing the spread of the virus.

Joe Mucheru, cabinet secretary in the Ministry of ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs said that the development of COVID-19 vaccines remains one of the notable achievements of the medical research field.

Mucheru noted that researchers have saved millions of lives globally while urging African citizens to stop vaccine hesitancy.

He said that Kenya has through various policy documents committed to the creation of an information society and a knowledge economy as its main priorities towards the attainment of the development goals as well as addressing matters of public interest.

Mucheru noted that the launch of the information portal was timely as it will address the numerous challenges that have come with the COVID-19 pandemic with regards to the dissemination of accurate information.

The portal will provide localized information to different audiences in English and native Swahili and will also extend to other local languages spoken in Kenya including Braille and sign language. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-04 20:06:57|Editor: huaxia

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BERLIN, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- After Germany's Saarland was the first state to loosen health regulations in schools last week, Bavaria and Berlin followed suit and relaxed face mask requirements on Monday.

Federal Minister of Education Anja Karliczek expressed understanding for the end of mandatory masks in schools. "Wearing masks interferes with normal teaching and is stressful for students," she told the Rheinische Post newspaper.

Berlin is lifting the mask requirement for younger classes up to sixth grade, while Bavaria generally no longer requires masks to be worn in class. Other states such as Baden-Wuerttemberg and Saxony are considering similar steps.

"However, if the mask requirement is relaxed, testing must continue or even increase in schools," Karliczek demanded, with a view to possibly further increasing infection figures after the fall vacations.

Germany's seven-day COVID-19 incidence rate remained stable and increased only slightly on Monday to 64.7 cases per 100,000 people, from 64.2 cases on the previous day and 61.7 a week ago, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for disease control and prevention.

The number of daily COVID-19 infections in Germany was also only slightly above the level a week ago as 3,088 new cases were registered within one day, only 66 more than last Monday, according to the RKI.

The repeal of mandatory masks in schools has been the subject of controversy in Germany for days. While doctors' representatives welcomed it, virologists considered it premature because distance rules do not apply in classrooms and children under 12 cannot be vaccinated. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-04 22:34:31|Editor: huaxia

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BRUSSELS, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- The 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15), to be hosted in October by Kunming in China, is much anticipated, because "international cooperation is essential in the field of biodiversity conservation," Belgian expert Coralie Huberty said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

The main objective of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity is to halt the decline in plant and animal species. "We are now facing a crisis in the ecological system and the coronavirus pandemic is a case in point. Environmental protection is essential to our survival and international cooperation is essential to achieving this," she stressed.

Huberty is the lead physiotherapist at the Domaine des Grottes de Han, a Belgian wildlife research and animal park, which is home to nearly 650 animals, including 11 Przewalski's horses.

The Przewalski's horse is a rare and endangered subspecies of wild horse, which, thanks to international cooperation, is now gradually being reintroduced into its natural environment.

"The first Przewalski's horses came to us in 1997," she said. "They were two stallions. We had to gain experience with this particular species before receiving our first mare, which subsequently gave birth to many foals."

As part of a program led by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), Przewalski's horses are bred to the age of two or three in zoos in different countries. Then, depending on the needs of the program, they may be candidates for reintroduction, or join other parks or zoos participating in the program, to become breeders.

Two Przewalski's horses, raised in the Domaine des Grottes de Han animal park, were reintroduced in 2017 to their natural environment in China and in the steppes of Mongolia.

According to Huberty, in 2017 two managers of the animal park visited northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region for the shooting of a TV documentary on horses. They visited the Xinjiang Wild Horse Breeding and Research Center in Jimsar County and the Kalamaili Nature Reserve. They were impressed by the actions taken to protect the horses, considered by China to be a national treasure.

The case of Przewalski's horses is a good example of a successful conservation campaign led by a concerted international effort to preserve biodiversity. Nevertheless, the decline in biodiversity remains a problem and around one million animal and plant species are still threatened with extinction.

"With the decline in biodiversity, environmental issues are really paramount at the level of authorities and governments. Scientific measures have been taken, and we are already seeing the positive effects, and therefore these types of cooperative efforts will have real implications for environmental protection," she said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-04 01:45:20|Editor: huaxia

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NEW YORK, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The United States is making progress against the current surge of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the country is not out of the woods yet, the medical advisor to the White House Anthony Fauci told ABC on Sunday, two days after the national death toll of the coronavirus surpassed the grim milestone of 700,000.

"We certainly are turning the corner on this particular surge," said the nation's top infectious disease expert. "But we have experienced over now close to 20 months surges that go up and then come down, and then go back up again. The way to keep it down, to make that turnaround continue to go down, is to do what we mentioned: get people vaccinated."

"When you have 70 million people in the country who are eligible to be vaccinated, who are not yet vaccinated, that's the danger zone right there," added Fauci. "So it's within our capability to make sure that that turnaround that we're seeing, that very favorable and optimistic turnaround, continues to go down and doesn't do what we've seen multiple times before, where it goes down and then it comes back up."

The United States has seen its first notable decline in COVID-19 metrics in more than three months, with coronavirus-related hospital admissions and average daily new cases dropping by more than 30 percent over the last month, reported the television network.

According to The New York Times' update, the seven-day average of confirmed cases of the pandemic stood at 108,009 nationwide on Saturday, with its 14-day change striking a 27-percent fall. The COVID-19-related deaths were 1,882 on Saturday, with the 14-day change realizing a 6-percent decrease.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated on Sunday that 214,870,696 people have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, making up 64.7 percent of the whole U.S. population; fully vaccinated people stood at 185,143,698, accounting for 55.8 percent of the total. A total of 4,742,750 people, or 2.6 percent of fully vaccinated group, received booster shots.

MANDATES WORK

American Airlines, Alaska Airlines and JetBlue are joining United Airlines in requiring employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19, as the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden steps up pressure on major U.S. carriers to require the shots, reported CNBC on Saturday.

The airlines provide special flights, cargo hauling and other services for the government. The companies said that makes them government contractors who are covered by Biden's order directing contractors to require that employees be vaccinated.

On Friday, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor denied a request from four New York City public school teachers to block Mayor Bill de Blasio's mandate requiring all Department of Education (DOE) staff to take COVID-19 vaccines.

"Our vaccine requirement for NYC school staff has now been reviewed in state courts, federal courts, and the Supreme Court and upheld," Dave Chokshi, the city health commissioner, tweeted in response to the news. "Vaccination will keep students and staff safer."

Except for school staff, health workers make up the front groups that need to be vaccinated. In New York State, as of Thursday, 92 percent of its more than 625,000 healthcare workers were inoculated, up from the 73 percent on Aug. 16 when the Sept. 27 deadline was set for vaccinations, according to Governor Kathy Hochul.

Since former Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a vaccine mandate for New York healthcare workers more than a month ago, hospital employees in the state have been getting vaccinated at more than twice the rate as all New York adults, according to data provided by the state health department and the CDC.

FAN AND MASK

The CDC released recommendations on Saturday for the upcoming holiday season, including the idea of using a window fan to keep air at an indoor party as fresh as possible.

The agency appears to be suggesting that circulating air indoors can ward off the airborne coronavirus, or at least reduce its chances of spreading during home gatherings.

"If celebrating indoors, bring in fresh air by opening windows and doors, if possible," said its holiday celebrations guidance. "You can use a window fan in one of the open windows to blow air out of the window. This will pull fresh air in through the other open windows."

Earlier this week, a CDC study found that schools without masking requirements are 3.5 times more likely to have a COVID-19 outbreak than those that required masking when the school year began.

After analyzing data from almost 1,000 K-12 public schools in Maricopa and Pima counties in Arizona, the researchers highlighted the importance and effectiveness of mask mandates in preventing COVID-19 infections in schools.

"Until all children are eligible to receive COVID vaccines, masking is the next best defense against contracting and spreading the SARS-CoV-2 virus," Yale Medicine pediatrician Leslie Sude was quoted by the health information portal Verywell as saying. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-04 14:37:07|Editor: huaxia

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by Peter Mertz

DENVER, the United States, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Container ships piling up on America's East and West Coasts are raising concern, as disruptions to supply chain are still not over.

Dozens of giant container ships were reportedly waiting to unload their cargos, floating adrift outside America's two biggest seaports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, and another 22 vessels were drifting offshore a few miles to the north, in waters too deep for their anchors.

On the East Coast, a line of more than 20 ships were waiting to unload, according to New York harbor officials.

The backlogs at the U.S. ports offered a glimpse of how the supply chain is being disrupted, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues haunting the country and the world at large.

In recent months, global supply chains have faced numerous challenges, resulting in widespread delays and shortages among a variety of consumer goods, Morning Consult, a North American data company, said in a report last week.

Pandemic-related factory shutdowns, bottlenecks on product components, port congestion, worker shortages, and unfavorable weather patterns have all coalesced to constrict supply for a multitude of products, according to the report.

Amid widespread shortages and delivery delays, more than half of American consumers have recently reported difficulty procuring at least one product last month.

"It's going to take time, maybe years, for things to level off," said Dale Rogers, a supply chain management professor at Arizona State University.

"Look at just the container cost increase -- from 2,000 U.S. dollars a year ago, 1,000 U.S. dollars before that, to 3,000 U.S. dollars plus now, with the cost of the goods inside the container being worth around 50,000 to 100,000 U.S. dollars," he said.

The dramatic increase cost of transportation, one of the three metrics Logistics Management Institute (LMI) has used to assess supply chain movement, is unprecedented in the 30-year study of supply management, and has caused ripples across distribution corridors.

Rogers noted that other kinks in the chain have exacerbated the problem, from a shortage of truck drivers to skilled port equipment operators and personnel who unload the lined-up cargo ships.

LMI's co-founder, Rogers' son Zachary, an assistant professor at Colorado State University, told Xinhua that he thought there were also problems in the supply chain infrastructure.

"We don't have the suburban warehouses yet for delivery to the consumer next day, or enough trucks to deliver the products, or the ports capable of processing the increased goods coming from Asia," he argued.

The American Institute for Economic Research (AIER), a U.S. think tank, said last week that "massive dislocations are present in the container market, shipping routes, ports, air cargo, trucking lines, railways and even warehouses."

The result, the think tank stressed, has created shortages of key manufacturing components, order backlogs, delivery delays and a spike in transportation costs and consumer prices. "Unless the situation is resolved soon, the consequences for the global economy may be dire," it added. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-04 17:21:16|Editor: huaxia

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by Matthew Rusling

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- U.S. business groups have many unanswered questions over President Joe Biden's sweeping vaccine mandates to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed over 700,000 Americans.

Biden, who prioritized handling the pandemic after assuming office, announced last month sweeping new federal vaccine requirements for as many as 100 million Americans, including private-sector employees as well as health care workers and federal contractors.

"We're going to protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated co-workers," Biden said after announcing the mandate against the backdrop of a fourth wave of the virus surge, driven largely by the highly contagious Delta variant in the country.

BUSINESS CONCERNS

The U.S. business groups have expressed frustration with the mandate, which stipulates that companies with over 100 employees must require vaccinations of most employees or pay for weekly testing -- which could be expensive -- for those choosing not to get the jab. Harsh fines could be imposed for infractions.

Lobby groups that represent the nation's largest corporate giants are not at odds with the order itself, yet they took issue with the administration's move of shutting them out and not including them in the process.

"The administration has refused to engage in any substantive dialogue about their plan," said Ed Egee, vice president of government relations and workforce development at the National Retail Federation, as quoted by the U.S. political publication The Hill.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which is responsible for the implementation of the vaccine-or-test requirement, failed to meet any business groups or labor unions that seek to influence the process, or want more information about the new rules, according to The Hill.

Recent weeks also saw the Consumer Brands Association, which represents 1,700 U.S. brands, urge the Biden administration to accelerate federal guidelines and clarify how businesses are expected to implement the new vaccine orders.

In a letter to the White House, the Consumer Brands Association outlined some of the most critical questions which need to be answered immediately, "not in the weeks federal agencies have signaled it may take, or in the months industry has experienced throughout the pandemic," the group said on its website.

"Federal agencies must ... Promptly answer questions and partner with the private sector if we are to realize successful implementation of the administration's COVID-19 Action Plan and achieve our shared goal of increased vaccination rates," wrote Geoff Freeman, Consumer Brands president and CEO.

"Government guidance earlier in the pandemic routinely lagged weeks or months behind initial announcements and often conflicted with state and local requirements," the statement said.

The Coalition for Workplace Safety, which is led by groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Retail Federation, and National Association of Manufacturers, asked OSHA in a letter last week to reconsider the agency's "decision" to exclude outside groups from the process, Bloomberg Law reported earlier this week.

POTENTIAL TROUBLE FOR BIDEN

The business groups were also concerned about how vaccination status should be verified, how to deal with religious exemptions, whether those working at home will need to be vaccinated, and who will pay for testing.

While those who violate the OSHA requirements may face a maximum fine of 13,653 U.S. dollars, they may even be fined with as much as 70,000 dollars, if Biden's sweeping 3.5 trillion social spending bill is passed, Bloomberg Law reported.

Republicans have expressed outrage over the mandate, arguing that the decision to get the vaccines should be a personal one.

Politically, experts and media said the White House is keen to show a decrease in case numbers in the lead-up to next year's midterm elections.

Clay Ramsay, a researcher at the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland, told Xinhua: "What can really hurt Democrats in the midterms is not having enough results on the ground to show for their efforts (to control the spread of COVID)."

John Walsh, a retired attorney in the state of Pennsylvania, told Xinhua that the government should not mandate vaccines.

But at the same time, some pockets of the United States are being hammered by the Delta variant, which impacts those who have not been vaccinated. Many have fallen victim to misinformation on the vaccines that has run rampant on social media.

Mary Rogers, who works in a small company in the DC area, said she would "feel safer" if her company had a vaccine mandate.

But while Biden successfully oversaw a campaign to get around 50 percent of the population fully vaccinated in his first few months in office, that effort has stalled.

As of Sunday evening, the COVID-19 fatalities in the United States topped 701,000 with over 43 million infections. The grim number comes as the president has hit an all-time low in the polls after his botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The failure to control the spread of the Delta variant could mean big trouble for Biden and his party, experts say.

The current 7-day average of new COVID-19 cases was 106,395, and 55.9 percent of the U.S. population were fully vaccinated as of Sunday morning, showed the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.

Some people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 will still get sick because no vaccine is 100 percent effective. Experts continue to monitor and evaluate how often this occurs, how severe their illness is, and how likely a vaccinated person is to spread COVID-19 to others, according to the CDC website. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-05 06:35:41|Editor: huaxia

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LOS ANGELES, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- A group of U.S. House representatives and senators from the U.S. state of California on Monday called for the end to offshore drilling, two days after a major oil spill incident near Orange County left fish dead, birds mired in petroleum and wetlands contaminated.

Nanette D. Barragan, U.S. Congresswoman from California's 44th Congressional District, and Mike Levin, U.S. Congressman from the state's 49th Congressional District, made remarks after inspecting the pollution incident.

"The devastation of the oil spill continues to spread off the coast of Orange County. @RepMikeLevin and I are joining the @USCG on an overflight to view the impacts of the damage," Barragan tweeted Monday noon, noting that "We must end offshore oil drilling."

"This disaster is exactly why I'm leading the bill in Congress that would end all new offshore drilling along our Southern California coast. We need to get this done," Levin tweeted earlier. "If you agree it's time to pass my American Coasts and Oceans Protection Act."

The spill, first reported Saturday morning, originated from a pipeline running from the Port of Long Beach to an offshore oil platform known as Elly. The failure till Monday caused roughly 126,000 gallons of oil to gush into the ocean, creating a slick spanning about 8,320 acres.

The spill has left oil along long stretches of sand in Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and Huntington Beach, killing fish and birds and threatening wetlands where many birds live.

Oil from the spill, called by local officials as an environmental catastrophe, was moving south toward the sensitive coves around Laguna Beach on Monday.

Long Beach is located in the 44th Congressional District, and the severely impacted areas in the incident, including Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Laguna Beach belong to the 48th Congressional District. The state's 49 Congressional District sits in the south.

The two Congress members who called on an end to offshore drilling are Democrats, while Michelle Steel, the representative from the 48th Congressional District, is a Republican. She sent a letter to Democratic President Joe Biden requesting a major disaster declaration for Orange County, which would free up federal funds to help with the clean-up efforts.

Even though she called the incident "a really serious disaster," Steel did not mention ending offshore drilling, which is a controversial topic in the country's polarized political system.

Cottie Petrie-Norris, a Democratic state assembly member representing the 74th Assembly District, which encompasses the coastal Orange County communities of Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and Laguna Beach, said she had "huge concerns" about the extent of the damage to the environment, communities and local economy.

She told CNN the spill was a "call to action that we need to stop drilling off our precious California coast."

In Washington D.C., many California Democrats called for limiting or halting offshore drilling in the wake of the incident, as the overall impact is hard to assess at this point.

"The oil spill off the coast of Orange County reiterates the perils of offshore drilling," Senator Dianne Feinstein said in a statement. "This spill highlights why we must also take action to prevent future spills, including passing the West Coast Ocean Protection Act."

"Our bill would permanently ban oil and gas drilling in federal waters off the coast of California, Oregon and Washington," she added.

"We've seen time and time again how damaging offshore oil spills are to our coastal ecosystems as well as to our economy. We have the power to prevent future spills - that's why I'm committed to ending offshore oil drilling," Alex Padilla, another senator from the Golden State, wrote.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) on Monday released a statement criticizing Steel had special relationship with "Big Oil."

"While Michelle Steel aids and promotes Big Oil, Orange County beaches are devastated by one of the biggest oil spills in California history," a press release from the DCCC said.

"Michelle Steel is no stranger to aiding and promoting Big Oil. Her campaign coffers are flowing with cash from Big Oil and fossil fuel donors. Her legislative record is littered with attempts to block clean water and air protections. It's no wonder why Big Oil and Michelle Steel have each other's backs."

In response to the criticism, Steel's spokesperson Danielle Stewart was quoted by The Hill as saying that when Steel worked to help local communities affected by the incident, "DCCC staffers inside the Beltway are doing what they do best - sending political emails just to score points off of a tragedy in Orange County - pathetic."

Offshore drilling was restricted in California after a devastating 1969 oil spill off Santa Barbara, 150 kilometers north of the Los Angeles downtown, that spewed an estimated 3 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean, creating a slick 35 miles long along California's coast and killing thousands of birds, fish and sea mammals.

The Santa Barbara spill was the worst in the nation's history - until 20 years later, when the Exxon Valdez dumped 11 million gallons of crude off the coast of Alaska on March 24, 1989.

In Orange County, the latest mass oil spill incidents occurred on Feb. 7, 1990, when the oil tanker American Trader ran over its anchor in shallow water just about 2,200 meters off Huntington Beach. It spilled nearly 417,000 gallons of crude, killing many fish and about 3,400 birds.

Oil production off California's coast declined sharply since its peak in the 1990s, after the state passed some strict environmental rules, such as the the California Coastal Sanctuary Act passed by the state legislature in 1994, which prohibited the state from entering into any new leases within state tidelands.

In 2017, the California Senate passed a resolution opposing new oil or gas drilling in federal waters located offshore California.

In 2019, when the Donald Trump administration planned to lease sales along the country's coast and vastly expand offshore oil drilling from coast to coast, California passed a law prohibiting new leases for new construction of oil and gas-related infrastructure, such as pipelines, within state waters if the federal government authorizes any new offshore oil leases.

The state's current Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom said he would like to end oil drilling in the state by 2045. Enditem
FORMER First Lady Grace Mugabe yesterday filed a High Court application seeking to challenge an order by a Chinhoyi magistrate to exhume the remains of her late husband, former President Robert Mugabe for reburial at the National Heroes Acre, arguing that the lower court had no jurisdiction over such cases.

This was after Chinhoyi provincial magistrate Ruth Moyo recently dismissed an appeal by Mugabes daughter, Bona Chikore, against exhumation of the late former leaders remains.

In her application yesterday, Grace argued that the magistrate had no authority to deliver a ruling based on an appeal by her children if she felt they had no legal authority to file the appeal in the first place.

Moyo had dismissed the appeal by Bona and her siblings, Robert Jnr and Chatunga, against Chief Zvimba (Stanley Mhondoro), saying Grace was the one with legal authority to file the appeal.

Grace submitted to the High Court that on June 2, 2021, she wrote to Moyo after Chief Zvimba in May ordered that her husbands remains be exhumed and reburied at the National Heroes Acre.

Moyo ordered that she files a court application which would be dealt with in terms of proper procedure, and of which she did through her daughter, Bona.

Grace is now seeking an order to nullify the magistrates ruling saying it was not fair.

I am advised that the procedure that the first respondent directed is not in terms of the law, specifically that I prepare an application for review. The wrongful directive by the provincial magistrate and her clear neglect of duties is prejudicial to me in that it violates my right to equal protection before the law. I wish to direct the courts attention to the fact that this matter involves the former President of the Republic of Zimbabwe and to that end, has attracted so much public attention and put the Zimbabwean courts under unnecessary spotlight, Grace submitted.

Her subsequent refusal to review the community courts decision is an indication of her unpreparedness or unwillingness to dispose of the matter and that is clearly infringing on my constitutionally entrenched right to a fair hearing. I implore this honourable court to exercise its inherent judicial powers to correct and guide provincial magistrates who might find themselves in the situation of Moyo, particularly when matters of national interest as the present one have arisen.

Grace urged the High Court to conduct a review of Chief Zvimbas directive as Moyo had shown that she had no interest in dealing with the matter.

She said the proceedings at the community court were a nullity on the basis of improper service of summons.

Grace further urged the court to hear the application on an urgent basis, as the matter was tormenting her.

I am advised that the appeal process can take within six months to even two years depending on how inundated the High Court will be to accommodate appeals, she said.

This delay in time will be gravely unfair on me and my family as we have to be subjected under intense mental torture each day with the uncertainty of the resting place of my late husband and the former President of Zimbabwe.

She cited Moyo and Chief Zvimba as respondents. Newsday
BULAWAYO High Court Judge Justice Nokuthula Moyo has dismissed with costs the application by a nine-year-old pupil from Gwanda, who was suing teachers unions and Government.

Amuhelang Ulukile Dube, a pupil at Mafuko Primary School in Gwanda district, Matabeleland South, had sought an order barring teachers in public schools from striking over poor salaries and working conditions.

The minor, who is being represented by her grandmother, Ms Senzeni Nyathi, through her lawyers Ndove and Associates, had filed an urgent chamber application at the Bulawayo High Court.

In papers before the court, the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta), Zimbabwe Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions,

Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ), the chairperson of the Public Service Commission, Dr Vincent Hungwe, (former) Primary and Secondary Education Minister Cain Mathema, Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Professor Paul Mavima and Minister of Finance and Economic Development Professor Mthuli Ncube, were cited as respondents.

The application followed recent threats by teachers not to resume work until their demands for better salaries are met.

Teachers are demanding to be paid US$550 or its equivalent in local currency a month.

In her founding affidavit, Ms Nyathi said actions of the cited teachers unions and their members to refuse to take up classes over salary grievances and improved working conditions coupled with the non-intervention of the Government constitutes a violation of the childrens right to education as enshrined in sections 75 and 81 of the countrys Constitution.

She wanted the teachers unions together with their members interdicted from boycotting classes with all teachers being directed to report for duty within 48 hours of the granting of the order.

I further seek ancillary relief to the effect that the Government be ordered and mandated to provide teaching staff to ensure that there would be no interruption of teaching services or classes at all public primary and secondary schools in Zimbabwe so that the rights of the children are not violated, said Ms Nyathi.

The applicant said in the event that the teachers refuse to comply, Government should be directed to take all measures to ensure that there is no interruption of classes.

In dismissing the application, Justice Moyo ruled that Ms Nyathi failed to establish a locus standi in the matter by suing in her capacity despite the fact that she was not the minors guardian.

The applicant has not established locus standi in this matter and should have used the legal guardian, who is the father of this child, to sue in this matter, she said.

Justice Moyo said the applicants relief sought was also incompetent because it wanted the suspension of one right for the performance of another right on an interim basis.

Of course, the relief sought in the interim is clearly incompetent as the court cannot suspend one right in favour of another on an interim basis where clear rights have not been proven, she said.

In any event, how does one right get favoured against another in the interim? Justice Moyo said the application was not well thought out, badly crafted and rushed through.

Applicant should have withdrawn it, tendered wastes costs and be set on a properly founded and well-drawn application, she said.

It is in such matters that respondents are unfairly and unnecessarily put out of pocket. It is for these reasons that I will award costs on a higher scale. I accordingly dismiss the application with costs at a higher scale.

In their responses, the respondents through their lawyers, the Civil Division in the Attorney-Generals Office, Matsikidze Attorneys and the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, submitted that the application was fatally defective and hurried through without much thought being applied to many issues, including the proper citation of respondents.
SOUTH Africas Public Health Departments Directorate has started rejecting applications by health workers from Zimbabwe on grounds that its neighbour is currently facing a staff crisis due to migration.

This was revealed in a letter to some Zimbabwean applicants last week, which was signed by the South Africa public health director of workplace management, Sindile Sodladla.

The government of South Africa is obliged to adhere to all the relevant protocols between member States of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc), the African Union (AU) as well as World Health Organisation as it pertains to recruitment of health professionals from developing countries, Sodladla wrote.

These agreements, protocols and recruitment codes were designed to prevent the uncontrolled recruitment of health professionals from countries where the public health system is faced with huge staff shortages, particularly with regard to health professional occupations.

Sodladla said all public health sector employment authorities subscribed to relevant agreements, protocols and recruitment codes.

In view of the above, the department regrets to inform you that your application for endorsement towards registration and employment in South Africa was not successful. Your country, Zimbabwe, is not listed in the category of countries the RSA department of Health should recruit from, Sodladla said.

He indicated that the copy of the letter would be submitted to the South Africa Immigration authorities, Department of Home Affairs as well as the South Africa Nursing Council.

You are in your interest, advised to familiarise yourself with the relevant immigration legislation and not to depart to South Africa to promote your application for support. The department will not be in a position to reconsider your application, once you have arrived in the country, Sodladla further stated.

Migrant Workers Association-South Africa (MWA-SA) chairman Butholezwe Nyathi confirmed that some of the health professionals from Zimbabwe received such letters after they applied to be registered in that country.

We are further appalled by the re-introduction of this regulation that was adopted by the apartheid regime. This seeks to limit the international freedom of movement by the people. We wonder whether the leadership of the South African government and Sadc is pleased with the movement of the healthcare staff to the Western countries whereas they could be remaining in Africa to serve African people, Nyathi said.

He said MWA-SA would continue engaging labour federations like the South African Federation of Trade Unions, and Congress of South African Trade Unions, among many others within the Sadc region, to create migrants desks in their affiliates.

Nyathi said this would ensure that they facilitate the organisation of migrants, including their movements within the Sadc region for better socio-economic activities.

Zimbabwe Nurses Association president Enoch Dongo professed ignorance over the new development in South Africa.

He said if true, then it was against the Sadc and AU protocols on free movement and employment of Africans across the region.

If it is true, I think it will be an issue of a department taking matters into its own hands, because we do not have any agreement to that effect in the Sadc and AU, Dongo said.

That is not in line with the protocol that we know (Sadc Protocol on Employment and Labour). We expect a protocol that allows people to move around and get jobs around the region. This has to be explained.

Health deputy minister John Mangwiro said he was unable to immediately comment on the issue as he was locked in a meeting.

The Sadc Protocol on Employment and Labour (2014) enjoins member States to co-operate in all areas necessary to foster regional development and integration on the basis of balance, equity and mutual benefit, including labour, with reference to among others, social and human development, and social welfare. Newsday
GOVERNMENT has started working on bilateral arrangements with Rwanda to export local teachers to the east-central African nation.

This follows Rwandan President Paul Kagames call for the importation of Zimbabwean teachers.

Speaking during the Zimbabwe-Rwanda Investment and Trade Conference in Kigali last week, President Kagame said his country was willing to absorb as many Zimbabwean teachers as the country could offer.

He called on the two nations to work closely and provide teachers to his country.

Rwanda is one of Africas fastest rising economies and presents Zimbabwe with a lot of partnership opportunities.

Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Professor Paul Mavima said Government was excited to co-operate with Rwanda on exportation of teachers.

Im really glad that the Rwandan President has called on us to provide teachers. We are going to work as quickly as possible to come up with that bilateral arrangement.

And this one would serve as a model that we can use in other areas. We have medical professionals who are going abroad, we have social welfare officials who are going abroad, we have engineers who have gone to many places, said Prof Mavima.

We need to have a formal programme that makes sure that our country is benefiting from human capital development. By the way, the development of human capital is a national responsibility. We put money into training teachers, nurses and engineers, and we should, as a country, also benefit when our people go abroad.

He said countries such as China and Cuba, among other nations, benefit from exporting their skilled workers.

He said through a bilateral agreement, Zimbabwe could earn foreign currency through taxing professionals working in other countries.

This would be the first of its kind so that next time when we export our human capital, we would already have a model which we can base on. Its unlike in situations where people migrate individually and go to other countries.

This time its going to be a bilateral arrangement; we will know how many teachers we have sent there, he said.

We will also know what conditions of service they are going to work under, what kind of protection they have, what kind of taxation system, how do we have a system that part of their taxation in Rwanda benefits Zimbabwe in a formal manner.

Prof Mavima said he was confident that Zimbabwean teachers will shine, as they have proved in other nations.

This is why Rwanda is now saying give us your teachers because they are good. But Botswana is also running on Zimbabwean teachers, South Africa is running on Zimbabwean teachers, Namibia is running on Zimbabwean teachers. When you go to the United Kingdom, you find that when they do their annual competitions for teachers,

Zimbabwean teachers win there. I was surprised two to three years ago when I went to the UK, a Zimbabwean teacher had actually won 1 million for being the best teacher in that country, said Prof Mavima.

He said while exporting skills was necessary, the country should also work towards retaining some skilled labour.

We also need to take care of the motivation of teachers. We have to deal with the conditions of service of teachers as our economy grows. We need to make sure that our teachers are well remunerated so that we continue our human capital development, he said. Chronicle
A married Bulawayo church elders romantic photographs with a nurse have leaked and are circulating on social media.

Tichafara Mhene, a church elder under Zimbabwe Assemblies of God in Africa (ZAOGA) and a police officer at Ross Camp hospital, shot the pictures with a local hospital nurse Eva Chitemuswe.

In one of the leaked photographs, a minor believed to be Evas child is watching her mother receiving a kiss from Mhene.

Mhene, married to Convenience Mhene, was reported to have been seduced by Eva following Conveniences relocation to Australia.

Eva (a single mother of three children) and Mhenes illicit affair has threatened the latters church position and the former is reported to be behind the leaking of the romantic photographs.

Mhene told H-Metro that Eva was his sister.

I do not mind what church members are saying since I do not own a church, said Mhene.

Besides, that woman is my sister, he said refusing to answer further questions. Mhene is reported to have abandoned his police apartment at Southampton flat to cohabit with Eva at her Hillside house.

Eva is reported to have leaked the romantic photographs after learning about Mhenes plans to join his wife in Australia.

Mhene was taken to Evas rural home in Mutare where he was expected to pay lobola before making a sudden turn.

Contacted for comment, Eva could neither deny nor confirm tempting and exposing the man of cloth and guardian of law. I have no comment to that, said Eva before hanging the call.

In an interview, Convenience, nee Mbedzi was yet to know about Mhenes exposure that has become a talk at Ross Camp hospital where he is a nurse.

My husband is not a womanizer and I am yet to know about the photographs you are talking about, said Convenience.

However, H-Metro is reliably informed that Mhene and Mbedzi families held a meeting following the leaking of the photographs. H Metro
Port-Louis, Mauritius (PANA) - The Mauritian health authorities said on Monday that 201 positive cases iof COVID-19 were diagnosed in the country over the weekend
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Ex-Mayor of Russias Vladivostok arrested on graft allegations

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

11:11 04/10/2021

MOSCOW, October 4 (RAPSI)  A former Mayor of Russias Vladivostok Oleg Gumenyuk has been arrested on suspicion of taking bribes, the press service of the Investigative Committees Primorye Investigations Directorate has told RAPSI.

According to investigators, between 2019 and 2021, the suspect regularly received bribes from the administration of Neropol funeral agency and through mediators for the common protection in the funeral service delivery. In total, he received over 19.5 million rubles, the statement reads.

A criminal case is opened over bribetaking on especially large-scale.
Top cybersecurity executive challenges detention in treason case

 Social media pages of Sachkov

12:04 04/10/2021

MOSCOW, October 4 (RAPSI) - The chief executive of a leading Russian cybersecurity company Ilya Sachkov has filed an appeal against his detention in a treason case, RAPSI has learnt from the press service of Moscows Lefortovsky District Court.

The head of Group-IB was arrested and placed in detention in late September for two months. Details of the case have not been disclosed as the case is classified.

The appeal against detention will be considered by the Moscow City Court.

Group-IB is one of the most prominent Russian cyber security firms. Sachkov took part in the expert committees of Russias State Duma, Foreign Ministry and other bodies. Sberbank, Tinkoff Bank, Baring Vostok, Roscosmos, Chamber of Commerce and Industry.




Appeal against top cybersecurity executive's detention in treason case set for October 21

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

14:59 04/10/2021

MOSCOW, October 4 (RAPSI)  The Moscow City Court will hear an appeal filed against detention of the founder of a leading Russian cybersecurity company Ilya Sachkov charged with treason on October 21, the courts press service has told RAPSI.

The head of Group-IB was arrested and placed in detention in late September for two months. Details of the case have not been disclosed as the case is classified.

Group-IB is one of the most prominent Russian cyber security firms. Sachkov took part in the expert committees of Russias State Duma, Foreign Ministry and other bodies. Sberbank, Tinkoff Bank, Baring Vostok, Roscosmos, Chamber of Commerce and Industry.




Detention of former newspaper journalist charged with treason prolonged for 3 months

 RAPSI, Eugeny Varlamov

16:16 04/10/2021

MOSCOW, October 4 (RAPSI)  The Moscow City Court on Monday extended detention of the former journalist for Kommersant newspaper Ivan Safronov charged with treason until January 7, the courts press service told RAPSI.

Earlier, President Vladimir Putin said that Safronov had been charged over his activities as advisor to a head of the state corporation Roscosmos but not for his journalistic work. Allegedly, he transferred information to officers of one of the European intelligence bodies, Putin added.

Safronov was apprehended and detained in July 2020. After his arrest, the Roscosmos press service said the case was not connected with the work in the company. Treason charges were brought against him on July 13.

Investigators claim Safronov has transmitted secret military information to the Czech intelligence services which, as it known, are linked to the U.S. security agencies. The defendant pleads not guilty.

The former reporter of Kommersant and Vedomosti newspapers was appointed as advisor of Dmitry Rogozin in May 2020 after a scandal related to the publication of an explosive article about possible resignation of the Federation Council head Valentina Matviyenko.
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
'Bigg Boss 15' hosted by Salman Khan has started and this time as the theme is 'jungle' so contestants are experiencing altogether different situations.

As the contestants settle inside the house, the 'sankat' in the jungle has started creeping in. We already saw Donal Bisht was saved from the nomination as Ieeshan Sehgal nominated himself and during a conversation with other contestants Umar Riaz called Donal manipulative.

Also Afsana Khan shares about her marriage in November with other contestants and how she has put her wedding plans on hold for this show. Jay Bhanushali suggested to Ieeshan that he should open up as he is nominated for the week and needs votes. There were also some heated conversations among the participants.

In today's episode a big fight erupted between Afsana and Vidhi right after 'Bigg Boss' commanded everyone to turn in their belongings except for the essentials. As Vidhi hurried everyone to follow the order, Afsana suddenly lost her nerve and started screaming at her. "Tu hoti kaun hai mujhe bolne waali?" (who are you to say all this to me) she fired at her. Equally strong-willed herself, Vidhi also lashed out at Afsana, threatening to hit her to quieten her down.

Meanwhile, another fight took place between Jay and Pratik. The continuous shenanigans of Pratik regarding the house rules irked Jay and Umar. While Jay warned Pratik to watch his mouth, the latter hit back by bringing up orders from Bigg Boss. While Umar and Karan sided with Jay, Nishant took Pratik's side. Thus alliances have started forming in the jungle, where survival will become challenging with every passing minute!

'Bigg Boss 15' airs every Monday to Friday at 10:30 pm and Saturday-Sunday at 9:30 pm on COLORS.
An RSS-linked magazine has taken potshots at the Congress and its former President Rahul Gandhi, saying the country's oldest political party is passing through its "worst-ever phase" due to "an immature and careless leader".

In its cover story on Rahul Gandhi for the October 10 edition, the Panchjanya, criticised the working style of the Congress leader, saying "the rahu kaal (bad phase) of Congress begins with Rahul".

Citing the internal bickering and disagreements in the Congress, the magazine said as long as seasoned leader Ahmed Patel was alive, he used to prepare party strategies on the basis of party interim chief Sonia Gandhi's suggestions, and also provided "necessary balance" to Rahul Gandhi. However, the situation has changed now, the magazine noted.

Alleging that Rahul's sister Priyanka Gandhi, the party's General Secretary, and her husband Robert Vadra, have their own "ambitions", Panchjanya said even Vadra believes that his wife has more potential than Rahul Gandhi, and she is not just capable of contesting election from any seat but also emerging victorious.

On the recent developments in Punjab, the magazine said naming Charanjit Singh Channi as the new Chief Minister in place of veteran leader Captain Amarinder Singh -- whom the Panchjanya described as later former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's friend -- and terming it a "masterstroke" turned out a joy cut short moment following state chief Navjot Singh Sidhu's resignation.

Taking a dig at the Congress high command, Panchjanya accused the Congress, during its long period of governance, of only promoting division among people and poverty, and now since it is out of power, the party is struggling with infighting.

It also held the "owners of the house" responsible for the current political scenario the Congress is dealing with in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

The magazine also questioned the Congress over former Left leader and former JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar's inclusion into the party fold, saying "tomorrow he might claim to be a taller leader than Rahul Gandhi by standing on his shoulders".

It further said the Congress needs to do some serious introspection to save the party, adding it is necessary to have a competent Opposition in the democracy, and "it's not the responsibility of those in power to strengthen the Opposition".
Four of a family were killed and another injured when the car they were travelling in collided with a truck coming from opposite direction in Bihar's Rohtas district on Monday.

The accident took place at the Sabrabad village under the Chenari police station on Sasaram Arrah state highway

The deceased were identified as Diwakar Saw, Krishna Kumar Saw, Gopal Prasad Saw and Ashok Gupta, who died on the spot. Another person, Pappu Gupta, was seriously injured and was taken to Varanasi for treatment.

The victims were going to the Moradabad village near Sasaram city to fix the marriage of Diwakar's niece. When they reached Sabrabad village, their car collided with a speeding truck coming from the opposite direction.

"We heard a loud sound after the impact of both vehicles. The local villagers reached at the spot and rescued one of the victims," said a villager in a statement to the police.

"The villagers informed us about the accident near Sabrabad village. The car was mangled due to the intense impact of the accident. We have recovered the dead bodies after cutting the car using gas cutters," said P. Sharma, investigating officer of the Chenari police station.

"We have registered an FIR under rash and negligent driving amounting to deaths against the errant driver of the truck. He will be arrested soon," the official said.
Kapil Sibal on Monday came out in support of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra after she was stopped and detained by the Uttar Pradesh Police from going to Lakhimpur Kheri.

Sibal tweeted, "Priyanka Gandhi Her detention is illegal. In a State where lawlessness is the norm; where the perception is that in such situations violation of personal liberty is guaranteed.

"Instead of prosecuting those responsible, you detain those who seek justice."

He had earlier on Sunday said, "Lakhimpur Kheri incident Convoy of Union Minister riding over farmers as if their lives don't matter! The minister be sacked; the role of all concerned including the state government be assessed An independent enquiry be conducted by a sitting Judge."

The statement comes after Kapil Sibal questioned the Congress leadership last week and alleged that the party decisions 'are being taken without consultation' and demanded elections in the party.

Meanwhile, Priyanka said she has not been told why she has been detained and not allowed to meet lawyers.

She was detained from Hargaon in Sitapur district while she was on her way to Lakhimpur Kheri where violence had reportedly claimed nine lives on Sunday.

A video of Priyanka sweeping a room with a broom has gone viral on social media. According to sources, the video is of the room where Priyanka has been detained since Monday morning at the Sitapur PAC headquarters.

The room was apparently dirty and Priyanka asked for a broom and cleaned it herself.

The Congress workers slammed the police officials for not even giving a clean room to their leader.

"Is this their Swachh Bharat? This is our leader who is cleaning the broom without any fuss," said a local Congress leader.
The National Highway-24, which was barricaded by the Ghaziabad Police early on Monday, is now functional and the movement of traffic has returned to normal, the Delhi Traffic Police said here.

Earlier, in the morning, the Delhi Traffic Police were forced to divert traffic on several roads as both NH-9 and NH-24, which connect the national capital with Uttar Pradesh and are among the key routes towards the Ghazipur border, were barricaded by the Ghaziabad Police.

Informing about the closure, the Delhi Traffic Police had said that diversion was created at the Akshardham Setu towards Noida and Vikas Marg for Ghaziabad. "The traffic was diverted from Road number-57A to Hasanpur Karkari Mod for Shahdara, Anand Vihar and Ghaziabad," the Traffic Police added.

The traffic was diverted from roundabout Ghazipur towards Anand Vihar, Bhopura border (Ghaziabad) via Road number-56 and from roundabout Murga Mandi towards Dr Hedgewar Marg and Nala Road up to UP Gate, Ghaziabad, for Vaishali, Vasundhara, and Ghaziabad through Ghazipur Paper Market.

Earlier, the Delhi Traffic Police had advised commuters going to Ghaziabad from Sarai Kale Khan to take an alternate route.

"Commuters coming from Sarai Kale Khan, take an alternate route for Ghaziabad i.e. Vikas Marg via Road Number-57A, Road Number 56, Anand Vihar and Paper Market for Ghaziabad and for Noida through the DND," the Traffic Police had tweeted which was later deleted.

The heavy barricading comes in the wake of violence at a farmers' protest in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri that left at least eight people dead and 15 others injured. The protest took a violent turn as unknown persons opened fire at the farmers on Sunday, following which angry farmers set three jeeps on fire after some of the protesters were run over by the vehicles. One of the vehicles allegedly belongs to Ashish Mishra, the son of the Union Minister Ajay Mishra.

Since Sunday, the incident became a political hotspot with leaders from the opposition parties targeting the ruling Uttar Pradesh government and vowed to visit the incident site.
Hundreds of Afghans used fake documents to prove their association with a particular media outlet in Afghanistan to flee the country, Pajhwok Afghan News reported.

The trend of fake documentation to show a particular individual worked in a designated media outlet in Afghanistan accelerated after the US launched evacuation process of Afghans.

After the fall of Ashraf Ghani government on August 15, thousands of Afghans stormed the Kabul Airport in a quest to flee to a foreign country.

It is worth mentioning that so far over 110,000 people have been evacuated and the process is underway, the report said.

Insecurity, poverty, loss of job, uncertain future for girls and women and some other reasons prompted a number of Afghans to flee the country in the US-led evacuation process, the report said.

Some media outlets and civil society organizations in Afghanistan have started offering fake documents -- employment card, HR letter, experience letter, recommendation letter and other relevant documents and even they are campaigning to provide fake documents in social media pages, the report added.

An employee of an embassy who wished to go unnamed, said, "I know a large number of journalists who stay in Afghanistan; but hundreds of other people traveled abroad in the name of journalists using fake documents, one of my relative is an example who did not study journalism and did not work with media; but former defence ministry spokesman, Fawad Aman, made cards for two shopkeepers who are now in the US."

He said that a lot of fakery was involved in making documents for people trying to go abroad. Associations of journalists are also involved in this, he added.

"Many people used their relations, even local radio stations which broadcast on the rural area are misused for this. These media outlets provided HR letters as well as ID cards for their relatives and friends to help them escape. Most of government officials who had relations with media referred to media such as journalists associations, including Nai office, for HR letter," the source said, as per the report.
Berlin, Germany -- (SBWIRE) -- 10/04/2021 -- Millions of euros are being invested by the European Union in the development of a next-generation cybersecurity platform that can swiftly identify, address, and evaluate cyber threats. A statement from the European Commission revealed that the European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a 15 million deal with a Dutch cybersecurity firm that specialises in threat intelligence, hunting, and response technologies and services. The money will be used to accelerate the development of the company's unique cybersecurity platform, which allows organisations to "keep ahead of rapidly evolving threats and outmaneuver attackers," according to Joep Gommers, the company's CEO and co-founder.



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On October 1, 2021, BepiColombo  a joint endeavor between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)  flew past the planet Mercury for a gravity assist manoeuvre.

BepiColombo blasted off from Europes Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on October 20, 2018.

The mission is named after Professor Giuseppe (Bepi) Colombo from the University of Padua, Italy, a mathematician and engineer of astonishing imagination.

It is the first European mission to Mercury and is the first to send two spacecraft to make complementary measurements of the planet and its dynamic environment at the same time.

BepiColombo consists of two individual orbiters: ESAs Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXAs Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO, or Mio).

From complementary orbits, they will study all aspects of mysterious Mercury from the planets core to surface processes, magnetic field and exosphere, to better understand the origin and evolution of a planet close to its parent star.

The October 1, 2021 gravity assist manoeuvre was the first at Mercury and the fourth of nine flybys overall.

During its seven-year cruise to the smallest and innermost planet of the Solar System, BepiColombo makes one flyby at Earth, two at Venus and six at Mercury to help steer on course for Mercury orbit in 2025.

As it flew past the planet for a gravity assist manoeuvre on October 1, the spacecraft captured several images of Mercury.

The images were taken at 23:44 UTC by the Mercury Transfer Modules monitoring cameras, when the spacecraft was over 2,400 km (1,500 miles) from Mercury.

The closest approach of about 199 km (124 miles) took place shortly before, at 23:34 UTC.

The region shown is part of Mercurys northern hemisphere including Sihtu Planitia that has been flooded by lavas, said members of the BepiColombo team.

A round area smoother and brighter than its surroundings characterizes the plains around the Calvino crater, which are called the Rudaki Plains.

The 166 km- (103-mile) wide Lermontov crater is also seen, which looks bright because it contains features unique to Mercury called hollows where volatile elements are escaping to space.

It also contains a vent where volcanic explosions have occurred. BepiColombo will study these types of features once in orbit around the planet.
The Auckland Airport Board has appointed Carrie Hurihanganui as the companys new Chief Executive.

Auckland Airport Chair Patrick Strange said: I am delighted to announce the appointment of Carrie Hurihanganui as Chief Executive. She is a highly regarded leader in aviation who joins Auckland Airport following one of the most challenging times in its history. We are confident that her leadership, operational knowledge and focus on customer experience will ensure Auckland Airport's strong recovery from the pandemic and return to growth as the emerging robust recovery in international aviation and travel reaches New Zealand.

Carrie Hurihanganui is Auckland Airports first female Chief Executive in its 55-year history. She joins the airport from Air New Zealand where she has worked for 21 years, most recently in the role of Chief Operating Officer with responsibility for pilots, cabin crew, airports, engineering and maintenance, properties and infrastructure, supply chain, resourcing and airline operations teams.

Ms Hurihanganui said: Its a real honour to be named the next Chief Executive of Auckland Airport, a great New Zealand company that has a critical role to play in our countrys economy. I have a long history with the airport and I am very excited by the opportunities that lie ahead. I look forward to working closely with the Board, the airport team and all of the airport's partners as we continue to deliver for New Zealand and support the countrys recovery.

Mr Strange said Ms Hurihanganui will replace Adrian Littlewood who announced his departure in May after almost nine years in the role.

I would like to thank Adrian for his dedication and exceptional leadership over many years, during which time he has led a sustained period of growth and development and seen the company through the immense disruption of a global pandemic. He has done a great job for the Airport and, through his wider leadership, for New Zealand. We wish him all the very best for the future, said Mr Strange.

Mr Littlewood will finish in his role on November 12 and Mary-Liz Tuck has been appointed interim Chief Executive. She will return to her role as Auckland Airports General Manager Corporate Services when Ms Hurihanganui commences in the role early in the new year.

Please see the link below for details

Auckland Airport announces new Chief Executive

Source: Auckland International Airport Limited

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Philipsburg  On Wednesday, September 29, the Honorable Minister of Justice Anna E. Richardson visited the National Police Academy in Apeldoorn, Netherlands as her last stop before returning to Sint Maarten. Minister Richardson received a warm welcome from Team Chief and Project Leader for Education in the Dutch Caribbean Region, Mr. Rob Appelhof and Sector Head of Basic Police Education of the Police Academy, Mr. Rik de Boer. During the work visit, a presentation was given as it relates to the institution, the curriculum, and the training that the National Police Academy offers in the Netherlands and in Sint Maarten.

The Police Force of Sint Maarten (KPSM) currently benefits from a cooperation agreement whereby instructors from the National Police Academy visit Sint Maarten to administer courses. Minister Richardson sees this cooperation as an added value for KPSM however, she firmly believes that an on-campus experience is more impactful and ingraining. As such, the Ministry of Justice is exploring opportunities for officers in training to be afforded an opportunity to experience a blended education trajectory that includes either the ORV (Opleidingsinstituut Rechtshandhaving en Veiligheid) Institute in Curacao or the National Police Academy in the Netherlands.

Minister Richardson was particularly intrigued by Mr. Appelhofs vision to develop a unified learning curriculum for all the police forces within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. He foresees a future where the Caribbean countries of the Kingdom along with the Dutch Caribbean municipalities (Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba) each have their own accredited training institute in an effort to train all officers within the Kingdom in a uniformed manner. This is in total alignment with Minister Richardsons vision and pursuit to have the Law Enforcement Institute of Sint Maarten, established.

Having a tour of the National Police Academy in the Netherlands gave Minister Richardson and her support staff a chance to see the various classrooms and training equipment needed to ensure the institute is outfitted with the necessary environments to help facilitate specialized courses and more. As the National Police Academy has seven locations in the Netherlands, Minister Richardson requested that the blueprint of the most modern institution be shared with her, so that the design for the Law Enforcement Institute of Sint Maarten can use this as a guide when the design is being made.

During the discussions, Minister Richardson stated her wish to support KPSM and its officers to be the best that they can be and queried about the areas of improvement needed. Mr. Appelhof stated that a fitness and dojo facility are needed for KPSM so that they can conduct proper fitness training for the staff. Prior to hurricanes Irma and Maria, equipment was shipped to Sint Maarten for this purpose, however, the intended space was damaged. The equipment remains secured, however, the Ministry is in need of a location to execute the training.

Minister Richardson and her delegation were also given an opportunity to experience the virtual shooting range. With the virtual shooting system, the cost of purchasing ammunition for training can be reduced significantly. Where the National Police Academy once used over two thousand rounds of ammunition, they can now use less than one thousand rounds of ammunition as officers first sharpen their skills on the virtual platform and test these skills with live ammunition thereafter. This is a direction Minister Richardson wishes to explore for Sint Maarten as a means to also reduce cost.

Mr. Appelhof and his team expressed much gratitude to Minister Richardson for visiting their institution. He expressed that it was quite an honor that the Minister saw it of importance to visit and learn about their National Police Academy. This working visit paves the way for the opportunity to make a connection and build a meaningful working relationship with the National Police Academy in the best interest of KPSM.

Mr. Appelhof is expected to visit Sint Maarten in the coming weeks in connection with an upcoming graduating class of KPSM. During that visit, Mr. Appelhof and Minister Richardson will meet again to discuss their vision and plans.

Minister Richardson expressed her commitment to strengthening all agencies within the Ministry of Justice. That is the purpose of my work visit to the Netherlands. Mission accomplished! stated Minister Richardson.

"I am grateful that this work visit has brought much awareness and many connections in various areas that directly or indirectly affect the services of the Justice chain in Sint Maarten. The face-to-face meetings have intrigued our colleagues and partners in the Netherlands to work more closely with us, to support us, and give guidance where and when necessary as we are all dealing with the same or similar matters," she continued.

The real work begins as my team and I forge forward to apply what we have learned. There are a lot of changes and improvements up ahead. I assure the civil servants of the Ministry of Justice and the people of Sint Maarten that all efforts are geared towards the overall betterment of our justice system with the sole interest of protection, safety and, security. concluded Minister Richardson.
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/var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17

/usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149



Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fcb2c7858)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fcb31f120)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fcb2c7858)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fcb31f120)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fcb1ab0f8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fcb31f120)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fcb31f120)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fcaa9d158)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fcb2cd930)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fcb2cd930)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
System error

error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.

context: ... 21: </%method> 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25

/usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951

/var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17

/usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149



Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fcb1826d8)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fcb336728)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fcb1826d8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fcb336728)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fcb2aeda0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fcb336728)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fcb336728)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fcaa9cf38)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fcb322738)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fcb322738)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
System error

error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.

context: ... 21: </%method> 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25

/usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951

/var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17

/usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149



Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fcb13b858)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fcb2c5f08)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fcb13b858)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fcb2c5f08)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fcb3348a8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fcb2c5f08)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fcb2c5f08)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fcaa9c668)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fcb2c5fe0)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fcb2c5fe0)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
System error

error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.

context: ... 21: </%method> 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25

/usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951

/var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17

/usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149



Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fcb319260)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fcb324cd8)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fcb319260)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fcb324cd8)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fcb30e370)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fcb324cd8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fcb324cd8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fcaa9cfb0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fcb3b9a60)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fcb3b9a60)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
Radio operators demonstrate how to communicate when disaster strikes

Amateur radio operators in central Illinois held a practice session Saturday to demonstrate how to keep up communication when disaster strikes.

Peoria County's Amateur Radio Emergency Service - or "ARES" - held the session in Alpha Park. There, they communicated with other radio operators all around the country.

Organizers say if cell phones, landlines, and the internet go down during a storm or something worse, radio is the next best option - and a great way to communicate with the American Red Cross and other rescue agencies.

"This gives us an opportunity to get out and get some real-world practice out in the field with our equipment and our people - practicing various techniques that are used," emergency communicator Rich Holtman said.

Holtman added radio was especially important during the November 2013 tornado that hit Tazewell County, as it allowed for much quicker communication with the Red Cross when phone systems were out of commission.

Watch the video at

https://week.com/2021/10/02/radio-operators-demonstrate-how-to-communicate-when-disaster-strikes/
The State Intelligence Service (SIS) celebrated its 80th Anniversary in a simple ceremony on Oct 01, 2021 under the auspices of Defence Secretary Gen. Kamal Gunaratne (Retd) gracing as the Chief Guest and the ceremony was held in keeping with COVID-19 health guidelines.

The Anniversary celebrations commenced with a wreath laying ceremony at the War Memorial at the SIS Head Office on the previous day to commemorate its fallen War Heroes followed by a religious ceremony held to usher blessings on the country, War Heroes, the agency and all members of its staff.

The SIS traces its roots to the early 1940s when on October 01, 1941 it was formed as a special branch of the Criminal Investigations Department. After going through many nominal and structural changes over the years, it finally came to be known in its present name in 2006 and continues its pivotal service in ensuring national security.

Under the guidance of His Excellency the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and with the direction of the Defence Secretary Gen Kamal Gunaratne (Retd.), the SIS has entered into a new dimension of operations in keeping with the Presidents visionary programme to ensure national security and nation building.

In keeping with the Presidents vision and evolving times along with requirements of the country, the SIS has entered on a new journey harnessing the inherent professionalism and skill of its men, adopting innovation, enhancing the welfare of its men and in a conducive working environment.

Signifying the importance of reaching the milestone of 80 years, the Oak Anniversary celebrations also saw the launching of the book Silent Guardians compiled on the prestigious history and services of the SIS.

The first copy was presented to the Defence Secretary Gen. Gunaratne during the event. In addition, a newly composed theme song of the State Intelligence Service was also launched during the proceedings. The occasion also further considered commemoration of the heroes who sacrificed their lives for the betterment of the country, paying tribute to the members of those families, appreciation of service of officers who extended continuous service for over 35 years and retired as well as those in service over 35 years and further encouragement of the children of the officers for their higher educational achievements.

Speaking at the ceremony, the Defence Secretary recalled the significant service of the SIS during the Humanitarian Operations to defeat the LTTE terrorists who had caused mayhem and bloodshed in the motherland for three decades. The exceptional service of the SIS in the national campaign to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in the last two years also came under the praise of the Defence Secretary.

He was also of the view that the SIS and other intelligence services which have primarily focused on anti-terrorist and extremist operations, while expanding their operational sphere are also expected to contribute their services to achieve desired outcomes in other fields such as health, food and environment sectors in keeping with the Presidents visionary programme to ensure national security and nation building.

The ceremony held under the guidance of the Director General of the SIS was attended by Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security Maj. Gen. Jagath Alwis (Retd), IGP Chandana Wickramaratne, Chief of National Intelligence Maj. Gen. Ruwan Kulatunga (Retd) and tri forces intelligence heads.
From this Monday, 4 October, the UK's coronavirus red-amber-green traffic light system for travel will be replaced by a single red list and a "rest of world" group formed by countries currently on the green and amber lists.

Covid travel requirements for people entering England will also be simplified. Fully vaccinated travellers entering England from countries not on the red list - including Spain - will no longer have to take a pre-departure test, However, they will still have to take a PCR test two days after arrival in England, although the UK's Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that later in October this requirement will be replaced by a cheaper lateral flow test.

The end of these restrictions should give a boost to the tourist sector on the Costa del Sol with hopes that it will mark a mass arrival of British holidaymakers and lead to an extension of the high season in Malaga province.

Airline seats

Data from Costa del Sol Tourism shows that the airlines are also expecting a rebound in British tourism in the last few months of the year, with some 776,824 seats on offer to Malaga in the last third of the year, higher than the 727,617 between July and September, a period when departures were subject to updates to the traffic light system, which could change travel requirements if a country went from the green list to the amber or the red list, and quarantine was imposed upon return from the trip.

The United Kingdom is, by far, the main international source market for holidaymakers on the Costa del Sol, and the one in which the tourism sector has placed its confidence that it will be a key driver for the destination until the end of the year. The Netherlands is the second-placed country offering air capacity with 206,964 seats. National tourism and flights from other Spanish airports will offer a total of 574,012 seats to Malaga, some 119 per cent more than last year.

'We have been waiting a long time'

The vice president of the Junta de Andalucia and Minister of Tourism, Juan Marin, has applauded "the return" of British tourism in Andalucia after the decision of the United Kingdom to eliminate the obligation to present a negative PCR on the return trip from the beginning of October.

"We are crazy to receive them, we have been waiting a long time for them. Their average expenditure is much higher than national tourists, with longer overnight stays, so it is positive news for the economy," said Marin.
The more than 35.2 million people in Spain over 18 years of age who have already had the full coronavirus vaccination schedule, or who are still receiving it, will be called again over the next six months to receive a third dose of a Covid vaccine. In all cases it will be from Pfizer, regardless of the formula they received the first time.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has this Monday, 4 October, authorised the administration of an "additional" ('booster') dose to all adults of the 27 EU member states.

Since 6 September, the EMAs Committee for Human Medicines (CHMP), has been immersed in an "accelerated evaluation" of the application of the North American giant, Pfizer, that "shows an increase in antibody levels when a booster dose is given approximately six months after the second dose in people aged 18 to 55 years.

Delta variant

The laboratory pointed out that a third dose produces levels of antibodies against the Delta variant five times higher in people between 18 and 55 years old and more than 11 times in people between 65 and 85 years old, compared to the levels that are reached. after only two doses.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla noted two months ago that the company's own studies confirmed that the effectiveness of its vaccine with just two doses drops to 84 per cent four to six months after administration. Bourla explained that the company's data shows that the maximum effectiveness of its formula is 96.2 per cent, but only during the two months after receiving the two inoculations. Then, the effectiveness drops an average of 6 per cent every two months, according to the study by Pfizer itself, in which 44,000 people from the United States and other countries participated but which, as is the case with research on the vaccine and Delta, has not yet been peer-reviewed.

Revaccination of adults

The decision of the regulator gives the green light for universal revaccination of adults, regardless of their health status or whether they are in groups more or less exposed to the virus.

With this ruling, the EMA goes even further than authorities in the United States, United Kingdom or Israel, who had limited themselves to recommending the third jab only in the oldest age groups and certain groups of workers.

In Spain, until now, this booster dose was reserved exclusively for people with organ transplants, hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients, patients receiving anti-CD20 drugs or very high-risk immunosuppressive treatments and those residents nursing homes.

Today's decision by the EMA is a near total victory for the consortium of Pfizer and BioNTech, which had actually requested authorisation to revaccinate the entire population over 16 years of age. The EMA, under pressure from most European countries, who are in favour of giving third doses to the largest number of their inhabitants, even rejected the opinion of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which considered that "a booster dose is not urgent" in the general population.

Pfizer vaccine stocks

Practically all European countries have excess stock of Pfizer doses to start this new campaign with minimal delay. In the case of Spain, the regions keep more than 4 million injectables in their refrigerators, which could begin to expire in the coming weeks if they are not released.
As the Spanish authorities wait for the European Medicines Agency's ruling on who should receive a third coronavirus 'booster' jab, the Ministry of Health has asked the regions not to dismantle their mass vaccination centres, just yet, in anticipation of giving a third dose to the nine-million people over the age of 65.

Sources have suggested that the EMA could this Monday, 4 October, "significantly" expand the group of people for whom a third dose of a Pfizer vaccine is "recommended".

Spain has already begun to revaccinate the nearly 350,000 residents of nursing homes - although without the approval of the European regulator.

Spanish authorities have said that if the EMA gives the green light to the revaccination of all those over 65 years of age new a massive administration campaign could be launched "in a matter of days or weeks at most" to reach the more than 9 million inhabitants in Spain who are over 65 years of age.

No problem

It is estimated that Spain currently has 4 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine stored in freezers and the Ministry of Health is confident that the remaining 5 million doses will arrive in a timely manner from the German-American consortium, that has more than fulfilled their commitments, after the initial production problems in January. Department officials are confident that there will be "absolutely no problem" getting the extra dose of Pfizer to everyone over the age of 65 before the end of the year.

More complex will be establishing schedules for the revaccination of the general population. In the Ministry of Health they believe it "unlikely" that the EMA, in the short term, will recommend a third jab for all those over 16 years of age. The position of the EMA in recent weeks has been the same as that of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which advocates that an "additional dose" should be injected to people with weakened immune systems, but "did not consider the need for a booster dose in the general population as urgent.

Jabs for under-12s

There is also no short-term likelihood of Spain being able to establish a vaccination schedule for children under 12 years of age. Pfizer has not yet formally submitted the results of its trials on the effects of its prophylaxis among children aged 11 to 6 years and among children aged 5 years to 6 months to the EMA.
Swimming Monkeys: Genesis (Book 1 in the Swimming Monkeys Trilogy)

Written by: Steve Hadden

Available In: eBook|Paperback

Author Website: http://www.stevehadden.com/

An Impossible PromiseA Remarkable DiscoveryA Decision for Mankind

When Ryan Webster is summoned to a Miami hospice by his dying grandfather, he knows his heros life is about to end. A renowned zoologist and founder of the worlds most famous primate park, his grandfather tells Ryan about a remarkable species of monkey kept secret by the Webster men since their discovery in 1926, the year after the Scopes Monkey Trial. Ryan makes an impossible promise when hes told he has a unique gift and agrees that only he can save them and decide if the world is now ready to deal with the fallout from their revelation.

As Ryan follows his grandfathers clues to California and beyond, hes tracked by a relentless mercenary, targeted by radical Christians and hunted by the worlds most famous atheist. Aided by his crazy Iraqi War veteran turned surfer-dude uncle and the most enchanting but deadly woman hes ever met, Ryan discovers the monkeys can do much more than swim, and he learns their revelation will shock evolutionist, rock the foundation of the Bible and transform the life of every human being on earth.

Now, his only hope to stay alive is to save the monkeys and live up to his promise to the greatest man he ever knewand in the process become the man hes not ready to be.

Swimming Monkeys: Genesis is an extraordinary thriller that blends real-science and riveting fiction to examine the on-going struggle between science and religion and the fallout that could affect us all.
By Mohammad Igbaria

igbariam@grinnell.edu

Wait times for students wanting Student Health and Wellness (SHAW) mental health services have lagged past a week, at minimum, in recent years, but SHAW is now shifting to fix that.

The Virtual Care Group is Dean of Health and Wellness Terry Masons answer to SHAWs limited accessibility, as its able to provide counseling and therapy with an average wait time of 16 minutes or less and with counselors available 24 hours a day, every day of the week. Mason said that the Virtual Care Group is the tool best suited for students who need immediate and continued mental health services.

When SHAW transitioned to remote treatment options during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mason began searching for a more accessible way of giving students a more accessible and rapidly available option for treating their mental health needs. Through this search, he found the Virtual Care Group.

Currently, SHAW only has one part-time counselor and two full-time counselors. With the Virtual Care Group, students have access to more than 1,000 counselors and 20 medical doctors. Through this service, students can select which counselor they would like to meet with based on specializations and experiences.

Mason took the helm at SHAW as Dean of Health and Wellness in February 2020, six weeks before Grinnell Colleges campus shut down and students were sent home. After meeting with several individuals and student groups on campus, Mason set his sights on what he saw as SHAWs most critical problem: student accessibility to mental health resources.

The thing that I heard was that, you know, the services provided by SHAW were great, said Mason. I mean, people appreciated what they got if they got it. So one thing that was really, really clear is that the biggest, the number one complaint was accessibility.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began to reach its height in March 2020, Grinnell College shut down, and SHAW had to switch to telehealth, its virtual model for treating students medical and mental health needs. However, while online, SHAW counselors are only licensed to provide therapy and mental health help to students in Iowa.

So as students who relied on SHAW counseling left Grinnell to return to their hometowns and states, those leaving Iowa suddenly found themselves without regular or consistently available mental health services accessible through the College.

For the limited number of students on campus during the 2020-2021 academic year, SHAWs online counseling met their needs.

Charles Yung `24 reached out to SHAWs counseling services in Spring Term 2, and said he was able to meet virtually with a counselor in less than a week.

I think personally for me they helped, Yung said. Just helped me organize my mind a little bit.

But students who were not on campus last year and those who were moving out at the end of Spring Term 1 and 2 found themselves in a less accommodating position.

So one thing that was really, really clear is that the biggest, the number one complaint was accessibility.  Terry Mason, Dean of Health and Wellness

In the case of one student, SHAWs telehealth services proved to be crucial in the treatment of their mental health needs, and remaining on campus and in-state was necessary to continue the counseling that they had received after starting classes in January 2021.

The student, who requested to remain anonymous, said they first reached out to SHAW in early February 2021, about one week after they first got to campus. This student was able to begin counseling through SHAW within a week of reaching out and continued counseling their entire time on campus.

The person at SHAW was very kind and supportive, so that meant a lot, said the student. After I went through a certain incident in March, he especially was super supportive and it helped things get better for a few weeks.

Once Spring 1 began coming to a close, however, the student realized that remaining on campus was their only option for continuing mental health treatment.

I realized after starting therapy that I would quickly lose it because I am from [out-of-state], and SHAW is only licensed in Iowa, said the student.

They said that they petitioned to remain on campus for Spring 2, but that this request was not approved by the Division of Student Affairs due to it being filed after the deadline. The student said that despite their SHAW therapist reaching out to DSA and strongly requesting that they be allowed to remain on campus to continue therapy, the petition request was still denied.

So I was sent home, the student said.

Since returning home and losing regular access to SHAWs mental health services, the student said they have relied on less frequent counseling options like MDLive.

This has been very hard to use because I can only speak with a licensed therapist once every four to six weeks, the student said. I dont know if this happened to anyone else, but I wanted to somehow get this out so that this doesnt happen to more people.

Sarah Moschenross, Vice President of Student Affairs, said that she could not comment on an individual students situation for privacy reasons.

We would take a good look at a holistic picture of the situation  and, yes, SHAWs expertise would be heavily considered, and their opinion on the matter would be important to the decisions of the committee, she said about generally handling student mental health matters during the petition review process.

The people who are doing this work, its very emotional work and they do their very best. And they have the best interest of the students in mind and during a really difficult situation. My team did the very best that they can do, and they consulted with experts on campus, she added

Upon hearing of this students experience, Mary Ann Schwindt `24, president of Grinnell Colleges chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said, Trying to find someone who really helps you and finding that match is very important. I know there are so many other counselors out there, but if this is whats working for the individual, why would you want to have a detrimental effect on them, right? Trying to keep them as helped as possible is, I feel like, a higher priority or responsibility of the College.

When asked about student experiences, Mason added, I trust my colleagues in Student Affairs. They went through a very tough process and made what they thought was the right call.

With students having fully returned to campus, consistent and readily available access to mental health services and resources is still a problem. Mason said he believes he may have solved it.

Heres the reality of the situation, Mason continued. Well never have enough personal counselors available to really handle the demand if everyone is wanting in-person, individual counseling.

He stressed that SHAWs new model was focused on what he called the spectrum of care.

The spectrum goes basically from one end which is having things that the students can engage in themselves, without even a counselor, all the way up to the other end which is we need a counselor on this, right, its on that level, said Mason.

SHAW has shifted its focus towards treatment options that are not focused on individual counseling. Mason explained that group therapy, the Neolth Stress Management app and the Virtual Care Group were critical in improving SHAWs accessibility.

Lets say a student has a packed schedule, they cant get in with a counselor at SHAW, they cant get in between, you know, 9 and 4 oclock, they can do it on their own time, Mason said. It could be anytime: 8 oclock, 9 oclock at night, midnight. They wake up at 3 oclock in the morning and theyre in crisis, they call the need-to-talk number, but that goes right to Virtual Care Group, and there are crisis counselors available for them.

I realized after starting therapy that I would quickly lose it because I am from [out-of-state], and SHAW is only licensed in Iowa.  Student

Mason said that this service is available to students in all 50 states all year except in June and July. Mason added that the colleges contract with the Virtual Care Group can be extended to cover these months if needed.

Students will always have the option of seeing a counselor, right now, this moment, said Mason. We have more resources now for students, both for physical and mental health, than we have ever had in the history of SHAW, but we have to take advantage of that.
EZULWINI - Girl power!

The adage holds true to the 12 girls who made it to the top 20 of the MTN Spotlight season 3. The Spotlight is Eswatinis biggest music talent search show. On Saturday at Mahlelekhukhwini House, 38 young and gifted contestants made it to the next stage of the competition called the Canary Day. Canary Day is derived from the bird canary that sings and was expected that the participants would share sweet melodies like that of a bird or better. Out of the 38 contestants, 12 ladies and eight gents were able to sound like a canary. They were chosen to be the top 20 contestants.

judges

The judges Ndumiso Dlamini, Velemseni Ndzimandze, and Khulekani Karly B Mamba sat through the auditions. They picked the lucky 20. One of the contestants Tandzile Tsabedze wowed the judges as she sang a song by Beyonce titled Sweet Dreams. The judges loved her performance; Velemseni also commended her stage presence. I love the drama but you need to mind your voice patterns, she said. Tandzile was the first contestant to get three yeses from the judges. She was followed by Samkeliwe Ngcamphalala who did not make it through the Canary experience day. Her nerves got the better of her performance, Judge Ndumiso gave her a second chance but she could still not made it through. Velemseni encouraged her and asked her to join next season.

While the room was silent, Musa Masondo popularly known as Hoodstar batwana rocked the stage. Inspired by the well-known local artist Diba Diba , he spitted his metaphors and rhymes. Unfortunately he did not make it through to the next round.

Our first MTN Spotlight winner really raised the bar high. An Excellent standard that pushes the next winner to be greater, said Judge Karly B. Some of the contestants were given a go-ahead some were not. However, eight of the contestants got two yeses which meant the judges were yet to reconsider their fate. In a first of its kind in the competition all eight participants were given a spot in the top 20.

excitement

Speaking to Nobesuthu Zungu who was given a second chance, she expressed her excitement and thanked the judges for believing in her. This was my first live performance, I am so grateful to be given a second chance. I promise I will not disappoint, she said smiling. The Spotlight Season 3 is powered by MTN Eswatini, Eswatini TV, Destiny Group, Lifespan Diagnotics, Mantenga Lodge, Huawei, Nandos, Super Signs, KrTC of Hip Hop Clothing, Stibas Hair and Make Up. You can catch The Spotlight shows every Sunday at 5pm on Eswatini TV, MTN Facebook page, and YouTube Channel. You are also encouraged to download the Ayoba app for free on ayoba.me or Google Play Store, and get The Spotlight channel to get the 411 on the exciting season. The season ends with a grand finale in December and a recording deal as well as a brand new vehicle is part of the many exciting prizes.
MBABANE - Music sensation Sandziso Sands Matsebula says his former manager Phila Koshin Dlamini took him to court as means of enriching himself over his (Sands) intellectual property.

The duo is embroiled in a legal battle over the Sands of Time album. Through his company, Icon PB (PTY) Limited, Dlamini has since taken Matsebula and Kingdom Tales to court. Dlamini who is the director of Icon PB (PTY) Limited wants the High Court to declare that the masters to the studio album Sands of Times are owned by his company (Icon PB (PTY) Limited). A master recording is the official original recording of a musical piece. It is the source from which all later copies are made of and the holder of the master has the right to use that recorded piece in any way, the masters, unless specifically agreed, are owned by the party that financed the record.

The applicant (Icon PB (PTY) Limited) is further praying for an order interdicting and restraining Matsebula and Kingdom Tales from using and/or deriving any benefits from the masters of the album and/or any material extracted therefrom. Dlamini has instituted the legal proceedings against Matsebula through lawyers from Mtshali Ngcamphalala Thwala. Dlamini told the court that the relationship between him and Matsebula, in his capacity as his managing director had its flaws but they remained professional for the benefit of the project. Things took a turn for the worst in August 2017. Matsebula had developed an attitude towards me personally. I paid no mind to this as I believed it was the stress that came with the demands of the music industry, submitted Dlamini.

He told the court that it was not until he was informed that Matsebula was taking bookings personally that he realised that the problem was greater that he had imagined.Instead of addressing the source of the problem with me, Matsebula resolved to represent himself in booking and securing of certain gigs and live performances. He was no longer honouring any agreement which had been negotiated and being negotiated by me on his behalf, alleged Dlamini. Meanwhile, in his answering papers, Matsebula told the court that the verbal artists agreement was that Dlaminis company would take 30 per cent management fee from every performance. According to Matsebula, all bookings were done through the applicant, (Icon PB (PTY) Limited) and he would remit 70 per cent of the revenue generated from the bookings to him (Matsebula). He told the court that it was apposite to mention that the percentage did not depict the applicants contention of ownership of the masters to the project. The revenue generated from the sales of the album were utilised for all basic logistics inclusive of travel and accommodation. The applicant at no time financed Sands of Time project from his pocket, he argued.

It was further his averment that, the brand Sands music was established before any engagement with the applicants director. This, according to Matsebula, could be demonstrated by the videos on YouTube which were uploaded before the parties met. He brought it to the attention of the court that, the only social media account bearing his name that was managed by the then applicants director was an Instagram account. Matsebula alleged that Dlamini continued to operate this account even after his mandate was terminated and this resulted in numerous bookings being made by him (Dlamini) without his (Matsebula) knowledge and that of Kingdom Tales.

fraudulently

I was later to find outthat the applicants director registered some of my music fraudulently by producing a document which was not signed by myself, he argued. These are allegations contained in an affidavit whose veracity is still to be tested in court. The matter is still pending in court and for it to be heard at the High court, Dlamini who is reported to be residing in South Africa is expected to deposit security for costs with then registrar of the High Court. Matsebula through his attorney filed an application where they averred that before the matter could commence, Dlamini should deposit a certain amount as security for costs with the Registrar of the High Court.
MANZINI  A businesswomans home was broken into by two thugs who stole stokvel money amounting to E218 000 and cellphones.

Stokvels are invitation-only clubs of people serving as rotating credit unions or saving schemes where members contribute fixed sums of money into a central fund on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis. The incident happened at Timbutini at around 10pm on Saturday. Timbutini is situated on the outskirts of Manzini. It is suspected that the money was stolen by people who knew the woman and her trade. The woman is in the business of wholesaling. It was gathered that the money, which belonged to members of the stokvel that the businesswoman was part of, was shared among members on a monthly basis. Each month, the members hold a meeting around the Manzini Police Headquarters to borrow and share dividends. According to a relative, the businesswoman was in her house together with a helper who was in another room, when two men carrying a knife and a pickaxe stormed into the womans bedroom.

Noise

It was raining and due to the noise from the splatters of the rain, she could not determine that the men were breaking the sliding door, as she assumed it was the noise from the wind, said the relative. She further narrated that the men pointed the weapons at the businesswoman and demanded that she give them money. The relative added that the robbers noticed that there was someone else in the other room and soon went there and brought her to the businesswomans bedroom. It was mentioned that the businesswoman and her helper did not make mention of where the money was, and that was when they were covered with blankets as the armed robbers searched for the money. The men said they did not want to do any harm to the businesswoman and the helper, but simply needed the money as they knew that it was there, the relative said.

She said the pair of armed robbers searched the room until they found the sum of money in a space behind the headboard. The relative stated that the men made a call and were heard informing the receiver to meet them with a car. The robbers then quickly left the house and they were nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, according to the Royal Eswatini Police Service report, Mafutseni police are investigating an armed robbery case where a 52-year-old woman of Timbutini was attacked by two unknown men armed with a knife and a pickaxe, and robbed her of money amounting to E218 000 and cellphones valued at E7 000 while at her home at Timbutini.

Arrest

The report stated that there had not been any arrest yet and police were appealing to members of the public to help bring these suspects to book. If you have information that will lead to the arrest of these suspects, please contact Mafutseni Desk Officer, Assistant Inspector Akhona Dludlu at 7626 0105 or dial the police emergency toll free line at 999/ 999, reads in part the police report. Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati warned members of the public to exercise caution with their monies, especially because the festive season, which was often characterised by many reported cases of money laundering and theft, was upon us. Vilakati mentioned that the police service, in collaboration with the International Police Organisation (INTERPOL), had launched a Global Awareness Campaign on cybercrime, in a bid to respond to the current cybercrime. Meanwhile, last Wednesday, E83 000 disappeared at OK Foods Logoba and its disappearance was discovered just before operations for the day came to an end. The money that went missing was said to be part of the daily sales.
MBABANE  Some soldiers are demanding an inquiry into supposedly stolen guns among a number of corrupt acts in the army.

The disgruntled members of the Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force (UEDF) have made allegations that there were a variety of corrupt acts that were not dealt with. The members of the army purported that there were a number of concerns that had been raised with the defence force headquarters wherein claims of corruption were made through anonymity. Among the claims of the uncouth conduct within the UEDF, the army personnel alleged that there were guns that disappeared at Phocweni Army Barracks and were later discovered at a senior officers residence.

They supposed that after they were found in the residence of the senior soldier, nothing significant happened. They further claimed that in June 2021, when there was the political unrest in the kingdom, ammunition and some guns disappeared at Mdzimba Barracks. They claimed that these were not their only concerns as there were senior officers who allegedly took their food rations at the various barracks for personal gain and were not punished. The officers claimed that this concern could not be raised within the barracks as some of the people involved could make their lives miserable. The military men claimed that due to the alleged stolen food, they were left starving at times; mostly on weekends.

Barracks

They further alleged that money raised from the canteens was not beneficial to them yet they were made to believe that it should cater for the various barracks needs. Worse, they claimed, was that despite the partial ban imposed by government on the sale of alcohol, now only on weekends, many barracks continued to sell alcohol with some senior soldiers even allegedly using UEDF vehicles to collect the beverages along informal crossings. They claimed that the money generated by the canteens during this period was used for personal gain by the senior soldiers, who had access to the coffers of the canteens and it did not buy them food or basic necessities needed at the barracks. Worth noting is that last year, the sale of alcohol was suspended by government as means to deal with the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. This was from March 2020 until September 2020.

It was alleged that there were also issues of abuse that were ongoing within the UEDF in that junior officers were being ordered to run personal errands for their supervisors, including transporting their acquaintances with vehicles belonging to the army.

Furthermore, in the allegations of corruption, the soldiers claimed that there were issues that the media had published depicting the corruption in the army. Recently, this publication reported that despite that government resources were strained, a senior army officer was chauffeured and escorted to a shebeen, almost on a daily basis. The senior army officer was chauffeured in a white Toyota Etios sedan and escorted by an army green Toyota Hilux single cab bakkie. Both vehicles had UEDF registrations, which were S 297 and S 219 respectively. The UEDF senior official is based at one of the army bases in Matsapha. Despite the expose, the soldiers claimed nothing productive was derived as it was relayed that investigations were ongoing. The army personnel claimed that whenever they were aggrieved with acts of corruption, they reported them, but nothing came to fruition.

They claimed that there were army personnel who were allegedly making loads of money by stealing pharmaceuticals at some of the UEDF medical facilities. This, they claimed, was known but minimal action had been taken. In this instance, they claimed that there were two male soldiers who were allegedly caught red-handed stealing drugs from the military medical clinic at Phocweni Army Barracks.

Syndicate

They said the pair were a fraction of a syndicate and the senior personnel involved were allegedly still engaging in the same illicit activities. Also, the aggrieved soldiers alleged that jobs and promotions were sold in the army. They supposed that the people who were behind the selling of jobs were never punished; instead, they were reshuffled to other barracks. Worth noting is that in 2017, during the last recruitment exercise in the UEDF, about 40 recruits were expelled from the military infantry school based at Mbuluzi Army Barracks. This resulted in over 100 more finding their way into the army. It was gathered that during the investigations, some of the expelled recruits confessed that they paid amounts ranging between E40 000 and E55 000 in order to be recruited into the military. Anomalies were discovered following the complaints that were filed by constituencies, which felt that the exercise did not go well at their communities and the army appointed a team to investigate the complaints.
MANZINI  Some Members of Parliament (MPs) seem to rally behind their colleague and want the Speaker of the august House to shape up or face a vote of no confidence, as they claim he is sabotaging their work.

The Speaker in the House of Assembly is Mhlambanyatsi Constituency MP Petros Mavimbela. According to some legislators, the Speaker is not listing some of their motions in the Order Paper despite having submitted them to his office. The MPs were contacted following our sister publication, the Times SUNDAY, interview with veteran politician in Lobamba Lomdzala Constituency MP Marwick Khumalo, who said Mavimbela no longer conducted himself as Speaker, but behaved like a member of the Executive. This position of thinking was taken by Khumalo after the Speaker prevented the moving of two motions of national importance in the House last Thursday.

Motions

One of the motions was to be moved by Khumalo and it was intended to call for the House to debate the petitions that were delivered to almost all constituencies in June 2021. Also, Khumalos motion sought the House to debate the issue of the people who were killed during the unrest; with individuals and organisations claiming that over 70 people were killed, allegedly by security forces, while governments official death toll was at 37. The other motion, which was reportedly supposed to be moved by Madlangempisi MP Sibusiso Scorpion Nxumalo and seconded by Ndzingeni MP Lutfo Dlamini, was intended to have the House debate the issue of a national dialogue on the political challenges faced by the country. However, Mavimbela did not allow Khumalo to move the motion because he claimed not to have seen or received it in order to apply himself to it. MP Nxumalo could also not move his motion as the Speaker is said to have also played the same card as he did with MP Khumalo.

Analysis

In light of this, the legislators were asked if according to their own analysis, was the Speaker still engaging in his duties as guided by the rules of the House and if they still had confidence in him. Mkhiweni Constituency MP Michael Masuku said legislators found themselves engaging in political issues outside the House because motions were not included in the Order Paper. This, he said, was against the spirit of the House. Masuku said this was because they wanted the motions to be debated in order to improve service delivery, while enforcing accountability from the Executive. Timphisini Constituency MP Nelson Mamba said what transpired in Parliament on Thursday was quite a challenge as the issue of petitions had been on the agenda of MPs for quite some time. He said what had been prolonging engaging on them (petitions), was that there had been no House sittings, as the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was having its sittings. This needs us to deal with it immediately as the unrest is stemming from these issues. The numbers witnessed during the petition delivery on Friday are testimony that the public means business, Mamba said.

Urgent

The MP said the petitions needed the urgent action of Parliament so that the issues were addressed before things became worse than they already were. In fact, Mamba said by now, all structures should have addressed the concerns submitted to constituency centres as they were of national importance. He said all along, the Speaker was working well with them until recently, when on Thursday, they did not understand why the motion was not in the Order Paper. He should have dealt with this as there is nothing to defend. Mamba said if there would be a vote of no confidence, he knew exactly how his vote would be casted. Also, Lomahasha Constituency MP Ndumiso Masimula said he was not happy with the recent developments by the Speaker.

Masimula said Parliament was where political issues should be discussed and it was disheartening to them when motions were not set out in the Order Paper. The motions are means to address whatever challenges we see in government and they help us engage in our oversight role; so if they are not in the order of business, how do we address the issues? he asked rhetorically. The legislator reiterated that he was not happy with the Speaker as he was failing to see to it that motions were registered in the Order Paper. He said legislators should look beyond this as it could be a systemic challenge. Also, Matsanjeni South Constituency MP Bomber Mamba said the responsibility of the Speaker was to receive motions and allocate them in the Order Paper and those that were not in it, should have explanation on why they were not listed so that improvements could be made on them.

The legislator said it was a challenge when a motion was moved by an MP and supported by evidence that it was received but not filed in the Order Paper. The motions are our responsibility and if they are not in the Order Paper, it means we are not working and the electorate gets aggrieved, he noted. At this point, Matsanjeni South Constituency MP Bomber Mamba said: Things are not well in the House and that is not right as there is some form of resistance with some motions.

Establish

For now, the legislator said he needed to establish other motions that were moved and not filed in the Order Paper in order to be certain if the Speaker deserved a vote of no confidence. Meanwhile, an effort to get a comment from the Speaker proved futile. When he was contacted on his mobile phone, Mavimbela repeatedly said hello and seemed to listened for introduction by the reporter. Thereafter, the call was terminated and efforts to get hold of him again proved futile as it rang unanswered. A short message was sent to him, which sought to establish if there were motions that he was afraid to have discussed in Parliament and give feedback on why some motions were not in the Order Paper. Mavimbela was also asked if the petitions that were delivered to constituency centres would ever be discussed in Parliament and if he was still fit to hold the office of Speaker as some MPs were saying the opposite.
Bahraini authorities said plans are afoot to revamp the oldest area in Muharraq which dates back around 200 years, reported the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

For further details visit https://www.gdnonline.com
Imagine travelling to Abu Dhabi for work and coming back to visit your family in Bahrain in less than an hour; or going to Paris and returning to Barcelona in an hour.

Getting that prime delivery just in time for your partners birthday in Shanghai all the way from that Shenzhens factory in minutes? What about avoiding the soul-destroying traffic from Los Angeles to San Francisco with an ultra-fast connection in less than an hour? These are just a few examples of the potential of hyperloop globally and this could happen by 2030 if impelmented.

Zeleros Hyperloop, the European hyperloop company, has just announced its vision for a global hyperloop network. The company starts a new and important phase to kickstart their global operations to co-develop with governments all around the world and industrial partners the basis for the international hyperloop corridors that will make history of transportation.

The document is the first one to provide a holistic vision of the world connected by hyperloop, with an in-depth analysis of different regions, including Europe, China, India, Arabia, Australia and Asean and North America. Each study

highlights the impact that hyperloop routes could have in the global economies and in the efforts of the governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

International experts from leading organisations like MIT (USA), Southwest Jiaotong University SWJTU (China), Roadis, Acciona and Typsa, supported the creation of this unique document highlighting the potential that these

routes could have in their regions.

And the results are exciting, showcasing a promising future for hyperloop in the coming decades. Just as an example, the proposed network in Europe covering the main European capitals (Lisbon, Madrid, Paris, Rome, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhaguen, Stockholm, among others) could transport more than 310 million passengers and 5.5 million tonnes of freight a year, saving 1320 million tons of C02 avoided during its lifetime with a 57 billion euro revenue

opportunity.

David Pistoni, Chief Executive Officer at Zeleros, said: We aim that this document becomes a reference in urban planning for the decades to come. Hyperloop is growing fast and at Zeleros we are confident it has the potential to become the best alternative to efficiently cover routes between 400 and 1,500 km in distance. With Zeleros approach, we can make the system scalable, reducing the overall infrastructure costs and the operation at safer pressures for passengers, with a clear certification path and 2030 as the horizon to start implementation of routes.

We encourage innovators, governments and society to read this document and to discover with Zeleros how hyperloop can improve the way we move and the world we live in, adds Luis Navarro, COO of Zeleros and responsible for the study.

This technology will be a crucial tool to strengthen the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals as well as the European Green Deal. Since its creation, Zeleros has been promoting the standardization and regulation of hyperloop systems to ensure the highest level of safety and interoperability to expand the limits of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) and the global routes.

Recently, Zeleros closed a new investment round with world-class leaders such as Acciona, CAF Group and EIT InnoEnergy. The support of these organisations definitely accelerates the deployment of hyperloop routes around the world, providing intercity, sustainable and scalable mobility at unprecedented speeds. The total financing raised by Zeleros to make hyperloop a reality into the next decade amounts to more than 10 million.

Furthermore, Zeleros six-meter-long hyperloop vehicle was presented last March in the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia with the presence of institutional representatives such as Spains Minister of Science and Innovation, Pedro Duque. Zeleros' vehicle travelled during the summer all the way to Dubai to be exhibited at the Spain Pavilion at Expo 2020, which just opened its doors last Friday. For six months - until March 31, 2022- visitors will be able to learn about this new technology and have the chance to experience what its like travelling inside Zeleros hyperloop system. - TradeArabia News Service
DMCC, the Government of Dubai Authority on commodities trade and enterprise, has recorded its best ever Q1-Q3 performance since the organisation was formed in 2002, welcoming1800 companies to Dubai.



In September alone, DMCC welcomed 215 new businesses to its Free Zone and business district, the best September performance since inception. This builds upon DMCC achieving their best H1 performance since 2013 and the best June and August on record earlier this year.



The record-breaking performance was driven by DMCCs continued focus on increasing the ease of doing business and setting up a company in Dubai, the expansion of the DMCC Tea and Coffee Centres, the launch of the DMCC Cacao Centre, and the launch of the DMCC Crypto Centre, which is on track to become home to 100 crypto and blockchain companies by the end of the year.



Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, DMCC, said: By all accounts, DMCC started 2021 from a position of strength, allowing us to deliver the best H1 performance in eight years. We carried that momentum forward into the third quarter, and have continued to shatter all previous records since DMCC's establishment in 2002.



With Expo 2020 Dubai now underway and significant milestones for the UAE on the horizon, I fully expect we will reach over 20,000 member companies by the end of the year. As part of our diversification strategy, our recently launched Crypto Centre continues to generate significant interest, particularly as Dubai furthers its position to become a global centre of crypto.



The pandemic has been a ten-year accelerant for business culture and digital transformation, during which time DMCC has ensured to stay ahead of the curve in providing what the market both wants and needs, he added.



Ahmad Hamza, Executive Director  Free Zone, DMCC, commented: Dubai has retained, and even built upon, its commercial appeal since the pandemic. Businesses recognised that they need a base where they feel supported, have access to some of the industrys best facilities, and fully digitalised services that make operating their business as smooth as possible.



As we have seen with these record-breaking numbers, companies are finding this at DMCC, with a broad range of entrepreneurs, SMEs and multinationals across tech, telecoms, professional services, financial services, precious metals and stones, and energy setting up with us. Additionally, we are proud to state that the average satisfaction score of new companies setting up with DMCC is 90%. We look forward to welcoming even more businesses to our world-leading business district in the coming months and years.



Throughout 2021, DMCC has conducted virtual and physical events in key target markets to promote DMCC and Dubai as a perfect location to set up and do business with some of the worlds fastest-growing economies. Last month, DMCCs Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ahmed Bin Sulayem, led an official delegation to Brazil and Mexico to bolster trade ties, particularly around coffee.



Construction of Uptown Tower, the first tower to be released in DMCCs premium, mixed-use Uptown Dubai district, continued at pace and the tower now stands at 269 metres tall, with work now focusing on residential floors.  TradeArabia News Service
Metro Brazil, an e-commerce platform specialised in the global supply of authentic premium Brazilian products, has established its regional headquarters in Dubai CommerCity, a leading free zone dedicated exclusively to e-commerce.



From Sao Paulo, the move to the UAE and to Dubai CommerCity in specific, and is strategically placed to benefit Metro Brazils growth in the region, and across the world. The choice was impacted by the exclusive benefits Dubai CommerCity offers in terms of free zone facilities, scalability, unique design, positioning as a global hub with turnkey solutions, and proximity to Dubai International Airport, which is key to regional shipments.



Alaa Kara Ali, founder, and CEO of Metro Brazil, announced that the new regional headquarters will boast state of the art offices, world-class warehouses, progressive logistics and a dedicated customer service centre, key investments for business expansion.



The announcement made in the presence of members of the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, (Dubai Branch), UAE; with whom, Metro Brazil, since establishment 4 years ago, has enjoyed a close and active relationship with, where both continue to mutually committed to increasing trade relations between Brazil and the Arab Countries; and Dubai CommerCity, who extended to Metro Brazil support to facilitate the move.



Launched in 2017, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Metro Brazil first began selling premium Brazilian products to the Middle East region and has since expanded to supply the global market with clients in over 80 countries.



Today, Metro Brazil retails prominent premium Brazilian brand names such as Plie, Loola, Lupo, RIOBELO, Hope, Liz, Sao Lindas, Nazca, Lizze, Oil Therapy and many more and enjoys partnerships with Aramex, DHL & Plante Arvore, a CSR program committed to the reforestation of the Amazon forest.  TradeArabia News Service
Nearly 300 exhibitors of global designers and manufacturers of watch and jewellery as well as local jewellers and Emirati designers will take part in Watch & Jewellery Middle East Show (WJMES) opening in Sharjah, UAE tomorrow (October 5).



The 48th edition of Menas largest specialized jewellery and watch trade fair will run until October 9 at Expo Centre Sharjah.



Organised by the Expo Centre Sharjah with the support of the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCI), the exhibition spans over an area of 30,000 sq m. This year's edition of the Watch & Jewellery Middle East Show includes national pavilions for a number of world-leading countries in the gold industry, such as Italy, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, and Thailand.



The event is also featuring leading companies and famous brands from the US, the UK, Bahrain, China, Canada, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Pakistan, Yemen, Turkey, Brazil, Malta, in addition to dozens of Emirati companies.



Apart from being a perfect platform to ink deals and forge partnerships, the WJMES showcases state-of-the-art products of jewellery, gemstones, pearls, and watches inspired by contemporary trends, traditions, and different cultures around the world with the possibility of direct purchase.



The show provides an invaluable opportunity to visitors to win the grand prize "BMW x2", in addition to daily raffle draws on gold and diamond prizes.



For the first time, the event will see the organization of introductory workshops on the art and craft of making jewellery that will be delivered by the Emirati Jewellers Group.



The workshops touch on a number of topics, including the art of electrochemical etching on metals, the art of sawing metal and inlaying stones, and methods of drawing and colouring gemstones.

The Organizing Committee of the Expo Centre Sharjah underlined that utmost precautionary and preventive measures have been taken to ensure the public health of everyone.



The show will open its doors to visitors, on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday from 12 pm to 10 pm, Thursday from 12 pm to 11 pm, and Friday from 3 pm to 11 pm.  TradeArabia News Service
The UAE government forecasts revenue of up to $17.7 billion provided that Expo 2020 Dubai is a success, with each emirate in the UAE to become a major growth destination for economic growth.

According to senior analysts and experts at Expo 2020 Dubai, the worlds largest expo event, is expected to attract 25 million visitors, with up to 100,000 new hotel rooms expected to be ready and operational and the set-up several new luxury hotels.

Moreover, Expo 2020 Dubai is poised to boost bilateral business relations, strategic partnerships and regional expansions in the UAE and the region, global and regional leaders concur.

Speaking ahead of the Alternative Investment Management (AIM) Summit, the worlds leading alternative investment summit, leaders spoke of how Expo 2020 Dubai is poised to boost the economy as well as how the state of the post pandemic recovery for global economies.

The magnitude of the event will be the first of its kind on the global stage and will serve as a litmus test in the pandemic area of how to execute on this scale both successfully and safely.

Historically the Expo event has been one of the driving forces for boosting cultural, social, and economical developments and growth worldwide. As the whole world will be tuning to the Expo 2020 Dubai, the event will definitely symbolises a milestone in socioeconomic excellence and renewed growth for the UAE and the world. The event will have a strong focus on technology, sustainability and responsible innovations across various sectors, and will be a melting pot for innovation by businesses and start-ups from all over the world, said Mohamed Jumaa Al Musharakh, CEO, Sharjah FDI Office.

Dubai and the UAEs approach to the Covid-19 Pandemic situation has benefited the country a lot. It has shown that life can resume, with certain Covid precautions, to what it was before. Expo will show the world that large events of this type can resume and it will be a great test case to see how people react to it globally, said Mishal Kanoo, Chairman  UAE & Oman, The Kanoo Group.

Expo 2020 is a crucial event for Dubai and the UAE. With it comes the upside of economic, financial and reputational benefits for the country as well as the broader region. It yet again puts Dubai on the world map and will serve as an excellent blueprint of what post-pandemic success looks like, added Dr Ryan Lemand, Senior Executive Officer and Board Director, ADS Investment Solutions.

Looking at the global situation, as the world starts to return to a relative sense of normalisation, a number of key trends have emerged that are driving the post-pandemic economic recovery.

We see a recovery which partially compensates for the periods of lockdown and partially is driven by the abandoned cash provided by central banks. Furthermore, there is a weakness in supply chains, which manifests itself for example in the lack of sufficient microchips but also in a shortage in paper and different raw materials, said Prince Michael of Liechtenstein.

Another key trend has been investments in technology, which under that sector comes an infinite number of markets which technology played a massive role in positioning them as new verticals and niche markets which investors can tap into. Finally blockchain finance will also lead the future of investments, with the rise of investments in crypto currencies and its easy accessibility by worldwide users looking to enrich their investment portfolios, said Al Musharakh.

Globally, institutional investors or investment strategies during the pandemic has been enabled a transformative shift in their investment portfolios, moving into more responsible investments across emerging socioeconomic sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, environment, education and more.

Also, this shift played a major role in ensuring confidence amongst key stakeholders or shareholders for any business or enterprise, where top priorities focused on investing on the health and safety of employees; financial liquidity; business continuity, such as work-from-home models; and investment performances.

Al Musharakh, Prince Michael, Kanoo and Dr Lemand will all be addressing the regional and global economic trends at the 11th edition of the AIM Summit on from October 11 to 12 at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).

Launched in 2015, AIM Summit is a platform for discussions on investment developments, global market conditions and latest trends. The only conference of its nature and magnitude organised and orchestrated by the industry in an intimate setup to encourage real debates on the best practices and know-hows.

AIM Summit acts as a bridge between the West and East through its global network base. It has created an ecosystem of 135,000 Fund managers, Institutional Investors, Family Offices, Sovereign Wealth Funds and Financial Associations.-- TradeArabia News Service
Qatar Petroleum (QP) said that it has ordered four new LNG carriers from Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited (CSSC).



These four carriers are the first batch of orders in Qatar Petroleums massive LNG shipbuilding program, which will cater for future LNG fleet requirements for the North Field expansion projects as well as for existing vessel replacement requirements.



This order is also the first ever placed by Qatar Petroleum or any of its affiliates with a Chinese shipyard for LNG ships, and the first with Hudong in connection with the agreement to reserve ship construction capacity that was executed in April 2020.



Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the President and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, said: We continue to push forward with our LNG expansion projects, and todays announcement is yet another step in our journey. I am especially pleased with the signing of this order as it marks our first ever new LNG carrier to be built in the Peoples Republic of China.



We are proud to contribute to the success story of the LNG ship construction industry in China. We are also confident in Hudongs capabilities to execute this order, worth in excess of 2.8 billion Qatari Riyals, to the highest safety and technical standards and to deliver top quality LNG carriers that will facilitate continued safe and reliable delivery of LNG to the world.



I would like to take this opportunity to thank Hudongs team for all the hard work to bring this order to fruition during these challenging times. I would also like to thank the leadership of our esteemed partner, CSSC, for their valuable support to this effort in line with our mutual desire to further strengthen the excellent relations between China and Qatar. I am very grateful to the Qatar Petroleum and Qatargas teams, whose dedicated efforts were instrumental in reaching this milestone, Al-Kaabi concluded.



The North Field expansion projects will increase Qatar's LNG production capacity from 77 million tons per annum to 126 million tons per annum. Qatar Petroleums LNG carrier fleet program is the largest of its kind in the history of the LNG industry and will play a pivotal role in meeting the shipping requirements of Qatar Petroleums local and international LNG projects, as well as replacing some of Qatar's existing LNG fleet.  TradeArabia News Service
Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, is launching a major recruitment drive, seeking up to 1,000 individuals with hospitality experience to join the airlines cabin crew.

The international recruitment days will take place in 10 cities across the UAE, Middle East and Europe, including Egypt, Lebanon, Russia, Spain, Italy and The Netherlands.

Applicants interested in attending the recruitment days and joining the airlines team of cabin crew should register in advance by visiting etihad.com/cabincrewrecruitment.

Employees laid off due to the pandemic can apply through the airlines alumni programme, which is currently advertising the positions available.

Head of Crew Performance and Support Captain Jihad Matta said: We are in a position to be able to start hiring cabin crew again. The last 18 months have been incredibly difficult, however there is much to be positive about as travel restrictions ease and we ramp up operations to meet growing demand. A critical part of this is rebuilding our cabin crew team.

We will be looking for candidates who have a passion for delivering exceptional customer service and creating memorable moments for guests. We are looking for individuals who will help grow our business and who will be united with us in our mission of bringing the world to Abu Dhabi.

Matta added: We hope to attract diverse, talented men and women globally, to inspire and help them kick-start a career opportunity and life experience in the UAE.

Successful candidates will undergo a training programme in Abu Dhabi, conducted at Zayed Campus, the airlines training academy.-TradeArabia News Service
Team Registration Opens for 22nd Annual UW Entrepreneurship Competition

The registration period for teams to enter the University of Wyomings 22nd annual John P. Ellbogen $50K Entrepreneurship Competition is now open and runs until noon Monday, Oct. 18. The UW College of Business hosts the student event.

The competition is designed to encourage college students across Wyoming to act on their talents, ideas and energy to produce tomorrows leading businesses.

The Ellbogen $50K competition is the premier applied-learning experience at the University of Wyoming for students interested in entrepreneurship. We look forward to another excellent group of student teams that will learn how to turn their dreams into reality, says Patrick Kreiser, the Rile Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship and Leadership in the UW College of Business. Student teams from the University of Wyoming and Wyoming community colleges are invited to enter for a chance to win cash prizes to help grow their businesses.

The competition features three rounds. The first round is the executive summary application; the second is the virtual pitch and written business concept; and the third round is the final presentation. The first two rounds will occur this fall, and round three will take place April 22-23, 2022.

The competition will feature two tracks for teams: undergraduate track and graduate track.

Last spring, eight teams competed in the third round and won $77,000 in prize money toward their businesses. All of the 2021 teams participated in a course titled Business Model Creation and Launch offered by the UW College of Business. The course assists teams in developing and strengthening their business models, including aspects such as sales channel and marketing strategy; revenue model; cost structure and financials; and competitor analysis in preparation for their final presentations.

We were ecstatic with the quality and ingenuity of the teams competing in last years competition, Kreiser says. It is critical, given current economic circumstances, that we support our students in developing innovative business models that will help to strengthen and diversify the Wyoming economy.

The College of Business will host a $50K competition information session Tuesday, Oct. 12, at 6 p.m. in Room 127 of the College of Business Building.

Teams interested in registering to compete should go to www.uwyo.edu/business/entrepreneurship and click the competitor links.

For more information, email Josie Voight, UW College of Business project coordinator, at voight@uwyo.edu.
UW, Collaborators Help Donate Tons of Potatoes to Food Bank of Wyoming

Steve Paisley, left, and Brian Lee, both with UWs James C. Hageman Sustainable Agriculture Research and Extension Center, bag potatoes for Food Bank of Wyoming. (UW Photo)

More than 3 tons of potatoes are being distributed across Wyoming this fall in a project that started in a University of Wyoming research field near Lingle.

The project is a collaboration among the James C. Hageman Sustainable Agriculture Research and Extension Center (SAREC), the Cent$ible Nutrition Program (CNP) and Food Bank of Wyoming.

A group of volunteers, including cadets from the Wyoming Cowboy Challenge Academy (WCCA), harvested the potatoes Friday, Sept. 24, near Lingle. More than 6,490 pounds of potatoes were bagged in four hours, which Food Bank of Wyoming picked up that afternoon.

What we are doing today is using some of the excess potatoes that we typically have, and were going to be donating these to Food Bank of Wyoming, says Brian Lee, an agricultural economist and an associate research scientist at SAREC.

Food Bank of Wyoming has made the potatoes available to food pantries around the state.

We are going to put the potatoes on our mobile pantries and give them to our partner pantries around the state, says Tony Woodell, Food Bank of Wyoming director. This is a great gift, and we look forward to sharing it around the state.

Food Bank of Wyoming seeks to ignite the power of community to nourish people facing hunger.

This is a great illustration of that, Woodell says. We are collaborating with communities, with growers and with partners.

Mindy Meuli, CNP director, echoes this. CNP is housed in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

It is exciting to partner with SAREC because of the large crop of potatoes that could feed many people in Wyoming, she says.

SAREC grows a variety of crops for research, including potatoes. One of the fields of potatoes is used for an outreach program with local elementary school students. Elementary students from local communities come to SAREC, where they learn about growing potatoes.

Then, we come out to the field and let the students have a chance to dig and also bag potatoes that they can take home, Lee says.

Lee reached out to Meuli in late 2019 about extra potatoes from the project and donating them to support food security efforts in the state.

In 2020, COVID-19 stopped the donation, but the pieces came together this year.

We thought it was an obvious collaboration (between CNP and SAREC) that should happen, Lee says. So, Mindy helped coordinate with the food bank and the Challenge Academy and other UW personnel to make this happen.

WCCA is an accredited special purpose school based in Guernsey. The school works with nontraditional learners to help them earn high school credits in a quasi-military environment, where they learn leadership and coping skills as well as the value of giving back to their communities.

Cadets complete 40 hours of service to the community as part of WCCAs graduation requirements.

Community projects offer cadets different experiences, says Deidra Wilson, an English teacher at WCCA, who also attended the harvest.

I think a lot of the community service they do gives them different aspects of what job life looks like. Its a good way to give them chances to try something theyve never tried before, Wilson says.

For Ethan Smither, a cadet returning to Wyoming from Illinois, the harvest day provided a sense of familiarity.

Kira Winters, left, and Beth Case, both with the Cent$ible Nutrition Program, load bags of potatoes on a trailer. (UW Photo)

Ive worked on a farm, so it feels natural for me, Smither says.

The work also feeds into his interest for the future.

After Challenge Academy, I plan to go to the Airborne Rangers in the Army. And then, after that, Im going to try to start my own ranch, my own farm, he says, adding that he wants to stay in Wyoming.

Staff members from SAREC, UW Extension and CNP joined the WCCA cadets to harvest the potatoes. Before the arrival of volunteers, the potatoes were dug up with equipment and laid on the open ground. The group of volunteers moved along the rows, picking out undamaged potatoes to bag. Bags were then loaded onto a flatbed trailer to be weighed before loading onto pallets to go in the Food Bank of Wyoming truck.

One thing potatoes are really good at is feeding people, says Lee, who notes potatoes store well, making their shelf life longer than many fresh produce items.

Concerns over shelf life are one of the challenges of providing fresh produce, according to Woodell.

Any time we can provide produce to individuals, the nutritional value is high, Woodell says. The shelf life is usually short so, therefore, to procure produce through local sources extends the shelf life because there is less transportation involved. Local produce allows people to have nutritious foods on their tables. At the end of the day, thats what were all about.

While this is the first time SAREC, Food Bank of Wyoming and CNP have collaborated, Meuli says she hopes this is just the beginning of a strong partnership.

I hope to see more opportunities for UW research and extension centers to find ways to support local food pantries and food security efforts in the state, she says.

The local nature of this partnership is part of what makes it special.

Everyone is excited to get a Wyoming product for Wyoming people who are facing hunger. We just want to say thank you to SAREC for providing the potatoes, and we look forward to future partnerships, Woodell says.

Information about potatoes and recipes is available through local CNP offices.


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New Mobility Scooter Charging Point at Casemates Square

The Ministry of Transport has announced the installation of a new mobility scooter charging point at Casemates Square, opposite the International Commercial Centre (ICC).

The charging point has been delivered upon the request from the Gibraltar Senior Citizens Association to be used solely as an emergency topping up station for mobility scooters that might not have enough battery to reach their destination or home.

The mobility scooter charging point will be operational at all hours of the day, and new users must register with the Gibraltar Senior Citizens Association to be granted access to use the charging point with an on/off key. The contact details of the Association can be found at https://gibseniors.wordpress.com/contact/

The Minister of Transport, The Hon Paul Balban, said: As part of the Governments manifesto commitment to provide topping up points for mobility scooters in town, I am extremely pleased to complete the installation of this new charging point at the heart of the town, to assist any persons experiencing battery issues with their mobility scooter. We have come a long way since the initial request came from the Gibraltar Senior Citizens Association, where many products and proposals were tabled but were not simply viable technically and logistically. I am extremely thankful for their patience and glad the right product meticulously identified to resolve their issues.
Changes to Visiting Procedure at St Bernards Hospital

Government has announced changes in the requirements for self-isolation for COVID-19 close contacts. Following the advice of the Director of Public Health, the visitation procedure at St Bernards Hospital has also been changed in order to minimise the risk of transmission of the virus from close contacts who do not need to isolate.

COVID-19 close contacts are advised to not visit St Bernards hospital, even if they do not need to self-isolate

Visits will be limited to 2 designated visitors per patient

Only 1 visitor will be allowed per patient per day

Visitors will need to provide proof of vaccination and an ID card on arrival at the Hospital Reception.

Unvaccinated visitors will need proof of a PCR test, taken 24 hours prior to the visit, which they will need to present at Hospital reception. PCR testing needs to be twice a week for un-vaccinated visitors.

All visitors will be checked at Reception prior to entry into GHA and at the entrance of the door of the ward.

End of life visiting will be risk assessed at the discretion of the ward and clinical managers

All visitors to the Hospital will be required to wear a mask at all times.

The visiting procedure at Elderly Residential Services has not been changed as a result of the new rules.

Minister for Health and Care, the Hon Samantha Sacramento, said: The relaxation of COVID-19 self-isolation requirements for vaccinated close-contacts is an important step. However, whilst we have the protection of the vaccine, the virus is still out there and we all need to do our part to minimise the risk. Nowhere is this more important than in our clinical settings.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-03-16 00:32:48|Editor: huaxia

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TEHRAN, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The naval force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) unveiled on Monday a new missile city equipped with ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and electronic warfare systems, semi-official Fars news agency reported.

"Today we are witnessing a very vast growth of (Iran's) missile power in the field of naval warfare," Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the IRGC, said at the inauguration ceremony of the missile city at an undisclosed location.

As seen in footage broadcast by state TV, a number of ballistic and cruise missile systems with various ranges were displayed in the event.

The projectiles can be fired from underground tunnels at the site, from mobile launchers, or from the Iranian civil defense system's facilities, according to the report.

Moreover, the missile city's equipment is capable of laying naval mines within different ranges, firing in motion, covering a 360-degree field of view, and countering electronic warfare systems.

The equipment has been locally developped by Iran's Defense Ministry, Iranian knowledge-based companies, and the IRGC's research departments, Fars said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-22 00:14:30|Editor: huaxia

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A batch of Sinovac vaccine donated by China is seen at the Gnassingbe Eyadema International Airport in Lome, Togo, Aug. 20, 2021. Togo has received the second batch of Sinovac vaccines donated by China, as part of the cooperation between the two countries to fight against the upsurge of COVID-19 cases. (Photo by Tian Yun/Xinhua)

LOME, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Togo has received the second batch of Sinovac vaccines donated by China, as part of the cooperation between the two countries to fight against the upsurge of COVID-19 cases.

Chinese Ambassador to Togo Chao Weidong and the Togolese Minister of Health Moustafa Mijiyawa received the vaccines at the Gnassingbe Eyadema International Airport on Friday evening.

"In recent months, despite the huge demand for vaccines, we have mobilized all resources, and managed to ship to Togo two batches of the vaccine in less than four months," said Chao, noting that the donation is an illustration of China's solidarity with Togo in the face of the continued spread of the novel coronavirus.

"With this vaccine donation, we would like to support the efforts of the Togolese government to accelerate the vaccination campaign and build a Great Wall of immunity against the epidemic," said the Chinese ambassador.

Mijiyawa thanked China for the donation. Recalling that the last batch of vaccines donated by China had been deployed for the vaccination of students of two public universities in Togo, he noted that Togo would make good use of these vaccines.

Togo received on April 23 the first batch of Sinovac vaccines donated by China. So far, the West African country has reported 19,128 confirmed cases with a death toll of 172 since it recorded its first COVID-19 positive case on March 6, 2020. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-16 19:50:11|Editor: huaxia

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SUVA, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has announced on Thursday that from 4:00 a.m. Friday, the containment area borders will be lifted on Viti Levu.

The move came after 62 percent of all adults are fully vaccinated and over 97 percent of the population have received their first jab.

Bainimarama said new curfew hours for Viti Levu will be from 9.00 p.m. until 4.00 a.m. local time and social gatherings of up to 20 people are permitted.

Domestic travel will open but inter island travel will remain highly controlled to Vanua Levu and outer islands until higher vaccination coverage is recorded.

Public service vehicles will be able to operate at 70 percent capacity.

Bainimarama said for outdoor venues, gatherings will be allowed up to 30 people and all sporting activities and games are allowed.

From Oct. 4 all workplaces, tertiary institutions, houses of worship, hotels, restaurants, cafes, cinemas, gyms, pools, tattoo parlours will open at 70 percent capacity to fully vaccinated persons.

Employers must enforce COVID-safe practices for their staff and their customers and places of worship should be sure their devotees are adherent to COVID-safe practices as well.

Bainimarama said the goal is to free Fiji from the financial rut of the pandemic.

For the sake of thousands of Fijians and their families, Fiji will reopen tourism to safe destinations hopefully by November.

Once they arrive, these travellers can vacation in designated travel safe areas where they can enjoy the best of Fiji.

The Fijian Government will announce school opening dates soon as students between 15 to 17 years will start their vaccination from Monday. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-19 15:00:32|Editor: huaxia

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ULAN BATOR, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia reported 2,777 new COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours, taking the national tally to 275,146, the country's health ministry said on Sunday.

Three of the latest confirmed cases were imported from abroad, and the remaining ones were local infections, the ministry said in a statement.

The country's COVID-19 related death toll rose to 1,108 after 12 patients died in the past day.

Due to a shortage of hospital beds, over 52,000 of the remaining 74,000 active COVID-19 cases in the country are being treated at home, according to the ministry.

More than 65 percent of the country's population has received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines so far, according to the ministry. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-04 09:19:51|Editor: huaxia

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WELLINGTON, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- New data from Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) showed on Monday that card spending in the largest city Auckland has risen 28 percent in the first full week of COVID-19 Alert Level 3.

Nationwide, total card spending has rebounded to just 5 percent below pre-lockdown levels.

Auckland relaxed restrictions by moving to COVID-19 Alert Level 3 on Sept. 22 for at least two weeks. The city was previously at Level 4, the top-level COVID-19 lockdown for more than 30 days, longer than last year's lockdown, with schools and non-essential businesses closed.

Under Alert Level 3, construction work and takeaway services can resume with necessary safety measures in place, while most students are still encouraged to study at home.

BNZ Chief Economist Paul Conway said, "The move down to Alert Level 3 in Auckland has seen a big uptick in spending in the city, as people enjoy more freedoms and more businesses are able to operate, rebounding by 28 percent. This however is still 22 percent below pre-lockdown levels for the city."

"Online spending has increased compared to pre-lockdown levels too, rising from 23 percent of transactions to 28 percent now. Just how durable this is will remain to be seen as Auckland is able to get to lower Alert Levels, but so far shows the importance of businesses having a strong digital operation to match rising digital consumer demand," he said.

Conway said the data is showing very encouraging signs, with spending continuing to rebound.

"It's clear that lowering the Alert Level sends a spending pulse through the economy, and this is particularly true of Alert Level 2. The experience outside of Auckland suggests another strong pulse will hit the economy when the city manages to join the rest of the country at Alert Level 2, though the full impact remains to be seen," said Conway. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-04 12:43:35|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on Oct. 4, 2021 shows a building damaged during an operation against a hideout of Daesh (Arabic acronym for Islamic State) in Kabul, Afghanistan. At least three Islamic State (IS) militants were killed during clashes with Taliban soldiers in a populated neighborhood in Kabul on Sunday night, a Taliban spokesman confirmed on Monday. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

KABUL, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- At least three Islamic State (IS) militants were killed during clashes with Taliban soldiers in a populated neighborhood in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, on Sunday night, a Taliban spokesman confirmed on Monday.

"Members of Special Forces of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan launched an operation against a hideout of Daesh (Arabic acronym for IS) in Police District 17 of Kabul last night. As a result the IS hideout was completely destroyed and all devilry IS members stationed in the building were killed," spokesman Bilal Karimi said in a statement.

The statement did not provide details.

One vehicle and the targeted building caught fire during the clashes lasting for hours in Kotal-e-Khairkhana locality, according to local residents. They said three IS members were killed.

The operation was conducted hours after a bomb attack outside a big mosque in central Kabul, where a prayer ceremony was holding for Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid's deceased mother, killing two civilians and wounding four others.

The security situation remained generally calm across Afghanistan since Taliban's takeover in mid-August.

However, a spate of bomb attacks were staged by IS-affiliated militants in Kabul and Jalalabad city, capital of eastern Nangarhar province in recent weeks. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-04 13:34:52|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken with a mobile phone shows a damaged passenger bus at the accident site in Khanewal district of Pakistan's east Punjab province on Oct. 4, 2021. Seven people were killed and 28 others injured when a passenger bus fell off from a flyover in Khanewal district of Pakistan's east Punjab province, the police said on Monday. (Str/Xinhua)

ISLAMABAD, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Seven people were killed and 28 others injured when a passenger bus fell off from a flyover in Khanewal district of Pakistan's east Punjab province, the police said on Monday.

The incident happened late Sunday night when the driver lost control over the vehicle due to a tyre burst, said the police.

Five people died on the spot while two others succumbed to injuries at the hospital on Monday morning, police said.

The bus was on its way to the southern port city of Karachi from east Chakwal district when it had the accident.

The injured are being treated at the hospital where some are in critical condition.

Road accidents are frequent in the province mainly due to poorly maintained vehicles and unprofessional driving. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-04 14:42:23|Editor: huaxia

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KATHMANDU, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Nepali government has banned the import of betel nut, pea, peppercorn and dried date temporarily as the South Asian country is facing dwindling foreign exchange reserves amid surging imports.

The central bank confirmed the ban in a notice on Sunday evening, stating that it would not provide any foreign exchange facilities for the import of the goods as requested by the Department of Commerce Supplies and Consumer Protection.

"The commerce department wrote to us asking not to provide foreign exchange facilities for the imports of these goods as they are under the prohibited list for the imports," Dev Kumar Dhakal, spokesperson for Nepal Rastra Bank, told Xinhua. "Based on this request, we issued a circular in the name of banks not to provide any foreign exchanges for the import of these items."

The Nepali government banned the import of the goods in March 2020 to save foreign exchange reserves due to a potential loss of remittances amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Remittances are the largest source of foreign exchange earnings for Nepal.

In March this year, the government allowed the import of the goods till mid-July by setting limit on their quantities.

The central bank was alarmed to see depleting foreign exchange reserves as a result of less remittances and surging imports. In the first month of the current 2021-22 fiscal year starting in mid-July, Nepal's foreign exchange reserves decreased to 11.42 billion U.S. dollars from 11.75 billion dollars, as imports grew by 75.7 percent to 150.73 billion Nepali rupees (1.26 billion dollars) during the period, according to the bank.

Imports grew by 75.86 percent to 314.51 billion rupees (2.64 billion dollars) during the second month of the current fiscal year, the Department of Customs said.

Remittances have become vital for the country, since tourism has been hit hard by the pandemic, but money sent from abroad has fallen by 17.5 percent to 638.2 million dollars, said the central bank.

"The time has not come to be more alert about the foreign exchange situation and take certain control measures to stop the fast depletion of foreign exchange reserves," said Dhakal. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-04 14:59:06|Editor: huaxia

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BANGKOK, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- The military pact among the United States, Britain and Australia, known as AUKUS, poses a risk of nuclear material and technology proliferation, and threatens peace, stability and security in the Asia-Pacific, a Thai expert has said.

"I'm quite sure that the AUKUS poses a risk of proliferation of nuclear material and technology," Surasit Thanadtang, director of the Thai-Chinese Strategic Research Center under the National Research Council of Thailand, told Xinhua in an interview.

The pact will let Australia build nuclear-powered submarines for the first time, Surasit said, adding that with the technology provided by the United States, it would go further to weapon technology that might have more impacts on regional peace, stability and security.

"The AUKUS pact is probably the most significant security arrangement among the three nations since WWII, and it focuses on military capability," he said.

Surasit noted that the United States is sharing the submarine technology for the first time in 50 years, and this time it might be more challenging to the region because of the highly enriched uranium material.

"It's already the weapon-grade nuclear. It's not a nuclear for peaceful development," the expert said.

To more effectively safeguard regional peace, stability and development, Surasit said countries should uphold promoting and seeking security cooperation based on a new concept that emphasizes joint and comprehensive cooperation in ensuring sustainable security and creating a security governance framework with regional characteristics.

Countries in the region should jointly build a road of peace, while the key factors of success would include an environment of relative stability and concerted efforts to build development networks, both hard skills and soft skills for youth society, with contribution to regional peace and stability, he said.

He noted that instead of nuclear-powered submarines, what the region needs most is marine research and development in humanitarian, seaside disaster relief, countering terrorism and transnational crime as well as green development of the sea. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-04 16:56:09|Editor: huaxia

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ULAN BATOR, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- At least 7,681 heads of livestock of 85 herders have been infected with the deadly foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in the central Mongolian province of Uvurkhangai, the provincial veterinary department said Monday.

The viral infectious disease has spread in the province via livestock of herders who have returned home from the east of the country, the department said in a statement.

Due to a drought in Uvurkhangai this summer, many herders in the province have moved to the east, which has rich grass, to fatten their livestock.

High-risk animals are being vaccinated against the FMD to curb and prevent its spread.

So far this year, the highly contagious disease, which spreads among cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, sheep and pigs, has broken out in more than half of Mongolia's 21 provinces, according to the country's General Authority for Veterinary Services.

The livestock sector is a main pillar of the Mongolian economy with around 70 million heads of livestock in the country with a population of some 3.4 million.

The landlocked country is striving to develop its livestock sector by raising meat exports in a bid to diversify its mining-dependent economy, while frequent outbreaks of livestock diseases such as FMD and mad cow disease are impeding the process.

The country's meat exports have been suspended since June due to infectious animal diseases, according to the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-04 20:14:43|Editor: huaxia

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SUVA, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Fiji on Monday reported 22 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and one new death from the pandemic, bringing the total tally to 51,224 cases including 634 deaths, as businesses reopened to fully vaccinated people in the Pacific island country.

Permanent Secretary for the Health Ministry James Fong said 3,941 recoveries from the coronavirus epidemic were newly recorded, bringing the total number of recoveries to 41,189.

In the current outbreak beginning in April, there have been 51,154 cases recorded, with 632 deaths, according to Fong. There are currently 8,898 active cases registered in the country, including 74 hospitalized patients.

Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has announced that from Monday, all workplaces, houses of worship, hotels, restaurants, cafes, cinemas, gyms, and tattoo parlours in the country can reopen at 70 percent capacity to fully vaccinated people.

He said the government will roll out a VAX-Check tool that allows real time digital verification of vaccine status that venues can use to confirm the vaccine status of their patrons.

Bainimarama meanwhile stressed that face masks must be worn, two meters of physical distance should be maintained, and careFIJI must be installed on everyone's phones, with bluetooth switched on.

The Fijian prime minister has also urged all parents and guardians of 15-17 year old children to register for the children's vaccination. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-04 23:11:57|Editor: huaxia

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ISLAMABAD, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)'s member states held a joint anti-terrorism exercise in Pakistan from Sept. 21 to Monday.

The joint exercise, entitled "Pabbi-Antiterror-2021," came amid increasingly complex international and regional security situation, with the situation in Afghanistan suddenly changing, and the three forces of terrorism, separatism and extremism trying to take advantage of chaos and infiltrate the SCO region.

The exercise was conducted in two stages, during which the SCO member states first conducted simulated exchanging, sharing, collection and evaluation of anti-terrorism intelligence within their own borders, and then carried out joint anti-terrorism exercises, including sniping action, indoor counter-terrorism action and hostage rescue.

This was the first time for China's anti-terrorism law enforcement forces to participate with live ammunition abroad in a joint anti-terrorism exercise by the competent authorities of the SCO member states.

The decision to hold the joint exercise was announced during the 36th meeting of the Council of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Enditem
In recent years, U.S. military policy has changed multiple times concerning transgender service members openly serving their country and expressing their gender, which may not be the one they were assigned at birth. This culture change has been plagued with misinformation and politics, preventing the necessary conversations that leaders need to have on the deckplate level, with all shipmates.

Using leadership practices that foster communication and honesty, leaders need to facilitate the difficult conversations surrounding gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation. These conversations begin with leaders, as we educate ourselves and hold one another accountable; to know what gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation are, the differences between them, and to understand that the more we know, the stronger we will be. Expressing oneself as a gender that is different from ones sex assigned at birth, is not new to the U.S. military -- it is a practice that dates to Colonial America.

Beginning with the Revolutionary War, women were known to dress as men, secretly enlisting as soldiers, fighting alongside their male comrades. While not necessarily transgender, these women effectively presented themselves as men for our country, using their patriotism for our countrys independence. During the Civil War, Jennie Hodgers enlisted in the U.S Army as Albert J. Cashier and served as a Union solider until the wars end. Cashier continued to live as a man in Saunemin, Illinois, until he was discovered to have been female at birth and forced to live as a woman until his death in 1915. And then there is Christine Jorgensen and Charlotte F. Macleod, both U.S Army veterans and transgender women. In 1952, Jorgensen, a World War II veteran, was the first American woman and veteran to undergo sex-reassignment surgery with Macleod following as the second female and veteran. The actions of women who went to war as men, and men who transitioned to women, are part of U.S. military history. Todays leaders must understand this history to chart paths forward.

In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued the first executive order prohibiting transgender service members from openly serving, on the basis that transgender service members were a national security risk. This order remained in effect until 30 June 2016, when President Barack H. Obama issued an executive order acknowledging the presence of transgender service members within the U.S. military ranks and empowering them to openly serve. One year and 26 days later, President Donald J. Trump signed a third executive order concerning transgender service members, preventing future members from serving while expressing their gender.

Also from the U.S. Naval Institute:

For three years, five months and 26 days, our shipmates who were openly transgender, and an untold number of U.S Coast Guardsmen who were not open about their gender identity, served our country. Even as the government challenged their existence and devotion to duty, our shipmates core values held true and patriotism steadfast. On 25 January 2021, President Joseph R. Biden signed the fourth executive order for transgender service members to enlist and serve in their gender.

When President Trumps Executive Order was signed, I was an operations specialist first class petty officer, serving in District 1. While the policy was going through the court system, I transferred to District 13, and on advancement to chief petty officer, I transferred to District 11. Only from U.S Coast Guard Headquarters, did I hear of my organizations position on the policy that negatively affected an unknown number of our shipmates. Public statements from Admiral Paul F. Zukunft, Commandant of the U.S Coast Guard until his retirement in 2018, assured me that my organization was trying to keep its integrity intact.

A Department of Defensefunded study published in the Journal of Traumatic Stress confirms that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) military members experience higher risks for sexual assault and sexual harassment. In my role as a victims advocate, I initiate conversations about former and current transgender policies, as is known from history that when a demographic is excluded, its members experience an increased risk of hostility and violence. However, I have struggled with these discussions because few leaders at my level are openly talking about gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation. After President Trumps executive order was signed, service members questioned if transgender personnel were fit for duty, leadership, and service. Despite President Bidens executive order, stronger leadership on the deckplate level is critical, as the door for misinformation remains open. Ignorance and silence around any demographic or equal opportunity employment category is an Achilles heel.

During transfer season, when Coast Guardsmen meet new shipmates and supervisors, they know to strike a balance between being their true selves and professionalism. The sense of belonging, finding friends, and fitting in at the unit applies to everyone, regardless of ones gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation. When one has experienced exclusion and hostility for being true to themselves, the question, Will he/she/they accept me for who I am? hangs in the six feet of space between us, waiting.

To address this culture change, leaders must set the example to learn and understand the difference between gender, sex, and sexual orientation. To close the door on misinformation and fill the knowledge gap, leaders should know how gender differs from nonbinary, how they both differ from intersex, sex, and sexual orientation, and that each one is an umbrella for more specific terms as they intersect and overlap. Each identity has a purpose and should not be used interchangeably. Leaders must recognize that what everyone all thought they knew about gender and sex was wrong, and if they continue to be wrong, it will undermine the Coast Guards camaraderie and unit cohesion.

Remember the leadership practices learned at the U. S Air Force Non-Commissioned Officers Academy, Airman Leadership Program, Chief Petty Officer Academy, Coast Guard Academy, Officer Candidate School, and Senior Enlisted Leadership Course. Remember reporting to your first units, shiny new boots, eager to learn and make mistakes. Use the leadership behaviors and practices from your experience in the fleet, the chiefs mess, and wardroom. Learn from your experiences and your shipmates to create leadership strategies and combine them with schoolhouse principles. Apply them to the challenge of having difficult conversations about gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation. Apply them so you can continue to grow personally and professionally. Hold members accountable for their behaviors and language and foster the most diverse departments and divisions the U.S Coast Guard has ever seen. Change is hard; just ask anyone who is transgender.

Since 1873, the U.S. Naval Institute has championed intellectual debate on key issues for the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. For more go to usni.org.
Maputo  The latest statistics from the Mozambican health authorities once again show that the epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic has shifted to the north of the country, with the number of new cases in southern and central Mozambique dropping sharply.

A Health Ministry Friday press release showed that, of the 365 cases of Covid-19 diagnosed that day, 72.9 per cent were from the four provinces north of the Zambezi (147 from Nampula, 67 from Cabo Delgado, 34 from Zambezia, and 18 from Niassa).

The seven provinces in southern and central Mozambique accounted for 27.1 per cent of the new cases (31 from Maputo city, 27 from Inhambane, 24 from Gaza, seven from Manica, five from Tete, four from Maputo province and one from Sofala).

Since the start of the pandemic, 859,547 people have been tested for the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, 3,241 of them in the previous 24 hours. Of the tests, 2,876 yielded negative results, while 365 people were found to be carrying the coronavirus. This brings the total number of Covid-19 cases diagnosed in Mozambique to 147,431.

Of the cases identified on Friday, 197 were women or girls and 168 were men or boys. 49 were children under the age of 15, and 18 were over 65 years old. For five cases, no age information was available.

The positivity rate (the proportion of those tested found to be carrying the coronavirus) on Friday was 11.3 per cent, slightly lower than the rates on Thursday and Wednesday, of 13.3 and 13.2 per cent.

The provinces with the highest positivity rates were all in the north - Nampula (23.4 per cent), Niassa (22.5 per cent), Zambezia (20.9 per cent) and Cabo Delgado (18.5 per cent). The lowest rates were reported from Sofala (0.9 per cent) and Maputo province (two per cent).

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In the same 24 hour period, nine Covid-19 patients were discharged from hospital (two each in Cabo Delgado, Niassa and Matola, and one each in Zambezia, Tete and Inhambane). 14 new patients were admitted (seven in Maputo, two each in Matola, Manica and Niassa, and one in Cabo Delgado).

The number of people under medical care in the Covid-19 treatment centres rose from 118 on Thursday to 122 on Friday. 64 of these patients (52.5 per cent) were in Maputo. There were also 18 patients in Nampula, 11 in Niassa, five in Matola, five in Inhambane, four each in Cabo Delgado, Zambezia and Sofala, three in Manica, two in Tete and two in Gaza.

A further 207 people were declared fully recovered from Covid-19 (129 in Zambezia and 78 in Sofala). This brought the total number of recoveries to 135,638, or 92 per cent of all those ever diagnosed with Covid-19 in Mozambique.

The Ministry reported just one further Covid-19 death in the previous 24 hours. She was an 89 year old Mozambican woman who died in Matola. The Mozambican death toll from Covid-19 now stands at 1,872.

The number of active Covid-19 cases rose from 9,760 on Thursday to 9.917 on Friday. The geographical distribution of the active cases was as follows: Maputo province, 2,901 (29.3 per cent of the total); Maputo city, 2,448; Nampula, 1,595; Inhambane, 890; Cabo Delgado, 670; Niassa, 568; Zambezia, 415; Gaza, 355; Manica, 37; Tete, 37; and Manica, one.

According to the release, 85,711 people were vaccinated against Covid-19 in the previous 24 hours. Since the start of vaccination, in March, 1,252,678 have been completely immunised.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to deliver keynote address

 President of Liberia 2006 -2018

 Nobel Peace Prize Winner - 2011

Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership - 2017

Former president of Liberia and 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the Keynote Speaker at the Concord Times Summit 2021, which will take place on Friday 8 October, at the Bintumani Conference Centre, Freetown.

The summit theme is Fresh Answers: the People, Good Governance, and post-Covid-19 Inclusive Recovery.

Madam Sirleaf, who is Africa's first democratically elected female president, confirmed her participation yesterday in an email.

"On behalf of the former President, I want to thank you for the invitation extended to Madam President to be a Special Guest and deliver the keynote address at the Concord Times Sierra Leone Summit 2021 scheduled to take place on Friday, October 8, 2021," wrote Cornelia Greene-Wesley, executive assistant to the former president of Liberia.

"She wishes me to convey to you that she is pleased to accept the invitation and looks forward to an exciting and rewarding discussion on the theme of the Summit," Ms. Greene-Wesley added.

Madam Sirleaf is acclaimed globally for her advocacy for good governance, including women's empowerment, both during her tenure in office and her post-presidency work. She won the 2017 Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership, adding to a long list of global recognitions.

She will speak on the topic: "Good Governance and post-COVID-19 Inclusive Recovery."

A key focus of the Concord Times Summit 2021 will be how to prioritize women's aspirations and tackle systemic barriers to women's empowerment.

Madam Sirleaf took office as president in 2006 at a challenging time for Liberia, following the civil war, and handed over power to current President George Opong Weah of the opposition Congress for Democratic Change party in 2018, following the 2017 elections.

Many experts will make presentations at the summit on topics such as climate change, youth empowerment, international cooperation, energy, civil society, and government relations, and so on.

Summit participants will include policymakers, diplomats, business leaders, development experts, civil society activists, media practitioners, youth and women leaders across Sierra Leone and beyond.

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Hundreds of thousands more will follow the live events on television and social media-- Facebook Live, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn.

"Our goal is to offer an interactive platform for policymakers and influential citizens as well as foreign partners to engage in discussions and debates about Sierra Leone's socio-economic and political development," says Gabriel Benjamin, head of the Summit Organizing Committee.

Concord Times' summit was launched in 2008. The inaugural event was chaired by the late President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and the keynote address delivered by Professor Amos Sawyer, a former President of Liberia and erstwhile Chairman of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), an African Union body.

This year's summit will be followed by the Concord Times Awards Night, which will take place on Saturday, 9 October. Individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to society will receive awards at the event.
Namibia is showing promising signs of attracting real private investment. As such, the recent wave of investor interests in the country includes a promising mix of private equity, venture capital, and other asset classes, which could be directed towards infrastructure, commercial real estate and technical development.

These sentiments were expressed by Namibia's Ambassador to China Elia Kaiyamo yesterday in Beijing when he was speaking at the China International Economics and Technology Administration Forum.

"Of late, private investors have shown increased interest in various economic sectors other than the traditional extractive investments in projects such as Green Hydrogen development," said Kaiyamo.

The ambassador noted that in terms of bilateral trade in 2019, the total volume between China and Namibia was about US$709 million, with a year-on-year decrease in 2018 of 14.28% from US$800 million.

"Obviously, the pandemic has adversely affected these numbers in 2020 and this year," said Kaiyamo.

He added Chinese companies have contributed N$250 million in tax revenue to the Namibian government since 2016, while creating up to 11 000 direct and indirect jobs in the country. Notable among China's recent investments in Namibia is US$4.7 billion invested into the Husab Uranium Mining Project, one of the largest Chinese investments in Africa, as well as the US$27 million invested in Walvis Bay-based BC Stone Products.

Said Kaiyamo: "Another achievement is that Namibia in 2018 became one of the first African countries allowed by the Chinese authorities to export beef to China. With that, the first consignment of prime Namibian beef was delivered to China in 2019".

He further noted that China, in particular, has been supporting Namibia's economic and social development and offering development assistance in many projects over the years.

These projects include the construction of national buildings, hospitals, clinics, schools, roads and port infrastructure.

"Namibia also benefits under the Belt and Road Initiative of China where eight areas of cooperation were identified. Namibia will take full advantage of the traditional friendship, consolidate our all-weather friendship, deepen pragmatic cooperation and enrich and expand channels of communication between the two friendly nations, and promote the strategic development of bilateral relations," Kaiyamo stated.

The ambassador went on to inform Forum participants of Namibia's abundance of natural resources, consisting of a wide range of mineral deposits, including world-class diamonds and uranium, copper, lead, zinc, gold, semi-precious stones, industrial minerals, salt and fluorspar.

"Our rich fishing grounds are well known across the world in the international fishing industry," he said.

"Such valuable resources mean mining and fishing are two of our most important economic sectors, together with agriculture, including a thriving red meat industry and tourism. Tourism, indeed, is a rapidly growing sector, and it is fast becoming a major earner of foreign exchange and generator of income for the nation.

Our infrastructure is superior to that found in many places in Africa and other parts of the world. We have an excellent road and rail network, including trans-continental links to the Atlantic seaport of Walvis Bay, which, with its world-class standard of cargo handling and sheltered deep-water harbour, is poised to grow into the most important port on Africa's west coast and a regional container hub for southern Africa".

Also, he pointed out that China has assisted Namibia with aid of various forms that have helped to improve people's living standards.

Many of these projects, he stated, are a result of Namibia's participation in the FOCAC (Forum on China-Africa Cooperation) over the years as well as commitments made by China towards Namibia.

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Kaiyamo continued there are two important and excellent cooperation achievements in Namibia, to which few other African countries can make comparisons. The first project is the space science cooperation.

"In 2018, during his state visit to China, our President Geingob visited the Beijing Aerospace Control Center and interacted with Chinese astronauts. He invited the astronauts to Namibia. In 2019, Yang, China's first female astronaut in space, and her colleague Dong, arrived in Namibia's port town of Walvis Bay; the visit was aimed at enhancing communication and cooperation on astronautics between China and Namibia".

The second project, Kaiyamo explained, is the space tracking station in Swakopmund.

"The tracking station has been in operation since 2000, and it is a symbol of scientific and technological cooperation linking Namibia and China together for the peaceful use of space", Kaiyamo concluded.
Health minister Dr Kalumbi Shangula has acknowledged the decline in Covid-19 cases over the past month, saying there has been a massive drop in the number of new infections, hospitalisation and deaths in Namibia.

The minister said this at the handover of respirators by the University of Namibia (Unam) to the ministry in Windhoek yesterday.

"The third wave of the pandemic has affected all corners of our country. It is, however, gratifying that we have started to observe a positive trend marked by the decline in the number of new cases," Shangula said, encouraged the nation to maintain the trajectory.

In an interview with New Era, Shangula said the decline in the number of positive cases has been attributed to the public's cooperation towards the health measures.

"The public is really cooperating, and we have executed restrictive measures such as the lockdown, curfew, we are still trying to minimise the interactions between people. Covid-19 transmits through interactions of people and once we limit that, we will be able to achieve our goal of combating the virus," he added.

Meanwhile, by 4 September 2021, the country recorded 116 new Covid-19 confirmed cases - a total of 220 395 people have received one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, while 126 306 had received two doses.

Shangula said this has brought the desired results of what they aim to achieve.

"We are happy that our efforts to regain the upper hand in combating misinformation from anti-vaxxers is bearing fruits. The task ahead is to ensure that almost every Namibian is vaccinated and that is what we are looking into," he stated.

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Despite positive results towards fighting the ongoing pandemic, Shangula said it is still an uphill climb to reach herd immunity.

"We are calling upon the public to get vaccinated," he said.

Expressing the same sentiments, Ben Nangombe, executive director of the health ministry said although there is an indication that the public health measures that the government has put in place are working, the nation needs to keep complying with the regulations put in place.

"We are not out of the woods yet. If we let our guards down, we are going to see another spike in covid-19 cases and we don't want to get there," he said.

Nangombe said many people getting severely sick, hospitalised, and dying are mainly those who have not gotten the vaccine.

"Vaccines do work, they have worked in other parts of the world and they will work here and we are encouraging people to get vaccinated," he urged.
The Minister of Defence, Sheikh Omar Faye, has informed lawmakers that he is not aware of any reinforcement coming to The Gambia from Senegal.

Minister Faye made this remark on Tuesday 7th September 2021 at the National Assembly, while responding to the motion without notice, moved by the member for Kiang Central, Bakary Camara.

"I am not aware of any reinforcements coming from Senegal. What I am aware of is that there is a rotational annual change that happened last year, and is now one year. They are doing change and I am aware of that," he said.

Camara, in accordance with clause 53(K) of the standing orders of the assembly, asked the minister to clarify to the assembly whether the information about deploying 625 Senegalese soldiers into the country was true.

Camara's motion interjected the debate on an earlier motion which was tabled by the defence minister on the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty for legislative consideration and ratification.

Taking turns on the motion on nuclear test ban treaty, Sunkary Badgie, member for Foni Brefet, who seconded the motion, said the document came at the right time and he implored his colleagues to give their consent to the motion.

"The effects of nuclear weapons are not a secret to any human being and their effects are beyond imagination of mankind. We remember that in 1948, America dropped a nuclear weapon in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It has caused devastating effects and as such banning the testing of such weapons is a step in the right direction," he said.

Ousman Sillah, member for Banjul North, supported the motion. But he said he will not support the banning of nuclear study and research.

"What Gambia should do now, is to invest and develop in research to develop and support its scientists in all aspects of human endeavors, which include research in nuclear studies, not for militaristic purposes, but for development because we need energy to develop," he said.

Sainey Touray, member for Jarra East, said nuclear weapons could be both destructive and helpful and that as a nation the country cannot stand on its own.

"I rise to support the ratification of the nuclear test ban. Reasons being that it has the potential to cause adverse damages on both human lives, properties and as well as the environment and its radiation can take years which can affect the generation yet unborn," he said.

He said having the nuclear test ban treaty will help the country in sanitizing its already endangered environment, adding the assembly must be cognizant of the generation yet unborn because the task is on them to protect their lives and livelihood.

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Landing J Sanneh, Member for Brikama South, said the problems of nuclear weapons and explosives are they do mass killing not only to the human beings, but they affect the environment too in terms of production and animals.

Suwaibou Touray, Member for Wuli East, said it is better for a small nation like The Gambia to take protective precautions and not to engage in any form of nuclear activity.

"It is not good for our country, environment, properties and it will create a lot of suspicion. It's my belief, we should create any suspicion that we are engaged in such an enterprise. Nuclear weapons are dangerous weapons and that is why the world is thinking about eradicating it," he said.

He said the benefit that the country would gain from the treaty in terms of training should be viewed from a bigger perspective, which should be to protect the people, environment and properties.

"A test of a nuclear weapon in this small territory is dangerous for us, because of the radiation and we cannot handle that. So, we should not think about nuclear weapons in any way," he said.

After the debate on the motion, the National Assembly ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) with support from the Secretariat of the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) last Friday hosted a review of preliminary findings of the ongoing second round of Mutual Evaluation Exercise on the Anti Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing AML/CFT framework in The Gambia.

The event, which attracted both regional and national participants, was held at the Kairaba Beach Hotel.

Delivering his speech, Alhagie Darboe, director General of FIU Gambia explained that the meeting was to listen to the preliminary findings of the ongoing second round of Mutual Evaluation exercise on Anti Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing framework of the Republic of The Gambia".

The assessment, he added, has undoubtedly been a demanding yet, impactful experience for all stakeholders involved in the exercise.

"The active participation and cooperation of stakeholders of the country's AML/CFT system over the course of the assessment, has indeed been remarkable."

Darboe indicated that FIU as the National Coordinator for AML/CFT in the country, resolved to ensure the smooth conduct of this exercise.

He went on to commend the outstanding efforts and contribution of the National Coordinating Committee (NCC), technical and support staff of the FIU, security personnel, who in one way or the other facilitated the safe, efficient and timely conduct of the meeting between stakeholders and the assessment team.

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"It is in the spirit of international cooperation and collaboration to preserve the integrity and soundness of financial system and national economies that countries subject themselves to Mutual Evaluation on AML/CFT framework work. This is also a requirement by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for countries to undergo this kind of assessment. It is against this background that The Gambia subjects itself to its 2nd round of Mutual Evaluation by GIABA as the FATF-Style Regional Body for West Africa."

The focus of the second round of Mutual Evaluation, he added, now shifts to the post on site phase, assuring that The Gambia will continue to cooperate fully with the GIABA Secretariat and the assessment team.

He called upon all relevant stakeholders to take ownership of the implementation of the NRA action plan and the recommendations of the on-site assessment report.

City Link Ostend donates medical items worth over D800, 000 to EFSTH

'I will reduce unnecessary gov't expenses to combat debts, create income'
A 29-year-old soldier appeared before the Maun Magistrate court Friday (September 10) for arson and murder.

Thabang Kgolagano, a Lance Corporal based at Botswana Defence Force Maun Base Camp allegedly on September 08 intentionally and unlawfully set a block of residential houses on fire at Maun BDF Base Camp.

On the second count, Kgolagano is accused of causing the death of one Mr Victor Watlala.

The State Prosecutor Mr Dimpho Ogotseng of the Directorate of Public Prosecution pleaded with the court to remand the accused as the investigations were at an initial stage.

The accused will appear for bail hearing and status update on October 04 before Maun Magistrate Ms Keneilwe Kgoadi.
The Second Republic's thrust to eradicate poverty and protect citizens against scammers, through provision of affordable housing, is on course, as a massive 2 200 housing project takes shape in Norton.

Government is ticking all the right boxes towards an upper middle income status as enshrined in national Vision 2030, and envisioned in the recently launched Zimbabwe National Human Settlements Policy.

The human settlements policy is aimed at informing the implementation of relevant facets of Agenda 2030's Sustainable Development Goals, Vision 2030 and national and international pliability frameworks.

This will in turn massively contribute to overall economic growth in line with National Development Strategy 1 (NDS 1) -- a five-year economic blueprint that runs from 2021-2025 -- launched by President Mnangagwa in November last year.

A successor to the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP), the NDS 1, is key to the achievement of Vision 2030, and seeks to streamline gender, youth, women and other vulnerable groups, hence creating equal opportunities for all citizens in an economically stable environment.

High rise flats, as envisaged in the policy, are the way to go, although in some cases they may be costly as compared to building low-cost 50-square-metre houses on 200 or 250 square metre lots, considered socially acceptable.

To that end, the Second Republic under the stewardship of President Mnangagwa has set a target of 220 000 houses and flats by 2025, with hundreds of houses having been completed in Norton. Thousands of other houses and flats are at different stages of construction across the country.

Last Thursday, the President commissioned the Marimba Flats Project, and launched the Zimbabwe National Human Settlements Policy to expedite the creation of a conducive environment for all stakeholders to participate in human settlements development, for ease of housing delivery.

The policy will, among other issues, provide for disaster risk assessments, environmental impact mitigation, and climate change implications into rural and urban settlement planning, development and management.

The President said his administration will deliver on the provision of accommodation.

"My Government is accelerating the provision of houses and social amenities to all sections of society, including the health sector. Numerous new housing projects and others, which had stalled, are being completed across the country.

"Success of the programme is being further accelerated through collaboration and coordinated efforts from various stakeholders," he said.

To curb settlement stretch, 40 percent of land earmarked for human settlement will be set aside for the construction of high-rise flats and buildings.

Recognising that housing is a basic human right, the settlements policy opens up opportunities for Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the construction sector.

Shelter is considered one of the effective indicators of the extent to which poverty has been eradicated in any country.

Hence, companies, banks and local authorities should complement Government efforts in the provision of affordable housing, as a progressive way of eradicating poverty and protecting citizens against scammers-induced heartaches.

Shelter Afrique, a Pan-African bank, has come on board with a US$65 million facility to fund housing through building societies and the Urban Development Corporation (Udcorp). Under the partnership, hundreds of the 2 200 houses under construction in KockMallock Estate in Norton, are now complete.

National Housing and Social Amenities Minister Daniel Garwe said the approach adopted in the policy was to rope in all stakeholders in human settlements growth.

"This approach was taken after noting deficiencies in the National Housing Policy of 2012. Government then embarked on consultations, and solicited opinions with a view to address these shortcomings.

"The vision of the policy is 'towards well planned and governed sustainable human settlements'. It also explains alternative housing finance models. The policy shall be the cornerstone of the housing delivery sector under the National Development Strategy 1, pursuant to Vision 2030," said Minister Garwe.

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He said the Government is taking a deliberate move to ensure sustainable provision of housing and social amenities in both rural and urban settlements, in consultation with relevant stakeholders, as a way of addressing existing disparities.

The policy also highlights adverse impacts of climate change "in view of the adoption and adaptation of resilient building technologies and inclination towards green energy." There is emphasis on the need to protect wetlands.

"Urban regeneration programmes and projects shall be informed by the need to densify settlements regularisation; and sanitisation of informal settlements shall be employed to rectify past mistakes through building back better," Minister Garwe said.

On arbitrary evictions, the Government shall be conscious of constitutional provisions, and where people have settled on undesignated sites, like road servitudes, land earmarked for social amenities, and any other designated use, they will be relocated to proper places.
Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute on September13, 2021 had discussions with the World Bank Vice President for Western and Central Africa, Ousmane Diagana.

The World Bank Vice President for Western and Central Africa, Ousmane Diagana has hailed the quality and quantity of fruitful cooperation between the institution and Cameroon. He has also given assurance of the bank's continuous support to sectors that boost economic growth and job creation.

The World Bank senior official spoke to the press in Yaounde on September 13, 2021 after discussions with Prime Minister, Head of Government, Joseph Dion Ngute. He disclosed that, "We have a very strong partnership with Cameroons panning over a number of programmes. At the moment, 15 programmes are operational and at the end of my mission, there will be about 19." Ousmane Diagana said that the programmes cover human, fiscal and natural capitals given the strengths of Cameroon's economy.The World Bank and Cameroon, he further said, need to continue to develop human capital by supporting education and health.

During the earlier part of the visit, the World Bank's official signed to finance two programmes in Cameroon amounting to over 3 BillionUS Dollars. The financing concerns diverse are as such as education, transport, infrastructure, energy, road and the acquisition of vaccines to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. He there fore discussed the importance of vaccination against the Covid-19 pandemic with the Prime Minister. The World Bank, has mobilised funding for the vaccination programme in Cameroon and expressed the readiness to increase the funding by 30 million US Dollars."Vaccination is essential, it is urgent,"Ousmane Diagana said. He high-lighted sectors like agriculture and energy in which Cameroon used to be the best. The World Bank is therefore ready to mobilise additional support so that the country can make maximum benefits from the sectors.
Ahora | El mandatario @PedroCastilloTe, acompanado por el titular de @MINPRODUCCION y el alcalde de Pichari, sostiene un encuentro con productores y agricultores del Vraem.

?? En vivo: https://t.co/sec4UE12DQ




The government official noted that he has mentioned more than once that the Second Agrarian Reform is not about expropriating and that the President himself has reiterated this point.





"Its aim is basically to promote comprehensive development in rural areas of our country," he said in an interview with RPP radio and TV station.





The Cabinet member emphasized that this Second Agrarian Reform is by no means expropriation. "It is not part of our proposal; that has been ruled out," he added.





On the other hand, in statements to Canal N, Maita said that he believes the Government has to intervene in the rural sector to promote its comprehensive development, adding that five areas of work have been established to that end.





He explained that this is because the issue of social gaps in those areas goes beyond the actual intervention of the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation (Midagri)





"This is because the problems they face are many. It is not only about the productive issue, but also about competitiveness, health, education, chronic malnutrition and anemia, among other things," he commented.





In this regard, the minister affirmed that the Government is willing to purchase produce from family agriculture in order to supply social programs.





Credit





Maita underscored that access to credit is key to support family agriculture in rural areas.





"We have the Agroperu Fund, which is basically aimed at small-scale farmers, and can also be accessed by farming communities that were abandoned for decades. We also have FAE-Agrario (a business support fund for farmers)," he added.





Support for women





The head of Midagri remarked that a fund exclusively for rural women is being promoted as part of the Second Agrarian Reform.





"This will help finance various business technical support and social programs in favor of over 700,000 women agricultural producers across the country," the high-ranking official remarked.





(END) SDD/JJN/RMB

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These measures will be implemented to put the State at the service of farmers and agricultural workers in the country.





First measure: Establishment of the Agrarian and Rural Development Cabinet





This cabinet will design and promote policies for rural and agrarian development in the country. It will be presided over by the Head of State and made up of productive ministries of infrastructure and social development, including the participation of representatives of regional and local governments.





Second measure: Price band adjustments and start of feasibility studies to set up a fertilizer production plant





The aim of these measures is to put an end to the situation of dependence on the import of agricultural foods and inputs. In addition, a direct support program for the purchase of fertilizers will be implemented in favor of small-scale farmers.





Third measure: Public food procurement program in favor of family agriculture

Food procurement arrangements for social programs worth S/300 million (about US$72.5 million) are estimated to be implemented in the following 12 months.

Fourth measure: Water protection and care

A water sowing and harvesting program will be implemented. It involves the construction of hundreds of cochas (micro water reservoirs) in the country's Andean river basins.

Fifth measure: Further promotion of association and cooperation among producers

It will be adopted in accordance with the law that strengthens agricultural cooperatives, which benefits farming and native communities.

Additionally, a fund for rural women will be introduced, which will finance various business technical support and social programs in favor of over 700,000 women agricultural producers across the country.





(END) CVC/RMB

The Second Agrarian Reform , recently launched by the President of the Republic Pedro Castillo , includes a series of concrete direct support measures in favor of family farmers.Published: 10/4/2021
" " The haul of dead rodents from a night of ratting by the dogs of R.A.T.S. on the streets of New York City. W. L. Reyna Jr

There are many ways a person could spend a weekend night: going dancing, trying a new restaurant, binge-watching "The Office," taking your small dog out on the streets of New York to catch and kill rats. You know, weekend stuff.

The Ryders Alley Trencherfed Society, or R.A.T.S, has been meeting since 1995. That's when Richard Reynolds, along with his pack of about a half-dozen dogs and some like-minded friends with their dogs, began prowling the streets of New York City with dogs that have been traditionally bred and recently trained to flush rats from their hiding places and kill them.

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Ratters Born and Bred

R.A.T.S. has about 65 members, give or take, and an active Facebook page. Most of the dogs are border terriers, Norfolk terriers, fox terriers and dachshunds  all breeds that have a history of being bred to do the dirty work of ratting.

It's the job of the smaller breeds to flush out the rats from the garbage. As the rodents skitter away across the pavement, the longer-legged breeds chase them down. When they catch a rat, they give it a good shake to kill it, then they bring the rat back to their human, who puts it in a bag to dispose of it.

" " This poor guy never stood a chance against the dogs of R.A.T.S. W. L. Reyna Jr

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Bones to Pick

Not everyone loves this idea. The Humane Society of the United States and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have both noted that it's not very humane for the rats. There is a bit of worry that it's dangerous for the dogs, who could contract leptospirosis, a bacterial infection common in rats. Some also worry that the dogs could ingest rat poison that the rats themselves have eaten, but it hasn't been an issue so far. The dogs have suffered a few scratches and minor bites, but the team carries first aid supplies.

Ratting with dogs is not illegal in the city, and some are all for it. Residents are encouraged to contact R.A.T.S. if they notice an outdoor rat infestation sightings, and they do. There's no charge, though the group does note that "coffee, water and kudos are appreciated." They received the latter in 2017, when the group was honored by the Queens City Councilman Eric Ulrich for their work. The humans received commendations; the dogs were given bones and beef jerky.

For dogs outside the city who might like to do what they were born to do, there's barn hunt. In this sport, which became official in the United States in April 2013, the dogs track the rats over and around obstacles such as hay bales. The rats themselves are housed in aerated tubes so the dogs can smell and hear them, but they cannot kill them.

Now That's Fascinating The term "trencher fed," is often used in 19th-century literature to refer to the hound management system in which hounds and terriers were kept by individual farmers at their homes and brought together to form a pack with other hounds on hunting day. A trencher was a flat piece of bread that lined a wooden plate  the uneaten bits of the trencher, with leftovers, were thrown to the dogs for dinner.
VILNIUS, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Lithuania is one of the key partners of Armenia in the European Union and can play an important role in promoting Armenias dialogue and partnership with the EU, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said during a joint press conference with his Lithuanian counterpart Ingrida Simonyte in Vilnius.

Pashinyan first of all thanked Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte for the invitation to visit Lithuania, as well as for the warm welcome.

Lithuania is one of our key partners in the European Union, and I highly appreciate this opportunity to meet with Lithuanias Prime Minister, President and Speaker of Parliament to discuss our bilateral agenda, as well as exchange views on Armenias cooperation with the European Union and the situation in the region. Armenia and Lithuania are connected by multiple threads. The democratic values and the traditional friendly relations between our nations have created a firm base for the bilateral cooperation in various areas, the Armenian PM said.

He emphasized that the potential existing between the two countries has not been fully utilized, meaning the potential in the fields of tourism, IT, green technologies, agriculture, food processing and industry.

Armenia has dynamic relations with the European Union. And Lithuania, as a friendly state and supporter of the Eastern Partnership, can play an important role in promoting Armenias dialogue and cooperation with the EU, Nikol Pashinyan said.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
VILNIUS, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Such scenarios for the unblocking of regional communications must be adopted which would not deepen the isolation of the countries and peoples of the region from one another, but quite the contrary, they would create conditions for peaceful co-existence, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said during a joint press conference with his Lithuanian counterpart Ingrida Simonyte in Vilnius.

We should be consistent with the agenda declared and adopted by us and present our visions on the solution of all issues. I want to note that the opening of regional communications is very important in this respect. Such scenarios for the unblocking of communications must be adopted which would not deepen the isolation of the countries and nations of the region from one another, but quite the contrary, will create conditions for peaceful coexistence. I must praise the fact that the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship, in fact, has started activating its operation, the Armenian PM said.

In this context he positively assessed the recent meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in New York. Pashinyan reminded that Armenia has expressed its readiness to start the border demarcation and delimitation process with Azerbaijan.

In my view, this should start with the creation of necessary conditions for that, and the quick return of captives, hostages and other persons held is a very important issue, the PM said.

He also reiterated his recent statement that he is ready to bring with him all the maps ahead of the potential meeting with the Azerbaijani president, which present a humanitarian threat and have no security function for Armenia, expressing hope that the Azerbaijani leader would bring with him all the Armenian captives.

Moreover, this must relate not only to those persons who have been confirmed as captured, but also to our those citizens, who, in our information, are in Azerbaijan, but the fact of their captivity is not confirmed, Pashinyan said.

He emphasized that the agenda of opening a peaceful development er is not easy, but on the other hand, Pashinyan believes that peace has no alternative and this agenda should become a reality step by step.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
VILNIUS, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte expressed hope that it will be possible to return to the political resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

Everyone, including us, are hopeful that it will be possible to return to a political resolution under the auspices of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs, PM Simonyte said at a joint press conference with Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan in Vilnius.

PM Simonyte said that there are a number of EU leaders who sincerely think about security and peace in the region. Therefore I am sure that the EU will pay sufficient attention to this issue, also with practical advice and solutions will help the practical resolution of the conflict, she said.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
VILNIUS, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Lithuania wants to deepen bilateral relations with Armenia, continue exchange of experience in various sectors and is ready to be Armenias friend in the future as well, Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said at a joint press conference with Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan in Vilnius.

She expressed hope that the Armenian and Lithuanian governments will find ways to enhance ties.

This year we celebrate the 30th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations. We celebrate the anniversary of restoring diplomatic ties with a number of states, but we managed to meet only with few representatives of states, and I am very happy that this meeting is taking place, PM Simonyte said.

PM Simonyte said that the June 20 Armenian elections showed the very strong support for democracy in the country.

The prime minister and his political team received strong support. They received strong support for reforms and democratic changes. And I believe that exchange of technical knowledge and experience and best practice and solutions, lessons learned from mistakes and information on alternatives can be useful. We passed a long way, weve amassed a rich experience and we have exchanged this experience and will further continue to actively exchange, she said.

PM Simonyte said that soon Yerevan and Vilnius will be linked with direct flights.

Speaking about challenges facing Lithuania and Armenia, as well as other countries, PM Simonyte pointed out the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that Lithuania has very successful experience in fighting against the pandemic and is also supporting Armenia in this matter.

Our health workers are providing assistance to Armenia, our government has made two decisions on donating vaccines to the Armenian people. We hope that we will be able to support in overcoming this issue and we will help the Armenian government, the Lithuanian PM said, noting that the Lithuanian and Armenian healthcare ministries have signed an agreement on combating the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Lithuanian PM thanked the Armenian government for addressing illegal migration issues.

One of the pressing needs was ensuring translators. We need translators to communicate with people illegally crossing the border, and Armenia helped us by dispatching Kurmanji translators. We highly appreciate this assistance.

PM Simonyte said that Lithuania supports the EUs efforts aimed at deepening partnership with Armenia and overcoming regional challenges.

Speaking about the Armenia-EU CEPA, she said: We believe that with their support and participation the European institutions play a highly important role. The mechanisms for re-establishing and maintaining peace are also very important. We are ready to be Armenias friend in the future too.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan met with Speaker of the Seimas Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen on the sidelines of his official visit in Lithuania, the PMs Office said.

The Armenian PM and the Lithuanian Speaker of Parliament highlighted the development and strengthening of the cooperation between the parliaments of the two countries both in bilateral relations and within the international organizations. They also emphasized the importance of inter-parliamentary ties which, according to them, could contribute to the deepening of friendly ties between the two countries.

The sides also touched upon the ongoing democratic reforms in Armenia and the partnership in their effective implementation.

The Lithuanian Speaker of Parliament said her country is ready to closely cooperate on the sidelines of the EUs Eastern Partnership program and stated that ahead of the upcoming Eastern Partnership summit in December the Lithuanian side will take necessary actions to provide support to Armenia.

At the end of the meeting PM Pashinyan left a note in the Honorary guest book of the Seimas, got acquainted with the materials published in the Lithuanian press in the late 19th century and the 20th century relating to the history of the Armenian people.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Armenias delegation led by Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan met today with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, the Armenian Parliaments press service said.

The Russian FM highly appreciated the Armenian-Russian strategic and partnering relations, calling the first official visit of the Armenian Speaker of Parliament to Russia as an evidence of this.

Alen Simonyan thanked for the reception and offered his congratulations to the Russian people on the recent parliamentary elections.

The sides discussed in details the current situation in the region, touching upon the establishment of lasting peace and the elimination of the problems which obstruct that process. In this context they in particular stressed the importance of the return of Armenian prisoners of war and civilian captives from Azerbaijan.

The Armenian Parliament Speaker and the Russian FM also discussed the bilateral cooperation in political, economic, cultural, humanitarian and other sectors. During the talk they emphasized the role of parliaments in developing and strengthening the bilateral mutual partnership.

Both sides highlighted the effective partnership within the CIS Inter-parliamentary assembly and the CSTO parliamentary assembly, taking into account the priorities of Armenias chairmanship.

At the end of the meeting Speaker Simonyan thanked the Russian Foreign Minister for his significant contribution to the development of the Armenian-Russian cooperation.



Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who is on an official visit in Lithuania, visited Eastern Europe Studies Center in Vilnius and met with representatives of the expert community, ARMENPRESS was infomred from the Office of the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister first referred to the processes taking place in our country and in the South Caucasus region. In particular, Nikol Pashinyan noted that the early parliamentary elections in Armenia in June served for the first time in the history of our Republic as a tool to overcome the domestic political crisis.

"Usually the elections in our country have caused domestic political crises, perhaps the most noisy domestic political problems in the history of our country have emerged in post-election periods. This is the first time that elections have become a tool to overcome the crisis, not a cause of crises. After the war, there were serious discussions about how appropriate the parliamentary system is for Armenia. There were really reasons for that, but I must say that this election was described by international observers as free, competitive and democratic for the second time in a row, which is also unprecedented, the Head of the Government said.

According to Nikol Pashinyan, these elections, which took place in the post-war period, generated some important political content. After the war, it was important to set the guidelines in which Armenia should move. I must admit that the answers to these questions in the political field were not fully formulated, but the recent elections generated a specific political content. At least for our political force, it was not so much a political campaign as a dialogue with the citizens, where they were not only listeners, but also speakers. We were the ones to listen to what citizens thought about our history of the last 30 years. It was at this point, that the strategy which the Government of the Republic of Armenia included in its Action Plan was formulated. We describe it as a need to open an era of peaceful development for Armenia and the region, the PM said, adding that it is also subject to criticism, which is comprehendible.

"Because developments take place every day, which, by and large, cast doubt on to what extent peace is possible in our region, or due to the situation we have in our region, over the conflict around the Republic of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh.

There is also a bigger question: to what extent is democracy able to ensure security and peaceful development? But our position is clear that in spite of all the circumstances that question the competitiveness of the peace agenda, we must move consistently forward in that direction.

We believe that the policy of small steps should be adopted without rushing to set insurmountable benchmarks. On the other hand, concrete results and processes are needed. In this regard, we consider the resumption of the peace process within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs format for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict necessary," Prime Minister Pashinyan underlined.

Afterwards, the Prime Minister answered numerous questions of the experts related to the prospects of peace in the South Caucasus, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement process, the implementation of democratic reforms in Armenia, the development of Armenia-EU relations and a number of other topics.
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. After the meeting between Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Iran, the parties issued a joint statement for the press, during which Mirzoyan noted that Armenia highly appreciates Iran's position on the country's territorial integrity and inviolability of borders.

ARMENPRESS presents the speech of Ararat Mirzoyan.

Dear Mr. Amir-Abdollahian,

Dear colleagues,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all, I would like to thank the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Amir-Abdollahian, my colleague, a good friend, for the invitation, for the warm reception, for the effective discussions and negotiations.

During our discussions with Minister Abdollahian in an atmosphere of friendship and mutual trust, we expressed satisfaction with the high level of Armenian-Iranian relations and the regularity of high-level contacts. We stressed that our partnership is based on the millennia-old brotherhood, and expressed mutual readiness to deepen our strategic partnership in all directions.

We discussed regional developments in detail. Naturally, I referred in detail to the recent Azerbaijani-Turkish aggression against Nagorno Karabakh and its aftermath. We, of course, also noted that mercenary terrorists from various hotspots took part in that aggression.

I mentioned that many humanitarian problems still remain after the war. Although Azerbaijan assumed the obligation to release all Armenian prisoners of war and civilian hostages at the moment of cessation of hostilities, they are still being held in Baku. Their release and repatriation must take place immediately.

I have mentioned that we have agreed that Armenia and Azerbaijan should start talks on opening regional communications through Russian mediation, but there are also problems here between the parties.

Armenia has stated and states that it is open to talk about opening communications, while Azerbaijan is trying to misinterpret it and speaks about the so-called "Zangezur Corridor", about which there has been no word or agreement.

Both this and Azerbaijan's encroachments on the sovereign territory of Armenia hamper our efforts for the stability and security of the region. In this regard, we highly appreciate Iran's position on the territorial integrity of Armenia and the inviolability of its borders.

I also informed my colleague that, in fact, the peace process within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs format resumed in New York a few days ago. Taking this opportunity, I would like to once again reaffirm Armenia's readiness to continue the full process of the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group, within the framework of their mandate, on the basis of yje well-known principles and elements.

Of course, one of the important topics of our todays meeting was the recent challenges facing the transport transit and the ways to overcome them. I presented to the Honorable Mr. Minister the details of the road construction, as well as the existing challenges. I have informed that the bypass road, which was much talked about, is almost completed.

Of course, we talked about continuing, accelerating and completing our major joint economic programs.

I would like to note again that, as the Minister assured, the political leaderships of the two countries are determined to fully develop and deepen our relations in an atmosphere of partnership.

Thank you again for the invitation, dear Mr. Minister, I look forward to seeing you in Yerevan.
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian received on October 4 Secretary General of the Organization of La Francophonie Louise Mushikiwabo and the delegation led by her.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Presidents Office, Louise Mushikiwabo noted that following being elected head of the Organization duirng the 17th summit of the Organization of La Francophonie in Yerevan in 2018, she is glad to return to Armenia and to discuss the cooperation directions with the President of the country, as well as listen to his approaches over the development of partnership in the sidelines of the Organization of La Francophonie.

Presenting the main directions and programs of the Organization, the Secretary General emphasized that the Organization pays great attention to young people-oriented programs, trying to create different platforms and opportunities for them, as well as the development of economic cooperation between the member states in different directions and dimensions.

Welcoming Louise Mushikiwabos visit to Armenia, President Sarkissian touched upon the directions where it is possible to establish effective cooperation with the member states of the Organization. In particular, he noted that the 6th STARMUS International Science and Art Festival to be held in Armenia next year is a good opportunity to involve young people from the member states, to create connections between them, to promote cooperation in science and art.

According to President Sarkissian, another opportunity for cooperation may be formed around the idea of establishing a club of Little and Smart Countries. Together we can implement small but significant projects, President Sarkissian said.

Taking into account the existence of Armenia's preferential economic regimes with both the Eurasian Economic Union and the European Union, the President said that Armenia can be interesting for business and investments of Francophone countries. The sides also spoke about the cooperation opportunities within the framework of the presidential ATOM initiative aimed at technological and scientific-technical development.

President Sarkissian also invited the representatives of the member states of the Organization to take part in the "Armenian Summit of Thought" to be held in Armenia, the main topics of which will be dedicated to global, regional geopolitics and new technologies.

Louise Mushikiwabo said that the presented directions really have a great potential for the development of cooperation.
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan, who is in Tehran on a working visit, met with the Foreign Minister of Iran Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on October 4. The Foreign Ministers of the two countries stressed the inadmissibility of actions endangering regional stability and highlighted cooperation to address new regional challenges.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the MFA Armenia, during the meeting, a wide range of issues related to cooperation between the two countries in bilateral and multilateral dimensions, as well as regional developments were discussed in detail.

The Ministers expressed satisfaction with the high level of centuries-old Armenian-Iranian friendly relations, expressing mutual readiness to make efforts to expand and deepen cooperation based on mutual trust.

The interlocutors referred to the prospects of activating economic ties, emphasizing the importance of taking targeted steps to increase trade turnover, including through the implementation of specific programs agreed between the parties. The activation of cooperation in tourism and culture was also discussed. In this context, the Ministers highlighted the activities of the Joint Intergovernmental Commission of the Republic of Armenia and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The signing of a multilateral agreement on the establishment of an international transport corridor between the Persian Gulf and the Black Sea and its effective application was highlighted.

The Armenian and Iranian Foreign Ministers discussed issues related to Eurasian Economic Union-Iran cooperation.

During the meeting, the sides referred to the cooperation in the field of energy and transport infrastructure. Ararat Mirzoyan informed about the process and results of the construction of the alternative Goris-Kapan road, as well as the construction of the "North-South" highway. The parties also exchanged views on the prospects of the project gas for electricity.

The regional developments, issues of regional security and stability were the key topics of the discussion between Ararat Mirzoyan and Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

The Armenian FM presented to his counterpart the situation in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone resulted by the Azerbaijani-Turkish aggression and the humanitarian problems. Ararat Mirzoyan particularly emphasized the need for the unconditional and swift repatriation of Armenian prisoners of war, civilian hostages being held in Azerbaijan.

Touching upon the situation created as a result of the penetration of Azerbaijani troops into the sovereign territory of Armenia and the continuous provocative actions of Azerbaijan, Ararat Mirzoyan highly appreciated Iran's position on the territorial integrity of Armenia.

The Foreign Ministers of the two countries stressed the inadmissibility of actions endangering regional stability and highlighted strengthening the cooperation to address new regional challenges.

At the end of the meeting the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Iran issued joint statement for the media.
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan received Ambassador of Iran to Armenia Abbas Badakhshan Zohouri.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Security Council, during the meeting the sides referred to regional security and stability issues.

The interlocutors outlined the prospects of cooperation in addressing new regional challenges. The importance of the Iranian port of Chabahar was particulrly emphasized in the context of both the region and the Armenian-Iranian economic relations, especially the development of Syunik. Both sides praised the readiness of the parties to continue cooperation within the Meghri Free Economic Zone and North-South road corridor.

The sides exchanged views on a number of other issues on the Armenian-Iranian agenda. Ambassador Abbas Badakhshan Zohouri stressed that Tehran will make efforts for developing relations with brotherly and friendly Armenia at the highest level.
Turkey plans to hold joint military exercises with Azerbaijan this week in a region bordering Iran after the government in Baku criticized Tehran for staging army drills near its border, Bloomberg reports.

October 4, 2021, 14:20 Turkey, Azerbaijan plan to hold military drills after Iran moved forces

STEPANAKERT, OCTOBER 4, ARTSAKHPRESS: The Steadfast Brotherhood-2021 drill will take place with the participation of Turkey and Azerbaijan in Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan between 5-8 October, Major Pinar Kara, a spokeswoman of Turkeys Ministry of National Defense, said in a televised announcement.

The announcement came after Irans army announced last week that it was holding drills in the northwest of the country. Earlier on Sunday, Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei defended the exercises near the border with Azerbaijan, which other officials have linked to Bakus close ties with Tehrans foe, Israel.

Iran is wary of Israels links to Azerbaijan, which is a major exporter of oil to the Jewish state. Israel, for its part, supplies Azerbaijan with drones and other high-tech weapons that helped Baku tip the military balance in its favor in last years war with Armenia.

Without naming anyone, Khamenei said countries in the region around Irans northwest shouldnt allow foreign armies that are serving their own national interests to interfere in their affairs or become involved in their armies. He also said the presence of foreign forces in the Middle East were a source of destruction and urged neighboring countries to stay independent and join forces.

Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev has expressed concern over Tehrans massing military assets near his country for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union three decades ago. Tensions between the countries have also flared over Azerbaijans imposition of a road tax on Iranian trucks traveling to Armenia through Nagorno-Karabakh.
(Bloomberg) -- China Evergrande Group has already fallen behind on payments to banks, suppliers and holders of onshore investment products, and hasnt given any indication that it paid two recent dollar bond coupons.

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Now the worlds most indebted developer may be facing its next big debt test, underscoring the broader risks of opaque obligations in credit markets already on edge. Shares in China Evergrande Group and its property management unit were suspended from trading in Hong Kong Monday with no reason given.

Read more on the halt and a Cailian report that Hopson Development plans to acquire a stake in Evergrande Property Services

People familiar have said that a dollar note with an official due date of Oct. 3 issued at an initial amount of $260 million by an entity called Jumbo Fortune Enterprises is guaranteed by Evergrande. As the maturity was a Sunday, the effective due date is Monday. The issuer is a joint venture whose owners include Hengda Real Estate, Evergrandes main onshore unit.

Nonpayment of the bond principal would constitute a default as the note has no grace period, although five business days would be allowed if failure to pay is down to administrative and technical error, according to the people. Details of the guarantees werent broadly known as the note prospectus isnt publicly available and the deal wasnt listed on exchanges.

Any failure to pay Jumbo Fortunes note may also pose a risk of cross-default for Evergrandes other bonds, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Daniel Fan. Creditors of the Jumbo note could potentially ask the trustee to declare a formal default if they achieve a minimum threshold of investors, and that could trigger holders of other dollar bonds to do the same, he said.

Story continues

Uncertainly over the full extent of Evergrandes debt load, beyond its more than $300 billion reported in liabilities, has plagued investors since a liquidity crisis at the firm stoked fears of a collapse that could trigger financial and economic contagion. Authorities ranging from Federal Reserve officials to Hong Kongs central bank are looking into just how exposed financial institutions are to the crisis.

Standard Chartereds head of China macro strategy Becky Liu expects Evergrande has more structured products such as guaranteed bonds, similar to the Jumbo Fortune note, with offshore dollar bonds making up just 6% of the firms total reported liabilities.

The law firm White & Case is advising various investors with regards to Jumbo Fortune, a spokesperson for the firm said.

There was no response from Evergrande to a request for comment about its interest payments or debt guarantees.

Debt crises historically have a way of worsening when obligations that had flown under the radar suddenly start showing up on screen. In the 2007-2008 global financial crisis, opaque mortgage-backed securities whose risks were hard to quantify played a major role. More recently in China, credit markets have at times been shaken by uncertainty about debt guarantees and intertwined obligations that were excluded from balance sheets.

Cross-guarantees have been a problem for China over the past decade with the rise of shadow banking, said Andrew Collier, managing director of Orient Capital Research in Hong Kong. There is little ability to find out the size of the problem until there is a debt blowup and creditors worry about not getting paid.

Some Evergrande dollar securities have repayment acceleration provisions which stipulate that any indebtedness reaching $20 million could constitute an event of default, according to the offering memorandum of notes seen by Bloomberg. Creditors arent able to take legal action until bonds are formally declared to be in default.

While creditors have the option of filing lawsuits in an offshore court to enforce Evergrandes payment obligations, practically, bondholders may enter into some informal standstill and negotiate with the issuer, said Fan at Bloomberg Intelligence.

Still, some investors are betting that the bond prices dont reflect the boost that could come from any recovery in a restructuring scenario. Firms such as Marathon Asset Management and Saba Capital Management have been building their positions in the debt, Bloomberg reported in September. Evergrandes 8.25% dollar bond due March 2022 rose about 3 cents on the dollar to 28 cents following the report of Hopson Developments stake sale, according to credit traders in Hong Kong.

The embattled developer isnt the only firm adding to its debt piles with bonds that arent listed on exchanges and may lack much publicly available information. Private placements are popular among Chinas real estate firms as these securities can be simpler to arrange than public deals -- theyre typically sold to a small group of investors with no expectations about the size and more room to negotiate on pricing.

Evergrande is likely to have more securities of a similar kind and if holders dont tell, no one will know of such debts existence, said Ting Meng, senior Asia credit strategist at ANZ Banking Group Ltd.

(Updates with details of share trading suspension and chart on bond prices.)

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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has hosted two Israeli Cabinet ministers for a late-night meeting, in a new sign of slowly improving ties between the sides.

Israeli Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz and Regional Cooperation Minister Esawi Freij were the second group of Cabinet members to meet Abbas since the new Israeli government took office in June.

Defence Minister Benny Gantz also met with Abbas at his West Bank headquarters in August.

The new Israeli government is comprised of eight parties spanning the Israeli political spectrum, from far-right hardliners who oppose a Palestinian state to dovish parties that support a two-state solution.

At Sunday's meeting Horowitz and Freij were joined by other members of their Meretz party, the most dovish faction in the coalition. Horowitz leads the party.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett comes from a small, hardline religious party, and he has ruled out the establishment of a Palestinian state on his watch. But he has called for reducing frictions, primarily by taking steps to boost the Palestinian economy.

According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, Abbas "stressed the importance of ending the Israeli occupation and achieving a just and comprehensive peace."

Abbas' autonomy government seeks the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem - territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.

Horowitz posted a picture of himself and Abbas on Twitter. "We have a shared mission: to preserve the hope for peace, on the basis of a two-state solution," he said.
U.S. Rep. John Katko is one step closer to expanding workforce development programs for military families.

Katko, R-Camillus, visited Syracuse University's Institute for Veterans and Military Families to celebrate passage of his bill inspired by the programs offered at the institute. Under his legislation, the Department of Defense would launch a pilot program to aid the expansion of Onward to Opportunity programs at five U.S. military bases. The department would be required to partner with private organizations, according to Katko's office, which used the institute as an example.

The Onward to Opportunity program is available at 19 bases, including Fort Drum in northern New York. It was created in 2015 by the institute.

The goal of the initiative is to help veterans and military families with the transition to civilian life. Onward to Opportunity offers training programs, certifications and job placement assistance.

Penn State released a study last year that found participants in Onward to Opportunity and similar programs had improved economic opportunities.
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren agreed to resign shortly before her term ends as part of a deal to settle charges she violated campaign finance rules during her 2017 reelection campaign.

Warren was scheduled to go on trial Monday on felony charges she and two assistants took steps to evade contribution limits. Instead, Warren and her two co-defendants pleaded guilty to accepting campaign contributions that exceeded legal limits, according to the Monroe County district attorney's office.

The trial, which was assigned to Cayuga County Court Judge Thomas Leone, was expected to last four to six weeks. Leone had cleared much of his Cayuga County Court calendar as a result of the Warren trial, which was to take place in Rochester

The resignation will provide an early end to a tumultuous mayoral term in New York's third-largest city. Warren had been under heavy criticism for the city's handling of the suffocation death of Daniel Prude, a Black man who died in March 2020, a week after police held him down on a city street for about two minutes until he stopped breathing.

In reaching the plea on the lesser misdemeanor charge, Warren is able to keep her law license and her pension.
Ride hailing platform Uber on Monday said it has elevated Nitish Bhushan as the Director of Central Operations, and Shiva Shailendran as the Head of Cities Operations for India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.

In the new roles, Bhushan will oversee the operations of core product lines including UberGo, Premier, XL, Auto and Moto for Uber in the region, a statement said.

Shailendran will be responsible for overseeing the next phase of growth with a focus on bringing new drivers onto the platform and ensuring they thrive alongside Uber, it added.

(Also read | Uber launches corporate shuttle service in 7 cities as workers return to offices)

Bhushan was previously the Director (Marketplace and Categories - India and South Asia), while Shailendran was the General Manager for North and West Zones in India and Bangladesh at Uber.

"With Nitish as the Director of Central Operations and Shiva as the Head of Cities Operations, we firmly believe they will continue to hit bigger milestones and take big bold bets," Uber India South Asia President Prabhjeet Singh said.

He added that Uber is building and strengthening a team of industry experts who are committed to fully unlocking the potential of ridesharing.

Before joining Uber in 2016, Bhushan led APAC operations for Tripda, a carpooling venture of Rocket Internet, and has spent time with Bain & Company as a management consultant.

Shailendran, on the other hand, joined Uber in 2018. In his previous stint, he was a part of the supply chain and operations teams at Myntra and Amazon India.
" " The diesel engine was invented in 1878 by Rudolf Diesel who then patented his new invention in 1892. u3d/Shutterstock

Diesel engines work on the same basic principles as an internal combustion engine, but they do the work differently. Let's take a closer look.

The story of the diesel engine actually begins with the invention of the gasoline engine. Nikolaus August Otto invented and patented the gasoline engine in 1876. His invention used the four-stroke combustion principle, also known as the "Otto Cycle," and it's the basic premise for most car engines today. In its early stage, the gasoline engine wasn't very efficient, and other major methods of transportation, such as the steam engine, fared poorly as well. Only about 10 percent of the fuel used in these types of engines actually moved a vehicle. The rest of the fuel simply produced useless heat.

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In 1878, Rudolf Diesel created an engine with a higher efficiency, and he devoted much of his time to developing a "combustion power engine." By 1892 Diesel had obtained a patent for what we now call the diesel engine.

For decades, diesel engines had a reputation for being sooty, dirty and loud. While Europe adopted the technology pretty widely, most drivers in the United States said no, thank you. By the 21st century, though, diesel engines became far cleaner, much quieter and even more efficient, but they experienced a setback in popular opinion because of the Volkswagen diesel scandal in 2014. Thanks to their proven efficiency, though, diesels are regaining some ground.

In this article, we unlock the secrets of the diesel engine and learn about some new advancements.
Arab News (For images of the jewellery, go to original link: Sotheby's sale: Here's how you can acquire Egyptian icon Hind Rostom's jewelry)

DUBAI: Late Egyptian actress Hind Rostom was known to trawl jewelry boutiques around the world, in search of diamonds and rubies. An avid jewelry collector, the icon was also a regular at auctions, where she sought out some of her favorite gemstones.

Now, collectors and jewelry aficionados will get the chance to uncover treasures from Rostom with a selection of jewelry from her personal collection being offered by her family for the first time.

Sothebys Magnificent & Noble Jewels auction in Geneva on Nov. 10 will be auctioning eight lots, including a diamond and emerald bracelet estimated to fetch nearly $27,000 and a pair of diamond cluster earrings worth $7000 by David Webb, which will be exhibited at Sothebys Dubai ahead of the Geneva auc

The beauty icon, who is known as the Arab worlds Marilyn Monroe, is often referred to as the first lady of Egyptian cinema. The screen siren was born Nariman Hussein Murad in Alexandria. She started her career at the age of 16 with the film Azhaar wa Ashwak, however, it wasnt until her role in the 1955 film Banat el Lail, that her career truly kicked off. She would go on to star in more than 80 films, including Youssef Chahines internationally-acclaimed Cairo Station as an unlicensed soft drinks vendor at a railway hub.

Rostom retired in 1979  at the peak of her highly-successful career. Her reasoning? She was determined to be remembered at her best. So determined that no amount of money or single project was able to coax her out of retirement. In 2002, she even turned down an offer of more than 1 million Egyptian pounds to dramatize her life, famously stating: My life is not for sale.
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Lai has commented notably on communist government tactics, saying, If they can induce fear in you, thats the cheapest way to control you and the most effective way and they know it. The only way to defeat the way of intimidation is to face up to fear and dont let it frighten you. []

Lai Chee-Ying, also known as Jimmy Lai, is a successful Hong Kong entrepreneur, media mogul, and democratic activist who fled, young and penniless, to Hong Kong from mainland China. Lai eventually founded Apple Daily, one of the most well-read newspapers in Hong Kong.

Lai is best known for his pro-democracy activism, and has come under fire from the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, for challenging its overreach in Hong Kong.

Lai was sentenced in April to 14 months in prison for his role in pro-democracy protests. Now, CCP leadership are doing everything in their power to eradicate Lais name and memory as they continue to snuff out threats to the CCPs absolute power.

Humble beginnings

As a young man, Lai worked as a porter at the Shanghai railway station. He was given a piece of chocolate by a traveler. This simple act of charity changed Lais life. The chocolate was like nothing he had experienced before; the moment he consumed it, he knew he had to get some for himself. So he asked the traveler where he got this delicacy from, to which the traveler responded: Hong Kong. Determined to find a way there, Lai asked his impoverished parents to send him there.

At the age of 12, Jimmy snuck out of mainland China in the bottom of a fishing boat. Upon arrival, Jimmy started working in a knitwear factory.

I came here with $1, escaped from China when I was 12, Lai said. This place gave me everything.

Lai rose through the ranks to the position of factory manager, all while studying English. In 1975, he made his entrepreneurial debut by purchasing a bankrupt garment factory.

Lais entrepreneurialism, paired with his curiosity and work ethic, led him to learn more about free-market, classical liberalism from economists such as Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. These thinkers inspired Lais love of liberty. This free-market education was the catalyst in Lais fight for freedom.

Entrepreneurial spirit

In 1981, Lai opened Hong Kongs first fashion brand, Giordano, then successfully expanded his business to mainland China and other parts of Asia. It was with Giordano that Lai first began to express his democratic advocacy through business ventures, even in the face of government opposition and censorship. During the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989, the CCP and accompanying troops opened fire at pro-democracy student protests. Lai created and distributed Giordano T-shirts with catchy slogans that opposed the anti-democracy communist leadership. This courageous act prompted the totalitarian regime to forcibly close Giordano stores. In 1996, the business was sold entirely. But Lai wasnt done yet.

As the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union fell, society seemed to have reached a consensus on the perils of Communism. It was in this era of hope and new beginnings that Lai founded the largest media company in Hong Kong, Next Digital (originally identified as Next Magazine). From this parent company, Lai launched Apple Daily, a globally recognized pro-democracy news service. The newspaper was named after the forbidden fruit, because, as Lai explains, If Eve hadnt bitten the forbidden fruit, there would be no sin, no right and wrong, and of course  no news.

Commitment to faith and family

As committed as Lai is to a democratic society, he is even more committed to his faith in God. He was introduced to Catholicism by his wife, Teresa, a longtime and devout Catholic. Curious to learn more, Lai continued to go to mass and witnessed the homilies of Cardinal Joseph Zen. Lai converted to Catholicism in 1997, the same year that Hong Kong returned from British to Chinese rule. From then on, Lai relied deeply on his faith to remain resolute and hopeful under emerging Communist rule.

Participation in pro-democracy demonstrations

In 2014, the Standing Committee of National Peoples Congress (NPCSC) issued a decision to propose reform to Hong Kongs electoral process. Beijing officials promised universal suffrage to its citizens, but in actuality, the rule forced voters only to choose from a list of pre-approved candidates during elections. Most saw this decision as highly restrictive, and protests soon broke out. Lai was a frequent and prominent participant in these protests, which often included peaceful prayer and singing. During the demonstrations, the protestors quickly blocked the main east and west boulevards leading into the city. Authorities used tear gas to control the protesters, which only increased their fervor. Lai was physically attacked by two men, received countless threatening messages, and violent props such as machetes were left in his driveway. He was even rammed by a car and endured fire bombings at his home several times. Nevertheless, he continued to promote freedom and democracy in Hong Kong.

Lai has commented notably on communist government tactics, saying, If they can induce fear in you, thats the cheapest way to control you and the most effective way and they know it. The only way to defeat the way of intimidation is to face up to fear and dont let it frighten you.

Lai was arrested on Feb. 28, 2020. Hong Kong police took into custody three other veteran pro-democracy figures for taking part in the 2019 unauthorized pro-democracy protests. These protests were prompted by the Chinese governments cancelation of the Aug. 31 Civil Human Rights Front march, a march that attracted up to 2 million attendees. The three other men were arrested on suspicion of illegal assembly; Lai and one of the three were released on bail the following Friday. The Hong Kong government was determined to silence influential pro-democracy voices and make examples out of them to instill fear in the rest of the citizenry.

The Chinese Communist Partys National Security Law

On July 1, 2020, the CCP put into effect a National Security Law, or NSL. The NSL criminalizes behavior that endangers national security or is seen as damaging to China. Since its implementation, over 100 pro-democracy activists have been charged under its authority. Lai is one of them.

On Aug. 10, 2020, Lai was arrested again, this time on charges of colluding with foreign forces. That same morning, approximately 200 Hong Kong authorities raided the offices of Apple Daily, investigating and seizing dozens of boxes filled with Apple Daily materials. This made Apple Daily and Lai incredibly popular. The outlet reported it printed five times the usual number of newspapers the day after Lais arrest. The front page was an image of Jimmy Lai in handcuffs with the headline Apple Daily must go on. In June 2021, the Hong Kong government froze HK$18 million in Apple Dailys assets, equivalent to $2.3 million USD. Apple Daily was forced to shut down its operations and printed its last edition on June 24, 2021.

Lais legacy

In May 2021, Lai was sentenced to 14 months and was locked away in a Hong Kong prison. Still, more people continue to learn of his sacrifice and commitment to pro-democracy ideals, and countless people across the globe have been inspired by his selflessness and commitment to a higher cause: faith and freedom.

Jimmy Lais fight continues, and as arrests and convictions of Hong Kongers on charges under NSLs make newspaper headlines, the general public is reminded of the ongoing fight of pro-democracy advocates in Communist China. It is a fight Jimmy undertook when he snuck out of China in the bottom of a fishing boat as a young boy, and it is a fight he, and other courageous activists, continue to undertake for the reemergence of freedom and democracy in Hong Kong.








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It's surprising that King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein bought only $106 million worth of luxury homes around the world using his 36 shell companies. After all, his country received billions in aid from western nations. A shrewder monarch would have been able to acquire ten times as much property. Or maybe he's just really good at hiding his wealth.

From The Toronto Star:

As his Middle Eastern monarchy strained under the weight of regional wars, Arab Spring protests and a flood of refugees, the King of Jordan secretly stockpiled a real estate portfolio of luxury homes from California to London, an investigation by the Star and its international partners has found. King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein acquired 14 properties abroad worth more than $106 million (U.S.) using some of his 36 shell companies based in secretive tax havens, a cache of newly leaked documents reveal. He did it at a time when Canada and other Western nations were sending billions of dollars in humanitarian assistance to Jordan.

From The Washington Post:

Between 2014 and 2017, companies associated with the king spent nearly $70 million on three adjacent homes overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, according to the files and other documents, forming one of the largest bluff-top complexes in the celebrity enclave of Malibu.Read key takeaways from the Pandora Papers investigation At the center is a 14,000-square-foot Mediterranean-style mansion that has seven bedrooms and nine baths and is outfitted with a gym, theater, outdoor spa and infinity swimming pool  all set on more than 3 acres of prime coastal property. The acquisition of these homes followed similar transactions in Washington, D.C., where documents show that Abdullah spent nearly $10 million on luxury condominiums with expansive views of the Potomac River in Georgetown.

[image: By World Economic Forum  Flickr: Special Address: H.M. King Abdullah II Ibn Al Hussein, CC BY-SA 2.0]
Giving money to strangers on the internet certainly has its risks. A Washington Post investigation into a viral fundraiser from Instagram user @quentin.quarantino has raised red flags.

In August, 25-year-old Tommy Marcus partnered with nonprofit leaders for an effort they called "Operation Flyaway." On their GoFundMe page, Marcus wrote "We want to be clear: EVERY SINGLE NICKEL of everything raised will go to either pay for flights, or support these humans through various non-profits." The page raised a fortune almost immediately, eventually reaching over seven million dollars.

As Operation Flyaway works in a nation run by the Taliban and torn up by decades of war, it encounters debilitating logistical challenges. According to The Post, "Flyaway spent $3.3 million on flights that were canceled for which it has not received refunds. Organizers are trying to reschedule those flights." It has also struggled to get clearances from destination countries.

"Because many of these efforts are not incorporated as nonprofits, groups such as Flyaway are not required to publish tax records detailing their activities. Nor are they required to follow guidelines governing nonprofits, meaning that their activities  though often well-intentioned  receive little scrutiny. Donors often cannot see how their money was spent." The Washington Post

Though no Afghans have been evacuated on flights chartered by Flyaway, the group reports that it has rescued over 400 people by supporting other evacuation flights.

In some cases, Flyaway has helped pay for flights organized by other groups or lent money to make flights possible. In others, Flyaway says it has helped Afghans reach airports. Though Marcus, 26, has said Flyaway helped evacuate hundreds of people, organizers acknowledged to The Post that most of them departed on flights paid for by U.S. taxpayers or other organizations. The Washington Post

In an August 25 call between Flyaway and allied advocacy groups, Marcus discussed the challenges of coordinating evacuations.

One participant sobbed on the call, others talked over one another and California-based activist Azadeh Ghafari repeatedly yelled "Stop spending money!" at Flyaway organizers. An attorney for Marcus and other Flyaway leaders later sent Ghafari a cease-and-desist letter demanding that she stop accusing them of mishandling funds. The Washington Post

According to The Hill, "The U.S. military evacuated more than 123,000 individuals from Afghanistan during its operation."
I shared an article here back in April about the trials and tribulations of Steven Donziger, a lawyer who tried to help a group of Indigenous people and rural farmers in Ecuador get some climate justice from Texaco-Chevron, after they dumped 16 billion gallons of toxic waste and created what would become known as the "Amazon Chernobyl." Donziger ultimately won a nearly $10 billion settlement against the oil giant  who, as you might expect, did not take the loss lightly. Instead, they appealed to overturn the case by accusing Donziger of winning the case through forgery and bribery, and attacked him heavily in the courts. As The Intercept summed up in 2020:

Chevron has hired private investigators to track Donziger, created a publication to smear him, and put together a legal team of hundreds of lawyers from 60 firms, who have successfully pursued an extraordinary campaign against him. As a result, Donziger has been disbarred and his bank accounts have been frozen. He now has a lien on his apartment, faces exorbitant fines, and has been prohibited from earning money. As of August, a court has seized his passportand put him on house arrest. Chevron, which has a market capitalization of $228 billion, has the funds to continue targeting Donziger for as long as it chooses.

Donziger ended up being held in contempt of court for refusing to turn over his personal laptop and cell phone in this appeal case, and was put on house arrest for nearly 2 years while the gross situation worked through the legal system. To clarify: he was initially charged with a misdemeanor.

But now, Bloomberg reports, the case has been resolved  and Donziger is formally being sent to jail for six months while the case against Texaco-Chevron is overturned. From the article:

But U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska, who found Donziger guilty of six counts of criminal contempt after a trial in July, wasn't swayed. She detailed what she characterized as Donziger's prolonged, repeated refusal to obey court orders, musing that "it seems only the proverbial two-by-four between the eyes" would get him to properly respect the law. "Mr. Donziger has spent the last seven years thumbing his nose at the U.S. judicial system," Preska said at his sentencing hearing in federal court in Manhattan. "Now it's time to pay the piper." [] The orders Donziger was found guilty of disobeying came in a racketeering suit filed against him by Chevron. In that case, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan found that the massive 2011 judgment Donziger won in an Ecuadorian court had been achieved through fraud and bribery. Kaplan blocked attempts to collect the award, and his ruling also led to Donziger's disbarment last year. Kaplan further directed that Donziger be prosecuted for failing to comply with orders that he turn over evidence and assign his right to attorney's fees to Chevron, among other things.

I'm trying not to editorialize too much here  but god damn, this is utterly despicable. Texaco killed people with their Imperialist oil schemes, and avoided persecution first through government bribery in Ecuador, and then by getting bought out by Chevron (so that there was technically no more Texaco company to sue). Donziger was relentless in his pursuit of international justice, and now a few corporate-friendly judges have punished him for it.

TikTok Hero and Chevron Foe Donziger Gets Six Months in Jail [Bob Van Voris / Bloomberg]

How the environmental lawyer who won a massive judgement against Chevron lost everything [Natalie Lerner / The Intercept]

'I've Been Targeted With Probably the Most Vicious Corporate Counterattack in American History' [Jack Holmes / Esquire]

Drilled, Season 5, Episode 1: Lockdown [Amy Westervelt]

Oil Industry Links In Donziger Contempt Trial [Karen Savage / Drilled News]
For several years now, bookstores are overflowing with blobs of amorphous shape and warm colors. In Print magazine, RE Hawley explores the book jacket trend of the decade. From Print:

This design trend, well into its third or fourth year in the major publishing houses, has attracted plenty of nicknames and attendant discourse onlineculture critic Jeva Lange calls it "blobs of suggestive colors," while writer Alana Pockros calls it the "unicorn frappuccino cover," and New Yorker writer Kyle Chayka once referred to it on Twitter as "the Zombie Formalism of book covers."[]

Among books bestowed with The Book Cover, too, some common factors jump out. They are usually fiction and nearly always written by women, often women of color. They have literary sensibility but broad enough appeal to contend for the bestseller list; they're the sort of books that generate a good deal of buzz and media coverage, likely candidates for an Oprah Book Club nod or a spot on a major literary prize's shortlist.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 5)  Should he win a Senate seat in 2022, broadcaster Raffy Tulfo said he wants to make sure Filipinos can turn to the government for immediate help.

In an interview on CNN Philippines News.PH on Monday night, the senatorial aspirant said his wildly popular television and YouTube program Raffy Tulfo in Action (RTIA), which many turn to in hopes of obtaining swift justice, is a product of a broken system in government.

The RTIA YouTube channel alone has a massive reach of 21.7 million subscribers.

In the show, Tulfo attempts to resolve complaints of different kinds--from alleged abuses by employers or misconduct by local authorities, to those involving conflicts among family members or between romantic partners.

Kung maayos sana ang pamamalakad ng ating mga taga gobyerno, hindi na nila kailangan ang RTIA," he said. "Hindi na nila kailangan ako."

[Translation: If only government officials do their job properly, people would no longer need the RTIA. They would no longer need me.]

This impairment is something he hopes to fix, Tulfo said, by crafting laws that would address complaints commonly aired in his public service program.

According to the broadcaster, his experience in RTIA would become the basis for the measures he would push for if he becomes a lawmaker.

Ang advocacy ko ay tatlo, he said. Ito yung araw-araw na mga problema na-eengkwentro ng aking action center, nakakausap ko, na binibigyan ko ng solution. OFW (Overseas Filipino workers), labor, and family.

[Translation: I have three advocacies. These cover problems which my action center encounters on a daily basis and which I find a solution for. OFW, labor, and family.]

So, diyan talaga magiging center ng aking adbokasiya, ng aking legislation," he added, "to make sure na darating yung time na yung RTIA ay hindi na kailangan...because nakapagpasa na ko before the end of my term, kung papalarin, ng mga komprehensibong mga legislation that would really solve all these problems na inilalapit sa akin.

[Translation: So, that will be the center of my advocacy, my legislation--to make sure there will come a time when Filipinos would no longer need the RTIA. This would be because I would have already passed before the end of my term, assuming I win, comprehensive legislation that would really solve all these problems people ask me to help with.]

Tulfo on Saturday filed his certificate of candidacy for senator as an independent.

He topped Pulse Asias latest survey on Filipinos preferred senatorial candidates for next years elections.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 3)  For not being forthright regarding her political intentions, despite the President's pronouncement that she will seek the highest post, voters may "lose interest" if Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte continues to keep them in suspense, according to a political analyst.

"Ang problema diyan alam na ng tao 'yung ganyang klaseng laro. Ang delikado diyan baka mawalan ng interest ang mamamayan sa kandidatura ni Mayor Sara kung hindi pa siya magde-desisyon agad," Julio Teehankee told CNN Philippines' Newsroom Weekend.

"'Yung dating mataas na numero niya, mapupunta sa ibang kandidato," he added.

[Translation: The problem there is that people already know that kind of game. The danger is that the people may lose interest in Mayor Sara's candidacy if she does not make a decision immediately. Her high survey response may shift to other candidates.]

On Saturday, the Davao City mayor filed her candidacy for reelection despite being a frontrunner in most national presidential pre-election surveys.

READ: Sara Duterte seeks reelection as Davao City mayor

While Sara topped the latest survey of Pulse Asia for 2022 national elections, which was conducted on from Sept. 6 to 11, it showed an eight percent drop from the 28% rating she obtained in a June survey.

Teehankee said former senator Bongbong Marcos and Manila Mayor Isko Moreno have solid followers in Luzon, including the capital region, while Senator Manny Pacquiao is gaining ground in both the Visayas and Mindanao.

"Kahit ang boto niya sa Mindanao ay bumaba, at lumalakas si Manny Pacquiao," Teehankee said.

[Translation: Even the number of her votes (in the survey) from Mindanao has dropped, and Manny Pacquiao is gaining ground.]

Almost a month ago, Sara said she would not run for the country's top post, after her father formally accepted the endorsement of a faction within the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) to be its vice-presidential candidate.

On Saturday, Duterte said he would no longer pursue his plan to run for the second highest government position, as he wanted to bow out of politics. His long-time aide Sen. Bong Go replaced him as the vice-presidential bet of the Cusi-led wing of the PDP-Laban party.

READ: Duterte announces retirement from politics

READ: Sara-Go tandem for 2022 polls, according to President Duterte

However, Teehankee said many observers remain skeptical about the recent developments, adding that they are familiar with Duterte's game, having done the same thing in 2015.

Teehankee cited several potential pairings within the administration and allied politicians, including the tandems of Sara-Bong Go, Sara-Bongbong Marcos, and Bongbong Marcos-Bong Go.

"In the end, baka maging Duterte-Duterte pa ang lumabas," he said.

[Translation: In the end, maybe we'll even see a Duterte-Duterte tandem.]

Commission on Elections spokesperson James Jimenez earlier said substitution due to withdrawal of a candidate will be allowed until Nov. 15. Voluntary substitution is only allowed involving party mates.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 5)  President Rodrigo Duterte said it is time to pass the torch to a new set of leaders after announcing his plan to retire from politics at the end of his term next year.

It is time to give way to a new set of leaders who hopefully continue the reforms, projects and programs that this administration has pursued for the past few years, Duterte said during his taped address aired late Monday night.

The President made the remarks when he accompanied Senator Bong Go -- who replaced him as the vice presidential bet of the ruling party PDP-Laban  to file his certificate of candidacy on Saturday.

I withdrew all my vice presidential bid for next years elections after giving serious thought on the sentiment of the Filipino people, he said, referring to a survey which found majority of Filipinos believe it was unconstitutional for him to seek the second highest post.

RELATED: Palace: 'No more assurance' for those still doubting Duterte's retirement from politics

The chief executive added that he hopes the next government officials would continue the programs that his administration has pursued, specifically in fighting illegal drugs, criminality, corruption, terrorism and insurgency, as well as building infrastructure projects.

Meanwhile, Duterte told Filipinos to vote for ordinary-minded politicians instead of going for the brilliant ones.

He also said long-time public officials should now be replaced and that he will make sure that the 2022 polls will be free from any dirty tricks.

I am warning everybody itong election na ito, huwag mo talagang, huwag kang magkamali kasi nandiyan pa ako, the President said. Gusto ko na bago ako umalis ay makatikim naman ang Pilipino ng malinis na eleksyon.

[Translation: This election, do not make a wrong move because Im still here. I want Filipinos to experience clean elections before I step down.]
" " Conal Byrne, Rachel Ghiazza, James Kim and Heather Taylor join The Future of Podcasting panel moderated by Jason Hirschhorn during the Tribeca Festival 2021 at Spring Studios, June 13, 2021 in New York City. Bryan Bedder/Getty Images

Podcasting was developed in 2004 by former MTV video jockey Adam Curry and software developer Dave Winer. Curry wrote a program called iPodder that enabled him to automatically download internet radio broadcasts to his iPod. Several developers improved upon his idea, and podcasting was officially born. Curry himself has gone on to host several popular podcasts, the most recent of which is a show called No Agenda.

Right now in the U.S., podcasting is free from government regulation. Podcasters don't need to buy a license to broadcast their programming as radio stations do, and they don't need to conform to the Federal Communication Commission's (FCC) broadcast decency regulations. That means anything goes  from four-letter words to sexually explicit content. Copyright law does apply to podcasting, though. Podcasters can copyright or license their work  Creative Commons is just one online resource for copyrights and licenses.

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Although several corporations and big broadcast companies have ventured into the medium, many podcasters are amateurs broadcasting from home studios. Because podcasters don't rely on ratings as radio broadcasters do, the subject matter of podcasts can range from the refined to the silly to the excruciatingly mundane. Podcasters often cater to a niche group of listeners. By podcasting consistently on one subject, podcasters not only assert their expertise on the subject matter but also draw a loyal and devoted group of listeners.

Consider a few popular podcasts: Welcome to Night Vale is a show that updates you on the completely fictional yet rather eerie town of Night Vale. Or listen to the Mortified Podcast, in which adults read directly (and often awkwardly) from the pages of their teenage diaries. There's a full spectrum of politics podcasts. You can listen to news from around the world.

Podcasts are also used for informational and educational purposes  self-guided walking tours, talk shows and training are all available through podcasting.

Podcasting has become a profitable business. In its 2019 State of the News Media Report the Pew Research Center found that about 50 percent of U.S. adults had listened to podcasts, half of those within a week before they were surveyed. Many podcasts are supported by advertising, or by patrons who gain access to an ad-free podcast fee in return for a donation. Although large, traditional media companies leverage their brand and reputation for publicity, independent podcasts also achieve success using the same model. Advertising networks make it easier for advertisers to find shows that reach their target markets.

Some independent podcasts have been working together to form their own media collectives, including Pushkin Industries, Radiotopia from PRX and Panoply. In the 2020s, however, larger media and tech companies have begun purchasing successful individual podcasts or collectives with the intent on making them exclusive properties. Spotify acquired Gimlet in 2019. In 2020, Amazon purchased Wondery. In 2021 Apple announced an update to its podcasting app that provides access to its own premium podcast subscriptions.
After a national search, the Downtown Denver Partnership on Monday announced Kourtny Garrett from Dallas will take over for Tami Door as president and CEO of the economic development group.

Garrett served as president and CEO of Downtown Dallas Inc. for the past six years.

Door announced in August that she would be leaving the role she held for 17 years. Partnership Management Group Board Chair Sarah Rockwell said a search committee led by immediate past chair Mike Zoellner looked at more than 400 candidates.

Bringing Kourtny on as our CEO marks an exciting new chapter in the Downtown Denver Partnerships history and means great things for our center city as we look ahead, Rockwell said in a statement. Kourtny brings unique and robust experience in place-based economic development and under her leadership, she will continue our organizations strong legacy as a national leader in city building.

Its the second Texas-based economic development official the Partnership has hired in recent months. In June, it hired new Senior Vice President of Economic Development Bob Pertierra from Houston, where he worked in a similar position for the Greater Houston Partnership.

Garrett, who is originally from Colorado, was involved in the revitalization of Downtown Dallas for nearly two decades, a period that includes more than $11 billion of investment, public-private partnerships that have brought more than 40 vacant buildings back to life, and a steady rise in residents from just a few hundred to more than 13,000, according to a release.

I am honored to be selected as the next leader of the Downtown Denver Partnership, bringing me back to Denver and a special place for my family, Garrett said in a statement. I am passionate about the power and importance of cities in driving economic development, innovation, and vibrancy, and I look forward to building on Tami and her teams incredible work making Downtown Denver a place for all people.

Door steered the economic development organization, and the city, through a period of historic growth, including leading the investment of $13 billion in development and managing downtowns biggest expansion in decades.

Highlights included redeveloping the Union Station neighborhood, advocating increased mobility options, redeveloping 14th Street and completing the groundwork for the upcoming redevelopment of the 16th Street Mall. She also helped found Denver Startup Week -- which started Monday -- and The Commons on Champa entrepreneurial center.

Door will step down in November, while Garrett picks up the partnership reins in January.
Telias involvement in the Eurasia region was marred by a notorious corruption scandal that resulted in the Swedish group pulling out of several markets entirely, along with the departure of several senior executives.

While this turbulent chapter in the operators history is now firmly behind it, the newly-disclosed Pandora Papers - assembled by UK news outlet The Guardian in cooperation with the BBC - have revealed the identity of a key advisor to Telia and the role he played in the scandal. Mohamed Amersi, described as an international dealmaker in the telecoms industry, was paid around US$65m by Telia between 2007 and 2013 in his capacity as a consultant in the Eurasia region.

According to the revelations, in 2009 Amersi advised on structuring a deal that allowed Telia to enter the Uzbekistan telecoms market. The agreement was later revealed as an effective $220m bribe paid to Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of Uzbekistans then-incumbent president Islam Karimov. Telia has conceded that the transaction amounted to a corrupt payment, while Karimova is currently incarcerated in Uzbekistan on charges of corruption, with Swiss and US prosecutors alleging that she solicited bribes worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Amersis lawyers have denied that he knowingly facilitated illegal activity, claiming that he worked on the deal for just six weeks, acting on the basis that due diligence on the agreement had already been conducted by others so there was no reason to think that it could be a bribe. His representatives added that the underlying arrangements for the deal had been implemented in 2007, two years prior to his involvement.

However, separately from his role in advising on the Uzbekistan deal in 2010, multiple sources have raised concerns over Amersis six-year tenure as a regional consultant for Telia. These include the operators former chief compliance and ethics officer Michaela Ahlberg, who in an interview claimed that there were several big red flags over his conduct in the region.

Amersis alleged transgressions were outlined in a confidential report commissioned by Telias board in 2013 aimed at reviewing its entry into a number of Central Asian markets. While the firm has stated that the reports findings cannot be considered conclusive, it claims that Amersi may haveutilised his fees from Telia to improperly acquire regulatory benefits in Kazakhstan. Telia ended its relationship with Amersi later that year.

Representatives for Amersi have stated that while he met with senior political figures in Kazakhstan, these were official occasions at which Telia executives were present, and which fully complied with Telias expenses policy. Amersis lawyers refuted suggestions that their client had made improper or illegal payments or facilitated attempts to improperly obtain regulatory benefits, noting that Amersi has faced no previous allegations of this nature following extensive investigations of Telias Central Asian activities.

Telia hired a Swedish law firm to investigate the Uzbekistan scandal, which found that the telecom company had failed to conduct sufficient due diligence on its local partner in Uzbekistan  now identified as Karimova. However, the investigation failed to unearth evidence of the bribes - worth more than US$331m  which were paid to Karimova via an intricate offshore arrangement in which she received an upfront GB30m payment via a Telia subsidiary as well as 26% ownership of Telias Uzbekistan unit Ucell, held by a shell company registered in Gibraltar.

US prosecutors allege that in order to enter the Uzbek market and obtain the required operating licences, Telia found it necessary to pay regular bribes to Karimova  including elaborate payment options such as a clause that allowed Karimovas shell company to sell its shares in Ucell back to Telia. This option was exercised in late 2009  with Amersi advising on how the deal should be structured. In January 2010, it was agreed that Telia would pay $220m to acquire 20% of the Ucell shares held by Karimovas shell company, in exchange for help with renewing its licences in Uzbekistan.

Telia has thus far not commented on Amersis advisory work, but issued a statement saying that since 2013 the group has committed itself to transparency and openness as it completed its exit from the Eurasia region. The Swedish firm noted that it had accepted responsibility for its actions.

Amersis role in the Telia scandal is of particular interest in the UK, as he was revealed to have donated over GB100,000 to the election campaign of current Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The Guardian reports that Amersi has close ties to Oxford University, and in 2017 spoke at an event organised by the university in which he outlined his commitment to combating corruption, which he described as a heinous crime.

The Pandora Papers comprise millions of documents exploring offshore transactions conducted by the worlds super-rich, including political leaders such as King Abdullah II of Jordan, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, Azerbaijans ruling Aliyev family, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Many of these figures have acquired and traded property in secret via offshore firms, a practice that is technically legal but ostensibly for tax avoidance purposes.
Turkey Wealth Fund (TWF), the sovereign wealth fund (SWF) of the country, is considering a majority takeover of fixed and mobile operator Turk Telekom or Turk Telekomunikasyon (TT), according to a report by Bloomberg.

Creditors seized a 55% stake in Turk Telekomunikasyon almost three years ago after its previous owner defaulted on a multi-billion-dollar loan. The sovereign fund approached the lenders about acquiring the holding.

The report quoted sources saying that the SWF has yet to make a formal offer to TTs controlling banking consortium, which acquired the ownership in a 2018 debt swap with the intention to sell to a strategic investor. The stake could be worth around USD1.6 billion based on its current market price, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, Turkish banks have said they are constantly considering options for their stake in TT.

Our bank is in continuous consideration regarding its options on the mentioned shares, Akbank, Garanti Bank, and Isbank said separately in identical statements following the Bloomberg report. The banks said there had been no transaction with the wealth fund yet.

According to Daily Sabah, OTAS, a unit of Dubai-based Oger Telecom, had taken out a $4.75 billion loan in 2013 to acquire a 55% stake in Turk Telekom. But it failed to keep up payments on what at the time was Turkeys largest corporate loan. Among the creditor banks, Akbank extended $1.5 billion, Garanti lent it some $1 billion, and Isbank some $500 million.

A consortium of banks took over the 55% stake in TT in 2018. The ownership was transferred to a special purpose vehicle (SPV), Levent Yaplandrma Yonetimi (LYY) Telekomunikasyon A.S. Akbank is the biggest shareholder in LYY with 35.6%, followed by Garanti Bank and Isbank.
Deutsche Telekom and PPF have submitted proposals to EU antitrust authorities outlining potential changes to the network sharing arrangement between their Czech units T-Mobile CZ and mobile operator O2 Czech Republic.

According to Reuters, the operators  together with infrastructure provider CETIN - are looking to avoid fines for violating EU antitrust laws after the European Commission issued charges against them in July 2019. IN 2016, the EC opened an investigation into whether the network sharing deal between the units would reduce competition in the market by removing the incentive for providers to unilaterally invest in network infrastructure.

The Czech Republic has some of the highest wholesale data charges in Europe, with MVNOs claiming that T-Mobiles wholesale rate is 40% more expensive than the price that it offers to its customers. According to TeleGeography, the EC considers T-Mobile, O2 and CETIN to be largely accountable for this following the signing of a network sharing agreement by the mobile providers in 2011.

This agreement was aimed at improving time and cost efficiencies for the operators given that there are a number of regulatory hurdles relating to mergers. However, the EUs antitrust regulators are concerned that circumventing the rules in this way may in fact violate them.

Reuters notes that as part of the concessions, O2 and CETIN have offered to modernise the mobile network by using multi-standard Radio Access Network (RAN) equipment in certain radio frequency layers and also set and review the financial conditions for unilateral network deployments, as well as offering cost-based pricing for investments or services offered by their partners.

Additionally, the companies proposed limiting information exchange to purposes absolutely necessary for operating the shared network, with CETIN pledging to prevent spill-over of information between T-Mobile and O2 Czech Republic. If the proposals are accepted, they will be in force until 28th October 2033.

The EC has stated that it will consult with third parties, including Vodafone, before it reaches a decision on whether to accept the proposals. If it declines, the EC could fine each company as much as 10% of their global revenue. Last month, Vodafone hit out at the Czech Telecommunication Office (CTU) for failing to address the network sharing arrangement.
Chinese vendor ZTE Corporation has signed a cooperation agreement with China Telecom Global (CTG) in Hong Kong.

Under the terms of the agreement, ZTE and China Telecom plan to expand their cooperation in cloud network services, ICT, data centres, and global operation in the DICT field.

Donald Tan, CEO of CTG said: "China Telecom and ZTE have a long-standing partnership. In the overseas markets, ZTE has become one of our major equipment suppliers since we started the project from scratch in the Philippines in the second half of 2019. ZTE delivered the project with speed and quality, reaching a new milestone for our cooperation."

"As to the key strategic planning in the next few years, I believe that both CTG and ZTE will continue to strengthen the strategic cooperation and build a comprehensive, in-depth, and long-term partnership to create synergies for future growth," Tan added.

Meanwhile, Xiao Ming, SVP of ZTE Corporation affirmed that China Telecom has always been one of ZTE's most important partners. "Through CTGs project in the Philippines, our cooperation has started to expand in the overseas markets, which is greatly valued by ZTE. Currently, ZTE has achieved the high-level delivery of the project in the Philippines, and we believe in the future, both parties will deepen our cooperation and share the more excellent experience to take our cooperation to the next level," he said.

According to the release, ZTE and China Telecom Global will stay committed to the cooperation on cloud network services, ICT, data centres, digital transformation, compliance, and risk control. The two parties are set to make full use of their comprehensive resource advantages and jointly expand overseas markets for a win-win future.
Late last week President Muhammadu Buhari told Nigerians, in an Independence Day broadcast, that after a government team had had "extensive engagements" with Twitter, the ban on Twitter's operations in Nigeria was to be lifted. But there are strings attached.

The story so far is that Twitter deleted a post by President Buhari which contained what could have been interpreted as a threat to separatists. Shortly afterwards, on 4 June, Nigeria suspended the social media giants operation, citing "the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria's corporate existence".

Nigerian officials have apparently denied that the post and the shutdown are connected.

Both free speech campaigners and businesses of various sizes were unhappy with the ban. Many businesses have obeyed the directive and, it is believed, have lost revenue as a consequence. Global internet monitor NetBlocks has suggested that the country could be losing over $250,000 an hour while Twitter is suspended.

That said, according to an AP news report, many Nigerians have chosen to get round the ban by using virtual private network (VPN) apps.

The government has now sounded a conciliatory note. However, AP points out that conditions for restoring Twitter include that it registers and pays tax in Nigeria and that there is local content on the social network. There is also a reference to national security.

Its not clear what that means or how Twitter is meant to respond to government insistence that the country remains committed to ensuring that digital companies use their platform to enhance the lives of our citizens, respect Nigeria's sovereignty [and] cultural values and promote online safety.
Satellite broadband is coming to rural and unserved areas in Egypt after the announcement of a new deal involving a major name in networking technologies and services.

Egypts state-owned National Company for Telecommunications Services (NCTS) has selected the Hughes Jupiter System Series 3 to meet the ground segment requirements for the operation of the Ka-band TIBA-1 satellite.

TIBA-1 is owned and operated by the government of Egypt. It provides broadband communications services to Egypt via its dual mission Ka-band payload.

The deployment of the TIBA-1 satellite is described as a significant milestone in the countrys mission to connect the unconnected; the Hughes Jupiter System, the partners say, will allow access to internet and telecom services for millions of people in remote and rural areas of Egypt.

Under the agreement, Hughes will provide its Jupiter VSAT System to NCTS. NCTS will first employ two Jupiter System gateways, a network management system, an initial delivery of remote terminals and an OSS/BSS solution, with installation planned in 2022. As public adoption of broadband services expands, NCTS may order additional end user terminals. The financial details of the contract were not disclosed.

Arianespace launched TIBA-1 to its geostationary orbit at 35.5 East in 2019.
A motorbike driver holds up his Covid-19 test result in Ho Chi Minh City, Oct. 1, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

Prioritized vaccination, sufficient workers, a streamlined green pass policy and the lifting of transport restrictions are key to an effective economic reopening in Vietnam, foreign firms say.

As German businesses prepare to resume 50 percent of their activities, what they need most is an adequate source of labor, said Marko Walde, chief representative of the Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Vietnam (AHK Vietnam).

It is likely that a subset of workers may delay returning to work until they are fully vaccinated, so it is essential to make them feel safe to return, he said.

"Vaccine availability is a game-changer in this scenario," he told VnExpress International.

After months of imposing social distancing restrictions in many localities, Vietnam has begun to restart its economy, switching its pandemic containment policy to safely living with the novel coronavirus. The gradual reopening aims for jumpstart growth in the last quarter.

HCMC resumed most activities last Friday after over four months of imposing different levels of social distancing.

The capital city of Hanoi has also been relaxing mobility restrictions in recent weeks and allowing outdoor activities for small groups. Restaurants can sell takeaways.

To hasten recovery, AHK Vietnam proposes that the government completes its "green pass" policy, a key factor in facilitating factories resume production.

"We expect to fully acquire the green pass by the end of October 2021 for the German business community."

The British Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, meanwhile, wants more guidelines on acquiring the green pass for its workers, given the administrative hassles at present

The green pass, which could be physical or electronic or both, is set to contain all Covid-19-related information of a person, including vaccination status, recent test results and contact history.

"The update of vaccination status on the e-health book has been slow and inconsistent. Some people are required to take additional steps after being vaccinated to get the update done, especially after a long wait," said Chris Jeffery, BritCham Vietnam chairman.

Regular testing is needed until the greater percentage of the population has been vaccinated, but as this process is costly. Therefore, the government could consider mandating companies to test in house to reduce its financial burden, he added.

"If implemented well, testing does not need to affect business performance."

Jeffery also proposed a full resumption of food distribution, while tourism and the service sector should gradually return to the new normal.

Simplifying domestic and international travel and quarantine procedures for returning business owners and investors with double dose vaccinations and valid test results, and the granting of visas and work permits for managers and experts are all critical factors, he added.

Alain Cany, chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham), proposed that mobility restrictions be lifted for people who have been vaccinated.

All movement of goods needs to resume again as the supply chain has already been interrupted, he said.

Confident vibes

Foreign businesses have also expressed confidence in Vietnams strategy of controlling the pandemic and bring the country to a new normal.

Chris Helzer, Nike global vice president of trade, told government officials Thursday that the reopening process should be simplified and balanced between different areas and localities.

Vietnam can bring the pandemic under control without resorting to long-term social distancing measures, he said.

Although the fourth Covid-19 wave has caused temporary setbacks to foreign companies in Vietnam, many of them remain invested in the country with long-term vision.

Food and drink company Nestle, electronics giant LG, and packaging firm Tetra Pak have all recently made additional investments in Vietnam, while Samsung has affirmed Vietnam as its new global research and development hub.

Foreign direct investment pledges rose by 4.4 percent year-on-year in the first nine months, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
Illegally harvested timber confiscated in the central province of Quang Nam, September 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Dac Thanh

The U.S. has decided to not take any trade action on Vietnamese timber following a 12-month investigation into alleged illegal harvesting and trade.

The two countries have come to an agreement that provides a satisfactory resolution of the matter subject to investigation and that no trade action is warranted at this time, according to a statement by the United States Trade Representative.

"I commend Vietnam for its commitment to address our concerns regarding the importation and use of timber that is illegally harvested or traded," said USTR ambassador Katherine Tai.

With this agreement, Vietnam will provide a model  both for the Indo-Pacific region and globally  for comprehensive enforcement against illegal timber, she added.

The agreement contains multiple commitments by Vietnam on issues related to illegal timber, including commitments to improve its Timber Legality Assurance System and to keep confiscated timber out of the commercial supply chain.

Vietnam will also need to verify the legality of domestically harvested timber regardless of export destination and work with high-risk source countries to improve customs enforcement at the border.

"Illegal timber in the supply chain damages the global environment and the natural resources on which we all depend, and is unfair to U.S. workers and businesses who avoid such timber," Tai said.

The USTR investigation into Vietnam's timber exports was initiated in October 2020.

The U.S. is the biggest market for Vietnamese wood products, representing an estimated $7.4 billion last year, about half of the countrys total.
Its been one year since leaders from Bahrain, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates signed the historic Abraham Accords at the White House, normalizing ties between Israel and the two Arab countries. Just two months later, Morocco and Israel also signed a normalization agreement. In January 2021 Sudan did so as well.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken celebrated the first anniversary of the accords by hosting a video conference with Israels Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, Moroccos Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, former UAE foreign minister Anwar Gargash and Bahrains Ambassador to the United States Abdullah Khalifa.

Secretary Blinken noted the benefits from the Accords have been remarkable. Diplomatic relationships have burgeoned: Israel opened embassies in the UAE and in Bahrain; both UAE and Bahrain appointed their first ambassadors to Israel; and Israel and Morocco agreed to upgrade their missions to full embassies in the near future.

Economic opportunities, innovations, and collaborations have flourished as well. The United Arab Emirates has pursued significant investments in strategic sectors in Israel, including energy, medicine, technology, health care, said Secretary Blinken. Private firms across your countries are working together on everything from desalination to stem cell therapies.

People-to-people ties have also grown. There is a hunger, he noted, to learn about each others cultures, to see new sights to try new foods, forge new friendships  all experiences that have been impossible for so long and for so many, and now theyre making up for lost time.

Secretary Blinken said the deepening relationships among the nations of the Middle East also provide a foundation to tackle challenges that demand cooperation among nations, like reducing regional tensions, combating terrorism, and mitigating the climate crisis.

He emphasized the necessity of building on these relationships and growing normalization to make tangible improvements in the lives of Palestinians, and to make progress toward the longstanding goal of advancing a negotiated peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Palestinians and Israelis, he declared, deserve equal measures of freedom, security, opportunity, and dignity.

The United States will continue to support and build on the landmark agreements in three ways, Secretary Blinken said: by fostering Israels ties with the countries who have agreed to normalization; by deepening Israels existing relationship with Egypt and Jordan, and by encouraging more countries to join the Abraham Accords.

Normalization, said Secretary Blinken, leads to greater stability, more cooperation, mutual progress  all things the region and the world need very badly right now.
" " Even if you haven't used a fax machine since the turn of the century, that doesn't mean they're obsolete. Not by a long shot. wwing/Getty Images

In 1878, Alexander Graham Bell filed a patent for a history-altering device called the electronic telephone. But what many people don't know is that the patent for another amazing communications tool  the fax machine  was filed by a Scottish clockmaker named Alexander Bain three decades earlier.

That's right, fax machines predate even rudimentary telephones. And with cockroach-like survivability that makes very little sense from an evolutionary standpoint, the fax machine lives on, beeping and wheezing up sheets of paper the world over. The question is ... why?

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To understand, it helps to a know a bit about the facsimile machine's place in history. Although the technology had been around for decades, it wasn't until the 1939 New York World's Fair that fax machines first seized mainstream recognition in the United States. There, attendees stood slack-jawed in amazement as they viewed images and text arriving from around the world at 18 sheets per minute.

The machines were simply too expensive for everyday use, though. Even in 1982, one standalone fax machine sold for a whopping $20,000, far too pricey even for most businesses, much less individual consumers. It wasn't until later in the 1980s that the cost of the machines dropped to a point that businesses and home offices found them useful, notably for documents that required legal signatures.

Copied signatures, as you can probably guess, were a source of controversy for years, as legal professionals argued about the validity of documents that arrived via phone lines. However, as court after court confirmed the validity of faxed signatures, doctors, lawyers, financial gurus, and other professionals began to rely on faxes to transmit paperwork all over the place.

Thus entrenched in the workflow and minds of countless millions of people, the late '80s saw a dramatic rise in the number of fax machines. America had only around 300,00 of the contraptions in the middle of the 80s. By 1989, there were more than 4 million. The fax machine's heyday was at hand.

The faxing process is one that billions of people have ingrained into their consciousness. Place a signed document on the machine. Punch in the destination phone number. Hit the green button, and minutes later, your paperwork is in the hands of a colleague on the other side of town  or on the other side of the continent. As long as the fax machine has paper, the cartridge is not out of ink and nothing has gotten stuck in the transmission process.

In the mid-1990s, another history-changing technology exploded in use  the internet, which provided people with ways to instantly send text, pictures and documents, without the use of paper. With the advent of widespread email, it seemed that fax machines were doomed.

Only, they weren't.

Why Fax Machines Live On

A 2017 study from IDC showed the four major industries that still use faxing (manufacturing, health care, finance and government) all predicted increased use of faxing over the next two years, averaging a 25 percent increase. So, why's that?

Faxing is a familiar technology that people trust. The complexities of the internet and its many offshoot technologies (along with endless headlines about hackers, spyware, viruses and data breaches) create in many people's minds a sense that the Web is not secure.

In addition, government policies still encourage faxes. And legal processes, like discovery, lean heavily on paper documents. Doctors fax prescriptions and privacy documents and patient records.

Fax machines are a habit. And it's a habit that dies hard, because it's a simple, low-tech, interoperable system that anyone can use with just a few minutes of training.

Also, fax machines, like hardy, pesticide-resistant roaches, are evolving with the times. The people surveyed by IDC said the biggest reason for the increase in faxing was that faxing was now integrated with email (as digital faxing) and so was easier to use.

"I fax office notes, prescriptions, lab data, orders and consultation requests. I will fax anything else that is requested," says Todd Johnson, a doctor at Access Family Medicine in Lincoln, Nebraska. "I would email just as easily, but I don't have a general email account to send the requested information to typically. Usually I am only provided with a fax number to return the requested information."

Johnson says the newest generation of digital faxing makes his workflow fairly easy.

"All of my faxing is digital. I don't use a feed and fax paper machine," he says in an email interview. "I can fax from any of my computers, tablet, or smartphone. I use them because I am requested to use them by other facilities, they are easy to use, built into my EHR software, and now electronically configured into my phone system (I just drag and drop a PDF into the fax portal and away it goes)."

If that sounds too good to be true, never fear, there's still one old-school faxing bugaboo at hand: busy signals.

"Sometimes, but rarely, there is a busy signal. However, my system will resend a failed fax or if it encounters a busy signal."

In spite of the intermittent hiccups in faxing, the machines are likely to live on for decades. They are comfortable, cheap, convenient and generally reliable. They're accepted around the world in ways that digital signatures sometimes are not.

So, until digital alternatives find the same kind of universal recognition, you can expect that fax machines will still be here, beeping and whirring even in the ashes of a great apocalypse.

NOW THAT'S INTERESTING Fax is big in Japan. Even today, about half of Japanese families use a fax machine in their homes.
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- Researchers announce that the volcanos main cone has collapsed, increasing the lava flow.

- Lava now covers over 420 hectares, according to Spain's Dept of National Security (DSN)

- Last week the lava reached the sea, forming huge delta on La Palma coast

- Lower seismic activity on the island

- More than 1,000 buildings affected by the lava flow, with 6,000 people evacuated

- Spain's government announces 213-million-euro relief package for La Palma

Useful information

- Volcanologist speaks to AS about the effects of lava reaching the sea

- An overview of the active volcanoes on the Canary Islands

- When was the last volcanic eruption on the Canary Islands?

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Girls of an ethnic group in Vietnam (Photo: vietnamnet.vn)

UNESCO launched the communication campaign on social networks in early August by collecting and spreading stories from the community about the importance of education in life.

The stories include those penned by people from ethnic minority groups of Vietnam like Tay, Thai, Ede and HMong, who are in different lines of work.



They featured girls who have surmounted difficulties and prejudice to not give up and realise their own dreams.

The campaign earned nearly 300,000 reaches in Facebook, which is among the leading social media platforms in Vietnam.

Students at a Vietnamese school pose for a group photo (Photo courtesy of the organisers)

According to UNESCO, the COVID-19 pandemic has closed schools and caused the largest disruption of education in history. More than 1.5 billion students are affected by the pandemic worldwide, of which more than 767 million are girls.

The organisation estimated that more than 11 million female students  from preschool to university  might not return to school last year.

The global campaign #KeepingGirlsinthePicture - "For a future picture with girls" aimed to ensure that girls' learning is not disrupted during school closures, promoting a safe environment for them when educational institutions reopen and calls for efforts to protect the progress made in their education.

In Vietnam, the campaign was implemented within the framework of the project "We are able (Achieving a better living and education)", which was implemented by UNESCO in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Training and the National Assemblys Committee for Ethnic Minorities Affairs, with the support of CJ Group of the Republic of Korea. It aimed to improve access to education of ethnic minority girls in Ha Giang, Ninh Thuan, and Soc Trang provinces./.
A vaccination site in the Bien Hoa City, Dong Nai Province (Photo: baodongnai.com.vn)

After achieving more than 40 million doses on September 28, over the past days, over 1 million doses of vaccine were injected per day on average, including nearly 1.4 million doses injected on October 2, a record high number so far.

Ho Chi Minh City continues to lead the nations vaccination campaign, with more than 11 million doses injected to nearly 7 million people aged 18 or more.

Hanoi ranked second with more than 7.2 million doses injected to over 5.7 million people, followed by Binh Duong with over 2.5 million doses to nearly 1.9 million people, Dong Nai with over 2.1 million doses, and Hai Phong City with over 902,000 doses.

As of October 3, the Ministry of Health had access to more than 61 million doses from various sources, with more than 56 million doses having been allocated as of September 30.

In order to continue to have more vaccines against COVID-19, on September 29, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai signed Decision 1639/QD-TTg on additional funding to purchase and receive 20 million doses of Vero Cell vaccine from Sinopharm Group, China.

On September 30, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai signed Decision 1644/QD-TTg approving funding for purchasing, transporting and receiving 5 million doses of Abdala vaccine by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology./.
The meeting of the Commission on strategic partnership between Ukraine and the United States will take place in late October - early November, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said.

"I think that the meeting of the Commission will take place approximately at the end of October - the first half of November. There is no date yet. We have two tasks. First, we need to reboot this body, make it stronger, more effective. We have developed our own vision of how to do it and we will discuss it with the Americans. Secondly, we must adopt a new Charter of strategic partnership that will meet modern realities," Kuleba said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

According to him, the Strategic partnership commission is the driving force of bilateral relations.

"Leaders can meet, agree, but if the systems on both sides do not start turning the wheels, then no one will go anywhere. The Strategic Commission is the place where both sides turn the wheels so that big political, economic and humanitarian agreements are being prepared, and after adoptions are implemented," the minister explained.

Kuleba indicated that representation in the Commission will remain at the level of the U.S. Secretary of State and the Secretary of Foreign Affairs.

"The fact is that, frankly speaking, I believe that if we go to a higher level, then we need only the format of the presidential council, that is, presidents. In my opinion, we should move away from the model when the interlocutor of the President of Ukraine is the vice president of the United States. This is the issue of the status of bilateral relations. That is, if we are strategic partners, then we need a mechanism of regular consultations between the presidents. This is my position as a minister. If it comes to restoring this body, I will insist on just such a model," said the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

When asked what the plan for the transformation of Ukraine was, which was presented in Washington, Kuleba replied that it "was developed as a set of investment projects where Ukraine, together with partners, can do good things for the development and transformation of Ukraine."

The minister indicated that he is not yet aware of the specific steps that are being taken to appoint the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.

"They promise [appointment of the ambassador], but so far, apart from rumors, I do not know anything about the specific steps that are being taken in this direction. But it seems to me that Mrs. Kvien [U.S. Charge d'Affaires in Ukraine Kristina Kvien] is still effectively representing the interests of the United States in Ukraine," he said.

Kuleba stressed that the most important thing for Ukraine now is that in the US State Department, in principle, a team is finally formed that is responsible for Ukraine.

"And such appointments began to take place. It is important for me that the entire State Department works for Ukraine, and not just one special representative of the State Department," he said.

Kuleba also said that the United States had always played an active role in curbing Russian aggression and de-occupation of Ukrainian territories, continues to play it and will play it, and in what format is a secondary issue.

When asked to confirm or refute the point of view that at the summit of the leaders of the United States and Russia in Geneva, certain agreements were reached on maintaining the status quo, that is, on the refusal of both countries from sharp movements relative to each other, both in informational, political and military terms, the minister indicated that he believes that there was no such agreement.

"I think that there was no such agreement, but both sides will desperately try to restrain themselves from abrupt steps. I use the term desperately because I think that it will be very difficult for Russia to keep this line, and, in the end, it will make some step that will force the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden to respond. But from my communication with the Americans and what I heard and felt during the president's visit to Washington, I do not see the intentions of the American side to take any first aggressive steps towards Russia," he said.
European integration is now a tool to strengthen Ukraine, not a goal, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said.

"We must change the very perception of European integration in Ukraine. It is not a question 'Will they give us membership or not?' European integration is now a tool to strengthen Ukraine, not a goal," Kuleba said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

The minister indicated that he wants Ukrainian citizens to realistically assess Ukrainian European integration as a course.

"Even if tomorrow someone comes out in Brussels and says that Ukraine will never become a member of the EU, this does not mean that we should roll back reforms, stop introducing European rules and move towards closer integration with the European space, since these rules and this integration strengthens Ukraine from the inside and makes us more stable, strong and close to the Western world, which has entered a tough confrontation with the Chinese world. European integration is for Ukraine, for Ukrainians, for our internal interests," Kuleba stressed.

In his opinion, the European Union has very difficult times ahead, it is in a somewhat confused state.

"I don't think there will be any big crises and problems inside the EU, there is a margin of safety there," he added.
At the Ukraine-EU summit, which will be held in Kyiv on October 12, several specific breakthrough decisions will be made that will relate to the practical integration of Ukraine, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said.

"There will be some specific breakthrough decisions that will relate to our practical integration. This integration will bring specific economic benefits for Ukrainian business and citizens," Kuleba said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

The head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stressed that Ukraine would fight to provide a European perspective, but added that "it is necessary to realistically assess the ending of the struggle."

"We certainly press on the EU, demand to provide us with a European perspective. But I think that we need to realistically assess the end of the struggle and the EU's readiness to include this very provision at the October 12 summit. Nevertheless, we will be fighting for this," he assured.

At the same time, Kuleba expressed confidence that Ukraine would become a NATO member.

"I have no doubts that Ukraine will be a NATO member. This is a political decision, and this is a matter of time and balance that will be created at a certain moment in the Euro-Atlantic space," he explained.
Foreign ambassadors in Ukraine "enjoy the luxury that Ukrainian ambassadors in their countries are deprived of," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said.

"I am the minister who least of all meets the G7 ambassadors in Ukraine, although they are my immediate team. I believe that in general foreign ambassadors in Ukraine enjoy the luxury that Ukrainian ambassadors in their countries are deprived of. And this is also what is needed to be changed. This is our internal problem, because we have created it for ourselves," Kuleba said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

The minister explained that sometimes Ukrainian ambassadors cannot get to their counterparts, ministers in other countries of the world, because there are 33 levels which they are forced to deal with before.

"Let's finally start to respect ourselves. This in no way affects my personal attitude towards foreign ambassadors here, they are all wonderful people, and the G7 ambassadors are very good with us now. I am grateful to them that they really want to help Ukraine. But some basic rules of mutual respect should exist in relations," the minister stressed.

The Foreign Minister pointed out that the rejection of partnership dependence does not provide for the rejection of partners.

"We must be grateful to them for their support, we must respect them, but we must stop constantly playing the second number in relation to partners," Kuleba said.

At the same time, the minister expressed the opinion that partnership dependence is a style of Ukrainian diplomacy that has been developed over many years.

"It's not the only style, we have shown character in the past on a number of occasions, but in general there was such a style. I just grew up in it, I feel very well what it is about. It's a very simple situation, which can be described as follows: 'Let's do something? Let the partners do it first, and we will join' or 'Let's tell the partners that we are unhappy with this? No. Why annoy partners?' That's about the getting rid of such a mentality I am speaking about when I say that we must get rid of partner dependence," he explained.

The head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry pointed out that Ukraine is not afraid to be the first and is not afraid to tell its partners the truth.

"We are not afraid to be the first, we are not afraid to make decisions proactively, having analyzed the context. And we are not afraid to tell our partners the truth. Because if you do not follow such rules, then your status of international relations is slowly degrading, and you can be proud a hundred times that you have no conflicts with partners or exchanges of any harshness in your news feeds, but degradation will take place in the realm of real politics, your relationship status," Kuleba said.

The minister stressed that he wants Ukraine to be respected, treated as an equal, so that Ukraine will be admired, because it is not afraid to be the first.

"The fact that they are now imposing a label on me that I want to quarrel with everyone is just an element of the internal political struggle. But I want only one thing - that Ukraine should be respected, treated as an equal, that Ukraine should be admired, because it is not afraid to be the first," he added.

At the same time, when asked whether partners are dissatisfied, when Ukraine is now constantly talking about NATO membership, Kuleba pointed out that "partners also sometimes tell us something that makes us unhappy, but they continue telling it."

"The conversation between President Biden and President Zelensky in this regard was very sincere, because President Zelensky said some things very directly, and President Biden spoke very directly in response. I am very pleased that this conversation took place just like that, without patting on the shoulder and diplomatic curtsies. We need to learn to speak as equals. This is something that the media, experts do not notice. If you do not conduct an equal conversation, your status begins to degrade. This is not immediately visible, you are not directly humiliated, but your status begins to degrade, starting from the level at which the ambassador is received, to large political initiatives," he explained.

The Minister stressed that Ukraine values partnership very much, and knows that partners value Ukraine very much, but it is necessary to learn to act first.

"For example, we had made the decision to close air traffic with Belarus before the EU adopted it. You see something, then you act, and move forward. This is a different culture of international affairs," he said.
The medical company Adonis has begun implementing a strategy for the development of its franchise network.

General Director of the company Vitaliy Hyrin told Interfax-Ukraine that the strategy is being implemented in two formats  a medical center and points for collection of laboratory tests.

"We have two options: a small medical center with an outpatient appointment, or a collection point  a manipulation room. They will work under our Adonis brand and comply with all the rules and requirements of corporate culture. At the same time, we will control our franchisees," he said.

According to Hyrin, Adons has already attracted three franchise partners to open a large medical center with surgery and two collection points. By the end of the year, it is planned to open up to ten collection points in different regions of the country.

Answering the question of who can be the Adonis franchisee, Hyrin said that it can be "both people from medicine, as well as people from outside the healthcare sector, whom we are ready to accompany and to help."

"Among our potential franchisees may be medical workers, for example, a doctor who wants to open his office, or a medical facility. We are ready to help at any stage, from obtaining a license to supporting operational activities. Also, our franchisees can be owners of premises who want to develop a medical business in them. In this case, we are ready to help with all medical issues. The only condition: our partner must understand that he will be engaged in the development of his business, this is not about making passive investments," he said.

Adonis is a network of private full-cycle medical centers for adults and children.

The private clinic Adonis was established over 20 years ago. Its network includes ten branches in Kyiv and the region, including two of its own maternity hospitals and a stem cell laboratory. In the branches of the clinic, doctors conduct appointments in 60 medical directions.
Opposition supporters in Georgia are holding a protest demanding the release of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili near the prison in Rustavi.

People are holding state flags of Georgia, chanting, "Misha, Misha." The number of protesters is increasing, and many of them have come to Rustavi by car.

"Mikheil Saakashvili did not come to Georgia to be extradited to Ukraine. He came to fight the anti-people regime. He will be free very soon. Thousands of people will take to the streets, demanding his release," Pyotr Tsiskarishvili, a protester and one of the leaders of the opposition party United National Movement, which is unofficially led by Saakashvili, told reporters.

There are police along the perimeter of the prison. There have been no incidents.
A Ukrainian consul has visited former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, a citizen of Ukraine, in the detention facility of the city of Rustavi in Georgia, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleh Nikolenko said.

"The Ukrainian consul visited Ukrainian citizen Mikheil Saakashvili at a penitentiary establishment of the city of Rustavi in Georgia today. Mikheil Saakashvili's state is satisfactory, and he did not make any complaints about the conditions in which he is being held," Nikolenko told Interfax on Monday.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and the Ukrainian embassy to Tbilisi will continue to provide Saakashvili with consular and legal assistance as a Ukrainian citizen. The consul is also cooperating with his lawyers, he said.

Saakashvili was detained in Tbilisi on October 1. He is currently being held at a Rustavi jail.

Georgia earlier declared Saakashvili wanted as a person convicted in absentia in several criminal cases and treated as a suspect in some others. Georgian authorities have warned repeatedly that he would be detained immediately once over the border.
The Hungarian low cost airline Wizz Air will resume flights on the routes Kyiv-Katowice (Poland), Kyiv-Naples (Italy) and Odesa-Abu Dhabi (the UAE) from October.

According to the press service of the company, in particular, flights from Kyiv to Katowice will be launched from October 8. In October they will be operated on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, from November - only on Wednesdays and Sundays.

Flights from Kyiv to Naples will be launched from October 6. In October they will be operated on Wednesdays and Sundays, from November - on Thursdays and Sundays.

Flights from Odesa to Abu Dhabi will be launched on October 7. They will be on Thursdays.

In addition to Wizz Air, flights from Kyiv to Katowice and Naples will also be operated by Ryanair during this period.
On Wednesday, October 6, at 12.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host roundtable talk entitled "Ukraine is entering period of difficult political battles. What do they bring to society?" Participants include Head of the Ukrainian Politics Foundation/UP Foundation, historian, political expert Kost Bondarenko; Director of the Institute for Global Strategies Vadym Karasiov; political expert Kostiantyn Matviyenko; Director of the Ukrainian Barometer sociological service Viktor Nebozhenko (8/5a Reitarska Street). The broadcast will be available on the YouTube channel of Interfax-Ukraine. Due to quarantine restrictions, the number of seats in the press center is limited. Admission of journalists requires registration on the spot.
Investigative journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their work promoting freedom of expression at a time when liberty of the press is increasingly under threat.
Thanks to their discovery, highly sensitive blood tests for the virus are now available and these have "essentially eliminated post-transfusion hepatitis in many parts of the world, the Nobel committee said

Americans Harvey Alter and Charles Rice together with Briton Michael Houghton won the Nobel Medicine Prize on Monday for the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus, the Nobel jury said.

The three were honoured for their "decisive contribution to the fight against blood-borne hepatitis, a major global health problem that causes cirrhosis and liver cancer in people around the world," the jury said.

The World Health Organization estimates there to be around 70 million Hepatitis C infections globally, causing around 400,000 deaths each year.

Thanks to their discovery, highly sensitive blood tests for the virus are now available and these have "essentially eliminated post-transfusion hepatitis in many parts of the world, greatly improving global health", the Nobel committee said.

Their discovery also allowed the rapid development of antiviral drugs directed at Hepatitis C.

"For the first time in history, the disease can now be cured, raising hopes of eradicating Hepatitis C virus from the world population," the jury said.

Prior to the trio's work, the discovery of the Hepatitis A and B viruses had seen critical steps forward, but the majority of blood-borne hepatitis cases remained unexplained.

"The discovery of Hepatitis C virus revealed the cause of the remaining cases of chronic hepatitis and made possible blood tests and new medicines that have saved millions of lives," the jury said.

Alter was credited for his pioneering work studying the occurrence of hepatitis in patients who had received blood transfusions, determining that their illness was neither Hepatitis A or B.

Houghton built on Alter's work to isolate the genetic sequence of the new virus.

Rice subsequently completed the puzzle by using genetic engineering to prove that it was the new strain alone -- Hepatitis C -- that was causing patients to get sick.

The trio will share the Nobel prize sum of 10 million Swedish kronor (about $1.1 million, 950,000 euros).

They would normally receive their prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of scientist Alfred Nobel who created the prizes in his last will and testament.

But the in-person ceremony has been cancelled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, replaced with a televised ceremony showing the laureates receiving their awards in their home countries.

- Pandemic effect on prizes? -

The award for work on a virus comes as the world battles the new coronavirus pandemic, which has put the global spotlight on science and research.

"The pandemic is a big crisis for mankind, but it illustrates how important science is," Nobel Foundation head Lars Heikensten said.

However, no prizes were expected to be awarded this year for work directly linked to the new coronavirus, as Nobel prize-winning research usually takes many years to be verified.

The prize-awarding committees are "not in any way influenced by what is happening in the world at the time," Erling Norrby, the former permanent secretary of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences which awards the science prizes, told AFP.

"It takes time before a prize can mature, I would say at least 10 years before you can fully understand the impact" of a discovery, Norrby, himself a virologist, said.

The work of the various prize committees is shrouded in secrecy and the names of the nominees are not disclosed for 50 years, leading to rampant speculation.

The winners of this year's physics prize will be revealed on Tuesday, with astrophysicists Shep Doeleman of the US and Germany's Heino Falcke seen as possible winners for work that led to the first directly observed image of a black hole in April 2019.

American mathematician Peter Shor who paved the way for today's research on quantum computers, or France's Alain Aspect for his work on quantum entanglement, have also been mentioned in Swedish media.

The chemistry prize announcement will follow on Wednesday, followed by the literature prize on Thursday.

Speculation ahead of Friday's peace prize has meanwhile focused on press freedom groups, Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg and other climate activists, or several UN organisations.

The economics prize will wrap up the Nobel prize season on Monday, October 12.

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The trio will share the Nobel prize sum of 10 million Swedish kronor (about $1.1 million, 950,000 euros), with half going to Penrose and the other half jointly to Genzel and Ghez

Roger Penrose of Britain, Reinhard Genzel of Germany and Andrea Ghez of the US won the Nobel Physics Prize on Tuesday for their research into what the Nobel committee called "one of the most exotic phenomena in the universe, the black hole."

Penrose, 89, was honoured for showing "that the general theory of relativity leads to the formation of black holes", while Genzel, 68, and Ghez, 55, were jointly awarded for discovering "that an invisible and extremely heavy object governs the orbits of stars at the centre of our galaxy," the jury said.

Ghez is just the fourth woman to receive the physics prize since 1901 when the first Nobel prizes were handed out.

"I feel delighted to be recognized in that way because I think having visible role models can make a huge impact on young women thinking about becoming scientists," Ghez told AFP.

The first woman to win the prize was Marie Curie in 1903, who was also the first person to receive two Nobel prizes when she won the 1911 chemistry prize.

The term "black hole" refers to a point in space where matter is so compressed as to create a gravity field from which even light cannot escape.

- Centre of our galaxy -

For years physicists questioned whether black holes could really exist but Penrose, a professor at the University of Oxford, used mathematical modelling to prove back in 1965 that black holes can form.

His calculations proved that black holes -- super dense objects formed when a heavy star collapses under the weight of its own gravity -- are a direct consequence of Einstein's general theory of relativity.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which crown the Nobel Prize winners in physics, chemistry and economics, said Penrose's 1965 article "is still regarded as the most important contribution to the general theory of relativity since Einstein."

Penrose also worked closely with famed physicist Stephen Hawking, who died in 2018 aftar a long neurodegenerative illness, and some experts lamented that he was no longer around to share the credit.

"It's a shame that Penrose and Hawking didn't get the Nobel before now," Luc Blanchet, from the Paris Institute of Astrophysics and director of the National Centre for Scientific Research, told AFP.

Genzel and Ghez have led research since the early 1990s focusing on a region called Sagittarius A* at the centre of the Milky Way.

Using the world's largest telescopes, they discovered an extremely heavy, invisible object -- around 4 million times greater than the mass of our Sun -- that pulls on surrounding stars, giving our galaxy its characteristic swirl.

The pair in particular developed methods to see through the huge clouds of interstellar gas and dust to the centre of the Milky Way, creating new techniques to compensate for the image distortion caused by Earth's atmosphere.

In April 2019, astronomers unveiled the first photo of a black hole.

Martin Ward, a professor of astronomy at Durham University, called the work of the trio "a great example of theoretical insight and prediction followed by state-of-the-art observational evidence."

"Using classical Newtonian mechanics the nearest super massive black hole at our galactic centre was revealed, and so 'darkness made visible'," Ward said in a statement.

Genzel is a director at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany and a professor at the University of California, and Ghez is a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California.

- 'Exotic objects' -

While the existence of black holes is no longer in doubt, the Nobel Committee chair David Haviland also noted that they "still pose many questions that beg for answers and motivate further research."

The sentiment was echoed when Ghez was asked if she understood what is happening inside a black hole.

"We have no idea what's inside a black hole and that's what makes these things such exotic objects," Ghez told reporters in Stockholm via a telephone link.

American astronomer Shep Doeleman, director of the Event Horizon Telescope project which produced the 2019 image, called the research "transformative" and told AFP that in the coming decade the first black hole movies were coming.

"It is a golden age of black hole research with wonders yet to come," he said.

The trio will share the Nobel prize sum of 10 million Swedish kronor (about $1.1 million, 950,000 euros), with half going to Penrose and the other half jointly to Genzel and Ghez.

They would normally receive their prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of scientist Alfred Nobel who created the prizes in his last will and testament.

But the in-person ceremony has been cancelled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, replaced with a televised ceremony showing the laureates receiving their awards in their home countries.

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The WFP is a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict, with the COVID-19 outbreak further boosting its relevance, chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee said

The United Nations food agency, the World Food Programme (WFP), won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for its efforts to combat hunger and improve conditions for peace in areas affected by conflict.

The Rome-based organisation says it helps some 97 million people in about 88 countries each year, and that one in nine people worldwide still do not have enough to eat.

"The need for international solidarity and multilateral cooperation is more conspicuous than ever," Berit Reiss-Andersen, chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, told a news conference.

The WFP is a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict, with the COVID-19 outbreak further boosting its relevance, she said.

"The coronavirus pandemic has contributed to a strong upsurge in the number of victims of hunger in the world," the Nobel committee said in its citation.

"Until the day we have a medical vaccine, food is the best vaccine against chaos ...

"There is an estimate within the World Food Programme that... there will be 265 million starving people within a year, so of course this is also a call to the international community not to underfund the World Food Programme."

The World Food Programme said this was "a proud moment ... nothing short of a feat".

The prize is worth 10 million Swedish crowns, or around $1.1 million, and will be presented in Oslo on Dec. 10.

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Egypt expressed on Monday its utmost condolences to Oman over the victims of the tropical cyclone Shaheen, which hit the country a day ago and left many dead and wounded in its wake.

The cyclone caused serious material damage nationwide, according to a statement by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.

The ministry added that Egypt is reiterating its full solidarity and support for the Omani government and people in these critical circumstances.

The statement assured that Oman is capable of riding out the current predicament under the wise leadership of Sultan Haitham bin Tarik.

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Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was sworn in Monday for a second five-year term running a country in the grip of a nearly year-long war against Tigray forces he described as ``hateful`` toward the nation, while a handful of visiting African leaders urged him to hold things together.

The Tigray conflict ``has made us pay a heavy price,'' Abiy told a crowd in the capital, Addis Ababa. And he bristled at international pressure as concerns grow over the war's human toll, saying ``there are those who showed us their true friendship and those who betrayed us.'' He didn't name names.

Abiy's Prosperity Party was declared the winner of parliamentary elections earlier this year in a vote criticized and at times boycotted by opposition parties, but described by some outside electoral observers as better run than those in the past.

The prime minister, the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner for restoring ties with neighboring Eritrea and for pursuing sweeping political reforms, now faces major challenges as war in the Tigray region spreads into other parts of the country, deadly ethnic violence continues and watchdogs warn that repressive government practices are on the return.

Abiy said the country will start an ``inclusive national dialogue that includes everyone who believes in a roundtable discussion,'' led by Ethiopians.

The 11-month war is weakening Ethiopia's economy, once one of Africa's fastest-growing, and threatening to isolate Abiy, once seen as a regional peacemaker. Six African heads of state _ from Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda and neighboring Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya and South Sudan _ attended Monday's ceremony.

``Today, more than ever before, we hope to see an Ethiopian nation that is at peace with itself,'' Djibouti's president, Ismail Omar Guelleh, told the crowd. ``We all know how fragile peace is in our region. ... We remain certain that the Ethiopian nation is bigger and stronger than whatever ails her.``

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta added that ``Ethiopia is our mother. If our mother is not at peace, neither can the family be at peace.''

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, in a message shared by his information minister, expressed hope that the trajectory of his country and Ethiopia ``will be further enhanced and consolidated ... in spite of efforts by negative external forces of regression.'' The president, who has never allowed national elections since independence from Ethiopia, didn't attend Monday's events.

Ethiopia's government last week faced condemnation from the United Nations, the United States and several European nations after it expelled seven U.N. officials it accused of supporting the Tigray forces who have been battling Ethiopian and allied forces.

The government is under growing pressure as people begin to starve to death in Tigray under what the UN has called a ``de facto humanitarian blockade.'' Last week the UN humanitarian chief told The Associated Press that the situation in Ethiopia is a ``stain on our conscience.''

The US has threatened further sanctions if humanitarian access to Tigray isn't granted soon and the warring sides don't take steps toward peace. Thousands of people have been killed in the war waged between the Tigray forces who once dominated the national government and Ethiopian and allied forces.

As Abiy faces another term, ``I think it will give the government the chance to renew its commitment to reform and to enhance the human rights situation in the country,'' Amnesty International researcher Fisseha Tekle told The Associated Press.

``They have a parliament which is dominated by one ruling party, so if they have the commitment, they also have the opportunity to do that.''

The results of a joint investigation into the conflict by the UN human rights office and the government-created Ethiopian Human Rights Commission will be released on Nov. 1, a few days before the war's one-year mark.

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Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry delivered on Monday a message from Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Shoukry, currently on a three-day visit to Moscow, handed the message to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov during a session of talks earlier today.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ambassador Ahmed Hafez said on Twitter that Shourky met at the start of his visit to Moscow with Lavrov to hand him Sisi's message to Putin.

Hafez said Shoukry asserted during the meeting the historic ties binding the two countries and the continued coordination between them in the various spheres.

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Cairo and Riyadh are the linchpin of stability in the region, Egyptian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Ahmed Farouk said, adding that boosting bilateral cooperation is key for the region's future.

In an interview with the Saudi Arabian newspaper Okaz, Farouk said Egypt-Saudi ties have "a special" nature, noting that the political leadership is keen to promote bilateral cooperation in all fields.

Egypt is the largest Arab and African trading partner of the kingdom and the second largest trading partner of the kingdom in general, he added.

The total trade exchange between the two countries in 2020 hit some $7.8 billion, of which nearly $5.1 billion are Saudi exports to Egypt, including petroleum. Egyptian exports to the kingdom stood at $2.7 billion, which makes it the second largest importer of Egyptian products in the same year.

Moreover, Saudi Arabia is the second largest investor in Egypt with a total of $6 billion in the same year. Egypt is also the second largest country to which investment licences have been issued in 2020, according to the Egyptian ambassador.

Farouk hailed the kingdom for its support of Egypt in its efforts to reach a binding agreement on the long-running dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

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Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry thanked Russia on Monday for supporting Egypt at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) during the discussions on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

Related FM Shoukry delivers message from Sisi to Putin

In a press conference from Moscow along with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, Shoukry said that the GERD issue is fateful for the future of Egypt and its people, underlining the importance of reaching a solution as quickly as possible through African Union-sponsored talks to reach to a legally binding agreement on the filling and operation policies of the dam.

Shoukry added that he discussed with Lavrov the latest developments concerning the GERD.

The Egyptian FM also delivered a handwritten letter from Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin

Aside from the latest developments in the GERD issue, the two foreign ministers discussed the latest developments in the Libyan crisis, the situation in Syria and bilateral relations between Egypt and Russia.

Concerning Libya, Shoukry said that his talks with Lavrov tackled preserving the stability and integrity of Libya's territories and activating the roadmap adopted during the Libyan National Forum meetings.

The two sides underlined the importance of holding presidential and parliamentary elections on 24 December, cementing the ceasefire and getting all foreign fighters out of Libya.

Concerning the latest developments in Syria, Shoukry said his meeting with Syrian FM Faisal Mekdad, which took place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meetings in New York, was very important in light of the current development in the Syrian crisis, reiterating Egypt's keenness on getting Syria out of the current crisis and ending the suffering of the Syrian people.

Shoukry said the aim of the meeting is to listen to the Syrian governments vision and deliver its messages regarding the importance of fully implementing international legitimacy resolutions related to Syria.

The meeting also aimed at discussing measures that preserve the security, unity and independence of Syria while taking into account the importance of it being an active part of the Arab region, he added.

The Egyptian foreign minister added that Egypt is waiting for measures to be taken by the Syrian government within the framework of reaching a political solution to the years-old crisis, the activation of the constitutional committee and steps to improve humanitarian conditions for Syrians.

Shoukry reiterated Egypts unwavering support for the stability and security of Syria and the necessity of getting whoever violates Syrian sovereignty out of its territories, underlining the importance of recognising the sovereignty and integrity of Syrian territories and maintaining cooperation based on international consensus to end the conflict there and achieving stability.

The Russian FM said that there is a necessity to provide aid to Syrians to help them overcome the decade-long crisis and work on reaching a political settlement based on UNSC resolution 2254.

Lavrov also expressed concern about the continued terrorist threats in Syria, pointing out that terrorist groups still exist in Idlib and attack Syrian and Russian troops.

Lavrov said that his country supports agreements on the isolation of terrorist groups like the Syrian Liberation Front.

On the presence of foreign troops in Syria, the Russian foreign minister said resolution 54/22 was adopted unanimously at the UNSC to reaffirm the unity of Syrian lands.

When asked about the Palestinian cause, the Russian diplomat said the two countries agreed on the importance of a two-state solution based on direct talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

Lavrov also expressed his country's support for the directs talks and the resumption of the activities of the quartet committee with the participation of the Arab League and Russia.

The Russian FM said Egypt exerts huge efforts to extend assistance to the Palestinians.

When it comes to the economic bilateral relations between Egypt and Russia, Lavrov said investment projects with Egypt, topped by the Dabaa new clean energy plant, along with the Russian industrial zone in Egypt, will be fully implemented.

The Russian top diplomat said the economic government committee for trade cooperation with Egypt discussed the latest developments in Egyptian-Russian relations.

On tourism between Egypt and Russia, Lavrov said the two sides are working to develop the tourist domain and resume flights between Russian cities and Egyptian tourist resort towns, pointing out that relations between the two countries improved recently especially in the economic and financial fields.

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Egypt reported 768 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, bringing the total infection tally to 306,798 since the outbreak began in February 2020, said the health ministry in its daily coronavirus update statement.

The ministry also reported 37 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the country's total death toll to 17,436.

The statement added that 695 patients have been discharged after recovering from the virus, bringing the total number of recoveries 258,947.

Last week, Egypt received 1.6 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine from the US and 100,800 doses of AstraZeneca donated by the Polish government last week.

Egypt has already obtained more than 40 million vaccine doses.

The country had administered more than 16 million vaccine doses nationwide since the start of a mass vaccination campaign in January.

The health ministry has said that the numbn=er of deaths in the current fourth wave of the coronavirus is lower than previous waves due to the increase in the numebr of citizens who received the innoculation.

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Minister of Health and Population Hala Zayed announced on Monday that the government may soon vaccinate high school students with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, as the country is currently studying lowering the 18-year age limit for COVID-19 immunisation.

It is very likely we will inoculate youngsters and children under the age of 18 with Pfizer shots, especially since the president favours vaccinating secondary school pupils, Zayed said in a joint presser with the US Ambassador to Egypt Jonathan Cohen in Cairo.

The press conference was held to discuss the details of using the recently received shipment of 1.6 million Pfizer doses from the US and the remaining 6.4 million that will arrive in Egypt by the end of October.

The Pfizer vaccine, which is administered in two shots 21 days apart, is undergoing authorisation in the US and other countries for use in children aged 12-17.

A decision regarding vaccinating children as well as offering a third (booster) shot to citizens who were inoculated at least 6-8 months ago will be taken within the week, Hossam Hosny, the head of the Scientific Committee to Combat the Coronavirus at the Ministry of Health, said in a statement released last week.

Egypt has recently mandated coronavirus vaccination for all teaching staff, employees, and workers, as well as students who are 18 years of age or older at lower and higher education institutions.

The government has also barred unvaccinated individuals from entering educational institutions in the upcoming academic year, which starts on 9 October.

President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has recently stressed that the countrys vaccination campaign should target high school students whenever attainable.

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.

The countrys vaccination campaign has recently shifted into high gears to cover students and staff in the educational sector.

Egypt is now providing immediate vaccinations for university students at 270 youth centres countrywide without prior online registration.

The government seeks to guarantee a safe academic year for all students and staff amid the fourth wave of the pandemic, particularly with the return of in-person classes at schools and universities.

According to Minister Zayed, Egypt is witnessing a stable rate of infections and deaths during this new wave, which started in early August and is expected to last till November, due to the increase in vaccination rates among the public.

We expect that if October passes without a spike in cases, the fourth wave will recede, the minister added.

Zayed stressed that in the event the country witnesses an increase in infections in the coming period, classes at schools and universities will not be suspended since all students, workers and employees in the education sector will have been vaccinated by then.

The minister noted that up to 70 percent of school staffers nationwide have already received the vaccine, with the rate in universities at 90 percent.

She also announced that around 35 percent of university students have also received jabs.

More Pfizer doses on the way

On Thursday, Egypt received 1.6 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine as a donation from the United States via the COVAX initiative, a scheme that aims to equitably distribute vaccines worldwide.

During the presser today, Zayed thanked the US government for the gift, explaining that the shipment is part of a larger designated package totaling eight million doses.

The US is due to ship the remaining doses by the end of October, Zayed noted.

US Ambassador Jonathan Cohen said that Egypt is a priority destination for Pfizer donations from the United States.

Cohen also thanked Egypt for shipping medical supplies to the US in 2020 when the US was in need of such materials during its fight against the pandemic.

An Egyptian military plane filled with medical aid and protective suits was dispatched to the US in April 2020 to help with the coronavirus as the infection and death rates were on an unprecedented upward trend in the first wave of the pandemic.

We were and still are thankful for this gesture, Cohen added.

He assured that President Joe Biden is keen that the US be an arsenal that supplies the world with vaccines, saying supporting Egypt with the vaccines is a confirmation to his speech.

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Scores of Israeli settlers stormed on Monday Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, under the protection of the Israeli police.

Groups of settlers broke into the mosque's yards via Bab Al-Maghariba gate, performed talmudic rituals and carried out provocative tours in the complex, local sources said.

Israeli police forces set up checkpoints on all roads leading to Al-Aqsa Mosque, in an attempt to prevent worshipers from reaching the holy site.

The settlers have intensified their daily storming of the holy place over the past phase under the pretext of celebrating the Jewish feasts.

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Four suspected militants and a soldier were killed Monday in clashes in Sudan's capital, state media reported, days after five officers died in a jihadist-claimed shootout in the same area.

The latest shootout in the busy Jabra district of southern Khartoum lasted hours and prompted security forces to seal off streets, said an AFP correspondent at the scene.

"Joint forces have raided two locations in Jabra district following new intelligence of terrorist hideouts," the official news agency SUNA said, citing a statement from the intelligence services.

The raid "left four dead from the terrorist cell" and led to the arrest of four others, it said.

One army solider was killed in the exchange of fire, while three others including from the police and the intelligence services were wounded, it added.

Sounds of heavy gunfire could be heard and armoured vehicles were seen rushing to the location in video footage shared online apparently from the scene.

Other videos showed plumes of smoke emanating from a building that appeared to be in Jabra.

AFP could not independently identify the authenticity of the videos.

Security forces on Sunday raided alleged militant hideouts in the capital's twin city of Omdurman and arrested "eight foreign elements", SUNA said, quoting the statement.

On Tuesday last week, the intelligence services said five counter-terrorism officers were killed during a raid in Jabra targeting "a cell linked to the Islamic State (IS) group".

It said 11 militants from different "foreign countries" were arrested while four others escaped.

The following day, a little-known jihadist group -- the Movement for Preaching and Combat -- claimed responsibility for killing the intelligence officers.

The latest clashes came with Sudan in the midst of a rocky transition following the April 2019 ouster of autocratic president Omar al-Bashir.

Under Bashir, Sudan adopted a more radical brand of Islam and became an international pariah over links to international "terrorist" organizations and for hosting Islamist militant groups.

Between 1992 and 1996, it also hosted Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden who was expelled under US pressure after Washington placed Sudan on its list of "state sponsors of terrorism".

The United States finally removed Sudan from its blacklist last December, after Sudan agreed to normalise ties with Israel.

Khartoum faces a mountain of challenges as it seeks to bolster a transition to civilian rule, with fragmentation among political factions as well as dire economic woes.

On September 21, the government said it thwarted a coup attempt.

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The Taliban said on Monday they had destroyed an Islamic State cell in the Afghan capital, hours after a suspected IS attack on a mosque killed five people.

The Taliban overran Kabul seven weeks ago and have set up an interim Afghan government, but still face attacks from the regional branch of the Islamic State.

The Taliban's chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said fighters carried out the operation in the north of Kabul on Sunday evening.

"As a result of the operation, which was very decisive and successful, the IS centre was completely destroyed and all the IS members in it were killed," Mujahid said on Twitter.

Witnesses and AFP journalists heard blasts and gunfire in the capital at the time of the raid, and images posted to social media showed a large explosion and a fire at the scene.

Kabul resident and government employee Abdul Rahaman told AFP that a "large number" of Taliban special forces attacked at least three houses in his neighbourhood.

"The fighting continued for several hours," he said, adding the sound of weapons kept him awake all night.

"They said they were after Daesh (IS) fighters in the area," Rahman said.

"I don't know how many were killed or arrested but the fighting was intense."

The operation took place within hours of a deadly attack targeting a prayer ceremony at the Eid Gah mosque in memory of Taliban spokesman Mujahid's mother, who died last week.

A government cultural commission official, who asked not to be named, told AFP that five people died and 11 were wounded, adding the casualties included both civilians and Taliban members.

"We have also arrested three people in connection with the blast," he said.

Blood trails

According to the official, the device was placed at the entrance to the mosque and detonated as mourners were leaving after offering condolences to Mujahid and his family.

A witness at the mosque, who asked not to be identified, told AFP that Sunday's attack at the entrance was carried out by a single suicide bomber.

Just outside the eastern gate, a dark patch was visible on the ground where the explosion took place and bullet holes could be seen in a wall.

The witness said a group of Taliban members -- including senior figures -- inside the mosque grounds came under fire after the blast, taking two casualties.

He added that two Taliban units mistakenly opened fire on each other in the confusion following the explosion, but interior ministry spokesman Qari Sayed Khosti denied there had been any gunfire.

"A suicide bomber detonated his explosives among the crowd killing three people and wounding a dozen," he said.

Trails of blood into the mosque, as well as two red pools where the witness said the injured fighters were treated inside, were seen by AFP reporters on Monday.

On Monday, Mujahid told AFP that an investigation was still ongoing but "initial information suggests that Daesh-linked groups may have carried out the attack".

The Taliban and the Afghanistan branch of IS -- known as the Islamic State-Khorasan Province, or IS-K -- are both hardline Sunni Islamist militant groups.

But they differ on the issues of religion and strategy, which has led to bloody fighting between the two.

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Exiled former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont was back in an Italian court Monday to fight an extradition warrant issued by Spain over his role in Catalonia's failed independence bid.

The 58-year-old, who fled Spain for Belgium in 2017, was arrested on the island of Sardinia on September 23, where he spent the night in a cell before being released pending the next hearing.

Puigdemont was greeted by supporters shouting "Freedom! Freedom!" as he arrived at the court in Sassari for Monday's hearing, where the judges are due to rule on the validity of his arrest.

"During the hearing, it will have to be determined if the European arrest warrant can be applied," his Italian lawyer Agostinangelo Marras told AFP.

Dozens of supporters gathered outside the court brandishing Catalan independence and Sardinian flags.

"We are here for the freedom of Puigdemont and for the independence of Catalonia, and also for Sardinia. Without violence, and in peace, we want independence," said one, 70-year-old Giancarlo Ballon.

Puigdemont led efforts by Catalonia's separatist regional government to stage an independence referendum in October 2017 ruled illegal by Madrid. The vote was marred by police violence.

Several weeks later, the Catalan administration issued a short-lived declaration of independence, triggering a political and constitutional crisis with Madrid and prompting Puigdemont and several others to flee abroad.

Those who stayed behind were arrested and put on trial, with nine of them jailed for between nine and 13 years.

Although they were pardoned earlier this year, Madrid still wants Puigdemont and the others to face justice over the secession bid.

Immunity

This is the third time he has been arrested since fleeing Spain. The first was when he arrived in Brussels, and the second in Germany in March 2018, when it took the courts nearly four months to return him to full freedom.

Although he enjoyed immunity for a time after being elected an MEP in 2019, that was lifted by the European Parliament in March in a decision upheld in July by the EU's General Court.

The decision also affects former Catalan regional ministers Toni Comin and Clara Ponsati, both of whom are also wanted by Spain -- and who were in Sassari Monday in a show of support for Puigdemont.

However, the trio are appealing the European Parliament's decision and a final ruling by the EU court has yet to be made.

On Friday, Puigdemont's legal team said he was seeking an emergency injunction with the EU General Court to retain his immunity.

His arrest in Sardinia came barely a week after the left-wing government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and the regional Catalan authorities resumed negotiations to find a solution to Spain's worst political crisis in decades.

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Taiwan urged Beijing to stop "irresponsible provocative actions" after 56 Chinese warplanes crossed into its air defence zone on Monday in yet another record incursion.

The defence ministry said it scrambled aircraft to broadcast warnings after 36 fighter jets, 12 H-6 nuclear-capable bombers and four other planes entered its southwest air defence identification zone (ADIZ).

Four more fighters entered the zone in a night sortie, bringing the total to 56 planes, the ministry added.

The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), Taiwan's top China policy-making body, accused Beijing of "seriously damaging the status quo of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait" with its recent string of incursions.

"We demand the Beijing authorities immediately stop its non-peaceful and irresponsible provocative actions," MAC spokesman Chiu Chui-cheng said in a statement.

"China is the culprit for causing tensions between the two sides of the (Taiwan) Strait and it has further threatened regional security and order," he added, saying Taiwan "will never compromise and yield" to threats.

The ADIZ is not the same as Taiwan's territorial airspace but includes a far greater area that overlaps with part of China's own air defence identification zone and even includes some of the mainland.

Self-ruled democratic Taiwan lives under the constant threat of invasion by China, which views the island as its territory and has vowed to one day seize it, by force if necessary.

In the last two years, Beijing has begun sending large sorties into Taiwan's defence zone to signal dissatisfaction at key moments -- and to keep Taipei's ageing fighter fleet regularly stressed.

Nearly 150 Chinese warplanes had breached Taiwan's ADIZ since Friday when Beijing marked its National Day with its then-biggest aerial show of force, buzzing the island with 38 planes.

That was followed by another incursion by 39 planes on Saturday, sparking criticism from Washington.

State Department spokesman Ned Price reiterated Monday that the United States was "very concerned" by the "provocative" moves by Beijing.

"This activity is destabilising, it risks miscalculation and it undermines regional peace and security," Price told reporters.

"We strongly urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic and economic pressure and coercion against Taiwan," he said, calling US commitment to the island "rock-solid".

Ramping Up Pressure

China's foreign ministry on Monday accused Washington of sending out "an extremely wrong and irresponsible signal" with "provocative" actions such as selling arms to Taipei and sending its warships to the Taiwan Strait.

"The US should correct its mistakes, earnestly abide by the 'one China Principle'... prudently and appropriately handle the Taiwan issue, stop bolstering 'Taiwanese independence' separatist forces," said spokeswoman Hua Chunying.

Beijing has ramped up pressure on Taiwan since the 2016 election of President Tsai Ing-wen, who rejects its stance that Taiwan is part of "one China".

Under President Xi Jinping, Chinese warplanes are crossing into Taiwan's ADIZ at an unprecedented rate.

Last year, a record 380 Chinese military jets made incursions into Taiwan's defence zone, and the number this year as of early October has already exceeded 600.

Last week, 24 Chinese warplanes flew into the zone after Taiwan applied to join a major trans-Pacific trade pact, a move Beijing has opposed.

Friday's show of force came the same week China accused Britain of "evil attentions" after it sent a frigate to sail through the Taiwan Strait, which Beijing claims as its own waterway.

Xi has described Taiwan becoming part of the mainland as "inevitable".

US military officials have begun to talk openly about fears that China could consider the previously unthinkable and invade.

Monday's incursion "was a way for Beijing to tell Washington that it will not submit to US warnings, that it, not Washington, sets the rules in this part of the world," said J. Michael Cole, a Taipei-based analyst at the University of Nottingham's Taiwan Studies Programme.

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Egypt is on the path to setting up a more sustainable economy, reducing the fossil fuel footprint, and tackling the climate crisis and its related issues, said Frans Timmermans, the European Commission Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal.

Egypt is on the path to setting up a more sustainable economy, reducing the fossil fuel footprint, and tackling the climate crisis and its related issues, said Frans Timmermans, the European Commission Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal.

Timmermans was responding to a question by Ahrp0am Online on how the European Union (EU) perceives the recent announcement that Egypt has been nominated to host the UNs climate change conference (COP27) in 2022.

Timmermans spoke on Monday with a number of Egyptian journalists on the sidelines of the second ministerial conference of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) held in Cairo on environment and climate action under the co-presidency of Jordan and the EU.

I welcome this ambition. I think Egypt is well placed to host the COP27 in 2022 and the country has the political capability to play a major role in this, Timmermans told Ahram Online.

We need to speed up climate action, especially in developing countries, including Egypt. We have to come clear on what we promised under the Paris Agreement on climate action, to allocate $100 billion in support of adaptation to and mitigation of climate change. The EU provides one-third of the total of this financing, he said.

On financing climate action in Egypt, Timmermans told Ahram Online that this will not be achieved solely through public funds.

We absolutely need to mobilise private investments on a huge scale in this regard by setting incentives for investors to invest more in green projects and adopting technology in all projects, which will definitely streamline investors' work and encourage them to engage in the transition process, he said.

On the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) negotiations, Timmermans said that there is a risk of water scarcity because of climate change.

I believe there is ample space for common ground, so nobody needs to suffer. This will depend on the diplomatic skills of both countries to deal with this issue, and I honestly believe that the two countries can reach this common ground, through which the two sides can profit and everybody can have access to water, Timmerman explained.

Timmermans represented the EU in the UfMs second meeting, hosted by Cairo on Monday, alongside Jordan's Environment Minister Nabil Masarweh and Egypts Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad. Also attending was Secretary-General of the UfM Secretariat Nasser Kamel.

This second UfM Ministerial Conference comes a few weeks ahead of COP26, which will be held in Glasgow, and following a summer dominated by climate and environmental emergencies across the region.

During the conference, ministers acknowledged the urgency of taking action and reasserted a firm ambition to tackle climate and environmental challenges through the full implementation of the Paris Agreement and the 2030 SDG agenda.

They also asserted the importance of mainstreaming environment and climate action, including in energy, industry, agriculture and transport, while mobilizing and scaling up resources to support the green transition.

Investments and sustainable finance also featured high on the agenda, as well as the need to step up action on adaptation and to reinforce the science-policy nexus.

Moreover, the ministers reaffirmed the need to progressively reduce the use of fossil fuels while ensuring a just transition and engaging all stakeholders in environmental and climate policy-making as well as the importance of supporting women and youth engagement in building resilience and driving the green transition.

The UfM Secretariat was mandated to support the implementation of the objectives of this declaration and monitor the progress through its Environment and Climate working group.

During the event, the UfM held a joint event with the United Nations Development Programme on Biological Diversity, Ecosystem Restoration and Food Systems, in a bid to establish the first steps to implement the recommendations outlined in the ministerial declaration in this specific area.

The climate crisis is existential for all of humanity  it transcends borders and politics. Building a sustainable future for all citizens across the Mediterranean is our shared responsibility. It is time to act and fulfil the commitments we all made under the Paris agreement. Today we have set a bold and ambitious vision for a clean, competitive, resilient and inclusive Mediterranean. I hope our joint ambition is an example for other regions to follow, Timmermans said during the conference.

The European Commissioner for the Environment Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevicius noted that countries of the Mediterranean share a rich natural heritage, and a common concern for the effects of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.

We now have a renewed commitment to addressing these challenges together with an ambitious plan of action to protect the environment for future generations. The recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic gives us the opportunity to build back better and greener together, he added.

Jordan's Environment Minister Masarweh said that the Mediterranean region is one of the biggest climate change hotspots, where temperature in the region warms 20 percent faster than the global mean temperature beside other environmental challenges that the region faces.

Hence, we do not have the leisure of time, and we must collectively act fast. The Ministerial Declaration on Environment and Climate Action we adopted today forms an excellent basis for action, based on transition towards inclusive, circular, resilient, and green economies. More mobilisation of funds to south and south east countries is critical for fulfilling climate and environment actions and obligations, he pointed out.

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The decision by the US, the UK, and Australia to break the submarines deal with France has led to further fractures in the NATO alliance.

The Biden administrations political follies continue to characterise the US presidents first year in power and occupy the international news headlines.

It has not been long since Bidens disastrous withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, which left the fate of over 38 million people in the hands of one of the worlds most notorious terrorist groups, the Taliban. More recently, Biden has blindsided France, a major NATO ally, by signing a secret arms deal with Australia to supply it with nuclear-powered submarines instead of the contracted 12 non-nuclear submarines in a deal signed with France in 2016.

The French deal was dubbed the Deal of the Century by some military analysts and represented one of the cornerstones of the French naval industrys ability to project its products on a global scale.

However, secret talks between the US, Australia and the UK resulted in a deal announced on 15 September called AUKUS, a new trilateral security pact between these three countries. According to its terms, the US and the UK agree to assist Australia in developing and deploying nuclear-powered submarines.

After the deal was signed, Australia informed France that it would no longer continue its contractual obligations with regard to the French submarines. France then withdrew its ambassadors from the US and Australia in protest.

This was the first act of its kind in the history of relations between the US and France. The latter has historically been among the staunchest supporters of the US and was an ally during the American War of Independence (1775-1783) against the British.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian did not hold back in his reaction to the AUKUS deal, accusing the Americans and Australians of lies and duplicity. When you have an ally of the stature of France, you dont treat them like that, he said, also labelling the UKs role in the deal as opportunistic.

The deal represents a precedent for the US, which is selling nuclear-powered equipment to a non-nuclear armed country. It is believed that this act may thwart nuclear non-proliferation efforts despite the assurances by the US and UK that the submarines will not include any nuclear missiles. For some, however, this is just another statement from an administration whose words do not have much credibility.

The Chinese government has perceived the deal as an act of provocation and a breach in non-proliferation efforts in the Pacific, possibly opening the door to other countries in the region acquiring nuclear-powered equipment and eventually nuclear weapons.

Chinese state-owned newspapers such as the Global Times wrote that Australia had turned itself into an adversary of China through the deal and warned that Australia would be targeted by China if it acted with bravado in its alliance with the US.

The same paper warned Australia that China would punish it and its soldiers could be among the first batch of Western soldiers to perish in the South China Sea. While the newspaper does not represent the Chinese government, it has been used to pass on threatening messages by the Chinese government in a language not traditionally used by diplomats.

From a strategic point of view, arming Australia with nuclear-powered submarines may sound logical enough, given the increasing presence of China in the Pacific over the past decade. But China may now do the same for its own allies, including the already nuclear-armed North Korea. Moreover, the act may break any unified front among the Europeans towards Chinese expansionist ambitions in the Pacific, aside, of course, from the UK.

The European Union and members of the NATO countries have expressed their solidarity with France and denounced the AUKUS deal. Most European powers believe that France has been treated unfairly in this affair, and the German foreign minister described it as a wake-up call for the bloc, calling for more cooperation in Europe.

French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his interest in forming a European military pact parallel to NATO some years ago. Though the finances required for such an alliance may not be available at the moment, actions of the sort that the US has carried out in the Pacific may put the idea on the table in the foreseeable future.

One of the dangers of the Australian breach of contract is that NATO will not be able to count on France in facing up to China. This is not just the case on the military level, but may be true on the diplomatic and political levels too, where France and other European powers may be less likely to back any US movement against Russia and China.

The Europeans have seen that the Biden administration will stab them in the back for political or economic gain should the need come for it. The Biden administrations reckless withdrawal from Afghanistan has already shown that this is an administration that is myopic as far as the political repercussions of its actions are concerned.

France has sent a bill to Australia for breaching the submarines contract, and the penalties range from long-term lawsuits to an economic embargo.

The Biden administration may have gained a lucrative arms contract with Australia, together with the UK, but the fallout from that deal may far outweigh its financial gains and taint French-US relations for many years to come. The same thing is true for other European allies of the US.

Given the path that Biden has been following over the past nine months, his autobiography, should he decide to write one after he finishes his four-year term as US president, could have the title of how to lose allies and make enemies.

*The writer is a political analyst and author of Egypts Arab Spring: The Long and Winding Road to Democracy.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 30 September, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Directed by Abdel-Qader El-Atrash, the music video urges mercy towards street animals and features the sons of the chanter in a message to his fans.

You see them as street animals, but we see them as the creation of Allah the Almighty God who created everything, ElTohamy, a pioneer in reviving Islamic chanting in modern arrangements and Western harmonies, told Ahram Online on Monday.

Teach yourself to worship Allah by feeding and taking care of animals, including cats and dogs in your neighbourhoods, he implored his fans.

ElTohamy has frequently advocated for animal rights through his social media platforms.

Most famous for Qamaron, El-Burda, Rasamtok and many other traditional poems, the 1979-born ElTohamy started his career in childhood by following in the footsteps of his father, pioneer Sufi chanter Shiekh Yassin ElTohamy.

He performed Sufi poetry chants at traditional Islamic Sunni events across the country for crowds that sometimes numbered in the hundreds of thousands at large moulid events in Cairo's Al-Hussein and Al-Saida Zeinab districts.

ElTohamy was featured in various concerts in Egypt and abroad with Egyptian Grammy Award winner Fathy Salama and his band Sharkiat in a project launched in 2018 titled 'Sufism vs Modernism'.

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Conditions have evidently not improved following the long-awaited formation of a government headed by Najib Mikati in Lebanon. The state electricity company announced last Thursday that a total blackout may occur across Lebanon due to huge shortages in fuel reserves.

In its statement, the company said it can produce less than 500 megawatts from fuel oil following a deal with Iraq. But it also noted it is no longer capable of securing Grade A and Grade B reserves of fuel oil for some power plants, which have accordingly halted production.

The network already experienced total blackouts across the country seven times and if this continues there is a high risk of reaching total and complete blackout by end September, the company explained.

Lebanon has recently been looking for external solutions to solve its energy crises, one of many socio-economic challenges it continues to face.

Earlier this month, Egypt and Lebanon agreed that Egyptian natural gas would be delivered to the latter through Jordanian and Syrian pipelines. This announcement followed a press briefing in Jordan with the energy ministers of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

Egypt is working to speed up coordination for the delivery of Egyptian natural gas to Lebanon through Jordan and Syria, given Egypts keenness to ease the burdens of the Lebanese people and to contribute to supporting Lebanons stability, Egypts Petroleum Minister Tarek Al-Molla said.

Another was the July deal with Iraq, which gives Lebanon the chance to resell 1 million tonnes of heavy fuel oil to Iraqi firms that the former cannot count on for its power plants. In return, these firms will secure usable oil for Lebanon throughout the next few years. Lebanon will also provide Iraq with consultancy services in health and agriculture, Lebanese local media reported. Lebanons Energy Minister Raymond Ghajjar said the new deal is worth $300-400 million. We hope other Arab countries follow suit and give us this opportunity because it is really a golden opportunity for us, Ghajjar said.

In the meantime, on 16 September, the Shia group Hizbullah revealed that it transferred more than a million gallons of Iranian diesel fuel into Lebanon from Syria. Although this step can be seen as a breach of US sanctions on purchasing Iranian oil, Washington did not seem willing to escalate.

I dont think anyone is going to fall on their sword if someones able to get fuel into hospitals that need it, the US Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea told Al-Arabiya English. Part of Lebanons energy crisis is related to the reform measures that many world governments have been waiting to see in Lebanon since last years unprecedented port blast.

While Mikati was in Paris on Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron for one told him that Lebanon should also start the vital negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, that should be completed quite quickly. Macron, arguably the key international mediator between the Lebanese parties, visited the country several times and arranged donor conferences for it.

The fuel crisis could indeed be eased as the Lebanese army has in recent days been seizing stockpiles meant to be sold on the black market or smuggled into Syria. The governor of the Central Bank also announced the lifting of fuel subsidies last week which would make smuggling into Syria less lucrative and would inevitably decrease demand while also increasing tension. Dark days indeed, in more ways than one, Sarah Al-Richani, a professor of mass communications at the American University in Cairo (AUC) told Al- Ahram Weekly in late August.

Since the end of its roughly two-decade civil war, Lebanon has consistently suffered from electricity blackouts, relying on fuel imports. But the ongoing economic crisis has made dealing with it harder than ever.

Lebanon is facing huge shortages in electricity, medicines and basic supplies. How the country might be able to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic at the same time is almost unimaginable. This situation pushed the Central Bank to end subsidies on fuel products as it started to run out of reserves, which was followed by a general price hike in goods and services and protests.

The Lebanese political establishment is now more interested in expediting the economic and security collapse of the country. The crisis is serving different sectarian leaders, mobilising their desperate communities, Emad Salamey, a professor of political science at the American University in Beirut explained.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 30 September, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Crews on the water and on shore worked feverishly Sunday to limit environmental damage from one of the largest oil spills in recent California history, caused by a suspected leak in an underwater pipeline that fouled the sands of famed Huntington Beach and could keep the beaches there closed for weeks or longer.

Booms were deployed on the ocean surface to try to contain the oil while divers sought to determine where and why the leak occurred. On land there was a race to find animals harmed by the oil and to keep the spill from harming any more sensitive marshland.

Cleanup contractors unload collected oil in plastic bags trying to stop further oil crude incursion into the Wetlands Talbert Marsh in Huntington Beach, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021. [Photo: AP/Ringo H.W. Chiu]

An estimated 126,000 gallons (572,807 liters) of heavy crude leaked into the waters off Orange County starting late Friday or early Saturday, when boaters began reporting a sheen in the water, officials said. The pipeline and operations at three off-shore platforms owned by Houston-based Amplify Energy Corp. were shut down Saturday night, CEO Martyn Willsher said.

He said the 17.5-mile (28.16-kilometer) pipeline that is 80 to 100 feet (24 to 30 meters) below the surface was suctioned out so no more oil would spill as the location of the leak was being investigated.

Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr said the beaches of the community nicknamed Surf City" could remain closed for weeks or even months. The oil created a miles-wide sheen in the ocean and washed ashore in sticky, black globules.

In a year that has been filled with incredibly challenging issues this oil spill constitutes one of the most devastating situations that our community has dealt with in decades, Carr said. We are doing everything in our power to protect the health and safety of our residents, our visitors and our natural habitats.

Some birds and fish were caught in the muck and died, Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said. But by early afternoon Saturday the U.S. Coast Guard said there so far was just one ruddy duck that was covered in oil and receiving veterinary care. Other reports of oiled wildlife are being investigated, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

Crews led by the Coast Guard-deployed skimmers laid some 3,700 feet (1,128 meters) of floating barriers known as booms to try to stop more oil from seeping into areas including Talbert Marsh, a 25-acre (10-hectare) wetland officials said.

A petroleum stench permeated the air throughout the area.

You get the taste in the mouth just from the vapors in the air, Foley said.

The oil will likely continue to wash up on the shore for several days and affect Newport Beach and other nearby communities, , officials said.

The closure included all of Huntington Beach, from the city's north edge about 6 miles (9.6 kilometers) south to the Santa Ana River jetty. The shutdown came amid summerlike weather that would have brought big crowds to the wide strand for volleyball, swimming and surfing. Yellow caution tape was strung between lifeguard towers to keep people away.

Officials canceled the final day of the annual Pacific Air Show that typically draws tens of thousands of spectators to the city of about 200,000 residents south of Los Angeles. The show featured flyovers by the U.S. Navy Blue Angels and the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds.

The leaking pipeline connects to an oil production platform named Elly, which in turn is connected by a walkway to a drilling platform named Ellen. Those two platforms and another nearby platform are in federal waters.

Elly began operating in 1980 in an area called the Beta Field. Oil pulled from beneath the ocean and processed by Elly is taken by the pipeline to Long Beach.
KYODO NEWS - Sep 8, 2021 - 23:38 | Japan, All, Coronavirus

The Japanese government plans to relax COVID-19 curbs on travel, large-scale events and serving alcohol around November provided that most of the eligible population is vaccinated by then, sources with knowledge of the plan said Wednesday.

The government is also expected to decide on extending the current COVID-19 state of emergency beyond the Sunday expiration date to Sept. 30 for Tokyo and 18 other prefectures, as hospitals remain under strain, ruling party sources said.

As Japan is still grappling with high numbers of coronavirus cases due to the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant, the emergency declaration currently covers 21 of the country's 47 prefectures.

The easing of restrictions will still take place in areas under a COVID-19 state of emergency if certain conditions, such as vaccination, are met, the knowledgeable sources said, as the government faces growing calls to restart economic activity to help struggling businesses.

The government has judged that if people are either fully vaccinated or can prove that they are negative for the novel coronavirus, the risk of spreading it is low, allowing the existing curbs to be relaxed.

Currently, people have been asked to refrain from traveling across prefectural borders, but such trips are possible if people have completed their vaccine regimen or can show proof of a negative COVID-19 test, the sources with knowledge of the plan said.

The government is also planning to ease the current 5,000-spectator limit on large events if the same conditions are met.

Dining establishments that adhere to proper anti-virus measures will be allowed to serve alcohol, while groups larger than four can dine together.

The government is expected to decide on easing COVID-19 restrictions and extending the state of emergency on Thursday.

Some medical experts have voiced concerns that it is premature to allow people to return to their normal lives as Japan has yet to contain the spread of the virus.

"We look carefully at the current state of the medical system and make a decision" on the state of emergency, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told reporters at his office.

The extension means that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's election on Sept. 29 to pick its president, and thus the next prime minister, will be held while much of the country is still under a COVID-19 state of emergency as Suga is not seeking re-election.

The premier, who succeeded his predecessor Shinzo Abe a year earlier, has prioritized combating COVID-19, even as the pandemic has whacked his Cabinet's approval rating for its slow response, prompting him to not seek another term as LDP president beyond Sept. 30.

Japan's state of emergency is different from hard lockdown measures taken in some countries and relies on voluntary cooperation from the public.

The government and ruling party sources said 19 will remain under the emergency declaration, as Miyagi and Okayama are set to be removed and downgraded to a quasi-state of emergency, allowing governors to place specific cities under restrictions rather than the entire prefecture.

The remaining 19 include Tokyo's neighbors -- Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama -- along with Osaka, Kyoto and Fukuoka.

Under the measure, people are being urged to avoid crowded areas and restaurants told to stop serving alcohol and close by 8 p.m., though the requests are largely voluntary and compliance has slipped as many grow tired of living under the restrictions.

A panel of experts advising the government on its COVID-19 response said Wednesday the state of emergency should only be lifted if hospital bed occupancy rates fall below 50 percent and patients with severe to moderate symptoms are on a downward trend.

Daily new infections should also be in steady decline for about two weeks, and the number of patients convalescing at home or waiting to be admitted to hospital should have fallen to around 60 people per 100,000 in metropolitan areas before lifting the COVID-19 emergency, the panel said.

Tokyo has been under its fourth state of emergency since July 12, and the Olympics and Paralympics were hosted with almost no spectators at venues as the number of infections surged to record highs amid the spread of the Delta variant.

Suga is stepping down after just a year in office amid criticism over his handling of the pandemic, with his public support in tatters and LDP lawmakers questioning his leadership heading into a general election this fall.

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By Siti Rahil, KYODO NEWS - Sep 5, 2021 - 17:31 | World, All

A special ASEAN envoy to Myanmar said in an interview that he has called for a four-month cease-fire by all sides in the country's conflict to enable the smooth delivery of the first batch of humanitarian assistance to the country expected as early as mid-September.

Speaking exclusively to Kyodo News online Saturday, Erywan Yusof, Brunei's second foreign minister, said he proposed the cease-fire until the end of this year in a videoconference with Myanmar's military-appointed foreign minister, Wunna Maung Lwin, last Tuesday, and that the military had accepted it.

"This is not a political cease-fire. This is a cease-fire to ensure safety, (and) security of the humanitarian workers" as they go out and distribute aid to the people safely, he said.

"They didn't have any disagreement with what I said, with regards to the cease-fire," the envoy said, adding he has also passed his proposal indirectly to parties opposed to the military's rule following a February coup that ousted the country's democratically elected government.

"I hope the message is passed on to them."

The Tatmadaw, as Myanmar's military is also known, has been using violence against pro-democracy forces and armed ethnic minorities, some of whom are also resorting to violence against it.

Aid from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations is being prepared as the member country struggles with the triple crisis of political turmoil, a faltering economy and the coronavirus pandemic.

With the Indonesia-based ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance tasked with deploying humanitarian assistance to Myanmar, Erywan said, "We are engaging and sending signals to all the concerned parties in Myanmar to stop any violent acts and exercise utmost restraint."

The first batch of aid consists of medical equipment Myanmar urgently needs to help people who have become severely ill from COVID-19, such as oxygen compressors and protective gear, and it goes to "all the people of Myanmar," he said.

Aid bound for border areas controlled by armed ethnic minority groups may be routed by land via neighboring Thailand, he said.

The next step is to procure vaccines for the country, he added.

Erywan was appointed the special envoy in early August, months after ASEAN leaders agreed to a "five-point consensus" to help defuse the coup-sparked crisis in Myanmar.

The consensus calls for an immediate cessation of violence, the start of dialogue for a peaceful solution, the facilitation of the dialogue by a special envoy, humanitarian aid and the envoy's visit to Myanmar to meet with all parties concerned.

Erywan said that while his negotiations with the Myanmar military to fulfill his mandate are continuing, he hopes to visit the country this month and make it a "substantive visit" that would allow him full access to all parties concerned.

The envoy said he wants to have "a clear picture of what I'm allowed to do and what I'm not allowed to do...so that I can decide whether the visit would go ahead or not."

On his chance of meeting detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Erywan said he has "in my discussion with the authorities mentioned that the international community and some of the ASEAN member states have pressed on the need" for him to meet her.

But the envoy said he has not received a green light to meet her. "Not yet. They haven't yet said no but they said let's discuss it further."

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KYODO NEWS - Oct 4, 2021 - 15:11 | All, Japan

A farmer has been referred to prosecutors for allegedly shooting and killing a protected red-crowned crane with an air gun on the northernmost main island of Hokkaido, investigative sources said Monday.

The man in his 60s was referred to prosecutors by police on Friday on suspicion of violating the law on conservation of an endangered species by shooting the bird on his farmland in the town of Ikeda on June 5, the sources said.

The man told Kyodo News he saw cranes that were about to enter his field and fired five shots to scare them away, but found one crane lying on the ground and reported to the police.

The crane had been hit by two bullets, the sources said.

The farmer also explained that cranes had started to frequently visit his fields from around five years ago, claiming that the birds caused annual damage totaling over 1 million yen ($9,000) one time by stomping on onions and other vegetables as they entered the fields searching for food.

The species, designated a special national natural treasure, was once on the verge of extinction but its population has been recovering due to preservation efforts by the state and local governments.

"If the state and local governments implement the protection policy, they need to firmly take measures against damage to crops at the same time," the man said, adding it has become usual for the cranes to appear in the fields except in winter.

Regarded as one of the largest cranes with a body length of about 140 centimeters and a wingspan of 250 cm, the red-crowned crane, also called the Japanese crane, is the only crane species that breeds in Japan, according to the Environment Ministry.
KYODO NEWS - Oct 4, 2021 - 14:44 | All, Arts, Japan

A transgender man in central Japan filed a request Monday with a court to switch gender in his family registry without having sex reassignment surgery as currently required by law.

Gen Suzuki, 46, who lives as a man but is listed as a woman in the family registry, filed the request with the Hamamatsu branch of the Shizuoka Family Court, insisting a person's own gender identity should be respected without the need for surgery.

Corrections to family registers, which record information about the identity of citizens such as gender as well as family relationships, require permission from family courts.

Suzuki said he felt uncomfortable being treated as female from a young age, and was diagnosed with gender identity disorder at age 40.

He has undergone masculinizing hormone therapy and surgically removed his breast tissue, but does not want to undergo a sex reassignment operation, which removes reproductive capacity, seeing it as imposing a heavy impact on physical and mental health.

Suzuki told reporters in July, "It is wrong for the state to force an unwanted surgery. There should be various options." He expressed readiness to eventually appeal to the Supreme Court if his request is rejected.

After filing the request Monday, Suzuki held a press conference with his female partner and said the two intend to marry. "I find it nonsensical that transgender people cannot enjoy marriage equality in Japan" unless they switch genders in their family registers.

In 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that Japanese law on gender identity disorder requiring sex reassignment surgery as a condition for changing one's legal gender is currently constitutional, but that this should be reviewed as social mores change.

But two of the four top court justices involved in the case expressed a view that the stipulation "is suspected" of violating the constitutional right to pursue happiness.

In 2014, the World Health Organization and other U.N. organizations called for respecting transgender people's right to retain their fertility and the elimination of forced, coercive and otherwise involuntary sterilization.
KYODO NEWS - Oct 4, 2021 - 21:36 | World, All, Japan

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday sent Japan's new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida a congratulatory letter saying he would like to boost mutual trust and cooperation with him through dialogue and communication, state-run media reported.

China is expected to try to maintain stable relations with Japan's administration under Kishida, elected as prime minister by parliament earlier in the day, ahead of major events such as the Beijing Olympics and the Communist Party's twice-a-decade congress.

Foreign affairs experts said Chinese senior officials are closely watching whether Kishida's ruling Liberal Democratic Party will win in the upcoming House of Representatives election and ensure the longevity of his Cabinet.

Beijing has so far hoped that Kishida, a former foreign minister, will pursue a well-balanced diplomatic strategy toward China.

"The new Japanese Cabinet will not fundamentally change Japan's foreign policy, especially when it comes to China," the Global Times, a tabloid of the ruling Communist Party, said last Thursday after Kishida won the LDP presidential election.

"China-Japan ties cannot be allowed to deteriorate further, otherwise, the next Japanese leader will encounter tremendous difficulty when they attempt to mend ties," the newspaper added.

As the year 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China, Kishida, known as a moderate with a steady hand, has affirmed the importance of holding summit talks with Xi.

During the presidential election campaign, however, Kishida promised to set up a new post of special adviser to the prime minister on human rights, in an apparent bid to tackle China's alleged repression in Xinjiang and its crackdown on Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement.

His pledge prompted the Chinese Foreign Ministry to say, "China's internal affairs brook no foreign interference. Japanese politicians should stop making an issue out of China."

Xi's leadership has also been frustrated by Kishida, who has welcomed Taiwan's filing of a formal application to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement, diplomatic sources said.

The Communist-led government, meanwhile, is focusing on what kind of role a new Japanese ministerial post centering on economic security will play, given that the position is believed to have been newly created to counter alleged technology theft by China, one of the sources said.

Relatively young ruling party lawmaker Takayuki Kobayashi, a former Finance Ministry bureaucrat, was appointed as minister in charge of economic security.

"If Kobayashi takes a hard-line stance on China, Sino-Japanese relations may worsen," the source in Beijing said.

Japan and China have been at odds over technology transfer, intellectual property protection, market openness and transparency as well as other trade and economic issues.

China is scheduled to host the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics next February and March and the Communist Party is set to hold its congress in autumn 2022.

Related coverage:

Kishida takes office as Japan PM, eyes Oct. 31 general election
By Sayo Sasaki, KYODO NEWS - Oct 4, 2021 - 23:55 | World, Feature, All, Japan

While new Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has pledged to narrow the income gap by revising economic policies pursued by previous administrations, he is likely to uphold their diplomatic stance, building stronger ties with the United States and other countries sharing universal values in the face of China's rise.

Given that he heads a long-running Liberal Democratic Party faction that has put an emphasis on developing ties with China, Kishida is seen as a moderate who seeks to balance relations with Japan's biggest trading partner. But at a time when U.S. President Joe Biden has adopted a hard-line policy toward Beijing, he has little room to maintain such a stance, experts say.

"Relationship with the Biden administration will be important for Mr. Kishida, and it will be hard to show his distinctiveness when the public has grown concerned about China's repeated intrusions into Japanese waters around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea," said Takashi Terada, a professor of international relations at Doshisha University.

After being elected as successor to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga as the LDP president last week, Kishida vowed to build a free and open Indo-Pacific based on universal values, such as democracy and the rule of law, a vision pursued by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and carried over to Suga.

Under the vision, Kishida is expected to push forward the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement and strengthen the Quad grouping involving Japan, the United States, Australia and India, in a veiled counter against an increasingly assertive China.

"While the Suga government was domestic policy-oriented, Mr. Kishida can pay more attention to diplomacy," said Mie Oba, a professor of international relations at Kanagawa University, citing the fact that Kishida served as foreign minister under Abe for four years and eight months.

"And Mr. Kishida is unlikely to bring about a major change to relations with the United States," partly because he retains the foreign and defense ministers from the Suga government, Oba said.

"Japan is likely to stick to the basic stance of maintaining and reinforcing an order desirable for Japan through the CPTPP and other frameworks," she said.

The trade pact, formally known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or the CPTPP, is aimed at making a free trade zone across the Pacific and was originally promoted by the United States under the administration of Barack Obama to balance China's rising influence in the region.

The United States, however, withdrew from the deal in 2017 under then President Donald Trump, known for his "America First" stance, and Kishida will be seeking to bring the world's largest economy back on board.

China has recently filed an application to join the 11-member TPP, prompting Japanese officials to voice doubts about whether the emerging powerhouse can meet the high standards set in the pact, including detailed rules over state-owned enterprises.

Kishida himself acknowledged the difficulties China would face in joining the TPP, citing Beijing's control of state-run enterprises and infringement of intellectual property rights.

"I feel it is pretty uncertain as to whether China can clear the high levels (of standards) in the TPP," he said at his first news conference after taking office as prime minister on Monday.

Oba underscored the importance of not bending existing rules to include China, saying, "This will be a test of whether a rules-based international order can be maintained."

"If the rules are relaxed, then the CPTPP that calls for high-level and comprehensive liberalization will fall apart," the scholar said.

Similarly, Terada said it is vital that Japan help ensure that Britain's application to the TPP is processed swiftly to "set a precedent" of a new member joining the pact without changing the rules.

London filed a request in February to join the TPP, following its departure from the European Union last year. If realized, Britain will be the first country to join the deal since it came into force in 2018.

Terada added, "If China can really clear the conditions for joining the TPP, it would be favorable for Japanese firms and something to be welcomed."

Many experts expect China to face hurdles, including opposition from original TPP signatories as well as a potential push by the United States, a non-signatory, on members not to let Beijing into what was originally the U.S.-led trade initiative.

Despite Kishida's position of welcoming Taiwan's filing of a formal application to join the TPP, Japan is also likely to face difficulties in handling the issue in the context of Tokyo's ties with Beijing.

China has voiced strong opposition to Taiwan's bid to join the TPP, as Beijing regards the self-ruled democratic island as a renegade province awaiting reunification by force if necessary.

Aside from promoting the TPP and the Quad, Kishida created a new ministerial post for economic security and assigned it to Takayuki Kobayashi, a relatively young LDP lawmaker, who faces pressing challenges such as a global shortage of semiconductors and alleged technology theft by China.

The launch of the minister for economic security came as Japan has been stepping up initiatives on the issue, such as creating a team within the secretariat of the National Security Council to drive the country's development in the fields of artificial intelligence and 5G wireless, especially in the face of U.S.-China competition in advanced technologies.

During the first in-person Quad summit in Washington last month, the leaders of the four countries affirmed closer cooperation in semiconductor supply chains and coronavirus vaccines, among other key areas in economic security.

While keeping an eye on a host of diplomatic challenges, Kishida will look for opportunities for bilateral talks with Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other leaders on the sidelines of international gatherings.

The first such occasion was thought to be the Oct. 30-31 summit of the Group of 20 major economies in Rome. But Kishida indicated he will attend only virtually as it coincides with Japan's general election that he said will take place on Oct. 31.

He is also likely to seek remote participation in a leaders' summit of the U.N. Climate Change Conference on Nov. 1-2 in Glasgow, Scotland, when he will present his policy steps to fight global warming.

Suga has vowed to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, a promise Kishida has clearly said he will keep.

Related coverage:

Kishida takes office as Japan PM, eyes Oct. 31 general election
New Delhi:

US space flight, NASA and SpaceX are preparing to test a new space capsule for astronauts eight years after the last manned mission-- although for now, the only occupant will be a dummy named Ripley. After the shuttle programme was shuttered in 2011 after a 30-year run, NASA began outsourcing the logistics of its space missions. The new capsule will blast off on board a rocket built by SpaceX -- the space company of billionaire Elon Musk -- at 0249 (0749 GMT) on Saturday from the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Its destination is the International Space Station, which it is scheduled to reach by Sunday, with a return to Earth next Friday.

NASA plans to put two astronauts on board SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule by the end of the year. The flight aims to test the vessel's reliability and safety in real-life conditions.

"It's been a long eight years," said Bob Cabana, the Kennedy Space Center's director and a former astronaut. "It's exciting to see a crewed vehicle, the SpaceX Dragon, up there on a Falcon 9 on pad 39A," said Cabana, who witnessed the last space shuttle flight return to Cape Canaveral on July 21, 2011.



ALSO READ | SpaceX Dragon capsule successfully separates from rocket

It pays Russia to get its people up to the orbiting research facility at a cost of USD 82 million a head, for a round trip.

In 2014, the US space agency awarded contracts to SpaceX and Boeing for them to take over this task.

But the programme has suffered delays as safety requirements are much more stringent for manned flights than for unmanned missions to deploy satellites.

The sky over the launch site was clear Friday, with meteorologists saying there was an 80 per cent chance of conditions being favourable overnight.

"When you are here, right, there is a pride in the country. It's different," said Mark Geyer, director of the Johnson Space Centre, where US astronauts are based. "There is a pride in what the United States and its teams can accomplish."

Boeing also received a contract in 2014 to develop a space vessel, the Starliner. It will not be tested until April, in a mission similar to SpaceX's.

NASA did not want to rely on just one single vehicle, in case of accidents.

Planning has been delayed by around three years, with the first manned SpaceX flight still pencilled in for July, though officials frequently refer to the end of 2019 as a more realistic deadline.

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New Delhi:

The Indian Air Force on Friday, in a series of tweets titled aDiary of Eventsa, talked about the sequence of events which unfolded from the time when the Pakistan Air Force craft entered the Indian territory in Jammu and Kashmiras Nowshera sector on February 27 to Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman being made a captive in the Pakistan territory and his eventual release on Friday night. There are details of how IAF's MiG-21 Bison downed PAF's F-16.

This is the exact text of what the IAF tweeted:

On 27 Feb 19 at around 1000 hrs IAF radars detected a large package of PAF aircraft heading towards the Indian territory towards general area Jhangar. They breached the Indian airspace west of Rajauri in Sunderbani Area.

The ingressing aircraft were observed to be at various levels. IAF fighters including MiG-21 Bison, Su-30 MKI, Mirage-2000 were tasked to intercept the intruder. PAF aircraft attempting to target military installations were intercepted by IAF fighters which thwarted their plans.

#DiaryofEvents: On 27 Feb 19 at around 1000 hrs IAF radars detected a large package of PAF aircraft heading towards the Indian territory towards general area Jhangar. They breached the Indian airspace west of Rajauri in Sunderbani Area. (1/5)

Details on https://t.co/yUXMuzlovQ a Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) March 1, 2019

Ingressing aircraft were observed to be at various levels. IAF fighters including MiG-21Bison, Su-30MKI, Mirage-2000 were tasked to intercept the intruder. PAF aircraft attempting to target military installations, were intercepted by IAF fighters & thwarted their plans. (2/5) pic.twitter.com/J2E1G8ZGQ9 a Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) March 1, 2019

Although PAF bombs have fallen in Indian Army Formation compounds however they were unable to cause any damage to our Military Installations.A In the aerial combat that ensued one F-16 of PAF was shot down by an IAF MiG-21 Bison. The F-16 crashed and fell across the LOC in POJ&K.

Although PAF bombs have fallen in Indian Army Formation compounds however they were unable to cause any damage to our Military Installations.

In the aerial combat that ensued one F-16 of PAF was shot down by an IAF MiG-21 Bison. The F-16 crashed and fell across the LOC. (3/5) pic.twitter.com/bP2hXnIDd4 a Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) March 1, 2019

The IAF lost one MiG-21 in the aerial engagement & the Pilot ejected safely his parachute drifted into POJ&K where he was taken into custody by Pakistan Army.

The IAF lost one MiG-21 in the aerial engagement & the Pilot ejected safely, his parachute drifted into POJ&K where he was taken into custody by Pakistan Army. (4/5) a Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) March 1, 2019

We have Wg Cdr Abhinandan back with us. Indian Air Force is proud of our Airwarrior #Abhinandan.

We have Wg Cdr Abhinandan back with us.

Indian Air Force is proud of our Airwarrior #Abhinandan. (5/5)#WelcomeHomeAbhinandan a Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) March 1, 2019

Abhinandan Varthaman, IAF pilot Wing Commander who was captured by Pakistan, was handed over to officials of the Indian High Commission at Wagah border near Lahore on Friday evening. Pakistan had detained him following a fierce engagement between air forces of the two sides along the Line of Control when his MiG 21 fighter jet was downed on February 27. "Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman has been handed over to us. He will now be taken for a detailed medical checkup because he had to eject from an aircraft. The IAF is happy to have him back," said Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor at Attari-Wagah border.

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highlights The BSF has been asked to stay alert to thwart any possible attack. Tension has increased on the border after IAF's strike in Balakot. Pakistan had vowed surprise attack after the Balakot strike.

New Delhi:

Wounded by Indian Air Forces massive strikes on terror camps inside its territory, Pakistan is hatching a major conspiracy on Jammu international border. According to sources, Pakistan has deployed a specially trained team of its Border Action Team (BAT) personnel to carry out attacks on Indian armed forces. It has also deployed snipers near the international border to cause damage to the Indian side.

Following the report, the Border Security Force (BSF) has been directed to remain extra vigilant on the international border. The conspiracy by Pakistan is being hatched against Indias cross border action on a JeM camp in Balakot.

The Indian Air Force on February 26 had conducted an air strike on a JeM terrorist camp in Pakistans Balakot to avenge the Pulwama attack in which over 40 CRPF personnel were killed. It was the first time in more than a decade that Indian jets had crossed the LoC to strike against Pakistan.

Although Pakistan denied that the Indian Air Force had struck a terrorist camp and caused heavy casualties, it vowed to respond, "at the time and place of its choosing".

"Do not underestimate us. We have our own sense of timing and we will act and react. Pakistan will do what Pakistan should do... we will not disappoint the people of Pakistan," Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had said after the strike.

Following Indias air strike, the Pakistani Air Force had also violated Indian air space and dropped bombs at a military post in India, but its jets were scrambled back by IAF. The Indian Air Force even shot down a US-made F-16 fighter jet used by the Pakistani Air Force to strike India.

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Mumbai:

The Indian arm of the Czech car maker Skoda Friday announced signing of an initial pact with Orix Auto Infrastructure Services for car renting solutions. The company will provide its entire range --Rapid, Octavia, Superb and and Kodiaq - on lease basis for up to five years to customers initially across eight cities, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad, a release said.

The monthly lease rental for Skoda model range will start at Rs 19,856 and cater to salaried individuals, working professionals, SMEs, PSUs and corporate entities, the company added.

The partnership with Orix reflects our commitment to reach out to our customers through new strategic avenues. The tailor-made leasing program will draw on the strengths of both companies and deliver an enhanced ownership experience to Skoda customers," Zac Hollis, director of sales, service and marketing, Skoda Auto India.

The leasing solutions offered under the tie-up includes road tax, insurance, breakdown assistance, accidental repairs, end-to-end maintenance, scheduled tyre and battery changes, and a replacement vehicle, as per the release.

"Leasing has been a well-accepted product across all developed nations and we expect the same to happen in India. Also with the mind and mode shift trends of this millennial generation where convenience weighs more than ownership, we expect leasing to play a significant role in meeting customer expectations," said Sandeep Gambhir, managing director and chief executive officer, ORIX Auto Infrastructure Services.
highlights NIA has collected evidence against many separatist leaders in the Valley.

Financial aid was provided to terrorists, including suicide attacker Adil Dar.

NIA sources said the Jaish's terrorists got financial assistance from Pakistan.

New Delhi:

The NIA, which is investigating the Pulwama terror attack that claimed lives of 40 CRPF jawans on February 14, has found evidence that terrorists were being provided financial and other assistance at the local level in Jammu and Kashmir, sources in the central agency said. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has collected evidence against many separatist leaders in the Valley who allegedly helped the terrorists, the sources added.

Forty CRPF personnel were killed and five injured on February 14 in one of the deadliest terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir when a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) rammed a vehicle carrying a huge quantity of explosives into their bus in Pulwama district. India has launched a major diplomatic offensive against Islamabad after the attack and highlighted Pakistan's role in using terrorism as an instrument of state policy.

Following the incident, India bombed and destroyed JeM's biggest training camp in Balakot in Pakistan's restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, about 80-km from the Line of Control (LoC) early on February 26, killing a "very large number" of terrorists, trainers and senior commanders.

The sources said the financial aid was provided to six to seven terrorists, including suicide attacker Adil Dar, involved in the attack. The money, which was spent on arranging a car for the suicide attack, had come from Pakistan through Dubai. The sources added that the arrest of some separatists involved in the conspiracy can soon happen. Some of these separatists still have police protection.

The NIA sources said the Jaish's terrorists got financial assistance from Pakistan and Dubai through hawala with the help of the separatist leaders of Kashmir.

On January 26, the NIA carried out searches at seven locations, including on the premises of separatists like Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, in connection with a case related to funding to terrorist and separatist groups in Jammu and Kashmir.

The agency said it had recovered "high-tech internet communication setup" from the residence of the Mirwaiz. It also claimed to have recovered letterheads of terrorist groups and visa recommendation letters for admission in Pakistan-based educational institutions from several locations. The NIA team, accompanied by local police and CRPF personnel, swooped on residences of some of the separatist leaders, including the Mirwaiz, Naseem Geelani, son of pro-Pakistan separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani, and chairman of Tehrek-e-Hurriyat Ashraf Sehrai, they said.

The NIA has also checked bank accounts of nearly 40 separatist leaders after the raids.

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New Delhi:

Former BJP leader and Baharaich MP Savitri Bai Phule on Saturday joined the Congress party in presence of party chief Rahul Gandhi and general secretary of Uttar Pradesh east Priyanka Gandhi. General Secretary for UP west Jyotiraditya Scindia was also present when Phule was inducted into the party.

She had earlier met former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, days after once arch-rivals Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party announced their tie-up in the state ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, sharing 38 seats each. Phule, who has often been critical of the BJP leadership, resigned from the party in December 2018, saying it was dividing society.

"I have resigned from the party. But I will continue as a Lok Sabha member till the end of my tenure," Phule had said.

However, she said she will complete her tenure as a Member of Parliament and won't quit the post.

"Desh ke chowikdar ki pehredari mein, sansadhono ki chori karai ja rahi hai (the country's resources are being looted under the watch of the country's gateman)," she had said in a derisive reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Phule also said she wanted to draw the country's attention towards the issue of reservations in promotion.

Known for her controversial statements, Phule has been attacking the BJP and its governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh for their alleged indifference to the concerns of Scheduled Castes.

Phule had said Lord Hanuman was "a Dalit and a slave of 'manuwadi' people", adding her voice to the row which erupted over UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's statement that the deity was a Dalit.

Asked about the Ram temple issue, pending in the Supreme Court, Phule said the BJP is raking up the matter as it has no other issues.

"The country does not need a temple. Will it end unemployment and other problems of Dalits and backwards? The temple will benefit Brahmins, who are only 3 per cent. The money offered in temples are used by them for their gains and make our community (Dalit) their slave," she had said.

Phule earlier also raised questions on BJP leaders dining at Dalit homes and termed Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah, "a mahapurush" (great personality), causing embarrassment to her party.

With Agency Inputs
Lahore:

The handing over of pilot Abhinandan Varthaman to India at Wagah was delayed on Friday as he was asked to record a statement on camera by Pakistani authorities before he was allowed to cross the border, according to sources. It was not clear whether he was made to record the video under duress. The video also had several jump cuts indicating that it had been edited heavily, apparently to fit Pakistani propaganda.

At 8.30 pm (local) time, the Pakistan government released the pilot's video message to the local media in which he said as to how he was captured. "Recording of his video message caused delay in his handing over," a source said.

In the video message, Varthaman said he entered Pakistan's space to "find a target" but his aircraft was shot down. "I was in search of the target when your (Pakistan) Air Force shot me down. I had to eject the plane which had sustained damage. As soon as I ejected and when my parachute opened and I fell down, I had a pistol with me.?

"There were many people. I had only one way to save myself: I dropped my pistol and tried to run.

"People chased me, their emotions were running high. Just then, two Pakistani Army officials came and saved me. Pakistani army captains saved from the people and did not let any harm come to me. They took me to their unit where I was administered first aid and then I was taken to the hospital where I further underwent a medical exam and received more aid," he said.

"The army personnel saved me from the mob. The Pakistani army is very professional and I am impressed by it," he said, while criticising the Indian media.

India has maintained that Varthaman's plane was downed when IAF planes foiled an attempt by Pakistan Air Force to target Indian military installations in Jammu and Kashmir on February 27, a day after New Delhi had conducted counter-terror operations in Pakistan's Balakot. He bailed out of the aircraft but drifted to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir where he was detained by the Pakistan Army.

Although there has been no official word as to what time he was brought to the Wagah border on Friday, but the sources say he reached Lahore after 4 pm. The Pakistani media reported that "his papers were being checked at the Wagah immigration" that was why he was not being "immediately" handed over to the Indian authorities.

Varthaman was handed over at around 9.20 pm (IST).

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New Delhi:

The encounter which started on Friday at Babagund village of Langate, Handwara in north Kashmir's Kupwara district continued for the second day on Saturday. Two terrorists are still active at the site, police said. Para Commandos have been called in to neutralize the terrorists, according to reports. Earlier, five security personnel, a CRPF officer, were killed when a terrorist who was hiding in debris of a house damaged in a joint operation opened fired on them. It was reported that two terrorists were killed in an overnight encounter. Arms and ammunition were recovered from the encounter site, the officials said. One civilian was also killed during a clash with security forces following a stone-pelting incident at the spot.



Earlier, on Thursday night at around 9:00 pm, the contingents of Army's 22 RR, 92 battalions, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and SOG conducted a cordon-and-search operation at Khanu-Babagund hamlet in Langate.



ALSO READ | IED blast in Pulwamas Tral, civilian injured

Reports said that the forces had also installed lights to prevent the terrorists from escaping in the darkness of the night. As of now, there is no information on which group the terrorists were affiliated with.

Security forces had launched a cordon and search operation following information about presence of terrorists there, the officials said. During the searches, the terrorists opened fire on the security forces, who retaliated, they said. There was lull in firing several times during the day but the terrorists would resume firing as soon as the security forces advanced towards the house where the ultras were hiding, the officials said. Clashes between a group of youngsters and security personnel took place near the encounter site, leaving four persons injured, the officials.

Earlier in the day, a civilian was injured in an IED blast set by terrorists in Tral area of Pulwama district. The incident took place at around 3 am in Amlar area, according to reports. Soon after the incident Police team reached the spot and an investigation is underway. The area has been cordoned off. IED was laid to target security forces patrol vehicles but seems to have exploded prematurely, according to reports.

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Washington:

It has been a wrenching season for three of America's largest religious denominations, as sex-abuse scandals and a schism over LGBT inclusion fuel anguish and anger within the Roman Catholic, Southern Baptist and United Methodist churches. There's rising concern that the crises will boost the ranks of young people disillusioned by organized religion.

"Every denomination is tremendously worried about retaining or attracting young people," said Stephen Schneck, a political science professor at Catholic University. "The sex-abuse scandals will have a spillover effect on attitudes toward religion in general. I don't think any denomination is going to not take a hit."

For the US Catholic church, the clergy sex-abuse scandal that has unfolded over two decades expanded dramatically in recent months. Many dioceses have become targets of investigations since a Pennsylvania grand jury report in August detailed hundreds of cases of alleged abuse. In mid-February, former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was expelled from the priesthood for sexually abusing minors and seminarians.

The Southern Baptist Convention, America's largest Protestant denomination, confronted its own sex-abuse crisis three weeks ago in the form of an investigation by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News. The newspapers reported that hundreds of Southern Baptist clergy and staff had been accused of sexual misconduct over the past 20 years, including dozens who returned to church duties, while leaving more than 700 victims with little in the way of justice or apologies.

For both denominations, allegations of cover-ups and insufficient sympathy for victims have been as damaging in the public eye as the abuse itself. The United Methodist Church, the largest mainline Protestant denomination, ended a pivotal conference Tuesday in a seemingly irreconcilable split over same-sex marriage and the ordination of LGBT clergy.

About 53 percent of the delegates voted to maintain bans on those practices and strengthen enforcement, dismaying centrists and liberals who favored LGBT inclusion and now are faced with the choice of leaving the UMC or considering acts of defiance from within.

The Rev. Adam Hamilton, whose Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, is the nation's largest UMC congregation, said the outcome would push youthful pastors and other young adults away.

"Three out of four of millennials who live in the U.S. support same-sex marriage and do not want to be a part of a church that makes their friends feel like second-class Christians," he told the conference.

"Many of you have children and grandchildren who cannot imagine that we're voting this way today. They wonder, have these people lost their minds?" Since long before the current crises, most Christian denominations in the U.S. have been losing members.

The most recent survey of the religious landscape by the Pew Research Center found that the biggest growth was in "unaffiliated" ? people who described themselves as atheists, agnostics or "nothing in particular."

That latter group is known among contemporary religious leaders as the "nones." Their ranks include many young people who want spirituality in their lives but are disenchanted with institutionalized religion. "The 'nones' want their lives to make a difference, and they're trying to figure out how," said the Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of the Christian social justice organization Sojourners.

"They're not going to join a religion that's not making a difference or, worse yet, is full of hypocrisy." There have yet to be comprehensive surveys gauging how the latest crises have affected church membership and attendance. Nancy Ammerman, professor of the sociology of religion at Boston University's School of Theology, suggests the impact will be significant.

"We see young adults who are overwhelmingly on the progressive side of sexuality issues and overwhelmingly not sitting still for sexual abuse of all kinds," she said.

"When they see religious leaders who aren't on the right side of that, they're more likely to say, 'I'm done.'" Any such developments will reinforce existing trends, Ammerman said.

"If you're already only going to church three or four times a year, if you're moving from one place to another, your ties (with a church) have already gotten weak."

While the three ongoing crises vary in key respects, there is important common ground: the increased outspokenness, organizing skills and social-media prowess of Catholic and Southern Baptist sex-abuse survivors and LGBT United Methodists.

"We're in a historical moment where the marginalized voices will not be silenced," said Natalia Imperatori-Lee, a religious studies professor at Manhattan College in New York. "Victims of sex abuse and LGBT communities have reached the breaking point." In the case of the Catholic and Southern Baptist churches, there's been extra motivation for some critics because of those churches' insistence on a male-only clergy.

"You have very top-down, patriarchal institutions representing a kind of power that civil society has left behind," Imperatori-Lee said. The months ahead will be challenging for the three denominations, notably for liberal United Methodists who must decide if they can abide under the LGBT bans they opposed.

U.S. Catholic bishops hold a national meeting in June. They will be weighing the exhortations of Pope Francis at the Vatican's recent summit on sex-abuse prevention.

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New Delhi:

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), Indiaas first mission to Mars, joined the millions of Indian to hail and welcome Indian Air Force Wing Commander Abhinandan VarthamanA who returned to India on Friday night after remaining in Pakistani custody for over 60 hours.A

MOM, that has completed four years orbiting the Red Planet, tweeted this to welcome message for the brave Indian pilot: "We are proud of you #WingCommandarAbhinandan."

We are proud of you #WingCommandarAbhinandan. a ISRO's Mars Orbiter (@MarsOrbiter) March 2, 2019

ISRO had launched the mission, on November 5, 2013, successfully placed itself into Martian orbit on September 24, 2014 in its first attempt.

Abhinandan Varthaman, IAF pilot Wing Commander who was captured by Pakistan, has been handed over to officials of the Indian High Commission at Wagah border near Lahore on Friday evening. Pakistan had detained him following a fierce engagement between air forces of the two sides along the Line of Control when his MiG 21 fighter jet was downed on February 27. He was received by the top officials of the Indian Air Force at the Wagah border. Abhinandanas parents a his father is an IAF veteran a had travelled to Amritsar from Chennai this morning to meet him on arrival. However, the pilot was whisked away in a convoy by Indian officials away from the public glare.

A "Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman has been handed over to us. He will now be taken for a detailed medical checkup because he had to eject from an aircraft. The IAF is happy to have him back," saidA Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor at Attari-Wagah border.A

India on Wednesday summoned the acting high commissioner of Pakistan and demandedA the immediateA and safe return of the IAF pilot who was detained by Pakistan following an aerial engagement by air forces of the two countries. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan addressing a special joint sitting of the parliament on Thursday announced that Pakistan will release the pilot.

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New Delhi:

At least four buildings inside the Jaish-e-Mohammad training camp in Balakot were hit by Indian missiles. The Indian Express quoted a source as saying that intelligence agencies have evidence, in the form of imagery from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), showing that the four buildings, identified as targets, were hit by five S-2000 precision-guided munition (PGM) fired from IAFs Mirage-2000 fighter jets. The missiles hit inside the campus of Madrasa Taleem-ul-Quran run by Jaish which is located on the same ridge line as the hilltop, a few hundred metres to the east, according to the Indian Express report. Earlier, Pakistan confirmed that the area was hit by IAF jets. However, it has so far denied any damage.



Why did the Pakistan Army seal the madrasa after the strike? Why did it not allow journalists to visit the madrasa? We have evidence in the form of SAR imagery to show that a building used as a guest house, where brother of Maulana Masood Azhar used to stay; an L-shaped building where trainers used to stay; a double-storied building used to house students entering the seminary and another building where those undergoing final combat training used to stay, were hit by the bombs, The Indian Express quoted an official as saying.



It is for the political leadership to decide if it wants to release that imagery and make public what is a classified capability. The SAR images are not as clear as satellite pictures and we couldnt get a good satellite picture on Tuesday because of heavy clouds. That would have settled the debate, the official added.

"The madrasa was selected carefully as it was in the middle of nowhere and there was little chance of any civilian casualties. Intelligence given to the IAF was accurate and timely, the official said.



Earlier, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale spoke about intelligence operation. In an intelligence lead operation, India struck the biggest training camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed in Balakot. In this operation, a very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commander and Jihadis were eliminated, Gokhale said. Credible information was received that JeM was attempting other attacks in the country. A pre-emptive strike became important. India struck the biggest camp of JeM in Balakot, Gokhale added.

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New Delhi:

The Aam Aadmi Party Delhi convenor Gopal Rai is expected to make an important announcement related to the Lok Sabha elections at the partys ITO office on Saturday. Although it is not clear what the announcement would be, speculations are rife that the party may announce an alliance with the Congress as well as a list of its candidates. After initial hurdles, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress have reportedly initiated a fresh round of talks for the alliance for upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Delhi on Friday.

According to reports, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi has given his nod and appointed a senior Congress leader to negotiate the seat-sharing pact with the AAP. After Rahul Gandhis go ahead, the Congress is also trying to convince the partys top Delhi leaders who are against the alliance with the AAP.

Former Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken and current state president Sheila Dikshit have rejected the idea of an alliance with the AAP. On Friday, Dikshit had turned down a proposal to form a pre-poll alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party for the general elections after holding due deliberation with party workers.

"Top leaders of Congress held discussion over the issue of a tie-up with AAP in Delhi but most of the leaders are not in favour of an alliance with AAP. We will convey our decision to party high command," she had said.

Earlier last month, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said that he was tired of convincing the Congress party for forming an alliance but the later refused to understand.

"There should be only one candidate against every BJP candidate, votes must not be divided. I am tired of trying to convince Congress for forming an alliance. But they refuse to understand. If today our alliance with Congress is done, BJP will lose all seven seats in Delhi," Kejriwal had said at an event in Delhi last month.

However, Dikshit had said that he has not talked about the alliance even once. "I want to ask Arvind Kejriwal on what basis has he said this because he has not talked about it even once," she said.

In 2014, the BJP has bagged all the seven Lok Sabha seats at stake in Delhi. Both the Congress and AAP wants to brighten up its fortunes in national capital in the coming Lok Sabha elections.
Houston:

Sini Mathews, the Indian-American foster mother of three-year-old special needs girl Sherin Mathews who was found dead in a culvert in suburban Dallas in 2017, was freed from jail after 15 months as the child endangerment charges against her have been dropped in the US due to lack of evidence. The Dallas County District Attorney's Office said on Friday that there was not enough evidence to proceed, NBCDFW news reported.

Sherin, who was adopted by Wesley Mathews and Sini in 2016, was found dead in a culvert near the family's home in Richardson, Texas, on October 22, 2017, two weeks after her family reported her missing. Sini, who was 35 at the time of her arrest, was charged after prosecutors said she left her adopted daughter home alone while she and her husband Wesley went to dinner with their 4-year-old biological daughter on the night before the child was reported missing, the report said.

Had she been convicted, she would have faced between two and 20 years behind bars, it said. The Indian-American couple from Kerala had adopted the girl from an orphanage in Bihar.

The charge was dismissed without prejudice, meaning it is possible the same or different charges could be levelled against her at any time, according to the report. Sini, while coming out of the jail, told NBC5 that she felt "blessed" the charges were dismissed and that she's looking forward to being reunited with her biological daughter, who has been living with family members in Houston.

She said that the past 15 months she spent in jail awaiting trial were "challenging".

Asked if she loved Sherin, Sini responded: "Yes, absolutely. No doubt". Her husband Wesley, who was 38 at the time of his arrest, still faces a capital murder charge in connection with his daughter's death and he is being held on a USD 1 million bond. His trial is set for May.

In a letter to the 282nd Criminal District Court, the Dallas County District Attorney wrote that "after extensive investigation, it has been determined that the state cannot prove this matter beyond a reasonable doubt at this time... the state respectfully requests that this case be dismissed without prejudice."

Richardson police, which probed Sherin's death and charged Sini with child endangerment, said in a statement that they were disappointed.

"While we are disappointed with this turn of events, we will continue to work with the Dallas County District Attorney's Office to ensure justice is done," Richardson police said.

Wesley, who still faces a capital murder charge in connection with the case, initially told the police that his daughter had gone missing from outside the house. He had made her stand outside the house at 3 am as punishment for not finishing her milk. Sherin was missing when he went back for her, Wesley had contended.

He is being held on a USD 1 million bond and his trial is scheduled for May.

Wesley changed his story later and told investigators that Sherin died after choking on milk. He admitted to putting her body in the culvert near their home in Richardson in suburban Dallas.

Accused of killing the Indian girl, he faces a sentence of up to life in prison.

The Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office which released Sherin' autopsy report listed the cause of death as a homicide and the manner as homicidal violence.

The story of Sherin's whereabouts and her tragic death in 2017 made headlines worldwide.

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New Delhi:

At least 33 pro-regime fighters were killed Sunday in attacks mounted by jihadist groups near Idlib province, in the deadliest day in six months for loyalist forces, a monitor said. Twenty-seven fighters were killed in two attacks by Ansar al-Tawhid jihadists, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. "Five jihadists were also killed," said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Britain-based monitoring group. Ansar al-Tawhid has ties to the larger Hurras al-Deen group, which is also active in the area of northwest Syria. Both are considered semi-officials franchises of Al-Qaeda in Syria. The foreign ministry said Syria "will not allow terrorists and those who are behind them to carry on with their attacks against innocent civilians and the armed forces".

The area of Idlib and small parts of the adjacent provinces of Hama and Aleppo are mostly controlled by the rival Hayat Tahrir al-Sham organisation.

HTS is led by fighters who formerly belonged to Al-Qaeda's ex-affiliate in Syria.

The attacks by Ansar al-Tawhid were carried out against regime positions in Masasna, a village in Hama province, the Observatory said.

A military source quoted by state news agency SANA confirmed soldiers had been killed and wounded in the attacks on their positions near Idlib province.

Earlier, several Islamic State group jihadists and dozens of civilians, including foreigners, quit the last IS-held pocket in eastern Syria, US-backed forces said. Backed by air strikes by the US-led coalition, the Syrian Democratic Forces have already retaken most of the village. A convoy of trucks entered Baghouz to transfer jihadists and their relatives out to SDF-held territory, said SDF spokesman Adnan Afrin. IS, which in 2014 declared a cross-border "caliphate" straddling Syria and Iraq, has been expelled from all the land it held except for a patch of Baghouz village.



US President Donald Trump surprised the world and his country as well when he suddenly announced that the US is pulling out its troops from Syria. "In Syria, Erdogan said he wants to knock out ISIS, whatever's left, the remnants of ISIS. And Saudi Arabia just came out and said they are going to pay for some economic development. Which is great, that means we don't have to pay. We are spread out all over the world. We are in countries most people haven't even heard about. Frankly, it's ridiculous," Trump added.

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New Delhi:

Fearing a crackdown by the authorities of Pakistan, which is under a massive international pressure to take action against terror groups in its country, the Jaish-e-Mohammed has asked its cadres to unite and be ready anytime to migrate. In a statement, the Pakistan-based terror group also slammed Prime Minister Imran Khan for releasing of IAF pilot Abhinandan Varthaman on Friday. It also fears shutting down of its Madrasas in Pakistan.

The statement came in the wake of reports that Pakistan may take decisive action against all proscribed organisations, including Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM), and even withdraw its opposition to the move to list its chief Masood Azhar in the UN Security Council terror list. The US, the UK and France on Wednesday moved a fresh proposal in the UN Security Council to designate Azhar as a global terrorist, a listing that will subject him to the global travel ban, asset freeze and arms embargo.

In a major policy decision, Pakistan is set to take decisive action against all proscribed organisations as well as against the head of banned JeM, a senior security official familiar with the development quoted as saying by The Express Tribune. It is not clear what specific action would be taken against Azhar but the official hinted that Pakistan may withdraw its opposition to the listing of JeM chief as a global terrorist by the UN Security Council.

JeM, in the fresh statement, has also claimed that Azhar is alive but confirmed that the Indian Air Force (IAF) indeed targeted its camps in Pakistan's Balakot with Israeli guided missiles on February 26. Its statement came amid conflicting reports that Masood Azhar died either in the airstrike or due to liver cancer.

However, there was no confirmation from any authoritative sources. Jaish-e-Mohammed had identified suicide bomber Adil Ahmad Dar as the one who carried out the attack on February 14 that claimed the lives of 40 CRPF jawans in Pulwama. In an unverified 10-minute video recorded before the attack, Dar also mentioned that many more people like him were ready to 'follow the same path'.

In the statement, Jaish said there has been growing pressure from India, the US and even Russia against Pakistan to take action against the terrorist group. It said the Pakistan government was planning action to satisfy the international community.

Amid growing pressure to show the damage caused by IAF's precision bombing on the Jaish-e-Mohammed training facility, India is contemplating releasing evidence in the days to come to silence those doubting the impact. The IAF had declared that disclosing proof of the air strike impact was a call to be taken by the government even though electronic evidence gathered by radar images was sufficient to establish the damage caused to the structures.

Though there was no credible confirmation about the number of casualties, and Pakistani establishment remaining in denial mode, a video clip of Masood Azhar's brother Maulana Ammar had surfaced on Saturday where he can be heard accepting that the Balakot camp had taken a hit. The recording is said to be from a public function organized in Peshawar after the air strike.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also accepted on television that Masood Azhar was in Pakistan and that he was not well. Another report from Islamabad said the JeM founder was undergoing dialysis in a Pakistan army hospital. Reports claimed that after getting seriously injured in the air strike, Masood Azhar died in a hospital.

Masood Azhar was suspected to be afflicted with renal failure and is under regular dialysis at an army hospital in Rawalpindi in Pakistan, officials said on Saturday.

Qureshi said on Thursday: "He is in Pakistan, according to my information. He is unwell to the extent that he can't leave his house, because he's really unwell".

The Jaish-e-Mohammad chief was a close associate of Osama bin Laden, terror motivator in several African countries and also known by many as the Pakistani cleric who brought jihad into the religious discourse at mosques in the UK, the official said.

The JeM was reactivated in Jammu and Kashmir in 2014, a year after the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. The group had constituted a special 'Afzal Guru squad' to avenge his hanging.

The influence of the 50-year-old overweight terrorist mastermind was so huge that, when he was released by India in exchange for freeing the hijacked Indian Airlines aircraft IC-814 on December 31, 1999, in Kandahar, Laden hosted a banquet for him the same night.

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Kota:

A 45-year-old man, enraged over a rebuke by his younger brother, axed him to death on Sunday at Bohath village in Baran district near Kota city in Rajasthan. Police said accused Gopal Nayak, who is reported to be "a trifle mentally unstable", fled the scene after committing the gruesome murder.

Mangrole police station SHO Aashish Bhargav, said Gopal, in his disturbed mental state would often urinate in his room or verandah of the house, embarrassing other family members and evoking their anger.

As he did the same today, his younger brother Prahlad, 38 scolded him for the unsavoury act. Infuriated over the scolding, Gopal picked up an axe and attacked his younger brother, inflicting severe blows on his head and other parts of the body and fled the scene after critically injuring him.

Prahlad was subsequently rushed to a government hospital in Baran, where he succumbed to his injuries during treatment, the SHO added.

Police later lodged a case of murder against Gopal and started investigation into it, the SHO said, adding the victim's body was handed over to the family members after postmortem. The efforts are on to nab the accused, he added.

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New Delhi:

The Reserve Bank has imposed a monetary penalty of Rs 3 crore on Union Bank, Rs 2 crore on Dena Bank, and Rs 1 crore each on IDBI and the SBI for non-compliance with various directions, regulatory filings said on Saturday.

Union Bank said that the apex bank has imposed a penalty of Rs 30 million (Rs 3 crore) on it for delay in adherence to its directives on 'Time bound implementation and strengthening of SWIFT related controls' contained in the RBI circular of February 20, 2018.

In a filing to the BSE, Dena Bank said the Reserve Bank has imposed a penalty of Rs 20 million on it for non-compliance with the directions issued on February 20, 2018.

In an another filing, IDBI Bank said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed a monetary penalty of Rs 10 million on the Bank for contravention of its regulatory directions on time-bound implementation and strengthening of SWIFT related operational controls.

"The Bank has put in place necessary corrective actions to strengthen its internal control mechanisms so as to ensure that such incidents do not recur," IDBI said.

The SBI said the RBI has levied an aggregate penalty of Rs 10 million on the bank for delayed implementation of the daily reconciliation of Swift transaction logs with effect from February 20, 2018 at 226 "low intensity branches" of the bank.

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New Delhi:

Abhinandan Varthaman, IAF pilot Wing Commander who was captured by Pakistan, has been handed over to officials of the Indian High Commission at Wagah border near Lahore on Friday evening. Pakistan had detained him following a fierce engagement between air forces of the two sides along the Line of Control when his MiG 21 fighter jet was downed on February 27. "Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman has been handed over to us. He will now be taken for a detailed medical checkup because he had to eject from an aircraft. The IAF is happy to have him back," saidA Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor at Attari-Wagah border.A

India on Wednesday summoned the acting high commissioner of Pakistan and demanded immediate and safe return of the IAF pilot who was detained by Pakistan following an aerial engagement by air forces of the two countries. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan addressing a special joint sitting of the parliament on Thursday announced that Pakistan will release the pilot.





The government due to security reasons had not announced any time or place to hand him over to Indian authorities.A

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of different projects in Kanyakumari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said every Indian is proud of Abhinandan Varthaman.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after Indian fighters bombed terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed's (JeM) biggest training camp near Balakot deep inside Pakistan early on Tuesday.A It came 12 days after 40 CRPF personnel were killed when a Jaish-e-Mohammad suicide bomber rammed a vehicle carrying over 100 kg of explosives into their bus in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir on February 14.



Following the bombing of the JeM training camp, the Pakistan Air Force carried out a retaliatory aerial combat, unsuccessfully targeting several Indian military installations.

Wait for Abhinandan

They waited, hundreds of media personnel at the Attari border that separates India from Pakistan and millions of Indians glued to their TV sets and social media accounts for some news, any news about IAF officer Abhinandan Varthaman coming back home from captivity.

IAF Wing Commander #AbhinandanVarthaman at Wagah-Attari border, to cross border soon to enter India. pic.twitter.com/a1hVjwroVw a ANI (@ANI) March 1, 2019

The day slipped into sunset and then night but the wait for Wing Commander Varthaman, who was captured by Pakistan on Wednesday and was released on Friday, continued.

Long after nightfall, as the skies opened up and drenched Amritsar, there was no sign of the Indian Air Force pilot.A A

As analysts painstakingly debated each nuance of India, Pakistan relations in TV studios, anchors went hoarse keeping up the constant commentary and journalists looked for information on when and how he would be handed over to India, the government decided to keep it all under wraps.

Patriotism was the mood of the day. There was garba in Ahmedabad, dancing in Bangalore, a sand sculpture of the officer in Puri and 'yagnas' in several places.

Frenzied celebrations broke out at the Attari-Wagah border checkpost in the morning itself with hundreds of people waving the tricolour, getting their faces painted and shouting slogans in anticipation of his safe homecoming and hoping to catch a glimpse of the brave-heart.A

The daily retreat ceremony at the border front was cancelled for the day by authorities, worried that it could become a security nightmare with an estimated 20,000 people gathering at the spot.

(With PTI inputs)





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Paris :

France on Friday extended its complete solidarity with India in the fight against terrorism in all its forms, as it welcomed the easing of tensions between India and Pakistan and the release the IAF pilot Abhinandan Varthaman.

I welcome the easing of tensions between India and Pakistan as well as the release of the Indian Air Force pilot detained in Pakistan. I hail the two governments choice of restraint and responsibility and urge them to resume bilateral dialogue, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said.

France, which is assuming the presidency of the United Nations Security Council from Friday, will do its utmost so that those responsible for the terrible attack in Pulwama are sanctioned, he said.

Also Read | Ranveer Singh: IAF pilot Abhinandan true hero, an inspiration for whole nation

France reiterated its complete solidarity with India in the fight against terrorism in all its forms.

The US, the UK and France on Wednesday moved a fresh proposal in the UN Security Council to designate Pakistan-based terror group JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist, a listing that will subject him to global travel ban, asset freeze and arms embargo.

The Security Council Sanctions Committee will have 10 working days to consider the fresh proposal submitted by the three members.

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London:

Many modern laptops and an increasing number of desktop computers are much more vulnerable to hacking through common plug-in devices than previously thought, a study has found. The researchers from the University of Cambridge in the UK and Rice University in the US shows that attackers can compromise an unattended machine in a matter of seconds through devices such as chargers and docking stations. Vulnerabilities were found in computers with Thunderbolt ports running Windows, macOS, Linux and FreeBSD. Many modern laptops and an increasing number of desktops are susceptible.

The researchers exposed the vulnerabilities through Thunderclap, an open-source platform they have created to study the security of computer peripherals and their interactions with operating systems.

It can be plugged into computers using a USB-C port that supports the Thunderbolt interface and allows the researchers to investigate techniques available to attackers.

They found that potential attacks could take complete control of the target computer.

In addition to plug-in devices like network and graphics cards, attacks can also be carried out by seemingly innocuous peripherals like chargers and projectors that correctly charge or project video but simultaneously compromise the host machine.

Computer peripherals such as network cards and graphics processing units have direct memory access (DMA), which allows them to bypass operating system security policies.

DMA attacks abusing this access have been widely employed to take control of and extract sensitive data from target machines.

Current systems feature input-output memory management units (IOMMUs) which can protect against DMA attacks by restricting memory access to peripherals that perform legitimate functions and only allowing access to non-sensitive regions of memory.

However, IOMMU protection is frequently turned off in many systems and the new research shows that, even when the protection is enabled, it can be compromised.

"We have demonstrated that current IOMMU usage does not offer full protection and that there is still the potential for sophisticated attackers to do serious harm," said Brett Gutstein, who is one of the research team.

The vulnerabilities were discovered in 2016 and the researchers have been working with technology companies such as Apple, Intel and Microsoft to address the security risks.

Companies have begun to implement fixes that address some of the vulnerabilities that the researchers uncovered; several vendors have released security updates in the last two years.

However, the research shows that solving the general problem remains elusive and that recent developments, such as the rise of hardware interconnects like Thunderbolt 3 that combine power input, video output and peripheral device DMA over the same port, have greatly increased the threat from malicious devices, charging stations and projectors that take control of connected machines. The researchers want to see technology companies taking further action, but also stress the need for individuals to be aware of the risks.

"It is essential that users install security updates provided by Apple, Microsoft and others to be protected against the specific vulnerabilities we have reported," said Theodore Markettos, who led the study.

"However, platforms remain insufficiently defended from malicious peripheral devices over Thunderbolt and users should not connect devices they do not know the origin of or do not trust," he said.
New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the Smart India Hackathon 2019 organised by the India Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee on Saturday. The IIT Roorkee is organising the grand finale of Smart India Hackathon 2019 on March 2 and 3, 2019 and Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar will inaugurate the event through video conferencing. PM Modi will address the event through a live interactive session.

An initiative of the HRD Ministry and the All India Council for Technical Education, Smart India Hackathon 2019 is a nationwide initiative to provide students a platform to solve some of pressing problems.

With over one lakh technical students, 3,000 technical institutions and more than 200 organisations from across India, the institute claims it to be the worlds biggest Software and Hardware Hackathon.

Participants will have to solve seven problem statements related to Robotic Process Automation and Machine Learning. A total of 28 teams comprising over 196 students from different part of the country will participate in the software-based industrial solutions.

About eight judges from industry and academia will evaluate the students in three rounds. Each team will have 8 members including two mentors. The problem statement from KG Info Systems at nodal center IIT Roorkee will be coded for solution.

The last edition of the hackathon saw over 5 million students from various engineering colleges competing for the top prize at over 35 locations. This time in the Hackathon, the students would also have the opportunity to work on challenges faced within private sector organizations and create world-class solutions for some of the top companies in the World, thus helping the private sector hire the best minds from across the nation.
Washington:

President Donald Trump said Sunday that the congressional questioning last week of his former lawyer may have contributed to the failure of his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Uneven as his national security advisor claimed the Hanoi meeting was a success. A high-stakes second summit to strike a disarmament deal with Kim broke up in disarray in Vietnam Thursday, with Trump saying: Sometimes you have to walk and this was just one of those times. The summit took place at the same time a Democrat-led congressional committee was grilling Michael Cohen, Trumps former lawyer, who labelled his ex-boss a racist, conman, and cheat.

On Sunday, Trump said the hearing may have contributed to the walk. For the Democrats to interview in open hearings a convicted liar & fraudster, at the same time as the very important Nuclear Summit with North Korea, is perhaps a new low in American politics and may have contributed to the walk, he tweeted.

Never done when a president is overseas. Shame! Still, US National Security Advisor John Bolton told CBSs Face the Nation Sunday that the summit should be seen as a success, defined as the president protecting and advancing American national interests.

He said the issue was whether North Korea would accept what the president called the big dealdenuclearizing completelyor something less, which was unacceptable to us. So the president held firm to his view. He deepened his relationship with Kim Jong Un. I dont view it as a failure at all when American national interests are protected, Bolton added.

The summits collapse followed the leaders historic meeting in Singapore that produced only a vague commitment from Kim to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

According to senior US officials, in the week leading up to the Hanoi summit, the North Koreans had demanded the lifting of effectively all UN Security Council economic sanctions imposed on Pyongyang since March 2016.

In return, Pyongyang was offering only to close part of the Yongbyon complex, a sprawling site covering multiple facilitiesand the North is believed to have other uranium enrichment plants.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, however, disputed the US account, saying Pyongyang offered to dismantle all nuclear production facilities in the Yongbyon area in exchange for partial sanctions relief.

Boltons evocation of progress was dismissed by leading Democrats, however, including House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, who described the Hanoi meeting as a spectacular failure.

The president did give up a great deal, by going to that summit, by enhancing Kim Jong Uns prestige on the world stage, by giving up those military exercises in the last summit and getting nothing for it, Schiff told CBS.

This is, I think, the result of a president who is not prepared for these kinds of negotiations, a staff that is not well-prepared and is essentially flying by the seat of its pants. Much of the criticism of the summit was sparked by Trumps remarks on the case of an American student tortured and left in a coma in North Korea.

Trump said he believed Kims claim that he did not know what happened to Otto Warmbier, who died at age 22 days after being sent back to the United States in 2017.

Bolton said Trump had been clear that Warmbiers death was barbaric and unacceptable, although Schiff countered that the presidents obsequious comments had compounded the summits failure.

Bolton was touring the Sunday political shows the morning after the US and South Korea announced an end to key annual large-scale military exercises. The maneuvers have been a perennial target of North Korean furycondemned by Pyongyang as provocative rehearsals for war.

Trump has repeatedly complained about the cost of the exercises andsince 2017s Singapore summitthe Washington and Seoul have scaled back or scrapped several joint exercises.

Opponents of scrapping the drills warn that it could affect the combat readiness of US and South Korean forces and hand the North a strategic advantage on the divided peninsula. Bolton sought to play down Saturdays announcement, however, saying the policy remained unchanged since Singapore.

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New Delhi:

BJP workers clashed with the police in several places of West Bengal on Sunday as the saffron party was prevented from holding its 'Vijay Sankalp' rally at different places of the state. The law enforcers said they prevented the motorbike rally as permission had not been granted for the rallies owing to a ban on public rallies during the ongoing school board examinations.

The 'Vijay Sankalp' bike rally is a part of the BJP's countrywide pre-poll exercise to establish contact with people. Clashes between BJP workers and policemen took place at Durgapur and Asansol in West Burdwan district, Midnapore town and Goaltore in West Midnapore, and Balurghat in South Dinajpur when they took out the motorcycle rallies.

Police resorted to lathicharge to disperse the saffron party workers at Asansol and Goaltore leaving some people from both sides injured. Rallies would be held even if the police arrest his party cadres, BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said in Durgapur.

"Hundreds of Sankalp yatras are being held in the country and in Bengal also. It will be held even if police arrest us," Ghosh said. Saffron party leaders engaged in arguments with police in the city as they were prevented from taking out rallies owing the lack of permission.

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Srinagar:

Hours after former chief minister Omar Abdullah said that banning schools run by Jamaat-e-Islami Sealing risks future of several kids, the Jammu and Kashmir administration has issued a clarification that the schools, mosques, and orphanages being run by the banned outfit have so far been kept outside the ambit of seizure. "Schools, mosques, and orphanages have been kept outside the scope of seizures and sealing in the wake of the ban imposed by the Government of India on Jamaat-e-Islami, J&K," state government spokesman Rohit Kansal clarified.

The clarification came hours after the National Conference vice-president said the ban on Jamaat-e-Islami "is having a major social impact" in Kashmir and appealed to the government to "urgently review" its decision to seal schools and mosques run by it.

There is nothing to suggest sealing mosques will improve the security environment. Sealing schools risks forcing so many young kids out on the streets rather than studying to make a future for themselves, Abdullah tweeted. He said the action is being taken against offices, assets, properties and other equipment of the banned outfit.

People are being turned away from mosques where they usually congregate for prayers. Schools with 10s of 1000s of students, employing 1000s of teachers are being sealed, he said in another tweet.

Abdullah said that the social aspect of the ban on Jamaat-e-Islami isnt being taken into consideration.

Earlier, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti had slammed the government for sealing properties of Jamaat leaders, including schools run by the organisation.

It is unfortunate as these schools were providing education to the poorest of poor. Their students are meritorious. Where will all these students go after their schools have been banned. They are playing with our future and this is very wrong. They should rather ban (RSS) shakhas where swords are displayed. No Jamaati carries a sword," she had said.

The Centre has banned Jamaat-e-Islami, Jammu and Kashmir for five years under anti-terror law on grounds that it was in close touch with terrorist outfits and was expected to escalate secessionist movement in the state.

A notification, banning the group under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, was issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs after a high-level meeting on security, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The police have launched a major crackdown on the socio-religious organisation across the state, arresting over 150 of its leaders and activists and sealing its properties including offices and houses over the past week, besides freezing bank accounts linked to the organisation.

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New Delhi:

Incessant rains and snowfall in several parts of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday triggered a massive and destructive landslide, resulting in the complete collapse of a mountain slope within seconds in Reasi area of the state. The problem of landslides has become very common and frequent in the Kashmir valley. Almost every year major landslides affect the state, causing significant hardship to many people. Though panic gripped the state following Saturday's major collapse in Reasi, no casualty has been reported in the incident so far.

Meanwhile, most spectacular is the video below showing the major slope collapse in Reasi area of the state. Watch Video

The landslide also led to blocking of the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, hours after it was opened for one-way traffic. The highway was opened for Kashmir-bound vehicles after remaining closed for the past five days. About eight inches of snow had accumulated on the ground near the Jawahar Tunnel - the gateway to Kashmir, while incessant rains triggered landslides and sent stones hurling down a hillock at several places between Banihal and Ramban, forcing closure of the highway.

Even the operations to clear the debris could not be started due to continuous downpour in the state. The closure of the highway left thousands of commuters, who had left for Srinagar from winter capital Jammu stranded at various places. However, the vehicles stranded in the landslide-prone areas are being moved to safety. Meanwhile, authorities have been directed not to allow any fresh vehicle on the highway until the road is not made traffic worthy.

Earlier on Monday, the 270-km strategic highway, the only all-weather road linking Kashmir with the rest of the country, was closed after multiple landslides and sinking of a portion of a road near Ramban town. After restoring the road and clearing the stranded vehicles, including truck carrying essential commodities to Srinagar, authorities decided to allow Kashmir-bound traffic from Jammu on Saturday.

The high-altitude areas experienced fresh snowfall, while the plains were lashed by intermittent rains since Friday evening. The weatherman has forecast moderate rain or snow on higher reaches till Sunday evening.

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New Delhi:

The teams of Indian Navy and Army have been recalled from the Meghalaya mine rescue operation to extract the bodies of 16 miners trapped in a rat-hole mine since December 13, 2018. According to an official communique, the 15-member crew of the Navy, including specialist divers, and Army personnel, who were assisting local authorities in the rescue mission will return to their respective base on Saturday. Wishing the Navy and Army teams a safe return and good luck for their next mission, East Jaintia Hills deputy commissioner FM Dopthsaid, "The district and the state as a whole is indebted to the services rendered by them."

At least 16 miners got trapped in a 370 feet-deep illegal coal mine in Meghalayas East Jaintia Hills on December 13. The team of Indian Navy had joined the rescue mission on December 29, while Army personnel were also called in to assist on January 29.

Meanwhile, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), which has been engaged in the rescue operation since the day of the tragedy on December 13 last, will continue with their services.

There is no instruction for us to wind up the operation and we will continue with our work, Santosh Singh, Assistant Commandant of Guwahati-based NDRF team, was quoted by PTI as saying.

Earlier, the second body was handed over to the relatives from Lumthari village, Susngi said. The highly decomposed body was identified by his family members from the clothes he wore, he said.

The companies involved in discharging water from the mines, including the Coal India Ltd, Kirloskar Brothers Ltd and KSB dewatered over 1 crore litres every day, he added.

The operation to rescue the miners is one of the longest in the country and involved multiple agencies, including the Navy, Army, NDRF among others. The family members of each of the 15 miners have been given Rs 1 lakh interim relief each by the district authorities.

(With inputs from agencies)

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New Delhi:

A Delhi court on Saturday extended the interim protection from arrest granted to Robert Vadra till March 19 in a money laundering case lodged by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Special judge Arvind Kumar granted the relief to Vadra, the brother-in-law of Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Vadra had on February 1 moved to Delhi court seeking anticipatory bail in the money laundering case lodged by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Earlier last month, Delhi's Patiala House Court had extended his interim protection from arrest to March 2, which expired today. During the hearing, the counsel for the Enforcement Directorate (ED) informed the court that Vadra was not cooperating in the case and opposed the extension.

The ED case against Vadra relates to allegations of money laundering in the purchase of a London-based property at 12, Bryanston Square worth GBP 1.9 million (British pounds), which is allegedly owned by him. According to the ED, Manoj Arora, an employee of Vadra's Skylight Hospitality LLP, is also an accused in the case. The ED had alleged that Arora was aware of the Vadra's overseas undeclared assets and was instrumental in arranging funds.



Vadra had accused that ED officials 'relentless harassment'. In a Facebook post written last month, Vadra said, "I have had nothing to hide and I am surely not above the law. I have deposed for almost 6 days; ranging from 8 to 12 hours per day with a 40 minutelunch break, n have been escorted to the washroom. I have completely cooperated and adhered to the rules whenever I was called in any part of the country. Attachment of my work place- my office n areas that are subjudiced, shows a complete misuse of assertion of power, a complete vindictive & vicious witch hunt. When truth sustains n prevails, I suppose an apology is all that will suffice. Will stay determined for justice for me. (sic)"

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Paris - As the campaign to administer vaccines to prevent corona virus infection intensifies around the world, people may assume that health workers will not hesitate to take doses of the vaccine, but people will be surprised to know that health workers have opposed taking the vaccine. In France, at least 3,000 health workers have been suspended as they have not taken the vaccine.

Similarly, in Greece, health workers have protested against mandatory vaccination. Similar cases have been reported in Canada and New York provinces. Health workers in Australia had arrived at protests in Melbourne and Perth. Some health workers have also challenged compulsory vaccination in the court of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW). More than 90 percent of health workers in NSW and Victoria have been vaccinated. But some of the people working in hospitals and other centres are hesitant about vaccines or they want to choose the vaccine for themselves.

The health data of the NSW shows that at present about seven percent i.e. Internationally, there are 4.3 to 72 percent cases of reluctance among health workers to get vaccinated.

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The soul of Harbhajan Singh, an army of the Punjab Regiment of the Indian Army, has been guarding the country's border for the last 53 years. The armies say Harbhajan Singh's soul always warns them about the threat posed by China. Indian soldiers not only protect their country but also in still feel the passion of some an army to serve the country so much that even after they die, their souls do not forget their duty. One of them is Baba Harbhajan Singh, an army of the Punjab Regiment.

Baba Harbhajan Singh was born on 30th August 1946 in Gujranwala district, which moved to Pakistan after partition. Baba Harbhajan joined the 24th Battalion of Punjab regiment in 1966. It had been only two years since he served the nation when he attained valour in an accident. In fact, when Harbhajan Singh was crossing the river on a mule, he was swept away by the river along with the mule and his body was not found for two days. When his body was not found for two days, he himself reportedly came to a young man's dream and told him about his body. His body was then searched and cremated.

According to media reports, for the past 53 years since Harbhajan's death in 1968, his soul has been protecting Indians on the country's border. Indian soldiers say Baba Harbhajan's soul already alerts him about the threat posed by China. Not only that, the Chinese soldiers themselves believe this very much.

India's exports exceed 100 billion-dollar in September quarter: Report

Payal Ghosh raised questions on system of country said '' Everyone knows the mystery of Sushant's death''

Bomb blast at Kabul mosque leaves 8 dead, many injured
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala state will have new mandatory quarantine stipulations for international travellers from Monday, on the basis of Union Health Ministry guidelines, Kerala Health Minister Veena George said in a statement. She said, said that all international travellers irrespective of their vaccination status will have to take RT-PCR tests on reaching the airports in the state.

According to the new guidelines, Travellers from UK will have to undergo ten-day quarantine at home or destination address, Passengers from South Africa, Brazil, and Europe will have to undergo a seven-day quarantine mandatorily on arrival. Travellers from other countries will have to undergo self-monitoring for 14 days if they test negative in RT- PCR test. Samples of passengers from countries like Botswana, the UK, New Zealand, South Africa, Brazil, European nations, of the Middle East, Bangladesh, China, Mauritius, and Zimbabwe will be sent for virus mutation tests.

The Health Minister also said that three RT- PCR tests are required for an international passenger to the state - One prior to 72 hours of the journey, the second on arrival at an airport in the state, and the third eight days after arriving in the state. The Centre had ordered 10-day mandatory quarantine for passengers arriving from the UK after it imposed such a quarantine measure for Indian visitors.

Kerala High Court sets aside the reduction of prices for RT-PCR tests in Pvt Labs

All colleges in Kerala to open from October 18, who have taken vaccine will get entry

Kerala Chief Minster warns police to be extra cautious with people
The ban on pedestrian movement from the Pakistan-Iran Taftan border was lifted on September 3 and Pakistani businessmen, students and truck drivers have been permitted to travel to Iran.

As per details derived form the sources, the Federal Investigation Agency has also commenced the regular immigration process at the Taftan border, permitting Pakistani citizens to enter Iran.

Notably, due to the increasing number of Covid cases, Iranian authorities banned Pakistani nationals from entering Iran on June 29. However, during this period, the Pakistan-Iran transit trade was remained continued and the movement of Iranian citizens to Pakistan was also not disrupted. Only Pakistani nationals were barred from entering Iran but that restriction has now been lifted.

However, Pakistani nationals wishing to travel to Iran on pilgrimage or tourism visas are still barred from entering the neighboring country.

Meanwhile, Irans influential Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in a statement said that the Islamic Republic would not tolerate any changes in the geopolitics of borders and would confront with all its might the inimical actions of its enemies. "We warn all those who are trying to destabilize the northern borders of Iran, and assert our preparedness to impede the evil designs of our enemies."

Read More world News

Iraq PM Mustafa al-Kadhimi honours security member for foiling suicide car bombing

Japan Parliament starts special Parliament session to elect new Prime Minister

Israel updates COVID-19 green pass rules, requires Pfizer booster shot admit protest
Teachers' Day is celebrated in the country on 5th September in India. However, UNESCO had declared 5th October as a worldwide Teachers' Day in 1994. A day when those who transfer knowledge to the new generation through knowledge. Teachers' Day is celebrated in India on 5th September. Interestingly, Teachers' Day is celebrated in most countries of the world, but everyone has set different days for it.

The same UNESCO declared October 5 as 'International Teachers' Day'. It has been celebrated since 1994. This special day was launched with the objective of promoting help towards teachers and creating awareness about the importance of teachers to meet the needs of future generations. Today, the day is celebrated in about 100 countries around the world. On this day, major programmes etc. are organized in respect of their teachers and in schools and colleges etc.

On December 10, 1945, the great Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral received the Nobel Prize. To commemorate this day, it was decided to celebrate 10th December as 'Teachers' Day' in 1974, but since the establishment of Teachers' College on October 16, 1977, Teachers' Day has been celebrated there on 16th October. In addition to our neighbouring countries, Pakistan, Maldives, Kuwait, Mauritius, Qatar, UK, Russia, celebrate Teachers' Day on this day. China celebrates Teachers' Day on September 10.

Assam youth was posting controversial remarks by creating a fake profile

Emily Ratajkowski REVEALS singer Robin Thicke canoodled her while shooting Blurred Lines music video

People are immersed in Hashish, Charas, Cocaine, know what is a RAVE party?
" " A Little Free Library box in a yard in Easthampton, Massachusetts. Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA-3.0)

Todd Bol tore down his old garage door in 2009, the year his mother died.

Using the scrap wood, he created something new, a box shaped like a little red schoolhouse. He set it on a post in his yard in Hudson, Wisconsin, and included a door that opened to give access to the books he placed inside. It kept his schoolteacher mother's legacy alive, he felt.

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Bol died on Oct. 18, 2018 at age 62 of pancreatic cancer, but not before 75,000 Little Free Library boxes had been created and the movement had spread worldwide. They can be found on people's lawns, in public parks, at New York City subway stops and even in a refugee camp in Uganda. People place books in them and take books away in an easy exchange that library founder Andrew Carnegie might have envied.

The Little Free Library movement has a presence in 50 states and 88 countries.

"I put up my library and noticed my neighbors talking to it like it was a little puppy, And I realized there was some kind of magic about it," Bol told The Washington Post in 2013.

When he realized people loved the idea of small, free library boxes, he and a friend worked to extend the magic, building and giving away the boxes. With national media attention in 2011, the movement grew exponentially and Bol formed the nonprofit Little Free Library.

"What we have found is that the neighborhood starts to feel like it's theirs," he told the Minneapolis Star Tribune in 2011. In a polarized society, the boxes create a common space that people are comfortable with, he said. He felt the boxes also had a folk art appeal.

Bol was a former schoolteacher and entrepreneur concerned with the public good. Among his ventures was a company that arranged funding for nurses to come from overseas to fill a nursing shortage in the United States.

Today, boxes are located in hospitals in Ireland, prisons in Wisconsin, police stations in Los Angeles, outside a school in Sudan and on the Yamal Peninsula in Siberia, where reindeer herders live.

The organization has now launched Action Book Club, which encourages people to read and discuss books on timely topics and take part in service projects together. Among its partners is the New York Times Learning Network.

Now That's Worthwhile Who can start a Little Free Library? Anyone can! Take a look at the World Map to see if there is already a Little Library in your neighborhood. If there is, don't hesitate to stop by and ask the Library steward for their advice as you get started.
NEW YORK, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The hemp-based foods market is expected to grow by $ 364.98 mn from 2020 to 2024, progressing at a CAGR of almost 12% during the forecast period, according to Technavio. The report offers an up-to-date analysis of the market.

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Hemp-based Foods Market by Product and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2020-2024

To know the exact growth variance and the Y-O-Y growth rate, Request a Free Sample Report.

The hemp-based foods market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Though the growing vegan population and cases of celiac disease will offer immense growth opportunities, the impact of natural disasters and adverse weather conditions, threat of substitutes, and product recalls and cross-contamination will challenge the growth of the market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

Hemp-based Foods Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Product

Geography

To learn about market segmentation in detail, Download a Free Sample

Hemp-based Foods Market 2020-2024: Scope

Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our hemp-based foods market report covers the following areas:

Hemp-based Foods Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of vendors operating in the hemp-based foods market, including Aurora Cannabis Inc., Bombay Hemp Company Pvt. Ltd., Boring Hemp Co., CANAH INTERNATIONAL Srl, Canopy Growth Corp., Hemp Juice Company BV, HempFlax Group BV, Hudson River Foods, North American Hemp and Grain Co., and Nutiva Inc. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research report on the hemp-based foods market is designed to provide entry support, customer profile, and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Hemp-based Foods Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist hemp-based foods market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the hemp-based foods market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the hemp-based foods market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of hemp-based foods market vendors

Related Reports:

CBD Oil Market by Product and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025

Dairy Alternatives Market by Product and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025

Hemp-based Foods Market Scope



Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2019 Forecast period 2020-2024 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of almost 12% Market growth 2020-2024 $ 364.98 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 5.32 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and MEA Performing market contribution North America at 35% Key consumer countries US, China, Germany, Canada, France, and South

Korea (Republic of Korea) Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Aurora Cannabis Inc., Bombay Hemp Company Pvt. Ltd., Boring Hemp Co., CANAH INTERNATIONAL Srl, Canopy Growth Corp., Hemp Juice Company BV, HempFlax Group BV, Hudson River Foods, North American Hemp and Grain Co., and Nutiva Inc. Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, market growth inducers and obstacles, fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and future consumer dynamics, and market condition analysis for the forecast period Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contact

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: media@technavio.com

Website: www.technavio.com/

Technavio (PRNewsfoto/Technavio)

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SOURCE Technavio
Offerings in select counties include home meal delivery, additional dental coverage, transportation services, and Healthy Grocery, a new benefit for qualified members; new Blue Shield Balance (HMO) plan in Los Angeles County

OAKLAND, Calif., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Shield of California today announced a range of 2022 coverage options for Medicare beneficiaries in California, with expanded benefits for food and transportation services.

Blue Shield of California Logo (PRNewsfoto/Blue Shield of California)

Blue Shield is introducing a new Medicare HMO plan, Blue Shield Balance, available to all Medicare beneficiaries in Los Angeles County. This new plan includes unique features such as multi-language concierge customer service and support.

"We continue to find new ways to bring unique benefits and services that support our diverse membership," said Lina Saadzoi, vice president and general manager of Medicare at Blue Shield of California. "Our goal is to provide comprehensive health coverage that all Medicare beneficiaries deserve and have come to rely on. We remain committed to creating a health care system worthy of our family and friends that's sustainably affordable."

Starting January 1, 2022, Blue Shield Medicare Advantage plan benefits in various locations will include:

Reduced cost share for key medical benefits in Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties

Depending on the plan, cost-share reduction may include primary care physician and specialist office visits, outpatient surgery, and urgent care.

New grocery benefit and expanded home meal delivery benefit in select plans

A Special Supplemental Benefit for the Chronically Ill (SSBCI) called Healthy Grocery for eligible members (not all members will qualify)* that provides a $25 monthly allowance to purchase healthy and nutritious foods and produce.

Addition of home meal delivery service upon discharge from an inpatient hospital or skilled nursing facility stay. The benefit includes up to 22 meals and 10 snacks per discharge (limited to two discharges per year); offered in select plans in Los Angeles, Fresno, Merced, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, Santa Clara and Stanislaus Counties.

Expanded transportation benefit in Central and Northern California plans

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Addition of transportation services to plan-approved health-related locations in Alameda and San Mateo counties.

Expansion of transportation services to plan-approved health-related locations to an unlimited number of trips annually in select plans in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Fresno, Merced, San Joaquin, Santa Clara and Stanislaus Counties.

Added dental benefits in Central and Northern California plans

Addition of preventive and diagnostic dental services such as cleaning, routine dental exams, and dental x-rays in Alameda, Merced, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Stanislaus Counties.

Medicare's Annual Election Period is October 15, 2021, to December 7, 2021. For more information about Blue Shield's Medicare offerings, please visit www.bsca.com/medicare

About Blue Shield of California

Blue Shield of California strives to create a healthcare system worthy of its family and friends that is sustainably affordable. Blue Shield of California is a tax paying, nonprofit, independent member of the Blue Shield Association with over 4.5 million members, over 7,500 employees and more than $21 billion in annual revenue. Founded in 1939 in San Francisco and now headquartered in Oakland, Blue Shield of California and its affiliates provide health, dental, vision, Medicaid, and Medicare healthcare service plans in California. The company has contributed more than $150 million to Blue Shield of California Foundation in the last four years to have an impact on California communities.

For more news about Blue Shield of California, please visit news.blueshieldca.com.

Or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.

Y0118_21_740B_C 09292021

*The benefits mentioned are part of special supplemental benefits available in select plans. Not all plan members will qualify. Refer to the Evidence of Coverage for details and eligibility requirements.

CONTACT: Mashi Nyssen

Blue Shield of California

510-607-2359

media@blueshieldca.com

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SOURCE Blue Shield of California
INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Calumet Specialty Products Partners, L.P. (NASDAQ: CLMT), today announced that senior management will virtually participate in Deutsche Bank's 29th Annual Leveraged Finance Conference on October 5th and 6th, 2021. Management will provide an overview of the Company's business during a webcast presentation on October 6th at 11:00am ET. Interested parties may listen by registering on the conference website. The presentation slides can be accessed by visiting the events section of the Investor Relations page of the Company's website at www.calumetspecialty.com.

About Calumet Specialty Products Partners, L.P.

Calumet Specialty Products Partners, L.P. (NASDAQ: CLMT) manufacturers, formulates, and markets a diversified slate of specialty branded products to customers in various consumer-facing and industrial markets. Calumet is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana and operates twelve facilities throughout North America.

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SOURCE Calumet Specialty Products Partners, L.P.
TORONTO, Oct. 4, 2021 /CNW/ - DeFi Technologies Inc. (the "Company" or "DeFi Technologies") (NEO: DEFI (GR: RMJR) (OTC: DEFTF), a digital asset investment firm bridging the gap between traditional capital markets and decentralized finance, today announced the expansion of its management team.

DeFi Technologies (CNW Group/DeFi Technologies, Inc.)

Russell Starr, Executive Chairman of DeFi Technologies, will assume the role of CEO; Diana Biggs, previously CEO of Valour Inc. ("Valour"), takes up a new role as DeFi Technologies' Chief Strategy Officer; and Johan Wattenstrom, Co-founder and Director at Valour, becomes COO of the Company.

Since the start of 2021, DeFi Technologies has completed the acquisition of Valour Inc., an issuer of digital asset Exchange-Traded Products ("ETPs"), introduced its DeFi Venture portfolio, and established its DeFi Governance business. Given the tremendous rise in interest and activity in the decentralised finance ecosystem, the expansion of DeFi Technologies' executive team will allow it to accelerate its growth trajectory further, with an aim to increase its global reach, build new partnerships and add lines of business.

"DeFi Technologies began with the vision of giving public markets investors early exposure to what I believe is the next wave of financial innovation. When I first joined as CEO, I could have only dreamt of where we are today," said Wouter Witvoet, President of DeFi Technologies. "By expanding the management team with Johan and Diana, we have two seasoned professionals who will help grow our footprint in Europe in our asset management business and globally in DeFi Governance and Ventures. I am also thrilled that Russell Starr has agreed to come on board as CEO. Russell is an experienced capital markets professional who can carry the DeFi message to investors," said Mr. Witvoet.

"Johan and Diana are incredibly well respected in both crypto and business as demonstrated by the success of Valour to date. With this strategic realignment, we are positioning DeFi Technologies to not only become the leading provider of digital asset ETPs via Valour - which remains an integral part of our business and we will be announcing a new CEO for Valour in due course - but also for further growth across digital asset management, venture and governance initiatives. Wouter has done a fantastic job of building out the DeFi Technologies brand and will remain a key player in the management team. We are also making progress on our mission to expand investor access to industry-leading decentralized technologies allowing them to participate in the future of finance via regulated equity exchanges," said Russell Starr. "As both a shareholder and board member, I am extremely proud of the team's execution thus far and look forward to growing business alongside these tremendous partners."

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The management enhancements in full:

Russell Starr, who has been serving as Executive Chairman for DeFi Technologies, will assume the role of Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Starr is an established CEO, entrepreneur, and financier with deep capital markets and industry expertise. A trusted leader and advisor focused on forging meaningful, high stakes, high return business development connections. Mr. Starr is also a co-founder and part owner of Echelon Wealth Partners, a large Canadian investment dealer. After leaving Bay Street, Mr. Starr has held executive positions and board roles with numerous TSX and TSXV listed companies.

Johan Wattenstrom assumes the role of Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Wattenstrom, who is a Co-founder and Director of Valour, joins DeFi Technologies in the role of Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Wattenstrom is Co-Founder & Director at Nortide Capital and was previously the Founder of XBT Provider (now known as Coinshares), which created the world's first ever Bitcoin ETP in 2015, and has served on the management committees of several Nordic investment banks. He co-founded Valour in 2019 leveraging his extensive experience across trading, financial products, and brokerage, with the aim to make digital asset markets more accessible, liquid and efficient.

Diana Biggs , who is currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer of Valour Inc., will move over to DeFi Technologies in the role of Chief Strategy Officer as of November 1, 2021. Ms. Biggs is an Associate Fellow at the University of Oxford Said Business School and has been working with investors, technologists and researchers in the decentralised finance space since 2013. Prior to joining Valour, she was the Global Head of Innovation for HSBC Private Banking. Biggs led Valour's launch and expansion of its ETPs, from its first product listing in December 2020 to its current suite of five products, upcoming expansion into additional European markets including Germany in October 2021, and growth in AUM to over US$200 million.

Wouter Witvoet assumes the role of President. Mr. Witvoet previously was Founder and CEO at Secfi, Inc., the leading platform offering financing secured by private company stock. During his role as Chief Executive Officer of DeFi Technologies, Mr. Witvoet led the establishment of many key partnerships and acquisitions that operate as the core of DeFi Technologies' product offerings, investment portfolio, and revenue streams. Mr. Witvoet will focus in his new role of President on working with the team in Europe to expand our markets and product offerings.

About DeFi Technologies

DeFi Technologies Inc. is a digital asset investment firm bridging the gap between traditional capital markets and decentralised finance. Our mission is to expand investor access to industry-leading decentralised technologies and the future of finance. We believe that decentralised technologies lie at the heart of financial innovation. On behalf of our shareholders and investors, we identify opportunities and areas of innovation, and build and invest in new technologies and ventures in order to provide diversified exposure across decentralized finance. As a trusted partner for our clients and investors, we provide industry-leading products and top-quality research and education in this fast-growing space. For more information visit https://defi.tech/.

Cautionary note regarding forward-looking information:

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the expansion of the management team of the Company; the growth and adoption of decentralized finance; the pursuit by DeFi Technologies and its subsidiaries of business opportunities; and the merits or potential returns of any such opportunities. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company, as the case may be, to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks, uncertainties and other factors include, but is not limited to the growth and development of DeFi and cryptocurrency sector; rules and regulations with respect to DeFi; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

THE NEO STOCK EXCHANGE DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE

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SOURCE DeFi Technologies, Inc.

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CHICAGO, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Data centers are the backbone of online business operations and consumers. The growth in data centers is aided by the increased usage of the internet for personal and business purposes by consumers through smartphones and high-speed broadband connectivity. The global data center construction market is mainly dominated by colocation providers, followed by internet and cloud service providers. Many cloud-based services providers are dependent on the construction of facilities by colocation providers to collocate space on a wholesale basis. In Q1 and Q2 2020, the demand for data centers grew significantly due to the pandemic, with most of the global workforce shifted to remote working. The data construction rack market witnessed considerable growth, with new and innovative designs for rack solutions in all geographies.

Arizton Advisory & Intelligence

Observing these rapid and drastic changes in demand and supply patterns encouraged the industry analysts at Arizton to publish exhaustive and data-driven insights on these current trends in the industry. Arizton has a dedicated vertical that focuses on data center knowledge base across geographies. These market research reports cover a detailed analysis of the COVID-19-induced supply chain disruptions, innovations in technology, equipment financing, economic impact, and a detailed study of the competitive landscape.

Check out our portfolio: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/category/data-center-knowledge-base

Data Center Construction Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2021-2026

The data center construction market is expected to reach USD 55.32 billion in 2026, growing at a CAGR of 4.78%. Due to the growing demand for colocation facilities, the investment by enterprises in data center construction has reduced in recent years. The implementation of 5G commenced in numerous countries across the globe and it will have a major impact on the market, increasing the number of edge data center service providers. In 2020, Arizton identified over 120 facilities built with a power capacity of 0 to 5 MW. Most of these investments are made for phase-wise construction of large facilities with over 10 MW power capacity.

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The adoption of liquid immersion cooling is likely to grow as organizations are increasingly deploying artificial intelligence and machine learning workloads. Liquid immersion and direct-to-chip cooling are experiencing over 30% YoY market growth. Medium-sized facilities are expected to account for over USD 16.5 billion by 2026. China, the US, the UK, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, and Malaysia were the major investors in medium-sized data center market in 2020. In developing countries, partnerships with local service providers and resellers along with modular data center solution providers will enhance revenues for vendors.

Read more now: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/global-data-center-construction-market-2025

Data Center Construction Market in Africa - Industry Outlook and Forecast 2020-2025

The data center construction market in Africa is projected to reach USD 510 million in 2025 growing at a CAGR of 11.67% in the period of 2020-2025. The Africa data center construction market is witnessing significant growth, especially in South Africa, Morocco, Kenya, and Nigeria. The growing internet population has been a strong factor for growth. Government agencies across countries are looking to improve their digital economy. They are involved in a variety of smart city projects that fuel the growth of data centers and edge facilities throughout the region. Most of the investments in Africa are being led by colocation and telecommunication service providers, followed by enterprises and government agencies due to the installation of modular data centers.

South Africa is witnessing major data center development; cities such as Cape Town and Johannesburg are the preferred places for development. The market is witnessing high adoption of cloud-based solutions among enterprises. In terms of electrical infrastructure in general, Schneider Electric, Vertiv, and Huawei have a strong presence in the market. The reduced usage of water by cooling systems will be the major criteria for system selection among providers that require water-based cooling systems in the market. Overall, the competition is expected to reduce costs associated with data center cooling systems in the market

Read more now: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/africa-data-center-construction-market-size-analysis

Nordic Data Center Construction Market - Industry Outlook and Forecast 2020-2025

The Nordic data center construction market is projected to reach USD 2,258 million in 2025 growing at a CAGR of 1.31% in the period 2019-2025. Recent developments in the market include Finland and Denmark's government announcing a reduction in electricity tax, which will increase investments in those countries. The growth in data, increased use of social media, high penetration of smart devices, and connected reality will be major drivers for the growth of the data centers in the Nordics. Norway attracted investments of USD 512 million, adding 0.51 million square feet of data center space and 80 MW of power capacity in 2019.

Submarine cable projects will be a major boost for data center development in the Nordic countries. The adoption of high-capacity systems in the region will provide higher revenue opportunities for market vendors. The demand for data center space will grow among sectors such as BFSI, healthcare, technology, transportation, and heavy industries. In terms of colocation providers, Bulk Infrastructure invested in its DK01 Campus along with investments from DigiPlex, GlobalConnect, and Interxion are investing in the data center market in Denmark. In Norway, Microsoft and Equinor contributed to the investment along with Green Mountain with investments in facilities such as DC2 Telemark and Telemark & Stavanger Data Center. Partnerships with local utility firms will provide significant savings in power costs for data center operators.

Read more now: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/nordic-data-center-construction-market-2025

Middle East and Africa Data Center Construction Market - Industry Outlook and Forecast 2020-2025

The Middle East and Africa data center market is projected to grow to USD 1314 million by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 5.08% in 2019-2025. The MEA market witnessed investments in around 21 data center projects, including both greenfield and modular data center projects. The rack power density is expected to grow from 46 kW in 2019 to 1012 kW by 2025. South Africa continues to dominate the Africa data center construction market. In 2019, Morocco witnessed higher investments followed by Egypt, Kenya, and Nigeria. Colocation and telecommunication service providers are major investors in Africa, followed by enterprises and governments agencies.

The adoption of metered rack PDUs is expected to make significant contributions until 2024. However, the growing rack power density and the need for monitoring and increasing automation solutions will lead to the adoption of switched, monitored, and managed PDUs. Gulf Data Hub, Khazna, Equinix, Batelco, Turkcell, Etisalat, icolo.io, Internet Technologies Angola (ITA), Inwi, Orange, and others will continue to invest in new colocation facilities across the region.

Read more now: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/middle-east-africa-data-center-construction-market-2025

Subscribe to our data center knowledge base vertical to gain access to exhaustive reports at competitive prices.

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About Arizton:

Arizton Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers innovative research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.

We offer comprehensive market research reports on industries such as consumer goods & retail technology, automotive and mobility, smart tech, healthcare, and life sciences, industrial machinery, chemicals, and materials, IT and media, logistics and packaging. These reports contain detailed industry analysis, market size, share, growth drivers, and trend forecasts.

Arizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports.

Mail: enquiry@arizton.com

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SOURCE Arizton Advisory & Intelligence
BRUSSELS/STOCKHOLM, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Two members of the European parliament have called for an investigation into allegations by a whistleblower that Facebook prioritised profits above the public good.

The whistleblower, Frances Haugen, who had worked as a product manager on the civic misinformation team at Facebook, shared internal documents with newspapers and attorneys general from several U.S. states.

A statement from European Parliament lawmakers said they were requesting further investigations into the revelations.

"The Facebook Files  and the revelations that the whistleblower has presented to us  underscores just how important it is that we do not let the large tech companies regulate themselves," said Danish lawmaker Christel Schaldemose.

Schaldemose is the lead rapporteur for the Digital Services Act, announced by the European Commission in December last year that requires tech companies to do more to tackle illegal content.

"The documents finally put all the facts on the table to allow us to adopt a stronger Digital Services Act," Alexandra Geese, a German lawmaker at the European parliament, said.

"We need to regulate the whole system and the business model that favours disinformation and violence over factual content  and enables its rapid dissemination," she said.

Both Geese and Schaldemose said they are in touch with Haugen.

A Facebook spokesperson said: "Every day, we make difficult decisions on where to draw lines between free expression and harmful speech, privacy, security, and other issues."

"But we should not be making these decisions on our own ... we've been advocating for updated regulations where democratic governments set industry standards to which we can all adhere."

European Union regulators have been considering whether all online platforms, or only larger ones or those at particular risk of exposure to illegal activities by their users, should be subjected to take-down notices, and how prescriptive these should be.

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"Our position is clear: the power of major platforms over public debate and social life must be subject to democratically validated rules, in particular on transparency and accountability," an European Commission spokesperson said when asked about the allegations against Facebook.

Tech companies have said https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-tech-regulations-idUSKBN22W2Q7 it was unfair and not technically feasible for them to police the internet. The current EU e-commerce directive says intermediary service providers play a technical, automatic and passive role.

Haugen will testify before an U.S. Senate subcommittee on Tuesday, and is expected to speak at the Web Summit conference in Portugal in early November.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee in Bussels, Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm and Catarina Demony in Lisbon. Editing by Jane Merriman)
NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Former Attorney General of Louisiana Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq. and the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") are investigating the proposed merger of Extraction Oil & Gas, Inc. (NasdaqGS: XOG) (the "Company") with Bonanza Creek Energy, Inc. (NYSE: BCEI). Under the terms of the proposed transaction, shareholders of Extraction will receive only 1.1711 shares of Bonanza for each share of Extraction that they own. KSF is seeking to determine whether this consideration and the process that led to it are adequate, or whether the consideration undervalues the Company.

KSF Filing Alert (PRNewsfoto/Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC)

If you believe that this transaction undervalues the Company and/or if you would like to discuss your legal rights regarding the proposed sale, you may, without obligation or cost to you, e-mail or call KSF Managing Partner Lewis S. Kahn (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com) toll free at any time at 855-768-1857, or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nasdaqgs-xog/ to learn more.

To learn more about KSF, whose partners include the Former Louisiana Attorney General, visit www.ksfcounsel.com.

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

1100 Poydras St., Suite 3200

New Orleans, LA 70163

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SOURCE Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC
CHAILLE-SOUS-LES-ORMEAUX, France, October 04, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:

Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies (ISIN: FR0013451044, Ticker: ALHGR) ("Hoffmann Green Cement" or the "Company"), a pioneer in clinker-free low-carbon cement, today announces the signing of a distribution agreement for its new H-IONA cement in Benelux with EcoBati, an historic Belgian brand with over 30 years of expertise and experience in selling and giving advice about ecological construction materials.

Belgian group EcoBati will purchase and distribute, through its sales outlets and its website, 25 kg bags of H-IONA cement. Thanks to this partnership, the most decarbonized cement on the European market will be on sale for the first time in Europe. This new contract will lead to the first shipments by the end of 2021 and further enhances the Companys solid order book.

Julien Blanchard and David Hoffmann, co-founders of Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies, said: "Signing a distribution agreement with an international specialist in ecological materials shows the competitive edge and relevance of our H-IONA cement within the context of the fight against global warming. We are therefore delighted with the signing of this partnership that allows us to benefit from the EcoBati networks strategic retail outlets and provide a response to the exponential demand for sustainable cement. We intend to sign more such partnerships in the future in order to spread our responsible vision of the construction sector and contribute to the environmental transition."

Johan Noel, administrator of EcoBati, added: "We are very proud to sign this partnership agreement with Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies. Today more than ever, we consider eco-responsibility to be a duty. As our mission is to provide the most responsible construction materials for our planet, thanks to this partnership we are enabling our customers to buy the European markets most decarbonized cement. This initiative meets a commercial vision that we share with Hoffmann Green Cement and want to expand towards a more sustainable construction model that respects our environment."

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About Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies

Founded in 2014, Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies designs, produces and distributes innovative clinker-free low-carbon cement with a substantially lower carbon footprint than traditional cement. Fully aware of the environmental emergency and the need to reconcile the construction sector, cement manufacturing and the environment, the Group believes it is at the heart of a genuine technological breakthrough based on altering cements composition and the creation of a heating-free and clean manufacturing process, without clinker. Hoffmann Greens cements, currently manufactured on a first 4.0 industrial site with no kiln nor chimney in western France, address all construction sector markets and present, at equivalent dosage and with no alteration in the concrete manufacturing process, higher performances than traditional cement.

For further information, please go to: www.ciments-hoffmann.fr

About EcoBati

Founded in 1989, EcoBati specializes in the distribution of ecological construction materials to craftspeople, bricklayers, builders, contractors and the general public.

The group is a part of the ecological transition momentum regarding the production of building materials. Employing 45 staff in 8 franchised stores throughout Belgium, and also extending to Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, this family business acts as a partner to enable building and renovation projects to be undertaken while respecting our planet.

For more information, please visit https://www.ecobati.com/fr

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211003005068/en/

Contacts

Hoffmann Green

Jerome Caron

Chief Financial Officer

finances@ciments-hoffmann.fr

+33 (0)2 51 46 06 00

NewCap

Pierre Laurent

Thomas Grojean

Quentin Masse

Investor Relations

ciments-hoffmann@newcap.eu

+33 (0)1 44 71 94 94

NewCap

Nicolas Merigeau

Media Relations

ciments-hoffmann@newcap.eu

+33 (0)1 44 71 94 98
TORONTO, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Khiron Life Sciences Corp. ("Khiron" or the "Company") (TSXV: KHRN) (OTCQX: KHRNF)(Frankfurt: A2JMZC), a vertically integrated international cannabis leader with core operations in Latin America and Europe, is pleased to provide a corporate update on global medical cannabis operations:

Khiron Life Sciences Corp (CNW Group/Khiron Life Sciences Corp.)

Medical Cannabis

Latin America

Medical cannabis prescriptions grew by more than 40%, from Q2 2021

Year to date medical cannabis prescriptions have exceeded 35,000 units, 600% more than the entire 2020 fiscal year

Total medical cannabis patients in Q3 increased to more than 9,600, up 32% from Q2 2021

62% of the patients in Q3 were returning patients, up 35% from Q2 2021

47% of units sold were covered by insurance

New satellite clinics accounted for 10% of prescriptions

Europe

Europe generated 30% of the Company's medical cannabis sales in Q3 2021

Germany revenues expected to grow more than 80% and UK revenues expected to grow more than 70% quarter on quarter

The Company has increased its imported volumes in the U.K., ensuring uninterrupted supply for all Khiron patients

Health Services

Year to date patient visits at Khiron clinics have exceeded 104,000, topping all patient visits in 2020

Revenue in health services is steadily returning to normal at Zerenia clinics as pandemic measures ease

Total quarterly patient visits at Zerenia were up 18% quarter on quarter

Khiron will expand its flagship clinic brand, Zerenia to the UK, with the first Zerenia opening in London in Q4 2021.

Management Commentary

"Through the end of Q3, the Company continued to make steady progress in helping more patients access medical cannabis. Europe is starting to become an important market for the Company, and we will soon be opening our first Zerenia medical cannabis clinic in the UK. Our integrated clinic model continues to connect patients, doctors, and insurance, helping improve patient outcomes. The integrated medical clinic approach offers a range of treatments and services, including medical cannabis, that help patients save time and money by not having to travel to seek out individual treatments. Almost half of our patients have insurance coverage now, a tremendous improvement since our first covered prescription in December of 2020. ", commented Alvaro Torres, Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Company.

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About Khiron Life Sciences Corp.

Khiron is a leading vertically integrated international medical cannabis company with core operations in Latin America and Europe. Leveraging wholly-owned medical health clinics and proprietary telemedicine platforms, Khiron combines a patient-oriented approach, physician education programs, scientific expertise, product innovation, and agricultural infrastructure to drive prescriptions and brand loyalty with patients worldwide. The Company has a sales presence in Colombia, Peru, Germany, UK, and Brazil and is positioned to commence sales in Mexico. The Company is led by Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Alvaro Torres, together with an experienced and diverse executive team and Board of Directors.

Visit Khiron online at investors.khiron.ca and on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/company/khiron-life-sciences-corp/

Cautionary Notes

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain certain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. All information contained herein that is not historical in nature may constitute forward-looking information. Khiron undertakes no obligation to comment on analyses, expectations or statements made by third-parties in respect of Khiron, its securities, or financial or operating results (as applicable). Although Khiron believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking statements in this press release are reasonable, such forward-looking statement 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 Khiron's control, including the risk factors discussed in Khiron's Annual Information Form which is available on Khiron's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. The forward-looking information contained in this press release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement and is made as of the date hereof. Khiron disclaims any intention and has no obligation or responsibility, except as required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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 press release.

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SOURCE Khiron Life Sciences Corp.
(Bloomberg) -- More than 13 years after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, the fight for the last scraps of its carcass is still going on.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Deutsche Bank AG is leading a last-ditch legal bid to squeeze more from a bet it made on obscure notes issued by Lehman in the years before the U.S. banks collapse.

The German lender is appealing a decision made by a British court last year, hoping to gain more from its holding of enhanced capital advantaged preferred securities or ECAPS, a series of subordinated notes Lehman issued via one of its U.K. subsidiaries. The case started on Monday at the Court of Appeal in London, and the hearing is scheduled to last until the end of the week.

A ruling in Deutsche Banks favor could see the payout on the ECAPS rise, boosting the returns of other holders, which, according to public documents and a person familiar with the matter, include Barclays Plc, Farallon Capital Management and CarVal Investors. If all goes well for the holders its possible they could receive a windfall of 500 million pounds ($678 million) on notes that were deemed worthless and given away for next to nothing in the aftermath of Lehmans bankruptcy.

That said, the case isnt without its risks, and its possible that holders could be cut out of the money altogether. Another Lehman entity is also appealing, potentially diverting money away from ECAPS holders, according to separate court documents.

There are many hundreds of millions of pounds that investors are still looking to try and fight over said Ed Macnamara, a London-based partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers who is a joint administrator on a number of Lehmans U.K. subsidiaries. PwC has handled the administration of Lehmans European business since 2008.

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A spokesperson for Deutsche Bank declined to comment. Spokespeople for CarVal, Farallon and Barclays also said they wouldnt comment.

Lehman Leftovers

Though Lehmans demise on Sept. 15, 2008 is remembered as the darkest hour of a global financial crisis, it presented an opportunity for anyone willing to make bets on the banks discounted debt. In fact, hedge funds and institutions such as Deutsche Bank have been snapping up the securities for years. Thats led to a series of legal showdowns over how much they are owed, keeping a legion of lawyers, accountants and former Lehman employees busy for well over a decade. The ECAPS case is likely one of the last.

After the collapse of its parent, Lehmans European arm went into administration owing creditors billions of dollars and at the time few imagined that they would receive more than a fraction of what they were due. But PwC has wrung more out of the firm than would have seemed likely in 2008. In fact, creditors ahead of ECAPS holders in the queue will be paid out in full with interest and, to the surprise of many, there will probably be money left over.

It was quite some time before people realized that the U.K. Lehman administration had been hugely successful, and that value would flow right through the capital structure, Macnamara said in a phone interview. Its now at a stage where the battle is in the court of appeal between the creditors of the ultimate U.K. entities.

PwC estimated the surplus could be anything from 280 million pounds to 500 million pounds earlier this year, and that money will have to go to someone. In an update for Lehmans European creditors in October 2017, PwC raised the possibility that money could end up in the hands of subordinated creditors, a group normally one of the last to get paid in insolvency proceedings.

Forgotten Notes

The ECAPS were designed to help bolster Lehmans capital, placing them at the bottom of a long list of other creditors. In the years following the collapse, they were largely forgotten. Some traded in 2017 for 1.5 cents on the euro and for even less before that, according to documents seen by Bloomberg and people familiar with the trades.

Around 2015, we started to talk to Lehman holders about the trade but couldnt really convince anyone to buy, but by 2018 interest increased, said Robert Southey, the founder of London-based broker Southey Capital.

As it became clear that there was a surplus of money, distressed investors rushed to find a way in. The ECAPS were one way that hedge funds could establish a claim on the cash. Some of the notes traded at more than 20% of face value in mid-2020, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The June 2020 judgment from Londons High Court found that owners of the notes were due a payout, but a far smaller one than Deutsche Bank and many other holders would have hoped for. The judge ruled that investors should share 13.7% of whatever was left after paying higher-ranking creditors, with the rest going to Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., or LBHI, the ultimate U.S. parent of the collapsed broker-dealer.

King Street Capital Management and Elliott Management teamed up with LBHI to form a joint venture called the Wentworth Group that would share claims based on loans that the U.S. parent made to its European subsidiary, according to another court filing. King Street is also a large ECAPS holder, according to a separate court document, and will likely receive a share of the pot either through the notes or the LBHI venture.

If Deutsche Bank, which is the largest holder of ECAPS, is successful in convincing the court that it should rank ahead of LBHI, the payout on its notes may balloon. Currently, assuming a 280-million-pound surplus from the wind-up of Lehmans European arm, ECAPS holders would receive about 38 million pounds, according to PwC. But if they were to move ahead of LBHI and successfully claim interest, they might take the entire 280 million pounds.

The amount of money that Deutsche Bank is fighting for partly depends on a separate legal spat between Lehmans European arm and U.S. bond insurer Assured Guaranty Ltd. Lehman Brothers International Europe is suing the bond insurance firm for $500 million, arguing Assured Guaranty mispriced credit default-swap trades in a case that is scheduled to start next month. Any money won in this case could make its way to ECAPS holders.

We feel good about the Assured Guaranty claim, Russell Downs, another London-based partner at PwC that is working on the administration of Lehmans European arm, said. If the suit is successful a large part of that money would flow to subordinated creditors.

(Updates with details on hearing and Deutsche Bank in paragraph 3 and 17)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2021 Bloomberg L.P.
Research shows the origin of medicines becomes more important

AMSTERDAM, October 04, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The pandemic has triggered a greater interest among patients about Europes role in medicine manufacturing.

New research just revealed show that 7 in 10 patients now want to know where their drugs are made as the pandemic has exposed weaknesses in the growing concentration of essential medicine production overseas.

The study found the vast majority (84%) of patients want their government to support pharmaceutical manufacturing investments in their region to avoid over-dependencies on countries outside of Europe.

The study questioned thousands of European patients who rely on regular medication for chronic conditions and found 7 in 10 (71%) are interested in knowing Europe remains as competitive as other regions.

OVER DEPENDENCY

The findings point to the need to rebalance the global pharmaceutical value chain to ensure every region around the world has reliable access to vital medicines.

It comes as the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted problems with global supply chains caused by the manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients being clustered in Asia. While Europe remains strong in producing finished medicines it has lost its leadership position in active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing in the off-patent generics sector  especially for essential drugs like paracetamol  opening up strategic vulnerabilities.

The research by Teva Pharmaceuticals sought opinions from 3,000 patients aged over 25 from France, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Croatia and the Czech Republic. All participants suffered from one or more chronic conditions including Alzheimers, arthritis, asthma, cancer, cardiovascular disease, COPD, depression, diabetes, heart disease, and migraine  requiring regular medication.

WAKE-UP CALL

Richard Daniell, Executive Vice President for Teva in Europe, said: "The jolt of the pandemic acts as a wake-up call that the growing imbalance of the global pharmaceutical value chain cannot continue.

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Patients now really care about where their medicines are made. In the same way that "food miles" have become a key concern among consumers in recent years, patients now want to know more about "medicine miles" when it comes to the treatments they take.

Europes unhealthy over-reliance on overseas active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing has been exposed by the closure of factories and borders. But nationalistic approaches dont work in such a highly connected and interdependent area as modern medicine supply. Europe must adjust its policies to new economic and technological realities, while expanding its competitiveness and geopolitical position by remaining open and attracting investments.

"Teva supports 200 million patients every day, keeping Europes medicine cabinet stocked, as one of the largest of suppliers to European healthcare systems. Today we make 95% of Teva medicines in Europe, supported by our global supply line. And we are investing close to a billion euros in manufacturing facilities across Europe. Whats enlightening about this research is that patients are waking up to these issues and demanding change.

"The race to the lowest-price generic has to stop and Europes rather inflexible and old fashioned regulatory regime should be modernized to keep Europe in the race to attract pharmaceutical investments to produce critical APIs and generic medicines.

"With the needs of patients at its heart, a new equilibrium also stands to improve Europes resilience as well as delivering a significant economic contribution to the region. There is an opportunity to seize this watershed moment and build a better ecosystem in which a stronger pharmaceutical manufacturing presence in Europe can complement the rest of the global supply chain."

EMERGING FROM THE PANDEMIC

The research shows that European patients consider such commitments are vital for a sustainable future.

Nearly three-quarters (73%) of people think the pharmaceutical industry is strategically important for Europe as we move out of the pandemic, because it can ensure stability and reliability of medicine supplies.

Almost two-thirds (61%) think medicine manufacturing in the region is important to protect European healthcare systems, and roughly the same number (59%) see it as crucial to secure Europes autonomy and sovereignty over critical drugs.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

The study found 85% of patients see the pharmaceutical sector as crucial to driving economic recovery as we emerge from the depths of the pandemic.

People cited jobs creation and supporting the local economy as the top benefit for promoting medicine manufacture in Europe (57%), closely followed by a desire for better access to essential drugs and reducing reliance on overseas supply (56%).

Furthermore, more than 70% of European patients want to see Europe remain as competitive as other regions and expect their government to take action to support this.

ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS

The environment was a top concern among patients with 65% demanding that their medicines be made in way thats environmentally sustainable.

In addition, more than half (55%) of patients see the benefits of drugs manufactured in Europe linked to the potential of transport reduction-related environmental impact. And over a third (35%) of people think Europe guarantees greener production and respect for environmental regulations than overseas manufacturing.

ENDS

About Teva and Its Impact in Europe

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE and TASE: TEVA) has been developing and producing medicines to improve peoples lives for 120 Years. We are a global leader in generic and specialty medicines with a portfolio consisting of over 3,500 products in nearly every therapeutic area.

Around 200 million people around the world take a Teva medicine every day, are served by one of the largest and most complex supply chains in the pharmaceutical industry. Along with our established presence in generics, we have significant innovative research and operations supporting our growing portfolio of specialty and biopharmaceutical products. Teva operated 32 manufacturing and research and development facilities across Europe in 2020.

In Europe, Tevas local purchases and payroll across the nine key markets supported nearly 105,000 jobs, contributed $29.5 billion (25.8 billion) to economic output, and generated $5.6 billion (4.9 billion) in labor income. Tevas generic medicines saved healthcare systems across nine European countries $9.6 billion (8.4 billion) in 2020. Learn more about Teva and its Economic Impact .

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211003005048/en/

Contacts

Fiona Cohen, Senior Director, Corporate Communications, Teva EU

+ 31 6 2008 2545
Middlefield Canadian Income PCC Net Asset Value

Middlefield Canadian Income PCC

Middlefield Canadian Income - GBP PC

(a protected cell company incorporated in Jersey with registration number 93546)

Legal Entity Identifier: 2138007ENW3JEJXC8658

Net Asset Value

As at the close of business on 01 October 2021 the estimated unaudited Net Asset Value per share was 128.96 pence (including accrued income).

Investments in the Companys portfolio have been valued on a closing price basis.

Enquiries:

JTC Fund Solutions (Jersey) Limited

01534 700 000








North America Air to Water Heat Pump Industry is expected to register over 9% CAGR between 2021 and 2027 owing to soaring space heating demand from residential and commercial applications across North America.

Selbyville, Delaware, Oct. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



The North America air to water heat pump market is projected to cross USD 1.2 Billion by 2027, as reported in the latest study by Global Market Insights Inc. Rising demand for space heating, underfloor heating along with water heating systems will encourage the product adoption over the coming years.

North America air to water heat pump industry is anticipated to grow on account of increasing need for integration of renewable energy products to achieve carbon neutral targets for commercial establishments. One-time installation cost, dual output of heated water and room heating characteristics are amongst the key factors driving the deployment of air to water heat pump units. These systems can be used for either water heating or room heating or both, making them suitable for a wide commercial application purpose, thus providing momentum to product placement across the region over the forecast period.

Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/5126

Replacement of conventional systems with technological advanced models will further sway the business growth. Higher thermal efficiency and greater flow rates will encourage the adoption of air to water heat pump system over other alternatives. Further, demand side management to reduce the electricity bill charges and produce significant savings than the conventional system will provide positive momentum for product deployment.

Some major takeaways in North America air to water heat pump market report include:

Growing demand for energy efficient water and air heating systems across commercial establishments coupled with efforts to reduce monthly electricity expenses will propel the business demand.

Growing retrofitting of conventional room heating systems with energy efficient units is growing to meet the energy efficiency standards for residential establishments.

Cold climatic conditions in several states of U.S, Canada. will boost the installation of air to water heat pump solutions.

Key players operating in North America air to water heat pump market include Trane, Viessmann, Danfoss, Daikin, Carrier Corporation, NIBE Industrier AB, Johnson Controls, Inc., Systemair AB, Samsung HVAC, Llc. and Toshiba Carrier Corporation etc.

Browse key industry insights spread across 120 pages with 27 market data tables & 31 figures & charts from the report, North America Air to Water Heat Pump Market By Application (Residential, Commercial), Industry Analysis Report, Country Outlook, Growth Potential, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2021  2027 in detail along with the table of contents:

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https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/north-america-air-to-water-heat-pump-market

Rapid expansion of infrastructure sector coupled with governmental investment toward establishment of energy efficient buildings have stimulated a considerable growth across the U.S. air to water heat pump market. Growing harsh winters every year coupled with integration with other renewable technologies will provide surge in the product adoption. The growing population and ongoing migration from rural toward urban areas have led to a considerable increase in the product demand.

Soaring commercial expansion coupled with growing consumer purchasing power has further instituted a favorable business scenario. Seasonal multi room/apartment heating requirements coupled with rejuvenation of tourism industry will drive the U.S. air to water heat pump demand. Major tourism dependent economies including Hawaii, Florida, Washington D.C, California, Maryland and colder regions like Alaska, will sustain the heating product demand with revival of economy leading to surge in product adoption over the forecast timeline.

Browse the Toc of this report @ https://www.gminsights.com/toc/detail/north-america-air-to-water-heat-pump-market

About Global Market Insights

Global Market Insights Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider, offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy, and biotechnology.

CONTACT: Contact Us: Arun Hegde Corporate Sales, USA Global Market Insights Inc. Phone: 1-302-846-7766 Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688 Email: sales@gminsights.com




GAINESVILLE, Fla., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- O2B Kids, the leader in Florida's early education and child care industry, is opening the doors to a brand-new, state-of-the-art building to house the company's flagship Supercenter location. This new building will be the home of the largest and longest-standing location for O2B Kids and has been designed to better provide excellent education and care to Gainesville families and children. O2B Kids is a rapidly growing company focused on providing high-quality care and early education to children from infancy through school ages, and has 24 locations across Florida and Georgia with more on the way.

O2B Kids

O2B Kids' new location was designed to become the newest and most impressive addition to the company's already wide array of offerings. The new building will boast an expansive 27,000 square feet total for children, teachers, and families to utilize. Designated areas for specific types of play will include a full indoor Play Village, Rock Climbing Room, Big Toy Climbing Maze, a kids-only Fitness Gym, Technology Lab, state of the art Dance Studio, Gymnastics and Tumble Studio, Theater and Stage, and a Learning Library stocked with educational and enjoyable books. In addition to these indoor facilities, the new Supercenter will have a large outdoor turf playground for school-aged children and an indoor courtyard with a turf play area designated for infants, toddlers and preschoolers. For parents and families, a cafe is also included in the floorplans, with drinks and food items for sale.

This new Supercenter location provides a functional space and superior equipment to offer additional enrichment classes to children through their Membership program. In addition to their proprietary school curriculum, Funnydaffer, the Supercenter location will be offering Members a variety of class options like dance, gymnastics, theater, science, yoga, art, and many more to help families with a one-stop, convenient approach to their child's extracurricular activities.

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This new construction creates a vacancy in the iconic building that has housed O2B Kids' flagship location for the past 23 years. The new tenants, North Florida Regional Medical Center, plan to be main contributors to the community as well. While departure from the iconic building is bittersweet, it's comforting to know that the location will continue to be used in a way that contributes to the local community.

Over its 23 years of operation, O2B Kids has not only made a positive impact on the lives of children and their families throughout Florida, but its 24 locations (and counting) have created many exciting career opportunities for teachers and early-education professionals. With a focus on creating a fun and enjoyable working environment for teachers and staff, O2B Kids has helped provide growth and experience to individuals who are passionate about creating a better future for children. As a leader in the early-education industry and a passionate educator for both teachers and children, O2B Kids is proud to expand and grow with even more future locations planned.

About O2B Kids:

With excellent reviews across all 24 locations, O2B Kids is a Florida based company that has helped shape the landscape of early education, preschool, and childcare. The nationally-accredited learning and educational curriculum, Funnydaffer, is just one piece of a larger, more robust education and care offering that O2B Kids provides to families throughout Florida and Georgia. Right now, exciting new career opportunities are available in most locations. Find out more or apply online by visiting o2bKids.com. The company, founded in 1998, has provided excellent care and programs for children as young as newborns, all the way through school-age. The company, as a whole, is committed to providing a strong foundation of comprehensive early-education to children and creating a positive impact in their community. Learn more about O2B Kids' locations, curriculum, programs, and more by visiting o2bkids.com.

Media contact:

April Schroeder

320354@email4pr.com

(352) 338-9660

O2B Kids

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SOURCE O2B Kids
FILE PHOTO: A 3D-printed oil pump jack is seen in front of a displayed OPEC logo in this illustration picture

(Corrects to delete extraneous word in paragraph 2)

By Alex Lawler, Ahmad Ghaddar and Olesya Astakhova

LONDON (Reuters) -OPEC+ said on Monday it would stick to an existing pact for a gradual increase in oil output, sending crude prices to three-year highs and adding to inflationary pressures that consuming nations fear will derail an economic recovery from the pandemic.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and their allies, known as OPEC+, have faced calls from big consumers, such as the United States and India, for extra supplies after oil prices surged more than 50% this year.

OPEC+ "reconfirmed the production adjustment plan", the group said in a statement issued after online ministerial talks, referring to a previously agreed deal under which 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) would be added in November.

Brent crude roared above $81 a barrel on news that the group would stay with its plan for gradual additional production, rather than offering more supply to the market.

"We will be monitoring the situation, as we know, demand usually falls in the fourth quarter," Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said after the talks, adding that he believed the market is now balanced.

An OPEC+ source had told Reuters shortly before Monday's ministerial talks that the group had faced pressure to ramp up production faster, but added: "We are scared of the fourth wave of corona; no one wants to make any big moves."

The group agreed in July to boost output by 400,000 bpd a month until at least April 2022 to phase out 5.8 million bpd of existing production cuts - already much reduced from the huge curbs that were in place during the worst of the pandemic.

Demand has bounced back swiftly, while supply has been disrupted by factors that include hurricanes that have hammered U.S. production, and low levels of investment across the industry during the depths of the pandemic when demand cratered.

Story continues

A senior aide to U.S. President Joe Biden met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia on a range of issues last week, saying oil was "of concern". India, another big oil consumer, has pushed for more supply.

"The outcome of the OPEC+ meeting was no surprise, but when prices are at above $80 per barrel Brent, this is a level that makes customers uncomfortable and producers happy but cautious," consultancy Rystad Energy wrote.

Analysts had said they expected uncertainty about the impact on demand from variants of the coronavirus, which threaten fresh economic disruption, to weigh on OPEC+ decision-making.

(Reporting by Alex Lawler and Ahmad Ghaddar in London, Vladimir Soldatkin and Olesya Astakhova in Moscow; writing by Edmund Blair; editing by Veronica Brown and Mark Heinrich)
Strong business momentum reflected by a 19% increase in GMV1 to 106 million, driven by the expansion of the fashion item offering and the success of the third-party services offering, up 46% over the period

Expansion of the footwear, apparels, bags and accessories offer to more than 1 million unique references in Europe by the end of June 2021 and the addition of 50,000 new home decoration products

Affirmation of the SRI strategy with the launch of the NewLife, website for buying and selling second-hand items, which already offers more than 50,000 references

EBITDA up 11% and continued strategic investment in advertising

Post-closing: successful IPO last July, resulting in proceeds of more than 20 million

GRENOBLE, France, October 04, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:

Spartoo (ISIN: FR00140043Y1  ticker: ALSPT), one of the leading online retailers for fashion items in Europe, announces today its 2021 Half-year Results to June 30, 2021, as approved by the Board of Directors on September 29, 2021.

( thousands, limited review) 06 2021 06 2020 Variation GMV (*) 105,982 89,261 19% BtoC GMV (*) 94,770 81,979 16% Revenue (*) 74,404 62,326 19% Commercial margin (*) 31,522 26,490 19% % 42.4% 42.5% Adjusted EBITDA (*) 2,726 2,454 11% % 3.7% 3.9%

(*) figures restated from TooAndre to be comparable from one year to the next

Boris Saragaglia, co-founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Spartoo, stated: " We are pleased with the sales performance for the half year, which exceeded expectations. Spartoo has benefited fully from the continued expansion of its fashion offering and the rapid roll-out of its home decoration offering. Our proprietary brands, which generate synergies between the Group's different businesses, also performed strongly. Lastly, our service offer dedicated to professionals, based on our e-commerce expertise, is experiencing significant growth, driven by the need to digitalize brands and independent shops. EBITDA growth, which includes increased advertising investments in line with our strategy to raise awareness of the Spartoo brand, is in line with our expectations. Given these positive trends and the acceleration of growth investments, Spartoo is confident that the strategic plan recently announced at the time of the IPO will be successfully implemented."

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Strong business momentum, supported by the expansion of the fashion item offering and by the success of the third-party services offering

In the first half of 2021, the GMV reached 106.0 million, an increase of 19% compared to the same period last year. The B2C GMV, which reached 94.8 million, recorded an increase of 16% compared to the first half of 2020. The third-party service offering rose sharply by 46% over the period.

BtoC activity, online & offline

During the period, Spartoo's footwear, apparel, bags and accessories offering was expanded to include a number of brands that are directly available through the Group's inventory (Polo Ralph Lauren, Minelli, Nero Giardini, etc.), in line with the buy and resell model, or available through the market place's partners. At the end of June 2021, Spartoo had more than 1 million unique references in Europe. In addition, the Company has added 50,000 home decoration products to its offering, ranging from textile decoration items to household linen, lighting and wall decoration items.

In the first half of 2021, Spartoo reaffirmed its SRI commitments following the launch of the NewLife website, which supports the circular economy by allowing customers to buy and sell second-hand items. Three months after its launch, more than 50,000 second-hand references have already been created.

Spartoo's shop sales are up by more than 40% compared to 2020. Since their reopening, the shops' activity has grown very strongly and has exceeded 2019 levels.

In terms of proprietary brands, the period confirmed the positive momentum observed over the past 18 months for the GBB children's brand, with orders for new units and restocking placed by children's shoe retailers increasing steadily. At the same time, the brands acquired in the second half of 2020 are developing rapidly. The eco-designed slipper brand Easy Peasy is proving highly successful, particularly internationally, while the historic brands JB Martin, Pellet and Little Mary are once again being sold to retailers, less than 6 months after their takeover by Spartoo.

Third party activities

In the first half of 2021, the freight forwarding business grew strongly compared to 2020, supported by the acquisition of 20 new e-retailers, mainly based in the Paris region, and by the growth in volumes of existing customers.

The TooBone business (an integrated logistics and transport offering for third parties) was launched in the first half of 2021 with the aim of operating fulfilment for Spartoo's partners, including brands, in B2C and B2B, in France and internationally. Six months after the start of the activity, a dozen partner brands have joined the program.

Overall, the third-party service offering grew by a strong 46% over the period.

Adjusted EBITDA growth of 11% and increased advertising investments

The commercial margin was 31.5 million for the period, a stable 42% as a percentage of revenue.

After taking into account the 32% increase in advertising spend, the Group's adjusted EBITDA was 2.7 million, representing growth of 11%.

At 30 June 2021, Spartoo had cash and cash equivalents of 14.5 million, not including the amount of more than 20 million, raised in July as part of the Company's IPO.

The Half-year Financial Report is available in the Documentation section of Spartoo's investor website, www.spartoo-finance.com.

To receive next press releases from SPARTOO, just click here! Subscribe to our mailing list spartoo@newcap.eu.

Next financial event

2021 Full-year GMV, on Monday February 7, 2021, after market close

About Spartoo

With 8,000 brands and more than 1 million items, Spartoo offers one of the widest selections of fashion items (shoes, ready-to-wear, bags) in more than 30 countries in Europe, thanks to its team of more than 400 employees of nearly 30 different nationalities. In 2020, the Group generated sales of 134 million, corresponding to a GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) of 194 million, 39% of which was generated internationally. With an integrated logistics platform and after-sales service, Spartoo stands out for its customer-centric approach, as evidenced by a very high customer satisfaction rate. The strategy is based on the strong synergies between the online sales model and the advantages of physical stores, which support loyalty and brand awareness. Capitalizing on its e-commerce know-how, Spartoo has also developed a complete range of services for professionals.

Forward-looking statements

This press release solely contains summary information and is not intended to be detailed. This press release may contain forward-looking information and statements relating to the Group and its subsidiaries. These statements include financial projections and estimates and their underlying hypotheses, statements with respect to plans, to objectives and to expectations relating to operations that are still to come, to future revenues and services, and statements with respect to future performance. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the words "believe", "anticipate", "objective" or similar expressions. Even if the Group believes that the expectations reflected by such forward looking statements are reasonable, investors and shareholders of the Group are advised of the fact that the information and forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally out of the control of the Group, which could imply that the effective results and events can differ significantly and in an unfavorable manner from those that are communicated, implied or indicated by this information and these forward looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include those that are advanced or identified in the documents filed or that are to be filed with the French Autorite des Marches Financiers by the Group (in particular those detailed in chapter 3 of the Registration Document of the Company). The Group does not take on any commitment to publish updates of the forward-looking information, this whether subsequent to new information, to future events or to any other element.

1 Gross Merchandise Value (GMV): total sales of products (including VAT) and services, net of returns.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005722/en/

Contacts

Spartoo

04 58 00 16 84

investors@spartoo.com

NewCap

Louis-Victor Delouvrier

Nicolas Fossiez

Investor Relations

newcap@spartoo.com

01 44 71 94 94

NewCap

Nicolas Merigeau

Media Relations

newcap@spartoo.com

01 44 71 94 98
PARSIPPANY, N.J., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A new study demonstrates that Tirosint-SOL (levothyroxine sodium) oral solution, a novel formulation of levothyroxine for the treatment of hypothyroidism, is unaffected by the reduction in stomach acidity caused by the proton pump inhibitor (PPI) omeprazole. Omeprazole and other PPI medications are powerful acid-reducing agents that are known to affect the performance of traditional levothyroxine treatments that come in tablet form. More than 20 million Americans take PPIs chronically each year to help reduce stomach acidity. 

New Tirosint 37.5 mcg Dose

Researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Montreal examined the relative bioavailability of Tirosint-SOL when administered as a single dose of 600 micrograms to healthy volunteers in conjunction with omeprazole versus Tirosint-SOL therapy alone over a period of six days. Study subjects were divided into three groups. One group was administered Tirosint-SOL and omeprazole at the same time in the morning. A second group was administered Tirosint-SOL and omeprazole at staggered times  Tirosint-SOL in the morning and omeprazole in the evening, 12 hours later. A third group was administered Tirosint-SOL alone as the reference treatment. Blood levels of levothyroxine were measured in all groups and were demonstrated to be similar, a finding that suggests a lack of interaction between Tirosint-SOL and the PPI drug omeprazole regardless of the timing of administration of either therapy. Based on these findings, IBSA Institut Biochimique, the sponsor of the study, is planning to seek FDA approval for a change in the approved label for Tirosint-SOL.

The results of the study were presented at a virtual edition of American Thyroid Association's (ATA) Annual Meeting on October 3, 2021 by Prof. Murray Ducharme of the University of Montreal.

"Unlike traditional levothyroxine tablets whose dissolution and subsequent absorption are affected by the presence of acid-reducing agents, Tirosint-SOL does not need to dissolve before being absorbed and may be taken regardless of stomach acidity," said Prof. Ducharme. "These study results suggest that the presence of a powerful and long-lasting stomach acid-reducing PPI drug such as omeprazole, regardless of the timing of administration, has no effect on the bioavailability and absorption of Tirosint-SOL."

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Commenting on the study, Prof. Francesco Celi of Virginia Commonwealth University added that the study results should be of interest to both patients and clinicians: "The opportunity to provide patients affected by hypothyroidism with a levothyroxine formulation that is not affected by commonly-used acid-reducing agents like omeprazole may improve the consistency of hypothyroidism therapy."

In a second, related study, it was demonstrated that hypothyroid patients taking both a PPI and traditional levothyroxine tablets were able to reduce their TSH, a common measure of thyroid hormone levels, when switched to a similar dose of Tirosint Oral Solution, a drug for hypothyroidism marketed in Italy. All 22 patients that participated in the study were relying on a PPI to reduce elevated gastric pH due to a variety of gastrointestinal conditions. After being switched to the Tirosint Oral Solution, all patients experienced an improvement in their hypothyroid status as measured by TSH. These results were confirmed when 10 study patients were switched back to their original tablet medication. Among these patients, all experienced a worsening of their hypothyroidism with TSH levels returning to a suboptimal range. The results of the study are also being presented by Dr. Poupak Fallahi of the University of Pisa in Italy at the ATA Annual Meeting.

Both studies were sponsored by Institut Biochimique SA (IBSA), the developer and manufacturer of Tirosint-SOL (levothyroxine sodium) and Tirosint Oral Solution. Tirosint-SOL is the only FDA-approved liquid levothyroxine formulation available in monodose packaging for convenience and dosing precision. Tirosint-SOL is indicated to treat the full spectrum of hypothyroid patients regardless of age. Patients can administer it by pouring the contents of the monodose ampule directly into the mouth or using a spoon or mixing it with water.

Tirosint-SOL is currently available in 15 dosage strengths including new 37.5, 44 and 62.5 microgram dosing options, making it the widest dosing range of any levothyroxine therapy. It is made with only three ingredients  levothyroxine, glycerol and water  for enhanced tolerability and absorption.

To help provide patients with cost-effective access to Tirosint-SOL, IBSA recently enhanced the Tirosint-SOL Copay Savings Coupon Program. With the new program, eligible patients with commercial insurance can pay as little as $4 for a one-month supply of Tirosint-SOL or $0 for a 3-month supply. Additional information, including money-saving options for patients without commercial insurance or with high copays or deductibles, can be found at www.TirosintSOL.com.

About Hypothyroidism

Hypothyroidism is an endocrine disorder with numerous causes resulting in a deficiency in thyroid hormone. More than 27 million adults have been diagnosed with hypothyroidism.  Up to 13 million Americans have undiagnosed hypothyroidism.  About 2% of the U.S. population has pronounced hypothyroidism, and as much as 10% has subclinical (mild) hypothyroidism. The condition is most common in women over 40 years of age and in the elderly of both sexes.The signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism are nonspecific and may include fatigue, forgetfulness, depression, constipation, muscle cramps, weight gain, dry skin and hair loss. Laboratory tests (TSH, FT3 and FT4) are the most common biochemical parameters used in diagnosing hypothyroidism. Levothyroxine sodium is a synthetic version of a hormone that is normally produced by the thyroid gland. It is used to treat patients who suffer from hypothyroidism or inadequate levels of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH).

About IBSA Pharma Inc.

IBSA Pharma is part of IBSA Group, headquartered in Lugano, Switzerland. It is a world leader in the treatment of thyroid disease and has a diversified product portfolio of prescription drugs. With products on five continents and over 80 countries, IBSA is committed to scientific research and improving the health of patients.

For more information about IBSA, visit www.ibsagroup.com/media. For full prescribing information, visit www.Tirosint.com.

References

1. Verble, M. Inappropriate use and overdose of PPIs: a strategy for discontinuation. Pharmacy Times, August 2018:35.

2. IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics Report, "Medicine Use and the Shifting Costs of Healthcare"; 2014; pg. 46

3. Booth, M, 2019. Published online at: http://www.reviewjournal.com/life/health/thyroid-disease-common-us

4.Canaris GJ, Manowitz NR, Mayor G, Ridgeway EC, "The Colorado Thyroid Disease Prevalence Study", Arch of Internal Medicine; 2000;160: 526-534

5. McDermott MT. "In the clinic: hypothyroidism". Annals of Internal Medicine; 2009;151 (11): ITC-6-1

6. Mathur, R, "Hypothyroidism", 2015. Published online at http://www.medicinenet.com/hypothyroidism/page5.htm

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

WARNING: NOT FOR THE TREATMENT OF OBESITY OR FOR WEIGHT LOSS.

See full prescribing information for complete boxed warning

Thyroid hormones, including TIROSINT-SOL, should not be used for the treatment of obesity or for

weight loss.

Doses beyond the range of daily hormonal requirements may produce serious or even life-threatening

manifestations of toxicity

CONTRAINDICATIONS

Hypersensitivity to glycerol

Uncorrected adrenal insufficiency

WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS

Cardiac adverse reactions in the elderly and in patients with underlying cardiovascular disease: Initiate TIROSINT-SOL at less than the full replacement dose because of the increased risk of cardiac adverse reactions, including atrial fibrillation

Myxedema coma : Do not use oral thyroid hormone drug products to treat myxedema coma

Acute adrenal crisis in patients with concomitant adrenal insufficiency: Treat with replacement glucocorticoids prior to initiation of TIROSINT-SOL treatment

Prevention of hyperthyroidism or incomplete treatment of hypothyroidism: Proper dose titration and careful monitoring is critical to prevent the persistence of hypothyroidism or the development of hyperthyroidism

Worsening of diabetic control: Therapy in patients with diabetes mellitus may worsen glycemic control and result in increased antidiabetic agent or insulin requirements. Carefully monitor glycemic control after starting, changing, or discontinuing thyroid hormone therapy

Decreased bone mineral density associated with thyroid hormone over-replacement. Over-replacement can increase bone reabsorption and decrease bone mineral density. Give the lowest effective dose

Limitations of Use

Not indicated for suppression of benign thyroid nodules and nontoxic diffuse goiter in iodine-sufficient patients

Not indicated for treatment of transient hypothyroidism during the recovery phase of subacute thyroiditis

Adverse Reactions

Adverse reactions with TIROSINT-SOL are primarily those of hyperthyroidism due to therapeutic overdosage including arrhythmias, myocardial infarction, dyspnea, muscle spasm, headache, nervousness, irritability, insomnia, tremors, muscle weakness, increased appetite, weight loss, diarrhea, heat intolerance, menstrual irregularities, and skin rash

PM 01-21-0024

IBSA Institut Biochimique SA, Lugano, Switzerland (PRNewsfoto/IBSA Pharma, Inc.)

Cision

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SOURCE IBSA Pharma, Inc.
CALGARY, AB, Oct. 4, 2021 /CNW/ - Surge Energy Inc. ("Surge" or the "Company") (TSX: SGY) and Fire Sky Energy Inc. ("Fire Sky") announce that they have entered into an amalgamation agreement (the "Amalgamation Agreement"), pursuant to which Surge has agreed to acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Fire Sky ("Fire Sky Shares") by way of a statutory amalgamation (the "Transaction") for total consideration of approximately $58 million. The Transaction is to be funded by the issuance of approximately 11.2 million Surge common shares ("Surge Shares"), and the assumption of approximately $3 million of net debt1, inclusive of transaction costs.

PDF (CNW Group/Surge Energy Inc.)

With the Company's recent acquisition of Astra Oil Corp. ("Astra"), Surge management strategically targeted SE Saskatchewan as a new area of growth based on its high value light oil netbacks, low-cost production efficiencies, and quick drilling payouts. Surge's operational track record of execution in SE Saskatchewan, combined with its proven in-house technical expertise, make this an exciting new core area for the Company.

The Fire Sky assets ("Fire Sky Assets") are currently producing more than 1,500 boepd (>95 percent liquids) of operated, light oil, focused in Surge's SE Saskatchewan core area, with an operating netback1 of more than $52 per boe at US$70 WTI pricing  which is now less than 2022 average strip pricing.

Following the Transaction, Surge now forecasts average production in 2022 of 21,500 boepd (86% liquids) of primarily light and medium gravity crude oil.

STRATEGIC RATIONALE

The Transaction is accretive to Surge's 2022 free cash flow 1 per share, and debt adjusted cash flow per share 1 ;

The Fire Sky Assets are forecast to increase the Company's cash flow from operating activities by $26 million over the next 12 months at US $70 WTI;

The Company now estimates that its exit 2022 net debt to annualized Q4 2022 adjusted funds flow 1 ratio will be approximately 0.7 times at US$70 WTI;

The Transaction adds highly concentrated light oil reserves, production, land, and infrastructure in Surge's SE Saskatchewan core area;

The Fire Sky Assets include a large internally estimated development drilling inventory of more than 100 locations 2 ;

The Fire Sky Assets are an excellent operational fit providing numerous synergies with the attractive light oil assets recently acquired through the Astra transaction; and

Fire Sky has an attractive corporate Licensee Liability Rating ("LLR") in Saskatchewan of 3.5, with a total undiscounted decommissioning liability of only $9.8 million.

The Transaction is consistent with Surge's defined business model of acquiring high quality, operated, light and medium gravity crude oil reservoirs with large original oil in place ("OOIP")3 and low recovery factors. The combined company possesses high netbacks, an operated light and medium gravity crude oil asset base, with extensive infrastructure in place to facilitate years of future development drilling and waterflood.

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TRANSACTION HIGHLIGHTS

The Transaction has the following key benefits to Surge stakeholders @ US$70 WTI per barrel pricing 4:

Accelerates Surge's return to its traditional value-based shareholder returns business model, including the potential for reinstatement of a dividend and share buy-back program;

Five percent accretive to Surge's forecast 2022 debt-adjusted cash flow per share;

Surge's net debt to annualized Q4 2022 adjusted funds flow ratio is forecast to decrease to 0.7 times;

Increases Surge's 2022 adjusted funds flow per boe by approximately five percent;

Improves the forecast 2022 all-in payout ratio 5 to 47 percent from 50 percent;

Raises Surge's forecast 2022 free cash flow to over $120 million ($1.44 per share 6 ); and

Increases the Company's light oil weighting from 50 percent to approximately 53 percent.

TRANSACTION METRICS

Purchase Price $58 million Annual cash flow from operating activitiesa $26 million Current production rate >1,500 boepd (95% light oil) Proved plus probable reservesb 5.8 MMboe (99% light oil) Proved plus probable RLIc 11 years Licensee Liability Rating ("LLR") 3.5 Total Asset Retirement Obligation ("ARO") $9.8 million

a: Based on 2021 pricing averaging as follows: US$70.00WTI/bbl; CAD$87.50WTI/bbl; EDM CAD$81.25/bbl; WCS CAD $70.62/bbl; AECO $2.50/mcf b: Based upon Surge's internally generated total proved plus probable reserve estimate as of September 1, 2021. c: Based upon Surge's internally generated total proved plus probable reserve estimate as of September 1, 2021 divided by production of 1,500 boepd.

Acquisition cost per boepd $38,650/boepd Operating Netback @ US$70 WTI $52/boe Proved plus probable reservesb acquisition cost $10/boe Proved plus probable recycle ratio7 5.2 x

COMBINED COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS  A SUSTAINABLE, INTERMEDIATE OIL PRODUCER

Operational platform to continue to execute on sustainable business model:

A 21,500 boepd light and medium gravity oil producer (86 percent oil and liquids weighted);

Over 2.6 billion barrels of net combined, internally estimated, conventional OOIP - with a low 6 percent recovery factor to date;

Combined Total Proven Plus probable year end 2020 reserves of over 104 million boe (86 percent total liquids ) 8 ;

A low corporate base decline of approximately 26 percent;

Large development drilling upside: >975 net locations 9 (internally estimated); providing a development drilling inventory of more than 13 years; and

A long 13 year reserve life index (total proved plus probable).

Financial platform to deliver shareholder returns at less than strip pricing of US$70 WTI per bbl:

2022 forecast adjusted funds flow of more than $255 million ($3.06 per share 10 );

Full cycle corporate production efficiencies 8 of less than $21,500 per flowing boepd (IP-180); and

2022 forecast free cash flow of over $120 million ($1.44 per share10), providing a free cash flow yield11 of over 25 percent12.

Upward Revision to 2021 Exit PRODUCTION Rate & 2022 Guidance

The following is the Company's increased guidance for Surge's 2021 exit production rate, as well as preliminary financial and operational guidance for 2022 (after giving effect to the Transaction):

Upwardly Revised Guidance @ US $65 WTI* @ US $70 WTI* @ US $75 WTI* Exit 2021 production (boepd) 21,500 Average 2022 production (boepd) 21,500 % oil and NGL's 86% 2022 Adjusted funds flow ($MM) $230 $255 $275 2022 Cash flow from operations ($MM) $215 $240 $260 2022 Exploration and Development Capital

Expenditures ($MM) $120 $120 $120 2022 Free cash flow ($MM) $95 $120 $140 2022 All-in payout ratio 56% 50% 46% 2022 Net debt to annualized Q4/22 adjusted

funds flow11 0.9x 0.7x 0.5x

* All pricing variables including differentials (WCS: US$13.50, EDM US$5.00), Fx of $0.80 and AECO of $2.50 per mcf remain constant.

Adjusted funds flow and cash flow from operations exclude realized gains/losses from financial derivatives.

TRANSACTION DETAILS

The purchase price payable by Surge under the Transaction is $58 million, comprised of: 1) the issuance of approximately 0.1438 Surge Shares for every issued and outstanding Fire Sky Share; and in addition, 2) the assumption of approximately $3 million of Fire Sky net debt, inclusive of transaction costs.

The Transaction is expected to close on or before October 30, 2021. Completion of the Transaction is subject to the approval of at least 66 2/3 of the voting Fire Sky shareholders. Completion of the Transaction is also subject to, among other things, the receipt of regulatory approvals, including the approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange for the issuance of the Surge Shares under the Transaction, and other customary closing conditions.

All of the directors and officers of Fire Sky, as well as Fire Sky's largest shareholders, collectively holding approximately 73 percent of the outstanding Fire Sky Shares, have entered into support agreements pursuant to which they have agreed to vote their Fire Sky Shares in favor of the Transaction. Certain of such shareholders have additionally agreed not to sell any Surge Shares received by them pursuant to the Transaction for specified periods following the completion of the Transaction, subject to certain exceptions.

Each of Fire Sky and Surge has agreed to pay a termination fee of $2 million to the other party in certain circumstances, including in the case of Fire Sky, if Fire Sky recommends, approves, or enters into an agreement with respect to a superior proposal. Fire Sky has agreed not to solicit or initiate any discussions regarding any other acquisition proposals or sale of material assets. Fire Sky has also granted Surge a three business day right to match any superior proposal.

ADVISORS

National Bank Financial Inc. is acting as exclusive financial advisor to Surge with respect to the Transaction. ATB Capital Markets and Scotiabank have been appointed strategic advisors to Surge on the Transaction. McCarthy Tetrault LLP is acting as legal advisor to Surge with respect to the Transaction.

Peters & Co. Limited is acting as exclusive financial advisor to Fire Sky. TingleMerrett LLP is acting as legal advisor to Fire Sky with respect to the Transaction.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS:

This press release contains forward-looking statements. The use of any of the words "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe" 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.

More particularly, this press release contains statements concerning management's expectations and assumptions concerning the anticipated benefits of the Transaction and the transaction metrics related thereto; the timing of various matters in connection with the Transaction and the conditions to completion of the Transaction; and Surge's revised guidance for the remainder of 2021 and preliminary guidance for 2022. The forward-looking statements are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by Surge, including expectations and assumptions the performance of existing wells and success obtained in drilling new wells; anticipated expenses, cash flow and capital expenditures; the application of regulatory and royalty regimes; prevailing commodity prices and economic conditions; development and completion activities; the performance of new wells; the successful implementation of waterflood programs; the availability of and performance of facilities and pipelines; the geological characteristics of Surge's properties; the successful application of drilling, completion and seismic technology; the determination of decommissioning liabilities; prevailing weather conditions; exchange rates; licensing requirements; the impact of completed facilities on operating costs; the availability and costs of capital, labour and services; and the creditworthiness of industry partners.

The forward-looking statements are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by Surge, including expectations and assumptions the performance of existing wells and success obtained in drilling new wells; anticipated expenses, cash flow and capital expenditures; the application of regulatory and royalty regimes; prevailing commodity prices and economic conditions; development and completion activities; the performance of new wells; the successful implementation of waterflood programs; the availability of and performance of facilities and pipelines; the geological characteristics of Surge's properties; the successful application of drilling, completion and seismic technology; the determination of decommissioning liabilities; prevailing weather conditions; exchange rates; licensing requirements; the impact of completed facilities on operating costs; the availability and costs of capital, labour and services; and the creditworthiness of industry partners.

Although Surge believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because Surge can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. These include, but are not limited to, risks associated with the condition of the global economy, including trade, public health (including the impact of COVID-19) and other geopolitical risks; risks associated with the oil and gas industry in general (e.g., operational risks in development, exploration and production; delays or changes in plans with respect to exploration or development projects or capital expenditures; the uncertainty of reserve estimates; the uncertainty of estimates and projections relating to production, costs and expenses, and health, safety and environmental risks); commodity price and exchange rate fluctuations and constraint in the availability of services, adverse weather or break-up conditions; uncertainties resulting from potential delays or changes in plans with respect to exploration or development projects or capital expenditures; and failure to obtain the continued support of the lenders under Surge's bank line. Certain of these risks are set out in more detail in Surge's AIF dated March 9, 2021 and in Surge's MD&A for the year ended December 31, 2020, both of which have been filed on SEDAR and can be accessed at www.sedar.com.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and Surge undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws.

Oil and Gas Advisories

The term "boe" means barrel of oil equivalent on the basis of 1 boe to 6,000 cubic feet of natural gas. Boe may be misleading, particularly if used in isolation. A boe conversion ratio of 1 boe for 6,000 cubic feet of natural gas is based on an energy equivalency conversion method primarily applicable at the burner tip and does not represent a value equivalency at the wellhead. "Boe/d" and "boepd" mean barrel of oil equivalent per day. Bbl means barrel of oil and "bopd" means barrels of oil per day. NGLs means natural gas liquids.

This press release contains certain oil and gas metrics and defined terms which do not have standardized meanings or standard methods of calculation and therefore such measures may not be comparable to similar metrics/terms presented by other issuers and may differ by definition and application. All oil and gas metrics/terms used in this document are defined below:

Original Oil in Place ("OOIP") means Discovered Petroleum Initially In Place ("DPIIP"). DPIIP is derived by Surge's internal Qualified Reserve Evaluators ("QRE") and prepared in accordance with National Instrument 51-101 and the Canadian Oil and Gas Evaluations Handbook ("COGEH"). DPIIP, as defined in COGEH, is that quantity of petroleum that is estimated, as of a given date, to be contained in known accumulations prior to production. The recoverable portion of DPIIP includes production, reserves and Resources Other Than Reserves (ROTR). OOIP/DPIIP and potential recovery rate estimates are based on current recovery technologies. There is significant uncertainty as to the ultimate recoverability and commercial viability of any of the resource associated with OOIP/DPIIP, and as such a recovery project cannot be defined for a volume of OOIP/DPIIP at this time. "Internally estimated" means an estimate that is derived by Surge's internal QRE's and prepared in accordance with National Instrument 51-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Oil and Gas Activities. All internal estimates contained in this new release have been prepared effective as of Jan 1, 2021.

Net of Surge disposition from March 25, 2021, the pro forma Company (Surge + Astra + Fire Sky) will have 2020YE TPP reserves of 104.5mmboe. Fire Sky reserves have been evaluated by Sproule from 2016YE through to 2020YE. Similarly, Sproule has evaluated all of Surge's assets from 2015YE to 2020YE.

Production efficiencies are calculated by dividing capital expenditures of a project by the average production from that project for a given period of time. IP180 is the average production rate of a well over the first 180 days on production.

Drilling Inventory

This press release discloses drilling locations in two categories: (i) booked locations; and (ii) unbooked locations. Booked locations are proved locations and probable locations derived from an internal evaluation using standard practices as prescribed in the Canadian Oil and Gas Evaluations Handbook and account for drilling locations that have associated proved and/or probable reserves, as applicable.

Unbooked locations are internal estimates based on prospective acreage and assumptions as to the number of wells that can be drilled per section based on industry practice and internal review. Unbooked locations do not have attributed reserves or resources. Unbooked locations have been identified by Surge's internal certified Engineers and Geologists (who are also Qualified Reserve Evaluators) as an estimation of our multi-year drilling activities based on evaluation of applicable geologic, seismic, engineering, production and reserves information. There is no certainty that the Company will drill all unbooked drilling locations and if drilled there is no certainty that such locations will result in additional oil and gas reserves, resources or production. The drilling locations on which the Company actually drills wells will ultimately depend upon the availability of capital, regulatory approvals, seasonal restrictions, oil and natural gas prices, costs, actual drilling results, additional reservoir information that is obtained and other factors. While certain of the unbooked drilling locations have been de-risked by drilling existing wells in relative close proximity to such unbooked drilling locations, the majority of other unbooked drilling locations are farther away from existing wells where management has less information about the characteristics of the reservoir and therefore there is more uncertainty whether wells will be drilled in such locations and if drilled there is more uncertainty that such wells will result in additional oil and gas reserves, resources or production.

Surge's review of Fire Sky's inventory supports > 100 gross (>100 net) internally estimated drilling locations. Fire Sky's February 2021 Year End reserves has 118.4 net booked locations. Of these, 68.2 net are Proved locations and 50.2 net are Probable locations based on Sproule's evaluation.

Net of Surge March 25, 2021 disposition, the pro forma Company (Surge + Fire Sky) will have over >1,050 gross (>975 net) drilling locations identified herein, of these >450 gross (>400 net) are unbooked locations. Of the 562 net booked locations identified herein, 415 net are Proved locations and 147 net are Probable locations based on Sproule's 2020YE reserves. Assuming an average number of net wells drilled per year of 75, Surge's >975 net locations provide 13 years of drilling.

Surge's internally developed type curves (for both Surge and Fire Sky) were constructed using a representative, factual and balanced analog data set, as of Jan 1, 2021 for Surge type curves and July 1, 2021 for Fire Sky type curves. All locations were risked appropriately, and EUR's were measured against OOIP estimates to ensure a reasonable recovery factor was being achieved based on the respective spacing assumption. Other assumptions, such as capital, operating expenses, wellhead offsets, land encumbrances, working interests and NGL yields were all reviewed, updated and accounted for on a well by well basis by Surge's Qualified Reserve Evaluators. All type curves fully comply with Part 5.8 of the Companion Policy 51  101CP.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Certain secondary financial measures in this press release  including, "cash flow", "adjusted funds flow", "free cash flow", and "net debt" are not prescribed by GAAP. These non-GAAP financial measures are included because management uses the information to analyze business performance, cash flow generated from the business, leverage and liquidity, resulting from the Company's principal business activities and it may be useful to investors on the same basis. None of these measures are used to enhance the Company's reported financial performance or position. The non-GAAP measures do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and therefore are unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. They are common in the reports of other companies but may differ by definition and application. All non-GAAP financial measures used in this document are defined below:

Cash Flow & Adjusted Funds Flow

Cash flow is defined as cash from operating activities before changes in non-cash working capital. The Company further adjusts cash flow from operating activities in calculating adjusted funds flow for changes in decommissioning expenditures and transaction and other costs. Management believes the timing of collection, payment or incurrence of these items involves a high degree of discretion and as such may not be useful for evaluating Surge's cash flows. Changes in non-cash working capital are a result of the timing of cash flows related to accounts receivable and accounts payable, which management believes reduces comparability between periods. Management views decommissioning expenditures predominately as a discretionary allocation of capital, with flexibility to determine the size and timing of decommissioning programs to achieve greater capital efficiencies and as such, costs may vary between periods. Transaction and other costs represent expenditures associated with acquisitions, which management believes do not reflect the ongoing cash flows of the business, and as such reduces comparability. Each of these expenditures, due to their nature, are not considered principal business activities and vary between periods, which management believes reduces comparability.

Free Cash Flow

Free cash flow is calculated as cash flow from operating activities before changes in non-cash working capital less exploration and development capital expenditures. Management uses free cash flow to determine the amount of funds available to the Company for future capital allocation decisions.

Free cash flow per share is calculated using the same weighted average basic and diluted shares used in calculating income per share.

Free cash flow yield is calculated as free cash flow divided by the Company's share price at the date indicated herein. Management uses this measure as an indication of the cash flow return to shareholders based on current share prices.

Net Debt

There is no comparable measure in accordance with IFRS for net debt. Net debt is calculated as bank debt, term debt, plus the liability component of the convertible debentures plus or minus working capital, however, excluding the fair value of financial contracts, decommissioning obligations, and lease and other obligations. This metric is used by management to analyze the level of debt in the Company including the impact of working capital, which varies with timing of settlement of these balances.

Net debt to annualized adjusted funds flow ratio is calculated as net debt divided by annualized three month adjusted funds flow (adjusted funds flow for the quarter multiplied by four). Management uses this ratio to assess the period of time that it would take to fund net debt based on the adjusted funds flow from the quarter.

All-in payout ratio

All-in payout ratio is calculated as exploration and development expenditures divided by cash flow.

Neither the TSX nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

1 This is a non-GAAP financial measure which is defined in the Non-GAAP Financial Measures section of this document. 2 See the Drilling Inventory section of this document for further details. 3 See the Oil and Gas Advisories section of this document for further details. 4 Based on the following price assumptions: US$70.00WTI/bbl; CAD$87.50WTI/bbl; EDM CAD$81.25/bbl; WCS CAD $70.62/bbl; AECO $2.50/mcf 5 This is a non-GAAP financial measure which is defined in the Non-GAAP Financial Measures section of this document. 6 Calculated using approximately 83.4 million basic shares outstanding following the completion of the Transaction. 7 Recycle ratio is calculated as operating netback of $52/boe divided by the acquisition cost of proved plus probable reserves of $10.00/boe. 8 See the Oil and Gas Advisories section of this document for further details. 9 See the Drilling Inventory section of this document for further details. 10 Calculated using approximately 83.4 million basic shares outstanding following the completion of the Transaction. 11 This is a non-GAAP financial measure which is defined in the Non-GAAP Financial Measures section of this document. 12 Calculated as $1.44 per share of free cash flow, divided by a SGY share price of $5.27 (closing share price as of October 1, 2021).

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SOURCE Surge Energy Inc.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/October2021/04/c3357.html
ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland's economic affairs secretariat (SECO) has filed a criminal complaint in relation to collapsed financier Greensill Capital for alleged violations of the law against unfair competition, it told Reuters on Sunday.

The Swiss NZZ am Sonntag newspaper said police searched Credit Suisse offices last week after the Zurich public prosecutor's office opened criminal proceedings in relation to Greensill following a complaint from SECO.

"No criminal investigation has yet been opened against certain former and current employees of Credit Suisse Group," the paper cited the prosecutor's office as saying.

Credit Suisse, Switzerland's second-largest bank, said on Sunday that data had been collected from the bank as part of an official procedure that was not directed against the lender, when asked for comment about the NZZ am Sonntag report.

"Credit Suisse fully cooperates with the authorities and will, for the time being, not make any further statements on this as this is an ongoing investigation," it told Reuters.

Credit Suisse was forced in March to shut $10 billion of supply chain finance funds that invested in bonds issued by Greensill when the finance firm imploded.

Administrators for Greensill and the Zurich public prosecutor's office did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

SECO referred Reuters to the Zurich prosecutor's office for any further comment about the proceedings.

(Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by David Clarke)
TORONTO, Oct. 4, 2021 /CNW/ - CIBC (TSX: CM) (NYSE: CM) team members, clients, families, and friends once again hit the ground running in communities across Canada for the 30th annual Canadian Cancer Society CIBC Run for the Cure.

A Team CIBC member prepares for the 2021 Canadian Cancer Society CIBC Run for the Cure. Thousands of Canadians across the country participated in the 30th anniversary of the Run on Oct 3. (CNW Group/CIBC)

"Team CIBC has been coming together with the Canadian Cancer Society and Canadians from coast to coast to coast around a shared purpose from the beginning," says Laura Dottori-Attanasio, CIBC's Group Head, Personal and Business Banking and Executive Run Sponsor. "Step by step with our friends at the Canadian Cancer Society, we've created a movement that brings Canadians together in support of friends, family, and loved ones who experience breast cancer. And once again the ingenuity and determination shown by Team CIBC was evident in creatively fundraising to help change the future of breast cancer."

To ensure beloved elements of Run Day were accessible, CIBC and the Canadian Cancer Society once again developed another exciting virtual and physical experience. A refreshed app and avatar were created to allow participants to create and customize their own virtual runner, fundraise to unlock rewards, and track their activity.

Accompanying the virtual elements, an energetic opening ceremony was live streamed on YESTV, offering participants from across the country the chance to tune into performances from iconic Canadian artists including Chantal Kreviazuk, Brett Kissel and Tynomi Banks, and testimonials from people affected by breast cancer. For 25 years, CIBC and the Canadian Cancer Society have worked collaboratively to bring people together which has, in turn, enabled Canadians affected by breast cancer to receive life-changing support.

"Together with our dedicated and visionary partner CIBC, we've created a national movement that has transformed the breast cancer landscape in Canada, enabling new discoveries and a greater understanding of the disease," says Andrea Seale, CEO, Canadian Cancer Society. "Longstanding partnerships like this are rare and we're grateful that since joining us in 1997, CIBC has provided unwavering support to people affected by breast cancer."

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As title sponsor of the Canadian Cancer Society CIBC Run for the Cure for 25 years, Team CIBC has raised more than $58 million for breast cancer research, treatment, education, and support programs.

This year's Run follows the recent unveiling of CIBC's new, modernized brand and exemplifies the bank's renewed purpose of making client and community ambitions a reality.

About the Canadian Cancer Society

The Canadian Cancer Society works tirelessly to save and improve lives. We fund the brightest minds in cancer research. We provide a compassionate support system for all those affected by cancer, from coast to coast and for all types of cancer. As the voice for Canadians who care about cancer, we work with governments to establish health policies to prevent cancer and better support those living with the disease. No other organization does all that we do to improve lives today and to change the future of cancer forever. Visit cancer.ca for more information.

About CIBC

CIBC is a leading North American financial institution with 10 million personal banking, business, public sector and institutional clients. CIBC and its team are committed to coming together to help people and communities realize their ambitions. In 2020, CIBC and its team invested $75 million in community organizations across Canada and the U.S. Ongoing news releases and more information about CIBC can be found at www.cibc.com/en/about-cibc/media-centre.html.

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Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/October2021/04/c6934.html
JV Secures $96 Million Construction Loan from Wells Fargo Bank N.A.

Momentum Midtown

Momentum Midtown

Momentum Midtown

FORT WASHINGTON, Pa., Oct. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Toll Brothers, Inc. (NYSE: TOL) (www.TollBrothers.com), the nations leading builder of luxury homes, through its Toll Brothers Apartment Living rental subsidiary, and PGIM Real Estate have announced the formation of a new joint venture to develop Momentum Midtown, a 36-story, 376-unit luxury rental apartment community at 1018 West Peachtree Street in the heart of Atlantas tech community.



The joint venture has secured a $96 million construction loan facility from Wells Fargo Bank N.A. The debt and equity financing were arranged by Toll Brothers in-house Finance Department. Toll Brothers Apartment Living will manage the development, marketing, leasing and property management of 1018 West Peachtree.

Momentum Midtown is located within a five-minute walk of the Georgia Institute of Technology campus in Atlantas Midtown community between the Downtown and Buckhead neighborhoods. With superior access to I-75/85, GA-400, MARTA rail stations, and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the property benefits from convenient access to many of the areas major transportation corridors, employment centers and employers, including FORTUNE 500 companies such as Google, NCR, AT&T, and Coca-Cola. Atlanta has the Souths second-largest pool of tech workers and the propertys adjacency to Georgia Tech and its location two blocks south of Googles planned 475,000 square foot Midtown office, places it at the center of Atlantas tech innovation community.

Momentum Midtown, located on a .83-acre site, will consist of 376 market rate studios, one-, two-, and three-bedroom luxury rental apartments and a 431-space parking garage. The community will feature a resort-style rooftop pool and lounge with cabanas, outdoor bar, dining room, exhibition kitchen, theater, indoor/outdoor game room and a sky lounge. Other amenities include a state-of-the-art fitness center, luxurious club room and coffee bar, co-working space, high-speed Wi-Fi throughout the property and pet spa.

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Charles Elliott, President of Toll Brothers Apartment Living, said, Momentum Midtown will mark our fourth project in the thriving Atlanta market. Were looking forward to building another community with the same elevated customer experience and quality that we are known for nationwide.

Fred Cooper, Toll Brothers Senior Vice President for Finance, International Development and Investor Relations, said, We are thrilled to once again team up with PGIM Real Estate and Wells Fargo to develop another exciting urban community. Located in the midst of Atlantas vibrant tech hub, Momentum Midtown highlights why we continue to develop in top-quality locations in dynamic major cities, which are magnets for knowledge-based industries.

Please visit www.TollBrothersApartmentLiving.com for future updates and information regarding the community.

ABOUT TOLL BROTHERS

Toll Brothers, Inc., a FORTUNE 500 Company, is the nation's leading builder of luxury homes. The Company was founded over 50 years ago in 1967 and became a public company in 1986. Its common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TOL. The Company serves first-time, move-up, empty-nester, active-adult, and second-home buyers, as well as urban and suburban renters. Toll Brothers builds in 24 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington, as well as in the District of Columbia. The Company operates its own architectural, engineering, mortgage, title, land development, golf course development, smart home technology, and landscape subsidiaries. The Company also operates its own lumber distribution, house component assembly, and manufacturing operations.

2021 marks the 10th year Toll Brothers has been named to FORTUNE magazines Worlds Most Admired Companies list. Toll Brothers has also been honored as Builder of the Year by Builder magazine and is the first two-time recipient of Builder of the Year by Professional Builder magazine. For more information visit TollBrothers.com.

ABOUT TOLL BROTHERS APARTMENT LIVING

Toll Brothers Apartment Living is the apartment development division of Toll Brothers, Inc. (NYSE: TOL). Toll Brothers Apartment Living is bringing the same quality, value, and service familiar to luxury home buyers throughout the country to upscale rental communities in select markets, including Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Washington, DC. Toll Brothers Apartment Living was ranked 11th largest apartment developer in the U.S. in 2020 by the National Multi-Family Housing Council. The firm has developed more than 8,100 units, has more 5,300 units under management and controls a national pipeline of more than 14,800 units. Toll Brothers Apartment Living communities combine the energy of vibrant locations with unparalleled amenities, resident services, design, and the expertise of the nations leading builder of luxury homes. For more information visit TollBrothersApartmentLiving.com .

ABOUT PGIM REAL ESTATE

As one of the largest real estate managers in the world with US$195 billion in gross assets under management and administration1, PGIM Real Estate strives to deliver exceptional outcomes for investors and borrowers through a range of real estate equity and debt solutions across the risk-return spectrum. PGIM Real Estate is a business of PGIM, the US$1.5 trillion global asset management business of Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU).

PGIM Real Estates rigorous risk management, seamless execution, and extensive industry insights are backed by a 50-year legacy of investing in commercial real estate, a 140-year history of real estate financing2, and the deep local expertise of professionals in 32 cities globally. Through its investment, financing, asset management, and talent management approach, PGIM Real Estate engages in practices that ignite positive environmental and social impact, while pursuing activities that strengthen communities around the world. For more information visit pgimrealestate.com.

1 As of June 30, 2021. AUM reflected as gross. Net AUM is $130B and AUA is $43B.

2 Includes legacy lending through PGIMs parent company, Prudential Financial, Inc.

TOLL BROTHERS FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This release contains or may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. One can identify these statements by the fact that they do not relate to matters of a strictly historical or factual nature and generally discuss or relate to future events. These statements contain words such as anticipate, estimate, expect, project, intend, plan, believe, may, can, could, might, should, likely, will, and other words or phrases of similar meaning. Such statements may include, but are not limited to, information and statements regarding: the impact of Covid-19 on the U.S. economy and our business; expectations regarding interest rates and inflation; the markets in which we operate or may operate; our strategic objectives and priorities; our land acquisition, land development and capital allocation priorities; housing market conditions; demand for our homes; anticipated operating results and guidance; home deliveries; financial resources and condition; changes in revenues; changes in profitability; changes in margins; changes in accounting treatment; cost of revenues, including expected labor and material costs; selling, general, and administrative expenses; interest expense; inventory write-downs; home warranty and construction defect claims; unrecognized tax benefits; anticipated tax refunds; sales paces and prices; effects of home buyer cancellations; growth and expansion; joint ventures in which we are involved; anticipated results from our investments in unconsolidated entities; our ability to acquire or dispose of land and pursue real estate opportunities; our ability to gain approvals and open new communities; our ability to market, construct and sell homes and properties; our ability to deliver homes from backlog; our ability to secure materials and subcontractors; our ability to produce the liquidity and capital necessary to conduct normal business operations or to expand and take advantage of opportunities; and the outcome of legal proceedings, investigations, and claims.

Any or all of the forward-looking statements included in this release are not guarantees of future performance and may turn out to be inaccurate. This can occur as a result of incorrect assumptions or as a consequence of known or unknown risks and uncertainties. The major risks and uncertainties  and assumptions that are made  that affect our business and may cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to:

the effects of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, which remain highly uncertain, cannot be predicted and will depend upon future developments, including the duration of the pandemic, the impact of mitigation strategies taken by applicable government authorities, the continued availability and effectiveness of vaccines, adequate testing and therapeutic treatments and the prevalence of widespread immunity to Covid-19;

the effect of general economic conditions, including employment rates, housing starts, interest rate levels, availability of financing for home mortgages and strength of the U.S. dollar;

market demand for our products, which is related to the strength of the various U.S. business segments and U.S. and international economic conditions;

the availability of desirable and reasonably priced land and our ability to control, purchase, hold and develop such land;

access to adequate capital on acceptable terms;

geographic concentration of our operations;

levels of competition;

the price and availability of lumber, other raw materials, home components and labor;

the effect of U.S. trade policies, including the imposition of tariffs and duties on home building products and retaliatory measures taken by other countries;

the effects of weather and the risk of loss from earthquakes, volcanoes, fires, floods, droughts, windstorms, hurricanes, pest infestations and other natural disasters, and the risk of delays, reduced consumer demand, and shortages and price increases in labor or materials associated with such natural disasters;

the risk of loss from acts of war, terrorism or outbreaks of contagious diseases, such as Covid-19;

federal and state tax policies;

transportation costs;

the effect of land use, environment and other governmental laws and regulations;

legal proceedings or disputes and the adequacy of reserves;

risks relating to any unforeseen changes to or effects on liabilities, future capital expenditures, revenues, expenses, earnings, indebtedness, financial condition, losses and future prospects;

the effect of potential loss of key management personnel;

changes in accounting principles;

risks related to unauthorized access to our computer systems, theft of our and our homebuyers confidential information or other forms of cyber-attack; and

other factors described in Risk Factors included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended October 31, 2020 and in subsequent filings we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Many of the factors mentioned above or in other reports or public statements made by us will be important in determining our future performance. Consequently, actual results may differ materially from those that might be anticipated from our forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

For a further discussion of factors that we believe could cause actual results to differ materially from expected and historical results, see the information under the captions Risk Factors and Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC and in subsequent reports filed with the SEC. This discussion is provided as permitted by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and all of our forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referenced in this section.

Contact:

Frederick N. Cooper

(215) 938-8312

fcooper@tollbrothers.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/63562c3b-93b2-4612-8e77-59d030d77642




NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2021 / Labaton Sucharow, a nationally ranked and award-winning shareholder rights law firm, announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of persons and entities that purchased or otherwise acquired Zymergen Inc. ("Zymergen" or the "Company") (NASDAQ:ZY) common stock pursuant and/or traceable to the registration statement and prospectus issued in connection with the Company's April 2021 initial public offering ("IPO"). Zymergen investors have until October 4, 2021, to file a motion to serve as lead plaintiff.

On August 3, 2021, less than four months after its IPO, the Company issued a disappointing business update and revised its financial forecast citing "issues with its commercial product pipeline." Additionally, the Company announced that its CEO Josh Hoffman would be stepping down from his role, effective immediately. On this news, the Company's stock price plummeted over 70%. The Company now stands accused of issuing a registration statement that was materially false and misleading and omitting to state material adverse facts.

If you purchased stock of ZY and want to receive additional information and protect your investments free of charge, please contact David J. Schwartz using the toll-free number (800) 321-0476, via email at david@labaton.com, or by filling out this form.

About the Firm

Labaton Sucharow LLP is one of the world's leading complex litigation firms representing clients in securities, antitrust, corporate governance and shareholder rights, and consumer cybersecurity and data privacy litigation. Labaton Sucharow has been recognized for its excellence by the courts and peers, and it is consistently ranked in leading industry publications. Offices are located in New York, NY, Wilmington, DE, and Washington, D.C. More information about Labaton Sucharow is available at www.labaton.com.

CONTACT:

David J. Schwartz

(800) 321-0476

david@labaton.com

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SOURCE: Labaton Sucharow LLP





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/666460/ZY-DEADLINE-ALERT--Labaton-Sucharow-Reminds-Investors-of-October-4-Deadline-in-Securities-Class-Action-Against-Zymergen-Inc




Three popular travel destinations are celebrating 50 year birthdays.

Disney World, Orlando

Disney World began celebrating the propertys 50th anniversary, with confetti cannons turned up to full blizzard, the only setting that Disney Parks marketers have. The promotional event will last at least 18 months and will include new roller coasters for Epcot and the Magic Kingdom; a new high-end hotelmeant to simulate travel on a Star Wars galactic cruiser; two new fireworks extravaganzas; limited-edition merchandise; and MagicBand+, wearable technology that will unlock (for a price) interactive experiences.

New York Times

UAE

Dubai opened Expo 2020 in an extravagant ceremony Thursday that bathed the sites signature central dome in light, a symbolic beacon for the city-states hopes that the worlds fair will draw tourists despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Delayed a year by the virus, Expo 2020 has over 190 countries taking part in the event that will last six months. The futuristic extravaganza, complete with individual pavilions feels like an entire city, built on what were once rolling sand dunes on Dubais southern edges.

After spending $7 billion on the site, Dubai hopes it will attract new businesses and draw more foreigners to buy properties in the commercial hub of the United Arab Emirates.

AP News

Starbucks

You dont need to travel much anymore given its over 30K stores around the world, but it is also celebrating its 50th birthday and the brand is synonymous with travel.
Taliban fighters have reportedly killed an Afghan man who tried to flee to neighboring Tajikistan and detained another man along the Afghan-Tajik border.

A source in the city of Ishkashim in Afghanistan's northern province of Badakhshan, which borders Tajikistan, told RFE/RL on October 3 that the incidents occurred the previous day, when Taliban militants raided the area in an attempt to force about 2,000 Afghans seeking to leave the war-torn country to go back to their homes.

The Taliban-led administration in Badakhshan did not immediately comment.

Many Afghans have left the country and thousands have been trying to leave after the hard-line Islamist group seized control of most of Afghanistan in August.

The Taliban takeover triggered alarm among Central Asian states bordering Afghanistan over possible security threats emanating from the country and the potential for tens of thousands of refugees to pour over the border.

Would-be refugees along the Afghan-Tajik border in Badakhshan say they have been stranded there for two months, with Tajikistans border guards not allowing them to enter the Central Asian country.

"The militants gather people in groups and force them to return to Kabul on trucks. The militants are searching for natives of the Panjshir area mainly," one of the men seeking to flee to Tajikistan told RFE/RL.

In mostly ethnic Tajik-populated Panjshir, a rugged mountain valley northeast of Kabul, an anti-Taliban resistance front remains active.
Afghanistan's interim Taliban government has held its first cabinet meeting since taking power in August, the group's chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on October 4 in a press release, which also announced that the government would resume issuing passports and ID cards to Afghan citizens.



The Taliban unilaterally formed a government led by acting Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund last month after taking control of the country in a lightning offensive amid a hasty withdrawal of U.S.-led forces that put an end to the 20-year war there.



Since the Taliban is unrecognized by the international community as Afghanistan's legitimate government, it is unclear if the new passports will be recognized by any foreign governments.



Also on October 4, the Taliban appointed several new ministers to the interim government and new military commanders.



A total of 38 new official appointments made by Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada were published, almost all of whom are religious clerics from the Pashtun ethnic group, in a fresh blow to those Afghans calling for a multiethnic interim government and one that includes women.



Among the new appointees is Deputy Prime Minister Maulvi Abdul Kabir, who is also a member of the Taliban's leadership council and served in key positions during the Taliban rule in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.



Various Taliban security agencies were also instructed to form a joint commission to improve security in both Kabul and the provinces.



The government meeting came a day after a deadly bombing outside a Kabul mosque that was claimed by the Islamic State extremist group.



It was not immediately clear how many people died in the October 3 blast, with various sources putting the death toll at five to 12 people killed and more than 30 wounded.

With reporting by dpa and Reuters
The Taliban claims it has destroyed a cell operated by the Islamic State (IS) extremist group in a raid conducted just hours after a deadly bombing outside a Kabul mosque.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid wrote on his official Twitter account on October 4 that all the cell members were killed in a late-night operation conducted by a special forces unit north of the capital.

There was no official indication that the raid was directly linked to the deadly blast outside the Eidgah Mosque earlier on October 3 in one of the worst attacks since the Taliban takeover.

IS claimed responsibility for the explosion in a message on October 4 by its news agency, Amaq, on Telegram.

The IS groups local affiliate, the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (IS-K) is an enemy of the Taliban.

Since the Taliban took control of most of Afghanistan in August, attacks by IS-K militants against the group in power have increased.

There are differing reports of the casualties that resulted from the October 3 blast, which struck near the entrance of the mosque as mourners left a prayer ceremony dedicated to the death of Mujahid's mother.

Sayed Khosty, who heads the press and public relations department for the caretaker Interior Ministry of the Taliban-led government, told RFE/RL by WhatsApp shortly after the attack that two people were killed and two wounded in the attack.

The German news agency dpa cited Khosty as saying five civilians had been killed and wounded, while the French AFP agency quoted a government cultural commission official as saying that five people died and 11 were wounded.

The local Asvaka news agency reported that as many as 12 people had died, with more than 30 injured.

Khosty told RFE/RL that three people had been arrested in connection with the attack.

Following the blast the area around the mosque was cordoned off by the Taliban, which maintained a heavy security presence.

IS-K militants maintain a strong presence in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar. They have claimed several attacks against Afghanistans new rulers, including several killings in the provincial capital, Jalalabad.

The October 3 attack in Kabul is the largest to target the capital since late August when a suicide bomber targeted U.S.-led evacuation efforts outside Kabul's international airport. The blast killed 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members.

That attack was claimed by IS-K.

With reporting by dpa, AFP, and Asvaka News.
KHATLON, Tajikistan -- The Taliban has provided Tajik militants based along the border with Tajikistan with new military vehicles, weaponry, and other equipment over the past two weeks, security sources in Tajikistan and northeastern Afghanistan say, amid an ongoing military buildup on both sides of the frontier.

The sources also told RFE/RL on October 4 that the Taliban has also removed ethnic Uyghur fighters from an area close to Afghanistan's small border with China.

Tajik militants based in Afghanistans northern province of Badakhshan have been seen with U.S.-made weaponry and vehicles, including Humvees, with some of them wearing American combat gear, according to an official with Tajikistans state border services.

A former Afghan military officer based in Badakhshan confirmed the allegation.

The militants, who were previously seen carrying Kalashnikov rifles and driving old pickup trucks, received the new supplies during the past two weeks, according to the Tajik official, who spoke under condition of anonymity because he wasnt authorized to speak to the media.

The new equipment is thought to have been seized by the Taliban from the former Afghan National Army during the Talibans lightning offensive across the country that ended when the hard-line Islamist group seized Kabul in mid-August.

Tajik and Afghan sources say at least 200 militants from Tajikistan are currently based along the border of the two countries.

The Taliban takeover has triggered alarm among Central Asian states bordering Afghanistan over possible security threats emanating from the country and the potential for tens of thousands of refugees to cross the border.

Tajik officials have repeatedly called on the Taliban to form an inclusive government and warned that Dushanbe would not recognize the group as Afghanistans new rulers if it undermines the interests of ethnic Tajiks and other minorities.

In turn, the Taliban has warned Tajikistan against meddling in Afghanistans domestic affairs.

Amid rising tensions between the Taliban and Dushanbe, the group said in September it had deployed tens of thousands of fighters in Badakhshan and Takhar, a neighboring province that also borders Tajikistan, against possible threats.

Dushanbe had previously announced plans to deploy 20,000 additional troops along the more than 1,400-kilometer border it shares with Afghanistan.

Known in Afghanistan as the Tajik Taliban, the militants from Tajikistan are members of the Jamaat Ansarullah group, which was established by Tajik nationals a decade ago with the goal of overthrowing the secular government in Dushanbe.

In June, Tajik officials raised concern that one of the banned groups commanders -- Muhammad Sharifov (aka Mahdi Arsalon) had been put in charge of security in five border districts in Badakhshan after they were seized by the Taliban.

Last month, Tajik security officials said they were reviewing reports that the militants were planning to infiltrate into Tajikistan, an allegation rejected by the Taliban.

Uyghur Fighters Relocated

The two sources in Tajikistan and Afghanistan also told RFE/RL on October 4 that the Taliban had removed ethnic Uyghur fighters from Badakhshan -- which also shares a 76-kilometer border with China.

The militants from the Turkestan Islamic Movement were relocated to other provinces, including Nangarhar in Afghanistans east, the former Afghan military official said.

The Al-Qaeda-linked Turkestan Islamic Movement is designated as a terrorist organization by Beijing and the United Nations. Beijing blames the group for unrest in its northwestern Xinjiang region.

Citing intelligence from the area, the Tajik border guard official said that Chinese fighters were present in Badakhshan until last week along with Tajiks, Uzbeks, and other foreign militants.

The allegations contradict a Taliban announcement in early September saying Uyghur fighters had left Afghanistan after the countrys new rulers purportedly told militant groups they could not use Afghan territory to target other countries.

During a visit to China in July, a senior Taliban delegation pledged that the group would not allow anyone to use the Afghan soil against China.

Beijing has expressed readiness to maintain communication with the Taliban-government in Kabul and pledged aid to the country.
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Our nation has been divided by politics, economics and public health repeatedly, and it seems a tall order to become one nation under God (or your higher being) again, but we always have and, I believe, always will. We're American. It's what we do.
Afghan ambassador to US accuses Biden of not caring about Afghan women
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A Colorado Springs police officer shot and killed a man who allegedly fired a gun at the officer during a chase following a suspected shoplifting on Sunday afternoon, law enforcement said.

A Springs police officer patrolling a Walmart off Platte Avenue and Chelton Road on an "extra duty assignment" just before 4 p.m. on Sunday tried to stop a shoplifting suspect, but the suspect ran from the officer, police said.

The suspect then hid behind a car near Pine Street and Chelton Road. The officer gave commands that the man ignored and the officer used their stun gun, police said.

The suspect then pulled out a gun and shot at the officer once, police said. The officer fired back with their handgun, hitting the suspect "at least once," police said.

Thats when Omar Zelaya, co-owner of Chelton Liquors, heard gunshots.

He ran to the front door of his shop and opened it. Outside, Zelaya saw a swarm of police cars and several officers pointing their guns toward the ground.

Its scary to have this kind of stuff happening so close to our store, Zelaya said.

The officer seized the suspect's gun and started performing life-saving measures until emergency responders arrived, police said.

The man was taken to a hospital where he died from his injuries, police said.
FILE PHOTO: A health worker prepares a booster dose of a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine, as vaccinations jump in Italy after the government made inoculation mandatory for all workers, in Rome, Italy, September 21, 2021. REUTERS/Yara Nardi
FILE PHOTO: Germany's liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) leader Christian Lindner and Greens party co-leaders Robert Habeck and Annalena Baerbock deliver a statement to the media on exploratory talks for a possible new government coalition in Berlin, Germany, October 1, 2021. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse
FILE PHOTO: An experimental COVID-19 treatment pill called molnupiravir being developed by Merck & Co Inc and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP, is seen in this undated handout photo released by Merck & Co Inc and obtained by Reuters May 17, 2021. Merck & Co Inc/Handout via REUTERS
Colorados fast-approaching 2022 midterm election could be the chance the states beleaguered Republicans have been waiting for to stage a comeback and prove that their exile from power has been temporary.

The GOP, however, will have to navigate the twin shoals of an unpopular former president and his many groundless claims the last election was rigged.

The GOP is in a nearly unprecedented position following two election cycles that saw Colorado voters reject the party across the board, with Democrats taking control of state government, including wins for every statewide executive office for the first time since the 1930s and majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly.

On top of that, in 2018 Democrats wrested a congressional seat from Mike Coffman, a Republican who hadnt lost an election in three decades  giving the party an incumbent in four of the states seven U.S. House districts  and last year ousted Cory Gardner, the only Republican to have won election as U.S. senator in 20 years.

Colorado, pegged as a perennial battleground state for most of the 21st century, handed the states nine electoral votes to the Democratic nominee for the fourth time in a row last year, with Joe Biden carrying the state over Republican Donald Trump, and it wasnt even close.

Weighing the odds

After decades of earning its nickname as the quintessential purple state, the 2022 election could decide whether Colorado has shed that reputation and moved into the solid blue category as a reliably Democratic one.

But with the Democrats strength comes opportunity for Republicans, top GOP strategists tell Colorado Politics, since voters can put all the blame on the party that holds all the power, even if theres plenty of blame to go around.

Theres a strong argument that it isnt a purple state, but that should be added motivation for Republicans to get us back there, said Colorado-based Republican consultant Ryan Lynch, owner of Polstar Strategies.

I dont think most folks are going to look at the election history in Colorado over the last three cycles and say that its a purple state, but we can change that, and we have the opportunity to do so.

Lynch, who managed the reelection bid of Adams Countys state Sen. Kevin Priola, the only Republican legislator to survive last year in a district that favors Democrats, said its a mistake to assume the states voters have given up on Republican candidates.

I dont think the electorate has changed that much, he said, brushing aside as myths the notion that Colorados surging population over the last decade has turned the traditional swing state into a Democratic stronghold.

The Democrats have done a better job than we have lately, and we need to fix that. We have a better product; we just havent been as effective at marketing it.

Opportunity for the underdog

Midterm elections are almost always prime opportunities for the party out of power to regain ground. Colorado Democrats are mindful of their experiences in 2010 and 2014, when the party that controlled the White House and both chambers of Congress lost incumbents across the country, including in Colorado.

In 2010, President Barack Obamas first midterm, Republicans  still reeling from three consecutive cycles of Democratic gains in Colorado  knocked off two incumbent House members, U.S. Reps. John Salazar and Betsy Markey, won control of the state House of Representatives and saw State Treasurer Cary Kennedy lose a bid for reelection to Republican Walker Stapleton.

Obamas next midterm, in 2014, led to Colorado Republicans taking control of the state Senate and Republican Gardner unseating Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Udall.

The 2022 fields for the top states top two statewide races could be nearly full: University of Colorado Regent Heidi Ganahl and former gubernatorial candidate Greg Lopez are the most prominent candidates among a dozen Republicans seeking the nomination to challenge Gov. Jared Polis.

This week, Larimer County developer Gino Campana threw his hat into the ring for the Senate seat held by Democrat Michael Bennet, joining Olympian Eli Bremer, first-time candidate Erik Aadland and former congressional nominee Peter Yu.

But Republicans lack candidates for the other statewide executive offices, and party insiders say it could be a while before contenders emerge, giving Attorney General Phil Weiser, Secretary of State Jena Griswold and State Treasurer Dave Young big head starts on their reelection campaigns.

Trumpian roadblock

Complicating matters for Republican candidates ahead of this midterm, though, is an enduring battle between representatives of the GOPs increasingly Trump-aligned base and the more establishment voices, who argue that Republicans have to nominate candidates who appeal to the states vast trove of unaffiliated voters.

While Colorados electorate was divided roughly equally between Republicans, Democrats and unaffiliated voters earlier this century, in recent years unaffiliated voters have seen their numbers surpass the two major parties  currently making up 43% of the electorate, compared to 29% registered as Democrats and 26% registered as Republicans, with the remainder belonging to minor parties.

That massive group of unaffiliateds is clearly anti-Republican because they hated Trump. Im convinced many of those unaffiliateds are going to be open to voting Republican, said Dick Wadhams, a veteran campaign strategist and former chairman of the Colorado GOP.

Throughout Trumps presidency, polling showed the former Republican president was toxic with Colorados unaffiliated voters, losing the group by roughly two to one. But without Trump in the White House or on the ballot, the strategists say Colorado voters could give Republicans another look.

But Wadhams, who had a hand in managing the campaigns of every Republican governor and senator to have won re-election in the last 50 years  former Gov. Bill Owens and former U.S. Sens. Bill Armstrong and Wayne Allard  said that candidates need to run aggressive campaigns and lay out the reasons theyre running.

Everything we do and say in the primary has to be done with an eye toward the unaffiliated voter, he said, recalling something Allard told him on an election night years ago. I dont want to be just the nominee, I want to be the senator. Those words have echoed in my head for years. The trouble is, we dont have enough Republicans who look at races that way.

This cycle, Wadhams warned that before theyll be treated seriously by Colorado voters, Republicans have to firmly reject Trumps suggestion that the 2022 election was stolen from him, even if it means damaging their standing with GOP voters.

I think theres plenty of opportunities that will emerge next year, but I think the single biggest threat for Republicans being able to win in 2022 is this obsession about the election being stolen from Donald Trump and the conspiracy theories being put forward around that, he said.

Theres only one way to get past that, and that is to forcefully, clearly and unequivocally say the election was not stolen, either here in Colorado or nationally, and put absolute distance between any Republican candidate and Donald Trump. I know that will cause short term pain, but I also know that candidate will not win a competitive election, either in a competitive district or statewide, if that position is not taken.

Stressing that he voted for Trump twice, Wadhams said he supports his agenda.

But he has squandered that great record with his behavior since the election, and Republicans have got to deal with it," he said. "Im optimistic 2022 wont be another massacre for Republicans if we have candidates of courage  and its going to take candidates of courage to confront these Trump supporters.

Wadhams acknowledged that GOP candidates face a dilemma, since polls show around two-thirds of self-identified Republicans say they agree with Trump's cries of election fraud, despite there being no credible evidence to back up the claim.

Said Wadhams: Its time to fight back, or were not going to win. I'm sure a lot of Trump supporters wont like hearing that, but its the truth.

Lynch agreed that Republicans have to figure out how to run in a party that will likely still be led by Trump, who sounds increasingly like a 2024 presidential candidate.

While Trump was personally unpopular in many places, his ideas were very popular, he said. As a candidate, if you can focus on his ideas and initiatives instead of the man himself, thats a good way to answer that question. Likewise with the election integrity question. It would be against a Republican candidates interest to fully embrace any election fraud conspiracy, because all youre doing is suppressing your own base, by convincing them the election is predetermined or their vote can be stolen, it really only works against you.

Primary controversy harmful

The strategists say the state GOP dodged a bullet but lit a fuse when the partys state central committee voted down a proposal last month to cancel next years primary election rather than let unaffiliated voters participate. At the same time, the GOPs governing body authorized a lawsuit seeking to overturn the 2016 ballot measure that allows unaffiliated voters to cast ballots in the Democratic and Republican primaries.

Republicans opposed to ditching the primary argued that it was a sure-fire way to alienating the unaffiliated and missing an opportunity to appeal to voters candidates would need to win statewide and in competitive districts. Supporters maintain the party has been nominating increasingly moderate candidates in recent cycles, leading to a string of losses.

Lynch said he doesnt think the intra-party fight has done much damage, since few outside the GOPs inner circles paid much attention, but notes, "Had the opt out succeeded, it would have been a disaster.

Wadhams, on the other hand, said the move to challenge the states current primary system in court could come back to bite the party and its candidates.

During the debate on whether to cancel the primary, they would say that ever since weve had so-called open primaries, weve gotten beat, he said, adding that Colorado Republicans have been losing statewide for years before 2018, when unaffiliated voters first got the chance to participate in primaries.

The thinking of some of these people is mind-boggling, he said. They focus all their energy on this internal battle they want to have within the Republican party to expunge anybody who isnt a loyal Trump supporter.

Taking the primary to court is just as bad as canceling the primary. What will the headlines be? Colorado Republican Party goes to court to overturn law allowing unaffiliateds to vote in primaries. Weve got to let this issue drop and focus on winning elections and not spend energy on telling voters we dont want their input.

After sweeping Republicans from power up and down the ticket in the last two cycles, Democrats have another advantage heading into the midterm, since their candidates for top office are all incumbents able to run for re-election. The Democrats wont have to wait until next summer to pick nominees, allowing their campaigns to conserve resources and avoid potentially costly infighting, as well enjoying the advantages of incumbency.

Polis, the wealthy tech entrepreneur who spent $23 million on his own campaign four years ago, will likely have a cash advantage next year over any GOP challenger. But the other Democrats running statewide have been socking away campaign funds while Republicans have yet to demonstrate whether they can keep up.

Incumbents have the advantage of name ID, built-in donor base and an already built-out campaign apparatus, so there are obvious benefits to being an incumbent. But one of the drawbacks is when your party is running things, the voters have nobody else to blame, Lynch said.

'Concerning' lack of campaigns

He said Republicans could benefit next year in Colorado as the state appears to be following a trend toward nationalizing its elections.

Nationally, the Democrats havent exactly gotten a lot of good news lately, he said. More than ever, national politics are dwarfing local politics. Thats probably a product of the 24-hour news cycle. But whether were talking about local council races or gubernatorial races, federal issues are by and large taking up most of the oxygen. Republicans can play on that field this cycle. Between the federal COVID response and the hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan  these are all issues that are taking precedence right now.

Added Lynch: Its going to be a while before our economy fully recovers. Economic indicators tend to be the largest factor that impacts an incumbents ability to win.

Things are off to a slow start with Republicans, however, as the midterm coincides with the once-in-a-decade redistricting process, which has thrown an element of uncertainty into next years election and left at least a dozen potential Republican candidates for top office idling until the maps are finalized. Both congressional and legislative maps must also pass a court review.

You would still typically see a lot of folks lining up or at least dipping their toes into the water, and we havent seen a lot of that, particular in seats that might be competitive for us, Lynch said. Thats concerning, though once the legislative and congressional maps are finalized I think youll probably see a quick rush into these races.

Colorados inaugural independent redistricting commissions  created when voters passed a pair of ballot measures in 2016  have been inching their way all summer toward boundaries that will go into effect after next years election, including deciding where the states new, eighth congressional district will be located.

By all accounts, the open seat will cover the suburbs and exurbs north of the metro area, from Adams County into Weld County, possibly giving Republicans a chance to vie in a competitive district.

Democrat Yadira Caraveo, a state lawmaker and pediatrician, is the only prominent candidate who has so far launched a campaign in the new district. Three Republican state senators  John Cooke, Kevin Priola and Barbara Kirkmeyer  have been eyeing the seat and could move quickly once the boundaries are set.

I do think theres time, Wadhams said. I dont think you can wait until next year, but theres still time in 2021 for candidates to get in these races.
Peachtree Corners, a 5G early adopter, signs cloud infrastructure partner

Peachtree Corners, Ga., one of the nation's first 5G-enabled smart cities, will be partnering with OVHcloud to accelerate innovation across the city, including the Curiosity Lab Innovation Center and the autonomous vehicle test track.

OVHcloud will deliver compute, storage and other cloud platform resources, which will allow the city and its technology partners to manage, analyze and gain insights from the massive amounts of data generated from the autonomous vehicles, officials said in a press statement.

Peachtree Corners, located in suburban Atlanta, is home to the Curiosity Lab, an economic development initiative that features real-world connected infrastructure that government and industry can use to test smart city technologies. The 500-acre technology park features a 5G-enabled three-mile autonomous vehicle test track and smart city laboratory. Additional infrastructure includes a network operations center, smart poles, DSRC units, dedicated fiber and a 25,000 square foot tech incubator. It is also home to The Ray, the first solar-powered roadway.

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, the citys CTO and assistant city manager.

Researchers from Georgia Tech were recently awarded a $2.5 million National Science Foundation Smart and Connected Communities Grant to develop data analytics systems that will improve travel mobility, safety, equity and sustainability using Peachtree Corners as an immersive living lab. The project will help communities leverage advances in information, communication and sensor technologies to achieve sustainable travel goals.

"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," OVHcloud U.S. General Manager Jeffrey Gregor said. "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."
Latest TMF awards underscore cybersecurity

Of the seven new Technology Modernization Fund awards announced Sept 29, four are dedicated to improving cybersecurity, primarily through the transition to zero-trust solutions.

The Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Education and the General Services Administration all received awards to accelerate their transition to zero trust.

OPM was awarded $9.9 million to transition to zero-trust networking. According to the TMF website, OPM will establish zero-trust solutions in identity, devices, network, application workload and data. In the 2015 hack of personnel systems managed by OPM, which led to the loss of more than 20 million personnel records, one major issue was that the agency's data was not encrypted at rest on its own systems.

The zero-trust implementation is expected to save money, reduce the number of security tools required to monitor and maintain an effective cybersecurity program and improve interagency communications and collaboration efforts, TMF said. It will also enable OPM to fully comply with Biden administrations cybersecurity executive order and give it additional identity management options for collaborating with agency partners.

The Department of Education is getting $20 million for a two-year zero-trust program to implement a zero-trust architecture to secure the citizen data it houses. zero trust program will includes strategy, architecture, design and an implementation roadmap. It will also establish a catalog of services with secure access service edge (SASE) and security orchestration, automation and response technologies. The agency is creating a program management office focused on zero-trust activities.

GSA's $29.8 million award will support the modernization of legacy systems and the transition to an advanced zero-trust architecture. It plans to replace directory designs to better accommodate the demands of telework and a secure, multi-domain, hybrid cloud architecture. It will also develop an enterprise single-sign-on with new multifactor authentication options. To shore up its networks GSA will leverage a SASE solution for microsegmentation and will upgrade its public buildings security networks. Increasing the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence will help GSA provide security oversight for cyber supply chain risk management and enhance core security operations centers and governmentwide public-facing digital services.

Separately, GSA will get $187 million  by far the single largest TMF award in the history of the program  to secure and scale up Login.gov. GSA's identity management solution is used by 27 agencies across more than 200 government services, but it still doesn't reach some of the biggest public-facing federal programs. The TMF funding is designed to improve cybersecurity of the service and establish an in-person identify verification option for users who don't have digital credentials to create a Login.gov account. The funding will also be used to make it easier for agencies to adopt Login.gov.

GSA also received funding to transition MAX.gov to a secure cloud-based solution for cross-agency collaboration, authentication and other shared services capabilities.

For the other two new TMF awards, the Department of Homeland Security was awarded $50 million to support border technology integration  bringing together multiple independent data systems and paper-based systems to "more efficiently, effectively, and humanely process noncitizens encountered at our Southwest Border," according to the TMF website.

No details were available on the classified project with regard to the agency receiving the funds or what they will be used for. The TMF funding for the classified project award appears to be about $14.3 million.

TMF was established in 2017 under the Modernizing Government Technology Act and serves as a revolving fund for IT projects that significantly improve cybersecurity and advance citizen services. In addition to the $1 billion infusion under the American Rescue Plan Act earlier this year, the TMF board also eased some of the fund's payback requirements to incentivize more agencies to apply.

A version of this article was first posted to FCW.
" " Blowing seems like the natural response to a runny nose but, done incorrectly, it can have serious consequences. Public Domain Pictures

Blowing your nose seems like something you should be able to do without worrying you're going to hurt yourself. After all, facial tissue and pocket handkerchiefs exist for the express purpose of having something to blow snot into, right? But, depending on how vigorously you blow, clearing out your nose might not be as safe or hygienic as it seems.

You might be called to blow your nose for a variety of reasons  your excess nasal mucus may be due to a cold, a sinus infection (sinusitus), allergies or because you've been crying all day on account of a perfectly natural existential crisis. Whatever the reason, you're uncomfortably stuffed up and you want relief. But what are the dangers of covering your nose with a tissue and honking?

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1. Fractured Bones

Your face is full of tiny little bones  think about skulls you've seen before. The bones around your eye sockets and the sinus and nasal cavities, for instance, are exquisitely thin. Because significant nasal congestion puts that whole area under a lot of pressure, the delicate scaffolding that holds your face up might not be able to withstand the stress.

"Although this is extremely rare, prolonged and repeated vigorous blowing could lead to stress fractures, just as ribs can fracture from similar repeated and prolonged coughing," says Dr. David King, a senior lecturer in the Medicine Program at the The University of Queensland in Australia. "Both vigorous coughing and nose blowing generate high pressures in their respective cavities."

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2. Sinus or Ear Infection

According to one 2000 study, the fluid dynamics of nose blowing are such that mucus is propelled from the nasal cavity into the sinuses. The study didn't go so far as to test whether this was particularly harmful, but the bacteria in the snot itself could certainly jumpstart a sinus infection. Similarly, aggressive nose blowing could send bacteria to the inner ear, resulting in an ear infection.

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3. Ruptured Eardrum

It's extremely rare to rupture an eardrum while overenthusiastically clearing your schnoz, but the rapid change of pressure behind the eardrum can indeed cause the eardrum itself to burst. So, take it easy on the old hanky, okay? And if you're recovering from a broken eardrum, it's best to lay off blowing altogether.

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4. Nose Bleeds

There are hundreds of tiny blood vessels in the nose and sinuses, and blowing your nose too hard or too frequently can sometimes result in one or more of them rupturing, especially when conditions are dry or when the lining of the inside of the nose is already extra sensitive due to a cold. These nosebleeds aren't usually dangerous (unless there's a pre-existing condition compounding the problem  if you're taking blood thinners, for example), and will generally heal quickly, but nobody likes a bloody nose.

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5. Worst-case Scenarios

Nightmare scenarios associated with blowing your nose are extremely rare, but sometimes people end up at the hospital with a severe headache after blowing so hard that air is forced into the space between the skull and brain. A study published in the May 5, 2015, issue of The Journal of Pediatrics has shown that nose blowing can result in air entering the space between the two lobes of the lung as well. It has also been known, on occasion, to rupture the esophagus.

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How to Properly Clear the Snout

So, how does one deal with nasal congestion when the time-tested method seems to have medical drawbacks?

First, let's be honest: You're not going to stop blowing your nose altogether. Since that's the case, it's a good idea to blow out gently, focusing on one nostril at a time. But how do you know if you're being gentle enough?

"There is no particular threshold that's considered hard or forceful blowing of the nose, so the question about knowing if you're blowing too hard doesn't have a simple answer," says King. "However, the force required to move air through a tube  the nasal passages  is increased if the diameter is reduced. So blowing the nose to relieve congestion is not the best way to deal with this symptom."

King suggests instead starting a treatment to deal with the causes of the congestion.

"Congestion under the skin of the nose is effectively treated with decongestants sprays or tablets for short treatment durations, or treating the underlying cause of more ongoing conditions with antihistamines or steroid sprays," he says. "Congestion due to thick mucus that contributes to narrowing of the nasal opening is best treated by saline nasal sprays or washes."

Now That's Interesting Other great apes besides humans blow their noses, too. Dolphins "chuff' forcefully out of their blowholes. This activity clears mucus, though it can also be a sign of aggression.
" " Prince Harry exchanges a namaste greeting with a villager from Bhir Kuna, Nepal, during a March 2016 visit. Ben Birchall - Pool/Getty Images

Long before I dove into my 200-hour yoga teacher training, I became well-acquainted with the term "namaste." Aside from hearing it at the close of most yoga classes, I saw it sprinkled into wellness product marketing campaigns, co-opted on graphic tees and transformed into a pun on way too many holiday cards ("nama-sleigh  get it??").

Although namaste seemed to be everywhere, I realized that when it came time for students to respond to their teacher's namaste at the end of studio sessions, many yogis garbled the word, or said it under their breath, or didn't say it at all.

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The hesitation to embrace namaste might stem from the fact that the word's true meaning has often been overlooked or completely erased in the modern Western world. It's perfectly OK to skip using the term if you feel an uncomfortable sense of appropriation in your usage, but learning the root and meaning might help enrich your understanding of its significance on the mat and beyond.

Namaste is a Sanskrit word that has religious and secular meanings tied to both Hinduism and yoga. Americans usually pronounce the term "NAH-muh-stay," (although those who've used the phrase all their lives may pronounce it "num-us-teh"). The term is typically accompanied by a head nod with palms pressed at the heart in prayer (known as anjali mudra). That physical gesture is tied to the term's root meaning  the Sanskrit meaning is loosely translated to "bowing to you" or "I bow to you." The word itself is a phrase, comprising the terms "namah," meaning "bow, adoration, or obeisance," and the pronoun "te," meaning "to you."

While you might be most familiar with the phrase as a common closing statement in a yoga context, "namaste" (and its variations "namaskar," "namaskaara" and "namaskaram") is actually a greeting that can be interpreted as a way of expressing, "I honor the Spirit in you which is also in me." At its core, the phrase is meant to signify equality and respect. A few other interpretations of its meaning include "my energy salutes the energy lying within you," "I recognize the power of divinity that dwells in your heart," and "I welcome the place where you and I meet."

The Chopra Center sums up the spiritual connection to the connotations of "namaste" with this quote from Christopher Wallis, a scholar of Tantra, a branch of Indian spiritual studies: "Once you become aware of the true nature of reality, everything you do becomes an act of reverence. Simply living your ordinary daily life with full awareness becomes a complete practice of meditation, a perfect form of worship, an offering to all beings and to Being itself."

The modern take on namaste varies, depending on whom you ask. Your odds of hearing it uttered as a sort of spiritual nod in a U.S. yoga studio are decent, but you might not hear it at all amongst yogis in India. But whether you choose to use the term, it's probably not a bad idea to abide by the principles it's come to represent to many. As Subhamoy Das, co-author of "Applied Hinduism: Ancient Wisdom for Today's World," wrote, "when we greet one another with namaste, it means, 'may our minds meet.' The bowing down of the head is a gracious form of extending friendship in love, respect and humility."

Now That's Interesting The word "yoga" is adapted from the Sanskrit word "yuj," which means "to yoke or bind." In that context, yoga is often interpreted as a practice of "unifying."
" " Diogenes (with his long white beard) takes his lantern in search of an honest man. It's the most famous story about him, but it's not quite accurate. Painting by Pieter van Mol. DeAgostini/Getty Images

Diogenes of Sinope (404 to 323 B.C.E.) was arguably the funniest figure ever to be considered a serious philosopher. Plato called Diogenes a "Socrates gone mad" and his nickname among his fellow Athenians was "the Dog." That's because Diogenes slept in a large ceramic jar in the marketplace, ate discarded scraps of food and barked hilarious takedowns at passersby.

He practiced a theatrical version of Cynic philosophy, which itself was pretty radical for its time, explains Julie Ann Piering, a philosophy professor at Northern Arizona University. Compare Diogenes to Socrates, who also hung out in the marketplace and engaged Athenians in pointed dialogues.

"But Socrates never said to give up all of your possessions," says Piering. "He just said not to care about money or status or power more than you care about the state of your soul. It's Diogenes who took the radicalized version of that."

Diogenes and his Cynic followers were beggars. They dressed in rough blankets, slept under porticos, and did every "shameful" human act in public. But the Cynics lived this way to make a point  that there is nothing shameful about being human. Human nature and reason, to Cynics, were the only requirements for a happy life. Everything else was nonsense.

Diogenes left no writing of his own and just about everything we know about him was written centuries later by another guy named Diogenes. In "Lives of Eminent Philosophers," the Greek historian Diogenes Laertius recorded the greatest comedic hits of Diogenes, including some truly sick burns directed at figures like Alexander the Great and Plato.

If you search the internet for Diogenes quotes, by the way, you'll find a lot of lines that were lifted from Diogenes Laertius and reworded as first-person quotes from Diogenes. For our purposes, we're going to quote directly from "Lives of Eminent Philosophers" even if the quotes or anecdotes about Diogenes are written in the third person.

Here are five of the most memorable moments from the life of Diogenes of Sinope:

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1. 'Stand out of my light.'

Let's set the scene here. Diogenes, a penniless philosophizing beggar, is lazing around in the sun when he's approached by Alexander the Great, the most powerful man in the known world. Alexander makes Diogenes an incredible offer  ask anything of me and I'll give it to you. Diogenes could have asked for gold, for a mansion, or for a cushy position in Alexander's court.

" " Alexander the Great sees Diogenes lounging about in a ceramic jar. Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images

But instead, Diogenes grumbles (without opening his eyes, we imagine), "Stand out of my light."

Did Diogenes dislike Alexander? We don't know. But what we do know is that Cynics like Diogenes prized one thing above all else: autarkeia, a Greek word that roughly translates into autonomy or freedom. And Diogenes knew that a "boon" from Alexander wasn't just a gift, but an attempt to buy his loyalty.

"When you're indebted to a politician, a statesman, or even more so the emperor, you have lost your ability to speak freely and act freely," says Piering. "So not only does Diogenes not need anything from Alexander the Great, he doesn't want anything from him."

You might think that insulting an emperor would get you in trouble, but Diogenes enjoyed a strange type of immunity as a "comic" figure and even posh Athenians had a grudging respect for Diogenes' unencumbered freedom. According to Diogenes Laertius, the mighty Alexander is reported to have said, "Had I not been Alexander, I should have liked to be Diogenes."

Bonus: "When someone was extolling the good fortune of Callisthenes and saying what splendour he shared in the suite of Alexander, 'Not so,' said Diogenes, 'but rather ill fortune; for he breakfasts and dines when Alexander thinks fit.'"

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2. 'Sell me to this man; he needs a master.'

Diogenes' biography is sketchy at best, but we know that he was originally from Sinope, an ancient city located in Turkey on the shores of the Black Sea. He was exiled for defacing the local currency (or maybe his father did it; it's unclear) at which point he relocated to Athens and became a student of Antisthenes, perhaps the first Cynic philosopher.

In a later episode, Diogenes was captured by pirates and auctioned off as a slave in Corinth. As Piering explains, captives like Diogenes would have been put on the auction block and asked to list their skills to potential buyers. A warrior might be sold as a bodyguard or a skilled cook as a chef.

When the auctioneer asked Diogenes "in what he was proficient," according to Diogenes Laertius, the mischievous philosopher replied, "In ruling men." Kind of an odd thing for a slave to say, but Diogenes persisted. He spotted a rich man in the crowd named Xeniades and said, "Sell me to this man; he needs a master."

Again, Diogenes used a witty exchange to say something about the nature of freedom. Even as a slave, Diogenes was freer than his supposed master.

"Diogenes makes it clear that he's the master in that relationship, not the person who bought him, just like he's more free than Alexander the Great," says Piering. "It's the first time in the history of Western philosophy that you get this really radical conception of freedom. You don't see that in Socrates, Plato or Aristotle. It really starts with the Cynics."

Bonus: "Someone took [Diogenes] into a magnificent house and warned him not to expectorate, whereupon having cleared his throat he discharged the phlegm into the man's face, being unable, he said, to find a meaner receptacle."

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3. 'If you had washed lettuces, you wouldn't have paid court to Dionysius.'

To give the whole quote: "Plato saw [Diogenes] washing lettuces, came up to him and quietly said to him, 'Had you paid court to Dionysius, you wouldn't now be washing lettuces,' and that he with equal calmness made answer, 'If you had washed lettuces, you wouldn't have paid court to Dionysius.'"

" " Diogenes (again with his lantern) meets Plato (in red). Found in the collection of the Musei Capitolini, Rome. Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

This quote needs some context. First, remember that Diogenes lived on the streets and slept in what's sometimes called a "tub," but what was really a pithos, a large ceramic jar for storing grain or wine. In Athens, only beggars and dogs ate in the marketplace, and only the lowliest of creatures dug through the trash for scraps.

So here he was, washing off some discarded lettuce in the market, when the great Plato deigned to give the lowly Diogenes some career advice. If Diogenes sucked up to a powerful ruler, like Dionysius of Syracuse, then he'd have the means to live in a real house and not have to scrounge for food in the streets.

The irony is that Plato did travel to Syracuse to take the difficult job of teaching moral philosophy to Dionysius, a hard-partying tyrant who wasn't receptive to Plato's message of moderation. He not only fired Plato but sold him into slavery. So why would Plato suggest that Diogenes do the same?

Piering explains that Plato was aristocratic or at least in the thrall of the ruling class. He believed that the best thing a philosopher could do was attach himself to a powerful person or family. Diogenes believed the opposite.

"Instead of relying on a ruler to pull you out of poverty, Diogenes says to accept poverty and you'll be free from these bloody rulers," says Piering. "It really highlights the difference between the two."

Bonus: "Plato had defined Man as an animal, biped and featherless, and was applauded. Diogenes plucked a fowl and brought it into the lecture room with the words, 'Here is Plato's man.'"

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4. 'I fawn on those who give me anything, I yelp at those who refuse, and I set my teeth in rascals.'

This was Diogenes' response when he was asked what he had done to earn the nickname "the Dog." It seemed to be a popular insult that Athenians threw at him, which he turned around and embraced.

But Diogenes may not have been the first Cynic to be called a dog, or kuon in Greek. Piering writes that his teacher Antisthenes earned the nickname Haplokuon, meaning "a dog plain and simple," for his own allegedly rude and crude behavior.

In fact, our word Cynic was likely derived from the way that most Greeks felt about mongrel philosophers like Antisthenes and Diogenes. They were kunikos or "dog-like." If you replace the Ks with Cs, you can see how kunikos became cynic. (The word "cynical" didn't take on its modern meaning as "negative and pessimistic" until much later.)

Bonus: "At a feast certain people kept throwing all the bones to him as they would have done to a dog. Thereupon he played a dog's trick and drenched them." (Spoiler: It wasn't water.)

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5. '[Diogenes] lit a lamp in broad daylight and said, as he went about, "I am looking for a man."'

This is one of the most famous stories about Diogenes, although his quote is often reworded to say, "I'm looking for an honest man." Piering says that the original Greek words say nothing about "honest" or even a "man." It says simply that Diogenes was looking for "a human being."

Lighting a lamp in the middle of the day and wandering the crowded streets of Athens in search of a "human being" is a type of performance art that Diogenes was fond of, says Piering. In another episode, Diogenes was seen begging money from statues. When asked why, he replied, "To get practice in being refused."

What was the point Diogenes was trying to make with his lamp-in-the-street performance? To Diogenes, being worthy of the category "human" demands virtue, says Piering. And virtue doesn't mean the same thing to the Cynics as it does to Socrates or Plato. A virtuous human, for the Cynics, acts exclusively in accord with nature and in accord with reason.

At the heart of Diogenes' philosophy, and therefore his comedy, is the stance that the people of Athens  who walk around worrying about money, power and social conventions  are the real "madmen." He's the only reasonable human being in sight.

Bonus: "Most people, [Diogenes] would say, are so nearly mad that a finger makes all the difference. For, if you go along with your middle finger stretched out, someone will think you mad, but, if it's the little finger, he will not think so."

Now That's Random There are many offbeat stories about how Diogenes died. One says he voluntarily held his breath; another says he became ill from eating raw octopuses; a third says he died from a dog bite. The most likely scenario is he simply died of old age, at around 90.
" " Hestia was responsible for controlling the hearth fires, important for both cooking and warmth, of both Mount Olympus and the homes of ordinary Greek citizens. HowStuffWorks

In 2020, as the world sheltered in place, many of us suddenly found ourselves obsessed with kitchen life. From sourdough starters to baking experiments, our ovens were working overtime as we all adjusted to fully homebound lives. But before Martha Stewart and Ina Garten became the domestic goddesses so many of us look to for inspiration, there was an actual domestic goddess presiding over the heart of the home: Hestia.

"Hestia oversees the single most important part of any pre-modern house  the hearth, the source of heat for warmth and fire for cooking," says Richard P. Martin, the Antony and Isabelle Raubitschek professor in classics at Stanford University, in an email interview. "In the case of ancient Greek houses, the hearth was also the place for domestic sacrifices (which then become meals  cooking and sacrifice are totally wrapped up together in Greek religion). And the hearth is a place where you would pour libations of wine or milk or honey, as a way of paying homage to the gods, especially before and after meals."

Born to parents Kronus (sometimes spelled Cronus) and Rhea, Hestia was the sister of Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Demeter and Hera. The Greek goddess of architecture, family, and the state, in addition to the hearth, home and family, Hestia presided over bread baking and meal prep, but, as Martin mentions, she also oversaw the sacrificial flame and received a share of every sacrifice to the gods. "You would call on her at the top of the list of recipient divinities whenever sacrifices were being made, and even 'give' her the first part of the meat or other offering," he says. "So she was regulating or guaranteeing proper ritual behavior  if you remembered her, and made the right offering, you were doing things right and maintaining order in the larger world."

Considered a protector of the family and political community, Hestia played an integral role in both private and public affairs and she continues to be celebrated as a queen of hospitality. Here are five facts to know about the gracious goddess:

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1. Hestia's Domain  the Hearth  Was the Ultimate Safe Space

" " This statue of a seated woman about to rise, from the east pediment of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece, is thought to be Hestia, goddess of the hearth. Universal History Archive/Getty Images

The hearth was a big deal in the Greek home, representing the center of the household and symbolizing its heart and soul. In addition to cooking, the hearth was the setting for birth and death ceremonies, and the place to introduce new brides. It was considered such a sanctuary, even authorities couldn't cross it.

"The hearth  her special realm  was where people on the run, maybe for crimes they committed elsewhere, or people who were innocent and looking for refuge, perhaps for political reasons, would come to seek asylum," Martin says. "It was considered sacrilegious to drag anyone from an altar, and the hearth basically was goddess, fireplace and altar all in one. It was the ultimate safe space."

An excerpt from Homer's "The Odyssey" illustrates the sanctitude of the hearth. "There is a scene where the hero, in a new strange land, on the island of the Phaeacians, after years of wandering the seas, enters the palace of the local king and goes right to the central hearth," Martin says. "He sits down in the cold ashes and from there begs the royal family to send him home to Ithaca. Ritually, getting down in the ash of the hearth is a way of signaling your lowered status in the situation, your pure need, and your dependency as an outsider on the family who owns the hearth. And it also plays on the idea that by entering Hestia's realm, you are going straight to the symbolic center of the whole community. They really can't reject you, without paying the price in angering the goddess."

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2. She Was in Charge of Kicking Off New Colonies

Any time a new Greek colony was established, residents took fire from the hearth in the prytaneion (otherwise known as the town hall) and brought the flames back to their new locations.

"When an overflowing population led people to move outward from central Greece around the 8th to 6th centuries B.C.E. and to establish new settlements all over the Mediterranean (even as far west as Marseilles), the new settlers took the fire from their home city-state (the "metro-polis"  literally "mother city"), carefully guarded the glowing coals, and lit the fires of their new homes from the original hearth back where they came from," Martin says. "There can hardly be a better image of the continuity they were aiming for  the daughter-city was like a spark from the mother's hearth."

According to Martin, in all 800 or so ancient Greek city-states, there was a central, civic "hearth" which served as a shrine to Hestia and helped make "the entire community basically into one big family."

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3. She's One of Three Virgin Goddesses

Along with Athena and Artemis, Hestia is a virgin goddess. She remained celibate throughout her lifetime, despite the " amorous attentions" of gods like Apollo, Poseidon and the fertility god himself, Priapus.

"An ancient poem called the 'Hymn to Aphrodite' tells it best," Martin says. "When the rival gods Poseidon and Apollo were both seeking to wed Hestia, she stubbornly refused. She touched the head of Zeus (her brother, but also the head of the 'family' of Olympian gods) and swore an oath to remain a virgin all her life. Again, we are dealing with a powerful set of symbols: Hestia is totally devoted to patriarchal power. In any culture where the new bride comes to live with the husband's family ('patrilocal' as the anthropologists say), Hestia represents the rootedness of the ancestral husband's home."

According to ancient Greek practices, young brides left their original homes (where they were under their father's guardianship) to move to their husband's home and " pass into his control and guardianship." Martin explains that because of Hestia's central role as the heart of the home, she couldn't leave quite so easily, so she was unable to get married at all. "We hear stories about all the other gods and goddesses leaving Zeus' palace temporarily, for instance, to go view events in the Trojan War or to help or harm mortals on earth," he says. "But Hestia always stays home."

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4. Her Father Swallowed Her

Hestia's dad, Kronos, had something of a strange complex about his legacy: He feared his children would dethrone them, so, well, he ate them. But don't worry  as far as gruesome Greek myths go, this one has some semblance of a happy ending (for the children at least).

"Hestia was the first-born child of Kronos and Rhea  parents of the Olympian gods  but her father swallowed her (as he did all the rest) because he was afraid a child would come to overthrow him," Martin says. "Then his wife Rhea tricked Kronos, gave him a rock to eat instead of the latest kid  Zeus. Kronos swallowed the rock and vomited up all the other children he had eaten in reverse sequence  first in, last out. Therefore, Hestia, the 'oldest' (born first) was also the youngest (ejected last from Kronos' gullet and thus re-born)."

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5. Hestia's Roman Counterpart Is Vesta, Which Makes Perfect Sense

Hestia's Roman equivalent is Vesta, which according to Martin, makes perfect sense. "The 'Vestal Virgins' in Rome were priestesses of Vesta, who was the Roman goddess of the hearth," he says. "In fact, the names Vesta and Hestia come from the same ancient root, dating back to a time when Greek and Latin were more or less dialects of the same now-lost mother language (which we call 'Indo-European' today). The Vestals' job was to see to the sacred fire in a shrine in the middle of the Roman Forum, keeping the flame alive (which they managed to do even up to the 4th century C.E.)."

According to Martin, the importance of virginity in ancient times is crystal clear in the case of the Vestals. "With the Roman priestesses, you see the importance of being a virgin (which in the case of Hestia seems to be mainly a matter of myth) played out in real social terms," he says. "They were chosen from high-born families, between the age of 6 and 10, and then they had to remain chaste for 30 years, after which they could marry."

Rumor had it that not abiding by those societal expectations meant facing devastating consequences. "The Romans told stories about the few Vestal Virgins who failed to keep their vows  how they would be buried alive or at least put into an isolated room, after being caught, and allowed to starve to death," Martin says. "Most likely these were myths meant to scare people into complying with the rules and at the same time aimed at impressing everyone with the seriousness of the symbolic virginity of the office Vestal."

Now That's Interesting While "The Odyssey" may help illuminate the importance of the hearth in ancient Greek culture, Homer omitted any reference to Hestia in that epic poem, as well as "The Iliad."
A hard-working, dedicated, and passionate showman, this years Merle Howard Award honoree started her showing career by exhibiting grade cattle from a nearby neighbor.

From that humble beginning, Nickels began pursuing her dreams of building a dairy herd when she purchased her first registered Holstein . . . a spring calf. Following a mating to the Holstein sire named Atwood, her very first bred and owned calf was born a few years later. That first bred and owned animal eventually earned first-place honors at her district Holstein show and later a top ten finish at the State Holstein show.

From that launchpad, this University of Wisconsin-Madison student developed her herd to the point of winning Grand Champion Jersey of the Junior Show at the 54th World Dairy Expo.

Theres a reason for all the success this junior has earned . . . Nickels is one of the hardest working youths in the barns. Whether its helping catch manure, feeding hay, or being the one stuck clipping legs, no job is too big or too small for this young lady. To further develop her skills, Nickels began working for some of the very best in the area, including Cresentmead, Crestbrooke, the Sells Family, the Great Northern, and Budjon Farms. Those experiences also allowed her to hone her skills working at shows across the country.

The more this Dodge County junior learned about dairy cattle, the more she wanted to give back to fellow juniors. With an unquenchable desire to learn, Nickels teaches others by mentoring young youth via fitting and showing clinics held at their family farm. In recent years, she also has served as herdsperson for her county at the Wisconsin State Fair and prepped nearly all the countys cattle for the show.

It's at that Wisconsin State Fair that not once, but twice, she was named Supreme Champion Showman of the entire show in 2019 and 2021. A well-rounded individual, just a few years earlier, Nickels was on the Dodge County 4-H Team that represented Wisconsin at World Dairy Expo. That team won the entire contest that year.

Nickels eye for good cattle also made her an ideal person to serve as committee chair for selections at the 2021 University of Wisconsin-Madison Badger Dairy Club Online Sale. As a member of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Dairy Cattle Judging Team, Kylie earned second-place individual honors at the 27th Annual Vernon County Dairy Cattle Judging Contest in September 2021.

To top off an already incredible year, Kylie Nickels was the co-owner of Homeridge T Annette, the Grand Champion Jersey of Junior Show at the 54th World Dairy Expo.

Nearly all the previous award winners of the Merle Howard Award were on hand for the award presentation. They include: 2004, Robert Teixeira, Turlock, Calif.; 2005, Matthew Mitchell, Speedwell, Tenn.; 2006, Greta Koebel, Poplar Grove, Ill.; 2007, Brandon Ferry, Hilbert, Wis.; 2008, Kelly Lee Reynolds, Corfu, N.Y.; 2009, Kyle Natzke, Fond du Lac, Wis.; 2010, Stephanie Aves Schroeder, Belmont, Wis.; 2011, Karen Anderson Johnson, Litchfield, Minn.; 2012, Cy Conard, Sharon Springs, N.Y.; 2013, Cassy Krull, Lake Mills, Wis.; 2014, Jade Jensen Kruschke, New Richmond, Wis.; 2015, Jared Dueppengiesser, Oshkosh, Wis.; 2016, Doug Boop, Millmont, Pa.; 2017, Dawson Nickels, Watertown, Wis.; 2018, Kyle Barton, Randolph, Wis.; and 2019, Kaleb Kruse, Dyersville, Iowa.

Merle Howard was a respected dairy industry pioneer. Winner of the 1954 Klussendorf Award, Howard was a herd manager, Holstein classifier, and later a sales and export businessman. Howard also served on the first National Dairy Shrine Board of Directors.

Hoards at Expo is sponsored by Agri-Plastics Group of Companies

Corey Geiger

The author is the managing editor, and he brings over 22 years of industry leadership to our readers overseeing all editorial content and production of the magazine. His degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison combined dairy science and agricultural economics.
Elmsford, New York-based Central Turf & Irrigation Supply, opened its first location in Delaware, near the Maryland border.

The new Delmar location, supporting contractors on the Delmarva Peninsula, will offer local industry professionals two warehouses with products from manufacturers, an easy-loading entrance, access to category experts and resources. A grand opening event was held September 30, 2021 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., to commemorate the new branch and give green industry contractors the opportunity to tour the branch, both warehouses and meet the local team.

As a former contractor, I understand the importance of being able to get the product you need, when you need it. Thats why our warehouses focus on the needs of our local customers, says Bernardo Luciano, president of Central Turf & Irrigation Supply. We keep our warehouses fully stocked with the right local inventory so our customers can complete the jobs their working on. We are excited to be able to serve and support new and existing customers in the area with solutions across irrigation, landscape, and more.
Britain will launch cyber attacks in response to similar actions by so-called "hostile states" like Russia, the country's Defence Secretary says.

In an interview with the British newspaper, The Telegraph, Ben Wallace made the statement about fighting back in connection with the announcement of building a new National Cyber Force headquarters.

He said this building was to be constructed in London's North West at a cost of 5 billion and it was hoped that it would employ thousands of hackers and analysts by 2030.

From time to time, Western countries accuse four countries  Russia, China, North Korea and Iran  of carrying out cyber attacks on both private and public sector organisations.

Last year, Australiait would provide an additional $1.3 billion for offensive cyber security operations.

This followed accusations by the government that China was is increasing its cyber focus Down Under.

Wallace claimed that the new Force would put Britain at the forefront of countries which could stage cyber attacks on their adversaries.

We will be one of the very, very few nations in the world with that scale, he said.

"Some foreign states are waging cyber warfare on us every single day. And we have a right under international law and among ourselves to defend ourselves. We will defend ourselves from cyber warfare if that warfare is dangerous, corrupting, or damaging.

And one of the ways you can do that is to dismantle the tools that are used against you. For example, if a hostile state is using a server to deploy ransomware against you, or spyware or using disinformation, you could use offensive cyber to deal with those servers.

In 2016, the US accused Russia of having broken into the Democratic Party's headquarters and exfiltrated documents which, it was claimed, were then delivered to the whistleblower website, WikiLeaks.

Given this, losing Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton claimed that Donald Trump, who won the election, had colluded with Russia to gain victory.

But an inquiry into this claim, under the stewardship of former FBI head Robert Mueller, found no evidence of any collusion.

The claim, which came to be known as Russiagate, has now been thoroughly debunked.
Australian teenagers want to easily delete their online profiles, saying theyre targeted with hyper-specific ads that make them uncomfortable, and are not aware what platforms have access to their private data, according to not-for-profit charity Reset Australia.

The YouGov polling, which reveals for the first time what kind of data protection teenagers want to see, comes timely as the government anticipates its own review of the Privacy Act

The key findings of the YouGov polling, conducted on behalf of Reset Australia, are the following:

81% of surveyed teenagers want the right to delete, so they can easily request that their personal data be deleted.

58% considered themselves uninformed about when and who their personal data is being shared with.

82% had seen ads and felt uncomfortable.

72% had been recommended inappropriate content.

77% want privacy settings to be set to the most private options by default, for under 18-year-olds.

71% want rules restricting sticky design techniques that use their data to keep them using a product or service for longer.

79% want to be able to access and know what data is held about them through easy mechanisms.

79% want data minimisation rules, or to limit the amount of necessary data.

Reset Australia executive director Chris Cooper observes in the study that young Australians want to see an end to Big Techs unfettered use of their most private and intimate data.

"The youth understand, perhaps better than most, that their data is used to keep them online for longer or target them with hyper-specific, inappropriate, or harmful content, Cooper claims. They want to see meaningful regulation of Big Tech, so they can have greater control over their privacy, including the freedom to truly delete social media profiles and reclaim their data."

Reset Australia is urging the federal government to review Privacy Act to pinpoint an opportunity to adopt a Children's Data Code, similar to the UKs Age Appropriate Design Code and Irelands Fundamentals for a Child-Oriented Approach to Data Processing.

Reset Australia says the Children's Data Code has been backed by prominent child advocacy organisations, including Child Wise, the Y, Unicef Australia, Act for Kids, Australian Child Rights Taskforce, Child Fund Australia, the Institute of Child Protection Studies, the Alannah & Madeline Foundation, Plan Australia, ReachOut, and the Australian Council on Children and the Media.

Reset Australia is calling for a code that ensures children and parents have meaningfully consented to their data being used, and only absolutely necessary data would be collected. They are also calling for a code to be enforced by a strong and enabled regulation with the power to issue criminal sanctions for extreme breaches.

This needs to be a rigorous code so that children can have meaningful protection, Cooper recommends.

Child Wise managing director Natalie Siegel-Brown says the polling shows young people want clearer data rights and greater control over what personal information is online.

"Children's data is now collected from birth. Yet there are no systems in place to protect their online profile, nor is there any expectation social media giants will implement systems to keep childrens information safe, Siegel-Brown notes.

Many adults would struggle to understand the terms and conditions they are signing up to, so how can children be expected to understand what will happen with the information they put online? she adds. Making terms and conditions easier to understand as well as introducing data minimisation is an obvious place to start to improve data rights.

There is a clear need for a focus on algorithms too, which are created and trained using childrens data. We need to make sure that these algorithms are not used to target and retarget young people with harmful content, she says.

The data is used by algorithms to target them with advertising that can be so specific it makes them feel uncomfortable, she concludes. The report is a clarion call to the government and the technology sector: what are we going to do about this now we see it in black-and-white?

The polling was conducted by YouGov, on behalf of Reset Australia, surveyed 400 young people aged 16-17 in Australia. It was conducted via an online panel in May 2021. The full Keep it to a limit: The rules young people want protecting their data report can be read here.
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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Algeria Blasts French Leader, Bans Flights, Recalls Diplomat

Algeria has refused permission for France to fly military planes in its airspace and announced the recall of its ambassador from Paris in the wake of what it said were inadmissible comments attributed to French President Emmanuel Macron.

This weekends sharp escalation in tensions also follows a French decision to slash the number of visas issued to people in North Africa _ including Algeria _ because governments there are refusing to take back migrants expelled from France.

A French request that two military planes be allowed to fly Sunday over Algerian territory was rejected, French military spokesman Col. Pascal Ianni said. One plane was meant to depart from France, the other from Chad, he said.

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Ianni said it isnt clear whether Algeria is closing its airspace completely to the French military or whether Sundays flights will be the only ones affected.

We havent had official notification, so we will see, he said. The planners are thinking about how we will adapt.

Algeria had approved previous French flights in recent months, he said.

The flight ban followed the immediate recall of Algerias ambassador from France for consultations _ announced Saturday evening by the Algerian presidency.

The statement said the diplomats recall was motivated by recent comments about Algeria that were attributed to Macron. The comments amounted to inadmissible interference in Algerias affairs and were an intolerable affront to Algerians who died fighting French colonialism, the Algerian presidency said.

The crimes of colonial France in Algeria are innumerable and fit the strictest definitions of genocide, its statement alleged.

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French media reported that Macron spoke recently about Algerias post-colonial system of government and its attitudes to France. The newspaper Le Monde said Macron made the comments Thursday in a meeting at the presidential palace with French and Algerian grandchildren of former combatants in Algerias 1954-62 war of independence from France and people affected by the conflicts aftermath.

In its report from the meeting, Le Monde said that Macron accused Algerian authorities of stoking hatred for France. The French leader also spoke about his governments tightening of visas for North Africans, saying the visa reduction would target people in the area of governance, who had a habit of asking for visas easily, the newspaper reported.

French officials announced the number of visas given to Algerians and Moroccans would be cut by half, and to Tunisians by 30%. The government said the decision responded to refusals from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia to provide consular documents for their citizens who were being deported from France after arriving illegally. The three countries were part of Frances colonial empire, and many Europe-bound migrants and other visitors coming from those North African nations have family or other ties in France.

The Algerian presidency said in its statement that Macrons remarks were an intolerable affront to the memory of the 5,630,000 valiant martyrs who sacrificed their lives in their heroic resistance of the French colonial invasion. There was no explanation of how Algerian authorities came up with such a large number.

It added that nothing and nobody can absolve the colonial powers of their crimes.


A California company is using robots to grow plants in greenhouses that it says use 90 percent less water than traditional farms.

The company, Iron Ox, operates several greenhouses and has plans to expand. It recently announced a new $50 million investment. The financing was led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a company established by Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

At a 930-square meter center in Gilroy, California, Iron Ox uses a self-driving robot named Grover to transport containers of plants. The large greenhouse uses hydroponics, a system designed to grow plants in materials other than soil, such as water.

The company says each container, known as a module, carries 30 liters of water and about 70 seedlings as it moves. Another machine uses robotic arms to lift the top of the plants out of the water. This permits the roots to be inspected. Sensors also examine the water, measuring levels of nitrogen and acidity.

Iron Ox claims the system uses 90 percent less water than traditional farms, as well as 90 percent less electricity than indoor farms using LED lights. LED stands for light emitting diode, which produces light up to 90 percent more efficiently than regular lights.

Sarah Osentoski is the companys senior vice president of engineering. She told Reuters news agency she believes robots like these can help prepare for a more sustainable future. I think its a really exciting way we can move forward in agriculture right now, Osentoski said.

I really believe that we need to grow in a way that could feed the future of the world without hurting the Earth, she added. So, a big part of our mission is to grow more with less.

The company notes that in its greenhouses, any water not used can be pumped back into the system to be reused later.

Agriculture is an important part of California's economy. But water usage has increasingly become a concern. The last major drought in 2012-2017 cut water for farmers, forced household usage limits and fueled deadly wildfires.

Iron Ox currently grows Thai basil and strawberries and is working on cilantro, parsley, and tomatoes. The company plans to build a new 50,000-square-meter greenhouse in Lockhart, Texas. There, the robots will be moving about 5,400 modules.

Iron Ox CEO Brandon Alexander told Reuters that building the company has been an eye opener for him and others. I think were now at a stage where most people understand that conditions are only getting worse, he said.

The system includes another inspection station that uses overhead cameras to capture three-dimensional (3D) images of the plant. Scientists use this data to study crop production levels.

We want to give each plant exactly what it needs and nothing it doesnt, Alexander said. After the sensors examine the plants, the system provides suggestions for what is missing. What does that plant need that were not giving it.

Sarah Osentoski sees the robotic, indoor system expanding in the coming years to become a scalable model. I think its a really interesting way to bring modern technology in a controlled setting to agriculture. And it lets us do things that grow in ways that are really unique and different, she said.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Reuters reported this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for VOA Learning English. Susan Shand was the editor.

Quiz - California Startup Uses Robots in Greenhouses to Grow Crops Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

__________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

venture  n. a new business activity that may or may not be successful

acidity  n. the amount of acid in substance

sustainable  adj. involving methods that do not completely use up or destroy natural resources

drought  n. a long period of time during which there is very little or no rain

stage  adj. a period of development

three-dimensional (3D)  adj. having or appearing to have length, depth and height

scalable  adj. able to grow or be made larger

unique  adj. different from most other things

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A study says China's main international building project could face failure as debts grow and other countries cool on the plans.

Chinese president Xi Jinping launched the Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, in 2013. He said the aim of the infrastructure project was to "build a broad community of shared interests" throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America.

But Xi's plan faces major financial difficulties and foreign opposition, says a new report by researchers at the College of William and Marys AidData group in the United States.

Brad Parks helped write the report. He says, "A growing number of policymakers in low- and middle-income countries are mothballing high-profile BRI projects because of overpricing, corruption and debt sustainability concerns."

Mothballing means to stop doing something until possibly sometime in the future.

AidData said more than $58.5 billion worth of projects in Malaysia have been cancelled since the BRI launched. The study found a combined loss of more than $2.5 billion worth of projects in Kazakhstan and Bolivia.

China's foreign ministry said in a statement that "not all debts are unsustainable." The ministry also argued that the BRI has always honored the ideas of shared knowledge, shared work and shared results.

The ministry added that many partner countries say the BRI has been helpful for local economic development.

The AidData study looked at 13,427 projects supported by China in 165 countries over 18 years. The projects were worth a total of $843 billion. The researchers also report that China now spends two times the amount of the United States in international development efforts.

But, Brad Parks says, major changes in public feeling about the BRI make it difficult for partner countries to keep close relations with China.

Credit risks have risen along with BRI project cancellations. Chinese debt now exceeds 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in many low- and middle-income countries. The GDP is the total value of a countrys production of goods and services.

The study found that corruption, labor violations, pollution and public protests affect 35 percent of Belt and Road projects.

In June, the United States announced a competing plan known as Build Back Better World, or B3W. The aim of the plan is to provide financial support for developing nations to build infrastructure.

"B3W is going to increase choice in the infrastructure financing market, which could lead to some high-profile BRI defections," Parks said.

Im Jonathan Evans.

David Stanway reported on this story for the Reuters news service. Jonathan Evans adapted this story for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

______________________________________________

Words in This Story

infrastructure  n. the basic equipment and structures such as roads and bridges that are needed for a country, region, or organization to function properly

high-profile  adj. attracting a lot of attention in newspapers, on television, etc.

sustainability  n. a condition or situation that can continue a long time


For the first time, women in India can attend the countrys top military college. The Supreme Courts ruling this month permits women to rise in the ranks of the worlds second largest military. It marks a big step towards gender equality.

Lieutenant General H.S. Panag told VOA the ruling to let women attend Indias National Defense Academy is a good first step and something that had to happen given the fact that women are seeking more roles in the army all over the world.

The National Defense Academy is a difficult four-year program. Women have so far entered the military through a shorter 11-month training program. But the shorter program does not permit them to rise to higher ranks. It also mostly limits their career length to 14 years.

In September, the Supreme Court ruled that women are now permitted to take the exams needed to enter the academy. Its ruling came after a public petition argued that barring women from the college violated the constitution, which prevents discrimination based on gender.

Women are a very small part of the 1.3 million people in Indias military. They make up just over .5 percent of the army, 1.8 percent of the air force and 6.5 percent of the navy. Although women will be able to rise to the same ranks as males, combat roles for them in the army will be restricted.

During the Supreme Court hearing, the government argued there were many things that limit a womans ability to serve in the army, like motherhood, childcare, and psychological limitations.

Judges criticized the government for what they called a regressive mindset towards women in the military.

The Supreme Court has been critical of the army for being slow to permit women. Last year, a court ruling permitted women to hold non-combat command positions. The government had argued that women should not hold those positions because of their lower physical abilities.

Akanksha Khullar is a researcher with the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies in New Delhi. She said, Policy makers were resisting womens entry into military colleges because of a patriarchal mindset, that is why this has happened only after the courts intervention.

The move toward gender equality in the military could still take time. Women have worked in the armed forces mostly as doctors, nurses, engineers and lawyers.

Panag said that women who meet the same physical standards as men should be permitted to serve combat roles. Only a few countries, including Australia, Germany, Israel and the United States, let women fight in combat.

Some women who have served in the Indian army say that equality in combat roles will be a slow process.

Sajita Nair joined the army in 1994. She said she is happy that women will finally get a chance to attend the military academy. She said it will give women the chance to build a full career instead of leaving after 14 years, as many have had to do.

This opens the way for them to get into senior positions, Nair told VOA. We have such able women and they should be given the opportunity, and then of course, it is up to them to prove themselves.

Im Dan Novak.

Anjana Pasricha reported this story for Voice of America. Dan Novak adapted it for VOA Learning English. Ashly Thompson was the editor.

_______________________________________

Words in This Story

role  n. the part that someone has in a family, society, or other group

petition  n. a written document that people sign to show that they want a person or organization to do or change something

psychological  adj. of or relating to the mind

regressive  adj. returning to an earlier and usually worse or less developed condition or state

patriarchal  adj. cultures/societies that are controlled by men

intervene  v. to become involved in something (such as a conflict) in order to have an influence on what happens

standard  n. a level of quality, achievement, etc., that is considered acceptable or desirable
Burn! and Blue: Colonialism, Policing, and Tropicalization in Burn!, Jab!, and the Blue Rider Series

A Screening and Discussion Series for Caribbeanist Labs on Religion

Screening 1 (Date and time TBD): Burn!/Queimada/Quemada (1969)

Screening 2 (Date and time TBD): Chris Ofili: Exploding the Crystal (2010)

Jab! The Blue Devils of Paramin (2006)

Evaristo Marquez and Marlon Brando star in famed director Gillo Pontecorvos lesser-known, Caribbean-based work Burn! (Queimada). Edward Said avowed that Burn!, alongside Pontecorvos better-known Battle of Algiers, constitute a political and aesthetic standard never again equaled." Set on a fictional island in the Antilles, Burn! draws on the legacies of Iberian colonialism, the Haitian Revolution, and US and British interventions in the region to deliver an unforgettable work that bridges the regions linguistic divides.

Forty years later, Black British artist Chris Ofili watches Burn! on the real Caribbean island of Trinidad, the artists adopted home. The film helps inspire him to produce a set of monochromatic blue paintings filled with Trinidadian cultural references (the Blue Rider Series)works eventually displayed together in a darkened chapel for the artists retrospective at The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. In the dimmest of blue twilights, the soldiers of Burn! blend into scenes of modern-day police or arrested lovers, continuing the commentary on postcolonialism in the Caribbean and beyond. These paintings are again taken up by scholar-critic Fred Moten to reconsider what blues mean.

In Ofilis adopted home of Paramin, Trinidad, other shades of blue congeal in the towns infamous blue devils masquerade. The film Jab! (Trinidad English creole for devil from French and/or Spanish diable/diablo) details this ongoing practice of covering oneself in blue, a color that grants license to bend norms of gender, civilization, and other social categories. In Ofilis monochromatic depiction of police violence, Blue Devils, this masquerade takes on different resonances, as the blue of police uniforms grants another kind of limit-bending violence.

We will pre-circulate a work-in-progress that draws on Burn!, Paramins blue devils masquerade, and Ofilis blue paintings to to critically comment on the themes of colonialism, policing, and tropicalization in these works.



Evaristo Marquez as Jose Dolores

Screening 1 (Date TBD):

Burn!/Queimada/Quemada (English audio/Spanish subtitles)

Screening 2 (Date TBD):

Chris Ofili: Exploding the Crystal (English audio/English subtitles)

Jab: The Blue Devils of Paramin (Trinidad English Creole audio/English subtitles)

Film Descriptions:

Burn!/Queimada (dir. Gillo Pontecorvo 1969)

During the 1840s, Britain sends secret agent Sir William Walker (Marlon Brando) to break up Portugal's sugar monopoly on the fictional Caribbean island of Queimada. Walker incites the slaves to revolt under the leadership of a dock worker, Jose Dolores (Evaristo Marquez), while simultaneously convincing plantation owners to turn against the government. A decade later, however, Walker must return to Queimada to confront Dolores, who now leads a revolt to throw out the British.



Chris Ofilis Blue Chapel, The New Museum, New York

Chris Ofili: Exploding the Crystal (Tate Galleries 2010)

From the Tate Galleries:

Chris Ofili has built an international reputation with his works that bridge the sacred and the profane, popular culture and beliefs. His exuberant paintings are renowned for their rich layering and inventive use of media, including balls of elephant dung that punctuate the canvas and support them at their base, as well as glitter, resin, map pins and magazine cut-outs.

Ofilis early works draw on a wide range of influences, from Zimbabwean cave painting to blaxploitation movies, fusing comic book heroes and icons of funk and hip-hop. For the first time, these celebrated paintings are presented alongside current developments in his practice following his move to Trinidad in 2005.

While adopting a simplified colour palette and pared-down forms, his recent works continue to draw on diverse sources of inspiration, and are full of references to sensual and Biblical themes as well as explore Trinidads landscape and mythology.

Jab! The Blue Devils of Paramin (dir. Alex de Verteuill 2006)

Once a year at Carnival time Trinidads district of Paramin erupts into an inferno of blue-painted jabs or devils. This 46-minute documentary, filmed in the two weeks leading up to Carnival, follows Kootoo, King Devil, as he prepares with his three brothers to once again win the village competition for the most convincing devil band. Known for his athletic prowess, and given to extraordinary feats like ripping up trees and scaling tall buildings, the charismatic Kootoo must still work hard with his band of devils to win the prize in the face of serious competition from a new generation of jabs. Will the brothers theme Civilized Jabs (i.e. devils in neckties carrying oversized cell phones) add a new twist to the masquerade and be enough for them to win?
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Nearly 34 million Americans have blood pressure that's still too high even though they take medicine to control it. A new study may help them and their doctors decide whether to increase the dose of one of their existing drugs, or add a new one, to bring down their pressure and lower their risk of future health problems.

In a look back at data from nearly 179,000 veterans over age 65 who received treatment over two years at VA hospitals nationwide, researchers find that patients have a better chance of sticking to their medication regimen if their doctor maximizes the dosage of one of the drugs they're already taking. They also found that both strategies decrease blood pressure, but adding a new medication has a very slim advantage over increasing the dose of an existing medication, despite some of the patients being unable to stay on the new medication.

In the end, the researchers say, the new findings could add to discussions between physicians and patients whose blood pressure remains elevated despite starting medication treatment.

The findings, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine by a team from the University of Michigan and the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, focus on patients whose initial systolic blood pressure was above 130 mm Hg.

By looking back at VA and Medicare data, the researchers were able to see patterns in treatment and blood pressure readings over time, in a kind of natural experiment. All the patients were taking at least one blood pressure medication at less than the maximum dose and had a treatment intensification at the start of the study period, indicating that their physicians thought they needed more intense treatment.

Because intensification of blood pressure treatment can come with riskswhether a drug interaction if a new drug is added, or an electrolyte imbalance with high doses, or fainting and falling if a person's pressure gets too lowsuch decisions must be carefully made.

This is the first time a study has directly compared the effects of the two approaches, said first author Carole E. Aubert, M.D., M.Sc., a general internist from Bern University in Switzerland who performed much of the research while a scholar at the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation.

"There's increasing guidance on approaches to starting treatment in older adults, but less on to the next steps to intensify treatment, especially in an older and medically complex population that isn't usually included in clinical trials of blood pressure medication," she said. "How can we increase medications safely in a population already taking many medications for hypertension and other conditions."

"Treatment guidelines do suggest starting treatment with multiple medications, and clinicians are comfortable with an approach of 'starting low and going slow' in older patients," said senior author Lillian Min, M.D., M.S.H.S. "But these results show that in older patients, we have further opportunity to tailor choices in intensifying drug therapy for hypertension, depending on the individual patient's characteristics."

She continued, "Is the patient more likely to stick to a simpler regimen? Then increase an existing medication. Or is the blood pressure very high and the clinician is more concerned about reducing it? Then consider starting a new medication now." Min is a geriatrician at the Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Care at Michigan Medicine, U-M's academic medical center, and the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center.

For older adults who already take a range of medications, the added complexity of having to take one more kind of pill may be too much. The risks of polypharmacy, the term for taking multiple medications, are already well-known from other research, Min said. In fact, Medicare covers an annual medication review with a pharmacist for many older adults who take many drugs.

Explore further Have high blood pressure? You may want to check your meds

More information: Adding a New Medication Versus Maximizing Dose to Intensify Hypertension Treatment in Older Adults, Annals of Internal Medicine (2021). Journal information: Annals of Internal Medicine Adding a New Medication Versus Maximizing Dose to Intensify Hypertension Treatment in Older Adults,(2021). www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M21-1456
Researchers from Utrecht University coloured inhibitory brain cells (green), enabling the team to monitor how new brain cell connections arise. Credit: Utrecht University

Whenever we learn, remember or forget something, a surprisingly active role is played by cannabis-like substances in the brain. Researchers at Utrecht University found that the substances actively balance connections in the brain that allow cells to either activate or inhibit each other. The discovery reveals how brain cells influence each other, and how psychiatric disorders can arise when this process goes wrong.

Although wisdom comes with age, our brain does not store every single experience or lesson learned. In addition to learning and remembering, our brains are also equipped to forget irrelevant things or drop unused skills. In order to find a balance in this, brain cells constantly communicate with each other through connections that activate or inhibit the cells. Researchers from Utrecht University discovered that brain cells can form new, inhibitory connections via so-called endocannabinoids. They reported their discovery in Journal of Neuroscience.

Counterbalance

Endocannabinoids derive their name from the cannabis plant, which contains similar substances. The researchers discovered the role of endocannabinoids when they induced brain cells of mice to strengthen activating connections. In response, the brain cells also started making new inhibitory connections. The researchers found that endocannabinoids kickstarted the new connections.

Surprisingly active role

The researchers were surprised to find that these substances play such an active role. "Nobody expected this from endocannabinoids," says research leader Dr. Corette Wierenga, neurobiologist at Utrecht University.

It was already known that endocannabinoids can influence the functioning of our brains. But until now researchers assumed that the substances were merely involved in adjusting existing connections. "Now it appears that the system of endocannabinoids can actively push the production of new inhibitory connections, with which brain cells actively regulate the balance."

Psychiatric disorders caused by imbalance

The discovery could help scientists to better understand how psychiatric disorders and other abnormalities in the brain develop. In many of these disorders, the balance between inhibitory and activating connections is disturbed. During an epileptic seizure, for example, this balance is seriously disturbed. Although in many other disorders the disturbance is more subtle, for example in schizophrenia, the impact can still be equally profound.

Cannabis-related unbalance

The balance between activating and inhibiting connections in our brain is constantly being adjusted in response to our experiences. Whenever we experience something, the connections change, and the brain must restore the balance. Cannabis use can disrupt that balance.

"Occasional cannabis use will not seriously disturb the balance," says Wierenga. "But if the balance is disturbed for a longer period, it can cause problems. For example, children of mothers who smoked marijuana during pregnancy can experience problems with neurological development."

Early stages of life

The balance is especially important in early stages of life, Wierenga says. "During our development, brain connections are constantly changing. Especially during that period, it is important that inhibitory and activating connections remain coordinated. If the coordination is malfunctioning or disturbed, you can imagine that the system becomes disrupted. And unfortunately, disruptions that occur so early cannot be easily repaired later in life."

According to Wierenga, such disruptions can lead not only to loss of memory, but also initiate more serious consequences. For example, the brain might grow out to less adaptive to stressful situations. "When this happens, things get out of hand more easily in the brain, because inhibition and activation are out of balance. That could lead to learning and behavioral problems."

Predicting and preventing disorders

Creating a deeper understanding of the role endocannabinoids play in the brain, could lead to psychiatric disorders being more predictable or even prevented in the future. The publication in Journal of Neuroscience now sets out a new direction in which more knowledge can be built up. Wierenga: "Ultimately, as a researcher, we want to understand how brain cells coordinate the balance and what happens when that balance is disturbed.

More information: Jian Liang et al, Axonal CB1 receptors mediate inhibitory bouton formation via cAMP increase and PKA, The Journal of Neuroscience (2021). Journal information: Journal of Neuroscience Jian Liang et al, Axonal CB1 receptors mediate inhibitory bouton formation via cAMP increase and PKA,(2021). DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0851-21.2021
Ardem Patapoutian and David Julius, co-winners of the 2021 Nobel Medicine Prize.

David Julius was browsing a supermarket aisle filled with chili pepper sauces when he turned to his wife, a fellow scientist, and said he thought it was time he finally solved how certain chemicals cause the sensation of heat.

"Well then, you should get on it," came her reply.

Ardem Patapoutian, meanwhile, had long been driven to unlock the neglected mysteries of touch, which govern everything from how we discriminate between objects and how we feel when we hug another person, to how our bodies intuitively "know" where our limbs are, without looking.

Both American molecular biologists won the Nobel Medicine Prize for their groundbreaking advances, conducted independently of each other in the late 1990s and 2000s, that are now being turned towards developing treatments, especially of pain.

Julius, of the University of California, San Francisco told reporters he had always been fascinated by how people interact with natural products in their environment, and by how certain plants contain chemical irritants, such as spice.

Prior research had shown capsaicin was important as an activator of neurons involved in painbut the underlying mechanism was unclear.

Julius discovered in 1997 the specific protein on the outer tip of sensory nerves responsible for the sensation of burning pain from chiliesand discovered it also responded to high temperatures.

He then turned to compounds from menthol and mint to identify similar "receptors" responsible for cold, and used molecules from wasabi to learn about inflammatory pain.

"I like doing experimental science because you get to work at the bench with your hands while you're also thinking, and that gives you an opportunity to really sort of enjoy what you're doing day to day, almost like a hobby," he said.

"There's a time when you make a discovery, where you're the only person on the planet, or at least you think you're the only person on the planet who knows the answer to a particular question, and that's a really thrilling moment."

A number of drug candidates to stop chronic pain are in the pipeline, but have so far come up against challenging side effects.

"You have to walk this line of wanting to inhibit pain that's chronic... but not eliminate pain sensation that's protective or acute," he said.

Immigrant success

Patapoutian, of Scripps Research, also made discoveries linked to temperature, but his investigations into pressure stood out even more.

Specifically, he found two genes responsible for converting pressure into electrical signals through tests on lab-cultured cells.

It was a painstaking progress arrived at by deleting one gene after another. "After working on this for a whole year and getting one negative result after another, the 72nd candidate ... wiped out this ability," he said at a press event.

Armenian-origin Patapoutian, who grew up in war-torn Lebanon and came to the US aged 18, said it was hard for him to imagine the day would come he would win a Nobel.

When the Nobel committee tried calling him at 2:00 am in California, his phone was on silent.

"They somehow got a hold of my 94-year-old father who lives in Los Angeles, and I guess even if you have 'Do not disturb' people in your favorites can call you," he said, adding it was a "very special moment."

Explore further Pair win Nobel for unlocking mystery of sensing temperature, touch

 2021 AFP
Cancer  Histopathologic image of colonic carcinoid. Credit: Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 3.0

The number of colorectal cancer (CRC) cases diagnosed fell dramatically by 40 percent in a year during the COVID-19 pandemic, new research presented today at UEG Week Virtual 2021 has shown.

The research, which was conducted across multiple hospitals in Spain, compared data from the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic with data from the previous year. Of 1,385 cases of CRC diagnosed over the two-year period, almost two thirds (868 cases, 62.7 percent) were diagnosed in the pre-pandemic year from 24,860 colonoscopies. By contrast, only 517 cases (37.3 percent) were diagnosed during the pandemic, which also saw a 27 percent drop in the number of colonoscopies performed, to 17,337.

Those who were diagnosed with CRC between 15 March 2020 and 28 February 2021 were also older than in the pre-pandemic year, had more frequent symptoms, a greater number of complications and presented at a more advanced disease stage.

Experts say the fall is a consequence of the suspension of screening programs and the postponement of non-urgent colonoscopy investigations during the pandemic. Fewer cancers were identified by CRC screening in the pandemic period, with just 22 (4.3 percent) cases found in comparison to 182 (21 percent) in the pre-pandemic year. During the pandemic, more patients were diagnosed through symptoms (81.2 percent of diagnoses) compared with the pre-pandemic year (69 percent).

Dr. Maria Jose Domper Arnal, from the Service of Digestive Diseases, University Clinic Hospital and the Aragon Health Research Institute (IIS Aragon) in Zaragoza, Spain, and lead author of the study, commented "These are very worrying findings indeedcases of colorectal cancer undoubtedly went undiagnosed during the pandemic. Not only were there fewer diagnoses, but those diagnosed tended to be at a later stage and suffering from more serious symptoms."

There was a significant increase in the number of patients being diagnosed with serious complicationsa sign of late-stage diseasewith an increase in symptoms such as bowel perforation, abscesses, bowel obstruction and bleeding requiring hospital admission. These cases made up 10.6 percent pre-pandemic and 14.7 percent during the pandemic. The number of stage IV cancers being diagnosed rose during the pandemic year, with stage IV cases making up 19.9 percent of cases, in comparison to 15.9 percent in the previous year.

"Although these figures are across a population of 1.3 million in Spain, it's highly likely that the same drop in diagnoses would have happened elsewhere across the globe where screening was stopped and surgeries postponed, especially in countries that were heavily impacted by COVID-19," explained Dr. Maria Jose Domper Arnal.

"Colorectal cancer is often curable if it's caught at an early stage. Our concern is that we're losing the opportunity to diagnose patients at this early stage, and this will have a knock-on effect on patient outcomes and survival. We are likely to see this fall out for years to come."

CRC (or bowel cancer) is Europe's second largest cancer killer and the most common digestive cancer. Annually, there are 375,000 newly diagnosed cases in the EU, and it claims the lives of over 170,000 people. Since the rollout of screening programs, which now cover over 110 million EU citizens, Europe has observed a steady decline in CRC mortality rates. A recent global study published in The Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology demonstrated a correlation between the introduction of screening programs and a reduction in CRC mortality rates, supporting the benefits of effective screening interventions.

More information: Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the diagnosis and characteristics of colorectal cancer patients, presented at UEG Week Virtual 2021

Provided by United European Gastroenterology
Teachers protest against the COVID-19 vaccination mandates in New York on Wednesday Aug. 25, 2021. New York City teachers and other school staff members are supposed to be vaccinated against COVID-19 when the bell rings Monday morning, Oct. 4 in one of the first districtwide mandates requiring school employees to be inoculated against the coronavirus. Credit: AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File

New York City teachers and other school staff members were all supposed to be vaccinated against COVID-19 when the bell rang Monday morning in one of the first school district mandates in the country requiring employees to be inoculated against the coronavirus.

Mayor Bill de Blasio gave a final warning to the city's roughly 148,000 public school staffers on Friday, saying unvaccinated employees would be placed on unpaid leave and not be allowed to work this week. The city planned to bring in substitutes where needed.

The mandate spurred many teachers to get vaccinated as the deadline approached. United Federation of Teachers president Michael Mulgrew said 97% of his union's members had received at least one vaccine dose as of Monday morning.

That's up from Friday, when de Blasio said 93% of teachers had received at least one shot. The mayor said Friday that 90% of all Department of Education employees had received at least one vaccine dose, including 98% of principals.

Implementing the mandate smoothly will be a test for de Blasio, a Democrat who has boasted of the city's record of keeping school buildings open during most of the last school year when other districts went to all-remote instruction. New York City is not offering a remote option this year.

The vaccination mandate in the nation's largest school system does not include a test-out option, but does allow for medical and religious exemptions. It was supposed to go into effect last week but was delayed when a federal appeals court granted a temporary injunction. An appeals panel reversed that decision three days later.

English teacher Frank Esposito receives a COVID-19 nasal swab test at West Brooklyn Community High School in New York, on Thursday Oct. 29, 2020. New York City teachers and other school staff members are supposed to be vaccinated against COVID-19 when the bell rings Monday morning, Oct. 4 in one of the first districtwide mandates requiring school employees to be inoculated against the coronavirus. Credit: AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File

A similar mandate is set to go into effect in Los Angeles on Oct. 15.

Mark Cannizzaro, president of the Council of Schools Supervisors and Administrators, said that despite a surge in vaccinations last week, some principals were having difficulty finding enough staff to replace unvaccinated workers.

"While we're thankful that the percentage of vaccinated staff has increased systemwide since the deadline was extended, there are still too many school leaders that have been unable to find qualified substitutes for Monday," Cannizzaro said.

A group of teachers and other school employees who had sued over the school vaccine mandate asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday for an emergency injunction blocking its implementation. The request was denied on Friday.

Many students and parents support the vaccine mandate as the best way to keep schools open during the pandemic.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, left, touching elbows with a student, during a visit with Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter, right, at Phyl's Academy in the Brooklyn, N.Y., on Wednesday March 24, 2021. New York City teachers and other school staff members are supposed to be vaccinated against COVID-19 when the bell rings Monday morning, Oct. 4 in one of the first districtwide mandates requiring school employees to be inoculated against the coronavirus. Credit: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File

"It's safer for our kids," said Joyce Ramirez, 28, who was picking her three children up from a Bronx elementary school last week.

Ramirez said she hopes the requirement will lessen the chances of teachers contracting the virus and prompting classroom or school shutdowns.

Cody Miller, a 15-year-old sophomore at a high school in Manhattan, said teachers should all be vaccinated. "I think they should," said the teen, who got vaccinated himself as soon as the Pfizer shot was approved for people 12 and up. "It's so many kids, it's a big environment, you know?"

But Mally Diroche, another Bronx parent, had mixed feelings. "I kind of feel like that's a decision they should be able to make on their own," said the mom of three boys between 3 and 12. Diroche, 29, said she feels that masks and other precautions can check the virus' spread within schools.

A girl passes a "Welcome Back to School" sign as she arrives for the first day of class at Brooklyn's PS 245 elementary school, Monday, Sept. 13, 2021, in New York. New York City teachers and other school staff members are supposed to be vaccinated against COVID-19 when the bell rings Monday morning, Oct. 4 in one of the first districtwide mandates requiring school employees to be inoculated against the coronavirus. Credit: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

Students are greeted by faculty as they arrive at PS811 in New York, Monday, Sept. 13, 2021. New York City teachers and other school staff members are supposed to be vaccinated against COVID-19 when the bell rings Monday morning, Oct. 4 in one of the first districtwide mandates requiring school employees to be inoculated against the coronavirus. Credit: AP Photo/Richard Drew, File

Some educators have reservations about the mandate but are complying.

Maurice Jones, 46, a support staff member at a Manhattan middle school, said he got vaccinated months ago but he sympathizes with co-workers who have not gotten the shots. "If they've got to get tested more they've got to get tested more," Jones said. "I don't think they should lose their job."

Roxanne Rizzi, who teaches technology at an elementary school in Queens, waited until Friday to get her first coronavirus vaccine shot.

"I had to do it for the finances of my family," she said.

Rizzi, 55, had resisted the vaccine because she contracted COVID-19 in November and believed natural immunity would protect her. She said she would continue to protest the mandate.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people should get vaccinated even if they have already been infected by the virus. The agency says COVID-19 vaccines offer better protection than natural immunity and help prevent getting infected again.

Explore further New York City to conduct weekly COVID-19 tests in schools

 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Illustration: fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Image) of brain showing the location of areas of reduced activity (credit: Liliana Capitao). Credit: Liliana Capitao

Scientists have measured brain activity in young people with and without depression, and found that the brains of depressed adolescents give a muted reaction to distressing images. Previous research with depressed adults does not show this effect, implying that brain development in adolescence may have specific vulnerabilities to unsettling information, and that perhaps the depressed adolescent brain avoids information which in the end could aggravate the depression. Antidepressant treatment was shown to restore this depressed brain activity to 'healthy' levels. The work is presented at the ECNP conference in Lisbon.

The researchers, from the University of Oxford, compared brain activity of 29 depressed adolescents with that of 16 healthy adolescents, aged 13 to 18. They found that when depressed adolescents were shown a series of photos of distressing images, there was reduced activity, as shown on an fMRI brain scan, (compared to non-depressed adolescents) in brain areas related to visual processing; the occipital pole (which processes visual information, found at the rear of the brain) and the fusiform gyrus (which is involved in the processing of faces, body and colors, found near the brain stem and cerebellum). The images depicted scenarios such as someone crying, someone visibly hurt, someone being attacked.

Lead researcher, Dr. Liliana Capitao, said, "The ability to regulate emotions is key to social and emotional development in adolescents. What we have seen in this study makes us believe that depressed adolescents may avoid distressing information, which could potentially intensify their experience of depression. However there are other possible interpretations and we need more work to confirm our ideas. For instance, this could also reflect a form of 'emotional numbness," where depressed adolescents shut down their emotions and do not feel involved in what's happening around them, or even reflect difficulties with taking another person's perspective, as the images showed distressing situations that were happening to others. This effect has not been found in previous work using the same distressing images in adults with depression, which could imply that there are potential vulnerabilities in the brains of depressed adolescents which are not found in the brains of depressed adults."

The 29 depressed adolescents were given either the antidepressant fluoxetine or a placebo. After a single 10mg dose (a normal starting dose) of fluoxetine, brain activity in depressed adolescents was found to increase to the same level as that of healthy adolescents (the healthy adolescents were not given either the antidepressant or the placebo for ethical reasons). Dr. Capitao said:

"The fluoxetine increased neural activity after a single dose, showing effects on the brain within hours of administration. This could imply that this medication reduces the brain's avoidance of experiencing these distressing images very early on in treatment. This effect could help these depressed adolescents approach problems which arise in everyday life, by helping them cope with the distressing experience. However, this is just a working hypothesis, and needs to be confirmed in larger studies."

She said, "We also want to refine our methods, for example by introducing eye-tracking, which would help us understand if participants were actively looking away from the distressing images. It would also be important to improve the images shown, to better reflect the realities of negative situations experienced by teenagers and make them more personal."

Commenting, Dr. Henricus Ruhe, psychiatrist and principal investigator at Radboudumc, Nijmegen, the Netherlands said: "This is an interesting line of evidence of what might go wrong in young people who are depressed. First, it is unique to have recruited such a sample of (depressed) youngsters and get them involved in this intensive fMRI research and treat them with an antidepressant or placebo. More knowledge about depression in this age-group is extremely important as most affective disorders start in adolescence, but are often unrecognized. As the symptomatology and new episodes seem to worsen over time during early adulthood, depression during adolescence might indicate a window of opportunity to intervene and change the course of illness.

This study is important as it provides a clue in how we measure functioning of the adolescent brain. Because the adolescent brain is highly adaptive and still reshaping, it might -relative to more matured adult brains- more easily be influenced by interventions as cognitive training or cognitive therapy. I can imagine the researchers are thinking of this type of interventions to further substantiate their theory and develop interventions to be tested in future studies."

Explore further Depression affects the brains of males and females differently

More information: 34th ECNP Congress Hybrid, 25 October: 34th ECNP Congress Hybrid, 25 October: https://www.ecnp.eu/Congress2021/ECNPcongress
The study suggests that the Yezo virus, a type of orthonairovirus, transmits between animals and humans via ticks and causes fever and other symptoms in humans. Credit: Fumihiro Kodama, et al., Nature Communications, September 20, 2021

A previously unknown virus that can infect humans and cause disease has been identified by scientists in Japan. The novel infectious virus, named Yezo virus, is transmitted by tick bites and causes a disease characterized by fever and a reduction in blood platelets and leucocytes. The discovery was made by researchers at Hokkaido University and colleagues, and the results have been published in the journal Nature Communications.

Keita Matsuno, a virologist at Hokkaido University's International Institute for Zoonosis Control, said: "At least seven people have been infected with this new virus in Japan since 2014, but, so far, no deaths have been confirmed."

The Yezo virus was discovered after a 41-year-old man was admitted to the hospital in 2019 with fever and leg pain after being bitten by an arthropod believed to be a tick while he was walking in a local forest in Hokkaido. He was treated and discharged after two weeks, but tests showed he had not been infected with any known viruses carried by ticks in the region. A second patient showed up with similar symptoms after a tick bite the following year.

Genetic analysis of viruses isolated from blood samples of the two patients found a new type of orthonairovirus, a class of nairovirus, that includes pathogens such as the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus. The scientists named it Yezo virus, after a historical Japanese name for Hokkaido, a large island in the north of the country where the virus was discovered. The novel virus was found most closely related to Sulina virus and Tamdy virus, detected in Romania and Uzbekistan, respectively, the latter of which reportedly caused acute fever in humans recently in China.

Three major species of ticks distribute in Hokkaido, Japan. From left, Haemaphysalis megaspinosa male and female, Ixodes ovatus male and female, and Ixodes persulcatus male and female. Credit: Dr. Ryo Nakao, Laboratory of Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University

The scientists then checked blood samples collected from hospital patients who showed similar symptoms after tick bites since 2014. They found additional positive samples from five patients. These patients, including the first two, had a fever and reduced blood platelets and leucocytes, and showed indicators of abnormal liver function.

To determine the likely source of the virus, the research team screened samples collected from wild animals in the area between 2010 and 2020. They found antibodies for the virus in Hokkaido shika deer and raccoons. They also found the virus RNA in three major species of ticks in Hokkaido. Matsuno says, "The Yezo virus seems to have established its distribution in Hokkaido, and it is highly likely that the virus causes the illness when it is transmitted to humans from animals via ticks."

As the COVID-19 pandemic so dramatically demonstrates, animals carry many unknown viruses and some of these can go on to infect people. "All of the cases of Yezo virus infection we know of so far did not turn into fatalities, but it's very likely that the disease is found beyond Hokkaido, so we need to urgently investigate its spread," said Matsuno.

The research team now plans to track the possible nationwide distribution of the novel virus in wild animals and patients. And they say more hospitals should test for the virus in patients who complain of the symptoms.

Explore further Japan woman dies of tick disease after bitten by sick cat

More information: Fumihiro Kodama et al, A novel nairovirus associated with acute febrile illness in Hokkaido, Japan, Nature Communications (2021). Journal information: Nature Communications Fumihiro Kodama et al, A novel nairovirus associated with acute febrile illness in Hokkaido, Japan,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25857-0
The findings of a new study indicate erectile dysfunction and inflammation could be prevented by blocking the effect of endothelin-1, which is a potent vasoconstrictor peptide and regulator of blood flow. A research team from Aarhus University in Denmark will present its findings virtually October 47 at the Seventeenth International Conference on Endothelin (ET-17), hosted and organized by the American Physiological Society (APS).

There is a strong, established tie between heart disease and erectile dysfunction, which is the inability to get and keep an erection for sex. Approximately half of all men with erectile dysfunction have a "robust risk for cardiovascular disease," according to study author Rafael Fais, Ph.D., of National Jewish Health in Denver.

Endothelin-1, also referred to as downstream signal pathways, is released from the inner cell layer of blood vessels. It is closely associated with erectile dysfunction and inflammation because it can increase blood pressure. In this study, conducted using a mouse model, Fais blocked endothelin-1 by using an endothelial type A and B receptor antagonist called bosentan. Bosentan was injected directly into the cavernosal tissue of the penis, confirming the role of endothelin-1 in erectile dysfunction.

The findings suggest that endothelin-1 could play a significant role in reducing erectile dysfunction and inflammation. Fais hopes this study will lead to newer medications to treat erectile dysfunction and heart problems. Another goal is to increase a couple's quality of life by improving their sexual relationship.

Explore further The global prevalence of erectile dysfunction
This file Tuesday, April 20, 2021 file photo shows an exterior view of the European Medicines Agency, EMA, in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The European Medicines Agency said on Tuesday, Oct. 4 the booster doses "may be considered at least 6 months after the second dose for people aged 18 years and older." The agency also said it supports giving a third dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or the Moderna vaccine to people with severely weakened immune systems at least 28 days after their second shot.Credit: AP Photo/Peter Dejong, FILE

The European Union's drug regulator gave its backing Monday to administering booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for people 18 and older.

The European Medicines Agency said the booster doses "may be considered at least 6 months after the second dose for people aged 18 years and older."

The agency's human medicines committee issued the recommendation after studying data for the Pfizer vaccine that showed a rise in antibody levels following boosters given around 6 months after the second dose in people from 18 to 55 years old.

The agency also said it supports giving a third dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or the Moderna vaccine to people with severely weakened immune systems at least 28 days after their second shot.

The agency said its decision came after studies showed that an extra dose of the vaccines increased people's ability to produce antibodies against the virus that causes COVID-19 in organ transplant patients with weakened immune systems.

"Although there is no direct evidence that the ability to produce antibodies in these patients protected against COVID-19, it is expected that the extra dose would increase protection at least in some patients," the agency said in a statement.

The EMA recommendations go to the European Commission for approval and then to health authorities in all 27 EU nations, whose national health authorities decide on vaccination strategies. Some countries already have begun administering booster shots.

Numerous studies have shown that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines remain strongly protective months after people receive their second dose, dramatically cutting the risk of hospitalization and death.

The World Health Organization's chief had urged wealthy nations not to use booster doses this year, saying there is no scientific data that proves the shots are necessary. He said COVID-19 vaccines would be put to better use in developing countries, where many people still have not received their first vaccine shots.

The United States government launched a campaign last month to offer boosters of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine to millions of Americans even as federal health officials stressed the real problem remains getting first shots to the unvaccinated.

Pfizer-BioNTech said in a statement that they "do not expect the introduction of booster doses in the United States and the EU, if authorized, to impact the existing supply agreements in place with governments and international health organizations around the world."

The coronavirus pandemic has killed at least 4.8 million people around the world.

Explore further EU regulator evaluating if COVID vaccine booster is needed

 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Experts in the endothelin system are investigating how regulation of this system can serve to improve diseases of inflammation such as lupus. Endothelins are a class of peptides that play a role in regulating blood pressure. New research findings will be presented virtually at the Seventeenth International Conference on Endothelin (ET-17), hosted and organized by the American Physiological Society (APS).

Pulmonary Hypertension Medication Improved Inflammation and Metabolic Markers in Lupus Mouse Model

High levels of endothelin 1 in the blood is associated with obesity and insulin resistance. People with the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), the most common form of lupus, often have elevated endothelin 1. They are also more likely to be obese and to develop type II diabetes than their non-SLE peers.

Researchers at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson treated a mouse model of SLE with two different kinds of endothelin blockers. Both blockers lowered markers of inflammation and reduced fasting insulin levels compared to controls. One blocker, bosentan, which is already prescribed to humans to regulate pulmonary hypertension, also improved glucose tolerance. These findings are an encouraging sign that endothelin blockers could be beneficial to people with SLE.

Endothelin Blockers Protected Mouse Model from Developing Colitis

University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers explored potential protective effect of endothelin blockers on a mouse model of colitis. This model is often used to represent the human inflammatory disorder ulcerative colitis. Mice pretreated with endothelin blockers prior to exposure to an intestinal irritant did not develop colitis, a result more protective than expected. The researchers plan future studies to assess "the potential of [endothelin blockers] as a therapeutic agent for maintaining remission in colitis."

Vitamin D Showed Protective Effect in Kidney Injury Mouse Model

Researchers at Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia looked at a method of reducing acute and chronic kidney injury, a disease to which endothelin 1 contributes. They treated a mouse model of acute and chronic kidney injury with calcitriol, an active form of vitamin D. Compared to untreated mice, treated mice showed a reduced serum creatinine level, which is an indication of better kidney function, and a reduction in markers of inflammation and markers of endothelin activity. The researchers concluded that "calcitriol may ameliorate vascular remodeling, inflammation and fibrosis during acute and chronic phases" of kidney injury and that future studies with endothelin blockers to tease out the interaction between vitamin D and endothelin-1 "may provide better understanding in the future."

Explore further Erectile dysfunction could be prevented by blocking endothelin-1
(Healthday News)Johnson & Johnson plans to ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve emergency use of a booster shot of its single-dose COVID-19 vaccine early this week.

While the request has yet to be submitted, the FDA on Friday scheduled an Oct. 15 meeting of its expert advisory panel to discuss whether a booster shot of the vaccine should receive emergency use authorization, The New York Times reported.

The scheduling of that meeting before Johnson & Johnson has even filed its application with the FDA highlights the Biden administration's concerns that the 15 million Americans who received the company's vaccine require more protection, the Times said.

Johnson & Johnson is the last of the three FDA-authorized vaccine providers to seek approval of booster shots, as increasing evidence suggests that older adults and other high-risk people may need them.

Last month, the FDA authorized a booster shot for many people who received Pfizer's vaccine and is considering doing the same this month for Americans who received Moderna's vaccine, the Times reported.

A recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found that Johnson & Johnson's vaccine was only 71% effective against hospitalization from COVID-19, compared with 88% for Pfizer's vaccine and 93% for Moderna's vaccine. Both are two-dose vaccines.

Johnson & Johnson recipients were also more likely to have breakthrough infections or symptomatic COVID-19 than recipients of the other two vaccines, other research has shown, the Times reported.

But a company-funded study of nearly 2 million people found the vaccine was 81 percent effective against hospitalization. And other studies suggest that protection from Johnson & Johnson's vaccine does not wane over time like Pfizer's vaccine does, the Times said.

Regardless, the company announced last month that a second dose, given two months after the first, increased the vaccine's effectiveness against symptomatic COVID-19 by about 22 percentage points, to 94 percent. Johnson & Johnson also said two shots were 100 percent effective against severe disease, although that estimate was less conclusive, the Times reported.

Explore further Decision on J&J COVID vaccine booster doses could take weeks

More information: Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more on Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more on booster shots.

Copyright  2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The weekly number of coronavirus deaths worldwide has fallen to levels unseen for almost a year, according to an AFP count on Monday based on official national figures.

The 53,245 deaths recorded worldwide between September 27 and October 3, an average of 7,606 each day, showed that the global pandemic continues the downward trend that began at the end of August, after a peak of around 10,000 deaths per day.

The new weekly death toll figure is the lowest recorded since Oct 31-November 6, 2020.

Over the last month the number of COVID-19 related deaths has fallen by almost a quarter, as vaccination campaigns make progress.

After a year of Coronavirus waves, linked in particular to the spread of variants including the more contagious Delta strain, the curve of new cases is also down, by almost a third compared to the end of August.

With nearly 81 doses of anti-COVID-19 vaccine administered per 100 inhabitants worldwide, according to an AFP count, the authorities hope to see this decline continue, even if there are still major disparities between regions.

For every 100 residents of North America 123 vaccines doses have been administered. The figure for Africa is 11 doses per 100 people, with half the nations on the continent managing to fully vaccinate just two percent of their people, according to the World Health Organization's Africa office.

Since the virus was first discovered in China in late 2019, around 4.8 million people have died of COVID-19 around the world.

The WHO has said that taking into account excess mortality directly and indirectly linked to COVID-19 the pandemic's true overall toll could be two to three times higher than official records.

Explore further Africa COVID death toll tops 200,000

 2021 AFP
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There are implications of the health crisis about which little is known yet. The spread of COVID has put the Italian national health system under serious stress and caused the postponement of less urgent hospital operations but has also led to a significant drop in blood donations. This reduction, in a vicious circle, has weighed negatively on meeting the demand for blood transfusions, in a period when hospitals were on the verge of being overwhelmed.

The fear of contracting the virus during donation has put most donors on hold not only in Italy but throughout Europe, according to the study "Blood donation in times of crisis: Early insight into the impact of COVID-19 on blood donors and their motivation to donate across European countries," conducted by Torsten Chandler (University of Hamburg) and Aleksandra Torbica (CERGASBocconi Research Center on Health and Social Care Management) with other authors.

The survey, published in the international journal Vox Sanguinis, was conducted in seven European countries and more than 7,000 citizens participated. Of these, only 1,205 (16.9 percent) were regular donors and, among them, only 33.8 percent donated during the first 45 months of 2020. The study highlights, in particular, that about 50 percent of donors have reduced the frequency of donations. Portugal and France were the nations that recorded the most drastic drops.

In general, those who feared COVID infection donated less blood, even though the risk of contagion was reduced to a minimum in specialized facilities. Those who are aware of the difficulties facing their national health system also reduced their activity as blood donors. Even those who were scrupulously sticking to the COVID health protocol (such as always wearing a face mask and washing hands often) preferred to stay at home.

"A scenario has therefore emerged in which even the most convinced donors have declared that they made an additional effort to go and donate," explains Torbica. "The suggestion emerging from the study is that blood collection services should implement communication campaigns that highlight the altruistic motivations behind donations and underline the additional health safety measures implemented during these times of crisis." Especially since, concludes Torbica, "the majority of citizens were unaware that a donation was also an opportunity to do a blood screening, given that donors are subjected to an antigen test for COVID."

Explore further Big need for blood donations as postponed surgeries resume

More information: Torsten Chandler et al, Blood donation in times of crisis: Early insight into the impact of COVID19 on blood donors and their motivation to donate across European countries, Vox Sanguinis (2021). Torsten Chandler et al, Blood donation in times of crisis: Early insight into the impact of COVID19 on blood donors and their motivation to donate across European countries,(2021). DOI: 10.1111/vox.13103

Provided by Bocconi University
Examining a child on a screen is nothing like examining a child in person. Credit: Shutterstock

The incidence of brain cancer in children in Canada is three in 100,000. Brain cancers are treatable when they are localized but prognosis worsens and they become less treatable as they grow larger, spread throughout the brain and in some cases metastasize through the cerebrospinal fluid down the spine and around the brain. They are aggressive, as brain cancers are the second most common cause of childhood cancers after leukemia but the most common cause of childhood cancer mortality.

Many aggressive brain cancers occur before the age of five, and are difficult to diagnose in young children. Also, children cannot verbalize a lot of complex or subtle neurological symptoms like dizziness or double vision.

Very often in the last year or so, I have seen children for the first time when they have already reached the end stage of brain cancer. These are children whose illness is dreadfully apparent. They are children whose lives we could have saved if they had been diagnosed even six months earlier.

I know why that didn't happen: the COVID-19 pandemic, and its effects on our health-care system and its patients. Sometimes families were too reluctant to take their children to see their family physicians, or regular care was only accessible through online appointments, where so much less information is available to the clinician. This includes the vital observations that can only come from a physical examination.

Virtual visits

Seeing a patient on a screen is nothing like examining a child in person. There are cues we get from muscle tone, eye clarity and subtleties in breathing, for example, that when taken together with other information can flag serious problems in time for us to treat them.

The fear and distraction generated by our approach to the pandemic drowned out other concerns, with dreadful consequences. So while these kids haven't been dying from COVID-19, they have certainly been dying because of it.

Sadly, I'm certain that these preventable deaths are happening throughout the health-care system, among children and adults alike. Patients have delayed seeking diagnosis and treatment because they were more afraid of the virus than of whatever else was happening.

My colleagues talk about adult patients who skipped diagnostic procedures like colonoscopies, ignored chest pains or failed to investigate other serious concerns. People suffering from other conditions have become the collateral damage caused by the ongoing pandemic.

This is heartbreaking and frustrating. Public-health messaging across North America intended to keep people safe from the pandemic. Based on what I see in my own practice, I worry that it was too alarmist and too negative. The messages may have deterred patients and caused them to avoid hospitals and clinics for fear of getting COVID-19. And the media focus on the pandemic created a vigilance for COVID-19 at the expense of watching for symptoms of other diseases.

I fear that once the full extent of these preventable deaths is known, it will far exceed the number of deaths due to COVID-19.

Christine Elliott, the Ontario Minister of Health, says the province will spend up to $324 million to tackle a backlog of surgeries.

Health care after the pandemic

As we appear to be emerging from the worst stages of the pandemic, I am bracing myself to see more children with advanced terminal cancer, knowing they could have lived if not for this well-meaning but misguided approach.

It was encouraging to see the Ontario government's recent announcement about adding resources to non-COVID-19 care to help with backlogs, but the fact is that for too many patients, any care they receive now will come too late.

Certainly, the public needed to know about and protect itself from the threat of the pandemic virusthe collective action of clinicians, scientists, front-line workers and others outside the medical system has helped mitigate the damage.

Since the spring of 2020, though, it's almost as if there were no other health problem but COVID-19. While in the foreground we've been assiduously washing our hands, wearing our masks, keeping our distance and getting our vaccines, the drumbeat of other serious health problems has continued as steadily as ever.

Had we all had a choice about how to approach the new crisis, I dare say we'd have preferred a more balanced, nuanced message about taking care of all health concerns simultaneously, rather than replacing almost everything else with a single public health issue that is ultimately worse than the one we were trying to prevent.

Even in health care, I think too many were too ready to pinch off in-person contact with patients in family doctors' offices, community clinics, in imaging and other diagnostic services, all of which are vital conduits for earlier diagnosis of symptoms that patients can't identify themselves.

Future pandemics

I dread what my colleagues and I have yet to discover as more patients emerge from COVID-19's fearsome shadow. There will be months, even years of catching up as we try to care for people with advanced illnesses and conditions, while new cases of the diseases and conditions that usually keep our system full continue to develop.

As a physician, I want to help people be as healthy as they can be. I do the best I can with the circumstances but at home, late at night, I reflect on the suffering of my patients and their families and my heart fills with sorrow. I feel powerless.

The barriers were unintentional, but the impact is terrible.

We will likely see more pandemics, and sooner than we'd like. When they come, I hope we will face them with the needs of all patients in mind.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Kyndal Nipper started the morning with a sense of relief.

To the eight-months pregnant, 29-year-old from Columbus, it seemed that her bout with COVID-19 had ended and she had made it through the illness with only mild symptoms: a low-grade fever, fatigue and a loss of taste and smell. She felt better than she had in days as she resumed her normal routine.

But, as morning gave way to afternoon, she noticed that her baby wasn't moving as much he usually did. Maybe not at all. She ate a snack and drank a caffeinated beverage to stimulate movement. Still nothing.

Out of an abundance of caution, she headed to Piedmont Columbus Regional Hospital, where her husband, Thomas, and Dr. Timothy Villegas later joined her. A series of tests revealed the unthinkable: The baby had died.

The Nippers were devastated and filled with questions.

"I couldn't believe it was happening," Kyndal Nipper said. "It's been so painful, and I still have moments like, is this some sort of dream or is this real life?"

That July day marked the first time during the pandemic that one of Villegas' patients had experienced a stillbirth attributed to the virus. But, before the month was out, the OB-GYN specialist learned of two other similar late-term cases from doctors in Columbus. And, he said, he's talked to colleagues around the country who have seen an uptick in such cases.

When an analysis is done of COVID-19 and 2021 pregnancies, "I would be surprised if it doesn't find a statistically significant increase in stillbirths," said Villegas.

This much is certain already: With the surge in cases brought on by the delta variant, more pregnant women are contracting the virus, and that's because they are largely unvaccinated.

On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an urgent health advisory to encourage more pregnant women to get inoculated against COVID-19, for themselves and their babies. The agency's recommendation echoes advice from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. But, so far, it's been a tough sell. Only 31% of pregnant women are fully vaccinated compared with 64% of the age-eligible general population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Because pregnant women were excluded from initial clinical trials, a lack of data about the vaccines' effects on pregnancy fueled hesitancy early on. And even though a CDC study of more than 35,000 pregnant women later found no evidence that vaccinations caused increased risks of miscarriage or other complications, most are still balking at getting the shots.

OB-GYNs are also working to combat false information on social media, such as myths that the vaccines lead to women becoming infertile or sterile.

Nipper didn't get vaccinated because she worried about potential harm to her baby. Her plan was to wait until after giving birth. She and her family, she said, took other precautions to avoid the virus.

Nipper said she had one brief encounter with someone who had the virus but was asymptomatic.

Soon afterward, she was diagnosed with COVID-19, but she didn't panic because she didn't feel that sick. "What I didn't realize was COVID was attacking me from the inside," she said.

The virus caused Nipper's placenta to become inflamed, ultimately cutting off blood, oxygen and nutrients to Jack, her unborn baby, according to Villegas.

As of September 13, there had been at least 266 pregnancy losses in COVID-19 patients around the country, according to the CDC.

Dr. Stephanie GroganOB-GYN chief at Northside Hospital Atlanta, where more babies were delivered last year than in any other facility in the countrysaid she believes that there's a "very real possibility" national data will show an increase in stillbirths due to COVID-19 by the time the year is over.

Like in Nipper's case, there's growing evidence the virus can damage the placenta, which nourishes the fetus.

In Georgia, the Department of Public Health has released no data on the number of stillbirths recorded for women who tested positive for the coronavirus. A spokeswoman said the department is still analyzing and reviewing the information.

Meanwhile, Mississippi health officials recently said that, since the start of the pandemic, the state has seen 72 stillbirths among unvaccinated pregnant women with COVID-19. That's twice the rate of what would normally be expected, Mississippi State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs said at a news conference.

And recently, the Louisiana Department of Health reported an "alarming increase" in severe COVID-19 illnesses and deaths among pregnant women since mid-July, citing the cases of 14 mothers-to-be who were unvaccinated. Six of the women and 10 of the babies died.

Doctors at Phoebe Putney Health System in Albany said they are treating a startling number of pregnant women who are extremely sick with COVID-19. That's meant they've had to perform more emergency C-sections and, in some cases, deliver babies prematurely.

"If the baby is 39 weeks, it is not such a hard decisionthe baby can be ready to be born," said Dr. William Sewell, medical director of Phoebe Putney's Women's & Children's Health. "But, when you get into a situation where the baby is at 26 or 28 weeks, that is three months premature. And those decisions can be very difficult."

For a small number of women, "things can turn tragic," he said. "What should be the happiest time of your life turns out to be the worst or one of the worst."

It's not just the unborn babies who are at risk. So are the mothers.

More than 125,000 pregnant women in the U.S. have tested positive for the coronavirus at some point during the pandemic, according to the CDC. Sewell emphasized that most pregnant women with COVID-19 have mild symptoms or none at all.

About 22,000 pregnant women with COVID-19 have been hospitalized, but the CDC data doesn't say how many of the admissions were for pregnancy-related issues and how many were for virus complications. The federal agency also does not break down the findings state by state.

Even in the best of circumstances, pregnancy can strain a woman's body, said Sewell. But, when you add in COVID-19, the motherand child in the wombcan struggle to get enough oxygen, which can put both lives in peril, he said.

Across the country, 161 pregnant women with COVID-19 have died. The CDC said 22 of these deaths occurred in the month of August.

In Georgia, four pregnant women with COVID-19 have died during the pandemic, according to the state Department of Public Health. An additional three women gave birth while hospitalized for COVID-19 and later died. Three more possible deaths involving pregnant women are under review.

Pregnancy may make women more vulnerable to infection and severe illness for several reasons. The immune system is suppressed during pregnancy, a response designed to prevent adverse reactions to the fetus, but one that increases the mother's susceptibility to infections.

Other physical changes also take place. The lungs may be affected by the expanding uterus, and the cardiovascular system has to work harder. COVID-19 also can raise the risks of blood clots.

In a study undertaken before vaccines were widely available and before the more aggressive delta variant took hold, researchers from the University of California's Irvine Medical Center found that COVID-19-positive mothers-to-be were six times more likely to end up in the intensive care unit and 14 times more likely to be intubated compared with pregnant women who didn't have the virus.

There are growing concerns among doctors that the delta variant is more dangerous to pregnant women than earlier versions of the coronavirus, and that mutations in the strain allow the virus to get into cells quicker.

At Northside Hospital Atlanta, about 98% of the COVID-19 positive pregnant women who end up in ICU are unvaccinated, said Grogan.

In some cases, they are so sick that, after delivering their babies, they are unable to interact with them. "The moms are not spending those precious few hours, days, even weeks with their newborns because they are in the hospital. That bonding time is so important," said Grogan. "Some babies have had to go home with other family members. It is hard on the entire family. And, in my mind, I feel like this is preventable with the vaccine."

During past surges, it was rare that pregnant women with COVID-19 ended up in ICU, said Sewell, from Phoebe Putney. Nowadays, "it's not so rare," he said.

In the hospital in Columbus, Nipper and her husband vowed to do whatever they could to encourage pregnant women to get vaccinated.

"Everyone has a choice what to do, but you can't make the choice unless you know what is happening," said Nipper, who has a 3-year-old daughter, Blakeley. "One thing is I tell people the world is so divided. ... This is not about politics, this is personal."

"I am not going to convince someone who is really against the vaccine to get the vaccine. But, if I can reassure someone getting vaccinated they would be doing everything they can to protect themselves, it is worth it to us if we can potentially save someone else's baby."

Explore further CDC pushes hard on vaccination for pregnant women in new advisory

2021 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

A second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine should be offered to individuals infected with the virus shortly after receiving the first dose, according to findings recently published by the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine of Bar-Ilan University and Ziv Medical Center.

The study, published in the journal Epidemiology & Infection, tracked a cohort of 541 Ziv Medical Center health care workerssome of whom had already recovered from COVID-19to determine how those previously infected with COVID-19 responded to vaccination compared to those who weren't infected.

In this joint study, health care workers at Ziv Medical Center, one of the main hospitals in northern Israel, regularly provided blood samples to measure their antibody levels following vaccination. A number of differences emerged following sample analysis of individuals infected pre- and post-vaccination, and those who were never infected.

Previously infected individuals who received one dose of the vaccine had much higher IgG antibody levels than fully vaccinated workers who were never infected. However, infection after the first dose (and before the second) did not increase IgG levels, and individuals infected after the first dose who never received the second had similar antibody levels to those who received one dose and were never infected. Individuals in the cohort infected post-vaccination had IgG antibody levels at 21 and 50 days similar to those never infected who received the same number of doses and much lower than those infected pre-vaccination.

"Our study suggests that two doses of vaccine are needed in those who were infected shortly after the first dose," says epidemiologist Prof. Michael Edelstein, of Bar-Ilan University's Azrieli Faculty of Medicine. "Although it was conducted on a small cohort, our data suggest that a second dose provides optimal protection to those patients infected between doses," he adds. Edelstein collaborated with Dr. Kamal Abu-Jabal, of Ziv Medical Center and the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, and a team of colleagues from the hospital and the medical school.

The researchers stress that larger studies should confirm or refute the need for a second dose of COVID-19 vaccine in these individuals, in particular in the context of emerging variants against which vaccines are less effective.

The current findings build upon research published in February 2021 in the journal Eurosurveillance. In that study, on the same cohort of health care workers, the researchers reported evidence that those previously infected with the virus responded very strongly to one dose of the Pfizer vaccine, regardless of when they were infected and whether or not they had detectable antibodies against COVID-19 prior to receiving the vaccine.

Prof. Edelstein and colleagues are continuing to follow the cohort's antibody response and immune system response, as well as the response to the third dose for those who receive it.

Explore further One dose of COVID-19 vaccine provokes strong immune response in those previously infected

More information: Kamal Abu Jabal et al, SARS-CoV-2 Immunogenicity in individuals infected before and after COVID-19 vaccination: Israel, January-March 2021, Epidemiology and Infection (2021). Kamal Abu Jabal et al, SARS-CoV-2 Immunogenicity in individuals infected before and after COVID-19 vaccination: Israel, January-March 2021,(2021). DOI: 10.1017/S0950268821001928 Kamal Abu Jabal et al, Impact of age, ethnicity, sex and prior infection status on immunogenicity following a single dose of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine: real-world evidence from healthcare workers, Israel, December 2020 to January 2021, Eurosurveillance (2021). DOI: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.6.2100096
OPM-MEG scanner. Credit: Young Epilepsy

A wearable brain scanner, co-developed by UCL researchers, is now being used in a specialist clinic for children with epilepsy.

The new wearable optically pumped magnetometer magnetoencephalography (OPM-MEG) system, based on technology developed by researchers at UCL and the University of Nottingham, is integrated into a magnetically shielded room at a new diagnostic suite hosted by the Young Epilepsy charity.

Professor Gareth Barnes, who has led the project at the UCL Wellcome Center for Human Neuroimaging, said: "This is the UK's first MEG brain scanner that will be dedicated to a pediatric clinical population. It is the younger children with epilepsy who benefit the most from early diagnosis and treatment, but these children are traditionally the most difficult to scan. The new system will not only allow us to scan younger children, but the non-invasive brain images it supplies may also help minimize, or entirely remove, some invasive surgical procedures."

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a diagnostic tool which measures the changes in magnetic field generated by neuronal activity in the brain. This activity occurs naturally and the whole scan is completely non-invasive. An MEG study is recognized as one of the most advanced methods of recording and evaluating brain function and its use in epilepsy is well established. However, traditional MEG scanners are optimized for adults and are of limited use in children. Moreover, conventional MEG technology requires a child to stay completely still for long periods, or even be sedated during the scan.

OPM-MEG makes the scan far more accessible for children, especially those with complex health conditions, as it allows them to wear a helmet, move about within the magnetically shielded room and undertake activities whilst the scan happens. The helmet is adaptable to fit a child of any age. In addition, the new scanner offers higher sensitivity and spatial accuracy compared to the current ones.

The development offers clinicians a far better chance of capturing the rich data necessary to inform their decisions on the best possible treatment pathway for children with complex neurological conditions.

Rosemarie Pardington, Director of Integrated Care at Young Epilepsy explained: "At Young Epilepsy, we are always mindful that each and every child is different. The way their epilepsy affects them will be unique, and personal to them. Having a facility like the MEG is going to make an absolutely massive difference to the children and their families.

"The wonderful thing is that clinicians already recognize MEG as a reliable tool on which to base difficult decisions, such as surgery options, due to the richness and the reliability of the data. This takes it to a wearable form and makes it all a much easier experience for children."

15 year old Samuel is a pupil at the Young Epilepsy St Piers College in Lingfield, who was first diagnosed with epilepsy when he turned four years old. His mum, Tracy, described the traumatic process of getting the diagnosis: "Eventually, the epilepsy diagnosis was confirmed by an EEG on Sam's fourth birthday and I have to say our first EEG was the most horrific experience. At that point Samuel was very unsettled in his behavior, so in order to get him to sit with wires on his head without moving, we both had to keep pinning him down on my lap. We could only last for twenty minutes instead of an hour."

Currently, even the best centers that offer epilepsy testing are still hospital environments, where the patient has to stay still on a hospital bed and have electrodes attached directly to their head. Tracy welcomed the change that the new MEG will bring to the process: "With the new MEG it is going to be more of a family friendly environment, where you can bring your favorite toys and your siblings along."

Conventional MEG recordings are made inside a magnetically shielded room, which suppresses environmental magnetic noise. Rooms built for current MEG systems are very large and require multiple layers of expensive metal alloy for the shielding. In addition, conventional MEG systems rely on magnetic field detectors which must be cooled to -269C in order to operate.

OPM-MEG uses a different type of sensoroptically pumped magnetometers (OPMs), which don't need cooling to work. In the new system the patient wears a comfortable helmet with sensors attached, meaning that the sensors are closer to the scalp.

The OPM-MEG system also uses a new type of magnetically shielded roomthe light Mu-Room developed by the project partnership. The newly created room at Young Epilepsy's health and research center in Surrey is lighter and cheaper than traditional magnetically shielded rooms. This new development, coupled with the new sensors, will eventually offer a feasible, and affordable option for many hospitals.

Explore further Patient-friendly brain imager gets green light toward first prototype
This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Michael Gandolfini, left, and Alessandro Nivola in "The Many Saints of Newark."
Biden struggles to secure his 'New Deal' to transform US economy
Chinese and Taiwanese national flags are displayed alongside a military airplane in this illustration taken on April 9, 2021.
A Filipino Muslim wearing a face mask as protection against the coronavirus disease carries a cat after the morning prayers on Eid al-Adha, outside the Blue Mosque in Taguig City, Metro Manila on July 20, 2021.
FNB has announced its virtual cards are now supported on third-party digital payment wallets, including Samsung Pay, Garmin Pay, and Fitbit Pay.

In a statement on Monday, the bank revealed it had processed over R1 billion in payments using virtual cards on the FNB and RMB Private Bank apps since launching the feature in January 2021.

Were delighted to see our retail and commercial customers leading the adoption of alternative payment methods in South Africa, said FNB payments executive Raj Makanjee.

Its particularly pleasing to note that this substantial value of payments was recorded in just nine months to mid-September 2021 on approximately 500,000 FNB and RMB Private Bank Virtual Cards.

FNB card chief executive, Chris Labuschagne, said factors that played a significant part in the swift adoption included Covid-19, safety, and convenience.

The flexibility of our virtual card is such that it can be used for online shopping or at a point of sale in a physical store to minimise contact with surfaces, Labuschagne said.

Virtual cards are also increasingly preferred by customers who have recurring payments and subscriptions, Labuschagne added.

FNB and RMB Private Bank customers can activate and store multiple virtual cards on their apps.

The card uses a dynamic CVV number that changes regularly to minimise fraud risks.

Although Samsung Pay, Fitbit Pay, and Garmin Pay have supported physical FNB credit cards for a few years, virtual card payments could initially only be performed through FNBs app.

Apple Pay, the latest digital payment wallet with support for FNB cards, was the first to have virtual card support from launch.

FNB said its own apps Tap to Pay feature will also be able to use virtual cards soon.

Now read: South Africa is going cashless
Eskom hit back at the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) over the recent rejection of its tariff proposal. It said the decision would destroy the electricity industry  including municipalities.

Hasha Tlhotlhalemaje, General Manager of Regulations at Eskom, has said that if the electricity generator cannot recover its efficient costs, it will have to rely on taxpayer funds to cover the yearly R3 billion shortfall.

In a conversation with Bongani Bingwa on 702, Tlhotlhalemaje commented on the impact Nersas rejection of the tariff proposal would have on the South African taxpayer.

We are trying to get the consumer to pay only its efficient costs of electricity, she said.

If the consumer doesnt pay, then the taxpayer needs to pay.

Tlhotlhalemaje refused to confirm rumours that Eskom requested a double-digit percentage tariff increase.

According to Tlhotlhalemaje, Eskom made its application in June 2021 in terms of the prevailing methodology to give Nersa six months to make a decision.

Nersa rejected Eskoms fifth Multi-Year Price Determination (MYPD5) revenue application, as it was based on MYPD4 methodology, whose applicable control period ends on 31 March 2022.

After due consideration of the rationality and legality of applying an expired MYPD4 methodology and whether this was in the public interest, the Energy Regulator rejected Eskoms MYPD5 application, Nersa said.

The energy regulator intends to base its future pricing calculations on a new procedure designed to take the rapid transformation of the electricity sector into consideration, including security concerns and private power generation.

Nersas rejection of Eskoms MYPD 5 application, has created a regulatory vacuum for the electricity supply industry in South Africa, Eskom said in a statement last week.

If the situation is not resolved before mid-March, it would create a situation where Eskom and municipalities would not be legally allowed to charge for electricity at all.

According to Tlhotlhalemaje, Eskom is happy to engage in consultations regarding a new price-determination methodology, but timing is an issue.

We have to have a decision by the middle of March 2022 to be implemented by 1 April 2022, she said.

Nersa is completely aware that Eskom also has statutory requirements before it can make an application, and that takes a significant amount of time.

Eskom indicated that even if the new procedure is developed timeously, the energy producer will be unable to apply for implementation by 1 April 2022.

As a result, municipalities will be unable to charge electricity tariffs when new pricing is supposed to take effect at the beginning of July 2022.

Nersa has proposed that Eskom submit a provisional application for the 2022/2023 financial year preferably based on the principles of the new approach under consideration.

Now Read: What South Africa needs to move to cleaner energy
By Dumisani Moyo, Marketing Director, SAP Africa

Technology has transformed every aspect of our personal and professional lives, and has left no sector of the economy untouched.

In the highly competitive retail sector, where consumers place a premium on convenience in their shopping experiences, the pervasiveness of technology has influenced a shift in customer expectations.

To remain relevant in a rapidly changing market, retailers must be agile and adaptable.

A Deloitte report on how the pandemic has affected retail consumer sentiment in South Africa found that the COVID-19 crisis has fast-tracked the urgency for digital transformation in retail, highlighting the need to operate and serve customers differently.

According to the same report, while digital transformation has been important to all sectors, retailers in particular need to find new ways to serve customers in order to remain relevant and competitive.

By leveraging technology, retailers can develop dynamic capabilities that are critical to gaining long-term competitive advantage.

For retailers to differentiate themselves, respond to changing customer needs, and prioritise innovation and agility across the entire value chain, digital transformation must be integrated into business strategy.

According to Forbes, since COVID, Sainsbury Supermarkets in the UK reported that their in-store shopping app accounted for up to 50% of purchases in some stores and 37% of total sales across all of their stores in Q2 2020/21.

Customers can use this app to scan their purchases with their smartphones, skipping the queues and paying instantly at smart check-out points.

According to the same report, Tesco, UKs largest retailer, plans to open check-out-free stores, where customers will be able to scan items as they shop and be automatically charged for their purchase when they leave the store, eliminating the need for check-out points completely.

Finally, with innovations such as in-store facial recognition payments, Alibabas Freshippo stores in China have taken check-out-free shopping to new heights.

Freshippo describes its future vision as never transitioning from physical to digital, but rather seamlessly integrating online and offline, a concept they call phygital retail experience.

How can digital transformation help African retailers achieve long-term sustainable success? Four key focus areas in particular bear investigation, namely:

Focus Area 1: Customer Centricity

Putting the customer first requires retailers to comprehensively understand the customer buying journey, their perceptions and expectations.

Understanding these factors intimately is critical to ensuring a positive customer experience (CX), which can be a significant differentiator in difficult times, such as those caused by the pandemic.

It is important that retailers view customer centricity as a long-term strategic imperative that enables them to better react to changing customer sentiment and demands.

For example, technology enables retailers to tailor their offerings to customer preferences with enhanced precision.

The ability to leverage technology to continuously collect information that enables retailers to understand customer needs as well as measure customer sentiment is paramount.

For example, a Deloitte report into the retail sector found that pricing and affordability became major drivers of negative sentiment during the early stages of the lockdowns. Therefore technology plays a critical role in enabling retailers to effectively manage CX, through tailoring their offerings, promotions and loyalty programs to customer needs.

Focus Area 2: Go-to-Market Channels

A KPMG retail study found that the use of mobile technologies will influence future customer needs, especially, as customers are increasingly using mobile devices to research their potential purchases.

For example, before making a high-value purchase, consumers could use their mobile phone to research details such as specifications or attributes, as well as compare different offerings from different retailers.

This means many consumers make their purchasing decision before leaving the house, and only go to a physical store to pay and pick up their predetermined purchase.

Retailers that have poor websites that are not mobile friendly could lose a significant portion of their customer base and their potential purchases as a result. It is therefore crucial that part of the retailers strategy addresses mobile as a critical go-to-market channel.

Focus Areas 3: Digital Supply Chain

Consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about environmental degradation, animal rights and other matters of sustainability.

As a result, in addition to pricing and stock availability, consumers want to know where and how the products they consume and use are sourced, produced, and manufactured.

These rapidly changing consumer trends further complicate an already complex retail supply chain and category management landscape. The use of intelligent technologies could hold the key to simplifying supply chain management.

Real-time software applications for procurement, sales and operations planning, logistics, and inventory management are no longer considered a luxury.

Recent disruptions in South African supply chains due to protest action, for example, highlighted the importance of having an intelligent and integrated supply chain management system, as retailers scrambled to keep their stores open across the country after damage to some of their distribution centres.

Focus Area 4: Emerging Business Models

As the adoption of mobile devices, primarily smartphones and tablets, as well as access to the internet continue to accelerate in Africa, new retail technologies are expected to influence how retailers sell and how consumers purchase goods.

Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality are poised to shape the retail landscape of the future.

The traditional brick-and-mortar business model will continue to exist in the retail sector; however, as online sales increase, retailers must seriously consider alternative channels or routes to market that use technology as an enabler.

For example, prior to the COVID lockdowns, most customers were satisfied with a next-day delivery service; however, with the implementation of the lockdowns, food retailers that could effect same-day delivery (or in some cases even within 60 minutes) were able to differentiate themselves and capture the lions share of the burgeoning online market. Today, despite the easing of lockdown restrictions, online grocery shopping continues to grow in popularity.

Please click here to download the SAP intelligent enterprise for the Retail Industry.
A former Facebook Inc. product manager has become one of the companys highest-profile critics after exposing thousands of internal documents she said showed the social media giant failed to protect users.

Frances Haugen, who tackled misinformation on the platform, turned over internal research to U.S. lawmakers and the Wall Street Journal, which reported the company knew, but didnt disclose, the negative impact of services like Instagram.

She said she was sounding the alarm over the companys practices after seeing repeated evidence that Facebook prioritizes profits over the well-being of its users.

There were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook, she told 60 Minutes in her first public interview on Sunday. Facebook over and over again chose to optimize for its own interests like making more money.

The revelations have ignited a firestorm for Facebook in Washington as lawmakers accuse the platform of covering up internal research about its negative effects.

The trove of documents she handed over shed light on internal discussions about the companys content moderation efforts, how it treats high-profile accounts differently from other users, and the mental impact its photo-sharing app Instagram has on young users.

One study Haugen uncovered showed Facebook took action on as little as 3% to 5% of hate speech on Facebook, and on less than 1% of content classified under violence and incitement, according to 60 Minutes.

Haugen is set to appear Tuesday before a Senate subcommittee on consumer protection as part of a hearing focused on protecting kids online.

Last week, lawmakers questioned Antigone Davis, Facebooks global head of safety, over documents that showed Instagram can worsen the mental health of teens who are already suffering.

From her first visit with my office, I have admired her backbone and bravery in revealing terrible truths about one of the worlds most powerful, implacable corporate giants, Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who chairs the subcommittee holding next weeks hearing, said in a statement.

We now know about Facebooks destructive harms to kids  harms that Facebook concealed and knowingly exploited to increase profits  because of documents Frances revealed, he said.

Facebook spokesperson Lena Pietsch, calling the 60 Minutes segment misleading, said in a statement that the company seeks to balance free expression with the need to keep the platform safe.

We continue to make significant improvements to tackle the spread of misinformation and harmful content, she said. To suggest we encourage bad content and do nothing is just not true.

Read more: Facebook Defends Instagrams Mental Health Impact Before Hearing

Haugen started working at Facebook in June 2019 after stints at Google, Yelp and Pinterest, according to her LinkedIn page.

The Iowa native was recruited to Facebook to be the lead product manager on the civic misinformation team and later worked on counter-espionage, according to her website.

Frances told 60 Minutes she agreed to take the Facebook job so she could work against misinformation after seeing a friend get wrapped up in online conspiracy theories.

I never wanted anyone to feel the pain that I had felt, she told the network. I had seen how high the stakes were in terms of making sure there was high quality information on Facebook.

During her time at Facebook, Frances grew more alarmed by the choices the company was making to prioritize its own growth at the expense of the public, she said.

Included in the trove of documents Haugen shared was a series of internal research slides outlining the impact that Facebook photo-sharing app Instagram has on teenagers, reported in September as part of a series of stories by the Wall Street Journal.

The research showed that using Instagram often makes things worse for young people who suffer from existing mental health problems, such as anxiety or body image issues.

Her lawyers have also filed at least eight complaints with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to the 60 Minutes segment.

Its clear Haugen left Facebook knowing full-well she planned to hand over damning company documents. After resigning from her job in April, Haugen stayed at Facebook an additional month, collecting material on the company she felt proved Facebook had failed to be responsible, the Journal reported.

She expected the company to notice her activity, which included viewing documents unrelated to her job, she added. Facebook can see when employees view certain documents or make specific searches on the companys internal communication product, called Workplace.

Haugen even left a cryptic message for the company on her last day, the Journal reported, by using the internal search function to type: I dont hate Facebook. I love Facebook. I want to save it.

Haugen grew up attending the Iowa caucuses with her professor parents, which instilled in her a strong sense of pride in democracy and responsibility for civic participation, according to her website.

Now, she sees herself as an advocate for public oversight of social media.

We can have social media we enjoy that brings out the best in humanity, she says on her website.

Facebook has pushed back on some of the Journals stories, claiming that data was cherry picked.

Still, the uproar that followed the reports led the company last week to halt plans to roll out a separate version of Instagram for children under 13, citing the need for further consultation with experts, parents and policymakers. Facebook says its not abandoning the idea of building the app entirely.

I still think building this experience is the right thing to do, but we want to take more time to speak with parents and experts working out how to get this right, tweeted Instagram head Adam Mosseri.

At a hearing on the topic last week, lawmakers blasted Facebook, arguing that the company has focused on profits ahead of efforts to make its products safer for kids.

We do not trust you, said Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, the panels ranking Republican.
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The city of Napa is working on a plan to replace the Fuller Park playground, which is nearing the end of its lifespan, with a public art project that would also serve as a play structure.

The citys Public Art Steering Committee voted unanimously last week to recommend city staff move forward on the proposal. The project needs to run through several more steps  gathering community input, finding an artist, assessing plans  before eventually going to the Napa City Council for approval.

The proposal, which is likely a few years off from being realized, would create the first public art project focused on children and families in Napa, said Katrina Gregory, recreation manager for the city. Gregory said the piece will also serve as a kickoff for the citys Arts in Parks program, which aims to spread permanent public art throughout the entire Napa community.

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[This project] kind of gets to the heart of arts and parks program, Gregory said at the meeting. Were trying to get art out beyond just the center of the downtown area and focusing on a whole different audience.
STAVANGER, Norway (AP)  The annual Nobel Peace Prize shines the brightest of lights on the person or group thought to have done most to promote peace. But guessing who it will be is just a stab in the dark.

That's because the secretive Norwegian Nobel Committee never drops any advance hints. In the past decade, winners have included diplomats, doctors, dissidents and presidents. Who were the other candidates? We can't know for sure  the panel keeps their ruminations in a vault for 50 years.

Bookmakers have the World Health Organization as the most likely winner for 2021, for its work during the pandemic.

But Rupert Adams at William Hill, one of Britain's biggest bookies, jokes that picking a winner is "the world's most difficult job," adding he "can't think of a harder market to price." The company has nailed it only once this century  Malala Yousafzai in 2014.

Still, people like to make guesses.

Henrik Urdal, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, says the pandemic is an important backdrop to this year's prize. But he scrapped plans to make COVAX, the United Nations-sponsored vaccine equity organization, his top pick. Rollout of COVID-19 jabs to poor countries has been too slow, he says.
The government is under growing pressure as people begin to starve to death in Tigray under what the U.N. has called a de facto humanitarian blockade. Last week the U.N. humanitarian chief told The Associated Press that the situation in Ethiopia is a stain on our conscience.

The U.S. has threatened further sanctions if humanitarian access to Tigray isn't granted soon and the warring sides don't take steps toward peace. Thousands of people have been killed in the war waged between the Tigray forces who once dominated the national government and Ethiopian and allied forces.

As Abiy faces another term, I think it will give the government the chance to renew its commitment to reform and to enhance the human rights situation in the country, Amnesty International researcher Fisseha Tekle told The Associated Press. They have a parliament which is dominated by one ruling party, so if they have the commitment, they also have the opportunity to do that.

The results of a joint investigation into the conflict by the U.N. human rights office and the government-created Ethiopian Human Rights Commission will be released on Nov. 1, a few days before the war's one-year mark.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
The two residents of Kasakh village of Armenia, who ended up in the territory under the control of Azerbaijan on the Goris-Vorotan motorway, are 20- to 21-year-old boys, the head of Kasakh village, Ara Mkrtchyan, told NEWS.am.

"According to my information, the boys had gone to visit their friends in [military] service. The last contact with [their] family members was at the very moment they disappeared. One of the boys was talking on the phone and the person talking on the phone said, 'They [i.e., the Azerbaijanis] stopped us. Let's see what they say, and the connection was cut off. We have no news from them after that, too," said the village mayor.

According to Mkrtchyan, these two young men are the grandsons of their uncles from their fathers side.

The mayor of Kasakh said that there were two people in the car from their village, but people say that there were other people in the car, too, but he did not have clear information in this regard.

Earlier, the National Security Service of Armenia reported that that two people had deviated, while traveling on the Goris-Vorotan motorway, and ended up in the territory under the control of Azerbaijan.




As lifespans in Japan edge toward the century mark, people heading into middle age and their elder years are beginning to look to new career paths, to their "second lives." And Tokyo-based global advertising giant Dentsu Inc. is getting in on the trend, launching an experimental program to give some 40-plus permanent employees a launchpad for their ambitions beyond the company, The Mainichi reported.

Those joining the program officially retire from the firm to start their own small businesses, but then Dentsu provides them with a fixed income for 10 years as contractors while they get their new projects going. For the company, the program is a way to suss out new relationships with veteran employees who leave the nest.

In 2020, Dentsu announced its "Life Shift Platform" program. Permanent employees aged 40 and up who signed on to the program could leave the company with a retirement bonus, and then sign subcontractor agreements to do work for Dentsu subsidiary New Horizon Collective (NH), including making business proposals to new clients.

Regardless of whether people on the Life Shift Platform generate new business, they will receive a fixed income50-60% of their former salaries on averagefor up to a decade after formally leaving the company.

The Life Shift Platform system was, in fact, the result of an internal suggestion. NH President Yuji Yamaguchi, 53, said of his idea, "In these changing times, I saw people who had no truly appropriate place and were unable to perform to their fullest. We're said to be in the '100-year lifespan' era, and I thought that it would be a good idea to consider how people in their 60s and 70s could make the most of their individual strengths, without being constrained by existing age or company frameworks. And so, I proposed this 'grand experiment.'"

For Dentsu, the program could also be a cost-saver as the legions of middle aged and older staff who joined the firm during Japan's economic bubble era use it to take early retirementthereby taking their salaries off the books.
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Armenia finance ministry-European Investment Bank cooperation development directions discussed

One dollar drops below AMD 480 in Armenia

Hague court announces dates for considering petition for Armenian captives return, urgent measures against Azerbaijan

Armenia minister, Rosatom representative discuss cooperation in new sectors for infrastructure development

Armenia PM underscores need for effective investigation of criminal cases on 44-day war circumstances

Armenia MFA: Servants, followers of Armenian Church should have unimpeded access to cathedral in Artsakhs Shushi

Armenia opposition With Honor Faction lawmaker: MPs can be part of any parliamentary delegation

Turkish Armed Forces' 3rd army corps commander visits Nakhchivan

Sergey Markedonov: Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not over

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
YEREVAN.  Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, who is on an official visit to Lithuania, on Monday held high-level talks with his Lithuanian colleague, Ingrida Simonyte, Armenian News-NEWS.am has learned from the government of Armenia.

Following the welcoming ceremony, the Prime Ministers of the two countries first discussed the topical issues of bilateral relations in a private conversation, and then in an extended meeting.

The Prime Minister of Lithuania highlighted Nikol Pashinyan's visit to Vilnius and expressed confidence that it will give a new impetus to the development of bilateral political, economic and humanitarian cooperation. Ingrida Simonyte welcomed the steps towards the development of democracy in Armenia during the recent years, noting that her government is ready to support the reforms taking place in Armenia in various spheres, both within the framework of the European Union and bilateral cooperation. Ms. Simonyte spoke about the early parliamentary elections in Armenia with admiration, emphasizing their compliance with high democratic principles and high standards. She noted that the Armenian Government has received the full mandate of the people to push the reforms forward with greater vigor.

Nikol Pashinyan highlighted the expansion of the Armenian-Lithuanian trade and economic ties, the development of cooperation with Lithuania in different directions. The Prime Minister spoke about the plans aimed at expanding business ties between the two countries and expressed confidence that carrying out direct flights between Yerevan and Vilnius would give a new impetus to the expansion of trade and economic ties. The Prime Minister thanked the Lithuanian side for providing our country with 50,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine, noting that only through joint efforts it will be possible to effectively fight the pandemic. Nikol Pashinyan also highlighted the close cooperation with Lithuania in the process of democratic reforms, adding that Armenia will continue to take decisive steps to strengthen democracy.

The parties touched upon the developments in the South Caucasus region. Prime Minister Pashinyan provided details on the processes, highlighted the necessity of the full implementation of the November 9 trilateral declaration by Azerbaijan, in particular, the return of prisoners of war, hostages and other detainees.

Based on the results of the meeting, an agreement on cooperation was signed between the Lithuanian and Armenian Ministries of Health in the presence of Prime Ministers Pashinyan and Simonyte. It was signed by the Minister of Health of Armenia Anahit Avanesyan and the Lithuanian Minister of Health Arunas Dulkys.
YEREVAN.  Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, who is on an official visit to Lithuania, on Monday met with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, Armenian News-NEWS.am has learned from the government of Armenia.

Nauseda expressed a conviction that the Armenian premiers current visit will contribute to the development and deepening of relations between the two countries. The Lithuanian president expressed hope that the cooperation between the governments of the two countries will give a new impetus to the implementation of joint programs in the economic and humanitarian spheres. Also, he stressed the importance of cooperation and of exchange of the Lithuanian track-record in the framework of the ongoing reforms in Armenia.

PM Pashinyan, in turn, expressed confidence that the Armenian-Lithuanian friendly relations will continue to grow and make progress. In this context, he stressed the importance of expanding economic ties and the steps to expand trade between the two countries.

Their meeting touched upon Armenian-Lithuanian cooperation within the framework of the European Union (EU) Eastern Partnership program, the effective implementation of the 2.6-billion package envisaged by the EU for Armenia, and the processes taking place in the South Caucasus. In the latters context, the President of Lithuania expressed his country's support for the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs efforts aimed at the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict.
The spokesman for Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in his weekly press briefing on Monday that Tehran has good relations with Baku and Yerevan, IRNA reports.

The Islamic Republic of Iran's cooperation with no country is against any other state, Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters.

Referring to the Monday visit of Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan to Tehran, the spokesman said that the visit had already been scheduled and took place in line with widening bilateral relations.

Mirzoyan arrived in Tehran on October 4 to hold talks with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian on bilateral issues and important regional questions.

Speaking about presence of terrorists in Republic of Azerbaijan near borders of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the spokesman said that Iran has received these reports from the outset of the war. Tehran did deliver all those reports to its friends in Baku, he underlined.

In recent months, Iran has always pursued its principled policies, Khatibzadeh noted, adding that Islamic Republic has told its friends in Baku that it recognizes the territorial integrity and national sovereignty of Azerbaijan and has helped the northwestern neighbor to preserve them.

In regard to the Zionist regime's measures and remarks against Iran from the Azeri soil, the spokesman said that Baku should not let a third party misuse its borders and land.

Iran knows well how to protect its security, but Azerbaijan should do its sovereign duties, he said.

Also in regard to the arrest of Iranian drivers in Azerbaijan, Khatibzadeh said that Iran does not see the behavior towards its drivers within the framework of good neighborliness.

Azeri officials should be much more careful of their border guards' behavior towards Iranian nationals.
Shushi has always been an issue because Azerbaijan has never renounced the idea that the Azerbaijanis need to return and reside in Nagorno-Karabakh, and where were they going to reside? This is what Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said during his meeting with members of the Armenian community of Lithuania during an official visit to the country.

The Armenian side didnt dispute this. Moreover, when the option for a referendum or inquiry or plebiscite was being negotiated, the Armenian side acknowledged that the Azerbaijanis of Nagorno-Karabakh need to participate as residents of Nagorno-Karabakh. Where were the Azerbaijani residents of Nagorno-Karabakh going to live? They were logically going to live where they used to live. There are so many talks about Shushi [in Armenia]. How many buildings were built in Shushi throughout the past 30 years? None. Why werent they built? The answer is clear  they [the opposition] were uncertain about the future of Shushi.

Touching upon the issue of the Goris-Kapan motorway, the premier said the following: Representatives of the elder generation of Syunik Province know that the motorway was closed when the conflict began in the 1990s. There have always been conflicts in the section of the Eyvazli and Chayzam villages, which were villages of Soviet Azerbaijan. In general, the biggest problem of the past thirty years is that we Armenians havent confronted the reality and have never asked what the international community has to say about our arguments.

According to Pashinyan, many people, including international observers ask how was it that the government won the elections again after the war. Thank God, nobody outside of Armenia suspects the legitimacy of the elections, and those who suspect the legitimacy, theythe people dont suspect it either. The reason why the government won is simple. Its because we were sincere with the people, they listened to us and compared what they heard with what they have seen in the past, he said.
The Iranian foreign minister said in a press conference alongside his visiting Armenian counterpart that Iran will not allow foreign intervention to interrupt its relation with neighboring countries, Mehr reported.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met and held talks with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan on Monday in Tehran followed by a joint press conference.

"Today we agreed to develop cooperation in all areas of economy, trade and tourism. Trade and operating the Armenian transit route are among the issues of mutual concern to both countries," the Iranian FM said during the joint press conference.

"We have defined a process that will become operational quickly to revitalize the transit roads and the routes of the two countries. In the coming weeks, we will see more liveliness in the relations between the two countries," Amir-Abdollahian said.

"Our region and our northern neighbors are in dire condition, particularly due to the presence of Zionists and terrorists in parts of the region," he added.

"We will not allow some foreign states to affect Iran's relations with its neighbors, including Armenia. Our region will by no means tolerate new excessive demands. The problems of the region must be resolved by the people of the region without any foreign intervention," the Iranian FM also noted.

The Armenian foreign minister, for his part, appreciated Iran's approach to the territorial integrity of Armenia.

Mirzoyan said, "We had good negotiations. A good future awaits us in the negotiations that took place in an atmosphere of friendship and mutual trust. Our friendship has been long-lasting going on for centuries. We discussed and exchanged views on all the developments in the region."

"I briefed FM Amir-Abdollahian about the developments regarding Karabakh. Mercenaries from other countries also took part in the Karabakh war. Despite the fact that the Republic of Azerbaijan was obliged to release the citizens and prisoners in captivity, it did not do so and this must be done as soon as possible."

"We should have talks and discussions with the participation of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia, and we emphasized the reopening of communication routes in the region. Armenia announces readiness to reopen communication routes," the Armenian FM said.

"Azerbaijan's [military] aggression on the borders and the official territories of Armenia endangers our efforts for peace and stability in the region. We appreciate Iran's approach to the territorial integrity of Armenia," Mirzoyan also noted.
The United Arab Emirates is trying to manage long-standing rivalries with Iran and Turkey through dialogue to avoid further clashes in the region, diplomatic adviser to the UAE President Anwar Gargash said, Reuters reported.

There is uncertainty about the United States' commitment to the region and concerns about the impending cold war between Washington and Beijing, he said.

"We will see in the coming period really what is going on with regards to America's footprint in the region. I don't think we know yet, but Afghanistan is definitely a test and to be honest it is a very worrying test," Gargash said.

"Part of what we need to do is manage our region better. There is a vacuum and whenever there is a vacuum there is trouble," he told the World Policy Conference.

The UAE went to de-escalate tensions, cooperating with Iran and Turkey, whose influence they tried to counteract in conflicts in Yemen, Libya and other countries of the region.

"Turkey's recent re-examination of its policies towards Egypt, the Brotherhood and towards Saudi Arabia and others is very welcome. And I think for us to come mid-way and reach out is very important," Gargash said.

"The Turks have been very positive about what we are saying to them," he said. "Am I very positive about the reach out to Iran? Yes I am. Am I very positive that Iran will change its regional course? I have to say I am more realistic here, but I am betting Iran is also concerned about vacuum and escalation."

Gargash said the pandemic has put non-political priorities at the fore, and the main problem now lies between the United States and China.

"We are all worried very much by a looming cold war. That is bad news for all of us, because the idea of choosing is problematic in the international system, and I think this is not going to be an easy ride," he said.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who is on an official visit in Lithuania, visited Eastern Europe Studies Center in Vilnius and met with representatives of the expert community.

The Prime Minister first referred to the processes taking place in our country and in the South Caucasus region. In particular, Nikol Pashinyan noted that the early parliamentary elections in Armenia in June served for the first time in the history of our Republic as a tool to overcome the domestic political crisis.

"Usually the elections in our country have caused domestic political crises, perhaps the most noisy domestic political problems in the history of our country have emerged in post-election periods. This is the first time that elections have become a tool to overcome the crisis, not a cause of crises. After the war, there were serious discussions about how appropriate the parliamentary system is for Armenia. There were really reasons for that, but I must say that this election was described by international observers as free, competitive and democratic for the second time in a row, which is also unprecedented, the Head of the Government said.

According to Nikol Pashinyan, these elections, which took place in the post-war period, generated some important political content. After the war, it was important to set the guidelines in which Armenia should move. I must admit that the answers to these questions in the political field were not fully formulated, but the recent elections generated a specific political content. At least for our political force, it was not so much a political campaign as a dialogue with the citizens, where they were not only listeners, but also speakers. We were the ones to listen to what citizens thought about our history of the last 30 years. It was at this point, that the strategy which the Government of the Republic of Armenia included in its Action Plan was formulated. We describe it as a need to open an era of peaceful development for Armenia and the region, the PM said, adding that it is also subject to criticism, which is comprehendible.

"Because developments take place every day, which, by and large, cast doubt on to what extent peace is possible in our region, or due to the situation we have in our region, over the conflict around the Republic of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh.

There is also a bigger question: to what extent is democracy able to ensure security and peaceful development? But our position is clear that in spite of all the circumstances that question the competitiveness of the peace agenda, we must move consistently forward in that direction.

We believe that the policy of small steps should be adopted without rushing to set insurmountable benchmarks. On the other hand, concrete results and processes are needed. In this regard, we consider the resumption of the peace process within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs format for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict necessary," Prime Minister Pashinyan underlined.

Afterwards, the Prime Minister answered numerous questions of the experts related to the prospects of peace in the South Caucasus, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement process, the implementation of democratic reforms in Armenia, the development of Armenia-EU relations and a number of other topics.
Armenia has declared and declares that it is open to talk about the unblocking of communications, but Azerbaijan is trying to misinterpret and talk about the so-called Zangezur corridor, yet there hasnt been any word or agreement about this. This is what Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan said during a briefing with his Iranian counterpart in Tehran, as reported the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia.

First of all, I would like to thank Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran Amirabdollahian for the invitation, cordial reception and fruitful discussions. In an atmosphere of friendship and mutual trust, we expressed our satisfaction with the high level of Armenian-Iranian relations and emphasized that our partnership is hinged on the fraternity spanning millennia, and we both expressed willingness to deepen our strategic partnership in all directions.

We thoroughly discussed the regional developments. I obviously thoroughly touched upon the recent Azerbaijani-Turkish aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh and the consequences. Of course, we also mentioned that terrorist mercenaries from various hot spots also took part in the aggression.

I stated that there are still many humanitarian issues that remained after the war. Although Azerbaijan had expressed commitment to release all Armenian prisoners of war and civilian hostages after the cessation of hostilities, they are still detained in Baku, and they need to be immediately released and returned. I also noted that Armenia and Azerbaijan need to start talks about the unblocking of communications in the region through the mediation of Russia, but there are problems.

Armenia has declared and declares that it is open to talk about the unblocking of communications, but Azerbaijan is trying to misinterpret and talk about the so-called Zangezur corridor, yet there hasnt been any word or agreement about this.

This and Azerbaijans encroachments on the sovereign territory of Armenia pose a danger to our efforts for stability and security in the region. In this regard, we highly appreciate Irans stance on the territorial integrity and inviolability of the borders of Armenia.

I also informed my counterpart that, in essence, the peace process within the framework of the Co-Chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group was re-launched a few days ago in New York. Taking the opportunity, again I would like to reaffirm once Armenias willingness to continue the full process for a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict under the auspices of the Co-Chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group and based on the well-known principles and elements.

Of course, the recent challenges with regard to transport and the paths to overcome the difficulties were among the major topics. I provided the distinguished minister with details about road construction and the current challenges and informed that construction of the detour is almost over.

We also talked about continuation and acceleration of our large joint programs.

Once again, I would like to mention that, as the minister affirmed, the political leaderships of the two countries are persistent to enhance and deepen our relations fully and as partners.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan, who is on a working visit to Tehran, had a meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hossein Amirabdollahian today.

As reported the press service of the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the cooperation between the two countries in the bilateral and multilateral formats and a broad range of issues related to regional developments were thoroughly discussed during the meeting.

The ministers expressed satisfaction with the high level of the centuries-old Armenian-Iranian friendly relations, touched upon the prospects for intensification of economic ties and underscored the importance of targeted actions for increase of the volumes of trade turnover. They also discussed the intensification of cooperation in the tourism and cultural sectors and, in this context, attached importance to the activities of the joint intergovernmental commission.

The parties also attached importance to the signing and effective implementation of the multilateral agreement on the creation of the Persian Gulf-Black Sea international transport corridor and discussed issues related to the Eurasian Economic Union-Iran cooperation.

During the meeting, Minister Mirzoyan informed his counterpart about the course and outcomes of construction of the road that will be an alternative to the Goris-Kapan motorway, as well as the construction of the North-South highway, and the ministers exchanged views on the prospects for the natural gas in exchange of electricity plan.

The developments unfolding in the region, regional security and stability were among the key topics for discussion. The Armenian foreign minister presented the situation created in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone following the Azerbaijani-Turkish aggression against Artsakh and the humanitarian issues that emerged and particularly emphasized the need for the speedy and unconditional repatriation of the Armenian prisoners of war and civilian hostages detained in Azerbaijan.

Touching upon the situation created as a result of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces penetration into the sovereign territory of Armenia and the ongoing provocations, Mirzoyan highly appreciated Irans stance on Armenias territorial integrity. The ministers of both countries underscored the inadmissibility of actions that pose a danger to regional stability and attached importance to cooperation to address the new challenges in the region.
Every morning without fail, Cuban-Jewish poet Jose Kozer composes a poem in his native language, Spanish.

His prolific body of work now includes 14,150 poems and more than 103 books of poetry that have been translated into multiple languages. He is revered in Latin America and Spain where his work has been produced by the top publishing houses and where he is admired and touted as a neo-baroque poet.

In 2013, he was awarded the Pablo Neruda Ibero-American Poetry Prize. He has also received the Montgomery Fellowship in 2016 and gave the Guarnaccia Lecture at Middlebury College in 2021. This year he was awarded the Gertrudis Gomez de Avellanda Prize given by City University of New York.

I have always been very prolific, said Kozer, who began writing poetry at age 15 in his native Havana. I believe that the romantic notion that a poet must wait for the muses to appear is hogwash.

His work is now a legacy that will be enjoyed by many. The Cuban Heritage Collection of the UM Libraries has acquired his documents, papers, notebooks, journals, and published works in a five-year deal that will allow the collection to also inherit his personal library and any future books he may pen.

The 81-year-old former professor now lives in Hallandale Beach with his wife, Guadalupe. Kozer taught Spanish at Queens College, part of the City University of New York, for more than 30 years. He left Cuba when he was 20 years old.

He is a singular figure in poetry, said Elizabeth Cerejido, director and Esperanza Bravo de Varona Chair of the Cuban Heritage Collection. In Kozer, we find a member of a generation of Cuban diasporic producers to whom we must pay homage. Securing this collection for CHC is a way of accomplishing not only that his legacy is preserved as part of the rich patrimony that our collection represents, but it also provides a unique opportunity for current and future scholars to study his important contribution to the field and be motivated to engage with his work in innovative and critical ways.

The acquisition was made possible by a grant from the Goizueta Foundation, said Cerejido. In addition to the handwritten poems and journal entries that comprise his notebooks, she is particularly enthusiastic about the acquisition of his library, because future scholars will be able to trace the poets mindset in each one of his books.

In the margins of most of his books, he has notes that make reference to his own poetry or to an entry in his diary, she said. So these notes provide a road map to his thinking, his process, and how classic texts have informed his own writing.

Whether it is exploring his Jewish roots (his parents immigrated to Cuba from Poland and Czechoslovakia) or decomposing an intricate musical piece, Kozers poetry can be complex, innovative, and unexpected.

Mia Leonin, senior lecturer in the English department, said she first came to know Kozers poetry in the anthology, Bridges to Cuba edited by Ruth Behar.

I was fascinated to discover the New York Cuban of Polish parents who writes strictly in Spanish, she said. Every time I read one of his poems, Im reminded of the unique relationship each immigrant has with the language of the homeland, she added. With Kozers poetry, theres always the double gift of the poem in its original Spanish and the translation.

Kozer said his writing often follows the anacoluto style. One of the definitions of anacoluto is without continuity, according to Buenastareas, a Spanish-language website.

It is almost like a run-on sentence, Kozer said. You are writing something and the material shifts onto something else. It is a reflection of my own mind. I am writing about something and then my mind shifts into something else. I am having fun.

His style has often been called neo-barroque. Poets who use this style are rooted in 17th century Spanish tradition, but the language contains modern elements of the New World and can often be complex, even a bit chaotic, according to Kozer.

The difference between us and the original baroque poets is that we live in a much more complex world, he said. The difference is that we are modern people and there is so much referential material around us, and a modern poet uses all that.

The poet also believes that his writing has a curative element for him. When his mother died, he penned Acta, a book with 60 poems about his mother. When he showed the poems to his wife (which he does often), she told him not to show any more poems to her because it was too painful.

I missed my mother, Kozer said. But even as I was facing her death I felt no pain while writing the poems.

He decided to let the Cuban Heritage Collection have all his work because he felt the institution could take good care of the material and the thousands of magazines, letters, and journals that make up the bulk of the collection would be of value to future scholars.

Even if I am not an important poet, what I have to offer is of value, he said. Sociologically what I am giving to the collection, no one else has. It will be invaluable to people interested in Latin American and Spanish literary material.
Since 1984, the Florida Education Fund's McKnight Doctoral Fellowship Program has collaborated with universities and colleges in Florida to increase the number of Black and Hispanic Ph.D. holders in arts and sciences, business, engineering, health sciences, nursing, and visual and performing arts related disciplines.

In the largest cohort to date at the University of Miami, 13 students have been accepted into the Florida Education Funds 2021 McKnight Fellowship Program. The goal of the program is to increase the pool of Black and Hispanic Ph.D. holders who have an interest in teaching at the collegiate level, in hopes of tackling the underrepresentation of those minorities at the faculty level in higher education institutions.

The University of Miamis Graduate School supports numerous students as they pursue their doctorates. Each year interested students whose end goal aligns with the mission of the McKnight program are encouraged to apply.

The doctoral fellowship awards provide annual tuition up to $5,000 for each of three academic years, plus an annual stipend of $12,000, in addition to attending the McKnight Summer Research and Writing Institute. (Each participating institution provides an additional two years of financial support.) Recipients also will have exclusive access to workshops and conferences during their award year.

Dissertation fellowships give doctoral candidates in STEM-related disciplines up to one year of support based on their exceptional academic achievements, their commitment to careers in teaching and research at the university level, and their engagement in community service. Each award provides a stipend of up to $12,000 in addition to expenses paid to be in the McKnight Summer Research and Writing Institute and all other McKnight-related workshops and conferences.

The following are six of the fellowship awardees who agreed to be interviewed by News@TheU:

Doctoral fellowship awardees:

Olivia Bosquet

In her first year as a biochemistry and molecular biology Ph.D. student, Olivia Bosquet is a Miami native who earned her masters degree from the University of Miami in biochemistry and molecular biology.

Today she works in Professor Sylvia Daunerts bionanotechnology lab at the Medical Campus.

The research that I am involved in has to do with molecular diagnostic, specifically point of care diagnostic tests and developing those as well as doing targeted drug delivery using nanoparticles, said Bosquet. Its pretty wide-ranging but all to do with improving medicine and medical devices.

Prior to this experience, Bosquet wasnt sure where her passion for research would land her. She knew one thing for certainthat she wanted to be help medicine advance and further develop in whatever way she can.

I want to help make medicine more accessible to people in areas that dont really have a lot of high-tech lab equipment, said Bosquet.

Bosquet is excited to be a part of the McKnight community and looks forward to excelling and sharing information with other like-minded individuals in the program.

This is a huge honor, said Bosquet. Its all about helping the future of medicine and Im so glad to be selected to be in a community of people with similar backgrounds and goals. The support the fellowship offersfrom writing to navigating mentor/mentee relationships to gaining a whole network of peoplethats exciting.

Jalyse Cuff

Born and raised in Hollywood, Florida, Jalyse Cuff is quite familiar with climate change and its effects.

Upon graduation from Howard University with her bachelors degree in biology, Cuff participated in the Oak Ridge Institute of Science and Technology Research Fellowship with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The research that I was able to do there truly sparked my career path and inspired me to move into environmental science, said Cuff. My experiences have affirmed that Id like to formulate policies and assist government entities with climate change research.

Cuff also taught English in Madrid, Spain, and math and science in Pembroke Pines, Florida, before enrolling in the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science this fall. After learning about the amazing program that ties both her love for environmental research and environmental policy together, she said she knew the University was the place for her to learn and grow.

I think my main passion is to add to the research dynamic that is climate change and to be able to relay that information back to my community and also to be able to speak for people who are like me, said Cuff.

Becoming a McKnight fellow is a highlight for Cuff as she sets out on a journey no one in her family has done beforepursuing a graduate-level degree.

I am a first-generation college student, so this is a big accomplishment for me, said Cuff, who was also the first in her family to obtain an undergraduate degree. I have two nephews who are 1 and 4, who I know are watching me and believing in me to save the earth. 

Angelique Rosa Marin

Born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, Angelique Rosa Marin is currently pursuing her doctorate in marine geoscience at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

Rosa Marin researches the use of protistsan organismas reef indicators. She is also practicing cultural relevant science communication. When she is not working hard in the lab, she is connecting with her followers on social media helping to amplify reef management strategies and delivering important information to underrepresented communities.

My goal is to provide innovative monitoring tools to enhance global reef management and create inclusive content for the public, said Rosa Marin. Im highly passionate about science communication and sharing the information that I learn in both English and Spanish.

In August, the McKnight cohort attended a two-day orientation in Tampa, Florida. Rosa Marin noted that the meeting was one of the most electrifying experiences ever.

Im usually very critical but this conference was amazing, said Rosa Marin. I felt the support and it was nice to be face-to-face and in a room full of Ph.D. students from different disciplinesand having a chance to engage with leaders of the program.

Dissertation fellowship awardees:

Brittney Davis

At first, Brittney Davis was happy and content being a high school teacher after graduating from Virginia Tech with her bachelors degree in English and then a masters degree in education. However, after years of teaching, she felt her impact could reach more students and impact them by changing the system from within.

Davis burning passion led her to pursue a doctorate in community psychology to create and amend policies that specifically impacted Black and brown students all over the nation. She is enrolled in the Richard J. Kurtz Family Community Well-Being Doctoral Program in the School of Education and Human Development.

I was doing all this work in my classroom, but it was not really helping because even within this small microcosm of people, there were people that were actively undoing the work that I was doing, said Davis, who is originally from Prince Georges County in Maryland.

That work included engaging and understanding her students, engaging in informed practices, and boosting her students cultural racial pride.

Today, Daviss work will allow her to investigate systems and how they impact people of color and communities in general. The goal of her research is to investigate the remote learning experiences of gifted Black middle school students.

Im looking into the remote learning environment and what implications there are for Black boys and girls and continuing this change, Davis said. There has been a radical shift in education so this is something that Im really interested in.

Elisabeth Jeffrey

Elisabeth Jeffrey hit the ground running in the University of Miamis biochemistry and molecular biology doctoral program.

After earning a Master of Science from the Miller School of Medicine, where she conducted research of gut bacteria and fungi on gastrointestinal diseases prevalent after spinal cord injuries, she decided to continue the work she began on a higher level. Shes currently continuing the research because shes interested in positively contributing to something that will help others long term.

Rather than picking a project that was basic research, I picked a project that was more translational, she said. This research is personal because I wanted to improve the quality of life for those with traumatic spinal cord injury.

Growing up, Jeffrey was made to believe that she wasnt good enough for science. Thanks to positive reinforcement from caring teachers, mentors, and professors, she has overcome every obstacle that was thrown in her path. She wants others who may be facing similar hurdles to know that staying the course and gaining a support group is vital to succeeding.

The McKnight community is a very close-knit group and full of support, said Jeffrey, who first applied to the program in 2017 and received the award on her second attempt. It is a unique environment that I think is going to help me personally and professionally.

Monique McKenney

In her fifth year of her doctoral program in counseling psychology in the School of Education and Human Development, Monique McKenney is nearly at the finish line.

My research focuses on how Black youth and their caregivers engage in communication on race and racial incidents, defined as the process of racial socialization, said McKenney. I am motivated to pursue this line of research to contribute to the strengths-based literature on Black families.

As this chapter in her life is nearing completion, she looks back on the many people who have contributed to her ability to secure such a fellowship.

I am thankful to have this village throughout my graduate school journey, she said, naming several people from the school and University of Michigan.

As a McKnight fellow, McKenney is excited to connect and learn about the other scholars around Florida.

I am in awe of the other fellows and their research in this network and look forward to building relationships and potentially collaborating, she said. I see this community as incredibly valuable to me both personally and professionally.
New Zealand drops 'Covid zero' goal after outbreak

New Zealand drops 'Covid zero' goal after outbreak

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern admitted on Monday that New Zealand's widely praised "Covid zero" strategy had failed to halt a stubborn outbreak in Auckland and said a new approach was needed.



The elimination policy had largely protected the country from the pandemic, with residents enjoying a near-normal domestic life alongside tight restrictions on international borders.



But an August outbreak prompted a seven-week lockdown in its main population centre that has failed to curb infection rates.



Ardern said the highly transmissible Delta variant had proved a "game-changer" that could not be eliminated.



"Even with the long-term restrictions we've had, we patently haven't reached zero," she added.



Ardern said she would not immediately dump the elimination strategy but lockdown restrictions in Auckland would be eased slightly, even though new case numbers have not fallen.



She added that the change -- a major shift to her previous goal of completely stamping out the virus -- was possible because vaccination rates had increased dramatically.



"Elimination was important because we didn't have vaccines, now we do, so we can begin to change the way we do things," she told reporters.



Auckland will remain in lockdown for now but the government will conduct weekly reviews to time the reintroduction of freedoms.



City residents can meet outdoors in groups of up to 10 from Wednesday and steps such as reopening shops and schools will be considered in the coming weeks.



The rest of the country was allowed out of lockdown in early September.



Before the Auckland outbreak, New Zealand's elimination strategy was widely lauded by bodies such at the World Health Organization, with just 27 deaths in a population of five million.



Opposition leader Judith Collins said Ardern had offered only a "vague wishlist" that failed to outline a coherent plan to replace the "Covid zero" approach. (AFP)
Kishida formally elected Japan's PM, unveils cabinet

Kishida formally elected Japan's PM, unveils cabinet

Japan's new prime minister Fumio Kishida unveiled his government on Monday, mixing holdovers with newcomers, after lawmakers voted him the new leader of the world's third-largest economy.



The soft-spoken scion of a Hiroshima political family, 64-year-old Kishida beat popular vaccine chief Taro Kono to win the leadership of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) last week.



He easily won Monday's vote in parliament approving him as prime minister thanks to the party's commanding majority.



Kishida bowed to his fellow lawmakers after the vote, but did not immediately speak. Earlier, he told reporters he was ready for the top job.



"I think it will be a new start in its true sense," he said. "I want to take on challenges with a strong will and firm resolve to face the future."



Kishida is widely considered a safe pair of hands, who commands support from his own faction within the LDP and is not expected to veer significantly from the government's existing policies.



His election came after former prime minister Yoshihide Suga, who submitted his resignation on Monday morning, announced he would not stand for the LDP leadership after just one year in office.



Shortly after the parliament vote, Kishida's new cabinet was announced, with more than a dozen fresh faces but holdovers from the Suga government largely populating the most important portfolios.



Both Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi will retain their jobs.



Motegi is a Harvard-educated political veteran who has taken the lead in negotiating key trade deals, while Kishi is the brother of former prime minister Shinzo Abe.



The finance portfolio will go to Shunichi Suzuki, who is replacing his own brother-in-law Taro Aso.



Suzuki is also a veteran politician and the son of a former prime minister. He has served in government before, holding both the Olympics minister and environment minister posts.



The cabinet includes three women, among them Kishida's one-time rival for the leadership, Seiko Noda, who was named minister in charge of addressing Japan's declining birthrate.



The posts of vaccine minister and digital minister also went to women, with several members of the cabinet appointed to their first ministerial post.



"The Kishida cabinet aims at balance with consideration given to major factions, young lawmakers, and neighbouring countries," wrote Junichi Makino, SMBC Nikko Securities chief economist, in a note.



"It's the kind of cabinet formation that reflects Kishida, who works not to make enemies."



Kishida has also rewarded those who supported him in the leadership race, including rival Sanae Takaichi who backed him in the second-round vote against Kono, and has been made LDP policy chief.



Kono meanwhile has been made party communications chairman, something of a step down from his recent role heading the vaccine roll-out and past posts as defence and foreign minister.



Kishida will also lead the LDP in general elections, which local media reported would be held on October 31, a few weeks earlier than expected. (AFP)
Adela Raz, Afghanistans ambassador to the U.S., said in an interview that she does not believe President Biden cares about the fate of Afghan women left behind to live under Taliban rule and said she feels a level of guilt for persuading women to believe there was a future in the country.

She told "Axios on HBO" that one of the women she influenceda human rights advocate-- has since been assassinated.

Axios said the Monday interview with Raz took place in her embassys office in Washington, where she still flies the former Afghanistan flag. The interview was prior to the appearance of top U.S. military officials in front of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, where Gen. Mark Milley, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the war a "strategic failure."

"The Taliban was and remain a terrorist organization and they still have not broken ties with al Qaeda," he said. "I have no illusions who we are dealing with."

Raz was described in the Axios report as "effectively a refugee representing a leaderless government-in-exile." The report said the Taliban reached out to her but she has refused to take the call and said she would never work as an envoy for the Taliban.

She took particular issue with exiled President Ashraf Ghani fleeing the country as Taliban fighters routed his federal forces and closed in on the city. His retreat was shrouded in secrecy that gave rise to conspiracy theories that he left with a fortunean allegation that he denied.

She told Axios that her husband noticed that the exiled president seemed to be having clandestine meetings with top aides as the Taliban closed in.

"I was very sarcastic," she said. "I said, Oh, probably theyre working on the evacuation plan."

The Taliban has been in control of the country for over a month and seem to be finding out that it is more challenging to run a desperately poor country than overthrow one. Kabul may be plunged into darkness because the country has not continued its payments to its Central Asian electricity suppliers.

"The consequences would be countrywide, but especially in Kabul," Daud Noorzai, who resigned as chief executive of the countrys state power monopoly, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat, told the Wall Street Journal. There will be blackout and it would bring Afghanistan back to the Dark Ages when it comes to power and to telecommunications. This would be a really dangerous situation."
Adela Raz, Afghanistans ambassador to the United States, accused President Joe Biden of not caring about the plight of Afghan women under the Taliban government.

After being asked if the president cared about the fate of Afghan women during an interview on Axios on HBO, Raz answered, I dont think so. He said [the] U.S. could not be the police of the world to protect women in any other country.

SIX TAKEAWAYS FROM MILITARY BRASS'S CAPITOL HILL SHOWDOWN

Raz was a member of the Ashraf Ghani-led and elected governing body that was overthrown by the Taliban in the middle of August, just weeks before the U.S. was set to withdraw all of its troops after roughly 20 years. Before that, she was Afghanistan's first female ambassador to the United Nations.

No, sorry, I trust and believe the people. I mean Ive lost some trust in the U.S. policies and I think probably government policies, Raz said. Regarding Americas stance as the leader of the free world, she added, If you talk about democracy, I probably will question it and laugh at it. You were engaged in building one in Afghanistan, and the people believed in it."

Raz, who still works in the Afghan Embassy in Washington, D.C., flies her countrys old flag instead of the Taliban's, and she has refused to recognize them as the governing body. The Taliban tried to set up a Zoom call with her, though she ignored the invitation.

She also noted that her husband had mentioned to her in the days before the fall of Kabul that Ghani had been holding unusually secretive meetings. Ghani fled the country right before the Taliban took over and has denied accusations that he took millions of dollars with him.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

With the Taliban regaining control of Afghanistan and the lack of a foreign military presence, U.S. officials have expressed concern about women's rights and whether they'll be rolled back to where they were the last time the Taliban were in control. They have also shared concerns about the possibility of the country providing a safe haven for terror organizations to reconstitute.

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The Taliban-appointed chancellor of Kabul University has closed the universitys doors to women until an Islamic environment has been created, contradicting initial promises that the new government wouldnt take away rights from women.

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Tags: News, Afghanistan, War in Afghanistan, National Security, Defense

Original Author: Mike Brest

Original Location: Afghan ambassador to US accuses Biden of not caring about Afghan women
Benedict Cumberbatch is reflecting on playing a closeted cattle rancher who falls in love with a young man in 1920s Montana in his new movie The Power of the Dog.

The Oscar-nominated actor plays Phil Burbank, a hypermasculine rancher who inspires fear in awe in those around him  a reign of terror that comes from a deeply closeted sexuality.

His made-up persona runs into some trouble after his brother (Jesse Plemons) brings home a new wife (Kirsten Dunst) and her queer son (Kodi Smit-McPhee). Phil torments them until he finds himself exposed to the possibility of love.

On Friday, Cumberbatch was joined by the films director and writer Jane Campion, co-stars Dunst and Smit-McPhee, and Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos for the films New York premiere, at the New York Film Festival.

Based on the 1967 novel of the same name by Thomas Savage, the film is clearly a complex way of approaching masculinity, Campion told reporters.

I think its a solid container for thinking and rethinking the men in this world, she added.

Cumberbatch, 45, added his own take understanding of the character.

Hes a tough guy, he told Variety at the premiere. Hes an alpha male who had this burning love affair in his youth, which could never be spoken of. The tragedy is what twists him into toxic masculinity, born out as angst and punishment and hate on the world, he said.

Yet its so hard to view the film through todays lens, the London-born actor added. We look at this now as a queer text, but the story is tied to its time and place.

I think it speaks to a time of intolerance and a lack of acceptance where people couldnt live any kind of their authentic self, Cumberbatch said.

[Queer men] had to bury that and cloak it in masculinity, which while not necessarily inherent on the face of it, became so, he continued.

Cumberbatch  whos straight and previously played gay mathematician Alan Turing in 2014s The Imitation Game  faced some scrutiny for playing this role.

Last month he defended playing a gay character in The Power of the Dog.

I feel very sensitive about representation, diversity, and inclusion, he said at the Telluride Film Festival, according to IndieWire.
President Biden on Monday criticized Republicans for not voting to raise the debt ceiling, accusing them of being "reckless and dangerous" in a way that could harm the economy.

"Not only are Republicans refusing to do their job, they're threatening to use [the filibuster] to prevent us from doing our job  saving the economy from a catastrophic event," Biden said during a speech at the White House.

The Democrat-controlled House last week passed legislation that temporarily suspends the debt ceiling. Senate Republicans, however, have said they will not vote to approve such a measure. Biden said the Republicans' stance is "hypocritical, dangerous and disgraceful."

"Especially as we're clawing our way out of this pandemic," Biden said.

"We're not expecting Republicans to do their part," Biden said. "We tried asking to no avail. We're just asking to not use [the filibuster] to block us from doing the job they won't do."

Republicans argue that if Democrats want to govern alone  by trying to enact Biden's "Build Back Better" plan through a legislative process that prohibits a GOP filibuster  they will have to raise the debt limit on their own.

"Republicans position is simple. We have no list of demands," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wrote to Biden on Monday. "For two and a half months, we have simply warned that since your party wishes to govern alone, it must handle the debt limit alone as well."

Biden said he expected to speak with McConnell about the letter.

He and I have been down this road once before, Biden told reporters after his speech.

When asked if he could guarantee the U.S. would not default on its debt, Biden said he could not.

"That's up to Mitch McConnell," Biden said.

But even amid uncertainty, Biden said he could not "believe that will be the end result because the consequences would be so dire."

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"I don't believe it," Biden said. "But can I guarantee it? If I could, I would. But I cant.

Raising the debt limit allows the federal government to continue to cover debt it has already undertaken, not future spending. The United States has never defaulted on its debts, even amid heightened partisan squabbling.

Senate Republicans have insisted that Democrats have enough votes to raise the ceiling through reconciliation, a filibuster-proof process that requires a simple majority in Senate. If all Democrats and two independents back such a bill, Vice President Kamala Harris can break the tie and put the bill on Bidens desk.

But Biden warned that reconciliation is "fraught with all kinds of potential danger for a miscalculation. It's an incredibly complicated, cumbersome process."

The process allows for two sets of unlimited amendment votes. The minority party typically uses the "vote-a-rama" to box the majority party into taking politically perilous votes.

Republicans "need to stop playing Russian roulette with the U.S. economy," Biden said. "Let us vote and end the mess."

Once the Treasury Department runs out of cash, payments to government workers, including military personnel, veterans and Social Security recipients would likely be delayed. A default would also affect taxpayers.

"Savings in your pocketbook could be directly impacted by this Republican stunt," Biden said.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen previously said the department would run out of "emergency measures" to pay the nation's debts on Oct. 18. The limit on federal borrowing is currently $28.4 trillion.

A U.S. default would not only upend global markets but imperil America's economy, likely causing unemployment rates to jump to 9%, experts have warned. Even waiting to the last minute to raise the limit "can cause serious harm to business and consumer confidence, raise borrowing costs for taxpayers, and negatively impact the credit rating of the United States for years to come," Yellen wrote last week in a letter to congressional leaders.

Fitch Ratings on Friday warned that if the debacle over the debt limit is not resolved in a "timely manner," it would be forced to downgrade the nation's AAA credit rating.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday told Democrats that a measure addressing debt limit must be on Biden's desk by the end of this week.

During his remarks, Biden sought to decouple the debt limit showdown and negotiations over his economic agenda, emphasizing that the ceiling needs to be raised to pay for spending that has already been authorized, not future plans.

But after finishing remarks, Biden also fielded questions about the latest talks involving infrastructure and social spending legislation.

House Democrats on Thursday did not advance an infrastructure measure, which would upgrade roads, bridges and water pipes, because a deal could not be reached on a more expensive proposal that would expand safety net programs.

Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have withheld their support for the spending bill, creating a stalemate.

Still, Biden was confident that he was making progress.

"I need 50 votes in the Senate," Biden said. "I have 48."

"This is a process," he said. "We'll get it done."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
One of the largest oil spills in recent California history has contaminated a swath of popular beaches south of Long Beach, including Huntington Beach.

Driving the news: The spill of as many as 126,000 gallons of crude oil, which is thought to have emanated from a leaking pipeline about 4.5 miles off the coast of Huntington Beach, was detected Saturday.

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The latest: Oil began washing up on beaches by early Sunday, and closures may expand and last for months.

As of Sunday evening, 3,150 gallons of oil have been recovered from the spill area, the Coast Guard said.

The pipeline from which it leaked has been shut off, Martyn Willsher, CEO of Houston-based Amplify Energy Corp., which owns the pipeline, told the AP.

The leaking pipeline connects to oil production and drilling platforms, the AP reports, both of which are in federal waters.

The full scope of wildlife impacts is not yet fully known.

The big picture: A host of extreme weather events amplified by climate change have battered California in recent months, from record heat to some of the largest wildfires in state history.

For some residents, the spill is just another reminder of how California is ground zero for climate change.

Wildfire photographer Stuart Palley captured this in an Instagram post: "The forests of my childhood have burned, and now the beaches from youth are covered in oil."

Go deeper: Major oil spill reaches California beaches, killing wildlife

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(Bloomberg) -- The Canadian government invoked oil and gas transit rights under a decades-old treaty with the U.S. to stop Michigans attempt to shut down an Enbridge Inc. pipeline under the Great Lakes.

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A 1977 agreement states Canada and the U.S. must allow natural gas and crude oil to flow between the two countries, according to a statement Monday from Foreign Minister Marc Garneau. More than 540,000 barrels per day flow through Line 5, which provides half the oil and propane used in Ontario and the U.S. Midwest.

In response to Michigans efforts to shut down Line 5, Canada has raised its significance for Canadian economic and energy security at the highest levels of the U.S. federal government, Garneau said.

By using the treaty, Canada is seeking to delay court decisions on the pipeline while the two countries negotiate. Enbridge shares rose 1% in New York on Monday.

The move comes weeks after court-ordered mediation efforts between Enbridge and the Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer collapsed. The governor ordered the Calgary-based company to stop using the pipeline in May due to environmental concerns, but the oil continues to flow.

Whitmer argues the pipeline is particularly vulnerable to spills in the Straits of Mackinac as it was first built in 1953. Enbridge has proposed building a tunnel to house a new section of pipeline in an effort to reduce its environmental risk.

Canada supports Enbridges plan to replace the existing pipeline with the proposed Great Lakes Tunnel Project, which will run far below the lakebed of the Straits of Mackinac, to further protect the Great Lakes, Garneau said.

Whitmer said in a statement she was profoundly disappointed in Canadas decision to use the treaty. Rather than taking steps to diversify energy supply and ensure resilience, Canada has channeled its efforts into defending an oil company with an abysmal environmental track record, she said.

Story continues

(Updates with Whitmer statement, share price move.)

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Jasmine Hartin has been charged with manslaughter by negligence in the death of Henry Jemmott

Henry Jemmott, a high-ranking police official in Belize, was shot and killed at the hand of socialite Jasmine Hartin last May on the island.

Hartin, who faces charges in his death, is speaking out about the incident, insisting that she shot him accidentally. Hartin, 32, broke her silence regarding the incident on CBS News 48 Hours on Saturday. In an episode entitled, Jasmine Hartins Shot In The Dark, Hartin tells her side of the story.

She indicated to 48 Hours correspondent Peter Van Sant that she did, indeed, shoot Jemmott, a father of five, but not on purpose.

Jasmine Hartin and Henry Jemmott (Credit: 48 Hours/screenshot and Facebook)

Jasmine Hartin says she shot senior police official Henry Jemmott accidentally, but Jemmotts sister, a police officer herself, finds it hard to believe. https://t.co/G9UvlhbAkp pic.twitter.com/Iq4OxDmDKk  48 Hours (@48hours) October 3, 2021

Hartin originally moved to Belize in 2014, then began a relationship with Andrew Ashcroft, son of British billionaire Lord Michael Ashcroft. Hartin stated that she and Jemmott, a police superintendent in Belize, had become friends after she had met Ashcroft in 2015, with whom she shares twins.

Andrew Ashcroft was awarded interim custody of twins Charlie and Elle, 4, in July by a family court judge, Belize station LoveFM reported.

During the 48 Hours interview, Hartin stated that one evening last May, she was physically accosted by a man at a party and called Jemmott to help her leave. She states that Jemmott told her to get a gun for protection. On the night of the incident, Hartin says that she was giving Jemmott a shoulder massage on the pier after a night of drinking and he had given her his own gun, a Glock 17 service pistol.

It was past midnight when Jemmott ended up dead, found with a gunshot wound behind his ear.

Story continues

At first, Hartin stated that Jemmott must have been hit by a stray bullet from a nearby passing boat, according to Belize news reporter Cherisse Halsall. However, after meeting with her lawyer at the jailhouse, Hartin then stated that she did, in fact, shoot Jemmott, but accidentally.

Henry Jemmott (Credit: Facebook)

Hartin stated that Jemmott was trying to instruct her on how to load and unload the weapon and thats when the firearm went off.

Im holding it like this on the top and like this and Im trying to get the magazine out, Hartin told Van Sant. Next thing I know, the gun went off.

Hartin has been charged with manslaughter by negligence and was released on bail. However, she was arrested again in June following an altercation with an employee of Belizes Grand Colony Resort hotel where she once resided with Ashcroft and their twins, according to The Daily Mail. She stated she was trying to see her children, and was charged with assault, but was released again on $30K bail.

The things that are at stake right now is my relationship with my children, my freedom, my business, my money, my character, my reputation and my life is at stake, she said during the episode.

Watch the 48 Hours segment below.

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The post Canadian socialite says she accidentally shot, killed Belize police superintendent after midnight massage appeared first on TheGrio.
Jasmine Hartin, the Canadian socialite at the center of an international manslaughter investigation, called the fatal shooting of her friend, a Belizean police officer, a "terrible accident" and insisted she is not the hard-partying "billionairess" that she's been portrayed as, according to a new interview.

The mother of two, 32, is the daughter-in-law of British billionaire Lord Michael Ashcroft. She was charged in June with manslaughter by negligence after police found her with blood on her clothing and arms on a dock. Henry Jemmott's lifeless body was found floating nearby in the water.

SOCIALITE ACCUSED OF KILLING BELIZE POLICE OFFICER CLAIMS SHE IS A VICTIM OF HUSBAND'S WEALTHY FAMILY

Hartin initially claimed Jemmott had been shot by someone from a passing boat but changed her story after authorities told her she would be charged with cocaine possession as well.

She eventually admitted she and Jemmott met up for a night of drinking. They ended up at the pier where she'd given him a shoulder massage and he tried to teach her how to load and unload the magazine and bullets from his service pistol, a Glock 17.

Hartin told CBS's 48 Hours that she was "trying to get the magazine out" and the "next thing I know, the gun went off."

When asked if she had her finger around the trigger, Hartin said she didn't think she had.

"I'd, I'm, I don't know. I, I, I mean, it was an accident or the gun misfired. But, consciously, did I pull the trigger? No," she said.

Jemmott's sister, Cherry, who is also a police officer in Belize, has long accused Hartin of killing her brother "execution-style." She believes prosecutors went easy on her because of her wealth and proximity to power.

"Jasmine Hartin should be charged with murder, not manslaughter," she said.

Hartin has dismissed the comments, calling them "ridiculous."

"I am not a murderer," she said.

Story continues

Belizean investigators have not released forensics or other documents in the case against Hartin, nor has a trial date been set.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Hartin's partner, Andrew Ashcroft, has accused his estranged wife of being addicted to drugs and alcohol in court documents filed as part of a custody battle over their children. In the documents, which were obtained by the Daily Mail, Ashcroft accused Hartin of being unable to take care of their children due to her "immoral" habits, which he alleged included taking illegal and nonprescribed drugs. He also accused her of partying too much and said she was an alcoholic.

"Her main occupation is attending and socializing," he said when asking for full custody.

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Tags: News, Canada, Central America, Crime, Law, Law Enforcement, Foreign Policy

Original Author: Barnini Chakraborty

Original Location: Canadian socialite who shot Belize police officer calls claims she's a murderer 'ridiculous'
Actor Christopher Eccleston has repeatedly spoken out against social inequality in acting (Getty)

Christopher Eccleston has opened up about his mental health struggles, revealing that he was once convinced he was going to die.

The Doctor Who star recalled his experience during a candid interview with The Big Issue vendor Clive, who is based in Devon.

Eccleston said that he had nearly lost everything after he was admitted to hospital with severe clinical depression in 2016.

The 57-year-old said: I think the received idea about people who sell The Big Issue is that theyve never had a successful life...

But I discovered that when I had severe clinical depression and I was hospitalised, I nearly lost everything. There was one night I thought I was going to die.

Eccleston added: I was running down Euston Road with a suitcase. Now, if anybody had seen me, theyd have gone, Oh, theres Doctor Who.

My point is, I dont think people understand how quickly it can happen. Particularly in times of recession, he said.

The actor went on to explain how he first suffered a mental health episode in 2016 during filming for the BBC drama The A Word, in which Eccleston starred as Maurice.

Christopher Eccleston photographed in 2019 (AFP via Getty Images)

I found out afterwards that Id been in fight or flight for a couple of years and could no longer fight or fly  my brain chemistry was telling me I was about to die, said Eccleston.

The 28 Days Later star continued: I wasnt necessarily going to take my own life. I dont know whether it would be called psychosis, I was just convinced that I was about to die all night.

Eccleston has previously spoken candidly about his depression and anorexia.

The actor, who took on the role of the Doctor in 2005, wrote about his mental health struggles in his 2019 autobiography, I Love The Bones Of You.

If you are experiencing feelings of distress and isolation, or are struggling to cope, The Samaritans offers support; you can speak to someone for free over the phone, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.

Story continues

If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The Helpline is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you.

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Two Kansas City police officers who wrongly arrested a Black teenager in 2016 and placed him in juvenile detention for three weeks will stand trial Monday in his civil rights lawsuit.

The lawsuit brought by Tyree Bells family is set to start at the federal courthouse in downtown Kansas City. Bell, who was 15 at the time, was detained despite evidence of his innocence, his attorneys say.

Bell was jailed after officers Jonathan Munyan and Peter Neukirch said he matched the description of one of three Black teenagers showing off a firearm June 8, 2016, at East 91st Street and Marsh Avenue.

One of the teenagers there fled on foot and threw a gun over a fence. Less than 10 minutes later, an officer found Bell walking more than a mile away.

He put me in the car and they high-fived each other, Bell said of the officers, recalling his arrest in 2018. I was shocked.

In some ways, Bell matched the other teens description, but he showed no signs of having run in near 90 degree heat. He was jailed until a detective viewed dashcam footage  after numerous requests from his mother  and determined he was not the teen who fled.

When a Kansas City police officer put Tyree Bell in handcuffs, he says, he kind of thought I was going to get let off, because I knew that I didnt do anything. Instead he landed in jail for three weeks.

The next year, Bells mother sued the officers, who are white, for unlawful arrest, negligent training and supervision, and deprivation of her sons constitutional rights. In 2019, U.S. District Judge Greg Kays dismissed the lawsuit, ruling the officers were entitled to qualified immunity, which protects government officials from being sued unless there is a clear violation of constitutional rights.

But last year, an appeals court overturned Kays decision, setting up the trial starting this week. Police Chief Rick Smith and the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners are also listed as defendants.

Local faith leaders have repeatedly called for reforms of the Kansas City Police Department.

During protests in summer 2020, community groups called for Smith to resign or be removed. They cited a lack of confidence in Smiths handling of fatal police shootings of Black men, and allegations of excessive use of force by police officers.

Black lives matter, Arthur Benson, an attorney for Bell, said in 2020. Three weeks of an innocent childs life stolen and jailed matter. When the Kansas City Police Department does not train its mostly white officers that all Blacks do not look alike it matters.

In court filings, police have denied violating Bells constitutional rights or sitting on exonerating evidence.
Lupin stays close to Teddy, who has learned to keep a watchful, big-brother eye on foster kittens. (David Lazarus / Los Angeles Times)

Oh, please, not another dead kitten.

My wife, Ikuko, and I exchanged looks. No words were necessary.

The roughly 1-week-old kitten we'd just picked up from a Los Angeles shelter was much smaller than we expected from the online photo, about the same size as our last foster kitty.

And that one, despite our best efforts, didn't survive. It never got the hang of bottle feeding and grew steadily weaker. After six days, we rushed it back to the shelter for veterinary care. It died a few hours later.

We'd successfully fostered about a dozen kittens before that. Losing one  well, statistically speaking, it was inevitable. About half of bottle-fed kittens don't make it. But knowing that doesn't make it any easier.

"Should we take it back?" I asked, gazing nervously at the fragile, bird-like creature, so new to the world that it could barely open its eyes.

One of the joys of fostering kittens is watching their personalities develop. Lupin isn't lacking in that department. (Ikuko Lazarus / For The Times)

"No," Ikuko answered. "Let's give it love."

So we bestowed the kitten with a name: Lupin. And we gave it love.

Fostering baby animals is hard, I won't sugarcoat it. You may be awake much of the night handling feedings. There'll be messes. You're constantly watching to make sure the little one isn't underfoot or in danger.

But every little milestone  first feeding, first step, first poop  is a tiny act of grace in an otherwise jaded world.

"Fostering, especially with baby kittens, is an exciting and sometimes scary experience," said Michelle Sathe, L.A.-based spokeswoman for Best Friends, a national nonprofit animal welfare group.

In Southern California, she told me, "there may be 10,000 or more dogs and cats looking for homes at any given time."

We've all seen stories about how pet adoptions picked up during the pandemic. People felt lonely and maybe a little frightened, and bringing home a furry friend brought emotional relief to millions.

Sadly, there also have been stories about some shelters filling up again as people return their pandemic pals and prepare to resume normal life.

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I asked Sathe if these turnabouts are rough on critters. Isn't it heartbreaking for a dog or cat to bond with a human and then be rejected?

Sathe replied that any time spent outside a cage is positive.

"Even if you only foster for a week, that's a week the dog or cat wasn't in the shelter," she said. "And I think the animals are pretty adaptable. I think they manage."

What many people might not realize is that public and private shelters rely on the community to help handle the thousands of orphaned or abandoned animals looking for a home.

Shelter space is so limited, many dogs and cats have to be put down for medical or behavioral reasons, or simply because they require more care than the shelter can provide.

"Newborn kittens are the most vulnerable part of our shelter population," said Dana Brown, general manager of L.A. Animal Services, which operates six city-run facilities (including the shelter where Ikuko volunteers and which asked us to take in Lupin).

The need for affection and attention, the round-the-clock bottle feedings  "we just don't have the staff for that," Brown acknowledged. If a newborn kitten can't be placed in a foster home right away, it almost certainly will be euthanized. There's often no other choice.

"This is something that's very difficult for us," Brown told me.

It's also why there's constant need for the rest of us to step up, if possible, and help homeless critters find their place in the world.

"Even if you foster for just a couple of days, it makes a difference," said Allison Cardona, deputy director of L.A. Animal Care and Control, which operates seven county-run shelters.

Heck, you can boost your karma by simply volunteering to take a shelter dog for a walk around the block. That's how desperate these facilities are for helping hands.

Ikuko and I never fancied ourselves as fosters, although we've had cats since the earliest days of our relationship.

I'd always wanted a pooch as well, but Ikuko was wary of bringing a dog into our cat-happy home. Which is to say, no dogs for us.

That changed during a 2014 visit to a shelter, which we did from time to time prior to the pandemic just to see if any cats or dogs needed some TLC.

Ikuko and I were wandering among the canine cages when we spotted a mustard-colored dog who looked utterly forlorn. He was sitting at the back of his cage, head down, fur lifeless, his brown eyes saying, "I don't understand why this is happening."

He was a big dog, strong, solid. A DNA test would identify him as a mix of golden retriever and Saint Bernard. This was Teddy. I'm sharing this because Teddy would prove instrumental in our future foster activities.

On a whim, we asked if we could interact with him. A shelter staffer led Teddy from his cage into a pen where we could get acquainted. It was obvious right away that he'd had some hard knocks.

He flinched when you made contact. He didn't want his head touched. He wasn't sure how to act around people.

But he was sweet  and intuitive. Teddy quickly grasped who held the deciding vote in our little government, and in his first interaction with Ikuko, he met her eyes and leaned against her in a gesture of trust.

He came home with us that day.

On their daily walks, Teddy and Jupiter serve as a furry neighborhood watch team. (David Lazarus / Los Angeles Times)

As anyone with a pet knows, there's something magic about an emotional connection being made between different species. It's also obviously a long-term commitment (or should be, though it doesn't always work out that way).

Fostering is different. It's a short-term deal. Babysitting, with fur.

Our introduction to this world was admittedly self-serving. Our son needed to rack up some community service hours for school. Fostering a shelter animal qualified. We picked up three kittens at NKLA, a nonprofit shelter operated by Best Friends that aims to eliminate euthanization.

Our first foster kittens were about 3 weeks old when they arrived  still bottle feeding but old enough to be out of the danger zone.

It may sound counterintuitive, but fostering multiple kittens is easier than just one. They play together and keep one another amused. When one sleeps, they all sleep.

No less helpful, there's almost always a bright one in the bunch who figures stuff out faster than the others  how to eat solid food, where to do its business. The others will follow its lead.

The biggest revelation for us, though, was that Teddy not only wanted to be involved, he was good at it.

Teddy, all 80 pounds of him, kept a big-brother eye on the kittens' rambunctiousness, nudging them with his muzzle if they wandered where they weren't supposed to go. He let them snuggle and even climb on him.

Jupiter wasted no time in bonding with Teddy. The two are now best buddies. (David Lazarus / Los Angeles Times)

The kittens, in turn, accepted Teddy as the alpha, the boss, and appeared more at ease with him around. This, we learned, is a major plus in finding forever homes for little kitties.

"It's a huge selling point," said Brown at L.A. Animal Services. "If a kitten is already adjusted to other animals, or to kids, it makes it much easier to place it in a home."

Don't be shy about taking the initiative in finding homes for your fosters. Yes, you can return them to the shelter when they're old enough for adoption. But we didn't like the uncertainty of that.

So we knocked on the doors of neighbors who have kids and invited them to stop by and meet the kittens. No child will refuse that offer, although not all parents are grateful for such blatant emotional blackmail.

Still, all three kitties found homes, and after taking a break for a few months, we jumped back into the foster pool.

We've since taken in as many as four at a time (a handful, but Christmas for Teddy) and a few singletons. Most were still bottle feeding. Some were on their way to cathood.

OK, I'll finally be getting back to little Lupin. But first, a quick word about good intentions.

Shelter operators say most of their kittens are brought in by nice people who discover a litter of little ones in an alleyway or under a bush. They assume the kittens must have been abandoned by their mother.

"Nine out of 10 times, the mom is coming back," Brown said. "She's probably just out looking for food."

Take a close look. If the kittens appear well-fed and relatively clean, Mama Cat is in charge, and that's better than being in a shelter.

"Try to observe the kittens for an hour or two, if you can," Brown advised. "See if Mom comes back. If you don't have the time to wait around, call a shelter and we'll see if we can send someone out to take a look."

Once a newborn kitten enters the shelter system, the hunt begins for a foster parent to take over, well, everything. Daunting, yes, but most shelters will provide free training, as well as the needed gear  formula, bottles, blankets, a heating pad.

There are also tons of videos online that will show you how to care for little ones. Hannah Shaw, a.k.a. Kitten Lady, maintains a nifty website, and the videos on her YouTube channel are like a master class for fostering.

Don't worry about making mistakes. The more you do it, the better you become. And don't fret (too much) about little ones taking a turn for the worse.

Every shelter worker I spoke with said they understood what Ikuko and I went through after our last little foster passed away. Most said they'd lost a kitten or puppy too.

"It's something we need to talk about more with people who foster," Brown admitted. "It happens, and there's a grieving process when it does."

Cardona at L.A. Animal Care told me the same. "There's no shame when this happens," she said. "It's almost never your fault."

Our initial apprehension about Lupin's tiny stature dissipated as he learned, after a few false starts, how to bottle feed and started putting on weight.

He's been with us about a month and has more than doubled in size (which highlights, at less than half a pound, how underweight he was when the shelter put out a call for help).

It took Lupin several weeks to figure out the litter box  a very big deal  although an acute case of kitty constipation required some assistance on our part (YouTube to the rescue). This milestone was followed by his first tentative breakfast of solid food.

Lupin is dwarfed by his surroundings. Foster kittens require constant vigilance to keep them safe. (Ikuko Lazarus / For The Times)

Once he got his back paws to cooperate with his front ones, he started trundling around the kitchen like a miniature Land Rover. Teddy still keeps a close eye on Lupin as he explores his rapidly expanding territory, but I get the sense Teddy is asking the same questions we are.

Will we keep fattening him up and then find him a forever home? Or will we become "foster fails" and hang on to the little dude?

I know what my Twitter friends will say after all the Snickers-sweet photos and videos of Lupin I've posted.

My social media circle also will be noting that I've yet to mention our scene-stealing cat Jupiter.

We adopted Jupiter in March after Ikuko saw his picture on the West L.A. shelter's site. She asked a staffer to let her take a closer look via video, and two hours later, Jupiter was a member of the family.

Jupiter enjoys his daily walks around the neighborhood with Teddy. (Ikuko Lazarus / For The Times)

He was 6 months old, not a foster kitty. His previous owner had turned him over to the shelter, for reasons I'll never understand. He's an outrageously cool cat.

Jupiter wasted no time in bonding with Teddy, and the two are now best buddies. They hang out together, sleep together, go for walks together, compete for control of Teddy's dog beds.

Lupin's arrival, as can often happen, threw off the delicate balance of our little zoo. Jupiter started spending more time in the backyard. Sora, our shy calico, also a rescue, grew even more reclusive.

For the sake of our other cats, we're leaning toward finding Lupin a new home when he's old enough.

Lupin was about a week old when the West L.A. shelter put out a call for help in caring for him. (Ikuko Lazarus / For The Times)

This also would open the door to us fostering again, to being there for another baby that wants only to love and be loved.

And that's the whole point.





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
If you want to know who really controls Helios Underwriting Plc (LON:HUW), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Large companies usually have institutions as shareholders, and we usually see insiders owning shares in smaller companies. Warren Buffett said that he likes "a business with enduring competitive advantages that is run by able and owner-oriented people." So it's nice to see some insider ownership, because it may suggest that management is owner-oriented.

Helios Underwriting is a smaller company with a market capitalization of UK106m, so it may still be flying under the radar of many institutional investors. Our analysis of the ownership of the company, below, shows that institutions are noticeable on the share registry. Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Helios Underwriting.

Check out our latest analysis for Helios Underwriting

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Helios Underwriting?

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.

We can see that Helios Underwriting does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Helios Underwriting, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

It would appear that 18% of Helios Underwriting shares are controlled by hedge funds. That worth noting, since hedge funds are often quite active investors, who may try to influence management. Many want to see value creation (and a higher share price) in the short term or medium term. Hudson Structured Capital Management Ltd. is currently the company's largest shareholder with 18% of shares outstanding. Nigel Hanbury is the second largest shareholder owning 14% of common stock, and ILS Capital Management, Ltd holds about 13% of the company stock. Nigel Hanbury, who is the second-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Chief Executive Officer.

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Our research also brought to light the fact that roughly 53% of the company is controlled by the top 4 shareholders suggesting that these owners wield significant influence on the business.

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. While there is some analyst coverage, the company is probably not widely covered. So it could gain more attention, down the track.

Insider Ownership Of Helios Underwriting

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. 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.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Our information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in Helios Underwriting Plc. Insiders own UK20m worth of shares in the UK106m company. This may suggest that the founders still own a lot of shares. You can click here to see if they have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, with a 18% 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.

Private Company Ownership

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 7.3%, of the company's shares. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company.

Next Steps:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. For example, we've discovered 2 warning signs for Helios Underwriting (1 is concerning!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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.
A federal agent died and two other law enforcement officers were injured in a shooting on an Amtrak train at a station Monday morning in Tucson, Arizona.

Members of a regional narcotics "alliance" of local and federal authorities were conducting a routine check on a stationary train when a man opened fire, Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus said Monday. Authorities were detaining another man on the train's upper deck when the shooter pulled out a handgun, he said.

"The suspect, after exchanging rounds with the officers, barricaded himself in the bathroom, which is on the lower level. ... Ultimately it was determined that the suspect in the bathroom was, in fact, deceased," Magnus said.

The man who was detained remains in custody, Magnus said. Authorities identified no suspects.

A Drug Enforcement Administration agent was killed in the exchange, said Cheri Oz, special agent in charge of the DEA's Phoenix division. Another agent was in critical condition. A Tucson police officer who rushed to help after hearing shots was stable, Magnus said.

The "shooting incident" on the train from Los Angeles occurred at about 7:40 a.m. local time, Amtrak said in a statement. None of the 137 passengers and 11 crew members, who all evacuated into the station, were reported to have been injured.

"We at the DEA are heartbroken by todays events and ask that you keep the families of the agents and task force officer in your thoughts and prayers," DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in a statement.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland also said he was deeply saddened by the deadly shooting, as well as the death of Deputy U.S. Marshal Jared Keyworth, who died Friday from injuries from a vehicle accident in a law enforcement operation in Mississippi three days earlier.

"We are grateful for the courage and selfless sacrifice of these heroes, and I join the entire Justice Department in conveying our support and deepest sympathies to their families," Garland said.
(Reuters) - A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent was killed and two other law enforcement officers were injured in a shooting aboard an Amtrak train in Tucson on Monday, officials said.

One suspect was in custody while another one died in the shooting that erupted during a routine check at the downtown Tucson transportation hub by officers with a regional drug task force, Tucson Police Department Chief Chris Magnus told a news conference.

None of train's passengers and no bystanders were injured as the incident unfolded, he added.

"I just think it's kind of incredible here that there weren't other people that were hurt," Magnus said.

Authorities did not identify the DEA agent killed in the shooting. Among the members of law enforcement agencies injured was a DEA agent, as well as an officer with the Tucson Police Department, authorities said.

As officers boarded the train on Monday morning, they made contact with two individuals on the second level of a double-decker car on the stationary Amtrak train, Magnus said.

As they detained one, a second suspect pulled a handgun and opened fire on law enforcement. The man later barricaded himself in one of the car's bathrooms, where he was found dead, the chief said.

(Reporting by Maria Caspani; Editing by Dan Grebler)
(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

My dog, Bert, is rarely happier than when hes on the Tube. To him, its simply a moving box of potential admirers. He makes his way through the carriage, accepting pats and compliments and posing for photos. In return, he provides a little moment of joy to beleaguered commuters who are questioning the life decisions that led to their smelling a strangers armpit each morning on the way to work. Its a sweet, wholesome interaction and I wish it were possible in every public place. Not to mention, I am so powerfully fond of him, Id really like to be able to take him everywhere. Eighty-five per cent of dogs have shown signs of separation anxiety when their people leave  and I am afflicted with the very same when I spend time apart from my four-legged best mate.

There are nearly 10 million pet dogs in the UK. Two million people welcomed one into their homes during lockdown, all of whom are wondering what to do now that offices are opening and parts of our lives have resumed where dogs are not always invited. Twenty-three million Americans got a pandemic pup. Many of them without a great deal of thought for what might happen when we ventured outside the home regularly again. And now shelters across the world are overwhelmed with new arrivals, as people abandon the hairy little housemates who brought them such comfort over the past year. While its always the right thing to do, taking a animal to a rescue shelter rather than abandoning or neglecting them, its also devastating to hear of so many excitedly blight and then regretfully discarded animals.

One potential solution is to make it easier for people to integrate their pets into their everyday lives. If only our darling mutts were allowed to accompany us all into the office, to curl up under tables at all restaurants, totter along beside us on shopping trips, dutifully trot along the aisles at supermarkets, and maybe even join us on a cheeky visit to an art gallery. That would also significantly decrease the horrific deaths of animals left in overheating vehicles and theft of pets left tied up outside buildings. If we adopted a broader policy of tolerance to our favourite canine companions, wed be able to keep them safer too.

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(Getty Images)

Of course there are considerations. People with allergies, reasonable objections or cultural sensitivities shouldnt be made to share a space with an animal. Anyone who brings a dog to a public place, especially a workplace, should take proper precautions to ensure their pup is polite and considerate. Dogs should be well-behaved and probably not, like my previous dog - the late Lady Fluffington (RIP) - make eye contact with the CEO of your company while leaving an enormous trail of urine on the boardroom floor.

That embarrassing moment aside, most dogs are more hygienic than youd expect and often make better co-workers than people, in my opinion. Therapy dogs have had outstanding success providing comfort and emotional support in hospital environments, emergency departments, childrens hospices, special needs schools and courtrooms. Its actually not an outlandish suggestion, that Susan from HR update the office policies to include dogs, or for Sainsburys security guards to wave you in smilingly when you turn up with your hound.

Dr Deborah Wells, psychologist and Director of the Animal Behaviour Centre at Queens University Belfast, endorses my suggestion that Bert and his canine peers be allowed almost anywhere theyd like. Dogs have the potential to bring enormous physical and psychological benefits to their owners outside the home environment, she says. Research points to a calming effect of both stroking, and being in the mere presence, of ones dog, with the animal helping to lower heart rate, blood pressure and improve the release of feel-good neurotransmitters.

Research points to a calming effect of both stroking, and being in the mere presence, of ones dog

Dr Deborah Wells, psychologist

The non-judgemental presence of an animal also has the potential to improve cognitive performance and buffer people from stress, something that might be of value in the challenging context of the workplace. People with an anxious disposition, hidden disability or those who simply cannot bear leaving their pet at home may gain particular benefits from having their dog at work, bearing in mind some of the logistical challenges that can come with doing so.

I know first-hand how powerfully comforting a dogs company can be. I wrote all about Berts capacity to support me through depression in my book, Good Dog, and asked countless canine experts and dog fans to back me up with scientific proof and their own lived experience. I have also just recorded the first season of a podcast called Whos A Good Dog, for which I spoke to celebrities and cultural thinkers about the goodness of dogs. Theyd all unanimously support the presence of dogs in public places, I think.

(Getty Images)

Author Juno Dawson told me that her precious chihuahua Prince sits in the front row when she speaks at literary festivals. TV presenter Tony Robinson said hed think of making a documentary about the uniquely special relationship between dogs and people. Journalist Zing Tsjeng told me how impeccably behaved her rescue dog Judy was on a photo shoot for Time Out London with drag race star Bimini Bom Boulash. It is entirely possible for dogs to behave themselves in public places and I reckon we should give them a chance.

Nathalie Ingham, Canine Behaviourist & Training Manager at Battersea (Berts former home), says we just need to have common sense and respect when we take our dogs anywhere with us. Its great when you can take your dog along to different venues if this is something that your dog enjoys, but its really important to ensure that -- as owners  we are responsible and respectful of others sharing the spaces, too. She recommends keeping your dog on a lead, teaching them to be obedient, and building up their experience of places outside the home so that they feel confident in new settings.

In an ideal world, we would like to see more public places become dog friendly as this will have a positive impact on dog welfare

Dogs Trust

Training your dog helps build a good relationship and encourages dogs to seek guidance from you in situations where they might struggle. Our website has lots of information on how to train your dog and teach them useful skills for all these situations such as loose lead walking or how to settle. And thats actually what it comes down to, mostly: good relationships. Between dogs and their human mates, yes, but also just person to person. If someone is scared of your dog, respond respectfully and take the dog away. If your dog is too noisy to behave appropriately in a workplace, make other arrangements. Its not complicated. But I do think the science-backed loveliness of being near a dog makes a compelling case for allowing them to keep us company in more locations.

Its not just me, as I say. Dogs Trust is behind me on this one, too. A spokesperson told me that: In an ideal world, we would like to see more public places become dog friendly as this will have a positive impact on dog welfare  especially following the boom in pet ownership during the pandemic. In recent years there have been steps taken in the right direction, with more major high street shops now allowing dogs on their premises, but we feel more could be done. More to be done, like broaching dog-friendly policies wherever appropriate. Starting, probably, with our places of work.

(Getty Images)

Dogs can be a wonderful addition to a working environment, providing the correct provisions are in place to ensure this doesnt compromise their welfare at all. It is important to consider the practical elements of having a dog in the office with your employer and other colleagues. A comfortable, quiet place for your dog to relax, a water bowl nearby and regular walks and attention are all essential to factor in, along with planning around your daily commute and schedule. If we want more places to become dog friendly, its also important for all dog owners to make sure their dogs etiquette is up to scratch. That includes cleanliness, tolerable noise levels, and generally nice manners. But it also means sensible dog ownership behaviour from people, like keeping dogs on leads, knowing to look for signs of anxiety in them, taking provisions, and researching a place before you turn up so that you can plan properly.

If I may say so, Bert is a great ambassador for my dog-friendly agenda. He sleeps curled up at my feet while I work, snoring softly and tenderly placing his paw on my knee if he needs my attention. He barks at me on the dot of 6pm each night, preventing me from working outside reasonable hours. He comforts me when I feel hopeless or sad. He requires a daily walk outside and at least one session of playing with his disgusting, well-loved toys, which cheers me up and gets me moving. He is an asset to my life, both professional and personal. We could all do with more Bert in our lives.

Kate Leaver is host of a new podcast called Whos A Good Dog, available on all podcast platforms from the 4th October. She is author of the book Good Dog.

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Dr Anthony Fauci said on Sunday that it was too early to say whether Americans can hold large family gatherings to celebrate Christmas this year as the Delta variant of the coronavirus continued to spread in spite of government restrictions.

The US needs to focus on lowering new Covid-19 cases and hospitalisations while boosting vaccinations, the chief White House medical adviser said.

Its just too soon to tell, Dr Fauci told host Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation on CBS News when she asked if Americans can gather for Christmas 2021.

Weve just got to keep concentrating on continuing to get those numbers down and not try to jump ahead by weeks or months and say what were going to do at a particular time, Dr Fauci said.

"Lets focus like a laser on continuing to get those cases down. And we can do it by people getting vaccinated and also, in the situation where boosters are appropriate, to get people boosted, because we know that they can help greatly in diminishing infection and diminishing advanced disease, the kinds of data that are now accumulating in real time, he added.

On Friday, US crossed the grim milestone of registering 700,000 Covid deaths. The country has so far reported more than 43.6 million confirmed Covid cases.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has urged unvaccinated individuals to avoid traveling for the holidays and wear a mask if they attend indoor parties.

Though hospitalisations linked to coronavirus and average daily cases have gone down by 30 per cent over the last month, infections could surge again, Dr Fauci, who was doing the rounds of Sunday shows, said on ABCs This Week.

We certainly are turning the corner on this particular surge, he said. But we have experienced over ... 20 months, surges that go up and then come down, and then go back up again, he said.

Dr Fauci also shot down a popular, allegedly Republican, belief that immigrants were responsible for the surge in cases in the US. When you have 700,000 Americans dead and millions and million and millions of Americans getting infected, you dont want to look outside to the problem. The problem is within our own country, he said on CNN.

He was asked about the Kaiser Family Foundation poll, in which 55 per cent of Republicans and 40 per cent of unvaccinated respondents said immigrants and tourists were to be blamed for bringing Covid-19 into the country.

Certainly immigrants can get infected, but theyre not the driving force of this, lets face reality here, he said.
Father Gebremariam Aderaw

An Ethiopian monk, who once carried only the cross and Bible in a land famous for its rock-hewn churches, is now picking up a rifle to march into battle against Tigrayan rebels in a war that is tearing the nation - and the Orthodox Christian Church - apart.

"I fight with both of them - the prayer and the bullet," said Father Gebremariam Aderaw.

The monk, whose name means "servant of Mary", signed up to join the Ethiopian military, weeks after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed called on all able-bodied men to join the fight against the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

It launched a rebellion in November in its heartland of Tigray after a bitter fall-out with Mr Abiy over his political reforms.

"When I saw the country collapse... and the priests being killed, I joined the defence force, believing that it was important to fight," Father Gebremariam told BBC Amharic.

He said he had already received training from a militia in the neighbouring Amhara region, where he lives.

"I am not afraid of injuries or deaths during the war. I am ready to accept them all. I fear only God," he added.

In what was seen as a response to Amhara forces capturing territory in Tigray at the start of the war, the TPLF took control of several key towns in the Amhara region in August. This included Lalibela, a World Heritage site famed for its 12th and 13th Century churches carved from rock.

Lalibela has 11 ancient rock-hewn churches

"There are more than 700 priests in Lalibela, but now they are in a problem as no services are taking place due to TPLF control of the area and they are not getting salaries either," said Menychle Meseret, an academic at the University of Gondar in Amhara.

Bullet casings found in church

Although no destruction has been reported in Lalibela, Mr Menychle said that a number of other churches in the region had been looted of money, food and ancient manuscripts, in a sign that the TPLF was waging an "all-out war without giving due protection to religious sites and cultural properties".

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State media also reported that the 5th Century Church of Checheho Medhanialem was damaged after coming under heavy artillery fire from the TPLF.

And the Associated Press news agency reported that its correspondent saw bullet cases lying on the floor of a damaged church in the village of Chenna Teklehaymanot, while locals said that six priests were among dozens of people killed during an attack by the group in late August.

All sides in the conflict have repeatedly denied committing atrocities.

Orthodox Christians constitute 43% of Ethiopia's population, making them the largest and most influential religious group in the country. And the conflict has divided many of them.

Religious Orthodox Christian festivals are an important part of life in Ethiopia

Tigrayan clerics said that the government's military operation in Tigray, which was bolstered by troops from neighbouring Eritrea, led to the killing of about 325 religious leaders, including some from the minority Muslim community, and attacks on 12 churches and mosques in the first six months of the war.

Abiy has 'abandoned secularism'

Getachew Assefa, a Canada-based academic who is a prominent member of the church in North America, told the BBC he saw the attacks as an attempt to "break" Tigrayans and to get them "to kneel" before Mr Abiy and his Eritrean ally, President Isaias Afwerki.

The 6th Century Debre Damo Monastery, built up a sheer 80ft (24m) cliff in the mountains of Tigray, was among the sites Eritrean troops allegedly looted of its old manuscripts and other cultural treasures.

Many of the books in the Debre Damo Monastery were destroyed in a fire in 1995 - this is one of those to survive

Prof Getachew said the war had caused a deep rupture in the church, with the Tigray branch "informally going its own way".

"Even in the diaspora, you will find that people no longer want to pray together. In Ontario [in Canada], a church has been renamed the Tigray Orthodox Church. It has also happened in Philadelphia in the US, and in Australia," he said.

Prof Getachew said Mr Abiy - a Pentecostal Christian - had departed from the secularism that underpinned the Ethiopian state.

"He presents the war he is fighting as a spiritual fight. When speaking about international pressure to stop the war, he said that the country is willing to take the bitter drink that Jesus was forced to take on the Cross, and in the end 'we will win'.

"He even says such things on religious holidays, when people should be praying for peace," Prof Getachew added.

One of Mr Abiy's advisers, Daniel Kibret - a deacon with a huge following among Orthodox Christians, especially the youth - has called the TPLF "satans" who should be "erased".

"There should be no land in this country which can sustain this kind of weed," AFP quoted him as saying.

Prof Getachew said the deacon had been his friend, but they stopped communicating soon after the war broke out.

"I realised his role in what was going on. His rhetoric is genocidal," he added.

After the US State Department condemned the preacher's comments as "dangerous" and "hateful", Mr Daniel said he was referring to a "terrorist organisation" and not the people of Tigray. Mr Abiy's spokesperson agreed, telling AFP there had been a mistranslation by Tigray sympathisers.

More than five million people are in need of humanitarian aid in northern Ethiopia, aid agencies say

Mr Menychle blames the conflict on the TPLF, saying it has always promoted "hatred" and ethnically divisive politics.

"They are even heard accusing the prime minister of having an imperialistic vision similar to that of the Amhara emperors of the past, and of wanting to destroy. This was pure ethnic propaganda that the TPLF used to mislead Tigrayans into fighting," Mr Menychle said.

For Prof Getachew, only dialogue between the government and the TPLF can end the war.

"After the mass killings and starvation, they will have to negotiate," he said, adding that he hoped the international community would continue to pressure on the government to agree to talks.

The church's patriarch, an ethnic Tigrayan who previously said that a genocide was being committed in Tigray, has also called for peace.

"The cross we print on our clothes and tattoo on our bodies is not for beauty. As long as the meaning of the cross is peace and reconciliation, we must keep peace and reconciliation among ourselves and with God," Abune Matthias said at a major religious event at the end of September.

But Father Gebremariam remains on a war footing, wanting to defeat the TPLF.

"So far, we have tried in prayer, and now we [will] win by bullets. We will bury Ethiopia's enemies and unite Ethiopia," he said.

Find out more about the conflict in Ethiopia:
Facebook is once again asking a federal judge to dismiss the Federal Trade Commissions antitrust suit against the social network. In a new filing, the company argued that the government still has no factual basis for alleging monopoly power.

The FTC originally filed antitrust charges against the company last December. A judge dismissed that complaint in June, saying the governments case was legally insufficient, but gave the FTC a chance to refile. The FTC filed a new complaint in August. The amended complaint relied on the same arguments but was more detailed than the initial suit. In it, the government argued that Facebook used its acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram to quash rivals it viewed as an existential threat.

The complaint alleges that after repeated failed attempts to develop innovative mobile features for its network, Facebook instead resorted to an illegal buy-or-bury scheme to maintain its dominance, the FTC wrote in a statement at the time. Lacking serious competition, Facebook has been able to hone a surveillance-based advertising model and impose ever-increasing burdens on its users.

The judge has until November 17th to respond. Even if Facebook is successful in getting the new FTC suit dismissed, the company is still facing numerous other investigations into its policies and practices. European regulators have also opened an antitrust probe into the social network, and the UKs competition watchdog is also reportedly investigating the company.Meanwhile, in the US, Facebook is still reeling from the fallout of a whistleblower who has provided thousands of documents to Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission, which she says prove the company chooses profit over safety. The whistleblower, former product manager Frances Haugen, is scheduled to testify at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Tuesday morning.
By Heekyong Yang

SEOUL (Reuters) - The global auto industry's shift to electric vehicles (EVs) has spurred an expansion race among battery makers, and caused a growing a skills shortage. See main story:

Global sales of EVs, estimated at 2.5 million vehicles in 2020, is forecast to grow more than 12-fold to 31.1 million by 2030 and account for nearly a third of new vehicle sales, according to consulting firm Deloitte.

Here are major players' expansion plans in key EV markets of China, the United States and Europe.

CATL

As of end-June, the Chinese company has annual battery production capacity of 65.45 Gigawatt hours (GWh), and has an additional 92.5 GWh of capacity under construction.

The global industry leader by market share https://graphics.reuters.com/SOUTHKKOREA-BATTERIES/TALENT/lbvgngxzmpq/chart.png, its clients include Volkswagen, General Motors, BMW >BMWG.DE> and Daimler as well as Chinese auto makers.

The company announced a plan in August to set up a production base in Shanghai, a move that will put it close to Tesla Inc's Chinese production base.

LG ENERGY SOLUTION (LGES)

The South Korean leader expects its production capacity to reach 155 GWh by the end of this year and plans to raise that to 430 GWh by 2025 - which could power about 7.2 million EVs.

It plans to invest more than $4.5 billion in its U.S. battery production business through 2025. The plans include two new plants, jointly built with GM in Ohio and Tennessee, which would allow LGES to manufacture a total of 70 GWh of batteries in the United States by 2024.

LGES already has a factory in Michigan with annual production capacity of 5 GWh.

In China, where the company makes cylindrical battery cells for Tesla, it has invested about 5.7 trillion won ($4.8 billion) and plans to invest another 1.5 trillion won.

It has invested about 6.8 trillion won in Poland since 2016 to secure an annual production capacity of 70 GWh and plans to make another 2.5 trillion won investment.

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In July, LGES and Hyundai Motor Group said they would invest $1.1 billion to jointly set up a EV battery cell plant in Indonesia.

PANASONIC

The Japanese company manufacturers cylindrical NMA (Nickel-Manganese-Aluminum) batteries in the United States at a plant in Nevada and in facilities in Japan. Nearly all goes to Tesla.

It does not disclose its manufacturing capacity, but in May said it was aiming to expand the 35 GWh Nevada facility because of increased demand from Tesla. The Nevada plant, built at a cost of $1.6 billion, was opened in 2014.

Panasonic plans to begin a test line in Japan this year to make a new cylindrical battery designed by Tesla to halve battery costs. It also has a joint venture with Toyota Motor established in February, Prime Planet Energy & Solutions, to develop prismatic batteries.

The company has said it is considering building an auto battery plant in Norway to expand into Europe, but has yet to give details.

SK ON

SK On has a combined global annual production capacity of 40 GWh - 27 GWh in China, 7.5 GWh in Hungary and the rest from South Korea.

It plans to boost that more than five-fold to 220 GWh by 2025, with the expansion primarily focused on the U.S. market.

SK On is building two EV battery plants in Georgia with a combined annual production capacity of 21.5 GWh that will begin production from early 2022.

With partner Ford Motor Co, it has a 10.2 trillion won investment plan to build three separate battery plants in the United States with a combined annual capacity of 129 GWh of batteries, enough to power about 2.2 million EVs.

SAMSUNG SDI

The affiliate of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd has EV battery cell plants in Hungary, China and South Korea.

It does not disclose breakdowns of its investments or production capacity.

In July, Reuters reported that the company, whose customers include Ford and BMW, may build a battery cell plant in the United States. Samsung SDI has been in talks to supply batteries manufactured at a potential U.S. factory with EV makers including Stellantis and Rivian, which is backed by Amazon and Ford.

($1 = 1,182.8700 won)

(Reporting by Heekyong Yang in Seoul, Yilei Sun in Shanghai and Tim Kelly in Tokyo; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Pravin Char)
HOUSTON (AP)  A Texas agency on Monday approved a request that George Floyd be granted a posthumous pardon for a 2004 drug arrest made by a now-indicted ex-Houston police officer whose case history is under scrutiny following a deadly drug raid.

The unanimous recommendation by the seven member Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles will now be forwarded to Gov. Greg Abbott, who will make the final decision.

It was not clear when Abbott would decide the fate of the request. A spokeswoman for Abbott did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

Allison Mathis, an attorney with the Harris County Public Defenders Office who submitted the pardon request in April, said she was pleased by the boards decision.

A man was set up by a corrupt police officer intent on securing arrests rather than pursuing justice. No matter what your political affiliation is, no matter who that man was in his life or in his death, that is not something we should stand for in the United States or in Texas, Mathis said.

The boards recommendation was first made public on Monday by a reporter with The Marshall Project.

The May 2020 killing of Floyd, who was Black, by a white Minneapolis police officer prompted worldwide protests against racial injustice. The officer, Derek Chauvin, was sentenced in June to 22 1/2 years in prison for Floyds murder.

Floyd, who grew up in Houston, was arrested in February 2004 by Officer Gerald Goines and accused of selling $10 worth of crack in a police sting. Floyd later pleaded guilty to a drug charge and was sentenced to 10 months in a state jail.

Goines casework has been under scrutiny following a deadly 2019 drug raid he led that resulted in the deaths of Dennis Tuttle, 59, and his wife, Rhogena Nicholas, 58. Goines, who is no longer on the Houston force, is facing two counts of felony murder, as well as other charges in state and federal court over the raid.

Prosecutors allege Goines, 57, lied to obtain the warrant to search the couples home.

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More than 160 drug convictions tied to Goines have since been dismissed by prosecutors, and a dozen current and former officers, including Goines, tied to the narcotics unit that conducted the drug raid have been indicted.

In May, the top leaders in Harris County, where Houston is located, unanimously approved a resolution to support the pardon request for Floyd.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg urged Abbott to grant the posthumous pardon.

We lament the loss of former Houstonian George Floyd and hope that his family finds comfort in Mondays decision by the Texas State Board of Pardons and Paroles to recommend clemency, said Ogg, who submitted a letter to the board supporting the pardon request.

During a public visitation in Houston in June 2020 before Floyds funeral, Abbott expressed a commitment to pursuing policing reforms. But a sweeping reform bill named for Floyd failed to gain traction in the regular Texas legislative session earlier this year.

Since he took office in 2015, Abbott has granted just a handful of pardons each year.

Mathis said she was hopeful Abbott would grant this one.

I also hope that he, and the Texas Legislature, will work more stridently toward reforming the integrity of the racist, classist criminal justice system in Texas, Mathis said.

___

Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in the White House in January. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

A poll found 55% of Republicans said immigrants and tourists were a major cause of COVID-19 spread.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said that's "absolutely not" the case based on the data in the US.

"Certainly immigrants can get infected, but they're not the driving force of this," Fauci said.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Sunday said immigrants were not driving the spread of COVID-19 in the US, despite some Americans saying they believed otherwise.

The CNN host Dana Bash asked Fauci about a recent poll that found 55% of Republicans and 40% of unvaccinated US adults cited immigrants and tourists as a major reason for the most recent US surge in COVID-19 cases.

Bash asked Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, whether immigrants specifically were a major reason for COVID-19 spread in the US.

"No, absolutely not," he said. "If you just look at the data and look at the people who have gotten infected, look at the people who are in the hospital, look at the people who've died. This is not driven by immigrants."

More than 700,000 Americans have died of COVID-19, and more than 43 million cases have been reported in the US.

Fauci said COVID-19 transmission was a problem in the US the same way it was a problem in countries throughout the world.

"The problem is within our own country," Fauci said. "Certainly immigrants can get infected, but they're not the driving force of this. Let's face reality here."

Public-health experts have said there is no evidence linking migrants to surges in the US. Nevertheless, some Republican politicians, including Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, have sought to blame immigrants for COVID-19 surges in the US.

Coronavirus infections are now on the downswing in much of the US, but Fauci also said Sunday it was too soon to tell what the outlook would be for the holiday season.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Reuters

A former SS guard, now 100 years old, hobbled into a German courtroom on a walking frame on Thursday to face charges of helping to send more than 3,000 people to their deaths in a Nazi concentration camp during World War Two. Prosecutors say Josef S., a member of the Nazi party's paramilitary SS, contributed to the deaths of 3,518 people at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp by regularly standing guard in the watchtower between 1942 and 1945. Some people interned in Sachsenhausen were murdered with Zyklon-B, the poison gas also used in other extermination camps where millions of Jews were killed in the Holocaust.
A 54-year-old Florida man pleaded guilty Monday for his role in the deadly Jan. 6 riot, where he wielded a wooden plank and sprayed Capitol police with a fire extinguisher before hurling the canister at officers during a violent clash along a barricaded entry.

Robert Palmer, who wore a distinctive American flag jacket during the siege where his actions were captured on video, was ordered detained until sentencing in December.

Palmer had been free on bond, but his conviction on the felony assault charge mandated that he be ordered into custody. Federal sentencing guidelines indicated that he could face possible punishment of about four years in prison.

Related: Capitol Police officers sue Trump, extremists, alleging conspiracy, terrorism on Jan. 6

Robert Palmer, 53, of Largo, Florida is among those arrested and charged with participating in the Capitol riot.

Citing video footage of rioters battling police on the Capitol's lower West Terrace, prosecutors said Palmer is shown "throwing a wooden plank" at officers, then spraying a cloud of flame retardant from a fire extinguisher before tossing the tank at police.

The video, recorded by U.S. Capitol Police, also showed that Palmer later picked up the empty tank a second time and again hurled it at police.

Palmer said little during the brief Monday hearing, apart from acknowledging that he wished to plead guilty to the single assault charge.

Defense attorney Bjorn Brunvand, who asked that his client remain free on bond until sentencing, said Palmer has been preparing for the prospect of prison by selling his assets.

In their words: At January 6 hearing, officers recall brutal riot, desperate struggle to hold back mob

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Florida man pleads guilty in Jan. 6 Capitol fire extinguisher assault
The trial of a former soldier accused over the fatal shooting of a vulnerable man during sectarian unrest in Northern Ireland began on Monday, the latest episode set to wrestle with the painful legacy of Britain's military mission in the province.

Dennis Hutchings, now 80, appeared at Belfast Crown Court, charged with the attempted murder of John Pat Cunningham in 1974.

Cunningham, a 27-year-old with learning difficulties, was shot dead as he ran from an army patrol in rural County Tyrone, as sectarian strife was at its height in Northern Ireland.

The high profile trial comes after Britain pledged to soon introduce a deeply controversial statute of limitations for crimes from "The Troubles".

Some 3,500 perished in the conflict as pro-Ireland nationalists, pro-UK unionists and British security forces clashed over three decades until a peace deal in 1998.

New legislation, to be introduced later this year, would effectively give amnesty to British security personnel as well as paramilitaries for crimes from the era.

The prosecution of Hutchings -- from England and now suffering severe kidney disease -- has become a high profile case study in the polarising issue.

The former serviceman of the Life Guards regiment arrived at court wearing military medals and was greeted outside by a band of around 30 supporters waving flags emblazoned with his face.

He was flanked by former UK veterans minister Johnny Mercer who on Twitter said there was "grotesque unfairness in this process that benefits no-one except the legal profession."

- History on trial -

Hutchings stands accused of attempted murder and an additional charge of attempted grievous bodily harm with intent.

The court heard that Cunningham was a vulnerable adult whose doctor said was born with "incomplete development of the mind" and who "did not pose any threat".

Prosecution lawyer Charles McCreanor told judge John O'Hara that five shots were fired at him -- three by Hutchings and two by a now dead colleague.

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McCreanor said two or three rounds hit but a lack of ballistics evidence from the time means it cannot be determined who fired which shots, and as a result Hutchings faces an attempted murder charge.

Nevertheless he said there is a "compelling case" that Hutchings fired three shots from close range and that the court will hear "overwhelming evidence that he intended to kill".

Evidence in the trial will only be heard three days a week to allow Hutchings to undergo dialysis treatment between hearings.

London said the move to introduce an amnesty will end protracted and "vexatious" legal assaults on ageing veterans, which frequently crumble when brought before the courts.

Evidence from the time is often scant, unreliable or legally inadmissible.

Veterans also complain there is an imbalance of justice as the army kept records and conducted investigations while paramilitaries did not.

State security forces were responsible for only 10 per cent of killings during "The Troubles" but 30 per cent of Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) legacy investigations are focused on them.

Families of those killed believe the amnesty is a roadblock to long-denied justice.

jts/phz/ach
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
Fully vaccinated travellers no longer need to take a pre-departure test (Steve Parsons/PA) (PA Wire)

The British government is getting increasingly frustrated at the failure of Joe Bidens administration to name a precise date for the lifting of travel restrictions, with just weeks to go until air travel to the US is supposed to resume.

The White House said on 20 September that fully vaccinated foreign nationals will be allowed to enter the US from early November, but the US Department for Transportation today told The Independent it had no further information about exactly when the change will be implemented.

It leaves thousands of UK passengers in limbo waiting to hear when they can visit family and friends in the US or take holidays in popular destinations like New York, Florida or California.

And it means airlines are making extensive preparations for a massive surge of demand from as early as 1 November, without any certainty over when passengers will in fact be able to travel.

The source admitted the UK was blindsided by president Bidens announcement last month that he was relaxing restrictions for visitors from countries around the world.

The announcement came just after Boris Johnson told reporters that he had little hope of securing any easing of restrictions in an Oval Office meeting with the president scheduled for the following day.

Despite having set up a joint travel taskforce with the US, Britain was given no notice of the announcement, the senior source confirmed. And the lack of communication has continued since that point.

Asked when vaccinated UK travellers will be able to fly freely to the US, the senior UK government source told The Independent: Your guess is as good as mine.

They havent told us anything about the date. The White House are in charge of the policy and its very difficult to work out what is going on.

In response to a query about the date for the resumption of travel, the US Department of Transportation said only: We have no updates or new information at this time.

The silence from Washington appeared to reflect the lower priority placed on relations with the UK since Mr Bidens arrival in office. It emerged as Brexit minister David Frost risked ruffling American feathers by saying that the president should not intervene in negotiations between London and Brussels over the Irish border.

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Virgin Atlantic announced last week it would resume daily operations on its most-booked route - from Heathrow to Orlando - as well as flights to Las Vegas from 1 November, while the airline has already restarted flights to San Fransisco after an 18-month break. BA is also laying on additional flights from the start of the month.

Mr Bidens green light to visit prompted a surge in bookings from Brits eager to go to the States, with Virgin recording an increase of more than 600 per cent. Some popular tickets have already sold out for the first days of November.

Before the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, an average 100,000 travellers from the UK crossed the Atlantic to the US by air each week, with the majority taking holidays, but more than 20,000 visiting friends and family.

Neither BA nor Virgin made any immediate response to queries about the uncertainty surrounding the relaxation of US controls.

But Simon Calder, travel correspondent of The Independent, said: With just four weeks to go before a possible re-opening of the US to UK and EU visitors, airline executives are tearing their hair out.

Having been starved for 18 months of the most lucrative aviation market in the world, they are desperate to cash in on the surge of demand that will accompany the opening up of transatlantic routes.

But they certainly dont want to schedule any flights that then turn out to be half-empty because the ban hasnt been lifted.

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A Suffolk County Police Department missing person poster for Gabby Petito posted in Jackson, Wyo. (Amber Baesler / Associated Press)

Many journalists are burdened with an awareness of their industry's overindulgences to the point of loathing. It was 2004 when the TV news journalist Gwen Ifill popularized a now-famous term, almost offhandedly, during a conference panel where journalists bemoaned new media's mania for selectively covering sensational individual criminal cases instead of meatier international humanitarian crises. "I call it the 'missing white woman syndrome,'" said Ifill, who broke several barriers as a Black and female journalist. "If there's a missing white woman, you're going to cover that, every day." The audience started applauding Ifill's quip, because anybody smart enough to turn on a TV could see it was true.

In a book published the same year, satirical newsman Jon Stewart restated the problem algebraically, estimating that the minutes of TV news coverage would equal Family Income x (Abductee Cuteness  Skin Color)2 + Length of Abduction x Media Savvy of Grieving Parents3.

Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, the next year, observed: "The specifics of the story line vary from damsel to damsel. In some cases, the saga begins with the discovery of a corpse. In other cases, the damsel simply vanishes into thin air. Often, there is a suspect from the beginning  an intruder, a husband, a father, a congressman, a stranger glimpsed lurking nearby." But the media's missing woman is always white, said Robinson, whose column set off a wave of renewed commentary and reflective news coverage.

Some news outlets responded self-consciously by deliberately featuring the cases of missing women of color who had otherwise escaped saturation coverage that missing white women had received, as if to balance accounts. This particular cycle of missing-white-woman story, self awareness and mild corrective effort was happening 15 years ago. It's happening now, a tidal loop that won't break unless journalists try something new.

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Each year, there is an unimaginable sum of suffering, fear and uncertainty experienced by hundreds of thousands of Americans with a loved one gone missing. People disappear to escape families, to escape abusers, to escape debtors, to start over. Some struggle with substance abuse or mental health problems that have frayed bonds with home. Others have been taken against their will. Some disappeared because they were killed, like Gabby Petito, 22, who disappeared while on a road trip with her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, who is being sought by authorities.

Her story is likely to receive far more media coverage than any other missing-persons case this year, raising the same old skepticism of the implicit racism and classism driving traditional newsrooms' determination of whose suffering is news and whose suffering isn't interesting. Petito's family, while welcoming the amount of attention her story has gotten after her remains were found in Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming, has been moved amid its grief to mark the inequality and ask for change.

"I want to ask everyone to help all the people that are missing and need help," her father, Joseph Petito, said at a Tuesday news conference in Bohemia, N.Y. "It's on all of you, everyone that's in this room, to do that, and if you don't do that for other people that are missing, that's a shame. It's not just Gabby that deserves that. So look to yourselves for why that's not being done."

Joseph Petito, father of Gabby Petito, speaks during a news conference on Sept. 28 in Bohemia, N.Y. (John Minchillo / Associated Press)

On one level, the cause of the imbalance seems simple. "The same reason why media coverage is different for white women than for women of color is the same reason this is getting so much attention," said Gina Masullo, associate professor of journalism and media at the University of Texas at Austin. "We live in a system that puts white women at a higher value."

The way this systemic bias gets expressed through missing-persons coverage, however, is a little more convoluted, according to a 2020 study in the academic journal Journalism Practice, which interviewed editors, publishers, news directors, reporters and law enforcement officers in California and New York about how missing-persons cases are handled in the press. The article concluded that police, not media, were often the real driving force determining which cases got media attention and which didn't.

"If we get the information from the police, then we put it up immediately," one California journalist told the researchers, who anonymized their interviewees. "If we just hear about it from a family, we will call the police and see whether theres been a report filed." A New York journalist was blunter: "Our policy is, if it doesnt come from the police, were not gonna put it on."

Law enforcement understands its role in this media ecosystem well. "Theyve never turned us down; theyve never not put a kid on the news when weve asked them to," one New York law enforcement official told the researchers. A New York detective added: I dont want to put so many kids on the news that the public will be like, Oh, its just another runaway. So I decide who to put on the news and not to put on the news."

In an email to The Times, one of the study's authors, Carol Liebler, a communications professor at Syracuse University, summed up her own conclusion: "Police have way too much influence in determining which missing people the news media cover. They are real gatekeepers in that regard."

Petito's family went public on Sept. 11 after going to police, giving some details in their Facebook page's initial post but adding that they "cannot give any other information as it is under investigation." By the next day, Petito's disappearance was already national news, with police giving some details to outlets like Fox News.

Social media users quickly became participants in the same downstream media ecosystem as traditional newsrooms, scouring and publicizing Petito's own social media presence, which included a YouTube channel and an Instagram account where she was documenting her cross-country "van life" trip.

Police have continued releasing details driving attention to the case, including body camera footage of a Utah officer interviewing Petito after the couple had a fight in which Petito said the pair hit each other. Mainstream media have once again done their part sticking with the story, leading some commentators to ask for other ways of more equitably covering similar tragedies.

Annette Lawless, a news anchor and investigative reporter found herself pondering that same question several years ago. While working as a television journalist in Cleveland in 2013, news broke that police had rescued three missing women  Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight  whom a man had kidnapped and held hostage in his home for years.

Lawless had known about Berry's case. "Her family had been really persistent through the years, sharing her story, holding vigils, constantly contacting us," Lawless said. "The other girls we werent really familiar with." The inequity didn't sit right with her.

Three years ago, after taking a job at ABC affiliate KAKE-TV in Wichita, Kan., Lawless started a project to cover as many missing-persons cases as possible, called Missing in Kansas. Rather than picking and choosing which cases are most sensational, Lawless' project is less subjective and more democratic: In segments that air every weekday in the morning and evening, she covers all sorts of missing-persons cases, whether they're young, old, white, Black, Latino, male, female, whether they were abducted, whether they're runaways, whether they're rich, whether they're poor.

"People of all backgrounds," Lawless said. We cover so much that I feel like we cover everybody."

Lawless keeps a spreadsheet of the stories the station has taken, and it's approaching the 1,000-person mark. "I track all the cases, the success rate," Lawless said. "Were close to 90% with a closure rate. (Nationally, most missing people are eventually found.)

"Annette Lawless is doing really important work, and kudos to her news director for supporting it," said Liebler, the scholar who studied police's influence on missing-persons coverage, who has also studied the "missing white woman syndrome." "I feel Missing in Kansas is definitely a model for other news organizations."

The station invites viewers to contact Lawless about cases they think it should cover. While Lawless prefers to check with a state police database to see whether a missing-persons report has been filed, she doesn't wait for police to tell her who to cover.

When I started this, I had cold-called all the major metro police departments and every sheriffs office in the state to ask if you have missing people, Lawless said. It was a little frustrating when they told me, 'No, we dont.'"

She knew it wasn't true. People go missing all the time. It's just that not everybody has been looking for them. But she would.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel will travel to Israel next week for a farewell visit before her expected departure from office after 16 years in power, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Monday.

Merkel had cancelled a planned Aug. 28-30 trip to Israel, citing the tense situation in Afghanistan as the United States, Germany and others evacuated personnel ahead of an Aug. 31 deadline for the withdrawal of foreign troops.

Speaking in Israel's parliament, Bennett said Merkel "will arrive here early next week for an important farewell visit". Merkel last visited Israel in 2018.

Germany's Social Democrats narrowly won a Sept. 26 national election and are currently courting parties to form a coalition. Merkel, in power since 2005, plans to step down once a new government is formed.

(Reporting by Jeffrey Heller and Rami Ayyub; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
The whistleblower behind a recent series of bombshell revelations on Facebook's effects on teenage girls' mental health, its use by drug cartels and human traffickers, and its special rules for VIPs revealed herself to the world on Sunday.

The whistleblower is Frances Haugen, 37, a former product manager at Facebook who came to the company to help protect against election interference on the platform. She said she became disillusioned with the tech company's motives and felt she had to do something about the ways it was often knowingly harming users.

Haugen resigned from Facebook in May, but before doing so, she dug into and saved copies of multiple internal company documents that exposed an array of deep-rooted problems within the social media company. She gave these to the Wall Street Journal, which used them for its Facebook Files series, which has thrown the company into a crisis in the past month.

There were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook. And Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money, Haugen said in an interview with 60 Minutes.

Haugan specializes in algorithmic product management and worked on ranking algorithms at Google, Pinterest, and Yelp before arriving at Facebook. She studied electrical and computer engineering at Olin College and got an MBA from Harvard.

She was recruited to Facebook to be the lead product manager on the civic misinformation team, which dealt with issues related to democracy and misinformation, and later also worked on counterespionage.

Facebook disbanded the civic integrity team in 2020 after the presidential election, which was a major factor in Haugan's sense that the company was not acting in good faith.

When they got rid of civic integrity, it was the moment where I was like, 'I dont trust that theyre willing to actually invest what needs to be invested to keep Facebook from being dangerous,' she said during the television interview.

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Haugens lawyers have also filed at least eight complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission, charging that the company misled investors. The complaints compare Haugens internal company documents with Facebook's public statements to find wrongdoing, according to 60 Minutes. The SEC has not commented on Haugen's finding or whether it plans to take action against Facebook.

Facebook has disputed Haugen's assertions regarding the company's behavior and the Wall Street Journal's reporting.

Every day our teams have to balance protecting the ability of billions of people to express themselves openly with the need to keep our platform a safe and positive place.  To suggest we encourage bad content and do nothing is just not true," Facebook spokeswoman Lena Pietsch said in a statement.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, Policy, Facebook, Social Media, Big Tech, Instagram, 2020 Elections

Original Author: Nihal Krishan

Original Location: Here's the woman who blew the whistle on Facebook and Instagram targeting teenagers
Talk about your catch of the day, maybe lifetime.

A little boy fishing with his father in Florida in their Palm Coast backyard the other evening had quite the unforgettable experience.

In a video on dad Sean McMahons Facebook page uploaded on Sept. 30, you can see the child at the edge of a body of water reeling in a fish.

The fish was a bass, his dad explains in the caption that says: Alligator Alert: Dawson caught a bass tonight and out of nowhere an alligator came up, ate the bass and ripped his pole into the water.

Alligator vs. trash bin: Watch a brave man in Florida trap an unwanted visitor

In the short clip, the boy is struggling to get a hold of his rod.

Its all right, buddy. Keep going, says McMahon off camera.

Just as the boy manages to reel the flipping fish onto land, an alligator speeds in to the frame and snatches the catch in its large jaws.

A Florida cop just took a selfie  with an alligator sticking out of the sewer

Dad! screams the boy as the alligator retreats into the water, taking the mouthful of fish, as well as the pole with it.

Commenters were duly surprised and horrified at the sight and relieved nothing happened to the child.

Holy hell!

This will get your heart racing a little faster.

Alligators are ambush predators. This is what they do.

Im thanking God the little boy was not gator bait!

Others warned about the risks you take while near any body of water in the Sunshine State, especially at that time of day:

Careful with those sunset sessions man. Feeding time.

This could have ended very differently.

Where there is water here in Florida, there are alligators. Be very careful and cautious while fishing.
RUSTAVI, Georgia (Reuters) -Hundreds of Georgians rallied on Monday to demand the release of hunger-striking ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili, who was jailed last week after returning from exile and calling for post-election protests.

Saakashvili, who was sentenced in absentia in Georgia in 2018 for abuse of power and concealing evidence when he was president - charges he called politically motivated, secretly returned home ahead of last weekend's municipal elections after years abroad. He was arrested on Friday.

It is not fully clear how the 53-year-old, pro-Western politician came back but investigating prosecutors have charged two men for driving him from the Georgian port of Poti to a village on Sept. 29, Interfax news agency reported.

Saakashvili plans to keep up the hunger strike he declared the evening of his arrest until he is freed, TASS news agency cited his lawyer as saying.

Georgia's president and government have made clear they have no plan to pardon or release him.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States was following developments in Georgia closely and urged the country to ensure Saakashvili is treated fairly "in accordance with Georgian law, and Georgia's international human rights commitments and obligations."

Some of Saakahsvili's supporters from the United National Movement party he founded gathered outside the prison holding him in the town of Rustavi, southeast of the capital, on Monday.

They waved flags and chanted his nickname "Misha, Misha!"

The politician who led the Rose Revolution in 2003 that ended the presidency of Eduard Shevardnadze is a figurehead for some in the opposition, but derided as a clown by detractors in the ruling Georgian Dream party.

Georgian Dream won 46.7% at the municipal elections over the weekend, compared with 30.7% for the party founded by Saakashvili, according to results released on Sunday with most votes counted.

(Reporting by David Chkhikvishvili and Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber; additional reporting by David Brunnstrom and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington; writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Andrea Ricci)
RUSTAVI, Georgia (AP)  Hundreds of demonstrators rallied Monday outside a prison where former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has been held since his arrest after returning to the country last week.

Saakashvili, who left Georgia in 2014 and became a Ukrainian citizen, was later sentenced to up to six years in prison on abuse of power convictions handed down in absentia.

He came back to the country with the aim of galvanizing opposition as Georgia held nationwide municipal elections, and was arrested hours after posting videos Friday on social media announcing that he was back.

The United National Movement, which Saakashvili founded, is the most prominent political force opposing the governing Georgian Dream party.

Georgian Dream won 47% of the vote in the weekend municipal elections, well ahead of the 31% received by UNM.

While Mikheil Saakashvili is in prison, each of us is a prisoner, UNM chairman Nika Melia said at Monday's protest in Rustavi, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) south of the capital Tbilisi.
Beaches have been closed and residents have been told to avoid the shoreline

An oil slick off the coast of California has started washing ashore, killing fish, contaminating wetlands and closing beaches.

About 3,000 barrels of oil have spread over an area covering 13 square miles (33 sq km), off the Orange County coast.

Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr said portions of the coastline were covered in oil.

An investigation into the pipeline breach that caused it is under way.

The slick, about five miles off the coasts of Huntington Beach and Newport Beach, was discovered on Saturday morning.

It is thought to be one of the largest oil spills in the state's recent history, according to the Associated Press news agency.

Authorities are now attempting to contain the oil by using protective booms - a type of floating barrier. Divers are also working at the scene to determine how the leak occurred.

The US Coast Guard has so far deployed 14 boats to conduct oil recovery operations, and three to enforce a safety zone in the area. Four aircraft have also been dispatched to conduct assessments of the spill.

"Wildlife is dying. It's very sad," Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley told CBS News. She added that there were reports of dead animals along the shore and that Talbert Marsh, an ecological reserve had also suffered "significant damage".

On Monday morning, the Coast Guard said that approximately 3,150 gallons (14,320 litres) of oil have so far been recovered from the water.

Some 3,000 barrels of oil have spread over an area of the Orange County coast

Amplify Energy Corp, which owns three off-shore platforms, said it stopped operations and shut its pipeline on Saturday.

CEO Martyn Willsher said the pipeline had been suctioned to ensure that no more oil would spill.

The area, 40 miles (64km) south of Los Angeles, is extremely popular with surfers. Beaches have been closed and the last day of the Pacific Airshow was cancelled.

Residents have been told not to approach animals affected by the spill and to instead call authorities.

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Additionally, officials in Orange County issued a health advisory recommending that anyone who may have encountered contaminated materials seek medical attention.

The spill is thought to have been caused by a pipeline breach

Michelle Steel, a Republican representative for part of the affected area, has asked President Joe Biden to declare a major disaster, which would allow for funds to help with clean-up operations.

In 2010, the Deep Water Horizon incident off the Gulf of Mexico saw nearly 300,000 tonnes of oil spill, resulting in the death of thousands of species ranging from plankton to dolphins.

There were also other longer-term impacts on marine life including impaired reproduction, reduced growth, lesions and disease.
Yahoo Entertainment

The Baby put on quite a show on The Masked Singer Wednesday night, leaving viewers and panelists without words, like actor Ken Jeong, who stated, "Oh, man, for the first time in my life, and I mean this in a great way, I'm speechless. I have I don't know what to say." The Baby's performance of the Flintstones theme song was actually extremely entertaining, which is why it was surprising that he was sent crawling home to mama, when he was eliminated from the competition. While the panelists guessed major movie stars like Michael Cane, Hugh Jackman, and Bruce Willis, it was actually actor and stand-up comedian Larry the Cable Guy, who is most recently known as the voice of "Mater" in the hugely successful Disney Pixar franchise Cars. Even host Nick Cannon stated, "Honestly, one of the most recognizable voices of our generation right here, and you fooled them all." Meanwhile, the actor shared, "That's the first time I ever really sang anything in front of anybody." So we said goodbye to Larry the Cable Guy, formerly known as The Baby this week, but he's totally fine. It's not like he doesn't have a hugely successful Disney Pixar franchise to fall back on.
Data: Indeed.com; Cartogram: Sara Wise/Axios

Even as more employers across the nation are listing COVID-19 vaccinations as an application requirement, Texas job postings are relatively mum, an Axios analysis of Indeed data has found.

Zoom in: The latest Indeed data shows that, on average, less than 1%  0.7% to be precise  of Texas job postings sought only vaccinated employees over the week ending on Sept. 24.

Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free

That's one of the lowest rates in the U.S. and far below top-ranked states Washington (3.1%), Oregon (2.4%) and Arizona (2.4%).

Yes, but: The number of job postings requiring vaccination is growing. The latest Texas figures represented a 41%+ increase since Sept. 9.

Many Austin listings include COVID-19 vaccinations as a work requirement, from an Allandale family hunting for a "short-term loving nanny" to a scheduling job with a military defense contractor.

What they're saying: To protect against possible disability rights violations, Woodlands-based labor attorney April Walter recommends employers "avoid asking about vaccination status until after extending a job offer that is conditional upon showing proof of vaccination."

What to watch: The numbers will likely rise even more as companies decide whether to act ahead of the Biden administration's new rules requiring federal and many other employees to get vaccinated or be regularly tested for COVID-19.

The vaccination deadline is Nov. 22 for federal employees; deadlines are still being developed for companies with more than 100 employees.

Some fear the trend could also contribute to the "great resignation," Axios' Erica Pandey notes. One survey of legal and human resource officers found 69% are worried about increased turnover if and when mandates take effect.

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The Biden administration's proposal to repeal stepped-up basis and force recognition and taxation of capital gains at death is troubling for many Kansas farmers.

"If stepped-up basis is removed and forced recognition of gain at death is implemented, along with a lower inheritance tax exemption, farm assets like land and equipment would have to be liquidated to pay the tax bill," Aaron Popelka, Kansas Livestock Association vice president of Legal and Government Affairs, told The Center Square. "These adverse tax events would impact all small businesses, not just agriculture. However, agriculture tends to be asset rich, but cash poor, and the effects of such policy changes would be devastating."

Farmers are concerned about the budget reconciliation tax proposal because it could significantly disrupt the transition of family farms to the next generation.

Stepped-up basis is the process through which heirs receive a fair market value basis adjustment for inherited assets at the time of the decedents death. If the basis was not adjusted to fair market value, the heirs would receive the decendents basis, which is generally the price at which the decedent purchased the asset, less any adjustments like depreciation.

Popelka said the purpose of the capital gains tax is to tax an actual sale transaction where a seller receives income from the sale of an asset. Transfers on death are not sales, and there is no cash income that is received.

"For farm families, this means that the next generation will have to come up with cash from other sources to pay for the capital gains tax on the unrealized gain from the transfer," Popelka said. "In many instances, this means that the farmland and equipment necessary to continue the operation would have to be sold. If the tax bill is large enough, it could lead to the farm selling out completely or shrinking enough in size that some operators would be forced to find other jobs."

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Popelka said it is also important to remember that farmland is often bought and held for long periods of time, and as a result, will develop a large difference between basis and fair market value at death.

"As a result, it is very easy to trigger the highest tax bracket on the transfer of even a small piece of land," Popelka said. "This means the policy would impact small farm operations as well as large operations, which dispels the myth that this is simply a way to tax the wealthy."

Double taxation through the removal of the inheritance tax exemption is also a current concern. Popelka said the inheritance tax taxes the entire value of a decedents estate after the exemption threshold has been applied. This means that it would apply a 40% tax rate on both the basis of the assets that were already subject to the income tax and the appreciation of the asset that was also subject to the capital gains should repeal of stepped-up basis with forced recognition of gain become law.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, State, Farming, Kansas

Original Author: Kimberly James, The Center Square contributor

Original Location: Kansas farmers concerned about Biden administration's proposed tax changes
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has not held any recent discussions by phone about the global oil production deal by the OPEC+ group of leading producers, a Kremlin spokesman said on Monday.

The spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, also said the Kremlin does not want to preempt the outcome of Monday's OPEC+ meeting, declining to elaborate on its possible results.

Ministers from The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, as well as from Russia and other oil producing nations, the group known as OPEC+, are due to gather online at 1300 GMT.

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Toby Chopra)
By Ahmed Hagagy

KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwait's government and opposition lawmakers are expected to start talks this week called for by the ruling emir in a bid to end a standoff that has hindered efforts to boost state finances and enact economic and fiscal reform.

Hit hard by lower oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic last year, the wealthy OPEC producer faces liquidity risks largely because the elected parliament, which returns from summer break on Oct. 26, has not authorised government borrowing.

Opposition lawmakers have said their priority in the talks, which one source said could start on Tuesday, was an amnesty bill to pardon dissidents, including former MPs who stormed parliament in 2011 and are now in self-exile abroad.

Analysts said Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmed al-Sabah's call last week for a "national dialogue" could ease paralysis in parliamentary work as several MPs insist on questioning the prime minister on several issues including the handling of the coronavirus pandemic and corruption.

"We ask that they commit to the two most important issues... issuing the amnesty and withdrawing the prime minister's request for immunity before the end of the dialogue and the resumption (of parliament) sessions," lawmaker Mohammed Barrak Al-Mutair, a member of the opposition '31 bloc', tweeted on Sunday.

Several lawmakers have questioned the constitutionality of a motion passed in March delaying any questioning of premier Sheikh Sabah al-Khalid al-Sabah until the end of 2022.

Kuwait, which bans political parties, is the only Gulf monarchy to give substantial powers to an elected parliament, which can block laws and question ministers from the appointed government, although the emir has final say over state matters.

Frequent rows and deadlocks between the cabinet and assembly have over decades led to successive government reshuffles and dissolutions of parliament, hampering investment and economic reform in the country, which saw its budget deficit hit a record $35.5 billion in the 2020/21 fiscal year.

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"Any dissolution of the National Assembly ... will lead to a similar crisis with a new parliament due to the general popular mood," said Kuwaiti political analyst Muhammed Al-Dosari, referring to a likely strong opposition showing in any new polls.

Other issues that could be raised, Dosari said, are the electoral law and legislation on freedom of expression in the Gulf state, where criticising the emir is a crime.

(Reporting by Ahmed Hagagy; Writing by Ghaida Ghantous, Editing by William Maclean)
State lawmakers expressed concerns over the price of medical marijuana Friday at a Louisiana Medical Marijuana Commission meeting at the state Capitol.

The commission met to discuss laws and regulations affecting the states medical marijuana program, but legislators took a keen interest in low enrollment and the cost for patients.

The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry is the lead agency in the licensure and production of medical marijuana in Louisiana. LDAF Commissioner Mike Strain testified that a central problem to mitigating costs is that marijuana still is an illegal drug.

You may wonder why this is not covered by Medicaid, Medicare and insurance. It is because it is not a prescription product, its a recommendation product," Strain said. "Theres a fine line there.

Strain said physicians cannot write prescriptions because medical marijuana has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, thus government and private insurance wont cover the costs.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, marijuana is listed as a Schedule 1 drug, along with heroin, LSD, ecstasy and other illegal substances. Thirty-five states have some form of legal marijuana use  medical, recreational or both  lawmakers said.

Rep. Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, said he appreciated the challenges associated with the federal illegal designation, but urged Strain to do more.

I think we need to come up with some solutions and recommendations from your department that can alleviate some of these concerns, McFarland said.

Strain responded that lawmakers could cut an end-user tax.

Theres a 7% tax at the end that you could eliminate immediately, legislatively, Strain said.

Strain explained how cholesterol and high blood pressure medication can cost $600 but consumers dont pay that amount when its covered by insurance. Thats not the case with medical marijuana, he said.

For the average family, this is not paid for by any other mechanism other than cash, Strain said.

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McFarland countered that Arkansas, a neighboring state, has 90,000 medical marijuana patients while Louisiana has only 12,000 patients.

Since 2015, we have passed 11 different acts amending and improving this process for the public. More states are coming on board and they are not having to do all this, McFarland said. Arkansas is years ahead of us. Mississippi and Texas are coming on; its not hard for people to drive across state lines.

Rep. Travis Johnson, D-Vidalia, said high prices could support the marijuana black market.

Louisiana allows medical marijuana for patients with defined health conditions, such as cancer, HIV, seizure disorders, muscular dystrophy, glaucoma and PTSD. Lawmakers suggested many eligible people do not have reasonable access to the medical treatment.

Commission chair Joseph Marino, I-Gretna, said the states production and distribution system has close to no competition and that people have very, very little options.

If we had more access and more options with the growers and dispensaries, you would think the cost would come down, Marino told Strain.

According to the LDAF, Louisiana has only two licensees who are authorized to grow and cultivate medical marijuana in the state. Both are universities: Louisiana State University Agricultural Center and Southern University Agriculture Center.

Louisiana also has only nine dispensaries where patients can buy medical marijuana. They are spread across different regions.

If somebody has to drive an hour or hour and a half  they might decide its not worth the effort, Marino said. The patient number would probably be higher if it was more accessible and affordable.

Strain said he believed increasing demand hinges on more doctors approving medical marijuana to treat their patients.

We have to educate physicians, and they have to be comfortable writing recommendations, Strain said.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, State, Louisiana, Marijuana

Original Author: William Patrick, The Center Square

Original Location: Lack of medical marijuana patients, high expense worries Louisiana lawmakers
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.  The tragic tale of Miya Marcano captured the attention of both strangers and friends Sunday, the day after her slain body was found in a wooded area in Orlando.

Rest in Peace Miya, said one social media post from a chorus of sympathizers. Sending prayers for Miyas family and loved ones, for strength, comfort and healing.

The 19-year-old college sophomore was likely murdered by a maintenance worker at her apartment complex, police say. The suspected killers cellphone data led police to her body.

In the hours since, thousands of people have taken to social media to express sorrow and sympathy for the teens family.

The familys attorney, Daryl K. Washington, released a statement Saturday night, saying the family was too devastated to comment.

Learning the news of 19-year-old Miyas disappearance has been incredibly disheartening, he wrote. It is every parents worst nightmare. Were beyond disappointed with the news that she has been found dead and we along with her family, friends and loved ones mourn for such a beautiful young lady with a promising future.

Miya graduated from Flanagan High School in Pembroke Pines.

Her family reported her missing on Sept. 24 after she missed a flight home.

The prime suspect in the case, 27-year-old Armando Manuel Caballero, was found dead from an apparent suicide on Sept. 27, three days after Miya went missing.

Miya rebuffed several unwanted advances made by Caballero, Orange County Sheriff John W. Mina said.

Caballero, a maintenance worker at the Arden Villas apartment complex where Miya lived and worked, used a master key to enter her apartment at 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 24, police say. She was last seen at 5 p.m., when she ended her workday and headed home to her apartment.

Miyas father, Marlon Marcano, posted several heart-wrenching messages on social media in the days since his daughter went missing.

My heart is broken! he wrote on Facebook Saturday at 10:13 a.m., about a half-hour before Miyas body was found. I need it to be whole again. I must find you soon.

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On Thursday morning, nearly a week after shed gone missing, he posted a message directly to his daughter: I can feel your energy baby girl. In fact, I feel OUR energy together. I know Im getting closer to you. ... I came to get you and Im not leaving without you. I Love You Princess Miya! Today is the day, youre coming home.

His appeals drew thousands of comments from people far and wide sharing the hope that she would be found alive. After her body was found, even more messages flowed in sharing their sorrow in the loss.

She was so beautiful on the outside and Im sure inside as well, said one. I pray for all of you that knew her.

Another tried to comfort the family, saying Miya was now an angel watching over them.

Caili Sue, a cousin of Miyas, told a British tabloid the family had traveled to Orlando to help with the search and planned to stay until the medical examiner completes an autopsy and they can bring Miya home.

We are angry and we know our lives have now been changed forever, she told a reporter with The Sun. We are not leaving without Miya.

Miya was in her second year at Valencia College pursuing an arts degree.

The college tweeted its condolences to the family on Saturday: The entire Valencia community is grieving the loss of one of our own.

The family attorney thanked the dozens of law enforcement officials from the Orange County Sheriffs Department, FBI and Florida Department of Law Enforcement who spent long days searching for Miya.

Her body was found around 10:45 a.m. on Saturday, dashing the familys hopes that shed be found alive.

We want to stress that we believe that her disappearance and consequential death was 100% preventable and we intend to hold those responsible accountable to the full extent of the law, Washington said. Policies must be in place to always protect women.

Washington asked reporters and the public to continue to respect the privacy of the family as they grieve.

The family will not be speaking with any media at this time; however, we will update the media with additional information in the coming days, he said.


Manolo Blahnik has entered its 50th anniversary year with high hopes, and relief that the COVID-19 crisis, which dented sales and profits last year, is winding down.

The brand said Monday that fiscal 2021 is forecast to be the groups most successful year to date, with turnover for the eight months to Aug. 31 up by 81 percent year-on-year and 8 percent compared with 2019.

More from WWD

In the full year, global e-commerce sales are set to rise in the triple digits. In the eight months to Aug. 31, sales were up 120 percent compared to the same period in 2020.

As we celebrate our 50th year, we do so in confidence and are hopeful that it will be our best yet, said Kristina Blahnik, the companys chief executive officer.

Last year was a tough one for Manolo Blahnik, which saw sales decrease by 7 percent to 42.3 million euros in the 12 months to Dec. 31, 2020.

The company booked a loss of 4.75 million euros, an increase of 6 percent on the previous years figure, due to COVID-19 the integration of the U.S. business, foreign exchange rates and a slight decline in gross margin.

Like-for-like sales were down 28 percent, according to figures published Monday on Companies House, the official register of U.K. businesses. The company said that the difference between total sales and like-for-like sales was due to the trading in the U.S.

The new Manolo Blahnik Group entity in the U.S. did not commence trading until Jan. 1, 2020. As reported, Manolo Blahnik brought the U.S. business in-house in 2019, and promised significant strategic investment in its North American operations.

Earlier this year the company opened two retail boutiques, in East Hampton and a flagship on Madison Avenue in Manhattan.

The business had previously been run for 37 years under license by the late George Malkemus and Anthony Yurgaitis.

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The company said that global e-commerce sales increased by 39 percent in 2020 and that all employee positions were protected throughout the year.

Given the full effects of the global pandemic were felt throughout our entire operations and teams, we are very pleased with these [2020] results and the many positives that came out of such a difficult time, said Kristina Blahnik.

Our number-one focus was to make sure our teams felt safe, and our community felt supported, the outcome has ensured a strong team resourced to face a very positive future.

The company said it streamlined operations during the pandemic year, reducing its collections from four to three seasons, a move that contributed to the sales decline.

Expenditure also increased due to the continued integration of Manolo Blahnik Americas, and the brands manufacturing subsidiary, Calzaturificio Re Marcello.

The group said its balance sheet remains positive with a high net asset position of 77.2 million euros and strong liquidity ratio, figures that instill confidence in the business ability to meet all financial obligations as well as any long-term investment opportunities.

During the pandemic the company said it honored its commitments to employees, and its head count has since grown by 3 percent. It also remains committed to mental health with the Smile initiative, which launched across all digital channels in April 2020.

As part of the initiative, people can download a collection of Manolo Blahniks sketches, color them in, and share them on social media as part of an exercise in mindfulness. The brand has partnered with the Mental Health Foundation in the U.K. on the project.

To mark the 50th anniversary, Manolo Blahnik has designed a gold capsule collection, which will land in-store and online from November. The company described the capsule as a summary of five decades of work in one collection and said it features an extensive range of new styles, reimagined classics and signature designs.
Former first lady Melania Trump was compared to fairytale character Rapunzel. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Melania Trump blasted a former aide as a "deceitful and troubled individual" ahead of tell-all memoir.

Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham's book comes out October 5.

Grisham told ABC she "expected" the attacks but has "receipts" to prove she's telling the truth.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

Former First Lady Melania Trump criticized her former chief of staff and communications director Stephanie Grisham as a "deceitful and troubled individual" trying to "rehabilitate" her reputation ahead of the release of Grisham's tell-all book.

In the memoir, "I'll Take Your Questions Now," due for release on October 5, Grisham characterizes a toxic and dysfunctional environment in the White House and reveals new, unflattering anecdotes about former President Donald Trump and the notoriously private former first lady.

"The author is desperately trying to rehabilitate her tarnished reputation by manipulating and distorting the truth about Mrs. Trump," Melania's office said in a Monday statement. "Ms. Grisham is a deceitful and troubled individual who doesn't deserve anyone's trust."

Grisham responded to the statement in a Monday morning interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."

"I expected that. I expect more. This is right out of their playbook: when they don't like the message, they're going to destroy the messenger. I know, I was part of doing that sometimes," Grisham told ABC's George Stephanopoulos.

"I notice she's not denying anything fully in the book just yet, I think she knows that I have a lot of receipts to show I'm being fully honest. I expected that, and I'm sure there will be more to come, probably a lawsuit or two or three or four," Grisham added.

Trump has previously used nondisclosure agreements and threats of litigation to silence critics. The former president just recently lost a years-long legal fight to enforce a nondisclosure agreement against former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, who published a tell-all book of her own "Unhinged: An Insider's Account of the Trump White House," in 2018.

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In addition to turning on both of her former bosses and revealing details about their marriage and relationship, Grisham also criticizes Trump's daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who served as White House advisors.

Both Trump and Melania have come out swinging against Grisham in public statements denouncing her as a disgruntled ex-employee looking to cash in on her White House experience and discrediting the book.

"The intent behind this book is obvious," Melania's office previously stated, adding of Grisham: "It is an attempt to redeem herself after a poor performance as press secretary, failed personal relationships, and unprofessional behavior in the White House. Through mistruth and betrayal, she seeks to gain relevance and money at the expense of Mrs. Trump."

Read the original article on Business Insider
PARIS (AP)  Yet again, Naomi Campbell stole the show at Paris Fashion Week. The 51-year-old runway veteran trod the boards of Lanvins flower-themed collection Sunday to screams from guests in a dramatic black cloak.

Meanwhile, on Sunday evening, fashion insiders trekked to Paris western edge for Matthew Williams Givenchy display that went back to the future.

Here are some highlights of the days 2022 spring collections:

LANVINS FLOWER POWER

Flowers are a natural touchstone for spring. Lanvin was the latest house to use florals this season, designer Bruno Sialelli employing them with aplomb. It gave vibrancy, humor and a contemporary feel to this fresh morning collection.

Gently structured garments, which were crisp but moved fluidly, made sure the collection began with a minimalist mood.

Campbell walks the runway during the Lanvin Womenswear Spring/Summer 2022 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on Oct. 3, in Paris, France. (Photo: Peter White via Getty Images)

Following that came the historic touches that are necessary for the heritage-conscious brand  the worlds oldest continuously running fashion house. Glistening sequined panels on chiffon dresses were drawn from a 1934 dress named Concerto.

But it was when the vibrant blooms appeared that the real fun came out. The first flower on the runway was in the form of an oversize bracelet then, as a print, blossoming in yellow, across a funky short-suit.

A black and yellow blown-up flower print was ubiquitous  an image executed in blurred focus. It gave the spring musing a harder, urban edge. Florals on an on-trend bikini top provided a stylish burst of color from beneath a vanilla suit jacket.

One pastel gray gown had so many blue flower appliques that they actually spilled over, cross-pollinating onto the models bare chest as stick-on brooches.

It still feels, however, as if there is some way to go before anyone can fill the shoes of longtime Lanvin designer and icon Alber Elbaz, who died last year.

GIVENCHYS ANACHRONISM

Williams was on splendid form Sunday, putting a fashion forward twist on historical clothing.

Guests sat around a futuristic, white oval runway to watch the looks, which were filmed live by a menacing black robot on wheels that followed models around.

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Anachronism was everywhere in this 70-piece show, which frothed with the frills and flounce of yesteryear.

A model walks the runway during the Givenchy Ready to Wear Spring/Summer 2022 fashion show as part of the Paris Fashion Week on Oct. 3. (Photo: Victor VIRGILE via Getty Images)

Skintight black pants morphed into platform sneakers to evoke an 18th century legging, while the chunky footwear sported an arched sole in the spirit of old fashioned clogs.

Corset silhouettes perfectly captured this seasons mania with the bikini-style, while crisp collars felt part Elizabethan ruff, part space age. There were some fun contradictions.

Yet these historic plays never felt like parody. It was perhaps the minimalist touches or the dominance of black in the designs that ensured the collection felt contemporary at all times.

LOREAL CAMPAIGNS AGAINST HARASSMENT

The setting, the Parvis des Droits de LHomme (the Paved Forecourt of Human Rights), was symbolic. The square was the place where the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was first adopted in 1948. And this event was the big return by LOreal to Paris Fashion Week with a show against street harassment and in support of female empowerment.

As in its previous three seasons, the house executed a glitzy display featuring stars such as actress Helen Mirren and Game of Thrones actor Nikolaj Coster Waldau. It was open to the public and broadcast to over 30 countries.

While the cosmetics giant deals with makeup and staging, the fashions are left to the professional designers: Behind the sparkling looks were Balmain, Elie Saab, Mugler and Issey Miyake, as well as a selection of emerging houses such as Koche and Ester Manas.

French singer/songwriter Yseult (L) presents a creation for L'Oreal on the sidelines of the Paris Fashion Week Spring-Summer 2022 Ready-to-Wear collection shows at the Trocadero, in Paris on Oct. 3. (Photo: LUCAS BARIOULET via Getty Images)

LOreal is on message with equality. But it has not always been. In 2020, transgender model and actress Munroe Bergdorf jumped on LOreals #BlackoutTuesday posts to accuse the beauty brand of hypocrisy for having fired her three years ago when she complained about racism in strong language. Bergdorf, who was sacked as LOreal UKs first openly transgender model in 2017 for decrying the racial violence of white people, later accepted a role as consultant on the U.K. Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board to help influence and inform the brand.

PAUL SMITH IS CRISP AND LOOSE

Color, crispness and looseness were the key ingredients for Paul Smith. For spring, the British fashion icon went back to the decade of optimism: The glorious 90s. It made for a vivid show that felt fresh and young  even if bringing back that time as a vintage reference made some fashionistas feel old!

Striped silk bandanas, blown-up check shirts and tight coffee jackets with round shoulders and flared pants evoked the era of Brit Pop.

Yet, other garments went artistic  such as a knit sweater and pants that sported geometric yellow squares evoking painter Piet Mondrian.

___

Thomas Adamson can be followed at Twitter.com/ThomasAdamson_K

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
As e-bikes explode in popularity nationwide, Nashville is struggling with how to regulate them and whether to allow them on the city's beloved greenway system.

Why it matters: The issue has created a low-key bureaucratic battle, roping in influential advocacy groups Walk Bike Nashville and Greenways for Nashville.

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The big picture: E-bikes, which are battery-assisted to help a rider pedal, are booming thanks to high-minded environmental concerns and their coolness and fun factor, according to Axios' Jennifer A. Kingson.

Bicycles are a $5.3 billion business, up 65% in the 12 months ending July 2021 compared with 2019, per the market research firm NPD Group.

E-bike sales are up 240% in that period, way more than mountain bikes (70%) or childrens bikes (57%).

State of play: In July, Metro Council member Bob Mendes and 16 other council members sent a letter to the Parks Board expressing support for e-bikes on greenways. "Encouraging e-bikes on greenways would align Nashville with most other cities and states," Mendes said.

An analysis by the city's legal department concluded state law gives Metro the authority to regulate or prohibit e-bikes, but existing ordinances related to no-ride zones and slow-down zones have not "effectively prohibited them at this time."

Metro Council passed a new resolution in August calling for city agencies to work together to solicit public comments and study how other cities are handling e-bikes.

A survey will be available soon and the public will have until Jan. 2, 2022 to weigh in. In the meantime, there's a moratorium on e-bike related legislation.

What they're saying: In a blog post, Walk Bike Nashville said it believes pedal-assisted bikes are the same as regular bikes and should be allowed on greenways.

But Greenways for Nashville, another prominent advocacy group that raises money and supports the city's greenway system, has expressed concerns. The group backed the August legislation allowing for research and public comment.

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The scholarship is for students attending Howard Universitys College of Fine Arts, which was renamed in Bosemans honor in September.

Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman died at 43 in August 2020 following a private battle with colon cancer. Since then, Hollywood has been paying tribute to his prolific acting career and service to his community.

In September, Howard University renamed its fine arts college the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts. Now, streaming giant Netflix is following suit.

Deadline reports that Howard University and Netflix partnered up and announced a $5.4 million endowment. The Chadwick A. Boseman Memorial Scholarship will provide incoming students in the program with a four-year scholarship. The scholarship will cover the full cost of university tuition and be awarded to one student in each class beginning the Fall 2021 semester. Students who exemplify exceptional skills in the arts reminiscent of Boseman, and who demonstrate financial need will be awarded.

Four students will be granted a scholarship during the upcoming school year. Awards will be distributed to one incoming freshman on an annual basis.

Chadwick Boseman at the 47th AFI Life Achievement Award honoring Denzel Washington at Dolby Theatre on June 6, 2019 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images)

It is with immense pleasure and deep gratitude that we announce the creation of an endowed scholarship in honor of alumnus, Chadwick Boseman, whose life and contributions to the arts continues to inspire, Howard Universitys president Wayne A.I. Frederick said in an official statement.

This scholarship embodies Chadwicks love for Howard, his passion for storytelling, and his willingness to support future generations of Howard students. I am thankful for the continuous support and partnership of Chadwicks wife, Mrs. Simone Ledward Boseman, and to Netflix for this important gift.

Ledward Boseman is honored that her late-husband is being given the accolades he earned in his life and career.

Many exemplary artists are not afforded the opportunity to pursue higher learning, we hope to support as many students as possible by removing the financial barrier to education. This endowment represents Chads devotion to the craft, his compassion for others, and his desire to support future storytellers, she said in a statement.

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Taylor Simone Ledward and Chadwick Boseman attend the 25th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Jan. 27, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Sarah Morris/Getty Images)

My deepest thanks to Ted Sarandos, Scott Stuber and our family at Netflix for their generous investment into the education of all present and future Boseman Scholars, and to President Wayne Frederick, Dean Phylicia Rashad and Mr. David Bennett for their partnership and continued commitment to Chads legacy at Howard. Im overwhelmed with gratitude and amazed at the love and dedication shown by so many continuing to honor my husbands work. I know hed be proud.

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Associated Press

A former neighbor of a U.S. Postal Service worker in Pennsylvania confessed to authorities that he fatally shot him because he believed the mail carrier previously poisoned him and his family with cyanide, a federal official said. Eric Kortz, 53, turned himself in Thursday for the shooting death of Louis Vignone while Vignone was on his route in Collier Township, acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania Stephen Kaufman said in a statement. Vignone was shot around 10 a.m. Thursday while he was delivering mail, news outlets reported.
Fashion has long been obsessed by the youth vote and the need to woo generations of consumers yet to come (AFP/Getty)

The news of Linda Evangelistas cosmetic procedure trauma has been the talk not only of the internet, where the former supermodels Instagram post about what she said were the negative effects of a CoolSculpting treatment has sparked vociferous response, but also at the shows in Milan, where Evangelista once reigned and where her tale has passed from one socially distanced chair to another like a fashion horror story.

It has raised questions once again about ageism and size-ism in the industry (and society in general), and the continued focus on extreme youth. Because for all the strides that have been made on runways toward diversity in skin colour  and there has been real progress  what is increasingly clear in Milan is that when it comes to size and age, very little has really changed.

Indeed, although on the runways of New York there were some efforts to expand the definition of beauty to encompass the true spectrum of body types, in Milan the models are once again very young and very thin. Gigi Hadid is strutting her stuff as a new mother, but generally in the Wow, youd never know shed just had a baby category.

Like many things in fashion as we emerge from the pandemic (or semi-emerge), it feels like a step backward, rather than a move forward. There is comfort in familiarity, sure, but not this particular kind.

Fashion has long been obsessed by the youth vote and the need to woo generations of consumers yet to come. But that can lead you down some very questionable paths, as it did at Missoni, where the brands new creative director Alberto Caliri (Angela Missoni stepped down as head of the studio in May) seemed to equate the desire for fresh and new (and TikTok) with a kind of seedy voyeurism.

Old denim was paired with string bikinis and scarf halter tops that barely covered the breasts, sections were chopped out of trademark knits to expose the flimsy bra beneath, and halter gowns gleaming with sequins were cut low enough in the back for a permanent flash of G-string. There was nothing empowering about it; more like objectifying. Even the models kept surreptitiously checking to make sure everything was in place.

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Missoni is a brand that has always understood the genuinely universal, sensual power of the knit. Some simple column dresses (and some slouchy patchworks shown over cargo pants) did capture that allure. Just not enough of them.

It was a reminder, though, that like many of the clothes on runways here, they would flatter many different kinds of people. Isnt it about time to show them that way?

Consider, for example, the haute-hippie-on-the-Silk-Road smashups of denim and crochet and maxi dresses, paisley and mandala prints at Etro. Which  crochet tops aside  reference a fantasy owned by no particular personal profile.

Missonis SS22 collection didnt get the memo (AFP/Getty)

Or Emporio Armani, celebrating its 40th birthday, which  despite being known as the younger line of Armani  offered up a quasi-retrospective of signature loose liquid tailoring for both men and women, flippy little silk dresses, paillette-strewn evening wear and desert shades that segued into sporty primary colours. (The jade and lilac lame bloomer rompers that slid off one shoulder, on the other hand, looked like they were trying a little too hard for the young and fun appellation.) It was a telling coincidence that Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, likewise age 40, chose an Emporio black coat for her visit to the 9/11 memorial in New York on the same day as the show.

Or even Tods, where designer Walter Chiapponi has added a dollop of sophistication to the brands offering. The Jolie Madame neat linen car and trench coats, evening anoraks in jewel-tone sheer nylon and graphic knits would look as good over a pair of slick trousers as the asparagus-stalk bare legs with which they were paired on the runway.

Chiapponi has already nudged the brand beyond its dependence on leather  this season largely reduced to detailing on the elbows and patch pockets of the coats, the neckline of the knits and some very appealing accessories (especially the padded bucket hats). In part, he said in a preview the day before the show, out of recognition that despite the brands roots as a leather house, it had a responsibility to the environment and climate change, and a change of materials was one way to address that.

The result was a move forward. Now its also time for another.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times

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Tesla is moving its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas, where it is building a massive car and battery complex.Chief Executive Elon Musk announced the plans on Thursday at the company's annual shareholder meeting.Texas is known for its cheap labor market and less stringent regulation.But Musk did not bring up politics in his speech and he stressed that Tesla's operations in California would still grow.'This is not a matter of Tesla leaving California,' he said, adding that the company plans to increase output from its main California factory and Nevada factory by 50%.Musk has had a rocky relationship with California, which has relatively high taxes and living costs.Last year, he threatened to move Tesla HQ and future programs out of the state during a row over the closure of a factory due to the health crisis.He himself relocated from California to Texas in December to focus on a new plant and SpaceX.The rocket company has a launch site in the souther tip of Texas.Oracle, HP and Toyota Motor have also moved their headquarters from California to Texas.
Workers clean up oil along the shoreline at the Talbert channel entrance to Huntington State Beach on Monday morning. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

The full scope of this weekend's oil spill in Orange County remains unclear. But the leak of at least 126,000 gallons of crude oil is one of the largest in recent years in California. However, the size is still far less than several other catastrophic spills in the state and elsewhere.

Oil from the spill reached some marshes and wetland areas Sunday. A day later, it was moving south toward the sensitive coves around Laguna Beach.

The overall impact is still hard to assess at this point. But the amount of dumped oil is still only a small fraction of the worst spills in history. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been tracking spills since a 1969 Santa Barbara incident.

Here is a look at some past oil spills in California and beyond:

California

A sign at the Huntington Beach Pier warns of the oil spill on Sunday. (Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)

1969: Santa Barbara

The Santa Barbara oil spill of 1969 spewed an estimated 3 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean, creating a slick 35 miles long along Californias coast and killing thousands of birds, fish and sea mammals.

Following that spill, the region became ground zero for some of the most significant conservation efforts of the 20th century.

The Santa Barbara spill was the worst in the nations history  until 20 years later, when the Exxon Valdez dumped 11 million gallons of crude off the coast of Alaska.

1971: San Francisco Bay Area

Two tankers collided in heavy fog, sending 800,000 gallons of oil into the water. Thousands of birds died.

The American Trader oil spill washes ashore Feb. 14, 1990, in Newport Beach. (Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times)

1990: American Trader

On the afternoon of Feb. 7, 1990, the oil tanker American Trader ran over its anchor in relatively shallow water off Huntington Beach, spilling nearly 417,000 gallons of crude and fouling popular beaches along the Orange County coast. The oil killed fish and about 3,400 birds.

The American Trader, an 800-foot tanker leased by British Petroleum, struck its port anchor while riding in heavy swells about 7,200 feet off Huntington Beach. It was engaged in a complicated berthing maneuver that involved backing into a mooring where it would be secured to seven anchor buoys, then connected to an underwater pipeline to offload oil to a terminal near Newland Street operated by Golden West Refining Co.

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As the loaded tanker heaved up and down on the swells, it most likely came down on its own anchor, rupturing the hull and ultimately leaking 416,598 gallons of crude oil into the Pacific. The oil blackened 15 miles of Orange County beaches and threatened environmentally sensitive wetlands.

The American Traders voyage began in Valdez, Alaska, where it took on a cargo of crude bound for oil-storage barges at the Port of Long Beach. The tanker arrived Jan. 29 and made stops in Long Beachs harbor to unload oil. After that, it took on a new, 23-million-gallon load of oil from a supertanker moored off Long Beach.

It left Long Beach at 1 p.m. on Feb. 7 and headed south for the Golden West Offshore Mooring off Huntington Beach. There it was to offload 12.5 million gallons of oil to be piped to a refinery in Santa Fe Springs.

Map of American Trader spill in 1990. (Paul Duginski / Los Angeles Times)

After the spill, crews rushed to contain the oil slick and protect the beaches, but winds and currents eventually deposited oil on miles of beach. Rubberized booms were put in place to keep oil out of estuaries such as the Bolsa Chica wetlands and Upper Newport Bay.



While the oil largely skirted the coastal wetlands, locals found the spill depressing and frustrating, not only because of the catastrophic environmental damage, but because of the effect on local businesses.

2007: San Francisco Bay Area

The cargo ship Cosco Busan struck the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in heavy fog and poured 58,000 gallons of fuel oil into the bay, killing more than 6,800 birds.

A humpback whale lifts its fluke out of the water as it begins a dive off the coast of Santa Barbara in 2001. (Mike Eliason/AP)

2015: Santa Barbara

An oil pipeline ruptured north of Santa Barbara and sent 143,000 gallons of crude oil flowing onto Refugio State Beach, with some of it reaching the ocean. Tar balls from the leak floated as far away as Manhattan Beach.

That spill forced the closure of Refugio and El Capitan state beaches and covered rocky shores, sandy beaches and kelp forests with oil. According to the Oiled Wildlife Care Network, which was involved in recovery efforts, 204 birds and 106 marine mammals died as a result of the spill.

National

Here is a summary of some other major spills compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:

Deepwater Horizon oil spill

On April 20, 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon Macondo oil well drilling platform killed 11 workers and started the largest marine oil spill in U.S. history, releasing millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Exxon Valdez oil spill

On March 24, 1989, the tanker Exxon Valdez grounded on Bligh Reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound, rupturing its hull and spilling nearly 11 million gallons of Prudhoe Bay crude oil.

For the record:

6:50 p.m. Oct. 4, 2021: An earlier version of this article incorrectly credited the American Trader spill map to AP. Its by Paul Duginski of The Times.



This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he objects to protesters who followed Sen. Kyrsten Sinema into an Arizona State University ladies' room to excoriate her for refusing to pass a $3.5 trillion social welfare spending package.

Schumer told ABC News in the Capitol on Monday he gets protested all the time and started his career protesting the Vietnam War.

But he criticized the protesters, who not only berated Sinema as she entered a stall and used the facilities but also recorded the incident to post on the internet.

MANCHIN SETS $1.5 TRILLION LIMIT ON SPENDING PACKAGE, DEALING BLOW TO BIDEN AGENDA

I understand and so feel for the immigrant community and what they are going through, Schumer said. But following someone into a bathroom and recording them, thats over the line.

Sinema issued a statement Monday calling the incident wholly inappropriate and said protesters acted deceptively and unlawfully to enter the building where she was teaching a class.

Sinema is one of two Senate Democratic centrists who have called on their party lawmakers to lower the cost and change the scope of a $3.5 trillion social welfare spending package.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Protesters paddled in kayaks to confront Sen. Joe Manchin, a centrist Democrat from West Virginia who lives on a houseboat in Washington, D.C., after he said he wouldn't spend more than $1.5 trillion on the package.

Protesters who followed Sinema into the bathroom said they helped get her elected and would help defeat her if she did not support the package. Democrats are aiming to include provisions that would legalize those who arrived here as children illegally.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, Congress, Kyrsten Sinema, government spending, Chuck Schumer

Original Author: Susan Ferrechio

Original Location: Over the line: Schumer condemns Sinema bathroom protesters
Oct. 4For about $25 million to $30 million, the Children of the Sun Trail could rise 30 feet above the Earth and run alongside the skyway section of the North Spokane Corridor for its final stretch through East Central to Interstate 90.

That lofty vision for the trail's final stretch from the Spokane River to I-90 was one of three presented at a recent meeting of the city of Spokane's Bicycle Advisory Board.

The first option, which would have taken the trail along the south bank of the river, has already been dismissed, however, because it didn't accord with the Washington State Department of Transportation's "environmental commitments," according to Terrence Lynch, assistant project engineer for WSDOT's design office.

Lynch explained that the department committed in long-since-completed federal environmental documents to the premise that the trail would "serve the neighborhood" the new freeway will pass through.

Because the so-called "River Route" would have veered so far west of the NSC's path to follow the river's course, Lynch said, it "doesn't really meet what was committed to."

As a result, he said, "This one was essentially taken off the table."

That left two other options. One is the Skyway Route.

Among that route's advantages, Lynch said, it would offer the "most direct" route from a planned river crossing near the Spokane Community College Campus to the area near Libby Center and Second Avenue in East Central, where a new east-west shared-use path connection is planned and near where a land bridge over I-90 may eventually span.

But that straight shot would also be the most expensive. And it would put bicyclists and pedestrians first beneath and alongside the new freeway, between Greene and Freya streets, before ramping up toward the skyway in the area of the railroad tracks that run south of Trent Avenue.

Once it reached the elevated roadway, the trail would run alongside the southbound lanes.

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While Lynch said the skyway route has "no fatal flaws," he also noted there would be "some issues to resolve."

Among them, he said, was the fact that it would have "no real connections to destinations and special places," due to its location above street level.

Lynch referred to the third option as the Regal Route, named for the street it would follow from the river to the interstate.

This alignment for the Children of the Sun Trail would remain at street level, except when it crossed the rail corridor south of Trent on a bridge dedicated for the shared-use path.

While that would offer the advantage of putting some space between trail users and traffic on the busy new freeway, Lynch said, there would be a trade-off in the form of "multiple at-grade street conflicts" as well as "homeowner impacts."

To meet the desires of public input, Lynch said, the trail would be separated and protected from traffic.

But that would entail removing some on-street parking, which would presumably upset residents.

It would also require trail users to cross a large number of driveways, compromising how safe and protected the trail really would be.

Bicyclists and pedestrians would also have to cross some major streets where there aren't currently traffic signals.

So the Regal Route would likely require not only a "complete rebuild of Regal," Lynch said, but also new beacons or other interventions to help people cross multiple lanes of high-speed traffic at various intersections.

Jessica Engelman, vice chair of the Bicycle Advisory Board, didn't hold back her withering criticism of the two options.

"I hate both of these routes, to be extremely blunt," she said.

Her issue with the Skyway Route was fundamental.

She said it is "extremely miserable" to bike or walk "next to an interstate."

Engelman also expressed concern that such a route could "become a linear homeless camp."

"So I think the skyway option is really bad given the goals of the project," she said. "I think the Regal option is the closest thing to good, but it makes no sense to put in a separate trail on what should be a greenway."

Greenways, like one that recently opened on Cincinnati Street, are basically just bike- and pedestrian-friendly streets, roads that are open to cars but prioritize nonmotorized modes of transportation.

Engelman expressed concern that a more intrusive, protected trail built along the street would both present dangers to trail users as a result of all the driveways and could create "bikelash" among neighbors who would blame bicyclists for their loss of parking.

Inga Note, a senior traffic-planning engineer for the city of Spokane, said she had similar concerns about "the driveway issue." She also suggested WSDOT planners consider a "slightly different option" using the Fiske Street corridor, instead of Regal, for the section south of Trent.

While WSDOT hasn't made any final decisions about the exact alignment of either option, much less which one it will choose, Lynch said the clock is ticking, with design work slated to begin in "a year and a few months."

"We really need to roll up our sleeves and start the design work," he said.

Before that happens, though, engineers first have to work with officials involved with the trail's "collaboration team" and then go out to the public.

When it does so, the department of transportation will employ the "placemaking" process that department materials say puts "community  based participation at (the) center" of work on the North Spokane Corridor and adjacent Children of the Sun Trail.

That process was used to come up with the three route options, he said, and it will be used to guide the process of choosing and designing the one that's built.

The placemaking process has drawn criticism from some residents in the Minnehaha neighborhood, who claim officials largely ignored the input they offered through earlier placemaking efforts.

Meanwhile, project leaders from WSDOT have strenuously defended their use of placemaking as a rich and deep method of public participation that allows people an unprecedented ability to guide the design of the freeway and its associated trail.

The fruits of the placemaking process on the outcome of the Children of the Sun Trail's design so far were on display last week, when WSDOT hosted a virtual groundbreaking for the 1.8-mile middle section of the trail that passes through Minnehaha and Hillyard.

Mark Brower, designer manager for KPFF Consulting Engineers that led the design effort on behalf of WSDOT, said the plans were the product of an "extensive placemaking process" that "provided a very clear vision" for the "themes for the focus areas" and a "prioritized list of amenities" for the trail.

Brower also noted that WSDOT "incentivized" a design that wasn't just cost-effective but one that maximized "the amount of community we could build for this project."

All told, the nearly 2-mile section of trail will include three new bridges, 20 neighborhood access points and 12 "gathering spaces."

Guy Michaelsen, a landscape architect whose firm helped design the trail, flipped through a slide deck that showed off what those amenities will look like.

A rendering of one "trail connection plaza" in Minnehaha showed two concrete rumble strips on either side of a "scored concrete paving plaza" that will feature a kiosk mapping the trail's course from its northern terminus at East Farwell Road near the Little Spokane River to a planned crossing over the Spokane River near North Greene Street.

Another included "horizontal basalt column seating."

A third Minnehaha "gathering space" featured "steel character panels" that will show the lifecycle of a ponderosa, with images of a pine cone, a pine needle, a young tree, a mature tree and bark.

The trail through Minnehaha will also include "community selected wall aesthetics" displaying the neighborhood's name and an image of a landscape along the abutments and walls of the freeway.

Among the new structural elements in the neighborhood are pedestrian bridges over Euclid Avenue and over the NSC at Garland Avenue, as well as a trail connection to Wildhorse Park.

Moving north toward Hillyard, Michaelsen showed the curving "prairie alignment" of the trail as it travels between Heroy Avenue and Wellesley Avenue, where a pedestrian bridge will span the redesigned road.

That bridge will land near what Michelsen referred to as the "Wellesley Roundhouse," a space with multiple plazas, lighting, seating and plantings of ponderosas and lilacs organized in the semicircular shape of a railway corral.

A few blocks north, he showed the designs for a series of seven consecutive plazas that will be located along the trail as it passes in the narrow space between the NSC and downtown Hillyard.

The two northernmost of these plazas  one at Queen Avenue and another at Columbia Avenue, where the existing section of trail now ends  will be the most elaborate, with seating and plantings.

As for what the trail through Minnehaha and Hillyard will really feel like  and what all those placemaking-inspired amenities will add to trail users' experience  that remains to be seen.

But they are coming into view.

Construction on this middle section of the trail began Aug. 30 and is slated to be complete by the end of 2022.

As for what it would be like to bike alongside an elevated freeway, we'll have to wait longer, perhaps until 2029, when the NSC is slated for completion. Unless, of course, the placemaking process  and WSDOT officials  gives us the Regal Route instead.

Work to watch for

Belt Street from Boone to Maxwell Avenue and Garland/Empire Avenue from Crestline to Market Street are closed for grind-and-overlay work.

Upper Terrace Road between Rockwood Boulevard and Crest Road will be completely closed, as well as the curbside lanes of Rockwood at Upper Terrace intersection, through Oct. 27 for excavation work.

Perry Street between 34th and 36th avenues will be flagged through Oct. 29.

Westbound Mission Avenue is restricted to a single lane from the Spokane River Bridge to Perry Street for City Line work.
The Daily Beast

La Plata County Sheriff/HandoutA Colorado dad convicted of murdering his son after the 13-year-old discovered photos of him in womens underwear eating feces from a diaper has been sentenced to 48 years in prison.Mark Redwine, 59, was found guilty of second-degree murder and child abuse in July after he killed his son, Dylan, inside his Durango, Colorado, home on Nov. 18, 2012. The teen was on a court-ordered visit for Thanksgiving when Redwine snapped after him and his older brotherafter the p
A person was fatally shot inside a hospital in Philadelphia early Monday morning and the suspect, who was reportedly wearing hospital scrubs, fled the scene before engaging in a shootout with responding officers.

The initial shooting happened on the ninth floor inside Thomas Jefferson University Hospital just after midnight, local television stations reported. The suspect, who was dressed in hospital scrubs and a mask, fled the scene, prompting a manhunt by law enforcement, 6ABC reported. The report said he fled in a U-Haul truck.

A U-Haul was seen fleeing the scene, police told NBC Philadelphia. The truck was located about a block from the scene of the shootout with officers along with blue hospital scrubs, the report said.

Authorities located the suspect a short time later and a shootout erupted. Police told the news outlets that two officers were shot and the suspect was wounded. The suspect was then taken into custody. The officers' injuries weren't considered life-threatening. One suffered a graze wound to the nose and the other was shot in the arm.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
SlickDeals

It might only be October, but if youre a planner, then you know its never too early to start brainstorming ways to make the upcoming holiday season as memorable as possible. And one easy way to do so is with a LEGO Advent calendar. For a limited time (you must use the code before October 
Princess Charlene Shares A Smiling Shot of Herself On Instagram

Princess Charlene/Instagram

Princess Charlene is all smiles in her latest Instagram post!

Charlene, 43, shared a simple shot of herself grinning ear-to-ear with what appears to be a Bible lying open in front of her on Sunday. It marks her first photo since being discharged from a South Africa hospital following a medical scare one month ago.

"God Bless ," she captioned the image.

Charlene has remained in South Africa as doctors addressed an infection that developed after a previous ENT surgery. The Monaco Palace said the princess went to the hospital on Sept. 1 after collapsing "due to complications from the severe ear, nose and throat infection she contracted in May," according to the U.K.'s Express.

RELATED: Princess Charlene Has Tried 'to Pull the Whole Family Together'

Prince Albert, Charlene's husband, told PEOPLE in September that his wife's return to Monaco "depends on what her doctors say," adding that she's said it could possibly be "late October."

"But that was before this most recent round of appointments," he noted. "I'm pretty sure we can cut that time frame a little short."

HSH Princess Charlene of Monaco and HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco attend the Monte-Carlo Gala For Planetary Health on September 24, 2020 in Monte-Carlo, Monaco.

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty

Albert later confirmed his wife is "ready" to return home to Monaco. "She's jokingly said that she's ready to stowaway on a ship to come back to Europe," he shared.

Never miss a story  sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Last month, Albert criticized the media's recent coverage of their marriage in another interview with PEOPLE, stating she never left Monaco "in a huff" as previously reported.

"It was only supposed to be a weeklong, 10-day maximum stay, and [she is still there now] because she had this infection all these medical complications arose," Albert explained.

Story continues

"She didn't go into exile," he continued. "It was absolutely just a medical problem which had to be treated."

Watch: 8 American women who have married princes
With his full domestic agenda teetering in Congress, President Biden  a longtime stalwart of the Democrats moderate wing  has found unlikely allies in the form of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Since the beginning of the summer, the plan from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was to pass Bidens full domestic agenda via two bills: an infrastructure measure focusing on bridges, roads, ports and broadband, and a larger budget proposal with funding for a wide range of programs, including new spending on climate change, education, childcare and a Medicare expansion.

The Senate passed the infrastructure bill in August, with many Democrats in both chambers saying they would support the bill only if it were attached to the budget deal. While centrists in the Democratic caucus were calling on Pelosi to move on the infrastructure bill last week, it was progressives who insisted the Biden agenda pass as one.

From left: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)

This movement was spearheaded by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who for weeks has said she had enough votes to block the infrastructure bill if the budget resolution were not passed first.

Since the Democratic primaries, progressives have been portrayed as Bidens main antagonists within his own party. Yet it was Jayapals pressure, along with the backing of 11 left-leaning Senate Democrats, who kept the chances of both bills passing alive. Many Democrats believed that if the infrastructure bill were passed on its own, the loss of any leverage over the partys centrists would result in either a much smaller reconciliation package or none at all.

Whether any of Bidens agenda still passes remains to be seen, as the wings of the party remain far apart on the total price tag of the budget deal and what programs should be included within it. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Jayapal originally wanted the package to be $6 trillion over 10 years, but negotiations among Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee resulted in a $3.5 trillion proposal.

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Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has said hes not comfortable going above $1.5 trillion, resulting in the current negotiations. Biden has said that he has 99 percent of the caucus on board with his agenda, but he needs two more senators  Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.  to sign on before its passed.

Leading members of the Democrats progressive wing have been open about their willingness to compromise somewhat with the centrists. "Three and a half trillion should be a minimum, but I accept that there's gonna have to be a give and take," Sanders told ABC News Sunday, adding, "Both these bills are going forward in tandem.

In an appearance on CNNs State of the Union Sunday, Jayapal said Manchins proposed budget size is not going to happen. At the same time, she acknowledged that the final price tag would be somewhere between $1.5 [trillion] and $3.5 [trillion]."

President Biden delivers remarks about the need for Congress to raise the debt limit at the White House on Monday. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

While progressives were holding out their votes on infrastructure last week, they did not receive pressure from the White House. When Biden visited the Capitol on Friday to meet with Democratic legislators, he sided with the progressives in saying that the bills needed to pass together. The alliance comes despite frustration from progressives toward a number of Biden White House policies, from immigration and refugee quotas to marijuana legalization and criminal justice reform.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki mentioned Jayapal favorably multiple times at briefings last week, saying on Sept. 27, I would point to something Congresswoman Jayapal said yesterday: Right now, its not a secret about what is the holdup. The holdup is that we need to get 50 votes in the Senate to move the infrastructure, to move the reconciliation package forward, in order for members of the Progressive Caucus in the House to feel comfortable that theres a path forward.

Psaki added on Sept. 29, I would note that I just saw Congresswoman Jayapal on television conveying something similar to what I just said, which is that thats a constructive role for [Biden] to be playing in this moment, referring to the presidents work attempting to unify the party on a path forward.

In late June, Biden said he wouldnt sign the infrastructure deal if it came to his desk without the larger budget agreement, comments he later walked back. Speaking at the White House Monday, he again took full ownership of both pieces of legislation.

The legislation, both the Build Back Better piece as well as the infrastructure piece, are things that I wrote, the president said. Build Back Better is the White Houses term for the presidents domestic agenda, the majority of which is included in the budget proposal.

These didnt come from  God love em  Bernie Sanders or [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.] or anybody else: I wrote them. I disagreed with Medicare for All, for example, but I laid out what I thought would be important.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and then-presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., at a New Hampshire campaign stop on Feb. 10, 2020. (Andrew Harnik/AP)

While Biden did not technically write the infrastructure bill (it was hammered out by Senate moderates) or the most recent budget proposal (negotiated by Sanders and the rest of the Budget Committee, which he chairs), those proposals stemmed from the American Jobs Plan and the American Family Plan, which Biden announced in the spring.

And while Biden won the Democratic nomination partly as a relative moderate, Jayapal notes that the Build Back Better plan was central to his 2020 campaign. She also argues that passing it is a pragmatic way to win over voters who have defected to the GOP in recent years.

We made all these promises to voters across the country that we were going to deliver on this agenda. Its not some crazy left-wing wish list, Jayapal told the Seattle Times last week.

I feel like we in the Democratic Party have lost so many voters because they dont see us fighting for the things that might be a little bit harder to get across the finish line.

____

Read more from Yahoo News:
Christmas turkey dinner (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Sales of frozen turkeys are up by more than 400 per cent, despite Christmas being almost three months away.

A consumer shift towards buying more frozen food during the pandemic and concerns about food shortages are spurring the rise in demand, industry experts said.

British supermarket Iceland, which sells mostly frozen foods, is currently seeing a 409 per cent increase in sales of turkeys compared to this time last year.

The word Christmas has also been searched more than 17,000 times across Icelands website in the last week, with consumers already beginning to purchase festive food.

Iceland said it is preparing for a much busier season than usual and has increased its order of frozen turkeys by 20 per cent. It will also launch its full range of Christmas meats two weeks earlier than normal.

Iceland bosses said the supermarket had anticipated increased demand for its Christmas produce following a surge in sales of frozen food during the pandemic.

According to the British Frozen Food Federations (BFFF) 2021 Frozen Food report, shoppers spent an extra 872 million on frozen goods last year.

It found that frozen food was the fastest-growing groceries category after alcohol.

Richard Harrow, chief executive of BFFF, said the rise in sales of frozen turkeys is evidence of a growing awareness of frozen foods quality, convenience and ability to reduce food waste.

Many consumers have been permanently converted to buying more frozen products by the long shelf-life, value for money and variety of food on offer.

This combined with current concerns about food supply means many people will be opting for frozen this Christmas, he said.

In August, the British Poultry Council, the trade association for the poultry industry, said its members had cut down Christmas turkey production by 20 per cent due to labour shortages caused by Brexit.

Last month, the government announced new plans to give 5,500 poultry workers to enter the UK on temporary work visas ahead of Christmas.

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Richard Griffiths, the chief executive of the British Poultry Council welcomed the decision, saying that temporary workers from outside the UK have long been vital to delivering Christmas.

Given the unprecedented challenges of the last year they are needed more than ever. British turkey and goose are the centrepieces of Christmas dinners across the country and we are pleased that the government has listened, he said.

Other areas of Christmas groceries have also seen a spike in sales. Iceland said it had noticed an increase in people searching for mince pies as early as July.

Sales of mince pies in its stores are up 10 per cent compared to last year.

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By Ann Saphir

(Reuters) -Senator Elizabeth Warren on Monday called on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate trading by top U.S. central bankers, including that of two Fed bank presidents who resigned after public outcry over their transactions.

In a letter to SEC Chair Gary Gensler, Warren also cited trading by Fed Vice Chair Richard Clarida in February 2020, shortly before Fed Chair Jerome Powell issued a warning about risks from the coronavirus and pledged a Fed response if needed.

"The reports of this financial activity by Fed officials raise serious questions about possible conflicts of interest and reveal a disregard for the public trust," Warren wrote in the letter, released publicly. "If these trades were based on Fed officials knowledge of non-public, market moving information, they may have represented potentially illegal activity."

An SEC spokesperson declined to comment.

The Fed launched its own review of ethics and trading rules last month after disclosures that Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren had traded real-estate securities and Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan had traded millions of dollars of individual stocks last year even as the Fed undertook a rescue of the U.S. economy and financial markets with massive purchases of Treasuries and housing-backed bonds.

Both said they had followed the Fed's trading rules.

Separately the Fed said Monday it had started discussions last week with its office of inspector general to look into whether trading by "certain senior officials" was in compliance with ethics rules and the law.

"We welcome this review and will accept and take appropriate actions based on its findings," a Fed spokesperson said.

Rosengren left his job last week, citing a kidney condition. Kaplan is due to leave on Friday.

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The spotlight on ethics come at an awkward time for Powell, as U.S. President Joe Biden decides whether to reappoint him for another four-year term or choose someone else to take the central bank's reins starting next February. Clarida's term as vice chair also ends early next year.

Clarida's trade, reported late on Friday by Bloomberg News, involved selling between $1 million and $5 million of a bond fund and buying a similar amount of two stock funds on Feb. 27 2020, a day before Powell issued a statement calling out the "evolving" risks to the U.S. economy from the pandemic.

The value of all three funds dropped sharply in the weeks following, as the Fed slashed rates and bought bonds to cushion the blow from government-mandated business shutdowns.

Today the bond index fund is trading barely above where it had been when Clarida sold; the funds indexed to stocks have risen 16% and 38%, respectively, since Clarida bought them.

The Fed told Bloomberg that Clarida's transactions were a "pre-planned" rebalancing and the selection of funds approved by the Board's ethics official.

Warren last week called Powell a "dangerous man" and said she would oppose his reappointment because of what she sees as a weakening of bank oversight during his tenure.

(Reporting by Ann Saphir and Jonnelle Marte; Additional reporting by Michelle Price; Editing by Dan Grebler, Andrea Ricci and Lincoln Feast.)
(Bloomberg) -- Chinas heavily leveraged property firms saw their stocks and bonds tumble after a failure by developer Fantasia Holdings Group Co. to repay notes deepened investor concerns about the sectors outlook.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Chinas dollar junk bonds fell about 4 cents, according to traders, set for the worst drop since at least 2013. Developer Sinic Holdings Group Co.s long-term issuer default rating was cut to C from CCC by Fitch Ratings, adding to the gloom. The Hang Seng Properties Index dropped as much as 2.2% on Tuesday after last weeks rebound.

Troubles at Fantasia contribute to signs that stress is rising in Chinas property sector, where lower-rated developers face a surge in bond yields to a decade high. Uncertainty over the full extent of China Evergrande Groups debt load, beyond its more than $300 billion reported in liabilities, has plagued investors since a liquidity crisis at the firm stoked fears of a collapse that could trigger financial and economic contagion.

Fantasia itself poses fewer risks to broader markets than Evergrande due to its smaller size. It ranked 60th in a list of contracted sales in the first quarter of this year versus third for Evergrande. Fantasias total liabilities were $12.9 billion as of June 30, according to the companys first-half report, compared with $304.5 billion for Evergrande.

Key Developments:

Chinese Property Developer Fantasia Misses Debt Payments

China Dollar Junk Bonds Set for Worst Drop Since at Least 2013

Developers Face $5.2 Billion Debt Test: What to Watch in China

Evergrande, Property Management Unit Suspend Hong Kong Trading

Nervy Markets Await Outcome for Opaque Bond Tied to Evergrande

China Steps Up Efforts to Ring-Fence Evergrande, Not to Save it

China Builder Sinic Faces Creditor Demanding $75 Million Payment

Sunac Shares Tumble Before Bond Payment Due (10:36 a.m. HK)

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Shares of Sunac China Holdings Ltd. dropped as much as 13% on Tuesday. The Hong Kong-listed real estate firm is due to pay almost $100 million in bond coupons this month, with the first one on Oct. 11, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The developers bonds have fallen to record lows after a letter circulated among traders last month showing Sunac asking local authorities for support. Sunac has denied it submitted the request.

Evergrande Wont Hurt China Local Government Credit: S&P (9:41 a.m. HK)

Evergrandes likely default wont hurt the credit profiles on Chinas local governments, S&P Global Ratings said in a report. While the developers outstanding debt is vast, its troubles are unlikely to pose contagion risk at the local government level, nor to significantly undermine social stability, it said.

Evergrande Shares to Stay Suspended (9:25 a.m. HK)

Evergrande had yet to disclose details of the major transaction as of 9 a.m. Tuesday. That means the stock, and that of its property services unit, will remain suspended for the morning session at least, according to Hong Kong exchange rules. Evergrande shares could resume trading in the afternoon if a statement is published during the one-hour lunch break.

Singapore Banks Loans to Evergrande Insignificant: MAS (7:56 a.m. HK)

Singapore banks loans to Evergrande are insignificant and their exposure to the Chinese property sector isnt large, said Tharman Shanmugaratnam, senior minister and minister in charge of the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Direct exposures to Chinese property are less than 1% of non-bank loans while those to Singapore property developers with operations in China are a further 2.5% of loans to non-bank customers, Shanmugaratnam said in reply to parliamentary questions on Monday.

Fantasia Holdings Skips Bond Payment Due Monday (10:40 a.m. NY)

Chinese developer Fantasia Holdings Group Co. said it hasnt repaid a $205.7 million bond due Monday, intensifying investor concerns about the developers financial health. The companys management and board will assess the potential impact on the financial condition and cash position of the Group stemming from the skipped payment, according to a statement Monday.

Fantasia Dollar Bonds Plummet Ahead of Maturity (5:12 p.m.)

Fantasias dollar bonds are plummeting as the company inches closer to a $208.2 million debt repayment deadline Monday. As uncertainty over the future of Evergrande weighs on credit markets, dramatic declines in Fantasias dollar bonds maturing later this year suggest rising concern over its capacity to service even its short-term debts.

Evergrande NEV Jumps 29% in Hong Kong (4:10 p.m.)

Trading continues in the developers vehicle unit, China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group Ltd. on Monday, with the stock closing up 29%, its biggest gain since Sept. 29.

Hopsons Chu May Become Latest Tycoon to Bolster Evergrande (12:37 p.m.)

Another billionaire tycoon appears poised to come to the aid of embattled Evergrande.

The Chu family control Hopson Development and could become the latest wealthy family to help shore up finances for Evergrande, after Hopson reportedly agreed to buy a controlling stake in its property services business, according to Cailian. Chu Mang Yee is described as an invisible magnate by Chinese media.

Hopson Development Plans Evergrande Property Stake (11:53 a.m.)

Hopson Development plans to acquire a 51% stake in Evergrande Property Services, Cailian reported, citing unidentified people. That would give the management unit a valuation of more than HK$40 billion, Cailian said in an amended story. Hong Kong trading in Evergrande Property Services shares was suspended on Monday along with those of its parent.

Hopson Developments USD Bonds Tumble (11:35 a.m.)

Hopson Developments dollar notes are set for their biggest losses on record Monday after Cailian reported the firm plans to acquire a 51% stake in Evergrande Property Services. The companys 6.8% dollar bond due 2023 sank 4.9 cents on the dollar to 90.2 cents, Bloomberg-compiled prices showed. The firms 7% note due 2024 declined 5 cents to 89.2 cents.

China Builder Sinic Faces Creditor Demanding $75 Million Payment (10:24 a.m.)

Amid heightened scrutiny on Chinese property firms as Evergrande contagion fears ripple through the sector, Sinic Holdings Group Co. received a demand to repay some debt after missing two local interest payments.

A creditor of the Chinese developer is demanding repayment of $75.4 million in outstanding principal and accrued interest, after the firm failed to repay 38.7 million yuan ($6 million) of interest on two onshore financing arrangements on Sept. 18, according to a Hong Kong stock exchange filing dated Sept. 30.

Evergrande dollar bond interest deadlines:

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2021 Bloomberg L.P.
MADRID (Reuters) - Foreign tourism to Spain rose rapidly in August as looser travel restrictions tempted back summer sunseekers though visitor numbers remained at around half their pre-pandemic levels, official statistics showed on Monday.

The number of foreign tourists visiting in August more than doubled from a year ago to 5.19 million but was still barely above half the level seen in 2019, the National Statistics Institute said on Monday.

Over the first eight months of the year, the number of foreign visitors was 15 million, or about 26% of the number in 2019, sharply undershooting the government target's for half 2019's levels.

Still, Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto reacted positively to the Monday figures.

"The data strengthen the international tourism recovery and confirm Spain is perceived as a safe destination, she said in a statement on Monday.

Foreign tourists spent a total of 5.9 billion euros ($6.85 billion), up from around 2.46 billion euros in August 2020 but well below the 11.7 billion euros spent in August 2019.

Tourism, which represented about 12% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019, all but collapsed in 2020, when the number of foreign tourists fell by more than 80% to 19 million, a level not seen since 1969.

($1 = 0.8619 euros)

(This story corrects to read "at around half" (not below half) their pre-pandemic levels, paragraph 1)

(Reporting by Inti Landauro; editing by Nathan Allen and Jason Neely)
Oct. 4Honolulu Emergency Serices said a male paddleboarder in his early 30s was taken to a hospital in critical condition after being found floating in the ocean near Daniel K. Inouye International Airport today.

EMS said it responded just after 3 :30 p.m. to a call concerning a male in distress in waters off Lagoon Drive and Iolana Place.

The man had been pulled out of the water by state firefighters, who transferred care to EMS.

Paramedics administered life saving treatment and transported the man.
On the Pittsburgh Steelers' opening drive on Sunday, Ben Roethlisberger completed his first four passes and hit Dionte Johnson on a 45-yard scoring strike.

It was the first time in a while when the Steelers' passing game felt right. And it was the last time it felt that way on Sunday.

The Green Bay Packers slowly chipped away and ground down the Steelers at Lambeau Field in Week 4, hanging on to win, 27-17 on Sunday. The Packers also were the recipients of what looked like a fortuitous stroke of luck when a blocked field goal and subsequent touchdown return were taken off the board right before halftime.

But this game boiled down to the Steelers' offensive limitations, most notably with Roethlisberger and their passing game.

The touchdown throw to Johnson was Roethlisberger's 400th in the NFL. He has been a tremendous pro, a surefire Hall of Famer. But the end is nigh. It was all on display in Sunday's loss, the Steelers' third straight to fall to 1-3.

For a snapshot of the game, look no further than two second-half fourth downs the Steelers faced. On the first, with the Steelers trailing 27-10 in the third quarter, they faced a fourth-and-4 at the Green Bay 32-yard line. Roethlisberger threw behind the line for what would be a loss of 1 yard and a turnover on downs.

Ben Roethlisberger is now the only QB in the last 20 seasons to lose yardage on multiple 4th-down completions in the same season, per ESPN Stats and Info.  Brooke Pryor (@bepryor) October 3, 2021

On the second one, Pittsburgh faced a fourth-and-4 from Green Bay's 37-yard line early in the fourth quarter. Following a false start, it became fourth-and-9 from the 42. The Steelers punted, still trailing by 17.

PIT decided to punt to GB from the GB 42 on 4th & 9 with 14:24 remaining in the 4th while losing 10 to 27.



With a Surrender Index of 24.36, this punt ranks at the 98th percentile of cowardly punts of the 2021 season, and the 97th percentile of all punts since 1999.  Surrender Index (@surrender_index) October 3, 2021

Perhaps they go for it on fourth-and-4, and the Steelers ended up cutting the lead to 10 after a quick Packers three-and-out. But if that wasn't a play that showed Pittsburgh's lack of faith in Roethlisberger, we don't know what else would be.

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Everything was short all day, except for the Johnson touchdown and a few throws late when the Packers went into a prevent defense. The final stats for Big Ben  26 of 40 passing, 232 yards, one TD, one INT  don't come close to telling the story of how he played.

When Pittsburgh took shots down two scores late, it resulted in a Roethlisberger pick that essentially put a nail in their coffin for this game.

With three race cars at receiver, the Steelers averaged a paltry 5.8 yards per pass attempt at Green Bay. It hasn't been much different in recent games. Sure, the lack of quality pass protection (and run blocking, for that matter) slim down the playbook and shorten the route trees. But Mike Tomlin is at a crossroads here. Last week when asked about the possibility of a QB change, Tomlin indignantly punted on the subject. Will his response to the inevitable question be the same this week?

The Steelers have lost three straight games, and the questions over Ben Roethlisberger's performances are only growing louder. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)

The Steelers' schedule doesn't lighten up much, with the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks up next before the Week 7 bye. And at some point the Steelers must look themselves in the mirror and decided whether Roethlisberger can still be trusted.

It might not be Mason Rudolph, who has had chances to put pressure on Ben before and come up short. It might be Dwayne Haskins, who at least figures to deserve a look at some point if things keep going the way they have.

The Steelers are 1-3, and they now look lucky to have played as well as they did in the Week 1 shocker over the Buffalo Bills. Father Time has bashed through the door three straight weeks since then, and it would be a surprise if he doesn't come back again.
The Supreme Court justices returned to in-person oral arguments Monday in a day filled with big questions about how the upcoming term will work, the cases in front of the justices and the future of the court.

When Chief Justice John Roberts gaveled in the new term at 10 a.m., it marked the first time that the justices have been in the same room to hear a case in over a year-and-a-half. Justice Amy Coney Barrett was on the bench for the first time since she was confirmed last year. And Justice Brett Kavanaugh is absent after a positive COVID-19 test last week.

One of the biggest unknowns about the upcoming term was whether Justice Clarence Thomas would stop being an active participant in oral arguments as was the case before the pandemic. The justice made clear his distaste for the freewheeling argument format the court used before the pandemic, which it is largely returning to now that the justices are back in person.

But Thomas on Monday was the first justice to ask questions to a lawyer from Mississippi who argued that Tennessee is essentially stealing groundwater from Mississippi. He challenged the lawyer over the fact Tennessee's pumps do not technically cross the border, but instead draw water from an aquifer that flows between the two states.

Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas attends the ceremonial swearing-in ceremony for Amy Coney Barrett to be the U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice on the South Lawn of the White House October 26, 2020 in Washington, DC. Barrett will be hearing her first in-peron case as a Supreme Court justice Monday, while Thomas will be closely watched for how he handles questioning. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images) Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

If the case was about a lake on the border between the states, Thomas asked, "Couldn't you argue that it was technically drawing water from Mississippi," based on Mississippi's logic?

The other justices began to jump in soon after Thomas finished his questioning with similarly tough questions.

In the second case of the day, about whether a crime spree fits the definition of a single occasion or multiple occasions under the Armed Career Criminal Act, Thomas referenced Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. He wondered whether a coffee break between crimes could make the difference between a single occasion or multiple occasions.

The court went to a more structured form of argument during the pandemic to prevent confusion during teleconferences. But recently issued guidance told lawyers to prepare for a flurry of questions from justices and even instances in which the justices might "ask questions before you complete your answer to the first Justice."

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JONATHAN TURLEY: SUPREME COURT TOP CASES FOR NEW TERM ADDRESS ABORTION, 2ND AMENDMENT, SPEECH ON CAMPUS

Lawyers have two minutes at the top of their arguments to make their points uninterrupted before the free-for-all period starts. But, the guidance adds, "Once an attorneys time has expired, each Justice will have the opportunity to question that attorney individually."

The hybrid format could present some challenges with Kavanaugh working remotely because he has COVID-19.

"I doubt theyll change the format at the stage, after having clearly put thought into the structure they want," Cato Institute Director of the Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies Ilya Shapiro said. "It could be that Justice Kavanaugh will signal Chief Justice Roberts if he wants to get into the scrum, or will just shout into his speaker phone!"

Kavanaugh waited until the arguments were well underway before asking the chief justice for a chance to question the Mississippi lawyer. He asked Mississippi to answer concens that a handful of other states brought up in a brief. During the individual questioning period later in Mississippi's presentation, Kavanaugh asked a procudural question regarding how the court should handle the case if Mississippi wins on the merits.

While the cases to start the term Monday aren't the most exciting  a groundwater dispute and a question about the definition of a word in a criminal statute  the justices face what Shapiro says could a blockbuster term.

There's a major gun rights case from New York, a second high-profile school choice in three years, and an abortion case out of Mississippi that has the chance to overturn Roe v. Wade, depending on how the justices rule.

And all of this will be happening against the backdrop of calls from progressives for Justice Stephen Breyer to retire, court-packing grumblings from the left, the forthcoming report from President Biden's commission on the court, and the potential that the Senate could change hands in the 2022 midterms.

"This promises to be a bigger term than weve had the last few years," Shapiro said. "Buckle up."

Fox News' Bill Mears and Shannon Bream contributed to this report.
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden's Public Health Agency said on Monday it recommended the use of Pfizer-BioNTech's, Comirnaty vaccine against COVID-19 for children between 12-15, opting against rival Moderna's Spikevax.

The European Medicines Agency approved the use of Comirnaty in May, while Spikevax was given the nod for children over 12 in July.

"All in all, we see reason to choose the vaccine that we know the most about and that is most well-proven when it comes to vaccinating children between 12 and 15 years of age," Anders Tegnell, head of department and state epidemiologist at the Health Agency said.

The agency said there was more data about Comirnaty's use on children.

"That's why Spikevax is not recommended for the youngest age group in Sweden," the Agency said in a statement.

In September, the Agency said that children aged 12 and over would be offered a COVID vaccination starting Oct. 11.

(Reporting by Simon Johnson; Editing by Toby Chopra)
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  It wasnt 7 a.m. yet and already the line outside the police stations gates was long, with men bringing their complaints and demands for justice to Afghanistans new Taliban rulers.

Something new they immediately found: The Taliban fighters who are now the policemen dont demand bribes like police officers did under the U.S-backed government of the past 20 years.

Before, everyone was stealing our money, said Hajj Ahmad Khan, who was among those in line at the Kabul District 8 police station on a recent day. Everywhere in our villages and in government offices, everyone had their hands out, he said.

Many Afghans fear the harsh ways of the Taliban, their hard-line ideology or their severe restrictions of women's freedoms. But the movement does bring a reputation for not being corrupt, a stark contrast to the government it ousted, which was notoriously rife with bribery, embezzlement and graft.

Even residents who shudder at the potential return of punishments - such as chopping off the hands of thieves - say some security has returned to Kabul since the Taliban swept in on Aug. 15. Under the previous government, gangs of thieves had driven most people off the streets by dark. Several roads between cities are again open and have even been given the green light for travel by some international aid organizations.

Still, there are dangers. On Sunday, a bomb outside Kabuls Eid Gah mosque killed several civilians and targeted Taliban members attending a memorial service. No one took responsibility for the bombing but the rival Islamic State group has ramped up attacks against the Taliban in an IS stronghold in eastern Afghanistan.

During their last time in power in the late 1990s, the Taliban offered a trade-off: They brought a stability Afghans desperately sought and eliminated corruption, but they also imposed their harsh interpretation of Islamic law. That included punishments like the hand amputations, executions of murderers with a single bullet to the head, most often by a relative of the murder victim and all carried out in public. Religious police beat men for trimming their beards or for not attending prayers.

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In the past week, the Taliban arrested 85 alleged criminals, some accused of petty crimes, and others of murder, kidnapping and robbery, said Noor Ahmad Rabbani of the Talibans anti-crime department.

The Taliban say they will bring back their previous punishments. The only question is whether they will carry them out publicly, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, former justice minister and current official in charge of prisons, told The Associated Press.

Some punishments have already reappeared. The bodies of four men were hung from cranes in the center of the city of Herat, after being killed by Taliban while allegedly attempting a kidnapping. On at least two occasions in Kabul, petty thieves were paraded around the streets to shame them, handcuffed, with their faces painted or with stale bread stuffed in their mouths.

Gun-toting Taliban have taken up positions at checkpoints across Kabul and gradually some have been made to wear uniforms -- the beginnings of a new national security force, officials say. For many Kabul residents -- particularly the young who grew up on horror stories about the previous period of Taliban rule -- the sight of the fighters is frightening as they roam the streets freely, with their signature long hair, traditional dress and Kalashnikov rifles hanging by their sides.

But so far, they appear to have brought relief from corruption. Before the Taliban takeover in August, people had to pay bribes simply to settle a utility bill. Rampant fraud in the military was one reason it collapsed so quickly in the face of the advancing Taliban. Despite the overt graft, the U.S. and Europe poured billions of dollars into the government with little oversight.

As in the past, the Taliban have turned to tribal elders to settle disputes. Last week, a group of elders gathered in a Kabul mosque to adjudicate a stabbing attack that caused minor injuries. The elders ordered the culprit's father to pay the victim the equivalent of nearly $400, enough to cover the medical expenses.

Muhammed Yousef Jawid accepted his punishment.

Its fast, and much less expensive than it was under the previous system, he said.

At the District 8 police station, the new commander, an affable Taliban named Zabihullah, said the Taliban had fought for 20 years to bring Islamic laws to Afghanistan. "Now people are safe under our government, he said.

Zabihullah, who like many Afghans goes by one name, is from central Ghazni province, where the insurgents waged some of their most bitter battles during the last two decades.

At 32, he said he hasnt trained to be a police commander, with most of his education at a madrassa, or religious school. But Zabihullah said his years at war and adherence to the Taliban interpretation of Islamic law had prepared him.

Outside the police station gates, the line was getting longer.

Sixty-year-old Khan had come from eastern Khost province to seek Taliban help in collecting an outstanding loan. He said he supported Taliban punishments like amputations, though not for petty thieves.

He said they have brought some security because they treat the criminal under Islamic law.

A school principal, who didnt want to give his name fearing repercussions, had come to the police station to complain about parents who are months behind on school fees.

He said he wanted to give Taliban rule a chance. Under the previous government, he was charged bribes each time he went to the police to complain about delinquent payments.

America invested lots of money in Afghanistan, but it was a mafia that was running the country, he said.

Another complainant, who gave his name only as Dr. Sharif, had returned recently from Saudi Arabia where he had worked for several years. He had no objection to Taliban-style punishments but argued strenuously against putting Taliban leaders and religious clerics in charge of government departments.

We need professional people ... we need economic specialists, not a maulvi who has no idea about business, he said, using a word for a Muslim cleric.

Still, he welcomed having his complaint heard without any demand for a bribe from the Taliban police. Before, police demanded a bribe just to get into the station.

The mistake of the past governments, he said, was that they put all the money into their pockets.

___

Associated Press writer Samya Kullab in Kabul contributed to this report. Follow Gannon on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Kathygannon.
Demonstrators torched a police vehicle in India on Monday as tensions boiled over after clashes involving protesting farmers killed at least nine people.

The incident on Sunday in Uttar Pradesh state was the deadliest in more than a year of protests by farmers in northern India against new agricultural reforms.

Farmers said that a convoy belonging to a government minister, his son and the state's deputy chief minister ran over and killed four people at a demonstration.

The minister said later that a driver lost control of his vehicle after being pelted by demonstrators.

Angry protesters set fire to several cars and at least five more people, four of them supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), were killed.

On Monday, the protesters kept the bodies of the four dead farmers in glass cases for display around the protest site.

Police banned gatherings, cut off mobile internet services, sent extra forces and detained several opposition figures on their way to the scene including Priyanka Gandhi from the Congress party.

In state capital Lucknow, dozens of police detained local Congress chief Akhilesh Yadav outside his home.

Dozens of opposition supporters staged a protest in the city and set fire to at least one police vehicle, television pictures showed.

Protests organised by opposition parties also took place in New Delhi and Bangalore.

Agriculture has long been a political minefield and employs some two-thirds of India's 1.3 billion population.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government says the reforms will infuse much-needed energy and capital in the sector.

Farmers, many of whom have camped outside New Delhi for over a year, fear the changes will leave them at the mercy of big corporations.

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BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand rolled out COVID-19 vaccines to high school students for the first time on Monday, as it seeks to boost its immunisation rate ahead of a planned school reopening next month.

About 88% of high school students aged 12-18 in the capital Bangkok had signed up for the vaccine, city authorities said. Nationwide, 3.6 million of more than 5 million eligible students have registered, according to official figures.

"I want the situation to return to normal because I want to return to school," said Puwarit Chinnaburanasophon, 16.

Thailand has vaccinated about 31% of its more than 66 million people against COVID-19 and has eased many restrictions in Bangkok, where infection numbers have declined lately.

It is in a rush to boost that inoculation rate, so it can safely welcome back foreign visitors following 18 months of restrictions that contributed to the collapse of its vital tourism sector.

Following several other countries, Thailand will administer the mRNA vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech in schools.

Bangkok's governor, Aswin Kwanmuang, hopes the required two doses can be completed by the end of October.

"We have high hopes that by that time, the new cases will slow down, so students can return to school again," he said.

Student Lalita Sawatsupron said she was a little apprehensive about the vaccine.

"Today I'm getting my first Pfizer vaccine shot because I just turned 15 years old, so I'm qualified. I'm quite nervous," she said.

(Reporting by Jiraporn Kuhakan; Editing by Martin Petty and Susan Fenton)
Lightning strikes over the South Bay on Oct. 4, 2021. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

Inclement weather on Monday was posing a challenge to crews scrambling to clean the massive oil spill off the coast of Huntington Beach.

The spill, first reported Saturday morning, originated from a pipeline off the coast of Huntington Beach connected to an offshore oil platform known as Elly. By Sunday afternoon, about 126,000 gallons of crude had gushed into the water, blackening nearby beaches and soiling a 25-acre wetland known as Talbert Marsh.

Officials said lightning, rain and swelling tides could hamper cleanup efforts and create dangerous conditions for workers through at least Tuesday morning.

A lightning bolt strikes the ocean near a lifeguard tower at Bolsa Chica State Beach as a storm passes through on Monday. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)

"We are expecting a chance of thunderstorms," said Casey Oswant, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego, which oversees the Orange County area.

"If thunderstorms develop over the coastal waters or wherever they're doing their [oil spill] operation cleanup, if it's outside, they're going to have to stop operations for safety," she said.

By midday Monday, showers had already started to develop over coastal waters, with storm cells moving north from San Diego. Rain was reported in Laguna Beach, where evidence of oil washed ashore Monday.

The best chance for measurable rain in the area will be Monday afternoon into Tuesday morning, Oswant said, as a low-pressure system moves northeast from the Baja Coast and brings scattered showers, isolated thunderstorms and the potential for lightning.

The National Weather Service issued a beach hazard alert through 8 a.m. Tuesday, warning residents that thunderstorms with cloud-to-beach lightning strikes could pose a deadly risk.

Alan Reppert, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather, said in a post that the storm also could bring higher swells into the area through Tuesday.

Lightning strikes to the west as seen from Thousand Oaks. Inclement weather on Monday was posing a challenge to crews scrambling to clean up the massive oil spill off the coast of Huntington Beach. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)

"It's possible the increased swells could move the oil spill more and increase the size of it and affect any cleanup," Reppert said.

Orange County officials have requested a major disaster declaration from President Biden, which would make additional federal assistance available for state and local agencies and individuals affected by the spill.

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There's a chance of showers/storms for L.A. and Ventura Co Mon afternoon-night. As is typical with this type of showers/storms, some areas will get rain and other spots will stay dry. Keep an eye on the radar to see if you are in the path, & plan outdoor work accordingly. #socal pic.twitter.com/2F0YjYVBMQ  NWS Los Angeles (@NWSLosAngeles) October 3, 2021

The low-pressure system also will move into the Los Angeles area, where isolated thunderstorms, lightning and gusty winds are a possibility through Tuesday morning, according to the National Weather Service.

A frontal system could bring more rain into Southern California by Thursday night, while a cooling trend is expected to deliver temperatures in the high 60s and low 70s in Orange and Los Angeles counties as the week progresses.

But the biggest threat remains to crews working to protect wildlife and coastal habitats from the oil, said David Sweet, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. Storms could be dangerous for workers on boats and on the beaches, he warned.

"Gusty winds can locally produce higher seas because of winds associated with the storm," Sweet said. "On a local basis, it could affect the seas, but the main impact would be lightning."

Calling the oil spill a "tragedy on all fronts," Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley urged residents to stay off the beaches and out of the water as crews assess the damage.

Fisheries in the area were closed as investigators examine any potential effects on fish, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said.

Oil is expected to wash on shore for several days.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
By Allison Lampert and Tim Hepher

(Reuters) - U.S. aerospace manufacturers are poised to strengthen a climate target by pledging to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, echoing a commitment to be discussed by global airlines on Monday, according to industry sources and a document seen by Reuters.

The U.S. Aerospace Industries Association will commit on Monday to work with airlines and governments to achieve the target, joining a growing aviation industry consensus that also includes airports, according to the sources.

AIA was not immediately available for comment.

Global airlines are expected to vote on a similar proposal at the annual meeting of the International Air Transport Association in Boston on Monday.

A broader aviation industry lobby, the Air Transport Action Group, is also expected to sign up later this week.

The target replaces a previous goal of halving net emissions by 2050 from 2005 levels, which was intended to mirror the Paris climate agreement to limit global temperature increases this century to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

A U.N. report this year said there was now a 40% chance that global temperatures would temporarily reach 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in the next five years.

Environmental groups say the emerging net-zero 2050 target does not go far enough and must be enforced by government action. Aviation accounts for some 3% of global emissions.

"Aviation won't get to net zero by 2050 unless it accepts binding climate laws set at national level," said Andrew Murphy, aviation director at Brussels-based Transport & Environment.

The commitment includes commercial aviation manufacturers such as planemaker Boeing Co and suppliers Honeywell International and Spirit AeroSystems.

European planemaker Airbus has already said it would back the 2050 target.

Boeing referred questions on the goal to AIA and ATAG.

To help meet the new target, manufacturers have pledged to expand their investments in a new generation of technology for more efficient planes, such as hybrid jet engines expected to enter service during the next decade, the sources said.

Airlines, airports and aerospace manufacturers are pressing for government support for increasing production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) needed to reach the targets.

(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and Tim Hepher in Boston; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Brexit minister has drawn up proposals to permanently replace the Northern Ireland Protocol, a part of the Brexit divorce deal, and the government will make a decision by the end of next month, British newspapers reported.

Ministers are also due to make a decision by the end of next month on whether to suspend the Northern Ireland Brexit deal unilaterally, The Times reported.

Brexit minister David Frost has drawn up proposals to permanently replace the protocol and will say on Monday that "we cannot wait forever", The Telegraph reported.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Michael Holden)
Abortion, gun rights, religious freedoms and potentially race: the US Supreme Court begins a new term Monday with blockbuster cases on its docket that could spotlight the influence of conservative justices chosen by Donald Trump.

For the first time in 18 months, the court's justices will be back on the bench in person -- although one member, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, recently tested positive for Covid-19 and will participate remotely.

Kavanaugh is one of the three justices confirmed to the court during Republican Trump's four-year presidency, which shifted the court to a solidly conservative 6-3 majority.

Last year, this reorganized court asserted its independence, however, notably rejecting Trump's crusade to invalidate the 2020 election results that saw him defeated by Joe Biden.

But in such "shadow" cases -- the nickname for expedited rulings that are not debated in public -- the court has begun a rightward tilt, highlighted by its September 1 decision to not block a Texas law that bans almost all abortions in the state.

The ruling enraged Democrats, including President Biden, and renewed calls for Supreme Court reforms that are being considered by a presidential commission studying options including adding seats to the bench.

More broadly, public frustration with the court has grown: only 40 percent of Americans now say they appreciate its work, compared to 49 percent in July, while 37 percent of respondents consider it "too conservative," according to a Gallup poll.

In a sign of the tumult, abortion rights defenders protested outside Kavanaugh's home, and on Saturday thousands of people converged on the Supreme Court -- and in cities across America -- proclaiming abortion as a personal choice and not a legal debate.

- 'Partisan hacks' -

To calm the waters, the justices have gone to great lengths recently to convince the public of their impartiality.

"This court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks," Amy Coney Barrett, the justice who succeeded the late liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg, said in a speech to students in Kentucky.

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Critics were quick to note that her remarks were made in the presence of top Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, who presided over Barrett's hasty confirmation near the end of the 2020 presidential campaign.

Beyond the speeches, the 2021-2022 session "will prove to be a real test whether or not the Supreme Court can rise above the partisan divide," said David Cole, national legal director for civil liberties defender ACLU.

On the courts agenda? Essentially the key social issues that most divide Americans, starting with the sensitive subject of abortion.

Beginning December 1, the justices will consider a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The law's supporters see the case as an opportunity to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision which established the constitutional guarantee of abortion rights.

During his 2016 campaign, "Donald Trump promised to appoint justices who would overrule Roe versus Wade," Amy Howe, editor of the court-focused website SCOTUSblog, recalled recently.

With his appointment of justices Neil Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett, "now is the time to see whether or not that promise will come true," she said during a talk at Washington think tank the Cato Institute.

- 'Juicy cases' -

Another explosive issue on tap is the carrying of firearms. Until now, the court has held that Americans have a constitutional right to bear arms at home for self-defense, but it has said nothing about how much protection the Second Amendment affords people who carry a concealed firearm in public.

That may change when the court reviews a New York law that strictly limits concealed carry licensing.

It will also consider the limits imposed on funding of faith-based schools.

The current court "is very, very sympathetic and sensitive to religious freedom," Cole said.

Several death row cases are also up for consideration. And it remains possible the court will address the perennially sensitive issue of race, by taking up a challenge to universities' affirmative action policies, which are roundly criticized by conservatives.

With all these "juicy cases," said Howe, "the real question is not whether or not the court is going to continue to shift to the right, but how far it will shift to the right."

chp-mlm/mdl
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Monday implored people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, calling it the only way to stop the virus' spread, as Russian authorities mulled reintroducing health restrictions to cope with daily cases rising to their highest levels since January.

Moscow may soon bring back incentives such as prize drawings for people to get vaccinated, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said, as authorities struggle to contain a wave of cases and deaths. The 25,781 new infections reported nationwide on Monday was the most since Jan. 2.

"The vaccination rate, despite the complete preparedness of all infrastructure, leaves much to be desired," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

Vaccine hesitancy has hampered Russia's inoculation drive. Russians often cite a general fear of new medical products and distrust of the authorities as their reason for refusing the vaccination.

Authorities relaxed many restrictions after Russia overcame the worst of a third wave of the virus in the summer, but the daily number of coronavirus-related deaths, which stood at 883 on Monday, has remained high and regularly reaches a record single-day rise.

Now, with cases also rising sharply, which Sobyanin said was a cause for concern, restrictions look set to return, although multiple officials have said that lockdowns are not being considered.

Some regions are planning to force people to show proof of vaccination, a recent negative test, or evidence of immunity before visiting places like cinemas and gyms.

The regional government in Kaliningrad, Russia's European exclave, said on Monday that measure would extend to restaurants and cafes from Oct. 8.

Mass events of more than 3,000 people are banned across the country, said Anna Popova, head of consumer health regulator Rospotrebnadzor. Events of more than 1,000 people are permitted in just two of Russia's more than 80 regions, she said.

(Reporting by Alexander Marrow, Dmitry Antonov and Gleb Stolyarov; Editing by Mark Porter)
The couple hopes their heartbreak will encourage others to get vaccinated.

A 10-year-old Virginia girl has died of COVID-19 days after she started feeling sick.

The parents of Teresa Sperry thought she had a simple headache on Sept. 22. By Sunday, she was in the emergency room, coughing and vomiting. The fifth-grader had no underlying conditions, according to the couple. But on Sept. 27, she stopped breathing and died, PEOPLE reported.

Teresa Sperry via YouTube screenshot

Her parents Nicole and Jeff Sperry, as well as their two older sons, are vaccinated against COVID-19, but Teresa was too young for the jab, as is her 9-year-old brother, according to the report.

We thought it was just a simple headache, Nicole told CNN. I get headaches; migraines run in our family. We gave her medicine and she felt better. The next day, when she came home from school, she passed out, she went straight to bed, and she doesnt do that. She hasnt wanted to take a nap in a long time.

Nicole said her daughter was healthy and strong, and the virus took her down in five days, Jeff added. If it can take her, it can take anybody.

Teresa was a very caring and thoughtful person, Nicole said.

It upset me so much that people just are so nonchalant about it while my only girl is gone.



The parents of a 10-year-old who recently died of Covid-19 have a message for others.



It took her in less than five days. If it can take her, it can take anybody. pic.twitter.com/bqRVdrXv5B  CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) October 2, 2021

[I] always said that she was my mini-me. When she was born, she came out looking exactly like me, Nicole said. None of my boys look like me. She had my same personality, my same smile. She made a point to make sure to make friends with everybody. She would wave and say hi to random people; compliment them on their hair, or their shirt. She just always thought of others.

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The couples school board held a meeting on the evening Teresa died where there were people there that said, COVID is over, that it doesnt affect healthy people, that it doesnt kill healthy people, that we could basically get on with our lives, said Nicole.

If it was over, my daughter would still be here. We wouldnt be doing these interviews. We wouldnt be preparing for her funeral. And it upset me so much that people just are so nonchalant about it. While my only girl is gone, she continued. Its not fair.

The couple hopes their heartbreak will encourage others to get vaccinated.

The only way this makes sense is for her to save people, Jeff said. I dont want other people to have to do what were doing right now.

Nicole attributed her daughters death to selfish people not following COVID precautions, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

My beautiful girl was taken from me because people are too damn selfish to care about what could happen to others, she wrote on Facebook. Want to know what you can do to honor my lovely girl? Wear a damn mask! Get vaccinated!

The Suffolk Public Schools released the following statement on Twitter:

A message from Suffolk Public Schools: pic.twitter.com/Mr51tvWS6P  Suffolk Public Schools (@SufVAschools) September 30, 2021

Suffolk Public Schools is heartbroken due to the tragic loss of one of our students, Teresa Sperry. It is our intention to support the family, the school, and our entire school communinity during this very difficult time. We will continue to follow our mitigation strategies of wearing masks, washing hands, and practicing social distancing. The school division also encourages vaccinations of both staff and students (if they are eligible).



Suffolk Public Schools will continue to follow the guidance from the Center for Disease Control with support from the Western Tidewater Health District.

The district reportedly requires masks for all students and staff.

The Sperrys have a message for the unvaxxed.

Get a vaccine if you can, if you are medically able to get one. Wear a mask, wear it properly, have care and a compassion for other people. We have had that compassion over the last year, Nicole Sperry said.

When I think of her, I think of someone who was caring. She had a heart for everybody. Like if she saw somebody sad, or if she saw someone who needed a friend, she was there, said Nicole Sperry. Its not fair. A lot of people should have been able to get to know her and become a better person because of her.

A Paypal account has been set up to help with the Sperry family expenses.

Have you subscribed to theGrios Dear Culture podcast? Download our newest episodes now! TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Roku. Download theGrio.com today!

The post Virginia parents mourn daughter, 10, who died from COVID-19 appeared first on TheGrio.
(Bloomberg) -- Senator Elizabeth Warren called on the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether stock transactions by top Federal Reserve officials violated insider trading rules.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The reports of this financial activity by Fed officials raise serious questions about possible conflicts of interest and reveal a disregard for the public trust, the Massachusetts Democrat wrote in a letter to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler. They also reflect atrocious judgement by these officials, and an attitude that personal profiteering is more important than the American peoples confidence in the Fed.

Warren cited a Bloomberg News report on Friday that Fed Vice Chair Richard Claridas 2020 financial disclosures show he traded between $1 million and $5 million out of a bond fund into stock funds one day before Chair Jerome Powell issued a statement flagging possible policy action as the pandemic worsened. Two regional Fed chiefs recently announced their departures following revelations about their trading activity last year.

An SEC spokeswoman declined to comment on Warrens letter, as did a Fed spokeswoman.

Speaking on Claridas behalf, a Fed spokesman said in an Oct. 1 statement that the transactions, which were released in mid-May, were a pre-planned rebalancing to his accounts, similar to a rebalancing he did and reported in April 2019 and were executed prior to his involvement in deliberations on Federal Reserve actions to respond to the emergence of the coronavirus and not during a blackout period.

Late February 2020 was a time of extreme moves in financial markets as investors encountered the threat of the pandemic spreading across the U.S. In the six days leading up to Feb. 27, the S&P 500 index fell more than 10% from a then-record high. At the same, time the bond markets were in a powerful rally with yields on U.S. 2-year notes plunging as traders began to anticipate a rate cut from the Fed.

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There is no justifiable ethics or financial rationale for him or any other government official to be involved in these questionable market machinations while having access to non-public information and authority over decisions that have extraordinary impacts on markets and the economy, Warren said.

Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan and Bostons Eric Rosengren announced Sept. 27 that they were stepping down after their trading activity last year drew scrutiny. Rosengren cited a long-standing and worsening health condition in explaining his early retirement.

Kaplan disclosed multiple trades of over $1 million during 2020. Rosengren transacted in real estate investment trusts, including some that invested in mortgage-securities that the Fed started buying in 2020, which also raised questions.

The Fed spells out clear guidelines for trading activity by policy makers. Its Voluntary Guide to Conduct for Senior Officials says they should carefully avoid engaging in any financial transaction the timing of which could create the appearance of acting on inside information concerning Federal Reserve deliberations and actions.

Powell has announced a review of the policies with the intention of tightening them. He said at a press conference last month that existing guidelines are not adequate to the task of sustaining the publics trust.

(Updates with Fed no comment in fourth paragraph.)

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2021 Bloomberg L.P.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren is asking the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate Federal Reserve officials' personal trades.

The Massachusetts Democrat asked SEC Chairman Gary Gensler to look into ethically questionable transactions that she says might have violated insider trading rules in a Monday letter. The transactions in question were executed last year, and Warren asserted that they may have been conflicts of interest at best and criminal at worst.

Disclosures revealed that Robert Kaplan, who was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, made several stock trades last year that were valued at more than $1 million. Additionally, Eric Rosengren, who was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, bought and sold real estate investment trust shares.

Both Kaplan and Rosengren announced their retirements on the same day last week  Kaplan cited the controversy in stepping down, while Rosengren said that he decided to retire in light of long-running kidney issues.

WARREN OPPOSES RENOMINATION OF POWELL AS FED CHAIRMAN, CALLING HIM A DANGEROUS MAN

Also last week, Bloomberg revealed that Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida traded between $1 million and $5 million from a bond fund into stock funds just a day before Fed Chairman Jerome Powell hinted that the central bank might need to use its policy tools to intervene should the pandemic grow worse.

Warren said the trading activity of the three men reflects atrocious judgment. She excoriated them for exhibiting an attitude that personal profiteering is more important than U.S. confidence in the Fed.

Finally, and most importantly from the perspective of the SEC, if these trades were based on Fed officials knowledge of non-public, market moving information, they may have represented potentially illegal activity, she wrote.

Warren mused that it is not clear why Powell didnt stop the trades and cited Fed guidelines that dictate officials should avoid any dealings or other conduct that might convey even an appearance of conflict between their personal interests, the interests of the System, and the public interest.

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Powell was asked about Kaplan and Rosengrens trading activity during a news conference last month. The chairman told reporters that he was unaware of the mens 2020 transactions until they began to be reported in the media last month.

In terms of having confidence and that sort of thing, I think no one is happy. No one on the [Federal Open Market Committee] is happy to have these questions raised, Powell said.

In her letter to Gensler, Warren specifically requested that the SEC examine the extent of trading activity by high-level Fed officials, the timing and rationale for the mens trades, the extent to which the trades may have been influenced by nonpublic central bank information, and whether they violated government provisions.

Warren said that all federal officials have a responsibility under existing law to address corrupt and illegal behavior within their jurisdiction."

The SEC can do its part by undertaking a sweeping review of all securities trades by Federal Reserve officials to determine if they may have violated insider trading laws, she said.

Both Kaplan and Rosengren denied any ethical wrongdoing on their parts, and Clarida, through a spokesperson, also denied any impropriety. The spokesperson said that his disclosures represent a pre-planned rebalancing to his accounts.

The transactions were executed prior to his involvement in deliberations on Federal Reserve actions to respond to the emergence of the coronavirus and not during a blackout period, the spokesperson said. The selected funds were chosen with the prior approval of the Boards ethics official.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

The SEC and Federal Reserve declined to comment about Warrens letter when contacted by the Washington Examiner.

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Tags: News, Elizabeth Warren, SEC, Federal Reserve, Investigation, Coronavirus, Congress

Original Author: Zachary Halaschak

Original Location: Warren calls for SEC investigation into Fed officials after controversial trades
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Biden administration is in private communication over Chinese actions with regard to Taiwan, the White House said on Monday, after Taiwan's defense ministry reported that China's air force had sent aircraft into its air defense zone.

"We are also in touch privately, conveying clear messages through diplomatic channels, and that's probably the appropriate place for those, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Leslie Adler)
Star Trek actor William Shatner is due to fly to space, aerospace company Blue Origin has confirmed.

Shatner played Captain James T Kirk of the USS Enterprise in the beloved sci-fi franchise.

The actor will join Audrey Powers, Blue Origins Vice President of Mission and Flight Operations, on board the vessel New Shepard NS-18.

Crewmates Chris Bozsuhizen and Glen de Vries will also be aboard the flight, which lifts off from Launch Site One in West Texas on 12 October.

At age 90, Shatner will be the oldest person to fly to space.

Speaking to Blue Origin about the flight, the actor said: Ive heard about space for a long time now. Im taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle.

Shatner is currently the host and executive producer of The UnXplained, a non-fiction series on The History Channel that explores the worlds inexplicable mysteries.

There will be live coverage of the launch available to watch on BlueOrigin.com 90 minutes prior to take-off.

Liftoff is currently targeted for 1.30pm (UTC) / 2.30pm (BST).

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The Dayton Ohio university says that the plaza is a physical representation of their commitment to support and foster a more inclusive environment

Wright State University unveiled a new plaza on its campus to honor Black fraternities and sororities on Saturday afternoon.

The public university located in Dayton, Ohio, said that the plaza will be named the National Pan-Hellenic Council Memorial Plots, and will feature concrete circles with gold medallions of each of the historically Black fraternities and sororities.

The NCAA Division I school said in a statement that the plaza is a visual reminder of its commitment to foster a more inclusive environment and present more education and culture opportunities for its students.

Wright State held a groundbreaking ceremony for 9 National Pan-Hellenic Council Memorial Plots that celebrate historically Black fraternities and sororities pic.twitter.com/ajdbK8lceu  Wright State News (@WrightStateNews) June 1, 2021

The university is a predominantly white institution (PWI), with students people of color making up less than 22% of the student body.

Adrian Williams, a member of Kappa Alpha Psi and former president of the student body, said that plaza has established a safe space for Black students.

Having this space means more to us than any of you may ever know, said Williams, who was one of the students that worked to get the memorial created. And I look forward to bringing my kids one back to campus one day, many years, down, down the line and showing them this project, I had a role in building and showing them my legacy.

The plaza is located near the Turning Points sculpture and outside University Hall.

Black fraternities and sororities were created throughout the early twentieth century as organizations to foster bonds, support service missions, increase professional development and create safe spaces for African Americans, who were struggling from the crippling effects of post-slavery Jim Crow laws.

Story continues

The National Pan-Hellenic Council, known as the Divine 9, was founded in 1930 at Howard University as the umbrella organization to house these fraternal organizations.

The fraternities and sororities that make up the Divine 9 include Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Omega Psi Phi, Delta Sigma Theta, Phi Beta Sigma, Zeta Phi Beta, Sigma Gamma Rho and Iota Phi Theta.

While the Civil Rights movement and subsequent laws helped to integrate institutions of higher learning and end racist laws, the Divine 9 still remain as sanctuaries for Black students today, particularly at PWIs.

All of the NPHC fraternities and sororities have had a strong history and presence at Wright State.

These organizations were founded to promote academic excellence, social excellence, social justice initiatives, said Williams about the Divine 9, in May 2021 when the university first broke ground on the plots. The purpose of the plots is to honor the history of each organization and NPHC as a whole and provide a gathering spot for both current members and alumni.

Organized through the NPHC and other Black student organizations, the school collected donations for the plaza for a year. According to the school, Wright-Patt Credit Union, the Wright State Alumni Association and the Wright State African American Alumni Society donated a total of $20,500 to the cause.

President of the school, Sue Edwards, said the student involvement made the event special and that their hard work with the universitys team is the reason the plaza came to fruition.

Renderings of the National Pan-Hellenic Council Memorial Plots at Wright State, that will commemorate all nine historically Black sororities and fraternities. (PhotoCred: Wright State)

Wright State NPHC President and member of Sigma Gamma Rho, DaiShanae Moore, said that the physical representation will help their minority students feel like they have a community.

It was more of a wanting to be visible, but also wanting to show that we do have a type of community here for our minority students who are here because even though we have a small percentage, its still something better than nothing, Moore said.

Wright State alumni and member of Iowa Phi Theta, Onome Scott-Emuakpor, who also attended the event said that the plaza is nice gesture but the university still has a long way to go to show they respect the NPHC.

I am truly appreciative of whats going on here in the ceremony, this plot, but let us not be distracted by shiny objects, guys, he said. We all need to understand, or we all need to help these institutions, understand the difference between being treated equally and being treated fairly.

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The post Wright State installs plaza in honor of Black fraternities and sororities appeared first on TheGrio.
Former presidential and New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang announced Monday he has changed his voter registration, making official his break with the Democratic Party.

Ive been a Democrat my entire adult life, Yang wrote in a blog post explaining his decision. And yet, Im confident that no longer being a Democrat is the right thing.

Yang said he had first joined the Democratic Party in the 1990s in support of President Bill Clintons reelection bid. Yang wrote that doing so was a no-brainer to me at the time but said that he felt it was something of an odd fit between me and the Democratic Party.

Breaking up with the Democratic Party feels like the right thing to do because I believe I can have a greater impact this way, he wrote. Am I right? Lets find out. Together.

POLITICO reported early last month that Yang plans to form a third party following his experiences running as a Democrat and what he sees as the failures of both major political parties to address the needs of Americans.

Yang is set to release a book titled, Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy later this week. His nascent third party will carry a similar name, the Forward Party, according to several reports based on his book.

Yang said that his new focus is on promoting adoption of open primaries and ranked-choice voting, which New York City and several other cities have instituted in recent years. He said he believes those reforms would give voters more genuine choice and our system more dynamism.

Still, he said that he is not urging others to follow his lead in switching their party registration given that it could lock people out from participating in partisan primaries in many areas.

Yang first gained attention early in the 2020 Democratic primary campaign for making universal basic income his signature issue, as well as a smattering of other heterogeneous positions. He then sought to use the national media attention he garnered during that race to springboard into contention in the New York City mayoral race, and even became a frontrunner for a time before fizzling out and finishing fourth in the Democratic primary.
(Reuters) - New York State's largest healthcare provider, Northwell Health, has fired 1,400 employees who refused to get COVID-19 vaccinations, according to a spokesman, Joe Kemp.

As with other healthcare companies that have recently terminated workers for not complying with vaccine mandates, the fired employees represent a small percentage of Northwell's workforce of more than 76,000, all of whom are now inoculated.

New York's vaccination mandate for healthcare workers went into effect last week. Several other states, including California, have imposed similar measures.

Officials have credited the requirements with increasing the rate of vaccination, though a small number of employees have decided they would rather lose their jobs than get shots https://www.reuters.com/world/us/few-skeptical-us-hospital-workers-choose-dismissal-over-vaccine-2021-10-03.

Northwell announced its vaccine mandate in August, weeks before the state requirement. The company's mandate extended to both clinical and non-clinical workers.

"Our goal was not to terminate employees," Kemp said. "Our goal was to get people vaccinated."

Kemp said the terminations will have no impact on patient care at Northwell's 23 hospitals and other facilities.

"Northwell regrets losing any employee under such circumstances," the company said in a statement. "We owe it to our staff, our patients and the communities we serve to be 100 percent vaccinated against COVID-19."

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
Japan's Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako have attended via video link an event that promotes the conservation of marine resources and the environment.

The 40th annual event was held on Sunday in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, after a one-year postponement due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The city was one of the areas hardest-hit by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake that triggered massive tsunami.

The Emperor said it is significant that the event is being held in a city that has overcome the disaster.

He also said he deeply respects the relentless efforts of the people of the region and the hard work of those involved in the reconstruction.

The Emperor expressed hope that the activities of people engaged in improving the marine environment will further develop with support from many others.

Local fishery workers pledged to aim for a sustainable fishery industry that will be able to withstand environmental changes so that they can pass it on to the next generation.

After the ceremony, the Emperor and Empress talked with people who experienced the 2011 disaster.
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Joe Manchin continues down the path of opposing voting-rights bills that arent bipartisan. Photo: Samuel Corum/Getty Images

Right now, voting rights in America are subject to a condition of partisan gridlock in Washington that preserves Republicans ability to wreak havoc on voting and election laws in the states they control. So long as centrist Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema refuse to consider a carve-out for voting-rights legislation to liberate it from the Senate filibuster, thats where things will stand at least through the 2022 elections, in which the GOP has a very good shot at busting up the current Democratic trifecta.

The Manchin-Sinema position is that voting-rights protections must be enacted by a bipartisan coalition to instill confidence in the system given the Trump-induced mistrust that metastasized during and after the 2020 elections, inspiring the attempted and ongoing MAGA coup to challenge or overturn the results. The central question now is what happens when (its no longer really a matter of if) it becomes unmistakably clear that Republicans wont cooperate with compromise efforts like those in which Manchin has engaged twice this year.

At the invaluable Election Law Blog, Ohio State University professor Ned Foley answers the question by suggesting Democrats might just want to let the GOP do its worst for a while, assuming the worst doesnt fall below some hypothetical floor of minimal conditions necessary for an election to qualify as being small-d democratic. His basic argument provides sort of a theoretical underpinning for Manchins reflexive belief (sincere or merely tactical, given the very red political coloration of his state) that election reforms that arent bipartisan simply arent worth enacting.

Before critiquing Foleys take, I will emphasize that his counsel of strategic surrender for Democrats is contingent, not absolute: If Republicans violate the hypothetical floor that Foley discusses but does not define, then he says Democrats have no choice but to override GOP voter-suppression measures if they can, even if such partisan action exacerbates the GOPs electoral McCarthyism (his term for the Big Lie ideology of pervasive but never documented voter fraud claims).

But Foley pretty clearly thinks that what Republicans are doing in states like Georgia and Texas isnt so very bad, and concentrates his argument on the importance of keeping Republicans from falling into an authoritarian pit forever:

[W]hen as now the especially dangerous and distinctive paranoid conditions of electoral McCarthyism have taken root, and are growing, it seems as if that kind of one-party imposition of its electoral policy preference upon the other party that suffers from the paranoia of electoral McCarthyism has the potential of being extremely counterproductive. Indeed, it risks propelling forward the possibility of a reaction that would cause the society to fall below the floor of whats essential for small-d democracy, thereby bringing out the circumstance that is exactly desired to be avoided.

Its less obvious how Foley (or Manchin) would ameliorate electoral McCarthyism, other than this very wishful thinking:

Might it not be a smarter strategy to let Republicans write the rules for upcoming elections (as long as they remain within the realm of adequacy in terms of casting and counting votes), and then be able to say to them after they have lost, Hey, we conducted the process exactly how you wanted it; what possibly gives you a basis for complaining with the result just because you lost?

There are two pretty big and obvious problems with this surrender strategy. The first is the most obvious: What if Republicans dont lose in 2022 or 2024? If they win, they may very well be convinced that making it harder for their enemies to vote saved them, and ask for more helpings of the same satisfying meal. They will, moreover, have the power to do just that in more states, and to thwart Democratic voting-rights efforts in Washington for the foreseeable future. A Democratic surrender on voting rights that produces defeat would be accurately viewed as a betrayal of the loyal minority constituencies that lifted Democrats to victory in 2020.

The second flaw in the surrender strategy is it relies on the premise there is some silver bullet that will slay the Big Lie; that there is a single item feeding Republican mistrust of the electoral system that can be disproved by letting them indulge their malign fantasies. There really isnt.

Yes, some Republican base voters believe without evidence that there is currently rampant voter fraud that can be prevented with greater vigilance. Others think voting by mail is inherently corrupt; since it hasnt been outlawed anywhere, wouldnt reestablishing the traditional Election Day  part of the lost America Donald Trump promised to restore  be an important agenda item to be pursued with renewed vigor? Still others think the problem is easily herded minority voters who want to vote themselves government benefits (the heart of Mitt Romneys famous 47 percent remark); they might favor a return to literacy tests or polls taxes. Some constitutional conservatives reject any electoral outcomes that undermine natural rights (e.g., to property or to fetal personhood) that they regard as having been established by the Founders and God Almighty. They arent going to wake up and recommit to small-d democracy.

And then you have the people who exist in both political parties, and indeed every political party from the beginning of time, who dont bother with theories or evidence or rights at all and simply favor whatever electoral arrangements improve their chances of victory. What makes todays Republicans distinctive in that respect is that their leader, the 45th president of the United States, exemplifies that attitude as much as Jesus Christ exemplified the Golden Rule. Indeed, winning at any cost is Donald Trumps Golden Rule.

Even in the more reasonable precincts of the Republican Party, among people who dont promote the Big Lie and all but visibly roll their eyes at Trumps excesses, there is currently an iron and nearly universal opposition to the enhancement of any federally established voting rights, even those (most notably those protected by the Voting Rights Act of 1965) that their own party accepted and even celebrated until the U.S. Supreme Court began tearing them apart in recent years. So even if Foley is right and the current passion for vitiating voting rights at the state level burns itself out, does that mean bipartisan support for establishing a durable national floor for voting rights via federal legislation will magically return? Theres no reason to think so.

Its regrettable that purely partisan avenues are the only ones available to Democrats right now on this and so many other crucial questions. And yes, wherever possible, Democrats should exhibit reasonableness unilaterally as the sole custodians of small-d democracy. A voting-rights bill imposed by a filibuster carve-out or (even less likely) budget reconciliation need not include every conceivable or advisable reform, so as to enable Republican claims of a power grab. Restoring the Voting Rights Act to its original dimensions might be enough, along with modest measures to clarify how post-election challenges work so the courts dont have to litigate them endlessly.

But if todays wave of voter suppression in the States grows worse next year and after the midterms, the folly of Manchinism will become more evident than ever. You cannot restore bipartisanship, on voting rights or anything else of significance, by giving power to your extremist opponents in hopes they will come to their senses or become glutted with too much winning.
Campaign flyers for Czech prime minister Andrej Babis, who secretly paid $22 million for a French villa using offshore shell companies, according to the Pandora Papers. He faces parliamentary elections on October 7 and 8. Photo: Gabriel Kuchta/Getty Images

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has obtained and released what it calls the most expansive leak of tax haven files in history  nearly 12 million confidential documents, including contracts, emails, and spreadsheets, that detail offshore holdings and transactions. The leak, dubbed the Pandora Papers, exposes more than twice as many account holders and public officials as the ICIJs Panama Papers project did in 2016, and is thus likely to shine an even wider spotlight on the shadowy financial tactics of the worlds wealthy and powerful elite.

The new leak is comprised of almost three terabytes of data from 14 offshore services firms operating in various countries, mostly spanning the last three decades, and overall related to 27,000 companies and 29,000 offshore accounts. The leak exposes the accounts and financial dealings of 130 billionaires from around the globe, including 46 Russian oligarchs; 14 current heads of state and 21 former heads of state; numerous known criminals; and a range of other people including athletes, celebrities, and more.

More than 600 journalists from 150 news organizations in 117 countries, including at the Washington Post, Guardian, and BBC Panorama, have been working for months to unpack the leaked data. The ICIJ says the project is the broadest collaboration in journalism history.

As with the Panama Papers, the leak mostly exposes the dealings of people outside the U.S. But as the Washington Post notes, the data does reveal how some states have become offshore havens for foreigners:

Perhaps the most troubling revelations for the United States, however, center on its expanding complicity in the offshore economy. South Dakota, Nevada, and other states have adopted financial secrecy laws that rival those of offshore jurisdictions. Records show leaders of foreign governments, their relatives and companies moving their private fortunes into U.S.-based trusts.

A total of 81 trusts held in South Dakota are part of the leak:

The files provide substantial new evidence  that South Dakota now rivals notoriously opaque jurisdictions in Europe and the Caribbean in financial secrecy. Tens of millions of dollars from outside the United States are now sheltered by trust companies in Sioux Falls, some of it tied to people and companies accused of human rights abuses and other wrongdoing.

Among the world leaders and major public figures whose offshore holdings and dealings were included in the leak:
She says that because she's famous people just looooved meeting her: In virtually every room I entered . . . they were all atwitter just to meet me.



bold statement considering most of us couldnt tell you apart from the average midwestern karen soccer mom

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Mte. She's out of her damn mind

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Unfortunately this is false lol. She's a cunt for sure, but she was one of the most famous people in the US until around the time she left the TODAY Show.

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i guess to you but ive never seen an episode of the today show in my life

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Yep, she came into my job once like 10 years ago and I immediately recognized her and I never watch the today show.

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Nah. She was insanely recognizable.

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A female producer told her she had been sexually harassed by Matt Lauer and Katie didn't do shit. Ann Curry, however, reported another woman's complaint immediately.



WOW. Love Ann Curry and she was done so dirty by the Today Show from what I remember.

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yeah, Katie got this splashy goodbye and she barely got a damn thing. IIRC only Al was really sweet about it/to her then too.

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NBC did her so fucking dirty, she got the last laugh and Im happy the amount of love she got on the internet the day Matt Lauer was fired.

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How she was treated makes a lot of sense in retrospect.

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I dont' even remember why she was booted and treated so poorly but I remember it making me so angry.



When I was little, I used to get up early to watch the before-Today morning segment she did. Her voice was so soothing!

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What in the Pompeo?!





Like it truly takes white audacity to not only act like this but get away with it and then REVEAL IT ON YOUR OWN ACCORD. And defending fuck MATT?! it's interesting to see someone lay it out all like this but JFC. My childhood self, who loved the 4some at Today, would be crushed but the adult self is annoyed, surprised and angered.



In other news, God bless Anne and Diane and Deborah and Ashleigh

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I lived for catching Katie, Matt, Ann and Al on Today right before leaving for school in the 90s. It was like GMA, who?

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Yeah, same. My house was a 'today' house and they were SUCH a part of my morning routine growing up, just seeing them all together as I would wait to get either dropped off to school or walk there myself with a cousin (when in california) so this is sad.



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LOL reaction bc what in the Pompeo, not at anything else- I totally agree with you!

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Does she not have any friends who pre-read this thing and thought to tell her, "Maybe the world doesn't need your memoir?"

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I mean, does she sound like someone who can keep a friend who doesnt just watch and cackle?

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Sounds like Katie needs to join ONTD

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She has been working on her memoir for the last two years and reportedly contacted people from her past, asking them to recount memories and moments from her career.



However, now is is allegedly outreaching to these individuals and attempting to clear the air ahead of the novel's release.



'She has been calling friends telling them she's a good person and telling them that her publisher told her to add all the gossip in order to sell more books,' the former TV colleague said.



'But she has more money than any of us could ever need. This isn't about selling books.'



https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10053665/Katie-Couric-slammed-scorched-earth-memoir-accused-book-cry-relevance.html From the Daily Mail:

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everything was taken out of context and she was misquoted!!

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I love Ann Curry and anyone who makes her sad is my enemy.

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Katie Couric publishing her own burn book in true mean girl fashion. She sucks.

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Loving this trend of yt women voluntary telling on themselves tbh.

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would love it more if they actually faced consequences but still enjoying them making asses of themselves.

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Which user will defend Katie is the real question. Who drew the short straw today???

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Wheres that Jeremy Renner stan, Im sure theyre shitty enough

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my notepad is ready 

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Hahahaha, merry Christmas to me

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At NBC, the men had a secret office called "The Bunker" where they would go to have sex with women. The general rule at the time was, Its none of your business. A dont-ask-dont-tell culture where anything goes, and everything did.



what the actually fuck???



for some reason i thought after matt lauer was fired, that nbc was going to be investigated but i guess not.

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NBC was the network that shut down ronan farrow's story on weinstein. ronan believes that they killed the story because weinstein knew about the allegations against lauer and would spill if they ran the story. a lot of the nbc news execs were eventually fired, but i think all the investigations were done internally so we know what that means

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disgusting

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When Diane Sawyer landed an exclusive that Katie wanted, she said, "I wonder who she had to blow to get that.



i'll be honest, i clutched my pearls reading that

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I GASPED

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It's giving Wynona Ryder in Black Swan

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How far up your own ass do you have to be to willingly tell on yourself like this?

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first ellen pompeo, and now katie couric! which white woman is next?



Edited at 2021-10-04 01:12 am (UTC)

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Im starting to think that hex worked

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Mercury retrograde is revealing all the fucked up people!

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kelly ripa



fire-elmo.gif

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maybe mayim bialik? she show her ass the other day lol.

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she already has by being a zionist anti vaxxer POS tbh



Edited at 2021-10-05 06:15 am (UTC)

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hopefully some day jennifer lawrence, her down to earth, clumsy next door girl persona is so fake.

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Well dam she seemed nice 

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Katie, after she's fooled us all for decades:

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Nah she's had a shit reputation forever.

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see this is interesting to learn because I definitely didn't know and, arguably, she leveraged the idea of most people not knowing that to proper herself up this long. So damn strange

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After her husband died she did this really awkward thing where she flirted with every non-attached man she interviewed. It made a lot of them uncomfortable.

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She also cheated on her husband with a man 17 years younger than her. Even her kids were pissed.

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Holy shit

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holy crepe

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She did?

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General Hospital

Days of Our Lives

The Young and the Restless

The Bold and the Beautiful

This Week in Soaps history...

October 2-6, 2017

This week on the US Daytime Soaps...CBS hasn't posted B&B's promo yet and I don't want to wait for it anymore. Here's a few spoilers/preview for the week...Sheila sent Eric to Katie's house to catch Wyatt and Katie making out. Eric hired Mateo to be the new grounds manager, and Sheila paid Mateo to try to seduce Quinn.Liam's moral obligations drove a wedge between him and his family. Steffy urged Liam not to take Sally on a business trip with him, but he said his decisions at Spencer were none of Steffy's business.Sally figured out that Bill had started the fire, and she was overwhelmed with gratitude for the lengths to which Liam had gone to help her. Bill comforted Steffy, who didn't recognize her husband anymore. Bill vowed to get revenge on Liam.Ben Weston stopped the weddings and shocked family and friends with news that Will was alive. Ben pushed Sonny's patience to the limit. Sonny said that he could not marry Paul until he knew if Will was alive.Abe named Hope as the new police commissioner. Ben pushed J.J. over the edge. Hope, the new commissioner, had no choice but to suspend J.J. from the force for his actions.Chad and Abigail finally said, "I do."Andre stood by Kate after she learned that Will might still be alive. Chloe told a stunned Lucas about Will. Sonny and Paul asked Lucas to exhume Will's body, but Lucas refused.Brady turned to the bottle to soothe his guilt over Eric. Eli and Gabi kissed. Rafe told Eli to stay clear of Gabi.Paul and Sonny asked Marlena to talk to Ben. Ben told Marlena that he'd learned from a visitor that Will was alive.Chloe told Nicole that Eric was still in love with her and that Brady had lied to her. Nicole rushed to the farmhouse to talk to Eric.Brady and Sonny fought to control Titan and asked Victor to make a decision.Oscar confided that he had never met his father and didn't know the man's name. Josslyn offered to help Oscar find his father.A Russian priest aided Patient 6 by arranging passage for the patient aboard a freighter bound for New York. On the ship, Patient 6 encountered Huxley Lynch, an old foe of Nikolas and Ava's. Griffin had an encounter with Patient 6, who told Griffin where to find Ava. Griffin saved Ava from Dr. Klein's diabolical intentions. Griffin and Ava returned to Port Charles and went straight to the hospital. Ava was shocked that Dr. Klein's first treatment had drastically repaired the worst of her scars.Stella took a job at the hospital as a social worker.Michael confronted Nelle about the engagement ring. Nelle insisted that Zach had wanted her to have it, and the Grants owed it to her for falsely accusing her of killing Zach.Jason left the hospital and went home with Sam. Jason called Julian Jerome. Sam played matchmaker between Dr. Bensch and Alexis, but Alexis and David only agreed to go out as friends.Laura confronted Valentin with a gun because she wanted him to know what Nikolas had felt like staring down the barrel of Valentin's gun. Valentin was troubled when Cassandra called and let him know that she was headed to Port Charles to seek treatment with Finn.Abby was turned off by Zack's change in behavior.Ashley learned that she'd won the Innovator of the Year Award. Jack and Billy agreed to set aside their differences to celebrate Ashley's success.Graham convinced Dina that the woman at the assisted living facility in Florida was his aunt. Myrna encouraged Graham to exact revenge on Dina because Brent had left Myrna and Graham for Dina years earlier.Sharon threatened to turn Alice in to the police unless Alice arranged to have Crystal returned to Genoa City. Tessa and Crystal tearfully reunited. Before calling the cops, Sharon gave Alice a head start to escape. Alice found the safe house abandoned, and a car mowed her down when she attempted to leave town. Sharon and Scott found Alice's empty hospital bed as Zack looked on. Mariah covered her dismay when Tessa agreed to move in with Noah.Kevin hacked into Nick's bank account and transferred the funds to Victor. Nick suspected that Victor had been behind his missing cash.Cane and Lily told the twins about their impending divorce. Cane implored Juliet to stay in Genoa City. Lily accepted an executive position at Brash & Sassy.Victoria lashed out at Hilary during one of her ear-ringing episodes. Over Victoria's objections, Billy used Phyllis' computer to hack into Jabot's server again, and he downloaded the fake information that Jack had planted. Victoria antagonized Phyllis by insinuating that Billy would return to Victoria. Jack told Phyllis that Billy had used her computer to hack Jabot.
I saw the picture, read "Beam me up" and thought he died. Anyway congrats on not being dead and going to space.

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Enjoy riding the Karman rim line dildo, Bill.

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I'm real tired of this flagrant use of wealth portrayed as some "fun, cool" thing.



FUCKING SOLVE POVERTY, HOMLESSNESS AND DISEASE YOU FUCKING EVIL INCARNATES.

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space tourism my ass  these rich fuckers want to research, test a way to flee earth than try to find a way to help  and they are the one that take the most and destroy it. i hope the fucking thing blow up in in launch  sorry not sorry.

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I honestly believe tech billionaires obsessed with space travel want to create a secular Rapture where the rich can live on planets not yet ruined by climate change with robot butlers and uh....there's kind of a super popular video game series explaining why this is a terrible idea

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Kinda like that Elysium movie (which sucked).



Replied to the wrong thread. /facepalm



Edited at 2021-10-04 05:40 pm (UTC)

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Seriously. There are a million and one ways that they could contribute to society, with one very obvious way being at the top of the list. I don't even want to think about the amount of wealth that people like this have amassed. It's disgusting when you look around and see the state of the world and then have to watch these assholes prep for their little 5 min space holiday.

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What if the purge was real, but you were only allowed to attack billionaires and not only could you simply murder them, youd legally assume their wealth. With all billionaires at risk, theyd suddenly pay their taxes and redistribute their wealth or be murdered.



Away to write the screenplay.

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Go go go

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fun fact: the purge was inspired by an episode of star trek: tos, so this comment is perfect! fun fact: the purge was inspired by an episode of star trek: tos, so this comment is perfect!

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Oh shit! I had no idea.

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Angela Lansbury is 5 years older than him and a million years wiser

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She just knows if she goes to space shell have to solve the first murder in space and shes too old for that shit

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If I was an alien and Angela Lansbury came along I would ask her to sing Bobbing along a million times idgaf

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Is the way to get on a Blue Origin rocket is to be someone we don't want to come back to earth?

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He took that SNL skit a little too literally

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I scrolled and just saw the picture and just assumed he'd died. Leonard Nimoy should've outlived him.

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I was just about to post your second sentence.

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Leave him there.

Also, I really hate this shit and I especially hate the billionaire sociopaths doing it. Screwing over their employees, grifting, lying, ripping us off as taxpayers, etc. etc. While the droolingly dumb media sucks them off for these p.r.

exercises to elevate their egos and wasteful behavior



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What a waste of money. Of course Bill agreed to this. He lives for attention.

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Honestly, rich people going to space is disgusting, but who knew dystopian books from the 50s/60s would come true.

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Lmao he'll pop like a water balloon before the first G kicks in.



Edited at 2021-10-04 04:42 pm (UTC)

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Wasn't there a thing about how Jeff Bezos' dickships technically don't reach space?

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Half of me is revolted by the waste of resources going into the rich cosplaying astronauts indulging in a dream but half of me knows we are nowhere near where we need to be to live long-term outside Earth and have just scratched the surface of the physical side effects of prolonged space travel and am all that Wonka gif "No. Stop. Please."



Edited at 2021-10-04 03:04 pm (UTC)

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Yeah theres no way the rich can live in space with our current technology.

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Let them find that out for themselves.

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like the only redeeming thing about amazon/bezos that the documentary could find was that he bought the washington post and seems to have invested in it without interfering in the publication's operations. everything else was terrible.



(it's on youtube here if you want to watch it, but it's 2 hours long: i just watched the PBS documentary on Jeff Bezos last night even though it's like a year old and it made me so glad i don't have a prime membership or a ring or alexa or any of thatlike the only redeeming thing about amazon/bezos that the documentary could find was that he bought the washington post and seems to have invested in it without interfering in the publication's operations. everything else was terrible.(it's on youtube here if you want to watch it, but it's 2 hours long: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVVfJVj5z8s

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What unites America's hospitals is not one person, but a community of people. We are hospitals across America. For more information about what American hospitals are bringing back to the community, visit AdvancingHealthinAmerica.org.

Dr. Steven Nissen, M.D., of Cleveland Clinic, discuses the new heart guidelines from The American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology and how they have taken a dramatic turn, recommending greatly increased use of cholesterol-lowering statin medications.

The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions director, Dr. Thomas Frieden, discusses heart disease and stroke, the health problems that cause the most deaths in the United States, in the September 2013 edition of Vital Signs (www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/). One in three deaths in the United States results from cardiovascular disease. This figure is of great concern, especially because research clearly shows that we could prevent many of these deaths, according to the agency.
The latest Dallas Fed Survey found that costs in the industry have continued rising sharply for the second quarter in a row between July and September.

U.S. oil producers, especially those active in shale, have been hailed for sticking to a strict financial discipline amid the pandemic-driven crisis and for changing their focus from production growth to shareholder returns. Now, things may be about to changeand for the worse.

The latest Dallas Fed Survey found that costs in the industry have continued rising sharply for the second quarter in a row between July and September. Another finding of the report, likely related to the first one, was a slowdown in production growth in both oil and gas. Oilfield service sector input costs, the survey said, were at a record high.

This is not all the bad news, either. In addition to the higher costs, oilfield service providers are struggling to hire all the workers they need amid growing demand from production companies as prices improve and make most shale oil profitable again. Taken together, all these factors suggest that U.S. oil and gas are in a challenging place, which could push international prices even higher.

The picture outlined by the Dallas Fed is quite different from a picture energy analysts painted earlier this month: Reuters reported in mid-September that analysts expected U.S. shale drillers to boost new drilling again, potentially upsetting their shareholders as the inventory of drilled but uncompleted wells shrunk considerably.

For now, this boost is not happening, at least not at rates that could have any bearish effect on prices. In fact, prices have added some 10 percent over the month of September, prompting the White House to renew its calls on OPEC+ to increase production by more than its agreed 400,000 bpd.

The situation is ironic in more than one way. On the one hand, the greenest president in U.S. history is asking for more fossil fuels. On the other, the last time President Biden asked OPEC to raise production to rein in gasoline prices in the United States, the request prompted a strong reaction from Texas Governor Gregg Abbott, who said in a tweet that Texas oil producers could easily step in and fill the gap if the administration "will just stay out of the way".

Yet the latest data from the Dallas Fed suggests the stepping in and filling the gap may not be done as easily as Gov. Abbott would like. In fact, unless all the industry's problems with the rising input costs and labor shortage are miraculously and speedily solved, oil and gas production in the United States may remain constrained for the observable future.

The Financial Times reported last month that small independent drillers were going all-in on production growth with no shareholders to worry about and try to please. According to that report, total U.S. production could add as much as 800,000 bpd next year thanks to small private independents. Yet the Dallas Fed Survey data suggests the problems encountered by its respondents are not only limited to large public oil industry players. And this may interfere with the 800,000-bpd prospect.

All this adds to a growing body of evidence that the world is tipping into an oil shortage, and while that may be good news for traders betting on higher prices, it is not good news for any economy trying to get back on the normal path after the pandemic disruptions.

Goldman Sachs last month upgraded its price target for Brent crude at end-2021 to $90 from $80, citing demand recovery and insufficiently fast production growth in non-OPEC producers, including the United States. Barclays also raised its oil price outlook, expecting Brent to average $77 next year, up by $9 from the bank's previous forecast.

The reason the price is lower than $80 is the potential for the U.S. and Iran reaching a deal about Iran's nuclear program, which would mitigate the deficit Barclays expects next year. But if the U.S. and Iran fail to reach a deal, the deficit could get much worse.

"OPEC+ tapering would not plug the oil supply gap through at least Q1 2022 as demand recovery is likely to continue to outpace this, due partly to limited capacity of some producers in the group to ramp up output," the bank said in a note at the end of September.

Based on what the Dallas Fed has found about U.S. producers, these are constrained in their production growth ambitions, too. This paints one bigger and grimmer picture for the immediate future of oil markets, at least from the perspective of buyers. It means that oil prices have further to go, even if OPEC+ decides to step in and boost production by more than 400,000 bpd. And this means that economic recoveries will stumble in many key markets.

It looks that despite assurances from eminent economists that the worst is behind us and it's all economic growth from here on out, the situation may remain difficult for quite some time yet.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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As it stands, Libya is currently producing around 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, but has plans to increase this to 1.45 million bpd by the end of this year, 1.6 million bpd within two years and 2.1 million bpd within three to four years

The resignation of Libyas deputy oil minister, Refaat al-Abbar, last week threatens to make the current uneasy situation in Libyas oil sector even worse. With close ties to the Benghazi-based Libyan National Army (LNA) and to the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU), he is regarded as a trusted figure by both sides in the countrys ongoing civil war. He is also seen by potential foreign investors as an important figure for some semblance of stability in the country that may have presaged renewed international investment into it.

As it stands, Libya is currently producing around 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, but has plans to increase this to 1.45 million bpd by the end of this year, 1.6 million bpd within two years and 2.1 million bpd within three to four years. All other things factors being equal, these targets would be entirely achievable, as Libya has around 48 billion barrels of proved crude oil reserves  the largest in Africa. Before the removal of long-time leader, Muammar Gaddafi, in 2011, the country had been easily able to produce around 1.65 million bpd of mostly high-quality light, sweet crude oil, notably the Es Sider and Sharara export crudes that are particularly in demand in the Mediterranean and Northwest Europe for their gasoline and middle distillate yields.

Moreover, production had been on a rising production trajectory, up from about 1.4 million bpd in 2000, albeit well below the peak levels of more than 3 million bpd achieved in the late 1960s. The NOC also had plans in place before 2011 to roll out enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques to increase crude oil production at maturing oil fields. As such, the NOCs predictions of being able to increase capacity by around 775,000 bpd through EOR at existing oil fields looked well-founded.

All of this, however, was sidelined with the onset of the civil war after the removal of Gaddafi, with oil volumes remaining subject to wild swings until September 2020. The 18th of that month saw a tenuous agreement signed between Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the rebel LNA, and elements of Tripolis U.N.-recognised GNA to lift the blockade of Libyas energy infrastructure. At that point, Libyas crude oil production was averaging only around 70,000 bpd. Key parts of that deal, which was initially only intended to last for one month, was an in-principle agreement to look into establishing a commission to determine how oil revenues across Libya are distributed and to consider the implementation of a number of measures designed to stabilise the countrys perilous financial position. According to figures from the Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC), the blockade of Libyan oil that ran from the 18th of January to the 18th of September when the deal was agreed and the blockade was lifted cost the country at least US$9.8 billion in lost hydrocarbons revenues.

Around six months after the tentative September 2020 agreement, though, the power demarcation issues surrounding Libyas oil industry had still not been clearly set out and rivalry between the oil ministry and the NOC was intensifying. In March this year, the GNU formed a new oil ministry, appointing Mohamed Oun as its head. He made it clear how he wanted the responsibilities split: the ministry would control the big picture elements of the oil and gas sector  crucially, including the awarding of licences  while the NOC would focus on increasing oil and gas production. This would mark a major reduction in the responsibilities of the NOC, which, under Mustafa Sanalla, had gradually been expanding its remit to include many tasks that would usually be regarded as being in the purview of a countrys oil ministry.

In an attempt to resolve these impasses between the oil ministry and the NOC, meetings were held between GNU Prime Minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, and Oun and Sanalla but no lasting agreement was made. To make matters even worse, the 6th of September saw the oil ministry release a statement saying that its recommendation in August to change the board of directors of the NOC - including the dismissal of Sanalla as chairman  still stood. This was supported by the suspension of loading operations at Es Sider and Ras Lanuf by protestors demanding the removal of Sanalla, with support among the local Petroleum Facilities Guard that protects the key eastern ports. On Sanallas side, moves were also afoot for significant on the ground protests, together with much backroom dealing between Sanallas supporters and Prime Minister Dbeibah. Following this, Dbeibah stepped in to say that Sanalla would, in fact, be staying in his post.

Last weeks resignation of Deputy Oil Minister al-Abbar will only add to the sense of chaos that surrounds Libyas oil sector, with the negative ramifications that this has for securing any meaningful investment from foreign sources. According to several oil industry sources, Libya had been in conversation with a various international oil companies to invest in Libya, with Abbar playing a part in those initiatives. This would have built on the positive momentum generated just over a year ago when, at a meeting between NOC chairman Sanalla, and the chief executive officer of oil and gas giant, TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanne, the French firm agreed to continue with its efforts to increase oil production from the giant Waha, Sharara, Mabruk and Al Jurf oil fields by at least 175,000 bpd. TotalEnergies also agreed to make the development of the Waha-concession North Gialo and NC-98 oil fields a priority, according to the NOC. The Waha concessions  in which the French oil and gas firms took a minority stake in 2019  have the capacity to produce at least 350,000 bpd together, according to the NOC, which added at that time that TotalEnergies would also contribute to the maintenance of decaying equipment and crude oil transport lines that need replacing.

Given this continued factionalism across the country, there is no reason to believe that even if an agreement is made it will last any longer than any other similar agreement, including the key September 2020 one. This means that Libyas oil production will be as subject to sudden supply drop-offs as it has been since 2011, with sudden blockades the most likely response of both sides to any perceived slight to their interests. These ongoing disagreements could then spiral  as they have often done  into a full-scale shutdown, as elements of the prevailing precarious ceasefire breakdown. In any event, the NOC may conclude that it is necessary  from a financial perspective (and/or a political one)  to shut some or all of Libyas major eastern oil fields operated by its subsidiary, the Arabian Gulf Oil Co., given the countrys ongoing budget crisis.

By Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com

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The OPEC+ alliance is widely expected to keep their current plans of easing the collective oil production cuts as the group gathers for its monthly meeting today.

OPEC+ decided in the middle of July that it would start returning 400,000 bpd to the market every month beginning in August until it unwinds all the 5.8 million bpd cuts. The group agreed to extend the existing deal from April 2020 through the end of December 2022.

Todays meeting comes with Brent Crude prices close to $80 a barrel and an expected rise in demand because of gas-to-oil switching in the winter. On the other hand, the Delta variant still poses downside risks to global oil demand in the coming months.

As the ministers of the OPEC+ group were preparing to begin their monthly meeting via video conference at 1 p.m. GMT, media reports started trickling about the sentiment among delegates.

Most reports point to OPEC+ keeping the earlier plans, with cuts eased by no more than 400,000 bpd per month for November and December.

One option is to ease the cuts by 400,000 bpd in November, while another would be to increase production by 800,000 bpd in November but not to raise output in December, according to Amena Bakr, Deputy Bureau Chief and Chief Opec Correspondent at Energy Intelligence.

Earlier today, three sources at OPEC+ told Reuters that the group were likely to keep the 400,000-bpd monthly increase for November, in view of still uncertain developments of COVID around the world.

There are calls for more of a production increase by OPEC+, one of Reuters sources said.

We are scared of the fourth wave of corona, no one wants to make any big moves, the source added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin hasnt had any contacts with OPEC countries ahead of todays meeting, as all the work is being done by Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

Traditionally we would not like to prejudge any outcome of such a meeting, Peskov said, as carried by Russian news agency TASS.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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The price of Russias flagship Urals grade slumped this week as Russian supply and exports are set to grow and as Iraq cuts the price of its crude for Europe.

On Tuesday, the Urals grade from the Baltic Sea was offered at a discount of $2.35 per barrel to Dated Brent, Bloomberg reports, citing the price-discovery window hosted by S&P Global Platts.

While the discount to Brent is typical for the Urals grade, this weeks discount is much deeper than the $1.05 a barrel discount at which the Russian flagship crude was offered last week.

One of the key reasons for weaker prices of Urals, according to Bloomberg, is the expectation of rising supply out of Russia, which is pumping more oil under its higher OPEC+ quota and which is preparing to export more barrels next month.

So far in September, Russias crude oil and condensate production has been higher by 2.4 percent compared to August, according to data from the Russian energy ministry seen by Bloomberg.

The other reason for the weakening price differentials of Russias Urals is somewhat unexpected competition from Iraq, which has cut its prices for the United States and Europe (except the Mediterranean), in a rare divergence from the pricing of the top exporter from the Middle East and the worlds largest crude exporter, Saudi Arabia.

Iraqs lower crude prices in Europe for October are competing with Russian Urals supply, among others.

Last week, tighter supply of U.S. medium sour crudes in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida pushed the price of Russias Urals up to a discount of just $1.05 per barrel to Dated Brentthe highest price for Urals in seven monthscompared to a Urals discount to Brent of $1.95 a barrel before Ida, Bloomberg estimates showed.

In the days following Hurricane Ida, there was increased interest from refiners for Russian crude, especially the medium sour Urals, which is similar to the U.S. Mars blend whose production was still offline, according to Bloombergs sources.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Saudi Arabias oil revenues are flowing in at the highest rate in three years, Bloomberg reports, thanks to the strong price recovery since the start of this year.

Revenues from oil hit $19 billion in July, according to Bloomberg data, which was a considerable improvement on last year, when revenueslike revenues across oil-producing nationsplunged, hurting their economies. For OPECs largest producer, the trough was reached in May-April last year, when oil revenues plunged to around $7 billion.

Revenues have risen in tune with production. According to another Bloomberg report, Saudi Arabia is already close to pre-pandemic production levels of 9.8 million barrels daily, and oil demand is still rising fast. This bodes well for next years revenues, too.

OPEC+ has had a very good year, Ben Luckock, co-head of oil trading at Trafigura, told Bloomberg. They have delivered: they have managed to thread the needle.

As a result, Saudi Arabia now expects to shrink its budget deficit to just 1.6 percent of GDP in 2022, with 2022 revenue 4.5 percent higher than earlier projections. The Kingdom, however, has no plans to boost spending despite this much better outlook. This years deficit is seen at 2.7 percent of GDPa lower figure than the finance ministry had initially planned for.

Saudi Arabia is not alone in its oil triumph. All the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council and fellow OPEC members are this year doing quite a lot better than they did last year. Last year, economic growth shrunk, debt surged, and the outlook was dire, especially over the long term because of the energy transition.

While some CGC members still have a fiscal breakeven oil price above current benchmark pricesBahrain and Omanall have benefited from the price rally this year that has seen Brent crude add some 50 percent since the start of the year.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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Global oil and gas prices will remain higher for longer as companies resist the urge to ramp up production, the chief executive of Chevron, Mike Wirth told Bloomberg in an interview.

One of the reasons for this reluctance to produce more is that investors are not on board with it, Bloomberg notes. Indeed, investors in oil and gas have become quite nervous about the long-term future of their investments there and have prioritized cash returns now rather than later.

The other reason is weak equity markets, according to Wirth. There are two signals Im looking for and Im only seeing one of them, he said. We could afford to invest more. The equity market is not sending a signal that says they think we ought to be doing that.

Then there is climate change and investor worries about whether energy companies are adjusting to a changing situation fast enough. But its not just investor worries. There is also pressure from governments and the public, and this makes decisions on output expansion even harder.

Youve got some real new dynamics, whether its government policy, efforts to constrain capital into the industry, to make it harder for the industry to access capital markets, Wirth also said during the interview. That in the short term could create some risk for the global economy. Wirth added that the emission footprint of future projects has become a big part of decision-making for energy companies.

In another interview, however, with CNBC, Wirth said the company will not be betting heavily on wind and solar power unlike other oil majors because it believes it would not create enough value for shareholders.

The returns in wind and solar are actually being bid down, and weve concluded that management in our company cant create value for shareholders by going into wind and solar, Wirth told CNBC.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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Saudi Arabias state oil giant Aramco continues to see healthy global oil demand ahead and expects to have boosted its oil production capacity to 13 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2027 from 12 million bpd now, Saudi Aramcos chief executive Amin Nasser said on Monday.

The capacity expansion will come fully online by 2027 and will come on in chunks, Nasser said at the Energy Intelligence Forum today.

The Saudi giant, the worlds biggest oil firm and the largest oil exporter globally, is working as fast as it can to reach that production capacity expansion, the executive said, as reported by Casey Merriman, Editorial Director at Energy Intelligence.

Upstream investment has a long lead time, Nasser noted.

Aramcos CEO has often warned the market that the industry is underinvesting in new oil supply, which, regardless of many scenarios, will continue to be needed for decades.

Currently, oil demand is strong, Nasser said at the forum, expecting 99 million bpd by the end of 2021 and more than 100 million bpd in 2022.

Moreover, one of the International Energy Agencys scenarios of oil demand at just 24 million bpd in 2050 under one of the IEAs net-zero pathways is not feasible, Aramcos chief executive added.

We still expect growth in oil demand, Nasser said.

We maintain 25-year production profiles for new projects. Our philosophy is to provide cleaner oil and gas for the long term. We are developing it for the long term, not the short term, the top executive at the Saudi oil giant said.

Unlike the international oil majors, Aramco is not scaling back any oil and gas production plans. On the contrary, it continues to invest in new supplysaying it aims to have lower emissionsexpecting solid demand ahead. Some analysts believe that Big Oils race to net zero would be a boon to the national oil companies of the OPEC nations as they will be the ones left to invest in new supply.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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OPEC+ will remain the leading factor in oil price movements in the next few months, a senior Vitol executive told the media, as quoted by Bloomberg.

Control of pricing is very much in the hands of OPEC+, said Mike Muller, the head of Vitols Asian operations. In the United States, he said, the rig count is simply not there for production to catch up in a way that would be necessary if you needed extra oil.

Thats quite a table-turning from just three years ago when the U.S., thanks to its second shale oil boom, was considered the leading factor in oil prices as the boom turned the country into the largest oil producer globally.

Crude oil rose closer to $80 at the end of last week, ahead of todays OPEC+ meeting where it will discuss the next steps in production control. According to some analysts, OPEC+ is unlikely to acquiesce to requests to add more production and bring down prices, not just because it benefits from higher prices but because some members of the cartel simply cannot boost their production capacity so quickly and they dont have that kind of oil in storage to keep supply higher.

The near-term price outlook remains supportive, Stephen Brennock from oil broker PVM told Reuters on Friday. The current price trend is one for recovery.

Whichever way you cut it; shorting oil is only for the brave with very deep pockets, according to OANDA analyst Jeffrey Halley.

This oil market dynamics may remain in place for longer if the winter in the northern hemisphere turns out as cold as expected. With gas reserves running lower than the five-year average in Europe and energy shortages in China forcing factory shutdowns and fear of blackouts, demand for oil is likely to remain robust for quite some time despite gloomy long-term predictions. And this means OPEC+ will continue calling the shots, led by the members with the most spare capacity.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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The Cliff Road Chop House or Death at The Acropolis

by John Martini

In early 2012, the new Lands End Lookout Visitor Center began taking final shape on Point Lobos Avenue just east of Merrie Way. Few people, though, realize the site of the shiny new visitor center has a much darker history as the location of the ill-fated Acropolis Chophouse.

The chop house on Point Lobos Avenue was the largest of several vending stands located along what was then called Cliff Avenue between Sutro Baths and the steam train depot at 48th Avenue. These stands, originally built as informational and concession kiosks at the 1894 Midwinter Fair in Golden Gate Park, had been purchased by Adolph Sutro at the fairs end. He acquired at least twenty, many going into his new Sutro Baths to serve as display cases while others were re-erected around the grounds of Sutros mini-amusement park called (alternately) the Midway Plaissance, Merry Street, or Merrie Way.

The midways attractions included a Firth Wheel, a Scenic Railway, a Haunted Swing, and a Mystic Mirror Maze, all recycled from the 1894 Fair. [Read more on Merrie Way on this page and this page.]

Sutro had several of the recycled kiosks sited along the north side of Cliff Avenue, carefully positioned to intercept visitors walking downhill from the train depot to the Cliff House and Sutro Baths, or lingering at the Merrie Way rides. The 1899-1900 Sanborn fire map of Cliff Avenue reveals there were originally nine kiosks lining the street. 1

Sutro must have calculated that Merrie Way and the Baths would be such huge attractions that he could lease all nine kiosks to eager concessionaires. But his vision turned out very wrong. Adolph Sutro died in August 1898, and within a year the rides and attractions along Merrie Way began to shut down, possibly as a cost-saving measure ordered by his executrix-daughter Emma Sutro Merritt. Photos taken at the turn of the 20th century reveal an abandoned midway with several kiosks standing empty, marred by broken windows and To Let signs on their fronts. 2

By 1910 only two stands remained  the Chop House and a fruit stand located about 80 feet to its west. 3

The Chop House Owner

City Directories indicate the chop house opened around 1898 as The Acropolis Oyster Stand," operated by Manuel Varvare (also spelled Vavare, Varvaris, and Varvares in various documents) who ran the stand until his death in 1908. Over the years, he advertised it variously as an oyster stand, a lunch stand, a restaurant, and a chop house, the changing descriptions probably reflecting both the physical growth of the structure and its menu. 4

By the turn of the century, the Acropolis restaurant consisted of the original 1894 kiosk and a welter of lean-to additions that housed a kitchen and dining room and a standup oyster bar. Varvaris lived in a small room at the rear (north end) of the restaurant, close to the tracks of the abandoned Scenic Railroad and the empty midway.

Business must have been very bad following Sutros death and the ensuing demise of Merrie Way, and Manuel Varvare tried to sell his Acropolis Chophouse twice, first in 1899 and again in 1901, stating in the newspaper ads that he planned to go to Europe. But he apparently either changed his mind or couldn't find any takers. 5

Not only did the spelling of Varvares name change in the City directories, but so did the Acropolis address. At various times it was shown as Cliff Avenue near Sutro Heights, Cliff Avenue near the Cliff House, 5 Cliff Avenue, and 840 Point Lobos Avenue. Varvare couldnt seem to decide on the restaurants location either, describing it as Sutro Heights and half a block from the baths in advertisements.

Varvare also had exceptionally bad luck with his patrons. The San Francisco Call reported in February 1905 that a trio of soldiers refused to pay for their meals at the Acropolis, and when the proprietor demanded payment, They attacked Vavare [sic] with knives, cutting his clothing and body. They also beat him on the head and body with a club. 6

Things would get much, much worse.

Three years later, on February 7, 1908, an armed robber held up Varvare in his restaurant, forcing him at gunpoint through the dining room, kitchen and tiny bedroom, and taking $87 in gold eagles and pocket change. The robber then wrote down Varvaris name on a scrap of paper and threatened to return and kill him if he reported the crime to the police.

Varvare, a good citizen, immediately alerted the San Francisco Police Department about the robbery. 7

True to his word, the robber returned to the restaurant four days later. The Call reported what happened:

Friday night [February 21] Varvaris heard a heavy knock on the front door of his restaurant at 5 Cliff avenue, the scene of the first robbery. Believing it was a customer he opened the door. No sooner had he done so than the thug attacked Varvaris, beating him with the butt end of a 45 caliber revolver, fracturing his skull. Leaving his victim to die the robber disappeared, but not before the victim had recognized his assailant as the man who attacked him the previous occasion. 8

Manuel Varvare died at French Hospital on March 7, 1908. The police admit that as yet they have not the slightest clew [sic] to the identity of the murderer.

Following Varvaris murder, the Acropolis Chophouse was taken over by Nicholas Antipa, the owner of the neighboring fruit stand on Cliff Avenue. The Antipa family apparently continued to operate the Acropolis for a few more years, and then either closed it down or converted the restaurant into an expanded fruit and candy stand. (The old directories give conflicting addresses for the Antipa familys holdings.) No listings appear after 1917, and it's likely the old restaurant stood vacant for several years. 9

In 1922, the city widened and realigned the former Cliff Avenue, and in the process demolished the old Acropolis and Antipa Fruit Stand. 10

Contribute your own stories about western neighborhoods places!
Fort Miley/VA Medical Center

by Christopher VerPlanck

In 2002, the Department of Veterans Affairs commissioned the firm of Page & Turnbull to do a historical and architectural assessment of the San Francisco VA Medical Center at Fort Miley. The author of the report, Christopher VerPlanck, has kindly give us permission to publish excerpts. Read also Mr. VerPlanck's excellent article on the Social and Architectural History of the Richmond District.

The San Francisco VA Medical Center occupies a twenty-nine-acre campus in the northwest corner of San Francisco, California, between Point Lobos and the Golden Gate. The campus enjoys dramatic views of the Golden Gate Bridge to the east, the Marin Headlands to the north, the Pacific to the west and the San Francisco's Richmond District to the south. When it was completed in 1934, the San Francisco VA Medical Center consisted of twenty-one concrete buildings designed in the "Mayan Deco" style. These were clustered in the northern and eastern sections of the lushly landscaped campus in order to lessen the impact of the adjacent neighborhood, as well as to provide space for patient convalescence and recreation. Several major building campaigns during the past forty years have dramatically altered the semi-pastoral character of the campus by adding over a dozen non-contributing buildings.

SITE HISTORY

Prehistoric Period

The Point Lobos/Lands End district of San Francisco has witnessed a considerable amount of history prior to the construction of the VA Medical Center. Archeological sites have been discovered to the west of the campus, near the Sutro Baths ruins, providing evidence for the existence of seasonal Native American settlements within a mile of the VA Medical Center campus. The area now comprising Point Lobos was located within the boundaries of the lands controlled by the Ramaytush tribelet, a subgroup of the Ohlone tribe. Although they did not have any permanent villages in the area, they used the coastal area around Point Lobos for seasonal camps inhabited during shellfish gathering expeditions. These remains, located within the Point Lobos Archeological Sites National Register district, consist primarily of shell middens. No cultural resources associated with the Native American period have been discovered on the VA Medical Center campus. This is perhaps not surprising considering that seasonal shellfish encampments were typically located close to the shore.

Mexican and Early American Periods

During the late Mexican and early American periods Point Lobos belonged to a man named Francisco Guerrero. He had been granted this vast rancho by the last Mexican governor of California, Pio Pico. In 1850, shortly after California achieved statehood, President Millard Fillmore set Point Lobos aside for military use due to its strategic location on the western approach to the Golden Gate. Nevertheless, within a year Fillmore rescinded this appropriation and the land reverted to the ownership of Guerrero. For almost two decades the land remained unoccupied and unused with the exception of a semaphore signaling station, which appeared on contemporary maps as early as 1853. After spotting a ship, the staff of the signaling station at Point Lobos would telegraph an advance warning to their counterparts at the semaphore station on top of Telegraph Hill. The staff of the latter facility would then sound the horn to give San Franciscans advance warning of the impending arrival of a ship through the Golden Gate.

Golden Gate Cemetery

Believing that the close proximity of cemeteries to residential districts was unhealthful, San Francisco authorities began searching for remote tracts of land in which to bury the city's dead in the 1860s. In 1868 the city purchased 200 acres of land at Point Lobos, including the site of the future VA Medical Center, for $127,465. This tract was designated a municipal cemetery. For the next quarter century Golden Gate Cemetery provided a place for poor and working class San Franciscans to bury their dead. Many of the city's ethnic groups laid claim to various sections of the cemetery. Golden Gate Cemetery also had a "potters field" where the city would bury its indigent citizens. It is unknown whether any remains survive beneath the present-day VA Medical Center. According to contemporary sources, when the cemetery was converted into a military installation the remains were all carefully exhumed and reinterred in Colma.

Fort Miley

In 1890 the U.S. Army began to systematically modernize and reconstruct its outdated coastal defenses. Known as the Endicott Period, this system entailed the construction of networks of coastal batteries at the approaches to important harbors and coastal cities. These networks of coastal defense facilities were designed to thwart potential seaborne invasions by ensuring that the field of fire would saturate every square foot of sea approaching a critical seaport or harbor. For San Francisco Bay, the Army Corps of Engineers planned coastal batteries for Point Lobos, the Marin Headlands, Alcatraz, Fort Mason and other strategic points around the Golden Gate.

In January 1893, the U.S. Army paid the City and County of San Francisco $75,000 for fifty-four acres of strategically situated Golden Gate Cemetery land overlooking the approaches to the Golden Gate. Construction did not begin right away, however. According to contemporary newspaper articles all of the graves first had to be exhumed and reinterred elsewhere. Construction of the Reservation at Point Lobos, as it was originally called, did not begin until 1897. The first buildings constructed included a half-dozen wood-frame barracks, storage buildings, an officers' club, and administrative buildings. Most important were the batteries themselves. Fort Miley would eventually include several distinct clusters of fortifications, including Batteries Chester, LaRhett, Livingston, and Anton Springer. In 1900 the post was renamed Fort Miley in honor of Lieutenant Colonel John D. Miley. Miley, who had recently been killed in the Philippines, had been largely responsible for the actual planning of San Francisco's network of coastal batteries.

In 1902 Fort Miley was officially completed and garrisoned as a subpost of the nearby Presidio of San Francisco. In 1932, twenty-nine acres of Fort Miley were acquired by the Veterans Administration for the construction of a new veterans medical center. Two years later most of Fort Miley, except for the batteries, was demolished. Approximately ten barracks buildings, a mess hall, officer's club, stables and miscellaneous storage facilities were torn down to make way for the hospital and subsidiary buildings. The batteries at Fort Miley continued to operate until 1937 when plans were made to decommission what was left of the installation when it was realized that air power had rendered coastal batteries obsolete. Nevertheless, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 led to the reactivation of Fort Miley. New anti-aircraft guns were added and the post was garrisoned until 1943.

Page One: Site History - Fort Miley

Page Two: San Francisco VA Medical Center

Page Three: Chronology/Selected Bibliography

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Architectural and Historical Resources of the Sunset District:

The Oceanside Neighborhood

This is a Web version of a printed document published in 2007 by the Sunset-Parkside Action Committee (SPEAK). "Architectural and Historical Resources of the Sunset District: The Oceanside Neighborhood" is the best written history to date on the development of this little-known part of San Francisco. The committee of SPEAK who produced the project and the document included a number of WNP members and board members, and we're very happy to have a chance to share this information with you online. Not only is there wonderful history of the Oceanside within, but a survey of important and interesting buildings still standing in the neighborhood.

Contents

Introduction and Contents of this document

History of the Oceanside

Historic Buildings with High Integrity

Additional Historic Buildings

The Sunset Architectural and Historical Resources Committee (SAHRIC)

The Sunset, San Francisco's largest neighborhood, possesses many cultural landmarks that describe the history of its settlement. Only with an inventory and evaluation of those resources, can future development be guided in a way that complements and preserves the history of the neighborhood. We believe that informing property owners and decision makers of the worth of many resources will help foster sensitivity in future development decisions.

SAHRIC has undertaken this effort to preserve the best our neighborhood has to offer. After publishing in 20005 Sixteen Notable Buildings as a sample of the many Sunset resources worth preserving, the group focused on small houses and cottages (less than 1800 square feet) as a source of potentially affordable housing. With a grant from the Alexander Wallace Gerbode Foundation, SAHRIC hired architectural historian William Kostura, to survey the former Oceanside neighborhood, generally located west of 40th Avenue between Lincoln and Sloat Boulevards with a concentration just south of Golden Gate Park.

Starting with an analysis of the earliest available Sanborn (Fire Insurance Co.) maps of 1915, Kostura assessed in a field survey which small houses were extant from 1915, and selected about twenty with high integrity, i.e., those which were only minimally altered. After detailed research of archival resources and a photographic documentation, each building and its history was recorded on State of California, Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) 523 forms for documentation of historic properties.

These forms are complemented by the Oceanside Historic Context Statement, describing the fascinating development history and specific architecture of this neighborhood. Between 1900 and 1930 this neighborhood grew out of sand dunes and was known as the Oceanside, so named for an earlier roadhouse from the 1850s which bore that name. Around the turn of the century, the northern end of the neighborhood was also called "Carville" due to the obsolete street and cable cars that were brought there, then bought by locals and refurnished as clubhouses and recreational housing. This booklet serves to educate residents of the area and city officials and to encourage maintenance of the historic buildings found here. Ideally, as buildings are renovated, and added to in time, the city should encourage owners to maintain the significant features that retain integrity and restore features that have been altered to their original appearance.

SAHRIC anticipates further grants from the city and private foundations to complete the comprehensive survey of Oceanside, including all cottages, larger residences, apartment houses, and commercial buildings. As important as these few buildings are to the history of the Sunset, many others will come to light only through a careful and comprehensive look throughout the neighborhood. Another goal of this booklet is to promote the continued efforts to find and maintain all the resources that will tell the Sunset's story long into the future.

Who We Are

The members of SAHRIC possess considerable expertise in a number of disciplines related to the task at hand. In alphabetical order, we are: Catherine Bauman; F. Joseph Butler, AIA; Marc Duffett, president of SPEAK; Inge Horton, chair of SAHRIC; Woody LaBounty; Mary Anne Miller; Susan Snyder; Lorri Ungaretti; and Megan Allison Wade.

Consultant: William Kostura, architectural historian, author of Russian Hill: The Summit 1853-1906 (1997).

To contact SAHRIC, please send a message to SAHRIC@yahoo.com or

Inge Horton c/o SPEAK

1329 - 7th Avenue

San Francisco, CA 94122.

Next: History of the Oceanside

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Streetwise - Some Light Bedtime Reading

by Frank Dunnigan

October 2011

Now that its Fall, Im reminded of the affinity that so many of us have with books, newspapers, and magazines. Theres no better time of year than right now to curl up on the couch with some good reading, so its time to take a look back at our once-passionate love affair with the printed word.

Even though I received a Kindle for Christmas last year, Im still fond of printed paper, in spite of all the space that it continues to occupy in my ever-expanding bookcases. Whenever Im visiting a new city, I find myself drawn to local bookstores, just to look around and see what they have to offer, and a printed volume or two is often my only souvenir of a particular trip.

How could it be any other way? I grew up in a household that subscribed to two daily newspapersThe San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco News (later known as the News-Call-Bulletin from 1958-65), plus the weekly Catholic Monitor, and a stack of magazines, including Life, Readers Digest, Sunset, and The Saturday Evening Post. In addition, both my parents always had a paperback or two on their nightstands for late night reading, and Moms sister was always passing along copies of Bon Appetit and Gourmet plus stack after stack of condensed books once she was finished with them.

From the time that I started browsing the comic book selection at Reis Pharmacy at 18th & Taraval in the mid-1950s, Ive been hooked on reading. When I was six, the only thing that I wanted for my birthday was a library card so that I could have unlimited access to treasures contained within the red brick walls of the Parkside Branch at 22nd Avenue & Taraval, even though their six-book limit for checkout was a constant annoyance to me.

Most of us baby boomers remember the decor of our first apartmentsplywood shelves (sometimes wrapped in wood grain contact paper for a more upscale look), combined with concrete cinderblocks to form bookcases. This ubiquitous decorating item was sturdy enough to hold yard after yard of the volumes that we had collected from various college courses (things like the Norton Anthologies, Essentials of Accounting, and Churchills History of the English-Speaking Peoples), along with personal reading favorites of every sort. Today, the first things I see walking through my own front door are seven-foot-tall bookcases and my favorite armchair in the living room, with a strong reading lamp nearby. In the bedroom, I have a pair of nightstands with built-in bookshelves, so that I can keep even more reading materials close at hand for impromptu bedtime reading. With these items in place, Im all set.

However, selling the printed word today has become a tough business, even for big businesses. In the last 20 years, every city in America that still had a struggling afternoon newspaper has lost it, and since the dawn of the new millennium, several areas are on the verge of losing their morning journal as well. Bookstores have not fared much better, and the recent loss of the Borders chain is just another milepost on the long road of decline for reading in this country and here in the western neighborhoods, too.

When the new Stonestown Galleria opened in 1986, a huge Brentanos opened near the middle of the top level on the west side, replacing the tiny 1960s-era B. Dalton that had been tucked away in the old mall near Blums. Then Brentanos closed and was replaced by Borders (in the space once occupied by the Walgreens lunch counter and the Stonestown Market from 1952-1988, then by Bank of America from 1988-98). As Borders now vanishes into a cloud of paper dust, it has been replaced by ODE (newly named operation that makes use of some of the original letters on the buildings sign), with the same format of books, music, cafe. Any bets on how long that might last?

When the new Lakeshore Plaza opened on Sloat Boulevard in the 1980s, the big discounter of the time, Crown Books (unceremoniously dethroned by the sudden ascent of Amazon.com in the 1990s), occupied the corner at the western edge of the center near Sloatthe same spot once occupied by Grants Charcoal Broiler, Orlandos Restaurant, and then GETsbut that corner morphed into a pet supply store in about 1998.

A year or so ago, I noticed that Waldenbooks on West Portal (site of the old Sherrys Liquor Store), which had been a convenient reading spot for a nice 20-year run, had suddenly disappeared from the scene and had not merely relocated.

Canterbury Corner, out there at 17th Avenue and Geary Boulevard in the Richmond for many years, was once a prime location for St.Ignatiuss Stanyan Street students to find their copies of the iconic yellow-and-black Cliff Notes (and the less-common, but also good, red-and-black Monarch Notes) on everything from The Merchant of Venice to The Catcher in the Rye. Today, that corner has been taken over by yet another coffee house. Isnt it funny to think of how we now automatically associate books with the smell of coffee? I sometimes fear that we are raising a whole generation of young people who will have no goal for their working lives other than becoming baristas.

Sadly, the big department stores abandoned their book departments decades ago. Emporium Stonestown used to have a wonderful selection on the main floor near the elevators. Mom once stood in line there for nearly an hour to buy me a copy of William Manchesters Death of a President when it was published in 1967, and that was also where I discovered Robert Camerons great photo essay, Above San Francisco in 1969. The downtown store had an even larger area collection at the back of the main floor under the dome, and much of it was devoted to San Francisco historya browsers delight.

One of San Franciscos most colorful department store book buyers from the 1950s through the 1980s was the late Ethel Stevenson, and I had the pleasure of working with her for several years. Well-educated, well-read, and well-traveled, she put together an eclectic mix of titles that was guaranteed to draw people in. She believed in something for everyonebiographies, novels, history, reference, cookbooks, sports, self-improvement, plus science fiction and mystery paperbacks. When Roots became the smash hit of 1977there was Ethel, personally pushing a hand-truck laden with carton after carton of freshly printed volumes that she herself had just picked up from the distributor, in order to make sure that they were stacked and ready for her customers when the doors opened for business. She even pre-dated one Seinfeld gag by suggesting that some large picture books (known in the trade as coffee table books) could have four legs attached to the bottom and actually be used as a coffee table! And although she personally despised the genre, she always made sure that some tucked-away corner in each store contained an abundant selection of what she sarcastically referred to as T.R.trashy romance.

Waldenbooks and Tro Harper, both downtown institutions, have faded from the fog of days gone by, though the venerable Books, Inc. is still doing business out there on California Street in Laurel Village. Staceys, a Market Street icon since 1914, closed its doors for good in 2009.

The area around City Hall once contained several used book shops that would buy and sell old books and periodicals. Likewise, the area around McAllister Street in the Western Addition, prior to the redevelopment of the 1960s, was a second-hand treasure trove for all things, including books and magazines. All of these have now vanished in a cloud of dust called Redevelopment.

Book lovers are lucky that Green Apple Books, a neighborhood institution since 1967, is still doing business on Clement Street. It is a rare breedthe independent neighborhood bookstore. When the founder-owner retired a few years ago, he wisely structured the transition as a sale to a group of long-time employees who are truly dedicated to the business. Whenever Im in San Francisco, I can easily spend an entire afternoon, wandering aimlessly up and down the aisles, finding things that I never knew would interest me until I stumbled upon them.

Even the junk mail has changed. I no longer receive book club offers of ANY 20 BOOKS FOR JUST $1 TOTAL WHEN YOU AGREE TO BUY JUST 4 OTHERS AT REGULAR PRICE ANY TIME IN THE NEXT 5 YEARS! Those offers always seemed to hinge on the customers inability to return the OPT-OUT card for the monthly special, thereby generating shipment of another volume automatically. The advent of electronic communications obviously had something to do with the demise of this standard business model for many book clubs.

There are some high spots, though. Arcadia Publishing has done a great job of collecting and publishing neighborhood histories in concise 128-page format mid-size paperbacks that are chock-full of never-before seen photos, mostly from individual collections. Local offerings include volumes on the Sunset District and the Richmond District, both by Lorri Ungaretti, West Portal Neighborhoods by Richard Brandi, Catholics of San Francisco by Bernadette Hooper and Rayna Garibaldi, Jewish San Francisco by Edward Zerin and Marc Dollinger, San Franciscos Ocean Beach by Kathleen Manning and Jim Dickson, and the San Francisco Zoo by Katherine Girlich. Woody LaBountys Carville-by-the-Sea and an upcoming Ingleside Terraces book are also impressive contributions to local history, and make for very interesting reading.

Even a cookbook can be a good read if it is properly written. Not just a compilation of ingredients and instructions, a cookbook must tell a story, and even if you dont plan on preparing a recipe immediately, it can be an enjoyable read at any time. One local author, Rick Rodgers, always manages to weave his familys story into his writings, whether its an all-purpose cookbook or a single-subject collection of things like Thanksgiving, summer barbecue, or Christmas. Southern food writer Paula Deen is also an accomplished story-teller as she provides cooking direction and personal remembrances to her readers. Cookin, out there on Divisidero, has an entire back wall, from floor to ceiling, filled with used cookbooks, and I never tire of browsing the collection there.

During the years I worked at Williams-Sonoma, I once visited with company founder Chuck Williams (now a spry 96 years young) in his surprisingly modest office at the companys downtown headquarters. Dominating one entire wall were built-in bookcases nearly 12 feet high, and running at least 40 feet from one side of the room to the other. On a daily basis, he worked alongside thousands of different cookbookssome good and some not so, but all were interesting, he told me. He had read every one of them multiple times, providing him with just a bit of inspiration each and every time.

In its final year of publication in 1982, San Franciscos City Directory listed well over 200 retail bookstores. Sadly, things have been in decline ever since. So far this year, the San Francisco Chronicle has reported on a dozen or more closings of small neighborhood bookstores throughout the City. Not even the Government Printing Office Bookstore, once a fixture in the Federal Building, was able to survive, and is now gone.

Over the years, there were many book retailers operating in the western neighborhoods: Jabberwock Books, Porpoise Books, Slovo Books, and Gallery Bookshop on Clement Street; Liebers Bookstore on Geary Boulevard; the Russian Bookstore on Balboa Street; Book Fair, Blue Sky Books, and Sunset Books on Irving Street; Fannings Bookstore and Bolerium Books on Judah Street; Gutenberg Books on 9th Avenue, plus the ever-present Christian Science Reading Room on West Portal Avenue. Even the old California Book Company, forever on Phelan Avenue near Ocean Avenue, as the only book store for City College, has now become a mere annex to the main campus outlet, with merchandise offerings now focused on clothing and other logo items, snacks, sundries, calculators, CD players, and school supplies. So much for books

Our public libraries, saved from extinction by some recent voter-approved upgrades, can barely keep their doors open, and their once-standard 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. operating hours vanished while I was in college in the 1970s. Sadly, many are now open only a few days per week, with nighttime hours severely curtailed and even non-existent at some branches. Hey, City Hall, just when do you think that working people find the time to relax and read for pleasure?

For several years now, the U.S. Congress has officially sanctioned a proposal by a teachers group declaring October 20th as the National Day of Writing, in recognition of its impact on all of our lives. So lets all celebrate this new event by going out and picking up a newspaper or a magazine, buying a book, renewing a library card, and encouraging those around you to do likewise. Supporting writing through the related activity of reading can be a great way to start and end each day in the Outside Lands or wherever you happen to be.

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Carville's Last Remnant

By Woody LaBounty

December 2002

I've been, in a way, retracing the steps of the late James L. Heisterkamp. I walk up and down the blocks of the outer Sunset district. looking for Carville homes that might still exist. I think they're out here. What about the narrow box that is 1218 46th Avenue? I inspect the seam that splits the two stories of a Kirkham street home near 48th Avenue: a couple of cable cars stacked up?

A San Francisco State student creating a special study report, James L. Heisterkamp kept a detailed diary of his 1994 search for Carville's "last remnant". He chatted with people in libraries, people on walks, people he met in cafes and laundromats. He knew from Natalie Jahraus Cowan's California History article (Winter 1978/79, Vol. LVII) that 1415-47th Avenue used to be a Carville home, but the owner, Frank Lemus, told him there wasn't any sign of streetcars left inside. When he headed to the beach and turned onto Great Highway he met a kid about twenty pushing a bicycle out of a suspiciously narrow house. Mr. Heisterkamp asked whether it had once been a cable car. The young man didn't know, but gestured to the home next door, which was for sale.

The bicyclist pointed Heisterkamp to the last, best Carville home left. And the researcher knew it was a lucky break. Other locals he met had never heard of Carville. "During my trekking up and down 47th, 48th, and the Great Highway, looking for the elusive remnant Carville cable cars, I was amazed by the number of people who never heard of the previous history of their own neighborhood. One man, in his forties or fifties, lived in the area about a half a block from the [Carville] address, for over 20 years and was unaware of cable cars ever being a part of some of the structure in his area."

During an open house, Heisterkamp had the opportunity to take photos and chat with the owner. The old railcars made up the second floor, with the front door opening on a large room of two cable cars side by side, their interior sides removed. The property was on the market for $309,000. (By January 1995, the price was $299,950.) 1

Enter Scott Anderson, a filmmaker who lived in an apartment in the neighborhood. Anderson walked by the home one day, saw the "for sale" sign, and took a look inside. Stunned and entranced, he ended up buying the quirky structure.

Pat Halloran, Anderson's tenant, gives me the great privilege to walk around inside his home. 2 Like James Heisterkamp and Scott Anderson before me, I marvel at the amount of original, historical fabric in the home. One wall has the wooden benches of the old cable car still built in. I sit where passengers in the 1890s sat, under the original tongue-and-groove slat ceiling, peering out side windows. Glass lanterns, old kerosene lamps, hang over the space, and it doesn't take much to believe the room is about to rumble down a pair of rails. Pat's bedroom and bathroom is an intact horse car, complete with a sliding panel door separating the two.

"I'm trying to do the best I can to keep it in the state it is," Anderson tells me on the phone. Preservation and restoration is a tricky business. Obviously the aluminum windows in the back aren't original to the streetcars, but does he replace them with window frames from the structure's time as rolling stock or its incarnation as a residence? Should we look at the house on Great Highway as a collection of transportation artifacts cobbled together, or a single architectural landmark?

For now, Anderson tells his tenant, Pat Halloran, not to put any new nails in the walls. More thought and research needs to be done.

I'm so smitten with the place I ask Halloran if he has plans of moving anytime soon. He says, "If I ever leave, I'm going to really miss it." But surprisingly, he doesn't mention the special architectural elements of his apartment, but its location, echoing with a modern twist the sentiments of the Carville residents from a hundred years ago: "Being near the beach, especially on a day like today, when I can just take off boogie boarding in the waves... it's great."

Homeowner Anderson tells me something else: "I'm very interested in preserving the house and the property in this area of the Sunset, because there's some great buildings out here." 3

It's a nice sentiment to hear, because it isn't hard to find opposing views of the district. Map makers labeled the area the "Great Sand Waste" in the 1860s. In 1999, Preservation magazine did an article on the Carville house which featured lines such as "...the Sunset may be [San Francisco's] only neighborhood without a trace of apparent charm or history, a vast, drab tract of stucco houses sloping down to the sea." 4

Walking down Great Highway, you can't tell Scott Anderson's house has a wonderful secret inside it. Apparently the Sunset district as a whole has the same quality.

Think you know of a Carville house? Let us know!

Images: 1) Scott Anderson's Carville house (Great Highway near Moraga) from the rear. Courtesy of Greg Gaar. 2) Same Carville home interior, November 2002. WNP photo.

Special thanks to the descendants of James L. Heisterkamp and the San Francisco History Center for their assistance.

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The government is expecting more than 18 million more doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the coming days to augment the national fight against the virus.



The expected consignment will comprise 1,330,270 doses of Pfizer from the US government through COVAX; 834,729 doses of AstraZeneca from the governments of UK, Denmark, Norway and the European Union also through COVAX, and a bilateral engagement with Germany for the delivery of over 16 million doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccines.



The Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare, who disclosed this in Kumasi this week, has charged health workers and the science community in the country to improve the public education campaign to sustain the fight against COVID-19.



He said there was too much misinformation in the system, particularly on social media, that sought to impede the governments response to the pandemic, and urged health workers to get involved to correct such misinformation and disinformation.



He said some people who still believed that the virus was not real were instigating people against taking the jabs.



Occasion



Delivering the keynote address at the opening of the Ninth Biennial Science conference of the College of Health Sciences of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) last Wednesday, Dr. Nsiah-Asare explained that vaccines are what we need.



Once you take the vaccine, you dont get very sick, and if you even get the virus you dont die and you dont easily infect people.



Once we have a lot of people vaccinated, then we cut down on the number of the vulnerable people in society and then we are winning the fight, he said.



He said even though the country had made progress in the fight against the disease, I must admit and emphasise that the battle is still far from over.



He said the recent resurgence of local COVID-19 cases serves a reminder to us that we must not relent in our effort in the fight against the pandemic.



Vaccination



Dr. Nsiah-Asare explained that with the emergence of new and more contagious strains of the virus, the governments immediate and overarching plan was to accelerate vaccination in order to achieve herd immunity and minimise transmission.



The government is committed to obtaining sufficient vaccines in order to make vaccines a national public good that is available to all citizens, he said.



Even though the ultimate goal is to vaccinate the entire nation, he said the initial target was to vaccinate 20 million persons segmented by population groups and geography, excluding children below 18 years and pregnant women.



As additional data safety becomes available, the vaccination will be expanded to cover children and pregnant women, he assured.









Source: Graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has inspected ongoing work on the construction of the Kumasi International Airport, which, according to the contractor, is currently 77percent complete, and is expected to be completed in June 2022.



President Akufo-Addo visited the site of the construction on Friday, October 1, 2021, when he commenced his four-day working visit to the Ashanti Region, as part of his annual working visits to all the regions of the country.



It will be recalled that on June 6, 2018, the President cut the sod for the commencement of work on Phase Two of the Kumasi Airport Project and indicated that the expansion of this airport is a critical part of governments vision to expand the frontiers of the aviation industry in the country, and to realise the dream of making Ghana an aviation hub in West Africa.



Inspecting work on the site, the President was told that the terminal building was 88 per cent complete, the road network 93percent complete, the Apron 89 per cent complete, with the air traffic control and rescue and firefighting services 53 per cent complete.



The scope of work includes the extension of existing runway pavement from 1,981 metres to 2,320 metres, the construction of a new taxi link and apron, two new apron parking stands, aeronautical ground lighting systems, the design and building of a terminal with the capacity to handle eight hundred thousand passengers per annum, an 11 MW substation, as well the provision of new bulk utility (electricity, water, sewage treatment system, internet etc.) services, independent of the existing utility services for the existing airport facilities.



Phase three of the project involves the construction of the air traffic control building, a fire building station, as well as the expansion of the existing runway pavement. The construction of the fuel farm is to be funded by GOIL.



With the project being constructed by Messrs Contracta Construction UK Limited, the total project sum is 124.9 million, with financing from Santander, Deutsche Bank, and UKEF.



President Akufo-Addo expressed satisfaction with the progress of work undertaken so far and charged the Ministry of Transport as well as the Contractor to ensure that the October 2022 deadline for completion is met.







Source: graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Poor access road and the lack of utility services could delay the inauguration of the 250-bed Ashanti Regional Hospital sited at Sawua in the Bosomtwe District, engineers working on the project have warned.



The absence of power and water from non-backup sources and telephone infrastructure, in addition to the bumpy and dusty access road, which currently does not have the complementary drainage system, appear to detract from the decent physical infrastructure and the careful layout of the facility.



Otherwise, the main physical infrastructure and the installation of equipment are almost done.



The project is said to be about 98 per cent complete and tentatively scheduled to be handed over by November this year, but currently runs on what were intended to be backup power plant and water system.



The engineers said the undone 1.2-kilometre access road and the complementary drainage system were also delaying the completion of a final component of the sewerage treatment system.



An aerial view of the hospital



The Site Engineer, Mr Amer Farouk Mahmaoud Amer, made the disclosure when he joined the Chairman of Euroget De-Invest, Dr Said Deraz, to usher President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo around the facility yesterday as part of his tour of the region.



Euroget De-Invest, an Egyptian investment company, is constructing the hospital and eight others for government across the country.



Mr Farouk said even if the project was handed over today, accessing the facility would be difficult.



The President is on a four-day tour of the region, and yesterday's visit of the hospital site was part of the inspection of a number of projects, including the Bosomtwe and Ohwiamase-Twedie roads.



The facility has 43 medical and non-medical buildings, a 60-kilometre internal road network, 10 theatres, dental, orthopaedic, urology and andrology specialist clinics, and a 36-body capacity mortuary.



It also has a 20-unit staff accommodation, a 150-car park, an ambulance station, and housing for lactating mothers, with the infrastructure sited on a 12,500 square-metre area.



It is equipped with sophisticated machines that will enable it to also serve as a referral centre, with the laboratories, pharmacies and other complementary services making it a complete healthcare service destination.













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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A Communications expert, Prof. Kwame Karikari, has advocated local languages to be made compulsory subjects in schools.

According to him, Ghanaian languages must be studied in all basic and second-cycle schools in the country.



"If we can study English and Mathematics as compulsory subjects in our schools, why can't we do same for our own languages, he asked.



He said aside from fostering national unity and cohesion, the practice could also accelerate the socio-economic development of the country.



Speaking at the 10th anniversary of Oasis international school at Teshie GREDA Estates in the Greater Accra Region, he said local languages created a unique identity and also promoted values, skills and the culture of the people.



Prof. Karikari, who is also the board chairman of both the Graphic Communications Group Limited and the Oasis school, further expressed concern over the fact that some parents had chosen English as the only medium of communication between them and their children, saying Ghana risked losing its unique identity and culture if the practice did not stop.



"Our local languages will go extinct in the very near future if we don't take measures to remedy the situation," he said.



Support



Touching on the theme for the anniversary: Celebrating a decade of inspiring a passion for learning, Prof. Karikari urged parents and guardians to support teachers to train children by making time for their own kids and not leave them solely in the care of schools.



He further encouraged parents to speak their local languages with their children at home, instead of foreign languages.



Commendation



The Director of the school, Mrs Christine-Marie Nyantakyi, commended parents for their continued support to the school in the training of their kids.





She also expressed appreciation to the teachers for their tireless effort in moulding the characters of children in their care.



Mrs Nyantakyi said the school, which started from humble beginnings with nine children, now had a population of 518 children.



The event was commemorated with spectacular performances in poetry recital, choreography and drama.



Present were the members of Parliament for Ledzokuku and Krowor, Mr Benjamin Ayiku Narteh and Mrs Agnes Naa Momo Lartey, respectively; the Municipal Director of Education for the area, Mr Victor Noye Tawiah, among others.



Awards



As part of activities marking the anniversary, the board chairman instituted two sets of awards for Literature and Mathematics in the school.



The awards, which will start from next academic year, will see winners in the two categories receiving cash prizes of GHc1,000 each.





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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PPP National Chairman, Nana Ofori Owusu, has kicked against the removal of residents from the Buduburam Camp.



The residents were issued a September 30th ultimatum to vacate the camp.



They are told to either return home or be reintegrated into the society.



The refugees who have stayed in the camp for many years have since complained bitterly about the mode in which they are asked to leave their abode with some reportedly refusing to comply with the order.



They argue that the decision to move them should have been channelled through the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Ghana Refugee Board because it was through the UN body and the Government of Ghana that they settled at the camp.



Others also state that they cannot leave the camp because the borders are closed.



Touching on the issue, Nana Ofori Owusu held strongly that it's unfair for the residents to leave the camp.



According to him, it is a bad idea to move them out stressing none of the countries specified for them to resettle, thus the United States or Australia, are ready to admit them.



"Reintegration to come and do what? What are they coming to do exactly? Someone who has resided in this country for 31 years and now we're saying we are going to integrate them into our normal day processes and activities while their passport says no recourse to work. We do things that we need to blame ourselves sometimes. The people there, whatever condition that has been created, remember they were victims of war which can happen to all of us.



" . . the United States and other countries are no more taking them. There is no more relocating them into other countries; that has been cut off. The only option is repatriation or reintegration into the Ghanaian economy. Reintegration requires education. Reintegration requires proper documentation as to the status of the person but we have heard nothing about all this. And the people are saying that their books say that they can't work; so saying that now you're taking them from their places of abode to go and hire a different place," he said on Peace FM's morning programme 'Kokrokoo'.



He also argued that the Buduburam Camp has been refugees', who mostly are Liberians, place of residence for years, hence the State authorities should first have a proper alternative for them.



"What plans are there that once the place is broken down, what is coming up for that place? What is the next activity in the place once the things are torn down?'' he queried the Government of Ghana.



Nana Ofori wasn't enthused about the decision for the refugees to vacate, further asking, "What money should they use to hire a different place? How much are we giving them?"



"So, the attitude that somehow we have become repulsive, all of suddden, and want to eject them from this situation; I cannot accept that attitude," he asserted.









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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At least 13 passengers died on the spot on Sunday when an OA bus and a Cargo truck collided at Ohene Nkwanta near Konongo in the Ashanti Region, the police have confirmed.



Speaking with Wilberforce Asare on Asaase FM Monday (4 October ) Motor Transport and Traffic Directorate (MTTD) Commander of Konongo DSP Stephen Paa Yeboah said eleven other passengers who also sustained injuries are currently receiving medical attention at the Konongo Government Hospital .



Yesterday around 10:50 pm we received information that there was an accident at Duayaw Nkwanta on the Konongo Accra Kumasi -Highway, we proceeded to the scene and found an OA bus and a Cargo truck loaded with goods from Kumasi to Accra.



The cause of the accident, the information gathered is that the Cargo Truck as it was coming from Kumasi saw a truck ahead of him and he avoided it and veered into the other lane and crashed with the OA bus causing that accident of which 13 people perished on the spot, he said.



DSP Stephen Paa Yeboah appealed to government to erect speed ramps on that stretch to reduce the spate of accident in the area.



Statistics from the National Road Safety Authority NRSA shows that Over 1,000 persons have been killed through road accidents in the country this year alone.

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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The chiefs and people of Asawinso in the Western North Region have assured the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) of their support to help track defaulters to retrieve its revenue estimated at over a million cedis.

This follows a violent confrontation during a revenue mobilisation drive and mass disconnection for non-payment at Asawinso. More than 90 per cent of the residents failed to pay a total of 1.1 million consumed for their domestic and commercial activities since 2015.



Sensitisation



The company said it adopted a customer friendly approach, where the revenue mobilisation team embarked on a sensitisation drive to make these customers honour their debt obligation to ECG but all efforts proved futile.



The company, therefore, embarked on disconnection of defaulters, which constitute about 90 per cent of customers in the community, and the move was fiercely resisted.



The community members rallied and attacked 20 ECG officials in their attempt to disconnect them or get defaulters to pay their bills.



Debt since 2015



The angry residents who claimed the governments Free Electricity still covered their electricity consumption since 2015, therefore, descended heavily on them, physically assaulted, heckled and deflated the front-tyres of the companys vehicle last weekend.



The dare situation was such that but for the timely intervention of the police the ECG workers would have been lynched. After being rescued, and with the people refusing to pay their debt, the ECG was left with no option but to disconnect the entire community until they are ready to pay.



However, considering the impact of the disconnection, the traditional rulers through the Western North Regional Minister sent their plea to the ECG to restore power to Asawinso A town.



No violence approach



The Western North Regional Minister, Mr Richard Ebbah Obeng, after separate interaction between the community and the company called for a meeting.



He made the people aware of the importance of sustainable power generation, which could only be achieved when people paid for power they consumed through legal means.



He also told members of the community why they had to help the government, the ECG and other players in the power sector by paying their electricity bills. Without paying, it will be difficult for the system to function due to the huge capital required to keep our lights on.



Interventions



The ministers intervention helped and it was agreed that the chiefs and other community leaders, assembly members, religious leaders must educate community members to appreciate why it is important to pay for the power they have consumed.



The people asked for reconnection and said the ECG should come and build a marketplace, community centre and toilet facility but they were made to understand that the ECG is under no obligation to carry out any social responsibility programme in their communities.



The minister said they agreed that power would be restored but those who failed to pay their bills would still be disconnected and that the office of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURI) would visit the people for further education.



ECGs commitment



The minister urged the ECG to check individual bills of defaulters to ensure that likely anomalies were removed to ensure a smooth process and urged those owing to pay.



For his part, the Western Regional General Manager of the ECG, Mr Emmanuel Justice Ofori, said a team would be sent to Asawinso A with meter readers to take records of each meter and disconnect all illegal meters.



He said much as the ECG was ready to serve the country, it was important that customers honoured their debt obligations, adding, when we come to those owing, they have to pay for what they have consumed already.



Reliable power



The Regional Public Relations Officer for Western, Mr Benjamin Quarcoo, said ECG still remained committed to providing quality, reliable and safe electricity services to support the socio-economic growth and development of the country.



Our side remains committed to you and we expect that after consuming, we pay to ensure sustainability of power generation and distribution.



The Asawinso Amratehene A, Nana Kwadwo Nipa, commended the regional minister for his intervention and the ECG for its commitment to the process and urged the defaulters to honour their obligations to ECG.



Power has since been restored and the processes agreed to during the deliberation are being followed.



The community members promised to pay their bills regularly and never use violence to address their grievances.





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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A rescue operation by the Agona West Municipal office of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) turned tragic when an officer drowned in a 40-feet deep well at Gomoa Oboasi in the Gomoa Central District in the Central Region last Saturday.

Assistant Station Officer (ASO) Joseph Baidoo drowned after rescuing three persons trapped in the well.



Two men were trapped while working in the well, and subsequently the owner too, in an attempt to rescue them.



ASO Baidoo was said to be eating at the time the distress call came from the community but he abandoned his food to lead a team of officers to the site of the well.



The fire officer descended into the well around 8:30 a.m. and managed to rescue the owner of the well and the two workers, Nana Kwame and Nana Yaw, but fell into the well from a height and died as the rope around his waist loosened when he was being pulled out of the pit after his rescue effort.



It took reinforcement from the Winneba office of the GNFS before his lifeless body was retrieved from the well after about two hours.



The deceaseds body has since been deposited at the Swedru Government Hospital morgue for autopsy, while the three persons who were rescued are receiving treatment at the same facility after gaining consciousness.



Tragic scene



The tragedy attracted a crowd within minutes as the news travelled through the community, with many abandoning funerals and other social gatherings momentarily to reach the scene of the disaster.



As the crowd thickened, the situation became chaotic, necessitating a police intervention to control matters.



DCE consoles family



The Chief Executive of the Gomoa Central District Assembly, Mr Benjamin Kojo Otoo, has described the incident as tragic and sad, saying both the deceaseds family and the GNFS had lost a young and vibrant officer with great potential who unfortunately died in the line of duty.



He expressed the governments condolence to the family, and indicated that the assembly would offer the needed support towards the burial of the late fire officer.



Meanwhile, scores of well-wishers and sympathisers, including the Chief of Gomoa Otaprow, near Agona Swedru, Nana Osompa Nyamekye II, have visited the immediate family of the deceased fire officer to console the wife and the children at his residence.



The wife wept uncontrollably as the family received the visitors, which also included some colleagues of the late husband.

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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Some 15 professionals in various fields including law and academia have submitted a memo to Parliament to kick against the anti-LGBTQI+ bill.



To them, the proponents of the bill have not provided any data or evidence to suggest that there is such a threat, beyond a resort to some dogmatic religious tenets and so-called Ghanaian family values, hence want the bill rejected.



They include; Lead Counsel for President Nana Akufo-Addo in the 2020 election petition hearing, Akoto Ampaw, Professor Kofi Gyimah-Boadi, Dr Rose Kutin-Mensah, and the Executive Director of Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Professor H. Kwasi Prempeh.



Others are Professor Audrey Gadzekpo, Professor Kwame KariKari, Professor Raymond Atuguba, and Dr Yao Graham.



The rest are: Professsor Dzodzi Tsikata, Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, Kofi Ofei-Nkansah, Dr Kojo Asante, Akunu Dake, Tetteh Homerku-Adjjei and Professor Emerita Takyiwaa Manuh.



The private members bill, which is in the pipeline is proposing a 10-year jail term for offenders, including promoters of any sexuality that falls within the LGBTQI+ spectrum other than between a man and a woman.



The legislators promoting the bill, on June 29, 2021, submitted a copy of the draft to the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin.



It among other things says people of the same sex who engage in sexual intercourse are liable on summary conviction to a fine of not less than seven hundred and fifty penalty units and not more than five thousand penalty units, or to a term of imprisonment of not less than three years and not more than five years or both.



It covers any person who holds out as a lesbian, a gay, a transgender, a transsexual, a queer, a pansexual, an ally, a non-binary or any other sexual or gender identity that is contrary to the binary categories of male and female.



But in the view of these 15 individuals, the bill is an impermissible invasion of the inviolability of human dignity, adding railroading the bill through would mean challenging Ghanas 1992 Constitution.



Christs message was/is that we should love our neighbour and not be judgmental and promote the hate and bigotry that many self-styled Christians exhibit and seek to impose on Ghanaian society.



Per Article 18 of the Constitution, Ghana is a secular democracy and not a theocratic Christian or Islamic Republic or an African traditional monarchy or chiefdom, part of an 18-paged memorandum read.



Meanwhile, they have cautioned the recipient of the memo, the Select Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs against creating a society where the state, through legislation, imposes one view of proper human sexual rights.

Read below-

MEMORANDUM TO SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL, LEGAL ANDPARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS ON THE:PROMOTION OF PROPER HUMAN SEXUAL RIGHTS AND GHANAIAN FAMILYVALUES BILL, 2021

IntroductionThe LGBT Bill currently before Parliament is a major step backwards for democracy,inclusiveness, the protection of minorities and the vulnerable in society, and of fundamentalhuman rights in Ghana. Under the grand sounding banner of  proper human sexual rightsand Ghanaian family values the Bill seeks to send the country back centuries into thepast. Its language of recant and treatment echoes the middle ages of Europe where thestate and the Church, driven by misguided notions of heresy and witchcraft, hunted downinnocents in the name of God and religious values. Blinded by religious zealotry andintolerance, the theocratic State and its Church forced innocent vulnerable persons torecant their religious beliefs and burnt nonconformists at the stakes in the misguided beliefthat their gruesome murder would, somehow, purge their souls of evil. And, just as the Bill seeks to do in modern day Ghana, individuals and neighbours then wereencouraged, and even placed under a duty, to report and expose witches to the authoritiesso they could be apprehended and burnt.

Any sympathizers were suspect, just as how theLGBTQ+ Bill would criminalize those who support or express sympathy for, or provide asactuary or safe haven for LGTBQ+ persons. This is how the word witch-hunt came intothe English vocabulary.With all due respect, the provisions of the LGBTQ+ Bill, are not becoming of the Parliamentof our Republic. Our Parliament, celebrated r ightfully, as a critical player in Ghanas much-lauded constitutional democracy, ought not to become party to a fanatical crusade ofintolerance and extremism in the 21st century.The Bill violates the right to inviolability of the person. It violates virtually all the keyfundamental freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution, namely the right to freedom ofspeech and expression; the right to freedom of thought, conscience and belief; the freedomto practice any religion and to manifest such in practice (which includes the freedom not topractice any religion); the right to assemble, including the freedom to take part inprocessions and demonstrations; the freedom of association and the right to organize- in essence the fundamental human rights guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.



In addition, the provisions of the Bill violate the dignity and inviolability of every person,guaranteed under Article 15; it violates the principle of equality before the law, and the rightto freedom from discrimination on grounds of gender, race, colour, ethnic origin, religion,creed or social economic status, guaranteed under Article 11, as well as the right to privacyguaranteed under Article 18 of the Constitution. In short, the provisions of the Bill are soegregious in their violation of the fundamental human rights and freedoms guaranteed underthe Constitution that it beggars belief that it could be introduced as a Bill in the House ofParliament.i. Preliminary Procedural unconstitutionalityEven before we address the substantive provisions of the Bill, there is the need to drawattention to a preliminary and fundamental procedural defect of this Bill, as a privatemembers Bill.We count ourselves among those that have long argued and advocated that Article 108 not be read, as it had been throughout the history of the 4th Republic, to precludethe introduction of a Private Members Bill. We believe that Article 108, as written, allowsroom for and was never intended to deny Members of Parliament the opportunity to initiatelegislation in their own name by means of a Private Members Bill.

But merely because Article 108 can and must be read properly to allow MPs the opportunity to introduce a Private Members Bill does not mean that any and every Bill that is introduced as a Private MembersBill qualifies as such. Article 108 (a) (ii) of the Constitution of the Republic prohibitsParliament from proceeding onany private membersBill that in the opinion of the personpresiding,makes provision for the imposition of a charge on the Consolidated Fundsor other public funds of Ghana. To be sure, Article 108 (a),usesthe words in the opinionof the person presiding. This, however, does not give the person presiding acarte blanche to form any opinion s/he fancies without regard to the content or impact of the Bill in question.The opinion of the presiding person, as to whether or not the Bill imposes a charge on theConsolidated Funds or other public funds of Ghana, cannot be and is not intended to be amerely subjective opinion, not controlled by, or subject to, any objective consideration orfacts. Such a rendition of Article 108 (a) (ii) would make it practically ineffective and defeatthe constitutional purpose and intendment of the makers of the Constitution. . It would, ineffect, turn the limited allowance that Article 108 impliedly makes for a private members billinto an open and unrestricted invitation for any matter to be addressed legislatively by meansof a private members bill, without any regard whatsoever to the scale or enormity of its fiscalimpact on the public treasury.

Such a reading of Article 108 (a) (ii) would not comport withthe intent of the Framers, which is that those bills that seek to impose substantial budgetarycosts on the State must be reserved for the Executive to introduce. On the contrary, where, as in the provisions of the present Bill, the State is made to assume extensive policing dutiesand expend substantial policing resources to implement a law and to bear the cost of medicaland psychiatric treatment of LGBTQ+ persons who purportedly recant upon arrest and agreeto treatment, it is obvious that the Bill is designed to impose and, indeed, would imposesignificant charges on the Consolidated Fund or other public funds of Ghana-Irrespective of the subjective opinion of the presiding person that permitted this privatemembers Bill to be laid before Parliament, the Bill, in fact, imposes a charge on theConsolidated Funds or other public funds, and, by the express terms of Article 108, cannotlawfully be introduced in or acted upon by Parliament as a private members Bill. Accordingly, the introduction of this LGBTQ+ Bill as a private members Bill in Parliament,irrespective of the Bills merits or demerits, constitutes a direct and gross violation of Article108 (a) (ii). Given the charges that the Bill seeks to impose on the Consolidated Funds andor any other public funds of Ghana, the only and constitutionally permissible means by whichsuch a bill ought to have been introduced was in the words of Article 108 (1) by or onbehalf of the President of the Republic.



We therefore urge the Select Committee onConstitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to do the right and proper thing bythemselves, Parliament and the people of Ghana by advising Parliament that it cannotproceed with the Bill, given the Bills manifest unconstitutionality.ii. Highlights of the Bill violations of the key fundamental human rights provisions ofthe Constitution.The Bill in its memorandum quotes with approval the view expressed by the National Houseof Chiefs that being LGBTQ++ is ataboo and inhuman, under Ghanaian culture. Thatstatement, with respect, stigmatizes the being and identity of LGBTQ+ personsas inhuman.It thereby denies the humanity and identity of LGBTQ++ persons. This constitutes an assaulton their humanity and directly violates Article 15 (1) of the Constitution which provides thatThe dignity of all persons shall be inviolable. Further, such stigmatization violates Article 15 (2) (b) of Constitution which provides that No person shall, whether or not heis arrested, restricted or detained, be subjected to any other condition that detractsor is likely to detract from his dignity or worth as human being. By stigmatizingLGBTQ++ people as inhuman, the Bill reinforces hatred for LGBTQ++ persons, as personswho have no place in our society and deserve to be destroyed. This thereby subtly givesextremists licence to take the law into their own hands to attack or lynch LGBTQ++ persons.



This is so, in our respectful view, notwithstanding the pious provisions in the Bill that purportto protect the rights of LGBTQ++ persons from people taking the law into their hands andattacking them, by criminalizing such acts.The Bill in Clause 2 criminalizes LGBTQ+ sexual activities, and any person holdinghimself out as an LGBTQ+ person on the pain of imprisonment for not less than threeyears or more than five years, or to a fine of not less than 700 penalty units or 6,000penalty units or both. a) Criminalizing expression, advocacy, promotion of, solidarity with, and support forLGBTQ++ persons and activity, and the right of LGBTQ++ persons to organize, toassemble or demonstrateIn seeking to promote what it refers to as proper human sexual rights and Ghanaian f amilyvalues and norms, the Bill in clause 12 goes to the extreme of criminalizing and prohibitingideas, views, and expressions promoting or advocating support for LGBTQ++ practices,including films, broadcasting of LGBTQ+ comments or opinions on the internet, textmessages that express support or sympathy for, or solidarity with, LGBTQ+ identity, cause,views, and activities. In the result, under Clause 12 of the Bill, any person who advocatesthe recognition of, solidarity with, or promotes LGBTQ+ rights or causes, even if the personis not a LGBTQ++ person, commits an offence which on summary conviction is liable toimprisonment for not less than five (5) years or more than ten (10) years.

This paradoxicallymeans that under the Bill, even this current memorandum to Parliament would be acriminal offence punishable upon conviction by a term of not less than five years andnot more than ten years. This is so, even though it is a contradiction in terms and makesabsolutely no sense for Parliament to invite varied views from citizens on a Bill that seeks,should it become law, to criminalize the very views supporting or advocating LGBTQ++rights and causes! Unfortunately, this is precisely what the Bill does.Clause 12, accordingly, directly violates Article 21 (1) (a) of the Constitution, which providesthus:All persons are entitled to freedom of speech and expression, which shall includethe fr eedom of the press and other media. Clause15 of the Bill seeks to disband groups, associations, and organizations, whileClause 16 prohibits, as a criminal offence, the formation, organization, or registration ofany LGBTQ++ groups and any activity to support or sustain any such group, organization,or association. Anyone who does so is liable upon summary conviction, to imprisonment

5for a term of not less than six years and more than ten years.

Clause 15 of the Bill is clearlyin direct contravention of Article 21 (1) (e) which provides that:All persons shall be entitled to freedom of association, which shall include freedomto form or join trade unions and other associations, national and international, for theprotection of their interest. But that is not all. By criminalizing any activity to sustain or support LGBTQ++ organizationsor association, the Bill directly criminalizes the right of LGBTQ++ and their supporters totake part in demonstrations and processions in support of LGBTQ++ causes, in flagrantviolation of the fundamental freedom to assemble, including the right to take part inprocessions and demonstrations as guaranteed under Article 21 (1) (d) of the Constitution.The Bill founds its rationale in criminalizing the right to assemble, associate, to process, toexpress or promote views in support of LGBTQ++rights on the premise that [o]nce it isdetermined that the object or purpose of the group is unlawful, there can be no right ofassembly or association in respect of the object or purpose.

The Memorandum cites asexamples the Vigilantism and Related Offences Act, 2019 (Act 999), which proscribes theformation of groups for the furtherance of the interests of group members by use of threatof violence or intimidation, and the Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038), that permitsreasonable restrictions or interference in the enjoyment of the right to privacy of home,property, correspondence or communication. But such analysis, with respect, misconceives the law-making process and the justificationfor limitations in such circumstances. In the context of the Vigilantism and Cybersecuritylaws, the prohibited acts are matters that directly and objectively threaten public order,public safety, material public interest, human life, and financial and economic interests. Itis these weighty considerations that lead to criminalizing any right to associate to promoteor advocate or express support for these activities that manifestly and materially haveharmful consequences for the individual, society and social wellbeing.

It is the scale ofharm that justifies such restrictions. In the instant situation, the sponsors of the Bill havenot provided a shred of evidence demonstrating any substantial harm that LGBTQ++activities pose to society that provides a reasonable justification for such high-handedrestrictions of fundamental human rights.The sponsors of the Bill seek in the Memorandum to the Bill to justify the far-reachingencroachment on fundamental human rights on the ground thatsuch rights or freedomsby their very nature are not absolute. The Constitution prescribes reasonablerestrictions that are necessary for public health, order or safety . That isconceptually correct.



But the burden the sponsors then assume is to demonstrate that, indeed, theprovisions of the Bill are reasonably necessary for the protection of a legitimate publicinterest or individual right. Unfortunately, the sponsors fail astonishingly to provide anyempirical evidence to support this assertion, except though appeals to so-called Africancultural values and religious values which they claim the overwhelming majority ofGhanaians subscribe to. What this viewpoint singularly misconceives is that protectingfundamental human rights does not simply mean protecting the beliefs and interests of theoverwhelming majority.It also means protecting the rights and freedoms of minoritiesand historically vulnerable groups, such as LGBTQ++ persons. In fact, theConstitution, speaking through Article 21(4) (e), rightfully disapproves of actions, includingthose done under the guise of exercising some right or freedom of amajority, that inciteshatred against other members of the community, which is precisely what this Bill does.Instead of this Bill, what Article 21(4) (e) implicitly urges and expects Parliament to do isenact laws that protect vulnerable and unpopular minorities, fellow members of ourcommunity, from being targeted for hatred by a majority or another section of the community. b) Criminalizing housing of LGBTQ++ personsClause 10 of the Bill makes it a criminal offence punishable on summary conviction by aterm of imprisonment of not less than three years or more than five years for a person(even if s/he is a friend, family member, or even a sibling or a parent) to keep a house forthe purpose of hosting LGBT+ persons, where s/he knows that they are LGBTQ+.

So a sister cannot house a brother she knows to be a LGBTQ+ person, in the event that personreceives visits from LGBTQ+ associates and lovers. Nor can a mother house a son ordaughter, if she is aware of his/her LGBTQ++ identity, and allows her daughter or son withsuch identity to receive his/her lovers or even LGBTQ+ friends in that house. The Bill seeksto make any such act of filial or parental love pregnant with possible criminal liability.Landlords are also to beware, on the pain of prosecution and imprisonment, knowinglyrenting out premises to LGBTQ++ persons.These provisions echo George Orwells 1984, with Big Brother looking over our shouldersto ensure that we all, even in the deep and inner recesses of our bedrooms, comply with acertain prescribed view of proper human sexuality, even in the most intimate and privaterelationship between adults. As it is only possible to know what is going on in a housesuspected to be a home for LGBTQ+ persons by resorting to all manner of devices to intrudeinto the private and intimate spaces of those persons placed under suspicion, the Bill, essentially, invites the police and neighbours to engage in acts that endanger and violatethe privacy and property rights of such persons.Honourable members of the Select Committee, with respect, nothing could be moreintolerant and beyond the pale than these provisions of the Bill that seek to override thefreedoms that Ghanaians have fought for over the decades and won at the costs of ourlives and liberty.

Honourable members of the Select Committee, with respect, nothing could be moreintolerant and extremist than these provisions of the Bill that seek to override the freedomsthat Ghanaians have fought for over the decades and won at the cost of their lives andliberty.d) The defence of Ghanaian cultural valuesOn the question of Ghanaian cultural and traditional values, the sponsors of the Billconveniently refuse to acknowledge that not all of our cultural and traditional values canstand up to the demands of inclusiveness, diversity, and fundamental rights within ademocratic republic such as Ghana. For instance, traditional Ghanaian values do not fullyaccept persons with disability as persons having full and equal rights as those withoutdisability. The custom and values of some communities, especially in the past, consideredtwins as an abomination, with the result that they, by custom and tradition, had to be killedas evil, just like how the Bills sponsors considerLGBTQ++ persons inhuman and as evil.The infamous witch camps in northern Ghana where vulnerable women and old ladies are,even to date, banished for unproven allegations of witchcraft, are a product of our cultureand tradition. There is also thetrokosi cultural phenomenon, in the Volta Region, wherevery young girls are given away to the god or spirit represented by a priest or priestess forthe sins of other family members, and become virtually enslaved for the rest of their lives.Even until recently, the notion of gender equality was largely alleged to be repugnant to African or Ghanaian cultural values.

These are all cultural beliefs and practices based ontraditional norms and values. Indeed, in parts of Eastern Africa, albinos are targeted andmurdered because of their pigmentation, based on similar false cultural beliefs!But the fact that these are part of Ghanaian and African cultural and traditional norms andvalues do not make them acceptable in modern Ghana, in a free and democratic Republic.

They are clearly unacceptable. And that is why Article 39 (2) provides as follows:39(2). The State shall ensure thatappropriate customary and cultural valuesareadopted and developed as an integral part of thegrowing needs of the society as a whole, and in particular, practices which are injurious to the health andwellbeing of the person are abolished. [Emphasis added] Again, the Bill singularly fails to understand that matters of culture and societal values arebest protected and promoted by education and cultural engagement, rather than the crudeand blunt blade of criminal law. It is for this reason that, for example, Article 39 (1) of theConstitution places a duty on the State to take steps to encourage the integration ofappropriate customary valuesinto the fabric of national lifethrough formal and informaleducation and the conscious introduction of the cultural dimension to relevant aspects ofnational planning. It does not direct that the State should pass laws to impose certaincultural values on Ghanaians, much less sectarian cultural, or religious values.It should therefore be apparent to all, especially the sponsors of the LGBTQ+I Bill, that whilewe must cherish those aspects of our culture and values that enhance our being, knowledge,freedoms and livelihood as a people, and promote empathy and inclusiveness, we shouldbe quick to jettison those that inhibit us, impose cruel and unjustifiable restrictions andhardships on minorities and vulnerable groups, and evince a singular lack of empathy forone another. Indeed, Article 39 (2) enjoins us to ensure that cultural practices and valuesthat are injurious to the well-being of the person are abolished! The fact that thememorandum to the Bill rather cites Article 39 in support of the oppressive and inhumaneprovisions of the Bill, with respect, betrays a total misconception of the scheme of valuesour Constitution upholds. An appeal to Ghanaian cultural values and traditional norms, as a basis for the Bill, is byitself, therefore,neither a necessary nor sufficient justificationfor a Bill that isundoubtedlydriven by a totalitarian and authoritarian ethos, and religiousfundamentalist and extremist notions.

Such an appeal is no justification for a Bill thatseeks to impose on the proud people of Ghana a decidedlysectarian and monolithic view of proper human sexual(sic!) rights. Misplaced cultural nationalismThe promoters of the Bill seek to whip up their misguided version of Ghanaian culturalnationalism by raising the scare that LGBTQ+ rights are alien to Ghanaian culture andtradition, and are being promoted by a morally depraved West. In the first place, it isGhanaian LGBTQ++ persons who are fighting for social tolerance and acceptance, havingsuffered in the obscurity of darkness and social exclusion for years. Secondly, it is simplynot true that LGBTQ+ tendencies and inclinations are foreign to Ghanaian or Africansocieties. Indeed, there are historical records of Ancient Egypt that suggest and indicate that homosexuality existed as early as the 5th Dynasty, that is, around 2,380 BCE/BC.



Mural representations in the tomb of two male manicurists depict a relationship that may beconsidered the earliest historical record of a homosexual relationship betweenNiankhkhnum and Khnumhotep, who were chief manicurists of the Pharaoh and otherroyalty. Other references to homosexuality/lesbianism in Ancient Egypt can be found in aspecific text of the female author of the EgyptianBook of the Dead , written in 970 BCE/BCthus:I never had sex with a woman in the temple,suggesting that she had sex with womenoutside the temple. While we do not use these records to suggest that homosexual andlesbian practices, to the extent that they existed in Ancient Egypt, were the same in natureand extent as they exist in modern society, these historical allusions indicate the need foranti-LGBTQ++ warriors to be more questioning of their dogma that such practices are aliento Africa and African societies, and are solely the product of decadent western imperialistcultural onslaught.Indeed, as a matter of fact, LGBQT persons have been a well-known secret in Ghanaianfamilies and society for a long time, and not just the product of any external advocacy. Weare all aware of the familiar references to male individuals who display distinctroles andhabits of women, who are sometimes openly referred to as, for example,Kodjo besia orKwesi besia , depending on the day on which he was born.

It is also not a secret that as farback as the 1960s, if not earlier, some pairs of girls in female secondary schools developedclose sexual relationshipsknown as supi , a practice that continues today.These are wellknown homegrown facts, and not western inspired.e) Promoting Goals 3 and 5 of SDGsIt is a complete fallacy and misreading of Goal 3 of the UNs SDGs for the Bills sponsors tostate in the memorandum to the Bill that the Bill will ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all atall ages , when the Bill rather stigmatizes LGBTQ++ persons as inhumanand seeks to criminalize their very existence and make life a living hell for them. In the samevein, the Bill is in no way related to Goal 5 of SDGs, which is to achieve gender equalityand empower women and girls. These references to the SDG goals simply expose the lackof understanding of the import of these goals and reinforce the authoritarian ethos thatinforms the Bill, in contrast to the SDGs that are inclusive and pledgeto leave no onebehind, including LGBTQ+I persons.In essence, when all the fanciful justifications, supposedly grounded in culture, tradition andreligion, are stripped of their beguiling clothes and adornments, what is left of the high sounding Bill for the Protection of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values isstigmatization, bigotry, intolerance, repression, authoritarianism, violation of thefundamental human rights of LGBQT+ persons, false piety, cruelty to, and lack ofempathy for, them.f) Binary and unscientific categories of male and female as the only categories of sexClause 10 of the Bill decreesas grossly indecent act andprohibits, on the pain ofimprisonment for three months or one year, upon summary conviction, the public show ofany amorous relations with or among persons of the same sex; or public show of affectionamong persons where one or more of them have undergone gender or sex realignment, orpublic show of affection between or a person intentionally cross-dressing to portray thatperson is of a gender different fromwhat the sponsors refer to as the gender assigned atbirth with intent to engage in any act prohibited under the Bill!.

It is clear that the Bill is grounded on the unscientific and speculative notionthat a personssex is determined at birth and that sex is either male or female. While this may be a notionencouraged by some religion, any gynecologist, medical doctor, or biological scientist knowsthat a persons gender is not always determined at birth, nor is it necessarily binary bynature. The natural world is full of surprises that may shock the uninformed. In our respectfulview, this fact alone undermines the very foundations upon which the Bill is built. Indeed,there are recurrent provisions in the Bill which implicitly admit and concede to the reality thatpersons may be born at birth who do not fit into the arbitrary binary alternatives of male orfemale, which the Bill seeks to impose on Ghanaians. This is demonstrated in clauses ofthe Bill that make exception to the binary alternatives in the case ofsurgical proceduresintended to correct a biological anomaly , such as in Clause 1 (e); in Clause 2 of the Billwhichdefines intersex asan individual whose sexual anatomy or chromosomes does notfit the traditional markers of "female" or "male" assigned at birth ; and. Clause 6 (f) (ii) whichaccepts a departure from the decreed binary alternativesin the case of correcting abiological anomaly, including intersex .Interestingly, the Bill proposes the Minister for Religious Affairs and Culture as theresponsible officer for ensuring the medical treatment of persons.

This demonstrates thereligious fundamentalist extremism driving the Bill, making the Bill reminiscent of that ofstates such as the Taliban-ruled Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan!!g) Threat to Ghanaian family and family values The Bill, however, argues that LGBTQ+ activities threaten the heterosexual family unit asthe foundation of society and that permitting LGBTQ+ activities to flourish is a threat tosociety and even the human species. The proposers of this far-reaching claim have notprovided any data or evidence to suggest that there is such a threat, beyond a resort tosome dogmatic religious tenets and so-called Ghanaian family values.First of all, what constitutes the Ghanaian family unit is hardly uniform or static.

For example,the nuclear family unit or household, comprising two married heterosexual partners and theirbiological children, though increasingly common among elite or middle-class urban Ghanaian can hardly be said to represent the Ghanaian cultural norm. To many, particularlyoutside the ur ban elite enclaves, the family is still reckoned, for example, in extendedfamily or polygamous terms, with the nuclear family of the urban elite regarded as foreign.Single parent-headed households are also quite prevalent, as are various otherpermutations and combinations Any serious discussion of, or concern for, maintaining Ghanaian family values we submit,ought, in our respectful view, first to begin with addressing the rampant issue of pregnancyof young women and teenagers out of wedlock, and the abandonment, after the act, of suchyoung women by their male partners. That is what clearly undermines Ghanaian familyvalues. According to data from the Ghana Health Service District Information ManagementSystem,between 2016 and 2020, about 555,575 teenagers aged 10 to 19 years, aresaid to have gotten pregnant. 13,444 teenagers between the ages of 10 and 14 gotpregnant, while some 542,131 teenagers aged 15 to 19 years got pregnant during the sameperiod. On average, a little over 112,800 teenagers got pregnant annually over the fiveyears! These are real data clearly showing the real threat to Ghanaian family values andthe family as a basic unit of Ghanaian society, not the unsubstantiated threat purportedlyposed by LGBTQ++ persons.

Equally, extra-marital relationships tend to undermine thefamily as a unit and family values.h) LGBTQ++ persons and childrenIn its attempt to demonize LGBTQ++ persons, provisions of the Bill seek to associateLGBTQ++ persons with pedophilia, when the Memorandum to the Bill has not provided anymaterial or evidential link between LGBTQ++ activities and the abuse of minors. It needs tobe clearly stated that the law prohibits on the pain of grave punishment any sexualrelationship with a child, whether heterosexual or homosexual. Sexual abuse of children issexual abuse of children, and the law bans this, irrespective of the sex of the person.

It is thus unfair and stigmatizing of LGBTQ++ persons for the Bill to state and imply that there issomething peculiar to LGBTQ++ persons that gravitate them towards sexual abuse ofminors, when the overwhelming majority of cases of child sex abuse and defilement are byheterosexual persons. What is striking, nut unsurprisingabout this aspect of the Billsdenunciation of LGBTQ++ persons is that the sponsors provide absolutely no data orevidence for demonizing LGBTQ++ persons as pedophile by nature. It is nothing more thana scare-mongering tactic to arouse undeserved and unproven ill-will against LGBTQ++persons.i) Religious Beliefs and LGBTQ+I practicesIt is a given that some Christians and Muslims may find LGBTQ activities offensive andmay detest them. That may be well within their rights, as persons with strong religiousviews, though such attitude does little in promoting a diverse, tolerant and inclusivesociety, in which the interests of minorities and vulnerable groups, including LGBTQpersons, are deserving of equal respect. But can we imagine what would happen to ourdemocratic republic, if we started imposing as the law of the land the religious dogmas andtenets and edicts of one or the other dominant or ascendant religious community? Let itbe stated without equivocation thatours is a secular democratic republic, not atheocratic Christian or Islamic Republic or an African traditional monarchy orchiefdom. In other words, while it allows Christian, Islamic, African traditional and otherreligious beliefs and practices to exist in harmony with one another as fundamental rights,our Constitution rightfully forbids the imposition of a religious dogma, whether Christian or Islamic or traditional on Ghanaians.

Our Constitution, in Article 18 (1)(b) and (c) guarantees and embraces religious diversity, while guarding the freedomof people not to be bound by any particular religious belief or dogma: thus:. Article 18 (1) (b). All persons shall have the right to -(b) freedom of thought, conscience and belief, which shall includeacademic freedom;(a) freedom to practice any religion and to manifest such practiceAccordingly, our Constitution affirms and protects the right of Ghanaians and otherresidents of, or visitors to, Ghana to be free to practice any religion of their choiceor to beagnostics or,even, atheists.From this perspective and the perspective of criminalizing free speech and expression,assembly and the right to free association, from the perspective of violation of the right tofreedom from discrimination and the right to human dignity, the LGBTQ++ Bill constitutesan existential threat to the republic and its core values as set out in the Preamble, Chapter Five on Fundamental Human Rights, and Chapter 6 on Directive Principles of State ofPolicy of the Constitution of the Republic. It constitutesa flagrant violation of theseguaranteed rights and freedoms. Even from a Christian viewpoint, the crusade against LGBTQ++ persons as inhuman andevil ought to be considered within the context of what Christ would have done in responseto LGBTQ++ persons.

Christs message was/is that we should love our neighbor and not be judgmental and promote the hate and bigotry that many self-styled Christians exhibit andseek to impose on Ghanaian society. Little wonder, that as recently as June 2021, PopeFrancis, head of the Roman Catholic Church, favourably compared the work of a USCatholic priest affirming LGBTQ+ Catholics, to that of Jesus. (See:https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/06/27/pope-francis-affirming-letter-LGBTQ+-gay-catholics/ j) The Role of the World Congress of Families Ghanaians and Africans are all too familiar with the reaction of military or other authoritarianregimes to demands for representative democratic systems of governance and theirresponse that it is an attempt by the West to impose a foreign system. These same regimes however continue to receive foreign aid from the same West. This bears an uncannyresemblance to the actions of the main proponents of the LGBTQ++ Bill, the Coalition forProper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values, who decry foreign impositions. Yet it is undeniable that the Coalition has, in fact, collaborated with, and received considerableassistance from, the western, global anti-gay and anti-abortion network, the self-titled WorldCongress of Families. Indeed, it is no secret that thisWorld Congress of Families organizeda regional conference in Accra in October/November, 2020, in collaboration with the veryNational Coalition for Proper Human Sexual Rights, which has hypocritically spearheadedthe anti-western propaganda.

The self-styled World Congress of Families has been activein promoting the passage of similarly repressive anti LGBTQ++ laws in Nigeria, Cameroon,Uganda and elsewhere in Africa, in Eastern Europe, and in Latin America. It thus lies ill inthe mouth of the sponsors of the Bill to raise the scare-monger of foreign interference inGhanaian cultural values and sovereignty, when they have been beneficiaries of assistancefrom a western-inspired global network sponsored by American Christian far rightconservatives/extremists. There is nothing original or homegrown about this Bill. It takes itsinspiration from Western right-wing crusaders and follows a template used in recent yearsin such places as the Russian Federation, Moldova, and Hungary. j) Is There A Compelling Policy Rationale For This Bill?

There can be no doubt, as we have demonstrated, that the Bill constitutes an impermissibleinvasion of the inviolability and human dignity of the person and, freedom of expression andthought, freedom of assembly, including the right to organize and take part in processionsand demonstrations and the right to protection against discrimination on grounds of gender,race, ethnic origin, religion, creed or social and economic status. These rights are at the veryheart of our constitutional architecture. It is indisputable that, without these rights,Ghanasdemocracy would be meaningless. It is accordingly our respectful view that any law thatseeks to restrict and repress these rights in specific instances must meet the very highstandard of necessity  and reasonableness in the defence of life, property, the rights ofothers, public safety, or public health or public interest generally. Any such law must bereasonably justifiable in terms of the core values of the Constitution. If it fails to meet thistest, it is unconstitutional.It is our view that the provisions of the LGBTQ+ Bill are, in their totality, egregious in theirviolations of the fundamental human rights guaranteed under the Constitution, and worsestill do not meetthe reasonably justifiable threshold for restrictions of such rights. Thecriminalization of LGBTQ+ persons, their identity, associations and allies, rather thanpromoting public health, can only drive such persons into the shadows, where they will haveno access to public health or health education.

No compelling public interest is served bythis attempt to drive LGBTQ+ persons underground and render them social outcasts andsecond-class citizens. . Accordingly, the provisions of the Bill, if passed into law, would beunconstitutional, null and void.In any event, if the fear and anxiety of the sponsors of the Bill is that the ambiguity in theMarriage Act 1884  1986, (CAP 137), as to whether marriages under this legislation,whether Christian, Mohammedan or customary are confined to only heterosexual couples,this does not call for the Bill and its repressive totalitarian provisions. That lacuna, if any,can easily be filled by amending the law. Furthermore, section 104 (1) (c).of the CriminalOffences Act, 1960, (Act 29) already makes it a criminal offence for a person to haveunnatural carnal knowledge of an animal.

The tactic of tagging along provisions on sexualassault of animals with a Bill seeking to criminalize LGBTQ++ persons and activities,ominously stigmatizes them and unfairly suggests that bestiality is an activity associatedwith LGBTQ+ persons, requiring specific provisions to prohibit them. The sponsors of theBill, once more, have provided not even a scintilla of evidence in proof of this wildsupposition. Similarly, there is no need whatsoever for Clause 6 (1) ii) of the Bill whichcriminalizes keeping a brothel for LGBT activities. This is because there is sufficientprovision under the Criminal Offences Act that criminalizes the keeping of a brothel, whether for heterosexual or other sexual activities, as a crime. Similarly, Clause 7 of the Bill thatseeks to make it a crime for any LGBTQ++ person, by threat or intimidation, or by falsepretense or false representation, to procure another to engage in sexual intercourse, isalready catered for under section 107 (e) and (f) of the Criminal Offences Act, (Act 29). Thisagain reveals the zealots determination of the sponsors of the Bill to stigmatize anddemonize LGBTQ++ persons. Further, Clause 8 of the Bill makes it an offence to detainanother person with the intent of engaging in an act prohibited under the Bill. Even if it isargued that the provision on rape or defilement do not contemplate homosexual acts, therelevant section of the Criminal Offences Act can easily be amended to include such acts, ifthat were the concern of the sponsors.

Finally, we have demonstrated that the alleged threat to Ghanaian family values and thefamily as a basic unit of society upon which the Bill is founded has not been supported byany empirical data, and is nothing more than scare-mongering. In the circumstances,Parliament ought not to give this obnoxious Bill currency, much less pass it into law.k)The Bill violates a number of International Human Rights Instruments and Normsthat Ghana has assented to, sworn to, or committed to.Just as the Bill violates Ghanas constitutional provisions on fundamental human rights, it alsoviolates a number of key international human rights instruments and norms, including Articles1 and 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Article 7 of the InternationalCovenant on Civil and Political Rights on protection against torture, cruel, inhuman anddegrading treatment and punishment; Article 17 on arbitrary interference with privacy,correspondence and home; Article 18 on freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; Article19 on the right to hold opinions without interference and the right to freedom of expression; Article 21 on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly; Article 22 on the freedom ofassociation, including the right to form or join a trade for the protections of his interests; and Article 26 on the right to equal treatment before the law andto protection againstdiscrimination on any groundsuch as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or otheropinion. Quite clearly, the provisions of the Bill flagrantly violate all these fundamental civiland political rights of International Human Rights Instruments that Ghana has acceded to.Parliament should be wary lestit becomes the vehicle for Ghanas breach of thesefundamental provisions of international human rights law.

In its 2018 report to the Human Rights Council on its 37th Session, the United NationsIndependent Expert against Violence and Discrimination based on Sexual Orientation andGender Identity concluded as follows:..the rising number of hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identitycorrelates with a steep rise in ultraconservative political and religious groups usingtheir platforms to promote bigotry, dehumanize persons on the basis of sexualorientation, gender identity or expression, and foster a stigma and intolerance amongconstituencies. Such discourse sometimes is usedas a means to bolster popularity and detract attention from pressing economic and internal political problems, .in thelast Universal Review period for Ghana (AHRC/37/7, the recommendations in paragraph 146.59 (which enjoyed the support of Ghana) state that Ghana should[take the steps necessary to protect lesbian, gay bisexual, transgender and intersex people from violence and discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation andgender identity. On 28th July 2021, the Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Sidie Mohammed, in aninterview with TV3, advised that Ghana should be cautious in passing the Bill because ofits implications in promoting insecurity and undemocratic principles.The African Commission on Human and Peoples and Human Rights, in its Resolution 275of 12th May 2014, condemns systematic attacks by State and non-state actors againstpersons on the basis of their imputed or real sexual orientation or gender identity, while inaddition making discrimination against LGBTQ++ persons a violation of their fundamentalhuman rights.South Africa, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe (2012) and Cape Verde (2004), as wellas Lesotho (2012) and Seychelles (2016) in Africa have all abolished colonial penallegislation criminalizing homosexuals. The Angolan National Assembly passed a new penalcode that abolished criminalizing homosexual relationship, while making attacks on personsbecause of their sexual orientation as well as discrimination against people on the basis oftheir sexual orientation a crime punishable by not more than two years imprisonment. Itcame into effect in February 2021.The affirmation of the rights of LGBTQ++ persons as human rights is not only by legislation. African courts have also upheld the right of LGBTQ++ persons to protection againstdiscrimination and the enjoyment of their fundamental human right to human dignity and the right to organize and to advocate LGBTQ++ rights.

Thus, inEric Gitari v NGO Board & 4others, [2015], the Kenyan High Court in Nairobi upheld the rights of LGBTQ++ persons toassemble, noting at paragraph 104 of the judgment thus: As a society, once we recognise that persons who are gay, lesbian, bisexual,transgender or intersex are human beings...however reprehensible we may findtheir sexual orientation, we must accord them the human rights which areguaranteed by the Constitution to all persons, by virtue of their being human, inorder to protect their dignity as human.. Again in Attorney General of Botswana v. Rammoge & 19 Others, the Court of Appealof Botswana (the highest court in Botswana) upholding the decision of the High Courtaffirming the right of an organization by the name Lesbians, Gays and Bi-sexuals ofBotswana (LEGABIBO) to register an LGBTQ++ organization stated asfollows: Members of the gay, lesbian and transgender community, although nodoubt a small minority, and unacceptable to some on religious or othergrounds form part of the rich diversity of any nation and are fully entitledin Botswana, as in any other progressive state, to the constitutional protection of their dignity .The above examples are, in our respectful view, persuasive judicial decisions and legislationin Africa that we urge the Parliament of the Republic of Ghana to give serious considerationto,and reject the Promotion of Proper Sexual Human Right and Family Values Bill, 2021. Conclusion As far back as November 1992, in the seminal judgment of the Supreme Court of Ghana inNPP v. IGP,affirming the right of the people to assemble, demonstrate and process againstthe repressive Pubic Order Decree 1972 (NLCD 68), Amua-Sekyi JSC, as if anticipating these dark days that our Republic is threatened with today, stated in a compelling and deeplyinsightful dicta at pages 470 to 471 of the Ghana Law Reports 2 [1993  1994] GLR, hisopinion as follows:In countries that practice true democracy, supporters and opponents of everyconceivable cause are given freedom to associate and express their views. In the end,some have succeeded and their unpopular demands have eventually become majority wishes and have been recognized.

The examples are the anti-slavery groups ineighteenth century England and nineteenth century America and the suffragettes ofboth countries at the beginning of this century. Today, in these countries those whofavour and those who oppose abortion may assemble and hold demonstrations andprocessions in support of their cause, while in the less tolerant societies one may bepermitted and the other banned. In this country it would be unthinkable for any policeofficer to grant homosexuals a permit to hold a demonstration in support of so-calledgay rights, but I ask, if in nineteenth century England the supporters of child labourhad been prevented from stating their case, would its evil consequences have everbeen recognized?In this day and age, it is necessary for us to see that consentnot force is the basis of a just society, and that it is not for the government orour neighbor to tell us what to think or feel or do? [Emphasis added].Most of the restrictions on our liberties which after years of repression we have cometo accept, are inconsistent with democratic norms. Except in a time of war, when astate of emergency has been declared,it cannot be right for any agency of theexecutive to suppress the free expression of any opinion, however unpopularthat opinion may be. The believer in absolutism, the anarchist, those who opposeequal rights for women  yes lesbians and homosexuals too- are all entitled to thefree expression of their views, and the right to assemble and demonstrate in supportof those views. Once the state takes for itself the power to license association,assemblies and processions, it resorts to support of the status quo, and the only wayof changing the prevailing state of affairs is by use of force. [Emphasis added] We urge the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, to heed these prescient and liberating words of Amua-Sekyi JSC from the past, inorder not to createa society where the state through legislation imposes one view of properhuman sexual rights (sic!) as the only acceptable one in our free Republic, and wheredissenting views and expressions are criminalized and suppressed. What the Bill envisagesis the very opposite of the words freedom and justice that emblazon our coat of arms.The Bill ought, with respect, to be firmly rejected by the Parliamentary Select Committee onConstitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, and by Parliament as a whole.Respectfully submitted,

Respectfully submitted,

1. Akoto Ampaw

Phone: 0302 229875 0302 253900

Email address: [email protected]

Source: adomonline.com









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Mr Alan Kyerematen, Minister of Trade and Industry, has rebutted claims that Government is only rebranding some existing projects as "One District, One Factory " (1D1F ) companies.



Critics of Government's flagship programme have always been quick to raise issues anytime names of projects under the programme are put out, asserting that some of the companies are not new.



Mr Kyerematen, at a media encounter in the Ashanti region, restated that the programme was not only about the birthing of greenfield projects, but also the resuscitation of existing but distressed companies.



He said supports were also being given to vibrant companies to either expand or introduce new production lines.



If we say we are embarking on an industrial transformation agenda, if we say we want to stimulate industrial growth, what sense will it make if we allow struggling existing companies to collapse and say that we are supporting only greenfield projects? Why don't we extend similar support to these struggling companies for them to get back on their feet so that we are able to sustain the livelihoods of the Ghanaians who have been employed there as well as increase their capacity to recruit even more? the Minister asked.



The Trade Minister's media engagement was on the back of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's tour of Darko Farms as part of the President's visit to the Ashanti region.



Mr Kyerematen said Darko Farms was a testament of the wisdom of the President in extending the incentives of the programme to distressed but potentially viable projects.



Darko Farms and Company Limited is the oldest private and largest poultry farm established in 1967 with most of its operations located in Akropong in the Atwima Nwabiagya District of the Ashanti Region.



It was a household name for most Ghanaians for the production and sale of fresh wholesome and quality chicken and dominated most supermarkets and distribution outlets for fresh chicken in Kumasi and Accra.



The Company, however, went through a period of decline due to major challenges confronting the domestic poultry industry, including the high cost of feed, high cost of borrowing, inefficiencies across the value chain, high electricity and operational cost, management and governance issues as well as cheap imports.



As part of Governments industrialisation programme, the Company was identified as viable but distressed and considered under the 1D1F programme in 2017.



It received the support of GHc 22.1 Million (out of the 39 million cedis which was initially requested ) loan facility granted by Ghana EXIM Bank as a stimulus package to revamp operations.



The money is expected to help improve the value chain of the operations, upgrade, retool the hatchery, feed mill, processing facility, pay outstanding workers salaries and statutory obligations.



The 1D1F support includes helping establish out-grower schemes and the provision of technical assistance at no cost to the Company.



Darko Farms has a processing plant operating at 10,000 birds per day with one shift and 20,000 birds per day with two shifts and has re-tooled all its commercial farms to bring them up to international standards and increased day-old chicks and feed mill production to supply out-growers.



It has a hatchery with a capacity to produce 6 million day-old chicks a year, breeder farms with a bird population capacity of about 30,000 per batch, layer farms with a capacity of 100,000 per batch.



It also has commercial broiler farms with a capacity of 350,000 per cycle of 8 weeks, a feed mill with an installed capacity of 96 tons of feed per day, a storage cold room of 500 tons and a corn farmland of 1,250 acres at Ejura.



Darko Farms is currently implementing an out-grower scheme where farmers are supplied with broiler chicks, feed as well as appropriate support to breed the birds, which are purchased at maturity by the Farms for processing on a contractual basis.



Currently, the Company has employed 250 workers directly and more than 300 indirectly consisting of out-growers, distributors and transporters.



At full operation, it is expected to directly employ more than 400 workers for its operations, with 500 indirect employment through out-growers scheme, transporters, packaging and handling, and sales outlets.



The Company is engaged with the Mohihani Group, the major local supplier of processed chicken for Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and other big players in the food industry.



KFC, through its local supplier, has indicated its preparedness to off-take 100,000 birds monthly from Darko Farms under certified conditions.



The Company also has sales outlets in Accra and Kumasi and intends to open more sales outlets in all regional capitals.

Source: GNA









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The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly has summoned Assembly Members to attend a special meeting on Tuesday October 5,2021 following the nomination of Sam Pyne as Mayor of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.



The eighth Assembly Meeting will determine the fate of the Presidents nominee at 10am.



Dignitaries such as the Ashanti Regional Minister, Members of Parliament (MPs), All metro sub chairpersons including Heads of department are expected to attend the meeting.



The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, had nominated the NPPs Ashanti Regional Secretary, Sam Pyne as the Mayor of Kumasi.



This was made known on Sunday, September 19, 2021, by the Minister for Local Government, Dan Botwe at the ministers press briefing.



Sam Pyne is expected to take over from the outgoing Mayor, Osei Assibey Antwi.

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 expressed deep appreciation to the people of the Ashanti region for their unparalleled role in electing him for a second term.



Speaking in Twi on the first leg of a four-day tour of the region, the president said: 'But for your votes and support, I don't think I would have won the election'.



The region gave the president his highest votes at the last election with more than 1.7 million ballots.



He said he has always known the region to be the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) surest bet 'but the last election was impressive'.



President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said he had come to the region to ensure that the projects he promised the people were executed.



'Thank you Asanteman, thank you Otumfuo for all the supports and votes,' he said.



On his part, Otumfuo said despite the challenge globally, 'Work hard, kill yourself to prove to the people that the promises you gave during the election campaign were not lies'.



The Asantehene said he believed in the President to deliver because, at his age, he did not need material wealth.



Also speaking in Twi, the Asantehene said despite criticism, the president should remain focused and live up to the billing.



He commended the president for not remaining on his seat in Accra but touring the regions occasionally to assess work for himself.















Source: graphiconline.com









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Taiwan says a record number of Chinese warplanes, 77, have entered into its air defense identification zone (ADIZ) for the second day in a row, Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said on Saturday night, October 2.



Taiwan and mainland China have been governed separately since the end of a civil war more than seven decades ago, in which the defeated Nationalists fled to Taipei.



However, China views Taiwan as an inseparable part of its territory, even though the Chinese Communist Party has never governed the democratic island of about 24 million people.



Chinese President Xi Jinping has refused to rule out military force to capture Taiwan if necessary.



The island in a statement said a total of 39 Chinese military aircraft entered the ADIZ on Saturday, after 38 planes entered on Friday.



The 38 and 39 planes respectively are the highest number of incursions from China into the Taiwan air territory.



The incursions on Saturday came in two batches, 20 planes during daytime hours and 19 planes at night, the ministry said in two statements. They were made by 26 J-16 fighter jets, 10 Su-30 fighter jets, two Y-8 anti-submarine warning aircraft and one KJ-500 airborne, the Defense Ministry said.



In response, the Taiwanese air force scrambled aircraft, issued radio warnings, and deployed air defense missiles systems, the ministry added.



However, the incursions did not violate Taiwan's airspace, which extends 12 nautical miles from its coast. The US Federal Aviation Administration defines an ADIZ as "a designated area of airspace over land or water within which a country requires the immediate and positive identification, location and air traffic control of aircraft in the interest of the country's national security."



Before now, the previous single-day record for Chinese Army flights into Taiwan's ADIZ was in June, when 28 Chinese military planes entered.



The air incursions came as Beijing celebrated 72 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.













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The United States has warned China to stop its 'provocative' military flights near Taiwan after they sent about 100 military planes, some of them capable of dropping nuclear bombs, into the island's air defense zone over the weekend.



Taiwan's defense ministry said that China's air force sent 39 aircraft to the zone just on Saturday, October 3, the highest reported number to date.



They were a mixture of J-16 and Su-30 fighters as well as anti-submarine and early warning aircraft, Taiwan says. Friday's flights included nuclear-capable H-6 bombers.





'The United States is very concerned by the People's Republic of China's provocative military activity near Taiwan, which is destabilizing, risks miscalculations, and undermines regional peace and stability,' State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.



Taiwan is a democratically governed island about 100 miles off the coast of mainland China. The modern island nation was formed in 1949, after the Community Party kicked China's governing KMT party out of the mainland in the Chinese Civil War.



Taiwan, officially named the Republic of China, is not part of the United Nations. Only 15 countries recognize it as an independent state. The United States and Taiwan have consular relations, and the US government has committed to protecting Taiwan from a Chinese invasion.



China still claims Taiwan as part of the People's Republic of China and appears to be prepared to fight for it.



On Sunday, Taiwan's defense ministry said it sent combat aircraft to warn away the Chinese planes, while missile systems were deployed to monitor them.



The island has complained for more than a year of repeated missions near it by China's air force.



'We urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic, and economic pressure and coercion against Taiwan,' Price said Sunday.





'The United States has an abiding interest in peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and will continue to assist Taiwan in maintaining a "sufficient self-defense capability,"' Price added.



'The U.S. commitment to Taiwan is rock solid and contributes to the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and within the region.'



Taiwan's Foreign Ministry thanked the United States for its concern, and said China is increasing tension in the Indo-Pacific region.



'In the face of China's challenges, our country's government has always committed itself to improving our self-defense capabilities and resolutely safeguarding Taiwan's democracy, freedom, peace and prosperity,' it said.









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The leadership of Queens, a women group in collaboration with the market women at Kumasi Race Course organized a delightful birthday party to celebrate Hon. Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, the Trades and Industry Minister.



Madame Afia Korankyewaa, the leader and president of Queens in her submission shared that, times as these present a blissful opportunity to honor and celebrate a great man who's sacrificed his all to contribute and support the party during the formative stages, and has been a strong member of the party through out his adult life.



The elated market women, couldn't hide their joy and expressed their profound gratitude to His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP for implementing social intervention policies to relieve them of some challenging responsibilities. Addressing the media, Mama Esther, a leader at the Kumasi Race Course Market made a humble appeal on behalf of the market women to the honourable Trade and Industry Minister, Hon. Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen to contest for the flagbearership race when NEC opens the nomination. And also said the Trades ministry should kindly consider the market women when the government is disbursing grants and loans to SMEs in the country.



Hon. Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen is a year old today. Born on October 3, 1955 to Mr. Alexander Kyerematen and Mrs Victoria Kyerematen. Hon. Alan Kyerematen attended Adisadel college for his secondary education and later proceeded to Achimota for his sixth form education. He will later attend the Ghana Law school after completing a first degree at University of Ghana in Economics.



Hon. Alan Kyerematen is an astute cooperate executive, an international public servant with years of experience in global trade and a diplomat.



Other voluntary groups which supported the program are: Bantama for Alan, Pearls, Confidants of Alan, Alhaji Odenkey and friends, Asanteman Nkoso, Noel and Youth for Alan etc.

Source: Atiemo Emmanuel/Peacefmonline/[email protected]









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Vice President of the Bono Regional House of Chiefs, Okokyeredom Sakyi Ako, has admonished politicians to be mindful of their utterances by speaking to unite instead of dividing the country on political lines.

We want to encourage politics of decency in debates and expression of ideas and opinions, he stated, and asked politicians who speak on radio and television stations or use social media to help promote sanity and not create tension and enmity.



Okokyeredom Sakyi Ako, who is also the Omanhene of the Drobo Traditional Area, gave the admonition during this years Busia Memorial Lecture held in Sunyani last Friday, on the theme The youth in a free enterprise society"..



The Busia Memorial Lecture is organised annually under the auspices of the Busia Institute for Rural and Democratic Development (BIRDD) in commemoration of the life and works of Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia, Prime Minister of the Second Republic of Ghana.



Taking his turn in the memorial lecture, Okokyeredom Sakyi Ako said chiefs were always full of appreciation when a son of their land goes out there to bring honour to Ghana, and Busia was one such person.



His exploits in academia and politics sets a standard for others who may want to tread those paths. His was a politics of decency and respect for others, including his opponents, he stated.



Okokyeredom Sakyi Ako, therefore urged politicians to reflect on what they could also do to enhance the society for the benefit of posterity.



We must reflect each day the kind of Ghana we wish to help build. Is it a Ghana of acrimony and hatred or a Ghana of peace and progress, he asked.



He appealed to the youth to emulate the peaceful, tolerant and respectful nature of the late Dr Busia by desisting from all kinds of violence, intolerance, ignoble and unpatriotic behaviour.



Paradigm shift



Speaking on the sub-theme of the lecture Fixing the country, the need for a paradigm shift, a Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr John Kumah, urged the youth to take advantage of the numerous government interventions to access new markets for their products, link up with foreign partners and seek knowledge of new products and services for their clients.



In the area of education, Dr Kumah said free enterprise offered a lot of opportunities to the youth, explaining that the proliferation of tertiary and professional institutions had ensured that there were no restrictions to what one could study in school.



One of the ways that guarantee sustainable development at the individual and national levels is sincere service in integrity. As young people, let us not rush into doing things that are at variance with our age-old principles and values. Let us embrace sincerity, diligence and patriotism and aim always at giving our utmost, he stated.



For his part, the Chairman of the board of directors of the Public Procurement Authority, Professor Christopher Ameyaw Akumfi, who chaired the function commended organisers of the function for their foresight and expressed the hope that they would continue to educate the public about the life and works of the late Dr Busia.





Source: graphiconline.com









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Efforts by multilateral organisations to "stampede" Guinea's military junta to return the country to constitutional rule could plunge the country into instability and chaos," the Dean of the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC), Dr Vladimir Antwi-Danso has cautioned.



He argued that given the historical background of Guinea and the country's political and ethnic dynamics, multilateral organisations should rather focus on supporting the country to gradually reconstruct its constitutional and democratic structures to facilitate a peaceful transfer of power.



Delivering a presentation on the coup in Guinea at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Dialogue Centre in Accra last Tuesday, he indicated that the sanctions imposed on Guinea by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and other bodies will not yield successful results as it happened in the case of Mali.



"I think this stampeding of the juntas for constitutional rule is wrong. It has happened already so we should ask ourselves: where do we go from here? Should we help them establish democratic principles by having a kind of structural changes that would ensure that everyone played their roles? Can't we help them to establish democracy instead of making wishy-washy arrangements that can be washed away tomorrow," he asked.



Dr Antwi-Danso continued by saying: The ECOWAS delegation was hooted at when they went to Guinea. It tells us that they must be careful of the kind of arrangement they make. The situation in Mali was a litmus test. There are lot for us to learn from and not just to call for democracy."



Coup



The National Committee for Rally and Development (CNRD), led by Mamady Doumbouya staged a coup on September 5, 2021, leading to the ousting of President Alpha Conde.



Doumbouya and the other Special Forces soldiers behind the coup said they had ousted President Conde because of concerns about poverty and endemic corruption.



The move triggered widespread condemnation from both regional and international bodies, who threatened sanctions against the military junta in a bid to push the junta return the country to constitutional rule.



At its meeting in Accra on September 16, 2021, ECOWAS demanded a return to constitutional rule within six months and the unconditional release of President Conde, among other directives.



The junta, has however, defied the directives of the West Africa bloc to release Conde, insisting that we will not yield to any pressure.



ECOWAS failed



Dr Antwi-Danso criticised ECOWAS for failing to condemn President Conde when he manipulated Guineas constitution to run for a third term which provoked violent protests, leading to the killing of dozens.



He said the decision by ECOWAS to remain silent on the matter contravened the blocs own protocols which frowned upon power obtained by unconstitutional means.



The 2001 ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance rejects any power obtained or maintained by unconstitutional means. It is, therefore, surprising that, ECOWAS would be mute over manipulation of the constitutions of Niger, Senegal, Cote dIvoire, and Guinea, and also over human rights abuses until coups happen, he said.



Lack of convergence



Dr Antwi-Danso also expressed concern about what he described as the lack of convergence in both concepts and practices in reaction to coups by international actors.



The situation, he said, created a coordination vacuum and made reactions to coups detat highly political.



There is the need for a critical analysis of both inherent limits as well as those consequences that might even run counter to the original, officially stated aims of such interventions, he said.



He also urged the African Union and other regional bodies to be proactive, instead of being exclusively reactive, in identifying and responding to the warning signs of insurrection.





Source: graphiconline.com









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NPPs General Secretary, John Boadu says he will be surprised if his party fails to win the 2024 elections.



According to him, successes chalked by the Nana Addo-led government will be appreciated by Ghanaians through votes in the next election.



Initiatives introduced by this government has been very helpful to the country and every single person. Despite some lapses, this government has done extremely well.



Our policies are far better than that of the NDC government. This is something we have to continue as a party, he said in an interview with NEAT FMs morning show Ghana Montie.



John Boadu described Nana Akufo-Addo as a miracle worker who despite the challenges he met, implemented his major education policy in his first term.



He noted that breaking the eight(8) is feasible and practical because the statistics on the ground are positive and the NPP has proven beyond doubt that it is the only party to make Ghana better.







Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana









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Hollywood Actor, Clint Eastwood has won a $6.1 million lawsuit against a company in Lithuania that used his image to advertise their products.



Judge R. Gary Klausner of U.S. District Court for the Central District of California awarded Eastwood and the company that manages his image rights, Garrapata, $6 million for unauthorized use of his name and likeness after the Lithuanian company, Mediatonas UAB did not respond to a court summon in March.



In the settlement, the court also ordered the company to pay approximately $95,000 in attorneys fees, according to The New York Times.



The company has also been blocked from ever using his name and likeness again.



Eastwood filed two lawsuits last year in federal court against three manufacturers and marketers of CBD, short for cannabidiol, which is a part of the cannabis plant that does not lead to a high. The first lawsuit claimed his likeness was used in an interview falsely designed to look like an episode of the "Today" show, which linked to a site where viewers could buy the CBD-related products.



"Mr. Eastwood has no connection of any kind whatsoever to any CBD products and never gave such an interview," according to the lawsuit.



Jordan Susman, Eastwood's lawyer, said in a statement: "In pursuing this case, and obtaining this judgment, Mr. Eastwood has again demonstrated a willingness to confront wrongdoing and hold accountable those who try to illegally profit off his name, likeness, and goodwill."















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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Award-winning Ghanaian media personality, Nana Aba Anamoah, besides being admired by many for her journalistic prowess is also loved by many for being humane. The charismatic journalist has, however, served notice that she may be giving up on her benevolence.



This comes after it emerged that a young man the journalist helped to secure a job, ended up disgracing her by stealing from his boss.



In a Facebook post by Nana Aba Anamoah, she shared a screenshot of a conversation between herself and the disappointed boss who complained bitterly about the behaviour of the unnamed gentleman.



According to the boss, he employed the young on the recommendation of Nana Aba despite not having a vacancy. He further revealed that the young man was making GHC4,500 after tax from his job but went ahead to steal a colossal amount of about GHC100,000.00 from him with the connivance of some two other persons.



The gentleman you made me recruit from your Twitter dm has been stealing from me. He teamed up with two of his colleagues and stole close to 100K from my business. Despite the lack of vacancy, recruited this guy because you sounded emotional about his situation on the phone. For someone earning 4,500 net, I expected him to be focused to make you & his mum proud. This is unacceptable. love you but got him & his colleagues arrested this morning, the business owner told Nana Aba in their chat. Expressing her disappointment in hearing the news, Nana Aba in her Facebook post wrote, Im so ashamed. This is unfair to me. I dont deserve this. I am so done!



The journalist over the years has secured help for many people who have reached out to her through social media.



This includes some individuals who have shared with her their plight and their need for a job as a means of survival.



There are several testimonies of individuals who have received help or gained employment through Nana Abas network.



Some people who have reacted to Nana Abas post have urged the journalist not to give up while others have also pointed out that the gentlemans behaviour stands to jeopardize other peoples opportunity to receive her assistance.



I dont know you but ur (your) good heart doesnt have to end here per what u (you) have been doing for people. This is just one among many, there are others who have made u (you) n (and) their mum proud, they have not disgraced you. Keep on doing what you do best Nana, God above is still watching it, we as humans have erred on several different instances but God didnt say  He is done with us, I know u r pained but let it go. There are still people out who genuine people still looking for help, Isaac Nyamaa Boadi commented on her post.



You will definitely be ashamed. After helping such a person and he rather goes to disgrace you, every human being who has a conscience will be ashamed. Hes blocked the chances of others who are genuinely good, Edna Yaa Akomaa also wrote.









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Astute Ghanaian media personality and ace journalist, Oheneyere Gifty has sent a message to critics and those who think her achievements in life is as a result of probably her marriage to a royal family.



Oheneyere Gifty Anti took to her Instagram page and shared some of her private lifes experiences regarding how her daily routine is like and how it sometimes even affects her family.



The illustrious entrepreneur and host of The Standpoint show revealed that sometimes, her daughter hardly sees and get to spend time with her because of her work as she sometimes get home late in the night around 11:30pm and leaves dawn the next morning.



According to her, whatever she owns and have today is as a result of her hard work, however, God amplifies it for his Glory and God is determined to reward her hard work.



Sharing a stunning photo of herself on her page, she wrote,



"When I got home last night around 11:30pm, my daughter was asleep!!



When I left home at dawn this morning, my daughter was still asleep!!!



She hasnt set eyes on me since 7pm last night!!



I have 4 recordings today for @the_standpoint



I beg you, when next you hear someone talk about me, negatively..



When you hear someone insult me.



Please tell them that everything I am today! I worked and continue to work hard for!!



But the Grace of God amplifies it for His Glory!! And God is determined to reward my hard work!!



Enjoy your Saturday my dearies. And remember, this Mama prays for you and wishes you well!!!"











Source: Eugene Osafo-Nkansah/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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" " The whole idea of birthright citizenship, in which any person born on U.S. soil is automatically a citizen, is different here than in many other countries, where citizenship is based on lineage. Elena Botta/Getty Images

The idea of "birth tourism"  it's also known as "maternity tourism," and defined as travel to the U.S. for the purpose of having a child on American soil  is, to the growling anti-immigration crowd, utterly enraging. It's a back-door entry into U.S. citizenship, they say. It's happening too much. It's ruining the country.

But what really irks the tight-borders bunch, and has for years, is that birth tourism  maternity tourism, whatever you want to call it  is perfectly, Constitutionally protected, 100 percent legal.

Thousands and thousands of foreign nationals, many from China and Russia, come to the U.S. every year on travel visas in order to take advantage of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which states that "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside."

That means that no matter where you're from or what your intentions are, no matter what you've done in the past, if you give birth in America, jus soli (or "law of the soil") applies. Your child is, with only a few exceptions, automatically a U.S. citizen.

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The History of Birthright Citizenship

The 14th Amendment was passed in 1868 to grant citizenship to former slaves, who had been denied the right in the Supreme Court's pre-Civil War Dred Scott decision. Later, the Supreme Court, in a landmark 1898 case involving a child born in the U.S. to Chinese parents, expanded that "birthright citizenship" to anyone born on American soil.

The whole idea of birthright citizenship is different here than in many other countries, where citizenship is based on lineage. Former Clinton-era assistant attorney general Walter Dellinger explained it this way to NPR in 2010:

We believe in a clean slate principle. ... Whatever questions there are about the legitimacy of parents or grandparents, in our country you get a clean slate. Every new child who is born here is simply and indisputably an American. And that is part of our almost unique national identity.

The idea of "born here, citizen here" has been challenged countless times over the years  especially from those who object to someone who enters the country illegally having a baby who is automatically a citizen  including through a proposed amendment to the Constitution in 2011. Donald Trump made changing the 14th Amendment, or somehow addressing birthright citizenship through legislative means, a platform of his immigrant-targeted campaign.

"Every congressional term, some Republican in the House, probably also in the Senate, introduces a law intended to steal that birthright tradition," says Anna O. Law, a professor of political science at Brooklyn College (BC) and the author of "The Immigration Battle in American Courts." Law also holds the Herb Kurz Chair in Constitutional Rights at BC. "It's never prevailed. It's a popular talking point for anti-immigrant prescriptionists."

And so it is that birth tourism thrives. A non-American woman comes to the country legally, on a travel visa of some sort. She goes through customs. And here gives birth to a bouncing baby U.S. citizen.

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Putting the Brakes on Birth Tourism

Right now, the coast is almost clear for non-citizens to come to the U.S. to have a baby. First, of course, a tourist has to go through an interview at an American consulate in her home country before being granted a visa to enter the U.S. Lying in that interview is basis for denial of entry and is considered fraud.

"If the policymakers think this is a problem, 1), pass a law; in order to get a visa, you can't be coming here for the sole purpose of [having a baby]. Or 2), you deal with it at the interview," Law says. "There are other ways of handling it that don't require a constitutional amendment. When you use a constitutional amendment, it's using an elephant gun to kill a mosquito."

If a mother-to-be is granted a visa, she still has to make it through Customs here. Generally speaking, the U.S. does not bar pregnant tourists from entering the country as long as they can prove they have enough insurance or money for medical bills. But ...

"Although there are no specific regulations prohibiting pregnant foreign nationals from entering the U.S.," according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection website, "entry is allowed or denied at the discretion of the admitting U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officer."

Scaring away non-native parents-to-be, as Law suggests, is one way that could deter birth tourism. The idea is to tell potential tourists the negatives involved in having a baby on American soil: The fact that, as a citizen, the baby is "subject to the jurisdiction" of the U.S., meaning (for example) taxes eventually will be gathered, social security wages must be paid, and the child will someday have to register with Selective Service and would be eligible to be conscripted into the U.S. armed forces if a draft is reinstituted.

Still, many birth tourists see a future in which their child is eligible to be raised in the American educational system, enjoy Western culture and apply for government benefits.

Birth tourists, by definition (unlike illegal aliens), take their newborn, complete with U.S. passport, back to their home country and wait for a time they can come to the U.S. legally. At 21, American citizens can bring family members to live in the U.S. with them in what is known (and decried by anti-immigration forces that have become increasingly vocal under the Trump administration) as "chain migration."

The plan sounds risky, but parents of hundreds of thousands of kids  the numbers differ  are willing to try.

"You're really telling me this is a strategy? That's a long, long game," Law says. "You're going to drop an anchor 21 years in advance and hope things work out?

"I think for many of these parents, it's an escape hatch. In case something goes wrong in their home country. This is a way for them to get out. But the thing is, a lot of things can happen in 21 years. ..."

NOW THAT'S INTERESTING Some rich foreign birth tourists stay in fancy hotels and give birth in first-rate hospitals  birth tourism groups help set up arrangements  but many poorer tourists end up in lesser circumstances. Expectant families are sometimes crammed into possibly unsafe and unsanitary rooms waiting to give birth. They use midwives and never make it to hospitals. A recent New York Times article exposed such a site in Queens.
" " How did Karen end up as the universal name for the angry, white woman? HowStuffWorks

Anyone who spends more than 10 minutes on social media will run into her, or at least a reference to her: Karen. It's become a shorthand for an entitled, selfish, thoughtless white woman. While the name often refers to a stereotype, sometimes it refers to a specific person.

In May 2020, for instance, a woman dubbed the "Central Park Karen" called the police pretending to be threatened by a Black man after the man asked her to leash her dog in an area of the park where leashes are required. The entire episode was caught on video.

But where did the term come from? And why Karen?

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Possible Karen Origins

There are a few suspects for why we use the name Karen. First is Amanda Seyfried's character from the 2004 movie "Mean Girls" who asks Lindsay Lohan's character Cady Heron "So if you're from Africa, why are you white?" Mean girl Gretchen Weiners responds with the meme-friendly retort, "Oh my god, Karen, you can't just ask people why they're white."

There was also a Dane Cook routine in 2005 about "the friend nobody likes," and her name was Karen. In December 2017, a subreddit called "F***YouKaren" appeared, where the poster obsessed over his ex. Thousands of people found his rants funny and followed along, eventually sharing Karen memes they'd created or found.

A quick search of Twitter shows that by April 2018, people were regularly calling out Karen for her questionable potato salad recipe. Word about her potato salad even reached Wakanda.

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Wherefore Karen?

Cleve Evans, a professor who studies the history of names at Bellevue University, told writer Aja Romano at Vox that names have been used in this way for ages. "They are just another linguistic item that's possible to be associated with a particular group because of the perception that it's common among that group."

Evans also pointed out that the name "Karen" is a Danish form of "Katherine." That name derives from the Greek "Aikaterine," which is sometimes confused with the Greek word for "purity." People using Karen on social media probably didn't dig deeply enough to make that particularly ironic mistake.

Before Karen, there was Becky, whose cluelessness reigned from the 1990s into the 2000s, from Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back" to Beyonce's "Sorry." In April 2018, "BBQ Becky" called the police because Black people were using a charcoal grill in a park. But the modern Karen is more than clueless. As NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates put it on NPR's Code Switch, she is "aware there will be consequences if she summons help  and those consequences will fall most harshly on Black people, usually Black men."

Cases like these have changed the Karen stereotype from being someone who demands to see the manager to someone who calls the cops. Having harsh blond highlights is now the least of Karen's many issues.

Now That's Taking Action Supervisor Shamann Walton of San Francisco has introduced the "CAREN Act," short for Caution Against Racially Exploitative Non-Emergencies. The ordinance would make it unlawful to call 911 for fabricated, racially biased emergency reports in the city. Similar legislation is being considered by the states of California and New York.
Credit: Parabon Nanolabs

A team of workers at Parabon Nanolabs has digitally recreated the faces of three mummies from ancient Egypt using DNA technology and thermal meshing. They have posted a release statement on the company's website describing their process and results.

The three mummies were found at a site in Egypt called Abusir el-Meleq, an ancient city located south of modern Cairo. Prior research has shown that they were buried sometime between 1380 BC and 425 AD. In 2017, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History found tissue that had survived in good enough condition to allow for genetic sequencing of the three bodies, all of whom were male. In this new effort, the workers have used data from that sequencing effort, along with other tools to digitally recreate the faces of the three mummies.

The process began with a type of phenotyping called Snapshot, which can be used to determine facial features, ancestry and skin color. It showed that all three of the mummies had once been young men with skin the color of modern Mediterranean or Middle Eastern people with deep brown eyes. They were also able to determine hair color and texture, freckling and facial shape. Next, the workers created 3D meshes using thermal scans of the mummies' heads. The meshes were then used to form the basic facial characteristics of the three young men (all three of whom were believed to be approximately 25 years old at the time of their death) based on their bone structure. The team then combined the data from their Snapshot phenotyping with their meshes to create digital images of the three men who lived thousands of years ago.

The workers note that there was severe degradation of the DNA, but point out that they did not need the full set of single nucleotide polymorphisms; all they needed were those that revealed information about certain traits that differ between individuals, such as eye and skin color. They note also that their techniques have also already been used to help identify the remains of people living in modern times as part of forensic efforts involved in cold cases.

Explore further Scans unveil secrets of world's oldest mummies

 2021 Science X Network
The 126,000-gallon oil spill has already started to affect wildlife.

A huge oil spill was killing wildlife and threatening California's beaches on Monday, in what officials said amounted to an "environmental catastrophe."

Birds and fish had begun washing up on the shore as a 126,000-gallon slick of crude oil choked waters south of Los Angeles, after spewing from a pipeline connected to an offshore rig.

A 15-mile (24-kilometer) stretch of coastline was closed to the public and fishing was halted as crews scrambled to clean up one of California's biggest spills in decades.

Beaches could remain closed for weeks or even months, Huntingdon Beach Mayor Kim Carr warned.

"Our wetlands are being degraded and portions of our coastline are completely covered in oil," she said.

The US Coast Guard, which is coordinating the response, said oil amounting to less than three percent of the spill plumeestimated to be 5.8 nautical miles longhad been recovered, and that more than a mile of oil containment booms had been deployed.

"Unfortunately, we are starting to see oil covered fish and birds washing up along our coastline," including in protected wetlands, the City of Huntington Beach said Sunday.

Amplify Energy, the company that operates the pipeline, said Monday that "as a precautionary measure, all of the company's production and pipeline operations at the Beta Field have been shut down."

Oil is washing up on Newport Beach.

CEO Martyn Willsher pledged the firm will do "whatever needs to be done" to take care of the spill, and said the company had significant insurance to cope with associated costs.

Willsher said a remotely operated vehicle had located the probable source of the leak, and divers would be visiting the spot on Monday afternoon.

'Just devastating'

Officials have warned people not to touch or try to save any wildlife they find, but to instead call local authorities to alert them to animals affected by the oil.

"This is just devastating for our marine life, our habitat, our economics, our entire community," Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said Sunday.

"Our natural habitat we've spent decades building up and creating is just damaged in a day."

The spill originated near the Elly platform, which was built in 1980 and is one of 23 oil and gas drilling platforms in federal waters off California, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Map showing the area of an oil slick off the coast of California on October 4.

The disaster has already reignited a debate about the presence of oil rigs and pipelines near the coast of Southern California.

"The oil spill ... is as tragic as it was preventable," said Alan Lowenthal, a Democrat who represents the area in the US Congress.

"This environmental catastrophe highlights the simple fact that where you drill, you spill.

"This will be devastating not only to our marine wildlife and ecosystem, but also to the livelihoods of our coastal communities which are built around fishing, tourism, and recreation.

"As long as these platforms and pipelines remain, our coastal communities remain under threat from potential disasters like we are now seeing."

Oil spills have scarred California for decades; pictures of dead, oil-covered dolphins and tar-stained beaches off Santa Barbara in 1969 spurred widespread revulsion.

More than a mile of booms have been laid to try to keep the oil away from sensitive natural habitats.

California has not granted any permits to drill for oil since then.

But the state's jurisdiction extends only three miles offshore, and federally sanctioned oil and gas platforms dot the area's seascape, many of them easily visible from the shore.

Environmentalists have repeatedly called attention to the age of some of the facilities, which they say are rusty and poorly maintained, and the risks they pose.

Delicate marshlands are among the areas threatened by the spill.

The nature of the current oil spill has not been determined, but leaks were detected in 1999 on the pipeline linking two platforms in the Beta field, which was then jointly operated by Mobil and Shell, according to the Los Angeles Times.

"This is why the US needs to end coastal oil drilling," the Times wrote in an editorial.

Explore further Miles-long Gulf oil spill after Ida investigated by Coast Guard

 2021 AFP
In this Feb. 6, 1969, file photo, state forestry conservation crews gather up oil-soaked straw on a beach in Santa Barbara, Calif. The oil spill more than a generation ago helped give rise to the modern environmental movement itself. Credit: AP Photo/Wally Fong, File

The weekend oil leak along the Southern California coast happened not far from the site of the catastrophe more than a generation ago that helped give rise to the modern environmental movement itself: the 1969 Santa Barbara spill.

That still ranks in the top tier of human-caused disasters in the United States and is the nation's third-largest oil spill, behind only the 2010 Deepwater Horizon and 1989 Exxon Valdez calamities.

During a 10-day period in early 1969, between about 3.5 million and 4.2 million gallons of crude spilled into the Santa Barbara Channel after a blowout six miles offshore on a Union Oil drilling platform. The disaster area was about 115 miles from the site of the 126,000-gallon spill over the weekend that fouled Huntington Beach, a celebrated surfing spot.

The Union Oil rig had been controversial since its inception, but local California communities hadn't been given any voice in decisions about drilling in federal waters. And corners were cut during the construction process: Regulations called for protective steel casing to extend at least 300 feet below the ocean floor, but the company obtained a waiver allowing it to install only 239 feet of casing.

In the aftermath of the spill, thousands of oil-coated birds perished and photos of the carnage on beaches were widely circulated in newspapers and magazines.

In this Feb. 7, 1969, file photo, workers collect oil-soaked straw from the beach at Santa Barbara, Calif., following a leak from an off-shore well that covered area beaches. The oil spill more than a generation ago helped give rise to the modern environmental movement itself. Credit: AP Photo/File

President Richard Nixon visited the site in March 1969 and told reporters, "It is sad that it was necessary that Santa Barbara should be the example that had to bring it to the attention of the American people."

That exampleof communities left out of crucial decisions and corners cut to save time or money for large companiesgarnered national attention and caused outrage. It added momentum to the movement to organize the first Earth Day the next year.

Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson, an early environmentalist, visited the Santa Barbara oil spill site and later said it inspired him to organize "a nationwide teach-in on the environment."

The oil spill was not the only U.S. environmental crisis in the 1960s. The links between rampant overuse of the pesticide DDT and damaged ecosystemsincluding the dwindling population of bald eagleswere the subject of Rachel Carson's seminal 1962 book, " Silent Spring."

A raft of far-reaching federal environmental legislation was enacted in the early 1970s, including the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency (1970) and the passage of the Clean Air Act (1970) and Clean Water Act (1972).

In this Feb. 7, 1969, file photo, workmen using pitchforks, rakes and shovels attempt to clean up oil-soaked straw from the beach at Santa Barbara, Calif. The oil spill more than a generation ago helped give rise to the modern environmental movement itself. Credit: AP Photo/File

"It's frustrating that spills like this keep happening," said Damon Nagami, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, as he walked along cordoned-off areas of Huntington Beach. "I grew up near here, so this feels really personal."

"These are entirely preventable catastrophes," he said, though he added that managing offshore drilling is complex because "there are lots of regulatory bodies with overlapping responsibilities, depending on whether the activity is happening in federal waters, state waters or international waters."

Oil spills damage coastal ecosystems, marine life and, if the oil-laden water moves into storm drainage systems, local communities. "Once the oil gets into an ecosystem, it's hard to get out," Nagami said. "The impacts are felt for years, for decades."

Don Anair, a research and deputy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said oil spills are "a very visible image of our reliance on fossil fuels."

"We should be doing all we can to make sure the infrastructure is as safe as possible, but even that won't fully eliminate the risk of oil spills," he said. "The longer-term solution here has to be transitioning to using other sources of energy" to power our vehicles.

According to the EPA, the transportation sector is the country's largest primary contributor to climate change, responsible for around 29% of greenhouse gas emissions.

Explore further Oil spills have marred the California coast and shaped its politics

 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
The research of the winning duo is being used to develop treatments for a wide range of diseases and conditions, including chronic pain.

US scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian on Monday won the Nobel Medicine Prize for discoveries on receptors for temperature and touch.

The duo's research, conducted independently of each other in the late 1990s and 2000s, is being used to develop treatments for a wide range of diseases and conditions, including chronic pain.

Patapoutian, an Armenian-American molecular biologist who moved to America from war-torn Lebanon aged 18, said the Nobel committee's calls at 2:00 am were initially blocked by his phone.

"They somehow got a hold of my 94-year-old father who lives in Los Angeles, and I guess even if you have 'Do not disturb' people in your favorites can call you," he told reporters, adding it was a "very special moment."

Our ability to sense heat, cold and touch is essential for survival, the Nobel Committee said, and underpins our interaction with the world around us.

"The groundbreaking discoveries ... by this year's Nobel Prize laureates have allowed us to understand how heat, cold and mechanical force can initiate the nerve impulses that allow us to perceive and adapt to the world," the Nobel jury said.

"In our daily lives we take these sensations for granted, but how are nerve impulses initiated so that temperature and pressure can be perceived? This question has been solved by this year's Nobel Prize laureates."

Chili pepper inspiration

Julius, 65, was recognised for his research using capsaicina compound from chili peppers that induces a burning sensation - to identify which nerve sensors in the skin respond to heat.

The human body generates heat in response to inflammation, so we can protect the affected area and allow it to heal.

Julius told reporters at a press conference that he was browsing a supermarket aisle filled with chili pepper sauces when he turned to his wife, a fellow scientist, and said he thought it was time he finally solved how certain chemicals cause the sensation of heat.

Patapoutian's pioneering discovery was identifying the class of nerve sensors that respond to touch.

Winners of Nobel Prize for Medicine 2021.

"In science many times it's things we take for granted that are of high interest," Patapoutian told the Nobel Foundation website.

Touch receptors were "the big elephant in the room: we knew they existed, we knew they did something very different than how most other cells communicate with each other, which is through chemicals."

Julius, a professor at the University of California in San Francisco and Patapoutian, younger by 12 years and a professor at Scripps Research in California, will share the Nobel Prize cheque for 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.1 million, one million euros).

The pair were not among the frontrunners mentioned in speculation ahead of the announcement.

Peace Prize favourites

Pioneers of messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, which paved the way for mRNA Covid vaccines, and immune system researchers had been widely tipped as favourites.

While the 2020 award was handed out during the pandemic, this is the first time the entire selection process has taken place under the shadow of Covid-19.

Last year, the award went to three virologists for the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus.

The Nobel season continues on Tuesday with the award for physics and Wednesday with chemistry, followed by the much-anticipated gongs for literature on Thursday and peace on Friday before the economics prize winds things up on Monday, October 11.

Speculation on potential Peace Prize winners has ranged from the Belarusian opposition to climate campaigners such as Sweden's Greta Thunberg.

Literary circles have been buzzing with speculation that the Swedish academy could choose to rectify an imbalance with the literature prize that has seen Europe and North America dominate since 2012.

In total, those two regions account for 95 of 117 literature laureates.

Explore further 2 win medicine Nobel for showing how we react to heat, touch

 2021 AFP
We were surprised to learn PFAS in our dolphins aligned with levels recently reported in porpoises examined off the coast of Japan and other PFAS manufacturing countries in the past decade," says Professor Karen Stockin. Credit: Massey University

Scientists have revealed emerging environmental contaminants of concern within New Zealand dolphins, with similar pollution levels to Japan despite government restrictions on the use of toxic substances.

In a new international study just published in Marine Pollution Bulletin, the authors report surprising levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (more commonly known as PFAS) in common dolphins examined post-mortem between 2019 and 2020.

PFAS are a large group of manufactured compounds that have been used since the 1950s to make products that are resistant to heat, stains, grease and water. Used in many different industrial and consumer applications, more than 4,000 such substances exist, grouped in various subclasses within the generic term PFAS. Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are the most studied PFAS due to their known toxicity and are now listed under the Stockholm Convention. While PFOS use in New Zealand was phased out as of 2011, some applications of PFOA have remained possible until only recently.

Since late 2017, the Ministry for the Environment has been leading an all-of-Government program including the Ministry for Primary Industries, Ministry of Health, Environmental Protection Authority, NZ Defense Force, Crown Law, Fire and Emergency New Zealand and Local Government New Zealand to tackle PFAS within the environment and to assess risk posed. While of concern, the concentrations and extent of PFAS reported in the New Zealand environment from this earlier all-of-Government response suggested PFAS levels were low compared to similar sites in Australia and the United States.

However, new international research led by Massey University and its collaborators, the University of Auckland, University of Sydney, Centre for Environment and Food (CEFAS), Cawthron Institute, AsureQuality and others, highlights new insights about the prevalence of PFAS in New Zealand. Scientists examined stranded dolphins post mortem and assessed a number of environment contaminants as part of their ongoing health and life history program.

Professor Stockin with Cetacean Ecology Research Group postgraduate students Emily Palmer and Rebecca Boys during a dolphin post mortem examination. Credit: Massey University

Massey University Professor Karen Stockin, Rutherford Discovery Fellow and study lead says, "We were surprised to learn PFAS in our dolphins aligned with levels recently reported in porpoises examined off the coast of Japan and other PFAS manufacturing countries in the past decade.

"We also note that the levels reported in New Zealand dolphins are higher than those of other indicator species recently examined during the all-of-Government response to PFAS," she adds.

"Our findings highlight two important considerations. Firstly, the remarkable ability for marine mammals to act as sentinel indicator species, and secondly, the risk apex predators such as dolphins and humans endure due to their ability to accumulate such contaminants via the processes of bioaccumulation and biomagnification."

Dr. Louis Tremblay, an ecotoxicologist at the Cawthron Institute and the University of Auckland stated: "This study confirms the persistence of this family of fluorinated pollutants. We don't yet know the full extent of the risk these substances pose to humans or wildlife, but it highlights the need for a better management and stewardship of persistent chemicals to minimize their unintended impacts."

Dr. Shan Yi, an environmental biotechnologist and engineer in the department of chemical and materials engineering at the University of Auckland, commented: "The exposure of marine mammals is ultimately traced back to the contamination and persistence of PFAS in the aquatic environment. From an engineering perspective, an important implication of this research is that we need efficient PFAS treatment technologies and to improve our knowledge of PFAS environmental fate and transport. Together, these technologies and improved understanding will better protect Aotearoa's aquatic environment, communities, and unique endemic biota."

Explore further Fecal excretion of PFAS by pets

More information: K.A. Stockin et al, Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), trace elements and life history parameters of mass-stranded common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) in New Zealand, Marine Pollution Bulletin (2021). Journal information: Marine Pollution Bulletin K.A. Stockin et al, Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), trace elements and life history parameters of mass-stranded common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) in New Zealand,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112896
Maps comparing mean annual free-air and sub-canopy temperatures.Left: mean annual temperatures as predicted by spatial modelling of climatological series for the period 1970-2000, from conventional weather stations WorldClim, https://www.worldclim.org.Right: mean annual sub-canopy temperatures. On the maps of Europe and France on the right, the areas in black correspond to non-forested areas. The last zooming window shows the spatial predictions of sub-canopy temperatures over the whole state forest of Compiegne, in the Oise department (north of Paris), covering an area of 14,357 ha (144 km2). Credit: WorldClim / Stef Haesen / Koenraad Van Meerbeek

To cool off in summer, there's nothing better than a walk in the woods. Trees act as a buffer that cools the air beneath their foliage in summer and warms it in winter. This phenomenon is caused not only by the protection that the forest canopy provides, but also by the transpiration of trees in summer: trees absorb cooler water from the soil, and this water is then transported up to the leaves, ending up in the atmosphere and thus cooling the surrounding air. The insulating effect of forests has now been mapped for the first time in Europe by an international research team, including a CNRS researcher.

Their work is published on October 4, 2021 in the journal Global Change Biology. To produce the map, scientists used a database that gathers together data from various temperature sensors around the world. By correlating the temperature readings with very accurate satellite imagery, they were able to map forest temperatures at unprecedented resolution. This revealed the insulating effect of trees, which on average cool the air by 2.1 C in summer and keep temperatures 2C higher than that of the ambient air in winter. This insulating effect undeniably provides shelter for forest-dwelling wildlife. However, if droughts, human activity and storms continue to intensify in the future, the insulation provided by forests could be jeopardized, endangering these ecosystems.

To find out more about the database used by the scientists, which is called SoilTemp, go to https://soiltemp.weebly.com and https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/ 10.1111 / gcb.15123

Explore further Why climate change is making it harder to chase fall foliage

More information: Stef Haesen et al, ForestTemp  sub-canopy microclimate temperatures of European forests, Global Change Biology (2021). Journal information: Global Change Biology Stef Haesen et al, ForestTemp  sub-canopy microclimate temperatures of European forests,(2021). DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15892
Annual municipality-level increases in the rate of urban population exposure to extreme heat, 1983-2016. Credit: Adapted from Tuholske et al., PNAS, 2021

A new study of more than 13,000 cities worldwide has found that the number of person-days in which inhabitants are exposed to extreme combinations of heat and humidity has tripled since the 1980s. The authors say the trend, which now affects nearly a quarter of the world's population, is the combined result of both rising temperatures and booming urban population growth. The study was published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Over recent decades, hundreds of millions have moved from rural areas to cities, which now hold more than half the world's population. There, temperatures are generally higher than in the countryside, because of sparse vegetation and abundant concrete, asphalt and other impermeable surfaces that tend to trap and concentrate heatthe so-called urban heat island effect.

"This has broad effects," said the study's lead author, Cascade Tuholske, a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University's Earth Institute. "It increases morbidity and mortality. It impacts people's ability to work, and results in lower economic output. It exacerbates pre-existing health conditions."

The researchers combined infrared satellite imagery and readings from thousands of ground instruments to determine maximum daily heat and humidity readings in 13,115 cities, from 1983 to 2016. They defined extreme heat as 30 degrees Centigrade on the so-called "wet-bulb globe temperature" scale, a measurement that takes into account the multiplier effect of high humidity on human physiology. A wet-bulb reading of 30 is the rough equivalent of 106 degrees Fahrenheit on the so-called "real feel" heat indexthe point at which even most healthy people find it hard to function outside for long, and the unhealthy might become very ill or even die.

To come up with a measure of person-days spent in such conditions, the researchers matched up the weather data with statistics on the cities' populations over the same time period. The population data was provided in part by Columbia's Center for International Earth Science Information Network, where Tuholske is based.

The analysis revealed that the number of person-days in which city dwellers were exposed went from 40 billion per year in 1983 to 119 billion in 2016a threefold increase. By 2016, 1.7 billion people were being subjected to such conditions on multiple days.

Sheer urban population growth accounted for two-thirds of the exposure spike, while actual warming contributed a third. That said, the proportions varied from region to region and city to city.

The most-affected cities tend to cluster in the low latitudes, but other areas are being affected, too. The worst-hit city in terms of person-days was Dhaka, the fast-growing capital of Bangladesh; it saw an increase of 575 million person-days of extreme heat over the study period. Its ballooning population alone4 million in 1983, to 22 million todaycaused 80 percent of the increased exposure. This does not mean that Dhaka did not see substantial warmingonly that population growth was even more rapid. Other big cities showing similar population-heavy trends include Shanghai and Guangzhou, China; Yangon, Myanmar; Bangkok; Dubai; Hanoi; Khartoum; and various cities in Pakistan, India and the Arabian Peninsula.

On the other hand, some other major cities saw close to half or more of their exposure caused by warming climate alone versus population growth. These included Baghdad, Cairo, Kuwait City, Lagos, Kolkata, Mumbai, and other big cities in India and Bangladesh. The populations of European cities have been relatively static, so increases in exposure there were driven almost exclusively by increased warmth. The researchers found that 17 percent of the cities studied added an entire month of extreme-heat days over the 34-year study period.

"A lot of these cities show the pattern of how human civilization has evolved over the past 15,000 years," said Tuholske, pointing out that many are located in warm climates where humidity is delivered by big river systems. This made them attractive for farming and eventually urbanization. "The Nile, the Tigris-Euphrates, the Ganges. There is a pattern to the places where we wanted to be," he said. "Now, those areas may become uninhabitable. Are people really going to want to live there?"

This interactive map allows users to zoom in on more than 13,000 individual cities for data on increases in person-day exposure to extreme heat and humidity, and the factors involved. For the live version, go to: https://bit.ly/3uj23Ty. Credit: Adapted from Tuholske et al., PNAS, 2021. Interactive graphics by Jeremy Hinsdale/Earth Institute

In the United States, about 40 sizable cities have seen rapidly growing exposure, mainly clustered in Texas and the Gulf Coast. In many, the causes of the rises have been varying combinations of both increasing population and increasing heat. These include Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio and Austin, Tex., along with Pensacola and other cities in Florida. In some, population growth is the main driver. These include Las Vegas; Savannah, Ga.; and Charleston, S.C. In others, it is almost exclusively fast-rising heat: Baton Rouge, La.; Gulfport, Miss.; and Lake Charles and Houma, La. One major outlier: the bayside city of Providence, R.I., where rising exposure was 93 percent due to warmer, more humid weather.

Because the period covered by the study ran only through 2016, the data did not include the series of record heat waves that raked the U.S. Northwest and southern Canada this summer, killing hundreds of people.

The study is not the first to document the dangers of excessive urban heat; among others, last year a separate Earth Institute team showed that combinations of heat and humidity literally beyond the limits of outdoor human survival have been briefly popping up around the world. The newer study led by Tuholske adds to the picture by quantifying on a granular level how many people are being affected in each location, and the degree to which exposure is being driven by population versus climate. The authors say this information should help urban planners come up with better-targeted strategies to help citizens adapt.

Kristina Dahl, a climate researcher at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the study "could serve as a starting point for identifying ways to to address local heat issues," such as planting trees and modifying rooftops with lighter colors or vegetation so they don't trap so much heat. "This study shows that it will take considerable, conscientious investments to ensure that cities remain livable in the face of a warming climate," she added.

The other authors of the study are Kelly Caylor, Chris Funk, Stuart Sweeney and Pete Peterson of the University of California, Santa Barbara; Andrew Verdin and Kathryn Grace of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities; and Tom Evans of the University of Arizona.

Explore further New heat exposure model can protect citizens
The research team. From left: Denise Schaffer, Gabriel Alexander Vignolle, Leopold Zehetner, Christian Derntl. Credit: Vienna University of Technology

Researchers at TU Wien propose a new method to interpret and mine the genomes of fungi. The goal: prediction of essential genes for the production of valuable substances.

Alongside us humans, several million fungal species populate earth. Most of these organisms are capable of producing so-called secondary metabolites. Secondary metabolites are substances that are not primarily necessary to survive but are beneficial under certain conditions, for instance for protection and competition. Some secondary metabolites, such as penicillin, can also be used as pharmaceuticals by humankind. For these reasons, researchers are searching for new secondary metabolites. One promising approach to this is to search and activate the responsible genes within the genomes of fungi.

To this end, a team led by Christian Derntl, TU Wien, developed a bioinformatics method to distinguish between essential genes and so-called gap genes. The method is based on comparing the evolutionary background of fungal genes. The research team published the method, called "FunOrder," in the journal PLOS Computational Biology.

Remedies through stress

Fungi normally do not produce secondary metabolites in the laboratory because these compounds are not needed for vital processes such as cell growth. In their natural habitat, fungi produce many different substances in order to deal with stresses and compete with other fungi or bacteria. It is possible to induce the production of secondary metabolites in the laboratory by switching on the relevant genes. Naturally, this requires knowledge of these genes. "Fungi harbor a great potential for new secondary metabolites. However, the fact that these are not readily produced under laboratory conditions makes the search for them more difficult," says Christian Derntl, describing the search for new bioactive compounds.

Targeted gene activation

Genes responsible for secondary metabolites often cluster together in the genome. This means that they are located in close proximity on the DNA, forming so-called biosynthetic gene clusters. These gene clusters contain at least one core gene that determines the basic chemical structure of the secondary metabolite and can be easily recognized due to its size and composition. Next, further enzymes modify this basic chemical structure to obtain the final secondary metabolite. Notably, biosynthetic gene clusters often also contain so-called gap genes. These genes are located in the gene clusters but are not necessary for the synthesis of the secondary metabolites. In order to find new secondary metabolites, Christian Derntl's team is pursuing a bottom-up approach. "We aim to find new substances by activating these biosynthetic genes clusters," Derntl explains. Of course, only the essential genes should be activated for this purpose, but not the gap genes. The FunOrder method was developed precisely for this purpose. "We want to predict which genes are essential for the secondary metabolite production and thereby decide which ones should to be taken into account in the lab," summarizes the first author of the study, Gabriel Vignolle. Already existing methods are highly effective in these clusters, but have problems with predicting which genes are essential and which are not.

FunOrder brings more than fun

A central question that the scientists around Christian Derntl asked themselves was how genetic data can be interpreted in a meaningful way. "We live in an age in which genomes can be sequenced very easily and inexpensively," explains Derntl. "Countless data sets are also available on the Internet. Currently, it is more challenging to evaluate and structure the data in a meaningful way. Bioinformatics can help us with that." So the team developed the computer program FunOrder, which receives various genes as input. Using a specially designed database, FunOrder can identify genes with similar evolutionary backgrounds. "We were subsequently able to show that precisely these co-evolved genes are functionally necessary and can thus be distinguished from gap genes," explains Gabriel Vignolle.

The method is not only suitable for analyzing and structuring existing data, but can also be used to study the genomes of newly discovered fungi. The source code for the program is publicly available, allowing scientists worldwide to perform such analyses.

The project originated from the Ph.D. program "TU Wien bioactiveTechnologies for Drug Discovery and Production," in which Mr. Vignolle is active.

Explore further Population-specific diversity within fungi species could enable improved drug discovery

More information: Gabriel A. Vignolle et al, FunOrder: A robust and semi-automated method for the identification of essential biosynthetic genes through computational molecular co-evolution, PLOS Computational Biology (2021). Journal information: PLoS Computational Biology Gabriel A. Vignolle et al, FunOrder: A robust and semi-automated method for the identification of essential biosynthetic genes through computational molecular co-evolution,(2021). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009372
New theoretical calculations reveal that it isnt the repulsion force between the hydrophobic part of proteins and water that drives the protein into forming a folded structure. Rather, the special attraction between the hydrophobic molecules, called van der Waals force, is what causes the folding. Credit: Dr. Tomonari Sumi (Okayama University) and Dr. Hiroshi Imamura (Ritsumeikan University)

Proteins are the workers, messengers, managers, and directors of nearly all inter- and intra-cellular functions in our body. So, all advances in biology, pharmaceuticals, and related fields hinge on having a fundamental understanding of how proteins work. For over half a century, one key theory that has informed scientific and technological advancement in the biosciences is the classical theory on the mechanism underlying protein folding. However, now, a pair of scientists from Okayama University and Ritsumeikan University in Japan has disproved it. Their findings are published in Protein Science.

In our cells, proteins are first formed as a chain of compounds called amino acids. Parts of this chain are "hydrophilic," or easily water-soluble. Other parts were to date thought to be "hydrophobic," or water-repelling. This hydrophobicity is what is called into question by the pair of Japanese scientists.

Interactions among the amino acids and between amino acids and water cause the protein to successively fold in on itself. The folding patterns are pre-programmed for each protein, and the folded structures are designed to enable specific interactions with other molecules for specific functions. In other words, proteins must transition from an unfolded state to a folded one to function properly; the misfolding of proteins can lead to a wide variety of diseases, such as Alzheimer's, cystic fibrosis, or even allergies.

In 1959, a theory was proposed of the mechanism behind protein folding. This classical theory posits that hating water, i.e., the exposure of the hydrophobic parts to water, is energetically unfavorable, and thus causes the proteins to always fold in a manner that tucks away the hydrophobic parts into the interior of the protein structure. This means that the hydrophobic repulsive force stabilizes the folded protein structure. Over the decades that followed, many observations proved this theory too broad and simplistic and therefore, it has been refined to include consideration of the force of attraction between the hydrophobic parts (the van der Waals force). However, the hydrophobic repulsion has continued to be considered the force behind the folding.

According to the two Japanese scientists, Dr. Tomonari Sumi (Okayama University) and Dr. Hiroshi Imamura (Ritsumeikan University), this theory seems to ignore another key contribution at play, the cavity formation energy (or energy needed to form a space to accommodate the buried parts into protein interior).

To reveal the contribution of all these interactions on the protein folding stability, the scientists conducted theoretical calculations using a new computational method called the reference-modified density functional theory. For their calculations, they used a typical model for hydrophobic interactions, the coiled-coil protein GCN4-p1, which folds into a two-layered structure called the leucine zipper (because it looks like a closed zipper). The scientists studied the energies required for the folding and unfolding processes.

Their findings were quite the surprise. "Our study shows that when the proteins are unfolded, the interactions of the hydrophobic parts with water (the van der Waals force) actually stabilizes the unfolded structure. So, the classical view of the hydrophobic groups 'hating' water and thus causing the protein to fold is not appropriate," explains Dr. Sumi. "Instead, the fact is that the van der Waals force between the hydrophobic parts is stronger than the 'effective' water-mediated repulsive force between them, and so, the proteins fold over. It is the direct attraction between the molecules rather than the repulsion with water that causes the folding. The intramolecular van der Waals force is the stabilizing force in the folded structure."

The scientists hope that these findings will prompt further investigation into this phenomenon and a re-look at the science the classical theory has informed. They also hope that this percolates down to core education and textbooks change their explanations of the phenomenon.

Dr. Imamura says that "in our results, the 'visible' phenomenon, which is that the proteins fold to stably tuck the hydrophobic groups in the core of the structure, remains the same, but our understanding of the underlying mechanism must change."

The scientists hope that their findings soon become widely accepted and the ripple effects of that are seen in engineering and pharmaceutical applications as well.

Explore further Folding proteins feel the heat, and cold

More information: Tomonari Sumi et al, Watermediated interactions destabilize proteins, Protein Science (2021). Tomonari Sumi et al, Watermediated interactions destabilize proteins,(2021). DOI: 10.1002/pro.4168
Figure 1. Perceived Stress Score by self-reported COVID status. The white point on each bar denotes the mean PSS-4 score by COVID-19 status, and the black bars denote the upper and lower 95% confidence interval of the mean. Credit: DOI: 10.1002/ajim.23295

When you get into the car of the app-based driver you just tapped up on your phone, you expect and hope the driver and the car are safe and capable of getting you where you need to go. Apps rate drivers, which you can see. But what if the driver is sick? What if the car has a mechanical problem? What if the driver has simply had a bad day?

What you may not have realized is that the driver is wondering the same thing about you: Is the passenger ill? Are they properly masked? Will they pull it down once seated? Will they cough, blowing air around? Are they in a bad mood? Did they just get out of a rough meeting or an alcohol-fueled altercation at a bar?

"It's a job that is vital to so many people, for moving people to and from medical appointments, to and from the airport, etc. Obviously, app-based drivers are essential for moving people," said Marissa Baker, an assistant professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Washington. "It's vital work, but it's largely something the general public seems to forget about."

Baker is senior author on new study published Sept. 14 in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine that is focused on understanding the pressures, risks and dilemmas facing app-based drivers and how they were affected by the pandemic.

Every ride carries potential risks. Each trip includes at least two peoplepossible disease vectors, unpredictable humansnow in a closed and confined space. The passenger may face this risk a few times a week. For the driver, this is a workplace risk possibly undertaken dozens of times a day.

Throw a viral pandemic into the mix, and you have workers in a largely unprotected job facing a range of very difficult choices: keep driving no matter what or lose income; ignore an improperly masked passenger or tell them to mask up and risk a bad review or altercation; drive a coughing passenger to a COVID-19 testing site or face deactivation for turning them away; pay out-of-pocket for cleaning supplies and PPE or run an even greater risk of infection.

To illuminate these pressures, Baker and other UW researchers trained four app-based drivers, all affiliated with the Teamsters Local 117 in Seattle, to conduct survey interviews of their fellow drivers. The newly trained interviewers surveyed 100 app-based drivers in Seattle between Aug. 11 and Sept. 7, 2020. The drivers were predominantly male (97%), identified as Black or African (84%) and were under the age of 55 (87%).

The majority of drivers reported high levels of stress and concern about being exposed to the novel coronavirus. Roughly 30% thought they had already had COVID-19. Most, 73 drivers, lost income, while spending their own money on PPE. Those who left the business because of the pandemic (42 drivers) reported having a hard time getting unemployment benefits. Only 31% said they received an appropriate mask and hand sanitizer from the company they drove for, and even then the supplies were not enough.

"For workers who are in this kind of employment during the pandemic, they receive very little support from the companies that they drive for, and this is a population that had a lot of awareness of the potential exposures they could be facing," Baker said. "They had a lot of concerns and worries, not only about how those exposures would be affecting their health and their family's health, but also the viability and their job."

The drivers spoke of feeling isolated and lonely, since they rarely have a chance to talk with their peers.

In the study, one driver explained, "n this line of work, you're very insular. I mean, I'm in my own little universe so finding a way to bridge that gap has been the biggest challenge."

Simple issues, like finding restrooms, became bigger problems with libraries, community centers and businesses closed during shutdowns.

"You have other people who are doing the same job as you, but you may never interact with them. So you miss out on some of that strength, not only brainstorming of like, "Hey what masks are you using?" or "Where are you stopping?" but it also keeps workers from organizing," Baker said. "If you get these workers talking to each other and recognizing that they are all facing the same struggles, that can lead to changes."

In Seattle, drivers and their union leaders have been able to win a minimum wage requirement as well as establish a "resolution center" where drivers contest being taken off the apps through which they are hired. There have been other improvements as well in Seattle and other cities.

Baker explains that while Seattle has taken steps to try to improve drivers' working conditions, drivers nationwide do not enjoy the same benefits because they are not classified as employees. So, they don't have access to state or federal health and safety protections, a living wage or sick leave.

"This is a full-time job for many people, this is not just driving on the weekends to supplement another job. These drivers are raising families, using what they make to pay for their kids to go to college. This is important, vital work, and we should be recognizing that through the benefits that we demand that these drivers receive," Baker said. "Not only for their well-being, but also for the customers they interact with."

Explore further Dutch court: Uber drivers covered by taxi labor agreement

More information: Kerry L. Beckman et al, Health and safety risk perceptions and needs of appbased drivers during COVID19, American Journal of Industrial Medicine (2021). Kerry L. Beckman et al, Health and safety risk perceptions and needs of appbased drivers during COVID19,(2021). DOI: 10.1002/ajim.23295
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

During summer 2020, heavy precipitation affected a significant portion of China and East and South Asia. The Yangtze River basin bore the brunt of extensive flooding, which caused loss of lives, considerable property damage and prompted millions of people to move to higher ground. To better understand why annual "mei-yu" conditions began earlier and ended later than normal, Dr. Ambrogio Volonte and his team from the University of Reading focused on specific atmospheric dynamics throughout China's Yangtze River region that contributed to such an unusual season. They have just published their research and findings in in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.

"The amount of rainfall in June and July 2020 in the basin was higher than in the previous 20 years, and anomalously high in most sub-basins, with similar results applying to river discharge," said Dr. Mark Muetzelfeldt, a main contributor in Volonte's study.

Results show that the East Asian Summer Monsoon front played a dominant role bringing frequent persistent precipitation to the Yangtze River basin. Typically, the front progresses farther north during early summer. However, in 2020, the front stalled south of its usual position, leading to a longer mei-yu season with several multi-day rain events throughout most of the river valley.

Researchers analyzed two 5-day heavy precipitation episodes during this extended mei-yu season. Warm monsoonal and cool continental air masses frequently converged over the region, as suggested by the unusual frontal position. Upper air circulation also played a role, with pattern variations affecting the air mass balance moving toward the front at lower levels. This caused the two heavy rain events to develop with different intensity and in different locations along the river valley.

The full study provides more in-depth statistics resulting from the historic summer 2020 mei-yu rainfall. Researchers also showcase several analysis tools that they developed specifically to study similar high-precipitation seasonal events.

Explore further The dynamics behind the exceptional summer 2020 Yangtze River rainfall projections

More information: Ambrogio Volonte et al, Magnitude, Scale, and Dynamics of the 2020 Mei-yu Rains and Floods over China, Advances in Atmospheric Sciences (2021). Journal information: Advances in Atmospheric Sciences Ambrogio Volonte et al, Magnitude, Scale, and Dynamics of the 2020 Mei-yu Rains and Floods over China,(2021). DOI: 10.1007/s00376-021-1085-z
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

A four-year evaluation led by academics at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), in partnership with Bangor University, the University of East London and Manchester Metropolitan University, has revealed the need for flexible domestic violence and abuse services that are more tailored and responsive to survivors' changing needs.

The research, published in a report today, analyses how domestic abuse support services in the UK can become more accessible to those that need them. The report is published by Women's Aid and SafeLives, two charities that collaborated with survivors of domestic abuse over a period of five years to develop and deliver their Roadmap Programme across England.

The evaluation, which was carried out between 2017 and 2021, involved interviews and surveys about the experiences of 300 women and 70 children affected by domestic violence and abuse, spanning five sites across England.

Researchers found that survivors of domestic abuse valued services that were survivor-centered and enabled them to choose the pace and type of support they received, and that many needed help with parenting as well as support in their own right.

When direct support was provided for children who had lived with domestic abuse, it could assist their mood, sleep, physical health and reduce their fear and anger. The study found examples of children who received support from Roadmap services successfully navigating key transitions in their lives:

"[My worker] really helped me. I feel more secure and I know people will listen to me and what I want more. I think I am more confident." (Child, SafeLives Co-Produced Pilot)

The research also highlighted improvements in safety, coping and confidence and mental wellbeing for women and children using the services provided by Women's Aid and SafeLives:

"My mental health has obviously got a lot betterI'm not waking up every morning feeling like I'm going to be sick, fearful." (Survivor, SafeLives Co-Produced Pilot)

These findings will contribute to the development of statutory guidance on the UK government's new Domestic Abuse Act, which became law earlier this year.

The changes achieved by services for women and children generated considerable social value. This was enhanced by the use of volunteersmany of whom were survivorsincluding those who volunteered as Women's Aid Ask Me Ambassadors, who provide advice to women experiencing domestic abuse in their local communities. This Ambassador reported how she had successfully assisted a woman who needed to leave her abusive partner:

"by 8 o'clock that night, she was on her way to freedom. It was amazing, she was really grateful for what I'd done and I felt proud..." (Women's Aid Ask Me Ambassador)

Roadmap staff also provided training for frontline workers who encountered domestic abuse in their work. This training improved professionals' knowledge and confidence in responding to domestic abuse and staff employed in benefits offices, housing and children's social care benefited from this training. However, health services were less likely to take up the training and were less likely to work collaboratively with Roadmap services.

Professor Nicky Stanley, from the Connect Center for International Research on Interpersonal Violence and Harm at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), said: "This extensive research demonstrates the vital role that specialist domestic abuse services play in supporting survivors and helping them to rebuild their lives."

"Many of the women using Roadmap services had high levels of health and mental health needs, indicating the importance of good communication between health services and domestic abuse organizations. We'd recommend that the 2014 NICE Guidelines on domestic violence and abuse are revisited and updated to provide up-to-date guidance for health professionals and encourage them to collaborate with domestic abuse services."

Suzanne Jacob OBE, chief executive of SafeLives added: "The innovative, tailored interventions in pilot "Beacon' sites recognize that to make sustainable change, we need to acknowledge and respond to families as they are, deeply interconnected with one another, with intertwining situations and needs. This includes putting accountability for change on the individual(s) causing harm, directly addressing their behavior.

"After this research published today by UCLan, SafeLives is more confident than ever that putting survivors at the center of domestic abuse response work is crucial and delivers better outcomes. If solutions are designed with survivors of abuse themselvesboth adults and children  they are much more likely to meet their needs."

Case study

This woman had been signposted to the Women's Aid VOICES service, provided by a domestic abuse organization, by a member of her local community. At the start of the intervention, she had regular brief chats with workers by telephone, but she didn't want further involvement until she felt ready to leave her partner; this point came after a period of six months. At this time, she was assigned a key worker, and described feeling 'relieved' that she would have one person to support her throughout the process. Input from the worker gave her 'the confidence and the strength' to leave safely, and this occurred three months after being assigned to the VOICES worker. She described feeling fully in control of this process:

It went at my pace, completely at my pace. I was not pushed to do anything any quicker. I was not held back at all. It was completely, she just worked with me and supported me and we went exactly at the pace I wanted to go.

The intervention aimed to support the survivor to recognize what she needed, and the type of support required to help her progress. She described how, as a result of being able to communicate effectively with her worker, feeling listened to and understood, they were able to collaborate on a plan to enable her to leave safely:

I mean she's really helpful at understanding what I was going through and helping meThat was all very, very helpful, at managing situations. And she gave me the confidence that I would be able to get out of that situation.

Regular and consistent contact with the worker was highly valued and the survivor described feeling that her worker 'was always available and always there whenever I needed her to be." Being provided with information about different sources of support strengthened her capacity to leave by providing her with a 'network of support."

Having been supported by VOICES staff to leave her abusive partner, this survivor was now living in her own home with her young child and had started to retrain for a new job. She described feeling liberated and optimistic about their future:

"I'm doing studying, there's so much, there's everything that I do, every minute of the day is stuff that I do and I can do. I can do things when I like, I can do what I like. I go out with my friends, you know.and I keep reminding myself, I can do all this stuff now."

Although she felt well supported by the service as a whole, she reflected that it was the relationship she had with her individual worker that was key to her being able to achieve change:

"I know that I could have phoned [the service]. If I'd never been given [her] as a key worker, it wouldn't have been anywhere near as good. She's been pivotal in changing my life."

Explore further Domestic violence survivor elder abuse risk

More information: The full report can be read at: The full report can be read at: clok.uclan.ac.uk/39447/
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Russian film director Klim Shipenko said Monday the first movie in orbit would be an "experiment," on the eve of his journey into space hoping to beat a rival Hollywood project.

The 38-year-old director and one of Russia's most famous actresses, Yulia Peresild, 37, are due to blast off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan at 0855 GMT on Tuesday to shoot scenes for upcoming Russian movie "The Challenge".

Russia's space agency Roscosmos is sending them into orbit with experienced cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, 49. Cosmonauts on board the International Space Station are expected to appear in cameo roles in the film.

The 12-day mission was announced in September 2020, four months after a Hollywood project involving "Mission Impossible" actor Tom Cruise was revealed.

"We are doing an experiment," Shipenko told reporters.

"There is nobody to get advice from. There is not a single cameraman who could answer how to work with light from a porthole," he told an online news conference.

On top of directing, he will also be handling the cameras, lighting, sound and make-up.

Shipenko conceded that "some things will work out and some things will not".

Following months of rigorous training ahead of the flight, Peresild said that being an actress and a cosmonaut were "two opposite professions".

"Let's see how we'll combine them," she said.

Cosmonaut Shkaplerov said that preparing to play in space was not easy.

"The script sometimes changes and I am learning it all the time. This is hard, I am not an actor," he said.

Their experience, he added, is "unprecedented" and will be a learning experience should there be a need to send someone to space at urgent notice.

The crew said that on Sunday they watched the classic Soviet film "The White Sun of the Desert"a pre-flight tradition religiously observed by cosmonauts.

They are each allowed to take one kilogramme of personal items with them to the station. Some are bringing drawings from kids and others small souvenirs gifted by friends, they said.

Explore further Space station crew to relocate Soyuz, make room for new crewmates

 2021 AFP
The Senegalese city of Saint-Louis is building a wall along the coast to try to keep the sea at bay.

In the northern Senegalese city of Saint-Louis, excavators are ripping up the beach to lay giant blocks of basalt, in an eleventh-hour effort to keep the sea at bay.

When work is finished, a black sea wall will stretch for kilometres along the coastline of the West African country's former capital, famed for its colonial-era architecture.

Dire warnings about the risk of rising sea levels due to climate change are already a grim reality in Saint-Louis, where seafront residents are abandoning their homes to the encroaching Atlantic Ocean.

But the sea wall is a stopgap. And some are sceptical that the historic city of 237,000 people can be saved at all.

Saint-Louis has "already been wiped off the map," said Boubou Aldiouma Sy, a geography professor at the city's Gaston Berger University.

Its unique positionnear the mouth of the Senegal River, with both the swollen waterway and the ocean on its shorelines means that its long term existence has always been in doubt, he said.

"The role of man is to accelerate the process," Sy added.

Founded by the French on an island in the mid-17th century, Saint-Louis became a hub for European traders, playing an important economic and cultural role in the region.

Saint-Louis lies near the mouth of the Senegal River, with both the swollen waterway and the Atlantic Ocean on its shores.

It served as the capital of the French colony of Senegal until the capital moved to Dakar shortly before Senegal's independence in 1960.

From the original island, the city spread on both sides, onto a long, thin sandy strip of land known as the Langue de Barbarie to the west and eastwards onto the mainland.

Its colourful, historic balconied houses and double-storied villas have helped make the island a UNESCO world heritage site and the city hosts a renowned annual jazz festival.

But Saint-Louis stands only a few metres above sea level.

Long a problem, floods have become more severe in neighbourhoods such as Guet Ndar, a packed fishing district where brightly painted wooden canoes line the shore.

Coastal erosion is also eating away at the shoreline.

Many locals have had little choice but to move to a displacement camp inland as their homes have been swallowed up by the raging sea, the erosion and the crumbling ground beneath them.

Saint-Louis was the capital of the French colony of Senegal and its colonial-era architecture helped make the island a UNESCO world heritage site.

The sea barrier is Senegal's attempt to manage the compounding problems.

But experts point out that while it can protect against freak surges, it cannot stop the rising sea.

Night terrors

Mareme Gueye, a Guet Ndar resident, told AFP that all the suffering she'd experienced since childhood "has been caused by the sea".

Six of the seven rooms in her house are gone, washed away by the ocean.

In her one remaining room, she removed the door to ensure that no one gets trapped inside during floods.

Destructive flooding has increased since 2010, according to the 43-year-old, who said that she can no longer sleep at night for fear of the intemperate waters.

In one harrowing instance, floodwaters swept her parents from her house and dragged them out to sea.

They miraculously survived.

Free-for-all construction in Saint-Louisknown as Ndar in the local Wolof languagehas worsened coastal erosion.

Mareme Gueye, 43, says six of the seven rooms in her house are gone, washed away by the ocean.

The city is a particularly acute example of problems common across several coastal metropolises in West Africa, Sy said, pointing to Ivory Coast's main city and economic hub Abidjan, or Guinea's capital Conakry.

Erosion is causing the coastline to recede by some 1.8 metres (yards) a year across the region, according to a 2019 World Meteorological Organization report.

Likewise, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said this year that sea levels on the West African coast are rising by between 3.5 and four millimetres (0.14 and 0.16 inches) annually.

With its unique layout surrounded by water, Saint-Louis is on the front line.

Nearly two decades ago, an ill-fated attempt at flood control after heavy rainfall saw authorities widen a water channel on the Langue de Barbarie between the river and sea.

But from its initial four metres, the canal unexpectedly grew to several kilometres wide as the salt water of the Atlantic gushed into the river, causing further disruption to the natural order of things and transforming the landscape.

The colossal sea barrier will run 3.6 kilometres (2.2 miles) along the coast.

Displacement camps

The encroaching sea has already caused severe damage.

Flooding in 2017 and 2018 left more than 3,200 people homelessabout 1,500 of them now live in a displacement camp in Djougop, further inland.

The disaster prompted Senegal to begin building the sea wall in 2019, partly financed by France.

The project is worth some 100 million euros ($117 million) and also includes a rehousing programme.

Building is due to finish by the end of this year, when the colossal barrier will run 3.6 kilometres (2.2 miles) along the coast.

However, the project also requires home demolitions in a 20-metre-wide strip behind the barrier.

Between 10,000-15,000 people in total are set to be uprooted, said Mandaw Gueye, an official working on the project.

Some will end up in Djougop and nearby neighbourhoods where the World Bank is co-funding the construction of 600 homes, he said.

Flooding in 2017 and 2018 left more than 3,200 people homelessabout 1,500 of them now live in a displacement camp in Djougop, further inland.

Other project officials stressed that the displaced would be compensated.

But residents appear decidedly unenthusiastic about the prospect of Djougopa bland expanse of blue-roofed bungalows built in the desert, far from the sea.

Their seaside fishing district is poor, and one of the most densely populated urban areas in Africa, but tales of the fate of those already displaced have circulated.

Fishermen in Djougop, whose livelihoods already are physically demanding, must rise even earlier in the morning to reach the distant sea.

Those fishermen who stayed on Guet Ndar often leave without them.

"They are very tired," says 65-year-old local resident Thiane Fall.

'Human ingenuity'

The sea barrier is a short-term emergency measure and not even designed to be impermeable.

The government says it is studying more durable solutions.

Many locals have had little choice but to move to a displacement camp inland as their homes have been swallowed up by the raging sea, coastal erosion and the crumbling ground beneath them.

The sea barrier is a short-term emergency measurethe government says it is studying more durable solutions.

Experts stress that while the sea wall can protect against freak surges, it cannot stop the rising sea.

With its unique layout surrounded by water, Saint-Louis is on the frontline against rising sea levels and coastal erosion.

Sy, the geographer, suggested structures called groins, built perpendicular to the shoreline, which force sediment to settle in such a way as to reverse coastal erosion.

Ensuring coastal areas are lush with plant life can also slow the trend.

Alioune Badara Diop, one of Saint-Louis' deputy mayors, said these options remain viable.

But the government did not pursue them initially because of their "relatively high cost," he said.

He isn't convinced that his city has met its end, however, highlighting Senegal's nascent oil and gas sector and all its potential.

"We will have the means, and human ingenuity will make it possible to build structures that will protect the coast," Diop said.

Explore further Senegalese villages swallowed by the sea

 2021 AFP
"I've heard about space for a long time now. I'm taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle," said William Shatner.

Blue Origin on Monday confirmed William Shatner, who starred as Captain James T. Kirk in the original Star Trek series, will fly to space October 12 aboard the company's crewed rocket, becoming the oldest ever astronaut.

"I've heard about space for a long time now. I'm taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle," said the 90-year-old Canadian actor in a statement.

The science fiction television show aired for only three seasons starting in 1966, but was hugely influential in popular culture and has spawned more than a dozen movies and several spin-off series.

It was notable for the utopian vision of its creator Gene Rodenberry, who imagined a future where by the 23rd century humanity had put aside its divisions and united with other peaceful space-faring civilizations.

Shatner, as Kirk, commanded the U.S.S. Enterprise on a five-year mission "to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before."

His actual voyage to space will be far shorter: about 10 minutes, in a flight that will take the crew just beyond the Karman line, 62 miles (100 kilometers) above sea-level. They're also unlikely to encounter alien foes such as Klingons.

If successful, Shatner will become the first Star Trek actor to reach the final frontierwith the important caveat "while living."

The ashes of fellow Star Trek actor James Doohan, who played the Enterprise's chief engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, were smuggled aboard the International Space Station in 2008 and remain under its floor cladding, according to the space tourist who carried out the plot devised by the actor's son.

Billionaire Jeff Bezos is riding high after flying into space in July 2021, but his space flight company Blue Origin is accused of having a "toxic" work culture.

Work culture allegations

Blue Origin also announced the identity of the remaining passenger, Audrey Powers, the company's vice president of mission and flight operations.

Powers worked as an engineer for almost a decade before becoming a lawyer, Blue Origin said.

As a guidance and controls engineer, she was a flight controller for US space agency NASA with 2,000 hours of console time in mission control for the International Space Station Program.

They will join Chris Boshuizen, a former NASA engineer and co-founder of Planet Labs, and Glen de Vries, a co-founder of clinical research platform Medidata Solutions, on the sub-orbital flight.

The news comes as Bezos's company is under a cloud of allegations relating to a "toxic" work culture with rampant sexual harassment.

The claims, firmly rejected by Blue Origin, were outlined in a lengthy blog post signed by Alexandra Abrams, the company's former head of employee communications, last week.

The post said it also represented the views of 20 other workers and ex-workers in various divisions who wanted to remain anonymous.

Abrams and her co-authors further alleged the company had a pattern of decision-making that prioritized speedy rocket development over safety, and that several of them would not feel safe in the company's New Shepard spaceship.

Blue Origin responded by saying Abrams was dismissed two years ago after warnings over issues involving US export control regulations, adding it would investigate any new claims of misconduct.

Bezos, one of the world's wealthiest men, his brother Mark, aviation pioneer Wally Funk, and paying customer Oliver Daemen flew into space on Blue Origin's first crewed flight on July 20 from the company's base in west Texas.

Explore further Blue Origin unveils next flight, TMZ says Captain Kirk to be aboard

 2021 AFP
Researchers measured the mechanical forces applied to break a bond between carbon monoxide and iron phthalocyanine, which appears as a symmetrical cross in scanning probe microscope images taken before and after the bond rupture. Credit: Pengcheng Chen et al.

The team used a high-resolution atomic force microscope (AFM) operating in a controlled environment at Princeton's Imaging and Analysis Center. The AFM probe, whose tip ends in a single copper atom, was moved gradually closer to the iron-carbon bond until it was ruptured. The researchers measured the mechanical forces applied at the moment of breakage, which was visible in an image captured by the microscope. A team from Princeton University, the University of Texas-Austin and ExxonMobil reported the results in a paper published Sept. 24 in Nature Communications.

"It's an incredible imagebeing able to actually see a single small molecule on a surface with another one bonded to it is amazing," said coauthor Craig Arnold, the Susan Dod Brown Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and director of the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials (PRISM).

"The fact that we could characterize that particular bond, both by pulling on it and pushing on it, allows us to understand a lot more about the nature of these kinds of bondstheir strength, how they interactand this has all sorts of implications, particularly for catalysis, where you have a molecule on a surface and then something interacts with it and causes it to break apart," said Arnold.

Nan Yao, a principal investigator of the study and the director of Princeton's Imaging and Analysis Center, noted that the experiments also revealed insights into how bond breaking affects a catalyst's interactions with the surface on which it's adsorbed. Improving the design of chemical catalysts has relevance for biochemistry, materials science and energy technologies, added Yao, who is also a professor of the practice and senior research scholar in PRISM.

In the experiments, the carbon atom was part of a carbon monoxide molecule and the iron atom was from iron phthalocyanine, a common pigment and chemical catalyst. Iron phthalocyanine is structured like a symmetrical cross, with a single iron atom at the center of a complex of nitrogen- and carbon-based connected rings. The iron atom interacts with the carbon of carbon monoxide, and the iron and carbon share a pair of electrons in a type of covalent bond known as a dative bond.

Yao and his colleagues used the atomic-scale probe tip of the AFM instrument to break the iron-carbon bond by precisely controlling the distance between the tip and the bonded molecules, down to increments of 5 picometers (5 billionths of a millimeter). The breakage occurred when the tip was 30 picometers above the moleculesa distance that corresponds to about one-sixth the width of a carbon atom. At this height, half of the iron phthalocyanine molecule became blurrier in the AFM image, indicating the rupture point of the chemical bond.

The researchers used a type of AFM known as non-contact, in which the microscope's tip does not directly contact the molecules being studied, but instead uses changes in the frequency of fine-scale vibrations to construct an image of the molecules' surface.

By measuring these frequency shifts, the researchers were also able to calculate the force needed to break the bond. A standard copper probe tip broke the iron-carbon bond with an attractive force of 150 piconewtons. With another carbon monoxide molecule attached to the tip, the bond was broken by a repulsive force of 220 piconewtons. To delve into the basis for these differences, the team used quantum simulation methods to model changes in the densities of electrons during chemical reactions.

The work takes advantage of AFM technology first advanced in 2009 to visualize single chemical bonds. The controlled breaking of a chemical bond using an AFM system has been more challenging than similar studies on bond formation.

"It is a great challenge to improve our understanding of how chemical reactions can be carried out by atom manipulation, that is, with a tip of a scanning probe microscope," said Leo Gross, who leads the Atom and Molecule Manipulation research group at IBM Research in Zurich, and was the lead author of the 2009 study that first resolved the chemical structure of a molecule by AFM.

By breaking a particular bond with different tips that use two different mechanisms, the new study contributes to "improving our understanding and control of bond cleavage by atom manipulation. It adds to our toolbox for chemistry by atom manipulation and represents a step forward toward fabricating designed molecules of increasing complexity," added Gross, who was not involved in the study.

The experiments are acutely sensitive to external vibrations and other confounding factors. The Imaging and Analysis Center's specialized AFM instrument is housed in a high-vacuum environment, and the materials are cooled to a temperature of 4 Kelvin, just a few degrees above absolute zero, using liquid helium. These controlled conditions yield precise measurements by ensuring that the molecules' energy states and interactions are affected only by the experimental manipulations.

"You need a very good, clean system because this reaction could be very complicatedwith so many atoms involved, you might not know which bond you break at such a small scale," said Yao. "The design of this system simplified the whole process and clarified the unknown" in breaking a chemical bond, he said.

The study's lead authors were Pengcheng Chen, an associate research scholar at PRISM, and Dingxin Fan, a Ph.D. student at the University of Texas-Austin. In addition to Yao, other corresponding authors were Yunlong Zhang of ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company in Annandale, New Jersey, and James R. Chelikowsky, a professor at UT Austin. Besides Arnold, other Princeton coauthors were Annabella Selloni, the David B. Jones Professor of Chemistry, and Emily Carter, the Gerhard R. Andlinger '52 Professor in Energy and the Environment. Other coauthors from ExxonMobil were David Dankworth and Steven Rucker.

Explore further How metals work together to weaken hardy nitrogen-nitrogen bonds

More information: Breaking a dative bond with mechanical forces, Nature Communications (2021). www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25932-6 Journal information: Nature Communications Breaking a dative bond with mechanical forces,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25932-6
Credit: Johanna Hedlund

Can dragonflies migrate thousands of miles across the Indian Ocean, from India via the Maldives to Africa, and back again? An international research team led by Lund University in Sweden has used models and simulations to find out if the hypothesis could be true.

In 2009, marine biologist Charles Anderson put forward a hypothesis after observing globe skimmer dragonflies (Pantala flavescens) on the Maldives, that had flown in from what he assumed was India. When they flew off again, it was towards East Africa. Now, 12 years later, a group of researchers decided to investigate his claim.

Globe skimmer dragonflies are too small to be fitted with transmitters. Instead, the researchers examined its physiological aspects and calculated how long a globe skimmer dragonfly could stay airborne using the energy that can be stored in its body. In addition, the researchers used meteorological wind models to determine if there are winds that can facilitate the migration in both directions.

"Our study shows that this migration from India to East Africa is actually possible. However, the globe skimmer dragonfly can't manage it using only the fat it can store in its body. It also requires favorable winds and these are present during certain periods of the year," says Johanna Hedlund, a biology researcher at Lund University.

According to the simulated migration experiments using wind models, about 15 percent of the dragonflies could manage the migration from India to Africa in the spring. In the autumn, 40 percent could make the same journey in the opposite direction.

Johanna Hedlund and her colleagues consider it impressive that dragonflies can do this at all. Even more impressive is the fact that the globe skimmer dragonfly migration across the Indian Ocean is the longest in the animal kingdom in relation to an animal's size.

"We have got a lot closer to solving the mystery of how a tiny dragonfly, which only weighs 300 milligrams, can cross 2,000 kilometers of open sea," says Johanna Hedlund.

Other animals also rely on favorable wind conditions when they migrate. Two examples are the amur falcon and the Jacobin cuckoo, which also fly across the Indian Ocean. The researchers behind the study in question warn that climate change may affect the chances of these birds and the globe skimmer dragonfly in the future. There is a risk that wind patterns will change when the water surface gets warmer.

The researchers consider that the study is important in several ways. It creates an understanding of the distances that one of the animal kingdom's smallest migrants can cover, it increases knowledge about how migratory animals can spread diseases, and it also contributes to ecosystem services at widespread locations around the world.

Explore further Video: Using dragonflies to measure mercury pollution

More information: Johanna S. U. Hedlund et al, Unraveling the World's Longest Non-stop Migration: The Indian Ocean Crossing of the Globe Skimmer Dragonfly, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (2021). Journal information: Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution Johanna S. U. Hedlund et al, Unraveling the World's Longest Non-stop Migration: The Indian Ocean Crossing of the Globe Skimmer Dragonfly,(2021). DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.698128
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

The first look at a threatened rattlesnake species' recent genetic history suggests that inbreeding necessitated by limited habitat may not be as detrimental as theory would predict it to be.

In fact, scientists speculate that Eastern massasauga rattlesnakes may have pre-adapted to living in small, isolated populationswhere the most dangerous genetic mutations that arose could be easily exposed and purged.

Researchers sequenced the genomes of 90 Eastern massasauga rattlesnakes, which were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2016 because of loss and fragmentation of their wetland habitat. For comparison, the researchers also sequenced 10 genomes of a close relative, the Western massasauga rattlesnake, a common species with no limitations on breeding opportunities and large populations.

The Ohio State University team found that the most potentially damaging gene mutations were less abundant in the Eastern than the Western species. This finding suggests the breeding limitations of small, isolated populations might be accompanied by an evolutionary advantage of being able to elbow out genetic variants that get in the way of survival, said H. Lisle Gibbs, professor of evolution, ecology and organismal biology at Ohio State and senior author of the study.

"This is something that has been reported very recently in other endangered species, but it's the first time it's been shown in a reptile," Gibbs said. "We always worry about genetics and the loss of variation and what it means to be in a small population in which there's lots of inbreeding. At least in this species, maybe it's not such a big deal.

"From a conservation perspective, perhaps we can downplay genetics and say ecologysuch as habitat restorationis more important."

Gibbs completed the study with Alexander Ochoa, a former postdoctoral researcher at Ohio State who is now a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Central Florida. The research is published in the journal Molecular Ecology.

Eastern massasauga rattlesnakes live in isolated spaces in midwestern and eastern North America, and evolutionary theory posits that the inevitable inbreeding in such populations threatens species with extinction as genetic mutations accumulate. The smallest populations might reach 30 snakes, but Ohio's Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area is home to one of the most genetically diverse and largest populations in the country, numbering in the thousands.

Gibbs has studied Eastern massasaugas for over two decades and, as director of the Ohio Biodiversity Conservation Partnership, advises the Ohio Department of Natural Resources on management of the species.

"Through years and years of study, we know that most populations are isolated, like little natural zoos scattered throughout the landscape," Gibbs said. "Due to habitat degradation, we've known they show little variationbut we've never actually looked at variation in genes that code for things that matter to a rattlesnake."

Only recently has it been possible to apply the research techniques perfected with the human genome to work with this species. Gibbs and Ochoa zeroed in on identifying mutations in genes that may affect survival and reproduction to gauge how hazardous inbreeding might be to Eastern massasaugas.

Though a higher overall number of potentially deleterious mutations were found in the common Western massasaugas, that didn't translate to more threats to their survival because most troublesome gene copies were offset by protective copies. That can happen only in heterozygotes, which have two different copies, or alleles, of a particular geneone inherited from each parent. Because of generations of inbreeding, Eastern massasaugas are much more likely to have two copies of the same allele.

"That's why inbreeding has impactsbecause that's when you get two bad alleles showing up together, with no good allele to compensate, so there is a negative effect," Gibbs said. "There's more inbreeding, so overall you get more mostly bad mutations together, but the really bad ones, because they're exposed, are also eliminated at a much greater rate."

Through another analytical technique comparing the narrowing of the Eastern and Western massasauga genetic makeup over several hundred years, Gibbs and Ochoa confirmed the impact human activity has had on the Eastern massasauga's swampy habitat. Unlike the Eastern species, Western massasaugas live in grassy and woodland regions of the south-central United States that are less densely populated by humans.

"We looked at what has happened in these snakes and their population sizes over the last 300 years, which is when humans have been tromping all over North America, impacting the landscape," Gibbs said. "The impacts in terms of reducing population sizes are greater in Eastern than in Western massasaugas over this period."

The findings could influence management decisions. A common conservation practice would involve introducing snakes from a more genetically diverse population into a highly isolated group to counter the effects of inbreeding. But it turns out the Eastern massasauga might benefit more from preservation of its habitat while the genetics takes care of itself.

"This counterintuitive result makes us rethink what living in a small population is, and whether genetic problems are as important as we think they are," Gibbs said. "This is certainly not to say living in a small population isn't badit just may be that the genetic effects are not as bad as we thought."

More information: Alexander Ochoa et al, Genomic signatures of inbreeding and mutation load in a threatened rattlesnake, Molecular Ecology (2021). Journal information: Molecular Ecology Alexander Ochoa et al, Genomic signatures of inbreeding and mutation load in a threatened rattlesnake,(2021). DOI: 10.1111/mec.16147
Q&A

Windows 11 Migrations Made Easy with PCmover Tools

PCmover migration products from Laplink Software are currently ready to transfer applications, data and settings over to new Windows 11 PCs.

Windows 11 is coming Oct. 5, and so I recently spoke with Thomas Koll, CEO of Laplink Software, about supporting Windows 11 migrations.

Bellevue, Wash.-based Laplink is a longtime Microsoft partner that helps individuals and organizations with the messy transitions from one Windows system to another via its software transfer solutions. The company has been offering PC transfer solutions for nearly 40 years, complete with free 24/7 support.

Koll is a 13-year Microsoft veteran who served as a country manager in Germany for Microsoft before becoming chief of staff for Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's former longtime CEO. Koll also served as corporate vice president leading Microsoft's Network Solutions Group.

Consumers and small businesses can use PCmover Professional when it's clear their target systems can run Windows 11, which has stringent hardware requirements. Laplink also offers a PCmover Enterprise migration solution for large organizations that are making the move to Windows 11. Laplink fully supports all versions of Windows from XP through Windows 11.

The following Q&A mostly focused on enterprise Windows 11 migration challenges, which are made more acute given the current remote-work trend.

Redmond: How are organizations using PCmover Enterprise?

Koll: We have many of the Fortune 100 and governments around the world using the software because you can totally customize it -- even headless without UI or with a little bit of UI. And we have made great inroads with remote migrations for home workers by utilizing the cloud as a transport mechanism.

"Many enterprises don't have connectivity to home users for data transfers through VPNs because you can't run terabytes through VPNs as they will just fall apart. So we use cloud transports, and it makes it very easy for administrators."



Thomas Koll, CEO, Laplink Software

Many enterprises don't have connectivity to home users for data transfers through VPNs because you can't run terabytes through VPNs as they will just fall apart. So we use cloud transports, and it makes it very easy for administrators. They can migrate to machines in different locations. A home user machine can be migrated to a laptop at an office, for instance, without the user having to be present. Basically, you want to avoid a service "truck roll," per the old telecom phrase, because it's costly to send out technicians.

PCmover software is just used to transfer data and settings when an image has been set up?

Yes, so the IT department can configure a system with a standard desktop using Microsoft SCCM [System Center Configuration Manager] or other tools. End users can then plug in a cable to connect both PCs to your network or use their home network, and it'll give you a no-touch transfer, if wanted.

That's a very common scenario, but total automation is possible via asynchronous transfer. You first "export" your application, data and settings and transfer it to an external server, and then bring it back to the new target PC without being at the home location. You just need connectivity to the datacenter, which can be done through the Internet, utilizing enterprise blob storage.

Could cloud storage services like OneDrive be used for such transfers?

Consumer cloud storage services like OneDrive are very inefficient for doing full migrations. It's the wrong solution for that.

Does PCmover inform users about app compatibility issues before a move?

Our software will suggest that an app will not work by indicating it in red. A green indicator means we tested it and found it compatible. There's also a yellow caution indicator. We do a lot of testing of applications. We have to, because Microsoft will not provide a list showing what's compatible and what's not.

Typically, our software blocks the apps that can't transfer, and users get a report showing the failures. The software does block the transfer of OEM applications, so it won't put an HP support app on a Dell machine, for instance.

If Microsoft Office is on both machines, we just transfer the settings. We don't override or replace apps.

If an application is tied to the hardware by the software publisher, can it be moved?

Some software companies, like Adobe, like to link the license to the hardware. And yes, when it gets moved, it will not work because it lacks that hardware connection. However, if you deauthorize it first and decouple it from the hardware, you can usually move it, and then it recouples again. And then it works.

Windows 11 is an all-64-bit OS. Does PCmover address bitness during transfers?

We can't magically change the restrictions of Windows, and the restrictions of software publishers. Some software will just not be able to be installed. As a general rule, if you could install the software on a 64-bit system and it ran, we will move it to Windows 11.

Does PCmover support migrations to Arm systems?

We don't support Arm moves.

What's confusing for consumers doing Windows migrations?

A lot of users are confused about the default Microsoft library folders, such as Documents, Pictures and so on. If you have two hard drives in a machine, then there are questions about switching the standard directories to the preferred drive. We created the PC Reconfigurator tool for such circumstances. It asks which drive to use when moving the default libraries. It solves a big pain point for users.

There's still a lot of confusion about cloud storage services. People can't tell what's in the cloud and what's not. Our software makes sure that everything gets moved over, so that files don't have to be downloaded again. We support OneDrive, Box, Dropbox and Google Drive, making it easier for the user.

Do cloud storage IDs need to get migrated to new machines?

No, the cloud storage is all tied to your personal ID, not to the hardware, which is a good thing because, by just typing your credentials, you have access again.

Will there be a free limited-capability PCmover Express product for Windows 11 migrators?

We're working hard with Microsoft and Intel on it. Many of the free PCmover versions were also sponsored by some of our partners. Sometimes the OEMs preinstall the free PCmover base version. So stay tuned on that, as there might be an announcement coming soon.

Did Laplink get any inside Windows 11 information from Microsoft as a partner?

No, but I think Windows 11 was a surprise for everybody, given that Windows 10 was said to be the last client OS. We don't have more insights into Microsoft than anybody else. Likely, Microsoft just didn't want to broadcast secret information to all of its partners. I think that's the case for all of the partners except for key ones like Intel, where there's close cooperation on the chips and software.
KFC is out of chicken, and Burger King is short on fries, while Starbucks is bemoaning a coffee crunch, and toilet paper is once again sparse on store shelves, along with cleaning supplies and other basic goods.

Those are all results of a pandemic-caused labor shortage along the supply chain. According to some economists, it could continue into 2022 before easing--and not in time for the upcoming holiday seasons.

Most of the goods in the U.S. are coming from China. Yet, massive port backlogs, container shortages and recent power shortages in China have three-month port delays. And once goods finally make it to the U.S., its taking longer to get items on store shelves or delivered to homes.

Before the pandemic, goods typically waited at U.S. ports for no more than three to four days. Right now, due to a shortage of truck drivers, the wait is up to two weeks.

As of 2018, the nationwide truck driver shortage was almost 61,000. According to an American Trucking Association report, that figure could be more than 100,000 by 2023; and if the current trend holds, the country will be short more than 160,000 drivers in 2028.

The supply chain problems are further compounded by a lack of warehouse workers. Even though warehouse employment reached a new high this summer, mostly due to wages increase and other benefits, companies are still scrambling to keep pace with demand.

Prior to the pandemic, the warehousing industry was already short 450,000 workers, and since then, that demand has skyrocketed.

As a result, American consumers are now witnessing shortages of all kinds of goods, from zippers, diapers, glass and furniture to olive oil to plastics.

Its a disaster for retailers ahead of what should be a multi-billion-dollar shopping season.



According to Adobe Analytics, online shopping over the 2020 holidays in the United States grew 32.2% from 2019s, totaling $188.2 billion.

Despite the vaccine rollout and physical brick-and-mortar stores working at nearly full capacity, retailers still encourage customers to shift to online shopping in order to avoid crowds during the pandemic. With that in mind, online sales are set to break another record this holiday shopping season--assuming the goods can get here on time.

While some economists are recommending that consumers start their shopping early, e-commerce companies, retailers and shipping companies are working hard to avoid delays.

The biggest private employer in the U.S., Walmart, said it planned to hire about 150,000 new workers in preparation for the holiday season.

Amazon said it planned to hire 125,000 workers in fulfillment and transportation, offering an average starting pay of more than $18 per hour and sign-on bonuses.

Kohls has a similar plan, which envisions hiring about 90,000 seasonal workers for stores, distribution centers and e-commerce fulfillment. Target had said it would hire some 30,000 supply chain professionals. FedEx wants to hire 90,000 new employees, while competitor UPS is targeting 100,000 ahead of the holiday season.

However, in an ongoing labor crunch, it's uncertain if any of them will meet their goals.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the labor market is down 9.9 million jobs since February 2020. Just in the retail industry, companies are trying to fill more than one million empty positions.
" " Pixabay/Flickr( CC By 2.0 )/HowStuffWorks Wouldn't it be cool if astronauts could 3-D print food from the comfort of their own spaceship?

If we're ever going to abandon this planet and live on Mars or wherever, we're going to have to have hamburgers, and a Russian cosmonaut named Oleg Skripochka has gotten humanity a little closer to that goal. On a recent trip to the International Space Station (ISS), he accomplished making real meat without killing an animal! In space! Using a 3-D printer!

Of course, there's nothing special about space that makes it possible to make a hamburger without slaughtering an animal  scientists here on Earth have been doing it since the first hamburger patty was printed in 2013. However, since NASA and other space programs are looking for a sustainable way to feed astronauts as they pursue plans to send humans deeper into space than ever before, 3-D printing seems like a great way to cut down on the sheer volume of food luggage these long voyages will require. The hope is that future astronauts will just bring a few plant and animals cells with them  in addition to a structure-giving material called "bioink"  and they can feed this slurry into a 3-D printer, and voila! Dinner is served.

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This is a great idea and everything, but scientists were skeptical that the process would work as well in the microgravity of space.

"Maturing of bioprinted organs and tissues in zero gravity proceeds much faster than in Earth gravity conditions," Yoav Reisler, a representative from Aleph Farms, the Israeli food-tech company in charge of the experiment, told Space.com. "The tissue is being printed from all sides simultaneously, like making a snowball, while most other bioprinters create it layer by layer. On Earth, the cells always fall downward. In zero gravity, they hang in space and interfere only with each other. Layer by layer printing in gravity requires a support structure. Printing in zero gravity allows tissue to be created only with cell material, without any intermediate support."

On Sept. 25, 2019, Aleph Farms gave Skripochka a bunch of vials of biopsied animal cells  cow, rabbit and fish  along with a specialized 3-D printer that does its job using the magnetic fields in microgravity and instructions to manufacture a few pieces of meat from some muscle cells and bioink.

And it worked! Skripochka was able to make a few small pieces of each kind of animal tissue with the setup.

Which means  thank goodness!  we won't have to take cows with us if we want to have cookouts on Mars.

Now That's Interesting The idea for lab-grown meat was first patented by Willem van Eelen who spent time in a Japanese prison camp during WWII. Van Eelen was beaten and starved during his time there, but was so appalled by how the animals were treated, he made it his life's mission to make slaughtering animals unnecessary in our food system.
" " Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, 17, displays her medal and diploma during the Nobel Peace Prize awards ceremony at the City Hall in Oslo, Norway, on Dec. 10, 2014. The Pakistani girls' education activist was the youngest Nobel recipient and shared the peace prize with the Indian campaigner Kailash Satyarthi, who has freed thousands of children from virtual slave labor. ODD ANDERSEN/AFP/Getty Images

It's Nobel Prize season again, when the media's fickle attention shines briefly on a handful of people whose life's work has made the world a better place. Since 1901, the annual prizes awarded by tuxedoed Swedes and Norwegians in stuffy ceremonies have highlighted human achievements in the fields of science, medicine, literature, economics (starting in 1968) and most prominently, peace.

But have you ever wondered how Nobel laureates are nominated and selected, or why we've entrusted a private foundation in a Scandinavian country to bestow the world's most prestigious prize? We'll clue you in, starting with some intel on the unlikely founder of the prizes.

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Alfred Nobel: The Pacifist Who Invented Dynamite

The Nobel Prizes are named after their benefactor, Alfred Nobel, a Swedish-born scientist and inventor with more than 300 patents, but best-known as the inventor of dynamite.

Nobel and his father Immanuel, an engineer, tried for years to invent a method for creating controlled detonations of nitroglycerine. After several setbacks in the early 1860s, including an explosion that killed his brother, Nobel figured out how to mix nitroglycerine into a paste that could be ignited with black gunpowder and a blasting cap. He called his invention dynamite and expected to sell it to mining companies.

It wasn't long before dynamite was being used as a weapon of war. And throughout his lucrative career, Nobel contributed to the development of more powerful and deadly weapons, including rockets, cannons and new types of gunpowder.

Nobel's global empire of dynamite and weapons factories made him one of the richest men of his day, but he was also, ironically, a pacifist. He corresponded later in life with Bertha von Suttner, a leader of the international peace movement and author of "Lay Down Your Arms."

"Perhaps my factories will put an end to war sooner than your congresses," wrote Nobel. "On the day that two army corps can mutually annihilate each other in a second, all civilized nations will surely recoil with horror and disband their troops."

If only Nobel's predictions were true. The inventor died in 1896 at age 63 before he could witness the horrors of World War I, where weapons of his making would kill millions.

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A Prize for the 'Greatest Benefit to Mankind'

A year before his death, Nobel signed his third and final will, in which he set aside the majority of his immense estate  around $200 million, worth $176 billion in today's dollars  to the establishment of a remarkable new fund, "the interest on which is to be distributed annually as prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind."

In his will, Nobel specified the five areas in which the prizes should be awarded: physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace. This peace prize, Nobel wrote, should go "to the person who has done the most or best to advance fellowship among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the establishment and promotion of peace congresses."

Nobel named the specific Swedish academies and other institutions who would responsible for picking the winners  with "no consideration given to nationality"  but it was up to the Nobel Foundation, created in 1900, to come up with a process for nominating and selecting each year's laureates. (If you're curious, the word "laureate" comes from the ancient Greek practice of crowning poets and heroes with sprigs of laurel, a sacred tree of Apollo. Now it's mostly used to designate winners of impressive academic prizes, like Nobel laureates, but also positions of literary distinction, like the poet laureate.)

A sixth category in the economic sciences was added in 1968 thanks to a donation from the Swedish central bank "in memory of Alfred Nobel." It is not technically a Nobel Prize (since the funds don't come out of Nobel's will) but it is commonly referred to as one.

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How to Nominate Someone for a Nobel Prize

First, the bad news. You cannot nominate yourself for a Nobel Prize.

Nominations for the four most technical Nobel categories  physics, chemistry, medicine and economic sciences  are exclusively by invitation only. Each prize has its own standing Nobel Committee, which sends out nomination requests to roughly 3,000 people, all leading academics in the field and former Nobel recipients.

From those hundreds of nominations, each Nobel Committee creates a shortlist of finalists, after consulting with experts, which is then sent to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The Academy then votes by majority for the winners of the Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and the economic sciences. The decisions are final.

The other two prizes, literature and peace, have slightly different nomination processes. The literature committee, for example, sends out its own invitations for nominees, but other "qualified persons" are also welcome to submit names for consideration. Qualified persons include professors of literature or linguistics at colleges and universities, and presidents of national literary societies. The winner of the literature prize is selected by the 18 members of the Swedish Academy, who are all prominent Swedish writers, literary scholars and historians.

No nomination invitations are sent out for the peace prize. But that doesn't mean anyone can nominate anybody. You have to be a "qualified nominator" to submit names. People who fit that bill include members of The Hague, government ministers or former Nobel Peace Prize winners, but also university professors in fields like the social sciences, law, philosophy and religion, and directors of peace research institutes.

The winner of the peace prize is chosen by Norwegians, not Swedes. In his will, Nobel specified that the peace prize would be selected by a five-person committee chosen by the Norwegian Parliament. That's why the peace prize alone is awarded in a ceremony in Oslo, while the rest are conferred at ceremonies in Stockholm.

The deliberation process for choosing the winners is private (you could say "secret) and the full lists of nominees and their nominators aren't made public until 50 years later.

Famous Nobel laureates in the sciences include Albert Einstein, Marie Curie (who won it twice, once for physics and once chemistry), Max Planck, and James Watson and Francis Crick. Literature winners include Ernest Hemingway and Toni Morrison. Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa and Malala Yousafzai have all won peace prizes. The prize winners are announced daily during the first week of October, one each day, capping off with the winner of the peace prize on Friday, and the economics prize the following Monday.

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How Much Money Comes With the Nobel Prize?

From the start, the Nobel Prize gained international attention for the hefty cash award that came with the honor. The very first Nobel Prizes awarded in 1901 came with cash prizes equivalent to nearly $900,000 each in 2018 U.S. dollars. While the value of the prize dipped in the middle of the last century, it made a comeback in the 1990s. The 2021 Nobel Prizes are each worth 10 million Swedish krona (around $1,165,216).

" " Staff serves guests at the main table during the Nobel Banquet after the 2012 Nobel Prize Ceremony at Town Hall on Dec. 10, 2012 in Stockholm, Sweden. Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Nobel's will instructed that the prize amounts should be equal across the original five categories, which was increased to six in 1968 with the addition of economic sciences. In its statutes, the Nobel Foundation says that two awards can be given out in each category every year, with the prize money equally divided among the two. Up to three people can receive an individual Nobel Prize jointly, in which case they split the prize money by three.

In addition to the prize money, all Nobel laureates receive an 18-carat gold Nobel Medal and a hand-inked Nobel diploma decorated by Swedish and Norwegian artists and calligraphers. During Nobel Week in early December, the winners travel to Stockholm to give lectures and listen to a Nobel Prize concert. The week is capped off with a special banquet where the King of Sweden presents the laureates with their awards. (At the same time, the peace prize winner gets his or her award in Norway from the King of Norway.) Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, 2021 winners will receive their medals in their home countries.

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Criticisms of the Nobel Prizes

The Nobel Prizes are extremely subjective, and every year there are grumblings that the secretive Scandinavian committees picked the wrong winners. But beyond the occasional snub, there are some common critiques and suggestions for how the Nobel Prize could evolve and improve.

Historically, women have been wildly underrepresented as Nobel laureates. Of the 603 Nobel Prizes awarded from 1901 through 2020, only 58, or 9 percent, went to women. There has been progress over the century. From 1901 to 1960, only 12 women received Nobel Prizes. But in the four decades between 1981 and 2020, there were 46 female laureates, 28 of whom won after 2000.

Many researchers argue that the Nobel Foundation should lift the three-person limit on how many people can win. The nature of modern research is team-based with large international collaborations becoming the norm. Critics say that Nobel Prizes should be awarded to entire teams and not just the few big names at the top. (This is only an issue for the science prizes. Many organizations, like the International Committee of the Red Cross, have won the peace prize.)

One last critique is that there are simply too few categories. When Alfred Nobel created the prizes, he included fields that mattered most in his day, but times have changed. Where are the categories for mathematics, computer science, biology and genetics, or environmental science? If the Nobel Foundation allowed the addition of economic sciences in the 1960s, some say, then it should add even more fields that represent other impactful areas of 21st-century research.

Now That's Interesting Aung San Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for campaigning for democracy in Myanmar. But her silence in the face of the military crackdown on the Rohingya minority in 2017 in her country after she had become its de facto leader, had people calling for her Nobel Prize to be withdrawn. Nobel rules do not allow this. The Norwegian Nobel committee head noted, "It's not our task to oversee or censor what a laureate does after the prize has been won," according to the Guardian.

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Originally Published: Oct 7, 2019
" " Men's beards became the focus of a study intended to find out whether it was safe to use the same MRI scanners for people and dogs. Michael Ivins/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images

If you've been looking for a solid way to shame your beard-sporting partner into clean-shaven submission, congratulations: A recent study suggests that men's beards may harbor more germs than dog's fur. Feel free to hit the razor aisle before delivering that news.

The study, published in the February 2019 issue of the journal European Radiology, wasn't intended to be a compilation of anti-beard evidence, but the results offered some less-than-positive insight for fans of facial hair. The study was actually much weirder than a simple hair vs. fur exploration  researchers were trying to figure out if it was safe for humans to use the same MRI scanners previously used by dogs.

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Why in the world would that be a thing experts need to know about, you ask? Apparently most vet clinics don't have dedicated on-site animal scanners, but because dogs are living longer than ever, they're experiencing increased diseases in their golden years and often require imaging diagnostics. So rather than having all vets invest in pricey pet-specific machines, the researchers were trying to figure out if pups could just be evaluated in regular human hospitals. As for why the researchers chose bearded men as their comparison group, there's no clear answer. So is it still a weird study? Sure. But the context helps clear things up a little.

To sort out the issue, researchers analyzed skin and saliva samples from 18 bearded men, ranging in age from 18 to 76, and samples of fur and saliva from 30 dogs, ranging in breed from schnauzer to German shepherd. The fur samples, by the way, were taken from between the dogs' shoulder blades, which is apparently a "particularly unhygienic" area where skin infections regularly occur on canines, according to the study. Despite sampling the notoriously germy spots on the pups, the men emerged as the germier group.

The study found that all 18 men exhibited "high microbial counts" on their skin and saliva, but only 23 of the 30 dogs showed that kind of extreme germiness. It unfortunately gets even grosser than that: Seven of the men tested positive for human-pathogenic microbes, which are the type of bacteria that can make people super sick under certain circumstances (four of the dogs had it too, but...just four). These microbes included Enterococcus faecalis, a common gut bacteria responsible for urinary tract infections and other health issues, and Staphylococcus aureus, a bacteria that lives on up to half of all human adults, but can create mayhem if it gets into the bloodstream.

The good(ish?) news for bearded dudes is that researchers can't say for sure from this small study whether hairy men are inherently germier than the rest of the human race  in fact, they wrote that "there is no reason to believe that women may harbor less bacteriological load than bearded men." The real message they hope people take to heart is that humans  whether bearded, bald, male or female  leave behind a lot more potentially-harmful bugs behind in hospital settings than experts ever realized.

"The central question should perhaps not be whether we should allow dogs to undergo imaging in our hospitals," the team wrote, "but rather we should focus on the knowledge and perception of hygiene and understand what poses real danger and risk to our patients."

Now That's Interesting An estimated 55 percent of men around the world have some type of facial hair, and the average beard grows 5.5 inches (14 centimeters) per year.
" " Scientists have found a way to measure all the starlight emitted for most of the history of the universe. George Rose/Getty Images

Here's a mind-blowing figure for you: 4,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

In case you're wondering what all those digits signify, that's the number of photons  more compactly expressed as 4 x 1084  emitted by all of the stars in the observable universe, going back to when the 13.7 billion-year-old universe had been around for just a billion years, according to a team of researchers headed by Marco Ajello, an astrophysicist in the College of Science at Clemson University.

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That's based on an analysis of data from NASA's 10-year-old Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, which enabled the researchers to compile a history of star formation over most of the universe's lifetime.

The scientists detailed their findings in a paper published on Nov. 30, 2018, in the journal Science, with Ajello as the lead author.

Here's a NASA video about the research:

Measuring starlight for most of the universe's history required considerable ingenuity. As Ajello explains in prepared remarks via email, the total amount of light emitted by stars is comprised of two types. "One is stellar light that survives absorption by dust," he writes. "This is what we measured. The rest is stellar light absorbed by dust and re-emitted in the infrared. We are not sensitive to that. It turns out half of the energy emitted by stars across the history of the universe is re-processed by stars at longer (infrared) wavelengths."

The sky is filled with photons emitted long ago by distant stars  this is called the extragalactic background light, or EBL. Nevertheless, except for the moon and stars from our own galaxy, the sky appears dark to our eyes. According to Ajello, that's because most of the starlight that reaches Earth from the rest of the vast universe is extremely faint  the equivalent of a 60-watt light bulb viewed in compete darkness from about 2.5 million miles away.

As this Science News article explains, to get around that problem, Ajello and his team perused 10 years of data from the Fermi telescope, and looked at the EBL's interaction with gamma rays emitted by distant blazars  black holes that can send powerful streams of radiation out into the universe. The researchers calculated the extent to which the gamma rays from those blazars had been absorbed or altered by collisions with the EBL's photons.

"Blazars emit light across the electromagnetic spectrum, but release most of their energy in the gamma-ray band," Ajello explains. "The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board of Fermi is able to measure gamma-rays from blazars from 100 MeV (1 million times the energy of visible light) to 1 TeV (1 trillion times the energy of visible light). The pair production process (where two photons produce an electron-positron pair) which absorbed the gamma rays emitted from blazars starts only at energies of ~10 GeV (billion times the energy of visible light). So below this energy we observed the true, un-absorbed, blazar output, but above this 'threshold' more and more photons from the blazars are absorbed till the point (if you increase the energy enough) you don't see the blazar anymore."

"We look for this transition from zero percent absorption to 100 percent absorption as a function of energy," Ajello continues. "The energy at which the transition starts and how fast it goes from zero percent to 100 percent measure the energy of the EBL photons and how many of those are out there. The more there are the quicker is the zero 100 percent (absorption) transition."

Ajello describes tracking the EBL as the astrophysicists' equivalent of "following the rainbow and discovering a pot of gold. The EBL is the rainbow and its knowledge can finally disclose a lot of useful information."

Ajello explains that the total amount of light emitted by stars is comprised of two types. "One is stellar light that survives absorption by dust (this is what we measured). The rest is stellar light absorbed by dust and re-emitted in the infrared (we are not sensitive to that). It turns out half of the energy emitted by stars across the history of the universe is re-processed by stars at longer (infrared) wavelengths."

The researchers' technique enabled them to see the history of star formation in the universe, which they found had peaked about 3 billion years after the Big Bang and has slowed dramatically since then, according to a Washington Post article on the work.

The count doesn't include the amount of starlight emitted in the first billion years of the universe's existence. "This is an epoch we can't really probe yet," Ajello explains. That's one reason he and other scientists are looking forward to the 2021 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, which NASA says will be sufficiently sensitive to detect the first stars.

Now That's Interesting While the creation of new stars has slowed, it's never completely stopped, according to this Clemson news release. The Milky Way, for example, creates about seven new stars each year.

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Originally Published: Dec 4, 2018
" " Members of the National Guard patrol Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles on May 31, 2020. They were among the thousands of National Guard troops that were deployed to several major U.S. cities after five consecutive nights of protests over racism and police brutality boiled over into arson and looting. JAVIER TOVAR/AFP via Getty Images

The National Guard serves a dual role in the U.S. military by serving the community and its country. Most of the time, it's under the control of individual states, with the state governor acting as commander in chief. When this occurs, guard units are used to supplement the U.S. Army, bolstering its forces with additional combat units. The Guard responds to domestic emergencies, overseas combat missions, counterdrug efforts, reconstruction missions and more. However, the president can activate the National Guard and place it under federal control.

Soldiers in the National Guard train one weekend each month, with one two-week training period each year. They're typically called into action by a state governor, who can send them to the site of any officially declared emergency in the state. This is usually a weather-related emergency, but civil unrest or terrorist attacks are other emergencies they may respond to.

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For example, the death of George Floyd (during his police custody in Minneapolis) was followed by mass protests, arson and looting in cities across the U.S. in May 2020. National Guard personnel were activated in 23 states and the District of Columbia [source: Soucy]. In June 2020, 600 to 800 National Guard members from five states were requested to augment the D.C. National Guard in dealing with civil unrest in the nation's capital [source: Browne and Starr]. Guard troops can also be used for security details at borders and airports.

While state governors command their state's guard troops, each state has an adjutant general who acts as a liaison, interpreting the governor's orders into specific tactical decisions.

When the president federalizes National Guard troops, they can be used in domestic emergencies much like they are used in state emergencies. However, the troops are not limited to emergencies within their home states. For example, in 2005, National Guard units from all 50 states were used to aid in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. There were actually more out-of-state National Guard personnel deployed to Louisiana and Mississippi than those states' own National Guards provided [source: Congressional Research Service].

" " A National Guard Humvee departs the New Orleans Superdome in Louisiana to patrol the streets after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city leaving thousands stranded. The National Guard/U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 1st Class (AW) Brien Aho

Federalized Guard troops can also be folded into the U.S. Army and be called upon to active service in military operations overseas. In fact, 40 percent of the U.S. Army's current combat capacity, including 43 percent of its piloted and unmanned aircraft are National Guard members [source: Soucy].

The National Guard played a critical role when the U.S. entered World War I, with the 27th "Empire" Division, composed mostly of New York National Guard members, and the 30th "Old Hickory" Division from Tennessee and the Carolinas helping to break through Germany's Hindenburg Line during the 1918 Somme offensive [source: National Guard Bureau]. From 2001 to 2016, the National Guard had 780,000 individual overseas deployments [source: Soucy]. One out of six U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq came from a National Guard Unit.

Most of the time, when someone refers to the National Guard, they're talking about the Army National Guard. However, the Air Force has a National Guard as well. The Air National Guard is a separate organization with the same functions as the Army National Guard, but units (usually wings) can be activated to supplement the U.S. Air Force. The two guards were split in this way by a reorganization of the U.S. military after World War II.

The National Guard's existence is ensured by the Constitution, which has a series of clauses outlining the states' rights to create militias and the federal government's right to utilize those militias. These are a long chain of federal laws, the most important of which are the 1903 Militia Act and the National Defense Act of 1916. A more recent law, the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act of 2007, expanded the president's authority to activate guard units during a natural disaster, terrorist attack, epidemic or other public health emergency, even without the approval from the states' governors [source: Melnyk].

But presidential power to use the National Guard still has limits. Federal law still restricts the president's use of National Guard forces to enforce federal laws within U.S. borders, unless it's to suppress an insurrection [source: Congressional Research Service].

About half of the states in the United States also maintain a state defense force. These forces are more like militias  all of the troops are volunteers, they receive no federal funding and often have to purchase their own uniforms and equipment. A state defense force is separate from the state National Guard, though they may be organized in parallel. Technically, the president has the authority to call on these state militias when needed, but in practical terms, state defense forces are largely immune to federal activation.

For more information on the National Guard and related topics, check out the following links:

Sources

Army national guard. "About the National Guard." http://www.ngb.army.mil/About/default.aspx

Browne, Ryan and Starr, Barbara. "Additional National Guard members have been requested for DC." CNN. June 1, 2020. (June 1, 2020) https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/george-floyd-protests-06-01-20/index.html

Congressional Research Service. "Hurricane Katrina: DOD Disaster Response. " Fas.org. Sept. 19, 2005. (June 1, 2020) https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33095.pdf

Congressional Research Service. "The Posse Comitatus Act and Related Matters: The Use of the Military to Execute Civilian Law." Fas.org. Nov. 16, 2018. (June 1, 2020) https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R42659.pdf

GlobalSecurity.org. "Army National Guard." http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/army/arng.htm

Meeks, Brock N. "Guardsmen on a rescue and relief mission." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9117367/

Melnyk, Maj. Les. "New defense laws show Guard the road ahead for 2007." Nationalguard.mil. Oct. 18, 2006. (June 1, 2020) https://www.nationalguard.mil/News/Article/572792/new-defense-laws-show-guard-the-road-ahead-for-2007/

National Guard Bureau. "History: National Guard assisted WWI allies in ending war." Nationalguard.mil. Nov. 7, 2018. (June 1, 2020) https://www.nationalguard.mil/News/News-Features/Article/1684584/history-national-guard-assisted-wwi-allies-in-ending-war/

Soucy, Sgt. 1st Class Jon. "National Guard remains a vital component of the war fight." Army.mil. March 22, 2016. (June 1, 2020) https://www.army.mil/article/164663/national_guard_remains_a_vital_component_of_the_war_fight

Soucy, Sgt. 1st Class Jon. "Response to civil unrest." Army.mil May 21, 2020. (June 1, 2020) https://www.army.mil/article/236089/guard_members_in_23_states_d_c_called_up_in_response_to_civil_unrest

Woodruff, Judy. "National Guard Underfunded, Not Prepared for Crises." http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/jan-june07/military_03-01.html

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Originally Published: Apr 4, 2007
 More great Inquest materials, including critical overview of federal drug control history | Main | Split Tenth Circuit panel upholds constitutionality of Colorado's indefinite sentencing of sex offender for 37 years 

The title of this post is my not-so-clever way of connecting the Supreme Court's new-Term opening case on the Armed Career Criminal Act to a depressing CSN&Y song. The lyrics of the song "Wooden Ships" are only a bit more opaque than the language that SCOTUS has to sort out in Wooden v. US concerning the proper application of the severe sentencing mandatory minimum of the Armed Career Criminal Act. Daniel Harawa at SCOTUSblog has a full preview of the case in this new post titled "Whats an occasion? Scope of Armed Career Criminal Act depends on the answer." Here is an excerpt (with links from the original):

If you break into a storage facility and steal from 10 separate storage units, did you commit 10 offenses on occasions different from one another? The Supreme Court will answer this question in Wooden v. United States, yet another case concerning the scope of the Armed Career Criminal Act....

The federal government charged Wooden with being a felon in possession of a firearm  a crime for which the maximum punishment is 10 years imprisonment. The government also requested that Wooden be designated an armed career criminal under the Armed Career Criminal Act, in which case Wooden would be subject to a 15-year mandatory minimum. To qualify as an armed career criminal, a defendant must have three prior violent felony or serious drug offense convictions. Here, the government argued that Woodens 10 burglary convictions qualified as 10 violent felonies for ACCA purposes. To constitute separate convictions under ACCA, the crimes must be committed on occasions different from one another. Wooden argued that the 10 burglaries all occurred on the same occasion, and therefore counted for only one qualifying violent felony under ACCA.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit agreed with the government. It held that the crimes were committed on separate occasions because Wooden committed ten distinct acts of burglary. To the 6th Circuit, it was dispositive that Wooden could not be in two (let alone ten) of [the storage units] at once. Much like the 6th Circuit, other circuits had held that crimes are committed on different occasions for ACCA purposes when they are committed successively rather than simultaneously, as in United States v. Carter, an 11th Circuit case. Other circuits, however, looked beyond temporality and instead considered whether the crimes were committed under sufficiently different circumstances. The 2nd Circuit, for instance, distinguish[ed] between the defendant who simply commits several offenses in a connected chain of events and the defendant who  commits multiple crimes separated by substantial effort and reflection. The Supreme Court granted certiorari to resolve this split.

Before the Supreme Court both Wooden and the government argue that ACCAs structure, history, and purpose support their position.
Japan's new prime minister Fumio Kishida pledged to combat the pandemic with fresh stimulus and fight income inequality after lawmakers voted him leader of the world's third-largest economy on Monday.

The soft-spoken 64-year-old from a Hiroshima political family made his first speech as premier hours after unveiling his cabinet, a mix of holdovers and newcomers.

"I'm determined to fulfil my duty with all my strength and all my heart," he said, calling measures to counter Covid-19 "top priority".

"I will swiftly take economic measures to support those who have been considerably affected by the new coronavirus."

He announced a general election on October 31, slightly earlier than expected, in which the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its coalition party are widely expected to retain power.

However, they could be vulnerable to losing some seats, with the public unhappy about the government's virus response.

Having beaten popular vaccine chief Taro Kono last week to claim LDP leadership, Kishida easily won Monday's vote in parliament to confirm him as prime minister thanks to the party's commanding majority.

The new leader said he wanted to distribute the benefits of growth more evenly in society.

"I aim to create a new capitalism... in order for our country to open the way to the future," he said.

He also pledged to further digitalise society, partly through investment in green tech and AI, adding that he intends to attend the upcoming G20 and COP26 summits online.

- New cabinet -

Kishida is widely considered a safe pair of hands, who commands support from his own faction within the LDP and is not expected to veer significantly from the government's existing policies.

His election came after former prime minister Yoshihide Suga announced he would not stand for the LDP leadership after just one year in office.

Kishida's new cabinet includes more than a dozen fresh faces but holdovers from the Suga government largely populate the most important positions.

Story continues

Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, who has taken the lead in negotiating key trade deals, and Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi -- brother of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe -- both retained their jobs.

The finance portfolio will go to Shunichi Suzuki, who is replacing his own brother-in-law Taro Aso.

The cabinet includes three women, among them Kishida's one-time rival for the leadership, Seiko Noda, who was named minister in charge of addressing Japan's declining birthrate.

"The Kishida cabinet aims at balance with consideration given to major factions, young lawmakers, and neighbouring countries," said Junichi Makino, SMBC Nikko Securities chief economist.

"It's the kind of cabinet formation that reflects Kishida, who works not to make enemies."

- Election looms -

US President Joe Biden offered his congratulations to Kishida, saying the "historic partnership" between the two nations will continue.

As prime minister, Kishida faces a raft of challenges, from the post-pandemic economic recovery to confronting military threats from North Korea and from China, Japan's biggest trading partner.

"We need to continue our dialogue (with China). On the other hand, cooperating with our allies and friends, we are going to say firmly what we have to say. That's an important stance," he said.

And raising the emotional issue of Japanese people who Tokyo believes were abducted by North Korea, Kishida said he was willing to meet the reclusive country's leader Kim Jong Un to discuss the issue "without conditions".

Suga's government saw its approval ratings slump as it struggled to tackle waves of infection, including a record virus spike over the summer while the Olympics were being held in Tokyo.

Much of Japan has been under virus emergency measures for a large part of the year, with the restrictions finally lifting last week as new infections decline.

More than 60 percent of the population is now fully vaccinated, but there are concerns that the healthcare system could easily become overwhelmed again in a new virus wave.

sah-si-kaf/oho
Representative image

Hong Kong, October 3 (ANI/Xinhua): The Security Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said on Sunday that an organization and its members shall remain criminally liable for the offenses they have committed, notwithstanding its disbandment or the resignation of its members.

A security bureau spokesman made the remarks in response to media enquiries concerning the decision of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, an anti-China organization, to disband on Sunday.

The Hong Kong police will spare no efforts in pursuing the legal liabilities of any organization and person suspected of violating the national security law in Hong Kong or other laws in Hong Kong, the spokesman said.

"We will conduct thorough investigations in respect of those local organizations which have received donations from foreign political organizations," said the spokesman, adding that the security bureau will request them to provide information or take other necessary measures as required pursuant to the implementation rules under the national security law in Hong Kong and other relevant ordinances.

The Hong Kong police will continue to pursue the legal liabilities of organizations and persons endangering national security in accordance with the law, so as to ensure those concerned will be brought to justice, according to the spokesman. (ANI/Xinhua)
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami (Photo/ANI)

Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], October 3 (ANI): The State government of Uttarakhand has announced the implementation of the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) to ban the leave of the engineers and employees of the three power corporations of the state, said the state government on Sunday.

The decision comes on the backdrop of the indefinite strike announced by the engineers and employees of the three power corporations, starting from October 6.

"To cope up with the crisis, alternative arrangements have been made in the state for hydropower generation, and transmission of power supply," said the order issued by the state government.

The state government said that engineers and personnel from the BJP-ruled states of Uttar Pradesh, Himachal and Haryana as well as central power undertakings have been deployed in the state.

"The electricity system of the state will be handed over to the alternate personnel from Sunday," it added.

Meanwhile, Chief Secretary Dr SS Sandhu held a meeting in the Secretariat on Saturday and asked the top officers of the government, corporations, all district magistrates, and police captains to be on high alert.

"The police force will be deployed at all electrical installations," said the government order.

Notably, about 10 thousand employees are employed in Uttarakhand Energy Corporation, Hydroelectric Corporation and Electricity Transmission Corporation, out of which four thousand are regular and about six thousand are working on contract.

The Engineers and personnel of the three corporations have been agitating for a long time under the banner of Uttarakhand Electricity Officer-Employee United Sangharsh Morcha on the 14-point demands including old pension, old Assured Career Progression (ACP). (ANI)
Pay Dirt is Slates money advice column. Have a question? Send it to Athena and Elizabeth here. (Its anonymous!)

Dear Pay Dirt,

My ex-husband is getting out of prison in a few months, and I have agreed to let him live with me. He is unable to work due to mental health issues and will be applying for disability, which will take a couple years to complete. During that time, I will be covering all of his expenses, as he has no money, car, or family members to help him.

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Once he gets approved for disability, he will get back pay, which could total more than $20,000. Part of me wants to allow him to keep that money so he can establish a life of his own. But part of me wants to take some of it to cover the support I will be providing him until he gets approved. I am pretty sure he will indeed be approved, but Im not positive.

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There is no easy way to calculate the exact amount I will be paying for his support. Do you think it would be fair to just split it half and half? He is not good at managing his money, but then again neither am I. I make six figures, no kids, a mortgage payment of only $900/month, yet I still live month-to-month because of extraordinarily high credit card debt. That money could help me pay down that debt. I want to be fair to him and to myself. He is willing to let me make this decision, and I just want to make the right one for both of us.

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The Ex-Wife

Dear Ex-Wife,

Thats extremely generous of you to be putting your ex-husband before yourself to help ensure he gets the proper treatment and can hopefully one day be self-sufficient. I dont think theres anything wrong with asking to be paid back some of the money you are fronting for his care, but the assumption that you will see that money via the disability funds makes me hesitate. Getting qualified for Supplemental Security Income benefits due to mental health can be extremely difficult, with a lot of red tape, so make sure his disability is covered and that you start a paper trail to support his claims of not being able to work due to his illness. As you note, this could take years, so you may need to look for other ways to lessen the financial tension while you wait for the approval. This article has an extensive amount of resources to help those looking to rehabilitate into society. Id recommend reaching out to any from your state that you think could be helpful.

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As for the amount you could ask him to cover, I would examine your grocery and utility bills and figure out the how much the costs increase once hes living with you. Your mortgage is fixed, but your utilities and food bills are not, so those feel like a fair metric to use. I would also keep an eye on things that people forget about supplying, such as hygiene products, cleaning items, clothing, medications, and any medical appointments that have copays or other fees. Added together, Id guess something like $500 a month would be sufficient, but you should adjust accordingly. You can always revisit this arrangement every month to make sure that both of you still feel comfortable with it so that way there is any animosity before it begins. You may also want to research tenant laws in your state before he moves in, so you know what your rights are should you need him to leave.

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Dear Pay Dirt,

My mother is 75, very sharp of mind, but has difficulty walking and has no retirement savings and no investments, assets, or property, and another year of debt consolidation payments. She spent all she had trying to get her books published and believed with all her heart and soul that this would make her rich. But it never happened. Now shes too tired to work anymore, and her Social Security isnt enough, and still wont be after her debt is paid off.

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My husband and I want to help her out, but its a tricky question of how. She doesnt want to accept money. We have two teenagers and no room at home. The ideal solution would be for us to buy her a little place to live so she doesnt have to pay rent, and her Social Security would handle the rest. We can pay cash, so borrowing isnt an issue. She is the only one of our parents who is going to need help. Our problem is that we think its not a good time to buy, but I dont want to make Mom wait much longer, because shes exhausted. What do we do?

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Help Me Help Mom

Dear Help Me Help Mom,

You arent wrong to feel hesitant about purchasing in todays market. But there are different types of senior citizen living accommodations that dont have to involve you stalking homes on Zillow. She could live in a senior citizen living community, either independently or with assistance. This would allow your mom to maintain an active social life while being, for the most part, on her own, and it will also relieve some stress on you and your family. You can also look into senior apartment livingapartment complexes that are partly funded by the government for people 55 or over to reside there for a much cheaper rate than a regular unit. You could also rent her a first-floor apartment for a year while you figure out your next move. Id recommend looking at options with your mom, then figuring out which one makes the most practical and financial sense to all of you. Good luck.

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Get the Pay Dirt Newsletter Money advice from Athena and Elizabeth, delivered weekly. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again. Please enable javascript to use form. Email address: Send me updates about Slate special offers. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Sign Up Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time.

Dear Pay Dirt,

Both of my parents have passed, and my mother just recently. They wisely set up a family trust for their six children, and by the time their house is sold and taxes are paid, we should end up with nearly $150,000 each. So far, so good.

One of my sisters has been the stellar caregiver for both parents over the past 15 years as their health has declined. Shes a nurse and has been living five minutes away from the parents and has been at their beck and call for decades. I feel strongly that the other five of us should apportion some amount of what we will receive to the stellar sister. Even $5,000 from each of us would be an extra $25,000 for her.

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How might I best bring this up with my siblings? My older brother, who is in charge of the trusts finances, is a notorious tightwad and will probably not go along with the idea. I can tell them that Im going to give money to Stellar Sister regardless of what they do, but that might create a division among us.

All in the Family

Dear All in the Family,

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Family inheritances are tricky, especially when your siblings feel like you are telling them what to do with their share of the pie and however insignificant that slice may be. That was a wonderful thing for your sister to do, but your family may see it only as compensation taken out of their pockets, or they may need the money more than you know. Perhaps they may not fully understand how much your sister did for your parents, or they may just be tightwads. So I think a letter would be the best way to initiate the conversation.

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Send an email to your siblings, minus Stellar Sister, to share that you will be giving her $5,000 out of your own share and explain why you feel its the right thing for you to do. You can give examples of times she took on additional caregiver duties, and you can offer reasons why this took time away from her own family or career. You can state that you dont expect anyone else to give her money but that you wanted to throw the option out there in case anyone else wanted to contribute. You can state that there wont be any hard feelings if no one else pitches in, and hold yourself too that.

This way, you can share why you think she should get additional money, but youre not attacking anyone who may feel differently than the way you do. If no one wants to share, thats fineyou put the idea out there, and youre showing your appreciation to your sister, and thats what counts.

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Dear Pay Dirt,

My girlfriend and I are in a serious, loving relationship. During the last few years, my career has had a couple of huge, lucky breaks, and hers has had long, unlucky droughts. Because of this, my income is reliably now orders of magnitude larger than hers, and during the pandemic I have shifted to paying for all of our shared expenses myself. My parents generation probably wouldnt bat an eye at this, but she and I have no intention of having an old-fashioned dynamic where the man is the breadwinner and the woman feels like a stay-at-home wife.

Im not sure what to do if the disparity is still so large once we start discussing marriage. Im worried that if we go back to a system where we split everything by the same dollar amount, we will have to dramatically change our lifestyles to live on a shoestring budget, which neither of us wants. Should we talk about contributing a fixed percentage of each of our paychecks to our shared expenses, or should we try to acclimate ourselves to the idea that Im the breadwinner for the two of us? I care deeply about minding both her savings and her self-confidence as her own person.

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Worried Boyfriend

Dear Worried Boyfriend,

I think its amazing that you are sensitive to your girlfriends feelings and understand that this isnt about you. A lot of people tie their income to their self-worth, and its good to remind her that she is still important and wise despite her current employment situation.

Since you make much more than she does, Id recommend a fixed percentage of expenses instead of splitting everything in half. Say you make $100,000, and she made $60,000. Your total income would be $160,000. Youre making 63% of the total household earnings, and she is making the remaining 37%. So, when you split a bill, you should pay 63%, and she should pay 37%. You dont have to do that for every expensesay, if you want to take on a greater share of rent so you can spring for the more spacious apartment, or if she would like to contribute more to retirement but doesnt have anything left at the end of the month, so you pick up a bigger portion of the vacation bill. But its a place to start, and it keeps in mind her own savings goals while still enabling her to contribute to the household. You can even go a step further and open a joint account for your shared living expenses if thats helpful.

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At the end of the day, the best step forward is to talk openly with your girlfriend and ask her what feels comfortable for her. Maybe shell be eager to jump on board, or feel a completely different way, or have another idea how to approach thisbut you wont know unless you ask. Having an open conversation now can also help you tackle tougher conversations later. Good luck!

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My husband and I are not particularly well-off, but we are incredibly proud of our daughter, who has worked her butt off and gotten into our (excellent) state school as well as a handful of prestigious private colleges. She wants to go to one of the latter, and apart from a small amount of need-based financial aid, shes looking at taking on a lot of student loan debt. The rest of the family thinks we should help pay for part of it by cashing out our 401(k). Truly, I do not love the idea of her leaving college with that kind of debt, but Im extremely hesitant to put our savings on the line at this point in our lives.
Last weeks theatrics in Congress didnt cast the Democratic governing majority in its most favorable light.

Weeks, if not months, of threats between dueling blocs of centrist and progressive Democrats climaxed as leaders worked to clear a legislative path for the Biden agenda. Intraparty sniping, gossiping, and rumormongering reached a point that by Friday, House Democrats were required to put their phones in kindergarten-esque cubby holes before entering private group therapy sessions for fear of leaks. In the end, on Friday afternoon, President Joe Biden visited House Democrats not to rally them toward passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill that day, but to put it on ice until a broader deal was worked out. Centrists ushered in a splendid fall weekend by trashing Speaker Nancy Pelosi for breaking her word on holding a vote.

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Aesthetically unpleasant? Absolutely. Dems in disarray? Not exactly.

Even though Democrats left Washington last week without having passed the bipartisan infrastructure bill or reaching an agreement on the broader, progressive-favored reconciliation bill, it was one of the more productive weeks theyve had so far. Democrats, for the first time since this two-track process began months ago, finally started dealing in reality and began the difficult negotiations necessary to fulfill both legislative goals. If Democrats, with their teeny-tiny majority, ever were going to enact both the bipartisan infrastructure deal and the Build Back Better Act, they needed to have a week like last week.

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Democrats in Congress, across the spectrum, spent the summer delaying reality, engaging instead in gamesmanship and efforts to outmaneuver one another. A group of about 10 centrists in the House, led by New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer, felt they could trick progressives into giving up all of their negotiating leverage by forcing a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill well before the reconciliation bill was finished. Though these centrists insisted this was all about the dire need for gettin shovels in the ground and hardworkin folk back to hardworkin jobs, the reality was that they wanted their preferred bill passed so they then had the ability to walk away from negotiations over the reconciliation bill.

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Meanwhile, progressives and rank-and-file Democrats held on to the fantasy that there would be a $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. There was never going to be a $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. The number was the product of a deal on the Senate Budget Committee, cut between Sens. Bernie Sanders and Mark Warner, on which Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema were never consulted and never agreed. Nevertheless, House committees drafted and compiled the Build Back Better Act toward that target, with all of the agenda items that could fit under it. If there was one moment last week that captured the illusion under which Democrats had been operating the last few months, it was the leak of a secret document Chuck Schumer and Manchin had signed in July acknowledging that Manchin was only willing to spend $1.5 trillion.

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But then came last week: Moderates learned the hard way that they cannot trick progressives into giving up all of their leverage. The Congressional Progressive Caucus, led by Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, held strong in its refusal to supply the votes to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill until theres an agreement on the reconciliation bill. They will need to come to the table. As for the progressives, they and the leadership finally began acknowledging publicly that there will not be a $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. And Manchin, as part of saying he can accept $1.5 trillion, also saidand no one really knew this until last week!that he wants a reconciliation bill in the first place.

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When Biden visited the Hill on Friday, he saw reality too: a path forward that Democrats, whether they knew it or not, had arrived at after a long, frenzied week of overdue negotiations. The bipartisan infrastructure bill wouldnt become law until Democrats had a deal on reconciliation, and the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill would be more like the $1.8 trillion to $2.2 trillion reconciliation bill.

Democrats could have had a better PR week, without the tut-tutting columns about whether they will ever get anything done, if they had done the normal routine of passing a few easy bills or confirming a few nominees while holding press conferences about how united they were. Instead, they finally began the difficult, necessary process of negotiating in earnest and discovering what everyone could live with.

The truism about congressional negotiating is that you cant have the good meeting until youve had the bad meeting, and Democrats were never going to have the good week until they had the bad one. If they can get a few more bad weeks under their belt, they might even be able to pass their agenda.
In the days and weeks after Texas controversial S.B. 8the bounty scheme that has effectively halted providers from performing constitutionally protected abortions in the statewent into effect, a raft of articles sprang up suggesting the law would surely backfire. David Frum warned in the Atlantic that Texas Republicans had widely miscalculated constituents desires and that anti-abortion-rights politicians are about to feel the shock of their political lives. Texas, were told, is going to galvanize an electoral backlash; S.B. 8 may trigger a fight instead of flight response in Texans. The Wall Street Journal editorialized that the law was a huge misfire, while Olga Khazan traveled to Texas to report, persuasively, that even Texans who strongly oppose abortion hate this particular law. Opinion polling similarly suggests that passing a law so patently outside any mainstream view56 percent of pro-lifers in Texas believe in exceptions for rape and incest and maternal lifewill provoke an electoral backlash.

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Here is where these observers go astray. As Frum correctly observes, the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature is well aware that its actions are not popular. Thats why it is already passing election suppression measures to hedge against the possibility that some voters will be put off by radical new legislation. But its even more than that: State legislatures are beginning to govern as though majorities of the electorate either cannot vote or wont even bother. This phenomenon is partly attributable to dozens of recent voter suppression measures inspired by the Big Lie, which limit Americans ability to vote their own representatives out of office. But it also springs from the fact that many Republicans believe they no longer have to worry about popular opinion because an increasing number of GOP lawmakers are convinced they can just set aside election results they dislike. Its why Texas last week ordered an Arizona-style audit of the 2020 election results in four counties and why Gov. Greg Abbott wont countenance a rape exception to S.B. 8. They no longer think theyll have to answer to the entire public, ever. Thats the frightening idea that lurks under the flurry of new voting laws. And it has gained so much traction, so quickly, that most of us still struggle to wrap our heads around it.

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In the months since Donald Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election, the voting rights fight has movedas our colleague Rick Hasen has been trying to explainfrom voter suppression to election subversion. This problem cant be resolved by simple get-out-the-vote efforts, Hasen argues. Republicans envision a future in which they can steal entire presidential elections, an idea gaining traction in some state legislatures right now. Welcome to the new GOPthe post-voting party.

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As Hasen points out, the issue of election subversionthe wholesale Republican repudiation of final election talliesis finally getting the attention it deserves. In September, Robert Kagan wrote a vital piece laying out the way the GOP will use the stop the steal uncertainty of 2020 to foster an actual steal in 2024. He lays out the plan:

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Meanwhile, the amateurish stop the steal efforts of 2020 have given way to an organized nationwide campaign to ensure that Trump and his supporters will have the control over state and local election officials that they lacked in 2020. Those recalcitrant Republican state officials who effectively saved the country from calamity by refusing to falsely declare fraud or to find more votes for Trump are being systematically removed or hounded from office. Republican legislatures are giving themselves greater control over the election certification process. As of this spring, Republicans have proposed or passed measures in at least 16 states that would shift certain election authorities from the purview of the governor, secretary of state or other executive-branch officers to the legislature.

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Laughing about the results of, say, the fake Arizona audit misses the point. That ersatz audit was always designed to lay down the tracks for subversion of the 2024 contests by sowing doubt about election integrity. In a report last month, Reuters concluded that 10 of the 15 Republican candidates for secretary of state in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin either declared that the 2020 election was stolen or called for their states results to be invalidated or further investigated. At this late date, the chief goal of relitigating 2020, of course, is to pre-litigate 2024.

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And lest you think this is all hypothetical, it came within the realm of possibility in 2020. Last December, Jeffrey Bossert Clarkthen acting head of Justice Departments Civil Divisioncirculated a draft letter urging Georgias governor and other state officials to convene the state legislature in a special session. Clarks letter repeated lies about widespread election fraud, then concluded that the Georgia General Assembly has implied authority under the Constitution of the United States to call itself into special session for [t]he limited purpose of considering issues pertaining to the appointment of Presidential Electors. His point was that the Georgia state legislature could simply toss the slate of Biden electors and appoint Trump electors instead. (This is different from John Eastmans wackadoo plot to have Mike Pence toss out the vote count on Jan. 6 but similar in that the nihilist view is that Republicans can break elections law to steal elections).

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Just wait and see how upset voters get about the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wadeand then watch how impossible it is for them to actually do anything about it.

With this backdrop in mind, turn back to S.B. 8, the Texas law. Opponents of Roe v. Wade have long argued that abolishing the constitutional right to abortion will be salutary for American democracy. It would, they allege, return the issue to state legislatures, where it rightly belongs. As Justice Antonin Scalia put it, a state-by-state battle over abortion would open up a democratic outlet for the deep passions this issue arouses and affords both sides an honest fight. But is that true? Consider what Texans must do to topple S.B. 8 now that the Supreme Court has refused to block it: First, they need to oust a sufficient number of the Republican legislators who voted for the bill. That task was an uphill climb before these very same legislators drew themselves a new gerrymander that locks in their majority by diluting the votes of Black and Hispanic residents. It will be virtually impossible for Democrats to win a majority in the Texas Legislature for years to comeeven if they win a majority of votes.

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But imagine that, somehowthrough unbelievable organizing that no one should have to do to merely ensure citizens can votepro-choice voters do vote out these anti-abortion lawmakers. This outcome only matters if election officials certify it, and if the losing lawmakers abide by the results. As Kagan, Hasen, and other experts have explained, we can no longer be confident that officials will perform this duty fairly. Think of the canvassing board members who tried to throw out Democratic ballots in Michigan. Or the Trump acolytes currently running for secretary of state on a platform that rejects the legitimacy of Democratic election victories. It is too easy to imagine these officials attempting to manipulate the ballot count or certify a Republican loser as the true winner. We got a preview of this strategy earlier this year, when Pennsylvanias Republican-controlled Senate refused to seat a Democratic state senator because it rejected the outcome of his race. (He was eventually seated after a federal court weighed in.)

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In theory, abortion rights advocates frustrated by these obstacles on the state level could seek federal solutions. But here, too, these advocates face a series of anti-democratic hurdles. Republicans may well have drawn themselves a guaranteed majority in the House of Representatives after the 2022 elections. Texas new congressional districts, like its legislative districts, weaken the voting power of racial minoritieseven though people of color accounted for 95 percent of the states population growth since 2010. Keeping the White House in Democratic hands will get harder, too. The new crop of Trump-aligned election officials are eager to throw the 2024 presidential race to a Republican (ideally, Trump).

Finally, consider the nuclear option: State legislatures may attempt to hand their electoral votes to a Republican even if a Democrat carries the state. Thats what Jeffrey Bossert Clark asked the Georgia legislature to do, after allit is no longer possible to dismiss as quixotic. The doctrinal underpinnings of such a coup have already drawn support from four conservative justices who seek to give legislatures sweeping power over elections. If legislatures start deciding presidential elections themselves, Republican control over the presidency may become permanent. The courts will only grow more conservative and uphold more draconian voter suppression tactics. And the country will be trapped in the loop of counter-majoritarianism that enables laws like S.B. 8. Just wait and see how upset voters get about the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wadeand then watch how impossible it is for them to actually do anything about it. You cant out-organize this push.

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The people who are churning out wildly unpopular laws are doing it because they believe they are immune from electoral consequences. One reason the Texas Legislature simply doesnt care about backlash against its radical 2021 measures is because the Texas Legislature has no intention of honoring the outcome of elections going forward. That includes presidential elections, which decide judicial appointments.

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So, yes, its important to organize around abortion and state legislatures passing wildly unpopular laws like S.B. 8 that are wholly out of line with public sentiment. But the problem is that they know people will be upset about abortion, and they are already taking the steps to ensure that does not affect their hold on power. Which is why absolutely nothing else we do will be as imperative as ensuring that we have free and fair elections whose results are honored. Hasen built a road map last week to achieve some of that. The path to restoring reproductive rights in Texas, and around the country, begins, as it always has, with forcing ourselves to care about local canvassing board members and secretaries of state. Otherwise, the GOP will continue to run the table, merely because it can.
Arizonas partisan election review concluded last month by finding more votes for Joe Biden in its flawed hand count of Maricopa County and without alleging any specific fraud. Despite these findings, the partisan review offered false and unvetted innuendo about anomalies in the 2020 election that were parroted by Donald Trump to claim that he had been vindicated in his lie that the election was stolen.

The result of the failed and illegitimate Arizona election review has not made the Big Lie go away. Instead, other states have pushed for similar reviews with Trumps backing, including in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and even Texas, where Trump won. The former president has also endorsed a number of candidates who believe in the Big Lie for secretary of state positions in 2022. If they win, they would control the election infrastructure andin some casesformal election certification processes in critical swing states. Given the stakes in 26 states that are holding elections for secretary of state next year, the results in 2022 could determine the extent to which the 2024 electionin which Trump has indicated he plans to runwill be free and fair.

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On Friday, I spoke with the chair of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State and Colorado secretary of state, Jena Griswold, about the threats of ongoing partisan election reviews, which Trump-backed secretary of state candidates pose the greatest threat to democratic elections, and whether she felt confident that supporters of democracy are actually winning the fight to preserve democratic elections in the United States. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Jeremy Stahl: There is trouble around the word audit or forensic audit, which implies some sort of scientific process where none exists, in talking about the sorts of investigations that were conducted in Arizona and are continuing to be conducted around the country. What do you think the best language would be for members of the media to use when independently and objectively describing these things?

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Jena Griswold: They definitely are not audits if we believe words have any meaning anymore. I would say fake reviews. Fake investigations. When you use the term review, investigation, audit, it has a connotation of something officialsomething based on factand thats not what these are. These are political theater to suppress the vote across the nation and decrease confidence so much that in future elections there is an easier path to contest when extreme Republicans dont like the outcome.

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I think its really important that the media is communicating to readers, to viewers, that theres nothing official or fact-based about whats going on. You just have to look toward Arizona to see the level of farce. But the farce is intended, right?

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To be very clear, the type of disinformation that started in 2020 and honestly before the Big Liewhich has just gotten out of controlit is growing bigger, it has caused violence, it has caused insurrection, its causing threats against election officials, it is setting the path for the 500 bills to suppress the vote, its setting the path for the removal of Black Democratic women from election positions, the stripping of [authority from] secretaries of state on both sides of the aisle. Really what we are seeing right now is the all-out assault on democracy.

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One specific tactic of these audits was articulated by conservative former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, who is conducting the Wisconsin version of the Arizona audit, when he said: The burden is not on the people to show in advance of an investigation that public officials and their contractors behaved dishonestly. The responsibility, he says, is on the government and on the private, for-profit interests that did work for the government to prove fraud didnt occur. That shifts the burden of proof to a very challenging standard to demonstrate that nothing was wrong without any specific allegation. Im wondering if thats something youve seen in some of these other places with sham audits?

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I think even that characterization is incorrect, because look at Colorado. We are the first state in the nation to have bipartisan risk-limiting audits that are the best type of audits that tell us with a statistical degree of certainty that the outcome is correct, and with a high statistical degree of certainty that, if there is an issue, we would find it. Were talking about 96, 97 percent certainty with just those audits, let alone everything else we do, such as bipartisan testing of voting equipment and signature verification. But even in Colorado, there were calls to do these fake audits and they were getting so much vitriol that it even led to death threats to Republican county clerks.

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I do not think that that former judge is correct. It doesnt matter whether you have shown as a state that your elections are safe and secure. This isnt about facts. This is about lying, gaslighting the American people to tilt future elections for extreme Republicans to win easier, which is about as un-American as possible.

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Jumping back to your previous question, just giving it more thought, something to consider is partisan review, because these arent audits. No matter how you package the terminology, its really important that we do not give a guise of officialness to what is happening.

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If you had to pinpoint a specific state, or place, or area to focus energy, which of the ongoing audits in Pennsylvania, in Wisconsin, in Texas now, is the scariest to you and is the one where you think energy might be most usefully focused, if you had to pick?

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Im not sure I would pick. All of them are concerning. All of them are focused on attacking confidence in the integrity of elections. And theyve actually breached the integrity as youve seen in Arizona in Maricopa County: The voting instruments had to be replaced.

This isnt about 2020 anymore. This is about putting so much misinformation out and really chipping away at confidence so that all future elections are easier to contest, which is frightening. There is absolutely no proof that anything was wrong in 2020. In fact, the opposite, there is proof that it was the most secure election in American history, that we had record turnout among both Republican and Democratic voters across the nation. Again, this isnt about facts. This is about: How do they chip away in confidence in belief in the election system, so the next time an American president tries to steal the presidency, or the next time theres a race that extreme Republicans just dont like, they have better footing to try to grab the election?

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Around the concern that the partisan reviews are about targeting 2022 and 2024 and other future elections, there are 26 states that are going to have elections for secretary of state in 2022. In many states, those positions still have a great deal of power in the procedures of running elections and some of the formal aspects of certifying elections. Some of the candidates running in Republican primaries have been very explicit about how they view the 2020 election. For example, one candidate, Mark Finchem in Arizona, attended the Jan. 6 Stop the Steal rally that turned into the insurrection and has said, I call on Arizona to decertify the election of 2020 and recall the electors. He did that last month. In your role as the chair of Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, can you offer some guidance on where the most potentially dangerous candidates are running, who they are, and what theyre trying to do?

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2022 is going to have a huge impact on democracy, because we are seeing the Big Lie proponents running to become secretary of state. In every swing state that has a secretary of state race, there is an extreme Republican candidate that was either at the insurrection, an author of voter suppression, or an advocate of the Big Lie. That includes Mark Finchem. You also have in Arizona, Michelle Ugenti-Rita, who was an author of [a] voter suppression [bill]. It includes in Georgia, where Congressman Jody Hice voted against certifying the 2020 electoral college results and has repeatedly claimed that the elections in Georgia were rife with irregularities. You have Kristina Karamo in Michigan, who falsely claimed former President Trump won Michigan and spent weeks challenging election results. She also, by the way, visited Arizona to see the partisan election review. Then you have Jim Marchant in Nevada, who basically alleged voter fraud in his own congressional loss when he lost by 5 points. And here in Colorado, Im running against a person who again is spreading the Big Lie.

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President Trump recently endorsed multiple Republican candidates for secretary of state who have been spreading the Big Lie. And he keeps making it clear that hes making disavowing facts and election results a litmus test to an endorsement. And thats why the 2022 election is going to be so important. Voters will get to choose who they want to oversee the elections. Democracy is literally going to be on the ballot.

Can you be more precise in the potential dangers in 2024 and moving forward if various election official races, but specifically secretary of state elections, go toward anti-democratic candidates in 2022? Also, do you think youre winning this public debate?

Secretaries of state have tremendous executive authority. Thats why we are facing efforts to strip both Republican and Democratic secretaries of state of that authority, for example, in Arizona and Georgia. Secretaries of state in their executive authority can help voters have [ballot] access, increase [election] security. For example, in Michigan, Secretary Jocelyn Benson sent out an absentee sign-up form to people who werent registered to have a mail ballot during the pandemic. I worked in part with our Legislature, and in large part through executive authority, to increase drop boxes by 55 percent.

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The [reverse] is also true. Some states, like Colorado, have really strong guidelines to make sure our secretary of state could not just suppress the vote. Other states do not. You can be the top advocate for votersI was able to lead the largest democracy report in the nation using my position as secretary of state. You could also be the top advocate for suppressing the vote and pushing out disinformation. We had a situation in Western Colorado where a county clerk leaked sensitive county information to QAnon in furtherance of the Big Lie. I went in and investigated and determined we could not affirm that election equipment was not compromised and I decertified all the election equipment. I didnt need to do that under Colorado law. You could have secretaries of state refusing to act in really important situations. You could also imagine if a secretary of state lied and said the things that Finchem is saying, said the things that these extreme candidates are saying. That would be a tremendous blow to confidence.

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If you remove that base working assumption that elections should be fair, that elections should be free, that the American people get to choose their president, or U.S. senators, or governor, then we are in a major point in a constitutional crisis.

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Again, do you feel like youre winning the debate?

I will say that I think extreme Republicans are incentivized to lie, to spread misinformation, to try to take the freedoms away from American voters right now. And thats why were seeing the Big Lie get worse and worse. They know that if they dont fall in line with Donald Trumps fantasies and his extremism, theyre going to have a rough time, either with super PACs that will come in, extreme right challenges, and a host of political issues.

What we need to do is disincentivize them. And that can be done in a couple of ways. It can be done by making sure that election officials who are elected to govern over the election and who breach that trust by spreading lies and conspiracies are held civilly and criminally liable. It can be done by attorneys representing these bad actors being sanctioned and disbarred if they use the legal system to try to destroy American democracy. And its important for Americans on the right side of history to know that we can win the battle for democracy by electing national and local leaders who will uphold democratic values of our nation. And its not enough right now to watch this attempted slow-motion erosion of democracy and hope for better days. Those better days depend on us. We must continue to demand that candidates and elected officials respect who we are as a nation. They must know that they cannot win through destruction. We need to turn every single person spreading the Big Lie into a big loser at the ballot box in 2022, because only then are they going to stop lying.
Im a professor of art crime. To teach my students about the varieties of cultural heritage crime, like forgery, fraud, and looting, Ive spent decades researching cases from throughout history and around the world. Which, frankly, was a big waste of time. They could have learned nearly everything about heritage crime by looking at what the Museum of the Bible has been caught doing in the past few years.

The District of Columbia museum, founded in 2010 by Steve Green, the president of the crafting superstore empire Hobby Lobby, is in the news again after Septembers handover of the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet to Iraq. This 3,500-year-old cuneiform tablet, inscribed with part of The Epic of Gilgamesh, was one of many similar antiquities smuggled out of Iraq in the chaos of conflicts in the 1990s. The tablet ended up at the auction house Christies, complete with a letter that proved it had been out of Iraq by 1981. This letter, of course, was a forgerya rather bad one, as became obvious once Iraq and the Department of Justice started asking the questions that neither Christies nor Hobby Lobby had when the company paid the auction house $1,674,000 for the tablet in 2014.

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The Greens are power players in the evangelical world, and their museum seems intended to prove to its visitors that the Bible is historically accurate and literally true. Over the years, commenters on the right have argued, with varying degrees of coherence, that harsh criticism of Hobby Lobby and of the Museum of the Bible must be motivated by anti-Christian bias. But this is like saying that criticizing John Wayne Gacy reveals an intolerance for clowns.

Surrendering 99 percent of your antiquities purchases because they were most probably looted makes it seem more like you went on a crime spree instead of just a shopping spree, no?

Let me explain. In 2010, customs officials inspected several boxes being shipped from the United Arab Emirates to three of Hobby Lobbys corporate addresses in Oklahoma. Rather than clay tiles (sample) as the shipping labels claimed, the boxes contained ancient Near Eastern artifacts. After extensive investigation, the feds ended up seizing about 3,800 cuneiform tablets, cylinder seals, and other antiquities from Hobby Lobby and repatriating them to Iraq. And in 2021, Green handed over to Iraq another 8,106 antiquities he had purchased for the museum, and returned to Egypt about 5,000 ancient papyrus fragments and other antiquities, because it could not be determined that these objects left their countries legally.

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Its hard to keep track of all these repatriations, in part because of the shifting legal identity of whos purchasing, holding, and surrendering the artifacts: the Museum of the Bible, Hobby Lobby, or members of the Green family. For the sake of simplicity, Ill refer to them interchangeably, since, as Candida Moss and Joel Baden showed in the book Bible Nation, they are intimately intertwined. Hobby Lobby, which is entirely owned by the Green family, began purchasing artifacts in 2009 to donate to the planned museum. The legal separation between the entities allowed Hobby Lobby to claim tax deductions for charitable donations, increasing the Greens profits. You can indeed, as reporter Matt Pearce joked in 2017, think of the museum as Hobby Lobbys robby hobby.

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In 2016, the museum declared it would only retain antiquities in its collection if they had sufficient provenance documentation. That didnt leave much. The museums public collections database includes, of the more than 16,900 antiquities Hobby Lobby bought from 2009 on, only a single cuneiform inscription, 15 papyrus fragments (which you can see if you click here and limit the search result to the oldest date category), and about 10 other ancient bits and bobs. In its galleries, the museum fills the gaps between its remaining antiquities with replicas, loans, and screens flashing videos of biblical sites. Dramatic lighting from oversize sconces and lots of random columns make the whole thing look like the private museum designed by Nicolas Cages character in the National Treasure movies.

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Surrendering 99 percent of your antiquities purchases because they were most probably looted makes it seem more like you went on a crime spree instead of just a shopping spree, no? But the museum would like you to forgive it for being so naive. Green said he trusted the wrong people and unwittingly dealt with unscrupulous dealers. Even the New York Times has taken the bait, sympathetically describing the museum as forced to repatriate antiquities lacking proper paperwork.

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While its true that the Museum of the Bible is not staffed with supervillains rappelling down from skylights to snatch cultural treasures, it didnt simply accidentally drift into the black market. When the Greens first started their shopping spree, they consulted with noted cultural heritage specialist Patty Gerstenblith about the laws governing the antiquities market. I know Gerstenblith. Dont let the Patty fool you; she is formidable, knowledgeable, and very clear about whats right and whats wrong. She should have put the fear of God into the Greensor, at least, the fear of the Department of Justice. But instead, they seem to have turned her warnings about what not to do into a handy checklist of tips for evading the law.

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Apologists have also argued that the museum has fully cooperated with the federal investigations into the Dream Tablet and the falsely labeled antiquities shipments. This might be truebut, at the very same time, Hobby Lobby was trying to get Iraq and Egypt to sign away their rights. In 2020, I received a leaked copy of the agreement Hobby Lobby was asking Iraqs ministry of culture to sign, and shared it with Candida Moss, who wrote about it for the Daily Beast. Among other things, the agreement promised to return the Dream Tablet and other antiquities to Iraq in return for the right to display some of these antiquities as loansand a total waiver of all causes of action Iraq might have against the museum or any of its donors (e.g., Hobby Lobby and the Greens). But the company was trying to bargain with a chip it didnt havethe feds had already seized the Dream Tablet in 2019. Unsurprisingly, the museum had to admit that it was not able to finalize the desired agreements, since both Iraq and Egypt refused to let them keep drawing in audiences and gaining scholarly legitimacy with their illicit purchases.

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The museum would like you to think it takes a proactive approach to provenance concerns. Indeed, its description of the 2020 return of a manuscript to the Greek Orthodox Church is enough to practically make you tear up, with its description of a curators generous scholarly sleuthing to connect the manuscript to the World War I looting of a monastery in Greece. But the museum conveniently fails to note that in 2018, this church sued Princeton University for failing to return another manuscript looted from the same monastery. In this context, once an outside scholar noticed the marks on the museums manuscript identifying its origins, the museum had little choice but to grin and bear the repatriation.

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The museum returned yet another stolen manuscript to the University of Athens in 2018, after a Greek researcher spotted it; in that case, the museum handled the negotiations well enough that the manuscript is now on display as a loan. In another prominent case, the Greens bought about 150 papyrus fragments in 201013 from Dirk Obbink, a professor who most probably stole them from the collection of papyri he oversaw at Oxford University. Although museum staffers were questioning how Obbbink got the papyri as early as 2016, and Hobby Lobby asked him to refund the money for one of their purchases in 2017, it was not until 2019 that they got in touch with the Oxford collections leaders to share their suspicions, well after scholars began to raise alarms. (Last month, Hobby Lobby sued Obbink.) Rather than the careful, research-heavy approach to acquisitions the antiquities market demands, the museum seems to have taken more of a catch-and-release approach to collecting, grabbing what it could and letting go only when the authorities seemed likely to pay attention.

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But the museum hasnt always acquired looted or stolen antiquities. Sometimes it dabbles in fakes, too! When the museum opened its doors in 2017, it exhibited cracked fragments of leather inked with biblical texts as examples of the famed Dead Sea Scrolls. But a little placard noted that scientific analysis of the ink and handwriting on these pieces continues. Scholars had been publicly questioning the authenticity of these fragments since at least 2016, but it was not until 2018 that the museum took five of them off display and 2020 when it finally admitted that all 16 of the fragments were fakes.

Although the museum said that its consultants performed a comprehensive battery of tests, it had only taken one look under a powerful microscope to show that the fragments ink had dripped down into ancient cracks in the leather. In other words, while the leather might be ancient, the text written on it was not. But the delay in announcing the results was important: It was long enough to let the Greens retain the benefit of what was likely a multimillion-dollar tax deduction for donating the fragments to the museum.

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The Greens have used other parts of their crafting fortune to fund scholarly work on Aramaic incantation bowls held in other collectionseven though they were mostly probably looted from Iraqand what experts call an illegal excavation in the occupied West Bank, led by a man the Atlantic called a Biblical pseudo-archeologist who had previously tried to dig for Noahs Ark.

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You see what I mean about my ability to teach a whole class on heritage crime with just the Museum of the Bible as my source material. And, extensive as this list is, Im guessing its incomplete. Moss and Baden have described the museums use of nondisclosure agreements, which might be preventing scholars who have seen their collections from reporting other problems. The museum isnt above threatening the odd journalist, either. They hold an early Hebrew prayer book, allegedly stolen from the National Museum of Afghanistan in the mid-1990s. The museums website notes that its research into this claim is ongoing, but its chief curatorial officer, Jeffrey Kloha, took a different tone in April 2021, when he told a Jerusalem Post reporter that the museum will consider legal action if the paper published an article about the claim.

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The museum wants to tell a story about the inerrancy of the Bible. The idea is that when we flip open the Bible, what were reading came straight to us from Gods lipsnot through a millennialong game of telephone played by storytellers and then scribes. The cuneiform tablets were supposed to prove that writing existed at the time of Abraham, so he could have left accounts of his experiences. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the papyri with scraps of the New Testament were to show that biblical text has survived in the same form since it was written. The Greens wanted to prove that human fallibility hasnt stood in the way of Gods word. But scholars know that this text has changed over time. In the end, the Greens have only proved their own fallibility, time and time again.
The Panama Papers were tiny compared with this. A massive leak of almost 12 million files from 14 firms around the world exposes how 35 world leaders and hundreds of politicians, billionaires, and celebrities, among others, use the offshore system to hide cash. The files, dubbed the Pandora Papers, were obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which worked with 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 countries to dig through the documents and find stories.

The biggest bombshell from the filesincluding 6.4 million documents, almost 3 million images, more than a million emails, and almost 500,000 spreadsheetsis how they reveal the financial dealings of 35 current and former world leaders. King Abdullah II of Jordan, for example, spent more than $106 million on luxury homes. Others singled out in the files include former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, Czech Republic Prime Minister Andrej Babis, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Ecuadors President Guillermo Lasso, and people close to Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin. A Russian woman who reportedly had a child with Putin, for example, bought a luxury apartment in Monaco. A childhood friend of Putins also appears in the documents.

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Another big revelation from the leak is not really about the names but rather how it shines a bright spotlight on the way the United States has become a top offshore destination for the rich and powerful to hide their assets. The United States is such an appealing destination for the cash that many have moved their money from other better-known tax havens to the United States. South Dakota in particular has emerged as a top destination for foreign assets. Over the past decade, South Dakota, Nevada and more than a dozen other U.S. states have transformed themselves into leaders in the business of peddling financial secrecy, ICIJ writes. And regulators and law enforcement havent really caught up as they continue to focus their efforts on the better-known tax havens such as the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands. The revelation will likely  prove embarrassing for the U.S. president, Joe Biden, who has pledged to lead efforts internationally to bring transparency to the global financial system, notes the Guardian.

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Anti-poverty group Oxfam praised the investigation on Sunday, calling it another shocking expose of the oceans of money sloshing around the darkness of the worlds tax havens. And that money that is hidden away has very real consequences. This is where our missing hospitals are, Oxfam said in a statement. This is where the pay-packets sit of all the extra teachers and firefighters and public servants we need. Whenever a politician or business leader claims there is no money to pay for climate damage and innovation, for more and better jobs, for a fair post-COVID recovery, for more overseas aid, they know where to look.

The revelations quickly reverberated around the world and could have real consequences for world leaders. In Pakistan, the leader of a political party called for the resignation of Prime Minister Imran Khan after the revelation that members of his government hold lots of cash offshore. Khan has said he welcomes the investigation and vowed to investigate all of the countrys citizens who appear in the documents.
When Dahlia Lithwick started reporting on the Supreme Court, there was this schedule. The first Monday in October, reliable as pumpkin spice lattes, the justices would start hearing arguments. Theyd issue their most important rulings just in time for summer. Then, traditionally, theyd disappear.

The Supreme Court seasonthe luxurious breaksit always made Lithwick roll her eyes. This schedule still dictates how a lot of people talk about the court. When you open up the paper this week, you are going to read about the new term. Reporters will speculate about upcoming oral arguments the same way TV guide used to point you to fall sitcoms. Even though this year, everybody worked all summer.

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Instead of taking a break, the justices kept issuing opinions, using an emergency docket. They weighed in on immigration, abortion, President Joe Bidens eviction banalways weighted toward their conservative supermajority. And then, many of the justices went on a kind of friendship tour, looking to convince people they were nonpartisan. In the last two weeks alone, weve had three justices out making very, very vocal public proclamations that they are not partisan hacks, Lithwick said.

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The problem is: Many Americans dont seem to be convinced. The Gallup numbers that came out last week were 37 to 40-ish percent approval, the lowest since Gallup has been polling, she said. Its trending badly. It plummeted in just a matter of months.

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With the justices settling in for a new termwith cratering public approvalI wanted Lithwick to decode whats going on here, so I had her on Mondays episode of What Next to tell me how to see a Supreme Court that seems to be turning itself inside out. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Mary Harris: I feel like I first started seeing this divide in how people are talking about the Supreme Court at the end of last term, because there were a few of these unanimous decisions that suggested agreement between the justices. ABC described it as bonhomie. They were sort of trying to imply that things are fine, everythings OK. Can you really quickly sum up why is that not true?

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Dahlia Lithwick: Whenever you hear about the astonishing bonhomie, whenever you hear Justice Breyer talking about how well the justices get along, its as though getting along is the same thing as agreeing on cases. And this was always the Scalia-Ginsburg story.

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Because they were close.

Because they were best friends, and they adored each other, and they each thought the other hung the moon, and nobody could believe that. Everyone thought that was a stunt. It wasnt a stunt. They adored each other. It doesnt mean they agreed on cases or how to do law or on almost every big important question.

We have this idea that as long as people arent punching each other in the mouth, theyre agreeing. And at the court, the idea that the justices arent pulling each others hair doesnt convey what is happening on the docket. Nobody is putting frogs in anyones lunchboxes. But that doesnt tell you anything!

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Another thing that distracts us from the more consequential actions of the court are the flashy cases. The cases that might not affect us, but that are immediately understandable, and relatable, and so they get a lot of coverage. This past term, there was a literal case of a cursing cheerleader. This was a dispute about whether a Pennsylvania school district was wrong to punish high schooler Brandi Levy for cussing at a convenience store called the Cocoa Hut and posting her rant on social media. Flashy case? Sure. Big ramifications for free speech? Well, not really.

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To be clear, Brandi Levy, the swearing cheerleader, amazing fun facts. And shes not just saying the F-word four times on Snapchat, and shes doing it at the Cocoa Hut. Every piece of it is delicious. And it kind of warranted so much coverage because the facts were delicious. And in the end, it was a bit of a fizzle. The court didnt decide anything singularly important. We just love to tell those funny cases with funny stories and we do that every year.

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But theres another problem that Im only starting to be able to name, which is: We describe the case thats coming. We describe what happened in the lower courts. We describe the stakes. But we can say this swearing cheerleader case is going to finally clarify once and for all the contours of student speech on and off campus, but if the court doesnt do all that, then we just look kind of dopey.

The best example of this, of course, is this time last year, everybody was saying Amy Coney Barrett is going to strike down the Affordable Care Act. And then, she didnt vote to do that. In fact, the court just kicked that case to the curb.

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Then you say, Oh, shes a moderate.

Shes super liberal! So what Im starting to realize is that part of the problem is that the Supreme Court press corps and the court watchers and the advocates are telling a story about what their best guess about what might happen is and thats, again, all we can do. And by the way, the press corps does it phenomenally well, but then theyre kind of pitted against a Supreme Court that actually makes very strategic decisions about what they do and how, and they hold all the cards in that game. The reporters hold no cards.

Can we look ahead? Lets talk about Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization. This is the Mississippi abortion case. Its going be heard in December. How should we think about this case, given how youve been thinking about coverage of the Supreme Court?

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Its almost impossible to look at Dobbs without seeing that it is happening in the shadow of Texas S.B. 8. If the court had enjoined S.B. 8, the court would have looked unbelievably judicious. Imagine how much credibility it would have had going into the Dobbs case, because it would have just said, As a principle matter, we have to be consistent. You cant just take away peoples constitutional rights by a trick of drafting. But oops!

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Youve said how the true shift is in some way that cases like this one, like this Mississippi case, are being brought at all because its so aggressive to even try to ram something like this through. Can you explain that a bit?

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Part of this is simply the optics, and the optics is meant to be that if the court decides a seminal abortion case in 2016, you dont bring an abortion case the next year. Its just unseemly to come back to the court and say, Oh, but now we have Kavanaugh. So now we think were going to do it again. Or, Now we have Gorsuch.

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And thats in effect what Dobbs is. Its saying, Well, now Amy Coney Barrets on the court. And maybe the best evidence of that is that when Mississippi initially wanted to press this case, they were making arguments about 15 weeks and fetal pain. By the time this case is brief at that the court, theyre asking to overturn Roe.

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Even the ask is shooting for the moon. Thats part of the equation. But the fact that the court would agree to hear a case that was quite aggressively devised to arrive at the court to overturn Roe, and where the parties are now seeking to do a thing that nobody would have asked the court to do in prior iterations of these cases, the appearance is quite awful. Also it raises these real questions about the value of precedent and stare decisis.

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Explain those for people who dont know.

Just the very, very simple notion that the court is not the fleeting totality of the nine justices on it, but that the court is bound by prior decisions, and that precedent really matters, and that the court doesnt disrupt earlier cases simply because they dont like the result. So when you have a case being pressed, from the left or the right, that says we want you to dismantle whats come before and we want you to do it because the composition of the court has changed, it creates this sense of deep instability in the law. You dont know what to rely on. You dont know what is foundational.

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Whats interesting about hearing you talk about this Mississippi case is that theres so much attention on whats going to happen in December, but talking to you, I realize in some ways the case might not matter, because even if the justices say, Listen, this cant go through, like a 15 week abortion ban, we just we have precedent here, we cant do that. Even if that happens, the justices have rubber-stamped what happened in Texas. And so whats going to happen is the coverage might say, Oh, look, the justices, they preserved the right to an abortion in this case, but at the same time the right hands doing one thing, the left hands doing something else.

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Thats right. And Mark Stern and I have been writing, I dont know for how many years now, that the court doesnt have to write the sentence Roe v. Wade is overturned to end Roe v. Wade.

Another issue with how much trust the public puts in the Supreme Court is that more and more, things at the court are happening on whats been called the shadow docket. Can you explain what that is?

Yes. It is a term that was coined by a law professor, Will Baude.

A former Roberts clerk.

Yeah. The term initially isnt meant to sound pernicious. It is becoming, I think, cast as something very pernicious. But it is the term to describe the emergency docket. The court has always had an emergency docket. Its for casesoften death penalty caseswhere theres just not going to be a ton of time for the court to schedule oral arguments, schedule elaborate briefs.

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Theres always been a shadow docket, but a couple of things have very dramatically changed in the last couple of years. From 2001 to 2017, there were eight such requests. When Trump takes office in 2017, suddenly the Justice Department was seeking relief 41 times.

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Whoa. And it seems like when the DOJ started doing this, it kind of opened a floodgate.

And thats like the COVID cases. The COVID cases where state restrictions set limits on attendance and the court was saying in one case after another, a whole array of them, that religious institutions and enterprises and plaintiffs could be exempted from that.

So for instance, in April, the court hands down, at 11:30 p.m., Tandan v. Newsom. This is the 54 decision issuing an injunction blocking Californias COVID limits on in-home gathering because religious adherents wanted to pray and have Bible study.

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Why wouldnt they just say, Come back and have a full hearing? If you want us to intervene here, go the normal route?

It was the court determining that this was an emergency. And in those COVID cases, two things were happening. It wasnt just that these werent briefed and argued. Sometimes you get back-of-the -napkin opinions by the court saying, OK, hey, this is happening. You dont know who has written it. Often theres no real coherent idea of what the reasoning is. Theres just an order and an outcome.

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They double down on that because then they start referencing their other COVID cases. Theyre not just slightly changing the religious liberty doctrine, which happens on the shadow docket, but theyre also saying, Damn it, why arent you reading our other three COVID cases? And they reference them as though those were fully argued and fully explained. And so its a weird house of cards, where building on prior unsigned, unexplained orders, theyre saying, California, you should know better.

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And one of the things thats worrying, in addition to everything Ive just said about how we dont have full briefing, there are no arguments. In some cases, its not clear whether there were three votes, four votes, five votes. We dont know what the voting array is. But if the court is actually changing doctrine on the shadow docket, then it really flies in the face of the one thing the court has, which is the power to show its work. And if the court isnt showing its work, if its not explaining why its doing what its doing, it looks like an exercise of raw power.

And that is the worry about the shadow docket. There was this monstrous number of cases just this fall alone on the shadow docket, not just S.B. 8, but the Remain in Mexico policy was reinstated. Bidens eviction moratorium was struck down. So you just cant do huge, consequential things that affect the lives of millions of people and do it at midnight without any clarity of reasoning.

Well, you can apparently. Who has the power to say to the Supreme Court: You cant do that anymore?

That belongs to the public. Thats the Federalist Papers, right? The court is the weakest branch. It has neither the power of the purse nor the sword. If Congress voted tomorrow to take all the toilets out of the building and shut off the lights, Congress could. The court does not have an army.

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After Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd in May of 2020, police reform on the federal level seemed more possible than it had ever been. Kamala Harris, in the run-up to being chosen as Joe Bidens running mate, made police reform a specific piece of her agenda, despite her mixed record on the issue as a prosecutor. Harris went on The View and talked about reimagining how we do public safety in America. At a Democratic fundraiser that summer, she said, We need to have serious police reform.  Joe and I are very clear about this.

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Invigoratedor panickedCongress attempted bipartisan reform. The goal was to come to some sort of agreement over a host of federal reforms, including changes to acceptable use-of-force standards, tying federal funding to local reforms, and fixing qualified immunity, which is the legal doctrine that prevents people injured or killed by police conduct from pursuing successful lawsuits. The Republican Senator from South Carolina, Tim Scott, voiced his support for reform and promised to work with Democratic Sen. Corey Booker to hash out the exact details.

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Those talks crumbled last week, leaving people who were counting on some type of reformat least to justify the work of thousands of advocates and to legitimize the suffering of millions more who come into contact with law enforcement every year. Both the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the National Fraternal Order of Police issued a joint statement expressing their disappointment that talks had flopped. The statement also clarified, Despite some media reports, at no point did any legislative draft propose defunding the police, which spoke to Scotts misleading claims that proposals which made federal funding dependent on police reform amounted to defunding the police. (Despite Scotts claim, federal funding only accounts for less than a quarter of police budgets.)

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The push to point fingers led us to one highly influential group: the sheriffs. Only about 1 in 4 sworn officers work for sheriffs departments, so while their mark on politics feels outsize, it is also not insurmountable.

During the bipartisan talks over the summer, Scott was clear that he would not support any legislation that was not backed by the National Sheriffs Association, the largest group representing all U.S. sheriffs, which elected new leadership this year that included one sheriff who was present at the Capitol on January 6. (The sheriff, Chris West of Oklahoma, says he did not enter the Capitol building.) Both Scott and Sen. Lindsey Graham were adamant that sheriffs be included in all reform talks.

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The National Sheriffs Association purports to represent all of the elected sheriffs in the U.S., which is over 3,000, 90% of whom are white men. This year, the NSA sheriff of the year was South Carolina Sheriff Leon Lott, who has been in office since 1997. The NSA gained more power under Donald Trump, whose then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions received an award from the NSA and called sheriffs Anglo Saxon heritage of law enforcement. Lott, for his part, called Black Lives Matters protestors violent gangs, outside agitators and others who planned to burn down Columbia police headquarters, and focused his energy on arresting them. He is also, apparently, one of the most influential politicians in South Carolina, in part because of his appearances on Live PD.

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So why did the sheriffs object to the reform bill? The main sticking point for the NSA was a provision that would make sheriffs, who are elected, liable for the misbehavior of their deputies. Sheriffs immediately began to object to Sen. Bookers provisions and partnered with the National Association of Police Organizations (a coalition of police unions) to issue a fear-mongering letter outlining the groups grave concerns, an opinion echoed by Jonathan Thompson, executive director of the NSA, who is not an elected sheriff.

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Even the Fraternal Order of Police, a group not known for favoring progressive reforms, felt that the sheriffs were being unduly difficult, and its executive director told the New York Times, that the NSA is often upset, and sometimes it is difficult to ascertain the exact reason for it.

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This is no surprise. In general, sheriffs are more politically conservative and less likely to support policing reforms. Research by Michael Zoroob, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Boston Area Research Initiative, analyzed sheriff elections from 1958 through 2018 and found that not only did sheriffs serve longer terms, but they also remained in office even when the political trends of their county changed.

One of the reasons sheriffs persist in office despite changing attitudes is that they create effective lobbying groups in the form of state sheriff associations, which usually include every elected sheriff in a state. While some sheriffs may be Democrat and more liberal, state sheriff associations skew much more right-wing and are often dominated by the sheriffs in more conservative, more rural counties. In this way, even when a state is dominated by DemocratsVirginia, Washington, and Maryland, for examplethe sheriff association remains a strong voice for the right.

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Take, for example, several statements from local sheriffs after the federal talks failed. The South Carolina Sheriffs Association, Sen. Scotts home state, issued its own statement glorifying Scotts take on defund. Senator Scott maintained an open mind throughout the process, the September 22 letter read in part. The president of the South Carolina Sheriffs Association, York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson, issued his own letter, arguing that some of the proposed provisions in the federal legislation were de facto defunding the police, echoing Sen. Scott and contradicting the national police associations. (Its worth nothing that York County is around 75 percent white and Sheriff Tolsons last claim to fame was when he made a passionate Facebook post  now deleted  condemning protestors who kneeled during the national anthem.)

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In light of the failures of federal reforms, many have pointed to successful state reforms. But here, too, sheriffs present substantial challenges to change.

In Washington, for example, the legislature passed a slate of policing reforms that became state law this month, including a law that requires de-escalation as well as probable cause before engaging in a chase of a fleeing person. Sheriffs across the state objected immediately and loudly, blaming the reforms for increased crime and calling out that the laws had handcuffed law enforcement.

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The Washington State Sheriffs Association demanded clarification from the governor on the new laws, and the president, Sheriff Tom Jones, insisted the new laws would make people less safe. Another sheriff, Clark County Sheriff Chuck Atkins, issued a public statement warning his constituents that his office would be unable to respond to all calls for service. Lewis County Sheriff Rob Snaza complained to a community group, Im telling you this, Im common sense, Im a meat and potato guy. This doesnt have the smell test. It smells like BS.

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Sheriffs in Oklahoma, Virginia, and Florida have also opposed reforms in recent years through extensive lobbying. These groups have used their collective power and influence to argue against criminal system reforms and have generated headlines and research to support measures like bills that would punish immigrants and protestors.

What can politicians and activists do to limit the power of sheriffs to block police reform? One way is to be clear with voters and decision-makers that sheriffs are not above accountability through legislative change in addition to popular elections. While sheriffs are written into the state constitution in over 33 states and created by state statute in 13 states, there is no legal reason why sheriffs are not subject to legislative reforms the same way police agencies are. Right now, sheriffs are barely in the line of sight. Bidens platform does not even mention sheriffs; nor do most major proposals for criminal system reform. There is no reason to listen to sheriffs when they demand exceptions; they are not exceptional.

Even the National Sheriffs Association acknowledges that the oath of office does not confer extraordinary powers or duties. To the extent sheriffs are elected, it is their political stance and partisanship that dictates their reluctance to reform, not the office itself.
For the past three years, the Wall Street Journal recently reported, Facebook has been conducting its own research into how Instagram, which the company bought in 2012, affects users. Its findings repeatedly show that Instagram is harmful to a sizable percentage of its users, with teenage girls being particularly negatively impacted by the app. A line in the companys own reports reads: We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls.

In the wake of that researchs publication as part of the Wall Street Journals recent series the Facebook Files, an executive from the social network was hauled in front of Congress.

The company has also started to backpedal, releasing documents, putting Instagram Kids on pause, and trying to get ahead of congressional anger. But while the findings are clearInstagram negatively affects teens (especially teen girls) mental healthFacebooks public response to the reporting has been less firm, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself calling the research inconclusive.

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On Fridays episode of What Next: TBD, I spoke with Georgia Wells, a tech reporter for the Wall Street Journal who co-wrote the story, about what Instagram does to teens, what Facebook knew, and whether people have finally had enough.

Lizzie OLeary: There were some numbers in your reporting that kind of blew my mind. Thirty-two percent of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse.

Georgia Wells: Thirty-two percent is a lot. Another finding was: Comparisons on Instagram can change how young women view and describe themselves. Heres another one: Teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression. This reaction was unprompted and consistent across all groups. Another finding was: Among teens who reported suicidal thoughts, 13 percent of British users and 6 percent of American users traced the desire to kill themselves to Instagram.

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A quote that has really just stuck in my head throughout this reporting is, We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls.

Were people at Facebook surprised by the findings of that study?

No. We spoke with some researchers who Facebook provided for us. One of the points they made was that much of this research was actually in line with certain segments of academic research that had been happening externally from Facebook during this time. But whats notable here is that Facebook has better data than any of these people who want to look at this issue. Like Facebooks got the logs of what these users actually looked at.

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How did these researchers go about their work? What did they do? What kinds of questions did they ask?

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They conducted many different types of studies. So they did qualitative studies where they would sit down with teens for two-hour interviews and diary studies about what the teens had done. And then in some of the other studies, we see these very large-scale surveys, some of them as many as 100,000 users, where Facebook then went back and compared the responses with the logs for what those users had actually viewed and done on Instagram.

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I think its important to back up and explain why were talking about young people on Instagram in the first place. Facebook bought Instagram in 2012. One of the things that they were after in that acquisition was youth. Why was buying Instagram and angling itself toward younger people so important for Facebook?

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2012 is also the year that Facebook started to see the number of teens using Facebook decline. So they buy Instagram. This brings Facebook huge support among teenagers. And so Instagram becomes a part of this growth strategy to remain kind of relevant in the lives of young people. Young people matter so much to Facebook because Facebook has saturated the adult market in most of the developed world. Most adults have downloaded Facebook. And so for their future growth, theyre setting up Instagram as this funnel to bring in these next users.

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When you started talking to teenagers and particularly teenage girls for your story, were there things that stood out to you or surprised you about how they used the app or what the experience looked like for them?

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Yeah. There was this incredibly conflicted feeling many of the teens described to me because many of them seemed to perceive that the app was making them feel worse about themselves, yet they lacked the self-control in the moment to put it down and to spend less time on it. And this is reflected in Facebooks own research, too: Teenagers described almost an addicts journey with Instagram. That they knew it wasnt making them feel good, but they kept on going to it. And many of the teens said that they also appreciated and liked aspects of the app. Like they liked knowing what their friends were up to and they liked being in the loop.

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I mean, teenagers have experienced conflicting feelings about their bodies and themselves since teenagers began. How do the documents you saw and the people you talked to parse that out? What is struggling with body image or depression or even thoughts of self-harm versus those things taken to a different place because youre looking at Instagram?

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I was a child of the 90s, and that was when many people were talking about how fashion magazines and Photoshopping could be really harmful, especially to teen girls. Ive spoken with many researchers and doctors about that. Is there something different here? Mechanically, are there reasons that this has more of a superlative effect that we should be paying attention to? And many of the researchers pointed to the addictive product mechanics on Instagram and also the targeted content and advertising as an aspect that set Instagram apart from say fashion magazines.

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Fashion magazines come to an end. At a certain point, youre out of pages. But on Instagram, you could essentially scroll forever. Especially once the app suggests more and more algorithmically-tailored content. Clean eating recipes, fitness inspo, weight loss. And theres something else that makes Instagram different. The researchers at Facebook singled it out in their study. Its called negative social comparison. What is that?

Thats what happens when someone looks at their content with this feeling of How do I stack up next to this person Im looking at? Am I good enough? Rather than this feeling of Oh, Im here to learn about whoevers content it is that Im looking at right now. And Facebooks own researchers in the documents say that negative social comparison is worse on Instagram than the other main popular social media apps for teens these days. They look at Snapchat and TikTok as comparisons. And on Snapchat, the researchers say that the experience for users is often buffered from reality by these face filters that tend to be silly rather than beautifying. While on TikTok, theres a performative element of much of the content and on TikTok that also divorces it from reality. But on Instagram, theres this feeling of its a highlight reel of your life and this is real.

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That was a really interesting moment in the documents because in the past, when weve talked to executives at Facebook about some of the mental health issues, theyve often framed them more as, Well, this is a media issue or This is a social media issue. But here in the documents, its saying negative social comparison is worse on Instagram.

One of the things that stood out to me is that while the company is doing this research and while the kids you have talked to are having these experiences, the public stance from Facebook is very different. How are they characterizing this publicly? And did they know it was at odds with their own research?

Its hard for me to answer who knew what. But this research that weve been looking at, these documents about Instagram and mental health, this is one of the clearest gaps that weve seen in the documents between how Facebook is talking about itself internally and how Facebook is presenting these issues externally. But Ive never seen a statement from Facebook, from one of the companys executives, that came anywhere close to acknowledging that level of concern about the effect that Instagram could have on the mental health of teens, in particular teen girls.

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You talked with Adam Mosseri, whos the head of Instagram. What did he tell you about how Instagram influences teens?

Adam was really clear that he didnt consider this dirty laundry. That he was proud that Instagram was asking the tough questions.

Right. I mean, I guess I could be asking you some questions about TikTok, which also serves up beauty content, weight loss content, algorithmically generated. But we dont know if theyre studying it.

Right, exactly. I think this brings up some interesting questions. Should companies have an obligation to study the effects that their products have on users? And then, if companies reveal unfortunate truths about their products, do they have an obligation to disclose that?

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This week, Adam Mosseri put out an Instagram post and he went on the Today Show as well, and to theyre putting up a companywide pause on building this Instagram for kids under 13. What do you think is going on there?

So a number of lawmakers have been asking Facebook to pause this effort for a while now. And as a part of this investigative series, weve been digging into Facebooks plans to attract preteens, younger than the 13-years-old thats currently allowed on their platform. We had approached Facebook about this story and days later, Adam Mosseri appeared on the news shows discussing their plans to pause.

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In these documents that you wrote about in relation to younger kids, there is a sentence in a presentation you got ahold of that I cant tell if it makes me want to laugh or cry or what. It reads: Is there a way to leverage play dates to drive word of hand/growth among kids? What?

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Its a head scratcher. So this comes from a document that was looking at how children socialize. The question that appears to be motivating this document is, is there a way for Facebook to insert itself into either play dates, as children are socializing, or the process where children are coordinating the logistics of a play date and looping in their parents? As a part of this, Facebook researchers surveyed parents about if there was a role for children to have their screens out and a Facebook app open during this play date. And resoundingly, the answer from parents in the documents was play dates are a time when screens are not supposed to be out. The whole point of a play date is face-to-face interaction.

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Theres this tension here in all of this. You have a company, Facebook, which puts so much time and money into these products, but also into doing this really fine-grained research. And they havent really made that research public until you published these. But they also, when confronted with these issues, sort of threw up their hands and said, Whoops, well we didnt mean for those bad things to happen or well we do these little fixes around the margins. How do you square that? Does that wash for you?

In the past, weve seen incident after incident of different things that went wrong on Facebook and the company appearing to treat it as a PR issue rather than as a product issue. And in this case, whats new here though, is for Facebook to come out and say theyre actually going to pause with Instagram Kids. Maybe this is a sign that something different is happening.

On Sunday, Frances Haugen, the whistleblower who provided the documents behind the Facebook Files appeared on 60 Minutes to talk about why she did it. Read more.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
On Sunday, the former employee whos made the past several weeks one big migraine for Facebook finally revealed her identity on 60 Minutes. Frances Haugen, who has filed federal complaints against the company, provided damaging internal documents to the Wall Street Journal for a blockbuster series last month, and is scheduled to testify to Congress, is a project manager who began working at Facebook in 2019. Haugen was part of the companys civic integrity team, which focused on misinformation and interference surrounding elections, and left the company in May. Shes originally from Iowa and previously worked on ranking algorithms, which attempt to serve users the content that theyre more likely to want, for Pinterest, Yelp, and Google. In her interview with 60 Minutes, she claimed that the issues she saw at Facebook were worse than at the other social network companies where she was employed.

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Facebook has realized that if they change the algorithm to be safer, people will spend less time on the site, they'll click on less ads, they'll make less money, says Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen. https://t.co/wbxxfgorNE pic.twitter.com/zpQIwcdatr  60 Minutes (@60Minutes) October 3, 2021

Haugen alleged to authorities in complaints last month that Facebook has been misleading the public and its investors about the efficacy of its initiatives to moderate misinformation and hate on its platforms. Using her leaks of internal documents, the explosive Wall Street Journal series revealed that the companys platforms exacerbate body image issues in teenage girls, allow some elite users to skirt the rules, is inadequate in cracking down on human traffickers, and was unable to steer conversations on the platform away from vaccine hesitancy. It has amounted to Facebooks biggest scandal in years, partly because it covers so many different aspects of its operations. While many of these issues have been in the public eye for a while now, the documents have revealed the extent to which the company itself realizes its causing harm in the world.

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The thrust of Haugens argument on 60 Minutes was that Facebook consistently prioritized growth over safety, another long-standing criticism. She highlighted that Facebook gets far more engagement from content that inspires anger, which actually spurred political parties in Europe to warn the company that they felt like they had to shift their policy positions in order to gain more traction on social media. Research she provided to 60 Minutes further showed that the company believes that it only acts on 3 to 5 percent of hateful content on the platform. Facebook did try to reorient its algorithms around friends and family in 2018; the documents Haugen publicized showed that this initiative actually had the opposite effect and made the platform more divisive.

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Haugen told the Journal that she agreed to help with Facebooks 200-person civic integrity team because one of her friends had been consumed by a rabbit hole of misinformation and white supremacist ideas online. She found, though, that her team had inadequate resources for formidable projects, like building systems to detect misinformation targeted at particular communities. Facebook dissolved her team after the 2020 election but prior to the Capitol riot. (Facebook claims that it reassigned the functions of the team to various parts of the company.) Haugen decided to leave the company in April and spent the last month of her tenure rifling through Facebook Workplace, an internal social network containing thousands of sensitive documents thats accessible to all employees. She gathered an enormous cache of documents and reached out to a nonprofit called Whistleblower Aid for legal representation. Haugen is set to testify before Congress on Tuesday and is seeking whistleblower protection with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which would shield her in the event that Facebook tries to retaliate and accuse her of stealing company property.

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Haugen says she leaked this information to improve Facebook, instead of destroying or harming it. She is notably opposed to breaking up the company or changing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Acta foundational internet lawto reduce the social networks liability protections. Facebook said in a statement responding to 60 Minutes report, Every day our teams have to balance protecting the right of billions of people to express themselves openly with the need to keep our platform a safe and positive place. We continue to make significant improvements to tackle the spread of misinformation and harmful content. To suggest we encourage bad content and do nothing is just not true. Thanks to Haugen, that almost certainly wont be the last time this week that Facebook has to explain itself.
Anca Dragu, who made Slovakia her home, cared deeply about the country and did what she could to make it better.

I seriously doubt any foreigner has or ever will love Bratislavas Karlova Ves as much as Anca Dragu.

With a dull pain in my chest I now realise that I will never receive another picture from her wanderings in nature around her beloved neighbourhood and beyond, or snapshots of her computer screen that she used to take whenever a piece of news intrigued her and she wanted to quickly share it with her circle. Over time I learned I wasnt really expected to reply to every shout that she sent out to me and other selected contacts on her messenger. But I often did, and the brief exchange that ensued would usually develop into a passionate conversation, especially when it came to topics that concerned the life of foreigners in Slovakia.

Anca spent the biggest part of her journalistic career as a member of the English section of the public-service Radio Slovakia International, where she covered all kinds of topics for 15 years, with a particular interest in health care and the life of foreigners in the country. For more than five years, she was kind enough to take the time to regularly contribute her opinions to The Slovak Spectator and was keen to develop cooperation between the two English-language media outlets.

On several occasions, I heard her say she loved journalism. When it came to topics that interested her, she was ready to dig deeper than most and demonstrate she possessed the qualities any newsroom appreciates in a journalist. Anca would go beyond press releases, look below the surface and continue to ask her sources tough questions, even when they grew irritated, to get to the truth of the matter.

Fame never seemed to be on her mind. She wanted to tell the story, but thats true for many journalists. Anca also wanted to set the facts straight, to the smallest possible detail, which is true only for some. As a result, she knew more about Slovakia than most Slovaks did.

Anca was born in Romania and would often share funny stories about her life there and her family without really disclosing names or places. She first came to Slovakia at the beginning of 2000 to take part in a project aiming to foster media freedom in the country that was just starting to recover from the years under the authoritarian-leaning Vladimir Meciar. She stayed ever since, with a few breaks for short-term stays, in London among other places.

Although she managed to make Slovakia her home, she remained keenly aware of how closed-minded some Slovaks continued to be towards foreigners even years after the EU accession, and how Slovakias migration policy remained chaotic and marked with ridiculous details.

But, always the journalist, she wouldnt stop at just criticism. Hers was a lions share in helping the community of foreigners in Slovakia make it through the pandemic. She was unrelenting in conveying all the necessary information in English when state authorities failed to do so, a fact we would often discuss together. Reporting on the coronavirus situation in Slovakia and the measures it triggered was the last bit of her public service that she continued delivering, even when her energy gradually left her, to the very end. That is her legacy that shes leaving us, journalist reporting for the community of foreigners in Slovakia, with.

With much sadness and regret, I report that Anca Dragu, a colleague and a friend, passed away on Sunday in Bratislava. Slovakia was her home and she cared deeply about it while as a journalist contributed to improving it as much as she could.

Thank you, Anca, and farewell.

If you want to remember Anca Dragu, you can listen to her talk about her arrival and life in Slovakia and her opinions about Slovaks and their country in this podcast.

4. Oct 2021 at 18:50 | Michaela Terenzani
https://sputniknews.com/20211003/chris-christie-2020-joe-biden-is-dead-and-buried-as-us-president-capitulates-to-progressives-1089635105.html

Chris Christie: 2020 Joe Biden is 'Dead And Buried' as US President Capitulates to Progressives

Chris Christie: 2020 Joe Biden is 'Dead And Buried' as US President Capitulates to Progressives

On Friday, US President Joe Biden ventured to Capitol Hill and met with members of the House Democratic Caucus in an attempt to remedy a party impasse over the... 03.10.2021, Sputnik International

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Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) proclaimed on Sunday that Biden has backtracked from his moderate-leaning, centrist-driven persona marketed during the 2020 presidential election. The former New Jersey Governor suggested that Biden is "capitulating" to the progressive faction of the Democratic party, despite winning the 2020 nomination over progressives like Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). Donna Brazile, a former acting Democratic National Convention chair, disagreed with several of Christie's comments, arguing that the latter is inappropriately weaponizing the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. The US president has backed a two-track approach that seeks to satisfy calls from both moderates and progressives. The latter group has signaled that it would tank the $1.2 trillion bipartisan bill if it was presented without the accompanying $3.5 trillion reconciliation package. Pelosi stated in a Saturday memo that "more time was needed" for the passage of the bills in the legislative chamber. She also emphasized that she would not set forth a bill that was destined for failure. The House speaker has asked lawmakers to pass the bipartisan bill by October 31.

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https://sputniknews.com/20211004/500-russian-companies-to-present-products-in-alibabacom-online-expo-1089651510.html

500+ Russian Companies to Present Products in Alibaba.com Online Expo

500+ Russian Companies to Present Products in Alibaba.com Online Expo

Alibaba.com - the global online platform for wholesalers and buyers - is holding its first online exhibition of Russian goods and services. The opening... 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

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Over 500 Russian Companies to Present Products in Alibaba.com Online Expo Over 500 Russian Companies to Present Products in Alibaba.com Online Expo

During the exhibition's two weeks, potential importers from all over the world will be able to find suppliers of various Russian goods, ranging from high-tech fitness equipment, professional cosmetics, and non-alcoholic drinks, to pharmaceutical products, hand-made candles and even musical instruments. The Russian Export Centre, which has been working with Alibaba since 2018, is helping Russian companies to find new opportunities.Alexey Murzin, Director of the Russian Export Centre's Development of Electronic Commerce, tells us what the future holds for Russian exporters and what they can expect from the online exhibition. Sputnik: The online exhibition is at present underway - could you tell us more about this online format and why the exhibition is unique?Alexey Murzin: This is the first exhibition held especially for Russian producers and sellers. This is an awesome event, in which more than 500 Russian companies are involved. The agreement with Alibaba Group wasn't, however, spontaneous and was only reached after a memorandum of cooperation was signed at SPIEF-2021.Its necessary to mention, that within the framework of this exhibition the number of page displays with Russian goods and services is expected to increase three to four times. Thats what the Alibaba group has promised to Russian exporters, and theres no reason not to believe this estimate. This is a huge stream that must be taken advantage of.Sputnik: But what does it actually look like? When we talk about an ordinary exhibition, everything is quite clear - every company has its stall, where a companys representatives exhibit their products and so on. But how does this work online? Is there a web page for each company?Alexey Murzin: Basically, the exhibition is a huge marketplace for companies, including Russian ones. In general, more than 200 countries are engaged. Every company has its own page, where its products are sold. A company can add a product description, upload a video, and so on. The exhibitions format allows firms to place their products on the marketplace's main pages; also, there will be an advertisement banner. Furthermore, Alibaba has agreed to attract additional internet traffic to these pages. Thus, if, say, a chemical company which used to received 10 requests per week, is exhibiting, then at this exhibition it should expect 4 to 5 times as many requests.Sputnik: What are the key products Russian producers will present at the exhibition besides chemicals?Alexey Murzin: It may sound surprising, but Russian musical instruments are in high demand. There are companies that specialise in the production of musical instruments and they export almost all their products. This is why Alibaba is so unique. Everything you need is there: pharmaceutical products, essential oils, products for children, fitness equipment, and much more.Sputnik: The Chinese market is very important for Russian producers. What are the main obstacles faced by Russian producers and what are the specific things about the market? How easy is it for our products to reach Chinese consumers?Alexey Murzin: I want to consider this question in two parts, but first, I would make another comment: Alibaba.com caters not only to China but the whole world. It works with companies from more than 200 countries. So its not just about the Chinese market, which is, indeed, very competitive and all the leading brands are represented there. Todays China has high wages, and it can be quite challenging to remain competitive. But Russian products are still able to find a niche in the Chinese market and can compete with goods that are already there and with the companies that entered the market earlier. There are a number of reasons for that. On the one hand, China sees Russia as a green country, and Russia tends to have more inexpensive products than its competitors. On the other hand, the two countries share a border of a few thousand kilometres. Therefore, delivery costs are not as expensive as to the United States or the European Union.Sputnik: How would you advise Russian producers and small Russian enterprises to enter the Chinese market? What should they do to expand their sales through international markets?Alexey Murzin: To enter the Chinese market, first a producer must register a trademark as a Russian legal entity. This is essential. Otherwise, Chinese distributors or final buyers will register Russian products in their own names. It doesn't mean Chinese partners are unscrupulous. Under Chinese legislation, goods must have a trademark when crossing the border. So, exporters need to register their products themselves. Another essential step is marketing research. You can simply check the website Taobao and see whether similar products to yours are already in demand, figure out how your goods should be priced how they can be best presented because something like your product is probably already available in China. As the Chinese say: "if your goods are not on sale, they do not exist on the market". Taobao has everything you need. You must decide how to present your product to Chinese consumers. You have to understand: everything that isnt written using Chinese characters is difficult to understand and doesnt appear interesting for Chinese consumers.Sputnik: For instance, I've heard that Chinese people call "Prostokvashino" [yoghurt] a blue cat, and, as far as one can tell, it's always necessary to change a product's name to sell it in China.Alexey Murzin: Yes, of course. The most illustrative example is "Alyonka" chocolate, which has been sold in China since the Soviet era. They call it 'girl with a big head'. Everybody became used to it, and its a good name, with good sales. So, while choosing the name for your product, you might want to ask some Chinese partners to help make it proper and interesting.Alexey Murzin, Director for the Russian Export Centre's Development of Electronic Commerce, was telling us about the unique online exhibition of Russian goods and services on the global Internet platform Alibaba.com. Interview by Tatyana Golovanova, Radio Sputnik.

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https://sputniknews.com/20211004/afghans-unlikely-to-soon-trust-a-us-president-after-chaotic-troop-withdrawal-ambassador-suggests-1089636149.html

Afghans Unlikely to 'Soon' Trust a US President After Chaotic Troop Withdrawal, Ambassador Suggests

Afghans Unlikely to 'Soon' Trust a US President After Chaotic Troop Withdrawal, Ambassador Suggests

The US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan was anything but calm and cool, as a bevy of critics labeled the pullout uncoordinated and ill-advised, with many... 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

2021-10-04T03:58+0000

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In light of the chaotic withdrawal and broken promises of establishing a functioning democracy in Afghanistan, Afghan nationals are unlikely to trust any US president at the moment, Adela Raz, Afghanistan's ambassador to the US, told Axios in an exclusive interview.Remarks from the interview, taped earlier this week, hit the airwaves on Sunday for the outlet's "Axios on HBO" series. The program saw Raz discuss a variety of topics with Jonathan Swan, an Axios political reporter, during her first television interview since the US military left the country.Raz detailed during the interview that, while she believes in Americans and US policies, she's not quick to fully believe or trust in the US, a sentiment she noted was likely carried by many Afghans who feel abandoned by the Biden administration.Raz detailed during a separate interview that she is profoundly grateful for sacrifices made by American troops stationed in Afghanistan following the US arrival to the nation.Asked whether she still see the US as the leader of the free world, Raz indicated she would "probably" either question the statement or laugh it off.She further voiced that she doesn't believes that US President Joe Biden cares about the fate of Afghan women or of Afghan girls, recalling the commander-in-chief's remarks that the US could not be the "police of the world."Raz holds some guilt now on account of a decision to encourage Afghan women to serve with her in government. "One of them was a young woman that was assassinated. She was a human rights advocate," a tearful Raz said.Raz, who became Afghanistan's first female ambassador when she took the post, blasted what she characterized as Biden's missteps, asserting to Swan that many believed that the US president would renegotiate the withdrawal deal after coming into office. The withdrawal measures were earlier negotiated under the Trump administration.The interview saw Raz point out that the lack of staying power in Afghanistan resulted because Afghan security forces never got the chance to fight from the start. "They were driving blindly," she said, before acknowledging that the withdrawal never included "enough window to build the right type of transition."Ghani's Exit Was PremeditatedJust as Taliban* militants were gearing up for a full takeover of Afghanistan, former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the Kabul capital city, eventually ending up in the United Arab Emirates.Raz relayed to Axios that Ghani owes the Afghan people a full explanation on his decision to abandoned his people. However, she also detailed during the exclusive interview that Ghani's departure was arguably premeditated, stating that her husband had seen Ghani holding "unusually secretive" meetings before his August 15 disappearance from Kabul.Raz's revelations came on the same day that details of Ghani's escape from Kabul were outlined by the Hasht e Subh Daily.Now left with little direction from either the US Department of Defense or the State Department, Raz has maintained a small group of employees at the Kabul embassy in her efforts to keep things going. While the Taliban have reached out, she doesn't have any plans to coordinate with the group.*The Taliban is a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries.

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https://sputniknews.com/20211004/arrest-of-shah-rukh-khans-son-shows-rules-are-same-for-all-indian-narcotics-bureau-boss-says-1089639347.html

Arrest of Shah Rukh Khan's Son Shows 'Rules Are Same For All', Indian Narcotics Bureau Boss Says

Arrest of Shah Rukh Khan's Son Shows 'Rules Are Same For All', Indian Narcotics Bureau Boss Says

Since the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput last year, India's Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has been investigating a possible Bollywood drug... 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

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Bollywood's biggest drug scandal has just turned murkier after Aryan Khan - the 23-year-old son of superstar Shah Rukh Khan (SRK) - was arrested for alleged possession and consumption of drugs seized by India's Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Sunday. Although several Bollywood celebrities - including Suniel Shetty and Pooja Bhatt - have come out to express their support for Khan, NCB chief Sameer Wankhede has made it perfectly clear that no one is above the law, whether celebrity or common man.Wankhede is known to have bust several high-profile drug rackets recently. Wankhede said that only a small proportion of the people they seize are actually celebrities.Drugs including cocaine, marijuana, mephedrone and ecstasy were confiscated during the raid at Goa-bound Cordelia Cruises on Sunday.To nab the drug traffickers involved in this case, the anti-narcotics inspectors conducted a series of raids on Monday across Mumbai in Maharashtra state, and took a supplier into custody.Wankhede said that he has often been wrongly blamed for targeting celebrities involved in drugs.He pointed out that since Khan's arrest is a high-profile case, it is getting a lot of media attention. However, he added that they carry out raids in Mumbai almost every day, seizing drugs worth millions of dollars. But these successes never get mentioned because they don't involve a celebrity. "Today, the media is playing up Aryan Khan's story. Just two days ago we seized INR50 million of drugs and none of the country's media wrote about it. Last week, we seized INR60 million of drugs connected to the underworld. Again, nobody chose to comment on these cases," Wankhede added.Last month, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seized 2,988kg of heroin at Mundra Port in Gujarat state, which is said to be one of the largest ever seizures in the world.What Happened?After getting a tip-off about the cruise party, the NCB raided the place late Saturday night and concluded the operation on Sunday. Khan was among seven others who were detained for allegedly possessing drugs such as cocaine, mephedrone and ecstasy. Khan and several others were taken to the hospital for a medical check-up. Although Khan's lawyer, Satish Maneshinde, argued during the court hearing on Sunday that Khan had simply been invited to the event by the organisers, the NCB chief said there is evidence to prove the contrary."No incriminating material has been recovered from [Aryan Khan]. There is no possession or evidence of consumption," Maneshinde said.

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https://sputniknews.com/20211004/azerbaijan-denies-claims-of-israeli-military-presence-on-border-with-iran-1089662000.html

Azerbaijan Denies Claims of Israeli Military Presence on Border With Iran

Azerbaijan Denies Claims of Israeli Military Presence on Border With Iran

Azerbaijan Denies Claims of Israeli Military Presence on Its Border With Iran

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Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Leyla Abdullayeva has dismissed Iran's claims of an Israeli presence on the border between the two countries during Iranian war games as false.Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh on the same day reiterated the claim and reminded Azerbaijan that Tehran won't tolerate the presence of outside forces on the Iran-Azerbaijan border. He assured that the Islamic Republic will be doing anything necessary to protect its sovereignty.At the same time, Khatibzadeh confirmed that Tehran sees its relations with both Azerbaijan and Armenia, which fought a war last year, as "good". Still, the ministry's spokesman demanded that Baku treat Iranian nationals who travel to the Armenia-controlled part of the disputed Karabakh territory better. The demand follows reports of Azerbaijan's authorities stopping, searching and imposing tariffs on the drivers of trucks going to the Karabakh region. Baku has expressed displeasure at the growing number of these trucks, despite pledging earlier to allow the movement of vehicles between the parts of Karabakh controlled by the two countries. Azerbaijan has also criticised Iran for holding its recent war games near the two countries' border, questioning the timing and the intentions of Tehran. Iran dismissed the criticism, saying that the military exercise had been planned in advance and was only meant to show the Islamic Republic's readiness to fend off attacks on its sovereignty.

https://sputniknews.com/20211003/iran-insists-on-resolving-arguments-without-foreign-influence-amid-row-with-baku-over-war-games-1089629432.html

Ahson Bullshit. Iran has downed two Hermes IDF drones near Iranian nuclear sites which were launched from and were being operated from Azerbaijan Mongolian republic. If this continues or if the mongols try altering the Iran/ Armenia borders, then Iran will gulag these mongols back to the east torkestan of xinjiang. 4

justnfree Fine, so if so empty bases in fake republic of Baku get stroke by drones, no Zionists will die there. They get heart attack in another place after few days. 2

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azerbaijan, asia & pacific, israel, iran
https://sputniknews.com/20211004/biden-says-looking-forward-to-working-with-new-japanese-prime-minister-1089652152.html

Biden Says Looking Forward to Working With New Japanese Prime Minister

Biden Says Looking Forward to Working With New Japanese Prime Minister

WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  US President Joe Biden said on 4 October he is looking forward to working with Japan's new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida who replaced... 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

2021-10-04T12:54+0000

2021-10-04T12:54+0000

2021-10-04T13:07+0000

joe biden

fumio kishida

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world

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"The US-Japan Alliance is the cornerstone of peace, security, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and the world, and I look forward to working closely with Prime Minister Kishida to strengthen our cooperation in the months and years ahead", Biden said in a statement.Japanese lawmakers voted on 4 October to approve former Foreign Minister Kishida, 64, to run a new government.Kishida received 311 votes out of 458. Key opposition leader Yukio Edano, the head of the Constitutional Democratic Party, received 124 votes, while the leaders of the Japan Innovation Party, Toranosuke Katayama, and the Democratic Party for the People, Yuichiro Tamaki, received 11 votes each.

TruePatriot Another new lapdog, same lap. Well, old dog actually, but still a yapper trying to please his master. Yawn. 1

Thomas Turk Hurro dere Missa Biden. Hi, you the noo Vietnam, I mean was it Korea or somewhere round there guy, eh? I never seem to get them Easterners right, eh. 0

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https://sputniknews.com/20211004/chiles-presidency-refutes-pandora-papers-accusations-against-pinera-1089638348.html

Chile's Presidency Refutes Pandora Papers Accusations Against Pinera

Chile's Presidency Refutes Pandora Papers Accusations Against Pinera

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) - President of Chile Sebastian Pinera denies the claims made by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)... 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

2021-10-04T05:45+0000

2021-10-04T05:45+0000

2021-10-04T05:53+0000

pandora papers

news

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According to the new ICIJ leak (Pandora Papers), Pinera's family sold the Minera Dominga business to the president's childhood friend, businessman Carlos Alberto Delano, in 2010 with a deed signed in Chile for $14 million and another in the Virgin Islands for $138 million."The facts mentioned in the report regarding the sale of Minera Dominga were already investigated in depth by the Public Ministry and the Courts of Justice in the course of 2017 and the Prosecutor's Office recommended to terminate the case due to the lack of crime, to comply with the law, considering the lack of participation of President Sebastian Pinera in the aforementioned operation", Pinera's office said in a Sunday statement.According to Pinera's representatives, the president had not managed his own companies for 12 years and was not informed of the process of Minera Dominga's sale.On 3 October, the ICIJ published a new leak on the alleged financial secrets of over 35 current and former world leaders, as well as more than 330 politicians and officials from across the globe. ICIJ said the publication, called Pandora Papers in reference to the 2016 Panama Papers scandal, was based on a leak of 11.9 million files containing the work of 14 offshore law firms.The incumbent presidents of Ecuador, Chile, and the Dominican Republic, as well as 11 former Latin American leaders, are listed in the Pandora Papers investigation into offshore schemes.

https://sputniknews.com/20211003/snowden-comments-on-pandora-papers-saying-offshore-companies-still-compiling-secret-databases-1089634791.html

WhatTheFishIsThis Pandora Papers by ICIJ are selectively released for political agendas ??

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https://sputniknews.com/20211004/dog-the-bounty-hunter-hands-over-brian-laundrie-evidence-to-authorities--1089663234.html

Dog the Bounty Hunter Hands Over Brian Laundrie Evidence to Authorities

Dog the Bounty Hunter Hands Over Brian Laundrie Evidence to Authorities

Dog the Bounty Hunter is investigating an alleged spotting of missing fugitive and person of interest in Gabby Petito's murder, Brian Laundrie, following a... 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

2021-10-04T19:41+0000

2021-10-04T19:41+0000

2021-10-04T19:40+0000

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Duane Dog Chapman has turned over to authorities some items found on one of the islands near Fort De Soto Park in hopes to be examined for DNA to prove Laundries presence at the Florida park, according to the New York Post.This has been a very different search, Dog remarked in a Wednesday tweet.Chapman shared a video on his Twitter of him and his team that included an off-duty officer wading through a swamp on Sunday morning, as social media users praised his commitment to finding Laundrie.In the video, Chapman can be seen holding onto a boat before wandering off into the swamp along with four other men.The search has continued throughout the weekend on the islands off the west coast of Florida, he captioned the video.The reality stars daughter, Lyssa Chapman, told the Post on Sunday that she has been in communication with Dennis Davis, a hiker who claims he spoke to Laundrie on Saturday morning on a deserted road near the Tennessee and North Carolina border.Laundrie, 23, who has been named a person of interest in the death of his 22-year-old girlfriend, Gabby Petito, is wanted on bank fraud charges after a grand jury indicted him for the use of unauthorized devices during the events following Petitos death.The search for Laundrie continues with an ongoing investigation that stretches across the country.Anyone with information regarding Gabby's disappearance or Brian's whereabouts is asked to call the FBI national hotline at 1-800-225-5324 or submit tips to tips.fbi.gov.

Alexandre Mohamed I have been suffering from Herpes for the past 2 years and 8 months, and ever since then i have been taking series of treatment but there was no improvement until i came across testimonies of Dr.Nelson's on how he has been curing different people from different diseases all over the world, then i contacted him as well. After our conversation he sent me the medicine which I took according to his instructions. When i was done taking the herbal medicine i went for a medical checkup and to my greatest surprise i was cured from Herpes. My heart is so filled with joy. If you are suffering from Herpes or any other disease you can contact Dr.Nelson today on this Email address: drnelsonsaliu10@gmail.com or WhatsApp him @2 +14436204203.also has remedy to others disease like COLD SORES, HIV/AIDS, DIABETES, CANCER, HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE, HERPES, PROSTATE, HEPATITIS, KIDNEY STONES, CYST REMOVAL, CHRONIC PSORIASIS, ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION, LOW SPERM, FIBROID. AND MANY MORE. 1

vot tak This chapman is attempting to profit off this crime and boost his public image. This is all pr hype, as is this zio-media article promoting the fraudster. Thumbs down.

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https://sputniknews.com/20211004/george-floyd-statue-in-new-york-vandalised-for-the-second-time---photo-1089650590.html

George Floyd Statue in New York Vandalised for the Second Time - Photo

George Floyd Statue in New York Vandalised for the Second Time - Photo

The bust was defaced for the first time just five days after it was unveiled in Brooklyn in June. 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

2021-10-04T13:16+0000

2021-10-04T13:16+0000

2021-10-04T13:16+0000

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The statue to George Floyd in Union Square was vandalised on Saturday, NBC New York reported citing authorities. According to police, a security video from the site shows a man throwing blue paint on the sculpture at around 10 a.m. (2 p.m. GMT) and then running away.An investigation is underway, and no suspect has been arrested in connection with the incident, police said.The sculpture was put in the park on Thursday, as part of an art composition, alongside statues of the late Congressman John Lewis and Breonna Taylor, who was shot by police officers in Kentucky last year.George Floyd, a black man from Minneapolis, died in May 2020, after a violent arrest. Police officer Derek Chauvin, who tried to arrest Floyd, knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes, while Floyd complained he could not breathe and then lost consciousness.The incident was filmed and went viral online, which resulted in a wave of nationwide rallies against police brutality. Some of the protests quickly turned into riots complete with acts of vandalism and property destruction. In June 2021, Chauvin was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison for killing Floyd.

Thomas Turk ''George Floyd, a black man from Minneapolis, died in May 2020, after a violent arrest. Police officer Derek Chauvin, who tried to arrest Floyd,....'' Not quite, (not at all) EvgenyM.. You fell for the usual Deep State LIES! it wasn't even GF.. just a patsy.. a CIA/deep state construct. GF was 6ft6in. The patsy was shorter than one of the cops. There were a TOTAL of 54, (FIFTY FOUR) anomalies. Search. ''Rense. CIA Derek Chauvin False Flag Fake TV Trial - Read By Miles Mathis 4-26-21''. 1

TruePatriot Blue paint? So now George is singin' da bluez? Or is he just now evidencing he's black 'n' blue?? Aha, "busted"!! That's it. How fitting. 1

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https://sputniknews.com/20211004/greek-police-arrest-suspect-over-attack-on-anti-racist-protest-report-says-1089647202.html

Greek Police Arrest Suspect Over Attack on Anti-Racist Protest, Report Says

Greek Police Arrest Suspect Over Attack on Anti-Racist Protest, Report Says

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - A Greek man was arrested in Attica, a historical Greek region that encompasses the capital city of Athens, in connection with an attack on... 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

2021-10-04T10:50+0000

2021-10-04T10:50+0000

2021-10-04T11:00+0000

greece

europe

arrest

police

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The attacker was recognised by the police in a video where his face and his swastika tattoo could be seen. He is known to support the Propatria organisation, an extreme right-wing nationalist group, the newspaper said.The man was previously arrested in 2019 for similar actions.Participants of the Movement United Against Racism and Fascist Threat (KEERFA) gathered at a square in the Neo Iraklio district to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the conviction of the outlawed neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn on Sunday. The man, alongside 15 others, attacked the participants of the KEERFA movement, leaving three people injured.On 7 October 2020, a Greek court ruled that Golden Dawn was a criminal organisation and its members were guilty of a slew of violent crimes, including murder.

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greece, europe, arrest, police
https://sputniknews.com/20211004/indian-ministers-son-charged-with-murder-rioting-after-arson-claims-nine-lives-1089654799.html

Indian Minister's Son Charged With Murder, Rioting After Arson Claims Nine Lives

Indian Minister's Son Charged With Murder, Rioting After Arson Claims Nine Lives

At least nine died, including four farmers and a journalist, in India's Uttar Pradesh state on 3 October, after SUVs in the convoy of federal Minister of State... 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

2021-10-04T18:17+0000

2021-10-04T18:17+0000

2021-10-04T18:17+0000

india

uttar pradesh

india

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The Uttar Pradesh government in India has charged Ashish Mishra, son of federal minister of state for home affairs, Ajay Kumar Mishra, with murder after farmers alleged that the former was at the wheel of an SUV that ran over some of their number while staging a protest.Farm leaders, campaigning against three farm laws passed by the federal government a year ago, intensified their protests on Monday, refusing to cremate the mortal remains of four farmers, killed in Sunday's violence if the accused were not arrested. Clashes broke out after vehicles in the minister's convoy allegedly ran over farmers who had blocked the road as part of a protest against the federal government's contentious farm laws. One journalist was among those killed in the sporadic arson that ensued as vehicles were ignited by rioters. Four of those killed were in the vehicles that were burnt. Relief Announced for Bereaved FamiliesThe farmers refused to remove and cremate the bodies of those who died in the arson from the protest site demanding action against the federal minister and his son among others. After discussions with government officials, the farmers agreed to remove the road blockade on the assurances that the family of the bereaved farmers will be given an ex-gratia payment of INR4.5 million ($60,500) along with a government job for one member. Top Opposition Leaders Head for Uttar Pradesh, Many Detained, Arrested The Uttar Pradesh government has sealed the riot-hit area in the state and denied entry to top politicians from across political parties heading to meet the families of the farmers killed in the clashes. Referring to strict restrictions imposed in the BJP-ruled state, prominent Kashmiri leader, Omar Abdullah, made a jibe about the federal government, describing Uttar Pradesh as the "new J&K" (the former state of Jammu and Kashmir has seen long periods of strict restrictions imposed in view of disturbed law and order situation). Both top Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was put under arrest and forbidden to meet the affected kin and Punjab Deputy Chief Sukhjinder Randhawa was detained in the state.The Aam Aadmi Party, which is the governing party in Delhi, has announced a nationwide stir to protest against the killing of the four farmers in Uttar Pradesh state.

https://sputniknews.com/20210913/uttar-pradesh-state-chief-accused-of-saying-muslims-ate-all-rations-meant-for-hindus-1089020436.html

https://sputniknews.com/20210430/yogi-adityanath-supreme-court-sos-tweets-1082769704.html

vanda sck Experience report on herpes treatment I have been diagnosed with genital herpes for 2 years and am looking for a cure. I read a testimony on this platform from a woman who was cured of diabetes with Doctor Ahmed Usman Herbal Medicine after much discussion and some questions he prepared herbal medicine and asked for my address. 3 days later, I received the herbal medicine and with his presdicine, including the doctor's official email address. I contacted the doctor through his cription, and I drank herbal medicine for 21 days. After I finished herbal medicine, I went for a test and my IgG result was confirmed negative with no virus found in my blood. Contact Doctor Ahmed and let yourself be cured. email him at; drahmedusman5104@gmail.com or send him a whatsapp text +14436204203 . He has herbal remedies for diabetes, hepatitis, cancer, leukemia, fibrosis

Alexandre Mohamed I have been suffering from Herpes for the past 2 years and 8 months, and ever since then i have been taking series of treatment but there was no improvement until i came across testimonies of Dr.Nelson's on how he has been curing different people from different diseases all over the world, then i contacted him as well. After our conversation he sent me the medicine which I took according to his instructions. When i was done taking the herbal medicine i went for a medical checkup and to my greatest surprise i was cured from Herpes. My heart is so filled with joy. If you are suffering from Herpes or any other disease you can contact Dr.Nelson today on this Email address: drnelsonsaliu10@gmail.com or WhatsApp him @2 +14436204203.also has remedy to others disease like COLD SORES, HIV/AIDS, DIABETES, CANCER, HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE, HERPES, PROSTATE, HEPATITIS, KIDNEY STONES, CYST REMOVAL, CHRONIC PSORIASIS, ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION, LOW SPERM, FIBROID. AND MANY MORE.

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https://sputniknews.com/20211004/iran-denies-claims-it-targets-israeli-businesspeople-in-cyprus-1089661884.html

Iran Denies Claims It Targets Israeli Businesspeople in Cyprus

Iran Denies Claims It Targets Israeli Businesspeople in Cyprus

Earlier last week, Cypriot media outlet Philenews reported that an Azeri national had been arrested in Nicosia after police discovered a pistol with a silencer... 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

2021-10-04T18:35+0000

2021-10-04T18:35+0000

2021-10-04T18:35+0000

middle east

israel

iran

cyprus

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The Iranian Embassy in Cyprus on Monday dismissed claims made by Tel Aviv that Tehran was plotting "terror attacks" against Israeli businesspeople in the country, describing the allegations as "baseless".The Iranian response comes shortly after Israel accused Tehran of plotting what Tel Aviv described as "terror attacks" against Israeli businesspeople in Cyprus. The accusations followed a report by Cypriot media that Israeli-Cypriot billionaire Teddy Sagi had become a target of an assassination attempt. Cypriot news outlet Philenews reported earlier last week that police had arrested an Azeri national in whose car police found a gun with a silencer. The man was reportedly an assassin tasked with targeting "Israelis with business activity in Cyprus". However, a spokesman for Israeli PM Naftali Bennett, when accusing Iran of "terror attacks", denied that Sagi was the target of the reported attack. According to some reports, the Israeli-Cypriot billionaire might have become the victim of an attack connected to a business dispute.Earlier, when addressing the UN General Assembly, Bennett asserted that Iran had "spread its carnage and destruction around the Middle East", once again labelling the Islamic Republic's President Ebrahim Raisi "the butcher of Tehran".

wtfud Always accuse others of what you yourselves do. ZATO Playbook. 2

Dicksonrp Iran, if they were doing it, HAS ALL RIGHTS TO TARGET FOR ASSASSINATION ANY ZIO ISREALHELLI!!!!! WTF have the zio terrorist jew been doing to Iranians World over??? 2

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middle east, israel, iran, cyprus
https://sputniknews.com/20211004/japanese-government-resigns-fumio-kishida-to-take-office-as-new-prime-minister---kyodo-1089635616.html

Japanese Government Resigns, Fumio Kishida to Take Office as New Prime Minister - Kyodo

Japanese Government Resigns, Fumio Kishida to Take Office as New Prime Minister - Kyodo

TOKYO (Sputnik) - The Japanese government has resigned and the parliament will vote on the candidacy of the prime minister on Monday, the Kyodo news agency... 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

2021-10-04T00:48+0000

2021-10-04T00:48+0000

2021-10-04T01:09+0000

yoshihide suga

fumio kishida

japan

japanese parliament

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At the end of September, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato announced that the Japanese cabinet had scheduled an extraordinary parliamentary session for October 4 to elect a new prime minister.Incumbent Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced in early September his decision not to run for the head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which means his resignation as head of government as well. Suga has spent just 384 days in office.Kyodo reported on Monday morning that Kishida, 64, will be elected premier by parliament when it convenes for an extraordinary session in the afternoon. In the new cabinet, Toshimitsu Motegi is set to be retained as foreign minister while Shunichi Suzuki will be tapped as finance minister and Hirokazu Matsuno - as chief Cabinet secretary, Kyodo said.Kyodo reported that Kishida's first business in office will be that of implementing measures to prevent a new COVID-19 outbreak, as the island nation has recently been undergoing a decline in cases.Citing sources, the outlet further detailed that Kishida intends to later dissolve the House of Representatives on October 14 and hold election on November 7.

vot tak Change of quislings in the israeloamerican colony. 1

1

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yoshihide suga, fumio kishida, japan, japanese parliament
https://sputniknews.com/20211004/japans-kishida-says-ready-to-meet-with-n-koreas-kim-without-preconditions--1089650713.html

Japan's Kishida Ready to Meet With N. Korea's Kim Without Preconditions

Japan's Kishida Ready to Meet With N. Korea's Kim Without Preconditions

The newly-chosen prime minister of Japan also pledged during his first press conference to put his "utmost effort" into creating a world that will be free of... 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

2021-10-04T12:17+0000

2021-10-04T12:17+0000

2021-10-04T13:09+0000

japan

kim jong-un

fumio kishida

north korea

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Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has stated that he is ready to meet with North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-un without preconditions. His remarks come as Pyongyang has intensified fire-testing of its newly-developed missiles over the last month.Kishida additionally noted that Tokyo will strengthen its defence capability and continue to see the US-Japanese alliance as the cornerstone of the nation's foreign policy.Last week, senior defence officials from the US, Japan, and South Korea held a call during which they discussed regional security and the threats posed by North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes.The discussion took place following reports suggesting that North Korea test-fired its newly-developed hypersonic and anti-air missiles. Overall, there have been at least six launches by Pyongyang since early 2021.Aside from concerns over Pyongyang's missile programmes, Japan also believes North Korea may pose a cybersecurity threat. On 28 September, Tokyo adopted the country's three-year cybersecurity strategy roadmap that lists North Korea as one of the emerging cyberthreat nations with beefed up capabilities, along with China and Russia.Notably, the leaders of North Korea and Japan met twice in person. In 2002, Japan's PM Koizumi Junichiro paid a visit to Pyongyang and met with Kim Jong-Il to discuss the issue of the abduction of Japanese citizens. In 2004, Junichiro Koizumi paid another visit to the DPRK to meet with his North Korean counterpart. Back in 2019, then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe voiced a readiness to meet with Kim Jong-un without conditions to end the long-running mistrust between the nations. This meeting, however, never materialised.

https://sputniknews.com/20210915/japans-defence-ministry-collects-information-on-north-koreas-missile-launch-1089088753.html

Tim6311 Talk is good. NK missiles are not meant for Japan and Japan knows that. When will Japan stop relying on the US for its own defense and become an independent country? 3

TruePatriot Can this clown only regurgitate the current drivel from the West, or does he have a brain and courage enough to speak for himself and his country. Based on this report and other reports, it appears to be the former and not the latter. 2

3

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japan, kim jong-un, fumio kishida, north korea
https://sputniknews.com/20211004/japans-new-pm-accuses-china-of-trying-to-change-status-quo-with-force-in-some-areas-1089651954.html

Japan's New PM Accuses China of Trying to Change Status Quo With Force 'in Some Areas'

Japan's New PM Accuses China of Trying to Change Status Quo With Force 'in Some Areas'

On Monday, Japanese lawmakers voted to approve the country's ex-Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida as the new prime minister. 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

2021-10-04T12:49+0000

2021-10-04T12:49+0000

2021-10-04T15:23+0000

asia & pacific

fumio kishida

japan

china

relations

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New Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has accused China of trying to change the status quo with force "in some areas".According to him, there were "some questionable issues in China" related to human rights.At the same time, the new Japanese prime minister touted China as Japan's largest trading partner, calling to continue discussions with Beijing.Tokyo and Beijing remain at loggerheads over a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, as well as issues related to Taiwan and Hong Kong.Tokyo maintains it has had sovereignty over the islands since 1895, while Beijing claims that the islands are marked as a Chinese territory on Japanese maps circa 1783 and 1785. Beijing does not recognise Japan claiming control over the islands, referring to the territory as the "Diaoyu Islands". Tokyo opposes Beijing's ships sailing in the vicinity of the disputed territory, calling them "unacceptable incursions". On Taiwan, Japan, along with the US, reacts angrily to China considering the island an essential part of its territory. As for Hong Kong, Tokyo said earlier this year that it had grave concerns at the situation in the city and that it cannot tolerate mass arrests that allegedly took place there. It was an apparent nod to the arrests made by China under a Hong Kong security law passed in June 2020.Beijing and the Hong Kong government argue that the new law only serves to safeguard China's national security, while respecting people's liberties as well as the region's special status. But a large number of countries in the West view the legislation as undermining Hong Kong's autonomy.Hong Kong, a former British colony, was handed back to China in 1997, and has been governed under the principle "one country, two systems" since then.

https://sputniknews.com/20210713/japan-concerned-with-chinas-lack-of-transparency-in-military-spending-1083373663.html

Tim6311 Japan has no business commenting about Hong Kong or Taiwan. 5

Shadowwalker Here comes another puppet of undesired element. 1st day in job and pleasing the masters. SHAME on YOU. But on the other hand it shows how deep roots are of these elemnts UNDUSIRED OFCOURCE. 5

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china

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Oleg Burunov https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/09/0b/1080424846_0:0:2048:2048_100x100_80_0_0_3d7b461f8a98586fa3fe739930816aea.jpg

Oleg Burunov https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/09/0b/1080424846_0:0:2048:2048_100x100_80_0_0_3d7b461f8a98586fa3fe739930816aea.jpg

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asia & pacific, fumio kishida, japan, china, relations
https://sputniknews.com/20211004/johnson-to-announce-this-week-that-uk-will-aim-for-100-renewable-energy-by-2035-reports-suggest-1089646725.html

Johnson to Announce This Week That UK Will Aim for 100% Renewable Energy by 2035, Reports Suggest

Johnson to Announce This Week That UK Will Aim for 100% Renewable Energy by 2035, Reports Suggest

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to announce this week that all electricity in the United Kingdom will be coming from renewable... 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

2021-10-04T10:43+0000

2021-10-04T10:43+0000

2021-10-04T10:50+0000

boris johnson

nuclear energy

renewable energy

uk

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The declaration will likely be made during a conference speech announcing an increase of state investments in renewable and nuclear energy, the newspaper wrote.As noted in the report, the announcement will come at a time when the UK is faced with an unprecedented shortage of fuel and peak prices on gas. Johnson will say that the new investment plan in renewables will help the country achieve its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 faster, according to the report.In 2020, only 43% of the country's electricity was created by renewable energy sources, while 40% came out of gas, oil, and coal, and the remaining from nuclear power, according to the report.Johnson has announced that he wishes to increase Britain's offshore electricity by wind production from 10GW, which is enough to keep 10 million houses running, to 40 GW by the end of the decade. His long-term plan is to reach 60GW.Glasgow will be hosting the COP 26 United Nations climate conference later this month and into early November. On par with the UK, the United States and Canada also promised to reach zero emissions from electricity by 2035.

Thomas Turk A well informed, (by the wrong side) PM. ''Doctored Data, Not U.S. Temperatures, Set a Record This Year by James Taylor'' .. and.. ''EconLog. 1.6%, Not 97%, Agree that Humans are the Main Cause of Global Warming. By David Henderson''.. and.. ''The UK Telegraph in their ClimateGate Series exposed the U of East Anglia Climate Scientists, who were tasked with supplying the UN's IPCC with temperature data.. for having deliberately placed thermometers on rooftops next to hot air con outlets, on black tarmac car parks, in city centers and supplied many readings from Russian locations with NO thermometers''. There are 3 basic climate science principles: -1) Climate science is in it's absolute infancy.-2)The climate is so complex it is impossible to model or predict. -3)The inherent complexity ensure it will always be changing and nothing man does impacts that.

Thomas Turk cont. ''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.'' By 2025, the mini ice age should be well established.. so his successor will have to restart them coal fired boys.

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boris johnson, nuclear energy, renewable energy, uk
https://sputniknews.com/20211004/kremlin-believes-putin-zelensky-unlikely-to-meet-in-2021-1089647806.html

Kremlin Believes Putin, Zelensky Unlikely to Meet in 2021

Kremlin Believes Putin, Zelensky Unlikely to Meet in 2021

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has never been against meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, but it is necessary to... 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

2021-10-04T11:09+0000

2021-10-04T11:09+0000

2021-10-04T11:09+0000

russia

ukraine

vladimir putin

dmitry peskov

volodymyr zelensky

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This weekend, Zelensky said he was ready to meet with Putin behind closed doors. He said this could be a "very in-depth face-to-face conversation".Zelensky's office previously suggested that the Ukrainian president is ready to meet Putin - but only if the issue of territories that Kiev considers occupied is raised at the talks. In response, the Kremlin stressed that the issue of Crimea cannot be discussed at the potential summit, as the peninsula is a part of Russia.

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russia, ukraine, vladimir putin, dmitry peskov, volodymyr zelensky
https://sputniknews.com/20211004/lavrov-points-to-importance-of-fulfillment-of-putin-erdogan-agreements-on-idlib-1089652813.html

Lavrov Points to Importance of Fulfillment of Putin-Erdogan Agreements on Idlib

Lavrov Points to Importance of Fulfillment of Putin-Erdogan Agreements on Idlib

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The terrorist threat persists in Syria's Idlib, and it is even increasing in some areas, therefore it is important to fully implement the... 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

2021-10-04T13:05+0000

2021-10-04T13:05+0000

2021-10-04T13:05+0000

sergei lavrov

russia

middle east

turkey

syria

terrorists

hayat tahrir al-sham

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He stressed that Russia "unambiguously reaffirms the need to fully implement [the] agreements of Presidents Putin and Erdogan to separate terrorists, primarily Hayat Tahrir al-Sham"*.The 2018 agreement between Moscow and Ankara stipulated establishing a demilitarised zone (DMZ) in Syria's rebel-held Idlib Governorate. Russian and Turkish servicemen have been patrolling the buffer area to prevent further escalations. However, terror groups, based in the city, continue attacks on the Syrian Armed Forces in the region.* Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (also known as Al-Nusra Front, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, or al-Qaeda in Syria) is a terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other states.

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sergei lavrov, russia, middle east, turkey, syria, terrorists, hayat tahrir al-sham
https://sputniknews.com/20211004/nuclear-test-ban-treaty-organisations-chief-to-meet-with-lavrov-in-russia-1089645742.html

Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation Chief to Meet With Lavrov in Russia

Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation Chief to Meet With Lavrov in Russia

VIENNA (Sputnik) - Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO), Robert Floyd, told... 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

2021-10-04T10:12+0000

2021-10-04T10:12+0000

2021-10-04T10:22+0000

rosatom

news

world

russia

nuclear non-proliferation treaty (npt)

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"Minister Lavrov has been so kind as to invite me to visit ... I am very honoured and looking forward for our first meeting. I think our meeting will be very much an opportunity to get to know each other, and the relationship between the Russian Federation and the CTBTO is an important relationship, therefore the relationship between me and Minister Lavrov is an important one", Floyd said.Floyd said he will also meet with high-ranking officials from Rosatom's security department, where the CTBTO has counterparts, for technical cooperation on the installation of international monitoring system stations in Russia.No agreements are expected to be signed during his visit, according to Floyd.The UN General Assembly adopted the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty on 24 September 1996 in New York. The treaty will enter into force 180 days after ratification by all 44 states that have nuclear weapons or are potentially capable of developing them. The list of these countries is determined by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Thirty-six of them, including Russia, have already ratified the treaty, while the United States is among the countries that have yet to ratify it.

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rosatom, news, world, russia, nuclear non-proliferation treaty (npt)
https://sputniknews.com/20211004/pandora-papers-say-lebanon-officials-embrace-offshore-havens-amid-economic-crisis-at-home-1089640895.html

Pandora Papers Say Lebanese Officials Embrace Offshore Havens Amid Economic Crisis at Home

Pandora Papers Say Lebanese Officials Embrace Offshore Havens Amid Economic Crisis at Home

BEIRUT (Sputnik) - Lebanon's last two prime ministers and the serving governor of the country's Central Bank are wiring funds to offshore accounts at a time... 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

2021-10-04T06:55+0000

2021-10-04T06:55+0000

2021-10-04T07:10+0000

pandora papers

news

world

lebanon

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"In ... Lebanon, where similar questions about wealth and poverty have been playing out, the Pandora Papers show top political and financial figures have also embraced offshore havens. They include the current prime minister, Najib Mikati, and his predecessor, Hassan Diab, as well as Riad Salameh, the governor of Lebanon's central bank, who is under investigation in France for alleged money laundering", the ICIJ said.Mikati has a fortune of more than $2 billion and is one of the richest people in the country, according to the expose. In 1982, together with his brother, he founded a satellite communications company, and later created the M1 Group, an investment company with assets in South Africa, Europe, and the United States.Mikati served as minister of public works and transport from 1998 to 2004 and headed the country's cabinet of ministers in 2005 and 2011. In 2019, when financial and economic crises forced thousands of Lebanese to take to the streets, Mikati was bombarded with criticism by both the protesters and the political elite alike.The ICIJ published the Pandora Papers on 3 October. The new expose contains leaks from 11.9 million financial documents implicating more than 35 current and former world leaders, as well as over 330 politicians and officials from across the globe, in alleged financial wrongdoing via the use of offshore companies.

https://sputniknews.com/20211004/chiles-presidency-refutes-pandora-papers-accusations-against-pinera-1089638348.html

vigilante Having an offshore account is not illegal in Lebanon that has a pathetic tax system with thousands of loopholes that may explain the large difference between rich and poor and also the collapse of the financial system. The first task of a new government should be to implement a strict tax system and to computerize it to decrease the possibility of bribery and to minimize human interference. That is the basis of a democratic system, not just having a parliament and a president! 1

vot tak Not a very informative article. It doesn't even say which political factions the accused are associated with. Thumbs down.

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news, world, lebanon
https://sputniknews.com/20211004/russian-diplomat-says-us-allies-should-take-on-bulk-of-humanitarian-aid-for-afghanistan-1089649008.html

Russian Diplomat Says US, Allies Should Take on Bulk of Humanitarian Aid for Afghanistan

Russian Diplomat Says US, Allies Should Take on Bulk of Humanitarian Aid for Afghanistan

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The United States and its allies should cover a bigger part of costs associated with rebuilding Afghanistan and providing humanitarian... 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

2021-10-04T11:27+0000

2021-10-04T11:27+0000

2021-10-04T11:27+0000

afghanistan

asia

news

world

afghanistan

humanitarian aid

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"We believe that the US and its allies have a good chance to mitigate the consequences of their presence in Afghanistan by taking on the bulk of expenses on humanitarian assistance for the country and its post-conflict reconstruction," Kabulov said.He stressed that Moscow is considering urging the Pentagon representatives to "recognise the impropriety of the air strike in Kabul on 29 August and officially apologise to the relatives of the deceased civilians."A US drone air strike on Kabul on 29 August killed 10 Afghan civilians, including seven children. The Pentagon leadership, following an investigation, acknowledged the fallacy of the attack and publicly apologised for it.The Taliban* took over Afghanistan on 15 August. The US-led NATO troops evacuated by 31 August, ending the nearly 20-year foreign military presence in the Central Asian country. Several days later, the Taliban announced the composition of their interim government.*The Taliban is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia and many other countries.

https://sputniknews.com/20210927/taliban-say-norwegian-ngo-promises-to-ship-humanitarian-aid-to-afghanistan-this-winter-1089465346.html

TruePatriot Indeed the US and the West should be held responsible for the lion's share of the aid, but do NOT let them transport it into the country. They can drop it nearby and others can transport it in. One must keep out the intruding ex-occupiers because they will use every inch the Afghans give to take a mile. The West cannot be trusted. 2

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asia

afghanistan

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asia, news, world, afghanistan, humanitarian aid
https://sputniknews.com/20211004/syrian-president-and-jordans-king-speak-for-the-first-time-in-a-decade-1089643837.html

Syrian President and Jordan's King Speak for the First Time in a Decade

Syrian President and Jordan's King Speak for the First Time in a Decade

Ties between the two nations have soured since the start of the 2011 war in Syria, with Amman reducing diplomatic relations with its neighbour and allegedly... 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

2021-10-04T10:08+0000

2021-10-04T10:08+0000

2021-10-04T10:08+0000

jordan

middle east

bashar al-assad

king abdullah ii

syria

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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Jordanian King Abdullah II have spoken to each other for the first time in a decade. According to the Syrian state-controlled news agency SANA, Mr Assad called his counterpart on 3 October to discuss bilateral relations and ways to boost cooperation "in the interests of the two countries and people".The palace released a statement saying the pair discussed "relations between the two brotherly nations and ways of enhancing cooperation". King Abdullah II told his counterpart that Amman supports Syria's territorial integrity and efforts to preserve its "stability and sovereignty", said the statement released by the palace.The development comes as there has been a thaw in relations between the two countries. In September, the Jordanian media reported that the nations had revived a 10-year-old deal, which sees Egyptian natural gas being transported via Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. Last month, the Syrian defence minister arrived in Jordan to discuss a range of issues, while last week, Jordan reopened a border crossing with Syria in a bid to boost cooperationSunday's call between the two heads of state is widely seen as an attempt to cope with the economic problems that have been plaguing both nations.According to the World Bank, the coronavirus pandemic has not drastically slowed down Jordan's economy, with Amman experiencing what the organisation described as a "modest" 1.6 percent contraction. However, it did result in economic woes, "leading to widening of twin deficits, rise in the debt levels, and unprecedented rise in unemployment rates, particularly among the Jordanian youth".Syria's economic activity has plummeted by more than 60 percent during the ongoing civil war, which pushed millions of people into unemployment and poverty, the World Bank says.In recent months, Jordan, a staunch ally of the United States, has been encouraging Washington to normalise ties with Syria, which soured following the start of the 2011 war. In particular, it wants the White House to lift parts of the 2019 Caesar Act, which imposes sanctions on foreign companies doing business with Damascus.In an interview with CNN in July, Jordanian King Abdullah II said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is here to stay, noting that the West-backed position that Damascus should be ostracised is untenable. Last week, a spokesperson for the US State Department said that Washington had no plans to "normalise or upgrade" relations with Syria and was not encouraging other nations to do so.

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https://sputniknews.com/20211004/taiwan-calls-for-security-cooperation-with-australia-as-chinese-jets-perform-frequent-fly-bys--1089653796.html

Taiwan Calls for Security Cooperation With Australia As Chinese Jets Perform Frequent Fly-bys

Taiwan Calls for Security Cooperation With Australia As Chinese Jets Perform Frequent Fly-bys

Taiwan Calls for Security Cooperation With Australia Amid Frequent Flybys of Chinese Jets

2021-10-04T15:14+0000

2021-10-04T15:14+0000

2021-10-04T15:14+0000

asia & pacific

china

australia

taiwan

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Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu has called for greater cooperation between the island and Australia as the alleged threat from China appears to be increasing. The minister said that "like-minded" countries should join forces to limit China's territorial ambitions in the Asia-Pacific region, naming Australia and the US as potential candidates for cooperation.Wu added that Taipei enjoys "very good" relations with Australia, which - like many foreign states - does not recognise Taiwan as a sovereign nation.Despite being a self-governed island, China claims Taiwan as a breakaway, but inalienable part of its territory. Although some countries officially uphold the One China policy, others, such as Australia and the US, remain neutral, recognising neither Beijing's claims, nor Taiwan's.Taipei earlier praised the creation of AUKUS  a security pact between the US, UK and Australia  for its planned efforts to "defend the Indo-Pacific". Two members of the pact, the US and Australia recently vowed to "strengthen ties with Taiwan", despite having no diplomatic relations with the island.Taiwan's calls for greater cooperation with Australia also come in the face of the increased number of missions the Chinese Air Force has made at the edge of the island-controlled airspace in recent days. According to Taipei reports, some 38 PLA aircraft were detected on 1 October, 39 jets and anti-submarine aircraft were spotted on Saturday and 12 more on 3 October.The fly-bys of Chinese aircraft come as tensions rise between Beijing and Washington - one of the island's main allies - over the regular US "freedom of navigation missions" carried out in the Taiwan Strait without China's consent. Beijing cautioned the White House against continuing to send warships to the region since such actions might provoke an incident and possibly an armed confrontation between the two countries' navies.

https://sputniknews.com/20210918/china-may-direct-its-nuclear-missiles-towards-australia-as-aukus-serves-us-demands---report-1089177795.html

Brian Oreily Go China. 5

WhatTheFishIsThis These Kids in the Family should have been Educated, Disciplined or Caned when they were young .. look what they've grown up to become .. Ingrates !! Shame on the troublemakers around with their bad influences. 4

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asia & pacific, china, australia, taiwan
https://sputniknews.com/20211004/taiwan-scrambles-jets-after-52-chinese-military-aircraft-fly-near-its-airspace-1089650787.html

Taiwan Scrambles Jets After 52 Chinese Military Aircraft Fly Near Its Airspace

Taiwan Scrambles Jets After 52 Chinese Military Aircraft Fly Near Its Airspace

Over the last three days, the self-governed island, which Beijing considers part of its territory, has reported detecting 100 flybys of Chinese military jets... 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

2021-10-04T12:18+0000

2021-10-04T12:18+0000

2021-10-04T12:43+0000

asia & pacific

china

taiwan

pla air force

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Taiwan scrambled jets after it spotted 52 military aircraft belonging to the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force flying in the proximity of the Pratas Islands controlled by Taipei, Taiwan's Defence Ministry said. A dozen Chinese H-6 bombers and 31 J-16 fighter jets were among the detected PLA aircraft.This is the third day that Taiwan reports Chinese military aircraft flying close to its defence systems detection range. On 3 October, the island reported sighting 39 PLA aircraft, among them fighter jets, Y-8 anti-submarine warfare aircraft, and KJ-500 early warning and control jets. Prior to that, Taiwan said it spotted 38 Chinese jets flying in proximity of its airspace on Friday.The island's Prime Minister Su Tseng-chang slammed the actions of China, which considers Taiwan a breakaway province, as "brutal and barbarian". He claimed that Beijing jeopardises peace in the region. Taipei also urged the US and Australia to cooperate with the island on security in the face of the alleged threat from China.The two countries do not officially recognise Taiwan, but do not back Beijing's claims for it either. The US routinely sends its warships to sail through the Taiwan Strait, sparking harsh criticism from China every time this happens. Washington also expressed concern on 4 October over China's "provocative military action"  referring to its recent flybys near Taiwan's airspace.

https://sputniknews.com/20211003/china-sends-nearly-40-jets-to-fly-near-taiwans-airspace-for-second-day-in-row-1089621700.html

hassadnah Taiwan is part of china. Taiwan can never breakaway from China, how to pull away Taiwan away from China??? China have all legal right to fly over Taiwan island air space as what china did in other provinces of mainland. I would like to see China increase the number of plane every day. Make sure these plane are fully armed, just in case Taiwan try to attack them with F16 or ground missiles. China also must standby full spectrum of retaliation in case of Taiwan provocation against the flying plane. 14

Martian The Pentagon owned sa called "the self-governed island" has gone into the same trap as Ukrain, just 100 times worse! Than island has stepped into a pile of shit, it does not have shoes for, Hope it will be cleansed from the Corporate profit's garbage as soon as yesterday. 11

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asia & pacific, china, taiwan, pla air force
https://sputniknews.com/20211004/telegram-reigns-supreme-in-wake-of-facebook-instagram--whatsapp-global-outage--1089664307.html

Telegram Reigns Supreme in Wake of Facebook, Instagram & WhatsApp Global Outage

Telegram Reigns Supreme in Wake of Facebook, Instagram & WhatsApp Global Outage

While Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp fight through an outage, Telegram, a cross-platform, cloud-based instant messaging system stays online and keeps its... 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

2021-10-04T20:56+0000

2021-10-04T20:56+0000

2021-10-04T20:55+0000

whatsapp

facebook

instagram

telegram group

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Telegram, founded in 2013, has gone from 100,000 active users to 500 million monthly active users in a seven-year period. The messaging service provides a wide variety of encrypted communication from video calling to file sharing.According to Statista, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are the two most popular messenger platforms, and have 3.3 billion monthly active users. With both systems down and Chinas WeChat a less than ideal messenger for Americans, it leaves Telegram as one of the lone reliable messengers.The cause for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApps outage has yet to be determined. At the moment, there is no timetable for their return. With the uncertainty surrounding the outage, it remains to be seen how compromised the platform is.Facebook's Chief Technology Officer, Mark Schroepfer, said on Monday that the company is working as fast as possible to restore operations. However, with reporting that Facebook employees are unable to gain entrance to facilities and use internal platforms the restoration process could drag on. The reaction on social media to Facebook has been as swift as the outage itself. With some likening it to the hit Netflix show "Squid Game."And others, seeing it as an excuse for Telegram users to "bust a move."To stay up-to-date on every breaking news story in a Facebook-less world, follow Sputnik on Telegram.

RWE2 Telegram is a very well-designed system. I started using it about three weeks ago, and already I'm hooked. It's an elegant concept -- simple, yet powerful. 2

Curtis James I was Suffering from herpes is a Terrible Experience which I suffered till I met a herbal doctor called Herbal Dr. Nelson. I tried all possible means to get cured but I never received a cure from any of the 7 hospitals I visited. Just July,21,2021 I saw a recent post of how Herbalist Dr. Nelson herbal medicine cured people & that he is a honest man to work with in the procedures on finding a cure, then i contacted him in trial & he sent me a herbal medicine with the full prescription on how to drink for two weeks & i exactly followed the guidelines that was given to me by Dr. Nelson to cut the long story short the herbal medicine flushed out my whole system & make the herpes virus inactive in my nervous system, All thanks to Dr Nelson who God is using to cure people of this terrible virus (herpes simplex virus) for anyone here that has herpes or other kinds of disease, should mail all his or her complain to Dr Nelson, Email;(drnelsonsaliu10@gmail.com) WhatsApp;+14436204203 1

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https://sputniknews.com/20211004/uk-conservative-party-conference-chancellor-sunak-to-pledge-500-mln-in-aid-to-tackle-unemployment-1089639823.html

UK Conservative Party Conference: Chancellor Sunak to Pledge 500 Mln in Aid to Tackle Unemployment

UK Conservative Party Conference: Chancellor Sunak to Pledge 500 Mln in Aid to Tackle Unemployment

The conference held annually features speeches by prominent members of the party. This year it is being held in Manchester in a hybrid format, with attendees... 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

2021-10-04T07:01+0000

2021-10-04T07:01+0000

2021-10-04T07:06+0000

uk

uk

rishi sunak

boris johnson

uk conservative party conference

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Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak is to announce 500 million pounds in government aid to tackle unemployment at the Conservative Party Conference, the British media has reported. Mr Sunak is expected to pledge to double down help for the job market, supporting individuals who are seeking jobs following the end of the government's furlough scheme.The chancellor is also expected to outline his vision for the country's future economy, which will be reshaped around technology and innovation.The proposed 500 million pounds will help extend several government programmes, including the Kickstart Scheme, which provides funding to create jobs for young people aged 16-24, as well as the Job Entry Targeted Support (JETS) programme which helps individuals that have been out of a job for more than three months. In addition, the chancellor is expected to extend incentives to firms that have been hiring apprentices."Plan for Jobs Has Failed"This year's Conservative Party Conference comes amid a rise in food prices, higher domestic energy bills, as well as a petrol crisis, which has affected other industries prompting the disruption of food supplies to supermarkets. Local media outlets write that Mr Sunak's speech and that of other Tory MPs will be closely followed by the public and scrutinised by critics.Although official figures provided by the Office for National Statistics show that the government's aid helped the country to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels, opposition MPs argue that the programmes failed to meet targets.Mr Reynolds statement was echoed by SNP shadow chancellor Alison Thewliss who has argued that the government should instead focus on the dwindling household incomes and rising levels of poverty. Thewliss claims that the United Kingdom is facing "a Tory-made cost of living crisis".Aside from Rishi Sunak, the second day of the Conservative Party Conference will feature speeches from Brexit Minister Lord Frost, who is expected to touch upon how the UK woke up from the "long bad dream" of EU membership and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, who will deliver remarks on the shortage of heavy goods vehicle drivers and the ongoing petrol crisis. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to close the event with a speech on 6 October.

LINDADREW i wish he would leave uk to the british and go back home - it should be a british chancellor and the last thing we need is an american president for uk after they stole uk

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uk, uk, rishi sunak, boris johnson, uk conservative party conference
https://sputniknews.com/20211004/we-are-going-to-get-back-to-vienna-irans-fm-says-jcpoa-talks-to-resume-by-early-november-1089665312.html

We Are Going to Get Back to Vienna: Irans FM Says JCPOA Talks to Resume by Early November

We Are Going to Get Back to Vienna: Irans FM Says JCPOA Talks to Resume by Early November

A day after Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian revealed Tehran was preparing for a seventh round of talks with the United States and other... 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

2021-10-04T21:35+0000

2021-10-04T21:35+0000

2021-10-04T21:37+0000

vienna

iran

nuclear talks

france 24

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Speaking to reporters on Monday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister and spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said it would probably take them less time to come to the negotiating table after a change of administration than it had the Americans, who only began talks after US President Joe Biden was inaugurated in January.He later elaborated in comments to state-owned France 24 on the sidelines of the Normandy World Peace Forum in Caen.We have started two review processes inside Iran after the new administration took office. The first review process was complete and concluded, we decided to announce that we are going to Vienna, definitely, and we are going to restart our negotiations with P4+1, he explained. The other parties to the deal are China, Russia, France, the United Kingdom and Germany, as well as the European Union.The second review process is not concluded yet. We are trying to review all the details of the Vienna talks, the six rounds which were actually conducted under the previous administration in Iran. There have been questions, the new administration is trying to find out what are the shortcomings, what are the characteristics for the previous talks. Soon, there will be a conclusion to that review process, and then we will be able to set a date and time for the new round of talks, Khatibzadeh added.Khatibzadeh said one of their priorities was to discover why the previous rounds of talks had failed to reach a resolution. He also said they needed to decide which issues need to be addressed in the next round of talks.The most important one is removing all sanctions imposed after [former US] President [Donald] Trump unilaterally withdrew from Irans nuclear deal and imposed sanctions. You know that President Trump has added 800 new unilateral, illegal sanctions on Iran, which need to be all removed. This is the position that we have had from day 1 and we are going to find out the way to effectively [be] sure that they will be removed.The deputy foreign minister said it was the US who wanted a ticket to return to the JCPOA, but noted that while Biden had campaigned on returning to all international agreements Trump had abrogated, including the Paris climate agreement and the JCPOA, to be frank and to be honest, the new administration of the United States has not changed any policies toward Iran or any political approach toward Iran.Khatibzadeh was also asked about comments made by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at the United Nations General Assembly last week that all red lines have been crossed by Iran, and that Israels patience was now exhausted. He said that of the two nations, only Iran actually complies with international law when it comes to their respective nuclear programs.Irans peaceful nuclear activity is our right, he said, noting that by contrast, Iran is a member of the NPT and cooperates with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors its nuclear activities.Despite the alarmist rhetoric by Bennett - which mirrors that by his predecessor, longtime Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - Israeli intelligence is far more sober when it comes to evaluating Iranian nuclear accomplishments. Maj. Gen. Tamir Hayman, the head of Israel's Military Intelligence Directorate, recently told Walla News that while Iran has enriched a disturbing amount of uranium, including with a purity of up to 60% uranium-235, in all other aspects of the Iranian nuclear project, we see no progress - not in the weapons project, in the financial area, not in any other sector.Tehran has long maintained it has no ambition of becoming a nuclear power, with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issuing a fatwa, or legal opinion on Islamic law by a jurist, in 2010 that nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction are a serious threat to humanity, and that use of them is forbidden.

See you in the ice "We are going to get back to Vienna." says the Muslim. 1683 Ottoman Islamic invaders laid siege to Vienna. Interesting choice of words. 2

Curtis James I was Suffering from herpes is a Terrible Experience which I suffered till I met a herbal doctor called Herbal Dr. Nelson. I tried all possible means to get cured but I never received a cure from any of the 7 hospitals I visited. Just July,21,2021 I saw a recent post of how Herbalist Dr. Nelson herbal medicine cured people & that he is a honest man to work with in the procedures on finding a cure, then i contacted him in trial & he sent me a herbal medicine with the full prescription on how to drink for two weeks & i exactly followed the guidelines that was given to me by Dr. Nelson to cut the long story short the herbal medicine flushed out my whole system & make the herpes virus inactive in my nervous system, All thanks to Dr Nelson who God is using to cure people of this terrible virus (herpes simplex virus) for anyone here that has herpes or other kinds of disease, should mail all his or her complain to Dr Nelson, Email;(drnelsonsaliu10@gmail.com) WhatsApp;+14436204203 1

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vienna, iran, nuclear talks, france 24
https://sputniknews.com/20211004/whos-behind-the-pandora-papers-leaks-of-politicians-offshore-assets-1089633412.html

Who's Behind the 'Pandora Papers' Leaks of Politicians' Offshore Assets?

Who's Behind the 'Pandora Papers' Leaks of Politicians' Offshore Assets?

The latest Big Nothingburger from the well-funded team behind the 2016 Panama Papers is heavy on the sauce, but thin on meat. But that hasn't stopped the... 04.10.2021, Sputnik International

2021-10-04T15:56+0000

2021-10-04T15:56+0000

2021-10-05T10:26+0000

international consortium of investigative journalists (icij)

offshore tax havens

panama papers

pandora papers

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The latest round of "leaks" of the offshore accounts and assets of the rich and famous may have caused a few red faces, but it is unlikely to land anyone in jail. So what motivated the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) to release the so-called Pandora Papers?The ICIJ's online "Offshore Leaks Database" comes with a disclaimer admitting that keeping money or assets in offshore tax havens is not even a crime."There are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts. We do not intend to suggest or imply that any people, companies or other entities included in the ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database have broken the law or otherwise acted improperly", it reads.Indeed, statistics from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs  the UK tax man  show that around one in ten British people have some kind of "offshore financial interest".But the site nevertheless features a line-up of current and former world leaders' financial dealings for the titillation of readers.The Usual SuspectsThose "exposed" in the latest bundle of leaks include dignitaries from a raft of developing nations as well as those who have recently fallen out of favour in the West. Various loose acquaintances of Russian President Vladimir Putin are predictably flagged up, along with advisers to former US President Donald Trump.Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis is a prominent target. Babis has resisted the European Union's demands for his country to accept a quota of illegal immigrants crossing the Mediterranean, caused by the US-backed regime-change efforts in Libya and Syria. His government also has the general support of the still-significant Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia.Three current and 11 former Latin American presidents, along with several African leaders, including Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, are also tarred with the Pandora Papers brush.Tony Blair was a surprise addition to the list, although the ICIJ's sketch portrait of him was so far from a likeness that the former British prime minister wouldn't be recognised standing next to his own wanted poster.Blair's foundation issued a rebuttal of the claims that he and his wife Cherie, a barrister and crown court judge, avoided paying stamp duty tax on property transactions by registering them offshore. Another new face was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, nominally a Western ally. But Zelensky has fallen out of favour in Washington after former White House occupant Donald Trump asked him to investigate current President Joe Biden's suspicious dealings in the country. Where Do They Get It From?The ICIJ website invites would-be whistleblowers to leak information to their journalists. The Pandora series claims to have inside info on 14 companies operating in 38 jurisdictions, whereas the Panama Papers of 2016 were based solely on the records of now-defunct Panamanian legal firm Mossack Fonseca. But, in fact, much information on offshore holdings is in the public domain. In the US, UK, and Australia, it has been compulsory for the past decade to register offshore assets with tax authorities, on pain of prosecution. Those three countries share that information to help combat tax evasion.The UK's Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2018 mandated the creation of a publicly-accessible register of offshore interests, which anyone can delve into. The Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal bluntly called the latest ICIJ release a "hack-and-dump" by US intelligence agencies.Follow the Money But who is paying the ICIJ's team of 240 journalists to pore through records of offshore assets? The body's financial backers include the Adessium Foundation, Open Society Foundations (OSF), The Sigrid Rausing Trust, The Ford Foundation, Fritt Ord Foundation, and the Pulitzer Centre on Crisis Reporting, along with Australian media mogul Graeme Wood.OSF is the vehicle for Hungarian-born, anti-communist billionaire George Soros to fund NGOs around the world which have been accused of aiding regime change efforts in a number of countries.Dutch-based Adessium funds Bellingcat, an organisation that has issued regular briefings accusing the Syrian government and its allies of war crimes, while foreign powers including the US and Turkey continue to support armed militant groups.The Ford Foundation was set up in 1936 by auto industry tycoon Henry Ford and his son Edsel, nine years after the elder Ford had ceased publishing his anti-Semitic newspaper The Dearborn Independent in the face of lawsuits. The foundation's overseas operations included the West Berlin-based Fighting Group Against Inhumanity, a CIA front that conducted espionage and sabotage operations in East Germany.The Fritt Ord Foundation bestows an annual free speech award, whose previous recipients included leaders of the 1989 revolutions in Eastern Europe, including Poland's Lech Walesa.Fritt Ord also funds the Soros-connected Human Rights Foundation (HRF), whose founder Thor Halvorssen Mendoza is the cousin of Venezuelan opposition Popular Will party leader Leopoldo Lopez Mendoza. Lopez was jailed in 2015 for inciting deadly violence in the 2014 Guarimba riots against the United Socialist Party government. HRF's chairman Garry Kasparov is also a militant opposition figure in his native Russia.The Sigrid Rausing Trust is a funder of Hope not Hate (HnH), originally an anti-fascist organisation which now promotes claims that China is perpetrating a "genocide" of ethnic Uyghur Muslims in the north-western Xinxiang province. HnH wrote in an article on Friday that the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February 2022 should be dubbed "the Genocide Games".

https://sputniknews.com/20211003/pandora-papers-feature-3-current-11-former-latin-american-presidents-report-says-1089632985.html

https://sputniknews.com/20211003/pandora-papers-exposing-secrets-of-world-leaders-released-1089631074.html

Hampar Tokatlian Max Blumenthal rings correct. this a classic Hack and Dump by the CIA and its stooges. 8

Martian On Earth Only $160 million USD!? US lost trillions in Afghanistan alone! US keep throwing trillions in the toilet keeping Israel under life-support! Corporate profit is destroying the planet. Federal Reserve is ruining the world economy! $160 million!? Come on, give me a break! Those Western Terrorist Organizations' Public Deceiving Tools should have never existed, if you ask me! All said, now we know how long time it takes to hack, steal, and put on sale the private personal data of 1.5 billion Facebook users! 5

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international consortium of investigative journalists (icij), offshore tax havens, panama papers
Rockin The Aces withstood sustained pressure and Sweet Talker converted a first-over attack to take their respective $13,000 pacing features on Sunday afternoon (Oct. 3) at Harrah's Philadelphia.

In the featured event for male pacers, Rockin The Aces and driver Montrell Teague brushed from midfield into a :56 half before facing a stern first-over challenge from Always And Again to three-quarters in 1:24 and all the way around the final turn. The four-year-old Rock N Roll Heaven gelding dug deep to prevail in 1:51.3, keeping Always And Again a neck at bay. Big Stretch Mark rode second-over cover into third, two lengths farther back.

Bruce Saunders trains 16-time winner Rockin The Aces for Beverly Schiffman. He paid $3.20 to win.

The week's top distaff pace saw Sweet Talker and driver Corey Callahan commence an uncovered bid out of fourth as Delishka N controlled the pace through a :55.2 half. Sweet Talker steamrolled Delishka N up the backstretch, and then kept a late challenge from Rock N Shard N three-quarters of a length at bay to win in 1:51.3. Rockin Philly rallied from last to finish third, another 3-3/4 lengths behind; odds-on favourite Eclipse Me N finished fifth in the field of eight after being trapped among rivals on the final turn.

Trish Adams trains Sweet Talker, a four-year-old daughter of Sweet Lou with six career wins to her credit, for owner Joseph Riad. She paid $7.20 to win.

Callahan and Simon Allard led all drivers with three wins apiece on the 14-race card, while Adams, Jeff Cullipher and Edwin Quevedo all notched training doubles.

Racing returns to Harrah's Philadelphia with a 14-race card on Thursday (Oct. 7); post time is 12:25 p.m. (EDT).

(Harrah's Philadelphia)
Registration to attend the upcoming Atlantic Classic Yearling Sale has closed and organizers have issued a notice with protocols for the 2021 sale, which will take place on Friday, Oct. 8 in Crapaud, P.E.I.

Details from the P.E.I. Harness Racing Industry Association (PEIHRIA) are available below.

The Atlantic Classic Sale would like to thank all members of the harness racing community for their interest in the 2021 sale. Registration for the Atlantic Classic Sale closed on October 1. We are grateful for our partnership with the Provincial government, which has enabled us to host a horse sale during these uncertain times. Sporting events and indoor events on Prince Edward Island are currently limited in size to ensure the health and safety of all participants. In order to ensure a successful sale for all our consignors and comply with gathering limits, we are asking that only those interested in bidding on the horses offered attend the sale this year. If you are attending only to watch the sale, we ask that you view the sale online at www.liveauctions.tv in order to allow space at the sale for those that are interested in buying. If your registration for the sale has been approved, you will be contacted by email or by phone no later than Tuesday, Oct. 5 at 5 p.m.

In order to comply with the current Public Health guidelines, proof of double vaccination on or before September 24, 2021 will be required to attend this years sale. At check in on sale day, you will be asked to present a piece of government ID and proof of vaccination, which can be a hard copy of your vaccination record from your respective government portal or a digital vaccination pass from your respective provincial government.

Check in for bidders on sale day will commence at 8:30 a.m. There will be two dedicated access lines. Please allow extra time in your travel plans for mandatory testing at the ferry and the bridge as well as check in at the event. At check in, you will receive a coloured bracelet, which will denote your pod for the day.

Masks must be worn at all times in the barn area when viewing horses and the rink. You may only remove your mask when you are seated at your table in the rink. Beverage lineups will be by pod colour and signage will be available to assist you. Social distancing will be required when lining up for food or beverages.

If there has been a change in your travel plans and you are unable to attend the event or you will be watching online, we ask that you send an email to [email protected] that lists the members of your party that will not be in attendance. We look forward to welcoming back all our guests when pandemic restrictions have eased. Let's work together to make this a successful sale for all of our Maritime breeders.

(With files from P.E.I. Harness Racing Industry Association)
The U.S. Navy has been seeking new ways to prepare its aircraft and ship crews to better deal with the increasing number of incidents where hostile nations use their jet fighters or ships to disrupt legal operations by foreign ships and aircraft. Since 2001 the navy has regularly introduced new techniques for dealing with this problem. The major problem is keeping current the training pilots and ship captains receive to deal with these constantly evolving threats. The best example of this is hostile nations coming up with new ways to use their aircraft or ships to operate dangerously close to American aircraft or warships. Most of the research on how to deal with these incidents involved developing new tactics and training aircraft and ship crews to use these during a growing number of incidents. The latest effort is a training course U.S. Navy P-8A crews undergo that includes some realistic exercises with American jet fighters playing the role of the aggressor. This way the crew of the larger, slower and less nimble target aircraft will gain some practical experience in how to maneuver during these incidents but also doing so while other members of the crew practice using onboard electronic devices to capture photographic and electronic evidence of the incident. These practices often take the hostile fighter pilots by surprise when they claim that the larger American aircraft was the aggressor and that the fighter or ship operated lawfully. Crews began spontaneously doing this with the cell phone cameras and those efforts were often visible to the harassing aircraft pilots, who were dismayed to see that evidence of any illegal maneuvers could not just be denied. Now some less visible countermeasures are being used as crews of the larger aircraft are learning how to use their passive (listen only) and active sensors to gather more evidence of the incident and even electronically disrupt the enemy efforts. The larger aircraft have more electronics on board as well as many more experts on board to operate these systems. Now the navy is training the onboard sensor operators as well as the pilots.

The need for such training was a lesson the navy learned the hard two decades ago when one such incident turned into an American intelligence disaster. In April 2001 a Chinese fighter pilot got too close and made contact with a navy EP-3E four-engine that was in international airspace, but close enough to monitor Chinese electronics on the coast or offshore. The Chinese F-8 fighter crashed, killing the pilot while the badly damaged EP-3E had to make a forced landing at the nearest airbase, which was in China. Although the crew was able to destroy much of the secret hardware, software, and data on the EP-3E, it was feared that some sensitive material fell into Chinese hands. This forecast was later confirmed.

The EP-3E, was a derivative of the P-3C Orion anti-submarine warfare airplane. The large (24 personnel) crew of the EP-3, that made a forced landing on China's Hainan Island, did not destroy all classified materials aboard. This loss of data and the collision itself was avoidable if the crew had been better prepared to handle it.

During the minutes following the collision the EP-3 pilots had to recover from a temporary loss of control they had bever been trained to handle. Meanwhile the navy intelligence personnel on board frantically threw classified documents out an aircraft hatch and smashed classified equipment to prevent it from falling into Chinese hands intact enough to be understood and copied. After an emergency landing at a Chinese airfield on Hainan Island, the crew continued to manually shred classified documents. Not all the material could be destroyed. The navy incident report noted that the destruction of classified material was accomplished while the aircrew were still in shock from the aircraft collision and the subsequent rapid descent of the aircraft. They had very little time to complete the task before landing. The navy concluded that the crew was not equipped or trained for rapid destruction of data. China held the EP-3E crew for ten days before releasing them. The EP-3E was taken apart and returned three months later in that state. The navy put the EP-3 back together and returned it to service.

The body of the Chinese fighter pilot was never found, apparently because the collision brought the tail and canopy in contact with the cockpit canopy as well as the tail of the jet. This killed the pilot before or after he ejected. A second J-8 was present and its pilot had an imperfect view of the actual collision. China tried to blame the EP-3 pilot for causing the collision and China demanded over a million dollars in compensation. The U.S. refused and the Chinese backed off. After getting the crew back and debriefing them the navy made major improvements in equipment destruction equipment and procedures. Pilots were given more training on how to handle similar incidents in the future. China did the same with their pilots and while the harassment missions continued, the Chinese pilots were much less reckless.

The Russians had practiced even more dangerous interception tactics from the late 1940s until the increasingly effective American and NATO countermeasures persuaded the Russians to sign the Chicken of the Sea treaty in 1972 in which everyone agreed to halt these tactics and countermeasures. The informal name for these dangerous tactics came from an American term for a dangerous game often played by American teenage drivers, when two will drive at each other at high speed until one driver chickens out and swerves. Sometimes both participants lose when no one swerves in time. Many Russians adopted a Russian language version of the term and understood what this meant in the age of nuclear weapons. The 1972 treaty was the first of many disarmament treaties signed over the next fifteen years. The Chinese were not part of the 1972 treaty but did resume the use of the Russian tactics in the late 1990s, less than three decades after the 1972 treaty and a quarter-century of no one doing this sort of thing.

By 2014 China and Russia were both harassing American warships and aircraft and ignoring the 1972 treaty. This was seen in an early 2020 incident in the Persian Gulf when a Russian Navy ship appeared to be on a collision course with an American destroyer. The American ship used the internationally warning signal (five short horn blasts) but the Russian ship kept coming then turned away. A similar incident took place in mid-2017 in the Eastern Pacific. There have been recent incidents in the Mediterranean and Black Seas where Russian warplanes persistently flew low and close to American warships. There have been numerous incidents of Russian warplanes performing similar maneuvers against foreign military aircraft in the Baltic Sea.

The Russians always deny responsibility for these incidents but, with cell phone cameras so widely available, there was always incriminating video that contradicted the official Russian or Chinese denials, or accusations that it was the fault of the Americans. The Cold War Chicken of the Sea confrontations were mainly about keeping American ships from closely observing Russian warships or intelligence ships at sea. It was also about young Russian naval officers showing their bosses that they had the right stuff to deal with the Americans. But the Chinese were not just using these tactics to keep the Americans at a distance or for commanders to show off. China was mainly about asserting sovereignty and control over areas, like the South China Sea, where China, according to international law and treaties China signed, has no legitimate claim.

The Chinese use of these tactics seems reckless compared to the later Russian methods. The earliest incidents often included shooting down American intel collecting aircraft that got too close. This resulted in realistic threats to retaliate that caused them to back off on their murderous tactics. The Russians used warships to make these threatening maneuvers while the Chinese would often use commercial vessels, especially fishing ships, to get in the way. The Chinese also use these tactics on the high seas (international waters) where there is no disputed territory and a high risk for deadly and expensive accidents. This has led some American naval officers and admirals to believe that some of this behavior is the result of inexperience on the part of Chinese naval officers mixed with a bit of arrogance and recklessness.

Naval historians see familiar patterns here as well. When the Chinese Empire built its first modern, Western style navy in the late 19th century, the force was crippled by corruption, arrogance and inexperience. This led to a defeat at the hands of the similarly modernized, but much more diligent and pragmatic Japanese. From there the Japanese went on to defeat Russia at sea and on land in 1904-1905. It was unprecedented for East Asians to defeat a Western nation. The Japanese then joined the Allies in World War I and quickly conquered German colonies in the Pacific. Japan got to keep some of those conquests after World War I but felt they had received insufficient respect from their Western allies and that resentment fueled arrogance which led to Japan attacking the United States and other World War I allies in 1941. That ended badly for the Japanese, a lesson that seems lost on the current generation of Chinese naval leaders. China did not misunderstand, they simply adapted their tactics to their current circumstances.

China is trying to obtain disputed territory with grab and negotiate tactics. The way this works the Chinese would quickly mobilize forces and seize some territory from India, South Korea or Japan and then offer to make peace. This can work but is highly risky if you are facing a foe, like the Japanese, who are better trained, very determined and more experienced in naval operations. Failing to achieve victory with such tactics would be disastrous for the Chinese leadership which is also disliked by its own people because of corruption and mismanagement. The grab and make peace tactics might work against the Philippines or Vietnam but against a more determined neighbor with more powerful air and naval forces, it could get messy and result in a very embarrassing Chinese defeat. China could threaten to use nukes, but to do so would be crossing a line that no one else has dared to do since 1945. China is playing a very dangerous game here and some American analysts fear too many Chinese leaders are unaware (or dont care) how dangerous this is. An ominous aspect of this is that the Japanese, with one of the most powerful navies in East Asia, are determined not to back down if the Chinese apply pressure, and make it clear they are ready and willing to fight. This gives experienced and history-minded Chinese naval commanders pause. Chinese political leaders are another matter.

Why the Russians have revived these harassment tactics is less clear. In some respects, it may be a reaction to the greater presence of American and NATO ships and aircraft off the Russian coast than the other way around. The Cold War era Soviet Union fleet was the second largest in the world until the Soviet Union collapsed and dissolved in 1991. One reason for that collapse was the ruinous amount of money the Russians were spending on their armed forces, especially the navy. That and the massive amount of damage the communist practice of state ownership of the economy caused national bankruptcy. The mighty Soviet fleet rapidly fell apart after the collapse. Many of the ships were poorly designed and built and their conscript crews unable to properly maintain them. After 1991 the number of Russian military personnel shrank to 20 percent of their Cold War strength. Since the late 1990s the Russians, now with a somewhat more efficient semi-market economy, have been trying to rebuild their fleet but have not been very successful. It is believed the Russians see these intimidation tactics as good for morale, showing the West that the tiny Russian fleet is not to be messed with.

NATO is once more in and more dealing with another outbreak of Chicken of the Sea behavior by a hostile nuclear power. What could possibly go wrong?
The novel coronavirus caught most of the world off guard last year, forcing most of the world indoors and shuttering many businesses which were later subjected to strict rules and guidelines. Companies all around the world were forced to quickly adapt to the dangerous new reality of the pandemic, and many moved their operations to a work from home model. Over the past few months, a lot has changed. More than 69 percent of Indians have now received their first vaccine shot against the coronavirus, while many are gearing up to receive their second dose.

As the rest of the world slowly opens up, companies are now faced with a new challenge  bringing employees back to the office in a safe manner. Some companies that have not fully reopened have opted to continue with the work-from-home (WFH) model for a while now. Meanwhile, others have slowly shifted to a new, hybrid model, which allows employees to choose when they want to work from home or come to the office, as per their requirements while ensuring enough amenities safe social distancing at work. Hybrid work environments also help employees that simply do not have a proper workspace at home, or find it very difficult to work with distractions and responsibilities that demand their attention.

Also read: Looking for a smartphone? Check Mobile Finder here.

We interacted with WorkInSync CEO Deepesh Agarwal, to better understand whether hybrid workplaces have made a difference during the pandemic and the future of work models in a post-pandemic world, and here are the edited excerpts:

1. The novel coronavirus pandemic changed not only the way companies conducted their business, but also how they functioned internally. What was your experience with WorkInSync?

The Covid pandemic brought in a paradigm shift in the way people work. After the Industrial Revolution, which led to office-based working culture, the Covid pandemic has led to the large-scale adoption of remote work which will eventually transition into hybrid work.

Pre-pandemic, most of our employees were working from the office, while the remaining were either travelling or were based out of client locations. Once Covid struck, our priority was to ensure the safety of all our employees. Next, we had to rethink our work model which involved a sudden transition to complete remote (during lockdown) and then adopting a hybrid work model (once the lockdown ended). As part of this transition, we had to ensure that there is no dip in the productivity and engagement levels of the employees.

2. Line any other company, WorkInSync must have had to adapt to the changing scenario around them  has the company switched to a hybrid workplace or is everyone working from home?

As a company that helps other organizations establish hybrid workplaces using technology, we believe in practising what we preach. We were the first users of our product. We adopted the same once the first lockdown ended last year (2020). And the adoption journey has provided a lot of insights into employees' concerns and requirements for adapting to a hybrid workplace. We have incorporated these learnings into our technology platform which is currently used by 150+ enterprises globally.

3. How does a hybrid workplace help level the playing field for employees who do not have an adequate workspace at home?

A hybrid workplace increases the Diversity & Inclusivity (D&I) index of an organization. It is more accommodative to the different personal & professional requirements of each employee. With hybrid work, people can shape their work schedules as per their lifestyle choices, while earlier they had to shape their lifestyle choices as per their work schedules.

In a hybrid workplace, employees can align their work-from-office schedules with their respective teams and accordingly reserve office workspaces and other amenities. It provides employees with the freedom to choose when & where they work. This is especially helpful for employees who do not have an adequate workspace at home to go completely remote.

4. Which sectors have seen the biggest challenges in terms of hybrid work? What kind of technology is most useful when dealing with these challenges?

Sectors with a high proportion of knowledge workers will eventually move to hybrid work. IT, ITeS & BPO and BFSI sectors have been the early adopters of hybrid work in India. Outside of India, we have seen law firms, hospitals and financial firms adopting it as they open their offices.

The primary challenges of sectors adopting hybrid work have been on two fronts: Firstly, ensuring a safe return-to-office for their employees, including creating safe workplaces. Secondly, planning & managing the employees' work-from-office schedules and making the workplace flexible to accommodate the same.

Managing hybrid work at scale and at multiple office locations requires organizations to leverage an integrated workspace management technology such as WorkInSync. It also needs mature virtual collaboration technologies (such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams), which have evolved in the last 18 months.

5. Tell us about how WorkInSync achieves this hybrid workplace concept, what sort of tools do companies require? What are the privacy and safety concerns, and what measures have been taken to protect employees?

WorkInSync helps in automating activities such as employee scheduling, office resource (desks, meeting rooms, parking) scheduling and office sanitization. It also provides visibility on office resource utilization levels and helps organizations implement Covid related safety protocols (e.g. social distancing, mask compliance etc.). From a central dashboard, the Workplace / HR managers can plan, execute and monitor hybrid workplaces.

We also take the PII (personally identifiable information) Data Security of the users on our platform seriously. We are ISO 27001 certified for 6 years in a row and conduct regular Vulnerability Assessment & Penetration Testing (VAPT) through 3rd party agencies and our clients. Our platform also has in-built security features for Access Control (e.g. SSO based authentication), Product Security and Network & System Security making it extremely secure and safe.

6. What has your experience been like working with organisations that employ frontline workers? Is a hybrid approach the best for such organisations?

In our experience, the focus areas for organizations that employ frontline workers are - health safety of the worker, ensuring that the workers are vaccinated, compliance with the Covid-related guidelines (State & Central Govt.) and regular health screening to prevent any outbreak. The WorkInSync platform has features such as - employee health screening questionnaire, vaccination status tracker, vehicle & office sanitization status tracking & face mask compliance, which our client organizations are using to enable their frontline workers.

On the question of is a hybrid approach best for such organizations - there is no "one-size-fits-all" hybrid approach. Organizations will have to adopt a customized hybrid model which suits their business requirements, organizational structure, and work culture. Organizations should also map their employees' roles, personal preferences, and safety requirements to decide on the work model best suited for them.

7. What about work after the coronavirus pandemic subsides? Have organisations expressed an interest to return to pre-pandemic work models, or can we expect these to be the new normal?

200 years after the industrial revolution, which led to the 9-5 office-based work model, Covid has given us an opportunity to again re-define our work models. We believe that hybrid work will become the new normal.

Post the 2nd Covid wave, we noted Indian organizations bringing their employees back to the office at 2x the rate post the 1st wave. Organizations are also re-evaluating their work models and we see increasing adoption of the hybrid work models. Currently the proportion of remote: hybrid: onsite employees in these organizations stands at 80: 10: 10. Moving forward, as the pandemic subsides and vaccination coverage increases we expect this ratio to change to 20: 60: 40.
Windows 11 release date is looming and those eager to get their hands on the product have to wait just for a day now. However, before that, they should know about Windows 11 compatible computers and whether theirs meets the requirements. Microsoft is all set to release its Windows 11 update, which is widely considered the companys biggest upgrade to the Windows operating system in six years. The Windows update is set to arrive shortly, and will bring important upgrades across the system from visual changes to performance and security improvements.

With redesigned system themes, apps and other elements inspired by Fluent Design and features like Android app support (coming at a later date) and more, theres a lot to look forward to on the upcoming Windows 11 update. If youre waiting for the Windows 11 update, heres what you need to know from release date to minimum system requirements and whether your computer will be compatible with the Windows 11 update.

Also read: Looking for a smartphone? Check Mobile Finder here.

Windows 11 update release date

Microsoft has announced that it will release the Windows 11 update on October 5. Starting tomorrow, users with compatible hardware will be able to download the Windows 11 update as and when it is available for their system. This is because even though the official Windows 11 release date is on October 5, the company will not roll it out to all devices together. Instead, the update will be phased and this means that some users could be waiting for quite a while  possibly even 2022.

Windows 11 compatible computers

Instead of providing a list of compatible devices, which would be difficult to comb through, Microsoft has provided a list of minimum specifications that are necessary to run Windows 11. This means that a lot of older devices, especially those older than five years will not be able to run Windows 11.

We have previously reported that Microsoft will support computers running Intels Core 8th Generation processors, Qualcomms Snapdragon 850, and AMDs Zen 2 series and newer chipsets. This is in addition to other requirements including TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot as well as 4GB and 64GB of RAM and disk storage space, respectively. A small number of computers running older Intels 7th Generation Core processors will be supported but the number of these devices is very small.

Install Windows 11 update manually

Users will be able to download the Windows 11 ISO and create a live USB to manually update to Windows 11 or perform a fresh installation once the Windows 11 update is released. However, as we have previously reported, Microsoft has warned users that installing Windows on unsupported hardware means that device might not be eligible for important system and security updates in the future.
Google has just sent out a warning to millions of its users about a new threat that has hit the extremely popular Google Chrome browser that is on billions of computers. The worst part about the warning is that this is the most dangerous zero-day threat and that hackers already know about this flaw in the software and they have probably exploited it to infect people's computers and stolen their data and other information. Google has now alerted users about the Google Chrome bug and that they should not ignore the warning and instead, they should simply update their browser as the company has already released a patch to fix the software. By the way, there is not just one bug, in actuality there are 4 in all, but 2 of them are really dangerous and they have been rated as high-risk ones.

To fightback the hackers even at this late hour, requires users to quickly update the Google Chrome browser to the latest version and thereby get back to safety. To offer some security, Google has released the update and the latest version is called 94.0.4606.71.

Also read: Looking for a smartphone? Check Mobile Finder here.

However, Google is keeping everything about the Google Chrome bug under wraps in order not to let other hackers know about it. If they find out, they too will try and exploit this vulnerability. However, it is letting users know that they should update their Google Chrome to the latest version as soon as possible. This recommendation is for all Google Chrome users - Windows 10, Chromebook or even Mac.

In its cryptic geek-laced official comment, the company said, "Google is aware the exploits for CVE-2021-37975 and CVE-2021-37976 exist in the wild."

It also thanked researchers for their help in preventing the bug from reaching the "stable channel".

You can get the update in your Google Chrome browser by going to the three vertical 3 dots on the top right side of your browser. When you click on it, find the Settings tab. Then locate About Chrome link, which is at the bottom of the left side of left NAV.

Check the version. If it is the same as the one we mentioned above, you are fine. If not, tap on update.
Content Warning: The following article contains discussions of suicide.

Horror movies are known for throwing curveballs at the audience. This can be something like an unexpected ending or a killer whose motivations were not what they seemed.





Sometimes, the curveball isn't fully logical. There could be a plot twist revealing a villain that was obvious to everyone but the movie's cast of characters  or a strain in credibility that's just too much for the attentive viewer to buy. Either way, some plot twists are more realistic than others. However, just because a twist strains credibility doesn't mean it's bad.

9 Alternate Personalities  Identity (2003)

Identity was an early-aughts slasher with a unique twist, albeit one that derails everything the audience had seen before. The narrative primarily follows a group of unique characters trapped at a hotel on a rainy night. People are killed, others are blamed, and there's only one man responsible.

The twist is that this one man is serial killer Malcolm Rivers, and the hotel is within his mind. All of the characters the audience just grew to know are imagined by one man without much of a fleshed-out personality. A twist shouldn't negate the importance of the characters the audience has gotten to know. Regardless, Identity is still a fun murder-mystery movie.

8 Topsy Kretts  The Number 23 (2007)

The Number 23 starred Jim Carrey in a dramatic role as Walter Sparrow. Sparrow is a man who grows obsessed with the number 23 after reading a book sharing the film's title.

The author of the book is named Topsy Kretts (top secrets), who is actually Walter Sparrow. His choosing that pseudonym both strains credibility and is a tell. Furthermore, Sparrow's obsession with the number 23 is because his father scribbled it in a notepad before taking his own life. The twists in The Number 23 are somehow simultaneously predictable and too outlandish to be believable.

7 Human Puppet  Dead Silence (2007)

Dead Silence was an early, trademark-filled James Wan movie that didn't hit it big with either fans or audiences. It follows Jamie Ashen, a young widower out to solve the mystery of his wife's death. He returns to their hometown and learns the legend of slain ventriloquist Mary Shaw.





The twist in Dead Silence is multi-layered. Jamie's father has several scenes throughout the film and never quite looks alive. The end of the film reveals that he isn't; he's a puppet. His wife, Ella, is actually inhabited by the evil Mary Shaw. "Ella" has been mimicking the voice of Jamie's father and guiding his movements via a massive wound on his back. The ending strains credibility because Jamie would have noticed that something was seriously wrong with his father from the first moment.

6 Jamie Lloyd Is A Killer Now  Halloween 4 (1988)

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers follows Jamie Lloyd, the daughter of Laurie Strode (who is now deceased). When Michael returns to wreak more havoc, Jamie must survive with the help of her adoptive family.

Jamie holding the bloody pair of scissors comes out of nowhere and blunts the impact of an otherwise solid Halloween sequel. The audience is expected to believe that Michael Myers' soul has taken over his niece and made her kill a relative. The ending is more reminiscent of the original film's beginning than it is a logical conclusion to a narrative. It's also never established that Michael's spirit can be transferred, so the ending doesn't even make sense within the franchise's rules.

5 Esther's Identity  Orphan (2009)

The plot of Orphan focuses on a grieving couple who adopt a girl named Esther. Soon, the Colemans notice strange behavior from Esther that escalates in severity.

Like the rest of the film, the twist of Orphan is successful, but it doesn't fully make sense. Esther is actually a 33-year-old woman named Leena Klammer. Klammer was diagnosed with hypopituitarism when she was young. Her growth has been stunted and she has retained the appearance of a nine-year-old. Hypopituitarism does stunt growth and Isabelle Fuhrman is terrific as Esther, but she does not look like a grown woman with a pituitary gland disorder.

4 Mrs. Voorhees  Friday The 13th (1980)

Sean S. Cunningham's original Friday the 13th (1980) follows several teens as they arrive to re-open Camp Crystal Lake. Throughout the evening, they're stalked by a mysterious killer one by one.





Friday the 13th is an overall efficient film, but Mrs. Voorhees being the killer is a non-twist positioned as a twist. The character isn't established in any way until her introduction in the third act. Her motivation for vengeance is sound and there's something effective about her relative anonymity. Even still, a character (or her son) has to be at least mentioned prior to the reveal for a twist to be a twist.

3 Brahms Isn't A Doll  The Boy (2016)

The Boy follows Greta (Lauren Cohan), a woman hired to serve as a nanny. However, she's meant to supervise creepy horror movie doll Brahms, which she is told is alive.

The film takes the usual steps and gets progressively creepier. First, Greta is disbelieving of the doll's sentience. Then, she starts to take it seriously. Finally, the twist: Brahms isn't a boy who passed away 20 years ago and now inhabits a doll  he's a man who has been living in the walls. There are many times throughout the movie where this would have been obvious to Greta. Furthermore, not all of the adult Brahms' movements track logically. Greta will leave a room momentarily and then return to see the doll Brahms in a different position. Throughout the movie, there's no way adult Brahms could repeatedly enter and exit the home's walls with ease and no detection.

2 It's All A Lie  The Village (2004)

M. Night Shyamalan's The Village takes place in a secluded, Amish-like community surrounded by ominous woods. The residents of the village are told that in these woods is a group of vicious monsters.

The twist of The Village is that the community's elders have fabricated every aspect of the residents' realities; the monsters are really just people in costumes. The elders aren't afraid of anything in the woods but rather what's beyond it. They're not in the 19th-century; they're in the present day. It is stated that the property is a wildlife preserve, so it's logical that they were left alone. It's also revealed that the government was given a pay-off to make it a no-fly zone. But it's hard to believe that there's never been an off-course plane flying over since the late 1970s.

1 Will Benson Is Ben's Son  I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)

A year after the events of the original, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer again follows Julie James, this time in the Bahamas.

This sequel to I Know What You Did Last Summer features two killers, neither of whom make sense. The first revealed killer is Will Benson, who is the son of the Fisherman. Benson ("Ben's son") acts a little off throughout the movie. His reveal should have been as obvious to the characters as it is to the audience. The second killer is the Fisherman himself, Ben Willis, who apparently survived his fatal injuries in the original.
Global airlines are projected to lose money in 2021 and 2022, even as the industry recovers from the worst of the pandemic.

Global airlines will lose an estimated $51.8 billion in 2021 and another $11.6 billion in 2022 in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to an industry forecast released Monday.

The projections by trade group the International Air Transport Association (IATA) show a deeper fall than the prior forecast in April for losses of $47.7 billion this year. IATA also increased the estimate for 2020 losses to $137.7 billion from $126.4 billion.

While the shortfall for airlines is "enormous," IATA Director General Willie Walsh said "we are well past the deepest part of the crisis."

Walsh said airlines had cut costs and taken advantage of increased demand for air freight.

"While serious issues remain, the path to recovery is coming into view," Walsh said. "Aviation is demonstrating its resilience yet again."

The recovery varies by region.

North America is the only region projected to generate positive profits in 2022.

Europe is forecast to remain in the red, with losses of $9.2 billion in 2022, compared with a loss of $20.9 billion expected in 2021. The region's carriers will see a recovery in intra-European travel, but long-haul travel will remain limited, IATA said.

Carriers in the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa are all expected to see smaller losses in 2022 compared with this year.

IATA projected that total passenger numbers of 3.4 billion in 2022, similar to 2014 levels, but below the 4.5 billion in 2019.

"People have not lost their desire to travel, as we see in solid domestic market resilience. But they are being held back from international travel by restrictions, uncertainty and complexity," said Walsh, adding that more governments see vaccinations "as a way out of this crisis."

IATA said "reestablishing global connectivity" should be a priority for governments.

"We fully agree that vaccinated people should not have their freedom of movement limited in any way," he said.

"In fact, the freedom to travel is a good incentive for more people to be vaccinated. Governments must work together and do everything in their power to ensure that vaccines are available to anybody who wants them."

 2021 AFP
Diagram summarizing the process through which the model generates humorous headlines. Credit: Alnajjar & Hamalainen.

Over the past decade or so, computer scientists have developed a growing number of computational models that can generate, edit and analyze texts. While some of these models have achieved remarkable results, some aspects of human language and communication have proved particularly difficult to replicate computationally.

One of these aspects is humor, the human ability to say or write things that are funny. Humor is a subtle and inherently human quality; thus, reproducing it in machines is far from an easy task.

Researchers at University of Helsinki have recently attempted to artificially replicate humor in machines, by developing a framework that can turn existing news headlines into humorous ones. This model, first introduced in a paper pre-published on arXiv and presented at the 12th International Conference on Computational Creativity (ICCC 2021), was trained to analyze headlines in an existing dataset and replace words in them to give them comical or amusing qualities.

"Automated news generation has become a major interest for news agencies," Khalid Alnajjar and Mika Hamalainen, the two researchers who conducted the study, wrote in their paper. "Oftentimes, headlines for such automatically generated news articles are unimaginative, as they have been generated with ready-made templates. We present a computationally creative approach for headline generation that can generate humorous versions of existing headlines."

The recent paper by Alnajjar and Hamalainen draws inspiration from a previous work by three researchers at University of Rochester and Microsoft Research AI, who introduced Humicroedit, a dataset containing over 15,000 annotated news headlines. In this study, the researchers identified strategies for making headlines funny that are commonly used by humans, which they found to be aligned with existing theories of humor.

The team at University of Helsinki devised a model that uses some of these strategies to change non-humorous headlines and make them more amusing for readers. To do this, it tries to find funny substitutes for some of the words in existing headlines.

Two examples of the headlines generated by the researchers' model are: "Trump eats the wrong Lee Greenwood on Twitter" and "U.S. says Turkey is helping ISIS by combing Kurds in Syria."

Credit: Alnajjar & Hamalainen.

To evaluate the effectiveness of their model, Alnajjar and Hamalainen used it to change 83 headlines randomly selected from the Humicroedit dataset and make them more humorous. Subsequently, they asked reviewers on a crowd-sourcing platform to provide their feedback on whether they found the headlines generated by the model funny or not.

Overall, the researchers found that the humorous headlines produced by their model were comparable to those generated by humans on several levels. In addition, on average, they found that human evaluators sourced online considered the headlines produced by their system funny 36% of the time. If the model is improved further, it could eventually help media agencies and journalists to come up with new funny headlines for news articles.

"As the best headlines produced by our system for each original headline can, on average, reach to a human level in terms of most of the factors measured in our evaluation, an immediate future direction for our research is to develop a better ranking mechanism to reach the maximum capacity of our system," Alnajjar and Hamalainen concluded in their paper. "Perhaps such ranking could be learned by training a long short term memory (LSTM) classifier on humor annotated corpora."

Explore further Studies suggest finding automatic ways to spot fake news may be more complicated than anticipated

More information: When a computer cracks a joke: automated generation of humorous headlines. arXiv:2109.08702 [cs.CL]. When a computer cracks a joke: automated generation of humorous headlines. arXiv:2109.08702 [cs.CL]. arxiv.org/abs/2109.08702 "President vows to cut hair": dataset and analysis of creative text editng for humorous headlines. Proceedings of the 2019 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies(2019). DOI: 10.18653/v1/N19-1012

 2021 Science X Network
A newly discovered data exfiltration mechanism employs Ethernet cables as a "transmitting antenna" to stealthily siphon highly-sensitive data from air-gapped systems, according to the latest research.

"It's interesting that the wires that came to protect the air-gap become the vulnerability of the air gap in this attack," Dr. Mordechai Guri, the head of R&D in the Cyber Security Research Center in the Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, told The Hacker News.

Dubbed "LANtenna Attack," the novel technique enables malicious code in air-gapped computers to amass sensitive data and then encode it over radio waves emanating from Ethernet cables just as if they are antennas. The transmitted signals can then be intercepted by a nearby software-defined radio (SDR) receiver wirelessly, the data decoded, and sent to an attacker who is in an adjacent room.

"Notably, the malicious code can run in an ordinary user-mode process and successfully operate from within a virtual machine," the researchers noted in an accompanying paper titled "LANTENNA: Exfiltrating Data from Air-Gapped Networks via Ethernet Cables."

Air-gapped networks are designed as a network security measure to minimize the risk of information leakage and other cyber threats by ensuring that one or more computers are physically isolated from other networks, such as the internet or a local area network. They are usually wired since machines that are part of such networks have their wireless network interfaces permanently disabled or physically removed.

This is far from the first time Dr. Guri has demonstrated unconventional ways to leak sensitive data from air-gapped computers. In February 2020, the security researcher devised a method that employs small changes in LCD screen brightness, which remain invisible to the naked eye, to modulate binary information in morse-code-like patterns covertly.

Then in May 2020, Dr. Guri showed how malware could exploit a computer's power supply unit (PSU) to play sounds and use it as an out-of-band, secondary speaker to leak data in an attack called "POWER-SUPPLaY."

Lastly, in December 2020, the researcher showed off "AIR-FI," an attack that leverages Wi-Fi signals as a covert channel to exfiltrate confidential information without even requiring the presence of dedicated Wi-Fi hardware on the targeted systems.

The LANtenna attack is no different in that it works by using the malware in the air-gapped workstation to induce the Ethernet cable to generate electromagnetic emissions in the frequency bands of 125 MHz that are then modulated and intercepted by a nearby radio receiver. In a proof-of-concept demo, data transmitted from an air-gapped computer through its Ethernet cable was received at a distance of 200 cm apart.

Like other data leakage attacks of this kind, triggering the infection requires the deployment of the malware on the target network via any one of different infection vectors that range from supply chain attacks or contaminated USB drives to social engineering techniques, stolen credentials, or by using malicious insiders.

As countermeasures, the researchers propose prohibiting the use of radio receivers in and around air-gapped networks and monitoring the network interface card link layer activity for any covert channel, as well as jamming the signals, and using metal shielding to limit electromagnetic fields from interfering with or emanating from the shielded wires.

"This paper shows that attackers can exploit the Ethernet cables to exfiltrate data from air-gapped networks," the researchers said in the paper. "Malware installed in a secured workstation, laptop, or embedded device can invoke various network activities that generate electromagnetic emissions from Ethernet cables."

"Dedicated and expensive antennas yield better distance and could reach tens of meters with some cables," Dr. Guri added.
Job Title: Administrative Clerk (Security Clerk) Fresher Job Opportunities

Organisation: United States US Embassy in Kampala

Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda

Announcement Number: Kampala-2021-036

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 Administrative Clerk (Security Clerk) provides office support for ten investigators, a six-person Bodyguard Unit, and the Regional Security Office (RSO) at the Embassy. Functions include establishing and maintaining a variety of investigative and administrative databases, maintaining files, case tracking, scheduling the issuance of embassy Identity Cards (IDs) and maintaining ID log, including tracking expiration dates and providing clerical support through scheduling and liaison with the RSO office. Manages the leave schedule and submits Time and Attendance reports. Serves as Sub-Cashier. Assists with any duties as assigned from time to time. Incumbent is supervised and rated by RSO Office Management Specialist.









Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

The applicant for the United States Embassy Administrative Clerk (Security Clerk) job should hold a University Degree

A minimum of two years of experience in an administrative position in a high volume environment with high levels of responsibility, in either a private or a US Government organization is required.

Working knowledge of USG office procedures and expectations, knowledge of filing systems and computer-based administration systems is required.

Knowledge of how to operate in a professional office environment is required.

Proficiency in use of Microsoft Office Programs (Word, Outlook, Access, and Excel) is required.

Ability to exercise initiative and be resourceful in managing operations is required.

Ability to draft correspondence in English is required.

Superior interpersonal skills is required.

Language: (Good Working Knowledge) Speaking/Reading/Writing of English 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: 9th 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.
SHANICE George was called out by name by a gunman who shot and killed her on Thursday night.
I appreciate the position taken by Mr Kevin Baldeosingh on the reasons why he will not get 
Phu Quoc City off Kien Giang Province in southern Vietnam will receive international visitors with COVID-19 vaccination certificates, often called vaccine passports, in late November, according to local authorities.

The province and the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism have agreed that the island city will welcome back foreign travelers late next month, Nguyen Luu Trung, deputy chairman of the provincial administration, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Sunday.

The reopening of Phu Quoc to international visitors with vaccine passports will take place in accordance with a government-approved pilot scheme, while a specific plan is expected to be announced on Tuesday, Trung said.

However, the exact date for the island's official reopening will depend on some prerequisites, including COVID-19 vaccination coverage, the official said.

So far, the rates of first- and second-dose vaccination among local people aged 18 years and over have reached around 34 percent and 7.4 percent, respectively.

Currently, we are mobilizing all resources to urgently vaccinate Phu Quoc people so that all residents will get at least one jab after October 5, said the deputy chairman.

When the island achieves the required coverage, the province will seek the prime ministers approval to organize one to three flights to bring foreign tourists to the island as a rehearsal before the pilot plan is launched.

During the execution of this plan, slated to last for six months, Phu Quoc is expected to only welcome international visitors who come from charter flights and package tours organized by travel agencies.

Such foreign guests will be served separately during their experiencing tourism products in Phu Quoc, without contacting local residents, to prevent coronavirus transmission, Trung said.

"We are also working on a scheme to welcome domestic travelers back within this month if airlines and road transport vehicles are allowed to resume operations."

Earlier, Phu Quoc was scheduled to welcome back fully-vaccinated foreign travelers from early this month but the scheme failed following the detection of its first-ever COVID-19 cluster in the community in late September.

Authorities then decided to continue its tourism reopening plan after putting the new outbreak under control.

Phu Quoc, previously a district of Kien Giang, was turned into the countrys first island city on March 1 this year, pursuant to a resolution issued by the National Assemblys Standing Committee in late 2020.

Over the past years, tourism has really transformed into an important economic sector of Phu Quoc, with the overall increase in annual arrivals to the island city reaching 28 percent, and for international arrivals only, the growth is over 45 percent per year, local leaders said.

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WASHINGTON -- A massive leak of financial documents was published by several major news organizations on Sunday that allegedly tie world leaders to secret stores of wealth, including King Abdullah of Jordan and Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis.

The dump of more than 11.9 million records, amounting to about 2.94 terabytes of data, came five years after the leak known as the "Panama Papers" exposed how money was hidden by the wealthy in ways that law enforcement agencies could not detect.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a Washington, D.C.-based network of reporters and media organizations, said the files are linked to about 35 current and former national leaders, and more than 330 politicians and public officials in 91 countries and territories. It did not say how the files were obtained, and Reuters could not independently verify the allegations or documents detailed by the consortium.

Jordan's King Abdullah, a close ally of the United States, was alleged to have used offshore accounts to spend more than $100 million on luxury homes in the United Kingdom and the United States.

DLA Piper, a London law office representing Abdullah, told the consortium of media outlets that he had "not at any point misused public monies or made any use whatsoever of the proceeds of aid or assistance intended for public use."

The Washington Post, which is part of the consortium, also reported on the case of Svetlana Krivonogikh, a Russian woman who it said became the owner of a Monaco apartment through an offshore company incorporated on the Caribbean island of Tortola in April 2003 just weeks after she gave birth to a girl.

Days ahead of the Czech Republic's Oct. 8-9 parliamentary election, the documents allegedly tied the country's prime minister, Babis, to a secret $22 million estate in a hilltop village near Cannes, France.

Speaking during a television debate on Sunday, Babis denied any wrongdoing.

"The money left a Czech bank, was taxed, it was my money, and returned to a Czech bank," Babis said.
Authorities in Hanoi on Sunday evening slapped a fine on Viet Duc University Hospital for failing to notify relevant agencies when detecting a new COVID-19 threat.

The fine is VND14 million (US$616), according to a decision issued by the Peoples Committee of Hoan Kiem District, where the hospital is located.

According to Vietnamese law, hospitals must notify state health agencies when detecting an environment containing infectious agents, people suffering from group-A infectious diseases, people suspected of having group-A infectious diseases, or carriers of infectious diseases belonging to group A.

COVID-19 is classified as a group-A infectious disease in Vietnam.

The Center for Disease Control of Hanoi logged a total of 26 COVID-19 cases in the capital city and seven infections in Nam Dinh, Ha Tinh, Hung Yen, and Hai Duong Provinces that can be traced back to Viet Duc University Hospital between Thursday and Sunday afternoon.

The Peoples Committee of Hoan Kiem District determined that the infirmarys administrative violation is of a large scale and is quite complicated.

The authorities requested the hospital strictly abide by their sanction.

This is the first time that a hospital has been administratively punished for violations in COVID-19 pandemic prevention since the pathogen appeared in Vietnam early last year.

Discussing the issue with the Vietnam Government Portal on Sunday, Dr. Hoang Duc Hanh, former deputy director of the Hanoi Department of Health, said that the new COVID-19 outbreak related to Viet Duc University Hospital is not a cause for concern.

Hanoi has reported 4,239 local COVID-19 cases since a new wave of infections began in Vietnam on April 27.

Over 5.8 million of its eight million population have been given at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose.

The city had applied various social distancing levels since early July and just loosened the curbs on September 21.

Vietnam has confirmed 803,993 community transmissions in 62 out of its 63 provinces and cities in the ongoing bout, according to the Ministry of Health's data.

Ho Chi Minh City is the most impacted with 397,513 patients, followed by Binh Duong Province with 215,643, Dong Nai Province with 50,663, Long An Province with 32,694, and Tien Giang Province with 14,120.

A total of 19,715 patients have died of COVID-19 since the first-ever infection was confirmed in Vietnam on January 23, 2020.

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The Ministry of Health documented 5,383 additional COVID-19 cases across Vietnam on Monday, together with 27,683 discharged patients and 130 deaths.

The new cases, including 5,382 local and one imported infection, were logged in 37 provinces and cities, the health ministry said, adding a total of 2,690 patients were found in the community.

Ho Chi Minh City reported 2,490 of the latest cases, Binh Duong Province 1,210, Dong Nai Province 701, An Giang Province 222, Soc Trang Province 118, Long An Province Long An, Khanh Hoa Province 53, Can Tho 27, Hanoi eight, and Da Nang one.

Vietnam had recorded 5,367 locally-infected patients on Sunday.

The country has confirmed 809,375 community transmissions in 62 out of its 63 provinces and cities since the fourth  and worst  virus wave emerged on April 27.

Ho Chi Minh City is hit the hardest with 400,003 patients, followed by Binh Duong Province with 216,853, Dong Nai Province with 51,364, Long An Province with 32,784, Tien Giang Province with 14,172, Dong Thap Province with 8,329, Khanh Hoa Province with 7,960, Da Nang with 4,921, Hanoi with 4,247, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province with 4,190.

By comparison, Vietnam detected a combined 1,570 locally-transmitted infections in the previous three waves.

The health ministry announced 27,683 recoveries on Monday, elevating the total to 721,480.

The toll has surged to 19,845 deaths after the ministry documented 130 fatalities on the same day, including 93 in Ho Chi Minh City and 20 in Binh Duong Province.

Vietnam has registered 813,961 patients since the COVID-19 pandemic first struck it early last year.

Health workers have administered roughly 45.5 million vaccine doses, including 859,182 shots on Sunday, since vaccination was rolled out on March 8.

Over 10.8 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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Damian Lewis has departed US drama Billions after 5 seasons.

Executive Producer Brian Koppelman praised Lewis on Twitter after the finale, saying that working with the actor was an incredible joy. On behalf of himself and David Levine, Koppelman thanked Lewis for the work, of course, and the fellowship, and for all you sacrificed to come do this with us.

Koppelman also told EW: The goodbyes on Billions and the hellos on Billions are never permanent; nothing is etched in stone. But that said, Damians time as a regular on Billions has come to an end. The guy delivered for us in such an incredible way. What he did in making Bobby Axelrod an icon is really remarkable. Knowing the conditions in which he performed, traveling back and forth to England for years to be with his family, its impossible to imagine just how hard and focused that guy worked. We feel really honored and lucky to have had five years of being able to know that Damian Lewis was Bobby Axelrod. But, again, not saying its goodbye forever.

A trailer has also dropped for Season 6 due in Australia on Stan late January.

If you have seen S5 finale you can read more at EW.
Seven has picked up new UK spy thriller The Ipcress File

The 6 part series, an adaptation of the 1960s classic spy novel, stars Joe Cole as iconic spy Harry Palmer, with Lucy Boynton and Tom Hollander. It is written by John Hodge and directed by James Watkins.

The espionage thriller set in Berlin and London during the 1960s was Len Deightons first spy novel introducing British spy Harry Palmer, set against the backdrop of Cold War Europe. To date the novel has sold 10 million copies worldwide since it was first published in 1962.

Seven has also acquired Showtrial, by writer Ben Richards (Strike, The Tunnel) and producers World Productions (Line Of Duty, Bodyguard, Save Me).

Showtrial focuses on a trial which grips the nation, placing victim and accused  as well as their families  at the heart of a media storm. When Talitha Campbell, the arrogant daughter of a wealthy entrepreneur, is arrested following the disappearance of fellow student questions are asked: Falsely accused or callous murderer? The cast features Tracy Ifeachor, Celine Buckens and James Frain.

Source: C21, World Productions
Whats this. a special about Titanic secrets and its not on SBS?

The Six: Titanics Last Secret will screen on ABC TV Plus.

Executive produced by James Cameron, this is the story of the six forgotten Chinese survivors of the Titanic.

On arrival in New York, these survivors were accused of dishonourable behaviour by the press and escorted out of the country within 24 hours. They were never interviewed; they just disappeared.

In The Six, an international team of researchers sets out to uncover their story for the first time, tracking down descendants, debunking myths and racist assumptions, and learning what really happened to these remarkable men. This epic journey takes us across continents from China to the USA, Canada and the UK. Along the way, we discover the survivors involvement in the first world war, the immigration policies that singled them out for discrimination and the secret repatriations that shaped their lives.

Featuring exclusive James Cameron interviews, stunning animations, and Titanic movie footage, including a previously unreleased deleted scene, this story of discrimination and survival against the odds is more relevant than ever, today.

9:30pm Sunday October 17 on ABC TV Plus.
Lets face it: Id rejoice if I had a wobbly table in a leaky cabin all to myself for two weeks, one writer wrote in a pitch to be selected for A Hotel Room of Ones Own: The Erma Bombeck | Anna Lefler Humorist-in-Residence Program.

Virginia Woolf believed that access to a room of ones own was what women needed to pursue their literary goals; she didnt even consider the creative inspiration generated from a breakfast buffet, all-you-can-drink coffee or a fluffy robe, she added.

The writing residencys perks inspired others, too. Two words: Clean towels, one wrote. Swaddle me in terry cloth  Im eager to crack my knuckles over the laptop, another said.

In all, the 2021 contest attracted 282 applications from 43 states coast to coast, Washington, D.C. and four countries  Australia, Canada, Spain and the UK.

What humor writer wouldnt want to attend the University of Daytons wildly popular Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop and spend an additional two all-expenses-paid weeks at a hotel in Dayton, Ohio? Free room service. A housekeeping staff. An omelette bar. A TV remote of your own. The sun rising over the Great Miami River (aka, the Dayton Riviera).

And, most importantly, a Do Not Disturb sign. Forbes says it may be the best writing residency in the country.

I cant imagine a bigger kick in the leggings than attending the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop, then walking down the hall to your hotel room, settling in with a nice Monte Cristo sandwich, and channeling all that fresh creative energy into your writing for two straight weeks. Either you make substantial progress on your humor project, or you get totally caught up on All My Children. Talk about a win-win! said Anna Lefler, a Los Angeles-based novelist and humorist who underwrote and helped create and launch the biennial program in 2017.

Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson, and Mike Reiss, writer for The Simpsons for three decades, will serve as finalist judges. Preliminary judges include dozens of authors, bloggers and humorists. All entries will be blind-judged. Three grand prize winners, three finalists ($250) and five honorable mentions ($100) will be announced in mid-November.

The program attracted entries from a diversity of writers working on comedic novels, narrative non-fiction, plays, essays, sitcom scripts and other humor-writing projects.

This is the writing getaway that will be the catalyst to my comedy writing career, one applicant wrote. I am the ideal candidate for the program because humor is what drives me, what saves me, and what keeps me going.

Besides the residency, the workshop also co-sponsors an international writing competition organized by the Washington-Centerville Public Library. The contest opens Nov. 30, with entries accepted until Jan. 4, 2022. Four winners will receive cash prizes and free registration to the March 24-26, 2022, workshop.

The Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop is the only workshop in the country devoted to both humor and human interest writing and is so popular that it typically sells out within hours. Registration for the spring workshop will open in December. Registration is currently open for a half-day virtual workshop on memoir writing with Jenny Lawson and Wade Rouse on Saturday, Oct. 23.
The Dayton Funk Symposium returns to the University of Dayton Nov. 3-6 with a lineup of academic, cultural and community events celebrating the rhythmic groove-based genre that put Dayton on the musical map in the 1970s and early 1980s.

The Universitys second symposium again brings scholars, teachers, students and performing artists to the UD campus and city of Dayton to examine the impact and lasting influence of funk music on the global music landscape. In addition to panel discussions and a keynote address, this years symposium will include a documentary screening at The Neon theater, a line dance party on campus, and a concert celebrating Daytons funk heritage at the Benjamin & Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center.

The first funk symposium at UD was such a huge success that we were encouraged to organize and host a second one, said University of Dayton professor of music and Graul Chair in the Arts and Languages Sharon Gratto, who envisioned and launched the inaugural symposium in 2018. The goal of this symposium is again to forge a connection between Dayton's African American community and the University.

The symposium starts with a screening of Summer of Soul, 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 3, at The Neon, about the little-known African American Harlem Festival of 1969 overshadowed the same year by the Woodstock Festival in Bethel, New York. Not Your Average Wedding Reception, a funk line dance party, will take place 7-10 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5, in the cafeteria of Daniel J. Curran Place, 1700 S. Patterson Blvd., on the UD campus. Local funk DJ Stan The Man Brooks will lead a funk line dance instruction session from 7-8 p.m. before providing music for the party.

At 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 6, The Dayton Funk All-Stars Band and soloists will join the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra at the Schuster Center to put a symphonic spin on the eras greatest hits during Dayton Funk: A Tribute To Dayton's Funk Legacy.

All campus events are free and open to the public, with no registration or tickets required. Tickets to the documentary and the concert can be purchased through The Neon and the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance.

Frederick Rickey Vincent, associate professor of diversity studies at California College of the Arts and a lecturer at UC Berkeley and the City College of San Francisco, will deliver the keynote address, Funk and Afrofuturism: The Past, Present, and Future of the Funk, 7:30-9 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 4, in the Meyer Room in Curran Place. Vincent is the author of Funk: The Music, the People and the Rhythm of The One, the first definitive academic text on funk music.

Funk has been the dominant element in Black popular music since the 1970s, Vincent said. Contemporary jazz artists improvise around the funk, contemporary hip hop is built around the beats and rhythmic structure of the funk, current R&B exists exclusively on the structure of funk, yet it is unstated and rarely recognized or celebrated. Since funk music was established over 50 years ago, it has long been necessary for the academy to explore and acknowledge this phenomenon.

Other participants include UCLA professor Scot Brown, the 2018 symposium keynote speaker and author of an upcoming book on Dayton funk, James Diamond Williams of the Ohio Players; and faculty from UD and the University of Michigan, among others and other institutions.

This years symposium is supported by a special projects grant from Culture Works and the Montgomery County Arts and Cultural District, and will follow the Oct. 14 designation ceremony of Stone Street in downtown Dayton as Land of Funk Way.

For the full schedule of events, visit the symposium website.
FILE PHOTO: The Royal Dutch Shell logo is seen at a Shell petrol station in London

(Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell on Monday said it has restarted production at its Olympus platform in the Mars Corridor in the Gulf of Mexico following repairs to portion of its West Delta 143 offshore facility in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida.

The remaining assets in that corridor, Mars and Ursa, remain shut in, while other Gulf of Mexico assets - Appomattox, Enchilada/Salsa, Auger, Perdido and Stones - are all producing, the company said.

Shell, the largest U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil producer, was the hardest-hit producer from Ida, which tore through the Gulf in August and removed 28 million barrels of oil from the market.

Shell's West Delta 143 offshore facility, carries oil and gas from three major fields for processing at onshore terminals.

The company also noted that utility services has been restored at its Norco Manufacturing Complex in Louisiana, which hosts a 230,611 barrel-per-day refinery. (https://bit.ly/2Yo9UUq)

Last month, Shell warned that damage to its offshore transfer facilities from Ida will cut production into early next year.

(Reporting by Arundhati Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Porter and Marguerita Choy)
Allegations that third forces are located near the Azerbaijani-Iranian border are unfounded, the head of the press service of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Leyla Abdullayeva said, commenting on an interview of the Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian.

She noted that Azerbaijan doesn't accept statements about the presence of any third forces near the Azerbaijani-Iranian border or about the incitement attempts of these forces, because these statements are unfounded.

"In general, the presence on the territory of Azerbaijan of any forces, including terrorist ones, which may pose a threat to our state and neighboring countries, cannot be a subject of discussion. Unfortunately, even during the 44-day Patriotic War, some parties voiced such unfounded allegations. We said it back then and we're saying it now - such allegations are unfounded, and to this day the Azerbaijani side was not presented with any relevant evidence to prove the opposite," the head of the press service of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said.

Abdullayeva stressed that the inviolability of internationally recognized borders is one of the fundamental principles that Azerbaijan is always guided by. "It was Azerbaijan that for decades suffered from the consequences of military aggression and violation of its international borders. More than 130 kilometers of our border with Iran were under Armenian occupation for many years. Unfortunately, over the years we have not heard from the friendly Iranian state such a harsh reaction as now, regarding the occupation of a part of our border. Azerbaijan is a supporter of establishing relations with all countries on the basis of the principle of respect for internationally recognized borders, which is the invariable policy of our country," Abdullayeva said.

"Azerbaijan announced its readiness to normalize relations with Armenia on the basis of fundamental principles of international law and to begin negotiations on the delimitation of the border. The process of delimiting the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia is a bilateral issue, and the recent positive signals from the opposite side allows us to hope for the development of this process in a constructive manner," the spokesperson said.

Also, commenting on the statement on the intervention of external forces in Azerbaijan, Abdullayeva stressed that Azerbaijan has always pursued an independent foreign policy and has repeatedly proved this with concrete steps over the course of 30 years. "The development of friendly and good-neighborly relations with neighboring countries is one of the main priorities of Azerbaijan's foreign policy, and we are constantly taking steps in this direction," she said.

Abdullayeva also said that Azerbaijan is very sensitive to the issue of Islamic solidarity and therefore takes an active position in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). "Over the past decades, Azerbaijan has been focusing on the destruction, plundering of the Islamic cultural and historical heritage on its territory and highly appreciates the support in this matter of its fair position by the OIC countries," she said.

"We believe that the end of the occupation of Azerbaijani territories, the illegal actions of Armenia in this region, including the concentration of large quantities of weapons and ammunition, illegal economic and other actions, drug smuggling, training of terrorists, destruction and desecration of monuments of Islamic religion and culture, as well as the return of former refugees to their native lands after 30 years of separation, ensuring stability and security in the region must meet the interests of Iran," the head of the press service of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said.
Incumbent Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze says that he expected victory in the first round of yesterdays municipal elections, but says he is sure he will be victorious in the second round, Agenda.ge reports.

According to preliminary results Kaladze received 45.28 per cent of the vote in yesterdays polls, while he needed at least 51 per cent of the vote to win the race.

Kaladze said earlier today that there were all preconditions for his victory. However, the political situation over the past several days has changed the expected result.

He refrained from going into details, but said that it needs to be analysed whether the return of Georgias former president Mikheil Saakashvili had an influence on the election results.

"Maybe it is my fault (that I could not win the race in the first round). Maybe there was something I did not pay enough attention.That is why I beg your pardon, Kaladze said.
The application of different regulations on pandemic prevention and control in different cities/provinces is causing difficulties for enterprises.

Sidewalk eateries have to close the doors during social distancing.

On October 2, Thu Duc City in HCM City released Document 6189 on assessing the pandemic levels in the wards of the city. Under the document, there are four levels from 1 to 4, corresponding to green, yellow, orange and red zones. Enterprises will have to refer to the color classification to know if they can run their production and business activities.

There are 19 wards meeting requirements classified as yellow (level 2), 19 wards orange (level 3) and 4 red (level 4), while there is no green zone.

The classification will be carried out weekly and may be adjusted depending on real conditions.

However, a problem has arisen. Directive 18 of the HCM City Peoples Committee allows shopping malls, supermarkets, convenience stores and groceries to operate. Meanwhile, the document released by Thu Duc City authorities says shopping malls must close their doors if they are located in orange zones, while supermarkets, convenience stores and groceries still can open.

A businessman told VietNamNet that the draft document of the Ministry of Health (MOH) guiding the classification of zones by colors only applies to cities and provinces, not to smaller administrative units such as districts and communes.

He said that MOH is still collecting opinions from the public on the draft regulation while Thu Duc City has set up its own rules.

The assessments every week will cause difficulties for enterprises, because their classification may change. The businessman said that it would be very costly to reopen business, as enterprises have to pay for workers testing, cleaning and disinfection.

What will I have to do with workers if I invite them to work, but then have to close the factory? he said.

We wont be able to arrange our production activities if we have to switch on (when an outbreak cools) and off (when it recurs) all the time, he said.

The inconsistency in the regulations on Covid-19 prevention and control was the subject of a question raised by many businesspeople at an online meeting with voters and President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and the HCM City National Assembly Delegation on October 2.

Ly Kim Chi, Chair of the HCM City Food and Foodstuff Association, said the Government has set up special taskforces that direct the connection of regions and exploit the advantages of every region for economic development.

However, since localities apply different regulations to protect their achievements in pandemic prevention and control, supply chain disruptions still exist. The transport of goods from other cities and provinces to HCM City has been interrupted. At some moments, input material supply chains to enterprises were broken.

Vu Kim Hanh, Chair of the Business Association of High Quality Vietnamese Products, said Binh Duong, Dong Nai and Mekong Delta are trying to protect their green zones, so the maintenance and re-development of supply chains will depend on policies set by every city and province. In some cases, provinces leaders agree with businesses, but the supply chain gets stuck in districts and communes.

Hanh urged the Government to give instructions to remove the behavior that hinders goods exchange among localities.

Nguyen Quoc Khanh, Chair of Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of HCM City (Hawa), also complained that its difficult to draw up business plans, because planning depends on macro policies. That is why when implementing the three on-the-site principle, enterprises face risks with supply chains, testing costs and accommodation services for workers.

Khanh asked to mitigate shortcomings and stop the inconsistency in the instructions released by the central government and local authorities.

President Nguyen Xuan Phuc affirmed that the zero Covid strategy is not feasible in current conditions. Instead, people and businesses need to adapt to life with the virus. Its necessary to have a strategy adapting to the new normal with close connection among ministries, branches and localities.

The President said state management agencies at different levels need to facilitate the travel of people and cargo; step by step restore production, and commercial flights; and create favorable conditions for fully vaccinated people with negative testing results to travel on different means of transport. There is no need to impose a lockdown for a long time and on a large scale.

Localities must be united, not divided, not ruled by their own specific rules. This has caused frustration, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc said.

Tran Chung

Gym, spa owners lose billions of dong during Covid-19 The health and beauty industry has been seriously hit throughout the four Covid-19 waves. Many owners of gyms and spas worth billions of dong have had serious losses.

Hanoi mulls solutions to stay safe when social distancing rules end Hanoi needs to find solutions to prevent the coronavirus from spreading and causing overloading of the healthcare system.
The huge flow of people leaving Vietnams Covid-19 hotspots to their hometowns in southwestern provinces has overloaded concentrated quarantine zones, where infection cases have been detected.

Chairmen of some provinces in the southwestern region as Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, Soc Trang and others have asked the Prime Minister and the Government's special working group to not allow migrant workers in pandemic-hit areas to return home spontaneously for 15 days, as quarantine zones in these provinces are overloaded and the rates of vaccination against Covid-19 there are still low.

Tens of thousands of people have left HCM City and other pandemic-hit areas for the southwestern provinces. Photo: Tung Tin

Chairman of the southern province of Soc Trang Tran Van Lau told VietNamNet on October 3 that in the past few days, the province had welcomed about 30,000 people who returned home from pandemic-hit Ho Chi Minh City, and Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces.

According to Lau, these people are now gathered at the Ho Nuoc Ngot cultural zone in Soc Trang City, where they will be medically screened before being sent to quarantine sites in their home districts.

Lau said Soc Trang province had prepared quarantine zones for about 16,000 people who were anticipated to return home for around two weeks following HCM City, Binh Duong and Dong Nai removal of social distancing on October 1. In fact, the number of returnees by October 3 morning nearly doubled the anticipated number.

This situation raises a high risk of infection in southwestern provinces because returnees may be virus carriers and if they are not screened and quarantined, it could be dangerous.

Soc Trang provinces chairman said: If people keep returning home in an unplanned way, no province can stand it. The treatment capacity and vaccination rate of the Mekong Delta provinces are still low, so the possibility of infection is very high. Southwestern provinces may turn red (pandemic-hit).

Police officers of An Giang province distribute rice, water and bread to returnees. Photo: Tien Tam

We propose encouraging people to not massively return home so that localities can handle all quarantined people. It's normal for 30,000 people to return home within two weeks, but it is a completely different story when they return home at once, Lau said.

Chairman of Bac Lieu Provincial People's Committee Pham Van Thieu told VietNamNet that in the past few days, the province had received about 7,000 local residents from from Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, and Dong Nai. All schools are used as concentrated isolation centers and some infection cases among returnees have been recorded.

Thieu added that if people continue to go home this way, Bac Lieu "can't withstand it".

"We have proposed suspending this for 15 days, so that provinces and cities can prepare and survey to find out how many people have returned and who can be quarantined at home," said Thieu.

In a document sent to the Prime Minister on October 2, Chairman of the Ca Mau Provincial People's Committee Huynh Quoc Viet said that more than 1,200 people had returned to Ca Mau by themselves and many more people are expected to return in the coming days.

Viet said that Ca Mau is currently facing difficulties in facilities, equipment and resources to meet the needs of quarantine and treatment. The province needs more time to prepare to welcome people back.

Chairman of the southern province of An Giang Nguyen Thanh Binh said that the province had used schools as quarantine sites for about 16,000 people who returned home in the past few days.

At least 14 positive cases have been detected out of the first 8,000 returnees. Another 8,000 people who arrived in An Giang on October 2 evening are being tested, Binh said.

People are gathered for Covid testing. Photo: Anh Vu

They are provided with free food. Photo: Anh Vu

Collecting samples for Covid-19 testing. Photo: Anh Vu

Motorbikes of thousands of people who returned to Kien Giang Province in the past two days. Photo: Anh Vu

Binh added that such a massive influx of people causes overload not only for An Giang but also for all southwestern provinces and cities.

Tra Vinh province has received about 5,000 people and has recorded three infection cases, said the provinces chairman Le Van Han.

Currently Tra Vinh and southwestern provinces are overloaded because people are pouring in at the same time. The province has used all schools to quarantine returnees for 14 days. If these people test negative, they will be sent home for monitoring to give space to other returnees," Han said.

Vinh Long Vice President Nguyen Thi Quyen Thanh said that the locality had received about 2,000 people.

She said vaccination rates of provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta are still very low. In Vinh Long alone, there are more than 600,000 people over 18 years old who have not yet received the first dose, and more than 250,000 people who have overstayed the second vaccine dose.

"Without measures to control, screen and strictly manage quarantine of returnees, the risk of an outbreak in the community is very high," Thanh said.

Thanh asked localities to strictly follow the Official Letter 1265 dated September 30 of the Prime Minister. She also proposed that the central Government prioritize early distribution of vaccines to provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta.

Kien Giang province has also received thousands of returnees in recent days.

Hoai Thanh

Migrant workers crowd HCM City's gateways in attempt to leave, even as city relaxes lockdown Thousands of migrant workers with motorbikes loaded with personal belongings attempted to leave HCM City Thursday night as the southern city starts to ease stringent COVID-19 lockdown that has lasted for more than three months.
The 13th Party Central Committee opened its fourth session in Hanoi on October 4 under the chair of Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.

Overview of the session.

Participants observed a minutes silence in commemoration of people, officers and soldiers who died during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At this session, the Party Central Committee will focus on discussing COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control and the viewpoints and policies on this work in the new situation; socio-economic situation in 2021 and socio-economic development plan in 2022; the implementation of the state budget in 2021, the state budget estimate in 2022 and the financial-state budget plan for 2022 - 2024; and the policy on delaying the implementation of salary policy reform under Resolution No. 27-NQ/TW of the 7th Plenum of the 12th Party Central Committee.

This session also seeks to intensify Party building and rectification and the fight against degradation of political ideology, morality and lifestyle, and internal self-evolution and self-transformation manifestations.

The Central Committee will make adjustments and supplements to the regulations on things that Party members are not allowed to do, and consider several other important issues.

The session will last until October 7./.

Source: VNA
Thien Long Group Corporation and FPT Corporation have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to support children who have lost their parents who died from Covid-19.

Under this MoU, Thien Long Group will offer 5,000 gift sets worth VND400,000 each to students of the FPT Boarding School over the course of five years (2021-2025).

The signing ceremony was held online.

Thousands of Vietnamese children have lost their parents due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, the Chairman of FPT Corporation - Mr. Truong Gia Binh  on September 16 initiated the idea of establishing the FPT Boarding School for the orphans by pandemic.

The school will serve as a space for 1,000 children to grow up and study. They will be cared for and trained at FPT high schools, with scholarships available to continue their education at FPT education establishments at their demand.

With the desire to accompany with this meaningful and humane program, Thien Long Group will offer 5,000 gift sets (notebooks, pens, rulers, antibacterial erasers, crayons, DIY products) for students of the FPT Boarding School over the next 5 school years.

Mr. Co Gia Tho, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Thien Long Group, said: "Thien Long has constantly accompanied the Vietnamese education sector for the past 40 years. In this challenging time for the entire society, we are delighted to partner with a significant corporation like FPT to help disadvantaged kids accomplish their academic goals.

Mr. Truong Gia Binh said: The FPT Boarding School was founded out of a desire to care for, love, and encourage students as they grow up, cultivate their ambitions, and become valuable citizens who can contribute to the country in practical ways. This is also a place where youngsters can learn, practice, transform their pain into strength to conquer the heights of life. FPT appreciates great friends like Thien Long Group working together to support the children in this program.

Thien Long Group will provide rapid assistance based on the program's implementation status.

The FPT Boarding School, located in FPT City Danang Urban area, will welcome children from 6-18 years old, who have unfortunately lost their parents due to Covid-19, are in difficult circumstances and wish to engage in the program (approved by their legal guardian).

The preparation of facilities, human resources and training programs is being urgently implemented by FPT, the Hope Foundation, and other units and organizations.

FPT is willing to receive all community efforts, ideas, and solutions in order to work together to create the greatest possible environment for the children, based on the principle that "love is the power of energy and success" through the "Gate of Love."

PV
The photo series "Cat Bas Wilderness" by photographer Hai LeCao features the amazing and stunning beauty of Cat Ba Island, a famous tourist destination in the northern port city of Hai Phong.

Cat Ba Island covers an area of over 20,000 hectares in the north-east of Hai Phong, making it the biggest island out of the 366 islands on the Lan Ha Bay.

During the tour to Cat Ba, visitors can experience the Cat Ba National Park, the world's largest biosphere reserve, Lan Ha Bay, the cannon fort, and many beautiful beaches such as Cat Co 1 and Cat Co 2, Da Bang, Ben Beo, Bai Co Tien.

BuzzFeed, a popular American news site with 9 billion monthly views, recently published a list of 11 national parks that travelers should visit once in their lifetime. Cat Ba national park was included.

In addition to these familiar places, there are many unexplored tourist destinations which are ideal places for those who love adventure travel and wilderness experiences.

Photographer Hai LeCao has shared his photo shoot entitled "Cat Bas Wilderness," which capture his experiences in some wild, unexplored areas of Cat Ba.

"I have been to Cat Ba archipelago more than ten times. But this was the most special trip. I saw such beautiful and pristine spaces," he said.

After experiencing the life of fishermen in Cai Beo floating fishing village, local people row a boat to take the photographer to two places that are little known by tourists  Ang Tham and Luon Cave.

Tourist sites in Hai Phong city were allowed to welcome local tourists from October 1, 2021.

Let's see the wild images of Cat Ba:

Ang Tham is like a lake in the middle of the immense sea.

Luon Cave is wild and mysterious.

The photographer and his friend used kayaks to move around this area.

Linh Trang

(Photo: Hai LeCao)

Cat Ba among top 11 national parks in the world BuzzFeed, a popular American news site with 9 billion monthly views, recently published a list of 11 national parks that travelers should visit once in their lifetime. Vietnam has a representative in the list  Cat Ba national park.
After failing to put either of the Biden administration's signature Infrastructure bills to a vote in the House last week, Democratic lawmakers on Sunday presented a host of new ways for them to be passed.

To move on with the delayed infrastructure bill and reconciliatory package after failing to bring either of the Biden administration's signature legislation to a vote in the House last week, Democratic lawmakers on Sunday proposed a slew of alternative avenues for their passage.

A few members of Congress expressed confidence that they would be able to pass both bills; however, others, including some progressives who refused to vote for the bipartisan bill unless the larger reconciliation package was given first, indicated that they would be open to a lower price tag or a shorter period of time in which social programs would be funded. Representatives from the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives failed to bring either bill to a vote last week because moderate legislators such as Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) refused to back down from their demands for a decreased reconciliation package.

"We are going to deliver both legislation," stated Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington), who serves as the leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, during an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union." Though she could not provide a specific figure, Jayapal said Manchin's request for a scaled-back reconciliation bill of $1.5 trillion was "too small to get our priorities in," though she could not say how much less.

Senior White House advisor Cedric Richmond agreed, telling Chris Wallace of "Fox News Sunday" that President Biden "wants both legislation and expects to receive both bills."

Both Jayapal and Richmond said that they were more concerned with the actual delivery of the legislation, with Richmond, a former Louisiana congressman, stating that the White House was "not interested with the procedure."

"What we've always maintained is that it's never been about the price tag.

It all comes down to what we want to provide, "According to Jayapal.

"The important thing is that we establish our priorities first, and then we'll figure out the real cost."

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), a fellow progressive senator, seemed to push back against ideas of lowering the price of the $3.5 trillion reconciliation plan.

During an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," Sanders said that it was not his "understanding" that Biden had proposed reducing the amount of the reconciliation package.

"He said that there would have to be given and take on both sides. I'm not sure if he did bring up a particular figure, "Sanders said.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) reiterated his support for the whole $3.5 trillion package, but he said he was a "realist" about the continuing talks.

"Let me state right now that I endorse the $3.5 trillion figure. I think the components of it have been mentioned many times. They're beneficial for the country, and they're required by families and the country as a whole," Durbin said.

The Illinois senator did voice his displeasure with the talks. "I can't tell you how many times I've been asked, 'What's your number?'" Durbin said. "When it comes to achieving this majority, every vote matters and compromises will be made. We are convinced about it."

Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said that reducing the years of money given for certain programs might be a viable option for compromise on the reconciliation measure.

"I believe one of the proposals out there is completely financing what we can fully finance, but maybe instead of doing it for ten years, you fully fund it for five years," Ocasio-Cortez said on CBS "Face the Nation."

Sunset clauses, according to Khanna, may be one approach to achieve a settlement.

Wallace said, "The president is an honest broker. He's going to bring all the stakeholders together, and I trust his judgment to get a compromise."
text by Stephen Chapis

images by Luigino Caliaro

The Grumman F3F had the dubious honor of not only being the last biplane fighter to embark aboard a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, but it was also the last such fighter to enter service with any branch of the U.S. military. With monoplanes on the horizon and the clouds of war gathering, Leroy Grummans robust Flying Barrel (as the type was affectionately known) served honorably in the years just prior to Americas entry into WWII.

History records the F3F as being Leroy Grummans third fighter design, but the type could easily have emerged simply as a new variant of his previous effort  the F2F. Indeed, the F3F featured only a few minor modifications to address the F2F-1s stability problems and excessive proclivity for spinning. Sadly, the prototype XF3F-1 (BuNo.09727) crashed on March 22, 1935, just two days after its first flight; company test pilot, Jimmy Collins, lost his life when the aircraft broke apart during dive tests. A second prototype was built and oddly  perhaps prophetically  assigned the same BuNo. It too was lost (on May 15, 1935) when its pilot, Lee Gehlbach, was forced to bail out during an unrecoverable flat spin. Thankfully the third prototype (again bearing the same service number as the first two XF3F-1s) successfully completed its terminal velocity dive tests; the U.S. Navy formally took delivery of the fighter on July 10, 1935.

In the spring of 1936, the 54 F3F-1s which Grumman built at their plant in Farmingdale, New York plant were distributed amongst two U.S. Navy squadrons, VF-5B and VF-6B, and a single U.S. Marine Corps squadron  the San Diego-based VF-4M (re-designated VMF-2 in July 1937). By the end of that year, VMF-2 had been completely re-equipped with F3F-2s and played a role in the filming of Warner Brothers 1941 feature film, Dive Bomber. Amazingly, pilots assigned to this squadron during that period included future Medal of Honor recipients Gregory Boyington, Henry Elrod, and Robert Galer. In January 1941, VMF-2 moved to Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Ewa, which was located just west of Pearl Harbor on the southern shore of Oahu, Hawaii. Among the fighters which made that trip to Ewa was the aircraft featured here, F3F-2 BuNo.0972. Chris Prevost presently owns this charismatic, if somewhat corpulent, biplane, one of only two airworthy Flying Barrels.

While the worlds worst novel reputedly begins with the infamous line, It was a dark and stormy night, that statement could truthfully begin the story about our subject aircraft. The night of June 24, 1941 was indeed both dark and stormy, but even so, three young Marine aviators launched on a training mission from Ewa in their F3Fs. Leading the flight in our subject aircraft was 1st Lieutenant (Lt) William M. Ferris, with 2nd Lt Warner Hagermann beside him in BuNo.1028 along with 2nd Lt Clyde H. Story in BuNo.1033. Within a few seconds of take-off, they entered the low clouds where they encountered turbulence and showers which occasionally became torrential downpours. The conditions became so frightening that Ferris decided to return home, but with virtually zero visibility and no navigation aids, they struggled  groping through the darkness until the wail of their three Wright R-1820s abruptly ceased upon impact with the wooded slopes of Mauis 10,000-foot peak, Mount Haleakala. After an extensive search, a rescue party located the crash site and retrieved the pilots bodies. The wreckage of their three F3Fs, however, remained abandoned in situ until the early 1980s when Alan De Coite recovered them for the noted warbird collector, Doug Champlin.

Champlin had previously owned Grumman G-32A c/n 447, the sole, two-place company demonstrator, which combined features from both the F3F-2 and F3F-3, with a 775-hp Wright SR-1820-F52 powerplant. This aircraft first flew on July 1, 1938 and remained a civilian-owned airframe for its entire existence. After the war, the G-32A went on the U.S. Civil Register as N7F and passed through a number of owners before Champlain acquired the biplane in the late 1960s. Sadly this aircraft crashed during an aerobatic demonstration at Oshkosh on August 7, 1971, when an in-flight fire forced both occupants to bail out of the stricken biplane.

In the late 1970s, when he created the Champlin Fighter Museum in Mesa, Arizona, Doug Champlin contacted Herb Tischler at the Texas Aircraft Factory, with a view to rebuilding the G-32A, but Tischler told him that such a project was economically unfeasible. However, the warbird gods intervened  not only were the three Maui F3F-2s rediscovered, but Grumman Aerospace made the technical drawings available, thus making multiple rebuilds possible.

While work began in the mid-80s, all four aircraft returned to the sky in better than new condition by the 1990s. The fact that almost no original parts were reusable did not diminish the craftsmanship involved. Each aircraft was rebuilt to factory specifications except for in areas where safety and reliability were concerned; they were fitted with modern avionics and brakes and powered by a more powerful version of the Wright R-1820. Today, the G-32A is with Comanche Warbirds, Inc. in Texas, Lt Hagermanns BuNo.1028 is with Kermit Weeks in Polk City, Florida, and Lt Storys BuNo.1033 is based with Jim Slatterys Greatest Generation Naval Museum in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Champlin parted with our subject aircraft, Lt Ferriss BuNo.0972, while still under construction in 1993, selling it to the Lone Star Flight Museum (LSFM) which was then based in Galveston, Texas.

Unfortunately, despite being one of the most important museums of operational aircraft in the United States at the time, the biplane was relegated to static display. On September 13, 2008, a Category 4 hurricane named Ike, roared into Galveston and the storm surge burst through the walls into Lone Stars hangars. Despite the valiant efforts of museum personnel and pilots, it was impossible to get all of their aircraft to safety before the storm hit. Their Flying Barrel was amongst a number of their airframes which were immersed in a six-foot slurry of seawater and mud. Many thought the F3F was beyond saving, but even so they washed it off with fresh water and preservative before sending it to Ezell Aviation in Breckenridge, Texas. Thankfully, the Ezells were able to clean and treat the airframe thoroughly with an anti-corrosion formula which quickly arrested any damage which the saltwater dunking might have created. It was soon after this point that Chris Prevost, the owner and chief pilot at the Vintage Aircraft Company in Sonoma, California entered the story with his decision to purchase the battered biplane.

Prevost explained his interest in the rare aircraft, stating: I have always been attracted by aircraft from the Golden Age so, when there was the opportunity to acquire the Flying Barrel, the last biplane fighter in the Navy, I couldnt let it pass me by. Over the years, I would contact Larry Gregory, the director of the LSFM, about acquiring the fighter, but on every occasion, he told me the aircraft was not for sale. The situation changed radically in my favor after the museum was hit by Hurricane Ikeanddeciding to sell some of the aircraft. I immediately stepped in, and Larry Gregory and I agreed on purchase conditions towards the end of 2012. I was a little worried by the fact that the aircraft had suffered damage during the flooding of the museum, but I must admit that Ezell did an excellent job of the cleaning and preservation work on the airframe, and once we had taken the Flying Barrel to my workshop in Sonoma, its general condition was found to be fairly goodno signs of corrosion. I hoped to return the Grumman to the same condition as when it was operational, and for this reason, I decided to replace the R-1820-55 1,050-hp engine with an original 950-hp R-1820-22. The wings were completely dismantled, and all the fabric areas were recovered using Ceconite. During the overhaul of the aircraft, we rewired the electrical system, fixed the trim, which had been installed inverted, and modified the braking system. We also fitted original wheels from the period, which luckily, I had managed to source. Once the engine, the only component of the aircraft overhauled by an outside company, had been installed, the aircraft was practically ready to receive its present paint scheme, which was selected based on the discovery of a photograph of this aircraft taken on the apron at the Oakland base in November 1938. (The photograph of which Prevost spoke happened to one taken by the prolific and legendary aviation photographer William T. Larkins, who only recently passed away at the age of 99.)

After more than two-and-a-half years and over 1,000-man-hours of work, Prevosts Grumman F3F returned to flight in American skies during September, 2012. In terms of the aircrafts flying characteristics, Prevost noted: The Flying Barrel was a capable fighter aircraft when it first entered service. Without a doubt, the fact that I had accumulated hundreds of hours on historical aircraft such as the P-40 and P-51 facilitated my conversion onto the type. It is stable and fairly easy to control. Once trimmed out there is no need for corrections with the stick, and it responds well to commands, albeit that its controls are fairly hard to action. The rate of roll is fair, but the thing that gives me the greatest satisfaction with the aircraft is the excellent speed performance, above all in acceleration and climb. Obviously, you pay for this performance with an elevated rate of fuel consumption, and some of the systems in the aircraft are decidedly more spartan when compared to fighters a few years younger. In particularthe retraction system, which was electrically controlled, but we wanted to be faithful to the originalit was restored to its original, manually operated system, a characteristic common to many Grumman aircraft of the 1930s.

It has now been 86 years since the first F3F took to the skies and given that just 169 examples were built between 1935 and 1939, warbird enthusiasts, regardless of which side of the interminable originality-versus-reproduction debate they stand, are fortunate to have two of these aircraft flying today. They are a fascinating conduit to that brief period in the late 1930s when America was still at peace and the Grumman F3F was at the pinnacle of biplane fighter design.

This article has been updated from its initial publication in Warbird Digest issue #59 during 2015. Since that time, the portly Grumman fighter has changed hands once again. Prevost sold her to Rod Lewis in 2017, and the aircraft now resides in San Antonio, Texas with the rest of the Lewis Vintage Collection.

Special thanks goes to Luigino Caliaro for helping draft this article and the photos. F0r more information about Luiginos work please visit www.aerophoto.it


Following on from John Parkers article earlier this week depicting the finishing touches which Vintage Fighter Restorations is applying to their Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IX (MH603) at their facility in Scone, New South Wales, Australia comes the news that the soon-to-fly fighter is now listed with the warbird brokerage Platinum Fighter Sales. Following a down-t0-the-last-rivet restoration, this Spitfire is now resplendent in the colors she wore while flying with No.331 (Norwegian) Squadron RAF; for a cool 3,500,000, or roughly US$4.75 million, this combat veteran Spitfire will find a new home with a lucky customer in pastures new.

MH603 has required a lot of new material in its restoration, as the project began as a collection of battered components recovered from the famous South African scrap yard that a number of other Spitfires have re-emerged from in recent years. The following provides a little background on the aircrafts history to date

As construction number CBAF.IX.5589, the aircraft rolled off the production line in 1943 at Vickers-Supermarines massive shadow factory in Castle Bromwich, near Birmingham, England. She joined the Royal Air Force as MH603, with her first stop being with No.39 Maintenance Unit (MU) at RAF Station Colerne in Wiltshire on October 15th, 1943. Ten days later, she moved to No.405 Aircraft Reception Flight (ARF) at Croydon, although the precise reason why this took place remains unclear. Her first operational unit was No.331(Norwegian) Squadron, which she joined at RAF North Weald on January 3rd, 1944; her initial squadron codes being FN-B. Interestingly, another Spitfire which served alongside MH603 at No.331 during the war still survives in the Norwegian Air Force Museum  this being LF Mk.IXe MH350. One of MH603s regular pilots with the squadron was Captain Bjrn Bjrnstad, seen in the images below

Following a period of maintenance at No.6 MU between March and the end of May, 1944, MH603 went to RAF Hornchurch on June 1st, 1944 to join No.274 Squadron RAF, coded JJ-K, with one of her regular pilots being W/O S.G.Barker. No.274, under the command of the legendary Canadian ace, Sqdn Ldr J.F. Stocky Edwards, was part of the 2nd Tactical Air Force and involved in fighter sweeps over Northern France just before and during the Normandy invasion, however this unit soon transitioned to the Hawker Tempest. As a result, MH603 became part of the Fighter Leaders School (FLS) at RAF Milfield on August 21st, 1944. Sometime later, MH603 moved to the Central Fighter Establishment (CFE) at RAF Tangmere, where she suffered a Category B flying accident on June 1st, 1945. Following repairs at Air Service Training Ltd., the aircraft moved to No.33 MU at RAF Lyneham in late September, 1945, going into storage soon after. In 1948, the British Government sold the fighter overseas, to become part of the South African Air Force. She arrived in South Africa aboard the SS Clan Campbell in March, 1949. Nothing definitive is known about her time with the SAAF, because her service number remains unconfirmed at present. What is known, however, is that the SAAF sold her for scrap to Harold Barnetts South African Metal & Machinery Company in Salt River, Cape Town during 1955.

In 1977, the South African Air Force Museum acquired her hacked apart remains (along with the battered carcasses of nearly a dozen other Spitfires) and stored them for future sale/trade at their facility in the Snake Valley. Steve Atkinspurchased MH603s remains in 1989 and moved them back to the UK for storage in Rye, Sussex. Soon after, Atkins sold the aircraft to John Sykes, and he organized her restoration to commence with CW Engineering in Oxfordshire. With much of her structural work complete, Sykes sold the aircraft to Dr.Joseph Scogna in 1993, with work continuing at CW Engineering until that November, when the aircraft was crated for shipment to Ray Middletons QG Aviation in Fort Collins, Colorado. However the project remained in storage with Middleton until April, 2008 when Provenance Fighter Sales purchased the project and authorized QG Aviation to recommence the restoration. Now on the U.S. civil registry as N603MH, Provenance sold the aircraft on to Pays Air Service in Scone, New South Wales, Australia during February, 2009. The aircraft arrived at her new home in October, 2009, with her restoration proceeding as and when time/resources allowed, with the aircraft undergoing a fair amount of rework in the interim to ensure her present perfection. Now airworthy again, all that remains is for MH603 to make her first post-restoration flight!
CONTRACT AWARD

Peraton claims $2.7B DHS cloud migration win

While bids were due in February, the newly-merged and recasted Peraton can tout itself (for now) as the winner of a much-anticipated cloud computing migration contract with the Homeland Security Department.

DHS on Wednesday awarded the potential 10-year, $2.7 billion contract to a proposal submitted by the legacy Perspecta company that combined with Peraton three months after the deadline for bid submissions.

The award notice says work will take place over a five-year base period, followed by a three-year option period and another two-year option.

Known by the acronym DCCO, the single-award Data Center and Optimization Support Services contract was pursued by seven bidders including Peraton/Perspecta and took place as a three-phase competition with a down-select after each round. The other six competitors have the option to protest pending DHS' post-award debriefing and explanation.

DHS currently has two main data centers that house its IT and other assets, aptly named Data Center 1 and Data Center 2.

Peraton will first migrate everything in Data Center 1 to the new environment, then focus attention on D Data Center 2. Perspecta is the current manager of Data Center 2, while General Dynamics IT is the contractor for Data Center 1.

Herndon, Virginia-headquartered Peraton has been tasked with helping DHS manage a hybrid computing environment that includes a data center, colocation sites, and commercial and private cloud computing services. DHS also seeks to automate, optimize and modernize that environment.

The general idea is for a systems integrator like Peraton to manage that setup with the involvement of cloud hosting providers and other software vendors.

Both unclassified and classified IT systems, data and applications will be housed in that environment as the department seeks to move to a mix of data center-based hosting and infrastructure-as-a-service platforms.
CGI Federal eyes digital modernization growth through Array purchase

CGI Federal has acquired Array, an application services provider focused on the public sector, in a deal to expand the buyer's presence with customers such as the Air Force and Space Command.

Terms of the deal was not disclosed, but Array adds about 275 people to CGI. The companies signed an agreement on July 16 and closed the transaction Oct. 1, CGI said Monday.

Expertise in digital modernization and DevOps capabilities also , the company said.

Array touts its core services as including agile development, application services, cloud migration, cybersecurity, data and data analytics, DevSecOps, infrastructure and modernization. Array holds contract vehicles such as Army ITES-3S, Army RS3, and the Air Force Platform one Level Up DevSecOps basic ordering agreement.

The combined portfolio of enterprise application expertise in modernization, DevSecOps, cloud, data analytics and cybersecurity further strengthens CGIs position as a powerful end-to-end solutions provider to federal, state and local governments, CGI said in its announcement.

The McLean Group acted as the financial advisor to Array.

This transaction is consistent with CGIs Build and Buy strategy and will expand CGIs reach into strategic public sector markets, said CGI Federal President Stephanie Mango.

CGI acquired TeraThink in 2020 and Sunflower Systems in 2019.

CGI announced the Array deal the same day it announced that it had reorganized its federal business.
A majority of family physicians practice as employees of a hospital, health system, or physician groupso chances are, youre one of them. To ensure your career success and well-being as an employed physician, it is important for you to understand the terms of your contract and to know how to negotiate to protect your best interests.

We have created resources to assist you in this process, but those resources cannot take the place of qualified and trusted advisors. A health care attorney experienced with physician contracts in your region can help you review your employment agreement in detail to make sure it is fair and appropriate. A financial advisor can advise you on the tax implications of the compensation plan outlined in your employment agreement. Your attorney can also help you as you prepare to negotiate a new or renewing contract with your employer.

Learn more about ways to optimize your employment contracting experience and set yourself up for success by using the Academy resources shown below.
5: On Her Majestys Secret Service (1969) 

The Bond: George Lazenby, 82

The plot: Lazenby was an Australian model with no acting experience when he was hired to replace Sean Connery, but he acquitted himself rather nicely in his one and only turn as Bond. Hes helped along by a deliciously devious plot by supervillain Blofeld (Telly Savalas), who has brainwashed 12 beautiful Angels of Death from around the globe to contaminate the worlds food supply and thus sterilize all livestock and agricultural plants. 

The best part: Hot off her star-making turn in The Avengers, Diana Rigg stars as Contessa Teresa Tracy di Vicenzo, the only Bond girl to ever really marry James  not counting undercover schemes. 

Watch it: On Her Majestys Secret Service, on Pluto TV (free with sign-up)
Myth #8: The vaccines contain microchips or can cause you to be magnetic.

These two rumors have been circulating on social media, but neither one is true. Vaccines are developed to fight against disease and are not administered to track your movement, the CDC says. Whats more, the vaccines do not contain any metals or materials that can produce an electromagnetic field.



They are also free from manufactured products such as microelectronics, electrodes, carbon nanotubes or nanowire semiconductors, and from eggs, gelatin, latex and preservatives.



Find out more about the ingredients in the vaccines here.



Myth #9: The vaccines can cause fertility problems.



There is currently no evidence that any vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccines, cause fertility problems in women or men, the CDC says. And in fact vaccination is recommended for people who are breastfeeding, pregnant or plan to get pregnant in the future.

The National Institutes of Health did recently award research grants to five institutions to explore potential links between COVID-19 vaccination and menstrual changes after some women reported experiencing irregular or missing periods after getting the shot.

A number of factors can lead to temporary changes in periods. Immune responses to the COVID-19 vaccine is one explanation. Others include pandemic-related stress, lifestyle changes related to the pandemic and infection with SARS-CoV-2, the NIH writes.



These rigorous scientific studies will improve our understanding of the potential effects of COVID-19 vaccines on menstruation, giving people who menstruate more information about what to expect after vaccination and potentially reducing vaccine hesitancy, Diana W. Bianchi, M.D., director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, said in a statement.



Myth #10: You shouldnt get the vaccine if youve ever had an allergic reaction.



If you have a history of allergic reactions to oral medications, food, pets, insect stings, latex or things in the environment like pollen or dust, you can safely get the COVID-19 vaccine, the CDC says. You can also get the vaccines if you have an egg allergy, because none of the authorized vaccines contain eggs or egg-related components.



The only group the agency says should definitely abstain are those who have had a severe allergic reaction to any ingredient in a COVID-19 vaccine. If youve had an allergic reaction to other vaccines or to injectable medications, the CDC recommends talking to your medical provider about whether to get the vaccine.



Only a small number of the people who have received a COVID-19 vaccine so far experienced the severe allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. Anaphylaxis has affected about two to five people per million vaccinated, the CDC says. Although anaphylaxis is life-threatening, it almost always occurs within 30 minutes of vaccination and can be quickly halted with a medicine such as epinephrine.



The agency recommends that people with a history of anaphylaxis stay on site for observation for 30 minutes after vaccination. Those with no history of anaphylaxis should stay for 15 minutes.



Editors note: This article was published on March 18, 2021. It was updated in September 2021 with new information.
iStock / Getty Images

Your fridge isnt freezing, your car isnt running, you suddenly arent working. It can be hard to deal with just one costly event, not to mention several all at once. Yet stuff like this happens every day. Life can be tough  but much easier if you have a cash reserve to cover unexpected expenses.

Emergency funds are incredibly important because it keeps people from running up credit card debt or pulling money out of retirement accounts to pay for things, both of which can be devastating to your finances, says Matt Stephens, a certified financial planner (CFP) at AdvicePoint LLC in Wilmington, North Carolina.

During what he called the year that everything broke, one of his clients had to repair or replace his lawn mower, irrigation system, garage door, washing machine, garbage disposal, microwave and refrigerator. The client's wife also had major surgery, with out-of-pocket expenses over $10,000. Fortunately, they had a fully funded emergency fund, so they were annoyed, but not devastated.

Its not a matter of if something will go wrong, but when, says Thomas Scanlon, a CFP at Raymond James in Manchester, Connecticut. But if you know that you have money in the bank, you won't be up all night worrying.

Lessons from the pandemic

The effects of COVID-19, fires in the West and hurricanes in the East have further underscored the need for a cash stash. According to a June 2020 survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, most of the adults who received a stimulus check from the federal government say they used it, or intend to use most of it, for basic household expenses such as food, rent, mortgage payments and utilities.

Whats more, an emergency fund can help folks stay the course when the markets drop precipitously, as they did the in spring 2020, says Bradley Lineberger, a CFP at Seaside Wealth Management in Carlsbad, California: Instead of selling your wonderful investments at fire sale prices during bear markets, you can dip into your reserves to get by. You can let your stock investments recover and continue growing.

Yet, according to a survey by Bankrate.com released in July, only 44 percent of Americans have enough savings to cover three or more months worth of expenses. Whats more, 25 percent say they have no emergency fund at all, up from 21 percent in 2020. And 51 percent of those polled by Personal Capital, a financial website, say that having a rainy day fund is a greater priority than it was before the pandemic.

Still, with multiple demands on your income, you may be wondering how to create a cushion, or add to the one you have. Good question. AARP asked financial planners from around the country for their advice and best tips for finding the money.

1. How much do you need?

If your job provides a stable, consistent paycheck, six months of living expenses may be adequate for an emergency fund, says Ashley Folkes, a CFP at Bridgeworth Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama. If your paycheck fluctuates, then we recommend nine months.

That's for a worst-case scenario: You've lost your job and need to rely on savings for paying basic expenses. In some cases, a more modest fund will do. Mark Ziety, CFP at WisMed Financial in Madison, Wisconsin, says the fund size should also be determined by the potential for an emergency to occur. For example, a retired couple renting an apartment in a retirement community has Social Security and pension income. They wont have a job loss or home repairs. Health care expenses may be their biggest financial concern, so an emergency fund that covers their potential out-of-pocket costs may be enough, he says.

2. Start with direct deposits, adding found money

You dont have anything close to that much in cash? Dont beat yourself up, Scanlon says. Slowly add to this fund over time. Set a reasonable goal first, perhaps $1,000, which would cover a wide range of costly yet annoying emergencies  new tires, a dishwasher, some out-of-pocket health insurance costs. Create a separate savings account, and begin making direct, regular deposits, no matter how small. Add any overtime pay, bonuses and tax refunds you receive, Scanlon suggests.

3. Cut expenses, reduce debt, look for a side gig

Next, rework your budget, and lower your bills as you can. Use cash, not credit, and pay down your credit cards. Take a list to the grocery store to avoid impulse purchases, and cook at home rather than eat out. Cancel the subscriptions and automatic purchases you dont need. Lower your cable bill by cutting back on premium channels and switching to free TV and movie offerings. Find a side job that you will enjoy. Folkes also suggests looking for things to sell. If you are like me, you accumulate a lot of stuff. The internet has made selling easy, and you can use the proceeds to build your fund. Make use of the many apps available for this purpose.
Discounts come with age

Nearly every state offers some property tax relief to older homeowners, usually once you reach 65 and sometimes only if you are a lower-income resident. Breaks can take many forms: a credit, a refund or deferral of taxes, a freeze on rate increases, or even a reduction or increase cap for your homes assessed value.

Alabama, for example, gives a full exemption from state property taxes to residents over 65, though they still might get a county tax bill. Stay alert for special provisions: In Massachusetts, you can apply for back credits if you forgot to file for them in a previous year. Counties in Colorado allow people age 60-plus to work off part of their property tax bill by volunteering for a county agency.  

You can appeal

Home values are regularly reassessed for tax purposes, perhaps every other year. The results arent always fair, however. A recent study, for example, found that assessments across the U.S. on average undervalued expensive homes and overvalued the least expensive homes, effectively placing a greater burden on lower-income homeowners. 

If you believe your home has been improperly valued, you can appeal the ruling. Ive seen appeals work many times for people of all ages, McBride says. Appeals procedures vary by location  they might be in person, online or a combination of both  but a good place to start is with the website of the tax assessor for the county or municipality where you live.

First, ensure the property data the assessor used to value your home is correct, including square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and year built. Our values are only as good as our data, says Greg McHenry, president of the International Association of Assessing Officers. Then request the comparables (aka comp) sheet from your town to evaluate what similar properties they used to calculate your propertys value.

Town officials may be more helpful than you might think, McBride says. Local government is very citizen-centered, usually. You can also look at recent sales of comparable homes in your neighborhood on Zillow or by asking a real estate agent. But beware that an appeal can also end up raising your assessment. Before you go in and start complaining, McBride cautions, its important to look at the information. Instead of doing the appeal yourself, you could hire a licensed appraiser who will charge a fee or work for a portion of the savings. A local real estate agent might know someone who is familiar with your area.

You have resources
Malibu, CA, Oct 4, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - In this segment of the Ellis Martin Report we speak with Tocvan Ventures' ( CNSX:TOC )( OTCMKTS:TCVNF )( FRA:TV3 ) Derek Wood about the company's procurement of a 100% Interest in the Rogers Creek Copper Porphyry property in Southwestern BC announcing a spin-off transaction along with it.About Cascade Copper:Cascade Copper is a newly created company that will have two very advanced-stage copper porphyry properties located within the Miocene age intrusions of the Cascade Magmatic Arc in south western BC: the Rogers Creek Property and the Fire Mountain Property. The two properties are contiguous, and both are advanced to a drill-ready stage. Combined, the properties have seen over 3 million dollars of exploration to date and cover an area of approximately 240 square kilometres. Work to date has advanced the properties from a small showing discovered on a logging road in 2007 to an advanced exploration-stage with evidence for a large mineralized system. This has validated the initial working hypothesis that there is considerable potential to discover significant mineralization within the Miocene age intrusions of the Cascade Magmatic Arc in south western BC, which have seen very little modern exploration.The proposed Spin-Out will be subject to the approval of Tocvan's shareholders which Tocvan intends to seek at a special meeting of shareholders (the "Shareholders' Meeting"). The date for the Shareholders Meeting has not yet been determined. The Spin-Out is subject to Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE") approval and the Spin-Out also requires the approval of the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench. Tocvan intends to seek a listing of the Cascade Copper common shares on the CSE but no assurance can be provided that such a listing will be obtained. Any such listing will be subject to Cascade Copper fulfilling all of the requirements of the CSE. Further details of the Spin-Out, including the date for the Shareholders' Meeting and any amendments to the number of Cascade Copper common shares to be granted to shareholders of Tocvan will be announced in the near future. Shareholders are cautioned that the final details of the Spin-Out are still to be determined and there is no certainty that the Spin-Out will be completed on the terms currently proposed or at all.To view the Interview, please visit:About TOCVAN Ventures Corp.

TOCVAN Ventures Corp. (CNSX:TOC) (FRA:TV3) was created to take advantage of the prolonged downturn the junior mining exploration sector, by identifying and negotiating interest in opportunities where management feels they can build upon previous success. TOCVAN Ventures currently has approximately 24.5 million shares outstanding and is earning into two exciting opportunities. The Pilar Gold project in the Sonora State of Mexico and the Rogers Creek project in Southern British Columbia, which Management feels both projects represent tremendous opportunity.


Investors Back Moblan Acquisition With A$100m Placement

Brisbane, Oct 4, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Emerging lithium producer Sayona Mining Limited ( ASX:SYA ) ( FRA:DML ) ( OTCMKTS:SYAXF ) has received a vote of confidence in its acquisition of a majority interest in the Moblan Lithium Project in Northern Quebec (refer ASX release 30 September 2021), completing a Placement to institutional, professional and sophisticated investors. Sayona received bids for shares in the Placement considerably in excess of the amount sought by the Company, with strong support from North American and other global institutional investors.Funding the Company's latest expansion in Quebec, the Placement has raised A$100 million (before costs) through the issue of 689,470,310 new fully paid ordinary shares at an offer price of A$0.145 (14.5 cents) per New Share. The offer price represents a 17.1% discount to the last closing price.The Placement price is nearly double the Company's previous Placement (announced 12 July 2021) which was conducted at A$0.075, reflecting the substantial continued growth in Sayona's market value.Sayona will also undertake a Non-Renounceable Rights Issue to raise up to approximately A$25.5 million at the same offer price as the Placement, ensuring all existing shareholders receive the same opportunity to participate in the Company's growth.Sayona's Managing Director, Brett Lynch commented: "I would like to thank our investors for continuing to back Sayona's expansion in Quebec, where we are quickly building the leading lithium resource base in North America."The Moblan acquisition represents a significant growth opportunity as we build a new lithium base in Northern Quebec, adding to our existing Abitibi lithium hub."This is important as demand for lithium from North America continues to accelerate, as highlighted by Ford's recent US$11.4 billion dollar battery investment on top of its US$30 billion investment in EVs.Ford's demand alone has the potential to exceed projected supply from all current North American projects in production by 2030."Sayona wants to be at forefront in supplying this demand and now has both the means and the partners to make this happen."PlacementSayona has received firm commitments to raise A$100 million (before costs) by issuing 689,470,310 new fully paid ordinary shares in the Company ("New Shares") via a Placement, at an issue price of A$0.145 per New Share. Pricing was based on a 17.1% discount to the last traded share price (29 September 2021) on the ASX of A$0.175 per share and a 17.6% discount to the 15-day VWAP of A$0.176.The New Shares issued through the Placement will be issued under the Company's placement capacity pursuant to ASX Listing Rule 7.1.Canaccord Genuity (Australia) acted as lead manager and bookrunner to the Placement, with Desjardins Capital Markets and Jett Capital Advisors acting as co-managers.Further details of the equity raising are set out in the Company's investor presentation lodged with the ASX today. The investor presentation contains important information, including key risks of investing in Sayona and foreign selling restrictions with respect to the Placement.Non-Renounceable Rights IssueSayona is also undertaking a 1 for 35 non-renounceable rights issue ("Rights Issue") to raise up to approximately A$25.5 million before costs, at the same issue price as the Placement.The Rights Issue is open to all eligible shareholders who have a registered address in Australia or New Zealand, and who hold Shares on the Record Date (7pm AEDT, 7 October 2021). The Rights Issue will close on 25 October 2021 (unless extended in accordance with the Listing Rules).All New Shares issued will rank equally with existing shares on issue and the Company will apply for quotation of the New Shares.A prospectus in relation to the Rights Issue will be lodged with ASIC on 4 October 2021. Details about how to access the Prospectus and personalised Rights Issue acceptance form will be sent to eligible shareholders shortly after the Record Date.To view the timetable, please visit:About Sayona Mining Ltd

Sayona Mining Limited (ASX:SYA) (OTCMKTS:SYAXF) is an Australian, ASX-listed (SYA) company focused on sourcing and developing the raw materials required to construct lithium-ion batteries for use in the rapidly growing new and green technology sectors. The Company has lithium projects in Quebec, Canada and in Western Australia.

Please visit us as at www.sayonamining.com.au


Anomalous PGE-Base Metals identified at Barrabarra North

Perth, Oct 5, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Venus Metals Corporation Limited ( ASX:VMC ) is pleased to provide an update on its initial field reconnaissance studies at two highpriority areas at its Barrabarra North Ni-Cu-PGE Project (Figure 2*).HIGHLIGHTS:- Highly anomalous concentrations in soil with maxima of 63 ppm Ni, 46 ppm Cu, 13 ppb Pt+Pd and 3,169 ppm Cr in the north of the West Yilgarn Ni-Cu-PGE Province (Figure 1*).- PGE - base metal anomalies in soil (same soil fraction as used by Chalice) may indicate mafic-ultramafic bedrock and are highly anomalous* as per regional Julimar data (refer CHN ASX release 9 June 2021).- Venus expands landholding with two recent applications - ELA70/5912 and ELA70/5913.- Systematic soil sampling and geophysical surveys planned upon grant of Venus' extensive tenure of c. 1,000 km2 at Barrabarra North.Project BackgroundVenus' Barrabarra North Cu-Ni-PGE project is located in the northwest of the Yilgarn Craton and comprises five exploration licence applications (ELA59/2548, ELA70/5786, ELA70/5787, ELA70/5912 and ELA70/5913) for a total of 986km2 (Figure 2*); it abuts Chalice Mining Limited's (Chalice) Barrabarra Project (refer CHN ASX 21 July 2020) where Chalice is planning an aircore drilling program to test soil anomalies and EM conductors (refer CHN ASX release 28 July 2021).The project area falls within the West Yilgarn Ni-Cu-PGE Province first outlined by Chalice (refer CHN ASX release 4 May 2021) that covers an area of c. 1,200km X 100km and extends from the Narryer Terrane in the north to the South West Terrane in the south. Venus' Bridgetown East Ni-Cu-PGE project (refer ASX release 24 September 2021) abuts Chalice's and Venture Minerals' South West Project (refer VMS and CHN ASX releases 21 July 2020).Venus identified prospective target areas at its Barrabarra North Project near Chalice' tenure based on the Laterite geochemical database for the western Yilgarn Craton (YLA) published by the Geological Survey of Western Australia1. In the southern part of ELA 59/2548, concentrations of 4,410 ppm chromium (Cr), and 10.5 ppb and 12.5 ppb of palladium (Pd) and platinum (Pt) respectively are reported in YLA laterite sample #101216; in the central part of Venus' Barrabarra North Project, YLA laterite sample #101358 has 300 ppm Cr, 82 ppm copper (Cu), 13 ppb Pt and 16.4 ppb Pd. These concentrations are anomalous in laterite and may indicate the presence of mafic and/or ultramafic bedrock within the dominantly granitic terrain. Mafic-ultramafic intrusive rocks may, potentially, be sulphide-bearing and hosting Cu-Ni-PGE mineralization of the Julimar type discovered by Chalice.Regional gravity data (Figure 3*) show areas of higher density and regional magnetic imagery shows magnetic features that may be related to mafic-ultramafic intrusives within the granite terrain (Figures 4 and 5*).Initial field reconnaissance comprised soil and laterite sampling along traverses and at several random locations in two of the northern ELAs (ELA59/2548 and ELA70/5787). Soil samples were taken from c. 0.5m depth and sieved to +1.6 and -5 mm, the same soil fraction used by Chalice for its regional geochemical surveys. According to Chalice "values above 80 ppm Ni, 20 ppm Cu and 5 ppb Pd are considered highly anomalous" in soil (refer CHN ASX release 9 June 2021).In ELA 59/2548, a west-northwest trending 1.9 km long soil traverse overlaps the location of YLA laterite sample #101216 (4,400 ppm Cr). The soils show very high Cr concentrations (max. 3,169 ppm) over a 400-500 m interval and highly anomalous Cu concentrations in most samples along the traverse (max. 45.8 ppm Cu) (Figure 4*). Nickel, Pt and Pd are also anomalous with maxima of 63 ppm, 9 ppb and 4 ppb respectively.In ELA70/5787, soil sampling was completed along an 800 m long traverse (Figure 5) to test anomalous Pt-Pd-Cu concentrations in YLA laterite sample 101358. Two samples at the eastern end of the traverse show highly anomalous Pd (max. 6 ppb) and Cu (max. 42 ppm) and this anomaly remains open to the north, south and east. Laterite samples were taken to verify historical YLA results and to add to the coverage where possible.Work plannedThe Company is very encouraged by the results of this initial reconnaissance field program and is planning to carry out an extensive regional exploration program as soon as possible. This will include systematic soil and laterite sampling across Venus' tenure and ground geophysical surveys targeting potential mafic-ultramafic bodies that may host sulphide mineralization of the Julimar type for drill testing.*To view tables and figures, please visit:About Venus Metals Corporation Limited

Venus Metals Corporation Limited (ASX:VMC) is a West Australian based Company with a focus on gold and base metals exploration. The Company aims to increase shareholder value through targeted exploration success on its projects.

The Company's major gold project is the Youanmi Gold Mine, located 500km north east of Perth. The Youanmi Gold Mine is now jointly owned by Venus Metals (30%) and Rox Resources Limited (70%) (OYG JV); Indicated and Inferred Resources of the mine is 1.7 million ounces of gold.

Exciting new discoveries at the Youanmi Gold Mine have been made at the Grace prospect in footwall granites where very high grades of free milling gold have been intersected, including 25m @34.7g/t Au from 143m (RXRC 287) and 13m @60.49 g/t from 181m (RXRC 239). The Grace Prospect may substantially add to the Youanmi Gold Mine resources.


Low Emission Hydrogen and Carbon Sequestration Project

Brisbane, Oct 5, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - State Gas Limited ( ASX:GAS ) announces its collaboration with Rockminsolutions Pty Ltd ('Rockminsolutions') to investigate the manufacture of low emission hydrogen with carbon sequestration in the west of its 100%-owned ATP 2062 Rolleston-West Gas Project.Highlights- State Gas enters into Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Rockminsolutions toinvestigate carbon sequestration and low emission hydrogen.- Hydrogen to be manufactured from gas, with carbon to be securely stored based on aproven process being implemented in Iceland and elsewhere in Europe.- Dissolved carbon dioxide to be pumped underground, to form solid-form carbonateminerals for long term, safe and stable storage.- Proposed project site on the western border of State Gas' 100%-owned ATP 2062Rolleston-West Project in Central Queensland.State Gas has entered into a MoU with basalt specialist Rockminsolutions to investigate the potential to sequester carbon dioxide in the Buckland Basaltic Sequence within and surrounding the western area of ATP 2062. The carbon mineralisation technique is based on a process currently being successfully implemented by Carbfix (www.carbfix.com) at the Hellisheidi power plant in Iceland. Carbfix has developed a novel approach to capturing and storing CO2 by its capture in water and injection of the solution into suitable subsurface basalts. The Hellisheidi carbon mineralisation project in Iceland has attracted high-profile investors including Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates.The western area of ATP 2062 contains a large portion of the Buckland Basaltic Sequence, an extensive area of Tertiary aged basaltic ignimbrites (volcanic ash deposits) up to 330m thick, having similarities with basaltic rocks at Hellisheidi in Iceland.Under the Carbfix process, carbon dioxide is dissolved in water and pumped into a favourable rock formation. The solution then reacts with minerals present in the rock to create carbonates such as calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate. In these forms, the carbon is stable and safe and can be expected to remain so for thousands of years. In its trials in Iceland, Carbfix has found this process has resulted in more than 95% of carbon mineralising underground within two years.Basaltic ignimbrites such as those in the Buckland Basaltic Sequence within and adjacent to ATP 2062 are considered to have the greatest potential for the sequestration of carbon by this process. Basalt rocks are highly reactive and contain the elements needed for permanently immobilising carbon dioxide through the formation of carbonate minerals. When in the form of non-welded ignimbrites, the basalt is likely to be very permeable and porous, containing storage space for the mineralised carbon.Dissolving the carbon dioxide in water creates a stable solution which can be readily pumped into formations much shallower than those required for traditional carbon sequestration. The high porosity of the rock is expected to facilitate the retention of the carbonated water without the need for a geological seal. As a result, the Carbfix process has the potential to provide a more secure carbon storage solution at substantially lower cost than traditional processes.Should investigation of the project area confirm the potential of the Buckland Basaltic Sequence to store carbon dioxide, State Gas and Rockminsolutions envisage manufacturing hydrogen from gas, which may be sourced from State Gas' Rolleston-West or adjacent Reid's Dome Projects. Carbon dioxide created through the process would be stored within the Basaltic sequence underground, creating a safe and sustainable low emission hydrogen.State Gas Executive Chairman, Richard Cottee, said that the Company was very pleased to enter into the hydrogen and sequestration initiative with Rockminsolutions."While State Gas remains focussed on development of its Reid's Dome and Rolleston-West Gas Projects, the carbon mineralisation approach has the potential to be a game changer in the production of low emission hydrogen from gas", he said. "A combined gas and hydrogen portfolio would provide significant optionality for State Gas into the future.""State Gas is committed to reducing its carbon footprint whilst ensuring there are sufficient supplies of natural gas, and eventually hydrogen, to enable the transition to a lower carbon future. Hopefully this MOU will bring the technology forward to coincide with the development of the Rolleston-West Gas Project in Central Queensland", Mr Cottee said."With worldwide gas prices at decades' highs, State Gas remains focussed on bringing its Reid's Dome and Rolleston-West gas to the east coast market. Our gas projects are not restricted by domestic gas reservation requirements, providing even more optionality for commercial opportunities over the next few years."*To view tables and figures, 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.
DEVELOPING... Story will be updated as new information can be verified. Updated 3 times

DENVER  The Denver Zoo has apologized more than a decade after a Black man died following a confrontation with police on zoo grounds.

Zoo president Bert Vescolani on Friday publicly apologized to Gail Waters for her son Alonzo Ashleys July 2011 death, The Denver Post reported. The 29-year-old Ashley was visiting the zoo when he started acting strangely and ran to find a water fountain. A zoo volunteer called for police, who tackled Ashley and shocked him with a stun gun.

According to the coroners report, Ashley was placed face down on the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back and his legs crossed and pressed toward his buttocks. He began convulsing and stopped breathing before paramedics arrived. The coroner ruled Ashleys death was caused by cardiorespiratory arrest brought on by heat, dehydration and exertion during the struggle.

The district attorneys office cleared the eight officers involved, but the city paid Ashleys family $295,000 in 2016 to settle a lawsuit. For years, the zoo refused to acknowledge any responsibility.

The death led to protests and calls for accountability for zoo staff and volunteers for failing to recognize that Ashley was in distress and not a danger to the public. Many in the Denvers Black community boycotted the zoo.

On Friday, that boycott ended with the apology and the dedication of a water fountain and cooling station in Ashleys honor.
Each fall the FBI dumps the new numbers from its Uniform Crime Reports.

The nationwide figures this year are stunning, showing a 29.4% increase in homicide during 2020.

Commentators blame the pandemic, of course.

But during the same year, Statistics Canada recorded a comparatively modest 7% increase in homicides north of the border. Two-fifths of the increase resulted from a single incident, the horrendous Nova Scotia mass shooting. Ontario, the most populous province, saw 19 fewer homicides in 2020 than in 2019.

Great Britains Office for National Statistics reported a 16% decrease in the homicide rate for the year ending March 31, 2021.

If the pandemic caused Americas murder rate to jump, did it also cause Ontarios and Britains rates to drop?

Any serious attempt to address the problem of criminal violence in America needs to focus on the things that distinguish us from our peer countries, not the thing we all shared.

Crime statistics are often presented as if they were self-explanatory, but they reveal a great deal more than might at first appear. For instance, the FBIs homicide rate also tracks advances in medical science.

In 1960 the national homicide rate, as calculated by the FBI, was 5.1 victims per 100,000 population. In the pre-pandemic year of 2019 it was 5.0. Almost the same, but the two figures reflected quite different realities.

In 1960, the U.S. didnt have 911 call centers. EMTs werent certified. Air ambulances were an exotic novelty. Standards for regional trauma centers, such as UNM Hospital, had yet to be established.

Medical devices in common use today would have seemed like props from a science fiction movie to the doctors of 1960. The most visionary chemist of that era couldnt have imagined many of the drugs available today.

Back then, medical schools openly discriminated against women and minorities. They drew from a much shallower talent pool than the medical schools of today.

All in all, there has never been a better time to be shot or stabbed. Many injuries that would have been fatal in 1960 are survivable today. Medicine has transformed a huge number of murder cases into battery cases.

The FBI calculates the violent crime rate by combining reports of murder, rape, robbery and armed attacks. In 1960, Americas violent crime rate was 160.9 per 100,000 people. In 2019, it was 379.4.

In order to achieve essentially the same homicide rate in 2019 as in 1960, in other words, we had to attack each other 2.36 times more often. Thats how much better our trauma care has gotten.

Crime statistics also measure the effectiveness of law enforcement agencies, whose job, in the words of Albuquerque Police Departments mission statement, is to reduce crime (and) increase safety.  

Modern police departments were an innovation of the 19th century, which was also the era of big city bosses and political machines. Back then, jobs on the force were patronage plums, doled out to the friends and relatives of political supporters.

Not until 1959 did any state establish a commission on peace officer standards and training. New Mexicos Law Enforcement Academy dates only from 1969.

Psychological testing of police recruits didnt become commonplace until the 1970s, according to an article featured on the website of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs.

Today, the FBI makes sophisticated databases available to local agencies. In 1960, it mailed out flyers.

In 1960, cutting-edge forensic science involved bullet comparisons and inked fingerprints on cards.

The forensic use of DNA began as recently as 1987, when Colin Pitchfork, a double killer, was convicted in England. He was granted parole in June, still just 61.

There is simply no room to doubt that law enforcement agencies today are more professional and better equipped than they were in 1960. These advances should have put significant downward pressure on the crime numbers.

The alarming possibility is that they did, but the contrary upward pressure was even greater.

Does the crime rate also measure the effectiveness of our criminal courts?

Let me pose the same question in a more pointed way. Here in New Mexico, are our criminal courts any good? If so, why are our crime statistics so bad?

To answer those questions, we would first need to agree on the purpose our courts are supposed to serve. Do they exist to protect vulnerable people from harm? If so, the crime statistics condemn our courts as incompetent.

Or is the role of our judges to protect Americans from governmental overreach, in the manner of governors who reject mask mandates? If so, the crime rate is irrelevant to any evaluation of their performance.

Which is it? Which should it be?

Joel Jacobsen is an author who in 2015 retired from a 29-year legal career. If there are topics you would like to see covered in future columns, please write him at legal.column.tips@gmail.com.
Q: I want to make a $175,000 gift to my daughter and son-in-law. I know I can give $15,000 each without tax reporting. I was advised to give $30,000 this year and have them sign a note for $145,000. I will then forgive $30,000 each year until the loan is paid. This is supposed to be a gift of $30,000 each year. Do you think this is an effective strategy?

A: This is an old planning idea that is common enough to acquire its own name  an installment gift. When challenged it has not generally been successful.

The issue is what was intended when the funds were first transferred. A loan is a transfer with the expectation of repayment. If the transferor of the funds never intends to enforce repayment, there is no loan.

Abraham Lincoln used to ask, how many legs does a dog have if you call its tail a leg? The correct answer: four. Just calling a tail a leg does not make it so. Recall that Lincoln was a lawyer.

The tax law does not respect the names that people attach to things unless the substance of the thing matches the name. Just calling a transfer of funds a loan does not make it so.

It is certainly possible for someone to transfer money with an initial expectation of repayment, and then later experience a change of heart and not seek repayment. The challenge is determining intent.

When a large loan calls for annual payments within the gift tax exclusion, and each payment is forgiven, it may be difficult to argue that there was a loan. The fewer times forgiveness happens, the better is the argument that a loan existed.

People have been successful when the loan was made to purchase real estate and the loan is secured by a note and mortgage. The ability to enforce the terms strengthens the appearance of a loan.

In the end, you are the one who best knows your intent. If your actions might appear at odds with your intent, you should document your original intent and why it changed, at least as best that you can.

Q: Are there special tax rules for deducting salary paid to a family member? I have owned my own business, which is an S corporation, for 35 years. My 32-year-old son is very talented, has an MBA, and earns $130,000 working for another company. I have always wanted him to work for me and he has resisted because he said he needs to prove himself in the market. I am trying to get him to come to my company so I can start to wind down to retirement. We have talked about this for a year and he says it would take a $50,000 raise for him to change companies. I am willing to pay him $180,000 but I wonder if the IRS will claim I am making a gift for some of his pay. How does IRS determine what is fair pay?

A: There is no question that payment made to related parties are scrutinized more closely to determine the proper tax treatment. This is not just for salary.

Compensation paid to an employee is deductible if it is ordinary and necessary. Courts have said there is an implicit requirement that the pay be reasonable to be ordinary and necessary.

This issue is common in family-controlled businesses. You have a fairly strong position because your son has prove[d] himself worth $130,000 to a third-party employer.

With professional workers, it is common to demand more pay to change employment. I cant say that $180,000 is reasonable for your son, nor can the IRS. Reasonable pay is never a single amount, but rather a range.

Your facts seem favorable. Your son has a history of working for others at a high pay, and the two of you seem to have negotiated for the past year to determine his reservation wage and what you are willing to pay.

Your question seems to imply that the same type of negotiations took place between you and your son that would have occurred between unrelated parties. So, no guarantees, but you seem to be on solid ground.

James R. Hamill is the Director of Tax Practice at Reynolds, Hix & Co. in Albuquerque. He can be reached at jimhamill@rhcocpa.com.
Have you been notified that the delivery of a product you ordered is being delayed? Or have you gone to a store and seen a temporarily out of stock sign on a shelf?

These inventory issues are most likely being caused by the delay in cargo arriving from Asia to West Coast ports. On top of the delays, freight costs have skyrocketed. According to the Maritime Executive Magazine, With global demand remaining high for the container carriers, long-term contracted ocean freight rates stand at a remarkable 85.5% higher than a year ago.

The two largest ports on the U.S. West Coast, Long Beach and Los Angeles, are severely backed up and the problem only seems to be getting worse. Workers are desperately laboring hard to unload containers off ships, as more and more vessels arrive. Recently, at the two ports, all dock terminals were busy unloading container ships, while more than 70 other ships floated along the coast waiting for their turn to be unloaded. Literally, billions of dollars of product are floating offshore. Frequently, ships are taking more than one week to be docked. This in direct contrast to pre-pandemic times where ships waited very little time to be unloaded.

Three factors seem to be at play in causing the current delays.

The first is the growing consumer demand on behalf of the American public, which has endured 18 months of pandemic strain, and now is in a buying frenzy. The automotive, consumer product, and housing sectors are experiencing high demand. Many of the products and/or components to manufacture items such as automobiles, computers, and cell phones come from Asia via ship to the U.S. Suppliers and manufacturers are struggling to keep up with the demand.

Second is the fact that current port infrastructure is not equipped to handle the spike in demand. We are living in extraordinary times, and infrastructure cannot be improved overnight to expand service at ocean ports of entry. Think of the Arab Oil Crisis of the early 1970s. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Companies, angered by the U.S. support of Israel during the Arab-Israeli War, enacted an oil embargo on the U.S., which caused shortages of fuel. Consumers were lining up at gas stations, sometimes for miles to purchase fuel. As the demand for fuel went up, gas stations were not able to expand their operations and construct new filling lanes quick enough to provide service. This is the same situation that the major ports of entry find themselves in, as pertains to demand.

The third factor causing backlog is the ships themselves. Todays container ships are up to triple the size of ships that were being used 10 years ago. The capacity of a cargo ship is measured in 20-foot equivalent units or TEUs  this refers to a measurement of a container that is 20 feet long. The largest ships are now able to carry more than 23,000 TEUs, with ships slated to be delivered capable of carrying more than 24,000 TEUs. Larger ships require longer times to be off-loaded. More workers, equipment and even storage space are needed to accommodate shipments. This causes a logjam of ships waiting in line for their turn to be unloaded, and the situation exacerbates itself.

Delays have become so serious and unpredictable that larger firms are attempting to control their risk. Companies such as Home Depot and Walmart have begun leasing their own ships in an attempt to control the delivery times of their shipments. While these leased ships might also fall into the holding pattern of vessels waiting offshore from ports, it saves them from having to get in line to book their merchandise on major cargo ship lines.

In an effort to alleviate congestion, the Port of Long Beach is implementing a new pilot program to allow trucks to access cargo between 11 p.m. and 1:30 am. This will allow them to move more cargo out of the port and to transport it on highways at times in which there is less traffic. Many clogged ports are now studying the feasibility of moving to 24/7 operations.

In spite of efforts such as these, the backlog of container ships offshore that are waiting days to be unloaded does not appear to be abating in the near future. Current demand remains high, and the holiday season is right around the corner. In spite of the U.S.-China trade war and the tariffs it is imposing on goods imported from China, Americans will continue to buy economical Chinese goods that are shipped to us via sea containers. The largest ships in the world, at more than 24,000 TEUs, will see final construction and delivery in less than two years.

As these factors converge, beachgoers and surfers will continue to see a familiar fixture off of the southern California Coast  cargo-laden ships waiting their turn to dock.

Jerry Pacheco is the executive director of the International Business Accelerator, a nonprofit trade counseling program of the New Mexico Small Business Development Centers Network. He can be reached at 575-589-2200 or at jerry@nmiba.com.
Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

Election Day for Albuquerque city leaders is less than a month away, and crime is once again taking center stage on the campaign trail.

As candidates point fingers at one another and debate crime-fighting strategies, heres a deeper look at some of the top public safety topics emerging.

What can a mayor do to decrease homicides and other crime?

A mayor can affect crime through control of police leadership and community engagement. But not much else, says Dennis Kenney, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Kenney said that a mayors crime-fighting abilities are limited and that any impacts come in a slow and indirect way. But mayors can have a fairly powerful effect if they rally the community behind law enforcement, he said, calling the collaboration between the community and authorities the single most important determinant of police effectiveness.

Departmentally, the mayor wields a great deal of influence by choosing a police chief but also by taking immediate corrective action to remove ineffective leadership, Kenney said.

Former Albuquerque Mayor Jim Baca said violent crime is not something a mayor has control over case by case.

Basically, no mayor can stop one person from killing another, he said, adding that a mayor can push for laws aimed at reducing contributors such as gun violence and encourage initiatives such as community policing.

And, he stressed, the mayors job isnt for the faint of heart, noting that criticism comes with the territory.

Anytime someone is a victim of whatever type of crime, they are going to blame the political leadership, Baca said.

Former Mayor Richard Berry said his most powerful tactics as mayor were using his bully pulpit at the Legislature to advocate for crime-fighting laws and forming partnerships with other agencies. Although Berry said he was fortunate to have a team that delivered the lowest crime rates in the citys modern history, he left office with an approval rating of just 34% due, in part, to a spike in crime toward the end of his final term. He said he wished he had been able to overcome the cascade of disruptions in the criminal justice system, including bail reform and court timeline shifts, that the city and state are feeling to this day.

Are undocumented immigrants driving crime?

There is no evidence that they are. In fact, there are studies that suggest undocumented immigrants are less likely than U.S. citizens and legal immigrants to commit crimes.

No local statistics were available, but a study of statistics in Texas  which has the second-largest immigration population behind California  provides some clues. Texas is the only state that records criminal convictions and arrests by immigration status.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Wisconsin, found that those born in the U.S. are over 2 times more likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes, and over 4 times more likely to be arrested for property crimes.

The study also found that as the crime rate among U.S.-born citizens rose from 2012 to 2018, crime rates among legal and undocumented immigrants remained largely stable.

Christopher Herrmann, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, in New York City, said that the study is more comprehensive than those he had seen in years past and that it took into consideration the tripling of the undocumented immigrant population. However, he said, it did have limitations, including that it covered only Texas and a specific time period, in addition to the knowledge that only half of violent crime is reported.

It really makes you wonder, where does the other side of the aisle get their narrative on this strong link between illegal immigration and crime? he said, adding that calling illegal immigrants criminals, murderers and rapists discredits their claims.

Herrmann said a lot of people cherry-pick a small number of cases highlighted in news cycles to demonize the entire population.

Locally, a high-profile case that has received media attention is the 2019 shooting death of Jacqueline Vigil, the mother of two State Police officers. She was killed outside her home as she was leaving for the gym. Documents show the suspect was from Mexico and had illegally entered the U.S. multiple times before the shooting.

Herrmann said that for most people who come to the U.S. illegally, the No. 1 job is to not get deported, so they are inclined to stay off of the police radar.

For every good study thats done that shows that illegal immigrants are not involved in the crime process  youre going to have those celebrity cases that poke holes in your story, he said.

Another study, published in October 2020, that looked at the effect of sanctuary city policies on crime rates found that such policies cut deportations of people who had not been convicted of anything in half. However, it had no consistent effect on deportations of people with violent convictions.

Moreover, sanctuary policies had no effect on crime rates or clearance rates (the rates at which police arrest people for reported crimes), said the study, conducted by researchers at Stanford University.

Are officers hands tied when it comes to arresting people on misdemeanors?

Under Albuquerque Police Department policy, officers are not prohibited from arresting people on nonviolent misdemeanor charges such as criminal trespass, littering, shoplifting less than $500 or possession of a controlled substance.

But they are told to issue citations instead, and if they determine they do need to arrest the person, they must explain why. This does not apply to DWI charges.

Whether or not the person has a permanent address may not be the sole factor in determining to arrest the person rather than issuing a citation, the policy says.

This policy is the result of a federal court order stemming from a 2017 settlement agreement with the city in the McClendon lawsuit. The McClendon lawsuit was filed in 1995 to address conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center, which attorneys alleged violated inmates constitutional rights.

In 2016, attorneys for the McClendon plaintiffs alleged that police were inappropriately arresting people with disabilities and booking them into the local jail, where the conditions were cruel and unusual.

They alleged that the city was violating federal law by booking them into jail when they need hospitalization and not making reasonable modifications to city policies to prevent discrimination.

The allegation was the city was sweeping up homeless folks, folks with mental illness who dont have an address, and they were arresting them, said Ryan Villa, one of the attorneys representing incarcerated people in the McClendon suit. When, if it were you and me, we would get a citation.

He said that if police officers start arresting homeless and mentally ill people on misdemeanor crimes he and his fellow attorneys could take the city back to court for violating the order and citizens constitutional rights. It is an issue they continue to monitor.

If every single person who gets a misdemeanor and nonviolent crime gets arrested, then perhaps there isnt a constitutional violation, Villa said. On the other hand, if theyre targeting certain individuals because theyre homeless or because of the neighborhood they live in or their race, you know, it could be a constitutional violation.

Can the city unilaterally get out of the court-approved settlement agreement?

In three words: not too easily.

Kenney, the professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said a city cant just walk away from a settlement agreement once its signed.

Theyve entered into a binding contract to do certain things, Kenney said. And if they were to renege on that, then theyll have an issue with the Department of Justice or the court.

Kenney said that when the Department of Justice opens an investigation, it doesnt look just for bad policing, but it also looks into whether agencies are practicing discrimination in their policing and whether theyre biased against certain groups. If  like they did in Albuquerque in 2014  investigators find that an agency has a pattern of violating citizens constitutional rights through excessive use of force, then the city and the DOJ negotiate a settlement agreement laying out what steps they will take to reform.

The typical timeline for reform is six to 10 years, Kenney said, because it takes time to change recruitment practices, replace problematic officers and impose better early warning systems, discipline and internal investigation practices.

The real goal of a consent decree is not just to change a few policies, he said. Its to change the culture of the organization, and culture changes slowly.

What if, almost seven years in, the city wants to just say, Were not doing it anymore?

DOJ would have the option at that point of bringing a civil suit in federal court and getting a court-ordered provision, in which case the court would have the option of doing anything from ordering them to complete the decree to taking over the police department, Kenney said.
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz.  Agnes Laughter, a Navajo weaver who successfully challenged the constitutionality of Arizonas in-person voting procedures and restrictive identity requirements for Native Americans, has died, tribal officials said.

Navajo Nation Council officials said Laughter died Sept. 26, but no cause was immediately released.

Born in 1932 in a traditional Navajo hogan without running water or electricity, Laughter was 16 when Native Americans got the right to vote in Arizona.

In 2006, she was part of a lawsuit that led to the U.S. Justice Department expanding the list of documents that can serve as tribal identification at polling places.

It was in response to Arizonas 2004 voter-approved measure aimed mainly at preventing undocumented migrants from voting and receiving public benefits.

Laughter had been using her thumbprint for most of her adult life before the new law required birth certificates, bank statements or drivers licenses.

Youre not welcome here because you dont have the proper ID,  Laughter later recalled what an election official told her in 2006. I was so humiliated. It was like I didnt even exist.

Navajo officials said Laughter  a renowned weaver from the community of Chilchinbeto  did not have a birth certificate, didnt speak English and never attended school.

In 2008, the Justice Department revised procedures to provide a broader, non-exhaustive list of documents that may serve as tribal identification to vote.

We honor the life work of the late Agnes Laughter and the legacy she leaves behind, Tribal Council Speaker Seth Damon said in a statement. Future generations will remember her as a protector of our right to vote and for the beautiful Navajo rugs she created. The Navajo people are grateful for her courage.
DEVELOPING... Story will be updated as new information can be verified. Updated 4 times

WASHINGTON  The Supreme Court returned to the courtroom Monday for the start of a momentous new term, after a nearly 19-month absence because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Abortion, guns and religion all are on the agenda for a court with a rightward tilt, including three justices appointed by former President Donald Trump.

Chief Justice John Roberts was in his usual place in the center chair and Justice Clarence Thomas, the courts longest serving member, was to his right. But almost everything else was a little different for a court that, like the rest of the country, still is dealing with the virus.

Inside the courtroom, eight of the nine justices took the bench at 10 a.m. EDT. Justice Brett Kavanaugh participated remotely from his home after testing positive for COVID-19 late last week, his voice echoing in the courtroom when he had a question to ask while his high-backed chair sat empty. Kavanaugh, who was vaccinated in January, is showing no symptoms, the court said. All the other justices also have been vaccinated.

Monday was also the first time that new Justice Amy Coney Barrett participated in arguments in the courtroom, despite nearly a year on the court as its most junior member.

Only about 50 people were in attendance  lawyers involved in the cases, reporters who regularly cover the court, retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, some of the justices spouses and some court employees. Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the only justice who wore a mask. Sotomayor, who has had diabetes since childhood, is the only one of the justices with a known chronic condition.

Spectators sat in socially-distant spots and wore masks, although the lawyers removed theirs for their arguments. The lectern the lawyers were arguing from was also placed farther away from the justices than before the pandemic.

The court is also requiring negative COVID-19 tests from lawyers and reporters who want to be in the courtroom. Lawyers who test positive will be able to present their arguments via telephone, the court said. Thats the way lawyers had been arguing before the court because of the pandemic.

With the building closed to the public, the courts hallways, normally bustling on mornings when the court is in session, were eerily quiet. A portrait of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died just over a year ago, hangs in a main corridor, directly across from her friend and colleague who died in 2016, Justice Antonin Scalia. As visitors enter the building from its north side, the liberal Ginsburgs portrait is on the left, the conservative Scalias on the right  in death as in life.

Monday was the first time the public was able to listen live to courtroom proceedings, via a link on the courts wesbite. The court first allowed live audio for the telephonic arguments it conducted in 2020 and earlier this year because of the pandemic.

Those who listened in heard Thomas continue to ask questions, a practice he began during the telephonic arguments. Before that, it had been years since he asked a question in the courtroom. His colleagues appeared to defer to him Monday, as Thomas asked the first questions in the days two cases  a water fight between Tennessee and Mississippi and a dispute over an enhanced prison term for a repeat offender.

Well counsel, you seem to complain about Tennessee pumping water from Mississippi, but you admit that Tennessee does not enter across the border into Mississippi, isnt that correct? Thomas said, asking the terms first question.

Mondays cases were not among the highly anticipated disputes the court will referee this term.

In the dispute over water, there seemed to be little support for Mississippis claim that the Memphis area has been taking the states water from an underground aquifer that sits beneath parts of both states. The dispute stretches back to 2005 when Mississippi first claimed that Memphis was pumping water from the Mississippi portion of the aquifer. Tennessee says water doesnt work that way, contending the aquifer is an interstate resource that should be shared fairly.

In the other case, the justices appeared favorable to William Wooden of Tennessee, a man with a prior criminal record who was given a mandatory 15-year minimum prison sentence when he was convicted of having a gun. Federal law prevents felons from owning firearms.

The case arises under the Armed Career Criminal Act and the issue is whether the theft of items from 10 units on the same day at a mini storage facility should count as one conviction or 10, which lower courts found made the man eligible for the longer prison sentence.

Who thinks that, Ms. Ross, in the real world? Justice Neil Gorsuch asked Justice Department lawyer Erica Ross as she explained why the court should consider that Wooden committed 10 crimes.

Thomas, though, was skeptical of part of lawyer Allon Kedems argument on behalf of Wooden. What if they took a smoke break? Thomas asked. Or if Wooden and his accomplices decided to have lunch or a cup of coffee before resuming the break-in at the storage units, would that be considered one crime or more, Thomas wanted to know.

Also on Monday the court affirmed a lower court ruling that said District of Columbia residents are not entitled to voting representation in the House of Representatives. That was among hundreds of appeals the court rejected.

The justices also:

 Declined to get involved in a lawsuit over a disputed Pentagon cloud computing contract, a decision that follows the cancellation of the contract for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud computing project earlier this year.

 Left in place a lower court ruling that revived a lawsuit by the brother of a man who, as a passenger in a fleeing car, was fatally shot by police in Hayward, California.

 Rejected an appeal from the Philadelphia-area transit system of a lower-court ruling that would force it to display ads touting a prize-winning investigation by the Center for Investigative Reporting into racial bias in the mortgage market.
Mayoral candidates Tim Keller, Manuel Gonzales and Eddy Aragon on the issues:

What would your administration do regarding the court-approved settlement agreement?

Keller: Only a judge can end or modify DOJ oversight.

The expectations for the CASA were never appropriately set when the past administration came in, and they should have been. The public and the department were misled to think that somehow this is a short-term process that you get out of.  If you look at DOJ consent decrees across the country, theyre all 10, 20, 30, 40 years. We need the federal government to work with us on our communitys concerns about the process, and to support our need to both fight crime and work on meaningful reform. Also, some reform and improvement should always continue, whether the DOJ is here or not.

Gonzales: Get out of the reform effort by complying with the settlement agreement and finding a common-sense approach to implementing policies.

You have to be honest with these people and say, This is what happened; well hold these people accountable. And I think that truthfulness and all those other things that come is what the DOJ is looking for  saying youre holding people accountable. I think thats what it comes down to.

Aragon: The city has to comply with the settlement agreement. I inherit this. This is something that I will have to deal with, and the only way I can do so is by picking up the phone, developing a relationship and saying, This is unreasonable; this is a bit too much. 

Should people be arrested on misdemeanor crimes?

Keller: Given the McClendon settlement agreement (which predates my administration), officers are now prohibited from arresting a lot more people who have committed minor misdemeanor charges.

Sometimes it will be helpful, of course. But also, youve got to get people the help they need, like situations of mental illness and addiction. Thats why the new Albuquerque Community Safety Department  is a much better way to address this, rather than fighting with the judge, or creating situations of escalation.

Gonzales: It should be an option.

I will allow law enforcement to make those decisions: whether they want to cite and whether they want to arrest. But blatantly telling them that they cannot arrest on these is removing the most powerful tool they have in their pockets in terms of a law enforcement officer  and thats discretion. They need to have that discretion to make that decision.

Aragon: People should be arrested on misdemeanors.

To keep track of the buildup of crime that happens over time. If you dont arrest for the small things, youre not going to arrest them on the big things.  Weve got to do a better job of knowing who our criminals are.

Should Albuquerque be an immigrant-friendly city?

Keller: Supports immigrant-friendly policies.

Ive supported pro-immigrant, immigrant-friendly status for our city for 14 years now in public office  so my stance hasnt changed at all. Its fundamentally based on the fact that communities are safer when folks from all walks of life can engage, without fear of family deportation, with the police and other first responders.

Gonzales: Does not support immigrant-friendly policies.

I would get rid of the sanctuary city policy  if its something that is ordinance-based, then I guess we have to work with the City Council. And/or we talk to the chief and you tell him, You will comply because that is a constitutionally binding thing, and were not going to subvert the Constitution. 

Aragon: Does not support immigrant-friendly policies.

Lets be clear  were not saying that illegal immigrants coming here are making a more dangerous city. Were talking about how they get here, (that) is what creates the danger for them and for the community. I mean, theyre burros, they come in and theyre carrying drugs with them  a lot of stuff comes with that $10,000 bill, thats the bill that they have to pay.

What gun laws do you think make the community safer?

Keller: Accountability for child access to guns, gun violence enhancements in statutes, closing red flag law loopholes, and taking guns into account in pre-trial detention and sentencing decisions.

We understand and were very supportive, and have implemented a lot of diversion and alternative court programs. But, if you commit a violent crime with a gun, you shouldnt be on the street with a firearm. You have to go through the criminal justice system.

Gonzales: Enhanced penalties for using a firearm in a crime, more stringent sentencing.

Make laws for violent people. Then, when you need to hold them accountable, provide them with the sentencing thats going to correct that behavior or change their lives.

Aragon: None.

I think there should be no laws on any guns.

How transparent should APD be with the media and public about crime?

Keller: Were totally up for, and have always strived for, letting the media and public know about homicides and critical incidents as they occur, as long as its physically possible and doesnt compromise any ongoing investigation.

Gonzales: I would expect them to give you as much information as possible and be professional about it. Thats what I would expect the relationship to look like.

Aragon: We should make the commitment to being absolutely transparent about every crime out there.
NEW YORK  A COVID-19 vaccine requirement for teachers and other staff members took effect Monday in New York Citys million-plus-student public school system, in a key test of the employee vaccination mandates being rolled out across the country.

The city had planned to bring in substitutes where needed, with Mayor Bill de Blasio warning that unvaccinated school employees would be placed on unpaid leave. But 95% of the citys roughly 148,000 public school staffers had received at least one vaccine dose as of Monday morning, including 96% of teachers and 99% of principals, de Blasio said.

Our parents need to know their kids will be safe, the mayor said. They entrust us with their children. Thats what this mandate is all about. Every adult in our schools is now vaccinated, and thats going to be the rule going forward.

Schools Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter said she did not know exactly how many employees had declined the shots and been put on leave.

Implementing the mandate smoothly could be a test for de Blasio, a Democrat who boasted of the citys record of keeping school buildings open during most of the last school year when other districts went to all-remote instruction. New York City is not offering a remote option this year.

The nations largest school system is one of the first in the country to require inoculations for all its staffers. The systems mandate does not include a test-out option, but does allow for medical and religious exemptions. A similar mandate is set to go into effect in Los Angeles on Oct. 15.

Some 43,000 doses have been administered since the mandate was announced Aug. 23, de Blasio said.

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona hailed the vaccine mandate, saying New York City is doing it right.

Students need to be in the classroom. They need to be safe and we need to make sure were doing everything possible to let our staff get vaccinated and make sure that our schools are as safe as possible, Cardona said.

Vaccination rates rose in every school job category after the mandate was announced. District Council 37 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents some 20,000 city Department of Education employees, said 93% of those workers had provided proof of at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose as of Sunday, up from 68% at the beginning of September.

Under a deal worked out with the city, unvaccinated District Council 37 members who want to apply for a medical or religious exemption have until 5 p.m. Tuesday to do so, union officials said in a news release.

The mandate was supposed to go into effect last week, but was delayed when a federal appeals court granted a temporary injunction sought by a group of teachers. An appeals panel reversed that decision three days later. A request to the Supreme Court for an injunction was also denied.

Roxanne Rizzi, who teaches technology at an elementary school in Queens, waited until Friday to get her first coronavirus vaccine shot.

I had to do it for the finances of my family, she said.

Rizzi, 55, had resisted the vaccine because she contracted COVID-19 in November and believed natural immunity would protect her. She said she would continue to protest the mandate.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people should get vaccinated even if they have already been infected by the virus. The agency says COVID-19 vaccines offer better protection than natural immunity and help prevent getting infected again.

Some people vocally opposed to vaccine mandates did protest Monday. Video posted to social media showed demonstrators marching in locations around the city, including outside a Department of Education building in Brooklyn, carrying signs saying things such as: Resist Medical Tyranny!

Another video on social media showed people overturning a COVID-19 testing facilitys tent and table as the protesters marched passed it.

Many students and parents support the vaccine mandate as the best way to keep schools open during the pandemic.

Its safer for our kids, said Joyce Ramirez, 28, who was picking her three children up from a Bronx elementary school last week.

Cody Miller, a 15-year-old sophomore at a high school in Manhattan, said teachers should all be vaccinated. I think they should, said the teen, who got vaccinated himself as soon as the Pfizer shot was approved for people 12 and up. Its so many kids, its a big environment, you know?

But Mally Diroche, another Bronx parent, had mixed feelings. I kind of feel like thats a decision they should be able to make on their own, said the mom of three boys between 3 and 12. Diroche, 29, said she feels that masks and other precautions can check the spread of the virus within schools.

The COVID-19 vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. were tested in tens of thousands of people and proven to be both safe and effective at dramatically reducing the risk of serious disease and death. The vaccines now have been given to more than 200 million Americans and that real-world use plus extra government safety tracking have made clear that serious side effects are extremely rare  and that any risk is far lower than the risks posed by COVID-19.

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This story has been corrected to show that 43,000 is the estimated number of vaccine doses administered since Aug. 23, not the number of employees who have been vaccinated.

___

Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz and Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz.  The Navajo Nation has reported 35 more COVID-19 cases, but no additional deaths for the third consecutive day.

The latest numbers released Saturday pushed the tribes totals to 34,106 confirmed COVID-19 cases from the virus since the pandemic began more than a year ago. The known death toll remains at 1,447.

Based on cases from Sept. 10-23, the Navajo Department of Health issued an advisory for 40 communities due to an uncontrolled spread of COVID-19.

The tribes reservation is the countrys largest at 27,000 square miles (70,000 square kilometers) and it covers parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

Navajo officials are urging people to get vaccinated, wear masks while in public and minimize their travel.

Officials said all Navajo Nation executive branch employees had to be fully vaccinated against the virus by the end of September or submit to regular testing.

The new rules apply to full, part-time and temporary employees, including those working for tribal enterprises like utilities, shopping centers and casinos.

Any worker who did not show proof of vaccination by the deadline must be tested every two weeks or face discipline.
WASHINGTON  Around New York City in the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, as an eerie quiet settled over ground zero, South Asian and Arab men started vanishing.

Soon, more than 1,000 were arrested in sweeps across the metropolitan area and nationwide.

Most were charged only with overstaying visas and deported back to their home countries. But before that happened, many were held in detention for months, with little outside contact, especially with their families. Others would live with a different anxiety, forced to sign what was effectively a Muslim registry with no idea what might follow.

While the remembrances and memorials of 9/11s 20th anniversary slip into the past, hundreds of Muslim men and their families face difficult 20-year anniversaries of their own.

___

In the attacks aftermath, the immigrant advocacy group Desis Rising Up and Moving, or DRUM, anticipated a rise in hate crimes and harassment. So it set up a hotline and placed flyers primarily in South Asian neighborhoods.

We started getting calls from women saying, Last night, law enforcement busted into our apartment and took my husband and my brother. Children calling us and saying, My father left for work four days ago and he hasnt come home, and we havent heard anything,' executive director Fahd Ahmed recalls.

There were people who were just disappearing from our communities, he says, and nobody knew what was happening to them or where they were going.

They were, according to the 9/11 Commission report, arrested as special interest detainees. Immigration hearings were closed, detainee communication was limited and bond was denied until the detainees were cleared of terrorist connections. Identities were kept secret.

A review conducted by the Justice Departments Office of the Inspector General said the Justice Departments hold until cleared policy meant a significant percentage of the detainees stayed for months despite immigration officials questioning the legality of the prolonged detentions and even though there were no indications they were connected to terrorism. Compounding that, they faced a pattern of physical and verbal abuse particularly at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York. Conditions were, the report said, unduly harsh.

Detainees were swept up a myriad of ways, the report said. Three were stopped on a traffic violation and found with school drafting plans. Their boss explained they were working on a construction project and were supposed to have them, but authorities arrested and detained them anyway. Another was arrested because he seemed too anxious to buy a car.

Although many of those who were held had come into the U.S. illegally or overstayed visas, it was unlikely that most if not all would have been pursued if not for the attack investigation, the report said.

The blunderbuss approach of rounding up Muslims and presuming there would be terrorists among them was pure racism and xenophobia in operation, says Rachel Meeropol, senior staff attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, who filed a lawsuit in 2002 on behalf of several of the men and continues to fight for additional plaintiffs to this day.

It shouldnt be a surprise to anyone that it didnt work, Meeropol says. Of course, what it did do was destroy whole communities and not to mention the lives of all the individuals rounded up.

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Yasser Ebrahim, an original plaintiff in the lawsuit, was at a shop in his neighborhood and noticed people intently watching the television. I saw these images on the screen, and for a moment there was like some kind of a movie or something, he recalls. I couldnt believe what I was seeing.

He had been in the United States since 1992 and enjoyed his life. I loved everything about America, he said by Zoom from Egypt. As a teenager, even before arriving, he idolized American popular culture. The food, the music, the movies, everything was so attractive, and everybody wanted to go to America, he said.

After learning the hijackers were Muslims, he reassured his mother in a phone call that he and his brother would be fine. In other countries there might be problems, but America was a place of legal rights, where evidence mattered, he said. We still had faith in the system in America at that point, he said.

That ended on Sept. 30, 2001. Several federal agents showed up at his door in Brooklyn. He says he had requested an extension of his tourist visa, but agents told him they had no record of it. He thought the matter would be straightened out quickly, or he would be deported. He stayed in custody until the following June.

For three months, his family did not know what happened to him or his brother. A neighbor ended that mystery, explaining they had been taken into custody. Even then there was little outside communication. And some officers at the facility in Brooklyn were physically and verbally abusive. It was months before he saw his brother. There was the general feeling that were going to be here forever, he says.

Ebrahims brother was deported first. When Ebrahim was finally allowed to leave, he was given clothes several sizes too big, including pants he had to physically hold up with his hands.

He was placed on a plane without knowing the destination. On board, he realized no one looked Egyptian. The plane went to Greece and after spending a night in the custody of Greek authorities, he boarded a flight for Cairo, with no money. Another Egyptian, deported from Texas, gave him $20 to eat and contact his family to let them know he was home.

In 2009 he and four others, including his brother, reached a $1.26 million settlement on the lawsuit. Though not an apology, he says, we thought it was sort of admitting that something wrong was done to us.

___

Umair Anser was 14 as he and math classmates watched on a classroom television as the twin towers fell.

You cant accept something like that happening on American soil, Anser says. You know youre safe in the U.S.  but then something like that happens and you really question how safe you are, especially when youre that young.

His father, Anser Mehmood, left Pakistan in 1988 during a time of political turmoil, looking toward the safety and promise of the United States. He worked as a truck driver and sometimes drove a taxi. The family settled in Bayonne, New Jersey.

Anser came home from school on Oct. 3, 2001, and found his mom nearly catatonic, his home ransacked and the familys computers and his father gone. His uncle had disappeared in a similar way days earlier.

We didnt know where our father was for the next three months, Anser says.

He was, it turned out, in solitary confinement  in the special housing unit of Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, the same place chronicled by the inspector general, Anser says. When the family did see him again, they encountered a different man. He was so weak  I couldnt see my dad like that, Anser says. It was very emotional for me.

For the remainder of his detention, he wrote letters, talked about the difficulties and told his family to be strong and support their mother. He told us, Allah is there for us. He will be the provider; everything will be OK. I think he had to give us hope so we didnt lose hope.

Anser and his brothers attended protests with their mother organized by DRUM. But with their father gone, there was no financial support for the family. The sons were bullied at school; neighbors harassed them at home. It became untenable and the family returned to Pakistan, leaving Mehmood behind, in jail.

My mother was extremely heartbroken to leave the country because she knew the amount of effort and the amount of work that my father put in to make everything happen for us, Anser says.

Mehmood eventually pleaded guilty to working with an unauthorized Social Security number and was sentenced to eight months in prison. He was transferred to Passaic County Jail before finally being deported on May 10, 2002, to Pakistan, where the family now lives.

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For Sultana Jahangir, there was a different anxiety.

It was one that intensified when her husband, Mohammed Alam, was called to register through the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, or NSEERS, a government policy introduced in 2002 as part of the war on terror. Some would call it a Muslim registry.

It required all noncitizen males 16 or older from 25 countries to register with the U.S. government. The only country among them that did not have an Arab or Muslim majority was North Korea.

Jahangir, now living in Toronto with her husband and family, came to the U.S. in 1994 from Bangladesh to visit her sister. During their stay, her sisters husband died unexpectedly, and Jahangir and her husband stayed to help.

We worked like crazy  many days, I wouldnt see the sun, she says. The evening comes, I dont see the sunset. My life was stuck in a dark place.

They worked quietly this way for years  Jahangir at a cafe, Alam driving taxis  all the while trying to apply for political asylum.

In the days that followed the Sept. 11 attacks, Jahangirs co-worker called her Bin Ladens sister. Shortly after, her manager let her go. She struggled to find work after that. Nobody, she says, wanted to hire a Muslim then.

Meanwhile, she and her family would hear reports of Muslim men being taken off the street by law enforcement without explanation, and they worried for Alam.

When Alam responded to the call to register for NSEERS, he was held for hours and then released with a deportation order. Paranoid about what might follow, he retreated from public life. It didnt feel safe for him to go out and drive the taxi, Jahangir says. We discouraged him from going out. He stayed home with the children and I had to take on more responsibility.

Ultimately, the family was able to avoid being deported to Bangladesh by arranging a visa for Canada.

In the end, NSEERS resulted in no terrorism convictions. It was suspended in 2011 and completely dissolved in 2016. It did, however, land more than 13,000 boys and men in deportation proceedings.

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Two decades later, no terror attack in the U.S. has come close to the scale of Sept. 11. The most serious threats have come from lone wolves. The most public of threats have been from Americans, not foreigners.

Joshua Dratel, co-chair of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers national security committee, says the detentions are a foundational piece of something troubling  an acceptance of more invasive law enforcement for protection from terrorists.

Searches at airports, in buildings, even on subways  these are things that were once exceptional and extraordinary, and now the exception has become the norm. I think that has put us in a position of vulnerability to more of it and a more malevolent version of it.

Shirin Sinnar, a law professor at Stanford University, says the extreme measures taken after 9/11 have been normalized to the point that now we dont even talk about them. Theyve just become part of the kinds of surveillance and deprivation of rights and profiling that we expect to see.

The positive, she says: More people seem willing to challenge that.

To a degree, that is true. Attitudes have trended toward people being more wary of the governments counterterrorism efforts. But a recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that a majority of Americans, 54%, still believe it is sometimes necessary to sacrifice rights and freedom to fight terrorism.

The long-running lawsuit in which additional plaintiffs were added after the first five were awarded a settlement has continued. It has ricocheted through the court system with mixed results. In 2017 the Supreme Court threw out parts of the suit but allowed one part to stand, sending it back to lower courts. Last month, a federal district court judge in Brooklyn dismissed the lawsuit.

Meeropol says the initial settlement was proof that the plaintiffs had a compelling case. She says no decision has been made yet on an appeal. That leaves a striking fact: Nearly 20 years later, no individuals have been held accountable for how the detainees were treated, she says.

For the families marking an ignominious anniversary, the question is basic and broad: What is different?

Jahangir runs a South Asian womens rights organization in Toronto, continuing her fight against systemic racism and discrimination. She misses seeing her sister but has no desire to step foot in America again. I look at my 10 years in the U.S. as a black hole for me, (and) after 9/11, I found out that this is not a place to live.

Ebrahim, now 49 and owner of a company that provides coding and other outsource services to other companies, shared Jahangirs anger after he returned to Egypt. But two decades later, he would consider bringing his teenage son to New York City to see sights and sounds that he found charming.

His advice for U.S. citizens: Never twist the Constitution again. What makes America America is the freedom, and the Constitution.

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Nasir reported from New York City.
DEVELOPING... Story will be updated as new information can be verified. Updated 4 times

TOKYO  Newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Monday he will dissolve the lower house next week in preparation for Oct. 31 elections as he seeks a fresh mandate to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, the sagging economy and security threats from China and North Korea.

Kishida was formally elected by parliament earlier Monday to replace Yoshihide Suga, who resigned after only one year in office. Sugas support had plunged over his handling of the pandemic and insistence on holding the Tokyo Olympics as the virus spread.

Our fight against the coronavirus is continuing, Kishida told his first news conference Monday night after taking office. COVID-19 measures is the urgent and top priority, and I will handle the problem taking into consideration the worst-case scenario. He said he will review the past virus handling and seek to set up a crisis management unit.

He also pledged to push through with a large-scale recovery package to support those hit by the pandemic.

In order to take large-scale COVID-19 measures, I need to get the peoples mandate, Kishida said, adding that he will pass up attending G-20 and COP-26 climate meetings in-person.

A former foreign minister, Kishida, 64, used to be known as a moderate but turned hawkish on security and more conservative on gender equality and other issues, apparently to win over influential conservatives in his Liberal Democratic Party. His victory in last weeks vote to replace Suga as the partys leader was seen as a choice for continuity and stability over change.

Kishida replaced all but two of Sugas 20 Cabinet members, and 13 will hold posts for the first time, according to the lineup announced by new Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno. Most of the posts went to powerful factions that voted for Kishida in the party election. Only three women are included, up from two in Sugas government.

Veteran female lawmaker Seiko Noda, one of four candidates who vied for the party leadership, became the minister in charge of the nations declining birthrate and local revitalization. Another woman, Noriko Horiuchi, became vaccinations minister, replacing Taro Kono, the runner-up in the party leadership race.

Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi, who is former Prime Minister Shinzo Abes younger brother, were retained, ensuring continuity of Japans diplomacy and security policies as the country seeks to closely work with Washington under the bilateral security pact in the face of Chinas rise and growing tensions in the region, including around Taiwan.

Kishida supports stronger Japan-U.S. security ties and partnerships with other like-minded democracies in Asia, Europe and Britain, in part to counter China and nuclear-armed North Korea. He pledged to beef up Japans missile and naval defense capability.

Kishida acknowledged the importance to continue dialogue with China, an important neighbor and trade partner, but said that we must speak up against Chinas attempt to change the status quo in the East and South China Seas.

Kishida created a new Cabinet post aimed at tackling the economic dimensions of Japans national security, appointing 46-year-old Takayuki Kobayashi, who is relatively new to parliament.

Finance Minister Taro Aso was shifted to a top party post and replaced by his 68-year-old relative, Shunichi Suzuki.

Kishida said he is open to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un without preconditions to resolve the issue of Japanese citizens abducted to the North decades ago. He said he will cooperate with President Joe Biden in resolving North Koreas nuclear and missile threats.

Kishida also faces worsening ties with South Korea over history issues even after he struck a 2015 agreement with Seoul to resolve a row over the issue of women who were sexually abused by Japans military during World War II.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Monday sent a letter to Kishida, congratulating him and offering to work together to improve ties.

An urgent task at home will be turning around his partys declining popularity, hurt by Sugas perceived high-handedness on the pandemic and other issues.

Hell also have to ensure Japans health care systems, vaccination campaign and other virus measures are ready for a possible resurgence of COVID-19 in winter, while gradually normalizing social and economic activity.

Voters welcomed new, and slightly younger, faces in the government.

A 28-year-old designer Karen Einaka said she hoped the new government takes into consideration younger peoples opinions and allows younger politicians to play important roles.

At least, Kishida looks more energetic than Suga, said business owner Makoto Okubo.

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Associated Press journalists Chisato Tanaka in Tokyo and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.
DEVELOPING... Story will be updated as new information can be verified. Updated 4 times

STOCKHOLM  Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for their discoveries into how the human body perceives temperature and touch, revelations that could lead to new ways of treating pain or even heart disease.

Americans David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian separately identified receptors in the skin that respond to heat and pressure, and researchers are working on drugs to target them. Some hope the discoveries could eventually lead to pain treatments that reduce dependence on highly addictive opioids. But the breakthroughs, which happened decades ago, have not yet yielded many effective new therapies.

Julius, of the University of California at San Francisco, used capsaicin, the active component in chili peppers, to help pinpoint the nerve sensors that respond to heat, the Nobel Committee said. Patapoutian, of Scripps Research Institute at La Jolla, California, found pressure-sensitive sensors in cells that respond to mechanical stimulation.

This really unlocks one of the secrets of nature, said Thomas Perlmann, secretary-general of the committee, in announcing the winners. Its actually something that is crucial for our survival, so its a very important and profound discovery.

The committee said their discoveries get at one of the great mysteries facing humanity: how we sense our environment.

The choice of winners underscored how little scientists knew about that question before the discoveries  and how much there still is to learn, said Oscar Marin, director of the MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders at Kings College London.

While we understood the physiology of the senses, what we didnt understand was how we sensed differences in temperature or pressure, Marin said. Knowing how our body senses these changes is fundamental because once we know those molecules, they can be targeted. Its like finding a lock, and now we know the precise keys that will be necessary to unlock it.

Marin predicted that new treatments for pain would likely come first, but that understanding how the body detects changes in pressure could eventually lead to drugs for heart disease, if scientists can figure out how to alleviate pressure on blood vessels and other organs.

Richard Harris, of the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center at the University of Michigan, also said the new laureates work might help design new pain medications, but noted the field has long been stalled.

He said that because pain also includes a psychological component, simply identifying how it is triggered in the body isnt necessarily enough to address it. Still, he said Julius and Patapoutians work would likely help doctors better treat pain that is caused by things like extreme temperatures and chemical burns.

Their discoveries are giving us the first inkling of how this type of pain starts, but whether its involved in many chronic pain patients remains to be seen, he said.

Still, Fiona Boissonade, a pain specialist at the University of Sheffield, said the Nobel laureates work was especially relevant for the one in five people globally that suffer from chronic pain.

Such pain  including from arthritis, migraines and chronic back problems  is a huge medical problem, and its quite poorly treated across the board, she said. Their research may lead us to identify new compounds that are effective in treating pain that dont come with the devastating impact of opioids, which have spawned a crisis of addiction in the U.S.

In keeping with a long tradition of difficulties in alerting Nobel winners, Julius said he was awakened by what he thought was a prank phone call shortly before the prize was announced.

My phone sort of bleeped, and it was from a relative who had been contacted by somebody on the Nobel Committee trying to find my phone number, he said from his home in San Francisco, where it was the middle of the night.

It was only when his wife heard Perlmanns voice and confirmed it was indeed the secretary-general of the committee who was calling, that he realized it wasnt a joke. Julius said his wife had worked with Perlmann years ago.

Julius, 65, later said he hoped his work would lead to the development of new pain drugs, explaining that the biology behind even everyday activities can have enormous significance.

We eat chili peppers and menthol, but oftentimes, you dont think about how that works, he said.

The Nobel Committee tweeted a photo of Patapoutian in bed with his son while he watched the announcement on his computer.

A day to be thankful: this country gave me a chance with a great education and support for basic research. And for my labbies and collaborators for partnering with me, Patapoutian, who was born in Lebanon, tweeted.

When the team made the discovery in 2009, we were of course so excited and literally jumping up and down. It was something we were looking for for years, Patapoutian said at a news conference.

Patapoutian is paid by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which also supports The Associated Press Health and Science Department. Julius is an HHMI trustee.

The prestigious award comes with a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (over $1.14 million). The prize money comes from a bequest left by the prizes creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1895.

The prize is the first to be awarded this year. The other prizes are for outstanding work in the fields of physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics.

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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the pain specialists last name to Boissonade.

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Cheng reported from London. Associated Press writers Frank Jordans and Emma Tobin contributed.
VATICAN CITY  Defense lawyers are questioning the legitimacy of the Vatican tribunal where 10 people are on trial on finance-related charges, arguing their clients cant get a fair trial in an absolute monarchy where the pope has already intervened in the case and where prosecutors have failed to turn over key evidence.

In defense motions ahead of the trials resumption on Tuesday, lawyers have alleged numerous procedural violations by prosecutors that they say should nullify the indictment. They have questioned what redress they have, since the Holy See has never signed any international convention guaranteeing fair trials or providing recourse to the European Court of Human Rights.

These are harmful to the right of the defense that affect the right to a fair trial, said Fabio Viglione, attorney for Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the lone cardinal on trial.

The trial concerns the Holy Sees 350 million euro investment in a London property deal but has expanded to include other alleged financial crimes. During the preliminary hearing in July, defense lawyers had balked that they had only had a few days to read the 28,000 pages of evidence gathered by prosecutors over two years to understand the accusations against their clients. Key documents were either missing or couldnt be accessed.

The tribunal president, Giuseppe Pignatone, ordered the popes prosecutors to make the documents available as well as a key missing piece of evidence: the videotaped interrogations of the prosecutors prime suspect-turned-star witness, Monsignor Alberto Perlasca. He was the Vatican official most intimately involved in the London real estate deal that lost the Holy See tens of millions of euros, much of it donations from the faithful, spent on fees to Italian brokers who are accused of defrauding the pope.

Perlascas five spontaneous declarations were so important to the prosecutions case that they apparently spared him indictment and formed the basis of several charges against the defendants. One led to a witness-tampering charge against Becciu.

But the prosecutors refused to abide by Pignatones order to produce Perlascas videotaped testimony, citing his right to privacy. The defense has only seen a summary of Perlascas account, and Beccius legal team only learned of the witness-tampering accusation when the indictment was handed down on July 3.

In a defense memo submitted last week and obtained by The Associated Press, lawyers representing another defendant, Cecilia Marogna, said such behavior by prosecutors to refuse an order of the tribunal president would never be tolerated in an Italian court.

In a normal situation, in all countries having a judicial system that could be considered autonomous and impartial and structured in a way to safeguard a fair trial, the refusal would have been immediately sanctioned, said the memo by international law expert, Riccardo Sindoca.

On Sept. 21, prosecutors also informed the defense and the tribunal that, due to internal organizational problems, they couldnt meet Pignatones deadline to provide forensic copies of data from cellphones, laptops and other electronic devices that had been seized from the defendants.

Sindocas motion also argued that the tribunal judges cant be considered truly impartial or independent since Pope Francis hired them and can fire them, and that they took oaths to be loyal to and obey the pope, not the law as is the case for judges in Italy. As an absolute monarch, Francis wields supreme legislative, executive and judicial power in Vatican City.

The defense is not alone in finding structural problems in the Vatican tribunal. In June, the Council of Europes Moneyval evaluators faulted the Vaticans reliance on part-time, temporary prosecutors and judges who also practice in Italy, warning that they might have conflicts of interest.

AP asked the prosecutors office in January about possible conflicts of interest, and was told the question was totally specious and devoid of any technical basis. Saying there had never been a conflict, the prosecutors said their work in Italy as registered lawyers is only evidence of the professionalism they have achieved.

Francis, for his part, has insisted that the Vatican judiciary has become more independent in recent years and has pointed to the trial as evidence that his financial transparency reforms are working. Yet Francis also boasted that he personally intervened to encourage the two Vatican officials who raised red flags about irregularities in the London deal to make formal complaints to prosecutors.

In his zeal, Francis then issued four separate executive decrees during the two-year investigation giving prosecutors sweeping powers to investigate even where necessary to derogate from existing laws, to conduct wiretaps and to suspend Vatican confidentiality rules for documents.

Defense lawyer Luigi Panella, representing the Vaticans longtime money manager Enrico Crasso, argued during the opening hearing that such interference from the executive power, and the carte blanche Francis gave prosecutors to disregard existing laws, amounted to the creation of an ad hoc special tribunal, which is expressly outlawed in Italy.

Prosecutors, for their part, insisted that the defense rights had all been respected, defended the legitimacy of the trial and Francis executive decrees and reminded lawyers that the churchs canon law forms the basis of Vatican law, not Italian legislation. Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi acknowledged during the July hearing that if there were procedural errors, he was ready to remedy them.

Backing him up, attorney Paola Severino, who is representing the Secretariat of State as an injured party in the case, called for the defense motions to be dismissed.

In addition to the executive decrees, Francis has also intervened personally in the case. He essentially declared Becciu guilty last year when he forced his resignation as head of the Vaticans saint-making office, citing a 100,000 euro transfer of Vatican money to a diocesan charity run by his brother.

Becciu is now on trial for that transfer, but Francis recently told the COPE broadcaster of the Spanish bishops conference he hopes with all my heart, that Becciu is found innocent.

He was a collaborator of mine and helped me a lot, Francis told COPE.  My wish is that it turns out well.
The Treasury Department on Monday announced plans to start reallocating the billions of dollars in federal rental assistance in a bid to get more money into the hands of tenants facing eviction.

The move, which was required by Congress when it allocated the monies, follows the slow distribution of rental assistance in many parts of the country. A little more than 16.5% of the tens of billions of dollars in federal assistance reached tenants in August, compared with 11% a month earlier.

Lawmakers have approved $46.5 billion in spending on rental assistance and Treasury is targeting the first tranche of money known as ERA1 which amounts to $25 billion. States and cities are mostly allocating ERA1 money, which must be spent by Sept. 30, 2022. Allocation of the second installment of $21.5 billion, can go through through Sept. 30, 2025.

The goal, Treasury officials said, is to reallocate money from those programs either dont need it or dont have the desire to set up a program.

Those entities that have not obligated 65% of their ERA1 monies or are found to have an expenditure ratio below 30% as of Sept. 30 based on a Treasury formula will face having the money reallocated. Grantees can avoid losing the money if they submit a plan by Nov. 15 showing how they will improve distribution or are able to get their distribution numbers above the 65% or 30% threshold.

There will also be the option of entities voluntary returning the money, with the goal that it could be redistributed to the same state, territory or tribal area.

Treasury officials did not identify any places that could lose money, but the August data suggest there are a whole host of places that have been slow in getting money out. There was also an expectation that some money would be shifted, based on demand, once the program was up and running.

Ohio, which started strong, saw its distribution decline slightly. Kentucky saw a slight drop in spending from $13.1 million in July to $11.9 million in August. Iowa only distributed $7 million in August. The state of Georgia, meanwhile, only got $13 million out in August and $9 million in July.

But they said that several larger cities, including Houston and Philadelphia, had already exhausted their ERA1 money and were concerned about running through the second tranche in the coming months. Virginia also is in need of additional funds.

Housing advocates blamed the slow rollout on the Treasury Department under President Donald Trump, saying his administration was slow to explain how the money could be spent. They say the guidance is clearer from the Biden administration but the process still seems more focused on preventing fraud than helping tenants.

The Treasury Department credited the increased spending in August to changes that allow tenants to assess their income and risk of becoming homeless, among other criteria. Many states and local government, fearing fraud, have measures in place that can take weeks to verify an applicant qualifies for help.
The COVID-19 patients health was deteriorating quickly at a Michigan hospital, but he was having none of the doctors diagnosis. Despite dangerously low oxygen levels, the unvaccinated man didnt think he was that sick and got so irate over a hospital policy forbidding his wife from being at his bedside that he threatened to walk out of the building.

Dr. Matthew Trunsky didnt hold back in his response: You are welcome to leave, but you will be dead before you get to your car,' he said.

Such exchanges have become all-too-common for medical workers who are growing weary of COVID-19 denial and misinformation that have made it exasperating to treat unvaccinated patients during the delta-driven surge.

The Associated Press asked six doctors from across the country to describe the types of misinformation and denial they see on a daily basis and how they respond to it.

They describe being aggravated at the constant requests to be prescribed the veterinary parasite drug Ivermectin, with patients lashing out at doctors when they are told that its not a safe coronavirus treatment. People routinely cite falsehoods spread on social media, like an Illinois doctor who has people tell him that microchips are embedded in vaccines as part of a ploy to take over peoples DNA. A Louisiana doctor has resorted to showing patients a list of ingredients in Twinkies, reminding those who are skeptical about the makeup of vaccines that everyday products have lots of safe additives that no one really understands.

Here are their stories:

LOUISIANA DOCTOR: Just stop looking at Facebook

When patients tell Dr. Vincent Shaw that they dont want the COVID-19 vaccine because they dont know whats going into their bodies, he pulls up the ingredient list for a Twinkie.

Look at the back of the package, Shaw, a family physician in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Tell me you can pronounce everything on the back of that package. Because I have a chemistry degree, I still dont know what that is.

He also commonly hears patients tell him they havent done enough research about the vaccines. Rest assured, he tells them, the vaccine developers have done their homework.

Then there are the fringe explanations: Theyre putting a tracker in and it makes me magnetic.

Another explanation left him speechless: The patient couldnt understand why they were given this for free, because humanity in and of itself is not nice and people arent nice and nobody would give anything away. So theres no such thing as inherent good nature of man. And I had no comeback from that.

People who get sick with mild cases insist that they have natural immunity. No, youre not a Superman or Superwoman, he tells them.

He said one of the biggest issues is social media, as evidenced by the many patients who describe what they saw on Facebook in deciding against getting vaccinated. That mindset has spawned memes about the many Americans who got their degrees at the University of Facebook School of Medicine.

I am like, No, no, no, no, no. I shake my head, No, no. That is not right, no, no. Stop, stop, just stop looking at Facebook.'

DALLAS ER DOCTOR: Baffled at how hes lost all credibility with anti-vaccine patients

Dr. Stu Coffman has patients tell him they are scared about vaccine side effects. They dont trust the regulatory approval process and raise disproven concerns that the vaccine will harm their fertility. He said the most unexpected thing someone told him was that there was actually poison in the mRNA vaccine  a baseless rumor that originated online.

He is confounded by the pushback.

If youve got a gunshot wound or stab wound or youre having a heart attack, you want to see me in the emergency department, he said. But as soon as we start talking about a vaccine, all of a sudden Ive lost all credibility.

He said the key to overcoming hesitancy is to figure out where it originates. He said when people come to him with concerns about fertility, he can point to specific research showing that the vaccine is safe and their issues are unfounded.

But he says theres no hope in changing the minds of people who think the vaccines are laced with poison. Im probably not going to be able to show you anything that convinces you otherwise.

And he thinks he could change peoples minds about the vaccine if they could follow him around for a shift as he walks past the beds of the sick and dying, almost all of whom are unvaccinated.

KENTUCKY: Political views come into clear focus after diagnosis

Dr. Ryan Stanton recently had a patient who began their conversation by saying, Im not afraid of any China virus. From that point on, he knew what he was up against in dealing with the patients politics and misguided beliefs about the virus.

Stanton blamed people like far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for spreading some of the misinformation that has taken root among his patients. Among them is that the vaccine contains fetal cells. Another said it is a simple fact that the vaccine has killed millions.

In fact, he said, that couldnt be more wrong.

Its tough to watch, especially after living through the early surges. On his worst shift last fall, an elderly nursing home patient arrived, close to death. She hadnt seen her family in months, so staff wheeled her outside in the ambulance bay so her relatives could say their goodbyes from 20 feet away. He snapped a picture of the scene so he could remember the horror.

There was hope after the vaccines arrived, but then came the delta variant and a slowdown in immunizations.

Really it amazes me the number of people who have this huge fear, conspiracy theory about vaccines and will honest to God try anything, including a veterinary medicine, to get better, said Stanton.

MICHIGAN PULMONOLOGIST: Facebook post unleashes his frustration

For Trunsky, the vaccine pushback grew so intense that he turned to Facebook to describe the ire he confronts on a daily basis at Beaumont Hospital in Troy, Michigan. The post listed eight encounters he had in the two previous days alone in which COVID-19 patients explained misinformation-fueled reasons for not getting vaccines or made demands for unproven treatments.

Example No. 5 was a patient who said hed rather die than take the vaccine. Trunskys response: You may get your wish.

He has heard a litany of misinformation about the vaccine: They say its not proven and only experimental when in fact it is not. Others tell him the vaccine is a personal choice and that the government shouldnt tell me what to do. He also has heard patients tell them they are too sick and didnt want to risk the side effects of the vaccine. One young mother told him she wasnt vaccinated because she was breastfeeding, although her pediatrician and obstetrician urged her it was safe. She had to be hospitalized but eventually got a shot.

Others, though, take out their anger on health care providers. Some threaten to call attorneys if they dont get a prescription for Ivermectin, commonly used by veterinarians to kill worms and parasites. The drug can cause harmful side effects and theres little evidence it helps with the coronavirus.

He estimates that he has cared for 100 patients who have died since the pandemic began, including the man who threatened to walk out of the hospital.

ILLINOIS FAMILY PHYSICIAN: Traces misinformation back to Scripture, Nicki Minaj

Dr. Carl Lambert hears lots of wild misinformation from his patients. Some comes from the Bible interpretations; some originates from the rapper Nicki Minaj.

Some of it is the stuff of internet conspiracy theories, like theres a chip in the vaccine that will take over their DNA.

Impossible scientifically, says the family physician in Chicago. He also hears patients tell him that the vaccine will weaken their immune systems. He responds: Immunology 101. Vaccines help your immune system.

Recently he received a flurry of messages from patients who were worried about damage to their testicles  a rumor he ultimately traced back to an erroneous tweet from Minaj alleging that the vaccine causes impotence.

And I was like, Thats outlandish. Thats a bit outrageous. So a lot of just kind of counseling that I did not expect to have to do.

Some of the misinformation is delivered from the pulpit, he said. People have sent him sermons of preachers saying the vaccine is ungodly or theres something in it that will mark you, a reference to a verse in Revelation about the mark of the beast that some Christians cite in not getting vaccinated.

Theres a mixture of like almost fear  and saying, Hey, if you do this, maybe youre not as faithful as you should be as, say, a Christian.'

Most common, though, is patients just wanting to wait, uneasy with how quickly the vaccine was developed. But he warns them, Please do not try to wait out a pandemic. A pandemic will win.

He said his job is a lot of just dismantling what people have heard, answering their questions and reassuring them that vaccines work like this just like when we were kids.

He has had some luck lately in changing minds. Ive had patients that maybe four months ago said You are wasting your time. Dr. Lambert, I dont want to hear you talking about it. And theyll come back and say, Hey, you know what? Ive been watching the news. Ive seen some stuff. I think Im ready now.

UTAH DOCTOR: Fear of vaccine side effects, then fear of dying

When Dr. Elizabeth Middleton talks to COVID-19 patients about why they arent vaccinated, they often cite fear of side effects. But as they get sicker and sicker, a different sort of fear sets in.

They sort of have this sinking look about them, like Oh, my God. This is happening to me. I should have been vaccinated,' said the pulmonary critical care doctor at the University of Utah hospital in Salt Lake City.

She hears often that the vaccine was developed too quickly. Who are you to judge the speed of science? she wonders.

Also frustrating is the idea among some patients that there is a secret agenda behind getting vaccinated.

There must be something wrong if everyone is forcing us to do this or everyone wants us to do this,' patients tell her. And my response to that is, They are urging you to do it because we are in an emergency. This is a pandemic. It is a national and international crisis. That is why we are pushing it.'

Getting through to patients and their families is a delicate line, she says. She tries not to disrupt the patient-doctor relationship by pushing vaccines too hard. But often the people who have been on ventilators need no convincing.

They are like, Tell everyone that they have to be vaccinated. I want to call my family. They need to be vaccinated.'
New Mexicos newest homegrown venture investment platform, GOS Capital, closed Oct. 1 on its first commitment to a local startup, pumping $27,000 into esports company Champria.

Although small, this first investment is one of five deals that GOS Capital expects to close on with local startups this fall, potentially reaching up to $150,000 in seed-level commitments by year-end, said GOS Managing General Partner Scott Goodman.

The investment platform, which Goodman began organizing in 2019, is starting small by design, allowing GOS to gain a track record before raising a formal venture fund next year. For now, Goodman is pooling commitments from individual investors for each new deal, with five people contributing funds to the Champria investment.

Were focused on early-stage companies, mostly at the seed stage, Goodman told the Journal. Well close on a second deal within the next two weeks, likely for about $35,000. I expect a few more investors to join in each new deal, allowing investment levels to grow.

Goodman, 28, has racked up significant experience since 2015 as vice president and head of acquisitions at the Goodman Realty Group, a family business where he sources deals, leads due diligence and originates debt and equity.

After joining the New Mexico Angels investment group a few years ago, Goodman launched GOS to pump more capital into local startups, with nearly two dozen affiliated investors now participating in deals on a case-by-case basis.

GOS is, for now, a minority contributor in deals led by venture funds and other investors. But Goodman hopes to make it a lead investor in the future.

There arent many local investors right now willing to take the lead, Goodman said. I want to position future GOS funds to fill that void. That can help New Mexicos startup community a lot.

Indeed, GOS is a minor participant in Champria, which has raised more than $500,000 to date, including an investment from the Arrowhead Investment Fund at New Mexico State University.

The esports platform went live early this year, providing the amateur video gaming community with an automated venue to recruit players, organize teams and arrange matches. Data analytics allow users to track and rate performance, said founder and CEO Zeke Chavez.

It offers a centralized location for amateur-level teams to come together, visualize data and grow and improve, Chavez told the Journal. Weve done more than 8,000 matches so far, with at least 20,000 players.

Platform use is currently free, allowing Champria to scale up before launching a subscription-based model next year, Chavez said.

Globally, esports revenue climbed above $1 billion in 2019. This year, it attracted nearly 27 million monthly viewers, according to Insider Intelligence.

Goodman said he believes in the future of esports.

Thats why I made Champria the first GOS investment, Goodman said. I believe it will grow very big.
Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  New Mexico reported increases Monday in the number of new COVID-19 infections and patients hospitalized with the disease.

The state Department of Health announced the detection of 1,776 new cases for the three-day period ending Monday, a 15% increase over the number from the same period last week.

This weeks total includes 413 cases in Bernalillo County, 256 in San Juan County and 17 among individuals being held by federal agencies in Otero County.

COVID-19 hospitalizations climbed to 293 patients, a 7% uptick from the figure reported a week ago.

The state also announced 12 more COVID-19 deaths, including three adults from Bernalillo County. The states official death toll now stands at 4,823 residents.

People who arent fully vaccinated made up 93% of the fatalities over a recent four-week period, according to epidemiology reports issued by the state.

A technical problem kept the state from providing a vaccine update, but through Friday, about 70.8% of the states adults had completed their vaccine series. The adult vaccination rate is highest among people 65 and older, and its lowest for residents 18 to 24 years old.

New Mexicos mask mandate for indoor public spaces, meanwhile, is set to expire Oct. 15, though it could be extended.

Public health officials said last week that New Mexicos late-summer surge in COVID-19 cases  driven by the highly contagious delta variant  may be receding, though hospitals have remained largely full.
Updated 2:15 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021 - Authorities in Huntington Beach have said that crude oil is not leaking from a Southern California pipeline at this time. Amplify Energy CEO Martyn Willsher told the Associated Press on Sunday that divers are trying to figure out exactly where the spill happened. Willsher said the pipeline has been shut off.

Authorities closed miles of beaches in Southern California on Sunday, saying at least 126,000 gallons of oil has spilled into the waters off of Orange County.

According to the mayor of Huntington Beach is saying the city's beaches could remain closed for weeks or even months.

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LONG BEACH, Calif.  A 13 square mile oil spill has been located three miles off of the coast of Newport Beach in Southern California.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, a response has been organized by a unified command consisting of Beta Offshore, the Coast Guard, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlifes Office of Spill Prevention and Response (CDFW-OSPR). Supporting agencies are the cities of Long Beach, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, and the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

The Coast Guard received an initial report of an oil sheen off the coast of Newport Beach Saturday at approximately 9:10 a.m.

CDFW-OSPR is monitoring for oiled wildlife. People are being asked to call the Oiled Wildlife Care Network at 1-877-823-6926 if they see any wildlife in distress.

U.S. Coast Guard officials are also asking being to avoid the area as they work to investigate the spill and clean up the oil and any associated damage.

Trained spill response contractors are working to clean up oil. Public volunteers are not needed and could hinder response efforts, said authorities.

The cause of the spill, volume, and type of oil is currently under investigation.
BANGOR, Calif. - The Bangor Ranch Vineyard and Winery burned down in 2017, but is now ready to serve people during this month's Sierra Oro Farm Trail event.

Co-owner of the winery, Karen Papillon said the La Porte Fire burned down over 168 trees on their property.

The fire when it came, it ended up burning the entire winery down which was all of our inventory, olive oil and our wine. It also burned the olive orchard, we lost at the time 85 trees up in our olive orchard because we do make olive oil too. On the property itself on the oak area and around we lost about 168 trees on the property," said Papillon.

Papillon said they finished building the winery and new tasting room in 2020, but the Sierra Oro Farm Trail event was canceled last year from the pandemic, so this is the first year where people can enjoy wine during the event in their new facilities.

She said she feels lucky since two buildings on the property, including a house, did not burn down which allowed them to invite visitors back to the property earlier before rebuilding the other facilities.

This year's Sierra Oro Farm Trail event includes a farm and wine pass that gives people access to 31 wineries, farms, factories and ranches throughout October.

Dick Seely, who lives in Chico, said he is happy to see the event back since he goes every year.

Weve been coming on the wine tour or the Sierra Oro Farm tour for I think like six or seven years, so we were here before the fire," said Seely.

With the pass, people get free tastings and discounts at Butte County farms and wineries.
COTTONWOOD, Calif.- The 8th Annual Raw Milk and Cookies Day event at Duivenvoorden Farms is back better than ever after being canceled due to the pandemic.

This event gives families a chance to get out of the house and try some raw milk and delicious cookies. Ali Duivenvoorden, the co-owner of this Duivenvoorden farm, tells Action News Now events like this are vital to bringing the community together.

Its important to our community because people are still able to come out and see where their food comes from; you know, we still have families that can bring their kids. They get to play in their dirt and get to see animals and understand agriculture, said Duivenvoorden.

Audrey Pascone works for Red Gate Ranch and she says her produce has been in high demand since the pandemic.

It makes us feel great because local food is so important, especially for times like this; its pretty scary when the grocery store shelves are empty, and everybody is very interested in making connections with local producers. Its wonderful to be back out here again, Pascone said.

Meanwhile, some families say this event gives children a chance to get off their smartphones and learn about farm animals.

A lot of people dont have farm animals, so this is such a great experience for those kids, to be able to see how a dairy works and see how much work and effort goes into it, Micalyn Zacharias said.

The Duivenvoorden family farm bakes about 3,000 cookies a year and gives them out to their customers as a thank you. Duivenvoorden tells Action News Now her family farm has been dairying in Northern California for over 50 years.
LASSEN COUNTY, Calif.  A gunfight took place in Westwood on Saturday evening that has resulted in an arrest for attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. One man ended up arrested in Butte County, and another is still on the loose.

The Lassen County Sheriffs Office told Action News Now on Sunday that the shooting incident occurred on the 300 block of Fir St. at approximately 6:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Deputies said a woman called dispatch and reported that she witnessed a black Ford Ranger towing a utility trailer pull up and park behind her neighbors garage in the alley. Deputies said the witness saw a man getting out of the Ranger with a gun. Another man, deputies were told, was standing near the garage, also with a gun.

Deputies said the man driving the Ford Ranger was later identified as 43-year-old Nikolas Senavsky of Westwood. They said the other man standing near the garage was later identified as 38-year-old "DJ" Walker.

Deputies said the two men briefly exchanged gunfire and then got into their prospective vehicles and fled the scene.

According to investigators, there was a lot of evidence collected, including blood, surveillance video and spent shell casings. Deputies also canvassed the neighborhood to search for any other witnesses or victims.

According to the Lassen County Sheriffs Office, Nikolas Senavsky went to Seneca Hospital in Chester for treatment of injuries and was then flown to Chico to Enloe Medical Center for further treatment.

Deputies said when Senavsky was released, he was arrested on the attempted murder and assault charges and was also charged with being a felon with a firearm.

On Sunday, Senavsky was in custody at the Butte County Jail. According to Lassen County officials, Senavsky will be transported back to Lassen County to face the charges.

Deputies said they have not been able to find the other man they believe was involved in the exchange of gunfire. They are asking that anyone with information on the whereabouts of DJ Walker should call the Lassen County Sheriff's Office at (530) 257-6121.
CHICO, Calif. - Pug Sunday, a non-profit organization, held its 21st annual costume contest at Hooker Oak Park in Chico.

I love pugs and I love when he gets to play with other dogs, pug owner Callan Hoiland told Action News Now.

Hoiland was filled with excitement. He was showing off his dog, Oliver, at the popular Chico event.

Went to the store and saw a lot of costumes -- and wanted him to be a dragon, explained Hoiland.

After being canceled for 2020 due to the pandemic, organizer Sandi Castellano is thankful for the event's return.

I was very excited to have it this year because I missed it! exclaimed Castellano.

This is a fun event where people come and showcase their cute and pudgy pugs in costumes and is also a place where people come to make donations to the Pug Sunday organization. donations

Pug Sunday uses the money they raise for rescues their volunteers perform. Also, they sometimes need to pay for medical expenses for rescue dogs, and the annual event helps cover that.

The Pug Sunday organization will host its next event in December (on the first Sunday). During that event, people will be able to bring their pugs to sit on Santas lap and take pictures.
Authorities say a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent was killed when a passenger opened fire as officers were doing a routine inspection for illegal contraband on an Amtrak train in Tucson, Arizona.

A second agent and a Tucson police officer were also wounded the shooting Monday.

Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus says officers were detaining a man on the upper level of the car when a second man pulled out a handgun and began firing.

The gunman exchanged several rounds with police and was later found dead in the bathroom.

There were no other injuries.

The train was carrying 137 passengers and 11 crew members.
Some of the smoke from the fires in Southern California has moved into our area. Most of it is concentrated in the mid-levels of the atmosphere, but some has filtered down to the surface giving way to a hazy sky and low end of the moderate level of air quality. We will continue to see the haze this evening even as the southerly winds return to a calm level. Temperatures for the valley are expected to be in the mid to upper 50s with the 30s and 40s possible in the higher elevations.

To start off the work week, wind gusts up to 15mph from the south are possible, this will allow for more smoke to continue to filter into our area. Hazy conditions will be dominant for most of the day, lowering the maximum potential for our high temperatures. Overall, it will be slightly cooler tomorrow with temperatures in the upper 80s to around 90 in the valley while the higher elevations can expect temperatures in the upper 70s to mid-80s.

The weather pattern begins to change significantly on Tuesday as a trough of low pressure develops off the coast, allowing for temperatures to drop into the low 80s on Tuesday for the valley. The biggest uncertainty with the new weather pattern will be the timing and potential of showers in our area. The biggest chance for showers will be in the mountains from Tuesday through Friday. Although this is still very uncertain. The aspect of the weather with the most certainty is the arrival of cooler temperatures and breezy conditions. By Thursday and Friday, highs in the valley are expected to remain in the upper 60s. As we head into next weekend, temperatures are beginning to rebound to the upper 70s to low 80s on Sunday with sunshine returning to the area.
Bringing a different perspective to stories, documentaries tell tales of the unheard. With audiences for the format expanding and streaming services like Netflix making them more accessible, documentaries have broken out from being just festival interests. Netflix brings the genre closer to its fans with Decoding Documentaries - a panel discussion where the fans got insights around the creative process of making documentaries from some of the best creators in film making.

Claire Cahill, Series Producer, Crime Stories: India Detectives; Dylan Mohan Gray, Director, Bad Boy Billionaires; Leena Yadav, Showrunner, House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths along with Tanya Bami, Director, International Originals, Netflix India discussed what brings them close to the genre of documentaries. The panelists talked about the unseen journeys that these creators bring to life as they trace some real life terrors, inexplicable stories of some breathtaking incidents and what goes behind creating them.

Talking about the pre-production that Crime Stories: India Detectives required, Claire Cahill, Series Producer, Crime Stories: India Detectives said, Crime Stories: India Detectives took almost 3 years to be made. Our first trip to Bangalore was in 2018, when we started conversations with the commissioner who was very responsive about making a series that followed live investigations. These conversations progressed and we obtained all the necessary permissions over a period of 18 months, our filming period was over 5 months. The process of gaining trust and having conversations with all the necessary parties in order to cover an investigation in the way that we did involved an enormous amount of work.

Talking about the planning and research that went on, Dylan Mohan Gray, Director, Bad Boy Billionaires said, So much of what we do in documentaries is about creating relationships of trust with different kinds of people. I understood the importance of diversity of voices and to allow the audience to triangulate what they feel about the story. During my research I realized that the story is quite different from the one that was put out there, it's much more complex than that. The story is about many other things, it touched upon so many interesting aspects of Indian culture and society, this to me was very fascinating.

Leena Yadav, Showrunner and Co-Director, House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths on how difficult it was to get people who were a part of the incident as part of the docu-series said, Those were very difficult conversations, I must admit. But I will always remember a beautiful incident that happened, while we were interviewing the family members, one of them came up to me and thanked me saying that this was like therapy for him. This is when I felt as if we're doing the right thing. We covered a total of 400 hours of interviews and having those conversations were definitely difficult and emotionally draining but this has been a big learning for me.

Tanya Bami, Director, International Originals at Netflix India on what motivates Netflix to strongly foray into the documentaries genre said, It is magical to sit in a room with a creator who has a vision and to go through that experience through their eyes. Netflix strives to bring creative excellence by enabling their vision and offering a window to reach audiences in 190+ countries. We want to tell stories that are authentic and relevant. Its all about finding that unique story that has resonance within India, a distinct vision and an engaging creative take. When a story is good and compelling, it finds an audience anywhere in the world.

Watch Crime Stories: Indian Detectives, House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths, Bad Boy Billionaires and many more exclusively on Netflix!
Reckitts flagship campaign, Dettol Banega Swasth India, has improved 25 million lives while engaging with 116 million people since its inception in 2014. Now, Reckitt has announced its journey ahead from Swasth Bharat to Sampann Bharat at a 12-hour Telethon focused on UNs 2030 agenda on Sustainable Development and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with Leave No One Behind. The event highlighted the need to create a healthier planet and healthier future with the theme  One Health, One Planet, One Future.

Reckitt, via its flagship Dettol Banega Swasth India campaign, aims to triple its social impact by 2026 to reach 47 million lives across India. The campaign aims to reach 100% primary schools in India with its Dettol Hygiene Curriculum program.

Dettol Banega Swasth India launched Season 8 of Swasth Bharat, Sampann Bharat with campaign ambassador Amitabh Bachchan in the presence of leading subject stalwarts from around the world. Talking about the initiative, Amitabh Bachchan said, Health is the key to our future, to building a prosperous India, only a Swasth Bharat can be a Sampann Bharat. We need programs like Banega Swasth India to work towards good hygiene, good nutrition, sound science, clean and green environment and more affordable access to healthcare for all and especially, how we all come together to help each other- bring social equity and justice to our most vulnerable and indigenous populations. Leave No One Behind.

Speaking on the occasion, Laxman Narasimhan, Global CEO, Reckitt, elaborated, We are aware of the environmental, health and social challenges that we face every single day. Our focus is to mitigate negative impacts and make a positive contribution in a way that will help us create a healthier planet. I am happy to share that with Banega Swasth India we are looking to triple our social impact by reaching out to 47 million people by 2026. Our commitment towards creating a Sampann Bharat is aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goal vision of 2030  Leave No One Behind. We at Reckitt are focused on doing our bit towards Indias economic and social development.

This year, Dettol Banega Swasth India showcased Indias progress in the last 75 years towards Health, Hygiene and Nutrition. One of the key agendas was the UN vision of 2030  Leave No One Behind  to showcase the programs focus towards identifying inequalities and using tools that will help in ending any kind of discrimination and exclusion. The event also brought out the need for addressing relevant issues like mental health, sexual health & well-being and self-care to create a healthier nation. Climate change is a global phenomenon which has been aggressively taken up by Reckitt in its vision to create a healthier planet.

Dettol BSI has committed:

100% primary schools in India will have access to the Dettol Hygiene School Curriculum

Dettol Hygiene Impact Bonds will cover all aspirational districts of Uttar Pradesh

6 million additional new mothers will be equipped with healthy self-care practices via digital, blended and community-based intervention models

Reach 10 million youth by educating them on sexual health and well-being

Environment and Climate Changeprojects in the Eastern Himalayan Region and Ganga River Basin

Development of Indias first Climate Resilience Index

The 12-hour long Telethon witnessed participation from prominent public figures from India and across the globe. The conversations were stirred towards health and its connection with economic growth and productivity, using economic inputs to inform policies and improve health outcomes and Leaving No One Behind.

Some of the program highlights since last year:
As a part of its World Marketing and Communications Day (3rd. October) program, the International Advertising Association (IAA) has launched a month-long initiative aimed at infusing a spirit of compassion and caring into society.

Says Megha Tata, President IAA India Chapter, "we are absolutely delighted with the global initiative to show that #IAACares. The India Chapter has walked the talk with its Olive Crown Awards, gender sensitivity programs, anti-voter-apathy campaign, elder care campaigns and its campaigns to raise funds for natural disasters. This is in addition to its recent empathy campaign for the marcom industry.

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During this month we will be implementing a thought to honor the memory of those marcom professionals who were unfortunately claimed by Covid.

We will also honor some unsung heroes who, during the lockdown, stepped up to help various causes, proving that creativity and compassion were not locked down. This will be done during our IndIAA Awards presentation event later this month.

We will also continue to partner good NGO's for meaningful causes as we have done in the past. In fact, I appeal to the advertising and media companies to adopt one cause each, and use their creative capabilities to help the activities of any one NGO, who in their opinion is doing great work. The kind of amplification of good work that would result, would be amazing.

I am also happy to announce that in the spirit of #IAACares , we would once again play a major role in upcoming civic elections due in Maharashtra. Both in terms of educating the public about voter registration as well as later on, urging people to cast their vote."
Kaizzen, a leading independent integrated communication and marketing agency, has strengthened its Digital operations, with the appointment of Rakschit Bhardwaj as Head Digital. Rakschit will lead full service Digital offerings and help the new and existing clients transform their digital processes, Integrated strategies, brand building and ROI driven marketing, MarTech and experiential services.

Rakschit comes with a rich and vast experience of over 18 years in driving digital transformation for brands and creative strategies across the region. His expertise in handling Technology, Startup, FMCG, and telecom will play a key role in growing operations. Rakschit also comes with a girth of experience in leading specific market operations roles and building teams.

We are happy to have someone of Rakschit's caliber joining us. His rich experience in handling Digital and creative services for leading brands will help strengthen our services and team. For Kaizzen, Digital is a sunrise market, and we see this as a great opportunity to provide best in class services. I am confident that Rakschit, with his experience and expertise, will help us to take Kaizzen's ambitions forward". said Vineet Handa, CEO, Kaizzen.

I am excited to join Kaizzen, a fast growing, award-winning integrated communication and marketing firm to build the digital footprint across India and International market. My sincere thanks to Vineet for believing in my capabilities and for having me as part of his team. I look forward to bringing in my learnings to help accelerate Kaizzens growth in India, said Rakschit Bhardwaj.

Rakschit has been a part of the leadership and worked with mid and large Advertising agencies and corporates including Rediffusion Y&R, DDB Mudra, McCann, Havas Media, TUI, Select Group and more in the past. Currently based in New Delhi, Rakschit has 18+ years of experience in managing brands from India, US, Germany, and Singapore.
Just in time for World Animal Day (4 October), Lakme  ranked the number one make-up brand in the country  is joining PETA US Global Beauty Without Bunnies programme, which certifies cosmetics, personal-care, and household goods companies and brands that don't test on animals. Lakme, which is owned by Hindustan Unilever, will now feature the programmes PETA-approved bunny logo on its packaging.



Not testing any of our products on animals is critical to our values at Lakme and is in line with Unilevers Positive Beauty vision, says Sumati Matti, head of innovations at Lakme. PETAs Beauty Without Bunnies programme is recognised worldwide for its high-quality standards and rigour, and we are proud to be a brand that is officially PETA-approved. With Lakmes range of high-performance and world-class cosmetics, skin-care products, and beauty salons, women can own their look while knowing that the beauty and safety from our products are from scientific alternatives to animal testing.

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The three part docu-series explores the mystery behind Indias infamous Burari Case, where 11 members across three generations of a family were found dead under strange circumstances in their house in Delhi. Releasing on October 8, 2021, House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths takes viewers through different stages of the investigation, bringing forth striking and unexpected revelations.

Directed by Leena Yadav and Anubhav Chopra, with an original score composed and produced by A R Rahman and Qutub-E-Kripa, the docu-series is set to take viewers into a world with many layers.

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Director and Showrunner, House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths, Leena Yadav shares, Working on this docu-series has in many ways redefined me as a film-maker. This case is one of a kind that brings to the surface some unfathomable truths of society, truths that need to be confronted and discussed. Exploring the case threw up many pertinent questions and revelations about the times that we live in. I look forward to presenting through this docu-series a case that is much more about us (society) than them (the family).

House Of Secrets: Burari Deaths

Releasing on October 8, 2021 on Netflix

Showrunner: Leena Yadav

Executive Producers: Leena Yadav, Aseem Bajaj, James Haygood

Producers: Yogendra Mogre, Katherine Leblond

Director: Leena Yadav, Anubhav Chopra

Original Score Composed and Produced: A R Rahman, Qutub-E-Kripa
Its big news! One of the most respected and trusted brands for Lighting, Home Appliances, Fans, Steel Pipes and PVC pipes in India, Surya Roshni has announced the launch of its new logo and identity as part of the ongoing refresh of the brand. The new logo capture Suryas vision of transforming into a modern, innovative, progressive and stylish brand.

Surya Roshni has emerged as a frontrunner in the Lighting & Consumer Durables and Steel Pipes & Strips industries, with a turnover of INR 5561 crores in 2020-21. Extensive consumer research done earlier this year showed that Surya is a strong, trusted brand.

Keeping customers at the centre of its business, it is now emphasizing invigorating its brand by changing the logo and brand identity. It will have a unified brand identity that stretches across all its businesses (Surya Roshni  the corporate brand, Surya - the mother brand, Surya Consumer Lighting, Surya LED Lighting, Surya Smart Lighting, Surya Professional Lighting, Surya Fans, Surya Appliances and Prakash Surya - the brand used by the Steel and PVC businesses), specifically ensuring strong connect & relevance for the consumer businesses of Lighting, Fans and Appliances.

The company has also onboarded Ogilvy and Mather as its creative partners to strengthen its value proposition in building a new brand identity.

Commenting on the brand refresh, Mr. Nirupam Sahay, ED & CEO, Lighting & Consumer Durables, Surya Roshni, said, Suryas business has grown tremendously and evolved over the years. Now, as we prepare to celebrate our 50th anniversary in 2023, we felt it was time for a change in our logo and brand identity. We wanted to create a logo that is bold and impactful, one that stands for confidence and trust, and is modern but still rooted in our glorious past.

Commenting on the partnership with Surya Roshni, Mr. Shouvik Roy, President & Head of Office, Ogilvy Delhi, said, We are delighted to partner Surya Roshni in their journey of transformation. The new brand identity is a first significant step in that direction. We are also gearing up for many key initiatives that will help cement Surya Roshni's place as a trusted brand that is confident of taking on the challenges in 2022 and beyond. -

The new brand logo will feature across all channels, including Advertising (TV, Print, OOH), Digital (Website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn etc.), Point of sale material (Flyers, banners, shelf strips, stands etc.), Packaging, Glow sign boards, Dealer signboards, Flex boards; and internal communication.
Theres a lot of disparity here. Shouldnt someone try to make sense out of unrelenting increases and figure out why individual places have such horrific numbers? Is there no end in sight? When will things get bad enough for health officials to wake up to whats happening?

Im talking about news reports on research showing that in many places the autism numbers are through the roof. For instance, North Carolina: one in 39, South Korea: one in 38, New Jersey: one in 32, Hong Kong: one in 27, Northern Ireland: one in 22, and most recently Toms River, NJ: one in every 14 students, one in every 8 boys.

I have to point out that there have been little additions to these inexplicable numbers, additions that were neatly and quickly swept away with no follow-up.

STILL each and every increase was the same, no increase in the actual number of kids with autism.

2007: one in 150, 2009: one in 110, 2012: one in 88, 2014: one in 68, 2018: one in 59, (also in 2018: one in 40 according to a separate study published in JAMA), 2020: one in 54.

One in 166 is nothing compared to the statistics weve grown accustomed to over the years.

Its important to note that the U.S. autism rate back in 2006 was one in every 166 children, as announced in 2004. That, of course, was the result of better diagnosing/no real increase.

In my original piece in 2006 I talked about my experiences when my son, who is now 35, was first diagnosed in the 1990s. Back then autism was this rare, mysterious disorder.

This is the rule written in stone that there has not been nor will ever be a real increase in the number of children with autismno matter what the rate.

In the following years I put out additions to the Really Big Lie story because its the lie that cant ever die.

A number of years ago I started writing about something I call The Really Big Lie about Autism.

Each and every increase in autism has been explained away by some notable from the CDC, often in a US Public Health uniform, advising us that officials do not know if THIS increase shows a real increase in the number of children with autism. (Actually that cryptic statement means FROM THE LAST BIG LEAP IN THE AUTISM RATE, but the press dutifully reports on it as NO REAL INCREASE EVER.)

Arguably the medical community and US health officials have done nothing over the last 20 years to address the autism epidemic except watch the numbers of disabled children explode while telling us it wasnt real.

Its clear that three things are inevitable because events are beyond our control now:

Autism statistics will not level out; they will only get worse because were doing nothing to stop them. Health officials will continue to accept whatever the numbers are with no alarm or even real concern. (No one at the CDC has ever referred to autism using the word crisis.) The CDC will continue to repeat The Really Big Lie, no matter how bad things get.

I added that third point because its way too late for anyone at the CDC to announce, Oops, there really are more children with autism. Its not better diagnosing/greater awareness/expanded definition. We messed up on this big time. Sorry.

This brings me to the latest official fantasy about autism from the UK.

All one has to do is look at my website, Loss of Brain Trust to understand that Britain is on borrowed time when it comes to handling autism.



On Loss of Brain Trust I report on news stories about the decline of education due to the massive numbers of disabled students, and I show that the UK is now overwhelmed with special education costs, predominately because of the growth of autism.

The words increased demand and expected growth are endlessly chimed with no explanations given. Everywhere in Britain they are spending millions locally on new special schools/autism schools. The same thing is happening in Ireland.

The national government in each country pours billions into schools to provide for the disabled, yet educators continue to show no real alarm. The adjectives excited and delighted are often the terms used by officials when talking about having to add autism classes, units, and even building whole schools for autistic students. Dont worry, everything is fine. Were delighted to be doing this.

Projections

Were also told its not going to stop. Many places in the UK expect the exponential growth to continue. County councils provide school funding, and they routinely forecast MORE AUTISTIC STUDENTS in the years to come.

So, how long can this disaster continue before everything just collapses moneywise?

There are some people raising questions. Ive seen stories, but anyone even hinting that we should look into the special education numbers is immediately slammed as attacking the disabled.

In the midst of this impossible situation is the latest research from Exeter University in Britain. Only the totally clueless will take this seriously, but it is getting media attention. Its the latest update on the REALLY BIG LIE ABOUT AUTISM, a kind of new spin on the old lie.

A 787 percent increase in autism over the lasts 20 years in the UK is due to increasing recognition of the disorder in girls and in adults. Case closed.

Heres the spin:

Irish Times:

The number of people diagnosed with autism in England has jumped more than twentyfold in two decades, with a greater rise among females and adults, new research has found.

University of Exeter researchers say the 787 per cent rise from 1998 to 2018, identified using the GP records of more than nine million patients, is likely due to increasing recognition and understanding of autism.

The UK Times:

A diagnosis of autism has become meaningless, one scientist has claimed, after the number of new cases rose by 787 per cent in two decades.

There has been an explosive growth in autism diagnoses in England, largely due to an increase in recognition. The rise, between 1998 and 2018, was greater in women than men, and the highest rise recorded in adult diagnosis.

Uta Frith, a neuroscientist and emeritus professor of cognitive development at University College London, said the figures showed that urgent changes were needed in how the condition is diagnosed. It strongly suggests that the diagnosis of autism has been stretched to breaking point and has outgrown its purpose, she said.

Medical Express:

The number of people diagnosed with autism has jumped by 787 percent in the past two decades, a new study shows, likely an effect of increasing recognition. The exponential increasebetween 1998 and 2018was greater for females than males, with the greatest rises among adults.

iNews:

Adult diagnoses have been a particular feature of the rise and the University of Exeter researchers who carried out the study believe the huge increase in cases is attributable primarily to better identification.

Daily Mail:

Autism diagnoses in England have soared nearly eight-fold in the past two decades, a study has shown.

UK researchers said the 'explosive' rise was likely due to increased awareness and screening for the condition. 

Lead author of the study Ginny Russel said this growth was driven by more cases in girls and adults, which suggested better identification of autism as the cause.

(Several of these stories do admit that a real increase may have contributed to the increase in prevalence, but that caveat is buried deep in the story and certainly not in the headline.)

The lie lives on.

So an autism rate that is based on studies of eight year olds is growing because were finally diagnosing it in two neglected groups, namely females, along with adults in general. How does that work exactly? No one asks.

In 2011 research from the UK showed that, as a result of a phone survey, the autism rate among adults was comparable to the rate we see in children. Case closed.

That was bogus of course, but it got a lot of press coverage. No one bothered to ask why the autism we see in children leaves them nonverbal, self-abusing, chronically ill and learning impaired. This group would hardly be able to respond to questions over the phone.

The latest science claiming that more females and adults diagnosed with autism explains why theyre building whole schools for autism in Britain is a real stretch of the imagination.

Studies like the one in 2011 and this latest one from the UK have to be funded of course. Theyre the red herrings that allow everyone to sleep nights.
Religion is a belief system based on a combination of logic and faith, mostly beyond the realm of what can be proven scientifically. A dictionary definition is, Religion is belief in a god or gods and the activities that are connected with this belief, such as praying or worshipping in a building such as a church or temple.

Or in simpler terms, religion can create order and meaning in a random and chaotic world. Religion is also strongly held and deeply personal, not something tossed aside based on the words of a government, politician, or celebrity.

For many, politics has become a religion and. as a centuries-old etiquette rule advises, Never discuss politics or religion in polite company. Unfortunately, today, science has now become political and entered the realm of religion.

For decades, communism was the primary religion of the left. The fall of the Soviet Union and socio-economic failures of Cuba, Venezuela, and other communist dictatorships steered the left toward a new god, mother earth or, simply, the environment. This religion morphed from global cooling in the 1970s to global warming a decade later, now to climate change or extreme weather -- normal cyclic events that have been a part of life on Planet Earth since long before humans existed.

While climate change has been the excuse for massive tax and spend schemes of wealth redistribution and top-down population control, the movement was stalling as the fear-mongering became less credible to much of the population. Time for replacing an environmental god with a deadly virus, whose treatment and control may achieve what global warming and climate change could not. The left treats both climate and COVID with the religious fervor of jihad.

Religion has 7 basic elements. How are the religions of climate and COVID similar?

Beliefs  the planet and civilization will be destroyed due to man-made global warming or a man-made (increasingly likely) virus. The left believes this with absolute certainty. Just speak with your liberal friends or listen to cable news for confirmation. Immediate and severe measures are necessary, or we are facing an extinction event, despite ample evidence to the contrary.

Religious organization  both climate and COVID are organized around fear, large powerful government organizations, and the media pushing and amplifying such fear, proposing new bureaucracies, or empowering existing ones to make totalitarian decisions confiscating both wealth and freedom.

Emotions  fear is the primary emotion for both belief systems. For climate, it is fear of starvation and an end to normal life. For COVID its fear of death from a virus with a greater than 99 percent survival rate. Emotional images are used, from a polar bear floating on an ice cap to a crowded emergency room or ICU, even if the photos are staged or have little to do with the issue at hand.

Sacred objects  the climate movement has windmills, solar panels, and electric vehicles as their sacred objects with no acknowledgment that their religious icons are currently doing little to solve the supposed problem they are meant to fix. In COVID, the sacred objects are the almighty face mask, largely symbolic and previously acknowledged to be useless for a respiratory virus by Dr. Fauci and others. The vaccine syringe is another sacred object, worshipped by late night political cranks like Stephen Colbert performing an embarrassing and insipid vaccine dance featuring dancing syringes. As if Colberts foolishness will change the minds of the vaccine-hesitant.

YouTube screen grab

Symbols  these can be lumped together with sacred objects. Add in the myriad awareness ribbons proudly displayed by those who care more about important issues than you do, and Im vaccinated stickers or a vaxed necklace worn by New Yorks new governor as she systematically shuts down her state.

Sects  several sects exist within these two movements. Both are populated largely by Democrats and leftists but also virtue-signaling Republicans who want to appear woke, hoping to avoid ostracization or cancellation. Examples include Senator Mitt Romney, once an uber capitalist, now willing to throw untold dollars at manufactured problems and causes to make sure the Washington Post and CNN dont say mean things about him.

There are other commonalities between climate and COVID, nicely compiled by physicist John Droz, Jr. Both pseudo religions use fear of an invisible enemy, a warming planet, or a virus, to make the public afraid and compliant.

The fear is based on situational science which changes based on the narrative of the day. For example, global cooling changed to global warming, then to climate change when meaningful cooling or warming could not be verified or accurately modeled. With COVID we went from 15 days to slow the spread and masks are unnecessary to vaccines are safe and effective and vaccines will return life to normal with the vaccinated dont need to wear masks to a pandemic of the unvaccinated, now to vaccines dont prevent infection or transmission, and only reduce the risk of hospitalization and death. One would think the world is dealing with its first respiratory virus and vaccination program given how fast everyone seems to be learning on the job.

Prophets of doom and salvation spread the message, from Al Gore to Anthony Fauci, and profit often follows the prophet, as it does with some fabulously wealthy leaders of the mega-churches. Hypocrisy abounds as well. Green Al Gores home electricity bill is 20 times the national average. Dr. Fauci and others go maskless when it suits them or when the cameras are off while telling the rest of us to wear two masks.

Scientific organizations are complicit in pushing their religions, from NOAA to the CDC, and the media happily joins the chorus as they are part of the religious congregations, even if in their private lives they behave otherwise. Think CNNs Chris Cuomo as an example.

The religious zealots propose solutions that are profitable to favored political groups, from Solyndras solar panels to the big pharma vaccine makers. COVID vaccines created 9 new billionaires. Is Senator Elizabeth Warren scolding them, You didnt build that?

Proposed solutions are experimental and of limited benefit, carrying significant adverse effects, some of which make the problem worse.

From rolling blackouts and rising gas prices to windmills chopping up birds on the climate side, to endless lockdowns, vaccine mandates, mask rules, and business closures, destroying the health and lives of so many on the COVID side.

Common sense, safe, and inexpensive solutions are castigated and dismissed, whether nuclear energy or ivermectin. All are tossed aside in favor of more expensive and potentially more harmful remedies that are not even solving the problem they are supposed to solve.

China finds itself in the middle of both religions, as the worlds biggest polluter, now going on a coal spree and serving as the source as the original Wuhan coronavirus.

The previously mentioned New York Governor Kathy Hochul confirmed the new COVID religion while recently speaking at a Brooklyn church. She claimed the vaccines were divinely inspired and that congregants were her apostles, taking the role of Jesus, urging everyone to get vaccinated. Perhaps Saint Kathy should check in with the Book of Matthew, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

Finally, both religions seek to undermine America, her economy, Constitution, and way of life, taking liberty and freedom away from Americans, replaced with a top-down command and control government dictating our every behavior. Globalism is the goal, a great reset, or a one-world government, controlled by the self-appointed elites who rule over the masses.

This is hardly the message taught by most of the worlds great religions, but we are in a new world, with a new religion of the left, climate and, now, COVID. Shout Hosanna, put on your mask, get in your electric car, and drive to the nearest vaccination center.

Brian C Joondeph, MD, is a fully vaccinated physician and writer who faithfully recycles and may someday purchase an electric vehicle.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
Be sure youre right. Then go ahead  The Davy Crockett Show

This is a cautionary tale of two American soldiers. Nearly a century spans the incidents that brought them their notoriety, yet the issues they evoke are exactly the same and timeless: Does an active-duty officer in the military have the right, a moral obligation even, to criticize the actions of his superiors, both military and civilian, if he firmly believes that those actions are incompetent and have dire consequences?

Our first soldier, William Billy Mitchell was born in December 1879 into a family of wealth and influence. He seemed a man destined for success. Opting for an army career, he became enamored of early developments in the field of aviation and joined the fledgling US Air Service, then a part of the Signal Corps.

Following distinguished service in WWI, during which he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General, he continued to advocate for American airpower during the lean post-WWI years when military budgets were being slashed to the bare bone. Regarded as a visionary and a man way ahead of his time, Mitchell made a number of prophecies...all of which eventually came true.

Among other things, Mitchell foresaw the mass bombing of civilian population centers, airborne armies being dropped behind enemy lines, and the battleships replacement by the aircraft carrier as the dominant naval vessel. These ideas were all regarded as crackpot in the early 1920s, yet he continued to advocate for his cause, making many enemies as well as friends along the way.

Mitchells undoing came in September 1925 when a Navy dirigible, the USS Shenandoah, crashed during a severe thunderstorm killing 14 men. The airship had been ordered aloft as a public relations gesture during a period of severe weather over the protestations of its own Captain.

Mitchell offered his opinion on this and other incidents that had previously occurred: These terrible accidents are the direct results of incompetency, criminal negligence and almost treasonable administration of the National Defense by the War and Navy Departments.

This was the last straw for the army. He was charged with insubordination, court-martialed, convicted, and suspended from duty for five years without pay. He chose to resign from the army and continued to espouse the cause of American airpower, but his time had passed.

Mitchell died in 1936 in relative obscurity, five years before his most famous prediction came to pass. That would be what he wrote in 1924: One day Japan will seek to attack the United States through the Hawaiian Islands; some fine Sunday morning.

Fast forward to 2021, and another US military officer finds himself facing disciplinary action for asking his superiors to take responsibility for the fiasco that was the Afghan withdrawal. Marine Lieutenant-Colonel Stuart Scheller does not have Billy Mitchells panache, public visibility, or prophetic powers. Nor does he appear to have any friends or admirers in high places.

To date, he is the only serving officer in the entire US military to ask for some kind of accounting for the Afghanistan debacle. For having the audacity to question the competency of his superiors, both in the Pentagon and the federal government, he was relieved of his command and ordered to undergo psychiatric examination, as if the very act of asking a question rendered him mentally unfit. He is currently being held in a military brig, purportedly in solitary confinement, awaiting possible court-martial.

Stuart Scheller is a 17-year combat veteran, having serviced multiple deployments. He was some two years away from being able to collect his retirement benefits. He undertook those actions knowing full well what the consequences to himself and his family could be.

Scheller did not have to speak out. He could have remained silent, soldiered on, and kept his job. Had he embraced the woke ideology that seems to be pervasive in todays military, he might have been on the fast track to wearing his own set of stars on the epaulets of his uniform. But Scheller is an honorable man and the thought of acting in a dishonorable manner was repugnant to him.

It wasnt all that long ago when another military officer dared to question the actions of the Commander-in-Chief. Only this time, the President was Donald Trump. The officer in question was Army Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Vindman and the incident was Trumps supposed quid-pro-quo phone call to the Ukrainian President Zelenskiy, a transcript of which was furnished to the public.

Both Vindman and Scheller violated the same military protocol but the treatment meted out to both was vastly different. Vindman was eventually relieved of his position on the National Security Council but was not court-martialed. Nor was he thrown in the brig in solitary confinement and ordered to undergo a mental evaluation.

Vindman was part of a special class of protected individuals known as whistleblowers, a designation that Stuart Scheller has been denied. Vindman retired on February 7, 2020, and became a hero to the Democrat party and mainstream media. Subsequently, he appeared in an ad for The Lincoln Project and the progressive group, Vote Vets, beseeching citizens to vote against Trump. One cannot help but wonder what Vindman would say about Bidens July 23, 2021, call to Afghan President Ghani, urging him to project a different picture about the situation in Afghanistan.

The contrast in treatment between the two men could not be more glaring. Schellers real crime was that he embarrassed the Biden administration. This was especially galling because Joe Biden himself pronounced the Afghan withdrawal to be an extraordinary success. For this heinous offense, Scheller must pay. He needs to be denigrated, defamed, disparaged, and downgraded as an abject lesson to any serving officer who might be inclined to agree with him. Had his statements been made under the previous Trump administration, there is no doubt that he, like Vindman, would have been lauded as a national hero.

The American political landscape of today bears a scant resemblance to that which existed only a few short years ago. Our leaders now tell us that we must accept what they tell us with no questions allowed. Their allies in mainstream media and big tech censor any commentary that the ruling elites do not want us to hear. We must accept and obey or face dire consequences.

Stuart Scheller found this out the hard way. As he sits in his cell awaiting his day in court, he might be wondering what he could possibly say in his own defense. Billy Mitchells defense during the 1925 proceedings was that he had spoken the truth but truth today is defined as whatever the ruling class says it is. All branches of government, including the justice system, must be made to conform to the new standard.

These are the hallmarks of a totalitarian state. Years ago, American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr wrote: Mans capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but mans inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.

UPDATE: It emerged today that Scheller is either a NeverTrumper or a Democrat. That doesn't detract from the principled stand he made (there are morally upright leftists) but it's information worth having.

(From Andrea Widburg) And an update to the update: Bob Parks has more information about Stuart Scheller's Never Trumpism. I strongly disagree with everything Scheller said about Trump, especially because, as a NeverTrumper, he presumably voted for Biden, thinking that the most corrupt, stupid man in modern American political history would be both a unifier and uncorrupt. That's not bright. Having said that, if one focuses on what catapulted Scheller into prominence, he still pointed out the military brass's utter lack of responsibility for wrongdoing. Also, the treatment meted out to Scheller has a Soviet feel that we all need to challenge.

Caren Besner has written articles published by American Thinker, Conservative News and Views, The Front Page, Dr Swier, Renew America, Sun Sentinel, Published Reporter, Independent Sentinel, News With Views, The Moderate Voice, Canada Free Press, The Liberty Beacon, and others.

Images: Billy Mitchell; Stuart Scheller; Alexander Vindman.

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The Dying Citizen by Victor Davis Hanson

Basic Books, October 2021

Victor Davis Hanson, the classics scholar and military historian, has written or co-authored two dozen books and many hundreds of articles. His latest book, The Dying Citizen, is a powerful and carefully developed argument for preserving American citizenship, a unique patrimony now under attack in many ways from many sources, and from all appearances, a losing battle.

Hanson provides a history of the concept of citizenship dating back to the Greeks and Romans and makes clear how rare the American experience has been in creating a modern citizenry with both rights and responsibilities. Hansons book was mostly written from 2018 through early 2020 and contains a final chapter that updates the impact of the calamitous last year on the citizenship issue, dominated by the coronavirus, racial unrest, and a bitterly fought presidential election. Hanson argues that the Trump presidency pushed back against the forces diminishing American citizenship with some modest success from 2017 to 2019, but the events of the past year led to a reversal of those gains, and the prospect of greater threats than existed before.

Hansons book contains six primary chapters, each addressing a specific threat to American citizenship, as it was understood in our founding documents, and expanded through political participation for women and races and ethnicities different from the original predominant majority culture.

The first chapter, Peasants, maintains that for a people to be self-governing, they must be economically autonomous. In essence, they need to avoid dependency on either the private wealthy or the state. A healthy middle class enables economic self-reliance and autonomy. Politicians from both parties are always claiming they are fighting for the middle class, but if they have been doing this, they have been failing on their promises, as evidenced by a hollowing out of much of America as its industrial and manufacturing base faltered, and major parts moved overseas and the failure to replace the lost opportunities with good jobs with good wages.

Without a sustainable and thriving middle class, society becomes divided between modern masters and peasants. In this circumstance, government assumes a responsibility to subsidize the poor to dampen any possibility of revolution and exempt the wealthy, who respond by enriching and empowering the governing classes. The current attempt by Democrats in Congress to pass a massive human infrastructure bill is part of developing a cradle-to-grave dependency for much of the citizenry (and non-citizens as well) on government welfare programs.

Chapter 2, Residents, argues for privileging citizens over non-citizens (residents). Citizens live within delineated and established borders. Citizens share values, and they assimilate and integrate into what becomes a national character. But today, many argue for a borderless world and opening America to the worlds 8 billion people. They ask, Why should those fortunate enough to have been born here, or been legally allowed to enter under various quotas or other limits, be privileged above those others who would also benefit from living here rather than where they are now living and fleeing?

The collapse of the American southern border under the current Biden administration was not an accident, but a plan. It fits an ideology that more people moving here, from wherever they may have come, is better for America since it makes us look more like the rest of the world going forward. Naturally, there is a political dimension to this ideology, since it assumes that when the new residents become citizens at some point, they will align with the political party favoring mass immigration and open borders.

Hanson argues that people will naturally want to move to a country with political rights, a Bill of Rights, economic opportunity, and a generous welfare system to tide them over in the short term or forever. Immigrants dont see America in the critical fashion of many of its current citizens, but as better than the places they left, but will they accept the responsibility of citizenship, as well as its bounty?

Chapter 3, Tribes, argues for American citizenship, not tribal identification -- whether racial, ethnic, religious, or a former nationality. Regrettably, America is on a different course in this area, and the exit velocity away from Hansons ideal is accelerating. In pretty much every sphere of American society, we have moved away from individualism and rewarding achievement and accomplishment to counting participation rates by group shares, striving towards some ideal of equalizing results in every aspect of modern life.

Rather than encouraging citizens to compete for societys rewards, we are moving to having them distributed based on race or group size. Immigration plays a role in this since it is part of a strategy for some to reduce one groups size and share and power. In addition, our modern-day overseers feel free to tarnish all those who came before who failed to achieve the perfection of racial and ethnic distribution -- equity as it is now called. Why study American history when the country has been so flawed? If everyone sees themselves first as members of a group, rather than citizens of a country, then Hanson argues, a constitutional republic cannot exist. ,

Chapter 4, Unelected describes how an unelected, appointed, and permanent and rapidly growing federal bureaucracy has become the political power center of America. New rules issued by myriad federal agencies dwarf the output of Congress, even with the mammoth omnibus spending bills written by lobbyists and congressional staff and unread by the representatives who vote to make them laws.

Congress members are first and foremost concerned with their future electoral prospects. The bureaucrats survive changes in administration and party control of the White House or Congress. Bureaucrats are the experts who believe they know better than the masses what is good for them, but they also are always on guard to prevent any elected newcomer who seems to operate outside the established lines observed by most elected officials from both parties. Donald Trump was a threat since he did not come to office pledging allegiance to the established unelected power structure and various federal intelligence agencies took it upon themselves to destroy his Presidency from the start with the crafting of a Russia collusion narrative, which was nonsense.

Chapter 5, Evolutionaries, documents those who think our founding documents, and constitutional framework, with its balance of enumerated powers, federalism, and individual rights, has outlived its usefulness. They say that a modern constitution is required, which at its heart is majoritarian in all ways -- 50% plus 1 shall determine the direction of the country. This is playing out as enormous programs of social change and redistribution are on the agenda for a single party to use tiny majorities in Congress to get its way.

But it is not enough, to have a single budget reconciliation bill passed each fiscal year. The left would prefer the Senate to become like the House: shares by population, rather than 2 per state, though this would require an amendment to the Constitution, not possible under current party shares. So, the workaround is to add new states, each with 2 Democrats in places like DC and Puerto Rico.

They want the Electoral College eliminated, also not likely to happen by constitutional amendment, so instead, by a compact among various states to vote for electors of the winning national popular vote ticket. The filibuster should no longer restrain majorities with less than 60 votes and must be tossed into the dustbin of history. Democrats are frighteningly close to being able to do that now, and with a few Senate pickups in 2022, wont be blocked by a Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema.

New justices need to be appointed to the Supreme Court since it has a conservative majority, and the progressives are always in the planned new order to dominate every decision-making body. New voting rules are to be established at the federal level, bypassing a long history of state control of this process.

The Biden administration is ignoring court orders on evictions, and immigration policy. At the city and state level, governments have made rules which defy federal authority, such as Democrats creation of sanctuary cities, and other cities that will not observe federal gun laws. So much for the rule of law.

Perhaps a mandatory reading of the Federalist Papers should be part of every Congress members first week in office so that those who want to eliminate or change a process that has worked quite well for over 230 years would begin to understand the reasoning behind the choices which were made in Philadelphia during the Constitutional Convention, even if that makes progressive shifts more difficult.

Chapter 6, Globalists, describes the attempt by those who have reached the pinnacle of power and wealth to move the country and its citizens towards an international or global membership, rather than something as narrow as national citizenship. The world needs to come together (by private jets to Davos) to talk about saving the planet from climate catastrophe and plastic bags. New rules which benefit those who trade and sell across the planet will trump protections for workers and individual nations, and as a result, jobs and entire industries can move from one country to another, many to China. The globalists are certain of course that their preferred political and social currency of unrestrained democracy, and liberal tolerance, are what people around the world want.

Hansons final chapter, Epilogue, details how the Trump administration pushed back against the destruction of the middle class, open borders, the bureaucracy (the deep state), and the effort to privilege racial and ethnic groups over individuals. Concern for an economic class rather than a racial or ethnic group turned out to have appeal to members of these groups when their economic condition improved as the economy responded to tax cuts, deregulation, and pushback against Chinese trade practices. President Trump appeared to have a good chance for a second term, as 2020 began with record low unemployment rates for members of various minority groups and strong national economic growth.

Covid 19 quickly changed that scenario. Large sections of the economy were shut down. Governors applied stringent lockdowns on vast sectors of their state economies. In-person school ended, preventing family members from working if their jobs were still available. People were frightened with mixed and rapidly changing, advice from the health professionals.

States changed their voting rules, often in ways that violated their own established state policies and constitutions, making the election process less secure. Many Americans also came face to face with the fact that many drugs, facemasks, respirators, and other basic medical supplies were not produced in America, but in China or other lower-wage locations. Our managing through the pandemic required their provision of goods until any replacement manufacturing could begin again here.

Americans, the once rugged individualists of old, seemed often to want to cuddle up under their warm state governors blankets and follow all the rules since they knew best. Those who spoke up or challenged the orthodoxy were silenced or lost their jobs. This included election news, with major social networking companies and cloud computing hosts prohibiting viewpoints or news stories that threatened the approved party line and could endanger the Democratic ticket before the November election. This development has become much more of a problem under the Biden administration. Following the science became following the determinations of political players, who made political decisions more than scientific ones.

If citizens lose their freedom of speech, if the press becomes a politically compliant advocate for one party, if jobs are at risk based on vaccination status (anything to lift sagging poll numbers), and if election rules can be changed overnight and not by those who are given the legal power to do so, then we are at a crisis point in the country, and citizens will have lost their authority and ability to select the government that is supposed to serve them.

Hansons subtitle reads: How Progressive elites, tribalism and globalization are destroying the idea of America. American citizens will preserve their Republic or they will lose it. There are lots of countries, but only one America.

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I get a fair number of emails along the lines of: Weve had our last fair election, its hopeless, America is lost. These disturb me because they represent a faction of conservatism thats ready to surrender.

The simple fact is that we are at war for the soul of America -- though for now, its a cold war. What we are experiencing is not politics as usual. The two political sides do not share common objectives while differing in their approaches to achieve those objectives. They have diametrically opposed objectives. The Left has said that they intend to transform America. We didnt want to believe them, but they meant it, and have been acting on it.

One of my mentors in the business world was a retired Army colonel. He gave me two important tidbits of wisdom that are applicable in our current time. First: The objective of war is not to kill people and break things, but to break the enemys will to resist. That is precisely what the Left has been doing to us -- attempting to break our will. Second: War is only ended by the loser, not the winner. Thats why the pessimist faction of conservatism bothers me the most. Theyre ready to concede, and theyre playing into the Lefts hands.

The Left has been working towards the elimination of our will to resist for many years. Theyve leveraged the pandemic to curtail our freedoms. Censorship and deplatforming have been used under the guise of preventing misinformation. Freedom of assembly (churches and political rallies) has been restricted in the name of social distancing. Even property rights have been suspended with forced business closures and eviction moratoriums.

The Left has also used legal harassment to target its enemies. The IRS has targeted Christian and conservative groups. The DoJ uses the unequal application of the law to benefit its political allies and punish its political opponents. The EPA encroaches on property rights. And now, OSHA is being used as the enforcer of a vaccine mandate.

The education system has been little more than a cultural reeducation machine to prepare our children to be obedient Marxists. Critical Race Theory, gender fluidity, and toxic masculinity are taught to our children to prepare them for the Lefts new utopia.

Corporate media functions as the Lefts propaganda ministry to hide the subversiveness of the Lefts efforts and promote their narrative. Peaceful protests are now insurgencies, while riots are mostly peaceful. Elections are sacrosanct and must not be questioned (at least when they go their way). Its normal to pass bills to learn what is in them. Its all total baloney intended to eliminate our will to resist.

Next to the Vichy RINOs, the America is finished crowd is the Lefts favorite group of conservatives. They have tired of the fight and bought the propaganda. Theyre ready to give up.

But the reality is very different than the narrative thats being peddled. Via their propaganda ministry, theyve used deception to win a couple of elections. Obama was supposed to heal our racial wounds -- he poured salt in them. Biden was supposed to return us to normalcy -- he burned down everything that was working. Theyve been lying to us, and now we know it. Propaganda only works as long as its credible, and theirs no longer is.

The Left is at its weakest position of the past 15 years. The Democrats have only tenuous control of the legislative branch and theyre spending more time fighting with themselves than actually passing any legislation. Lets not forget the leadership of their party. President Asterisk is perhaps the most corrupt, inept occupant of the White House weve ever had -- and weve had a few real losers. Under his leadership, the Democrat party looks like the final scene of Thelma and Louise -- with Gropey Joe at the wheel. They seem determined to drive off the cliff with enthusiasm.

The Left doesnt want us to realize that our strategic position is stronger than theirs. The vast majority of Americans value our founding principles. The Left is scared because patriotic Americans are waking up. Theyre starting to realize that theyve been played, and theyre getting very angry. Conservatives rarely protest, but now America is experiencing an outbreak of protests against school boards, local officials, and COVID-related mandates. The F**k Biden chants at public gatherings are becoming more than an amusing footnote. The chants are becoming a trendy way to push back against the leftist agenda. Vulgar challenges to our autocratic leadership are becoming cool -- and thats a good thing.

God gives us many gifts which are not immediately recognized as such. I believe COVID-19 was one such gift. The pandemic was the alarm that wakes us up before the building burns down around us. It gave us a glimpse of a future without liberty.

Autocratic orders

Draconian restrictions

Unequal treatment under the law

Fraudulent elections

Blatant disregard of the Constitution

Thankfully, COVID gave us a taste of tyranny on the cheap. America didnt become a Cuba or Venezuela to experience it. The pandemic has shown us how important and fragile liberty is. Ill never take it for granted again. I suspect a great number of patriots feel the same way. Were seeing an awakening all across America. Its starting to go beyond CRT protests and anti-Biden chants. BLM is even protesting the vaccine mandate! Ill bet the Left didnt see that coming.

Now that were awake, we have the advantage for one simple reason: We are Americans and liberty is in our blood. The malaise speech was BS when Carter gave it, and it would still be BS if given today. The two most effective presidents in my lifetime (Reagan and Trump) achieved what they did by believing in Americans. We are not powerless. We are strong and well-positioned. All we have to do is ignore the Vichy GOP and surrender monkeys and get on with the business of taking our country back.

Vote -- including in the all-important primary elections

Boycott -- any and all institutions siding with the enemies of liberty

Peacefully protest -- and shout F**K Biden with enthusiasm (itll drive them crazy)

Run for office -- especially city council and school board positions

Talk to our kids -- its actually quite easy to prevent their indoctrination

Support constitutional remedies -- such as the Convention of States movement

Our republic is not lost for one simple reason. They cant win if we wont surrender. Thankfully, the majority of Americans are angry and in no mood for surrender.

John Green is a political refugee from Minnesota, now residing in Idaho. He currently writes at the American Free News Network (afnn.us). He can be followed on Facebook or reached at greenjeg@gmail.com.

Image: Piqsels

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One of the iconic images of America's disgraceful retreat from Afghanistan was a night-vision photograph of Major General Christopher Donahue boarding a C-17 Globemaster III, the very last American paratrooper to leave Afghanistan. Square-jawed and upright, he looked like the personification of those brave Americans who fought, bled, and died in Afghanistan for 20 years. RedState, however, has exclusive information that Donahue is just as bad as the other Obama/Biden generals: he allegedly kicked 50100 genuine American allies off the plane, leaving them to almost certain death, so he could load a big souvenir to take home.

First, to refresh your recollection, here's that picture of Major General Donahue, presumably after ensuring that everyone under his care was safe, heading home to America:

Maj. Gen. Christopher Donahue, commander of our All American Division, boards a C-17 Globemaster III at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. Maj. Gen. Donahue is the final American #Paratrooper to depart Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/COn3ibnx3C  All American Division (@82ndABNDiv) August 31, 2021

According to RedState's exclusive report, though, Donahue had some important business to take care of before boarding that plane: he needed to squeeze on a souvenir  and "inoperable Taliban-owned Toyota Hilux with a fully operational Russian ZU-23 anti-aircraft autocannon mounted in the bed." Doing that violated standing orders against taking war trophies, but heck, people often bend those rules, right?

But does everyone who bends them leave 50100 American allies behind to make room in the plane for a war trophy and, worse, apparently hand their information over to the Taliban? According to RedState's informants, that's what Donahue did:

During the last hours of the evacuation, according to troops under his command and as documented by photographs and witness statements, Donahue ordered all of the passengers aboard a C-17 transport plane to disembark so he could have a souvenir loaded onto the plane. [snip.] Once the Hilux was loaded passengers were allowed back on the plane, but, of course, there wasn't room for all of them. According to troops on the scene, at least 50 people and perhaps as many as 100 people were left at Kabul to make room for the Hilux. It is believed that many of those left behind have been or will be killed by the Taliban, in part because of information allegedly provided to Taliban commanders by Donahue himself.

RedState also reveals that multiple sources confirmed that Donahue's contact with the Taliban wasn't limited to bidding them farewell.

These sources say that Donahue provided the Taliban with a full manifest of passengers aboard the flights including passport information, photos, and biometric information for those passengers. The flights included US troops, Afghans who were employed by the Department of Defense, key human intelligence (HUMINT) assets, and other SIV applicants and their families.

There are more details about Donahue's conduct here.

Beginning immediately after 9/11, the American military became America's most respected institution  an almost seamlessly racially integrated military made up of America's sons and daughters (mostly sons), standing strong in the fight against the same people who imagined a worldwide caliphate made possible with massive American civilian deaths. Sure, Obama got into the White House attacking them as baby-killers, but most Americans knew better. Our troops were the good guys.

And you know what? Our troops are, for the most part, still the good guys. It's the military brass, the people put into place at the highest levels by the Obama and Biden administrations, who are a craven, corrupt, even evil bunch  and I say that even though I know all of them have greater physical courage in their little fingers than I have in my whole body. Their problem isn't physical courage. It's that they seemingly have no moral decency to speak of. And in the rogue's gallery that is today's military brass, Donahue just took a place of "honor."

Image: Major General Christopher Donahue leaving Afghanistan. Twitter screen grab.

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Our American media has always been singularly uninterested in how Joe Biden, who has spent all but four years since 1972 in public office, managed to amass a fortune equal to at least $8 million, and possibly as much as $25 million (although he still managed to stiff the government of $500,000 in taxes). Biden, however, is not the only government official to get rich, very, very rich. An organization called the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists obtained a treasure trove called the Pandora Papers, showing how 35 past and present world leaders, as well as 300 other public officials, have amassed massive sums of money and hidden them outside of their own countries.

A lot of the money, of course, is in the hands of known oligarchs from Vladimir Putins circles. However, its not just the Putin gang thats been making bank from politics. Here are just some of the things the Pandora Papers reveal:

They reveal that former British prime minister Mr Blair and his wife Cherie saved some $434,000 (321,000) in stamp duty when they bought an office in London by purchasing the offshore company that owned it. Meanwhile Russian President Mr Putin was linked to secret assets in Monaco, while an offshore company owned by his alleged lover purchased a $4.1million apartment below the principalitys casino. [snip] Meanwhile, the King of Jordan was able to secretly add 70million worth of property to his portfolios in the UK and US - mainly in Malibu, California and in London and Ascot, the papers showed. [snip] The release of the documents could not have come at a worse time for Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis - who is facing an election later this week - as they show how he failed to declare an offshore investment company used to purchase two villas for $16.2million in the south of France. [snip] Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his family and close associates snapped up more than $500million (400million) worth of property in the UK, the papers revealed.

Its not just politicians who have been hiding their money. Claudia Schiffer and Shakira did too. However, those two women have got talent to sell. Theyve offered the public a product for which the public has willingly paid.

The politicians, on the other hand, can only be selling access to power. Even if the tax havens arent illegal, everybody ought to ask how people who create nothing of value become so stinkin rich. The only answer is graft. Politicians are siphoning off ordinary peoples money or, as the Joe and Hunter Biden Hustle shows, theyre selling favors to rich people and foreign governments, something that always harms everyday citizens.

Indeed, at this point, if youre not thinking of Joe Biden and his son Hunter, or his brother James, or anyone else in the Biden clan whos become very, very rich thanks to Joes political career, youre not paying attention. Joe may be a terrible politician whos been practically or morally wrong on every major issue since he entered politics, plus hes a guy whose foot is permanently inserted in his mouth, but hes not the fool his political opponents think he is.

Instead, Biden is a guy whos elevated political corruption to an art form, taking him from the Senate to the Vice Presidents office and, finally, to the Oval office. Hes a bad politician but a good corruptocratand the Pandora Papers prove that hes got lots of company.

Every day, in every way, the Democrats, whether in the White House, Congress, the military, or anywhere else, are dragging our once-great American constitutional democratic republic closer and closer to being a failing banana republicand Joe Biden is, in so many ways, the embodiment of our nations fall.

Image: Joe and Hunter Biden. YouTube screen grabs.

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A widely circulated Twitter post dated September 2 purports to show the lights back on at Bagram Air Base outside Kabul. You may recall that when U.S. forces evacuated the base without telling the Afghan forces they have been allied with, the last thing they did was stop the generators and turn out the lights.

The lights at Bagram Military Airport, where it was the main base for US military for 20 years, after nearly two months are on tonight. No information who is there, and why the lights are on tonight after nearly two months...

 CHINA???  pic.twitter.com/oD4zFK6wZt  Natiq Malikzada (@natiqmalikzada) October 2, 2021

The tweet speculates China has turned on the lights. The UK Daily Mail cites unconfirmed reports that military planes have been seen landing there: There have been multiple reports of military planes arriving at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, just hours after images emerged showing that power was restored to the base for the first time since US forces evacuated the stronghold in July. Images circulating on social media appear to show the airbase's floodlights blazing in the distance, amid reports that several military planes have taken off and landed at the base in recent hours. Several sources suggest that the aircraft are Chinese, given the Taliban are not thought to possess the expertise needed to power the base or maintain and fly several military aircraft.

Maybe...

But the Business Standard, which appears to be an Indian publication, carries a denial from Taliban sources:

The Taliban have denied reports of the foreign troops' presence at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, reported local media. Omar Mansor, a member of the cultural commission, said: "There are no foreign troops currently in Afghanistan, including Chinese", according to TOLOnews. On Saturday night, Bagram residents had said that the lights of the base were seen, the first time since the US troops left the airfield. However, Mansoor informed that the Taliban members had switched on lights there. "The lights were switched on again at Bagram air force base. There were some voices heard at the base. A plane has also been seen there," TOLOnews quoted resident of Bagram district, Shamshad as saying.

Further doubt is cast on the reports of Chinese military activity there by a publication called The Drive:

[B]ased on satellite imagery The War Zone has reviewed of the base, it doesn't appear accurate. In fact, in our comparative analysis of Planet Scope imagery from Planet Labs, with one image as recent as today, October 3rd, 2021, there appears to be nothing new of any significance at the airfield and no transport aircraft of any type on its sprawling ramps. Our review included multiple images from recent days, as well.

I have no idea how hard it would be for the Taliban to turn on the lights  or why they would want to do so. I presume fuel is required for that, and that the landlocked Taliban might have other uses for whatever fuel remained at the base.

China is also denying the reports, according to the Daily Mail:

According to U.S. News & World Report, China has been considering sending military personnel and economic development officials to Bagram airbase, and has conducted a 'feasibility study' on the effect of such a plan as part of its 'Belt and Road Initiative'. A move to occupy Bagram airbase would go towards strengthening relations with the Taliban and further embarrassing America. The report was denied by a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson. 'What I can tell everyone is that that is a piece of purely false information,' Wang Wenbin told reporters last month.

Whatever the real situation right now, it is clear that Bagram is a hugely valuable prize, given its strategic location. With the U.S. no longer able to use it, the closest American military installation is in Qatar, about three hours' flying time (or six hours round trip) from Kabul  making "over the horizon" air activity time-consuming and costly, and limiting the number of sorties that could be performed, since so much aircraft and pilot time is required for the trips.

My speculation is that China is in wide-ranging negotiations with the Taliban, seeking access to the rare earth deposits in Afghanistan and hoping to make the country an ally. But China has its own Muslim minorities that it is ruthlessly, some say genocidally, suppressing, while the Taliban, for their part, need money and face a struggle to consolidate their own power in a country that is more a set of ethnic enclaves than an actual nation-state.

I believe that abandoning Bagram was a geopolitical blunder of the first magnitude. We'll see how big the damage is as China unfolds its strategy and as the Taliban play their cards in their negotiations with the Chinese.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
At a time when illegals are surging to the border in historic numbers, and public support for amnesty is collapsing, it would seem logical for illegal alien amnesty activists to just lie low.

But nope, they've decided that now's about the time to step up the obnoxious, disruptive protests, along with harassment of U.S. elected officials. And if things go as they've always gone, it will once again be to their grief.

But it certainly explains why we're seeing what's going on here, as described by the New York Post:

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) was followed into the bathroom by a group of immigration activists who confronted her in her classroom while she was teaching at Arizona State University. Video shows the small group follow the senator through an ASU hallway and continue to berate her as she goes into a bathroom stall. The activists were targeting Sinema for her stance on President Joe Biden's $3.5 trillion Build Back Better infrastructure bill, which would provide a pathway to citizenship for many illegal immigrants [sic]. The Arizona Democrat tells the activists that she has to leave, but they persist, following her into the ladies' room.

Apparently LUCHA Arizona believes chasing Sen. Sinema into a restroom is such effective lobbying that they posted this video on their website. https://t.co/OPl8WN39EC  Byron York (@ByronYork) October 3, 2021

It's a great big "eew."

What a pervy invasion of privacy, following someone into a bathroom and filming her in a toilet stall. That kind of stalking disgusts everyone. The only people who do it are creeps. Since it victimized a duly elected U.S. office-holder, it's more appalling still, as it endangers her -- any one of these crazy, angry fanatics in those close quarters also could have shivved her.

As AT deputy editor Andrea Widburg notes today, this kind of bathroom stalking is quite illegal under Arizona law. I found no report as to how the affair ended, whether the creeps were escorted from the premises by Arizona State University police or nothing at all was done. They should have been arrested, booked, and jailed before trial, with mug shots released to the public. And assuming a conviction, they would then need to be placed on Arizona's permanent sex offenders registry in order to warn the public. In an ideal world, they should be deported, but under Joe Biden, we know that it won't come to that.

But no, they're activists, and somehow they've gotten away with it, crowing about their "accomplishment" on Twitter.

It was far from their only stalking harassment of Sinema in recent days. They also creeped her hotel:

The same group of illegal aliens who accosted Sinema at ASU protested outside her home last night. pic.twitter.com/a7F0aRPWBW  Ian Miles Cheong @ stillgray.substack.com (@stillgray) October 4, 2021

It was strange stuff, given that they were harassing her on her opposition to Joe Biden's Bernie Sanderscrafted $3.5-trillion socialist pork stimulus bill, which neither she nor her constituents want. In its original incarnation, the bill included amnesty for millions and millions of illegals, but the sneaky rider was struck out twice by the Senate parliamentarian as irrelevant to a budget reconciliation bill. The illegals persisted, though, calling for the program Joe Biden is calling for, instead of actual amnesty, because the only way they can get amnesty now is to get all 50 Democrat U.S. senators to override the recommendation together and vote "yes" on the entire monster bill. They know they can't get amnesty through a standalone vote. Following Sinema into the bathroom and filming her at a toilet stall, though, is about the oddest way to persuade her that can possibly be done. They did nothing for their cause with this act, which suggests a nastier agenda.

This is far from the only amnesty activist group that has been activated to conduct obnoxious, harassing protests. There was also this bunch in San Francisco, according to the San Francisco Chronicle:

Just before 7 a.m., protesters exited their cars, carrying banners and calling on Congress to provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants [sic]. Traffic piled up in the bridge's northbound lanes as demonstrators decried the Democrats' lack of action to pass meaningful immigration reform, stopping morning commuters for about an hour. The coordinated action signaled that the immigrant [sic] rights movement is stepping up direct activism, organizers said. "We are escalating our actions and our undocumented families are risking arrest and possibly deportation to send the message we can no longer wait," said Luis Angel Reyes Savalza, himself an undocumented immigrant [sic] and recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

From Wisconsin, there was another illegal alien protest over in Washington, D.C. In this case, the press didn't report whether anything disgusting was done, but going to Washington from Wisconsin is a pretty involved operation. It, too, seems to be part of this protest upsurge from illegals determined to make themselves offensive.

Many of these groups appear to be well-funded NGOs. LUCHA Arizona has done many obnoxious acts and seems well organized. Arizona State, meanwhile, is a hotbed for illegals, given that a judge's ruling that the state no longer had to provide in-state tuition for them prompted the university to set up, through its privately funded foundation, a special fund for DACA illegals to get educational free rides unavailable to other students. That drew the illegals to the place like a magnet, so it's obvious that the fund is big. It's also why there were enough militants to stage the toilet harassment. The Arizona Foundation's website says its donors are shielded, but it's natural to wonder whether the foundation is pushing the DACA kids to do this. Follow the money.

In San Francisco, the militants are these guys, who look well funded and professional:

The protest, organized by the Movement for Citizenship for All (Papeles Para Todos) and the Bay Area Coalition for Economic Justice and Citizenship for All, also centered on climate, economic and racial justice issues. From a truck bed flanked with banners, under the imposing orange towers of the bridge, speakers called on Congress to fund free college, paid family leave and an expansion of Medicare. They also called for a fairer economy.

In Milwaukee, it's Voces de la Frontera, called by The Nation magazine the "most valuable grassroots organization in the U.S."

It's unknown at this point who the Daddy Warbucks calling on these obnoxious protests might actually be. We know that in the past, the Soros front groups organized and egged on huge numbers of illegal alien protests around 2007. We also know that Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook is well committed to both DACA kids and putting cash into manipulating political outcomes, as he did in Election 2020. One thing, though, is absolutely certain from this remark, cited in the San Francisco Chronicle:

According to the protest's organizers, the bridge shutdown was just the beginning of a renewed and more aggressive push for the immigration movement, one that will draw on the mass street protests and strikes of 2006, when millions left work and took to the streets demanding change.

It's that even with a record of bombing with voters, and seeing amnesties fail again and again, someone wants to browbeat the public into caving on amnesty, much as Antifa and Black Lives Matter did with their destructive protests for police defunding, and socialist giveaways in the summer of 2020. They succeeded, given that Joe Biden was "elected" instead of someone with a firm hand. Although Biden cheated his way to victory, he still drew many legitimate votes. That's their strategy, and with Sinema, they're playing the Alinsky "pick a target" card.

In the past, this kind of tactic on immigration hasn't swayed the public. What's more, Sinema and her fellow independent-thinking Democrat coeval, Joe Manchin, both have records of digging in, not caving, when pressures upon them are the worst. The public is already growing negative on amnesty, given the recent border surges. See here, here, and here. Now the ugly protests are coming, and that can only drive sentiment down farther. What we see here, then, is amnesty activists acting to cut their own throats and undermine their own cause. That's fitting for any activist group gross enough to follow a senator into a bathroom and then film her.

Note: The New York post updated its article. You can find the original here.

Image: Twitter screen shot.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
It is counterintuitive, but the problem with big government is not its bigness in numbers of officials, but rather in its concentration of power in too few hands. Diluting that power would work wonders for shrinking the real size of government.

The Founders knew, when they set the number of representatives at one per 35,000 people, that the republic needs more representatives, not fewer, than we now have. Today, the ratio is more like one representative per 400,000 people. If you think that makes your representative more responsive to your needs, try visiting him in his office. Good luck with that; there is a very long line ahead of you. You may wait forever.

Increasing the numbers of representatives would absolutely not require paying them more, or giving them more office space, or larger staff. In fact, we could pay them less and get more. I understand that in the British Parliament, some members have desks in hallways. Washington, D.C. has plenty of room to house two or three thousand representatives or more. A desk in the hallway would suffice.

Likewise, while I abhor the scheme of the Democrats to pack the Supreme Court, the fact remains that far too few justices wield far too much power. The limited number of them on the bench made sense in 1789 when the appointment of a justice did not draw hordes of radical activists to make a mockery of Senate confirmation hearings. With far more justices on the court, no one of them would be able to send shock waves through the judicial system. No one nomination would be as critical as it is now.

True, Congress has, in many ways, vastly exceeded its constitutional authority, and the courts have done so as well. There is no quick fix for that, but a good beginning would be to make individual officials more accountable to the citizenry. The more representatives there are, the more important you would be to yours. Again, it seems counterintuitive, but we need to dilute power, not concentrate it in fewer hands.

Imagine if you and your neighbors could more realistically get an appointment with your representative in Congress. Would you have more control or less?

Think outside the box: more representatives would be a big step toward a smaller government.

Image: Piqsels.
A dreadful oil spill from an offshore oil rig has fouled the beaches of wonderful Huntington Beach, California -- home of the surfer, the COVID lockdown protests, and the California conservative voter.

Leftists are using the problem to call for an end to offshore drilling. As the Los Angeles Times opined:

In one of the biggest California spills in decades, a pipeline connected to an offshoot oil platform off the coast of Huntington Beach released at least 126,000 gallons of crude over the weekend. By Sunday morning, the smell of diesel and tar hovered in the coastal air as clumps of crude washed ashore, along with dead birds and fish. Out on the water, a vast oil slick larger than city of Santa Monica had formed. And crews worked feverishly to clean up the oil that had seeped into the delicate coastal marshlands and to prevent greater damage to this essential habitat for migratory birds. Orange County officials estimate that the affected beaches could be closed for weeks or even months. This is why the U.S. needs to end coastal oil drilling.

Which is a load of hooey. California in fact has seen many of its beaches beset by all kinds of befouling leaks. Last July and August there was this one near Santa Monica:

MALIBU, CA  Los Angeles County Department of Public Health officials Tuesday extended a water use warning for swimmers and surfers near the Santa Monica Pier due to a 17-million-gallon sewage spill in the Santa Monica Bay last month.

...and no calls to shut down sewage plants and turn to sandboxes for toilet service.

Fact is, California needs the oil. What's happened is absolutely terrible -- I just cringe when I see on the map that beautiful, beautiful Laguna Beach is affected. But to shut oil production down is absolute idiocy, not when the U.S. has lost its oil production supremacy and finds itself at the mercy of petrotyrants. Not when California is inviting millions of illegal immigrants in, imagining that they'll never use the gas station, the stove, the lights, or the air conditioning. Unfortunately for the left, oil production is critical and California has some of the nation's richest oilfields. Los Angeles was originally an oil town and many of its main thoroughfares and landmarks bear the names of the early oil barons. Old oil derricks still decorate parts of Beverly Hills, while old gas flares near the La Brea Tar Pits (tar, oil, get it? ) once in a while come up through the sidewalk grates. Bakersfield is a major city to the north that remains all about oil.

But the leftists want to shut down oil as if that hasn't been what they've always wanted for various leftist reasons. They're blaming the oil itself and the beleaguered company tenant when they should be blaming the owner.

Who's the landlord here? Yep, the left's beloved federal government, notably the Department of the Interior. Who runs that? As I wrote here, someone who's in over her head:

Take his nomination of Deb Haaland, a congresswoman representing greater Albuquerque, who's a registered member of a Native American tribe...and a tax cheat, energy ignoramus, persistent welfare recipient, and marijuana-booster, who has now advanced in the Senate as his nominee to run the $12-billion U.S. Department of the Interior. Her trump card in qualifications after all those red flags? That she's half-Native American and has mastered the identity politics games of victimhood. What could go wrong?

As this Los Angeles Times story notes, federal inspections have been sloppy:

In 2018, Miyoko Sakashita, oceans program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, and other environmental advocates took part in a fact-finding cruise along the California coast to inspect about a dozen oil platforms, some more than 40 years old. They saw rusted pipes and equipment and used an optical gas imaging camera to document flaring incidents on several platforms, she said. So much of that infrastructure is old and corroded, Sakashita said. [The platforms] should have been decommissioned. ... Its not a robust system of oversight." Although California banned new offshore oil operations decades ago, platforms such as Elly continue to operate in federal waters  more than three miles from the coast.

That laxness may have brought these consequences -- and it occurred in this environment:

Donald Boesch, who served on a federal commission formed to make recommendations after the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, said the infrastructure used by Californias offshore drillers is decades old, making it prone to failure.

with this:

But environmentalists say the spill raises serious questions about whether federal regulatory agencies are adequately inspecting the aging equipment.

Which all rather suggests that the feds were asleep at the wheel.

Much of this laxness was seen during the Deepwater Horizon spill of 2010, where a swampy revolving door existed between regulators and oil producers, and enforcement actions seemed to be premised on how many campaign contributions went to certain pols. It's too soon to tell if this is what was going on here at this point.

But we do know who the owner of this mess is, and who should be looked at for blame in this, and it's not the bubbling crude.

Image: Screen shot from Los Angeles Times video, posted on YouTube.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
In his travelogue, A Tramp Abroad, Mark Twain describes an encounter with a curious boat on the River Neckar in Germany.

We ran forward to see the vessel. It proved to be a steamboatfor they had begun to run a steamer up the Neckar, for the first time in May. She was a tug, and one of a very peculiar build and aspect. I had often watched her from the hotel, and wondered how she propelled herself, for apparently she had no propeller or paddles. .... As she went grinding and groaning by, we perceived the secret of her moving impulse. She did not drive herself up the river with paddles or propeller, she pulled herself by hauling on a great chain. This chain is laid in the bed of the river and is only fastened at the two ends. It is seventy miles [one hundred and ten kilometers] long. It comes in over the boat's bow, passes around a drum, and is payed out astern. She pulls on that chain, and so drags herself up the river or down it. She has neither bow or stern, strictly speaking, for she has a long-bladed rudder on each end and she never turns around. She uses both rudders all the time, and they are powerful enough to enable her to turn to the right or the left and steer around curves, in spite of the strong resistance of the chain. I would not have believed that that impossible thing could be done; but I saw it done, and therefore I know that there is one impossible thing which can be done. What miracle will man attempt next?

What Mark Twain described is known as a chain boat. These boats were once very popular in European rivers in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It consisted of a fixed chain that lay along the bed of a river following the watery course as far as navigation was required. Specially made chain boats lifted the chain from the riverbed at the bow end, passed it over the deck of the boat, and sank it back into the river at the back. On the deck, the chain passed around a heavy winch powered by a steam engine that pulled at the chain and drove the boat forward.

Chain shipping revolutionized inland shipping during the Industrial Revolution in the second half of the 19th century in Europe to an extent until ships powered by a steam engine became self-propelled. Previously, boats had to towed along the river by humans or beasts of burden. The chain drive of these riverboats made optimal use of still relatively low-powered steam engines of that period. In addition, the boats were especially well suited to shallow or fast-flowing rivers where paddle steamers could not be used.

Jacopo Mariano's concept of ship haulage.

The concept was first visualized in the 15th century by Italian engineer Jacopo Mariano. In a manuscript dating to 1438, Mariano included an illustration depicting a boat pulling itself upstream on a cable laid along the river. The cable was shown wrapped around a central shaft driven by two, side-mounted water wheels. Behind the river craft was a small boat-like object that was pulled by the current, holding the cable taut and thus ensuring the necessary friction on the shaft.

Fausto Veranzio's concept of ship haulage around 1595

In 1595, Croatian polymath Fausto Veranzio described a system of cable boat navigation that enabled greater speeds. It consisted of two boats connected by a cable that went round a pulley anchored firmly to the riverbed. One boat travelled downstream driven by large water sails and hauled the larger boat upstream against the current. The large barge had two, side-mounted water wheels that coiled up the cable and increased its speed further.

In 1723 mathematics professor Nicolaus Molwitz from Magdeburg made a proposal for a machine that would help boats negotiate the fast currents below Magdeburg's bridges. His machine consisted of two horizontal shafts, the towing cable being turned around the front shaft in such a way that it was continuously being unwound from it again and onto the rear shaft. With the additional use of levers, it should have been possible for five or six men to successfully effect the passage of the boat through the section of the river that needed fifty. The machine was never built, but from the description left behind by Paul Jacob Marperger, elements of this basic principle seem to be similar to those subsequently used later in building chain boats. This section of river was later to become the starting point for the first chain boats in Germany.

Model of a chain boat at Technoseum State Museum for Technology and Work. Photo: Klaus Luginsland/Wikimedia Commons

Serious attempts to move boats by chains were made only in the 1820s in France. Engineers Tourasse and Courteaut attached a roughly 1-kilometre-long cable made of hemp on the banks of the River Saone near Lyon. This was wound around a rotating drum on board, which hauled the boat forward. Six horses were used to rotate the drum. Later, Tourasse and Courteaut built another system on the Rhone between Givors and Lyon, but replaced the horses with a stream engine. Then Vinochon de Quemont carried out trials on the River Seine in which the rope was replaced with a chain. In 1826, M.F. Bourdon tested a variant with two steam ships. One of the ships drove forward using a paddle wheel whilst simultaneously uncoiling a rope, 600 meters long. After unwinding the rope fully, the ship anchored and hauled the second tugboat with its chain of attached barges up to itself, the rear tugboat assisting the process with its own power. The two boats then changed position and repeated the procedure.

From the time of those early attempts in the first half of the 19th century, chain boat technology improved steadily and the first successful use of chain boats in France took place. In 1839, the first technically and economically successful chain steamer, Hercule, was built and on a roughly 5-to-6-kilometer-long stretch of fast-flowing water on the River Seine within the city of Paris. After that, other French rivers and canals were also provided with chains. By 1873, over 500 km of chain was laid along the Seine.

The chain of a chain boat at the Canal of Burgundy, France. Photo: Veit Feger/Wikimedia Commons

In Germany, chain boat navigation began in 1866 with the laying of an iron chain in the Elbe between Magdeburg-Neustadt and Buckau, a distance of about 6 km. It regularly hauled barges up to 250 tons using an engine generating only 60 hp. By 1871, the chain had extended from Magdeburg to Schandau on the Bohemian border. Three years later the route was extended northwestwards to Hamburg. Up to 28 chain boats rattled upstream over a total length of 668 kilometers. These boats were used until the late 1920s when large sections of the chains were lifted, keeping only those in the most difficult sections. The final section was closed only after the end of the Second World War.

On the Saale, chain boats became operational in 1873, running from its river mouth to the Calbe, and by 1903 services had been extended to Halle, a total of 105 kilometers. Chain shipping on the Saale suffered a sharp decline with the outbreak of World War I and was completely discontinued in 1921.

A chain boat on the Canal de Saint-Quentin, France. Photo: Boerkevitz/Wikimedia Commons

Chain towing revolutionized Elbe shipping, which until then had been shaped by towing for centuries. Chain towing reduced the crew on the barges by more than half, while shortening delivery times, which in turn allowed the captain to undertake as many as three times the number of journeys previously possible. Shipping goods by chain boats became so reliable that many goods that had been transferred by railways were switched back to the cheaper waterway.

Chain boats became obsolete by the early 20th century as steam engines became more powerful. The new paddle steamers were able to deliver greater traction for lower coal consumption. The compound engine on the paddle steamer, based on its power output, needed only about half the amount of coal. Chain steamers were not able to take advantage of these compound steam engines because of their uneven operation. Besides, chain shipping companies suffered from high investment and maintenance costs. The building of dams and locks also created artificial barriers that prevented chain boats from operating.

A Kettenschiff (chain ship) on the Neckar near Heilbronn, circa 1885.
BEIRUT - Syria's trade and economy minister Muhammad Khalil has met with his UAE counterpart Abdullah bin Tawq al-Marri in Dubai on the sidelines of events linked to Expo2020.



Reports were from the Syrian government news agency SANA, which noted that the ministers had discussed bilateral trade issues.



In 2019, the UAE became the first Arab country to resume investing in Syria after a lengthy absence due to the conflict that began in 2011 and continues in some areas of the country.



Alongside Saudi Arabia, the Abu Dhabi government had initially backed Syrian opposition-in-exile factions.



However, over the years it returned to talking to the government in Damascus under President Bashar al-Assad, who is supported by Iran and Russia.



In December 2018, Abu Dhabi reopened its embassy in Damascus.



Some analysts say that others in the region are likely to follow in its footsteps.



Syrian minister Khalil, SANA reported, illustrated the details of the Syrian investment laws to his UAE counterpart, claiming that they "create an investment climate suitable for the recovery and reconstruction phase" of the country, which has just suffered a decade of war.



The UAE minister reiterated UAE's interest in providing support for reconstruction in Syria and in so doing "transfer the UAE's successful experience in the economic sector".
MADRID - Lava from the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the La Palma island of the Canary Islands has buried about 400 hectares of land and destroyed almost 1,000 buildings, according to Spain's Department of National Security and the EU Copernicus system.



These are the most updated figures available while waiting for visibility in the area of the eruption to improve and enable new assessments via satellite images, Copernicus said.



Almost 30 hectares of the sea have been filled with molten rock.



On Sunday evening, part of the main cone of the volcano collapsed (considered normal by experts in this type of eruption), which led to a considerable increase in the flow of lava coming out of Cumbre Vieja, volcanologists told Spanish media.



Initial observations suggest that the molten rock is moving in the same direction as previous times, and so for the time being new areas directly hit have not been reported.



On Sunday, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez announced about 200 million euros more in aid to help with the "reconstruction" of La Palma.
TEL AVIV - Jordan's royal family has rejected as "distorted" claims made in the "Pandora Papers" about King Abdullah.



It said that the reports "included inaccuracies and distorted and exaggerated the facts".



In an official statement reported by the government news agency Petra, Jordan's Royal Hashemite Court said that "it is no secret that His Majesty owns a number of apartments and residences in the US and the United Kingdom. This is not unusual nor improper." The statement said the location of the properties was not publicized "out of security and privacy concerns, and not out of secrecy or an attempt to hide them, as these reports have claimed." "As such, the act of revealing these addresses by some media outlets is a flagrant security breach and a threat to His Majesty's and his family's safety." In reference to reports that King Abdullah II has 14 homes in the US and UK worth over 100 million dollars, the statement noted that: "His Majesty uses these properties during official visits and hosts officials and foreign dignitaries there. The King and his family members also stay in some of these properties during private visits." It said that it was to this end that some of the companies had been registered in foreign countries, in order to administer the properties and ensure adherence with legal and financial obligations and that all costs and expenditure for these properties was covered by the king himself.



The statement continued, "Any allegations that link these private properties to public funds or assistance are baseless and deliberate attempts to distort facts." The palace also stressed that "all public finances and international assistance are subject to professional audits, and their allocations are fully accounted for by the government and donor entities." It stressed that all claims to the contrary were defamatory and that legal measures may be taken as a result.
BEIRUT - Saudi Arabia confirmed that it has held direct talks with its regional rival, Iran, in recent weeks.



During a joint press conference in Riyadh with the EU foreign policy and security chief Josep Borrell, Saudi foreign minister Faysal bin Farhan Saud said that these meetings "are still in an explorative phase. We hope that they will provide a basis to deal with unresolved issues between the two parties".



The statements by the Saudi minister were made in Riyadh on Sunday and were widely reported Monday by Arab media.



Saudi Arabia and Iran interrupted diplomatic relations in 2016 and since then relations between the two have been tense, against a backdrop of growing rivalry between Saudi ally the US and the Islamic Republic of Iran.



In recent days, confirmation had arrived from Baghdad on talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia.



Iran had confirmed the resumption of talks, which began in April in Iraq.
Spain asks Italy to arrest former Catalan councillors Ponsati and Comin in Sardinia for Catalan leader's hearing

(ANSAmed) - MADRID, OCT 4 - Spanish judge Pablo Llarena has sent official notices to the Sassari Court of Appeals to say that, as was the case with former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, arrest warrants he issued against Clara Ponsati and Toni Comin are also valid.



The former Catalan councillors Ponsati and Comin arrived in Sassari in recent days to support Puigdemont in a hearing on his arrest in Alghero about ten days ago, according to Spanish media reports.



Judge Llarena had in recent days asked the court to "immediately hand over" Puigdemont.



He has now said that he has received information from "several media outlets" according to which both Ponsati and Comin may be in Sardinia and that the two had not been arrested on arrival in Italy.



Both are Members of the European Parliament whose parliamentary immunity has been suspended by an EU court.



"We have immunity as concerns movement and, above all, the arrest warrant (against us) has been suspended despite whatever Judge Llarena says, since he himself has asked for an opinion from the European Court of Justice," the media was told by Comin, Catalan MEP and former councillor under Puigdemont who arrived on the Italian island to support the latter in a hearing at the Sassari Court of Appeals.



The Spanish judge instead claims that the arrest warrants he issued for the Catalan attempt at independence in 2017 are valid for Puigdemont, Comin, and Ponsati, who is an other former Catalan councillor who arrived in Sardinia on Sunday.(ANSAmed).




Ofgem is probing two companies to find out if they overcharged the grid to lower their production levels.

The energy regulator said it was looking into whether EP SHB, which owns the South Humber Bank gas power plant, and SSE Generation broke the terms of their licences in a way that could have ultimately pushed up household energy bills.

A key part of ensuring that the lights stay on across Britain is to balance the grid.

This means it is important that power plants do not generate more electricity than households and businesses use at any given point, and vice versa.

To do this the grid can ask electricity generators to stop producing, or reduce the amount of electricity they are putting into the grid.

In return the grid will often pay these producers to turn off or reduce their production.

But Ofgem is now looking into whether SSE Generation at times requested too much money to stop or slow production from its Foyers pumped storage power station.

The site works by pumping water from Loch Ness to Loch Mhor when electricity is in good supply.

It then allows gravity to push the water back down to Loch Ness, pushing it through a generator on the way to create electricity.

To slow production SSE Generation charged the grid prices of up to 60 per megawatt hour (MWh) starting in May 2020.

This was significantly more expensive than the prices it had submitted in the past, Ofgem said.

The regulator will probe whether this breaks the duty of generators not to charge excessively expensive prices.

Meanwhile, between October 2019 and May 2021 EP SHB regularly set bid prices of 0 to reduce production at its gas plant, a level which was particularly expensive for a gas-fired power station, Ofgem said.

Reducing gas production also means that producers save money that they would otherwise spend on buying gas to burn.

EP SHB said: As this is an open investigation we have no comment to make at this stage.

SSE said: SSE notes Ofgems announcement this morning in relation to its Foyers pumped storage power station. As a responsible operator of generating assets, SSE will be complying fully with the investigation.
Members of the public are being urged to be extra eyes and ears for the police during the Cop26 international climate summit in a drive to combat crime, including terrorism.

Police Scotland launched a six-week campaign to highlight anti-crime and anti-terror scheme Project Servator  an important part of the policing operation for the UN climate conference.

More than 100 world leaders are expected to attend the opening of the event, which is taking place in Glasgow from October 31.

Chief Superintendent Mark Hargreaves, silver commander for the policing operation at the summit, said: Cop26 is one of the largest policing operations the UK has seen and we plan to utilise all resources at our disposal to support the delivery of a safe and secure event.

Project Servator has proven to be an effective tactic in helping to disrupt criminal activity and keep people safe and has been deployed successfully at major events in the past, such as the Commonwealth Games and Edinburgh Festivals.

Support from businesses, partners and members of the public is vital to its success, which is why we are working with communities, British Transport Police and local authorities and councils across the country, including the host city of Glasgow. We can all play a part and I would encourage you to get involved.

If theres a Project Servator deployment taking place in your area, speak to our officers who will be happy to provide information and reassurance.

Together, well help keep Cop26 and Scotland safe.

Remember if you see something suspicious, or if something doesnt feel right, let us know immediately. You can do this by speaking to a police officer or calling 101 or 999 in an emergency.

Ahead of a six-week advertising campaign to remind people of the role they can play, Police Scotland said: Key to the success of Project Servator is the support of the public to be extra eyes and ears for the police.

Armed officers will provide support for Project Servator (Andrew Milligan/PA)

Officers on Project Servator are supported by specialist resources including police dogs and horses, armed units, CCTV operators and security staff.

Superintendent Dave Marshall, of British Transport Police, said: Weve been using Project Servator across the railway network for nearly six years now and seen first-hand the effectiveness of this tactic in deterring crime and terrorism, particularly when it comes to policing significant events.

Project Servator will form a vital part of our policing operation for Cop26, as we work closely with Police Scotland and our railway partners to ensure the safety and security of the travelling public.

He said passengers can expect to see search dogs and armed police on patrol as part of Project Servator and urged those travelling to assist by reporting anything suspicious, either on the forces text number 61016 or through 999 in an emergency.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak will commit more than 500 million in fresh funding to help people back into work as he seeks to stem the continuing turbulence of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Sunak is shifting the focus on to getting people into new or better jobs as the Government comes under sustained pressure over a major squeeze on living standards.

The extra funding comes with Mr Sunak and Boris Johnson under pressure from within the Conservative ranks about the historically high tax burden.

Funding for the new package will not be set out until the spending review and Budget later this month.

Mr Sunak will use his speech at the Tory conference in Manchester on Monday to set out his vision of shaping the economy around the forces of science, technology and imagination.

The Chancellor will pledge to make the United Kingdom the most exciting place on the planet through enhanced infrastructure, improved skills and scientific investment.

He will announce the new funding will be used to help workers leaving the furlough scheme and unemployed over-50s back into work, while the kickstart scheme for young people will also be extended.

The Chancellors speech comes at a difficult time for the economy, with warnings of a cost of living crisis for some households who face rising energy bills, price hikes in shops and a cut to Universal Credit.

Household budgets will sustain a further blow next April when national insurance contributions rise by 1.25% to help fund the NHS and social care.

Ahead of his first in-person speech at the conference as Chancellor, Mr Sunak said he is ready to double-down on his promise to do whatever it takes to recover from Covid-19.

He said the furlough scheme protected 11 million jobs and the UK is experiencing one of the strongest and fastest recoveries of any major economy in the world.

He added: But the job is not done yet and I want to make sure our economy is fit for the future, and that means providing the support and skills people need to get into work and get on in life.

The kickstart scheme helping young people on Universal Credit will be extended to March next year under the measures.

The 3,000 incentive for new apprentices will be extended until the end of January (PA)

The 3,000 incentive for new apprentices will be extended until the end of January.

Individuals who have come off furlough and are on Universal Credit will also be prioritised for help to find jobs under the job finding support scheme lasting until the end of the year.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the package will do nothing to compensate for the Chancellors tax rises, cost of living crisis and cuts to Universal Credit which are set to hammer millions of working families.

Matthew Fell, the chief policy director at the Confederation of British Industry, said: Businesses will welcome the Chancellors plan for jobs pivoting from furlough to economic recovery.

With record vacancies and widespread labour shortages, this packages success will be measured by its ability to get people back into work.

The Chancellor speech comes after Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg said taxation has hit the limit and the Prime Minister insisted there was no fiercer and more zealous opponent of unnecessary tax rises than me.

In the other main speech at the conference on Monday, Lord Frost will warn the European Union that the Northern Ireland Protocol risks undermining the Good Friday Agreement.

He believes the threshold for triggering Article 16 has been met  which could allow him to suspend parts of the deal.

Lord Frost will tell Brussels that tinkering at the edges will not fix the problems with the Protocol, and urge the EU to be more ambitious in finding solutions to the issues around Northern Irelands post-Brexit trading arrangements.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has indicated that all of Britains electricity will be from green sources by 2035.

The Times reported he will use his speech on Wednesday to commit to a massive investment programme in renewable and nuclear power as the country shifts away from coal and gas.

In June, the National Grid Electricity Systems Operator said Britain was already set to see periods where it is powered free of fossil fuels and with 100% zero-carbon electricity in just four years time.

Mr Johnson told The Times: Weve got to get back into nuclear, weve got to increase our clean energy generation. That will bring the cost of energy down and bring down the cost of transport.
The Tories say an activist who allegedly assaulted an energy director has been expelled from the partys conference.

Party officials confirmed they are working with the police after Clementine Cowton, director of external affairs at Octopus Energy Group, reportedly told a fringe event she had been violently assaulted while attending the conference in Manchester.

According to The Times, Ms Cowton said she was in the bar of The Midland Hotel  one of the main destinations at the autumn political gathering  when an inebriated man, who she described as in his 30s, sat in a seat vacated by her friend.

The male attendee, who has since had his conference pass revoked, made her so uncomfortable that she asked him several times politely to leave.

When he refused to go, the senior executive said she took his phone and dropped it on the floor in a bid to get him away from her.

He went to retrieve it and then he came back and attacked me, Ms Cowton said.

According to the report, Ms Cowton said the man tried to punch her but was stopped by others in the bar, with the resulting scuffle ending up with her glass being smashed.

When approached by the PA news agency for comment, Ms Cowton said she was not intending to say more about the incident, which is said to have seen police called to the hotel.

A Conservative Party spokesman said: This behaviour is completely unacceptable and the party has revoked the pass of the individual concerned and is working with the police.

The party said it had contacted Ms Cowton to offer support.

The incident comes as the Government and police face questions over the safety of women in society following the rape and murder of Sarah Everard at the hands of a serving police officer and the killing of Sabina Nessa in south-east London as she walked to a bar.

Ms Cowton said she went public with what allegedly happened to her because she wanted to emphasise that women are often unsafe in places where other people feel safe.

Octopus said it would not be commenting.
The Government is facing fresh calls to tighten Britains defences against dirty money after a leak of offshore data exposed the secret financial dealings of some of the worlds richest and most powerful people.

The cache of almost 12 million files  dubbed the Pandora papers  is said to cover the activities of some 35 current or former world leaders, more than 300 public officials and 100 billionaires.

According to BBC Panorama, which conducted a joint investigation with the Guardian, among the disclosures in the papers are details of the way prominent and wealthy people have been legally setting up companies to secretly buy property in the UK.

Following the release, the Crown Estate said that it was looking into the 67 million purchase of a London property from a company which, the Guardian said, acted as a front for family of Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev whose record has long been criticised by anti-corruption campaigners.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has been criticised by anti-corruption campaigners (Victoria Jones/PA)

A spokesman for the Crown Estate said: Before our purchase of 56-60 Conduit Street, we conducted checks including those required by UK law.

At the time we did not establish any reason why the transaction should not proceed. Given the potential concerns raised, we are looking into the matter.

Meanwhile, former prime minister Tony Blair and his wife, Cherie, angrily denied any wrongdoing after the Guardian and Panorama said they were able to save more than 300,000 in stamp duty when they acquired a 6.45 million London property by buying the offshore company which owned it.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for the couple said they had bought the property in a normal way through reputable agents and should not have been dragged into a story about hidden secrets of prime ministers etc.

The vendor was an offshore company. The Blairs had nothing whatever to do with the original company nor those behind it. The vendor sold the company not the property  again a decision the Blairs had nothing to with, the spokeswoman said.

Former prime minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie have defended their purchase (Yui Mok/PA)

Since the purchase was of a company no buyer would have had to pay UK stamp duty on that transaction. However, because the Blairs then repatriated the company and brought it onshore, they are liable for capital gains and other taxes on the resale of the property which will significantly exceed any stamp duty.

For the record, the Blairs pay full tax on all their earnings. And have never used offshore schemes either to hide transactions or avoid tax.

The disclosures are reported to be based on the leak of files from 14 financial services companies in countries including the British Virgin Islands, Panama, Belize, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Switzerland.

The files were passed to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in Washington which then shared access to the data with a number of media organisations including the Guardian and Panorama.

The reports acknowledge that many of the transactions in the documents involve no legal wrongdoing.

However the Guardian said they highlighted the central co-ordinating role played by London, with the city home to wealth managers, law firms, company formation agents and accountants serving their ultra-rich clients

Duncan Hames, policy director at the campaign group Transparency International UK, said the disclosures should act as a wake up call for the Government to deliver on long-overdue measures to strengthen Britains defences against dirty money.

These leaks show that there is one system for corrupt elites who can buy access to prime property and enjoy luxury lifestyles and another for honest hard-working people, he said.

The UK must redouble its efforts in tackling illicit finance, bringing in long overdue transparency reforms to reveal who really owns property here as well as resourcing regulators and law enforcement to clamp down on rogue professionals and corrupt cash held in the UK.
A man fatally shot near a house party where a silent disco is believed to have been taking place has been named as Leroy Mitchell.

Scotland Yard said police were called shortly before 5am on Saturday to reports of a male shot in a car park in Birdhurst Road, Croydon, south London.

The force said 35-year-old Mr Mitchell was pronounced dead at the scene.

Leroy Mitchell was shot near a house party in Croydon (Family/PA)

Detectives investigating the murder are continuing to appeal for anyone who was at a house party in the Birdhurst Road area on Saturday morning, or who saw Mr Mitchell on the night of October 1 to get in touch.

Detective Chief Inspector Katherine Goodwin, of Specialist Crime  who is leading the investigation, said: Officers would like to speak to anyone who was at that party, which is believed to be a silent disco.

Even if you do not think you saw or heard anything significant, please contact police if you were there.

Leroy was a popular local man and his family and friends have been left absolutely devastated by his death.

I also want to appeal for any witnesses, anyone with information or anyone who may have relevant dashcam or other footage to please get in touch.

There have been no arrests made so far.

People are asked to call the incident room on 020 8785 8244 to provide information, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
PHOENIX (AP)  U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema said Monday that activists who confronted her outside an Arizona State University classroom and filmed her inside a restroom were not engaging in legitimate protest.

The Democratic senator said that the immigration reform activists unlawfully entered the suburban Phoenix campus building, which was only open to ASU students and faculty, and recorded her and her students. Sinema, a former social worker, is a lecturer at ASU's School of Social Work.

In the 19 years I have been teaching at ASU, I have been committed to creating a safe and intellectually challenging environment for my students," Sinema said. Yesterday, that environment was breached. My students were unfairly and unlawfully victimized.

Living United for Change in Arizona, also known as LUCHA, posted video of the Sunday encounter on its social media.

The video showed group members chastising Sinema on accusations that she did not adequately support expectations of a pathway to citizenship for people in the country illegally and has not been supportive enough of President Joe Biden's $3.5 trillion infrastructure proposal.

Sinema did not say anything to the activists while they filmed her.

LUCHA said in a tweet that its members were forced to confront Sinema at ASU because she has been inaccessible to constituents.

Sinema said in her statement she has met with the group multiple times since she was elected to the Senate.

Both Sinema and fellow Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin have been criticized for not fully backing the Democrats' $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act, saying it's too expensive. Manchin, of West Virginia, was also confronted by activists over the weekend. People on kayaks approached his boat to yell at him.

When asked about these incidents, President Joe Biden, whose first year of office could be defined by this package passing, agreed it wasn't the best strategy.

I dont think theyre appropriate tactics, but it happens to everybody ... the only people it doesnt happen to are people who have Secret Service standing around them," Biden said. "So, its  its part of the process.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki sought to emphasize that Biden supports people's fundamental right to speak up. But in Sinema's case, boundaries were crossed.

Thats inappropriate and unacceptable, Psaki said.

Immigration reform advocates were outraged after an effort to add immigration provisions to the infrastructure bill, including a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants, was rejected. They believe Sinema's stance on the infrastructure package makes any immigration provisions unachievable.

Sinema spokesman John LaBombard told The Arizona Republic last month that she supports both securing our border and fixing our broken immigration system, including passing a permanent fix for Dreamers.

The DREAM Act  Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors  is congressional legislation that would allow young immigrants in the country illegally who were brought here as children to remain in the country if they meet certain criteria. The legislation has never been approved by Congress. It is similar to but not the same as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Many refer to immigrants who would benefit from either the DREAM Act or DACA as Dreamers.
Dylann Roof wants an entire appellate court to reconsider a decision to recuse itself from hearing his case, as the appeal of his death sentence and conviction in the 2015 racist slayings of nine members of a Black South Carolina congregation winds its way through the judicial system.

Last week, Roof's attorneys made that request of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, writing that the judges who opted to sit out his case should reinstate themselves to consider his petition for a new hearing before the court.

Without that move, or changing a court rule prohibiting judges visiting from other circuits from considering such requests, Roof's lawyers wrote, "no judges exist to consider" his rehearing petition, depriving him of a critical level of appellate review.

All of the judges from the 4th Circuit, which covers South Carolina, have recused themselves from hearing Roof's case. No explicit reason was given in the courts notice of that move in May, although one of the judges, Jay Richardson, prosecuted Roofs case as an assistant U.S. attorney in 2017, when Roof became the first person in the U.S. sentenced to death for a federal hate crime.

Authorities have said Roof opened fire during the closing prayer of a Bible study at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, raining down dozens of bullets on those assembled. He was 21 at the time.

The most recent filing came after the court, citing its recusal, denied Roof's request for a new hearing, and also ruled against allowing a full court of substitute judges from other circuits to consider his case.

If Richardson's presence on the 4th Circuit is indeed the basis for all the judges' recusal, the court shouldn't let that detail prevent it from singularly considering Roof's request for a full hearing, his attorneys wrote.

"The Court does not need to pass on the propriety of Judge Richardsons conduct at trial to resolve these issues," they wrote, adding in a footnote that Judge Richardson, of course, has a personal disqualifying interest and should remain recused.

In May, a panel composed of judges from other appellate circuits heard Roofs case, subsequently unanimously upholding his conviction and death sentence and issuing a scathing rebuke of Roofs crimes.

No cold record or careful parsing of statutes and precedents can capture the full horror of what Roof did," the judges wrote. His crimes qualify him for the harshest penalty that a just society can impose."

In what is anticipated to be a lengthy appeals process, Roof's lawyers have argued he was wrongly allowed to represent himself during sentencing. Roof, his attorneys have said, successfully prevented jurors from hearing evidence about his mental health, under the delusion that he would be rescued from prison by white-nationalists  but only, bizarrely, if he kept his mental-impairments out of the public record.

That rescue notion was apparently discussed in some circles. According to court documents filed in another federal case, the FBI heard two neo-Nazi group members talk about trying to free Roof from the maximum-security prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he is an inmate, including details on the number of guards present and how a shootout would happen.

If unsuccessful in his direct appeal, Roof could file whats known as a 2255 appeal, or a request that the trial court review the constitutionality of his conviction and sentence. He could also petition the U.S. Supreme Court or seek a presidential pardon.

___

Meg Kinnard can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.
Obit Ex-Missouri Rep Todd Akin FILE - In this Nov. 5, 2012, file photo, Todd Akin, then a Missouri Republican Senate candidate, campaigns in Florissant, Mo. Akin, whose "legitimate rape" comments during the 2012 U.S. Senate campaign were roundly criticized has died. He was 74. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

Former U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, a conservative Missouri Republican whose comment that women's bodies have a way of avoiding pregnancies in cases of legitimate rape sunk his bid for the U.S. Senate and became a cautionary tale for other GOP candidates, has died. He was 74.

Akin had cancer for several years, his son Perry said in a statement. He died late Sunday at his home in Wildwood, a St. Louis suburb.

As my fathers death approached, we had people from all different walks of life share story after story of the personal impact he had on them, Perry Akin said in a statement to The Associated Press.

He was a devout Christian, a great father, and a friend to many. We cherish many fond memories from him driving the tractor at our annual hayride, to his riveting delivery of the freedom story at 4th of July parties dressed in the full uniform of a colonial minuteman. The family is thankful for his legacy: a man with a servants heart who stood for truth.

Akin represented a Republican-leaning eastern Missouri district that included St. Louis-area suburbs for 12 years, giving up a safe seat to run for the U.S. Senate in 2012. He emerged from a crowded GOP primary to challenge then incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, only to seriously hurt Republicans' chances of recapturing a Senate majority less than two weeks later.

Akin, a strong abortion opponent, was asked during an interview by a St. Louis television station whether he supported allowing abortions for women who have been raped. He answered that from what I understand from doctors that such pregnancies are really rare.

He added: If its a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.

His comments sparked an outcry. The Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, immediately rebuked Akin and said his campaign would allow abortions in such cases.

Criticism of Akin's remarks clouded his U.S. Senate bid until the end, making him a symbol of how Republicans could fumble away races they had a good chance of winning with a candidate deemed too far to the right. Akin's campaign initially said he misspoke, and Akin later said he was wrong.

Akin faced pressure from the national GOP to withdraw and allow the state party to pick a replacement. He refused and ended up losing the race by nearly 16 percentage points, receiving 39% of the vote. Yet other Republican officials and officeholders across the U.S. occasionally echoed his remarks  signaling how conservative some of the party's base had become on the issue.

Two years later, Akin published a book, Firing Back, in which he accused GOP leaders of abandoning him and letting McCaskill win and labeling news organizations as bullies. In the book, he also retracted his public apology for his legitimate rape remark.

Akin never ran for office again, though early in 2015, he briefly fueled speculation about a 2016 primary challenge to GOP U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt with remarks that tea party Republicans wanted new blood.

Akin was born July 5, 1947, in New York City, but grew up in the St. Louis area. He received a bachelor's degree in engineering and management from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts in 1970, served in the U.S. Army and worked for IBM. He worked in corporate management at the St. Louis-based Laclede Steel Co.

He won a seat in the Missouri House in 1988 and served in the Legislature for 10 years. He won Missouri's 2nd Congressional District seat in 2000 and was reelected five times. He also served on the board of the anti-abortion group Missouri Right to Life.

In the 2012 U.S. Senate primary, Akin faced two formidable opponents, former State Treasurer Sarah Steelman and businessman John Brunner.

Many Democrats thought McCaskill's best shot at winning reelection would be with Akin as the GOP nominee. Her campaign aired television ads suggesting Akin was too conservative, Brunner was not a reliable conservative and Steelman represented more politics as usual.

Republicans took the ads as McCaskill's attempt to help Akin win the GOP primary. An autobiography that McCaskill published in 2015 said she also tried to boost Akin's campaign by urging it through back channels to resume airing a television ad featuring an endorsement from former conservative GOP presidential candidate and ex-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

McCaskill's moves paid off. Akin prevailed in the eight-person GOP field with only 36% of the vote.

Funeral information has not been announced. Survivors include Akin's wife, Lulli Boe Akin, his mother, Nancy Bigelow Akin, four sons, two daughters and 18 grandchildren.

___

Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas. Salter reported from O'Fallon, Missouri.
(Reuters) -Johnson & Johnson is planning to ask U.S. federal regulators this week to authorize a booster shot of its COVID-19 vaccine, the New York Times reported https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/10/04/world/covid-delta-variant-vaccine#johnson-johnson-will-seek-fda-authorization-for-a-booster-shot on Monday, citing officials familiar with the company's plans.

While scientists are divided over the need for booster shots when so many people in the United States and other countries remain unvaccinated, the Biden administration announced the push for an extra dose in August as part of an effort to shore up protection against the highly transmissible Delta variant.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week scheduled an Oct. 15 meeting of its expert advisory committee to discuss whether to grant emergency use authorization for a booster shot of J&J's vaccine.

Over 15 million Americans have received J&J's vaccine, which is administered as a single dose, according to the latest data https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations_vacc-total-admin-rate-total from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The healthcare conglomerate last month said an additional second shot of its vaccine given about two months after the first increased its effectiveness to 94%, compared with 70% protection with the single dose.

J&J declined to comment on the NYT report and pointed to its press release dated Sept. 21, saying the company has submitted available data to the U.S. health regulator and intends to submit the data to other regulators.

The FDA has already authorized a booster dose of the Pfizer Inc and partner BioNTech vaccine for those 65 and older, people at high risk of severe disease and others who are regularly exposed to the virus.

Rival Moderna Inc also submitted its application seeking authorization for a booster shot of its two-dose vaccine last month and FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee panel will hold a meeting on Oct. 14 to discuss the additional dose.

(Reporting by Aakriti Bhalla and Manojna Maddipatla in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M, Uttaresh.V and Anil D'Silva)
In the first five minutes of Mahamat Saleh Harouns film, I was stunned by how little I knew about Chad and how similar it is to India

New Delhi: One of the most fascinating things about film festivals is that while sitting in an immovable seat, we are transported from one distant, foreign land to another.

The Toronto International Film Festival opened on Friday and I have already spent time with two sisters in a Mennonite community in Canada, stayed at a huge country mansion in Belgium where a famous author struggles with writers block and a beguiling new house help. I have also stayed with a family trying to sell an island in Croatia, a young Polish couple vacationing in Italy, travelled with a 13-year-old boy from Mexico City to Chihuahua to collect his fathers remains, and watched the romance and destruction of a Dutch sea captain and a Parisian socialite in 1920s. And just today I was in Chad, Africa.

In the first five minutes of director Mahamat Saleh Harouns film, Lingui: The Sacred Bonds, about a 15-year-old pregnant daughter of a single mother, I was stunned by how little I knew about Chad and how similar it is to India.

Watching Lingui, set on the outskirts of the capital Ndjamena, its shanty towns with mud houses and open drains, the 5-meter-long lafai  a sari-like piece of clothing that women wear  the batik tie-and-dye designs and the patriarchal restrictions on women, I thought I was watching a film set in Gujarat.

Haroun, the first Chadian full-length film director who also wrote the film's screenplay, has said that Lingui means a bond what links people in order for them to live together.

In Lingui, that bond is between women who help each other survive in a world that is designed to control them, through law and religion, through women's circumcision and a ban on abortion.

Mother Amina strips old tyres to retrieve metal rods and wires inside which she then beats and twists into baskets. That's her means to survival. So when her daughter is expelled from school for being pregnant and says she wants an abortion, Amina, who prays daily at the local mosque, decides to help. But she has no money and has to dodge the prying eyes of the Imam and a state which conducts routine raids on hospitals and clinics.

At every step of the way, when men threaten their survival, other women risk everything to help Amina and her daughter Maria. A hospital nurse, a midwife, an estranged sister.

Lingui is the story of sisterhood that has helped women survive for generations despite the best efforts of men, in India and in Chad.
The incident took place on Sunday as violence erupted during a farmers' protest

A vehicle set ablaze after violence broke out after farmers agitating were allegedly run over by a vehicle in the convoy of a union minister, in Lakhimpur Kheri. (Photo: PTI)

Eight people, 4 of them farmers, were killed in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday in a violence which erupted during a farmers' protest, claiming the lives of both farmers and BJP workers ahead of a visit to Lakhimpur by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

Farmer leaders had claimed that Union Minister of State Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra was in one of the cars which they alleged knocked down some protesters.

Here are 10 things you need to know about the incident:

1. The violence broke out after two SUVs allegedly ran over over a group of anti-farm law protesters, who were protesting against the visit of Keshav Prasad Maurya at Tikonia-Banbirpur road on Sunday.

2. Union Minister of State Ajay Mishra has denied that his son was linked to the violence. "My son was present at the venue of the (UP deputy chief minister's) event and thousands of people, officers of the administration and police were present there," he said. "Some elements in farmers, who were protesting, showed black flags and pelted stones on the car which turned turtle. Two farmers came under the car and died. Three BJP workers and the driver of the car were beaten to death by some people present there. Had he (Ashish) been in that car, he would not have been alive today," he added.

3. Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Awanish Kumar Awasthi added that two FIRs have been registered, adding that the details of the sections under which they are filed were not known. "FIR has been lodged against several persons, including Minister of state for Home, Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra," Awasthi told news agency PTI. He also added that a copy of the FIR was not available yet. Mobile internet services have been suspended in parts of the violence-hit Lakhimpur district, where restrictions under CrPC section 144 -- which prohibits assembly of four or more people -- has also been imposed, according to officials.

4. "The farmers had planned to gherao the helipad to stop the arrival of the ministers. Once that ended and most people were on way back, three cars came... and mowed down the farmers... one farmer died on the spot and another in the hospital," said Dr Darshan Pal, a leader of the farmers' union, adding that the minister's son was in the car.

5. Farmer leaders claimed that at last one of the vehicles knocked down some farmers protesting over the contentious farm laws enacted at the Centre. The farmers' unions have also announced a protest at district magistrate offices across the country on Monday.

6. Rakesh Tikait has demanded Mishra's dismissal and the registration of a case of murder against his son and other goons. Tikait claimed that the farmers were attacked while they were returning from the Lakhimpur protest. Some of them were run over and they were also fired upon, he alleged in a video clip.

7. Opposition parties hit out at the BJP and demanded a Supreme Court-monitored judicial probe. The Congress, Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Rashtriya Lok Dal were among the parties that condemned the attack.

8. Some parties, including the Congress, also demanded immediate sacking of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra, following Samyukt Kisan Morcha's allegation that his son was travelling in one of the vehicles involved in the incident.

9. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other party leaders were detained in Sitapur on Monday, with the party alleging they were not allowed to meet the victims of the violence. "Priyanka Gandhi, Deepender Singh Hooda and other leaders were detained in Sitapur around 5 am. Stopping them in such a way is 'undemocratic'," Congress state President Ajay Kumar Lallu told PTI.

10. BSP supremo Mayawati demanded a judicial probe into the incident and said her party's national general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra was stopped in Lucknow to prevent him from reaching Lakhimpur. "BSP's national general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP S C Mishra was placed under house arrest late last night at his residence in Lucknow. It is continuing so that the party delegation under his leadership cannot reach Lakhimpur Kheri to get the correct report of the violence. This is very sad and deplorable," Mayawati said in a tweet in Hindi. "Due to the involvement of two BJP ministers in the Kheri case, a proper government investigation of this incident, justice to the victims and strict punishment to the guilty does not seem possible. Therefore, this incident in which eight people have been confirmed dead so far requires a judicial inquiry. This is the demand of the BSP," she said.
The state government has also announced that a retired High Court judge would probe the issue

A vehicle set ablaze after violence broke out after farmers agitating were allegedly run over by a vehicle in the convoy of a union minister, in Lakhimpur Kheri. (Photo: PTI)

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday announced an ex-gratia of Rs 45 lakh and a government job for the kin of four farmers who died in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident yesterday.

The state government has also announced that a retired High Court judge would probe the issue.

Additional Director General (Law and Order) of Uttar Pradesh police Prashant Kumar said: "Government will give Rs 45 lakhs and a government job to the families of four farmers who died in Lakhimpur Kheri yesterday. The injured will be given Rs 10 lakhs. FIR will be registered based on farmers' complaints. Retired High Court judge will probe the matter."

The ADG also informed that no leader of any political party will be allowed to visit the district because Section 144 of CrPC is in place.

However, the members of farmer unions are allowed to visit the district.

Several Opposition leaders from various parties including Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa are scheduled to visit Lakhimpur Kheri today.

As many as eight people died in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident on Sunday, said police.

Additional Superintendent of Police, Lakhimpur Kheri Arun Kumar Singh confirmed eight deaths including four farmers and four occupants of the vehicles that allegedly ran over the farmers.

Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of several farmer unions, alleged that Ashish Mishra Teni, son of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni arrived with three vehicles around the time that farmers were dispersing from their protest at the helipad and mowed down farmers and towards the end also attacked SKM leader Tajinder Singh Virk directly, by trying to run a vehicle over him.

However, Ashish Mishra refuted SKM's allegations and said he was not present at the spot where the incident took place.
Party insiders said Tej Pratap Yadav has been upset with his brother after he was sidelined in the party recently

Patna: New fissures have surfaced in the Rashtriya Janata Dal as Tej Pratap Yadav has alleged that his father Lalu Prasad Yadav is being held hostage in New Delhi and someone in the party was trying to take the post of RJD president. This appears to be a clear attack on his younger brother Tejashwi Yadav.

My father is not well and I dont want to put any kind of pressure on him. But I want to say that few people in the party are dreaming of becoming party president. I am saying this because its been almost a year now since he was released from prison but he hasnt come to Patna. I am aware that four or five people want to keep him away from party workers. The situation now is that he has been held hostage in Delhi, RJD leader and Lalu Yadavs older son Tej Pratap Yadav said, addressing a workshop by the Chhatra Janshakti Parishad, a social outfit floated by him.

More than the political temperature, it was a wave of shock for the Lalu Yadav family, the RJD, and the entire Grand Alliance when Tej Pratap made this statement publicly during an event in Patna. His statement is seen as a clear attack on his brother, Leader of the opposition in Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav. Party insiders said Tej Pratap Yadav has been upset with his brother after he was sidelined in the party recently.

Last month he had created a flutter in the RJD by calling state president Jagdanand Singh authoritarian and accused him of acting like a dictator. Sources said Mr Singh had offered to resign over the issue but Tejashwi Yadav and other senior leaders persuaded him to remain state president.

On Sunday, after the statement surfaced, the BJP and JD(U) demanded a clarification from the RJD on the allegation made by Tej Pratap Yadav. BJP spokesman Nikhil Anand said Lalu Yadavs elder son Tej Pratap has publicly said his father is being held hostage by few people in Delhi. We see this as a serious allegation and want Tejashwi Yadav to give a clarification and also inform us about his health.

Tejashwi Yadav responded by saying that the allegation that he was being hostage by a few people doesnt match his personality. He has been a chief minister and railway minister. Such an allegation doesnt fit the personality of Lalu Yadav.
In 2021, it appears, Rahul Gandhi is trying to mimic his grandmother by seeking to split the party once again

In his fictionalised autobiography, The Insider, former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao had a senior Congressman complaining that prime ministership has now become a proprietorship (Page 675). That is what dynastic succession had done to the Indian National Congress after it became the Indira Congress in 1969. When Mrs Sonia Gandhi took charge as its president, the party constitution was amended with Clause 5 of the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) constitution reading: The chairperson shall have the authority to name the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party to head the government, if necessary. The roots of the present crisis gripping the Sonia Congress lie in this unfortunate reality and inheritance from what came to be known as the Indira Congress that then became the Sonia Congress.

In 1969, Indira Gandhi split the Indian National Congress, the party she had inherited from her fathers generation, and created what came to be known as the Indira Congress, or Congress (I). She used the pedestal of ideology, purged the party of the conservative old guard and allied with the Left, giving an ideological twist to a political coup. In doing so she converted a political party into a family proprietorship.

Mrs Gandhi succeeded in staging her political coup not only because she was already Prime Minister and had the power of office to retain adequate support, but also because she correctly captured the mood of the nation. After the 1967 general elections the old Congress was seen losing heft and the Left was in ascendance with the Communists, socialists and an assortment of populists capturing the Congress bases. Mrs Gandhis tilt to the Left helped her retain and enhance her power.

In 2021, it appears, Rahul Gandhi is trying to mimic his grandmother by seeking to split the party once again, attacking the old guard and tilting Left. A senior Congressman recently explained to me that Rahul Gandhis strategy is to rid the party of the deadwood like Amarinder Singh and the so-called Group of 23, and revitalise it with fresh blood, preferably young and Left-leaning, like Kanhaiya Kumar. So if it was the likes of a Nijalingappa and a Sanjiva Reddy that had to go in 1969, it is a Jyotiraditya Scindia and an Amarinder Singh who have to be shown the door now; and if it was Communists like Mohan Kumaramangalam and K.V. Raghunatha Reddy who were inducted then, it is a Kanhaiya Kumar who is inducted now. Old whine for new battles.

Addressing a student gathering at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi over a decade ago, Rahul Gandhi revealed his political game thus: What is the option for me? I can either propagate the system or change it. I am not the one to propagate it so I am trying to change it. By positioning himself as an agent of change rather than of continuity, Mr Gandhi had hoped to distance himself from the negative baggage of the Manmohan Singh government. However, by taking on the position of party vice-president he happily accepted his proprietorial inheritance as future party president and Prime Minister. It is this strategy of playing both dissenter and inheritor that is now under final testing and most political pundits believe that its a game whose time is long over.

If Indira Gandhis split and rule strategy worked in 1969, the younger Gandhis inherit and dissent strategy is unlikely to work now. The reason is simple. Mrs Gandhi was bolstering her political base within at a time when the opposition to the Congress was still splintered and weak, and the Congress itself was in a much stronger position. Mr Gandhi is seeking to establish his leadership over a much weakened and dispirited party that is also poorly funded. That at a time when the ruling side led by a powerful Prime Minister is well-funded.

What the Congress Party needs today is a closing of ranks, not a division of the benches. Many within the Congress who wish to build a strong Opposition alliance for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections now believe that rather than splitting the party, what the Congress leadership should undertake is a reunification of the party, bringing together all the ex-Congress persons from across the country. However, any such unification strategy will have to clarify the roles of the Nehru-Gandhi family. An unwillingness to do so has already cost the party dear with the exit of several party members like Jyotiraditya Scindia and Jitin Prasada.

Moreover, ex-Congress persons who have set up their own platforms, like Mamata Banerjee, Sharad Pawar, Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and so on will no longer be willing to play second fiddle to the younger Nehru-Gandhis.

If the Sonia Congress enters the fray for the coming state Assembly elections on its own it may have less to show than if it were to do so in alliance with strong regional players. Bringing regional parties opposed to the BJP on to its side can create a formidable alliance. However, its strength will depend on the ability of the Congress leadership to manage the individual egos of its own party members and, more importantly, those of powerful regional leaders like Ms Banerjee.

Indeed, of all the potential prime ministerial aspirants around, as of now, Ms Banerjee is the most credible. Her political credibility rests on three pillars. First, she has demonstrated her capacity to defeat the Modi-Shah combine. Second, she is the only woman political leader of any stature today in the country. Third, she has the experience to deal with political leaders of different parties from Sharad Pawar to Arvind Kejriwal, K. Chandrashekhar Rao to Akhilesh Yadav. While Sonia Gandhi demonstrated the ability to relate to a wide range of politicians in 2004, Rahul Gandhi has singularly failed in this respect. He does not seem to have the emotional quotient required. A healthy and vibrant democracy needs a vibrant and active political opposition. The Congress, under its present leadership, has not been able to play that part. It needs new thinking and a new leadership.
Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
As you can observe, the prototype of the upcoming 2022 Mazda2 was spied without any camouflage, except for its logo and model name. The latter two are covered with black tape, and that was deemed as enough. The prototype still had the Hybrid badge from Toyota on the right side of its rear hatch, and it was not covered in any way.Mazda previously confirmed that it would offer an OEM-supplied model based on the Yaris Toyota Hybrid System in Europe within the next two years. The confirmation arrived during a presentation of the Japanese brand's financial results, and the decision was motivated by the need to enhance and grow the range.In other words, Mazda needed a hybrid in its range to reduce its CO2 emissions average, and introducing a hybrid subcompact hatchback on the European market is the best way to do so. Since they already had a partnership with Toyota on subcompact hatchbacks, this was an easy call. Or, at least, what appeared to be an easy call.The ongoing generation of the Mazda2 subcompact hatchback was launched in 2014, but it received a facelift and several updates over the years. None of those updates involved adding a hybrid system. Implementing such a system would have been expensive, and the costs would have been reflected in the price of the resulting car.Mazda is not the first automaker to rebadge a hybrid Toyota, as the Japanese conglomerate already has deals in place with brands like Suzuki and Subaru. Overall, this is a win for Toyota, as it gets to manufacture and sell more units, while other automakers get to have a product in showrooms with minimum development costs.
KW

To make this kit special, TOM's has decided to limit its availability. Just three units of the Toyota Supra A90 will receive it, and it is meant to be painted white. Now, some may think that this is an odd choice, as the Supra that was made famous in the Fast and Furious movie franchise is orange . Not so fast, as there is an explanation for this.If you remember Furious 7 , you might recall a white Mk4 Toyota Supra. That example was owned by Paul Walker himself, and that is the reason the Japanese tuning house, along with the Safari lifestyle magazine, chose to customize three white Toyota Supra units instead of orange ones.On the outside, the kit consists of a large rear spoiler and a small front lip. The former is designed to be a nod to the previous generation of the Supra, called A80, which has been a fan favorite for years now. Just like Paul Walker's actual Supra, the car comes with BBS LM wheels. TOM's has also fitted a set ofVariant 3 coilovers, which reduce the ride height and can be adjusted on several parameters. Mind you, it would be wise to get an alignment and have a suspension specialist set these up if you decide to buy them yourself.The package would not be complete without more power, and TOM's offers its Power Box, which bumps available resources from 382 hp (285 kW) to 420 horsepower (313 kW). The unit is made to mate up with the stock harness, and we can trust TOM's experts on this, as they are a tuning shop that is approved by the Toyota Motor Company An example will cost 12.97 million Japanese Yen, which is the equivalent of $116.696 at current exchange rate at the time of writing. Since supply is limited, the Japanese magazine announced that a lottery will be held to choose the three lucky buyers.We appreciate their initiative with the lottery system on this instead of just starting a bidding war, which would have hiked the price of these examples of the A90 Supra.
She feels fine, just in case you were worried. To mark World Space Week, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Mattel have joined forces to send a Barbie on her first zero-gravity flight at an ESA center in Germany, the agency informs. The event was not a useless exercise or waste of resources, but a means to encourage girls to pursue a career in STEM (space and science, technology, mathematics, and engineering), and to provide parents and educators with the proper support for them.The Barbie in question is the Samantha Cristoforetti Barbie, which was initially launched as a one-off but will now be made available as a series doll throughout Europe. Cristoforetti herself videoed in for the event, Reuters informs, expressing her hope that the campaign will further motivate little girls to pursue a career in space exploration. The same media outlet notes that, now that Barbie has completed a pre-flight training with the zero-g flight, she will be joining Cristoforetti on the International Space Station (ISS) in April.Part of the ongoing partnership, ESA and Mattel have compiled resources for educators and parents, highlighting different space careers and offering interesting facts about space for primary school kids. The Women in Aerospace Europe organization has set up a bursary for the next generation of female astronauts, and an unspecified percentage of the sales of the new Cristoforetti Barbie will go directly there.This might be Barbies first brush with zero-gravity, but its not the first time she gets into space exploration . The first Barbie astronaut doll walked on the moon back in 1965, and other Barbies have been space scientists, astronauts or astrophysicists. Sally Ride from NASA and Anna Kikina from Roscomos also have Barbies in their own likeness.Not too shabby for a 62-year-old piece of plastic , not at all.
Two incredible and inspirational people will join the #NS18 crew. Actor @WilliamShatner and Blue Origins Vice President of Mission & Flight Operations Audrey Powers @AudreyKPowers. pic.twitter.com/xqI9nw1KX8  Blue Origin (@blueorigin) October 4, 2021

Blue Origin is going forward with its mission to send non-professional humans to space and announced the company's second trip last week after the successful launch that took Jeff Bezos to space in July.The rumor mill stops here, as Blue Origin officially confirmed that Star Trek actor William Shatner will be one of the four people to step onboard New Shepards 18th mission (NS-18).Audrey Powers, Blue Origins Vice President of Mission & Flight Operations, Dr. Chris Boshuizen, and Glen de Vries will also join the actor for his real space adventure.The launch is planned for October 12, from Launch Site One in West Texas. Liftoff is scheduled for 8:30 AM CDT / 13:30 UTC, and there will also be live coverage prior to launch. William Shatner , who is the current host and executive producer of docu-series The UnXplained on The History Channel, will have more answers after his 10-minute visit to space.He explained that its been a long dream of his to travel to space, and is excited about the opportunity. The Star Trek actor told Blue Origin: "I've heard about space for a long time now. I'm taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle."With this trip, there are a lot of firsts hes achieving. The 90-year-old will be the oldest person to travel to space, taking the title from previous Blue Origin passenger, aviation pioneer Wally Funk, 82. But thats not all, because, while he wont be at the helm of the USS Enterprise, the Canadian will be the first actor who played a spaceship captain to actually reach space, and it will make his Captain Kirk role a tiny bit less fiction and a lot cooler.
Lada is the most Soviet-era car ever, and it too is making a major comeback . Officially known in Russia as Zhiguli, it was exported internationally under the Lada name, and while ugly, cheap, and considerably underpowered, it could still take a beating and run. In recent years, its been the not-so-secret ingredient in countless Frankenstein-style projects from the mad geniuses from Garage 54 , and this helped with its international comeback.Locally, Lada is living the dream  again. Especially this one, affectionately known as Carpet or Kovrolina, a Zhiguli VAZ 27011 thats been wrapped in Persian-style rugs, in an attempt to give it a new lease of life. That is not a joke: the owner actually spent two full months searching for the right kind of carpets in the shops of Moscow, and then another month and a half to stick them onto the body of the Lada.The result is something that the owner calls a work of art, arguably knowing only too well that art is relative and subjective. That owner is Georgy Makarov, a student at the Moscow Automobile and Highway State Technical University and, according to OddityCentral , the son of one of Russias most prominent vintage car experts.Makarov has been showing Kovrolina off on his social media, where he describes it as the softest, most popular and most Soviet car to currently roam the streets of Russia. In his most recent post, he promises a new and awesome photoshoot in St. Petersburg. Hopefully, it will include a look at the interior, because it would be a shame to have missed the chance to match it to the unique exterior.Carpet is my vision made real. It is made up of three concepts: the Soviet Union, the Zhiguli brand and carpets, Makarov is quoted as saying. 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.Its that last capacity that will probably spell the end of Kovrolina as an art object. In the video below, Makarov is mercilessly driving it through muddy puddles and spraying it with some kind of fizzy beverage. Nothing spells art like the smell of a musty rug.
Thats right, Cartoon Network, cause thats where the American-made animation by the name Megas XLR aired back in the mid-2000s. The 26 episodes (not so successful, this show) told the story of some New Jersey guys, their mecha robot, and how they fight off an alien race called Glorft.Initially, the robot was called just Megas, which stands for Mechanized Earth Guard Attack System, but the XLR particle, meaning eXtra Large Robot, was slapped onto the thing after one of the guys replaced the robots head with a muscle car We had to go a bit into details to give those like me, who havent had a chance of experiencing the show firsthand, a shot at understanding what were looking at now: the Dodge Viper Megas XLR.What youre seeing is not a real build, but a rendering created by a digital designer who goes by the name sdesyn . Unlike me, he was just the right age back in the 2000s to enjoy Cartoon Network, and get inspiration from the shows of the time.This Viper pays tribute to the animation in the form of the livery that wraps around the body. We get an 8-ball design on the front wheels (Rotiform AeroDiscs), and flames that start from them and extend to the rear panels. Meaning the exact same tattoos the cartoon robot had on its hands.All the visual extras (like differently-colored wheels on each side) would have meant nothing without some type of widebody thrown into the mix, so we get that too in this Viper, once again making us wish the moniker were still around.
Separately from the international versions of the T6, Fords Ranger for North America became Blue Ovals first foray into the world of mid-size pickup trucks. It has a lot of natural competition, coming from all over the place. But the Tacoma and Colorado/Canyon siblings would have nothing on the Ranger if only the Detroit automaker gave it dually credentials.Of course, thats (probably) never going to happen. Both Ford and its customers look entirely happy with the way of pickup truck things: Maverick, Ranger, F-150, and only after them do we enter dually territory with certain Super Duty versions. But, of course, thats just not the way it works across the virtual realm.There, just about anything looks possible, as outrageous as it may seem. Still, certain pixel masters arent in it just for the possible shock value. Instead, even when knowing their project is entirely wishful thinking, they still go to great lengths to make it entirely credible.Case in point, Oscar Vargas, the virtual artist behind the wb.artist20 account on social media, has recently imagined a T6 Ford Ranger with dually rear wheels. A quick glance at the project wouldnt suffice to conclude its just a virtual work of automotive art . But, of course, the Ranger doesnt have super (Duty) powers in real life.Instead, the CGI expert wanted to take things up a notch. So, aside from the dual rear wheels, the Ranger also comes with a subtle design refresh . For example, the authors highlights include things like a bigger hood and refreshed headlights. But we also noticed the wider fender flares out in the back that seem ready to give it a tougher look.And, circling back to the bigger hood for a bigger engine part, we really cant help but imagine the dually Ranger with a 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged EcoBoost powertrain snatched directly from the F-150 Raptor! We know, wishful thinking...
EV

And as far as the car experience is considered, the Mountain View-based search giant is once again focused on several fronts at the same time, including Android Auto, CarPlay , Android Automotive, and the new driving mode that replaces Android Auto for phones.More recently, however, Google announced a new Google Maps feature specifically aimed at Android Automotive that almost escaped unnoticed.Its support for thermal battery management, a system that keeps an eye on the temperature of the battery in yourand therefore helps maintain the optimal values before a charge.Google Maps will work together with this system to make sure the battery is fully prepared for a charge, most likely by sending information related to the location of the station and the time left until its reached when the driver is heading towards it.As said in the headline, few people will get to try out this feature, at least at first. This is because such functionality would only be available on Android Automotive, and given this operating system needs to be installed by carmakers right from the factory, the number of cars currently running it is still small.And then, the Android Automotive experience must take place in an EV using Google Maps to navigate to a charging station, though on the other hand, this feature makes a very good case for using Googles application in this regard as well.Google Maps already offers much more advanced functionality on Android Automotive, as it gets access to more vehicle data. A new update, for example, can monitor the existing range of an EV and automatically suggest a charging station along a configured route to make sure drivers have enough battery to reach their destinations.
kW

Luxury Dutch shipyard Feadship is renowned for its custom, extravagant vessels, and its been in the ship designing and building business since 1949. One of its impressive bespoke superyachts is Shinkai, which recently had its first contact with water while being moved from the Feadship yard in Aalsmeer (North-Holland) to the outside dock.Shinkai was initially known as Project 708 and it is now getting ready for its final outfitting, before starting its sea trials.The vessel was designed by the Vitruvius design studio and measures 180 ft (55 m). Its interior was created by Boutsen Design, in close cooperation with the vessels owners.It is equipped with two MTU 12V2000M72 engines (1,080each) and can reach a top speed of 14.5 knots. At its 12 knots cruising speed, the Shinkai offers a range of 5500 nautical miles.Feadships Shinkai is a heavy-duty explorer yacht meant for adventures in the Northwest and Northeast passages. Just like most of Feadships builds, Shinkai has also been customized according to the owners requests.One of these requests was for the Shinkai to be able to incorporate a 7.2-ton submarine on the aft deck, along with the necessary crane for launching and collection. The crane has an outreach of approximately 26 ft (eight meters) and will also be used to lift the owners car and its crate from the aft deck to the shore. We don't know much about the owner, except that he is an experienced ocean explorer, who also asked for the striking mast of the vessel.The superyacht has an ice class steel hull and a WASSP sonar system for exploring the ocean floor.Another impressive feature of the Shinkai is its massive gyroscope system which measures 9.8x9.8 ft (3x3 meters) and weighs 23 tons, a first on a yacht of this size. In fact, Feadship claims its the largest unit built to date.The Dutch shipbuilder says the Shinkai exploring superyacht will be delivered to its owner later this year and will embark on its first adventures on the Northwest passage.
kWh

Wind turbine capacity has evolved a lot during the past decades. At the beginning of the 2000s, 2 MW wind turbines were common. Today, 14 MW turbines are being installed, and next-generation, 20 MW turbines are planned for the coming years. But, since the rotor blades of these advanced turbines are over 328-foot (100 meters) long, they require larger transport and installation vessels.Van Oord, a Netherlands-based company, is ready to introduce a ship thats dedicated to next-generation wind turbines . This 574-foot (175 meters) vessel will combine advanced technology with hybrid propulsion systems. The most striking thing about this ship is that its designed with four giant legs, of over 400 feet (126 meters) each, which enable it to be jacked up and operate in waters that are up to 230 feet (70 meters) deep. Its also equipped with a powerful crane that can lift more than 3,300 tons (3,000 metric tons).The future mega-ship will also be sustainable, by running on methanol, which helps cut the ships CO2 emissions by more than 78%. It will also feature an advanced emissions control technology (Selective Catalytic Reduction) that lowers Nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions to a minimum. To help save fuel and reduce emissions even more, the ship will also be equipped with a 5,000battery pack.Van Oords innovative installation vessel is currently being built at the Yantai CIMC Raffles Shipyard, in China, and its set to become operational in 2024. The company will invest more than $1 billion in a sustainable, innovative fleet, over the next five years.In almost two decades, Van Oords contribution has cumulated to almost 40% of the total installed offshore wind capacity, worldwide, and it will keep growing. The European Union intends to install 300 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2050, and, around the Globe, this capacity is expected to reach 2,000 GW.
These two states are known for two famous characters: Captain James T. Kirk from Star Trek and Walter P. Chrysler. While one is fictional and will be born in 2228, the other established the famous brand with his name. In each of the men's states, getting an abandoned vehicle is quite easy compared to other places, but there are still some aspects to consider.While riding a bicycle in Iowa is a preferred sport, with an annual meeting that get thousands of Iowans crossing the state from west to east, it is also a place where the police monitor abandoned cars. Unlike other states, in Iowa, any vehicle that is left unattended on public property for more than 24 hours (instead of 48 hours elsewhere) is considered abandoned "if it doesn't have license plates, or lacks two or more wheels, or other parts which render the vehicle totally inoperable."The police will try to get in touch with the vehicle's owner, but if they can't be reached, the vehicle will be sold at an auction. Usually, municipalities from Iowa hold one auction per month where they will try selling those cars. If they are not sold for use, they will be sold for junk or demolished and sold for scrap. Either way, if the owner fails to show and offer proof of ownership, they will lose the car.If a car is abandoned on your property, you can apply for a quiet title from the court. You don't even have to wait too long for that. In a couple of months, you can have your name on that vehicle and start working on restoring it. Still, you have to prove that you tried to contact the registered owner, and the police will help you.Moreover, you can claim an abandoned car left on public property and provide the VIN to the police. After 30 to 60 days, if no owner shows up with documents, you're in luck - but don't pop the champagne yet. After the boys in blue issue a notice of abandonment, you can file an application for registration and bonded title issued on your name. Of course, there will be some fees and taxes, but you'll have the car at the end of the day. After three years, if no one claims the vehicle, the bonded title expires, and you'll end up with a clean title.Kansas is located right in the middle of the U.S., with the location of the country's geographical center just a few miles northwest of Lebanon, on Highway 281. There is a sign for that location, which looks awkward for such a great country, but it is still a Historical Marker.In Kansas , the law says that a vehicle is considered abandoned if left unattended for at least 48 hours on a street or highway, and ten hours on an interstate or freeway. After that, the car will be towed away by the police, who will try to find the owner. In the end, if the authorities can't find the owner or the lienholder, they will sell the car at an auction, and you can get it from there.If you plan on moving or have already relocated to Kansas, you might stumble upon a vehicle hidden in the barn for a long time, and you might want to restore it . Sure, you might try and find the owner to send you the title. That would be the right way to do it. But what if you can't? You might qualify for a quiet title instead, but do some researches first. Go here and try to see if the vehicle is stolen. Sometimes you don't get a true answer, but at least it's a start.The process might be hard to handle, and you might need some assistance from a lawyer. You need to know that when you apply for a quiet title, the defendant of the owner is the Kansas Department of Revenue, if the vehicle was registered in Kansas. If the car is not registered there, Kansas Highway Patrol should be the defendant, and it will be required to inspect the vehicle before it can be titled.
EV

One such example is a truck mode, as drivers of larger vehicles cant really use Google Maps for navigation simply because the provided routes are only appropriate for regular passenger cars.This is why the rest of the navigation apps out there come in so handy. And without a doubt, HERE makes some of the best alternatives to Google Maps, including as far as CarPlay users are concerned. HERE WeGo Maps & Navigation , for example, is one of the most popular choices for drivers who want a powerful replacement on CarPlay, and a quick look at the feature lineup proves exactly why.But the even better news is HERE is continuously improving this app, and the most recent update to version 4.2.100 brings a feature that many users have been drooling over for a long time.Itsstation information, as such details are now displayed right on the map, along with plug type, charging modes, and current availability.In other words, if you use HERE WeGo in an electric vehicle and you need to discover a charging station along your route, the application now lets you see such locations on the map and also makes it more convenient to find one compatible with your car.Furthermore, the available information is critical especially if youre in a hurry, and HERE guarantees it is accurate and you can fully rely on its app.In the meantime, Google Maps is also evolving substantially, though the most advanced functionality for EVs remains exclusive to Android Automotive. For example, the app has recently been updated with battery thermal management support , so it can help the battery reach the appropriate temperature in advance as the vehicle approaches a charging station.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

NHTSA

ICE

The) states that the turn signal could intermittently activate in the opposite direction of that intended by the driver. This is blamed on the Smart Junction Box (SJB) software that may not interpret the signals received from the multifunction switch in certain circumstances.At first glance, it may not seem like a big issue, but it increases the risk of a crash, which is why the safety agency and Hyundais North American arm are conducting the recall for no less than 466,109 units of the 2015-2017 Sonata, 2016-2017 Sonata Hybrid , and Sonata Plug-in Hybrid.The-powered models were made from May 2, 2014, to August 17, 2016. The Hybrids came to life between December 15, 2014, and May 15, 2017, and the PHEVs between December 22, 2014, and May 3, 2017.Drivers will be aware of the problem, as the unintended turn signal direction will be visible in the instrument cluster. Getting rid of it means paying a visit to an authorized dealer. In turn, they will inspect the vehicle and will update the SJB software at no charge with a version that has already been implemented in vehicle production.Hyundai is in the process of informing dealers and owners of the recall . Both parties are expected to be aware of the safety campaign on or before November 19. The automakers number for this recall is 210, and they can be contacted at 1-855-371-9460. At the same time, concerned owners with questions on the topic can get in touch with the NHTSA too, at 1-888-327-4236.
AWD

VW has made sure the car will stand out with a custom livery, OZ Racing alloy wheels, off-road tires, and a Thule roof rack that holds a spare tire. In addition, Rhys Millen Racing and Tanner Foust prepared the all-electric vehicle to make it ready for competition in the 2021 edition of the Rebelle Rally.Other modifications include tubular control arms, fabricated skid plates, battery protection, and various other components. The goal is to allow improved suspension travel while also protecting the battery and other vital parts.If you like the livery, you should know that the artist Liz Kuz designed the wrap for the car. She was inspired by this off-road rally that drives from Las Vegas (Nevada) to Glamis (California) on trails that respect the desert environment.The VW ID.4 AWD PRO will be driven by Mercedes Lilienthal, who will be assisted by navigator Emily Winslow. Together, the crew will race through the desert in Nevada and California.It is the first-ever entry in this competition by Volkswagen of America, and the German automaker is confident about the whole thing since the ID.4Pro has previously competed in the NORRA Mexican 1000 earlier this year with Tanner Foust at the wheel.If the crew's names sound familiar, you should know that Lilienthal competed in the 2018 Rebelle Rally while Winslow raced in the 2018 and 2019 editions of the event. Her first participation resulted in a podium finish. As VW notes, Lilienthal is a freelance journalist for several publications, including The New York Times, while Winslow is a project manager.The 2021 Rebelle Rally will start on October 7, 2021, and the race is supposed to end on October 16, 2021. Volkswagen of America's entry is Team #211, and viewers can track Lilienthal and Winslow's progress in the VW ID.4 on Rebelle Rally's website
National Transportation Safety Board investigators arrived on Sunday evening at the site of an Amtrak train derailment near Joplin, Montana, which authorities said killed three people and wounded some 50 others.

The big picture: 141 passengers and 16 crew members were on the Empire Builder train, traveling from Chicago to Seattle and Portland, Oregon, when eight of the 10 cars derailed about 4p.m. Saturday, per an Amtrak statement.

Photo: Jacob Cordeiro/Twitter

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte told reporters on Sunday that five people remained hospitalized following the derailment. All were in stable conditions.

Amanda Frickel, disaster and emergency services coordinator for Hill County, Montana, said injuries to passengers and crew included "minor cuts and bruises, sprains," and "a couple head wounds," per ABC News.

Part of the train that had two locomotives was due to arrive in Seattle and another portion in Portland on Sunday morning, KING 5 News notes.

What they're saying: Amtrak CEO Bill Flynn said in a statement Sunday that the company was working closely with the NTSB, the Federal Railroad Administration, local law enforcement and response agencies to cooperate with the investigation.

"We share the sense of urgency to understand why the accident happened; however, until the investigation is complete, we will not comment further on the accident itself," Flynn said.

"The NTSB will identify the cause or causes of this accident, and Amtrak commits to taking appropriate actions to prevent a similar accident in the future."

For the record: The last recorded fatal incident involving Amtrak occurred in 2018 in South Carolina when a passenger and freight train collided, killing two of the company's employees.

Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.
Brothers and business partners, Siri Tan and Za Awg, spent their September suddenly popping up around town.

Driving the news: Colorado's first Burmese eatery has taken to the streets with the launch of its new trailer, from which hungry folks on the go can snag the spiced and savory Southeast Asian dishes.

Flashback: Tan grew up in what was formerly called Burma  now Myanmar  and moved to Colorado in 2014 where he helped resettle refugees in Aurora. Though he'd never previously worked in restaurants, Tan almost instantly noticed the city's lack of Burmese cuisine, and longed for traditional family mealtime.

On a trip to San Francisco, his yearning and curiosity turned to inspiration as he and his uncle lined up in a slow-moving queue for the Bay Area's famed Burma Superstar.

"In Burma, you don't wait for food like that," Tan said. "I thought there was a great opportunity for me to start a Burmese restaurant in Denver."

Inside a former Aurora mini mall, his idea found a home, with the 2019 launch of Mango House, which describes itself as a "shared space for resettled refugees." He set up Urban Burma one of six independent stalls tucked in the food hall and started serving in April of that year.

The menu: Short and precise, Burmese fare is influenced by its neighboring countries' cuisines  think of dishes from Thailand, China and India. Almost all of Urban Burma's dishes can be made vegetarian or vegan and Tan says his secret sauce is "really good" not "cheap," soy sauce.

Order this:
Over a dozen U.S. states have become "leaders" in "peddling financial secrecy," according to a global investigation of leaked documents, known as the "Pandora Papers," published this weekend.

Why it matters: "South Dakota, Nevada and other states have adopted financial secrecy laws that rival those of offshore jurisdictions," per the papers, obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in Washington, D.C., and shared with major news outlets.

The investigation, involving more than 600 journalists examining over 11.9 million financial records, found data showing "leaders of foreign governments, their relatives and companies moving their private fortunes into U.S.-based trusts," per the Washington Post, an investigation media partner.

President Biden has pledged that his administration will lead efforts to bring transparency to the U.S. and global financial systems.

The files suggest that the U.S. has emerged as "a leading tax haven," with South Dakota in particular allegedly "sheltering billions of dollars in wealth linked to individuals previously accused of serious financial crimes," notes the Guardian, another partner, along with the BBC and Le Monde.

Of note: The records provide "substantial new evidence" that South Dakota "now rivals notoriously opaque jurisdictions in Europe and the Caribbean in financial secrecy," per WashPost.

"Year after year in South Dakota, state lawmakers have approved legislation drafted by trust industry insiders, providing more and more protections and other benefits for trust customers in the U.S. and abroad," according to the ICIJ.

"Customer assets in South Dakota trusts have more than quadrupled over the past decade to $360 billion," the ICIJ added.

Zoom in: "Tens of millions of dollars from outside the United States are now sheltered by trust companies in Sioux Falls, some of it tied to people and companies accused of human rights abuses and other wrongdoing," WashPost reports.
Aliyev expressed readiness for such a meeting on Friday. I am ready to hold talks with Mr. Pashinian at any moment, whenever he is ready, told the Spanish EFE news agency. I am open to discussions and believe they could be a good sign that the war is over.

Pashinian responded to the offer at the start of an official visit to Lithuania. Meeting with members of the local Armenian community, he said Yerevan and Baku should try to move forward with small steps to build some trust between them.

Pashinian said he is particularly interested in securing the release of dozens of Armenian soldiers and civilians held by Azerbaijan nearly one year after Russia brokered a ceasefire that stopped the 44-day war in Karabakh. He said to that end the Armenian side is ready to release more maps of Armenian minefields in districts around Karabakh that were retaken by Azerbaijani forces during and after the war.

I am ready to take all the maps in our possession [to the meeting with Aliyev] and am calling on the Azerbaijani president to bring along all of our prisoners, added Pashinian.

Armenia already provided Baku such maps this summer in return for the release of 30 Armenian prisoners of war.

Aliyev claimed that those maps are not accurate and said Yerevan should provide more detailed information about all Armenian minefields along the former line of contact around Karabakh. If the Armenian side does that  we will respond in kind, he told EFE without elaborating.

Aliyev and Pashinian most recently held talks in Moscow last January in a meeting hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The meeting focused on the opening of transport links between Armenia and Azerbaijan envisaged by the Karabakh ceasefire.

Aliyev repeatedly threatened in the following months to forcibly open a transport corridor connecting Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through Armenias Syunik province. He also said that Azerbaijans victory in the war put an end to the Karabakh conflict.

Aliyev offered to meet with Pashinian one week after the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers met in New York in the presence of the U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group.

In a joint statement on those talks, the three mediators said they proposed specific focused measures to deescalate the situation and possible next steps. They also reaffirmed their readiness to help the conflicting sides find comprehensive solutions to all remaining issues related to or resulting from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan met with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian for the second time in less than two weeks.

Amir-Abdollahian reportedly sounded satisfied with their latest talks, saying that the two sides agreed to boost Armenian-Iranian political, economic and cultural ties. He also said Iran will not allow some foreign states to damage its relations with neighbors, including Armenia.

Mirzoyan visited the Iranian capital amid mounting tensions between Tehran and Baku underscored by large-scale Iranian military exercises held along the Islamic Republics border with Azerbaijan.

The Iranian military reportedly began massing troops there after Baku set up on September 12 a roadblock on the main highway connecting Armenia with Iran.

The Armenian government controversially ceded a 21-kilometer section of the road to Azerbaijan following last years war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijani police and customs are now collecting a hefty road tax from Iranian trucks and other vehicles passing through it, causing significant disruptions in cargo traffic between Armenia and Iran.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry last week linked the drills to Azerbaijans military ties with Israel, saying that Iran will not tolerate Israeli presence near its borders.

Amir-Abdollahian on Sunday also pointed to the widely documented participation of Sunni Muslim militants from the Middle East in the Karabakh war on the Azerbaijani side. He said those members of terrorist movements were deployed in areas south of Karabakh bordering northwestern Iran.

The presence of Zionists and terrorists [in Azerbaijan]  seriously worries us, the foreign minister told Iranian state television. It can create problems for the government of Azerbaijan in the near future.

Since we are not sure that they [Sunni militants] have left the area, the drills will convey a message to them, the commander of the Iranian ground forces, Brigadier General Kiomars Heidari, said, according to Irans Press TV.

Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei commented on the problem that arose on our northwestern border recently when he addressed graduates of Iranian military academies earlier on Sunday.

We will not allow alien forces to intervene in processes taking place there. He who thinks that he can ensure his own security by pinning hopes on outsiders will get a slap, Khamenei said in a warning clearly addressed to Baku.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry rejected Tehrans baseless claims. Unfortunately, friendly Iran never condemned the [Armenian] occupation of our territory just as resolutely, said a ministry spokeswoman.

Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev criticized the Iranian war games on September 27. He also said Baku set up the roadblock on the Armenia-Iran highway because Tehran ignored its repeated warnings to stop Iranian trucks from shipping cargo to Karabakh.

The road mostly passes through Armenias southeastern Syunik province which is sandwiched between Azerbaijan and its Nakhichevan exclave and also borders Iran. Earlier this year, Aliyev threatened to forcibly open a transport corridor to Nakhichevan, drawing strong condemnation from Armenia.

Mojtaba Zonnouri, a senior Iranian parliamentarian, on Monday accused Aliyev of trying to cut Irans access to Armenia with the help of Turkey and Israel. The official IRNA news agency quoted Zonnouri as warning that Azerbaijan and Turkey will pay a big price if they pose a threat to Iran.

Zonnouri was apparently among 165 members of Irans parliament who issued a joint statement on Sunday saying that the Islamic Republic will not tolerate any geopolitical change and alteration of the borders of neighbor countries.

On September 28, a conservative Iranian newspaper reputedly controlled by Khameneis office published a commentary that accused Aliyev and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of helping the United States and Israel to hatch a geopolitical plot against Iran and Russia.

A columnist for the Kayhan newspaper also charged that Pashinian has joined the hidden alliance of the four states and is willing to cede Syunik province to Azerbaijan.

The Armenian prime minister responded to the allegation on Sunday at the start of an official visit to Lithuania.

It is no secret that there are some circles that manage from time to time to publish articles in the Iranian press saying that Armenia is involved in some conspiracies against Iran, Pashinian told members of the Armenian community in the Baltic state.

I am sure our Iranian colleagues know that Armenia has never been involved and will never be involved in a conspiracy against Iran because those relations [between Armenia and Iran] are extremely important to us.

Pashinian has been facing similar allegations from his political opponents and other critics at home. They have deplored his governments failure to explicitly condemn Bakus decision to start taxing Iranian vehicles.

Pashinian and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi discussed the Armenia-Iran traffic disruptions when they met in Tajikistans capital Dushanbe on September 17.

According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, the foreign ministers of the two neighboring states discussed developments taking place in the region and regional security at their meeting in Tehran.

Speaking at a joint news briefing with Amir-Abdollahian, Mirzoyan effectively rejected Aliyevs demands for the transport corridor passing through Armenia. The Armenian minister accused Baku of misrepresenting Russian-brokered agreements that call for the opening of transport links between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

In this regard, we highly appreciate Irans position on Armenias territorial integrity and the inviolability of its borders, added Mirzoyan.

Amir-Abdollahian was reported to express hope on Monday that Yerevan will speed up the ongoing reconstruction of an alternative Syunik highway that will allow Iranian drivers to bypass the Azerbaijani checkpoint. Armenias Deputy Prime Minister Suren Papikian said last week that the roadwork will be completed by the end of November.

Meanwhile, the Iranian army drills continued on Monday, involving special forces, heavy artillery, tanks and helicopter gunships. Images aired by Iranian television suggested that they are taking place on Irans border with Nakhichevan.

In what may be a related development, Turkish media reported that Azerbaijani and Turkish troops will start on Tuesday joint exercises in Nakhichevan.
Yes, we are going to also launch a street campaign, he told a news conference. But conditions should be made ripe. We must also work with the people all over Armenia. We must try to convince them.

You cannot launch a street campaign without the active involvement of the people. That active involvement should also be achieved by public relations efforts.

Kocharian was therefore careful not to set any dates for renewed anti-government demonstrations promised by his Hayastan bloc.

Kocharian told senior members of the bloc to intensify its activities and public outreach efforts at a meeting held on September 14. One of them said afterwards that street actions against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinians government are imminent.

The biggest problem is that a considerable part of our people has come to terms with this situation and voted for these ones, Kocharian said on Monday, referring to Pashinians political team. Lets not deceive ourselves. This is the reality.

The 67-year-old ex-president, who had ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, insisted at the same time that a politically active minority of citizens can also pose a serious threat to Pashinians hold on power.

Even if five percent of the population fights against a government with determination, no government can withstand that, he said.

Twenty-one percent of voters voted for us. We will try to first and foremost make that segment more active. We will try to also convince other people, who voted for these authorities, in that they made a mistake, added Kocharian.

Pashinians Civil Contract party won Armenias June 20 parliamentary elections with almost 54 percent of the vote, according to their official results. Kocharians bloc came in a distant second.

Kocharian, who pulled a massive crowd in Yerevan during the election campaign, again predicted that another snap election will likely be held before the end of 2022. He also repeated opposition claims that Pashinian mishandled last years war in Nagorno-Karabakh and is not capable of dealing post-war security challenges still facing Armenia.

Kocharian further claimed that Armenias defeat in the war was not only the result of Pashinians incompetence but also a possible pre-planned defeat agreed with Azerbaijan. There will be no calm in our country until these suspicions are dispelled, he said.
Lieutenant-General Stepan Galstian, a deputy chief of the Armenian armys General Staff, was charged with fraud and abuse of power and remanded in pre-trial custody on Saturday two days after being summoned to the NSS for questioning.

Galstian denies the accusations. His lawyer told News.am that he will appeal against a district courts decision to allow investigators to hold the general in pre-trial detention.

The NSS arrested former Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan and an arms dealer reputedly close to him on Wednesday part of the same criminal case. It charged them with fraud and embezzlement that cost the state almost 2.3 billion drams ($4.7 million).

Both men deny the charges. Tonoyans lawyer said on Friday that he will petition the Court of Appeals to release his client from custody pending investigation.

Another Armenian general was arrested earlier in September. The NSS claimed that the general abused his powers to arrange for personal gain a $4.7 million contract for the supply of outdated rockets to the armed forces.

According to the security service, the Defense Ministry had refused to buy those rockets from a private intermediary in 2011.
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Changing Oceans Talk; Help Needed for Marine Debris Survey on Oregon Coast

Published 10/04/21 at 4:56 AM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Warrenton, Oregon)  As Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition (OSCC) continues to celebrate its 50th anniversary year, more ways of learning about the beaches and helping them out appear. October 13 sees yet another talk on what's happening with our oceans and the group holds the first of many marine debris surveys at Fort Stevens, where it will need more volunteers. (Above: Fort Stevens State Park)

OSCC has been hosted numerous experts from around the U.S. giving online lectures that address the challenges of the next 50 years of Oregon coast conservation. The next one is a talk on the future of Our Changing Oceans, presented by marine ecologist Kristy Kroeker on Wednesday, Oct. 13, at 7 p.m. The online event is free and open to the public.

You'll find the registration link here.

Dr. Kroeker is an associate professor in the Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Department in the Institute of Marine Science at the University of California at Santa Cruz. She specializes in such areas of research as community ecology, species interactions, and global change biology. She and the other researchers in her lab focus on coastal sustainability, climate change, multiple stressors, social-ecological systems, and ocean policy and management.

She will discuss the ways in which the marine environment is changing now and it likely to continue changing in the future, with a particular emphasis on ocean acidification and its effects, and will contemplate the effects of these changes on ocean organisms.

For more information, contact Phillip Johnson, Oregon Shores' executive director, at (503) 754-9303, phillip@oregonshores.org.

OSCC is holding several marine debris surveys in the future, and one of the big spots is on the north Oregon coast at Fort Stevens State Park.

More volunteers are needed to fill out the team, headed by Oregon Shores board member Ed Joyce, which handles the monthly survey at this site, OSCC said. We seek to organize a large enough team that some members can be there every month, without any one person having to be there each time.

The same day as Kroeker's talk  Wednesday, October 13  the group will host a shoreline marine debris education session at Fort Stevens for those members of the public who would like to help out. They will be training new volunteers as well.

This event begins at 10 a.m. and there will be an actual survey conducted.

All this assists experts in determining the answers to some important questions left by the debris itself. This includes looming unknowns such as what types of marine debris are the most common in any given area? How is this problem evolving, changing? And how effective are the methods for dealing with it? NOAA's Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project (MDMAP) helps answer these questions and others by collecting baseline data. The data collected through this project can be used to evaluate the impacts of marine debris along our coastlines and can help inform future marine debris mitigation and prevention efforts on a local, regional, and national scale.

Everyone will meet at Parking Lot B, about three-quarters of a mile south of the Columbia on Jetty Rd. in Fort Stevens State Park.

This part of OSCC's programs is done under its hands-on beach volunteer arm, known as CoastWatch. Surveys are a monthly event so that consistent data is submitted. CoastWatch wishes to invite the public to join in these efforts, which will happen at other sites along the Oregon coast as well. See oregonshores.org for more.

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Sneaker Waves More Common on Oregon / Washington Coast Than Rest of U.S.

Published 10/03/21 at 7:06 PM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Oregon Coast)  To those growing up or living in Oregon and Washington for some time, the dangers of sneaker waves on the coastline are generally not a big surprise (although there are plenty who still don't know or don't get the danger). You hear about them fairly often. (Sneaker wave at Seaside, photo courtesy Seaside Aquarium)

Those visiting the Oregon coast or Washington coast from out-of-state need to be warned and educated. However, and then there is some resistance. Now, it turns out there may be a reason for that.

Many here will find it a surprise that sneaker waves are more common on the south Washington coast and whole of the Oregon coast than many other places in the world, and certainly compared to other parts of the U.S. In fact, they practically don't exist on the California coastline, the Gulf of Mexico, and likely much of the east coast of the United States.

Indeed, the frequency of sneaker waves lessens the farther north you go on the Washington coast.

Out-of-state visitors are simply not used to the idea.

Exactly how different this coastline is compared to others is hard to quantify, but Tyler Kranz with the Portland office of the National Weather Service (NWS) said he's found plenty of evidence to support that it's a bit peculiar to here.

There is some truth to this observation, Kranz said.

While he admitted he can't speak directly to other beaches around the globe, he did note sneaker waves occur in places like southern Iceland, western Australia and Tasmani, among others. Certainly when it comes to the U.S., however, there's more of a problem of rip tides on the east coast and gulf states rather than sneaker waves.

It all comes down to the kinds of sea conditions we get on the Oregon and Washington coast.

Sneaker waves tend to occur more frequently during sea state conditions that feature a long period swell with wave heights of at least 5 feet, Kranz said. The higher the wave heights are and the longer the wave period is, the higher the chance for a sneaker wave to occur.

That plus the geography of the near-shore environment combine to make these coastlines more prone to the sneaker wave phenomenon.

The reason the Oregon coast experiences more sneaker waves than the California coast is because seas are typically less active for the California coast, and it's rarer to see swell conditions for the California coast, Kranz said. But, these sea state conditions are a common occurrence for the waters off the coast of Oregon given our active storm track for much of the year, so it's no surprise we are the ones dealing with an enhanced threat for sneaker waves.

Kranz said the Portland office of the NWS sends out enhanced sneaker wave threat advisories when swell heights are greater than five feet and the period swells are greater than 12 seconds. If, for example, the wave height is over nine feet and the periods between swells are 14 seconds, that's an even greater threat. Then, the NWS sends out messages of warnings, but especially if there's a weekend coming up or a holiday when more people are likely to be out there.

The Oregon coast is not unique to rip currents either, but Krantz said they're more common back east as well, especially since more are swimming in the warmer waters of the gulf.

Then there's the mixed bag of the Washington coast.

The coast of Washington certainly sees sneaker waves too, but the Washington coast is mostly rocky and steep rather than gently-sloped sandy beaches like much of the Oregon coast, Kranz said. A sneaker wave pushing into a rocky cliff where no people are is no big deal, but a sneaker wave pushing onto a popular sandy beach with a gentle slope (like Cannon Beach and many of our other beaches) can be life threatening as you know. Unfortunately, we typically see at least one death a year somewhere along the Oregon coast due to sneaker waves and the hazards that are associated with them.

Samantha Borth with the Seattle office of the NWS confirmed what Kranz was saying about the Washington coastline. There, sneaker waves are more common south of Grays Harbor (Westport, Long Beach, for example), but less so north of there. The coast gets rockier in that area through into the Olympic National Park.

We can see them on the north Washington coast, based on the data we have from the last couple of years, Borth said. We can see them up around Cape Flattery but not as often as around Grays Harbor, Pacific County.

Oregon Coast Beach Connection has recently received some feedback from readers indicating those from other coastal states have a hard time understanding this concept of sneaker waves. This new angle of the phenomena being more common to the NW then becomes important when it comes to educating visitors of the dangers, not to mention those dwelling in land-locked states.

The problem with sneaker waves is that they can catch people off guard when they are simply walking along the beach, Kranz said. For people who are used to walking along beaches on the U.S. East Coast, Gulf of Mexico, or southern California, these sneaker waves can come as a big surprise if they have never been to the Oregon coast before or are unaware of the hazards we face on Oregon's beaches.

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Courtesy of U.S. Navy Office of Community Outreach / Courtesy of U.S. Navy Office of Community Outreach

Lamar State College Orange (LSCO) has named Keith Jones as the new associate dean of technical studies.

Jones, a former superintendent of Deweyville ISD, will be leading the technical education programs at LSCO, including instrumentation, industrial technology, maritime, process technology and welding.

He will also be developing new programs, ensuring students and faculty have resources to be successful, connecting faculty with business and industry partners, supporting internships and apprenticeships and pursuing grants for buildings, equipment, and other resources.

Jones began his career in the maritime industry and eventually moved to teaching. He began his teaching career through LSCOs Alternative Certification for Educators (ACE) program while teaching economics at Memorial High School in Port Arthur. He then spent nearly a decade at Bridge City ISD as an assistant principal before moving to Deweyville ISD, where he later became superintendent.

After graduating from Port Neches-Groves High School, Jones earned a Bachelors of Science Degree in Maritime Administration from Texas A&M University Galveston. In addition to his maritime degree, Dr. Jones earned a Masters Degree of Business Administration and a Doctorates Degree of Educational Leadership from Lamar University, and is currently earning a Masters Degree of Education in Special Education.

Jones is also certified as U.S. Coast Guard-licensed captain, holding certificates as master for vessels to 25 tons, mate for vessels to 100 tons and towing and sailing endorsements.

Gov. Greg Abbott has appointed Cynthia Stinson to the Texas Health Services Authority Board of Directors for a term set to expire on June 15, 2023. The Texas Health Services Authority is responsible for coordinating the implementation of the health information exchange (HIE) in Texas.

Stinson, of Lumberton, is a registered nurse, associate professor and chair of the JoAnne Gay Dishman School of Nursing at Lamar University. She is a member of the Texas Nurses Association, American Nurses Association and Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society.

In addition, she is a member and medical educator with Julie Rogers Gift of Life Program.

Stinson received a Bachelors Degree of Science in Nursing from Lamar University, Masters Degree of Science in Nursing from the University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston and a Doctorates Degree of Philosophy in Nursing from Texas Womans University Houston.

Yailine Obregon, a native of Port Neches, is currently serving aboard USS Essex, a U.S. Navy Wasp class amphibious assault ship.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Obregon is a 2018 graduate of Port Neches High School and a Northern Virginia Community College graduate.

Obregon serves as a Navy hospital corpsman responsible for providing medical care to U.S. Navy and Marine Corps personnel and their families.

Homeported in San Diego, California, USS Essex is the second ship in the Wasp-class of multipurpose amphibious assault ships and the fifth ship named for Essex County, Massachusetts. The first Essex was a 1000-ton ironclad river gunboat of the U.S. Army and later U.S. Navy during the American Civil War.

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On Friday, the Boomtown Film Society will host its 10th annual 48-Hour Film Race.

With the exception of 2020, when the nonprofit took a hiatus for the pandemic, the race has been held every year since 2011. Each team that enters must write, shoot, edit and digitally submit a completed short film within the allotted time.

Every race kicks off on a Friday night, with the deadline being two days later on Sunday night, said Christopher Dombrosky, board member and event organizer. Right now, the plan is for teams or representatives to register in person at 7 p.m. on Oct. 8. As soon as the rules have been read and all teams have received their assignments, the 48-hour clock starts ticking.

In a typical year, more than a dozen teams from across Southeast Texas register to compete for $100 and bragging rights.

A panel of judges  often comprised of local film educators, former race winners, and guests brought in to speak at the festival  decide the winners. The Enterprise sat down with Dombrosky and Penny Leleux, the 2019 Short Screenplay winner, for some tips on how to appeal best to the judges.

Judges make their decisions based on different factors. Some judges award points based on a teams ability to follow the rules. This sort of judge might eliminate a team for turning in their entry late, for example.

I always encourage teams to follow the rules if they want to win, but some teams arent in it to win it, Dombrosky said. They just have a really good time making a movie over the weekend.

Other judges appreciate technical proficiency or artistry, and others purely give good marks to films based upon how well they enjoyed the film.

Leleux, who competed in her first film race in 2015 at age 60, suggests the K.I.S.S. method, which stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid. Her advice is three-fold:

At a glance What: Boomtown Film Society's 10th annual 48-Hour Film Race When: 7 p.m. Friday Where: Logon Cafe & Pub, 3805 Calder Ave., Beaumont Cost: Free See More Collapse

Get the story down Friday night. If you can start shooting Friday night, thats a major bonus;

Get all the shooting done on Saturday. The earlier, the better because you need as much editing time as possible; and

Expect uploading issues and plan your time accordingly.

Our last (film) was being uploaded from Georgia, and it was storming, Leleux said. It was 3 p.m. the next day before we finally got a file uploaded. So, we missed the deadline big-time, but we still crossed the finish line.

She ultimately encourages people to have fun and be realistic about the challenges of creating a film in so short a time period. Crossing the finish line is special in and of itself.

They arent perfect  they never will be in two days  but not everyone manages to pull it off, she said. Its quite a feeling of accomplishment.

Race entries will be screened at a separate event a few weeks after the race ends and the winners will be announced at that time. The details of the celebration are forthcoming, depending on COVID guidelines from the Ccity of Beaumont, but Boomtown is hoping for the celebration to happen mid-October.

The 48-Hour Film Race will kick off at 7 p.m. Friday at the Logon Cafe & Pub, 3805 Calder Ave. It is free to enter and open to all.

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FARGO, N.D. (AP)  A former North Dakota legislator who once was the Republican Party's nominee for lieutenant governor and U.S. Senate has died.

According to her obituary, Donna Nalewaja, died Sept. 30 from COVID-19 at the age of 81. Nalewaja served in the state House from 1983 to 1986 and in the state Senate from 1987 to 1998.
NEW YORK (AP)  A Rudy Giuliani associate facing trial next week in New York City for allegedly making illegal campaign contributions to U.S. politicians is too poor to pay for his own lodging and transportation, a judge ruled Monday.

Judge J. Paul Oetken ordered taxpayers to pick up the tab for Lev Parnas hotel room and put the U.S. Marshals Service on the hook for getting him to New York in time for the Oct. 12 trial. A final pretrial conference is scheduled for Tuesday.

Parnas, a Soviet-born Florida businessman, and Ukraine-born investor Andrey Kukushkin are accused of a scheme to make illegal campaign donations to local and federal politicians in New York, Nevada and other states in an effort to win support for a new recreational marijuana business.

Parnas and another Soviet-born Florida businessman, Igor Fruman, worked with Giuliani in an attempt to convince Ukraine to open an investigation into President Joe Bidens son, Hunter, over his connection to a Ukrainian energy company.

Giuliani has said he had no knowledge of illegal campaign contributions but acknowledged working extensively with Fruman and Parnas as he sought damaging information on Biden.

A message seeking comment was left with Parnas lawyer.

Oetken said his ruling on Parnas indigence was in response to a letter from his lawyer stating he could no longer pay the costs of his defense. Parnas didnt ask for new lawyers, but did request funding for his travel and lodging during the trial.

Oetken said he found that the interests of justice would be served by having taxpayers pick up the tab for those expenses.

The judge said Parnas hotel costs will be reimbursed at the governments per diem rate, which is $286 per night through the end of the year, according to the U.S. General Services Administration.

Another Giuliani associate, Igor Fruman, pleaded guilty last month to a charge that he solicited $1 million in contributions from a foreign national as part of the alleged campaign contribution scheme. Frumans plea agreement did not require him to cooperate in other cases, such as the case against Parnas.

While prosecutors have kept the identity of the foreign donor secret, a lawyer identified him during a court hearing as Russian businessman Andrei Muraviev.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP)  Connecticut's attorney general is asking leadership of TikTok, a video-sharing service, to come to the state and meet with educators and parents to discuss the harmful impact the popular app is having on the mental and physical safety of students and educators.

Attorney General William Tong, who sent a letter on Monday to TikTok's CEO, said there's concern that a current viral challenge known as Slap a Teacher could put educators at risk. His request comes after New Britain High School temporarily closed last month due to student misbehavior that was attributed in part to the viral Devious Licks TikTok challenge, which led to damage and vandalism of schools across the U.S.
At a time when our country doesnt need any more pushback against the life-saving vaccines that can stop the spread of COVID-19, another barrier has surfaced lately  and over the most unlikely topic: The booster shots for people who received their first Covid vaccinations earlier this year.

Some people think the boosters are suspicious. They wonder if theyre needed  and whether they mean that the first round of vaccinations were suspect too. Doctors know that none of those doubts are valid, and that knowledge needs to spread among people who still need to get vaccinated  or are now eligible for a booster shot.

Many vaccines do not protect a person throughout all of his her life. Their effectiveness can wane over time, which is why a booster shot is needed to increase the antibodies guarding against a particular illness. This is one of the reasons people are urged to get a flu shot every year. The shot they received in the previous year no longer provides the safety they need, especially against an illness like influenza that can vary in origin and severity.

The Covid booster shots follow the same general principle. Unfortunately, the anti-science skepticism that has lingered throughout this pandemic is causing some to question their value.

Tara Dukart, a rancher from Hazen, N.D., 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?

Many doctors are hearing this in their offices too. Many of my patients are already saying, If we need a third dose, what was the point (of the first vaccination)?  said Dr. Jason Goldman, a physician in Coral Springs, Fla.

People, listen up: The first round of vaccinations did work. They saved millions of lives and showed the ability to stop the spread of Covid if enough people rolled up their sleeves. Virtually everyone getting hospitalized or dying from Covid now in this country is not vaccinated.

Yet the effectiveness of those vaccines is waning, so doctors are recommending boosters now for people over 65 or those with special vulnerabilities. Soon the boosters will be recommended for everyone who got the first round of vaccines, even younger and healthier people.

No one should be confused about the best medical thinking on boosters. Get one if your doctors recommends it, and dont let anyone tell you it means the first vaccines were ineffective. Misinformation about this pandemic can be deadly. Masks, vaccines and boosters can stop COVID-10 and save lives. Protect yourself and your family with facts  and a booster shot of that life-saving vaccine.
Foreign ministers of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) attend a virtual meeting of the regional bloc on Oct. 4, 2021.

Updated at 07:12 a.m. ET on 2021-10-08

Myanmar may be excluded from the upcoming ASEAN summit if its military government does not cooperate with the regional blocs special envoy tasked with helping resolve the post-coup crisis there, Malaysias foreign minister said Monday.

Saifuddin Abdullah said on Twitter that he made Malaysias views known at a meeting Monday of the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that included a representative from Myanmar.

The Malaysian ministers comments came after a report last week that Myanmars junta had rejected the ASEAN envoys request to meet ousted and jailed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

At the ASEAN FMs meeting today, I stated that we are disappointed that the Myanmar authority [has] not cooperated with the Special Envoy of the ASEAN Chair on Myanmar, Saifuddin said about the virtual meeting.

[U]nless there is progress, it would be difficult to have the Chairman of the SAC at the ASEAN Summit.

He was referring to the twice-yearly ASEAN summits, which this year will be combined and held Oct. 26-28.

Saifuddin said that Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmars junta chief and chairman of the State Administration Council  the de facto government  had not been working constructively with the special ASEAN envoy to Myanmar, Erywan Yusof, who was named by the bloc in August.

The junta spokesman said it would be difficult to allow for [the envoys] meetings with those who are facing trial, Agence France-Presse reported last week.

Erywan had said he would insist on meeting with jailed members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) government  including Aung San Suu Kyi  which the military toppled on Feb. 1.

The Malaysian ministers comment was the harshest public communication by a Southeast Asian diplomat to a representative of Myanmars junta since the February coup.

When the Burmese military ousted the elected government, it claimed that voter fraud had led to a landslide victory for Aung San Suu Kyis NLD party in the general election last November.

The junta has yet to provide evidence of its claims and has violently suppressed nationwide demonstrations calling for a return to civilian rule, killing at least 1,158 people over the past eight months.

ASEAN should not act business as usual

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi also raised the issue of Myanmars participation in the upcoming summit, during Mondays ASEAN foreign ministers meeting.

She said no progress had been made since the blocs 10 members, including Myanmar, agreed to a five-point path toward resolving the crisis brought about by the military coup.

The [Myanmar] military has not responded positively to the efforts of the Special Envoy.  Some member countries are of the view that that ASEAN should not act business as

usual with regards to this development, Retno told a news conference.

In Indonesia's view, it is time for ASEAN foreign ministers to report this situation to the nine ASEAN leaders, and to receive a directive on how ASEAN should engage with Myanmar, especially in connection with the 38th and 39th ASEAN Summits.

Myanmar military-appointed officials have participated in all ASEAN sub-meetings since the Feb. 1 coup, and a warning that such participation may be discontinued will make a difference, noted Aaron Connelly, who leads a Southeast Asian politics program at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Singapore.

If anything is going to motivate the SAC to come even partly into compliance with its obligations under the Five-Point Consensus, it is the threat of a de facto suspension along these lines  as many Malaysian foreign policy scholars have argued for several months, Connelly tweeted in response to the Malaysian foreign ministers Twitter post.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, concurred with Connellys views.

Malaysias foreign ministry has [the] right idea to exclude Myanmar military junta from the ASEAN meeting in October unless Gen. Min Aung Hlaing and Tatmadaw take seriously the grouping's Special Envoy, he said on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Malaysian lawmaker Charles Santiago said the regional bloc must put in place very real consequences if the junta continues to toy with ASEAN. This could include banning junta officials from meetings and preventing generals from traveling in the region, he said.

The ASEAN Summit later this month presents the perfect opportunity to immediately put these measures into practice, Santiago, a member of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, said in a statement.

Time and again since the coup, the junta has played ASEAN for a fool, using it to try and gain legitimacy.

ASEAN consensus on suspending Myanmar difficult

Regional analyst Oh Ei Sun from the Institute of International Affairs in Singapore said he was not hopeful that ASEAN would suspend Myanmar from the bloc or not invite the countrys military representative to the upcoming summit.

Indonesia and Malaysia may not be able to convince fellow ASEAN members Thailand and Cambodia that the bloc should snub Myanmar, Oh said.

It can only happen if there is consensus, which is difficult, because Thailand and Cambodia would say, what is wrong with having Myanmar at the summit? Oh told BenarNews, naming countries whose leaders who are said to be close to the Myanmar military.

ASEAN can make decisions only when all member countries agree  a principle that many critics believe is the reason the regional bloc is not effective.

Whether or not these two countries agree to sideline Myanmar, it is unlikely that the Burmese military will allow the ASEAN envoy into the country any time soon, said another regional analyst, James Chin from Tasmania University.

The junta will only open up once they get the upper hand against the rebels. They need to control the urban areas 110 percent before they will be ready to talk, Chin told BenarNews.

The five-point agreement with ASEAN is not worth the paper it is signed on.

CORRECTION: An earlier version misidentified the name of Myanmars military council.
Updated at 3:15 p.m. ET on 2021-10-05

Malaysia on Monday protested the presence of a large Chinese survey ship, which sailed into its exclusive economic zone last week.

Ship-tracking data on Sept. 29 revealed the 4,600-ton Da Yang Hao operating in an area that runs through the EEZs of three countries: Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. At one point it was only 40 nautical miles from the Philippines Balabac Island and 60 nautical miles from Malaysias coast.

The Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement Monday saying it called in the Ambassador of the Peoples Republic of China to convey Malaysias position and protest against the presence and activities of Chinese vessels, including a survey vessel, in Malaysias Exclusive Economic Zone off the coasts of Sabah and Sarawak."

The statement said the presence and activities of these vessels are inconsistent with Malaysias Exclusive Economic Zone Act 1984, as well as the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Malaysia had also protested against the previous encroachments by other foreign vessels into our waters, it added.

Malaysia reiterates that all matters relating to the South China Sea must be resolved peacefully and constructively, in accordance with universally recognized principles of international law, including the 1982 UNCLOS.

While it took several days for Malaysia to issue this statement after the Chinese survey ship showed up in its EEZ, the strong wording shows that Kuala Lumpur, under increasing domestic pressure, felt the need to speak up against Chinas assertiveness in the disputed South China Sea.

The Da Yang Hao first appeared in the area around Sept. 25-26. Its exact location on Monday could not be determined by ship-tracking as it was not broadcasting its position.

In June, Malaysia reportedly summoned the Chinese ambassador after 16 Chinese military aircraft flew over disputed waters off its eastern state of Sarawak, calling the maneuver as a "serious threat to national sovereignty."

'Malaysias strategic space continues to tighten'

Its not uncommon for Chinese vessels to show up uninvited in the EEZs of its neighbors.

Another Chinese survey vessel, the Haiyang Dizhi 10, was conducting a survey in an oil field in Indonesias EEZ for a month before retiring to Fiery Cross Reef last week for re-supply.

And last Thursday, the Philippine foreign secretary ordered that diplomatic protests be filed against Beijing over the ongoing presence of more than 100 Chinese ships in waters claimed by Manila in the South China Sea. He complained about incessant and unlawful restriction of Filipino fisherman at Scarborough Shoal.

Like its neighbors, Malaysia faces a dilemma in its relationship with China  challenging Beijing over its maritime incursions without straining ties with what is the regions dominant economic power.

A fundamental calculation for Malaysia in managing Chinas increasingly aggressive approach in the South China Sea is the latters escalation dominance and willingness to escalate if given an excuse. Malaysia has and will practice caution in its response, especially at sea, Thomas Daniel, senior fellow at the Malaysian Institute of Strategic and International Studies, told BenarNews last week.

Unfortunately, Malaysias strategic space continues to tighten, leading to difficult challenges that policymakers might not have an immediate solution to, he added.

Last year Malaysia and China were entangled in a month-long standoff in the South China Sea.

Chinese survey ship Haiyang Dizhi 8 was operating in the EEZ, close to a drillship contracted by Malaysian state oil firm Petronas in waters claimed by Malaysia and Vietnam as well as China.

Both the Malaysian drill ship and the Chinese ship left after a month. The incident had prompted the United States to call on China to stop its bullying behavior in the disputed waters.

At that time, Malaysian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hishammuddin Hussein, now defense minister, said in a statement: Due to the complexity and sensitivity of the issue, all parties must work together to maintain peace, security and stability in the South China Sea.

He said that disputes should be resolved amicably, indicating that even if Malaysia had not spoken publicly about it, it had been working to resolve the situation behind the scenes.

On Sept. 22 this year, Hishammuddin told parliament he would seek Beijings views on a new U.S.-U.K.-Australia security pact and determine what action China plans in response  comments that some critics viewed as inappropriate given Chinas frequent incursions by its ships and planes around Malaysia.

Hishammuddin said he would have to tread carefully to try and balance the two major powers  China and the U.S.  and that was not any easy thing to do.

This report has been updated to add information about the Chinese envoy reportedly being summoned by Kuala Lumpur about the overflight of Chinese military planes off Sarawak in June.
Calls are growing for an end to the financial secrecy and shell companies that have allowed many of the worlds richest and most powerful people to hide their wealth from tax collectors
FILE - In this May 6, 2021, file photo, Maricopa County ballots cast in the 2020 general election are examined and recounted by contractors working for Florida-based company, Cyber Ninjas at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix. On Friday, Oct. 1, 2021, The Associated Press reported on stories circulating online incorrectly asserting a cybersecurity firm hired by Arizonas Republican-controlled Senate to review 2020 election results in the states largest county was unable to identify 86,391 voters, showing that these voters dont appear to exist. In one section of the report, Cyber Ninjas said reviewers could not find the identity records of 86,391 voters in the private commercial identity database Personator, but acknowledged that this didnt prove any of the voters were not real. It is expected that most if not all of these individuals are in fact real people with a limited public record and commercial presence, the report said.
FILE - Consumers shop at a Walmart store in Vernon Hills, Ill., Sunday, May 23, 2021. On Friday, Oct. 1, 2021, The Associated Press reported on stories circulating online incorrectly asserting that Walmart recently announced it will require customers in its stores to be vaccinated for COVID-19 starting Nov. 1. Walmart spokesperson Charles Crowson told the AP, That claim is false.
Nominee for federal prosecutor in Boston defends her record

President Joe Bidens pick for U.S. attorney for Massachusetts is fighting back against Republican claims that shes not tough enough on criminals
Community News Editor / Librarian

Jeannie Maschino is community news editor and librarian for The Berkshire Eagle. She has worked for the newspaper in various capacities since 1982 and joined the newsroom in 1989.
The Outlook is today's look ahead at the week's weather, its impact on the Berkshires and beyond. Clarence Fanto can be reached at cfanto@yahoo.com.
What Does the Bible Say about Science?

Humanitys quest for truth and discovery accelerated during the Enlightenment. Through various intellectual disciplines such as philosophy and science, people sought to discover the diverse facets of truth itself. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the philosophy of empiricism (the belief all knowledge is discovered through our physical senses) began to take hold of the hard sciences (sciences that explore the physical world like physics and biology) and excluded God from any discussion regarding the physical world. This was a vital stage in our history that led the way to the divorce between science and religion. At one time, it was the very belief in God that inspired scientific discovery because people believed the universe was created through intelligence. This meant there was logic and order to the world that made scientific discovery possible in the first place. Sadly, over time, a rift formed between religion and science. Human reason was given precedence over Gods Word to explain the deepest questions of life. Eventually, religion was treated as unnecessary, unsubstantiated baggage that hinders discussion on the nuts and bolts of reality. It is commonly seen as a delusional opinion which colors and obscures our noble quest for truth.

No matter how hard they try, the naturalists will never explain God away because science does not deal with metaphysics. Science is an important discipline for discovering how the physical universe operates; however, it does not account for all reality. The naturalist who states God is not necessary because they can explain a few physical processes is akin to a person saying a car doesnt need a designer because they can describe a few of the mechanical workings of the vehicle. God is the Creator of the universe, and His Word is the final authority over all matters (Genesis 1:1: John 10:35). Its evident that we live in a created world that points toward a Creator (Psalm 19:1; Romans 1:21), and only a fool tries to argue there is no God (Psalm 14:1). Scripture informs us people suppress their belief in God because of their unrighteousness (Romans 1:18). Ultimately, all these supposed arguments against Gods existence are nothing more than intellectual excuses for sinners who refuse to acknowledge their Creator. With this in mind, we should ask ourselves, what does the Bible say about science?

In no way are these examples comprehensive. Rather, they are intended to demonstrate how Scripture has laid the foundational principles which no scientific endeavor can escape.

What does the Bible say about science in general?

Science is a wonderful thing! From the beginning, God encouraged the scientific exploration of the world when He commanded us to rule over and subdue the earth (Genesis 1:28). Scripture speaks of the fixed nature of the universe that makes scientific discovery possible (Jeremiah 31:35-36; Colossians 1:17). After all, it would be impossible to discover anything if everything changed each day. But science does not (and cannot) account for all reality (that is the belief of scientism) because it only explores the behavior and function of the physical universe. Scripture teaches us there are nonmaterial facets of reality as well (Colossians 1:16). Despite popular claims, the origin of the universe is not something science can discover. For both philosophical and (ironically) scientific reasons the universe itself cannot be eternal, and the First Cause which brought the universe into existence had to be spaceless, timeless, immensely powerful, and intelligent. God fits all these descriptions. Science itself is dependent on human reason, which is fallible. Its absurd and foolish to think we would know better than God, Who operates beyond our understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6; Isaiah 55:8-9). We should pursue science as a means to give God glory by exercising our God-given intellect and exploring His marvelous creation. It is wicked (and ignorant) to pursue science to push the Creator out of His creation.

What does the Bible say about science regarding cloning?

Humans were given dominion over other animals, not other humans (Genesis 1:28). Part of our being made in Gods image means that God alone has the right to rule over our life. Governing authorities that help create order are not the same as manipulating the very essence of human life itself. A cloning process used on animals for various benefits would be acceptable because it would be in keeping with our God-given position to rule over the animal kingdom. A cloning process for humans would not be ethical because now we would be manipulating (taking dominion over) human life itself and it would violate Gods intended design. Child-bearing was Gods blessing for marriage (Genesis 1:28) and children were meant to have parents. Cloning humans would deprive a child of these things

What does the Bible say about science regarding evolution?

From the beginning, God revealed the limitation of biological reproductive systems. Each animal reproduces after its own kind (Genesis 1:11-25). Its a common assertion for an evolutionist to point out the genetic variations observed within a species and then extrapolate their conclusion that all life must have evolved from a common ancestor. First, it should be noted this is not a scientific statement because we have never observed one kind of animal evolving into another kind. If anything, we observe the limitations of genetic variation because the genetic changes we witness are always confined within the kind of animal in which they occur.

What does the Bible say about science regarding genetic alteration?

The same bioethical principle for cloning also helps shed light on this topic. We should first consider the fact that Jesus Himself healed people from their infirmities and physical ailments (Mark 3:10; Luke 13:11-13). Excluding the use of embryonic stem cells, any genetic manipulation which helps restore a person to Gods initial design for the human body is ethical. However, using it to determine physical traits such as the color of our hair or eyes, would be exercising dominion over human life and is a line we should not cross.

Are Science and Religion in Conflict?

A common contention, especially by agnostics and atheists, is that religion and science are in conflict with each other. The philosophy of naturalism dominates most scientific circles these days and religion is treated as a vestigial afterthought. Often the God of the Gaps argument is set forth as proof religion denies science. This argument posits any natural event we dont understand is the direct result of God working and cannot be explained naturally. People who have held to this misguided view of God and His creation, believe God operates supernaturally in the gaps of our knowledge about the universe. This idea echoes the ancient polytheistic religions that designated false gods as the governing authority over various aspects of the world such as the earth, sea, and sky. The Greek god Zeus is probably one of the best-known examples of this. A sweeping generalization is typically made that this primitive way of understanding the world is innate in all religions. Unfortunately, there are some well-meaning Christians who embrace this view of God. The confusion is understandable because popular scientific discussions generally come from a secular viewpoint and give the impression that science is anti-God. However, the god of the gaps does not represent the God of the Bible and sadly it has brought much public scorn on the Christian faith because the god of the gaps continues to shrink as we expand our knowledge of the universe. This false view allows atheists to feel justified in viewing God as an unnecessary attachment to a physical process already explained through science.

The truth is the Bible and science are completely compatible! The issue has never been science vs. religion. The issue is there are two competing worldviews examining the same universe.

Is Science a Gift from God?

Science is a gift from God Who is the Source of all good things (James 1:17). The fact that we can use our intellect to explore the physical world and make discoveries that improve our living conditions is not only wonderful; its also biblical! As referenced before, God encouraged science from the beginning. Part of our responsibility to subdue the earth would certainly include learning how to harness nature for the benefit of mankind (Genesis 1:28).

What Should We Tell People Who Say the Bible and Science are Incompatible?

All discussions of this nature must be handled with love, patience, and wisdom. Its vital not to make assumptions about a persons beliefs. Whenever someone makes the claim, the Bible is not compatible with science, ask them why they believe that. Dont be hasty to jump into the problems with Darwinian Evolution or the problem of the Big Bang theory. Make a genuine effort to listen to the person so you can adapt the conversation to the individual. Ultimately, a person should be shown the problem is not the Bible vs. Science, but the problem is there are two competing worldviews that seek to interpret the same evidence; Christianity and Naturalism. Both require faith and bring their own presuppositions to the table. The difference? One heeds the infallible Word of the Creator Who was there in the beginning and cannot lie (Genesis 1:1; Hebrews 6:18), while the other heeds the words of ignorant, fallible human beings.

Evangelism lies at the heart of apologetics. The goal should always be to remove intellectual barriers (or excuses) which obstruct a persons belief in the Gospel (2 Corinthians 10:5). Christians need to remember we are not seeking to win mere arguments, instead, we seek to win souls to Jesus Christ.

Photo credit: GettyImages/sakkmesterke

Stephen Baker is a graduate of Mount Union University. He is the writer of a special Scripture study/reflection addendum to Someplace to Be Somebody, authored by his wife, Lisa Loraine Baker (End Game Press Spring 2022).

He attends Faith Fellowship Church in East Rochester, OH where he has given multiple sermons and is discipled by pastor Chet Howes.
What Is a Scapegoat in the Bible?

A scapegoat in the Bible is the goat that goes away (escape + goat). In essence, a scapegoat in the Bible is one who makes atonement for another (or redeems them). In the context of Leviticus 16:8-22, the scapegoat was, used in a Jewish ceremony as illustrated below.

What Would Happen to the Scapegoat in the Bible?

Leviticus 16 spells out the instructions for the high priest (at the time of its institution by the Lord, Aaron was the high priest) regarding the day of atonement. According to the exact instructions from God, Aaron was to enter the Holy Place with a bull from the herd as a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. Once attired in his linen garments, he took from the congregation two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. The bull was offered first to cover Aaron and his houses sins.

Aaron then set the two goats before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and two lots were set over the goats, one for the Lord and the other for Azazel (the meaning of Azazel is uncertain. It may be a term for a place or possibly a demon. Traditionally it meant scapegoat). The goat upon which the lot fell for the Lord was used as a sin offering for the people.

Leviticus 16:10 is the meat of the passage about the scapegoat. but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel

Aaron then completed the ministrations of his atonement work (a very bloody, messy process), after which he laid both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he put them on the head of the goat and sent it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness (Leviticus 16:21). The man then let the goat go free in the wilderness (Leviticus 16:22). Once the scapegoat was sent to the wilderness, the sins of the people escaped through the atoning work done by use of him. The man who led the scapegoat to Azazel had to wash his clothes and bathe before he could come back into the camp (Leviticus 16:26).

Leviticus 16:30 is also a key verse in our look toward Jesus as our Scapegoat, For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the Lord from all your sins.

Why Is Jesus Our Scapegoat?

The scapegoat as defined in Leviticus served as an atonement for the people. First, lets define atonement. It is the means of reconciliation between God and people (at one with Him). The Old Covenant defined sin in accordance with the Law (the Lords commandments as set in Exodus 20).

A priest kept the peoples accounts right with God (cover their sins via sacrifices) through their Old Covenant work. It was a seemingly never-ending progression of sacrificial offerings, for man cannot not sin (Psalm 51:3, Romans 5:12), and God cannot look upon sin (Habakkuk 1:13).

Even with the Law, there is no one who is righteous, not one (Romans 3:10). How can people be purified if not under the Law? What remained was the need for the sacrificial process until God instituted a New Covenanta covenant by which One who could take on the sins of mankind. Only One perfect being can take away the sins of the world, and He was publicly introduced by John the Baptist when John said, Behold! The Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). No more goat to carry off the peoples sins, but a perfect lamb. The Law was given to reveal sin (Romans 3:20, Romans 7), and Jesus came to fulfill the Law (Matthew 5:17).

Both believers and non-believers know the famous Bible verse, John 3:16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that he who believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Those who accept the truth of that verse and surrender their lives to Jesus as their Lord and Savior will have everlasting life in heaven with Him. Those who do not will fall victim to their own selfishness and will be separated from God for eternity.

A portion of the book of Hebrews may be likened to a treatise on the Levitical priesthood and sacrificial system, for it is grounded in them. What Hebrews adds, however, is the good news about Jesus! Through Jesus, we will receive our Sabbath rest (Hebrews 4:9), for He is our Great High Priest who has passed through the heavenswho was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. We can now, because of Jesus, come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:14-16).

He shed His blood once and for all, so there is now no need to continue a sacrificial system that was a type of what was to come (Hebrews 10:18). (A type is a resemblance of something yet to come). Hebrews 10:3-4 says, But in those sacrifices there is a remainder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Since Jesus fulfilled the law by the shedding of His blood, there no longer remains a need for continual sin-erasing sacrifice (Hebrews 10:10).

Later in the same chapter of Hebrews, we find we can draw near to God with a true heart in full assurance of faith, and we are to hold on to our confession of faith without wavering because Jesus is faithful (Hebrews 10:17-25). Hallelujah! Jesus paid it all with His blood (Romans 5:8) in a bloody, messy act of love, and now our bodies are now washed with pure water (John 4:10). God sent His sacrificial Lamb as a Scapegoat for us that when God looks at us, He sees His perfect Son.

Why Is This So Radical?

Its hard for anyone in todays society to think anything or anyone else can mitigate their responsibilities. Two types of people exist; those who take full responsibility for their actions and those who dont. Either group could dismiss the idea that someone else would take their place, much less admit to wrongdoing that requires a repayment (atonement). That wrongdoing is sin, and so many people refuse to acknowledge that anything they do may be called a sin.

Many are appalled at the Bibles biography of Jesus flogging, crucifixion, and death, and they wonder how a God of love can allow such a heinous act. Think about Aslan in The Lion the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Susan and Lucy watch, horrified, as Aslan sacrifices himself for no apparent reason. Yet they learn through Aslans death that evil cannot be destroyed without it For without the shedding of blood there is no remission [of sins] (Hebrews 9:23-28). Through Jesus, we have life and that abundantly (John 10:10).

That Jesus fulfilled the Law and is the perfect sacrifice is indeed radical to contemporary Jews too. The sacrificial system is one they would like to reinstate since they do not accept Jesus as Messiah.

EveryoneJew or Gentileneeds a Savior. In Acts 4:11-12, the Apostle Peter tells a spiteful crowd of Sanhedrin about Jesus, This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone. Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Left to our own devices, we all fall (John 3:18).

Photo credit: Getty Images/mihtiander

Lisa Loraine Baker is a rock & roll girl who loves Jesus. She and her husband, Stephen, inhabit their home as the Newlyweds of Minerva with crazy cat, Lewis. Lisa is co-author of the non-fiction narrative, Someplace to be Somebody (End Game Press, spring 2022). She has also written for Lighthouse Bible Studies, and CBN.com,
Violent crime -- a broad category of offenses that includes rape, robbery, aggravated assault, and homicide -- is on the rise in the United States. According to FBI data, there were a total of 1.3 million violent offenses reported in 2020, or 388 for every 100,000 people -- a 5% increase from 2019.

The uptick was led by a spike in homicide. The number of murders surged by nearly 30%, from 16,669 in 2019 to 21,570 in 2020, the largest year-over-year increase on record. The spike in murders came during a year of national turmoil marked by coronavirus lockdowns, mass protests against police misconduct, and a sharp rise in gun sales. These are the states buying the most guns.

Despite the increase, the national violent crime rate remains well below the highs reported in the 1990s. Still, crime is ultimately a local phenomenon, and in some parts of the country, violence is much more common than in others.

With a violent crime rate of 243 incidents for every 100,000 people, Idaho is one of only nine states with fewer than 250 violent crimes per 100,000 residents. More than three in every four of the 4,432 violent crimes reported in Idaho in 2020 were aggravated assault cases.

Rates of every type of violent crime increased in Idaho in 2020 -- but none more than homicide. There were 41 murders committed in the state in 2020, a 17.1% increase from the previous year, when there were 35 murders.

All crime data used in this story is from the FBI and is for the year 2020.
The site will employee around 200 employees

Thermo Fisher Scientific has assumed operational responsibility for a new biologics manufacturing site in Lengnau, Switzerland as part of its strategic partnership with CSL announced last year. The Lengnau site will become part of Thermo Fisher's global biologics manufacturing network, and approximately 200 employees will join Thermo Fisher.

The Lengnau site is a 1.5 million square-foot facility that will leverage highly flexible bioproduction technologies, including both single-use and stainless steel with up to 12,500L bioreactor capacity. This will provide biopharma companies with a pathway from development to large-scale production as manufacturing needs evolve.

"We are excited to add the new Lengnau site to our global biologics manufacturing network and we are thrilled to welcome more than 200 new colleagues to Thermo Fisher," said Michel Lagarde, Executive VP, Thermo Fisher Scientific. "Through our partnership with CSL, this site further strengthens our unique customer value proposition to leverage our scale and depth of capabilities for pharma and biotech customers. With the addition of new high-volume stainless-steel capabilities in Lengnau, we are enabling our customers to start their projects with us and stay with us as their manufacturing requirements grow."

Following completion of site construction in 2022, Thermo Fisher will initially support manufacturing of CSL's next-generation recombinant factor IX product Idelvion for patients with hemophilia B. Over time, Thermo Fisher plans to expand the use of the site to include additional biopharma customers.

The Lengnau site is an important expansion of Thermo Fisher's biologics manufacturing network that includes Princeton, NJ and St Louis, MO, USA; Groningen, NL; Brisbane, AU; and Hangzhou, China.
Training were given to conduct roving robot hands-on workshop

Intuitive India, the India arm of Intuitive Surgical has joined hands with Chennais Saveetha Medical College to build awareness about robotic-assisted surgery among the surgical fraternity. As a part of the roving robot programme, Intuitive India conducted a week long hands-on workshop on robotic-assisted surgery at Saveetha medical college in Kuthambakam, Chennai.

Intuitive aims to familiarise the medical fraternity with robotic-assisted surgery, its technology, clinical applications, benefits and its safety profile. Intuitive is planning to conduct such workshops across India as a part of their Roving- Robot programme.

Mandeep Singh Kumar, VP and GM, Intuitive India, said, "The Intuitive Roving Robot Program aims to support the evolution of Indias surgical healthcare landscape. With the same objective, we are continuously expanding the reach of such programmes across the country."

Dr Saveetha Rajesh, Director, Saveetha Medical College, Chennai, said We have seen an overwhelming response from the surgeons and residents to participate in this week-long workshop, as more than 130 people attended this programme, which include 50 doctors and 80 residents."
Having worked in advertising and marketing for years, Alex Wright and Jake Rubinstein, cofounders of Correlate Digital, felt that the agency transition from traditional to digital has not yet unlocked the huge potential that digital channels afford businesses to grow. The duo, therefore, saw the need for providing a different model: offering far higher value with a determination to make marketing sweat for business.

Alex Wright and Jake Rubinstein, cofounders of Correlate Digital

Can you tell us a bit about Correlate Digital?

When, how and why did you get started?

What is the core function of Correlate Digital?

What services do you offer?

What are some of the obstacles you've had to overcome since starting out?

Could you name some of your clients?

Caribshopper (US)



The Zero Proof (US)



North West Copper (CA)



Bed Bath Home (Continental Linen/Whitehouse) (SA)



Seiko Boutique (SA)



Just Like Papa (SA)



Bella Luna (SA)



Access Bank (SA)



Mahindra New Business Development South Africa (SA)



Cherry Melon (SA)



Caracal Engineering (SA)

Tell us about your most successful project

When it comes to marketing and advertising, what can companies no longer ignore?

As the shift to digital continues, what advice do you have for companies still in the transition phase?

What are some marketing trends we can see in 2022?

: We pride ourselves on delivering marketing outcomes centred around business value in both the e-commerce and business-to-business (B2B) sectors. Our ethos is always to go beyond the cookie-cutter approach and build real, measurable and effective strategies that are birthed from deep research.Correlate Digital wants to help you solve your business problems. Thats our mission statement.: We started in September 2017. Alex and I had been colleagues at Aqua Online (now Wunderman South Africa) and connected a few years after hed left the company to pursue other interests. It was serendipitous as I was also thinking where to next?.After meeting, we got chatting and realised we shared a goal to really harness the power of digital technology to drive results for businesses. We both have keen interests in brands, psychology and technology and thought there was something here - an opportunity to unearth real potential by truly wrapping marketing around the heart of a business.So we made it our goal to wake up every day excited by the types of challenges that we need to tackle and build an amazing future-focused team, and thats what has become our reality.: We develop and execute bespoke digital marketing solutions to maximise revenue growth for our clients, whether locally in South Africa, intra-Africa, or abroad.: For e-commerce, we offer a tried and tested, shelf-to-server brick and mortar successful transition to online.For B2B clients, we ultimately deliver qualified leads through a holistically strategic digital content marketing and lead nurturing cycle.Correlate Digital functions as a very competitive e-commerce scaling agent as well as a viable springboard into African, Middle-Eastern and United States markets.Our services fit the general spectrum of a typical digital agency, but, we believe through our track record, our research and data-centric strategic work sets us apart. The goal is always to tailor to the specific needs of each of the individual businesses we partner with. Once we have gained a deep and nuanced understanding of our clients, their customer, products or service, and also have context of the competitive marketplace, we embark on a content-rich, paid media supported execution that is always measured and defined by critical goals.We are also hyper-aware of our clients' interaction with us and we focus a lot on streamlining communication and are always improving processes to ensure that delivery and client relationships are the best that they can be.: Just through running a business of our own, there are obstacles to overcome every single day and so it is through this lens we can build a compassionate approach to the nature of our clients problems; there is no shortage in the need to problem solve, daily.The biggest challenge has been finding the right talent who aligns with our ethos or way of thinking and has the skills and desire to do something different and be a part of the next generation of digital agencies. Weve tried to solve this by creating a pretty rigid hiring process.Other challenges involve marketings general historic landscape that often ends up scarring clients and making them a bit hesitant to fully embrace the value of digital marketing because another agency has burnt them before. But thats fine with us, we work at your pace.Thats why we are so focused on the business. Its the best way to align and hit the ground running.Sure, some of our clients are:: Were proud and lucky to have been part of many successful projects. Whether it be the millions of rands in revenue growth for our e-commerce clients, to being a part of a capital raise that generated hundreds of millions of rands, to successfully selling millions of rands construction equipment online.Each project has its wins in its own way. We love the challenge of taking something on with specific goals in mind.: The hyper-competitive business landscape has only become more so as digital commerce grows. The shift in consumer behaviour towards more general purchasing digital literacy at every age bracket cannot be ignored.Success boils down to truly knowing your customer and how what you provide either solves their problem or connects with them at a very real, valuable level - herein lies the real challenge and unlocking this is the key to success.: Treat digital with the care, focus and investment as you would any other core part of your business or operation. It is also important to identify what digital actually means in your context and make sure you arm yourself with the intelligence and expertise to roll out your digital strategy.But dont wait too long. Competition is steep and like any other facet of life, digital marketing takes time to mature - but this drive has to come from the inside out. There is much opportunity out there, but its up to you to grab it (and us to help operate the hand).: The Death of cookie (which inhibits advertisers ability to track and target people online) and privacy challenges that will make proper strategic endeavours and a deeper, more refined approach to measurement pivotal to gauge successful marketing.A pivot back to brand marketing from pure ad blasting, by encouraging meaningful, authentic and honest relationships with customers. This works hand-in-hand with e-commerce executions that dont solely rely on discount propositions.Change of behaviours to be more likely to purchase everything online. Were seeing this more and more in the United States with things like e-grocery purchasing and social commerce on the rise.A definite continuation in growth of the digital space, increasing competition but also the need for better marketers. This excites us.
Be seen by the countrys biggest economically active consumer market. The majority of South African commuters use public transport and the idle time for the passenger, either while waiting for the taxi to arrive, or on the way to their destination, is an average of 59 minutes.Thenewspaper is an affordable, high-exposure media for brands to reach a captive audience.When you know that the South African taxi industry is valued at billions of Rands, you can rest assured that it is an industry that isnt going anywhere soon. Furthermore, 84% of the commuters are also the household purchase decision-makers, meaning that shaping the path-to-purchase should very quickly become every brands priority. Reaching them en-route to their destinations is the ultimate opportunity to deliver the right message at the right time.As crowded as taxi ranks and taxis itself almost always are, the advertising media in those areas are particularly scarce. The market is virtually untapped which positions the Smart Commuter newspaper as an exclusive solution that ties seamlessly into a 360-degree advertising approach with in-store advertising. Commuters spend on average 59 minutes per day inside a taxi, so if you have your brands news and adverts available to them, they have plenty time to decide what to buy and where to shop.For many people, having data and a steady internet connection is a challenge. This means that for commuters to physically hold something that is both constructive and entertaining, youve hit the sweet spot in value.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the COVID-19 outbreak has made coping with managing daily life stress and anxiety that much more difficult. Reading about heavy news in the leading daily and national newspapers exacerbates stress while the population is looking to catch a break! The Smart Commuter newspaper is a sole weekly publication focused on the commuter space, whom rely on it for various news content pertaining to their community, retail specials, brand awareness, health, and economic opportunities.Timing and location is everything when it comes to brand exposure. Taking the right steps to achieve optimal growth often means taking the road less travelled.To #beseen, contact us at az.oc.aidemtrams@tcennc for more information.
Social Media Guru

Remuneration: R25000 - R30000 per month basic salary Location: Johannesburg, Sandton Education level: Diploma Job level: Mid Type: Permanent Reference: #BG#SocialMediaGuru Company: Cardilogix

Social media strategy

Social media marketing

Social media community management

Digital media strategy

Digital marketing

Online marketing

Develop social media and digital strategies

Manage all projects related to digital and social marketing

Write briefs and develop presentations

Lead implementation and integration of internet and database marketing tools

Social media coordination and implementation

Leading agency seeks the services of ato join their highly efficient team as soon as possible. This role is based in JHB.Please only apply if you have the relevant experience as per our job ad. Our client does not have the capacity to train anyone  you need to hit the ground running.Your application will be passed to our team of recruitment consultants and should your skills and experience match the recruitment needs of our client, we will be in touch within a 96 hour turn-around time.Should you not hear from us, please treat your application for this job as unsuccessful. Posted on 04 Oct 15:16, Closing date 3 Dec
Imagine being able to communicate hands-free, with no visible earbuds or headset, via a small microphone that lives in your mouth and transmits data wirelessly through your clothing. The suit youre wearing also picks up biophysical data on your state of being and sends that to a commander with no additional input from you. Thats the vision of a new company that merges handsfree tooth microphones with electronics-embedded apparel to create new communication capabilities for soldiers.

The company, dubbed Integrated Tactical Technologies, or iT2, is set to launch next Tuesday. It was formed through the acquisition of Sonitus Technologies and a partnership with uniform maker Bluewater Defense. Sonitus is the maker of the Molar Mic.

The Molar Mic is a hands-free radio that goes in the mouth. It picks up sound and sends it through the jaw bone and skull to the nerves behind the ear, allowing the wearer to pick up voice communication with no headset.

In the original design, outgoing sound was transferred to a radio transceiver and then to a smaller concealed radio. The Defense Innovation Unit and In-Q-Tel were early backers of the project, and its been tested by soldiers that were deployed to Afghanistan.

The merger will take the Molar Mic technology and join it with a suite of electronics that will be embedded in an actual suit, getting rid of the need for a separate radio. As Molar Mic founder Peter Hadrovic explained, pairing the microphone with new radio and sensing electronics embedded in fabric helped to make an entirely new capability, a sort of sensor suit.

It has sensing. It has computing power on the body. It has the ability for different interfaces: Molar Mic is one. [Augmented Reality] glasses is another, and haptic signaling [mimicking touch] through the textile, he said.
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St. Matthews Anglican Cathedral is holding a special ceremony for four-legged friends in Brandon tonight at 7 p.m.

The Blessing of the Animals is held each year to honour the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, said Dean Don Bernhardt. Last year, the parish was unable to celebrate the occasion together, he said, so he is thrilled they will be able to unite for this years special service.

FILE Christine Neale, left, and her Yorkie Maya receive a blessing from Dean Don Bernhardt at St. Matthews Anglican Cathedral during the 2018 "Blessing of the Animals" celebration.

"Im hoping people will come out with whatever furry, or finned, or scaled friend they have and join us for a blessing," Bernhardt said.

All funds collected at the Blessing of Animals are in support of Funds for Furry Friends.

"Weve had a connection with them [Funds for Furry Friends] and our parish ever since they started," Bernhardt said.

He explained St. Matthews has an especially "large soft spot" for the non-profit as the parish adopted one of their very first dogs, Armani, a little cocker spaniel, from the organization.

"She was full of love and we loved her dearly," Bernhardt said. "The one thing I love about dogs is they have that unconditional love. If youre having a bad day, they love you, if youre having a good day, they love you. This is one of the things that St. Francis saw in creation  he saw God in all things. I can see unconditional love in a pet  well, theres God in that. Thats part of the reason that we do this [Blessing of the Animals]."

Bernhardt has seen dogs, cats, llamas, snakes, rats, horses and everything in between attend services. Pets of any kind can be accommodated, and if an animal is too large to enter the cathedral, he will go outside to them.

St. Francis of Assisi was a 13th-century friar who founded the Franciscan order. He was called to serve God, dedicating himself to being a servant of others.

"He lived a very simple life, a very austere life. It attracted common people, it attracted popes. He was seen as someone who actually lived out the Gospel," Bernhardt said.

He added part of Francis connection to the world was seeing God in all of creation, including animals.

St. Francis died on Oct. 4, and his feast day takes place to commemorate his memory and is commonly celebrated with a Blessing of the Animals service.

Bernhardt said while he speaks to Francis connection to animals during the special ceremony, the feast day also serves as a reminder that St. Francis saw God in all people and things, walking alongside the most vulnerable and the most powerful in society.

Unity is an important message right now, as the community cannot physically come together as it once did due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, he said, the need to prevent the spread of the virus has inspired community members to connect in new ways.

"I would encourage people to come. If you have a pet, it doesnt matter what it is as long as you feel comfortable bringing your pet. It can be in a carrier, on a leash, or you can be holding it, it doesnt matter," Bernhardt said. "For those who worry about how their pets will act, its been my experience that somehow they always seem to be on their best behaviour."

St. Matthews has been holding worship services on Sundays and Wednesdays when COVID-19 public health measures allow, but special services for the community have been limited and often occurred when gathering numbers were limited to around 10 people.

"This is the first time weve been able to have one thats open to the public and the numbers are not too, too restrictive," Bernhardt said.

Masks and social distancing will be required during the ceremony. When blessings are received, the animals will move forward one at a time to ensure people are able to safely be called to the front individually from the pews.

The cathedrals physical space has also been altered to ensure the safety and security of parishioners and more open space has been created in the back to ensure there are no big bunches of people together when entering and leaving the worship space.

"Im confident that people are going to be protected, and Im also comfortable that they are going to come in with glad hearts, bringing their best pet friends with them," Bernhardt said. "Well have a great time."

 ckemp@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @The_ChelseaKemp
The iconic red barn that has called the Brandon Research and Development Centre home for more than a century is set to be demolished.

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The iconic red barn that has called the Brandon Research and Development Centre home for more than a century is set to be demolished.

Manitoba Historical Society President Gordon Goldsborough said he is disappointed to see Red Barn 13 will be torn down, given its historical significance in Manitoba.

"Barns are disappearing, so it seems to me the barn as a principal will be something that people within a generation will have little or no awareness of," Goldsborough said. "We think its important that you have a few reminders of the early days of agriculture. Its a good reminder of our roots. To remind us how much things have changed today."

Goldsborough added he questions the rationale that demolition was the only possibility for the barn and why the building has not been designated a heritage site.

In an email statement, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada senior media relations adviser Cameron Newbigging said Red Barn 13 no longer supports program needs at the Brandon Research and Development Centre and the structure is in too poor of condition for removal, relocation or reuse.

Public tender for the demolition of the building was posted Sept. 29 and closes Oct. 19.

Newbigging said the demolition of the site will take place in four parts  starting with the removal of hazardous material removal, followed by fuel monitoring relocation, deconstruction and reinstatement in turn. Hazardous material abatement is expected to begin in mid-November and will be followed by demolition.

When considering demolition projects, due diligence is taken, including conducting an environmental evaluation, such as for species at risk, undertaking hazardous material abatement and contamination remediation if necessary, and consulting with the Federal Heritage Building Review Office for heritage designations.

Newbigging said the buildings exterior has undergone many changes throughout its life, including the replacement of most of the original external features and the removal of the original silo in the area.

Access to Red Barn 13 is intermittent and limited to maintenance tasks and is not used by the Research Centre.

Red Barn 13 was reviewed and assessed by the Government of Canadas Federal Heritage Review Office. At the time, it was not designated as a heritage building and it was concluded Red Barn 13 was not of historic value.

"The federal government has made up their mind, apparently, and I dont know if any rational arguments are going to change that," Goldsborough said.

He added he questions how thorough the investigations and evaluations of the site were and wants transparency in how the decision was reached. Goldsborough noted the results of the evaluation have yet to be released to the public, including making clear the cost of maintaining the barn.

"To my mind, there should be public transparency in all this. That they should justify the decision from a basis that this was a rigorous evaluation that was done and it has concluded that there is nothing to be done," Goldsborough said. "Show us that."

The Brandon Research and Development Centre was established in 1886, and Red Barn 13 was constructed in 1917. It was used as a cattle barn until 1977 and was later repurposed as a carpenter shop and plant science work area.

Red Barn 13 is located at one of the original five experimental farms established in Canada starting in the 19th century. At the time, the government of Canada was looking to establish agriculture across the country. The experimental farms aided local farmers in adapting crops, livestock and techniques used to the specific environments they lived in.

Farms were established in Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Ottawa. Brandon was the final farm established and the barn is as far as Goldsborough knows the only remaining building from the early days of the facility.

"It wasnt built at the very, very beginning of the farm. All those original buildings are gone now. But, it is as far as we know, the oldest building still standing," Goldsborough said.

Driving into the farm today, visitors can see Red Barn 13 located beside the main building, serving as a conspicuous part of the landscape.

As a world-class research site for the agricultural industry, Goldsborough said, there is an obligation to honour the past, and that tangible way to do that is to preserve Red Barn 13.

He added the once iconic barns are quickly disappearing from the landscape across the province.

"People, I think, assume that there are barns all over the place, and of course that was once at one time true," Goldsborough said. "But the days of the family mixed farm are dwindling and along with them the barns because they are no longer seen as a necessity for modern farm operations."

The Manitoba Historical Society conducted a survey about five years ago of barns that had been standing in the early 1980s based on a survey done in Western Canada, to see how many were still standing. It was estimated about one-third of them had been torn down.

Goldsborough hopes the general public can voice what they want to see done with the landmark and help find a solution that satisfies everyone.

"There should be a full public process before the decision to tear it down is made," he said. "I want to see the evidence. Governments should be transparent."

 ckemp@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @The_ChelseaKemp
OTTAWA - Afghan women ministers made pleas to Canadian politicians for help  and shared warnings about atrocities and the erosion of womens rights  two months before the Taliban took control of Kabul.

OTTAWA - Afghan women ministers made pleas to Canadian politicians for help  and shared warnings about atrocities and the erosion of womens rights  two months before the Taliban took control of Kabul.

In June, female Afghan ministers begged Canada to do something for us as the Taliban advanced, says a Canadian senator who took part in a videoconference between Canadian and Afghan politicians.

Senator Salma Ataullahjan is shown in a handout photo. A senator who chairs a committee set up to forge ties between the Canadian and Afghan parliaments says Afghan women ministers made pleas to Canadian politicians for help two months before the Taliban took control of Kabul.. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO

The desperate request was made during a Zoom meeting of the Canada-Afghanistan Parliamentary Friendship Group, attended by Canadian ministers, MPs and senators.

In July, Afghanistans ambassador to Canada briefed the group about brutalities, including targeted killings and moves to oppress women, as the Taliban took over more of the country.

Ambassador Hassan Soroosh gave a graphic account of the Taliban as it advanced, killing women and clerics who did not agree with their interpretation of Islam, said Sen. Salma Ataullahjan, co-chair of the parliamentary friendship group.

Ataullahjan said Soroosh also told of how the Taliban issued statements ordering local religious leaders to draw up lists of unmarried girls over the age of 15 and widows under 45, so they could be wed to Taliban leaders.

Ataullahjan, who attended both meetings, described how Afghan female ministers kept telling us: do something for us.

She said the June meeting  where Canadian cabinet ministers were present  rang alarm bells, and she argued that Canada should have acted sooner to evacuate vulnerable Afghans.

The senator said she plans to make a statement in Parliament when it returns and press the Liberal government to explain why it did not taken more urgent steps.

She says although the Talibans actions were not a surprise, the meetings showed the "urgency" of the situation.

The June one was the most significant because the women (ministers) were very concerned  you could see. There was an urgency. We were hearing that they were worried they would lose everything  all this progress (on womens rights). They said do something for us.' There was that sense of desperation. I was really, really concerned, the senator said.

At the meeting with the ambassador in July we got a very, very comprehensive brief. The ambassador outlined the executions that were taking place, of (people) being targeted, she added.

The ambassador was unavailable for comment.

By June, the Taliban were in control of almost one-third of Afghanistan and advancing swiftly. It seized control of Kabul, the capital, on Aug. 15. U.S. forces withdrew from Afghanistan, after two decades, on Aug. 30.

Canada has been criticized for not doing enough to assist Afghans, and Canadians based in the country, who wanted to leave.

In July, Canada drew up plans to evacuate interpreters who assisted Canadian Forces. In all, the Canadian military helped remove than 3,700 people from Kabul over a period of weeks before pulling out at the end of August. The Liberal government has also pledged to resettle 40,000 Afghan refugees.

Ataullahjan, a Pashtun who was brought up in Pakistan but used to visit Kabul as a girl, said more should have been done after the warnings were heard.

The June 14 meeting of the friendship group was also attended by Maryam Monsef, then minister for women, and Deborah Schulte, minister of seniors at the time, as well as MPs and senators, according to Ataullahjan and her parliamentary assistant, Ayah Stretch.

At the July 29 meeting  just weeks before the Taliban took Kabul  Afghanistan's ambassador gave horrific reports of what was happening as the Taliban advanced, according to Stretch. She provided The Canadian Press with her notes of the July meeting, and said the June meeting demonstrated just how serious the situation was becoming for Afghans.

"Afghan women ministers in our Zoom call were telling us a crisis was going to happen," she said in an interview.

"They were telling us how bad the situation was. That was the red flag. We knew back then that we needed to act quickly. We knew what the Taliban were doing years ago  it was disappointing to hear they were doing this again."

Global Affairs Canada spokesman John Babcock said Ottawa "remains committed to Afghanistan and the Afghan people and we will continue to do all that we can to support them."

Canada has no plans to recognize the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan, he added.

"The Taliban remain a listed terrorist entity under Canadian law. If the Taliban choose to ignore fundamental human rights  the rights of women, girls and minority groups  they should expect international isolation.

"We recognize that Afghan women have fought hard to realize their rights, and that they deserve the international communitys ongoing support."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2021.
EDMONTON - Alberta is reporting a slight drop in the number of critically ill COVID-19 patients in hospital  three per cent down from a week ago.

Minister of National Defence Harjit Sajjan speaks during a news conference Thursday May 7, 2020 in Ottawa. Sajjan says that as part of Operation LASER, Canadian Armed Forces members will use their experience to help Alberta in the fight against the fourth wave of the pandemic. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

EDMONTON - Alberta is reporting a slight drop in the number of critically ill COVID-19 patients in hospital  three per cent down from a week ago.

Alberta Health Services says in a statement that there are 298 patients in intensive care wards, most of them with the infection.

The province has been scrambling for weeks to create ad hoc intensive care beds to accommodate thousands of new COVID-19 patients.

There are 374 intensive care beds, more than double the normal 173.

New cases continue to number more than 1,000 daily, as they have for weeks.

The province is reporting that daily counts averaged more than 1,300 a day from Friday to Sunday, with 21 more deaths to bring that total to 2,752.

The number of active cases remains over 20,000.

Alberta has put out a call for help, and that aid is set to arrive soon.

A military contingent was expected to be on the ground Monday to decide where to deploy eight critical care nurses.

Public Safety Canada said the Canadian Red Cross is also planning to send up to 20 medical professionals, some with intensive care experience, to augment or relieve staff in hospitals.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said Canadian Armed Forces members will use their experience to help Alberta battle the fourth wave of the pandemic.

Operation LASER is the Canadian Armed Forces response to COVID-19. Sajjan said that since the beginning of the pandemic, the military has responded to more than 65 requests for assistance from provincial or federal partners.

Newfoundland and Labrador is also sending a medical team of five or six intensive care staff to work in Alberta's northern oil city of Fort McMurray.

Alberta Health Services has had to reassign staff to handle the surge of intensive care patients. There have been mass cancellations of non-urgent surgeries as a result.

Opposition NDP Leader Rachel Notley urged Premier Jason Kenneys United Conservative government to deliver a daily report on how many critical surgeries have been postponed.

She said the government should reveal a plan on how to catch up on the backlog, along with modelling to show how long the health emergency will last.

We are in a crisis. We need transparency, accountability and real, substantial action to get through it, Notley said in Calgary.

Intensive care physicians, emergency ward doctors, the executive of the Alberta Medical Association and the Canadian Medical Association have called for a lockdown in the province to try to stem the tide of COVID-19 patients.

Kenney said last week he wants to see if recent health measures, including an indoor mask mandate, gathering restrictions and a form of vaccine passport, boost vaccination rates.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2021.
HALIFAX - As Nova Scotia's proof-of-vaccination rules launched Monday, restaurateur Christine Bower said she was anxious her staff may face more tense encounters like one that left workers unsettled over the weekend.

The Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine is prepared at a vaccination clinic in Dartmouth, N.S. on Thursday, June 3, 2021. Nova Scotia's proof-of-vaccination policy starts today, with anyone aged 12 and up now required to prove they are fully inoculated against COVID-19 to access non-essential services and activities. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

HALIFAX - As Nova Scotia's proof-of-vaccination rules launched Monday, restaurateur Christine Bower said she was anxious her staff may face more tense encounters like one that left workers unsettled over the weekend.

The co-owner of the Wooden Monkey restaurant said in an interview her senior staff were met with verbal abuse from a customer upset at the requirement to wear a mask. Bower said the customer threatened to file a human rights complaint when staff informed them of the public health order.

After she and restaurant co-owners published a post on social media describing the incident as hurtful and frightening, the Halifax restaurateur said a stream of online abuse ensued. Bower said she hopes more outbursts won't occur now that the province's proof-of-vaccination system has entered into effect.

"Yesterday was a bit rattling, so I'm a bit anxious about what it's going to be like," she said during an interview Monday at her business, as staff opened up the restaurant.

"We just want to be sure everyone is respectful and kind to each other."

Small, locally owned restaurants seldom have budgets for doormen or security guards to enforce policies, nor can they afford large fines for failing to enforce the province's new rules, Bower said.

If people wish to protest the government's policies, she added, they should do so in front of the legislature a few blocks away, rather than leaving her to cope with staff so shaken they called her in tears to describe the anger they had faced.

The restaurant, which specializes in locally grown and harvested food, has had to close on three different occasions during the past 19 months because of the pandemic. Bower said she hopes mandatory vaccination will encourage the return of customers, as restaurants try to survive without federal subsidies.

Nova Scotia's new health order requires anyone aged 12 and up to prove they are fully inoculated against COVID-19 to access non-essential services and activities. In order to enter a range of venues, including restaurants, gyms, cinemas, concert halls and sport facilities, people are required to show their COVID-19 immunization record.

The province said original proof of full vaccination records are acceptable in paper and digital formats, and they must include the person's name as well as the brand of vaccine they received and date upon which they received it. Nova Scotia plans to implement VaxCheckNS later this month, which is a free cellphone application that reads QR codes.

An online poll conducted mid-September by Narrative Research indicated 67 per cent of the 1,231 Canadians aged 18 and older who were polled supported mandatory proof of vaccination for eating at restaurants.

At the Little Eden Cafe and Bakery in downtown Halifax, customers Taylor Stokal and Rebecca Williams said that showing proof of vaccination was already part of their routine. Stokal said obtaining her documentation online was seamless and required just minutes to download from the Health Department website.

"I feel that it's protecting a lot of people in our province," Stokal said in an interview after ordering her coffee. "It's protecting me and my family. I'm feeling good about it."

"I think everyone should be showing it," said Williams, who keeps her laminated copy in her purse.

Joe McGuinness, the owner of the Stubborn Goat Gastropub in Halifax, said in an interview Monday he anticipated most customers would co-operate with the new requirements, though he said those who don't will be informed to take up the matter with the Health Department.

"We do anticipate some people will be upset and try to gain access, and it's our job to politely inform them we can't grant you access at this time," he said.

Prince Edward Island will impose its vaccination passport system on Tuesday. The so-called P.E.I. Vax Pass will initially involve a paper proof of vaccination and will progress to a QR code later in October.

Newfoundland and Labrador is also preparing to launch a vaccine passport program that will be mandatory for "all non-essential activities" throughout the province. That province's vaccine passport will use similar technology to what Quebec uses for its system.

New Brunswick began requiring proof of vaccination to access non-essential services including festivals, nightclubs and conferences last month.

Nova Scotia said Monday it was adding provincial correctional services employees and regulated child-care employees to the list of those who must be fully vaccinated, noting those who are unvaccinated by Nov. 30 will be placed on unpaid leave.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2021.
The process of earning a CFA after ones name has always been gruelling: Candidates are expected to master 3000 pages of material and demonstrate their ability to analyse companies financial statements, forecast investment profits and manage conflicts of interest, alongside a vast swath of concepts and scenarios.

I have to say, it was pretty messy, Zhu said in a video chronicling her experience. What made the CFA exam really challenging for me is the time and effort that I needed to put in, she said.

When the pandemic hit, Irene Zhu decided to explore switching careers from tourism to finance. A lifelong maths whiz, Zhu, 37, set her sights on becoming a chartered financial analyst, a highly coveted professional qualification in the investing world. But to do so, she would need to pass three notoriously difficult tests, the first of which she sat for in February  after staying up well past 1am on many nights studying.

The pandemic made that slog harder. Zhu, based in Melbourne was among roughly 140,000 people who sat for one of the three qualifying exams required for a CFA this year. Only 35 per cent passed. Of those who took their first exam in the most recent round in July, the pass rate was 22 per cent  the lowest on record since the non-profit CFA Institute began administering the tests in 1963. On average, fewer than half of CFA test takers across all levels pass.

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The record lows revived a long-standing debate among finance industry veterans: How useful is the credential for success on Wall Street? And how does it compare to the industrys most popular graduate degree  the MBA, or master of business administration? Those questions  MBA vs. CFA vs. nothing at all  pop up periodically in the industry, but this time around they carry more urgency, especially with registrations for the CFA program down from their 2019 peak.

People have had, in many cases, their lives upturned  we know theyre working from home virtually, theres a fatigue setting in, said Margaret Franklin, the chief executive of the CFA Institute, which is based in Virginia. Theres kind of the optimal study conditions, and then theres the reality of COVID, she said.

Many of todays top financial managers hold CFA credentials, including Marty Flanagan, the chief executive of Invesco, which manages $US1.5 trillion ($2.1 trillion), and Heather Brilliant, chief executive of Diamond Hill Capital Management. Other top leaders in the asset management business, including the BlackRock chief Laurence D. Fink, do not.
More than 100 young artists, teachers and their relatives affiliated with the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, a celebrated school that became a target of the Taliban in part for its efforts to promote the education of girls, fled the country on Sunday, the schools leaders said.

The musicians, many of whom have been trying to leave for more than a month, boarded a flight from Kabuls main airport and have arrived in Doha, the capital of Qatar, according to Melbourne-based Ahmad Naser Sarmast. In coming days, they plan to resettle in Portugal, where the government has agreed to grant them visas.

Fighters from the Haqqani network inside a room of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music in Kabul. Credit:AP Photo/Bernat Armangue

Its already a big step and a very, very big achievement on the way of rescuing Afghan musicians from the cruelty of the Taliban, Sarmast, who opened the school in 2010, said in a statement. You cannot imagine how happy I am.

The musicians join a growing number of Afghans who have fled the country since August, when the Taliban consolidated their control of the country amid the withdrawal of US forces. Among figures in the arts and sports worlds who have escaped are members of a female soccer team who resettled in Portugal and Italy.
A person who was at the Mildura Law Courts has tested positive for COVID-19.

A statement from said a health response is under way after the person was tested on Tuesday morning when they presented with COVID-like symptoms.

Court Services Victoria was working closely with the Department of Health to support all affected staff and members of the public.

Earlier, it was revealed that there were COVID-19 infections at five prisons in Victoria, with 36 prisoners testing positive for the virus.

Corrections Victoria said 16 prisoners tested positive at the Melbourne Assessment Prison, 11 at the Metropolitan Remand Centre, five at Ravenhall Correctional Centre, three at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre and one at Port Phillip Prison.

The five prisoners infected at Ravenhall Correctional Centre were in the general prison population.

There were also 15 active COVID-19 cases among staff members  five at Metropolitan Remand Centre, five at Ravenhall, two at Port Phillip Prison, and one each at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, Maribyrnong Community Residential Facility and Barwon Prison.

Corrections Victoria helped the health department with contact tracing, and all in-person visits to Victorian prisons were suspended.

Meanwhile, four Melbourne early learning centres, two outlets in Macedon, north-west of the city, and Nathalia library were added as a tier-1 exposure sites on Tuesday.

The HEI Schools Emerald Learning Centre, south-east of Melbourne, was added an exposure site after a case attended the venue on Monday and Tuesday last week. Anyone who visited the centre between 9am and 6.30pm on September 27 and September 28 must immediately get tested and quarantine for 14 days.

Another childcare centre in Melbournes north, Story House Early Learning Epping, was added for an exposure between 8am and 5.30pm on September 29.

Only About Children in Camberwell in Melbournes east was listed as an exposure site on September 22 from 7.45am to 5.45pm and September 27 from 8am to 6pm

Swan Childcare in Derrimut in Melbournes west was listed on September 30 and October 1 from 9am to 5.45pm.

And Mr Cafe Macedon has been listed as a tier-1 venue for an exposure between 8.45am and 10.15am on September 29 and the nearby Mount Macedon Trading Post has been flagged as a venue of concern owing to an exposure between 9.42am and 11.15am on September 29.

Nathalia Library in Nathalia, in northern Victoria, was listed on Septemer 30 from 9.30am to 5.30pm and October 1 from 9.30am to 1pm.

Health authorities reported 86 new cases in regional Victoria on Tuesday, including four cases in Macedon Ranges.

This follows comments from Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton yesterday that the listing of tier-2 sites, which are lower-risk locations visited by a COVID-positive person, will be progressively scaled back over the next few days.
Margaret Thanos was so overwhelmed by what she had read online about whether it was safe for young people her age to get the AstraZeneca vaccine she found herself sobbing outside the chemist on the day of her injection.

The fear from what I had heard and online misinformation meant I was afraid I was going to die even though statistically its so unlikely, says Ms Thanos, a 21-year-old artist, who is now fully vaccinated.

Margaret Thanos was in tears outside the chemist before having her AstraZeneca vaccination due to online misinformation. Credit:Louie Douvis

COVID-19 is regarded as the first pandemic of the social media age, according to a global report by girls equality charity Plan International, which surveyed more than 26,000 girls and young women from 26 countries and found false information was severely impacting their lives.

In Australia, 95 per cent of the 1001 girls and young women surveyed said they were concerned about misinformation or disinformation online, while 83 per cent said they had been exposed to false or misleading information. (While misinformation and disinformation both refer to wrong or false information, only disinformation is deliberately misleading.)
Just be clear, the cup keeps refilling, Ms Wood said. Its not like its a finite number and the door has closed. More and more people have registered. However, Ms Wood said the number of registered Australians, which was previously stuck at 40,000 for several months, had finally started to reduce as more flights became available and some registered Australians declined to take up flights. Loading When Prime Minister Scott Morrison promised in September that all stranded Australians would be home by Christmas, there were 24,000 on the list but there were many more Australians abroad who had not registered. Since then, Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne told the Senate, 63,100 Australians had returned from overseas, of whom 24,800 were registered by DFAT and 5150 were classified as vulnerable.

Ms Wood said the government-facilitated repatriation flights and the Northern Territorys Howard Springs quarantine facility  which was ramping up from a capacity of 850 to 2000 over the coming months  were dedicated to Australians who had registered with DFAT, with priority given to those who are vulnerable. Sophie had been living in Europe for 10 years and was already planning to return home for family reasons when the pandemic hit. She had booked her flight in January last year for a date in August, planning to serve out her three months notice, pack up her belongings and enjoy some time off. By the time she had served her notice period, the pandemic was under way and she was stranded without a job. Her original flight was cancelled when the flight caps were imposed and she bought tickets with three airlines, before finally making it home in December. So far she hasnt managed to find work in Australia, with hiring managers telling her she has too much experience. She sometimes regrets coming home and predicts Australia will once again face a brain drain once the borders reopen.

For Ms Duffield, who left Australia when she was 18 and was living in Indiana in the United States when her marriage ended, the priority has been trying to get her daughters Luca, 16, and Zara, 13, settled in Sydney. While they are grateful to be back and especially that they are no longer doing remote schooling, there have been challenges. Ms Duffield said the school had failed to prevent bullying and assumed that the girls should know everything about how school works in Australia simply because they are citizens, even though they have never lived here. She has found a steep learning curve herself, finding it difficult to navigate the supermarket and being bamboozled by terms like CTP when the person on the other end of the phone was unable to explain the acronym stood for compulsory third party insurance. Pieter den Heten was living in Germany when the pandemic hit Pieter den Heten was working in Germany when the pandemic hit. His partner returned to Australia in February  before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic  and he planned to follow as soon as he served his notice period at work.

In the end they were separated for nine months. In March he got sick and he was ill for over a month, probably with COVID-19 though there was no testing. By May he moved to the Netherlands  his country of birth  and was looking for tickets back to Australia. He had several flights cancelled and finally made it back in October. He said he felt very scrutinised even by friends who couldnt believe he couldnt get a flight sooner, even though fares rose as high as $15,000 and quarantine fees were $3000. A lot of people dont believe you. One friend of mine said I was just cheap, he said. What bothers me the most is the lack of empathy, and sympathy. Mr den Heten said his advocacy on behalf of fellow stranded Australians had invited abuse from trolls on the one hand and horrible stories from stranded Australians in desperate circumstances on the other. There were dozens of those stories and people would send me messages on Facebook in the middle of the night that theyre thinking of killing themselves, he said. Altogether, its taken quite a big toll on me but some of that was my choice.
Fast Eddie Zhi has a habit of speaking out about the inner workings of Australias meat export industry, and it has apparently made him an unpopular man.

Two years after Australian company Southern Meats appointed him as an agent to help overturn a crippling Chinese government ban on the lamb producers export licence, the company in August launched an extraordinary Supreme Court bid to silence him.

Fast Eddie Zhi, a former meat industry labour hire operator.

And months before that, in November last year, Mr Zhi was the victim of an unprovoked assault outside his Sydney home.

Mr Zhi suspects the attack was linked in some way to his involvement in the recruitment and supply of Chinese workers to a number of Australian meat companies, but he did not have enough evidence to suggest who might have ordered it. There is no suggestion the attack is connected to his dispute with Southern Meats.
Queensland deputy Premier Steven Miles has reiterated the need for more federal funding to bolster the states health system, despite insisting it would be able to withstand a surge of COVID-19 cases.

Multiple states and territories, including Queensland, are petitioning the federal government to an ongoing 50-50 funding split for public hospitals ahead of a reopening of international borders in the next few months once vaccine targets are met.

States, territories and the Commonwealth have agreed to fund 50 per cent of all activity growth, but the federal government have artificially capped that growth funding at six-and-a-half per cent, Mr Miles said.

They did that before the pandemic. What were saying now is that the pandemic will clearly drive demand that is greater than that, and given that our hospitals are funded as a partnership, we would like the federal government to increase their contribution to that partnership.
The federal agency responsible for customs and immigration says it is yet to receive any approach for the specialist staff and equipment critical to the Palaszczuk governments plan to land international flights at Toowoombas planned Wellcamp Airport quarantine facility.

Weeks before the first 500 rooms of the 1000-room facility are scheduled to begin accepting quarantine guests, the Queensland government will now restart conversations with the Commonwealth about moving through the hefty approvals processes and attracting airlines.

Jeannette Young, John Wagner, Steven Miles, Annastacia Palaszczuk and Yvette DAth at the announcement of a quarantine facility at Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport. Credit:Matt Dennien

Correspondence shows Canberra and Brisbane bureaucrats were initially working collaboratively on the Wellcamp idea.

In February, the Prime Ministers own department even agreed to provide assistance through the Australian Defence Force, Australian Border Force, Australian Federal Police and other official workforces ... noting the scope of assistance cannot be confirmed until a formal proposal is received.
The difference of vaccination is really going to be our pathway out of here, Professor Sutton said. The state recorded 1377 new daily cases on Monday and 498 people in hospital with COVID-19, of whom 96 are in ICU and 59 are on a ventilator. As hospitals attempt to keep up with the demand, The Age can reveal that some government policies designed to take pressure off the system are, in fact, putting patients at risk, according to physicians. One such policy, known as rapid offloading now requires certain non-COVID patients who are transported to emergency departments to be placed in a chair in the waiting room, rather than a bed or cubicle, while patients with COVID and suspected COVID are assessed and treated as a matter of priority.

The policy is designed to reduce ambulance ramping. In theory, paramedics transfer the patient, while triage nurses and doctors determine whether they are fit to sit. However, Mya Cubitt, the Victorian faculty chair of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, said a lack of department clarity over this measure was creating some dangerous situations for patients and unnecessary conflict between staff. While there might be a spare chair, theres not necessarily a nurse or a clinician to care for that patient and keep them safe while theyre in their chair, said Dr Cubitt. The rapid offload policy is a deeply understandable solution to a ramping crisis, but it will lead to a patient being offloaded into an increasingly overcrowded emergency department, and it may unintentionally put patients at risk and increase the chance of an emergency department COVID-19 exposure. Dr Cubitt urged the department to provide more clarity over the measure. It is another example of the intense strain already being felt by burnt out staff as rising COVID cases add to record demand on the health system. Last week a Melbourne hospital in a COVID hotspot reported its highest ever number of emergency department presentations, while calls to triple zero reached levels not seen since the 2016 thunderstorm asthma event.

Of concern, Victorias daily cases are still tracking within the range thats been predicted by the Burnet Institute, which estimated weeks ago that there would be 1400 to 2900 daily diagnoses by the end of October. But the experts behind this modelling, including co-author Professor Margaret Hellard, said Victorians still have the power to change this trajectory, reduce the severity of the peak and thereby the impact on the hospital system, by getting vaccinated, getting tested if they have COVID symptoms and abiding by restrictions. Ambulances at the Northern Hospital in Epping. Credit:Paul Jeffers Professor Hellard cautioned that the modelling wasnt able to predict the future, but instead outlined what cases could look like under certain circumstances. Other scenarios modelled show that relatively small changes to behaviour, such as more vaccinated people coming forward to get tested for COVID if they had mild symptoms, could ultimately lead to a drastic reduction in cases numbers and hospitalisations  in some cases, by the thousands. That is because people with COVID who are not tested would be less likely to isolate and more likely to spread the virus to others.

Loading The Burnets Nick Scott said it was possible that as COVID became more widespread people may actually be more likely to continue testing. In the preliminary data, people are still testing when theyre vaccinated, so its quite plausible that that will be the outcome, Dr Scott said. In the governments outline of the impact of COVID cases on health system capacity, there are five different levels of response. The first and current stage, for when hospital patients are up to 600, involves changes to elective surgery and an increase in home-based case. Elective surgery would be reduced to a minimum at stage three, between 1000 and 1500 cases, and there would be reduced access to emergency care at stage four, between 1500 and 2500 hospitalisations.
Businesses and workers have sacrificed, suffered and done their bit to protect us all from COVID-19. They stayed closed, in some cases without work, pivoted their services to keep Victorians employed and many lost what they had spent years building. Businesses across the state are in crisis.

Now, as the 70 per cent and 80 per cent double-dose target is in sight, governments must reward businesses by making it as easy as possible to trade in a COVID-normal world.

Businesses across Victoria are in crisis. Credit:Eddie Jim

There is no question that vaccination is the best weapon we have in the fight against the virus, and its the best chance we have of getting back to life as we know it.

Living with COVID-19 will put pressure on businesses, and they will need protection and certainty. Readers might recall an article from March in which I forecast that mandatory vaccination would become one of the biggest workplace relations issues of the year. That has certainly come to pass.
Tens of thousands of VCE students will return to school to sit the General Achievement Test on Tuesday ahead of a staged return for all year levels, but the return carries unwelcome risks for students in Melbournes COVID-19 hotspots.

Meadow Heights teenager Zaynab Colan wants to study a bachelor of applied science (medical radiations) at RMIT University. She has decided not to return to face-to-face learning this year.

Year 12 student Zaynab Colan and her father Almir Zaynab, who lives in Hume, says she will not return to face-to-face learning this year to avoid disrupting her exam preparations. Credit:Simon Schluter

After two years of being plunged in and out of remote learning, her year 12 exams will begin this month, but she is fearful of returning to the classroom while COVID-19 runs rampant in her community.

Im worried about catching COVID and spreading it to my family, or being sick two weeks before the exams  that will have a toll on my exam results and it will affect my studies, the Ilim College student said.
The first Victorian legal challenge to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for teachers has been issued in court.

Self-represented casual relief teacher Belinda Cetnar and horticulturalist Jack Cetnar have gone to the Supreme Court to argue the no jab, no work policy is not legally or ethically justified, undermines the rule of law and is inconsistent with their human rights.

Victorian Education Minister James Merlino (centre) addresses the media. Credit:Scott McNaughton

It follows legal challenges to mandates in NSW and Queensland.

The Victorian government announced almost a fortnight ago that vaccines would be compulsory for all staff at schools and early childhood centres starting October 18, and Premier Daniel Andrews last week widened the mandate to all authorised workers.
Its quite obvious to me: we had a strategy, since the beginning of the pandemic, of very tight suppression, if not elimination. And we did that last year, very successfully. And it got us nine months of COVID-free life, Dr Ait Ouakrim said. Compare this strategy with NSW, which chose to largely stay open in 2020 and early 2021. Its largest outbreak, the Northern Beaches cluster, fizzled after 151 cases; authorities locked down only the area at the centre of the outbreak. Credit:Matt Golding Victorias policy had its pros and cons, epidemiologists said. Most obviously, it prevented the enormous mortality of an out-of-control outbreak. Australia sailed through a global pandemic that has killed 4.5 million people (the true number is likely to be much higher) with no excess mortality.

Its very frustrating to hear people say, We did it for nothing. No. We did it to prevent a lot of death, a lot of disability, Dr Ait Ouakrim said. However, the decision to drive COVID-19 into the ground in 2020 may have backfired when Delta arrived on the scene. Melbourne left lockdown on October 28 last year. It was more than a month since the city recorded more than 20 new cases; it had recorded zero cases three times in the previous week. About a third of all days spent under lockdown registered fewer than 20 cases a day. Professor Catherine Bennett, chair of epidemiology at Deakin University, wonders if the stringent approach sapped Melbourne of the strength to go into lockdown again, when Delta arrived.

Contact tracing was enough. You could control the variant that was circulating, she said. We had choices  and the choice was taken to not only go to zero, but to stay there for longer than anywhere else in the world. I cant imagine any other country would have stayed in lockdown for more than 30 days, with 15 cases or fewer at most. Mobility data suggests Melburnians are moving around perhaps 10 to 15 per cent more than during last years lockdown. Enforcing lockdown in Sydneys Northern Beaches area. Credit:Tanya Lake What were seeing is not lockdown fatigue, but lockdown adaptation, said mobility analyst Rohan Byrne. Weve decided as a community which rules were comfortable bending, and were bending them consistently. This adaptability may also be showing up in the states transmission potential  a measure of the viruss ability to spread, tracked for the federal government.

NSW managed to bring its transmission potential to 1, and now below 1, at the start of September. Victorias remains stubbornly at 1.14, and has not budged for a month. Then theres the bad luck. Modelling suggests that pre-Delta a new case had a roughly 50 per cent chance of fizzling out by itself. NSW and Queensland have had nearly twice the number of hotel quarantine breaches as Victoria, per COVIDlive.com, yet it was Victorias breaches that set off the second wave.

Loading NSWs Northern Beaches outbreak struck an extremely wealthy, advantaged population. In Victoria, outbreaks in 2020 and 2021 struck in the north and west, where there are bigger families, more people working in jobs that mean they cannot stay home, a younger and more mobile population, more disadvantage and lower levels of vaccination. It is quite challenging for people who are less socio-economically advantaged who have to continue working in the community during a lockdown, Associate Professor James Wood, a mathematician at the University of NSWs School of Public Health and Community Medicine, told The Age in September. Often their workloads can increase, and its quite difficult to reduce their numbers of contacts without shutting down quite important industries.

Sydneys 2021 Delta outbreak really took off when it hit similar populations: essential workers in the citys south-west and west. Professor James Trauer, head of epidemiological modelling at Monash Universitys School of Public Health, suspects the weather played an outsized role in what has happened in Melbourne. Most epidemiologists think its just bad luck. I dont, he said. I think its part of a global pattern. Temperate cities, further from the equator, in winter, have a considerably bigger issue with COVID than tropical regions and less-populated ones. Thats led to us having more problems overall.
Singapore: Taiwan has backed Australias decision to acquire nuclear submarines to defend the Indo-Pacific after China launched dozens of military planes towards the Taiwan Strait.

The show of force by Beijing and the build-up of defence capability by the United States and its allies has put the region on alert for the threat of future conflict over the disputed democratic island.

Taiwans Foreign Minister Joseph Wu Credit:AP

Taiwans Foreign Minister Joseph Wu on Monday said Taiwan was preparing for conflict and would fight to the end if China was to attack its neighbour.

Im sure that if China is going to launch an attack against Taiwan, he told the ABC. I think they are going to suffer tremendously as well.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had investigated Allegro Capital over insider trading. The markets regulator asked the company and its Director and major shareholder Kunal Ashok Kashyap to pay Rs 24,68,751 and also imposed additional penalties in an order passed on July 8.

Kunal Kashyap was subsequently named in the Pandora Papers a global investigation of offshore entities. The Indian Express published a series of investigative reports based on the Pandora Papers on Monday. Previous such investigations led to government probes for tax evasion. There can also be legitimate reasons, including business ones, for being associated with such offshore entities. Mondays report noted that Kashyap is associated with the Deanstone Trust, an entity set up through another entity owned by John McCallum Marshall Shaw. John Shaw is the husband of Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, executive chairperson of biopharmaceutical company

The order against Kunal Kashyap was also linked to It was related to a 2018 announcement about Biocons global collaboration with Sandoz, an arm of the global pharmaceutical company firm based in Switzerland. The company's stock rose 5.6 per cent the day after the announcement. The Sebi order noted that was negotiating with another firm CIMAB and Sandoz concurrently. Kashyap had the overall responsibility of negotiating with CIMAB. The order noted that he may reasonably be expected to have knowledge of the Sandoz partnership and would come under the definition of being an insider.

It is alleged that noticees have traded in the scrip of Biocon during unpublished price sensitive information period, according to the order.

Even if, the noticees were bullish with respect to Biocons scrip in the long term, the sudden spurt/jump in volume shown by them during UPSI period has not been justified by them. To put it differently, noticees may have been bullish about Biocon, but because of the UPSI (unpublished price sensitive information), their purchases in the scrip of Biocon was advanced as they wanted to buy it before the price starts to increase after the publication of the announcement. Thus, the trigger for buying irrespective of the long term bullish view was on the basis of UPSI. Therefore, it is held that the noticees have dealt in the scrip of Biocon on the basis of UPSI and hence have violated Section 15G(i) of Sebi Act.

It went on to bar Kunal Ashok Kashyap and Allegro Capital from the market for one year. Apart from being asked to disgorge Rs 24,68,751, they were also penalised Rs 10 lakh each.

The Securities Appellate Tribunal, which hears appeals against Sebi, stayed the order in August where it is still said to be pending.

Media stories reporting on Pandora Papers wrongly implicate my husbands offshore trust, which is a bona-fide, legitimate trust and is managed by independent trustees. No Indian resident holds the key to the trust as alleged in these stories, said a statement from Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, executive chairperson of Biocon on social media platform Twitter.
Amrutanjan Healthcare on Monday said it has signed the Tokyo Olympic weightlifting Silver medalist Mirabai Chanu and wrestling Bronze medalist as brand ambassadors for products in its pain management range.

Chanu and Punia will endorse the company's portfolio of advanced body pain management products, which includes Back Pain Roll-On, Joint Muscle Spray, and Pain Patch, Amrutanjan Healthcare said in a statement.

As part of the partnership, the brand ambassadors will feature in a series of campaigns, including television and digital commercials for these products, it added.

"The company is now focused on growing its portfolio by offering more superior pain management products that come with performance-based claims backed by scientific clinical trials. As a proud Indian brand, it gives us immense pleasure to sign our Olympic champions as our brand ambassadors," Amrutanjan Healthcare Chairman and MD S Sambhu Prasad said.

Chanu said, I am very excited to partner with Amrutanjan to promote their portfolio of pain management products".

The company did not share any financial details of the deal.

"As a high-performance athlete, I am always looking for any edge that I can get over my competition and am looking forward to using Amrutanjan's Joint Muscle + Spray to help me in relieving joint, muscle, and overall body pain," Punia 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.)
Employee unions of state-owned telecom firm have decided to launch a campaign for the removal of Chairman and Managing Director PK Purwar alleging his failure to revive the company.

All Unions and Associations of (AUAB) issued a circular on September 27 to hold agitation around their charter of demands including removal of the CMD.

"A black-flag/black badge wearing demonstration will be organised on October 26, 2021 demanding settlement of the charter of demands. The removal of PK Purwar, CMD, BSNL, will also be included in the charter of demands," the circular said.

AUAB will start social media campaign on October 6 "demanding the removal" of Purwar from the post, it said.

The circular said all the leaders of various BSNL unions have expressed disappointment and anguish over the "failure" of the BSNL management to take steps for the revival of the firm, even after the approval of the revival package announced in 2019 and also to settle the problems of the employees.

"The meeting is of the unanimous view that PK Purwar...is mainly responsible for the all-round failure of the company," the circular said.

It may be noted that the government had offered a combined revival package of about Rs 69,000 crore to BSNL and MTNL in October 2019 that has helped both in narrowing their losses.

According to official data, losses of BSNL have narrowed to Rs 7,441 crore in 2020-21 from Rs 15,500 crore in 2019-20. However, the debt of BSNL stands at around Rs 30,000 crore.

AUAB alleged that BSNL management attempted to sabotage a three-day protest organised by it in September through an instruction letter to the circle heads and BSNL CMD rejected withdrawal of the letter.

"PK Purwar...could not do anything for its revival. Rather MTNL has collapsed now. So, there is no possibility of BSNL's revival under the leadership of Purwar," the circular said.

In the last seven and half years, Purwar has led MTNL for over five years. Most of the time he has held additional charge as CMD of debt-ridden MTNL. He continues to hold the position while serving as full-time CMD of BSNL.

AUAB alleged that the CMD could have launched 4G services before April 2020 by just upgrading 49,300 mobile towers which have 4G compatible technology already installed by the earlier management.

"PK Purwar...did not take any action, other than giving one date after another viz. January 1, 2020, March 1, 2020, April 1, 2020 etc for launching 4G services. Not only that, Purwar...had even strongly opposed the steps taken by the then director (consumer mobility) for the upgradation of the towers. The earlier management had farsightedly procured 4G compatible equipment and installed it in the system," the circular said.

AUAB alleged that salary disbursement is not being done on due date despite around 80,000 employees leaving the company by opting for the voluntary retirement scheme.

"PK Purwar...has now made it known that disbursement of salary to the employees is not his first priority," the circular said.

Email query sent to BSNL elicited no reply.

However, a senior official of BSNL said unions were angered by the instruction letter which denied leave without pay to employees participating in the protest and only 30-40 people participated in the protest.

The officer said earlier there was a lag of 4-5 months in salary disbursement due to the financial crisis at the company but it has been improved and salaries are now being disbursed every month.

AUAB said landline and broadband services are severely affected due to the cluster-based outsourcing system alleging that it was adamantly implemented by the BSNL CMD for which payments are also being made on time and also out of the way whereas all other labour payments have been stopped.

The union has alleged that the transmission system of the company is collapsing due to non-allotment of funds and proper attention despite repeated appeals made by AUAB.

AUAB alleged that the BSNL CMD has imposed an undeclared ban on promotion of the employees and thereby dooming their future.

It alleged that the workload has increased on BSNL employees after the VRS and alleged that the BSNL CMD is taking steps to further cut down the employee strength massively in the name of restructuring.

(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.)
US pharma giant joined hands with with Mumbai-based to market its insulin products in India.

The two announced a strategic partnership in India to enhance the reach of Lillys diabetes products  Humalog (Insulin Lispro) and Trulicity (Dulaglutide).

As part of this agreement, Lilly will transfer its rights in India to sell, promote and distribute the two Lilly diabetes products  Humalog and Trulicity to Cipla, subject to all regulatory approvals, Lilly said in a statement. stock was up marginally to Rs 987.6 apiece in morning trade on the BSE.

Lilly will continue to maintain its existing operating model for the remaining portfolio of products. will leverage its distribution network and doctor-connect through its sales force to expand the reach of Lillys insulins.

Luca Visini, managing director - Indian subcontinent, Lilly India, said, Developing strategic partnerships to adopt different operating models is key to enabling Lillys global efforts to make innovative medicines available to more people in India and around the world. Today, we are proud to be announcing our partnership with Cipla, which, pending full regulatory approvals, will hold the rights to sell, market, and distribute select Lilly Diabetes portfolio products. Cipla has a strong local footprint and is well established to expand access to those medicines around India.

Lilly has had similar tie-ups in India for its diabetes products earlier as well. For example, in 2018 it announced a tie-up with Lupin for its weekly diabetes injection Aplevant in the country.

Lilly is one of the Big Threein insulin play globally. Only three  Novo Nordisk, Sanofi, and  supply insulin to patients in the US. These three companies, commonly called the Big Three, control over 90 per cent of the global insulin market. The remaining share of the global insulin market is split among about seven manufacturers.

Vikas Gupta, head, India Prescription Business, Cipla Ltd, said, Diabetes continues to be our key focus and this deal further strengthens our steadfast commitment to address the unmet needs of diabetes patients through a comprehensive portfolio of offerings in this space.
State-owned Ltd supplied 117.6 million tonnes (MT) of coal to power utilities during July-September of the current fiscal, registering a growth of 12.3 per cent.

" Ltd (CIL) supplied 117.6 million tonnes to power utilities during July- September 2021 quarter, the highest for Q2 of any year, posting 12.3 per cent growth," the PSU said in a statement.

This is a volume jump of 13 MT compared to 104.7 MT in the same quarter last year.

The growth is even higher at 17.2 per cent when matched against 100.3 MT of COVID-free second quarter of FY'20.

CIL's total offtake shot up to 147.3 MT at the quarter ending September which is 9.7 per cent more against comparable quarter of last year when the offtake was 134.3 MT.

"The company is responsive to the importance of improving coal stocks at thermal power stations. We are rallying our efforts to restore normalcy as early as possible by pushing additional quantities. The demand is far outstripping the supplies now," CIL Director Marketing S N Tiwary said.

In fact, during the first half of this financial year CIL's offtake to at nearly 246 MT was highest ever for this period so far but the demand from this sector was even higher as an outcome of a sudden spike in coal-based generation to unprecedented levels.

There was an additional supply burden of around 10 MT to 12 MT on CIL to cater to domestic coal-based thermal power plants (TPPs) due to curtailment of power generation by plants which source their coal from overseas, where the prices have skyrocketed and holding firm.

Generally, CIL builds up coal inventories at power utilities during the first quarter but COVID posed an hindrance to this, and extra stocking was not possible.

Compounding to the woes, extended monsoon at coalfield areas interrupted production and supplies. Primarily, what precipitated the situation was the unforeseen escalation in the power generation from the second week of August and the insatiable appetite for coal, CIL said.

"Reasons aside, the company is fully seized of the imperative need to meet the power sector's demand. With the monsoon on the wane, increased production and availability of more coal is will help us stabilise stocks at power plants," the company said.

Despite heavy rainfall, CIL produced close to 126 MT of coal during the second quarter of the current fiscal, another record high for the second quarter, posting 9.6 per cent year-on-year growth. Last fiscal's second quarter output was 115 MT.

CIL managed to liquidate a whopping 57 MT of its pithead stock during the first six months of the current fiscal with bulk of it directed to power utilities. This is the highest ever stock reduction not only for any H1 but on yearly basis as well so far.

accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal output.

(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.)
Udaan, Indias largest business-to-business e-commerce platform, on Monday, announced the second edition of Mega Bharat Sale event for kirana shops and small across the country. This follows the success of the first edition of the sale held in August.

In view of the upcoming festive season, the Mega Bharat Sale will run from October 6 to October 12 on the Udaan platform. During the mega sale period, small and kirana shop owners from across the country will get an opportunity to get huge discounts across a wide selection of quality products with over 100 brands and over 5000 SKUs (stock-keeping units) from small and large fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands.

Udaans food business - comprises FMCG, staples, and fresh products. It offers over 20,000 products across grocery, beverages, cereals, pulses, spices, edible oils, home and personal care, fresh and dairy categories across major cities and towns.

In line with our commitment to provide the benefits of e-commerce scale to small of Bharat, we are bringing some of the best deals and offers for our retail partners this festive season, said Vivek Gupta, head, food and FMCG Business, Udaan.

During the Mega Bharat Sale, retailers will get an opportunity to buy and get huge discounts through various attractive rewards and benefits schemes on offer. These range from Big Discounts across all essential products, Every day special offers, Assured Instant Cash Discounts and special festive savings packs - on all food and FMCG products.

Udaan said this sale event will benefit lakhs of small retailers and kirana shop owners especially those from Tier 2, 3 cities and towns. The sale will also provide an opportunity to small manufacturers of Bharat listed on the Udaan platform to access and connect with millions of buyers across the country to sell their products. Additionally, the Udaan app has been enhanced and optimised to provide seamless experience with added benefits of in app surprise offers for retailers.

We have further scaled our operations and partnered with over 100 leading and emerging brands to provide transparent pricing, better selection, and variety at attractive price points to small retailers and kirana shop owners, said Gupta. We are confident that our flagship sale event will immensely benefit lacs of and small manufacturers across Bharat.

As an added benefit, emerging staple brands - Jayabhumi, Captain Harvest and Annabhumi which are exclusively available on the platform will also be on offer with attractive discounts. Additionally, retailers will also have the option of hassle-free ordering experience with next day delivery options. They would also be able to place multiple orders on a single day to stock fresh inventory without any additional cost.

Udaan competes with players such as Amazon, Flipkart, Reliances JioMart in the B2B e-commerce space. Our first edition of Mega Bharat Sale witnessed over 80 per cent participation from small retailers and on our platform, said Gupta of Udaan.

Udaan has invested more than Rs 4000 crore in the past 12-18 months across different pillars of business. These include technology, supply chain, category, credit, people, compliance - to accelerate and strengthen capabilities to serve its customers better. The company has also undertaken various initiatives to enhance overall customer experience by leveraging deep customer analytics as well as improving the speed of the app.

The firm has over 3 million registered users and 25-30,000 sellers on the platform. The platform caters to over 1.7 million retailers, chemists, kirana shops, HoReCa (hotel, restaurant, cafe) and farmers. The firm said it is doing over 4.5 million transactions per month, making it a leader in the B2B e-commerce business. The company operates one of the largest logistics and supply chain networks  through UdaanExpress - with over 200 warehouses spread over 10 million sq ft delivering to retailers in over 900 cities covering over 12000 pin codes across the country. To cater to the growing demand, Udaan plans to scale its warehouse capacity to over 50 million sq ft across the country in the next 7-8 years.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw on Monday said media reports on the 'Pandora Papers' leak have wrongly implicated her husband's offshore trust, and termed the organisation as "bonafide" and "legitimate".

The industry veteran noted that both she and her husband are law abiding citizens.

Anil Ambani, Vinod Adani, Jackie Shroff, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Niira Radia, Sachin Tendulkar and Satish Sharma are among the many Indians who figure in the 'Pandora Papers' that have uncovered financial assets of leaders across the world.

"Media stories reporting on Pandora Papers wrongly implicate my husband's offshore trust, which is a bonafide, legitimate trust and is managed by Independent Trustees. No Indian resident holds the key to the trust as alleged in these stories," Mazumdar-Shaw, the executive chairperson of biotechnology major Biocon, said in a tweet.

Later, in a regulatory filing, she elaborated on the offshore trusts.

"My husband, John Shaw is a UK national who from his foreign currency earnings set up an investment company, Glentec International in 1999 to acquire the shares that Unilever Plc. held in Biocon (long before it became a publicly listed company) and for various other investments in real estate and public markets," Mazumdar-Shaw stated.

Glentec is a registered entity in Mauritius disclosed to both RBI and SEBI, she added.

"When Biocon went public in 2004, Glentec's shareholding in Biocon was disclosed and this information continues to be in public domain. Glentec holds 19.76 per cent of Biocon Ltd as per latest disclosures to the stock exchanges," she noted.

She further stated Glentec is a bonafide offshore company (99 per cent owned by John Shaw) whose income from India largely consists of tax paid dividends received from Biocon Ltd.

John Shaw's tax returns filed in India report his shareholding and directorship in Glentec, she added.

Besides, Glentec is audited as per statutes and full disclosure of its dividend income from Indian is made, Mazumdar-Shaw said.

Commenting on Deanstone Trust, she noted that it was set up by Glentec in 2015 to enable philanthropic endowments and for the purpose of estate planning for both John Shaw and her family members.

"This is a bonafide offshore trust managed by Independent Trustees who are foreign nationals, not resident in India," she said, adding that Glentec is the sole settlor of the Deanstone Trust.

Mazumdar-Shaw further said: "Both John Shaw and I are neither trustees, nor settlors, nor beneficiaries of this trust. Beneficiaries of this trust, who are family members, are foreign nationals and not resident Indians."



Philanthropic beneficiaries of the trust are mainly academic institutions and contributions/ endowments made to them are all in the public domain, she stated.

"These are completely baseless accusations. Both John Shaw and I are law abiding citizens and have always been in compliance with all the applicable regulations," Mazumdar-Shaw added.

Millions of leaked documents dubbed as the 'Pandora Papers' by a worldwide journalistic partnership on October 3, claimed to have uncovered financial secrets of current and former world leaders, politicians and public officials in 91 countries and territories, including India.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which involved the BBC and 'The Guardian' newspaper in the UK and 'The Indian Express' in India among 150 media outlets in its investigation, claims it obtained the trove of more than 11.9 million confidential files to find secret financial dealings of many super rich.

The 'Pandora Papers' are a follow-up to a similar project released in 2016, called the 'Panama Papers' compiled by the same journalistic group.

(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.)
U.S. insurer MetLife Inc said on Monday it would increase the stake in its Indian joint venture, availing of the increased limit for foreign companies' investment into the country's industry announced earlier this year.

MetLife said it had entered into an agreement with IGE India and Elpro International to acquire their combined stake of 15.27% in India Company Limited.

The deal will boost MetLife's stake in to more than 47%.

Foreign institutional investors are now allowed to hold up to 74% of private in India compared with the earlier limit of 49%.

The relaxed limit, which was announced by Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech for 2021-22, is expected to attract inflows from U.S. and European

is a leading life insurance franchise in India with more than 200 million customers across 15,000 sales locations.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)

(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.)
Metlife International Holdings is looking to acquire the combined 15.27 per cent of IGE (India) Private Limited and Elpro International Limited in Metlife India Insurance company for a cash consideration of Rs 1,906 crore, subject to regulatory approvals.

Upon the completion of this transaction, Metlifes in PNM Metlife life insurance company will increase to 47.325 per cent, making it the largest shareholder in the private life insurer.

In a statement, Metlife International Holdings said it has entered a share purchase agreement with IGE (India) Private Limited and Elpro International Limited to acquire their total combined of 15.27 per cent in MetLife India Insurance Company.

The Dabriwala family, through their companies, IGE and Elpro, were one of the initial investors in MetLife. The tentative date of completion of the transaction is November 3o, 2021.

Other shareholders of PNB Metlife include Punjab National Bank Limited (PNB), M. Pallonji and Company Private Limited, Jammu & Kashmir Bank Limited (JKB), and other private investors, with Metlife International Holdings and PNB being the majority shareholders. PNB holds 30 per cent in the life insurance company.

Kishore Ponnavolu, Regional President, Metlife Asia said, MetLifes joint-venture in India has all of the hallmarks we look for in deploying capital to create long term shareholder value: a track record of consistent execution, an extensive distribution network, strong growth, and an advantaged position in one of the worlds most attractive life insurance markets.

This marks the first foreign partner increasing its stake in a joint venture insurance company in India post the government allowing 74 per cent foreign direct investment in the Indian insurance sector. In this years union budget, the government raised the FDI cap to 74 per cent from 49 per cent earlier and allowed foreign ownership and control with safeguards.

Although the government had allowed FDI of up to 49 per cent in the insurance sector, as of March 2020, foreign investment in life insurance firms was only 37.41 per cent. Only in nine private life insurers, the foreign investment was 49 per cent.

Insurance experts had envisaged that by allowing foreign ownership and control, foreign partners, who were so far not interested in increasing their stake from 26 per cent, may look to buy off their Indian partners.

Also, this marks the second merger and acquisition activity in the life insurance sector in the past month after HDFC Life acquired a 100 per cent stake in Exide Industries-promoted Exide Life Insurance for Rs 6,687 crore, in a bid to enhance its proprietary channel.

In FY21, PNB Met Life earned a total premium of Rs 6,033 crore, with Rs 1,996 crore as new business premiums. And, it had a solvency ratio of 190 per cent, against the regulatory requirement of 150 per cent.
After superseding the boards of Infrastructure Finance Limited (SIFL) and Equipment Finance Limited (SEFL) on Monday, the RBI has appointed a three-member Advisory Committee to assist the administrator of the two crisis-ridden firms.

The (RBI) superseded the board of directors of SIFL and SEFL and appointed Rajneesh Sharma, ex-chief general manager, Bank of Baroda, as the administrator.

"The Reserve Bank...has constituted a three-member Advisory Committee to assist the Administrator in discharge of his duties," the central bank said in a statement.

The members of the Advisory Committee are -- R Subramaniakumar (former MD and CEO, Indian Overseas Bank), T T Srinivasaraghavan (former managing director, Sundaram Finance Limited), and Farokh N Subedar (former chief operating officer and company secretary, Tata Sons Limited).

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy (Insolvency and Liquidation Proceedings of Financial Service Providers and Application to Adjudicating Authority) Rules, 2019 provide for the concerned financial sector regulator appointing a Committee of Advisors to advise the administrator in the operations of the financial service provider during the corporate insolvency resolution process.

group, which mainly caters to the MSME and infrastructure sectors, owes around Rs 18,000 crore to around 15 lenders, including Axis Bank, UCO Bank and State Bank of India, and another nearly Rs 10,000 crore of external commercial borrowings and bonds.

(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 (RBI) on Monday superseded the boards of Infrastructure Finance and Equipment Finance, which will be taken for insolvency proceedings owing to governance concern and payment defaults by them.

This is the second instance of the superseding a finance firms board. Earlier, it had taken such action in the case of mortgage lender DHFL, which is now after successful resolution under the wing of Piramal Enterprises.

According to estimates, banks have about a Rs 28,000-crore exposure to and bond holders another Rs 18,000 crore. Analysts expect a steep haircut as part of the resolution. A Srei spokesperson said the company was shocked at the decision and would pursue all legal options.

In a statement, the said it had appointed Rajneesh Sharma, former chief general manager of Bank of Baroda, administrator of the

It will initiate the process of resolution of the two non-banking financial under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Rules, 2019. It will also apply to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for appointing the administrator insolvency resolution professional.

The regulator has appointed a three-member advisory committee to advise the administrator. The members are R Subramaniakumar, former managing director and chief executive officer of Indian Overseas Bank; T T Srinivasaraghavan, former managing director of Sundaram Finance; and Farokh N Subedar, former chief operating officer of Tata Sons.

Subramaniakumar was administrator for the resolution of DHFL. The resolution spanned 18 months before Piramal took control in the last week of September. Appointing an advisory committee for the administrator during the corporate insolvency resolution process is allowed under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

A Srei spokesperson said banks were in control of an escrow account of Srei and they did not notify any default.

According to the spokesperson, Srei had submitted a proposal to pay the full amount to the banks under a scheme. However, the banks have neither accepted the scheme nor proposed a payment schedule acceptable to them, the spokesperson alleged.

Banks have been controlling the companys cash flow since November 2020, and about Rs 3,000 crore has been collected by them.

There has never been any delay in loan servicing by Srei in the past before Covid-19 ravaged the country. We are surprised because the NCLT order for all creditors is still in process. There is also an order for no coercive measures by the creditors and/or regulators, the Srei spokesperson said, adding, the group would take all necessary steps as advised by our lawyers.

According to a report by CNBC TV-18, a UCO-Bank led consortium of lenders had reached out to the RBI, seeking a DHFL-like resolution for Srei.





Apart from UCO, other banks with substantial exposures to Srei are State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Indian Bank, Punjab National Bank, Axis Bank, Canara Bank, and Union Bank of India.

There was a stay on banks from recognising the exposure to Srei Infrastructure and Srei Equipment as bad debt until a scheme of arrangement was signed by all creditors, including banks and bondholders. That stay was lifted in September, and now banks will earmark the exposure as bad debt.

Several banks may have done it in the September quarter, the CNBC TV-18 report suggested.

What next?

A senior banker said dragging a company to insolvency did not mean a resolution was imminent, or the promoters could not get back the company.

It is a potent tool in the hands of lenders now. Srei is no stranger to the NCLT either. It has used the platform many times to recover its dues, said the banker.

While the DHFL resolution took 18 months, the time needed for Srei should not be that long. The did a special audit a year ago, following which Srei had to make provisions for a stressed loan portfolio. The forensic audit is also underway and expected to be completed soon, said the head of risk management with a private bank.

Srei Equipment Finance, in particular, had some suitors. US-based Arena Investors LP had in June expressed an investment interest of Rs 2,000 crore, and Singapore-based Makara Capital had offered Rs 2,200 crore.
chairman had said in his communique to shareholders that even though the pandemic was a once-in-a-century crisis, he was confident of protecting business and reorganising operations in a manner beneficial to all stakeholders.

The message titled Riding out the Storm was part of the companys annual report for FY20-21. But on Monday, the hope appeared to be fading as the Reserve Bank of India superseded the boards of Srei Infrastructure Finance and Srei Equipment Finance. The apex bank said they will be taken for insolvency proceedings.

Srei said it was shocked by the move as banks have been regularly appropriating funds from the escrow account that they controlled since November 2020. It also said that it will take all necessary steps as advised by lawyers. But those in the know say that trouble at Srei had been brewing for a while now.



The head of corporate banking at a private bank said the company had been facing problems in business even prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. The implosion of IL&FS in 2018 led to a liquidity crisis in the financial sector for non-banking financial (NBFCs), including Srei. This hit business growth. In addition, problems in the infrastructure sector  road and power  led to stress on the books for Srei on delays in payments by clients, he said.

Srei had been moving away from infrastructure financing in the last 4-5 years. Disbursements by the equipment finance wing were also lower. This was in line with the managements strategy to slow down disbursements in its books and focus on the co-lending model, the banking executive said.

An initial public offering (IPO) for Srei Equipment was also shelved post-IL&FS crisis.

Instead, in July 2019, the boards of Srei Infra and Srei Equipment decided, for the purposes of consolidation of lending business, to transfer the lending business, interest earning business & lease business of Srei Infra together with associated employees, assets and liabilities, as a going concern, by way of slump exchange to Srei Equipment.

It had peeved lenders as all were not taken into confidence, said a source in the know of the matter.



chairman Hemant Kanoria

Then, the business got impacted in March and April of 2020 due to Covid-19 and what was a problem quickly turned into a crisis. This is because infrastructure projects came to a halt and projects of borrowers were stuck.

To provide respite from debt-servicing during the pandemic, the directed all lending institutions to offer a nine-month moratorium and recast debts of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and infrastructure players. However, sources said that led to cash flow shortages for Srei as no respite was provided to NBFCs. Thereafter, a series of events followed. Srei moved the National Company Law Tribunal with a scheme that proposed to pay full dues to all creditors in a structured manner. Some creditors accepted it, while others, including bankers, did not.

Sources said that after the scheme was filed, banks took control of the companys cash flows. Salaries were capped and between December 2020 and earlier this year more than 200 employees had left.

Then the conducted an audit and flagged more than Rs 8,000 crore of probable related-party lending by the Srei group.

In April this year, Srei appointed KPMG Assurance and Consulting Services LLP and DMKH & Co, chartered accountants, to conduct a forensic audit as part of its proposed debt realignment. For this, it had been in discussions with lenders. Sreis consolidated borrowings at the end of September 30, 2020, was at Rs 30,000 crore.

Srei was also in talks with private equity players for raising equity capital. Srei Equipment Finance had received expressions of interest from 11 global investors, and subsequently, received non-binding term sheets from Arena Investors LP and Makara Capital Partners.

But the RBI move on Monday put a question mark on all such proposals.
As much as 46 per cent of the respondents in India are looking to in October-December, even as only six per cent of them have made bookings, indicating that most of them may look either for last-minute deals or opt for a road journey, as per a survey.

The survey, conducted by the online platform LocalCircles, also revealed that the festive season (October-December) is likely to see a 60 per cent jump in citizens travelling as compared to the monsoon season (August-September).

About 34 per cent of respondents said they are planning to visit family and friends in October-December.

Some major festivals in India fall during the October-December period of the year.

It can be mentioned that many families had to cancel their summer plans amid the drastic surge of the second wave of the pandemic that reached its peak in mid-May, the survey said.

As the country started unlocking the economy after the outbreak, LocalCircles said, a study conducted by it found out that 28 per cent of respondents had made plans to during August and September.

LocalCircles has conducted another survey to understand the travel plans of people from October to December. The survey also tried to understand how domestic travel is picking up through a comparative analysis with a similar survey conducted in July this year, the platform said in a release.

The survey received more than 19,000 responses from citizens, comprising 64 per cent males and 36 per cent females, from across 331 districts -- a mix of Tier-1, Tier-2, Tier-3 as well as Tier-4 cities.

All the respondents were validated citizens, who had to be registered with LocalCircles to participate in this survey, the release said.

The central government has eased most of the travel restrictions after the COVID-19 second wave, barring international travel. Most of the state governments have also eased travel restrictions completely, with a few still demanding that travellers produce RT-PCR test reports if not double dose vaccinated, according to LocalCircles.

The rise in travel during the festive season is also likely to boost the sector, which recorded a revenue per available room (RevPAR) of Rs 1,582 during FY21, the lowest in the last 22 years, the release said quoting a report by Hotelivate.

According to the survey, there were also 38 per cent of citizens who have no plans to travel during these three months, and 16 per cent are undecided or couldn't say.

On an aggregate basis, 46 per cent of citizens are planning to travel during October to December though only 6 per cent have made their bookings, LocalCircles said, adding that the travel includes all modes of transport -- road, rail and air.

A similar survey conducted in July found that only 28 per cent of citizens planned to travel during August and September, it said.

When the responses given by citizens are aggregated on the basis of type as some plan to undertake multiple types of travel, it was found out that 34 per cent plan to visit family and friends, 28 per cent to visit a holiday destination, and 23 per cent other kinds of travel, according to LocalCircles.

In summary, 48 per cent of citizens plan to travel during October-December though only 6 per cent have made their bookings. This indicates that airlines, hotels, travel portals are likely to see strong demand as the festive season progresses.

Of those who plan to travel in October-December, 34 per cent plan to visit family and friends. A comparative analysis of the latest survey with a survey published in July found that October-December is likely to see 60 per cent jump in citizens travelling as compared to Monsoon Season (August-September), the platform 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.)
Ahead of by-polls, Congress leader on Sunday met former Chief Minister Mukul Sangma and Lok Sabha MP Vincent H Pala.

All Indian Congress Committee in-charge for Manish Chatrath and former Union Minister and General Secretary in-charge of Organisation KC Venugopal were also present in the meeting.

"Shri met INC President Shri Vincent Pala, CLP Leader Shri Mukul Sangma, in charge Shri Manish Chatrathalong with General Secretary I/C Organisation Shri K C Venugopal," tweeted Congress on Sunday.

Earlier on September 28, the Election Commission of India announced by-polls for three parliamentary and 30 assembly seats across 15 states and Union territories (UTs) in the country including Mawryngkneng (ST), Mawphlang (ST), and Rajabala in Meghalaya.

(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.)
Colleges and other higher education institutions in Kerala on Monday welcomed students to campuses after a gap of one-and-a-half years, with COVID-19 protocol in place.

Classes for the final year degree and postgraduate students began today while rest of the classes are slated to begin from October 18.

Strictly adhering to COVID-19 health protocol, students were checked for their temperature and given hand sanitisers at the entrance of the colleges.

Authorities ensured that students who reached colleges had received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine.

Higher Education Minister R Bindu visited the Government College for Women at Vazhuthacaud in Thiruvananthapuram to interact with students.

"We have sanitised all the classrooms with the help of voluntary organisations and student and youth organisations," she told the media.

The minister said in colleges where classrooms are small, steps are being taken to divide the students into two batches and conduct classes accordingly.

When asked about the continuation of online classes, Bindu said "we cannot stop the online classes in today's scenario". She said society was slowly moving into a "blended mode" of education.

"Direct classes have their own advantages. Online classes lack proper interaction from students and teachers may not be able to get proper feedback from the students. But we cannot avoid or keep away from digital education. It's becoming the new normal," she added.

The minister said the government will arrange counselling for students in colleges to create awareness about gender justice and equality.

"When a girl says 'No', one must have the mental maturity to accept it. Our boys must be able to attain that level of mental maturity," she said referring to the recent murder of a 21-year-old girl by her estranged boyfriend at Pala.

It was a mixed bag of feelings for students and teachers on their first day of college after a long gap.

The fact is that more than regular classes, there will be a series of examinations in the days to come as there is a huge backlog to be cleared prior to the commencement of the next semester.

The third, fourth and fifth semester examinations of UG classes have to be conducted prior to commencing the sixth semester of all UG classes.

College authorities are busy with the UG admission process and gearing up to receive the first and the second-year students from October 18. University authorities are neck deep in scheduling the pending examinations.

No matter the backlog of examinations, the students are happy to be back on the campus.

"The classes are on and we are back in action. But, there are long pending exams. It will be an examination spree from this month end as we need to finish the third, fourth and fifth semester examination before commencing the sixth semester classes," Sr. Sheeba Andrews, Vice Principal of Providence Women's College, Kozhikode told PTI.

Alka, a fifth semester B A Psychology student of the college, said she and her friends were thrilled and excited to meet each other again in the college.

The offline classes in St Josephs' college, Devagiri, at Kozhikode will resume only tomorrow as an examination, which was earlier postponed, was held in the campus on Monday.

The final year degree students of the college are anxiously awaiting their junior batches, who will make it to the college from October 18.

"We have not met our juniors. The mask and COVID protocols will limit the scope of interactions. However, we are thrilled to get back to our campus," Harsha and Parvathy, fifth semester B Com students of the college, said.

A few were of the opinion that the reopening of colleges would be a testing time for them as they used to enjoy the freedom of attending online classes in a relaxed mood at home.

(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 advisory committee endorsed extra shots of Inc.s Covid-19 vaccine for all adults, as well as extra doses of Moderna Inc.s for those with severely weakened immune systems.



Those ages 18 and older can get a third dose of the vaccine, developed with BioNTech SE, at least six months after their second shot, the European Medicines Agency said in a statement Monday. For the immunocompromised, extra doses of or Moderna can be given at least 28 days after the second.

The recommendation on the Pfizer shot is slightly broader than in the U.S., where its been recommended for those ages 65 or older, those in long-term health-care facilities and those ages 50 to 64 with underlying medical conditions.

Studies showed that an extra dose of these vaccines increased the ability to produce antibodies against the virus that causes Covid-19 in organ transplant patients with weakened immune systems, the EMA said. It is expected that the extra dose would increase protection at least in some patients.

The EMA committee is following the U.S. and other countries with ample vaccine supplies in allocating doses or considering the move for booster shots. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration may soon authorize half-dose boosters of the Moderna vaccine, setting the stage to further widen the U.S. booster campaign after earlier authorization of the extra Pfizer-BioNTech dose.

Shares of companies that make and are developing Covid-19 vaccines declined on Monday following the release of positive trial data for Merck & Co.s antiviral pill against the disease. Moderna slid as much as 11%, while Pfizer fell as much as 1.7% in New York.

Questioning Boosters



Some experts have questioned the need for the broad use of boosters, while the World Health Organization has called for a moratorium on them this year, until more people outside of rich countries get protection. An all-star panel of scientists weighed in last month, saying the initial shots work so well that most people dont yet require a third injection.

Governments would be better served to focus on immunizing the unvaccinated and to wait for more data on which boosters would be most effective and at what doses, the authors, who included two prominent FDA experts, argued in the medical journal The Lancet. They based their assessment on a wide range of real-world observational studies as well as data from clinical trials.

In the EU, public health bodies at the national level may issue official recommendations on the use of booster doses, taking into account emerging effectiveness data and the limited safety data, the EMA said in the statement.

The risk of inflammatory heart conditions or other very rare side effects after a booster is not known and is being carefully monitored, it said.
The Monday said it would examine if organisations or individuals who have moved Constitutional court challenging the validity of a legislation are permitted to hold protest on the same issue when the matter is sub judice.

While hearing a plea filed by a farmers' body which is protesting against the three new farm laws and is seeking directions to authorities to allow it to stage satyagrah' at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, the apex court asked what are they protesting for when it has already stayed these legislations. A Bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and C T Ravikumar also asked the organisation, which has already challenged the validity of the three laws before the Rajasthan High Court, why they want to hold protest when they are not in force at all.

You want to go for protest. Protest on what? There is no Act in place at the moment. It is stayed by this court. The government has assured that they will not give effect to it, then protest for what, the court observed.

The Bench asked Attorney General K K Venugopal that once a party has approached the court challenging the validity of the Act, then where is the question of going for protest.

They can't ride two horses at the same time, said Venugopal and also referred to the unfortunate incident at Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday in which eight people were killed in the violence that erupted during a farmers' protest.

The Bench said when such incidents happen, nobody takes the responsibility.

When the top law officer contended that the protest should stop, the Bench said nobody takes the responsibility when there is damage to property and physical damage is caused.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A day after a violent clash in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri left four farmers dead, leader on Monday said farmers will win this fight for justice.

On Priyanka Gandhi Vadra being allegedly stopped from meeting victims of the violence in Uttar Pradesh, the former chief said those in power fear her courage.

general secretary Priyanka Gandhi and other party leaders were detained in Sitapur on Monday, with the party alleging they were not allowed to meet the victims of the violence.

"Priyanka, I know that you will not retreat. They fear your courage. We will ensure that the country's 'annadatas' win this non-violent fight for justice," he said in a tweet in Hindi, using the hashtag "NoFear", he said.

Priyanka Gandhi also alleged that the BJP is doing the politics of crushing the farmers in the country.

"The BJP government is doing the politics of crushing the farmers and finishing them," she said on Twitter.

She also put out a video message alleging that this country belongs to the farmers and not to the BJP. She said she was going to Lakhimpur to share the pain of the farmers injured in the violent clashes and it was no crime or wrongdoing.

(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 5th Annual Co-ordination meeting between Director General, Sashastra Seema Bal and 'Nepal's Armed Police Force (APF) Inspector General will be held from October 5 to 7, 2021 here in New Delhi.

The 12-member SSB delegation will be led by DG Kumar Rajesh Chandra while the nine-member Nepalese side will be headed by the APF's IG Shailendra Khanal.

During the three days talk, both forces will hold discussions on border related issues and to enable better coordination between the both Border Guarding Forces.

The meeting will focus on addressing and streamlining mechanisms on how to jointly curb trans-border crimes and timely sharing of information by both sides. "The DG level talks are being held to discuss border-related issues and to enable better coordination between both Border Guarding Forces. The meeting will focus on addressing and streamlining mechanisms on how to jointly curb trans-border crimes and timely sharing of information by both the border guarding forces," the SSB said here in a statement.

ADG, SSB and IG APF have been holding Co-ordination meetings every year since 2012 alternatively in India and Nepal.

Both the border guarding forces will place emphasis on the issues, addressing and streamlining mechanisms on how to jointly curb trans-border crimes and timely sharing information, an official in the SSB said.

The official also said that several important matters like the security situation along the border, coordination meetings at field level, sharing of information about crimes and criminals, training of armed police personnel and mutual visits by officers of two countries are on the agenda and that will be discussed in detail.

India and Nepal not only share the boundary but also share the cultural relations with each other on trade, economic partnership and people to people contact. The matrimonial alliances between the people living on the border have been very common for a long time.

--IANS

ams/skp/

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Against the backdrop of Australian decision to scrap a USD 90 billion deal with France to build conventional diesel-electric submarines and opt for building nuclear boats only, a senior government official on Monday said the will operate a mix of both nuclear and conventional submarines to deal with the threats around the country.

"For Australia, the threat is more in the open oceans and the areas around that area. The decision to scrap a conventional deal makes sense for them. While for us, the need is to tackle threats both near our coastal areas as well as open seas. That is why the would build a fleet which would include both nuclear as well as conventional submarines," a senior government official told ANI.

The official was commenting on the ongoing debate on whether India and other navies should follow suit and go for building only nuclear submarines as they are more capable and stealthier than conventional submarines.

Notably, after scrapping the deal, Australia has joined hands with the Americans who would now help Canberra build nuclear attack submarines to tackle the main threat from the Chinese Navy.

For a country like India, having a mix of both types of submarines makes more sense economically as well as the cost of operating and building nuclear attack submarines is more than double of building conventional diesel-electric submarines, according to the official.

As far as the economics of the project goes, the entire project to build six nuclear submarines under the Kalvari class (Scorpene) boats for India would come around Rs 25,000 crore on completion whereas the proposal to build the first three nuclear attack submarines to be built by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) at its Building Centre would cost more than Rs 50,000 crore, said the senior official.

Even though the cost difference between the nuclear and conventional submarines is substantial, the nuclear boats provide a huge capability to the navies as the boats can stay underwater for months without the need to come out on the surface at regular intervals as is required by conventional boats to charge their batteries.

has plans of operating 24 new submarines of which six are of the Kalvari class, six would be built under Project 75 India whose tender has been issued and a proposal for building six nuclear submarines is pending with the Cabinet Committee on Security.

The decision on the last batch of six submarines under the plan would be taken at a later stage, the sources said.

At present, India has a fleet of Russian-origin Kilo Class, German-origin HDWs and an indigenous ballistic nuclear in the form of 'INS Arihant'. Five nuclear submarines were re-planned to be built under the Arihant Class project which is separate from the 24 submarine programme.

Across the world, major navies like the American, French, British and now Australian have switched over to nuclear submarine fleet only but the Chinese and Russian Navy operate a mix of both nuclear and conventional submarines, the official said.

India has been leasing nuclear attack submarines from Russia for the last three decades and is in the process of leasing another one soon from there.

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Senior Congress leader on Monday demanded the setting up of a judicial inquiry headed by a sitting judge to probe the Lakhimpur Kheri violence.

Speaking to ANI, Sibal said, "As a citizen, I think there should a judicial inquiry by a sitting judge. Before that, the Union Minister must be dismissed or suspended at least during the inquiry as the incident took place with respect to his convoy."

He also said that the inquiry should not be conducted by their own people who will defend these inquiries.

Reacting to the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, Sibal said, "This is the symbol of the arrogance of political party that is power. The ruling party is giving a message that they can do whatever they want and even run a car over those who are protesting."

He also said that the Prime Minister is elected from and the home minister is responsible for the state of the affairs in the country.

"None of them has spoken and they will not speak because their intention is to send a message to the public that if you protest against us, we will run over you," Sibal alleged.

He also raised the concern about the treatment that Congress leaders received in Lakhimpur Kheri. Sibal said, "See the way they have treated Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Deepender Hooda. They have the right to go there. I congratulate them for the step, but the way they are being treated shows the symbol of arrogance."

As many as eight people died in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident on Sunday.

Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of several farmer unions, alleged that Ashish Mishra Teni, son of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni arrived with three vehicles around the time that farmers were dispersing from their protest at the helipad and mowed down farmers and towards the end also attacked SKM leader Tajinder Singh Virk directly, by trying to run a vehicle over him.

However, Ashish Mishra refuted SKM's allegations and said he was not present at the spot where the incident took place.

MoS Teni also said that his son was not present at the spot, adding that some miscreants mingled with protesting farmers and pelted the stones at the car which lead to the 'unfortunate incident'.

(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.)
Congress general secretary Vadra and other party leaders were detained in Sitapur on Monday, with the party alleging they were not allowed to meet the victims of the violence that erupted during a farmers' protest in Lakhimpur Kheri a day earlier.

Stopping them in such a way is "undemocratic", Congress state President Ajay Kumar Lallu told PTI.

Eight people were killed on Sunday as violence erupted during a farmers' protest, claiming the lives of both farmers and BJP workers ahead of a visit to Lakhimpur by Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

"Priyanka Gandhi, Deepender Singh Hooda and other leaders were detained in Sitapur around 5 am," Lallu said.

The Congress leaders had to take alternative routes to reach the bordering Hargaon area in Sitapur as heavy security was deployed on the main roads amid tension in the violence-hit region of Lakhimpur.

"We are waiting outside Lakhimpur Kheri. We have been prevented by the police from entering. We have come here to meet the victims of the violence," Congress secretary Dheeraj Gurjar told PTI over the phone at 4.30 am.

Gandhi's convoy was earlier briefly stopped by Police officials in Lucknow, where the Congress general secretary had arrived on Sunday night, within a few hours of violence being reported during an anti-farm laws protest here.

Demanding a judicial probe in the violence, BSP supremo Mayawati said her party's general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra was stopped in Lucknow to prevent him from reaching Lakhimpur.

"BSP's general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP S C Mishra was placed under house arrest late last night at his residence in Lucknow. It is continuing so that the party delegation under his leadership cannot reach Lakhimpur Kheri to get the correct report of the violence. This is very sad and deplorable," Mayawati said in a tweet in Hindi.

"Due to the involvement of two BJP ministers in the Kheri case, a proper government investigation of this incident, justice to the victims and strict punishment to the guilty does not seem possible. Therefore, this incident in which eight people have been confirmed dead so far requires a judicial inquiry. This is the demand of the BSP," she said.

Meanwhile, security has been beefed up outside the residence of Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav, who had announced that he would visit Lakhimpur.

A large police force has been deployed on Vikramaditya Marg, and police trucks have been placed to block the entire road and restrict any possible movement.

Mobile internet services have been suspended in parts of the violence-hit Lakhimpur district, where restrictions under CrPC section 144 -- which prohibits assembly of four or more people -- has also been imposed, according to officials.

The UP Police took to Twitter early Monday to describe the incident as "unfortunate" and said eight casualties have been reported so far as per the district administration.

"ADG LO, ACS Agriculture, IG Range & Commissioner are on the spot & situation is under control. Adequate deployment has been done to prevent any untoward incident," it 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.)
has urged Lucknow airport not to allow Chhattisgarh Chief Minister and Punjab Deputy CM Sukhjinder S Randhawa to land at the airport ahead of their scheduled visit to Lakhimpur Kheri today.

Awanish Awasthi, Additional Chief Secretary, Home Department, in a letter to Lucknow airport authorities, said that the District Magistrate of Lakhimpuri Kehri has imposed section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which prohibits assembly of five or more people at a time, and requested them not to allow the arrival of Baghel and Randhawa.

Meanwhile, Baghel questioned the order and asked if civil rights have been suspended in Uttar Pradesh.

"The government of Uttar Pradesh is issuing an order not to allow me to come to the state. Have civil rights been suspended in Uttar Pradesh? If Section 144 is in Lakhimpur, then why is the dictatorial government stopping you from landing in Lucknow?" Baghel tweeted.

Several Opposition leaders from various parties including Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav are also scheduled to visit Lakhimpur Kheri today.

Baghel alleged that Priyanka Gandhi, who was on her way to Uttar Pradesh Lakhimpur Kheri district to visit the kin of the victims, has been arrested from Hargaon.

"AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has been arrested in Sitapur on his way to Lakhimpur. Deepender Hooda is also with him. After the killing of the farmers, now the democratic rights of the people are also being snatched away," he tweeted.

Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of several farmer unions, alleged that Ashish Mishra Teni, son of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni arrived with three vehicles around the time that farmers were dispersing from their protest at the helipad and mowed down farmers and towards the end also attacked SKM leader Tajinder Singh Virk directly, by trying to run a vehicle over him.

However, Ashish Mishra refuted SKM's allegations and said he was not present at the spot where the incident took place.

"...Some unruly elements attacked our workers, killed 4-5 of them. I was in Banbirpur from 9 am till the end...I have not been at the (incident) spot for two days...It could be that they don't like me and using politics... Allegations against me are completely baseless and I demand judicial inquiry of this matter and culprits should get punished," he said.As many as eight people died in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident on Sunday, said Uttar Pradesh police.MoS Teni also said that his son was not present at the spot, adding that some miscreants mingled with protesting farmers and pelted the stones at the car which lead to the 'unfortunate incident'.

(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.)
leader Vadra, who was on her way to Lakhimpur Kheri district to visit the kin of the victims there, has been detained from Hargaon on Monday, claimed the party's youth wing president Srinivas BV claimed.

reached the Lucknow airport yesterday evening following the incident and was stopped by the police several times on her way to Lakhimpur Kheri.

Srinivas, in his tweet in Hindi, said, "Finally that happened, what was expected from BJP. In the democratic country of 'Mahatma Gandhi', the worshipers of 'Godse' have arrested our leader @priyankagandhi Ji who fought with heavy rains and police force to meet the 'Annadata', from Hargaon. This is just the beginning of the fight!! Kisan Ekta Zindabad".

In a video that he shared along with the tweet, Srinivas has called on all supports to reach the Sitapur police line.

Following several instances of being stopped on her way to Lakhimpur, had lashed out at the BJP-led government and said, "I'm not committing any crime by deciding to meet victim's kin...Why are you stopping us? You should have a warrant...?"

As many as eight people died in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident on Sunday, said police. "Four farmers and four others have died (in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident). Probe underway. It's an unfortunate incident, should not be politicized," Lakhimpur Kheri District Magistrate Arvind Kumar Chaurasiya told reporters.

Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) issued a statement regarding the incident claiming the death of four farmers and alleged that one of the four farmers was shot dead by Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni's son, while the others have been allegedly run over by the vehicles of his convoy.

Meanwhile, refuting SKM's allegations, MoS Teni said that his son was not present at the spot, adding that some miscreants merged with protesting farmers and pelted the stones on the car which lead to the 'unfortunate incident'.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Senior Indian Legal Service officer Reeta Vasishta has been appointed as the new legislative secretary in the

Vasishta was so far an additional secretary in the Legislative Department of the ministry and she assumed her new responsibility on Monday.

The post of legislative secretary was lying vacant since early May following the death of G Narayan Raju due to COVID-19.

Following Raju's demise, Law Secretary Anup Mendiratta was holding the additional charge of the legislative department.

Considered the top draftsperson of the government, the legislative secretary is responsible for drafting and clearing key legislative proposals before they are introduced in Parliament.

"Hearty congratulations to Dr Reeta Vasishta on being appointed as Secretary, Legislative Department, Ministry of Law & Justice, Govt of India. My best wishes to her, and looking forward to work together as a team," Law Minister tweeted.

(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 Monday said it would examine if organisations or individuals who have moved Constitutional court challenging the validity of a legislation are permitted to hold protest on the same issue when the matter is sub-judice.

While hearing a plea filed by a farmers' body which is protesting against the three new farm laws and is seeking directions to authorities to allow it to stage satyagrah' at Jantar Mantar here, the apex court asked what are they protesting for when it has already stayed these legislations.

A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and C T Ravikumar also asked the organisation, which has already challenged the validity of the three laws before the Rajasthan High Court, why they want to hold protest when they are not in force at all.

You want to go for protest. Protest on what? There is no Act in place at the moment. It is stayed by this court. The government has assured that they will not give effect to it, then protest for what, the court observed.

The bench asked Attorney General K K Venugopal that once a party has approached the court challenging the validity of the Act, then where is the question of going for protest.

They can't ride two horses at the same time, said Venugopal and also referred to the unfortunate incident at Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday in which eight people were killed in the violence that erupted during a farmers' protest.

The bench said when such incidents happen, nobody takes the responsibility.

When the top law officer contended that the protest should stop, the bench said nobody takes the responsibility when there is damage to property and physical damage is caused.

Venugopal said the government has made it very clear they are not going to withdraw these three laws and therefore, the option for the petitioner is to take forward their challenge to these legislations.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said once the matter is before the highest Constitutional court, nobody can be on the streets on the same issue.

Advocate Ajay Choudhary, appearing for petitioner Kisan Mahapanchayat' and its president, told the bench that they have filed an affidavit in the court and stated that petitioner is neither a part of protestors who have been stopped by police at any highway nor involved in any activity causing blockage on roads.

After hearing counsel for the concerned parties and the Attorney General for India, we deem it appropriate to examine the principal issue as to whether the right to protest is an absolute right and more so, the writ petitioner, having already invoked the legal remedy before the Constitutional court by filing writ petition, should be permitted or can assert that he can still resort to protest with regard to the same subject matter which is already sub-judice, the bench said.

It said the plea, which was filed by the petitioner challenging the validity of these laws and is pending before the Rajasthan High Court, be transferred to the apex court so that it can be heard together along with this matter.

We direct the registry to immediately take steps to summon the record of stated writ petition from the Rajasthan High Court and to register it as a transferred case for being heard along with the present writ petition on the next date, scheduled on October 21, the bench said.

The bench said that respondents in both the petitions can file their response, if any, and it would be open to the Centre to file a consolidated reply in both the matters.

During the hearing, the bench observed that it would like to know when the petitioner has already challenged the laws before the high court, why should it be permitted to protest.

It said no one else, other than the court, can adjudicate on validity of law.

Choudhary said that protest by the petitioner is not limited only to enactment and their agitation is also on the issue of minimum support price.

What is the point of protesting at Jantar Mantar? the bench asked.

To this, Choudhary said, Because the Union of India has enacted these laws.

So, you have come back to the law and when you have challenged the law, why should you be permitted to protest. It cannot be together. You have challenged it and you go on protest outside. You choose one option, either you choose the court or go to the road, the bench observed.

Venugopal said a large number of other petitions have also been filed in the apex court where these three laws have been challenged.

He said as the apex court would hear the matter related to challenge to these laws, the petitioner should not continue with the protest.

The petitioner's counsel said the protest is necessary to persuade the government to recall these laws.

Government is also bound by the solemn legislative decision. Is it not? The law is enacted by parliament, not the government, the bench observed.

While hearing the matter on October 1, the top court had told the petitioner, You have strangulated the entire city and now you want to come inside and start protest here again.

Several farmer organisations are protesting against the passage of three laws -- The Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 and (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020.

Initially, the protests started from Punjab in November last year and later spread mainly to Delhi, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Chief Minister M K has written to his counterparts in 11 non-BJP ruled states and Goa, seeking their support to oppose the Eligibility cum Entrance Test and restore "the primacy of states" in education, the government said on Monday.

Also, has deputed his party MPs to reach out to the heads of such states to drum up support.

In a letter to his counterparts, the Chief Minister reiterated his government's opposition to

"Our considered position has always been that the move by the union government to introduce goes against the spirit of federalism and violates the constitutional balance of power by curbing the rights of the state governments to decide on the method of admission in the medical institutions founded, established and run by them," he said.

The state governments need to assert their constitutional right and position in deciding the method of admission to their higher educational institutions, urged in a letter dated October 1, made available to the media on Monday.

The CM enclosed a copy of the Justice A K Rajan Committee report based on which a Bill was passed in the Assembly last month to dispense with and provide for admission to medical courses based on Class XII marks to ensure social justice. Also, a copy of that Bill, passed on September 13, was attached.

Stalin requested them to peruse the attached documents and extend their support to ensure that the students in the respective states, hailing from rural areas and marginalised sections of the society are not put to hardship in obtaining admissions to higher educational institutions.

"We need to put up a united effort to restore the primacy of state governments in administering the education sector, as envisaged in our Constitution. I look forward to your cooperation in this crucial issue."



Stalin wrote to the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Jharkhand, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, West Bengal and Goa.

The Justice Rajan panel, constituted by the government to ascertain the impact of NEET in the state, had submitted its 165-page report in July.

The Bill, quoting the panel report, had said if NEET continued for a few more years, the health care system of would be very badly affected and there may not be enough doctors for postings in Primary Health Centres or state-run hospitals and that the rural and urban poor may not be able to join the medical courses.

The committee had concluded that the NEET is not a fair or equitable method of admission since it favours the rich and elite section of the society and is against the disadvantaged groups.

The panel had recommended that "the state government may undertake immediate steps to eliminate NEET from being used in admission to medical programmes at all levels by following the required legal and or legislative procedures.

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Britain's so-called "simplified" international travel system that scraps an amber list of medium COVID-19 risk countries took effect on Monday, but it offers no benefits for vaccinated Indians travelling to the

The angered India by not recognising fully vaccinated Indian travellers as part of the new rules announced last month, despite India-made Covishield among its listed globally eligible vaccine formulations.

India, in retaliation, imposed its reciprocal measures on all British travellers irrespective of vaccination status requiring the same level of PCR tests and 10-day quarantine at declared destination, also effective from Monday.

"We continue to work with international partners, including India, to roll out our phased approach," a government spokesperson said.

The UK's new system covers over 50 countries, including the US and European Union (EU) member-nation plus 18 others such as Canada, Japan and the UAE. Travellers from these countries can now travel to England without needing to complete a pre-departure test, a day 8 test or enter a 10-day self-isolation period. They require just a single PCR test on the second day after arrival in the UK.

"This builds on the UK government's successful pilot phase with Europe and the US, and brings the total number of countries in scope of the policy to over 50, with more countries and territories being added in the coming weeks, the Department for Transport said.

India not being on the list of eligible countries means travellers are required to undertake all three tests pre-departure, day 2 and day 8 and self-isolate at a declared address, with the option of "test to release" from isolation after a negative PCR test on day 5. This effectively remains unchanged from India's amber list status already in place.

Travellers from countries on the red list, around 54 in all, continue to be required to undertake a mandatory 10-day quarantine at a government-designated hotel, a requirement the UK government is said to be considering scrapping for a majority on the red list later this month.

From the middle of this month, the British government also plans to replace PCR tests with a cheaper lateral flow test for vaccinated arrivals. However, the timeframe and details of this change remain unclear.

Meanwhile, UK government sources said over the weekend that the extension of vaccine certification to additional countries will be reviewed approximately every three weeks and that it continues to engage with the Indian government on the issue.

"The UK is continuing to work on expanding the policy to countries and territories across the globe in a phased approach. We are continuing to engage with the government of India on technical cooperation to expand UK recognition of vaccine certification to people vaccinated by a relevant public health body in India, sources said.

"We are working with an array of international partners and look forward to continuing the expansion of the policy to countries and territories across the globe in a phased approach. Extension of vaccine certification will be reviewed approximately every three weeks, they added.

The first three-week review mark since the UK's updated travel norms were first announced falls later this week.

"We are accelerating towards a future where travel continues to reopen safely and remains open for good, and today's rule changes are good news for families, businesses and the travel sector, UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said on Monday.

"Our priority remains to protect public health but, with more than 8 in 10 people now fully vaccinated, we are able to take these steps to lower the cost of testing and help the sector to continue in its recovery, he said.

All arrivals into the UK, from any country, continue to be required to fill in a passenger locator form ahead of travel.

Meanwhile, the UK's travel industry has welcomed the government's latest move on easing testing and quarantine restrictions.

Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, which represents UK carriers, said: "Things are moving in the right direction and the removal of these restrictions will make it easier and cheaper for people to travel."



However, he said the UK remained "an outlier on arrivals testing for vaccinated passengers".

Airlines UK hopes to see more countries removed from the red list at the next update and further mutual recognition of vaccine status for those jabbed in other countries, he was quoted as saying by the BBC.

Willie Walsh, head of industry body the International Air Transport Association, welcomed the change as a "positive step", saying the government's testing and quarantine restrictions had been both unscientific and costly.

"People have been led to believe that the risk is people flying into the country. The risk was inside the country," he said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Digital Editor
The Calcutta high court has set aside the authority's order cancelling the registration of a company on the ground that the firm was not operating from the registered place at the time of investigation due to Covid-19.

The court directed the tax authorities to grant a hearing opportunity to the petitioner, International Value Retail Pvt Ltd, to place all relevant documents and evidence in support of its submissions and pass a reasoned order within four weeks.

The company had filed the petition following rejection of its application for revocation of registration.

The company said its application was rejected by ignoring the relevant materials which established that at the time of inspection, the assessee was following a work-from-home (WFH) model due to the nationwide pandemic and therefore was temporarily unavailable at its registered place of business.

Rajat Mohan, senior partner AMRG & Associates, said in the digital age, businesses must be permitted to function on "WFH" basis and cancellation of registration on such grounds will stall the growth of the Indian industry.

"The Board (The Central Board of Indirect taxes and Customs) must come out with an austere circular, mandating the tax officers not to cancel the registration of any taxpayer during the pandemic period otherwise than on charges of tax evasion," he said.
The government on Monday announced imposing export curbs on syringes with immediate effect, a move aimed at discouraging outbound shipments of the product in view of the present Covid-19 pandemic situation.

The directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT) in a notification said it has moved syringes export in the restricted category, under which an exporter has to seek a licence or government permission for the shipments.

"The export of syringes with or without needles...has been put under the restricted category with immediate effect," it said.

In 2020-21, the export of syringes stood at USD 45.68 million. It was USD 17.37 million during April-July this fiscal.

The procedure for submission and approval of application for export of syringes will be notified separately, the DGFT said.

In a separate public notice, the DGFT said the quantity of 5,841 tonnes of sugar (raw and/or white sugar) to be exported to the European Union (EU) under TRQ scheme from October 1, to September 30, 2022 has been notified.

TRQ (Tariff-Rate Quota) is for a volume of that enter the UK at relatively low tariffs. After the quota is reached, a higher tariff applies to the

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister will virtually address a programme to be attended by the beneficiaries of a central scheme on establishing land ownership in rural areas in Harda district of Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday, state minister Kamal Patel said on Monday.

The Pradhan Mantri Swamitva Yojna is a scheme towards establishment of clear ownership of property in rural areas by mapping of land parcels using drone technology and providing record of rights' to eligible households by issuing legal ownership cards to them.

Harda is the first district in the country where the scheme was originally launched in 2008 under the name Mukhya Mantri Gramin Awas Adhikar Pustika by Patel, who was then MP's revenue minister.

Currently, Patel is Madhya Pradesh's agriculture minister.

Later, the scheme was implemented at the national level under the name Pradhan Mantri Swamitva Yojna with the help of Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar, which granted land ownership rights to villagers so that they can mortgage their property for availing loans and also as a surety for securing bails, Patel told PTI. Rural inhabitants were deprived of this right since independence, while their urban counterparts could take loans on the basis of their properties for starting a business or constructing their own house, he said.

The scheme granted actual independence to villagers from their financial woes after over 70 years, the BJP minister said.

Modi will also interact with the beneficiaries of the scheme on the occasion, he said. Besides, the Prime Minister will provide land rights to 1,71,000 residents from 3,000 villages at the event, Patel said.

The scheme covers multifarious aspects like facilitating monetisation of properties and enabling bank loan, reducing property-related disputes and comprehensive village-level planning. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will also address the programme, he added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
(PMUY) beneficiaries appear to be shrugging off the high cost of refills and maintaining the same level of annual consumption at around three cylinders a year.

According to data compiled by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, the annualised consumption for this year, based on numbers till September 2021, stands at around 3.7 refills per beneficiary.

This is based on extrapolated data for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder refills, senior officials told Business Standard. But this data will vary closer towards the end of the year, considering fire wood availability.

Since a complete weaning away from firewood or dung for cooking has not happened, beneficiaries tend to stack with other forms of fuel to meet their requirements. During the rainy season, dry wood availability becomes an issue and consumption gains, an oil ministry official said.

beneficiaries had gone in for 3.01-cylinder refills in 2019-20 and three refills in 2018-19. This was when domestic liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) prices were regulated by budgetary subsidies, which varied every month to keep the effective price of a cylinder closer to Rs 500 apiece.

Currently, domestic cylinders (14.2 kg) are sold at market prices but the government continues to subsidise freight for consumers in some parts of the country. The freight subsidy comes to less than Rs 30 per cylinder and is used to bring uniformity in cooking gas prices within a state.

According to Indane, the price of a domestic LPG cylinder is now Rs 884.50 apiece in the national capital. This is the highest price at which a domestic subsidised cylinder has been refilled till date.

On an average, beneficiaries use three (or a little more) cylinders a year. The exception was 2020-21 when the annual consumption shot up to 4.39 refills after three free refills were given by the Centre under the first Atma Nirbhar Bharat package announced in May 2020.

Since we did not see six cylinders being consumed in 2020-21 by PMUY beneficiaries, it is being assumed that even after three free cylinders, they are not interested in going in for many more refills, another oil ministry official said.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had introduced PMUY as a flagship scheme with an objective to make LPG available to the rural and deprived households.

The targeted homes of lower-income families were otherwise using traditional cooking fuels such as firewood, coal, and cow-dung cakes, among others. The scheme was launched on May 1, 2016 in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

Since these connections were targeted for low-income households, they were offered without an upfront cost being borne by the beneficiary. This amount was instead loaned by oil companies who then recovered it from the subsidy, which was accrued on subsequent LPG refills that beneficiaries bought at full price.

Sensing that PMUY beneficiaries were unable to bear the cost of LPG cylinders at full price, the government decided that oil companies should forego the recovery of these interest-free loans. According to official data, over 83 million connections have been disbursed under the first phase of PMUY till date.

The second leg of PMUY was launched this year with the objective of disbursing connections to the remaining targeted beneficiaries. A focus of the exercise is to give connections to migrant families who find it hard to furnish proof of address documents. To make this leg of the programme even more affordable, the first LPG cylinder refill and hotplate (amounting to around ~1,800 for both) is free under PMUY 2.0. This is in addition to the Rs 1,600 upfront amount that is waived for PMUY 2.0 beneficiaries.
A study paper, recently submitted by Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and Jindal Global Law School to the Niti Aayog, argued in favour of OECD's multilateral approach to tax digital services, on which negotiations between the nations are expected to conclude on Friday. It opposed digital (DST), currently imposed by individual countries such as equalisation levy by India and questioned the practicality of UN and G-24's approach to tax these services.

The paper, co-authored by Gouri Puri, partner at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and Kinshuk Jha, associate professor and executive director, Centre for Comparative & International Taxation, Jindal Global Law School, said India's commitment to the multilateral solution will help in promoting tax certainty in India.

The paper, titled 'Addressing Tax Challenges of Digitalisation: Exploring multilateralism as the way ahead for India, said Indias commitment to a multilateral solution will signal to foreign investors the country's willingness to adopt internationally agreed standards that foster tax certainty for businesses and increase the

predictability and stability of its tax system.

This will also bring more clarity and policy coherence in how India addresses tax challenges to digitalization and implements these rules, the paper opined.

"In comparison, having several disjointed DSTs or bilaterally negotiated taxes that are implemented with no international cooperation can cause significant uncertainty for both MNEs (multinational enterprises) and governments," said Puri.

Given that equalisation levy (EL) is not creditable overseas and entails compliances costs, several players have passed on the increased cost of doing business to consumers.

"Increase in prices of goods and services impact all consumers, including SMBs (small and medium businesses) and start-ups. As such DSTs may not be an optimum solution in the long run when compared with a tax on business profits, which alleviates double taxation as is proposed by Pillar One approach of OECD, Puri said.

The paper said many of the Indian start-ups and unicorns are eyeing foreign markets and are building their global user base for instance Ed-tech giant Byjus is aiming to become one of the largest players in the space in the US, with a target to hit revenues of $ 1 billion in the next three years. Similarly, Ola, Swiggy, Practo, Wittyfeed have all expanded their businesses to foreign markets in the last two years.

India therefore has an interest in protecting its start-up and tech ecosystem that has a growing global user base from foreign DSTs.

"A multilateral solution will be key to stop the proliferation of DSTs globally.

The tax policy that India frames today as an emerging economy will also impact her future as an exporter of digital goods

and services and therefore, it is important to evaluate both sides of the coin," Puri said.

Besides, the proliferation of DSTs absent a multilateral consensus on addressing tax challenges of digitalization can trigger a global trade war, she said. In response to DSTs, US has already launched USTR 301 investigations against France, India, Italy, Turkey, Austria, Spain, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, European Union and Indonesia, she said to buttress her view point.

Puri said Indias commitment to a multilateral solution may also facilitate Indias ongoing trade deals with other allies, such as the UK, US and EU. "On the other hand a trade war or a decline in international trade relations could be a major setback for businesses, investments flows and the Indian economy, which is eyeing a $

1 trillion target for exports by 2025," she said.

Comparing approach to UN's UNs Article 12B, the paper says the latter looks to offer a simpler solution

by allowing market jurisdictions to levy a withholding tax on the gross amount of automated digital services (ADS) income.

From a practical standpoint, however, the UN approachs Achilles heel is that it relies on a bilateral approach to amend Indias existing double tax avoidance agreements. The UN approach therefore seems impracticable absent the political will of Indias key tax treaty partners to come on-board, it said.

Admittedly, Indias preferred approach for addressing the tax challenge of digitalization was G24s proposal to amend the definition of permanent establishments (PEs) to include significant economic presence, and thereafter allocate profits based on a fractional apportionment method (that factored in sales).

"However, achieving this outcome was not possible without a consensus among all nations. Against this backdrop, India opted in for OECDs unified approach," it said.

Much water has flowed under the bridge since the G24 proposal, the report said, adding India is a leading member of the Inclusive Framework and is actively and vocally shaping Pillar 1 negotiations alongside the countries.

The Pillar-1 proposal talks about taxing companies with 20-billion-euro revenues and a profit margin above 10 per cent, which will be reviewed after seven years to cut the threshold to 10 billion euros. This is much higher than the 1-billion euro revenue threshold pressed by developing countries to cover 5,000 global companies.
across resumed physical sessions for classes 5 to 12 on Monday after being shut for over a year-and-a-half in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with students being welcomed back on campuses with flowers, balloons, sanitisers and social distancing protocols.

Students appeared excited while entering the and meeting their friends, classmates and teachers after a long gap.

At the school gates, authorities ensured that all the students wore proper masks and sanitised their hands before entering the premises, and only one student was asked to sit on a single bench in classrooms.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said the decision to reopen was a "very difficult" one, and appealed to teachers and parents to take care of the students.

Until now, schools were conducting physical classes only in those areas which were reporting relatively fewer COVID-19 cases.

Last month, Maharashtra's School Minister Varsha Gaikwad had announced that physical classes will resume in schools across the state and the government also issued standard operating procedures (SOPs) for it.

On Monday morning, the minister in a tweet said, "Wishing all parents and students the very best as schools reopen across the state today. We hope you enjoy your first day back in a safe atmosphere."



According to the government, physical sessions have started for classes 5 to 12 in rural areas and for classes 8 to 12 in urban areas of the state.

But, the physical classes have not yet been resumed for classes 1 to 4 in rural areas and for classes 1 to 7 in urban areas.

As per SOPs issued by the state government for the reopening of schools, it is not mandatory for students to attend physical classes. If they want to attend, they will have to submit consent letters from their parents.

CM Thackeray on Monday unveiled the logo of a campaign called 'My Student: My Responsibility' in the presence of minister Gaikwad and other dignitaries at his official resistance 'Varsha' in south Mumbai.

Speaking on the occasion, Thackeray said the decision to reopen school was a "very difficult" one.

"Today, we are seeing the gates of schools have opened, but it is not just the gates which have opened, it is the door of their future and progress. The decision was taken very carefully," Thackeray said, adding that he always consulted the task force concerned before taking such decisions.

I am extending my heartfelt wishes & good tidings to all students, teachers & parents on the first day of school. It is our responsibility to take care of the children; let us sail through it together & ensure schools do not have to be closed again.#MajheVidyarthiMajhiJababdari pic.twitter.com/Rs2s9dnTrG  CMO (@CMOMaharashtra) October 4, 2021

The chief minister said this was the most difficult and challenging time in the lives of students, and appealed to parents and teachers to take proper care of students.

"Take the responsibility of your child. If a teacher does not feel well, he/she should undergo a test immediately," he said.

Thackeray also suggested keeping doors and windows of classrooms open for proper aeration, disinfecting them when students are not around and keeping classrooms and toilets clean. He also asked authorities to ensure that students wear masks and follow the social distancing norms.

"We will continue our with the determination not to close schools once they are opened," Thackeray said.

Before the function, Gaikwad visited a few schools in Mumbai, including a municipal school in Colaba area, and interacted with students and teachers.

Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar also visited a municipal school in Worli area and spoke to teachers and students there.

At a school in suburban Jogeshwari, teachers and school management members showered flower petals on students when they entered the premises.

Various schools welcomed the students with 'rangolis' (colourful traditional patterns), flowers and balloons on the first day of reopening of the institutions.

Many students seemed excited after coming back to school and meeting their classmates and teachers physically.

In neighbouring Pune, students were seen excited while entering their schools and authorities welcomed them back.

Anagha Mande, principal of the city-based Ahilyadevi High School For Girls, "We made special arrangements to welcome students on the campus. Masks and sanitisers were distributed to students on their arrival."



A person dressed up as a clown was seen welcoming students at the Rajiv Gandhi Academy of E-Learning School & Science Junior College, and teachers greeted the students with flowers.

At many places, instead of the school transport, parents came to drop the students outside the educational institutions.

"Even though the offline classes have resumed, we made the online session of the same available for students who are joining classes from home," said a principal of another school while welcoming students back on the campus.

NCP MP Supriya Sule visited a zilla parishad school in Pune and welcomed the students with flowers.

"With the arrival of students, the schools (vidyamandirs) have once again been truly beautified," the Lok Sabha member from Baramati in Pune said in a tweet.

Maharashtra Headmaster Association state spokesperson Mahendra Ganpule told PTI that schools in Pune city and rural areas of the district were following all SOPs laid down by the state government for the resumption of physical classes.

In neighbouring Thane, district collector Rajesh Narvekar and city mayor Naresh Mhaske visited the Saraswati Secondary School where the two studied many years ago. Both of them later said the trip made them emotional.

Mhaske rang the bell after the first period and said, "This brought back memories of my childhood when I wanted to do it, but could not. The bell of a school is no less important than the ones in temples."



Narvekar, who is also from the same school, said he was emotional while visiting his alma mater after a gap of 38 years.

The IAS officer took a session for Class 10 in Marathi on the importance of for women.

The Maharashtra education department conducted a meeting on Sunday to take stock of the situation before resuming physical classes in schools.

"For a smooth transition to physical classes, effective coordination with the health department, local administration will have to be maintained. We are committed to providing a conducive atmosphere to students, many among whom will be returning to class after a year and a half," minister Gaikwad had tweeted after the meeting.

Last month, Gaikwad said that as per a survey conducted by the school education department, more than 70 per cent parents favoured reopening of schools.

In Maharashtra, physical classes in schools were stopped in March 2020, after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The state government in July this year allowed schools to restart physical classes in the rural areas where COVID-19 prevalence was negligible. The decision mainly benefited the state's Vidarbha region, but schools in major cities like Mumbai and Pune remained closed.

The latest decision was taken after consulting health officials and the state government's COVID-19 task force, Gaikwad earlier 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.)
Daniel Craig's final outing as has shaken and stirred the international box-office with a first-weekend earning of $119 million, even as the 'Venom' sequel starring Tom Hardy brought cheer to the U.S. market by setting a pandemic record of raking in $90.1 million in its opening weekend.

According to Variety.com, 'Venom: Let There Be Carnage' beat the previous records set by another Marvel property, 'Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings', and the Scarlett Johansson-starrer 'Black Widow'.

The 25th movie, 'No Time to Die', meanwhile, looks all set to recover its delayed production costs of $250 million, plus another $100 million spent on marketing and promotions, when it releases in the week ahead in 15 major markets, including France, Russia and North America, before it lands in China on October 29.

China, incidentally, is now the world's largest movie theatre market, having toppled the U.S. when the pandemic was raging. This past Friday, September 30, 'No Time to Die' opened in 54 markets internationally.

'Venom: Let There Be Carnage', which is much darker than its 2018 predecessor, which also had Tom Hardy in the lead, interestingly, is playing only in cinemas, as opposed to being also available on-demand in a hybrid release format.

Although a Marvel franchise, like Disney's 'Shang Chi', which it has displaced from the No. 1 spot, 'Venom: Let There Be Carnage' is being released by Sony Pictures.

The second movie of the Sony Spider-Man Universe, the super villain action thriller will arrive in India on October 14. It will be the first Hollywood film to be released theatrically across Maharashtra after cinemas are allowed to open in the state on October 22.

Exulting over the box-office numbers (the film also made $13.8 million in Russia, the only other market where it has been released), Sony's Chairman, Tom Rothman, said in a statement quoted by Variety.com. "With apologies to Mr Twain: The death of movies has been greatly exaggerated."

--IANS

srb/kr

(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 Biden administration will revisit the phase one trade agreement signed with China last year, a senior official said on Monday, asserting that the US Trade Representative will soon resume direct engagement with her Chinese counterpart to outline a new approach to the bilateral relationship.

In January last year, the US signed the first phase of the trade deal with China, which former president described as historic, concluding more than a year of tough negotiations including several months of suspension of talks between the two largest economies of the world.

The agreement was signed by Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, Politburo Member and Vice Premier of China.

The first phase of the trade deal includes Intellectual Property (IP) Protection and Enforcement, ending forced technology transfer, dramatic expansion of American agriculture, removing barriers to American financial services, ending currency manipulation, rebalancing the US-China trade relationship and effective dispute resolution.

US Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai is scheduled to deliver a major policy address on this issue later in the day.

We will revisit the phase one agreement and emphasize that China must follow through on the commitments it has made. Second, we will start a targeted tariff-exclusion process. We will also keep open the potential for additional exclusion processes in the future, the senior administration official said ahead of her speech.

Third, in the coming days, Ambassador Tai will resume direct engagement with her counterpart in China. This will include discussions with China regarding its commitments under phase one, but it will also be a chance for Ambassador Tai to reiterate that the will defend itself, using all available tools, from state-directed industrial policies that harm our workers, producers, and overall economic interests, the official said.

According to the official, the Biden administration will work with its allies and like-minded partners towards building an trading system that is fair and allows for healthy competition.

Some of that work is underway already. The Boeing-Airbus deal, struck in June of this year, is just one example of how this commitment to work with our allies creates more opportunities for American producers. Ambassador Tai will share how we are building global coalitions to accomplish our shared priorities, said the official.

In her remarks at the Center for Strategic and Studies (CSIS) to outline the new approach to the US-China bilateral trade relationship, Tai will lay out the initial steps of the administration's long-term strategy to create a level playing field for American workers and businesses and strengthen the middle class, the USTR said.

I have said this before and I will continue to say it: the US-China trade and economic relationship is one of the profound consequences. As the two largest economies in the world, how we relate to each other does not just affect our two countries. It impacts the entire world and billions of workers, Tai was quoted as saying by the USTR.

For too long, China's lack of adherence to global trading norms has undercut the prosperity of Americans and around the world, she said.

To be successful, we must be direct and honest about the challenges we face and the grave risk from leaving them unaddressed. We must explore all options to chart the most effective path forward," she asserted



When it comes to our relationship with China, what's best for American workers is growing the American economy to create more opportunity and more jobs with better wages here in the United States, Tai said.

In the coming days, Tai said, she intends to have frank conversations with my counterpart in China.

That will include discussion over China's performance under the Phase One Agreement. And we will also directly engage with China on its industrial policies, she said in her remarks.

Our goal is to bring deliberative, stable, long-term thinking into our approach and to work through bilateral and multilateral channels.

The core of our strategy is a commitment to ensuring we work with our allies to create fair and open markets. There is a future in which all of us in the global economy can grow and succeed where prosperity is inclusive within our own borders and across those borders too, Tai said.

After continuous efforts by both teams, China and the US reached the phase one deal based on the principle of equality and mutual respect, which illustrated a Chinese saying "There are always more solutions than problems".

The world's two largest economies had spent 18 months embroiled in a bitter trade dispute that imposed tit-for-tat levies on each other's commodities, mechanical parts and finished goods. Trump had launched the trade war with China in 2018 demanding Beijing to reduce the massive trade deficit.

His demands included an intrusive verification mechanism to supervise Beijing's promise to protect intellectual property rights (IPR) technology transfer and more access to American goods to Chinese markets.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Chinese regulators plan to be more prudent in their response to mining accidents as authorities ask coal producers to ramp up output to help stave off the countrys deepening



The National Development and Reform Commission told miners at a meeting on Thursday that accidents will no longer result in the shutdown of nearby mines for safety inspections, local industry publication Fengkuang Coal Logistics said in a WeChat post. The move comes as Beijing calls for them to produce coal at full capacity for the rest of the year even if they exceed quota limits.

A shortage of coal heading into winter has sent prices in and around the world surging to record levels. While demand for the fossil fuel has been strong this year as the global economic recovery gathered pace, output in hasnt been able to keep up. Thats partly due to tougher laws and stricter safety inspections following a series of deadly accidents.

High coal prices have constrained output at coal-fired plants that sell electricity at regulated projects. Some have shut for maintenance or refused to ramp up activities despite the power crunch, as theyre operating at a loss because of the surging coal
Amazon founder participated in a $87 million Series B funding for Indonesian startup Ula, marking his first-ever investment in Southeast Asias e-commerce space.

Bezos Expeditions, Northstar group, AC Ventures and Citius joined the round co-led by Prosus Ventures, Tencent and B-Capital, the e-commerce marketplace Ula said in a statement on Monday. The previous fundraising included $10.5 million seed round in June 2020 and an additional $20 million Series A round in January this year.

The startup that offers technology solutions to small retailers is seeking to expand its base to include more cities in the Southeast Asias biggest economy, explore overseas expansion across the region, develop the buy-now-pay-later offering, as well as building local supply chain and logistics infrastructure.

Indonesias GoTo Is in Talks for Up to $2 Billion Ahead of IPO

The startup also named Pandu Sjahrir as an adviser. Sjahrir is holding commissioner roles at the Indonesia Stock Exchange, ride-hailing giant PT Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa, known as Gojek, and the local branch of Singapores Sea Ltd., which owns Shopee and online games developer Garena.

Ula is serving more than 70,000 traditional stores on its platform and offers more than 6,000 products.
LONDON (Reuters) -OPEC and its allies are likely to stick to their existing agreement to add 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil to the market in November, three OPEC+ sources said on Monday, amid consumer pressure for more supply to cool a red hot market.

Ministers from The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and their allies, known as OPEC+, are due to gather online at 1300 GMT. An OPEC+ ministerial panel that monitors market developments, known as JMMC, meets before that.

Benchmark Brent crude, up 50% so far this year, surged above $80 a barrel last month and was trading around $79 on Monday, pushed up by supply disruptions and surging demand as the global economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The group agreed in July to boost output by 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) every month until at least April 2022 to phase out 5.8 million bpd of existing cuts.

"The most reasonable is to add 400,000 bpd, no more," one of the sources told Reuters when asked about what ministers were expected to decide. Another also said this was the most likely outcome, but left room for a possible increase.

Last week, OPEC+ sources had said producers were considering adding more than the deal envisaged, but none had given details on how much more or suggested any timing.

OPEC+'s last meeting decided the October volumes.

Iraqi Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar said on Sunday that oil prices at $100 a barrel would not be sustainable and said OPEC wanted stable markets.

A senior aide to U.S. President Joe Biden met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia last week to discuss the war in Yemen but said oil was also "of concern". India, another big oil consumer, has been pushing for more supply.

In a note published on Friday, JP Morgan analysts said: "Considering the declining refinery runs and weakening physical market indicators in China we do not see the incentive for the OPEC+ alliance to boost oil production beyond the currently-committed 400,000 bpd."

(Reporting by OPEC Team; Editing by Veronica Brown and Edmund Blair)

(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.)
Opposition leader and Muslim League-Nawaz demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Imran Khan after his name was highlighted in the Pandora Papers leaks.

After Imran Khan's name surfaced in Pandora leaks, there is no moral justification for him to retain the post of the premier, PML-N Secretary-General Ahsan Iqbal Iqbal said. The papers have revealed more than 700 names of those in the PMs Cabinet and inner circle.

Pakistans several ministers, retired civilian and military officials, businessmen as well as owners of the top media outlets were named in the Pandora Papers following an investigation uncovering financial secrets held by high-profile individuals, prompting Prime Minister to promise to investigate all the citizens mentioned in the leaks.

The Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on Sunday unveiled Pandora Papers, according to which Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, Minister for Water Resources Moonis Elahi, Senator Faisal Vawda, the family of Minister for Industries and Production Khusro Bakhtiar, among others, had links with offshore companies.

In addition to key members of Khan's Cabinet, retired civilian and military officials, businessmen as well as owners of the country's top media outlets have owned companies and trusts holding millions of dollars in offshore jurisdictions, according to The News newspaper.

The paper reported that probe named as the Pandora Papers showed that the retired military officials who owned offshore companies or properties include Lt Gen (retd) Muhammad Afzal Muzaffar's son, Major General (retd) Nusrat Naeem, Lt Gen (retd) Khalid Maqbool's son-in-law, Lt-Gen (retd) Tanvir Tahir's wife, Lt-Gen (retd) Ali Kuli Khan's sister, Air Chief Marshal Abbas Khattak's sons and retired army officer and politician Raja Nadir Pervez.

The media owners who held offshore companies include publisher of Jang group Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, CEO Dawn media group Hamid Haroon, Publisher of Express Media Group Sultan Ahmed Lakhani, the Gourmet Group which also owns a TV channel GNN and publisher of Today the late late Arif Nizami.

In a statement issued late on Sunday, Prime Minister Khan welcomed the Pandora Papers exposing the ill-gotten wealth of elites, accumulated through tax evasion and corruption and laundered out to financial havens'.

"My government will investigate all our citizens mentioned in the Pandora Papers and if any wrongdoing is established, we will take appropriate action. I call on the community to treat this grave injustice as similar to the climate change crisis, he said.
The have denied reports of the foreign troops' presence at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, reported local media.

Omar Mansor, a member of the cultural commission, said: "There are no foreign troops currently in Afghanistan, including Chinese", according to TOLOnews.

On Saturday night, Bagram residents had said that the lights of the base were seen, the first time since the US troops left the airfield.

However, Mansoor informed that the members had switched on lights there.

"The lights were switched on again at Bagram air force base. There were some voices heard at the base. A plane has also been seen there," TOLOnews quoted resident of Bagram district, Shamshad as saying.

Unconfirmed reports had rumoured the presence of the Chinese air force at the base. 'A foreign force is rumoured to be involved, with fingers pointed at China, which denied eyeing the base,' Russia Today reported.

Earlier in September, analysts had said that was eyeing the former US airbase of Bagram in in order to expand its influence in the region and embarrass America.

Paul D Shinkman, writing in US News had said that secured friendly relations with the new government in and is now considering new ways to expand influence and embarrass the US.

Beijing is considering deploying military personnel and economic development officials to Bagram Airfield, perhaps the single-most prominent symbol of the 20-year US military presence in Afghanistan, Shinkman said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Pandora Papers show that the remains the largest haven in the world despite its vows to fight corruption and money laundering, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

"Probably, the only thing that really catches the eye is the revelation of which country is the world's largest offshore and haven. This is certainly the US," Peskov told reporters.

This does not quite match the claims about the intention to fight corruption, evasion and money laundering. But this is the reality. We see that the US is the main tax haven for the whole world," Peskov informed.

(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 World Trade Organization revised upwards its forecasts for growth of global goods trade this year and in 2022, but warned of a two-track recovery leaving poor countries behind and downside risks from the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain problems.

The said on Monday it expected merchandise trade would grow this year by 10.8% after a fall of 5.3% in 2020. In March, it had forecast 2021 growth of 8.0%.

The Geneva-based trade body said that trade growth should slow to 4.7% in 2022, more than its previous forecast of 4.0%, with trade approaching its pre-pandemic long-term trend.

Director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala described the upgrades as good news but not a cause for complacency, with risks of new outbreaks or variants of the

Low-income countries, where only 28 million vaccine doses have been administered out of a global total of 6 billion, were also lagging, she said.

Asian exports were set be almost 15% higher in 2021 than in 2019 and those of Europe and North America had essentially recovered, but Africa and the Middle East would be below pre-pandemic levels.

Okonjo-Iweala is trying to broker a deal among the WTO's 164 members to increase vaccine distribution to developing countries, notably on the issue of intellectual property rights for vaccines and other COVID treatments. South Africa, India and other developing countries support an IP waiver, while developed members, including the European Union, oppose this.

"We hope there will be a pragmatic solution that will be acceptable to both sides," she said, referring to the WTO's ministerial meeting from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3.

The said it saw supply chain problems more isolated to particularly sectors, with laptop and mobile phone makers able to find semiconductors, but carmakers suffering after sharply cutting chip orders in 2020.

The WTO's forecast purely relates to goods. For services, such as IT and passenger transport, the said, there were signs of a recovery but well short of a return to pre-pandemic levels.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Shares of Divis Laboratories hit a record high of Rs 5,313.80 on the BSE on Monday as they rallied 10 per cent in the intra-day trade. The stock of the pharmaceutical company surpassed its previous high of Rs 5,269, hit on September 1, 2021. At 10:28 am, it was trading 9 per cent higher at Rs 5,270 on the BSE as compared to a 1.17 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.

Investors rushed to buy shares of the company after US-based Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics announced that their investigational oral antiviral medicine Molnupiravir has significantly reduced the risk of hospitalization or death at a planned interim analysis of the Phase 3 trial in at risk, non-hospitalized adult patients with mild-to-moderate Covid-19.

"At the recommendation of an independent Data Monitoring Committee, and in consultation with the US FDA, the recruitment into the study is being stopped early due to these positive results. Merck plans to submit an application for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to the US FDA soon and marketing applications to other regulatory bodies worldwide," the US-based company said in a statement.

The impending US FDA EUA approval (very likely possibility) bodes well for Divis Labs, say analysts at ICICI Securities, as the company is the authorized manufacturer for Molnupiravir API. Merck has also struck licensing agreements with Sun Pharmaceuticals, Cipla, Dr Reddys Laboratories among others to market the drug in India and +100 LMIC countries. Shares of these companies were up between 0.5 per cent and 2 per cent on the BSE.

Divis Labs, an Indian Pharma company, is among the top three API manufacturers in the world. It is also into manufacturing of Nutraceutical ingredients and Custom synthesis (CS) of APIs for global Pharma MNCs.

Divi's has highlighted six growth engines over the next 4-5 years. It would cater to industry-level demand in molecules, where it is already a leader in terms of market share. Manufacturing efficiency would drive market share in molecules, where it currently commands a 20-30 per cent share. Successful backward integration and tackling of impurity issues would lead to better business opportunities in the Sartans space.

Diviss has increased traction in Contrast Media in CS and the existing Generics API segment. It would scale up two CS projects in addition to Molnupiravir. There are potential opportunities from genericization of products over FY23-25E, analysts at Motilal Oswal Financial Services said in a stock update.

The brokerage firm has a 'buy' rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 5,750 per share. "We expect 34 per cent earnings CAGR over FY21-23E, led by increased business prospects from CS/Generics, improved growth in Nutraceuticals, new product additions in the Contrast Media space, and ~230bp margin expansion on process and productivity improvements, the brokerage firm said in a September report.




Gold (24 carat) is selling at Rs 46,500 per ten gram on Monday in India, up Rs 10 from trade yesterday as fuel prices climb up to record highs and the central banks rate-setting committee meets this week.

Silver is selling at Rs 60,500 per kg: unchanged from Sundays trading, according to Good Returns website.

The price of gold jewellery varies across India, the second-largest consumer of the metal, due to excise duty, state taxes, and making charges.

In Delhi and Mumbai, 10 gm of 22-carat gold is selling at Rs 45,560 and Rs 45,490 on Monday. In Chennai, the price is Rs 43,880, according to the website. In Kolkata, the price is Rs 45,870.

In Delhi, 10 gm of 24-carat gold is selling at Rs 49,720 and the price in Mumbai is Rs 46,490.

In Chennai, 24-carat gold is selling at Rs 47,870. For Kolkata, the price is Rs 48,570.

The central banks six-member monetary policy committee will meeting October 6-8 to and its decision on rates will be announced on the last day. The committee is widely expected to leave the repo rate unchanged.

Petrol and diesel prices were hiked again on Sunday to send rates climbing to new record highs across the country as government officials said oil companies haven't passed on the entire increase warranted from international oil and gas rising to three-year highs, according to news agency PTI.
By Rajendra Jadhav

MUMBAI (Reuters) -India's gold imports in September soared 658% from last year's lower base as a correction in local prices to the lowest level in nearly six months prompted jewellers to step up purchases for the upcoming festive season, a government source said.

Higher imports by the world's second-biggest bullion consumer could support benchmark gold prices, which have fallen nearly 15% from an all-time high of $2,072 in August 2020.

The surge in imports could increase India's trade deficit and pressure the rupee.

India imported 91 tonnes of gold in September, compared to 12 tonnes a year earlier, the source said on Monday on condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to media.

In value terms, September imports surged to $5.1 billion from $601 million a year ago, he said.

India's gold imports in the September quarter surged 170% from a year ago to 288 tonnes, the government official said.

"Last month global prices were correcting, and rupee was appreciating. The combination brought down local prices significantly and allowed jewellers to stock up," said a Mumbai-based dealer with a gold importing bank.

Local gold futures fell to 45,479 rupees ($611.93) per 10 grams last week, the lowest in nearly six months.

Retail demand has been improving and jewellery stores are registering good footfall, the dealer said.

The country's gold imports in October could rise above 100 tonnes from 45 tonnes a year earlier if prices remain stable around the current level of 46,300 rupees, said a Kolkata-based bullion dealer.

"Retail consumers are now stepping out for shopping. The fear of coronavirus has been going down with a drop coronavirus cases," the dealer said.

Indian authorities imposed localised lockdowns in the June quarter as COVID-19 infections surged to a record high, but allowed businesses to reopen in a phased manner as cases fell.

($1 = 74.3200 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Jason Neely)

(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 Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Monday said that pooling of funds and units by stock brokers or clearing members shall be discontinued for mutual fund (MF) transactions.

Currently units of the MF schemes move through stock brokers/clearing members pool accounts in an aggregate manner to client account or clearing corporation or the asset management company (AMC) account.

Pay-in and pay-out of funds shall not be handled by the stock brokers / clearing members. In the same manner, for both demat and non-demat mode transactions, the units shall be credited and debited directly to/from the investors demat account/ folio account without routing it through the pool account of the stock brokers /clearing members, said in the circular.

Meanwhile, for redemption of units held in dematerialised mode, the practice of issuance of delivery instruction slip to the depository participant to debit the units for delivery to clearing corporations may continue, has said.

AMCs can avail the services of recognized clearing corporations to validate the investors source bank account information. In such cases, clearing corporations shall make the necessary source account details available to AMCs.

In another circular, regulator said that AMCs shall ensure that intermediate pooling of funds in any manner by mutual fund distributors (MFDs), Investment Advisers (IAs), Mutual fund utilities (MFU), channel partners or any other service providers are discontinued for MF transactions.

However, this requirement shall not apply to the Sebi-registered portfolio managers.

Sebi also stated that in consultation with Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) , it shall issue guidelines for AMCs for mitigating risks of co-mingling of funds at the level of payment aggregators and payment gateways involved in mutual fund transactions.

To mitigate the risk of third party payments, AMCs shall ensure that payment is credited directly to the registered and verified bank account of the investor mapped with the concerned folio, after due verification. All these changes will be applicable from April 1, 2022.
Shares of were up 3 per cent at Rs 342.50 on the BSE in Mondays intra-day trade on hopes of recovery in all its three businesses, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), commercial vehicle (CV) and passenger vehicle (PV). The stock of Tata group automobiles company had hit a 52-week high of Rs 361 on June 15, 2021. It had touched a record high of Rs 606 on February 3, 2015.

In past one month, has outperformed the market by gaining 16 per cent, as compared to 2 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex and 5.5 per cent up in the S&P BSE Auto sector index. However, on a three-month perdio, the stock has declined 1 per cent, as against 13 per cent rally in the benchmark index.

on Friday said its total domestic wholesales increased 28 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to 55,988 units in September. The company had dispatched a total of 44,410 units to its dealers in September 2020.

The auto major said its total passenger vehicle sales in the domestic market stood at 25,730 units last month, compared with 21,199 units in the same month last year. Commercial vehicle sales in the domestic market stood at 30,258 units, up 30 per cent from 23,211 units in September 2020, it added.

Post the second COVID-19 wave, are witnessing gradual demand recovery across most segments led by M&HCVs (medium and heavy commercial vehicles) with improving fleet utilisation levels, higher number of road construction projects awarded and improving cement consumption, the company said. The growth in SPV has come on the back of demand recovery in the industry post the Covid second wave and a strong response to its New Forever range of cars and SUVs.

In the electric vehicle (EV) segment, the company for the second month in succession crossed the 1,000 unit milestone to register its highest ever monthly and quarterly sales. EV sales recorded nearly a three-fold growth with the rising acceptance and popularity of the Nexon EV and Tigor EV, it added.

Looking ahead, Tata Motors said the demand for cars and SUVs is expected to remain strong in the forthcoming festive season; however, the supply situation for electronic components may continue to witness challenging time, it added.

Meanwhile, Motilal Oswal Securities maintain buy rating on Tata Motors with target price of Rs 400 per share. Recovery is underway in all the three businesses of Tata Motors. While the India CV business would see cyclical recovery, the India PV business would witness structural recovery, the brokerage firm said in stock report.

JLR is witnessing cyclical recovery, supported by a favorable product mix. However, supply-side issues would defer the recovery process. While there would be no near-term catalysts from the JLR business, the India business (around 50 per cent of SoTP) would post continued recovery, it added.
The offer received bids for 14.59 crore shares as against 2.77 crore shares on offer.

The initial public offer (IPO) of Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC received bids for 14.59 crore shares as against 2.77 crore shares on offer. The issue was subscribed 5.25 times.

The issue opened for bidding on Wednesday (29 September 2021) and it closed on Friday (1 October 2021). The price band of the IPO was fixed at Rs 695-712 per share.

The qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) category was subscribed 10.36 times. The non institutional investors category was subscribed 4.39 times. The retail individual investors (RIIs) category was subscribed 3.24 times.

The IPO comprised offer for sale of 3,88,80,000 equity shares. Offer for sale comprises sale of 28,50,880 equity shares by Aditya Birla Capital and up to 3,60,29,120 equity shares by Sun Life AMC. The company will not directly receive any proceeds from the offer, and all the offer proceeds will be received by the selling shareholders, in proportion to the offered shares sold by them.

The company expects that listing of the equity shares will enhance visibility and brand image and provide liquidity to shareholders and will also provide a public market for the equity shares in India.

Ahead of the IPO, Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC on 28 September 2021 finalized allocation of 1,10,80,800 equity shares to anchor investors at an allocation price of Rs 712 per share, aggregating to Rs 788,95,29,600.

Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC is the fourth largest asset management companies (AMCs) in India by quarterly average asset under management (QAAUM) since September 2011 and its also the largest non-bank affiliated AMC in India since March 2018. The focus of the company is on consistent investment performance, extensive distribution network, brand, and superior customer service. The company managed total AUM of Rs 293642 crore (closing AUM) under its suite of mutual fund (excluding domestic fund of funds (FoFs)), portfolio management services, offshore and real estate offerings, and approximately 7.18 million investor folios (including domestic FoFs) end June 2021.

Its total QAAUM grew at a CAGR of 14.55% from Rs 136,503 crore end March 2016 to Rs 26,92,78 crore end March 2021 and further rose to Rs 275,454 crore end June 2021. The AUM under portfolio management services, offshore and real estate offerings was Rs 11,515 crore end June 2021. The company caters to a wide range of customers from individuals to institutions through its pan-India network and offering of customer solutions. Monthly average AUM (MAAUM) from institutional investors stands at Rs 150,304 crore and individual investors at Rs 133,353 crore end June 2021.

The AMC posted net sales of Rs 333.24 crore and net profit of Rs 154.94 crore for the quarter ended June 2021.

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The Lakhimpur violence, in which nine people, including farmers, BJP workers and a journalist, were killed on Sunday, added to the cup of woes of UP Chief Minister with just a few months to go for the Assembly elections.

The state government was already trying to recover from the mysterious death of Akhara Parishad president Mahant Narendra Giri at his ashram in Prayagraj last month and the death of a Kanpur-based trader in Gorakhpur recently after allegedly being assaulted by police, both incidents raising strong concerns over the prevailing law and order situation in the state.

The Lakhimpur incident, in which the son of senior BJP leader and Union minister of state Ajay Mishra Teni are accused of trampling four protesting farmers to death, has opened another front for the CM to deal with.

After the alleged mowing down of four farmers by the convoy, three BJP workers and the driver of one of the vehicles were allegedly lynched by protesters, with the incident caught on camera. These clips have since gone viral on social media platforms. A car was also set ablaze by miscreants.

Teni claimed the BJP convoy was attacked by lathi- and sword-wielding people, who had mixed with the protesting farmers, and in a bid to escape the mob fury, one of the vehicles turned turtle, killing the farmers.

He also claimed his son was not travelling in the convoy and was elsewhere when the incident took place.

Adityanath expressed grief at the incident and promised stern action against those guilty. He also appealed to people to maintain peace in the state. The state government on Monday announced a compensation of Rs 45 lakh to the kin of the deceased, government job to one family member and Rs 10 lakh each to the injured. It said a retired high court judge will probe the incident.

Meanwhile, an FIR was lodged against Union minister and his son on the basis of the complaint filed by the protesting farmers. The UP government has turned Lakhimpur district, about 165 km from Lucknow, into a virtual fortress and banned the entry of political leaders to prevent any untoward incident.





Opposition leaders detained

Congress General Secretary and UP in-charge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was detained in Sitapur when she was on her way to Lakhimpur Kheri. The UP administration prevented Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, his Punjab counterpart Charanjit Singh Channi, BSP's S C Mishra and AAPs Sanjay Singh, etc from reaching Lakhimpur.

In Lucknow, SP workers manhandled a senior police official and set a police vehicle afire when Akhilesh was barred from proceeding to Lakhimpur. Talking to a news channel, Priyanka charged the UP government with high-handedness while dealing with farmers. Akhilesh, too, slammed the Adityanath government. He also sought the resignation of UP Deputy CM even as he demanded an ex gratia of Rs 2 crore each to the kin of the victims families.

In Punjab, state Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu, along with several party MLAs, held a protest outside the Raj Bhavan against the Lakhimpur Kheri incident.
Congress general secretary Vadra and other party leaders reached here early Monday, but alleged they were not allowed to meet the victims of the violence that erupted during a farmers' protest and claimed eight lives a day earlier.

Priyanka Gandhi, who is accompanied by party leader Deepender Singh Hooda among others, had to take alternative routes to reach the destination as heavy security was deployed on the main roads amid tension in the violence-hit region.

"We are waiting outside the Banbirpur village. We have been prevented by the police from entering. We have come here to meet the victims of the violence," Congress national secretary Dheeraj Gurjar told PTI over the phone at 4.30 am.

Priyanka Gandhi's convoy was earlier briefly stopped by the Uttar Pradesh Police officials in Lucknow, where the Congress general secretary had arrived on Sunday night, within a few hours of violence being reported during an anti-farm laws protest here.

Meanwhile, mobile internet services were suspended in parts of the violence-hit district, where restrictions under CrPC section 144 -- which prohibits assembly of four or more people -- has also been imposed, according to officials.

The UP police took to Twitter early Monday to describe the incident as unfortunate and said eight casualties have been reported so far as per the district administration.

ADG LO, ACS Agriculture, IG Range & Commissioner are on the spot & situation is under control. Adequate deployment has been done to prevent any untoward incident, it 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 on Monday arrested founder Ramesh Chandra, his daughter-in-law Preeti Chandra and an executive of a company in connection with a money-laundering probe against the real estate group and its promoters, officials said.

They said the three were taken into custody under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the case against Ramesh Chandra's sons -- Sanjay Chandra and Ajay Chandra.

Preeti Chandra is the wife of jailed promoter Sanjay Chandra.

The third to be arrested on Monday was Rajesh Malik, an executive of Carnoustie Management (India) Pvt which is allegedly linked to the case, officials said.

All the three -- Ramesh Chandra, Preeti Chandra and Rajesh Malik -- will be produced before a court on Tuesday by the seeking their custody.

The Chandra brothers, accused of siphoning home buyers' money, are lodged in Taloja jail in Mumbai after the Supreme Court directed that they be transferred from Tihar. The SC gave the directions after the ED claimed that the brothers were conducting business from inside the Tihar jail by conniving with the prison staff.

The ED's is based on a number of Delhi Police Economic Offences Wing and CBI FIRs filed by homebuyers against the Group and its promoters.

The ED filed a criminal case under various sections of the PMLA earlier this year against the Unitech Group and its promoters over allegations that the owners -- Sanjay Chandra and Ajay Chandra -- illegally diverted over Rs 2,000 crore to Cyprus and the Cayman Islands.

It had also carried out raids in this case on March 4 at 35 locations of the Shivalik Group, Trikar Group, Unitech Group and Carnoustie Group in Mumbai and the national capital region.

The ED had said that the total proceeds of crime detected in this case stands at Rs 7,638.43 crore and it has attached properties worth Rs 672.52 crore till now as part of this investigation.

(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.)
New Delhi [India], October 4 (ANI/ATK): Content creator and blogger Harish Sharma has been appointed as the Social Media Coordinator of BJP in Jhajjar.

His tasks majorly include enhancing and maintaining the reputation of all the leaders of the party while handling their social media profiles during elections.

The influencer was formerly working as a Social Media Advisor and strategist for many renowned BJP leaders.

Earlier, he has worked as social media advisor for various influential political leaders. As a social media manager and coordinator of BJP Haryana, he has impressive learning potential. Due to complexities involved, the extensive body of knowledge required, and the rapidly changing environment, social service work is frequently cited as one of the most stressful paths but he believes passion is the fuel to success.

Keeping up with the modern world Mr. Harish has a well-defined social media presence. He has over 1 lakh followers on Facebook and other social media platforms. He never fails to provide a view on the ongoing situations worldwide and influences people with his social media presence. He even supports many politicians via following social media trends.

Despite the pandemic causing havoc, Harish has extended his support throughout the pandemic to help those suffering from adversities caused by the pandemic. His help included distributing ration kits to essentials and ensuring adequate supply of oxygen in the city.

Additionally, he has been raising awareness for the need to come forward and support these weaker sections of community. He is constantly paving his way to bring our possible outcomes and solutions to uplift downtrodden through all medical and financial assistance.

This story is provided by ATK. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/ATK)

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi, [India], October 4 (ANI/NewsVoir): KoreaShop 24, a leading B2B platform that facilitates trade between India and Korea.

Being an ideal platform for thousands of buyers and sellers from South Korea and other parts of the world, the portal helps to achieve smooth, secure, and successful trade for its partners. Not just this, KoreaShop 24 also activates strategic partnerships for its clients and helps them to be highly effective in business operations.

With its reach across the world, KoreaShop 24 has expanded its footprints globally with its presence in countries like India, Thailand, Bangkok, and Korea. The platform also has its registered offices located in nations like Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines.

"Being an intelligently crafted, for buyers to source Korean products, we help our clients to find various trade opportunities by promoting their business online globally. KoreaShop 24 provides complete and up-to-date information related to all Korean products to its users across the globe. We aim to work with organisations to transform their business as we believe that when the right people come together there is a scope of many opportunities which help businesses grow," says Seo Youngdoo, Official Spokesperson, KoreaShop 24.

In the time of COVID-19, KoreaShop 24 encourages digital business model in a new way to connect and reach out to more people globally. The platform supports online video conferencing for potential Korean suppliers and Indian buyers. The platform also enables multiple options to engage customers and executives by converting existing in-person meetings to virtual meetings. KoreaShop 24 not only connects buyers and suppliers for trade but also helps to build and maintain everlasting relationship.

KoreaShop 24 helps in generating new leads and building strong relationships with its partners by arranging B2B meetings so that the suppliers can get aware of the company's profile and understand the nature of the company.

Through the portal, the Korean companies can instantly connect with potential buyers and suppliers all over the world which will help to manage the business in a much effective manner. One of the upcoming online business meetings organised by KoreaShop 24 is GYEONGSANGBUK-DO which is scheduled to take place on October 19 and October 20 2021.

The business meeting aims to match Korean Suppliers with Indian & Thailand Buyers. The business meeting includes a list of 20 Korean companies focussing on categories like Food, Beauty, Home & Living and many more.

The portal always tries to resolve the sample-related enquiries of the companies by facilitating office visits between the buyers and the suppliers. This will help the customers to fully understand the products that they will be dealing with and will support them in carrying forward their business plans.

KoreaShop 24 intends to provide information to suitable buyers and suppliers and helps the Korean companies in reaching out to customers across the globe. Furthermore, by engaging in trading activities, the Koreashop24 promises to develop the relationship further between India and Korea to build win-win businesses for both the countries.

For more information, please visit (https://koreashop24.com).

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi [India], October 4 (ANI/BusinessWire India): NIIT Limited, a global skills & talent development company and leading provider of managed training services, has acquired 70 percent stake in RPS Consulting Private Limited (RPS Consulting).

The board of NIIT Limited approved this transaction during the board meeting held on October 1, 2021. The remaining 30 percent shareholding will be acquired by NIIT from the promoters of RPS Consulting in subsequent tranches based on achievement of certain financial milestones and closing adjustments in terms of the transaction documents within the next two and a half years.

RPS Consulting is a leading provider of training programs on emerging digital technologies for experienced technology professionals, specifically addressing the needs of Global Systems Integrators and Capability Centers of large multinational companies. Its trailing 12 months revenue for the period ending September 30, 2021, is estimated at approximately Rs 105.7 Cr, with a year over year growth of 32 percent.

Bengaluru-based RPS Consulting offers:

Advanced technology training to experienced technology professionals of over 260 companies across key IT hubs in India, including Bengaluru, NCR, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune and Mumbai

Comprehensive program catalog with over 2000 courses on emerging technologies from 23 global technology partners (including Microsoft, Red Hat, VMware, Citrix, Dell EMC, Google, AWS and ISC2 among others)

Specialized training solutions on emerging digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence /Machine Learning, Data Science, DevOps, Automation, and Cybersecurity.

A digital platform that enables real-world, hands-on virtual labs on a multitude of emerging technologies, supported by an extensive pool of over 700 certified mentors.

This acquisition creates new opportunities for NIIT and RPS Consulting to deliver innovative learning solutions in emerging digital technologies including Software Architecting and Engineering, Data Science, Cloud, Automation and DevOps, for both working professionals and new hires.

This acquisition will also help NIIT expand its Managed Training Services portfolio to include technology training as a Managed Service for its global customers. Pursuant to the transaction, RPS Consulting has become a subsidiary of NIIT. The leadership team of RPS Consulting would continue to drive operations.

Speaking on the announcement, Vijay Thadani, Vice Chairman & MD, NIIT Ltd. said, "We are excited to have RPS Consulting join the NIIT family. Their technical expertise will expand NIIT's capability to accelerate digital transformation journeys of large enterprises."

Speaking on the synergies of the relationship, Sapnesh Lalla, CEO and Executive Director, NIIT Ltd. said, "This acquisition enhances NIIT's strengths and capabilities to offer emerging technology programs for experienced technology professionals, in addition to NIIT's new hire, deep skilling and digital transformation programs."

Commenting on the development, Prasad Balakrishnan, CEO and Executive Director, RPS Consulting Pvt. Ltd. said "Both NIIT and RPS Consulting are leading names in the technology training industry. We are confident that this acquisition will result in creating significant value for our customers, partners and stakeholders."

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co acted as legal advisors for NIIT. Grant Thornton Bharat acted as financial and tax advisors and Majmudar & Partners acted as legal advisors for RPS Consulting.

This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India)

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Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) [India], October 4 (ANI/NewsVoir): For 31-year-old Manbodh Bagh from Titilagarh, Odisha, life was not easy as he had been suffering from a rare condition, plexiform neurofibroma, a benign tumor of the peripheral nerves since childhood.

As a result of this condition, he developed a tumor on his face, and it grew as he aged.

The tumor was massive, weighing 8+ kg and was a bulky mass drooping from the right side of his face. He faced humiliation from several people due to his looks and had visited multiple hospitals earlier for partial resection of the tumor. However, he was denied surgery as his chance of survival was bleak if they had gone ahead with his surgery due to the risk of torrential bleeding. At a major hospital in Odisha, his case was reviewed, surgery was attempted and was later abandoned due to uncontrolled bleeding.

Manbodh's condition became his source of misery and he desperately wanted to get rid of it. His hope soon arrived in the form of few well-wishers, the Newslions Media Network Pvt. Ltd. facilitated the treatment along with Milaap through a crowdfunding effort to provide him this life-changing surgery of multiple sittings. Post this, he visited Aster CMI Hospital in Bangalore for treatment where his condition was evaluated carefully, and his case subsequently accepted.

Manbodh had to undergo 16 different surgical procedures over a period of six months to get rid of the tumor by a team of doctors at Aster CMI, involving neurosurgery, plastic surgery, oncology, ENT, neuro-anaesthesia and ophthalmology, amongst the various departments, headed by Dr. Ravi Gopal Varma, Lead Consultant - Neurosurgery & Chief of Neurosciences; Dr. Madhusudan G, Lead and Senior Consultant - Plastic Surgery; Dr. Sathish M S Vasishta, Consultant - Craniomaxillofacial Surgery; Dr. Ravindra Battu, Sr. Consultant Ophthalmology; Dr. Raghavendra Pai K, Lead Consultant - Neuroanaesthesia; Dr. Girish G, Consultant - Surgical Oncology; Dr. Santhosh N U, Consultant - Neurosurgery & Endovascular Neurosurgery and Dr. Nirmala S, Consultant - Neurosurgery and a team of other doctors and surgeons.

The huge tumor was on the right side of his face, head and neck, and infiltrating into the right orbit and completely engulfing the right eye. This made the surgical removal difficult and risky. Speaking about the complications involved in Manbodh's surgery, Dr. Ravi Gopal Varma, Lead Consultant - Neurosurgery & Chief of Neurosciences, Aster CMI Hospital said, "Manbodh came to us with a prodigious tumor extending from his head till the neck. After undergoing unsuccessful debulking surgeries, his tumor was deemed inoperable. His CT scan also showed his facial bones were destroyed by the tumor.

Dealing with such a highly complex cases often requires different modalities of treatment and a multi-disciplinary approach. So, the team carefully evaluated the case and provided a seamless approach to the treatment. During the surgery to minimize the bleeding, we planned for preop tumor embolization. The DSA Angiogram showed a significant tumor blush supplied by multiple branches of facial artery, internal maxillary artery, superficial temporal artery and ophthalmic artery. Super selective catheterization of those multiple branches and tumor embolization was done using PVA Particles. The Final Angiogram showed a significant decrease in tumor blush which minimized the bleeding during surgery. The team finally were able to remove the tumor and restore the facial bone which was made possible due to the highly skilled doctors at Aster CMI, backed by state-of-the-art infrastructure and world-class medical equipment required for safe and secure surgery."

Dr. Sathish M S Vasishta, Consultant - Craniomaxillofacial Surgery, Aster CMI Hospital said, "The tumor involved his part of the forehead, orbit, maxilla, Zygoma, and half of the lower jaw along with the involvement of right temporomandibular joint. Since the tumor had destroyed his facial bones, the challenge was to restore it after the removal of the tumor. With his CT scans data, a 3D printed skull model of his face was made to assess extent of the tumor and designed excision plan and reconstruction."

Dr. Madhusudan G, Lead and Senior Consultant - Plastic Surgery, Aster CMI Hospital said, "Once the tumor was removed, we took Manbodh up for reconstruction surgery after 48 hours. Most of his facial skin had to be removed as the tumor was densely adherent, resulting in a large composite skin and soft tissue defect over the entire right half of the face. Reconstruction of such large defects which need microsurgical tissue transfer was challenging due to preoperative embolization. The entire reconstruction surgery was done in two stages by using three flaps skin and muscles of both his thighs as well as the right forearm. In the first stage right thigh skin and muscles were transferred by microsurgical means and in the second stage, a rare complex reconstruction method was used by connecting left thigh skin - muscle flap to his right forearm skin and transfer the combination of two flaps to the face by attaching hand to the forehead for three weeks."

Dr. Raghavendra Pai K, Lead Consultant - Neuroanaesthesia, Aster CMI Hospital said, "Manbodh was weighing 58 kg with the tumor. On 1st Dec'2020, the day of the first resection, which lasted for 19 hours where he suffered torrential blood loss and was transfused nearly 40 litres of fluids, blood and blood components. We had reserved 12 units of blood for this surgery, which is huge by regular standards and were able to get additional 8 units of blood in a short span of time. Since his tumor was affecting his mouth opening it was a challenge to get his breathing tube into his trachea for his first surgery. After 3 days of stabilization in the ICU, he underwent the reconstruction surgery which lasted for an additional 23 hours. We also took care of him in our Neuro ICU. We were able to mobilize Manbodh on the 15th day in the ICU and shifted him to the wards on Day 18. He then weighed about 44kg. The successful management of complex surgeries like these are possible when we have dedicated and capable teams under the same roof."

Pankaj, Director, Newslions Media Network Pvt. Ltd. said, "Once we came to know about Manbodh's case from a local reporter, we decided to help him at any cost and reached out to Milaap Foundation. We went to Odisha to meet Manbodh in person. We discussed the entire treatment plan at Aster CMI Hospital and explained about the crowdfunding to him. He came to Bangalore with us for the treatment. During the surgery, Manbodh suffered heavy blood loss. So, I along with my employees and friends came forward and donated blood for him. This was a wonderful experience and I feel that I have formed a blood relation with Manbodh.''

Explaining his plight, Manbodh, said, "In the hope of getting the tumor removed, I had consulted various doctors and visited multiple hospitals but all in vain. I was hesitant and shy to go outdoors due to the tumor. My life had become miserable. Finally, I came to know about Aster CMI Hospital and consulted the doctors here. They assured me of the best treatment and removal of this tumor. Newslions Media Network Pvt. Ltd. & Milaap crowdfunding platform also came forward to support me. I am elated and no words are enough to express my joy. I am thankful to all the doctors at the hospital who have given me a second chance to live again."

Manbodh is now leading a happy tumor-free life and post treatment, he recovered speedily, was discharged from the hospital with no complications and went back to his hometown with a big smile on his face.

Aster DM Healthcare Limited is one of the largest private healthcare service providers operating in multiple GCC states and is an emerging healthcare player in India. With an inherent emphasis on clinical excellence, we are one of the few entities in the world with a strong presence across primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary healthcare through our hospitals, clinics and pharmacies. We have over 19,800 plus dedicated employees across the geographies that we are present in, delivering a simple yet strong promise to our different stakeholders: "We'll treat you well". We reach out to all economic segments in the GCC states through our differentiated healthcare services across the "Aster", "Medcare" and "Access" brands.

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)

DISCLAIMER

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], October 4 (ANI/NewsVoir): An innovative communications agency, Vinisha Vision, has further cemented its award winning status by bagging two more distinguished awards, recently.

One, for being the 'Best Ad Agency' of the year at the Times Business Awards 2021 instituted by the Times of India, and two, for 'Best Creative for Digital' for client 'Health Basket's Mother's Day campaign', at South India's biggest advertising awards event, MADDYS 2021.

Speaking on the occasion, K.V. Kathiravan, MD, Vinisha Vision said, "I am extremely delighted about our agency clinching two of the most prestigious industry awards for excellence in Advertising & Marketing. These awards are special to us because they underline the credibility & quality of the kind of work, communications & marketing directors and advertising professionals World over focus on. Also, it feels more satiating when these accolades reflect our contribution to client's delivering winning results and that we are a part of their growth and success journey."

"Many of our creative concepts, Ad film making, media releases and teaser campaigns, for our distinguished brands that are household names in Southern India today, including VVD Coconut Oil, Udhaiyam Dhall, Ponvandu Soap, Naidu Hall, SVS Oil, Popular Appalam, Jain Cars, K S Academy, SSP Perungayam, Bhaggyam Construction, Arogya Siddha Hospital, Shri Krishnaswamy College for Woman, Nibav Lifts, Sheenlac Paints, and many others, stand testimony to the social engagements and excitement that we have generated, complete with an element of intrigue in all our ad campaigns."

A proud MD of Vinisha Vision, Kathiravan expressed his appreciation for his young and vibrant team, who with their burning desire continue to create brand fans and produce award-winning works for their clients. "Such awards not only inspire and instil a great amount of confidence in us, but also act as a great driving force and morale booster, giving us a sense of reassurance, and equal or more sense of responsibility, to do our best consistently. Reiterating the fact that 'consistency is the key' to building long lasting client relationships and we at Vinisha Vision are very happy to be a part of our client's journey for more than two decades now, seeing them grow into a multibillion business," he added.

For more details: Enquiry: (https://www.vinishavision.com/#contact) Website: (https://www.vinishavision.com)

Established in 1998 as an innovative communication agency, Vinisha Vision has ever since redefined brand communications and the advertising landscape with buzz worthy campaigns. A complete branding hub for TV Ad conceptualization, creative content designing, branding, integrated marketing communication and Interactive marketing, Vinisha Vision prides itself for its ad film making and event management prowess. Year on year the agency has been bagging awards in diverse fields for its creativity, branding and strategy.

A one stop shop for all ATL, BTL and Digital Media campaigns, Vinisha Vision specializes in media strategizing, planning and buying, in addition to outdoor branding and organising Media workshops in association with Rovin Outdoor. The agency creates print campaigns, marketing collaterals and more. It has a complete production team that develops ad films for clients ranging from FMCG to corporate products/services and gives its clients an all-round package to roll out comprehensive and full-fledged campaigns.

The Team behind

With Kathiravan, the MD at the helm is a team of young and vibrant, creative minds brimming with ambition to create brand fans and award winning works, for whom 'the art of tease' comes effortlessly.

The team offers customized creative strategies to enrich every client's brand value and amplify their brands with a minimum budget to and to ensure maximum reach. The campaigns emphasize the product's features and significance, eventually making it a household name, and helps your brand stand out from the competition.

With our clients our main goal isn't to grow when compared to last year's turnover, but to grow sizeably according to the growth of the market potential.

Vinisha Vision is taking rapid strides with creative strategies that endeavour to match the constantly changing and evolving markets. For more details, please visit:

Contact: info@vinishavision.com / kvk@vinishavision.com

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)

DISCLAIMER

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The benchmark indices snapped their four-day losing streak to end nearly 1 per cent higher on Monday. At close, the Nifty50 index was up 159 points, near the 17,700-level at 17,691. The BSE Sensex ended with a gain of 534 points at 59,299. The advance-decline ratio was at nearly 2:1 as out of the 30 Sensex stocks, 23 ended the day with gains.

The broader markets, too, ended the day in the positive territory, with the BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap indices rising 1.51 per cent and 1.71 per cent, respectively. The smallcap index had hit an intraday higher of 28,715. Sectorally, all Nifty indices ended in the green with the Nifty Metal, Media, Realty and PSU Bank indices rising over 2 per cent each.

Meanwhile, the shares of sugar companies rallied up to 8 per cent on record exports and healthy outlook. India's sugar export rose 20 per cent to an all-time high of 7.1 million tonnes on the back of better demand and financial assistance from the government.

Coming to other stock-specific moves, the shares of Divi's Laboratories surged 7.8 per cent today after hitting a 52-week high level of 5,315. The pharma stock, which is trading as the top Nifty gainer, is in focus as the company is MSD's authorised manufacturer for Molnupiravir API. US-based pharma major Merck is known as MSD outside the United States and Canada.

Patel Engineering's stock resumed its gains, rallying 20 per cent. The company had bagged Rs 1,251 crore order on September 27. Tata Motors gained nearly 3% on business recovery hopes. Chemical companies rose across the board as reports suggest 25 per cent of Chinas chemical production may be impacted.

That said, a strategic partnership with Eli Lilly failed to lift Cipla's shares, ending down 3 per cent. Cipla and Eli Lilly have entered into a strategic partnership in India to access Lilly's key diabetes products.

Going into trade on Tuesday, the market rally may continue as the market is back in action despite unfavourable global sentiments. According to Vinod Nair, Head Of Research at Geojit Financial Services, the momentum is driven by the expectation of better Q2 earnings backed by recovery in economic activity, second wave fallout not being severe and in anticipation of a better outlook from festival demand.

On the technical front, overall range is coming in between 17,300-18,000 zone and either side breakout will decide the final direction. RBI Monetary Policy Meeting is another key event that is being keenly watched by the market which is expecting no change. Lastly, stock-specific moves, global cues as well as related to Covid-19 will be among other major triggers for investors.
Heavy rainfall hit North Chinas Shanxi province, causing floods and landslides that damaged railways and devastated villages. The rain started on Saturday and continued through the National Day holiday. In Puxian county of Linfen, a landslide killed four and injured one on Tuesday; in Qixian county of Jinzhong, train services were interrupted after a railway bridge was damaged Wednesday; and in the ancient town of Pingyao, a 25-meter section of a city wall was damaged on Thursday

Oct 08, 2021 05:36 PM
This years edition of Seoul Promotion Plan (SPP), one of Asias premier global content markets, is underway. Seoul Business Agency will hold the event online until July 30.

The market, which is normally held in the South Korean capital, specializes in animation, characters, webtoons, and gaming. Since launching in 2001, it has grown into a major forum for the promotion and sale of animation IP, and for discussion about the future of the sector in Asia and beyond.

Last year, 619 companies from 34 countries, including global titans Disney and Tencent, participated in a record 4,092 biz-matching cases. And this despite the fact that the event was held online, like this year, because of the pandemic. While a virtual event cant replicate the social side of an onsite gathering, it lets guests attend more meetings  something which SPPs ever-evolving online platform facilitates.

Read on for more information about how SPP works and why you should attend:

Who is the event for?

Content creators, producers, studios, and anyone else in the content industry looking to diversify their business. SPP aims to serve in particular as a bridge between Korean and overseas companies, matching IP creators with buyers. Interpreters are present at the market to ensure smooth communication.

Whats happening this year?

SPP is hosting a full program of business-to-business events, including biz-matching, pitches, and showcases. One-to-one business video conferences are being held between attendees from more than 30 countries.

At the Global Ignite forum, major companies hold presentations on new developments in production, marketing, technologies, and investment across animation and other content, presenting opportunities for business development. Sessions include a talk on Canadian-Korean co-productions and an interview with Carl Reed, Director of Lion Forge Animation.

Recent additions to the program include a corporate-led content IR program and a webtoon category to appeal to buyers form China, a major overseas market for the format.

SPP also showcases the latest animation from Asian countries through the Asia Animation Alliance.

What is the Asia Animation Alliance?

A consultative body that promotes growth and collaboration in Asian animation. The participating countries are Korea, China, Japan, India, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Alongside the showcases, representatives will discuss the trends in their respective countrys industry.

Whats new at SPP in 2021?

While SPP has had an online platform since 2017, this year sees the introduction of SPP Connect, a new and improved virtual offering. It incorporates functions that improve user experience, such as AI-based recommendation solutions and video conferencing solutions, as well as advanced scheduling and online screening systems.

The newly established SPP Connect will become an online platform that can play a key role in exporting domestic contents amid the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic, says Park Bo-kyung, head of SBA Seoul Animation Center. At SPP 2021, we plan to provide support for domestic companies to create substantial business results by providing various opportunities to leading overseas buyers to pitch their projects.

To learn more about SPP 2021, visit the events website.
Photo: Contributed

Approximately 40 per cent of the Canadian workforce received benefit payments from the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB).

One year ago, the CERB program was wound up and, in its place, a revamped EI program and a new Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB) program allowed those still out of work to continue receiving income.

Over the coming weeks the CRB program will close, and many people will come to the end of their EI program eligibility period. It is estimated that 2.2 million Canadians currently receiving these benefits will be left to face the unknown.

On one hand, there is a valid argument that the generosity of these programs has far exceeded the need. Many people receiving these benefits have openly shared that they have no intention of looking for work since they have been earning more in benefit payments than they would at their job.

This 18-month paid vacation certainly needs to come to an end for many of these people as labour shortages are widespread in Canada right now. Walk down any street with businesses and you will see help wanted signs in every window.

But on the other hand, there are still many other Canadians who for one reason or another truly cant go back to work yet. And there is a lot of questions around what they have in store when their income stream dries up.

There is talk of the federal government creating new benefit programs to carry on for a further period of time but at this point we have no idea what those will look like since the Liberal party will need to form a government with support for one or more of their opposition. If they fail to do so, none of these new programs can be put in place.

Regardless of which side you are on (able to work and just havent bothered or still truly unable to work), you need to have a plan in place for what you intend to do. Sitting by doing nothing and deciding that you will just figure it out next month when the cheques stop coming is not the right decisionno matter how dire your situation may feel.

Being proactive now, researching the options available to you and making decisions on what you plan to do simply cannot be delayed another day. There are many resources available to you if you feel that you need support.

A quick google search will show you credit/debt counselling services from a variety of organizations.

Employment services from groups like the YMCA, Kelowna Community Resources and many others can also provide assistance for those that arent sure where to start.

Whatever your situation is, if you are one of many that are about to come off these income benefit programs in the coming weeks, please take action now so that you are as prepared as you can be.
Photo: The Canadian Press

China flew 52 fighter planes toward Taiwan on Monday in its largest show of force on record, continuing three days of sustained military harassment against the self-ruled island.

The sortie included 34 J-16 fighter jets and 12 H-6 bombers, among other aircraft, according to Taiwan's Ministry of National Defence.

The Taiwanese air force scrambled jets and monitored the movement of the Chinese warplanes on its air defence system.

Starting last Friday, on China's National Day, the People's Liberation Army sent 38 warplanes into the area and 39 aircraft on Saturday, previously the most in a single day since Taiwan began releasing reports on the flights in September 2020. China sent an additional 16 planes on Sunday.

The number of flights into Taiwan's air defence identification zone had prompted a statement from U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price over the weekend, who warned that Chinas military activity near Taiwan risks miscalculation and undermines regional peace and stability.

We urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic, and economic pressure and coercion against Taiwan, the statement said.
Photo: The Canadian Press

The European Unions drug regulator gave its backing Monday to administering booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for people 18 and older.

The European Medicines Agency said the booster doses may be considered at least 6 months after the second dose for people aged 18 years and older.

The agencys human medicines committee issued the recommendation after studying data for the Pfizer vaccine that showed a rise in antibody levels following boosters given around 6 months after the second dose in people from 18 to 55 years old.

The agency also said it supports giving a third dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or the Moderna vaccine to people with severely weakened immune systems at least 28 days after their second shot.

The agency said its decision came after studies showed that an extra dose of the vaccines increased people's ability to produce antibodies against the virus that causes COVID-19 in organ transplant patients with weakened immune systems.

Although there is no direct evidence that the ability to produce antibodies in these patients protected against COVID-19, it is expected that the extra dose would increase protection at least in some patients, the agency said in a statement.

The recommendations go to health authorities in all 27 EU nations. Some countries already have begun administering booster shots.

Numerous studies have shown that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines remain strongly protective months after people receive their second dose, dramatically cutting the risk of hospitalization and death.

The World Health Organization's chief had urged wealthy nations not to use booster doses this year, saying there is no scientific data that proves the shots are necessary. He said COVID-19 vaccines would be put to better use in developing countries, where many people still have not received their first vaccine shots.

The United States government launched a campaign last month to offer boosters of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine to millions of Americans even as federal health officials stressed the real problem remains getting first shots to the unvaccinated.

The coronavirus pandemic has killed at least 4.8 million people around the world.
Photo: Health Canada Health Canada says a brand of birth control is being recalled because the blister pack may contain a placebo pill where there should be an active one.

Health Canada is notifying Canadians that a brand of birth control is being recalled from the marketplace because the blister pack may contain a placebo pill where there should be an active one.

Apotex Inc. is recalling one lot (LF21272B) of Mirvala 28, a prescription birth control pill, "because the blister pack may contain a placebo pill (green) in place of an active birth control pill (white)," explains a news release.

Each Mirvala 28 package contains 21 white pills (active pills that contain hormones) and 7 green placebo pills (inactive pills with no hormone). To prevent pregnancy, the pills must be taken in the proper order. Missing an active pill or taking a placebo in place of an active pill could result in an increased risk of pregnancy because the pill does not contain any active hormone.

In addition to the risk of pregnancy, missing an active pill or taking a placebo in its place may "cause side effects, including spotting and irregular bleeding."

Health Canada is monitoring the effectiveness of the companys recall and the implementation of any necessary corrective and preventive actions.

What you should do
A study released today (attached) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that more than 2 million U.S. middle and high school students reported currently using e-cigarettes in 2021, with more than 8 in 10 of those youth using flavored e-cigarettes.

The report, published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, was based on data from the 2021 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS), a cross-sectional, self-administered survey of U.S. middle (grades 68) and high (grades 912) school students. The study assessed current (used on one or more of the past 30 days) e-cigarette use; frequency of use; and use by device type, flavors, and usual brand.

This NYTSadministered Jan. 18May 21, 2021was the first to be fully conducted amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected using an online survey to allow eligible students to participate in the classroom, at home or in some other place to account for various school settings during this time. Prior to the pandemic, the survey was conducted in person, inside the school classroom. Because of the changes in the way the survey was conducted this year, results of the 2021 NYTS cannot be compared to findings from previous surveys.

Nonetheless, the 2021 NYTS provides crucial information about youth use of e-cigarettes. Notably, when many students were in remote learning environments that might have affected their access to tobacco products, an estimated 11.3% (1.72 million) of high school students and an estimated 2.8% (320,000) of middle school students reported current e-cigarette use.

These data highlight the fact that flavored e-cigarettes are still extremely popular with kids. And we are equally disturbed by the quarter of high school students who use e-cigarettes and say they vape every single day, said Mitch Zeller, J.D., director of the FDAs Center for Tobacco Products. The FDA continues to take action against those who sell or target e-cigarettes and e-liquids to kids, as seen just this year by the denial of more than one million premarket applications for flavored electronic nicotine delivery system products. It is critical that these products come off the market and out of the hands of our nations youth.

Other Key Findings

Frequency of Use: Among youth who currently used e-cigarettes, 43.6% of high school students and 17.2% of middle school students reported using e-cigarettes on 20 or more of the past 30 days. Also among current users, more than 1 in 4 (27.6%) high school students and about 1 in 12 (8.3%) middle school students who used e-cigarettes used them daily.

Device Type Use: Among youth who currently used e-cigarettes, the most commonly used e-cigarette device type was disposables (53.7%), followed by prefilled or refillable pods or cartridges (28.7%), and tanks or mod systems (9.0%).

Flavor Use: Among youth who currently used e-cigarettes, 84.7% used flavored e-cigarettes including 85.8% of high school and 79.2% of middle school users. Overall, the most commonly used flavor types were fruit; candy, desserts, or other sweets; mint; and menthol. (Note that these results refer to flavors other than tobacco.)

Brand Use: Among high school students who currently used e-cigarettes, 26.1% reported their usual brand was Puff Bar, followed by Vuse (10.8%), SMOK (9.6%), JUUL (5.7%) and Suorin (2.3%). Among middle school students who currently used e-cigarettes, 30.3% reported their usual brand was Puff Bar, and 12.5% reported JUUL. Notably, 15.6% of high school users and 19.3% of middle school users reported not knowing the e-cigarette brand they usually used.

This study shows that even during the COVID-19 pandemic, e-cigarette use among youth remains a serious public health concern, said Karen Hacker, M.D., M.P.H., Director of CDCs National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Its critical we continue working together to protect young people from the risks associated with tobacco product use, including e-cigarettes. Our public health efforts include CDCs National and State Tobacco Control Program, and resources for educators, parents, and providers to warn youth about tobacco products and help them quit.



Addressing Youth Tobacco Product Use

Youth use of tobacco productsin any form, including electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) like e-cigarettesis unsafe. Such products contain nicotine, which is highly addictive and can harm the developing adolescent brain. Using nicotine in adolescence may also increase risk for future addiction to other drugs.

Ongoing efforts to address youth e-cigarette use is critical, including the FDAs significant progressexternal icon made on the unprecedented number of timely premarket applications received by the Sept. 9, 2020, court-ordered deadline for deemed new tobacco products, including e-cigarettes.

The agency has taken action on over 96% of the applications to date, including issuing marketing denial orders (MDO) for more than one million flavored ENDS products that are so popular with young people. The MDOs were issued for products whose applications lacked sufficient evidence that such products have a benefit to adult smokers to overcome the public health concern posed by the well-documented and considerable appeal of the products to youth. The FDA is aware of a number of companies, such as Puff Bar, claiming their products contain only synthetic nicotine not sourced from tobacco, which may raise separate regulatory and legal issues that the agency is considering how best to address.

Since 2014, e-cigarettes have been the most commonly used tobacco product among U.S. youth. As the tobacco product landscape continues to evolve, the sustained implementation of comprehensive tobacco control and prevention strategies at the national, state, and local levels, coupled with FDA regulations, can prevent and reduce tobacco product initiation and use among youth.

Additional Resources:
Oficemen appoints new president

ICR Newsroom By 04 October 2021

Jose Manuel Cascajero Rodriguez, president of Cemex Espana Operations, has been elected president of Oficemen. He succeeds Victor Garcia Brosa.



He will lead the Spanish cement sectors initiatives to address the challenges highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Spanish cement industry has once again demonstrated, since the beginning of the pandemic, its essential character for the maintenance and recovery of our economy. Today, more than ever, the Spanish cement sector plays a key role in meeting the great challenges that our society faces, said Mr Cascajero Rodriguez.



Oficemens new president has worked in the cement sector for 20 years after joining Cemex. His international career started in 2005 in the UK, as Cemexs head of treasury for Europe and Asia and in 2012 he was appointed corporate treasurer of the Cemex group in Mexico. Since 2016 he is responsible for strategic planning for Europe, the Middle East and Asia while combining this with the presidency of Cemex Spain Operations.



Mr Cascajero Rodriguez has a degree in Business Administration and Management from the Complutense University of Madrid and an MBA from ESCP Europe, France.

Published under
A woman told police she believed her car had been stolen. She said she had her car parked across the street from her home behind the Subway on Browns Ferry Road. While officers were investigating, the woman received a call from her sister informing her that she had her car and had picked it up as a prank that morning.

* * *

Police were dispatched to 2337 McCallie Ave. for a well-being check. Officers met with a man who said that he was cold and wanted a ride. Officers offered him a ride until he decided to change the address. The man then said he would call a friend to pick him up.

* * *

An owner of a vehicle reported stolen from Tall Pine Lane told police that he spotted the vehicle leaving Wings Town on 1805 East 23th St. While patrolling the area, police spotted the vehicle on 2400 McCallie Ave. The driver and the passenger door were opened and no occupants were found. The vehicle was fingerprinted and inventoried. Two bullets and one black pair of pants were recovered and will be turned in to Property. The vehicle was drivable and was released to the owner. Police went to Wings Town to locate video footage of the suspects, but the video footage was not clear enough to gather any helpful information.

* * *

Officers responded to Clarion Inn, 3641 Cummings Hwy., regarding people stuck in an elevator. The fire department arrived on scene, shut down the elevator power and were able to get two adults out of the elevator (a man and a woman). The couple did not wish to make a report. The elevator has been shut down from guest use.

* * *

A woman at Inn Town Suites on Gunbarrel Road told police she wanted her ex-boyfriend to leave her room. The man vacated the premises prior to police arrival. He was showing an OOP, but it had expired. The woman thanked police.

* * *

A landlord on Garfield Street and her husband told police they needed their presence while asking her tenant to move out of the house after giving him a 30-day eviction notice earlier. She said the tenant was under a program for six months from an agency that assists homeless people. The agency paid the first three months in full for him and paid the other three months until the tenant was able to pay on his own. She and the tenant agreed on a month-to-month lease. The landlord decided to terminate the lease due to unpaid rent. She was told by the police to go through the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office eviction process until the police are able to step in and take legal action.

* * *

A man told police he found a purse and wallet while walking in the parking lot close to Finley Stadium. Police found the items of the purse were scattered on the ground. The wallet contained a Social Security card. Officers brought all items to Property for booking.

* * *

The manager at the Microtel Inn & Suites, 7014 McCutcheon Road, told police a man came to the front desk and said a woman in room 227 was unconscious. The manager said they gave the man two cans of Narcan and he used it on the woman, causing her to wake and be alert. The manager said the woman and man then got into a friend's vehicle and left prior to police, fire and EMS arrival. He said they did not have any information on the woman, other than she goes by the name "PJ."

* * *



A man told police he lost his wallet at the Walmart, 501 Signal Mountain Road, around 3 p.m. He said he had called and cancelled all his cards.

* * *

A man told police he locked his bicycle on the bike rack outside of the gym on Lee Highway. He said after his workout he came outside to find his bicycle stolen. He said his bike was a Polygon bike with a green and gray frame that had the approximate value of $700. He said he would call in at a later time to give the serial number for the bike.

* * *

A woman on Passenger Street reported that Chattanooga Fire Department needed to break two doors to enter a residence with a fire alarm going off. The locks on the doors cost $650 each. The woman was given a report card for insurance purposes.

* * *

Police were called to the Mayan Kitchen, 507 Broad St., on the reports of an unconscious person. Police spoke with a white male who was sleeping. Chattanooga FD responded and checked the man out and he had no medical complaints. The man was eventually able to stand and walk on his own without posing a danger to himself or others. He went on his way.

* * *

A man on Plaza Circle told police that an unknown black sedan was parked across the street from this address. Police observed the described vehicle, which was occupied by a man they identified. The man said he lived a few houses down the street. This was confirmed through a check of his ID. A check for warrants was conducted with negative results. Police observed no criminal activity taking place and the man lived a couple of houses down from the caller, therefore no police action was necessary.

* * *



A suspicious person was reported at a residence on Kirby Avenue. Police met with a man there who said that he was trying to turn the lights on in his house. Officers assisted him with turning the breakers back on.

* * *

A woman told police that someone went into her unlocked vehicle and took her cash and gold necklace. She said she believes the theft may have occurred while she was inside the Speedway at 2245 Hickory Valley Road. Police, along with the woman and the store manager, viewed the store security camera, but did not observe anyone around the woman's vehicle.

* * *

A man at the Clarion Inn, 3641 Cummings Hwy., told police his vehicle had been broken into, but nothing had been taken. Officers observed scratch marks on the top of the inside of the driver's side door where someone may have pried the door open. The man showed officers where his vehicle had been ransacked and rummaged through. Officers spoke to the manager of the Clarion to attempt to obtain footage, but were unable to do so due to the owner not being there for authorization. Officers will return to the Clarion Inn at a later time to attempt to obtain video footage.

* * *

A disorder was reported at a residence on Premium Drive. Police met with a woman, her husband and their neighbor. The woman said that their neighbor acts like he owns the street and does whatever he wants. She said that her husband went and confronted the neighbor and a verbal argument started. The husband and the neighbor said nothing happened and they just want each other to get along. At this time, it appeared that the neighbor had not been breaking any laws.

* * *

Police were dispatched to the Walmart, 490 Greenway View Dr., regarding a person panhandling and almost getting hit by vehicles in the middle of the street. Police made contact with the man and identified him. Police told him that he cannot panhandle and that police received calls about him obstructing the roadway. The man acknowledged what police told him and he left the area. He was entered into the Panhandling Log and received a warning.

* * *

A disorder was reported at Kanku's Five, 7900 Shallowford Road. The owner told police that a woman had been in the bathroom for two hours and would not come out. He said he wanted the woman trespassed from the property. Officers made contact with the woman, who was still in the bathroom. Officers walked her off the property and informed her she was trespassed from the property.

* * *

Police were flagged down by the owner of Nephews, 4380 Dorris St. He told police there was a large group of people gathered outside of Nephews. He said the group that was gathered were not patrons of the bar and he wished to have them removed from the bar property. There were eight CPD officers who responded to the bar to assist in removing the people from the parking lot of Nephews. In addition to the large crowd in the parking lot, there were vehicles parked in the roadway and large groups of people walking in the roadway to and from vehicles, causing a disruption to the normal flow of traffic. CPD officers on scene ordered everyone present to leave the property, as the bar owner said anyone outside of the bar, in the parking lot and surrounding areas were not patrons of the bar and were no longer allowed on the property. The large group of people did leave the area at the direction of officers.
When retired Chattanoogan John McLean was taking his weekly art class while a schoolboy in his native Ireland decades ago, the teacher one day let the students experiment with watercolor painting.

I fooled around with it, and he came over and said, You can do this, and he made a couple of squiggles, and it came to life, Mr.

McLean recalled of first falling in love with the medium.

That set off a lifetime of watercolor painting as a rewarding hobby during and following a work career as a mechanical engineer in such places as Ireland, Canada, Boston, and Chattanooga.

However, although he dealt primarily with manmade objects in his former vocation, including pressure vessels at TVA Sequoyah Nuclear Plant, he focused more on the tranquility of nature in his paintings in his avocation.

Almost all of them are landscapes, he said. Some of them are real places or my memories of real places. A few are from photographs.

And a lot of them are just ideas out of my head or ideas I have stolen from other artists.

While he hopes these paintings brighten a room, he is also trying to help brighten lives.

Saying he has come to a point in his life as a senior citizen when he is focusing on what he can leave behind as a positive legacy, he came up with an idea of how to help his community.

And what has resulted is literally an old Irish blessing of the visual variety, if you will.

I had a lot of paintings and realized I am not going to be around here much longer and thought, What am I going to do with them, he said. I took it to the Lord, and said, Show me what I can do with these paintings and benefit someone. 

What he felt led to do, he said, was donate them to his church, First-Centenary United Methodist in downtown Chattanooga. The church, in turn, has been enthusiastically selling them in person or online at a set price or through silent auction.

All the money will go toward the churchs Centenary program, which nurtures children in the Chattanooga community through academic tutoring, physical education, and life skills and spiritual expression development.

The ministry, which is opening a branch location at White Oak United Methodist Church this fall, offers all these activities through an after-school program and summer day camp, as well as a student launch program that guides students through the college/career search process.

The paintings number more than 75 and were done in the last 10-12 years, said Mr. McLean, who has studied with Jim and Carolyn Wright among others and has been a member of the In-Town Gallery.

Some of the art pieces feature area bucolic farmland scenes such as barns by pastures, while others highlight a building on the Maine coastline or still lifes of flower bouquets. Most are framed and all are matted.

While these paintings capture somewhat isolated and peaceful scenes, the attention around them has been the opposite. Dozens of First-Centenary United Methodist Church members and others attended the first public viewing on Sunday, and several paintings were already sold outright after bidding opened online last week.

The on-site viewings in the churchs hallway cloister by the sanctuary are open to the entire Chattanooga community, officials say. The showings will continue Monday through Thursday until Oct. 14 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and on the next two Sundays through Oct. 17 from noon to 2 p.m.

The paintings can also be viewed  and purchased and bid on -- online at https://firstcentenary.com/ johnmcleanartshow .

The bidding will close on Oct. 17 at 2 p.m., and purchasers can pick up their paintings on either Oct. 19 or 20 between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the church.

Centenary directory Mary Grey Moses  who welcomes those with further questions about the sale to contact her at mgmoses@fcumc.org -- said the church has been touched by the gesture of Mr. McLean and his wife, Venita, who have been longtime Centenary supporters.

We were very honored that he selected us to be the recipients, she said.

For Mr. McLean, attempting to help spread joy through the paintings that can help the churchs Centenary program is an extension of the joy he has received from his lifelong hobby of painting.

That is, even though this medium that mixes color pigments with water is not considered the easiest way to paint, he stated with a laugh.

You have a piece of beautiful white paper, and it gives me pleasure to put the colors down, he said, adding that he often does not have a full mental idea of a painting when he begins, and that watercolor has a mind of its own and sometimes he just lets a painting do its own thing.

Its just a joyful experience, and at times a little frustrating. Sometimes things dont go as planned. But it keeps you humble!

* * * * *

Jcshearer2@comcast.net
Coty Wamp said Monday that Vince Butler will serve as her campaign manager and the former Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Chris Devaney, will serve as an advisor and campaign spokesperson for her race for District Attorney General.

She said, "Like Mr. Butler, Mr. Devaney has led many successful Republican campaigns, including the recent election of Bill Lee as Tennessee Governor in 2018."

Ms. Wamp said she plans to make her first public remarks on the campaign at the Pachyderm Club on Oct. 25 prior to her first fundraising event on Nov. 4.

The election is next May 3.

After serving three years as an Assistant Public Defender in Hamilton County and almost three years as an Assistant District Attorney in the 10th Judicial District, Ms. Wamp joined the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office as general counsel where she currently serves.

She said, I am truly excited to begin this journey, and I look forward to visiting with residents across Hamilton County and sharing my vision for the office and discussing ways we can all work together to protect our children, seniors and families from violent criminals. As your District Attorney, I will strongly support and defend our heroes in law enforcement, advocate for and protect our community by sending violent criminals to prison, work towards creating a more efficient criminal justice system, and restore integrity and dignity to our District Attorneys office.

"The quality of life we have enjoyed from exceptional growth and development in Hamilton County will be at risk if we do not come together now and tackle the most pressing issue facing our city - violent crime.

"The District Attorney is the chief prosecutor in the County and for far too long, our District Attorney has remained silent while violent crime has taken hold of our city. It is time for our community to have a District Attorney who will take a stand and bring our elected and community leaders together to find positive, solution-oriented ideas that will make our community and neighborhoods safer.

I am running for District Attorney for many reasons, but the primary focus must be the destruction and heartache violent crime is causing in our community. The neighborhoods with the highest crime rates must know that their community and their elected officials care about them. Our solutions can no longer be hollow. I will create a Gang and Violent Crime Unit consisting of expert law enforcement officers who can work with community leaders and residents to create positive, recognizable, and lasting changes. We have to work together.

She said she also "believes the District Attorney needs to prioritize its resources by focusing more on prosecuting violent crimes and less on lower-level offenses. Misdemeanors and petty offenses cannot remain pending in our Courts for months and years. As District Attorney, I will work with prosecutors in the office to resolve more cases in the lower court, so they do not clog the Grand Jury and Criminal Court dockets. I believe this change will create a more efficient criminal justice system and is achievable and realistic with the right leadership in the office.

I will dedicate more resources to the prosecution of serious offenders by eliminating several inefficient, non-essential positions within the office and replace them with experienced prosecutors who will contribute every single day to the mission of prosecuting career criminals and keeping them off our streets.

"Most importantly, I believe law enforcement in Hamilton County should know and trust that their District Attorney supports them. The anti-police culture that some in our nation have recently promoted should have no place in Southeast Tennessee. Every single day, I will have the back of our honorable officers and deputies and ensure we are doing everything possible to keep criminals off the street. Join me as we change the culture, engage the inner city, and make our community a safer place to live.








When a homeless Navy veteran was found dead in the tent she called home, a team quickly came together to take appropriate actions to provide a funeral and final resting place for her at the National Cemetery.



U.S. Navy Dental Assistant Melissa Gail Miner was a service member for 22 months, just shy of the 24-month requirement for burial in the National Cemetery. The Southeast Tennessee Veterans Coalition reached out to Sen. Bill Hagertys office to ask for assistance in receiving a waiver to allow Ms. Miners burial.



Sam Wolfe of the Citys Office of Homelessness and Supportive Housing said, Melissa, with her caring heart, would often forgo her own needs to put the needs of others first. In fact, the only time she ever called our outreach team was to solicit help for a friend. Much of the loss of life we see among our homeless population is preventable: Melissa's death underscores how our community must come together to tackle the root causes of homelessness, like building supportive housing and ensuring there's a robust safety net of social services to help people get back on their feet. The Office of Homelessness and Supportive Housing will remember Melissa; her story galvanizes our team in this important work.



With Sen. Hagertys and Senator Marsha Blackburn's assistance, the waiver was approved by Under Secretary Matthew T. Quinn, Memorial Affairs to have Ms. Miner placed in the military cemetery. Over a period of weeks, the military liaison to Sen. Hagerty worked with local entities to arrange for the funeral and final internment.



Capt. Mickey McCamish , U.S. Navy (Retired) said, Chattanooga has always been known for our dedication to our country and those who provide and support the important work of our military. Today, we are inviting anyone in the area to join us on Wednesday, Oct. 6 at 10 a.m. at the National Cemetery to pay respects to a member of our military.



Advantage Funeral Home is providing final arrangements and a motorcade to the cemetery with American Legion Post 95 providing a rifle salute and the U.S. Navy providing the flag folding ceremony and playing of taps. Chaplain Commander Philip E. Sumrall, CHC, U.S. Navy (Retired) will conduct the service.



Capt. McCamish noted, It is an honor for us to pay respect to the service of Melissa Miner. We want to honor her service to our country and provide her with dignity in her death that she did not find in her life.

Here is the text of the letter from the senators:

Dear Mr. Under Secretary:



We write to you today regarding the interment of Melissa Miner-Murdock, who served in the

U.S. Navy as a Dental Assistant from 1990 to 1992. Ms. Miner-Murdock served 22 months and

was honorably discharged on March 27, 1992. It is our understanding that Ms. Murdock passed

away in Chattanooga on July 1, 2021. Although she was only two months shy of the 24 month

active duty requirement for placement in a national cemetery, we believe her final resting place

should be amongst her peers at the Chattanooga National Cemetery.



We respectfully request you designate this veteran, who served our country honorably for 22

months, eligible for interment at the Chattanooga National Cemetery.

Marsha Blackburn

United States Senator

Bill Hagerty

United States Senator
TWRA officials issued a statement defending practices in managing the Bridgestone Firestone Centennial Wilderness Area.

Officials said:



TWRA wishes to provide correct information regarding habitat management at Bridgestone Firestone Centennial Wilderness Area. Unfortunately, several news stories with incorrect information have prompted the agency to provide concise, scientific information regarding habitat improvements proposed on 230 acres out of the 54,000 acres of public land.

Why would TWRA cut old trees down?

In order to manage for wildlife and public safety effectively, forests must be managed.

TWRA must actively create and provide habitat that maximizes benefits to wildlife on the 1.5 million acres that TWRA controls statewide out of the almost 27 million acres in Tennessee. Closed canopy, old growth forests are biological deserts that lack good habitat for most wildlife species because of the absence of ground vegetation. TWRA is restoring one of the most endangered habitats in the U.S. by restoring native grasslands. This project will convert approximately 230 acres of closed-canopy forest to younger habitat known as early successional habitat which will benefit a much greater variety of game and nongame species. This initial 230-acre project is included as part of approximately 1,000 acres that has been identified for forest conversion in the future.

Are we managing our forests for profit?

No. Our mission is to preserve, conserve, manage, protect, and enhance wildlife and their habitats. This is the overarching goal for all TWRA managed lands. Harvesting timber does result in revenue, however the estimated revenue on this harvest is between $80,000-$120,000 which will be invested back into the Bridgestone Firestone WMA within a year for wildlife conservation and management. TWRA invests over $200,000 annually for wildlife conservation at this property.

What species will benefit?

Deer, turkey, prairie warbler, field sparrow, loggerhead shrike, yellow-breasted chat, indigo bunting, blue grosbeak, eastern cottontail, dickcissel, quail, numerous endangered plants, and several others. Grassland habitat has many benefits for lots of species. Hunters should know the ground cover vegetation will provide food sources and nutritional requirements for deer antler growth and development during the spring and summer months and acorn production as a fall food source would still be provided. Reducing overgrown forest acreage will greatly enhance nesting and brooding cover for wild turkeys and lead to greater numbers of gobblers.

Why are native grasslands important?

Native grasslands and shrublands are far more important to the conservation of all species than mature forests. This type of habitat provides food and cover to these species whereas mature forests limit light to the forest floor which reduces food, cover and plant diversity. Among many other reasons increasing the quantity of native grasslands in this area will provide a large enough space to positively impact wildlife. In addition, a 2018 study, led by The Nature Conservancy, found that in the U.S., conserving grasslands could prevent almost three times as much carbon emission as conserving forests.

Are we doing this all for quail?

Quail, a species of greatest conservation need in Tennessee, as well as many other songbirds, are limited across Tennessee largely due to a lack of quality early successional native plant communities. TWRA and partners plan to continue these efforts to further increase native grasslands and shrublands to provide and enhance habitat for many wildlife species that either require or benefit from these rare and endangered plant communities.

A public meeting will be held Monday, Oct. 4 at 6 p.m. at the Sparta Civic Center, located 514 East Bockman Way. TWRA, along with partner organizations, will address any concerns and answer questions from the public.
On the Georgia side of Lookout Mountain lies the very picturesque and beautiful rural property that is now owned by the Lula Lake Land Trust which was formed in 1994 primarily through the efforts of Robert Davenport, a member of the second generation of the family that founded the Krystal Company, a fast food restaurant chain in the South.

Originally, the initial tract of land purchase was over 1,000 acres and its size has now increased to over 8,000 acres. Through the efforts of the Davenport family, what was once a dumping ground for garbage, burned out stolen automobiles and a popular lovers lane is now a scenic natural site that is available to the public under the supervision and control of the land trust created by him prior to his untimely death in 1994.

The waters of Rock Creek Gorge tumble downward into Lula Lake and then roar over Lula Falls on its descent to the Chattanooga Valley below.

Open to the public on a limited basis there is a parking fee required for admission.

This rustic site was also the venue for one of the most highly publicized murder cases in the history of the region.

A young couple, Orville "Pete" Steele, age 19, and his girlfriend, Carolyn Newell, age 16, on Sunday, April 14, 1963, had gone to Lula Lake. Their bodies were found six days later after a massive search in the community had taken place.

Pete Steeles body was tied to a tree and he died of strangulation with the use of twine and a wooden stick tightened around his neck. Some 100-150 feet from Petes body lay the remains of Carolyn Newell with her wrists bound together with twine. She has been raped several times, struck in the head and then choked to death. The grisly scene revealed that she was naked from the waist down and wild animals had eaten part of her leg.

Suspicion immediately directed towards 27-year-old James Blevins who later admitted he would drive to Lookout Mountain and spy on young couples who engaged in sexual intercourse. He was picked up for questioning and admitted that he had talked to the couple but denied any involvement in their murders.

He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, held without bond and was housed in the jail at Rome, Georgia, because of rumored threats against him in Walker County. The State of Georgia elected to try the Carolyn Newell case first and the Pete Steele case was put on hold until it was concluded. Thus the stage was set for a prosecutorial mistake that would ultimately result in Blevins being acquitted of both murders.

The case was prosecuted on behalf of the State of Georgia by attorney general Earl Self, and special prosecutor from Summerville, the legendary Bobby Lee Cooke. James Blevins was defended by another great of the Georgia Bar, Colonel Frank Gleason of Rossville, who was an aggressive and tenacious trial lawyer. In a case that attracted not only local and state media coverage, it also was picked up by the New York Times.

In a hotly contested trial by outstanding lawyers, Blevins was found guilty of the Newell murder and sentenced to death by electrocution. On appeal, the conviction was overturned on the ground that the selection of jurors must be drawn in open court. By analogy, a new trial was granted because the indictment charging Blevins with murder was likewise not returned in open court but was handed to the court clerk in the trial judge's office.

A second trial was held in the case and Blevins was acquitted. The State of Georgia next attempted to try the defendant in the Pete Steele case but the prosecution made the mistake of not giving Blevins a trial within two regular terms of court after the term for which he had filed a demand for trial as required by Georgia statute.

In a decision based on a technicality the Georgia Court of Appeals on March 11, 1966, held that Blevins right to a speedy trial had been denied and that the murder charge in the Pete Steele case had to be dismissed freeing James Blevins.

Pulitzer Prize winning writer Cormac McCarthy is alleged to have repeatedly relied on the facts of the Blevins murder case when he wrote his novel Child of God which closely parallels the historical details in the actual murder in northwest Georgia at the site which is now the Lula Lake Land Trust.

Since the location is now generally closed to the public after dark, little facts are known as to whether the ghosts of Carolyn Newell and Pete Steele are present on the beautiful and tranquil premises.

* * *

Jerry Summers



(If you have additional information about one of Mr. Summers' articles or have suggestions or ideas about a future Chattanooga area historical piece, please contact Mr. Summers at jsummers@summersfirm.com)
You cant listen to The Whos music without wanting to blast it. Pete Townshends guitar playing, Roger Daltreys singing, John Entwistles bass playing, and Keith Moons outrageous drumming will never get old. But outside of melting fans faces with music, The Whos drummer had a knack for performing equally outrageous pranks on his peers. Here are the top 5 most ridiculous pranks that Moon pulled in his day.

Keith Moon | Chris Morphet/Redferns/Getty Images

5. Keith Moon snuck into Mick Jaggers hotel room dressed as Batman

In a recent appearance on Howard Sterns Sirius XM radio show (per NME), Mick Jagger told the host about one night when he was awoken by Moon dressed as Batman, standing over his hotel bed. Keith was a complete lunatic, Jagger said. I was in LA in a hotel once, asleep, and he broke into my room dressed as Batman. I woke up and there was Batman in front of me, with a mask and everything. It is not what you expect in the middle of the night. I think I had a knife, at least some sort of defensive weapon. So I pulled the knife and he said, Oh no, its Keith. I said, Youre not Keith I can tell you are not from your voice. He replied, No, Keith Moon. Then he took the mask off. Moon had climbed up Jaggers fire escape. Thats dedication.

4. Moon and his explosives almost destroyed the entire The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour set

The Who is known for their shocking on-stage antics. They famously destroyed their equipment whenever they felt like it. It was punk before punk. However, Moon took that behavior a little too far during The Whos performance on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967. It was the bands American TV debut, and Moon wanted to end the show with a bigger bang than even The Who was used to. They performed their hit song My Generation, but their smash-up finale was unforgettably real, thanks to Moon loading his drums with considerably more flash powder than hed ever used before, Rolling Stone writes. The resulting explosion nearly blew the Who themselves off the stage, momentarily blinded the TV cameras, and caused Bette Davis, who was in the program as well, to faint.

RELATED: How Paul McCartney Responded When Keith Moon Asked to Join The Beatles

3. One of Moons reccurring pranks involved PSAs

When The Who rolled through town, you knew it. Moon would drive around small English towns spouting out fake PSAs over a loudspeaker. That was one of his favorite recurring pranks. To be as loud and obnoxious as he could, he would often use a police bullhorn and hidden amplifiers that were already attached to his car so he could blast his strange messages without rolling the windows down. According to Rolling Stone, Moons PSAs intended to scare the locals of nonexistent dangers as impending tidal waves or advancing throngs of poisonous snakes. Moon designed some messages to ruffle their feathers by announcing that the British government would be moving the countrys entire immigrant population to their neighborhoods.

2. Moon once dressed as a vicar and staged his own kidnapping

According to Rolling Stone, Moon loved going out in public dressed in costume. Costumes that would definitely attract attention. One of his favorites was a bald vicar, who would randomly scream obscenities to the casual passerby. But that wasnt all the vicar did. Dressed as the character, Moon would stage his own kidnappings. Once, while walking down Londons crowded Oxford Street around midday, the vicar was kidnapped by a couple of gangsters. They dragged him off the street, kicking and screaming, and pushed him into a Rolls Royce. However, the gangsters were members of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, and the Rolls Royce was really Moons. Police even intercepted the car before they could make their getaway.

RELATED: Pete Townshend Said He Doesnt Really Thank God Keith Moon Is Dead

1. One of Moons pranks involved a water bed but it didnt go to plan

Moon was such a hell-raiser that he virtually destroyed every hotel room he ever stayed in, especially his room in Copenhagen, Denmark, which he devastated in 1972. There was a water bed in Moons room, and he wanted to lug it to the hotels elevator and send it down into the lobby. He asked Townshend to help him, but it burst when they tried yanking it from the bed frame. Foot-high waves sailed into the hallway. Moon had a problem on his hands; how was he going to pay for all the damages? Moon was an expert, though, and got his way out of the mess without any hassle. He phoned the hotels manager and angrily told him the bed had popped and destroyed all his stage clothes. The manager apologized and moved Moon up to the fancy Presidential suite. The Who later destroyed that room as well.

Keith Moon was a force to be reckoned with, but he made some awesome moments in rock n roll history and inspired other hell-raisers like the Sex Pistols and Motley Crue. However, decades after Moons death in 1978, hotels can live in peace.
90 Day Fiance star Tania Maduro has finally confirmed that she and Syngin Colchester, have split after over four years together. The couple who had issues labeling each other soulmates finally called it quits. What is next for this couple? Could joining 90 Day: The Single Life be on the horizon for this couple?

Tania Maduro and Syngin Colchester in 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After? | TLC

Syngin and Tanias 90 Day Fiance journey

Tania met Syngin on her impromptu trip to South Africa at the bar where Syngin was bartending. Tania spent a drunken night at Syngins house, which quickly turned into four and a half months. After returning to the United States, they maintained their long-distance relationship. Though they had some bumps in their relationship regarding some very different views on life, the couple decided to marry.

In the last episode of 90 Day Fiance Season 7, Tania and Syngin married in an untraditional wedding in Tanias backyard. Tania wore a black dress, and they tattooed their wedding rings on. In season 5 of 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After?, Syngin and Tania struggled financially after the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown caused Tania to lose her bartending job. The couple had disagreements regarding when to have children and what they wanted for their futures.

Tania confirms split with Syngin on Instagram

On Oct. 3rd, Tania posted a TikTok video on her Instagram of her posing and dancing in front of a white background. Tania finally decided to come clean about the status of her and Syngins marriage. The caption reads, Some rumors are true -#SingleLife New Season was announced and yes I am single, @syngin_colchester is single  were all single!!

The 90 Day Fiance star jokes, Now dont go all at once to his DMs ladies or hell never be able to sort them all out. She concludes the post with a plug for her Unfiltrd account  a platform similar to OnlyFans. She ends the post, Keep an eye out for my @unfiltrdofficial page to come  in just a few weeks!

Tania has received a vast amount of support from her fans, wishing her the best of luck on her new journey as a single woman. Syngin even commented on the post, Good luck on your journey, with three fire emojis. It appears that the couple has split amicably, as Tania had just posted a special Instagram post dedicated to Syngin on his birthday a few weeks back.

Will Syngin and Tania appear on The Single Life?

On Sept. 12th, Syngin announced his return to reality TV when he posted a photo to Instagram. In the now-deleted section of the caption, he announced he would be back on TV in like two months. Then he spent weeks alone in Arizona with his festie bestie Erin, going to festivals and partying together. This ignited the rumors that he and Tania had split, and he had moved on with Erin.

On Oct. 3rd, Syngin held a Q&A with his fans on Instagram. A fan posed the question: What are you working on right now? The 90 Day Fiance star posted a photo to her Instagram story of Tania filming with a camera crew with the caption, Cant say but I probably will drop it next week.

90 Day: The Single Life cast is slowly being revealed by the official Instagram account. Stephanie Matto from 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days is the first cast member looking for love on Nov. 12th, 2021, on discovery+. With the news that Tania and Syngin are officially back on the market, the official 90 Day Fiance Instagram will likely be confirming their participation on the show this week.

RELATED: 90 Day: The Single Life Season 2 Reveals Air Date and the First Returning Cast Member
The first half of American Horror Story Season 10, Red Tide, has come to a close. Now, its time to dive into the second half: Death Valley. Part 2 premiered on Sept. 29, featuring American Horror Story newcomer Kaia Gerber. The young model appeared in the franchises spinoff series, American Horror Stories, but many fans criticized her performance. Now, some of that criticism has spilled over into the Death Valley premiere.

[Spoiler alert: The following story contains some spoilers for American Horror Story Season 10 Episode 7, Take Me To Your Leader.]

Kaia Gerber as Kendall Carr in American Horror Story Season 10 | FX

Kaia Gerber plays a college-aged luddite named Kendall in American Horror Story Season 10

In Death Valley, Gerber plays college student Kendall Carr, who returns home for the summer to spend time with her three closest friends. During a night out, Kendall tells Cal (Nico Greetham), Jamie (Rachel Hilson), and Troy (Isaac Cole Powell) about her (mostly) technology-free experience at school. She convinces her friends to join her in putting away their phones for a camping trip in the New Mexico desert, but the trip doesnt quite go as planned.

While heading out for some time in the sun, Kendall, Cal, Jamie, and Troy come across a herd of bulls sliced completely in half. Scared, the group flees the scene and packs up to go home. However, during their drive to civilization, a mysterious beam of light traps their car and causes them to lose consciousness temporarily.

When Kendall and her friends return home, they all experience a strange sickness, and a curious Kendall insists that they all take pregnancy tests. Sure enough, all four tests come out positive, and Kendall suspects an alien invasion. After that shocking reveal, the coming episodes are sure to be interesting.

Sone American Horror Story fans think Kaia Gerber lacks emotion

Is there a discount if you register together? Episode 7 of #AHSDoubleFeature is now streaming on #FXonHulu. pic.twitter.com/Z3kJR4MVEe  AmericanHorrorStory (@AHSFX) October 2, 2021

Many American Horror Story fans have criticized Gerbers acting in the premiere. In a Reddit discussion of the episode, some said her performance felt wooden.

Where is the reaction?! Shes just like :| theres no blood :| while looking at a mutilated animal, one fan wrote.

Other viewers couldnt believe that Gerber has so far been featured more prominently in Death Valley than some of the most popular American Horror Story alum, including Lily Rabe and Sarah Paulson. These actors do appear in Death Valley, but only in the 1950s scenes.

We have Sarah Paulson and Lilly Rabe, yet Kaia Gerber is getting the most screen time, one user added.

The 50s part was excellent. The minute I saw Kaia Gerber and her friends were going to have more time, my heart sank, another person wrote.

Many fan opinions echo the thoughts some had after watching Gerber in American Horror Stories. At the time, some viewers said it seemed like she was reading from a script.

Others are cutting the young actor some slack

Of course, fan opinions about Gerber arent all bad. Many people have argued that her acting improved between American Horror Stories and American Horror Story Season 10.

I do think Kaia is doing better than her role in Stories. That being said, shes playing a college-aged girl from a rich family, so shes basically playing herself, one person added to the thread. But maybe thats where she needed to start out. I think the Stories role was not a good fit. If she wasnt in that and only played this part, I dont think she would have gotten so much hate.

In another post, one person urged viewers to give Gerber a fair chance to impress. They pointed out that former American Horror Story star Emma Roberts faced the same scrutiny but soon became a favorite.

Wasnt great in Stories, more due to that character and the writing. But I think [Gerber] did a fine job in the first episode of Death Valley. Shes not a phenomenal actress, but I dont think shes bad, they wrote. So many people thought Emma Roberts acting was the worst thing to happen to the show, and shes grown to be a favorite of a lot of fans. I think people should give her a break. She is still a young girl starting out in acting after all.

American Horror Story Season 10 airs new episodes every Wednesday at 10 p.m. on FX.

RELATED: Noah Cyrus Cried When She Got American Horror Story Role For This Reason
Call the Midwife is back on PBS, but a familiar face is missing. Jennifer Kirby, who played Nurse Valerie Dyer for four seasons, wont appear in season 10.

Jennifer Kirby decided to leave Call the Midwife

[L-R] Nurse Valerie Dyer (Jennifer Kirby), Nurse Trixie Franklin (Helen George), and Nurse Lucille Anderson (Leonie Elliott) in Call the Midwife | Courtesy of Neal Street Productions

Kirby joined the Call the Midwife cast in 2017. But after four years on the show, she decided it was time to move on. She announced her decision in an August 2020 Instagram post.

After four joyful years spent with Call the Midwife I have decided to say goodbye to Nonnatus, Val, and the wonderful cast, crew and production team, she wrote. The programme is truly a national treasure, and it will always be a huge honour for me to have been a part of something so wonderful. I cant wait to keep watching our beloved Nonnatuns from the other side of the screen. Long live Call the Midwife. So long chicks.

The shows executive producer Pippa Harris commented on Kirbys exit to Radio Times. It has been a delight to work with Jennifer on Call the Midwife and we wish her well as she cycles away from Nonnatus House, she said.

Kirby will be seen next in an episode of Endeavour Season 8 playing a character named Dr. Guinevere Nicholls.

How the show explained Nurse Dyers absence

Kirby left Call the Midwife at the end of season 9, but before the shows annual Christmas special. In her last episode, her character learned that her grandmother, Elsie (Ann Mitchell), was dying of esophageal cancer. With just days to live, Elsie was released from prison and sent home in the care of Val. Val had to cope not only with her grandmothers impending death, but also the guilt she felt about reporting her for performing illegal abortions, the crime for which she was sent to prison.

Every time she groans in her sleep, I think, This is my fault. I helped send her to prison and prison made her ill, she told Trixie (Helen George).

Val cared for her grandmother in her final days, but she wasnt actually present when she died. Instead, Cyril (Zephryn Taitte) and Vals colleague Lucille (Leonie Elliott) were with her in her last moments.

Kirbys departure from Call the Midwife was explained in the shows 2020 Christmas special. Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter) told the other nuns and nurses in Nonnatus House that Nurse Dyer had been in considerable distress after her grandmothers death. As a result, she had decided to go work at a clinic in South Africa. While the door was left the door open for Val (and Kirby) to return, so far, theres no sign she plans to come back to London.

Call the Midwife Season 10 premieres Oct. 3

Fiona Aylward (Jo Herbert) and Nurse Trixie Franklin (Helen George) in Call the Midwife Season 10 | Courtesy of Neal Street Productions

Though Nurse Dyer is gone, the team at Nonnatus House is soldiering on without her.

Call the Midwife Season 9 ended with the future of Nonnatus House still uncertain due to the councils slum clearance efforts. In season 10, both Sister Julienne and Trixie are determined to find a way to continue their important work in Poplar. At the same time, Dr. Turner continues to deal with complicated medical cases. Meanwhile Sister Monica Joan (Judy Parfitt) has a crisis of faith and Sister Frances (Ella Bruccoleri) realizes shell need to be a little less spiritual if she wants to connect with the local women.

Call the Midwife Season 10 premieres Sunday, Oct. 3 at 8 p.m. ET.

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Cynthia Bailey is retiring from The Real Housewives of Atlanta and wont be appearing in season 14. Baileys exit comes as Bravo producers try to freshen up the cast in these ever-evolving days of television. The former model had been hinting that she was on the block and possibly not coming back for another season and ultimately confirmed she was leaving. Some speculated that it was her husband Mike Hill that heavily influenced her decision and Bailey is clearing things up.

Mike Hill and Cynthia Bailey | Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Did Cynthia Baileys husband Mike Hill influence her to leave?

A RHOA star since season 3, Bailey announced she was leaving the reality series after 11 seasons. For fans, its always difficult to have one of its stars leave the franchise as they ultimately become part of ones family. Although Bailey was never the most controversial character on the show, she gave her fellow castmates serenity and a grounded perspective on issues.

Since confirming her exit, there have been a lot of rumors on what made Bailey pull the plug on returning to the show. She recently revealed she had turned down a friend of role but turned it down. Bailey is now addressing gossip that her husband Hill played a part in her not wanting to come back.

Listen, let me correct the streets, the former peach hold said during an interview with Daily Pop. Mike has always been super supportive of me, for sure. At the end of the day, he wants me to do what is going to be best for me and whats happy for me.

Bailey confessed that the reason she wanted to leave came down to being tired and wanting to do something else.

Cynthia Bailey 2021 | Heidi Gutman/Bravo

RELATED: RHONY Alum Bethenny Frankel Reacts to Cynthia Baileys RHOA Exit

Is the former RHOA star done with reality television?

Although Bailey might not be holding a peach when RHOA Season 14 premieres, she is not quite done with reality television just yet. Bailey recently embarked on an Ultimate Girls Trip with housewives from other franchises including fellow co-star Kenya Moore. The show will be available later this year on the Peacock streaming service. Furthermore, Bailey would like to be featured on another reality show but only after she takes a break.

Not right now, Bailey added. I need a year, I need a break, I need a drama break, I do. I just need a minute. Im not saying never ever ever.

Cynthia Bailey | Tommy Garcia/Bravo

RELATED: Cynthia Bailey Confirms Drama With Kyle Richards as She Teases Real Housewives All-Stars Mashup

Cynthia Bailey talks about her future without RHOA

Earlier this year, Bailey had been hinting at her RHOA exit that came into fruition in late September 2021. Bailey said that if she would leave the Bravo franchise, she would not be gone from TV for too long.

Whether I do [come back] or not, Im still going to be working somewhere. Thatll be the next part of the journey, she said in a video shared by The Peach Report Daily. If Im not on The Real Housewives of Atlanta, you can best believe that these cheekbones will be on TV doing something else. You have not seen the last of these cheekbones.

During the same interview, Bailey reiterated that she didnt want to get fired and wanted to be given the option to return. As it turns out, she was offered a limited role for the new season but opted to walk away from the proposal.
In The Lord of the Rings trilogys storied lore, nothing seems quite as fascinating as recent claims by hobbit actors Sean Astin and Elijah Wood. Both LOTR cast members claimed on different occasions that an orc mask looked like disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein.

During the Friendship Onion podcast, Sean Astin recalled seeing the orc mask

Harvey Weinstein | Spencer Platt/Getty Images

In September 2021, Astin, who played Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, revealed an odd memory. Just after arriving in New Zealand for the gargantuan shoot, Astin said he visited the production facility.

The actor explained what happened next to The Friendship Onion podcast hosts Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd, who played hobbits Merry and Pippin.

I also remember  oh do I even go there  the Uruk-hai outfits, the rubber suits, the villain, the disgusting things that those poor guys had on for months at a time, Astin said on the podcast. There was one that looked like Harvey Weinstein. It was an absolute, photo-real image of Harvey Weinstein on this villainous Uruk-hai rubber suit, the mask or whatever. I didnt know if I was supposed to say anything.

The Rudy actor continued, adding that he was unaware of behind-the-scenes drama at Miramax that delayed the trilogy for years on end. To sum up, the movie eventually went to New Line Cinema.

I did not, at that point, know about Miramax and how they had initially developed the film and whatever issues they had with that man, who is, uh, not doing well now, Astin continued.

Harvey Weinstein reportedly interfered with Lord of the Rings casting decisions

In more recent years, Weinsteins career and reputation imploded when reporters revealed severe abuses of power against women behind the scenes. Weinstein is serving a 23-year sentence on a rape conviction from February 2020.

But according to LOTR director Peter Jackson, Weinstein is also notable to the franchise because of casting interference. During the 2017 fallout, Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino claimed to have rejected pressure from Weinstein. Consequently, they say they suffered smear campaigns. Producers apparently considered them for roles in The Lord of the Rings before Weinstein intervened.

Because we had been warned off Ashley and Mira by Miramax, and we were naive enough to assume wed been told the truth, [we] did not raise their names in New Line casting conversations, Jackson said at the time, according to the BBC.

Elijah Wood confirmed Sean Astins account of the Harvey Weinstein orc mask

A Lord of the Rings orc mask at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures | Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

On the Oct. 4, 2021, episode of Dax Shepards Armchair Expert podcast, Wood corroborated Astins Weinstein orc mask story. Wood starred in the franchise as Frodo Baggins.

Its funny, this was recently spoken about because Dom [Monaghan] and Bill [Boyd] have a podcast, The Friendship Onion, Wood told Shepard and co-host Monica Padman. They were talking to Sean Astin about his first memory of getting to New Zealand. He had seen these orc masks. And one of the orc masks  and I remember this vividly  was designed to look like Harvey Weinstein as a sort of a f*** you.

Wood threw in a little of his own contempt, too. I think that is OK to talk about now, the guy is f***ing incarcerated, Wood added. F*** him.

No word on whether any other masks were based on real people. But well be watching those orc faces a little more closely now.

How to get help: If you or someone you know has been sexually abused, text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 for free and confidential support.

RELATED: HBO Documentary Series Exposes Harvey Weinsteins Villainous Character
For Nicolas Cage, life once imitated art. The Trespass actor, who starred in a film with Nicole Kidman about a home invasion, dealt with an intruder in his home in real life. The bizarre fan encounter has left an indelible impression on the 90s superstar, who called the home invasion a terrifying experience.

Nicolas Cage recalls terrifying fan encounter

Nicolas Cage | JC Olivera/Getty Images

In a resurfaced interview with Extra TV, City of Angels star Nicolas Cage described a brief and bizarre encounter he had with a fan. The incident took place in Cages home, where the fan appeared naked at Cages bed. The perpetrator had a fudgesicle in hand.

It was terrifying. I know it sounds funny, but it was terrifying, Cage said. When I was out of town working, he would go into my house. And he would go through my wardrobe.

Cage went into a little more detail about how he woke up one night to finally come face to face with his intruder.

I woke up, and there was a naked man who had got my leather jacket eating a fudgesicle in front of my bed, Cage told Extra TV. I used verbal judo, and I just said, Get out of my house, what are you doing in my house? You gotta leave or Im calling the police.

According to Reuters.com, Cage didnt press any charges since the intruder had mental health problems. But Cage couldnt stay in his house in Newport Beach. According to the OCR, Cage sold his mansion for $35 million after the home invasion incident. Gas station owner Jerry Herbst ended up purchasing the house from Cage.

Home Invaders once stole Nicolas Cages Superman comic

The incident at Newport Beach wasnt Nicolas Cages first experience with home invaders. Years earlier, home invaders infiltrated The National Treasure Stars mansion and stole a Superman comic book worth over $1 million. It wasnt just any Superman comic book, however. It was the comic where Superman first debuted back in 1938.

Its the most important and valuable comic book, Stephen Fishler said, who sold the comic to Nicolas Cage according to ABC news. Before this book was published, there was no such thing as a superhero. It really created the comic industry.

ABC news revealed that Nicolas Cage reported the item stolen on January 21, 2000.

The comic was later thought to be found two years later in Memphis, Tennessee. But after investigating the lead with a search warrant, the alleged comic was proven to be fake. The real comic was found in 2011 in a locker in Southern California. Detective Donald Hrycyk, whod been on the case since 2000, verified the comic belonged to Cage through abbreviations and markings on the book.

The Guardian reported that a movie based on the theft and recovery of Cages Superman comic was in the works. As of 2021, however, no update has been offered on the movie.

Nicolas Cage sold recovered Superman comic at auction

Shortly after recovering his stolen Superman comic, The Hollywood Reporter claimed the actor sold the book at an auction. Cage received $2.1 million for the rare item and was the first comic ever to sell that much at an auction.

Cage went through a string of financial troubles around that time period. The actor was once worth $150 million according to CNBC. But Cages spending habits left him in enormous debt that negatively impacted his net worth. The actor mightve sold the precious and rare comic to help recover his finances.

RELATED: The Rock 25th Anniversary: How Nicolas Cage Became an Action Hero Without Selling Out
Seinfelds John OHurley still has a lot of love for his travel-obsessed character J. Peterman and found a way for him to live on through the Cameo platform. OHurley recently told Showbiz Cheat Sheet that he receives endless requests to deliver birthday and joke messages in the J. Peterman voice. And while he is all-in today with the character, he didnt start out as a fan. In fact, he only took the role because his manager talked him into it.

What does John OHurley love about J. Peterman?

OHurley shared what he loved about his character on Seinfeld. I embrace him and his lunacy, he said. And while he wove his skills and talent into J. Peterman, OHurley credits the writers for the roles genius.

Does John OHurley like J. Peterman from Seinfeld? |NBCU Photo Bank

Well, he was supported by the writer, OHurley said. As Shakespeare once said, the play is the thing. He never said that the actor was the thing. The play is the words. And so I always had great words to work on. And so as the character went on, it became more and more  [laughs] touched, shall we say. He just became more interesting and it became the kind of White Poet Warlord. And he was off finding himself in Burma.

J. Peterman now counsels people on erectile dysfunction?

While J. Peterman lives on through reruns now streaming on Netflix, OHurley can deliver personalized messages from J. Peterman to fans through the Cameo platform. Cameo allows fans to pay a fee to have their favorite personality deliver a video message. Personalities set their price and OHurley charges $199 for his classic Peterman (or anything the fan desires) message.

He laughed about the types of messages hes asked to deliver on Cameo. Ive even had people ask me to counsel them on erectile dysfunction, OHurley mused. Its very strange. He even offered a little soundbite in the classic Peterman voice. Having a little trouble with the stiffy are you? he joked.

He also lives today, OHurley stated, referring to reruns and Cameo. Like with Cameo.com. All of a sudden I discovered an income stream that is ridiculous. And they all wanna hear Peterman.

John OHurley didnt always love the J. Peterman character

Although OHurley has nothing but love for J. Peterman today, he wasnt convinced he would be into the role. At the time, he was coming off having his ABC sitcom A Whole New Ballgame canceled. Id just had my own show canceled, he said, RetailDive reported in 2018. He added, I dont want to guest star in someone elses No. 1 show or not. But his manager talked him into and the rest is history.

In fact, OHurley fell down the rabbit hole once he started reading the actual J. Peterman catalog. They handed me the J. Peterman catalog, and I had never seen anything like it, OHurley recalled. It was pastel drawings with something that looked like a Hemingway story. Seinfeld directors told him: We want him to sound the way the catalog is written.

The actual J. (John) Peterman and OHurley eventually became friends. John Peterman walks the talk, OHurley told Rolling Stone in 2015. Hes the guy who, instead of taking a flight to South America, would hop on a freighter and rent a room for a night. Hed much rather play poker with the guys running the freighter for four or five hours at night and have a glass of rum with them than sit around on a cruise liner or an airplane. OHurley later became part owner in the J. Peterman business.

RELATED: Seinfeld Star John OHurley Hosts What Could Be the Biggest Virtual Fundraiser Ever (Exclusive)
Like keeps getting better for The Bold and the Beautiful star Darin Brooks. The actor and his wife, Kelly Kruger, are expecting their second daughter, and the dad is also juggling more acting gigs. Recently Brooks announced hell be part of a new Apple+ series. So how will Brooks new job affect his status on the CBS soap opera?

Darin Brooks I Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic

Darin Brooks will star in Apple+ series Amber Brown

Brooks next role will be in the upcoming Apple+ series Amber Brown, based on Paula Danzigers books. The TV adaption is being executive produced by actor Bonnie Hunt, wholl also serve as writer and director. The series premise revolves around Amber Brown (Carsyn Rose), a young girl who uses art and music to cope with her parents divorce.

And now we want ice cream, dang it! And you might, too, when you see how #BoldAndBeautiful's Darin Brooks celebrated his new leading lady's birthday in photos so fun, they'll make you feel like you were invited to the party:https://t.co/n1a37niayt  SheKnows' Soaps (@soapsdotcom) October 3, 2021

RELATED: The Bold and the Beautiful: Darin Brooks Lands Gig on Animated Series

According to DeadLine.com, Brooks will play Max, the new boyfriend of Ambers mother Sarah (Sarah Drew). No premiere date or other details have been revealed. But the show is currently in production in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Is Darin Brooks leaving The Bold and the Beautiful?

Although news of Brooks latest project is great, its also lead to speculation about his status on The Bold and the Beautiful. Since June 2013, Brooks has portrayed Wyatt Spencer, son of Quinn Fuller (Rena Sofer) and Bill Spencer (Don Diamont). In recent weeks, the character hasnt been seen in the soap opera.

We to see a Spencer brother moment! #BoldandBeautiful pic.twitter.com/2Xs6FRNQCZ  Bold & The Beautiful (@BandB_CBS) September 13, 2021

RELATED: The Bold and the Beautiful Spoilers: Forresters At War, Wyatts Messy Family

With the latest news about Amber Brown, many soap fans are speculating whether Brooks is leaving the daytime serial. According to SoapHub.com, fans can breathe a sigh of relief. The actor is still on contract at The Bold and the Beautiful, so theyll be seeing more of Wyatt.

Wyatt Spencers history on The Bold and the Beautiful

From the moment Wyatt debuted, he became an integral part of The Bold and the Beautiful. The character immediately became a fan favorite as Hope Logans (Annika Noelle) new love interest. Throughout his early years, Wyatt often fought with his brother Liam Spencer (Scott Clifton) over Hope and Steffy Forrester (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood).

In recent years, Wyatt has moved on from the Hope, Liam, and Steffy triangle. Wyatt became romantically involved with fashion designer Sally Spectra (Courtney Hope). Yet, their relationship ended with the arrival of Wyatts high-school girlfriend Flo Fulton (Katrina Bowden), whom he never stopped loving. Wyatts last big storyline consisted of Sally pretending she was dying, then kidnapping Flo so she and Wyatt could be together. The story earned Brooks a 2021 Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor.

Following Sallys departure from the show, Wyatt and Flo became engaged. Yet, the happy couple has disappeared from on-screen. Their last appearance came in July when they visited Steffy and baby Hayes. Although the show says, Brooks is still under contract, that hasnt stopped fans from worrying about the actors status. While Wyatt may be missing from the show, fans can see more of Brooks in his upcoming projects.
Oklahoma ranks eighth in the nation in the rate of women murdered by men with a rate of 1.85 per 100,000, according to the most recent edition of the annual Violence Policy Center study When Men Murder Women.
Humanitarian Disaster Institute co-director Kent Annan just returned from a two week stint on a U.S. military base in Virginia, helping to process thousands of Afghan refugees just landing in the U.S.

Tens of thousands more are expected to land in the U.S. over the next 90 daysover 50,000, in fact. And World Relief will oversee up to 10,000 of these resettlements.

Kent asked Matt Soerens, US Director of Church Mobilization & Advocacy for World Relief and National Coordinator for the Evangelical Immigration Table, a few questions about the size of the task and what it means for World Relief.

The U.S. is admitting more than 50,000 evacuated Afghans who will be resettled in the weeks and months ahead. During the Trump administration, refugee resettlement declined significantly, which also meant that the capacity of the nine organizations that do resettlement was reduced. How has this dynamic made the resettlement of Afghans more challenging?

It's definitely true that the U.S. infrastructure for refugee resettlement  which has been built up over literally decades of public-private partnership  was dramatically reduced over the past few years. Thats basically because so few refugees were admitted  nationally, we went from receiving 85,000 refugees six years ago to less than 12,000 last year, and the fiscal year that just ended last week will likely end up even lower than that. As a result, the public part of the resettlement agencies funding model took a stark cut. World Relief alone had to close eight of our office locations, cease resettlement (though maintaining other services) in a few other locations and lay off roughly one-third of our US-based staff. Nationally, there were about 40% fewer refugee resettlement offices at the beginning of this year than in 2017, and many of them with just a few staff.

Now, World Relief is anticipating resettling roughly as many individuals in the next three months as we have in the past three years. And though were grateful for the incredible support  including new financial support from churches, individuals and foundations  that is allowing us to ramp up, along with the Congress passing new funding specifically to support Afghans just last week, new funds (and anticipated new funds) dont turn into fully trained staff (caseworkers, volunteer coordinators, mental health counselors and all the other roles we need to fill) overnight.

That said, largely because of the incredible community response, were gearing up as quickly as we can and are eager to welcome the Afghans who have been paroled in as soon as they complete their processing. Weve already had several hundred arrive but anticipate thousands in the coming months  and were going to continue to need volunteers, funding, donations of furniture and household items and people interested in applying for new staff positions.

Are the countrys resettlement agencies ready to resettle so many Afghans quicklyespecially with having to ramp up from what they were doing the past few years? And related to this, what are resettlement agencies having to do to be ready for the work of resettling tens of thousands of peopleis it primarily hiring more staff, needing to reengage partners in the communities, other things?

Hiring new staff is definitely a major challenge. We have a number of roles open right now, both staff and temporary contractor positions, and of course were also going to need more team members who speak the particular languages spoken by Afghans and the other refugee groups whom we anticipate will be arriving.

Its difficult to find an affordable rental unit in many parts of the country right now for anyone  and then the options for a newly arriving refugee without any credit history are even fewer.

Having closed in so many locations over the past few years, were also looking at new locations where we can begin refugee resettlement; weve announced a few new locations already and hope to be able to announce further new locations soon. But with any new operation comes new needs to build relationships with churches and other community partners, as well as to help the receiving community understand who refugees are.

One of the other very significant challenges right now is housing. Its difficult to find an affordable rental unit in many parts of the country right now for anyone  and then the options for a newly arriving refugee without any credit history are even fewer. Weve been grateful for landlords who have been willing to take a chance on a new refugee family, most of whom have found resettled refugees ultimately make fantastic tenants, as we help them find work and theyre quickly covering their own rent. And weve also had churches offer up parsonages, individual families offer up guest rooms as short-term housing for when a family arrives without much notice and theres simply no apartment immediately available for rent and even some incredible help from Airbnb in offering up their properties to arriving Afghans.

One challenge, as I understand it, is that Congress hasnt yet made clear what the legal pathway to (or not to) legal permanent residence or citizenship is. What decisions are, so to speak, still in the governments court to for this process?

Thats a very serious concern. Were grateful that, just last week  after a lot of uncertainty  the Congress passed legislation that will ensure that Aghans who are paroled into the US receive the same governmentally-funded services and support as those formally admitted as refugees.

However, theres still a big challenge for these new Afghan neighbors: parole status  which the Biden administration has rightfully used, as past administrations have, to respond with agility to an urgent humanitarian situation  does not automatically qualify anyone to apply for Lawful Permanent Resident status. So unlike those admitted with an already-approved Special Immigrant Visa or those admitted as refugees, these parolees will not have a clear process to pursue U.S. citizenship. Some might still be approved for Special Immigrant Visas (which are specifically for those who served the U.S. military or other parts of the U.S. governments mission in Afghanistan) after arrival or might qualify for asylum, but those are complicated legal processes for which not all parolees will qualify, leaving them stuck in an indefinite temporary status unless Congress acts.

Unfortunately, were well aware of the stress it puts on families to be stuck in this sort of perpetual temporary status. More than 300,000 Salvadoran and Honduran immigrants have been living and working lawfully for more than two decades but still do not qualify to apply for permanent legal status  they must pay a hefty fee to renew their Temporary Protected Status each 18 months, risk being laid off if the governments immigration bureaucracy fails to process their renewal in a timely manner, and always face the risk that the U.S. government could decide to stop renewing their status and return them to their country of birth. Roughly 600,000 young people who currently benefit from Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) are in a similar situation  and in fact are currently at risk of losing their temporary legal protections, losing their ability to work lawfully and being at risk of deportation to countries some left at such a young age that they cannot even remember.

World Relief, with our partners at the Evangelical Immigration Table, has long advocated for these individuals to be given the chance to apply for permanent legal status, so they could have certainty and security. And were also advocating for Afghan parolees to have this same opportunity to not just have temporary status but the sense of belonging that comes with permanent legal status and a process to eventually pursue naturalization.

Who decides, and how, where an Afghan will be relocated? Many are still on military bases now, where I had the privilege of spending a couple of weeks working on that stage of the process. They have been starting to move off for resettlement. Can you briefly explain how U.S. ties works in the resettlement process for some and how it will be decided where others will move to start this next stage of their lives?

A U.S. tie is basically someone in the U.S. whom an Afghan (or another refugee being resettled) already knows within the U.S. Its usually a family member; with some of the Afghans, its actually a U.S. military veteran with whom they served in Afghanistan as a translator or in some other capacity. Generally speaking, the U.S. government will try to resettle those who have a U.S. tie in close proximity to their family or friend, working with a resettlement agency in that community.

Because most Afghans ties to the U.S. are relatives, most of course tend to mention the particular communities where there are already the largest Afghan communities. Sacramento, California, for example, is home to one in nine Afghans living in the U.S., which is why World Relief Sacramento received roughly half of all the Afghans whom World Relief resettled nationally in August. Washington, D.C., Seattle, Modesto, California, and Dallas-Fort Worth are other communities with large pre-existing Afghan communities.

But, frankly, those communities also happen to be communities where the cost of living is quite high, so while we want people to be near their family, we also want people to know there are other communities in the U.S. where the cost of living  especially the cost to rent an apartment or eventually buy a home  is much more affordable. So for any Afghan who does not have a U.S. tie, were likely to distribute them to other parts of the U.S., and the U.S. government has also been trying to make sure people understand how dramatically cost of living can vary by geography within the U.S. With 50,000 Afghans arriving just in the next few months, while we do anticipate many will be going to a few communities with large existing Afghan communities, we also expect at least a small number to be resettled in most of the communities where we have resettlement offices.

If a church or individual says: Id like to help! What do you recommend for them? What should they do next and who should they be in touch with?

Id definitely encourage folks to reach out to whatever one (or more) of the nine refugee resettlement agencies is in their community. The Department of Health and Human Services keeps up a user-friendly map of those particular communities. World Relief is just one of those nine organizations and not in every community, but were we do have local offices or affiliates, we definitely have needs for volunteers. And even those not in one of these communities could provide financial support that were very much going to need or use the online shopping lists to send household items that are needed.

For church leaders, in particular, we also think that one key way to help is by making sure were discipling our congregations to think biblically about the arrival of refugees and other immigrants. While recent surveys show that the vast majority of evangelical Christians are now supportive of processes to welcome Afghans and others who have fled persecution, that has not always been the case, and I suspect that the vacillation in evangelical support for refugee resettlement betrays the reality that our views, too often, are guided by whatever is in the news and by whatever position our preferred political parties are taking, rather than by the unchanging Word of God.

The Evangelical Immigration Table has a number of non-partisan, biblical resources to help church leaders and congregations address refugee issues as a discipleship issue. And my World Relief colleagues are happy to set up a time to chat with church leaders who are exploring how their church might engage, whether that means connecting to one of our local offices resettling Afghans, helping connect them to another resettlement agency closer to them or finding other creative ways to engage.

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Students earning an M.A. in Humanitarian & Disaster Leadership at Wheaton College take a class in Refugee & Forced Migration, and often go on to work in resettlement organizations like World Relief (or start their own). Learn more about the Humanitarian Disaster Institute here.
At 5 p.m. every day, students in quarantine at Palm Beach Atlantic (PBA) University get a Zoom call.

The face that pops up on the screen is their schools new president, Debra Schwinn, checking in on them.

The calls, which ran the entire 20202021 school year and have continued this fall, last about 20 minutes. Schwinn chats with the students about how they are doing, prays with them, and offers bits of motherly advice.

For Tom St. Antoine, the faculty representative on the committee that chose Schwinn to be the new leader of the university back in January 2020, its a perfect example of the personal approach she has taken since becoming president at the start of the pandemic.

That just sends such a statement for the president to take time to build relationships and to get to know those students one by one, he said.

Schwinns inauguration was delayed by COVID-19. The ceremony will be held on October 8, but shes already spent more than a year and a half demonstrating her leadership in trying times at the Florida university with about 2,100 traditional undergraduates, 400 masters students, 350 professional students, and 200 adult students who take evening classes.

Schwinn was not planning to be a pandemic president, but when she thinks about how everything happened, she cant help but see Gods hand in bringing her to the school: I think Gods timing was perfect.

The call to Palm Beach came before COVID-19 was even being talked about.

Schwinn was working as the associate vice president for medical affairs and professor of anesthesiology, pharmacology and biochemistry at the University of Iowa when she got the job offer. She and her husband, Bob, went to a retreat center and isolated themselves in separate rooms and listened for how God would lead them. At the end of it, they came back together with the same answer: Go.

Schwinn accepted the offer and became the first female president of the Christian school founded in a Baptist church in 1968. Between the time she accepted the offer in January and the time she arrived at the Palm Beach campus in May, COVID-19 had become the single dominating question for the university.

When Schwinn showed up, she brought not only her faith and her pastoral commitment to care for students but also a long history in academic medicine.

What better, in a time of pandemic, than to have someone of that background, said St. Antoine. Theres no way we could have known that, obviously, when we were making our selection. But its one of those things thats let PBA stand out, and I think its helped parents, students, and faculty to be confident in our leadership.

Schwinns first challenge, in May, was to put in place a plan to test and trace the spread of the coronavirus. Her medical background proved invaluable in weighing options and evaluating different plans.

In July, she faced another critical issue. Schwinn had to help the university decide whether to open in-person classes in the fall or move everything online, as so many schools and workplaces were choosing to do.

The COVID rates were ticking so dramatically high in West Palm Beach and West Palm Beach County that we called a day of prayer, and for an entire day we listened, she said.

In addition, she and other administrators at the school asked for the advice and prayers of alumni, students, families, churches, staff, and others. When they heard back, they felt like they had a clear answer.

What we heard God say was that there has never been a more important time in the history of this country than today for the kind of transformative education that you have at Palm Beach Atlantic University. Open. Im not going to give you all the answers today, but open, have courage, and keep asking the questions, Schwinn said.

But Schwinn said she knew that God would want the school to be responsible too, so she and the staff developed an extensive safety plan, including masking requirements for large events and encouragement to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines at smaller gatherings. Desks were spread apart for social distancing, and professors podiums were equipped with Plexiglas shields.

Perhaps most importantly, the school instituted a testing regimen, checking all students for COVID-19 when they arrived in the fall, transparently reporting cases online, running contact traces to quickly catch exposure, and developing careful plans for quarantining students who became infected or were potentially exposed and waiting for test results in an old residence building.

We opened with prayer, and we followed science, Schwinn said. It was definitely a combination.

As a result, the percentage of cases on campus was lower than the surrounding community, Schwinn said.

This year, the percentage of tests that came back positive for COVID-19 at the start of the semester was a bit under 9 percent, and then dropped steadily from the end of August to September. Currently, Floridas positivity rate is at about 9 percent. The universitys is just under 3 percent.

The isolated students were able to keep up with classes through a HyFlex system, which put almost every in-person class on Zoom simultaneously. Students in the old dormdubbed COVID Campwere cared for by a health team.

Schwinn also started checking in on them every day.

Initially, the idea was to make sure the systems in place were working properly. Were they being cared for? Could they really participate in their classes? But Schwinn soon found her medical and mothering backgrounds kicking in.

I found that I loved it, so I continued it after I knew our systems were working well, she said. I have a chance to kind of be a surrogate mother.

She would also encourage them to take the time to draw closer to God. Prayer was a daily part of the 5 p.m. calls.

Many students feel touched by God during their time alone, Schwinn said.

Umberto Rosi, who came to PBA from Italy, contracted COVID last spring. Being thousands of miles away from family, he said it was a challenging time, so he was thankful for Schwinns caring calls. The mix of empathy and knowledge she brought to the conversations meant a lot to him and the other students.

She doesnt just see you as a student. She sees you as a person, and we love that, he said.

While she never had to personally quarantine, PBA student body president Abbi Michaeli heard from many who loved the personal role Schwinn took.

Students that are isolating can get lonely at times, so the fact that she does that means the world to them, she said.

In general, Michaeli said Schwinns experience gave the entire student body confidence.

Her background has made me and other students feel better about her decisions for the campus because she makes Christian and medical decisions that have the students best interest at heart.

COVID-19 aside, St. Antoine is excited about the direction Schwinn is leading the university.

I always think of PBA as the Christian college for the next century, St. Antoine said. Were urban. Were young. Were innovative. We have programs in health care and other areas that Christian colleges dont always have. But, at the same time, we havent forgotten our emphasis in the liberal arts, character formation, spiritual formation, those kinds of things. In a lot of ways Dr. Schwinn embodies that.

Schwinn, for her part, is excited to one day lead the university without having to deal with a pandemic, though she will miss the 5 p.m. Zoom calls.
As controversy escalates surrounding an investigation into mishandlings of sexual abuse by the Southern Baptist Conventions Executive Committee (EC), pastors and state conventions are calling on the committee to finally vote to waive attorney-client privilege at its upcoming meeting.

In official statements and social media threads, Southern Baptists condemned trustees failure to heed the directive of the messengers in the ECs two previous meetings, and many threatened to withdraw giving or redirect monies.

Should the Executive Committee fail to comply, we will lead our churches to consider how to reallocate funds away from the Executive Committee while continuing to fund the cooperative mission and education endeavors that have always made Southern Baptists great, read a statement from South Carolina pastors. Among its signatories were two Executive Committee trustees and a member of the task force overseeing the investigation.

David Sons, one of the trustees who signed the statement, told CT that it was born out of a concern for the egregious nature of the accusations and worries that Southern Baptist polity is being violated.

The EC has a responsibility to carry out, to the best of our ability, the will of the messengers, Sons said. Not to tell the messengers why we cant, or wont, comply.

Withholding or reallocating funds shouldnt be used as a threat, he added, but [it] can be done as a last resort to express to an entity that they have violated the trust of the messengers.

In June, 15,000 convention messengers overwhelmingly approved a motion to launch the investigation, conducted by a third-party and overseen by a task force appointed by the new SBC president. The motion instructed the EC to abide by the investigators best practices, including waiving attorney-client privilegewhich so far, the group has refused to do, citing fiduciary commitments and fear of legal liability.

The EC is scheduled to meet on Tuesday for the third time in as many weeks. As of Sunday night, over 25 statements had been released on behalf of state conventions, local associations, or groups of concerned pastors, though not all of them directly threatened withholding or reallocating money.

Louisiana pastor Jay Adkins wrote a blog post last week detailing how pastors can allocate funds so that they continue to support Southern Baptist causes without giving to the Executive Committee.

I was concerned about my pastor friends who were talking about leaving the convention altogether or escrowing funds, Adkins said. Im not suggesting people give away from the EC, although Im for that. Im just saying please dont leave.

Adam Blosser is the pastor of Goshen Baptist Church in Virginia, which forwards 10 percent of its undesignated giving to the SBCs denominational funding mechanism known as the Cooperative Program. Blosser told CT he is concerned about the Executive Committees actions and is watching the situation closely.

We arent ruling out the possibility of making a change in the future, but at this time we intend to continue giving as we have been doing, he said.

At the heart of the crisis is the question of how Southern Baptists will respond to sexual abuse. There are also concerns about safeguarding the conventions politywherein churches make decisions on behalf of the convention rather than central leadershipand whether waiving privilege would expose the Executive Committee to liability or void their insurance.

Scott Colter, a leader with the Conservative Baptist Network, recently wrote the EC to praise the body for so far refusing to waive privilege and not putting the entity at risk. He described his position in contrast to the rising pressure of the mob-mentality and those who say you must either choose to follow Jesus or follow lawyers. (Colter worked for years alongside Paige Patterson, the SBC leader who was fired and remains under litigation for his handling of abuse cases at Southwestern Seminary.)

Much of the pressure on the Executive Committee is from pastors concerned that the entitys reluctance to waive privilege upends the conventions bottom-up structure.

Southern Baptists are no strangers to denominational crisis, but this one represents a perfect storm because of the intersection of power dynamics, polity concerns, and pleas for justice to be done, said Southern Baptist historian Nathan Finn. If the EC remains recalcitrant, it is almost certain that hundreds and maybe thousands of churches will direct their giving around the EC.

Executive Committee chairman Rolland Slade, who has twice voted in favor of waiving privilege, told CT that he shares those polity concerns.

The messengers made clear in June what they wanted us to do, Slade said. To me, thats what we have to do, the way I understand Southern Baptist polity. We are bottom-up, and the messengers spoke clearly.

Slade also told CT that three EC trustees have resigned in the past week and that he is expecting more resignations before tomorrows vote.

One Executive Committee trustee told CT that he planned to call for a vote of no confidence in CEO Ronnie Floyd and Vice President Greg Addison at last weeks meeting and that he shared his intent with Floyd, who requested he not do so. The trustee said that Floyd and Addison had not led or supported the efforts of this trustee body to abide by the will of the messengers of our convention and that their removal would be the best thing for the conventions ability to move forward.

Based on the events of the last week and the grassroots uprising from Southern Baptists, however, he expects the board to waive privilege tomorrow and is no longer planning to move forward with the no-confidence vote.

Executive Committee lawyers have continued to balk at a blanket waiver of privilege, instead offering solutions that fall short of what the messengers mandated in June. Among these options is the Michigan Model, in which a law firm serves as an intermediary between the task force and Executive Committee but privilege is not waived.

Southern Baptists of all stripes have spoken resoundingly that when it comes to the sexual abuse investigation of our Executive Committee, we will not settle for an agreement unless it includes the EC waiving their attorney-client privilege said Tennessee pastor Grant Gaines, who offered the motion that instigated the investigation.

We dont want the Michigan Model. We insist on the Messenger Modelthe one approved by an overwhelming majority of thousands of SBC messengers at our annual meeting this past June.
Queen Elizabeth praises BBC TV series for presenting Christianity as a living faith

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Queen Elizabeth II, head of the Church of England, thanked BBCs long-running TV series Songs of Praise, which celebrated nearly 3,000 episodes on its 60th anniversary Sunday, for presenting Christianity as a living faith.

For 60 years, Songs of Praise has drawn together congregations and BBC viewers throughout the United Kingdom in collective worship, the queen said in a message for a special episode of the show Sunday, The Telegraph reported.

During that time, the program has shown Christianity as a living faith not only through hymns and worship songs, but also by featuring the many people who have put their faith at the center of their lives, the 95-year-old queen continued.

I congratulate 'Songs of Praise' and all those involved in the program on its 60th anniversary, she added.

Aled Jones, who has been a "Songs of Praise" presenter for over 20 years, called it one of the biggest joys of my life.

It is an honor to be able to share uplifting stories of faith with our dear audience and to gladden hearts with music that means the world to me. Heres to a future filled with wonderful 'Songs of Praise!' Jones was quoted as saying.

On Saturday morning, while opening the new session of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, the queen spoke publicly about the Duke of Edinburgh for the first time since his death in April, The Sunday Times reported.

I have spoken before of my deep and abiding affection for this wonderful country, and of the many happy memories Prince Philip and I always held of our time here, she was quoted as saying. It is often said that it is the people that make a place, and there are few places where this is truer than in Scotland, as we have seen in recent times.

A church leader close to the late Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, revealed in a media interview back in April that he had persuaded the queen, his wife, to talk more about her Christian faith ahead of her Christmas broadcast in 2000.

[Prince Philip] was the person really who encouraged the queen to talk about her own faith in her Christmas broadcasts, the Rev. Ian Bradley, the author of God Save the Queen, told Premier Christian News at the time.

He recalled that in the old days, they really used to be more like travelogues, and they would just say where the royal family had been.

Bradley, who preached for the duke and the queen as a visiting preacher at the Parish of Braemar and Crathie, said that in her 2000 broadcast, the queen spoke very movingly and powerfully about her own Christian faith and the impact it had on her.

And there was a very positive response from viewers, he said. And ... it was Philip who really persuaded the queen to make more of her own Christian faith. And he said, You should be talking about this.

Bradley also shared that Prince Philip was interested in theology.

He would note down all the details of the sermon. He was extremely interested  in theology. He had a wonderful knowledge of the Bible, and then he would sort of quiz you at lunchtime, ask you about your sermon and really put you on your mettle. And I was amazed at his biblical knowledge.

In her 2016 book ahead of her 90th birthday, the queen reflected on Jesus central role in her life.

I have been  and remain  very grateful to you for your prayers and to God for His steadfast love, the British monarch wrote in the foreword to The Servant Queen and the King She Serves. I have indeed seen His faithfulness.
3 Swiss Guards leave Vatican after refusing to get COVID-19 vaccine

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Three members of the Swiss Guard who are charged with protecting the pope have been ordered to leave the Vatican complex after refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine following a requirement issued by Catholic Church officials.

Catholic Church officials who oversee the Vatican issued a decree requiring that all employees and visitors to the small independent country either be vaccinated or show proof of a negative COVID-19 test.

Swiss Guard official Lt. Urs Breitenmoser told The Associated Press in a story published Sunday that the three guardsmen willingly returned home to Switzerland rather than be vaccinated after being asked to get vaccinated to protect their health and that of the others they come into contact with as part of their service.

Three members of the Guard have chosen not to adhere to that request, voluntarily leaving the corps, continued Breitenmoser, adding that three other guardsmen were suspended from duty while they awaited being vaccinated.

Last month, Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, head of the Pontifical Commission for the State of Vatican City, signed a decree requiring either vaccination against COVID-19 or proof of a negative COVID-19 test.

Beginning on Oct. 1, entry into Vatican City would only be allowed for those with a "Green Pass," which is a certification document attesting that the person has been vaccinated or has recovered from COVID-19.

An exemption was given to people taking part in liturgical celebrations; however, they must still wear masks and practice social distancing before and during liturgies, and they can only be in the Vatican for the celebrations.

There has been some controversy over the development of the COVID-19 vaccines in some religious circles because it involved using cells from an aborted baby in the research and development process.

Last December, the Catholic Churchs Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a statement saying that it was morally acceptable for Catholics to take the COVID-19 vaccine, even if it was developed using cells from an aborted baby.

The CDF stated that the morally licit use of these types of vaccines, in the particular conditions that make it so, does not in itself constitute a legitimation, even indirect, of the practice of abortion, and necessarily assumes the opposition to this practice by those who make use of these vaccines.

In the absence of other means to stop or even prevent the epidemic, the common good may recommend vaccination, especially to protect the weakest and most exposed, noted the CDF.

In January, both Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI received their first doses of the vaccine, with Francis stating in advance of his first shot that he believed it was an ethical action, because you are gambling with your health, you are gambling with your life, but you are also gambling with the lives of others.
Fauci says its too soon to say if Americans can gather for Christmas

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Chief White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that its too soon to tell whether Americans should gather for Christmas this year, as he spoke about the coronavirus pandemic and what to expect in the coming months.

Its just too soon to tell. We have to concentrate on continuing to get those numbers down and not try to jump ahead by weeks or months and say what were going to do at a particular time, Fauci said on CBS Face The Nation, after anchor Margaret Brennan asked if Americans will be able to gather for Christmas.

Lets focus like a laser on continuing to get those cases down. And we can do it by people getting vaccinated. Also, in the situation where boosters are appropriate, to get people boosted, because we know they can help greatly in diminishing infection and diminishing advanced disease.

Fauci received criticism on social media for his comments.

Its bad enough that Fauci says these ridiculous things, but its worse that journos keep framing questions to him as if he has any say over whether we get together for Christmas, Washington Free Beacon reporter Chuck Ross wrote, according to Fox News.

Last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that Americans avoid traveling for Christmas. The best thing for Americans to do in the upcoming holiday season is to stay at home and not travel, Henry Walke, CDCs COVID-19 incident manager, said at the time, The Hill reported.

In the United States, there have been over 42.9 million reported COVID-19 cases thus far, with 688,099 deaths counted as being from COVID-19 as of Monday, according to WHO, which also says, as of last Thursday, a total of 398,284,216 vaccine doses had been administered.

An investigative report found that states are counting deaths by suicide, murder and auto accidents as deaths from COVID-19, inflating death totals.

Dr. Fauci told CBS that complacency needs to be avoided. We need to continue to get those individuals, now 70 million people who are eligible to be vaccinated, vaccinated.

Fauci supported President Bidens vaccine mandate, which requires federal employees, contractors and private employers with 100 workers or more to mandate vaccinations or weekly testing for the novel coronavirus.

I think what the president said about companies greater than 100 individuals is a good thing, and youre seeing also local groups, universities and businesses are doing that, mandating vaccines in particular, Fauci said.

However, in August, when Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was asked about requiring members of Congress to be vaccinated, she responded, We cannot require someone to be vaccinated. Its just not what we can do, Forbes noted.

The vaccination status of members of Congress, she added, is a matter of privacy.

Several governors and members of Congress denounced Bidens plans.

I will pursue every legal option available to the state of Georgia to stop this blatantly unlawful overreach by the Biden administration, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp tweeted.

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts also responded, saying: This plan isnt about public health  this is about government control and taking away personal liberties. Americans, not the federal government, are responsible for taking charge of their personal health.
Biden Justice Dept. calls Texas abortion law scheme of vigilante justice in push to block it

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Calling it an "unprecedented scheme of vigilante justice," an attorney for the U.S. Justice Department asked a federal judge on Friday to block Texas' controversial Senate Bill 8 law, which prohibits abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected.

"A state may not ban abortions at six weeks," Justice Department attorney Brian Netter told U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman in a hearing Friday, according to The Associated Press.

"Texas knew this, but it wanted a six-week ban anyway, so the state resorted to an unprecedented scheme of vigilante justice that was designed to scare abortion providers and others who might help women exercise their constitutional rights."

Texas' S.B. 8 was signed into law in May and enacted on Sept. 1 after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to grant an emergency injunction to block the legislation from taking effect.

In addition to banning most abortions after six weeks of gestation, S.B. 8 also allows private citizens to take civil action against anyone who "performs and induces an abortion" or "knowingly engages in conduct that aids or abets the performance or inducement of an abortion, including paying for or reimbursing the costs of abortion through insurance or otherwise."

If successful in their lawsuits, private citizens are entitled to at least $10,000 in damages.

Last month, the Justice Department filed an emergency motion seeking a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction against S.B. 8, arguing that the law violates Supreme Court precedent dictating that there is a constitutional right to abortion.

"When other States have enacted laws abridging reproductive rights to the extent that S.B. 8 does, courts have enjoined enforcement of the laws before they could take effect. In an effort to avoid that result, Texas devised an unprecedented scheme that seeks to deny women and providers the ability to challenge S.B. 8 in federal court. This attempt to shield a plainly unconstitutional law from review cannot stand," lawyers for the federal government argued in their motion.

"The United States has a strong and legitimate interest in ensuring that states respect their obligations under the Constitution, and in fulfilling the United States' responsibilities under Federal law. If Texas's attempt to nullify the Constitution of the United States prevails, it may become a model for action in other areas, by other states, and with respect to other constitutional rights and judicial precedents."

Oral arguments in the case were heard Friday by Pittman, an Obama appointee, who held a three-hour hearing.

Attorney Will Thompson from the Texas Attorney General's Office maintained that the federal government's arguments were "hyperbole and inflammatory rhetoric," according to The Wall Street Journal. He also contended that the judge couldn't issue an injunction because there is no person the court could prohibit from enforcing the law.

In their motion asking for a dismissal of the federal government's case, attorneys for the Texas government argued that the legislation is lawful and the federal government lacks the power to sue Texas for the requested relief because the federal government has not shown how it has been irreparably harmed by the law. The state also argues that the injunction the federal government is seeking is too broad.

"The Court should deny the federal government's motion for a preliminary injunction and dismiss this case," Texas' attorneys noted.

"Article III does not permit courts to hear 'a proceeding against the government in its sovereign capacity' when 'the only judgment required is to settle the doubtful character of the legislation in question.'"

"The federal government asks the Court to dispense with the normal cause-of-action requirement based on unfounded fears that the Texas Heartbeat Act will otherwise 'evade judicial review,'" the state's motion continues. "Nothing could be further from the truth. The constitutionality of the Texas Heartbeat Act can be reviewed in the same way that virtually all of state tort law is: State-court defendants raise constitutional defenses before neutral judges sworn to follow the U.S. Constitution and, if necessary, appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court."

The state argues that the fact that "private parties may rely on the challenged statute in other litigation does not create a case or controversy against the sovereign."

"It simply shows that those other cases would be the proper cases for deciding the constitutionality of the challenged statute," the state's motion reads.

The U.S. Supreme Court begins a new term Monday, including arguments in a case to determine the legality of Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban. Some believe that the case could threaten the legal precedent on abortion set by the Supreme Court in the 1973 case of Roe v. Wade.
Researchers claim biblical Sodom was destroyed by massive asteroid, scholars disagree

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The Tall el-Hammam, an archaeological site in Jordan also known as TeHEP, is the biblical Sodom referenced in the biblical account of Sodom and Gomorrah, Steven Collins, chief archaeologist and co-director of the project, has claimed.

His claim comes on the heels of a report suggesting that Sodom, the ancient Syrian city God destroyed with burning sulfur because of sin, might have been razed by a massive asteroid.

In a YouTube interview with Gary A. Byers, dean of the College of Archaeology, Collins, a Trinity Southwest University and TeHEP assistant director, who originally went to the site in Jordan because he thought it was the biblical Sodom, confirmed Friday that he believes is.

I was really convinced, based on the geography and its size, which is way bigger by several orders of magnitude than all the other sites around it. [Its] 10 times bigger than Jericho at the time, 10 times bigger than Jerusalem at the time. So its really, really big, and so I thought this has to be it. We now know that it is. Its the site of biblical Sodom, Collins told Byers.

Tall el-Hammam is located in the Eastern section of the lower Jordan Valley near the mouth of the Jordan River. Its the subject of a joint scientific project between Trinity Southwest University's College of Archaeology & Biblical History in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Veritas International University's College of Archaeology & Biblical History in Santa Ana, California, and the Department of Antiquities of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

The claim from Collins, who is also dean of the College of Archaeology, Veritas International University and a consulting research professor at Trinity Southwest University, comes less than two weeks after the publication of a new study, titled A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea. The study suggests the story of Tall el-Hammam is the story of Sodom.

We present evidence that in ~ 1650 BCE (~ 3600 years ago), a cosmic airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam, a Middle-Bronze-Age city in the southern Jordan Valley northeast of the Dead Sea. The proposed airburst was larger than the 1908 explosion over Tunguska, Russia, where a ~ 50-m-wide bolide detonated with ~ 1000 more energy than the Hiroshima atomic bomb, researchers noted.

A city-wide ~ 1.5-m-thick carbon-and-ash-rich destruction layer contains peak concentrations of shocked quartz (~ 510 GPa); melted pottery and mudbricks; diamond-like carbon; soot; Fe- and Si-rich spherules; CaCO3 spherules from melted plaster; and melted platinum, iridium, nickel, gold, silver, zircon, chromite and quartz.

Researchers said they dismissed eight out of 10 possible causes for the evidence they found at the Tall el-Hammam site  including volcanism, warfare, and tectonism  that can account for at least some, but not all, of the evidence.

We conclude that the only plausible formation mechanism that can account for the entire range of evidence  is a crater-forming impact or a cosmic airburst, most likely somewhat larger than the 22-megaton airburst at Tunguska, Siberia, in 1908. The data also suggest an airburst occurred a few kilometers SW of Tall el-Hammam causing, in rapid succession, a high-temperature thermal pulse from the fireball that melted exposed materials, including roofing clay, mudbricks, and pottery, they wrote.

This was followed by a high-temperature, hypervelocity blast wave that demolished and pulverized mudbrick walls across the city, leveling the city, and causing extensive human mortality."

They further noted that an anomalously high salt content in the debris matrix is consistent with an aerial detonation above high-salinity sediments near the Jordan River or above the hypersaline Dead Sea. This event, in turn, distributed salt across the region, severely limiting regional agricultural development for up to ~ 600 years.

In the account of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Bible, God destroyed the city during the time of Abraham because of wickedness. While two angels were visiting Lot in the city, a gang of men attacked his home and demanded that he give up the angels so they could rape them  turning down even an offer of Lots virgin daughters. The angels blinded the men during the attack before leading Lot and his family out of the city, warning them not to look back. Because Lots wife disobeyed the order, she turned into a pillar of salt.

In the study, researchers argue that the Genesis account of what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah is the only known ancient writing that provides a plausible explanation for the evidence they found at Tall el-Hammam.

Regarding this proposed airburst, an eyewitness description of this 3,600-year-old catastrophic event may have been passed down as an oral tradition that eventually became the written biblical account about the destruction of Sodom, they said.

There are no known ancient writings or books of the Bible, other than Genesis, that describe what could be construed as the destruction of a city by an airburst/impact event. This airburst/impact hypothesis would make Tall el-Hammam the second oldest known city/town to have been destroyed by an airburst/impact event that produced extensive human casualties, after Abu Hureyra, Syria.

Collins explained in his interview Friday that Sodom was really a hub where several trade routes converged, attracting virtually every biblical character of note.

The Bible puts a lot of stuff in this area and if you know the geography, its easy to see that virtually every biblical character of note came to this area at one time or another in their life, he said.

You go back, of course, Abraham and Lot and all of his sons and Isaac and Jacob were there. Jacobs body was actually taken to the area. Kind of a mourning and a funeral was done there, he continued. Moses and Joshua were there, and Elijah was later there. The Bible talks about King David crossing  just everybody was there. You get to the New Testament, Jesus came over and preached in this area. John the Baptist was baptizing in this area.

Mark Boslough, a physicist at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico and a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, has raised a number of concerns about the study.

On Twitter, Boslough noted that my model of asteroid airbursts is cited as the mechanism by which God smote this evil city. He pointed out that the senior author of the study was Phillip Silvia, an engineer, theologian, archaeologist who also serves as director of publications at Trinity Southwest University, an unaccredited evangelical school located in a strip mall in Albuquerque. Retraction Watch also noted that Silvia earned his Ph.D. from Trinity Southwest in 2015.

Elisabeth Bik, a Dutch microbiologist and scientific integrity consultant, also raised concerns about the study being overseen by an unaccredited evangelical Christian institution.

This does not necessarily mean something, but it is remarkable that this archeological research was overseen by an unaccredited evangelical Christian institution that pursues a divine authority and the Bible as the only written representation of reality, she wrote on Twitter.

Archaeologist Steven Ortiz, director of Lipscomb Universitys Lanier Center for Archaeology and co-director of the recent Tel Gezer excavations, also rejected the meteor hypothesis in a report from the Biblical Archaeology Society.

He argued that destruction layers similar to those found in Tall el-Hammam have been found at Bronze and Iron Age Gezer and were attributed to Egyptian and Assyrian armies.

Aren Maier, an archaeologist at Bar-Ilan University and long-time excavator of Tell es-Safi (biblical Gath), also noted that evidence for King Hazaels ninth century B.C.E. destruction of Gath looks much like what was found at Tall el-Hammam.

Silvia, in a statement to Retraction Watch, called the criticisms leveled at the study ad hominem attacks against the authors (including myself) and the institutions (like TSU) and affiliations (like the Comet Research Group) with which we are associated.

None of their comments address the science within our paper, probably because they have nothing of value to add to the discussion. Its a classic example of character assassination substituted for a rational discussion of the evidence. What motivates it? Whos to say? he added.
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With so much happening in the news every day, from the congressional hearings on our withdrawal from Afghanistan to the budget crisis and more, its easy to overlook some of the truly horrendous things taking place in our nation. But what Californias Governor Newsom recently signed into law cannot be overlooked. It is nothing less than a frontal assault on parental rights, also hurting the very children it claims to protect.

Although there were two controversial bills Gov. Newsom signed last week, well focus here on AB 1184.

As reported by California Family Council, this bill prohibits insurance companies from revealing to the policyholder the sensitive services of anyone on their policy, including minor children, even though the policy owner is financially responsible for the services. These sensitive services include abortions, sexual assault treatment, drug abuse and mental health treatment, cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, and sex-change operations. In California, minors can consent to all of these sensitive treatments, except for sex-change surgeries, after the age of 12 under certain conditions, and consent to abortions at any age.

Perhaps you want to read that again? Not a word is exaggerated or misreported. This is exactly what this bill entails. Yet for Newsom and other California leftists, this is a cause for celebration.

Talk about turning the world upside down. Talk about calling good evil and evil good. Talk about undermining families.

But lets not think in abstract terms. Lets be concrete and specific.

Not only can your 13-year-old child make radical, life-altering decisions, such as having an abortion, without your knowledge or consent. That would be bad enough. But your child can use your family insurance policy to pay for that abortion, and when your insurance statement comes, there will be no explanation of services.

In fact, your insurance provider will be prohibited from disclosing to you what your own child has done and what your policy has covered. And this is now the law in California.

Should we feel anything less than outrage? And who gave the government such intrusive, potentially destructive powers?

Your minor child can actually choose to get treated with cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers, drugs which can have disastrous lifelong consequences, without possibly being able to understand the implications of what theyre doing, and by law, you cannot find out about it.

Your child doesnt have to tell you. The doctors dont have to tell you. And your insurers dont have to tell you.

To say it again, this is an absolutely indefensible outrage.

Listen to the words of Grace Lidinsky-Smith, writing in Newsweek June 25. In my early 20s, she says, I became depressed and gender dysphoric after years of obsessing over identity issues. Finally, I thought I saw my route forward: the total transformation of medical transition, to live as a man.

And note carefully: she was in her early 20s when she made these fateful decisions, not a teenager, let alone a 12-year-old.

She continues, I had the most supportive possible environment for transitioning: easy access to hormones, an affirming community and insurance coverage. What I didn't have was a therapist who could help me scrutinize the underlying issues I had before I undertook serious medical decisions. Instead, I was diagnosed with gender dysphoria and given the green light to start transition by my doctor on the first visit.

Stories like this are all too common these days, leading to a growing number of detransitioners and a growing pushback against the rush to transition young people.

Lidinsky-Smith then describes the process: I started my transformation with cross-sex hormones injections. Four months later, I had my breasts removed in the masculinizing surgical procedure known as top surgery. The day I got my first testosterone shot, I wept with joy. I thought I had discovered my path to self-actualization as a transgender man.

One year later, I would be curled in my bed, clutching my double-mastectomy scars and sobbing with regret.

And, she says candidly, I wondered desperately how I could have been so wrong about something so important. I knew people who were very happy with their changes. But it all went wrong for me.

My gender dysphoria, which I had taken as proof that I was truly meant to live as male, turned out to stem from other mental health issues. My change had been a brutal mistake, and I would have to live with the consequencesnumb scars, no breasts, a deepened voicefor the rest of my life.

Tragically, she is now one of many young women with similar stories. (Many young men have their horror stories too.)

Yet now, in California, she could have embarked on this self-destructive journey as a young minor, starting with puberty blockers and/or cross-sex hormones, completely cutting her parents out of the process, with the law on her side. And when her parents began to wonder what was happening to their daughter, there was no way they could find out  by law.

And if she decided to have her breasts irreversibly removed at the age of 19, California, with the help of your own insurance company, would have her covered. Parents, you could be in for a very big surprise one day!

And lets not forget about other sensitive services, such as sexual assault treatment, drug abuse and mental health treatment.

Here, too, it is utterly outrageous for parents to be locked out of such critical situations, yet it is now the law, and Gov. Newsom and his colleagues are celebrating.

I urge every parent in California to get as involved in their childrens lives as you possibly can. I mean this in the most positive, helpful, and healthy ways, not in oppressive and overbearing ways.

I encourage you to cultivate honesty and transparency. To make your kids feel safer with you than with any of their peers or other elders. And to work tirelessly until this legislation is overthrown.

The light can still drive out the darkness.
Are Christians allowed to invest in companies which use stem cells in vaccine development?

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One thing I learned as a talk show host on Christian radio is that any question which has the form of "Are Christians allowed to X?" would fill the call-in lines in no time.

Another thing I learned is that whatever the question, the ones who answered "No!" would probably be overrepresented relative to the general Christian population. I would hear lots of callers who would say that Christians are not allowed to (fill in the blank): do Yoga, listen to secular rock music, watch R-rated movies, celebrate Halloween. And now, increasingly, even Christmas and Easter are under attack.

The silent (probable) majority would reach out to me privately explaining that they did not want to be publicly attacked. I'm noticing the same thing in the vaccine wars. Lots of acquaintances get vaccinated. Few of them say so publicly for fear of scolding.

In a somewhat related area, I've seen a similar imbalance in my own profession (Christians in finance) in the public conversation around the question, "Are Christians allowed to invest in 'sin stocks'?" Those who answer a resounding "No!" to that question are vocal. Those who answer differently are relatively silent.

I've asked people who have been around this industry, even those who lead professional associations, how many Christian financial advisors actually screen out 'sin stocks,' and consistently I hear that it's probably only about 15%. Those who are against the screening and those who are for the screening both seem to agree that roughly 85% of advisors don't screen. But when I speak about this issue publicly the vast majority of public statements seem to come from those who insist on screening. The private statements come from those who don't. And they quite often tell me that they are hesitant to say so publicly for fear of being attacked.

Of course, the main point is not what the non-screening silent majority says, or what the screening vocal minority says, or even in general what the Christians-are-not-allowed-to-TBA group says, or the other group says. The main point is what the Bible teaches.

And this issue has taken on new urgency with the rise of the vaccine wars, and the related conversation about the role of cell lines descended from embryonic tissue that comes from abortions.

Here's what we've covered already:

The vaccines in question do not contain fetal tissue. They are not tested on fetal tissue. They are tested on cell lines from fetal tissues cloned over thousands of generations from abortions in the 1970s.

The Biblical accounts of the life of Jesus (eating with tax collectors, accepting gifts from a 'sinful woman', etc.) and Paul's teaching on meat sacrificed to idols are incompatible with the idea that it is a sin for a person to benefit from a sin committed by another person. The idea that defilement travels along from the sinful origins of a good or service and defiles a person morally when it enters into them is one voiced by Jesus' critics and one which He rejected.

Therefore, it is not a sin for Christians to use the vaccines. The past abortions with which they are distantly associated are sinful; a life was taken. However, (assuming for the moment that vaccines save lives,) that lost life from 1973 cannot be brought back, and depriving thousands of people of a possible life-saving preventative now does not atone for that past heinous killing.

But all of this leads to a natural question: Are Christians allowed to have the companies which produce these vaccines in their 401(k) and IRA accounts, etc.? Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and Pfizer do use these cell lines in some ways. Is it a sin for them to do so? Is it a sin for Christians to own shares of their stocks?

In many ways, this is the same old 'sin-screen' argument tied to more up-to-date headlines.

But the principle still applies. If it is not a sin to benefit from the sins of others, then whether the benefit is purely medical or also commercial is beside the point. If it's not a sin to make and use stem cell lines to prevent a disease, then it's also not a sin to create economic value to do so. If everyone at Pfizer volunteered to do this work, and the work had been financed by donors rather than investors, the moral principle would be the same. Either we're allowed to do good things with the circumstances created out of bad things or we're not.

It might help to remember that meat sacrificed to idols was a commercial enterprise. Pagan temples committed acts of idolatry which involved animal sacrifices. Paul says "the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God." (1 Cor. 10:20 NAS) Yet nevertheless, Christians are permitted to eat, as he says later in the same passage "Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (1 Cor. 10:31 NAS).

Christians are not allowed to offer animal sacrifices, nor to participate in the rituals at "the table of demons," but when the by-product of these idolatrous rituals is commercialized through the sale of the resultant meat, Christians may participate (unless it causes those of weak conscience to stumble.)

Are Christians allowed to benefit materially through this? They were. Pagan temples subsidized the product for the meat markets. The pagan temples were publicly owned and therefore their revenues benefited the general public. Interestingly, it is highly likely that one of Paul's close associates, Erastus of Corinth, as City Manager was in charge of the budget for these temples, and therefore also benefited from them (details here: Are Christians Allowed To Participate In Pagan Economy? - Jerry Bowyer (townhall.com)).

Is abortion a sacrifice of Moloch? I believe it is. Much of our society is based on idolatry, evil, theft, murder. But our calling has always been to refrain from sin, not refrain from society. As Paul said "You would have to go out of the world" to avoid dealings with sinful people.

However, the Jesus example tells us more than that we are allowed to benefit from the 'ill-gotten gains' that are inter-mixed with our economy. It tells us not to waste those associations. We are allowed to open our mouths and eat from the table of tax-collectors, but we should also open our mouths to speak about their exploitation of their brothers. As Jesus said, "It's not the well who need the doctor, but the sick," which means that the sick (the 'sinners') need a spiritual and moral doctor.

So, for example, Pharmaceutical companies are permissible in the portfolios of Christians: you can eat from the table of tax collectors, but would it not be better to do more than just eat? As a shareholder, you have authority.

For example, I help design investment indices. I also personally invest in the companies in those indices. I use my authority to talk to them. This includes both Merck and Pfizer. As such, I've reached out to both companies to inquire about the use of embryonic tissue originating from abortions in the vaccines. Merck has simply refused to answer thus far. Merck's Investor Relations department is utterly non-responsive, not even acknowledging the question. Of course, I don't intend to let the matter go. There are ways in which shareholders can press the issue, and I plan to do so.

Pfizer, on the other hand, has been far more cooperative, explaining how such cell lines are, and are not used. I asked the company to respond to this report (MECH IWP Capital 2020 Annual Report (adobe.com)), and address the use of fetal stem cells in the vaccine development. At that time, the vaccine was still only a "vaccine candidate" not an approved vaccine. Here is the answer I received:

"Human fetal derived cell lines are not used to produce the candidate vaccine, which consists of synthetic and enzymatically produced components. One or more cell lines with an origin that can be traced back to human fetal tissue has been used in laboratory tests associated with the vaccine program."

So, no fetal cells were used to produce it, but some are used in tests associated with it. I recently asked for clarification about what "associated with" means, but as of this time, Pfizer has not answered that question. I've asked for clarification about the company's policy on use of such cells:

"Does Pfizer have a policy position on this question? This is an area of ethical sensitivity and I wonder whether the firm has a position paper or some statement on the use of aborted fetal tissue in research."

The company responded with "Pfizer does not have a position paper that I can share." This is a somewhat ambiguous answer. Do they have no position paper, or do they have no position paper which they can share? I will continue to press for clarification.

As Jesus said, it's the sick who need a doctor, and even companies founded to treat the sick, need spiritual healing as well.
New documentary tells true story of pilots who take extreme risks to fly missionaries to 'Ends of the Earth'

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The documentary film "Ends of the Earth" tells the true stories of Mission Aviation Fellowship pilots who fly missionaries to some of the most remote regions of the world under high-risk conditions so they can share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Moody Bible Institute partnered with Change Media and Mission Aviation Fellowship on the new film, which focuses on the work and faith of MAF pilots who help missionaries, churches and Christian organizations fulfill Jesus' Great Commission.

The documentary, which will premiere in select theaters nationwide for two nights only at 7 p.m. on Oct. 18 and Oct. 21, features interviews with Christian leaders, staff from Moody Bible Institute and MAF employees.

These Christian leaders include Mark Jobe, president of Moody Bible Institute, and David Holsten, MAF president. It also features Pastor David Platt of McLean Bible Church, who's also the founder of Radical, an organization that seeks to help train and equip Christians and churches to spread the Gospel among nations.

The film culminates with a discussion from Jobe and Holsten about the Great Commission and the calling of every Christian, regardless of their profession.

We believe that every follower of Christ should have a passion for missions, Holsten said, according to the Moody Bible Institute. Some will be called to go, others will be called to use their gifts to support, and all are called to pray that people will accept the life-changing salvation that comes through Jesus Christ.

According to MAF, millions of people worldwide don't have access to the Gospel. Some who live in remote regions of the world face geographic barriers. Others are isolated by social, political or religious barriers.

For 75 years, MAF has been on a mission to reach isolated people with the message of Christ and to bring help, hope and healing through aviation. MAF operates a global fleet of aircrafts to help medical professionals, churches, missionaries and other humanitarian organizations deliver necessary supplies and spiritual support to isolated people.

"Ends of The Earth" gives viewers an in-depth look at remote villages and breathtaking landscapes as it shares the stories of MAF pilots who accept the challenge of flying to remote and sometimes high-risk areas of the world so that missionaries can share the Gospel.

In a statement, Jobe expressed hope that the documentary will inspire Moody Bible Institute students to become missionary pilots.

We are excited about the next generation of men and women at Moody ready to fulfill their purpose and calling, he said. And we are praying fervently that the Lord uses this powerful film to inspire some of them as mission aviators to proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Moody looks forward to building our strong partnership with MAF in our efforts to make the Gospel available to every person.

Fathom Events has partnered with Collide Media Group to show the film in theaters nationwide.

Fathom is thrilled to be partnering with Collide to expand our inspirational and documentary offerings to cinema audiences, Ray Nutt, Fathom Events CEO, said. This is an important film that will challenge and inspire audiences.
Abortionist LeRoy Carhart sued for malpractice over injuries sustained during late-term abortion

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Controversial late-term abortion provider Dr. LeRoy Carhart is being sued by a woman over injuries she received during an abortion procedure done at his Maryland clinic.

Ashley P. Norris of Virginia filed a complaint on Sept. 23 in a Maryland federal court against Carhart, Dr. Elizabeth Swallow, and AbortionClinics.org, also known as Clinics for Abortion and Reproductive Excellence.

According to the legal filing, Norris was 25 weeks pregnant when she had an abortion at Carharts Bethesda facility in May 2020.

The abortion took place over two days.

On the first day, Norris received oral medications and a vaginal insertion of a seaweed extract known as laminaria designed to cause cervical dilation. At her second appointment, additional oral medications were given to further dilate the uterus.

The complaint alleges that while the dilation of the plaintiffs uterus had not proceeded as expected, she was placed under anesthesia to undergo an abortion anyway.

However, Norris experienced complications during the procedure, including severe bleeding and a dangerous drop in blood pressure, prompting her to be rushed to a nearby hospital.

Norris accuses Carhart of medical negligence and negligence on informed consent, stating that because of the botched abortion attempt, she has multiple internal injuries, including permanent damage to her bowel and uterus.

The Christian Post reached out to AbortionClinics.org for comment. A representative of the clinic said Monday that the organization could not respond by press time.

Maryland Right to Life Legislative Director Laura Bogley-Knickman told CP that the federal court should carefully consider the merits of this lawsuit and provide [an] appropriate judicial remedy which should include civil liability of the abortionist.

Abortion laws are designed to protect abortionists from the harm they cause to women and children. But in 2012, Maryland adopted regulations to ensure that abortionists and abortion clinics meet the same health and safety standards as other outpatient centers, said Bogley-Knickman.

We respectfully urge the court to properly apply the intent of those safety regulations in the present case and ensure they are given the full force and effect of the law.

Although MDRTL is not involved in the lawsuit, Bogley-Knickman said that they have facilitated cooperation between other parties who are pursuing [an] investigation of the defendant for multiple incidents involving the injury or death of women.

Maryland is one of three states that shields abortionists from liability by waiving annual reporting requirements, she continued.

Clinic regulations currently are report driven only and the Maryland Department of Health Office of Health Care Quality has failed to provide sufficient oversight and regulation of abortion clinics in Maryland as evidenced by the current complaint.

One of the few providers of late-term abortion procedures in the U.S., Carhart operates clinics in Maryland and Nebraska. He has been a controversial public figure because of his pro-choice advocacy and practice.

In 2016, for example, the U.S. House of Representatives Select Panel on Infant Lives subpoenaed Carhart over allegations that he may have profited from the sale of aborted baby body parts and for multiple reports of women who sought abortions from him having to go to the hospital.

Public reports indicate at least five women have been sent to the hospital since December while seeking an abortion in this clinic, said then-Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., in a statement at the time.

In response to the 2016 subpoena, a group of Democrat members of Congress sent a letter to then-House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., arguing that Carhart was the victim of a witch hunt.

Republicans have not shared with Democrats any objective basis for targeting this individual, who has been the subject of anti-abortion violence for decades, including a 1991 fire that destroyed his family farm, killing his dog, cat, and 17 horses in claimed retaliation for the care that he provides for women in this country, read the letter, in part.

Additionally, Carhart sued the state of Nebraska over its ban on partial-birth abortion. The case of Stenberg v. Carhart went to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000, which ruled 5-4 that the Nebraska law was unconstitutional.

When the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act was passed at the federal level, Carhart again challenged it in court. The case of Gonzales v. Carhart went all the way to the Supreme Court. In 2007, the justices upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in a 5-4 decision.
Billy Grahams grandson showing signs of healing amid COVID-19 recovery

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A grandson of the late Rev. Billy Graham has shown signs of improvement in his health weeks after being hospitalized due to COVID-19 and pneumonia.

Jonathan Lotz, the son of evangelist Anne Graham Lotz, was released from the hospital on Aug. 1 after being admitted to the intensive care unit on July 24 as he battled the novel coronavirus.

In an update posted Thursday afternoon on Instagram, Anne Graham Lotz explained that her son, Jonathan, was improving as he continued to recover at home.

My handsome son, Jonathan, has been taken off supplemental oxygen, posted Anne. He has driven his dads truck for short distances, walked a couple of blocks with me, done the dishes after supper, and is even now getting a few things for me at the grocery store.

Anne noted that while her son was still very weak, Jonathan was still working hard at pulmonary rehab to regain his strength.

I cannot begin to express how grateful my entire family is for your prayers!! All glory to our prayer-hearing God for answering them, she continued.

Anne then quoted Psalm 28:7, The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to Him...

An evangelist like his grandfather, Jonathan was admitted to a North Carolina hospital in critical condition due to complications from COVID-19 and pneumonia.

Soon after he was admitted to the hospital, Jonathans condition improved and he was moved out of the ICU and began rehab while still at the medical facility.

On Aug. 1, Anne took to Facebook to announce that Jonathan was discharged from the hospital and sent home to Raleigh, North Carolina, to continue treatment.

PRAISE GOD!! Jonathan is home! declared Anne on Facebook at the time. Please, please continue to pray for his swift recovery and restoration to full health with no setbacks or complications. And that I can take good care of him. Blessing upon blessing to each of you who have helped carry him in prayer.
Let Us Worship draws thousands to National Mall to pray for ongoing divides: 'Total God setup'

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Drawing thousands to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Sunday, Christian artist Sean Feucht led worship as part of his ongoing tour of American cities in a larger weekend event he called a divine setup.

Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, the 38-year-old worship leader told the Christian Broadcasting Network that he hoped for a date in October. However, the National Park Service could only offer him this last weekend.

"They came back to me and said, 'Actually we can't give you a date in October. The only dates we have available are September 11 and 12.' And I knew in that moment this was a total God setup," Feucht said.

On Sunday, before the Let Us Worship event began at 5 p.m., Feucht and his team led prayer at the U.S. Supreme Court, the Lincoln Memorial and White House with the goal of filling the nation's capital with worship and prayer. The D.C. event kicked off 21 days of prayer for the nation.



The previous night, Sept. 11, President Donald Trump addressed the crowd in an 8-minute recorded message in which he urged Americans to pray. He spoke of the 13 fallen soldiers recently killed in Afghanistan.



"I just feel like we're in the middle of a leadership crisis in America. ... I think everyone would understand that. I think having the former president give an address where he calls America to pray, honor the fallen, honor the military, which I don't feel like has been done in a great way from this current administration," Feucht told CBN News. "We need somebody of that caliber, of that level to call America to pray, but also to give us some reassurance that we're not in this thing alone."

In remarks to the crowd gathered on the National Mall Sunday, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, R-Mo., described what was happening in the nations capital as the sounds of revival.

Gesturing to the U.S. Capitol behind him, the senator said that though bad news sometimes comes from that place, we have the best news of all.

God has dreams for America that arent fulfilled yet, he declared, adding theres more to come. The best is yet to come because we serve a King who is on the throne and His Kingdom is ever-advancing.



When it comes to our country, He is just getting started, Hawley contended.

The senator went on to share from the book of Judges, highlighting the story of when Gideon hid from his enemies, and the angel of the Lord showed up and called him a mighty man of valor.

Relating that story to current events in the United States, Hawley continued that it may feel like the U.S. is under siege and that Christians should hide and remain quiet when the reverse is true.



I think the Lord is saying to us, Rise up, mighty men and women of valor. Rise up for this time.' Rise up, the Lord is on the move! And the Lord is going to release a revival over this nation, and its going to be released through you ... when we take our stand in the strength of the Lord, he said.



Pastor Jentzen Franklin, who leads the Free Chapel in Gainesville, Georgia, spoke of the dire social breakdown as a result of sin, conditions especially unignorable in several major U.S. cities.



Theres only one solution to the pollution problem of drugs and alcoholism and sexual abuse and immorality, and pain and depression and suffering, and hopelessness, and fear and desperation," Franklin said. "Theres only one solution for COVID-19. After its all said and done, we need the Holy Spirits wind from elsewhere to sweep through our cities, to sweep through our homes, to sweep through and clean out the pollution of sin, the pollution of fear and worry and torment and depression and hopelessness and despair."

Franklin referenced the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37, noting that the bones were dead, dry and divided. The condition of those bones reminded him of the current state of the Church in the United States.

Were divided, were dry and were dead, he said soberly.

We need a wind from elsewhere, he reiterated. As God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the wind after asking Him if the dry bones could live, so too must the Church declare for such a wind of Gods Spirit.

There is coming a wind from elsewhere that restores the years that the locust and the cankerworm have taken away, he said.

The Let Us Worship movement began last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic and has held public worship events in outdoor arenas in dozens of cities.
Pentecostal pastor, 2 other Christians arrested in India for handing out Bibles

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Police in Indias northern state of Himachal Pradesh arrested a Pentecostal pastor and two other Christians who were handing out evangelistic booklets and Bibles in villages after radical Hindu nationalists accused them of forcibly converting people, according to a report.

The Rev. Charlie John and two other Christians, Vishal and Keval Ram, were arrested last week after they distributed Christian literature and Bibles in Lalas village near Rampur city, Asia News reported.

I only offered the Bible, and I gave it to those who freely accept the Good News, Pastor John was quoted as saying. If anyone refused, I didn't insist. We did not convert anyone; I'm even willing to offer the Bible, which is God's Word, even to the police.

He added, What we do is share the Good News with people, tell them about Jesus, without forcing anyone to convert. The accusations made against me are totally false; I have never offered money for the conversion of people.

Himachal Pradesh is one of the several Indian states that have 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 law, which presumes that Christians 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 an inducement.

In 2019, Himachal Pradesh amended its anti-conversion law to make it tougher. Violations are punishable with up to five years in prison.

Christians make up about 2.5% of Indias population, while Hindus comprise 79.5%.

India ranks as the 10th-worst country globally when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USA's 2021 World Watch List. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has urged the U.S. State Department to label India as a country of particular concern for engaging in or tolerating severe religious freedom violations.

Open Doors USA warns that since the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party took power in 2014, persecution against Christians and other religious minorities has increased.

The group reports that Hindu radicals often attack Christians with little to no consequences.
As many as 3,200 pedophiles worked in French Catholic Church since 1950, commission finds

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As many as 3,200 pedophiles have worked in the French Catholic Church since the 1950s, according to the head of an independent commission created to investigate sexual abuse in the church.

Jean-Marc Sauve, president of the commission comprised of 21 people and financed by the Bishops' Conference of France, was interviewed by CNN on Sunday about the commission's work.

Ahead of the scheduled release of the commission's final report Tuesday, Sauve estimated that between 2,900 and 3,200 pedophile clergy were working in the Catholic Church in France from the 1950s to the present.

"We had to cross historical, sociological, medical and psychiatric perspectives. We had to call upon skills in the area of child protection, social work, questions of abuse and also bring to bear skills in the area of theology and law," explained Sauve.

"We worked a lot with the victims, and we did not delegate the task of listening to all the victims to research laboratories. Of course, the research laboratories did some of the hearings, but we conducted a large number of hearings ourselves."

The commission was launched in 2018, and members of the commission aren't paid. Sauve told Agence-France Presse that the report looks at the "institutional" and "cultural" mechanisms that allowed pedophiles to continue working in the Catholic Church. The report will offer 45 proposals.

He added that the commission is made up of legal professionals, historians, theologians, doctors and sociologists.

According to CNN, the archives of the dioceses and churches were made accessible to the commission. Sauve assured that much work has gone into creating the report over the last 32 months.

Over the past several years, the Roman Catholic Church has dealt with revelations of sexually abusive clergy and high-ranking officials covering up these criminal actions.

Responses to the crisis have included enacting more transparency and accountability regarding sexual abuse allegations and overseeing investigations on the extent of the abuse.

In May of 2019, Pope Francis issued an apostolic letter requiring clergy to report abuse. The previous standard allowed church officials their own discretion on the matter.

The new guidelines, which also sought to provide better protection for whistleblowers and victims, came months after the pontiff held a summit on combating sexual abuse in the Church.

The French Catholic Church's commission was established before Pope Francis mandated new requirements for reporting sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

During the February 2019 summit attended by approximately 200 church leaders, Francis stressed that the Church must fight "this evil afflicting the Church and humanity."

"I wanted to consult you, Patriarchs, Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, and Religious Superiors and Leaders, so that together we might listen to the Holy Spirit and, in docility to his guidance, hear the cry of the little ones who plead for justice," stated Francis at the time.

"The holy People of God looks to us, and expects from us not simple and predictable condemnations, but concrete and effective measures to be undertaken. We need to be concrete."
Long overdue: Christian prison ministry celebrates passage of EQUAL Act

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A Christian prison ministry has commended the United States House of Representatives for passing a bill that seeks to eliminate a disparity regarding drug possession penalties.

Known as the Eliminating a Quantifiably Unjust Application of the Law (EQUAL) Act, or H.R. 1693, the bill passed the House on Tuesday by a bipartisan vote of 361 to 66.

If enacted, the EQUAL Act would lower the criminal penalties for federal crack cocaine offenses to the same level as penalties for powder cocaine offenses, ending a major disparity in the law.

Prison Fellowship, a national Christian ministry, has expressed their support for the passage of the bill, having lobbied for the proposed legislation for the past several months.

Heather Rice-Minus, senior vice president of advocacy and church mobilization at Prison Fellowship, told The Christian Post in an interview on Thursday that she believed the House passing the bill was long overdue.

We are prioritizing the EQUAL Act as a federal piece of legislation we want to see passed because we believe that the disparity in how we punish crack versus powdered cocaine is disproportional for all Americans, explained Rice-Minus.

In addition to that, we know that historically it has had a really devastating effect on black communities in particular. So we want to see that changed and remedied and we believe that now the time in fact is long overdue.

In January, Prison Fellowship joined FAMM (which formerly went by the spelled out name Families Against Mandatory Minimums) to launch a social media campaign on behalf of H.R. 1693 with #endthedisparity on Twitter.

They, along with us, have been lobbying members of Congress, our staff has been going out, Rice-Minus told CP. Weve been doing lots of outreach to educate members of Congress and their staff about why this is so important and weve been getting constituents involved to share why they care about this for their own community.

Rice-Minus was optimistic about the fate of the legislation in the Senate, telling CP that she viewed this vote we just had in the House as a mandate that really does send a message to the Senate.

I think whether as a standalone bill or as part of a criminal justice package, one way or another, were going to get this across the finish line and I think that members realize, as was evident in the House, that this is long overdue, she added.

As part of their continued efforts to advance the EQUAL Act, Prison Fellowship plans to hold a congressional briefing on Friday, focused on the Senate side.
Colorado medical school sued for denying religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccine mandate

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A medical school in Colorado has been sued by a student and a faculty member who allege that they were wrongfully punished for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds.

The two plaintiffs, one Catholic and one Buddhist, have filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado on Wednesday against the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine.

According to the lawsuit, the university rejected their requests for an exemption to a schoolwide mandate even though the two unnamed plaintiffs hold religious objections to getting the COVID-19 vaccine.

According to the lawsuit, the university would only grant religious exemptions to individuals whose religious beliefs involved opposing "all immunizations," as opposed to just objections to the COVID-19 vaccine.

As a result, the Catholic staff member is facing a possible termination while the Buddhist student has already been compelled to take a "leave of absence" from his coursework.

"Plaintiffs are aware that hospitals and medical schools across the country, and within the University of Colorado's own health care system, have offered religious accommodations to similarly situated individuals who work directly with and around COVID vulnerable patients," argued the lawsuit.

"Their experience, which is consistent with national media reports, confirms that there can be no compelling interest in categorically forbidding similar accommodations for Plaintiffs here simply on the basis of the nature of their religious beliefs and the University's view of the veracity of those beliefs."

Thomas More Society Vice President and Senior Counsel Peter Breen, whose organization is representing the plaintiffs, claimed in a statement that the university had "enacted a policy dividing its staff and students into two categories based on their religious beliefs."

"The 'sheep' whose religions teach the approved orthodoxy receive exemptions to the university's Covid vaccine mandate, but the 'goats' who hold non-approved religious beliefs are refused exemptions, and then fired or expelled," Breen stated.

Breen believes the university was "rendering value judgments on believers in an inquisition that further violates the First Amendment."

According to the Anschutz School of Medicine's website, all students, faculty and other personnel must be vaccinated against COVID-19 unless they successfully apply for an exemption based on medical or religious objections.

"Unvaccinated individuals are required to follow alternative procedures on campus, which include completing the daily health questionnaire, wearing masks and distancing and complying with mandatory weekly COVID-19 testing," the school's website explains.

As more schools and businesses require COVID-19 vaccinations for their personnel, some have objected for religious reasons. Some object over how cell lines from aborted fetuses were used in the vaccine research.

In July, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York issued a memorandum saying that priests can't grant religious exemptions for getting the COVID-19 vaccine.

"Pope Francis has made it very clear that it is morally acceptable to take any of the vaccines and said we have the moral responsibility to get vaccinated," a memo from New York Archdiocese Chancellor John P. Cahill reads.

"By doing so [a priest] is acting in contradiction to the directives of the Pope and is participating in an act that could have serious consequences to others."

In New York, 17 healthcare workers filed a lawsuit seeking religious exemptions to a vaccine mandate that required more than 600,000 workers in public and private hospitals and nursing homes to receive their first dose of the vaccine by Monday.

They were also represented by the Thomas More Society. On Sept. 14, a federal judge issued an order temporarily preventing the New York health department from rejecting employer-approved religious exemptions. The order was extended last week and will last until Oct. 12. Their lawsuit pushes back on the memo from Catholic leadership in New York.

"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.'"

In July, two students at a dental school in Missouri were granted religious exemptions to a vaccine mandate after a Christian conservative legal group sent a demand letter.
Supreme Court to hear case over Boston's refusal to fly Christian flag at City Hall

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The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal regarding whether city officials in Boston, Massachusetts, can reject a request to fly a Christian flag at its City Hall.

In a miscellaneous orders list released Thursday, the Supreme Court granted a petition without comment in the case of Harold Shurtleff, et al. v. Boston, MA, et al.

The lawsuit was filed against the city of Boston by Shurtleff of the Christian civic organization Camp Constitution after the city refused to allow him to fly a "Christian flag" on one of the flag poles outside City Hall on Constitution Day 2017 while allowing other organizations to raise flags on one of the poles to celebrate their occasions.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver, whose organization is representing Shurtleff, said in a statement that he is optimistic about the appeal and hopes the case will set a "precedent."

"We look forward to the U.S. Supreme Court hearing Boston's unconstitutional discrimination against Camp Constitution's Christian viewpoint. The city cannot deny the Christian flag because it is 'Christian' and allow every other flag to fly on its flagpoles," stated Staver.

"Censoring religious viewpoints in a public forum where secular viewpoints are permitted is unconstitutional and this case will set national precedent."

City officials denied Shurtlett's request to fly the flag, even though the public property had agreed to fly numerous other flags showcasing diverse religious and political opinions.

For example, Boston City Hall had approved the flying of a Turkish flag, which includes Islamic imagery, the gay pride rainbow flag and a transgender pride flag.

Lower courts have consistently ruled against Shurtlett thus far.

In February 2020, U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper argued that the City Hall flagpoles constituted "government speech" and not private expression, which made flying a Christian flag an unlawful government endorsement of religion in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

"There are no additional facts in the record that would suggest any improper preference for non-religion over religion or selective treatment of any person or group based on religion," ruled Casper, an Obama appointee.

"The City did not alter its procedures for review of flag applications because of Camp Constitution's request, instead, Camp Constitution's request presented a novel issue for the City's consideration, which the City considered consistent with its practice and policy."

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit unanimously upheld the lower court ruling in January, with Judge Bruce Selya writing the panel opinion.

Selya, a Reagan appointee, argued that the flag display would constitute government speech since it would be flown alongside two other flags representing the U.S. and Massachusetts. He alleged that the display of "three flags flying in close proximity communicates the symbolic unity of the three flags."

"It therefore strains credulity to believe that an observer would partition such a coordinated three-flag display  into a series of separate yet simultaneous messages (two that the government endorses and another as to which the government disclaims any relation)."

In the past, the Supreme Court has allowed the placement of religious symbols on public property.

In 2019, the Court ruled that a 40-foot tall cross commemorating World War I veterans on public property in Bladensburg, Maryland, did not violate the Constitution's Establishment Clause.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case of Shurtleff v. Boston in its upcoming October term, which will begin Monday. Liberty Counsel predicts that oral arguments in the case will occur early next year, with a decision issued by the end of June.
Dog the Bounty Hunter's Christian faith prompts him to join search for Brian Laundrie: spokesperson

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Just days after joining the hunt for fugitive Brian Laundrie, Duane Chapman, who is better known as "Dog the Bounty Hunter," has already made significant contributions to the case  and it's his Christian faith that drives him.

In a statement to The Christian Post, Dog's spokesperson, Jennifer Willingham, explained that the bounty hunter's faith compelled him to join the search for Laundrie, a person of interest in the homicide of his 22-year-old fiancee, Gabby Petito.

She revealed that Dog and his new wife, Francie, were honeymooning on Marco Island, Florida, when the manhunt began.

"Dog and Francie, who are devout Christians, felt as if their proximity to the search was not a coincidence and they wanted to do something to help the Petito family," she said. "At the same time, Dog's fans were sending him tips and urging him to join the search."

"Therefore, Dog and his team, including his daughter Lyssa and Francie's son Greg who are working from Hawaii and Colorado respectively, opened up a formal tip line, 833-TELLDOG, and volunteered their time to search for Mr. Laundrie this past weekend."

Fox News reported on Thursday that the reality star, who joined the search for Laundrie earlier this week, came across a fresh campsite deep in the woods of a Florida park where he and his team found a can of Monster Energy Ultra Gold.

Despite the find, Dog's team did not find solid evidence that Laundrie is in the woods on Egmont Key, located just southwest of the 1,136-acre Fort De Soto Park. Dog believes that Laundrie is hiding somewhere in the park, which is made up of five interconnected islands.

"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 going to fight," he said in a video posted to Twitter.

"So here we go. The search now is really on. The search has just begun," the 68-year-old added.

Dog, who has apprehended more than 8,000 fugitives, revealed Wednesday that boat crews and ground teams had been called in and rescue dogs deployed to the search area.

UPDATE: Video is from this morning  earlier today we launched an active and specific search in a key area based on the intelligence we are receiving and researching. Boat crews and ground teams have been called in and we have search and rescue dogs deployed. More to follow... pic.twitter.com/g2tq85JTZX  Duane Dog Chapman (@DogBountyHunter) September 29, 2021

Petito, an aspiring travel blogger, was reported missing Sept. 11 by her parents after not responding to calls and texts for several days while she and Laundrie visited parks in the western United States. Her body was discovered on Sept. 19 in a remote area in northwestern Wyoming.

Though her death has been ruled a homicide, authorities in Wyoming haven't revealed how she died pending further autopsy results.

Willingham revealed that Dog and his team have the blessing of the Petito family to be involved and have been in touch periodically.

"During their search, they have unearthed multiple new leads. They will be continuing the hunt in the coming days, following evidence and tips in an effort to aid law enforcement," she said.

In the days ahead, Willingham said that Dog and Francie intend to work in ministry together and continue the search for missing persons and fugitives.

Some, like MSNBC's Joy Reid, have complained about the media's "disproportionate" coverage of Petito's case, arguing that she is receiving more attention than other missing or murdered women because she is white.

But in an op-ed for The Christian Post, Ghanaian Canadian Samuel Sey refuted such theories.

"There are several reasons why Gabby Petito has received significant attention, and there's 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," he wrote.

"Gabby Petito is the victim of an exceptionally odd and evil missing person and murder case. That's the main reason why her case has received significant attention."
ERLC, faith groups defend Texas inmates right to have pastor lay hands on him during execution

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The Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and the National Association of Evangelicals joined with five other faith and religious freedom groups on Monday to defend the right of a Texas death row inmate to have his pastor lay hands on him and pray as he receives a lethal injection for murdering a man in 2004.

The inmate, John Henry Ramirez, 37, had his execution for the murder of 46-year-old convenience store worker Pablo Castro in Corpus Christi delayed by the U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 8, the Associated Press reported. The nation's high court also ordered a briefing schedule for Ramirez's plea to have a pastor present to be argued in October or November.

The ERLC and the Seventh-Day Adventist General Conference joined the Christian Legal Society, the Anglican Church in North America, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, the National Association of Evangelicals, Queens Federation of Churches and the Rutherford Institute in a 33-page amicus brief in support of Ramirez's "religious exercise."

"In carrying out the execution of John Henry Ramirez, the State of Texas ... will substantially burden his right of religious exercise if it imposes a blanket ban on his pastor engaging in audible prayer or touching him to give spiritual comfort at his moment of death," the brief states.

"Previous cases in this Court have already indicated the importance of the right to such meaningful spiritual comfort in the execution chamber for a condemned prisoner of any faith. The amici joining this brief, who include Christian religious bodies of varying theological views, affirm the importance of that right."

Ramirez stabbed Castro 29 times during a robbery in 2004, from which he only got $1.25 after a three-day drug binge with two women who were with him at the time of the murder. He fled to Mexico after the attack but was arrested 3.5 years later and sentenced to death.

His lawyer, Seth Kretzer, argued that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice was violating his First Amendment rights to practice his religion by preventing his pastor from laying hands and making vocal prayers as he received his lethal injection.

"It is hostile toward religion, denying religious exercise at the precise moment it is most needed: when someone is transitioning from this life to the next," Kretzer said in court documents.

Dana Moore, Ramirez's spiritual adviser the last four years and pastor at Second Baptist Church in Corpus Christi, told the AP that "John's sentence wasn't death and you can't have any meaningful contact."

"He is paying for his crime," Moore is quoted as saying. "I guess the question that would come up, is that not enough?"

Mark Skurka, the lead prosecutor at Ramirez's 2008 trial who is now retired, said the inmate's victim did not have the luxury of a pastor praying for him when he was murdered and supports limitations due to security concerns.

"Pablo Castro didn't get to have somebody praying over him as this guy stabbed him 29 times," Skurka said. "Pablo Castro didn't get afforded such niceties and things like to have a clergyman present."

In their amicus brief, the faith and religious freedom groups cited four distinct reasons that the state has failed to justify this substantial burden under the demanding standard of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.

"The State has failed its obligation under RLUIPA to present specific evidencenot merely generalized assertions or speculationas to why banning these practices is necessary to serve order and security," they noted.

The groups explained that Texas attempted to excuse its failure to present specific evidence to shift the burden of proof back to Ramirez concerning less restrictive means and compelling interests. They contend, however, that "under RLUIPA, both the burden of production and the burden of persuasion remain on the State, not the person whose religious exercise is substantially burdened."

Even if Texas were to demonstrate that denials of audible prayer and physical touching further a compelling interest, the brief asserts the state must also prove that the rejections are the least restrictive means of furthering that interest.

"The State has multiple less restrictive means of maintaining order and security, and it has not demonstrated that these are inadequate," the brief maintains. "It can (and does) vet and train outside spiritual advisors, and if their actions cause disruption, it can remove them from the chamber and impose penalties. And as Ramirez has suggested, the State can require that audible prayers be soft and nondisruptive."

The faith groups further argue that Texas undercut its argument that a blanket ban on "audible prayer and physical touching are necessary to serve compelling interests" because they have previously allowed the practice in previous executions.

"It has already permitted audible prayer by spiritual advisors in the execution 7 chamber. And it has already permitted spiritual advisors to place their hands on inmates during the execution procedure," the brief reads. "Accordingly, Ramirez is entitled to a continued injunction to prevent him from being executed in a manner inconsistent with his right to exercise his religion in the last minutes of his life. And this Court should order that if the State continues to ban these religious practices, the case should be remanded to litigate Ramirez's demand for a permanent injunction against the State's ban."
Gov't restrictions on religion at high levels worldwide even before COVID-19 lockdowns: Pew report

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Government restrictions on religious practice remained high during the year before the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, according to a recent report by the Pew Research Center.

Pew released findings from its 12th annual study on global religious persecution Thursday, analyzing 198 countries during 2019, the most recent year with data available.

When it came to public policy and laws that infringed on religious practices, 2019 had a similar rate of intolerance to 2018, which was noted as a year with a high rate of government-imposed restrictions.

Pew found that 57 countries had high or very high restrictions on religious practice, which was slightly higher than 2018s 56 countries that reported the same and the highest rate since 2012, which also reported 57 countries.

It was also a considerable increase from 2014, when 47 countries were listed as having high or very high government restrictions on religious belief and practice.

The analysis shows that government restrictions involving religion, which in 2018 had reached the highest point since the start of the study, remained at a similar level in 2019, explained Pew.

The global median score on the Government Restrictions Index (GRI), a 10-point index based on 20 indicators, held steady at 2.9. This score has risen markedly since 2007, the first year of the study, when it was 1.8.

While government restrictions across the world remained high in 2019, the level of social hostilities toward religion and religious terrorism both saw a decline compared to earlier years.

Pew found that 43 countries were found to have high or very high social hostilities regarding religion, which was lower than the 53 countries reporting the same in 2018 and well below the 65 countries reporting the same in 2012.

Additionally, there was a decline reported in the number of countries experiencing religion-related terrorism, defined as including deaths, physical abuse, displacement, detentions, destruction of property, and fundraising and recruitment by terrorist groups.

In 2019, 49 countries experienced at least one of these types of religion-related terrorism, a record low for the study. That was down from 64 countries in 2018, and from a record high of 82 countries in 2014, continued Pew.

"Among the reasons for the decline in the studys terrorism measures is that ISIS subsequently lost control of a large swath of territory in Iraq and Syria," The report added.

In 2017, the Trump administration declared that the U.S.-led coalition had defeated the Islamic State terror group in Iraq and seized the de facto capital of its self-declared caliphate in Raqqa, Syria. On Dec. 9 of that same year, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared that the country is now "fully liberated" from ISIS.

Since 2014, it's believed that over 40,000 people from more than 110 countries had traveled to Iraq and Syria to join ISIS' caliphate. In the U.K., it was estimated that more British Muslims were fighting for IS than served in its armed forces.

Although U.S.-led troops killed tens of thousands of jihadis, insurgents still remain in parts of the country and ISIS terror cells are operating worldwide.

The Pew report added that "the number of violent attacks perpetrated by the group declined in Iraq in 2019, according to the Global Terrorism Database.

"Still, ISIS multinational network of organizations remained active. Groups pledging allegiance to ISIS carried out bombings in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, 2019, killing more than 250 people and injuring approximately 500 others at churches and hotels," Pew added.

Pew noted that the numbers reported in this study came before the 2020 government lockdowns that took place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which often involved controversial measures believed by many to be in violation of civil liberties, including freedom of religion.

There has been extensive litigation in the United States aimed at state-level measures that critics claimed unlawfully treated houses of worship worse than comparable non-religious businesses.

In the decision Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that pandemic restrictions could not treat churches worse than secular entities.

Members of this Court are not public health experts, and we should respect the judgment of those with special expertise and responsibility in this area. But even in a pandemic, the Constitution cannot be put away and forgotten, read the majority opinion.

The restrictions at issue here, by effectively barring many from attending religious services, strike at the very heart of the First Amendments guarantee of religious liberty.
NY gov. unfairly invoked God to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations, lawyer tells 2nd Circuit

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An attorney for a conservative group argued in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan Wednesday that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has unfairly used God to encourage people to take COVID-19 vaccines as she argues there are no legitimate religious reasons to avoid taking them.

On Thursday, a three-judge panel partly granted a motion by We The Patriots USA attorney Cameron Lee Atkinson on behalf of three clients who stated religious objections to taking the COVID-19 vaccine to block the state from enforcing its vaccine mandate against them until their case is adjudicated.

"This case is at least the second time in two years that a New York governor has made sincerely held religious beliefs the specific target of a pandemic," We The Patriots USA Atkinson argued in the court session.

On Aug. 26, New York implemented a COVID-19 vaccine mandate requiring some 600,000 healthcare workers to receive their first dose of an approved vaccine by this past Monday unless a medical exemption is granted.

On Sept. 13, 17 Christian healthcare workers, including several doctors, filed a lawsuit seeking religious exemptions from the mandate. A day later, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against New York's health department from rejecting employer-approved religious exemptions to the vaccine mandate. A week later, the order was extended until Oct. 12, when a hearing is scheduled for the case.

While he did not provide any specific instances of the state violating the order, Atkinson argued that Gov. Hochul's recent public comments at the Brooklyn-based Christian Cultural Center on Sunday were encouraging some healthcare facilities to ignore the order.

"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," Hochul told congregants. "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."

She praised the congregants attending the church in person for being "the smart ones" and getting vaccinated but added that there were those "who aren't listening to God and what God wants," and she needed their help to reach the vaccine-hesitant population.

"Gov. Hochul has made public comments, public announcements that she would deploy the National Guard upon the termination of healthcare workers [who don't take the vaccines]," Atkinson argued in Wednesday's hearing, seeking a temporary order for his own clients.

He explained that while his clients still had their jobs, two of them had already been told that they would be fired on a "rolling basis." He urged the court to issue another temporary order that would give him the "ability to go back to those employers and say, I have an order from the Second Circuit staying this regulation until they hear the appeal on the merits. Do not fire my clients."

The panel of three judges who heard the appeal said there were already three orders against the vaccine mandate and did not appear convinced that they needed to issue another one 12 days before the October 12 hearing.

Steven Wu, New York's deputy solicitor general, told the appeals court judges that the New York Department of Health "is in full compliance with the northern district's temporary restraining order."

When asked about the merits of the vaccine mandate allowing a medical exemption but not a religious one, Wu contended that the medical exemption was allowed because its scope is a lot narrower than a religious exemption and wasn't permanent.

"The scope of the medical exemptions is limited to those who have very serious contraindications to COVID-19 or to its components which are severe allergic reactions of a certain type. So just the sheer numbers of it ... are quite different than it would be for a religious exemption," Wu said.

While the judges appeared to accept that as a valid argument, they asked if there was empirical evidence to back up the claim, and Wu said that data would be presented on Oct. 12 in defense of the mandate.

He further pointed out that while religious exemptions are permanent, medical exemptions are only allowed for a limited period.

In his rebuttal, Atkinson insisted that his clients needed their own temporary restraining order against the mandate.

"The reason this court should issue such an injunction is my clients shouldn't be dependent on the outcome of other proceedings. They've gone to court, they've litigated their claims fairly," he argued. "They're on a ticking clock. As soon as that clock swings in the direction of the orders being lifted or being denied  my clients are left hung out to dry."

The 2nd Circuit granted Atkinson's motion in part on Thursday, issuing a temporary restraining order blocking the state from enforcing the "mandate against persons claiming religious exemptions." A hearing date is set for Oct. 14.
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"Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities," said Winston Churchill, "because it is the quality which guarantees all others." Among those others are wisdom, tenacity, and respect for that one is called to serve. Those qualities are rarely seen in Washington these days as a result of the Left's cancel culture campaign. So, when courage is displayed, stop and take note.

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) is refusing to back President Biden's massive $3.5 trillion spending bill unless it includes the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding of abortion. The Biden reconciliation bill is, said the Senator, "dead on arrival" unless it includes the Hyde language.

A few years ago, Manchin's position would not have even earned a mention in news stories, but now it is in the headlines. Why? First, the Democratic party that was once home to many pro-life Americans has sworn allegiance to abortion, even to the point of driving pro-life Democrats from office. Furthermore, the Left's once-in-a-generation opportunity to advance a socialist state won't happen without Manchin's support. When you understand the stakes for the Democratic party, then you understand why Manchin's stand on the Hyde Amendment is courageous, putting principle and humanity above politics and self.

Introduced by the late U.S. Representative and Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) in 1976, the amendment that bears his name prohibits federal funding of abortion through Medicaid, the government health insurance plan for low-income persons. A recent study indicates that the Hyde Amendment has saved the lives of as many as 2.4 million unborn children.

President Biden voted for the Hyde Amendment every single time it came up during his multi-decade tenure in the Senate. As late as June 2019, Biden affirmed his support for Hyde. But then he came under immediate and intense attack from the pro-abortion forces that now hold a tight grip on the Democratic Party. Within a week, he gave in to the demands of the abortion lobby and its unrelenting advocates in Congress and publicly announced he had come full-circle and declared his support for public funding for abortion.

Joe Manchin is not one for shifting with the political winds. This past spring, the West Virginian said, "I'm going to support Hyde in every way possible." And he's keeping his word.

His fellow Democrats, especially self-described, "progressives," are less than pleased. Earlier in the year, hard-left Democrat Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) called the Hyde Amendment "a racist, discriminatory policy that (has) perpetuated inequity and injustice in our nation." Her friend Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said that the Hyde measure is "inhumane."

What's inhumane is the dismemberment of a little person in the womb, inhumanely augmented when it is paid for by you and me. Thankfully, Joe Manchin is having none of it.

In this, he is standing in the tradition of one of the great statesmen of our Republic, the late Henry Hyde himself. "For over two centuries of our national history, we have struggled to create a society of inclusion," said Mr. Hyde years ago. "Slaves were freed, women were enfranchised, civil-rights and voting-rights acts were passed." Yet, he said, "This great trajectory in our national history has been shattered by Roe v. Wade ... By denying an entire class of human beings the welcome and protection of our laws, we have betrayed the best in our tradition."

Joe Manchin is, virtually alone in the national Democratic Party, seeking to sustain that tradition. Winston Churchill would be proud of such courage. All Americans should be.

Originally published at the Family Research Council.
Israeli mom killed by her son for converting from Islam to Christianity, prosecutors say

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A 46-year-old woman was found dead in a section of the Jordan River in Northern Israel the day after her son, in his late 20s, murdered her because she converted from Islam to Orthodox Christianity, prosecutors say.

The suspect, Muad Hib, 27, reportedly used a rope or his hands to strangle his mother, Rasha Muklasha, until she died, police reports and court documents allege of the Aug. 5 incident.

According to The Times of Israel, the indictment alleges that Hib dug a pit, buried the body and covered the spot with rocks and dry leaves "all to obscure the body's location and make it harder to locate."

Hib was charged on Monday for premeditated murder.

In 2006, the victim was reportedly estranged from her husband and five children after she moved from Zarzir to Nof HaGalil, where she converted to Christianity.

After nearly 15 years, she reconnected with her children after her ex-husband died. However, her conversion to Christianity allegedly provoked and angered Hib, which prosecutors surmised could be the reasoning behind his intent for the killing.

Prosecutors contend the murder was planned by Hib, who met his mother near Nazareth and picked her up in his vehicle with the intent to kill her and dispose of her remains.

Authorities charge that after the son suffocated his mother to death, he searched for a place to hide her body.

While searching, Hib reportedly rammed into a police roadblock and fled from the scene. The indictment alleges that he proceeded to the Jordan River, where he hid the deceased.

The police said that Hib bumped into a second roadblock and arrested him after a short chase near Nahalal.

Both of Hib's brothers, 23 and 20, were arrested separately.

According to The Jerusalem Post, all three men were held until enough evidence could be compiled to charge the middle brother as the main perpetrator. After that, the others were released.

The police said they conducted an intensive search for Muklasha's remains using helicopters, a canine unit, cavalry and tracker units.

"The rapid work of investigators in locating the suspect, and the suspicion of a murder case, led to the launch of all Northern District forces for a rapid and extensive operation to locate the victim's body," said Northern District chief, Shimon Lavi, as quoted in a Times of Israel article in August. "[This shows] the police's full commitment to solving crime in the Arab community, using all means at our disposal."

News of the indictment comes as there has been rising crime and violence throughout Israel's Arab community. According to Haaretz, there have been 90 killings in Israel's Arab community since the start of 2021, and the vast majority of perpetrators haven't been brought to justice.

The outlet further calculates that only 23% of murders in Israel's Arab community have been solved. Some of the victims have been unlucky bystanders, known criminals or female victims of domestic violence.

The police have been accused of not doing enough to protect Israel's Arab society.

"The situation has only gotten worse," Thabet Abu Rass, co-executive director of an organization called Abraham Initiatives, which advocates for equality between Jews and Arabs, told Haaretz.

"Yes, we have seen more awareness of crime and violence, from the top down; everyone is talking about it. However, at the same time, on the ground, violent crime is accelerating and Arab society has completely lost its sense of security."

In July, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett stated that the rate of violence and crime in Arab Israeli communities is a "national calamity that has been neglected for many years."

"The crime occurs on a daily basis and fear rules the streets. It is the responsibility of the government to fight and deal with the phenomenon and it is a national mission."

In September, Israeli authorities reportedly began recruiting hundreds of new police officers and work with a domestic security agency to combat violence in the Arab community. The move came after several people were killed days prior.
Bitcoin mining is becoming one of the most lucrative and innovative sectors of the global economy. According to data, at the height of the current bull run in April 2021, cryptocurrency mining has generated $3 billion in revenue, which means that crypto miners earned $100,000,000 in profit every day on the average.

Q2 2021 hedge fund letters, conferences and more

Just 5 years ago, the average daily revenue of the crypto mining industry circulated at around $1 million. In a very short time, this number has increased by almost 10,000%, making cryptocurrency mining one of the most rapidly booming markets in the world. But as it became extremely profitable, it has also become very competitive, and choosing cutting-edge Bitcoin mining hardware is now more important than ever.

All Bitcoin mining is now done using ASICs - specialised Bitcoin mining hardware housed in thermally-controlled data centres with access to cheap power. ASICs are the next step in the development of crypto mining after CPUs, GPUs, and FPGAs: they are able to accomplish the same thing in a much more efficient and profitable way.

The days when anybody could successfully mine cryptocurrency at home on their PCs are long gone. Whether you're mining Bitcoin, Litecoin, DASH, or a variety of other digital currencies, an ASIC miner is the most effective method to mine crypto.

Because of the rapidly increasing profitability of cryptocurrency mining enterprises, the worldwide crypto mining hardware industry is anticipated to expand to more than USD 2.80 billion between 2020 and 2024. There are many reasons why the crypto mining sector is expanding so quickly: the growing acceptance of cryptocurrency by retailers, massive investments made by large semiconductor companies in mining-specific hardware, and the increasing demand for equipment manufactured in China.

These trends will further add to the growth of the cryptocurrency mining hardware market size in the near future, which will also increase the competitiveness of crypto mining. Fortunately, choosing the best crypto mining hardware will allow you to become a lucrative Bitcoin miner. By reading this article you'll be able to discover the advantages and disadvantages of the five most popular ASIC mining machines on the market.

Because so many individuals and businesses are entering the crypto mining ecosystem, ASICs are now in high demand and they have become quite expensive. When purchasing an ASIC, the most important thing to consider is its efficiency - the number of BTC that can be generated per day minus costs such as electricity bills and mining pool fees.

Picking an efficient ASIC will help you receive a return on your initial investment as soon as possible. For best efficiency, a top-quality PSU (power supply) is usually required in addition to the AIC unit.

We've listed the current pricing, hash rate, and power usage of each device to help you make your decision. We evaluate the best bitcoin mining ASIC devices based on reputation, functionality, the convenience of usage, and other factors.

While we have extensively discussed different ASICs in this article, the question you may face, where to buy these from. Among the available options, we have seen CoinMiningDirect, a distributor of affordable and efficient crypto mining hardware based in Sweden (with a warehouse in the US), offering a variety of powerful Bitcoin mining machines. If you decide to purchase any of the ASICs listed below, CoinMiningDirect may be the preferable option as it claims to ensure maximally reliability as they work on the mission to make mining devices accessible to average people. We also found their promised fast delivery to be worth going for.

Bitmain Antminer S19 Pro (110TH/s)

Specifications

Cost: $9,799.95  $12,999.

$9,799.95  $12,999. Power usage: 3,250W

3,250W Hash power: 110TH/sec

While its availability is limited and the initial costs can be quite prohibitive, the Bitmain Antminer S19 Pro is definitely one of the most sophisticated ASICs available on the market, and will be an excellent choice of Bitcoin mining hardware, assuming that you have good access to a source of cheap electricity. The S19 achieves a decent mix between power and cost, and if you can afford it the S19 Pro model will be able to turn out an even more impressive 115 TH/s.

If your goal is to mine any cryptocurrency you prefer at optimum efficiency regardless of the cost of initial investment, Bitmain Antminer will be the right choice for you. The Antminer S19 Pro with the hash power of 115TH/sec is by far the most advanced model, but Antminer S19, Antminer S17, Antminer T1, Antminer S9 and Antminer S17 Pro are also worth considering if you're looking for something slightly more affordable.

The S19 Pro is set up in the same way as the S19, which means that it's very easy to configure and maintain. Antminer's MinerLink GUI is exceptionally simple, and all you'll need to do to configure the ASIC is to type in your mining pool credentials. However, it's important to note that the only available connection method for Antminer S19 Pro is Ethernet.

The device starts working automatically after it is powered up, which might be helpful if you expect power outages to happen. Given the current situation on the crypto market, Bitmain Antminer S19 Pro can generate a profit of approximately 2,000$ a year.

Check out the Bitmain Antminer S19 Pro here

Canaan AvalonMiner 1246

Specifications

Power uage: 3.43KW

3.43KW Hash Power: 90Th/sec

90Th/sec Cost: $4,000-$5,300

Canaan was one of the first companies to produce ASIC miners for commercial use, and over the years it has established a solid market presence and great reputation proving their expertise in the field of crypto mining. Canaan's flagship model is the AvalonMiner 1246. With the throughput of 90 TH/s, AvalonMiner 1246 can be compared to the Bitmain Antminer S19 and the Whatsminer M30S.

One of the downsides of the AvalonMiner 1246 is its price. It costs around $5,500, which is significantly more than Bitmain and MicroBT's offerings.

Fortunately, if you have access to an affordable source of electricity, you will easily make profit with the Canaan AvalonMiner 1246. With the median price of energy in the USA, at $0.12/kWh, AvalonMiner 1246 would enable you to repay your initial investment in just two years.

If you're looking for a profitable ASIC which doesn't consume tons of energy, AvalonMiner 1246 will be perfect for you as it only uses 3420W. It's also much quieter in operation compared to the WhatsMiner M30S and the Antminer S19.

Pay attention to the fact that the AvalonMiner 1246 functions best between -5C and 35C (23F to 95F). The temperature range is wider and more similar to the WhatsMiner M30S than the AntMiner S19 series.

Checkout Canaaan AvalonMiner 1246 here

Whatsminer M3OS++

Specifications

Power usage: 3.472KW

3.472KW Hash power: 112Th/sec

112Th/sec Cost: $9,900  $14,000

WhatsMiner M30S++ is considered a direct competitor to the Antminer's S19 Pro because it can generate a very similar 112 TH/s throughput. However, WhatsMiner M30S++ is substantially cheaper than the Antminer S19 Pro - on MicroBT's online store, you can purchase one for only $3,250.

With the median power prices in the US, the M30S++ will allow you to make $3,611 while spending around $3,600 a year on electricity. Just like the older WhatsMiner M30, the WhatsMiner M30S++ consumes 3472W and operates at a 38 J/TH efficiency. The best efficiency is achieved between -5C and 35C (23F to 95F).

The M30S machines are smaller and less energy consuming than the Antminers, but they have slightly less hash power than their Antminer counterparts. They also use more electricity and convert it to terahashes less efficiently.

Despite this, in the long term MicroBT's WhatsMiner can provide higher hashing power per dollar invested. Another advantage of WhatsMiner ASICs is the fact that they are much easier to obtain than Antminers.

Overall, the WhatsMiner M30S series is an outstanding Bitcoin miner - it can provide hashing power that rivals Antminers with a much smaller initial investment required.

Check out the Whatsminer M3OS++ here

AvalanMiner 1166 Pro

Specifications

Power usage: 3.4KW

3.4KW Hash power: 81 TH/sec

81 TH/sec Cost: $2,200-$2,850

The AvalonMiner A1166 Pro is massively popular because it provides high hash rate and small power consumption at a very low price. The AvalonMiner 1166 Pro has a maximum hash rate of 81TH/s, and consumes 3276W of electricity. Not only is the device itself relatively cheap, but it also has one of the most efficient rate of converting electricity to hashpower, overall making it one of the most economical ASIC choices on the market.

Profitability of the AvalonMiner A1166 Pro is estimated to be $2.77 per day, $83.10 per month, and $1,011.05 per year with current energy and crypto prices, which clearly makes the A1166 Pro one of the most lucrative ASICs. Since it's also relatively cheap, it will be a great choice for new miners who want to join the crypto mining community and are looking for their first cryptocurrency mining hardware.

Sadly, Canaan seems to have cut some corners to keep it inexpensive, because just 180 days of guarantee are provided. Furthermore, if you want to purchase the Avalon Miner A1166 Pro straight from the manufacturer, you must order at least five machines. The set of five A1166 Pros would produce 405 TH/s and generate around 115 dollars a day.

Please note that the noise produced by the Antminer A1166 Pro is very high compared to other ASICs, which make many crypto mining experts consider it more suited for industrial crypto mining than small scale cryptocurrency mining operations.

Check out the AvalaanMiner 1166 pro here

Ebang EBIT E11++

Specifications

Power usage : 2KW

: 2KW Hash power: 44 TH/sec

44 TH/sec Cost: $2,024

Ebang Ebit E11++ generates a maximum hashrate of 44TH/s while consuming 1.98KW of power and includes a power supply unit. It's a great ASIC for people who want a less energy consuming device, even at a cost of lower hashrate than that provided by the competition.

If you live in an area with high energy prices, the Ebang Ebit E11++ might be the best option for you. The included power supply is very efficient, and it also utilises a separate heat sink with state-of-the-art bonds, which can provide an excellent rate of heat dissipation.

Unfortunately, like many cheaper ASICs, the Ebang Ebit E11++ model is also very loud. The device's noise level is 75db, which means that it's not really suitable in a home context for miners wanting to install their mining appliances where they live.

The E11++ model is constructed on a 10nm chipset with a one-year guarantee (half a year for the entire machine, one for the controller). The relatively short guarantee period is also something typical to less expensive ASICs.

The Ebang Ebit E11++ was launched in 2018 and is still profitable today - the current profit ratio is estimated to be 78%, and the annual return is 77% of the initial investment. The performance and results are satisfactory to crypto miners who want an affordable ASIC with relatively low energy consumption - but when it comes to pure hashrate efficiency, the E11++ is much less attractive than more expensive ASICs such as the AvalonMiner A1166 Pro

Check out Ebang EBIT E11++ here

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NEW YORK (AP)  The CEO of Ozy Media on Monday said it had been premature to shut down the company and that he wants to keep operating, despite a scandal-ridden week that exposed Ozy as an outlet without much of an audience.

Carlos Watson, a former former cable-news commentator and host who founded Ozy in 2013, told CNBC that he met with advertisers and investors over the weekend and that he wants Ozy to continue.

In an emailed statement Monday, the company characterized the troubles of the past week as a bump in the road that it is committed to getting past," saying we are excited to reopen and expect to start resuming operations over the next few days." Ozy is trying to get employees to come back and said newsletters would resume this week and video production at the end of the month.

Ozy's board of directors said Friday that the company was ceasing operations. The shutdown came less than a week after a New York Times column raised questions about the media organizations claims of millions of viewers and readers, while also pointing out a potential case of securities fraud.

The story triggered canceled shows, an internal investigation, investor concern and high-level departures at the company before it shut down Friday.

The Times story also said Ozys chief operating officer and co-founder, Samir Rao, impersonated a YouTube executive on a call with Goldman Sachs while attempting to raise money from the investment bank. Regarding that call, Watson said: I don't know. I wasn't there. He then went on to say that they eventually figured out what happened," but did not explain further. Look  it's heartbreaking, its wrong, its not good, its not OK, Watson said. I love Goldman, I worked there, I've got a lot of friends there.

Mountain View, California-based Ozy, which had raised more than $70 million from investors as of late 2019, according to the website Crunchbase, has long been suspected of inflating its audience size. Watson claimed last week that Ozy had 25 million subscribers to its newsletter and 30 million YouTube views. The New York Times, with a much bigger brand presence, says it has 15 million newsletter readers. The newspaper reported that fewer than 500,000 people went to Ozys website in June and July, according to Comscore data. Ozy was seemingly paying for much of its audience rather than building a real base of readers and viewers.

To restart, the company would have to reestablish trust with employees, advertisers and investors. It shut down abruptly, distressing workers. It has been caught in several dishonest situations apart from traffic. It reportedly told people who worked on its interview series, The Carlos Watson Show, that it would be on cable TV, but then episodes were just uploaded to YouTube. Watson interviewed celebrities like Bill Gates and Matthew McConaughey for the online show. On CNBC Monday, Watson said We originally conceived the show with A&E, and then shifted to YouTube," and there was lots of miscommunication in that.

On Thursday, Marc Lasry, the hedge-fund billionaire and Milwaukee Bucks co-owner who had been named Ozys chairman in September, resigned, citing Ozys need for someone experienced in crisis management and investigations. He remained an investor. A high-profile employee, former BBC anchor Katty Kay, had resigned earlier in the week, and an early investor, a venture capital firm, gave up its Ozy shares. The board had reportedly hired a law firm to review Ozys business activities.

___

Matt Ott contributed to this report.
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Michael Flynn, the former general and former Trump advisor who thinks companies may be putting the Covid vaccine in salad dressing, allegedly received a total of $200,000 in undisclosed secret payments in 2014 and 2015 for consulting he did on a plan to build 40 nuclear power plants in the Middle East, the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad reported.

The nuclear power plan, which never came to fruition, would have involved companies from the U.S., French, Canada and Russia constructing and managing nuclear plants in Arab nations. According to SpyTalk, a site run by national security reporter Jeff Stein, the paper reported that an audit of a Dutch company specializing in transport revealed the payment to Flynn.

Flynn came to the White House as Donald Trumps national security advisor in early 2017 but quickly resigned in disgrace after lying to the FBI about his interactions with the then-Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak as well as his work as a lobbyist and consultant to Turkeys government. Robert Muellers team filed charges against Flynn, and he pled guilty to making false statements to the FBI regarding his work for Turkey and contacts with Russia while he served as a campaign advisor to Trump in 2016. Trump later issued Flynn a full and unconditional pardon in November 2020.

NRC reported that the $200,000 in payments to Flynn came from a U.S. firm connected to the project, ACU Strategic Partners, which paid him using money it received from Mammoet, according to internal Dutch and U.S. corporate documents the paper obtained.

In 2017, SpyTalk reported in Newsweek that Flynn was involved with the project, working as an unpaid adviser to ACU despite not disclosing that information on his initial financial disclosure form or a later amended version of the form. At that time, officials told Newsweek that Flynn had been repaid between $10,000-$15,000 for travel expenses related to his time in the Middle East. The report led to investigations by two House committees that found Flynn had not disclosed his meetings with Middle East officials related to the nuclear project.

According to SpyTalk, which spoke with the NRC reporter who first broke the story, Carola Houtekamer, Flynn did not respond to requests for comment.

These previously unknown payments to Flynn are no small matter. Its crucial that public officials disclose any past business they conducted as paid lobbyists to a foreign company or government before entering public service. Especially for a person serving in a position as high-powered as national security advisor, transparency is imperative  which is why disclosure forms and laws around this exist. Not revealing this information can erode the publics trust and could lead to dangerous national security implications.
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As of now, only one Biden administration ambassador has been confirmed. And the president has Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to thank for the hold-up. The senator has been singlehandedly slow-walking 59 nominees for ambassadorships and is threatening to delay more, all over the issue of a Russian gas pipeline, The New York Times reported Saturday.

Its a move one Democratic lawmaker, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), called unprecedented and an undermining of the national security process in a statement to the paper. Cruz isnt just delaying ambassadors confirmations, he is also blocking other nominees, some in key national security positions that remain empty. Currently, only approximately one in four key national security jobs have been filled, although the Times points out that the Biden administration was slow to submit many foreign policy nominees.

Why is Cruz doing this? He is opposed to Bidens actions regarding the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project that would run between Russia and Germany while bypassing Ukraine. The senator believes by allowing the pipeline to go forward, as Biden did when he waived sanctions Congress placed on the project, that the president is showing weakness toward Russia. Thus began Cruzs intentional delays of even the most routine Biden nominations.

Cruz is accomplishing this by objecting to the traditional way Congress handles these nominees, through unanimous consent. With his objections, Cruz forces the process to take hours of Senate floor time.

Defending Cruzs actions, the senators press secretary Dave Vasquez told the Times that Cruz has worked day in and day out to craft and advance compromises. Vasquez added that the White House could get its nominees through tomorrow by simply implementing the law.

But Menendez believes that leaving these positions vacant could affect national security.

Its really an undermining of the nations national security process, Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the Times. What we have here is an unprecedented, blanketed holding of all nominees  regardless of whether they have anything to do with the policy issues at stake.

That is not something I have seen in 30 years of doing foreign policy work in Congress, Menendez added.
With summer officially over and cooler weather in sight, the Houston area is entering prime hiking, biking and exploring season. So pick a dry weekend (or not  just watch for flooding alerts) and get out of the city for a day of outdoor activity, whether that means a strenuous uphill run or a picnic on the beach.

The six parks below offer a range of activities and are all located within 100 miles of downtown Houston, perfect for a quick day trip. Don't forget to reserve a day pass if the park you pick requires one.
Some Conroe townsfolk have long told tales about spirits of the departed inhabiting the citys downtown. Those seeking a fright in the night now have a city native and longtime ghost tour guide available to show them around.

Mathew Whitmire, 31, is embarking on paid one-hour tours exploring downtown Conroe during the first post-vaccine Halloween season. As far as Whitmire knows, Haunted Conroe Ghost Tour, a business he started early last year, is Montgomery Countys first-ever tour of its kind.

Aside from any scares they may get on the tour, a lot of Whitmires customers have told him they have lived their entire lives in the city without walking through its downtown.

These customers didnt realize how deep the history of Conroe and just all these places really, really does go, Whitmire said. They have a whole new view of it and I really like that aspect of it because it does open peoples eyes to the past and how it really has affected everything that we have in Conroe now.

In his zeal to inform sightseers, Whitmire does not hesitate to spotlight some of downtown Conroe historys darker side.

If Im telling a story its because I have at least two or three verifiable sources that it actually occurred, Whitmire said, noting local supernatural lore is presented as such.

Terrifying encounters

Want to go? Tours run Friday and Saturday nights. Tickets are $20 per adult and $15 per child. For more information, call 832-409-4505 or visit Facebook.com/HauntedConroe. See More Collapse

A lean figure draped in black, from top hat to trench coat and boots, Whitmire guided a tour through downtown Conroe the first Saturday night of autumn this year.

Treading through sidewalks and alleys, the tour features nine destinations. Among them are well-known landmarks like the storied Montgomery County Courthouse, awash in outdoor lights against the backdrop of a pitch-dark sky.

An especially conspicuous site on the tour is Shepards Barber Shop. Established in 1912, the barbershops window signage declares it the oldest in Texas. Elvis Presley in 1955 is said to have sat in a barbers chair at Shepards and gotten his pompadour cut.

Leon Apostolo, 60, has been working at the shop for the past 40 years. Now its owner, Apostolo said he has had many ghostly encounters there but none as terrifying as one curiously attired prospective customer in the 1990s.

Apostolo was cutting a regular customers hair when a slightly mucky, barefooted man in overalls walked through the door. The odd fellow sat at a waiting chair for about 10 minutes without saying a word. Another man walked in and asked the barber if he was next. Apostolo answered, Yeah. After this gentleman, gesturing toward the customer in waiting. But he had vanished without a trace.

The train conductors hat worn by the mysterious would-be customer calls out to Apostolo. He believes he was visited by someone who worked on the neighboring railroad from the towns founding in the early 1900s.

I guess I seen a phantom, Apostolo said, recalling the decades-ago apparition during a Thursday afternoon phone call with The Courier.

Unfiltered look

Another haunt on the tour is the State Hotel building off of Metcalf and Thompson streets. Now office space, it is a still-standing remnant from the citys Depression-era oil boom. In its heyday, the two-story brown brick building rented rooms out during eight-hour shifts to oil workers.

As a table lamp beside the buildings second-floor window illuminated a seemingly empty room, Whitmire stood across the street and told about a young womans shrieks reportedly being heard on and off within the walls of the former lodge. It is thought to be the spirit of a slain 1930s sex worker as deaths involving prostitution were not properly investigated at the time, he said.

Some stops on the tour are spaces likely overlooked by commuters driving through. Such as the location where murdering bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow had their infamous Ford sedans V8 engine tuned up two weeks before the couple and car were gunned down by police in Louisiana.

A couple of the more climactic moments on Whitmires tour decidedly stray from folktale-type anecdotes, taking an unfiltered look at the citys past.

Whitmire narrates the 1922 burning at the stake of Joe Winters, a young Black man accused of raping a white teenage girl. A mob dragged Winters to the heart of downtown Conroe as hundreds watched his fiery death, Whitmire detailed.

Specter of contagion

Conroe forensic genealogist Jon Edens said his research on archived editions of The Conroe Courier confirmed for Whitmire accounts the guide shares on his tour.

If I were to walk through the town and tell every single story that Jon was able to find for me, it would probably be six or seven hours worth of everything, Whitmire said, noting the Montgomery County Librarys newspaper archives were also tapped into.

Between the attractions January 2020 debut and Sept. 25, Whitmire has given 104 guests a tour. This is far fewer than the amount he said he had while conducting the Hermann Park stretch of a ghost tour in Houston for a number of years prior. Near Halloween, that tour would see 25 to 30 people on each of its up to 12 sessions a week.

He said he had 30 people on his downtown Conroe ghost tour for the entire month of October 2020.

Before the countys COVID-19 outbreak, Whitmire was drawing in between 10 and 15 people per tour. Since March 2020, he said he hosts three to five people a week. This, he said, is mostly due to him holding back on advertising as the specter of contagion loomed over business operations.

I had (COVID-19) twice and I wasnt in a rush to create situations where it could spread faster, Whitmire said, adding he has not faced a bout with the disease since being fully vaccinated.

Skeptics and believers

Whitmire became involved in ghost tourism to fulfill a passion and complement a personality quirk.

Ive always been fascinated with history and Ive always been fascinated by the more eccentric view of the world, he said. Im a weird person. I like being around weird people. It so happens that you can like history and weird people and have a job to go to.

Admitting he lived through a few paranormal experiences as a child, Whitmire explained he hovers somewhere between a skeptic and a believer when it comes to ghosts.

I am of the belief that the phenomenon is actually happening, but I am a fairly logic-based person and the answer for me is we just cant explain it, he said.

Not everyone on his tour is a believer, Whitmire mentioned. Vocal skeptics join the downtown excursion too.

However, he said, orbs have been captured on camera in different places on the tour. Some on the tour have felt cold spots or uneasiness in certain settings. Others have reported feeling their hair being tugged.

Whats funny is it usually happens to the skeptics, Whitmire said.

jose.gonzalez@chron.com

twitter.com/jrgzztx
The weekend oil leak along the Southern California coast happened not far from the site of the catastrophe more than a generation ago that helped give rise to the modern environmental movement itself: the 1969 Santa Barbara spill.

That still ranks in the top tier of human-caused disasters in the United States and is the nation's third-largest oil spill, behind only the 2010 Deepwater Horizon and 1989 Exxon Valdez calamities.

During a 10-day period in early 1969, between about 3.5 million and 4.2 million gallons of crude spilled into the Santa Barbara Channel after a blowout six miles offshore on a Union Oil drilling platform. The disaster area was about 115 miles from the site of the 126,000-gallon spill over the weekend that fouled Huntington Beach, a celebrated surfing spot.

The Union Oil rig had been controversial since its inception, but local California communities hadn't been given any voice in decisions about drilling in federal waters. And corners were cut during the construction process: Regulations called for protective steel casing to extend at least 300 feet below the ocean floor, but the company obtained a waiver allowing it to install only 239 feet of casing.

In the aftermath of the spill, thousands of oil-coated birds perished and photos of the carnage on beaches were widely circulated in newspapers and magazines.

President Richard Nixon visited the site in March 1969 and told reporters, It is sad that it was necessary that Santa Barbara should be the example that had to bring it to the attention of the American people."

That example  of communities left out of crucial decisions and corners cut to save time or money for large companies  garnered national attention and caused outrage. It added momentum to the movement to organize the first Earth Day the next year.

Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson, an early environmentalist, visited the Santa Barbara oil spill site and later said it inspired him to organize a nationwide teach-in on the environment.

The oil spill was not the only U.S. environmental crisis in the 1960s. The links between rampant overuse of the pesticide DDT and damaged ecosystems  including the dwindling population of bald eagles  were the subject of Rachel Carson's seminal 1962 book,  Silent Spring."

A raft of far-reaching federal environmental legislation was enacted in the early 1970s, including the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency (1970) and the passage of the Clean Air Act (1970) and Clean Water Act (1972).

It's frustrating that spills like this keep happening," said Damon Nagami, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, as he walked along cordoned-off areas of Huntington Beach. I grew up near here, so this feels really personal."

These are entirely preventable catastrophes," he said, though he added that managing offshore drilling is complex because there are lots of regulatory bodies with overlapping responsibilities, depending on whether the activity is happening in federal waters, state waters or international waters."

Oil spills damage coastal ecosystems, marine life and, if the oil-laden water moves into storm drainage systems, local communities. Once the oil gets into an ecosystem, it's hard to get out," Nagami said. The impacts are felt for years, for decades."

Don Anair, a research and deputy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said oil spills are "a very visible image of our reliance on fossil fuels."

We should be doing all we can to make sure the infrastructure is as safe as possible, but even that won't fully eliminate the risk of oil spills," he said. The longer-term solution here has to be transitioning to using other sources of energy" to power our vehicles.

According to the EPA, the transportation sector is the country's largest primary contributor to climate change, responsible for around 29% of greenhouse gas emissions.

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Follow Christina Larson on Twitter: @larsonchristina

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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John Fea, Messiah College

(THE CONVERSATION) A devout evangelical Christian friend of mine recently texted to explain why he was not getting the COVID-19 vaccine. Jesus went around healing lepers and touched them without fear of getting leprosy, he said.

This story that St. Luke tells in his gospel (17:11-19) is not the only Bible verse I have seen and heard evangelical Christians use to justify anti-vaccine convictions. Other popular passages include Psalm 30:2: Lord, I called to you for help, and you healed me.; 1 Corinthians 6:19: Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit?; and Leviticus 17:11: For the life of a creature is in the blood.

All of these verses have been lifted out of context and repurposed to buttress the anti-vaccine movement. As a historian of the Bible in American life, I can attest that such shallow reading in service of political and cultural agendas has long been a fixture of evangelical Christianity.

Bible in the hands of ordinary people

In the 16th century, Martin Luther and other Protestant reformers translated the Bible from an already existing Greek text into the languages of common people. Prior to this, most men and women in Europe were exposed to the Bible through the Vulgate, a Latin version of the Old and New Testaments that only educated men  mostly Catholic priests  could read.

As people read the Bible  many for the first time  they inevitably began to interpret it as well. Protestant denominations formed around such interpretations. By the time Protestants started forming settlements in North America, there were distinctly Anglican, Presbyterian, Anabaptist, Lutheran and Quaker reading of the Bible.

The English Calvinists who settled the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay built entire colonies around their reading of the Bible, making New England one of the most literate societies in the world. In the 18th century, popular access to the Bible was one way that the British  including the North American colonies  distinguished themselves from Catholic nations that did not provide such access.

American evangelicals

In the early 19th-century United States, biblical interpretation became more free-wheeling and individualistic.

Small differences over how to interpret the Bible often resulted in the creation of new sects such as the Latter Day Saints, the Restorationists (Disciples of Christ and Churches of Christ), Adventists and various evangelical offshoots of more longstanding denominations such as Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists and Quakers.

During this period, the United States also grew more democratic. What the French traveler and diplomat Alexis de Tocqueville described as individualism had a profound influence on biblical interpretation and the way laypeople read the sacred text.

The views of the Bible proclaimed from the pulpits of formally educated clergy in established denominations gave way to a more free-wheeling and populist understanding of the scriptures that was often dissociated from such authoritative communities.

But these evangelicals never developed their approach to understanding the Bible in complete isolation. They often followed the interpretations of charismatic leaders such as Joseph Smith (Latter Day Saints), Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell (Restorationist), William Miller (Adventists) and Lorenzo Dow (Methodists).

These preachers built followers around innovative readings of the Scriptures. Without a church hierarchy to reign them in, these evangelical pied pipers had little accountability.

When large numbers of Irish and German immigrants arrived on American shores in the middle decades of the 19th century, evangelicals drew on longstanding anti-Catholic prejudices. They grew anxious that these Catholic newcomers were a threat to their Protestant nation and often based these fears on perceptions of how Catholic bishops and priests kept the Bible from their parishioners.

While this fear of Catholics was mostly rhetorical in nature, there were a few moments of violence. For example, in 1844, nativist Protestants, responding to rumors that Catholics were trying to remove the Bible from Philadelphia public schools, destroyed two of the citys Catholic churches before the Pennsylvania militia stopped the violence.

These so-called Bible riots revealed the deep tensions between the individualistic and common-sensical approach to biblical interpretation common among Protestants and a Catholic view of reading the Bible that was always filtered through the historic teachings of the Church and its theologians. Protestants believed that the former approach was more compatible with the spirit of American liberty.

Vaccine opposition and the Bible

Today this American approach to reading and the interpreting the Bible is front and center in the arguments made by evangelical Christians seeking religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccination mandates. When they explain their religious objections to health officials, employers and school administrations, evangelicals select verses, usually out of context, and reference them on exemptions forms.

Like they did in the 19th century, evangelicals who refuse to get vaccinated today tend to follow the spiritual leaders who have built followings by baptizing political or cultural propaganda in a sea of Bible verses.

Megachurch pastors, televangelists, conservative media commentators and social media influencers have far more power over ordinary evangelical Christians than those local pastors who encourage their congregations to consider that God works through science.

When I ask those evangelicals who oppose vaccines how they come to their conclusions, they all seem to cite the same sources: Fox News, or a host of fringe media personalities whom they watch on cable television or Facebook. Some others they cite include Salem Radio host and author Eric Metaxas, the Liberty Counsel and Tennessee megachurch leader Greg Locke, to name a few.

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Social media allows these evangelical conspiracy theorists to become influential through their anti-vaccine rants.

From my perspective, the response of some evangelicals to the vaccine reveals the dark side of the Protestant Reformation. When the Bible is placed in the hands of the people, void of any kind of authoritative religious community to guide them in their proper understanding of the text, the people can make it say anything they want it to say.

The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. The Conversation is wholly responsible for the content.
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  China flew 56 fighter planes toward Taiwan on Monday in the largest show of force on record, continuing the three days of sustained military harassment against the self-ruled island.

The first sortie of 52 planes included 34 J-16 fighter jets and 12 H-6 bombers, among other aircraft, according to Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense. Later, four more Chinese J-16s flew toward the southwestern part of Taiwan's air defense identification zone  a buffer outside a countrys airspace.

The Taiwanese air force scrambled its fighter planes and monitored the movement of the Chinese warplanes on its air defense system, the ministry said.

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.

Experts have called the flights and other military maneuvers by Beijing gray zone warfare, or any type of military action short of direct combat. Many say they do not believe the display of force and aggressive rhetoric, much of which is repetitive, will lead to war.

We are very concerned that China is going to launch a war against Taiwan at some point, even though the threat may not be imminent at this point, Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corp. broadcast on Monday.

Taiwan and China split during a civil war in 1949, and Beijing opposes Taiwans involvement in international organizations. 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 trade pact.

Starting last Friday, on China's National Day, the People's Liberation Army sent 38 warplanes into the area and 39 aircraft on Saturday, previously the most in a single day since Taiwan began releasing reports on the flights in September 2020. China sent an additional 16 planes on Sunday.

The latest maneuvers by the Chinese air force bring the total to 814 flights.

In Washington on Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said: We remain concerned by the Peoples Republic of Chinas provocative military activity near Taiwan, which is destabilizing, risks miscalculations and undermines regional peace and stability. We urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic and economic pressure and coercion against Taiwan.

In response to a similar statement over the weekend from the U.S. State Department, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had said that the U.S. selling weapons to Taiwan as well as ships navigating the Taiwan Strait were provocative action that harmed U.S-China relations.

China will take all necessary countermeasures and resolutely crush any Taiwan independence plot, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a statement Monday night.

The latest flights have come in separate groups with daytime and nighttime incursions. The nighttime flights are of note, analysts say, because they're more challenging due to reduced visibility.

They have the kind of confidence to operate at night, said Chen-Yi Tu, a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taiwan.
FORT MORGAN, Ala. (AP)  The Coast Guard said one of its crews has rescued a swimmer who was caught in a rip current near Fort Morgan, Alabama.

The Baldwin County Sheriffs Office reported at about 12:30 p.m. Monday that four swimmers were caught in the current just offshore. The Coast Guard Station at Dauphin Island sent a crew, and members rescued one swimmer. The other three swimmers returned to shore safely.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP)  An alligator attacked and injured a homeless woman after she fell into a Florida canal on Monday, authorities said.

The woman was resting on a sea wall when she fell into the canal, St. Petersburg Fire Rescue said in a news release. Someone heard the woman's cries for help and called 911.
The Pandora Papers is an investigation based on more than 11.9 million documents revealing the flows of money, property and other assets concealed in the offshore financial system. The Washington Post and other news organizations exposed the involvement of political leaders, examined the growth of the industry within the United States and demonstrated how secrecy shields assets from governments, creditors and those abused or exploited by the wealthy and powerful. The trove of confidential information, the largest of its kind, was obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which organized the investigation.

Here are the key takeaways:

1. Country leaders on five continents use the offshore system: The Pandora Papers expose the offshore holdings of 35 current and former country leaders, according to analysis by the ICIJ. The new records show more than $106 million spent by King Abdullah II of Jordan on luxury homes in Malibu, Calif., Washington, D.C., and other locations; millions of dollars in property and cash secretly owned by the leaders of Kenya and the Czech Republic; and the acquisition of a luxury waterfront apartment in Monaco by a Russian woman after she reportedly had a child with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Representatives of Abdullah have denied any impropriety or use of public funds. The Czech and Kenyan leaders did not respond to request for comment, nor did the Kremlin and the Russian woman.

The investigation exposes more than twice as many offshore account holders and political figures as the Panama Papers, an earlier ICIJ-led global study of offshore finance, and relies on a larger trove of confidential information.

2. Some American states have become central to the global offshore system: The U.S. government has condemned prominent offshore financial centers, where promises of discretion have long drawn oligarchs, business tycoons and politicians. But the Pandora Papers expose how foreign political and corporate leaders or their relatives moved money and other assets in recent years from international tax havens to even more secretive American trust companies, including those in South Dakota. The records also show how a firm in Central America became a one-stop shop for American clients, allowing them to conceal their assets while facing criminal investigations or lawsuits.

Offshore financial firms that responded to the ICIJ's and The Post's requests for comment issued statements asserting their compliance with legal mandates but declining to answer questions about their clients.

3. A global treasure hunt leads to an indicted art dealer's offshore trusts - and the Met: The records reveal how a notorious art dealer, Douglas Latchford, and his family set up trusts in tax havens shortly after U.S. investigators began linking him to looted Cambodian artifacts. The Post and its ICIJ partners launched a hunt for antiquities that Latchford and his associates are suspected of selling and examined how offshore companies are used to conceal wrongdoing in the global art trade. Although some museums have returned Cambodian antiquities in years past, dozens tied to the indicted dealer remain in prominent collections, including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the British Museum in London. These museums and others said that they take many precautions to ensure the items they acquire weren't stolen, and that standards for provenance have changed over the years.

4. U.S. sanctions imposed on Russian oligarchs hit their targets. While American officials say visibility into the private accounts of Putin insiders is rare, the Pandora documents show the reach of sanctions at a time when they are the overwhelming weapon of choice in Washington's combative relationship with Moscow. Oligarchs - targeted for sanctions because of what the U.S. Treasury has called "malign" activity by Russia - have gone to great lengths to evade their effects, at times reconfiguring their holdings and shifting ownership of assets. Still, the measures took a toll on their targets and triggered losses that spread across the financial networks that include these Kremlin insiders.
ROANOKE, Va. (AP)  A Virginia man has been cited on weapons charges after airport security agents found a loaded gun in his carryon bag at a checkpoint.

The Transportation Security Administration said in a news release Monday that the man had a loaded .45 caliber handgun in his carry-on bag at Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport when he was stopped on Saturday.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP)  Republican Gov. Mike Parson's administration has enacted more rules on Missouri abortion clinics.

The new emergency regulations, which take effect Oct. 13, require abortion providers to cooperate with state health department investigators and ensure physicians perform pelvic exams 72 hours before abortions, if medically necessary.

The regulations also require the health department to refer rule violations to the state's Medicaid Audit and Compliance Unit, which reviews whether medical providers meet requirements to receive Medicaid funding.

Other rules require abortion providers to make sure all employees participate in annual fire drills and properly date records.

A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood in Missouri told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the new regulations might violate federal Medicaid rules by singling out the organization.

The new rules come after Missouri Republicans have tried for years to block all Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, which is already prohibited from using Medicaid funds for abortion except when the mothers life is in danger or in the cases of rape and incest.

State senators last week recommended that Missouri cancel abortion providers Medicaid contracts based on behavior in other states deemed illegal or unethical.

Lawmakers also recommended that the health department and Medicaid auditors share inspection information, similar to the new agency rules.
PHILADELPHIA (AP)  A nurse shot and killed a co-worker at a Philadelphia hospital early Monday before fleeing and being shot in a subsequent exchange of gunfire with police that wounded two officers, authorities said.

The 55-year-old nurse was wearing scrubs when he shot his co-worker on the ninth floor of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital just after midnight, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said at an early morning news conference. The 43-year-old certified nursing assistant who was shot was later pronounced dead.

The gunman fled in a box truck, and officers were alerted to his location near a school and found him in body armor and armed with weapons including a rifle and a semi-automatic handgun, police said. He opened fire, and four officers returned fire, critically wounding him in the upper body and neck, police said.

Police said one of the wounded officers had an elbow injury requiring surgery while another was grazed on the nose. Neither wound was considered life-threatening.

Jefferson Health issued a statement Monday afternoon that it does not permit weapons on its campuses and that it had comprehensive, consistent security measures and processes in place to ensure the safety of our patients, students, staff and visitors."

Safety and security is a top priority for Jefferson. A thorough review will take place to ensure best practices in our safety protocols for all Jefferson facilities," said the statement. It added that counseling will be available to all employees and patients and officials were cooperating with law enforcement.

Mayor Jim Kenney said in Twitter posts that he visited with the wounded officers early Monday to thank them for their heroic work and wish them a speedy recovery."

Their quick response in finding the perpetrator stopped this situation from escalating further," he said in commending police and first responders while decrying weaponry that is far too powerful being in the hands of people who shouldnt have access to them."
UPPER MARLBORO, Md. (AP)  The Maryland State Police is investigating a hit-and-run crash that killed a pedestrian who had been involved in a separate crash minutes earlier.

The state police said in a news release that troopers responded to the scene Sunday night in a commercial area north of Prince George's Community College.
LANSING, Mich (AP)  Upper Peninsula state Rep. Beau LaFave is running for Michigan secretary of state in 2022.

The third-term Iron Mountain Republican announced his campaign on social media Monday, saying current Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's handling of the office is unacceptable. He cited a backlog of people seeking appointments over the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

LaFave would have to secure the nomination at Republican conventions next spring and summer. Another candidate, Oak Park educator Kristina Karamo, has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump and supports his false claims of election fraud.

LaFave represents the 108th District. He chairs the House's Military, Veterans & Homeland Security committee and vice chairs the Judiciary Committee.

A vocal supporter of the Second Amendment and accessibility to hunting for those with disabilities, LaFave was critical of Benson's decision to ban open carry at polling locations on Election Day in 2020," calling it appalling" and fearmongering.

Over the pandemic, Benson halted walk-in appointments at branch offices and has encouraged residents to use online services and schedule in-person appointments online. The Republican-led Legislature has pushed her to allow walk-ins without an appointment.

LaFave wrote in his announcement posts, Today, I announce my campaign to OPEN THE OFFICES!

___

Anna Liz Nichols is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Afghan refugees will soon be arriving again in the U.S. after a massive campaign to vaccinate them against measles following a small outbreak that caused a three-week pause in evacuations, officials said Monday.

Authorities have administered the vaccination to about 49,000 evacuees staying temporarily on American military bases as well as to those still at transit points in Europe and the Middle East, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

The measles outbreak, detected in 24 people, had put on hold one of the largest refugee resettlement efforts in U.S. history, dubbed Operation Allies Welcome. It also stranded about 15,000 at overseas transit points.

The success of this vaccination campaign demonstrates our commitment to the health and well-being of arriving Afghan evacuees, the personnel assisting this mission, and the American people, Dr. Pritesh Gandhi, the DHS chief medical officer, said in announcing the completion of the effort.

Everyone coming from Afghanistan is also tested for COVID-19. About 84 percent of the refugees in the U.S. and at overseas transit points have now received vaccinations against the coronavirus, officials said.

The U.S. evacuated about 120,000 people in the chaotic days following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August. They were a mix of U.S. citizens, Afghans with legal permanent residency or who were applying for visas and refugee status along with their families.

Testifying before Congress last week, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the U.S. has admitted about 60,000 people from the airlift out of Afghanistan, about 7% of whom are American citizens and about 6% of whom are permanent residents. About 3% have, along with their families, received the special immigrant visa for people who worked for the U.S. government or its allies during the war as interpreters or in some other capacity.

The rest are a combination of people who are in the process of finalizing their special immigrant visas or are considered likely candidates for refugee status because they are human rights activists, journalists or others who are considered particularly vulnerable under Taliban rule or for some other reasons. All undergo security vetting before they arrive in the U.S.

DHS says a majority of the Afghans being resettled in the U.S. worked for the country in some form or are related to someone who did. The agency projects at least 40% are eligible for the special immigrant visa.

There are about 53,000 Afghans currently staying at eight U.S. military bases and receiving medical care and other assistance before they settle around the U.S.

Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of U.S. Northern Command, told reporters Thursday that about 4,000 Afghans at the U.S. bases have completed medical screening and the 21-day quarantine required after receiving the vaccine for measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox that most Americans receive in childhood, and should be setting in their new homes in the coming days.
CORPUS CHRISTI  On the sandy shore of the Gulf, a small group formed a circle and began to sing through the August heat. Some played ceremonial drums, and two others held a large painted canvas that read, SAVE CORPUS CHRISTI BAY.

Of the dozen people who prayed, sang and spoke in the circle that day, three women were representing a people that most Texas history books claim are extinct.

Theyre part of a small but growing group of Indigenous people who call themselves Karankawa Kadla  kadla means culturally mixed, and Karankawa is the name of a people who, for several centuries, controlled a more than 300-mile stretch of the Gulf Coast shore from approximately present-day Galveston Bay south to Corpus Christi Bay.

After finding one another through social media and the internet, theyve come together just as an oil company is moving to expand its facility on a patch of coastal land in an area where their ancestors lived  and where thousands of Karankawa artifacts still lie. The result is a new fight in the old battle to defend their history, customs and land.

Thats why, on the beach in late August, Love Sanchez and others prayed for a halt to industrial development on the Texas coast where the Karankawa people lived before plagues, wars and colonization came. Most history sources claim that the Karankawa people disappeared from the Texas coast around 1860, although such estimates vary widely.

Its an emotional journey, what were going through, said Sanchez, a 37-year-old woman who grew up in Corpus Christi and co-founded a nonprofit group, the Indigenous Peoples of the Coastal Bend.

Unlike some Native American tribes, the Karankawa Kadla dont have tribal lands, treaties, or an official recognition from the state or federal government. They are surrounded by the dominant narrative that they dont exist, a fog so thick and so potent that until relatively recently, some of them believed that they and their immediate family were the last Karankawa descendants.

Like many others who claim Karankawa ancestry, Sanchez has had to piece together her identity through family oral history. A long history of intense persecution by the Spanish, Anglo Texans and Mexicans forced many Karankawa people to go into hiding, assimilate with Mexican or American culture, or flee to survive.

Sanchez, for example, knows from her great grandmother that her ancestors were at the Spanish mission Nuestra Senora de la Bahia del Espiritu Santo de Zuniga in Goliad, which was established to convert Karankawa people to Christianity in the 1700s. She is also, according to family oral history, descended from the Lipan Apache.

We have our oral history, what we have passed down through our family, which is valid, she said. People went into hiding and intermarried because they didnt want to go extinct.

Some families are certain they are Karankawa and say their history and culture have been diligently passed down from generation to generation. But most have to piece together their heritage from family oral history, DNA tests and what little documentation exists in historical archives, such as those from Spanish missions.

The Karankawa Kadla community  more than 100 people who have connected through a Facebook group and a smaller council that leads community organization  is now fighting to protect a stretch of undeveloped land that juts into the east side of Corpus Christi Bay, sandwiched between a residential community and an oil companys export terminal.

The area was once a bustling village where hundreds of Karankawa people gathered each year during the cooler months to live and fish. Those ancestors left behind tens of thousands of pottery sherds, arrowheads, tools fashioned from shells, and more.

Fifteen years ago, one of the states most respected archaeologists said that one stabled sand dune in the area called McGloins Bluff contained so many important artifacts that it was eligible for the National Register of Historic Places  a designation that would have protected the dune from development.

This site should be avoided in any future impacts or alterations to the property, Robert Ricklis, the archaeologist, wrote in a 2006 report obtained by The Texas Tribune through public records. The Texas Historical Commission agreed, according to a subsequent letter to the Port of Corpus Christi Authority obtained by The Texas Tribune.

But the port authority, which owned the land and the former naval base that sat upon it, opted to sell the area to an oil company. The port commissioned Ricklis' firm to lead the archaeological testing and recovery to fulfill state and federal laws, and before the sale, he and his colleagues recovered more than 39,000 Karankawa artifacts, a fraction of what they say is still there.

The Port of Corpus Christi Authority declined multiple requests to comment for this story.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gave a green light for Moda Midstream, a Houston oil terminal and logistics company that now owns the land, to expand its existing oil export terminal near the McGloins Bluff site. According to the companys website, its the largest crude oil storage and export terminal by volume in the U.S.

In early August, Sanchez, the Indigenous Peoples of the Coastal Bend and local environmentalists sued the federal agency, alleging that it improperly approved the permit, citing Ricklis assessment that McGloins Bluff was eligible to be a National Historic Site to bolster their argument. The environmental groups are concerned about the potential damage to seagrass beds, which reduce coastal erosion and create a habitat for sea trout, red fish, waterfowl and other species, as well as providing an important nursery for juvenile shrimp, crabs and fish.

Their lawyers recently asked a judge to halt plans for the development until their concerns are addressed. Theyre still waiting on a decision.

The Army Corps of Engineers wrote in a response to public comments that because the Karankawa Kadla are not a federally recognized tribe, they have no special consultation rights and are considered members of the public. In permit documents, the Corps said that Moda Midstream did the required archaeological surveys and steps to mitigate environmental concerns.

The agency referred a request to comment to the U.S. Department of Justice, which is representing the Corps in the lawsuit and declined to comment on pending litigation.

Moda Midstream said its expansion wont impact the McGloins Bluff site: The company plans to build a new dock at the terminal for crude oil megaships, which will require dredging in the bay with limited impact to the land. The company has promised to plant new seagrass beds farther away from the site to compensate for the vegetation that will be destroyed and permanently set aside 70 acres of land adjoining a residential area as green space, although that doesnt include the McGloins Bluff site.

We have deep respect for our neighbors and for the Karankawa people, Moda Midstream spokesperson Steven Davidson said. The permitted expansion of our existing waterfront and structures in the waterway will not impact any historical areas.  We are confident that the nearly year-and-a-half application review process was comprehensive, and the permit was properly issued.

The Karankawa Kadla argue that the entire area teems with historical and spiritual significance. They want all of the remaining undeveloped land owned by Moda Midstream on the peninsula to be protected.

In a perfect world, [the land] would simply be given back to us and they would leave us alone, said Chiara Sunshine Beaumont, a 27-year-old Karankawa Kadla woman who lives in Austin. In the real world that the colonizers have created, theres so many walls of tape.

Artifacts threatened by encroaching development



Archaeologists have long known that the eastern shore of Corpus Christi Bay has historical significance: In the 1960s, before the naval base was built, archaeologist James Corbin conducted a survey of the peninsula that juts into the bay, noting important evidence of the Karankawa people. He also warned that the knowledge buried there would soon be lost.

I am of the opinion that unless extensive excavations are carried out within the next five to six years, a very large amount of valuable archaeological material is going to be lost to the rapid development that is taking place on the Texas Gulf Coast, Corbin wrote in a 1963 article for the Bulletin of the Texas Archaeological Society.

At least a dozen archaeological sites exist in just 3 square miles between the edge of Ingleside on the Bay, the neighborhood that now occupies the west side of the peninsula, and Moda Midstreams energy transportation hub on the east side.

Ricklis, whose research has centered on the Karankawa, eventually excavated tens of thousands of Karankawa artifacts from McGloins Bluff.

He said the artifacts and fish remains proved the Karankawa developed a sophisticated fishing operation on the coast in which the most skilled fishers worked the most productive areas, catching a surplus of fish that was then moved to another location and dispersed among the rest of the community. In the springs and summers, they broke into smaller bands and traveled inland to hunt. Archaeologists also found evidence of distinctive Karankawa art that featured red paint and naturally occurring asphalt on their pottery.

Folklore has always portrayed them as savage cannibals who didnt have any kind of culture or sophistication, but that just isnt true, Ricklis said.

Historians now say such tales likely emerged from the many battles between Karankawas and the Spanish, French, Mexicans and Americans who wanted to take their land by force. And while historians say theres some evidence of Karankawa people consuming small amounts of their enemies flesh after battle in ceremonies  a spiritual practice intended to absorb the strength of a fallen enemy  stories of rampant cannibalism were false and perpetuated by those eager for sensational tales of the New World, according to Jack Davis, who wrote a history of the Gulf Coast.

In fact, Davis wrote, when a Spanish expedition led by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca landed on an island on the Texas coast in the 1500s with malnourished men in desperate condition from illness, the Spaniards turned to cannibalism and the Karankawa people were appalled by the Spaniards desperate appetite.

The 25,000 pieces of pottery, 4,000 pieces of stone tools and more artifacts that Ricklis and his colleagues unearthed now sit in storage boxes at University of Texas at San Antonios Center for Archaeological Research, according to a university curator.

One of the artifacts Ricklis uncovered was a sixpence coin that dates to roughly 1567. Clinton McKenzie, a project archaeologist at the UT-San Antonios Center for Archaeological Research, said the coin provides evidence of one of the first interactions between Europeans and Indigenous people in what is now Texas.

Richard Weinstein, an archaeologist who worked with Ricklis on the assessment of McGloins Bluff, said that because the area was so heavily occupied by the Karankawa, theres still a chance that there could be burials, or something very important out there.

For example, in 2002, the skull of a prehistoric or early historic Indigenous woman was found by a pipeline construction crew at Ingleside on the Bay. The possibility that isolated graves exist in this area cannot be ruled out, Ricklis wrote in his analysis of the skull.

But Ricklis said he eventually stopped excavating the area due to redundancy; archaeologists stop digging once they believe no new historical information will be obtained from any subsequent artifacts uncovered. While he acknowledges that a lot of artifacts remain in the area, he doesnt have a problem with the oil companys plans to build another dock, which wont directly impact the site he excavated.

McGloins Bluff is unique, Ricklis said. But we probably know everything were going to know about it [as archaeologists].

Im not going to try to block the energy industry, he added. Without it, our culture is done.

The myth of annihilation



For more than a century, families along the coast passed down knowledge that many guarded as secret, until recently: They were Karankawa.

In 2009, The Brownsville Herald published a story about a man who said his grandparents were Karankawa and practiced Karankawa traditions. A decade later, when a Port Isabel news article highlighted the last of the Karankawa, people who believed they too were Karankawa descendants posted in the comments section, seeking to connect with one another.

Many of us grew up with the understanding that their family is the last, said Absolem Yetzirah, a Karankawa Kadla small-business owner who lives in Houston. It wasnt until the internet, when we were able to do research, that we started finding other people.

Beaumont, who works as an outdoor adventure guide in Austin, grew up in Virginia and was taught Karankawa traditions by her mother, who took her to powwows and didnt allow her to cut her hair until she was 15. Her mother taught that spirituality comes from connectedness with the Earth and sent her kids to the Texas coast every summer to stay connected with their ancestors land.

Beaumont said she struggled to find her place in American culture. She spoke Spanish, but said she didnt fit in with her Mexican or Cuban classmates. Some white children perceived her as dirty or exotic, she said.

I didnt know anyone else of my people besides my immediate family, Beaumont said. People would ask me questions, like, Wheres the rest of your tribe? and I didnt know.

At the Hans and Pat Suter Wildlife Refuge in Corpus Christi, a Texas Historical Commission marker gives the widely accepted version of the narrative: The Karankawa people died from diseases spread by Europeans and from battles with pirates and colonists who wanted their land, forcing many to flee to Mexico.

The alleged end came in an 1858 attack that marked the disappearance of the Karankawa Indians, according to the marker, erected in 1976 near whats known as the Cayo del Oso site, a burial ground for a prehistoric unidentified Indigenous group and one of the largest Indigenous cemeteries in Texas.

The marker doesnt say who attacked. But Tim Seiter, a doctoral student in history at Southern Methodist University whose research centers on the Karankawa and who authored an update to the Texas State Historical Associations Handbook of Texas on the Karankawa in 2020, said it was an ambush by a Texas force led by Juan Nepomuceno Cortina against a small Karankawa band that had fled to Mexico before being pushed back into Texas by Mexican authorities.

But Seiter said the attack did not eliminate all Karankawa people. Generally, he said, as white settlers encroached on Karankawa land, many Karankawa families survived by integrating with colonial society, moving south to Mexico or joining with other Native American groups.

Seiter said he has been able to trace some family lineages from the alleged extinction point to the present day using both records and oral histories.

Its very difficult to trace from that point to the current day because they integrated [with other cultures], Seiter said. Records connect some dots, but not entirely, without incorporating the oral histories.

Many Indigenous people share the experience of forced assimilation that caused gaps in their knowledge of their own culture, said Mario Garza, chair and founder of the San Marcos-based Indigenous Cultures Institute, which provides education about Indigenous peoples of present-day Texas.

A lot of our people went underground as Mexican, said Garza, who is of the Miakan-Garza Band of the Coahuiltecans. (The Coahuiltecans include hundreds of Indigenous groups that populated central and southern Texas and northeastern Mexico.) The Indigenous Cultures Institute estimates that 11 million people who identify as Hispanic or Latino have ancestors who are indigenous to the Americas.

Reclaiming Karankawa history



The Karandawa Kadla people say that rather than disappear, their ancestors went into hiding. Rather than die, they survived.

We are very clearly still here, said Beaumont. Im learning the language, we practice the spirituality and weve maintained the culture.

Sanchez says the Karankawa Kadla welcome those with an earnest heart who believe their families are descendants of the Karankawa people. The community rejects requirements to quantify their heritage, like DNA testing, because of the governments historical use of blood quantum,  which used tribal documents to measure the amount of Indian blood a person had in order to limit tribal citizenship.

Together, the community is finding the pieces of their language, traditions and knowledge that many of them thought were lost.

Theres a whole lot of people in the Americas that have no idea or dont have the stories of who they are, said Alex Perez, a 48-year-old Karankawa Kadla musician, author and home remodeler in California who writes and teaches songs in the Indigenous language.

Now, he said, were able to kind of re-create our culture.

Perez, who grew up in Galveston, said his grandmother was reluctant to talk about her Indigenous heritage, even as she maintained that their family had always resided on the coast of Texas. His family, like many other Indigenous families, adopted Mexican culture, losing much of the Karankawa language and customs.

In my grandparents generation and before, it was frowned upon to even admit that you were native, he said. There was residual left from being ashamed of being native. You were expected to forget about that.

The realization that his ancestors were Karankawa came like a precious memory lost to cruelty and time  a piece that was always there, temporarily forgotten. He did research, asked questions, convinced his grandmother and other family members to get DNA tests with him (which showed their ancestors were indigenous to the Texas coast), and got involved with other Indigenous communities to learn.

Knowing my familys history, and what my grandmother would tell me, it was like this revelation, Perez said. But reading the history of the Karankawa was a painful process at times. I went through this emotional period of being angry and reliving some of this history.

Perez compares his peoples story to that of the Texas red wolf, which scientists believed to have disappeared from the wild. But three years ago, what were thought to be coyotes on Galveston Island were found to be descendants of the red wolves, having integrated with coyotes as people poisoned or shot them and their territory shrank. It mirrors our experience, Perez said.

Yetzirah, the Houston small-business owner, said his parents and grandparents generations would identify as anything except Karankawa, but he now brings his young daughter to Karankawa ceremonies; the tradition is an identity we can give back to our kids, he said.

Our kids have to go to school and exist in this world, Yetzirah said. And they should exist in it knowing their truth instead of falling under a subcategory that was invented for them.

It is so beautiful to live in that way, because I didnt have that, he added. I have a 10,000-year-old history and it survived. It exists today.

The Texas Tribune is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans  and engages with them  about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
John Minchillo/AP

NEW YORK (AP)  A statue honoring George Floyd in New York Citys Union Square Park was vandalized on Sunday, police said.

According to police, a video showed an unidentified man on a skateboard throwing paint on the statue at approximately 10 a.m. thenact wasn't the first example of vandalism to the statue memorializing Floydact wasn't the first example of vandalism to the statue memorializing Floyd fleeing. Nearby statues of late Congressman John Lewis and Breonna Taylor, a Louisville, Kentucky, woman shot and killed by police last year, apparently werent touched.
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IRCCs immigrant settlement funding by province/territory for 2021-22 IRCC will spend about $1.7 billion on immigrant settlement and integration services across Canada this fiscal year.

IRCCs immigrant settlement funding by province/territory for 2021-22 IRCC will spend about $1.7 billion on immigrant settlement and integration services across Canada this fiscal year.

IRCCs immigrant settlement funding by province/territory for 2021-22 IRCC will spend about $1.7 billion on immigrant settlement and integration services across Canada this fiscal year. Kareem El-Assal Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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An internal memo reveals how IRCC is spending its $1.7 billion settlement budget during the 2021-22 Canadian government fiscal year (April 1 until March 31).

CIC News obtained the memo via an access to information request to the Canadian government.

One of the more noteworthy aspects of the memo is how the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) plans to distribute the funds across the country. IRCC used to reveal this information publicly on its website each year but stopped the practice a decade ago, in 2011.

The memo was signed and approved by Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino.

IRCC is the largest funder of immigrant settlement and integration services in Canada. Each year, it provides funding to approved service provider organizations, and the province of Quebec, to administer services to newcomers. Services are available to permanent residents, as well as protected persons (i.e., successful refugee claimants), and those who have been approved for permanent residence.

Discover if Youre Eligible for Canadian Immigration

What are immigrant settlement services?

Services entail the likes of employment supports, English and French language training, mentorship, and other supports that help newcomers succeed in Canada. Service provider organizations are typically non-profits that exist to help newcomers, but they are also other forms of organizations (e.g., educational institutions and private businesses) that get approval from IRCC to deliver settlement programs to new immigrants (at no cost to newcomers). IRCC also provides Quebec with a separate grant which the provincial government uses to administer settlement services.

IRCC settlement funding by province and territory

The memo shows that Mendicino approved the following 2021-22 allocation by province and territory (except Quebec). Note that all figures are rounded and also include spending projections obtained from IRCCs publicly available 2021-2022 departmental plan:

Ontario: $407.2 million

Alberta: $124.1 million

British Columbia: $119 million

Manitoba: $46.6 million

Saskatchewan: $41.3 million

Nova Scotia: $17.2 million

New Brunswick: $14.6 million

Prince Edward Island: $6.2 million

Newfoundland and Labrador: $5.2 million

Yukon: $1.3 million

Northwest Territories: $1.1 million

Nunavut: $608,000

Sub total: $784.4 million

$784.4 million Other allocations: $46 million

$46 million Dedicated IRCC Initiatives: $46.2 million

$46.2 million Quebec (Not included in the memo): $650.3 million via the separate annual grant it receives from IRCC

$650.3 million via the separate annual grant it receives from IRCC Resettlement services (Not included in the memo): $145.7 million

$145.7 million Grand total (Not included in the memo): $1,672.6 billion

Sources: IRCC memo and IRCCs Departmental Plan 2021-22.

Screenshot 1: Settlement Funding Allocation (Click on image to enlarge):



Source: IRCC

IRCCs settlement funding formula

One possible reason IRCC has stopped sharing this information publicly is due to the controversy it garners among provinces, territories, and the service provider organizations. These stakeholders are in constant negotiations with IRCC on identifying the most appropriate funding levels for their respective jurisdictions. IRCC acknowledges the controversial nature of this process in the memo.

The memo outlines that the allocation of funding by province and territory is based on a federal Cabinet approved National Settlement Funding Formula. The formula allocates funding for each jurisdiction based on the three-year average proportion of immigrant landings by jurisdiction. It also gives additional weight to refugees to account for their unique settlement needs (refugees tend to require more settlement services than economic and family class immigrants). Quebec is not subject to this formula since its grant is calculated based on the formula outlined in the Canada-Quebec Accord relating to Immigration and Temporary Admission of Aliens signed in 1991. Due to Quebecs special status as Canadas only French-speaking province, it has more authority than any other jurisdiction to select immigrants. It also receives more IRCC settlement funding than any jurisdiction and has more flexibility to use the funding.

Screenshot 2: The National Settlement Funding Formula (Click on image to enlarge):

Source: IRCC.

Settlement funding per capita

As indicated in Screenshot 2, IRCC determined the 2021-22 allocations based on immigrant landings in each province and territory in 2017, 2018, and 2019. This results in the following settlement funding amounts per capita:

Nunavut: $16,432

Quebec: $13,541

Northwest Territories: $4,622

Yukon: $4,194

Newfoundland and Labrador: $3,428

New Brunswick: $3,072

Ontario: $3,033

Alberta: $2,913

Manitoba: $2,862

Nova Scotia: $2,857

Saskatchewan: $2,691

Prince Edward Island: $2,684

British Columbia: $2,671

Sources: IRCC; Authors calculations. The methodology is: Allocations for each province and territory divided by annual average of each province/territorys immigrant intake between 2017-2019.

IRCCs memo states that smaller jurisdictions receive capacity building funding to allow them to increase the scale of their services. This may explain why jurisdictions with low newcomer intakes including Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Yukon, Newfoundland and Labrador, and New Brunswick are at the top of the list. Ontario gets more than the provinces west of it due to it having the highest refugee intake in the country.

Quebec leads all provinces due to the generous settlement formula identified in the Canada-Quebec Accord. Among its provisions, the formula dictates the grant amount can only increase over time.

What does this all mean?

IRCC goes to great lengths to help immigrants succeed. This is demonstrated by its settlement program accounting for nearly half of the departments annual $3.6 billion budget. Canada is the largest funder of immigrant settlement services in the world.

At the same time, IRCC has the difficult task of identifying how to distribute its settlement funding across the country in a manner that takes into consideration the needs of each jurisdiction. This results in an imperfect process that is subject to intense scrutiny and debate among Canadas governments, settlement provider organizations, researchers, and the media.

Quebec enjoys the most funding in absolute terms as well as the second most per capita even though its provincial government was elected in 2018 on a mandate to reduce immigration. The provinces settlement funding formula was agreed to in 1991 based on the expectation that Quebecs immigration levels would increase over time to help compensate for its aging population and low birth rate. However the election of the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) party in 2018 highlighted a flaw in the formula, as Quebec has since seen its annual grant from IRCC continue to rise as its newcomer intake declined by 22 per cent in 2019 compared to 2018.

Conversely, Alberta, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island (PEI) and the Northwest Territories have each seen their settlement allocations decline this federal fiscal year due to recent declines in their newcomer arrivals. Decreasing allocations to jurisdictions when their newcomer levels decline may seem fair, but it also creates operational challenges. Namely, lower IRCC funding to a province or territory could come at a time when that jurisdiction sees an increase in their newcomers (and hence, strains their ability to deliver settlement supports to newcomers). In addition, decreased funding means that service provider organizations may need to scale back their operations which sometimes entails laying off staff.

IRCC recognizes such challenges, which is why the memo notes that IRCC will make a one-time transfer to their Western Canada operations to top-up the funding provided to Alberta. The purpose of the top up is to ensure that Alberta can continue to provide high quality settlement supports to its newcomers.

Finally, IRCC recognizes that further investments will be needed to support future newcomers. The memo states the department anticipates more settlement funding to become available as it looks to welcome more newcomers through its Immigration Levels Plan. The 2021-2023 levels plan is the most ambitious in Canadian history as it seeks to welcome over 400,000 new immigrants per year. Since its founding in 1867, Canada has welcomed 400,000 immigrants in a year just once, in 1913. As such, the memo indicates an expectation the allocation for all provinces and territories (excluding Quebec) will increase by another $100 million for the 2023-24 federal fiscal year. This suggests the departments total settlement spending will reach some $2 billion annually within the next few years.

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Last January after thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, CNNs audience surged. But the network had already divined the connection between terror and ratings. Studies found CNN amplified misinformation about the election by airing old Trump tweets long after he was banned from the platform. And it has consistently given airtime to proponents of what law enforcement deems the top terror threat domestically, as well as to amplifying the fear around terror threats from abroad.

At what point does coverage of terrorists tip from a valid newscast to a form of propaganda that casts the lonely people who turn to violence as precisely the dangerous, terrifying figures they crave being?

Jason Burke in The Guardian tells how even back in 1956, an Algerian revolutionary wondered aloud if it was better to kill 10 enemies in a remote gully when no one will talk of it or a single man in Algiers, which would be noticed the next day around the world. It is CNN which often does the noticing, and it presents a difficult quandary.

On the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, CNN re-aired the plane attacks, personal testimonies, and, of course, George W. Bushs commiseration via bullhorn with first responders at Ground Zero. It pegged recent news about Afghanistan to the anniversary. But less than a week later, it was focused on Justice for J6, the rally intended to support January 6 insurrectionists. Afghanistan was long forgotten.

A key mistake CNN repeated was their penchant to cover all or nothing. The result isnt better understanding of world events, but rather polarization fueled by over-simplified rundowns.

While of course acknowledgment of 9/11 was warranted, CNN didnt provide updated context and may have fallen foul of a concept long understood in the world of counter-terror. Repeated broadcasting of the horrific footage from the scene, wrote Yael Pries-Shimshi for the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism in 2005, accompanied by interviews with witnesses, emergency teams, and wounded  equates to a kind of re-enactment of the trauma, further amplifying the psychological and emotional impact of the attack.

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Theres a long-standing symbiotic relationship between terrorists and the media, Pries-Shimshi says. Competition for audiences fosters a tendency to set aside all considerations, whether psychological, moral, or ethical.

Before the 24/7 cable news networks gained prominence, editors could be more methodical. Prior to 9/11, for instance, Osama bin Laden struggled to capture the media attention hed long sought. During those years, Burke explains, Bin Ladens productions would be broadcast only as short excerpts or not at all.

Bill Goodykoontz, media critic for the Arizona Republic, explicates how weakened foreign reporting precluded journalists from seeing 9/11 coming, which meant a lot of scrambling to more fully understand and explain it when it did.

News organizations have too easily forgotten that lesson. Currently, the biggest terror threats to the United States internationally emanate from Syria, Yemen, Somalia, and Iraq, but CNN isnt discussing those regions on air.

Which brings us to what they were, in fact, discussing: the failed Justice for J6 rally on September 18. Intelligence leading up to the protest indicated that the pro-Trump groups Oath Keepers and Proud Boys called off their followers. Online chatter was muted. Expectations were low.

Unless you were watching CNN. Thursday and Friday before the Saturday rally, most hours led with the possibility of violence, largely based on a DHS memo that referenced a small number of threats online. It was a vague risk but CNN made it seem bigger than it was. No wonder more journalists showed up than protesters.

There is a common issue throughout these stories according to Matthew Hoh, a former Marine and Senior Fellow for Center for International Policy. He contends that the over-simplified portrayals divide audiences. By denying the mundane humanity of such groups, the narrative becomes that we dont understand them. Audiences lack comprehension and extremists are pushed even further away. Their supporters likely see it as one more case of the media blowing things out of proportion.

We dont have to condone these groups, as Hoh points out, but we should have some concept of what makes them tick. CNN could resist amplifying the wrong message, while better informing their audience on the underlying issues. Hopefully before its too late.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Ariana Pekary is the CJR public editor for CNN. She was an award-winning public radio and MSNBC journalist for two decades. Now she focuses on the systemic flaws of commercial broadcast news. She can be contacted at [email protected]
CHICAGO (AP)  What started with three unarmed men attempting to burglarize a Southwest Side electronics store one night in April 2012 ended in a hail of gunfire from Chicago police officers as the friends tried to flee the scene in a stolen van. One of the men died. The other two suffered life-altering injuries and faced murder convictions.

A jury found John W. Givens and Leland Dudley, both 32 at the time, responsible for the death of their friend, 27-year-old David Strong, under Illinois felony murder statute in 2015. Judge James Linn sentenced Givens and Dudley to more than 30 years in prison.

As the two men fought their cases in criminal court, they waged another legal battle in civil court. Along with Strongs estate, Givens and Dudley sued the city over police officers decision to fire at least 75 rounds into the getaway van. The civil suit was filed in 2012, in Cook County Circuit Court. Judge Bridget J. Hughes threw out Givens and Dudleys claims for compensation for their injuries. But a jury awarded Strongs estate $1 million in their wrongful death claims, according to court records. However, the financial relief didnt come to Strongs family, including his 10-year-old son. The judge quickly nullified the verdict based on the jurys answers to two special interrogatories prepared by the city.

Interrogatories are written questions about the facts of a case that any party in a lawsuit may ask a jury to answer separately from their verdict. Despite their findings that Strongs estate deserved compensation, when the jury was asked whether they thought police officers engaged in a legally unjustified course of action, which showed an actual or deliberate intention to harm David Strong, they answered no. When asked whether the officers acted in an unjustified manner, which showed an utter indifference or conscious disregard for the safety of others, they also answered no.

These kinds of special interrogatories, usually presented to juries in state court after their verdicts in civil suits, function to reverse monetary damages they award. Attorneys representing the city of Chicago have used the maneuver in other police killing cases over the years. While juries arent typically told that their answers to the interrogatories could reverse their verdicts, defendants can use them to do just that. Hughes agreed with the city that these answers invalidated the jurys decision to award Strongs family $1 million.

But on Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the First District Appellate Court issued an opinion that reversed the decision, reviving not just the possibility of a $1 million in compensation for Strongs estate but also for Dudley and Givens to revive their injury suit against the city. The appellate courts decision reversed the trial courts determination that Givens and Dudleys convictions for murder, aggravated battery to a police officer, and possession of a stolen vehicle disqualified them from seeking civil damages.

Im ecstatic, Givens mother, Valencia Givens, said Thursday about the appellate court decision. The shooting left her son bound to a wheelchair, and she thinks the city owes him compensation for his physical and psychological injuries. It plays a big part in Johns life, the memories of going through all of that.

Justice Terrence Lavin delivered the appellate courts decision, with Justices Nathaniel Howse and Cynthia Cobbs concurring. The appellate panel characterized the special interrogatories presented by the city as convoluted and confusing. The questions posed to the jury were impermissibly compound in their wording, and for that reason alone they were improper and should be stricken, the opinion said. The appellate court found that the question about officers deliberate intention to harm Strong was impossibly narrow, while the one about their conscious disregard for the safety of others was too broad.

The justices also found that Hughes, the trial court judge in the civil case, had improperly excluded testimony by an investigator and supervisor from the Independent Police Review Authority (now the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, or COPA). The two employees had initially found the officers shooting that night to be unjustified. You dont shoot unarmed burglars, the supervisor, Lorenzo Davis, told The Chicago Tribune in 2016. You move out of the way of the vehicle. You dont fire into a vehicle. The agency eventually fired Davis and the investigator and ultimately ruled that the shooting was justified. The COPA didnt respond to a request for comment.

The city can request a rehearing from the appellate court within 21 days of the opinion being issued and could also petition the Illinois Supreme Court to consider an appeal. In other words: Its still possible that the city wont pay Strongs family, and that Givens and Dudley wont be able to sue the city for their injuries. A spokeswoman for Chicagos law department said Wednesday the citys lawyers are still assessing next steps.

Legal experts predict that the appeal is likely and not simply because the citys lawyers are worried about the payouts to Givens, Dudley, and Strongs estate. The city might also hope to avert setting a legal precedent that would allow other people convicted under the felony murder statute to sue them for deaths and injuries caused by cops, the experts said.

`Shifting Blame in a police shooting

Dudleys and Givens murder convictions highlight Illinois history of charging people for murder when someone else _ such as a police officer _ kills their accomplices in another crime. Known as the felony murder rule, the law allows someone accused of a forcible felony, such as armed robbery, arson, or carjacking, to be held accountable if someone dies as a result of the crime.

State lawmakers recently changed the statute as part of the massive criminal justice overhaul signed into law earlier this year. If the same scenario from the bungled burglary played out today, Dudley and Givens couldnt be charged with murdering Strong. But the changes to the law are not retroactive.

In January, Gov. J.B. Pritzker pardoned Givens, and the Illinois Department of Corrections paroled him back to the Chicago area. Givens, now 42, has been focused on finding employment. His mother and attorneys said he was quickly able to secure a job cutting meat while seated in a slaughterhouse, but he had to quit within five months because of persistent pain in his legs. He is now uninsured, in need of a new wheelchair, and confronting how his disability makes it harder to find work.

Marissa Jackson, a third-year law student at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, is currently preparing Dudleys executive clemency petition. Jackson said the old felony murder statute allowed the police to avoid scrutiny by shifting blame from their own reckless and unjustified actions to accomplices like (Givens and Dudley), who neither killed nor intended to kill anyone.

Dudley, now also 42, lost nearly 40% of his skull in the shooting and suffers from brain damage, seizures, and post-traumatic stress disorder as a result, according to his attorneys. He remains incarcerated at the Centralia Correctional Center. Northwestern Universitys Center on Wrongful Convictions will soon be filing a clemency petition on his behalf, according to Steven Drizin, Jacksons supervisor and co-director of the Center.

Drizin called the appellate court decision to allow Givens and Dudley to pursue civil claims an incomplete victory.

(Dudley) may be able to recover damages in the future for what the police officers did to him, but what he really needs is to be released as soon as possible, Drizin said.

The year after Givens and Dudley were convicted, the Independent Police Review Authority released a trove of records and video from police shootings, including theirs.

The dashcam and surveillance tapes showed more than a dozen officers milling around the street outside the Little Village shop moments before a van bursts out of a closed garage door in reverse, appears to graze one of the officers, and plows into a parked truck on the curb. The hailstorm of police bullets didnt stop until officers shot out the vans tires.

The nearly two dozen officers at the scene were responding to a 911 call from a neighbor living above the electronics store who reported the break-in. The appellate court opinion released Tuesday noted that even though Givens, Dudley, and Strong didnt comply with cops orders to come out of the shop with their hands up, the officers on the scene were warned several times over their radios that the burglars were preparing to exit the adjacent garage in the van. Still, they crowded densely around the garage door and began shooting as soon as they perceived officer Michael J. Papin to be run over, even though he wasnt.

In the event of a retrial, the fired IPRA staffers testimony could undermine the citys claims that the shooting was justified based on the officers assessment of danger in the situation and alleged injuries to Papin.

Attorney Brion Doherty, who represented Strongs estate and Givens in the civil suit, says Papins injuries were exaggerated in reports filed by his fellow officers and werent supported by much more than photographs of his reddened flank. He also argues that the van grazing Papin didnt amount to the type of aggravated battery that would justify deadly force. Papin reported only a minor injury. He didnt fire any shots himself, according to documents released by the city. Two of Papins fellow officers, Anthony Rosen and Michael Curry, however, each fired 18 times. Six others fired between one and 11 shots at the van.

Civil rights attorney Elizabeth Mazur said she and other attorneys who regularly sue the city over police violence in state and federal court will closely watch the outcome of this case. She said it is a powerful example of how police often make crime scenes more _ not less _ dangerous when they arrive. From her perspective, the courts are responding to broader public discourse about polices role in public safety.

As a civil rights attorney whos filed claims against police for excessive force, its always risky to bring a case when your client or the estate is of someone whos engaged in unlawful conduct, Mazur said. Its interesting that the jury found in favor of the estate of Mr. Strong, and I think thats recognizing that even though he was involved in committing this crime, he shouldnt have been summarily executed for it.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Wall Streets latest blank-check company promises to be a litigation finance nightmare for property and casualty insurers.

MSP Recovery, a Miami-area company that earns revenue by winning lawsuits against insurers, merged with a special purpose acquisition company in July. Last week, MSP and its new partner Lionheart Acquisition Corp. II announced that Virage Capital Management LP, a litigation finance investor, had agreed to pay $3 billion for rights to collect 50% of future awards against insurance companies. The company previously had invested $440 million in MSP.

What this tells you is that a company thats been with us and has invested is so gung-ho and believes in our company and our management and the success that we have had that theyre now upping their investment by almost seven times, MSH founder and Chief Executive Officer John H. Ruiz told the Claims Journal on Friday.

Ruiz said income from the Virage deal will come over and above the income projections that it showed to investors in its SPAC deal, which he expects to close in about 60 days. In an investor presentation, the company said it expects revenues of $992 million in 2022, $3.1 billion in 2023 and $23.8 billion in 2026.

MSP says its software has found $50 billion in Medicare claims that should have been paid by other payers, such as auto insurers, and expects that to grow to $263 billion. The company is also hoping to earn revenue by recouping payments made by Medicaid that should have been paid by others, but it doesnt project any revenue from that endeavor until 2023.

Ruiz founded MSP Recovery in 2014 after creating software that identifies claims for medical treatment that was paid for by Medicare but should have been paid for by a private insurer. The Medicare Secondary Payer Act allows private litigants to collect double damages from insurers that were liable for medical care and failed to reimburse Medicare after the program paid for the treatment. The law also requires insurers to report any settlements with Medicare beneficiaries that include a promise to pay for future medical care.

Ruiz said MSP has been collecting on average 2.11 times the face value of the medical bills paid by Medicare. Thats because insurers have to pay interest on top of double damages. Whats more, they have to pay the market rate for the medical care received rather than the discounted rate that Medicare pays.

MSP Recoverys business plan got a boost from federal appellate court rulings that established Medicare Advantage Plans have a private right of action under the Medicare Secondary Payer Act.

Ruiz said Friday that he purchased recovery rights from Medicare Advantage Plans for the bills they paid that should have been paid by insurance companies. He said Virage is paying $3 billion for 50% of those collection rights. MSP will get the rest.

MSP said in an Aug. 4 report to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it generated $230 million by selling 20 million units to investors in its initial public offering. Special purchase acquisition companies, also called blank check companies, differ from conventional stock offerings in that they raise capital from investors to fund future acquisitions before they have any commercial operations.

MSP and Lionheart valued their merger at $32.6 billion. Reuters reported that it was the second-largest SPAC deal in history.

An MSP subsidiary files the lawsuits that seek Medicare Secondary Payer Act recoveries out of the companys office in the Miami suburb of Coral Gables. In August, the company filed a whistleblower lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Michigan that seeks billions of dollars from 315 auto insurers that it accuses of deliberately filing false reports to Medicare.

This case is based on what MSP Recovery has seen over the last seven years as auto insurers knowingly and willfully turn a blind eye and evade their obligations to Medicare, Ruiz said in a press release at the time.

Ruizs business plan appears to be generating a healthy income.

According to a Sept. 24 article in TheRealDeal, he sold a 10,000-square-foot waterfront house in Coral Gables for $13.8 million, after buying the home for $11 million in March 2020.

Earlier this month Ruiz paid $25 million for a 14,433 square-foot mansion in Gables Estates, the news site, which covers the South Florida real estate market, reported. Last year he also paid $49 million for a resort-style estate in Gables Estates, the second-second-highest price for a single-family home ever in Miami-Dade County, according to the article.
CHANDLER, Ariz. (AP)  A helicopter and a single-engine plane collided in midair Friday near a suburban Phoenix airport, sending the helicopter crashing into a field and killing both people on board. The plane landed safely, and the flight instructor and a student inside were not hurt.

The collision happened in the city of Chandler near its municipal airport, said police Sgt. Jason McClimans. He said no one on the ground was hurt but the airport would remain closed for several hours.

The Chandler Fire Department received reports of a fire in a brush field next to the airport shortly before 8 a.m. Crews found a large plume of smoke and the wreckage of the helicopter on fire but were able to extinguish it relatively quickly, fire officials said.

They inspected the helicopter and found the bodies of the two people on board. The Maricopa County medical examiners office will determine their identities.

The chopper was operated by Quantum Helicopters and the plane by Flight Operations Academy. Both are flight schools, according to McClimans, of Chandler Police.

Richard Bengoa, owner of Flight Operations Academy, told The Associated Press the four-seat plane is used mostly for flight training. The only people aboard were the flight instructor and the student pilot.

Though officials did not allow Bengoa to get close to the plane, he said it appeared from a distance that its landing gear had been damaged. He said he had no information about how the collision happened and was not allowed to speak with the instructor or student.

Bengoa described his operation as more of a family business to kind of promote aviation and help people get their licenses.

A statement from the Federal Aviation Administration also indicated evidence of damage on the Piper PA-28 aircrafts landing gear. The agency listed the helicopter as a Robinson R22.

The airports control tower was operating at the time of the collision. But FAA officials declined to say how many of the staff were there, noting that detail will be part of the overall investigation.

The National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation into the cause of the collision and crash.

Police are seeking any witnesses or people who may have filmed the ordeal.

Chandler Municipal Airport does not provide commercial airline service. Most of the flights there are for chartered trips, private excursions and training. Its considered one of the nations 50 busiest general aviation airports with more than 200,000 flight operations a year, according to Chandlers tourism office.

Dodge City Community College in Kansas operates its DC3 Flight Instructor Program out of the Chandler airport. The school said in a statement on its Facebook page that officials are working to notify the appropriate families of those involved in the incident. Authorities have not mentioned any ties to a specific training program.

Davenport reported from Phoenix.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
MOBILE, Ala. (AP)  An Alabama woman whose 9-month-old daughter died has filed suit against the hospital where she was born claiming it did not disclose that its computer systems had been crippled by a cyberattack, which resulted in diminished care that resulted in the babys death.

Springhill Medical Center was deep in the midst of a ransomware attack when Nicko Silar was born July 17, 2019, and the resulting failure of electronic devices meant a doctor could not properly monitor the childs condition during delivery, according to the lawsuit by Teiranni Kidd, the childs mother.

Left with severe brain injuries and other problems, the baby died last year after months of intensive care at another hospital.

The lawsuit, initially filed in Mobile County in 2019 while Nicko was still alive, was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

The malpractice lawsuit, which seeks an unspecified amount of money from the hospital and Dr. Katelyn Braswell Parnell, who delivered Nicko, contends Springhill did not reveal the severity of the cyberattack publicly or to Kidd. The woman would have gone to a different and safer hospital for labor and delivery had she known what was going on, it claims.

Springhill has denied wrongdoing and asked a judge to dismiss the most serious part of the lawsuit, which contends officials conspired to publicly create a false, misleading, and deceptive narrative about the cyberattack in a scheme that made the childs delivery unsafe.

The hospital claimed any blame lies with Parnell, who was fully aware of the inaccessibility of the relevant systems, including those in the labor and delivery unit, and yet determined that (Kidd) could safely deliver her at Springhill. Under Alabama law, the hospital did not have any legal duty to provide Kidd with details of the cyberattack, the hospital argued.

Parnell and her medical group, Bay Area Physicians for Women, denied she did anything that hurt Nicko or caused the childs injuries and death.

Springhill released a public statement about the cyberattack the day before the child was born saying staff has continued to safely care for our patients and will continue to provide the high quality of service that our patients deserve and expect, WKRG-TV reported at the time.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 4)  BUHAY Party-list representative and vice presidential aspirant Lito Atienza wants to abolish ineffective government agencies and support cooperatives to promote economic recovery and better pandemic response if he secures the country's second highest post.

Speaking to CNN Philippines' New Day on Monday, the congressman enumerated the campaign promises that he shares with his running mate Sen. Manny Pacquiao under the Probinsya Muna Development Initiative (PROMDI) political party.

When asked how he intends to improve the government's COVID-19 response, Atienza said: "Number one, probably abolish all these bodies who are supposed to be handling all the problem but not doing their jobs."

Atienza said he and Pacquiao will push for "massive capitalization" of small and medium enterprises and cooperatives.

"Ang supply ng gobyerno hindi na dadaan sa mga ahente," he pointed out. "I-a-abolish ko 'yang PS-DBM, 'yang mga government purchasers, I will ask Congress to refer a law, all supplies of government should be bought from cooperatives."

[Translation: Government supply will not go through agents anymore. I will abolish the Procurement Service-Department of Budget and Management, and with the problem involving these government purchasers, I will ask Congress to refer a law, all supplies of government should be bought from cooperatives.]

Atienza was referring to the controversial deal on supposedly overpriced COVID-19 medical supplies between Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp and the PS-DBM which has been the subject of congressional probe over the past weeks.

The lawmaker also backed Pacquiao's promise of jailing erring officials, noting that the longstanding problem of corruption needs to end.

"Kaya natutuwa ako kay Manny (That's why I like Manny). Manny is a genius. He is like a sponge. He immediately learns from what he sees, what he reads, what he hears," said Atienza, who has been advising Pacquiao even from the beginning of the latter's political career.

"I have very high hopes he is the only one who can unite and inspire our people into action," Atienza also said of his running mate.

Atienza surprised the public on Friday when he filed his Certificate of Candidacy alongside Pacquiao. They were the first tandem to file their bid for the 2022 polls.

RELATED: Tandem with Atienza will not keep off Pacquiao's doubters - analyst

The 80-year-old party-list representative previously headed the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and served as mayor and vice mayor of Manila.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 4)  The countrys inter-agency pandemic task force will implement the COVID-19 alert level system currently piloted in Metro Manila in other areas if infections continue to go down, its chairperson said Monday.

Kapag nakita na maliwanag dahil po rito ay patuloy ang pagbaba ng kaso, palalawigin na po ito sa ibang lugar ng bansa, said IATF head and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III in a briefing.

[Translation: Once its clear that because of this (alert level system) that cases are declining, we will extend it to other areas in the country.]

Duque was referring to factors that are being assessed in the alert level systems pilot in the National Capital Region, such as the case numbers, which are evaluated through the average daily attack rate, two-week growth rate, and healthcare utilization rate.

The body also looks at the regions case-to-contact ratio, which now stands at 1:19, or one case for every 19 close contacts, with the Health chief emphasizing the importance of immediately isolating these individuals.

Duque added that the IATF is also looking at local governments assurance regarding their barangay health emergency response teams (BHERTs) responsiveness and the further expansion of the COVID referral system.

Nakikita po naman natin na patuloy ang pagbaba ng mga kaso sa NCR at diumano sa buong Pilipinas except for a few areas, said Duque, who reported a 20.2% positivity rate for the entire nation.

[Translation: We have seen the continuing decline in cases in the NCR and apparently the whole Philippines except for a few areas.]

The Department of Health said in a separate briefing that Metro Manilas infection tally is on a downtrend, but also warned of a decline in COVID-19 testing.

The COVID-19 alert level systems pilot in the region has been extended until Oct. 15.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 4)  The PDP-Laban headed by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi is "back to square one" in choosing its standard bearer after a potential bet rejected the group's nomination.

In a text message to CNN Philippines on Monday, Cusi said their prospective standard bearer, whom he refused to name, declined their endorsement.

"Ayaw tumakbo (the prospective candidate refused to run)," Cusi said, noting that he already signed the Certificate of Nomination and Acceptance of the unnamed nominee prior to the rejection.

When asked whether the rejection was official, Cusi answered: "Yes, back to square one."

In a media interview, PDP-Laban Secretary General Melvin Matibag also said Cusi already signed the certificate of nomination for the unnamed nominee. He refused to give details, but said the nominee is a member of their party. Presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte is not a PDP-Laban member.

Earlier in the day, Matibag told CNN Philippines' The Source that they already sent feelers to Mayor Duterte to run in tandem with vice presidential aspirant Sen. Bong Go, but that there was no official communication with her.

Mayor Duterte already filed her candidacy for reelection in Davao on Saturday, the same day that Go filed his candidacy for vice president.

Party chairman and President Rodrigo Duterte earlier withdrew his acceptance of his nomination for the vice presidency. He instead recommended Go to replace him. He then endorsed his daughter to run in tandem with Go in the 2022 polls.

Matibag noted that PDP-Laban members acknowledge the endorsement of President Duterte, but they have to also consult the general leadership of the party.

He said potential bets must also undergo a proper process, the same thing that Go had to go through when he instead filed his candidacy for vice president even when he was initially endorsed by the party as its standard bearer.

"Kaya may pinagpipilian din, nakita naman natin si Mayor Sara, she filed her COC as mayor of Davao City, " Matibag said.

[Translation: That's why we also have to make a choice, because as we have seen Mayor Sara, she filed her COC as mayor of Davao City.]

READ: Sara-Go tandem for 2022 polls, according to President Duterte

Mayor Duterte topped the latest Pulse Asia survey on preferred president if the elections were held on the day the poll was conducted. This came despite her previous refusal to run for the presidency, after her father initially accepted PDP-Laban's nomination to be its vice-presidential bet.

She also called out her father for claiming that he and Go are willing to step aside  on the condition that she will seek the country's highest post.

The filing of COCs will be until Oct. 8, but aspirants seeking to substitute those withdrawing from party tickets can file their COCs until Nov. 15. If the reason is due to death or incapacity, substitution will be allowed until midday of May 9.

CNN Philippines Correspondent Eimor Santos contributed to this report.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 4)  Malacanang on Monday stood by President Rodrigo Dutertes previous announcement that he will be retiring from politics, slamming those still skeptical about the chief executives statement.

Eh, bakit naman tayo magdududa kung sinabi na ni Presidente yan? [Why do we still have to doubt if the President already said it?] said spokesman Harry Roque in a briefing.

The spokesman ruled out Dutertes bid for the vice presidency, which he had declared earlier, given that Sen. Bong Go has already filed a certificate of candidacy for the post.

Hindi na po makakatakbo si Presidente sa posisyon ng vice president dahil hindi naman niya pupwede labanan si Sen. Bong Go, said Roque, citing Dutertes close ties with his former presidential aide.

[Translation: The President cannot run for the position of vice president anymore since he cannot run against Sen. Bong Go.]

The Cabinet official likewise said the chief executive cannot run for his current post since the Constitution forbids the re-election of presidents.

For those who still remain doubtful, Roque asked them to wait instead for the deadlines for the filing of COCs on Oct. 8 and the substitution of candidates on Nov. 15.

Wala na po akong assurance na maibibigay doon sa talagang gustong magduda, said the spokesman.

[Translation: I can give no assurance anymore to those who really want to doubt.]

Critics pointed out that Duterte has been known for flip-flopping on his statements. He also announced his retirement from politics when he was still mayor of Davao City, only to eventually run and win the 2016 presidential race.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippine, October 4)  Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque is standing by the question he asked a candidate in this years Miss World Philippines which drew flak online for being misogynistic.

OA po 'yun na misogynistic 'yun [Its overacting to say its misogynistic]. That's a valid question. If you disagree, you're entitled to your opinion, mag-judge din kayo [go be a judge too], Roque said Monday.

The question asked by Roque, who was among the judges in the pageant held Sunday night, to Cebu Provinces Shaila Rebortera was about a woman pursuing the presidency despite having very young children.

The frontrunner in all the surveys for the post of president is a woman. If she were to ask you, should she run for president even if her children are very young, what advice would you give her? asked the spokesman.

Davao City Mayor and presidential daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio has consistently been topping surveys on presidential bets despite having refused to pursue the highest position in the land.

In response, Robertera noted women are strong and brave in different ways in the modern day.

Other women are strong and brave because they sacrifice their career for their family and if our candidate would like to pursue becoming a president despite sacrificing time for their family in exchange of serving the Filipino people, then I would definitely support that, she further explained.

Roque was seen laughing after Robertera delivered her answer, which also drew the ire of netizens.

Robertera was crowned Miss Multinational during the pageant, which was held in Subic, Olongapo.

RELATED: Tracy Maureen Perez takes Miss World Philippines crown
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 4)  Marawi civic leader and senatorial aspirant Samira Gutoc has learned some lessons from the 2019 elections and is ready to make another attempt to enter the "Magic 12" in the upcoming polls.

Gutoc, who is now running under the Aksyon Demokratiko Party, enumerated things she will do differently, three years after running under the Liberal Party's opposition slate 'Otso Diretso', which failed to get a single candidate in the Senate.

Gutoc landed 25th in the senatorial race in 2019.

"Work harder, reach harder, walk farther, reach other non-supportive groups," Gutoc told CNN Philippines' The Source.

"Hurt and pain is collective for all. Siguro naramdaman ko 'yon bilang product of the biggest tragedy, yung history natin sa (Perhaps I felt that as a product of the biggest tragedy, our history in the) Marawi siege," she said. "Reach more, grassroot more, as many as we can reach. And not hate more maybe. I will always be the fighter you knew in the past."

Gutoc filed her certificate of candidacy on Sunday, with the same campaign promise of fighting poverty and discrimination.

She said that she will also push for the passage of measures seeking to protect internally displaced persons and to prevent discimination against women, the LGBTQ+ community, the Muslim community, and others from the minority.

The Mindanaoan civic leader was a former member of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, but she resigned in 2017 after President Rodrigo Duterte's jokes on soldiers raping women.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 5)  The Commission on Audit (COA) has signed a memorandum to start looking into the transactions the government made with the Philippine Red Cross (PRC).

I am pleased to learn about the prompt response of COA chairman Michael Aguinaldo to our call to audit the Philippine Red Cross, President Rodrigo Duterte said in his taped weekly address that aired late Monday night.

He said the signed memorandum was dated Sept. 23, 2021. Under this, all concerned COA officials and offices are directed to submit to the agencys Fraud Audit office a compilation of their findings per sector on the subsidies and/or fund transfers received and utilized by the PRC from January 2016 to September 2021.

They shall also submit a duly signed summary schedule of subsidies and/or funds received by PRC on the same period.

Duterte has been criticizing senators, especially Sen. Richard Gordon, as they continue investigating the governments purchases of COVID-10 supplies.

Gordon is the chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee conducting the probe, and the PRC.

Earlier, Aguinaldo said COA has no power to audit the humanitarian agency despite the chief executives demand.

He noted, however, that it can only scrutinize the payments delivered by the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to the PRC.

Meanwhile, Duterte also reminded COA of its constitutional duty to collect the 140 million worth of notice of disallowance issued against Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority during Gordons time as its chairperson in the 90s.

Such amount of money can still be used to inject more funds to purchase more COVID-19 vaccines, he noted.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 5)  President Rodrigo Duterte has boosted Senator Bong Go's bid for the vice presidency, saying his former aide was the "best person" to help continue his legacy.

"I strongly and fully believe that Senator Bong Go is the best person to help the next president to continue my legacy and build on the gains that we have achieved especially in terms of providing basic services to health care, education and other social services for the people," Duterte said during his weekly address.

Go surprised many when he filed his certificate of candidacy on Oct. 2, accompanied by the President himself. The senator said he replaced Duterte after the latter withdrew his nomination to be the PDP-Laban's vice presidential bet in next year's polls.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque earlier said that Duterte had signed his COC ahead of the start of filing.

During Monday's address to the nation, Duterte highlighted Go's accomplishments as a senator, especially his work in establishing Malasakit Centers which the President said have helped "millions of Filipinos."

Go, who was present during the address, has not issued a statement on Duterte's endorsement.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 5)  Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque on Monday defended the drop in President Rodrigo Dutertes latest satisfaction rating, saying it was still the highest after martial law, when compared to the figures of past presidents in their final year in office.

A survey recently released by the Social Weather Stations showed that Duterte's net satisfaction rating dropped to +62 in June, from +65 in May and +79 in November 2020.

Maraming nagsabi na bumabagsak na raw ang inyong net satisfaction rating, Roque said in a televised meeting with Duterte and other government officials.

Pero ang dapat pong malaman ng taumbayan, itong +62 po ng June 2021 ang pinakamataas na satisfaction rating ng kahit sinong presidente matapos po ang martial law, he added, later noting that he was referring to figures recorded a year before their presidential terms ended.

[Translation: Many say your net satisfaction rating is declining. But what the public needs to know is that this +62 in June 2021 is the highest satisfaction rating of any president after martial law.]

Roque added that a rating hitting at least 60 is still a very good number.

The June survey found that 75% of Filipinos were satisfied with the Presidents performance, while 13% were dissatisfied. Around 12% were undecided.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 5)  President Rodrigo Duterte criticized senators anew for summoning his Cabinet officials to attend the ongoing investigation on the governments purchase of COVID-19 supplies.

During his recorded speech aired Monday night, Duterte told legislators that if they want to continue with the probe, they can do so after Christmas or the elections.

If you want to do it, hearing, even after Christmas or after elections if you want Ang problema iyong tao ko lang. Iyong Pharmally, I said, gusutin ninyo ng hustohuwag mo lang isali ang mga tao ko, he said.

[Translation: The problem is about my people. That Pharmally, I said, you can crush them all you want, just dont include my people.]

The President said senators are not giving due respect towards Cabinet officials and wasting their time by summoning them for hearings, where sometimes they end up not being questioned at all.

He took aim anew at Senator Richard Gordon, who leads the probe as chairman of the Blue Ribbon Committee.

Gordon, you are not god and you cannot play god. You cannot continue this hearing till kingdom come, he said, reiterating that the senators should not compromise the governments COVID-19 response by having concerned officials tied up for so long in their hearings.

Towards the end of his speech, Duterte signed the memorandum ordering the Executive department to ignore the Senates summons.

The Senate is not a criminal court. Stop using it simply as a witch hunt, the chief executive said.

Meanwhile, he thanked the House of Representatives "for conducting a neutral and unbiased hearing" and for terminating their proceedings early.

Last week, Duterte said he will issue the said memorandum to formally prohibit his Cabinet members from attending the Senate hearings. He also instructed the military and the police to ignore Gordons orders if he asks for their assistance.

In a statement, the Philippine Bar Association asked Duterte to recall the directive.

It pointed out that directing officials of the Executive department to disobey summons issued by the Senate upsets our system of checks and balances and transgresses the doctrine of separation of powers among the three branches of government under our Constitution.

It also said the order is detrimental to people exacting public accountability through elected officials in the Senate committee who are simply exercising their Constitutional power of legislative oversight.

As the commander-in-chief, Dutertes order to the military and police is an undue impairment of Legislative prerogatives and violates the doctrine of separation of powers, the organization added.
Colorado is set to receive a $10 million windfall from a Federal Emergency Management Agency program to help offset the some of the costs brought on by the Cameron Peak wildfire.

As both the Cameron Peak and East Troublesome wildfires scorched their way through hundreds of thousands of acres in northern Colorado last fall, Gov. Jared Polis requested a major disaster declaration from FEMA, which was approved in the waning days of former President Donald Trumps time in office.

That declaration allowed FEMA to release funds to the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control under the Public Assistance program, a cost-sharing scheme that sees the federal agency cover 75% of costs with the state held responsible for the remainder.

In total, FEMA estimated the costs springing from emergency work and restoration of infrastructure after the Cameron Peak fire to be in the region of $13.8 million and awarded Colorado $10.3 million to cover a portion of the costs of multiple federal agencies battling the fire.

According to a FEMA release, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, National Weather Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Forest Service were all involved incident management and fire suppression activities.

The allocation brings the total approved by FEMA to more than $16.6 million in Public Assistance grant funds for recovery efforts from both fires.
As Catholics mark on Monday the 75th anniversary of Frances Xavier Cabrini becoming the first naturalized American saint, Colorado is celebrating the second Mother Cabrini Day, a state holiday that closes most government offices.

Gov. Jared Polis signed House Bill 1031 last year to replace the controversial Columbus Day for the patron saint of immigrants, whose ties to Colorado are deep.

The permanent holiday annually falls on the first Monday of October, just years after then-Gov. John Hickenlooper declared a one-time St. Frances Cabrini Day in Colorado in 2017 to recognize the 100th anniversary of the Colorado saint's death.

Colorado provided the first and only state holiday named in honor of the saint and it's the only state holiday honoring a woman.

The Cabrini Day Holiday Commission provides a calendar of challenges for each day in October. You can find it by clicking here.

"St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, lived prophetically, a woman beyond her time, human and humanizing, and until today a beacon of hope and life," Sister Barbara Staley wrote in July to the members of the Denver order founded by Mother Cabrini. "She gave her all to bring the love of Christ to the ends of the earth.

Mother Cabrini continually shows us that as we lay down our lives, so we truly can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. In her words: God has done it all, I have only been a spectator of Gods work.

She arrived in Colorado in 1902. In 1905, she opened the Queen of Heaven Orphanage, a residence for girls in north Denver. She was born in Italy and naturalized as U.S. citizen in Denver in 1909.

Mother Cabrini was canonized July 7, 1946, by Venerable Pius XII. She was named the Patroness of Immigrants in 1950.

In her lifetime, Mother Cabrini established 67 schools, hospitals and orphanages across the U.S. and Europe, as well as Central America and South America. She is the namesake of Cabrini University, a private Roman Catholic university in Radnor Township, Pennsylvania, that was founded by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1957.

The Mother Cabrini Shrine off Interstate 70 in the foothills west of Denver was originally created by her as a summer camp for orphan girls. It continues to be a destination for Catholics and tourists today.

On her last last visit to Colorado in 1912, Cabrini stayed at the mountain camp, which did not have a known source of water. She directed the girls to dig under a specific rock that yielded a drinking water spring, which still provides water to the camp .

Mother Cabrini Day was a compromise of sorts after American Indian activists tried unsuccessfully for years to end Columbus Day. Indigenous people see the Italian explorer as a murderous invader, who never actually stepped foot in what would become America.

The selection of Mother Cabrini was a compromise between indigenous peoples and Colorado's vibrant Italian-American community. Rep. Adrienne Benavidez, D-Adams County, who sponsored the 2020 legislation changing the holiday, said at the time there is an intersection between the beliefs of native peoples and Cabrini, in part because of a spring Cabrini discovered near the summer camp.

"This isn't the perfect answer, but it's a compromise we can make and honor someone who is deserving," she said in 2020.

Dennis Wilwerding is Catholic and a member of Knights of Columbus. During a 2019 hearing, Wilwerding said he backed the change because a state holiday should honor someone people would want to emulate.

Looking for a trade route to Asia on behalf of Spain, Columbus landed in the Bahamas in Oct. 12, 1492, and it was declared the new world.

Colorado was the first to adopt Columbus Day as a state holiday in 1907; President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared it a national holiday in 1934.

Mother Cabrini is one of 10 paid state holidays, joining New Year's Day, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Washington-Lincoln Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans' Day. Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Colorado's Ken Salazar will soon have another feather to add to his trademark cowboy hat: according to reports, the Biden administration plans to nominate the former interior secretary and U.S. senator as its next ambassador to Mexico.

Mexico City daily La Jornada reported Thursday that Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs sources confirmed that Salazar's long-suspected nomination was imminent.

On Wednesday, New York Times White House correspondent Annie Karni reported that Salazar was among a batch of high-profile diplomatic nominees the Biden administration plans to announce.

Salazar has been rumored to be under consideration for the post since April, Colorado Politics reported. The Times said the Biden administration has delayed announcing some major diplomatic nominations  including ambassadors to China, India, Israel and Japan  in order to "unveil a diverse slate of nominees" all at once.

Salazar hasn't responded to a request for comment, and attempts by Colorado Politics to reach him on Friday were unsuccessful.

The fifth-generation Coloradan, whose family has long operated a ranch in the San Luis Valley, was elected twice as the state's attorney general and served four years in the U.S. Senate before stepping down to join the incoming Obama administration in 2009. He ran the Department of the Interior through former President Barack Obama's first term and then returned to Colorado, where he joined international law firm WilmerHale as a partner.

A Democratic aide told The Hill that leaking the confirmation about Salazar's upcoming nomination pointed to a rocky relationship between the U.S. government and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's administration.

Salazar could be taking over the embassy when relations between the two countries are strained, The Hill said, including over a record surge of immigrants at the southern U.S. border since President Joe Biden took office in January.

Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to visit Mexico City in June as part of the administration's plan to address migration issues.

In his only publicly announced campaign event in Colorado ahead of last year's presidential primary, Joe Biden appeared at a fundraiser hosted by Salazar in February at his north Denver home.

Salazar last year co-chaired Biden's Latino Leadership Committee and served as an honorary co-chair of the Biden campaign's Colorado Latino Leadership Council.
Microsoft has revealed the pricing of its perpetual-license versions of Office 2021 and listed the features and functionalities it lifted from Office 365 and dropped into the new pay-for-once suite.

Office 2021, which Microsoft will aim at consumers and very small businesses, is slated to launch Tuesday, Oct. 5. Last month, Microsoft debuted Office LTSC 2021, the acronym standing for "Long-Term Support Channel," as the perpetual-license Office for commercial and government customers. Unlike Office 2021, Office LTSC 2021 is not sold retail but is available only through volume licensing.

The new Office comes in two SKUs: Office Home and Student 2021 and Office Home and Business 2021. The former includes Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint, Teams and Word; the latter adds Outlook to the mix. By Microsoft's licensing terms, only Home and Business can be used for business purposes. Each SKU comes in editions for either Windows (Windows 10 or 11) or macOS (the three most-recent versions) and can be run on only one device.

Office Home and Student 2021 will sell for $150, while Office Home and Business 2021 will cost $250.

Those prices were identical to the full list prices of the same-named Office 2019 SKUs, the perpetual license versions that launched in late 2018. Microsoft had previously said it would not raise prices for these editions.

Office Home and Student 2021 and Office Home and Business 2021 will be supported for only five years, half the historical decade that earlier Microsoft-branded suites received. Although Microsoft has not yet confirmed the date, Computerworld expects that support will cease Oct. 13, 2026.

That date will give customers an opportunity to shave spending by skipping an upgrade. Because of the vagaries of Microsoft's support for the perpetual license Office, both Office 2016 and 2019  the two newest editions  exit support in October 2025, or just a year before Redmond retires Office 2021. Rather than refresh to the new Office 2021, those customers may choose to wait until the next iteration, which will likely to pegged as Office 2024 or Office 2025 but released in the fall of 2024. (Although Microsoft's numbering of Office 2021 departed from its usual practice, the company has long been on a three-year release cycle. There's no indication that will change.)

Agile operations  as the very small shops buying Office Home and Business 2021 are virtually by definition  should be able to transition from Office 2016 or 2019 to Office 2024/2025 in the 24 months available.

Welcome to second class, everyone!

Microsoft has made it a habit to disparage its perpetual-license Office whenever it mentions the suite, preferring to laud the subscription alternative, Office 365 or the even more expensive (and expansive) Microsoft 365.

So it went last week.

"Microsoft 365 is the best way to get access to the latest apps and features that help you stay productive, protected, and connected," wrote Liat Ben-Zur, corporate vice president, modern life, search, and devices, in the second paragraph of a post to a company blog (before any detail about Office 2021). "However, we know some customers still prefer a non-subscription version of the core Office apps for PC and Mac, which is why we're releasing Office 2021."

Microsoft has put its thumb on the scales for years, notably in February 2019 when it lampooned Office 2019 in a PR pitch for lack of features when the company itself had decided to limit what the perpetual-license version received of the new and shiny.

Frankly, the tactic is getting old.

Microsoft comes across as aggrieved that it still has to offer an alternative to subscriptions when it constantly reminds perspective buyers that their perpetual-license choice doesn't have this or won't do that, while Office 365 does and will.

Yet Microsoft has pledged to do at least one more perpetual-license Office. In February, Jared Spataro, corporate vice president for Microsoft 365, said, "I'm happy to confirm our commitment to another release in the future."

For a list of what Microsoft deigned to add to Office 2021 from the superset of Office 365, check out this support document.
95%

Website maxon.pl uses latest and advanced technologies like: Boostrap. It is very popular on the web, it's within the 1 million most visited websites of the world at position 201532 by Alexa. It supports HTTPS. The main html page has a size of 88295 bytes (86.23 kb uncompressed).

This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-10-04, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.
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Thuocladientu.com scored 70 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 3.5/5.0 Stars by Social Team

This CoolSocial report was updated on 6 Dec 2012, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.

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1. There Were Two Purposes for the Judgment

Slide 1 of 3

And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.  Exodus 7:5

Moses replied, It will be as you say, so that you may know there is no one like the Lord our God.  Exodus 8:10

When you read the story of the Exodus from Egypt there really were two objectives. The big objective which we focus on the most is the deliverance of the Israelites. God used these plagues to soften Pharoahs heart eventually leading to him letting them go. However, there was another objective that was just as important. God needed to show the Egyptians who he really was.

It was in these plagues that God was making known to the Egyptians that he is the one, true and living God. The plagues were Gods way of getting the attention of the Egyptians. We know the fate of Pharoah and the Egyptian army but what we dont know is how many of the remaining Egyptians may have turned their hearts towards God after seeing this display of his power.

2. Remorse and Relief from Suffering Does Not Automatically Lead to Repentance

But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said.  Exodus 8:15

Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. Now forgive my sin once more and pray to the Lord your God to take this deadly plague away from me.  Exodus 10:16

There is a pattern that we see in Pharoahs life. This is not much different then the same type of pattern that happens in many peoples lives. When we experience the consequence of our sinful actions, we may experience remorse and seek relief from suffering.

What we learn from the 10 plagues is that each of them brought suffering with it that was progressively more intense. As the consequences increased so did the need for Pharoah and the Egyptians to seek relief. However, what you notice is once the circumstance was alleviated, everything went back to normal and there was no real repentance.

This is an important lesson to understand for our own lives; relief and remorse dont always produce repentance. One of the ways you can measure true repentance is what happens when the consequence is finally removed. If you go back to what you were doing before, then there has been no true repentance.

We often see this in our society when great tragedies strike, whether it is on a national scale like 9/11 or in an individuals personal life. The pain of the moment causes a person to seek relief however once the pain is alleviated and the sting is not as great, they return to business as usual with no real repentance. This was Pharoahs lot, and this is the lot of many people as well.

Photo Credit: Sparrowstock
The damage from executive email account takeovers can run into millions of dollars, as recent examples show.

In 2019, Toyota Boshoku Corporation lost $37 million after the information in a payment direction from a third-party was changed, sending millions to the fraudsters. The recent SolarWinds attack was bad enough, and now Nobelium, the group responsible, has since launched a campaign of email attacks appearing to originate from USAID after its Constant Contact email account was compromised.

Recently, Microsoft 365 Defender researchers disrupted an attack against infrastructure hosted in multiple web services after a phishing attack on a cloud provider netted stolen credentials that were used to access target mailboxes.

CISOs responsible for securing sensitive C-suite email accounts face the dual challenge of securing accounts with wide-ranging permissions coupled with a significant educational role with the largely non-technical executive. But with brute-force attacks on the rise and account takeover attempts for C-suite mailboxes escalating by a staggering 671%, according to the latest report from Abnormal Security, now is the time to review executive account protections and security procedures.

Why C-suite BEC attacks are so damaging

Ransomware might make the headlines, but business email compromise (BEC) attacks, particularly in the C-suite, can pave the way for huge losses, both financial and reputational, thanks to the authority and financial privileges attached to these accounts. Terry Thompson, adjunct instructor in cybersecurity at Johns Hopkins University with more than 40 years of professional experience in security and intelligence, has seen first-hand incidents where a hacker gains the email address of one or more executives from the C-suite, usually via social engineering or by compromising the email account. The hacker can then send an email to the CFO directing payment of a fake invoice to a linked bank account.

The combination of social engineering and clever use of email made to look like it's from the boss/CEO is a real threat in BECs, Thompson tells CSO. The added importance of securing these accounts, he says, comes with the greater vulnerability and risk to the organization, which will be exposed to ransomware, email spoofing, and related threats. An executives account can also be compromised from below and then used to launch attacks. Whaling' BEC attacks target a subordinate and use that person's compromised email to get to the CEO, he says.

C-suite executives are the most trusted with corporate secrets and confidential data, and their communication is more likely to be read and their instructions followed. In many cases of BEC, the cybercriminals would find critical/confidential data inside the emails of C-suite victims, says Alex Holden, founder and CISO at Hold Security and a member of the ISACA Emerging Trends Working Group.

By their nature, C-suite email accounts present specific challenges. [C-suite executives] are more likely to change technology and more likely to insist on breaking the rules. They are also more prominent and therefore easier to target and imitate for abuse, says Holden.

Thompson, Holden, and other experts offer the following advice for CISOs to work with C-suite executives to reduce email account takeover risk.

Train the C-suite to recognize BEC threats

Preparing the C-suite through training exercises can help them identify suspect emails. Thompson recommends twice-yearly tabletop exercises to raise awareness of the threats and practice responses to a breach or BEC before it happens. These exercises should ideally be conducted in a non-threatening quiet time to help everyone in the C-suite become more security conscious and help with resilience if/when a company is victimized by a BEC or data breach. These exercises can also identify and iron out any confusion caused by language barriers, he adds.

Put technical controls in place

With education comes technical protections. While the layered security approach is common across cybersecurity defenses, there are a few differences when it comes to the C-suite, says Michael Del Giudice, principal in the consulting group at Crowe, which specializes in information security and data privacy for the public sector and implementing governance, risk, and compliance solutions. First off, use your education to make sure you work with them to help identify anything that looks suspicioussyntax, language, misplaced characters, urgent requests, he says.

There needs to be controls behind this line of personal defensethe layers. Complementing that with technical controls, implementing things like multifactor authentication on email so even if they do get credentials it will still prevent them from authenticating, Del Giudice tells CSO.

Del Giudice believes two main variables limit account takeovers: The first is to decrease the number of times someone takes an action that the attacker wants. You want it to be as close to zero as possible, he says. The other is to increase the number of notifications when someone gets a message that seems suspicious. That may be our first clue that something going on and we need to start to investigate.

When an account takeover occurs in the C-suite, the CISO first needs to be aware theres an issue, ideally well before funds start moving into the criminals coffers. To Del Giudice, it begins with having the right monitoring"An alert if someone's forwarding mail to a specific mailbox, he says. Look for anomalous types of behavior that may flag something that could be an issue. Make sure that there is a banner on all email that's coming in from outside the organization.

Emphasize the need for the C-suite to set an example

Hold Securitys Holden says that the C-suite has an important role as exemplars of the best security behavior. C-suite members are not regular employees; they are the most prominent employees. They are role models and not above the rules, he says. They are supposed to be the most protected individuals in the company. They may need more reminders to lead the cyber security initiatives by example and not to be the exception.

Yet training the C-suite can be complicated, according to Holden. While they need customizations to stress their unique responsibilities to the company in terms of cybersecurity, they should also adhere to a higher standard. Violations of the policies should be dealt with privately, but with significant actions to ensure that C-suite executives stay secure, he says.

Communicate BEC risk to the CEO in business language

Johns Hopkins Universitys Thompson says the challenge in securing and educating the executive rests on communications between the CEO and the CISO and finding a language to express the risks. With different education and professional backgrounds, it was hard to find common ground when they spoke, he says. He has seen a lack of understanding of the importance of cybersecurity among non-technical people who run most corporations. This can also worsen when CIOs and CISOs struggle to explain threats, vulnerabilities, and risks in business terms the C-suite can understand and translate into business risks. The main challenge is for the CISO to be able to express the threats, risks, and solutions in plain language so that non-technical people in the C-suite can understand and act on the CISO's recommendations, he says.
MIDDLETOWN  The cremains of eight veterans who fought in both world wars, Vietnam and Korea were finally laid to rest Friday in a funeral at the State Veterans Cemetery in Middletown.

Some of these mens cremains went unclaimed for several decades. This week, they received a proper burial.

After a brief prayer service at the state Department of Veterans Affairs campus in Rocky Hill, four hearses made their way to 317 Bow Lane for a ceremony in their honor.

It was made possible through a combined effort between the state DVA and Connecticut Funeral Directors Association, Commissioner Thomas J. Saadi said. A lot of planning went into the event, the commissioner added, as both his office and the CFDA have a shared goal.

We have a common mission of ensuring these veterans are no longer forgotten, Saadi said.

John F. Cascio, executive director of the CFDA, called it an honor to help give veterans a proper resting place. We felt it was their right, he said.

Since 2009, Cascio and his organization have teamed up with the DVA to track down the remains of veterans at funeral homes around the state that have gone unclaimed.

Through this project, an effort is made to track down living relatives.

Cascio said there are a few reasons remains may go unclaimed. Often, the individual simply has no living relatives, and, at other times, family members assume the remains will be handled by the military branch where the individual served.

Its not usually a case of neglect, he said.

Fridays ceremony was the seventh of its kind in the state. Over 100 people, most of them veterans, gathered in the cemetery to honor their fellow servicemen.

Laid to rest were:

Victor Hebert Anderson, a U.S. Marine who fought in the Korean War and died in Seymour in 2018.

Orville K. Davis, who fought in WWII with the U.S. Army and died in Southington in 1993.

Stephen Yoder Forrester, who fought in the Vietnam War with the U.S. Army and died in Branford in 1972.

Joseph P. Galipeau who fought in WWII with the U.S. Army and died in Southington in 2001.

Lawrence W. Jordan, who fought in WWI with the U.S. Army and died in Branford in 1976.

Bernard Joseph Lafleur, who fought in WWII with the U.S. Navy and died in Southington in 2007.

George Dalton Parker, who fought in WWII with the U.S. Navy and died in Hartford in 1984.

Lawrence Earl Tefft, who fought in WWII with the U.S. Navy and died in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in 1998.

All eight men were posthumously presented with wartime service medals.

They were not just statistics or names on a roster, Saadi said. They were loved.

He said Fridays proceedings exemplify how the honoring of veterans continue even after death.

While these men passed without friends or family to remember then, they are not forgotten, Saadi said. These departed brothers are forgotten no longer because you are here.

Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System Director Alfred A. Montoya Jr., also a veteran, spoke about what the event means to those who serve their country. Todays ceremony puts in action the words, Thank you for your service.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, applauded the DVA and CFDA for creating this initiative which went on to be implemented in other states. Thank you for creating a model that is being followed by states around the country to honor veterans, he said.

He spoke on behalf of U.S. Congress members in commending the men, along with the veterans in attendance for their sacrifice and willingness to serve. That sacrifice is extraordinary, Murphy said.

The ceremony included multiple color guards, a firing detail, the playing of Taps, and a benediction.
Problems that arose at a Connecticut weight-loss camp before it closed in July included missing campers and falsified documents, newly released investigative records indicate.

After weeks of investigations, a witness list 34 people deep, and pages upon pages of interviews and inspection notes, a fuller picture of the goings-on at Camp Shane  informed by state documents obtained by Hearst Connecticut through a Freedom of Information Act request  is taking shape.

The state document release included an investigation narrative, interview summaries, a case summary, a license surrender affidavit, and the Notice of Proposed Licensure Action and Statement of Charges sent to camp owner David Ettenberg.

The weight-loss camp located at the South Kent School abruptly shuttered on July 13, and surrendered its 11-day-old license on Aug. 23, at which point the Office of Early Childhood and Department of Children and Families terminated their joint investigation. The investigation was announced in July after the camp closed its doors, but the OEC officially launched its investigation on July 8.

Since Ettenberg legally surrendered the license prior to the completion of the state investigation, violations that would be substantiated were not formally presented to the owner, the investigation summary explained.

In the affidavit surrendering his license, Ettenberg denies all charges set forth, but agreed that if he tried to reinstate or obtain a new license from the agency in the future, it would mean that the allegations would be deemed true.

Ettenberg has not responded to multiple requests for comment since mid-July when he said he shut camp down due to staffing issues.

The allegations in the records also include:

A camper sleeping on a common area couch.

Campers walking around unsupervised at night and in lightning storms, and who were encouraged to work out until they vomited.

Counselors leaving campers unsupervised to hang out and party in the lounge.

A counselor who yelled at and threatened to fight a camper.

Falsified medication administration training documents presented to the state.

Inappropriate comments of a sexual nature by a male camper toward a female camper.

Multiple reports of campers being bullied.

And the day before camp officially shut down, an 8-year-old girl suffered a serious head injury at camp. Her parents were leaving to pick her up when they got the phone call.

The OEC investigation summary states that multiple families, many from out of state, reported trying to contact the camp about concerns with their child and not receiving any response via email, text or phone for extended periods of time.

Medical oversight concerns

The most continuously reported investigation concerns, which were repeated throughout interviews with parents, campers, and a counselor, were lack of proper medical oversight and mishandling of medication.

In the final summary, the camp licensing specialist summed up her medical concerns: Serious medical needs of the campers were not met when the operator failed to provide anyone trained to provide the necessary medications, failed to prepare the staff for emergency situations, and failed to seek medical assistance from trained professionals in a timely manner. Lack of supervision and untrained/uninformed staff led to campers being injured and not properly cared for.

Earlier in the report, the investigation revealed that multiple campers had reported experiencing injuries, including sprains, knee injuries, smashed toes, and serious sunburn.

Campers were not allowed to seek medical attention for up to a week in some instances. Other campers were told if they left camp to seek medical assistance, they could not return due to COVID-19 restrictions, the documents read.

Despite multiple requests from the state, the operator of the camp never located a medically trained individual to administer medications, according to the documents. Additionally, the camp presented the state with falsified medication administration training documents, allegedly signed by a doctor who ran a training in 2019. The physician whose name was presented on the training certificate said that the signature on the certificate is not his, the report states.

The doctor, whose name is redacted, provided the OEC with samples of his signature.

The certificate submitted by Camp Shane indicates a full training for oral, topical, inhaled and injectable medications as well as auto-inject medication. The signature is found to NOT be the signature of the physician, the documents said.

Former camp director and girls head counselor Jennifer DAmbrosio, who goes by Bella, quit her job on June 29 because she was concerned about camp administration and the safety and well-being of campers, she said in an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media.

DAmbrosio was also interviewed at least two times by the OEC. Her name has been redacted in the report, labeled as first director, but her identification was independently confirmed by Hearst Connecticut Media.

DAmbrosio said she was hired two days before arriving at the camp, claiming the camp was in disorder when she arrived and that there was no paperwork ready for opening.

The summary of the conversation between the investigator and DAmbrosio included concerns about not having appropriate staff, no guidance counselor, no paperwork about medical problems, no paperwork to the nutritionist regarding allergies and food restrictions, no certified medical staff on site, and no trained person for the behavior therapy program.

The fact that there was no medical person on campus, no information for counselors about the serious medical conditions of some of the campers and that there was a lot of medication concerns contributed to [redacted] deciding to leave the camp, the summary states.

The OEC interview summary included a physician whose name was redacted from documents, along with parts of the summary of his interview.

The doctor told the OEC, according to the documents, that he had been asked to serve as camp doctor 10 days before the start of camp but declined due to the fact that he had a family vacation scheduled. He assumed the camp had found another physician. This was not the case.

The doctor agreed to help out until a replacement was found.

After an initial visit to the camp on June 30, the doctor reported having immediate concerns about the way medications were being administered.

The doctor also said that he recommended that the camp close on more than one occasion to due to lack of safety.

Camper discomfort

The new state investigation documents also show repeated instances of camper discomfort, at times the result of alleged comments of a sexual nature made by male campers towards female campers, and at others a result of bullying and a counselors alleged prior arrest that a camper found online.

One violation description reads: operator took pictures of campers during Zumba class without their consent causing them to feel uncomfortable and ill at ease.

When Ettenberg was asked about this, he explained that he took pictures of a lot of the activities on the camp for the purpose of posting on an advertising website, the interview summary reads.

In interviews with an OEC employee, a male counselor whose name has been redacted said that a female camper informed him that a male camper had made her feel uncomfortable when he made sexual remarks about her.

Another male counselor  who was hired to do Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) despite not being trained in the technique prior to camp  reported that he had a conversation with a female camper who told him that an older boy (who left the camp prior to [REDACTED] arriving at camp) tried to force her to have sex.

Further details were not revealed to the CBT counselor, but he told investigators that he felt he should report what he was told. The counselor estimated that the female camper was around 15 or 16 years old.

Problems until the end

Issues persisted through the camps official shut-down on July 13. Parents were alerted of the camp's closure via email at 7:51 a.m. on July 11. The email, obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media, said the children had to leave by the following Tuesday.

In interviews, parents said they tried to figure out how to get their kids home safely with little notice  booking expensive flights, calling relatives nearby or driving to the camp themselves.

On the day the camp closed, according to the investigation documents, one parent drove onto campus and picked up not only her own child, but another child as well without being asked for any identification. The records also indicate that another parent picked up her child earlier on June 30 and did not have to sign the child out or show any identification.

Camper Stellan Petto, 14, said in an interview that his general experience at camp, which included getting the wrong dosage of his essential hormone medication, definitely left me with some trauma.

Now at home with his mother in North Carolina, Stellan has entered his freshman year of high school. With some distance from his camp experience, he said hes feeling better.
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP)  Officials investigating one of Californias largest recent oil spills are looking into whether a ship's anchor may have struck an oil pipeline on the ocean floor, causing heavy crude to leak into coastal waters and foul beaches, authorities said Monday.

The head of the company that operates the pipeline said company divers were inspecting the area of the suspected leak that was discovered Saturday, and he expected that by Tuesday there would be a clearer of what caused the damage.

A anchor from a cargo ship striking the pipeline is one of the distinct possibilities behind the leak, Amplify Energy CEO Martyn Willsher told a news conference. He said divers have examined more than 8,000 feet (2,438 meters) of the pipeline and were focusing on one area of significant interest.

Cargo ships entering the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach routinely pass through the area, Coast Guard officials said. Backlogs have plagued the ports in recent months and several dozen or more of the giant vessels have regularly been anchored as they wait to enter the ports and unload.

Were looking into if it could have been an anchor from a ship, but thats in the assessment phase right now, Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Jeannie Shaye said.

The spill sent up to 126,000 gallons (572,807 liters) of heavy crude into the ocean, contaminating the sands of famed Huntington Beach and other coastal communities. The spill could keep beaches closed for weeks or longer.

The Orange County district attorney, Todd Spitzer, said he has investigators looking into whether he can bring state charges for the spill even though the leak occurred in waters overseen by the U.S. government.

Spitzer also said Amplifys divers should not be allowed near the pipeline without an independent authority alongside them.

Other potential criminal investigations were being pursued by the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Central District of California, the Coast Guard and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, officials said.

Safety advocates have pushed for years for federal rules that would strengthen oil spill detection requirements and force companies to install valves that can automatically shut down the flow of crude in case of a leak. The oil and pipeline industries have resisted such requirements because of the high cost.

If the operator had more valves installed on this line, theyd have a much better chance at having the point of failure isolated by now, said Bill Caram with the Pipeline Safety Trust, an organization based in Bellingham, Washington.

The pipeline was built using a process known as electric resistance weld, according to a regulatory filing from the company. That welding process has been linked to past oil pipeline failures because corrosion can occur along seams, according to government safety advisories and Pipeline Safety Trust Director Bill Caram.

Annual reports filed with federal regulators in 2019 and 2020 showed inspections for the inside and outside of the pipe revealed nothing requiring repairs.

On Sunday as the extent of the spill was being revealed environmentalists had feared the oil might devastate birds and marine life in the area. But Michael Ziccardi, a veterinarian and director of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network, said only four oily birds had been found so far. One suffered chronic injuries and had to be euthanized, he said.

Its much better than we had feared, he said at a news conference Monday.

Ziccardi said hes cautiously optimistic, but its too soon to know the extent of the spills effect on wildlife. In other offshore oil spills, the largest number of oiled birds have been collected two to five days after the incident, he said.

Amplify operates three oil platforms about 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) off the coast of California, all installed between 1980 and 1984. The company also operates a 16-inch pipeline that carries oil from a processing platform to an onshore storage facility in Long Beach. The company has said the oil appears to be coming from a rupture in that pipeline about 4 miles (6.44 kilometers) from the platform.

In a 2016 spill-response plan submitted to federal regulators, the company said its worst-case spill scenario was based on the assumption of a full guillotine cut of the pipeline occurring 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) inland from one of its platforms. But an outside consultant concluded that a spill of that size was very unlikely at that location because the line is 120 feet deep and beneath a shipping lane where ships do not normally anchor.

The Beta oil field has been owned by at least seven different corporations since it was discovered by Royal Dutch Shell in 1976, records show. A corporate predecessor of Amplify bought the operation in 2012.

The Amplify subsidiary known as Beta Operating Co. has been cited 125 times for safety and environmental violations since 1980, according to a database from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the federal agency that regulates the offshore oil and gas industry. The online database provides only the total number of violations, not the details for each incident.

The company was fined a total of $85,000 for three incidents. Two were from 2014, when a worker who was not wearing proper protective equipment was shocked with 98,000 volts of electricity. The worker survived. In a separate incident, crude oil was released through a boom where a safety device had been improperly bypassed.

In 1999, an undersea pipeline running between two platforms sprang two leaks totaling at least 3,800 gallons of oil, causing tar balls to wash up on beaches in Orange County.

The cause of of the leaks was determined to be corrosion that caused pin-sized holes in the steel walls of the pipeline. The owner of the oil field at the time, a partnership between Mobil Oil Corp. and Shell Oil Co. called Aera Energy LLC, was fined $48,000 by federal regulators  a penalty environmental groups criticized as a slap on the wrist.

Before the spill, Amplify had high hopes for the Beta oil field and was pouring millions of dollars into upgrades and new side track projects that would tap into oil by drilling laterally.

We have the opportunity to keep going for as long as we want, Willsher said in an August conference call with investors. He added there was capacity up to 20,000 barrels a day.

Investors shared Willshers optimism, sending the company's stock up more than sevenfold since the beginning of the year to $5.75 at the close of trading on Friday. The stock plunged 43% in trading Monday.

The company filed for bankruptcy in 2017 and emerged a few months later. It had been using cash generated by the Beta field and others in Oklahoma and Texas to pay down $235 million in debt.

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Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker in Washington, Bernard Condon in New York, Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, and Amy Taxin in Huntington Beach, California, contributed to this report.
WINDSOR, Ontario (AP)  The busiest border crossing between Canada and the U.S. fully reopened late Monday afternoon following a police investigation into possible explosives found in a vehicle.

Police said they detained one person in connection with the probe that for nearly seven hours significantly hampered traffic across the Ambassador Bridge linking Windsor, Ontario, with Detroit.

A senior government official said federal police were not treating the incident as terrorism or a national security issue. The official spoke on condition of anonymity. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Integrated National Security Enforcement Team would be involved if terrorism was suspected.

``No other persons are believed to be involved in this incident, Windsor police wrote on Twitter. ``This is believed to be an isolated incident.

The Canada Border Services Agency said normal operations resumed just before 5 p.m.

Windsor police said the border agency had alerted them Monday morning after possible explosives were found in a vehicle in the secondary inspection area of the bridge complex on the Canadian side. Canada-bound traffic was suspended around 10 a.m. Police said at no time was traffic completely closed from Canada to the U.S.

Police said the driver of the vehicle was detained and was in border services custody.

The force also said no direct threats were made to places or people in connection with the possible explosives found.

Vehicles seeking to enter Canada were rerouted to the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel and the Blue Water Bridge that leads to Sarnia, Ontario.

The privately owned Ambassador Bridge is critical to trade between the two countries.

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Associated Press writer Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.
Despite the widespread availability of vaccines against COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued new guidance, recommending people hold virtual or outdoor family gatherings this holiday season.

According to its new guidance, the agency emphasized safer ways to celebrate holidays this fall and winter that include holding an outdoor celebration with everyone at least 6 feet apart, or hosting parties over video.

One suggestion for events held indoors said gatherers could open windows and doors to allow for ventilation, including putting a fan in an open window to draw inside air out of the home.

Following the CDC guidance, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Monday its too soon to tell whether people should gather in-person during the holidays.

Weve just got to concentrate on continuing to get those numbers down and not trying to jump ahead by weeks or months, Fauci said during an appearance on CBS News Face the Nation.

The CDCs guidance recommends people delay traveling for the holidays until they are fully vaccinated. The guidance was far less stringent than last year, when the agency recommended people get tested before traveling or forego travel altogether during the holiday season..

The recommendations come months after President Joe Biden said during his July 4 remarks that the nation was closer than ever to declaring our independence from a deadly virus.

Like the rest of the country, Connecticut has since been coping with a deadly wave of the virus driven by the highly infectious delta variant. The strain comprised all of the COVID-19 cases tested in the state in the most recent round of genetic sequencing.

The states testing and hospital data shows the wave may be subsiding in Connecticut. But the combination of colder weather and people spending more time indoors could also allow the virus to spread more easily in the coming months, experts warn.

Below is a summary of some of the highlights of the holiday guidance published by the CDC. The full guidance can be found on the CDCs website.

In-person gatherings

The CDC said if people are going to gather in-person for the holidays, they should take steps to reduce the spread of the virus. Those steps include getting vaccinated, if eligible, and wearing masks in some circumstances. People who are not fully vaccinated and those over the age 2 years old should wear a mask indoors in public places, the CDC advises.

Additionally, existing guidance from the CDC recommends people in areas with moderate or high transmission of the virus should wear a mask indoors even if they have been fully vaccinated. The CDCs COVID data tracker lists the county alert levels on the agencys website.

In general, people at outdoor gatherings do not need to wear a mask, according to the CDC. But in areas with high transmission rates, people should mask up if its crowded or they are in close contact with people who are not fully vaccinated, the guidance said.

As for indoor gatherings, the CDCs holiday guidelines suggest bringing in fresh air from outside by opening windows and doors, if possible.

You can use a window fan in one of the open windows to blow air out of the window. This will pull fresh air in through the other open windows, the guidance said.

Traveling during the holidays

The guidance said people should wait to travel until they are fully vaccinated. Unvaccinated travelers should test twice, once one to three days before traveling and the second time three to five days after traveling, the CDC said. Travelers should then isolate for seven days, or 10 days without the second test, the agency recommends.

The CDCs recommendations for international travel vary by destination, but in general, suggest travelers should avoid areas where the level of COVID-19 is unknown, such as Antarctica, or very high. Air passengers coming to the U.S., including citizens, must show a negative test for the virus or documentation that they recovered from it before boarding a flight to the U.S.

Safer holiday plans

The CDCs guidance opens with a series of safer holiday celebrations people can practice. They include decorating your home, hosting a video chat party with friends and family, holding an outdoor party with everyone 6 feet apart or dropping food off at friends and family members homes.
The Elizabeth M. Pfriem Foundation  which helps support care coordination and chronic care management at Bridgeport Hospitals Primary Care Center  has announced a $250,000 Challenge Grant.

The gift aims to encourage other donors in the community to support the Primary Care Centers new Health Maintenance and Preventive Care Program, a new initiative that focuses on lowering the barriers of care for the underserved by connecting them to local resources to improve the rate of breast, colorectal and cervical cancer screenings for early detection.

The goal of the program is to save lives and detect disease early when it is most treatable. A past publisher of the Connecticut Post, Pfriem was the only female Barnum Festival Ringmaster in its over 70-year history. Her longtime support of Bridgeport Hospital is said to have resulted in major improvements in neonatal intensive care, the cardiology hybrid operating suite, the emergency department and other technology.

Dealing with our patients complex needs requires so much more than providing medical care, said Primary Care Center Medical Director Dr. Manisha Gupta in a news release. We must also address their social needs and care for the patent in a broader, holistic way. Our patients experience improved well-being as their health and other needs are addressed. We are keeping patients out of the hospital and from seeking emergency care as their health improves.

To assist with a donation, visit bit.ly/pcc-donate or call Bridgeport Hospital Foundation at 203-384-3522.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Calls grew Monday for an end to the financial secrecy that has allowed many of the worlds richest and most powerful people to hide their wealth from tax collectors.

The outcry came after a report revealed the way that world leaders, billionaires and others have used shell companies and offshore accounts to keep trillions of dollars out of government treasuries over the past quarter-century, limiting the resources for helping the poor or combating climate change.

The report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists brought promises of tax reform and demands for resignations and investigations, as well as explanations and denials from those targeted.

The investigation, dubbed the Pandora Papers, was published Sunday and involved 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 countries.

Hundreds of politicians, celebrities, religious leaders and drug dealers have used shell companies or other tactics to hide their wealth and investments in mansions, exclusive beachfront property, yachts and other assets, according to a review of nearly 12 million files obtained from 14 firms located around the world.

The Pandora Papers is all about individuals using secrecy jurisdictions, which we would call tax havens, when the goal is to evade taxes,'' said Steve Wamhoff, director of federal tax policy at the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington.

The tax dodges can be legal.

Gabriel Zucman, a University of California, Berkeley, economist who studies income inequality and taxes, said in a statement one solution is obvious: Ban shell companies  corporations with no economic substance, whose sole purpose is to avoid taxes or other laws.

The legality is the true scandal,'' activist and science-fiction author Cory Doctorow wrote on Twitter. Each of these arrangements represents a risible fiction: a shell company is a business, a business is a person, that person resides in a file-drawer in the desk of a bank official on some distant treasure island.''

The more than 330 current and former politicians identified as beneficiaries of the secret accounts include Jordans King Abdullah II, former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, Czech Republic Prime Minister Andrej Babis, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso, and associates of both Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Some of those targeted strongly denied the claims.

Oxfam International, a British consortium of charities, applauded the Pandora Papers for exposing brazen examples of greed that deprived countries of tax revenue that could be used to finance programs and projects for the greater good.

This is where our missing hospitals are," Oxfam said in a statement. This is where the pay-packets sit of all the extra teachers and firefighters and public servants we need."

The European Commission, the 27-nation European Unions executive arm, said in response to the revelations that it is preparing new legislative proposals to enhance tax transparency and reinforce the fight against tax evasion.

The Pandora Papers are a follow-up to a similar project released in 2016 called the Panama Papers" compiled by the same journalistic group.

The latest bombshell is even more expansive, relying on data leaked from 14 different service providers doing business in 38 different jurisdictions. The records date back to the 1970s, but most are from 1996 to 2020.

The investigation dug into accounts registered in familiar offshore havens, including the British Virgin Islands, Seychelles, Hong Kong and Belize. But some were also in trusts set up in the U.S., including 81 in South Dakota and 37 in Florida.

The document trove reveals how powerful people are able to deploy anonymous shell companies, trusts and other artifices to conceal the true owners of corrupt or illicit assets. Legally sanctioned trusts, for example, can be subject to abuse by tax evaders and fraudsters who crave the privacy and autonomy they offer compared with traditional business entities.

Shell companies, a favored tax evasion vehicle, are often layered in complex networks that conceal the identity of the beneficial owners of assets  those who ultimately control an offshore company or other asset, or benefit from it financially, while other peoples names are listed on registration documents. The report said, for example, that an offshore company was used to buy a $4 million Monaco apartment for a woman who reportedly carried on a secret relationship with Putin.

While a beneficial owner may be required to pay taxes in the home country, its often difficult for authorities to discover that an offshore account exists, especially if offshore governments dont cooperate.

A Treasury Department agency working on new regulations for a U.S. beneficial ownership directory has been debating whether partnerships, trusts and other business entities should be included. Transparency advocates say they must or else criminals will devise new types of paper companies for slipping through the cracks.

International bodies like the G7 group of wealthiest nations and the Financial Action Task Force have begun initiatives in recent years to improve ownership transparency, but the efforts have moved at a modest pace.

Pointing to the secrecy behind many of the tax dodges, some critics are calling for a global wealth registry that would make sham investments in shell companies public, embarrassing politicians or celebrities worried about their reputations.

In the U.S., the House passed legislation this summer that would require multinational corporations to publicly disclose their tax payments and other key financial information on a country-by-country basis. Anti-money laundering and corporate transparency measures were tucked into legislation funding the Defense Department; it has yet to be implemented by the Treasury Department.

The Biden administration is also pushing for U.S banks to be required to report customers account information to the IRS as part of the $3.5 trillion economic and social spending package before Congress. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other officials say its an important way to prevent tax dodging by wealthy individuals and companies, but it has raised fierce opposition from banking industry groups and Republican lawmakers, who maintain it would violate privacy and create unfair liability for banks.

Tax havens have already come under considerable scrutiny this year.

In July, negotiators from 130 countries agreed to a global minimum tax of at least 15% to prevent big multinational corporations from minimizing taxes by shifting profits from high- to low-tax jurisdictions such as Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. Details of the plan by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, have yet to be worked out; it's supposed to take effect in 2023.

And while the plan would cover huge multinational corporations, it would not include the shell companies and other entities behind the schemes described in the Pandora Papers.

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Associated Press writers Stan Choe in New York and John Rice in Mexico City contributed to this report.

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This story was first published on October 4, 2021. It was updated on October 5, 2021 to remove a photo with a caption that erroneously identified Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan as one of 330 current and former politicians who reportedly benefitted from secret accounts. The report identified Khans associates as beneficiaries, but not Khan himself.
SHELTON  One international company made quite an impact in the region recently, thanks to the efforts of some charitable employees.

PerkinElmer, a global firm with an office at 710 Bridgeport Ave., held its annual Impact Day on Sept. 15, with more than 80 employees logging 358 hours of community service collecting food donations, working at an area food bank, cleaning Milford beaches and planting trees at Seaside Park in Bridgeport.

We recognize that being a responsible corporate citizen means helping people and the planet, said Michael DiVito, Sr., PerkinElmers director of applied markets and the Shelton site leader. Impact Day is an opportunity for us to do just that, particularly through service projects in our local community.

DiVito said employees can choose to participate in either individual or site-organized activities like beach clean-ups, tree planting and energy reduction initiatives. In all cases, taking a few hours out of the regular working day to do something helpful for others is incredibly rewarding, he said.

PerkinElmer is a global diagnostics and life sciences firm, and this event offers company employees give back and create positive change in their local communities, DiVito added.

This year, employees participated in a Bring-A-Can Food Drive, which was held onsite at the Shelton location. Company staff organized a collection of food for the St. Vincent de Paul food pantry in Derby, which serves in-need residents of Derby, Shelton, Ansonia, Seymour and Oxford.

Led by the Shelton Facilities team, DiVito said the goal was to restock the nearly empty shelves of the food bank.

Nicholas Dellolio, the companys facilities director who led the food drive, said employees and vendors collected more than 3,100 pounds of food.

The most rewarding part was the look on the volunteers faces at St. Vincent De Pauls food pantry when we rolled up in multiple trucks to deliver the food, which made all the hard work worth it, he said. Knowing that we helped so many families in the Valley is such a rewarding feeling. I cant wait until next year to collect and deliver even more food.

PerkinElmer employees also volunteered at the Connecticut Food Bank in Wallingford, sorting and packing almost 9,000 pounds of meat and produce at the state regional food bank distribution center

Employees also spent time planting, mulching and weeding outside the Boys & Girls Club of The Lower Naugatuck Valley in downtown Shelton and sprucing up the clubs main outdoor areas.

DiVito said the work would aid in the cleanliness and first impressions of the facility.

Volunteers also removed 27 large bags of trash and debris at Walnut and Silver Sands beaches in Milford and, along with Groundwork Bridgeport, Inc. helped plant 20 trees to increase the overall forest canopy at Seaside Park in Bridgeport.

DiVito said the theme of this years Impact Day is stewardship and sustainability, which encourages all to take simple steps to protect and preserve the environment, reduce their carbon footprint and conserve natural resources.

This theme helped guide the various activities our team was involved with, he said. Our team was especially energized and engaged in Impact Day this year.

brian.gioiele@hearstmediact.com
Proponents of charter schools insist that they are public schools open to all students. But the truth is more nuanced. As an education policy researcher  and as author of a new book about charter schools I wrote with fellow researcher Wagma Mommandi  I have discovered that charter schools are not as accessible to the public as they are often made out to be.

This finding is particularly relevant in light of the fact that charter school enrollment reportedly grew at a rapid rate during the pandemic. Specifically, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, enrollment increased 7 percent from 2019-20 to 2020-21. The organization says that is the biggest enrollment jump in a half-decade.

In our book, we identify and describe 13 different approaches that charters use to bring certain types of students in and push other kinds of students out.

Here are four examples from our book.

1. Targeted marketing and advertising

By using specific types of language in their promotional materials and by targeting those materials to specific audiences, charter schools often send a message that they are looking for a certain type of student. This is a way for charter schools to reach or appeal to a certain audience but not others, which in turn shapes who ends up applying to a given school.

For instance, Mueller Charter Leadership Academy in San Diego told prospective families that All eligible students are welcome to apply. However, it should be noted that because this is a highly advanced, demanding program, it may not be appropriate for everyone.

Targeted advertising can also carry a message. LISA Academy in Little Rock, Ark., in 2016 sent out targeted recruitment mailers to area neighborhoods  skipping over the three zip codes for the heavily Black and Latino parts of town.

Theyre sending a message they dont want the kids on the east side of town, Max Brantley, editor of the Arkansas Times, remarked after his newspaper exposed the practice. The school later apologized and explained that its plan was to subsequently reach out to those populations through digital advertising.

2. Conditional applications

Charter schools sometimes require multiple essays or a minimum GPA as a condition for initial or continuing enrollment.

Roseland Accelerated Middle School in Santa Rosa, Calif., for instance, required applicants to submit five short essays plus an autobiography using well constructed and varied structure.

Minimum GPA requirements can be imposed at the application stage or once admitted. At Lushor Charter School in New Orleans, parents and students are asked to sign a contract that requires students to maintain a 2.0 GPA in core subject areas for continued enrollment.

3. Parents required to volunteer

Some charter schools require parents to volunteer a certain amount of time at the school, or pay money in lieu of volunteering. Pembroke Pines Charter High School in Florida, for example, required each family to complete 30 such volunteer hours per year, but allowed 20 of those hours to be purchased  $100 total to buy out the first 10 hours and $200 more for the next 10 hours. These requirements place an additional burden, in terms of time and money, on families that are already struggling economically.

4. Aggressive use of discipline.

At so-called no excuses charters that sweat the small stuff, students have  at least historically  been subjected to harsh discipline for minor infractions, such as chewing gum or failing to constantly keep their eyes on the teacher during class.

Some of these schools repeatedly suspend students and call parents to leave work to pick up a suspended child. The most high-profile example is Success Academy charter school in Fort Greene, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, where school leaders created a Got to Go list of 16 students who were then subjected to harassing discipline. In one case, a school official threatened to call 911 on a 6-year-old because the child was having a bad day. Nine of the 16 students did in fact withdraw from the school.

Functioning like private schools

Cumulatively, these and the other approaches we detail in our book  titled Schools Choice  make charter schools more like private schools than the public schools they claim to be.

These practices influence which students are admitted to charter schools and then stay in those schools. Charter school choice therefore affects schools demographics, including the degree to which they are segregated.

They affect funding equity as well, since state school-finance formulas often dont adequately account for the actual costs of educating different students. In Pennsylvania, for example, charter schools are funded through a system that creates problematic incentives related to access for students with special needs. As explained in a report by the states bipartisan legislative Special Education Funding Commission, the current funding system provides charter schools the same funding for each student with a disability, regardless of the severity of that students disability.

This creates a strong incentive to overidentify students with less costly disabilities and to under-identify (or under-enroll) students with more severe (or more costly) disabilities, the report states. A speech impediment, for example, is an example of a mild disability, versus a student with, say, a traumatic brain injury, which is a more severe disability. As the report explains, A student with a mild disability can be a financial boon to a charter school, given that the funding the charter receives will exceed the charters cost to educate a child.

Notably, Pennsylvanias funding system does not create these incentives for district-run public schools.

These practices also can play a decisive role for comparisons of academic outcomes between charters and traditional public schools run by a school district. Overall, research consistently shows little if any difference in the average test-score outcomes for the two types of schools. But the comparisons may not be fair and accurate. If charter schools can improve their test scores by screening out students they dont think will do well, it can give them an unfair advantage in comparisons with public schools that accept all students.

Policy incentives revisited

So what can be done to make charter schools more accessible? One way is to change policy incentives such as the Pennsylvania funding system mentioned earlier. States can also change the way they reward schools for how well their students do on tests. Arizona, for instance, has policies that give extra funding to charters and other schools with higher achieving students.

In the final two chapters of our book, Schools Choice, Mommandi and I point to a future with charter schools that dont screen or push out students who are lower achieving or more expensive to educate. First, we hold up examples of charter schools that have resisted the incentives to limit access by, for example, working to support their communities most marginalized students. We then offer a design for a healthier charter school system that doesnt put these exemplary schools at a disadvantage when it comes to accountability and funding systems.

Even in a post-pandemic world, charter school enrollment may continue to grow. But until the public has more access, charters will not be truly public.

Kevin Welner is a professor of education policy and law, and director of the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado, Boulder. This essay first appeared on the website The Conversation.
Ethos is a nationally recognized, award-winning independent student publication. Our mission is to elevate the voices of marginalized people who are underrepresented in the media landscape, and to write in-depth, human-focused stories about the issues affecting them. We also strive to support our diverse student staff and to help them find future success.



Ethos produces a quarterly free print magazine full of well-reported and powerful feature stories, innovative photography, creative illustrations and eye-catching design. On our website, we also produce compelling written and multimedia stories.



Ethos is part of Emerald Media Group, a non-profit organization thats fully independent of the University of Oregon. Students maintain complete editorial control over Ethos, and work tirelessly to produce the magazine.



Since our inception as Korean Ducks Magazine in 2005, weve worked hard to share a multicultural spirit with our readership. We embrace diversity in our stories, in our student staff and in our readers. We want every part of the magazine to reflect the diversity of our world.
You might have thought so-called King of the North Andy Burnham, who infuriated many Labour MPs by grandstanding at their party conference last week, would take a back seat now that the Tory conference is under way in Manchester.

Not a bit of it. The Mayor of Greater Manchester has had a Zoom call on 'levelling up' with Housing Secretary Michael Gove.

Burnham is also going to speak tomorrow at a Tory conference fringe event organised by Transport for the North.

You might have thought so-called King of the North Andy Burnham, who infuriated many Labour MPs by grandstanding at their party conference last week, would take a back seat now that the Tory conference is under way in Manchester

And I hear he has invited Gove, whose official title is Housing and Levelling Up Secretary, to a meeting at his Mayoral office tomorrow. Gove has agreed to go.

The Labour leadership will not like it. In his speech last week, Sir Keir Starmer joked about Boris and the fuel crisis. 'Level up? He can't even fill up.'

But the Labour leader is actually so worried about the Tory's 'levelling up' plans (designed to boost the Red Wall constituencies the Tories captured at the last election) that Labour MPs have been told by their Whips not to criticise the policy.

And shadow ministers have even been instructed not to use the phrase 'levelling up'.

Andy Burnham clearly didn't get the memo.

Lords tear hear out over wigs

A revolt is brewing in the House of Lords over the move after 300 years to abolish full uniform and horsehair wigs for parliamentary clerks.

The decision was revealed last week in a written parliamentary answer by Senior Deputy Speaker Lord Gardiner.

Traditional attire will now be worn only for ceremonial occasions  a ruling taken without the consent of peers.

It follows a similar move by John Bercow in 2017, when he was Speaker of the Commons, to scrap wigs for clerks in the Commons.

But it has all gone down badly in the Upper House. Lord Cormack is not happy. 'I am a democrat. I deeply regret the way this was decided.'

No nonsense Tory MP Lee Anderson is in no doubt what to do about the foolish and reckless Insulate Britain activists.

'The police should adopt a zero-tolerance approach, and as soon as one of these morons steps foot on the motorway they should be carted off in an electric police van and locked up in a fully insulated cell.'

Now why didn't Home Secretary Priti Patel think of that?

Reminded on Radio 4 that many Labour MPs thought he should have been Labour leader, Alan Johnson, who rose through the ranks to be Home Secretary, replied: 'I would have been terrible at it, had I done it.'

An admirable admission  and a sentiment that never stopped others in recent years.

Reminded on Radio 4 that many Labour MPs thought he should have been Labour leader, Alan Johnson, who rose through the ranks to be Home Secretary, replied: 'I would have been terrible at it, had I done it'

Gushing praise for Sir Keir Starmer's conference speech from Phil Collins  not the rock drummer but a former speech writer for Tony Blair.

'The Labour conference applauded being tough on crime, NATO and patriotism, and gave a visceral cheer to Labour's time in office ...this was quite a moment.

'Coverage of Starmer's speech puts him in a much better place than he was before. Only a small job, but a job done.'

No wonder Collins was a fan. He had a hand in writing it.

DOMINIC GOES FOR THE DAME

Dame Cressida Dick's Met Police refused to bow to pressure to investigate Dominic Cummings over his Durham lockdown transgressions.

That hasn't stopped Boris Johnson's former policy chief wading into the row over whether she should keep her job after the Sarah Everard scandal.

He tweeted: 'Awful decision for PM to keep Dick  never challenge the permanent bureaucracy is the No 10 rule now.

'Met leadership performance on this & so much else has been a disaster & WILL CONTINUE TO BE unless huge management changes.'

There's gratitude for you!

Dame Cressida Dick's Met Police refused to bow to pressure to investigate Dominic Cummings over his Durham lockdown transgressions
If Prince Harry isn't writing his resignation letter to Netflix at this very moment after the international release of the revolting Diana musical then he is a man devoid of morals.

For years the Duke of Sussex has waged war against any media organisation which, in his eyes, demeans the memory of his late mother or exploits and misinterprets her life for commercial gain.

Over the weekend his new US paymasters did exactly that in the most outrageous fashion.

Diana: The Musical is the most offensive and degrading portrayal of the late Princess of Wales in fiction since her death in 1997  and in terms of accuracy it makes that other historically-derided Netflix series The Crown look like a royal encyclopaedia of truth.

The lies about Di's life are egregious  from suggesting she used HIV patients for publicity to attacking Margaret Thatcher for her politics.

But at least she isn't around to see such nonsense broadcast to millions around the world.

If Prince Harry isn't writing his resignation letter to Netflix at this very moment after the international release of the revolting Diana musical then he is a man devoid of morals

Diana: The Musical is the most offensive and degrading portrayal of the late Princess of Wales in fiction since her death in 1997  and in terms of accuracy it makes that other historically-derided Netflix series The Crown look like a royal encyclopaedia of truth

Unlike Prince Harry's grandmother the Queen, whom Netflix choose to portray as a heartless and nasty battleaxe who even suggests it would be easier to cut off Diana's head at the height of her messy split from Prince Charles.

It would be easy to dismiss the musical as a ridiculous romp, as many US commentators have done since its release on Friday.

But Netflix is now streamer-by-appointment to Prince Harry.

If he fails to speak out against such a horrendous depiction of his mother, then he is tacitly endorsing it.

In a high-minded statement when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex signed a multi-million pound deal with Netflix last September, its boss Ted Sarandos announced to the world: 'Harry and Meghan have inspired millions of people all around the world with their authenticity, optimism and leadership. We're incredibly proud they have chosen Netflix as their creative home  and are excited about telling stories with them that can help build resilience and increase understanding for audiences everywhere.'

Unlike Prince Harry's grandmother the Queen, whom Netflix choose to portray as a heartless and nasty battleaxe who even suggests it would be easier to cut off Diana's head at the height of her messy split from Prince Charles

Harry and his wife Meghan added: 'As new parents, making inspirational family programming is also important to us, as is powerful storytelling through a truthful and relatable lens. We are pleased to work with Ted and the team at Netflix whose unprecedented reach will help us share impactful content that unlocks action.'

There's certainly nothing about Diana: The Musical that informs or increases understanding  or is even truthful  about such an iconic figure.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

Over the course of 117 minutes this American production completely trashes the legacy of Diana.

It is the single worst musical I have ever seen  crude, offensive, anti-monarchy and counterfactual.

The title character is portrayed as frumpy, haughty, old fashioned, posh and cold hearted  more the Dowager Duchess of Downton than Di.

There's certainly nothing about Diana: The Musical that informs or increases understanding  or is even truthful  about such an iconic figure. Quite the opposite, in fact

Not surprising given the German-born, British-raised actress who plays her, Jeanna de Waal, is 39, three years older than Diana was when she died.

There's none of Diana's vulnerability or heart or spirit, the real reasons why billions the world over fell in love with her. Instead, she's dismissed as a pop music-loving airhead 'with the musical tastes of a teenage girl'.

Drippy Charles and manipulative Camilla are given a relatively easy ride.

In fact, Diana gets a far harder time about her affair with a strapping James Hewitt (who enters shirtless on a mechanical bull singing, 'All you need is a man on a horse - I can take you for a ride.')

The Queen, who for some reason is set up as the villain of the piece, is relentlessly let down by historical inaccuracies.

It accuses the monarch  played by the very American Judy Kaye  of pressuring Charles to marry Diana, even though her son proclaims his love for Camilla in front of her.

After Charles confesses to adultery on TV to Jonathan Dimbleby, she's shown grumpily moaning: 'My son is on the telly pouring out his heart while his wife is on the town dressed up like a tart.'

In a later conversation with Diana, the Queen tells her: 'In the old days we would have chopped off your head and be done with it. Sometimes I miss the old days!'

There's no excuse to railroad over the facts when it comes to Diana's life story, given her audio recordings for Andrew Morton's 1992 bombshell biography Diana: Her True Story are available and provide a detailed account of the period the musical covers.

I am not being po-faced about the concept and strongly believe there should be a spectacular Evita-style musical about Diana's life as a permanent fixture on the West End one day soon.

It's clear it would need the work of British legends like Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice to do justice to such a complex and important life story.

The Netflix version of Diana: The Musical is very obviously written by Americans  Bon Jovi keyboard player David Bryan and Broadway writer Joe DiPietro  and degrades Di's life to a tawdry side-show in the real love story between Charles and Camilla.

It suggests her passion for charity projects was simply to court positive media coverage. There is no mention of her game-changing public campaigns about bulimia and land mines, for example.

For her sons Prince William and Harry there couldn't be a worse portrayal of their beloved mother.

So will Harry swallow his morals because the taste of tens of millions of dollars is far sweeter? Of course he will!

The moment the Sussexes traded in a royal life focussed on the ability to work unencumbered on good causes in exchange for big moolah in Hollywood their priorities became clear.

Their acceptance of The Crown I could understand to some degree; it's a high-quality drama series that was already part of Netflix stable before Harry and Meghan did their deal, and they know it is coming to an end soon.

But the purchase and broadcast of this musical  a Broadway show  since the signing of Harry and Meghan makes it clear Netflix has zero standards when it comes to cashing in on royal inaccuracies.

What we know now is that Harry will only exercise the right to try and protect his mother's memory if it suits his political purposes.

So when it comes to attacking the 'evil' British tabloids  and journalists like me who reveal inconvenient truths about the Sussexes  he will do whatever he can to speak publicly in the most aggressive of terms, take unnecessary legal action and attempt to influence the public mood against the media

But if it's a woke US media company  the type staffed by his mega-rich friends in California  then speaking up is out of the question.Hollywood Harry has become the prince of hypocrisy and greed.

But I'll take that comment back if he announces his resignation from Netflix in the next week
A woman who agreed her sister-in-law could borrow her wedding dress for her own big day has asked whether she was unreasonable for later retracting the offer after learning her wife was uninvited.

The anonymous woman, from the US, who is in a same-sex marriage, explained in a Reddit post how her brother's fiancee had asked to borrow her wedding gown for her own big day because she 'liked it a lot.'

She initially agreed to lend her the dress, adding she was 'thrilled' she meant that much to her.

But after learning her own wife had been uninvited from the wedding upon request of her sister-in-law's homophobic parents, she asked for the gown back.

In the post, the woman explained: 'She tells me her parents were giving her hell for inviting me and my wife because they don't like her for "obvious" reasons.'

An anonymous woman, from the US, posted to Reddit to ask whether she was being unreasonable about not wanting her brother's fiancee to use her wedding dress. Pictured, stock image

The woman went on to say that after a 'lot of fighting,' the fiancee's parents decided that she could come to the wedding without her partner, to which she penned: 'I won't come unless my wife comes.'

After asking her brother to return her wedding dress to her, she revealed that her sister-in-law was 'stunned' that she had changed her mind and came over 'crying and begging' her to let her have it.

She added that her own parents later tried to persuade her to let her sister-in-law borrow the dress despite the circumstances - reminding her of how strong their 'bond' is.

However, many were quick to take to the comments section to call out the fiancee, brother and all parents involved.

The anonymous woman took to Reddit to ask for advice after saying she had withdrawn the offer of her wedding dress

'Choices have consequences,' wrote one. 'Your SIL is choosing not to have you and your wife at the wedding. The consequence of that is that she doesn't get to use your wedding dress.'

A second advised: 'Ask her bigoted parents to finance her dress. Also send the value of the gift you would have got her and donate it to a LGBT+ charity of your choice in her parents name.'

Elsewhere, a third wrote: 'If your wife isn't good enough to be invited for "obvious reasons", the dress you married her in isn't either'.

A fourth outraged commenter added: 'I'm glad your brother got your dress back for you. Frankly I think he, your parents and the bride should have stood up for you and your wife when the guest list was being drawn up.

Commenters on the post were outraged at the poster's family members and their homophobic treatment of her

'Your wife is a part of the groom's family. It is completely wrong of them to exclude her.'

Another thought her brother could have done more, writing: 'Your brother was seriously going to exclude his own sister-in-law from his wedding?? And they're still trying to pressure you into lending your own wedding dress for a wedding that your spouse is excluded from? No Ma'am.'

However, a select few said they felt sorry for the sister-in-law - adding it's her homophobic parents who are to blame.

'I do feel for the SIL though. But she should have seen this coming with her parents. Can't be the first time they've said something. They should have paid for their own wedding so they could invite who they wanted without stipulations,' wrote one.

A second commented: 'She did complain about her parents and vented about them many times. But since they're financially controlling her then she does what they ask her to do,' while a third added:

'My petty side says let her wear it, go and keep mentioning to the offending family about how much your wife loved you in it. But that would just Be mean to your SIL and brother who is innocent.'
THE WOMEN WHO LOOK BETTER NOW THAN EVER BEFORE

Back in 2002, Sarah Paulson (left) is practically unrecognisable. Today, the Hollywood star looks ultra glam, with a much sleeker cropped cut (right)

Back in 2002, the young actress is practically unrecognisable, with minimal eye make-up and dark brows that drain her pale complexion.

The exaggerated side parting of her wispy blonde bob does not flatter her face shape.

Today, the Hollywood star looks ultra glam, with a much sleeker cropped cut  the honey tones in her hair help to brighten her features, too.

Her taupe brows are softer, and balanced by defined lashes and a striking crimson lipstick.
Just one year ago the iconic fashion house Jaeger collapsed into administration, leading to the closure of 63 stores and concessions nationwide.

For 137 years it had dressed everyone from Audrey Hepburn to Kate Middleton. Part of British fashion had died.

Then, in January this year, Marks & Spencer saved it and is now unveiling the brand's comeback collection.

It's a fitting twist of history. Both companies started in 1884 and have been at the heart of the British High Street ever since.

Marks & Spencer saved Jaeger in January and is now unveiling the brand's comeback collection, which includes a 225 dress (left) and a stunning navy co-ord suit (right)

There's a patterned silk shirt dress with a belted waist (left), and a stunning deep green dress (right) among Jaeger's new comeback collection

Jaeger was founded by Lewis Tomalin, an accountant who had been inspired by Dr Gustav Jaeger, a German professor of zoology who thought clothing made from animal fibres brought health benefits.

The store started with woollen suits, and in 1919 it launched the first camel hair coat. These items weren't cheap, but the quality of the fabrics and design meant that they would last decades.

Then Jaeger did what so many brands did  it attempted to be trendy. In 2005, it launched Jaeger London, and by 2008, it was on the schedule at London Fashion Week.

In this strategy were the seeds of its demise: it had become distracted from the needs of its core customer.

But now the brand is back, with managing director Fiona Lambert, who co-launched George at Asda as the first supermarket fashion brand.

I'm relieved to see she has returned to the key values of the label  beautifully crafted pieces, many of which come straight from the store's archives.

There's a midi skirt in a bold green print (right), and just look at that vivid jumpsuit (left)!

The green military design (far right) is 100 per cent wool and slightly more affordable. Pictured: Coat, 399, cardigan, 135, and trousers, 399, jaeger.co.uk; loafers: 195, russellandbromley.co.uk

The camel hair original is back. Yes, it has a price tag of 499, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime buy.

The green military design is 100 per cent wool and slightly more affordable at 399. Top of my list is the peacoat.

The knitwear is, unsurprisingly, brilliant: check out the navy co-ords.

Then there's a patterned silk shirt dress with a belted waist: the open slit means it works for day, but with heels can be turned into something just risque enough for the evening.

There's a midi skirt in a matching print, and just look at those burgundy leather trousers!

These pieces come together to create a classic wardrobe, and with everyone's concerns about fast fashion, there's a growing gap in the market for clothes that last.

The only catch? For Jaeger to succeed this time, we'll need to see if people are able, and willing, to pay for that.

Jaeger's AW21 Capsule collection launches at jaeger.co.uk on Wednesday 6th October, with a select rollout to Marks & Spencer stores from 28th October.
Customers around Australia are rushing to purchase Aldi's $199 'egg' chair after it was re-released in stores as part of the 'special buys' catalogue range.

The Belavi wicker 'hanging egg' chair is back by popular demand after quickly selling out in previous years.

Shoppers can relax in style and make use of their available outdoor space with the 'ultimate piece' of deck furniture.

Similar designs by alternative brands cost a minimum of $249 from Bunnings Warehouse up to $699 from Catch.

Shoppers can relax in style and make use of their available outdoor space with the 'ultimate piece' of deck furniture

Aldi's stylish 'egg' chair (pictured) has a 110kg holding capacity, powder coated steel frame, polyester padded cushion and is weather resistant

Customers who have previously purchased the limited-edition buy shared their honest reviews to the Aldi Mums Facebook group after a woman was seeking opinions about the popular product.

'Good quality, I have had mine for about five years now,' one woman wrote.

'We have been using it in over patio from last one year. Still loving it, very easy to assemble,' another added.

A third wrote: 'Absolutely love mine; it's comfortable and easy to assemble. My kids also love curling up in.'

After reading the reviews, shoppers rushed to stores but the buy has already sold out at selected Aldi supermarkets.

Customers who have previously purchased the limited-edition buy shared their honest reviews to the Aldi Mums Facebook group after a woman was seeking opinions about the popular product

Similar designs by alternative brands cost a minimum of $249 from Bunnings Warehouse up to $699 from Catch

The product has a 110kg holding capacity, powder coated steel frame, polyester padded cushion and is weather resistant.

Other customers online recommended placing the chair in the 'perfect position' where it won't be impacted by sun or rain.

Some shoppers also decided to store the chair inside as a unique feature lounge.

The product is only available while stock lasts and delivery is only available in New South Wales, so customers should visit their local Aldi store quickly.
Comes days after she missed James Bond screening with husband Prince Albert

Royal, 43, can be seen smiling as she puts on casual display in a black jumper

Princess Charlene shared snap of herself in front of what appears to be a bible

Princess Charlene has shared a photograph of herself smiling in front of a bible in her first snap since being discharged from hospital following her health scare in South Africa one month ago.

In the snap, which was shared to Instagram on Sunday, the former Olympian, 43, can be seen putting on a casual display in a black jumper and rosary bead necklace as she sits at a wooden table.

The royal, who was born and raised Protestant but converted to Roman-Catholicism 'of her own free will and choice' in April 2011, simply captioned the post, 'God Bless,' followed by a heart emoji.

The wife of Prince Albert was admitted under an alias to the Netcare Alberlito Hospital on Wednesday 1 September after a 'medical emergency' caused by complications from an ongoing ear-nose-throat infection she contracted in May.

She was discharged the following day, with a statement from the Palais Princier reading: 'Her Highness is closely monitored by Her medical team who said that Her condition was not worrying.'

It comes just days after Charlene released a stylish video promoting her anti-poaching campaign from her South African bolthole - after missing a No Time To Die screening in Monte Carlo with her husband Prince Albert, 63.

Princess Charlene (pictured), 43, has shared a photograph of herself smiling in front of what appears to be a bible in her first snap since being discharged from hospital following her health scare in South Africa one month ago

On Friday 29th September, Prince Albert (pictured right, with Sharon Stone), 63, attended a charity screening of the new James Bond film at the Monte Carlo Opera, in his latest in a string of public appearances without his wife

Charlene said last summer that her decision to convert to Roman-Catholicism was because she found strength in the religion and it was part of Grimaldi tradition.

'Catholicism is the state religion [in Monaco]. But for me, it represents much more. The values of this religion profoundly touch me and correspond perfectly to my spirit,' People reported.

Charlene's first state visit to the Vatican was in January 2013 along with Prince Albert. The royal couple's visit marked the 55th anniversary of the meeting of his parents, Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco with Pope Pius XII in 1957.

The royal said the 'experience was extremely intense and moving for me'.

In 2016, Princess Charlene of Monaco visited the Vatican in an all-white outfit as it was revealed she is one of only seven people allowed to don the colour while meeting Pope Francis.

Called le privilege du blanc in French or il privilegio del biacno in Italian, the special tradition is extended solely to designated Catholic queens and princesses and is usually reserved for important events at the Vatican such as private audiences, canonisations, beatifications and special masses.

On Friday September 3, Prince Albert (pictured with his children) was joined on the red carpet by actress Sharon Stone, 63, for a first look at the eagerly anticipated James Bond release - Daniel Craig's fifth and final outing as the iconic secret agent

Charlene, who was last seen in Monaco in January, shared professional photographs of a reunion with her family on Instagram last month (pictured

Princess Charlene is bestowed this privilege, along with Queen Sofia of Spain, Queen Paola of Belgium, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg, Queen Mathilde of Belgium, Queen Letizia of Spain and Princess Marina of Naples.

Normal protocol for papal audiences require that ladies wear a long black dress with a high collar and long sleeves, and a black mantilla.

Charlene has spent the past several months in South Africa being treated for an ear and throat infection she contracted in May.

As a result, the mother-of-two missed her 10 year wedding anniversary and is not expected to return to the principality until October, after undergoing a 'four-hour operation under general anaesthesia' in August - although it was not made clear whether this was linked to the sinus infection.

Charlene and Albert reunited shortly after for the first time in months after the monarch and their children flew to South Africa, but photographs of the pair embracing were branded 'awkward' by a body language expert.

How Charlene and Albert made solo outings in South Africa and Monaco during seven months apart January 27 - Charlene is pictured with Albert for the Sainte Devote Ceremony in Monaco. March 18 - Charlene is pictured at the memorial for the late Zulu monarch, King Goodwill Zwelithini at the KwaKhethomthandayo Royal Palace in Nongoma, South Africa April 2 - Charlene posts an Instagram picture of herself, Albert and their twins Jacques and Gabriella for Easter. It is unknown where the image was taken. May 8 - Albert, Jacques and Gabriella attend a Grand Prix event in Monaco without Charlene May 10 - Albert attends Monaco Gala Awards in Monaco without Charlene May 18 - Charlene shares her first picture from her conservation trip in South Africa June 1 - Prince Albert II, Jacques and Gabriella attend event at Oceanic Museum in Monaco June 3 - New photos emerge of Charlene on her conservation trip June 5- Charlene puts on a united front as she shares a photo with her family to mark her niece's fifth birthday with her brother's family and Albert and the twins in South Africa June 7 - Albert and the twins attend the World Rugby Sevens without Charlene June 17 - Prince Albert attends Red Cross Summer concert in Monte Carlo with his sister Princess Caroline of Hanover June 18 - Prince Albert appears alone Monte Carlo TV Festival June 24 - Charlene's foundation releases a statement saying the royal is unable to travel and is undergoing procedures for an ear, nose and throat infection July 2 - Charlene and Albert mark their 10th anniversary separately. 'This year will be the first time that I'm not with my husband on our anniversary in July, which is difficult, and it saddens me,' Her Serene Highness Princess Charlene said in a statement. July 3 - Albert appears with glamorous niece Charlotte Casiraghi at the 15th international Monte-Carlo Jumping event, which is part of the Longines Global Champions Tour of Monaco, July 27 - Prince Albert attends Olympics alone in Tokyo August 13 - Charlene undergoes a four-hour operation. The reason is not announced August 25 - Charlene shares photos of Prince Albert, Gabriella and Jacques visiting her in South Africa August 31 - Speculation mounts in the media about couple's relationship

September 1 - Charlene is admitted under an alias to the Netcare Alberlito Hospital after suddenly 'collapsing' September 2 - She is discharged, with a statement from the Palais Princier reading: 'Her Highness is closely monitored by Her medical team who said that Her condition was not worrying' September 23 - Prince Albert attends the 2021 Monte Carlo Gala for Planetary Health September 29 - Prince Albert is joined on the red carpet by actress Sharon Stone for a first look at the eagerly anticipated James Bond release September 30 - Charlene releases a stylish video promoting her anti-poaching campaign from her South African bolthole October 3 - Princess Charlene shares a photograph of herself smiling in front of a bible in her first snap since being discharged from hospital following her health scare Advertisement

In his first interview since returning from visiting his wife in South Africa, Albert told People magazine of Charlene: 'She's ready to come home.'

Despite Charlene being admitted to hospital after a 'sudden collapse' rumours are rife that a rift with Prince Albert, rather than health issues, is what's keeping her away from Monaco.

Last week, Prince Albert was joined on the red carpet by actress Sharon Stone, 63, for a first look at the eagerly anticipated James Bond release - Daniel Craig's fifth and final outing as the iconic secret agent.

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 23. Charlene was noticeably absent from the event.

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 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.

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.

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'.

'Of course it affects her, of course it affects me,' he told the magazine. 'Misreading events is always detrimental... We're an easy target, easily hit, because we're in the public eye a lot.'

In recent weeks, lifestyle magazines across Europe have speculated feverishly that the royal couple could be headed for divorce. French magazine Madame Figaro stated the images 'failed to convince the Monegasques' amid reports Charlene is looking for a house in Johannesburg.

According to The Telegraph, the magazine asked: 'How long can she remain away from her children, her duties?'

'How long will the fight against rhinoceros poaching remain the Princess of Monaco's top priority?

'How long will Albert II of Monaco go on bearing this affront, which is becoming ridiculous?'

Historian Philippe Delorme said that 'lots of people got the impression it was an arranged marriage' between Charlene and Albert, adding: 'Albert chose a wife who resembled his mother, and Charlene clearly felt very ill at ease in this Grace Kelly role they wanted her to play'

The mounting speculation about the couple's marriage comes after Charlene shared professional photographs of her reunion with Prince Albert online, saying she was 'thrilled' to have her family back.

She shared a series of photos cuddled up with her kids in South Africa with the caption: 'I am so thrilled to have my family back with me (Gabriella decided to give herself a haircut!!!) Sorry my Bella I tried my best to fix it,' referring to her daughter's choppy fringe.

However a body language expert told FEMAIL Charlene showed 'no emotional bond' towards her husband Prince Albert in the images.

Judi James said that rather than being the loved-up reunion photo one would expect of a couple surrounded by split rumours, the royals' poses suggested 'no signs of connection between awkward-looking Albert and Charlene'.

Charlene has been in South Africa since at least March, with media reports suggesting she is looking for a house there.

The prince, who already supports two illegitimate children, is alleged to have been in a relationship with a Brazilian woman which resulted in a daughter in 2005.

Mummy's boy: Princess Charlene poses with her son Jacques, who is heir to the Monaco throne

Play time! Twins Jacques and Gabriella climb a tree in one of the photos shared on Instagram

The claim, which his lawyers dismissed as a 'hoax', is particularly painful as he was dating Charlene at the time, having met in 2000.

However, Charlene has publicly supported her husband, and the palace have reiterated she is only in South Africa because she's unable to fly.

On August 13, the Monaco palace released a statement saying Charlene was to undergo surgery.

It read: 'Princess Charlene will undergo an operation today, Friday, August 13, for four hours under general anaesthesia.'

The princess will not return to Monaco until at least the end of October.

Princess Charlene, who has been well enough to conduct interviews from South Africa and has been seen out and about, has used the time to promote her anti-poaching initiative, Chasing Zero.

Charlene's last formal engagement was on January 27 when she joined Albert for the Sainte Devote Ceremony in Monte Carlo. She has not been seen at home since.

Instead she has been keeping followers updated through social media posts and media interviews, in which she has spoken candidly about missing her children and described her husband as 'her rock'.

Speaking to South Africa Radio 702's host Mandy Wiener, the royal said: '[It's] very frustrating, terribly frustrating. I can't wait to get back to them, I can't wait to see my children.'

Charlene revealed: 'It's the longest period I've actually been away from Europe, let alone my children, but I'm FaceTiming them most days and they've been here and will be returning to see me again after my procedure.

Charlene's (pictured with her family) last formal engagement was on January 27 when she joined Albert for the Sainte Devote Ceremony in Monte Carlo. She has not been seen at home since

'It's an amazing opportunity [to be here] but I'm very sad I can't be with my children this summer in Europe.'

She added that she was initially only supposed to be in her native South Africa for ten to 12 days for a conservation trip with her Princess Charlene of Monaco foundation.

However, the royal had a problem 'equalising her ears' and was told by a doctor that she was suffering from a serious sinus infection.

'It's taken time to address the problem that I'm having,' explained Charlene. 'I cannot go into full detail, but I cannot force healing so I will be grounded in South Africa until the end of October.

'The reason being I cannot fly above 3,000 metres otherwise I'll have a problem with my ears.

Last Monaco outing together: Charlene and Albert were last pictured together at an official event together in January at the Sainte Devote Ceremony in Monaco. Albert has made a few visits to South Africa since

Former Olympic swimmer Charlene reportedly tried to flee Monaco for her native South Africa on three separate occasions before the royal wedding. She was seen in floods of tears on her wedding day in 2011 (pictured)

'I feel well, I feel good, it's just obviously a waiting game for me, but I've had a great opportunity to understand a little bit more about South Africa, the environment, the needs and it's been wonderful to be back in South Africa, and I think at this time it's crucial that people are aware of certain things via my foundation.'

Charlene joined the video interview from bush country in the KwaZulu-Natal region.

She has also shared videos released by the Monaco royal palace to mark her and Albert's 10th wedding anniversary, which took place in July. The couple spent the milestone thousands of miles apart.

But royal sources have suggested the princess has 'no plans' to return soon. A palace source told Paris Match: 'The Princess has, for the time being, in reality, no intention of returning.'

The separation is also affecting Charlene's relationship with the people of Monaco.

Stephane Bearn uses an impeccably sourced piece in the latest Paris Match to discuss the torturous separation.

Princess Charlene's trials and tribulations in the Monaco royal family 1987 - Bea Fiedler, a German topless model, claims her son Daniel was the prince's son. 1992 - An American national files a paternity lawsuit against the Prince, claiming that he was the father of her daughter, Jazmin Grace. 2000 - Princess Charlene meets Prince Albert at the Mare Nostrum swimming competition in Monte Carlo 2005 - In May, a former flight attendant claims that her youngest son, whom she named Alexandre Grimaldi-Coste, was Prince Albert's child. She states that his parentage had been proven by DNA tests requested by the Monegasque government. On 6 July, a few days before he was enthroned on 12 July, the Prince officially confirms via his lawyer Lacoste that Alexandre was his biological son. 2006 - After a DNA test confirmed the child's parentage, Albert admitted, via statement from his lawyer, that he is Jazmin Grace's father. 2010 - Princess Charlene and Prince Albert announce their engagement 2011 - Princess Charlene was said to have bolted two days before the royal wedding after hearing Prince Albert had a third love child during their relationship. It was alleged that Charlene tried to flee home to South Africa three times before her 'arranged marriage', at one point taking refuge inside her country's embassy in Paris. Monaco officials were said to have coaxed her back by brokering a deal between the Prince and his reluctant bride that she provide him with a legitimate heir. After that she would be free to leave of her own free will. During the wedding, Charlene was in floods of tears, while her husband looked on impassively. Later in the year, Princess Charlene confessed she felt 'very lonely' in Monaco 2012 - Princess Charlene was reported to be 'depressed' at her failure to provide her husband with a legitimate heir. 2014 - Pregnancy was announced in May. In December Charlene gave birth to twins Princess Gabriella and heir to the throne Prince Jacques. 2017 - Princess Charlene visits Africa, tells media: 'I am African and this is my heritage. It will always be. It's in my heart and in my veins.' 2019 - In a rare interview, Princess Charlene confessed it is 'sometimes hard to smile' and said the year had been 'very painful'In another interview, she said she found motherhood 'exhausting' 2020 - Charlene debuts a shocking half-shaved hairstyle. It is announced Prince Albert of Monaco will appear in court in the new year to fight explosive claims he fathered a third love child with a secret girlfriend before marrying his now wife Princess Charlene. 2021 - January 27 - Charlene is pictured with Albert for the Sainte Devote Ceremony in Monaco. It is the last time she has been seen in Monaco this year. Advertisement

He describes subjects in Monaco becoming increasingly angry about their runaway Princess, as they criticise everything from Charlene's mood swings to her appearance.

'In Monaco, since the departure of Charlene, tongues have loosened,' Mr Bearn writes. 'In the whirlwind of a hard-nosed court, her fine shine is rubbing off. Her sad looks are regarded as haggard.

'Disappointed Monegasques talk about her anger, her whimsical moods, which are as changeable as her hair.'

He added: 'The Palace had to invoke a suffering Princess so often that the Monegasques today find it hard to believe. By crying wolf, the mother of Jacques and Gabriella would have discredited and isolated herself.'

During her trip, Charlene also debuted a dramatic new shaved hairstyle.

She showcased the 'French crop' hairdo - featuring a longer strip on top of the head and dramatically shaved back and sides - in snaps shared on her charity's Instagram page in late May.

The royal first stepped out with a dramatic half-shaved head in December 2020 but has since gone even shorter and bolder with the cut.

Charlene and Albert's marriage has been plagued with rumours from the start.

The couple met at the Mare Nostrum swimming competition in Monte Carlo in 2000, announced their engagement in 2010.

Former Olympic swimmer Charlene reportedly tried to flee Monaco for her native South Africa on three separate occasions before the royal wedding after discovering Albert had allegedly fathered a love child - his third - while they were together.

Monaco officials were said to have coaxed her back by brokering a deal between the Prince and his reluctant bride, saying she could leave once she had provided him with a legitimate heir.

One source said at the time: 'Charlene will provide an heir, then if things don't go well, she will receive a generous divorce settlement once she's served a decent amount of time.'

Charlene was seen in floods of tears on her wedding day in 2011.

Just one year after their wedding, it was reported that Charlene was 'depressed' at her failure to provide her husband with a legitimate heir.

Her pregnancy was announced in May 2014, and in December that year she gave birth to twins Princess Gabriella and heir to the throne Prince Jacques.

In the 10 years since, Charlene has rarely spoken publicly of her experience.

In 2017, the Princess made an emotional return to Africa, where she spoke about how much the continent means to her.

'I am African and this is my heritage. It will always be. It's in my heart and in my veins,' she told Eyewitness News.

Last year she admitted life was 'very painful', saying: 'I have the privilege of having this life, but I miss my family and my friends in South Africa and I'm often sad because I cannot always be there for them.'

It's been a tumultuous start to the year for the royal, after news emerged that her husband is facing a paternity suit over a love child born in the early years of their relationship.

The 34-year-old claimant  who cannot be named for legal reasons  says she had a passionate affair with Albert, leading to the birth of their daughter  whose name is also classified  on July 4, 2005.

Albert received a handwritten letter from the child, who is now 15, in September last year reading: 'I don't understand why I grew up without a father, and now that I have found you, you don't want to see me.'

Legal papers were also filed, as lawyers for the claimant called on Albert to undergo a DNA test  just as he did before finally being identified as the father of two illegitimate children born in the 1990s and early 2000s.

In January, Charlene spoke publicly for the first time since the allegations, telling Point de Vue: 'When my husband has problems, he tells me about it. I often tell him, 'No matter what, no matter what, I'm a thousand percent behind you. I'll stand by you whatever you do, in good times or in bad.'

The mother-of-two went on to say she also often tells her husband she will 'protect him' and will 'always be by his side.'

Charlene, who was raised in South Africa and represented the country at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, travelled to Thanda Safari in KwaZulu-Natal in January to learn more about being done by the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation South Africa to help save rhinos from poachers.

The princess took part in conservation operations including rhino monitoring and tracking, deployment with the Anti-Poaching Unit, educational wildlife photography sessions, and a White Rhino dart and dehorning exercise.
A self-confessed trainspotting fan is taking TikTok by storm after he began sharing clips of his adventures on platforms.

Videos uploaded by Francis Bourgeois, a Mechanical Engineering student at Nottingham University, have had 11.3million likes, with his most popular effort notching up 6.8million views.

Appearing on This Morning on Monday, Bourgeois told presenters Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield that he's amazed by the outpouring of love he's received on the social media platform.

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Student Francis Bourgeois' TikTok videos on trains have had 11.3million likes, with his most popular, a clip of him awaiting a Class 377 locomotive from Littlehampton to Southampton Central, winning 6.8million views

The TikTok creator admitted on This Morning today that he has 'plenty of anoraks' in his wardrobe but said that there's a new breed of younger trainspotters

A love of trains started when Bourgeois lived in Willesden in London - and he now says he wants to make a career out of his passion

The student admitted to the duo that he has 'plenty of anoraks' in his wardrobe but said there's a new breed of younger, cooler trainspotters to be seen at stations up and down the country.

He told the pair that his love of trains began when he lived in Willesden Junction in London, and he now spends lots of his spare time tracking his favourite trains.

Bourgeois said: 'You come across a lot of trainspotters - you have the traditional ones who sit with there with their paper and pencils and more recently younger people have been taking videos and posting them online. There's definitely a new movement of trainspotters.'

His most popular clip sees him sat on a foldable chair on a platform awaiting a Class 377 locomotive that's going from Littlehampton to Southampton Central. As the train flashes past, he's knocked backwards from his seat by the blast of air.

He told Holly and Phil that his favourite train is the Class 43 HS2, which departed from June for the last time from London.

He told Holly and Phil that his favourite train is the Class 43 HS2, which departed from June for the last time from London - and showed off a special badge he received during the trip

Here it comes! His most popular video sees Bourgeois seated on a foldable chair awaiting a Class 377 locomotive

He explains to viewers that the train is going from Littlehampton to Southampton Central

As the train flashes past, he's knocked backwards from his seat by the blast of air

Among his collection of train memorabilia is a station master's outfit from the 80s

The student said he hoped to be able to have a career in railway engineering and infrastructure engineering, which got a round of applause from Holly and Phil

That's his fave: The Class 43 HS2, which departed from June for the last time from London

Showing off a badge on his pin-striped shirt, he said: 'This is a replica of the name plate that was on the front of the train so it means a lot to me.

It's more than just a passing hobby too, Bourgeois, who's been accused of just being a 'character' by trolls online, says he hopes to turn his passion into a career.

He explained: 'I have a real passion for going into railway engineering and infrastructure engineering because I feel like I want to contribute to make the railway network a better place for everyone.'

He said he wanted to make train rides 'more comfy, more enjoyable and quicker - and just a good alternative form of transport.'

His career plans got a round of applause from the This Morning team, with Holly saying 'Yes Frances - it's what our railway system needs is someone like you.'
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Princess Elisabeth of Belgium cut an elegant figure as she began her degree in history and politics at Oxford University.

The eldest daughter of King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, who is heir to the Belgian throne, started the three-year course earlier this week at the prestigious university's Lincoln College.

The Belgian royals shared a series of photographs taken last week of the 19-year-old exploring the city and campus after she arrived in the UK.

In the snaps, Elisabeth, dressed casually in jeans, cosy colourful jumpers and smart blazers as she went punting with friends and took up studying in the library.

Princess Elisabeth of Belgium, 19, appeared like any other student as she began her degree in history and politics at Oxford University

The Belgian royals shared a series of photographs taken last week of the 19-year-old exploring the city and campus after she arrived in the UK (left, going punting with friends, and right in the library)

In the snaps, Elisabeth, dressed casually in jeans, cosy colourful jumpers and smart blazers as she began student life in Oxford

She was photographed alongside some of her new classmates in some of the colleges most iconic locations, including the Lodge, the Front Quad, the Grove and Radcliffe Square.

The Belgian royals announced the news in a statement on its Instagram page last month, adding that the princess will 'regularly return to Belgium and remain involved in Belgian public life' while she studies in the UK.

The post was accompanied by a photo of Elisabeth, dressed casually in jeans, a white shirt and a fawn jacket, smiling with her eyes looking away from the camera.

According to Belgian newspaper Le Soir, the princess completed a written entrance exam in history 'anonymously' so that her social status would not affect her marks.

In one of the photographs, the teenager could be seen walking through the university campus in a white shirt and casual jeans

Elisabeth is believed to have chosen the course herself, in agreement with her parents, and reportedly consulted with alumni from various universities and made her decision based on what would be most useful to her in her role as queen later in life.

The princess completed her secondary education at UWC Atlantic College in South Wales - based at a 12th-century castle and dubbed the 'Hippie Hogwarts' - where she boarded for 18 months.

She then headed home to Brussels in March ahead of the government lockdown, which she spent with her parents and siblings Prince Gabriel, 17, Prince Emmanuel, 15, and Princess Eleonore, 13.

She then enrolled at the Royal Military Academy - where her father studied for three years as a teenager - in September 2020.

Getting to know the local haunts! In another snap, the royal enjoyed a coffee with classmates in an Oxford cafe

The princess, who received her International Baccalaureate Diploma last summer, completed a one-year course in social and military sciences.

The course is said to teach in-depth about the four components of Belgian defence; Army, Air Force, Navy and Medical.

King Philippe, 60, spent three years at the esteemed institution between 1978 to 1981.

The photographs, which were taken last week, show the heir to the Belgian throne exploring the city and university campus

In July Princess Elisabeth was photographed at the Lagland camp in Arlon, where she marched in uniform in formation with her fellow cadets.

For the officer cadets of the Royal Military Academy (RMA), the camp is part of the last training phase for first year students, and constitutes part of the Initial Military Phase.

Officially known as Princess Elisabeth, the Duchess of Brabant, she became heir apparent after her grandfather Albert II abdicated in 2013.

The princess, who received her International Baccalaureate Diploma last summer, completed a one-year course in social and military sciences at the Royal Military Academy

A change in the law a decade ago made it possible for the eldest child, male or female, to ascend the throne in Belgium. She will become the country's first Queen Regent if she takes up the role.

In July this year, she took part along with her fellow Royal Military Academy Belgium students in the National Day parade.

National Day marks the anniversary of the investiture of King Leopold I, the country's first monarch, in 1831.
These ten-year-old identical twins have achieved a rare feat after both being invited to join The Royal Ballet School.

Evelyn and Isla have both recently been invited to join The Royal Ballet School's Junior Associates programme.

Created in 1948 it nurtures young, talented students between the ages of 8 and 17, and will give them the opportunity to dance alongside other gifted children.

The pupils at Redmaid's High Junior School in Bristol have been dancing since the age of three and are delighted they have both been selected so they can continue to practise together.

Evelyn and Isla, from Bristol, have both recently been invited to join The Royal Ballet School's Junior Associates programme

The pupils at Redmaid's High Junior School in Bristol have been dancing since the age of three. Pictured, Evelyn and Isla

Created in 1948, this prestigious Associates programme nurtures young, talented students between the ages of 8 and 17, and will give them the opportunity to dance alongside other gifted children who share their passion for dance. Pictured, Evelyn and Isla

Speaking of their success, Headteacher Mrs Brown said: 'It is quite a significant achievement for two sisters to be selected onto the Royal Ballet's Associates programme.

'Both Evelyn and Isla clearly love dancing and performing, and we look forward to giving them plenty of opportunity to do so at school over the coming year.'

According to the website, the Junior Associate programme is: 'For girls and boys aged 8 to 10 who wish to take class with The Royal Ballet School, alongside their regular ballet classes.'

'Classes run from September to July at nine centres around the UK, in London, Birmingham, Bath, Dundee, Eastleigh (Southampton), Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and Totnes.'

Identical twins Evelyn and Isla aged 10, pupils at Redmaid's High Junior School in Bristol, who have both recently been invited to join The Royal Ballet School's Junior Associates programme

The identical twins are delighted they have both been selected so they can continue to practise together (pictured)

The classes will include everything from body conditioning, barre work and centre work including preparation for pirouettes, to port de bras and jumps. Pictured, Evelyn and Isla

Created in 1948, The Royal Ballet School's Junior Associates programme nurtures young, talented students between the ages of 8 and 17, and will give them the opportunity to dance alongside other gifted children. Pictured, Evelyn and Isla

The classes include everything from body conditioning, barre work and centre work including preparation for pirouettes, to port de bras and jumps.

The website also claims that among the benefits include an introduction to The Royal Ballet School System of Training and enhanced ballet training with the view to a full-time vocational education.

It also offers students the chance to dance with others of a similar age who share the same passion and drive for a career in dance.

Associates sometimes have the opportunity to perform with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and other ballet companies, while many have progressed through the School and into the Royal Ballet Companies.

Among the benefits of the programme, according to the website, include enhanced ballet training with the view to a full-time vocational education. Pictured, Evelyn and Isla

Speaking of their success, Headteacher Mrs Brown said: 'It is quite a significant achievement for two sisters to be selected onto the Royal Ballet's Associates programme. Pictured, Evelyn and Isla
The family of a Covid-stricken DJ who appeared in Kate Garraway's ITV documentary, Finding Derek, have revealed they're now crowdfunding to try and enable him to spend some time away from hospital.

Steve Laviniere, 57, and his twin brother Bobby, both popular London house music DJs, first contracted the virus on March 7th last year after playing a gig in Madrid and were put on ventilators.

While Bobby was taken off the ventilator after seven days and took two months to recover from the virus, Steve suffered multiple organ failure and inflammation of the brain and remains in hospital.

This week, Kate Garraway shared details of a Ministry of Sound fundraising night and a Go Fund Me crowdfunding campaign - as his family hope to raise enough funds to allow some home visits.

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Twins Bobby and Steve Laviniere, 57, (pictured left and right) who are both DJs from Redbridge, East London, contracted the virus in March last year after a gig in Madrid and were both put on ventilators. While Bobby recovered, Steve remains in hospital - and his family have now started a crowdfunding campaign - raising 25,000 so far - to try and get him home

Happier times: Steve with his wife Julie before he fell ill - the House music DJ suffered multiple organ failure and inflammation of the brain; his family hope he can return to his home for visits if they can raise enough money

The London DJ before he fell ill, and right, a photo of Steve posted on the family's Go Fund Me page showing him in a nursing home where is receiving ongoing care

Steve remains one of Britain's longest-running Covid patients and the possibility of a full recovery remains uncertain.

TV star Garraway, whose husband Derek Draper has had his health shattered by Covid and is now being cared for at the family's home, won a National Television Award for the documentary Finding Derek.

Writing about the Laviniere family's plight, she said: 'You may remember Steve from our documentary #findingderek.

'He is still fighting the devastating effects of #Covid and now his family want to raise money to give him a chance to have some home visits.'

A Ministry of Sound evening that included a celebrity DJ line-up that included Norman Jay and Trevor Nelson took place on Sunday evening.

Appearing in Kate Garraway's ITV documentary Finding Derek, Julie Laviniere, the wife of Steve Laviniere, who is one of the UK's longest-running Covid patients, discussed how the virus has torn apart their lives

A Go Fund Me account set up has also raised 25,000 so far.

In an emotive message on the fundraising page, a message from Steve's twin Bobby reads: 'There is no medicine to repair this condition, however Steve is a fighter and receiving the best care possible so we are confident that Steves condition will improve in time.

'When the time is right, we know Steve will benefit from being at home with Julie and all our family surrounding him with love, the greatest medicine of all.

'We are planning for the future, and to put this in place the family home will need major home adaptations, so we will be extremely grateful for any donations to fund the renovation, and go towards Steves future care and rehabilitation.'

Covid lottery: the brothers, popular DJs on London's house music scene, have had very different health outcomes (Pictured: Bobby, left and Steve, right)

The GMB star also interviewed Steve's twin Bobby, 57, and his wife Sylma. In a heartbreaking moment, he told Kate and his wife's brother 'you'll both have your husbands back soon.'

In Finding Derek, the Good Morning Britain presenter spoke to Bobby, his wife Sylma, and also to Julie, Steve's wife, about how their family has been torn apart by the virus.

The brothers first realised they had symptoms when they were breathless on the phone. Steve was initially treated at East Surrey Hospital but is now in a nursing home in the capital.

Kate Garraway and Julia discussed how Covid is a 'lottery' that has presented the two brothers with very different health outcomes.

In November, the Laviniere family marked the twins 57th birthday at Steves bedside and faced a similar scenario at Christmas.

Steve's wife Julie explained how her husband was put into an induced coma in an intensive care unit after struggling to fight the virus.

The siblings first realised they might have Covid after they were both breathless while on a phone call to each other (pictured: Bobby Laviniere, and, right, Steve Laviniere)

The GMB star chatting from her living room with Bobby Laviniere and his wife Sylma

Bobby told the GMB presenter that it took him seven weeks to fully recover from the virus, after he spent a week on a ventilator last March.

A tearful Bobby, who is a DJ act called Groove Odyssey with his brother, said without any medication to 'fix' Covid, 'the only medication for us is love.'

The Good Morning Britain presenter, 53, filmed every step of Derek's year long battle with COVID-19 following his hospitalisation with the respiratory illness in March 2020 with the fly-on-the-wall programme.

A tearful Bobby, who is a DJ act called Groove Odyssey with his brother, said without any medication to 'fix' Covid, 'the only medication for us is love.'

In an emotional ending, it showed a sweet recent FaceTime between Derek and Kate where he said: 'Thank you, I love you forever and a day,' to which Kate replied: 'Oh darling, I love you.'

During the emotional hour-long documentary, Kate is seen planing for an uncertain future with Derek as she admits: 'There's been times where I've thought: "Am I actually grieving for the person I'm married to or am I fighting to hold onto that person?"'

Later in the award-winning film, in a heartbreaking video call with her husband in November, Derek breaks down in tears and says he wants to 'die' to which Kate insists: 'I promised you I will save you and I'm going to save you.'

The documentary, filmed at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, focused on Derek's plight after falling gravely ill with the virus and Kate's desperate battle to care for her husband while planning for an uncertain future.
As President Joe Biden continues his attempts to save his faltering multi-trillion dollar spending plan his daughter Ashley was busy doing some spending of her own while enjoying a designer shopping trip in Malibu over the weekend.

The 40-year-old First Daughter, who is the only child of Joe, 78, and First Lady Jill, 70, was pictured strolling through upmarket outdoor shopping mall Malibu Country Mart in California on Sunday, where she was seen picking up a few purchases, while spending time with a tattooed male pal.

Ashley, who is married to Philadelphia-based surgeon Dr. Howard Klein, put on a chic display during her outing, flaunting very toned arms while modeling a stylish black sundress, chunky tan platform shows, and a khaki-green face mask from evolvetogether.

She accessorized the look with some large hoop earrings, a stack of bangles, and several chunky rings - although she chose to go without her wedding band. The activist and charity worker also added a pair of sunglasses, which she wore pushed back on her head, and she was seen carrying a can of coconut water.

Out and about: Joe and Jill Biden's daughter Ashley was pictured enjoying a shopping trip in Malibu on Sunday - while her father continued his fight to try and save his spending agenda

Purchases: The 40-year-old First Daughter was seen toting a shopping bag from high-end fashion boutique Ron Herman while strolling around the Malibu Country Mart

Pals: Ashley, who is married to Philadelphia-based surgeon Dr. Howard Krein, was joined by a male friend for the excursion and was seen strolling alongside him around the outdoor mall

Ashley stopped into several stores during her shopping excursion, including jewelry brand Gorjana, and high-end fashion boutique Ron Herman - from which she was seen leaving with a large carrier bag in tow.

The store offers a variety of designer clothing and jewelry from a range of brands, including pricey accessories label Spinelli Kilcollin and fashion favorite Acne Studios.

Prices on the store's website - which includes both men's and women's offerings - range from $35 for a simple pair of socks to a staggering $12,800 for a chain link necklace.

Ashley seemed keen to remain under the radar during her shopping trip, throughout which she kept her green face covering on as she browsed in the stores, and spent some time lining up for one of the public restrooms at the mall.

She was joined for the outing by a male pal, who was seen sitting outside of the bathroom waiting for the First Daughter to emerge, before helping her with her shopping bag.

The unnamed gentleman looked relaxed and casual in a pair of turquoise pants and a simple blue T-shirt, which showed off several large tattoo designs on his arms.

One of the people! At one point during the shopping trip, Ashley was pictured lining up for one of the public restrooms while her companion waited patiently for her

Low key: The only daughter of Joe, 78, and Jill, 70, kept her nose and mouth covered with a khaki-green face mask from evolvetogether as she shopped

Back in action: She emerged from the restroom and joined her companion, who had several large tattoos on his arms

Snacks? Both Ashley and her friend carried cans of coconut water, while he also toted what appeared to be a paper bag of takeout

Ashley and her companion were also accompanied by a member of the First Daughter's Secret Service protection, which she will have throughout her father's time in the White House.

Private life: Ashley tied the knot with Dr. Krein, who is 14 years her senior, in 2012, however he did not join her on the shopping trip

The agent, kept a respectful distance from the duo and was seen standing several paces behind them, wearing a blue plaid shirt and beige pants, with a telltale ear piece peeking out as he kept a watchful eye on Ashley.

Her shopping trip came just hours before her parents were pictured returning to the White House on Monday morning after spending the weekend in the family's home town of Wilmington, Delaware.

Following his arrival back in D.C., President Biden wasted no time in hammering the Republicans for refusing to raise the debt ceiling, while admitting that he cannot guarantee that the US won't default on its debt.

'I think quite frankly it's hypocritical, dangerous and disgraceful,' Biden said. 'Their obstruction and irresponsibility knows absolutely no bounds, especially after we're clawing our way out of this pandemic.'

After averting a government shutdown last week, lawmakers' next important deadline is October 18, which will be when the U.S. will no longer be able to pay its bills if Congress doesn't lift the debt ceiling.

But while her father was dealing with a crisis in D.C., Ashley didn't appear fazed - in fact she looked incredibly relaxed during her weekend shopping trip.

Something new? Ashley was seen checking out several pieces of jewelry while browsing in accessories store Gorjana

Something caught your eye? She was pictured at the till at one point, suggesting that she may have made a purchase while inside

Stylish: Ashley kept things chic and simple in a black sun dress and chunky platform heels

Bling thing: She accessorized with large hoop earrings, dark glasses that were pushed up onto her head, and several gold and silver bracelets, which were worn in a stack on one wrist

Jewels: Ashley topped off her look with several chunky rings, however she chose to go without her wedding band for the shopping trip

It is not known why exactly Ashley is currently staying in California, however it may be that she is paying a visit to her half-brother Hunter, 51, who relocated to Malibu earlier this year from his $5.4 million rental home in Venice Beach - reportedly over concerns about a lack of privacy.

Hunter is understood to have moved into a $20,000-a-month property ahead of the summer, along with his wife Melissa Cohen and their young son Beau, who was named after Hunter's late brother.

Family: The First Daughter is the only child of Joe, 78, and First Lady Jill, 70

And while he was not pictured with his half-sibling during her shopping trip, there is certainly plenty of room for her to stay in Hunter's new home - which boasts 3,000 square feet of space, including four bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms and 180-degree views of the Pacific Ocean.

Ashley - who, unlike former First Daughter Ivanka Trump, has always shied away from the public eye - is known to have a close bond with her older half-sibling, who is the son of President Biden and his late wife Neilia Hunter.

Like her older sibling Hunter, Ashley has had several public brushes with the law. She was reportedly arrested in 1999 for possession of marijuana, and again in 2002 for obstructing a police officer.

In recent years, however, she has turned her life around, focusing on building a career in social work and social justice.

Hunter however has continued to come under a great deal of scrutiny over his colorful personal life, including his drug addiction, for which he has been admitted to rehab on several occasions since 2003.

Family time? It's unclear what brought Ashley to California, however it may be that she traveled to the West Coast in order to spend time with half-brother Hunter, who lives in Malibu

Back-up: At one point, a Secret Service agent was seen behind the duo, following on at a distance as they strolled around the stores

Taking it easy: Ashley browsed in several stores during the shopping trip

Swanky: According to its website, the Malibu Country Mart is considered 'California's premier seaside destination for shopping, dining, and relaxing'

In 2018, he hit the headlines again when it was revealed that he had fathered a child with Arkansas-based stripper Lunden Roberts.

In October 2020, just days before the election, Hunter sparked furious scandal once again when the New York Post published emails and documents that were allegedly taken from the hard drive of a laptop that he had left at a Delaware computer store.

Back in D.C.: Ashley's outing came hours before her parents returned to the White House following a weekend trip to Delaware

The Post was given a copy of the hard drive by President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. The laptop contained a series of emails, as well as personal photos, including several of a sexually-explicit nature, according to the Post.

Then, in December of last year, Hunter confirmed that the US Attorney's Office in Delaware was investigating his tax affairs.

Controversy continues to cloud the President's son - with a pair of emails published on September 23 revealing that he offered to help former business associates unfreeze Libyan assets in exchange for a $2 million retainer plus 'success fees'.

The email exchanges were between mid-level Democratic donors Sam Jauhari and Sheikh Mohammed al-Rahbani, who in 2015 were both working on behalf of the new Libyan government to free up $30billion in state foreign assets. They had been frozen by the Obama administration under the deposed Muammar Gaddafi regime in 2011.

The emails - which were obtained by Business Insider - are unrelated to those on his laptop, which outlined a number of his other business dealings.
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With sommeliers flown in from France, black caviar on every plate and an after party that included white water rafting, it's no surprise Maria Solodar's 3million nuptials to Joan Schnelzauer has been dubbed the wedding of the year.

With a picturesque ceremony by the banks of the Zambezi, close to Victoria Fall in Zambia self-made millionaire bride Maria flew all the food, chefs, pop stars and most guests from her homeland to Africa by fleet of private jets for a five day nuptials extravaganza at The Royal Livingstone Hotel.

The internet marketing specialist wed Luxembourg-based international business entrepreneur Joan, 33.

The couple bought their own wines and sommeliers from France, with Russian newspaper Komosmolskaya Pravda branding it the most expensive wedding of the year.

Maria Solodar's 3million nuptials to Joan Schnelzauer has been dubbed the wedding of the year. The couple are pictured in front of giraffes

With a picturesque ceremony bythe banks of the Zambezi, close to Victoria Fall in Zambia self-made millionaire bride Maria flew all the food, chefs, pop stars and most guests from her homeland to Africa by fleet of private jets for a five day nuptials extravaganza at The Royal Livingstone Hotel

The internet marketing specialist (pictured) wed Luxembourg-based international business entrepreneur Joan, 33, and the wines and accompanying sommeliers were delivered from France

The web guru began her career selling backpacks on a market in Ukraine, and is now one of Russia's most spectacular internet success stories.

The five-day event included stag and hen parties, a dinner with African delicacies, white water rafting, a safari and a huge party.

The stunning bride wore a Vera Wang outfit for the ceremony before changing into a Zuhair Murad number for the party.

'Absolutely everything needed to be brought on private jets from Russia to South Africa, from decor to dishes,' Komosmolskaya Pravd reported.

The web guru began her career selling backpacks on a market in Ukraine, and is now one of Russia's most spectacular internet success stories. She is pictured before her wedding

The five-day event included stag and hen do's, a dinner with African delicacies, white water rafting, a safari and a huge party with black caviar jetted in from Russia - the couple are pictured at the altar

The stunning bride wore a Vera Wang outfit for the ceremony before changing into a Zuhair Murad number for the party. She is pictured at the altar

The Ukrainian-born bride who had forged her meteoric career in Russia boasted: 'Many said it was the wedding of the century... but I would say it was the adventure of the century.

'I never wanted a magnificent wedding. I am not about dressing up and putting makeup on, it's just not my style.

'I chose one of the first dresses for fitting, and I took the second one without even trying it on.'

'The country refused to let such a big stage in, the kitchen had to wait at the border for three days and arrived only three hours prior to the banquet,' she said. 'We brought everything, everything.

'Food, drinks, chefs we organised breakfasts with black caviar from Russia, cheeses and the best wine from France, we had sommeliers, cooks, make-up artists, all the guests had their individual styles, every day had its own dress code... the amount of work was heroic.

The Ukrainian-born bride who had forged her meteoric career in Russia boasted: 'Many said it was the wedding of the century... but I would say it was the adventure of the century.

Jet-set lifestyle: The couple reportedly met in Dubai and say they are 'very down to earth and simple' despite often flying across the world and the extravagant party

Making the most of the wedding shoot the bride posed on a bed of watermelons (left). The couple also posed aboard the train

'This is a talent and a genius.

'The event was organised in a way that everyone cried, even callous European men... those who never previously cried before our eyes.'

She later posted online: 'I knew how important it was for our family.

'So everything was done for them, in order to unite them all, our family members and friends.

'This is why we chose such an inaccessible place and also one of the most beautiful that I have ever seen - a safari in the wild, a hotel where zebras, giraffes and roe deer roam freely, and a wonder of the world, the Victoria Falls.'

She said the two families were 'very down-to-earth and simple'.

The couple reportedly met in Dubai. Guests were serenaded by Russian 1990s band Ivanushki International, along with French stars Helena Segara and Damien Sargues.

Guests were serenaded by Russian 1990s band Ivanushki International, along with French stars Helena Segara and Damien Sargues - the couple are pictured in front of a train

Getting ready: Maria says she isn't into make-up and clothes an got ready in just one fitting - despite two dresses on the big day

Maria added that everyone 'including callous European men who had never cried before' shed a tear at the beautiful ceremony

Picture perfect: The bride had two dresses for the big day and posed in front of a train in her wedding pictures
Princess Beatrice paid tribute to her mother Sarah Ferguson when naming her newborn daughter Sienna Elizabeth, a family friend has claimed.

The Queen's granddaughter, 33, the oldest daughter of Prince Andrew and the Duchess of York, gave birth to a baby girl weighing 6lbs 2oz at 11.42pm on Saturday 18 September at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, in London.

On Friday, Beatrice and her husband Edo Mapelli Mozzi posted an image of the newborn's footprints while announcing they had decided to call her Sienna Elizabeth, in a touching tribute to the Queen.

But the Italian name Sienna was chosen in honour of Sarah, a family friend told Hello!, explaining that Beatrice wanted to pick a title beginning with S and one which reflected the 'golden rust colour of the Duchess's hair, which the new baby shares'.

On Friday, Beatrice and her husband Edo Mapelli Mozzi posted an image of the newborn's footprints (pictured) while announcing they had decided to call her Sienna Elizabeth, in a touching tribute to the Queen

A family friend of the couple said: 'They were looking for an Italian name which started with an S for Sarah, to honour the Duchess.

'And also reflected the golden rust colour of both the Duchess's hair colour and Beatrice's, which the new baby shares,' they concluded.

Posting an image of the baby's footprints on Instagram on Friday, Edoardo wrote: 'Sienna Elizabeth Mapelli Mozzi. Our life together has just begun, and I can't wait to see all the amazing things that await us.

'Feeling so much love and gratitude for my amazing wife, baby Sienna and Wolfie. These are the days I never want to forget. This week, a friend said to me the sweetest saying.that with every child you grow a whole new heart.'

'A massive thank you to the Midwife and the amazing team at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.'

But the Italian name Sienna was chosen in honour of Sarah (pictured with her family), a family friend told Hello! , explaining that Beatrice wanted to pick a title beginning with S and one which reflected the 'golden rust colour of the Duchess's hair, which the new baby shares'

Later, the official royal family social media page posted the same image, with the caption reading: 'The couple have said, "We are all doing well and Wolfie is the best big brother to Sienna."'

Sienna is an Italian name, likely to have been chosen because of Edo's roots, but Elizabeth is a touching tribute to Beatrice's grandmother the Queen.

Although her mother is a princess, Sienna, who is the Queen's 12th great-grandchild, will not have a royal title.

Only grandchildren of the monarch through the male line are automatically entitled to the styling of HRH.

This means she will be plain Miss Mapelli Mozzi. The Queen could bestow a title on her great-grandchild if desired, but it is unlikely to be asked for.

The Queen's granddaughter (pictured with her husband), 33, the oldest daughter of Prince Andrew and the Duchess of York, gave birth to a baby girl weighing 6lbs 2oz at 11.42pm on Saturday 18 September at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, in London

While Beatrice tends to keep a low profile, she has been seen several times out and about in London over the summer, including attending Wimbledon with Edo in July.

Chelsea and Westminster is an NHS hospital but houses the private Kensington maternity wing, which charges a starting price of 7,450 for a 'platinum vaginal delivery package' and 9,050 for a 'platinum elective or emergency section package'. The price includes meals and accommodation for the partner and a private room for the first night post delivery.

Buckingham Palace refused to comment on whether Beatrice was admitted to the Kensington Wing. It is understood she has since been discharged and returned to the St James's Palace apartment she shares with Edo, 38.

The baby is the Queen's 12th great-grandchild and 11th in line to the throne. Her Majesty was said to be 'delighted with the news', the palace announced in a statement.

Meanwhile Eugenie said she was over the moon for the couple, writing: 'Beabea and Edo, congratulations on your new angel. I can't wait to meet her and I'm so proud of you. We're going to have so much fun watching our children grow up. Love Euge.'
King Jigme Khesar and Queen Jetsun Pema of Bhutan have celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary by releasing a new family portrait.

The couple, dubbed the Prince William and Kate Middleton of the Himalayas, shared a snap showing them standing with their five-year-old son Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck, who is known as the Dragon Prince and is heir to the Bhutanese throne.

In the sweet snap, Queen Jetsun, 31, holds their younger son - Prince Jigme Ugyen, born in March 2020 - in her arms, according to People.

King Jigme, 41,the hugely popular fifth Druk Gyalpo, studied in the UK and the US and ascended the throne in 2006, aged just 26 after his own father abdicated.

King Jigme Khesar and Queen Jetsun Pema of Bhutan have celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary by releasing a new family portrait (pictured)

Unlike his son, who plans to have a monogamous marriage, the former King, who introduced democracy to Bhutan during his reign, has four wives, all sisters who he married on the same day.

But despite his own upbringing, the current monarch has made clear that he only plans to have one wife, whom he married on October 13, 2011, when she was still an international relations student at Regent's College in London.

The match made headlines at the time because the young King was more openly affectionate with his wife than citizens were used to - leaving the couple to be called 'the William and Kate of the Himalayas'.

The Bhutanese King and Queen married in 2011 - the same year that Prince William and Kate were wed.

However, the King's very public displays of affection - which included kissing his wife on the cheek and holding her hand - was well-received by young people, with many even choosing to follow the royals' example.

The Bhutanese royal couple pose for the media after their wedding ceremony on 13 October 2011

The couple have an unusually close family, with the King's sister and brother married to the Queen's brother and sister.

The Queen's older sister Yeatso Lhamo is married to the King's brother Prince Jigme Dorji Wangchuck.

Last year Princess Eeuphelma of Bhutan, 27, the younger half-sister of King Jigme, secretly wed pilot Dasho Thinlay Norbu, 28, who is the younger brother of the Bhutanese Queen.

Jetsun is the second of five children, and although she is officially a commoner her family is not without royal connections.

Her father Dhondup Gyaltshen, a pilot with Drukair  the country's national airline - is the half brother of a former queen consort.

Meanwhile her mother Sonam Chuki, who comes from one of Bhutan's oldest noble families, is the goddaughter of a Bhutanese prince.
Married At First Sight UKs Nikita Jasmine has hit out at co-star Alexis Economou in tonights reunion episode where she made an explosive return after being axed from the series.

The Geordie reality TV star was removed from the experiment in a previous episode for breaking E4's code of conduct and exploding at fellow cast members - forcing her husband Ant Poole to also leave the programme.

However, Ant returned to the show when sparks flew with Alexis, who had also originally quit the process after failing to find a connection with her husband Jordon Mundell.

But when returning on tonights episode to discuss her marriage to Ant, Nikita fumed that Alexis was a snake and broke girl code by going with her husband following their split.

Married At First Sight UKs Nikita Jasmine (pictured) has hit out at co-star Alexis Economou in tonights reunion episode where she made an explosive return after being axed from the series

The Geordie reality TV star was removed from the experiment in a previous episode for breaking E4's code of conduct and exploding at fellow cast members - forcing her husband Ant Poole to also leave the programme. Pictured, Alexis

Shes a f****** snake, right, Nikita insisted as she watched footage of the Ant and Alexis together. I was your mate, man, she added.

However, Alexis responded: You was not my friend.

A shocked Nikita retorted: How can you say that? I want to know how I wasnt your friend.

Turning her attention towards her ex-husband, Nikita added: He never mentioned anything about a connection. I actually said to you, Do you think Alexis is fit? and you said no. Categorically, you said no. If he says thats not true hes a f****** liar.

However, Ant (pictured left) returned to the show when sparks flew with Alexis, who had also originally quit the process after failing to find a connection with her husband Jordon Mundell

Eventually, Alexis apologised for 'upsetting' Nikita, insisting she 'owed her an apology as a woman'.

'Just know that it was never my intention, I am sorry. I am sorry if I hurt your feelings,' Alexis added, before the two women hugged one another. Both Alexis and Nikita are no longer with Ant.

Elsewhere, Morag Crichton revealed how Luke Dawson apparently ghosted her after the couple renewed their vows on tonight's Married at First Sight UK reunion.

Reaction: Viewers couldn't get over the amount of drama Nikita appeared to be bringing to the reunion

Veterinary nurse Morag, 31, from Essex, married new husband Luke, 36, at the start of the E4 series and the two had a bumpy relationship, with Morag openly telling him he needed to 'be more manly' and the 'sexual connection' just wasn't there between them.

However in the final episode of the series, they decided to stay married to one another, despite Morag telling Luke she hadn't wanted a 'project.'

On tonight's reunion show, the 31-year-old arrived at the event alone, shocking her co-stars as she revealed: 'The long and short of it was, the moment I left the experiment till now, Luke has never phoned me once.'

Morag Crichton, 31, from Essex, revealed how Luke Dawson, 36, ghosted her after the couple renewed their vows on tonight's Married at First Sight UK reunion

Morag entered the reunion event alone, shocking her fellow co-stars and the experts in the experiment.

As she entered the room, she said: 'I know, big shock!'

Fellow contestant Megan went on to ask her: 'Why are you here on your own?'

Morag explained: 'The long and short of it was, the moment I left the experiment till now, Luke has never phoned me once.

Veterinary nurse Morag married Luke at the start of the E4 series and the two had a bumpy relationship, with Morag openly telling him he needed to 'be more manly'

Her co-stars were stunned by her comments, with Megan repeating: 'Luke never phoned you?'

Amy added: 'I can't believe that because he came across as the one who made all the effort.'

Morag said: 'No that's not the case at all.'

Meanwhile watching backstage, expert Mel Schilling explained: 'To completely cut off all communications and ghost her...is disrespectful.'

Morag's co-stars were stunned by her comments, with Amy confessing Luke 'came across' as the 'one who made all the effort'

Paul added: 'This is her side of the story.'

Morag continued: 'I am nervous about tonight and hearing his side of the story compared to mine because I don't think they're going to add up.'

During the first episode of the series, the couple got off to a rocky start as Morag confessed she wasn't 'jumping for joy', before telling her groom she was 'bored' at the wedding breakfast.

They then travelled to Switzerland for their honeymoon but Morag openly told him he needed to 'be more manly' and the 'sexual connection' just wasn't there between them.

Meanwhile watching backstage, expert Mel Schilling said Luke's decision to cut off all communications was 'disrepectful'

And when the couple did attempt to connect physically for the third time, Morag 'upset' Luke by talking about his 'image problem.'

The groom confessed: 'It's infuriating. I don't know what to do. I've got a breaking point. I'm close, if I'm being honest.'

The couple clashed again during the home stays aspect of the experiment, in which Morag's friends told Luke he wasn't the man for her.

And Morag was also slammed by her fellow contestants when she was asked why the 'old Luke' wasn't good enough for her.

The couple have struggled to connect since the wedding after Morag confessed Luke 'wasn't what she ordered'

And Morag was also criticised for her comments during the final commitment ceremony in which she said that she wanted a ready-made man and not a project.

Despite their ups and downs, during the finale, the couple committed themselves to one another and said they hoped to continue their relationship outside the experiment.

Morag ended her vows by revealing her desire to stay in a relationship with Luke, saying that she wanted him in her past, present and future.
Telling GPs to 'think twice' about prescribing opioids may prevent tens of thousands of patients from getting hooked on them, research suggests.

Experts have for years warned Britain is on track for a US-style opioid crisis, with the number of strong painkiller prescriptions dished out having doubled over the past two decades.

Officials have tried cracking down on the prescription of the drugs  such as codeine and Tramadol  among concerns about addition and dependence.

But a simple messaging campaign tailored specifically at GPs could help tackle the problem, according to academics at the University of Leeds.

It was trialled in West Yorkshire and led to 15,000 fewer patients prescribed opioids over the course of a year. And the campaign saved the NHS 700,000, calculations suggested.

If rolled out nationally, the experts estimated it could lead to 406,000 fewer people getting prescribed the powerful drugs. And it would save the health service around 18.5million.

The 'feedback' intervention gave GPs updates every other month on the number of people at their practice being prescribed opioids.

Family doctors enrolled in the trial were reminded of the need to be cautious about starting people on opioids.

And they were sent 'persuasive messaging' and asked to review whether to take people off the drugs when they provided no benefit.

From 1998 to 2018, the number of opioids prescriptions issued by GPs in England more than doubled. The NHS now spends more than 260million per year on the drugs.

Meanwhile, rates have only fallen slightly in America over the past decade 'despite increased awareness of the risks and opioid abuse', researchers said.

Opioids  such as morphine, fentanyl and codeine  are morphine-based medicines that can result in addiction, dependency and overdose. From 1998 to 2018, the number of opioids prescriptions issued by GPs in England more than doubled, prompting concerns the UK is in an 'opioid epidemic'

The graph shows the average number of adults prescribed opioid per 1,000 adults from 2013 to 2018. The grey line represents the GP practices that did not engage with the 'think twice' campaign, while the black line represents those who did, which were in West Yorkshire. These practices received updates every two months on their opioid prescribing rates. The graph shows the opioid use rate was rising from 2013 to 2016. But when the campaign was put in place in 2016, rates fell among participating practices, while they continued to rise in non-participating surgeries. And after the year-long study, rates continued to drop in the West Yorkshire practices, but at a slower rate

Opioids are often given as painkillers, but the Royal College of Anaesthetists warns there is 'little evidence' they help with long-term chronic pain.

And guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which issues information for healthcare professionals, states patients with long-term pain should not be started on opioids.

Researchers said doctor's prescribing patterns are to blame for the hike, rather than patients' needs.

HOW AMERICA GOT HOOKED ON OPIOIDS Prescription opioids and illicit drugs have become incredibly pervasive throughout the US, and things are only getting worse. In the early 2000s, the FDA and CDC started to notice a steady increase in cases of opioid addiction and overdose. In 2013, they issued guidelines to curb addiction. However, that same year - now regarded as the year the epidemic took hold - a CDC report revealed an unprecedented surge in rates of opioid addiction. Overdose deaths are now the leading cause of death among young Americans - killing more in a year than were ever killed annually by HIV, gun violence or car crashes. In 2019, the CDC revealed that nearly 71,000 Americans died from drug overdoses. This is up from about 59,000 just three years prior, in 2016, and more than double the death rate from a decade ago. It means that drug overdoses are currently the leading cause of death for Americans under 50 years old. The data lays bare the bleak state of America's opioid addiction crisis fueled by deadly manufactured drugs like fentanyl. Advertisement

They said patients have a 'strong expectation' that GPs can dish out pain relief, which adds to pressure to prescribe them.

There are also 'large differences' in opioid prescribing between different practices, suggesting it is driven by clinician habits.

The longer people take the drugs for, the more their body learns to tolerate them and the higher doses they have to take the produce the right effect.

It also becomes harder and harder to stop taking them and, once the body becomes addicted, suddenly stopping them can have deadly effects.

Researchers trialled the Campaign to Reduce Opioid Prescribing in 2016 at 316 GP surgeries in the West Yorkshire region, which serve 2.2million people. The medics compared the practice to 130 unnamed GP surgeries.

In the months leading up to the trial, the number of patients prescribed opioids at the West Yorkshire surgeries was 58.1 per 1,000 adult patients and rising by 0.18 per 1,000 each month.

And the rate was 62.2 per 1,000 patients among the other group and increasing by 0.36 per 1,000 patients every month.

Patients with cancer  who use the drugs to relieve pain  or drug dependency were not included in the figures.

The study, published in PLOS Medicine, found after the trial was implemented, rates fell in West Yorkshire.

Some 0.11 fewer patients per 1,000 were being prescribed opioids each month, they calculated. Experts argued the drop was 'modest' but insisted it was 'substantial' at a population level.

Meanwhile, the rate of prescribing increased among the non-participating practices by 0.54 per 1,000 patients.

Dr Sarah Alderson, a GP in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, who led the study, said: 'Our analysis shows the intervention was particularly effective at getting GPs to stop or reduce their prescribing for those groups at high risk such as older patients or those who also had a mental health condition.

'The study shows GPs can be highly effective in identifying other ways of supporting patients who experience chronic pain.

'The feedback intervention could easily be adapted and delivered elsewhere at relatively low cost.'

But the experts noted the declining rates opioid prescription rates among participating practices started to slow once they stopped received updates from the researchers.

So Dr Alderson said the campaign needs to be sustained over a longer time period.

Dr Tracey Farragher, epidemiologist at the University of Manchester and analyst on the study, said: 'This study is a great example of how health records can improve patient care by providing up to date information to doctors about how many of their patients are being prescribed opioids.'
Coronavirus survivors who develop depression respond much better to drugs than most people, a study has found.

Surveys suggest as many as 40 per cent of patients who catch the virus end up feeling down for months.

There were fears of a wave of depression as the pandemic rages on because an increasing number of people are being struck down with 'long Covid'.

As few as four in 10 patients usually respond to antidepressants.

But scientists have discovered that nine in 10 Covid survivors left battling the blues after getting over the infection from taking the drugs.

The team of academics, based in Milan, expected a success rate of less than 70 per cent.

Lead author Dr Mario Mazza, a psychiatrist at San Raffaele University, said: 'We know Covid has led to an epidemic of mental health problems.

'Post-Covid depression is a serious issue, with around 40 per cent of Covid patients developing depression within six months of infection.

'But this study indicates that patients who have had Covid have a better chance of managing their depression than we thought.'

Around four in 10 people who catch Covid report developing depression within six months of catching the virus, according to researchers at at San Raffaele University in Milan. But more than 90 per cent of sufferers benefit from antidepressants, 'significantly more' than the usual 40 to 60 per cent of patients that respond to the drugs

He added: 'This is a pilot study, but it does indicate that post-Covid depression is treatable.'

Coronavirus has been linked to a myriad of symptoms in patients who end up beating the virus.

The most common are fatigue, headaches and breathing difficulties, but depression and anxiety are also recognised by the NHS as long-lasting effects.

Depression rates are 70% higher than before Covid but have been dropping since lockdown was lifted in summer, official survey shows Rates of depression in Britain are starting to fall after shooting up during the Covid pandemic, official data shows. The Office for National Statistics estimated that 10 per cent of adults in the UK were depressed before the virus first struck. This more than doubled to a record 21 per cent last winter after two brutal waves of the epidemic and three lockdowns, with women and young people worst affected. The ONS estimates that the proportion dropped to 17 per cent last month, based on its rolling survey of nearly 14,000 people across the country. Lockdowns, social isolation, job cuts and fears about the pandemic have all been linked to higher rates of depression in other studies. Most Covid curbs and social restrictions have been dropped around the UK since the summer despite some variation between countries. Advertisement

Inflammation caused by the virus seems to be the main trigger contributing to post-Covid depression, the experts said.

And the anti-inflammatory properties of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)  a type of antidepressant  may directly target this swelling.

Academics treated 58 patients who developed depression six months after catching the virus.

They were given sertraline, paroxetine, fluvoxamine, fluoxetine or citalopram.

Volunteers took a questionnaire about their symptoms before being given the drugs. They were asked the same questions four weeks later.

Some 53 of the 58 patients said their depression got much better after taking the drugs.

Dr Mazza said: 'We would normally have expected around 40 of the 58 patients to have responded positively to treatment.'

The results weren't skewed by gender, the type of antidepressant taken or whether the patient had previously suffered from mental health problems.

This suggests 'a higher antidepressant response rate in post-Covid depression', the experts wrote in the study, which has yet to be peer-reviewed.

Findings will be presented at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Conference in Lisbon.

The team will now conduct a larger scale trial.

They also want to examine whether antidepressants can help with other post-Covid symptoms, such as cognitive impairment and tiredness.

Dr Livia De Picker, a psychiatrist at the University of Antwerp in Belgium, who was not involved in the study, said: 'Even if we still do not understand all the causes of long Covid, this study indicates post-Covid depressive symptoms respond very well to serotonergic antidepressants.

'This does not come as a surprise to me, as recent studies have pointed out such compounds may also protect patients against severe Covid illness and several antidepressants are currently under study as Covid treatment options.

'I hope the current findings will prompt further research into the mechanisms through which antidepressants can help against both acute and long-term Covid complaints.'
Americans are much more likely to develop rare heart inflammation after the second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine compared to the first dose, a new study suggests.

Researchers from Kaiser Permanente Southern California (KPSC) found that less than one out of every one million people who receive the first dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine will develop the condition within the next ten days.

Comparatively, six out of every million will develop heart inflammation within ten days of the second dose.

But unvaccinated people are still at a much higher risk.

The team found that 47.5 out of every one million people who had not had their shots and underwent health screenings had the condition.

The findings suggest that myocarditis is a rare side effect of the vaccine, and people should feel safe in receiving the jabs.

People who receive the Covid vaccine are seven times as likely to develop heart inflamation after the second dose of the jab when compared to the first. Those who are unvaccinated are significantly more likely to develop myocarditis, however

Myocarditis, the medical name for heart inflammation, is a known side effect of viral infections like Covid.

The condition has also been discovered as a potential side effect of the vaccines, with younger males being at an especially high risk but at a much lower rate than if they had contracted the virus.

For the study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine on Monday, the KPSC team gathered data from more than 2.3 million patients in its Southern California health care system.

Researchers investigated medical records of participants to find who had received medical care for myocarditis in the ten days following the jab.

Two participants were found to have developed myocarditis after receiving the first shot, or 0.8 out of every one million people.

By comparison, more that 2.2 million participants returned for screening after the second shot, with 13 - or 5.8 out of every million - having the condition.

This means that people are seven times more likely to develop the condition after the second dose rather than the first.

Those that developed the condition were evenly split between participants who received the Pfizer and Moderna shots.

For a control group, researchers also gathered data from 1.5 million unvaccinated people over the course of the study period.

Around 47.5 out of every one million unvaccinated people were found to have developed the condition.

While those in the control group were not specifically selected because they had previously contracted the virus, it is likely that Covid did cause the condition in unvaccinated people.

This means unvaccinated people are eight times as likely to develop myocarditis than people are after receiving the shots.

Every participant who was found to develop heart inflammation after receiving the vaccine in the study was a male.

This is a known trend, with the Centers for Disease Control and Convention (CDC) warning that younger males are particularly vulnerable to myocarditis after receiving the vaccine.

A Gallup poll from the end of July found that fear of side effects - of which the most common serious side effect is myocarditis - is the most cited reason for vaccine hesitancy.

This KPSC study finds that people who do receive the jabs are much more likely to experience these negative side effects than those who do not get the shots.

Data from the CDC confirms this as well, with the agency reporting that nearly 1,500 out of every million people who are hospitalized with Covid develop heart inflammation.

Heart inflammation can often lead to fatigue, shortness of breath and chest pain for patients.

People with inflamed hearts are at a higher risk for heart failure, heart attacks and strokes.

Attempting strenuous physical activity with an inflamed heart could also potentially lead to sudden cardiac arrest, or even death.
Long Covid could be caused by an overload of tiny clots 'trapped' inside people's blood weeks after they clear the initial infection, scientists say.

The small study found patients who are 'long haulers' have a large amount of inflammatory molecules trapped in their bloodstream.

These blockages have the potential to disrupt the body's ability to distribute oxygen and vital nutrients, they said.

It could explain long Covid's most common symptoms, such as fatigue, headaches and breathing difficulties.

The South African researcher who made the discovery said the micro clots may be the cause of long Covid or one of several contributing factors.

A scientist has found long Covid patients have micro clots in their blood months after the initial infection. On the left is an image of healthy blood plasma (blood plasma is the largest type of fluid which forms blood, accounting for 55 per cent of the total) and on the right is an image of one of the micro clots found in the blood. The material contained in both samples were highlighted using florescent materials for analysis.

The South African researcher who made the discovery said the micro clots may be the cause of long Covid or one of several contributing factors (file)

The new discovery came from Professor Resia Pretorius from the department of physiological science at Stellenbosch University.

Professor Pretorius compared blood collected from 11 people with long Covid and 13 healthy individuals.

What is long Covid? Most coronavirus patients will recover within a fortnight, suffering a fever, cough and losing their sense of smell or taste for several days. However, the virus can persist for weeks on end in 'long haulers'  the term for patients plagued by lasting complications. Data from the Covid Symptom Study app, by King's College London and health company Zoe, suggests one in ten people may still have symptoms after three weeks, and some may suffer for months. Long term symptoms include: Chronic tiredness

Breathlessness

Raised heart rate

Delusions

Strokes

Insomnia

Loss of taste/smell

Kidney disease

Mobility issues

Headaches

Muscle pains

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'We found high levels of various inflammatory molecules trapped in micro clots present in the blood of individuals with long Covid,' she said.

'Some of the trapped molecules contain clotting proteins such as fibrinogen, as well as alpha(2)-antiplasmin.'

Fibrinogen is a protein found in blood and helps the body make clots to stop bleeding.

Alpha(2)-antiplasmin is a molecule that helps prevent blood clots from breaking down.

Under normal conditions, the body maintains a balance of clotting and anti clotting material to help the body reduce blood loss after injury.

This also prevent clots from growing too large and restricting oxygen flow.

Professor Pretorius said high amounts of alpha(2)-antiplasmin being stuck in the blood means the body's ability to break down clots is severely reduced.

What causes long Covid has baffled scientists since the phenomenon was observed.

But other recent studies have also highlighted that the body's clotting system could be involved.

An study from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland showed clotting markers were elevated among the people with long Covid months after their initial infection.

And Covid itself has been linked to clotting disorders during the initial infection that in some cases can be fatal.

Data from the Office of National Statistics in August suggested almost 400,000 people in the UK have been suffering from long Covid for more than a year.

Long Covid is an umbrella term encompassing symptoms that persist for more than a month and is poorly understood.

Professor Pretorius said more research is needed to confirm her findings, with a larger sample size.

She also recommended more research into what type of treatment to support long Covid patients' clotting system is needed.

Her findings have been published in the medical journal Cardiovascular Diabetology.
Dropping to the bathroom floor with crushing pains in her chest, Irene Birtwhistle was convinced she was having a heart attack.

I was in agony, recalls Irene, 53, who lives in Turriff, Aberdeenshire, with husband Simon, a retired council road worker and their children, Christopher, 18, and Sophie, 13.

The stabbing pains in my chest had woken me early at 6am, my skin was clammy and sweaty, and I was breathless and nauseous. I rushed to the bathroom and vomited, and then I shouted to Simon to call for an ambulance. I was terrified as my symptoms ticked all the boxes for a heart attack.

The ambulance arrived within ten minutes, yet before the crew had time to take an ECG reading to check the activity and rhythm of her heart, Irenes pains had mysteriously vanished.

It was like a switch had been flicked off, she recalls. By the time we got to our local hospital, all my symptoms had died down and my ECG reading was completely normal.

Irene, a retired water company sampler, was transferred to a larger hospital, where a nurse initially diagnosed indigestion.

Dropping to the bathroom floor with crushing pains in her chest, Irene Birtwhistle (pictured) was convinced she was having a heart attack

Yet further blood tests showed Irene had raised levels of a chemical called troponin  high levels indicate the heart has been damaged and can be a sign of a heart attack.

However, a consultant cardiologist ruled out a heart attack because an angiogram (X-ray of the blood vessels) performed six weeks earlier had revealed her blood vessels looked clear.

The consultant instead diagnosed a coronary artery spasm, which affects the muscles of the artery wall, temporarily reducing blood flow to the heart  this can happen spontaneously or be triggered by stress, exercise, cold weather or even the menstrual cycle.

So Irene was sent home the next day, and told to forget about it.

She was to suffer two further terrifying episodes  in October 2016 and October 2017  again experiencing agonising chest pains, sweats and vomiting.

Ambulances were called and each time her symptoms vanished within around 15 minutes and her ECG readings were normal.

I felt they thought I was a hypochondriac or neurotic and was having a panic attack, she says.

Irene, a retired water company sampler, was transferred to a larger hospital, where a nurse initially diagnosed indigestion

On a third occasion a consultant again concluded her attacks were due to coronary artery spasms  and again reassured her they were nothing to worry about.

Sceptical, Irene began her own research online and came across support groups for those affected by spasms and a lesser-known type of heart attack called a MINOCA (myocardial infarction with non-obstructed arteries).

While a traditional heart attack is brought on by a blockage to an artery, a MINOCA is triggered by a temporary blockage  including as a result of coronary artery spasms  and so angiograms will show the blood vessels are clear.

MINOCA symptoms can be similar to a classic heart attack. But they may also wax and wane over several days, because the artery is open and any blockage is only temporary, says Colin Berry, a professor of cardiology and imaging at Glasgow University.

According to research published in June, MINOCAs account for between 5 and 15 per cent of all heart attacks.

More common in women and those under 55, they can be hereditary and can occur for a number of reasons, including a build-up of fatty deposits rupturing and breaking away from the lining of the artery, causing a temporary blockage that clears as the plaque disperses. Other causes include coronary artery spasms.

Diagnosing a MINOCA is complex: it involves a blood test to measure troponin levels and an immediate follow-up with an angiogram, as well as functional tests and a cardiac MRI, which will show up any damage suffered by the heart.

Despite being a recognised medical event, MINOCAs are underdiagnosed in the UK, says Professor Berry. This is partly to do with how heart attacks are taught in medical school  students are told that they are caused by blocked arteries, he says. Theyre not told you can have heart attacks with non-blocked arteries, which is actually sex bias because more women than men suffer MINOCAs.

Someone is much less likely to die suddenly from a MINOCA heart attack than from one arising from a blocked coronary artery  fewer than 5 per cent died within 12 months of a MINOCA compared with a death rate of around 10 per cent for heart attacks from blocked arteries, according to a review published in the journal Circulation in 2015.

However, in a study published in the International Journal of Cardiology in 2018, one in four of the 9,000 MINOCA patients studied experienced a major adverse cardiac event such as heart attack, hospitalisation with heart failure or stroke, or death, within four years.

Professor Berry says: When patients are followed up in the weeks and months after their attack they are at risk of complications such as atrial fibrillation [an irregular heartbeat that raises the risk of stroke], heart failure or another heart attack which can be fatal.

Professor Berry, one of the authors of a paper published in June in the journal International Cardiology: Reviews, Research and Resources, told Good Health MINOCAs are not rare.

On a third occasion a consultant again concluded her attacks were due to coronary artery spasms  and again reassured her they were nothing to worry about (stock image)

There are at least 100,000 heart attacks a year in the UK  if MINOCAs make up 10 per cent, thats at least 10,000, he says.

He fears some of these patients will have died of the consequences of having an unrecognised heart attack. Whats happening is that some patients with heart attack symptoms are being given angiograms rather than the tests they need, and if the angiograms are clear its presented to them as good news, he says.

By then, MINOCA patients are often stable and well enough to go home. But with a suspected MINOCA, a patient should be offered a cardiac MRI scan when an angiogram is clear.

It may be then that they need additional functional tests for coronary artery spasms and they should be offered a specific treatment for this, he adds.

However, access to cardiac MRI varies greatly across the UK with scant provision in Wales and Scotland, according to research published in the journal Heart. Waiting times vary, too, from 25 days in London to 180 days in Northern Ireland.

Professor Berry says that as well as better access to cardiac MRIs, more research is needed to find treatments for MINOCAs.

At the moment were just transferring treatments for classic coronary heart attacks to MINOCAs, he says. Cardiologists will recognise a MINOCA, but the issues unfold thereafter in the management of what happens next.

Irene has been suffering from daily chest pain since 2017 and is sometimes so breathless she struggles to walk up stairs and has to drive everywhere.

Frustratingly, her medical records still state that she hasnt had a heart attack. She would like to have a more specialist functional test done at a regional centre, but cant get a referral.

Its always at the back of my mind that I could have another heart attack and this one could be fatal, she says.
Not long ago, the only effervescent tablet you would find in a medicine cabinet was Alka-Seltzer, first created in the 1930s.

But there are now all sorts of treatments that fizz  they generate carbon dioxide gas when mixed with water, helping them to dissolve faster so the drug becomes available more quickly when you swallow it than it would if you took a tablet that then had to dissolve in the stomach, as Sultan Dajani, a pharmacist based in Hampshire, explains.

The format also allows you to fit in larger doses of active ingredients than in a conventional-sized tablet, adds Aidan Goggins, a pharmacist based in London.

But are fizzy tablets better? We asked both pharmacists to assess some of the latest products, which we then rated.

Pepto Soda effervescent tablets, 7.90 for 20 tablets, goodwillpharma.co.uk

INDIGESTION

Pepto Soda effervescent tablets, 7.90 for 20 tablets, goodwillpharma.co.uk

CLAIM: A lemon-flavoured drink with sodium bicarbonate for use on the go to alleviate acid reflux, heartburn and indigestion.

EXPERT VERDICT: When sodium bicarbonate [baking powder] enters the stomach it neutralises acid, turning it into water and carbon dioxide gas, says Sultan Dajani.

This will relieve discomfort, but the newly created gas may make you belch. The fizzing doesnt offer any additional benefit.

Nor in my opinion is it as helpful as rival products such as Gaviscon, which, as well as sodium bicarbonate, contain an ingredient that forms a protective layer over the sensitive oesophagus lining, preventing pain if stomach acid travels back up. 2/10

Vitabiotics Feroglobin Fizz, 5.99 for 20, hollandandbarrett.com

LOW IRON

Vitabiotics Feroglobin Fizz, 5.99 for 20, hollandandbarrett.com

CLAIM: These contain 17mg of iron, and vitamins B6, B12 and C, plus zinc. Their unique formulation is said to be gentle on the stomach.

EXPERT VERDICT: The trouble with most iron tablets is that they contain solid ferrous [iron] salts which are hard to absorb. Side-effects include diarrhoea, constipation and nausea, as any iron not absorbed will irritate the gut lining, says Aiden Goggins.

The fizzy format is useful because dissolving the iron will ensure its better absorbed by the gut, so you experience fewer side-effects.

B vitamins contribute to healthy red blood cells and vitamin C helps the body absorb iron.

But studies show that zinc and iron in liquid form compete to be absorbed by the same cells. So if you need iron, look for a product without zinc. 3/10

Boots Paracetamol 500mg Effervescent Tablets, 3.49 for 24, boots.com

PAIN RELIEF

Boots Paracetamol 500mg Effervescent Tablets, 3.49 for 24, boots.com

CLAIM: A dissolvable version of this painkiller.

EXPERT VERDICT: These are great for people who cant swallow tablets, says Sultan Dajani. Plus, effervescent formulations are a quicker way for medicines to get into your system  handy for painkillers where you want relief as quickly as possible.

One thing to watch for with effervescent tablets is the salt level, which can be high as they contain sodium carbonate to help create the fizz. Here, each tablet has 438 mg sodium, the equivalent of more than 1 g of salt. 8/10

Voost Vitamin D 25ug Mixed Berry Effervescent Tablets, 5.50 for 20, boots.com

LOW VITAMIN D

Voost Vitamin D 25ug Mixed Berry Effervescent Tablets, 5.50 for 20, boots.com

CLAIM: This is absorbed faster and more efficiently than traditional tablets.

EXPERT VERDICT: Because we make most vitamin D via sun exposure on our skin, the Government suggests we all take 10 ug during the winter months, says Aidan Goggins.

But theres no need for it to be in effervescent form because standard capsules are effectively and rapidly absorbed and are often cheaper. 6/10

Lucovital D-Mannose Urinary Tract effervescent tablets, 19.99 for 14, boots.com

Healthspan Elite Activ Hydrate, 11.99 for 40, healthspanelite.co.uk

Vitaboost Turmeric, 14.99 for 20, hollandandbarrett.com

CYSTITIS

Lucovital D-Mannose Urinary Tract effervescent tablets, 19.99 for 14, boots.com

CLAIM: D-Mannose is a starch that the maker says attaches to E.coli bacteria and prevents the bacteria from adhering to the walls of the urinary tract. These tablets help prevent recurrent urinary tract infections caused by E.coli.

EXPERT VERDICT: This wouldnt be my top choice, says Sultan Dajani. Ive not seen robust research to show D-Mannose can prevent E.coli sticking to the bladder wall. Although E.coli is the most common bacterial cause of cystitis, its not the only one. 3/10

POST-EXERCISE

Healthspan Elite Activ Hydrate, 11.99 for 40, healthspanelite.co.uk

CLAIM: These citrus-flavoured tablets dissolve to form a drink containing sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium to rehydrate and replenish the essential minerals lost during exercise.

EXPERT VERDICT: Exercise  like illness and excess heat  can dehydrate our bodies, as we sweat out water and mineral salts known as electrolytes, which help keep our bodies hydrated, as well as regulating nerve and muscle function, says Sultan Dajani.

Theres no real difference between these fizzy tablets or traditional dissolvable powders  both get into the system quickly, but the tablets make a nicer tasting drink. 9/10

JOINT HEALTH

Vitaboost Turmeric, 14.99 for 20, hollandandbarrett.com

CLAIM: Each tablet contains 212.5 mg of curcuminoids (the active compound in turmeric) and black pepper to maximise absorption and support joint health.

EXPERT VERDICT: This effervescent form of turmeric will be much better absorbed than many tablets, says Aidan Goggins.

The main problem with curcuminoid is that it doesnt break down properly, so its hard for the gut to absorb enough for a real benefit.

This form has been modified to be highly soluble, so when the tablet is dissolved in water its already started to break down into small enough particles to be readily absorbed in the gut  so youll get much more of the active ingredient into your system than with a standard pill. Black pepper further boosts absorption.

Turmeric supplements have been shown to be as effective as commonly taken painkillers when it comes to easing knee arthritis.

HealthAid OsteoFlex Fizzy, 10.49 for 20, healthaid.co.uk

My one concern is the recommended one tablet dose provides only 212.5 mg curcuminoids, less than half the 500 mg dose which studies have found can reduce pain and inflammation. So youd need two tablets, which can end up being expensive. 8/10

HealthAid OsteoFlex Fizzy, 10.49 for 20, healthaid.co.uk

CLAIM: Lemon-flavoured fizzy tablets containing glucosamine and chondroitin to help maintain supple, flexible joints, strong cartilage and a healthy skeleton.

EXPERT VERDICT: Clinical studies of glucosamine are very inconsistent, says Aidan Goggins. Some show it can help produce and maintain bone cartilage, reducing the need for painkillers and delaying the diseases progression, but other research shows no benefit.

The studies also show you need at least 1,500 mg daily to get any real benefit, so you would need to take three of these tablets per day, which would get pretty expensive.

Research on chondroitin [a building block of cartilage] hasnt shown that taking it is helpful for arthritis pain. And I would not use glucosamine combined with chondroitin, because studies have shown they interfere with the absorption of each other.

On the plus side, though, the effervescence allows you to take more glucosamine in an easier-to-swallow format (standard pills are quite large). 5/10

Sambucol Immuno Forte, 8.99 for 15, hollandandbarrett.com

IMMUNITY

Sambucol Immuno Forte, 8.99 for 15, hollandandbarrett.com

CLAIM: Contains black elder- berries and high vitamin C and zinc to help strengthen the immune system.

EXPERT VERDICT: Vitamin C and zinc are known to help the immune system and both are also highly absorbable in effervescent form, says Aidan Goggins.

But the doses here are fairly low  60mg of vitamin C and 7.5mg of zinc  which is more an everyday healthy amount than at a level to boost immunity when the body is under stress.

But the focus of this product is the elderberry juice, which is rich in anthocyanins (the pigment that gives the berries their colour) and polysaccharides (a kind of starch), which bind to the surface of cold and flu viruses, inhibiting their ability to flourish within the body.

A recent analysis of independent research found that elderberry extract reduces the duration and severity of flu symptoms.

Being in the form of a fizzy drink will improve the uptake of the nutrients. 8/10
New York's largest health provider says it has fired thousands of employees for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine ahead of the state's mandate.

Northwell Health announced on Monday that it has fired 1,400 employees who refused to be inoculated.

Just one week earlier the health system announced it had terminated two dozen 'unvaccinated leaders' at management level or above out.

It is unclear what job titles the recently fired workers had and whether they were clinical or nonclinical workers.

Northwell Health says the remaining 76,000 workers have all received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Thousands of other hospitals and medical centers are expected to announce that they have fired staff members for not the jab.

'Northwell regrets losing any employee under such circumstances, but as health care professionals and members of the largest health care providers in the state, we understand our unique responsibility to protect the health of our patients and each other,' spokeswoman Barbara Osborn said in a statement, according to Newsday.

'We owe it to our staff, our patients and the communities we serve to be 100 percent vaccinated against COVID-19.'

Northwell Health (pictured), New York's largest healthcare provider, say it has fired 1,400 employees for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine

The hospital system says the remaining 76,000 employees received at least one dose ahead of the state's mandate which went into effect on Monday. Pictured: Sandra Lindsay (left), a nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, is inoculated with the COVID-19 vaccine by Dr Michelle Chester in New York City, December 2020

It is unclear what job titles the fired workers had and whether they were clinical or nonclinical staff members. Pictured: New York resident Krystel Walk interacts with a large crowd rainsing their voices against a mandate to get vaccinated or lose their jobs at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York, August 2021

The mandate for healthcare workers was issued in August by former Gov Andrew Cuomo and supported by Hochul when she succeeded him.

All health care workers in New York state at hospitals and nursing homes were required to get at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by Monday, September 27.

Employees who refuse to get the shots can face suspensions and termination.

The mandate is not just for those who directly deal with patients such as doctors and nurses but also administrators, cafeteria workers and even cleaners.

When the mandate was first announced, the state said health care workers would not be allowed to receive religious exemptions, only medical exemptions.

However, a group of 17 workers sued New York for not allowing rejection of the vaccine on religious ground and a judge in Utica issued a temporary halt on requiring them to get the shot.

A federal judge on October 12 will consider a legal challenge arguing that such exemptions are constitutionally required.

Hospitals have been putting contingency plans in place ahead of fears that the mandate will cause disruptions.

Northwell Health told Newsday that none of its facilities are experiencing disruptions due to the firing.

Gov Kathy Hochul is considering sending in the National Guard to hospitals or signing an executive order allowing recent graduates and retirees to work to help deal with staffing shortages. Pictured: Hochul speaks after meeting Irish prime minister Micheal Martin, September 2021

Last week, Hochul released a plan on how she is considering addressing the staffing shortage.

One option is signing an executive order to declare a state of emergency that would allow healthcare care workers licensed in other states or countries to practice in New York as well a recent graduates and retirees.

Another is deploying the National Guard to hospitals or asking the federal government to send Disaster Medical Assistance Teams.

'We are still in a battle against Covid to protect our loved ones, and we need to fight with every tool at our disposal,' she said in a statement.

'I am monitoring the staffing situation closely, and we have a plan to increase our health care workforce and help alleviate the burdens on our hospitals and other health care facilities.'

The state's Department of Labor has issued guidance that workers fired due to refusal to get vaccinate will not qualify for unemployment insurance 'absent a valid doctor-approved request for medical accommodation.'
CloudCall Group PLC chief executive Simon Cleaver might be forgiven for suggesting his business has been overlooked and under-appreciated by its UK investor audience.

For here's a software-as-a-service business (SaaS) with a 94 per cent recurring and repeat revenue base that's slated to grow at an annualised rate of around 25 per cent.

Yet, at just two-times sales, CloudCall is on a valuation that would look bargain-bin on the tech savvy US market.

American investors like SaaS, not because they prefer paying significantly over the odds, but because they understand the mechanics of these businesses.

They know they are high gross margin (75 per cent-plus) with extremely sticky, almost annuity-level, customer bases.

True knowledge: American investors like SaaS, not because they prefer paying significantly over the odds, but because they understand the mechanics of these businesses

And that's why they pay the premium: long-term visibility over a sustained and ultimately significantly profitable income stream.

The question Stateside is, 'how big can you grow before you run out of runway'?

In the case of Salesforce, Workday and Adobe pretty darn big? The follow-up is, 'how much do you need to get there?'

Here in the UK, the conversation with investors, and I've been privy personally to this short-sightedness, tends to be along the lines of, 'when are you going to break even? Oh, and please don't come back to us for any more cash until you do'.

Anyway, rant over, let's move on.

CloudCall specialises in integrating communications systems (telephony and messaging) with customer relationship management systems such as (but certainly not limited to) the aforementioned Salesforce.

This allows companies to log and analyse incoming and outgoing comms routed through their CRM.

As CloudCall CEO Cleaver puts it, the CRM 'is the single source of truth' for most organisations.

What does that mean? Well, it can provide transparency on how business development and customer support operate. And, interpreted properly, a good CRM can help firms become much more efficient in way they transact business.

But here's the thing. As anyone who has bought such a system will tell you, once in, it is almost impossible to remove so integrated does it become with the commercial and financial ecosystems it feeds from and into.

These products are sticky as hell, which is why Salesforce, Adobe, Workday et al are the titans of tech they are today.

Rather than pay lip service to the CRM, as most large communications groups tend to, CloudCall leans in.

It puts the CRM in the centre and makes sure its solutions integrate seamlessly with whichever system the customer has installed  be that a hotel CRM or one for the recruitment sector, a specialism of CloudCall's.

It now has around 1,600 customers and at the halfway mark of year, CloudCall had generated 6.4million of revenues, giving an annual run rate of 13.4million, which represents growth of around 20 per cent.

The eye-catching number is of course the 94 per cent recurring and repeat business CloudCall generates.

March's 6million fundraiser topped the group's coffers up to 8.4million at the halfway stage of 2021 with a further 1million due in from R&D tax credits and 2million more available via an existing debt facility.

In its update, the company reported its addressable market would double as it expanded the number of CRMs it can integrate with.

This, added with a strong recovery of the recruitment market, should underpin growth expectations.

After a bumpy 2020, the group expects to return to the sort of rapid expansion it saw before the pandemic with recurring revenues rising by around 25 per cent annually. It has also pledged to break even at the EBITDA level in mid-2023.

It's fair to say the share price has taken a bit of a beating since the start of the year. Whether this is investor myopia of the kind mentioned earlier, or missteps by the company is hard to tell.

What it appears to have done is left a valuation anomaly.

Canaccord Genuity put it quite bluntly. It reckons at just 1.8-times sales and with increasing visibility over an accelerating growth trajectory, the shares are too cheap. It calculates the stock is worth 115p, or roughly double the current price.

Canaccord is broker to CloudCall, so the cynics will probably respond thus: 'Well they would say that wouldn't they?'

Here's a quote from an uninterested party, SureSwift Capital, an American company that helps sell software-as-a-service companies.

'For smaller, bootstrapped SaaS businesses (that are profitable and growing), valuation multiples tend to range between three and five times [sales],' it says.

Do the words 'overlooked' and 'under-appreciated' ring a bell?
Broadband and landline customers will soon be able to switch provider in a one touch process, Ofcom announced this week.

The aim is to make switching telecoms firm quicker and easier with residential customers only having to contact their new company rather than both the new and old.

As a result, customers should be able to switch in as little as one day, where possible and the aim is to remove a major barrier to moving provider.

Households can already switch between providers on Openreach's copper network, such as BT, Sky and TalkTalk by following a process where their new provider manages the switch.

Broadband and landline customers will soon be able to switch provider in a one touch process

But for the first time, customers switching between different networks or technologies  for example, from a provider using the Openreach network to one using CityFibre's, or from Virgin Media to Hyperoptic  will be covered by the simpler process.

This is Money takes a look at how this will work and when it could come into force.

How does switching currently work?

Currently, broadband and landline customers need to contact both their existing and new provider to co-ordinate the switch.

This includes trying to bridge the gap between the old service ending and the new one starting.

Previous Ofcom research showed two in five who decide against switching were put off by the hassle of having to contact more than one provider.

Another 43 per cent were put off as they think it will be too time-consuming. Of those who do switch, 24 per cent who contact their current provider face unwanted attempts to persuade them to stay.

Therefore, the regulator decided it was time to make the process easier.

How it will work after the new changes are enforced

Ofcom will introduce the new 'one touch' process which it says will make it easier to get a faster package, cheaper deal or better customer service when customers switch provider.

It will also make it quicker  just one day where this is technically possible.

Below Ofcom has set out exactly what steps customers will need to take.

1. A customer will contact their chosen new provider and give their details.

2. The customer then automatically receives important information from their current provider.

This includes any early contract termination charges they may have to pay, and how the switch may affect other services the customer has with the company.

3. If the customer wants to go ahead, the new provider will then manage the switch with new services beginning on an agreed date when the old services cease.

Under the new rules, providers will also have to compensate customers if things go wrong and they are left without a service for more than one working day.

Ofcom has also banned notice-period charges beyond the switch date.

It is hoped the new plans will make it easier for customers to switch landline & broadband

When will this take place?

All providers must have the 'One Touch Switch' process in place by April 2023.

This will involve making significant changes to their systems and will require a wide range of companies to work together.

Ofcom said it has made it clear to industry that work must start immediately to meet the deadline.

Lindsey Fussell, Ofcom's networks and communications group director, said: 'Household finances are strained at the moment, so switching broadband provider could help keep your bills down.

'We're making it as easy as possible for you to break up with your broadband provider and take advantage of the deals on offer.'

What do providers think of the changes?

While many of the providers praised the changes, some wanted the new rules to go even further.

A BT spokesperson said: 'We want to make switching broadband providers as simple as possible for consumers, regardless of which network they are on.

'By allowing customers to only have to notify their new provider, we believe this process will do just that.

'We're keen to get the new process up and running quickly, and we urge all providers to work collaboratively on this.

'We also want the new process to extend to switching Pay TV providers, so that the benefits of seamless switching are not undermined for those who take a "triple play" bundle of voice, broadband and pay TV.'

This is Money has asked Virgin Media and TalkTalk for comment but have not yet received a reply.

Experts have praised the move by Ofcom but some providers think it could go even further

What has the reaction from experts been like?

Reaction from the telecoms industry has generally been positive with experts encouraging Ofcom to implement the scheme as soon as possible.

Rocio Concha, Which? director of policy and advocacy, said: 'The coronavirus crisis has meant consumers are more reliant on a good broadband connection than they've ever been before - so it's positive to see the regulator removing barriers that are preventing people switching providers and getting a better deal.

'This new one touch switch process must now be implemented swiftly so that consumers can reap the benefits as soon as possible.

'Consumers also shouldn't delay looking for a new deal - anyone unhappy with their current provider could potentially save up to 143 a year and get improved service by switching.'

Other experts hope the new rules will encourage more customers to switch providers.

Richard Neudegg, head of regulation at Uswitch, added: 'This is another important stepping stone in helping the country upgrade to full fibre.

'Switching broadband can feel like a complicated process and can put some consumers off searching for a better deal, potentially costing them 90 a year as they sit out of contract with their existing provider.

'Ofcom's new one touch switch plans will make switching more consistent regardless of provider, meaning a simpler and potentially faster experience for consumers.

'Under the new system it could be possible for some broadband switches to go live the next day, with providers forced to pay compensation if you are left without a connection for more than 24 hours. It's now vital providers turn their focus to implementation.

'This solution will help future-proof broadband switching and give consumers much-needed peace of mind when it comes to getting a better connection.

'Making things easier for consumers will become especially important in the future as more homes get access to gigabit-capable connections, from a wider range of infrastructure providers, so consumers can move to next-generation services with minimal fuss.'
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Ferrari's F40 is arguably one of the greatest poster cars of all time - and one being sold at auction in a matter of weeks could be among the least used examples available.

The 1989 model has one owner from new who has put a mere 1,112 miles on the clock since taking delivery.

Not a single mile has been put on it since October 1992, when the keeper placed the stunning Rossi Corsa red F40 into temperature controlled storage, where it has remained before it heads to the auction block on 10 October, with an estimated sale value of 860,000 to 1.3million.

Time capsule Ferrari F40 to be sold at auction: This example of the iconic Italian poster car will go under the hammer later this month at a Bonhams sale - and it could exceed its 1.3million higher estimate

The Ferrari is one of a feast of ultra-exotic models being offered to collectors at Bonhams' Zoute auction in Belgium in just over a week.

Just 1,315 F40s were built during a four-year production run from 1988 to 1992, all of which were left-hand drive and finished in the same red paint scheme when they left the factory.

This is one of the more desirable versions built without a catalytic converter or the option of adjustable suspension which was purchased by the vendor in June 1989.

The keeper is described by Bonhams as a 'passionate motoring enthusiast and Ferrari aficionado' who already had a collection of Italian supercars dating back to the 1970s.

The 1989 model has one owner from new who put a mere 1,112 miles on the clock in the three years he drove it before putting it into storage

It was placed into temperature-controlled storage in October 1992 where it has remained before it heads to the auction block on 10 October, with an estimated sale value of 860,000 to 1.3million

The car is one of a selection of collectible motors being offered at the Bonhams Zoute Sale in Belgium on 10 October

He ordered the motor at Belgian Ferrari specialists, Garage Francorchamps, with the optional wind-up windows instead of the basic sliding windows designed to shave weight.

He also asked for it to be fitted with air conditioning - another extra customers had to request at the time.

It was delivered and registered to the vendor's company on 15 December 1989 through a leasing agreement, which had been cancelled by 1992 when the car was taken off the road.

The Ferrari was then placed into temperature-controlled storage, where it has remained for 29 years almost the date of Bonham's auction.

There is a service sticker in the door opening to remind the owner to return the car for its next service at 6,000 kilometres (3,728 miles) in 1993.

It is being sold with just 1,790 kilometres on the odometer, its original tool kit untouched and as well as the service book in the current and sole owner's name. The service book is stamped on one occasion only: at 1,226 kilometres on 11 June 1990.

The 1989 example is one of the more desirable versions built without a catalytic converter or the optional adjustable suspension

Just 1,315 F40s were built during a four-year production run from 1988 to 1992, all of which were left-hand drive and finished in the same Rossa Corsa red paint scheme when they left the factory

The F40 has a 2.9-litre, twin-turbocharged V8 engine that produces a massive 478bhp at 7,000rpm. For the seriously speed-addicted, this could be boosted by 200bhp by means of a factory tuning kit

Bonhams said: 'Totally untouched and totally original, this ultra-low mileage and outstanding Ferrari F40 has hardly seen the light of day in 30 years making this almost certainly unique and fully documented example an incredibly rare find and worthy of the closest inspection.'

If it does sell for 1.3million, it will be around 800,000 shy of the auction record for an F40, which was achieved at the recent Pebble Beach Concours dElegance event.

That car was one of the last F40s produced in 1994 and sold by Gooding & Company for $2,892,500 (approx 2.1million), which was well in excess of the $2.2million higher estimate.

While it was a US-spec car - and therefore appealing to the America collectors in the event's attendance - it had 2,500 miles on the clock, suggesting the 1,112-mile Zoute F40 could also eclipse its predicted winning bid price.

Experts at Hagerty, which tracks values of classic cars across the world, expect ultra-low mileage F40 values to soon exceed the $3million (2.2million) point, which could be promising for the upcoming Bonhams Ferrari.

The sale comes just months after a rare Ferrari F40 that was repainted in blue achieving a sale price of 1,000,500 in July on specialist website The Market - becoming the first seven-figure car to be sold on an online platform for collectible models in Europe.

This particular model is something of a worldwide social media star due to its ultra-rare paint colour and its previous influencer owner, Sam Moores, who is the a freelance photographer, creator of the popular Car Chat podcast and boasts over 67,000 followers on Instagram. He also set up a unique 'f40blu' Instagram account for the car, which has over 4,000 followers.

Introduced in 1988 to celebrate Enzo Ferrari's 40 years as a motor manufacturer, the iconic F40 was the ultimate supercar and is historically significant as the first production passenger car to have a claimed top speed of over 320 kilometres an hour (199mph).

It is also the last Ferrari to be personally approved by Enzo Ferrari prior to his death in 1988.

There is a service sticker in the door opening to remind the owner to return the car for its next service at 6,000 kilometres (3,728 miles) in 1993

The F40 is still today regarded as one of the ultimate road cars, with Ferrari's Formula 1 experience used to develop the ultra-light model

The doors, bonnet, boot lid and other removable panels were carbon fibre to trim weight, along with a stripped out interior that came with no carpets or trim - and plexiglass windows as standard

It features a 2.9-litre, twin-turbocharged V8 engine producing a massive 478bhp at 7,000rpm. For the seriously speed-addicted, this could be boosted by 200bhp by means of a factory tuning kit.

Flat out, it could hit 201mph when new - which is 17mph faster than a Boeing 747 needs to achieve to take off.

The F40 is still today regarded as one of the ultimate road cars, with Ferrari's Formula 1 experience used to develop the ultra-light model.

A one-piece plastic moulding, the body was bonded to the tubular steel chassis to create a lightweight structure of immense rigidity.

The doors, bonnet, boot lid and other removable panels were carbon fibre to trim weight, along with a stripped out interior that came with no carpets or trim - and plexiglass windows as standard.

Penned by legendary designer, Pininfarina, the F40 incorporated the latest aerodynamic aids in the form of a dam-shaped nose and high rear aerofoil.

Bonhams says it is 'one of the last great analogue supercars' that was 'designed and built at a time when the driver was expected to be in full control and before the introduction of electronic interventions in the form of anti-lock brakes, traction control, stability control, and paddle-shift automatic gearboxes, which have since become the norm'.
Amidst all the fears over the economy, one industry is booming in the UK like no other.

It's a multi-billion pound earner, it is innovative, it is fast-moving, the leading practitioners are extremely intelligent and entrepreneurial. Only one problem: the industry is fraud.

No-one bothers to do a Bonnie and Clyde and physically rob a bank any more. Why use a gun when a keyboard is a more potent weapon? Covid-19 has provided perfect conditions for it to flourish and the figures provide evidence of its rapid expansion.

Taking control: Banks want financial fraud needs to be included in the Online Harms Bill

In the first six months of this year, there has been a 71 per cent increase in 'authorised' fraud, where people are conned into handing over funds or personal details, with losses of 355m.

In truth, fraud is too mild and white-collar a word to do justice to the effects. What is happening is a wave of theft amounting to hundreds of millions of pounds a year, leaving some victims with their lives ruined and the banks picking up huge bills that ultimately are passed on to honest customers.

The money stolen is channelled into crimes such as human trafficking, drug smuggling and terrorism.

Much of it goes unreported as people have a sense of shame about being fooled.

They shouldn't. Several senior banking executives have privately admitted to me they have almost fallen for a scam  I have narrowly missed being cleaned out myself.

You don't need to be stupid to succumb: it just takes a moment's inattention. The banks come in for criticism because many victims are not reimbursed. Fewer than half of those who have fallen prey to 'authorised' fraud get their money back.

Even so, the High Street lenders are devoting major resources to fighting fraud: NatWest spends more on combating, preempting and reimbursing fraud than it does on its branch network.

It has 5,000 staff working on anti-fraud and money laundering, which is one in ten of its employees in the UK.

What a terrible waste of resources that could be productively deployed.

David Lindberg, chief executive of retail banking, describes the UK as a paradise for fraudsters and worse than other places. This is partly, he says, because Britain is digitally advanced so there is more opportunity for sophisticated stealing, and partly because we Brits are very trusting.

The internet is infested with brand cloning scams where fraudsters masquerade as legitimate financial companies.

Impersonation scams where fraudsters pose as Royal Mail, DPD, the NHS or HMRC to send out bogus texts and emails have shot up, with people losing nearly 130m through these in the first half of the year.

This is not within the banks' control. Nor is the craze for cryptocurrencies, which are used by crooks to move money rapidly.

What can be done? We have all become used to instant payments but there is a case for throwing some sand in the system. A few hours' delay in the clearance of risky payments would curb fraud, and not be a major inconvenience for genuine transactions.

Banks want financial fraud needs to be included in the Online Harms Bill. The problem has extended far beyond the banking system. Yet as things stand, the banks are pretty much the only ones on the hook.
Britain should lift the fracking ban to help alleviate the energy crisis and secure future gas supplies, according to industry experts.

Ministers announced a moratorium on the process in 2019, after a scientific study found it was too difficult to predict if it would trigger small earthquakes.

Concern: Ministers announced a moratorium on the process in 2019, after a scientific study found it was too difficult to predict if it would trigger small earthquakes

Last week Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said he did not 'think fracking was the answer'.

Fracking involves shooting a mixture of sand, water and chemicals into shale rocks to crack them and release the gas.

Supporters argue that rules around tremors had been stricter than in other countries and that developing UK shale reserves could help wean Britain off imports.

Britain has a sprawling deposit of gas in shale rock called the Bowland Formation. Katherine Gray, spokesman at UK Onshore Oil & Gas, said: 'It is bizarre when just a mile under northern and central England lies a gas resource so immense that if we extracted just 10 per cent of it, we could meet the UK's gas demand for 50 years.'

Francis Egan, chief executive of Cuadrilla, said: 'Importing shale gas by ship from all corners of the globe, whilst leaving our own shale gas resources unexplored and undeveloped, is symptomatic of the misjudged approach that has led us to this point.'
Sir Terry Leahy is set to return to supermarkets after spearheading the 7billion takeover of Morrisons.

The former Tesco boss advised the successful bid by private equity giant Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R)  which triumphed against a rival offer from Fortress in a rare auction.

Leahy, 65, is widely expected to become Morrisons' chairman once the deal completes, marking his first role at the helm of a top British supermarket in ten years.

At the helm: Sir Terry Leahy (pictured) advised the successful bid by private equity giant Clayton, Dubilier & Rice

New York-based CD&R put its first offer forward in June. The company went head-to-head with Fortress in a blind auction on Saturday, winning the showdown by just a single penny with a 287p-a-share bid, compared with 286p put forward by Fortress.

Morrisons' board backed CD&R, with Leahy saying he was 'gratified' by the support.

Leahy added: 'We continue to believe that Morrisons is an excellent business, with a strong management team, a clear strategy, and good prospects.' CD&R's takeover makes Morrisons the latest in a string of major British companies to fall to private equity since the Covid crisis began.

Many of the swoops have been on companies on the FTSE 250, where Morrisons is listed.

Others including Aggreko, Ultra Electronics and St Modwen Properties have also been targeted.

CD&R's move on Morrisons was criticised by sceptics who argued it could be ruined by the typical private equity model, which sees vulture funds buy up companies, restructure them, break them apart and sell within a few years. But Leahy insisted CD&R was the right owner, citing his friendship with Sir Ken Morrison, the company's longtime boss and son of its founder.

During his campaign, he said: 'I knew Ken Morrison well and I understand the vision and values he built his business upon  values now championed by David Potts and the wider team.

'And that's why we're so excited to work with that team, not only to preserve those traditional strengths of Morrisons but to build on them with innovation, capital and new technologies.'

The supermarket traces its origins back to 1899. It now has nearly 500 sites, around 118,000 staff and is the fourth largest in the UK.

Shareholders will vote on the deal later this month. If they wave it through, it still faces regulatory scrutiny and hurdles.

In his 14 years in charge at Tesco, Leahy transformed the company and became one of Britain's most successful businessmen. From humble origins, he began working for Tesco as a marketing executive in 1979 after following his then-girlfriend to London.

Leahy was on the company's board by 1992, becoming chief executive in 1997. He turned the company into Britain's biggest grocer and was the architect of the Tesco Clubcard scheme  the first of its kind.

The lifelong Everton-fan and father-of-three stepped down in 2011 and later chaired budget retailer B&M  which was previously owned by CD&R.
My husband and I divorced. Our divorce didn't state that we couldn't share pensions, so I was wondering if I was entitled to a share of his private pension?

As from 2016 I can't use his National Insurance contributions and I was left with nothing and four children at the time.

SCROLL DOWN TO FIND OUT HOW TO ASK STEVE YOUR PENSION QUESTION

Pension and divorce question: Our divorce didn't state that we couldn't share pensions, so I was wondering if I was entitled to a share of his private pension?

Steve Webb replies: Dealing with sharing pensions on divorce is a complex area and it is always good to get professional advice if at all possible.

Although paying for advice can seem expensive, the cost can often be recovered many times over if you get a better deal as a result. But let me give you some general information about how the process works.

With regard to the state pension, as you suggest, the position of divorced people depends on whether you reached state pension age before or after 6th April 2016.

If you reached pension age before that date you come under the 'old' state pension system.

Under that system, a person who was still divorced at pension age (so had not remarried) should benefit from their ex-spouse's contributions up to the date of their divorce. These can be used to boost their basic state pension.

Steve Webb: Find out how to ask the former Pensions Minister a question about your retirement savings in the box below

In addition, any 'additional' state pension (often called SERPS) that an ex-spouse is entitled to can be shared, but only as part of a formal divorce settlement signed off by a court.

Those who divorce *after* reaching pension age can get their basic state pension reviewed, but they must notify DWP of their divorce for this to happen.

For those who reach pension age on or after 6th April 2016, the new state pension system has very little provision for those who divorce.

In particular, there is no general provision for using the contributions of an ex spouse to boost your own state pension.

However, if your ex spouse had a relatively large state pension entitlement (one in excess of the standard flat rate) then any excess above the flat rate can in principle be shared.

Again, this would have to be part of a formal divorce settlement.

In terms of private pensions, there are various ways in which someone who divorces can benefit from the pensions of their ex spouse, and different rules may apply in Scotland from the rest of the United Kingdom.

In England and Wales, the three main ways in which you can benefit from the pension of your ex spouse are:

'Pension sharing', where you receive part of the value of your ex spouse's pension at the point of divorce; this could be, for example, through a transfer from their pension into a new or existing pension in your name, or by making you a member of their occupational pension scheme in your own right; this is available for divorces after 1st December 2000.

where you receive part of the value of your ex spouse's pension at the point of divorce; this could be, for example, through a transfer from their pension into a new or existing pension in your name, or by making you a member of their occupational pension scheme in your own right; this is available for divorces after 1st December 2000. 'Offsetting' , where the pensions of your ex spouse are valued and you get something extra *instead* of a share of their pension; for example, in return for not claiming a share of your ex spouse's pension you might be able to negotiate a bigger share of the value of a family home;

, where the pensions of your ex spouse are valued and you get something extra *instead* of a share of their pension; for example, in return for not claiming a share of your ex spouse's pension you might be able to negotiate a bigger share of the value of a family home; Pension 'earmarking' (technically known as an 'attachment order'), where you are given the right to receive a part of your ex spouse's pension from their pension scheme; for example, if they are a member of an occupational pension scheme you would get a share of their pension when they draw it; this approach is much less used today than in the past, not least as it does not provide for a 'clean break' from your ex spouse.

There are pros and cons of each approach, and valuing pension rights is a highly complex business so it is very important to get professional advice if possible.

If you had a court order when you divorced then it would generally be very difficult to reopen that settlement now, even if there was no allowance made at the time for pensions.

However, if there was no court order at the time it may be possible to get a court order now, and this could take account of pensions.

But if a long time has passed since you divorced the court may not feel it is fair to open things up at this stage. Again you would need to take legal advice.

A very helpful guide for consumers on how pensions are handled on divorce can be found at: A survival guide to pensions on divorce | Advicenow.
Alex and Maggie Murdaugh's marriage was a relationship in crisis as Maggie demanded answers about their dwindling funds and they repeatedly argued over money and his drug use in the weeks before her brutal shooting, DailyMail.com can reveal.

A maelstrom of violence, conspiracy and relentless publicity has swirled since Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, were found shot dead by dog kennels at the family's hunting lodge in South Carolina.

But there has been little real insight into the Murdaugh marriage or family life, until now.

Today, DailyMail.com can lay bare the true extent to which the Murdaugh household was fractured, as an inside source speaking exclusively to us, has told of the scenes that they witnessed.

According to the source, who has known the family for more than three years and spoke on condition of anonymity, 'Their marriage was absolutely on the rocks.'

A source close to the Murdaugh family told DailyMail.com that Alex and Maggie's marriage was in crisis

The couple repeatedly argued over money and his drug use in the weeks before her brutal shooting. According to the source, who has known the family for more than three years and spoke on condition of anonymity, 'Their marriage was absolutely on the rocks'

'Alex and Maggie didn't look at each other like they were married. There was no love lost between them. I never saw them touch or be affectionate to each other.

'It was like he had just checked out of the family, and she was stuck because she had been there so long, but she had started squirreling money away in her closet.

'I don't know if that was because she was planning to leave or because she knew that she didn't always have money to pay the bills.

'She confronted him about money more than once and his response was always the same, 'Leave it to me. I'll figure it out just like I did the last time.'

Maggie, the source told DailyMail.com, had long dealt with her husband's now much reported abuse of prescription pills but, they said, 'I don't think she'd had to worry about money before. That was new for her.'

The source explained, 'I remember one day, it must have been a few months before she was killed, she was crying because she had written a check at a charity luncheon, and it had bounced.

'She thought at first there must have been some mistake but when she found out there wasn't she was mortified and upset.

'I think when Maggie married Alex she didn't have to think about money or where it was coming from and once she started asking questions she definitely picked her battles.'

Murdaugh's response was always the same, they said, 'He'd always tell her not to worry about it, that he'd figure it out, he'd fix it.

'He was just so checked out of the family by the end. He never gave her any real answers that I heard.'

And in a now chilling detail, the source continued, 'One thing that Maggie really loved was to be at the dog kennels. She loved those dogs  there was one in particular that she was very fond of.'

According to the source her routine was familiar to the household, 'She would go down there at least once a week, usually late afternoon or as the sun was setting. It was her thing.'

About one week before her death  and the last time the source saw her alive  they recalled, 'Maggie was saying that with the beginning of the summer she was worried that Paul would start drinking more and partying harder.'

She told them that she feared he had 'inherited his father's problem with addiction,' and her solution was to find ways to spend more time with him.

The source said, 'She asked him to spend more time with her and to help her with the kennels. Maggie said she needed to keep an eye on Paul, so she wanted him to go with her to make sure the dogs were okay.'

According to the source, the dogs were 'nothing more than trackers' to Murdaugh who had little care for them. The source added that Murdaugh rarely went down to the kennels where he found Maggie and Paul's bodies.

Moselle Hunting Lodge where Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were gunned down June 7 at the dog Kennels. About a week before their death Maggie asked Paul to spend more time with her and to help her with the kennels, the source reveals

The source said that Maggie feared their son Paul (left) had 'inherited his father's problem with addiction,' and her solution was to find ways to spend more time with him

According to the source, who has known the family for more than three years, 'Their marriage was absolutely on the rocks'

It was Murdaugh, 53, who called 911 to report the grisly discovery. Maggie had been shot multiple times, including in the back, with a semi-automatic rifle. Paul had been shot twice  in the face and torso  with a shotgun. One of the weapons belonged to the family though investigators have not confirmed which.

It is now three months since the shootings and South Carolina Law Enforcement (SLED) has released scant detail of their investigation.

Maggie was worried her son Paul (pictured in his mugshot) would start heavily partying and drinking during the summer months. When he died he was facing trial for the boating death of Mallory Beach

They have consistently refused to answer DailyMail.com's questions as to whether Murdaugh - who has a 'cast-iron alibi,' according to his attorney - is a person of interest and have declined to publicly clear him if he is not.

According to the source relations between all the family members were strained in the weeks and months before Maggie and Paul were shot.

Murdaugh was increasingly 'reckless' in his drug use, they said, while Maggie expressed growing concerns about money.

She allegedly consulted a forensic accountant to dig into the family finances, while People magazine has reported that she visited a divorce attorney just six weeks before her murder.

As for the sons they could not have been more different in terms of personality, the source said, claiming, 'Buster was very sweet, a real mama's boy, but Paul was a spoiled brat.

'He knew he had money and he made sure everyone else knew it. It was very clear that Paul thought he'd never get in trouble because of who his family was.'

In fact, Paul was facing up to 25 years in prison on three felony counts in relation to a fatal boating accident that happened in February 2019. He was at the wheel, 'drunk and belligerent,' when he ploughed his father's boat into pilings on Archer's Creek.

Five of the six teens on board survived with minor injury but 19-year-old Mallory Beach was flung from the vessel and killed.

The accident and its aftermath had placed yet more strain on the household and its finances.

Beach's mother, Renee, brought a wrongful death suit against Murdaugh and Buster, whose ID Paul used to buy alcohol on the night of the crash.

Murdaugh's life has unraveled at a dizzying rate. He has been charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and filing a false police report following an incident September 4 when he claimed he was the victim of a drive-by shooting

Crime scene tape is visible on the stretch of Old Salkehatchie Road where Alex Murdaugh reported having been the victim of a drive by shooting. He is accused of hiring a hitman to kill him

DailyMail.com exclusively revealed that Murdaugh's insurance company refused to defend him against it or to honor the two insurance policies that he had to the tune of $6million.

Meanwhile, the source told DailyMail.com, 'Alex was very angry with Paul about it but not because he'd caused the death of another person so much as because he'd brought such trouble and attention on the family.'

Another passenger, Connor Cook, has since filed a suit claiming that Murdaugh conspired to frame him as the driver and intimidate him out of speaking with law enforcement.

Murdaugh has been accused of embezzling millions from the family law firm Peters Murdaugh Patrick Elztroth & Detrick (PMPED) of which he was a partner

In the months since Maggie and Paul's deaths, the source said, Murdaugh had seemed 'like a desperate man.'

The source claimed that in those intervening months they heard Buster and his father argue more than once. They recalled, 'In one [argument] Buster was telling his father to get it together. He said, 'You're the only parent I have left.'

Certainly, Murdaugh's life has unraveled at a dizzying rate. Against a backdrop of intrigue, and three other wrongful deaths that have been linked to the family, he is currently the subject of more than one criminal investigation.

He stands accused of misappropriating funds from the life-insurance of housekeeper Gloria Satterfield who died following a 'trip and fall' accident at the Murdaugh home in February 2018.

He has been accused of embezzling millions from the family law firm Peters Murdaugh Patrick Elztroth & Detrick (PMPED) of which he was a partner.

He swiftly issued an apology of sorts in which he said he regretted many of his decisions, came out as an opioid addict and announced he was going into rehab.

And in a bizarre twist he has been charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and filing a false police report following an incident September 4 when he claimed he was the victim of a drive-by shooting.

Murdaugh subsequently admitted to staging the shooting himself - recruiting former client and distant cousin Curtis 'Eddie' Smith, 61, to shoot him so that his surviving son, 'Buster,' could claim his $10million life insurance policy.

Just one week before this bizarre incident, according to the source, 'Buster and Alex were talking about the fact that the life insurance wasn't paying out on Maggie or Paul. My understanding was that there was a $6million policy on her and $4million on him.'

Murdaugh's attorney Dick Harpootlian has denied the existence of any such policies.

The source maintained, 'Alex was talking to Buster about it and told him that soon he 'wouldn't have to worry about any of that.'

'That was about one week before he got shot in that shooting, he supposedly staged to get his own life insurance.'

The source said that Murdaugh was 'just so checked out of the family by the end. He never gave her any real answers that I heard'

The source said, 'I don't believe Alex wanted to die. He never seemed that way. It seemed almost spiteful to me that he would distract the police from the investigation into Maggie and Paul's deaths like that.'

Murdaugh's attorney Harpootlian has insisted that Murdaugh and Maggie's marriage was the picture of 'domestic bliss,' but DailyMail.com's inside source, who had a ringside seat on the marriage, has said it was nothing of the sort.

In truth, the said, 'It seemed like Alex had just washed his hands of his family. He was checked out and she could either look the other way, knowing all that she knew, or start again.

'I worry that her looking the other way is what got her killed.'

The source told DailyMail.com, 'They'd had secrets they kept a long time. Maggie was well aware of Alex's prescription pill problem and had been for years.

'I saw her digging a bottle of pills that didn't have Alex's name on it out of the trash more than once. On one occasion she told me she was going to confront the person whose name was on it, but I don't know if she ever did.'

They added, 'Maggie was a very sweet person. She was different from the rest of them. She was a Murdaugh in name only. What happened was so awful. She didn't deserve that, and she deserves to get justice.'
Critics are slamming Twitter after its fact-checkers added a 'misleading' alert to an obituary about a young woman who reportedly died after contracting a rare blood-clotting disease induced by the COVID-19 vaccine.

Twitter user Kelly Bee shared the obituary for Jessica Berg Wilson, of Seattle, with the caption 'an "exceptionally healthy and vibrant 37-year-old young mother with no underlying health conditions," passed away from COVID Vaccine-Induced Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia. She did not want to get vaccinated.'

Twitter flagged the tweet as 'misleading' with a link to an article on 'why health officials consider COVID-19 vaccines safe for most people.' The tweet was also 'shadow banned,' meaning it cannot be replied to, shared or liked.

Wilson, a 37-year-old mother-of-two, died on September 7 of Vaccine-Induced Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia, a rare blood disease in which tiny clots form throughout the body, destroying platelets and preventing the blood from reaching vital organs, according to the obituary.

The tweet came from an unverified Twitter user named Kelly Bee, who shared the The Oregonian's obituary for Jessica Berg Wilson, of Seattle

Most critics were disgusted that Twitter was 'censoring' an obituary and reacting by encouraging their followers to help it go viral despite the company's alert. Kelly Bee posted it Friday and Twitter has since removed the 'misleading' label and lifted the shadow ban. The tweet garnered 7,193 quote tweets, 4,167 retweets and 4,222 likes as of Sunday night.

After posting it Friday, Kelly Bee followed up with another tweet and wrote, 'Twitter has shadow banned this obituary for being 'misleading.' It's not. Please RT, so this BS backfires on them.'

Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy tweeted the obituary with the caption, 'For [on Twitter] we are not afraid to follow the truth wherever it may lead,' unless of course it contradicts what Dr. Fauci or the enlightened government and tech overlords say you must do for your healthcare #HealthcareFreedom.'

Sebastian Gorka, who served in the Department of Defense under former President Donald Trump, tagged Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in a post asking what about the obituary is misleading. He wrote, 'Hey @jack, Jessica was healthy and died. Why are you censoring that fact as 'misleading??' '

Twitter's fact checkers added a 'misleading' label to an obituary about a young woman who died after contracting a disease induced by the COVID-19 vaccine. The woman, Jessica Berg Wilson, is pictured above with her husband Tom and their daughters Clara (left), 3, and Bridget, 5

A number of conservative bloggers also retweeted the obituary, including Ben Domenech, a writer for The Federalist, who wrote, 'Who @Twitter decided it was okay to say an OBITUARY is 'misleading'?'

Sean Davis, also of The Federalist, wrote, 'Twitter is now censoring obituaries.'

Tyler Cardon, the CEO of Blaze Media, tweeted it with the caption, 'There is nothing inaccurate or misleading about this Tweet, but Twitter wants you to believe there is.'

Outspoken conservative actress Gina Carano shared the obituary and tweeted, 'When is enough going to be enough? The vaccine is obviously not for everyone. Check the [Vaccine Adverse Event Recording System] report. I know someone who passed away from the vaccine as well. Healthy 56 year old woman. The vaccine took her out in 3 days. These Biden mandates are murdering these people.'

Carano referenced the VAERS, a government website that allows users to share any side effects they've experienced after getting vaccinated.

Another Twitter user named Penny, whose bio simply reads 'anti-Communist,' shared the tweet with the caption, 'To flag obits as misinformation is a new low, even for Twitter.' And Twitter user Brian, whose bio lists that he's a law student, tweeted the obituary with the caption, 'The social media censors won't let you retweet the original tweet. Let's make this tweet go viral.'

Jessica Berg Wilson's greatest goal in life, according to the obituary, was to 'be the best mother possible' to her daughters Bridget, 5, and Clara, 3.

'Nothing would stand in her way to be present in their lives,' it reads. 'During the last weeks of her life, however, the world turned dark with heavy-handed vaccine mandates. Local and state governments were determined to strip away her right to consult her wisdom and enjoy her freedom. She had been vehemently opposed to taking the vaccine, knowing she was in good health and of a young age and thus not at risk for serious illness. In her mind, the known and unknown risks of the unproven vaccine were more of a threat.'

The obituary continues to disparage government vaccine mandates as leading to Berg Wilson's death, stating, 'But, slowly, day by day, her freedom to choose was stripped away. Her passion to be actively involved in her children's educationwhich included being a Room Momwas, once again, blocked by government mandate.

Ultimately, those who closed doors and separated mothers from their children prevailed. It cost Jessica her life. It cost her children the loving embrace of their caring mother. And it cost her husband the sacred love of his devoted wife. It cost God's Kingdom on earth a very special soul who was just making her love felt in the hearts of so many.'

In lieu of flowers, Berg Wilson's family requested that those mourning her donate to the Sacred Heart Shelter for Families.

The obituary does not state which vaccine Berg Wilson received, when she was diagnosed with VITT or if she sought treatment for the disease before succumbing to it.

The blood-clot disease does not occur in patients who receive the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, but has been reported in 0.9 million people who received the Johnson and Johnson shot and 3.6 million people who opted for the Astra Zeneca vaccine, according to the American College of Cardiology.

The ACC states that there have been 207 cases of VITT per million patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and 2.4 cases of VITT per million people living in the US. While the disease can be fatal, it is treatable through plasma transplant.
Ten per cent of Australian households are currently accruing fines of $222 a day for not filling out the census - and others could end up paying ten times that amount.

Only a little more than 90 per cent of households have properly completed the form issued by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, since the deadline on October 1.

All those who did not know about the census, did not bother doing it, or provided incomplete information will receive a Notice of Direction demanding a payment of $222 every day until the form is completed.

Residents who deliberately provided false information will be slapped with an additional $2,220 fine.

The 2021 Census marked the 18th time the national survey has been distributed to households.

More than a million Australians are going to be fined $222 a day for not filling out the Census (stock image)

Every five years, Australians are tasked with filling out the form which takes a snapshot of the country's population containing questions about age, race, religion, marital status and more.

Australian statistician David Gruen said more than 10 million households have completed the national form.

'This a great result,' Dr Gruen said. 'It's critically important that everyone participates and well over 90 per cent have already done so.'

'But no community is too small to count, we want to make sure everyone is represented.'

This year's survey sparked controversy among the LGBTQI community over its lack of distinction between sex and gender.

The survey asks a question about people's sex, but not their gender, and even if someone selects 'non-binary' they are designated a sex, either male or female.

Campaigners feared it would lead to flawed data that won't show how many LGBTQI people there are in Australia, with no way of putting if someone is transgender.

Campaigners said that while a person's sex can be designated at birth, their gender can be different.

Only a little more than 90 per cent of the country has completed the form issued by the Australian Bureau of Statistics since the deadline on August 10 (stock image)

If a person chooses the non-binary option for their sex, there is a drop-down box to add more information.

However the Australian Bureau of Statistics has admitted they are not planning to record this data.

Instead, the ABS will simply randomly assign the respondent as either male or female.

The government department told The Feed that there they deliberately left off a section about gender identity inferring that such questions could result in a flood of immeasurable responses.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said the sudden demise of NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian - and two of her predecessors - showed that the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) was 'out of control'.

The role of the corruption watchdog is under intense scrutiny after Ms Berejiklian resigned last Friday in response to its announcement of a public inquiry into her conduct.

Ms Berejiklian was the third NSW Liberal premier to stand down as a result of ICAC investigations, after Nick Greiner resigned in June 1992 and Barry O'Farrell in April 2014.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said the demise of NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian showed that the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) was 'out of control' on Sunrise, while Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon called it 'a kangaroo court'

Gladys Berejiklian announced her resignation last Friday, the third NSW premier to stand down as a result of ICAC investigations, after Nick Greiner resigned in June 1992 and Barry O'Farrell in April 2014

On Sunrise this morning Mr Joyce described ICAC's inquiry as 'a little bit Spanish Inquisition', and he was supported by federal Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon, who said the anti-corruption body's operations were 'a failed experiment'.

'We elect politicians, not bureaucrats so the people should the final arbiter of whether they want someone or not,' Mr Joyce said.

'An ICAC out of control means the bureaucracy reigns supreme and politicians are basically terrified to do their job.'

Mr Joyce questioned the process whereby a politician is not told they've been referred to the watchdog and have to stand aside before they've been proven guilty of any offence.

'Politicians sometimes have to make hard decisions, it's not that they're corrupt, they're making decisions,' he said.

'The power of ICAC is lorded by people who want greater power for minority groups against the wishes of thee majority, that's how I see it.'

Mr Fitzgibbon, who is retiring from federal parliament at the next election, went so far as to call the watchdog 'a kangaroo court'.

'I'm a great supporter of the principle innocent until proven guilty and with ICAC for many years, just the opposite has been true,' he said.

'When you have a referral of any sort to ICAC, you're guilty until proven innocent and three Liberal premiers will testify to that fact.

'None of them ever had any adverse findings against them in the eyes of the law but were certainly hung out to dry by what I think is effectively a kangaroo court.'

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard was asked to comment on ICAC's power at a weekend press conference, telling reporters that while the body was needed, there should be a discussion about its effect of forcing democratically-elected leaders out of office even if they are ultimately exonerated.

'We do need an ICAC, there is no question that we need an ICAC, but whether it should be closer to the Hong Kong model, where these matters are dealt with behind closed doors until there is actually, definitely, a sufficient case, is a matter I think the community will look at,' he said.

Former NSW Premier Nick Greiner (right) set up ICAC in 1988 but became its first scalp in June 1992

Mr Greiner (right) pictured with fellow Liberal Premier Barry O'Farrell (left), who stepped down from the role in April 2014 over an undeclared bottle of wine

ICAC was first established by the NSW Liberals under then-Premier Nick Greiner in 1988 and was initially tasked with uncovering scandals associated with the former Labor government of Premier Neville Wran after its decade in power.

However it was Mr Greiner who became the watchdog's first high-profile scalp in June 1992 when he stood down over the offer of a public service job to former education minister Terry Metherell.

Mr Greiner was later cleared of wrongdoing in the matter by the NSW Court of Appeal.

In April 2014, then Liberal premier Barry O'Farrell resigned over not declaring he had received a gift of a $3,000 bottle of 1959 Grange Hermitage.

Mr O'Farrell had accepted the wine from Nick Di Girolamo, CEO of Liberal Party donor Australian Water Holdings in April 2011, a month after he won a landslide Coalition election victory in NSW.

It's not only Liberals who have been affected.

In June this year former NSW Labor ministers Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald, and Obeids son Moses Obeid, were found guilty of conspiracy to wilfully commit misconduct in public office over the allocation of coal licences on property owned by the Obeids in 2008.

The trial followed earlier ICAC inquiries into the conduct of Mr Obeid and Mr Macdonald.

Ms Berejiklian's downfall began with her appearance at an ICAC public inquiry in October last year, where she made the stunning admission about her relationship with former political colleague Daryl Maguire.

The inquiry into corruption allegations against Mr Maguire led to Ms Berejiklian revealing she had a 'personal attachment' to Mr Maguire after working together for more than 15 years. She said their relationship began in 2015.

The further public inquiry by the watchdog will investigate whether there was a conflict between Ms Berejiklian's public duties and her relationship with Mr Maguire.

Ms Berejiklian's resignation on Friday was following by the resignation of her deputy, Nationals MP John Barilaro, on Monday

More specifically, it will look into her role in awarding or promising grant funding to the Australian Clay Target Association and the Riverina Conservatorium of Music in Wagga Wagga, both of which fell within Mr Maguire's electorate.

Ms Berejiklian has denied any involvement in corruption in relation to the grants.

Her resignation on Friday was following by the resignation of her deputy, Nationals MP John Barilaro, on Monday, though the two resignations were not linked.

Current NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet is expected to be announced as Ms Berejiklian's successor as NSW Premier after a Liberal party-room meeting on Tuesday.
Ministers will 'look again' at planning reforms that lead to 'ugly developments', Oliver Dowden said yesterday.

The new Conservative Party chairman acknowledged the concerns of grassroots Tories that the strategy was costing the party votes and accused the Liberal Democrats  who won the seat of Chesham and Amersham from the Tories in June  of 'shamelessly stoking fears'.

In his speech to the Tory party conference in Manchester, Mr Dowden said Conservatives were 'looking again at our planning reforms'.

Ministers will 'look again' at planning reforms that lead to 'ugly developments', Oliver Dowden said yesterday

He told delegates: 'Our opponents  particularly the Liberal Democrats  have shamelessly stoked fears that changing the planning system will lead to ugly and disproportionate development.

'It's no good saying to voters in places like Chesham and Amersham, 'Trust me, I'm a politician.'

'Yes, Britain's growing population must have new houses but it's clear that additional safeguards are needed.

The new Conservative Party chairman acknowledged the concerns of grassroots Tories that the strategy was costing the party votes and accused the Liberal Democrats  who won the seat of Chesham and Amersham from the Tories in June  of 'shamelessly stoking fears'

'We need to set out in law measures to protect our towns, villages and precious countryside from being despoiled by ugly development.'

His remarks were echoed by Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg who referred to 'loony planning laws', citing the case of a concrete tower in Teesside granted listed status by English Heritage, which was then overturned by new Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries.

'That's the sort of loony planning law that we need tough-minded politicians to deal with,' he said.
Liz Truss quoted Margaret Thatcher during her keynote conference speech yesterday.

And it seems she also drew inspiration from the Iron Lady in her new hairstyle which resembled a modern twist on Mrs Thatcher's trademark tresses.

Addressing the Tory faithful, Miss Truss said: 'We will reach out to more countries who haven't historically been aligned to Britain and encourage a freer, more prosperous world.

Liz Truss quoted Margaret Thatcher during her keynote conference speech yesterday. And it seems she also drew inspiration from the Iron Lady in her new hairstyle which resembled a modern twist on Mrs Thatcher's trademark tresses

'As Mrs Thatcher said in her Guildhall speech just days after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989: "The message is clear... when people are free to choose, they choose freedom."

'And we need to give countries across the world that choice.'

At conference fringe event yesterday, Miss Truss also chose Mrs Thatcher, when asked in a round of quick-fire questions at a fringe event to pick between her and Winston Churchill.

Miss Truss was appointed Foreign Secretary in the reshuffle last month following demotion of Dominic Raab.

Miss Truss made no mention of Europe during her keynote speech.
An MP has raised hopes that prescription charges for hormone-replacement therapy could be scrapped.

Labours Carolyn Harris said she expects sufficient votes in support of her private members Bill to end HRT prescription charges in England.

Support from MPs would overcome a significant hurdle for the Bill  although it would ultimately need government backing to become law.

Mrs Harriss Bill would make HRT free for women in England, as it is in Scotland and Wales, and also covers rights at work, education for children and better training for GPs

Around 1.5million women aged 50 or older are going through the menopause in England and about a quarter suffer severe symptoms.

As well as hot flushes and night sweats, hormonal changes often lead to confusion and anxiety that can be misdiagnosed as early-onset dementia or depression.

HRT is taken by around a million women, typically in the form of pills, a cream or gel, which tackles menopausal symptoms.

However, it costs around 9 per prescription, which can see some women who are given two types of hormones forced to pay almost 100 a year.

Mrs Harriss Bill would make HRT free for women in England, as it is in Scotland and Wales, and also covers rights at work, education for children and better training for GPs.

The campaign to scrap prescription charges has been backed by former model Penny Lancaster, 50, the wife of Sir Rod Stewart.

She was wrongly prescribed antidepressants as she started the menopause and said she felt she was losing grip.

Mrs Harris, 61, who thought she was having a nervous breakdown during her menopause, said: For me, HRT was life-changing and I want women on lower incomes to have the option of this treatment.

'I am confident this Bill has support and will go through, with more than 100 votes of support, based on the MPs that have come to me and that I have spoken to.

The Menopause (Support and Services) Bill has already been backed by senior Tory MP Bernard Jenkin, who tweeted: The case for this is unanswerable. Menopause is misery for so many women.

Around 80 per cent of women suffer symptoms like hot flushes and mood swings when they go through the menopause, which typically happens between the age of 45 and 55.

While symptoms last seven years on average, one in three women suffer beyond that.

HRT is taken by around a million women, typically in the form of pills, a cream or gel, which tackles menopausal symptoms

The British Menopause Society (BMS) has also backed the call for free HRT prescriptions ahead of a second parliamentary vote on the issue on October 29

HRT helps by topping up levels of the hormone oestrogen and can also improve bone density although it carries a small increased risk of breast cancer.

Mrs Harris last week discussed her Bill on ITVs Loose Women, which has supported scrapping prescription charges for HRT.

Panellist Miss Lancaster said: My anxietys gone through the roof. Where Ive always been very patient, I feel like Im losing grip.

The British Menopause Society (BMS) has also backed the call for free HRT prescriptions ahead of a second parliamentary vote on the issue on October 29.

BMS chairman Haitham Hamoda said: Among those who want [HRT], some people can really struggle to pay for it, which is why we would support free prescriptions.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: Were deeply committed to ensuring those who want access to HRT get it and are taking immediate steps to drive womens health to the top of the agenda through the first government-led Womens Health Strategy for England.
A group of activists followed Sen. Kyrsten Sinema into a bathroom at Arizona State University on Friday to demand that the Democrat address immigration issues.

The activists, seemingly college-aged, confronted the senator outside the classroom where she teaches and followed her into the nearby bathroom, recording the incident as they walked.

'We knocked on doors for you to get you elected. Just how we got you elected, we can get you out of office if you don't support what you promised us,' one activist threatened.

Another, who introduced herself as Blanca, attempted to pull at Sinema's heartstrings by sharing a personal anecdote.

'I was brought here to the United States when I was three years old and in 2010 my grandparents both got deported because of S.B. 1070 and I'm here because I definitely believe that we need a pathway to citizenship,' Blanca said.

'My grandfather passed away two weeks ago and I was not able to go to Mexico and visit him because there is no pathway to citizenship. And if we have the opportunity to pass it right now than we need to do it because there's millions of undocumented people, just like me, who share the same story.'

A group of activists followed Sen. Kyrsten Sinema into a bathroom at Arizona State University on Friday to demand that the Democrat address immigration issues

'We knocked on doors for you to get you elected. Just how we got you elected, we can get you out of office if you don't support what you promised us,' one activist threatened.

The activists begged Sinema  who did not engage in discussion  to support President Joe Biden's Build Back Better agenda that would provide a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

'We need the Build Back Better plan right now,' one is heard saying.

'I am a survivor of human trafficking and it's because of the lack of work protections that we don't have. I need you to stand by workers...' another shared before the video cut off.

Sinema initially told the activists she was 'heading out' and couldn't speak at the time. When they continued to follow her into the restroom, she ignored them as she used the facilities and washed her hands.

Video of the encounter, which was shared on social media, prompted response from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) who has openly opposed illegal immigration.

He shared the video on Twitter with a caption reading: '#DeportBlanca.'

DailyMail.com has reached out to Sinema for comment.

The video, which was shared on social media, prompted response from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) who has openly opposed illegal immigration

Sinema is one of the key holdouts on Biden's $3.5 trillion social spending bill.

She slammed leaders of her own party on Saturday over their 'inexcusable' failure to hold a vote on the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan.

'The failure of the U.S. House to hold a vote on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is inexcusable, and deeply disappointing for communities across our country,' Sinema wrote.

'Denying Americans millions of good-paying jobs, safer roads, cleaner water, more reliable electricity, and better broadband only hurts everyday families.'

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (pictured with Senators Rob Portman, Joe Manchin and Jeanne Shaheen) slammed Democratic leaders on Saturday over their 'inexcusable' failure to hold a vote on the $1.2trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi canceled the vote on the Senate-passed infrastructure bill on Thursday as several far-left caucus members vowed to tank President Joe Biden's $1 trillion infrastructure plan, which centrists support, if the moderate faction does not also back the broader $3.5 trillion social spending bill that is packed with their priorities.

Although Democrats did not have enough votes to pass the infrastructure bill, Sinema argues that cancelling it was 'an ineffective stunt to gain leverage over a separate proposal.'

'My vote belongs to Arizona, and I do not trade my vote for political favors  I vote based only on what is best for my state and the country,' she said.

'I have never, and would never, agree to any bargain that would hold one piece of legislation hostage to another.'

Sinema also argued that she worked to deliver the infrastructure bill while also engaging in 'good faith negotiations' on the reconciliation package.

In a statement released on Twitter, Sinema argued that delaying the vote was 'deeply disappointing' and a betrayal of the trust of the American people.

'Good-faith negotiations, however, require trust. Over the course of this year, Democratic leaders have made conflicting promises that could not all be kept  and have, at times, pretended that differences of opinion within our party did not exist, even when those disagreements were repeatedly made clear directly and publicly,' she stated.

'Canceling the infrastructure vote further erodes that trust. More importantly, it betrays the trust the American people have placed in their elected leaders and denies our country crucial investments to expand economic opportunities.'

The video of Sinema being confronted in the bathroom came on the same day that another group of activists confronted Sen. Joe Manchin, of West Virginia  the Democratic party's other key holdout on the legislation.

In a video capturing the exchange, Manchin, aboard his $700,000 yacht named Almost Heaven, assured the West Virginian kayakers that Democrats were working to pass a reasonable bill.

West Virginians are kayaking to Joe Manchin's yacht and demanding he explain why he's stopping the reconciliation bill from advancingpic.twitter.com/Q09OC1aEHo  Eoin Higgins (@EoinHiggins_) October 1, 2021

Sen. Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, spoke to protesters from aboard his $700,000 yacht

Protesters kayaked to the ship to ask why their senator would not support his own party's $3.5 trillion infrustructe bill

One protester urged Manchin to vote for the bill while Democrats controlled Congress

'We're working hard, we really are,' Manchin said, looking down at the protesters who paddled up to speak with him 'We want to get a good bill that's a balanced bill, that's well done. And I know it won't be enough for some, it will be too much for others.'

When one of the protesters asked him he raise taxes for the wealthy, Manchin said that it would be a priority.

'That's the number one thing. We should be fixing the tax codes so everyone pays their fare share. We're taxing the rich, I agree. We're going to make the rich and the famous pay.'

Another protester pleaded with Manchin to pass the spending bill, saying that the Republican Party would likely take control of Congress in 2022.

'This is our one chance right now to pass the legislation. They're not going to pass something like this for the people,' the protester said.

Manchin rebuked the statement and said the bill was a work in progress.

He remains committed to slashing the infrastructure bill by more than half as the moderate Democrat continues the feud with his progressive counterparts.
Isaac Rodriguez, 22, has a long criminal record due to his serial thefts in drug stores and shops in New York City

A New York City kleptomaniac holds the record for the most shoplifting arrests in one year.

In 2021, Isaac Rodriguez, 22, was arrested 46 times for retail theft.

During that spree, he stole from Walgreen stores at least 37 times - including one Queens store which he hit at least 23 times.

In total he was arrested 57 times for offenses including petit and grand larceny and gang assault.

The 22-year-old has been a serial shoplifter since he was just 15 years old.

Since his criminal record started back in 2015, he has accumulated 74 offenses, The New York Post reported.

From baby formula, lotion, lingerie, and Dove soap to energy drinks and Sensodyne toothpaste, Rodriguez reportedly stole from dozens of stores in plain sight.

Police said he would usually enter the targeted place for the robbery with a bag that he'd fill with items he deemed convenient as store managers and employees watched.

Rodriguez was jailed this summer after bond to capture him was set at $15,000 by Queens Criminal Court Judge David Kirschner.

Although his shoplifting record was serial, most of Rodriguez's offenses were not bail-eligible.

But after being arrested for shoplifting at a Walgreens in Corona for the 13th time on August 24, he was unable to walk free because of a statue that made it possible for bail if an individual is caught committing a crime while out on their own recognizance for another crime.

Rodriguez's criminal history was limited to theft charges including petit and grand larceny until this summer, when his crime spree reached a violent turn.

In June, Rodriguez and other men robbed, hit, and stabbed 39-year-old Pablo Cusco in Jackson Heights after Cusco gave them a dollar they had asked for.

Commissioner Dermot Shea shared the posts' article on Rodriguez on Saturday and tweeted:'Insanity. No other way to describe the resulting crime that has flowed from disastrous bail reform law'

When Cusco refused to give his cellphone to the group, he was left with injuries on his legs and buttocks and had to be treated at Elmhurst Hospital.

'He almost killed me. He should stay in jail for sure, for sure,' Cusco told The Post. 'I was punched a lot and stabbed with a knife. I'm still scared because they may find me again.'

Rodriguez was arrested and charged with gang assault, and was allowed to leave jail on his own recognizance, allowing him to steal from the Walgreens in Corona in August.

Another Walgreen, however, was hit by Rodriguez even more times than the one in Corona.

Rodriguez targeted the drug store on 91-08 Roosevelt Ave in Jackson Heights at least 23 times, according to police.

'This guy comes here every day stealing, every single day. He comes and he steals,' the manager told the Post.

'We call 911 and make a report, and that's it. Our company policy is if anyone comes, because of a safety issue, we cannot stop him. We cannot do anything,' the manager added.

They claimed Rodriguez had been stealing from the store for over a year, sometimes attacking even three times in the same day.

Other stores that Rodriguez stole from are CVS, Target, Victoria's Secret, and Macy's.

'Looking at his rap sheet, there isn't a hinge moment. He has a storm of criminal activity in his life. The outcomes have not dissuaded him from this path. There is a pattern of behavior that perpetuates a cycle of crime here. And it hasn't been stopped,' a police officer told The Post.

Rodriguez targeted a drug store on 91-08 Roosevelt Ave in Jackson Heights at least 23 times over, according to police. The manager claimed Rodriguez had been stealing from the store for over a year, sometimes attacking even three times in the same day

Commissioner Dermot Shea shared the posts' article on Rodriguez on Saturday and tweeted: 'Insanity. No other way to describe the resulting crime that has flowed from disastrous bail reform law.'

New York City has seen an all-time high in shoplifting crimes.

In September, the city experienced the most reports of retail theft since 1995, with 26,385. Thirty-two percent more than last year.

NYPD Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael LiPetri told The Post that shoplifters do not usually face the same accountability that offenders facing other crimes.

LiPetri said that 37percent of individuals arrested for larceny are already facing felony charges.

Methods like increasing police patrols in neighborhoods highly affected by shoplifters have been implemented, but the numbers remain higher than ever.
A health bureaucrat was forced to announce NSW had recorded 623 new Covid cases and six deaths alone with the state government in chaos.

Dr Jeremy McAnulty delivered the figures just hours after John Barilaro made the shock announcement he would be quitting as deputy premier on Monday.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian three days earlier announced she would be resigning due to a corruption investigation by ICAC.

Ms Berejiklian regularly led the daily Covid-19 press conferences to provide the latest updates. Mr Barilaro had also made appearances, mostly to address outbreaks in regional NSW.

Dr McAnulty took just six minutes to break down the numbers including regional and suburban infection rates, and vaccine doses administered, and took no questions.

NSW has recorded 623 new Covid-19 cases and six deaths overnight with the state's deputy chief health officer (pictured, Dr Jeremy McAnulty) forced to announce the new figures alone after the NSW premier and deputy premier stepped down from their roles

The state has begun its final scheduled week in lockdown before homes and hospitality businesses can once again welcome visitors as NSW nears its 70 per cent double dose vaccination target

The state has begun its final week in lockdown before homes and hospitality businesses can once again welcome visitors as NSW nears 70 per cent vaccination.

Across the state, 88.4 per cent of people aged 16 and over had received a first vaccine, and 67.1 per cent were fully vaccinated by midnight on Saturday.

There were 76,892 Covid-19 tests conducted and 13,045 vaccines administered in the past 24 hours.

Among the new deaths is a person aged in their 40s, three in their 60s, one in their 70s and one in their 90s.

Four were unvaccinated, one received only their first dose and the other was fully-vaccinated.

Of the new cases, 144 were from South Western Sydney Local Health District, 103 from Western Sydney LHD and 51 from Sydney LHD.

NSW recorded 623 new Covid-19 cases on Monday - down from 667 recorded on Sunday

The NSW Government on Sunday outlined new public health advice to come into effect on October 11 to manage the spread of Covid-19 as restrictions ease.

Under the advice, which may change as case numbers do, vaccinated and unvaccinated people will have different isolation times if they are a close contact of a Covid-19 case.

Vaccinated close contacts of a positive case must get tested and isolate for seven days.

On the sixth day they must get tested again and if the result is negative, they can end isolation after day seven.

They must work from home for an additional week where possible and not attend hospitality or high-risk settings, even if it is their place of work.

Everyone, vaccinated or unvaccinated, with COVID-19 symptoms has been urged to get tested and self-isolate and anyone who tests positive must still isolate for 14 days

NSW on Sunday reported 667 new locally acquired cases and 10 deaths, the first time daily case numbers have been below 700 since August 19

Unvaccinated close contacts must get tested and isolate for 14 days, get tested again at 12 days and if a negative result is received isolation can end after the fortnight.

Everyone, vaccinated or unvaccinated, with Covid-19 symptoms has been urged to get tested and self-isolate and anyone who tests positive must still isolate for 14 days.

Businesses will be responsible for taking 'reasonable measures to stop unvaccinated people entering premises' such as having prominent signs, QR code requirements and only accepting valid proof of vaccination.

Hospitality, retail, gyms, hairdressers and beauty salons will be monitored by authorised officers and on-the-spot fines of $1,000 will apply to individuals who do not comply or use fraudulent vaccination records.

Businesses may be fined $5,000 for breaching the rules.

Lismore has begun the first day of a weeklong lockdown. The stay-at-home orders have been extended to any resident who has visited the town or anywhere in its local council since September 28.

NSW on Sunday reported 667 new locally acquired cases and 10 deaths, the first time daily case numbers have been below 700 since August 19.

Across the state, 88.4 per cent of people aged 16 and over had received a first vaccine, and 67.1 per cent were fully vaccinated by midnight on Saturday

The NSW government on Sunday outlined new public health advice to come into effect on October 11 to manage the spread of COVID-19 as restrictions ease

Of the 10 deaths in the 24 hours to 8pm on Saturday, four people were not vaccinated, four had received one dose and two were fully vaccinated.

The deaths take the toll for the current outbreak to 372.

There are 981 Covid-19 patients in hospital in NSW, with 195 in intensive care units and 93 on ventilators.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard said a child aged between zero and nine was in ICU, as were three people aged between 10 and 19.

Mr Hazzard said the resignation of Ms Berejiklian did not change the roadmap out of lockdown for NSW.

'She has been absolutely critical to the team,' he said.

'But that doesn't mean the health team and the rest of the government won't continue to do what we need to do.'

NSW Health has detected virus fragments in sewage at Kingscliff and Banora Point in far northern NSW.

Casino is in lockdown, with stay-at-home orders applicable to anyone who has visited the northern NSW town since September 24.
The number of jobless Victorians collecting unemployment benefits has skyrocketed by close to 50 per cent during the state's sixth lockdown.

There are about 82,000 more people dependent on JobSeeker and Youth Allowance schemes since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic 18 months ago.

The impact of statewide lockdowns had catastrophic effects on Victorian businesses that are only just starting to see light at the end of the tunnel.

The number of jobless Victorians collecting unemployment benefits has skyrocketed by close to 50 per cent in the last 18 months (pictured, people lining up for Centrelink in March 2020)

There is now 82,000 more people dependent on JobSeeker and Youth Allowance schemes since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic 18 months ago (pictured, a closed food court)

Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief Paul Guerra said the longer the state stayed in lockdown, the harder it was for the economy to bounce back.

'We must find a way for business to trade at 70 per cent double-vaxxed and beyond before it's too late,' he told the Herald Sun.

Mr Guerra said the government needed to support hard-hit Victorian businesses with 'sufficient support' so they could efficiently open when restrictions were eased.

In August, 258,464 Victorians were reliant on payments from JobSeeker and Youth Allowance according to statistics from the Social Services Department.

In February 2020, during the state's first lengthy lockdown a smaller number of 176,611 Victorians requested the same weekly payments.

The number of residents who lost work and are reliant on government handouts is 46 per cent higher than pre-Covid numbers.

Victoria's statewide restrictions have been estimated to have cost the Victorian economy $700m a week (pictured, a closed pub in Melbourne)

In August, Victoria's unemployment rate was just 4.1 per cent with 149,100 residents indicating they were jobless, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

This figure is almost 110,000 smaller than the number of residents who applied to receive JobSeeker and Youth Allowance payments in the same month.

Nationally, the number of Australians on the dole has increased by 34 per cent.

The statewide restrictions are estimated to have cost the Victorian economy $700 million a week, with ongoing impacts on mental health and people's livelihoods.

On Sunday, Premier Daniel Andrews defended the record and said he was proud of Victorians for what they have endured and for 'giving so much' to save lives.
John Barilaro did not hold back in his final press conference as the NSW deputy premier, giving a fitting end to his colourful political career.

The loose-lipped National Party leader has courted controversy throughout much of his decade-long tenure in state politics, and his resignation speech was no different.

His candid speech and answers to questions included joking he was having a mid-life crisis at 49, referencing Fight Club, and blaming his exit on a 'racist' YouTuber.

'I wear my heart on my sleeve and fight every day for what I believe in,' he unapologetically told reporters on Monday morning.

Lauded as a straight-shooter by colleagues after his resignation, the bush MP often went rogue with statements at odds with Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

These and numerous gaffes gave him a reputation as a loose cannon, but one that was never afraid to stand up for country NSW.

John Barilaro and Gladys Berejiklian (pictured) both retired from their respective roles in state government in the last week

But Mr Barilaro did acknowledge a handful of regrets, including how he handled the war over a koala conservation bill that almost tore the government apart.

He also admitted hurting the regional community of Wilcannia when he compared funeral attendees to 'd**kheads' who breached Covid restrictions with a house party in Maroubra.

One thing he doesn't regret is his defamation lawsuit against Google and YouTuber Jordan Shanks, also known as FriendlyJordies.

With tears in his eyes, he told reporters on Monday that battle should be fought in private, and had an enormous impact on his decision to quit politics.

The 49-year-old accused Shanks of spouting 'vile racism' hidden as journalism, noting the 'disgusting, vile, racist commentary on social media has taken a toll'.

'As a young boy with immigrant parents, I understood what racism was from a young age,' he said during a press conference on Monday morning.

In one YouTube video, the entertainer referred to Mr Barilaro as a 'big, fat, wog c**t', 'greasy Ned Kelly' and 'a conman to the core, powered by spaghetti'. Mr Barilaro (centre at a barbecue in 2018) is unapologetic for the way he handled himself throughout his career, and told media on Monday morning: 'I wear my heart on my sleeve and fight every day for what I believe in.' The father-of-three is proud of his heritage and the sacrifices his parents made for him growing up, citing his late father as his 'biggest inspiration' for getting into politics The father-of-three is proud of his heritage and the sacrifices his parents made for him growing up, citing his late father as his 'biggest inspiration' for getting into politics.

Mr Barilaro's father, Domenico, died in 2020 after a long-fought battle with diabetes.

'Though he was a strong man the end was grim, with his part of his leg amputated, we watched him die in excruciating pain,' Mr Barilaro said when justifying his support for an assisted dying bill.

'I've said in my inaugural speech to Parliament that dad was my hero and I said it during my eulogy.'

On Monday, he said his decision to retire from politics felt like a 'final goodbye' to the man who first inspired him to enter public service.

'I've got to say, my family... they gave me the privilege of being able to get into politics and without them I wouldn't have been able to achieve it,' he said.

'They've paid the ultimate sacrifice, they've worn the brunt to them I say thank you for giving me the opportunity.

'In the last 10-and-a-half years, last year was very tough when I lost Dad. Dad was a big part of me running, getting into politics, someone who was part of his community and today it's almost time to say farewell properly in honour of Dad.'

Shanks quickly prepared a statement which claimed the press conference 'defamed me as a racist'

Shanks quickly prepared a statement which claimed Mr Barilaro used the press conference to 'defame me as a racist'.

'That in itself is a vile and offensive accusation about me that anyone following these issues can see straight through,' Shanks said.

'He dodged, weaved and bristled when asked about the substantive and serious allegations that our videos have exposed.'

The duo will go head-to-head in the Federal Court in a judge-only trial where Shanks has already indicated he will rely on a truth defence.

'After a decade of proudly advancing his interests and blaming other people for his mistakes, what a fitting way to go out,' Shanks said in the fiery statement.

'He may be able to dodge questions in a press conference but I doubt he'll be able to in a courtroom.'

Mr Barilaro said his retirement was a long time coming and had nothing to do with Ms Berejiklian's ICAC investigation into corruption.

The straight-shooting politician compared ICAC to the cult film Fight Club on Monday and said he would not be commenting on the investigation.

'I've made it my absolute number one rule in politics not to talk about ICAC,' he said. 'The first rule of fight club is not to talk about fight club.'

John Barilaro has resigned as Deputy Premier of NSW just three days after Gladys Berejiklian stepped down due to a corruption investigation by ICAC

Mr Barilaro spoke of his efforts after the bushfire crisis and has been known as a staunch advocate for regional communities in NSW

On a more serious note, Mr Barilaro said legally, he would not be allowed to discuss details if he had been subpoenaed, but said he personally would never make public comments on the matter.

It's unlike Mr Barilaro not to make his opinions known.

Back in August, he was forced to apologise after comparing up to 300 attendees at a funeral in Wilcannia to 'd**kheads' who threw a party in Maroubra in defiance of Covid restrictions.

The deputy premier was heard saying: '300-plus people attended a funeral in Wilcannia, illegally you could argue. And we're now paying the price of that outbreak, I don't think you could've ever prepared for such an outcome.

'[It's] no different to the 16 dickheads in Maroubra that decided to have a party last week that have now infected about 50 people.'

The comments sparked outrage among the largely Indigenous population, and he later said he didn't intend to 'place blame' on mourners.

'While no disrespect was intended it is crucial that everybody gets the message  large gatherings spread this extremely dangerous virus that causes severe illness and death,' he said of the Maroubra super-spreader event.

Likely incoming Premier Dominic Perrottet said Mr Barilaro's legacy would be in the work he did championing for regional communities

Another regret of Mr Barilaro's career was when he made a very public stance against Ms Berejiklian and her government when she tried to implement a koala conservation bill after the devastating 2019-20 bushfires.

The Koala Habitat Protection State Environment Planning Policy identified 123 trees that were needed as food or shelter for the animals.

Mr Barilaro's stance threatened to rip apart the Liberal-National Coalition entirely when he blindsided the premier by announcing his MPs would abstain from voting on Coalition bills as they fought for changes to the koala protection plan.

The move effectively robbed the government of its majority and provoked a stern response from the premier.

'It is not possible to be the deputy premier or a minister of the Crown and sit on the crossbench,' Ms Berejiklian fired off in a media statement.

She gave Mr Barilaro and his Nationals ministerial colleagues a deadline to declare support for her government or be sacked from cabinet.

Mr Barilaro said the policy would be taking away land from farmers, and took a four week mental health break in the wake of the fallout.

'If we were to support that we would become the laughing stock of regional and rural NSW,' he said.

Mr Barilaro is looking forward to spending time with his family over the summer, joking he may be in the midst of a midlife crisis as he approaches 50 years old

The two party leaders later agreed to amendments of the bill, which Mr Barilaro declared a win for the Nationals and regional NSW.

'I have regrets over some of the things I have said on developments around koala habitats... If I could turn back time I would have handled that differently,' he said afterwards.

On Monday, he said that though he 'always has regrets' there comes a point in time where a person must 'accept they are just part of the learning, the strengthening of character'.

'There is no question last year was a tough time... one of my regrets is that we didn't steer that in a different way,' he said.

The intense pressure of the 'koala war' got to him, and he took a month of stress leave to look after his mental health when the saga was finally over.

While detractors described his position as deputy premier 'untenable' after the fallout, Mr Barilaro managed to claw his way back into the government's good graces.

But Mr Barilaro has never been able to fully escape claims his opposition to the bill made him a 'koala killer'.

Moments before making his announcement on Monday, a staffer who was checking the microphone was filmed joking 'there will be a koala over here going ''yeah'',' he said with a fist-pump.

Mr Barilaro's 'pork barrelling' legacy Mr Barilaro, who has embraced his nickname 'Pork Barrel-aro', said he would never apologise for doing everything in his power to get as much funding as possible for his constituents. While the phrase is used as an insult, Mr Barilaro said he would 'never distance himself' from the term because he's 'sick to death of the mistruths spun about pork barrelling'. Pork barelling is the process of spending taxpayer money in a community to gain or maintain political support. 'If we fund a government seat, it's a rort,' he said. 'If we fund a non-government seat, it's only because we want to win them at the next election.' 'It's a name that I've never distanced myself from because I'm actually proud of... what it represents,' he told the committee. 'What we call pork barrelling is investment  I dare you to turn up to these communities and tell them why they don't deserve these projects.' Advertisement

Mr Barilaro has on several occasions found himself in hot water after sending fiery text messages to political allies.

In May 2020, private text messages sent from Mr Barilaro emerged calling Liberal colleague Andrew Constance a 'c**t'.

The scandal prompted Mr Constance to withdraw from contesting the federal seat of Eden-Monaro and remain in state politics.

'When I said politics is stuffed in this country, and some of the people in it need to have a long hard look, I meant it. I hadn't signed up to contest federally to be called that type of smear,' he said at the time.

Mr Barilaro revealed on Monday the two men worked through their differences after the scandal and the outgoing deputy premier wished Mr Constance well as he again ventured into federal politics.

'I rang him yesterday and said ''we can be friends again'' and I think that's important,' he told reporters.

'I thought he showed courage in making sure the next generation of MPs have an opportunity to take his spot as minister.'

Mr Barilaro reportedly berated then-Nationals federal leader and Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack over a similar matter, accusing him of not being supportive enough when he considered making a switch to federal politics.

He allegedly told Mr McCormack he had 'failed as a leader'.

Mr Barilaro thanked his family for their sacrifices throughout his time in politics (pictured with wife Deanna and daughter Sofia)

John Barilaro has resigned as Deputy Premier of NSW just three days after Gladys Berejiklian stepped down due to a corruption investigation by ICAC

In a third text message, relating to a different matter, he reportedly called NSW Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello a 'deadset d**k' to voice his displeasure over a budget meeting.

'You are seriously a deadset d**k,' the message read, according to NCA Newswire.

'Brand Berejiklian. Brand Customer Service. Seriously!! No one cares about Service NSW in the UH by-election. What an insult!! To me. To all my NATS.'

Back in 2017, at the peak of Liberal party squabbling and infighting at a federal level, Mr Barilaro suggested then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull should give Australians an early Christmas present by quitting.

Ms Berejiklian, as well as members of Mr Barilaro's own party, were forced to publicly align themselves with Mr Turnbull in the wake of the outburst.

Despite his often divisive manner of expression, Mr Barilaro enjoyed great success in state politics, including five years as leader of the National Party and deputy premier.

The role, he said, has been relentless.

'It has taken a toll. It is tough on anybody in public life, to continue in this role, especially under so much scrutiny,' he said on Monday.

'Five years or is a very long time as a leader of a political party,' he said. 'I've given it everything I possibly could.'

He has no intentions of making a move into federal politics and will enjoy his retirement over the summer before considering his next career move.

'I turn 50 in November, maybe this is a midlife crisis,' he joked. 'But I won't be running for federal politics.'

Mr Barilaro worked closely alongside Ms Berejiklian

Mr Barilaro worked closely with Premier Berejiklian in designing the roadmap out of lockdown and was a founding member of the Covid crisis committee.

He described himself as 'the architect of the roadmap out of lockdown' and hoped his legacy would be bringing hope and certainty to the people of NSW.

But Mr Barilaro has also come under fire several times during the pandemic for appearing to have opposing views to Ms Berejiklian.

In June this year, he went rogue and said the government had 'lost control' of the spread of he Indian Delta variant.

Mr Barilaro said the government hadn't locked down sooner because 'that wasn't the advice' they received from chief medical officer Dr Kerry Chant's team.

'Right throughout this 18 months, we've relied heavily on Kerry Chant's team and the advice has not led us astray. But this (strain) is very different, the way it's spread'.

Ms Berejiklian refused to address the comments but said she would continue to follow the health advice, while a government insider suggested Mr Barilaro was simply 'bored and lonely' as he waited out a two-week Covid isolation period as a close contact of a known case.

Mr Barilaro (centre left speaking with John Howard in 2007) was inspired to get into politics by his own father

Another embarrassing faux pas occurred weeks later on the Today show, where he admitted to host Karl Stefanovic the government didn't know which lockdown policies were working and which weren't.

Then again last month, Ms Berejiklian was forced to slap down Mr Barilaro's rogue claims that unvaccinated people would have restrictions removed when NSW was 80 per cent vaccinated.

'There will be businesses that don't like the idea [of mandatory vaccines] but the 70 per cent road map gives us an opportunity to open up the economy and lift restrictions,' Mr Barilaro told 2GB radio on September 13.

'If they don't want to do it that's fine, you might have to wait another three to four weeks after that when we get to 80 per cent and above.

'I apologise for that but it will only be a three to four weeks of short inconvenience.

'According to the national road map and to the Doherty Institute report, we'll go and then lift further restrictions including for the unvaccinated.'
Boris Johnson is set to announce all of Britains electricity will come from green sources by 2035, it emerged last night.

The Prime Minister will reportedly reveal the new policy this week as he seeks to reduce the countrys dependence on gas and other fossil fuels.

He will use his conference speech to commit the Conservatives to plans to invest significantly in renewable and nuclear energy, The Times reported.

Mr Johnson is expected to say that sourcing all electricity from renewables would be a clear step towards the Governments ambition to hit net zero emissions by 2050.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson attends the Conservative Party conference at the Manchester Central convention centre

It would also reduce the countrys dependence on gas, the surging price of which has left Britons facing an energy crisis and soaring bills.

Green sources generated 43 per cent of Britains electricity last year, while gas, oil and coal produced around 40 per cent. The rest of the countrys needs were filled by nuclear sources.

The new 2035 target will mean a significant growth in offshore wind generation as well as in nuclear capacity to provide a baseload of electricity which will met variable supply and demand.

It will require, over the coming decade, a minimum quadrupling of offshore wind from the current level.

Joss Garman, UK director of the European Climate Foundation, said: This will go a very long way to putting Britain on track to net zero, and it will help to end the exposure of millions of households to volatile gas prices.

Coming on top of a matching pledge from President Biden and prime minister Trudeau, this will give a boost to prospects for Cop26.

Mr Johnson is expected to say that sourcing all electricity from renewables would be a clear step towards the Governments ambition to hit net zero emissions by 2050

It comes after Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng ruled out future fracking in the UK yesterday amid warnings that the Government would need to raise taxes on gas.

The minister said that too many communities would be disrupted in England and said nuclear and renewables was the answer to the energy crisis.

Kwarteng told Conservative Home that he was previously very pro-fracking.

But he added that while he was an energy minister he discovered that fracking was far more disruptive than had been predicted.
The Government is facing fresh calls to tighten Britain's defences against 'dirty money' after a leak of offshore data exposed the secret financial dealings of some of the world's richest and most powerful people.

The cache of almost 12 million files - dubbed the Pandora Papers - is said to cover the activities of some 35 current or former world leaders, more than 300 public officials and 100 billionaires.

According to BBC Panorama, which conducted a joint investigation with the Guardian, among the disclosures in the papers are details of the way prominent and wealthy people have been legally setting up companies to secretly buy property in the UK.

Following the release, the Crown Estate said that it was looking into the 67 million purchase of a London property from a company which reportedly acted as a 'front' for family of Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev whose record has long been criticised by anti-corruption campaigners.

A spokesman for the Crown Estate said: 'Before our purchase of 56-60 Conduit Street, we conducted checks including those required by UK law.

'At the time we did not establish any reason why the transaction should not proceed.

'Given the potential concerns raised, we are looking into the matter.'

Meanwhile, former prime minister Tony Blair and his wife, Cherie, angrily denied any wrongdoing after the papers said they were able to save more than 300,000 in stamp duty when they acquired a 6.45 million London property by buying the offshore company which owned it.

The Crown Estate said that it was looking into the 67 million purchase of a London property from a company which reportedly acted as a 'front' for family of Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev (pictured) whose record has long been criticised by anti-corruption campaigners

A spokesman for the Crown Estate said: 'Before our purchase of 56-60 Conduit Street (pictured), we conducted checks including those required by UK law. At the time we did not establish any reason why the transaction should not proceed. Given the potential concerns raised, we are looking into the matter'

The Crown Estate said it carried out all checks required by UK law before purchasing 56-60 Conduit Street (highlighted in red)

In a statement, a spokeswoman for the couple said they had bought the property in 'a normal way through reputable agents' and should not have been 'dragged into a story about "hidden" secrets of prime ministers etc'.

The spokeswoman said: 'The vendor was an offshore company. The Blairs had nothing whatsoever to do with the original company nor those behind it.

'The vendor sold the company not the property - again a decision the Blairs had nothing to with.

'Since the purchase was of a company no buyer would have had to pay UK stamp duty on that transaction.

'However, because the Blairs then repatriated the company and brought it onshore, they are liable for capital gains and other taxes on the resale of the property which will significantly exceed any stamp duty.

'For the record, the Blairs pay full tax on all their earnings. And have never used offshore schemes either to hide transactions or avoid tax.'

Tony Blair and his wife, Cherie, angrily denied any wrongdoing after the papers said they were able to save more than 300,000 in stamp duty when they acquired a 6.45 million London property by buying the offshore company which owned it

The disclosures are reported to be based on the leak of files from 14 financial services companies in countries including the British Virgin Islands, Panama, Belize, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Switzerland.

The files were passed to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in Washington which then shared access to the data with a number of media organisations including the Guardian and Panorama.

The reports acknowledge that many of the transactions in the documents involve no legal wrongdoing.

However the Guardian said they highlighted the central co-ordinating role played by London, with the city home to wealth managers, law firms, company formation agents and accountants serving their 'ultra-rich' clients

Duncan Hames, policy director at the campaign group Transparency International UK, said the disclosures should act as a 'wake up call' for the Government to deliver on long-overdue measures to strengthen Britain's defences against 'dirty money'.

'These leaks show that there is one system for corrupt elites who can buy access to prime property and enjoy luxury lifestyles and another for honest hard-working people,' he said.

'The UK must redouble its efforts in tackling illicit finance, bringing in long overdue transparency reforms to reveal who really owns property here as well as resourcing regulators and law enforcement to clamp down on rogue professionals and corrupt cash held in the UK.'
Illegal super-strength vapes have been impounded after the Mail revealed they were being sold to children.

In a string of raids, trading standards officers seized e-cigs with more than double the legal level of nicotine.

Our investigation found that Geek Bar Pros, which are the equivalent of smoking 125 cigarettes, were widely available in shops and online.

With nicotine levels as high as 5 per cent, they are so powerful that young users have reported nose bleeds, coughing up blood, headaches, chest pains and dizzy spells. The legal maximum nicotine level is 2 per cent. Despite it being illegal to sell vapes to under-18s, social media is awash with posts from teenagers describing being 'addicted' to the disposable devices, which cost between 5 and 7.

Officers from Oxfordshire County Council's trading standards unit swooped on 13 stores following calls from concerned parents.

They confiscated vapes with fruit, bubble gum and ice-cream flavours. Oxfordshire councillor Neil Fawcett said: 'It is unacceptable that vapers are unknowingly risking their health by using these illegal nicotine- intensive products.'

Despite it being illegal to sell vapes to under-18s, social media is awash with posts from teenagers describing being 'addicted' to the disposable devices

John Dunne, of the UK Vaping Industry Association. said: 'Illegal and counterfeit products are flooding into the market and consequently pose a potential health risk to customers. Inappropriately branded products are also being purposely marketed towards children.'

Leaked industry figures reveal that Geek Bar products, including the Geek Bar Pros, are selling at a rate of 53,000 a week in the UK, up from 2,000 in May. But these figures do not include online sales, which are likely to be one of the main ways children get them.

A spokesman for China-based Geek Bar said: 'We do not in any way condone the selling of vapes to those under the age of 18, nor the selling of non-compliant products.

'We are contacting all distributors and retailers that we work with to ensure that this is fully understood and that these third parties take full responsibility for their actions, or potentially face a legal challenge.'

Public Health England has warned about illegal super-strength vapes after a youngster needed hospital treatment.
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Boris Johnson today said he was 'very saddened' by the death of a former head of the Royal Marines who was one of Britain's most senior military officers.

The Prime Minister paid tribute to highly-decorated Major General Matthew Holmes CBE who died suddenly aged 54 in a suspected suicide, six months after leaving the role halfway through what is normally a three-year tenure.

Major General Matthew, a married father-of-two who lived in Hampshire, served in all the UK's recent conflicts and was Commandant General Royal Marines for 20 months from June 2019 until this April.

In March 2020 he welcomed Prince Harry, the former Captain General of the Royal Marines, and Meghan Markle to the Mountbatten Festival of Music, before sitting next to them at the Royal Albert Hall in London. It was one of the Sussexes' final engagements in Britain before they stepped down as senior royals and moved to North America.

Today, Mr Johnson said in a tweet: 'I am very saddened to learn of the death of Major General Matt Holmes. My thoughts are with Matt's family and friends at this difficult time, as well as the Royal Marines and Royal Navy who I know will feel this loss keenly.'

Major General Holmes, who died on Saturday, also won one of the UK's most prestigious gallantry awards, the Distinguished Service Order, for his leadership on the frontline in Afghanistan in 2007.

But earlier this year he left the Commandant General post following plans to 'double-hat' his two-star role with another position, amid defence experts warning that the merger would dilute attention given to the Royal Marines.

Major General Holmes was reported at the time by the Daily Telegraph to have had a 'really significant falling out' with the First Sea Lord, who had argued that the incumbent in future would be a three-star officer. However, a defence source claimed that Major General Holmes's scheduled move was part of the service's transformation.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed that the circumstances of his death were being investigated - but they are not thought to have been suspicious. However, it is understood that he took his own life, the Telegraph reported.

Major Holmes was married to his solicitor wife Lea and they had two young children. In April, he was part of the procession at Prince Philip's funeral towards the steps of St George's Chapel.

Major General Matthew Holmes CBE won the Distinguished Service Order for his leadership on the frontline in Afghanistan. He is pictured with his wife Lea and daughter Eleanor after receiving the award at Buckingham Palace in 2007

Major General Matthew Holmes welcomes Prince Harry, the former Captain General of the Royal Marines, and Meghan Markle to the Royal Albert Hall in London in March 2020

Major General Matthew Holmes receives the Distinguished Service Order from The Queen at Buckingham Palace in 2007

Major General Matthew Holmes (immediately left of Prince Harry) at the Royal Albert Hall in March 2020

An MoD spokesman said: 'Our thoughts and sympathies are with his family and friends at this difficult time and they have our deepest and heartfelt condolences. We request that their privacy is respected at this time.'

Major General Holmes had a distinguished career, which included operational tours in Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.

He commanded 42 Commando Royal Marines from 2006 to 2008 and was appointed as a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order for his leadership on operations in Afghanistan in 2007.

He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2019.

First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin KCB ADC, said: 'I am deeply saddened to hear about the tragic death of Matt Holmes.

'We mourn the loss of one of our most senior and highly decorated Royal Marines; a devoted former Commandant General who had served the nation, the Royal Navy and his beloved Corps with distinction for 33 years.

Major General Matthew Holmes was a pallbearer at Prince Philip's funeral during the procession to the steps of St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in April. He is pictured speaking to Sky News before the service

Tributes were paid last night to a former head of the Royal Marines who has died suddenly. Highly decorated Major General Matthew Holmes CBE served in all the UK's recent conflicts and was one of Britain's most senior military officers

Matthew Holmes served as Commandant General Royal Marines from 2019 until April this year

'Matt was also a dear friend to many, and a close friend of mine for over 20 years. He will be sorely missed by the Service and especially the Corps Family.

'But my thoughts, prayers and deepest sympathy are with Matt's family. Their loss is the greatest and most painful: we will be there for them now and always.'

Commandant General Royal Marines, Lieutenant General Rob Magowan CB CBE, said: 'My predecessor as Commandant General Royal Marines and my friend, Matt Holmes, tragically died at the weekend.

'My heart goes out to him and his family. We will honour him and all those closest to him. But I also think of you all.

'It matters not that he was a General, but it does that he is a Royal Marine. I remember and celebrate him, alongside all those who he is with now.

'We are one family, together, just as we learned, and as we trained, alongside each other at the Commando Training Centre. Once a marine, always a marine.'

Earlier this year Major General Holmes was a pallbearer at Prince Philip's funeral in April during the procession to the steps of St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.

At the time he recalled how generous Prince Philip was with his time whenever he visited the regiment, and once flew from London to Exeter to ensure he welcomed members of the regiment returning from Afghanistan.

Major General Holmes said: 'He hated fuss, so we would host him and he would go straight amongst the Marines and talk to our valiant warriors. He was always generous with his time.'

Speaking to Times Radio: 'We were utterly privileged and honoured to enjoy his company on numerous occasions. We had numerous encounters, and I think that was the beauty of his service with us.'

For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123, visit a local branch or go to www.samaritans.org
A former Facebook employee has unmasked herself as the source behind damaging leaks about the social media giant - and claimed it deliberately sought to stoke discontent to keep users coming back to their newsfeeds.

Frances Haugen, 37, came forward on America's top-rated news show 60 Minutes Sunday night, with the data scientist also accusing her former employer of contributing to the January 6 riots.

Haugen, who anonymously filed eight complaints about her former employer said: 'Facebook, over and over again, has shown it chooses profit over safety.'

Haugen claimed Facebook turned off 'safeguards' designed to stop the proliferation of misinformation and rabble-rousing after Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in the November 2020 presidential election.

That saw political content given a lower priority on users' news feeds in the run-up to the poll - only for executives to reverse course on realizing the change was turning users off.

Haugen, who is due to testify in Congress Tuesday about Facebook's alleged impact on its younger users, also claimed that decision directly-contributed to the violence at the US Capitol.

The former Facebook employee who is responsible for thousands of pages of leaked internal company research has been identified as Frances Haugen (pictured)

'As soon as the election was over they turned them back off, or they changed the settings back to what they were before to prioritize growth over safety. And that really feels like a betrayal of democracy to me,' Haugen stated.

Haugen, whose leaks formed The Wall Street Journal's 'Facebook Files' series, also said that Facebook's algorithms - mathematical formulae that help decide which information is most visible on users' feeds - favored hateful content.

She claimed that a 2018 change prioritizing divisive posts which made Facebook users argue was found to boost user engagement.

That in turn helped bosses sell more online adverts that have seen the social media giant's value creep close to $1 billion.

Haugen said: 'You are forcing us to take positions that we don't like, that we know are bad for society. We know if we don't take those positions, we won't win in the marketplace of social media,' she said.

The executive, who worked at Google and Pinterest before joining Facebook in 2019, said the scales fell from her eyes after the firm dissolved a unit on civic integrity she'd been working in after the 2020 election.

She explained: 'I dont trust that theyre willing to actually invest what needs to be invested to keep Facebook from being dangerous.'

'The version of Facebook that exists today is tearing our societies apart and causing ethnic violence around the world,' Haugen added.

'There were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook. And Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money.'

Haugen spoke out publicly for the first time since she anonymously filed at least eight complaints (an excerpt is shown above) with federal law enforcement

After realizing she could no longer trust her company to protect the public, Haugen secretly copied tens of thousands of Facebook internal research which she claims is evidence that 'the company is lying to the public about making significant progress against hate, violence and misinformation.'

'We have evidence from a variety of sources that hate speech, divisive political speech and misinformation on Facebook and the family of apps are affecting societies around the world,' the complaint reads.

Haugen claimed that Facebook's 'evidence of harm' extended to its Instagram app, commenting on a study that showed teen girls said the social network site worsened thoughts of suicide and eating disorders.

'What's super tragic is Facebook's own research says, as these young women begin to consume this  this eating disorder content, they get more and more depressed. And it actually makes them use the app more,' Haugen explained.

'And so, they end up in this feedback cycle where they hate their bodies more and more. Facebook's own research says it is not just the Instagram is dangerous for teenagers, that it harms teenagers, it's that it is distinctly worse than other forms of social media.'

'No one at Facebook is malevolent,' Haugen said. Mark Zuckerberg 'has never set out to make a hateful platform,' she added.

However, she says that they have decided the balance sheet is more important than ethics.

Haugen said the social network proved it could make a positive change when it altered content policies for several weeks surrounding the 2020 election, by deprioritizing political content in its Newsfeed algorithm.

But she claims that the company swiftly reverted to its old models when it realized that engagement in adverts had plummeted.

'Facebook has realized that if they change the algorithm to be safer, people will spend less time on the site, they'll click on less ads, and [Facebook] will make less money,' Haugen said.



Haugen secretly copied tens of thousands of Facebook internal research which she claims is evidence that 'the company is lying to the public about making significant progress against hate, violence and misinformation'

Haugen also alleged that the way Facebook has written its algorithm is changing the way countries are lead

Haugen's lawyers filed at least eight complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission outlining her findings and comparing them with the company's public statements.

The SEC did not confirm to 60 Minutes if they plan to take action against Facebook. DailyMail.com has also reached out to the organization for comment.

Facebook, however, did released a statement in response to the allegations: 'Every day our teams have to balance protecting the right of billions of people to express themselves openly with the need to keep our platform a safe and positive place.

'We continue to make significant improvements to tackle the spread of misinformation and harmful content. To suggest we encourage bad content and do nothing is just not true.'

Facebook head of global affairs Nick Clegg, appearing on CNN Sunday morning, also called the allegations that the social media giant is responsible for the Capitol riot 'ludicrous.'

'The responsibility for the violence on January the 6th and the insurrection on that day lies squarely with the people who inflicted the violence and those who encouraged them, including then-President Trump and candidly many other people in the media who were encouraging the assertion that the election was stolen,' he said.

Facebook head of global affairs Nick Clegg, appearing on CNN Sunday morning, also called the allegations that the social media giant is responsible for the Capitol riot 'ludicrous'

Meanwhile, a congressional panel will hear Haugen's testimony on Tuesday.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who is a member of the panel, told the Washington Post that the SEC should take Haugen's allegations that Facebook may have mislead investors 'very seriously'.

'Facebook certainly misled and deceived the public, and so their investors may well have been deceived as well,' Blumenthal said.

Lawmakers will also investigate if Facebook's products are harmful to children and whether or not the social media company undermined its safety efforts by disbanding its civic integrity team, as Haugen has alleged.

The social media giant confirmed that Antigone Davis, its global head of safety, would also testify before the Senate Commerce Committee Consumer protection panel.

Haugen's allegations have caused a headache for Facebook in recent weeks.

Some of the secrets contained in the trove of tens of thousands of pages of internal company documents she copied were previously leaked to the Wall Street Journal for a series of reports dubbed the 'Facebook Files', including damning revelations the company knew its platform Instagram is toxic to young girls' body image.

With more damaging allegations headed for the company Sunday, Clegg warned employees: 'We will continue to face scrutiny.'

Haugen's allegations have caused a headache for Facebook in recent weeks

According to Clegg's email, the whistleblower will accuse her former employer of relaxing its emergency 'break glass' measures put in place in the lead-up to the election 'too soon.'

Haugen claimed this played a role in enabling rioters in their quest to storm the Capitol on January 6 in a riot that left five dead.

The relaxation of safeguards including limits on live video allowed prospective rioters to gather on the platform and use it to plot the insurrection.

Clegg pushed back at this suggestion, insisting that the so-called 'break glass' safeguards were only rolled back when the data showed they were able to do so.

The email, from the company's Vice President of Policy and Global Affairs Nick Clegg (above), attempted to prepare staff for the allegations and launched into a lengthy defense of the company

Some such measures were kept in place until February, he wrote, and some are now permanent features.

'We only rolled back these emergency measures  based on careful data-driven analysis  when we saw a return to more normal conditions,' Clegg wrote.

'We left some of them on for a longer period of time through February this year and others, like not recommending civic, political or new Groups, we have decided to retain permanently.'

Clegg listed several safeguards which have been put in place in recent years and reeled off a list of success stories of handling misinformation around the election and shutting down groups focused on overturning the results.

'In 2020 alone, we removed more than 5 billion fake accounts  identifying almost all of them before anyone flagged them to us,' he wrote.

'And, from March to Election Day, we removed more than 265,000 pieces of Facebook and Instagram content in the US for violating our voter interference policies.'

Clegg admitted such policies were not ideal and resulted in many people and posts were impacted by this heavy-handed approach.

But, he said, an 'extreme step' was necessary because 'these weren't normal circumstances.'

'It's like shutting down an entire town's roads and highways in response to a temporary threat that may be lurking somewhere in a particular neighborhood,' he said.

Haugen claims the relaxation of measures on Facebook allowed rioters to plot the insurrection on the platform

Donald Trump speaking at a rally moments before his supporters stormed the Capitol

'We wouldn't take this kind of crude, catch-all measure in normal circumstances, but these weren't normal circumstances.'

He wrote that the company had removed millions of pages and groups from hate groups and dangerous organizations such as the Proud Boys, QAnon conspiracy theorists and content pushing #StopTheSteal election fraud claims.

The email also pushed back at an accusation that Facebook benefits from the divisiveness created on its platform.

'We do not profit from polarization, in fact, just the opposite,' he wrote.

'We do not allow dangerous organizations, including militarized social movements or violence-inducing conspiracy networks, to organize on our platforms.'

The VP called any suggestion the blame for the Capitol riot lies with Big Tech 'so misleading' and said the blame should be on the rioters themselves and the people who incited them.

'The suggestion that is sometimes made that the violent insurrection on January 6 would not have occurred if it was not for social media is so misleading,' he wrote.

'To be clear, the responsibility for those events rests squarely with the perpetrators of the violence, and those in politics and elsewhere who actively encouraged them.'

The lengthy email to staff ended by urging the workforce to 'hold our heads up high' and 'be proud' of their work.
YouTube star Jordan Shanks has returned serve to John Barilaro hours after the Deputy Premier said 'vile racism' had contributed to his decision to quit politics.

Mr Barilaro said defamation proceedings he launched against the YouTuber, also known as FriendlyJordies, and Google played an enormous role in his decision to step down just days after Premier Gladys Berejiklian handed in her resignation.

He accused Shanks of spouting 'vile racism' marketed as journalism, noting the 'disgusting, vile, racist commentary on social media has taken a toll'.

Shanks quickly prepared a statement which claimed Mr Barilaro used the press conference to 'defame me as a racist'.

'That in itself is a vile and offensive accusation about me that anyone following these issues can see straight through,' Shanks said.

'He dodged, weaved and bristled when asked about the substantive and serious allegations that our videos have exposed.'

John Barilaro has resigned as Deputy Premier of NSW just three days after Gladys Berejiklian stepped down due to a corruption investigation by ICAC

Shanks quickly prepared a statement which claimed the press conference 'defamed me as a racist'

The duo will go head-to-head in the Federal Court in a judge-only trial where Shanks has already indicated he will rely on a truth defence.

'After a decade of proudly advancing his interests and blaming other people for his mistakes, what a fitting way to go out,' Shanks said in the fiery statement.

'He may be able to dodge questions in a press conference but I doubt hell be able to in a courtroom.'

Mr Barilaro will be represented by leading defamation barrister Sue Chrysanthou, SC and the matter is expected to return to court this month.

He said on Monday he hopes the matter will be resolved outside of the public eye and was outraged when asked who funded the legal challenge.

'I'm funding it,' he said. 'I am paying the bill.'

Mr Barilaro thanked his family for their sacrifices throughout his time in politics (pictured with wife Deanna and daughter Sofia)

Shanks' supporters were quick to throw their backing behind the YouTuber, who also recently called outgoing Premier Gladys Berejiklian a 'koala killer'

'As a young boy with immigrant parents, I understood what racism was from a young age.'
Gladys Berejiklian had been told by a leading lawyer that she was on solid ground legally to stay on as NSW Premier but she still resigned hours after receiving the advice.

Ms Berejiklian consulted Sydney barrister Bret Walker SC as she scrambled with her closest Liberal colleagues in late Thursday night meetings to determine whether she was able to stay on as premier.

Despite being told she was justified in staying on, and having agreed with key ministers in a Thursday night meeting that she would not resign, the 51-year-old 's outlook had changed by Friday morning and she then elected to step down as premier and an MP.

The decision came after the NSW anti-corruption watchdog, the Independent Commission Against Corruption said it was investigating claims against her.

Ms Berejiklian said she had 'no option' but to resign on Friday after an announcement the anti-corruption watchdog would investigate her

Victor Dominello (pictured left) was among Ms Berejiklian's closest allies that she called for crises talks on Thursday night in an effort to save her leadership

On the Thursday night, Ms Berejiklian had called together her three key supporters within the ministry - Energy Minster Matt Kean, Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello and Health Minister Brad Hazzard - for crisis talks.

The group was given advice by Mr Walker that she remained on safe legal ground to stay on as premier despite the investigation, an anonymous source involved in the discussions told The Australian.

Mr Kean was the first minister called by Ms Berejiklian after she had been informed by ICAC on Thursday that she was a person of interest in inquiries that centred on how much she knew about the dealing of her former partner and resigned minister Daryl Maguire.

Mr Kean had been on the phone with his partner - letting the private number go to voicemail on three occasions - and then received a text, the newspaper confirmed.

'Matty, call me - urgently,' the message from the premier read.

Energy Minster Matt Kean (pictured) was the first colleague Ms Berejiklian called on Thursday after being warned ICAC would investigate her

The premier and her three ministers spent much of the night on a conference call - including seeking legal advice - playing out different scenarios that would allow her to continue as party leader.

One such scenario involved her temporarily standing down, with the ministers convincing Ms Berejiklian that her popularity would allow her to survive the fallout, as she had done in 2020 after she appeared at a previous ICAC hearing.

Thursday night's conference call ended with the four in agreement Ms Berejiklian would stay on and fight despite the investigation impeding the government's post-Covid recovery agenda.

However, by Friday morning when the group reconvened at the premier's Sydney CBD office her resoluteness appeared to have diminished, a source confirmed.

After ICAC publicly announced the investigation, Ms Berejiklian almost immediately called a press conference.

A downcast Ms Berejiklian fronted reporters that afternoon looking drawn and emotional.

'I've had to make a difficult decision overnight. It pains me to announce that I have no option but to resign from the Office of Premier,' Ms Berejiklian said on Friday.

Flowers and signs are left by supporters outside her Northbridge office on the weekend (pictured)

'ICAC has chosen to take this action during the most challenging weeks of the most challenging times in the state's history,' she said.

'Resigning at this time is against every instinct in my being and something which I do not want to do.'

Her shocked fans came out in force over the weekend.

Both Ms Berejiklians Northbridge office and her home became a sea of flowers and signs voicing support.

While more than two dozens petitions appeared online demanding that she stay on as premier - one receiving nearly 70,000 signatures as of Monday afternoon.

On Monday her deputy John Barilaro also resigned saying he has been 'thinking about this for a while'.

Mr Barilaro's exit was unconnected to the departure of Ms Berejiklian, but related to his defamation action against a YouTube personality.

Ms Berejiklian's replacement as NSW Premier looks likely to be treasurer Dominic Perrottet, with the appointment to be confirmed by a meeting of the Liberal party room on Tuesday.
America's wealthiest billionaires, including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, do not appear in the Pandora Papers.

The dump of more than 11.9 million files has turned up the heat on elites from King Abdullah of Jordan to the alleged mistress of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Donald Trump is mentioned due to his involvement in a Panama hotel project, but the Pandora documents don't appear to reveal significant new information about his accounts.

Financial experts say that the absence of many of America's wealthiest comes down to a lack of incentive due to the generous rates they pay domestically.

Other experts speculated that it may also be that they use different havens, such as the Cayman Islands, which weren't reflected in the papers.

But if American people are absent from the list, the United States themselves are not.

South Dakota in particular has become a new hub for opaque financial dealings, rivalling the likes of the British Virgin Islands and Switzerland.

Trusts in the state have quadrupled in size in the space of ten years to $360 billion thanks to laws which protect assets from any civil claims such as divorce.

Infamous NSA leaker Edward Snowden mocked the leak, lamenting how the offshore financial industry continued to operate despite 'two apocalyptic leaks,' referencing the Panama Papers dump of 2016.

'The humorous side of this very serious story is that even after two apocalyptic offshore finance/law firm leaks, those industries are still compiling vast databases of ruin, and still secure them with a Post-It Note marked "do not leak,"' he tweeted.

America's wealthiest billionaires, including Bill Gates (left) and Elon Musk do not appear in the Panama Papers.

Amazon owner Jeff Bezos (left), America's riches man, and legendary investor Warren Buffet, do not appear on the lists

Former government computer intelligence consultant Edward Snowden (pictured) is mocking officials after financial documents, deemed the Pandora Papers, allegedly tying world leaders to secret stores of wealth were released Sunday.

He took to social media to mock the firms responsible for hiding the funds

'Hats off to the source!' he added, after pointing out that offshore companies are still compiling secret databases with insufficient security despite recent major leaks.

Snowden leaked classified documents in 2013 to show the scale of government snooping on U.S. citizens and has lived in Russia since.

Financial secrecy laws in South Dakota have made the state THE spot for foreigners who want to conceal millions in assets The state of South Dakota has joined the likes of familiar offshore tax havens, including the British Virgin Islands, Seychelles, Hong Kong and Belize with South Dakota trusts quadrupling in size in the space of ten years to $360 billion. The Papers reveal how one of the largest trust company's in the state has confirmed that it has clients spread across 54 countries and 47 states that include more than 100 billionaires. State politicians have continued to approve legislation that allow for even more protections and benefits for the customers of such trusts. The U.S. has continued to refuse to join a 2014 agreement that is supported by the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg, requiring American financial institutions to share information they have about foreigners assets. 'South Dakota now rivals notoriously opaque jurisdictions in Europe and the Caribbean in financial secrecy,' The Washington Post stated. Furthermore, the legislation that allows such secrecy has been drafted by insiders who work in the trust industry. The state laws provide both protection and secrecy while keeping the money within the U.S. Normally, the government would tax any interest earned by an account, but in South Dakota, assets are protected from any civil claims such as a divorce or legal proceedings. They are not protected from criminal investigations. Nevertheless, because South Dakota has no income tax, inheritance tax or capital gains tax, the finances held there are effectively kept out of the reaches of the U.S. government. Documents from the Pandora Papers, ICIJ and Post managed to identify almost 30 US-based trusts that were linked to foreigners whose companies were accused of misconduct of wrongdoing and human rights abuses... all now based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Advertisement

His comments came hours after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published the Pandora Papers, which were named in reference to the 2016 Panama Papers that exposed how the rich were hiding funds in offshore accounts.

The Pandora Papers detail more than 29,000 offshore accounts  double the number identified in the Panama Papers  linked to officials in 91 countries and territories.

The report showed how world leaders, powerful politicians, billionaires, celebrities, religious leaders and drug dealers have been hiding their investments in mansions, exclusive beachfront property, yachts and other assets for the past quarter-century.

Many of the accounts were designed to evade taxes and conceal assets for other suspicious reasons, according to the report.

The report listed 130 alleged billionaires as account owners but did not include any of America's wealthiest individuals.

Financial analysts speculate America's uber-rich  such as Bezos, Buffet, Musk and Gates  have less incentive to use offshore havens due to the low tax rates they pay.

According to a Forbes report published in June, the 25 richest Americans paid a 'true tax rate' of 3.4 percent on wealth growth of $401billion between 2014 and 2018.

Bezos reportedly paid a true tax rate of 0.98 percent with Buffet and Musk paying rates of 0.10 percent and 3.27 percent, respectively.

Gates' true tax rate was not readily available, however, in 2018 he admitted to needing to pay more in taxes.

'I need to pay higher taxes  I've paid more taxes, over $10billion, than anyone else, but the government should require people in my position to pay significantly higher taxes,' Gates told CNN at the time.

Additionally, experts analyzing the Pandora Papers argue that America's wealth leaders may have utilized other companies or offshore accounts in different jurisdictions to conceal their money.

The Pandora Papers only encompassed records for 14 financial services entities that were operating in Switzerland, Singapore, Cyprus, Belize and the British Virgin Islands.

It is possible that additional firms could be holding Americans' funds.

Meanwhile, experts argue that the Pandora Papers leak should spark concern as financial shielding can impact citizens for several generations by worsening wealth disparities and crimes such as drug trafficking, ransomware attacks, arms trading and more.

'The offshore financial system is a problem that should concern every law-abiding person around the world,' former FBI officer Sherine Ebadi told the newspaper.

'These systems don't just allow tax cheats to avoid paying their fair share. They undermine the fabric of a good society.'

The Pandora Papers detail more than 29,000 offshore accounts inked to officials in 91 countries and territories. Many of the accounts were designed to evade taxes and conceal assets for other suspicious reasons

The report showed how world leaders, powerful politicians, billionaires, celebrities, religious leaders and drug dealers have been hiding their investments in mansions, exclusive beachfront property, yachts and other assets for the past quarter-century (Pictured: Monte Carlo Star apartment complex)

The Pandora Papers only encompassed records for 14 financial services entities that were operating in Switzerland, Singapore, Cyprus, Belize and the British Virgin Islands. It is possible that additional firms could be holding Americans' funds (Pictured: Tony and Cherie Blair's London office which was purchased via offshore company, according to the report)

The secret offshore wealth of world leaders: Leak of 12 MILLION files reveals Putin 'mistress' owns $4.1m Monaco flat, Azerbaijani ruler's $500m London property deals, King of Jordan's $100m empire and Czech PM's $20m French villas

The secret offshore wealth of more than 300 world leaders, politicians and billionaires has been exposed in one of the biggest ever leaks of financial data.

Dubbed the Pandora Papers, the documents show how 35 current and former world leaders - including associates of Vladimir Putin - used accounts in tax havens to accrue huge amounts of wealth and carry out transactions.

The files consist of 12 million documents from 14 financial services companies in countries including the British Virgin Islands, Panama, Belize, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Switzerland.

They were obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) before being studied by more than 650 reporters from BBC Panorama, the Guardian and more than 100 other news outlets.

They reveal that former British prime minister Mr Blair and his wife Cherie saved some $434,000 (321,000) in stamp duty when they bought an office in London by purchasing the offshore company that owned it.

Meanwhile Russian President Mr Putin was linked to secret assets in Monaco, while an offshore company owned by his alleged lover purchased a $4.1million apartment below the principality's casino.

The luxury fourth-floor flat was purchased by Brockville Development Ltd, which was eventually traced back to Svetlana Krivonogikh, reported the Guardian.

The woman, who was 28 at the time, is said by Russian investigative outlet Proekt to be the mother of Putins child, after giving birth to Elizaveta, or Luiza, in March of the same year.

A luxury fourth-floor flat below Monacos casino was bought by Brockville Development Ltd, which was eventually traced back to Svetlana Krivonogikh (pictured), alleged to be a lover of Mr Putin and the mother of his child

The apartment bought by Ms Krivonogikh was in the exclusive Monte Carlo Star apartment complex (pictured)

Ms Krivonogikh is said by Russian investigative outlet Proekt to be the mother of Putins child, after giving birth to Elizaveta, or Luiza, in March 2003 (Pictured: Monte Carlo Star apartment complex)

Pandora Papers reveal world leaders and their associates avoided taxes and made huge property purchases using secret offshore companies Alleged Putin lover Svetlana Krivonogikh purchased a $4.1million apartment below Monaco's casino via an offshore account in September 2003 - six months after allegedly giving birth to the Russian president's child. Since becoming friends with Putin, the former cleaner seems to have amassed a luxury portfolio of assets, including a flat in a well-to-do area of St Petersburg, other properties in Moscow and a yacht, coming to a total of $100million - the Kremlin has refused to comment.

purchased a $4.1million apartment below Monaco's casino via an offshore account in September 2003 - six months after allegedly giving birth to the Russian president's child. Since becoming friends with Putin, the former cleaner seems to have amassed a luxury portfolio of assets, including a flat in a well-to-do area of St Petersburg, other properties in Moscow and a yacht, coming to a total of $100million - the Kremlin has refused to comment. Former British prime minister Mr Blair and his wife Cherie saved some $434,000 (321,000) in stamp duty when they bought an office in London by purchasing the offshore company that owned it

saved some $434,000 (321,000) in stamp duty when they bought an office in London by purchasing the offshore company that owned it King of Jordan Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein was able to secretly add 70million worth of property to his portfolios after purchasing 15 properties in the UK and US - mainly in Malibu, California and in London and Ascot.

was able to secretly add 70million worth of property to his portfolios after purchasing 15 properties in the UK and US - mainly in Malibu, California and in London and Ascot. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his family and close associates snapped up more than $500million (400million) worth of property in the UK - consisting of 17 properties, including an office block in London for $44.6million (33million) for the president's son Heydar Aliyev, aged 11. They also appeared to have made a $41.9million (31million) profit after selling a London property to the Queen's Crown Estate, which is managed by the Treasury

and his family and close associates snapped up more than $500million (400million) worth of property in the UK - consisting of 17 properties, including an office block in London for $44.6million (33million) for the president's son Heydar Aliyev, aged 11. They also appeared to have made a $41.9million (31million) profit after selling a London property to the Queen's Crown Estate, which is managed by the Treasury Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis - who is facing an election later this week - failed to declare an offshore investment company used to purchase two villas for $16.2million in the south of France.

- who is facing an election later this week - failed to declare an offshore investment company used to purchase two villas for $16.2million in the south of France. President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta and six of his family members, who were revealed to secretly own 11 offshore companies containing $30million worth of assets.

and six of his family members, who were revealed to secretly own 11 offshore companies containing $30million worth of assets. Prime minister of Pakistan Imran Khan's cabinet ministers and their families were shown to own millions of dollars worth of offshore companies.

cabinet ministers and their families were shown to own millions of dollars worth of offshore companies. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky was shown to have moved his stake in a secret offshore company just before his victory in the 2019 election. Advertisement

Since becoming friends with Putin, the former cleaner seems to have amassed a luxury portfolio of assets, including a flat in a well-to-do area of St Petersburg, other properties in Moscow and a yacht, coming to a total of $100million - the Kremlin has refused to comment.

Meanwhile, the King of Jordan was able to secretly add 70million worth of property to his portfolios in the UK and US - mainly in Malibu, California and in London and Ascot, the papers showed.

While many of the transactions leaked in the papers - made by tens of thousands of different offshore firms -feature no legal wrongdoing, they expose how the UK Government has failed in its promise to bring in a register of offshore property owners.

There are concerns that some of the purchases could be the work of money laundering - while some of those named now face allegations of corruption and global tax avoidance.

The release of the documents could not have come at a worse time for Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis - who is facing an election later this week - as they show how he failed to declare an offshore investment company used to purchase two villas for $16.2million in the south of France.

The papers follow four other huge data leaks in the past seven years - including the FinCen Files, the Paradise Papers, Panama Papers and LuxLeaks.

They also show how some 95,000 offshore firms were legally set up to secretly by property in Britain.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his family and close associates snapped up more than $500million (400million) worth of property in the UK, the papers revealed.

They also appeared to have made a tidy $41.9million (31million) profit after selling a London property to the Queen's Crown Estate, which is managed by the Treasury.

The group bought 17 properties, including an office block in London for $44.6million (33million) for the president's son Heydar Aliyev, aged 11.

The building, in the exclusive Borough of Mayfair, was bought by a front company owned by a family friend of President Ilham in 2009 before being transferred a month later to young Heydar.

According to the papers, a second nearby office block, also owned by the family, was sold to the Crown Estate for $89.3million (66million) in 2018.

The Crown Estate is now reportedly looking into the purchase, but said it conducted the sale using all the checks required by the law at the time.

Speaking on the papers, Fergus Shiel, from the ICIJ, said: 'There's never been anything on this scale and it shows the reality of what offshore companies can offer to help people hide dodgy cash or avoid tax.'

He added: 'They are using those offshore accounts, those offshore trusts, to buy hundreds of millions of dollars of property in other countries, and to enrich their own families, at the expense of their citizens.'

Duncan Hames, Director of Policy at Transparency International UK, added: 'These revelations should act as a wake up call for the Government and regulators to deliver on much-needed and long-overdue measures to strengthen Britain's defences against dirty money.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his family and close associates snapped up more than 400million worth of property in the UK using offshore accounts, the papers revealed.

Dubbed the Pandora Papers, the documents show how Tony (pictured) and Cherie Blair avoided paying stamp duty on their purchase of an office in London. The transaction was not illegal.

While the Blairs' purchase of the London office (pictured) was not illegal, its revelation comes after the former Labour leader has been critical of tax loopholes, once saying that 'the tax system is a haven of scams, perks, City deals and profits'

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis (pictured ) failed to declare an offshore investment company used to purchase two villas for 12million in the south of France

The chateau and neighbouring villa in Mougins, France, bought by Mr Babis using offshore companies, which he failed to declare, according to the Pandora Papers

'These leaks show that there is one system for corrupt elites who can buy access to prime property and enjoy luxury lifestyles and another for honest hard-working people.

'Once again Britain's role as an enabler of global corruption and money laundering have been exposed with the same loopholes exploited to funnel suspect wealth into the country.

'Not only does this damage the UK's reputation as a country governed by the rule of law, but it enriches corrupt elites around the world at the expense of their populations. No one benefits from this system but them.

'The UK must redouble its efforts in tackling illicit finance, bringing in long overdue transparency reforms to reveal who really owns property here as well as resourcing regulators and law enforcement to clamp down on rogue professionals and corrupt cash held in the UK.'

While the Blairs' purchase of the London office was not illegal, its revelation comes after the former Labour leader has been critical of tax loopholes, once saying that 'the tax system is a haven of scams, perks, City deals and profits'.

The property is now used by Mrs Blair's legal consultancy firm Omnia Strategy and the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women.

Mrs Blair said the sellers had insisted they buy the house through the offshore company, reported the BBC, and that they would be liable to pay capital gains tax should they go on to sell it.

It was purchased from a family with political connections in Bahrain. Both sides maintain they did not initially know who was involved in the deal.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (pictured) was linked to secret assets in Monaco by the Pandora Papers

The papers show King of Jordan Abdullah Il bin Al-Hussein (pictured) bought 15 homes since coming to power in 1999, using offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands and other tax havens

Properties purchased by Mr Al-Hussein using offshore companies include three ocean-view homes in Malibu, California (pictured)

Elsewhere, lawyers for King of Jordan Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein said the leaked property purchases in the UK and US were bought with personal wealth, adding that using offshore companies to carry out such transactions was common practice for high profile individuals, citing privacy and security concerns.

The papers show Mr Al-Hussein bought 15 homes since coming to power in 1999, using offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands and other tax havens.

It comes as he has been accused of running an authoritarian regime, which has seen a rise in protests in recent years over tax hikes and austerity measures.

A string of other world leaders have also been named in the Pandora Papers leak - which owes its name to the fact that it will be 'opening a box on a lot of things', according to the ICIJ.

They include president of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta and six of his family members, who were revealed to secretly own 11 offshore companies containing $30million worth of assets.

Meanwhile the prime minister of Pakistan Imran Khan's cabinet ministers and their families were shown to own millions of dollars worth of offshore companies.

And the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky was shown to have moved his stake in a secret offshore company just before his victory in the 2019 election.

Who's who in the Pandora Papers? All the wealthy and powerful figures identified in the biggest leak of offshore financial data ever

Vladimir Putin

The Russian President is not personally named in the leaked data but several of those closest to him are, including Svetlana Krivonogikh, a former cleaner from St. Petersburg who is thought to have given birth to Putin's love-child - a daughter, Elizaveta - in 2003.

The papers reveal that Krivonogikh - who suddenly came into a vast fortune around the time of her daughter's birth - is the owner of a $4m apartment at the Monte Carlo Star, located underneath Monte Carlo's famed casino.

Krivonogikh owns the apartment through a chain of shell companies located in the British Virgin Islands and Panama, the documents have revealed.

Svetlana Krivonogikh is the owner of a Monte Carlo apartment purchased via a chain of sell companies in 2003 - the year she is thought to have given birth to Putin's love child

Gennady Timchenko (left) and Petr Kolbin (right) have both been accused of managing money on behalf of Putin, are also named in the papers and linked to Krivonogikh via a Monte Carlo accounting firm called Moores Rowland

The luxurious fourth-floor pad - which comes with two parking spaces, a storeroom, and the use of a pool in the Monte Carlo Star complex - was purchased for her in September 2003, shortly after Elizaveta's birth.

It is just one piece in a portfolio of assets including exclusive properties in Russia, a yacht and shares in state-owned Russian firms that almost-overnight gave her a wealth that - thanks to the leaked documents - can now be estimated at $100million.

One of the companies through which Krivonogikh owns the apartment was created for her by a British-born accountant - Eamonn McGregor - who also has links to other super-wealthy Russians.

Gennady Timchenko - a bureaucrat-turned-oil trader worth an estimated $22billion - is also a client of McGregor via Monte Carlo-based accounting firm Moores Rowland.

McGregor has looked after Timchenko's assets for two decades, the papers reveal, among them jets and a 130ft yacht called M/S Lena.

Timchenko has been closely linked with Putin, and in 2014 was sanctioned by the US as part of the 'Russian leaderships inner circle' which alleged that money from Timchenko's oil trading may have been funnelled to the Russian leader.

The oil firm that Timchenko runs and Putin have dismissed the claim as 'ridiculous'.

Putin is not named personally in the papers, though several members of his 'inner circle' are

Also named in the papers is Petr Kolbin, a childhood friend of Putin whose family owned a house in the village of Imenitsy that Putin's parents rented when he was growing up.

Kolbin initially worked as a butcher, but in 2001 - shortly after Putin became president - his fortunes suddenly changed. He went into business and prospered, largely thanks to deals with some of Russia's biggest state-owned firms.

He, too, became a client of Moores Rowland and opened several overseas bank accounts that contained a fortune of $550million.

But it is not clear that he actually had access to that money. Alexei Navalny, via his deputy Leonid Volkov, has accused Kolbin - who died in 2018 - as being a proxy for the Russian President.

'Putin is smart. You cant expect to find an account in his name,' Volkov previously said. 'But if you see "Kolbin" you can be sure as hell this is Putins money.'

King Abdullah II of Jordan

Disguised through a series of offshore firms based in the British Virgin Islands, Jordan's King Abdullah II has amassed a property empire worth at least $106million that spans California, London and Washington DC.

The most-expensive was a palatial home on the clifftops of Malibu - an exclusive California neighbourhood home to the likes of Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt and Paris Hilton - which he bought for $33million in 2014.

Apparently unsatisfied with the seven-bed, nine-bath home equipped with its own gym, spa and infinity pool, Abdullah then acquired the two neighbouring properties at an additional cost of around $37million.

King Abdullah II of Jordan owns a property empire worth at least $106million which is owned by shell companies taken out in his name, rather than by the royal family or Kingdom of Jordan

In 2012 and 2013, Abdullah had made similar purchases in the exclusive Washington DC neighbourhood of Georgetown - spending $13.8million on three condos overlooking the Potomac River.

And, between 2003 and 2010, he had acquired a vast amount of property in the UK including three homes in London's ultra-exclusive Belgravia which he combined with a fourth property he already owned to create a 'residential monolith' near Buckingham Palace, according to the Washington Post.

Other properties include a home in Ascot, close to Windsor Castle, and two homes in Kensington, near to Kensington Palace. All told, his UK properties are thought to have a current worth of $38million.

The kings lawyers said: 'His Majesty has not at any point misused public monies or made any use whatsoever of the proceeds of aid or assistance intended for public use.

'His Majesty cares deeply for Jordan and its people and acts with integrity and in the best interests of his country and its citizens at all times.'

Andrej Babis, Czech prime minister

The billionaire leader of the Czech Republic - who this week will fight an election in his home country - used a maze of offshore firms to purchase an $18million villa in the south of France.

Babis made the purchase in 2009, when he was still a business tycoon in charge of the country's largest holding company Agrofert Group, through a chain of shell companies based in the British Virgin Islands, Washington DC and Monaco.

The Pandora Papers reveal how money for the home passed through the chain before landing in Monaco where - devoid of any information about its origins - it was used to purchase a grand chateau and neighbouring villa in Mougins, on the Cote dAzur.

The home includes a private cinema, swimming pool, billiard room and wine cellar.

It is not clear exactly why Babis, who is the Czech Republic's second-richest man with a fortune of some $4billion, used the convoluted arrangement to make a purchase that he could have made directly.

Andrej Babis, the Czech Republic's second-richest man and incumbent Prime Minister, used a chain of shell companies to purchase a French chateau and neighbouring villa in 2009 before he entered politics

Shell companies are often used by the rich and powerful to hide their connection to various assets for privacy reasons. Experts who reviewed the chateau purchase for The Guardian said Babis had derived no obvious tax benefit from using the shell firms.

Babis went into politics in 2012 after founding the populist ANO party and in 2013 won the second-largest number of seats, campaigning on an anti-corruption and anti-establishment manifesto. He has previously spoken out against offshore companies of the kind used to purchase the chateau.

He was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, before being dismissed in 2017 after being accused of dodging taxes during his time at Agrofert. At the subsequent election, Babis's party emerged the largest and went on to form a minority government with him as Prime Minister.

Babis appears not to have disclosed his ownership of the French chateau or the shell companies to the Czech ministry of justice. The source of the $18million used to purchase the home is also unclear.

His office did not respond to the Guardians requests for comment on his offshore companies, while he refused to talk to the BBC when questioned on the Czech election campaign trail.

Tony Blair, former UK Prime Minister

As the leader of New Labour, Tony Blair promised to reform the UK's tax system to close loopholes used by the wealthiest to avoid paying taxes levied on the rest of the population.

But the Pandora Papers reveal that he and wife Cherie benefitted from just such a loophole when they bought a London property after he left office in 2017.

Had the couple directly purchased the 6.5million Mayfair property - which they use as an office for Cherie's government-advisory firm Omnia Strategy - then they would have been liable to pay 312,000 in stamp duty.

Tony and Cherie Blair (pictured in 2013) avoided 312,000 in stamp duty when they purchased a 6.5million Mayfair property by buying the shell company which owned it from the family of Bahrain's finance minister

But the couple actually acquired the property by buying the holding company which owned it from the family of HE Zayed bin Rashid Alzayani, Bahrain's minister for industry, commerce and tourism.

There is nothing illegal about acquiring property in this way, and there is no evidence that the Blairs were trying to avoid paying stamp duty using the arrangement.

But it does highlight a tax loophole that is often used by the world's wealthiest to avoid paying a tax that is levied on many other UK homebuyers.

Claudia Schiffer, Shakira and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar are named in Pandora Papers leak revealing offshore fortunes

Shakira accused of using offshore companies in British Virgin Islands to conceal assets

Lawyers of Colombian star, 44, said she declared all of her offshore companies

Representatives for Ms Schiffer, 51, said she correctly pays her taxes in the UK

Mr Tendulkar's lawyers said his investment is legitimate and has been declared

Claudia Schiffer and Shakira are among the famous faces linked to the unprecedented Pandora Papers leak - which has revealed how the super wealthy used offshore companies to accrue wealth and make transactions.

They are joined by Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar - as well as associates of Vladimir Putin and 35 world leaders - after they were all found to have companies set up in tax havens.

The papers claim Colombian pop star Shakira set up offshore entities in the British Virgin Islands to conceal assets.

But lawyers of the 44-year-old said the singer declared the offshore companies, adding that they did not provide tax advantages.

It comes as the Hips Don't Lie hitmaker is already in a legal wrangle with the Spanish Government, which has accused her of failing to pay taxes in Spain in the years 2012, 2013 and 2014.

In response to their client being named in the report, representatives of German supermodel Ms Schiffer, 51, said the mother-of-three correctly pays her taxes in the UK, where she lives.

Meanwhile Mr Tendulkar's lawyers said his investment is legitimate and has been declared to tax authorities.

The cricket star is also reported to have dissolved an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands three months after the release of the Panama Papers in 2016.

The papers claim Colombian pop star Shakira (pictured) set up offshore entities in the British Virgin Islands to conceal assets

In response to their client being named in the report, representatives of German supermodel Claudia Schiffer (pictured), 51, said the mother-of-three correctly pays her taxes in the UK, where she lives

The Pandora Papers consist of 12 million documents from 14 financial services companies in countries including the British Virgin Islands, Panama, Belize, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Switzerland.

They were obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) before being studied by more than 650 reporters from BBC Panorama, the Guardian and more than 100 other news outlets.

Italian mobster Raffaele Amato is also named in the leak, which shows how he used a shell company in the UK to buy land in Spain, where he fled to to set up his own crime gang.

Mr Amato, who has been tied to at least a dozen killings, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence. His lawyers declined to comment.

While many of the transactions leaked in the papers - made by tens of thousands of different offshore firms - feature no legal wrongdoing, they expose how the UK Government has failed in its promise to bring in a register of offshore property owners.

There are concerns that some of the purchases could be the work of money laundering - while some of those named now face allegations of corruption and global tax avoidance.

The papers also exposed how current and former world leaders used offshore companies to carry out transactions.

They revealed that former British prime minister Mr Blair and his wife Cherie saved some $434,000 (321,000) in stamp duty when they bought an office in London by purchasing the offshore company that owned it.

Sachin Tendulkar's (pictured) lawyers said his investment is legitimate and has been declared to tax authorities

In a statement, a spokeswoman for the couple said they had bought the property in 'a normal way through reputable agents' and should not have been 'dragged into a story about "hidden" secrets of prime ministers etc'.

The spokeswoman said: 'The vendor was an offshore company. The Blairs had nothing whatsoever to do with the original company nor those behind it.

'The vendor sold the company not the property - again a decision the Blairs had nothing to with.

'Since the purchase was of a company no buyer would have had to pay UK stamp duty on that transaction.

'However, because the Blairs then repatriated the company and brought it onshore, they are liable for capital gains and other taxes on the resale of the property which will significantly exceed any stamp duty.

'For the record, the Blairs pay full tax on all their earnings. And have never used offshore schemes either to hide transactions or avoid tax.'

Meanwhile Russian President Mr Putin was linked to secret assets in Monaco, while an offshore company owned by his alleged lover purchased a $4.1million apartment below the principality's casino.

The luxury fourth-floor flat was purchased by Brockville Development Ltd, which was eventually traced back to Svetlana Krivonogikh, reported the Guardian.

The woman, who was 28 at the time, is said by Russian investigative outlet Proekt to be the mother of Putins child, after giving birth to Elizaveta, or Luiza, in March of the same year.

The King of Jordan was able to secretly add 70million worth of property to his portfolios in the UK and US - mainly in Malibu, California and in London and Ascot, the papers showed, and Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis - who is facing an election later this week - failed to declare an offshore investment company used to purchase two villas for $16.2million in the south of France.

The Pandora Papers probe is much larger than the landmark Panama Papers investigation, which rocked the world in 2016, spawning police raids and new laws in dozens of countries and the fall of prime ministers in Iceland and Pakistan, reported the ICIJ.

This time around, the papers also shine a light on the lawyers and middlemen who are at the heart of the offshore industry, with the owners of more than 29,000 companies revealed from more than 200 countries and territories - mostly from Russia, the UK, Argentina and China.
Pedestrians and horrified cafe patrons have been left shaken after seeing a man suffering agonising burns and a bleeding wound to his neck stumble around an inner-city street, screaming in pain.

A 24-year-old man who had allegedly had an unidentified substance believed to be hot water thrown on him at a nearby hostel was taken to Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital after the incident.

He is in a serious but stable condition after paramedics treated him at the scene in the inner-city suburb of West End.

He was seen in the street shortly after 7am screaming, 'I'm on fire, I'm on fire.'

The City Limits Cafe and West End Lodge Accommodation at the corner of Boundary and Mollison streets, West End Brisbane, where the man was found in agony with burns to his chest and neck

Police established two crime scenes in the area. A man in his 30s and another aged in his 40s are currently assisting with inquiries into the incident

City Limits cafe owner Lawrence Nassar told the Courier-Mail that he had seen the man running and stumbling opposite his establishment, before patrons watched him head across the street.

Mr Nassar brought him cold water and told him he would call an ambulance.

'He had a big gash in the back of his neck and blood was pouring everywhere and he was frothing from his mouth,' Mr Nassar said.

'He ran over and people here were so scared, they were horrified and the little kids were screaming.

'He was in so much agony.

'It was horrific, really horrific. Ive seen a lot but never something like that.'

Mr Nassar said the man had sounded like a 'dying bull'.

Police set up crime scenes at the alleged location of the incident at the intersection of Boundary and Wilson streets, and the other at West End Lodge Accommodation above the cafe.

Police said a man in his 30s and another aged in his 40s were assisting with inquiries into the incident.
Jordan's King Abdullah II, a close ally of the US and UK, secretly invested millions in properties through off-shore businesses, including three neighboring mansions in Malibu he purchased for $70million.

The Pandora papers revealed Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein spent more than $106million to buy 15 homes around the world including in London and Ascot since coming to power in 1999.

The lavish purchases have been made despite Jordan receiving substantial state aid from the US and UK, whose government is one of the biggest financial backers of the regime, pledging $90million over five years in 2019.

The king is one of hundreds of world leaders, powerful politicians, billionaires, celebrities, religious leaders and drug dealers who have been hiding their investments in mansions, exclusive beachfront property, yachts and other assets for the past quarter-century, according to a review of nearly 12 million files obtained from 14 firms located around the world.

Jordan's royal court today rejected the 'distorted' reports saying they 'included inaccuracies and exaggerated the facts.'

The statement also said that the king had 'personally funded' the properties and all related expenses.

The Pandora Papers investigation found the king's advisers set up at least three dozen shell companies over a period of more than 20 years from 1995 to 2017.

The documents expose how Jordan's Abdullah, who went to school in the UK and US and trained at Sandhurst, created a network of offshore companies and tax havens to amass a sprawling property empire.

An investigation has found Jordan's King Abdullah II's advisers set up at least three dozen shell companies over a period of more than 20 years from 1995 to 2017 to purchase property

The king reportedly used a network of offshore accounts to buy three adjacent properties in Malibu for almost $70m between 2014 and 2017

A property on Eaton Place, Belgravia, was purchased by the king for 5,800,000 in 2011, according to reports

The king reportedly used a network of offshore accounts to buy three adjacent properties in Malibu for almost $70m between 2014 and 2017. The middle one, according to the Washington Post contains seven bedrooms, nine baths, a gym, a cinema and a swimming pool.

The seven-bedroom home overlooks the Pacific Ocean and sits on the Point Dume peninsula of Malibu, California.

The property was bought in 2014 for a record price for the area at the time at $33.5m by Nabisco Holdings SA, a company in the British Virgin Islands.

Two different BVI companies bought the homes either side of the property. A $12.5m home in 2015 and in 2017 a $23 million ocean-view property, taking the total spend to $68m - all bought through a British Virgin Islands company.

Across the other side of the country, King Abdullah bought four apartments totaling $16m in Georgetown, a wealthy part of Washington DC, between 2012 and 2014. His son, Crown Prince Hussein, was attending Georgetown University at the time.

The advisers were identified as an English accountant in Switzerland and lawyers in the British Virgin Islands.

At the time of the purchases, one blogger who remain anonymous made an acute observation: 'Someone has gone to a hell of a lot of trouble to cover their tracks here. Yes, very rich people often like to stay anonymous. But this level of deliberate opacity is practically beyond anything we've ever witnessed.'

Using an offshore company, he was able to keep his very ownership of the properties a secret.

Those who set up the companies on behalf of the king were extremely careful not to identify him and referred to him in internal documents as 'You know who'.

One of the three homes is situated in lush surroundings overlooking the Pacific Ocean

The middle home contains seven bedrooms, nine baths, a gym, a cinema and a swimming pool

The smallest of the homes was $12.5 million but they are all to be knocked down in order to create one gigantic estate

Jordan's King Abdullah amassed about $100 million worth of property in the United States and the UK through secret companies over the course of 14 years

In 2017 the British Virgin Islands introduced a law that compelled the owners of all companies on the island to be identified on a government register.

But a number of companies in the BVI linked to King Abdullah still do not have his details connected.

'It's just very, very difficult for the average Jordanian to, achieve a basic level of home and family, and a good job. And so to have it really thrown in Jordanian's faces that he's just been funneling money abroad all this time? That, that would look really bad,' said Anelle Sheline, a Jordanian expert to BBC.

Jordan's Royal Hashemite Court said in its statement that 'it is no secret that His Majesty owns a number of apartments and residences in the United States and the United Kingdom. This is not unusual nor improper.

Jordan's King Abdullah was referred to as 'You Know Who' in secret documents used by offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands in order to hide his identity as the purchaser

'His Majesty uses these properties during official visits and hosts officials and foreign dignitaries there. The King and his family members also stay in some of these properties during private visits.'

The statement said the location of the properties was not publicised 'out of security and privacy concerns, and not out of secrecy or an attempt to hide them, as these reports have claimed'.

'As such, the act of revealing these addresses by some media outlets is a flagrant security breach and a threat to His Majesty's and his family's safety.'

'Any allegations that link these private properties to public funds or assistance are baseless and deliberate attempts to distort facts,' it added.

The palace also stressed that 'all public finances and international assistance are subject to professional audits, and their allocations are fully accounted for by the government and donor entities'.

The driveway of one of King Abdullah of Jordan's Malibu properties which are to be knocked down and redeveloped

Despite being grand in nature, all three properties are to be knocked down to create one big compound

It comes as the king has been accused of running an authoritarian regime, which has seen a rise in protests in recent years over tax hikes and austerity measures.

The Jordanian authorities announced a crackdown in June 2020 to target money being sent abroad by its citizens. Meanwhile, the US provided Jordan a substantial amount of aid - more than $1.5bn in 2020.

The details are an embarrassing blow to Abdullah, whose government was engulfed in scandal this year when his half brother, former Crown Prince Hamzah, accused the 'ruling system' of corruption and incompetence.

The king has claimed he was the victim of a 'malicious plot,' placed his half brother under house arrest and put two former close aides on trial.

The US provided more than $1.5bn in aid to Jordan in 2020 but the king's lawyers insist that the homes were all purchased with personal wealth. King Abdullah II is pictured in June 2021

More salacious details are to be released in the coming days from the Pandora Papers including a rare look into the private bank accounts of Kremlin insiders - those workers and confidants closely associated with President Putin.

The documents are set to show how sanctions from the U.S. had a real effect on Moscow and its financial workings.

The U.S. often chooses to inflict financial penalties as a form of sanction.

Oligarchs are said to have been targeted by the U.S. because of 'malign' activity by Russia who attempted to evade the penalties by shifting financial assets around in the hope that they may be out of reach of the Americans.

Ultimately, it appears that the sanctions affected their targets and triggered monetary losses, including on those working for the Moscow Kremlin.
Former President Donald Trump is demanding that the Pulitzer Prize board revoke the awards it gave to the New York Times and the Washington Post in 2018 for their stories about the Russian collusion controversy.

Trump called the winning coverage no more than a politicly-motivated farce' in a letter he wrote to Bud Kliment, the interim administrator of the awards, that his spokesperson Liz Harrington shared on Twitter.

Trump added that the integrity of the Pulitzer Prize namesake stands to be wholly compromised, should it continue to hold the articles in such a high regard in light of his exoneration of charges related to colluding with Russia.

Ten reporters from both outlets were granted the award for deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage in the public interest that dramatically furthered the nations understanding of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and its connections to the Trump campaign, the president-elects transition team and his eventual administration, states the Pulitzer Prize board on its website.

Trump is calling for the Pulitzer Prize board to take back the awards given to the New York Times and Washington Post for their Russian collusion reporting

Above are the ten reporters from the New York Times and Washington Post who received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize

But to Trump, their work was shoddy, dubious, the headline were extremely sensational and the coverage and leaned heavily on unsubstantiated anonymous sources.

He said that the articles were all based on false reporting of a non-existent link between the Kremlin and the Trump Campaign.

Trump added, As has been widely publicized, the coverage was no more than a politically motivated farce which attempted to spin a false narrative that my campaign supposedly colluded with Russia despite a complete lack of evidence underpinning this allegation.

The letter continues, For example, much of the information contained in these articles were attributed to people with knowledge, current and former officials, and some senior U.S. officials, and other vaguely-defined individuals. As a result, the public was deprived of an independent means of assessing their credibility, their potential for political bias and the source of their knowledge.

Trump wrote that he hopes the recipients will voluntarily surrender this award in light of recent revelations. Should they fail to do that, Trump said that the Pulitzer Prize board should reclaim the prizes and retract the information on its website lauding the articles.

Without holding the recipients to such a high standard of accountability, the integrity of the Pulitzer Prize namesake stands to be wholly compromised.

In his letter to the Pulitzer Prize board, Trump also references the most recent development in the Trump-Russia investigation  the indictment of Michael Sussman  as a damning repudiation of the medias obsession with the collusion story.

Trump called the indictment of Michael Sussman a damning repudiation of the medias obsession with the collusion story.' Sussman pleaded not guilty last month to lying to the FBI regarding his involvement in the government's investigation into Russian election interference in 2016

Michael Sussman, a cybersecurity lawyer who worked for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, pleaded not guilty to lying to the FBI on Friday on charges that stemmed from special counsel John Durham's two-and-a-half year probe into the government's investigation into Russian election interference in 2016.

Sussman was indicted for allegedly telling the FBI in September 2016 that he was not doing work 'for any client' when he requested a meeting with the FBI's general counsel to warn them of concerns from cybersecurity researchers of potentially suspicious contact between Russia and the Trump team.

At the meeting, the attorney allegedly gave the FBI data and analytics from cybersecurity researchers who thought the numbers might be evidence of hush-hush communications between Trump Organization's computer servers and Alfa Bank - a Kremlin-linked Russian financial institution.

The FBI looked into the matter but found no connections.

Sussmann, 57, represented the Democratic National Committee when Russia hacked its servers back in 2016. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

Trump has called out the Russian collusion theory consistently throughout his presidency, decrying it as a 'witch hunt.'

The New York Times swiftly responded in 2019 to Trump's call that they give back their Pulitzer Prize by tweeting, 'We're proud of our Pulitzer-prize winning reporting on Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election'

He first called for the New York Times and Washington Post to be stripped of their Pulitzer Prizes in 2019 after Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report was released and found no proof of collusion between Trump and Russia in the 2016 election.

While neither outlet publicly responded to Trumps letter this time, The New York Times swiftly responded in 2019 by tweeting, 'We're proud of our Pulitzer-prize winning reporting on Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. Every @nytimes article cited has proven accurate.'

'No report in our package of Pulitzer-prize winning work has been challenged,' NYT spokesperson Eileen Murphy said to USA Today.

'In fact, what we know of the Mueller report from the Attorney Generals summary confirms our coverage. Russia actively worked to upend the American elections in 2016 and there were multiple instances of Trump Transition and Administration officials having contact with Russia,' she added.
New rules intended to make travel to the UK 'easier and cheaper' came into force today, with fully vaccinated Britons no longer needing a test before flying back.

The UK's traffic light system involving green, amber and red designations for every country is now scrapped, with locations categorised as either on the red list or not.

It comes as the Government's 'red list' of 54 countries is tipped to be reduced to just nine on Thursday, just in time for families travelling during the half-term break.

Fully vaccinated residents and unvaccinated under 18s from more than 50 countries and territories can now enter the UK without a pre-departure lateral flow test.

Those groups now only need to take a single day-two PCR post-arrival test costing around 65, and complete a passenger locator form.

Passengers line up for passport control at London Heathrow Airport Terminal Two in February

Under 11s were already exempt from pre-departure testing.

People arriving from a red tier destination will still be required to spend 11 nights at a quarantine hotel costing 2,285 for solo travellers.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: 'We are accelerating towards a future where travel continues to reopen safely and remains open for good, and today's rule changes are good news for families, businesses and the travel sector.

Half-term cheer as red list is set to be slashed Strict Covid travel restrictions are expected to be lifted on most countries this week including South Africa, Mexico and Brazil. The Government's 'red list' of 54 countries is tipped to be reduced to just nine, just in time for families travelling during the half-term break. Countries such as Cape Verde and Indonesia are also due to be released from the red list, which requires travellers to quarantine in hotels. The changes would allow the double-jabbed to visit these countries without having to isolate. The announcement is expected on Thursday. Advertisement

'Our priority remains to protect public health but, with more than eight in 10 people now fully vaccinated, we are able to take these steps to lower the cost of testing and help the sector to continue in its recovery.'

The easing of the quarantine and testing regulations  announced last month  has been welcomed by the travel sector.

Airlines and tour operators have been hit hard during the coronavirus pandemic, and have accused the Government of being too slow to relax and simplify the rules for international travel.

Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, a trade body representing UK carriers, said: 'Things are moving in the right direction and the removal of these restrictions will make it easier and cheaper for people to travel.

'We've seen a good response to the announcement in terms of bookings and, given current trends, we would hope to see more countries come off the red list and further mutual recognition of vaccine status.

'There is still much to do though. This is not job done, and ministers need to keep in mind that we remain an outlier on arrivals testing for vaccinated passengers.

'In the short-term the removal of PCR testing by the October half-term week is critical, and we look forward to clarity on the start date for this as soon as possible.'

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps arrives at 10 Downing Street in London on September 28

No date has been set for when eligible fully vaccinated travellers arriving in England will be able to use a cheaper lateral flow test rather than a PCR version for the day-two post-arrival test.

Britain's current red list of countries/territories The UK Government's 'red list' of 54 countries is tipped to be reduced to just nine. These are the countries currently on the red list: Afghanistan Angola Argentina Bolivia Botswana Brazil Burundi Cape Verde Chile Colombia Congo (Democratic Republic) Costa Rica Cuba Dominican Republic Ecuador Eritrea Eswatini Ethiopia French Guiana Georgia Guyana Haiti Indonesia Lesotho Malawi Mayotte Mexico Mongolia Montenegro Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nepal Panama Paraguay Peru Philippines Reunion Rwanda Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa Sudan Suriname Tanzania Thailand Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Uganda Uruguay Venezuela Zambia Zimbabwe Advertisement

The Department for Transport said the Government 'aims to have it in place for when people return from half-term breaks'.

It comes as strict Covid travel restrictions are expected to be lifted on most countries this week including South Africa , Mexico and Brazil .

The Government's 'red list' of 54 countries is tipped to be reduced to just nine, just in time for families travelling during the half-term break.

Countries such as Cape Verde and Indonesia are also due to be released from the red list, which requires travellers to quarantine in hotels.

Thailand could also be removed, but sources said this was more of a borderline case.

The changes would allow fully-vaccinated people to visit these countries without having to self-isolate on their return.

The announcement is expected on Thursday as the government looks to return society to normal and boost the economy.

The move would lead to a flurry in bookings by holidaymakers, as many on the list are winter sun destinations.

It follows lobbying by Tory backbenchers and industry bodies, which said the draconian restrictions were strangling businesses.

In the summer, Theresa May warned that Britain was 'falling behind the rest of Europe in our decisions to open up'.

Scientists have been pleasantly surprised that Covid hospitalisation rates appeared to have plateaued this month at 600 rather than the predicted 7,000.

A Whitehall source told the Sunday Telegraph: 'We are expecting sharp reductions in the red list. It could be as few as nine countries left on the list.'

The source said ministers wanted to keep restrictions in place to guard against Covid variants, but that the government wanted to avoid an 'unnecessarily restricted' travel policy. They added: 'Targeted quarantine will remain, but in fewer places.'

A second source confirmed the red list was due to be cut back 'substantially'.

This month, the government has been under pressure from many of the countries on its red list to ease restrictions.

Last week, Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African president, said he had been lobbying Mr Johnson to remove the country from the UK's list.

It is understood ministers have been reassured that the Beta variant has largely disappeared from South Africa.
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Dozens of New York City teachers staged a protest on Monday as Mayor Bill de Blasio's COVID-19 vaccination mandate went into effect, spurring some 18,000 educators to get inoculated just before the deadline.

Protesters held signs that read 'Resist medical tyranny!' and 'My body, my choice' in front of a Department of Education building in downtown Brooklyn.

One protester held a sign comparing anti-mandate demonstrators to Rosa Parks, the civil rights icon who refused to sit in the back of the bus in the segregated South in the mid-1950s.

The head of the teachers' union warned on Monday that fewer than 4,000 teachers remain unvaccinated - putting them at risk of getting fired.

United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said that more than 97 per cent of New York City teachers received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

That figure closely aligns with de Blasio's numbers.

Dozens of New York City teachers staged a protest on Monday as Mayor Bill de Blasio's COVID-19 vaccination mandate went into effect

Protesters held signs that read 'Resist medical tyranny!' and 'My body, my choice' in front of a Department of Education building in downtown Brooklyn

One protester holds a sign that reads 'Center for Deception and Corruption' - or 'CDC' - in downtown Brooklyn on Monday

Protesters denounced the vaccine mandate that went into full effect in New York City on Monday

During a news briefing at City Hall on Monday, the mayor said 95 percent of the city's roughly 148,000 public school staffers had received at least one vaccine dose, including 96 percent of teachers and 99 percent of principals.

The mayor had warned that unvaccinated school employees would be placed on unpaid leave and not be allowed to work this week.

The city planned to bring in substitutes where needed.

Since September 24, more than 18,000 shots were given to staff members, according to city officials. Since de Blasio announced the mandate in late August, there has been a 45 percent increase in the rate of vaccinations citywide, the mayor said.

Dozens of protesters march across the Brooklyn Bridge on Monday denouncing the vaccine mandate which went into effect

The protesters walked along the pedestrian walkway on the bridge headed toward Manhattan on Monday

Protesters held Australian and American flags as well as signs and banners slamming vaccine mandates and digital passports

The image above shows protesters marching from Borough Hall in Downtown Brooklyn on Monday afternoon

A woman holds a sign which suggests that she is an unvaccinated employee of New York City's Department of Education

A man holds a sign that reads 'Say "No!" to the forced Vax!' in Downtown Brooklyn on Monday

One protester in Downtown Brooklyn holds a sign that reads 'Coercion is not consent stop the mandate' on Monday

A man wearing a mask (right) exchanges words with an unmasked woman in Downtown Brooklyn on Monday

Several pro- and anti-mandate people appeared to be arguing in Downtown Brooklyn on Monday afternoon

Protesters gesture during an anti-mandate demonstration in Downtown Brooklyn on Monday

One protester holds a sign that reads '148,000 DEO Staff - only 60 COVID cases. So why the #vaccinemandate?'

Another protester in Downtown Brooklyn holds a sign that reads 'No Vaccine Mandates - Hold the Line'

The image above shows a protester holding a sign suggesting that she is a veteran teacher in the New York City public school system

A protester in Downtown Brooklyn (above) holds a sign that reads 'Natural immunity trumps vaccine' on Monday afternoon

An anti-mandate protester addresses demonstrators through a bullhorn in downtown Brooklyn on Monday

A demonstrators uses a bullhorn to speak to fellow protesters in Downtown Brooklyn on Monday afternoon

The Supreme Court on Friday denied a last-minute challenge from New York City public school teachers to block the vaccine mandate from going into effect.

US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor ruled in favor of the city Friday - allowing the mandate to go ahead.

A group of four teachers had sent an emergency petition to Sotomayor on Thursday asking her to halt the mandate.

They argued the mandate not only places an 'unconstitutional burden' on the city's 148,000 school workers, but also 'threatens the education of thousands of children.'

The petition claimed teachers' rights are being violated because they do not have the option to undergo regular COVID-19 testing instead of getting the shot.

Teachers across all public schools in the Big Apple were given up until 5pm Friday to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or risk losing their jobs.

Mulgrew said he was concerned about staffing issues in Staten Island, where a large concentration of teachers remains unvaccinated.

Mulgrew and Randi Weingarten, the president of the national American Federation of Teachers, criticized the city and de Blasio over the vaccine mandate, according to WPIX-TV.

Protesters said they are opposed to government mandates requiring them to be vaccinated against COVID-19

De Blasio has warned that any teacher who refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19 would be fired

One protester holds a sign claiming that the vaccine mandates are a way for the government to exert 'total control of the people'

United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew (right) said that more than 97 per cent of New York City teachers received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine

Mulgrew and Randi Weingarten, the president of the national American Federation of Teachers, criticized the city and de Blasio over the vaccine mandate

Students wear protective masks as they arrive for classes at The Lang School in New York City on Monday

If thousands of teachers cannot report to work due to being unvaccinated, the Department of Education says it has some 9,000 vaccinated substitute teachers and 5,000 vaccinated substitute paraprofessionals on stand-by to fill in the gaps.

During a news briefing at City Hall on Monday, the mayor said 95 percent of the city's roughly 148,000 public school staffers had received at least one vaccine dose, including 96 percent of teachers and 99 percent of principals

Some 43,000 employees have gotten the shots since the mandate was announced on August 23, de Blasio said.

'Our parents need to know their kids will be safe,' the mayor said.

'They entrust us with their children. That's what this mandate is all about. Every adult in our schools is now vaccinated, and thats going to be the rule going forward.'

US Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona joined de Blasio's virtual briefing and hailed the vaccine mandate.

'You're doing it right,' Cardona said.

'Students need to be in the classroom. They need to be safe and we need to make sure we're doing everything possible to let our staff get vaccinated and make sure that our schools are as safe as possible.'

Schools Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter said she did not know exactly how many employees had declined the shots and been put on leave.

Implementing the mandate smoothly will be a test for de Blasio, a Democrat who boasted of the city's record of keeping school buildings open during most of the last school year when other districts went to all-remote instruction.

New York City is not offering a remote option this year.

The vaccination mandate in the nation's largest school system does not include a test-out option, but does allow for medical and religious exemptions.

The number of newly diagnosed COVID cases in New York City is trending downward, reflecting the national trend, according to the city Department of Health

Hospitalizations throughout the five boroughs remain low, according to the latest data

New York City public health officials are also reporting few deaths from COVID-19

It was supposed to go into effect last week but was delayed when a federal appeals court granted a temporary injunction.

An appeals panel reversed that decision three days later.

The 96 percent teacher vaccination rate cited by the mayor was slightly different from the 97 percent figure provided earlier Monday by United Federation of Teachers head Michael Mulgrew.

New York City's million-plus-student public school system is one of the first in the nation to require inoculations for all staff members.

A similar mandate is set to go into effect in Los Angeles on October 15.

A group of teachers and other school employees who had sued over New York's school vaccine mandate asked the US Supreme Court on Thursday for an emergency injunction blocking its implementation.

The request was denied Friday.

Many students and parents support the vaccine mandate as the best way to keep schools open during the pandemic.

As of Monday, more than 63 percent of New York City residents of all ages have been fully vaccinated. More than 70 percent have had at least one dose

De Blasio has touted the increased rate of vaccination since he announced the vaccine mandate earlier this summer

As of Monday, the city has administered more than 11 million total doses of the COVID-19 vaccine

According to the latest data, African Americans and Latinos lag behind other racial and ethnic groups in getting the COVID vaccine

'It's safer for our kids,' said Joyce Ramirez, 28, who was picking her three children up from a Bronx elementary school last week.

Ramirez said she hopes the requirement will lessen the chances of teachers contracting the virus and prompting classroom or school shutdowns.

Cody Miller, a 15-year-old sophomore at a high school in Manhattan, said teachers should all be vaccinated.

'I think they should,' said the teen, who got vaccinated himself as soon as the Pfizer shot was approved for people 12 and up.

'It's so many kids, it's a big environment, you know?'

But Mally Diroche, another Bronx parent, had mixed feelings.

'I kind of feel like that's a decision they should be able to make on their own,' said the mom of three boys between 3 and 12.

Diroche, 29, said she feels that masks and other precautions can check the spread of the virus within schools.

Some educators have reservations about the mandate but are complying.

Anti-vaccine mandate protesters gather in downtown Brooklyn for a demonstration on Monday

One protester holds a sign that reads: 'Just give us back our testing option'

Several New York City teachers planned to stage a protest on Monday as Mayor Bill de Blasio's COVID-19 vaccination mandate went into effect. The image above shows a teachers protest in New York City on August 25

Maurice Jones, 46, a support staff member at a Manhattan middle school, said he got vaccinated months ago but sympathizes with co-workers who have not gotten the shots.

'If they've got to get tested more they've got to get tested more,' Jones said.

'I don't think they should lose their job.'

Roxanne Rizzi, who teaches technology at an elementary school in Queens, waited until Friday to get her first coronavirus vaccine shot.

'I had to do it for the finances of my family,' she said.

Rizzi, 55, had resisted the vaccine because she contracted COVID-19 in November and believed natural immunity would protect her.

She said she would continue to protest the mandate.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people should get vaccinated even if they have already been infected by the virus.

The agency says COVID-19 vaccines offer better protection than natural immunity and help prevent getting infected again.
The family of a wealthy missing pensioner who mysteriously vanished from her north London home said today 'She was a bit gullible and was trusting in people which is a bit worrying'.

Two people have been arrested on suspicion of fraud, false imprisonment and murder following the disappearance of Norma Girolami, 70, from Highgate, who was first reported missing on September 20, but has not been seen by relatives since the middle of August.

As a result of police enquiries, officers have said they became increasingly concerned that some harm may have come to Norma and the investigation has now been passed to homicide detectives from the Met's Specialist Crime Command.

Officers are conducting searches of several addresses and have contacted friends and relatives, but so far have been unable to locate her.

The 70-year-old, who police say left no sign of leaving at her current home in Cholmeley Park, Highgate, formerly lived at a 1.4million property in nearby Cromwell Avenue before she sold it in 2017.

She has been described as 'friendly, courteous and a very nice person' by shocked neighbours, while cousin Jack Girolami told the Standard how alarm bells started ringing after she hadn't responded to a text message in August.

He said: 'We are worried sick, this is totally out of character for Norma. We thought she may have gone to Italy where the family are from to spread her dad's ashes but we don't think that is the case now.

'She was very comfortably off, wealthy but not mega rich. She sold a house in Highgate and inherited her dad's house in Enfield. She was also a bit gullible and was trusting in people which is a bit worrying.'

On Friday, October 1, two people were arrested in connection with the investigation.

Police launched a murder investigation and arrested two people after the disappearance of 70-year-old Norma Girolami (pictured) who has not been seen by her family since August

Police outside the home of missing Norma Girolami, who police fear may have been murdered

Police guard Ms Girolami's London home today as their enquiries into the case continued

A 39-year-old man was arrested at an address in Islington while a 34-year-old woman was arrested at an address in Finchley.

Both were initially arrested on suspicion of fraud and false imprisonment, but both were subsequently further arrested on suspicion of murder.

They were taken into custody, where the 39-year-old man remains. The 34-year-old woman has been released on bail to a date later this month.

Detective Chief Inspector Kate Blackburn said: 'Norma has not been seen by her friends or family since the middle of August.

'As a result of our investigation we are extremely concerned that Norma may have come to some harm.

'Her home shows no sign of her planning to leave, food was left in her fridge and she said nothing to her friends and relatives.

'This is completely out of character and as more and more time has passed, this has only added to our fears that some harm has come to her.

'In view of these concerns for her welfare, and to stop the anguish her friends and relatives are enduring, it is imperative that anyone with information contacts police.

The last known address of missing 70-year-old Norma Girolami who vanished in August

Met Police say there was no sign Norma had planned to leave her home in Highgate (pictured)

'If anyone knows anything about where Norma may be, has witnessed anything from mid-August to mid-September in the area that Norma lived or if you know anything about what may have happened to Norma, then please contact police.

'Your information, no matter how trivial you might think it is, could be the vital information that helps us find Norma.

'Norma, if you are safe and well please get in touch with the police.'

A neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: 'We always had cordial exchanges.

'She was courteous and a very nice person. I haven't seen her for a long time.'

Another neighbour said: 'She was very friendly and always said 'hello' even though I did not know her well.

'She would pop in occasionally if she needed something and I would see her in the park.'

Any witnesses or anyone with any information is asked to call police on 101 or contact via Twitter @MetCC. Please quote CAD 4006/01OCT

To give information anonymously contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or online at crimestoppers-uk.org.
The front runner set to become the next NSW Premier has spent the public holiday hard at work shoring up the numbers to ensure he gets the top job.

Dominic Perrottet is expected on Tuesday to replace Gladys Berejiklian as the new state leader to lead NSW out of Covid-19 lockdowns.

Mr Perrottet confirmed on Sunday he would seek to become the next premier after a long weekend of behind-the-scenes factional wrangling.

The news hasn't scared off his biggest rival for the job and good mate Rob Stokes, who confirmed on Monday he won't pull out of the leadership race.

While the rest of Sydney enjoyed the day off, Mr Perrottet was pictured at his ministerial office in Martin Place on Monday, less than 24 hours before the leadership ballot.

Sporting dark sunglasses, Dominic Perrottet was spotted at his ministerial office in Sydney's Martin Place on Monday

Sporting dark sunglasses, a relaxed Mr Perrottet flashed a grin for photographers as he left his office, showing no signs of stress despite the shock resignation of deputy premier John Barilaro hours earlier.

Long touted as Ms Berejiklian's 'heir apparent, Mr Perrottet appealed to his Liberal colleagues after striking a deal to make Jobs Minister Stuart Ayres his deputy and promote Environment Minister Matt Kean to treasurer.

He is a member of the Liberal Party's right faction, while Mr Ayres and Mr Kean are from the dominant moderate faction.

But Mr Stokes, also a moderate, is refusing to follow his factional colleagues and has confirmed he would not withdraw his nomination to be party leader.

The Pittwater MP has offered himself as a more experienced alternative to 39-year-old Mr Perrottet, arguing he was the party's best shot at winning the 2023 election.

'Dominic Perrottet is a good friend of mine. He has a lot of great qualities. I just believe in terms of experience that I offer more,' he said on Monday.

'In terms of being able to speak to the people of NSW  we have a couple of challenging by-elections ahead of us  and I believe I'm equipped and prepared for that challenge.

'I believe I have a lot to offer in terms of vision, in terms of integrity, in terms of energy.'

Rob Stoles (pictured right with ministerial colleague Natalie Ward) has refused to bow out of the leadership race for his good mate Dominic Perrottet

He decided to throw his hat in the ring after being urged by his colleagues.

'I committed to my party room and my colleagues that I would give them a choice and I will follow that through,' he said.

But the 47-year-old remained coy on his chances of winning the leadership when the Liberal party room meets on Tuesday to vote for their new leader.

'That is up to my colleagues,' he said.

'I feel very confident that I have every chance of being successful but, after all, the main game here is to give a choice to the people of the party room.'

Mr Stokes vowed to not change the state government's roadmap out of lockdown and hopes to promote more women to the cabinet if he gets the top job.

'I certainly believe whoever is elected premier of NSW needs to ensure women's voices are heard at a more senior level,' he said.

'If I'm elected as premier I'm committed to significantly increasing representation of women in the senior ranks of the NSW ministry.

'I'm looking to ensure that the executive better represents the community they serve.'

The father-of-six, who could be hours away from becoming the next NSW Premier, flashed a grin for the photographers outside his office on Monday

Both leadership candidates are fitness fanatics, fathers and men of faith.

But while Mr Stokes was elected to parliament as in 2007 during the Labor Iemma government's tenure, Mr Perrottet - elected in 2011 - has not spent any time in opposition.

Mr Perrottet has bounced around three electorates in as many terms - Castle Hill, Hawkesbury and Epping.

Both have served as ministers in several portfolios since 2014. Mr Stokes was minister for environment and education, while Mr Perrottet took on the finance and industrial relations portfolios before becoming treasurer.

Mr Perrottet played up his credentials working alongside Ms Berejiklian as deputy leader, and argued for stability.

'As Gladys demonstrated so well, leading a successful Liberal and National government requires unity across our party's 'broad church',' he wrote in an opinion piece published in The Daily Telegraph on Monday.

'We can only do that if we remain united, and maintain stability and continuity for the people of our state.'

Dominic Perrottet (centre) will go head to head with good mate Rob Stokes (right)

Former prime minister and Liberal party elder John Howard has backed Mr Perrottet, saying he is driven and reform-focused.

Meanwhile, there still been no sign of Ms Berejiklian following her shock resignation on Friday.

Ms Berejiklian quit on Friday after the state's corruption watchdog disclosed she was under investigation for potential breaches of public trust given her secret five-year relationship with former MP Daryl Maguire.

She will formally step down as leader when the party elects her replacement, and will quit parliament altogether when a by-election for her seat can be arranged.

It comes as the NSW Nationals prepare for their own leadership contest.

Mr Barilaro on Monday announced he too would leave state parliament, saying it was time for a 'refresh' as much of the state prepares to emerge from nearly four months of Covid-19 lockdown.

Nationals MPs Melinda Pavey, Paul Toole and Adam Marshall are believed to be the main contenders to lead the junior coalition party and become the new deputy premier.

Dominic Perrottet spent the public holiday Monday hard at work shoring up the numbers for the top job to be decided on Tuesday

Mr Barilaro's resignation means the NSW government faces three by-elections in coming months for the seats of Willoughby, Bega and Monaro, after Transport Minister Andrew Constance on Sunday also announced he was leaving to attempt a switch to federal politics.

Opposition leader Chris Minns on Monday blasted Mr Constance and Mr Barilaro for resigning during the pandemic.

'That you've got a new job opportunity or you'd like to move into a new political arena is not a good enough reason to abandon your electorate and start a new career, particularly during a pandemic,' he said.

By-elections cost upwards of $1.5 million each, he said, and urged them to reconsider their decisions to quit.
A nurse wearing scrubs and body armor was detained after shooting dead a co-worker at a Philadelphia hospital, fleeing in a U-Haul truck and injuring two cops in a gun-fight.

The 55-year-old nurse shot his co-worker on the ninth floor of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital just after midnight on Monday, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said at a news conference.

The co-worker, a 43-year-old man who was a certified nursing assistant, was later pronounced dead.

Cops cornered the shooter in the city's Parkside section after he fled the Hospital in a U-Haul box truck. Armed with multiple weapons, including an AR-15 rifle and a handgun, police said, the the suspect opened fire on the officers, and all four fired back.

Two officers received non-life-threatening injuries during the shootout. The gunman was shot in the upper body and neck and was taken to Penn Presbyterian in critical condition for treatment, and is expected to survive.

Police said they believe the shooting was targeted.

A nurse wearing scrubs and body armor shot and killed a co-worker at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital (pictured) just after midnight Monday

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw (pictured) said officers cornered the shooter after he fled in a U Haul, and they got into a shootout. Two officers were injured with non-life threatening injuries

Outlaw said it was unclear whether the nurse was working at the time of the shooting, but police believe he may had access to areas only employees can enter.

The four officers managed to find the suspect at around 1.25am after they were alerted to his location by a passerby, who reported seeing a man waving a large gun near a school about four miles from Jefferson hospital.

Officers observed him wearing body armor, and he had several weapons including a rifle and a semi-automatic handgun, Outlaw said.

'We learned that he was wearing body armor, and was carrying multiple weapons. In addition to the long gun which was believed to be an AR-15, he was also carrying some form of a semi-automatic handgun,' Outlaw said, according to ABC 6.

Police said the the suspect fired anywhere from 55 to 80 times in the shootout, Fox29 reported. Of the two officers were struck in the gunfight - one suffered an elbow wound that will require surgery while the other was grazed on the nose.

The shooting suspect fled in a U-Haul box truck (pictured) before being cornered by officers in the Parkside section of Philadelphia

Officers were alerted to the shooting suspect's location by a passerby, who said they saw a man waving a large gun

A gunfight erupted outside the U-Haul truck after the shooting suspect opened fire on the officers

One officer was injured in the elbow in the shootout, and the other suffered a grazing wound to the nose. Police were seen at the scene of the shootout Monday morning

It was unclear what sparked the shooting and investigators were looking into the histories of both men, Outlaw said. Police believe the shooting was targeted.

'We do believe that other employee was targeted,' she said. 'The reasons why, at this point we still don't know.'

Hospital employees said they were notified by text message shortly before 1am of an active shooter situation in the Gibbon building of the hospital, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Pedestrians walked past the Thomas Jefferson hospital Monday morning, hour after the shooting took place

Police said they believe the nurse had access to areas only employees can enter

'Enact emergency procedures,' the text read. 'Run, hide, fight.'

In a neighboring hospital building, employees said they heard an official over the loudspeaker telling them to shelter in place. Some told the outlet that they barricaded themselves in a break room for roughly an hour.

The shooter was described as a man in blue scrubs and a mask with a black backpack. The clothes and U-Haul truck he allegedly fled the scene in was later recovered by officers.

Investigators have not released the identities of the suspect or victim, but hospital officials said more details would be made available later on Monday.
Gladys Berejiklian's new boyfriend took a brutal swipe at the trustworthiness of politicians on the same day his embattled lover stood down as leader while proclaiming her innocence.

The ousted premier resigned as NSW leader after it was revealed she had become the centre of a corruption probe linked to her disgraced former boyfriend Daryl Maguire.

But as a teary-eyed Ms Berejiklian made the announcement her new flame - the high-flying legal eagle Arthur Moses SC - was in Sydney's Federal Court appearing to disparage the profession.

He's currently representing former SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith in a defamation suit against Nine Newspapers in what has been dubbed the 'trial of the century'.

While arguing the case for his client in Sydney's Federal Court on Friday, he asserted that there is 'no guarantee' that politicians will tell the truth.

MS Berejiklian's new flame is the high-flying legal eagle Arthur Moses SC (right), currently representing former SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith (left) in a defamation suit against Nine Newspapers

Arthur Moses and Gladys Berejiklian (pictured together) revealed their relationship earlier this year via an Instagram post

The Nine newspapers' barrister, Nicholas Owens, was pleading with the court to implement a three-month adjournment.

He said a number of special forces witnesses the publication is relying on to defend their defamation case are banned from flying from Western Australia due to Covid-19 restrictions.

But Mr Moses protested saying there is no way to know if WA Premier Mark McGowan will re-open state borders in that time frame like he has promised, The Australian reported.

'I think they have to be careful to rely on what the media statements of any politician is  when this court has its own statutory obligations and we have our own professional obligations,' he said.

The untimely courtroom comments came as his embattled partner now prepares for the fight of her life to repair her damaged reputation - but with a lucrative $400,000-a-year pension waiting for her.

Former MPs are roughly entitled to a $200,000-a-year for life pension when they turn 55, which is calculated using a complex actuarial formula.

A tearful Gladys Berejiklian (pictured on Friday) resigned as NSW premier and slammed the state's corruption watchdog for investigating her

The 51-year-old can either collect it in a lump sum of $2million in cold, hard cash or receive the payments year-by-year.

But once she turns 60, the $200,000 sum will effectively double to near her current salary of $407,800 as a result of an old superannuation scheme which was cut off for parliamentarians after 2007.

Because Ms Berejiklian entered the rough-and-tumble world of state politics in 2003, she is understood to be eligible for the increased payments as the old scheme is tax-free.

ICAC is investigating whether she breached public trust by playing a role in the two government grands handed out in Mr Macguire's electorate.

The ousted premier stood down as NSW leader after it was revealed she had become the centre of a corruption probe linked to her disgraced former lover Daryl Maguire (pictured together)

In August it emerged that Ms Berejiklian showed 'interest' in a proposed $5.5million grant for a shooting association clubhouse and conference facility in her secret lover's electorate, documents show.

Mr Maguire had previously been accused of abusing his public office before admitting to being involved in a cash-for-visa scheme and seeking secret commissions for brokering property deals.

But the ex-premier continues to insist she's done nothing wrong.

The public inquiry on the matter will be held for about 10 days from October 18, overseen by Assistant Commissioner Ruth McColl SC.

Ms Berejiklian is set to enjoy a $400,000 per year pension when she hits the age of 60 due to a lucrative tax-free scheme which was ended in 2007
Chancellor Rishi Sunak admitted today there was a problem with public trust in the police following the appalling crimes of killer cop Wayne Couzens.

Mr Sunak, 41, said people had been left worried about the force after harrowing details emerged of how Couzens kidnapped, raped and killed Sarah Everard.

He stressed he still believed in the policy at the interview at the start of Conservative Party conference today.

He said in an interview with LBC: 'I think we all, obviously, should be able to trust the police  and the fact you're having to ask this question tells me there's a problem.'

'I think it starts, probably, with an acknowledgement from men in particular about the scale of the challenge here and making sure we are aware of it and recognise what an issue it is and continue to make efforts to improve the situation.

'Wayne Couzens was roaming around very close to where my old home in London was. My wife was telling me about that and that brought that home for me.

'We just need to do a better job  particularly as male politicians  of recognising that.'

'What I would really urge the public I want to make it clear I do believe in the police. I do think we can trust the police and I think the police do a wonderful, wonderful job.'

His thoughts came as it emerged Couzens would not lose his entire Met pension for murdering Miss Everard because it would infringe his human rights, it was revealed today.

Couzens, who was jailed for life with no parole for the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah, 33, will keep a third of his monthly retirement allowance.

Rishi Sunak said there was a problem with public trust in the police after Couzens' crimes

Couzens, smirking here in uniform, was jailed for life with no parole for killing Sarah Everard

The beast, 48, abducted her before raping and murdering her before burning her body

Home Office guidelines state that no more than 65 per cent of a pension can be forfeited - in Couzens' case this percentage relates to the amount paid by the taxpayer via the police.

But he will keep his own contributions, roughly the remaining 35 per cent, and to take that away would be a 'clear infringement of the officer's rights' under the European Convention on Human Rights, judges have ruled previously.

Police forces across the country are facing calls to re-vet all officers after the string of blunders that allowed Wayne Couzens to abuse his role in the murder of Sarah Everard.

A former Met Police chief superintendent yesterday warned that other people with 'questionable backgrounds' may have slipped through flawed vetting procedures.

Claims emerged at the weekend that married Couzens had taken an escort to a colleague's wedding anniversary party at the Hilton hotel in Maidstone, Kent, where he joked about paying for sex.

The former firearms officer was once nicknamed 'the rapist' by colleagues. At his Old Bailey trial it was revealed that Couzens was 'attracted to brutal sexual pornography' as far back as 2002.

Parm Sandhu, a former Met chief superintendent who worked for the force for almost three decades, said Scotland Yard had fostered a culture where Couzens 'was allowed to flourish'.

Miss Sandhu told Sky News' Trevor Phillips on Sunday: 'Everybody who works in policing now should be re-vetted. Those people who got through the vetting procedure 20 years ago, 30 years ago, all of them.'

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick has come under fire over Couzens' crimes

Marketing executive Sarah Everard, 33, was snatched off the street in Clapham on March 3

Miss Everard's family released this picture of her after Couzens was jailed for killing her

She also said that a WhatsApp group in which the murderer and colleagues from three forces allegedly shared offensive messages was a sign of the attitudes that can be damaging to women.

Last week it emerged that two Met officers are still on duty after swapping highly offensive messages with Couzens, who was given a whole life term for the murder of Miss Everard.

Lord Stevens, who served as Met Commissioner between 2000 and 2005, has described the force's vetting procedures as 'not fit for purpose'. But Boris Johnson yesterday rejected calls for a public inquiry amid mounting pressure on Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick to explain how the force failed to address the killer's past.

Following a wave of criticism over the force's handling of the scandal, the Prime Minister asked women to have confidence in police officers who he said were 'overwhelmingly trustworthy'.

He said an internal inquiry by Scotland Yard and separate probes by the Independent Office for Police Conduct were sufficient.

Mr Johnson told the BBC's Andrew Marr show: 'My view is that the police do  overwhelmingly  a wonderful job and what I want is the public, and women in particular, girls and young women, women of all ages, to trust the police.'

But Priti Patel will be 'watching very closely' to ensure Dame Cressida improves police vetting, a minister warned last night. Solicitor general Alex Chalk said: 'A lot of people will have real concerns about how Wayne Couzens slipped through the net and they'll want to be absolutely satisfied if things are about to improve.'

He told a fringe event at the Tory conference it was 'absolutely right' that the Metropolitan Police needed to improve on vetting.

However Donna Jones, the Hampshire police and crime commissioner, said that re-vetting tens of thousands of officers was 'not a sensible use of public money'.

She told LBC: 'We need to make sure we have got the right processes in place so that when issues are reported the police forces are acting quickly.'

Couzens kidnapped Miss Everard after using his police warrant card to stage a 'false arrest' on March 3, handcuffing her and claiming she was breaking Covid rules.

Met Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave has admitted that vetting procedures were not followed properly when Couzens joined the force in 2018.

But he said that Couzens would still have been accepted if his links to an indecent exposure incident in 2015 were known, because Kent Police failed to identify him as being responsible.

Couzens's vehicle was reported to the force, where he was serving as a special constable, after a male motorist was seen driving around naked from the waist down.

But it was decided the incident did not warrant any further action and the driver was not identified.

Couzens' name was also raised in a sex offence days before Miss Everard's death, after two female staff at a McDonald's in Swanley, Kent, said they were flashed by a driver on February 7 and 27.

CCTV evidence showing Couzens's number plate had actually brought up his name as a suspect on the Met's systems.

But officers failed to flag up that he was a serving officer and further inquiries were not made until after Miss Everard's disappearance.

Ian Blair, who succeeded Lord Stevens as head of Scotland Yard, said 'an absolutely forensic' investigation similar to the Stephen Lawrence inquiry led by Lord Macpherson was needed.

He called for 'an independent inquiry to try to discover what are the processes that allowed this man  who's obviously a manipulative, homicidal maniac  to become a police officer'.

Patsy Stevenson, an activist who was arrested at a vigil for Miss Everard in March, said the Met had failed to address 'systemic issues within their force'.
Mark McGowan has hit back at the man tipped to be the next NSW Premier, who described the Western Australian leader as the 'Gollum of Australian politics.'

He reignited a war of words with Dominic Perrottet, who's expected to be announced as Gladys Berejiklian's successor at Tuesday's leadership ballot.

Western Australia is gearing up for a battle to keep its share of GST revenue if Mr Perrottet gets the job to lead Australia's biggest state.

Mr McGowan vowed to fight to the death to protect its GST revenue as he fired a parting shot to the current NSW treasurer Mr Perrottet.

Mark McGowan (pictured right with wife Sarah at the Brownlow Medal) expects a stoush with rival state NSW over GST revenue

'NSW has a terrible set of finances, massive deficits, huge debt,' Mr McGowan said.

'They'll say it's Western Australia's fault because we get 70 per cent of every dollar we put into GST. NSW gets something like 96 cents back for every dollar it puts into GST; we get 70 cents back.

'We need to be vigilant about what states like NSW might do and we won't cop any undermining of our GST share and we will fight them to the death over it.'

Mr McGowan plans to congratulate Mr Perrottet if he becomes his NSW counterpart but expects a battle to protect WA's GST revenue.

'We are already funding them to the tune of billions of dollars, how do they think all this support for NSW is being funded? It's being funded by states that are open, in particular ours,' he said,

'They will try to blame us for their poor financial management and we won't cop it.'

'I've only met him [Mr Perrottet] as treasurer on some of the Zoom meetings a couple of times and if he becomes Premier of NSW then I will congratulate him on that.'

Dominic Perrottet (pictured with wife Helen) described the WA Premier as the ' the Gollum of Australian politics'

WA recorded a $5.6billion budget surplus last week, partly due to GST revenue from mining.

The encounter sparked a brutal takedown from Mr Perrottet who compared the WA leader to an unflattering monstrous character.

'Mark McGowan is the Gollum of Australian politics,' Mr Perrottet told Sky News on Friday.

'You can just picture him over there in his cave with his 'little precious' - the GST.'

Mr McGowan then boasted about his state's surplus before mocking NSW counterpart Gladys Berejiklian when he was asked whether the rival state's roadmap out of lockdown would changes keep WA's borders closed until mid next year

'Who's Gladys?',' he interrupted.

When the reporter clarified, Mr McGowan added: 'Yeah, I was just making sure we were talking about the same Gladys.'

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has assured WA will keep its fair share of GST revenue

'I was the first Prime Minister to ensure that Western Australia got their fair share of GST and stood up to all those who opposed it,' he told The West Australian.

The WA Premier has ignited a war of words with NSW Premier front runner Dominic Perrottet (pictured in Sydney on Monday)

'My government fixed it and my government will protect it. The only person Western Australians need to worry about is Anthony Albanese who in government never acted to fix WA's GST allocation.'

But the state opposition aren't convinced.

'We know Scott Morrison was as thick as thieves with Gladys Berejiklian and he will be the same with Dominic Perrottet,' shadow trade and resources minister Madeleine King said.

'There's every chance he'll entertain and look at winding back WA's fair share of the GST.'

Assistant shadow minister Patrick Gorman fears Mr Perrottet has 'WA's GST squarely in his sights.'
She discovered Heather had died shortly before was due to marry her own fiance

Diana, from Buffalo, NY, reached out to her family after successful operation

This is the tearjerking moment a bride whose life was saved by an organ donation was walked down the aisle at her wedding by her donor's father.

Diana Donnarumma, 28, from Buffalo, New York, fought back tears as Daniel Donnelly Jr held her hand as they walked into the reception so she could marry her fiance, Conlan Kreher.

But before getting to the altar, Daniel, whose donor daughter Heather died in a car accident in 2017, passed Diana back to her own father, who thanked him for his daughter's gift.

An intestinal transplant from Heather had helped save Diana's life, as she was previously in intestinal failure due to the progression of her Dysautonomia, also known as automatic dysfunction.

Diana Donnarumma, 28, was walked down the aisle by Daniel Donnelly Jr, whose daughter Heather had given her a life-saving organ transplant, before being handed to her own father

Years after her life-saving organ transplant, Diana was able to walk down the aisle to marry her husband Conlan

A year after the transplant, Diana was allowed to reach out to her donor's family, who are given the option to either accept or deny the request.

Diana's letter went through her transplant center in Washington DC to a Texas organ donation center, which then contacted Daniel.

Daniel accepted the letter, and he and Diana later spoke by phone, which, Diana said, caused her to cry for two days straight, having discovered what a wonderful person Heather was.

In the years since, Diana has tried to raise awareness of Heather's life and organ donation through her social media pages, and she and Daniel eventually met in Illinois, where Daniel lives.

There, he told Diana that it was Heather's decision to donate, and how his daughter had passed away just a few days before she was due to marry her own fiance, Beau.

An intestinal transplant from Heather (pictured) had helped save Diana's life, as she was previously in intestinal failure due to the progression of her Dysautonomia, also known as automatic dysfunction

Daniel revealed to Diana that it was Heather's decision to donate, and how his daughter had passed away just a few days before she was due to marry her own fiance, Beau. Pictured: Daniel with his late daughter Heather

Knowing that Daniel, a single parent, had not had the chance to walk his daughter down the aisle on her big day, Diana later asked if he would do her the honor, which Daniel accepted.

On August 13, at Salvatore Hospitality in Buffalo, Daniel cried as he first saw Diana in her wedding dress, before walking her into the main room for the reception.

There, he gave Diana over to her biological father, Glen, who walked his daughter the rest of the way so that she could marry her husband, Conlan Kreher, 30.

Speaking of the moment, Diana said: 'Before I walked down the aisle with Dan, I felt butterflies in my stomach.

Diana's father, Glen embraces Heather's father Daniel and thanks him as he hands over the bride to walk the last few steps up to the altar

'When he first saw me in my wedding dress he cried.

'Once I saw him crying, I started crying.

'He misses Heather so much and struggles with the pain of her absence.

'He said he was honored to walk me down the aisle and is so happy to have another daughter now.

'I told Dan, that Heather's spirit was there with us and she was happier than ever.

'We hugged each other before we went out.

'But I felt every emotion in the book: I was excited, anxious, sad about Heather, but, immensely happy that in a few moments I would marry the love of my life.

'I hope people can realize the power of organ donation. Without Heather's decision, I would not be here today.

'Death is a tragedy but transplant is a light of beauty in the midst of that tragedy.

'Transplant gave me the life that I never thought I would have.

'These decisions are vital.

'I ask that people think seriously about this.

'Don't make your family decide in the moment when they are grieving.'
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Soldiers got behind the wheel of Britain's fuel tankers today as ministers ordered petrol companies to target a 'surge' of deliveries to empty filling stations in London and the South East.

Troops in combat gear were seen at the Buncefield oil depot in Hemel Hempstead this morning as a steady flow of tankers left the site.

It came as Brian Madderson, chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) said shortages were 'getting worse' in the UK's most populous region, where 'one in five' filling stations were still dry.

Today, accounts from drivers on the ground suggested the situation could be even worse in some areas, with TV presenter Matthew Stadlen saying he passed five petrol stations which were all empty of unleaded. Another Twitter user said he had passed seven petrol stations in the capital this morning and every one was closed.

In contrast, supplies in the North of England and the Midlands are said to be improving, with only 6 per cent of garages dry in the Midlands, northern England and Scotland.

Today, the PRA's chief executive Gordon Balmer told Sky News said it could take 'a week to 10 days' to get all sites running with normal levels of fuel.

David Charman, the director of Parkfoot Garage in West Malling, Kent, said that customers are 'not panic buying any more' but are drivers who have 'waited as long as they possibly can' and now have no fuel left.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is understood to want troops to free up other drivers to prioritise areas most in need.

'We need to see a rapid surge of supplies to London and the southeast,' a government source told The Times. 'It has been made very clear to the industry that the additional capacity from the armed forces needs to be used to get tankers to those areas where there are still significant petrol shortages.'

It came as the governments reserve petrol tankers were pictured still sitting in a storage yard in Cambridgeshire this morning - despite government assurances the fuel crisis would be resolved.

A member of the armed forces drives a tanker today out of Buncefield oil depot, known as the Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal, in Hemel Hempstead

Around 200 military personnel, half of them drivers, are being deployed in Operation Escalin, despite ministers insisting the situation at the pumps is easing

A man was seen filling multiple jerry cans in his car boot at an Asda Petrol Station in Greenwich, South East London

Huge queues of motorists wait for fuel at an Esso petrol station in Ashford, Kent as Britain's fuel crisis continued

British soldiers drive a fuel truck leaving Buncefield oil storage depot as British military to start delivering fuel to petrol stations

The soldiers have been receiving training from logistics company Hoyer and are now out on the roads today

A fuel truck leaves Buncefield oil storage to deliver fuel to petrol stations in London this morning

Soldiers are seen behind the wheel at the Buncefield oil storage depot as they join an effort to restock depleted petrol stations

Members of the military arrive at Buncefield oil depot in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire to start driving oil tankers this morning

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is understood to want the soldiers (seen this morning at the Buncefield oil storage depot) to free up other drivers to prioritise areas most in need

The army was called out after panic buying exacerbated existing petrol supply issues caused by a shortage of lorry drivers (troops are seen today)

A Shell Petrol Station in Bermondsey had no fuel this morning. Around 20% of filling stations in London and the South East are believed to be in the same situation

Today, accounts from drivers on the ground suggested the situation could be even worse in some areas, with TV presenter Matthew Stadlen saying he passed five petrol stations which were all empty of unleaded

The governments reserve petrol tankers were still sitting in a storage yard in Cambridgeshire this morning - despite government assurances the fuel crisis would be resolved. Around three quarters of the 40 tankers, worth an estimated 4 million, are parked in the storage depot in Fenstanton

Only about 10 of the white tankers, which are stored at the depot in case of a national emergency, appear to have left the storage site

Government's reserve petrol tankers are STILL in a storage yard despite promises to resolve the fuel crisis The governments reserve petrol tankers were still sitting in a storage yard in Cambridgeshire this morning - despite government assurances the fuel crisis would be resolved. Around three quarters of the 40 tankers, worth an estimated 4 million, are parked in the storage depot in Fenstanton, whilst many forecourts across the UK remain closed due to a shortage of truck drivers. Only about 10 of the white tankers, which are stored at the depot in case of a national emergency, appear to have left the storage site. The fuel crisis has caused huge queues outside some petrol stations, whilst other forecourts have run out of supplies and closed completely. The army has been spotted helping out at some forecourts but a large number are still closed. Advertisement

David Charman, of Parkfoot Garage in West Malling, said retailers were unable to cope with a surge of demand because a shortage of lorry drivers has meant sites do not have their usual reserve capacity.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: Ive been at the site every day walking and talking to our customers queuing up the road. This is not panic buying anymore, these are people who have waited as long as they possibly can and have no fuel.

We are having to push cars that are in the queue because theyve run out of fuel.

'We were just about managing for the last couple of months, we didnt have that normal two days of stock underground.

Now when were all empty it needs a huge influx of fuel deliveries to everybody to get everyone through this.'

He continued: Our fuel company and Hoyer have full visibility of our stock and they manage this extremely well and we have very few times when we run out of fuel.

But there wasnt that buffer stock underground because they were short of drivers so when the problem hit it became very bad very quickly.

This is no longer about competition between us and others, this is about satisfying customers that desperately need to get to work and desperately need to perform the functions that they do for the country.

Around 200 military personnel - half of them drivers - are being deployed in Operation Escalin, despite ministers insisting the situation at the pumps is easing.

They include members of 3rd Logistic Support Regiment who have been training with the petroleum industry logistics company Hoyers in Thurrock in Essex.

The Petrol Retailers Association Brian Madderson welcomed the introduction of military drivers, but warned they will have only a limited impact. He said extra deliveries should go to the South East first where there was a 'really big problem'.

'The fuel is still not going to the pumps that need it most in London and the southeast,' he said.

'It's all really to do with the population: we have 25 million-plus living in and around London [and the] home counties.'

He added: 'To go with that we have a massive amount of delivery vans, a massive amount of vehicles, and that is just the chronic situation.'

However, he said in the north there was a 'plentiful supply at filling stations' and little queueing. He added: 'We now need the government to work with the downstream fuel industry on 'levelling up' London and the southeast, where the fuel is most needed right now.'

Tankers seen leaving the BP refinery in Hampshire fully loaded at the start of a 'surge' to fill up empty stations in the South East

Fuel tankers parked this morning at Buncefield oil depot, known as the Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal. Around 200 troops were deployed this morning to make up for a shortage of drivers

Tankers leaving the refinery this morning as a 'surge' plan began to target empty petrol stations in the South East

A worker fills up a tanker at the BP refinery in Buncefield, which is known as the Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal

An Esso petrol station that had run out of fuel this morning in London. The Petrol Retailers Association says 20% of garages in the South East are out of fuel

There was a sign outside of the Esso station in London saying 'we are sorry but we currently have no fuel'

Members of the military seen this morning at the Hemel Hempstead Terminal, which is operated by BP

Motorists fill up their tanks at a Tesco in South East London, which was still in operation this morning

British Army are seen delivering fuel to a Shell Garage in New Forest Hampshire yesterday as they were shown how to unload the fuel into the forecourt tanks

Asked about the deployment of Army drivers, he said: 'This isn't going to be the major panacea. It's a large help but in terms of the volume, they are not going to be able to carry that much.

'We do need a prioritisation of deliveries to filling stations  particularly the independent ones which are the neighbourhood retail sites  in London and the South East, starting immediately.'

David Charman, of Parkfoot Garage in West Malling, (holding an industry award) said retailers were unable to cope with a surge of demand because a shortage of lorry drivers has meant sites do not have their usual reserve capacity

It comes as greedy garage bosses were accused of profiting from the crisis by charging almost 3 for a litre of petrol.

A Gulf petrol station in west London is charging 2.93 a litre for super unleaded  a staggering 98 per cent increase on its normal price of 1.48.

Figures compiled by the FairFuelUK campaign group indicated that the average national price of a litre of petrol now stands at 141.9p. Diesel drivers are now paying 145.5p.

Experts believe petrol prices are likely to increase by between 3p and 5p this week as demand continues to outstrip supply.

Mr Madderson said rising world oil prices meant motorists should expect higher prices at the pumps when filling stations are resupplied. He added: 'Expect anything from one, two or even 3p a litre increases at the pump.

'This is not profiteering. This is genuine wholesale price increases caused by global factors.'

But he admitted there had been examples of profiteering at some garages, adding: 'We certainly do not condone that at all.'

Howard Cox, of FairFuelUK, said: 'We want fair prices for consumers. But right now Britain's motorists are being ipped off under the smokescreen of the chaos.'

The group - pictured yesterday - had followed a lorry from Hoyer in their blue crew bus before being shown how to unload the fuel into the forecourt tanks while an accompanying tanker driver told them it would take 1 hour and 30 minutes to complete the job

Paul Drinkwater (pictured centre, yesterday), a Driver Training Instructor for Hoyer Petrolog UK, shows British Army and RAF drivers important features of the fuel tankers at training in Thurrock in order for them to deliver fuel from today

This graphic shows the fuel situation in the country last week - there are few signs of improvement in the South East today

Breakdown companies have reported a surge in callouts by motorists left stranded when their tanks run dry.

Simon Williams, of the RAC, said: 'We've seen a sharp increase in the number of our members who have broken down as a result of running out of fuel, and last Monday alone we attended twice as many drivers in a single day for this problem than we would normally see over a whole week.'

Panicked motorists have also been caught out after filling up with the wrong type of fuel after queuing for hours at forecourts.

Around 100 trained Army drivers with an additional 100 support troops will be deployed in the coming days, despite repeated assurances by ministers the situation is stabilising.

Tory party chairman Oliver Dowden told Sky News: 'People feel deeply frustrated and I share their anger and frustration.

'That's why the Government is working tirelessly to resolve that situation and 200 military personnel will be deployed to help drive tankers to ensure that we overcome this.'

The Petrol Retailers Association, which represents thousands of independent forecourts across the UK, has welcomed the introduction of the military from tomorrow, as it said fuel shortages are getting worse in some parts of the country (Pictured: Soldiers being shown important features of Hoyer lorry yesterday)

A member of the Royal Logistics Corps is shown important features of the fuel tanker cab as the Army prepares to help tackle fuel crisis from today

Motorists queue for a petrol station to open at a Tesco in Ashford, Kent yesterday morning

Queues at Tesco filling station in Ely, Cambridgeshire yesterday morning at 8.30am

Boris Johnson, attending the opening day of the Tory Party conference in Manchester on Sunday, expressed confidence the crisis was 'abating' and said the military were being deployed as a 'precaution'.

The Prime Minister however repeatedly refused to rule out shortages in the wider economy in the run up to Christmas.

As well as an estimated shortfall of 100,000 HGV drivers, businesses from meat producers to retail, have warned of empty shelves if the shortages are not addressed.

Mr Johnson acknowledged the country was going through a 'period of adjustment' following Brexit, which has cut off the supply of labour from the EU.

He insisted that he was not prepared to resolve the situation by pulling 'the big lever marked uncontrolled immigration' to let in more foreign workers.

He said firms should ensure their employees were 'decently paid' if they wanted to get more staff.
Former U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, a conservative Missouri Republican whose comment that women's bodies have a way of avoiding pregnancies in cases of 'legitimate rape' sunk his bid for the U.S. Senate and became a cautionary tale for other GOP candidates, has died. He was 74.

Akin had cancer for several years, his son Perry said in a statement. He died late Sunday at his home in Wildwood, a St. Louis suburb.

'As my fathers death approached, we had people from all different walks of life share story after story of the personal impact he had on them,' Perry Akin said in a statement to The Associated Press.

'He was a devout Christian, a great father, and a friend to many. We cherish many fond memories from him driving the tractor at our annual hayride, to his riveting delivery of the freedom story at 4th of July parties dressed in the full uniform of a colonial minuteman. The family is thankful for his legacy: a man with a servants heart who stood for truth.'

Akin represented a Republican-leaning eastern Missouri district that included St. Louis-area suburbs for 12 years, giving up a safe seat to run for the U.S. Senate in 2012. He emerged from a crowded GOP primary to challenge then incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, only to seriously hurt Republicans' chances of recapturing a Senate majority less than two weeks later.

Akin, a strong abortion opponent, was asked during an interview by a St. Louis television station whether he supported allowing abortions for women who have been raped. He answered that 'from what I understand from doctors' that such pregnancies are 'really rare.'

FILE - In this Nov. 5, 2012, file photo, Todd Akin, then a Missouri Republican Senate candidate, campaigns in Florissant, Mo. Akin, whose 'legitimate rape' comments during the 2012 U.S. Senate campaign were roundly criticized has died. He was 74. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

He added: 'If its a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.'

His comments sparked an outcry. The Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, immediately rebuked Akin and said his campaign would allow abortions in such cases.

Criticism of Akin's remarks clouded his U.S. Senate bid until the end, making him a symbol of how Republicans could fumble away races they had a good chance of winning with a candidate deemed too far to the right. Akin's campaign initially said he 'misspoke,' and Akin later said he was wrong.

Akin faced pressure from the national GOP to withdraw and allow the state party to pick a replacement. He refused and ended up losing the race by nearly 16 percentage points, receiving 39% of the vote. Yet other Republican officials and officeholders across the U.S. occasionally echoed his remarks - signaling how conservative some of the party's base had become on the issue.

Two years later, Akin published a book, 'Firing Back,' in which he accused GOP leaders of abandoning him and letting McCaskill win and labeling news organizations as bullies. In the book, he also retracted his public apology for his 'legitimate rape' remark.

Akin never ran for office again, though early in 2015, he briefly fueled speculation about a 2016 primary challenge to GOP U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt with remarks that tea party Republicans wanted 'new blood.'

Akin was born July 5, 1947, in New York City, but grew up in the St. Louis area. He received a bachelor's degree in engineering and management from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts in 1970, served in the U.S. Army and worked for IBM. He worked in corporate management at the St. Louis-based Laclede Steel Co.

He won a seat in the Missouri House in 1988 and served in the Legislature for 10 years. He won Missouri's 2nd Congressional District seat in 2000 and was reelected five times. He also served on the board of the anti-abortion group Missouri Right to Life.

In the 2012 U.S. Senate primary, Akin faced two formidable opponents, former State Treasurer Sarah Steelman and businessman John Brunner.

Many Democrats thought McCaskill's best shot at winning reelection would be with Akin as the GOP nominee. Her campaign aired television ads suggesting Akin was too conservative, Brunner was not a reliable conservative and Steelman represented 'more politics as usual.'

Republicans took the ads as McCaskill's attempt to help Akin win the GOP primary. An autobiography that McCaskill published in 2015 said she also tried to boost Akin's campaign by urging it through back channels to resume airing a television ad featuring an endorsement from former conservative GOP presidential candidate and ex-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

McCaskill's moves paid off. Akin prevailed in the eight-person GOP field with only 36% of the vote.

Funeral information has not been announced. Survivors include Akin's wife, Lulli Boe Akin, his mother, Nancy Bigelow Akin, four sons, two daughters and 18 grandchildren.

___

Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas. Salter reported from O'Fallon, Missouri.

FILE - In this Aug. 16, 2012, file photo, Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., and his wife Lulli, talk with reporters while attending the Governor's Ham Breakfast at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia, Mo. Akin, whose comment that women's bodies have a way of avoiding pregnancies in cases of 'legitimate rape' sunk his bid for the U.S. Senate and became a cautionary tale for other GOP candidates, has died. He was 74. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 5, 2012, file photo, Missouri Republican Senate candidate, Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., gives two thumbs up as he enters a Republican campaign office to visit with supporters in Florissant, Mo. Akin, whose comment that women's bodies have a way of avoiding pregnancies in cases of 'legitimate rape' sunk his bid for the U.S. Senate and became a cautionary tale for other GOP candidates, has died. He was 74. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2012, file photo, U.S. Senate candidate, Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., and his wife Lulli acknowledge supporters before Akin makes his concession speech to U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. in Chesterfield, Mo. Akin, whose comment that women's bodies have a way of avoiding pregnancies in cases of 'legitimate rape' sunk his bid for the U.S. Senate and became a cautionary tale for other GOP candidates, has died. He was 74. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

FILE - In this Feb 18, 2012, file photo, Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin, R-Missouri, waves to the crowd while introduced at a senate candidate forum during a Republican conference in Kansas City, Mo. Akin, whose comment that women's bodies have a way of avoiding pregnancies in cases of 'legitimate rape' sunk his bid for the U.S. Senate and became a cautionary tale for other GOP candidates, has died. He was 74. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2012 file photo, U.S. Senate candidate, Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., and his wife Lulli wave to supporters after Akin gave his concession speech to U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. in Chesterfield, Mo. Akin, whose comment that women's bodies have a way of avoiding pregnancies in cases of 'legitimate rape' sunk his bid for the U.S. Senate and became a cautionary tale for other GOP candidates, has died. He was 74. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 24, 2012, file photo, U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., gives a news conference where he confirmed his plans to remain in Missouri's U.S. Senate race despite a political uproar over remarks he made about rape and pregnancy. Akin, whose comment that women's bodies have a way of avoiding pregnancies in cases of 'legitimate rape' sunk his bid for the U.S. Senate and became a cautionary tale for other GOP candidates, has died. He was 74. (AP Photo/Sid Hastings, File)
A US tourist has been arrested after allegedly raping a masseuse and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl while high on drugs in Thailand.

Robert Andrew Gordon, 37, from Colorado, allegedly attacked the woman and raped her at a shop in Khon Kaen province, northeast Thailand, on September 27.

He then fled on a motorbike and allegedly sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl who was selling honey at a roadside stall.

Police issued a nationwide alert and arrested Gordon 300 miles away in a hotel room in the notorious red-light district Soi Nana in the capital Bangkok.

Gordon allegedly confessed to both attacks but claimed the fact he was high on methamphetamine pills and had no control over his actions was a mitigating factor.

Thai authorities have charged him with physical assault, rape and illegally detaining others.

Robert Andrew Gordon, 37, from Colorado, has been pinned to the ground and arrested after allegedly raping a masseuse and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl while high on drugs in Thailand

Gordon was caught on CCTV walking around naked in the massage parlor reception area before he allegedly raped the woman in Khon Kaen province, northeast Thailand, on September 27

Gordon was caught on CCTV walking around naked in the massage parlor reception area before he allegedly raped the woman.

Moments after the alleged assault he was caught on camera dressed hurriedly leaving the parlor.

Shocked locals noticed blood and water coming from the door of the massage parlor before finding the unconscious woman inside.

She was rushed to hospital with severe head injuries but later regained consciousness.

Officers said they were coordinating with doctors to do a thorough physical examination to determine the extent of the women's injuries.

Police said she had not yet been able to answer questions about the alleged assault and it was not clear if she knew Gordon.

After the alleged rape, police say Gordon fled on a motorbike and sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl who was selling honey from a roadside stall

To help identify Gordon, officers interviewed a lorry driver who allegedly witnessed the attack on the teenage girl.

They also spoke with Thai women in the area who have foreign husbands as well as checking immigration records and following his tracks on CCTV.

During the investigation, the alleged victim's son said: 'My mother worked abroad and has only returned here recently. She then worked at the massage parlor.'



Footage later showed the American being pinned to the ground and handcuffed.

Deputy national police chief General Damrongsak Kittipraphat said: 'The suspect attacked the massage worker then molested a young girl while he was escaping.

'Officers checked CCTV from the shop and immigration records. With the help of witnesses, we were able to identify the man.'

Police obtained an arrest warrant from the Khon Kaen provincial court before Gordon was arrested in Bangkok, where he had fled on his motorcycle. They said he had arrived as a tourist

Police obtained an arrest warrant from the Khon Kaen provincial court before Gordon was arrested in Bangkok, where he had fled on his motorcycle. They said he had arrived as a tourist.

General Damrongsak Kittipraphat added: 'The American man confessed to the attacks and said he was under the influence of drugs at the time. He blamed them for making him feel overly sexual.

'Our team of officers lead the investigation and arrested him at a hotel. We found the same clothes and same motorcycle from the scene of the crime. The suspect confessed and he has been charged according to the law.'

Gordon has reportedly refused to take part in a public reconstruction of the crime.
Russia today announced it has successfully test-fired its new lethal Zircon - or Tsirkon - hypersonic missile from a nuclear submarine for the first time.

The 6,670mph weapon hit a target in the Barents Sea according to the Moscow defence ministry, who claims the missile is capable of Mach-9 speeds and able to evade all Western defences.

Footage released by the ministry shows the debut launch from nuclear submarine Severodvinsk while the vessel was on the surface of the White Sea.

The missile is part of a new generation of Russian weapons technology lauded by President Vladimir Putin.

'The Russian navy carried out the first tests of the Zircon hypersonic missile from the Severodvinsk nuclear submarine. The missile was test-fired at a conditional sea target in the Barents Sea,' said an official statement.

'The test-firing of the Zircon missile from the nuclear submarine was recognised as successful.'

The Zircon test-firing comes as part of a new arms-race for advanced missiles, which has also seen North Korea and the US test-fire their own hypersonic weapons in the past month.

'The test-firing of the Zircon missile from the nuclear submarine was recognised as successful,' the Moscow defence ministry said in a statement. The Zircon missile is reportedly capable of Mach 9 speeds - nine times the speed of sound at around 6,900 mph

Russia said last week it had completed flight tests of the new-age missile from a frigate - the Admiral Gorshkov - and a coastal mount, but it had not previously been launched from a submarine.

The Russian announcement follows the Pentagon last week announcing that the US had tested an air breathing hypersonic weapon capable of speeds faster than five times the speed of sound.

The Zircon has been identified by Moscow's state-controlled TV as Vladimir Putin's weapon of choice to wipe out coastal American cities in the event of an atomic conflict.

He has declared the missile as 'truly unparalleled anywhere in the world', and the Russians have boasted it is 'unstoppable' by Western defences.

Putin first announced the development of an array of new hypersonic weapons back in 2018, insisting that they would be able to hit almost any point in the world and evade a US-built missile shield.

The Zircon is due to go into service next year, and will first be deployed via the Admiral Golovko frigate which carries significant stealth-technology.

Russia said last week it had completed flight tests of the new-age missile from a frigate - the Admiral Gorshkov

The frigate Admiral Gorshkov successfully fired the Zircon hypersonic missile at a ground target on the coast of the Barents Sea on July 19, 2021

The Zircon is due to go into service next year, and will first be deployed via the Admiral Golovko frigate (pictured) which carries significant stealth-technology

Kremlin deputy premier Yury Borisov says Russia has outpaced the West in hypersonic weapons - and intends to maintain its lead.

'We have broken forward, specifically, in the sphere of hypersonic weapons and (those) based on new physical principles,' he said recently.

'We now have serious advantages in this regard over the leading Western countries - and will try to maintain this position.'

A key use of the missile is taking out enemy ships and reports suggested its maximum range is between 188 and 620 miles.

But there have been unconfirmed reports its true range is some 1,200 miles.

The missile system's design and development have been conducted in deep secrecy, and Putin has warned that foreign spies have tried to steal its secrets.

It is one of a number of hypersonic missiles Russia is deploying including the 188-tonne Sarmat - known in the West as Satan-2 - which will be the biggest beast in Russia's nuclear arsenal, due for tests in the autumn with deployment slated for next year.

North Korea claimed on Sunday that it had successfully launched a new hypersonic missile from Toyang-ri, Ryongrim County, Jagang Province in late September in what was the fourth missile launch of the month

People watch a television news broadcast showing file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a railway station in Seoul on September 28, 2021, after North Korea fired an 'unidentified projectile' into the sea off its east coast according to the South's military

The testing of the Zircon and Sarmat missiles are part of what has become somewhat of a new hypersonic missile arms-race in recent years and comes as North Korea announced its fourth successful test firing of a new missile in the past month over the weekend.

Two weeks ago, the US announced the successful test-firing of one of their latest air-breathing hypersonic missiles, reported to be capable of speeds faster than five times the speed of sound.

The test, which occurred in mid-September, was the first successful test of the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) since 2013 according to a statement from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The engine works by compressing incoming air with hydrocarbon fuel to create a fast airflow mixture, capable of propelling the missile to five times the speed of sound.
A terrified young couple had their wingmirror torn off their car during a wild road rage row on a busy freeway while their baby boy was in the back seat.

Extraordinary dash cam shows an enraged middle-aged woman confronting the couple and tearing off the rear window on the passenger side.

Motorist Jaylen Venning claimed her younger male companion punched him through his open window moments earlier on the Southern Expressway.

An L-plater has been charged over the alleged incident which unfolded in Adelaide's southern outskirts on Sunday afternoon.

A L-plater will face court next month over an alleged road rage incident in Adelaide on Sunday

His terrified fiancee Nerys Katala Cox was also in the car during the frightening ordeal, along with their 10-month-old baby boy in the back seat.

Fearing for his family's safety, Mr Venning claimed he had no choice but to ram his way out of the escalating situation.

'It didn't seem like they were going to stop. He looked like he was going to get something from his car and then continue trying to get into my car through he window,' he told Nine News.

'It was just disgusting behaviour.'

His fiancee added: 'I was bawling my eye out. I was in hysterics.

Police alleged the man also kicked Mr Venning's drivers side mirror.

The couple have been left shaken by the harrowing ordeal.

A woman was captured on dash cam ripping off the rear mirrors during the worrying incident in Adelaide

Dash cam leading up to the incident shows Mr Venning exchanging words with a passing motorist before turning off the Southern Expressway.

It then shows the Nissan veering towards his vehicle before getting in front to block Mr Venning before the two occupants jump out of the vehicle to confront him.

He suffered a cut lip during the alleged assault while his car sustained minor damage.

A 25-year-old learner driver was later charged with assault and property damage.

He was bailed to appear in Christies Beach Magistrates Court on November 4.

No charges have yet been laid against the woman but investigations are continuing.

Police urge anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers.
Two friends who sneaked into an outdoor swimming pool during a night of drunken antics found themselves in A&E after speeding down a water slide at 2am - which was blocked by a barrier at the end.

Mum-of-five Claire Vickers, 46, and her pal Barry Douglas, 44, suffered broken shins and shattered feet after pulling their stunt at the Aldershot Lido in Hampshire, last month.

The pair were trapped inside the flume tube, writhing in agony for two hours as they shouted for help, The Sun reports.

Eventually, they were rescued by police officers who had responded to calls of 'kids messing about'.

Ms Vickers, a former bartender, said: 'Were idiots  let that be a lesson.'

Claire Vickers, 46, and her pal Barry Douglas, 44, suffered broken shins and shattered feet after pulling their stunt at the Aldershot Lido, Hampshire

The pair rushed down one of the flumes tubes at 2am without realising it was blocked by a barrier at the end

The Aldershot Lido is the largest outdoor swimming park in Hampshire and is run by the local authority

Claire Vickers suffered broken bones in her left foot and her shin bone was also snapped in the accident

Doctors have told Ms Vickers it could be another six weeks before she is able to walk again

She went on: I couldnt think straight as the pain was excruciating. It was like a scene out of a horror film.

I looked over at Barry. He was in the foetal position and silent.

'Thats when I thought we were both going to die.

Ms Vickers had been enjoying a long drinking session earlier that day and had spent four hours at the pub, before meeting Mr Douglas at his home for further drinks.

While intoxicated, the pair decided to wander over to the lido for a dip in the pool.

They wriggled their way under a fence and Ms Vickers poured water from a foot bath down the water slide, which was dry.

As she sat down, Mr Douglas put his legs round her to slide together. It wasn't until they were rushing down the tube at speed that they spotted the barrier.

They slammed into it feet-first, causing Ms Vickers' shin to snap through the skin. All of the bones in her left foot were broken.

She banged desperately at the side of the tube while screaming for help.

Ms Vickers said: 'I nearly went head first  I would have been killed.

'Every time I banged, I let go of my foot and my shin and more blood came out.

Mum-of-five Ms Vickers had been at the pub for fours hours before carrying on the drinking session with her friend Mr Douglas

Mr Douglas, a forklift driver, broke his left leg and both ankles and described the pain as 'unbearable'

Speaking about the accident, Ms Vickers said: 'We're idiots - let that be a lesson.'

Mr Douglas, a forklift driver, broke his left leg and both ankles. He described the pain as 'unbearable.

After an agonising wait for help, the pair were taken to Frimley Park Hospital in Camberley, Surrey, but were later transferred to St Georges Hospital in Tooting, south London.

Gran-of-two Claire remained in hospital for two and a half weeks and she has been told by doctors that she won't be able to walk again for another six.

No action is being taken against the pair, who have decided to share their story as a warning to others.

Rushmoor Borough Council, which runs the lido, declined to comment as 'investigations are ongoing'.
Passengers onboard a London-bound train united to launch a 'mutiny' against staff after the train failed to stop at Swindon.

The Great Western Railway service from Penzance to Paddington was due to call at Swindon on its way to the capital yesterday but left passengers baffled when it went continued on without stopping.

According to others onboard, angry passengers who were heading to Swindon activated several of the train's emergency alarms which forced the train to stop.

Reports suggest at least six alarms were activated before the driver eventually decided to head back to Swindon to let passengers off.

Great Western Railway say the stops were removed as the train was full and that passengers onboard were informed.

One passenger onboard took to social media to describe the incident, writing: 'The current situation on the 16.41 from Totnes to Paddington is unbelievable.

Passengers onboard a London-bound train 'united in mutiny' to force the driver to head back to Swindon after it passed by without stopping unexpectedly, causing severe delays (file photo)

'We have turned around and gone back to Swindon to drop off some passengers who were so annoyed the train didn't stop there that they rang the emergency alarm multiple times...'

Passengers, who described the journey as 'the commute from hell', claim they were told the system used to make announcements was not working and so they were unaware the train was not stopping at Swindon and Chippenham.

Another told the Telegraph: 'Swindon united against GWR in a mutiny. No one knows the reason why the train did not stop at Swindon, when it was part of the stops and people wanted to get off.

'Eventually, they did concede a win to the Swindon people and the train went back there.'

The incident caused widespread disruption across the network and left passengers facing severe delays.

The train eventually ended its journey at Reading and all passengers were instructed to disembark and join another service to Paddington.

Passengers say they were not told the train would not stop at Swindon and reports suggest several of them repeatedly activated the emergency alarms to force the train to head back

Describing his experience as 'the journey from hell', another passenger wrote: 'Absolutely disgraceful service this afternoon / tonight from you guys.

'Got on London Paddington train at Newton Abbot. The train was meant to stop at Swindon but didn't. After this happened alarms were pulled and we were held just past Swindon. We were held there for hour.

'I appreciate that may have not been your fault but there was ZERO communication throughout all we were told was about alarms going off and are being held.

'If that hold up wasn't enough we were then after being delayed told the train was terminating at Reading.'

Other passengers complained that the service was overcrowded and that there was a lack of communication from staff.

Great Western Railway say the stops were removed due to overcrowding and that passengers onboard were informed.

A spokesman for Great Western Railway told MailOnline: 'We're really sorry for those inconvenienced yesterday and those who were delayed will be able to get their money back by claiming a refund.

'The 1418 Penzance to Paddington service was diverted via Chippenham and Swindon to assist passengers affected by an earlier cancelled train.

'The service was however too busy to carry more passengers safely, so the extra stops were removed.

'While those on board were informed of the decision, having passed Swindon the emergency 'passcomms' was pulled and the train stopped - further delaying the service by well over an hour. The train was returned to Swindon before continuing on its journey towards Reading.'
Clint Eastwood has won a $6.1million lawsuit after suing a Lithuanian CBD seller for falsely using his name and image to push their products.

California judge R. Gary Klausner entered a default judgement against Mediatonas UAB after the Lithuanian CBD seller failed to respond to a summons in March.

Eastwood, 91, and Garrapata, the company which owns the rights to his likeness, was awarded $6million in damages, $95,000 to cover legal fees and a permanent injunction against the future use of his name or image.

In July last year, he filed two lawsuits seeking millions of dollars in damages from several CBD manufacturers and marketers, who falsely claimed he had endorsed their goods.

The Academy Award-winning actor-turned-director filed an amended suit in February against Mediatonas UAB, the company which owns sites where fake interviews with Eastwood endorsing the CBD products were published.



Clint Eastwood (pictured in 2018) has won a $6.1million lawsuit after suing a Lithuanian CBD seller for falsely using his name and image to push their products

The 91-year-old actor said in one of the lawsuits that multiple CBD companies used photos of him, fraudulent articles and attributed quotes to him to promote and sell cannabidiol (CBD) products.

'In truth, Mr Eastwood has no connection of any kind whatsoever to any CBD products and never gave such an interview,' states the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles federal court in July 2020, which claims defamation.

'Mr Eastwood seeks to hold accountable the persons and entities that wrongfully crafted this scheme, spread false and malicious statements of facts about him, and illegally profited off of his name and likeness', the filing added.

The suit detailed that some of the phony news articles about Eastwood alleged he was quitting the movie business to focus on a CBD business, which is non-existent, according to the New York Times.

The three CBD companies accused of coming up with the phony articles, which first surfaced last year, were named as Sera Labs Inc, Greendios and For Our Vets LLC.

The lawsuit also claims that three companies sent spam emails with the subject line: 'Clint Eastwood Exposes Shocking Secret Today.'

The body of the emails also included a fictitious interview supposedly with NBC's Today show, which never took place. The email included a picture of Eastwood from an actual appearance on the show and links to buy the company's CBD products.

The second lawsuit targeted ten companies and individuals throughout the United States that are accused of using a programming code to insert his name in hidden metatags, to direct online searches to their webpage.

'By using Mr Eastwood's name in hidden metatags, defendants have figuratively posted a sign with Mr Eastwood's trademark in front of their online store to attract customers and caused the consuming public to believe that Mr Eastwood is associated with and/or endorsed... defendants' CBD products, when no such association actually exists,' the court document pointed out.

The father-of-eight explained in both lawsuits that he would not allow his name or image to be used to sell CBD products.

'Like many of his most famous characters, Mr Eastwood is not afraid to confront wrongdoing and hold accountable those that try to illegally profit off his name or likeness,' the documents continued.

Eastwood (pictured in 2020) said in one of the lawsuits that multiple CBD companies used photos of him, fraudulent articles and attributed quotes to him to promote and sell cannabidiol (CBD) products

Eastwood asked the court to order the companies to give up all income, profits and benefits resulting from their conduct.

He is not alone as a target of fake celebrity endorsements, which have also deceptively used the likenesses of George Clooney, Oprah and Tom Hanks.

'My client is not one to sit idly by as the defendants use his good name to dupe customers into purchasing products with which he has no affiliation,' Eastwood's attorney Nolan Heimann told Deadline at the time.

He added: 'While the purpose of these lawsuits is to halt and remedy ongoing defamation and misappropriation violations, they should also serve as a reminder to customers to be cautious when they see a too-good-to-be-true celebrity endorsement.'
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Rishi Sunak woos Tory faithful with attack on 'immoral' borrowing Rishi Sunak gave his conference speech in Manchester today in front of a packed audience of the Tory faithful. The Chancellor painted himself out as a safe pair of hands who believes in fiscal stability - and the power of Brexit. Mr Sunak said he believes borrowing more money for future generations to pay for is 'immoral' as he tried to stress his desire for fiscal responsibility.

He told the crowd 'the only sustainable route out of poverty comes from having a good job.'

He accused Labour of having 'a desperately sad vision for our future' that involved just increasing benefits and telling young families 'the economic system is rigged against you and the only way you stand a chance is to lean ever more on the state'.

The Chancellor claimed he was told that supporting Brexit meant 'my political career would be over before it had even begun'.

But he said he did so because 'despite the challenges, . in the long term I believed the agility, flexibility and freedom provided by Brexit would be more valuable in a 21st century global economy than just proximity to a market.' Advertisement

Rishi Sunak today laid out his 'New Tory' vision slamming Labour's obsession with state handouts - but defending brutal tax hikes saying it would be 'immoral' to let the government's finances spiral out of control after Covid.

In his first big speech to the Tory conference - watched by Boris Johnson - the Chancellor gave an impassioned justification of his approach to 'building back better' as the UK recovers.

He insisted it would be fundamentally 'un-Conservative' to ignore the huge damage to the government's books inflicted by the pandemic, pointing out more revenue is needed to bolster the NHS and social care.

But he tried to quell rising anxiety about imposing the highest sustained tax burden on the economy by vowing that taxes will be slashed again once the crisis is past.

Mr Sunak also stood by the decision to axe the 20 a week uplift to universal credit, setting a stark dividing line with Labour by warning that making life better for 'ambitious' but struggling families cannot be just about 'increasing their benefits'.

He said that taking a 'pragmatic' stance would make the Tories the party of the 'public sector and the private sector'.

The set-piece in Manchester confirmed Mr Sunak's status as the natural successor to Mr Johnson, with activists forming huge queues to squeeze into the hall.

However, he paid a fulsome tribute to the PM saying it was down to him that the Tories were in power with an 80-strong majority.

He also set out his own vision on what the party should stand for, arguing that it must abandon 'dogma' to protect future generations from the impact of the pandemic.

'I believe that mindless ideology is dangerous. I'm a pragmatist,' he said.

'I care about what works, not about the purity of any dogma.

'I believe in fiscal responsibility. Just borrowing more money and stacking up bills for future generations to pay is not just economically irresponsible, it is immoral.

'Because it's not the state's money it's your money.'

In his first big speech to the Tory conference - watched by Boris Johnson - the Chancellor gave an impassioned justification of his 'plan' for the UK's recovery

Mr Johnson seemed delighted by the speech, which tried to set out a vision for how the Tories would handle the aftermath of the coronavirus crisis and Brexit

Mr Sunak tried to quell rising anxiety about imposing the highest sustained tax burden on the economy by vowing that taxes will be slashed again once the crisis is past

Mr Sunak and Mr Johnson have been putting on a show of unity after signs of tensions over spending commitments

Home Secretary Priti Patel was also in the crowd for the Chancellor's keynote speech today

Alarm bells for Boris as poll shows Tory support down in Red Wall seats Alarm bells were ringing for Boris Johnson today after a poll suggested he is on track to see his majority halved. The in-depth YouGov research found backing for the Tories has plunged by seven points since the 2019 election. They are now only marginally ahead of Labour in 50 crucial battleground seats across the North, Midlands and Wales, on 41 per cent to 40 per cent. Using the MRP model that performed well in the last two elections, the experts concluded that Mr Johnson could lose 18 of the constituencies if an election was held immediately, and a further 14 were too close to call. That would reduce his Commons majority to 44 - still enough for a functional government but a significant fall from the current 80. Advertisement

Mr Sunak was introduced by one of the beneficiaries of the KickStart programme to get young people into jobs.

And he insisted that was the kind of initiative that would address the root causes of poor living standards and poverty.

'Tackling the cost of living isn't just a political sound bite, it's one of the central missions of this Conservative government,' he said.

'Is the answer to their hopes and dreams just to increase their benefits?

'Is the answer to tell that young family, the economic system is rigged against you, and the only way you stand a chance is to lean ever more on the state?

Mr Sunak said more handouts from the government was the 'essence of the Labour answer'.

'I believe that the only sustainable route out of poverty comes from having a good job,' he said.

'It's not just the pounds it puts in your pocket, it's the sense of worth and self-confidence it gives you.'

On the topic of the national insurance hike - which will raise 12billion for the Treasury from April - Mr Sunak said: 'I'll tell you what is un-Conservative: unfunded pledges, reckless borrowing and soaring debt.'

He continued: 'Yes, I want tax cuts. But in order to do that our public finances must be put back on a sustainable footing.'

Mr Sunak said Brexit  'despite the challenges'  meant that in the long term the UK would have 'agility, flexibility and freedom' and help create 'a renewed culture of enterprise'.

In a passing reference to the current crisis facing the Government, he said: 'Right now we are facing challenges to supply chains, not just here but right around the world and we are determined to tackle them head on.'

Mr Sunak announced new measures to help ensure the UK remains 'a global leader' in artificial intelligence (AI), claiming it could be worth around 200 billion a year to the economy if it matched the transformational impact of the steam engine, computers or the internet.

'And so today I am announcing that we will create 2,000 elite AI scholarships for disadvantaged young people and double the number of Turing AI world-leading research fellows, helping to ensure that the most exciting industries and opportunities are open to all parts of our society.'

Business anger over PM's wage call amid supply chain crisis Boris Johnson faced business fury today after ministers dismissed calls for 'uncontrolled immigration' and warned workers must be paid better amid fears of food and fuel shortages this winter. Industry chiefs warned that the burden of higher wages will have to be passed on to consumers as the government dug its heels in despite rising alarm that supply chain chaos could continue for months. There are concerns that could feed already-soaring inflation, sparking a spiral of higher pay settlements and spiking prices. But Mr Johnson refused to engage with questions about whether he was blaming businesses or risking sending the economy into a tailspin. Asked on a visit to a Network Rail construction site in Manchester whether he was worried about the 'pain' that rising inflation and tax rises would have on households, the premier merely said the Government was investing in a 'high wage, high-skilled economy'. 'When you talk about some of the supply chain issues, that's really a function of the world economy, particularly the UK economy, coming back to life after Covid, sucking in gas in particular  there is a massive demand for that in Asia,' he said. 'There is a shortage of lorry drivers actually around the world, from Poland to the United States, and even in China they are short of lorry drivers.' In a round of interviews at Tory conference in the city earlier, Chancellor Rishi Sunak tried to cool the tensions saying the Government is ready to take 'short-term' action to help reduce the pressure. 'But we can't wave a magic wand and make global supply chain challenges disappear overnight,' he said. Advertisement

In a round of interviews earlier, Mr Sunak was asked repeatedly about whether he would approve further tax increases, including a hike to council tax to help fund social care after a warning from local authorities.

The Chancellor sidestepped as he was grilled about the prospect of increasing the levy local authorities can charge, or allowing them to increase the level without holding a referendum.

But he also determinedly refused to kill off speculation that the government has pencilled in a tax cut for before the election if the economy recovers.

Mr Sunak told Sky News he would not 'pre-empt' the local government finance settlement later in the year and added to LBC he 'never can comment about future tax policy'.

He did not rule out an increase to income tax before the next election - but also refused to rule out a cut if there is enough headroom.

Mr Sunak told BBC Breakfast: 'Recently we did make a significant announcement on tax and it was a difficult decision to make, especially for a Conservative Chancellor and a Conservative Prime Minister.

'But we took that decision because we wanted to make sure the NHS got the significant funds it requires to help recover strongly from coronavirus.'

Social care costs are partly met from central government funds, but also from councils - who have warned they require 2.6billion a year just to sustain current levels of social care.

Ministers are reportedly looking at letting local authorities increase the social care levy above 3 per cent without the need for a local referendum.

An alternative would be a direct cash injection in the spending review later this month.

Meanwhile, Mr Sunak is committing more than 500million in fresh funding to help people back into work as he seeks to stem the continuing turbulence of the coronavirus pandemic.

He is shifting the focus on to getting people into new or better jobs as the Government comes under sustained pressure over a major squeeze on living standards.

Funding for the new jobs package in his conference speech will not be set out until the spending review and Budget later this month.

Mr Sunak suggested it was his duty as Chancellor to tell the Prime Minister not to overspend after joking that he would cut up Mr Johnson's 'credit card' to rein back his public spending.

'That was an old thing but I think that's something all chancellors say as part of our job,' Mr Sunak told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Mr Sunak was also forced to defend the decision to end the 20-a-week uplift to Universal Credit as families and workers face financial hardship, in a move some Tories have campaigned against.

And he conceded it is likely there will be shortages this Christmas, as the strains of coronavirus are compounded by a shortage of workers stemming from Brexit.

'We're seeing supply disruption not just here but in lots of different places and there are things we can try and mitigate and we are,' Mr Sunak told Today.

Rishi Sunak (pictured on a visit to a building site in Manchester with Boris Johnson today) has dodged over rumours of a stealth council tax rise to help fill the black hole in social care funding

The in-depth YouGov research found backing for the Tories has plunged by seven points since the 2019 election

Mr Sunak and Mr Johnson togged up in hi-vis gear for the visit in Manchester today

In a round of interviews at Tory conference in Manchester this morning, Chancellor Rishi said the government is ready to take 'short-term' action to help reduce the pressure

Farmers staged noisy protests outside the Tory gathering in Manchester this morning, after Mr Johnson shrugged off concerns about a mass culling of pigs because of a lack of abattoir staff

Sunak vows to 'throw kitchen sink' at getting people back to work Rishi Sunak today insisted the Government is 'throwing the kitchen sink' at helping people get a new job as he unveiled a 500million package to support furloughed workers. The Chancellor said he warned at the start of the coronavirus pandemic that 'it wasn't going to be possible for me or quite frankly any chancellor to save every single person's job'. He said the end of the 70billion furlough programme will result in some job losses. But he said people should be 'reassured' that ministers are doing everything they can to help the unemployed back into work. Furlough is credited with saving millions of jobs during the Covid-19 crisis but an estimated one million workers were still on the programme when it finally closed last week, sparking fears of a surge in unemployment. In his keynote speech to the Conservative Party conference in Manchester today, the Chancellor confirmed new funding to 'prioritise' job support for workers coming off furlough. The 500million extension to the Government's so-called 'Plan for Jobs' will also provide tailored packages for others hit by the pandemic, including the young and workers aged over 50. Advertisement

'But we can't wave a magic wand. There's nothing I can do about the decision by a country in Asia to shut down a port because of a coronavirus outbreak.'

Mr Sunak has insisted the Government is 'throwing the kitchen sink' at helping people get a new job as he unveiled a 500million package to support furloughed workers.

The Chancellor said he warned at the start of the coronavirus pandemic that 'it wasn't going to be possible for me or quite frankly any chancellor to save every single person's job'.

He said the end of the 70billion furlough programme will result in some job losses.

But he said people should be 'reassured' that ministers are doing everything they can to help the unemployed back into work.

Furlough is credited with saving millions of jobs during the Covid-19 crisis but an estimated one million workers were still on the programme when it finally closed last week, sparking fears of a surge in unemployment.

In his keynote speech, the Chancellor confirmed new funding to 'prioritise' job support for workers coming off furlough.

The 500million extension to the Government's so-called 'Plan for Jobs' will also provide tailored packages for others hit by the pandemic, including the young and workers aged over 50.

The Chancellor's speech came amid warnings of a cost-of-living crisis for some households who face rising energy bills, price hikes in shops and a cut to Universal Credit.

Household budgets will sustain a further blow next April when national insurance contributions rise by 1.25 per cent to help fund the NHS and social care.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the package 'will do nothing to compensate for the Chancellor's tax rises, cost-of-living crisis and cuts to Universal Credit which are set to hammer millions of working families'.

Before the speech Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak toured a rail upgrade site in Manchester.

They were shown blueprints for the so-called Northern Powerhouse Rail improvements while being talked through the upgrades by Network Rail bosses.

Following the briefing, the pair, wearing hi-vis jackets, were taken on a trip up to the tracks to see the overhaul first hand.

Sunak unveils 34m fund for AI scholarships A new 34million national artificial intelligence (AI) fund will support the creation of 2,000 new scholarships for disadvantaged students. Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the move, along with an increase in the number of world-leading researchers in the UK under the Turing AI fellowship, would help cement the country's status as a 'scientific superpower'. The announcement was set out by the Chancellor in his Conservative Party conference speech in Manchester. 'As the latest general-purpose technology, AI has the potential to completely transform whole economies and societies,' Mr Sunak said. 'We want the UK to be a scientific superpower but also a high-skilled, high-tech economy.' Advertisement

The two men were told that signalling and other performance boosts will result in journeys of just half an hour between Manchester and Leeds and 42 minutes from York to Manchester once the work is completed.

Told that the planned six trains an hour between Manchester and Leeds will mean a more frequent service than on London Underground's Metropolitan Line, Mr Johnson, a former mayor of the capital, replied: 'That's not saying much.'

While on site, the Cabinet colleagues cracked jokes about 'levelling up'  one of the Conservative administration's policy catchphrases  as they were shown how technology helps ensure construction lines are level.

They then spoke with apprentices who are helping to dig in the improvements at the Miles Platting site.

Mr Sunak told them they are part of one of the biggest rail investments in their lifetimes.

The Prime Minister responded, saying jokingly 'And thanks for paying for it, Rishi', before adding: 'It will be worth every penny.'

After telling the young workers they should be proud to be part of such a development, one apprentice told them the rail improvements will be 'good for a night out'.

Asked what he meant, the worker said taxis are cheaper in Leeds, making it more reasonable for a night out than Manchester.

Mr Johnson chuckled and replied: 'The taxis are cheaper? That's good to know.'
A British woman says she was duped by a conman into flying to America with the promise of becoming a film empire executive - but was left a barmaid and hoodwinked out of 20,000.

Ruth Tunnicliffe, 61, claims she was conned by Peter McMahon who claimed to work in the movie industry in the US and promised her a job running his office in the UK.

He claimed to be a media mogul and lured her with the promise of a luxurious lifestyle working for his empire, splitting her time between London and New York.

But it was all a con and Ruth ended up being forced to flee America when McMahon became abusive and she was trapped into running a bar in Brooklyn with links to the mob.

Ruth said: 'He sold me the American Dream, but what I had instead was an American nightmare.

'You read about this in magazines, I thought I'd never be that stupid. But I fell for his lies and for his charm.

'He could talk the backside off anyone, he was full of it. I feel so stupid that I had been used like that.'

McMahon first contacted Ruth over Facebook in 2010 when she was going through a divorce.

Ruth Tunnicliffe, 61, says she was lured to the US by American Peter McMahon in 2011

She said on McMahon: 'He sold me the American Dream, but I had an American nightmare'

She initially ignored his messages, but replied one night after a few glasses of wine and the pair struck up conversation.

After exchanging messages for a few months, McMahon convinced Ruth to fly to Tennessee to discuss his 'job offer' in February 2011.

McMahon asked Ruth to pay for meals and accommodation during her stay, promising to pay her back when money he was expecting came though.

The scheming shyster even hid her passport and told her she would be in trouble with the authorities for outstaying her working holiday visa.

Ruth added: 'I hadn't seen a clear photograph of him at that point and I thought 'what the hell do I do if I get there and he's not real?'

'He was there when I landed at Nashville airport and he was exactly as I had imagined.

'He wasn't an oil painting by any means, but he had an aura about him, he came across like a very powerful man.

'We had a meal and he asked if I could pay the bill. Then we went to see a friend of his in a trailer park, it was a complete dump.

'When I was due to fly home, I couldn't find my passport so missed my flight and had to stay in America.

He lured Ruth's daughter to the states under a fake offer that he could land her a modelling contract. But when she landed at JFK airport, she was turned away by immigration officials

'He suggested we drive to New York and told me he couldn't go out of Tennessee with his driving licence, so I had to hire the car in my name.'

When they reached New York, they stayed with his sister in Staten Island, who Ruth says was 'shocked' to see him.

While they were there, McMahon's sister found Ruth's passport under her sofa.

McMahon convinced Ruth that because she had outstayed her visa, she would be in trouble if she tried to fly home.

He lured Ruth's daughter to the states under the pretence that he could land her a modelling contract.

But when she landed at JFK airport, she was turned away by immigration officials because the offer was bogus.

McMahon became nasty and Ruth says she saw him con people out of money by pretending to hold events to raise money for charities.

Ruth added: 'He struck up a conversation with a jockey at a racecourse, promising to be her agent and take care of her interests and demanded a retainer fee up front.

'He was telling her all these things and I thought 'I've heard all this crap before'.

'He became angry with me if I asked questions while we were driving and would hit me.'

Eventually, the pair took over a bar in Brooklyn after McMahon convinced the manager to let him run it.

The pair had nowhere to stay and spent one night on the floor of an abandoned warehouse.

During this time, Ruth hatched a plan to escape and made a break for freedom one day by pretending to get something from the car which was parked a few blocks from the bar.

She ran to a nearby police station and told cops about her ordeal, but when officers went to the bar to quiz McMahon, he had fled.

Ruth added: 'I left the bar, my legs were like jelly and I ran like hell. I opened the boot of the car and there was a gun in there which I didn't even know of.

'Even now thinking of it makes my legs shake. I ran into the police station and burst into tears and told the police everything.'

Ruth returned to the UK a few days later without a penny to her name and no job to go back to.

McMahon was never brought to justice for what he did to her, but in 2015 he was in court charged with fraud after allegedly duping bands into paying to perform at a fake music festival in New York.

He reportedly charged musicians as much as $240 to take the stage at a four-day, 36-band music festival on Staten Island, to raise money for an autistic children's charity.

Public records show McMahon has a criminal record in Nashville, Tennessee., where he was convicted of felony theft of services in 2010 and received a two-year suspended sentence.

Ruth, who is penning a book about her ordeal, added: 'I feel so stupid that I fell for him, fell for his lies. It seemed too good to be true and it was.

'It got to the point where I couldn't escape. My mum had to pay for my flight home and I'm still paying my credit card debt off that I racked up in those seven months.

'I spent about 10,000 of my own money and spent 10,000 on my credit card in total.

'I want other women to be aware of men like this and make sure he doesn't do this to anyone else.

'How many other people has he scammed and conned out of money?'
Grant Shapps has signalled that the eastern leg of the controversial HS2 rail line could be scrapped in favour of improving services in the North under Boris Johnson's Levelling Up agenda.

The Transport Secretary added to growing speculation over the future of the eastern leg of the high speed line from London, saying ministers will not 'blindly follow' plans drawn up almost two decades ago.

In an interview with the Financial Times, he signalled that a major rethink of the project between Birmingham and Leeds could be in order, with more focus on inter-connecting cities in the North and Midlands.

Poor quality and expensive east-west rail services have long been a bugbear of politicians in the regions, who argue that they are a major factor in throttling economic growth.

Mr Shapps told the paper: 'We want to make sure we get trains to Leeds in a way that actually benefits people on the network and not blindly follow some plan invented 15 to 20 years ago which no longer benefits people.'

Construction work on phase one of the high-speed rail project from London to Birmingham is ongoing. But the scheme is unpopular with Tories in the shires.

The Transport Secretary added to growing speculation over the future of the eastern leg of the high speed line from London, saying ministers will not 'blindly follow' plans drawn up almost two decades ago.

In an interview with the Financial Times, he signalled that a major rethink of the project between Birmingham and Leeds could be in order, with more focus on inter-connecting cities in the North and Midlands.

Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak during a visit to a Network Rail construction site in Manchester today

Phase 2a is planned to run from Birmingham to Crewe, and phase 2b from Crewe to Manchester, and from Birmingham to Leeds.

But after the Government-commissioned Oakervee Review warned last year that the final bill for HS2 could reach 106 billion at 2019 prices, there were concerns that the eastern leg of phase 2b could be scrapped.

This was further compounded when the National Infrastructure Commission said in December that the focus should be on regional connectivity.

Mr Shapps told the Financial Times the creation of the Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) scheme, which is aimed at connecting cities in the region on an east-west route, should also be taken into account.

He said: 'Midlands Rail Hub and Northern Powerhouse Rail are things... they've been invented, they hadn't been when HS2 was first designed.

'We need to work these things together. Are we doing things in the best way and in the right order?'

Shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon called Mr Shapps' comments 'insulting'.

'You cannot trust a word the Tories say,' he said. 'Expecting people to accept endless rebadging of promises made years ago is insulting.

'Poor transport connectivity continues to hold back the North, Midlands and beyond and the Conservatives' record is one of total failure to deliver.

'Communities that stand to lose out once again - thanks to the Government's incompetence and inability to keep projects on track - will rightly feel betrayed by yet another broken promise dressed up as a new announcement.'
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Astonishing footage has revealed a huge formation of black rock, created by lava hitting the sea off La Palma following the collapse of a volcanic crater.

The river of red-hot lava gushing from the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Spanish island is growing after the crater collapsed last night causing spectacular explosions.

The north side of the volcano caved in on Sunday, prompting a faster flow of lava to surge through the island.

However, the molten rock has followed a similar path to the previous lava flows and avoided causing further destruction.

The volcano emitted a loud booming noise and lava exploded with force from its crater as it spurted high above the island.

Canary Islands' regional president Angel Victor Torres said the volcano had emitted roughly three times the material expelled during the island's last major eruption in 1971, in a quarter of the time

This image from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO-CSIC) shows an aerial shot from the oceanographic vessel Ramon Margalef (IEO) of the delta formed on La Palma's by the lava

A river of red-hot lava gushing from a volcano on La Palma is growing after the crater collapsed last night causing spectacular explosions

The north side of the volcano caved in on Sunday, causing a faster flow of lava to surge through the Canary Island

The lava from the latest explosion followed a similar path to the previous eruptions and spared further destruction in the resort island

The volcano emitted a loud booming noise and lava exploded with force from its crater as it spurted high above the Spanish island

The main cone of the La Palma volcano suffered a partial collapse of its structure causing lava to spurt out and slide down towards the towns

More earthquakes are continuing to rattle the island more than two weeks after the volcano first erupted.

Spain's National Geographical Institute said it had recorded two quakes early Monday that measured more than 3.0 magnitude.

The statement came just hours after Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he would help rebuild the island, adding that it was safe for tourists to visit.

Making his third visit to La Palma, one of the Atlantic Canary Islands, since the eruption began on September 19, Sanchez said the federal government would approve 206million euros (175million) of aid funding this week.

The eruption at Cumbre Vieja volcano has destroyed around 1,000 buildings. About 6,000 people have been evacuated from homes on the island out of a population of some 83,000.

Canary Islands' regional president Angel Victor Torres said today: 'We had to order a few lockdowns because of the air quality, but we are not planning to evacuate more people.'

Torres said the volcano had emitted roughly three times the material expelled during the island's last major eruption in 1971, in a quarter of the time.

The Cumbre Vieja volcano has destroyed around 1,000 buildings. About 6,000 people have been evacuated from homes on the island out of a population of some 83,000

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he would help rebuild the island, adding that it was safe for tourists to visit

The volcano has emitted roughly three times the material expelled during the island's last major eruption in 1971, in a quarter of the time

A man watches in awe as lava shoots out from the volcano which last erupted 50 years ago on the popular holiday island

Officials said they didn't expect to evacuate any more people from the area, because the fiery molten rock was following the same route to the sea as earlier flows

He added that his administration planned to buy around 300 houses to accommodate those who lost their homes and said it was too early to tell how great the total damage would be.

'We're still in the middle of this...if the lava keeps springing up in the same quantities we saw last night, the damage is going to be greater,' Torres said.

Cadena Ser radio said the collapse had formed a new lava flow that was threatening several nearby towns.

'A clear increase in effusive activity has been observed in the last few minutes,' the Volcanology Institute of the Canary Islands, Involcan, said earlier on Twitter.

Sanchez said: 'Next Tuesday, the cabinet will approve a package of very powerful measures [to assist in] areas such as infrastructure reconstruction, water supply, employment, agriculture, tourism and benefits.

Most of La Palma, where some 83,000 people live, has been unaffected by the eruption. Swift evacuations helped avoid casualties from the eruption

Local authorities have prepared to distribute drinking water to homes after the lava flow broke public supply pipes

The Canary Islands volcanic emergency committee ordered emergency workers and scientists to pull back from the area around the volcano due to poor air quality

'We are facing a test of resistance ... because we do not know when the eruption of the volcano will end.

'What residents should know is that when it does end, the government of Spain will be there to tackle the enormous task of rebuilding La Palma.'

The financial package is the second stage of a plan approved last week. The first stage saw the government announce aid of 10.5 million euros ($12.3 million) for the immediate assistance of those who had lost their homes.

Sanchez also encouraged tourists who were considering visiting La Palma not to be put off. Tourism is the Canary Islands' major industry.

'I would like to let tourists know that this is a safe place, they can come and enjoy the island,' he said.
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The Government today confirmed that product shortages this Christmas are unavoidable, with meat organisations claiming turkeys are likely to be from the continent this year due to labour shortages in Britain.

Iceland reported sales of frozen turkeys are up by more than 400 per cent compared to this time last year, while industry experts believe some festive foods such as pigs in blankets may not be available for the big day.

As beleaguered petrol stations continued to be hit by the fuel crisis, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said he cannot 'wave a magic wand' to make global supply chain issues disappear as Britain faces product shortages.

He also conceded that there will be shortages this Christmas but insisted the Government is trying to 'mitigate' the problem, saying: 'It's reasonable that people expect us to do what we can.

'But we can't wave a magic wand and make global supply chain challenges disappear overnight. With regards to butchers, my understanding is that those are indeed on the shortage occupation list that we already have.'

It came as pig farmers protested outside the Conservative Party conference today, arguing a lack of skilled butchers could lead to the 'emotional and financial disaster' of tens of thousands of UK pigs being killed for waste.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak heads to the second day of the annual Conservative Party Conference in Manchester this morning

Pig farmers protest outside the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester this morning amid shortages of a butchers

Mr Sunak also told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'We're seeing supply disruption, not just here but in lots of different places, and there are things we can try and mitigate, and we are. But we can't wave a magic wand.

'There's nothing I can do about the decision by a country in Asia to shut down a port because of a coronavirus outbreak. But be assured we are doing everything that is in our control to try and mitigate some of these challenges.'

Farmers protest at butcher shortage amid fears of pigs being killed 'for waste' Pig farmers have protested outside the Conservative Party conference, arguing a lack of skilled butchers could lead to the 'emotional and financial disaster' of tens of thousands of UK pigs being killed for waste. Farmers have warned that a shortage of butchers could see up to 120,000 animals slaughtered on farms and then incinerated because they cannot go to the abattoir and they have nowhere left to house them. Pig farmers were protesting outside the Tory conference in Manchester on Monday morning, calling for a temporary visa scheme to bring more butchers into the UK. Pig farmers protesting outside the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester this morning They held up placards saying: 'No butchers. No bacon. No British pig industry.' Pig vet Duncan Berkshire, who was taking part in the pig farmers' protest, told the PA news agency: 'We are here to ask the Government to give us some short-term Covid recovery visas of 12 to 18 months, which would allow that bottleneck to be unleashed and for us to not end up having to kill pigs on farm, which would be an absolute travesty when we want to get good, high welfare, quality-assured pork to UK consumers.' Vicky Scott, a pig farmer based in East Yorkshire, said the protesting pig farmers had come from all across the country. She told PA: 'There is a huge crisis going on in UK pig farms at the moment.' Ms Scott said: 'For about the last 11 weeks we have been reduced in our contracted pigs going in to slaughter by 25%, so there is an estimated 150,000 extra pigs on farm. And obviously that's growing every day.' She added: 'Right now the blame has got to be with the Government because they don't appear to understand the problem, and the problem is massive and really real. And we're being forced into making the decision as to whether to kill pigs on farm. Obviously if we have to kill pigs on farm they can't go into the food chain. So it's just a huge waste. It's immoral really that we are going to be forced into this position.' Pig farmers protesting at the conference in Manchester today Ms Scott said farmers do not raise pigs 'to waste a lot of resources and energy and time to just end up killing our pigs and put them into landfill. It's disgusting. And it is that bad. And they don't seem to understand. And all we need is some more butchers into the processing plants.' She said: 'None of this is the farmers' doing. We pay our staff really, really well. We've got good staff. And they do a really good job. It's not our fault that there are not enough butchers in the processing plant. And we are the ones that are going to get left with this emotional and financial disaster.' Ms Scott added: 'The retailers are just filling their shelves with foreign stuff. It's criminal that we are going to be forced to make that decision and kill healthy animals for waste.' Despite recent media reporting on the issue, the Prime Minister appeared to be unaware of the problem when he was questioned on BBC One's The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday. Boris Johnson's initial response was to tell the presenter: 'I hate to break it to you but I am afraid our food processing industry does involve the killing of a lot of animals. I think your viewers need to understand that.' When it was pointed out to him the whole problem was that they could not be sold for food and they would have to be disposed of on the farms, he accused the presenter of 'trying to obfuscate'. Mr Johnson added: 'The great hecatomb of pigs that you describe has not yet taken place, let's see what happens.' Advertisement

His comments came as Nick Allen, chief executive of the British Meat Processors Association, has said Christmas turkeys are likely to be from the continent this year due to labour shortages in Britain following Brexit.

He told Sky News: 'We're not saying that there's not going to be food on the table at Christmas, but we're struggling to put the party food together - the pigs in blankets, the netting of gammons.

'But I suspect that food can be imported and probably the turkeys might not be British turkeys but they may end up being French, or even turkeys from further afield.

'We're not saying there's going to be desperate shortages, but there certainly won't be the choices available for British food, that's for certain.'

Mr Allen added that he was 'surprised' that Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared to be unaware of problems facing pig farmers when questioned on the BBC's The Andrew Marr Show.

Speaking on Sky News, Mr Allen told how tens of thousands of butchers are needed and the training period for each is around 18 months.

He said: 'We've been talking to Government on a daily basis about the problems we've been having, so I'm somewhat surprised that he (Mr Johnson) wasn't aware of the situation.

'We're short of skilled-up butchers and these aren't people you can just pull off the street and put in the process. It takes time to train these people and we're about 10,000 to 15,000 people short.

'It takes 18 months to train a butcher and get them up and running, so we're looking for some help here to manage the transition, not just stopping everything overnight.

'We've had a long-term reliance on non-UK labour and it's going to take a long time to adjust.'

Mr Allen has also criticised the Government for continuing to allow the import of food from countries which have access to non-UK labour while British firms are struggling to cope with the loss of this same labour.

He told Sky News that there is a 'massive problem' with farmers being unable to process 'somewhere around 100,000' pigs in the country which may have to be culled.

When asked whether low wages were part of the problem, he said: 'What's interesting is the (Government is) happy to ban the import of non-UK labour in this country, but they continue to actually aid and abet imported food from countries that have got access to this labour.

'At the end of the day someone has to pay for these increased wages and they somewhat get in the way of that by aiding and abetting imported food.'

When asked whether animals may have to be culled, he said: 'We know there's a large number of pigs, somewhere around 100,000 are struggling to get processed at the moment and we know our plants are working at full capacity as best they can with the labour they've got.

'So, there is a massive problem out there with farmers ... It's difficult to see at the moment how we're going to get ourselves out of this difficult circumstance.'

Meanwhile Iceland revealed that people across the UK have already begun filling up on festive frozen food, with sales for frozen turkey up by 409 per cent compared to this time last year.

The retailer added that the word 'Christmas' reached over 17,000 searches across its website in the past week alone, and it has increased its order of frozen turkeys by 20 per cent this year in light of demand.

Richard Harrow, chief executive of the British Frozen Food Federation, said: 'Frozen food sales grew rapidly during the pandemic and we are now seeing evidence of a growing awareness of frozen food's quality, convenience and ability to reduce food waste.'

Also today, Dr Zoe Davies, chief executive of the National Pig Association, said she was 'disgusted' by Mr Johnson's lack of awareness about the plight of pig farmers when he was asked about the issue on the BBC.

When asked whether thousands of pigs could be culled as a result of a shortage of EU workers on Times Radio, Dr Davies said: 'It will happen, there's no two ways about it.

'I have been sent photographs by members all weekend of pigs that are now overstocked, they absolutely have to go to slaughter, if they don't, we have to find alternatives for them and one of those alternatives, sadly, is having to cull those animals on farm and those carcasses will go in the bin.

'Quite frankly, I'm very disgusted by the Prime Minister's attitude yesterday.'

She said wages for meat processing workers have 'risen exponentially' this year but the industry is still struggling to recruit UK nationals after the loss of Eastern European workers in the wake of Brexit.

Dr Davies told Times Radio: 'We've been talking to the Government about labour issues for many years.

'Agriculture and abattoir work isn't something that's particularly attractive to a lot of people, so this is part of the reason we've become increasingly reliant on Eastern European workers, because UK nationals don't want the work.

'Yes, that's partly down to the wages, because people don't want to do what they feel is menial work in processing plants, but those wages have risen exponentially in the last few months, so wages should no longer be a barrier.'

Iceland has reported sales for frozen turkeys are up by more than 400 per cent compared to this time last year

Iceland said it has increased its order of frozen turkeys by 20 per cent this year in light of demand

She added: 'The processors now tell us that they are paying way over the 25,000 threshold that was part of the issue regarding the working visas. Butchers can earn anything up to 35,000 a year, which is a pretty good salary for a processing worker.

Military tanker drivers take to the roads to ease Britain's fuel crisis Army tanker drivers are taking to the roads for the first time to deliver supplies to beleaguered petrol stations hit by the fuel crisis. Around 200 military personnel - half of them drivers - are being deployed in Operation Escalin, despite ministers insisting the situation at the pumps is easing. The troops - who have been on standby since the start of last week - will initially be concentrated in London and the South East, where the worst shortages remain. A tanker leaves the Esso Purfleet Fuels Depot in Essex today They include members of 3rd Logistic Support Regiment who have been training with the petroleum industry logistics company Hoyers in Thurrock in Essex. Ministers have faced criticism for not sending them out earlier after a wave of panic-buying - prompted by reports that supplies to filling stations were being hit - led to chaos on the forecourts. The Government has however being deploying its reserve tanker fleet - driven by civilian drivers - since last week in an effort to bolster supplies. A Government spokesman said: 'We are working closely with industry to help increase fuel stocks and there are signs of improvement in average forecourt stocks across the UK with demand continuing to stabilise. 'Stocks in London and the South of England have been recovering at slightly slower rates than other parts of the UK, so we have begun deploying military personnel to boost supply in these areas. 'More than half of those who have completed training to make fuel deliveries are being deployed to terminals serving London and the South-East of England, demonstrating that the sector is allocating drivers to areas most affected in this first phase from Monday.' Operation Escalin was originally drawn up in preparation for possible fuel shortages following Britain's final withdrawal from the EU single market at the start of the year. The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) - representing independent retailers - has welcomed the deployment of the military, although it has suggested it will only have limited impact. PRA chairman Brian Madderson said while the crisis was 'virtually over' in Scotland, the North and the Midlands, more than one-in-five filling stations in London and the South East were out of fuel. Boris Johnson, attending the opening day of the Tory Party conference in Manchester on Sunday, expressed confidence the crisis was 'abating' and said the military were being deployed as a 'precaution'. The Prime Minister however repeatedly refused to rule out shortages in the wider economy in the run up to Christmas. As well as an estimated shortfall of 100,000 HGV drivers, businesses from meat producers to retail, have warned of empty shelves if the shortages are not addressed. Mr Johnson acknowledged the country was going through a 'period of adjustment' following Brexit, which has cut off the supply of labour from the EU. He insisted that he was not prepared to resolve the situation by pulling 'the big lever marked uncontrolled immigration' to let in more foreign workers. He said firms should ensure their employees were 'decently paid' if they wanted to get more staff. Advertisement

'Most of those workers will be earning 14 an hour-plus now - it's way over the minimum wage, as it should be because it's a skilled role. But even so they are struggling to get the numbers of people from this country to want to work in those places.'

She also said that, beyond wage increases, automation of jobs in meat processing plants and promoting butchery to the younger generation are the main ways the industry is trying to attract much-needed workers.

Asked how the industry could attract UK nationals, Dr Davies told Times Radio: 'An increase in automation in those plants - and that's something that abattoirs are already doing, taking out some of those highly repetitive jobs and putting in effectively automated processes to enable that to happen without people.

'But you still need people. Butchery is a highly skilled trade, so it's about trying to promote that to the younger generation, trying to move away from the fact that these are processing plants, to bring back some of the craft into the job.

'Another way is apprenticeships, which is something these companies have already been doing, trying to encourage young people into a lot of these roles.

'But there's no getting away from the fact that there are some repetitive roles - packing, basically looking after the machines that are running in those plants - you've still got to have people in there doing those roles, you can't fully automate.'

And she said food prices will rise as a result of increased wages for people working in the meat processing industry.

Dr Davies told Times Radio: 'There is an inevitability that food prices will rise as a result of this increased wage - that has to happen.

'So the retailers themselves have a huge responsibility to support that, rather than doing what they're currently doing, which is effectively looking at EU pork which is a lot cheaper and shipping that in instead, and not prioritising British pork or British jobs.'

Dr Davies added that Christmas turkeys and pigs in blankets this year are likely to be mostly imported from EU countries.

'Many consumers have been permanently converted to buying more frozen products by the long shelf-life, value for money and variety of food on offer. This combined with current concerns about food supply mean many people will be opting for frozen this Christmas.'

It comes amid concerns around fresh meat supply shortages, with the British Poultry Council revealing that its members have been forced to cut Christmas turkey production down by 20 per cent.

Also today, the head of the National Farmers' Union has described food shortages as a 'welfare disaster' as the union calls for a Covid recovery visa to allow firms to recruit from outside the UK.

Minette Batters, president of the NFU, said she has spoken to some angry pig farmers who are protesting outside the Conservative Party conference in Manchester following labour shortages across the supply chain.

She told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: 'They are protesting outside and they are angry, distraught and extremely upset.

'They have been calling for this, we have been calling for an emergency scheme, a Covid recovery scheme, to be put in place to avoid this very scenario.'

She added: 'I am desperate to get the facts of this story to the Prime Minister and that is what the pig farmers outside want to get across, the story of this disaster.

'We have never had a cull of healthy livestock in this country and this cannot be a first. I can't stress it enough, this cannot happen, there are vets outside as well. It is a welfare disaster.

'Farmers produce food for the nation and I'm very proud to do it, we have very high standards of pork production in this country and we have to solve this issue.'

She also said there is 'plenty of food out there' and work needs to be done to get it on the shelves.

Ms Batters told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: 'There's been a whole-chain approach from the NFU, the British retail consortium to the Hauliers Association and many others.

'We've got to look at this as a whole supply chain approach, there's plenty of food out there, we've got to get it on the shelves.'

Addressing people's concerns over the union's calls for help from foreign workers, she said: 'I've continually reiterated it, we are part of national living wage, we are highly regulated in the food and farming sector, so it is no different to any other part of the economy, but we do have the most affordable food in Europe, that's been an enormous success story for consumers that are facing rising costs on every level.

The British Meat Processors Association said Christmas turkeys 'may end up being French' this year and are likely to be from the continent due to labour shortages in Britain following Brexit. File picture: Turkeys at a poultry farm in Sarthe, France

A shopper walks past nearly empty shelves of pre-cooked meat products in a Sainsbury's store in North London last Friday

'They want to continue to have affordable food, we want to make sure, as Britain's farmers, that they have that food, we need to get into the shelves. This is short term, things will change, but in the run-up to Christmas, we need to resolve this crisis.'

Rishi's 500m to boost jobseekers: Funding to help a million back into work as 70billion furlough scheme ends Rishi Sunak will today unveil a 500million funding package to help get furloughed workers back into jobs. During the pandemic, the 70billion furlough scheme is credited with saving millions of jobs. But around one million workers were still on the programme when it finally closed last week, sparking fears of a surge in unemployment. In his keynote speech to the Conservative Party conference today, the Chancellor will announce funding to 'prioritise' job support for workers coming off furlough. The 500million extension to the Government's plan for jobs will also provide tailored packages for others hit by the pandemic, including the young and workers aged over 50. Advertisement

Ms Batters added that Mr Johnson did not look to be 'as well briefed as perhaps he should have been' on the issue, adding it was her job to get the facts across to him.

She also outlined her concerns over the new system of foreign payments as a result of the UK leaving the EU's Common Agricultural Policy.

Ms Batters told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: 'What we're seeing going on with the pig sector at the moment, the economic shocks felt by the closure of CF fertilisers that produces 60 per cent of the ammonium nitrate fertiliser in this country, it's unprecedented.

'I have never seen the economic reality coming back to farms like it is now, with massively rising input costs for farmers, for growers, the labour shortage.

'This new scheme - I absolutely supported it from the beginning, the NFU laid down the gauntlet for achieving net zero by 2014 - we've got one chance to get it right.

'The NFU is only saying, actually, with Scotland waiting until 2024, Wales waiting until 2024, we must continue to work on this scheme, get it right, deal with the fairness in the supply chain. Farmers don't want to run farms with support, that is very clear to me.'

However, the chairman of Morrisons has said logistical challenges facing supermarkets in the run-up to Christmas have been 'slightly overblown'.

Asked if he has any concerns about the impact of supply pressures on Christmas trading, Andy Higginson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'No, we aren't worried, it tends to come every year.

'And everyone appears to be ready for it so I think it will be a good Christmas for people - they will want to treat themselves as they usually do.

'There are logistical issues at the moment and those are well publicised and slightly overblown. Supply chains in the UK are incredibly efficient and I am sure we will be able to deliver a great Christmas for customers as we go through.'
Donald Trump has been named in the Pandora Papers over his links to a Panamanian hotel project, but the leaked files 'do not reveal significant information' about his dealings, according to a report.

The dump of 12 million financial records has turned up the heat on elites from King Abdullah of Jordan to the alleged mistress of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The former US president is mentioned for his 'involvement in a Panama hotel project,' according to The Washington Post.

'But the Pandora documents do not appear to reveal significant new information about his finances,' the report says.

Trump's name previously appeared in relation to the Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower in the Panama Papers leak of 2016.

It's not clear whether this gleaming sail-shaped complex which towers over Panama City bay is the same project discussed in the Pandora Papers.

Trump put his name to the development and stood to make up to $75 million from it, according to a bond prospectus.

He did not exert management control over the construction and was under no direct legal obligation to conduct due diligence on other people involved.

Former US President Donald Trump speaks at a rally on September 25, 2021 in Perry, Georgia

Trump's name previously appeared in relation to the Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower in the Panama Papers leak of 2016

It reflects a business model which Trump has used around the world, lending his name to hotels and apartment complexes, while not actually running them himself.

The Pandora Papers are being examined by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), but this coterie have not published the trove in full, meaning that fuller detail of Trump's involvement cannot yet been reported.

Aside from the brief mention of Trump in the new leak, it has been noted that while the world's wealthiest are being skewered from London to Hong Kong, heavyweights in the United States are not named.

Financial secrecy laws in South Dakota have made the state THE spot for foreigners who want to conceal millions in assets The state of South Dakota has joined the likes of familiar offshore tax havens, including the British Virgin Islands, Seychelles, Hong Kong and Belize with South Dakota trusts quadrupling in size in the space of ten years to $360 billion. The Papers reveal how one of the largest trust company's in the state has confirmed that it has clients spread across 54 countries and 47 states that include more than 100 billionaires. State politicians have continued to approve legislation that allow for even more protections and benefits for the customers of such trusts. The U.S. has continued to refuse to join a 2014 agreement that is supported by the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg, requiring American financial institutions to share information they have about foreigners assets. 'South Dakota now rivals notoriously opaque jurisdictions in Europe and the Caribbean in financial secrecy,' The Washington Post stated. Furthermore, the legislation that allows such secrecy has been drafted by insiders who work in the trust industry. The state laws provide both protection and secrecy while keeping the money within the U.S. Normally, the government would tax any interest earned by an account, but in South Dakota, assets are protected from any civil claims such as a divorce or legal proceedings. They are not protected from criminal investigations. Nevertheless, because South Dakota has no income tax, inheritance tax or capital gains tax, the finances held there are effectively kept out of the reaches of the U.S. government. Documents from the Pandora Papers, ICIJ and Post managed to identify almost 30 US-based trusts that were linked to foreigners whose companies were accused of misconduct of wrongdoing and human rights abuses... all now based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Advertisement

Billionaires, including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, are absent from the Pandora Papers.

Financial experts say that this is because the generous tax rates they pay domestically mean there is little incentive to seek overseas tax havens.

Others speculate that it may also be that they use different havens, such as the Cayman Islands, which weren't reflected in the papers.

But if American people are absent from the list, the United States themselves are not.

South Dakota in particular has become a new hub for opaque financial dealings, rivalling the likes of the British Virgin Islands and Switzerland.

Trusts in the state have quadrupled in size in the space of ten years to $360 billion thanks to laws which protect assets from any civil claims such as divorce.

The Pandora Papers detail more than 29,000 offshore accounts  double the number identified in the Panama Papers  linked to officials in 91 countries and territories.

The report showed how world leaders, powerful politicians, billionaires, celebrities, religious leaders and drug dealers have been hiding their investments in mansions, exclusive beachfront property, yachts and other assets for the past quarter-century.

Many of the accounts were designed to evade taxes and conceal assets for other suspicious reasons, according to the report.

The report listed 130 alleged billionaires as account owners but did not include any of America's wealthiest individuals.

Financial analysts speculate America's uber-rich  such as Bezos, Buffet, Musk and Gates  have less incentive to use offshore havens due to the low tax rates they pay.

According to a Forbes report published in June, the 25 richest Americans paid a 'true tax rate' of 3.4 percent on wealth growth of $401billion between 2014 and 2018.

Bezos reportedly paid a true tax rate of 0.98 percent with Buffet and Musk paying rates of 0.10 percent and 3.27 percent, respectively.

Gates' true tax rate was not readily available, however, in 2018 he admitted to needing to pay more in taxes.

'I need to pay higher taxes  I've paid more taxes, over $10billion, than anyone else, but the government should require people in my position to pay significantly higher taxes,' Gates told CNN at the time.

Additionally, experts analyzing the Pandora Papers argue that America's wealth leaders may have utilized other companies or offshore accounts in different jurisdictions to conceal their money.

Amazon owner Jeff Bezos (left), America's riches man, and legendary investor Warren Buffet, do not appear on the lists

America's wealthiest billionaires, including Bill Gates (left) and Elon Musk do not appear in the Panama Papers.

The Pandora Papers only encompassed records for 14 financial services entities that were operating in Switzerland, Singapore, Cyprus, Belize and the British Virgin Islands.

It is possible that additional firms could be holding Americans' funds.

Meanwhile, experts argue that the Pandora Papers leak should spark concern as financial shielding can impact citizens for several generations by worsening wealth disparities and crimes such as drug trafficking, ransomware attacks, arms trading and more.

'The offshore financial system is a problem that should concern every law-abiding person around the world,' former FBI officer Sherine Ebadi told the newspaper.

'These systems don't just allow tax cheats to avoid paying their fair share. They undermine the fabric of a good society.'
A former gambling addict who splashed out on luxuries after being sent 70,000 by mistake has been spared jail.

Andrew Harling, 33, of Throckley, Newcastle, 33, sent thousands to his then-partner, who purchased a holiday and jewellery, before claiming he thought the windfall had come from betting wins.

A court heard the large sum of money had been mistakenly sent by a company due to a clerical error in which one number of a sort code was entered incorrectly.

The Royal Bank of Scotland eventually froze Harling's account but not before more than half of it had been spent or moved into other accounts.

Andrew Harling has been handed a suspended prison sentence for splashing out on luxuries after being sent more than 70,000 by mistake

Newcastle Crown Court heard that a mechanical engineering company based in Surrey accidentally sent 70,930 to Harling on January 8, 2019, instead of another company which was the intended recipient.

On the same day, Harling moved 35,000 to his then-partners account and she transferred 9,000 back to him.

Thomas Parsons-Munn, prosecuting, said: 'A number of substantial purchases were made by her, including jewellery and a holiday.'

On January 10, Harling transferred 44,000 from his current account into his savings account then withdrew 10,780 from cash machines, a court heard.

It was not until May that the bank, having been made aware of the issue, froze the 25,130 that was left in his account.

The boss at the company who accidentally sent the money then contacted Harling in October asking him to send the money back.

Harling told them he was a gambling addict and believed the windfall had come from winnings.

He also said he was speaking to his bank and would send back what was left.

After being strung along by Harling, the company eventually went to the police.

In November 2019 a further 8,089 was frozen by his bank and returned to the company, the court was told.

In total, 33,220 was returned by his bank and 37,710 remains outstanding.

A spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service said the company would be able to pursue Harling for the outstanding money once he gets a paid job.

The Royal Bank of Scotland eventually froze Harling's account but not before more than half of it had been spent or moved into other accounts

The court heard the' trusted and respected' finance manager at the firm, who made the one digit error, was so devastated, she insisted on quitting despite her boss pleading with her not to.

She has been left 'extremely depressed' by what happened, the court was told.

Harling, who has nine previous convictions, pleaded guilty to theft and was sentenced to 24 weeks suspended for 12 months with a three month curfew.

Tony Cornberg, defending, said Harling is remorseful and 'heartbroken' at the effect it has had on the finance manager.

He added: 'The money landed in his account and temptation got the better of him.'
American scientists who discovered how we feel physical pain and pleasure have won the 2021 Nobel Prize for medicine.

David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian shared the coveted award for identifying how the body converts physical sensations into electrical signals in the nervous system.

The duo were credited with 'unlocking one of the secrets of nature' by the Nobel Committee at an award ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, today.

They were the first to identify the receptors that respond to touch and temperature, in research spanning more than two decades.

The committee said their discovery has paved the way for the development of new treatments for pain relief.

Thomas Perlmann, secretary-general of the Nobel Committee, told the ceremony that Professor Julius and Professor Patapoutian were 'very surprised' to have won the prize.

They pipped the scientists behind the mRNA Covid vaccines that have saved millions of lives during the pandemic, who were thought to be the frontrunners.

Even though the professors' research into touch goes back to 1997, the panel said now was the 'right time' for it to be recognised.

Abdel El Manira, a member of the Nobel Committee for physiology or medicine, added: 'It profoundly changed our view of how we sense the world.

'In the last year, we have missed our sense of touch, during a hug for example. These are the receptors that give us the feeling of warmth and closeness.'

David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian (pictured on the projection) shared the Nobel Prize for medicine

Professor Julius (pictured smiling alongside his wife, Professor Holly Ingraham, after winning the award) said he was stunned to receive the call from the Nobel committee. 'One never really expects that to happen... I thought it was a prank,' he told Swedish Radio

Professor Julius identified the receptor which responds to temperature and Professor Patapoutian found separate pressure-sensitive sensors that respond to touch

Professor Julius, 65, from the University of California, was given the award for his work on why we feel a burning sensation when we eat hot chilli peppers

WHAT DID THEY DISCOVER? The scientists were the first to discover how our bodies feel the warmth of the sun or the hug of a loved one. They singled out the receptors that fire up in response to stimuli such as heat, cold and touch. This process has been crucial for human survival, but exactly how it worked had been a mystery. Professor Julius identified the sensors behind temperature while Professor Patapoutian highlighted the receptors responsible for touch. The discoveries have paved the way for experimental treatments, mainly pain relief. Advertisement

The prestigious award comes with a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor, around 843,000.

The prize money comes from a bequest left by the prize's creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1895.

Professor Julius, 65, from the University of California, was given the award for his work on why we feel a burning sensation when we eat hot chilli peppers.

He discovered, for the first time, the specific receptor that responds to capsaicin, the chemical which gives the peppers their heat.

That receptor is responsible for the pain we feel in response to physical heat, like when you burn yourself on a cup of coffee, for example.

That breakthrough led to the discovery of a number of other temperature sensors, including one that responds to cold.

In his work at the Scripps Research institute in San Diego, Professor Patapoutian found separate receptors in our cells that are switched on when we are touched.

'This really unlocks one of the secrets of nature,' said Professor Perlmann.

'It's actually something that is crucial for our survival, so it's a very important and profound discovery.'

Professor Patapoutian was born in 1967 to Armenian parents in Lebanon and moved to Los Angeles in his youth. Professor Julius was born in New York.

The pair also shared the prestigious Kavli Award for Neuroscience last year for their discoveries and were awarded $1million (736,000).

The prize is the first to be awarded this year. The other prizes are for outstanding work in the fields of physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics.

The pandemic continues to haunt the Nobel ceremonies, which are usually full of old-world pomp and glamour.

The banquet in Stockholm has been postponed for a second successive year amid lingering worries about the virus and international travel.

Last year's prize went to Americans Harvey Alter and Charles Rice and Briton Michael Houghton for work in identifying the Hepatitis C virus, which causes cirrhosis and liver cancer.
Rishi Sunak today insisted the Government is 'throwing the kitchen sink' at helping people get a new job as he unveiled a 500million package to support furloughed workers.

The Chancellor said he warned at the start of the coronavirus pandemic that 'it wasnt going to be possible for me or quite frankly any chancellor to save every single persons job'.

He said the end of the 70billion furlough programme will result in some job losses.

But he said people should be 'reassured' that ministers are doing everything they can to help the unemployed back into work.

Furlough is credited with saving millions of jobs during the Covid-19 crisis but an estimated one million workers were still on the programme when it finally closed last week, sparking fears of a surge in unemployment.

In his keynote speech to the Conservative Party conference in Manchester today, the Chancellor confirmed new funding to 'prioritise' job support for workers coming off furlough.

The 500million extension to the Government's so-called 'Plan for Jobs' will also provide tailored packages for others hit by the pandemic, including the young and workers aged over 50.

Rishi Sunak today insisted the Government is 'throwing the kitchen sink' at helping people get a new job as he unveiled a new 500million package to help furloughed workers. The Chancellor is pictured alongside Boris Johnson in Manchester this morning

Mr Sunak said the end of the 70billion furlough programme would result in some job losses. But he said people should be 'reassured' that ministers are doing everything they can to help the unemployed back into work

Mr Sunak was grilled this morning on the impact closing furlough will have on the unemployment rate.

The Chancellor told Sky News: I said right at the beginning of this crisis it wasnt going to be possible for me or quite frankly any chancellor to save every single persons job.

But what I do know is that the interventions we put in place have made an enormous difference.

As I said, at the beginning of this crisis people thought the unemployment rate would get to 12 per cent, thats millions and millions of people out of work.

In fact the unemployment rate has now been falling for about six months in a row, it is under five per cent, we have a lower unemployment rate here in the UK than America, Canada, France, Spain, Italy amongst others and there are record numbers of job vacancies.

So I think the plan is working. Of course some people sadly have lost their job and will lose their job.

But thats why I want them to be reassured that we are throwing literally the kitchen sink at helping them get a new job, new skills, new opportunities and we know that thats been working over the past 12 to 18 months and thats why we are doing more of it today.'

Mr Sunak last night declared he is 'ready to double-down' on his promise to 'do whatever it takes' to recover from Covid-19.

He said the furlough scheme protected 11million jobs and the UK is 'experiencing one of the strongest and fastest recoveries of any major economy in the world'.

He added: 'But the job is not done yet and I want to make sure our economy is fit for the future, and that means providing the support and skills people need to get into work and get on in life.'

The Chancellor used his speech in Manchester to set out his vision of shaping the economy around 'the forces of science, technology and imagination'.

He pledged to 'make the United Kingdom the most exciting place on the planet' through enhanced infrastructure, improved skills and scientific investment.

Today's jobs package will see those coming off furlough prioritised for jobs support during the next three months.

Measures will include mock interviews and help with writing CVs and applying for jobs.

During the pandemic, the 70billion furlough scheme is credited with saving millions of jobs

Under the measures, the Kickstart scheme helping young people on Universal Credit will be extended to next March.

In its first five months, the scheme has found work placements for 76,900 young people.

The 3,000 incentive for new apprentices will also be extended until the end of January.

Treasury sources said the over-50s have seen the second largest fall in employment during the pandemic and are 'much less likely' to return to the workplace than younger colleagues. They will also be offered tailored support to find a new job.

The Treasury said more than 500million of new funding will be used for the package, coming from the education plus the work and pensions departments.

Last night the Confederation of British Industry welcomed the package. Chief policy director Matthew Fell said: 'Businesses are committed to playing their full part in training and re-skilling the workforce of tomorrow as we move towards a new economy.'

The announcement of the investment comes after the Chancellor pushed ahead with the end of furlough and a cut to Universal Credit.

A 20-a-week increase in the benefit introduced during the Covid crisis is due to finish on Wednesday.

Since the start of the pandemic, furlough has helped pay the wages of 11.6million workers at a cost of almost 70billion.

Mr Fell added: 'Businesses will welcome the Chancellor's plan for jobs pivoting from furlough to economic recovery.

An estimated one million workers were still on furlough when the programme closed last week

'With record vacancies and widespread labour shortages, this package's success will be measured by its ability to get people back into work.'

Labour's work and pensions spokesman Jonathan Reynolds said last night: 'The Government's struggling Plan for Jobs has failed to hit its original targets; it is not creating the number of jobs needed and has failed to address the supply chain crisis Britain is experiencing.

'Giving himself an extended deadline will do nothing to compensate for the Chancellor's tax rises, cost of living crisis and cuts to universal credit which are set to hammer millions of working families.

'Labour would create new jobs with our plan to buy, make and sell more in Britain to get our economy firing on all cylinders.'
Former GOP Senator candidate Todd Akin who sparked outrage by saying women's bodies have a way of avoiding pregnancies in cases of 'legitimate rape' has died aged 74 after a cancer battle.

Akin represented a Republican-leaning eastern Missouri district that included St. Louis-area suburbs for 12 years, giving up a safe seat to run for the US Senate in 2012.

In the runup to the election Akin, a strong abortion opponent, was asked during an interview by a St. Louis television station whether he supported allowing abortions for women who have been raped.

He answered that 'from what I understand from doctors' such pregnancies are 'really rare' and added: 'If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.'

The comments ended Akin's political career, sparking Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney to immediately rebuke him and causing him to lose the Senate election.

Former GOP Senator candidate Todd Akin who sparked outrage by saying women's bodies have a way of avoiding pregnancies in cases of 'legitimate rape' has died aged 74 after a cancer battle

In the runup to the election Akin, a strong abortion opponent, was asked during an interview by a St. Louis television station whether he supported allowing abortions for women who have been raped

Akin said that 'from what I understand from doctors' such pregnancies are 'really rare' and added: 'If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down'

Akin's comments also sparked Romney to say his campaign would allow abortions in such cases.

Criticism of Akin's remarks clouded his US Senate bid until the end, making him a symbol of how Republicans could fumble away races they had a good chance of winning with a candidate deemed too far to the right.

Akin's campaign initially said he 'misspoke,' and Akin later said he was wrong but he had ruined Republican chances of recapturing a Senate majority by unseating then incumbent Democratic US Senator Claire McCaskill.

Akin faced pressure from the national GOP to withdraw and allow the state party to pick a replacement. He refused and ended up losing the race by nearly 16 percentage points, receiving 39 per cent of the vote.

Yet other Republican officials and officeholders across the US occasionally echoed his remarks - signaling how conservative some of the party's base had become on the issue.

Two years later, Akin published a book, 'Firing Back,' in which he accused GOP leaders of abandoning him and letting McCaskill win and labeling news organizations as bullies.

In the book, he also retracted his public apology for his 'legitimate rape' remark.

Akin never ran for office again, though early in 2015, he briefly fueled speculation about a 2016 primary challenge to GOP US Senator Roy Blunt with remarks that tea party Republicans wanted 'new blood.'

Akin faced pressure from the national GOP to withdraw and allow the state party to pick a replacement. He refused and ended up losing the race for Senate by nearly 16 percentage points, receiving 39 per cent of the vote

Backlash: Akin faced an angry feminist lobby in 2012 after his gaffe became the subject of daily outrage in the press

Two years later, Akin published a book, 'Firing Back,' in which he accused GOP leaders of abandoning him and letting McCaskill win and labeling news organizations as bullies

Akin was born July 5, 1947, in New York City, but grew up in the St. Louis area.

He received a bachelor's degree in engineering and management from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts in 1970, served in the US Army and worked for IBM.

He worked in corporate management at the St. Louis-based Laclede Steel Co. He won a seat in the Missouri House in 1988 and served in the Legislature for 10 years.

He won Missouri's 2nd Congressional District seat in 2000 and was reelected five times. He also served on the board of the anti-abortion group Missouri Right to Life.

In the 2012 US Senate primary, Akin faced two formidable opponents, former State Treasurer Sarah Steelman and businessman John Brunner.

Many Democrats thought McCaskill's best shot at winning reelection would be with Akin as the GOP nominee.

Her campaign aired television ads suggesting Akin was too conservative, Brunner was not a reliable conservative and Steelman represented 'more politics as usual.'

Republicans took the ads as McCaskill's attempt to help Akin win the GOP primary.

An autobiography that McCaskill published in 2015 said she also tried to boost Akin's campaign by urging it through back channels to resume airing a television ad featuring an endorsement from former conservative GOP presidential candidate and ex-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

McCaskill's moves paid off. Akin prevailed in the eight-person GOP field with only 36 per cent of the vote.

In the 2012 US Senate primary, Akin faced two formidable opponents, former State Treasurer Sarah Steelman and businessman John Brunner but was eventually chosen as the Republican nominee

Todd Akin and his wife Lulli talk to reporters the day after the politicians 'legitimate rape' claims sparked outrage

Akin had cancer for several years, his son, Perry, said in a statement. He died at his home in Wildwood, a St. Louis suburb.

'As my father's death approached, we had people from all different walks of life share story after story of the personal impact he had on them,' Perry Akin said in a statement to The Associated Press.

'He was a devote Christian, a great father, and a friend to many.

'We cherish many fond memories from him driving the tractor at our annual hayride, to his riveting delivery of the freedom story at 4th of July parties dressed in the full uniform of a colonial minuteman.

'The family is thankful for his legacy: a man with a servant's heart who stood for truth.'

Funeral information has not been announced. Survivors include Akin's wife, Lulli Boe Akin, his mother, Nancy Bigelow Akin, four sons, two daughters and 18 grandchildren.
There is no proof an Army veteran fired the shots that killed a man in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, a court has heard.

Prosecutors are pursuing Dennis Hutchings, 80, over the attempted murder of John Pat Cunningham in Co Tyrone in 1974.

But they cannot prove the former soldier, who is seriously ill with kidney disease, was the killer due to a lack of ballistics evidence, Belfast Crown Court was told.

A barrister today said this was why they were going after him for attempted murder rather than murder.

Mr Hutchings, who was in the Life Guards, has pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder. He also denies a count of attempted grievous bodily harm with intent.

Mr Cunningham, a 27-year-old with learning difficulties, was shot as he fled from an Army patrol near Benburb.

Dennis Hutchings, 80, a former member of the Life Guards regiment on attempted murder trial. He is pictured with Tory MP Johnny Mercer, who is supporting him during the case

Dennis Hutchings seen in his dress uniform in 1968 (left) and 1978 (right) is on trial today

The trial is over the attempted murder of John Pat Cunningham in Co Tyrone in 1974

Mr Hutchings, from Cawsand in Cornwall, wearing a suit with service medals, sat in the dock and listened through a headset as the prosecution opened its case.

A niece and nephew of Mr Cunningham watched from the public gallery while Mr Hutchings was joined by Tory MP Johnny Mercer.

Crown lawyer Charles McCreanor QC said the victim was a vulnerable adult who had a known fear of soldiers and was liable to run from patrols.

He said: 'John Pat Cunningham did not pose any threat that required that he be shot and killed.'

Mr McCreanor claimed Mr Hutchings had disregarded the Army's operating instructions for using lethal force in Northern Ireland when he opened fire.

He told judge Mr Justice O'Hara five shots were fired at Mr Cunningham - three from Mr Hutchings' rifle and two from the gun of a now dead soldier, known as Soldier B.

The barrister said Mr Cunningham was struck by two or three bullets - the fatal shot entering through his back - but that, as none of the five discharged rounds had been recovered, there was no evidence to prove which soldier had fired the shots that hit him.

He said a lack of ballistics evidence was the reason for Mr Hutchings facing an attempted murder charge.

Secretary of State Brandon Lewis said that the Government still intended to legislate this year on plans for a statute of limitations which would end all Troubles prosecutions

Mr McCreanor said Mr Cunningham's doctor had described him as having been born with 'incomplete development of the mind', while a local priest said he had the 'mind of a child'.

The barrister said Mr Cunningham would be described in today's terminology as a 'vulnerable adult'. 'Those who knew him were aware of his learning difficulties.'

Mr McCreanor said Mr Cunningham had a fear of Army patrols and persons in uniform and became 'nervous and anxious' when he came across patrols.

The court heard the fatal incident on June 15, 1974, happened when Army vehicles on patrol came across Mr Cunningham on a road in Benburb as they rounded a corner.

The Crown lawyer said Mr Hutchings was in charge of the patrol and was sitting in the passenger seat of the lead Land Rover.

Mr McCreanor said the defendant called on Mr Cunningham to halt, and that Mr Cunningham appeared 'startled and confused'.

The barrister said that he then ran across the road and climbed over a gate into a field.

He referred to a witness account from the now dead driver of the lead Army vehicle, referred to as Soldier C, who claimed that, as Mr Cunningham ran across the road, he put his right hand into his jacket and kept it there for a while before removing it.

Soldier C said Mr Hutchings shouted at Mr Cunningham to 'Stop there'.

The soldier said Mr Cunningham did not stop and Mr Hutchings then ran after him and climbed over the same gate.

Soldier C said he then heard a weapon being cocked and the defendant shout 'Stop and stand still'.

The move will also give an effective amnesty to IRA terrorists who murdered and maimed thousands during the period. Pictured: The Omagh Bombing in 1998

The soldier said he heard three or four shots being fired but that he did not know who had fired them.

The judge was then told of the account of another soldier in the patrol, Soldier E.

Soldier E, who is also now dead, was seated in the rear of the lead Land Rover.

He said he followed Mr Hutchings as he chased Mr Cunningham into the field. The soldier said he heard Mr Hutchings shout to Mr Cunningham to stop.

Soldier C said he shouted a warning at Mr Cunningham but he continued to run away across the field. The soldier said during the chase he overtook Mr Hutchings.

Mr McCreanor said Soldier C thought the man running away from them had a weapon beneath his coat.

He said he cocked his own weapon but then heard three or four shots fired from behind him.

The barrister said the soldier described Mr Cunningham falling to the ground just as he reached a fence on the other side of the field.

Veterans who served in Northern Ireland are finally set to be freed from the threat of prosecution. Pictured: British soldiers in Belfast in 1976

The soldier said that when Mr Cunningham fell he stopped giving chase and returned to his Land Rover.

Mr McCreanor said Mr Cunningham had run 90 metres across the field before he was hit and that Mr Hutchings would have had a clear perception of the threat he posed when he opened fire.

'The defendant would have had him in his sights for a significant period of time before he shot him,' he said.

The court heard Mr Hutchings had been interviewed twice about the incident - in 1974 and by officers reinvestigating the case in 2015.

The judge was told that the admissibility of the 2015 interview is set to be challenged during the non-jury trial.

Mr McCreanor said that in the 1974 interview Mr Hutchings confirmed he was in charge of the patrol and that he had called on Mr Cunningham to halt.

However, he said the soldier declined to answer any other questions citing 'legal advice' he had received.

The barrister said Mr Hutchings' actions contravened several of the lethal force deployment rules for the Army, including using the least force possible and firing the minimal number of shots needed.

Mr McCreanor said Mr Cunningham was 'innocent and vulnerable'.

'We submit that there was no lawful basis for him to be shot and this shooting could not be justified,' he said.

He said there is a 'compelling case' that Mr Hutchings fired three shots at Mr Cunningham from close range and that the court will hear 'overwhelming evidence that he intended to kill'.

Mr Hutchings is a high-profile campaigner against the prosecution of military veterans who served in Northern Ireland during the conflict.

He was accompanied to court on Monday by Conservative MP and former veterans minister Johnny Mercer.

The pensioner is suffering from kidney disease and the trial at Belfast Crown Court will only sit three days a week to enable him to undergo dialysis treatment between hearings.

The trial is due to hear the first witness evidence on Wednesday.

In 2019, Mr Hutchings lost a Supreme Court bid to have the trial heard by a jury.

It had originally been scheduled to commence in March 2020 but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The trial is taking place amid ongoing political controversy over UK Government plans to end any future prosecutions related to the Troubles.
Vladimir Putin's alleged mistress has posted photos from Monaco on her social media profiles that were liked by her 'love child' daughter, it has emerged, after the Pandora Papers revealed she owns a plush apartment there through a secretive offshore firm.

Svetlana Krivonogikh, 46, has posted three photos that she tagged as being taken in Monaco - one showing a firework display, one of a rainbow overlooking the ocean, and a third showing yachts in the harbour.

On the yacht photo, which was posted in 2014, daughter Elizaveta replied with comment which said: 'Beautiful! I know this place!'

It shows the pair have links to Monaco, following the revelation that Krivonogikh owns a $4million apartment in Monte Carlo that was purchased for her via an offshore firm shortly after her daughter's birth.

Krivonogikh's ownership of the fourth-floor home, located in the Monte Carlo Star apartment block just below the famous casino, was revealed in the Pandora Papers leak - which also revealed her total worth to be around $100million.

Svetlana Krivonogikh, 46 and believed to be Putin's mistress, owns a $4million apartment in Monte Carlo through a secretive offshore firm, the Pandora Papers have revealed

Photos posted to Krivonogikh's social media further link her with Monaco, including this one of a firework display over the ultra-rich enclave

Krivonogikh also posted this image of Monaco's harbour from Monte Carlo, which her daughter and alleged Putin lovechild commented on - saying: 'I know this place!'

Her other assets, many of which are also controlled by offshore firms, include a yacht as well as shares of some of Russia's most-valuable state-owned firms.

Neither Krivonogikh nor her daughter has commented on the disclosures which unmask the hidden financial dealings of world leaders and their associates.

Nor have they or the Kremlin acknowledged Putin's paternity but Luiza told Russian GQ that she 'probably' looks 'similar' to a young Putin.

Krivonogikh is said to own a stake in a Kremlin-linked bank, and to hold a property portfolio.

It is unclear if Putin knew the latest leaks were coming when he last week demanded in a televised broadcast an end to 'digging into the dirty linen of some elites' by journalists.

He threatened a 'state order' to ensure the media instead cover 'real life' in the country.

The journalist who first revealed the Krivonogikh story, Roman Badanin, was later branded a 'foreign agent', while his outlet Proekt Media has halted work in Russia.

Since being 'outed' by the opposition media last year, student Luiza has become a social media star with more than 80,000 followers, her own fashion line, and is in demand as a DJ.

In recent months, she had spent time in Paris despite the Covid-19 restrictions.

Putin's spokesman said when the story originally broke that the love child allegations were 'not very convincing' and 'de facto unfounded', but this has not prevented widespread speculation.

Another image from Krivonogikh's social media showed a rainbow over an ocean view, which she also tagged as being taken in Monaco

Elizaveta is Krivonogikh's daughter and is believed to be Putin's lovechild. Her mother suddenly came into wealth after her birth in 2003

Putin's relationship to Svetlana supposedly ended around the time he was first romantically linked to Olympic gold medal winning gymnast Alina Kabaeva, 38, an ex-MP who is now head of a major pro-Kremlin media company.

Neither Kabaeva nor the Kremlin has confirmed such a relationship.

Putin has two daughters by his ex-wife Lyudmila, both born when he was a KGB spy.

Dr Maria Vorontsova, 36, is a geneticist, and Dr Katerina Tikhonova, 34, a high-kicking 'rock'n'roll' dancer-turned-mathematician.

Katerina is rumoured to harbour political ambitions.

Putin was once told by a BBC Russia reporter that it was an 'open secret' that Maria and Katerina were his children, but he declined to confirm the rumour.

Speculation that he has a family with Kabaeva have been met with official denials, but the rumours persist.

Putin has previously said: 'I have a private life in which I do not permit interference. It must be respected.'

He deplored 'those who with their snotty noses and erotic fantasies prowl into others' lives'.

Kabaeva is on record as saying she had met an unnamed man who 'I love very much', gushing: 'Sometimes you feel so happy that you even feel scared.'

The Pandora Papers are the largest-ever leak of data relating to offshore companies which are used by the ultra-wealthy to conceal their assets, potentially allowing them to avoid large amounts of tax.

Putin is not directly named in the Pandora Papers, but a number of his inner circle - including Krivonogikh - feature prominently

Such arrangements are also used for privacy reasons, as they allow the wealthy to keep their names away from purchases of properties, artworks, yachts, and other high-value assets - sometimes for legitimate reasons.

While Putin is not named directly in the papers, a number of his close associates - such as Krivonogikh - are.

One of the companies through which Krivonogikh owns the apartment was created for her by a British-born accountant - Eamonn McGregor - who also has links to other super-wealthy Russians.

Gennady Timchenko - a bureaucrat-turned-oil trader worth an estimated $22billion - is also a client of McGregor via Monte Carlo-based accounting firm Moores Rowland.

McGregor has looked after Timchenko's assets for two decades, the papers reveal, among them jets and a 130ft yacht called M/S Lena.

Also named in the papers is Petr Kolbin, a childhood friend of Putin whose family owned a house in the village of Imenitsy that Putin's parents rented when he was growing up.

Kolbin initially worked as a butcher, but in 2001 - shortly after Putin became president - his fortunes suddenly changed. He went into business and prospered, largely thanks to deals with some of Russia's biggest state-owned firms.

He, too, became a client of Moores Rowland and opened several overseas bank accounts that contained a fortune of $550million.
A primary school has issued a 'polite' plea to parents to be more 'appropriately dressed' when they drop off their children off at the gates.

Ayresome Primary School, located in the Gresham area of Middlesbrough, has seen a dramatic increase in the number of parents who appear to be wearing pyjamas and dressing gowns when dropping their children to and from school.

Despite the request from the school's headteacher Charlotte Haylock, some parents chose to ignore the ban and were seen turning up at the gates in nightwear on Monday morning.

One dad was spotted walking from the gates in a full length green dressing gown with the belt flapping (Above)

One mother who was spotted wearing a fleecy 'Me To You' bear dressing gown, that featured a blue nose and bear ears (Above)

One mother was spotted walking alongside her son to the school gates wearing a fleecy teddy bear dressing gown with ears on the hood and what appeared to be pyjama bottoms.

Another dad was spotted walking from the gates in a full length green dressing gown with the belt flapping.

Several mums appeared to be wearing pyjamas under their warm coats as they dropped their children towards the school gates, however others wore loungewear as they walked in.

One arrived in a grey fleece and jogging bottoms, and was carrying a teddy bear under her arm.

One mum said: 'I can understand why the head is trying to stop it, the kids just follow the example they see from their parents and it isn't setting a good standard.

Charlotte Haylock, the Executive Head of Ayresome Primary School in Middlesbrough, who has asked parents to dress appropriately and stop bringing their children to school in dressing gowns (Above)

Ayresome Primary School in Middlesbrough where a row which has broken out after the school asked parents to dress appropriately (Pictured)

'The children all have to wear their uniforms and they look smart when they come to school so there's no reason why the parents shouldn't either.

'Some of the states you see here is unbelievable. I wouldn't go and pick up a pint of milk from the doorstep dressed like that, let alone walk half a mile through the streets.'

The school says it is simply trying to maintain standards.

Charlotte Haylock, Executive Headteacher of Ayresome Primary School, said: 'We've recently seen an increase in the number of parents wearing dressing gowns when dropping off and collecting their children from school.

'This prompted me to issue a polite reminder to parents for them to wear appropriate clothing when accompanying their children to and from school.

'As a school, we encourage our children to be appropriately dressed at all times and we feel it is important for parents to do likewise.

'If parents are concerned about any issue impacting on their child's schooling, my door is always open if they need to seek advice and support.'

Andy Brown OBE, Chief Executive Officer for Ad Astra Academy Trust, added: 'A number of parents and teachers have also expressed concern about some parents wearing nightwear at the school and I wholeheartedly support the stance taken by the headteacher.'

Ayresome Primary School has 678 children on the school roll ranging from age two to 11. It is one of seven primary schools within Ad Astra Academy Trust in the Teesside area.

The school has a strict dress code, which was updated in September 2019, and places 'high emphasis upon standards of dress and maintaining appropriate school uniform', according to their website.

If a child attends nursery, which includes children aged three and four, they are required to attend school in full uniform.

Pupils of all ages are not allowed to wear any kind of jewellery, one stud per ear is permitted providing it is removed for P.E lessons and wristwatches are also 'discouraged' because the school claims there are 'clocks in every classroom'.

Girls uniform is to be a skirt or pinafore dress - striped and checked dresses are allowed in the summer - and both boys and girls are allowed to wear school trousers, white shirts or polo shirts and the official school embellished sweatshirt or red cardigan.

All pupils shoes must be black and trainers are forbidden, however in the winter black and red boots are permissible, providing they are sensible.
A postcard sent by a Royal Navy officer from South America has finally reached its recipient - 30 years later.

Neil Crocker posted the card during a stop-off in Chile in 1991 while returning from the Falkland Islands onboard HMS Cumberland.

He sent it to the parents of his future wife, Claudia, to 'make a good impression' before asking for her hand in marriage.

Unbeknown to him the postcard never arrived and instead went missing for three decades.

It was finally pushed through the door of father-in-law Brian Watkins who lives in Weymouth, Dorset.

This postcard which was sent by Royal Navy officer Neil Crocker from Chile in 1991 has finally been delivered to its intended recipients in Weymouth, Dorset after it disappeared for 30 years

Neil Crocker (pictured with his now-wife Claudia) says he sent the card to his future parents-in-law to make a good impression but has no idea what happened to it after it was posted in Chile

The 89-year-old was perplexed by the delivery and gave it to Mr Crocker, 57, who was equally mystified by its emergence after all this time.

He said: 'I'd been in Chile with the Royal Navy back in 1991 - we stopped there for a defence sale on our way back from the Falklands.

'I vaguely remember sending the postcard but didn't think anything of it until recently when it was delivered to my father-in-law 30 years later.

'He was very confused when it was posted through the door and he gave it to us. I hadn't put the date on it so the postman was none the wiser.

'When I saw it again I was completely shocked - I thought it was a wind-up.'

The card is postmarked to London in 1991 showing it was returned to the UK shortly after being posted.

Pictured: Neil and Claudia Crocker in 1988 (left) and Mr Crocker today, now aged 57, (right)

The card which was sent by Neil has now been framed after it arrived in Dorset after 30 years

He wrote on the postcard: 'The weather is very nice and the food and drink is very cheap. It is very much like Spain'.

The card also has stamps worth 22p and pin holes, which Mr Crocker speculated could have meant someone pinned it to a board.

He continued: 'I know it got to London pretty quickly but after that is a complete mystery.

'It looks like it could have been pinned to a board somewhere but it isn't a very remarkable postcard so I have no idea why someone would want to keep it.

'I'm glad it finally got delivered. It triggered a lot of happy memories of my time in Chile - I've framed it and put it on my wall'.

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: 'It is difficult to speculate what may have happened to this item of mail, but it is likely that it was put back into the postal system by someone recently, rather than it being lost or stuck somewhere.

'Royal Mail regularly checks all its delivery offices and clears its processing machines daily.

'Once an item is in the postal system then it will be delivered to the address on the card'.
The Taliban announced on Monday that they destroyed an Islamic State cell in the Afghan capital, hours after an ISIS bomb attack on a mosque killed five people on Sunday.

ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the attack which killed at least five civilians outside Kabul's Eidgah mosque during a memorial service for the mother of Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

Mujahid said Taliban fighters carried out a seek and destroy mission in the north of Kabul on Sunday evening and massacred a cell of ISIS-K members in retaliation.

'As a result of the operation, which was very decisive and successful, the IS centre was completely destroyed and all the IS members in it were killed,' Mujahid said on Twitter.

Witnesses heard blasts and gunfire in the capital at the time of the raid and told reporters the fighting between Taliban fighters and ISIS-K militants continued for hours.

ISIS-K (Islamic State Khorasan Province, also known as ISKP) is based across Afghanistan and Pakistan and was first recognised by the Islamic State in 2015.

The group has established a considerable presence in the provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar in eastern Afghanistan.

Taliban fighters have reportedly carried out an attack on ISIS-K militants in response to a bombing at the entrance of the Eidgah Mosque (pictured), which caused little damage to the mosque but killed several civilians.

Responsibility for the attack which killed at least five civilians outside Kabul's Eidgah mosque during a memorial service for the mother of Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid was claimed by ISIS-K, the Islamic State affiliate in Khorasan Province

Taliban fighters were not harmed in the attack according to spokesman Bilal Karimi, who stated the casualties were civilians standing outside the mosque. Taliban guards are now stationed outside the mosque and emergency rooms

Kabul resident and government employee Abdul Rahaman told AFP that a 'large number' of Taliban special forces attacked at least three houses in his neighbourhood.

'The fighting continued for several hours,' he said, adding the sound of weapons kept him awake all night.

'They said they were after Daesh (IS) fighters in the area,' Rahman said.

'I don't know how many were killed or arrested but the fighting was intense.'

The Taliban announced they had also arrested three people in connection with Sunday's bombing, in which they say no Taliban were killed.

But a witness who spoke with reporters on condition of anonymity said a group of Taliban members - including senior figures - inside the mosque grounds came under fire after the blast, taking two casualties.

He added that two Taliban units mistakenly opened fire on each other in the confusion following the explosion, but interior ministry spokesman Qari Sayed Khosti denied the claim.

The area around the mosque was cordoned off by the Taliban who maintained a heavy security presence following the attack

Attacks against the Taliban by IS militants have increased since the Taliban swept to power in mid-August.

IS militants were also responsible for the August suicide bombing at the gates of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul which killed 169 Afghans and 13 US service members.

The rise has raised the possibility of a wider conflict between the two extremist groups.

Emergency NGO, an Italian-funded hospital in Kabul, tweeted it had received four people wounded in the blast.

The area around the mosque was cordoned off by the Taliban who maintained a heavy security presence, posting armed guards around the mosque and emergency rooms accepting patients, and dispatching vehicles with machine guns to sweep the area.

IS maintains a strong presence in the eastern province of Nangarhar and considers the Taliban an enemy.

It has claimed several attacks against them, including several killings in the provincial capital of Jalalabad.

The Taliban dispatched trucks with machine guns to reinforce security around the mosque and emergency rooms

Armed Taliban guards were posted outside emergency rooms accepting patients who were injured in the blast

People wait in front of a hospital where wounded civilians have been dispatched after the explosion

Attacks in Kabul have so far been rare, but in recent weeks IS has shown signs it is expanding its footprint beyond the east and closer toward the capital.

On Friday, Taliban fighters raided an IS hideout just north of Kabul in Parwan province after an IS roadside bomb wounded four Taliban fighters in the area.

The attack on the mosque came on the same day that Taliban supporters and senior figures held their first mass rally near Kabul since taking power in Afghanistan.

The blast comes as a sign that the Taliban victory has not brought an end to violence after Afghanistan's 20-year conflict.

A large crowd of Taliban supporters attended a rally in a vast field to the north of Kabul on Sunday, just hours before a blast killed several civilians at a Kabul mosque

The bombing, which could be heard across the centre of the capital, came shortly after the new Taliban 'interim government' staged a large rally in the hilly outskirts of Kabul, attended by 1,500 men and boys.

'This is the day we waited for,' said Khalil Haqqani, the new minister for refugees who in 2011 was labelled a terrorist by the United States with a $5 million bounty on his head, in reference to the rally.

He is a prominent leader of the Haqqani militant network founded by his brother Jalaluddin.

'We have achieved our goal, but it requires protection,' he told the gathering, with his rifle leaning against the lectern, boasting that the country has a 'bright future' despite being shunned by international donors.
Struggling fashion chain French Connection has accepted a 29 million offer to take the company private from a consortium including one of its biggest shareholders.

The clothes brand said it had negotiated a deal with little-known Newcastle-based Apinder Singh Ghura, who already owns around 25.4% of the business and is its second-largest shareholder.

He will buy the company through MIP Holdings, which he controls together with Amarjit Singh Grewal and KJR Brothers Limited.

Retailer French Connection has accepted a 29 million offer from one of its biggest shareholders to take the company private

Apinder Singh Ghura, whose address is in Newcastle according to Companies House, bought his stake at the start of the year from high street investor Mike Ashley (pictured) for between 3 million and 4 million

Mr Ghura, whose address is in the north-east of England according to Companies House, bought his stake at the start of the year from high street investor Mike Ashley for between 3 million and 4 million.

Just weeks later French Connection said it would review its options and try to find a buyer.

In September, the company said Mr Ghura was leading a bid for the business.

The offer, at 30p per share, is around 92% higher than French Connection's share price in February, before the company started looking for a buyer.

It is also close to a third higher than the company's shares were trading for before Mr Ghura's bid was first revealed in September.

Today, French Connection shares rose again, but have not yet pushed above 29p per share, implying that investors are unsure whether the deal will go ahead.

This is despite the backing of Stephen Marks, French Connection's founder, chief executive and chairman, who owns a 43.6% stake in the business still.

Mr Ghura said: 'We are pleased to have reached an agreement with the French Connection directors on this recommended acquisition. We are looking forward to working with French Connection's management to execute and implement MIP's strategic plans to facilitate the future growth and profitability for the business.'

On Monday French Connection shares rose again, but have not yet pushed above 29p per share, implying that investors are unsure whether the deal will go ahead. This is despite the backing of Stephen Marks (pictured), French Connection's founder, chief executive and chairman, who owns a 43.6% stake in the business still

Mr Marks said: 'Over the last five years, French Connection has made significant progress in its plans to rationalise the size of its store portfolio and to return the French Connection Group to profitability.

'It was always our intention to look at the most appropriate ownership structure for the business once it was back on track, and, having conducted a formal sale process, the French Connection board has concluded that the offer being made by MIP is fair and reasonable.'

He added: 'When the transaction closes, I will retire from French Connection. This is an appropriate time for me to step back from the business that I founded in 1972, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our people for their contribution to our achievements over the years. I wish them all every success in the future.'

Not much is known about 58-year-old Mr Ghura among those in the City, though Companies House filings suggest he has a number of other business interests in the fashion industry and property development.

These include involvement in companies such as Phantom International and Apparel Sourcing Group, as well as Wraith Holdings International, Northumberland County Developments and Chan Property Group.
The baby at the center of Roe vs Wade has spoken out on camera for the first time to say she fears people blame her for abortion being legal and explain why she never met her biological mother Norma McCorvey in person, after speaking to her on the phone once as a teenager and getting the sense she only ever wanted to use her for publicity.

Shelley Lynn Thornton, now 51, is the biological daughter of Norma McCorvey - Jane Roe - the Kansas cleaner who fought to win abortion rights for women across America and won the landmark case known as Roe v Wade in 1973.

She is refusing to share her personal opinion about abortion so that neither side of the debate can use her to their advantage.

She had already given birth to Shelley and put her up for adoption by the time the case was settled. McCorvey died in 2017, without ever meeting Shelley in person.

On Monday, Shelley appeared on Good Morning America for her first ever TV interview. Her identity was only made public in September by The Atlantic.

'A lot of people didn't know I existed,' she said, adding she fears the world blames her for abortion being legal.

'It doesn't revolve around me, I wasn't the one who created this law. I'm not the one who created this movement. I had nothing to do with it. I was just a little itty-bitty thing and, you know, circumstances prevailed.

'My whole thinking is that, "oh God everybody is going to hate me because everyone is going to blame me for abortion being legal,' she said.

Her interview comes amid fresh debate over abortion in America after Texas recently passed the heartbeat bill - a law that bans abortion after an embryo is 6 weeks old - and as the newly convened, conservative Supreme Court prepares to hear a case from Mississippi's last remaining abortion clinic.

Baby Roe: Shelley Lynn Thornton, a 51-year-old mother of three, has spoken out for the first time on camera. Her biological mother Norma McCorvey was Jane Roe, whose landmark lawsuit Roe vs Wade won women across America the right to have abortions

EXCLUSIVE: "Baby Roe" breaks her silence; daughter of 'Jane Roe,' the woman behind the landmark abortion case, comes to terms with her identity. @LinseyDavis reports. https://t.co/SxrK9tA0fM pic.twitter.com/j5aj0gHoYF  Good Morning America (@GMA) October 4, 2021

She didn't deserve to meet me. She never did anything in her life to get that privilege back. She never expressed genuine feeling for me or genuine remorse for doing the things that she did, saying the things that she did over and over and over again

Shelley was two-and-a-half when Roe v Wade was decided. She had been adopted by Ruth Schmidt and Billy Thornton as a baby.

She says she has never forgiven McCorvey for trying to 'use her for publicity' when she was a teenager and discovered who she was after being confronted by National Enquirer reporters her biological mother had enlisted.

'They'd asked me if I'd ever heard of her before and I said no. And they said, 'Well, she is the woman who they used to do the Roe versus Wade case. She was Jane Roe.'"

She said she'd grown up with the idea that 'if a family member had a baby, they couldn't take care of it, then somebody else in the family took it and took care of it.'

Norma McCorvey, known as 'Jane Roe', is pictured in January 1983. A decade earlier she had won a landmark abortion case - but the baby she wished to abort, Shelley Lynn Thornton, was born before the case concluded

The reporters told her who her biological mother was then asked her if she was 'pro life or pro choice' which she said she didn't understand.

'And that's really hard to grasp when you're in that kind of a situation and you're just kind of like learning all of this stuff,' she said.

Ruth ended the meeting and the pair left. They asked the Enquirer not to reveal Shelley's identity and the magazine respected her wishes.

Afterwards, she spoke to McCorvey on the phone.

'It became apparent to me really quickly that the only reason why she wanted to reach out to me and find me was because she wanted to use me for publicity.

'She didn't deserve to meet me.

'She never did anything in her life to get that privilege back.

'She never expressed genuine feeling for me or genuine remorse for doing the things that she did, saying the things that she did over and over and over again.

'She wasn't sorry, about giving me away or anything,' she said.

She will never forgive McCorvey, she said, 'mostly because I feel that she could have handled things a lot better.'

She said she wished she had been 'upfront' about craving media attention over a real relationship with her.

'I can deal with that. I can't deal with lies and treachery and things like that. To me, that's like no, sorry, not playing that game with you. And that's all it was. It was a game. It was a game. I was just a pawn, and I wasn't going to let her do it.'

Shelley said she is neither pro-life or pro-choice. 'I don't understand why it's a government concern,' she said. She has three kids of her own and when she first became pregnant at 20, decided abortion was not 'part of who' she was

Shelley was adopted as a baby and raised by Ruth and Billy Thornton, a married couple. She is their only child

Shelley knew she was adopted but didn't know who her birth mother was until 1989 when she was contacted by reporters from The National Enquirer

Norma McCorvey aka 'Jane Roe' (left) and her attorney Gloria Allred at the Supreme Court in 1989, the year she made her identity known. After winning Roe vs Wade, Norma went on to be a face for women's rights before switching to be pro-life years later. She admitted before she died that she made the change in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars

McCorvey is pictured in July 2011. She died in 2017 without ever meeting Shelley in person. The pair spoke on the phone in 1989

Thornton, a married mother of three, said her views on abortion are now complex but she doesn't want to share what they are.

'I don't really talk about that just because I'm not going to let either side use me for their advantage because that's not me and -- you know -- find somebody else.'

She previously told The Atlantic: 'I don't understand why it's a government concern'.

But she revealed that, when she fell pregnant at 20, she decided abortion was 'not part of who I was.'

'My association with Roe started and ended because I was conceived,' she told Prager, whose book is published September 14.

The Atlantic revealed that Shelley Lynn Thornton, 51, is the youngest daughter of Norma McCorvey in an adapted excerpt from journalist Joshua Prager's new book, out September 14

McCorvey, then 22 and living in Dallas, Texas, filed a lawsuit in 1970 under the name 'Jane Roe,' asking to be able to have an abortion.

She was unmarried and had previously given birth to two other daughters, who she had also given up for adoption

Now, the women have all met.

Shelley is particularly close with one - Jennifer Ferguson - and they speak every day.

Ferguson told ABC that she sympathizes with how much of a 'burden' Shelley has had to carry.

'For her to have to keep that under lock and key for so many years and not talk about it, it can only hurt, and she doesn't want to do that anymore.

'So, yeah, I'm 100% behind her,' she she said.

At the time, abortion was illegal except for where the mother's life was at risk. But McCorvey never got the abortion.

The suit, which came to define reproductive rights across America, rumbled on until 1973.

By this time, McCorvey had given birth to the baby, given her up for adoption and the toddler was two-and-a-half and living with new parents.

Thornton had always known she was adopted and had longed to make contact with her birth mother.

But she said she has suffered from depression and anxiety for years - something she attributes at least in part to knowing she was 'not wanted' by her birth mom.

'When someone's pregnant with a baby and they don't want that baby, that person develops knowing they're not wanted,' said Thornton.

Thornton was the only child of her adopted parents Ruth Schmidt and Billy Thornton, who - after being unable to conceive their own child - reached out to attorney Henry McCluskey to help them adopt.

The couple took their baby home at three days old in June 1970, with no knowledge that she was at the center of the high-profile lawsuit.

Thornton said that neither she nor her adoptive parents learned she was the infant dubbed the 'Roe baby' by the anti-abortion community until almost two decades later.

In 1989, McCorvey publicly spoke out to say she wanted to track down her third child.

The National Enquirer carried out an investigation with the help of a woman named Toby Hanft, who previously gave her own daughter up for adoption and was now working to connect birth mothers with the children they gave up.

Hanft managed to identify and track down Thornton, who was 18 at the time.

When Thornton found out her mom was Jane Roe, she said she knew little about the Supreme Court case other than it 'made it OK for people to go out and be promiscuous'.

'The only thing I knew about being pro-life or pro-choice or even Roe v. Wade was that this person had made it OK for people to go out and be promiscuous,' she said..

She said she was left 'shaking all over and crying' following the bombshell revelation.

The Enquirer published its article in 1989 revealing the so-called 'Roe baby' had been found but, at her request, did not reveal Thornton's identity and she didn't meet with McCorvey.

Two years after the Enquirer article was published and as an unmarried 20-year-old, Thornton e discovered she was pregnant.

She was already planning to marry her partner Doug but she was 'not at all' eager to become a mother and Doug suggested they consider an abortion, she said.

Thornton said her ties to the Roe v. Wade case had caused her to rethink her views on abortion.

When the Enquirer had tracked her down, her adoptive mom Ruth told the journalist 'we don't believe in abortion,' she said.

The publication had then described her as pro-life because she had told the journalist 'she couldn't see herself having an abortion.'

Thornton said she was unhappy with this description because she regarded pro-life as 'a bunch of religious fanatics going around and doing protests.'

Before Shelley, Norma McCorvey had two other daughters who she put up for adoption. Melissa Mills is one of them (above). Jennifer Ferguson is another

However, she also didn't identify as pro-choice because 'Norma was pro-choice, and it seemed to Shelley that to have an abortion would render her no different than Norma.'

Thornton had come to the conclusion that religion and politics should not play a part in abortion law.

'I guess I don't understand why it's a government concern,' she said.

But she realized that abortion was 'not part of who I was' and decided to keep the baby - a son - and ensure he felt wanted.

'I knew what I didn't want to do,' she said in the book excerpt.

'I didn't want to ever make him feel that he was a burden or unloved.'

Thornton and Doug now have two more children - daughters born in 1999 and 2000.

She recalled a heated conversation in 1994 when McCorvey called her to say she and her long-term partner Connie wanted to visit her, according to The Atlantic.

Thornton recalled that she asked her birth mom to be 'discreet' with her partner in front of her young son.

'How am I going to explain to a three-year-old that not only is this person your grandmother, but she is kissing another woman?' she recalled, per the book.

Thornton said McCorvey shouted at her and told her she should be grateful to her for not aborting her.

'I was like, "What?! I'm supposed to thank you for getting knocked up and then giving me away,"' she said. 'I told her I would never, ever thank her for not aborting me.'

When McCorvey was dying in a Texas hospital in 2017, Thornton said she went 'back and forth' about finally visiting her.

The revelation about the identity of the baby at the center of the landmark case comes as Roe v. Wade and the debate around abortion laws have taken center stage in the US once again. A group of protesters gather in Times Square, NYC, Saturday to rally against the new Texas law

Texas Governor Greg Abbott (pictured) signed a new abortion law in May which took effect Wednesday

But McCorvey died from heart failure aged 69 before they met.

Thornton has reunited with her two half-sisters Jennifer and Melissa.

Melissa Mills, the eldest of McCorvey's daughters, has also spoken out to CBS after her half-sister's identity was revealed.

'My mom never had an abortion. No, she had Shelley before the abortion law passed.'

Mills said, despite the landmark abortion law being born from her birth mom's lawsuit, McCorvey wasn't told when the law passed.

'Yeah, quite a bit before I think and they didn't even call her. Mom didn't even know that the abortion law had passed,' she said.

'They didn't even include her on any of that so she really wasn't involved - they didn't want her to be.

'They said she really wasn't the type of person that they needed even though they used her case.'

When asked 'what does Norma McCorvey mean to you?', Mills replied: 'That's my mom.'

McCorvey, who revealed her identity as Jane Roe days after the 1973 Supreme Court ruling, became a pro-choice figurehead at abortion rights rallies alongside her attorney Gloria Allred.

Later in life, she became a born-again Christian and she switched to a pro-life stance.

However, in a deathbed confession first released in 2020 documentary 'AKA Jane Roe', McCorvey claimed she faked her conversion in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments by an anti-abortion group.

Two religious leaders backed her claims, with one admitting 'the jig is up.'
'Marc was so passionate about his work and so tremendously talented'

Stars have paid tribute to Mr Pilcher, from Chatham, Kent, following news of his death today

Hair and makeup designer Marc Pilcher, 53, won an Emmy for his work on Netflix drama Bridgerton

Stars and crew members of Netflix drama Bridgerton have shared their heartbreak after the show's Emmy-winning hair and makeup artist died of Covid.

Marc Pilcher won his first Emmy award last month for outstanding period hair-styling, and said he was 'still flying' after the ceremony.

Mr Pilcher, 53, who grew up in Chatham, Kent, had worked in TV and film since 2003 and was nominated for an Oscar for the 2018 film 'Mary, Queen of Scots' starring Saoirse Ronan. Other box office hits included Star Wars: Episode IX and both the film and TV series of Downtown Abbey.

Irish actress Nicola Coughlan, who plays wealthy heiress Penelope Featherstone in the TV series, shared the news of his death on Twitter and urged people to get the vaccine. It is believed Mr Pilcher had been double-jabbed against Covid.

Bridgerton hair stylist Marc Pilcher has died just a month after winning an Emmy for best period hair styling

Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan tweeted a heartfelt tribute to designer Marc

Nicola Coughlan also gave a nod to Mr Pilcher's design team, who had helped to make Bridgerton a success

'It's a tragedy that he's been taken so young...' she posted on Twitter

Nicola tweeted: 'So heartbroken by the loss of Marc Pilcher, the brilliant and visionary hair and makeup designer for Bridgerton season one.

'Marc was so passionate about his work and so tremendously talented. Not even a month ago he won his first Emmy award.

'It's a tragedy that he's been taken so young when he had so much yet to do.

'Please also use this as a reminder that Covid is still a very real and present danger, please get vaccinated and mask up to protect yourself and others.

'My heart goes out to his friends and family, especially to his wonderful team Lynda, Lou, Adam, Hollie, Tanya and Claire. He loved and cared for you all so much and my heart goes out to you all. Rest in Peace Marc.'

Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan paid a warm and affectionate tribute to Mr Pilcher on Twitter

Lynda J. Pearce, assistant head hairstylist on Bridgerton, also paid tribute to Mr Pilcher. She posted on Instagram: 'Rest in peace my dear friend. I will love you forever and I will hold you safely in my heart always.'

According to his website, Mr Pilcher began his career in 1988, after leaving college and landing a job in West End theatre, which he described as 'the best place in the world to learn period hairdressing'.

It added: 'This happy, creative atmosphere kept him working in theatre land and on tour for 15 years, until Marc started to get offers to work as a hair and makeup artist on TV. This then turned into positions on feature films, where he works today.

'Marc's work has taken him all over the world and he feels privileged to work on such a wide variety of projects and with inspirational teams of people.'

Bridgerton, starring Rege-Jean Page and Phoebe Dynevor, was a runaway success for Netflix in December of last year

Marc Pilcher's designs for Queen Charlotte, played by Golda Rosheuvel, helped win him an Emmy award for best period hair styling

In January, it was announced that the hit series had been renewed for a second season

In an interview with Vogue in February, designer Marc outlined some of his ideas when it came to working on Bridgerton.

He said: 'First, I research paintings and books of the period, then I like to add my slant on the looks using the influences of other periods and old Hollywood movies.

'I have a huge collection  I like to feed off that and mix them up with my historical knowledge to create the right look.

'The Regency look was based around the shapes of ancient Greece.

'It then reemerged in the 1980s with the UK's New Romantic sceneI'm sure it will pop up again, that beautiful Grecian shape for the women and quiffs for the men, and that use of makeup.'
Newly released surveillance footage shows the moment a vandal throws silver paint on a George Floyd statue at a Manhattan park before making his getaway on a skateboard.

The footage begins with a man, wearing a dark green jacket, a neon green T-shirt, black shorts, black and white sneakers and a black beanie walking along Union Square carrying his skateboard in one hand.

He later ducks behind a nearby statue of the late Rep. John Lewis and is seen grabbing something from his green backpack before he gets on his skateboard and hurls silver paint at the George Floyd bust before riding off, heading north on the west side of the park at around 10.15am on Sunday.

Surveillance footage released by the New York Police Department early Monday morning shows a man, wearing a dark green jacket, a neon green T-shirt, black shorts, black and white sneakers and a black beanie walking along Union Square Park carrying his skateboard

He later ducks behind a statue of the late Rep. John Lewis and is seen grabbing something from his backpack

The suspect then gets on his skateboard and sprays silver paint at the George Floyd memorial

Two people - apparently a woman and a child - were trying to take a picture of the statue at the time of the vandalism

Two people - apparently a woman and a child - were standing nearby when the vandalism occurred.

The New York Police Department released the footage as part of its investigation early Monday morning, and is now offering a $3,500 reward for any information about the suspect, who is described as a male with a light complexion and a medium build.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1 (800) 577 - TIPS. All calls will remain confidential.

On Twitter, a video was posted showing silver paint splattered on the statue, with New York 1 reporting that volunteers went to a Blick store to repair the statue after the vandalism.

One of the volunteers was a painter, the Washington Post reports, who knew which materials would work best to restore the statue.

'They went to the hardware [store] and bought supplies out of their pockets,' Confront Art co-founder Andrew Cohen, who helped design the bust, told CNN.

'This is inspiring teamwork and support from the community.'

The memorial in honor of the late George Floyd was vandalized by a skateboarder in Manhattan, who authorities said doused the statue in silver paint over the weekend

The George Floyd bust opened to the public on Friday, after first being unveiled on Juneteenth in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. Less than a week later, it was defaced with black paint and the message 'Patriot Front' - a white nationalist hate group.

'It's incredibly disappointing how the statues were defaced in such a short amount of time,' Floyd's brother, Terrence, said in a joint statement with the nonprofit We are Floyd Foundation on Sunday, 'and it just goes to show you how far we still have to go to reach our goal of unity.'

Chris Carnabuci, the artist who made the sculpture, along with ones of the late Rep. John Lewis and Breonna Taylor, said in a statement on Sunday that while the vandalism was not a complete surprise 'It is upsetting to us all.'

He said he created the #SeeInjustice exhibit at Union Square Park to inspire civil discourse and provide a space where different opinions could be heard. It will be on display until October 30.

'Vandalism of any sort is not an action that is productive or meaningful,' Carnabuci, 57, said. 'Actions like this remind us that we have a long way to go, and we will never stop fighting.'

Carnabuci previously told the New York Times he decided to create the statues because he felt 'hopeless' while watching the protests against police brutality unfold in the wake of George Floyd's death last year, and his wife encouraged him to express his sorrow with art.

'We actually started thinking about making an exhibition and bringing the pieces around to sort of keep the awareness up,' he said, 'and even raise some money for foundations that are geared toward those in need.'

He worked with Andrew Cohen and Lindsay Eshelman, founders of Confront Art, an organization that aims to connect artists with social justice causes to create public art. They designed the statues so that if someone tried to deface them, they would be easy to restore.

Police said Lewis' and Breonna Taylor's statues were left unharmed in the vandalism.

Floyd died on May 25, 2020, after Minneapolis Police officer, Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes as Floyd, 46, lay face-down crying: 'I can't breathe'

Floyd died on May 25, 2020, after Minneapolis Police officer, Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes as Floyd, 46, lay face-down crying: 'I can't breathe.'

Video of the incident went viral, and soon protests against police brutality spread throughout the United States, lasting for months, turning violent at times.

Chauvin was fired by the Minneapolis Police Department in the aftermath and was soon arrested.

He was found guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

On June 25, 2021, Chauvin received a sentence of 22 and a half years in prison, with the possibility of supervised relief, contingent on good behavior after serving two-thirds of his sentence or 15 years for second-degree murder.
Former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham admitted she thought it was a mistake to have worked for the Trump administration in a new Monday morning interview.

She joined Good Morning America ahead of the release of her memoir, 'I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw In The Trump White House,' and spoke candidly about her regrets and worries about Trump's past actions and future potential presidential bid.

One of those concerns is how Donald Trump interacted with authoritarian rulers, who Grisham claimed he was desperate to 'impress.'

Host George Stephanopoulos asked Grisham about her accounts of Trump's deferential demeanor and manipulation at the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

'How do you explain why the president was so placating of President Putin?' he asked.

'This is my opinion, but I got the feeling he wanted to impress dictators. I think he almost admired how tough they were,' she said.

Grisham claims Trump told Putin during a G20 meeting in Japan, 'I'll act tougher with you for a few minutes, but that's just for the cameras.'

During the same meeting Grisham said that Putin brought an 'attractive' translator with him to distract Trump.

The ex-White House aide admitted that she regretted working for the Trump administration

'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 in an excerpt release in the New York Times.

'She proceeded to tell me that she suspected the woman had been selected by Putin specifically to distract our president.'

Grisham told Good Morning America she felt 'stupid' for not noticing the allegedly obvious ploy.

'She pointed that out to me, and I mean, I actually kind of felt stupid that I didn't notice that because sure enough the president actually paid attention to her and spoke to her, and I'd never seen him do that and I never saw him do it again,' Grisham said.

The translator, whose name is Daria Boyarskaya, is an employee of the Russian government and an amateur salsa dancer. The Kremlin denied that she was selected to distract Trump.

Reports from the forthcoming tell-all have already produced embarrassing and troubling headlines for the former president and his family, having spent four years working intimately with both Trump and the first lady.

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.

In one excerpt Grisham claims Vladimir Putin brought an 'attractive' translator (left) to a meeting with Donald Trump

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 meeting was not the first time that Putin had used Boyarskaya to translate in a session with an American president. She also sat in on a meeting between Putin and Obama in 2016

She then returned to the East Wing to serve as the first lady's spokesperson, again, and chief of staff - and said the difference between the two worlds was stark.

'As I went through my years, I spent a huge amount of time on the East Wing, and so I was almost shielded sometimes from a lot of the toxic nature of the West Wing and the administration,' she said.

'When I went to the West Wing is when I actually started to see what it was really like and I regretted that decision immediately.'

Grisham described another account in her book in which Trump reportedly asked her to join him in praising Turkey's President Erdogan.

'I write about a situation in the book where we were in a meeting with Turkish President Erdogan and he stopped me and said, "Stephanie, who do you think is tougher? President Xi or Erdogan?" Who was sitting right there,' the former aide recounted.

'You know, I just think he was always just impressed by how tough they were and worried about impressing them over, you know, our allies.'

During the interview Grisham was also confronted about her own controversial White House legacy. She's the only White House press secretary to never hold a news briefing.

Grisham, who is the only White House press secretary to not have held a news briefing, said the president was the one who instructed her 'we didn't need any more briefings'

Grisham said that was also Trump's doing.

'When we discussed me taking the job, he had already suspended the briefings for about six months under Sarah and he said, we didn't need any more briefings and he spoke to the press directly, and my job was behind the scenes with print and regional and local,' she claimed.

But despite the less public nature of her role, Grisham said she was speaking out now partly because of her guilt for enabling Trump to upend the US presidency and create a toxic workplace.

'I've reflected on that, and I regret that, and especially now watching him - and so many people - push the false election narrative, I now want to in whatever way I can, educate the public about the behaviors within the White House because it does look like he's going to try to run in 2024,' she said.

Stephanopoulos asked, 'Do you believe he will?'

'I didn't at first but I'm starting to believe he will - I mean, he's clearly the frontrunner in the Republican party,' Grisham said, adding that Trump was on a 'revenge tour.'

'I want to just warn people that once he takes office, if he were to win, he doesn't have to worry about re-election anymore. He will be about revenge. He will probably have some pretty draconian policies that go on,' she said.

DailyMail.com obtained a live photo of Stephanie Grisham lying on the floor of the White House during the 2020 presidential election. A source who was at the election party tells DailyMail.com that the picture was taken to show how embarrassing her antics were

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

Grisham was once close to the Trump family, striking up a friendship with the first lady.

She described herself as being a 'true believer' in 2016 before learning how Trump operated behind closed doors.

Then, Grisham said, it became about 'survival.'

'I do believe he gave voice to a lot of people who did feel forgotten, and many of us, including myself, got into that White House and got heavy with power and became really - we didn't think about serving the country anymore. It was about surviving in there, and he loved it. He loved the chaos.'

The former first family has come out swinging against their ex-confidante. Both Trump and Melania put out statements attacking Grisham's credibility and lobbing criticisms over her professional and personal life.

But Grisham dismissed their criticism on Monday.

'I expected that. I expect more. This is right out of their playbook. When they don't like the message, they're going to destroy the messenger. I know. I was part of doing that sometimes.

She pointed out that the ex-first lady wasn't 'denying anything fully in the book just yet.'

'I think she knows that I have a lot of receipts to show I'm being fully honest. So I expected that, and I'm sure that there will be more to come, probably a lawsuit or two or three or four,' Grisham said.
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The mystery behind what caused the 126,000-gallon oil spill off the California coast over the weekend may have finally been solved, officials revealed Monday.

Investigators believe that a ship's anchor might have been to blame for the disaster off the coast of Orange County, after accidentally striking a 17-mile submarine pipeline on the ocean floor.

The head of the company that operates the pipeline announced Monday during a press conference about the company's response to the incident that divers have examined more than a mile of the compromised conduit, and have now honed in on 'one area of significant interest.'

Amplify Energy CEO Martyn Willsher emphasized that a rogue anchor striking the pipeline is 'one of the distinct possibilities' for the cause of the leak, as a multitude of cargo ships that enter the US's two most popular ports, that of Los Angeles and Long Beach, commonly pass through the area.

An investigation into what exactly caused the leakage is continuing.

Meanwhile, it's been revealed that one of Amplify's offshoots, Long Beach-based Beta Offshore, has been cited 72 times for safety and environmental violations since its inception, with the infractions being so severe that drilling operations have had to be ceased in order to address them, regulatory records reveal.

In all, Beta Operating Co. has been cited 125 times since 1980, according to a database from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the federal agency that regulates the offshore oil and gas industry.

However, the online database provides only the total number of violations, not the details for each incident.

Some of those details have emerged in Associated Press reporting.

The company was fined a total of $85,000 for three incidents. Two were from 2014, when a worker who was not wearing proper protective equipment was shocked with 98,000 volts of electricity, and a separate incident when crude oil was released through a boom where a safety device had been improperly bypassed.

Martyn Willsher, who oversees Amplify Energy Corp., revealed Monday during a press conference at Bolsa Chica State Park about the response to the oil spill off the coast of Orange County, that divers have examined more than a mile of the compromised pipeline that sprung the leak, and have now honed in on 'one area of significant interest'

At the Monday meeting, Willsher emphasized that a rogue anchor striking the pipeline is 'one of the distinct possibilities' for the cause of the leak, as a multitude of cargo ships that enter the US's two most popular ports, that of Los Angeles and Long Beach, commonly pass through the area.

The many environmental and safety violations of Beta Offshore - the Long Beach-based oil outfit belonging to Amplify Energy -The company that operates the pipeline responsible for one of California's largest oil spills has been cited 72 times for safety and environmental violations that were severe enough that drilling had to be curtailed or stopped to fix the problem, regulatory records show -In all, Beta Operating Co. has been cited 125 times since 1980, according to a database from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the federal agency that regulates the offshore oil and gas industry -The company was fined a total of $85,000 for three separate incidents -Two were from 2014, when a worker who was not wearing proper protective equipment was shocked with 98,000 volts of electricity, and a separate incident when crude oil was released through a boom where a safety device had been improperly bypassed -Further details of the exact citations were not available on the bureau's website Advertisement

'We're looking into if it could have been an anchor from a ship, but that's in the assessment phase right now,' Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander Jeannie Shaye of Coast Guard announced at the press conference at Bolsa Chica State Park.

Willsher announced Sunday that the leak has since been stopped, but not before his company's share price took a drastic hit.

As of Monday, Amplify shares plummeted by more than 50 per cent, from $5.75 per share to $2.85 a share as stock markets opened, amid fury over the environmental catastrophe.

Its share price had climbed to $3.23 per share as of 5:10pm, but that was still down 43.87 percent on Friday's close.

Willsher, who oversees the operations of Houston-based oil company Amplify Energy Corp., said Sunday that his company's underwater pipeline that sprung the leak had been 'suctioned at both ends' sometime over the weekend.

That means no more oil would spill out into the already contaminated Pacific and the shores of a 13 mile stretch of coastline encompassing Huntington Beach as well as Newport Beach.

The oil it did leak - equivalent to 3,000 barrels - represented the entire capacity of the pipeline, which is attached to an oil processing platform called Elly.

Investors are no doubt spooked by the prospect of lawsuits, with Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr vowing to hold the oil firm 'accountable.'

The spillage - believed to have begun on Friday - canceled the second day of the popular Pacific Air Show.

It attracted more than one million visitors on Saturday, with local businesses who had prepared for big crowds also likely to make claims for compensation.

An aerial photo shows floating barriers - known as booms - set up by clean-up crews after the spill to try to stop further incursion into the Wetlands Talbert Marsh on the Orange County coast

Oil build-up at the barriers put in place by clean-up crews looking to quell the spread of more than 13 square miles of slick off the coast of Southern California

An osprey attempts to take flight after the spill off the coast of Huntington Beach, but is covered with crude oil, hampering its ability to get airborne. The coast of Southern California is home to a variety of different species of bird and fish whose ecosystem has been savaged by the disaster

Willsher announced Sunday that the company is investigating the spill, first asserting that divers were likely to blame for the leak, adding that the pipeline - built in the late 70s and early 80s - has undergone maintenance and has been 'meticulously maintained' every year since, even during the COVID pandemic.

'Everything is shut down,' Willsher said. 'Our employees live and work in these communities, and we're all deeply impacted and concerned about the impact,' the executive added.

'We will do everything in our power to ensure that this is recovered as quickly as possible.'

The pipeline in question sits 80 to 100 feet below the sea's surface, and was linked to three offshore platforms - two of which pumped the oil before it was processed by Elly.

The leak stemmed from a 17.5 mile pipeline spanning from Amplify's Elly oil rig seven miles off the coast of Long Beach, to a pump station operated by Beta Offshore, a Long Beach unit of Houston-based Amplify, and has spread to a slew of beaches and coastal areas across California's Orange County

An aerial photo shot Sunday shows oil begin to pool on the sandy shores of the Santa Ana River, close to Newport Beach in California

The Coast Guard was mobilized over the weekend and struggled to contain the spread of the 13-square-mile oil slick on Sunday

The Coast Guard has recovered 3,150 gallons of oil from the water off the Orange County coast, a small dent in the overall amount of 126,000 gallons of the contaminant

An estuary in Huntington Beach is pictured caked in oil Monday morning, with a clean-up worker seen reflected in the water

Oil is pictured on the surface of the water off Huntington Beach Monday morning as the sun begins to rise

Oil is seen coagulating at the surface of shallow waters off the coast of Orange County, as the initial spillage has spread from miles offshore and reached the county's beachside areas, like this estuary in Huntington Beach

Cleanup crews collect oil in plastic bags in an attempt to stop further oil crude incursion into the Wetlands Talbert Marsh in Huntington Beach

A fish is visible swimming under an oil slick in Huntington Beach's Talbert Channel, amid fears the weekend's spill will kill large numbers of fish and birds

Beaches in Orange County could remain closed for month as a result of the spillage, after the oil spread to areas along the coast

The major oil spill off the coast of Southern California has been stopped, according to the company responsible, after 126,000 gallons of crude spread across Orange County shorelines on Sunday evening

Oil that flowed in from high tide and was held back by a sand berm and boom in a trapped pool as a major oil spill washes ashore on the border of Huntington Beach and Newport Beach

The oil-polluted Santa Ana River at the border of Huntington State Beach in Huntington Beach and Newport Beach Sunday is home to a variety of wildlife, especially birds. If birds like this egret pictured here get oil on their feathers, they cannot fly, nor can they properly clean themselves or regulate their own body temperatures

The state of the waters along the Orange County coast show the severity of the spill, and how dangerous oil drilling can be

Crews raced Sunday morning to contain the damage from the major oil spill, which spread all along the California coast

The oil slick is believed to have originated from a pipeline leak, causing 126,000 gallons of crude to pour into the area's coastal waters , as lifeguards deployed floating barriers known as booms to try to stop further contamination

Amplify stock plummeted by more than half of its market value Monday morning in pre-opening trading, compared to the day prior

The leak - which likely sprung late Friday night - left a slew of beaches in the Orange County area badly contaminated, with locals banned from taking to the waters.

Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr said Saturday that the beaches of the community nicknamed 'Surf City' could remain closed for months, and hinted that her office is investigating ways to hold the oil company accountable.

'In a year that has been filled with incredibly challenging issues, this oil spill constitutes one of the most devastating situations that our community has dealt with in decades,' Carr said.

'In the coming days and weeks we challenge the responsible parties to do everything possible to rectify this environmental catastrophe.'

Carr added: 'We are doing everything in our power to protect the health and safety of our residents, our visitors and our natural habitats.'

Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr said Saturday that the beaches of the community nicknamed 'Surf City' could remain closed for months, and hinted that her office is investigating ways to hold the oil company accountable.

However, oil still 'infiltrated' and contaminated Talbert Marsh, a wetland situated on the Orange County coast, home to many bird species.

The county is building a 'sand berm' barrier to keep the oil from intruding further, Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said on Sunday.

Other areas effected include the Santa Ana River Trail and the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve - also rich with wildlife.

Foley added that hordes of dead birds and fish have washed ashore along the county's coast.

Authorities said the oil came from Platform Elly, pictured here - a pipeline operated by Beta Offshore, a Long Beach unit of Houston's Amplify Energy

The coast is a renowned habitat for threatened and endangered species as well, including humpback whales and a small wading bird called the snowy plover.

'The coastal areas off of Southern California are just really rich for wildlife, a key biodiversity hot spot,' Miyoko Sakashita, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's oceans program, told the Press.

Birds that get oil on their feathers will not be able to fly, hindering them from going out and finding food, Sakashita said, adding that they will also be left unable to properly clean themselves or regulate their own body temperatures.

Whales, dolphins and other sea creatures, on the other hand, risk dying swimming through oil-tainted water or by breathing in toxic fumes.

'The oil spill just shows how dirty and dangerous oil drilling is and oil that gets into the water. It's impossible to clean it up so it ends up washing up on our beaches and people come into contact with it and wildlife comes in contact with it,' she told the outlet.

'It has long-lasting effects on the breeding and reproduction of animals.'

Authorities are adamant that the oil came from Platform Elly.

Hordes of dead birds and fish have washed ashore along the county's coast after the 13-square-mile spill left the area contaminated

The 13-square-mile slick has since spread all across the Orange County coast, including to Newport Beach to the south - and, according to officials, will likely continue to do so.

Some residents and environmentalists, however, questioned whether authorities reacted quickly enough to contain one of the largest oil spills in recent California history.

Measures were not taken to stop the spread from reaching the area's multitude of beaches and coastal areas until at least a day after the leak was allegedly first detected.

People who live in the area reported Friday evening that they noticed a foul petroleum odor emanating from off the coast, as well as a stark oil-like sheen coming from the water's surface.

But it wasn't until Saturday afternoon that the Coast Guard was mobilized after the oil slick had been spotted.

It was not until Saturday night that Amplify decided to finally shut down operations.

Rick Torgerson, owner of a local yacht charter service based in Newport Beach, said Friday that 'people were emailing' him enquiring about the smell and the strange sheen, while a multitude of neighbors enquired, 'Do you smell that?' referring to the foul odor.

The Orange County business owner added that as early as Saturday morning, boats were returning to the marina with their hulls completely covered in oil.

Garry Brown, president of the environmental group Orange County Coastkeeper, criticized the lack of coordination among the Coast Guard and local officials in dealing with the spread in a manner befitting of such a crisis.

'By the time it comes to the beach, it's done tremendous damage,' he told The Press.

'Our frustration,' reasoned Brown, a resident of Huntington Beach, 'is, it could have been averted if there was a quick response.'

Booms were not deployed until Sunday to stop the resulting slick to spread to the county's beaches.

A warning was issued to Orange County residents by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, to not eat any fish and shellfish taken from 20 miles of shoreline, from Huntington Beach to Dana Point - labeling the fish a 'threat to public health.'

U.S. Representative Michelle Steel, a Republican representing part of the affected area, sent a letter to Democratic President Joe Biden requesting a major disaster declaration for Orange County, which would free up federal funds to help with the clean-up efforts, as the spill occurred in federal waters

In a statement, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), a division of the Interior Department, said it was supporting response efforts headed by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The bureau said its role was to 'assist in identifying the location and source of any spills and provide technical assistance in stopping the spillage.'

The Coast Guard has recovered 3,150 gallons of oil from the water and deployed 5,360 feet of skimmers and floating barriers known as booms to try to stop further incursion into the wetlands and the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve.

The spill, the fifth-largest in California history, comes three decades after a massive oil leak hit the same stretch of Orange County coast. On Feb. 7, 1990, an oil tanker accidentally ran over its own anchor off Huntington Beach, spilling nearly 417,000 gallons of oil, killing more than 3,000 birds and countless fish.

In 2015, a ruptured pipeline north of Santa Barbara spurted 143,000 gallons of crude oil onto Refugio State Beach.

In 1971, 800,000 gallons of bunker fuel spilled in San Francisco Bay, leaving a similarly devastating impact on the area's wildlife.

In 1969, a blowout of a Union Oil drilling rig platform off the coast of Santa Barbara resulted in a spill of 4.2 million gallons of crude oil into the Pacific and onto nearby shores.
First Lady Melania Trump's chief of staff feared that the Trump children would embarrass the United States when they all attended a state dinner with the Queen in London in 2019.

'We're going to look like the Beverly Hillbillies,' chief of staff Lindsay Reynolds told Stephanie Grisham, according to Grisham's forthcoming book. 'We'll be an embarrassment to the whole country.'

TMZ ran the latest excerpt of Grisham's book - I'll Take Your Questions Now, What I Saw at Trump White House - which comes out Tuesday.

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.

First Lady Melania Trump 's chief of staff feared that the Trump children would embarrass the United States when they all attended a state dinner with the Queen in London in 2019. From left: Lara Trump, Tiffany Trump, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, First Lady Melania Trump, Prince Charles, former President Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump

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

Melania Trump's chief of staff feared the Trump children would look like the 'Beverly Hillbillies' at the 2019 state dinner with Queen Elizabeth II

The comment was reportedly made by Melania Trump's chief of staff Lindsay Reynolds (left), attributed to her by Stephanie Grisham (middle right)

I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I saw at the Trump White House by Stephanie Grisham comes out on October 5

She described working in the Trump White House like being in a 'clown car on fire running at full speed into a warehouse full of fireworks.'

In the book she also claims that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner tried to get themselves into a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II during Trump's visit to the UK in 2019.

That would have been a 'wild breach of protocol,' according to The Washington Post.

Grisham writes that the situation was resolved when they couldn't fit into a presidential helicopter.

They did attend the state dinner.

Ivanka Trump did have a royal nickname during her time in the White House with Trump aides referring to her as 'the princess.'

Grisham wrote that Melania Trump also referred to Ivanka by the name.

Grisham personally nicknamed Kushner, 'the Slim Reaper,' for getting involved in projects designated for others.

Melania Trump's chief of staff likened the Trump children to the Beverly Hillbillies (pictured)

Trump's mysterious trip to Walter Reed was so he could receive a colonoscopy

Trump's mysterious visit to Walter Reed in November 2019 was to get a colonoscopy without anesthesia, Grisham's revealed.

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.

Trump tells Vladimir Putin he would act 'tougher with you for a few minutes,' but then added 'it's for the cameras'

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

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

Russian President Vladimir Putin brought an 'attractive' translator with him to distract Trump at their 2019 meeting - and Trump told Putin he would act tough in front of the cameras and then play nice privately, former White House official Stephanie Grisham reveals in her forthcoming tell-all.

'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.

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.

Stephanie Grisham's (left) ex-boyfriend Max Miller (right) was dubbed the 'music man' and would play showtunes like Memories from Cats to calm Trump down, Grisham wrote in her forthcoming book

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.'

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

Grisham gets a call about Stormy Daniels

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.

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

Melania's campaign of revenge on Trump over his 'affair' with Stormy Daniels

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.'

And at the 2018 State of the Union, Melania Trump broke protocol and took her own motorcade to the Capitol Building - largely seen as a dig at her husband.

At the time, Grisham told DailyMail.com and CNN that Mrs. Trump was 'honoring her guests for the true heroes they are,' referring to those seated in the first lady's box at the presidential speech. 'In addition to holding a White House reception and photo opportunity for them and their friends and family, she is accompanying them to the Capitol,' Grisham said.

In the book, Grisham said Melania Trump's moves were by design, as the first lady walked arm-in-arm with a handsome military aide hand-slected by Grisham because the floors of the Capitol were 'slippery.'

'I laughed to myself because I'd seen the woman navigate dirt roads in her heels,' Grisham wrote.

As coverage of Trump's romp with Daniels wore on, Grisham said

'This is Donalds problem. He got himself into this mess. He can fix it by himself,' Melania Trump said, according to Grisham.

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

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.

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.

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.
The family of a housekeeper killed in a mysterious accident at Alex Murdaugh's home have reached a settlement with their original lawyer over a $4.3m settlement.

Bland Richter, LLP has announced that on Friday, the estate of Gloria Satterfield, who died at the Murdaugh home in what has been described as a trip-and-fall accident caused by the family dog in 2018, agreed to settle with attorney Cory Fleming, his law firm and his malpractice insurance company for an undisclosed sum.

Satterfield's family were instructed by Alex Murdaugh to make a claim after Gloria's death, and Murdaugh recommended Fleming. But he didn't inform them that the lawyer was his former college roommate and son Paul's godfather, it is claimed.

Despite a $4.3 million settlement being agreed with an insurance company, the Satterfields say they were not made aware of that payout, and never saw a penny of that cash. It is said to have been paid into a business account controlled by Alex Murdaugh.

A separate settlement of $505,000 was agreed privately between Murdaugh and Satterfield's family through Fleming, it is claimed, although the dead woman's family assert that they never received any of that cash either.

Murdaugh has been fired by his law firm, PMPED, which his family helped set up, after millions of dollars were found to have gone missing from its coffers, with Murdaugh's lawyer saying he is battling an opioid addiction which has ruined his finances.

This is only the latest twist in a knotty saga involving unsolved murders and mystery deaths, alleged fraud claims, drug addiction and a botched suicide-by-hitman all leading back to the once-prominent Murdaugh family.

The sons of Gloria Satterfield (left), Alex Murdaugh's (right) housekeeper who died in 2018, have reached a settlement with their original lawyer, who had allegedly failed to turn over a $4.3million life insurance payout to them

Satterfield's two sons alleged in a lawsuit filed last month that Murdaugh had convinced them to use Fleming as their attorney without revealing that he was a longtime friend of his, and then tried to snatch a $4.3million settlement away from them.

The lawsuit, filed on September 15, claimed breach of fiduciary duty and civil conspiracy.

Satterfield's sons claimed that Murdaugh failed to disclose that Cory Fleming (pictured) was his college friend and his son's godfather when he convinced them to hire Fleming in a wrongful death lawsuit

According to a statement from Bland Richter to ABC News 4, Fleming and his firm agreed to pay Satterfield's estate back all legal fees and expenses associated with the settlement that the lawyer had recovered, and which should have been paid to late housekeeper's children but was, in fact, paid into a business account controlled entirely by Murdaugh.

The insurance carrier for Fleming and his law firm also agreed to pay to Satterfield's estate their full policy limits of insurance.

'Mr. Fleming stepped forward19 and did the right thing by the Estate,' the statement from Bland Richter said. 'Mr. Fleming and his law firm maintain, theylike otherswere victims of Alex Murdaughs fraudulent scheme.'

Michael 'Tony' Satterfied and Brian Harriott, Satterfield's sons, last week filed a court petition calling for Murdaugh's arrest, accusing him of helping defraud them out of the $4.3million life insurance settlement.

Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaughs' long-time housekeeper and nanny, died in February 2018, aged 57, after tripping over the family dog at her employers' hunting lodge.

Murdaugh spoke to the woman's sons at her funeral and counseled them to bring a wrongful death lawsuit against him.

Satterfield, 57, died after tripping over the Murdaugh family's dog at the family's hunting lodge (pictured) in South Carolina in February 2018

He then allegedly convinced the sons to hire Fleming as their attorney, arguing that he was the best person to represent their interests.

But Murdaugh apparently failed to inform Satterfield and Harriott that Fleming was his former University of South Carolina roommate, his best friend and godfather to his son, Paul.

Murdaugh also once tried to convince a friend of his son to use Fleming, again without revealing their friendship, as investigators tried to sort out who was driving a boat in a 2019 fatal crash, according to a lawsuit. Murdaughs son would eventually be charged.

Paul Murdaugh was killed along with his mother, Maggie, in an unsolved shooting at the familys home in June.

Paul and Maggie Murdaugh (together left) were shot dead on June 7. Alex Murdaugh has since been accused of (center) orchestrating a separate shooting to kill himself with the help of a hitman, in a scheme to deliver a $10 million life insurance payout to his other son Buster (right) as the elder Murdaugh faced investigation over misallocated funds

In the Satterfield case, Murdaugh and Fleming arranged a $505,000 settlement in public records almost a year ago, which the woman's son have not seen a dime of, attorney Eric Bland previously said.

But since filing the suit in mid-September, Bland said he learned of the $4.3million settlement with a different insurer that was never revealed to Satterfields son or placed into the public court docket.

Fleming is also prominent in a lawsuit by Connor Cook, who was in a boat that crashed in 2019, killing 19-year-old Mallory Beach.

The night of the crash, investigators were not sure if Cook or Paul Murdaugh was driving the boat. Alex Murdaugh approached Cook in the hallway of a hospital as he headed to get his jaw X-rayed and told him everything would be alright if he would 'keep his mouth shut,' according to Cooks lawsuit.

'Alex Murdaugh then encouraged Cook to hire Fleming as his attorney without revealing their relationship,' the lawsuit said.

Fleming became Cooks lawyer and told him not to talk to investigators and that set him up to be falsely identified as the driver of the boat, the suit said.

It was not until Cook hired a new lawyer and spoke to prosecutors that Paul Murdaugh was charged with boating under the influence causing death, a charged pending when he was shot dead.

The 22-year-old was reportedly drunk, belligerent and at the wheel on the night of the boating accident. If convicted, he faced up to 25 years in prison.

The State Law Enforcement Division is investigating whether Alex Murdaugh or other friends or family members tried to obstruct the investigation into the boat crash as well as the questions surrounding Satterfields death.

They also are seeing if the family was involved in a 2015 hit-and-run of a gay teenager found dead in the middle of the road, unraveling the shooting of Murdaugh in September on a lonely highway and looking into millions of dollars missing from the law firm that fired Murdaugh.

All those investigations started after the June 7 deaths of Paul Murdaugh, 22, and his mother, Maggie, 52. Investigators have released few details about the killings beyond both were shot several times outside their Colleton County home, likely dying about an hour before Alex Murdaugh said he came home and discovered their bodies.

Alex Murdaugh is pictured at his bond hearing at the Hampton County Jail in Varnville,SC, in September

Murdaugh, who faces charges of insurance fraud and filing a false police report, is currently in out-of-state drug rehab

In the months since that killings on the Murdaugh family's hunting estate, the legal scion's life has completely unraveled: he has been charged with embezzling millions of dollars from Peters Murdaugh Parker Elztroth & Detrick, the family law firm of which he was a partner.

Murdaugh issued an apology of sorts, told of his regret for decisions he had made and revealed himself to be an opioid addict before announcing that he was going into out-of-state rehab for drug problem.

Within a day of his ousting from the firm, Murdaugh was charged with insurance fraud and filing a false police report, stemming from a bizarre incident in which he claimed to be the victim of a roadside shooting.

His story quickly fell apart and he admitted that he himself had orchestrated the shooting, calling former client and distant cousin, Curtis 'Eddie' Smith, and asking him to shoot him in the head so that his surviving son, 'Buster,' 25, could claim his $10million life insurance.

Both Smith and Murdaugh have been charged in relation to the incident.
China has flown 52 aircraft into Taiwan's airspace in its single largest mission to date - marking a dramatic escalation of tensions around the South China Sea island.

Taipei said 34 J-16 fighters accompanied 12 H-6 nuclear-capable bombers, two Su-30 jets and other military planes into its 'air defence identification zone' on Monday.

It comes after a weekend in which China flew a total of 93 aircraft close to the island in five separate missions - the largest of which comprised 25 planes.

Meanwhile Chinese state media issued chilling new threats to the island and its allies, asking 'whether Australia is willing to accompany Taiwan to become cannon fodder' after its foreign minister reached out for help preparing his defences.

China flew a total of 52 aircraft into Taiwan's 'air defence identification zone' on Monday, in the single largest incursion since the island began keeping records last year

34 J-16 fighters (file image) were among 52 Chinese planes flown into Taiwan's ADIZ

Shortly before the Chinese jets appeared in the skies near Taiwan, the Beijing-owned Global Times newspaper threatened Taipei and its new ally Australia

China's Global Times newspaper, a mouthpiece for the state, tweeted the threat on Monday, responding to minister Joseph Wu who had asked Australia and other 'like-minded' nations to share military intelligence and security information.

Separately, Global Times editor Hu Xijin tweeted that it is 'only a matter of time before Taiwan's separatist authorities fall' - describing the weekend's show-of-force as a 'military parade' to mark China's National Day on October 1.

An editorial in the same newspaper then added that - unlike the 'guard of honour' in traditional parades - the planes flown towards Taiwan at the weekend 'are fighting forces aimed at actual combat'.

'The increase in the number of aircraft showed the PLA Air Force's operational capabilities,' the newspaper said, adding: 'It is a clear and unmistakable declaration of China's sovereignty over the island.'

The operations are designed to familiarise pilots with 'battlefield conditions' so that 'once the order to attack is given' they will be able to fight like 'experienced veterans', the editorial concluded.

'There is no doubt about the future of the situation across the Taiwan Straits.

'The initiative of when and how to solve the Taiwan question is firmly in the hands of the Chinese mainland.'

China has flown near-daily missions into Taiwan's airspace since the start of the year, the island's government has said, though most comprise only one aircraft.

But that changed dramatically at the weekend, with 38 planes flown into the 'air defence identification zone' on Friday.

The planes flew in two separate sorties, the first of which comprised 25 aircraft and flew during the day followed by 19 aircraft which flew at night.

On Saturday, another 39 aircraft flew in two separate sorties - one of 20 aircraft during the day and another of 19 aircraft at night.

Sunday saw an additional 16 planes fly close to the island in a single incursion.

The Global Times editor, Hu Xijin, also hit out at Taiwan - saying it is 'only a matter of time' until the government falls and control passes back to Beijing

Twelve nuclear-capable H-6 bombers also flew in the sortie, along with two Su-30 fighters and several other military aircraft

Flight tracking data published by Taiwan shows the latest mission involved a total of 36 fighter jets - 34 J-16s and two Russian-made Su-30s.

They were accompanying 12 H-6 nuclear capable bombers, two Y-8 anti-submarine warfare aircraft, and two KJ-500 early warning and control planes.

All flew a short distance into the ADIZ between Taiwan's mainland and the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Island.

Taiwan's ADIZ is a zone in which it requires all foreign aircraft to identify themselves and state their intentions. It is different to the island's sovereign airspace, which extends over a smaller area 12 nautical miles from its coast.

Taipei said it scrambled fighters, broadcast radio warnings and activated missile defences in response. A short time later, the Chinese aircraft turned back.

Self-governing Taiwan, which is home to the Republic of China which fought against the Communist Party when it first emerged, views itself as an independent state but Beijing views it as a breakaway province.

The Republic of China has long-standing ties with the US, which historically recognised it as the legitimate government of the whole of China.

Tensions around the island are long-standing but increased significantly in 2019 when President Xi Jinping committed himself to 'reunifying' the islands - reserving the right to use force if necessary.

In response, the US has forged new alliances in the region to counter-balance Beijing's growing power - including The Quad alliance between America, India, Japan and Australia.

Another significant new alliance is the AUKUS pact, which will see the US and UK provide Australia with its first nuclear submarines.

While the trio insist the deal is not designed to target any country, few observers doubt it was aimed at countering China and Beijing reacted angrily to the deal.

Since AUKUS was announced, Chinese flights near Taiwan have increased significantly and taken on new significance - with the UK and Australia potentially dragged into any future fighting.

Fighting around the island could also drag in the US, which has long maintained a policy of 'strategic ambiguity' to Taiwan - refusing to say what it would do if the island was attacked.

President Biden suggested in a recent interview that he would be willing to go to war if China invades, though aides later insisted he had misspoke.
Valerio Scofano was making the wine while under house arrest after being charged with stalking

The deaths have rocked the quiet town of Paola in Calabria, southern Italy, home to just 15,000 inhabitants

All four died one after the other as they tried to save each other from the fumes

Giacomo and Valerio Scofano, 70 and 50, and Santino and Massimo Carnevale, 70 and 45, died from inhaling carbon dioxide given off by the fermenting grapes

Four people died in Calabria, Italy, from carbon dioxide inhalation on Saturday after they tried to save one another from the fumes given off by their homemade wine.

Two brothers, Giacomo and Valerio Scofano, 70 and 50, and father and son Santino and Massimo Carnevale, 70 and 45, died from inhaling the gases produced by a vat of fermenting grapes in the cellar of their home in the hamlet of San Miceli.

Police say the family had gathered to stir the wine and transfer some of the homemade alcohol into a set of oak barrels.

Valerio Scofano had been making the wine at home while under house arrest for the crime of stalking according to the police.

Four people have died in Calabria, south-western Italy from carbon dioxide inhalation after they inhaled carbon dioxide fumes trapped in a cellar where they were making homemade wine

This is an image of the cellar where the bodies were found. Four men died from inhaling the gases, while a 36-year-old woman was resuscitated by firefightes

It is unknown which member of the family was first to enter the cellar, but all four of the men were found dead underground by emergency services.

A 36-year-old woman, thought to be the daughter-in-law of one of the men, was responsible for raising the alarm before she too fell unconscious from the fumes.

She was resuscitated at the scene by firefighters and subsequently transported to hospital where she made a recovery.

Fermentation is the process that turns grape juice into wine. Over time, yeast consumes the grapes' natural sugars and produces alcohol, along with a considerable amount of carbon dioxide.

According to Professor Roger Boulton of University of California, Davis, carbon dioxide produced from the winemaking process is five times more concentrated than planes and cars, with one litre of fermented grape juice producing 60 litres of carbon dioxide.

The carbon dioxide fumes sink to the bottom of confined spaces and can be extremely dangerous as they are colourless and odourless, meaning inexperienced winemakers, particularly those who make their own homemade wine, can be easily caught out.

Paola prosecutor Pierpaolo Bruni said that an investigation into the deaths of the winemaking family was underway, and told reporters that their winemaking environment 'lacked sufficient air ventilation'

The Carabinieri reported that three of the men were found in the cellar by the grape juice fermentation tank, while another was found in the 'collection' room where the wine is transferred into oak barrels.

Carabinieri Captain Marco Pedulla said: 'According to our findings, one of the men lowered himself into the cellar to decant the wine and passed out,' before explaining the other men had gone down to help before succumbing to the same fate.

Paola prosecutor Pierpaolo Bruni said that an investigation into the deaths of the winemaking family was underway, and told reporters that their winemaking environment 'lacked sufficient air ventilation.'

The Mayor of Paola Roberto Perrotta on Saturday said that the town, with a population of just 15,000, felt a collective sorrow as a result of the events.
A former federal prosecutor has claimed that Brian Laundrie's parents could face obstruction and accessory charges if they have provided false information to law enforcement.

So far, parents Chris and Roberta Laundrie have not been accused of any crime. However, critics have been following their every move and they are skeptical of their claims that they know nothing about their son Brian's location.

The family said nothing about the fact that Petito was missing and it wasn't until last week that Dog the Bounty Hunter said Laundrie and his parents went on a camping trip at Fort De Soto Park from September 1-3 and September 6-8.

He added that on the latter visit only the parents left.

'If they provided false information to law enforcement that let Brian Laundrie take off and get a week head start, or if the parents sent law enforcement on a wild goose chase, searching the preserve when he wasn't there, there's certainly a basis to charge them,' Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, told Fox News.

The Laundrie family has remained tight-lipped since Petito's disappearance even though she lived with them before her and Brian left to travel across the country and tour national parks.

Chris (back) and Roberta (front) Laundrie, parents of Brian Laundrie, leave their North Port, Florida, said they have no idea where their son is

Parents of missing Brian Laundrie, seen last Thursday, are under surveillance from the FBI

Brian came home to his parents on September 1 without former fiancee Gabby Petito in the van they travelled around in.

An FBI-led search team eventually found Petito's remains near Grand Teton National Park on September 19th, at a campsite where she stayed in the van with Laundrie in late August.

Until now, Brian has only been described as a 'person of interest' in the Petito case.

His only charge is using a debit card fraudulently for allegedly using a bank card that is not his without permission and retrieving more than $1,000.

'Since he lawyered up right away, I doubt they made any statements,' said Pat Diaz, a former Miami-Dade homicide detective.

'So it's going to be hard-pressed to prove [wrongdoing] unless they get actual evidence on the parents, which I don't think they're going to have.'

What the Laundries exactly told investigators remains unknown, but if they kept almost entirely quiet behind closed doors as they have been publicly, then it would be hard to demonstrate how they lied to authorities, Diaz added.

But the FBI may have uncovered physical or digital evidence that is not yet publicly available.

The home of the Laundrie's in North Port, Florida, where Gabby and Brian were living before they decided to tour national parks across the country in a remodeled Ford Transit van

Brian Laundrie, 23, who was reported missing since September 14, remains a person of interest in the disappearance and death of fiancee Gabby Petito

The Ford Transit van that Gabby and Brian traveled in is seen on the Laundrie's driveway on September 20, 19 days after Brian came home without his girlfriend

Lara Yeretsian, a criminal defense attorney based in Los Angeles, said the potential charges against the Laundriers depend on what, if anything, they told the FBI when investigators searched their home last month, and whether they actually misled or deceived authorities.

'We don't have enough information,' she said. 'All of this is conjecture, honestly.'

But if Brian's parents are charged, Yerestian said, then it is likely that the offenses relate to obstructing justice or accessory after the fact.

The family's lawyer, Steven Bertolino, said Brian saw his sister Cassie twice in the first week of September although she told reporters on September 17 that she had not been in contact with her brother.

However, Bertolino has maintained that Brian's whereabouts are unknown and that the parents have no idea where their son is. The attorney for Petito's parents has alleged that Brian Laundrie is hiding.

Petito and Laundrie had been travelling on a cross-country trip together since July 2, when they left New York. Petito was reported missing on September 11

Rahmani said he expects federal investigators to have already begun summoning phone records and other evidence as part of the investigation and that more serious charges against Laundrie will soon be brought forward.

He also said the Laundrie family's unusual silence has been suspicious.

'People that are worried about their future daughter-in-law, this is not how they act,' he said. 'They don't call a lawyer before reporting her missing to law enforcement, right?

'They assist an investigation. They don't go camping when they're looking for someone. Everything that they've done is inconsistent with someone who is concerned about finding their missing children.'
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Hundreds of Chinese have recreated a traditional Silk Road scene by riding camels through the Gobi desert to mark the founding of the People's Republic.

Tourists celebrated the week-long national holiday atop caravans of camels on the singing sand dune at Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Spring nature park near Dunhuang in the country's northwest.

More than 400 camels raised by local farmers live at the site, which once sat astride two major trade routes of the ancient Silk Road, all year round and help recreate a traditional caravanserai scene along the oasis' stark sand ridges.

The annual National Day celebrates the founding of the People's Republic of China, proclaimed by Mao Zedong on October 1, 1949. It is celebrated over seven days and sees millions of Chinese ditch the cities for family homes or visits to major tourism sites.

Hundreds of Chinese have taken part in National Day celebrations by riding camels in the Gobi desert near Dunhuang in the country's northwest

Though China's National Day is celebrated on October 1, festivities across the country last for seven days - known as 'October 1 Golden Week' - and include a flag raising ceremony in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, fireworks and some years a military parade.

Soldiers perform a small parade in Tiananmen Square every fifth October 1, with a full-scale display every ten years. Meanwhile cities are lit up every year with firework displays and light shows sponsored by the government as embassies, banks, restaurants and factories all close down to mark the anniversary.

The week-long holiday is usually one of the busiest of the year and saw an estimated 16 million people embark on train travels around the country on October 1, 2018, alone, with a further 113 million travelling around the country over the seven days.

In previous years more than 140,000 people from all over the country have gathered at Tiananmen Square in the capital city before sunrise - some arriving as early as 8pm the night before - to watch the flag raising ceremony to kick off the celebrations.

Tourists enjoyed sunset rides across the Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Spring park located 6km outside Dunhuang on October 3, during the week-long celebration of the proclamation of the People's Republic of China in 1949

Located 6km from the city of Dunhuang and on the edge of the Taklamakan Desert, the UNESCO World Heritage site would have been one of the first places reached by merchants travelling west to China along the ancient Silk Road and acted as a final rest stop for traders before they reached the city.

The site is known for a remarkable fresh water oasis in the shape of a half moon - known as the Crescent Lake (Yueyaquan in Chinese). It is home to the Mogao Caves, also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes, a temple complex and UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The oasis, which is believed to have existed for 2,000 years, was in danger of disappearing beneath the sands until the government stepped in to save it by starting to refill it in 2006.

The lake's survival in the middle of the desert is believed to be due to its low altitude, while its position is also thought to prevent excess sand from the surrounding dunes falling into it.

Next to the lake is a traditional pagoda and a street lined with souvenir stalls. The site is popular with tourists who are taken on camel rides by guides to the peaks of the surrounding dunes.

Surrounded by high mountains, Dunhuang has an arid climate - and is extremely hot in the summer and cold in winter. Rain only occurs in tiny amounts and quickly evaporates, resulting in the desert landscape.
A California judge has rejected a campaign group's request for a temporary restraining order against the state's mask mandate for schoolchildren enforced by Governor Gavin Newsom.

San Diego County Superior Court Judge Cynthia Freeland denied the request made by the organization Let Them Breathe at a court hearing on September 30.

Let Them Breathe and another group called Reopen California Schools filed a lawsuit against the state in July opposing the mandate.

Both groups believe that the mandate was harmful to the students and that the COVID protocols being enforced were not supported by science.

Let Them Breathe will have the chance to push its case again at a full hearing scheduled for November 8.

But Judge Freeland struck down their application for a restraining order against Newsom's mandate after saying kids had been back for weeks with no issues.

San Diego Judge Cynthia Freeland denied the request from campaign group Let Them Breathe who wanted to file a temporary restraining order against the state's mask mandate for schools

Newsom praised the court's decision as he believes the mandate will keep students safe and schools open

'Here we are, Sept. 30th, school has started, kids have been in school with masks and the protocols have been in place,' Freeland said on Thursday.

'So I'm not seeing an emergency today that would warrant issuing an emergency restraining order.'

Newsom, who has been enforcing COVID protocols, applauded Freeland and the court's decision in a written statement.

'We are pleased that the court agreed with our argument that blocking the continued implementation of the universal masking requirement for K-12 schools was unwarranted at this time,' he wrote.

'Our guidance is firmly grounded in science and has been a critical component of our efforts to support the safe return to in-person learning for all students this school year.

'Recent studies confirm that schools with universal masking requirements are much less likely to experience outbreaks, confirming that masking is a critical strategy to keep students safe and schools open.

Newsom had announced an additional vaccine mandate for schoolchildren on Friday and said that students 12 and over must get the shot in order to attend in-person classes.

Let Them Breathe and fellow organization Reopen California Schools released a statement and said that in the state's opposition filing that quarantine and testing protocols are not required

Sharon McKeeman, the founder of Let Them Breathe, spoke to KPBS after the court's decision was made.

'We knew that it might be difficult to get that emergency restarting order, but obviously our kids are suffering behind these masks,' she said.

'We want this to happen as quickly as possible, but I am thankful that we are going to be having that full hearing at the start of November.'

McKeeman added in a release that their group was given a court hearing for November 8 after being initially set for a March 2022 date.

Judge Freeland believes the current hearing date will allow both the state and the organizations to justify their arguments.

'This is not something that anyone should approach lightly and I want everyone to have sufficient time to be able to provide all the necessary information because this is a significant issue,' Freeland said.

The group plans to also challenge the new vaccine mandate that is being implemented by Newsom.

Let It Breathe founder Sharon McKeeman announced that the group was given a hearing date for November 8

Reopen California Schools also gave a statement of their own to support the decision for the choice to wear masks rather than enforcing a mandate.

'While one of our arguments against the state is there should be more local control on these issues, we still believe all students and teachers should have mask choice and any locality enforcing mask mandates at school is ignoring the data and the harms of such policies.'

The state of California became the first in the US to mandate a vaccine for students over 12, which has sparked controversy since it was announced by Newsom on Friday.

Social media users and school parents noted that young children were not that susceptible to the virus or its effects.

The decision was also criticized for giving teachers the option to either show proof of getting the vaccine or being tested at least once a week.

'Kids must get vaccine, but teacher don't have to. The lesson? Kids need a better union,' one person tweeted.
The Australian government has signed off on a massive deal for an antiviral pill being hailed as a game-changer in the fight against Covid-19.

Molnupiravir is still being trialled in the US, where the treatment is showing promising signs of slashing coronavirus deaths and hospitalisations in half.

The federal government has reached an agreement with pharmaceutical giant Merck Sharp and Dohme to supply 300,000 courses if the pill gets approval from Australia's medicines regulator, and could be available in the first quarter of 2022.

Molnupiravir will be the first oral antiviral medication on the market for Covid-19 if it gets the green light from the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

The drug would join other Covid-19 treatments including sotrovimab and remdesivir already available in Australia.

Australians could have access to Covid-19 pill Molnupiravir (pictured) by March next year

'Vaccines and new treatments like this will boost our National Plan to safely reopen Australia and keep Australia safely open,' Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Monday.

'While our vaccination rate continues to climb, we've been investing in and closely monitoring research into Covid-19 treatments and we are securing supply of promising treatments.'

Molnupiravir is taken twice a day for five days by adults with mild or moderate disease. It does not need to be refrigerated.

The TGA recently gave the pill 'provisional determination', the first step to apply to register the pill for use in Australia.

A final application is expected to be submitted shortly.

It follows trials announced by Merck showing molnupiravir reduced hospitalisations and deaths by around 50 per cent.

The federal government will continue looking at other Covid-19 treatments.

'All Covid-19 treatment assessment processes are being treated with the greatest priority as part of the Government's response to the pandemic,' health minister Greg Hunt said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced 300,000 courses of the pill will be purchased if Molnupiravir is approved by the TGA

'The TGA is allowing data on the safety and efficacy of Covid-19 treatments to be provided as it is available to allow for an early approval for use in Australia without skipping any steps.

'In addition to this, our government will continue to seek access to further treatments which will assist with Australians living with Covid-19.'

Australia's Asian neighbours Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia are all in talks regarding access to Molnupiravir, while the Philippines hopes its domestic trial of the pill will allow access to the treatment.

Australia has received 15,000 additional doses of sotrovimab, an antibody treatment used to stop the virus replicating.

The national stockpile of the drug, administered by intravenous infusion within five days of patients developing symptoms, is expected to exceed 30,000 doses this year.

It has been shown to reduce hospitalisation or death in patients with mild or moderate infections and who are at high risk of severe illness.

Vaccines remain Australia's first port of call for battling coronavirus, with the country expected to hit an 80 per cent first-dose rate for over-16s this week.

Currently, 56.9 per cent are double-dosed, with 79.6 per cent having received their first dose.

Trials of Molnupiravir in the US have seen Covid-19 hospitalisations and deaths slashed by 50 per cent (pictured, a patient at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital)

University of South Australia epidemiologist Adrian Esterman emphasised the importance of new treatments.

'There has been not much emphasis placed on research into treatment since the start of this pandemic,' he told AAP.

'Even with 100 per cent of the population fully vaccinated, there will still be virus circulating because none of the vaccines is 100 per cent effective against transmission.'

Victoria recorded new 1377 local cases and four deaths as Melbourne became the world's most locked down city following 246 cumulative days of stay-at-home orders.

NSW recorded 623 new cases and six people died ahead of the planned end of lockdown for fully vaccinated residents in a week.

That state has double-dosed 67.5 per cent of its population aged 16 and older, while Victoria has a 52.6 per cent full vaccination rate.

The ACT recorded 28 new cases and two more deaths, taking Canberra's death toll since the start of the pandemic to eight.

Queensland recorded one new infection in the community.

Its full vaccination rate of 48.7 per cent is the second-lowest in the country ahead of Western Australia, which is at 48.5 per cent.
A pregnant mother-of-three was gunned down by an off-duty police officer in the Dominican Republic after she reportedly fled the scene of a hit-and-run accident, sparking mass outrage in the Caribbean nation.

Leslie Rosado, 36, was killed by police corporal Janli Disla Batista in the town of Boca Chica on Saturday night after she left her father's birthday party.

According to a preliminary police report, Rosado rear-ended Disla Batista's motorcycle, knocking him, his wife and their children to the pavement and sped away.

'The corporal, while chasing the vehicle, fired the shots that caused this unfortunate event,' National Police spokeswoman Ana Jimenez Cruceta said Sunday.

Leslie Rosado was shot and killed by off-duty police officer Janli Disla Batista on Saturday night in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic. Police said Rosado allegedly rear-ended Disla Batista's motorcycle, knocking him, his wife, and two children to the ground. The cop hailed a biker and chased after Rosado while a police truck following them before he eventually opened fire and killed her. He remains under arrest

A surveillance camera shows Leslie Rosado driving down a Boca Chica, Dominican Republic, street as she was being pursued by an off-duty cop after she reportedly rear-ended him and fled the scene

Off-duty police office Janli Disla Batista is on the back of a motorcycle as he chased after Leslie Rosado's Mercedes Benz SUV before he gunned her down

The impact of the fatal shot fired by off-duty cop Janli Disla Rosado shattered the driver's window of Leslie Rosado's Mercedes Benz SUV before she died

Surveillance video showed Rosado driving her white Mercedes Benz SUV with Disla Batista and another individual he had flagged down chasing after her. A truck, which appears to be part of the police fleet, is also seeing trailing Disla and Rosado.

A witness, who remained anonymous, told Dominican newspaper Diario Libre, that Disla Batista furiously approached Rosado's vehicle and started punching it before he stepped up to the driver's side window and opened fire, striking her in the head.

'When the policeman shoots and breaks the window of the jeep, which was dark (tinted), he realizes that it was a woman, he took her out on his arm and got on a motorcycle and took her to the municipal hospital,' the witness said.

Disla Batista was placed under arrest at the hospital.

Rosado was driving back to her home in the National District when the incident first unfolded.

Another witness told newspaper Listin Diario that Disla Batista broke back window as the law enforcement agents looked on.

Off-duty cop Janli Disla Batista (pictured) was arrested at a Boca Chica, Dominican Republic, hospital where he rushed architectural engineer and married mother-of-three Leslie Rosado after he shot her Saturday night. The 36-year-old did not survive

Leslie Rosado was a married mother-of-three and was reportedly pregnant

'The one who killed her came in civilian clothes and then a contingent came in a police truck and being here (at the scene) they were not able to arrest the guy with the aggressive action he had,' he said.

Santo Domingo Este prosecutor Milciade Guzman and five other prosecutors from the local Attorney General's Office inspected Rosado's SUV and noticed that one of the tires had also been struck by a bullet.

A photo leaked on social media revealed a bullet hole near the rear license plate.

Leslie Rosado (right) with her father Jose Rosado at his yacht birthday party Saturday before she was gunned down

A photo leaked on social media revealed a bullet hole near the rear license plate.

'There are other details that I want to keep for a matter of delicacy of the investigation that we were able to observer ourselves in the vehicle that indicate to us that this shot is not the product of an accident,' Guzman said. 'In addition, you cannot tell the Dominican society that you touched a glass twice and that you (misfired) a shot because the weapon was tampered with and you did not know it. Because beforehand, the vehicle had another shot in a tire. It is evident that you were clear that the weapon was tampered with and you committed his violent act. So we, as the Prosecutor's Office, (will go after him to the fullest extent of the law.'

Rosado was one of four sisters who followed the footsteps of her father and went on to become architectural engineers.

Her killing stirred memories of the evangelical pastor couple Elisa Munoz, 32, and Joel Diaz, who were gunned down by police officers in the city of Villa Altagracia, 38 kilometers from Santo Domingo, the nation's capital, on March 30, 2021.

An unarmed Robinson Ramon Mendez Mancebo, 27, was killed in a confrontation with National Police agents outside a bar on September 28 in Azua.

Lawyer Ramon Alexy Castillo was stopped in his vehicle August 10 for breaking COVID-19 curfew and got into an argument before he was shot dead by the police in San Jose de Ocoa.

The cops confused the vehicle the recently married couple were traveling in with a car that had been used by suspects to carry out a robbery earlier in the day in the city of Bonao.

First Lady Raquel Arbaje expressed her concern over Rosado's shocking death and called for a reform of the police department.

'My grief over the death of the mother and architect Leslie Rosado left me in 'shock' and I waited for the official investigations,' Arbaje tweeted Monday. 'Today I only say: NOTHING justifies what happened. Justice has its role in this case. Today I apologize to your mother, father, husband and children. Enough!

Former President Leonel Fernandez also tweeted: 'Shock and dismay over the death of the young mother #Leslie Rosado, architect, daughter of engineer and friend Jose Rosado. We ask for clarification of this regrettable fact that should not by any means go unpunished.'
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The sister of a senior Armed Forces commander today said her family is 'devastated' after the 54-year-old took his own life following a split from his wife and the loss of his dream job leading the Royal Marines.

Major General Matt Holmes CBE, who carried Prince Philip's coffin at his funeral, had been in a 'bad place' before his suspected suicide.

The father-of-two from Hampshire was a friend of Prince Harry and served in all the UK's recent conflicts until leaving military in April. Boris Johnson has led tributes to him today.

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Major General Holmess older sister, Sarah Holmes said: Matthew confided in me a lot because we were very close.

He spoke to me in detail about the issues in his marriage and Im not going to break his confidence now. Matthew and I were last in touch on Friday evening and I never thought he would take his own life.

She added: Lea was my best friend before her and Matthew got married and Ive been speaking to her every day since this tragedy. She is devastated, as we all are.

She is the one who called the police on Saturday afternoon because she could not get into the house. And when the police broke the door down to get in, they found Matts body.

A tearful Sarah revealed that she was informed about her brothers death on the telephone by his wife on late Saturday afternoon.

Sarah, 55, who is a year older than Major General Holmes added: As a family, we are still in shock. We are taking this whole thing one day at a time. Since news of his death, the tributes have not stopped.

Men who served under him have been contacting me and telling me what an amazing, incredible and inspirational man he was. Im proud to have been his sister.

He wanted to be a Royal Marine since the age of five when we were taken together to the Royal Tournament. He had a brilliant career and was committed to the Royal Marines, its men and their families.'

Major General Holmess older sister, Sarah Holmes, (who he is pictured with at a dinner two weeks ago, left; and at his Marines passing out parade in November 1988, right) today said her family is 'devastated' by his suspected suicide

A tearful Sarah revealed that she was informed about her brothers death on the telephone by his wife on late Saturday afternoon. They are pictured together as children, with a model of a Royal Marine

Major General Holmes CBE won the Distinguished Service Order for his leadership on the frontline in Afghanistan. He is pictured with his wife Lea and daughter Eleanor after receiving the award at Buckingham Palace in 2007. A source claimed he was going through a divorce and was in a 'bad place'

Major General Matthew Holmes welcomes Prince Harry, the former Captain General of the Royal Marines, and Meghan Markle to the Royal Albert Hall in London in March 2020

Sarah revealed that the family have not finalised plans for the funeral and that she intends to travel from her home in Cornwall to Winchester over the coming day to meet with Lea and the two children she had with Major General Holmes; Nelly and Will.

She revealed that her brother was also stressed over his professional future as he prepared to leave the Armed Forces in October.

In April, he left his post as Commandant General Royal Marines, after which he took three months leave that was owning to him from his time serving in Afghanistan.

At the time of his death, he was on a three-month transition period to prepare him for his new life on civvy street.

Sarah said: He wasnt sure what the future held for him and that didnt help matters. He was hoping that he could stay in the Armed Forces and that the Royal Navy would create a new role for him, but nothing had emerged so far.

Matt was dedicated to the Armed Forces but was preparing now to take a new job on civvy street, although he had no work lined up and didnt know what hed do. It created a lot of uncertainty and didnt help with his overall situation.

Major General Holmes was Commandant General Royal Marines for 20 months from June 2019 but then left the role halfway through what would normally be at least a three-year tenure. It also emerged today he has split from his wife Lea, a solicitor and mother of their two young children.

Their friends and neighbours told MailOnline of their shock at his death, adding that the couple had not been happy for a while and that they had lived at their home in Winchester for 17 years. One said: 'Lea worked from home and told me last year how the pressure of the lockdown was putting a strain on her family life. I could just tell that she wasn't very happy with things'.

As well as the break-up of his marriage, he also was moved from being head of the Royal Marines to another role helping Royal Marine recruits with their wellbeing.

A Royal Navy source told The Times: 'He was not happy about the change of roles', adding that before his death colleagues had offered a 'lot of support', including with daily phone calls because 'he was in a bad place'. The insider added those phone calls were mainly about his private life rather than work.

'The loss of a warfighter is a significant tragedy and highlights the challenges that all members and people in all leadership roles face', the friend said.

The Ministry of Defence has announced that the circumstances of his death are being investigated.

It is understood he took his own life on Saturday.

A Hampshire Police spokesman said: 'Officers were called to a house in Kingsgate Road, Winchester, just before 3pm on Saturday October 2 following the discovery of a man's body.

Major General Matthew Holmes receives the Distinguished Service Order from The Queen at Buckingham Palace in 2007

'The death is not being treated as suspicious and we are preparing a file for the coroner.'

Neighbours revealed that they had not seen Major General Holmes and his wife Lea together for 'several months.'

One said: 'It's been like that for the past three months. We've seen him out jogging or walking the dog but not her.

'Sadly, the news doesn't surprise me. Each time I saw him he appeared really glum and rarely smiled. We knew something was up in the marriage but didn't realise it was this serious.'

Another revealed how Major General Holmes and his wife Lea had been invited to a Neighbourhood watch drinks reception but did not attend.

He added: 'Normally they would attend together but for the last two, neither of them has shown up. He was quite a regimented, proud, self-contained man and not very emotional. We realised a few months ago that Lea wasn't around and thought something was up, but Matt wasn't the kind of guy who would speak about that kind of stuff.'

Major General Holmes is believed to have taken his own life at his home in Winchester on Saturday afternoon, with neighbours reporting that an ambulance was parked outside into the early hours of the evening.

One regular at the Queen Inn pub told MailOnline: 'Lea worked from home and told me last year how the pressure of the lockdown was putting a strain on her family life. I could just tell that she wasn't very happy with things.

'The last time I actually saw her and Matt together in the pub was before the pandemic in December 2019. Since the lifting of restrictions, she's not been in here and I've not seen her around.

'Each time I've seen Matt he's always been on his own, but he wasn't the type of guy you could just go up to and ask how he is.'

Boris Johnson today said he was 'very saddened' by the death of a former head of the Royal Marines who was one of Britain's most senior military officers.

Major General Holmes was found dead aged 54 in a suspected suicide, six months after leaving the role halfway through what is normally a three-year tenure.

Major General Matthew, a married father-of-two who lived in Hampshire, served in all the UK's recent conflicts and was Commandant General Royal Marines for 20 months from June 2019 until this April.

In March 2020 he welcomed Prince Harry, the former Captain General of the Royal Marines, and Meghan Markle to the Mountbatten Festival of Music, before sitting next to them at the Royal Albert Hall in London. It was one of the Sussexes' final engagements in Britain before they stepped down as senior royals and moved to North America.

Today, Mr Johnson said in a tweet: 'I am very saddened to learn of the death of Major General Matt Holmes. My thoughts are with Matt's family and friends at this difficult time, as well as the Royal Marines and Royal Navy who I know will feel this loss keenly.'

Major General Holmes, who died on Saturday, also won one of the UK's most prestigious gallantry awards, the Distinguished Service Order, for his leadership on the frontline in Afghanistan in 2007.

But earlier this year he left the Commandant General post following plans to 'double-hat' his two-star role with another position, amid defence experts warning that the merger would dilute attention given to the Royal Marines.

Major General Holmes was reported at the time by the Daily Telegraph to have had a 'really significant falling out' with the First Sea Lord, who had argued that the incumbent in future would be a three-star officer. However, a defence source claimed that Major General Holmes's scheduled move was part of the service's transformation.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed that the circumstances of his death were being investigated - but they are not thought to have been suspicious. However, it is understood that he took his own life, the Telegraph reported.

Major Holmes was married to his solicitor wife Lea and they had two young children. In April, he was part of the procession at Prince Philip's funeral towards the steps of St George's Chapel.

Major General Matthew Holmes (immediately left of Prince Harry) at the Royal Albert Hall in March 2020

An MoD spokesman said: 'Our thoughts and sympathies are with his family and friends at this difficult time and they have our deepest and heartfelt condolences. We request that their privacy is respected at this time.'

Major General Holmes had a distinguished career, which included operational tours in Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.

He commanded 42 Commando Royal Marines from 2006 to 2008 and was appointed as a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order for his leadership on operations in Afghanistan in 2007.

He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2019.

First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin KCB ADC, said: 'I am deeply saddened to hear about the tragic death of Matt Holmes.

'We mourn the loss of one of our most senior and highly decorated Royal Marines; a devoted former Commandant General who had served the nation, the Royal Navy and his beloved Corps with distinction for 33 years.

Major General Matthew Holmes was a pallbearer at Prince Philip's funeral during the procession to the steps of St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in April. He is pictured speaking to Sky News before the service

Tributes were paid last night to a former head of the Royal Marines who has died suddenly. Highly decorated Major General Matthew Holmes CBE served in all the UK's recent conflicts and was one of Britain's most senior military officers

Matthew Holmes served as Commandant General Royal Marines from 2019 until April this year

'Matt was also a dear friend to many, and a close friend of mine for over 20 years. He will be sorely missed by the Service and especially the Corps Family.

'But my thoughts, prayers and deepest sympathy are with Matt's family. Their loss is the greatest and most painful: we will be there for them now and always.'

Commandant General Royal Marines, Lieutenant General Rob Magowan CB CBE, said: 'My predecessor as Commandant General Royal Marines and my friend, Matt Holmes, tragically died at the weekend.

'My heart goes out to him and his family. We will honour him and all those closest to him. But I also think of you all.

'It matters not that he was a General, but it does that he is a Royal Marine. I remember and celebrate him, alongside all those who he is with now.

'We are one family, together, just as we learned, and as we trained, alongside each other at the Commando Training Centre. Once a marine, always a marine.'

Earlier this year Major General Holmes was a pallbearer at Prince Philip's funeral in April during the procession to the steps of St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.

At the time he recalled how generous Prince Philip was with his time whenever he visited the regiment, and once flew from London to Exeter to ensure he welcomed members of the regiment returning from Afghanistan.

Major General Holmes said: 'He hated fuss, so we would host him and he would go straight amongst the Marines and talk to our valiant warriors. He was always generous with his time.'

Speaking to Times Radio: 'We were utterly privileged and honoured to enjoy his company on numerous occasions. We had numerous encounters, and I think that was the beauty of his service with us.'

For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123, visit a local branch or go to www.samaritans.org
President Joe Biden's top trade negotiator will demand fresh talks with China on Monday and accuse it of failing to keep promises made in a deal struck with President Donald Trump last year.

Senior administration officials said Katherine Tai will seek a virtual meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He to discuss the deal, while setting out the practices that have 'hurt' U.S. workers, industries and supply chains.

'For too long, China's lack of adherence to global trading norms has undercut the prosperity of Americans and others around the world,' she will say, according to prepared excerpts from a speech she will make at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think-tank, on Monday morning.

'Unlike the past, this administration will engage from a position of strength because we are investing in our workers and our infrastructure.'

President Biden's trade representative, Katherine Tai, will demand fresh talks with China and accuse it of failing to keep promises made in a deal struck with President Trump last year

The Biden administration will accuse China of failing to abide by the terms of a trade deal struck by Donald Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He at the White House last year

The Biden administration has kept up scrutiny of China's trade practices and condemned its human rights record

The Biden administration has kept up Trump's close scrutiny of China's growing economic dominance and regional territorial ambitions.

A reminder of that came shortly before Tai's speech, when Taiwan said Beijing had flown 52 aircraft into its airspace - the single largest mission of its kind to date in an escalation of tensions around the South China Sea island.

Tai confirmed in August that the Biden administration was reviewing its trade policy with China.

On Monday, she is expected to call for a new strategy 'that aligns with the priorities of our workers and businesses,' an official told reporters on a conference call.

'First, our objective is not to escalate trade tensions with China or double down on the previous administrations flawed strategy,' said the official.

'Second, at the same time, where China continues to pursue its unfair and coercive practices, we will use the full range of our tools to help ensure that the U.S.-China trade relationship works for American workers, our industries, and our supply chains.'

The moves follow frustration that China had failed to meet commitments it made last year under a 'phase one' trade deal.

Excerpts from Tai's remarks show she will raise commitments made by China that were intended to benefit American industries, including agriculture.

The phase one deal was unveiled at the White House at the start of last year - just as a coronavirus outbreak was becoming a pandemic.

China agreed to boost purchases of U.S. farm and manufactured goods, energy and services by $200 billion above 2017 levels over two years.

34 J-16 fighters (file image) were among 52 Chinese planes flown into Taiwan's air defence identification zone on Monday in the single-largest incursion to date

The deal, which halted escalation of a trade war that heaped tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods from both countries, also called for China to improve protections for some U.S. intellectual property and market access for American agricultural biotechnology and financial services firms.

The coronavirus pandemic hit Chinese purchases of U.S. goods hard, and they have been running at only 62% of the target, according to estimates by Chad Bown, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

U.S. President Joe Biden kept in place the tariffs imposed by Trump as Tai conducted a top-to-bottom review of China trade policy. Biden officials have said little about their strategy, focusing instead this year on rebuilding ties with U.S. allies to present a more united front to Beijing.

A system of exclusions from the tariffs of up to 25% on Chinese imports expired at end of 2020, except for some medical imports needed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. officials said Tai would relaunch a new, 'targeted' tariff exclusion process and would 'keep open the potential for additional exclusion processes in the future.'

Plans for a 'phase two' deal have been abandoned, said an official, because Beijing is 'doubling down on on its authoritarian state-centric approach.

Tai will run through a history of China's failure to live up to its trade and reform commitments over the past two decades, from its accession to the World Trade Organization to the Phase 1 deal, the officials said.

'We recognize that China simply may not change, and that we have to have a strategy that deals with China as it is, rather than as we might wish it to be,' one of the officials said.

China has attracted global condemnation for its crackdown on democracy campaigns in Hong Kong, its abuse of ethnic and religious minorities, including accusations of 'genocide; in Xinjiang against Muslim Uighurs, and its aggression in disputed areas of the South China Sea.

It has also repeatedly been accused covering up the early stages of its coronavirus outbreak.

The U.S., U.K., and Australia announced a new security and technology pact last month which is widely seen as trying to counter China's growing regional influence.
Just nine people in Britain have died directly from a Covid vaccine, government statisticians declared today in an attempt to squash concerns about the jabs.

The Office for National Statistics counted fatalities confirmed by either a doctor or coroner, who have to certify the cause to the 'best of their knowledge or belief'.

For deaths where a vaccine is suspected of being one of the contributing causes of death, a lengthy investigation has to be carried out.

The ONS admitted its figure  made up of four deaths in England, four in Scotland and one in Northern Ireland  is bound to rise as more go through this process over the coming months.

But scientists today questioned the number, which does not yet take into account dozens of deaths linked to AstraZeneca's vaccine and rare blood clots.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the UK's drugs watchdog, says there have been 72 deaths from clots after that jab alone.

Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist from Warwick University, said the ONS' figure seemed 'too low, given the information from the MHRA'.

He told MailOnline it 'highlights the need for more detailed investigation to reconcile these different estimates'.

The Government credits AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna's jabs with saving 112,000 lives and averting 24million Covid infections.

For deaths where a vaccine is suspected of being one of the contributing causes of death, a lengthy investigation has to be carried out. Pictured, a pharmacist prepares to give out the Pfizer vaccine, which is known as Comirnaty

The proportion of Britons who had their first jab by September 26. Younger groups have only recently been invited for a vaccine

Rigorous trials have shown the vaccines to be completely safe for the vast majority of people, including children.

But there is a very small risk of side effects, which in an even smaller number of patients can be deadly.

Moderna and Pfizer's vaccines have been linked to heart inflammation known as myocarditis, particularly in young people.

Covid vaccine uptake has stalled at 55% in 16 to 18-year-olds Uptake of coronavirus vaccines in older teenagers appears to have stalled already, according to UK Government figures. Only around 55 per cent of 16 and 17-year-olds in England had their first dose by September 26, latest data shows, a number which had barely risen in the previous three weeks. The analysis was revealed in a weekly report by the new UK Health Security Agency, which took over axed Public Health England's pandemic duties. It showed that uptake in the age group was sitting at about 20 per cent at the start of August. This shot up to 50 per cent in the three weeks after the roll-out was expanded to all older teenagers on August 19. But the progress appears to have stalled in recent weeks, rising just five or so per cent in September. All age groups have seen a natural stagnation in uptake, with the threshold being much higher in older age groups who are most susceptible to getting severe Covid. For example, the ceiling was about 90 per cent in the over-70s and 80 per cent in people over the age of 50. Experts said they were not necessarily surprised by the plateau. Cambridge University epidemiologist Dr Raghib Ali told MailOnline the enthusiasm for jabs in older teenagers was lower because so many have already had Covid 'so dont feel they need to get vaccinated'. Advertisement

Britain's medicines regulator says myocarditis has occurred in about one in 135,000 Britons given an mRNA vaccine.

Most cases are mild and treatable within a few days but the condition is known to be more common in children and young adults, affecting about one in 10,000.

The long-term effects of this heart inflammation are still not known.

AstraZeneca's jab, which relies on more traditional technology to the other two vaccines, is associated with blood clots.

The MHRA estimates one in 66,000 Britons has suffered the disorder, which can cause a deadly blockage in the brain, after their first dose of AZ.

It is more common in younger people  one in 48,000 for under-50s  which is why it has been restricted in lower age groups, who are at a lower risk of Covid itself.

The MHRA says there have been 72 reported deaths from that specific condition alone in the UK, six of which occurred after the second dose.

It puts the fatality rate at 17 per cent.

The regulator lists the cases which it suspects were the result of the vaccines but the ONS only records instances where an investigation has confirmed the cause.

Professor Lawrence said that this process 'is not straight forward' because it requires 'detailed review of death certificates, autopsy (if available) and medical records.'

He added: 'This is further complicated in cases where the deceased had one or more underlying illnesses.'

On top of this, coroners nationwide have faced a backlog of inquests due to Covid-related deaths and lockdowns.

A coroner investigates all sudden and unexplained deaths so that a death certificate can be issued.

In a blog post addressing vaccine safety concerns today, the ONS admitted its vaccine-induced death toll was 'likely to rise as numbers feed through following delays'.

The agency added that the actual number of vaccine deaths will be 'far lower' than the larger figure reported in the MHRA's 'yellow card' system.

The scheme monitors all deaths and conditions suffered by people in the weeks and months after getting their vaccine.

It has recorded 1,645 deaths post-vaccination, up until September 8. That figure has been seized upon by anti-vaxx groups.

The ONS says that tally is a 'big overestimate' because it includes cases that have not been properly investigated.

The MHRA says as much in its guidelines. 'It is very important to note that a Yellow Card report does not necessarily mean the vaccine caused that reaction or event'.

'Many... do not have any relation to the vaccine or medicine and it is often coincidental that they both occurred around the same time.'
Those in Donald Trump's inner circle had to talk the former president out of announcing his 2024 run in light of the Afghanistan chaos in August, as they convinced him it would draw attention away from the midterms and possibly hinder his TV appearances.

Such an announcement would complicate the former president's new fundraising structure and his appearances on broadcast networks could then trigger equal time rules, advisers said, according to three sources who spoke to the Washington Post.

But the former president constantly tells advisers: 'I'm running.'

Advisers also expressed concern that if Trump announced a run Democrats would frame the 2022 midterms around his candidacy to boost turnout.

Trump could also be held responsible if Republicans don't take back the House and Senate if he were fighting on their behalf as a fellow candidate.

'The biggest point we drove home was that he doesn't want to own the midterms if we don't win back the House or Senate,' said one source familiar with the talks.

But the former president has dropped a series of not-so-subtle hints in recent weeks which serve as a warning for other 2024 hopefuls in the party to stand down.

The former president constantly tells advisers: 'I'm running'

Advisers also expressed concern that if Trump announced a run Democrats would frame the 2022 midterms around his candidacy to boost turnout

'He tacitly keeps the 2024 crowd on notice that nobody can move a major muscle until he decides what he's doing,' Kellyanne Conway, former Trump adviser, said. 'As for 2024, there has been a shift from intention to urgency as he watches in horror the many failings of this administration.'

Trump knows that other GOP stars will back off once he jumps into the field, rather than trigger all-out war within the party.

Trump was confident he would beat Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a Sunday interview with Yahoo Finance, even as he said he did not think it would come down to a face-off.

'If I faced him, I'd beat him like I would beat everyone else,' Trump declared.

'I don't think I will face him,' Trump said, predicting: 'I think most people would drop out, I think he would drop out.'

Asked for confirmation of the report, a Trump spokesperson pointed DailyMail.com to comments from Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich, who told the Washington Post: 'President Trump remains committed and engaged in Saving America from the disastrous leadership of the Communist Democrats,' he wrote in an email. 'All avenues to achieving that remain on the table.'

Trump is holding rallies much like the ones of his campaign, weeks ago traveling to Georgia, a critical swing state, and this weekend traveling to first-in-the-nation caucus state, Iowa.

His fundraising efforts have hardly let up from the days leading up to the election, though most of his appeals are directed toward independent PACs and cannot be used for a future presidential campaign.

Allies and advisers say the money is designed to 'show strength' ahead of 2024 and that he plans to donate some of it to candidates he has endorsed in the 2022 midterms.

Ten of 13 current and former Trump advisers said they believed he would run, two said it was a public relations ploy and one said they didn't know, according to the Post.

Still, some Republicans are pushing for Trump to step aside and let someone else run on the GOP ticket. Many of the party's top donors have told strategists and party leaders they do not want to see Trump run as they don't believe he could win as the party's nominee for the third time.

Only one president - Grover Cleveland has returned from a defeat to win a second term four years later. Trump would be 78 by the time he took office if he were to win, the same age as President Biden.

Trump, on Fox News Hannity, said of his 2024 plans: 'We're not supposed to be talking about it yet, from the standpoint of campaign finance laws, which frankly are ridiculous.'

'But I think you are going to be happy. Let me put it that way.'
The crisis-hit NSW state government is facing by-election chaos with up to six MPs tipped to quit their seats this week in the wake of outgoing premier Gladys Berejiklian's exit.

Deputy Premier John Barilaro confirmed on Monday that he's retiring from politics while transport minister Andrew Constance is hoping to swap state for federal politics.

They follow Ms Berejiklian's decision to stand down immediately after ICAC announced their were probing her relationship with ex-MP Daryl Maguire.

Now health minister Brad Hazzard, 70, is said to be ready to pull the pin on his political career after recently hinting at retirement plans.

Crisis-hit NSW state government is facing by-election chaos with up to six MPs tipped to quit their seats this week in the wake of Premier Gladys Berejiklian's exit and her likely replacement by Dominic Perrottet (pictured)

Melanie Gibbons, NSW MP for Holsworthy, is also said to be ready to quit state parliament early to move into federal politics, ahead of a possible general election.

And many believe Rob Stokes, - the only other contender for the NSW Premier's job in the party room vote on Tuesday - may quit if, as expected, he fails in his bid.

The doomsday scenario could see the Coalition fighting six separate by-election battles, with the balance of power in Parliament at stake.

It will put the new premier - almost certain to be dad-of-six Mr Perrottet, 39, with Stuart Ayres, 40, as his deputy - under intense pressure from day one.

Health minister Brad Hazzard, 70, (pictured) is said to be ready to pull the pin on his political career after recently hinting at retirement plans

Even the Willoughby seat of Ms Berejiklian, 51, could be in doubt if voters rebel against the turmoil that saw her quit on the eve of Covid lockdown ending.

Although she held the seat with a convincing 21 per cent margin, powerbrokers fear many of those votes are for her personally after she initially won the seat by just 144 votes in 2003.

Mr Constance holds his Bega seat with a margin of just 6.9 per cent while Ms Gibbons Holsworthy seat has a wafer-thin 3.3 per cent margin.

While Mr Barilaro and Mr Hazzard's seats look secure, the cost of defending all six seats will take a chunk out of the Coalition war chest just before a state election.

Melanie Gibbons, 43, NSW MP for Holsworthy, (pictured) is also said to be ready to quit state parliament early to move into federal politics, ahead of a possible general election

December 4 is being tipped as a Super Saturday for the three confirmed by-elections to run in parallel with the delayed local government elections.

If six seats are up for grabs, losing just two of them could make the process of governing almost impossible without the support of the cross benches.

The Coalition is already running as a minority government and relies on former Liberal MPs John Sidoti - ironically, under investigation by ICAC - and Gareth Ward.

Many believe Rob Stokes, 47 (pictured) - the only other contender for the NSW Premier's job in the party room vote on Tuesday - may quit if, as expected, he fails in his bid

Mr Perrottet spent Monday's public holiday hard at work shoring up the numbers to ensure he gets the top job in the party room when the Premier's job goes to the vote on Tuesday morning.

But he admitted he was disappointed by the resignation of Mr Barilaro, never mind the others predicted to follow.

'I would have preferred him to stay on,' he told the Daily Telegraph.

While the rest of Sydney enjoyed the day off, Mr Perrottet was pictured at his ministerial office in Martin Place on Monday, less than 24 hours before the leadership ballot.

Sporting dark sunglasses, Dominic Perrottet was spotted at his ministerial office in Sydney's Martin Place on Monday

Sporting dark sunglasses, a relaxed Mr Perrottet flashed a grin for photographers as he left his office, showing no signs of stress despite the shock resignation of deputy premier John Barilaro hours earlier.

Long touted as Ms Berejiklian's heir apparent, Mr Perrottet appealed to his Liberal colleagues after striking a deal to make Jobs Minister Stuart Ayres his deputy and promote Environment Minister Matt Kean to treasurer.

He is a member of the Liberal Party's right faction, while Mr Ayres and Mr Kean are from the dominant moderate faction.

But Mr Stokes, also a moderate, is refusing to follow his factional colleagues and has confirmed he would not withdraw his nomination to be party leader.

The Pittwater MP has offered himself as a more experienced alternative to 39-year-old Mr Perrottet, arguing he was the party's best shot at winning the 2023 election.

'Dominic Perrottet is a good friend of mine. He has a lot of great qualities. I just believe in terms of experience that I offer more,' he said on Monday.

'In terms of being able to speak to the people of NSW  we have a couple of challenging by-elections ahead of us  and I believe I'm equipped and prepared for that challenge.

'I believe I have a lot to offer in terms of vision, in terms of integrity, in terms of energy.'

Rob Stokes (pictured right with ministerial colleague Natalie Ward) has refused to bow out of the leadership race for his good mate Dominic Perrottet

He decided to throw his hat in the ring after being urged by his colleagues.

'I committed to my party room and my colleagues that I would give them a choice and I will follow that through,' he said.

But the 47-year-old remained coy on his chances of winning the leadership when the Liberal party room meets on Tuesday to vote for their new leader.

'That is up to my colleagues,' he said.

'I feel very confident that I have every chance of being successful but, after all, the main game here is to give a choice to the people of the party room.'

Mr Stokes vowed to not change the state government's roadmap out of lockdown and hopes to promote more women to the cabinet if he gets the top job.

'I certainly believe whoever is elected premier of NSW needs to ensure women's voices are heard at a more senior level,' he said.

'If I'm elected as premier I'm committed to significantly increasing representation of women in the senior ranks of the NSW ministry.

'I'm looking to ensure that the executive better represents the community they serve.'

The father-of-six, who could be hours away from becoming the next NSW Premier, flashed a grin for the photographers outside his office on Monday

Both leadership candidates are fitness fanatics, fathers and men of faith.

But while Mr Stokes was elected to parliament in 2007 during the Labor government's tenure, Mr Perrottet - elected in 2011 - has not spent any time in opposition.

Mr Perrottet has bounced around three electorates in as many terms - Castle Hill, Hawkesbury and Epping.

Both have served as ministers in several portfolios since 2014. Mr Stokes was minister for environment and education, while Mr Perrottet took on the finance and industrial relations portfolios before becoming treasurer.

Mr Perrottet played up his credentials working alongside Ms Berejiklian as deputy leader, and argued for stability.

'As Gladys demonstrated so well, leading a successful Liberal and National government requires unity across our party's 'broad church',' he wrote in an opinion piece published in The Daily Telegraph on Monday.

'We can only do that if we remain united, and maintain stability and continuity for the people of our state.'

Dominic Perrottet (centre) will go head to head with good mate Rob Stokes (right) for the NSW premiership

Former prime minister and Liberal party elder John Howard has backed Mr Perrottet, saying he is driven and reform-focused.

Meanwhile, there still been no sign of Ms Berejiklian following her shock resignation on Friday.

Ms Berejiklian quit on Friday after the state's corruption watchdog disclosed she was under investigation for potential breaches of public trust given her secret five-year relationship with former MP Daryl Maguire.

She will formally step down as leader when the party elects her replacement, and will quit parliament altogether when a by-election for her seat can be arranged.

It comes as the NSW Nationals prepare for their own leadership contest.

Mr Barilaro on Monday announced he too would leave state parliament, saying it was time for a 'refresh' as much of the state prepares to emerge from nearly four months of Covid-19 lockdown.

Dominic Perrottet spent the public holiday Monday hard at work shoring up the numbers for the top job to be decided on Tuesday

Nationals MPs Melinda Pavey, Paul Toole and Adam Marshall are believed to be the main contenders to lead the junior coalition party and become the new deputy premier.

Opposition leader Chris Minns on Monday blasted Mr Constance and Mr Barilaro for resigning during the pandemic.

'That you've got a new job opportunity or you'd like to move into a new political arena is not a good enough reason to abandon your electorate and start a new career, particularly during a pandemic,' he said.

By-elections cost upwards of $1.5 million each, he said, and urged them to reconsider their decisions to quit.
An Indian tech firm is offering its new hires the prospect of a three-day week with a salary at 80% of a full week and claims that shorter hours are the 'future of employment'.

Fintech company Slice began making the startling proposition to prospective employees in an attempt to entice in-demand technology graduates, believing that fewer hours and greater flexibility and pay is more valuable than other perks such as extra holiday allocations.

Slice Founder Rajan Bajaj, 28, is adamant that his company's philosophy is geared towards a more flexible future.

'This is the future of work. People don't want to be tied down to a job,' Bajaj told Bloomberg.

Slice is one of many rising Indian tech companies that have profited from foreign venture capitalist firms flooding the arena with investment.

Headquartered in Bangalore, the company secured $20 million in its latest financing round earlier this year which has enabled it to grow to a considerable size of 450 employees

As a result of the rapid growth in India's tech industry, companies are now locked in fierce competition to secure the country's top talent, with a wealth of jobs on offer to tech graduates and professionals.

Earlier this year, Slice, headquartered in Bangalore, secured $20 million in its latest financing round which has enabled it to grow to a considerable size of 450 employees.

But Bajaj has claimed the company aims to recruit 1,000 engineers and product managers in the next three years, meaning it will need to make offers of employment more attractive to beat out competing firms.

'[Slice's offering] is the best of both worlds,' Bajaj said. 'Workers can get salary and full benefits working a three-day week, and spend the rest of their time chasing a startup dream, looking for a co-founder or pursuing a non-work passion.'

'This is the future of work. People don't want to be tied down to a job,' Bajaj said in a recent interview with Bloomberg

Slice aims to revitalise India's flawed credit system which makes it difficult for many of its inhabitants to get a card and forces a huge proportion of the population to rely on cash and debit cards

India has a fledging credit industry. While hundreds of millions of Indians have a bank account, there are only around 50 million credit cards in use according to Statista, while a Research and Markets report last year found that only 3 in 100 Indians have a credit card.

India's flawed credit system makes it difficult for many of its inhabitants to get a card - in order to get a card you need a good credit score, but it's difficult to get and build a credit score without a card.

Slice aims to offer credit cards with extremely low credit limits and little to no sign-up or annual fees as a way to encourage millennials to take the plunge and build a credit score over time, a tactic which it hopes will spark widespread adoption over the coming years and ensure Slice becomes one of the major players in India's credit card market.

Indians who sign up to receive a Slice credit card get access to an app which enables them to manage their expenses and repayment schedule in a similar to fashion to many of the services offered by credit providers and challenger banks in Britain.

The startup firm says it will offer considerable cashback and rewards incentives to outperform larger companies, and also offers a zero-fee card which charges no annual fees provided repayments are made on time.
Two white news anchors in Arkansas have been suspended and their boss has been fired after they donned afro wigs in an on-air segment to celebrate the end of a heatwave as temperatures drppped into the 70s.

KATV news station, based in Little Rock, suspended anchor Chris May and meteorologist Barry Brandt for wearing the wigs during the 10pm newscast on September 16, according to the Washington Post.

Their segment, dubbed 'return to the 70s' - where on-air personalities sported looks popular in the 1970s - was intended as a way to celebrate a return to 70-degree weather after 90F heat wave all summer and a triple-digit day early in September.

Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns the station, fired its longtime news director Nick Genty, and indefinitely suspended May and Brandt.

DailyMail.com has reached out to May and Brandt for comment.

KATV anchor Chris May was suspended after wearing an Afro wig on air

It was part of a segment to celebrate a return to 70-degree weather

As a result of the segment, May and meteorologist Barry Brandt were suspended

Meanwhile, Nick Genty was fired as the news director for the segment

In a statement to TV Spy, a spokesperson for the station said: 'It was determined through our investigation into the recent events at KATV that swift action was important to hold the responsible parties accountable.

'We are also implementing further training for sensitivity and workplace conduct, in line with our commitment to ensuring events like this dont happen again.

Soon after the segment aired, the Arkansas Times reports, local activist Anika Whitfield complained to KATV management, saying she was 'not amused' by the segment and that a white person wearing an afro wig is a perpetuation of 'systemic racism.'

When she did not receive a response to her formal complaint Whitfield reached out to John Seabers, a Sinclair Broadcast Group vice president and group manager that oversees local stations in Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma, who got back to her quickly.

'We apologize to all viewers who were rightfully offended by the segment, and we promise to enact and enforce new measures to prevent future incidents from occurring,' he said in a statement.

Seabers also met with members of the Central Arkansas Association of Black Journalists in the aftermath to once again apologize for the incident. He was joined by regional news director Blaise Labbe, a black man who is temporarily taking over at KATV for Genty while the company searches for a replacement.

They did not offer any excuses for the incident and criticized what had happened, according to the Times.

Seabers called the wig segment 'abhorrent' and 'juvenile' in his discussion with the association, while Labbe said it was 'stupid,' and added that he was especially angry because the KATV staff completed two racial sensitivity training sessions in the six weeks preceding the wig segment.

'How in the hell could this happen?' he asked rhetorically.

Officials for the Little Rock, Arkansas station said they condemned the segment and will hold further sensitivity trainings to ensure another incident does not happen again

Both May and Brandt had worked at the station for more than 20 years.

May launched his journalism career at KATV in 1993 as a general assignment reporter, before being promoted to an anchor, and Brandt had been with the station since 1997 - serving as an on-air meteorologist for more than 20 years, according to the station's website.

Genty, meanwhile, had worked 21 years at KTHV as an executive director before joining KATV as a news director in February 2011.

In its statement the Sinclair Broadcasting Group said it would be 'performing more rigorous upfront due diligence on any other recent additions to our portfolio of stations to better understand the history and culture of each to ensure we can take any necessary corrective actions sooner'.

The controversial segment came weeks after KATV executives responded to an employee's report of a Mammy doll - a racist caricature of a black woman - hanging in a cubicle shared by photographers and reporters

'We wholeheartedly condemn any actions that dont represent our values of diversity and inclusion and remain committed to ensuring that our newsrooms serve as a welcoming and safe place for all backgrounds and ideas.'

The controversial segment came weeks after KATV executives responded to an employee's report of a Mammy doll - a racist caricature of a black woman - hanging in a cubicle shared by photographers and reporters.

The company investigated the doll in June, but did not figure out who put the doll there or why, although Seabers acknowledged to the Post that the doll was 'racist and offensive.'

Because of the situation, he said, managers in July made a formal presentation to all KATV employees, training them in inclusion and hidden bias.

Dorothy Tucker, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, tweeted that she had asked Seabers and Labbe about the doll in their meeting, and noted that the station employs more than 40 people, only eight of whom are black.

That accounts for less than 20 percent of the staff in a city with a population that's 42 percent black.

In response, Seabers told the Post he would like KATV to hire more black journalists and noted that Sinclair recruits at 18 historically black colleges and universities to make that happen.

But, he said, some black college students may not view journalism as a viable career choice if they do not see people like them on TV.

'We're trying to encourage minorities to realize ... that journalism is a career field for them,' he told the Washington Post.
Afghanistan's ambassador to the US Adela Raz said she has lost trust in the US government and President Joe Biden himself, claiming on Monday the Democrat doesn't care about the fate of Afghan women and girls who were left behind to live under Taliban rule.

It was her first TV interview since her country fell to the insurgent group.

Speaking out of her Washington, DC office, Raz told Axios journalist Jonathan Swan that 'no, sorry,' she didn't trust the US government after its hasty withdrawal.

'I've lost some trust in US policies, and I think probably government policies, including my own leadership and government policies,' she said.

She criticized the Biden administration for withdrawing without negotiating safeguards for vulnerable Afghans - like women and girls.

But looking beyond Biden, she couldn't say for sure whether Afghans could ever trust another US president.

'Not soon, probably. I'm sorry to say that. I don't think so,' she said.

Raz was appointed to her position in July by former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

Since the Taliban took over she refused to step down or recognize their new government, effectively becoming a refugee in her own embassy.

Afghanistan's ambassador to the US spoke on camera for the first time since her country was taken over by the Taliban

.@jonathanvswan to Afghan Ambassador Adela Raz: Do you still trust the United States?



Raz: No. Sorry.



Swan: Do you think Afghans will ever trust an American president again?



Raz: Not soon probably. I'm sorry to say that. #AxiosOnHBO pic.twitter.com/8rRnUmnYW1  Axios (@axios) October 3, 2021

She's had no communication with the Taliban save for ignoring an invitation to a Zoom teleconference.

Her interview was a blow to the Biden administration's foreign policy image, which it's been struggling to rehabilitate since the heavily-criticized Kabul evacuation.

Raz described feeling betrayed by the White House - a notion she claimed was shared by Afghans who were left behind.

'Do you still think of America as the leader of the free world?' she was asked.

'If you talk about democracy, I will probably question it and laugh at it,' Raz replied. 'Because you were engaged in building one in Afghanistan, and the people believed in it. They fought for it.'

'But when the negotiation survived with Taliban, that was not a priority to renegotiate it.'

The American withdrawal from Afghanistan was first announced by former President Donald Trump, who negotiated with the Taliban to pull all troops by May.

She said Afghan officials were 'so excited' by President Biden's election at first but quickly realized he would stick to the Trump administration's withdrawal plans

While Biden extended the deadline to the end of August, Raz is just the latest current or former national security official to say she was disappointed Biden kept the withdrawal on the table at all.

'When he first came to office we were all super excited that he won't withdraw, or he will change the deal,' she said.

But Raz said even then, she cautioned those around her to moderate their expectations.

'I even reached out to some of my principals, and I said we should not really buy into this la la land.'

She said she hoped he'd renegotiate the terms of the withdrawal - which he did not.

In the weeks leading up to the final military jet departing from Kabul, the Biden administration was hammered for its initial silence on the plight of Afghan women and girls, who faced brutal treatment when the Taliban last held Afghanistan.

Many feared that hard-won gains for women in education and other civil rights would be eradicated under the insurgents' rule.

'Did you get the sense that President Biden cared about the fate of Afghan women?' Raz was asked.

'I don't think so. He said, US cannot be the police of the world to protect women in any other country,' she answered.

She also questioned Biden's commitment to human rights overseas despite the president promising to put a spotlight on the treatment of vulnerable Afghans - and claiming he didn't need military power there to do so.

'What type of tools are left right now to pressure Taliban to respect human rights?' a skeptical Raz questioned.

The ambassador, who was 16 when US forces invaded Afghanistan, choked up when she thought about the women and girls left behind - including those she encouraged to fight for change in a democratic Afghanistan.

She fears that same group is now being persecuted by the Taliban.

'One of them was a young woman that was assassinated. She was a human rights advocate,' she recalled.

When she first arrived in DC as US forces were dwindling in numbers back at home, the embattled official said she spent weeks lobbying the American government for stronger military support.

Then at the beginning of September, both the State Department and the Pentagon canceled any and all of her planned meetings with officials there.

'By meeting me formally, probably they will legitimize the position, and that probably will upset the Taliban,' she said Monday.

Afghan women's rights defenders and civil activists protest to call on the Taliban for the preservation of their achievements and education

A member of Taliban forces controls people waiting to get visas, at the Iran embassy in Kabul today

But now, as she operates a thinly-staffed embassy whose courtyard still flies the Afghanistan national flag rather than the Taliban's, Raz bristled at American leaders' claim that the Afghan military simply gave up.

'It was not that they were night fighting, it was that they didn't get a chance to fight,' Raz said.

US officials were reportedly baffled at the Taliban's lightening advance across Afghanistan after 20 years and billions of dollars spent.

Biden himself said on national television that the Afghan military ' 'gave up, sometimes without trying to fight.'

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin again shifted blame to Afghans during a Senate hearing last week, telling lawmakers, '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.'

But Raz, 35, said the Afghan military was trained for two decades to have a dependency on US forces.

For example, she claimed that the GPS technology in military Humvees given to Afghanistan by the US were primarily only operated by American troops.

'So these Humvees when they would drive it, it was like always like they were driving - blind people were driving it,' she said of the Afghan military's efforts after their US partners left.

'And I think there was not enough window to build the right type of transition.'
Family photo of Henrietta Lacks who died of cervical cancer in 1951. Lacks' 'immoral' cancer cells are now the subject of a federal lawsuit

The estate of Henrietta Lacks sued a biotechnology company on Monday, accusing it of selling the black woman's cloned cancer cells that doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took from the patient in 1951 without her knowledge or consent as part of 'a racially unjust medical system.'

A federal lawsuit filed by civil rights attorney Ben Crump on behalf of the Lacks family says Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., of Waltham, Massachusetts, knowingly mass-produced and sold tissue that was taken from Lacks by doctors at the hospital.

The so-called HeLa cells, named after the first two letters of the Virginia-born woman's first and last name, were taken from Lacks' tumor before she died of cervical cancer, and later became the first human cells to be successfully cloned and reproduced infinitely ever since.

They can live indefinitely if fed the correct nutrients, with scientists believing that the cells unique properties may be caused by the behavior of an enzyme that can cause aging.

Those cells have been used in countless scientific and medical innovations including the development of the polio vaccine and gene mapping, and led to multiple Nobel Prize-winning discoveries.

Descendants of Henrietta Lacks say a prayer with attorneys outside the federal courthouse in Baltimore on Monday, which coincided with the 70th anniversary of Lacks' death

Civil rights Attorney Ben Crump, center, holds Zayden Joseph, 6, the great-grandson of Henrietta Lacks, while announcing that Lacks' estate is filing a lawsuit against Thermo Fisher Scientific for using Lacks' cells, known as HeLa cells

'They treated her like a specimen, like a lab rat,' Lacks 'granddaughter Kimberly Lacks previously said.

Lacks' cells were harvested and developed long before the advent of consent procedures used in medicine and scientific research today, but lawyers for the family say the company has continued to commercialize the results well after the origins of the HeLa cell line became well known.

'Thermo Fisher Scientific has known that HeLa cells were stolen from Ms. Lacks and chose to use her body for profit anyway,' the lawsuit says.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., in Waltham, Massachusetts, a $35billion biotech firm, is accused of knowingly mass producing and selling Lacks' tissue

This undated microscope image made available by the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research shows just-divided HeLa cells. Until these cells came along, whenever human cells were put in a lab dish, they would die immediately or reproduce only a few times. Henrietta Lacks' cells, by contrast, grew indefinitely

Polio vaccine, cancer breakthroughs and a trip to outer space: How Henrietta Lacks' 'immortal' cells revolutionized science This undated microscope image made available by the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research shows HeLa cells Henrietta Lacks, a 31-year old Virginia-born mother-of-five, in 1951 sought treatment for an aggressive form of cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. During her hospitalization, cells from her tumor were taken without consent. These cells will come to be known as 'HeLa' cells and will inspire 110,000 research publications by scientists from around the world over the next 60 years, and lead to countless groundbreaking medical breakthroughs that led to three Noble Prizes. POLIO VACCINE In 1953, scientists discovered that HeLa cells were an effective tool for growing large amounts of the virus that causes polio disease, helping lay important groundwork for the eventual development of the polio vaccine. X-RAY IMPACT Three years later, HeLa cells were used to determine how radiation can damage cells in one of the first experiments to study the impact of X-rays on humans. CANCER RESEARCH Also in 1956, HeLa cells proved instrumental in developing a cancer research method that tests whether a cell is cancerous or not. This method is still used to this day. SPACE EXPLORATION Lacks' 'immortal' cells played a surprising role in space exploration in 1964, when they were taken aboard some of the very first capsules bound for outer space to show scientists how human cells react to radiation, and how space travel may impact astronauts in future manned missions. BLOOD DISORDERS & SALMONELLA HeLa cells were used in the mid-60s and early 70s to shed light on treatments for blood disorders, including cancers and sickle cell anemia, and to determine how salmonella causes infection in order to more effectively diagnose and treat the disease. HPV VACCINE Armed with the continuously growling HeLa cells, researchers in the late 1980s discovered the link between the Human Papilloma Virus and certain types of cervical cancer, eventually helping pave the way to one of the first anti-cancer vaccines. This work led to a Noble Prize in 2008. HIV RESEARCH In the early days of the HIV-AIDS epidemic, scientists used HeLa cells to gain insights into the virus, eventually leading to the development of drugs that limit the spread of HIV. TUBERCULOSIS HeLa cells also helped unlock the secrets of premature aging, leading to another Noble Prize, and allowed scientists to see for the first time at the molecular level how tuberculosis makes people sick. CELL IMAGING Most recent breakthroughs associated with Lacks' cells included a new imaging method developed in 2001 that allowed scientists to see how viruses enter living cells, leading to a Nobel Prize in chemistry. BIRTH DEFECTS AND CANCER In 2010, scientists used HeLa cells to describe how birth defects were caused by an anti-morning sickness drug, and then apply this information to fight certain cancers. Source: National Institutes of Health Advertisement

The lawsuit asks the court in Baltimore to order Thermo Fisher Scientific to 'disgorge the full amount of its net profits obtained by commercializing the HeLa cell line to the Estate of Henrietta Lacks.'

It also seeks an order permanently enjoining Thermo Fisher Scientific from using the HeLa cell line without the estate's permission

On its website, the company says it generates approximately $35billion in annual revenue.

HeLa cells were discovered to have unique properties. While most cell samples died shortly after being removed from the body, her cells survived and thrived in laboratories.

This exceptional quality made it possible to cultivate her cells in labs indefinitely - they became known as the first immortalized human cell line - making it possible for scientists anywhere to reproduce studies using identical cells.

The remarkable science involved - and the impact on the Lacks family, some of whom suffered from chronic illnesses without health insurance - have been documented in the 2010 bestselling book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Oprah Winfrey portrayed Lacks' daughter in an HBO movie about the story, which premiered in April 2017. The lawsuit was filed exactly 70 years after the day the patient died, on October 4, 1951.

A group of white doctors at Johns Hopkins in the 1950s preyed on black women with cervical cancer, cutting away tissue samples from their patients' cervixes without their patients knowledge or consent, the lawsuit says.

Lacks, a 31-year-old mother-of-five, was under anesthesia on an operating table at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore one day in 1951, undergoing treatment for cervical cancer.

A researcher had been collecting cervical cancer cells to see if they would grow continuously in the lab. So the surgeon treating Lacks shaved a piece of tissue from her tumor for that project. Nobody had asked Lacks if she wanted to provide cells for the research. She died later that year.

'The exploitation of Henrietta Lacks represents the unfortunately common struggle experienced by Black people throughout history,' the suit says. 'Indeed, Black suffering has fueled innumerable medical progress and profit, without just compensation or recognition. Various studies, both documented and undocumented, have thrived off the dehumanization of Black people.'

Among the lawyers for the family's estate is Ben Crump, a renowned Florida-based civil rights attorney. Crump rose to national prominence in recent years for representing the families of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd -- black people whose deaths at the hands of police and vigilantes helped revitalize a national movement toward police reform and racial justice.

Johns Hopkins Medicine says it reviewed its interactions with Lacks and her family over more than 50 years after the 2010 publication of Rebecca Skloot's book.

The hospital says it 'has never sold or profited from the discovery or distribution of HeLa cells and does not own the rights to the HeLa cell line,' but it has acknowledged an ethical responsibility.

'At several points across those decades, we found that Johns Hopkins could have - and should have - done more to inform and work with members of Henrietta Lacks family out of respect for them, their privacy and their personal interests,' Johns Hopkins Medicine says on its website.

In 2013, Lacks' relatives reached a deal with Johns Hopkins University for two family members to sit on a committee responsible for authorizing future uses of HeLa cells. But the agreement did not include compensation.

In 2018, Johns Hopkins University announced that a new building on its East Baltimore campus, which is expected to be completed next year, will be named after Lacks.

The filing of the federal lawsuit in Maryland coincided with the unveiling of a statue honoring Lacks at the University of Bristol in the UK.

Lacks son, Lawrence, was joined by her grandson, Alan Wilks and his wife, Pam; granddaughter, Jeri Lacks-Whye; and great-granddaughters Victoria Baptiste and Veronica Robinson for the unveiling on Monday.

The story of Lacks' legacy was documented in the 2010 bestselling book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (left). Oprah Winfrey portrayed Lacks' daughter in an HBO movie in 2017

Artist Helen Wilson-Roe at the unveiling of a statue of Henrietta Lacks on the 70th anniversary of her death at Royal Fort House in Bristol, England
Detectives investigating whether killer cop Wayne Couzens has committed any further offences in his past are looking as far back as 30 years into his history - and seeing if his movements match any unsolved cases.

Officers from his old Metropolitan Police force are understood to be compiling timelines of the rapist murderer's activities over the past three decades.

MailOnline has learned detailed charts will show dates Couzens, 48, was at different locations and analysis will be done as to whether they correspond with relevant unsolved cases in those areas.

It means the killer's time with the Territorial Army, Kent Police and Dungeness Nuclear Power plant will all come under renewed scrutiny.

Couzens will never be freed from prison after he was sentenced to a whole life order for kidnapping, murdering and raping Sarah Everard.

A source told MailOnline: 'The Met police are going to be drawing up timelines to try and establish if he was anywhere relevant to any cold cases.

'If he has done anything else, they will find it and bring him to justice.

'They are going to go back as far as 30 years and work out as far as they can everywhere he has been. If he has done anything, they will find out.'

Couzens time in the Territorial Army - seen here in 2002 - will be looked at closely

His time in the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, shown in 2012, will be put under the spotlight

Couzens seen here in 2006 with his wife Olena, who silently watched in on his sentencing

Currently it is known that Kent Police do not believe he is connected to any further cases in its force area.

But Couzens is known to have committed an indecent exposure, driving round naked from the waist down in his car, when he served with them in 2015.

He has also been identified as being responsible for carrying out the same offence at a McDonald's restaurant days before he targeted Miss Everard.

On March 3 he dressed in his Met Police uniform and staged a fake arrest as she walked home from her friend's house in Clapham, south London.

Couzens handcuffed her and put her in the back seat of his car before driving 80 miles to Kent where he raped and murdered her.

Days later he bought petrol and burned her body before attempting to hide her remains in woods near land he owned.

The fact he was confident enough to drive so far after snatching her has led criminologists to conclude he must have carried out similar crimes before.

And it is feared he may have targeted prostitutes or homeless people, whose disappearance may not have been picked up immediately.

The Met said after his Old Bailey sentencing on Thursday that there was nothing to suggest so far his connection to any crimes as serious as Miss Everard's killing.

Quizzed by police, Couzens (pictured in handcuffs) lied that he had been 'leant on' by an Eastern European gang who threatened to harm his family if he did not agree to pick up a woman

Couzens will die in jail after being sentenced to a rare whole life order for his evil crimes

CCTV of Wayne Couzens making a purchase at the checkout in a branch of B&Q in Dover, Kent.

Today it would not be drawn on how it would be looking into Couzens's past.

A spokeswoman provided the same statement, urging any potential victims to come forward.

She said: 'As you would expect we continue to make enquiries to establish whether he has been involved in other criminal offences.

'As these investigations are ongoing we are unable to go into further detail although, at this time, we have not identified anything that is of the same level of seriousness as the crimes he has been sentenced for.

'We are keen to hear from anyone who may have information about any criminality they believe Couzens was involved in.'

Born in Dover, Kent, in 1972, Couzens was the eldest of two boys, whose father ran a body shop and garage.

The brothers joined their father's business after leaving school, with a former receptionist at the garage describing Couzens as kind, thoughtful and charming

She said earlier in the year: 'There was no sign he could be like that. Wayne was lovely to work with. He was a really nice chap. He was thoughtful and friendly and got on with his work.

'I was the only lady who worked there because it was a garage, but he was always polite and respectful towards me. When he was arrested for the poor girl's murder I was completely shocked.

Her husband agreed and said Couzens actions in killing Sarah were a 'mystery'.

After his time in his father's garage, he became a police officer, though he first served as a volunteer Special Sergeant between 2005 and 2009.

He was an army reservist for two years before, in 2011, finally being accepted by the Civil Nuclear Constabulary an armed police force tasked with guarding the country's atomic power network.

Couzens went through firearms training before being posted to the Sellafield reprocessing site in Cumbria, where he spent eight months.

He then transferred to the Dungeness Nuclear Power station close to home in Kent and, after seven years of service without any issues, he transferred to the Met.

But after seven years of unblemished service with the force he applied for a transfer to the Metropolitan Police.

There he served in the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Group due to his qualifications as a trained firearms officer.
Dog the Bounty Hunter says he's turned over evidence found at a makeshift Florida campsite to the FBI as he continues his hunt for Brian Laundrie.

The reality television star joined the manhunt for the boyfriend of the late Gabby Petito on September 25th - weeks after she was reported missing and Laundrie returned from their cross-country roadtrip by himself on September 1.

Two days after Brian was reported missing on September 17, Petito's remains were discovered in Teton County, Wyoming.

Ever since, Brian has been named as a 'person of interest' in the case.

The nationwide manhunt has seen Dog the Bounty Hunter, whose real name is Duane Chapman, become a popular figure in the search after he set up his own private tip line, which he says has had more than '2,000 calls with 20 percent leads.'

On Monday morning, Chapman told Fox & Friends that his team has handed materials he discovered at Fort Soto Park over to the FBI in the hope that DNA testing confirms Laundrie's presence.

'Friday, we found a makeshift, a very primitive camp that had some promising things around it so we've gathered up all those things with gloves and baggies and turned them over yesterday to the FBI,' Chapman said.

'We've got tips from here to Tennessee and beyond,' he said regarding the search for Brian Laundrie. 'So we are going over those tips today.'

According to Fox News, Dog the Bounty Hunter has turned over all the evidence he collected at Fort Soto Park to authorities in hopes they can test it to prove that Brian Laundrie's DNA was on the times

Brian Laundrie, 23, who was reported missing last week, remains a person of interest in the disappearance and death of fiancee Gabby Petito

After repeatedly saying that he 'doesn't' coordinate with cops', Chapman contracted a private search-and-rescue K-9 team to get his search underway on an island called Egmont Key, which is off the coast of St Petersburg, Florida.

The search has been centered around Florida's Fort De Soto Park in Pinellas County, where the Laundrie's went camping with Brian between September 6-8 and were seen leaving without him.

Chapman is now interested to work with law enforcement and has confirmed that an off-duty officer has joined his team the past few days.

'The team is now assessing evidence and evaluating next steps,' the statement states.

He also confirmed that former Navy SEALS and Marines are helping his search.

The latest update come as Chapman has increased the reward for any information leading to Laundrie's arrest.

His team also discovered a used campsite and a discarded can of Monster soda last Wednesday.

Dog the Bounty Hunter told Fox News that he turned over evidence from makeshift campsite to the FBI and local authorities

Police and coast guard boats are spotted trawling the waters around Fort de Soto Park in Florida, near St. Petersburg, where Brian Laundrie went camping with his parents after returning home from a cross country road trip without girlfriend Gabby Petito

A map shows the Fort de Soto Park campsite's location, the Laundrie family home and the Carlton Reserve where authorities have focused their search and Laundrie's parents say he was headed

The team confirmed to Dailymail.com on Friday that $10,000 has been added to the reward money, which was set at $170,000 before the increase.

Most of the funds were donated by private individuals supporting Gabby Petito's family.

Meanwhile, the investigation was thrown a curveball by an alleged sighting of Brian in North Carolina on Saturday.

A hiker in the Appalachian Trail said 'there is no doubt in [his] mind' that he had a nighttime encounter with Brian Laundrie on Saturday morning after Lisa Chapman sent him an audio recording of Laundrie's voice and he recognized the voice as that of the man who asked him for help.

Dennis Davis said he encountered Petito's boyfriend on a deserted road close to the trail close to the Tennessee border - 700 miles away from where the 23-year-old was last seen near his home in North Port, Florida.

Davis, 53, who is an engineer from Florida, says he spoke to a man who waved down his car on Waterville Road, near the Appalachian Trail and close to the border of North Carolina and Tennessee.

Dennis Davis, pictured, says he saw Brian Laundrie on a deserted trail along the Appalachian Trail in North Carolina on Saturday

A hiker near the Appalachian Trail in North Carolina claims he had a nighttime encounter with Brian Laundrie on Saturday morning, weeks after the fugitive boyfriend of slain Gabby Petito was last seen in Florida

Gabrielle Petito, 22, from her Instagram page, is seen with boyfriend Brian Laundrie, now the sole person of interest in her murder

He says the man pulled up alongside Davis and made a bizarre request for help as he asked for directions in order to drive west to California using only back roads.

Davis, a dad-of-four, suggested he simply take Interstate 40 which runs east to west across the country from North Carolina all the way to California.

'There is no doubt in my mind I spoke to Brian Laundrie  none whatsoever,' Davis told the New York Post.

'Dog the Bounty Hunter's daughter sent me an audio file of Brian's voice and the voice was the same I heard.'

Davis was hiking the Appalachian Trail himself and noted the man he believed to be Laundrie acted nervously.

'He said 'Man, I'm lost.' I said 'What are you trying to find?' and he said 'Me and my girlfriend got in a fight but she called me, told me she loves me, and I have to get to California to see her.''

'I said 'Well, I-40 is right there and you could take it west to California' and he said, 'I'm just going to take this road into California'.

'He was worried and not making sense,' Davis added.

He did not immediately recognize him as Laundrie but is certain it was him.

Despite lighting being poor because of the night, he believes there was enough lighting from the car's headlights to make a positive identification.

Davis told Laundrie his best way to head to California would be to take Interstate 40 which runs for more than 2,500 miles from North Carolina

Petito and Laundrie had been travelling on a cross-country trip together since July 2, when they left New York. Petito was reported missing on September 11

The man he believed to be Laundrie was driving a light-colored pickup and was wearing a bandana on his head.

It wasn't until later, with Davis having looked up photos of the man on his cellphone that he realized whom he had just spoken with.

Davis claims to have made several calls to the FBI and to 911 in the hours after the encounter but frustratingly nobody has yet called him back.

'Law enforcement is probably getting millions of leads on this guy, but I am not some goofball out there doing drugs in the middle of the night, I am a highly educated professional. 'And I know that was the guy. There is no doubt about it.

'We have this lead but no one's doing anything, not even a phone call.

'Obviously, as a father with a daughter, I want to do whatever I can to help the family find closure and get this guy off the streets,' Davis said.

Chapman also recently received a tip that framed Brian's sister Cassie in Fort De Soto Park, on September 6, contradicting her revelation in which she said she had not been in contact with her brother since he returned home from his trip with Petito.

Laundrie's whereabouts are unknown since September 14, when his parents said he left the family home in North Port, Florida. The Laundries added that their son told them that he was heading to a nearby nature reserve and only had his backpack.
Television programme Spitting Image has faced a major backlash for a 'horrible' sketch which presents Jess Phillips as a superhero who uses her 'big v*g' and 'big t*ts' to fight crime - despite the Labour MP previously being the target of death and rape threats.

The four-minute clip depicts the MP for Birmingham Yardley as 'Viral', an 'annoying outspoken feminist superhero who wants to make Labour more electable'.

Comedian Rachel Parris, who says she has good friends who work on the show, described it as 'f***ing horrible'.

The revamped Spitting Image returned in 2020 and airs on streaming platform Britbox, which is a joint venture run by the BBC and ITV.

The satirical series originally ran for 18 series between 1984 and 1996.

The writers of Spitting Image have faced a backlash after depicting Jess Phillips, the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, as 'annoying, outspoken feminist superhero' who uses her 'big v*g' and 'big t*ts' to fight crime

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is presented in the clip as 'Fox Man' and fails to stop a man being robbed of his scooter at night

Writers of the sketch were mocked online. One Twitter user wrote: 'Professional comedy people are somehow getting paid to make this embarrassing shambles'

Ms Phillips' character is seen entering the clip after party leader Sir Keir Starmer - presented as 'Fox Man' - fails to stop a man being robbed of his scooter at night.

She then pulls a chainsaw, referred to by the writers as her 'big Labour v*g', and chops the man's scooter in half.

Telling the 'adult man' he 'should not be riding a scooter like a baby', her character adds: 'You wanna suck some f***ing milk from my big Labour t*ts?'

Ms Phillips, who writers of the sketch accuse of always being on Twitter, has yet to respond to the clip on social media since it was posted almost 24 hours ago.

Sir Keir has also not publicly commented on the clip.

Many took to social media to condemn the sketch, particularly as mother-of-two Ms Phillips has previously told how she was bombarded by 600 online rape threats in a single night.

Spitting Image posted the four-minute clip to its Twitter page before many took to social media to condemn the sketch

Ms Parris added: 'Many good friends work on Spitting Image so Im not keen to have a go at it but wtf is this?

'Depicting the female politician utilising her big v*g and inviting ppl to milk her big t*ts.

'This is a female politician who has incidentally been subject to rape and death threats'

Others pointed out the particularly bad timing of airing a comedy sketch which shows 'people interrupting a crime at night' and making sexualised 'joke' references so soon after Wayne Couzens was jailed for life for the murder of Sarah Everard, who he kidnapped in Clapham, and the murder of Sabina Nessa, who was killed as she walked to a meet a friend in London.

Both women were attacked at night.

TV writer Mollie Goodfellow, who shared the Spitting Image clip, tweeted: 'The optics of people interrupting a crime at night after the last week and then including overtly grim sexualised "joke" references is a bit, uhhhh'.

Writer James Greig added: 'Its so weird how it simultaneously posits her as a kind of bad-ass who gets the job done while also just being rankly misogynistic?

'Such a strange and I think revealing combination!'

Another user asked whether the sketch show was 'always f*** awful' or whether it was a recent development.

Ms Phillips (right) is depicted as an 'annoying outspoken feminist superhero' while Sir Keir (left) is portrayed as 'Fox Man'

One user took a swipe at comedian Matt Forde, a writer on the show and voice to some of the puppets, and said: 'Professional comedy people are somehow getting paid to make this embarrassing shambles.

'Matt Forde is consistently terrible at comedy and doesn't understand politics, how the f*** does he get employed as a political satirist.'

In 2018, Ms Phillips told the Cheltenham Science Festival, she is inundated with threatening and abusive messages 'every single day'.

She said: 'In one night I received 600 rape threats. It was probably more, but I stopped counting.

'To try and subvert that, I received thousands of comments from people saying "I wouldn't even rape her".

'I have suffered all of those things and I have to say I don't feel I am physically in any danger and I don't think my children are in any danger.

'However, where it does worry me, and I think we have to do something about, is when it affects our democracy.

Later in the Spitting Image clip, Sir Keir's character says: 'I learned a valuable lesson. If I'm going to save this nation from the forces of darkness I'm going to have to talk about my genitals and swear a lot more'

After being urged to show more emotion, Sir Keir's character proceeds to call Ms Phillips a 'Brummie tart'

'I personally have come to the viewpoint that I don't think people should be allowed to be completely anonymous online anymore. I don't mind if people appear anonymous online for all sorts of really reasonable reasons.'

Later in the Spitting Image clip, Sir Keir's character says: 'I learned a valuable lesson. If I'm going to save this nation from the forces of darkness I'm going to have to talk about my genitals and swear a lot more' before Ms Phillips' character returns and talks about 'Diane Abbott's t*ts'.

After being urged to show more emotion, Sir Keir's character proceeds to call Ms Phillips a 'Brummie tart'.

MailOnline has approached Britbox for comment.
An insurance salesman returned to his North Dakota home after a four-day business trip in mid-September to find a squirrel had stashed 42 gallons of walnuts in his Chevrolet pickup truck.

Bill Fischer, 56, has been waging a war against his furry neighbor in Fargo since 2013, when he says a red squirrel first chose his Chevy Avalanche as the spot to store its harvest for the winter.

Fischer says he has come to expect the find when his neighbor's black walnut tree reaches maturation every other year, but this time the creature may have outdone itself.

Every other year a red squirrel stores yellow-husked black walnuts from a neighbor's tree in North Dakota resident Bill Fischer's Chevrolet Avalanche (pictured). This year, however, Fischer says it may have set a record

Fischer was able to fill seven six gallon buckets with the walnuts he found in his truck this year

Although troublesome, Fischer (pictured) says he can't help but laugh at the situation

'The squirrel set a record,' Fischer told the Washington Post. 'Most I've ever pulled out was four or five six-gallon buckets. This year was seven.'

In photos he posted to Facebook, the yellow-husked nuts can be seen filling nearly every conceivable crevice on the pickup, from the engine bay to the fenders and bumper.

He even had to remove the bumper and fender panels on the front end of the truck to to get to them all.

All told, he collected around 150 pounds of nuts this year, which he offered to give away for free on Facebook.

He says he believes the squirrel will enter the truck's innards through the rear, move along its frame rail and place the nuts mainly under the hood and in its fender.

By now, Fischer knows its best to wait for the squirrel to harvest all the nuts from under the tree before cleaning up.

The cleanup is labor intensive, and despite his best effort, Fischer still finds nuts rolling around the vehicle

Fischer says he believes the squirrel chose his Avalanche to his its nuts due to ample storage space and easy access to its innards

He says he believes the squirrel will enter the truck's innards through the rear, move along its frame rail and place the nuts mainly under the hood and in its fender.

By now, Fischer knows its best to wait for the squirrel to harvest all the nuts from under the tree before cleaning up.

But this year he cleared out the Avalanche a little early before he went on his trip. When he returned on September 17, he found thousands of the nuts stored there, he told the Post.

Fischer has tried a number of techniques including placing a mixture of Tabasco sauce and cayenne pepper under the hood, and parking the truck further away from the tree, but nothing has seemed to work.

Fischer says he believes has been dealing with this particular squirrel (pictured) since 2013, and the occurrence happens every other year when the walnuts on his neighbor's tree reach maturation

He offers up the nuts for free on Facebook after he cleans them out of his pickup

'I've got other vehicles that sit very close to that tree, and it's always my truck,' he told the Post. 'I've even parked purposely out on the street  as far away as I can from the walnut tree  and they still go find the Avalanche and hide them in there.'

He said he believes the squirrel chose the Avalanche due to easy access to its insides, and more space under the hood.

Although the cleanup is labor intensive, Fischer said he can't help but find the humor in the situation.

Fischer believes the culprit is a single red squirrel (pictured in a file image) that has chosen the pickup as its dedicated storage space

'With all the time taking the fenders off, what can you do but still laugh? Life is too short not to laugh about it,' he told the Post.

Despite being thorough, he will still find a few as he drives the truck around.

'I thought I had them all and took it down the road, turned the corner and found one rolling down the windshield where the wipers go,' Fischer told the Grand Forks Herald.

Some, he says might never be retrievable.

'I have some rolling around the frame, rails wells as well, that I can't get at,' he said.
President Joe Biden hammered Republicans for refusing to raise the debt ceiling in Monday morning remarks from the White House.

'I think quite frankly it's hypocritical, dangerous and disgraceful,' Biden said. 'Their obstruction and irresponsibility knows absolutely no bounds, especially after we're clawing our way out of this pandemic.'

After averting a government shutdown last week, lawmakers next important deadline is October 18, which will be when the U.S. will no longer be able to pay its bills if Congress doesn't lift the debt ceiling.

The House voted Wednesday 219-212 to suspend the debt ceiling until December 2022, after next year's midterm elections.

In the Senate, however, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he won't help Democrats.

Biden said this was akin to Republicans playing 'Russian Roulette' with the U.S. economy and told reporters he couldn't guarantee the U.S. wouldn't default.

'No I can't. That's up to Mitch McConnell,' Biden answered.

President Joe Biden hammered Republicans for refusing to raise the debt ceiling in Monday morning remarks from the White House.

President Joe Biden (right) and First Lady Jill Biden (left) arrive back at the White House Monday morning after spending the weekend in Wilmington, Delaware

Biden said he would speak to reporters later, as he's slated to speak at 11:15 a.m. about the debt ceiling

The Bidens walked hand-in-hand across the South Lawn Monday morning as they arrived back from Wilmington, Delaware

'They won't raise it,' Biden complained. 'Even though defaulting on the debt would lead to [a] self-inflicted wound that takes our economy over a cliff and risks jobs and retirement savings, social security benefits, salaries for servicemembers, benefits for veterans and so much more.'

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a letter to colleagues Monday morning telling them, 'we must get a bill to the president's desk dealing with the debt limit by the end of the week. Period.'

Schumer didn't say what process he would use to pass such a bill.

McConnell reiterated that he wouldn't play ball in a Monday morning letter to Biden.

'Republicans will not build Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer a shortcut around procedural hurdles they can clear on their own so they have a more convenient path to jam us with a partisan taxing and spending spree,' McConnell said.

Biden told reporters he had read the letter right before his speech.

'I plan to talk to Mitch about it,' Biden said.

McConnell blocked several Democratic attempts of using unanimous consent to lift the debt ceiling last week.

Now, Biden feared Republicans would filibuster it - meaning 60 votes would be needed to procede.

'So let's be clear, not only are Republicans refusing to do their job, they're threatening to use their power to prevent us from doing our job,' Biden said.

He urged Republicans not to filibuster the bill, so it could pass using only the 50 Democratic votes.

Otherwise Democrats will have to push a debt ceiling bill through using the process of reconciliation - where they can bypass Republicans, but Biden warned was fraught with 'all kinds of potential danger for miscalculation.'

'It's an incredibly complicated, cumbersome process when there's a very simple process out there,' Biden said, pointing out that the Senate could merely pass the House bill.

'Everything else would come to a standstill,' Biden also warned.

But that's the point, as McConnell is holding the debt ceiling hostage to protest the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill Biden that progressive Democrats want to see passed.

'Bipartisanship is not a light switch that Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer may flip on to borrow money and flip off to spend it. Republicans' position is simple. We have no list of demands. For two and a half months, we have simply warned that since your party wishes to govern alone, it must handle the debt limit alone as well,' McConnell said in the letter.

Democrats plan to pass the $3.5 trillion bill using reconciliation - which means they can cut out Republicans entirely.

However, the Democrats aren't all on the same page about the bill.

That bill contains a number of liberal goodies including climate change provisions, universal pre-K, child care assistance, tuition-free community college, paid medical and family leave, the extension of the child tax credit and enhanced Medicare coverage.

Moderate Democrats including Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have complained that the pricetag is too high.

Biden complained about them to reporters Monday.

'I need 50 votes in the Senate, I have 48,' he said. 'I've been able to close the deal with 99 per cent of my party. Two, two people, that's still underway.'

Progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders conceded on Sunday that the $3.5 trillion price will likely have to go down.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told colleagues in a Monday morning email, 'We must get a bill to the president's desk dealing with the debt limit by the end of the week. Period'

'The $3.5 trillion should be a minimum, but I accept that there's gonna have to be give and take,' the progressive from Vermont said on ABC's This Week.

On Thursday, a planned House vote on the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill was called off, with progressives threatening to tank the bill if moderate Democrats wouldn't get on board the larger spending package.

On Friday, Biden met with Democrats on Capitol Hill.

Sanders wouldn't confirm that the number Biden floated to lawmakers during his Friday meeting on Capitol Hill was $2 trillion.

'Well, first of all, I'm not sure that that's accurate, as you know there's a lot of gossip that goes on,' Sanders said.

Schumer cited what Biden had told lawmakers in his Monday morning note.

'He encouraged them to stick together, compromise, and find the sweet spot that will allow us to complete our work,' Schumer said of the president's message. 'I agree with his sentiment whole-heartedly - we can get this done, together, if we put aside our differences and find the common ground within our party.'

'It will require sacrifice. Not every member will get everything he or she wanted. But at the end of the day, we will pass legislation that will dramatically improve the lives of the American people,' Schumer said.
A woman who became famous following an iconic leather-clad biker shoot in Country Life died after hanging herself in a secure hospital, an inquest heard.

Chloe Courtauld, 47, whose family made its fortune from textiles in the 19th century and founded London's world-renowned Courtauld Institute of Art, had suffered with depression for decades, a coroner was told.

Her mother Anthea Wodehouse told the hearing she thought Miss Courtauld was safe after being checked into Warneford Hospital following her sixth unsuccessful attempt to take her own life.

Chloe Courtauld, 47, of Chipping Norton, died on August 11, 2019, seven days after she was found hanging in a hospital room

But despite regular checks, Chloe, of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, was found by medical staff after trying to hang herself.

Desperate efforts were made to try to resuscitate her, but she died a week later in hospital.

A week-long jury inquest at Oxford Coroners Court began today (Mon) and heard from Chloe's mother who outlined her daughter's troubled past.

Chloe had achieved fame in 1998 after shattering convention staring on the iconic 'Girl in Pearls' page of the Country Life magazine dressed in leathers, astride a flame-red motorbike, showing just a glimpse of diamond necklace.

Despite the acclaim, she had struggled with her mental health for many years and was severely affected by the suicide of her brother in 2012, the coroner was told.

Mrs Wodehouse said in her statement she visited the hospital just hours before her daughter hung herself. She said she believed Chloe had lost 'all confidence in treatment' and was so exhausted that she felt little to hold onto for the future.

But she said she thought her daughter was in a safe place where nothing bad would happen to her.

Referring to the last visit, she said: 'Chloe was waiting for me at the window and we went for a gentle walk together. We hardly got outside when she wanted to return.

'The next hour we sat quietly as she lovingly and tenderly was stroking my face, telling me how much she loved me. I could not stop crying.

'I said 'that is all right, you go and lay down and I'll see you tomorrow.' She turned and gave me a look that I will never forget. It was so deep and full of love and that would be the last time I would see her alive.'

After completing the drive back to London, she received a phone call about the suicide attempt.

She added: 'I was stunned.

'I did not blame the staff. They tried to do their best for her and were presented with the most difficult case.

'She was just in a chronic state that made her life impossible to manage. If someone wants to end their life they will find a way, wherever they are.'

Miss Courtauld had arrived at the hospital on July 19, 2019, after her sixth suicide attempt.

Miss Courtauld was found hanging in a room at Warneford Hospital in Oxford on August 4 and died seven days later

She had endured two years of severe mental health illness with doctors struggling to diagnose and treat her condition.

Her mother added: 'She told me she did not want to die but could not manage feeling so frightening unwell.'

Her anxiety impacted her ability to sleep, stay still and think. During a previous visit to a private hospital the only way she could manage her condition was to have the shopping channel on the tv 24 hours a day.

She also couldn't handle noise and was on and off various medication.

Pathologist Ian Roberts told the inquest Miss Courtauld was found hanging on August 4 but her death was confirmed on August 11. The eventual cause of death was bronchopneumonia as a result of a hypoxic brain injury, caused by a hanging.

He said she could not say for sure how long it had been since she was found but said it was likely to be between five to ten minutes.

Because of the location of her death, police sealed off the room.

The officer in charge of the investigation said there was no evidence of third party involvement or anything suspicious.

Police also confirmed Chloe had been seen at 2.40pm by a trainee nurse and was laying on her bed but had responded with a 'wave'.

She was later found hanging on the door by a healthcare assistant at 3.30pm who raised the alarm.

'There was no interaction with anyone between those times,' police confirmed.

The inquest resumes tomorrow (Tuesday).

For confidential support, call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch, see www.samaritans.org for details.
Fiona Hill, who had served as former President Donald Trump's Russia expert, confirmed press secretary Stephanie Grisham's account that Russian President Vladimir Puttin had subbed in an attractive female translator to distract the American leader.

'We know that this was the case because there had been somebody else on the list, a man, intended to translate for that particular session,' Hill said Monday on Good Morning America. 'And at the very last minute the Russian swapped out for the other interpreter.'

Hill added that it was 'clearly intended to draw attention.'

'Because President Putin made a big point of basically introducing President Trump to the interpreter, which is something that he normally wouldn't do,' Hill said.

She also suggested Putin made the move because a number of women were attending the meeting as part of the American delegation including Ivanka Trump, Grisham and Hill.

Russia expert Fiona Hill confirmed Stephanie Grisham's account that the Kremlin subbed in an attractive, female translator to distract President Donald Trump during his 2019 meeting in Osaka with Russian President Vladimir Putin

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's book - I'll Take Your Questions Now, What I Saw at Trump White House - hits bookshelves 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.

I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I saw at the Trump White House by Stephanie Grisham comes out on October 5

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.

At that meeting, Grisham writes in her new book that Trump told Putin he would act tough in front of the cameras and then play nice privately.

'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.

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.

Here's the link to the above-mentioned excerpt: https://t.co/sy3gyn7WAk  Vivian Salama (@vmsalama) October 4, 2021

Grisham conversed with 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.

On Good Morning America, Hill noted that the woman 'was an excellent translator' besides having 'good looks.'

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'

Stephanie Grisham's (left) ex-boyfriend Max Miller (right) was dubbed the 'music man' and would play showtunes like Memories from Cats to calm Trump down, Grisham wrote in her forthcoming book

Max Miller, Trump's 'music man,' is now running for a House seat in Ohio and was endorsed by Trump at the ex-president's first 2021 rally outside of Cleveland in June

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.'

And at the 2018 State of the Union, Melania Trump broke protocol and took her own motorcade to the Capitol Building - largely seen as a dig at her husband.

At the time, Grisham told DailyMail.com and CNN that Mrs. Trump was 'honoring her guests for the true heroes they are,' referring to those seated in the first lady's box at the presidential speech. 'In addition to holding a White House reception and photo opportunity for them and their friends and family, she is accompanying them to the Capitol,' Grisham said.

In the book, Grisham said Melania Trump's moves were by design, as the first lady walked arm-in-arm with a handsome military aide hand-selected by Grisham because the floors of the Capitol were 'slippery.'

'I laughed to myself because I'd seen the woman navigate dirt roads in her heels,' Grisham wrote.

As coverage of Trump's romp with Daniels wore on, Grisham said

'This is Donalds problem. He got himself into this mess. He can fix it by himself,' Melania Trump said, according to Grisham.

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 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.'

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

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

White House aides called Ivanka Trump 'the princess,' writes former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham in her new book. She terms Ivanka's husband Jared Kushner (c) the 'Slim Reaper'

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.
A police sergeant raped a woman 14 years his junior and got her pregnant after attacking her on a sofa following a night out drinking, a court heard today.

Ben Lister, a serving officer with West Yorkshire Police, whose address cannot be disclosed, denies charges of rape and sexual assault by penetration of the complainant on August 29, 2016.

Prosecutor Richard Woolfall said the 35-year-old and the alleged victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, went out for drinks with two mutual friends over the August bank holiday in 2016 when all four got very drunk.

After returning to a property the two other friends went upstairs to bed and Lister and the complainant slept downstairs in the living room on separate sofas.

Mr Woolfall told the jury: 'This defendant went on to take advantage of that young lady, who was very drunk.

'He dragged her off the sofa and had types of sex with her.'

Ben Lister (pictured today), a serving officer with West Yorkshire Police, whose address cannot be disclosed, denies charges of rape and sexual assault by penetration of the complainant on August 29, 2016

Mr Woolfall said the sex was not consensual because of her state of intoxication, adding: 'She was drifting in and out of consciousness.'

Whilst she was 'out of it' Lister raped her, the court heard.

When she later woke she found herself in a state of undress.

She messaged Lister asking whether they'd had sexual intercourse. He denied they had and said only a sex act had taken place.

However, Mr Woolfall told the jury: 'On that one occasion they had sex, she got pregnant, and for a short time she was in denial about how her baby had been conceived and, no doubt, that her baby was a product of rape - bear in mind she was only 21.

'She didn't want her child to be known as a rape baby.'

She lied to close friends that her baby was fathered by an ex-boyfriend, the jury heard.

'She simply couldn't face up to to that she had been raped and made pregnant,' said Mr Woolfall.

The prosecutor added there is 'strong DNA evidence' the defendant is the father.

Lister claimed she was not too drunk to consent.

Prosecutor Richard Woolfall said the 35-year-old (pictured today) and the alleged victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, went out for drinks with two mutual friends over the August bank holiday in 2016 when all four got very drunk

Before the trial started at Bradford Crown Court, Recorder of Bradford Judge Richard Mansell QC told the jury of ten women and two men that they should not let the recent case of Met Police officer Wayne Couzens, who was jailed for raping and killing Sarah Everard, affect their judgement.

He said: 'The defendant was at the time a serving police officer. I'm sure you all know that there has been a very high profile case recently heard in London regarding Wayne Couzens who abused his position as a police officer by falsely arresting, raping and murdering Sarah Everard.

'Please don't let the publicity surrounding that case affect your judgment.

'The defendant did not abuse his position as a police officer. He was not on duty at the time.

'This has nothing to do with the fact that he was a police officer at the time. You must not let the case of Sarah Everard and Wayne Couzens effect your judgement at all.'

Lister denies rape and sexual assault.

The trial continues.
But Daniela said her cat sat waiting patiently for him to return for over an hour

The unidentified cleaner entertained Scooter with his wiper before moving on

A curious cut has struck up an unlikely friendship with the window cleaner at his skyscraper's condo.

Daniela Morales, 30, has been living with feline Scooter in her 22nd floor apartment in Toronto, Canada for the last nine months.

But apart from walks out in the park on a leash, the 11-month-old has little chance to explore anything outside his home.

Marketing specialist Daniela however captured the moment her pet became intrigued by an unknown window cleaner as he passed down the side of the building.

Adorable footage shows Scooter watching him cleaning from a distance at first, before curiosity takes over and he walks right up to the window.

The window cleaner then proceeded to interact with him, smiling and attempting to make him follow his brush and wiper across the glass.

Despite only spending around five minutes playing with each other, Scooter was left enthralled and waited for the man to return after he continued down the building.

Daniela said: 'Ive had Scooter for nine months now. He is always very sociable and makes friends easily.

Daniela Morales, 30, recorded her curious cat Scooter as he inspected a window cleaner through the glass of their 22nd floor condo in Toronto, Canada.

'I often take him to a park on leash and everyone he meets loves him.

'Unfortunately, I do not know the window cleaner, and he has not yet returned.

'Scooter sat at the window for around an hour waiting for the cleaner to return after he had left.'

Daniela shared the footage on TikTok, and it has since received over one million views and thousands of comments.

One person wrote: 'I'd be fired on the first day, because I'd sit there all day.'

Adorable footage shows Scooter watching him cleaning from a distance at first, before curiosity takes over and he walks right up to the window

Daniela said: 'Ive had Scooter for nine months now. He is always very sociable and makes friends easily'

Another added: 'I'm a window cleaner just like this guy and honestly, seeing cats in the window trying to chase the tools makes my day.'

A third said: 'All I need is a compilation of window cleaners and cats and I'll die happy.'

A similarly happy friendship between a cat and a window cleaner was struck up in Pimlico, central London.

Since 2015, Rina Takei and her cat Guinness have regularly racked up views for his monthly interactions with their window cleaner.

Footage shows Guinness completely intrigued by what the man is doing, as he chases after him and rather adorably attempts to paw the soapy sponge through the glass.

The window cleaner can be seen laughing while waving at the feline and then tapping the glass in a circular motion with his wiper.
Fewer than 500 children have died of COVID-19 since figures were first recorded in May 2020, the CDC said, a figure exponentially outnumbered by children killed in drownings, gun-violence incidents, and other fatal injuries.

A total of 498 children had been killed by COVID up to the week ending September 23, which are the most recent CDC figures available. Most children in the US die as a result of various accidents, including car crashes, drowning, and from being shot, the CDC says.

A total of 3,343 children 19 and under lost their lives in traffic accidents in 2019, while there is an estimate of almost 4,000 children dying of fatal accidental drownings every year.

Poisoning accidents kill 730 children every year in the country. Seventy-nine children 19 and under died due to bike-related accidents.

The agency reports that more than 12,000 children die every year due to injuries including drownings, falls, burns, and road traffic injuries. That equates to around 33 children a day.

Childhood COVID deaths, pictured in red, have totaled 498 since May 2020. The other causes of childhood death in this chart are figures for a single year

Although the CDC has given approval to the Pfizer vaccine for children 12 and up, many parents are still holding off from vaccinating their kids

Perhaps one of the causes of deaths in children that has spiked the most over the last decade is gun violence. According to the Defense Fund's 2021 report, an average of 3,285 children and teenagers are killed every year by guns.

Although not factored in to the COVID death statistics, suicides among children have also increased since the pandemic hit US shores.

In 2019, 534 children committed suicide, a number that increased alarmingly during lockdown. According to a May 2020 report from the CDC, emergency rooms across the country experienced a rise of almost 50 percent in suspected suicide attempts in teenage girls aged 12 to 17, amid fears isolation was destroying youngsters' mental health.

According to health officials, the relatively low COVID-19 mortality rate in children can be explained by the fact that young and healthy people tend to experience less threatening symptoms than adults with underlying conditions.

Other measures like good ventilation, mask use, and social distancing in schools have been proved to further curb the spread of COVID-19, subsequently decreasing potential deaths.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom was recently accused of implementing a 'paternalistic,' and overreaching school vaccine mandate

In California, 35 children have died of COVID-19 since the pandemic started in 2020. California Gov. Gavin Newsom talks with 7th grade students at James Denman Middle School on October 1

The figures came amid pushes for vaccine mandates in schools, with California ordering all schoolchildren aged 12 and up to take the shot if they wish to attend in-person classes.

It has become the first state to do so.

Although the CDC has given approval to the Pfizer vaccine for children 12 and up, many parents are still holding off from vaccinating their kids.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom was recently accused of implementing a 'paternalistic,' and overreaching school vaccine mandate, as just 35 children are said to have died of COVID-19 in his state since the pandemic started.

Newsom announced on Friday that all school children in the state were going to be required to get the vaccine if they intended to attend classes in person, with no testing alternative. California is the first state to do so.

'We don't want to see even a single child die, but when you look at the numbers of deaths of children that have occurred as a result of other causes, you have many causes such as motor vehicle accidents, accidental injuries from bicycle accidents, drownings, poisonings, suicides, drug overdoses, homicides by gunshots- all exceeding this by an order of magnitude or greater,' Dr Houman Hemmati told FOX.

Parents had an array of reactions to Newsom's order. While some supported the measure and believed it would help avoid constant closings and switching to remote learning, others contended that it would leave parents who did not want to vaccinate their kids with no autonomy.

Newsom announced on Friday that all school children in the state were going to be required to get the vaccine if they intended to attend classes in person, with no testing alternative

Some parents contended that it would leave parents who did not want to vaccinate their kids with no autonomy

According to the California Department of Public Health, 55percent of teenagers ages 12 to 17 are fully vaccinated in the state.

Most parents support mask mandates in schools but don't believe children should be required to get COVID-19 shots.

COVID shots have been linked to rare but potentially serious cases of heart inflammation, with teenage boys and young men particularly at risk.

A survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), found that six in 10 parents agree that unvaccinated students and teachers should wear face coverings in the classroom.

However, roughly the same share of mothers and fathers say they don't think school administrators should mandate vaccines.

Sixty-three percent of parents of children believe unvaccinated students and staff should be required to wear a mask while 36 percent oppose. But 58 percent of mothers and fathers of 12-to-17-year-olds don't want schools to require children to get vaccinated while 42percent support it.

Vaccine and masks mandates issued by the state and federal governments have sparked a national debate on whether doing so constitutes governmental overreach and meddling, but with different undertones.

A new poll finds 63percent of parents of children believe unvaccinated students and staff should be required to wear mask while 36percent oppose. But 58percent of mothers and fathers of 12-to-17-year-olds don't want schools to require children to get vaccinated while 42percent support it

Florida is one of several states where Republican governors have sought to prevent local governments and school districts from mandating masks. People demonstrate with placards at an emergency meeting of the Brevard County, Florida School Board in Viera

Democratic states like California have pushed to increase vaccination rates and mask use, while Republican states have notoriously dismissed CDC advice and opposed mask and vaccine mandates.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has led a relentless fight against judges to keep his ban on school mask mandates. He has repeatedly appealed court rulings and withheld money from school districts that continue to enforce masks.

DeSantis's legal battle with the state's school districts has triggered confrontations between pro-mask school workers and parents as well as students who are opposed to masks.

As of September 15, the ban was still in order.

And as policies to control the spread of COVID become more aggressive, so do arguments for a federal vaccine mandate.

The airline industry, the US military, high-profile hospitals, and US universities have also been criticized for issuing vaccine requirements.

Companies such as Google, Netflix, and Facebook have also issued companywide vaccine mandates, have joined the trend after the Pfizer vaccine was given full approval on August 23.

Fifty six percent of the US population has been vaccinated, with 185million people being fully vaccinated

More than 700,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the US since the pandemic started
Gabby Petito's father encouraged people to speak out about domestic violence in a tribute to his late daughter on Monday.

Joseph Petito posted a photo of Gabby walking on the boardwalk holding two young boys' hands, with the caption: 'We have to do better. Changes are coming. Now is the time. Don't be silent.'

It was hashtagged #domesticviolence and #domesticviolenceawareness.

The post comes just a few days after he tweeted that people have reached out to him to share that they have been inspired by her his daughter's tragic death to make preparations before leaving their abusive relationships.

'She is already saving lives,' he posted on Saturday. 'So many stories being sent to us about relationships being left with proper planning for safety, and people are being found due to her influence. We have much more work to do, but it's a start.'

In an Instagram post on Monday, Joseph Petito encouraged people to speak out about domestic violence

He had previously tweeted that people have reached out to him to share that they have been inspired by her his daughter's tragic death to prep before leaving their abusive relationships

Gabby Petito's father (pictured) says that his daughter's death has inspired multiple people to leave abusive relationships as the search for her fiance and suspected killer continue

Gabby Petito, 22, took off for a cross-country trip with her fiancee, Brian Laundrie, 23, in a Ford Transit van over the summer and shared their experiences on Instagram

Although Laundrie is only described as a person of interest in Petito's death, a 'Wanted Murderer' sign hangs on the same street as his parents' home in North Port, Florida

Gabby Petito, 22, took off for a cross-country trip with her fiancee Brian Laundrie, 23 in a Ford Transit van over the summer, sharing their experiences on Instagram with the hashtag #VanLife. The posts abruptly stopped in late August, and on September 1, Laundrie returned to his North Port, Florida home in the van without Petito.

Her parents reported her missing 10 days later, and on September 19, her remains were found at a campsite where she stayed with Laundrie in late August.

Her death was later ruled a homicide.

Laundrie's parents, meanwhile, reported him missing on September 17, saying the last time they saw him was on September 14, when he said he was going for a walk at the nearby Carlton Reserve, a 25,000-acre nature reserve.

He is now described as a 'person of interest' in the case and is charged with using a debit card fraudulently for allegedly using a bank card that is not his without permission and retrieving more than $1,000.

As the search went on, disturbing bodycam footage emerged showing police being called to an incident involving the young couple in Moab, Utah, on August 12 - 13 days before Petito was last heard from.

In the video, an emotional Petito is seen with tears streaming down her face telling officers the couple 'have been fighting all morning' and admitting that she slapped him while Laundrie is seen with scratches on his face and arm.

When an officer asks Petito if her boyfriend hit her, she replies 'I guess' and makes a grabbing motion on her chin. Laundrie admits he 'pushed her' during the altercation but the cops determine Petito was 'the primary aggressor.'

He claimed she was 'really worked up' and he was 'just trying to push her away.'

Police initially pulled the couple after a man called 911 to report a domestic abuse incident involving the two.

Newly-released bodycam footage has revealed Gabby Petito told cops Brian Laundrie had hit her and cut her face by grabbing her 'with his nail' during the August 12 domestic incident

The never-before-seen footage from a second officer's body camera shows the cop pointing out 'new' marks on Petito's face and arm and her admitting that he cut her face with his nail

In the aftermath, multiple people tweeted to Joseph that Gabby's death gave them the courage to leave their abusive relationships.

'I'm not sure if you'll ever read this, but after your daughter's case became public I found the courage to leave my narcissistic and abusive relationship. She truly is saving lives continuously sending my love and prayers to you all. I'm sorry nobody was there to save her,' one person tweeted.

'I found the strength I needed after 10 long years...realizing this could have been me. GOD NEEDED GABBY IN HEAVEN MORE THAN WE DID ON EARTH,' another person shared.

Someone else tweeted: 'Gabby inspired me to 'take that trip' with my kids that I was so nervous about last week. We had a blast! Her legacy will last forever. x'

'I'm writing to you from faraway part of Middle East, Iran. I just a left a very damaging relationship recently because of Gabby. Sending your family lots of love and I'm sure Gabby's watching over those who need help. She's a true angel,' another person tweeted.

Since the video was released, many people have been reaching out to Joseph Petito to tell him that Gabby's experience inspired them to get out of abusive relationships

New details have also emerged in recent days about Petito's last days, including that her family called the police in North Port, Florida, to file a missing persons report one day before she was officially reported missing and officers showed up at Brian Laundrie's home.

Police records, obtained by WFLA, reveal Petito's family contacted the North Port Police Department and attempted to report her missing on September 10.

But the family were told that, due to state law and the police department's policy, they must file the report in the place of her last known location.

Partially-redacted call logs seen by DailyMail.com show two 911 calls were made that day to North Port police in connection to the Laundrie family home where Laundrie, 23, and Petito, 22, lived with his parents before their doomed cross-country trip.

Both calls were classed as 'public service' calls, with the first made just before 4pm and the second around 6.30pm.

It is not clear if these were the same calls made by Petito's family, but both were given the brief description of 'problem settled'.

The following day - September 11 - Petito's family succeeded in reporting her missing in her native state New York, kicking off the huge search for the 22-year-old.

It was also revealed that Laundrie's sister saw her brother twice between the time he returned to Florida without Petito and when he went missing around two weeks later - despite her previous public statements to the contrary.

A lawyer representing the Laundrie family confirmed on Friday that Cassie Laundrie saw her brother on September 1 when he came by her house - the same day he arrived back from the couple's cross-country van trip alone.

Cassie saw him again on September 6 during a family camping trip to Fort De Soto Park, where authorities are now focusing their manhunt for her fugitive brother.

Cassie is to date the only member of the Laundrie family - including Laundrie himself - who has spoken publicly about Petito's disappearance and death.

She claimed in an interview with ABC's Good Morning America on September 17 - two days before Petito's body was found in Wyoming - that she had not spoken to her brother since September 1 and that she 'wish[ed] I had more information' to give investigators.

'I haven't been able to talk to him. I wish I could talk to him,' Cassie said at the time. 'I've cooperated in every way that I can. I wish I had information or I would give more.'

The FBI is examining surveillance footage from the Fort De Soto Park campsite. A map shows the campsite's location to the Laundrie family home and the Carlton Reserve where authorities have focused their search and Laundrie's parents say he was headed

North Port police continued their search of the expansive Carlton Reserve in Sarasota, Florida on Monday

Laundrie's parents said he went missing on September 14, when he said he was going for a walk at the nature preserve near their house

The law enforcement officials used a drone to conduct a search of the area

Meanwhile, the nationwide manhunt for Laundrie continued on Monday, as authorities resumed their search of the nature preserve his parents claim he visited, and reality television star Dog the Bounty Hunter searches the Fort de Soto campsite on an island called Egmont Key, off the coast of St. Petersburg, Florida.

They had previously discovered a used campsite and a discarded can of Monster energy drink on the island, and on Sunday night, his team confirmed that it has handed over evidence to authorities they hope will prove Laundrie was there.

The FBI is also getting involved in the search at the campsite, as the nationwide manhunt extends into another week, with many people reporting potential sightings of Brian Laundrie throughout the country.

'The public has to be patient, and that can be hard to do in the time where we have feeling where we think we can be more helpful,' Michelle Jenis, an assistant professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's Department of Criminal Justice who specializes in missing persons told CNN.

'We're all just looking for red flags,' she said, 'and they could be meaningless.'

Timeline of Gabby Petito case July 1: 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

Police in Moab, Utah respond to a domestic incident involving the couple Aug. 17: Laundrie allegedly flies back to Florida to 'clear out a storage unit'

Laundrie allegedly flies back to Florida to 'clear out a storage unit' 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. 23: Laundrie flies back to Utah to 'rejoin Gabby' on their trip

Laundrie flies back to Utah to 'rejoin Gabby' on their trip 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; Witnesses say they saw a 'commotion' with the couple at Merry Piglets Tex-mex restaurant in Jackson, Wyoming - if accurate, this appears to be the last known sighting of Petito

Video of Petito's van was taken by blogger Jenn Bethune, of Red White & Bethune, around 6.30 pm at the Spread Creek Campground; Witnesses say they saw a 'commotion' with the couple at Merry Piglets Tex-mex restaurant in Jackson, Wyoming - if accurate, this appears to be the last known sighting of Petito 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; Schmidt says she is not entertaining this claim and believes it possibly factual

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; Schmidt says she is not entertaining this claim and believes it possibly factual Aug. 30: Schmidt receives the last text from Petito: 'No service in Yosemite'

Schmidt receives the last text from Petito: 'No service in Yosemite' Sept. 1: Laundrie returns to his parents' home in North Port, Florida in a van without Petito

Laundrie returns to his parents' home in North Port, Florida in a van without Petito Sept. 6-7: Laundrie and his parents visit Fort De Soto campsite in Florida

Laundrie and his parents visit Fort De Soto campsite in Florida Sept. 11: Schmidt reports Petito missing to authorities in New York; Petito and Laundrie's van was impounded by police in Florida that same day

Schmidt reports Petito missing to authorities in New York; Petito and Laundrie's van was impounded by police in Florida that same day Sept. 12: Grand Teton National Park rangers search for Petito

Grand Teton National Park rangers search for Petito Sept. 13: Laundrie's lawyer says on October 5 that his parents now 'believe' this was the day they last saw him heading for a hike

Laundrie's lawyer says on October 5 that his parents now 'believe' this was the day they last saw him heading for a hike Sept. 14: Laundrie issues a statement about Petito's disappearance through his lawyer; Laundrie's parents claim on September 17 that Laundrie left his parents' home for a hike and they hadn't seen from him since

Laundrie issues a statement about Petito's disappearance through his lawyer; Laundrie's parents claim on September 17 that Laundrie left his parents' home for a hike and they hadn't seen from him since 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. 17: Laundrie family attorney confirms his whereabouts are unknown

Laundrie family attorney confirms his whereabouts are unknown 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 announce a body was found near Grand Teton National Park that matched Petitos description in the afternoon

Bethune realizes she has video of Petito's van around 12am and submits the FBI with the footage 10 minutes later; Officials announce a body was found near Grand Teton National Park that matched Petitos description in the afternoon 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 invesetigation

Coroner confirms remains found in Grand Tetons belong to Petito. Her death is ruled a homicide but her cause of death is still under invesetigation 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 Laudrie 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 Laudrie 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 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

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 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

It emerges Laundrie's sister had contact with him after she said she did Oct. 2 : A hiker along the Appalachian Trail claims to have seen Laundrie near the border of Tennessee and North Carolina

: A hiker along the Appalachian Trail claims to have seen Laundrie near the border of Tennessee and North Carolina Oct. 3 : Investigators searched the area on the Appalachian trail for any signs that Laundrie had been there

: Investigators searched the area on the Appalachian trail for any signs that Laundrie had been there Oct. 4 : Laundrie's sister told protestors outside her home that her family has been ignoring her after they rebuked her story and that she does not know where her brother is

: Laundrie's sister told protestors outside her home that her family has been ignoring her after they rebuked her story and that she does not know where her brother is Oct 5 : Laundrie's sister appeared on Good Morning America to say she would turn her brother in if she knew where he is; The Laundrie attorney says his parents now 'believe' he went on the run one day earlier than they first claimed (September 13 not 14) meaning he had a four-day headstart before they reported him missing to authorities; The attorney also says Laundrie flew from Utah to Florida on Aug. 17 without Petito to clear out a storage unit then returned on Aug. 23; A hiker reports a sighting of a person he believed to be Laundrie along the Appalachian Trail near the Tennessee border

: Laundrie's sister appeared on Good Morning America to say she would turn her brother in if she knew where he is; The Laundrie attorney says his parents now 'believe' he went on the run one day earlier than they first claimed (September 13 not 14) meaning he had a four-day headstart before they reported him missing to authorities; The attorney also says Laundrie flew from Utah to Florida on Aug. 17 without Petito to clear out a storage unit then returned on Aug. 23; A hiker reports a sighting of a person he believed to be Laundrie along the Appalachian Trail near the Tennessee border Oct 6 : Petito's parents and step-parents appear together on Dr. Phil to discuss their daughter's death. Her family paints a vivid picture of the scene where her body was found and encourages Laundrie to turn himself in

: Petito's parents and step-parents appear together on Dr. Phil to discuss their daughter's death. Her family paints a vivid picture of the scene where her body was found and encourages Laundrie to turn himself in Oct. 7: Laundrie's father Christopher joins FBI agents on the search for his son at the Carlton Reserve; Investigators find a 'fresh campsite' in the nature reserve Advertisement




Embattled Met chief Dame Cressida Dick today announced an independent inquiry into her force - but again resisted calls to resign despite a wave of opposition from MPs and campaigners.

The review will look at culture and standards at the Met, which has faced a wave of criticism over missed opportunities to expose killer cop Wayne Couzens as a sexual predator before he went on to rape and murder Sarah Everard.

The 48-year-old used his police issue handcuffs and warrant card to stage a fake arrest on the marketing executive, 33, before taking her away in his car.

In the wake of his life sentence for murder, it was revealed more than half of Met officers found guilty of sexual misconduct over a four-year period to 2020 kept their jobs, a total of 43 officers out of 83 or 52 per cent.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct is also investigating 'offensive and abusive' sexist messages shared by a group that involved Couzens.

The Met, which is now dogged by allegations of sexual misconduct among officers, has since faced claims that there is systematic misogyny within the force.

Just yesterday Conservative Young Women condemned the 'deplorable' police response to violence against women.

They called for an investigation into 'the apparent culture of misogyny in the police'.

Today Ms Dick announced the independent review, which will look at the wider culture of the Met.

The move echoes the decision to launch an independent review in the wake of the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence.

The 2014 review, described at the time of publication as 'devastating' for the Met, concluded that institutional racism had impacted on the force's investigation into Mr Lawrence's murder.

Ms Dick, who has been charge of the Met during a number of high profile force scandals, said she hoped the force could regain public confidence in the wake of Ms Everard's death.

But, responding to calls for her to step down following the tragedy, she said today: 'People will be entitled to their opinion, I've got a job to do, I'm getting on with it. My job now is to lead the Met through a difficult time and rebuild that public trust.'

The review - announced today by Cressida Dick (pictured) will look at culture and standards at Britain's biggest force

The Met has been criticised for missing a string of opportunities to expose killer cop Wayne Couzens as a sexual predator before he used his police issue handcuffs and warrant card to stage the fake arrest of Sarah Everard before raping and murdering her

After the killing it emerged that the Couzens was known as 'the rapist' by staff at the Civil Nuclear Constabulary because he made female colleagues feel so uncomfortable.

He had been accused of indecent exposure in Kent in 2015 and in London in the days before Miss Everard's murder, but was allowed to continue working.

Dame Cressida said: 'These events have been absolutely dreadful. I speak for my colleagues when I say we are furious.

Jean Charles de Menezes, Operation Midland, 'institutional corruption' over Daniel Morgan probe: Chequered history of first female chief Cressida Dick's reign as Metropolitan Police commissioner has been overshadowed by controversy over bungled operations and investigations: 1983: She joins the Met as a constable after a brief foray into accountancy. 1993: Becomes a tutor on the accelerated promotion course at Bramshill Police College before transferring to Thames Valley Police as a superintendent. 2000: Completes strategic command course. 2001: Joins Met as a commander and heads Operation Trident investigating gun crime in London's black communities. July 22, 2005: She is the gold commander of an armed terror operation in wake of London bombings which mistakenly shot dead Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes in Stockwell Tube station. Met guilty of errors including an 'utterly chaotic' control room. She is exonerated. 2008: Sir Ian Blair, her mentor, sacked by London mayor Boris Johnson after a string of cock-ups. 2010: Receives the Queen's Police Medal. 2015: Awarded a CBE for services to policing. A damehood follows four years later. April 2017: Appointed as first female Metropolitan Police commissioner with a brief to modernise the force and keep it out of the headlines. July 2017: Close ally Helen Ball is appointed as an assistant commissioner. October 2018: Sir Stephen House, a former boss, appointed deputy commissioner and another chain in the Teflon shield being built around her. April 2019: Extinction Rebellion protesters bring London to a standstill over several days with the Met powerless to prevent the chaos. Dame Cressida says the numbers involved were far greater than expected and used new tactics but she admits police should have responded quicker. September 2019: Her role in setting up of shambolic probe into alleged VIP child sex abuse and murder is revealed but she declines to answer questions. 2020: Official report into Operation Midland said Met was more interested in covering up mistakes than learning from them. February 2021: Lady Brittan condemns the culture of 'cover up and flick away' in the Met and the lack of a moral compass among senior officers. The same month a freedom of information request reveals an extraordinary spin campaign to ensure Dame Cressida was not 'pulled into' the scandal over the Carl Beech debacle. March: Criticised for Met handling of a vigil for Sarah Everard, where officers arrested four attendees. In the first six months of the year, London was on course for its worst year for teenage deaths  30  with knives being responsible for 19 out of the 22 killed so far. The youngest was 14-year-old Fares Matou, cut down with a Samurai sword. Dame Cressida had told LBC radio in May her top priority was tackling violent crime. June: A 20million report into the Daniel Morgan murder brands the Met 'institutionally corrupt' and accuses her of trying to block the inquiry. Dame Cressida rejects its findings. July: Police watchdog reveals three Met officers being probed over alleged racism and dishonesty. The same month the Yard boss is at the centre of another storm after it emerged she was secretly referred to the police watchdog over comments she made about the stop and search of Team GB sprinter Bianca Williams. Dame Cressida is accused of pre-empting the outcome of an independent investigation. Also in July she finds herself under fire over her woeful security operation at the Euro 2020 final at Wembley where fans without tickets stormed the stadium and others used stolen steward vests and ID lanyards to gain access. August: Dame Cressida facing a potential misconduct probe over her open support for Deputy Assistant Commissioner Matt Horne who could stand trial over alleged data breaches. September: Fresh questions about how Met failed to hold Couzens to account for his sexual depravity before he went on to murder Miss Everard. Advertisement

'We depend on the trust of the public, we police by consent and I know that public trust has been damaged.

'People are rightly gravely concerned about what they've seen and, as a consequence, today I'm announcing that we will have an independent person come in and review the Met in terms of its standards, and in terms of its culture, how we treat each other, and how we treat the public.

'Our leadership, our processes, our systems, our people, our training, everything will be looked at.

'This will be a fully transparent report, it will respond to me, but will, of course, make recommendations for changes, I'm sure, and those will be public.'

She plans to announce who will undertake the review, expected to take at least six months, in about a week's time.

Yesterday, a retired Metropolitan Police detective accused Dame Cressida of ignoring her warnings about a 'vulgar and sexist' WhatsApp group similar to that used by Couzens.

Paige Kimberley claimed she wrote to Dame Cressida shortly after the murder of Miss Everard urging a review of 'how inappropriate behaviour is addressed amongst contract workers'.

An internal investigation in 2019 took no action against the male officers, saying the messages were 'distasteful' but did not amount to criminality or misconduct.

Earlier today, Boris Johnson told broadcasters in Manchester that there is now 'a massive job' to do to restore women's confidence in the police.

The Prime Minister said: 'What we can certainly conclude from the Wayne Couzens case and what happened there is that there is a massive job of work to do to give women the confidence that they need.

'I want to be clear: I believe people should be confident in the police. I believe police officers, men and women up and down the country, will be absolutely sickened by what has happened, and they will be doing everything they can, and I know they do everything they can to help and reassure the public. So, it is vital that the public trust the police.

'But what we need to do is do some things to make the streets safer and we are investing massively in CCTV and street lighting and those sorts of things, but also make sure we change the culture of policing.'

He also called for crimes to be dealt with more quickly and for a boost in the recruitment of female police officers.

Home Affairs Select Committee chairwoman Yvette Cooper accused the Government of 'burying its head in the sand' over violence against women and girls as she called for an independent investigation into the vetting process used by the Metropolitan Police when recruiting officers.

The Prime Minister has already said that investigations by the Met and police watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) should be allowed to proceed and rejected calls for an immediate public inquiry.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Ms Cooper said: 'Sarah Everard was murdered by someone she should have been able to trust, who abused his power as a police officer.

'We do need a proper, independent inquiry into how that could happen, how such a dangerous man could serve as a police officer for so long, why earlier problems weren't investigated, how he could be cleared to use firearms, but also more widely into the scale of failings in vetting and safeguarding, in culture and in attitudes to violence against women and girls within policing.

'I'm really worried that the Government is just burying their heads in the sand. The Prime Minister has to stop the denial of this about quite how serious it is and actually set out an independent inquiry into this case.'

In a statement following Couzens' sentencing, the Met said: 'Vetting is a snapshot in time and, unfortunately, can never 100% guarantee an individual's integrity.

'Vetting is one of a number of activities that we undertake to preserve the integrity of our organisation and it is only as good as the day on which it is carried out.'

It added that officers are re-vetted periodically, there is a confidential number and a directorate of professional standards to report officers' wrongdoings, and internal and external inspections take place to scrutinise the force's processes.

Dame Cressida has been at the centre of a series of scandals before and after being appointed as the Met's first female commissioner in 2017.

In July 2005 she was in overall charge of the operation which saw electrician Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, shot dead on a Tube train in south London.

Mr de Menezes, a Brazilian working in the capital, was blasted in the head seven times by police at Stockwell station after being followed by officers from his home nearby.

In 2014 Dame Cressida sanctioned the creation of Operation Midland  the Met's investigation into spurious VIP child sex abuse allegations.

Couzens, who was handed a rare whole life term by a judge last week

Innocent men, including the late Lord Brittan and former Tory MP Harvey Proctor, were pursued by the force.

The Met's star witness 'Nick' was later revealed to be serial liar Carl Beech.

In 2017 Dame Cressida was criticised for her choice of words after she said the victims of the London Bridge terror attack demonstrated London's 'diversity'.

The officer added: 'We believe, of course, that that's what makes our city so great. It's a place where the vast majority of time it's incredibly integrated and that diversity gives us strength.'

Critics said the remarks were ill-considered.

In 2019 the Met under Dame Cressida's leadership was widely criticised for its 'light-touch' policing of Extinction Rebellion protests.

The environmental demonstrators were allowed to blockade key areas of the capital for days, including Westminster Bridge and Oxford Circus.

In total a dozen officers from across the constabularies are under investigation by the IOPC over offences related to the Couzens case.

The launch of the independent enquiry could inflict further damage to the Met's reputation.

It has echoes of the 2014 independent review into the murder of Stephen Lawrence, a black British teenager who was killed in a racially motivated killing in south London in 1993.

Though in this case, the killers were not police officers, the Met faced criticism of their handling of the case, which took almost a decade to bring anyone to justice.

A 2014 review found the investigation 'seriously flawed' and that institutional racism had affected the investigation,
The federal government is seeking to extradite a defense contractor to the US over allegations that he scammed the Navy out of roughly $50million by overcharging port fees.

US authorities are seeking to have Frank Rafaraci, 68, chief executive of Multinational Logistics Services, or MLS, brought to the US from Malta, where he was arrested last week, and charged with overcharging for various services and bribing Navy officials for insider information, according to an arrest warrant viewed by the Washington Post.

Among the instances of alleged overcharging include one in January 2015 in which MLS billed the Navy roughly $231,000 for 'port authority fees' to allow the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to dock at Manama, the capital of Bahrain, despite its port authority only charging $12,686 for the vessel, according to the affidavit.

Among the alleged instances of bribery, in August of that year Rafaraci met with an unnamed Navy official, and handed him a envelope of $20,000 in cash and told him to 'keep up the good work,' according to his arrest warrant, the Post reported.

Navy defense contractor Frank Rafaraci is accused scamming the branch out of $50million. Among the schemes involved one in which he charged $231,000 for or 'port authority fees' to allow the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (pictured) to dock at Manama, the capital of Bahrain, in 2015

He would meet with the officer again three years later to allegedly hand over a $13,500 bribe at a hotel in Miami. The bribes were allegedly for insider information on future Navy contracts, according to the Times of Malta.

The officer, who served as a Navy liaison to Bahrain before working for the Army, would plead guilty to bribery in June, and has been working with investigators, according to court documents viewed by the Post. His identity and case file has been concealed, the outlet reported.

In addition to bribery, Rafaraci is accused of money laundering to avoid US taxes by moving cash from corporate accounts in Malta and the UK to a shell company in the United Arab Emirates. He had nicknamed the scheme 'Keep Going,' according to the Post.

MLS has been awarded roughly $1.3billion in contracts with the Navy and other federal agencies since 2010 to service ships at ports in the Middle East, Asia and other foreign companies.

The Navy relies on contractors such as MLS to provide supplies such as food, water, fuel and facilitate various port services to American military ships while in foreign ports.

US Naval vessels docked at Manama. Its port authority had only charged charging $12,686 to allow the USS Carl Vinson to dock

Rafaraci, who holds dual Italian-American citizenship and primarily lives in Dubai, has been under investigation for several years, according to the Washington Post, but the UAE does not have an extradition treaty with the US.

Federal officials had learned that he planned to visit MLS' headquarters in Malta, and tracked him there, but a Maltese judge ruled that American and Maltese authorities had not followed proper procedure when they arrested him last Sunday, and he was freed after charging.

The attorney general refiled a petition to have Rafaraci extradited on Friday, and the judge overseeing the case has now recused himself, the Times of Malta reported.

MLS and Rafaraci will be able to fulfill its current contracts with the Navy, but is barred from doing future business with the branch, a Navy spokesperson told the Post. It is currently the largest provider of port services to the Navy in the world, the Post reported.

He is mentioned once on MLS' website in its Code of Ethics section, in which he writes to employees that, 'Our continued success and ability to achieve our financial goals - as a company and as individuals - depend on conducting our business responsibly, while adhering to the highest standards of ethical business conduct.'

Rafaraci's case has been compared to that of Leonard Glenn Francis, or 'Fat Leonard,' (right) a Malaysian contractor accused of bribing Navy officials to allow his contracting firm to overcharge for services. He is pictured with Admiral Mike Mullen

Rafaraci's case has been compared to a previous Navy bribery scandal involving a Malaysian contractor named Leonard Glenn Francis, or 'Fat Leonard,' which has been ongoing since 2013, and in which he bribed Naval officials with money, fancy gifts, prostitutes and other favors to allow him to overcharge for various services.

Francis, 57, pleaded guilty in 2015, and is currently on a medical furlough in a San Diego rented apartment in California under tight security and surveillance by US authorities, after having served five years imprisonment.

The scandal ensnared hundreds of Naval officials, and 27 have so far pleaded guilty for corruption charges, the Post reported.

After, the Navy had vowed to clean up its operation, and MLS was brought on to cover contracts previously awarded to Francis' Singapore-based Glenn Defense Marine Asia.
Celebrity hairdresser Daniel Galvin Jnr underwent two rounds of cheekbone surgery after being elbowed by his stepson in a furious bust-up at home, a court heard.

The high-society stylist, who counts Johnny Depp, Kylie Minogue and Amanda Holden among his A-list roster, was struck by the son of his estranged model wife, Suzanna Twigg.

Mr Galvin, 51, underwent two operations to fix a depressed fracture to his cheekbone following the fracas at his Georgian farmhouse, in Pensham, Worcs.

Raphael Yadgaroff, 31, appeared before South Worcestershire magistrates today charged with assaulting his stepfather.

The martial arts trainer denies causing actual bodily harm - claiming he acted in proportionate self-defence.

Opening a trial - which was later aborted following technical difficulties - John Dove, prosecuting, said Yadgaroff used 'force that was both unreasonable and excessive'.

Mr Galvin alleged he was elbowed, punched and kicked, before being 'suffocated' between Yadgaroff's legs in the family's garage, Mr Dove said.

Raphael Yadgaroff (pictured with his mother Suzanna Twigg (left) outside Worcester Magistrates court today), 31, appeared before South Worcestershire magistrates today charged with assaulting his stepfather

Mr Galvin, 51, underwent two operations to fix a depressed fracture to his cheekbone following the fracas at his Georgian farmhouse, in Pensham, Worcs, the court heard

Mr Galvin (pictured with his estranged wife) alleged he was elbowed, punched and kicked, before being 'suffocated' between Yadgaroff's legs in the family's garage, Mr Dove said

He claimed he was then elbowed in an upstairs bedroom and put in a chokehold by his stepson, who teaches the self defence technique Krav-Maga.

Yadgaroff told police he acted to protect himself when 'drunk' Mr Galvin 'approached him in a boxer's stance with his right-fist loaded'.

South Worcestershire Magistrates' Court heard that the confrontation, on June 18 last year, spread from Mr Galvin's garage to the upstairs of their home.

His son, Rhett, 21 - Yadgaroff's half-brother - dialled 999, saying: 'I need police here now, my dad's attacked my brother.'

Officers arrived at the estimated 1.5million country pile, which has four acres of land, to find Mr Galvin being restrained by Yadgaroff.

The hairdresser was initially arrested but no further action was taken. In a police interview, Yadgaroff said he used a 'pre-emptive strike' with his elbow and knee to defend himself from Mr Galvin, who counts Prince Charles among friends.

Reading out a summary of the case, Mr Dove said: 'Mr Yadgaroff said he had some tasks to do in the garage as part of his work for Mr Galvin.

'He walked past Daniel on his way and noticed that he was drunk, which he said was not unusual.

'Daniel was shouting something aggressively to him about boxes. He accepts that he told him to 'f*** off'.

'He then said Daniel followed him into the garage, approached him in a boxer's stance with his right fist loaded and punched Raphael with his left hand.

Celebrity hairdresser Daniel Galvin Jnr (pictured with his estranged wife) was allegedly assaulted by his stepson in a blazing row at the family's luxury 1.5million Georgian farmhouse, a court heard

Raphael Yadgaroff, 31, appeared before South Worcestershire magistrates today charged with assaulting his stepfather

'He said Daniel was an amateur boxer and very physically fit.

'He said he felt scared at this point and delivered an elbow and knee strike, saying it was proportionate in order to get him under control.'

Yadgaroff told police that he tried to lock Mr Galvin in the garage believing the hairdresser would 'resume the altercation'.

He said he then used two elbow strikes in 'quick succession' when Mr Galvin attempted to come into an upstairs bedroom with his 'hands up'.

Yadgaroff claimed he had told Mr Galvin 'several times' to calm down but said it had 'no effect'.

Mr Galvin underwent surgery twice, in July and August 2020, after a first procedure to reposition the cheekbone was unsuccessful.

The 31-year-old Raphael Yadgaroff (pictured), a former self-defence trainer, is an entrepreneur who ran Clique Asia which offers luxury holidays in the Far East with access to sex parties

Mr Dove said Mr Galvin accepted following Yadgaroff into the garage 'in order to find out why he hadn't replied to an earlier message'.

After being told to 'f*** off', he claimed his stepson delivered a 'strike with his right elbow to the left side of his face'.

Mr Galvin alleged he was punched and kicked before he was then 'suffocated' on the garage floor.

Prosecutors allege the level of force used by Yadgaroff was 'both unreasonable and excessive'.

Mr Dove said: 'The defendant only suffered minor injuries to his knee during the course of the incident.

'The level of force he admits using - the elbow strike and the knee strike - was far too excessive.

'The medical evidence shows that he went far beyond what would have been described as reasonable in defending himself.'

Mr Galvin Jnr is the owner of award-winning haircare ranges Dubble Trubble and Organic Head.

He is the fourth generation of his family to run hair salons in London. His father Daniel Galvin Snr famously gave Diana Princess of Wales blonde streaks and styled Lady Thatcher's hair.

It was revealed in August that Mr Galvin had split from Suzanna, 62. The couple, who wed in 2000, are in the advanced stages of divorce proceedings which began in September 2020.

Daniel Jnr is the fourth generation of his family to run hair salons in London. His father hairdresser Daniel Galvin Snr (pictured) famously gave Diana Princess of Wales blonde streaks

Suzanna, who was set to give evidence in support of her son, was seen stood with him outside court.

Mr Galvin sat alone in another part of the building waiting to give evidence. A new trial was listed to take place on December 6.

Releasing Yadgaroff, of Bristol, on conditional bail, chairman of the bench Richard Poppleton told him: 'You've seen everybody trying their best to make the technology work for the benefit of all parties concerned.

'I apologise but it would not be fair on anyone in the court today to proceed now. '

Yadgaroff is an entrepreneur who two years ago launched a sex party company that promised 'no strings' fun in a luxury holiday setting has revealed that he sometimes joins in at the x-rated events he hold.
Facebook's shares fell by 5 percent on Monday after whistleblower Frances Haugen went public with how the company puts profits above morals, a day before her scheduled testimony in front of Congress.

Haugen went public on Sunday in episode of CBS 60 Minutes to tell how she routinely filed complaints against Facebook for putting profits above morals by failing to stop the spread of misinformation online, protect young people and or stop the January 6 riot.

She gave the information to The Washington Post anonymously before speaking out on Sunday night ahead of her scheduled testimony to Congress on Tuesday.

On Monday morning, shares of the social media giant opened at $335 - $8 less than Friday's close.

They plummeted throughout the afternoon before reaching $323 at around 1pm - the lowest since May.

As Facebook shares sank in value, a GoFundMe page that was set up for Haugen drew in thousands.

The page was set up by Whistleblower Aid - an organization set up by NSA whistleblower John Napier Tye - which claims it helped her through the process of speaking out against the company.

The page has a $50,000 goal set and has already raised $16,000 to help Haugen combat Facebook's 'army of lawyers'.

Facebook shares fell by 5 percent on Monday to the lowest in six months after a whistleblower went public on Sunday night with claims against the company

Frances Haugen has filed eight complaints with the SEC about how Facebook puts profits over morals

A GoFundMe page set up for Frances Haugen, the Facebook whistleblower, has raised $15,000

Haugen says that the social media giant knew this would cause further damage but that it ignored warning signs because it wanted to focus on profit instead.

Haugen claimed Facebook turned off 'safeguards' designed to stop the proliferation of misinformation and rabble-rousing after Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in the November 2020 presidential election.

That saw political content given a lower priority on users' news feeds in the run-up to the poll - only for executives to reverse course on realizing the change was turning users off.

Haugen, who is due to testify in Congress Tuesday about Facebook's alleged impact on its younger users, also claimed that decision directly-contributed to the violence at the US Capitol.

'As soon as the election was over they turned them back off, or they changed the settings back to what they were before to prioritize growth over safety. And that really feels like a betrayal of democracy to me,' Haugen stated.

Haugen, whose leaks formed The Wall Street Journal's 'Facebook Files' series, also said that Facebook's algorithms - mathematical formulae that help decide which information is most visible on users' feeds - favored hateful content.

She claimed that a 2018 change prioritizing divisive posts which made Facebook users argue was found to boost user engagement.

That in turn helped bosses sell more online adverts that have seen the social media giant's value creep close to $1 billion.

Haugen said: 'You are forcing us to take positions that we don't like, that we know are bad for society. We know if we don't take those positions, we won't win in the marketplace of social media,' she said.

The executive, who worked at Google and Pinterest before joining Facebook in 2019, said the scales fell from her eyes after the firm dissolved a unit on civic integrity she'd been working in after the 2020 election.

She explained: 'I dont trust that theyre willing to actually invest what needs to be invested to keep Facebook from being dangerous.'

'The version of Facebook that exists today is tearing our societies apart and causing ethnic violence around the world,' Haugen added.

'There were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook. And Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money.'

After realizing she could no longer trust her company to protect the public, Haugen secretly copied tens of thousands of Facebook internal research which she claims is evidence that 'the company is lying to the public about making significant progress against hate, violence and misinformation.'

'We have evidence from a variety of sources that hate speech, divisive political speech and misinformation on Facebook and the family of apps are affecting societies around the world,' the complaint reads.

Haugen claimed that Facebook's 'evidence of harm' extended to its Instagram app, commenting on a study that showed teen girls said the social network site worsened thoughts of suicide and eating disorders.

'What's super tragic is Facebook's own research says, as these young women begin to consume this  this eating disorder content, they get more and more depressed. And it actually makes them use the app more,' Haugen explained.

'And so, they end up in this feedback cycle where they hate their bodies more and more. Facebook's own research says it is not just the Instagram is dangerous for teenagers, that it harms teenagers, it's that it is distinctly worse than other forms of social media.'

'No one at Facebook is malevolent,' Haugen said. Mark Zuckerberg 'has never set out to make a hateful platform,' she added.

However, she says that they have decided the balance sheet is more important than ethics.

Haugen said the social network proved it could make a positive change when it altered content policies for several weeks surrounding the 2020 election, by deprioritizing political content in its Newsfeed algorithm.

But she claims that the company swiftly reverted to its old models when it realized that engagement in adverts had plummeted.

Haugen claims the relaxation of measures on Facebook allowed rioters to plot the insurrection on the platform

'Facebook has realized that if they change the algorithm to be safer, people will spend less time on the site, they'll click on less ads, and [Facebook] will make less money,' Haugen said.

Haugen's lawyers filed at least eight complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission outlining her findings and comparing them with the company's public statements.

The SEC did not confirm to 60 Minutes if they plan to take action against Facebook. DailyMail.com has also reached out to the organization for comment.

Facebook, however, did released a statement in response to the allegations: 'Every day our teams have to balance protecting the right of billions of people to express themselves openly with the need to keep our platform a safe and positive place.

FACEBOOK'S EMAIL TO STAFF IN FULL: OUR POSITION ON POLARIZATION AND ELECTIONS You will have seen the series of articles about us published in the Wall Street Journal in recent days, and the public interest it has provoked. This Sunday night, the ex-employee who leaked internal company material to the Journal will appear in a segment on 60 Minutes on CBS. We understand the piece is likely to assert that we contribute to polarization in the United States, and suggest that the extraordinary steps we took for the 2020 elections were relaxed too soon and contributed to the horrific events of January 6th in the Capitol. I know some of you  especially those of you in the US  are going to get questions from friends and family about these things so I wanted to take a moment as we head into the weekend to provide what I hope is some useful context on our work in these crucial areas. Facebook and Polarization People are understandably anxious about the divisions in society and looking for answers and ways to fix the problems. Social media has had a big impact on society in recent years, and Facebook is often a place where much of this debate plays out. So it's natural for people to ask whether it is part of the problem. But the idea that Facebook is the chief cause of polarization isn't supported by the facts  as Chris and Pratiti set out in their note on the issue earlier this year. The rise of polarization has been the subject of swathes of serious academic research in recent years. In truth, there isn't a great deal of consensus. But what evidence there is simply does not support the idea that Facebook, or social media more generally, is the primary cause of polarization. The increase in political polarization in the US pre-dates social media by several decades. If it were true that Facebook is the chief cause of polarization, we would expect to see it going up wherever Facebook is popular. It isn't. In fact, polarization has gone down in a number of countries with high social media use at the same time that it has risen in the US. Specifically, we expect the reporting to suggest that a change to Facebook's News Feed ranking algorithm was responsible for elevating polarizing content on the platform. In January 2018, we made ranking changes to promote Meaningful Social Interactions (MSI)  so that you would see more content from friends, family and groups you are part of in your News Feed. This change was heavily driven by internal and external research that showed that meaningful engagement with friends and family on our platform was better for people's wellbeing, and we further refined and improved it over time as we do with all ranking metrics. Of course, everyone has a rogue uncle or an old school classmate who holds strong or extreme views we disagree with  that's life  and the change meant you are more likely to come across their posts too. Even so, we've developed industry-leading tools to remove hateful content and reduce the distribution of problematic content. As a result, the prevalence of hate speech on our platform is now down to about 0.05%. But the simple fact remains that changes to algorithmic ranking systems on one social media platform cannot explain wider societal polarization. Indeed, polarizing content and misinformation are also present on platforms that have no algorithmic ranking whatsoever, including private messaging apps like iMessage and WhatsApp. Elections and Democracy There's perhaps no other topic that we've been more vocal about as a company than on our work to dramatically change the way we approach elections. Starting in 2017, we began building new defenses, bringing in new expertise, and strengthening our policies to prevent interference. Today, we have more than 40,000 people across the company working on safety and security. Since 2017, we have disrupted and removed more than 150 covert influence operations, including ahead of major democratic elections. In 2020 alone, we removed more than 5 billion fake accounts  identifying almost all of them before anyone flagged them to us. And, from March to Election Day, we removed more than 265,000 pieces of Facebook and Instagram content in the US for violating our voter interference policies. Given the extraordinary circumstances of holding a contentious election in a pandemic, we implemented so called 'break glass' measures  and spoke publicly about them  before and after Election Day to respond to specific and unusual signals we were seeing on our platform and to keep potentially violating content from spreading before our content reviewers could assess it against our policies. These measures were not without trade-offs  they're blunt instruments designed to deal with specific crisis scenarios. It's like shutting down an entire town's roads and highways in response to a temporary threat that may be lurking somewhere in a particular neighborhood. In implementing them, we know we impacted significant amounts of content that did not violate our rules to prioritize people's safety during a period of extreme uncertainty. For example, we limited the distribution of live videos that our systems predicted may relate to the election. That was an extreme step that helped prevent potentially violating content from going viral, but it also impacted a lot of entirely normal and reasonable content, including some that had nothing to do with the election. We wouldn't take this kind of crude, catch-all measure in normal circumstances, but these weren't normal circumstances. We only rolled back these emergency measures  based on careful data-driven analysis  when we saw a return to more normal conditions. We left some of them on for a longer period of time through February this year and others, like not recommending civic, political or new Groups, we have decided to retain permanently. Fighting Hate Groups and other Dangerous Organizations I want to be absolutely clear: we work to limit, not expand hate speech, and we have clear policies prohibiting content that incites violence. We do not profit from polarization, in fact, just the opposite. We do not allow dangerous organizations, including militarized social movements or violence-inducing conspiracy networks, to organize on our platforms. And we remove content that praises or supports hate groups, terrorist organizations and criminal groups. We've been more aggressive than any other internet company in combating harmful content, including content that sought to delegitimize the election. But our work to crack down on these hate groups was years in the making. We took down tens of thousands of QAnon pages, groups and accounts from our apps, removed the original #StopTheSteal Group, and removed references to Stop the Steal in the run up to the inauguration. In 2020 alone, we removed more than 30 million pieces of content violating our policies regarding terrorism and more than 19 million pieces of content violating our policies around organized hate in 2020. We designated the Proud Boys as a hate organization in 2018 and we continue to remove praise, support, and representation of them. Between August last year and January 12 this year, we identified nearly 900 militia organizations under our Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy and removed thousands of Pages, groups, events, Facebook profiles and Instagram accounts associated with these groups. This work will never be complete. There will always be new threats and new problems to address, in the US and around the world. That's why we remain vigilant and alert  and will always have to. That is also why the suggestion that is sometimes made that the violent insurrection on January 6 would not have occurred if it was not for social media is so misleading. To be clear, the responsibility for those events rests squarely with the perpetrators of the violence, and those in politics and elsewhere who actively encouraged them. Mature democracies in which social media use is widespread hold elections all the time  for instance Germany's election last week  without the disfiguring presence of violence. We actively share with Law Enforcement material that we can find on our services related to these traumatic events. But reducing the complex reasons for polarization in America  or the insurrection specifically  to a technological explanation is woefully simplistic. We will continue to face scrutiny  some of it fair and some of it unfair. We'll continue to be asked difficult questions. And many people will continue to be skeptical of our motives. That's what comes with being part of a company that has a significant impact in the world. We need to be humble enough to accept criticism when it is fair, and to make changes where they are justified. We aren't perfect and we don't have all the answers. That's why we do the sort of research that has been the subject of these stories in the first place. And we'll keep looking for ways to respond to the feedback we hear from our users, including testing ways to make sure political content doesn't take over their News Feeds. But we should also continue to hold our heads up high. You and your teams do incredible work. Our tools and products have a hugely positive impact on the world and in people's lives. And you have every reason to be proud of that work. Advertisement

'We continue to make significant improvements to tackle the spread of misinformation and harmful content. To suggest we encourage bad content and do nothing is just not true.'

Facebook head of global affairs Nick Clegg, appearing on CNN Sunday morning, also called the allegations that the social media giant is responsible for the Capitol riot 'ludicrous.'

'The responsibility for the violence on January the 6th and the insurrection on that day lies squarely with the people who inflicted the violence and those who encouraged them, including then-President Trump and candidly many other people in the media who were encouraging the assertion that the election was stolen,' he said.

Meanwhile, a congressional panel will hear Haugen's testimony on Tuesday.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who is a member of the panel, told the Washington Post that the SEC should take Haugen's allegations that Facebook may have mislead investors 'very seriously'.

'Facebook certainly misled and deceived the public, and so their investors may well have been deceived as well,' Blumenthal said.

Lawmakers will also investigate if Facebook's products are harmful to children and whether or not the social media company undermined its safety efforts by disbanding its civic integrity team, as Haugen has alleged.

The social media giant confirmed that Antigone Davis, its global head of safety, would also testify before the Senate Commerce Committee Consumer protection panel.

Haugen's allegations have caused a headache for Facebook in recent weeks.

Some of the secrets contained in the trove of tens of thousands of pages of internal company documents she copied were previously leaked to the Wall Street Journal for a series of reports dubbed the 'Facebook Files', including damning revelations the company knew its platform Instagram is toxic to young girls' body image.

With more damaging allegations headed for the company Sunday, Clegg warned employees: 'We will continue to face scrutiny.'

According to Clegg's email, the whistleblower will accuse her former employer of relaxing its emergency 'break glass' measures put in place in the lead-up to the election 'too soon.'

Haugen claimed this played a role in enabling rioters in their quest to storm the Capitol on January 6 in a riot that left five dead.

The relaxation of safeguards including limits on live video allowed prospective rioters to gather on the platform and use it to plot the insurrection.

Clegg pushed back at this suggestion, insisting that the so-called 'break glass' safeguards were only rolled back when the data showed they were able to do so.

Some such measures were kept in place until February, he wrote, and some are now permanent features.

'We only rolled back these emergency measures  based on careful data-driven analysis  when we saw a return to more normal conditions,' Clegg wrote.

'We left some of them on for a longer period of time through February this year and others, like not recommending civic, political or new Groups, we have decided to retain permanently.'

Clegg listed several safeguards which have been put in place in recent years and reeled off a list of success stories of handling misinformation around the election and shutting down groups focused on overturning the results.

'In 2020 alone, we removed more than 5 billion fake accounts  identifying almost all of them before anyone flagged them to us,' he wrote.

'And, from March to Election Day, we removed more than 265,000 pieces of Facebook and Instagram content in the US for violating our voter interference policies.'

Clegg admitted such policies were not ideal and resulted in many people and posts were impacted by this heavy-handed approach.

But, he said, an 'extreme step' was necessary because 'these weren't normal circumstances.'

'It's like shutting down an entire town's roads and highways in response to a temporary threat that may be lurking somewhere in a particular neighborhood,' he said.

'We wouldn't take this kind of crude, catch-all measure in normal circumstances, but these weren't normal circumstances.'

He wrote that the company had removed millions of pages and groups from hate groups and dangerous organizations such as the Proud Boys, QAnon conspiracy theorists and content pushing #StopTheSteal election fraud claims.

The email also pushed back at an accusation that Facebook benefits from the divisiveness created on its platform.

'We do not profit from polarization, in fact, just the opposite,' he wrote.

'We do not allow dangerous organizations, including militarized social movements or violence-inducing conspiracy networks, to organize on our platforms.'

The VP called any suggestion the blame for the Capitol riot lies with Big Tech 'so misleading' and said the blame should be on the rioters themselves and the people who incited them.

'The suggestion that is sometimes made that the violent insurrection on January 6 would not have occurred if it was not for social media is so misleading,' he wrote.

'To be clear, the responsibility for those events rests squarely with the perpetrators of the violence, and those in politics and elsewhere who actively encouraged them.'

The lengthy email to staff ended by urging the workforce to 'hold our heads up high' and 'be proud' of their work.
A Texas mortgage advisor got 45 days in prison for rioting at the US Capitol after a judge condemned prosecutors' suggestion of probation and home confinement.

Matthew Mazzocco, 37, shared a snap of himself on Facebook on January 6 with the caption 'the capital (sic) is ours,' but claimed to be full of remorse as he was sentenced Monday.

And U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan did not agree with the prosecution's recommendation as she believed a harsher sentence should be dealt.

'Probation and a slap on the wrist does not prevent anyone from trying this again', she said, according to Courthouse News.

Texas mortgage advisor Matthew Mazzocco, 37, has been sentenced to 45 days in prison after taking part in the US Capitol riots on January 6

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected the prosecution's request for a three-year probation and three-month home confinement as she claimed 'Probation and a slap on the wrist does not prevent anyone from trying this again'

Mazzocco's defense attorney claimed that their client was 'remorseful' for his actions.

'I know that I made a big mistake and I cannot undo that and I just would like to apologize to the country, to you, and to everyone that's been affected by this,' Mazzocco said, according to Buzzfeed.

Chutkan, however, said that he only showed remorse when he realized he could face serious consequences.

'There have to be consequences for participating in an attempted violent overthrow of the government, beyond sitting at home,' she said.

'The country is watching to see what the consequences are for something that has not ever happened in the history of this country before,' she said.

'That mob was trying to overthrow the government and showed their contempt for the rule of law.'

Mazzocco posted a picture of him wearing a red jacket and a snow hat on his Facebook with the caption 'The capital is ours' in front of the Capitol building

FBI linked Mazzocco to the event after they were tipped off about the Facebook post and Tik Tok footage that was taken of him on that day

She also disagreed that the actions taken by Capitol rioters were in a similar vein to the Black Lives Matter protests that took place in summer 2020.

The mortgage advisor was arrested after he was called out on social media platforms such as Tik Tok for taking part in the Capitol riots.

The FBI claimed they were tipped off by a user about Mazzocco's Capitol photos on Facebook.

'On January 9, 2021, the FBI San Antonio Twitter account (@SanAntonioFBI) was tagged in a Tweet at approximately 8:21 a.m. by user @pence_fly,' they tweeted.

'This is Matt Mazzocco from San Antonio, TX. You can see him INSIDE the Capitol towards the end of this video,' the tweet caption read.

The tweet included a video of Mazzocco wearing a snow hat and red parka which was the same outfit he wore in the selfie post.

Mazzocco was arrested after the FBI raided his home on January 17

He pleaded guilty to one charge under 'parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building' in July

Police arrested him after they raided his home on January 17.

He was charged with four misdemeanors and pleaded guilty under one charge of 'parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building' in July.

Mazzocco is one of 600 rioters who have been arrested as a result of the January 6 event and is also the 12th to be sentenced.

The Capitol riots in D.C. were sparked following the controversial 2020 presidential race between former President Donald Trump and current U.S. President Joe Biden.

Pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol building on January 6 following a speech at Trump's Save America Rally made by the former president himself.

The crowd was angered due to sharing in Trump's belief that the election was stolen, and wanted to try and stop former Vice President Mike Pence from certifying Joe Biden's win at a ceremony at the Senate.

They then stormed the U.S. Capitol with police attempting to stop the crowd as areas of the building were being evacuated.

Shocking media footage showed rioters breaking into the building which included breaking windows and scaling walls to gain entry.

Shots were fired as rioters ran free throughout the building.

Five people died as a result of the Capitol storming.
President Joe Biden on Monday defended the activists who publicly confronted Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin as he blamed the two Democratc senators for his inability to pass his $3.5 trillion budget package of social programs.

Sinema and Manchin have become public targets of liberal ire and fixtures in popular culture as they hold out against the $3.5 trillion price tag, saying it's too high to get their vote.

Both senators have been publicly confronted by activists, including a group who followed Sinema into a bathroom at Arizona State University on Friday, where she was teaching a class. Sinema was also lampooned on Saturday Night Live over the weekend. Meawhile, a flotilla of kayak-activists recently swarmed Manchin's D.C. houseboat to pressure the senator, who came out to chat with them.

Both encounters were filmed by the activists, who posted the footage to social media.

Biden said he didn't think the actions of the activists were appropriate but shrugged them off, saying it's 'part of the process.'

'I don't think they're appropriate tactics but it happens to everybody. The only people doesn't happen to people who have Secret Service standing around them. So it's part of the process,' he said.

President Joe Biden defended the activists who publicly confronted Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin

A group of immigration activists followed Sen. Kyrsten Sinema into a bathroom at Arizona State University on Friday

Sen. Joe Manchin addresses kayak protesters who swarmed his houseboat in Washington D.C.

Sinema also released a statement blasting the activists, saying it 'was not legitimate protest.' She noted the activists interrupted a class she teaches at the university.

'It is unacceptable for activist organizations to instruct their members to jeopardize themselves by engaging in unlawful activities such as gaining entry to closed university buildings, disrupting learning environments, and filming students in a restroom,' she said.

The activists wanted immigration reform included in Biden's legislative agenda and implored the Arizona senator to do something about it. Video footage shows she did not engage with them as she walked out of the bathroom stall and washed her hands.

Meanwhile, Manchin on Friday was confronted by kayakers from West Virginia, who floated up to his $700,000 yacht Almost Heaven.

He came out to speak to them, assuring them he was working to pass a reasonable bill.

'We're working hard, we really are,' Manchin said, looking down at the protesters who paddled up to speak with him. 'We want to get a good bill that's a balanced bill, that's well done. And I know it won't be enough for some, it will be too much for others.'

Biden, meanwhile, blamed the two senators for holding up his agenda.

He didn't call out Manchin and Sinema by name but it was clear who he meant when he pointed out he was short two Democratic votes in the Senate.

'They need 50 votes in the Senate,' he said of Democrats. 'I have 48.'

Both Manchin and Sinema have objected to the $3.5 trillion price tag. The president, congressional leaders and White House staff have been in negotiations with the two of them as Biden tries to pass his legislative agenda.

'I've been able to close the deal with 99% of my party  two, two people,' Biden told reporters at the White House after he made comments on the debt ceiling.

He argued he's been dealt a tough hand: the evenly divided 50-50 Senate where Vice President Kamala Harris has the tie breaking vote and the House, where Democrats hold a scant four-seat majority, giving them little margin for defectors.

'I don't think there's been a president who's been able to close deals who has been a position where he has only 50 votes in the Senate, and a bare majority in the House,' he said, adding 'it's a process. We'll get it done.'

Protesters kayaked to the ship to ask why their senator would not support his own party's $3.5 trillion infrustructe bill

Sinema didn't engage with the activists

Biden ran for president on his ability to make deals and touting his legislative experience.

Now he is balancing a legislative tight rope.

Progressives in the House are refusing to support his bipartisan $1.1 trillion infrastructure plan unless the $3.5 trillion budget package passes the Senate. But Manchin and Sinema won't vote for that package at the $3.5 trillion number.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that Biden would hold virtual meetings with progressive House Democrats later that afternoon and would speak with moderates later in the week.

Hours of talks last week, which went late into the night in the dark, dimmly lit basement in the Capitol, failed to produce a deal. Speaker Nancy Pelosi tried to buy the president time by postponing a planned Monday vote on the infrastructure bill to Thursday - then holding the legislative session open into Friday - but to no avail.

So Biden trekked up to Capitol Hill on Friday afternoon, where, behind closed doors, he pleaded with liberals in his party to come down by more than a trillion dollars and support a $2 trillion package.

And he'll fly to Michigan on Tuesday to start a nation-wide sales pitch.

He declined to name a specific number for his social agenda on Monday, saying 'I'm not going to negotiate in public.'

He conceded, however, that the $3.5 trillion figure is a no go and the legislation will pass at a lower price point.

'Well I laid out what I thought it should be. It's not going to be that. It's going to be less,' he said.

Tensions are growing among the two wings of the party.

After Biden made his private plea to Democrats during the Capitol Hill visit, House lawmakers grumbled about the two senators.

'Manchin and Sinema  should we just call them co-president at this point,' grumbled one Democrat leaving the meeting, according to The Hill. 'Is that what it's come down to?'

President Joe Biden cast the blame squarely on two Democratic senators - Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin - for his inability to pass his $3.5 trillion budget package

Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin want Biden to lower the price tag on his $3.5 trillion budget package

Manchin and Sinema have been getting slammed by liberals for not publicly naming a price tag. After a flurry of criticism last week, Manchin said he'd support a $1.5 trillion package while Sinema refused to devulge her number but said she had privately told it to Biden and congressional leaders.

Meanwhile, Biden told House Democrats on Friday he expects the overall tab on his budget package - which includes funding for expansive new education, health and climate programs - to fall between $1.9 trillion and $2.3 trillion, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Talks are ongoing.

'There's no number on the table yet that everyone has agreed to,' Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said Sunday on CNN's State of the Union.

'This is the beginning of a negotiation,' she noted.
Five people have been arrested after former Tory party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith was allegedly assaulted by being hit on the head with a traffic cone.

The senior MP was pursued by chants of 'Tory scum' on his way to a Brexit talk on the fringes of the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on Monday.

Greater Manchester Police said three men and two women were arrested after reports of an assault at around 4pm on Portland Street.

Sir Iain was walking to the Mercure Manchester Piccadilly Hotel where he was involved in a talk with Brexit minister Lord Frost.

He arrived late to the event and walked out on at least one occasion to speak to a police officer.

The senior MP (pictured today) was pursued by chants of 'Tory scum' on his way to a Brexit talk on the fringes of the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on Monday

The Spectator magazine quoted Sir Iain as saying: 'For half a second I was about to go up and punch them, I went forward and they all backed off - I nearly knocked them out, lost my rag.

'I can't tell you very much other than they just followed us, used abusive language, attacked us and used a cone.

'They were shouting all along and then they smashed the cone on the back of my head and so I turned and grabbed the cone and looked at them and I took a pace towards them and they backed off. I threw the cone on the ground, said ''pathetic'' and turned and walked off.'

Greater Manchester Police said three men and two women were arrested after reports of an assault at around 4pm on Portland Street

He added to activists: 'I am glad to be here, I can honestly say that I nearly wasn't here because I was assaulted by a bunch of protesters on the way here.

'But apart from that, that's why the police were dragging me out by the door I'm afraid.

'But anyway, it is good to be here. I can genuinely say that more than the others.' Sir Iain was heard after the event describing the protesters as 'morons'.

Video posted to Twitter said to be after the cone incident showed Sir Iain being followed down the street as someone shouts 'Tory scum' to the banging of a drum.

'F*** off out of Manchester you Tory scum,' one of the pursuers said.

A friend of Sir Iain said he was walking with his wife Betsy at the time of the incident and escaped without injury.

GMP said officers were on the scene within three minutes of receiving reports of an assault.

A spokesman said: 'There aren't believed to be any serious injuries, and following a short foot pursuit three men and two women have been arrested in connection with it, and remain in custody for questioning. Inquiries are ongoing.'
Police have released a picture of Britain's worst rapist moments after he was arrested - covered in cuts and bruises after a brave rugby league player fought back.

Greater Manchester Police shared the mugshot of serial sex fiend Reynhard Sinaga after he was nicked for his final sick attack in his city centre flat.

The image shows him with two swollen eyes, steri strips over his eyebrows, bruising on his forehead and nose and his hair messed up in June 2017.

Officers released the shot ahead of BBC documentary Catching A Predator, which will look at the police probe into the then 36-year-old's crimes.

He is believed to have attacked at least 195 men and was convicted of drugging 48 of them and filming himself sexually violating them while they were unconscious.

The gay Christian student was jailed for 60 years and must serve a minimum of 30 years in custody before he can be considered for parole.

Greater Manchester Police shared the mugshot of serial sex fiend Reynhard Sinaga (pictured) after he was nicked for his final sick attack in his Manchester city centre flat

Sinaga was finally caught when one of his victims regained consciousness on the bathroom floor and fought him off before he went to the police.

The six-foot tall, 13-stone teenager told how he woke up with his trousers around his ankles with the attacker molesting him.

He battered the rapist, beating him so badly he suffered a bleed on the brain and had to be taken to hospital.

Initially the 18-year-old victim was arrested for assault, but Sinaga left an iPhone 4 in his back pocket which contained sickening videos of him raping drugged men.

Officers searching Sinaga's flat found another mobile 'propped to side' to capture rapes 'in profile' as well as a hard drive containing a chilling online library of videos.

They also discovered Sinaga had looked victims up on Facebook and stored their details.

He further kept belongings as sick souvenirs of the encounters, including a phone, watch, driving licence and a restaurant Tastecard.

Police have linked Reynhard Sinaga to more than 190 potential victims in total - 70 of whom they have not yet been able to identify

A map of Manchester city centre shows where Sinaga's flat (in red) is located along with the nightclubs Factory and Fifth Avenue, which many of the complainants had earlier been to

Sinaga hunted for drunk young men around nightclubs near his flat in Manchester (above)

Spirit bottles at Sinaga's flat are pictured. He is thought to have drugged the men when giving them a drink from his selection of alcohol

Police inquiries began after the 18-year old, who had been to the nearby Factory club on June 2, 2017, became separated from his friends and was approached by Sinaga.

Sinaga suggested the man should try contacting his friends from his flat.

The rugby player said Sinaga 'seemed like a friendly guy' so he agreed to go back with him.

He added he remembered the rapist pouring two shots of 'red liquid' and a 'shot of clear liquid' before he 'blacked out' and woke hours later being assualted.

The victim told jurors: 'I had to defend myself to get out of there.'

A large part of Sinaga's offending took place in the bedroom but some did take place in the living room. The final victim was raped in the bathroom before he woke up during the ordeal

The living room at the home of Sinaga, who has been jailed at Manchester Crown Court for life

Sinaga (left) claimed the men consented to being recorded playing a sex game in which they pretended to be dead to fulfil his fantasies at his flat (right, where blood was seen on the door)

In a 999 call, the victim said: 'I tried to push him away. I've got blood on me because I tried to hit him to get away from me.

'He's trapped me in his house for most of the night. I've had to, I know it's violent, but I've had to hit him a few time just to, to stop him from attacking me, been on top me.

'I've had to. I've got blood on my hand if you want to see? Cut, I think he might be busted so, if you have to you might have to phone an ambulance 'cause I've, I've had to hit him a few times to get him away from me.'

Police have linked Sinaga to 195 potential victims and are still trying to track some of them down.

He went out in the early hours of the morning, hunting for lone, drunk young men around nightclubs near his flat.

Sinaga was jailed for 159 offences committed from January 2015 to May 2017.
More than 70 percent of Americans say they would be less likely to back President Biden's signature $3.5 spending plan if it meant higher taxes, according to a poll published on Monday for a conservative campaign group.

The White House insists only the wealthiest Americans and the nation's biggest companies face bigger tax bills under the Build Back Better plan.

But the findings show the fine line Biden must tread with his overhaul of public spending already stalled by party infighting.

'Independents and Republicans oppose this bill by huge majorities, as do fully half of Democrats,' said Mark Meckler, president of the Convention of States Action, which commissioned the poll.

'Almost nobody supports Bidens runaway spending spree, and folks are outraged that  with everything else theyve had to endure with this failed presidency  increasing taxes and adding to our astronomical debt are actually on the table.'

The survey of more than 1000 likely general election voters by Trafalgar, a Republican-leaning firm, found that 71.5 percent took a negative view of Biden's plans if they 'knew it increases taxes and the national debt.'

One fifth said those aspects would make them more supportive.

President Biden hits the road on Tuesday to sell his Build Back Better plan to the American people after a poll on Monday revealed that more than 70 percent of likely voters will not support the $3.5 trillion spending measures if it increases taxes and the national debt

The Trafalgar Group polled more than 1000 people for the conservative group Convention of States Action

Last week, Biden made a rare trip to Congress to try to keep his legislative agenda on track

The number includes just over half of Democrats who said that increases in taxes or the national debt would make them less likely to back the measures.

The plans are currently on hold as Biden prepares to hit the road to sell his proposals to expand health benefits and free education, while the House has paused progress on his infrastructure bill.

As it stands, the Build Back Better plan increases the top corporate tax rate by 5.5 percentage points, to 26.5 percent, and the top individual rate by 2.6 points, to 39.6 percent.

It also includes a 3 percent surcharge on individual income above $5 million.

But centrist Democratic senators - Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona - who have held up progress say the plans are too generous and the tax hikes are too steep.

Even so, the White House believes the plans are popular. Officials last week circulated a memo citing polls suggesting the packages had public support.

'As we enter the final phase of legislative negotiations over the presidents economic package  the evidence is overwhelming that the wind is at our backs and the public is eager for both of these packages to become law,' it said.

'Like President Biden, they know that we cant just return to where we were before the pandemic  we need to Build Back Better with investments in jobs, economic competitiveness, and confront the existential threat of climate change, all while lowering prices on health care, prescription drugs, and other essentials for working families.'

The document quoted a Fox News poll that found 56 percent of registered voters supported the $3.5 trillion bill with 39 percent opposed.

Another recent poll, commissioned by allies of the president, found that a majority of voters across 13 states supported the plans.

The numbers give a sense of the challenges facing Biden as he attempts to sell his legislative agenda to the American people.

His 'Build Back Better' plan is struggling to make its way through Congress as centrists push back against tax increases and demand a more modest proposal.

Meanwhile, progressives are refusing to vote through a smaller $1.2 trillion overhaul of the country's crumbling infrastructure until they can be certain Biden will get his bigger plan approved.

This president hits the road this week, taking his message to Michigan, a state he flipped from Republican to Democratic in 2020, while other White House officials are expected to fan out across the country.
A man shot himself in the leg in Times Square subway station in the third shooting to hit the global tourist hot spot this year.

The 39-year-old from Brooklyn was urinating in the corner of West 40th Street and Seventh Avenue, near a McDonald's and sushi restaurant Wasabi, when he was shot in his right leg at around 12.12pm, according to the New York Post.

Other eyewitnesses told ABC7 that the shots went off inside the subway station, with the man seen stumbling up to ground level afterwards, before re-entering the station to ask for help.

His injuries are not fatal and no arrests have been made so far, police say. They have not named the man, who is likely to face criminal charges as a result, and is not cooperating with investigators.

The bullet sent him stumbling down into a nearby train station, which was sectioned off with police tape as officers investigated the scene Monday afternoon.

Video from the scene shows officers carrying an injured person into an ambulance as passersby cross the bustling intersection.

Earlier in the day, a 42-year-old woman was taken to the hospital with facial injuries after she was pushed into the side of an incoming train at the same Times Square-42nd Street subway stop, according to WABC. Another woman fled the scene.

NYPD officers sectioned off the entrance to a Times Square subway stop Monday afternoon

An unidentified man stumbled into the station after he was shot in the right leg. This photo shows cardboard covering the spot where he landed

The man's injuries are not fatal and no one has been arrested in the case, police say. His shooting is the third to hit Times Square in 2020

The shooting is the third such incident in Times Square this year.

In May, three unrelated bystanders were hit by stray bullets in the busy tourist hub after police say a man started shooting indiscriminately during an argument with someone else.

The man above is suspected of shooting three unrelated bystanders in Times Square in May, including a 4-year-old girl

A four-year-old girl was struck in the leg, a 24-year-old woman was hit in the thigh and a 44-year-old woman was shot in the foot, police said. All were expected to survive.

'This little girl was so strong,' Officer Alyssa Vogel told WNBC. 'She didn't even cry once except when we were putting the tourniquet on. She screamed because it's very painful.'

In July, 16-year-old Avon Darden turned himself in and was charged with attempted murder after shooting US Marine Samuel Poulin, 21, in the back.

Poulin was not seriously injured.

The young soldier had recently graduated from The Citadel military college in South Carolina with a commission in the US Marine Corps.

Times Square, one of the world's most visited tourist attractions, sees an estimated 50 million visitors annually. About 330,000 people pass through it daily.

Overall crime in New York City dropped in August after a summer crime wave that had city officials pointing fingers at each other, according to the latest official monthly figures from the NYPD.

Avon Darden, 16, handed himself over to cops in July a whopping ten days after he shot a Marine in the back of the head in Times Square

Samuel Poulin, a recent Citadel graduate, was shot by a teenager in Times Square while visiting New York in July

Total crime dropped by one percent in August compared to August 2020, with the biggest drops being in burglary, -24 percent, and shooting incidents, -30.7 percent.

The trend may be reversing, as weekly numbers ending on Sunday show that felony assaults are up by 7 percent, shootings are up by 1.6 percent and rapes are up by 2.2 percent as a whole compared to the same time last year.

Eric Adams, the Democrat expected to succeed Mayor Bill de Blasio next year, says he plans to reinstitute the NYPD's gun unit and plainclothes unit to target gangs and get guns off the streets.

Felony assault, rape and shootings were all up through October 3 compared to last year

'What I've heard over and over again in all of the meetings [with business leaders]? Public safety,' Adams said during a radio appearance last month.

During one of his daily remote press conferences in August, de Blasio revealed that there were only 18 trial verdicts across the five boroughs in the first half of 2021, compared to 405 during the same time in 2019, before the pandemic.

Meanwhile, state courts outside New York City have produced 118 trial verdicts during the first eight months of the year.

'That isn't good enough,' the mayor said, after heaping praise on the New York City Police Department for making a record number of gun-related arrests and highlighting the work of community activists.

A spokesman for the court system accused the mayor of 'gaslighting' the public with his accusation.

'Yet again, the mayor demonstrates his glaring lack of understanding of the criminal justice process in this state,' said Lucian Chaifen, director of communications for the Office of Court Administration, in a statement.

'His gaslighting rhetoric regarding court operations in an attempt to shift the public safety discussion continues.'

The spokesperson argued that the court system has been back at full strength since May, and rebuked prosecutors and defense attorneys for not being prepared to try their cases.
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Dozens of officers on motorcycles and in police vehicles, lights flashing, escorted the body of a DEA agent killed Monday morning on an Amtrak train in Tucson, Arizona, as members of local emergency services saluted the passing convoy.

Another U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent was injured as several officers conducted a routine check for illegal guns, money and drugs on the train headed to New Orleans from Los Angeles, according to the Tucson Police Department.

As the fallen agent was removed from the train and loaded into a van from the Pima County Medical Examiner, a cadre of officers stood at attention to pay their respects.

Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus said one person was arrested at the scene, while another who barricaded himself inside the bathroom of the double-decker train was shot dead.

The injured federal agent was taken to hospital in a police car and is being treated at Banner University Medical Center.

Another officer with the Tucson Police Department was shot, but is expected to survive.

Dozens of officers on motorcycles and in police vehicles, lights flashing, escorted the body of a DEA agent killed Monday morning on an Amtrak train in Tucson, Arizona

Solemn members of local emergency services saluted the police convoy escorting the fallen DEA agent to the medical examiner's office

Tucson Police officers and other law enforcement officers stand at attention as the body of a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent is removed from an Amtrak train and loaded into a van from the Pima County Medical Examiner following a shooting

The shooting happened after 8am after the train, traveling from Los Angeles to New Orleans, pulled into the station in Tucson. Pictured are two officers embracing near the scene of the shooting

Police have yet to identify the slain agent, the injured officers, the detained suspect or the gunman.

The plainclothes officer, who wore a bullet proof vest, was seen in video footage fleeing from the train with his leashed police dog as a man in the doorway of a passenger car appeared to open fire.

As of 9.30 this evening, the station was still roped off and police were still investigating, according to ABC 15.

The shooting happened after 8am after the train, traveling from Los Angeles to New Orleans, pulled into the station in Tucson.

There were 137 passengers and 11 crew members on board, with all passengers and crew now evacuated to the station. There are no reported injuries to the crew or passengers, Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams told KGUN9.

Tucson Mayor Regina Romero released a statement Monday, calling the shooting an absolutely shocking act of violence.

As of 9.30 this evening, the station was still roped off and police were still investigating, according to ABC 15

At least one person was taken into custody after a shooting at a Tucson, Arizona Amtrak station

A witness told KOLD News 13 that the shooting happened after two men approached another man aboard the train, saying they wanted to talk. Shots were fired after they got off the train

A witness told KOLD News 13 that the shooting happened after two men aboard the train approached another passenger, claiming they wanted to talk.

Bullets began flying after the trio disembarked from the train, the witness said.

A woman whose parents were on the train said all passengers except the shooter were safe.

An FBI spokesperson told the DailyMail.com Monday afternoon that there was no greater threat to the public.

DEA Administer Anne Milgram said Monday that the surviving agent was in critical condition.

'We at the DEA are heartbroken by todays events and ask that you keep the families of the agents and task force officer in your thoughts and prayers,' she said in a press release.

Webcams at the Tucson Historic Station captured police activity following the shooting

Passenger Evan Courtney shared images and video of police's response to the gunfire

Passenger Evan Courtney said he was relaxing in the lounge cabin when chaos erupted.

'People came running through yelling "shots fired,"' he told DailyMail.com. 'I grabbed my backpack and ran.'

He gathered with other passengers in the hallway of a car, watching the scene unfold through the windows.

'I saw SWAT with assault rifles huddled behind barricades,' Courtney said. 'After about 15 minutes, police ran to us and told us to get out of the car and run in the opposite direction, out of harm's way.'

Another train passenger said he he heard shots fired, and an officer yelling at the gunman to surrender.

Then he heard someone screaming in pain from a nearby stairwell, he told local media.

'I was caught in the cross fire,' George Gonzales told Tucson.com. 'It's like the OK Corral gang when I woke up in the morning.'
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is demanding that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) open an investigation into three top Federal Reserve officials' potential 'insider trading' during the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday.

In a letter to SEC Chair Gary Gensler, Warren asked him to probe securities trading of Fed Vice Chair Richard Clarida, Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan and Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren after stunning reports emerged they cashed in on the market while millions of Americans were reeling from the pandemic's economic effects.

Rosengren and Kaplan resigned after a public outcry over their transactions.

DailyMail.com asked the SEC to confirm whether Gensler had received the letter but the agency declined to comment.

The progressive senator also took aim at Fed Chair Jerome Powell, hinting that he knew they violated insider trading rules and did nothing to stop it.

'If these trades were based on Fed officials' knowledge of non-public, market moving information, they may have represented potentially illegal activity,' Warren wrote.

'It is not clear why Chair Powell did not stop these activities, which corrode the trust and effectiveness of the Fed. The Fed officials' trades clearly run afoul of Fed guidelines stating that officials should 'avoid any dealings or other conduct that might convey even an appearance of conflict between their personal interests, the interests of the System, and the public interest.'

Elizabeth Warren wrote a letter to SEC Chair Gary Gensler (right) demanding an investigation into three top Federal Reserve officials

She said the three officials likely hold 'non public' knowledge of the markets by virtue of their positions on the Federal Reserve - which went to unprecedented levels of intervention to keep the US economy afloat during the pandemic.

'They may have violated SEC's insider trading rules,' Warren claimed.

Insider trading charges carry a maximum sentence of $5 million in criminal penalties and 20 years in prison, along with civil charges of 'three times the amount of the profit gained or loss avoided,' according to US law.

On Saturday it was revealed that Clarida, Powell's top deputy, traded between $1 million and $5 million out of a bond fund into stocks just a day before his boss issued a statement warning of potential policy action in the face of a worsening COVID crisis, Bloomberg reported.

In February 2020 Powell warned that COVID-19 'poses evolving risks to economic activity' and the Fed was 'closely monitoring developments and their implications for the economic outlook.'

Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Clarida traded between $1 million and $5 million from bonds to stocks a day before Powell announced possible policy action to combat the pandemic

The Fed told Reuters that Clarida's financial activity wasn't anything out of the ordinary and the funds were picked with Fed approval.

'The transactions were executed prior to his involvement in deliberations on Federal Reserve actions to respond to the emergence of the coronavirus and not during a blackout period. The selected funds were chosen with the prior approval of the Board's ethics official,' the agency said.

It was the third ethics crisis for the Fed within just weeks. In late September, Kaplan and Rosengren - two out of a dozen regional Fed presidents nationwide - announced their retirements after they were also accused of pandemic profiteering.

Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan said he will retire on October 8, citing the 'distraction' of the controversy over his investments, while Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren retired on September 30, pointing to a long-term health condition.

While both men claim their investments were approved by Fed ethics officers, their attempts to build wealth while millions were out of work and struggling to pay bills created an image crisis for the Fed.

Powell announced a sweeping review of the Fed's ethics guidelines after Kaplan and Rosengren's trading became public.

In a statement with his decision Powell said having Americans' trust is 'essential' to the Fed being able to perform its duties.

Two of twelve regional Fed presidents, Dallas Fed Chair Robert Kaplan (left) and Boston Fed Chair Eric Rosengren (right), recently retired after ethics scandals into their trade activity

But Warren said on Monday the financial disclosures brings 'serious questions' about the Fed's ethical standards.

'The reports of this financial activity by Fed officials raise serious questions about possible conflicts of interest and a reveal a disregard for the public trust. They also reflect atrocious judgement by these officials, and an attitude that personal profiteering is more important than the American peoples confidence in the Fed,' she wrote.

The latest attack from Warren comes as Powell is fast becoming a frequent target for progressives in Congress as his term as Fed chair gets closer to expiring in February.

Amid reports that President Biden is considering re-nominating the Trump administration appointee, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) among others wrote him a letter urging him to choose someone with more progressive views.

Powell is supported by moderate Democrats like Senator Dick Durbin and generally well-regarded among Republicans, so a relatively simple confirmation process is likely.

But at a hearing last week, Warren unleashed on the Fed chair and called him a 'dangerous man' for the US economy.

Warren argued that Powell weakened the US banking system by rolling back financial regulations that were enacted after the 2008 financial crisis.

'I came to Washington after the 2008 crash to make sure that nothing like that would ever happen again. Your record gives me grave concern,' the Massachusetts lawmaker said.

'Over and over, you have acted to make our banking system less safe, and that makes you a dangerous man to head up the Fed, and it's why I will oppose your re-nomination.

'Re-nominating you means gambling that for the next five years, a Republican majority of the Federal Reserve with a Republican chair, who has regularly voted to deregulate Wall Street, won't drive this economy over a financial cliff again,' Warren said.

'And with so many qualified candidates for this job, I just don't think that's a risk worth taking.'

The White House has not yet announced a decision on whether to reappoint Powell or choose an alternative.
'Hello literally everyone' was the tongue-in-cheek message from Twitter last night as it took a lighthearted approach to its rival Facebook suffering a worldwide outage.

Facebook, along with its sister site Instagram and messaging service WhatsApp were down for six hours for millions of users across the world.

In a Tweet liked almost three times and retweeted hundreds of thousands of times, the site's official page said: 'Hello literally everyone'.

Social media users meanwhile flocked to Twitter to share memes about Facebook being down.

One shared a picture of Pixar superhero Mr Incredible saying 'It's showtime' with the caption: 'When most social media apps are down, Twitter be like...'

Another, carrying on the theme, used a clip of comedy character Mr Bean, representing Twitter, alongside another character wrapped head-to-toe in bandages, representing Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Others joked about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg being sent in to fix the problem.

One user took a picture of an electrician fixing wiring and superimposed the tech billionaire's face over the top.

Others joked that Facebook and Instagram being down would leave social media managers scrabbling for memes.

One wrote: 'Social media managers trying to come up with a relevant meme that's also funny for Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp down situation quickly.'

According to DownDetector, the issues started at around 16:44 BST (11:44 ET) yesterday, with tens of thousands of users reporting problems connecting.

NetBlocks, which tracks internet outages and their impact, estimate the outage has already cost the global economy $160m (117 million), and sent the Facebook share price down by more than five per cent.

The exact cause of the outage has not been confirmed by Facebook, but one expert said the problem may have been caused by an internal error made by staff.

Cybersecurty expert, Kevin Beaumont, wrote on Twitter at the time: 'This one looks like a pretty epic configuration error, Facebook basically don't exist on the internet right now. Even their authoritative name server ranges have been BGP withdrawn.'

The three social media services, all owned by Facebook, run on a shared back end infrastructure, creating a 'single point of failure' according to experts.

It wasn't just the main Facebook apps going down, other services, including Facebook Workplace and the Oculus website were also down.

In the US, internet services on phones supported by Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T were also down.

There have been a number of social media outages in recent months, with Instagram going down for 16 hours just last month, and all Facebook platforms going offline in June.

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey appeared to make light of Facebook's plight this evening.

Responding to a post which appeared to show how the facebook.com domain is for sale as a result of the outage, he jokingly asked: 'How much?'

Users around the world reported problems with Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp on Downdetector

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger were down for users around the world last night

The cause of then outage is unconfirmed and it's unclear if all are linked but not long before Facebook's entities went down, entries for Facebook and Instagram were removed from the DNS it uses.

A DNS is essentially an internet directory. Whenever someone opens a link or an app, their device has to search the DNS used by the service they are trying to access to find it and then connect them to it.

Major DNS providers are Google, Amazon and CloudFare. It's unclear if all of the sites and services that went down on Monday use the same DNS or not

On Twitter, Facebook communications executive, Andy Stone said last night they were aware some people were having trouble accessing Facebook apps and products.

'We're working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience,' the executive said in a tweet at the time.

Soon after the first report came through, the hashtag #facebookdown was trending on Twitter, with users worldwide reporting issues connecting.

The hashtag #instagramisdown and 'WhatsApp' were both also trending on Twitter, with a number of users saying they checked their internet connection when they couldn't get on Facebook.

Instagram comms tweeted at the time: 'Instagram and friends are having a little bit of a hard time right now, and you may be having issues using them. Bear with us, were on it!'
- Written by Andrew Yang, October 4

'I changed my voting registration from "Democrat" to "Independent" today. It was a strangely emotional experience.

I registered as a Democrat back in 1995 when I was 20 years old to vote for Bill Clintons re-election. It was a no-brainer for me. I went to a college that was very liberal. I lived in New York City. Everyone around me was a Democrat. Bill Clinton vs. Bob Dole? Clinton was one of the youngest presidents when he was elected and seemed more in tune to me, as a 20 year old.

Keep in mind that I grew up the son of immigrants and my family did not talk about politics at all growing up. I still have no idea how or even if my parents voted. I have a vague recollection of my Mom watching a debate and saying, I dont like him but I cant remember who she was referring to. She doesnt remember either.

Throughout my twenties I remained a staunch Democrat, though like many others I was drawn primarily to national races. I co-hosted a small fundraiser for John Kerrys campaign at a bar when I was 29  I think we raised maybe $3,000. I thrilled to Barack Obamas victory in 2008 and, to a lesser extent, his re-election in 2012. Around this time I was invited to the White House to receive recognition by the Obama White House as both a Champion of Change and a Presidential Ambassador of Global Entrepreneurship as the founder of a non-profit, Venture for America that helped create hundreds of jobs in the Midwest and the South. Bringing Evelyn to meet the President was a lot of fun.

In 2016, I donated to Bernie Sanders campaign  everything he said struck me as true  but then voted for Hillary Clinton against Trump.

When Trump won, I was surprised and took it as a red flag and call to action. Having spent six years working in the Midwest and the South I believed I had some insight as to what had driven Trumps victory. I spent several years making the case for what I believed was the major policy that could address it  Universal Basic Income.

As youd imagine, as a Democratic presidential candidate, I met a lot of Democrats around the country. Literally thousands. At first, many didnt know what to make of the odd Asian candidate talking about giving everyone money. But over time I established deep relationships with some of the local leaders who have worked in party politics for years. Al Womble in Iowa, Steve Marchand in New Hampshire, Jermaine Johnson in South Carolina and others.

I also became friends with some of the other candidates out in the field. Cory Booker, Michael Bennet, Pete Buttigieg and Beto ORourke are people Id consider friends who are motivated by the right things. As Ive become more of a household name, Ive worked with many senior officials. I headlined several fundraisers for the DNC and participated in fundraising appeals. I was a surrogate for Joe for months.

I spent weeks in Georgia trying to help win the seats for Jon Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock, helping raise millions to do so. Im proud of helping to activate Asian American voters in what I believed were historic races.

And running for mayor, I similarly met and became friends with activists and elected officials who are longtime public servants on the Democratic side. People like Grace Meng, Ritchie Torres, John Liu, Carlos Menchaca, Kenny Burgos, Vanessa Gibson and Dan Rosenthal are excellent.

Again, I have at this point dozens of friends and confidantes who are entrenched in the Democratic Party. Ive been a Democrat my entire adult life.

And yet, Im confident that no longer being a Democrat is the right thing.

Please, keep in mind that I am NOT suggesting that you also change your voter registration to Independent, as I have done. Doing so could disenfranchise you if you live in the 83% of the country that is very blue or very red. For this reason, I considered either not making this change or not talking about it.

So why do I feel in my heart that this is the right move?

While it was simply a small piece of paperwork, I genuinely felt a shift in my mindset as soon as I signed it.

My goal is to do as much as I can to advance our society. There are phenomenal public servants doing great work every day  but our system is stuck. It is stuck in part because polarization is getting worse than ever. Many of the people I know are doing all of the good they can  but their impact is constrained. Now that Im not a member of one party or another, I feel like I can be even more honest about both the system and the people in it.

The key reform that is necessary to help unlock our system is a combination of Open Primaries and Ranked Choice Voting, which will give voters more genuine choice and our system more dynamism. It will also prevent the spoiler effect that so many Democrats are concerned about, which is a byproduct of a two party system with a binary contest and simple plurality voting.

I believe I can reach people who are outside the system more effectively. I feel more . . . independent.

Also, on a personal level, Ill admit there has always been something of an odd fit between me and the Democratic Party. Im not very ideological. Im practical. Making partisan arguments  particularly expressing what I often see as performative sentiment  is sometimes uncomfortable for me. I often think, Okay, what can we actually do to solve the problem? Im pretty sure there are others who feel the same way I do.

Ive seen politicians publicly eviscerate each other and then act collegial or friendly backstage a few minutes later. A lot of it is theatre.

Ive also had people publicly attack me and then text or call me privately to make sure that we were still cool. It just had to be done for appearances.

Perhaps its the nature of my upbringing, but Im actually more comfortable trying to fix the system than being a part of it.

One very senior Democrat member of Congress texted me to say, Im sorry to see you go. But I know youll do as much good as you can from the outside. And eventually, remember the outsiders become the insiders.

Ive got to say it feels really good to be building my own team. This is where Im most at home.

Recently, in an interview I commented that I wasnt particularly driven by a desire to hold office. Im working for impact.

Breaking up with the Democratic Party feels like the right thing to do because I believe I can have a greater impact this way.

Am I right? Lets find out. Together.'
For the first time in 84 years, the guard change at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery was conducted entirely by women on Friday.

The three women, members of the Old Guard, were selected for the prestigious vigil after intense training and a series of examinations.

'We commemorate the achievements of these trail-blazing Tomb Guards,' the Old Guard said in a statement, according to NBC News. 'While this historic event may be a first, it is not the last.

'With diversity in our ranks, race, gender, or any characteristics will never hinder, but only enhance the execution of our sacred mission,' it wrote, adding: 'As we recognize this monumental day, we reflect on the Unknowns and their ultimate sacrifice.

'The world will never know their names. Their life's poetry was silenced in the defense of this great nation.

'We will never forget their sacrifice, and we will never falter, as our standard will remain perfection.'

The changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was conducted by three female members of the Old Guard for the first time in 84 years on Friday

The three women, members of the Old Guard, were selected for the prestigious vigil after intense training and a series of examinations

In a statement on social media, the Old Guard said there will be more all-female guard changes in the coming year as it becomes more diverse

The military guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is changed in an elaborate ceremony every hour on the hour from October 1 through March 31 and every half hour from April 1 through September 30.

It has been conducted by the Old Guard since 1948, with soldiers from nearby Fort Meyer originally assigned to guard the tomb and discourage visitors from climbing or stepping on it. In 1937, the guards became a full-time presence.

As part of the vigil, the members of the Old Guard march 21 steps down the black mat behind the tomb, turn and face East for 21 seconds and turn and face North for 21 seconds before taking 21 steps down the mat.

The Guard members then execute a sharp 'shoulder-arms' movement, according to the tomb's website, to place his or her weapon on the shoulder closest to the visitors, signifying that he or she stands between the Tomb and any possible threat.

The number 21 signifies the highest symbolic military honor a soldier can earn - the 21 gun salute.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier has been a staple of Arlington National Cemetery since 1921

In January, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris attended a wreath-laying ceremony as part of Biden's inauguration

The Unknown Soldier was first placed on a horse-drawn caisson and carried in a procession through Washington D.C. and to the Arlington National Cemetery on November 11, 1921.

A state funeral was held at the cemetery's new Memorial Amphitheater, and the soldier was interred at the tomb as a tribute to all of the American soldiers who died in battle and have never been identified.

Arlington National Cemetery is now planning a public ceremony on Veterans' Day, marking the century since the Unknown Soldier was interred. It was also holding a series of in-person and virtual events leading up to the event.
An activist who filmed herself heckling moderate Democrat Senator Kyrsten Sinema as Sinema used a bathroom at Arizona State University has defended her actions in a Facebook rant, saying that she would not allow the 'tone police' to criticize her.

'I will speak about the controversy regarding following Senator Sinema into the bathroom when I have the time. None of you have the right to tone police my desperate demands for labor protections after what I have endured as a human trafficking survivor due to the f**ked up gig economy,' Sophia Marjanovic said in a Facebook post, FOX reported.

Marjanovic was in the group of activists who filmed the Arizona Sen. inside a bathroom in ASU, where she teaches, even recording while the lawmaker was using a private stall.

She demanded Sinema support President Joe Biden's Build Back Better agenda that would provide a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

Her behavior has been roundly condemned, with DailyMail.com columnist Meghan McCain among those blasting Marjanovic in her latest column, and highlighting the fact that those filming committed a felony offense.

Marjanovic said that she will speak about the backlash she received for filming Sinema when she 'has the time,' and that critics had no right to question her demands, but offered no further excuses for the specifics of her behavior.

Sophia Marjanovic said in a Facebook post she would not allow the 'tone police' to criticize her after all she had endured as a human trafficking victim. Marjanovic was in the group of activists who filmed Sen Sinema inside a bathroom at ASU, where she teaches

'For now, connect with the fact that you are on stolen indigenous women and children go missing and murdered because we don't have access to stable jobs, stable housing, clean water, clean food, or stable decent health care despite the fact that indigenous people have upheld our end of the treaty in assimilating and getting educated,' she continued.

Marjanovic then concluded: 'White communications Department of Organization, media, and campaigns uphold white supremacy. Step out of the way!

The activist has a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology but is highly engaged in activism and politics.

According to her LinkedIn profile, she was a field organizer for Bernie Sander's presidential campaign in 2019 and 2020.

During a campaigning event in New Hampshire in 2020, Marjanovic introduced Sanders to the audience while dressed in indigenous attire and the silhouette of a hand imprinted on her mouth with red paint.

She has also worked along with the Democratic Socialists of America and has listed experience as an activist in the Supreme Court and a citizen lobbyist for Medicare For All.

A group demanded Sinema to support President Joe Biden's Build Back Better agenda that would provide a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, while she was in a bathroom at Arizona State University

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema condemned protesters who confronted her and followed her into a bathroom at Arizona State University a day earlier, saying their behavior was 'unacceptable'

Following the incident at ASU on Friday, Sinema released a statement.

'My students were unfairly and unlawfully victimized. This is wholly inappropriate,' she said.

'It is the duty of elected leaders to avoid fostering an environment in which honestly-held policy disagreements serve as the basis for vitriol  raising the temperature in political rhetoric and creating a permission structure for unacceptable behavior.'

She added that she had previously met with the group behind Sunday's protest and would continue to talk to Arizonans with a diverse range of views.

'Yesterday's behavior was not legitimate protest,' she said.

'It is unacceptable for activist organizations to instruct their members to jeopardize themselves by engaging in unlawful activities such as gaining entry to close university buildings, disrupting learning environments, and filming students in a rest room.'

'We knocked on doors for you to get you elected. Just how we got you elected, we can get you out of office if you don't support what you promised us,' one activist threatened

'I am a survivor of human trafficking and it's because of the lack of work protections that we don't have. I need you to stand by workers...' a woman, likely Marjanovic, shared before the video cut off

On Friday, Marjanovic and others confronted Sinema outside the classroom where she teaches and followed her into the nearby bathroom, recording the incident as they walked.

'We knocked on doors for you to get you elected. Just how we got you elected, we can get you out of office if you don't support what you promised us,' one activist threatened.

Another, who introduced herself as Blanca, attempted to pull at Sinema's heartstrings by sharing a personal anecdote.

'I was brought here to the United States when I was three years old and in 2010 my grandparents both got deported because of S.B. 1070 and I'm here because I definitely believe that we need a pathway to citizenship,' Blanca said.

'My grandfather passed away two weeks ago and I was not able to go to Mexico and visit him because there is no pathway to citizenship. And if we have the opportunity to pass it right now than we need to do it because there's millions of undocumented people, just like me, who share the same story.'

'We need the Build Back Better plan right now,' one is heard saying.

'I am a survivor of human trafficking and it's because of the lack of work protections that we don't have. I need you to stand by workers...' a woman, likely Marjanovic, shared before the video cut off.

Sinema initially told the activists she was 'heading out' and couldn't speak at the time. When they continued to follow her into the restroom, she ignored them as she used the facilities and washed her hands.

Sinema is one of the key holdouts on Biden's $3.5 trillion social spending bill.

She slammed leaders of her own party on Saturday over their 'inexcusable' failure to hold a vote on the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan.

'The failure of the U.S. House to hold a vote on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is inexcusable, and deeply disappointing for communities across our country,' Sinema wrote.

'Denying Americans millions of good-paying jobs, safer roads, cleaner water, more reliable electricity, and better broadband only hurts everyday families.'

The video, which was shared on social media, prompted response from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) who has openly opposed illegal immigration

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (pictured with Senators Rob Portman, Joe Manchin and Jeanne Shaheen) slammed Democratic leaders on Saturday over their 'inexcusable' failure to hold a vote on the $1.2trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi canceled the vote on the Senate-passed infrastructure bill on Thursday as several far-left caucus members vowed to tank President Joe Biden's $1 trillion infrastructure plan, which centrists support, if the moderate faction does not also back the broader $3.5 trillion social spending bill that is packed with their priorities.

Although Democrats did not have enough votes to pass the infrastructure bill, Sinema argues that canceling it was 'an ineffective stunt to gain leverage over a separate proposal.'

'My vote belongs to Arizona, and I do not trade my vote for political favors  I vote based only on what is best for my state and the country,' she said.

'I have never, and would never, agree to any bargain that would hold one piece of legislation hostage to another.'

Sinema also argued that she worked to deliver the infrastructure bill while also engaging in 'good faith negotiations' on the reconciliation package.

'Good-faith negotiations, however, require trust. Over the course of this year, Democratic leaders have made conflicting promises that could not all be kept  and have, at times, pretended that differences of opinion within our party did not exist, even when those disagreements were repeatedly made clear directly and publicly,' she stated.

'Canceling the infrastructure vote further erodes that trust. More importantly, it betrays the trust the American people have placed in their elected leaders and denies our country crucial investments to expand economic opportunities,' the statement read.
Fashion house Dolce and Gabbana sold $5.7 million worth of clothing and jewelry despite some of it existing only as a digital file.

The Collezione Genesi collection designed by Italian fashion icons Domenico Dolce comprised nine pieces. All were offered as non-fungible tokens - original digital files which cannot be traded, and which are increasingly seen as a viable form of art.

Five were also offered in physical form - two dresses, a suit, and two jewel-studded crowns. Buyers of the digital-only items were also offered an 'experiential' purchase, such as a trip to the fashion giant's design studios.

The most valuable piece of clothing sold at the auction was the 'green glass suit' that sold for $1,199,916.01 at the online auction, or 351.384 in cryptocurrency ether, known as ETH, according to the UNXD site, which ran the auction.

That suit was bought by London-based e-commerce firm Boson Protocol. Boson Protocol now owns the original digital file showing an electronic video of the suit, worn in the clip by an eerie, faceless silver mannequin.

The firm, co-founded by Justin Banon and Greg Borosa, also has a year to select a staffer to get measured for a real-life version of the garment.

It is woven with 72 embroidered glasswork with both Murano glass and Swarovski crystal in a multitude of different designs and the base contains 100% silk.

Fashion house Dolce and Gabbana released a new collection featuring both digital and physical merchandise that were auctioned of using NFTs (non-fungible tokens) as currency. The glass suit (above) was one of the designs featured that sold for $1 million.

The suit was bought by NFT e-commerce firm Boson Protocol, whose co-founders Justin Bannon and Greg Borosa are pictured above

This gold 'Dress from a Dream' was sold for $767,261.04, to an NFT collector called Pranksy. It exists both as an NFT and in physical form

A silver version of the 'Dress for a Dream' sold for $641,113, or 225.5 ETH. It was bought by an anonymous bidder calling themselves Purplesq

Explaining the lavish purchase on a Medium blog, Boson Protocol said they hoped to drive interest in their 'flagship metaverse commerce experience' which will be launched in a virtual universe called Decentraland in November.

That will also feature NFT drops by other top fashion designers.

ETH, or ether, represents the brand of cryptocurrency that bidders at the auction can use to pay for digital products, with one ETH currently worth around $3,350. It is an alternative to the best-known form of cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.

Digital and physical copies were also made available for a a gold and a silver dress that were coined the Dress from a Dream.

The gold dress was sold for $767,261.04, equivalent to 225.5 ETH by an anonymous NFT investor called Pranksy.

The silver dress sold at $641,113.52 or 188.1 ETH, and was bought by another anonymous user calling themselves Purplesq.

The physical Dress from a Dream collection also was created using 100% SE silk, metal bones and cotton tulle for the corset, and of course Murano glass and Swarovski crystal.

The 'crowning' jewel of the auction, however, came in a trio of both crowns and tiaras with two being physical items and the other being digital.

The Doge Crown sold $1443,277.61, equivalent to 423.5 ETH. It was the most expensive item sold at the auction, and was bought by a group called Red DAO

The Golden Impossible jacket - offered only in digital form - was also bought by NFT collector Pranksy, for 99.9ETH, or $340738

The two physical crowns sold were The Lion Crown that was sold for $997,923.38, or 292.82 ETH with The Doge Crown selling for $1,443,277.61, or 423.5 ETH.

That Doge Crown was bought by an organization called Red DAO. DAO stands for a decentralized autonomous organization, an organization run by rules encoded on a computer program which is intended to automate the process of lawmaking.

The Lion Crown was designed to resemble the symbol of the Lion of Venice which has been featured in architecture around the city.

The Doge Crown was also designed with the idea of the iconic city symbol The Doge's Palace and the nearby clock tower in the Piazza San Marco.

The digital entry called The Impossible Tiara was designed with the idea that it was a piece of fictional royalty that only existed in the imagination.

The Impossible Tiara was sold for $340,779.60, or 99.9 ETH, even though no physical copy of it was offered for sale.

Other digital items included three kinds of jackets including The Velvet Impossible, The Mosaic Impossible and The Golden Impossible.

All the jackets were yet again designed with the concept of being something that could only be created by the imagination.

The Velvet Impossible Jacket sold for $365,566.82, or 107.1794 ETH, The Mosaic Impossible sold for $332,333.48, or 97.4359 ETH with The Golden Impossible selling at $340,738.16, or 99.9 ETH. It was also bought by Pranksy, who splashed out on the gold dress.

NFTs represent a brand of cryptocurrency that can digitally purchase merchandise using ethers (ETH). The Impossible Tiara (above) was designed for digital use for 99.9 ETH. Its buyer will not receive a physical copy of the jewelry

Italian designers Stefano Gabbana (left) and Domenico Dolce (right) were one of the first to introduce NFT merchandise into their fashion collection

Dolce and Gabbana were one of the first luxury fashion houses to introduce the NFT concept to their brand as others have begun following in their footsteps.

The concept was introduced by the pair before their Alta Moda show in Venice on August 29th.

Other brands such as Gucci, Burberry, and Louis Voutton have introduced NFTs in their upcoming collections.

The pieces in the collection include a variety of different clothing and jewelry items.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' wife Casey's breast cancer diagnosis triggered not only well wishes but also a harsh pile-on from trolls who smugly said the cancer was 'karma' for her husband's policies.

Florida's Democratic agricultural commissioner Nikki Fried had to remind those in her Twitter replies to be respectful about the potentially life-threatening disease.

'Our hearts are with Florida's First Lady Casey DeSantis and her family. We are all praying for you!' Fried wrote, before adding: 'If you choose to reply to this tweet, please show some empathy. Casey is a mother of three and deserves our support in this difficult fight.'

'No we literally arent. She can take the ivermectin and Regeneron and hope for the best .' one Twitter user replied to Fried's tweet.

'This is her second bout of cancer. The first was marrying her husband,' one user replied to a CNN tweet announcing the cancer diagnosis.

'Well Mr. DeathSentence, isn't Karma a b***h,' another user replied.

'Can someone check if this is true, cause maybe he's just looking for some sympathy and extra attention for his presidential run, when his wife miraculously beats the odds and becomes a survival story. When it comes to scum like Ron, I don't give him the benefit of the doubt,' said another.

'Im sorry to hear this news. However, I wonder if they will be turning to science and modern medicine (listening to medical doctors) to help fight this terrible thing?' another user replied.

'I feel sorry for Casey DeSantis, not only to get such a horrible diagnosis but also face the prospect of Ron DeSantis choosing between (a) helping protect his wife's immune system by wearing a mask; and (b) pandering to anti-maskers for his voracious political ambitions,' wrote Youtube comedian Betty Bowers on Twitter.

David Hogg, gun control activist and survivor of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, wrote on Twitter that he disagrees with DeSantis' politics but still wishes Casey DeSantis well.

'As much as disagree with @FLCaseyDeSantis husbands politics breast cancer is something no one and no family of any ideology should ever have to experience. Sending strength,' he wrote, triggering a number of unnerving responses.

'And she will receive better care then what is available to average income women. I know it sounds harsh and cruel, but I could care less about her,' one Twitter user wrote.

'Its not just her husbands politics, its hers too. No way Id send strength to someone like her when sick. Shes going to get healthy and get right back to her oppression politics, itll be business as usual,' said another.

'I'm CERTAIN her healthcare plan and a good one! She is part of the lucky ones... Move on...' another user wrote.

'I dont care if Mrs deathsantis is sad,' another said.

'Mr Hogg, you are a good man. I have zero sympathy for her,' said another.

'I have no strength left to send. I used it all up on the Floridians her husband has been actively trying to kill,' wrote another user.

'I find it hard to be sympathetic when they are heartlessly allowing covid to run rampant in their state. Its killing people as sure as any cancer can. That being said I hope she fights and recovers from this.' said another.

'My first thought after empathy was whether or not this would make her reconsider Covid precautions when shes immunocompromised during chemo. Like is this real-world smack in the face a come to Jesus?' said another user.

Gov. DeSantis announced his wife's diagnosis Monday morning.

'I am saddened to report that Florida's esteemed First Lady and my beloved wife has been diagnosed with breast cancer. As the mother of three young children, Casey is the centerpiece of our family and has made an impact on the lives of countless Floridians through her initiatives as First Lady,' the governor said in a statement.

'As she faces the most difficult test of her life, she will have not only have my unwavering support but the support of our entire family, as well as the prayers and well wishes from Floridians across our state. Casey is a true fighter, and she will never, never, never give up.'

The governor did not say at what stage the cancer was detected.

Casey DeSantis, 41, and her husband are the parents of Madison, 4 years old, Mason, three years old and Mamie, 18 months.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Monday that his wife Casey has been diagnosed with breast cancer

Casey DeSantis, 41, and her husband are the parents of Madison, 4 years old, Mason, three years old and Mamie, 18 months

Casey formerly worked for the PGA tour as a producer and television host

'She faces the most difficult test of her life': Ron DeSantis' statement on wife Casey's breast cancer diagnosis 'I am saddened to report that Florida's esteemed First Lady and my beloved wife has been diagnosed with breast cancer. As the mother of three young children, Casey is the centerpiece of our family and has made an impact on the lives of countless Floridians through her initiatives as First Lady. As she faces the most difficult test of her life, she will have not only have my unwavering support but the support of our entire family, as well as the prayers and well wishes from Floridians across our state. Casey is a true fighter, and she will never, never, never give up' Advertisement

Since the governor took office in 2019, DeSantis has launched four major initiatives, including most recently spearheading 'Hope Florida  A Pathway to Prosperity, Economic Self-Sufficiency and Hope.' The program benefits single parents, Floridians on government assistance, single mothers with substance abuse issues and children aging out of the foster care system.

She formerly worked for the PGA tour as a producer and television host. DeSantis was also a three-time national equestrian champion and a runner-up NCAA division one champion.

Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, a Florida native who has spoken publicly about her preventative double mastectomy, paid tribute to DeSantis on Twitter: 'My family and I will be praying for @FLCaseyDeSantis & every woman battling breast cancer! Casey is a strong woman and an amazing mother. My heart is with her and her family!'

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp also sent prayers to Florida's first lady on Twitter, as did South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, along with other Republicans.

'@GAFirstLady, the girls, and I are sending prayers for healing and strength to @FLCaseyDeSantis and the entire DeSantis family!' Kemp wrote.

'Bryon and I send our prayers for a speedy recovery to @FLCaseyDeSantis, may the Lord give you strength and bless the physicians providing your care. God Bless you, Ron and the DeSantis Family,' Noem said.

'I know @FLCaseyDeSantis is a fighter and has the strength to beat breast cancer,' Noem said in another tweet.

Gov. DeSantis is seen as a potential presidential contender for 2024 ,though he has tamped down such speculation, saying he's instead focused on his run for reelection in 2022.

McEnany has spoken publicly about her own preventative double mastectomy

Since the governor took office in 2019, DeSantis has spearheaded four major initiatives

Gov. DeSantis described his wife Casey as 'the centerpiece of our family'

'I know @FLCaseyDeSantis is a fighter and has the strength to beat breast cancer,' Noem said in another tweet.

Gov. DeSantis is seen as a potential presidential contender for 2024, though he has tamped down such speculation, saying he's instead focused on his run for reelection in 2022.

Last week, the governor told Fox News' Sean Hannity: 'I'm not considering anything beyond doing my job.'

'We've got a lot of stuff going on in Florida. I'm going to be running for reelection next year and we're also working on a lot of things in the state beyond just the governor's race,' he said.

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world and affects more than two MILLION women a year Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. Each year in the UK there are more than 55,000 new cases, and the disease claims the lives of 11,500 women. In the US, it strikes 266,000 each year and kills 40,000. But what causes it and how can it be treated? What is breast cancer? Breast cancer develops from a cancerous cell which develops in the lining of a duct or lobule in one of the breasts. When the breast cancer has spread into surrounding breast tissue it is called an 'invasive' breast cancer. Some people are diagnosed with 'carcinoma in situ', where no cancer cells have grown beyond the duct or lobule. Most cases develop in women over the age of 50 but younger women are sometimes affected. Breast cancer can develop in men though this is rare. Staging means how big the cancer is and whether it has spread. Stage 1 is the earliest stage and stage 4 means the cancer has spread to another part of the body. The cancerous cells are graded from low, which means a slow growth, to high, which is fast growing. High grade cancers are more likely to come back after they have first been treated. What causes breast cancer? A cancerous tumour starts from one abnormal cell. The exact reason why a cell becomes cancerous is unclear. It is thought that something damages or alters certain genes in the cell. This makes the cell abnormal and multiply 'out of control'. Although breast cancer can develop for no apparent reason, there are some risk factors that can increase the chance of developing breast cancer, such as genetics. What are the symptoms of breast cancer? The usual first symptom is a painless lump in the breast, although most breast lumps are not cancerous and are fluid filled cysts, which are benign. The first place that breast cancer usually spreads to is the lymph nodes in the armpit. If this occurs you will develop a swelling or lump in an armpit. How is breast cancer diagnosed? Initial assessment: A doctor examines the breasts and armpits. They may do tests such as a mammography, a special x-ray of the breast tissue which can indicate the possibility of tumours.

Biopsy: A biopsy is when a small sample of tissue is removed from a part of the body. The sample is then examined under the microscope to look for abnormal cells. The sample can confirm or rule out cancer. If you are confirmed to have breast cancer, further tests may be needed to assess if it has spread. For example, blood tests, an ultrasound scan of the liver or a chest x-ray. How is breast cancer treated? Treatment options which may be considered include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone treatment. Often a combination of two or more of these treatments are used. Surgery: Breast-conserving surgery or the removal of the affected breast depending on the size of the tumour.

Radiotherapy: A treatment which uses high energy beams of radiation focussed on cancerous tissue. This kills cancer cells, or stops cancer cells from multiplying. It is mainly used in addition to surgery.

Chemotherapy: A treatment of cancer by using anti-cancer drugs which kill cancer cells, or stop them from multiplying

Hormone treatments: Some types of breast cancer are affected by the 'female' hormone oestrogen, which can stimulate the cancer cells to divide and multiply. Treatments which reduce the level of these hormones, or prevent them from working, are commonly used in people with breast cancer. How successful is treatment? The outlook is best in those who are diagnosed when the cancer is still small, and has not spread. Surgical removal of a tumour in an early stage may then give a good chance of cure. The routine mammography offered to women between the ages of 50 and 70 mean more breast cancers are being diagnosed and treated at an early stage. For more information visit breastcancercare.org.uk, breastcancernow.org or www.cancerhelp.org.uk Advertisement

Former Sec. of State Mike Pompeo said: 'Susan and I are praying for @FLCaseyDeSantis and for @GovRonDeSantis. May the Lord be with them and all of their family as they rise to the challenge before them.'

'Our hearts and thoughts are with @FLCaseyDeSantis. Ann and I pray that the Lord grants Casey, @GovRonDeSantis and their family strength in this fight. Florida stands with you!' said Florida GOP Sen. Rick Scott.

'Lourdes and I send our prayers to @FLCaseyDesantis, @GovRonDeSantis, and their 3 children. While cancer is a devastating disease, medical advances have drastically increased remission and recovery rates. With Gods help, I am sure Casey will pull through this difficult time,' Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., wrote on Twitter.

'Rand and I are keeping Floridas First Lady Casey DeSantis and family in our prayers. May God cover this amazing woman and her beautiful family with His love, strength, and healing,' Kelly Paul, wife of Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.,tweeted.
The West Australian government has vowed to impose new Covid restrictions on residents when the state finally lifts its hard border to the rest of Australia.

Health Minister Roger Cook has hinted at the introduction of new rules on masks and capacity limits at hospitality venues even when the Covid-obsessed state hits the 80 and 90 per cent vaccination targets.

Western Australia is slated to reopen its borders once it hits the vaccination milestones, but a date is yet to be announced.

Western Australia has vowed to impose new Covid rules on residents even when the state hits the 80 and 90 per cent vaccination targets (pictured, Perth residents in June)

Health Minister Roger Cook hinted at the introduction of new rules on masks and capacity limits at hospitality venues when the border reopens (pictured, patrons in Perth)

'In the future, we will have a situation whereby we have our borders play less of a role in our public social health measures,' Mr Cook told reporters on Monday.

'It means in Western Australia that we'll be looking again towards masks playing a role in our lives.

'We will need to look again to potentially limiting the number of people at particular venues, at pubs, restaurants, large venues and so on.'

Christmas plans for West Australians desperate to reunite with family from interstate remain up in the air.

The health minister refused to reveal his prediction for when the state will hit its targets.

But Mr Cook said WA was on the 'right trajectory' to hit the 80 per cent milestone 'toward the end of the year' in late November.

The health minister said reopening Western Australia would be a 'challenging time' that could only be confronted with high vaccination rates.

Mr Cook described the reopening of the border would be a 'challenging time' that could only be confronted with high vaccination rates (pictured, Perth rugby fans in September)

Only 49.8 per cent of people in WA have been fully vaccinated, while 66.6 per cent have received their first dose of a Covid vaccine (pictured, Perth residents at a vaccine clinic)

However, the state may not reach the 80 per cent vaccination target anytime soon with jab uptake in the state among the lowest in the country.

Only 49.8 per cent of people in WA have been fully vaccinated, while 66.6 per cent have received their first dose of a Covid vaccine.

This figure is lower than the national rate with 79.6 per cent of the country on first dose and 56.9 per cent on two doses.

The health minister said around 10,000 residents were getting vaccinated every day.

There were 13,000 people in NSW and 30,000 in Victoria who rolled up their sleeves for a jab on Monday.

Mr Cook said due to the small number of active Covid-19 cases across the state, residents were hesitant to come forward for a vaccine.

'There will be consequences as a result of people not getting themselves vaccinated,' he warned.

'Push will come to shove at some point in the future'.

It comes after Mark McGowan swore he wouldn't fold under pressure from the federal government to reopen borders to NSW and Victoria by Christmas.

Mark McGowan has resisted pressure from the federal government to reopen borders to NSW and Victoria by Christmas (pictured, staff at a pub in Perth in January)

Due to the small number of active Covid-19 cases across Western Australia residents have been hesitant to get vaccinated (pictured, locals in Perth in June)

'We have plenty more to do,' he told Labor's State Conference.

'Doing our best to keep Covid out of WA - so we can get as many people as possible vaccinated. So Western Australians don't needlessly die along the way.'

Mr McGowan has shown resistance towards the targets agreed upon at national cabinet and said his borders are unlikely to open before Easter 2022.

On Monday, WA Health reported there had been 10 new cases of Covid-19 detected overnight.

All of the new cases are linked to the MV Stolt Sakura tanker which berthed at Fremantle Port on Saturday.
A California couple and their three-year-old son were found dead after a gas leak at an Airbnb apartment in Mexico while on vacation to visit family.

Joseph Nunez, his wife Maria Nunez and three-year-old son Jayden Nunez died on September 25 at a residence in Tijuana, a family member told KBAK. The couple, who lived in Delano, were also parents to four other children.

The family died after inhaling toxic gas at the apartment, however it's not clear what type of gas they were exposed to or where the leak emerged, according to state prosector Hiram Sanchez Zamora.

A relative, Trini Jacobo told KBAK that at least eight other family members were staying at the apartment. None of them were hurt.

A spokesperson for Airbnb told DailyMail.com on Monday that the company would be assisting in covering the expenses to get Joseph, Maria and Jayden back to California.

'This is a horrific tragedy. The thoughts of our team are with the Nunez children and the entire extended family, and we are working to support them as they grieve the losses of Jose, Maria and Jayden,' the spokesperson said. 'Safety is at the heart of everything we do at Airbnb, and we are conducting a comprehensive investigation into what happened.'

The spokesperson added that the Tijuana residence was delisted from the company's website.

Joseph Nunez and his wife Maria Nunez, both of California, traveled with their three-year-old son Jayden Nunez to visit family in Tijuana, Mexico, and were found dead September 25 inside one of the bedrooms at the Airbnb home they rented out. The Tijuana prosecutor's office announced that tests were being done to determine the type of gas that caused their deaths

Baja California Central State Attorney General Hiram Sanchez Zamora said three-year-old son Jayden Nunez's death was caused by 'anoxemia due to aspiration and secondary acute pulmonary edema due to chemical poisoning'

The Tijuana prosecutor's office said an investigation was still being done to determine the type of gas that killed the three Delano, California, residents.

'We already know that the cause of death for the woman and the three-year-old baby is anoxemia due to aspiration and secondary acute pulmonary edema due to chemical poisoning that we are yet to determine,' Baja California Central State Attorney General Hiram Sanchez Zamora said, according to local newspaper Esquina 32.

Joseph Nunez's death was caused by acute pulmonary edema as a result of the gas that he inhaled.

Sanchez Zamora said forensic workers would be reviewing blood samples that were collected to determine the type of gas that killed the family.

The Tijuana prosecutor's office said an investigation was still being done to determine the type of gas that killed them.

'We already know that the cause of death for the woman and the three-year-old baby is anoxemia due to aspiration and secondary acute pulmonary edema due to chemical poisoning that we are yet to determine,' Baja California Central State Attorney General Hiram Sanchez Zamora said, according to local newspaper Esquina 32.

Joseph Nunez's death was caused by acute pulmonary edema as a result of the gas that he inhaled.

Sanchez Zamora said forensic workers would be reviewing blood samples that were collected to determine the type of gas that killed the family.

Jose Nunez Jr and his wife Maria Nunez, holding three-year-old Jayden Nunez, pose with three of the four children they left behind

Three-year-old American Jayden Nunez was found dead along with his California parents on September 25 inside the bedroom of the Airbnb home they had rented out

The state prosecutor said the victims and eight other family members settled in the home September 23 and visited the nearby town of Rosarito.

They held a bbq at the home the following day and had alcoholic beverages before the three families went to sleep for the night.

They were the married couple and their son were found unresponsive approximately at 3pm on September 25 before authorities were alerted.

Trini Jacobo told KABK the family was looking to repatriate the remains of her nephew, his wife and son.

'Just a really good family. Both of them are very family oriented. Jose is probably  honestly, not just because he's my nephew  but he's one of the best dads I know,' she said. 'In love with his family. He's always hugging them, always holding them.'

The family set up a GoFund to help cover expenses.
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Haitian immigrants waiting at the Colombian town of Necocli pleaded with local authorities Monday after the ticket office for boat transport to Panama closed as 20,000 try to make their way to the United States.

Thousand of have been stuck in Necocli for as long as a month awaiting transport towards the jungles of the Darien Gap in Panama, where smugglers guide the groups northward on foot.

Tens of thousands of migrants pass through Necocli annually, but the lifting of Covid-19 border closures this year has sent the number of migrants soaring, with the worsening bottleneck overtaxing the town's utilities and social services.

They are making their was to the US, where just two weeks ago the number of Haitian migrants camped out under a border bridge in Del Rio, Texas swelled to 15,000.

Haitian immigrants waiting in the Colombian town of Necocli pleaded with authorities after the ferry ticket office for transport to Panama closed

Necocli has long served as a transport hub for migrants heading north to try and cross the US southern border

A backlog of up to 20,000 Haitian migrants has been stuck in the town for roughly a month, after the lifting of Covid-19 border restrictions sent migrations soaring

From Necocli, the migrants take water transport across the bay towards the Panamanian jungles of the Darien Gap

Though many migrants are sleeping in tents or on the town's beach, others are able to rent rooms by the day or share houses.

That has pushed out dozens of permanent residents.

Many have spent years in other Latin American countries like Chile and Brazil, but headed toward the US when they learned that President Joe Biden was halting deportations of Haitian nationals already in the country.

Officials in Panama meanwhile are warning of another wave of some 60,000 mostly Haitian immigrants now headed toward the southern US border.

Many of the migrants had been living in Brazil and Chile for years before recently deciding to make the trek to the Darien Gap, where they continue the treacherous journey to the US southern border

The migrants headed north face a treacherous path in Panama, and an uncertain future in the US, where pandemic-era policies have been used to deport tens of thousands

The crush of migrants stuck in Necocli has strained services in the neighborhood

The neighborhood has become a bottleneck of sorts for the unprecedented number of migrants trying to head north

Foreign Minister Erika Mouynes expressed exasperation during a visit to Washington DC last week, saying that Panama has been warning the Biden administration for months about the recent surge in irregular migration.

'We sounded the alarm when we should have,' Mouynes told Axios. 'We've engaged with every single authority that we can think of, that we can come across, to say, "Please, let's pay attention to this."'

In recent weeks, shocking scenes of human misery emerged from a squalid migrant camp near the border in Texas, which swelled to 15,000 at the height of the crisis, as the unprepared Border Patrol scrambled to stem the flow of illegal crossings.

Many were expelled through the use of Title 42 a Donald Trump-era policy that allows them to bar people from entering the country during a health crisis.

The number of migrants in the neighborhood has been growing over the past month as many make their way from Brazil and Chile

The journey north is dangerous, and many have died

Haitian migrants cross the Guati River during their transfer to a camp where they will sleep to start their journey to the Darien Gap, in Acandi, Colombia, last Tuesday

Harold Koh, a senior adviser and a political appointed to the State Department's legal team resigned, and blasted the administration for its harsh treatment of migrants through its use of Title 42, according to a report released Monday.

Koh called the policy 'illegal,' 'inhumane' and 'not worthy of this Administration that I so strongly support,' in an October 2 legal memo obtained by Politico.

'I believe this Administration's current implementation of the Title 42 authority continues to violate our legal obligation not to expel or return ('refouler') individuals who fear persecution, death, or torture, especially migrants fleeing from Haiti,' the memo notes.

He added that 'lawful, more humane alternatives plainly exist.'

White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended Title 42, saying it was a 'public health' policy and not an immigration one.

On their path north by from South America, the migrants must pass through the isthmus country of Panama, with many making the trek through the treacherous jungles of the Darien Gap.

Panama Foreign Minister Erika Mouynes expressed exasperation during a visit to Washington DC last week, saying that Panama has been warning the Biden administration for months about the recent surge in irregular migration

Haitian migrants rest as they cross the jungle of the Darien Gap, near Acandi, Choco department, Colombia, heading to Panama last Monday, on their way trying to reach the US

Panama is expecting 27,000 more migrants to cross through the Darien Gap this month, more than were encountered in all of 2019.

'Let's recognize that they all are heading toward the US,' said Mouynes, calling on the Biden administration to help enforce a coordinated strategy with countries across the region.

Mouynes said that more than 85,000 migrants have passed through Panama since January, most of them Haitians.

Roughly 20,000 to 25,000 Haitians have already reached the U.S.-Mexico border, with most being allowed to enter the United States. That leaves another 60,000 are most likely still on their way north, the minister said.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas reportedly asked his officials whether the department was ready to handle the possibility of up to 400,000 migrants, nearly double the 21-year high seen in July, crossing the border in October.

A priest attends the burial of a group of migrants who died trying to cross the Darien gap, at the Guayabillo cemetery in Agua Fria, Panama on Thursday, highlighting the deadly dangers of the treacherous jungle trek

A bulldozer dumps dirt a group of migrants who died trying to cross the Darien gap, at the Guayabillo cemetery in Panama

Despite public attempts to appear in control of the situation at the southwest border, a phone call between Mayorkas and senior officials last week shows a Biden administration scrambling to contain a growing crisis.

Mayorkas asked on the call if the border was ready for a worst-case scenario of 350,000 to 400,000 migrants crossing the border next month, two DHS officials told NBC.

Even the lower estimate would be record breaking, but 400,000 border crossings is nearly double the 21-year high hit in July of 210,000. August saw more than 208,000 encounters at the southwestern border.

The officials said the estimates weren't based on internal intelligence.

Instead Mayorkas and others within DHS were worried about a spike in migrants crossing the border if a court-ordered repeal of the Title 42 expulsion policy took effect.

October's border surge could potentially shatter records already set for border crossings this year

Migrants, mostly Haitian, walked through a makeshift border camp along the International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas amid a crush of roughly 15,000 that had been camping out there earlier last month awaiting asylum

Title 42, a Trump-era pandemic order was used to expel the thousands of Haitians camped under the bridge

Images of a US border guard on horseback unfurling a whip-like cord against Haitian migrants crossing the Rio Grande sparked widespread outrage

Title 42 is a Trump-era Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) order that enables any border officer to immediately turn asylum-seekers away during the pandemic regardless of their status.

A federal appeals court judge in Washington, DC ruled on Thursday that the Biden administration can continue to enforce Title 42 to rapidly deport migrants apprehended at the US-Mexico frontier.

United States Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas privately expressed concern over whether the Department of Homeland Security could handle the border surge

The Biden administration has rolled back its enforcement of the policy somewhat to allow exceptions for unaccompanied minors and some families with young children.

But immigrant advocacy groups and some of Biden's fellow Democrats are outraged at the White House's continued enforcement and defense of the rule.

DHS is concerned that with Title 42 gone, however, migrants may misinterpret the shift to mean the border is wide open even as Mayorkas himself insisted last month that 'our borders are closed' during a contentious Senate hearing.

Biden considered lifting Title 42 in July but officials issued a dire warning: 'We could have a rush at the border. It would be catastrophic.'

The officials who revealed the Mayorkas call said Customs and Border Protection has been given no guidance on what to do when Title 42 ends.

Meanwhile a new caravan of more than 15,000 migrants led by smugglers is said to be in Mexico and headed for the US border, according to a letter sent to President Biden from Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Marsha Blackburn.

The GOP lawmakers say they and thousands of other migrants who have crossed the border this year 'are emboldened' by Biden's more relaxed policies compared to his predecessor.

'We call on you to immediately send a clear and concise signal to the massive caravan en route that they must turn around. Smuggling and trafficking should not be tolerated by the United States,' Graham and Blackburn write.
Treasurer Dominic Perrottet is favourite to be crowned NSW premier when shell-shocked Liberal MPs gather to choose Gladys Berejiklian's replacement.

Mr Perrottet - from the NSW Liberal's right faction - will face Planning Minister Rob Stokes in a party room vote for the leadership at 10am on Tuesday AEDT.

Ms Berejiklian quit on Friday after the state's corruption watchdog disclosed she was under investigation for potential breaches of public trust given her secret five-year relationship with former MP Daryl Maguire.

Long touted as the premier-in-waiting, the treasurer on Sunday struck a deal with his moderate colleagues to make Jobs Minister Stuart Ayres his deputy and promote Environment Minister Matt Kean to treasurer.

But Planning Minister Rob Stokes is refusing to back down.

Sporting dark sunglasses, Dominic Perrottet was spotted at his ministerial office in Sydney's Martin Place on Monday as he tried to shore up support

Rob Stokes and Dom Perrottet enjoy a picnic together, above, earlier this year. The close mates will have to fight it out in the NSW Liberal party room on Tuesday

Mr Perrottet and Mr Stokes (middle and on right) often go jogging together

The Pittwater MP has offered himself as a more experienced alternative to 39-year-old Mr Perrottet, arguing he was the party's best shot at winning the 2023 election.

'Dominic Perrottet is a good friend of mine. He has a lot of great qualities. I just believe in terms of experience that I offer more,' he told reporters on Monday.

But the 47-year-old remained coy on his chances of winning the leadership when the Liberal party room meets.

'That is up to my colleagues,' he said.

'I feel very confident that I have every chance of being successful but, after all, the main game here is to give a choice to the people of the party room.'

Mr Perrottet on Monday played up his credentials working alongside Ms Berejiklian as deputy leader, and argued for stability.

'As Gladys demonstrated so well, leading a successful Liberal and National government requires unity across our party's 'broad church',' he wrote in an opinion piece published in The Daily Telegraph on Monday.

Rob Stoles (pictured right with ministerial colleague Natalie Ward) has refused to bow out of the leadership race for his good mate Dominic Perrottet

The father-of-six, who could be hours away from becoming the next NSW Premier, flashed a grin for the photographers outside his office on Monday

'We can only do that if we remain united, and maintain stability and continuity for the people of our state.'

Former prime minister and Liberal party elder John Howard has backed Mr Perrottet, saying he is driven and reform-focused.

It comes as the NSW Nationals prepare for their own leadership contest.

The NSW government will have an entirely fresh leadership team by Wednesday, after Deputy Premier and Nationals leader John Barilaro announced he too would quit parliament on Monday.

Paul Toole and Adam Marshall are expected to join Melinda Pavey in a three-way race to fill his position, with a party room vote due Wednesday.

Mr Barilaro's resignation means the NSW government faces three by-elections in coming months for the seats of Willoughby, Bega and Monaro, after Transport Minister Andrew Constance on Sunday also announced he was leaving to attempt a switch to federal politics.

Dominic Perrottet spent the public holiday Monday hard at work shoring up the numbers for the top job to be decided on Tuesday

Opposition leader Chris Minns on Monday blasted Mr Constance and Mr Barilaro for resigning during the pandemic.

'That you've got a new job opportunity or you'd like to move into a new political arena is not a good enough reason to abandon your electorate and start a new career, particularly during a pandemic,' he said.

By-elections cost upwards of $1.5 million each, he said, and urged them to reconsider their decisions to quit.
Harold Koh, a senior adviser and a political appointe to the State Department's legal team, resigned and blamed Biden's 'inhumane' treatment of migrants

A top adviser at the State Department resigned and criticized President Joe Biden's administration for its 'inhumane' treatment of migrants, a new report revealed on Monday.

Harold Koh, a senior adviser and a political appointe to the State Department's legal team, blasted the administration for its harsh treatment of migratins through its use of Title 42, a Donald Trump era policy that allows them to bar people from entering the country during a health crisis.

Koh called the policy 'illegal,' 'inhumane' and 'not worthy of this Administration that I so strongly support,' in an October 2 legal memo obtained by Politico.

'I believe this Administration's current implementation of the Title 42 authority continues to violate our legal obligation not to expel or return ('refouler') individuals who fear persecution, death, or torture, especially migrants fleeing from Haiti,' the memo notes.

He added that 'lawful, more humane alternatives plainly exist.'

White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended Title 42, saying it was a 'public health' policy and not an immigration one.

'I would say that we don't see Title 42 as a immigration policy,' she said Monday at her press briefing. 'It is a public health authority because we're still in the middle of a pandemic.'

She added that 'there are several exceptions for Title 42, including those who are fleeing persecution, who expressed a concern of fear, goes through a process.'

Title 42 went into place during March 2020, the height of the COVID pandemic, under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when it was led by a Trump appointee.

But the Biden administration has kept the policy in place and officials say it's a public health matter so any decision to lift it must be made by the CDC.

The CDC reviews the policy every 60 days. The latest review came over the weekend, where the agency, citing transmission rates and the Delta variant, 'determined that the Order continues to be necessary at this time.'

Immigration advocates have argued against Title 42, saying it harms migrants, and the policy has been controversial among Biden advisers.

As of August, more than 195,000 migrants had been expelled under Title 42, according to US Customs and Border Patrol data.

As of August, more than 195,000 migrants had been expelled under Title 42, according to US Customs and Border Patrol data

Title 42 was most recently used to expel thousands of Haitians seeking asylum as they camped out under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas

The policy was most recently used to expel thousands of Haitians seeking asylum as they camped out under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas.

Last month, the U.S. special envoy for Haiti resigned because of what he called the 'inhumane' deportation of Haitian migrants under Title 42.

'I will not be associated with the United States [sic] inhumane, counterproductive, decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants to Haiti, a country where American officials are confined to secure compounds because of the danger posed by armed gangs in control of daily life,' Ambassador Daniel Foote wrote in his resignation letter.

In the letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Foote said another reason for his resignation is that his recommendations to help Haiti have been 'ignored and dismissed'.

'Our policy approach to Haiti remains deeply flawed,' Foote continued in his letter, 'and my recommendations have been ignored and dismissed, when not edited to project a narrative different from my own.'

U.S. Special Envoy for Haiti Daniel Foote resigned in September, citing the treatment o Haitians under Title 42

A State Department spokesperson accused Foote of 'mischaracterizing the circumstances of his resignation' and said some of his ideas were deemed 'harmful.'

'[A]ll proposals, including those led by Special Envoy Foote, were fully considered in a rigorous and transparent policy process,' a statement from the spokesperson reads. 'Some of those proposals were determined to be harmful to our commitment to the promotion of democracy in Haiti and were rejected during the policy process.'

'For him to to say that his proposals were ignored is simply false,' they added.

The statement claims: 'It is unfortunate that, instead of participating in a solutions-oriented policy process, Special Envoy Foote has both resigned and mischaracterized the circumstances of his resignation.'
White House press secretary Jen Psaki picked up where President Joe Biden left off Monday in hammering Senate Republicans for blocking Democratic efforts to raise the debt ceiling before the October 18 deadline.

'This is a period of time where we could easily solve this in the next two days, and easily do that through allowing Democrats to be the adults in the room, despite the fact that Republicans spent like drunken sailors for the last four years before President Biden took office,' Psaki said at the afternoon press briefing.

Earlier, Biden lashed out at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his caucus, saying their actions were 'hypocritical, dangerous and disgraceful,' because they've objected when Democrats have tried to pass a debt ceiling bill.

Republicans are trying to force Democrats into using reconciliation - which bypasses the Senate filibuster - to bump up the debt ceiling, while the White House is demanding that the GOP simply not filibuster the already-passed House debt ceiling bill.

'What is happening in the Senate right now is Senate Democrats have proposed that they would, they would do all the votes to raise the debt limit. They are happy to be the adults in the room,' Psaki said. 'They are not even asking Republicans to vote for it at this point. We know they're unwilling to be the adults in the room.'

White House press secretary Jen Psaki blasted Republicans for spending 'like drunken sailors' under former President Donald Trump, and then tripping up Democratic efforts to increase the debt ceiling

At Monday's briefing, Psaki stood alongside a chart that showed how much the debt had grown under Trump and how much it's increased in the first nine months of the Biden administration

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell sent a letter to President Joe Biden Monday maintaining that Republicans wouldn't help Democrats raise the debt ceiling

But Republicans look unlikely to budge.

Asked why the White House wouldn't just push Democrats to use reconciliation to get the bill done, Psaki replied: 'Why let McConnell off the hook, or Republicans off the hook?' she asked reporters in the room. 'I mean, it is their debt.'

She brought along a visual - a chart entitled 'Debt Increase During Presidency' - to provide context at the briefing.

'The moment we're in, as the president talked about earlier today, is despite the fact that under the last administration nearly 8 trillion in bills was compiled - I have a little chart here just to give you a little visual - almost $8 trillion during the Trump administration, $676 billion during the Biden administration,' Psaki noted.

'So what Sen. McConnell is refusing to do is pay the debts of what were rung up under his leadership when he was in the Senate - still continues to be, of course - and when Trump was president,' she continued.

She pointed out that the 'debt limit is about paying the bills we have already spent.'

'It is not about initiatives that we are talking about and debating now,' Psaki said.

Earlier, a frustrated Biden spoke in the State Dining Room and accused the Republicans of playing 'Russian Roulette' with the American economy.

He told reporters he couldn't guarantee the U.S. wouldn't default.

'No I can't. That's up to Mitch McConnell,' Biden answered.

President Joe Biden hammered Republicans for refusing to raise the debt ceiling in Monday morning remarks from the White House.

President Joe Biden (right) and First Lady Jill Biden (left) arrive back at the White House Monday morning after spending the weekend in Wilmington, Delaware

Biden said he would speak to reporters later, as he's slated to speak at 11:15 a.m. about the debt ceiling

The Bidens walked hand-in-hand across the South Lawn Monday morning as they arrived back from Wilmington, Delaware

'They won't raise it,' Biden complained. 'Even though defaulting on the debt would lead to [a] self-inflicted wound that takes our economy over a cliff and risks jobs and retirement savings, social security benefits, salaries for servicemembers, benefits for veterans and so much more.'

The House voted Wednesday 219-212 to suspend the debt ceiling until December 2022, after next year's midterm elections.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a letter to colleagues Monday morning telling them, 'we must get a bill to the president's desk dealing with the debt limit by the end of the week. Period.'

Schumer didn't say what process he would use to pass such a bill.

McConnell reiterated that he wouldn't play ball in a Monday morning letter to Biden.

'Republicans will not build Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer a shortcut around procedural hurdles they can clear on their own so they have a more convenient path to jam us with a partisan taxing and spending spree,' McConnell said.

Biden told reporters he had read the letter right before his speech.

'I plan to talk to Mitch about it,' Biden said.

During the briefing, Psaki said the call hadn't happened yet.

'I think what the president was conveying is that he's, of course, open to speaking to Sen. McConnell. That's the role of - or should be - the role of any president to work to address what could be an economic catastrophe for the American public,' she said.

'They have not talked yet. I don't know when it will be scheduled. But what is clear, is this is not a negotiation,' she added. 'We know what needs to happen here.'

McConnell blocked several Democratic attempts of using unanimous consent to lift the debt ceiling last week.

Now, Biden feared Republicans would filibuster it - meaning 60 votes would be needed to procede.

'So let's be clear, not only are Republicans refusing to do their job, they're threatening to use their power to prevent us from doing our job,' Biden said.

He urged Republicans not to filibuster the bill, so it could pass using only the 50 Democratic votes.

Otherwise Democrats will have to push a debt ceiling bill through using the process of reconciliation - where they can bypass Republicans, but Biden warned was fraught with 'all kinds of potential danger for miscalculation.'

'It's an incredibly complicated, cumbersome process when there's a very simple process out there,' Biden said, pointing out that the Senate could merely pass the House bill.

Meanwhile Psaki described getting the Senate to pass the House bill as the 'fastest, the simplest, the cleanest, the least risky way to get this done.'

'Everything else would come to a standstill,' Biden also warned.

But that's the point, as McConnell is holding the debt ceiling hostage to protest the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill Biden that progressive Democrats want to see passed.

'Bipartisanship is not a light switch that Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer may flip on to borrow money and flip off to spend it. Republicans' position is simple. We have no list of demands. For two and a half months, we have simply warned that since your party wishes to govern alone, it must handle the debt limit alone as well,' McConnell said in the letter.

Democrats plan to pass the $3.5 trillion bill using reconciliation - which means they can cut out Republicans entirely.

However, the Democrats aren't all on the same page about the bill.

That bill contains a number of liberal goodies including climate change provisions, universal pre-K, child care assistance, tuition-free community college, paid medical and family leave, the extension of the child tax credit and enhanced Medicare coverage.

Moderate Democrats including Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have complained that the pricetag is too high.

Biden complained about them to reporters Monday.

'I need 50 votes in the Senate, I have 48,' he said. 'I've been able to close the deal with 99 per cent of my party. Two, two people, that's still underway.'

Progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders conceded on Sunday that the $3.5 trillion price will likely have to go down.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told colleagues in a Monday morning email, 'We must get a bill to the president's desk dealing with the debt limit by the end of the week. Period'

'The $3.5 trillion should be a minimum, but I accept that there's gonna have to be give and take,' the progressive from Vermont said on ABC's This Week.

On Thursday, a planned House vote on the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill was called off, with progressives threatening to tank the bill if moderate Democrats wouldn't get on board the larger spending package.

On Friday, Biden met with Democrats on Capitol Hill.

Sanders wouldn't confirm that the number Biden floated to lawmakers during his Friday meeting on Capitol Hill was $2 trillion.

'Well, first of all, I'm not sure that that's accurate, as you know there's a lot of gossip that goes on,' Sanders said.

Schumer cited what Biden had told lawmakers in his Monday morning note.

'He encouraged them to stick together, compromise, and find the sweet spot that will allow us to complete our work,' Schumer said of the president's message. 'I agree with his sentiment whole-heartedly - we can get this done, together, if we put aside our differences and find the common ground within our party.'

'It will require sacrifice. Not every member will get everything he or she wanted. But at the end of the day, we will pass legislation that will dramatically improve the lives of the American people,' Schumer said.
A new video shows brazen thieves stealing from a New York City store in front of a security guard before breezing past toward the exit with their stolen goods.

The video, posted to TikTok by a woman named India who says she works at a Rite Aid store, shows several people taking large boxes off the shelves and walking out without being stopped.

The first two men, one in a gray long-sleeved t-shirt and another sporting a black hoodie, are seen grabbing large boxes of Halloween candy before running out, while the third appears to be a young man that looks directly at her, smiles and waves before he takes off.

A fourth man is seen with a garbage bag full of items slung over his shoulder before he exits the building, and a fifth man is seen carrying an item in his right hand.

India dubbed the video a 'typical night at work,' noting in the comments that she is a security guard for the store and takes the videos for her job. It has been viewed over 111,000 times.

The comment led people to ask her why she isn't stopping the thieves if she is supposed to be a security guard, to which she replied: 'Because it's illegal to touch, grab or use any physical force to stop them.'

Instead, she said, her job is to 'observe and report.'

DailyMail.com has reached out to Rite Aid for comment.

A video posted to TikTok shows a parade of people casually shoplifting from what appears to be a Rite Aid in New York City

One man could be seen in the video with a garbage bag full of items slung over his shoulder

Another smiled and waved at the security guard who filmed the scene as he passed by

In July, actress Cynthia Nixon criticized her local CVS in Manhattan for putting some of its products under lock and key.

The Sex and The City star tweeted and failed New York gubernatorial candidate tweeted that she had noticed her local CVS in SoHo had 'started' locking up 'basic items like clothing detergent.'

'As so many families can't make ends meet right now, I can't imagine thinking that the way to solve the problem of people stealing basic necessities out of desperation is to prosecute them,' Nixon tweeted.

But a manager of the SoHo CVS, named Vincent, said she was not living in the real world.

'Miss Cynthia Nixon, I don't think you understand what is going on,' he told DailyMail.com 'If you feel that way, maybe one day you should come here and see what we go through. Because people are in danger too - they come in here, and start with customers and they start with the people here that work.'

Cynthia Nixon (pictured) came under fire in July when she slammed a CVS in SoHo for putting its items under lock and key

In August, NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio released said crime in August 2021 dropped 5.4 per cent compared to the same time last year.

Crime in the city is also at one of its lowest levels since 1995, according to CompStat with 6,141 violent incidents compared to 1,979 in the year to date. Those incidents include, murder, rape, assault, burglary, larceny and grand theft auto.

NYPD data shows the change in crime rates from a 28-day period in August 2021 ending on Sunday, September 5, compared to the same time last year

The brazen New York City shoplifting video comes after thieves ran rampant on the West Coast.

In one incident, surveillance footage caught a group of thieves in masks and hoodies sprinting out of a San Francisco Neiman Marcus with armfuls of designer handbags and others casually walking out of a TJ Maxx store carrying bags worth of goods.

In another, in June, a prolific shoplifter who had stolen from the same Walgreens on at least four occasions, was seen loading armfuls of Walgreens products into a trash bag, then riding his bike through the store with the stolen goods while the security guard and bystanders looked on.

The suspect, Jean Lugo-Romero, 40, was arrested on June 19 and remains in jail.

San Francisco's woke DA Chesa Boudin later spoke out in his defense.

'When I watch that video, I think about five questions that people are not asking that I think they should,' Boudin told The New Yorker. 'Is he drug addicted, mentally ill, desperate? Is he part of a major retail fencing operation?

'What's driving this behavior and is it in any way representative, because it was presented as something symptomatic?'

In the city, charges of property theft less than $950 in value was downgraded from a felony to a misdemeanor in 2014 - meaning that store staff and security do not peruse or stop thieves who have taken anything worth less than $1,000.

'Some people calculate, 'Hey you know, I don't want to go over $950, so let me steal $949 worth of property,' Police Chief William Scott said of the consequences of the law, which was passed as Proposition 47.

He also noted to NBC News that 'If it's a felony, our officers can take action. But it it's a misdemeanor, that arrest has to be a private persons' arrest, and that makes a difference, because they have to be willing to do that.'

The security guard, India, denied that it was only black people shoplifting from the store, posting a follow-up video of a white man grabbing a drink from the refrigerator

He then also casually left the store, as she claims she does not have the authority to stop him

There were 12,194 instances in 2021 between January 1 and June 27, 2021, according to the San Francisco police department's data, representing a drop by around 11 percent from the same time period in 2020, when there were 13,804 instances. The next highest crime is burglary and there were 3,624 instances in 2021, a rough five percent increase from the 3,439 acts committed in 2020 between the same time period.

Defined by the department as including 'thefts of bicycles, motor vehicle parts and accessories, shoplifting, pocket picking, or the stealing of any property or article that is not taken by force and violence or by fraud.' Burglary is different from larceny because it involves unlawful trespassing to commit a crime.

As a result Target announced that six of its San Francisco stores would close at 6pm instead of 10pm in an effort to prevent further theft. The retailer wrote in a statement, 'for more than a month, we've been experiencing a significant and alarming rise in theft and security incidents at our San Francisco stores.'

Walgreens has closed 17 San Francisco stores, and theft in the pharmaceutical chain's 53 remaining stores is four times the average for stores elsewhere in the country, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

One Walgreens reportedly loses $1,000 a day to shoplifters, the news outlet reported.

One Target security guard, Kevin Greathouse, told Newsweek that management has instructed him and other employees not to physically engage the shoplifters.

Greathouse said he carries a handgun, a taser and pepper spray on him at all times when at Target. However, he described one alleged shoplifter recently threatening him with a knife and said, 'I don't have any intention of getting stabbed for $60 worth of stuff.'

The video comes after shoplifting ran rampant in San Francisco over the summer. A man is seen here fleeing a Neiman Marcus in the city, carrying designer goods with security tags still on them in July

Two men were also photographed casually walking out of a TJ Maxx with their arms filled with stolen goods

To combat the rise in crime, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law in July that reestablishes organized retail theft as a crime.

It applies to those who work with others to receive stolen merchandise either from brick-and-mortar stores or online, with the intent to sell or return the items, those who work with others to receive stolen merchandise, those who steal for others as part of an organized ring or those who do the recruiting for the ring.

But it is still up to local prosecutors to determine what punishments thieves would face - with the progressive district attorney in San Francisco pledging to avoid stiff penalties.

The man rode his bike to the store, filled a garbage bag with stolen goods and rode away

In a Twitter video posted by ABC7 Reporter Lyanne Melendez, a man is seen nonchalantly shoplifting from a Walgreens in San Francisco as a bystander and security guard watch

Meanwhile, in Seattle, police said in July they made more than 50 arrests linked to coordinated thefts at nine large retailers and grocery stores, NBC reports, and in Albuquerque, ew Mexico the state's top prosecutor, police and big box stores announced a partnership to combat 'organized retail crime.'

And in New York City, grand larcenies are up 1.8 percent compared to last year, according to the most recent crime data, with petit larcenies up 1.3 percent.
Senate Republicans are demanding the Biden administration stops bringing Afghan evacuees to the U.S., except those who have been fully vetted, amid reports that hundreds have walked off military bases.

Sen. Joni Ernst and 15 of her Senate colleagues wrote to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to warn that current vetting procedures risked the safety of the American public.

'We are concerned the hastily developed process creates gaps in security and criminal vetting and risks our nations security,' they wrote.

'We urge that you pause relocating any more Afghan evacuees to the United States, except for fully-vetted Afghans holding Special Immigration Visas (SIV), and complete all appropriate vetting procedures at safe locations abroad.'

Thousands of evacuees served alongside U.S. armed forces or in other capacities on behalf of the U.S. and had their SIVs completed, along with full checks.

Others had not even started the process when they secured passage out of Kabul amid chaotic scenes.

Senate Joni Ernst and 15 of her Republican colleagues wrote to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to warn that current vetting procedures of Afghan evacuees risked the safety of the American public

US Military Police walk past Afghan refugees at the Ft. McCoy US Army base on September 30, 2021 in Wisconsin. There are approximately 12,600 Afghan refugees being cared for at the base under Operation Allies Welcome

Afghan evacuees are being housed at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, one of eight military bases used to host 53,000 people while they await resettlement services

The 16 senators urged the Biden administration to halt any further relocation of evacuees to the U.S. unless they had completed the Special Immigrant Visa process

They given the status of 'humanitarian parole,' a temporary designation allowing them to complete the transition once in a safe place.

But those housed on U.S. military bases are not prisoners and are free to come and go as they please.

The senators cited a Reuters report that at least 700 Afghan evacuees had left before receiving U.S. resettlement services.

'Afghans selected to board American military planes in Kabul did not complete the long-established interagency vetting processes ... ' they wrote.

'Instead, much of the vetting is occurring on military bases on U.S. soil.

'Furthermore, the State Departments inability to facilitate or process SIV applicants on-ground, those that aided American operations in Afghanistan, fails our partners and breaks promises made to those who put themselves and their families at significant risk to aid U.S. efforts in Afghanistan.'

They asked the administration to halt the relocation of Afghan refugees to American soil unless they are fully vetted and hold SIVs.

Chaotic scenes at Kabul airport raised concerns that thousands of people escaped without having been vetted by U.S. authorities

First Sergeant Abraham plays catch with an Afghan refugee child in the village where Afghans are living temporarily at the Ft. McCoy US Army base in Wisconsin. There are approximately 12,600 Afghan refugees being cared for at the base under Operation Allies Welcome

'The vetting process must ensure the security, medical, and criminal screening of each Afghan seeking admittance into the United States,' said the senators.

'DHS also needs to clarify exactly what actions will be taken when derogatory information is uncovered on an Afghan already paroled into the United States - we cannot release a potential terrorist into the United States, but returning such an individual to Afghanistan where he or she can cause further harm is also not an acceptable solution.'

Some 53,000 Afghans are staying at eight military bases across the U.S.

The scale of the independent departures vary from base to base, according to the sources - more than 300 alone at Fort Bliss in Texas - a figure that is likely to alarm both advocates and critics of the massive U.S. resettlement operation.

A DHS spokesperson said all Afghan evacuees had to undergo a screening process before arriving in the country.

'Afghan guests who receive required vaccinations, complete their medical screening, and await their relocation arrangements at safe havens are eligible for various forms of assistance, which is why an overwhelming majority of Afghans remain at safe havens across the country,' the spokesperson told Fox News.

'If they choose to leave the military base, they are responsible for completing the medical requirements on their own, may forfeit other benefits, and could be in violation of their parole.'
Eco-fanatics will be hit with a new type of Asbo in a fresh attempt to bring their chaotic road protests to an end, Priti Patel will announce today.

The Home Secretary will reveal plans for measures to make it an offence to repeatedly obstruct roads or cause other delays.

The Criminal Disruption Prevention Orders  dubbed 'Asbos for crusties'  are intended to be quicker to enforce than the Government's current approach, which has been based on High Court injunctions.

In a separate move, Miss Patel will tell the Conservative Party conference that a specific new offence will be created to deal with protests by Extinction Rebellion protests and its offshoot Insulate Britain.

The Home Secretary will reveal plans for measures to make it an offence to repeatedly obstruct roads or cause other delays

The Criminal Disruption Prevention Orders  dubbed 'Asbos for crusties'  are intended to be quicker to enforce than the Government's current approach, which has been based on High Court injunctions. Pictured: he Hangar Lane gyratory on the A40 on Monday

And as fury boils over, activists' leader says: I'd let 999 patients die Close to tears, a woman driver confronted eco-protesters and demanded: 'How can you be so selfish?' She told the mob blocking the Blackwall Tunnel in east London that she was trying to visit her 81-year-old mother in hospital. Amid blaring horns, she said to the Insulate Britain protesters: 'She's in the ambulance, she's going to the hospital in Canterbury... I need to go to the hospital, please let me pass. This isn't OK... How can you be so selfish?' The activists  one of four groups that set up roadblocks at key locations in London during yesterday's rush hour  refused to let her through. Tensions flared as furious drivers yanked protesters off Wandsworth Bridge in the south of the capital before waving a paramedic crew and other cars through. One motorist could be heard saying: 'There's an ambulance, you stupid p****, get out of the road,' as the activists were dragged aside. Close to tears, a woman driver confronted eco-protesters and demanded: 'How can you be so selfish?' The confrontations came as the Government sought sweeping new legal measures to end the roadblocks which, until today, targeted the M25, the M4 and the port of Dover. Insulate Britain leader Roger Hallam, 55, backed his followers' hardline stance and said he would not move even if there was an ambulance containing 'someone who could potentially die'. Hallam, a failed Welsh farmer, has not been at the blockades, instead directing affairs from his lover's flat in south-east London. Yesterday others caught in the chaos described how they missed vital appointments. Bill Wilson, 55, said he was forced to cancel three important scans at the Royal Brompton Hospital in west London. 'It is extremely frustrating. Not only for myself, but also the cost to the NHS of cancelled appointments, including consultants' time and state-of-the-art equipment sitting there unused.' Another victim of the jams said he had been worried his autistic daughter of 15 could have had a seizure triggered by anxiety after she was stuck in the traffic for 45 minutes. Hanger Lane in west London and Arnos Grove in north London were also targeted. By late morning there had been 38 arrests. Advertisement

It will be made a crime to 'interfere with critical national infrastructure', including major roads, railways, seaports, power stations and newspaper printing presses.

The new crime will carry up to six months' imprisonment and will be dealt with at magistrates' courts only  after sympathetic juries acquitted a series of XR activists in the Crown courts.

It will give police new options when arresting offenders who block motorways or other sites, and make it more likely that protesters will face jail.

A Conservative source said police would 'now have no excuse' for not arresting and charging Insulate Britain troublemakers. However, the new powers will take months to come into force.

'Freedom to protest is a fundamental right our party will forever fight to uphold,' Miss Patel will tell the conference in Manchester later today. 'But it must be within the law.

'Measures already going through Parliament will ensure these criminals can be brought to justice for the disruption they are causing. But we are going further to close down the legal loopholes exploited by these offenders.

'I will increase the maximum penalties for disrupting a motorway; criminalise interference with key infrastructures such as roads, railways and our free press; and give the police and courts new powers to deal with the small minority of offender's intent on travelling around the country, causing disruption and misery across our communities.'

Another new criminal offence of 'disrupting a highway'  announced earlier this week  will carry up to six months' imprisonment. It will apply to motorways, A-roads and all types of local roads, a Conservative source said.

The Asbo-style orders, if breached, could carry up to two years' imprisonment for contempt of court, it is understood.

Sources said it would be targeted at 'a small number of prolific offenders who travel around the country, causing disruption and misery to others'.

They would be enforced on individuals with a history of disruption or where there is 'intelligence suggesting they are likely to commit a criminal offence from attending particular protests'.

Crucially, police would be able to arrest individuals on the spot if they breached an order that had been imposed on them by a court. Anti-social behaviour orders, or Asbos, were introduced by Tony Blair's Labour government in 1998.

They were imposed on yobs whose behaviour 'caused or was likely to cause harm, harassment, alarm or distress'. Breaching the civil orders carried up to five years' imprisonment. They were repealed by the Tories in 2014.

All Miss Patel's new measures will be introduced to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill next month. If approved by Parliament, they are expected to be in force by spring next year.

The moves come after weeks of protests which the police seemed powerless to stop.

Insulate Britain's campaign of roadblocks entered a fourth week yesterday, as activists targeted key locations in London.

It will be made a crime to 'interfere with critical national infrastructure', including major roads, railways, seaports, power stations and newspaper printing presses. Pictured: Wandsworth Bridge on Monday

They have repeatedly defied an interim injunction, granted by the High Court last month, which prevented named protesters from blocking the M25.

Ministers are now understood to be seeking a more wide-ranging injunction, which could serve as a stop-gap before the new powers are introduced.

In her conference speech today, Miss Patel will also insist she has 'redoubled' her efforts to tackle violence against women and girls following Sarah Everard's murder.

The Home Secretary refuses to utter the name of Miss Everard's killer, former police officer Wayne Couzens, who was handed a whole life sentence last week.

'I know all our thoughts remain with Sarah Everard's family and friends. Her murderer, whose name I refuse to repeat, was a monster,' Miss Patel will say.

'His explicit intention was to instil fear and terror in women and girls. I say this as Home Secretary, but also as a woman.

'Such unconscionable crimes and acts of violence against women and girls have no place in our society.'

Miss Patel will also set out her determination to tackle the Channel migrant crisis.

She will say: 'My New Plan for Immigration is already making its way through Parliament.

'At the heart of this Plan is a simple principle. Control. That is not unreasonable.

'France is a safe country, one not riven by war or conflict. There is no reason why any asylum seeker should come to the United Kingdom directly from France.'
A TikTok star who rose to fame for correctly predicting the NSW daily Covid case numbers has resurfaced online after being hospitalised with the virus.

Jon-Bernard Kairouz, 24, was admitted into the Covid-19 ward at St George Hospital in Kogarah, Sydney's south, last month and placed into intensive care.

Mr Kairouz fired up his social media accounts this week for the first time since news of his health battle broke to weigh in on Gladys Berejiklian's shock resignation.

Mr Kairouz, who dubbed himself the 'people's premier' during a heated speech at a Sydney anti-lockdown protest in July, posted a comedic message on Instagram calling on his followers to vote for him to take the state's top job.

He shared a picture of himself alongside contenders NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, Planning Minister Rob Stokes and Tourism Minister Stuart Ayres and captioned it: 'Let's put it to a vote'.

Jon-Bernard Kairouz (pictured) shot to fame after he correctly predicted the daily number of NSW case numbers in NSW

Mr Kairouz issued an Instagram post (pictured) on Monday to joke that he should become the next NSW Premier

The post quickly racked up more than 6572 likes with fans welcoming him back to the platform. He didn't comment on his prolonged absence from social media.

Mr Kairouz and his dad Richard were both placed into the intensive care unit of a south Sydney hospital when they contracted the virus earlier this year.

The comedian was released from ICU in mid-September. His father was still in an induced coma at that point. Richard's current condition remains unclear.

Mr Kairouz junior became known as 'the TikTok guy' after repeatedly revealing the NSW Covid tally hours before Premier Gladys Berejiklian earlier this year.

His sensational five-day streak ended in July when he got the numbers wrong, but he made headlines days later when he was charged for giving a speech at Sydney's anti-lockdown protest.

Bankstown Local Court heard last month the entertainer plans to fight two counts of not comply with noticed direction/Covid-19 and encourage commission of crime when he appears in the Downing Centre in October.

Jon-Bernard Kairouz's streak of accurate Covid case numbers ended after just five days in July

'All we want is freedom,' Mr Kairouz was filmed telling about 3,500 protesters.

'I must say I've crunched the numbers, I don't think the cases are going to go up tomorrow.

'From what I've calculated there's over 50,000 people here today,' he wrongly claimed.

Three police detectives were waiting outside his home in Belmore, in Sydney's south-west, on Sunday July 25 to present him with his court attendance notice.

The NSW Police Force released tense footage of his the moment detectives confronted Mr Kairouz on the street as he returned from an exercise session.

In September, a source close to the family said the family has been hit hard by Covid.

Jon-Bernard Kairouz and his father Richard Kairouz (pictured together) were hospitalised with Covid-19

Jon-Bernard Kairouz fired up anti-lockdown protesters during an illegal rally in Sydney in July (pictured)

'He was symptomatic ... and kept deteriorating,' they said, referring to Richard Kairouz.

'(He) decided to go to hospital on the Saturday afternoon. The whole family is at home in isolation.

'After predicting the Covid-19 numbers daily, (Jon-Bernard) couldn't predict that he (his dad) would contract it.'

It is still unclear how Mr Kairouz managed to accurately predict the Covid case numbers for five days in a row.

The feat hasn't been repeated by anyone else except for a handful of well-connected political reporters who have reliably forecast ballpark figures.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard denied that a 'trap' had been set for Mr Kairouz where false information was supplied to his source.

Mr Kairouz enjoyed his case numbers stardom, telling reporters prior to the police charges that he was 'having a ball'.

'It's been a whirlwind,' he added.
Freedom Day could come early for NSW residents with speculation that Dominic Perrottet will ease Covid restrictions this week as his first act as the state's new Premier.

Mr Perrottet, who was chosen as the new Premier to replace Gladys Berejiklian in a meeting of the Liberal party room on Tuesday, had been among the strongest voices within the government for easing of lockdown measures and could well accelerate the state's return to normality.

'The information I've got is he will seriously consider bringing forward Freedom Day for NSW to this Friday,' Nine News political reporter Chris O'Keefe said on the Today show on Monday.

'So instead of waiting until Monday 11, pubs will open, you'll be allowed to have people over to your home this Friday.'

However when pressed by reporters the elected Premier disappointed lockdown-weary residents by indicating he would stick to the original date of October 11.

Sporting dark sunglasses, Dominic Perrottet was spotted at his ministerial office in Sydney's Martin Place on Monday as he tried to shore up support

Rob Stokes and Dom Perrottet enjoy a picnic together, above, earlier this year. The close mates will have to fight it out in the NSW Liberal party room on Tuesday

Mr Perrottet promised NSW he would be calling a crisis cabinet meeting this afternoon to consider the roadmap alongside the state's health ministers.

'What I commit to doing is this afternoon, after the swearing-in, I will sit down with Minister Hazzard and the health team alongside Minister Ayres and members of the crisis cabinet to have a discussion in relation to the roadmap,' the state leader said.

'This is early days and we have done so well and my intention at this stage is that that day will remain on Monday for next week.

'But there are a number of issues that need to be looked at, and obviously, health is our number one priority right now and I will sit down with the minister and the whole team this afternoon.'

Mr Perrottet has previously advocated a restoration of freedoms for the unvaccinated at the same time as the double-jabbed, rather than forcing them to wait until December 1 under the roadmap being followed by Ms Berejiklian.

'Once every single person in this state has had the opportunity to be vaccinated with two doses then we should open up for everyone,' he said last month.

'I want to see more unity and not have a two-tiered society here.'

NSW was expected to pass the threshold of 70 per cent of the eligible population are being double vaccinated this week, triggering the restoration of many freedoms that had been foregone during a four-month lockdown.

These include the reopening of hospitality venues, retail, hairdressers and nail salons and other personal care services with strict limits on capacity.

The vaccine milestone will also trigger the resumption of gyms, sporting facilities, stadiums, theatres and indoor recreation.

Weddings, funerals and places of worship will also be allowed to take place for up to 50 vaccinated guests allowed to attend services.

Mr Perrottet, 39, was named as premier on Tuesday following a meeting of Liberal MPs to elect a replacement for Ms Berejiklian, who suddenly resigned on Friday after being named as a person of interest in investigations being run by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

He defeated Planning Minister Rob Stokes in a party room vote for the leadership at 10am on Tuesday AEDT.

Mr Perrottet and Rob Stokes, his rival for Premier, (middle and on right) often go jogging together

Long touted as the premier-in-waiting, the treasurer - who is from the conservative wing of the party - struck a deal on Sunday with his moderate colleagues to make Jobs Minister Stuart Ayres his deputy and promote Environment Minister Matt Kean to treasurer.

But Planning Minister Rob Stokes is refusing to back down.

The Pittwater MP has offered himself as a more experienced alternative to 39-year-old Mr Perrottet, arguing he was the party's best shot at winning the 2023 election.

'Dominic Perrottet is a good friend of mine. He has a lot of great qualities. I just believe in terms of experience that I offer more,' he told reporters on Monday.

But the 47-year-old remained coy on his chances of winning the leadership when the Liberal party room meets.

'That is up to my colleagues,' he said.

'I feel very confident that I have every chance of being successful but, after all, the main game here is to give a choice to the people of the party room.'

Mr Perrottet played up his credentials working alongside Ms Berejiklian as deputy leader, and argued for stability.

'As Gladys demonstrated so well, leading a successful Liberal and National government requires unity across our party's 'broad church',' he wrote in an opinion piece published in The Daily Telegraph on Monday.

Rob Stoles (pictured right with ministerial colleague Natalie Ward) has refused to bow out of the leadership race for his good mate Dominic Perrottet

The father-of-six, who became Premier after a meeting of the Liberal party room on Tuesday, flashed a grin for the photographers outside his office on Monday

'We can only do that if we remain united, and maintain stability and continuity for the people of our state.'

Former prime minister and Liberal party elder John Howard backed Mr Perrottet, saying he is driven and reform-focused.

It comes as the NSW Nationals prepare for their own leadership contest.

The NSW government will have an entirely fresh leadership team by Wednesday, after Deputy Premier and Nationals leader John Barilaro announced he too would quit parliament on Monday.

Paul Toole and Adam Marshall are expected to join Melinda Pavey in a three-way race to fill his position, with a party room vote due Wednesday.

Mr Barilaro's resignation means the NSW government faces three by-elections in coming months for the seats of Willoughby, Bega and Monaro, after Transport Minister Andrew Constance on Sunday also announced he was leaving to attempt a switch to federal politics.

Dominic Perrottet spent the public holiday Monday hard at work shoring up the numbers for the top job to be decided on Tuesday

Opposition leader Chris Minns on Monday blasted Mr Constance and Mr Barilaro for resigning at such a critical time.

'That you've got a new job opportunity or you'd like to move into a new political arena is not a good enough reason to abandon your electorate and start a new career, particularly during a pandemic,' he said.

By-elections cost upwards of $1.5 million each, he said, and urged them to reconsider their decisions to quit.
Boris Johnson is to urge office workers to get back to their desks.

Amid growing confidence that Covid will not spark further lockdowns, the Prime Minister will use his Tory conference speech tomorrow to encourage a return to the workplace.

'He believes very strongly in the value of face-to-face working,' a senior source said. 'It is critical for the training and development of young people. How can you learn a new job on Zoom?'

Meanwhile Home Secretary Priti Patel will today announce plans to hit eco-warriors with a new type of Asbo in an attempt to halt their motorway protests.

And Justice Secretary Dominic Raab will a unveil a deal to force criminals in 'chain gangs' to clear rubbish from waterways.

Mr Johnson launched an ill-fated attempt to get office staff back to their desks last year, which was wrecked by the emergence of the second wave of Covid.

Scientific advisers have pressed him not to repeat the exercise this year because working from home is one of the most effective ways of slowing the spread of the virus.

Instead the Government left it up to employers to encourage a 'gradual return to the workplace'.

But a second Tory source said ministers were now hopeful they would not have to issue another work from home order this winter.

'You can never rule anything out with Covid,' the source said. 'But we are now in early October and hospitalisations are still running at manageable levels.

'We are not at the point of anyone thinking about Plan B.

'Even if we get to that point, it would start with things that cause relatively little disruption, such as mandatory masks and Covid certification.'

Amid growing confidence that Covid will not spark further lockdowns, the Prime Minister will use his Tory conference speech tomorrow to encourage a return to the workplace

In other developments at the Tory conference:

The number of offenders forced to wear electronic tags will double under a major initiative from Mr Raab;

Rishi Sunak ruled out tax cuts until public finances were on a 'sustainable footing';

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries questioned whether the BBC would still exist in ten years' time;

Mr Johnson pledged that electricity will come entirely from green sources by 2035;

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng rejected calls for more visas for foreign workers;

Pig farmers warned of 'disaster' as they protested outside the conference over a shortage of butchers;

A party member was suspended after a businesswoman said she had been 'violently assaulted' in a bar;

Sir Iain Duncan Smith was hit on the head with a traffic cone by Left-wing protesters chanting 'Tory scum';

Michael Gove signalled a huge shift on planning policy.

Powers to reinstate the work from home order have been kept in reserve in the Governments contingency plans for Covid this winter.

But ministers believe that. So far, Britains wall of vaccination is holding up well against the virus.

While cases remain high, with 35,077 new infections recorded yesterday, hospital admissions remain relatively low. Admissions are averaging just over 700 per day and falling - far below the predictions by government modellers, who said admissions would rise to between 2,000 and 7,000 a day this month.

Tory demands to get more people back to the office have intensified since all legal Covid restrictions were lifted in July.

Former cabinet minister Jake Berry yesterday demanded that the Government set an example by ordering middle class civil servants back to Whitehall, joking that many were woke-ing from home.

'He believes very strongly in the value of face-to-face working,' a senior source said. 'It is critical for the training and development of young people. How can you learn a new job on Zoom?' Pictured: The Tube in London

Mr Berry told a fringe event: We have to end the Civil Service woke-ing from home - sorry, I mean working from home, but, lets be honest, it often is woke-ing. Official work from home Whitehall guidance was removed on July 19 and the Government told businesses they expected a gradual return over the summer.

However, insiders said Whitehall had only seen a slight increase in staff back at their desks, with numbers still pretty low.

Whitehall sources said that almost half of officials at the department for education are now back at their desks. But at the Home Office the figure is closer to 20 per cent, while for some departments, including the Ministry of Housing it is barely half that.

In September, job adverts for roles at HM Treasury revealed that staff would be allowed to work from home in a hybrid pattern on a permanent basis, spending an average of two to three days a week in the office.

Asked about Mr Berrys comments, Boris Johnsons official spokesman defended the Civil Service but emphasised the importance of working in person.

He said: The position of the Government remains that we want to see a steady return of the public to working in person, and thats the expectation of the Civil Service, thats what weve seen throughout the summer.

He said civil servants have been able to deliver for the public whilst working from home, but added: That said, as the Prime Minister has said repeatedly, there are significant benefits to being in work, to office working, and those should not be discounted. Thats why we are encouraging all employers to start steadily bringing in their workforce, as we are at this stage of the epidemic.

Rishi Sunak vows to 'throw the kitchen sink' at getting young people back into work after furlough as he unveils 500m help package

Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled new 500million plan to help people find work

Mr Sunak said the Government is 'throwing the kitchen sink' at helping people

Comes after the 70billion furlough scheme finally finished amid job loss fears

An estimated one million workers were still on furlough when the scheme ended

by Jack Maidment, deputy political editor for MailOnline

Rishi Sunak today insisted the Government is 'throwing the kitchen sink' at helping people get a new job as he unveiled a 500million package to support furloughed workers.

The Chancellor said he warned at the start of the coronavirus pandemic that 'it wasn't going to be possible for me or quite frankly any chancellor to save every single person's job'.

He said the end of the 70billion furlough programme will result in some job losses.

But he said people should be 'reassured' that ministers are doing everything they can to help the unemployed back into work.

Furlough is credited with saving millions of jobs during the Covid-19 crisis but an estimated one million workers were still on the programme when it finally closed last week, sparking fears of a surge in unemployment.

In his keynote speech to the Conservative Party conference in Manchester today, the Chancellor confirmed new funding to 'prioritise' job support for workers coming off furlough.

The 500million extension to the Government's so-called 'Plan for Jobs' will also provide tailored packages for others hit by the pandemic, including the young and workers aged over 50.

Rishi Sunak today insisted the Government is 'throwing the kitchen sink' at helping people get a new job as he unveiled a new 500million package to help furloughed workers. The Chancellor is pictured alongside Boris Johnson in Manchester this morning

Mr Sunak said the end of the 70billion furlough programme would result in some job losses. But he said people should be 'reassured' that ministers are doing everything they can to help the unemployed back into work

Mr Sunak was grilled this morning on the impact closing furlough will have on the unemployment rate.

The Chancellor told Sky News: 'I said right at the beginning of this crisis it wasn't going to be possible for me or quite frankly any chancellor to save every single person's job.

'But what I do know is that the interventions we put in place have made an enormous difference.

'As I said, at the beginning of this crisis people thought the unemployment rate would get to 12 per cent, that's millions and millions of people out of work.

'In fact the unemployment rate has now been falling for about six months in a row, it is under five per cent, we have a lower unemployment rate here in the UK than America, Canada, France, Spain, Italy amongst others and there are record numbers of job vacancies.

'So I think the plan is working. Of course some people sadly have lost their job and will lose their job.

'But that's why I want them to be reassured that we are throwing literally the kitchen sink at helping them get a new job, new skills, new opportunities and we know that that's been working over the past 12 to 18 months and that's why we are doing more of it today.'

Mr Sunak last night declared he is 'ready to double-down' on his promise to 'do whatever it takes' to recover from Covid-19.

He said the furlough scheme protected 11million jobs and the UK is 'experiencing one of the strongest and fastest recoveries of any major economy in the world'.

He added: 'But the job is not done yet and I want to make sure our economy is fit for the future, and that means providing the support and skills people need to get into work and get on in life.'

The Chancellor used his speech in Manchester to set out his vision of shaping the economy around 'the forces of science, technology and imagination'.

He pledged to 'make the United Kingdom the most exciting place on the planet' through enhanced infrastructure, improved skills and scientific investment.

Today's jobs package will see those coming off furlough prioritised for jobs support during the next three months.

Measures will include mock interviews and help with writing CVs and applying for jobs.

During the pandemic, the 70billion furlough scheme is credited with saving millions of jobs

Under the measures, the Kickstart scheme helping young people on Universal Credit will be extended to next March.

In its first five months, the scheme has found work placements for 76,900 young people.

The 3,000 incentive for new apprentices will also be extended until the end of January.

Treasury sources said the over-50s have seen the second largest fall in employment during the pandemic and are 'much less likely' to return to the workplace than younger colleagues. They will also be offered tailored support to find a new job.

The Treasury said more than 500million of new funding will be used for the package, coming from the education plus the work and pensions departments.

Last night the Confederation of British Industry welcomed the package. Chief policy director Matthew Fell said: 'Businesses are committed to playing their full part in training and re-skilling the workforce of tomorrow as we move towards a new economy.'

The announcement of the investment comes after the Chancellor pushed ahead with the end of furlough and a cut to Universal Credit.

A 20-a-week increase in the benefit introduced during the Covid crisis is due to finish on Wednesday.

Since the start of the pandemic, furlough has helped pay the wages of 11.6million workers at a cost of almost 70billion.

Mr Fell added: 'Businesses will welcome the Chancellor's plan for jobs pivoting from furlough to economic recovery.

An estimated one million workers were still on furlough when the programme closed last week

'With record vacancies and widespread labour shortages, this package's success will be measured by its ability to get people back into work.'

Labour's work and pensions spokesman Jonathan Reynolds said last night: 'The Government's struggling Plan for Jobs has failed to hit its original targets; it is not creating the number of jobs needed and has failed to address the supply chain crisis Britain is experiencing.

'Giving himself an extended deadline will do nothing to compensate for the Chancellor's tax rises, cost of living crisis and cuts to universal credit which are set to hammer millions of working families.

'Labour would create new jobs with our plan to buy, make and sell more in Britain to get our economy firing on all cylinders.'

Eco-fanatics are set to be hit with Asbos for blocking roads and face up to six months in JAIL under new law to be tabled by Home Secretary Priti Patel keep Britain on the move

By DAVID BARRETT, Home Affairs Correspondent, For The Daily Mail

Eco-fanatics will be hit with a new type of Asbo in a fresh attempt to bring their chaotic road protests to an end, Priti Patel will announce today.

The Home Secretary will reveal plans for measures to make it an offence to repeatedly obstruct roads or cause other delays.

The Criminal Disruption Prevention Orders  dubbed 'Asbos for crusties'  are intended to be quicker to enforce than the Government's current approach, which has been based on High Court injunctions.

In a separate move, Miss Patel will tell the Conservative Party conference that a specific new offence will be created to deal with protests by Extinction Rebellion protests and its offshoot Insulate Britain.

The Home Secretary will reveal plans for measures to make it an offence to repeatedly obstruct roads or cause other delays

The Criminal Disruption Prevention Orders  dubbed 'Asbos for crusties'  are intended to be quicker to enforce than the Government's current approach, which has been based on High Court injunctions. Pictured: he Hangar Lane gyratory on the A40 on Monday

It will be made a crime to 'interfere with critical national infrastructure', including major roads, railways, seaports, power stations and newspaper printing presses.

The new crime will carry up to six months' imprisonment and will be dealt with at magistrates' courts only  after sympathetic juries acquitted a series of XR activists in the Crown courts.

It will give police new options when arresting offenders who block motorways or other sites, and make it more likely that protesters will face jail.

A Conservative source said police would 'now have no excuse' for not arresting and charging Insulate Britain troublemakers. However, the new powers will take months to come into force.

'Freedom to protest is a fundamental right our party will forever fight to uphold,' Miss Patel will tell the conference in Manchester later today. 'But it must be within the law.

'Measures already going through Parliament will ensure these criminals can be brought to justice for the disruption they are causing. But we are going further to close down the legal loopholes exploited by these offenders.

'I will increase the maximum penalties for disrupting a motorway; criminalise interference with key infrastructures such as roads, railways and our free press; and give the police and courts new powers to deal with the small minority of offender's intent on travelling around the country, causing disruption and misery across our communities.'

Another new criminal offence of 'disrupting a highway'  announced earlier this week  will carry up to six months' imprisonment. It will apply to motorways, A-roads and all types of local roads, a Conservative source said.

The Asbo-style orders, if breached, could carry up to two years' imprisonment for contempt of court, it is understood.

Sources said it would be targeted at 'a small number of prolific offenders who travel around the country, causing disruption and misery to others'.

They would be enforced on individuals with a history of disruption or where there is 'intelligence suggesting they are likely to commit a criminal offence from attending particular protests'.

Crucially, police would be able to arrest individuals on the spot if they breached an order that had been imposed on them by a court. Anti-social behaviour orders, or Asbos, were introduced by Tony Blair's Labour government in 1998.

They were imposed on yobs whose behaviour 'caused or was likely to cause harm, harassment, alarm or distress'. Breaching the civil orders carried up to five years' imprisonment. They were repealed by the Tories in 2014.

All Miss Patel's new measures will be introduced to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill next month. If approved by Parliament, they are expected to be in force by spring next year.

The moves come after weeks of protests which the police seemed powerless to stop.

Insulate Britain's campaign of roadblocks entered a fourth week yesterday, as activists targeted key locations in London.

It will be made a crime to 'interfere with critical national infrastructure', including major roads, railways, seaports, power stations and newspaper printing presses. Pictured: Wandsworth Bridge on Monday

They have repeatedly defied an interim injunction, granted by the High Court last month, which prevented named protesters from blocking the M25.

Ministers are now understood to be seeking a more wide-ranging injunction, which could serve as a stop-gap before the new powers are introduced.

In her conference speech today, Miss Patel will also insist she has 'redoubled' her efforts to tackle violence against women and girls following Sarah Everard's murder.

The Home Secretary refuses to utter the name of Miss Everard's killer, former police officer Wayne Couzens, who was handed a whole life sentence last week.

'I know all our thoughts remain with Sarah Everard's family and friends. Her murderer, whose name I refuse to repeat, was a monster,' Miss Patel will say.

'His explicit intention was to instil fear and terror in women and girls. I say this as Home Secretary, but also as a woman.

'Such unconscionable crimes and acts of violence against women and girls have no place in our society.'

Miss Patel will also set out her determination to tackle the Channel migrant crisis.

She will say: 'My New Plan for Immigration is already making its way through Parliament.

'At the heart of this Plan is a simple principle. Control. That is not unreasonable.

'France is a safe country, one not riven by war or conflict. There is no reason why any asylum seeker should come to the United Kingdom directly from France.'
Almost half of all Victorians believe the economic effects of lockdown have become worse than the dangers of Covid, according to new research.

Data released by market research firm Bastion Insights this week reveals 49 per cent of Victorians believe the burden of lockdown outweighs the risk of catching Covid.

Only 30 per cent of those surveyed thought lockdowns were required and 21 per cent were undecided.

As of Monday Melbourne is the most locked down city in the world with new data showing 49 per cent of Melburnians now think lockdowns are worse than the risks of Covid (pictured: a Melbourne resident in September)

Melbourne's lockdown is not expected to lift until 70 per cent vaccination rates are met which is estimated to be about October 26 (pictured Melbourne on Monday)

Victorians were also more dissatisfied about how the government has handled outbreaks than any other state or territory.

Only 41 per cent of residents agreed with the Andrews government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, while less than a third were happy with the federal government's efforts at just 27 per cent.

As of 8pm on Sunday Melburnians will have spent 245 cumulative days in lockdown, the most out of any city in the world.

That beats Argentinian capital Buenos Aires which spent 234 days in lockdown in 2020 plus a 10-day circuit breaker lockdown in May this year.

Melbourne will end up far exceeding this record with the current roadmap indicating lockdowns will not be lifted until 70 per cent vaccination is reached - which is about October 26.

Only 41 per cent of those surveyed agreed with the Andrews government's Covid response (pictured: police and protesters in Melbourne in October)

Businesses have been doing it tough in Melbourne locals unable to visit the city's famous cafe's and bars (pictured: Lygon St in Carlton)

VICTORIAN ATTITUDES TO COVID ISSUES 49 per cent of Victorians agree the economic effect of lockdowns is greater than the risk of Covid. 30 per cent disagreed and 21 per cent were undecided. 41 per cent of Victorians had favourable view of Andrews government's Covid response. 27 per cent were satisfied with federal government's response. 85 per cent of Victorians said Covid was significantly affecting their lives. 51 per cent were satisfied with their lives, below the national average at 58 per cent. 58 per cent of Australians agreed with mandatory vaccines in the workplace. 54 per cent of Australians agreed vaccines should be a choice, though the majority at more than 55 per cent thought there should be penalties. 72 per cent of Australians were worries about their finances because of lockdowns. 6 per cent of Australians do not intend to get vaccinated Source: Bastion Insights survey September 15 to 17. Advertisement

The Bastion figures also showed public opinion was split on mandatory jabs for the workplace with 58 per cent agreeing employers should be able to make vaccines compulsory for their staff.

The Victorian government has this month mandated that 1.2million authorised workers get vaccinated in the next two weeks or risk losing their jobs.

Bastion Insights executive director Dianne Gardiner said over the next few months the issue was 'likely to force confrontation'.

Tradespeople are ready to get back on the tools as a pause on construction is lifted across Melbourne and other locked down areas.

Construction workers can return to worksites on Tuesday, after a two-week shutdown, as long as they meet strict safeguards and have at least had their first coronavirus vaccination.

Looking at the country as a whole, 72 per cent of all Australians were worried about their financial situation because of Covid lockdowns.

About as many thought getting vaccinated was everyone's responsibility at 73 per cent - though more than half of also believe everyone should have the right to choose to be vaccinated at 54 per cent.

The majority agreed that those who choose not to get the jab should also be subject to penalties, however, such as being denied access to venues.

Proof of vaccination was supported by 77 per cent of people in relation to international flights, 68 per cent for sporting events and concerts, and more than 50 per cent for gyms, retail venues, schools, and public transport.

Only 6 per cent of Australians actively do not intend to be vaccinated, according to the data.
Brightly lit flying machines descending from the sky as people below scatter in panic is the sort of scene you might expect from a sci-fi film.

However the pedestrians seen running in fear in this video aren't escaping from invading aliens. Instead, they are running from falling drones.

The bizarre footage, taken from the Chinese city of Zhengzhou, shows the machines, lit up with bright blue lights, plummeting from the sky to the streets below.

Screams and shouts can be heard as one by one the drones begin falling from the sky.

Eventually people begin to run for cover as the sound of drones smashing into the ground can be heard in the background.

Other drones begin to descend slowly, seemingly still under control from their operators.

The bizarre footage, taken from the Chinese city of Zhengzhou, shows the machines, lit up with blue lights, plummeting from the sky to the streets below. Screams and shouts can be heard as one by one the drones begin falling from the sky. Eventually people begin to run for cover as the sound of drones smashing into the ground can be heard in the background.

Other drones begin to descend slowly, seemingly still under control from their operators

The road begins to empty as the drones start falling from the sky. The sounds of drones crashing to the ground can be heard in the background as people take cover

The strange incident is believed to have taken place during a drone light show near to a shopping centre in Zhengzhou - a city in central China that is around 450miles south-west of Beijing and which lies on the banks of the famous Yellow River.

It is believed around 5,000 people - many of them children - were watching the light show when the incident took place.

It is unclear what caused the drones to fall. However, an organiser reportedly told China News Services - China's second largest state-run news agency - that 'operation errors' might have led to the fall.

No injuries have been reported from the incident, which is believed to have taken place on October 1.

A 20-year-old resident who attended the show reportedly told VICE World News: 'More and more drones came off.'Some flew very far away, and some hit the trees.'

The strange incident is believed to have taken place during a drone light show near to a shopping centre in Zhengzhou - a city in central China that is around 450miles south-west of Beijing and which lies on the banks of the famous Yellow River

He said staff members let people seek refuge inside the mall and picked up the drones from the floor in the aftermath.

The incident is not the first time there has been problems with drones in China.

In May last year 17 drones crash during a holiday performance in Chengdu, in the south-west of China.

A police investigation found that drone jammers were used, allegedly by a rival company who were furious that their performance had not been picked.
Kyle Sandilands has revealed his very inappropriate nickname for Gladys Berejiklian's expected replacement as New South Wales Premier, likening Dominic Perrottet to a fictional horror character.

The KIIS FM radio host was speaking to Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday morning with Sandilands asking the federal Liberal leader for his thoughts about Mr Perrottet.

'What about this new guy, Slenderman? We call him Slenderman because we don't know him,' he asked Mr Morrison.

Slender Man is a scary looking fictional character who was created by a user on a meme forum in 2009.

Kyle Sandilands has revealed his very inappropriate nickname for the Gladys Berejiklian's replacement as New South Wales premier - likening him to fictional character the Slender Man

Sandilands asked the prime minister about his relationship with the new NSW premier after it was revealed they once had a heated argument

The character was edited into pictures of fires and scenes of mass murders, with the creepy man seen lurking in the background.

Slenderman shot to infamy after fans started committing crimes in tribute - including the near-fatal stabbing of a 12-year-old girl in the USA.

The bizarre phenomenon inspired the 2018 film Slenderman, starring Joey King.

Sandilands' nickname for Mr Perrottet alluded to the new NSW premier's height and thin build, similar to that of the fictional character.

Mr Morrison declined to weigh in on Sandilands' new moniker.

Sandilands' nickname for Mr Perrottet alluded to the new NSW premier's height and thin build, similar to that of the fictional character

Jackie O said she was 'devastated' that Ms Berejiklian was stepping down, with the PM agreeing, labelling her 'amazing'

'So you get on with him?' he asked the PM. 'Because we heard you told him to f**k off?'

Mr Morrison reportedly described Mr Perrottet as a 'f***wit' during an expletive-riddled exchange with the Liberal MP during a meeting about financial support for businesses during the pandemic.

'We were talking about issues with support, but the point is we got it right,' Mr Morrison said.

'Dom and I get on very well, the thing that unites as most is we care about what's going on in New South Wales.'

Co-host Jackie O said she was 'devastated' that Ms Berejiklian was stepping down, with the PM agreeing, labelling her 'amazing'.

'She showed so much strength and character, to push through all this and deal with these issues to make sure NSW was not only safe but moving forward economically,' Mr Morrison said.

'I think it's tremendous the way everyone has responded to her. Gladys and I have known each other a very long time.'
Travel chiefs last night called on ministers to speed up the replacement for Covid PCR tests after scrapping the hated traffic light system.

They pressed for all Covid testing to end for fully vaccinated Britons as the branding of countries as red, amber or green depending on coronavirus risk was axed.

Under yesterday's Government shake-up, double-jabbed travellers are still required to take tests after returning to England.

As it stands, this has to be a costly PCR test by day two. The 'gold standard' swabs can cost more 100, adding huge costs to a family holiday.

But the PCR requirement will be replaced with a cheaper rapid lateral flow test later this month, potentially saving families hundreds of pounds.

Ministers are yet to set a date for the change, but there is speculation among travel industry leaders it will be around October 25.

Double-jabbed travellers are still required to take a costly PCR test after returning to England. But the PCR requirement will be replaced with a cheaper rapid lateral flow test later this month, potentially saving families hundreds of pounds [Stock image]

EasyJet boss Johan Lundgren said: 'With half-term approaching, we urge the Government to move quickly on the planned replacement of PCR tests. UK consumers need simple and affordable lateral flow tests now so travel opens up for more hard-working families.

'But ultimately UK consumers have for too long been held back by unnecessary and expensive travel testing whereas across Europe testing has not been required for the vaccinated since July 1.'

British Airways chief Sean Doyle said: 'We welcome the Government's changes to the traffic light system, allowing travellers to benefit from the UK's world-leading vaccination programme.

'However, with fewer than 1 per cent of travellers returning from low-risk countries testing positive for coronavirus, we urge ministers to scrap all testing for fully vaccinated travellers as soon as possible.'

Under the new system, all people returning from red list countries must still quarantine in hotels for 11 nights at a cost of 2,285. For the double-jabbed, pre-return tests which had to be taken within 72 hours of returning to England were ditched.

The traffic light system is being replaced with a 'no-go' red list and 'rest of the world' green list. It comes as the current red list of 54 countries is set to be slashed to as little as nine. An announcement will be made in the coming days.

Meanwhile, holiday firms said bookings to hotspots had trebled on summer levels, with sunshine breaks over the October half-term seeing the biggest rise.
Senator Joe Manchin said Monday that Democrats should raise the debt ceiling through reconcilation so they're not dependent on Republican votes even as Chuck Schumer plans to bring up another doomed attempt to get the GOP on board.

'They shouldn't rule out anything. We just can't let the debt ceiling lapse. We just can't,' Manchin, the Democratic senator from West Virginia, told reporters on Capitol Hill.

'Whatever they have to do,' he added.

Schumer, meanwhile, set a Friday deadline to get a bill raising the nation's borrowing limit to President Joe Biden's desk.

The Senate Majority Leader vowed to bring up a House-passed bill that would raise the debt limit through the midterms vote another vote this week.

'We aren't asking Republicans to support it when it comes time for a vote. We only ask that they get out of the way as Democrats pass it on our own, just as the majority party did in the early 2000s,' he said in a speech on the Senate floor Monday afternoon.

But in order to move that House-passed legislation forward, at least 10 Republicans would need to vote for it. And Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed none of his GOP lawmakers will do so.

Republicans have already shot down two other attempts by Democratic leaders to raise the debt ceiling this way.

Senator Joe Manchin said Democrats should raise the debt ceiling through reconcilation so they're not dependent on Republican votes

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer plans to bring up another doomed attempt to get the GOP on board with hiking borrowing limit

If Democrats have to raise the debt ceiling through reconciliation - the legislative process that allows them to move a bill forward with a simple majority instead of the 60-vote threshold - they would have to raise the ceiling by a certain amount. The House-passed bill, which was approved Wednesday 219-212, raises it through a certain date - December of 2022.

If Democrats raise it by a certain amount, Republicans are sure to use that against them in the midterm elections as they try to retake control of Congress.

Democrats and Republicans are in a stand off over the next move although McConnell has made it clear he is standing firm.

'Since mid-July, Republicans have clearly stated that Democrats will need to raise the debt limit on their own. All year, your party has chosen to pursue staggering, 'transformational' spending through unprecedented use of the party-line reconciliation process,' McConnell wrote in a letter to Biden on Monday.

Manchin, meanwhile, ruled out nixing the filibuster - as the 60-vote threshold is known - as he and fellow moderate Senator Kyrsten Sinema have come under fire for having too much power to stop Biden's agenda.

Under the parliamentary rules of the Senate, an individual senator has significant leverage to negotiate legislation and use their vote.

'The filibuster has nothing to do with debt ceiling. Basically, we have other tools that we can use and if we have to use them we should use them,' Manchin said.

'Forget the filibuster, OK? We can prevent default,' he noted, 'there's a way to do that. There's a couple other tools that we have that we can use. Takes a little bit of time. It's going to be a little bit of pain, long vote-a-ramas.' Vote-a-rams are all night voting sessions in the Senate as lawmakers plow through a series of amendments.

The Treasury Department warned the nation could deplete its borrowing ability by Oct. 18 - a warning that made the stock market jittery amid concern the county could default, something that has never happened in modern history.

President Biden lashed out at Republicans during a speech at the White House on Monday, saying their actions were 'hypocritical, dangerous and disgraceful,' because they've objected when Democrats have tried to pass a debt ceiling bill.

President Joe Biden hammered Republicans for refusing to raise the debt ceiling in Monday morning remarks from the White House.

He accused the Republicans of playing 'Russian Roulette' with the American economy.

He told reporters he couldn't guarantee the U.S. wouldn't default.

'No I can't. That's up to Mitch McConnell,' Biden answered.

'They won't raise it,' Biden complained. 'Even though defaulting on the debt would lead to [a] self-inflicted wound that takes our economy over a cliff and risks jobs and retirement savings, social security benefits, salaries for servicemembers, benefits for veterans and so much more.'

White House press secretary Jen Psaki echoed her boss on Monday, accusing Republicans of spending like 'drunken sailors' for four years and not wanting to pay for it.

'This is a period of time where we could easily solve this in the next two days, and easily do that through allowing Democrats to be the adults in the room, despite the fact that Republicans spent like drunken sailors for the last four years before President Biden took office,' she said at the afternoon press briefing.
Dominic Perrottet has won a vote to become NSW's 46th Premier after Gladys Berejiklian resigned last week facing a corruption investigation.

The Catholic father of six and former Treasurer landed the top job in a Liberal Party meeting on Tuesday morning, beating Planning Minister Rob Stokes by 39 votes to five.

Ms Berejiklian did not show up for the meeting, with a colleague voting on her behalf.

Jobs Minister Stuart Ayres - the boyfriend of Foreign Minister Marise Payne - was elected deputy Liberal leader unopposed while Environment Minister Matt Kean will become Treasurer.

'It's an honour and absolute privilege to be elected as the parliamentary leader of the Liberal Party, the Premier of New South Wales,' Mr Perrottet said after the vote.

'I really appreciate the trust my colleagues have put in me today.'

New leader: Mr Perrottet said 'it's an honour and absolute privilege to be elected as the parliamentary leader of the Liberal Party, the Premier of New South Wales'

NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet walks through Parliament on Tuesday before securing the votes to become NSW Premier

Dominic Perrottet (right with Deputy Stuart Ayres) landed the top job in a Liberal party room meeting on Tuesday morning after Gladys Berejiklian resigned last week facing a corruption investigation

Mr Perrottet beat Planning Minister Rob Stokes (pictured) by 39 votes to five

In a press conference an hour later, Mr Perrottet thanked Ms Berejiklian for her service during the Covid-19 pandemic as Sydney endures the final week of a four-month lockdown.

'The first thing I want to do today is to acknowledge my predecessor and pay tribute to her, Gladys Berejiklian, who strong and steady leadership has seen us through so many difficult challenges,' he said.

'Now, while there are still more challenging days to come, there is light at the end of the tunnel, thanks to the way that everyone across our state has responded.

'We want New South Wales to bounce back stronger, safer and more successful than ever before, to get back to the life that we love and the freedoms that we hold dear.'

Mr Perrottet said he would be a 'family premier' who wants to 'make life better for working families.'

'Up until now, all of our Liberal premiers have been infrastructure premiers, building roads, rail, schools and hospitals for communities right across our state, and that will not change with me.

'But I will also be a family Premier, focusing on how we can make life better for working families, living the Liberal values of opportunity, aspiration and hard work,' he said.

'The true strength of New South Wales is its people, our tradies, our working mums and dads, business owners, frontline workers, teachers, workers, doctors, paramedics, firefighters, police. Our state is a rich history with a rich tapestry.'

He later said having a family 'enriches you. It gives you different perspective.' Ms Berejiklian does not have children.

Mr Perrottet - who has been described as NSW's most conservative premier since WWII - said his religious beliefs do not make him less qualified for the job.

'My religious views and my Christian faith is something I am incredibly proud of, as many people across our state are.

'That is something that is personal to me and personal too many people, and I think that is incredibly important,' he said.

Mr Perrottet said Sydney's lockdown will end as planned on Monday - after speculation he could move 'freedom day' forward to Friday.

'On Monday, the state opens up and we want to get people back into work, get business open again, and that is the focus of our government today,' he said.

But the Premier said the re-opening plan may be tweaked, saying 'there are a number of issues that need to be looked at.'

He will meet with Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant and Brad Hazzard this afternoon.

Mr Stokes, 47, said he would support Mr Perrottet who would be a 'magnificent' premier.

'The party room had a democratic vote. I always said I would give people a choice. They have chosen emphatically, democracy is the winner,' he said.

'Dominic Perrottet will be a magnificent Premier and he has new undivided loyalty and support.

'And I will use every ounce of strength in my body to make sure that he is re-elected as Premier in New South Wales when we go to the polls in 2023.'

Environment Minister Matt Kean (centre) arrives at State Parliament flanked by members of the moderate faction on Tuesday

NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet leaves his home in Sydney ahead of the party room vote on Tuesday morning

Mr Perrottet is a father of six children with wife Helen. He regularly shares pictures with his family on social media

Mr Perrottet, who was brought up in West Pennant Hills in north-west Sydney, worked as a corporate lawyer before becoming an MP in 2010 and Treasurer in 2017.

He is a devout Catholic who voted against the decriminalisation of abortion in 2019 and will argue against voluntary assisted dying in an expected vote later this month.

He is also a keen economic reformer who wants to replace stamp duty with a land tax and has touted GST changes which would upset Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan.

Mr Perrottet hails from the right wing of the Liberal Party and in 2016 called Donald Trump's US election win 'a victory for people who have been taken for granted by the elites'.

He is often pictured at the races or having a beer in the pub.

Family man Mr Perrottet (right with outgoing Deputy Premier John Barilaro on St Patrick's Day in March) is often pictured at the races or having a beer in the pub

Liberal party whip Adam Crouch arrives with the ballot box ahead of the party room vote for NSW Premier

NSW Minister for Arts Don Harwin (right) arrives at Parliament House in Sydney ahead of the votes

Throughout the Covid pandemic, Mr Perrottet has publicly supported Ms Berejiklian's decisions but has argued for lighter and shorter restrictions.

In July, it was reported that he opposed a lockdown extension and said Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant should take a pay cut if Sydney was shut down unnecessarily- although he said he could not recall making this comment.

In an interview with Daily Mail Australia two weeks ago Mr Perrottet said he expected nightclubs to open at the 80 per cent vaccination rate - but under current plans they are closed until December 1.

He said some hawkish members of the crisis cabinet even wanted them open at the 70 per cent rate.

Rob Stokes and Dom Perrottet enjoy a picnic together, above, earlier this year. The close mates will have to fight it out in the NSW Liberal party room on Tuesday

Mr Perrottet has previously argued for unvaccinated residents to be granted equal freedoms once everyone has been offered a jab.

'Once every single person in this state has had the opportunity to be vaccinated with two doses then we should open up for everyone,' he said last month.

'I want to see more unity and not have a two-tiered society here.'

Mr Perrottet also wants to restart international travel, with tourists expected to enter Australia next year.

'We're talking about returning international students, we're talking about returning Australians. We're opening up businesses and the next step is opening up borders,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

Mr Perrottet and Mr Stokes (middle and on right) often go jogging together

'If we can lead the way on international travel that's going to be a great thing for the state.

'And hopefully that will then lead to other states following us. It might be ironic that you can get to Bali before you can get to Broome but that's where we're heading.'

Ms Berejiklian quit on Friday after the state's corruption watchdog said it was investigating her.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption is investigating whether Ms Berejiklian encouraged or allowed corrupt conduct by her secret ex-boyfriend and former Wagga Wagga MP Mr Maguire between 2012 and 2018.

It will also probe whether she breached public trust by not reporting any suspicion of corrupt conduct and what role she had to play in two government grants handed out in Mr Maguire's electorate.

The NSW corruption watchdog ICAC is investigating whether Ms Berejiklian encouraged or allowed corrupt conduct by her ex-boyfriend and former MP Daryl Maguire (pictured together)

Ms Berejiklian said she had no option but to resign in her emotional 10-minute speech

An ICAC public inquiry on the matter will be held for about 10 days from October 18, overseen by Assistant Commissioner Ruth McColl SC.

Mr Maguire is accused of abusing his public office after admitting being involved in a cash-for-visa scheme and seeking secret commissions for brokering property deals. He was forced to resign in 2018.

In an emotional 10-minute speech on Friday Ms Berejiklian denied any wrongdoing and slammed the watchdog for announcing its investigation into her as the state emerges from a four-month Covid lockdown.

'Resigning at this time is against every instinct in my being and something which I do not want to do,' she said.

Mr Perrottet on Monday played up his credentials working alongside Ms Berejiklian as deputy leader, and argued for stability.

'As Gladys demonstrated so well, leading a successful Liberal and National government requires unity across our party's 'broad church',' he wrote in an opinion piece published in The Daily Telegraph.

Rob Stokes (pictured right with ministerial colleague Natalie Ward) has refused to bow out of the leadership race for his good mate Dominic Perrottet

'We can only do that if we remain united, and maintain stability and continuity for the people of our state.'

Former prime minister and Liberal party elder John Howard had backed Mr Perrottet, saying he is driven and reform-focused.

It comes as the NSW Nationals prepare for their own leadership contest.

The NSW government will have an entirely fresh leadership team by Wednesday, after Deputy Premier and Nationals leader John Barilaro announced he too would quit parliament on Monday.

Sporting dark sunglasses, Dominic Perrottet was spotted at his ministerial office in Sydney's Martin Place on Monday as he tried to shore up support

Paul Toole and Adam Marshall are expected to join Melinda Pavey in a three-way race to fill his position, with a party room vote due Wednesday.

Mr Barilaro's resignation means the NSW government faces three by-elections in coming months for the seats of Willoughby, Bega and Monaro, after Transport Minister Andrew Constance on Sunday also announced he was leaving to attempt a switch to federal politics.

Opposition leader Chris Minns on Monday blasted Mr Constance and Mr Barilaro for resigning during the pandemic.

'That you've got a new job opportunity or you'd like to move into a new political arena is not a good enough reason to abandon your electorate and start a new career, particularly during a pandemic,' he said.

By-elections cost upwards of $1.5 million each, he said, and urged them to reconsider their decisions to quit.

There is speculation Ms Berejiklian could run for the federal seat of Warringah on Sydney's Northern Beaches - Tony Abbott's old seat.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said she would have 'a lot more to give' but would need to clear her name first.

Everything you need to know about Gladys' replacement: How Dominic Perrottet supported Donald Trump and has VERY conservative views on abortion - but loves hitting the pub

By Stephen Johnson

Gladys Berejiklian's replacement as NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet is a proud social conservative who questions climate change, opposes abortion, loves Donald Trump and also a drink.

The 39-year-old devout Catholic father-of-six has overwhelmingly won the Liberal party room vote 39 to five, defeating Planning Minister Rob Stokes to become the next premier of New South Wales, thanks to the support of the socially-progressive moderate faction.

On Tuesday morning, the outgoing treasurer is making history as the state's youngest ever leader.

While his predecessor came from the Liberal Party's moderate faction and was unmarried with no children, Perrottet is the complete opposite and hails from the right of the party.

This is despite him voting in 2019 against a bill to decriminalise abortion declaring he could not support laws that stopped 'the beating heart of an unborn child'.

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Gladys Berejiklian's replacement as NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet is a proud social conservative who questions climate change and loves Donald Trump. The 39-year-old devout Catholic father-of-six is on Tuesday morning making history as the state's youngest ever leader (he is picture with their children and wife Helen)

The Liberal Party's new leader in November 2016 laid out his conservative views in a lengthy Facebook post after Republican Donald Trump unexpectedly beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the US presidential election.

He used the occasion to paraphrase Liberal Party founder Robert Menzies and disgraced US president Richard Nixon.

'There is a silent majority, a forgotten people, who feel like the values they hold dear are no longer being represented by the political class,' he said.

'In fact these values and the people who hold them are looked upon with contempt.'

Perrottet also questioned the science of climate change, even though his likely treasurer Matt Kean from the moderate faction is a fierce advocate for renewable energy.

'If you question man-made climate change, you are not a sceptic,' he said.

Intriguingly, former Labor senator Sam Dastyari who studied law two decades ago with Perrottet at the University of Sydney recalled the future premier as a hard drinker who abstained from masturbation and didn't believe in using contraception.

'He didn't believe in contraception, he does not believe in contraception,' Dastyari told Kyle and Jackie O on KIIS FM in June 2018.

'He doesn't believe or he didn't at the time believe in masturbation.

Intriguingly, former Labor senator Sam Dastyari who studied law two decades ago with Perrottet at the University of Sydney recalled the future premier as a hard drinker who abstained from masturbation and didn't believe in using contraception

'Dom was an old drinking buddy of mine back in my uni days , we used to get blind drunk together at Sydney uni, just horrible, and he was like this hardcore, Catholic, religious, but a big drinker.'

Dastyari recalled Perrottet even as a young man at university being opposed to gay marriage, which at the time was opposed by both sides of politics, and the idea of abortion.

'The bit I remember him telling me at uni was - he was always a bit religious, he didn't support marriage equality, didn't support a woman's right to choose,' he said.

Like Dastyari, Perrottet also led the young wing of his political party.

Before becoming a junior solicitor, Perrottet was the leader of the NSW Young Liberals, taking over in 2005 three years after future cabinet minister Alex Hawke, who now holds the immigration portfolio, spearheaded a right-wing takeover of the youth movement.

Hawke later split from the right, forming a breakaway centre-right faction, which Prime Minister Scott Morrison belongs to, and he is no longer close with Perrottet.

In July Perrottet, as NSW Treasurer, clashed with Mr Morrison after he called on the federal government to reinstate JobKeeper wage subsidies during the early stage of Sydney's three-month lockdown.

Political author Niki Savva, a former Liberal ministerial media adviser, revealed that in July, Mr Morrison called Mr Perrottet a 'f***wit' during a heated discussion.

Asking about this on Tuesday by Sunrise host David Koch, Mr Morrison said: 'Well, Dom and I have been working together for years and we've known each other for a long time and we've got an honest relationship and we've got a lot done together.

Perrottet is himself one of 12 children, with his father John a director of the World Bank.
The UK has broken free of the curse of low wages, Kwasi Kwarteng declared yesterday.

The Business Secretary told Tories that Brexit was an opportunity to reset the economy with higher wages and more skilled jobs  as ministers faced down warnings of a disaster due to labour shortages.

Farmers protested outside the conference over a lack of butchers, warning the shortage would result in the unnecessary slaughter of tens of thousands of pigs.

Yesterday Mr Kwarteng delivered a robust message that there could no return to the pre-Brexit reliance on high immigration and low-paid workers

Last night, Government sources said butchers were on the skilled list and so could work in the UK provided they met language and salary requirements.

The farming industry wants some of the criteria to be relaxed.

On Sunday, Boris Johnson appeared to be unaware of the factors facing the industry.

Yesterday Mr Kwarteng delivered a robust message that there could no return to the pre-Brexit reliance on high immigration and low-paid workers.

As a consequence of Brexit we have essentially broken free of that model and what we want to do, what we want to go into, is a high-wage, high-skilled economy, he said.

No 10 insisted that the Government has been working with the meat processing industry to address concerns

Pig farmers say a lack of skilled butchers could lead to the emotional and financial disaster of 120,000 animals being slaughtered on farms and then incinerated because they cannot go to the abattoir.

They held placards saying: No butchers. No bacon. No British pig industry.

The president of the National Farmers Union warned of a welfare disaster over the issue.

Minette Batters told Radio 4s Today programme: We have never had a cull of healthy livestock in this country and this cannot be a first.

Nick Allen, chief executive of the British Meat Processors Association, said he was surprised that the Prime Minister appeared to be unaware of problems facing pig farmers.

Tens of thousands of butchers are needed and the training period for each is around 18 months, he said.

These arent people you can just pull off the street. It takes time to train these people were about 10,000 to 15,000 people short.

Weve had a long-term reliance on non-UK labour and its going to take a long time to adjust.

No 10 insisted that the Government has been working with the meat processing industry to address concerns.

Mr Johnson appeared to be unaware of the problem when he was questioned on BBC1s The Andrew Marr Show. His initial response was: I hate to break it to you but I am afraid our food processing industry does involve the killing of a lot of animals.

When it was pointed out to the PM that the problem was they could not be sold for food, he replied: The great hecatomb [sacrifice] of pigs that you describe has not yet taken place, lets see what happens.

The Business Secretary told Tories that Brexit was an opportunity to reset the economy with higher wages

The pig farming industry faces problems due to several issues, including a lack of butchers and other production workers.

Labour shortages and Covid outbreaks in factories have meant that there is not enough capacity to process the meat.

While butchers are on the skilled list of workers allowing foreigners to work in the UK post-Brexit if they meet the criteria, the industry argues that the rules are too tough.

To work as butchers they must meet language and salary requirements. Ministers say issues are occurring because Britain is transitioning to a higher wage economy and will no longer be reliant on cheap European labour.

But pig farmers are demanding short-term visas for foreign workers because they say they have not had enough time to train a UK-based workforce.

Government sources said they were looking at a range of options to tackle the problem  but short-term visas were unlikely to be included.
A young woman from Japan stands at the back of a queue stretching down LaTrobe Street in Melbourne's otherwise-empty CBD.

Armed with a shopping cart, the business student ought be across the road at the Queen Victoria Market preparing for a fun weekend with friends.

But this is Melbourne 2021 and she can barely afford to eat.

Japanese student Momoka has spent nearly all of her time in Melbourne isolated and locked away. She lined up on Friday at Melbourne's Food Bank in the CBD

Kathy, an international student from Thailand who is studying business, leaves with free groceries from the Food Bank International Student Pop Up store on Friday in Melbourne

Luca (left) and Patrizio (right), both international students from Italy, are given $100 each from Good Samaritan James Godfrey at the Food Bank on Friday

Hundreds of international students lined up outside Melbourne's Food Bank on Friday

Poll DO YOU THINK INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS SHOULD GET MORE GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE DURING LOCKDOWN? YES NO DO YOU THINK INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS SHOULD GET MORE GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE DURING LOCKDOWN? YES 619 votes

NO 540 votes Now share your opinion





Hers is one of thousands of untold tragic stories forgotten or ignored amid Melbourne's world-record lockdown.

Momoka was among hundreds to line the street outside of the Foodbank International Pop-Up Store.

She had landed in Melbourne almost on the day Australia shut its doors to the world last year and Victoria locked everyone away.

The plight of foreign students is often overlooked by the wider community, which largely dismisses them as 'poor rich kids' bankrolled by wealthy parents.

But the reality is there to be seen three days a week in Melbourne's CBD, where students patiently wait for a chance to fill their baskets with fresh produce they cannot afford to buy themselves.

Despite the perceived indignity of their obvious hardship, the students were gracious with their time as Daily Mail Australia spoke to them candidly about their plight.

Yon, an international student from South Korea, attended the Food Bank on Friday. She was among hundreds to take advantage of the initiative

Hundreds line up outside Melbourne's Food Bank on Friday. Many are in the same situation because of Melbourne's harsh lockdowns

There have been other days standing in line where kindness has not be shown back to them by the general community.

Passersby often treat them with contempt, with one man just recently seen hurling abuse at them because he could not find workers to fill jobs.

International students are only able to work 20 hours a week while studying in Australia, which means many do it tough - pandemic or not.

Before the pandemic, about 400 students would attend the pop-up shop in a day.

Now close to 700 attend.

Socially distanced, with only 25 at a time allowed in, they wait outside in the cold for a chance to eat.

International students line up with trolleys outside Melbourne's Food Bank on Friday. Many have lost what little work they can do due to the pandemic

Yon from South Korea and Santiago Mal from Columbia attend the Food Bank on Friday. Both had lost jobs during Melbourne's hard lockdowns

Ramphaphak, or Kathy for us Australians, came from Thailand to study in Melbourne when the pandemic hit.

She came to study business, of which there was very little about in Melbourne CBD on Friday.

Kathy had found the Food Bank in desperation as she searched for help on the Internet.

'Before, there was hardship. I lost my job and this has helped me a lot because they have many products here,' she said.

Kathy had worked in a busy sushi restaurant before the pandemic saw it, and her, thrown on the scrap heap.

'When they re-opened they only wanted full-time staff. So many people lost their jobs,' she said.

Students from across the globe line up along LaTrobe Street in Melbourne on Friday

Food Bank staff make sure only 25 people at a time are inside the shop, which sees lines stretch down the road

'Hopefully after lockdown ends I can find a job again.'

Like everyone Daily Mail Australia spoke to on Friday, Kathy expressed love for a town which she has been restricted from truly experiencing.

'I love Melbourne. It's tough times. But it's better than Thailand I think because of the support we get here in Australia.'

Naeem Jummon was equally positive despite constant hardship during the pandemic.

From Bangladesh, Mr Jummon is studying carpentry at Victoria College.

He has been here for four years and claims he has only seen 'good times' despite losing more jobs during the lockdowns than he can remember.

'It's all good times,' he smiled.

'I've worked in many different places and they're just closing, closing, closing.'

While now working some hours at the nearby Queen Victoria Market, he still has to line up for free food.

Come rain, hail or shine, the Food Bank opens to help those in need (pictured on Friday)

'I hope this job is going to be permanent,' Mr Jummon said wishfully.

'This Food Bank helps a lot. It's helping everyone because we have to pay our tuition fees and expenses, pocket money. So it's hard to find a job and get money. If this food was not here, we are going to be in trouble.'

Mr Jummon said students only got a government handout if they lost their job after working for six hours.

'I lost my jobs in four hours. So I think the government should take care of us a little bit more, help with rent or something,' he said.

'We've been locked down too long. We need to meet our parents again.'

Along the line are similar stories from people that came here from all parts of the globe.

Italian student Patrizio does some shopping inside the Food Bank on Friday. A Good Samaritan slapped $100 on him as he left

Students flock to the Food Bank to pick-up fresh produce they night not otherwise be able to afford or get their hands on during the pandemic

Santiago Mal has been in Melbourne for three years after coming here to study carpentry from Columbia.

His girlfriend Yon is from South Korea and got here too when the pandemic hit.

Like everyone else, the young couple has struggled to get by during the repeated lockdowns.

'I've been sending a lot of emails and CVs, but most of the people say they need a full-time worker,' Mr Mal said.

The couple has relied on the kindness of friends, who have helped them survive up until now.

'I've lost my job temporarily,' Yon said. 'I used to work as a barista, but the cafe has closed.'

Their luck would pick-up by the time they left the Food Bank on Friday.

Melbourne IT guru James Godfrey arrived at the Food Bank with a bag full of money, which he handed out to struggling students

James Godfrey puts cold hard cash in the hands of two Italian students, who thought they were being pranked

Standing at the front of the line, a man wearing a Bumbag looked on with quiet concern.

IT guru James Godfrey had seen hardship in his travels across the world too.

In Manilla, he would walk the street and help mothers and their babies that he had found huddled under bushes.

He didn't know he was speaking to Daily Mail Australia when he asked who the most vulnerable people waiting in line were.

His bag was full of $100 notes and he wanted to hand them out to random strangers.

As Italian students Luca and Patrizio departed the Food Bank, he jumped forward and pressed the notes into their hands.

The shocked youths thought they had been set-up in some kind of sting as they were photographed by Daily Mail Australia.

Luca (left) and Patrizio (right) both left a little richer and a bag full of fresh food on Friday

The English and hospitality students had been doing it tough - both had lost work during the lockdowns.

'We're all in the same boat here,' Luca said. 'So this is amazing.'

A humble Mr Godfrey told Daily Mail Australia he simply had a 'big heart for people who were struggling'.

'You look at the people here. They're not on the streets using drugs, they're just trying to get by. They're trying to support their families. A lot of these guys can't even go and ask their families for money,' he said.

'They can only work 20-hours a week then they've got nothing. Everything has been shutdown and I just thought "you know what, why not come and bless them". They're forgotten, they can't rely on government support. So I'm just here to love.'

With that, he walked down the line and handed out cash with no questions asked.

At the back of the line, Momoka quietly stood her position.

Students are able to get their hands on fresh produce in their time of need at Melbourne's Food Bank

She was already among the 'lucky ones' who had managed to maintain a job as a cleaner.

Even then, the money was not enough to regularly put food on her table.

'I clean offices and it's not busy at all,' she said.

Locked away on her own for nearly two full years, Momoka has struggled to make friends and spends much of her time locked-up alone.

She longs to be free and experience the stories she had heard about Melbourne before the pandemic ripped its heart out.

'I've never seen normal Melbourne,' she said.

People wait outside along LaTrobe Street to enter the Food Bank on Friday - with more than 600 coming most days
A Barbie doll designed to look like European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, has been sent on a zero-gravity flight.

The trip on the 'vomit comet', which provides 20 seconds of near-weightless as the plane enters freefall before pulling up again, marks the start of World Space Week.

This years theme is 'Women in Space,' and the Barbie brand hopes to encourage girls to become the next generation of astronauts, engineers and space scientists.

The doll will join Cristoforetti when she travels to the International Space Station in 2022, where the Italian astronaut will become its first female European commander.

The stunt comes after recent studies have shown women are still underrepresented in STEM careers, despite significant moves to encourage take-up.

Mattel, makers of Barbie, said part of the proceeds of the new doll of Cristoforetti will fund a Women in Aerospace bursary, supporting a woman studying STEM.

A Barbie doll designed to look like European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, has been sent on a zero-gravity flight

The trip on the 'vomit comet', which provides 20 seconds of near-weightless as the plane enters freefall before pulling up again, marks the start of World Space Week

This years theme is 'Women in Space,' and the Barbie brand hopes to encourage girls to become the next generation of astronauts, engineers and space scientists

ESA ASTRONAUT SAMANTHA CRISTOFORETTI Born in Milan, Italy, on April 26, 1977 Samantha Cristoforetti is a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut. In 2001, she graduated from the Technical University of Munich, Germany, with a masters degree in mechanical engineering. She had specialisations in aerospace propulsion and lightweight structures. After graduating, she joined the Italian Air Force as an officer candidate in the Air Force Academy. Following her graduation in 2005, she attended the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training program at Sheppard Air Force Base in the US, where she earned her fighter pilot wings in 2006. She was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009 and joined the space agency in September that year. On 23 November, 2014 she launched from the cosmodrome of Baikonur in Kazakhstan for the ISS. She returned to Earth on 11 June, 2015 after spending 200 days in space. The astronaut has been assigned a second mission to the International Space Station. She is currently in training for this mission, which is scheduled for 2022 where she will be station commander. Advertisement

When Mattel first produced the Cristoforetti Barbie doll, it was a one-of-a-kind, but thanks to demand, is now available across Europe.

To celebrate this world space week, the look alike doll departed from the ESA base in Germany.

It travelled on a Zero-gravity flight, modelling the preparation and experience of a real-life astronaut.

Cristoforetti, 44 from Italy, is an aviator, engineer, astronaut and is currently in training ahead of her next mission to the International Space Station in April 2022.

During her six-month tour of duty, she will take on the role of Commander and plans to take her doll on the mission with her to continue inspiring girls.

She said: 'Sometimes little things can plant the seeds of great dreams, Who knows?

'Maybe the fun, images of my doll floating in weightlessness will spark children's imagination and lead them to consider a career in STEM!'

Research from 2019, and shared by Barbie, has shown that even at a young age girls say they are least confident in their maths skills while at school.

This means that they are missing out on potentially fulfilling and highly paid careers in the industry.

These are industries where employment growth rate is three times faster than for non-STEM jobs, so girls and women are missing out on lucrative roles.

As well as sending the doll into zero gravity, Barbie has published a range o educational resources.

These are designed to spotlight different space careers, and to teach primary school aged children more about space, including what happens during the zero gravity flight taken by the doll.

Barbie Spokesperson Isabel Ferrer, Barbie Marketing Director EMEA said: 'Barbie is using its platform this World Space Week to show girls exciting and diverse roles and activity in space for them to explore their limitless potential.'

The doll will join Cristoforetti when she travels to the International Space Station in 2022, where the Italian astronaut will become its first female European commander

The stunt comes after recent studies have shown women are still underrepresented in STEM careers, despite significant moves to encourage take-up

Barbie has a long history of celebrating space and space careers that goes back to 1965, with a man landing inspired doll - before Neil Armstrong landed on the moon.

Barbie has been an Astrophysicist, Space Scientist and an Astronaut, and has created dolls in the likeness of real-life role models; Astronauts Sally Ride from the USA, Anna Kikina from Russia, and of course, ESA's Samantha Cristoforetti.

Showing girls STEM careers is one of the ways the brand is working to close the Dream Gap  the age when girls stop believing in themselves.

Mattel, makers of Barbie, said part of the proceeds of the new doll of Cristoforetti will fund a Women in Aerospace bursary, supporting a woman studying STEM

Research from 2019, and shared by Barbie, has shown that even at a young age girls say they are least confident in their maths skills while at school

Research shows that starting at age 5, many girls develop self-limiting beliefs and begin to think they're not as smart and capable as boys. They stop believing their gender can do or be anything.

Barbie launched the Dream Gap Project in 2018, an ongoing global initiative that gives girls the resources and support they need to continue believing in themselves.

The Barbie/ESA partnership was forged after research in the UK found four out of ten parents believed they may be holding their daughter back from entering or learning about this type of career, due to their own lack of wisdom in this area.

A third did not believe there are enough positive role models in space and STEM-related fields for girls, and 70 per cent agreed that achievements of females in space needed to be given more of an equal footing to those of their male counterparts.

To celebrate this world space week, the look alike doll departed from the ESA base in Germany. It travelled on a Zero-gravity flight, modelling the preparation and experience of a real-life astronaut

When Mattel first produced the Cristoforetti Barbie doll, it was a one-of-a-kind, but thanks to demand, is now available across Europe
Dry ice will be blasted onto railway lines across northern England as part of a trial aimed at reducing delays caused by leaves on the track.

The leaf-clearing device, pioneered by British engineers, could be rolled out across the whole of the UK by 2024.

It has been developed by experts at the University of Sheffield and will be trialled by operator Northern on a passenger train in the coming weeks.

In a similar way to black ice on roads, leaves cause a slippery layer on railway lines that forces trains to run at slower speeds, leading to delays.

Under the new method, which aims to remove leaves more efficiently than current techniques, pellets of dry ice are fired in a stream of air from a passenger train onto rails, making leaves frozen and brittle.

The dry ice then quickly turns back into gas, causing it to expand and destroy the leaves.

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Innovation: Dry ice will be blasted onto railway lines across northern England as part of a trial aimed at reducing delays caused by leaves on the track. The leaf-clearing device (pictured), pioneered by British engineers, could be rolled out across the whole of the UK by 2024

How does it work? Under the new method, pellets of dry ice are fired in a stream of air from a passenger train onto rails, making leaves frozen and brittle. The dry ice then quickly turns back into gas, causing it to expand and destroy the leaves

WHAT ARE 'LEAVES ON THE LINE'? Slippery rails  commonly referred to as 'leaves on the line'  result when build ups on the track lead to trains not being able to grip the rails properly. This can cause locomotive wheels to slip when trying to accelerate and slide when trying to brake. The most common cause of build up comes from moist leaves, which cling to the tops of the rails. The wake of trains as they pass through the air actually helps pull in leaves towards the tracks. Leaves build up incrementally, as they are not worn away fast enough by the passage of trains over them. The problem has become worse since the introduction of disc brakes, which replaced the brake shoes which would help remove leaves by scraping them from train wheels. Advertisement

Currently leaves are cleared by 61 special trains which deploy high-pressure water jets followed by a gel containing sand and steel grains to assist with braking.

But engineers behind the dry ice system claim their method is significantly more efficient because it can be used by passenger trains which cover greater distances than the limited fleet of cleaning trains.

It also does not leave a residue which can damage rails and train wheels, and can be used on the same stretch of railway more than once a day.

The system has previously been trialled on test tracks and could be rolled out widely by 2024.

Professor Roger Lewis, who is leading the development of the new method, said: 'This technology will make a step change in train performance during autumn, improving safety.

'It will provide more predictable braking and traction than current technology, and will help to improve train performance, reduce delays, increase passenger satisfaction and support the use of new technologies to enable greater network utilisation of the UK's railways.

'It will be great for passengers, but also for all the train operators and Network Rail as well. It will make their lives much easier.'

Rob Cummings, seasonal improvement manager at Northern said: 'We're very excited to test this new technology during the autumn period.

The device has been developed by experts at the University of Sheffield and will be trialled by operator Northern on a passenger train in the coming weeks

Currently leaves are cleared by 61 special trains which deploy high-pressure water jets followed by a gel containing sand and steel grains to assist with braking

'One of the biggest risks to our performance during October and November is leaves on the line, but by helping to develop new technology we aim to deliver the very best service for our passengers.'

The method was first developed by the University of Sheffield engineers in 2015.

Researchers carried out previous trials in 2019 using the dry-ice technique for trains at Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire, and Sutton Park, West Midlands, Blackpool, West Highlands and Swansea.

It has proven to be significantly more effective at removing leaves from the line, preventing delays and improving braking distances for trains than the current cleaning methods, the experts said.

Engineers claim their method is more efficient than other techniques because it can be used by passenger trains, which cover greater distances than the limited fleet of cleaning trains

'Leaves on the line are a huge problem for the rail industry. They cause significant delays to train services, which lead to disruption for passengers, and the issue costs the industry millions of pounds every year,' said Professor Lewis.

'The trials we have done over the past two years show it [the new system] cleans the track more effectively [than other current methods], significantly reduces delays and improves stopping distances.'

Some 10 million trees line Britain's railway, and thousands of tonnes of leaves fall onto the tracks every autumn.

When trains pass over the leaves it creates a slippery layer, with a similar effect to black ice on roads.

This leads to delays as trains must run at a reduced speed, accelerate slower and brake earlier.

Autumn-related issues cost the railway industry approximately 345 million every year.
A swarm of 88 near-Earth asteroids hidden in the debris that produces the Taurid Meteor Shower comes from the breakup of a single comet just 20,000 years ago, a new study has revealed.

Studying the various objects within the 'Taurid complex' allowed astronomers from the University of Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia, to further understand their origin.

The larger asteroids were spotted in the stream in the 1980s, prompting astronomers William Napier and Victor Clube to suggest they shared a 'parent' with Comet Encke - a periodic comet that completes an orbit of the Sun once every three years.

Some of these asteroids are more than a mile wide, making them too large to have been produced from Comet Encke itself, according to study authors Ignacio Ferrin and Vincenzo Orofino.

Their new study involved a review of dozens of research papers published since the 1980s, and a measurement of reflected light from the larger space rocks.

This allowed them to present 'further evidence' that Comet Encke, and the larger asteroids, all came from the breakup of a 62-mile-wide ice ball 20,000 years ago.

The team say the asteroids in the stream could pose a threat to the Earth, and that other objects that came from the ancient comet may have hit the planet in the past.

A swarm of 88 near-Earth asteroids hidden in the debris that produces the Taurid Meteor Shower come from the breakup of a single comet just 20,000 years ago, a new study has revealed

What is the Taurid complex? Each year, from the end of October, the skies play host to the meteor shower, dubbed 'nature's fireworks'. The Taurids display is created by debris left behind by Encke's comet, named after the astronomer who discovered it's annual trajectory in 1819. Researchers from the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Science have been keeping track of these fragments. They have found two asteroids, called 2015 TX24 and 2005 UR, which are part of a previously undiscovered branch of the Taurids' debris. The space rocks measure 650 feet to 900 feet (200 to 300 meters) across and have been registered on the International Astronomical Unions list of 'potentially hazardous' asteroids. But the Czech team is concerned that the hidden debris field may contain even larger objects. Advertisement

Earth passes through part of the stream every year, appearing as shooting stars in the sky every October in the southern hemisphere, and November in the north.

Comet Encke was first spotted in 1786, and, like other comets entering the inner solar system, left a stream of debris in its wake as it came closer to the sun.

Having such a large, well-populated and unpredictable complex of rocks, debris and dust getting regularly close to the Earth made them the subject of a lot of academic study over the past few decades, some focusing on the larger asteroids.

Experts have previously linked Taurid impacts to the death of prehistoric cultures, and global climate cooling during a glacial period, known as the Younger Dryas.

It is also thought the Tunguska event, which saw a small asteroid explode five miles above an inhabited part of Russia in 1908, was linked to the Taurid stream.

Millions of trees were destroyed covering a 1m200 square mile region of the country, and happened when Comet Encke was at its minimum distance to the Earth.

The Chelyabinsk meteor, which injured over 1,500 people when it broke up in 2013, also likely came from the Taurid complex, the team behind this study said.

And, in 2005, NASA astronomer Rob Suggs spotted a brief flash of light from a lunar impact event while testing a new 250mm telescope and video camera, later confirming it was part of the Taurid meteor shower.

The Colombian team, with astronomers from the University of Salento in Italy, re-analysed dozens of papers published on impacts, allowing them to confirm that the complex was made of up to 88 larger objects.

They then used a technique called secular light curves, finding changes in the brightness of each member of the complex, and found 67 per cent of them had evidence of 'cometary activity'.

This provided a 'smoking gun' for the shared origin theory, according to the team.

Napier welcomed the findings of this new research, suggesting that having asteroids in orbits resembling that of Comet Encke indicates either some unknown dynamical process, or that they are degassed fragments of a progenitor comet.

The team say the asteroids in the steam could pose a threat to the Earth, and that other objects that came from the ancient comet may have hit the planet in the past

WHAT WAS THE ANCESTOR COMET LIKE? The ancestor may have been a 'rubble pile' made of elementary, rocky or carbonaceous blocks, held together inside an icy matrix. The fragmentation of this pile, possibly due to tidal forces from the Sun or another body, would have resulted in multiple types of child objects. The children would have been relatively large, with the same rubble pile structure, and quite small, consisting of the original rocky blocks. Oljato, one of the asteroids in the complex, would be an example of rubble pile, held together by an icy matrix still sufficient to produce cometary activity. Large inactive objects, such as Morpheus would be similar to Oljato, but their original icy component could be exhaust or sealed in the interior. Smaller inactive objects, such as 2006 SO198, could be original rocky blocks. 'The fact that an object shows a spectrum similar to that of main-belt asteroids does not preclude a cometary nature of that object,' the team explained. They predict it may have originated in the inner solar system, where rocky objects were born in its early years. However, as Jupiter migrated further out, tidal forces would have pushed many of these objects to the outer solar system giving them an icy nature. They then return to the inner solar system as comets, fuelled by the ice turning to gas as it heats up, and leaving a tail of dust and debris. Advertisement

The ancestor may have been a 'rubble pile' made of elementary, rocky or carbonaceous blocks, held together by a massive icy matrix at its core and out through the rubble pieces.

The fragmentation of this pile, possibly due to tidal forces from the Sun or another body, would have resulted in multiple types of child objects.

Oljato, one of the asteroids in the complex, is an example of rubble pile, held together by an icy matrix still sufficient to produce cometary activity, but much smaller than the parents.

Large inactive objects, such as Morpheus would be similar to Oljato, but their original icy component could be sealed in the interior.

Meanwhile, smaller inactive objects, such as 2006 SO198, could be original rocky blocks.

'The fact that an object shows a spectrum similar to that of main-belt asteroids does not preclude a cometary nature of that object,' the team explained.

Taurid meteors tend to be larger than normal meteors, which means they are bright and penetrate deeper into the Earth's atmosphere, many being fireballs.

While this usually is a harmless phenomenon, the discovery of larger asteroids within one 'dangerous branch' of the stream could pose a real risk.

The Earth only passes through this potentially dangerous branch once every few years, causing greater numbers of shooting stars, and potentially resulting in large objects that could fall to the Earth, rather than break up in the atmosphere.

Future encounters with the branch are predicted for 2022, 2025, 2032 and 2039.

David Asher, Armagh Observatory astronomer and not involved in this study, told Discover Magazine that this work helps to build a picture of the original Taurid.

He predicted that in 2032 and 2036 we are likely to pass through the centre of the Taurid complex, where there will be a 'noticeable enhancement of fireballs.'

Ferrin said outgassing from comet-like objects within the complex could be hiding smaller, but still potentially dangerous, asteroids that might hit the Earth.

'The Tunguska cosmic body was 60 to 90 meters in diameter,' he told Discover Magazine, adding that we 'now believe the complex may contain many more objects of that size. It is not the tame, simple and innocent complex we thought it was.'
Four amateur astronauts, who last month became the first all-civilian crew ever to orbit the Earth, have received their ceremonial wings from SpaceX.

The Inspiration4 team launched on a Crew Dragon capsule from Florida on September 15 and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean three days later.

They were led by billionaire Jared Isaacman, 38, chief executive of the e-commerce firm Shift4 Payments Inc, who acted as mission 'commander'.

Isaacman and the three strangers SpaceX selected  geoscientist and ex-Nasa astronaut candidate Sian Proctor, 51; childhood bone cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux, 29; and Air Force veteran Chris Sembroski, 42  received their astronaut wings last week in a presentation at SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

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Presentation: Four amateur astronauts, who last month became the first all-civilian crew ever to orbit the Earth, have received their wings. From left, the SpaceX Inspiration4 crew members were Chris Sembroski, Sian Proctor, Jared Isaacman and Hayley Arceneaux

The wings pin has a Crew Dragon capsule in the middle, with a dragon's head and wings emerging from it. The back is inscribed with each crew member's name, call sign and role

WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF AWARDING PEOPLE ASTRONAUT WINGS? Alan Shepard Jr and Virgil Grissom were the first astronauts to be awarded astronaut wings. They received them for their participation in the Mercury Seven programme in the early 1960s. There are three other ways to earn astronaut wings in the US - either through the military, Nasa or be nominated for them in the Commercial Astronaut Wings programme. However, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced new rules for the programme on the same day that Amazon's Jeff Bezos flew to the edge of space aboard his Blue Origin rocket in July. The FAA now says astronaut hopefuls must be part of the flight crew and make contributions to space flight safety, bringing into question whether Bezos and Sir Richard Branson are actually astronauts in the eyes of the US government following their respective space flights. Two officials from the body have also reportedly said the Inspiration4 team are considered 'spaceflight participants' as a substitute for 'crew' in SpaceX's FAA license application, meaning they wouldn't receive official astronaut wings. But nevertheless, SpaceX awarded its all-civilian crew wings anyway. Advertisement

However, they were given out by SpaceX rather than the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which in July said billionaires Jeff Bezos and Sir Richard Branson may not yet be astronauts in the eyes of the US government following their space flights.

New FAA rules say astronaut hopefuls must be part of the flight crew and make contributions to space flight safety, and two officials from the body have reportedly said the Inspiration4 team are considered 'spaceflight participants' as a substitute for 'crew' in SpaceX's FAA license application.

Nevertheless, Arceneaux, the mission's medical officer, wrote in a Twitter post on Saturday: 'Yesterday we were presented with our SpaceX astronaut wings.

'This beautiful symbol of our journey means everything to me! Also if it looks like I'm crying, mind your business.'

Proctor tweeted: 'I cried when I got my wings!'

The wings pin has a Crew Dragon capsule in the middle, with a dragon's head and wings emerging from it.

The back is inscribed with each crew member's name, call sign and mission role to show they are officially 'Dragon Pilots'.

The flight was the third time Musk's company has taken humans to space and back.

'Congratulations @Inspiration4x !!!' he tweeted after the quartet's safe return.

Isaacman, who is an 'accomplished jet pilot' according to Inspiration4's website, funded the trip in a private deal made with SpaceX but has not disclosed how much he paid.

He said he wanted the mission to show that space can be for everyone and not just a select few.

'I think if orbital space flight is just the exclusive domain of a couple of countries and a select few, I don't know how far we're gonna get,' he added.

During their short flight to space, the team reached an orbital altitude of approximately 364 miles above the surface of Earth.

This is the highest achieved since STS-103, a Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission in 1999, and the fifth-highest Earth orbital human spaceflight overall.

'That was a heck of a ride for us,' Isaacman radioed shortly after landing. 'We're just getting started.'

The Inspiration4 crew, the first all-civilian crew to fly to space, posed up before making their historic trip to space last month

Meet the Inspiration4 crew Jared Isaacman, 38 Jared Isaacman, 38 Issacman grew up in New Jersey and started dabbling in computer technical support and repair when he was just 14 years old. Two years later, he was offered a full time position and dropped out of high school to take the job - he later earned a GED. In 2005, Issacman founded a retail payment processing company named United Bank Card, which was later renamed Harbortouch, a point-of-sale payment company based in Pennsylvania. He was the founding CEO and retained that role in 2015 with the company having 'been profitable for over a decade. By 2020, the company had been renamed Shift4 Payments, Isaacman became the CEO, and the company was processing $200 billion in payments annually. Issacman piloted the craft and served as spacecraft commander. Hayley Arceneaux, 29 Hayley Arceneaux, 29 Arceneaux, who is from Tennessee, was the first winner of a seat aboard the craft, who will become the youngest American in space and the first to make the journey with a prosthesis. At the age of 10, Arceneaux was treated for bone cancer and had surgery at St. Jude to replace her knee and get a titanium rod in her left thigh bone. She wants to show her young patients and other cancer survivors that 'the sky is not even the limit anymore.' Sian Proctor, 51 Sian Proctor, 51 Proctor was revealed as a winner this past March. She is an entrepreneur, educator, trained pilot and active voice in the space exploration community. She was selected as the top entrant of an independently judged online business competition that attracted approximately 200 entries and was conducted by the eCommerce platform Shift4Shop. And an independent panel of judges chose her space art website dubbed Space2inspire. Proctor, who studied geology, applied three times to NASA's astronaut corps, coming close in 2009, and took part in simulated Mars missions in Hawaii. Chris Sembroski, 41 Chris Sembroski, 41 The last seat was awarded to Sembroski, who donated and entered the lottery but was not picked in the random drawing  his friend was. His friend declined to fly for personal reasons and offered the spot to Sembroski, who worked as a Space Camp counsellor in college and volunteered for space advocacy groups. 'Just finding out that I'm going to space was an incredible, strange, surreal event,' he said in March. Sembroski served as the Mission Specialist, helping manage payload, science experiments, communications to mission control and more. Advertisement

The crew later said their trip to space was 'awe-inspiring' and 'emotional'.

'That last view of the Earth in the cupola [giant window] made me emotional, because it was just so awe-inspiring, and I knew I'd be thinking about that for the rest of my life,' Arceneaux said in the team's first interview after landing back on Earth.

'Our name is Inspiration,' Proctor added. 'To be able to capture that view and bring it back to Earth is special.'

Arceneaux, who is a St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital physician assistant and was treated for bone cancer at 10 years old, added that she hopes the mission will inspire people, despite the fact she thinks of herself as an 'ordinary person.'

'It's hard for me to wrap my head around because I think of myself as an ordinary person, but I hope that people can relate to me,' she said.

'I've had some difficulties in life, but I think everyone has in some way,' she continued.

'I think everyone has had to overcome something, and I just I hope that people can look at my story and know that holding on to hope, that there will be better days, is so important.'

The Inspiration4 crew shared pictures of their space flight on Twitter, showing (from left to right) Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Chris Sembroski and Sian Proctor on board the Crew Dragon module

'The crew of Inspiration4 had an incredible first day in space,' they wrote. 'Theyve completed more than 15 orbits around planet Earth since liftoff and made full use of the Dragon cupola.' Ms Acreneaux is pictured in the domed window, known as the cupola

Inspiration4 launched in the SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience on September 16 atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean just before midnight on September 18

The crew began their journey at 4:07pm ET on September 15, when the four individuals emerged from Hangar X from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

SpaceX CEO Musk was also present to see the crew off and appeared to be just as excited as the team going to space on board the modified Crew Dragon module.

One of the modifications was the cupola, or giant window, that let the four astronauts have a panoramic view of space in the craft.

The Inspiration4 crew splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean near Florida on September 18 at 23:06 UTC, bringing an end to their historic three-day mission orbiting Earth, 360 miles above the surface.

The Dragon capsule descended towards Earth on four chutes before gently landing in the water as the module floated on the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.
The U.S. Air Force's secretive X-37B space plane that launched in May 2020 has now surpassed 500 days flying around the Earth, with no apparent end in sight.

The mission, dubbed Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-6), took from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, riding atop a liquid fueled Atlas V rocket.

The robotic X-37B, which took off from Earth on May 17, 2020, is used to host a range of classified experiments for the military.

The U.S. Air Force's secretive X-37B space plane has surpassed 500 days flying around Earth

News of the 500-day milestone was first reported by Space.com.

This pilotless craft has performed number of classified missions for the military since 2010, as it tests new technologies in space.

This mission, whose return date to Earth is unclear at this point, is the first to use a service module which hosts experiments, some of which were discussed prior to the launch.

'The service module is an attachment to the aft of the vehicle that allows additional experimental payload capability to be carried to orbit,' the U.S. Space Force said in a statement.

The OTV-6 mission took from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in May 2020

It deployed a FalconSat08, a small satellite developed by the Air Force to 'conduct several experiments on orbit,' the U.S. Space Force added.

It also had two NASA experiments to 'study the results of radiation and other space effects on a materials sample plate and seeds used to grow food,' the statement added.

Lastly, there was an experiment from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory to 'transform solar power into radio frequency microwave energy which could then be transmitted to the ground.'

Although the Air Force owns the X-37B, the newly formed Space Force is responsible for launching, operating and landing the craft.

Boeing, which manufactured the X-37B, describes the robotic plane as 'one of the worlds newest and most advanced re-entry spacecraft' that is capable of flying between 150 and 500 miles above the Earth.

The vehicle is the first since the Space Shuttle with the ability to return experiments to Earth for further inspection and analysis.

The Air Force has two X-37Bs that are swapped while one is undergoing refurbishment.

Powered by solar cells with lithium-ion batteries, the plane was orbiting at around 200 miles high.

The first mission in 2010 lasted 224 days, the second a year later went on for 468 days and the mission that ended in 2019 lasted a total of 780 days.

The first mission in 2010 lasted 224 days, the second a year later went on for 468 days and the mission that ended in 2019 lasted a total of 780 days

Five previous X-37B missions have been launched by United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rockets.

Each time the unmanned space plane has carried a mystery payload on long-duration flights in Earth orbit.
The apple gets its 'dimple-like cusp' and shape as a result of different rates of growth between the bulk and the stalk, according to a new mathematical study of the fruit.

Apples are relatively spherical apart from the dimple at the top, according to a team from Harvard University in Cambridge Massachusetts, who set out to see if they could understand, mathematically, why the fruit has this unusual form factor.

They turned to a gel that can adapt its shape over time, to replicate the way an apple grows, and compared it to the growth of real apples from an orchard.

Combining this with mathematical models revealed that the underlying fruit anatomy, the way it grows at different rates, and mechanical instability, play joint roles in the rise of the dimple, bottom ridges and general shape of the fruit.

Apples are relatively spherical apart from the dimple at the top, according to a team from Harvard University in Cambridge Massachusetts, who set out to see if they could understand, mathematically, why the fruit has this unusual form factor

Mathematical models revealed that the underlying fruit anatomy, the way it grows at different rates, and mechanical instability, play joint roles in the rise of the dimple, bottom ridges and general shape of the fruit

The evolution of the apple Apples first evolved in central Asia from the wild ancestor Malus sieversii - which is still growing today. They have been grown for fruit for thousands of years in Asia and Europe and taken to North America by European colonists. An apple tree grown from seed tends to be very different from its parents, and often produces fruit different to that desired by the grower. So for generations apple cultivars are used by grafting on to rootstocks. These rootsocks allow for the control of growth speed and the resulting size of the tree, making harvesting easier. There are over 7,500 known cultivars of apples, with different ones bred for different tastes and uses - from cooking to eating. Worldwide production of apples in 2018 was 86 million tonnes. Advertisement

The research team began by collecting apples at various growth stages from an orchard at Peterhouse College at the University of Cambridge in the UK.

They then worked to map the growth of the dimple over time by measuring the different growth stages.

Dr Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan, the lead author of the study, had already developed a simple theory to explain the form and growth of apples, but the project began to bear fruit when the researchers were able to connect observations of real apples at different growth stages.

'Biological shapes are often organised by the presence of structures that serve as focal points,' he said.

To understand the evolution of the shape of the apple and the cusp, the researchers turned to a long-standing mathematical theory known as singularity theory.

Singularity theory is used to describe a host of different phenomena, from black holes, to more mundane examples such as the light patterns at the bottom of a swimming pool, droplet breakup and crack propagation.

'These focal points can sometimes take the form of singularities where deformations are localised,' said Mahadevan, adding 'a ubiquitous example is seen in the cusp of an apple, the inward dimple where the stalk meets the fruit.'

The team suggests the 'singularity' in this case is a slight alteration in the speed of growth around the stalk, compared to other parts of the apple - creating a dimple.

'What is exciting about singularities is that they are universal,' said co-lead author on this paper, Thomas Michaels, from University College London.

'The apple cusp has nothing in common with light patterns in a swimming pool, or a droplet breaking off from a column of water, yet it makes the same shape as they do.

'The concept of universality goes very deep and can be very useful because it connects singular phenomena observed in very different physical systems.'

Building from this, the team used numerical simulation to understand how differential growth between the fruit cortex and the core drives formation of the cusp.

Plain view and cross-section from simulations of apple growth, showing temporal evolution of the compressive stresses around the central stalk region, which are responsible for the formation of the multiple cusps

WHAT IS SINGULARITY THEORY? A singularity is a point at which a given mathematical object is not defined. It is also a point where the mathematical object stops being well-behaved in some particular way. This could be the point where it is lacking differentiability or analyticity - is different or not holding true to expected findings. Singularities arise naturally in a huge number of different areas of mathematics and science, according to the Isaac Newton Institute. 'As a consequence Singularity Theory lies at the crossroads of the paths connecting the most important areas of applications of mathematics with its most abstract parts.' 'In general, a singularity is a point at which an equation blows up or becomes degenerate,' WolframMathWorld explains. 'Singularities are extremely important in complex analysis, where they characterise the possible behaviours of analytic functions.' Advertisement

They then corroborated the simulations with experiments which mimicked the growth of apples using gel that swelled over time.

The experiments showed that different rates of growth between the bulk of the apple and the stalk region resulted in the dimple-like cusp.

'Being able to control and replay morphogenesis - or shape growth - of singular cusps in the laboratory with simple material toolkits was particularly exciting,' said Aditi Chakrabarti, co-author of the paper, referring to the gel.

'Varying the geometry and composition of the gel mimics showed how multiple cusps form.'

These changes and cusp forms are 'seen in some apples and other drupes, such as peaches, apricots, cherries and plums,' he added.

The team found that the underlying fruit anatomy, along with mechanical instability, may play joint roles in giving rise to multiple cusps in all similar fruits.

'Morphogenesis, literally the origin of shape, is one of the grand questions in biology,' said Mahadevan.

'The shape of the humble apple has allowed us to probe some physical aspects of a biological singularity.

'Of course, we now need to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms behind the formation of the cusp, as we move slowly towards a broader theory of biological shape.'

The authors say future work will need to explore the nature and dynamics of the molecular signals triggering the inhibition of growth near the stalk.

They also want to look at the mechanisms linking cell number, cell size and cell shape to tissue changes in the fruit.

The findings have been published in the journal Nature Physics.
CAS Space, a commercial offshoot from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), revealed mock-ups of its space tourism rocket that seems to have been heavily inspired by two American powerhouses  Jeff Bezos Blue Origin and Elon Musks SpaceX.

The top portion of the Chinese rocket resembles Blue Origin's New Shepard while the body looks like SpaceX's Starship, complete with side fins that guide the crafts descent.

CAS Space is aiming to start sending paying customers into suborbital space in 2024.

According to the companys press release, the rocket will seat up to seven passengers, who will spend 10 minutes floating in zero gravity just above the Karman line  the boundary between Earths atmosphere and outer space, about 62 miles above Earths surface.

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CAS Space, a commercial offshoot from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), revealed mock-ups of its space tourism rocket that seems to pull inspiration from two American powerhouses in the industry  Jeff Bezos Blue Origin and Elon Musks SpaceX

Space tourism was once an idea only seen in sci-fi films, but in the past year, three billionaires turned the adventure into a reality.

Virgin Galactics founder, Richard Branson, and the aforementioned Bezos have both ventured into suborbital space.

Although Musk has yet to take the journey himself, his firm recently sent four civilians into orbit last moth for a three-day trip around Earth.

Now China could be the next country to join the space tourism industry, withy its first crewed missing set in just two years.

The top portion of the Chinese rocket resembles that of the New Shepard (pictured)

Much of the Chinese rock pulls inspiration from SpaceX's Starship, complete with side fins that guide the crafts descent.

The rocket, which is set to be reusable, will undergo several tests leading up to its manned launch.

A suborbital demonstration is set for 2022, followed by an unmanned mission a year later and then the companys suborbital tourism services could begin in 2024.

However, CAS Spaces timeline is very ambitious compared to the American companies that have already sent tourists into space.

Blue Origin launched its first demonstration in 2015 and did not send a human crew into orbit until earlier this year.

According to CAS Space, tourists will receive short-term training prior to launch, but the release did not go into further detail on what type of training they would receive.

The Chinese rocket, which is set to be reusable, will undergo several tests leading up to its manned launch. A suborbital demonstration is set for 2022, followed by an unmanned mission a year later and then the companys suborbital tourism services should begin in 2024

The recent Insporation4 mission, which saw four civilians launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The team underwent centrifuge training to prepare for the various dynamic situations encountered during spaceflight  including launch, reentry, ocean splashdown, and a potential in-flight abort scenario.

Branson was the first billionaire to make it to space, when he and an entourage of six people traveled 53 miles above Earth's surface on July 11 and spent eight minutes in weightlessness.

On July 20, Bezos completed a similar journey.

He and his brother Mark Bezos were joined by 18-year-old Oliver Daemen - the world's first paying customer to buy his flight - and 82-year-old Wally Funk, who passed NASA's space program in the 1960s but never made it to space because the women's flight was canceled.

The crew traveled 66 miles above the surface of Earth - 13 miles higher than Virgin Galactic billionaire Branson.

Blue Origin is set to launch a second space tourism mission on October 12 and actor William Shatner, 90, will be aboard.

Shatner, who is known for his role as Captain Kirk on Star Trek, will become the oldest person in space.

Musk has purchased a ticket for Branson's Virgin Galactic, and recently sent four civilians into the final frontier.

On September 15, the first all-civilian crew launched into orbit, which included Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Sian Proctor and Chris Sembroski, took off on a Falcon 9 rocket and spent three days orbiting Earth.
If you've ever been left confused by a mysterious transaction on your bank statement, a new report suggests it could well be evidence of your child's unauthorised spending spree.

Cybersecurity firm Panda Security found hundreds of British kids are using their parents' Apple Pay and PayPal accounts, as well as debit cards, without permission to buy apps, movies and games.

In all, 52 per cent of parents admitted they had been bemused by payments on their bank balance, only to later find out it was their child who had made the purchase.

Meanwhile, 21 per cent rang their bank due to 'suspicious activity' on their account, which turned out to be their kids helping themselves to funds.

In response to the findings, an Apple spokesperson pointed out that Apple Pay is authenticated with Face ID or Touch ID and that it's not an payment option to download apps, games or music from the App Store.

Confused about mystery transactions on your bank statement? it could well be your kids according to new research at Panda Security (stock image)

KEY FINDINGS - 52 per cent of UK parents claim they have found payments on their bank balance made by their child - 21 per cent rang their bank due to 'suspicious activity' on their account that was actually payments made by their child - 17 per cent thought they were the victim of fraud - 32 per cent found their children downloading apps they later claimed they thought were free - 24 per cent found themselves locked out of their own device due to their child attempting to enter their passcode too many times - 37 per cent said their children constantly take their phone, laptop or tablet without asking Advertisement

According to Panda Security's data, unauthorised spends average a total of 300 a year (25 a month on average) on everything from games, apps, movies and more.

Children are especially partial to addictive gaming add-ons known as 'loot boxes'  virtual treasure chests in video games that give players prizes.

The study also found that 16 per cent had got a virus on their laptop or desktop, because their child had inadvertently downloaded it.

Panda Security is now urging parents to keep their online payment accounts secure from their kids if they feel they need to.

'It's great to see that children are becoming more fluent and comfortable with technology,' said Herve Lambert at Panda Security, which offers its own internet and security products for families.

'[But] it's important that parents implement the correct procedures to avoid unwanted spending becoming a problem at home.'

For the research, Panda Security surveyed 1,500 UK-based mums and dads online, who were asked a series of yes or no questions based on their experiences.

Data showed 23 per cent were left so baffled by a transaction on their account that they assumed it must be a mistake, while 17 per cent even thought they were the victim of fraud.

Due to the issue, 16 per cent of mums and dads had ended up with unexpected deliveries to their home, with just 28 per cent able to cancel the order.

Children are especially partial to addictive gaming add-ons known as 'loot boxes'  virtual treasure chests in video games that give players prizes. Pictured is a loot box in the popular shooter Overwatch

Nearly two thirds (63 per cent) of parents said they thought their children knew exactly what they were doing when they made an online purchase without permission.

Meanwhile, 46 per cent said their card details end up getting saved to multiple websites, making it easy for their children to incur costs, while 35 per cent admitted their child could easily enter their card details to complete a purchase online.

Over a third (34 per cent) said a child had been able to make purchases using in-app game add-ons, such as loot boxes, and 32 per cent found their children downloading priced apps that they later claimed they thought were free.

Unfortunately for the parent, 24 per cent found themselves locked out of their own device due to their child attempting to enter their passcode too many times.

A love of games and apps is driving British kids to make unauthorised purchases with their parents' payment cars, the findings suggest (stock image)

What's more, 37 per cent said their children constantly take their phone, laptop or tablet without asking and 20 per cent said their child uses their devices as if they were their own.

31 per cent of parents said they'd been forced to change their password or pin to keep the issue from happening again.

To avoid any future transactions made by their child, 19 per cent decided to ground their children. A strict 18 per cent forced their child to pay them back, while 12 per cent froze their child's pocket money.

Interestingly, parents intentionally giving their child their payment details was not unheard of  30 per cent admitted they often give their children their debit card to buy something online and to keep them occupied.

The research also found that Manchester is the spending spree capital of the UK for children, where they splash out up to 33 monthly on online purchases.

Manchester was closely followed by children in London (32) and Plymouth (29).
Blue Origin confirmed on Monday that legendary Star Trek actor William Shatner would be a part of the company's next space tourism flight later this month, becoming the oldest person to visit space.

At the age of 90, Shatner will surpass Mary Wallace 'Wally' Funk as the oldest person to head into space.

The 82-year-old Funk headed into space on Blue Origin's first human flight on July 20.

Blue Origin confirmed Star Trek actor William Shatner will be a part of the company's next space tourism flight later this month

Shatner, 90, will be the oldest person to visit space, surpassing 82-year-old 'Wally' Funk. Shanter is seen touring the Launch Site One in West Texas with Blue Origin's Sarah Knights

Blue Origin's Vice President of Mission & Flight Operations, Audrey Powers, will also join the crew, which includes the previously announced Dr Chris Boshuizen, co-founder of Planet Labs and Medidata co-founder Glen de Vries into space on the New Shepard rocket.

'I've heard about space for a long time now,' said Shatner, known for playing Captain James T. Kirk in the sci-fic series, in a statement obtained by DailyMail.com.

'I'm taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle.'

Blue Origin's Vice President of Mission & Flight Operations Audrey Powers (pictured) will also join the crew

Powers, who joined the company in 2013 and oversees New Shepard flight operations, vehicle maintenance, and launch, landing, and ground support infrastructure, said she was 'excited' to be a continuing part of history.

'I'm so proud and humbled to fly on behalf of Team Blue, and I'm excited to continue writing Blue's human spaceflight history,' Powers explained.

'I was part of the amazing effort we assembled for New Shepard's Human Flight Certification Review, a years-long initiative completed in July 2021.

'As an engineer and lawyer with more than two decades of experience in the aerospace industry, I have great confidence in our New Shepard team and the vehicle we've developed.'

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 on October 12

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 on October 12.

Shatner reportedly will part of a documentary of the 15-minute civilian flight, according to TMZ, which first broke the news of the actor's involvement last month.

The news comes a few days after 21 current and former Blue Origin employees penned a scathing essay, questioning company founder Jeff Bezos for creating a 'toxic' work environment where the company sacrificed safety to work at 'breakneck speed' in order to win the billionaire space race.

In an essay published on Thursday, Alexandra Abrams, the former head of Blue Origin Employee Communications, along with 20 employees said the priority was to 'make progress for Jeff' as he competed with Elon Musk and Richard Branson to make it to space first.

They claimed that the most common question at high-level meetings was: 'When will Elon or Branson fly?' and safety concerns were ignored because they would have 'slowed progress'.

'Progress at Blue Origin was smooth and steady and slow, until Jeff started getting impatient that Elon and Branson were getting ahead, and then we started feeling this increasing pressure and impatience that would filter down from leadership,' Abrams told CBS Mornings on Thursday.

Ultimately, Branson flew to the edge of space first, on July 11 - nine days ahead of Bezos. Musk, who leads SpaceX, has not flown into space himself, but his company sent four civilians into space on September 15, flying 360 miles above the Earth.

Pictured from left to right: Dutch teenager Oliver Daemen, Mark Bark Bezos, Jeff Bezos and Wally Funkd. Blue Origin's first flight occurred on July 20

Blue Origin's first flight, which occurred on July 20, saw company founder Jeff 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.

Oliver's father, Joes Daemen, who founded private equity firm Somerset Capital Partners, bought the seat aboard the flight for over $20 million at auction.
Deep below the Arctic's permafrost lies Cold War era nuclear waste and deadly pathogens that could soon be released to the surface as a result of rapidly melting ice, a new study suggests.

A team of scientists warn up to two thirds of the Arctic's near-surface permafrost could be lost by 2100 due to climate change, as the area is warming at as much as three times the average global rate.

The researchers highlight the 130 nuclear weapons tested in the atmosphere by the Soviet Union from 1995 to 1990, which left behind high levels of radioactive substances.

Along with nuclear waste, there are hundreds of microorganisms currently frozen in the ice.

As the permafrost thaws, there is potential for these bacteria to mix with meltwater and create new antibiotic-resistant strains of existing viruses.

More than 100 microorganisms in the deep permafrost have already been found to be antibiotic-resistant, according to the study published in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change.

The nuclear waste, if released, can be toxic for humans and animals and the thousands-year-old viruses could be detrimental to society if they also break free from the icy prison.

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A team of scientists from Aberystwyth University warn up to two thirds of the Arctic's near-surface permafrost could be lost by 2100 due to climate change, as the area is warming at as much as three times the average global rate

In 2016, in Siberia, thawing permafrost exposed a 70-year-old reindeer carcass infected with anthrax, killing a child and affecting several other people, according to the Observer Research Foundation.

Permafrost, or permanently-frozen land, covers around nine million square miles in the Arctic.

The majority of Arctic permafrost dates up to around 1 million years ago and typically the deeper its level, the older a period it originates from.

Permafrost houses everything from microbes to chemical compounds, all of which have been trapped in an icy cage for over a millennia.

The researchers highlight the 130 nuclear weapons tested in the atmosphere by the Soviet Union from 1995 to 1990, which left behind high levels of radioactive substances. The nation tested its Tsar Bomba device over the Barents Sea in 1961 (pictured)

The Tsar Bomba (pictured) exploded with the force of 50million tons of conventional explosives, or 3,333 times the force of the bomb that levelled Hiroshima.

Dr Arwyn Edwards, Reader in Biology at Aberystwyth University, said in a statement: Changes in the Arctics climate and ecology will influence every part of the planet as it feeds carbon back to the atmosphere and raises sea levels.

This review identifies how other risks can arise from the warming Arctic. It has long been a deep-freezer for a range of harmful things, not just greenhouse gases.

We need to understand more about the fate of these harmful microbes and pollutants and nuclear materials to properly understand the threats they may pose.

The Russian nuclear tests used 224 separate explosive devices that released around 265 megatons of nuclear energy.

The nation discarded more than 100 decommissioned nuclear submarines in the nearby Kara and Barents seas.

The nation also tested its Tsar Bomba device over the Barents Sea in 1961, which exploded with the force of 50million tons of conventional explosives, or 3,333 times the force of the bomb that levelled Hiroshima.

While the Russian government has since launched a strategic clean-up plan, the review notes that the area has tested highly for the radioactive substances caesium and plutonium, between undersea sediment, vegetation and ice sheets, the team shared in a press release.

The US has also contributed to nuclear waste in permafrost with its Camp Century nuclear-powered under-ice research facility in Greenland. The facility was decommissioned in 1967, leaving waste to accumulate under the ice

The U.S. has also contributed to nuclear waste in permafrost with its Camp Century nuclear-powered under-ice research facility in Greenland.

The facility was decommissioned in 1967, leaving waste to accumulate under the ice.

The only thing keeping these harmful emissions from escaping is permafrost.

Another risk concerns by-products of fossil fuels, which have been introduced into permafrost environments since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

The Arctic also contained natural metal deposits, including arsenic, mercury and nickel, which have been mined for decades and have caused huge contamination from waste material across tens of millions of hectares.

These compounds, if released from the permafrost, could increase food scarcity by poisoning animals and fish in the area that humans rely on for food.

The toxic compounds, along with the nuclear waste, would also release more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and significantly contribute to climate change.
As the world emerges from COVID-19-related isolation, selfie-related fatalities have skyrocketed.

There have already been 24 reported deaths associated with daredevils looking for the perfect self-portrait, compared to just seven in 2020.

Falls are the most common cause of selfie fatalities, responsible for a third of all deaths, according to data collected by U.K. risk and safety assessment firm Rhino Safety, following by drownings, which were responsible for about one in five.

Men are more than twice as likely to die in the pursuit of a selfie than women, 64 percent to 30 percent, according to the report.

Since researchers began tracking selfie-related deaths in 2011, India has recorded the most, 184, with the U.S. in second with 25 and Russia in third with 19.

The former Soviet Union had to issue selfie guidelines after citizens wounded themselves with self-inflicted gunshots, pulling pins out of grenades and touching live wires.

Tourists are most often reported taking dangerous selfies, but experts said employees who work in high-risk environments are also guilty of putting themselves in harms way.

In July, Chinese crane operator Xiao Qiumei fell 160 feet to her death filming a video for her 100,000 followers on social media.

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There have already been 24 reported selfie-related deaths this year, compared to just seven in all of 2020

The same month 23-year-old Qiumei died, hiker Sofia Cheung plunged to her death while taking selfies at the edge of a waterfall in Hong Kong.

The 32-year-old was shooting her self-portrait when she slipped off a rock near the Tsing Dai river in Tuen Mun and fell over a steep drop into the 16-foot deep pool below.

Cheung, who only had about 6,000 followers on Instagram at the time of her death, frequently posted pictures from risky locales.

That same month, visitors to Birling Gap in East Sussex were seen snapping pics of themselves on the quickly eroding cliff.

In July hiker Sofia Cheung (pictured) plunged to her death while taking selfies at the edge of a waterfall in Hong Kong

In one shot, a woman is holding a man's legs as he peers over the edge, while in another another woman is inches from the edge as a friend holds onto her jacket.

A SELFIE TO DIE FOR? Millions of people hold up their phones every day to snap a selfie to share with friends. But more people have died taking selfies than were killed by sharks. in 2015, atotal of 12 people are known to have suffered selfie-related deaths after either falling or being struck by a moving vehicle when taking a picture of themselves. According to data compiled by Mashable, only eight people were known to have been killed by a shark that year. Experts say as social media evolves people are willing to put themselves in more and more dangerous situations. This has prompted some wildlife parks to tighten regulations as officials worry people will take selfies with wild bears. Some cyclists have spoken of how spectators should be banned from taking selfies while watching the Tour de France. Advertisement

Signs at Birling Gap warn that dangling on the edge is 'incredibly dangerous' as there are giant cracks in the chalk that could give way at any moment.

While the 24 deaths so far in 2021 are shy of the record 107 fatalities in 2017, Rhino Safety director Simon Walter said the number could continue to rise with the toxic combination of lockdown FOMO (fear of missing out) and relaxed travel measures.

'If the last 18 months have taught us anything, it's that being able to get out and explore is vital for our physical and mental health,' Walter said.

'While social media platforms can be amazing places to build connections with people across the world, the pressure to stand out can push people to take risks to create 'exciting' content which can, unfortunately, end in disaster.'

Walters pointed out the statistics don't account for the thousands of non-fatal injuries that take place each year in the pursuit of 'likes.'

'It's important, now more than ever, to reflect on the risks we are willing to take, and if a selfie is really worth losing your life over,' he said.

While selfies are sometimes considered tools for empowerment, numerous studies have linked looking at selfies to body-image issues among young women.

Men are twice as likely as women to die while trying to take a selfie, 63 percent to 30 percent

'The approval that comes from 'likes' and positive comments on social media is rewarding  particularly for the lonely, isolated or insecure,' psychologist Michael Weigold of the University of Florida wrote on The Conversation in 2016, a year which saw 103 selfie deaths.

'However, the evidence, on balance (combined with people and animals dying!), suggests there is little to celebrate about the craze.'

According to Rhino Safety, India is by far the country with the most self-related deaths. In 2016, a 66-yea-old taking a selfie at the Taj Mahal stumbled and had a fatal heart attack
Russian actress Yulia Peresild will launch for the International Space Station tomorrow, beating Tom Cruise to be the first actor to film a movie in space, after his flight, originally scheduled for this month, was pushed back to 2022.

The 37-year-old will be joined by director Klim Shipenko, after both went through months of training, including centrifuge and zero gravity flight tests.

The pair will launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome on the Soyuz MS-19 crew capsule at 09:55 BST (04:55 ET) with cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov.

The trio were cleared as medically fit to fly last week, as were the backup crew of cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, director Alexey Dudin and actor Alena Mordovina.

Shipenko and Peresild will spend 12 days in space, filming the movie that will also include the Roscosmos cosmonauts on the station as extras.

Tom Cruise is rumoured to be flying to the ISS in 2022, as part of a $200 million project supported by Elon Musk-owned SpaceX and NASA.

Russian actress Yulia Peresild will launch for the International Space Station tomorrow, beating Tom Cruise to be the first actor to film a movie in space

Tom Cruise is rumoured to be flying to the ISS in 2022, as part of a $200 million project supported by Elon Musk-owned SpaceX and NASA

Actress Yulia Peresild, left, director Klim Shipenko right, and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov (centre) are the members of the prime crew of Soyuz MS-19 spaceship

CHALLENGE: THE FIRST MOVIE SHOT IN SPACE The movie is being produced by space agency Roscosmos, Channel One and film studio Yellow, Black and White. It is called Challenge, and the space-based segments will feature actress Yulia Peresild in the lead role. She will appear alongside Klim Shipenko, who will also direct the film. Serving cosmonauts, Anton Shkaplerov, Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov will also appear in the film. It isn't clear yet when the movie will be released or whether the Earth-based segments have been filmed. THE PLOT The film focuses on a doctor, played by Peresild, that has never been involved in the space program or has any interest in space travel. That is until she is called on to travel to the International Space Station to save the life of a cosmonaut. There is a suggestion the cosmonaut she has to save is also a friend. Cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov, Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov will also assist in the rescue operation. Advertisement

The movie tells the story of a doctor who has never had involvement with the space program before, but travels to the ISS to save the life of a cosmonaut.

Director Klim Shipenko, who will also act in the movie during his fortnight living and working on the orbital platform, previously described the movie as 'an experiment,' adding there is 'nobody to get advice from.'

'There is not a single cameraman who could answer how to work with light from a porthole,' he said, of the issues filming in such an unusual environment.

It has been provisionally titled Challenge, and is a joint production between Roscosos and Russia's Channel One - which is also producing a documentary on the crew's training and preparations for launch.

Commander Anton Shkaplerov, who will remain on the station until Spring 2022, will be playing the role of a cosmonaut who helps the character of Yulia Peresild, who is playing the adventurous doctor, save the cosmonaut who needs help

'I won't be starring in it but still I will need to figure out how a movie is produced in such an unusual place as outer space,' Shkaplerov said.

Challenge is co-produced by Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia's space agency, with the active involvement of Russian cosmonauts on the station.

Cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov, who are already on the space station, will also assist in the 'rescue' operation and appear in the movie.

Shipenko and Peresild will have to manage everything themselves, including camera work, lighting, make up and production efforts while filming on the ISS.

Shipenko said of the effort: 'some things will work out and some things will not'.

Peresild and crew are travellng to the ISS six decades after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth

Actress Yulia Peresild, left, director Klim Shipenko' right, will spend 12 days filming on the station, but cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov (centre) will be there for six months

The actress (let) and director (right) will launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome on the Soyuz MS-19 crew capsule at 09:55 BST (04:55 ET) with cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov (centre)

'It will not be on the same level as on Earth, but we will do our best. We are ready for it,' said Peresild.

'It is a bit too late to be afraid because we've come so far, there is Baikonur ahead and a lot of things (to do) and to be honest, there is just no time left for fear.'

They will reach orbit nine minutes after launch at 09:55 BST (04:55 ET) tomorrow morning, and will approach the ISS in a double-loop pattern.

It will take about three hours and 17 minutes for the spaceship to reach the ISS, and 12 days later Shipenko and Peresild will return to Earth to film the rest of the movie.

They will launch on a Soyuz-2.1a rocket, already installed on the launch pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome for the Soyuz MS-19 Mission

They are launching as part of ISS Expedition 66, with main crew member, actress Yulia Peresild, playing the part of a doctor in a new movie called Challenge

Crew member and film director Klim Shipenko will act in the movie, work on make up and produce the scenes in space

Crew member and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov won't be staring in the movie, but will play an active part and be seen in some scenes

Shipenko, who is 6 feet 2 inches tall, said his height makes training inside the spacecraft - and the upcoming trip - 'not very comfortable'.

But accommodations will be made in the future, he said, adding: "It is okay. I will fly now as it is, but when we do the sequel about travel to Mars, then they promise there will be a better seat.'

Peresild is a stage and film actress who briefly studied philology in the city of Pskov before moving to Moscow to pursue acting.

She made her screen debut in the TV series Land in 2003 and had her breakthrough in 2010 with a supporting role in The Edge, a film directed by Aleksei Uchitel, with whom Peresild has two daughters.

Shipenko (right), who is 6 feet 2 inches tall, said his height makes training inside the spacecraft - and the upcoming trip - 'not very comfortable'

The announcement of the Russian film amounts to a space movie race with the West, competing against a project by NASA, Elon Musk and Tom Cruise, which will also be shot at the ISS (pictured) in October

In 2015, Peresild played the real-life Soviet sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko in the biographical war film Battle for Sevastopol.

Last year, NASA and SpaceX confirmed that it will be teaming up with Cruise to make a Hollywood movie on the ISS. He was originally due to travel to the station this month, but that has been postponed until sometime in 2022.

When he does launch, Cruise will travel in a SpaceX Crew Dragon ship, similar to the one that put the first all civilian, Inspiration4 crew into Earth orbit for three days.

Very little is know about the US film other than the fact Cruise will front it, with director Doug Liman joining him on the ISS to film the space-based scenes.
Exposure to deadly urban heat has tripled worldwide since the 1980s, a new study has warned.

Researchers at Columbia University's Earth Institute said a quarter of the world's population is now affected as a result of both rising temperatures and booming urban population growth.

They studied more than 13,000 cities across the globe and based their calculations on the number of 'person-days' that inhabitants were exposed to extreme combinations of heat and humidity.

These went from 40 billion per year in 1983 to 119 billion in 2016  a threefold increase. By 2016, 1.7 billion people were being subjected to such conditions on multiple days, the researchers said.

Researchers at Columbia University's Earth Institute said a quarter of the world's population is now being exposed to deadly urban heat as a result of both rising temperatures and booming urban population growth. This graphic shows the annual increases in the rate of urban population exposure to extreme heat in more than 13,000 cities worldwide from 1983 to 2016

Experts studied more than 13,000 cities across the globe and based their calculations on the number of 'person-days' that inhabitants were exposed to extreme combinations of heat and humidity. Pictured is the sun beating down on downtown Phoenix in Arizona

Which cities have had the biggest increase in urban heat exposure? The worst-hit city in terms of person-days was Dhaka, the fast-growing capital of Bangladesh; it saw an increase of 575 million person-days of extreme heat over the study period. Its ballooning population alone  4 million in 1983, to 22 million today  caused 80 percent of the increased exposure. This does not mean that Dhaka did not see substantial warming  only that population growth was even more rapid. Other big cities showing similar population-heavy trends include Shanghai and Guangzhou, China; Yangon, Myanmar; Bangkok; Dubai; Hanoi; Khartoum; and various cities in Pakistan, India and the Arabian Peninsula. On the other hand, some other major cities saw close to half or more of their exposure caused by a warming climate alone rather than population growth. Among them were Baghdad, Cairo, Kuwait City, Lagos, Kolkata, Mumbai, and other big cities in India and Bangladesh. The populations of European cities have been relatively static, so increases in exposure there were driven almost exclusively by increased warmth. Advertisement

Urban population growth accounted for two-thirds of the exposure spike, while rising temperatures caused by global warming contributed a third.

The worst-hit city was Dhaka, the fast-growing capital of Bangladesh, which has seen an increase of 575 million person-days of extreme heat over the past 40 years, mainly due to its ballooning population from 4 million in 1983 to 22 million today.

This caused 80 per cent of the increased exposure, the researchers said, although they cautioned that it doesn't mean it hasn't seen rising temperatures as well, it's just this has been overshadowed by the population increase.

Over recent decades, hundreds of millions of people have moved from rural areas to cities, which now hold more than half the world's population.

There, temperatures are generally higher than in the countryside because of sparse vegetation and abundant concrete and asphalt that tend to trap and heatthe so-called urban heat island effect.

'This has broad effects,' said the study's lead author, Cascade Tuholske, a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University's Earth Institute.

'It increases morbidity and mortality. It impacts people's ability to work, and results in lower economic output. It exacerbates pre-existing health conditions.'

Other big cities showing similar population-heavy trends include Shanghai and Guangzhou, China; Yangon, Myanmar; Bangkok; Dubai; Hanoi; Khartoum; and various cities in Pakistan, India and the Arabian Peninsula.

On the other hand, some other major cities saw close to half or more of their exposure caused by a warming climate alone rather than population growth.

Among them were Baghdad, Cairo, Kuwait City, Lagos, Kolkata, Mumbai, and other big cities in India and Bangladesh.

The populations of European cities have been relatively static, so increases in exposure there were driven almost exclusively by increased warmth.

'A lot of these cities show the pattern of how human civilisation has evolved over the past 15,000 years,' said Tuholske, pointing out that many are located in warm climates where humidity is delivered by big river systems. This made them attractive for farming and eventually urbanisation.

'The Nile, the Tigris-Euphrates, the Ganges. There is a pattern to the places where we wanted to be,' he said.

'Now, those areas may become uninhabitable. Are people really going to want to live there?'

Urban population growth accounted for two-thirds of the exposure spike, while rising temperatures caused by global warming contributed a third (stock image)

What is the 'wet-bulb globe temperature' scale? The 'wet-bulb global temperature' scale (WBGT) is 'a measure of heat stress in direct sunlight, which is based on temperature, humidity, wind speed, sun angle, and cloud cover (solar radiation).' This differs from the heat index, which is based only on temperature and humidity and is calculated for shady areas.' The WBGT measurement takes into account the multiplier effect of high humidity on human physiology. A wet-bulb reading of 30 is the rough equivalent of 106 degrees Fahrenheit on the so-called 'real feel' heat index the point at which even most healthy people find it hard to function outside for long, and the unhealthy might become very ill or even die. Advertisement

The researchers combined infrared satellite imagery and readings from thousands of ground instruments to determine maximum daily heat and humidity readings in 13,115 cities, from 1983 to 2016.

They defined extreme heat as 30C on the so-called 'wet-bulb globe temperature' scale, a measurement that takes into account the multiplier effect of high humidity on human physiology.

A wet-bulb reading of 30 is the rough equivalent of 106 degrees Fahrenheit on the so-called 'real feel' heat index  the point at which even most healthy people find it hard to function outside for long, and the unhealthy might become very ill or even die.

To come up with a measure of person-days spent in such conditions, the researchers matched up the weather data with statistics on the cities' populations over the same time period.

In the US, about 40 large cities have seen rapidly growing heat exposure, mainly clustered in Texas and the Gulf Coast.

In many, the causes of the rises have been varying combinations of both increasing population and increasing heat.

These include Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio and Austin, Texas, along with Pensacola and other cities in Florida. In some, population growth is the main driver.

These include Las Vegas; Savannah, Georgia; and Charleston, South Carolina. In others, it is almost exclusively fast-rising heat: Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Gulfport, Mississippi; and Lake Charles and Houma, Louisiana.

One major outlier is the city of Providence, Rhode Island, where rising exposure was 93 per cent due to warmer, more humid weather.

Temperatures are generally higher in cities than in the countryside because of sparse vegetation and abundant concrete, asphalt and other impermeable surfaces that tend to trap and concentrate heatthe so-called urban heat island effect (stock image)

Because the study period only ran through to 2016, the data did not include the record heatwaves that hit the U.S. Northwest and southern Canada this summer, killing hundreds of people.

The authors say their research should be used to help urban planners come up with better-targeted strategies to help citizens adapt to increasing city heat.

Kristina Dahl, a climate researcher at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the study 'could serve as a starting point for identifying ways to to address local heat issues,' such as planting trees and modifying rooftops with lighter colours or vegetation so they don't trap so much heat.

'This study shows that it will take considerable, conscientious investments to ensure that cities remain livable in the face of a warming climate,' she added.

The research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers reviewing decades-old x-rays of a 390 million year-old trilobite fossil have uncovered it had a wholly unique eye structure composed of 200 large lenses in each eye.

Phacops geesops, a trilobite of the suborder Phacopina, lived during the Devonian Age, about 390 million years ago.

Under each optic lens in each of the extinct arthropod's eyes, at least six facets are set up, each of which together again makes up a small compound eye,' zoologist Brigitte Schoenemann of the University of Cologne's Institute for Didactics of Biology said in a statement.

'So we have about 200 compound eyes  one under each lens in one eye.'

While the discovery was originally made by amateur paleontologist Wilhelm Sturmer in the 1970s, it wasn't until Schoenemann and her team went back recently and re-evaluated the x-rays  and confirmed them with CT scans that Sturmer's findings were officially confirmed.

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The eyes of phacops geesops, a trilobite from the Devonian age, have 200 lenses each, spanning six small facets. Each facet form another individual eye

Sturmer, a radiologist at German tech firm Siemens, was an avid paleontologist, for decades driving his VW bus equipped with an X-ray station to quarries in Hunsruck, in central Germany, to look for fossils.

When he examined the x-rays of p. geesops, he was certain they showed fossilized eye nerves with multitudes of lenses.

At the time, though, Sturmer's findings were dismissed by experts.

'The consensus was that only bones and teeth, the hard parts of living things, could be seen in the fossils, but not the soft parts, such as intestines or nerves,' Schoenemann said.

X-rays from the 1970s first suggested p. geesops had this unique optic network, but experts at the time dismissed the idea. Pictured: Phacopid schizochroal eyes show wider distance between lenses than most compound eyes

In the new study, published in Scientific Reports, Schoenemann and an international team of researchers verified Sturmer's non-expert analysis.

They've determined trilobites of the suborder Phacopina had an optic network unique in the animal kingdom.

Each of their two eyes had 200 lenses, each one up to a millimeter in size.

Their sub-facets are arranged in either one ring or two rings, underneath of which is a 'foam-like nest,' Schoenemann said, that was likely a local neural network used to process information from the hyper-eye directly.

Recent CT scans of the trilobite fossil (above) confirmed amateur paleontologist Wilhelm Sturmer's 50-year-old findings about the species hyper-compound eyes

They also found an optic nerve that would have carried information from the trilobite's eye to the brain, just as Sturmer theorized.

Schoenemann had even found markings on the x-rays by Sturmer, labeling the six sub-facets.

'On an X-ray negative, there was an arrow in red pen pointing to the structure of the six lower facets under a main lens,' she said.

'This probably indicated that Sturmer had already recognized the hyper-compound eye.'

The team confirmed Sturmer's findings with modern CT technology not available 40 years ago.

Trilobites dominated the world's oceans from early in the Cambrian Period, some 540 million years ago, until the end of the Permian Period, about 250 million years ago

Trilobites dominated the world's oceans from early in the Cambrian Period, some 540 million years ago, until the end of the Permian Period, about 250 million years ago.

Most trilobites had compound eyes similar to the ones found in insects todaya large number of hexagonal facets forming an eye, with eight photoreceptors under each facet.

Drone bees have 8,600 facets, for example, while dragonflies have up to 10,000 facets.

In order to produce a coherent image, these facets must be very close together.

However, in the trilobite suborder Phacopinae, the externally visible lenses of the compound eyes are much larger and set much farther apart.

That didn't add up until Schoenemann reviewed Sturmer's 50-year-old x-rays and realized she was looking at a hyper-compound eye.

The 'super-eye' could have been an evolutionary adaptation in order to see in low light conditions, she said.

Its possible p. geesops's hyper-eye was designed to help it see in little light, researchers said. Pictured: A rendering of a trilobite done in the 1880s

With its highly complex visual apparatus, it may have been much more sensitive to light than a normal trilobite.

'It is also possible that the individual components of the eye performed different functionsenabling, for example, contrast enhancement or the perception of different colors,' Schoeneman said.

When Sturmer died in the mid-1980s, his heir gave the university his archive but researchers didn't thoroughly examine it until recently.

In 2017, paleontologists in Estonia discovered an 'exceptional' 530-million-year-old trilobite fossil containing what could be the oldest eye ever discovered.

The right eye of the fossil was partly worn away, giving researchers a clear view inside the organ, including details of its structures and functions.

Unlike Phacops geesops, this more primitive species, Schmidtiellus reetae, had no lens.

Its eye consists of approximately 100 optical units, or ommatidia, which were situated relatively far apart compared to contemporary compounds eyes, the team said in a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This is likely because the species lacked parts of the shell needed for lens formation.

'This exceptional fossil shows us how early animals saw the world around them hundreds of millions of years ago,' geologist Euan Clarkson, who co-authored the report, said at the time.
A six-year-old boy in Michigan has discovered a fossilized tooth of a mastodon, an ancient mammal that live on North and Central America and died out during the last ice age, roughly 11,000 years ago.

Six-year-old Julian Gagnon made the discovery while walking with his family at the Dinosaur Hill Nature Preserve in Rochester Hills, Michigan, WDIV reported.

'I just felt something on my foot and I grabbed it up, and it kind of looked like a tooth,' Gagnon told the news outlet.

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The fossil is roughly the same size as a human hand and was confirmed to have belonged to an American mastodon by researchers at the University of Michigan.

The 16-acre woodland preserve has a number of trails for children and other visitors to walk and explore.

A six-year-old boy in Michigan has discovered a fossilized tooth of a mastodon at the Dinosaur Hill Nature Preserve

Although some fossils have been discovered at the preserve in the past, it got its name thanks to the children of the area.

'When the neighborhoods around Dinosaur Hill were being developed extra dirt, that was dug out during basement excavations, was piled up in one area creating a hill,' the preserve writes on its website.

'Local children who played on the hill dubbed it 'Dinosaur Hill' because of its resemblance to a sleeping dinosaur. When the nature preserve was established the name stuck and Dinosaur Hill Nature Preserve was born.'

Julian Gagnon (pictured) made the discovery while walking with his family at the Dinosaur Hill Nature Preserve in Rochester Hills, Michigan

Gagnon thought he would be rewarded monetarily for his discovery, but that did not happen.

'At first I thought I was going to get money. I was gonna get a million dollars. So embarrassing right now,' Gagnon added.

Experts at the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontologists confirmed that the fossilized tooth does indeed belong to a mastodon.

The 16-acre woodland preserve has a number of trails for children and other visitors to walk and explore

'Honestly, I'm a little jealous, personally, because mining fossils is something that I wish I could do every day,' said Abigail Drake, docent with the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History.

Drake added that finding a mastodon fossils - or any fossil for that matter - is rare.

'It's hard to be preserved as a fossil when an animal dies, most of the time it is scavenged.'

'I really wanted to be an archaeologist, but I think that was a sign that I'm going to be a paleontologist,' Gagnon told WDIV.

Mastodons are ancient relatives of the elephants and mammoths that were thought to have been destroyed by humans. They were among the largest land animals on Earth at the time, reaching lengths of 10 feet and weighing 8 tons or more

Mastodons are ancient relatives of the elephants and mammoths that were thought to have been destroyed by humans.

They were among the largest land animals on Earth at the time, reaching lengths of 10 feet and weighing 8 tons or more.

Mastodons went around the end of the Pleistocene Era, around 12,000 years ago.

Experts previously believed that mastodons lived in the Arctic and Subarctic areas that were covered with ice caps.

However, they now believe these areas were only temporary, due to a significantly warmer climate prior to their extinction.

They lived in forests and wetlands that were full of leafy food.

According to recent radiocarbon dating of mastodon fossils, it's widely believe they disappeared before humans colonized the region.

In September 2020, gold miners in Colombia discovered remains of a mastodon, including a 3.5-foot long tusk.

Two months later, a mastodon tooth was discovered by a Missouri teenager in the Grand River.
The record number of manatees deaths this year isn't due to accidents or disease, but starvation, experts say.

At least 912 manatees have died so far this year, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), a critical blow for a species estimated to number just 7,500 in the wild in Florida.

In January and February alone, the death toll surpassed 400and the figure could reach 1,200 by year's end, according to News 4 in Jacksonville.

The chief culprit is a dearth of the seagrass the sea mammals subsist on, as algae bloom has suffocated the sea grass the gentle creatures subsist on and pollution has sent their lagoon habitat into biological collapse.

Death by starvation can take months, with bones poking through papery skin, and organs slowly liquefying.

Some exhausted manatees have so little fat they can't remain afloat and drown.

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More than 900 manatees have died in 2021 so far, many from starvation. Red tide, microscopic algae blooms that chokes out sunlight and use up oxygen, have killed off much of the seagrass and seaweed the manatees eat. Pictured: A manatee eats in a recovery pool at ZooTampa on January 19, 2021

Florida manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris) are protected as an threatened species by numerous wildlife laws, including the 1978 Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act, but the death toll keeps rising.

A dead manatee was discovered Monday in the Gulf Coast town of Nokomis, the FWC reported, but a cause of death hasn't been determined yet.

'Our marine life is slowly dying off and it's come to this. A large, dead manatee,' local fisherman Noah Dehahn told News Channel 8.

'Seems like we don't get much attention down here when it's just fish dying, so I'm hoping this dead manatee will bring some awareness to what's going on around here.'

Thousands of manatees are drawn to the warm water discharged by the Florida Power & Light Co. generating station (pictured)

Five thousand manatee deaths have been reported in the last half-century, often from boat strikes, poisoning by pesticides and collisions with flood control structures.

However, there's been a sharp increase in recent years: From December 2020 to May 2021, at least 677 manatee carcasses were discovered along Florida's eastern coast.

Cold stress accounts for about 10 percent of those deaths and watercraft collisions less than that, according to News 6.

The COVID-19 pandemic has limited salvage and autopsy efforts, but scientists with the FWC say the bodies they have examined were emaciatedmany had lost half their weight and consumed their own muscle and fat reserves to survive, the Orlando Sentinel reported, causing them to lose their natural buoyancy.

Workers have tried to rescue dozens of starving manatees, but at least 15 have died in transit or while in intensive care.

It can take six to seven months, even up to a year, to rehab a single starving manatee. Workers have tried to rescue dozens this year, but at least 15 have died in transit or while in intensive care

Even for the manatees that survive, the famine will likely devastate their breeding habits for years.

A healthy adult manatee should weigh at least 1,200 pounds, according to the FWC, but some have been rescued weighing barely 800 pounds.

While a manatee hit by a boat or stricken by red tide can recover after several months, SeaWorld Orlando wildlife rescue expert Jon Peterson told the Sentinel it can take six to seven months, even up to a year, to rehab a single starving manatee, 'depending on how quickly I get them.'

A healthy adult manatee should weigh upwards of 1,200 pounds, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, but some have been rescued weighing barely 800 pounds

'They have been eating their body from the inside, trying to stay alive because there is no food,' Peterson said.

'I don't know if it hurts them because I'm not a manatee but I can tell you that if you haven't eaten for a week or two weeks, there is pain.'

'Manatees can eat up to 100 pounds of food or more a day in terms of aquatic plants,' Save the Manatee executive director Patrick Rose told WJXT News 4. 'If you times that by 1,000 or 2,000 manatees, that's a monumental task.'

The dead can leave behind offspring: Peterson said raising an orphaned manatee for release back into the wild can take three years and cost up to $600,000.

Many of the manatee corpses have been found in the Brevard County stretch of the Indian River, a brackish 150-mile lagoon heavily polluted by agricultural runoff, lawn and farm fertilizers, and leaky sewer systems and septic tanks.

Brevard's share of the lagoon doesn't benefit from ocean tidal flushing so pollution just stays there.

An adult female rescued from Indian River earlier this month had bones from her pectoral fin poking out and so little fat 'she can't float easily,' Peterson said.

The cow had to be placed in a special tank with an adjustable base so she could tilt her head and breathe.

Peterson says she has less than a fifty-fifty chance of survival.

'A manatee has the ability to survive what most all other animals would never survive,' he told the Sentinel. 'Tougher than a dolphin all day long. Tougher than turtles. Tougher than most of the birds. Their ability to work through stress and not crash is unbelievable.'

Outbreaks of red tide, microscopic algae that chokes out sunlight and use up oxygen in the water, have killed off much of the seagrass and seaweed the manatees live off of: Nearly 46,000 acres of seagrass, almost 60 percent of the entire crophas died off in the Indian River Lagoon in the last decade.

Lauren Hall, an environmental scientist for the St. Johns River Water Management District, told the Sentinel the lagoon floor should look like a verdant green carpet, but instead resembles a desert floor.

'The prior ecology was a clear-water system where sunlight could get down through the water and get to the seagrass,' Larry Williams, the US Fish and Wildlife Service's ecological director in Florida, told the Sentinel.

'In other parts of the world, they've seen systems like that shift to a new, steady state of murky water dominated by algae,' he said. 'Some of the scientists say that what we are seeing right now is the flickering transition to that new, steady state.'

Undoing the damage would cost $5 billion and 20 years or longer.

Manatees migrate in the summer but many will likely return to Indian River in Brevard in the winter months, suggesting another die-off is likely.

Thousands of manatees are drawn to the warm water discharged by the Florida Power & Light Co. generating station just south of Titusville, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

'If it's a red ride, it comes and goes. If it's a cold kill, it comes and goes,' Gil McRae, director of the state Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, said at an FWC board meeting August 4.

'This one we're uncertain how long the impact's going to be, but we know this forage is not going to come back overnight or even in a few years.'

On August 9, Reps. Vern Buchanan and Darren Soto of Florida introduced legislation to upgrade manatees from 'threatened' to 'endangered' under the Endangered Species Act

If passed, The Manatee Protection Act would free up additional funding and personnel for their protection.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has become the third favourite to lose his job after 1-1 draw

Under-pressure Steve Bruce finds himself at odds of 4/1 to be dismissed

Tottenham boss Nuno Espirito Santo still leads the betting market to go next

Watford's Xisco Munoz was the first casualty of the 2021-22 season as he became the first Premier League manager to lose his job after just seven matches.

Tottenham boss Nuno Espirito Santo found himself at the top of the top-flight sack market last Monday but he guided Spurs to a 2-1 victory over Aston Villa at the weekend to ease some of the pressure.

Nevertheless the Portuguese is still the bookmakers' favourite to be the next Premier League manager to be dismissed at odds of 3/1 with Betfair.

Nuno Espirito Santo (L) is favourite to be sacked with Steve Bruce also at top of betting market

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's odds to be sacked were slashed from 14/1 to 5/1 after Man United drew

BETTING ODDS OF THE NEXT PREMIER LEAGUE MANAGER TO GO Nuno Espirito Santo 3/1 Steve Bruce 4/1 Ole Gunnar Solskjaer 5/1 Ralph Hasenhuttl 11/2 Daniel Farke 11/2 Mikel Arteta 10/1 Sean Dyche 14/1 Patrick Vieira 14/1 Bruno Lage 14/1 Brendan Rodgers 19/1 Marcelo Bielsa 25/1 Dean Smith 33/1 David Moyes 50/1 Graham Potter 50/1 Rafa Benitez 50/1 Thomas Frank 50/1 Pep Guardiola 50/1 Jurgen Klopp 66/1 Thomas Tuchel 66/1 No Other Manager To Leave in 2021/22 EPL Season 90/1 *Odds courtesy of Betfair Advertisement

Prior to Sunday's victory Tottenham had suffered three straight league defeats, including a dismal display in the 3-1 north London derby defeat by Arsenal on September 26.

However Nuno was positive after his side bounced back from a Villa equaliser in the second half to secure a much-needed win, he said: 'Definitely. Yes, [reacting to conceding is] something we've improved from previous games. The reaction was really, really good.

'Definitely a better reaction. Much better. Previously we became a little bit flat and today was immediately reacting.

'After that moment we continued to create chances and I honestly believe there were more goals there for us today, but the production and the way we produced, the way we created was much, much better.'

Tottenham can reportedly sack Nuno and pay nothing in compensation if he fails to finish in the Premier League's top six.

Under-fire Newcastle boss Steve Bruce is also one of the leading contenders to be given his marching orders with his side yet to seal a league win this campaign. The Magpies manager is priced at odds of 4/1 to be let go.

Newcastle are languishing in 19th place after being beaten by Wolves on Saturday - with pundit Ian Wright warning 'I don't know where their next win is coming from'.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's odds to be sacked have been slashed following Manchester United's disappointing 1-1 draw at home to Everton on Saturday.

The Norwegian was at odds of 14/1 prior to the stalemate at Old Trafford but now finds himself at 5/1 and the third favourite to be relieved of his duties.

Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl and Norwich manager Daniel Farke make up the top five in the betting market with both priced at 11/2 to be the second Premier League manager to leave their roles.

Like Newcastle, both the Saints, in 17th, and the Canaries, sitting in 20th, are still searching for their first win of the 2021-22 top-flight season.
We all know money cant buy you love. But, my goodness, it can make you rude, lonely, unhappy, resentful, self-absorbed  and thoroughly unenviable.

And in case we need reminding just how impoverished the wealthy can be, its simply a question of tuning into the latest must-see TV series, The White Lotus.

This six-parter is now the most talked-about show, with a feel-good factor entirely generated by the ghastliness of its over-privileged characters, for whom spending 20,000 a night for a sea-view suite in Hawaii is like ordering an extra shot in their morning coffee.

In case we need reminding just how impoverished the wealthy can be, its simply a question of tuning into the latest must-see TV series, The White Lotus

They are so awful that you dont want to miss an excruciating minute. And while people have not been able to travel freely for the past 18 months, this HBO comedy drama  launched here on Sky Atlantic  makes the case for thinking you might be better off at home with the cat on your lap rather than be surrounded by this lot.

A group of entitled Americans arrive at their five-star hotel  actually the Four Seasons on the island of Maui  to be greeted by the gay Australian general manager and recovering addict, Armond.

Think Basil Fawlty, but funnier and better dressed, as he smiles at guests from one side of his mouth and with contempt from the other.

They include the Mossbacher family (four of them, plus a friend of one of the teenagers); Shane and Rachel, on a disastrous honeymoon; and the middle-aged Tanya who, upon arrival, needs a massage now, even though there are no slots until the next day.

Alexandra Daddario (pictured) stars as Rachel in the HBO show

This poses a problem for Armond and his team, who are under strict instructions to cater to a guests every demand. But, then, thats what is supposed to happen in five-star hotels across the world.

When people are paying thousands of pounds a night they expect to get exactly what they want and when they want it. And the tiniest mistake can become a huge issue, says a former general manager (GM) of a luxury hotel in the Caribbean.

Consider the case of the American who went on holiday in St Lucia with his wife and mistress, with neither knowing the other was there.

Fortunately, the property was large enough to keep the women in separate villas, while the guest raced between each room on resort buggies.

This six-parter is now the most talked-about show, with a feel-good factor entirely generated by the ghastliness of its over-privileged characters, for whom spending 20,000 a night for a sea-view suite in Hawaii is like ordering an extra shot in their morning coffee

The staff were fully briefed to do everything in their power to ensure there were no accidental meetings, says the hotel GM, who wishes not to be identified.

Meticulous itineraries of spa treatments, fitness activities and experiences were curated for each lady so the gentleman could manage their time and his.

One lady would sunbathe on the main beach, the other would be tucked away on the more private strip of sand at the opposite end of the property. A personal time manager was appointed to remind the gentleman which lady he should be seeing and where to meet her. By the end of the holiday, the man was a wreck and the staff were exhausted.

But demands must be met. At Dukes hotel, off Londons St Jamess Street, a regular guest from New York stays in The Duke of Clarence Suite, which starts at 1,249 a night. He is known to staff as a SAG (Special Attention Guest)  and for good reason.

Alcohol is to be removed from his minibar and replaced with prune juice and Mars bars.

Paradise lost: Sydney Sweeney plays the Mossbachers daughter

On the table, there must be a glass bowl with kiwi and dragon fruit in it, plus pomegranate in a separate container.

He requires a bowl of Jelly Babies, barbecue-flavoured crisps and, as a cigar smoker, an ashtray left on a particular corner of the balcony table. Another Dukes guest insists on all TVs being removed from his suite, only sparkling water in the minibar, and if any magazines or leaflets are on display well, it doesnt bear thinking about.

A GM friend of mine would rather forget the guest who, she says, holds the record for being the most demanding person I have ever had the misfortune to deal with.

Even before her arrival, this woman was making daily calls to outline expectations and itemise her requirements.

Hotel shows you have to check out Crossroads (1964-1988, and 2001-2003): Set in a motel in the Birmingham area, this soap was the favourite show of Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilsons wife, Mary. It starred Noele Gordon as kindly but brusque owner Meg, with Jane Rossington as her daughter Jill. Victoria Wood lovingly sent up its wobbly sets and wooden dialogue in Acorn Antiques. Fawlty Towers (1975-1979): One of the best-loved sitcoms of all time, and still repeated on BBC1 despite controversies over its gleeful lack of political correctness, this comedy set in a Torquay hotel was inspired when John Cleese (right) and his Monty Python chums stayed in a seaside B&B with an eccentric, irascible proprietor. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011): Based on a novel by Deborah Moggach, this movie starred a clutch of national treasures  including Maggie Smith, Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton and Bill Nighy  as retired Brits who set up home in a hotel in Jaipur, India. A sequel followed in 2015, as well as a series of BBC1 reality shows with celebrities such as Miriam Margolyes and Bill Oddie. Hotel Babylon (2006-2009): Tamzin Outhwaite plays the general manager of a five-star hotel in London, where her staff cope with everything from bailiffs to terrorists. Max Beesley is the ambitious receptionist and Dexter Fletcher plays the put-upon concierge. The fourth series ended on a cliffhanger, and fans were outraged when it was then cancelled. The Night Manager (2016): John Le Carres novel became a spectacular one-off series starring Hugh Laurie as arms dealer Dicky Roper and Tom Hollander as his spiteful fixer. Their crime ring is infiltrated by a former special forces soldier, Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston)  who is working as the night manager of a Cairo hotel. Christopher Stevens Advertisement

There was to be a bowl of Smarties, but blue only, a bottle of Dom Perignon opened no more than ten seconds before she stepped in the door of her villa, specific toys and free gifts for her toddler, truffles made from a specific exotic cocoa bean from South America, and the villa pool had to be set at a specific temperature  she brought her own thermometer to check.

I know first-hand how easy it is to become spoilt. After getting married for the second time, I whisked my wife off on a five-star trip to India, followed by a few days in a Maldives resort with over-the-water suites. At each hotel, we were handed a refrigerated towel to mop our brows, in what became a protracted ceremony.

Shamefully, at a hotel in Agra where we were staying to see the Taj Mahal, I complained the towel I was given was too cold. I cant believe you said that, my mortified wife said later.

But such are the unpleasant side effects of injecting yourself with too much luxury.

And what happens if youve saved up for years to stay in an absurdly expensive hotel and find yourselves trying to avoid an obnoxious family such as the Mossbachers? Paradise quickly becomes hell, but with comfier beds. Our stay in the Maldives coincided with that of four couples who were so loud, louche and drunk each night in the restaurant that we dreaded turning up for dinner.

Instead, we cowered in our room and ordered room service  even more expensive.

I feel sorry for the GM of a hotel on a private Seychelles island who was told by a guest, who hated the food, that she wanted tins of sweetcorn. There was none of the kind she wanted in the Seychelles. She wasnt happy. Threatening behaviour ensued before the GM managed to fly in a crate of the stuff from Dubai.

This strikes a chord with a GM friend who used to be in charge of a hotel in Paris. He often saw his role as being a peacemaker.

One day, a regular guest booked a top suite for him and his mistress. While they were at dinner his suspecting wife turned up at reception and asked for a key to the suite after showing her passport  as is normal practice, he said.

The wife waited in the room until they returned in the early hours, whereupon she started screaming and throwing things, waking up guests and causing pandemonium. Eventually I managed to persuade the woman to come to my office where I tried to calm her down. By the end of the night I felt more like a therapist than a hotel manager.

In The White Lotus, staff must make guests feel like the special chosen baby child of the hotel. But we know theres no consoling babies when they dont get what they want  especially when they dont know what they want. Whats more, even if you have all the money in the world, you have to take yourself with you on an expensive holiday.

Luxury is the enemy of observation, says travel writer Paul Theroux. A costly indulgence that spoils and infantilises you and prevents you from knowing the world. The White Lotuss money-no-object guests certainly bear testimony to that.
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The slower you travel, the more you see. And theres no slower way of travelling than walking. Most of us, with stops for tea, ice cream, admiring views, peering at insects, and re-tying laces, average about two miles an hour.

This is absurdly slow for the instant-gratification modern world. Instead of skimming the surface, like impatient damselflies, walking takes you deep into the landscape. There is simply no better way of coming to understand a stretch of country, its history and customs, its people and wildlife, than by ambling through it on your own two legs. A walking break over several days develops its own magical rhythm. Here, we recommend some of the best UK routes.

Coast to coast

Gods own walking country: The hamlet of Keld in the Yorkshire Dales, which features on the Coast to Coast trail

For some, the Coast to Coast will always be the single most magnificent long walk in the UK.

Devised by Alfred Wainwright (who dedicated one of his Lake District guidebooks to his own legs), this outstanding, fairly demanding hike traverses rugged northern England from the Cumbrian coast at St Bees eastwards to Robin Hoods Bay on the North Sea.

You cross the high fells of the Lakes, the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. Ramblers Holidays offers this epic in two segments, since it is a good 15 days to do the whole 190-mile route. The first day alone covers 15 miles and some 2,300 ft of ascent. This is a hike of a lifetime.

Take a hike: Walking the western route with eight nights half-board accommodation is from 1,169 pp; nine nights half-board for the eastern route from 1,335 pp (ramblersholidays.co.uk).

St Cuthberts Way

While walking the 62-mile St Cuthberts Way, you'll pass through the Eildon Hills, pictured above

The 62-mile St Cuthberts Way, straddling the border between England and Scotland, is simply wonderful. This is Sir Walter Scott country, too.

Over six or seven days youll walk from Melrose, birthplace of the much-loved Anglo-Saxon saint, through the Eildon Hills, along the bonny Tweed, and visit St Cuthberts Cave.

An amble to the coast and across the famous tidal causeway to Holy Island, St Cuthberts last resting place after his death in 687 AD, is a must.

Take a hike: Four days from 470 pp (mickledore.co.uk).

Peaks and glens

Discover sweeping views across Loch Ness - pictured - and beyond while trekking along the Great Glen Way

The Great Glen Way is another majestic route  from Fort William beneath Ben Nevis to Inverness. But its not as well-known as Wainwrights Coast to Coast.

Again, this one suits fit and experienced hikers only. You may have to contend with midges, monsoon rain and even the occasional earthquake. The Great Glen is after all a massive geological fault.

But you can expect sublime cloudscapes and sunsets, sweeping views across Loch Ness and beyond, plus a feeling of wilderness all too rare in this country.

Take a hike: An eight-day, self-guided walk with accommodation from 870 pp (wildernessscotland.com).

Norfolk weave

Dont miss Felbrigg Hall, pictured above, when ambling along the Weavers Way - one of Britains lesser-known long-distance trails

One of Britains lesser-known long-distance trails running from Cromer to Great Yarmouth, the Weavers Way covers 61 miles through a quintessential Norfolk landscape of windmills, reed beds and slow tidal rivers.

Also, dont miss Felbrigg Hall, once home to William Mad Windham, a country gentleman given to displays of public nudity while screeching like a demented imp. Why bother queuing for Snowdon when you can have the peacefulness of our eastern flatlands?

Take a hike: From 500 pp with five nights accommodation (norfolkwalkingholidays.com).

Take me to the river

The view of the Thames in Henley, one of the stops along the excellent new Thames Valley Path route

Headwater walking holidays have come up with an excellent new Thames Valley Path route.

Keeping close to Englands most celebrated river, follow the Thames through the heart of our country, history, ancient cities and much great architectural beauty.

From Oxford down to Windsor, it feels something like a royal progress, accompanied by herons, kingfishers and water voles.

Take a hike: Eight days from 1,349 pp with accommodation (headwater.com).

Cotswolds on foot

Spend the night in 'achingly pretty' Chipping Camden, pictured above. Doubles at the elegant Cotswold House Hotel cost from 175pp for two nights

The 102-mile Cotswold Way is well sign-posted

If you prefer to stay in one place, try Great Little Breaks, which offers good value inns and hotels across the country, from Scotland to the Isle of Wight.

My pick would be a spa hotel in achingly pretty Chipping Camden, with villages and countryside to explore.

Take a hike: Doubles at the elegant Cotswold House Hotel from 175pp for two nights (greatlittlebreaks.com).

Island hopping

Explore the Isles of Scilly on a Guided Island Hopping tour arranged by HF Holidays, giving 32 miles of gentle rambling over five days, and little ascent.

Visit the Bronze Age burial chamber of Bants Carn, and the remote island of Bryher, which has a population of about 100 people.

Visit the Bronze Age burial chamber of Bants Carn, pictured, on HF Holidays' Guided Island Hopping tour

It is said that a traffic jam here is when two tractors meet. Youll stay at the Bell Hotel on St Marys Island, and then sail out each day to a different island with a guide.

Take a hike: Six nights from 999 pp staying at the Bell Hotel (hfholidays.co.uk).

Devon dream

Stay at a coastal hotel in Dartmouth, pictured above, and plan your own Devonshire walking holiday

With thousands of miles of British coastline  nobody can quite agree how many, but theres about 11,000  one of the prettiest stretches, and often the most reliably sunny, is South Devon.

Stay at a coastal hotel and plan your own walking holiday, either along Devons portion of the spectacular South West Coast Path or around the river valleys fringing the southern edge of Dartmoor. A hotel with a view across lovely Dartmouth and the Dart estuary would be a personal favourite.

Take a hike: See bespokehotels.com/hotels/coast-country-collection for a great selection of hotels.

Welsh borders

Tintern Abbey, pictured, features along the southern section of Offa's Dyke, a classic long-distance walk for hardier types

Offa's Dyke is another classic long-distance walk for hardier types, named after the Anglo-Saxon King Offa of the Mercians, who had this huge earthwork built in the 8th century, passing through the tranquil Welsh Borders.

My pick would be the southern section, taking in the Black Mountains, famous book town Hay-on-Wye, the lovely River Wye and Tintern Abbey.

You end up at Chepstow Castle, the oldest Norman castle in Britain.

Take a hike: Nine-day walking holidays with accommodation from 1,229 pp (exodus.co.uk).

Way out west

The 630-mile-long South West Coast Path goes from Minehead right round to Poole. Pictured is part of the route at Chapel Porth along the Cornish coast

We can't leave off a route often voted one of the top-ten greatest walking trails in the world: our very own and ever-popular South West Coast Path, all 630 miles of it, from Minehead right round to Poole via Somerset, Devon, Cornwall and Dorset.

It is famously said that walking the whole way is the equivalent to climbing Mount Everest from sea level three times over  all those swooping ups and downs. But unlike Everest, here you can fuel up on cream teas.

Take a hike: Contours Holidays offers the walk in separate sections, with multiple options (contours.co.uk).
The Block contestants finally unveiled their long-awaited living and dining room areas during Monday's episode.

To kick things off, front-runners Ronnie and Georgia Caceres wowed the show's judges with their 'super chic' open-plan space.

Speaking ahead of the room's reveal, Georgia, 37, described it as a 'really functional space that will service a family'.

The big reveal: The Block contestants finally unveiled their long-awaited living and dining room areas during Monday's episode. Pictured: Ronnie and Georgia Caceres' dining area

'We've created a really proportioned living and dining space that is complimentary to the rest of the home. It's sophisticated, it's pared back, yet it's friendly and inviting,' she added.

The judges were blown away by what they'd done with the space, with Neale Whitaker describing it as 'classic, contemporary luxury'.

Fellow judge Darren Palmer branded it 'super chic' and added: 'It just delivers and delivers and delivers and delivers.'

Impressive: To kick things off, front-runners Ronnie and Georgia (both pictured) wowed the show's judges with their 'super chic' open-plan space

Thought out: Speaking ahead of the room's reveal, Georgia, 37, described it as a 'really functional space that will service a family'. Pictured before

'We've created a really proportioned living and dining space that is complimentary to the rest of the home. It's sophisticated, it's pared back, yet it's friendly and inviting,' she added. Pictured after

Mitch Edwards and Mark McKie said they'd set out to create 'a more dressy version of the style we've been doing'.

'We wanted to create a feel of walking into an entry, and then the kitchen on one side, living and dining on the other,' explained Mitch, 58.

But the judges weren't overly impressed, with Darren, 43, saying: 'I think there are so many things to love in here, but the layout is wrong.'

Go big or go home: Mitch Edwards and Mark McKie (both pictured) said they'd set out to create 'a more dressy version of the style we've been doing'

'We wanted to create a feel of walking into an entry, and then the kitchen on one side, living and dining on the other,' explained Mitch, 58. Pictured before

Confused: The judges weren't overly impressed, with Darren, 43, saying: 'I think there are so many things to love in here, but the layout is wrong'. Pictured after

'It doesn't feel like it's flowing, and I'm looking around thinking, "This is feeling very unfinished." It feels like a bit of this, a bit of that,' added Neale, 59.

Tanya and Vito Guccione won fans with their sunken lounge area, with the judges agreeing it was the standout feature of their home.

'I've always wanted a sunken living room. How cool is this? Oh my God, this is amazing!' said an excited Shaynna Blaze.

Sinking in: Tanya and Vito Guccione (both pictured) won fans with their sunken lounge area, with the judges agreeing it was the standout feature of their home

'I've always wanted a sunken living room. How cool is this? Oh my God, this is amazing!' said an excited Shaynna Blaze. Pictured before

Loving it: The 58-year-old interior designer added: 'I absolutely would not change a thing. I am pretty much in heaven right now.' Pictured after

The 58-year-old interior designer added: 'I absolutely would not change a thing. I am pretty much in heaven right now.'

Darren said the space was 'so fun and playful and cool and retro', while Neale described the room as 'so white, bright and light, and happy!'

While the judges thought Josh and Luke Packham had all the right elements in their living and dining area, they felt they needed to rearrange the space.

All mixed up: While the judges thought Josh and Luke Packham (both pictured) had all the right elements in their living and dining area, they felt they needed to rearrange the space

Space swap: Neale said that while it was 'beautiful' it didn't quite fit together, and he'd swap the living and dining areas around. Pictured before

'I think what the problem is, they have a huge task in front of them and it sometimes overwhelms them,' said Darren. Pictured after

Neale said that while it was 'beautiful' it didn't quite fit together, and he'd swap the living and dining areas around.

'I think what the problem is, they have a huge task in front of them and it sometimes overwhelms them,' said Darren.

Meanwhile, Kirsty Lee Akers and Jesse Anderson said their living and dining area was designed with a family in mind.

Family matters: Kirsty Lee Akers and Jesse Anderson (both pictured) said their living and dining area was designed with a family in mind

'It has a real classy, sophisticated style to it, but also a homely style, like you can imagine kids running around in that area,' explained Kirsty, 34. Pictured before

Inviting: Neale described the space as 'so beautiful', while Shaynna said, 'It feels so right.' Pictured after

'It has a real classy, sophisticated style to it, but also a homely style, like you can imagine kids running around in that area,' explained Kirsty, 34.

Neale described the space as 'so beautiful', while Shaynna said, 'It feels so right.'

'It feels so cosy, it feels so homely. It feels like the perfect family space,' she added.

The Block continues Tuesday at 7:30pm on Channel Nine
Lena Dunham shared some intimate behind-the-scenes snaps from her September 25 impromptu wedding to musician Luis Felber, and reminisced on her many outfits.

On Sunday the 35-year-old Girls creator posted images from the rehearsal dinner, morning after, and honeymoon and admitted to going 'a little fashion crazy,' for the festivities.

Dunham wed Felber  who goes by Attawalpa professionally  just one month after they secretly got engaged, and bridesmaids included Taylor Swift and Tommy Dorfman.

Passion for fashion: The 35-year-old Girls creator married musician Luis Felber in an impromptu ceremony on September 25 at confessed to going a 'little fashion crazy' for the wedding festivities

For the intimate wedding, Dunham wore three custom dresses from Christopher Kane, which were inspired by Claudia Schiffer, Pattie Boyd and Sharon Tate.

Posting some previously unseen images from the weekend, she gave her followers a close up look at her custom rehearsal dinner and morning after looks, from designer Kelsey Randall.

'I went a little fashion crazy my wedding weekend (unexpectedly so, but hey - a great chance to wear white after Labor Day,)' she joked.

Lena continued to detail that her rehearsal dinner outfit was made of Amish lace tablecloths, which she accessorized with the 'biggest headband bow I could dream of' which was 'almost as cute' as Felber.

Loved up: Dunham and Felber were pictured looking loved up as they sat at the rehearsal dinner while the actress detailed that her headband bow was 'almost as cute' as her husband

Brotherly love: Another intimate snap included a picture of her holding her brother Cyrus where she humorously recalled thinking 'does this bow make my head look small'

Details: Her outfit was made from Amish lace tablecloths and designed by Kelsey Randall and she flashed a look at her ornate purse from artist Paul Monroe that had a piece of his late wife Greer Lankton's veil on the handle

One image featured the newlyweds tenderly touching at the rehearsal dinner and another shot showed her hugging her brother Cyrus.

In another detailed image she held up an ornate purse which was fashioned by artist Paul Monroe, and sentimentally included a small piece of his late wife Greer Lankton's wedding veil on the handle.

'It's the most gorgeous and ornate thing on earth, full of the history of our friendship with a small piece of his beloved wife Greer's veil on the handle...and lots of secrets inside. I never put it down all weekend,' she wrote.

Greer was an artist known for creating eerie dolls, but tragically died in 1996, of a drug overdose in her Chicago apartment, just a month after completing her final and largest work.

Additionally Dunham posted a morning after shot in the bathroom with Felber, where she donned a white crushed velvet babydoll dress with bloomers.

Just married! A snap showed she and Felber the morning after the wedding as they got ready in the bathroom

Honeymoon look: For the honeymoon in Somerset, England she confessed to living in a blue knit dress from Puppets and Puppets which she wore with undergarments due to the cold temperatures

For 'the entirety of our honeymoon,' she lived in a blue knit dress from NY based designers Puppets and Puppets, which she paired with undergarments to combat the 'f***ing freezing' Somerset, England temperatures.

The couple got married in at Soho's Union Club in London on September 25, surrounded by 60 guests and all attendees, (which included Swift and Dorfman as bridesmaids) and all were required to take COVID tests and present proof of vaccination.

The duo had secretly gotten engaged one month before they wed, and they broke down the details of the engagement and nuptials in conversation with Vogue.

Felber recalled that after visiting her in the hospital she confessed 'Oh, I want to marry you someday,' to which he replied 'Why don't we make that someday, soon day?'

'The next day, I went for a walk with my friend Tom, and he was going on about his life, and I was like, "I think I proposed to Lena last night." And when I got home, we made it real,' he continued to say.

Married woman: The duo got married in an intimate COVID-safe ceremony surrounded by their closest friends and family with Taylor Swift and Tommy Dorfman included as bridesmaids

The Tiny Furniture star chimed in: 'We were sort of talking about it, but talking around it. So we just cut the 10 years down to 10 hours. And then we took a month to get married instead of waiting six months or a year.'

In April Lena first revealed she had a boyfriend during a New York Times interview though she did not name him outright. 'It's been a few months  I feel really lucky,' she said coyly of her new relationship.

Dunham began dropping hints that Felber may be her guy as she promoted a music related interview he had with Kate Nash that same month, and then his music video in May  at which point she called him 'my love.'

And in June Page Six first revealed they were an item after they met while living in London  where she currently resides as she continues to work on her new project Sharp Stick.
Hilary Duff was seen spending quality time with her mother, Susan, and eldest daughter Banks Violet while riding in a hot-air balloon in several videos and pictures that were shared to her Instagram Story on Sunday.

In the clips, the 34-year-old actress was shown arriving at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta with her family and enjoying the breathtaking scenery.

The Lizzie McGuire star and her loved ones later boarded one of the aircraft and spent a considerable amount of time in New Mexico's skies.

Up, up and away! Hilary Duff was seen going for a hot-air balloon ride with her eldest daughter Banks Violet and mother Susan in a set of photos and videos that were shared to her Instagram Story on Sunday

Duff's first post showed Banks, aged three, holding her right hand above her head while taking in a majestic sunrise.

The Saving Cody Banks actress then shared a shot of her sticking out her tongue with her daughter and a pal.

She also posted a video of one of her friends holding Banks as the two spent time in a grounded hot-air balloon, and she added a text graphic that read: 'this is awesome!'

The performer went on to get a multi-generational selfie with her mother and daughter, which she also shared to her Story.

Ideal location: The performer traveled to Albuquerque, New Mexico, for her air-faring excursion

Marking the occasion: The Saving Cody Banks actress made sure to take plenty of selfies with her loved ones as they spent time in the skies

Duff later shared a shot of Susan holding Banks while the party of three prepared to head off into the skies.

The actress also posted several videos of herself and her pals in a hot-air balloon that had just lifted off the ground.

The Disney Channel alum was bundled up in several warm sweaters during her trip, and she kept a sizable yellow beanie with her as she spent time in the cool morning air.

The performer also took a selfie with Banks, who did not appear to be particularly fond of heights, as they rode in the aircraft.

Bundling up: The performer made sure to wear several layers of thick clothing to keep herself nice and comfortable in the crisp morning air

Not a fan: Banks appeared to be scared of heights while the multi-generational party went for a hot-air balloon ride

She then captured several pictures of various other balloons flying near their airspace, which she shared to her Story.

Duff notably took selfies with her mother and their ride's captain as she spent time in the skies.

The actress also took a risk and 'risked her phone' to get a picture of Banks looking out of a cutout on the hot-air balloon's gondola.

She later shot videos of the aircraft's landing process and laughed when told that her group could have potentially landed in the parking lot of a local Costco.

Special moments: At one point, Duff 'risked her phone' to take a photo of Banks looking out of a cutout in their gondola

The high-flyers ended up touching down on the side of a freeway, although Banks appeared to have been distressed by the landing.

Duff made sure to take a selfie with her daughter as they waited for their balloon to collapse and be readied for transportation.

One of the actress' pals later took a photo of her standing with her daughter and mother and added the phrase '3 generations' in a text graphic that was attached to the photo.
Australian chef Curtis Stone cut a dapper figure as he attended the annual Baby Ball Gala in Los Angeles alongside his wife Lindsay Price on Saturday.

The couple posed on the red carpet at the exclusive event, which aimed to raise awareness for adoption rates of children and support World Adoption Day on November 9.

Handsome Curtis was dressed to the nines in a navy suit, matched with a white collared shirt with a black bow-tie.

Ditching the apron! Chef Curtis Stone, 45, cut a dapper figure as he posed alongside wife Lindsay Price, 44, at the annual Baby Ball Gala in Los Angeles on Saturday

He wore his usually spiked hair slicked to the side and completed his look with a hot pink pocket square.

Lindsay meanwhile wore a pink coloured sleeveless dress which featured a large bow at the back.

The American actresses' dark brunette locks were tied into a loose bun, and she accessorised with a pair of pink statement drop earrings.

Good cause: The couple posed on the red carpet at the event, which aimed to raise awareness for adoption rates of children and support World Adoption Day on November 9

Suave! Handsome Curtis was dressed to the nines in a navy suit, matched with a white collared shirt with a black bow-tie

She placed her hand on her husband's chest as they smiled for photos.

The couple then held up their hands to the cameras, showing a drawn-on smiley face on their palms to support World Adoption Day.

The pair then posed for photos with former Glee star Jenna Ushkowitz and the event's founders Sueann and Hank Fortener.

Stylish: Lindsay wore a pink coloured sleeveless dress which featured a large bow at the back

Happy in love: She placed her hand on her husband's chest as they smiled for photos

Adoption is an issue close to Curtis and Lindsay's hearts, as Lindsay's mother was an orphan on the streets of Korea before being adopted by an American family.

'If [Lindsay's mother] hadn't been adopted, I would never have met my wife', he told Nine in 2018.

Curtis and Lindsay met in 2009, and wed in 2013 in Spain.

The couple welcomed son Hudson, nine, in 2011, and Emerson Spencer, seven, in 2014.
The Real Housewives of New York City alum Bethenny Frankel went shopping with her 11-year-old daughter Bryn Hoppy in the Hamptons in Long Island, NY on Friday.

The 50-year-old Skinnygirl CEO carried a pizza box and an Hermes Birkin bag - created 1984 in honor of Jane Birkin - which can cost between $5K-$500K.

Bethenny wore a cowboy hat, white peasant blouse beneath a grey cardigan, and patchwork denim bell bottoms with platform sandals.

Bonding: The Real Housewives of New York City alum Bethenny Frankel went shopping with her 11-year-old daughter Bryn Hoppy in the Hamptons in Long Island, NY on Friday

Frankel mothered Bryn from her three-year marriage to pharmaceutical sales executive Jason Hoppy, which finally ended in January after a nine-year legal separation.

Missing from the Manhattan socialite's side was her fiance - Peabody Award-winning producer Paul Bernon - whom she got re-engaged to in February after a four-month split.

On Sunday, Bethenny and Bryn reenacted a funny scene on Instagram from The Real Housewives of Atlanta 'in honor of Cynthia Bailey's departure.'

In it, Frankel's character discussed her new love interest from New York, but she hasn't met him and can't remember how long she's been talking to him.

Expensive: The 50-year-old Skinnygirl CEO carried a pizza box and an Hermes Birkin bag - created 1984 in honor of Jane Birkin - which can cost between $5K-$500K

Boho: Bethenny wore a cowboy hat, white peasant blouse beneath a grey cardigan, and patchwork denim bell bottoms with platform sandals

'You are my lighthouse': Missing from Frankel's side was her fiance - Peabody Award-winning producer Paul Bernon (pictured September 14) - whom she got re-engaged to in February after a four-month split

When Bryn's character asked the Bravo-lebrity what her new flame's name was, she replied: 'His name is uhhh, Baby.'

Bethenny's street sighting came four days after being accused of transphobia for being offended about a pronoun discussion at Bryn's school on Zoom.

'We have to go into the fact that I did a Zoom for my daughter's school and [had] the pronouns conversation with each teacher, each parent, each child,' Frankel vented on the September 22 episode of her Just B podcast.

'And my daughter says in school, too, that everybody has to say their pronouns. And my daughter didn't even know what hers were...[She said], "I know what I am or what I think I am, but I have never said it out loud. It hasn't come up for me." So she said she didn't know.'

'Tell me about him': On Sunday, the Manhattan socialite and Bryn reenacted a funny scene on Instagram from The Real Housewives of Atlanta 'in honor of Cynthia Bailey's departure'

'You gotta admit, this is strange': In it, Bethenny's character discussed her new love interest from New York, but she hasn't met him and can't remember how long she's been talking to him

When Bryn's character asked Frankel what her new flame's name was, she replied: 'His name is uhhh, Baby'

The BStrong founder went on to complain about a Hamptons all-girls summer camp that allowed a transgender girl sleep in the same bunk as the other girls.

'The other girls saw her, because it's her. It's male anatomy, but identifying as a woman. So, the other girls saw a penis. They're like nine, 10 years old. So, the parents obviously weren't that happy,' Bethenny claimed.

Frustrated Frankel then claimed she heard stories 'this girl with a penis was making out with a lot of the different girls at the camp.'

The Martha Stewart protegee took to Twitter last Monday and Tuesday to say she 'didn't do a single thing wrong' and she's 'not apologizing.'

The Bravo-lebrity's (pictured Sunday) street sighting came four days after being accused of transphobia for being offended about a pronoun discussion at Bryn's school on Zoom

'The other girls saw a penis': Bethenny went on to complain about a Hamptons all-girls summer camp that allowed a transgender girl sleep in the same bunk as the other girls (pictured Sunday)

'Find someone else to troll': Frankel took to Twitter last Monday and Tuesday to say she 'didn't do a single thing wrong' and she's 'not apologizing'

'People need to be able to have discussions without fearing the cancelation citations you get excited to give,' Bethenny - who boasts 5.1M social media followers - wrote.

'Wrong celeb. Find someone afraid to troll.'

Frankel - who just shot the cover of her new book Business is Personal - teased that she has 'another show coming soon' last Thursday.

HBO Max has yet to renew the former talk show host's dismally-reviewed show The Big Shot with Bethenny for a second season after airing seven episodes in the spring.

'That's a big secret!' The BStrong founder - who just shot the cover of her new book Business is Personal - teased that she has 'another show coming soon' last Thursday
A Long Island, New York man who has gone viral for his imitations of Family Guy's Peter Griffin has opened up about his impression of the character, and getting a mention on the animated show.

Robert Franzese made his first public appearance as Griffin at 2012's New York Comic-Con, which was 'the first time [he] had ever dressed up' as the character.

'I decided to go to the Con dressed as characters, and if you're familiar with the character Ghost Rider, there's a Western version of him,' Franzese told LAD Bible. 'But, I got heatstroke in that costume, and [decided] I can't wear something like this to the Con tomorrow.'

Details: A Long Island, New York man who has gone viral for his imitations of Family Guy's Peter Griffin has opened up about his impression of the character, and getting a mention on the animated show

Franzese said he eventually 'decided to wear something comfortable,' and 'found the Peter Griffin shirt and pants in my closet.'

He added: 'I just happened to have everything, it was like the planets aligned' and 'everything was in the house' as things 'came together' for the impersonation.

He said when he attended the Comic-Con event he 'had a whole entourage following' him like he 'was Stan Lee or something.'

Franzese opened up on the renewed boost in attention he received with the popular impersonation.

Backstory: Franzese said he eventually 'decided to wear something comfortable,' and 'found the Peter Griffin shirt and pants in my closet'

Franzese was snapped alongside comic book icon Stan Lee

'I thought that was my 15 minutes of fame, and that it was over and just a cool day of my life,' he said, 'but on the Fourth of July that next year, somebody had posted one of the videos of me at the Con and it was blowing up on Reddit.'

The impression has led to Franzese amassing big numbers of social media followers, with 600,000 on TikTok, 261,000 on YouTube and 45,000 on Instagram.

Franzese was mentioned on the show's 16th episode of its 17th season titled You Can't Handle the Booth, in a sequence which the show's creator Seth MacFarlane provided the vocals as he explained to the characters that they're all fictional.

'None of you are real, you are all TV characters voiced by me, Alex Borstein, Seth Green, and Mila Kunis,' MacFarlane said, to which the Griffin character said, 'Wait, what? Hang on a second, if I'm not real, then why does a fat nerd pretend to be me at every Comic-Con?'

The Griffin impression has led to Franzese amassing big numbers of social media followers, with 600,000 on TikTok, 261,000 on YouTube and 45,000 on Instagram

Details: Franzese was mentioned on the show's 16th episode of its 17th season titled You Can't Handle the Booth, in a sequence which the show's creator Seth MacFarlane provided the vocals

MacFarlane said in response, 'Please, don't mention him, it'll only encourage him.'

Franzese said he took the shade in good humor, as he 'never thought [he'd] be referenced on it' in the first place.

'It's Family Guy, if you're not getting roasted - it's like Weird Al Yankovic in music - you can't be mad when he parodies your song,' Franzese told the outlet. 'It's like, that's when you know you've made it.'

Franzese opened up about past touch he's made with those involved in the long-running Fox cartoon.

'When I first started doing this, I didn't know if I was going to get sued or not, so I went on IMDb and made a profile so that I could contact them, and I got as far as a representative from [MacFarlane's production company] Fuzzy Door and I introduced myself, and she said, "Oh yeah, we've heard about you, we love what you're doing, you've even come up in table reads about the possibility of doing a live episode."'
Eric Bana looked comfortable and casual as he took his pet poodle for a stroll around Melbourne on Friday.

The 53-year-old kept a low profile as he sauntered around a residential area with the huge pooch, while wearing a white T-shirt, black jeans and sneakers.

The Hollywood star was barely recognisable underneath a pair of sunglasses and a protective face mask, as he enjoyed a touch of exercise amid the city's lockdown.

Man's best friend: Eric Bana looked comfortable and casual as he took his pet poodle for a stroll around Melbourne on Friday

At one stage Eric bent down to pet his fluffy dog, who appeared to absolutely love the attention.

The sighting comes just weeks after Eric admitted he has turned down offers for roles in Hollywood to ride out the pandemic in Victoria.

Speaking to the ABC, he said: 'This might sound weird, but I just kind of I don't want to leave. Just in terms of what the city has gone through.

Casual chic: The 53-year-old kept a low profile as he sauntered around a residential area with the huge pooch, while wearing a white T-shirt, black jeans and sneakers

Cute: At one stage Eric bent down to pet his fluffy dog, who appeared to love the attention

'In terms of having the opportunity to go and do other things, it just doesn't feel like the right time - It just doesn't feel right to escape.

'It sort of feels like we've gotten this far, you know, and you feel like you're part of the tribe and I just want to be here until it's all over, and feel that sense of joy that everyone else will feel, at the same time.'

Eric recently recorded the Audible podcast drama The Orchard in Melbourne.

The podcast promises a 'visceral and terrifying journey with a riveting and unexpected conclusion'.

Regular Joe: The Hollywood star was barely recognisable underneath a pair of oversized sunglasses and a protective face mask, as he enjoyed a touch of sunshine amid the city's lockdown

Loyal: The sighting came just weeks after Eric admitted he has turned down offers for roles in Hollywood to ride out the pandemic in Melbourne

Audible has described the series as 'a supernatural murder mystery that blends a foreboding private school, a haunting conspiracy, and unnerving teenagers'.

Eric will be joined in the series by other well-known Austrian actors and actresses.

Magda Szubanski (Kath & Kim and Babe), Gary Sweet (Police Rescue and Bloom) and Olivia Deeble (Home and Away and Secret Society of Second Born Royals) are also involved.

Staying put: Speaking to the ABC, he said: 'This might sound weird, but I just kind ofI don't want to leave. Just in terms of what the city has gone through'

Not leaving: The former Full Frontal star even said that he had turned down job offers overseas to stay Down Under

Eric voices police detective and struggling single parent, Adam Durwood, who is assigned to investigate the body of a teenage boy found on the grounds of the exclusive Nevermoor girls school.

At the centre of the mystery is a coven of three beguiling and manipulative teenage girls who seem to know much more than they should and are slowly drawing Adam into a web he cant see.

When Adams daughter, Lily, is secretly befriended by the three girls of Nevermoor things begin to unravel.
Jess Hayes cut a glamorous figure as she made a rare public appearance at a charity ball at The Landmark hotel in London on Sunday.

The former Love Island star, 28, looked incredible in a figure-hugging silver off the shoulder gown.

Jess, who won the first series of the reality show alongside Max Morley, also carried a white handbag at the event.

Stunning: Jess Hayes cut a glamorous figure as she made a rare public appearance at a charity ball at The Landmark hotel in London on Sunday

The media personality added to her outfit with a pair of silver shimmering earrings.

Letting her locks fall loose down her shoulders, the reality star added to her look with a daring red lip.

Jess looked nothing short of sensational as she struck a series of poses for the camera at the bash.

It comes after Jess previously revealed that she is in therapy for baby loss after she tragically lost her second child - a baby boy named Teddy, 19 weeks into pregnancy.

Beauty: The former Love Island star, 28, looked incredible in a figure-hugging silver off the shoulder gown

The star credited son Presley, two, for being a 'major part' of the reason she has stayed so strong, but admitted: 'I have days where I just sit and cry!'

Jess also admitted that she still wants three children, after confirming her split from fiance Dan Lowry.

She spoke to new! magazine about losing Teddy last November and said: 'I've had some therapy and spoken to someone and that's definitely helped... I have days where I just sit and cry, and all I want is him back, but that's just grief.'

Looking to the future, Jessica revealed that she still intends to expand her family, saying: 'I've always said I want three children and that won't change for me because it's my dream.'

Outfit: Jess, who won the first series of the reality show alongside Max Morley, also carried a white handbag at the event

Dan - who she became engaged to in August 2018 after six months of dating - moved out after the couple parted ways in May, just six months after losing their unborn baby.

Jessica admitted: 'You don't expect everything to unravel so quickly. To lose a baby and the person you thought you were going to have more children with and get married to, it's been a bit of a shock.'

But the Love Islander branded her ex an 'amazing dad,' and explained that their split may not be forever, but that they simply need 'time apart'.

Despite being single, Jessica insisted she's not interested in dating as she confessed: 'I can't deal with anymore heartbreak, honestly!'

Heartbreaking: The reality star revealed in December that she had tragically lost her son, Teddy, at 19 weeks, emotionally sharing at the time that she was 'drowning in grief'

Back in May, Jessica told MailOnline that by bravely sharing her own experience, she has helped other people to not 'feel alone'.

The reality star said that she also hopes to give her followers 'strength' knowing that there is also life after loss, adding: 'It makes you realise how strong you are.'

Jessica revealed in December that she had tragically lost her son, Teddy, at 19 weeks, emotionally sharing at the time that she was 'drowning in grief'.

The TV personality said that she knew it was important to be 'open with everything' and that she has since received hundreds of messages from women who have been through the same thing, thanking her for 'helping' them and giving them a 'voice'.

Staying strong: The Love Islander credited son Presley, two, for being a 'major part' of the reason she has stayed so strong

She said: 'I've had hundreds of messages from other woman who have been through the same thing, saying thank you so much for helping me.

'I think it's really important to be open if you can and if that's what you want to do as it helps so many people.'

Jessica added that she tries to help as many people as she can but sometimes she finds other people's stories about baby loss 'hard'.

She explained: 'I try to help as many people as I can, obviously, it can be hard. It is hard to read other people's stories about baby loss. It can be hard to want to help everyone.'

It's over! Dan - who she became engaged to in August 2018 - moved out after the couple parted ways in May, just six months after losing their unborn baby (Pictured together in April)

Jessica also revealed that she has previously taken medication for anxiety and depression on and off over the years, adding that she is 'not ashamed'.

The reality star said: 'I will be completely honest, I have always suffered with my mental health on and off over the years, since I was young.

'Since I was very young, I'm trying to speak a bit more about it now, it is something I have struggled with for a while, especially anxiety as well, I really struggled with that.

'Im not ashamed to say in the past I have taken medication for anxiety and depression, on and off over the years.'

The Sands National Helpline provides a safe, confidential place for anyone who has been affected by the death of a baby. You can call the Sands Helpline on 0808 164 3332 helpline@sands.org.uk.

If you have been affected by this article, you can also contact the charity Saying Goodbye on 0845 293 8027 or email support@sayinggoodbye.org.
Tiger King star Carole Baskin has furiously lashed out at the Netflix show over her 'villain edit' - before giving her opinion on the recently announced second series.

On Monday, the 60-year-old activist raged on Today Extra that there was only 'one good thing' to come out of the first series, adding that the show completely changed her life 'for the worse'.

'The only good thing that came out of Tiger King was the one scene where they were taking the baby cub away from the mother, while she was still giving birth,' she told hosts Sylvia Jeffreys and David Campbell.

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Not happy: Tiger King star Carole Baskin, 60, (pictured) furiously lashed out at the Netflix show over her 'villain edit' in season one during an interview with Monday's Today Extra

'When people saw that, they didn't want that to be happening. They wanted to change that, to end that kind of abuse.

'An awful lot of people didn't even know about the abuse happening, so the one thing that it did do was raise awareness about it.'

After the series aired, the Big Cat Rescue founder became the subject of speculation linking her with the disappearance of her second husband, Don Lewis. She has always vehemently denied the rumours.

Livid: 'The only good thing that came out of Tiger King was the once scene where they were taking the baby cub away from the mother while she was still giving birth,' she told hosts Sylvia Jeffreys (centre) and David Campbell (left)

Carole claimed the series 'lined up all these people' who said 'she killed her husband and fed him to the tigers'.

'They would line up all of these people saying the same thing and not have any rebuttal from me, or anybody else who knew anything that was going on at the time, or the public records that would show so many things that they said to be misleading,' she said.

'I got the villain edit, and I don't even understand why. I felt like it was a betrayal that was meant to create a biggest selling hit as they could.'

Story: The original series had documented the feud between big cat enthusiasts Baskin and Joe Exotic (pictured). The former zoo owner, 58, is currently serving a 22-year sentence after being found guilty of animal abuse charges and a murder-for-hire plot against his exotic animal rival Baskin in January

Carole says her 'villain edit' was so bad that she feels compelled to watch the recently announced second season - which she won't be starring in - in order to 'rebut any claims' that might be made against her.

'I know I will have to [watch] because they told so many lies in Tiger King that I had to rebut - and I feel certain that they found that was a way to make a lot of money and they'll probably do it again,' she said.

The original series had documented the feud between big cat enthusiasts Baskin and Joe Exotic.

The former zoo owner, 58, is currently serving a 22-year sentence after being found guilty of animal abuse charges and a murder-for-hire plot against his exotic animal rival Baskin in January.

The new series is set for release on November 17.
Stanley Tucci is opening up about his cancer treatments, and how he lost something very precious to him: his appetite.

The 60-year-old actor revealed in September that he was diagnosed with cancer three years earlier, after a tumor was found at the base of his tongue.

He revealed in a wide-ranging interview with New York Times that everything he ate during that time tasted like, 'wet cardboard slathered with someone's excrement.'

Stanley speaks: Stanley Tucci is opening up about his cancer treatments, and how he lost something very precious to him: his appetite

He added that his biggest fear was losing his sense of taste, adding, 'I mean, if you cant eat and enjoy food, how are you going to enjoy everything else?'

'It was hard because I could taste everything, but I couldnt necessarily swallow, he added, recalling a time he tried a Florentina steak.

'I had to chew it for 10 minutes to get it down my throat  [sometimes] I just had to get rid of the food,' he added.

Biggest fear: He added that his biggest fear was losing his sense of taste, adding, 'I mean, if you cant eat and enjoy food, how are you going to enjoy everything else?'

Still, despite this unfortunate condition, he didn't want to stop working on his CNN show Stanley Tucci: Searching For Italy.

'There was no way I wasnt going to make it. I wanted to tell for a long time the story of Italy and the disparate cuisine in every region,' Tucci said.

The interview was to promote his new novel Taste: My Life Through Food, which will be published on Tuesday.

No way: 'There was no way I wasnt going to make it. I wanted to tell for a long time the story of Italy and the disparate cuisine in every region,' Tucci said

The book is described as an unconventional memoir where he writes about many things, including the dreadful food he's eaten on film sets.

'The only thing that makes Italian set catering bearable is that wine is always served. Tragic for a country that is a culinary oracle,' he said.

When asked why he didn't discuss his acting career at all in the book, Tucci added, 'All thats terribly boring stuff.'

Unconventional: The book is described as an unconventional memoir where he writes about many things, including the dreadful food he's eaten on film sets

Whats far more interesting, he said, 'is youre going through life, you have this trajectory and this vision, then suddenly this whole other good thing is like a sidecar attached to you, and youre off in another direction.'

His CNN show was renewed for another season, though it's unclear when production may begin, though he did discuss what was on the dinner menu.

'Just some pasta, with fresh tomato and shrimp, a little shrimp stock, some basil, and then we can throw a salad on the side,' Tucci said.
The Veronica Lisa and Jessica Origliasso, 36, have honoured their late mother, Colleen, one month after she died following a long battle with progressive supranuclear palsy.

On Sunday, Lisa posted a beautiful Instagram tribute with a series of photos of herself hugging her twin sister Jessica next to a display of flowers.

'I stood watching as the little ship sailed out to sea,' Lisa's caption began.

Heart-breaking: The Veronicas' Lisa and Jessica Origliasso, 36, have honoured their late mother, Colleen, one month after she died following a long battle with progressive supranuclear palsy (all pictured)

'The setting sun tinted her white sails with a golden light, & as she disappeared from sight, my voice whispered, 'She is gone.''

'But the sea was a narrow one. On the farther shore a little band of friends had gathered to watch and wait in happy expectation.

'Suddenly they caught sight of the tiny sail &, at the very moment when I whispered, 'She is gone' a happy shout went up in joyous welcome - 'Here she comes!''

Tribute: On Sunday, Lisa posted a beautiful Instagram tribute with a series of photos of herself hugging her twin sister Jessica next to a display of flowers

The tribute comes one month after Lisa and Jess announced the devastating news of their mother's death to their social media pages.

'Our angel mama and best friend Colleen Francis Origliasso ascended into the heavens this past Wednesday, on the beautiful afternoon of September 1st 2021.'

'The first day of Spring, her favourite time of year. She spent her final weeks at home with us in our loving arms and care. There has been no greater honour or blessing than having her as our mummy,' the twins wrote.

Devastating news: Lisa and Jess announced the devastating news of their mother's death to their social media pages last month

Lisa then went into detail about her late mother's interests and causes she was enthusiastic about.

'She was the greatest connector of all things, had the biggest heart for community & charity, a lifelong supporter of the arts, LGBT+ community, a passionate volunteer for animals and conservation, and she made everyone she met feel like family.'

Colleen was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy and Lewy body dementia in 2018 after years of misdiagnosis.

Family: Colleen had been battling progressive supranuclear palsy and Lewy body dementia in 2018 after years of misdiagnosis. Lisa and Jess had both put their music careers on hold at the time to help care for their mother

Last year, the sisters said they lived in 'pain' while their mother's health declined.

'We already have enough pain in our life with our mum not being well, it puts everything else into a greater perspective,' Jess told 9Honey back in 2018.

In a video for Carers Australia made last year, the sisters opened up about looking after their mother while she also battled with a rare neurological condition called Progressive Supranuclear Palsy.

'Caring for mama is the most challenging thing we've ever had to do, but it's definitely the most rewarding,' Lisa said at the time.

The condition affected Colleen's cognitive and motor function, which caused her to lose the ability to walk, talk, think and swallow.
Westworld star Tessa Thompson stunned in a black-and-white Rodarte gown for the 59th New York Film Festival premiere of her black-and-white film Passing on Sunday.

The 38-year-old LA native evoked 1930s elegance in the white silk dress featuring a plunging black-lace neckline and puffed sleeves selected by styling duo Wayman + Micah.

Hairstylist Lacy Redway coiffed Tessa's smooth side-parted bob as she posed on the pink carpet at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall.

Very fitting! Westworld star Tessa Thompson stunned in a black-and-white Rodarte gown for the 59th New York Film Festival premiere of her black-and-white film Passing on Sunday

'It's just such an honor to be screening it here in New York at the film festival. I feel like Harlem is sort of a character in our film, really,' Thomson said in the NYFF Instastories.

'So it feels just exquisite to be here in Uptown screening our film. It's the first time the public will really see it in a theater and I'm so excited for us to premiere on Netflix as well. But I think that it's just magic seeing things in the cinema today and do it safely.'

Director Rebecca Hall introduced the Emmy-nominated producer as 'devastatingly brilliant' before she joined cast and crew onstage for a Q&A.

In Passing - based on Nella Larsen's 1929 novella - Tessa plays Irene 'Reenie' Redfield, who reunites with her fellow mixed race childhood friend Clare Bellew (Ruth Negga).

Retro: The 38-year-old LA native evoked 1930s elegance in the white silk dress featuring a plunging black-lace neckline and puffed sleeves selected by styling duo Wayman + Micah

Ready for her close-up! Hairstylist Lacy Redway coiffed Tessa's smooth side-parted bob as she posed on the pink carpet at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall

Thomson said in the NYFF Instastories: 'It's just such an honor to be screening it here in New York at the film festival. I feel like Harlem is sort of a character in our film, really. So it feels just exquisite to be here in Uptown screening our film. It's the first time the public will really see it in a theater and I'm so excited for us to premiere on Netflix as well. But I think that it's just magic seeing things in the cinema today and do it safely'

Group portrait: Director Rebecca Hall (4-R) introduced the Emmy-nominated producer (3-R) as 'devastatingly brilliant' before she joined cast and crew onstage for a Q&A

The British 39-year-old received a $15M deal from Netflix to stream her directorial debut on November 10 after it hits US theaters on October 27.

The racially-charged, PG-13 drama currently holds an impressive 86% critic approval rating (out of 83 reviews) on Rotten Tomatoes.

Thompson - who's of Panamanian, Mexican, and European descent - also happened to turn 38 on Sunday and she got a chocolate cake iced with 'Viva La Libra.'

The Sylvie's Love actress celebrated her birthday on Saturday night at The Jane in Manhattan's West Village with a bevy of gal pals.

Based on Nella Larsen's 1929 novella: In Passing, Tessa plays Irene 'Reenie' Redfield, who reunites with her fellow mixed race childhood friend Clare Bellew (L, Ruth Negga)

'Nothing is black and white': The racially-charged, PG-13 drama currently holds an impressive 86% critic approval rating (out of 83 reviews) on Rotten Tomatoes

Partnership: The British 39-year-old (L) received a $15M deal from Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos (R) to stream her directorial debut on November 10 after it hits US theaters on October 27

At one point, a dance circle formed and Tessa showcased her moves with transgender performer and The Girlie Show star, Davon Rainey.

Thompson famously engaged in a three-way kiss with her Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi and his girlfriend Rita Ora at his Sydney home back on May 23.

Rebecca bared her taut tummy in a cut-out black gown by Galvan, selected by stylist Laura Lea Jones.

Hairstylist Charlie Taylor coiffed Hall's pixie cut and make-up artist Matin Maulawizada applied her smoky eye.

Yum! Thompson - who's of Panamanian, Mexican, and European descent - also happened to turn 38 on Sunday and she got a chocolate cake iced with 'Viva La Libra'

'Good energy, great people, and pizza!' The Sylvie's Love actress (2-L) celebrated her birthday on Saturday night at The Jane in Manhattan's West Village with a bevy of gal pals

Werrrk! At one point, a dance circle formed and Tessa showcased her moves with transgender performer and The Girlie Show star, Davon Rainey

The Godzilla vs. Kong action star was so excited to see a live audience after the deadly coronavirus pandemic shut the film industry down.

'Wow, it's such a relief to see people in a theater,' Rebecca said while introducing the film.

'I am so grateful to everyone who made this film. It was an extraordinary labor of love. And I know that's what everyone says in these moments, but it really was!'

Chic: Rebecca bared her taut tummy in a cut-out black gown selected by stylist Laura Lea Jones

At the helm! Hairstylist Charlie Taylor coiffed Hall's pixie cut and make-up artist Matin Maulawizada applied her smoky eye

'It's such a relief to see people in a theater!' The Godzilla vs. Kong action star was so excited to see a live audience after the deadly coronavirus pandemic shut the film industry down

Suited and booted: Oscar nominee Ruth Negga donned a black leather Alexander McQueen blazer dress and red Schutz booties selected by stylist Karla Welch

Bangin': The Ethiopian-Irish 39-year-old - whose character passes as white and has a prejudiced, wealthy white husband - had her braided updo coiffed by hairstylist Marcia Hamilton

Oscar nominee Ruth Negga donned a black leather Alexander McQueen blazer dress and red Schutz booties selected by stylist Karla Welch.

The Ethiopian-Irish 39-year-old - whose character passes as white and has a prejudiced, wealthy white husband - had her braided updo coiffed by hairstylist Marcia Hamilton.

Oscar winner Forest Whitaker stepped behind the camera to produce Passing with Nina Yang Bongiovi and many, many others.

Supportive: Oscar winner Forest Whitaker stepped behind the camera to produce Passing with Nina Yang Bongiovi (R) and many, many others

GQ smooth: Independent Spirit Award winner Andre Holland - who plays Reenie's husband Brian Redfield - wore an all-black suit to the premiere

Split hems: Ashley Ware Jenkins - who plays Zulena - wore black swirly-patterned turtleneck tucked into white high-waisted pants and translucent stilettos

Weee! Amber Barbee Pickens - who choreographed and played a dancer - kicked up her Louboutin heels while clad in a painted canvas-style dress for the film festivities

Independent Spirit Award winner Andre Holland - who plays Reenie's husband Brian Redfield - wore an all-black suit to the premiere.

Ashley Ware Jenkins - who plays Zulena - wore black swirly-patterned turtleneck tucked into white high-waisted pants and translucent stilettos.

Amber Barbee Pickens - who choreographed and played a dancer - kicked up her Louboutin heels while clad in a painted canvas-style dress for the film festivities.
Following a very busy Paris Fashion Week, Alessandra Ambrosio looked elated to be back in the arms of her beau, Richard Lee.

On Sunday afternoon the 40-year-old supermodel was seen grabbing lunch near Venice Beach with her model boyfriend and son Noah, nine.

Leaning into soaring LA temperatures, the Brazilian beauty flashed her runway worthy legs in a pair of tiny daisy duke shorts.

Lunch date: The 44-year-old supermodel made the most of her weekend as she grabbed lunch with boyfriend Richard Lee and her son Noah, nine, in the Venice area of Los Angeles

Alessandra looked leggy in her tiny jean shorts which she paired with an orange tank top and a camel colored linen shirt.

Coordinating the look she slipped her feet into matching Nike sneakers with an orange swoosh and kept her caramel locks clipped back in a loose updo.

She held hands with Lee who wore dark cargo shorts and a black tee with a snapback hat, and patterned sneakers.

Noah  one of two children she shares with ex Jamie Mazur  was glimpsed behind the pair in a white T-shirt and grey shorts. Not pictured was daughter Anja Louise, 13.

Lovebirds: The duo were first publicly linked romantically back in March but they had flirty social media exchanges in the winter of 2020

Alessandra and Richard were first spotted out together in March after she split from beau of three years Nicolo Oddi in 2020, and the relationship continues to grow strong.

Most recently he called her 'everything good in this existence' and said 'I can't look at you without being compelled to fall in love with you,' with both frequently sharing smitten social media images to profess their love.

Despite their hot and heavy romance, her job brought her overseas this week for Paris Fashion Week, after previously being in Moscow, Russia while he stayed back.

The Victoria's Secret stunner had a very stacked schedule that included attendances at Vogue Paris' 100th Anniversary Exhibition, the Isabel Marant and Balmain fashion shows and Thierry Mugler's Photocall.

Paris Fashion Week: The Victoria's Secret vet was in attendance at many high profile events and fashion shows including Vogue Paris' 100th Anniversary Exhibition; pictured at Vogue dinner October 1
A-list actor George Clooney is back behind the camera as director of the new coming-of-age film, The Tender Bar.

And on Sunday he joined the ensemble cast for a screening of the coming-of-age story at the Directors Guild Of America in Los Angeles.

Among the cast on hand to hit the red carpet ahead of the showing: Christopher Lloyd, who arrived arm-in-arm with his wife of eight years, Lisa Lloyd.

New role: Christopher Lloyd attended a special screening of the new film, The Tender Bar, at the Directors Guild Of America in Los Angeles on Sunday

Looking far younger than his years, Lloyd, 82, showed off his cool styled in a blue suit that was matched with a black dress shirt and shoes.

The legendary Taxi star would strike a number of poses solo and alongside his wife.

Lloyd, 51, whose maiden name is Loiacono, looked lovely in a light brown floral dress that featured rich colors of green and red with its rose patterns.

The real estate agent with Sotheby's International Reality stepped out in black heels, and her dark tresses styled long and flowing well past her shoulders with a part on the slight left.

Lovebirds: Lloyd, 82, was arm-in-arm with his wife Lisa, 51, on the red carpet

Stylin': The actor showed off his cool style in a blue suit, and black dress shirt and shoes

Item: The couple will be celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary in November

The couple would also share the spotlight of the red carpet with Clooney and cast members that included Matthew Delamater, Ben Affleck, Lily, Rabe, Tye Sheridan, Daniel Ranieri and Rhenzy Feliz.

Written by Oscar-winner William Monahan (The Departed and The Gambler), The Tender Bar is an adaptation of Pulitzer Prize winner J.R. Moehringers bestselling memoir of the same name.

It tells the story of J.R. (Sheridan), a boy growing up in Long Island who seeks out father figures among the patrons at his uncle Charlie's (Affleck) bar, according to Deadline.

As his mother (Rabe) struggles to provide her son with opportunities denied to her, and to leave the rundown home of her father (Lloyd), J.R. begins to pursue his romantic and professional dreams.

Guys time to shine: Lloyd also posed alongside co-star Ben Affleck, Tye Sheridan, Daniel Ranieri, and director George Clooney

Director and cast: Clooney also posted with his cast that includes Matthew Delamater, Ben Affleck, Tye Sheridan, Daniel Ranieri, Christopher Lloyd, and Rhenzy Feliz

Suave: Clooney looked his usual dapper self in a black suit and matching shirt

Screening: Affleck, Sheridan, Ranieri and Lloyd also shared a moment with co-star Lily Rabe

The ensemble cast also includes Max Casella, Sondra James, Max Martini, Michael Braun, Ivan Leung and Briana Middleton.

Clooney and Grant Heslov produced the film through their company Smokehouse Pictures, alongside Ted Hope, with Moehringer and Barbara A. Hall serving as executive producers.

The drama film is slated to hit theaters in Los Angeles and New York in a limited release on December 17, and then open nationwide on December 22.

It will also be available globally for streaming on Amazon Prime Video beginning on January 7.
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George Clooney flashed his classically good looks while attending the premiere of his new directorial project, The Tender Bar, in Los Angeles on Sunday.

And naturally the 60-year-old A-lister was seen with his stunning wife of seven years, Amal Clooney, 43, on his arm who looked a vision in a dress with midriff cutouts.

Also in attendance at the very star studded event were the film's stars including Ben Affleck, Lily Rabe, Tye Sheridan and Christopher Lloyd, with other big names coming out to see a special viewing of the Amazon Studios picture.

Big night: The Hollywood heartthrob attended the premiere of his latest directorial project, The Tender Bar, at the Director's Guild in LA alongside wife Amal Clooney

A suit-clad Clooney was seen leading the charge at the event which was held at the Director's Guild of America in Hollywood.

He was seen posing alongside Amal who looked beautiful in a black and white gown that exposed a hint of her legs, which she paired with elegant crystal adorned heels and a clutch purse.

The couple  who share four-year-old twins Ella and Alexander  looked as close as ever as the wrapped their arms around each other and at one point he beamed at her with pride.

I got you: Clooney, 60, was seen wrapping his arm around Amal, 43, on the red carpet

Stylish pair: The A-list couple wore they red carpet best which included a dress with midriff cutouts

Beaming: The two-time Academy Award winner beamed at his stunning bride with joy as they walked the step and repeat

Sweet moment: At one point the Ocean's Eleven star was seen grabbing onto Amal's hand

Power couple: Though Clooney continues to be a leading name in Hollywood, Amal stands on her own as a high profile barrister proving to have both beauty and brains

Profile shot: The Lebanese and British stunner flashed some stunning diamond drop earrings

After some pictures with his real-life leading lady, Clooney let loose while walking the step and repeat with good buddy and film star Ben Affleck.

The life-long friends could not contain their elation at the event as they laughed uncontrollably before continuing to show off their goofy side with the full cast.

The coming of age drama tells the story of a Long Island boy named J.R. (Ready Player One's Tye Sheridan) who seeks out father figures at his uncle Charlie's (Affleck) bar.

Dapper duo: Clooney (left) was seen buddying up to Affleck (right) who stars in the Amazon film

Collaborators: In the movie Affleck plays the uncle of the protagonist, a character named, J.R. who owns a bar in Long Island

Flying solo: Despite his very high profile romance with Jennifer Lopez, Affleck appeared without her at the event

Sharing a laugh: The powerhouses could not contain their laughter and energy at the premiere

Leading cast: (From left to right)Affleck, Tye Sheridan, Rabe, Daniel Ranieri and Lloyd pictured

A his mother (played by Lily Rabe) struggles to provide him with opportunities while they continue to reside with her father (played by Christopher Lloyd), J.R. decides to take hold of his future and pursue romantic and professional dreams.

The film is based on J.R. Moehringer's bestselling memoir of the same name and the screenplay was written by William Monahan, who penned The Departed.

Rounding out the ensemble cast are Max Casella, Sondra James, Max Martini, Michael Braun, Matthew Delamater, Rhenzy Feliz, Ivan Leung, Briana Middleton and newcomer Daniel Ranieri.

Expecting! Lily Rabe cradled her baby bump as it was revealed she is expecting her third child

Parents of three: Hamish Linklater and Rabe have been partners since 2013 and most recently welcomed their second child in June 2020

Stars: Tye Sheridan (left) play's the coming of age film's lead, a boy named J.R. while Lloyd (right) plays his grandfather

Couple: The Back To The Future vet appeared alongside his wife Lisa Loiacono, a real estate agent

Dad mode: Affleck was seen holding up ensemble cast member Ranieri on the carpet

Action shot: Ranieri was in the best of company alongside Clooney and Affleck who had a little fun

The boys: (left to right) Affleck, Sheridan, Ranieri, Clooney

The men: (left to right) Affleck, Sheridan, Ranieri, Clooney and Lloyd  the principle male cast were pictured

Pictured: Khloe Kardashian's BFF Malika Haqq (left) was seen at the premiere alongside Jade Pettyjohn (right), who wore a pair of vegan leather pants from Simon Miller

Ensemble cast: Rhenzy Feliz of the ensemble cast was pictured

Other guests: Others who showed up to see the film included TV personality Sibley Scoles (left) and CMO of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, Ukonwa Ojo (right)

Producing partner: Clooney's producing partner Grant Heslov pictured with his wife Lysa

Present: Tony Award winner Ben Vereen showed up to the event

Rabe, 39, appeared at the event with partner Hamish Linklater, where she was seen cradling her baby bump, as just one week ago it was confirmed that the couple of eight years are expecting their third child together.

Lloyd, 82, of Back To The Future fame also was in good spirits at the event as he donned a suit while holding his wife Lisa, a real estate agent, close.

Tye, 24, looked handsome in a blue suit for his big debut, and was seen sandwiched in between Affleck and Clooney, alongside newcomer Ranieri, who was hoisted up into the air by a playful Affleck.

Million dollar smile: The silver fox flashed his pearly whites and wedding ring

Inside: Once inside the premiere event he proved to only have eyes for Amal

Packed house: The highly anticipated film is set for limited release in NYC and LA on December 17

Multi-tasking: As he continued to do press for the movie he made sure his wife was right beside him

Animated: And at one point Kentucky born superstar was seen mingling with many adoring industry colleagues

Others in attendance included Clooney's co-producing partner Grant Heslov, CMO of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, Ukonwa Ojo, actress Jade Pettyjohn (Little Fires Everywhere), Tony Award winner Ben Vereen and Khloe Kardashian's BFF Malika Haqq.

The movie is set for limited theatre release in Los Angeles and New York on December 17, before it will open nationwide on December 22.

Afterwards it will be available for global streaming on Amazon Prime Video, January 7.

Earlier: Clooney was seen leaving the Sunset Towers hotel ahead of the event

Show time: He hopped from the hotel to the DGA for the The Tender Bar premiere with what looked to be a slew of wardrobe options in hand

Addressing the crowd: Taking to the stage, director George addressed the audience

Beaming: The A-lister beamed as he spoke into the microphone

Cast: The Tender Bar cast posed for snaps together

Crew: The creative minds behind the film beamed for photographers (Pictured: Ted Hope, Amal and George Clooney and Vanessa Hope)

Chatting away: Putting on an animated display, Clooney could barely stop smiling as he spoke into the mic

Old friends: Clooney wrapped his arm around Christopher Lloyd

Sharing a joke: Matthew Delamater shared a joke with Tye Sheridan, Jackson Browne and Clooney

Afterparty: Clooney stood in front of instruments at the screening's afterparty

Drink in hand: Clooney held a drink in his left hand while chatting to attendees
Lisa Wilkinson sat alongside Karl Stefanovic on the Today show for 10 years, before leaving Nine in 2017 over a reported pay gap dispute.

And the 61-year-old presenter is now reportedly worried about how Karl might react to his portrayal in her upcoming autobiography, It Wasnt Meant To Be Like This.

According to The Australian, Lisa has confided to friends that she is 'concerned' about how Karl will view the memoir, with suggestions that he may not like how he is depicted.

Worried: Lisa Wilkinson, 61, (right) is 'concerned' about how her former Today co-host Karl Stefanovic, 47, (left) will react to revelations in her upcoming memoir, according to a new report by The Australian

'Lisa knows that Karl is a big part of the story and that he will be a drawcard for the book,' one source told the publication.

'She has also agonised over how he is portrayed, because hes a complex character to get down in writing.'

The publication claims Lisa told friends that the book has left her 'stressed', and that she's worried the focus of media attention will be what she thinks about Karl.

'She has also agonised over how he is portrayed': According to The Australian, Lisa has confided to friends that she is 'concerned' about how Karl will view the memoir, with suggestions that he may not like how he is depicted

It is understood that 'no juicy detail will be off limits' in the Harper Collins autobiography - that will also reportedly include her marriage to Peter FitzSimons.

Lisa was believed to have quit Today because Karl, 47, as her male co-host, was reportedly earning $2million a year with a potential bonus that could take his salary to $3million if ratings were a hit, The Australian wrote in 2017.

Lisa, a former magazine editor, was said to be on a $1.1million a year contract, with Nine only willing to increase the amount to $1.8million, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Reports: Lisa was believed to have quit Today because Karl, as her male co-host, was reportedly earning $2million a year with a potential bonus that could take his salary to $3million if ratings were a hit, The Australian wrote in 2017. Pictured on Ten's The Project

Decade-long working relationship: Lisa sat alongside Karl on the Today show for 10 years, before leaving Nine in October 2017 over a reported gender pay gap dispute

The amount was reportedly not enough for her to stay with the network, prompting her departure.

Since joining The Sunday Project in 2018, Lisa has landed sit-down interviews with the likes of Kim Kardashian, Kylie Minogue and Bradley Cooper.

In an interview with The Herald Sun in December 2018, Lisa applauded the 'integrity' and high 'calibre' of her colleagues at Ten, referencing Carrie Bickmore, Fifi Box, Amanda Keller, Julia Morris and Gorgi Coghlan.

'One of the absolute bonuses that I really hadn't anticipated in moving to Ten, is the calibre of my colleagues,' she said.
Ben Affleck and George Clooney reunited at The Tender Bar's Los Angeles premiere at DGA Theater Complex over the weekend.

The Oscar winners, who star in and directed the movie respectively, have both played DC Comics' Bruce Wayne/Batman as well as having a long-time friendship and on Sunday, they united in front of cameras to unveil their new movie.

The Tender Bar was the leading men's second film collaboration after Ben's 2012 directorial effort Argo, which George produced.

Silver foxes: Ben Affleck and George Clooney reunited at The Tender Bar's Los Angeles premiere at DGA Theater Complex over the weekend

George, 60, certainly knew how to tickle his 49-year-old pal's funny bone as they caught up on the red carpet in joyous style.

Affleck could not stop laughing as Clooney cracked jokes outside the 600-seat, state-of-the-art cinema.

At one point, Ben grabbed a hold of his young co-star Daniel Ranieri, 10, looking adorable in his blue suit and white sneakers.

He grinned with glee as The Justice League action star held him upside down.

Holy double take! The two-time Oscar winners have both had the honor of portraying DC Comics' Bruce Wayne/Batman on the big screen with varying degrees of success

Bromance: The Tender Bar was the leading men's second film collaboration after Ben's 2012 directorial effort Argo, which George produced

Wisecracker: George, 60, certainly knew how to tickle his 49-year-old pal's funny bone as they caught up on the red carpet in joyous style

Big smiles: Affleck could not stop laughing as Clooney cracked jokes outside the 600-seat, state-of-the-art cinema

George cast Daniel to play the younger version of J. R. Moehringer, the author of the 2005 memoir upon which The Tender Bar is based.

George got in on the action, playfully grabbing on to Ranieri, who made a memorable appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! back in December.

The story follows the author during his early years in New York City as he searches for his father while growing closer to his uncle and a group of locals at a nearby bar.

Development on The Tender Bar began in 2013 with Hidden Figures director Theodore Melfi set to helm the film, before he exited the project.

Come here, you! At one point, Ben grabbed a hold of his young co-star Daniel Ranieri, looking adorable in his blue suit and white sneakers

After several years of difficulties, Amazon Studios acquired the rights to the project in July 2020, with George being confirmed to spearhead the feature in December.

Ben's role was confirmed in February, with much of the rest of the cast being added then in March.

Ben previously collaborated on the 2012 film Argo, on which George served as a producer.

On their latest flick together, a source told PEOPLE: 'Ben is excited to be in Boston. He and George are happy to be reunited and working together again. Affleck comes prepared and ready to film. He and George are great to work with.'

Sweet face: The 10-year-old Brooklyn native grinned with glee as The Justice League action star held him upside down

Goofing around: George cast little Daniel to play the younger version of J. R. Moehringer, the author of the 2005 memoir upon which The Tender Bar is based

Principal photography on the upcoming project began earlier this year at various locations in and around Boston.

The rest of the cast were present - including Matt Newman, Matthew Delamater, Tye Sheridan, Lily Rabe, Julie Rapaport, Christopher Lloyd, and Rhenzy Feliz.

George's eighth directorial feature will stream on January 7 on Amazon Prime Video.

Lockdown breakdown: Clooney got in on the action, playfully pretending to choke Ranieri, who made a memorable appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! back in December

It takes a village! The trio then posed with the rest of the cast and crew - (from L-R) Matt Newman, Matthew Delamater, Tye Sheridan, Lily Rabe, Julie Rapaport, Christopher Lloyd, and Rhenzy Feliz

Streaming January 7 on Amazon Prime Video! George's eighth directorial feature centers on J.R. Moehringer (Sheridan) enjoying a father-son bond with his bartender Uncle Charlie (Affleck)

The Long Island-set drama will also hit limited US theaters on December 18.

Before suiting up, Ben and his ex-fiance and rekindled flame Jennifer Lopez attended an event at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.

Ben and the Bronx-born 52-year-old - who began texting each other again in February - are 'making it work' despite their demanding schedules and children.

'This is their life together now,' a source close to Jennifer told People on Wednesday.

Inseparable: Before suiting up, the Eastern Congo Initiative co-founder and his ex-fiance Jennifer Lopez (R) attended an event at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood

'This is their life together now': Ben and the Bronx-born 52-year-old - who began texting each other again in February - are 'making it work' despite their demanding schedules and children

Finally settling down? 'Bennifer' first dated between 2002-2004 before making their rekindled romance public in late April

'They will see each other when they can.'

'Bennifer' first dated between 2002-2004 before making their rekindled romance public in late April.

Audiences can next catch Affleck as Count Pierre d'Alencon in Ridley Scott's 14th century revenge drama The Last Duel, which hits US/UK theaters October 15.

The Way Back actor and his BFF Matt Damon co-starred, co-wrote, and co-produced the period flick also featuring Adam Driver and Jodie Comer.
Lily Rabe continued to show off her burgeoning bump at the premiere of her film The Tender Bar in Los Angeles on Sunday evening.

The pregnant actress, 39, was seen glowing from ear to ear just one week after it was confirmed she was set to welcome her third child with partner Hamish Linklater.

The soon-to-be parents of three look overjoyed about their baby news as they took turns cradling her stomach while they attended the event at the Director's Guild.

Mom-to-be! Lily Rabe, 39, continued to show off her growing belly at The Tender Bar premiere, just one week after it was confirmed she and partner Hamish Linklater expecting third child together

The Undoing star draped her belly underneath a long sleeve floral frock that featured super feminine frills on the sleeves and at the neck.

Her blonde hair was tied back in a high ponytail with soft tendrils framing her face. Adding a pop of color to her glowing complexion she was dolled up with magenta lipstick.

Drawing attention to her stomach on her big night, Rabe was seen gently resting her hand on her belly, and was joined for a few photos by Linklater, 45.

The Midnight Mass actor looked handsome in a black suit with a white button down as he rubbed his hand over her stomach which drew a million dollar smile from the American Horror Story star.

Side shot: The American Horror Story star's baby bliss was confirmed last week

Glowing: The Undoing star draped her belly underneath a long sleeve floral frock that featured super feminine frills on the sleeves and at the neck

Last week it was revealed that Rabe and Linklater who first got together in 2014  were expecting their third child together.

She made her red carpet debut at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures gala on September 25, with her rep later confirming the news to PEOPLE.

The pair share a daughter who they welcomed in 2017 and their second child was born in June 2020, with Lily simultaneously confirming the pregnancy and arrival on Instagram.

Additionally Hamish has a daughter named Lucinda Rose, 14, from a previous relationship.

The couple first met when they starred opposite each other in a 2010 production of The Merchant of Venice.

Longtime love: Linklater (left) and Rabe have been partners since 2013 and share two other children

Smiling big: The Midnight Mass actor was seen drawing a laugh out of his partner as he rubbed his hand over her stomach

Latest project: In the George Clooney directed film The Tender Bar, Rabe plays the mother of the protagonist J.R. in the upcoming Amazon Studios movie

The Tender Bar, Rabe's latest project, is a coming of age drama based on J.R. Moehringer's best selling 2005 memoir of the same name.

The screen adaptation tells the story of a boy (played by Tye Sheridan) who seeks out father figures at his uncle Charlie's bar before deciding to pursue romantic and professional dreams.

In the George Clooney directed film for Amazon Studios, Rabe plays J.R.'s mother with Ben Affleck as his uncle, and Christopher Lloyd as his grandfather.

The movie is set for limited theatre release in Los Angeles and New York on December 17, before it will open nationwide on December 22 and will be available for global streaming on Amazon Prime Video, January 7.
They rose to fame on last summer's series of Love Island.

And Amy Day and Rachel Finni have gone on to become the best of friends, as they proved on Sunday when they enjoyed a night out in London together wearing equally eye-popping all-white looks.

Leaving London's rooftop bar Jin Bo Law, Amy, 25, flaunted her rock-hard abs in a pretty bandeau top teamed with a thigh-split pencil skirt while Rachel, 29, opted for a cut-out bodice layered beneath a sheer skirt.

Night out: Love Islanders Amy Day, 25, and Rachel Finni, 29, have gone on to become the best of friends, as they proved on Sunday when they enjoyed a night out in London

Wow: Amy flaunted her rock-hard abs in a pretty bandeau top teamed with a thigh-split pencil skirt

Brunette bombshell Amy teamed her outfit with wraparound open-toe heels and wore her glossy hair in loose curls.

Rachel, meanwhile, opted for stylish Perspex heels and let her raven tresses cascade past her shoulders.

Both women held hands as they strolled through the capital.

Amy failed to find love in the villa despite striking up a romance with PE teacher Hugo Hammond following their time together in Casa Amor.

Glam: Rachel opted for a cut-out bodice layered beneath a sheer skirt and appeared in high spirits

Looking good: Amy and Rachel cosied up for photographers and were both glammed-up to the nines

Oh dear: Amy failed to find love in the villa despite striking up a romance with PE teacher Hugo Hammond following their time together in Casa Amor

Unlucky in love: Luxury travel specialist Rachel had an even less successful time on the quest for love, shortly being paired with Brad McClelland before he dumped her for Lucinda

Standing tall: Amy added height to her frame in open-toe white wraparound heels and rocked an immaculate manicure

Rock-hard: Rachel wore her hair loose and also made sure all eyes were on her rock-hard abs

At the time, Hugo chose to ditch his friendship couple with Chloe Burrows and pursue something with Amy instead back in the main villa.

While things seemed to be going well at first, Hugo was later seen telling the boys he was 'unsure' about their romance and following their dumping from the villa, he brutally described his time on the show as 'tragic' leaving Amy shocked as she stood alongside him during their exit interview.

The couple then came to blows during an appearance on Aftersun, as Hugo slammed Amy for using him as a 'green card' into the villa, while she branded him 'awful with women'.

She accused Hugo of 'flipping' on her and 'friend-zoning her out of the blue'.

Luxury travel specialist Rachel had an even less successful time on the quest for love, shortly being paired with Brad McClelland before he dumped her for Lucinda Strafford.

Quest for love: Hugo chose to ditch his friendship couple with Chloe Burrows and pursue something with Amy instead back in the main villa

Immaculate: Rachel's impressive pedicure peeked out from beneath her trendy Perspex heels
She has recently launched a new line with London-based beauty brand Ciate.

And Christine Quinn showcased why she is the perfect ambassador on Sunday night as she stepped out in style for dinner with husband Christian Richard in Beverly Hills.

The Selling Sunset star, 32, oozed confidence in a skull-emblazoned jumper and black jeans as she headed for an evening of Californian cuisine at Spago.

Stunning: Christine Quinn put on a stylish display as she headed for dinner with husband Christian Richard in Beverly Hills on Sunday

The reality star pulled out all the stops for date night, flaunting her curled blonde tresses and full face of makeup, which she also documented via her Instagram story.

As her husband of almost two years planted a kiss on her cheek, Christine couldn't wipe the smile from her face.

The couple put on quite the affectionate display, with the retired tech entrepreneur keeping things laid back in a navy top and ripped black jeans.

Date night: As her husband of almost two years planted a kiss on her cheek, the Selling Sunset star couldn't wipe the smile from her face

Glowing: The reality star pulled out all the stops for date night, flaunting her curled blonde tresses and full face of makeup, which she also documented via her Instagram story

The weekend outing comes after Christine exclusively told MailOnline that the traumatic experience of having an emergency C-section back in May has made her more vulnerable in the upcoming series of Selling Sunset.

Usually known for being a self-proclaimed 'boss b****', the new mum noted her change in the much anticipated season four of the Netflix show saying: 'I don't care about [their] problems and not being invited to parties, thats the least of my issues.'

Christine spoke about how she knew she was in labour before her doctor did and that both her and her baby, Christian Georges Dumontet, almost died during birth.

Dramatic birth: The weekend outing comes after Christine exclusively told MailOnline that the traumatic experience of having an emergency C-section back in May has made her more vulnerable in the upcoming series of Selling Sunset

'My body knew I was in labour and my doctor said no, sure enough my water broke and I was in a very traumatic position where I walked into the hospital and I was 10cm dilated,' Christine recalled.

The reality star opted for the emergency C-section without an epidural, and gave birth 22 minutes later.

Despite her dramatic birthing story, Christine seems to have settled into motherhood and said that she wants to spend all her time with her son- a far cry from the glamorous Hollywood parties she frequented on the hit Netflix show.

'Motherhood has been amazing - I hate leaving him - I want to be with my baby all the time, he's in that phase where he's sleeping and eating a lot,' she said.

And Christine's relationship with Christian is stronger than ever, with the star speaking of how they have navigated parenthood and the sleepless nights.

'We are both night owls, the time that we spend together is usually when our son goes to bed.'
Abbie Chatfield is not impressed with the news that Treasurer Dominic Perrottet appears certain to be the next NSW Premier.

On Monday, the former Bachelor star, 25, shared a number of Instagram Stories pointing out policies she was unhappy with.

'Our new premier? F**king pass. I'm so mad. Please vote the liberal party out next election. This man is f**ked,' she wrote.

Not impressed: Abbie Chatfield (pictured) is not impressed with the news that Treasurer Dominic Perrottet appears certain to be the next NSW Premier

In particular, Abbie pointed out Perrottet's stance against abortion and his strong Catholic beliefs.

She also noted that he'd praised Donald Trump's election, questioned climate change and voted against same sex marriage.

The reality star likewise underlined sections in which Perrottet is calling for stronger borders.

Anger: On Monday, the former Bachelor star shared a number of Instagram Stories pointing out policies she was unhappy with. Mr Perrottet is pictured

Mr Perrottet looks set to be NSW Premier after a key ally switched sides when an endorsement by ex-PM John Howard gave the Treasurer an unbeatable edge.

The party's centre-right have also swung behind the 39-year-old dad-of-six after Mr Howard's kingmaker seal of approval.

The endorsement came just 24 hours after Gladys Berejiklian, 51, announced she was quitting over the ICAC probe into her relationship and dealings with dodgy MP Daryl Maguire, 62.

Mr Perrottet, who became Treasurer in January 2017 when Ms Berejiklian replaced Mike Baird as Premier, is also a devout Catholic and hails from the Liberal Party's Right faction.

Ideas: In particular, Abbie pointed out Perrottet's stance against abortion and his strong Catholic beliefs

Questions: She also noted that he'd praised Donald Trump's election, questioned climate change and voted against same sex marriage

He was first elected to Parliament in March 2011, when Barry O'Farrell's Coalition swept to power in a landslide ending Labor's 16 years in office.

During that decade, he has held three different electorates, Castle Hill, Hawkesbury and now Epping in Sydney's north-west, switching seats at each election in 2015 and 2019 to the dismay of his Liberal colleagues.

Ms Berejiklian's decision to stand down sparked speculation NSW's Covid map's roadmap may be in jeopardy once a new premier takes over.
They tied the knot in a stunning location wedding in Kefalonia last month.

And Lucy Watson has revealed that she and James Dunmore made things official before jetting off to Greece and took part in a civil ceremony in the UK to legalise their marriage.

The former Made In Chelsea star, 30, shared as series of stunning snaps from their ceremony, as she donned a chic white suit for the occasion.

Romantic: Lucy Watson and James Dunmore made things official before flying to Greece as they took part in a civil ceremony in the UK to legalise their marriage

The TV personality also included a cute snap of her beautiful diamond encrusted wedding shoes in the wedding album, which she shared to Instagram.

Lucy posted pictures of her and husband on the steps of London's Chelsea Old Town Hall to her 1.2m Instagram followers.

She captioned the shot, 'Our civil ceremony was cute' before explaining in a later snap: 'We had to get legally married before our ceremony in Greece. We didn't expect much but it was actually so special and intimate with only our immediate family.'

The star looked gorgeous in a loose fitting white trouser suit by Own Studio.

Happy couple: The former Made In Chelsea star, 30, shared as series of stunning snaps from their ceremony, as she donned a chic white suit for the occassion

The white flared trousers and blazer combo oozed class, while she wore her shoulder length hair down in glamorous waves.

Rocking a pair of oversized sunglasses and clutching a small white bouquet, the star looked effortlessly chic at the ceremony.

She also posted a snap of her and James sharing a kiss on the venue's steps alongside an image of her detailed footwear, a pair of stunning cream pointy shoes which showcased her diamond encrusted design on a net finish.

Her partner and former Made in Chelsea co star James, 31, looked handsome in pale grey lightly checked suit, white shirt and striking wine coloured tie.

Just married: Lucy and James could be seen sharing a kiss on the venue's steps in a beautiful black-and-white image posted on the star's social media page

Explanation: Taking to Instagram, Lucy explained: 'We had to get legally married before our ceremony in Greece'

Cute shoes: She also posted a snap of her detailed footwear. a pair of stunning cream pointy shoes which showcased a diamond encrusted petal design on a net finish

The loved up couple then had a stunning wedding ceremony on the beautiful Island of Kefalonia in Greece.

The reality star-come-author announced her engagement to her partner James in September 2020, after meeting on the E4 set of Made In Chelsea in 2015.

She spent four years alongside her fellow Sloane Rangers on the hit show before deciding to start her own vegan restaurant, Tell Your Friends.

Beautiful bride: The Influencer looked stunning on her big day in a timeless off the shoulder wedding dress

Divulging the details of how her beau proposed, the influencer told her Instagram followers last December that a lot of planning had gone into the gesture.

Lucy explained: 'He got the hotel we were staying in to send me a letter saying we were going on a free yacht trip (awkwardly I wasn't that surprised).

'He had booked the boat and planned everything.

So in Love: Lucy and James share a kiss to celebrate their recent nuptials

'The boat was stunning and I was trying to get content for the hotel.

'There was a full vegan meal and champagne and we went on a crazy beautiful tour of some private islands. Some of the prettiest scenes I've ever witnessed.

'We went to take a photo together and there he was on one knee. I was literally in shock, my heart didn't beat for like 3 seconds.

'We then spent the day on the boat and had the best time with another couple we're friends with, watched the sun go down. It was perfect.'
Strictly professional Nikita Kuzmin's girlfriend Nicole Wirt congratulated her beau and his celebrity dance partner Tilly Ramsay at the weekend.

Her well-wishes came following a a cryptic message about 'not being supported', which she posted to her Instagram Stories last Thursday.

Rumours the infamous Strictly curse had struck again were ignited last week after Nikita, 23, and Tilly, 19, were pictured heading into her London flat.

Support: Strictly pro Nikita Kuzmin's girlfriend Nicole Wirt congratulated her beau and his celebrity partner Tilly Ramsay after posting a cryptic message about 'not being supported'

But Nicole, who is also a professional dancer, showed her support for her man and Tilly after the live show on Saturday, urging the viewing public to vote to keep the pair in the competition.

Taking to her Instagram Stories, Nicole shared a picture of Nikita and Tilly and wrote: 'Amazing performance tonight. Go & vote for these cuties.'

A source told The Sun: 'Nicole hasn't said anything for days on social media which raised eyebrows because initially she'd been really supportive of the pair.

'She's also not been in and around the show as she had her own stuff going on. So speaking out and wishing Niki and Tilly well is a sign that she's fully behind them.

Strictly curse: Rumours the infamous Strictly curse had struck again were ignited last week after Nikita, 23, and Tilly, 19, were pictured heading into her London flat

'She and Nikita have a strong relationship which often has to cope with long periods apart.'

Prior to her message Nicole shared a sketch of a figure standing alone beneath the words 'The Support' while the opposite side of the image sees a large crowd of people beneath the words 'The Congratulations'.

The blonde beauty also added a 'shhh' emoji to her post and the words 'don't be fooled'.

Kind words: Taking to her Instagram Stories, Nicole shared a picture of Nikita and Tilly and wrote: 'Amazing performance tonight. Go & vote for these cuties'

She noted that she had re-posted the image from an account called Minds Of People that is 'dedicated to educating the mind'.

Last Wednesday, Nicole also deleted a gushing supportive comment to the pair after the first live show on Saturday.

Sharing a snap of their Waltz on Instagram, Nicole had added love heart emojis and wrote 'cheering on my favs' and their performance was 'mesmerising' in the now-deleted post.

Sketch: Nicole posted a figure standing alone beneath the words 'The Support' while the opposite side of the image sees a large crowd of people beneath words 'The Congratulations'

Cryptic: Nikita's girlfriend of five years Nicole Wirt posted a cryptic Instagram message about 'not being supported' in the wake of romance rumours

However, it appeared the pro dancer has removed all trace of her supportive comment on social media, since the pictures emerged and hadn't added any further posts about her boyfriend's appearance on the show.

Instead Nicole, who is based in Germany, wrote on Wednesday: 'Stop complaining so much over things you can't change or control' and 'Overthinking never lead me anywhere good'

Last week Nikita was seen arriving at Tilly's apartment, with the TikTok star letting him inside.

Close: Last week Nikita was seen arriving at Tilly's apartment, with the TikTok star letting him inside (pictured during rehearsals on Wednesday)

An onlooker told The Sun: 'Nikita was first and waited outside before Tilly arrived a few minutes later. They were grinning from ear-to-ear, chatting and laughing.

'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.'

Nikita has been in a relationship with dancer Nicole since 2016.

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.'
The Block's Mark McKie was in hot water on Monday after it was found out by foreman Keith that a tradie had 'painted' in his house.

Mark was left furious with Keith after he tried to punish him with a 'half-four break' off the tools - after the tradie simply used a brush for sealant.

The tense scenes saw Mark protest the tradie wasn't actually 'painting', with online fans quickly rushing to his defence on social media.

'Just check the brush!' Twitter viewers took aim at foreman Keith on The Block during Monday's episode after he locked horns with Mark McKie (pictured)

Many viewers lashed out at Keith with them saying he should have just checked the brush for paint.

'Keith, you absolute goose. There was no paint on the brush. What a d*ckhead,' one viewer lashed out.

'Come on Keith! He's holding the brush right there. Just check it for paint!' another added.

Painting by tradesman is strictly forbidden on the show and must be done by the individual contestants.

Forbidden: Painting by tradesman is strictly forbidden on the show and must be done by the individual contestants. Pictured is Keith (L) and Mark

Come off it! Many viewers lashed out at Keith with them saying he should have just checked the brush for paint

Others took aim at the show for just creating drama, with one fan writing: 'So much drama this year it makes it [the show] hard to watch.'

Another added: 'Seriously. Keith had a producer in his ear and deliberately created drama. Pathetic effort from The Block creators.'

During the tense scenes, the two men locked horns over the incident, with Keith adamant: 'You don't caulk with a paintbrush.'

Caulk, or caulking, is waterproof filler and sealant used in building work and repairs.

For the drama: A number of fans lashed out at Keith, accusing him of just doing it for the drama

'You seriously think, having done this in two seasons, we would let him paint?' Mark told foreman Keith.

'You and I have had a good relationship. If you keep going like that, mate, it's gonna end,' Keith replied.

Jason, the tradesman, then intervened with him showing Keith how he was using the paintbrush - which appeared to relax the situation.

No paint on the brush! Jason, the tradesman, then intervened with him showing Keith how he was using the paintbrush - which appeared to relax the situation

Keith then accused Mark of throwing a 'hissy fit' at him which later prompted him to offer an apology for the miscommunication.

'I was so tired, I was frustrated, and I was wrong. It doesn't matter what was. All that matters is what the perception was,' Mark later said to Keith.

The Block continues on Tuesday, Channel Nine, 7.30pm.
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Jonathan Pryce was seen sitting behind the wheel of a Range Rover MK1 on Monday as he got into character playing the late Prince Philip in series 5 of The Crown.

The renowned Welsh actor, 74, donned a dark navy suit teamed with a white shirt and mustard tie as he filmed new scenes for the Netflix hit in Hertfordshire.

He was seen sitting besides another actor inside the vehicle, which was secured onto a trailer as crew captured the scenes in front.

Filming: Jonathan Pryce was seen sitting behind the wheel of a Range Rover MK1 on Monday as he got into character playing the late Prince Philip in series 5 of The Crown

Jonathan sported a serious expression as he stared straight ahead as he shot scenes with his hands fixed on the steering wheel of the Range Rover - which Philip frequently drove various models of throughout his life.

Film crew were seen surrounding the car during the countryside scenes as Jonathan took on the role of the Duke of Edinburgh, who passed away in April aged 99.

Last year, Jonathan said he was 'confident' about 'tackling the daunting prospect of portraying Prince Philip' in seasons five and six of The Crown.

Speaking after the announcement of his part last August, Jonathan added that it will be 'a joy' to act alongside Imelda Staunton as the Queen and Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret.

Role: The renowned Welsh actor, 74, donned a dark navy suit teamed with a white shirt and mustard tie as he filmed new scenes for the Netflix hit (Prince Philip pictured right)

In a statement shared on social media by Netflix, Jonathan said: 'I am delighted to be working with Netflix again.

'The positive experience I had making The Two Popes has given me the confidence to tackle the daunting prospect of portraying Prince Philip.

'To be doing so with Peter Morgan in the company of Imelda [Staunton] and Lesley [Manville] will be a joy.'

As well as praising the other on-screen talent lined up for the show, Jonathan added that he was excited to be working with screenwriter Peter Morgan.

Confident: Last year, Jonathan said he was 'confident' about 'tackling the daunting prospect of portraying Prince Philip' (pictured left in 1990) who passed away in April aged 99

Scenes: He was seen sitting besides another actor inside the vehicle, which was secured onto a trailer as crew captured the scenes in front

Character: Jonathan sported a serious expression as he stared straight ahead as he shot scenes with his hands fixed on the steering wheel of the Range Rover - of which Philip frequently drove various models of throughout his life

Production: The vehicle was attached to a trailer and towed as film crew filmed the scenes

Delighted: In a statement shared on social media by Netflix, Jonathan said: 'I am delighted to be working with Netflix again'

In previous instalments of The Crown Prince Philip has been played by actors Matt Smith, in the first two seasons, and Tobias Menzies, in series three and four.

The new series - which will air in 2022, will see a new guard of actors, with Imelda Staunton, 65, replacing Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II.

Elizabeth Debicki, takes over the role of Princess Diana from Emma Corrin and while Dominic West, will take the role of Prince Charles from Josh O'Connor.

Meanwhile, Lesley Manville, 64, is set to star as Princess Margaret, who was played by Helena Bonham Carter previously. Prince Andrew will be played by Cutting It star James Murray, 46.

At work: Film crew were seen surrounding the car during the countryside scenes as Jonathan took on the role of the Duke of Edinburgh, who passed away in April aged 99

Tense: The two actors appeared to film tense scenes in the beautiful English countryside

Pensive: The iconic Welsh screen star pulled an array of pensive expressions

'Confident': Last year, Jonathan said he was 'confident' about 'tackling the daunting prospect of portraying Prince Philip' in seasons five and six of The Crown

Country roads: Jonathan was deep in thought as the Duke while driving through country roads

Past: Tobias Menzies played the late Royal in series three and four, with Matt Smith in the role in the first two seasons

Filming on series five will reportedly involve following strict Covid rules.

The final two series of The Crown will cover the Royal Family's history throughout the 1990s and into 2003, however it is not yet know which moments will be seen.

There are several poignant moments which could be used, including the Queen making a speech on her 40th anniversary of her accession in 1992, in which she called the year an 'annus horriblis'.

She was referring to the breakdown of three of her children's marriages; Prince Andrew, Princess Anne's and Prince Charles' divorce from Princess Diana.

Other notable events during the time period included a fire at Windsor Castle, her golden wedding anniversary in 1997, and the deaths of Princess Margaret, the Queen Mother and the Princess of Wales.

As casting is announced in dribs and drabs, we take a look at who has been unveiled thus far...

PRINCESS DIANA - PLAYED BY ELIZABETH DEBICKI (REPLACING EMMA CORRIN)

Out with the old... As casting is announced in dribs and drabs, we take a look at who has been unveiled thus far

It was announced that Elizabeth, 30, had been cast as Princess Diana last August, and fans of the Netflix show were delighted to hear that the Australian actress would be taking on the role - replacing Emma Corrin.

Past: Emma Corrin played the People's Princess in the show's fourth series

From her big break in 2013's The Great Gatsby to becoming a household name thanks to 2016 TV series The Night Manager, the star steadily climbed up the ranks of showbusiness to secure the career-making role.

A former ballerina in training, Elizabeth switched to theatre during high school. She studied at University of Melbourne's Victorian College of the Arts, where she was also awarded the Richard Pratt Bursary for outstanding acting students.

She shot to stardom after making her debut in The Great Gatsby in 2013, after impressing the film's director, Baz Luhrmann, with her brief appearance in the 2011 Australian movie A Few Best Men.

Since then, she has appeared in several movies including The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Tenet and The Cloverfield Paradox.

Elizabeth has also done voiceovers for Peter Rabbit and appeared in television series The Kettering Incident and The Night Manager alongside Tom Hiddleston.

The actress said of her casting last year: 'Princess Diana's spirit, her words and her actions live in the hearts of so many. It is my privilege and honour to be joining this masterful series, which has had me absolutely hooked from episode one.'

Screen star: From her big break in 2013's The Great Gatsby to becoming a household name thanks to 2016 TV series The Night Manager, Elizabeth steadily climbed up the ranks of showbusiness to secure the career-making role

PRINCESS ANNE - PLAYED BY CLAUDIA HARRISON (REPLACING ERIN DOHERTY)

Who's who? The actress playing Princess Anne in The Crown's fifth season has been revealed as The IT Crowd and Humans star Claudia

RADA-trained performer Claudia was spotted in character on-set at Scotland's Covesea Lighthouse on Tuesday, where she was shooting opposite Imelda Staunton, who is taking on the role of Queen Elizabeth II in the Netflix show.

Claudia, 45, boasts a number of TV gigs on her CV as well as a high-profile co-star following her turn in 2005 thriller Archangel, where she starred opposite Daniel Craig in the show about a mystery concerning dictator Josef Stalin.

Throwback: The role of Princess Anne was previously played by Erin Doherty in The Crown's third and fouth series

She is a farmers wife and a mother-of-three and is said to have been shocked and delighted when she was chosen to play Anne when the Royal was aged in her 40s.

As well as Imelda, Claudia was also shooting alongside Theo Fraser Steele, who is thought to be playing Anne's second husband Timothy Laurence.

After she was seen on set of Tuesday, tongues began wagging over the identity of who was playing the royal and also over her remarkable likeness to Princess Anne.

One Twitter account entitled Royal Watcher, shared a message reading: 'Ok I think the actress playing Princess Anne is called Claudia Harrison? #TheCrown', alongside a trio of images of Claudia in different roles as well as an image from on-set.

The role of Princess Anne was previously played by Erin Doherty in 2019's third and last year's fourth series of The Crown.

TIMOTHY LAURENCE - PLAYED BY THEO FRASER STEELE

Royal role: The Crown's fifth season will feature The Thick Of It star and London deli owner Theo Fraser Steele playing Princess Anne's husband Timothy Laurence (pictured on-set on Tuesday)

Busy: Theo's acting career spans back to 1996, when he starred in Casualty while he also played Christian Holhurst in political satire The Thick Of It in 2005. As well as acting, he is a successful deli owner and runs a shop with his wife in Hackney

The Thick Of It star and London deli owner Theo Fraser Steele plays Princess Anne's husband Timothy Laurence.

He cut a dapper figure during filming to play the role of Anne's spouse, who she married in 1992 after splitting from Mark Phillips.

Theo's acting career spans back to 1996, when he starred in Casualty while he also played Christian Holhurst in political satire The Thick Of It in 2005. As well as acting, he is a successful deli owner and runs a shop with his wife in Hackney.

Theo comes from Essex and trained to be an actor in London before working with Bill Nighy and Stella Gonet in Richard Eyres production of David Hares Skylight at the National Theatre aged just 23.

He went on to have many stage roles both in the capital and across the country. In The Thick Of It he played an MPs son who was shoved up against a wall and subjected to a torrent of abuse by the foul-mouthed Malcolm Tucker.

Speaking in 2018 about moving from acting to food, when he told The West Morland Gazette: 'We didnt choose to do it - we sort of fell into it. It started with just me. We now own the business and have a staff of 12'.

PRINCE ANDREW - PLAYED BY JAMES MURRAY (REPLACING TOM BYRNE)

The Crown series 5: James Murray is set to take on the role of Prince Andrew following his TV appearances in Cutting It and Primeval (James pictured in 2018)

Working hard: The Mancunian actor (pictured with his wife Sarah Parish and their daughter Nell in 2019) is also currently filming Masters of Air - the Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks-produced Apple TV series

New guard: Tom Byrne played the Queen's second son in series four

James Murray, 46, will take on the role of Prince Andrew, replacing Tom Byrne, who played the Queen's second son in series four.

James' previous endeavours include his portrayal of Stephen Hart in ITV's Primeval and playing Liam Carney in BBC One's season four of Cutting It.

He acted as the lead DCI in completely improvised show Suspects.

The Mancunian actor, who is married to actress Sarah Parish, is also currently filming Masters of Air - the Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks-produced Apple TV series.

PRINCE CHARLES - PLAYED BY DOMINIC WEST (REPLACING JOSH O'CONNOR)

New role: Dominic West is set to play Prince Charles in the final two series of The Crown

New role: A TV insider said: 'Show bosses looked at several stars for the sought-after role, but he was by far their preferred actor. Now both parties are hammering out a deal' (Dominic is pictured in July 2021)

Dominic West is set to play Prince Charles in the final two series of The Crown.

Critically acclaimed: Dominic will replace Josh O'Connor who has played the role for two series

The actor, 51, is understood to be taking on the role of Prince Charles at the time of his affair from Diana, Princess of Wales, with his second wife Camilla Parker Bowles.

A TV insider told The Sun: 'Show bosses looked at several stars for the sought-after role, but he was by far their preferred actor. Now both parties are hammering out a deal.'

They revealed how the 'irony' of the casting will 'not be lost on anyone' following his recent scandal where he was pictured embracing actress co-star Lily James last year.

Dominic will replace Josh O'Connor who has played the role for two series.

PRINCE PHILIP - PLAYED BY JONATHAN PRYCE (REPLACING TOBIAS MENZIES)

New role: The Two Popes actor Jonathan Pryce, 73, has said he is 'confident' to take on the 'daunting' role of Prince Philip in The Crown's final two seasons

Out and about: The actor's role in The Crown comes after he was nominated for an Oscar for his role in Netflix's The Two Popes. However he lost out on the gong to Joaquin Phoenix (Jonathan is pictured with his wife Kate in 2011)

Jonathan Pryce has said he is 'confident' about 'tackling the daunting prospect of portraying Prince Philip' in seasons five and six of The Crown.

It was revealed in August that the actor, 74, will join the star-studded cast of the hit Netflix show and portray the royal through the 1990s and 2000s.

Past: Tobias Menzies played the late Royal in series three and four

Speaking after the announcement, Jonathan added that it will be 'a joy' to act alongside Imelda Staunton as the Queen and Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret.

In a statement shared on social media by Netflix, Jonathan said: 'I am delighted to be working with Netflix again.

'The positive experience I had making The Two Popes has given me the confidence to tackle the daunting prospect of portraying Prince Philip.

'To be doing so with Peter Morgan in the company of Imelda [Staunton] and Lesley [Manville] will be a joy.'

As well as praising the other on-screen talent lined up for the show, Jonathan added that he was excited to be working with screenwriter Peter Morgan.

The actor's role in The Crown comes after he was nominated for an Oscar for his role in Netflix's The Two Popes. However he lost out on the gong to Joaquin Phoenix.

In previous instalments of The Crown Prince Philip has been played by actors Matt Smith, in the first two seasons, and Tobias Menzies, in series three and four.

PRINCESS MARGARET - PLAYED BY LESLEY MANVILLE (REPLACING HELENA BONHAM CARTER)

Congrats! Lesley Manville has been cast as Princess Margaret (right in 1966) for the fifth and sixth seasons of The Crown

Exciting: Lesley is believed to have been producers first choice for the role, is set to play the Queen's younger sister during one of the 'darkest periods of her life' (pictured in February 2020)

Lesley Manville has been cast as Princess Margaret.

The actress, 64, will be taking the reins from current star Helena Bonham Carter for the fifth and final series of the Netflix hit.

Goodbye: The actress, 64, will be taking the reins from current star Helena Bonham Carter for the fifth and final series of the Netflix hit

Lesley is believed to have been producers first choice for the role, is set to play the Queen's younger sister during one of the 'darkest periods of her life'.

Confirming the news in a statement, she said: 'I could not be happier to be playing Princess Margaret. The baton is being passed on from two formidable actresses and I really don't want to let the side down.

'Furthermore, to play siblings with my dear friend Imelda Staunton will be nothing short of a complete joy.'

The role has been played by Helena for season three and upcoming season four, and was taken on by Vanessa Kirby in season one and two.

A source told The Sun: 'Lesley is hugely respected by the creators of The Crown and was their first choice to play Princess Margaret this time.

'They wanted a star who could tackle the difficult role of a royal entering one of the darkest periods of her life, when the Windsors faced endless scandals and she was dogged by ill health.

'That's why Lesley was one of the first actors they approached to join the new cast, and remains one of the few who has fully committed to The Crown.

QUEEN ELIZABETH II - PLAYED BY IMELDA STAUNTON (REPLACING OLIVIA COLMAN)

Her Royal Highness: The very first image of Imelda Staunton in character as Queen Elizabeth II was revealed last week

Casual: Speaking about joining the hit show, Imelda, 65, admitted she is 'frightened' to take on the Queen Elizabeth role in The Crown

Speaking about joining the hit show, Imelda, 65, admitted she is 'frightened' to take on the Queen Elizabeth role in The Crown.

The actress is following on from Claire Foy and Olivia Colman, but says she has an 'extra challenge' playing a recent version as it will be fresh in the audiences mind.

Before: Oscar-winner Olivia Colman has played the monarch for two series

Speaking to The Sun, Imelda said: 'When Claire was in the first series, to all of us that felt like history. Then following on from that with Olivia, again it seems like history.

'Now we start in 1991 playing someone much more recent. That's the extra challenge I have, people saying, "Oh, I don't think she's like that at all"'.

Many members of the series four cast have also joked that they won't be giving any advice to their successors. Oscar-winning actress Olivia said recently: 'I haven't spoken to Imelda and I wouldn't dare offer any advice about playing the Queen.

'Imelda is extraordinary and she's going to do it all much better than me. I can't wait to watch what she does.'

The Crown lovers took to Twitter to react to the news.

One wrote: 'Gonna miss this Queen [Olivia Colman] but I'm sure Imelda will do a brilliant job. My time with the crown is done, some of last seasons cast and this seasons were just not it for me. Good luck to everyone involved tho.'

One fan simply penned: 'perfection' with another calling the new line-up 'very strong'.
Gordon Ramsay stopped himself cursing live on This Morning on Monday.

Cooking up a storm in the studio kitchen, he set his pan alight, causing an unexpected flambee to ablaze suddenly in front of him.

'Oh s**t-ake!' he uttered, cleverly masking the daytime-unfriendly word with the name of a mushroom.

Flaming! Gordon Ramsay stopped himself cursing live on This Morning on Monday

He had also gushed over his daughter Tilly, who has been taking part on the current season of Strictly Come Dancing.

The notoriously hot-headed star couldn't stop the tears from flowing as he and wife Tana proudly watched their daughter, 19, perform an impressive Charleston on the dance contest on Saturday night.

Tilly and her dance partner Nikita Kuzmin, 23, who had set tongues wagging this week due to their sizzling on stage chemistry, danced to Yes Sir! Thats My Baby by Firehouse Five Plus Two.

And their routine went down very well with the audience as they were met by thunderous applause, with Gordon and Tana getting emotional even before the scores were in.

Fiery! Cooking up a storm in the studio kitchen, he set his pan alight, causing an unexpected flambee to ablaze suddenly in front of him

Careful...! 'Oh s**t-ake!' he uttered, cleverly masking the daytime-unfriendly word with the name of a mushroom

Spotting Gordon crying, host Tess Daly pointed out: 'Oh darling, everyone's on their feet, that was so much fun! Your dad Gordon shed a tear, he's so proud of you!'

When it came to the comments, the judges were full of praise, with even acid-tongued Craig Revel Horwood praising Tilly - mainly due to him being 'nervous' at Gordon sat right behind him.

He remarked: 'I really and truly loved that. The energy was fantastic, I think you're fantastic! Brilliant!'

Proud: He had also gushed over his daughter Tilly, who has been taking part on the current season of Strictly Come Dancing

Motsi Mabuse branded her a 'role model' before adding 'well done!', while Shirley Ballas described her as a 'powerhouse' and said that she was 'not expecting that.'

The head judge concluded: 'Congratulations to you, what a way to close our show!'

Following the dance, Tilly told Claudia Winkleman: 'It's been the best week and I never thought I would be able to have done that a couple of weeks ago.

'It was something that I didn't love but my favourite phrase is, "get comfortable with the uncomfortable".'

This comes as it was revealed Tilly has defied her father by growing close to her handsome Strictly partner Nikita.

Notoriously hot-headed! He couldn't stop the tears from flowing as he and wife Tana proudly watched their daughter, 19, perform an impressive Charleston on Strictly Come Dancing on Saturday night

Chef Gordon revealed he gave his youngest daughter one piece of advice when she signed up for the show, notorious for its stars forming romantic relationships.

In an interview with this week's You magazine in The Mail on Sunday, Gordon recalled: 'I said to her, 'Please don't date the effing dancer!''

Tilly responded equally sharply to her father, saying: 'Excuse me? Dad, I'm effing single, I'll date who I want.'

Last week, pictures were published of the CBBC presenter enjoying a cosy night with Ukrainian dancer Kuzmin who is starring in his first series of Strictly.

Wowed: Tilly and pro Nikita Kuzmin, who had set tongues wagging this week due to their sizzling on stage chemistry, took on the Charleston and danced to Yes Sir! Thats My Baby by Firehouse Five Plus Two

Tears: And their routine went down very well with the audience as they were met by thunderous applause, with Gordon and Tana getting emotional even before the scores were in

He was seen dashing into her flat in South-West London after a day training together in a nearby studio.

An onlooker said: 'They looked around for each other, then Tilly linked up with the dancer and they headed inside under cover of darkness.'

While Tilly is single, Nikita has a long-term girlfriend, fellow professional dancer Nicole Wirt, who is based in Germany.

Despite supporting the Strictly couple on her Instagram site before the pictures of her boyfriend and Tilly were printed last Sunday, Ms Wirt later fuelled more speculation that Nikita is growing closer to Nottingham University student Tilly.

She posted a picture of a lonely figure alongside the words 'Don't get fooled It be like that', followed by a 'shhh' emoji. The night before, she had praised the pair's waltz in the first live show.
She strutted her stuff on the runways of Paris Fashion Week just days ago.

But Gigi Hadid, 26, was back on home soil as she showed off her casual style while enjoying a stroll with her daughter Khai, 12 months, on Sunday.

The supermodel flashed her midriff in a cropped white top which she teamed with a comfortable pair of grey tracksuit bottoms, while she also wore a blue bucket hat.

Stepping out: Gigi Hadid, 26, was back on home soil as she showed off her casual style while enjoying a stroll with her daughter Khai, 12 months, on Sunday

Gigi adhered to strict mask mandates in public places in efforts to curb the spread of the deadly COVID-19 disease.

She was pushing her beloved little girl, who she shares with her former One Direction star on-off boyfriend Zayn Malik, 28.

Gigi could be seen walking alongside a female friend who wore a comfortable white cropped top with matching trousers.

Keeping it casual: The model flashed her midriff in a cropped white top which she teamed with a comfortable pair of grey tracksuit bottoms, while she had a blue bucket hat on her head

All eyes were on Gigi, who is the daughter of Mohamed and Yolanda Hadid, last week as she stormed the catwalk during Paris Fashion Week.

One of her appearances saw Gigi flashed her incredible abs in a cut-out blouse and low-rise skirt at the Coperni show on Thursday.

She flawlessly channeled Nineties vibes with a silver sequined maxi skirt and a towering pair of platform sandals.

Model behavior: Last week, Gigi flashed her incredible abs in a cut-out blouse and low-rise skirt for the Coperni show during Paris Fashion Week

Back at home last month, Gigi celebrated her daughter's first birthday with a party at her New York City abode.

'The most amazing WORD PARTY cake we could have ever asked for...' wrote the Vogue covergirl, who credited Cake Boss' Buddy Valastro for crafting the confectionary masterpiece.

Gigi delivered Khai during a home birth in Pennsylvania in mid-September 2020, with on-off boyfriend Zayn, Gigi's sister Bella, mother Yolanda, a mid-wife and the mid-wife's assistant in attendance.
She scooped up the Best Actress award for her appearance in the movie, at Venice Film Festival.

And on Monday, Penelope Cruz stepped out in a textured blazer and matching skirt for the screening of Madres Paralelas - otherwise known by its English title Parallel Mothers - in Madrid, Spain.

The actress, 47, vamped up the co-ord set with fishnet tights and skyscraper heels, while carrying her belongings in a classic Chanel handbag.

Chic: On Monday, Penelope Cruz, 47, stepped out in a textured blazer and matching skirt for the screening of her film Parallel Mothers in Madrid, Spain

Penelope oozed sophistication in her chic ensemble, which perfectly suited her slim frame.

She accessorised with diamond drop earrings, while styling her brunette tresses into a sleek, straight long bob.

Penelope stars as Janis in the highly-anticipated film Parallel Mothers, which sees two women meet in a hospital room where they are both about to give birth.

Sexy: The actress vamped up the co-ord set with fishnet tights and skyscraper heels

Sublime: She carried her belongings in a classic Chanel handbag and accessorised with diamond drop earrings

She recently won a Coppa Volpi award during Venice Film Festival for her appearance in the movie Madres, directed by Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar.

Accepting the award, the actress said: 'Thank you Pedro. This is 100 percent yours.

'Thanks for once again trusting me, for inspiring me every day with your search for truth, outside and inside.'

Plot: Penelope stars as Janis in the highly-anticipated film Parallel Mothers, which sees two women meet in a hospital room where they are both about to give birth

In good company: Penelope was seen with the film's director Pedro Almodovar (centre) and Milena Smit (left)

Penelope said: 'He can ask me to do something that can really scare me but I know he will be there waiting to sustain me'

She had previously described acclaimed director Almodovar as her 'safety net' in a press conference ahead of their red carpet appearance in Venice.

Penelope explained: 'He can ask me to do something that can really scare me but I know he will be there waiting to sustain me,' adding that she was grateful to the director for giving her 'so many different, challenging characters'.

The actress has appeared in seven of Almodovar's movies, including All About My Mother and Volver.
She's known as one of the most fashionable women in the world thanks to her 33-year tenure as editor in chief at U.S. Vogue.

And Anna Wintour, 71, showcased her signature style as she stepped out in Paris during the city's Fashion Week on Monday.

The magazine chief was seen wearing an elegant black, white and green coat with a floral pattern, which finished part way down her leg.

In style: Anna Wintour, 71, showcased her signature style as she stepped out wearing a floral-patterned coat and leather boots in Paris during the city's Fashion Week on Monday

She had on a black and green floral-print dress beneath and she wore a pair of brown leather high-heeled boots.

Anna could be seen with her signature bob haircut and she hid behind a pair of dark sunglasses as she stepped out into the sunshine.

Anna opted to wear a face covering in a bid to keep herself and other safe from coronavirus.

Stepping out: Anna could be seen with her signature bob haircut and she hid behind a pair of dark sunglasses as she stepped out into the sunshine

Anna's French outing came after she made a stylish return to the Met Gala in New York last month.

She put her most fashionable foot forward while stepping out with her pregnant daughter Bee for the glittering event.

The Met Gala returned for the first time in more than two years after being canceled and then postponed amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Safety first: Anna opted to wear a face covering in a bid to keep herself and other safe from coronavirus

Strict protocols were in place this year requiring all guests to be fully vaccinated and tested in order to attend.

However, the stars were able to go mask-free on the red carpet and show off their most glamorous looks.

Anna wore a colorful floor-length gown featuring a ruffled collar and cuffs, as well as several ruffled layers along the bottom.
Audrina Patridge and her ex-husband, Corey Bohan, finalized a custody agreement for their five-year-old daughter Kirra.

The Hills star filed for divorce from her ex in September 2017 citing irreconcilable differences, with the legal documents finalized in December 2018.

Corey reportedly received eight hours of supervised visitation per week under the guidance of a professional or someone Audrina has approved.

Moving on: Audrina Patridge and her ex-husband, Corey Bohan, finalized a custody agreement for their five-year-old daughter Kirra; seen in 2016

Under the court-ordered custody agreement, Audrina, 36, will share joint legal custody with her ex, but she'll receive a bulk of the physical custody.

A judge also ruled that the BMX rider must foot the bill for the visitation arrangements, according to TMZ.

In addition, Corey is not allowed to be listed as emergency contact for Kirra at her school or daycare facility, but he and Audrina will still have to work together on issues connected with the youngster's education, health and welfare.

Mom mode: Under the court-ordered custody agreement, Audrina, 36, will share joint legal custody with her ex, but she'll receive a bulk of the physical custody

Her little girl is no longer that little: Here the child is seen posing with her backpack on as she got ready to go back to school this year

Patridge and Bohan were married in Hawaii in 2016 nearly five months after the birth of their daughter, and separated nearly 10 months into their union.

She filed for divorce in September 2017 and also received a temporary restraining order and child abduction prevention order against Bohan, with Patridge ultimately receiving full custody of their daughter.

Audrina recently revealed she has been teaching Kirra positive words of affirmation and about the 'power to choose.'

In the past: Patridge and Bohan were married in Hawaii in 2016 nearly five months after the birth of their daughter, and separated nearly 10 months into their union; seen in 2012

Proud mama: Audrina recently revealed she has been teaching Kirra positive words of affirmation and about the 'power to choose'

Asked what her favorite affirmation or mantra is, she said: 'I have the power to choose!' The way you think determines how you feel, which determines how you act. I am teaching my daughter Kirra about the power to choose, and how when we wake up, we choose to be happy and positive.'

And Audrina always tries to take time off social media to be with her daughter and 'be more present.'

She noted three important tips to set her day: 'One. Read the Bible. I try to start and end my day with the word of God, even if it's for a minute. It sets a positive tone for your day and ends your day on a positive note.

'Two. I always workout, if even for just 20 minutes. It's so important to be consistent and get your body moving every day. Three. Do a fun activity with my daughter, and be present in that activity. I make it a point to not be on social media or on my phone and give her my full attention as much as possible.'

Audrina found fame as Lauren Conrad's roommate on The Hills and recently starred on the MTV reboot.
Robert De Niro stepped out with three of his children and his rumoured love interest Tiffany Chen in New York on Sunday.

The Hollywood legend, 78, cut a low-key figure as he was spotted out with Julian, 25, who he shares with Toukie Smith, 69, and Elliot, 23, and Helen, nine, his children with his ex Grace Hightower, with whom he is locked in a bitter divorce.

The father-of-six's appearance with Tiffany comes a month after the duo were seen packing on the PDA in Cote d'Azur, France on his birthday during a jaunt on his friend and business partner James Packer's $200million yacht.

Out and about: Robert De Niro stepped out with three of his children and his rumoured love interest Tiffany Chen in New York on Sunday

Robert has six children; Drena, 49, Raphael, 44, Julian, Aaron, 25, Julian and Helen, and on Sunday he was joined by half of his brood.

He shares Elliot and Helen with his estranged wife Grace while he has Julian and his twin brother Aaron with Toukie Smith, 69.

The family kept things pared-back during the trip as they stepped out, while Tiffany was in tow in a stylish denim dress with a protective mask.

The martial arts trainer was last seen with the Meet The Fockers star during their French jaunt last month, where they kissed, held hands and cosied up.

Low-key: Tiffany was a doting addition to the group as she stayed close to his daughter

Out and about: Robert has six children; Drena, 49, Raphael, 44, Julian, Aaron, 25, Julian and Helen, and on Sunday he was joined by half of his brood

MailOnline has contacted a representative for Robert for comment.

Robert's outing comes amid his torturous divorce battle with ex-wife Grace. The ex-spouses have been locked in a divorce battle since December 2018.

In April, a judge ruled that his ex-wife, 66, should receive $1 million annually and that the couple will split the proceeds after selling their $20 million home.

Chilled out: The family kept things pared-back during the trip as they stepped out

PDA: The martial arts trainer was last seen with the Meet The Fockers star during their French jaunt last month, where they kissed, held hands and cosied up

Robert and Grace were married in 1997, split in 1999, then got back together, renewed their vows in 2004 before he filed for divorce in 2018.

Initially the pair fought over custody of their nine-year-old child but now the arguments are over money and property.

Hightower's average monthly spend was $215,000 a month on credit cards and $160,000 in cash. De Niro's attorney, Caroline Krauss, claims the financial strain means the actor is running out of money.

Sighting: In June, Robert and Tiffany again stepped out in New York City

She said the coronavirus pandemic led to a drying up of work projects for the Hollywood star.

Months earlier, De Niro earned $5 million for acting in Martin Scorsese's hit gangster flick, The Irishman. He also received 'tens of millions of dollars' through a federal coronavirus relief program.

Hightower claims that De Niro is worth $500 million, but his attorney Caroline Krauss says that his estranged wife's extravagant lifestyle is making things worse.
Olivia Palermo showcased her impeccable sense of style as she stepped out to the Giambattista Valli show during Paris Fashion Week on Monday.

The socialite, 35, dazzled in a black sequined jacket with floral detail, which glistened in the daylight as she headed to the venue.

She showed off her slender pins in a floral mini-dress with a high ruffled neckline and held a black leather clutch in her hand.

In style: Olivia Palermo, 35, showcased her impeccable sense of style in a black sequined jacket with floral detail at the Giambattista Valli show during Paris Fashion Week on Monday

She wore a pair of brown and black moccasins with gold chains across the front.

The star hid behind a pair of cat eye sunglasses before making her way inside to watch the show.

Olivia rose to fame thanks to the MTV reality show The City which premiered in 2008.

Stepping out: The socialite showed off her slender pins in a floral mini-dress with a high ruffled neckline and held a black leather clutch in her hand

Fashion forward: The star hid behind a pair of cat eye sunglasses before making her way inside to watch the show

History: Olivia rose to fame thanks to the MTV reality show The City which premiered in 2008

Glamour: Olivia added to her look with a light pallet of makeup (pictured Ophelie Guillermand)

The former reality star is married to German model Johannes Huebl, 43, and the couple remained in the Big Apple throughout the pandemic.

The Dress for Success impact ambassador celebrated her 35th birthday earlier this year with her husband of six years.

Olivia originally met the German model through friends at a Manhattan film screening while she was still attending The New School back in 2008.

Career: Olivia appeared on The City for two years alongside Whitney Port

Limelight: She has also made appearances on shows including Project Runway and Britain's Next Top Model

Grateful: The Dress for Success impact ambassador celebrated her 35th birthday earlier this year with balloons from her husband of six years

'Thank you everyone near and far for all of the birthday wishes!' Olivia - who boasts 8.1M social media followers - wrote.

'This birthday may look a bit different but still feeling the love regardless.'

In December, she spoke to Page Six about trying to keep up her fashionable ensembles during the coronavirus crisis by employing 'a lot of cashmere and diamonds'.

'I have not let coronavirus stop me from getting dressed; I feel that it's important,' she said. 'I'm convinced it's going to be the roaring '20s with that extra sparkle when we get out [of quarantine].'
Her family's popular reality show is coming back to a new network after a brief hiatus following 20 seasons on air.

And Khloe Kardashian flashed her curvy figure as she slipped into a skin-tight bodysuit for shots shared to Instagram on Monday morning.

The 36-year-old Good American founder looked sensational wearing a Marine Serre ensemble paired with dark brown Louboutin heels as she took a break from filming her new Hulu show.

Khloe Kardashian flashed her curvy figure as she slipped into a skin-tight bodysuit for shots shared to Instagram on Monday morning

Khloe leaned over a balcony as she found space for an impromptu photo shoot between shopping with her mom, Kris Jenner.

Her dark brown one-piece was long-sleeved and had a high neck, which featured intricate drawings and a vibrant pattern.

She added inches to her statuesque frame with a pair of leather pumps and opted for sparkling diamond stud earrings.

Strike a pose: The 36-year-old Good American founder looked sensational wearing a Marine Serre ensemble paired with dark brown Louboutin heels as she took a break from filming her new Hulu show

'Whatever you do, be happy,' she boasted to her 187 million followers on Instagram

Khloe credited go-to stylist Dani Michelle for creating her look, and noted that Mary Phillips created her glam while Andre Fitzsimons tied her blonde hair into a tight bun.

'Whatever you do, be happy,' she boasted to her 187 million followers on Instagram.

Just last week, Khloe and her mom stepped out to film their new Hulu show, which has yet to receive a name or official release date.

'The new show is going to have the entire family be part of it, but Kim, Khloe, Kourtney and Kris are going to be on it the most,' a source told Us Weekly. 'Theres a strong focus on Kim's journey as a lawyer, which fans got a taste of in the last season ... Theyre making [the new show] somewhat political.'

The source added: 'Its an entirely different concept,' the source says. 'Its more chic. They recently started filming. Theyre going to try to keep filming on the down-low as much as possible to keep it a surprise for fans.'

The way they were: After 14 years, 20 seasons, and 268 episodes, the Kardashian-Jenner gang bid a bittersweet farewell to their following on the E! incarnation of their show; seen in 2011

Fans only said goodbye to her family on TV in June, when after 14 years, 20 seasons, and 268 episodes, the Kardashian-Jenner gang bid a bittersweet farewell to their following on the E! incarnation of their show.

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.

The Kardashians' Hulu show is expected to debut later this year.
Rachel Zegler showed off some skin while posing for photos before the premiere of a new Broadway musical titled Six.

The actress, 20, wore a black dress with spaghetti straps that showed off quite a bit of her neck and upper chest. Her dress was slit down the leg, revealing some of her long limbs as well.

Later this year she will star as Maria in Steven Spielberg's splashy new take on the classic film West Side Story.

Taking in a show: Rachel Zegler attended the premiere of the new musical Six on Broadway

The actress wore her hair down, and she had fiery red lipstick on. Her nails were painted a similar color.

Zegler's appearance at the premiere isn't surprising given how her career has taken off of late.

The New Jersey native will appear as Maria in West Side Story which is set for release in December. She won the role in a Twitter casting call over 30,000 other applicants.

That's our Maria: The actress, 20, will take on the role of Maria in West Side Story which is set to be released in December

Twitter audition: Zegler sent in a video on Twitter for the casting call, and she won the role over 30,000 other hopefuls

After getting the role of Maria, the starlet got offers to play roles in other big budget films as well.

For example, she will play a major role in Shazam: Fury of the Gods which is scheduled for a 2023 release. She will also play the iconic role of Snow White in the live-action adaptation of the 1937 Disney movie.

While her career is taking off, Zegler's personal life has been much quieter recently.

Zegler on the rise: Since winning the role of Maria, the actress' career has really taken off. She will also appear in Shazam: Fury of the Gods and in the live-action Snow White

Not much happening personally: The actress isn't currently dating anyone though some have accused her of trying to take Ansel Elgort away from his longtime girlfriend

She is not currently dating anyone though fans did accuse her of trying to steal Ansel Elgort away from his longtime girlfriend Violetta Komyshan in 2019.

The actress posted a tribute to her West Side Story co-star on Twitter that read, 'There really arent enough words to describe the pride i have in ansels growth and beauty and literal magic he possesses on screen and off. Falling in love with him was easy. Happy wrap mi amor; catch ya on the fire escape sometime soon.'

Fans called the star a 'homewrecker,' and all of the negative attention led to Zegler taking a break from social media.

At the time she wrote, 'The fact that i have to say something is absolutely absurd. But the DMs and the name-calling and throwing around the word homewrecker over me expressing genuine love i have for my coworker is heartbreaking and i dont want any part of it. So peace for now, i guess. Be nice.'
She confirmed last month she and husband Michael Fassbender had welcomed their first child together earlier this year.

And Alicia Vikander cut a casual figure as she and her husband arrived at a hotel in Paris with their baby on Monday.

The actress, 33, opted for a laid back look for the outing as she donned a black top and matching trousers while carrying the couple's child in her arms.

Parents: Alicia Vikander, 33, cradled her baby in her arms as she and husband Michael Fassbender, 44, arrived at a hotel in Paris on Monday

The Swedish film star wrapped up in a brown and black patterned jacket while she also sported a black face mask.

Styling her brunette locks into an updo, Alicia completed her look with a pair of black flats.

Michael, 44, also opted for a casual look as he donned a white jumper and a matching pair of tracksuit bottoms for the day.

The couple were spotted out and about with a baby during a recent trip to Ibiza and Alicia has now revealed she welcomed her first child earlier in 2021.

Laid back: Michael opted for a casual look as he donned a white jumper and a matching pair of tracksuit bottoms for the day

During a recent chat with People magazine about her role in latest film Blue Bayou, Alicia touched on becoming a mother as she explained: 'I now have a whole new understanding of life in general

'That's pretty beautiful and obviously will give a lot to any of my work in the future.'

The star added she feels 'more content and happy than I've ever been.'

When asked how life had changed since having a baby, she said: 'No, I think I'll wait with that one," she says. "I'm enjoying finding it out in the moment right now, more than anything.'

Parents: Alicia and Michael welcomed their first child together earlier this year (pictured in 2016)

The couple were also seen pushing a baby in a stroller during a day out in Paris in late August.

While speculation was previously fuelled earlier that month when they were seen holding a baby while in Ibiza, Spain.

The couple, who currently live together in Lisbon, Portugal, are known for being notoriously private and haven't previously spoken about whether they would have children together.

Michael and Alicia tied the knot in October 2017 - three years after they began dating, following meeting on set of The Light Between Oceans.
Heidi Klum canceled her yearly Halloween party for the second year in a row because of COVID-19.

The supermodel, 48, said she does not feel it is right to throw a party while the virus is still going around.

'With everything happening in the world right now, I feel like its still too early for me to feel okay having a party,' she said in an interview with TooFab. 'So I will not do that this year again.

No party this year: Heidi Klum, pictured at her yearly Halloween party in 2018, won't host a party this year because of COVID-19 concerns

'Like last year, I feel like it's insensitive of me to do that. I don't want anyone to get hurt because of we're having fun on my dime so I don't want to do that,' the Vogue model added.

Even though she is not throwing her regular bash, Klum said she is not skipping the holiday completely.

'I kind of want to sit out one more year but I definitely, I'm already working on something, because I'm also a creative person, and I live for that, that's why I get up every morning because I love it,' the America's Got Talent judge said.

Not the right time: The supermodel, 48, said it's not the right time to host a party because of 'everything happening in the world'; seen on America's Got Talent

Costume queen: The Parks and Recreation actress dresses up in elaborate costumes every year including here in 2017

The star added, 'I love doing it to myself. I love watching amazing artists doing crazy things, so I'm definitely doing something because I just have to, for my own, you know?'

The Germany native has gone all out on her Halloween costumes in the past. She has dressed up as the werewolf from Michael Jackson's Thriller music video, Princess Fiona from Shrek and Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Despite not throwing her party last year, the star still dressed up and spent time with her family. While they all used toilet paper to turn themselves into mummies, the fashionista took things a step further.

A team of makeup artists painted her body so that she could blend in with her wall for a short horror film that they made.

'I'll bake you a carrot cake': In 2015 the star dressed up as popular movie character Jessica Rabbit

Seeing sextuple: Klum dressed up as herself flanked by five models who were dressed up to look just like her

Old Heidi: Klum dressed up as an older version of herself in 2013

Klum has four children: Leni, 17, Henry, 16, Johan, 14, and Lou, 11. She shares Henry, Johan and Lou with her ex-husband Seal.

Leni's biological father, businessman Flavio Briatore, wasn't present for much of her life. Seal adopted Leni while he and Klum were still married.

The former Victoria's Secret Angel married her most recent husband, Tom Kaulitz in 2019. Kaulitz plays guitar in the band Tokio Hotel.

The pair met through a mutual friend who worked on Germany's Next Top Model which the star has hosted since 2006.
Erika Jayne's legal team appear to be open to the possibility of settling her ongoing legal case regarding the $25million the RHOBH star was paid by estranged husband Tom Girardi's legal firm.

Girardi, 82, has been accused of embezzling millions of settlement money that was meant for plane crash victims, and recently claimed that Jayne, 51, knew about the alleged situation - though she has claimed otherwise on the show.

Following his firm Girardi & Keese filing for bankruptcy - a payment of $25m that was paid to Jayne over the course of a decade has been called into question, as they struggle to pay back $100m worth of debt to creditors.

Attorney Ronald Richards - who has already urged Jayne to 'voluntarily' pay back the $25m she received from Girardi's law firm - has now claimed to UsWeekly that he has been 'actively talking' to Jayne's attorney about settling the lawsuit.

Ready to settle? Erika Jayne's attorneys 'actively talking' about negotiating a settlement in her $25 million lawsuit (star pictured above in West Hollywood, last month on Sept. 29)

'I gave her a week to just voluntarily return the money, but she never did,' Richards told the outlet on Oct. 1,' adding, 'I can't get into the settlement discussion, but we are trying to resolve the case with her attorney. This is the $25 million that [Girardi's] law firm paid on behalf of Erika to cover her expenses over a 12-year period.'

Jayne's attorney, Evan C. Borges, then confirmed to the outlet that he has been discussing the idea of a settlement, though he made it clear at this point her team are just 'listening.'

Borges said: 'Regarding settlement discussions, those are supposed to be confidential between counsel. It appears that my opposing counsel Mr. Richards has been discussing publicly what he calls settlement discussions.'

'Here's the truth: Mr. Richards has reached out and told me that he and the trustee want to settle. I have listened and will continue to listen. That's it.'

Firing back: Erika Jayne's attorney has said that she is not responsible for the $25million paid to her for expenses by estranged husband Tom Girardi (Pictured above on RHOBH)

But Borges stressed in his statement that Jayne is not legally responsible for the $25m.

'I can't say enough that based on the evidence and law, Erika does not have liability for any of the claims against her,' he said. 'All the claims against Erika amount to efforts to blame her for the actions of others, including Girardi Keese and Tom Girardi.'

In August, it was revealed that Jayne is being sued for the $25m by the trustee's attorney Ronald Richards, who is handling Girardi's firm's bankruptcy case.

The reality star was accused of 'knowingly allowing' the firm Giardi & Keese to pay for her lavish lifestyle and frivolous expenses over the course of a decade.

Accountable: The trustee wants the court to rule that the reality star should pay back the $25 Million she spent plus interest and the suit alleges that she 'feigned willful blindness' to the financial wrongdoing the whole time

Jayne was named in the original August court documents, that alleged she knew Girardi & Keese had been funding her lavish lifestyle, and therefore should repay the amount she allegedly spent, with interest added.

While the Real Housewife has continued to maintain that she was 'kept away from the books,' the trustee said that even if that were to be the case 'it would be a miscarriage of justice if [she] was allowed to simply walk completely free of owing over $25,000,000 to the Estate.'

The lawsuit alleged that she had spent $25m of the firm's money from 2008 to 2020  funds that were allegedly transferred into her personal company EJ Global LLC.

'The evidence is undeniable. The law firm paid out over $25,000,000 in expenses which were approved and generated by one person, Erika Girardi,' Richards suit claimed.

He said the lawsuit was filed 'to provide a come to Jesus moment,' for the reality/pop star who needs to 'come down the mountain from a place of privilege.'

Where did it go? Jayne allegedly spent $14,259,012.84 on her American Express card and $1,417,587.50 on unknown purchases - as well as $1,532,774.88 on an agency for dancers

'We are hopeful that Ms. Girardi comes down the mountain from a place of privilege and obscene wealth and returns some of these expenses so the former clients and creditors of this law firm can mitigate the horrific and unfair losses perpetrated by her husband and others,' Richards added.

The news comes just days after it was revealed that ex Girardi's firm owes more than $100M to creditors.

Girardi has since moved into a senior living facility - while Jayne has also scaled down and moved out of their mansion in Pasadena following their split and money troubles.

His firm Girardi Keese has now begun to auction off a handful of Jayne's personal memorabilia and collectibles including art and furniture to pay creditors amid the bankruptcy case.

In June, Erika was 'ordered' to turn over financial records from her accountant, lawyer and landlord as part of the embezzlement investigation and a bankruptcy trustee is documenting the couple's assets.

Claiming innocence: Erika has repeatedly claimed on this season of the hit Bravo show that she was 'kept away from the books' and said that their whole life existed on credit cards

Per Page Six, Jayne allegedly spent $14,259,012.84 on her American Express card and $1,417,587.50 on unknown purchases - as well as $1,532,774.88 on an agency for dancers and choreographers, the McDonald Selznick Associates Agency.

Among the unknown purchases, her company reportedly paid $102,596.77 to Kim Kardashian's former executive assistant Stephanie Shepherd.

Other bank statements show that $17,415 was paid to Opus Beauty - a management agency that represents make-up artists, stylists and costume designers - and $1,000 to influential makeup artist Mario Dedivanoic.

At this time nearly $1.3 million is still unaccounted for with regards to personal spending.

Assisted living: On August 23 Tom was pictured touring Belmont Village, an assisted living facility in Burbank, California

Downsizing: The cost of admission is said to be between $4,545 - $4,750 a month for a private suite and the facility features round the clock care

And despite claiming on the current season of RHOBH that she was 'kept away from the books'  even with regards to financial dealings of her own LLC  the suit read that she 'approved the charges.'

'Mrs. Girardi signed under penalty of perjury the return and personally approved the charges allocated to the breakdown,' the letter read in excerpt.

However, Janye's attorney fired back: 'No money whatsoever went to Erika' and maintained that she never had a role in managing her now bankrupt husband's company.

On one the most recent episodes of the show, Jayne claimed to her co-star Kyle Richards that she now has 'zero dollars' in the bank, as they both enjoyed champagne on a luxury holiday.
Henry Cavill was pictured on set for the first time while filming scenes for Enola Holmes 2 in Hull on Monday.

The actor, 38, looked dapper in a black wool coat while wearing his chocolate tresses in their natural curls in-between takes of the Netflix sequel.

Reprising his role as Sherlock Holmes, the Superman star will grace the small screen alongside the likes of Helena Bonham-Carter, 55, Sam Claflin, 35, and Millie Bobby Brown, 17, who plays the titular character.

In action: Henry Cavill was pictured on set for the first time while filming scenes for Enola Holmes 2 in Hull on Monday

He shot a serious expression while chatting to members of the movie's production crew, who appeared to be busy at work on the famous Land of Green Ginger street.

A newcomer to the franchise donned a charcoal tailcoat and wore his blonde tresses in a sleek side parting.

Meanwhile, the costume department had gone to town on one brunette actress who had been styled into a red-and-black 19th century dress featuring orange prints.

Suave: The actor, 38, looked dapper in a black wool coat while wearing his chocolate tresses in their natural curls in-between takes of the Netflix sequel

Busy bee: He shot a serious expression while chatting to members of the movie's production crew, who appeared to be busy at work on the famous Land of Green Ginger street

The long-sleeved number featured a black ruffled collar, which coordinated with the feather on her grey hat.

An imposing horse-drawn carriage featuring advertisements for Sunlight Soap and Jones & Jackson Sole Prop'rs rolled along the narrow street.

Confirming the scene was set in the capital, its frame featured signage for London hotspots Charing Cross, Tottenham Court Road, Baker Street, Edgware Road and Kilburn.

New faces: A newcomer to the franchise donned a charcoal tailcoat and wore his blonde tresses in a sleek side parting. Meanwhile, the costume department had gone to town on one brunette actress who had been styled into a red-and-black 19th century dress featuring orange prints

Convincing: An imposing horse-drawn carriage featuring advertisements for Sunlight Soap and Jones & Jackson Sole Prop'rs rolled along the narrow street

It's thought that Harry Bradbeer will be back to direct the second installment, with Jack Thorne also returning to pen the script.

Speaking about the sequel in a statement for Deadline, leading lady Millie said: 'I can't wait to collaborate again with my Enola Holmes family!

'Enola holds a special place in my heart  she's strong, fearless, intelligent and brave. I look forward to fans seeing how her journey continues!'

Team: The Superman star (left) will grace the small screen alongside the likes of Sam Claflin (right), 35, and Millie Bobby Brown, 17, who plays the titular character [pictured in-character]

In the movie, the youngest member of the Holmes family goes off in search of her missing mother, even as her more famous brothers try to thwart her investigation.

The film was originally planned for a theatrical release by Warner Bros., but it was picked up by Netflix in April amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Millie previously revealed that she 'found it really challenging being British' in the role after five years in the American Netflix series Stranger Things.

Millie, who grew up in Dorset, England, and settled in Florida with her family to pursue her acting career aged eight, said she 'had to learn how to speak again'.

Speaking to Radio Times, she said: 'For the last five years Ive been playing an American character in Stranger Things and I found it really challenging being British in this, even though I am a Brit.

'I had to learn how to speak again because Im so used to speaking in an American accent.'
She has starred in some of the most iconic romcoms in the 2000s including Legally Blonde, Sweet Home Alabama, and Just Like Heaven.

And Reese Witherspoon looked excited to return to the genre on her latest day on set.

The 45-year-old actress had a huge smile on her face as she filmed Netflix romcom Your Place Or Mine in Brooklyn, New York on Sunday.

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Beaming: Reese Witherspoon had a huge smile on her face as she filmed Netflix romcom Your Place Or Mine in Brooklyn, New York on Sunday

Reese dressed casually while in character as she sported a green jacket over a patterned blue blouse tucked into a denim mini skirt.

She teamed the look with a pair of strappy brown leather heels as she carried along an olive green backpack.

Her signature blonde hair was worn down as it flowed over her shoulders while letting her natural looks shine by wearing minimal make-up.

Strutting her stuff: The 45-year-old actress dressed casually while in character as she sported a green jacket over a patterned blue blouse tucked into a denim mini skirt

On-the-go: She teamed the look with a pair of strappy brown leather heels as she carried along an olive green backpack

Stunner: Her signature blonde hair was worn down as it flowed over her shoulders while letting her natural looks shine by wearing minimal make-up

Reese's character later had a costume change on set but it looked like much of the same in different colors.

She donned a denim jacket over a floral patterned top tucked into a pink mini skirt along with the same heels.

One big difference was that she swapped out the backpack for a rolling monogrammed Louis Vuitton luggage.

Mix and match: Reese's character later had a costume change on set but it looked like much of the same in different colors

On-the-go: One big difference was that she swapped out the backpack for a rolling monogrammed Louis Vuitton luggage

Uh oh: Another big change was that her sunny disposition had quickly changed as her huge smile turned into a bit of a worried face

Another big change was that her sunny disposition had quickly changed as her huge smile turned into a bit of a worried face.

To add insult to injury, there also seemed to be a big change in weather as her signature blonde locks blew violently in the wind.

At one point she even struggled to push along her luxury luggage as she got caught up in a door.

Not her day: At one point she even struggled to push along her luxury luggage as she got caught up in a door

Instagram: Over the weekend, she shared snaps from the set with writer-director Aline Brosh McKenna, adding, 'Heading back to my rom-com roots! Lets do this! @netflix #YourPlaceOrMine.

Aline and Reese: Writer-director Aline Brosh McKenna poses with Reese Witherspoon on the set of Your Place Or Mine in New York City

Over the weekend, she shared snaps of her on the set with writer-director Aline Brosh McKenna, adding, 'Heading back to my rom-com roots! Lets do this! @netflix #YourPlaceOrMine.'

This will be the 54-year-old French filmmaker's directorial debut.

Also starring in the film will be Ashton Kutcher who will be starring opposite Reese in addition to Grey's Anatomy alum Jesse Williams.

Lights, camera, action! The actress was spotted filming Your Place Or Mine in Brooklyn on Monday

Jean-ius! Witherspoon worked a pair of comfortable high-waist jeans and orange blouse

Great cast: Also starring in the film will be Ashton Kutcher who will be starring opposite Reese and Grey's Anatomy alum Jesse Williams

Not much is known about the film but it will be centered around two best friends who live on opposite coasts swap homes for a week and see their whole lives change.

Reese's character decides to pursue her lifelong dream while 43-year-old Kutcher's character keeps an eye on her son.

Back in May it was reported by Deadline that Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine had made a deal to co-produce with Jason Bateman and Michael Costigan's Aggregate Films.

A little rainy? At one point, the mom-of-three toted an umbrella to protect her blonde locks

Long day: The Hello Sunshine founder has also been busy promoting The Morning Show, which she stars with Jennifer Aniston
Bradley Walsh has revealed The Darling Buds of May remake The Larkins will barely be using the show's famous 'Perfik!' catchphrase.

The phrase was uttered by the original Pop Larkin (David Jason) on the original series but Bradley told how the reboot plans to go in a different direction.

Speaking to Radio Times, he said: 'He says it in the books, of course, but it became such an iconic catchphrase in the 90s that we decided not to go back there. We used the word once, maybe twice, in the whole series.'

Change: Bradley Walsh has revealed The Darling Buds of May remake The Larkins will barely be using the show's famous 'Perfik!' catchphrase

The series is being revived by television writer Simon Nye who decided not to re-watch the original show before penning the remake.

He said: 'In the 30 years since The Darling Buds of May was shown on TV, we've had several dozen Pride and Prejudices and enough Draculas to fill their own channel.

'But there can't be many writers who don't like adapting a modern(ish) classic, especially into a potentially returning series where there is room to breathe.'

Bradley recently appeared in a teaser clip for the The Darling Buds of May remake where he sported a waistcoat and sideburns and introduced the rest of his family.

Remake: The phrase was uttered by the original Pop Larkin (David Jason) on the original series but Bradley told how the reboot plans to go in a different direction

He said: 'Hello everyone, Pop Larkin here. Larkin by name, Larkin by nature, father, entrepreneur and bon viveur. Too fancy? Well, none the less, meet the rest of my family...

Joanna Scanlan who plays Pop's wife Ma Larkin then appears on the screen to say: 'I'm Ma Larkin, loving mother and provider, I couldn't be prouder of my family, and you'll often find me plucking a goose.

Wearing a ribbon in her hair and striped shirt, Sabrina - who plays their strong-willed daughter Mariette - then introduces herself, saying: 'I'm Mariette Larkin and I love my family.

'But I've got itchy feet, and just to be clear I don't just sit around and look pretty.'

He said: 'He says it in the books, of course, but it became such an iconic catchphrase in the 90s that we decided not to go back there' (The original cast are pictured in 1991)

The family's other children, twins Zinnia and Petunia, Montgomery, Victoria and Primrose all then feature in the new clip to give a glimpse of their characters.

The Darling Buds of May remake, titled The Larkins, was confirmed last December and ITV have now announced it will premiere Sunday October 10 at 8pm.

The series will tell the story of the working class Larkin family, first brought to life in H.E. Bates' 1950s novel, for a new generation of fans who missed out on the nineties classic, which gave Hollywood star Catherine Zeta Jones her acting breakthrough.

Bridgerton actress Sabrina Bartlett reprises the Oscar-winning Welsh actress's role of Mariette, Bradley's on-screen daughter Mariette, while The Thick of It's Joanna Scanlan will play the Larkin matriarch wife, Ma.

Revival: The series is being revived by television writer Simon Nye who decided not to re-watch the original show before penning the remake

Grantchester's Tok Stephen has been cast as Cedric 'Charley' Charlton, and Bradley's son Barney has also landed a role as a village policeman.

Speaking with MailOnline at a press event ahead of the series, Bradley expressed his excitement over his upcoming role.

He said: 'When I was asked I said yes immediately. I only watched one episode back in the day but I was still so excited.

'It was a long time coming with filming being pushed back. The whole show is based around family and after this year that is at the forefront of everyone's minds.

New role: Bradley has been seen shooting scenes in Faversham, Kent, this summer dressed in period-drama clothing and sporting fluffy sideburns, reminiscent of the kind-hearted wheeler-dealer played by David Jason in the Nineties

'I hope the viewers really take it to their hearts. I am a family man so it was a joy to film.'

The main focus is the love story between Mariette and village newcomer Charley who arrives in their village to investigate the family's tax affairs, but is quickly distracted by his feelings for Mariette.

The original series, which ran between 1991-1993, was shot predominantly in Pluckley, Kent, but the remake has so far been shot in London, Surrey, as well as Monday's scenes in Faversham.

The Larkins starts Sunday 10th October at 8pm on ITV and ITV Hub.
Justin Bieber is breaking into the cannabis industry by releasing his own range of pre-rolled marijuana joints.

It was announced Monday that the 27-year-old pop star has linked up with California-based company Palms, to release 'PEACHES Pre-rolls' named after his hit song Peaches.

The lyrics to song's chorus are: 'I got my peaches out in Georgia (Oh, yeah, s***) I get my weed from California (That's that s***).'

In a statement, Bieber said: 'I'm a fan of Palms and what they are doing by making cannabis approachable and helping to destigmatize it  especially for the many people who find it helpful for their mental health.'

Weeding his way: Justin Bieber has linked up with California-based company Palms, to release 'PEACHES Pre-rolls' named after his hit song Peaches (Pictured last month)

'I wanted to make sure that I was doing something with them that felt genuine, and PEACHES felt like a good place to start.'

Last February, Bieber got candid talking about his mental health and addiction struggles, in his docuseries Seasons.

'The first time I smoked weed was in my backyard here  got super-stoned,' he said. 'And then I realized I liked weed a lot. Thats when my desire to smoke weed started, and then I started smoking weed for a while.'

He continued: 'And then started getting really dependent on it, and that's when I realized that I had to stop. I dont think its bad. Its just that for me, it can be a dependency.'

For a good cause: A portion of proceeds from PEACHES Pre-Rolls will go to these philanthropic partner organizations, the company said

Outside of his marijuana use, Bieber said in the doc that he also experimented with MDMA and hallucinogenic mushrooms.

However, it now seems as though the pop star has more balanced approach to cannabis consumption, which is legal in California.

A statement says the collaboration between Bieber and the weed company is a 'celebration' of him being vocal about his mental health journey.

Flying high: Bieber (pictured on Saturday) says he wants destigmatize it, 'especially for the many people who find it helpful for their mental health.'

A portion of proceeds from PEACHES Pre-Rolls will go to these philanthropic partner organizations, the company says, and Palms will be using this collaboration as a vehicle to bring awareness to these important causes.

Palms and Justin Bieber will be supporting Veterans Walk and Talk, a community of veterans who advocate for the outdoors and cannabis utilization as a form of medicine.

They will also be supporting the Last Prisoner Project, a leading nonprofit dedicated to cannabis criminal justice reform that supports individuals and their families impacted by cannabis convictions.
A high-flying Hobart real estate agent who found love on dating show Bachelor in Paradise has lost his real estate licence after a tribunal ruled he was 'not an honest person'.

Conor Canning, 30, had been deregistered by the Property Agents Tribunal last year after stealing a client database from a former employer and then lying about it under oath, but sought to appeal the decision in June.

The tribunal's decision was upheld by the Hobart Magistrates Court on Wednesday, with Magistrate Chris Webster saying: '[Mr Canning] demonstrated by his actions that he is not an honest person.'

Deregistered: Conor Canning, (pictured), a high-flying Hobart real estate agent who found love on dating show Bachelor in Paradise, has lost his real estate licence after a tribunal ruled he was 'not an honest person'

'There are many opportunities for a dishonest person working in this industry to gain a financial advantage for themselves or their clients by making a false declaration or misrepresentation or to financially disadvantage others,' Mr Webster added, according to ABC Hobart.

'It is particularly important that a dishonest person is not employed in that industry.'

The magistrate concluded Mr Canning was 'not a fit and proper person to practise in the real estate industry' and ruled he could not be readmitted out of a 'need to protect the public'.

He has also been ordered to pay a fine of $30,000.

Mr Canning had in June fought to keep his $400,000-a-year job as a real estate agent by taking the tribunal's ruling to court.

The cancellation of his licence was put on hold while the decision was reviewed, allowing him to practise in the meantime, The Mercury reported.

Banned: Mr Canning, 30, had been deregistered by the Property Agents Tribunal last year after stealing a client database from a former employer and then lying about it under oath, but sought to appeal the decision in June

He was deregistered after admitting to stealing a client database worth about $800,000 a year plus other intellectual property from his former employer Ray White and taking it with him to his new workplace in 2017.

Mr Canning, the director of three real estate offices under the PRD franchise, from which he made $400,000 last year, later lied about the theft to an industry board.

He admitted in July 2020 to stealing the intellectual property, lying to the board and signing false statutory declarations, but tried to argue he deserved a second chance after the Property Agents Tribunal recommended he 'take no part in the industry for a substantial period of time'.

'I've got eight years' experience in the industry; they [his new agency PRD] understand people make mistakes,' he previously told Hobart Magistrates Court.

Upheld: The tribunal's decision was upheld by the Hobart Magistrates Court, with Magistrate Chris Webster saying: '[Mr Canning] demonstrated by his actions that he is not an honest person.' Mr Canning is pictured with his partner, Mary Viturino, on Bachelor in Paradise

Mr Canning applied to be on Bachelor in Paradise after the formal complaint about the intellectual property theft had been made, but said he didn't believe the producers would care about such a 'niche issue', the ABC reported in June.

'I don't believe the show has been embarrassed,' he added.

The court also heard at the time the decision by the tribunal stated Mr Canning had failed to 'recognise the seriousness of his actions'.

However, Tony Collidge, the director of PRD Hobart, said Mr Canning was responsible for 70 per cent of their income as head of the sales department and there could be significant job losses if he were to lose his licence.

Regret: After his day in court in early June, Mr Canning shared a photo to Instagram while cradling his baby daughter and said he was 'disappointed' in himself

After his day in court in early June, Mr Canning shared a photo to Instagram while cradling his baby daughter and said he was 'disappointed' in himself.

'Fair to say today was one of the worst days in memory. I'm sorry to anyone who is disappointed in me. Rest assured I'm disappointed in myself,' he wrote.

'Thank you so much to those that have reached out with messages of support it means more than you will ever know. I'll shed a few tears tonight but rest assured too many people depend on me to give up now.'

Mr Canning met his partner, Mary Viturino, on last year's season of Channel 10 dating show Bachelor in Paradise.

In March, they welcomed their first child together, a daughter named Summer.

Mr Canning is also a stepfather to Ms Viturino's daughter from a previous relationship, Chanel.
Coronation Street's Nicola Thorp announced she is dating Hollywood actor Nikesh Patel with a loved-up snap to mark her birthday on Thursday.

In a sweet Instagram post, the actress, 33, looked sensational as she donned a black dress while lovingly wrapping her arms around her beau, 36, who put on a suave display in a navy suit.

'A birthday surprise,' she captioned the shot which saw the London Has Fallen star flash a gleeful smile while leaning in for a warm embrace.

Happy: Coronation Street's Nicola Thorp announced she is dating actor Nikesh Patel with a loved-up snap to mark her birthday on Thursday

Nikesh called the brunette beauty his 'favourite human otter' and a 'megababe' in his own snap, which saw the pair beaming from-ear-to-ear while enjoying a trip to the beach.

MailOnline has contacted representatives for Nicola and Nikesh for comment.

British actor Nikesh has starred in several huge productions including Doctor Who, London Has Fallen alongside Gerarf Butler, as well as Mindy Kaling's remake of Four Weddings And A Funeral.

Nicola called it quits with her co-star boyfriend Charlie de Melo two years ago, following a relationship which lasted 10 months.

The Blackpool-born star, who plays Pat Phelan's daughter Nicola Rubinstein in the soap, was close friends with her ex for years before they became an item.

Adorable: Nikesh called the brunette beauty his 'favourite human otter' and a 'megababe' in his own snap, which saw the pair beaming from-ear-to-ear while enjoying a trip to the beach

Star: Nikesh starred as Aafrin Dalal in Indian Summer (pictured)

Happier times: The Blackpool-born star, who plays Pat Phelan's daughter Nicola Rubinstein in the soap, was close friends with her ex Charlie de Melo for years before they became an item for 10 months (pictured in 2019)

The couple's world wind romance took off after they began filming together and they took several trips together during their relationship.

Charlie, who plays Imran Habeeb, is believed to have split from Nicola just before Christmas after they found themselves growing apart.

An insider told the Sun: 'Sadly Nicola and Charlie decided to cool things after growing apart. They've decided to remain pals - although they aren't hanging out as much platonically as they they did before they were a couple.'

It is believed that Nicola's exit from the Cobbles affected their relationship, despite the fact she has since returned to the show.

Beauty: It is believed that Nicola's exit from the Cobbles affected their relationship, despite the fact she has since returned to the show

The source continued: 'As long as it doesn't get awkward at work they're happy, that's their main concern, they also won't be flaunting any new partners in front of each other, they plan to be very professional.'

Nicola returned to the show as her boyfriend Gary Windass came to visit his baby son in Bristol after he fell ill.

While the character was a regular on the show for less than a year, it proved to be a turbulent time as she discovered her long lost father Phelan was a murderer.

After plotting to expose her dad, he returned to enact his revenge by accidentally shooting her, just days after giving birth to her baby son.

This led to some of the soap's most violent post-watershed scenes, as he dragged a blood-soaked Nicola into The Bistro and held all of its inhabitants hostage.

But Phelan finally met his maker at the hands of Anna Windass, who violently stabbed him with a knife leading to his tragic death.

With her father's reign of terror finally at an end, Nicola decided that it was time for a fresh start, leaving for Bristol with her baby son.
When it comes to former Today show weatherman Steve Jacobs' love life, the forecast is hot and steamy.

Photos have surfaced of the the single father, 54, flirting up a storm with dating guru and columnist Jana Hocking, 36, at Bondi Beach.

The images, published by Woman's Day magazine on Tuesday, show the pair laughing and joking as they strolled down the beachside boulevard together, before sharing some drinks by the water.

Forecast is hot! Former Today weatherman Steve Jacobs, 54, (left) has been spotted flirting up a storm with dating guru and columnist Jana Hocking, 36, (right) at Bondi Beach

The duo were clearly in good spirits as they cosied up together beneath the sunset.

The sighting may come as a surprise to fans, given that both Steve and Jana were believed to be in different relationships up until recently.

Steve was thought to be dating mother-of-two Amanda King, whom he met at his daughter's primary school in 2019.

Cosy: The images, published by Woman's Day magazine on Tuesday, show the pair laughing and joking as they strolled down the beachside boulevard together, before sharing some drinks by the water

The couple were photographed kissing and getting cosy on many occasions, despite Steve telling Daily Mail Australia that their relationship was simply 'platonic'.

Meanwhile, Jana was thought to be dating her on-and-off boyfriend, millionaire publican Stu Laundy, as recently as in May, but the couple split soon after.

Intriguingly, just a week before their Bondi Beach flirt-fest, Steve had appeared on Jana's Kinda Sorta Dating podcast to discuss his experiences on the dating scene as a divorced father-o-two.

What happened? Jana was thought to be dating her on-and-off boyfriend, millionaire publican Stu Laundy, as recently as in May

Steve told Jana he'd expected women wouldn't be interested in him because he was a divorcee with children, but in fact the opposite was true.

'The one big thing I was worried about was when I became single with kids is that no woman would be interested,' Steve said.

'But I've got to say that it has not even been an issue with one person that I've seen,' he added.

Hmm: Intriguingly, just a week before their Bondi Beach flirt-fest, Steve had appeared on Jana's Kinda Sorta Dating podcast to discuss his experiences on the dating scene as a divorced father-o-two. Pictured: Steve with his daughters Isabella, ten, and Francesca, eight

Elsewhere in the podcast, Jana admitted that her ideal partner would be a 'divorced man with kids'.

When approached for comment about her Bondi outing with Steve, Jana told Daily Mail Australia: 'We had so much fun chatting on the podcast we decided to catch up in real life'.

Steve shares daughters Isabella, ten, and Francesca, eight, with his ex-wife Rosie Jacobs, from whom he split in 2018.

What a coincidence! Elsewhere in the podcast, Jana admitted that her ideal partner would be a 'divorced man with kids'

The former couple had relocated to Vanuatu with their daughters in mid-2017, in what friends say was a 'last-ditch attempt' to save their marriage.

However, things fell apart within a few months.

In 2019, Steve parted ways with Channel Nine after being replaced as the Today show's roving weather presenter by Tim Davies.

Chick magnet: Steve split from his ex-wife Rosie in late 2018. The former couple had relocated to Vanuatu with their daughters in mid-2017, in what friends say was a 'last-ditch attempt' to save their marriage, but things fell apart within a few months

He had been a fixture of the program on and off since 2005, but had spent much of 2019 as an in-studio weatherman.

While his exit came amid a staff reshuffle, Steve insisted it was his decision to leave.

Taking to Instagram after the news broke, he claimed the real reason he was leaving was to spend more time with his daughters.

'Sadly I can't commit to future travel requirements of the job and have to put my beautiful daughters first... They are my world, my life, my joy,' he wrote.
Shannen Doherty just scored a major legal victory against her insurance company, State Farm, after a jury sided with the actress in her ongoing lawsuit, on Monday.

The court awarded $6,346,000 in damages to the 50-year-old star who had previously accused State Farm of not adequately removing harmful soot, char and ash particles in and around her home after it was damaged by a wildfire, according to her lead counsel.

Doherty, who is currently battling stage IV breast cancer, released a statement obtained by DailyMail.com thanking the jury for returning a verdict in her favor.

Victory: Shannen Doherty was awarded $6,346,000 by the courts in her lawsuit against insurance company State Farm after accusing them of not adequately fixing her home after a fire, DailyMail.com can report

'We thank the members of the jury for their thoughtful consideration of Shannens case,' she said via her lead attorney Devin McRae.

'We are happy they saw the case the way we do. This should send a message to State Farm and other institutions that they should not forget they are dealing with human beings,' McRae continued.

Shannen sued her insurance company for $1.4 million for not providing proper assistance when her house was damaged by the 2018 Woolsey Fire in Malibu.

In her suit, Doherty claimed the company 'took advantage' of her situation and refused to arrange enough coverage after her house and surrounding property in Malibu suffered severe smoke damage.

In court: Shannen previously accused State Farm of not adequately removing harmful soot, char and ash particles in and around her home after it was damaged by a 2018 wildfire

State Farm General hit back at her accusations, maintaining it did nothing wrong in denying her insurance claim, in part, because the policy Doherty has does not cover the damages she is seeking.

The company also accused the Beverly Hills, 90210 star of not taking the proper steps to mitigate the damages claimed, to the extent that the 'plaintiff's damages have been increased' by her failure to take timely action.

'We thank the members of the jury for their thoughtful consideration of Shannens case,' she said via her lead attorney Devin McRae. 'We are happy they saw the case the way we do. This should send a message to State Farm and other institutions that they should not forget they are dealing with human beings.'

According to Doherty, she alleged that State Farm only offered two weeks of coverage for a temporary housing while her property was being cleaned up.

In the documents, the Charmed star explained how her health condition, which includes chemotherapy and radiation treatments, forbid that she be exposed to smoke and smoke damaged property.

Shannen, whose cancer returned last year, was forced to go public with her illness after it became public in court papers that were part of the lawsuit.

The star said the blaze left harmful soot, char and ash particles on the property, which the company did not adequately remove and which could possibly exacerbate her illness. She also suffers from COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) which impacts breathing.

Things got vicious in the court proceedings when the insurance giant accused Doherty in legal documents of trying to 'garner sympathy' and suggested in that the star continued to smoke cigarettes after receiving her latest cancer diagnosis last February.

Battle: Shannen, whose cancer returned last year, was forced to go public with her illness after it became public in court papers that were part of the lawsuit

Shannen hit back at those claims, saying publicly that she stopped smoking cigarettes in 2015 after her first cancer diagnosis.

The verdict comes hours after the star offered an update on her illness to Good Morning America as 2021 Breast Cancer Awareness Month kicks off the first week in October.

Doherty, who is still working, says she's 'fighting to stay alive' and refuses to miss out on friends, family and work in the process.

'I never want to operate [like I'm dying],' she revealed. 'I just want to operate as I don't have things to check off because I'm going to keep fighting to stay alive.'

Shannen - who is best known for her roles in Beverly Hills 90210 and Charmed - is spending 'a lot of time with friends and family' and continuing her work as an actress.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Shannen Doherty offered an update on her battle with stage IV breast cancer during an appearance on Good Morning America on Monday

'A lot of people who get diagnosed with Stage IV, they sort of get written off. It's assumed that they cannot work or they can't work at their full capacity, and that is not true,' Doherty explained.

She added that she surprisingly finds acting 'more fulfilling'.

'That is something that I would really like for people to stop assuming and give us a chance to prove them wrong,' Shannen said.

The television star was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 then went into remission in 2017.

However in February last year, it was revealed that Shannen's cancer had returned and that she was battling stage IV breast cancer.

'A lot of people who get diagnosed with Stage IV, they sort of get written off. It's assumed that they cannot work or they can't work at their full capacity, and that is not true,' Doherty explained.

Doherty appeared on GMA back then to share the troubling news of her diagnosis and said it had come back aggressively early in 2019.

The actress explained at the time that she had initially kept the news private but wanted to tells fans before it became public in court papers that were part of an ongoing lawsuit against insurance company State Farm over damage to her home from a 2018 wildfire.

Since revealing her diagnosis, Shannen has said that she's been feeling good, telling Elle in March that she's 'got a lot of life left.'

'I feel like I'm a very, very healthy human being,' she said at the time. 'It's hard to wrap up your affairs when you feel like you're going to live another 10 or 15 years.'
They have been inseparable since confirming their romance in August last year.

And Nicky Whelan has now joined her boyfriend Frank Grillo in Rome as he films his new movie Lamborghini - The Legend.

The former Neighbours star visited her handsome beau on the Italian set of the movie over the weekend.

That's Amore! Nicky Whelan gave her boyfriend Frank Grillo a kiss as she visited him on set of his new movie Lamborghini - The Legend in Rome over the weekend

The couple shared a kiss as they posed for pictures in between takes.

Nicky, 40, was glowing, showing off her very toned figure in a sleeveless halterneck top teamed with baggy checked trousers and a pair of sneakers.

She flaunted her flawless line-free complexion in minimal makeup and wore her blonde locks up in a casual 'updo.

Meanwhile, Frank looked dashing in a black tuxedo while in character of Ferruccio Lamborghini.

Gorgeous: Nicky, 40, was glowing, showing off her very toned figure in a sleeveless halterneck top teamed with baggy checked trousers and a pair of sneakers.

The film follows 'the long life of the iconic entrepreneur, from the manufacturing of tractors at the start of his career, to creating military vehicles during World War II, and then on to designing and building the Lamborghini cars that ultimately defined his profound legacy'.

Frank replaced Antonio Banderas in the movie and his co-star Gabriel Byrne is set to play Enzo Ferrari.

Nicky confirmed her romance with Frank in August last year.

Getting to know you: The couple enjoyed a long chat with Frank's co-stars, : Andrea Lervolino and Lady Monika Bacardi

She left Neighbours in 2007 after one year on the show, and has gone on to star in a number of successful Hollywood films such as Hall Pass and The Wedding Ringer.

Meanwhile, her boyfriend Frank is busy with his acting career and has a number of projects coming up.

The actress was previously married to ex-NFL star Kerry Rhodes.

In October 2017, they announced their separation just six months after saying 'I do'.
Australian actor Guy Pearce and his partner, Dutch actress Carice van Houten, welcomed their son Monte in 2016.

And the Animal Kingdom star says fatherhood has made him more emotional.

In a new interview with The Independent, Guy admits that parenthood has changed his entire outlook on life.

Emotional rollercoaster: Guy Pearce says fatherhood has made him more emotional and 'he cries at the drop of a hat' after having his first child at the age of 53. The actor and his partner, Dutch actress Carice van Houten, welcomed their son Monte in 2016

He shared: 'After Monte was born, someone said to me, "You realise youre now living with your heart on the outside?" And it really is true, isnt it?

'When I started acting, I knew if I needed to cry that it could come out easily. Then after 15 years of therapy, I became a far calmer and more satisfied human being, but trying to cry in a scene became impossible.

'Since having my boy though, I cry at the drop of a hat again..."

Guy was a shy and anxious child - but he's always found acting to be an escape.

Speaking about his own childhood experience, he told The Independent: 'I played saxophone and piano, and I could see people from my school were in bands locally, whereas nobody went and became an actor other than in amateur theatre.'

Meanwhile, Guy recently claimed that the evolution of technology is 'fascinating and disturbing at the same time'.

The Hollywood star - who plays an ex-policeman trying to track down a kidnapped daughter of a man who makes AI machines in 'Zone 414' - confessed to having mixed feelings about technological developments and how they're applied in real-life situations.

Family man: Earlier this year, Guy admitted that being a father in his 50s has its challenges. He candidly told Who magazine : 'Having a young child at the ripe old age of 53 is a lot'

He said: 'The whole evolution of technology and where we're heading and this rapid desire for very smart people out there who invent technology to create versions of ourselves is really kind of fascinating and disturbing at the same time.

'And the idea that will those robots, will those androids, become more human or more human than us, or will they become human at all? You know, that's fascinating as well.'

Earlier this year, Guy admitted that being a father in his 50s has its challenges.

He candidly told Who magazine: 'Having a young child at the ripe old age of 53 is a lot.'

'But I am focused on spending all the time I can with him and being the best dad I can be,' the Melbourne-raised star added.

Guy, who first rose to fame on Neighbours, added that he hopes to bring his boy Down Under in the future.

'He's seen some Australian animals in the zoo in Amsterdam, but it will be great to show him our wildlife back in Australia,' Guy said.

Shock split: Guy and Carice started dating a few months after his split from Guy's ex-wife Kate Mestitz (pictured) in 2015. Back in 2018, Guy revealed Andrew Denton's Interview that it was Kate who decided to end their 18-year marriage when the couple split

Guy and Carice started dating a few months after his split from Guy's ex-wife Kate Mestitz in 2015.

Back in 2018, Guy revealed Andrew Denton's Interview that it was Kate who decided to end their 18-year marriage when the couple split.

He said he was heartbroken when fans labelled him a 'b*****d' for assuming he left his wife for Carice, when in fact they started dating months after his split.

The Priscilla, Queen of the Desert star admitted he was blindsided when Kate abruptly called it quits, but said he still loves and respects his ex-wife.
Dale Moss broke his silence amid his recent split from Clare Crawley.

The 33-year-old reality star attempted to clear up any confusion as to why the couple broke up in a statement released to PEOPLE on Monday.

Not only did he claim that the former Bachelorette star 'blocked' his phone number after he left her side while she was caring for her ailing mother, but she also made communication 'impossible' and only heard from Clare through her own social media post.

Tough spot: Dale Moss attempted to clear up any confusion as to why the couple broke up in a statement released to PEOPLE on Monday; seen in September

'Dale and Clare broke up in mid September when Clare was in New York City spending time with him,' the statement began. 'Clare then chose to fly home to Sacramento and asked Dale to send her things. A couple of weeks later, Clare's mother's condition worsened, and Dale chose to immediately fly out to Sacramento to be with her.'

Crawley, who first starred on the ABC franchise during Juan Pablo's season of The Bachelor, flew home to take care of her mom, Lilia, who suffers from dementia and has Alzheimer's, a progressive neurological disorder.

'Dale flew to Sacramento last Tuesday morning to be with Clare, her mother and their family,' the statement continued. 'On Wednesday, Dale flew to Los Angeles for a work obligation and had every intention to travel back to Sacramento to be with her but his number was blocked, which made it impossible to communicate with Clare.

Yikes! Not only did he claim that the former Bachelorette star 'blocked' his phone number after he left her side while she was caring for her ailing mother, but she also made communication 'impossible' and only heard from Clare through her own social media post

'It is unfortunate that the next time Dale heard anything from Clare it was on social media.'

'Dale has chosen not to speak publicly regarding all these reports because he wants to give Clare and her family the respect they need during this difficult time. Dale knows what it is like to watch a mother's health deteriorate over time, and how devastating that is.

'He hopes that people will understand the current situation enough to respect everyone's privacy during this time. He wishes Clare nothing but the best, and he is keeping her and her family in his thoughts and prayers.'

'On Wednesday, Dale flew to Los Angeles for a work obligation and had every intention to travel back to Sacramento to be with her but his number was blocked, which made it impossible to communicate with Clare,' the statement read; seen in June

Clare broke her silence about the split last week, and shared a little of her current situation helping her mother while she is also recovering from breast explant surgery.

Moss proposed to his former flame halfway through their season of the Bachelorette in the summer of 2020. Crawley said yes, but the two quickly ran into relationship issues and broke up in January.

The couple got back together by February and he later boasted about being 'in a good place' with Crawley before breaking up one more time.

'Dale and Clare have split again,' an insider told Page Six last week. 'This time it's for good. It didn't end well.'
One of Australia's most successful internet celebrities has purchased a Gold Coast mansion described as a 'wacky eight-sided abode' due to its octagonal design.

YouTube prankster and OnlyFans millionaire Jackson O'Doherty paid $2.9million for the luxury seven-bedroom, seven-bathroom home.

According to Real Estate, it's the biggest sum ever paid for a home in the northern Gold Coast suburb.

Big spender: YouTube prankster and OnlyFans millionaire Jackson O'Doherty paid $2.9million for a luxury Gold Coast mansion

The property underwent a $1million makeover last year, before hitting the market in July.

The biggest change during the renovations was removing an indoor swimming pool that served as a 'tropical centrepiece' for the home.

It was replaced with a sprawling living and dining area which is perfect for entertaining guests.

Despite removing the indoor pool, there's still a 47m tiled swimming pool outside which wraps around an outdoor entertaining pavilion with a granite bar.

Renovate: The property underwent a $1million makeover last year, which included turning an indoor pool into a sprawling living and dining space

Amazing: Despite removing the indoor pool, there's still a 47m tiled swimming pool outside which wraps around an outdoor entertaining pavilion with a granite bar

Good times: There's a fire pit outside which is perfect for entertaining guests

'Its a landmark property,' marketing agent Evan Molloy of Hope Island Realty told Real Estate.

'People know it, and they have been watching the renovation, so when it was completed it was almost like it was a tourist attraction.'

Jackson is one of Australia's leading influencers, boasting 2.7million subscribers on YouTube and 2.2million Instagram followers.

Fame: Jackson is one of Australia's leading influencers, boasting 2.7million subscribers on YouTube and 2.2million Instagram followers

He and his model girlfriend Maddy Belle have also raked in a fortune doing porn on OnlyFans together, which has netted them millions of dollars in under a year.

Although he originally planned to use the account to share edgy prank videos, he quickly turned to XXX content after discovering how lucrative it was.

'We started and got 50,000 subscribers straight away paying $10 a month, and I was like, "We're doing porn now!",' he told the Impaulsive podcast.
They have been going strong as a couple for just over a year.

And Daisy Lowe looked loved-up with boyfriend Jordan Saul as they attended an event hosted by wine preserver Coravin in London on Monday.

The model, 32, slipped into a denim boilersuit which hugged her curves as she embraced her dashing beau.

Wow: Daisy Lowe looked loved-up with boyfriend Jordan Saul as they attended the Coravin Club event in London on Monday

Daisy teased a glimpse of her cleavage in the ensemble, which she paired with black trainers.

Her raven tresses were styled sleek and straight and she sported a radiant palette of make-up.

Jordan wore a khaki green shirt over a black tee, paired with jeans and boots.

Daisy was spotted for the first time with her estate agent man in June 2020 - despite being under a government-ordered lockdown for 10 weeks.

Cool: The model, 32, slipped into a denim boilersuit which hugged her curves as she embraced her dashing beau

Yay: The couple cracked identical smiles as they sat around the table with Felix Radford, Georgia Lewis Anderson, Ed Butler and Oscar Tuttiett

It's been a busy summer for the couple as they made an appearance at Bvlgari's summer party in London as well as the Dazn x Matchroom VIP launch recently.

Daisy took to Instagram in June to mark their first anniversary and reveal to her followers how she met her beau with a sweet post where she called Jordan her 'hero'.

She captioned the upload: 'A year ago today I went to meet @misstilda for a walk on the Heath. But I was running a little late- Mercury was in retrograde [crying laughing emoji].

'When I arrived, Monty ran straight towards a very handsome Belgium shepherd, attached to this handsome dog was a rather handsome man.

'I dawdled around having some dog chat we ended up walking together for a couple of hours, what a dog walk!'

She continued: 'Here we are a year later, through countless lockdowns, adventures, disasters and triumphs. You @jordanjaysaul have been my hero.

'Through and through. Thanks for feeling like home & always making me giggle even when I really dont want to! Its my absolute favourite making you laugh so much your legs give way.

'I am very happy I was 5 mins late to meet Tilds that day & I am so very grateful you are mine. Happy anniversary my pain in the ass. I love you .' [sic]
Howard University and Netflix are honoring late alumnus Chadwick Boseman with a $5.4 million scholarship benefiting incoming students of the historically Black university.

The Chadwick A. Boseman Memorial Scholarship will provide a four-year scholarship covering the entire cost of tuition to students attending the College Of Fine Arts, according to a press release.

The scholarship will first be distributed to a student from each class in the Fall of 2021, before being granted to incoming freshmen every year.

In memory: Howard University and Netflix are honoring the late Chadwick Boseman with a $5.4 million scholarship benefiting incoming students of the historically Black university

'It is with immense pleasure and deep gratitude that we announce the creation of an endowed scholarship in honor of alumnus Chadwick Boseman, whose life and contributions to the arts continue to inspire,' the president of Howard University, Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick, said in a release.

'This scholarship embodies Chadwick's love for Howard, his passion for storytelling, and his willingness to support future generations of Howard students. I am thankful for the continuous support and partnership of Chadwick's wife, Mrs. Simone Ledward-Boseman, and to Netflix for this important gift.'

The scholarship was created with the support of Chadwick's wife, Simone Ledward-Boseman, in addition to a sponsorship from their very first donor, Netflix.

'Many exemplary artists are not afforded the opportunity to pursue higher learning. We hope to support as many students as possible by removing the financial barrioer to education. This endowment represents Chad's devotion to the craft, his compassion for others and his desire to support future storytellers,' Simone said.

Tragic: Boseman was just 43-years-old when he passed following a private battle with colon cancer; pictured 2019

'My deepest thanks to Ted Sarandos, Scott Stuber and our family at Netflix for their generous investment into the education of all present and future Boseman Scholars, and to President Wayne Frederick, Dean Phylicia Rashad and Mr. David Bennett for their partnership and continued commitment to Chad's legacy at Howard.

'I'm overwhelmed with gratitude and amazed at the love and dedication shown by so many continuing to honor my husband's work. I know he'd be proud.'

The news comes several months after the university had announced plans to re-name their newly re-established College Of Fine Arts after the actor.

Giving back: Boseman, a 2000 graduate of Howard University, returned in 2018 to deliver the graduation speech

Heartfelt: In his inspiring speech, the Black Panther actor attributed parts of his success to the university saying 'anything can happen here', while offering personal examples of hardships throughout his career

Boseman received a Bachelor in Fine Arts in directing from the Washington DC university in 2000, and in 2018 returned to give a graduation speech.

In his inspiring speech, Boseman attributed parts of his success to the university saying 'anything can happen here', while offering personal examples of hardships throughout his career.

'Many of you will leave Howard and enter systems and institutions that have a history of discrimination and marginalization,' he said. 'You can use your education to improve the world that you are entering.'

Boseman was just 43-years-old when he died in 2020 following a private, four-year battle with colon cancer.
Dave Chappelle gets narrated (and annoyed) by Morgan Freeman in the humorous trailer for Dave's new Netflix special The Closer.

The trailer, set to an instrumental version of The Pixies' Where Is My Mind Again, finds the 48-year-old comedian driving in his truck down a country road.

While he drives along peacefully, he's narrated by the one and only Morgan Freeman, which starts to get on Chappelle's nerves.

Narrator: Dave Chappelle gets narrated (and annoyed) by Morgan Freeman in the humorous trailer for Dave's new Netflix special The Closer

Peaceful: While he drives along peacefully, he's narrated by the one and only Morgan Freeman, which starts to get on Chappelle's nerves

The trailer shows Chappelle driving in his truck wearing black sunglasses, a maroon t-shirt and a gold chain, while Freeman, 84, starts narrating.

'This is Dave. He tells jokes for a living. Driving down these country roads is a lot like a meditation. He's deep in thought,' Freeman says.

'Back in the trance. Five specials in as many years, how do you close a body of work that profound?' Freeman asks.

Dave's truck: The trailer shows Chappelle driving in his truck wearing black sunglasses, a maroon t-shirt and a gold chain, while Freeman, 84, starts narrating

Jokes: 'This is Dave. He tells jokes for a living. Driving down these country roads is a lot like a meditation. He's deep in thought,' Freeman says

Freeman adds, 'I couldn't imagine the enormity of the pressure,' as Chappelle starts to get visibly irritated.

'And then, it looks as if he's about to say something. What could he possibly have left to say?' Freeman says, as Chappelle slams on the brakes of his truck.

'Will you shut the f**k up, Morgan Freeman?' Chappelle says loudly... when it's revealed that Freeman is sitting in the truck with him.

Enormity: Freeman adds, 'I couldn't imagine the enormity of the pressure,' as Chappelle starts to get visibly irritated

Brakes: 'And then, it looks as if he's about to say something. What could he possibly have left to say?' Freeman says, as Chappelle slams on the brakes of his truck

Shut up: 'Will you shut the f**k up, Morgan Freeman?' Chappelle says loudly... when it's revealed that Freeman is sitting in the truck with him

'Sorry. I was just... I was just... just...' as Dave calms down and says, 'It's all right' and starts driving again.

'Carry on, Dave,' Freeman says as the trailer comes to a close, with Netflix revealing that The Closer will debut on Tuesday, October 5.

As Freeman mentioned, Chappelle has released five specials for Netflix, four of which debuted in 2017 - The Age of Spin - Dave Chappelle Live at the Hollywood Palladium, Deep In the Heart of Texas - Dave Chappelle Live at Austin City Limits, Dave Chappelle: The Bird Revalation and Dave Chappelle: Equanimity.

Sorry: 'Sorry. I was just... I was just... just...' as Dave calms down and says, 'It's all right' and starts driving again

Carry on: 'Carry on, Dave,' Freeman says as the trailer comes to a close, with Netflix revealing that The Closer will debut on Tuesday, October 5

Specials: As Freeman mentioned, Chappelle has released five specials for Netflix, four of which debuted in 2017 - The Age of Spin - Dave Chappelle Live at the Hollywood Palladium, Deep In the Heart of Texas - Dave Chappelle Live at Austin City Limits, Dave Chappelle: The Bird Revalation and Dave Chappelle: Equanimity

His fifth special, Dave Chappelle: Sticks and Stones, debuted in 2019, though he has also put out some extra material as well.

He released Epilogue: The Punchline in 2019, his encore performance from the Sticks and Stones special, and Dave Chappelle: 8:46 in 2020, where he shared his thoughts on the George Floyd murder.

Chappelle also released an 18-minute stand-up set dubbed Unforgiven, where he spoke about HBO releasing his beloved comedy series Chappelle's Show without being paid for it.

Material: His fifth special, Dave Chappelle: Sticks and Stones, debuted in 2019, though he has also put out some extra material as well

Epilogue: He released Epilogue: The Punchline in 2019, his encore performance from the Sticks and Stones special, and Dave Chappelle: 8:46 in 2020, where he shared his thoughts on the George Floyd murder

He asked his fans to stop watching the show on HBO Max and they listened, which lead to HBO Max pulling the show, at Dave's request, at the end of the year in 2020.

The show ultimately returned to Netflix in February 2021 under a new deal Chappelle signed with the streaming service.

He is also producing a documentary about the socially-distanced shows he put on in Ohio during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fans: He asked his fans to stop watching the show on HBO Max and they listened, which lead to HBO Max pulling the show, at Dave's request, at the end of the year in 2020
Southern Charm's Craig Conover and Paige DeSorbo have 'officially' started dating, just weeks after denying they were together.

The reality stars' 'friendship turned into a relationship as they've spent more time together in recent weeks,' a source told Us Weekly.

Their blossoming romance may come to a surprise to some fans as the 28-year-old Summer House star said they were 'a thousand percent not dating' in April.

Blossoming romance: Craig Conover and Paige DeSorbo have 'officially' started dating, just weeks after denying they were together

'Craig and I have known each other for years. We've always gotten along. We've always been friends. We have, like, very similar personalities,' she said, two months after filming their crossover series, Winter House.

She continued: 'We are not romantically involved or anything, but we are very good friends.'

At the time, Conover clarified he was still dating Natalie Hegnauer, after fans began to speculate he was seeing DeSorbo's costar Ciara Miller.

New love: The reality stars' 'friendship turned into a relationship as they've spent more time together in recent weeks,' a source told Us Weekly

Friends to lovers: Their blossoming romance may come to a surprise to some fans as the 28-year-old Summer House star said they were 'a thousand percent not dating' in April, weeks after they filmed their Bravo crossover series, Winter House

'Well, there's a lot that happens in Winter House, but no, I'm still with my girlfriend, Natalie, here in Charleston,' he told Us Weekly.

Ultimately, Conover and Hegnauer called it quits in May.

Months later, DeSorbo and Conover sparked romance rumors while looking cozy at the PGA Tour's FedExCup Playoffs in Jersey City, New Jersey, in August.

Dating around: In August, however, DeSorbo and Conover sparked romance rumors while looking cozy at the PGA Tour's FedExCup Playoffs in Jersey City, New Jersey; seen in in 2019

The new couple have reportedly 'making it a priority to see one another amid their busy schedules.'

'[Craig has] been busy filming the upcoming season of Southern Charm so he hasn't been able to travel much to see [Paige] in New York so she's been visiting him,' the insider told Us Weekly.

In 2020, DeSorbo broke up with her boyfriend Perry Rahbar, whom she first began dating in 2019.
Dancehall star Popcaan has landed in Ghana and wasted no time to turn things up when he was spotted driving around in a yellow Lamborghini through the city streets over the weekend.

The Unruly Boss told fans back in August that he would be heading to the motherland to launch his next studio album. It appears the time is soon approaching as he has now departed Europe to take on the next phase of his upcoming project. He reportedly bought a house in the West African country last year in January, and it appears this is his first time back since.

Upon his arrival, however, it was all about having some fun. On Saturday night, the Family deejay took a scenic route, zipping through Accra city in a yellow Lamborghini with his SLG Squad that included members of the crew driving around in other hot whips such as a Rolls Royce, G-Wagon and Mercedes SL while being escorted by what appears to be heavy security detail. The night ended at the club where they all met for drinks and hung out.

Yesterday, the St. Thomas, Jamaica native took in the sites with his entourage and visited with locals in a nearby village. He shared footage on his Instagram Stories which showed women making African dishes in mortar and pestle; one even had a baby strapped onto her back during the process. The women were more than accommodating of the visit from the celebrity, especially that he was kind enough to assist them with cash as he made his way around.

As for trying some of the local street cuisine, Poppy wasnt as curious. When offered a paper-wrapped serving of chopped meat with red onions, topped with curry powder, the evidently disturbed deejay was heard saying, This is nothing special Sledge! A wah  this look like raw curry dem throw pon dah sinting yah. Mi nuh want none! Trouble in a it man! in complete revulsion.

Later on in the night, the crew was still car-bound in the western region of Tarkwah on what Poppy revealed was a 10-hour journey heading to Nigeria.

Yes, after 10 hour we still deh pon di journey  right now a Nigeria we a forward man and then Uganda next. Roll we a roll out now, right now we deh pon di Africa tour  he said.

Popcaan, whose real name is Andrae Sutherland is expected to launch what will be his fifth studio album. This will follow his previous works, Where We Come From (2014), Forever (2018), Vanquish (2019), and FIXTAPE (2020).
The Personal Data Protection Bill requires a copy of sensitive personal data to be stored in India, and further prohibits cross-border transfers of critical personal data. (DC File Image)

New Delhi: Data restriction policies would limit exports of digital services from India and could lead to a decline of 0.2 to 0.34 per cent in the country's GDP. For the 2025 target size of the economy, this would imply a gap of $9 billion to $17 billion, according to the UN's trade body.

India has a relatively large digital service industry, with strong links abroad. The Indian states with larger information technology sectors have higher standards of living and attract more foreign direct investment. Likewise, higher digital services exports are associated with more innovation in terms of patents filed and number of start-ups. Hence, India is an illustration of benefits arising from free data flows. However, data restrictions are adverse to development, leading to a sizable loss in digital service exports and GDP, said Unctad in its report on digital economy.

India is increasingly shifting towards a regulatory model primarily focused on maximising the economic and social benefits of data and data-driven sectors for its citizens and the domestic economy, and minimising revenue flows to companies based in digitally advanced economies. The underlying idea behind this approach is shielding India from "data colonialism" or preventing rich countries from deriving benefits from cross-border data flows at the cost of Indian interests.

The Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 and the Draft National E-Commerce Policy clearly outline Indias ambition to build its digital sector by capitalising on the data of its people through data localisation measures.

The Personal Data Protection Bill requires a copy of sensitive personal data to be stored in India, and further prohibits cross-border transfers of critical personal data. Sensitive personal data are defined as financial data, health data, official identifier, sex life, sexual orientation, biometric data, genetic data, transgender status, intersex status, caste or tribe, religious or political belief or affiliation, or any other data categorised as sensitive personal data by the government. Given the broad definition of sensitive personal data, the proposed legislation creates a greater compliance burden for companies. The government can consider any data as falling within the scope of "critical personal data", because this term is not defined.

The Draft National E-Commerce Policy envisages broad data localisation measures, although it does not include any explicit restrictions on cross-border flows of non-personal data. However, more recently, a report by the Committee of Experts on Non-Personal Data, established by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, has recommended data localisation requirements for some categories of non-personal data.

These regulations are intended to develop domestic digital start-ups or "data champions" and thereby push back against the "data colonialism" of big technology companies. Certain civil society bodies have expressed concerns that the Draft Data Protection Bill does not contain adequate checks and balances, especially because any governmental agency can be exempted from the law.

Due to the unusually large size of the market, coupled with the presence of tech start-ups and adequate number of engineers, data localisation is likely to decrease pressure from foreign competitors and improve market opportunities for local companies. However, such measures entail costs for consumers as domestic options were not as efficient or cost-effective as cloud services offered by Amazon and Google, besides reducing choices and decreasing quality of digital services.
Names of more than 300 wealthy Indians, including business people, figure in the 'Pandora Papers' that have uncovered financial assets of rich individuals across the world. (Representational Photo: AFP)

New Delhi: A Multi-Agency Group headed by the CBDT chairman will monitor investigations into the Pandora Papers case, an official statement said on Monday.

Names of more than 300 wealthy Indians, including business people, figure in the 'Pandora Papers' that have uncovered financial assets of rich individuals across the world, and many of the Indians have rejected allegations of misdoings.

The 'Pandora Papers', a leak of troves of financial records in offshore tax havens, has been obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

In a statement, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said the government has taken note of this and relevant investigative agencies would undertake investigation in these cases and appropriate action would be taken as per law.

"The Government has directed today that, investigations in cases of Pandora Papers leaks appearing in the media under the name 'PANDORA PAPERS' will be monitored through the Multi Agency Group, headed by the Chairman, CBDT, having representatives from CBDT, ED, RBI & FIU," said the CBDT, which is the apex decision making body on income tax matters.

To ensure effective investigation of these cases, the government will also proactively engage with foreign jurisdictions for obtaining information in respect of relevant taxpayers/entities.

"The Government of India is also part of an Inter-Governmental Group that ensures collaboration and experience sharing to effectively address tax risks associated with such leaks," the CBDT added.

It further said names of only a few Indians (legal entities as well as individuals) have appeared in the media so far.

Even the ICIJ website has not yet released the names and other particulars of all the entities. The website of ICIJ suggests that information will be released in phases and structured data connected to the Pandora Papers investigation will be released only in the days to come on its Offshore Leaks Database, it added.
New Delhi: Shakti Sinha, former bureaucrat and academician who was private secretary to late prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, passed away on Monday.

The cause of his death was not immediately known.

Political leaders and other dignitaries expressed shock and grief over Sinha' sudden demise and recalled his contribution as a strategic thinker and leader in public policy.

"How fragile the life is! Met Shakti Sinha ji only yesterday and had a long and enriching interaction. Now he's no more. Deeply distressing!," Ajay Singh, Press Secretary to President Ram Nath Kovind, tweeted.

BJP leader Ram Madhav said Sinha was a member of the Governing Board of India Foundation and was scheduled to address a conference at Leh this afternoon.

"A humble and unassuming yet erudite and intellectual being a great loss. Deepest condolences. Aum," he tweeted.

Sinha, an IAS officer of the 1979 batch, was also former Director of Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML).

"The Press Club of India is shocked at the untimely passing of Shakti Sinha, former bureaucrat and Director of Nehru Memorial Library and Museum at Teen Murti, academician and author. Mr Sinha was part of a PCI discussion just a few days ago. We mourn his untimely demise," the PCI tweeted.

Sinha worked closely with Vajpayee during 1996-1999 and had written a memoir titled 'Vajpayee: The Years That Changed India'.

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu expressed sadness at Sinha's demise.

"We lost a very eminent person. His wonderful work & gentle soul will forever remain in our heart. I pray Lord Buddha for strength to bereaved family. May the departed soul attain Moksha".
Kumaran held the Indian flag up in spite of the blows he received. Due to his supreme sacrifice, he earned the sobriquet Kodi Katha Kumaran for not letting the flag fall down. (Twitter Photo)

Chennai: As a tribute to young freedom fighter 'Kodi Katha' Kumaran on his birth anniversary, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Monday named an arterial road opposite to the Erode Collectorate after Kumaran.

Kumaran (October 4, 1904  January 11, 1932), popularly known as 'Tiruppur' Kumaran, succumbed to injuries from the blows rained on him during a protest against the British government on January 11, 1932 on the banks of Noyyal river in the district. He held the Indian flag up in spite of the blows he received. Due to his supreme sacrifice, he earned the sobriquet Kodi Katha Kumaran for not letting the flag fall down.

Coinciding with his birth anniversary today, the Chief Minister gave effect to a government order passed on October 3 by naming the Erode Sampath Nagar Main Road as "Thiyagi Kumaran Road, Sampath Nagar." At the virtual meeting, the Chief Minister unveiled a name-board to mark the occasion.

State Housing and Urban Development Minister S Muthusamy, Chief Secretary V Irai Anbu and Erode Collector H Krishnanunni were among those present.

Kumaran was born in Chennimalai, Erode district, to Nachimuthu-Karuppai couple. The Erode municipal council recently passed a resolution seeking the State government's permission, through the district collector, to rename the Sampath Nagar Road after 'Tiruppur' Kumaran. Thereafter, following a request from the Collector, the government issued an order (GO) on October 3.
Hampannas mortal remains were buried near Munro Choultry in Gooty. A monument was erected in memory of Gulapalyam Hampanna at Satram Mitta in Gooty town close to the Hyderabad-Bengaluru National Highway 44.  DC Image

ANANTAPUR: Gooty town in the district is all set to commemorate Gulapalyam Hampanna, a railway gatekeeper who sacrificed his life to save two women from a group of British soldiers while they were being sexually molested. Hampannas 128th death anniversary falls on Monday.

The Gooty Kota Parirakshana Samithi and Hampanna Park Development Committee are jointly organising the death anniversary programme.

Gulapalyam Hampanna hailed from the eponymous village in the Gooty area in the district was born in a very poor shepherd family. He earned his livelihood by doing odd jobs, but he got an opportunity to serve the railways as a gatekeeper. Though he was illiterate, he stood for values with a service motto in the village.

On 3rd October 1893, a British Army battalion was moving from Bellary to Secunderabad and halted at the Guntakal railway station. In the evening, a group of soldiers of the battalion who were in an inebriated condition went to nearby agriculture fields.

Two women agricultural labourers were working in the field. The drunken soldiers spotted the women and started to molest them in the fields. The women shouted for help. Hampanna heard the voice and ran to the scene.

The soldiers warned Hampanna to go away from the spot and threatened him with dire consequences. Though he knew that soldiers were armed, Hampanna resisted the soldiers. During the tussle, the soldiers shot dead Hampanna.

Hearing the noise of gunshots, the railway police rushed to the spot and noticed Hampanna was in a pool of blood in an unconscious state. They rushed Hampanna to a nearby hospital. He breathed his last on October 4, 1893, at the hospital.

Hampannas mortal remains were buried near Munro Choultry in Gooty. A monument was erected in memory of Gulapalyam Hampanna at Satram Mitta in Gooty town close to the Hyderabad-Bengaluru National Highway 44.

While several encroachers grabbed lands adjacent to the monument, Hampanna Park Development Committee took initiative to clear the encroachments in 2009. The committee under the leadership of M. Virupakshi Reddy, Dr M. Suresh Babu, B. Ismail and several others from Gooty are putting efforts to safeguard the culture and heritage of Gooty.
Hyderabad: On the sidelines of a conference marking her maiden visit to Hyderabad, Mrs Rony Yedidia-Clein, Deputy Chief of Mission of Israel in India, spoke to Deccan Chronicle about the ever-strengthening relationship between the two countries, how the diplomatic and bilateral engagement, which began thirty years ago, was widening in scope and diversity, and the extraordinary opportunities ahead for businesses and people-to-people contacts.

Mrs Yedidia-Clein, who started her diplomatic career in 1994, and previously served Istanbul, Moscow, New England and the United Kingdom, started her fifth major stint when she joined Mission Israel in India and took her posting in New Delhi in August last year.

With a passion for harnessing diplomacy and international relations to help combat climate change, Mrs Clein said, Combatting climate change is a big piece in the Israel-India relationship. There are several areas of it  reforestation, shifting to more eco-friendly and sustainable farming practices, conservation of water. Today, climate change is a global imperative and every nation has to work for it.

Wearing a bright yellow Indian saree, Mrs Clein, filled with energy despite a busy days packed schedule, which included a global investors conference, several visits including to the IIIT, and later on, to Golconda Fort, said, sadly we could not find time to visit the Charminar because of traffic.

Israel has so far established 30 centres of excellence on agriculture and water in different parts of India, and twelve more are in the offing, she said.

In Lior Assaf, we have the worlds first water expert diplomat, who is in India and travelling across the country to identify zone-specific solutions and offer customised solutions to different states, revealed the charge d'affaires at the Embassy of Israel.

Looking back three decades, she said, our bilateral relationships began 30 years ago on a low key. India was part of the Non-Aligned Movement then, and the world was just emerging out of a Cold War. Given a large part of the initial Indo-Israel relationship being centred around defence, we could not speak much about it. There was not much visibility. But over the last decade, it has changed and is very visible. The scope has widened, the variety has grown. Today, people across Israel know how much Indians love our country and people. There is a growing appetite for strengthening our bonds.

On trade, she revealed that while the $4 billion a year trade was just the beginning, it was important that it was balanced. We are a relationship of equals, imports and exports balance out. Hence, we are looking at increasing bilateral trade.

At her level, she hopes to interest more India-headquartered MNCs to look at setting up a house in Israel and scout for wide-ranging opportunities.

Academic innovation, technology and cultural exchange are all part of our current focus. I hope we can invite more Indian students to come and pursue educational programs in medicine, engineering and other streams in Israel, she said.

Responding to a question on the efficacy of diplomacy, she said, for almost every problem, diplomacy is the best and perhaps only way for nations to solve problems. Diplomacy is the art of bringing people together and getting them to talk to sort out issues  of any kind. Diplomacy has made the world a more peaceful, better world.

On the mandatory Indian food question, she adds with a laugh, I have started eating Indian food and it is very tasty. Problem is to resist eating too much.

India is on top of the must-visit tourism list of most citizens of Israel. Post Covid, several people of all ages and across the tourist spectrum  adventure, historical and heritage, health  will all come to India, she promises.

The next year, both countries will celebrate 30 years of relationship, marked with several high-level visits and lots of exchange programs, she added.
Film buff Praveen Tiwari pointed out that Tivoli Cinemas is also doing the same despite having four screens.  DC file photo

HYDERABAD: Citing lacunae in GO (government order) No. 121 pertaining to parking fee in standalone theatres, multiplex owners, in the name of single screens, have been looting movie goers. Film buffs are forced to pay Rs 20 for parking a two-wheeler and Rs 30 for a car before they can see a movie.

This started after the municipal administration and urban development (MA&UD) department issued orders allowing standalone theatres to collect parking fee from moviegoers.

Multiplex managements are obtaining multiple single-screen permissions on the same premises. They are then collecting extra charges from people. "As per government rules and regulations, only single screen theatres can charge for parking. But theatres like Shalini Shivani of Miraj Cinemas in Kothapet, a multiplex of four screens, are also collecting charges for parking," complained Ranjith Kumar, who went to watch a movie in this complex recently.

Echoing this concern, film buff Praveen Tiwari pointed out that Tivoli Cinemas is also doing the same despite having four screens. He said he had questioned the staff over illegally collecting parking fees. If you are parking a vehicle on our premises, you have to pay the fee, the staff told me, Tiwari complained.

A senior official told Deccan Chronicle that a few theatres, who had obtained permission for single screens, have recently converted them into multiplexes.

He maintained that commercial tax department, apart from GHMC, will take action against such theatres for looting their patrons, especially when the festive season is around the corner.
Karimnagar: The BJP will show a triple-R cinema to Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao in the Assembly after the Huzurabad byelections, said TS BJP chief Bandi Sanjay on Sunday.

Huzurabad is going to witness a silent surge against the TRS and no force on earth can stop the BJP victory. The BJP has a double-R (legislators Raja Singh and Raghunandan Rao) in the Assembly. With the entry of one more R (Etala Rajendar, the BJP candidate), the BJP would show a triple-RRR movie to the CM, he said.

He was launching the BJP election campaign by blowing the shankaram (siren) in the bypoll-bound constituency in Karimnagar district.

Sanjay said the Chief Minister was boasting that the TRS was sure of a win in Huzurabad. In that case, will he resign from as CM if the TRS loses the by-election, Sanjay asked.

Sanjay said Chandrashekar Rao had never sincerely tried to achieve statehood for Telangana. It was only because of the fear of activist students that he took up a fake deeksha. In the name of the Telangana movement, he tried to collect as much money as possible. Rajendar, on the other hand, truly fought for the creation of Telangana state and worked for welfare of the people of this region, he said.

Sanjay said the BJP never opposed the Dalit Bandhu scheme. But why is the TRS government imposing restrictions in utilization of the money? What authority do bank officials have to freeze the accounts of the beneficiaries, he asked.

The BJP leader said that after the elections, the TRS government would take back the amount sanctioned under the scheme and might even stop implementing it. KCR is trying to cheat the Dalits, but they know him well and are ready to teach him a lesson, Sanjay said.

Dalits must demand that the government sanction the money unconditionally with no restriction whatsoever, he proposed.

The TRS is trying to purchase votes with currency notes. It is ready to give Rs 10,000 per vote. The Huzurabad people will uphold principles. They are ready to take the money but will stand for justice and vote for justice, Sanjay said.
HYDERABAD: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) floor leader in the Legislative Assembly Akbaruddin Owaisi created a flutter on Monday when he spoke about his health and how long he would survive.

Owaisi became emotional when Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy asked him to conclude his speech after he took more than an hour during the short discussion on welfare of minorities development of the Old City.

Owaisi remarked, "Sir, I entered this House when I was in my 20s and now I am in my 50s. I have been shouting and screaming for so long. I don't know how long I will live. But I want to make use of a single moment which has been blessed by Allah to serve the people and serve my community and do something and bring in some change before I die and leave this world.

This is why I am standing here. Sir, great anguish is there. Kindly give me some time. Sir, it is not easy for me to speak for one hour. My stomach hurts. It really hurts sir. It hurts but my hurt is nothing in front of the hurt and the pain and the suffering of the community I am representing for whom I am standing here, the MIM leaders said

Not my pain. I am ready to sacrifice my life for the people of my state, for the people of my community but I want some change. I am standing here not for myself sir. I am standing for the people who sent me here to do something for them."

Owaisi added, "I have a dream to see the fate of minorities and Muslims change, I have a dream to see the Old City become like a new city. I have a dream to see our children also hold books and pens in their hands. I have a dream to see our girls come up and join multinational companies, I have a dream to see our children enter civil services."

Owaisi continued his speech for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Akbaruddin Owaisi had sustained bullet and stab injuries in April 2011 when he was attacked near Barkas. Apart from opening four rounds of fire, the assailants attacked him with swords and daggers. He was admitted to a hospital and discharged after 20 days.

He suffered injuries to his left kidney, urinary bladder, upper portion of large intestine and upper limb. To this day, the bullet remains lodged near his kidney as doctors warn its removal may affect his legs.

Although it is more than 10 years since this incident happened, Owaisi continues to suffer from a severe stomach pain often and visits London to undergo treatment.
HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao lashed out at the Centre accusing it of showing 'indifferent attitude' towards Telangana state on tourism and heritage sectors.

Speaking during the Question Hour in the Legislative Assembly on Monday, the Chief Minister said the repeated requests of the state government to the Centre seeking due recognition to Telangana's rich culture, festivals, arts and traditions had fallen on deaf ears.

The Chief Minister alleged that the Centre was meting out gross injustice to Telangana even while announcing Padma awards every year as the names recommended by the state government for these awards were being ignored and several distinguished persons in various fields from Telangana were deprived of awards.

"When I met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and union home minister Amit Shah during my recent Delhi visit, I questioned both on Padma awards issue. I asked them to tell whether they wanted the Telangana government to recommend names to the Centre for Padma awards or not. There are several distinguished artists and persons in Telangana who made valuable contributions to various fields. But when the state government proposes their names for the Padma awards, the Centre is simply ignoring them," Rao remarked.

The Chief Minister also came down heavily on the Centre for inordinate delay in granting approvals to set up at least airstrips at six major locations in Telangana to promote tourism, heritage and industry.

"It has been more than six-and-a-half years since we made this request to the Centre but nothing happened. When union civil aviation minister Scindia visited Hyderabad recently, I hosted lunch for him and requested him to speed up approvals to at least airstrips, if not airports. We have offered to set up these airstrips with our own funds if they give approvals. Despite this, the Centre has been sitting on our proposals for years," Rao added.

Referring to the state government's plans to promote Telangana heritage, culture and tourism, the Chief Minister said a committee would be formed with MLAs of all districts to take steps to identify, develop and showcase historical places, forts, scenic spots and unique temples in Telangana to the world.

He alleged that Telanganas history, culture, traditions, and arts were not promoted for 58 years in undivided Andhra Pradesh. He pointed out that Telangana had wonderful waterfalls, the Pandavula Gutta hillock in Khammam and Jogulamba temple at Alampur among many others which were all neglected by successive governments.

After the formation of the state in 2014, the state government had taken up multiple programmes for promotion of the rich heritage, scenic locations and spiritual centres, he added.

The Chief Minister informed the House that the families of several royal dynasties were coming forward to hand over their ancient forts to the state government for developing them into tourist attractions.

We will develop tourist spots using all the natural beauty of Telangana state. Due to the Kaleshwaram project, the 160-km long Godavari stretch is flowing with water all through the year creating numerous scenic locations. We have a lot of tourism potential thanks to available heritage structures, dense forests, waterfalls, scenic locations, spiritual centres and temples," Rao said.
The old-age pensioners who got no money in the beginning of September were hopeful they would get paid at the start of this month. This, however, has not happened. (PTI file photo)

KAKINADA: The elderly in Andhra Pradesh are raising a hue and cry over the withdrawal of pension benefits to many senior citizens under different pretexts. The state government started downsizing pensions since last month.

The old-age pensioners who got no money in the beginning of September were hopeful they would get paid at the start of this month. This, however, has not happened.

The village volunteers and village secretaries had promised them last month that the government would do the needful soon.

As per the new guidelines issued by the government, there can be only one old-age person for a family or per one ration cardholder. Another condition is that the houses power consumption per month should not exceed 300 units.

The average power consumption is calculated for six months. If it exceeds 300 units on an average per month, the person is not eligible, said an official of SERP.

However, there is a flood of petitions at the Spandana programmes organised by the government at the village and urban levels, appealing to the government to reinstate pensions to those who have been removed from the list.

Satyanarayana Murthy, 75, used to get a pension from the government and his wife was getting a pension from the state Brahmin Corporation. Last month, the officials deleted Murthys name from the list. We are solely depending on the pensions and we have no other source of income. I am a diabetic and need money to purchase medicines, said Murthy from Annavaram.

The same fate awaited Ramachandra Rao of Rajamahendravaram. He is suffering from cardiac, kidneys and neurological problems. He appealed to the government to continue providing him pension.

In Anantapur, harmonium artist Raghu Master and his wife lost their pension and are in difficulty.

Satyanarayana of Ravipadu village in Pentapadu mandal of West Godavari district was shocked as his name was deleted from the pension list by citing a reason that his power bill exceeded 300 units. I was shocked. There is no power connection in my name. When I enquired, my aadhar number is linked to another power connection which is not related to me, said Satyanarayana.

He appealed to West Godavari district collector Karthikeya Misra to restore his pension. Another beneficiary Nageswara of B Colony in Dwaraka Tirumala in West Godavari district also said his aadhar number is linked to another persons power connection. He requested the officials to rectify this and give him the pension.

Kurnool district DRDA project director DK Venkateswarlu said that 4,42,009 beneficiaries have been given Rs 103.445 crore as pension for the month of October whereas 4,33,178 beneficiaries received Rs 101.29 crore in September.

Though the government stopped the pension to several old persons, the pension number has been increased by way of including new beneficiaries into the list.

i) in Vizianagaram district, 2,000 old people urged the government to reinstate their pensions;

ii) 70 old people in Srikakulam, 10 in Visakhapatnam, 146 in East Godavari, 100 in West Godavari applied for restoration of the pension.

iii) 60,81,555 persons were given the pension in the state in October;

i) Vizianagaram: 3,28, 874 ii) Chittoor: 5,08,036 iii) Srikakulam: 3,74,537 iv) West Godavari: 4,53,671 v) Kadapa: 3,43,326, vi) Anantapur: 5,10,129 vii) Guntur: 5,89,513 VIII) Visakhapatnam: 4,72,494 ix) Nellore: 3,55,882 x) Krishna: 5,16,880. XI) Prakasam: 4,23,803 XII) East Godavari: 6,66,244
The Congress declared to conduct the Jung Siren programme from October 2 to December 9, the birthday of AICC president Sonia Gandhi.  DC Image

HYDERABAD: The alleged police highhandedness during the Congress partys Jung Siren agitation on Saturday evoked mixed response among the leaders of the grand old party. A section of Congress leaders expressed displeasure over the police lathi charge during the stir, while on the other hand, a few leaders opined that the police restrictions helped the party get more attention from the people.

The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) called for Vidyarthi, Nirudyoga Jung Siren programme from October 2 on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhis birth anniversary. Citing traffic problems, the police prevented Congress leaders from taking out a rally from Dilsukhnagar to LB Nagar Crossroads and took custody of several leaders. TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy was arrested at his Jubilee Hills residence.

Several leaders were injured in police lathi charge and were admitted in various hospitals in the city. The Congress declared to conduct the Jung Siren programme from October 2 to December 9, the birthday of AICC president Sonia Gandhi. The police did not make open statements on restrictions but began arrests on the first day of the Jung Siren programme.

Congress MLAs T. Jayaprakash Jagga Reddy, Seethakka, MLC T. Jeevan Reddy and others were taken into preventive custody in various places in the state. Frontal organisations including youth Congress and NSUI activists were also arrested in large numbers and kept in various police stations in twin cities.

Shockingly, Huzurabad byelection Congress candidate and NSUI state president Balmuri Venkat was also seriously injured in police lathi charge during Jung Siren programme and was admitted in a private hospital.

Speaking to this newspaper, TPCC working president B. Mahesh Kumar Goud alleged that police rudely behaved with the Congress leaders. The Congress planned to conduct the agitation programme in a peaceful and democratic manner, but the police created hurdles, he alleged. The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) government should mend its way on problems of students and unemployed youths, he said.

When contacted, TPCC working president and Sangareddy MLA T. Jayaprakash Jagga Reddy said a few police officers' excesses favoured them. Due to police restrictions, the Congress gained the attention of people across the state, he opined. The youth of Telangana fought for a separate state aspiring government jobs, he said. For the last seven years, the TRS government neglected students and unemployed youths' problems, he said.

However, TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy said they would approach SC/ST Commission for police lathi charge on Dalit students during the Jung Siren programme. CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka strongly condemned the police lathi charge and house arrests. He said Opposition parties had the right to stage protests peacefully in a democracy.
CSS Corp is looking at hiring about 1,300 people in India from various campuses in the coming year, in line with the strong growth momentum being experienced by the customer experience and technology services provider, its Chief Executive Officer Sunil Mittal said.

The company, which has about 6,000 employees in India, is also looking at going in for an IPO towards the end of 2023 as a standalone business.

Speaking to PTI, CSS Corp Chief Executive Officer Sunil Mittal said the company has recently crossed the 10,000-employee mark globally and India accounts for a significant portion of its headcount.

"We have doubled our headcount in 2.5 years...Out of 10,000, we have, around 6000 are in India. Costa Rica has almost 1,000 people now and it will go to 1,500 people in the next year. We are well-positioned to double the headcount (overall) again in three years," he added.

Mittal noted that the company is planning to hire 3,000 employees to net globally this year, of which 1,800 have already been added.

Talking about campus hiring, the executive said the company plans to hire 1,300 in India through its campus recruitment programme.

CSS Corp C2C program (Campus to Career) has been launched, which will engage students/engineers while they are in college through paid internships. Also, it will enable them on specific deep courses required while working with the clients.

"We have also invested in cloud labs for students to get hands-on training in different programmes/products. A lot of the focus is on how do we get the right talent in the system, how do we retain and mentor the talent. We are fairly confident that we will be able to maintain this kind of growth trajectory for the coming quarters," he stated.

CSS Corp is also undertaking an initiative to hire 100 ex-Armed Forces Service personnel in India. Mittal pointed out that there is a special emphasis on increasing the women ratio across the company as well, and the company wants to expand the ratio of women staff from 36 per cent currently to 50 per cent in the next two years.

The executive stated that the company grew at 25 per cent in FY21, and expects to do better than that in FY22, and is well-positioned for growth in the coming years. "...we have enough bookings and deal wins which makes us confident that we can continue with this momentum in the coming quarters...We will end this year at around a 225 million USD annual run rate," he added.

In February this year, Capital Square Partners (CSP) - a Singapore-based private equity Fund Manager and Startek's majority shareholder - had acquired a controlling stake in CSS. At that time, Startek - which competes with CSS Corp - had said it has participated in this transaction by contributing a total of USD 30 million in a limited partnership managed by CSP to acquire both an indirect beneficial interest of approximately 26 per cent in CSS, as well as an option to acquire a controlling stake.

Asked if the company was looking at an IPO, Mittal said the company is looking to go public towards the end of 2023 as a standalone business.

He added that while it is too early to talk about the size of the offer, the company hopes to be around USD 350 to 400 million USD from a top-line perspective by the time it goes public.
The Enforcement Directorate on Monday arrested Unitech founder Ramesh Chandra, his daughter-in-law Preeti Chandra and an executive of a company in connection with a money-laundering probe against the real estate group and its promoters, officials said.

They said the three were taken into custody under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the case against Ramesh Chandra's sons -- Sanjay Chandra and Ajay Chandra.

Preeti Chandra is the wife of jailed Unitech promoter Sanjay Chandra.

Read | Unitech's Chandra brothers shifted from Tihar to Mumbai jails

The third to be arrested on Monday was Rajesh Malik, an executive of Carnoustie Management (India) Pvt which is allegedly linked to the case, officials said.

All the three -- Ramesh Chandra, Preeti Chandra and Rajesh Malik -- will be produced before a court on Tuesday by the Enforcement Directorate seeking their custody.

The Chandra brothers, accused of siphoning home buyers' money, are lodged in Taloja jail in Mumbai after the Supreme Court directed that they be transferred from Tihar. The SC gave the directions after the ED claimed that the brothers were conducting business from inside the Tihar jail by conniving with the prison staff.

The ED's money laundering case is based on a number of Delhi Police Economic Offences Wing and CBI FIRs filed by homebuyers against the Unitech Group and its promoters.

The ED filed a criminal case under various sections of the PMLA earlier this year against the Unitech Group and its promoters over allegations that the owners -- Sanjay Chandra and Ajay Chandra -- illegally diverted over Rs 2,000 crore to Cyprus and the Cayman Islands.

It had also carried out raids in this case on March 4 at 35 locations of the Shivalik Group, Trikar Group, Unitech Group and Carnoustie Group in Mumbai and the national capital region.

The ED had said that the total proceeds of crime detected in this case stands at Rs 7,638.43 crore and it has attached properties worth Rs 672.52 crore till now as part of this investigation.

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Indias UPI (Unified Payments Interface) landscape has grown tremendously in the last half-decade, and more so in the last 18 months since the outbreak of the pandemic.

From April 2020 to August 2021, the total value of UPI transactions in India stood at Rs 68.81 lakh crore, about 69 per cent of the total value of UPI transactions done since its inception in April 2016.

Between April 2020 and August 2021, there were 37.12 billion transactions, 66 per cent out of the total 55.93 billion transactions recorded since its inception.

This year, the UPI transactions have grown at an even higher rate than the corresponding period last year.

The value of UPI transactions in India during the April to August 2021 period stood at Rs 27.77 lakh crore, which is about 2.3 times the value of transactions recorded during the same period last year at Rs 12.20 lakh crore, as per the data on National Payment Corporation of Indias (NCPI) website.

During the April-August 2021 period, there were 14.79 billion transactions, about 2.2 times the 6.68 billion transactions recorded in the same period of the previous year.

Rajesh Bansal, CEO of RBI Innovation Hub (RBIH), said, While most of the people who started using digital payments in 2020 did so due to the unavoidability factor brought by the pandemic, more people have embraced digital payment methods this year due to the ease and convenience they present.

Ever since UPI was launched as a pilot by the then RBI governor Raghuram Rajan in April 2016, the UPI system has seen a huge growth in the number of transactions and aggregate value for processing instant payments. From its inception to August 2021, India has recorded an aggregate value of Rs 100 lakh crore by way of UPI transactions.

While the UPI system has provided itself as a catalyst to take forward Prime Minister Narendra Modis dream of a Digital India and turning it into a cashless economy, the latest statistics about Indias financial inclusion suggest that there might be a long road ahead to turn the dream into a reality.

The ratio of cash to GDP in most OECD countries is less than 5 per cent, but the same ratio in India today is around 14 per cent. This is too high, but at the same time, showcases the massive scope of growth that players in the FinTech space can cash in on, in the near future, said Bansal during the Global FinTech Festival recently.

Despite the boom in digital payments, RBI data reveals that the countrys cash-to-GDP ratio stands at 14.45, the worst in the past decade and higher than other leading economies in the world. This ratio shows the currency in circulation as a proportion of the countrys GDP.

Large cohorts of the population like farmers and dairy workers have not been provided with suitable financial products. This is where the RBIs Innovation Hub is going to pitch in to provide a great consumer experience by way of secure, affordable and suitable financial products, said Bansal.

According to RBIH data, only 43 per cent of all urban and rural internet users are active on the internet, and only 46 per cent of this subset of the Indian population are using digital payment methods actively. This translates to a low digital and banking penetration i.e., only 1 out of 5 Indians actively using digital payments.

RBIH wants to be the fourth pillar amid the trio of product innovation, policy innovation and process innovation, added Bansal. While addressing the growing scope of fintech in India, digital & financial inclusion has been the elephant in the room.

In the recently released Digital Quality of Life (DQL) Index 2021, India ranked 59th out of 110 countries, dropping 2 positions from 2020. The report evaluated the DQL index based on factors like internet affordability, internet quality, and electronic infrastructure, where India ranked 47th, 67th, and 91st respectively.

Bansal also highlighted that over 50 per cent of women in India only make limited use of their bank accounts, and asked the FinTech players in the country to identify this as a key area of growth. He admitted that while there are government schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana catering to over 80 million beneficiaries, a big chunk of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) still do not have instant credit access.

In his speech, Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry, said, Every crisis can be converted into an opportunity. Banks, today, have come into the homes of people and, in fact, on their mobile phones. He added that last mile financial inclusion would mean taking financial inclusion to the last bank on the pyramid.

The RBIs annual Financial Inclusion-Index for the period ending March 2021 stood at 53.9, against 43.4 for the period ending March 2017.
Qualcomm Inc and investment firm SSW Partners said on Monday they had reached a deal to buy Swedish company Veoneer Inc for $4.5 billion in cash.
Actor Sivakarthikeyan says that he rejected the Tamil remake of Allu Arjun's 2020 release Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo as he did not want to take up the challenge of recreating its magic. Speaking to Cinema Express, the star added that nobody can dance better than than 'Bunny', which would have made the task even more difficult,

Ala Vaikunthapurramloo, directed by top filmmaker Trivikram Srinivas, was an action-packed commercial drama with family elements that proved to be a showreel for Allu Arjun. It hit the screens during Sankranti and emerged as a blockbuster despite facing competition from the Mahesh Babu-starrer Sarileru Neekkevvaru and Rajinikanth's Darbar. The film featured the catchy OMG Daddy and Butta Bomma songs, which clicked with the masses. The biggie starred Pooja Hegde as the leading lady and marked her second collaboration with 'Guruji'. The filmmaker had previously directed her in the 2018 release Aravinda Sametha, which featured Jr NTR in the lead. Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo had an impressive cast that included Jayaram, Tabu and Murali Sharma. It is being remade in Hindi with Kartik Aaryan in the lead.

SK, meanwhile, is going through a busy phase on the work front and will soon be seen in Doctor. It is touted to be an action-thriller and has been directed by Nelson Dhilipkumar of Kolamaavu Kokila fame. It stars Priyanka Arul Mohan, who garnered attention with her work in Nani's Gang Leader, as the female protagonist and marks her Kollywood debut. It is slated to hit the screens on October 9.

Sivakarthikeyan's ambitious movie Ayalaan is nearing completion. He will also be seen in Don, which reunites him with Priyanka.

Allu Arjun, on the other hand, will next be seen in the pan-India movie Pushpa. It is touted to be an action-thriller and features the Julayi star in a new avatar. The biggie is slated to release in theatres on December 17.


A pipeline failure off the coast of Orange County, California, Saturday caused at least 126,000 gallons of oil to spill into the Pacific Ocean, creating a 13-square-mile slick that continued to grow Sunday, officials said.

Dead fish and birds washed ashore in some places as cleanup crews raced to try to contain the spill, which created a slick that extended from Huntington Beach to Newport Beach.

It was not immediately clear what caused the leak, which officials said occurred 3 miles off the coast of Newport Beach and involved a failure in a 17.5-mile pipeline connected to an offshore oil platform called Elly that is operated by Beta Offshore.

The spill prompted officials to close the beaches in Huntington Beach, where the third day of the annual Pacific Airshow was canceled Sunday, a day after an estimated 1.5 million people had gathered on the oceanfront to watch the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds.

Officials said Sunday morning that they were assessing the extent of the damage as oil continued to leak into the water. Mayor Kim Carr of Huntington Beach said at a news conference Sunday afternoon that the spill was one of the most devastating situations our community has dealt with in decades.

Carr said city officials had not received confirmation that the spill had been capped. Martyn Willsher, the CEO of Amplify Energy Corp., which owns Beta Offshore, said later at a separate news conference in Long Beach, California, that the pipeline had been suctioned at both ends and that the spill may have peaked at around 126,000 gallons.

I dont expect it to be more, he said. Thats the capacity of the entire pipeline.

The Elly site, he added, has two producing platforms and a processing platform with around 70 wells. The platforms sit atop a rich supply of oil in federal waters managed by the Department of the Interior. All of the platforms have been shut down, Willsher said.

The beaches in Huntington Beach will be closed until further notice, Carr said Sunday afternoon, adding that it was too early to say how long they would be off limits.

The cleanup efforts were being led by the Coast Guard, while in Huntington Beach the local response was focused in part on preventing an ecological disaster by mitigating the impacts of the oil on our precious wetlands and wildlife, Carr said.

She said that the responsible parties to blame for the spill should do everything possible to rectify this environmental catastrophe. She added that officials were looking at measures to make sure that they are held accountable for this.

Earlier Sunday, Carr said that the equivalent of 3,000 barrels of postproduction crude oil had spilled into the ocean since the situation was initially reported around 9 a.m. local time Saturday. More than 2,000 feet of booms had been deployed to try to contain the slick, Carr said.

Right now, were advising people to stay out of the water, Carr said.

The oil slick appeared to infiltrate the Talbert Marsh, a 25-acre ecological reserve across from Huntington State Beach that is home to dozens of species of birds, officials said.

The impact to the environment is irreversible, Katrina Foley, a supervisor for Orange County, said at the news conference Saturday night.

Eric McCoy, the marine safety chief for the Huntington Beach Fire Department, said Saturday that officials used a plane to survey the size and location of the slick.

Obviously the potential for significant environmental damage still exists, McCoy said at the news conference, pointing out that the U.S. Coast Guard had classified the slick as a major spill.

In a letter Sunday, Rep. Michelle Steel, a Republican who represents much of Orange County, asked President Joe Biden to issue a major disaster declaration in response to the spill.

It is imperative that the federal government assist in recovery efforts, Steel wrote. Constituents who live along the shoreline are already reporting oil on the beach and strong odors. Dead fish and birds are already being reported on beaches and shorelines.

The Coast Guard did not offer new details Sunday, but it said in a joint statement with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife on Saturday that the cause of the spill, volume and type of oil are under investigation. The agencies advised the public that they did not need volunteers to help with the cleanup, saying that it could hinder the response.

The initial report of the spill came early Saturday morning, the Coast Guard said.

Mayor Brad Avery of Newport Beach said that he was leaving Catalina Island and heading toward the Huntington Beach air shows Saturday when he heard radio chatter of boats finding oil in the water.

Five miles off Huntington Beach, we have these beautiful dolphins following along with the boat, he said. We had six or seven dolphins.

To our dismay, all of a sudden, we were in this big patch of oil. It was very thick, he said, describing a consistency that varied from a slight sheen to 3-by-3 foot patches of black that looked like tar. The dolphins were swimming through it.

It was sort of a moment where we have this beautiful nature, and then this man-made disaster, Avery said.

Environmental groups said that the spill underscored the need for the state of California to move away from fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy. Laura Deehan, the state director of Environment California, said in a statement Sunday that the spill was a stark and dark reminder that oil is dirty, dangerous, and can make our air and water too toxic for life.

Orange County health authorities on Sunday warned that people should seek medical attention if they touched the oil or inhaled oil vapors, which can be toxic.

The spill was not the first of its kind to imperil Californias coastline. In 2015, the Refugio spill near Santa Barbara, the worst in decades for the state, sent more than 100,000 gallons of crude oil spilling mostly into the ocean after an onshore pipeline ruptured. A $22 million settlement was finalized in October 2020 to restore natural resources damaged by the spill.

A 3-million-gallon spill off Santa Barbara in 1969 has been credited with helping to set off the modern-day environmental movement. Environmentalists point out that oil spills can kill thousands of animals, cost tens of millions of dollars to clean up and contaminate beaches for months.

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The Pandora Papers leak is the latest -- and biggest -- to shine a light on tax evasion of the rich and powerful from the whistleblowing International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

Here is a recap of how the global network of investigative journalists has made the offshore industry's money laundering and tax dodging a political hot potato.

In April 2013, the ICIJ reveals a "who's who" of people and entities hiding assets offshore in 122,000 companies run from Singapore and the British Virgin Islands.

Read more: Pandora Papers leak: Here are the biggest revelations

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev is named as one of the big beneficiaries.

In January 2014, the group scores a new coup with documents showing that China's elite is also parking money in offshore tax havens. Among those cited are several people close to President Xi Jinping.

Later that year, the ICIJ reveals secret agreements between Luxembourg and 340 multinational companies including Amazon, Apple, IKEA, Pepsi, AIG and Verizon to avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes.

The accords were reached when the then president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, was prime minister of the tiny tax haven.

In February 2015, the ICIJ uncovers a scheme that allegedly helped wealthy clients of banking giant HSBC's Swiss division to evade taxes on accounts worth billions.

Among those named are Morocco's King Mohammed VI, Jordan's King Abdullah II and a cousin of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.

The leak of 11.5 million documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca in April 2016 causes political earthquakes across the world and names stars, billionaires and banks involved in tax evasion and money laundering.

Iceland's prime minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson resigns and the fall-out also claims Pakistan's prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

The ICIJ says at least 150 probes were launched in more than 70 countries because of the revelations. They also inspire a Hollywood film The Laundromat by Steven Soderbergh.

Read more: Jordan King's property abroad not a secret, claims Palace

Another huge leak in November 2017 exposes the offshore interests of 120 politicians around the world, as well as the Queen of England.

It also reveals the financial links between then US president Donald Trump's commerce secretary Wilbur L Ross and Russian President Vladimir Putin's son-in-law.

Apple, Nike and Uber are also accused of avoiding taxes through "imaginative bookkeeping".

Based on a 2019 leak of 200,000 files, reporters claim to expose a "sophisticated system that diverts tax revenue from poor nations back to the coffers of Western corporations and African oligarchs" through the Indian Ocean island.

The business empire of "Africa's wealthiest woman", Isabel dos Santos, daughter of former Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, has been largely dismantled since a 2020 ICIJ investigation into the shady origins of her fortune.

Angola claims more than a billion dollars of state assets were plundered from the poverty-stricken but oil-rich nation.

In July, she was ordered to surrender a stake in the Portuguese energy company Galp worth an estimated $500 million.

With governments across the world needing trillions in tax revenue to bankroll pandemic spending, the ICIJ leak of 11.9 million documents reveals how more than a dozen heads of state and government have used offshore tax havens to hide assets.

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The European Union's drug regulator gave its backing Monday to booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for people 18 and older.

The European Medicines Agency said the booster doses may be considered at least 6 months after the second dose for people aged 18 years and older.

Read | Answers to your questions about Covid booster shots

The agency also said it supports giving a third dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or the Moderna vaccine to people with severely weakened immune systems at least 28 days after their second shot.

The recommendations go to health authorities in all 27 EU member states. Some countries already have begun administering booster shots.

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King Abdullah II of Jordan came under heightened scrutiny Sunday after an alliance of international news organizations reported that he was among several world leaders to use secret offshore accounts to amass overseas properties and hide their wealth.

The king was accused of using shell companies registered in the Caribbean to buy 15 properties, collectively worth more than $100 million, in southeast England, Washington, D.C., and Malibu, California. The purchases were not illegal, but their exposure prompted accusations of double standards: The Jordanian prime minister, who was appointed by the king, announced in 2020 a crackdown on corruption that included targeting citizens who used shell companies to disguise their overseas investments.

The Jordanian royal court declined to provide a comment to The New York Times, but lawyers for Abdullah told the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which published the report, that his foreign properties were bought exclusively with his personal fortune and not public funds.

Read more: Explained | What is the Pandora Papers expose?

The claims against Abdullah were part of a major investigation, known as the Pandora Papers, that was conducted by the ICIJ in partnership with more than a dozen international news outlets, including The Washington Post and The Guardian. Based on leaks of nearly 12 million files from 14 offshore companies, the investigation found that Abdullah was among 35 current and former leaders, as well as more than 300 public officials, who have used offshore shell companies to disguise their wealth, and to hide the transfer of that wealth overseas.

The documents do not necessarily show wrongdoing, but are considered noteworthy because they reveal the extent to which some political leaders have been able to avoid paying taxes on their wealth and to evade public accountability and scrutiny.

Moments after the reports release, Jordanians said the ICIJs website appeared to have been blocked in the country, an indication that the monarchy was worried about fallout from the revelations at a delicate time for the country and its king.

Though the kingdom is viewed by western allies as a key partner in the campaign against extremist groups, a linchpin in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and an island of stability in a turbulent region, it has been roiled by internal conflicts in recent months.

The misuse of public money, a high unemployment rate and the perceived mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic have angered the population and increased frustration at the royal family.

There have been big problems in recent months  a crisis of the bureaucratic system, the deaths in coronavirus, the crisis in the royal family, said Amer Al Sabaileh, a Jordanian political analyst. Now comes this very delicate issue that touches all Jordanians.

Six months ago Abdullah placed his half brother, Prince Hamzah, under house arrest after accusing the prince of conspiring against him. The king forgave the prince, who previously embarrassed the king by speaking out against government corruption, but a court later jailed two of the princes alleged accomplices.

In recent months, Abdullah attempted to shore up his standing by underscoring his reliability as a Western ally and a major player in Middle Eastern diplomacy; he met recently with President Joe Biden and with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett of Israel, following several years of fraught relations with their predecessors.

But just as Abdullah appeared to have turned a corner, the new revelations might be a trigger for people to go back to the streets, said Al Sabaileh.

Abdullah is among dozens of current and former leaders whose overseas investments were exposed. Other leaders included President Vladimir Putin of Russia, whose alleged former lover was found to have purchased an apartment in Monaco; Prime Minister Andrej Babis of the Czech Republic, who is said to have bought property in the south of France using a complicated offshore structure; President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, who sold a London mansion to the Crown Estate, a property trust formally owned by Queen Elizabeth II; and Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, who avoided paying taxes worth more than $400,000 when he and his wife Cherie obtained a London property by purchasing the offshore company that owned it.

The mechanism was legal and Cherie Blair, who used the property as an office for her legal consultancy, told the BBC that the Blairs had only bought the building through the offshore company at the request of the sellers.
Jordan's King Abdullah owns properties in the United States and Britain and this was not a secret, the royal palace said, adding privacy and security reasons were behind not disclosing it.

In a massive leak of financial documents published on Sunday, King Abdullah, a close ally of the United States, was alleged to have used offshore accounts to spend more than $100 million on luxury homes in the United Kingdom and the United States.

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Jordan's royal court Monday rejected as "distorted" claims made in the "Pandora Papers" that King Abdullah II created a network of offshore companies to build a $100 million overseas property empire.

It said that the reports "included inaccuracies and distorted and exaggerated the facts", and that revealing the properties' addresses was "a flagrant security breach and a threat to His Majesty's and his family's safety".

The statement also said that the king had "personally funded" the properties and all related expenses.

Also Read | Jordan King's property abroad not a secret, claims Palace

The investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), involving some 600 journalists from media worldwide, is based on the leak of some 11.9 million documents from 14 financial services companies.

While not alleging criminal wrong-doing by Abdullah II, the reports allege he created a network of offshore companies to quietly purchase luxury residences from Malibu and California to Washington and London.

Jordan's Royal Hashemite Court said in its statement that "it is no secret that His Majesty owns a number of apartments and residences in the United States and the United Kingdom. This is not unusual nor improper.

Also Read | Jordan King among Pandora Papers accused leaders

"His Majesty uses these properties during official visits and hosts officials and foreign dignitaries there. The King and his family members also stay in some of these properties during private visits."

The statement said the location of the properties was not publicised "out of security and privacy concerns, and not out of secrecy or an attempt to hide them, as these reports have claimed".

"As such, the act of revealing these addresses by some media outlets is a flagrant security breach and a threat to His Majesty's and his family's safety."

"Any allegations that link these private properties to public funds or assistance are baseless and deliberate attempts to distort facts," it added.

The palace also stressed that "all public finances and international assistance are subject to professional audits, and their allocations are fully accounted for by the government and donor entities".

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North and South Korea have restored cross-border communications, with officials exchanging their first phone call Monday after dropping them in August.

The restoration comes just days after Pyongyang sparked international concern with a string of missile tests in the span of a few weeks, prompting the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting.

Also read: North Korea: The rise and rise of first sister Kim Yo-jong

The two Koreas had signalled a surprise thaw in relations in late July by announcing the resumption of cross-border communications -- severed more than a year earlier -- but the detente was short-lived, as North Korea stopped answering calls just two weeks later.

Seoul's unification ministry confirmed officials from the two rivals exchanged their first phone call since August on Monday morning.

The South's defence ministry meanwhile confirmed that cross-border military communications have also resumed.

"With the restoration of the South-North communication line, the government evaluates that a foundation for recovering inter-Korean relations has been provided," the unification ministry said in a statement.

"The government hopes... to swiftly resume dialogue and begin practical discussions for recovering inter-Korean relations."

Earlier Monday North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had "expressed the intention of restoring the cut-off north-south communication lines", North Korea's official news agency KCNA said.

It reported that the move was an attempt to establish "lasting peace" on the Korean peninsula.

But an analyst played down Monday's restoration as a "symbolic" gesture, noting the North's recent missile launches.

"Even if this leads to talks, we may enter a new phase where North Korea engages in dialogue but continues to carry out provocations simultaneously," said Park Won-gon, a professor of North Korean Studies at Ewha Womans University.

North Korea had unilaterally cut off all official military and political communication links in June last year over activists sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border.

The two sides said on July 27 this year that all lines were restored.

Their joint announcement, which coincided with the anniversary of the end of the Korean War, was the first positive development since a series of summits between Kim and the South's President Moon Jae-in in 2018 failed to achieve any significant breakthrough.

They also revealed at the time that Kim and Moon had exchanged a series of letters since April in which they agreed that re-establishing hotlines would be a productive first step in rebooting relations between the two rivals which, despite the end of their 1950-53 conflict, remain technically at war.

Also read: North Korea threatens UNSC after emergency meeting

But the cross-border communication lasted for just two weeks, with the North dropping them in protest at joint US-South Korea military drills.

In the period since, Pyongyang has held a series of tension-raising missile tests.

In September, it launched what it said was a long-range cruise missile, and earlier this week it tested what it described as a hypersonic gliding vehicle, which South Korea's military said appeared to be in the early stages of development.

On Friday it said it had successfully fired a new anti-aircraft missile.

Pyongyang slammed the UN Security Council Sunday for holding an emergency meeting over the missile tests, accusing member states of toying with a "time-bomb".

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's office on Monday sought to justify his use of offshore companies as protecting him against pro-Russian forces, following leaked revelations in the Pandora Papers.

A former comedian, Zelensky was elected president in 2019 on promises to fight corruption and reduce the influence of oligarchs in the ex-Soviet country.

But the files obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and published Sunday claimed that Zelensky and his partners established a network of offshore companies back in 2012.

The investigation involving some 600 journalists from outlets including The Washington Post and the BBC is based on a leak of some 11.9 million documents from 14 financial services companies around the world.

Explained | What is the Pandora Papers expose?

According to its findings, two of the offshore companies belonging to Zelensky's partners were used to buy three lavish properties in central London.

The report also found that Zelensky, just before he was elected, transferred his stake in one of the offshore companies to his top aide Sergiy Shefir  the target of a shooting attack last month.

An adviser to Zelensky's chief of staff said Monday that the president had created the offshore companies to "protect" the group's incomes against the "aggressive actions" of the "corrupt" regime of then pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.

"Journalists have de facto confirmed the president's absolute respect for the standards of anti-corruption legislation," Mykhailo Podoliak told AFP.

Also Read | Pandora Papers: How the rich hide money in tax havens

Podoliak, however, did not comment on the revelations of the investigation, which said that the president's wife has continued to receive dividends from an offshore company.

Supporters of another ex-president, Petro Poroshenko  a billionaire defeated by Zelensky in 2019 and who also appeared in an earlier investigation into offshore companies  accused Zelensky of tax evasion.

"He and his accomplices took funds offshore without paying any taxes to the Ukrainian budget," Iryna Gerashchenko, a lawmaker from Poroshenko's faction, wrote on Facebook.

Before becoming president, Zelensky played a history teacher in a comedy series who was elected president after denouncing endemic graft.

In his election campaign, he cultivated an image of a leader seeking to "break the system" and promised a fierce fight against corruption in one of Europe's poorest countries.

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India on Monday achieved another milestone of vaccinating 70 per cent of the target population with the first vaccine dose against Covid-19. The country has fully vaccinated over 25 per cent of the target population of 95 crore.

However, India still has a long way to go to vaccinate its entire target population, a feat that has already been achived by one country so far.

Portugal's vaccine story is one for all countries to see. It is now among the worlds leaders in highest vaccinations. About 98 per cent of all of those eligible for vaccines  meaning anyone over 12  have been fully vaccinated in Portugal.

Still, India's achievement comes as a relief as multiple studies have shown that vaccination reduces the chances of hospitalisation. Principal Secretary of Health and Family Welfare Department J Radhakrishnan recently pointed out that nearly 90 per cent of people who succumbed to Covid-19 in state-run hospitals in Tamil Nadu over the last two months had not received even a single vaccine dose.

"Vaccination has become the prime strategy to combat the virus. People who are in the ICU after being infected by Covid-19, are also those who have not been vaccinated at all..," he told reporters.

As of now, the declining trend in the number of Covid-19 cases across the country is continuing. Daily cases of coronavirus in the country remained below 30,000 for the tenth straight day with 20,799 fresh infections recorded in a single day, while the active cases declined to 2,64,458, the lowest in 200 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday.

On the grim side, however, worldwide deaths related to Covid-19 have surpassed 50 lakh as the Delta variant causes a surge in fatalities, mainly among the unvaccinated. The variant has exposed the wide disparities in vaccination rates between rich and poor nations, and the upshot of vaccine hesitancy in some western nations.

As the nation enters the month of October amidst fear of a third wave, all eyes are now on vaccines for children. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has kickstarted preparations to inoculate children across the city amid speculation of the rollout of Covid-19 vaccine for children by the end of October.

With talks under way between the central government and Zydus Cadila over the pricing of the Covid-19 vaccine ZyCov-D, the pharma company is learnt to have proposed a price of Rs 1,900 for its three-dose jab that can be given to those above 12 years of age. However, the government is negotiating a reduction in price and a final decision on it is likely to be taken this week, sources in the know told PTI.

Meanwhile, Covaxin manufacturer Bharat Biotech has submitted the trial data for its coronavirus vaccine in 2-18-year-olds to the Drugs Comptroller General of India (DCGI) for approval, chairman and managing director Krishna Ella told a TV channel. The Hyderabad-based company, the maker of India's first indigenous Covid-19 vaccine, completed Phase-2 and Phase-3 trials of Covaxin on children below 18 years of age in September. Covaxin is yet to be given the EUL (emergency use listing) by WHO.

In a major development, India, last week, hit back at the UK government over "discriminatory" Covid norms for visitors arriving from India by imposing reciprocal curbs on the British visitors. Right after India's tit-for-tat move, the Boris Johnson-led government on Saturday updated its official advisory for its nationals travelling to India. The updated travel advisory by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) noted an additional Covid-19 test on day eight and a 10-day mandatory quarantine for all travellers going to India from Britain from Monday.

Meanwhile, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Chief Dr Randeep Guleria criticised the UK government for setting different rules for Indians fully vaccinated with Covishield that was invented in the UK itself, and said it lacked scientific basis.

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India on Monday nudged Sri Lanka to hold early elections to the provincial councils in the island nation and to implement the 13th amendment to the countrys constitution for devolution of power to the local governments in its Tamil-majority Northern and Eastern Provinces.

New Delhi also subtly conveyed to the Government led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo as well as to the leaders of the minority Tamils of Sri Lanka about its concerns over Chinas expanding footprints in the Indian Ocean island, particularly its recent move to make inroads into the northern region of the country.

After calling on Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla had separate meetings with the leaders of political parties representing the minority Tamils of the Indian Ocean island  Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) and Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) in Colombo.

Shringla emphasized New Delhis commitment to protecting the rights of the Tamils through full implementation of the 13th amendment of the Constitution of Sri Lanka as well as for early convening of the Provincial Council elections in the country, the High Commission of India in Colombo posted on Twitter. The Foreign Secretary also stressed on reconciliation among all communities of Sri Lanka, where the decades-long conflict finally ended in 2009 with the governments forces vanquishing the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The voices within the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and some other organizations supporting the party have been opposing holding elections to the provincial councils as well as implementation of the 13th amendment of the countrys Constitution. The SLPP rode on a majoritarian Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist wave to come back to power in Colombo by winning the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2019 and 2020.

The 13th amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka was an outcome of the July 29, 1987 accord between New Delhi and Colombo. It was passed by Sri Lankan parliament in November 1987 resulting in creation of the provincial councils. The process of devolution of power to the local governments as envisaged by it remained incomplete though.

The elections to the provincial councils of Sri Lanka are long overdue. The terms of the elected provincial councils ended in 2018 and 2019.

Shringla on Monday conveyed to Rajapaksa that India would remain committed to extending support to the post-Covid-19 economic recovery of Sri Lanka. He stressed on starting works on the stalled projects funded by India in Sri Lanka. He also called on Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G L Peiris and Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, apart from having a meeting with his counterpart Jayanath Colombage. He will call on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Tuesday.

He also inaugurated four projects funded by India in the housing and educational sectors of Sri Lanka on Monday.

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Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra sat on a hunger strike on Monday after being detained in Uttar Pradesh's Sitapur while she was en route to Lakhimpur Kheri, her party said.

Gandhi and other Congress leaders accompanying her, including Deepender Hooda, had reached the Lakhimpur border in the morning but were not allowed to meet the families of the farmers who died in the violence during a protest a day earlier, the party alleged.

"Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi has been arrested. She is on hunger strike. Congressmen are protesting. Government will have to bow to our demands. Voice for justice will be raised with more strength," the UP Congress said in a tweet.

In a video released by the party, Gandhi was seen sweeping the floor of a room where she was apparently kept.

Stopping them in such a way is "undemocratic", Congress state president Ajay Kumar Lallu told PTI.

Also read: Navjot Singh Sidhu, Congress leaders protest against Lakhimpur Kheri incident

Eight people were killed on Sunday as violence erupted during a farmers' protest, claiming the lives of both farmers and BJP workers ahead of a visit to Lakhimpur by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

On their way to the violence-hit district, Congress leaders had to take alternative routes to reach the bordering Hargaon area in Sitapur as heavy security was deployed on the main roads.

"We are waiting outside Lakhimpur Kheri. We have been prevented by the police from entering. We have come here to meet the victims of the violence," Congress national secretary Dheeraj Gurjar told PTI over the phone at 4.30 am.

Gandhi's convoy was earlier briefly stopped by Uttar Pradesh Police officials in Lucknow, where the Congress general secretary had arrived on Sunday night, within a few hours of violence being reported during an anti-farm laws protest here.

Mobile internet services have been suspended in parts of Lakhimpur district, where restrictions under CrPC section 144 -- which prohibits assembly of four or more people -- has also been imposed, according to officials.

The UP Police took to Twitter early Monday to describe the incident as "unfortunate" and said eight casualties have been reported so far as per the district administration.

"ADG LO, ACS Agriculture, IG Range & Commissioner are on the spot & situation is under control. Adequate deployment has been done to prevent any untoward incident," it added.

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The violence that erupted between the farmers and BJP workers in Uttar Pradesh sparked massive outrage among several political leaders including Priyanka Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav. Earlier today, Gandhi and Yadav were detained for trying to enter the Lakhimpur violence area. Eight people were killed on Sunday as violence erupted during a farmers' protest, claiming the lives of both farmers and BJP workers ahead of a visit to Lakhimpur by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.
Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) national president Naresh Tikait has asked BJP workers not to visit the rural areas of Uttar Pradesh, saying farmers are angry over the violence that broke out in Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday.

Addressing a kisan panchayat at the BKU headquarters in Sisoli on Sunday night, he alleged that the BJP was trying to defame the farmers' agitation by provoking violence.

He asked the BJP workers not to visit the rural areas to avoid any untoward incident.

The remarks came after eight people were killed on Sunday as violence erupted during a farmers' protest, claiming the lives of both farmers and BJP workers ahead of a visit to Lakhimpur by UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

Also read: Lakhimpur Kheri: Congress demands dismissal of MoS Ajay Mishra

Four of the dead were people in the cars, apparently a part of a convoy of BJP workers who had come to welcome the UP minister. They were allegedly thrashed to death. The four others were farmers, officials said.

Farmer leaders had claimed that the minister's son Ashsish Mishra was in one of the cars which they alleged knocked down some protesters who were opposing the deputy CM's visit.

However, Ajay Mishra said he and his son were not present at the spot as alleged by some farmer leaders and he has photo and video evidence to prove it.

Meanwhile, irate BKU workers staged a dharna against the Lakhimpur Kheri incident on Sunday night and blocked a road in Shamli district.

The protesters submitted a memorandum to the Shamli district magistrate demanding action against Ashsish Mishra.

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The Congress on Monday demanded the immediate dismissal of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra and the arrest of his son who has been named in the FIR by Uttar Pradesh Police after the death of eight persons including four farmers in violent clashes in Lakhimpur Kheri.

The party also demanded the immediate release of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who they alleged has been illegally detained by the Uttar Pradesh Police.

The Congress said it would hold protests outside the offices of district magistrates in all districts of the country on Tuesday to protest against incident.

"We demand that union minister Ajay Mishra should be dismissed immediately and his son be arrested forthwith. We also demand the immediate release of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who has been illegally detained. We also demand action against the policemen who misbehaved with her," Congress leader Rajiv Shukla told reporters.

There should be a probe on how other people died in the violence and farmers should not held responsible, he said.

Also read: Lakhimpur Kheri: Opposition slams UP govt for 'throttling democracy,' not allowing leaders to visit aggrieved families

The Congress leader claimed that Priyanka Gandhi has been detained illegally and she should be released immediately and allowed to go to Lakhimpur Kheri and meet the affected farmers.

Shukla said Priyanka Gandhi wanted to meet the affected families and should have been allowed as we never stopped anyone when our government was in power. It is wrong to stop politicians from visiting the affected families, he said.

"Chief Minister of Punjab Charanjit Singh Channi and Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel should also be allowed to visit the affected families," Shukla said.

Priyanka Gandhi was earlier stopped in Lucknow and then at Sitapur and detained illegally, he alleged, adding that the police did not relent and misbehaved and took her away.

Her husband Robert Vadra also said that Priyanka Gandhi would not return till she met the victims and their families and they get justice.

He said there is no warrant or documentary evidence to stop Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. They will meet the families of the victims and she will not relent, he claimed.

Baghel, who has not been allowed to visit Uttar Pradesh by the state government, said, "This is the real face of BJP that they want to crush the farmers and kill them. The BJP now stands fully exposed as they are anti-farmers."

Read | Nobody takes responsibility of unfortunate incidents: Supreme Court on Lakhimpur Kheri violence

Shukla said, "We demand from prime minister and chief minister of Uttar Pradesh very strict action against the culprits in Lakhimpur Kheri. A strong message should go that the government is not against the farmers of the country. "

"The farmers are being suppressed, harassed, tortured and are being killed. They are not allowed to speaking and their voice is being suppressed, which is very unfortunate in a democracy," he said.

Those farmers who died should be given compensation by the government of India and a thorough probe be initiated to find out who killed the other four in the violence in Lakhimpur Kheri, the Congress leader said.

Announcing a country-wide agitation, he said the Congress will also gherao the offices of district magistrates in every district of the country on Tuesday.

"Now the entire Congress is standing in support of farmers," Shukla said.

Read | Lakhimpur violence: FIR against MoS Ajay Mishra's son, others

Eight people were killed on Sunday as violence erupted during a farmers' protest, claiming the lives of both farmers and BJP workers ahead of a visit to Lakhimpur by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

Four of the dead were people in the cars, apparently a part of a convoy of BJP workers who had come to welcome the UP minister. They were allegedly thrashed to death. The four others were farmers, officials said.

Farmer leaders had claimed that the minister's son Ashsish Mishra was in one of the cars which they alleged knocked down some protesters who were opposing the deputy CM's visit.

However, Ajay Mishra said he and his son were not present at the spot as alleged by some farmer leaders and he has photo and video evidence to prove it.

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A host of opposition leaders on Sunday congratulated Mamata Banerjee on her landslide victory in the Bhabanipur bypoll with a record margin of 58,835 votes.

Top Congress leaders were, however, silent on her victory. The party had not put up its candidate against her in the bypoll.

NCP supremo Sharad Pawar tweeted, "Sincere congratulations to the Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee on her victory in the Bhabanipur bypoll."

Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin also congratulated Banerjee for her "resounding victory".

"The massive mandate reconfirms the unassailable confidence that the people of West Bengal have reposed on you," he said.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren also congratulated the Trinamool Congress supremo and said that her resounding victory is a statement of will and resolve to protect democratic interests.

Read | Mamata Banerjee to retain CM crown, sweeps Bhabanipur with record margin of 58,832 votes

Congress leader Anand Sharma was the only one in the party who congratulated Banerjee.

"Heartiest congratulations to Mamata Banerjee for the emphatic victory. A vindication again of her popular support and people's trust in her leadership," he said on Twitter.

Five months after spearheading TMC to a landslide win in the assembly election, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee scored a personal point with a massive victory on Sunday in the Bhabanipur by-poll.

Her victory, which came after her defeat in Nandigram in assembly elections held earlier this year, was expected by most analysts.

Banerjee secured 85,263 votes. Her nearest rival, BJP's Priyanka Tibrewal, garnered 26,428 votes, while CPI(M)'s Srijib Biswas polled 4,226 votes, the Election Commission said.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other party leaders reached the Lakhimpur border early Monday but alleged they were not allowed to meet the victims of the violence that erupted during a farmers' protest and claimed eight lives a day earlier.

Priyanka Gandhi, who is accompanied by party leader Deepender Singh Hooda among others, had to take alternative routes to reach the bordering Hargaon area in Saitapur as heavy security was deployed on the main roads amid tension in the violence-hit region of Lakhimpur.

Also Read | Lakhimpur Kheri: Ajay Mishra says 3 BJP workers and driver lynched, stone-pelting led to car accident

We are waiting outside Lakhimpur Kheri. We have been prevented by the police from entering. We have come here to meet the victims of the violence, Congress national secretary Dheeraj Gurjar told PTI over the phone at 4.30 am.

Priyanka Gandhi's convoy was earlier briefly stopped by the Uttar Pradesh Police officials in Lucknow, where the Congress general secretary had arrived on Sunday night, within a few hours of violence being reported during an anti-farm laws protest here.

Meanwhile, mobile internet services were suspended in parts of the violence-hit district, where restrictions under CrPC section 144 -- which prohibits assembly of four or more people -- have also been imposed, according to officials.

The UP police took to Twitter early Monday to describe the incident as unfortunate and said eight casualties have been reported so far as per the district administration.

ADG LO, ACS Agriculture, IG Range & Commissioner are on the spot & situation is under control. Adequate deployment has been done to prevent any untoward incident, it added.

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Rajya Sabha member and AICC Spokesperson Dr Amee Yagnik said even though 14 crore persons have lost their jobs in the country in the last one and a half years, the Narendra Modi -led government has failed to bring out any schemes to address their issues.

The government and Prime Minister Modi have failed to utter a single word on bringing these workers who lost their jobs back to the employment portal, she told mediapersons here on Monday.

Yagnik alleged that the non-action by the Modi-led government has ruined the livelihood of small businesses, MSME sectors, thus resulting in unemployment of a large section of the youth. Looking at the statistics on unemployment makes one wonder whether the Modi-led government has taken a contract to ensure that the youth are totally ruined in the country. The MSME sector, considered as the backbone of the country, is going to be finished in the hands of the government, she alleged.

Read more: Employment increases by 8.5 mn in September: CMIE

She asked whether the government has any vision for the unemployed youth in the country. Aditionally, she sought to know why the prime minister failed to address the topic of unemployment in his Mann ki Baat series.

She demanded a sitting Supreme Court judge probe into the alleged bribery case involving ecommerce firm Amazon and demanded a response from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue of national security.

The Rajya Sabha member accused PM Modi of promoting multinational companies at the cost of the country's small businesses and sought to know whether the recent report of Amazon spending Rs 8,546 crore as legal fee was for a change in the government's policy that directly benefited the ecommerce giant at the cost of India's small retailers.

She accused the Union government of being involved in the selling India's assets created in the last 70 years, shutting down the livelihood of small businesses and taking away opportunities of the youth.

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Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav was detained on Monday as he sat on a dharna outside his Vikramaditya Marg residence in Lucknow after he was not allowed to go to Lakhimpur.

The SP chief had announced plans to visit Lakhimpur Kheri, where eight people were killed on Sunday as violence erupted during a farmers' protest ahead of a visit by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

On Monday morning, security was beefed up outside his home and police trucks placed to block the road and restrict any movement, following which he sat on the dharna with party leaders Ram Gopal Yadav, MLC Anand Bhadauria and others.

Also Read  Lakhimpur violence: Priyanka detained, case filed against minister's son, 14 others

Hundreds of party workers also gathered outside the house, and a heavy police force was deployed in the area.

"Vehicles are being run over those who raise their voices. We want the arrest of the minister and his son in the Lakhimpur incident," Akhilesh Yadav told reporters here.

A police jeep parked in front of the Gautam Palli police station near the place where Akhilesh Yadav sat on a dharna was set on fire allegedly by party workers.

SP leaders, however, claimed that the police torched their own vehicle.

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Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait on Monday demanded that Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra be sacked and that his son be arrested in connection with the death of farmers during a protest here.

He also demanded Rs one crore compensation and a government job for the family members of the deceased farmers.

"After our demands were met, then only will we cremate the (farmers)," he said at a press conference here.

Read more: Lakhimpur Kheri violence: Akhilesh Yadav taken into custody over sit-in protest

Eight people were killed on Sunday as violence erupted during a farmers' protest, claiming the lives of both farmers and BJP workers ahead of a visit to Lakhimpur by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

Four of the dead were people in the cars, apparently a part of a convoy of BJP workers who had come to welcome the UP minister. They were allegedly thrashed to death.The four others were farmers, officials said.

Farmer leaders had claimed that the minister's son Ashsish Mishra was in one of the cars which they alleged knocked down some protesters who were opposing the deputy CM's visit.

However, Ajay Mishra said he and his son were not present at the spot as alleged by some farmer leaders and he has photo and video evidence to prove it.

During the press conference here, farmers also alleged that Ashish Mishra opened fire on farmers.

Asked about certain comments made by Ajay Mishra in purported videos that have surfaced on social media, Tikait said the atmosphere in the region was being vitiated over the last 10 days.

Mobile internet services have been suspended in parts of the violence-hit district, where restrictions under CrPC section 144, which prohibits assembly of four or more people, has also been imposed, according to officials.

The UP Police took to Twitter early on Monday to describe the incident as unfortunate and said eight casualties have been reported till now as per the district administration.

ADG LO, ACS Agriculture, IG Range & Commissioner are on the spot & situation is under control. Adequate deployment has been done to prevent any untoward incident, it added.

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As a host of senior opposition leaders were detained while trying to visit Lakhimpur Kheri, where eight persons, including four farmers, were killed in violence during a protest by the farmers, the administration and the farmer leaders reached a compromise after the state government announced a compensation of Rs 50 lakh to the next of the kin of the deceased, ordered a probe by a retired High Court judge and lodged a case of murder against union minister Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra, who was accused of running over four farmers.

Additional director general (ADG) law and order, Prashant Kumar said in Lakhimpur Kheri on Monday that the farmer leaders had agreed to cremate the bodies of the four farmers and call off their agitation.

Kumar, who addressed a joint press conference with BKU leader Rakesh Tikait, said that one member, each from the families of the deceased, would be given a government job and the accused persons would be arrested within eight days.

Also Read | Lakhimpur Kheri: Ajay Mishra says 3 BJP workers and driver lynched, stone-pelting led to car accident

He said that no untoward incident was reported from anywhere in the district since Monday night and that security personnel were patrolling the violence torn Tikonia town, where the incident had happened. Seven persons have so far been arrested in connection with the violence.

Ajay Mishra, however, demanded registration of cases against the farmers also claiming that they had killed three BJP workers and the driver of the vehicle carrying them during the violence.

''I suspect that there were some militants and terrorists in the mob....BJP workers were attacked with lathis and swords...they were lynched to death,'' Mishra alleged.

''Though my son was not present on the spot...he too would have been killed had he been there,'' he remarked.

Also Read | Eight dead in UP violence; BKU claims four farmers 'crushed to death' by union minister's convoy

Earlier several opposition leaders, including Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav, BSP general secretary S.C.Mishra and others, were either arrested on the way to Lakhimpur Kheri or kept under house arrest to prevent them from going there.

Priyanka, who was arrested late on Sunday night near Hargaon and kept at a PAC guest house, alleged that she was 'pushed' and 'manhandled' by the security personnel.

The state government also denied permission for aircrafts carrying Chattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and Punjab deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Randhawa to land at Lucknow airport.

Farmers, however, blocked several highways in Pilibhit, Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar and other places and damaged some vehicles in Lucknow.

Eight persons, including at least four farmers, were killed at Tikonia in the district after hundreds of farmers tried to waive black flag and block the visit of Ajai Mishra and UP deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya to attend a function on Monday.

The farmer leaders claimed that four farmers were killed after being run over by a vehicle from the union minister's convoy and around a dozen others injured. They also alleged that the vehicle was being driven by Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra.

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Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other party leaders were detained in Sitapur on Monday, with the party alleging they were not allowed to meet the victims of the violence that erupted during a farmers' protest in Lakhimpur Kheri a day earlier.

Stopping them in such a way is "undemocratic", Congress state President Ajay Kumar Lallu told PTI.

The Congress leaders had to take alternative routes to reach the bordering Hargaon area in Sitapur as heavy security was deployed on the main roads amid tension in the violence-hit region of Lakhimpur.

Eight people were killed on Sunday as violence erupted during a farmers' protest, claiming the lives of both farmers and BJP workers ahead of a visit to Lakhimpur by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, officials said.

"We are waiting outside Lakhimpur Kheri. We have been prevented by the police from entering. We have come here to meet the victims of the violence," Congress national secretary Dheeraj Gurjar told PTI over the phone at 4.30 am.

Also Read  Lakhimpur Kheri: Ajay Mishra says 3 BJP workers and driver lynched, stone-pelting led to car accident

The security outside former Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav's residence at Vikramaditya Marg has been beefed up ahead of his scheduled visit to Lakhimpur Kheri.

Police force deployed outside former Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav's residence at Vikramaditya Marg ahead of his scheduled visit to Lakhimpur Kheri where 8 people including 4 farmers died in clashes yesterday pic.twitter.com/iQf0zmCrAp  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) October 4, 2021

Demanding a judicial probe in the violence, BSP supremo Mayawati said her party's national general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra was stopped in Lucknow to prevent him from reaching Lakhimpur.

"BSP's national general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP S C Mishra was placed under house arrest late last night at his residence in Lucknow. It is continuing so that the party delegation under his leadership cannot reach Lakhimpur Kheri to get the correct report of the violence. This is very sad and deplorable," Mayawati said in a tweet in Hindi.

"Due to the involvement of two BJP ministers in the Kheri case, a proper government investigation of this incident, justice to the victims and strict punishment to the guilty does not seem possible. Therefore, this incident in which eight people have been confirmed dead so far requires a judicial inquiry. This is the demand of the BSP," she said.

Reports said that the violence broke out after two SUVs allegedly ran over four anti-farm law protesters over a statement made by Minister of State Ajay Mishra Teni, who was on his way to his village after a programme for UP Deputy CM Keshav Maurya in Lakhimpur city.

After the incident, angry farmers who were present at the spot allegedly torched a vehicle belonging to the ministers convoy.

Mobile internet services have been suspended in parts of the violence-hit Lakhimpur district, where restrictions under CrPC section 144 -- which prohibits assembly of four or more people -- has also been imposed, according to officials.

UP DGP Mukul Goel said a total of eight persons died in the incident. Out of the eight, four were farmers and the remaining four were others who were in the vehicles, he said, assuring that action would be taken against the culprits.



(With PTI inputs)

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The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a plea by Supertech Ltd for modification in the top court's direction to demolish its twin 40-storey towers in Noida for dilution of safety standards, and other guidelines, affecting the quality of life of flat buyers.

Supertech had moved the court seeking direction to allow it to only partially demolish 224 flats of one tower, along with its community area on the ground floor to conform to the building norms.

A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and B V Nagarathna said that granting such relief was in the nature of a review of the judgement passed by the top court.

"This application styled as miscellaneous applications or applications for clarifications in the guise for review cannot be countenanced," the court said, after hearing senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi for the developer.

The bench noted that the August 31 judgment directing the demolition of twin towers had specifically affirmed the directions issued by the Allahabad High Court.

"In essence, what the applicant seeks is the direction for the demolition of T 16 and T 17 should be substituted by a retention of T 16 in its entirety and a slicing of a portion of T 17. Clearly, a grant of such a relief is in the nature of a review of the judgement of this court," the bench said.

Supertech Ltd, in its plea, claimed due to the proximity of Tower-17 (Ceyane) with the other residential towers in its Emerald Court project, the process of demolition by blowing through explosives cannot be carried out, rather it would have to be done brick by brick.

The real estate firm said the proposed modifications, if allowed, would save crores of resources from going to waste in the construction of the Towers T-16 (Apex) and T-17 (Ceyane).

In its August 31 judgment, the Supreme Court had also directed for a refund to the flat purchasers. It had ordered prosecution of errant NOIDA and real estate company officials for their nefarious complicity in the construction of towers.

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The Supreme Court on Monday decided to examine a larger constitutional issue if there can be an absolute right to protest by the farmers against the three agriculture laws, when the statutes have already been stayed by the top court.

Attorney General K K Venugopal submitted the court should make it clear that the farmers cannot continue the protests so that unfortunate incidents like one happened on Sunday at Lakhimpur Kheri can be avoided. As many as eight people, including four farmers, died in the violence at Lakhimpur Kheri.

"Nobody takes any responsibility when loss of lives and properties take place," a bench presided over by Justice A K Khanwilkar said.

Read | Lakhimpur violence: FIR against MoS Ajay Mishra's son, others

Taking up a plea by 'Kisan Mahapanchayat' for permission to hold 'Satyagrah', the bench asked, "There is nothing to be implemented. What are the farmers' protesting about?"

"No one other than the court can decide the validity of the farm laws. When that is so, and when farmers are in court challenging the laws, why protest on street?" the bench asked.

The top court put these questions to advocate Ajay Choudhary, appearing for the farmers body, seeking permission to hold 'Satyagrah' at Jantar Mantar against the three farm laws.

"When you have already filed a petition before a court challenging the Act or action of the executive, how can you then protest? Who are you protesting against? How can the executive allow these protests? What is the validity of these protests?" the bench further asked him.

The counsel, for his part, said debate, dialogue and protest can simultaneously go on in such matters.

"We are on principle, once you go to court and challenge executive action, how can the same party say, that matter is before court, nevertheless I will still protest," the bench said.

"Why protest when the law is not in force at all? And the court has kept the laws in abeyance. Law is made by Parliament, not government," the bench further said.

The counsel said a petition has already been filed before the Rajasthan High Court against the laws.

"It is still intriguing, there is no Act in place at the moment. The act has been stayed by the court. The government has assured they wont give effect to it, protest is for what?" the bench asked again.

The bench said it would transfer the pending matter from Rajasthan High Court to the top court and decide the validity of the protest.

It asked the Centre to file its response and put the matter for consideration on October 21.

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Former Cyberabad police commissioner V C Sajjanar appeared before the Justice Sirpurkar commission on Monday. The senior IPS officer was asked to attend the probe again on Thursday.

The apex court-appointed panel is investigating the police encounter killing of the four men accused of rape-murder of a young veterinarian in Hyderabad in December 2019.

About 10 Cyberabad cops who were present in the encounter incident would be questioned later this month.

Sajjanar was then hailed by the public as a hero for the swift justice delivered by the Telangana cops. In a reshuffle recently, the K Chandrasekhar Rao government has posted him as the Managing Director of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation.

The Supreme Court had constituted the three-member panel headed by former SC judge Justice VS Sirpurkar, days after the encounter. The incident created a sensation nationwide and was challenged by civil liberties activists as extra-judicial killings.

Though Sajjanar attended the proceedings on Monday, as summoned by the panel, his questioning could not be taken up as the recording of some witnesses statements took time.

The commission was originally required to submit its report by August last year but its work was largely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. On 3 August, its term was extended again by another six months by the apex court which observed that the probe has been going on and on.

The inquiry panel's proceedings are taking place in hybrid form, with both physical and virtual appearances because of the ongoing pandemic.

While the commission members are logging in from Nagpur, Pune, New Delhi; all the witnesses, advocates and persons served with notices, others are appearing physically in the commission's office in the Telangana high court premises.

In the last two months, the commission recorded the statements of Rachakonda commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat, who headed a state government's probe into the encounter, few police officials, families of the four accused, relatives of the murdered girl and some witnesses.

The Case

Mohammed alias Arif (26) a lorry driver and A-1, and three others  Gollu Shiva, Gollu Naveen and Ch Chennakesavulu  all in twenties and hailing from Maktal in south Telangana were shot dead by the Cyberabad police, just over a week after the gruesome rape-murder on 27-28 November night at Shamshabad on the Hyderabad-Bangalore highway. The suspects were arrested on 29 November and were produced before a court.

In the pre-dawn hours of 6 December 2019, the men were taken to the Chatanpally underpass where the body of Disha, as the vet was later referred to, was found in half burnt condition.

Cyberabad police commissioner V C Sajjanar had claimed that the accused, taken there to recover the victims mobile and other belongings, snatched two weapons and started firing at the police team.

We warned them to surrender but the accused did not heed, forcing us to open fire. They were later found dead with bullet injuries, Sajjanar had stated.

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Kerala's former health minister K K Shailaja is seemingly becoming a corrective force within the ruling CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) as she has been pointing out flaws of the government on key issues such as Covid-19 relief measures and inadequate higher secondary seats.

During the second session of the present Kerala assembly in July, Shailaja had said that the government's support measures to various sections of the society who were badly hit by lockdown were not sufficient. This remark came at a time when the Pinarayi Vijayan government was trying to resist criticism from the opposition parties in this regard.

On Monday, during the opening day of the third session of the assembly, Shailaja raised a calling attention motion on the difficulties being raised by students who passed the tenth standard examination in getting higher-secondary admission. It came close on the heels of the Congress-led United Democratic Front also raising the same issue and staging a walkout.

As health minister in the first Pinarayi Vijayan government, Shailaja had won much praise for handling of Nipah outbreak and the initial phase of Covid-19. She also received international recognitions. Her popularity was much evident as she won this assembly election with a record margin of 60,963 votes and some pre-poll surveys had even projected her as a probable Chief Minister. But she was denied a place in the second Pinarayi Vijayan cabinet, on a general policy of the CPM to bring in new faces. The move had even invited much criticism against the CPM leadership, particularly against Vijayan.

For these reasons, the present critical approach of Shailaja in the assembly against the government is attaining much political significance.

Owing to the liberal conduct of the SSLC examination due the Covid-19 situation, a high number of students passed the examination this time and hence even those who secured 'A-plus' in all subjects were now finding it difficult to get admission in desired subjects. While the Opposition raised the issue in the House through an adjournment motion on Monday, Kerala Education Minister maintained that there would be over 30,000 excess higher secondary seats once the admissions were over.

But the opposition pointed out that many students who secured high marks in the tenth-standard were not getting admission to the desired streams and hence the allocation of higher secondary streams should be reworked.

Shailaja also raised a similar demand in her calling attention motion that followed, thereby backing the opposition party's contention indirectly.

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Eliciting support from Opposition-ruled states in his governments fight against NEET, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin has written to 12 of his counterparts stressing the need to put up a united effort to restore the primacy of State Governments in administering the education sector.

Stalin sent letters to the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Jharkhand, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, West Bengal, and Goa on October 1. A copy of the letter was released to the media on Monday. Except for Goa, ruled by BJP, all other states have non-BJP governments.

In his letter, Stalin said Tamil Nadu has always been opposed to conducting of NEET for admission into medical and dental colleges and referred to a report submitted by Justice (retired) A K Rajan committee on the social impact of the exam. The Chief Minister also enclosed a copy of the report to his counterparts.

Read | NEET or not: Calls to scrap exam gain traction

The Committee was also requested to suggest alternative admission procedures which would benefit all students, the feasibility of implementing such alternatives and the legal steps to be undertaken to implement such fair and equitable methods.

NEET is an emotive issue in Tamil Nadu with at least 14 students taking their lives due to fear of appearing for the exam or failing in their attempts to get into medical colleges. The state assembly had last month passed a bill, the second in four years, seeking exemption from NEET for students from the state. However, the Bill needs Presidential assent since education is on the Concurrent List in the Constitution.

Our considered position has always been that the move by the Union Government to introduce NEET goes against the spirit of the federalism and violates the constitutional balance of power by curbing the rights of the State Governments to decide on the method of admission in the medical institutions founded, established and run by them, Stalin said.

Also Read | NEET thwarts medical dream of underprivileged groups: Tamil Nadu panel

Observing that state governments need to assert their constitutional right and position in deciding the method of admission to their higher educational institutions, Stalin asked the Chief Ministers to extend their support in this regard to ensure that the students of the respective states are not put to hardship in obtaining admissions to higher educational institutions.

We need to put up a united effort to restore the primacy of State Governments in administering the education sector, as envisaged in our Constitution. I look forward to your cooperation in this crucial issue, Stalin wrote in the letter. As part of the efforts to drum up support, DMK MPs will meet the 12 Chief Ministers and hand over a report of the Justice Rajan Committee in person.

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Britain's so-called "simplified" international travel system that scraps an amber list of medium Covid-19 risk countries took effect on Monday, but it offers no benefits for vaccinated Indians travelling to the UK.

The UK angered India by not recognising fully vaccinated Indian travellers as part of the new rules announced last month, despite India-made Covishield among its listed globally eligible vaccine formulations.

India, in retaliation, imposed its reciprocal measures on all British travellers  irrespective of vaccination status  requiring the same level of PCR tests and 10-day quarantine at declared destination, also effective from Monday.

Also Read | UK govt's Covid norms for Indians lack scientific basis: AIIMS Chief

"We continue to work with international partners, including India, to roll out our phased approach," a UK government spokesperson said.

The UK's new system covers over 50 countries, including the US and European Union (EU) member-nation plus 18 others such as Canada, Japan and the UAE. Travellers from these countries can now travel to England without needing to complete a pre-departure test, a day 8 test or enter a 10-day self-isolation period. They require just a single PCR test on the second day after arrival in the UK.

"This builds on the UK governments successful pilot phase with Europe and the US, and brings the total number of countries in scope of the policy to over 50, with more countries and territories being added in the coming weeks, the Department for Transport said.

India not being on the list of eligible countries means travellers are required to undertake all three tests  pre-departure, day 2 and day 8  and self-isolate at a declared address, with the option of "test to release" from isolation after a negative PCR test on day 5. This effectively remains unchanged from Indias amber list status already in place.

Travellers from countries on the red list, around 54 in all, continue to be required to undertake a mandatory 10-day quarantine at a government-designated hotel, a requirement the UK government is said to be considering scrapping for a majority on the red list later this month.

From the middle of this month, the British government also plans to replace PCR tests with a cheaper lateral flow test for vaccinated arrivals. However, the timeframe and details of this change remain unclear.

Also Read | UK updates travel advisory for its nationals going to India; says in 'close contact' with Indian authorities

Meanwhile, UK government sources said over the weekend that the extension of vaccine certification to additional countries will be reviewed approximately every three weeks and that it continues to engage with the Indian government on the issue.

"The UK is continuing to work on expanding the policy to countries and territories across the globe in a phased approach. We are continuing to engage with the government of India on technical cooperation to expand UK recognition of vaccine certification to people vaccinated by a relevant public health body in India, sources said.

"We are working with an array of international partners and look forward to continuing the expansion of the policy to countries and territories across the globe in a phased approach. Extension of vaccine certification will be reviewed approximately every three weeks, they added.

The first three-week review mark since the UKs updated travel norms were first announced falls later this week.

"We are accelerating towards a future where travel continues to reopen safely and remains open for good, and todays rule changes are good news for families, businesses and the travel sector, UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said on Monday.

"Our priority remains to protect public health but, with more than 8 in 10 people now fully vaccinated, we are able to take these steps to lower the cost of testing and help the sector to continue in its recovery, he said.

All arrivals into the UK, from any country, continue to be required to fill in a passenger locator form ahead of travel.

Meanwhile, the UK's travel industry has welcomed the government's latest move on easing testing and quarantine restrictions.

Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, which represents UK carriers, said: "Things are moving in the right direction and the removal of these restrictions will make it easier and cheaper for people to travel."

However, he said the UK remained "an outlier on arrivals testing for vaccinated passengers".

Airlines UK hopes to see more countries removed from the red list at the next update and further mutual recognition of vaccine status for those jabbed in other countries, he was quoted as saying by the BBC.

Willie Walsh, head of industry body the International Air Transport Association, welcomed the change as a "positive step", saying the government's testing and quarantine restrictions had been both unscientific and costly.

"People have been led to believe that the risk is people flying into the country. The risk was inside the country," he said.

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No garba, dandiya, cultural events and processions will be allowed during the upcoming Navratri festival in view of the coronavirus pandemic in Maharashtra, particularly in the Mumbai metropolitan region.

The Maharashtra government on Monday come out with dos and donts for the Navratri festival from October 7-15.

Last week, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has issued similar guidelines for the financial capital of Mumbai.

Also read: After 18 months, schools reopen across Maharashtra for physical classes

The government has asked the festival organisers to hold blood donation camps and health awareness programmes vis-a-vis Covid-19 vector-borne diseases like malaria and dengue.

In the guidelines/SOPs, the government capped the height of Durga idols to four feet for public celebrations and two feet for the ones that would be installed in homes during the nine-day festival.

All attempts should be made to avoid crowds during aarti and other rituals -- and a gathering of more than five people is not allowed during the processions of the Goddess.

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As Assembly elections to five crucial states, including Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, are drawing close, there is a subtle shift in the Centre's handling of the farmers' agitation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently spoke on the issue by training his guns on the opposition parties, mainly the Congress. Without naming anyone, he accused the opposition of "intellectual dishonesty" in not backing the government on reforms in the agriculture sector. These parties wanted farm reforms as much but did not dare to go through with it, he charged, indicating that the government is in no mood to repeal the three laws that farmers say will hit their livelihoods.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in opposition is different from the BJP in power. The party resisted nearly every socio-economic rights-based reform from the opposition benches, the Food Security Act, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), the Goods and Services Tax (GST), or Aadhar digital identification. In power, the party not only adopted the measures but went overboard with them. For every wrong, the party blames previous Congress-led regimes, and for every right, it covers itself with glory.

For a sector reeling under the impact of economic liberalisation of the 1990s, agriculture reforms should have been gradual and after due diligence. But the intention to bring the three reform-oriented laws was abruptly announced when the country was reeling under the Covid-19 pandemic and then introduced through ordinances, which was questionable. Much has been written about the manner in which the Bills were rushed through in Parliament without the scrutiny of the concerned committees, which is the norm.

Also read: Union Minister Ajay Mishra allegedly threatened farmers before Lakhimpur Kheri violence

When farmers decided to take matters into their hands and announced an indefinite agitation seeking repeal of the three farm laws which they say will hit their livelihoods, the government initially engaged with them. Meetings were held at the level of Union ministers without yielding results. Farmers wanted the laws to be scrapped, which the government was not willing to do. They sought a meeting with the PM, but government sources said that he could not have intervened unless there was a meeting ground. In the meantime, the Supreme Court stayed the implementation of the Acts.

The BJP's long-time alliance partner, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), came out of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), and its lone minister in the Union cabinet resigned. Farmers are a constituency no political party can afford to lose, and with the then Punjab CM Amarinder Singh backing the agitation, the SAD could not have been far behind. Remember, farmers gave a beleaguered United Progressive Alliance a second consecutive term in 2009 after the Manmohan Singh government came up with a debt waiver package for them. Why go far? Even in the previous Assembly elections in 2017, the BJP, following the footsteps of the then ruling Congress party in Punjab, announced a last-minute Rs 36,000 crore loan waiver scheme for UP farmers to win the election. Official data shows that almost 50 per cent of farmers in the country have unpaid loans against them.

By its actions, the BJP seems to be making the going tough for itself this time around as well as it faces Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur early next year. Apart from the anti-incumbency factor, the party will have to contend with farmers' ire at the hustings.

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha, an amalgamation of several farmers organisations, has committed itself to non-violence and resisted retaliation in the face of repression, be it the lathi charge at Karnal in Haryana last year month or the recent mowing down of four farmers at a protest in Lakhimpur Kheri. It has stood firm and united against all odds.

Also read: Lakhimpur Kheri: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on 'hunger strike' following detention

The BJP is worried now and forced to rethink its strategy is the massive mobilisation of people at the last month's Mahapanchayat (assembly of village panchayats) in UP's Muzaffarnagar, the bastion of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU), a major component of the Morcha. This was followed by the very public anointing of Jayant Chaudhary as the successor to his father, union minister Ajit Singh. The latter held considerable sway in the sugarcane belt of western UP. This will be the first election that Jayant will face without his father. He has the support of farmers and is likely to form an alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) for the forthcoming elections.

It may be recalled that the BKU co-founder Mahendra Singh Tikait enjoyed a rapport with Ajit Singh's father, Chaudhary Charan Singh, the former prime minister and a towering farm leader. In 2014, Rakesh Tikait had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha election from Amroha on Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) ticket. There is a symbiotic relationship between the two, which the BJP managed to breach in the 2014 Modi wave.

However, this time, the BJP will have much to worry about as agitating farmers have declared that they will align against it in the upcoming elections. Whether farmer leaders will themselves enter the electoral fray and put up candidates for direct contests is unclear. Still, there are indications that they will back non-BJP like-minded contestants. In UP, for instance, if Muslims and Jats can bury the hatchet over the 2013 communal riots in Muzaffarnagar and rise as a farming community, it will add to the BJP's woes.

The Lakhimpur Kheri incident has arrayed opposition parties against the ruling party. Leaders from across the political spectrum have condemned the incident leading to the arrest of the main accused. The general opinion is that the PM must rein in political entities indulging in provocative speeches and acts against farmers whose contribution kept the economy going through the devastating Covid-19 lockdown months.

Signals from the recent eventsMahapanchayat at Muzaffarnagar, Bharat bandh and black flag protests in Haryana and UPindicate that farmers are gearing up for a major confrontation with the central government over their demands. If the government does not take timely steps for damage control, the Lakhimpur Kheri incident can fan unrest.

Considering that the farming households comprise more than 50 per cent of the rural population in the major states slated for polls, the Centre needs to evaluate the situation afresh and come up with solutions urgently. A possible hike in the direct income support under Prime Minister Kisan Samman Nidhi may not be enough. The decision will primarily have to be on the three new farm laws and assured payment of support price for agriculture produce.

The way BJP-opposed parties are openly warming up to the peasants' cause - the RLD and the SP in UP, Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana, SAD and Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab and the Congress and its allies - will hit the BJP's prospects in the forthcoming elections. Farm laws are bound to become the central issue and farmers the talking point.

(The writer is a Delhi-based senior journalist.)
The story so far. On September 16, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seized a gargantuan consignment of three tonnes of refined heroin from an Ahmedabad warehouse. This is the biggest catch ever in the documented history of opiate smuggling and left drug enforcement agencies searching for many answers to a plethora of questions. Former finance minister P Chidambaram's views expressed in his weekly column that this large consignment to India could not have come to Mundra Port without the involvement of people in high places suggests the enormity of the crime or should we call it a scandal.

A lower court in Bhuj, Gujarat, has asked some pointed questions from the DRI. They follow an interesting trajectory and have disturbing implications for the port owners, too: How will the Mundra Adani Port benefit from the consignment landing there? How did such a big heroin haul land at the Adani-owned Mundra Port when the final destination was Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh? Were the systems of Mundra Port lax that encouraged the opium smugglers to direct their precious booty to this western Gujarat port?

Interestingly, this container ostensibly carrying talcum rocks left Afghanistan much before Kabul fell to the Taliban on August 15? The big question remains: who in India had the financial depth to pay off millions of dollars or thereabouts to the suppliers of this high-quality three-tonnes of heroin? Usually, drug seizures by enforcement agencies are a fraction of the total amount that gets smuggled into India, which has claimed itself to be a transit country despite being the only licit producer of opium.

Afghan drugs - a background

Going by this understanding of how much opium and its derivatives have already entered the country? Was the drug cartel populated by warlords aware of the coming of the Taliban and wanted to clean up the fields before the religious extremists that had banned opium cultivation in the past, take over the country? Even Afghanistan's neighbour Iran, which the UNODC considers a major interceptor of opium and its derivatives, has seen a spike in its seizures. Understandably, the Mundra Port shipload of heroin originated from Kandahar and was loaded into two containers at Iran's Bandar Abbas port. An earlier seizure in Mumbai had originated from Iran's Chabahar port, which an Indian company manages. The Iranians have blamed the rise of smuggling on the US occupation of Afghanistan.

There may be some truth in this allegation. The opium cultivation in the country spiked only after the US-led western forces took over Afghanistan in 2001. Strangely, what never gets traction is the complicity of Western powers in the enlargement of poppy plantations in the war-ravaged country. The western media, which monopolised the coverage of Afghanistan, never seriously blamed the occupiers as they went about perpetuating a myth of the country being a "graveyard of empires" when it was, in fact, the graveyard of hope and turned ordinary Afghan farmers as poppy planters and smugglers - all on the wrong side of the law.

The United Kingdom, for instance, policed the opium-growing area of Helmand for more than a decade, but the production zoomed. There are allegations that techniques to boost poppy production were introduced during these years. Similarly, a method to produce methamphetamine, a powerful stimulant, has been introduced in Afghanistan.

After the Taliban were ousted in 2001, poppy cultivation in Afghanistan jumped to 3,400 tonnes in just a space of two years from the low of 180 tonnes. The Taliban had banned opium cultivation, and since then, there has been no looking back. The UNODC reckoned that by 2003 the Afghan drugs were raking in $2.3 billion from growing poppies to trafficking its derivatives. When the time came for the US and international forces to leave Afghanistan this year, the production had reached astronomical levels of 9000+ tonnes.

So desperate were the drug cartels and their western mentors to earn a fast buck before they bid goodbye to Afghanistan that in 2020 the UNODC found that there was a 37 per cent jump in the area under poppy cultivation to 24,400 hectares, with each hectare giving 28 kg of dry opium. The drug mafia is rescuing this bountiful crop of 2020-21 from the Taliban, who ironically are being accused by the West for living off drug proceeds. It's a different matter that there is no evidence to suggest that, and the UNODC reports, over the years, make light of these allegations.

In 2007-08, an international consultant embedded with the Afghan palace shared with this writer the information that unmarked flights routinely left from Kandahar airport carrying poppies or dry opium to undisclosed destinations. There's nothing to suggest that these flights ever discontinued as long as the US was in occupation. The truth that has emerged many times in various US Congressional hearings is that though Washington spent $8 billion to help eradicate opium cultivation in Afghanistan, the US army men were routinely asked to look the other way when they encountered opium farmers or drug lords.

Post-2001 US occupation, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld refused to make drug eradication a cornerstone of US policy on Afghanistan. The country was used by US covert agencies laundering drug money and financing their operations around the world. In the words of an academic, they ran a "Ponzi" scheme in Afghanistan. US government admittedly spent $2 trillion in this landlocked country in the name of stabilizing the country. As stated above, $8 billion in fighting poppy cultivation only helped increase drug production in the country and generated a lot of unaccounted cash to support the many US misadventures. In 2008, UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa claimed that after the collapse of the Lehman Brothers that led to the global meltdown, drug money was used for opening up cash strapped investment banks. Costa said: "In many instances, drug money is currently the only liquid investment capital."

In the backdrop of this understanding, where was the heroin from Mundra destined? And who was putting up the money to pay for the huge consignment? The country may need urgent answers to these questions.

(The writer is Editor of the Delhi-based magazine, Hardnews)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the authors' own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.
Sri Rama Sene chief Pramod Muthalik, on Monday, said that he would file a case against illegal allotment sites in Davangere.

"If Davangere-Harihar Urban Development Authority Chairman Devaramani Shivakumar has self-respect or shame, he must step down from the post in ten days. If not, Sri Rama Sene would stage a protest in front of the DHUDA office", warned Muthalik.

Speaking to media persons, here on Monday, he stated that the Sene has decided to file a case in the Special Court for People's Representatives in Bengaluru against illegal allotment of residential plots developed by DHUDA in J H Patel lay-out in Davangere in 2017. "Politicians of various parties, bureaucrats have obtained residential plots by furnishing false information to the authority. Despite having houses, sites, they were allotted at the cost of eligible people by using their influence", he alleged.

Slamming BJP leaders, he said despite knowing his corrupt activities, BJP not only brought Devaramani Shivakumar to the party but also made him head of DHUDA to loot money and properties of the government. They are tarnishing the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who does not support corruption.

Referring to the illegal allotment of sites, he said, DHUDA had invited applications for the allotment of 20,000 residential plots in the JH Patel lay-out. But Shivakumar, his brothers Shivaraj, Murugesh, the then Karnataka State Silk Industries Corporation D Basavaraj, his brother D Santosh, his relatives D Ningaraju, D Santosh were allotted sites of various dimensions including 60x40, 50x80. The then DHUDA Chairman J H Ramachandrappa, the then district in-charge Minister S S Mallikarjun, the then MLA H S Shivashankar, the then deputy commissioner D S Ramesh and other officials will be made parties in the case.

He urged the court to award judgement in such illegal allotment of sites at the earliest and provide justice to poor people. He also made it clear that he would approach the court seeking a stay order on the proposed residential lay-out on 53 acres of land at Kundawada in Davangere by DHUDA as it may pave the way for allotment of sites against the norms.

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Demanding the resignation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Misra and UP DyCM Keshav Prasad Maurya over Lakhimpur violence, KPCC president DK Shivakumar lashed out at the BJP over the incident, here Monday.

Addressing a news conference, he condemned the police 'high-handedness' meted to Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi who was detained on her way towards Lakhimpur.

"Those who promised to turn India into a 'Rama Rajya' has turned it into 'Ravana Rajya' today," he said, lashing out at BJP governments at the Centre and in UP.

This is not just the murder of four people. It is the murder of the entire agrarian community of the country. It is the murder of democracy, Shivakumar said.

Also read: Lakhimpur Kheri violence: All you need to know

"We are witnessing the death of democracy in the country. This is autocracy. Such incidents are proof that the country is ruled by a government with Hitler mentality," he said.

Which country are we in? Where is the law? Why was she (Priyanka) stopped from consoling the families of victims? What was her crime? UP CM should answer, he demanded.

BJP government, he said, was worse than the British. "At least they respected non-violent struggle. Today, the situation is so bad that voters have to revolt against an elected government."

Farmers, especially those from North India, have risen up against the government. "The arrest of Priyanka Gandhi is condemnable. The entire country and Congress party are behind her," he said.

Deadline for Mekedatu

Shivakumar set a months' deadline for the state government to start implementing the Mekdatu project. "If there is a double engine government in the state, why has the project not yet started?" he asked.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is acquainted with the law and has said that Tamil Nadu has no right to interfere with the project. However, the state government has not been able to start even the long-pending Mahadayi project due to a dispute with a small state such as Goa, he said.

He accused the government of thwarting a padayatra of farmers demanding the implementation of Mekedatu. If the works are not started in a month, Karnataka Congress will launch agitations across the state, he added.

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The North West business community is unique. Given our proximity to the border, many businesses here straddle two different jurisdictions and face the challenge of contending with contrasting regulatory frameworks daily.

With challenges comes opportunities, however, as employers here look to utilize the vast talent pool available from across the wider region as they bounce-back from the pandemic.

In our experience, many Chamber members are cross border workers themselves, or employ them.

Our strong relationship with our colleagues at the Letterkenny Chamber reflects the shared goals and objectives that we hope to achieve through cross-border collaboration.

To promote economic prosperity across the North West City Region, though, it is imperative that tax regulations are fair, harmonised, and grant cross-border workers the flexibility they need to meet the demands of the local economy.

This flexibility, however, is currently not attainable. Irish home-working tax rules mean that, if Republic of Ireland-based cross-border workers perform any work-related activities from home, be it checking an email or taking a phone call, their income faces a double tax.

This means that cross-border workers often must take unnecessary, often long, commutes into the office to perform ta task that would have taken mere minutes at home.

These personal tax rules were suspended for the pandemic but are set to re-introduced from January 2022.

The double tax burden for those who work remotely makes it very difficult for local employers to attract and retain skilled workers who live on their doorstep and must be addressed urgently.

Home-working flexibility is now a mainstay of modern working practises, and despite urgent calls from the Cross Border Workers Coalition, border businesses may be forced to deny remote working opportunities to their ROI-based employees from next year. This simply does not work for our local business community.

Border areas like the North West have proven very attractive for Foreign Direct Investment in recent years.

From FinTech to cyber security, we continue to build on the Letterkenny-Derry digital corridor which has brought many high-paying jobs and opportunities for skilled workers across the island.

Yet, the attractiveness of border areas as an FDI location could be jeopardised by these home-working tax rules, as they do not allow for flexible working practises that reflect modern, international jobs.

Irish Budget Day is October 12, and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe TD has the chance to introduce permanent, positive change for cross-border workers across the North West.

A long-term solution to this cross-border tax issue will not only incentivise companies to invest in our border regions, but will also encourage remote workers to return to the North West, spending their disposable income in local shops, restaurants and boosting the local economy.

The Londonderry Chamber supports the proposals of the Cross Border Workers Coalition and calls for urgent action from the Irish Government to address these damaging cross-border tax laws.
Three Derry based community arts projects has received a timely funding boost.

The three arts projects benefitting from the Arts Council's, Arts and Older People Programme, include An Gaelaras, Bogside and Brandywell Health Forum and Derry City and Strabane District Council.

An Gaelaras was awarded 8,960 and will deliver their project entitled, Meadows of Song & Dance, to older people in care homes.

The project will deliver a series of sessions in care homes which will include music, movement, storytelling and sharing memories. The project aims to work with 120+ older people living with dementia and An Gaelaras has identified seven care homes in Derry who all have been integral in developing the project.

Participants will work with three professional artists and there will also be a showcase event for the wider public to attend.

The Bogside and Brandywell Health Forum received 9,000.

The Bogside and Brandywell Health Forum will deliver their project entitled, Older Peoples Connect Programme, from October 2021 until August 2022.

They will work in partnership with five targeted care comes and the Gasyard Centre, Pilots Row, Nerve Centre, and Verbal Arts Centre will all be involved in the delivery of the project to over 300 participants.

The project will involve pottery, digital and beginner art, Halloween and Christmas events and art workshops.

Derry City and Strabane District Council was awarded 9,000.

Derry City and Strabane District Council will deliver their project entitled, HeART of the Sperrins.

The project will target rural areas where arts provision is low or where there is none at all. A range of artforms will be offered and feedback will then design the programme to be delivered within the communities.

The proposal aims to work with 128 older people in the Derry City and Strabane areas over a period of six months

Lorraine Calderwood, Community Development Officer at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, explained how the Arts and Older Peoples Programme is making a difference to the lives of older people across the region.

Research has proven that taking part in arts activities can raise self-esteem, confidence and motivation, as well as aid in relieving stress.

The Arts and Older People Programme is committed to providing meaningful opportunities for our older people to take part in arts activities, enriching their lives for the better.

As we emerge from the extra challenges faced by older people as a result of the pandemic, participating in the arts is now more important than ever.

The arts have a vital role to play in helping older people find their voice thus promoting positive physical and mental health.
Kevin Callaghan completed am MA at the Royal College of Art in 2013, he has a BA from The Crawford College of Art and a Master-craftsman from the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland, he started his art and design education at The Northwest Institute of Further and Higher Education in Derry (thats the connection, ok?).

Kevin currently lives in Glasgow with his studio at The Glasgow Sculpture Studios. He is currently renovating a studio on his family land in Donegal, Ireland.

He exhibits nationally and internationally, showing at the Dublin Castle, The London Art Fair and the Saatchi Gallery with Cynthia Corbett and the Young Master's Art Prize, the Victoria, and Albert Museum What is Luxury with Unknown Fields Division and Toby Smith.

Other shows include GLOBALE: Infosphere ZKM Museum, Karlsruhe, Germany and Van Abbe-museum, Eindhoven. He was selected to represent Ireland in The Ceramic Context Biennale in Bornholm Art Museum in 2018

He collaborated with Dublin architect Peter Carroll from A2 architects at The European Culture Centre in Venice May-Nov 2019, participated in the Landmark series with Sky Arts representing Scotland, commissioned by Sky Arts to produce a piece of sculpture in 14 days.

He also has a solo show in Dec-Jan at Stallan-Brand Gallery in Glasgow 2021 Kevin completed a residency at The Irish Culture Centre in Paris in August 2021.

Are We Here (2021), a site-based, 4.6-meter-tall sculpture by Kevin Callaghan commissioned by Sky Arts on the occasion of the new series Landmark, explores the notion of utopia and our proximity to it?

With an ongoing interest in geometry and the potential for multiple realities, Callaghan invites viewers into a future-minded meditation on hope and potentiality via Are We Here. Are we here?

Its a question that suggests we are on a journey, and, in addition to hunger for our destination, conjures hopehope for real freedom and space to realize our multitude of potentialities.

If here is not yet utopia, it is at least a space where we might imagine, hope for, and build our future.

What local music are you into? Jonny Delaney, Ryan Vail, Orla, And I got a listen To Kwa Daniels new radio show on my way to Belfast airport flying back to Glasgow Inna Rhythm

Apart from the obvious, how have you spent lockdown? When lockdown started my plans to be in Paris on a residency had clearly changed so I began to work extensively on my brand Condie, so that kept me busy for the first lockdown, The second lockdown was crazy busy, after sky arts asked me to apply for the series Landmark, I was one of 18 in the UK and Ireland commissioned by them, I set about designing the piece Are We Here with my designer.

The built-up to the making of the piece in April was intense, then the piece was made in 12 days from start to finish with the help of the fabricator's Sculpture and Design in Glasgow. there was a slower period in May and June then I was finally off to Paris in July.

What groups or services have helped you? I have had different support over the years, the arts council of Ireland, Business to Arts in Dublin, The Crafts Council of Ireland, The National Sculpture Factory in Cork, Donegal Council, and enterprise board to name a few. It's away a nice feeling to support locally.

How do you feel things will change for musicians in the coming year? Its been a really tough time for musicians the last 18 months.

I think its still going to be a bit slow for artists to get their regular gigs coming back, but I would hope there will be some great new material coming out, from the complex time you all have just had. And I hope that the younger generation of musicians continue to make and put music out and don't get disheartened by the pandemic.

What are your long-term plans? My long-term plans are to continue making work for exhibitions and larger commission work. I have been doing it since my time studying in Derry 2000 and I don't intend to stop any time soon.

"I still like to do a residency somewhere every year, I really want to do one again in China, however, life is pretty busy.

I am currently renovating a sheep shed in Barnesmore, Donegal in a new studio on the family land and we plan to develop a Bothy style Glamping site on the land in the near future.



Check Kevin out on twitter: @Callaghankev, Instagram: @kevincallaghanart, his website www.kevincallaghan.org or at www.thecondie.com and if anyones in the area his next exhibition is at Stallan and Brand 3rd of December - 28th Jan 2022, 80 Nicholson St, Glasgow G5 9ER. Landmark Sky Arts, Mondays from 8pm and Tuesdays from 7pm
Shehnaaz Gill to shoot a song for Honsla Rakh this week; producer reveals she is still grieving

The news of Sidharth Shuklas untimely demise left the entire nation in shock. His fans were speechless, whereas his loved ones were shattered. His BFF and rumored girlfriend Shehnaaz Gill, on the other hand, was broken. Seeing her walk almost lifelessly during his last rites left netizens heartbroken. It has been a month and fans havent heard from Shehnaaz. She has been away from the public glare as she is still coming to terms with what happened. Well, according to latest reports, the Punjab ki Katrina Kaif might resume work this week.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Shehnaaz Gill (@shehnaazgill)

According to a report shared by ETimes, Shehnaaz will shoot a promotional song for her upcoming film Honsla Rakh on 7th October. The shoot was planned for September but was pushed forward as Shehnaaz was not in a good state after Sidharth passed away. Producer Daljit Thind, who has backed the film, was quoted saying, I was constantly in touch with Shehnaazs team and they regularly updated us about her. She is a thorough professional and I am glad that she has agreed to shoot the promotional song with us. We will be shooting either in the UK or India depending on her visa.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Shehnaaz Gill (@shehnaazgill)

He went on to share that Shehnaaz is still grieving the loss. Thind lauded the actress for gathering the courage to fulfill her professional commitment even after going through such a difficult phase. The producer stated, She is like family and thats the reason we dont wish to impose anything on her. I just want her to get back to her normal work schedule for her own sanity.

Also starring Diljit Dosanjh and Sonam Bajwa, the romantic comedy is all set to hit theatres on 15th October this year. We wish Shehnaaz only the best!
Shoojit Sircar on Sardar Udham: Udham is as ordinary as any of us; there is a revolutionary in everyone

Sardar Udham is the realisation of a long-cherished dream for director Shoojit Sircar and he wanted to ensure that the film depicted the story of the "unsung revolutionary" in a truthful and simple manner. Sircar started nurturing the dream to make a film on Sardar Udham while he was still doing theatre in Delhi. It was an idea that struck him during an emotional visit to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre site in the 1990s, he said.

"I know I won't get a second chance so this is the only film I can make. I had to be very responsible while making this film. There are many research materials that we went through but the most important one that helped me was the written account by Jallianwala Bagh massacre eyewitnesses that they had given to the enquiry commission then (Hunter Commission)," Sircar told PTI in an interview. "I read those and that gave me a complete window into what exactly happened there and what was happening in India and especially in Punjab, which was boiling with revolutionary movement then," he added.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by @shoojitsircar

The director was particularly struck by Sardar Udham Singh's determination though he largely remained an "unsung hero". He is an unsung hero from our freedom struggle. He travelled from here and to Europe and other countries with a mission and nobody had done this in the 1930s and somebody doing this was fascinating. "We know about Shahid Bhagat Singh but we don't know much about Sardar Udham. It is very important for today's generation to know who Sardar Udham was. Very few people know about him so it is quite unfortunate and sad.

Sardar Udham Singh assassinated Michael O'Dwyer, Punjab's Lieutenant Governor in 1940 to avenge the 1919 massacre, led by Brigadier General Reginald Dyer, that killed over a 1,000 people. O'Dwyer had condoned Dyer's actions. In the film, penned by Ritesh Shah and Shubhendu Bhattacharya, Sircar said he was conscious about not being "loud" in the on-screen representation of Sardar Udham Singh, played by Vicky Kaushal. You will have to keep a check and monitor it all the time in every single detail that you do, so that the dialogue or the performance is not that loud, the clothes are not loud, my camera, lensing is light as we are not charging the camera on the face. All these are delicate matters, we don't go hyper or chest thumping shouldn't be there," the director said.

Sircar said he always tries to stay rooted in reality in his films and that's what he wanted to achieve in Sardar Udham as well. "He was as real as you and me and everybody else. That's what I try to do in all my films, to keep it as ordinary as possible. In this film, Udham is as ordinary as any of us... There is a revolutionary in everyone. What he was asking were simple truthful questions, he didn't say that I will do something'. He didn't sacrifice just like that."

View this post on Instagram A post shared by @shoojitsircar

On his part, producer of the film Ronnie Lahiri said it was essential to narrate a story about India's freedom struggle, which he believes is intertwined with the Black Lives Matter movement. The Black Lives Matter is a decentralised political and social movement protesting against incidents of police brutality and all racially motivated violence against black people. Black Lives Matter comes from the colonial past of the British, Spanish so it is about imperialism. That's how Blacks were taken as slaves and everyone in our country was made slaves. So somewhere down the line our country participated in Black Lives Matter because we had a similar past, Lahiri said. Today, the young generation of British people are questioning their past, the role played by war time heroes like Sir Winston Churchill. So, this is an important film for the western world also, he added.

To get the backdrop of the era right, Sircar said he relied on the archive images that were available and saw documentaries on the Second World War and many European films. The director, known for Madras Cafe, Piku and October, said as Sardar Udham is a feature film he has taken some cinematic liberty with respect to the events that play out on the screen. It is a feature and not a documentary so you will have to create the character, it's graph and emotions. So, all these things are fictional based on the facts that we found out and it was weaved around it. As we don't have much information about him, we had to create a character so that he becomes so fresh that Vicky would turn into Sardar Udham's image. So, if someone has to imagine, they should imagine Vicky as Sardar Udham.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by @shoojitsircar

The film is set to be released on October 16 on Amazon Prime Video, at a time when theatres have reopened in most parts of the country. Cinema and OTT (over-the-top) platforms can co-exist, said Sircar and Lahiri, who released their previous collaboration Gulabo Sitabo on Amazon last year. Starring Amitabh Bachchan and Ayushmann Khurrana, it was one of the first Hindi films to be released on a streamer amid the coronavirus pandemic when cinema halls were shut. It was a forced shutdown and one thing that comes out clearly is people want to watch something. Since the halls were shut, they were watching on TV. I am sure once the halls open people will watch there and they have developed the habit of watching in their own space too, so OTT will also thrive, the director said. Sircar added, There is a behaviour pattern that has changed for sure. It will have to co-exist.

Also starring Banita Sandhu and Amol Parashar, Sardar Udham is produced by Lahiri and Sheel Kumar.
The Diwali with Mi sale by Xiaomi started on October 3, and will go on till the 7th. The sale offers unprecedented discounts on a range of Xiaomi branded smartphones, smart bands, laptops, smart TVs and other devices. Consumers can get a 10% instant discount on using SBI credit cards. Xiaomi is also offering an additional Rs 5000 through Mi Reward coupon. The sales provides discounts upto Rs 19000.

The sale will provide a unique Jackpot Deals feature at 10:00 AM daily which claims never before prices. These limited time deals are available for a shorter period only at a specified time and include only a few items to attract customers.

Another interesting twist is X99 Store  Fastest Finger First i.e. special deal on a few items only for a first few customers starting at 4 PM daily. Customers have to be ready at 4 PM to grab this deal and should not waste these exciting offers.

Another addition is the PICK N CHOOSE deal at 8 PM daily, providing additional discounts if one buys at least two products from the different products being offered.

But, the big bang deal is the Lifetimefree Smartphone scheme. Xiaomi is providing customers with a chance to win a smartphone, wherein after purchase of a product on the website, customers can choose to enrol in a lucky draw to get the offer. A few lucky customers will get a new phone costing around Rs 20,000 every two years for a period of ten years.

Diwali with Mi Sale 2021: Best Deals and offers on Smartphones

Mi 11X 5G at Rs 19,499

A recently launched flagship product from the Mi 11 Series, the Mi 11X 5G is up for grabs at the lowest price ever of Rs 19,499 (the maximum discounted price including all active offers applied). This great model comes up with a 120Hz E4 AMOLED Display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 SoC and Dolby Atmos Dual Speakers. The 4520 mAh battery-powered phone, with the option of fast charging, comes with AI Triple Rear Camera. The device comes in two variants, the 6GB + 128GB and 8GB + 128GB, and is available in three beautiful colours being Celestial Silver, Lunar White and Cosmic Black.

Click here to check the deal

Xiaomi 11 Lite NE 5G at Rs 23,249

The 64MP triple rear camera smartphone with a battery backup of 4250 mAh and featuring 90Hz AMOLED Display is available at a maximum discount of Rs 8750 making the cost as low as Rs 23,249. The great smartphone model comes up in the 6GB + 128GB and 8GB + 128GB variants with Qualcomm Snapdragon 778 5G SoC onboard. The device is available in 4 colours.

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Mi 11 Lite at Rs 20,749

The 64MP triple rear camera smartphone with a battery backup of 4250 mAh and featuring 10 bit 90Hz AMOLED Display is available with an additional Rs 3,500 discount making the cost as even lower than Rs 20k. The great smartphone model comes up in the 6GB + 128GB and 8GB + 128GB variants with Qualcomm Snapdragon 732 SoC onboard. The device is available in 3 colours.

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Mi 11X Pro at Rs 29,000 (max discount - Rs 18,999)

The flagship smartphone series Mi 11X Pro comes up with a 120Hz E4 AMOLED Display. The highly powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC is packed with ice breaking 108MP HM2 Primary Camera. The beautifully designed phone has great, heavily powered features making it the best-in-class choice. The battery backup of 4520mAh and 33W Fast charging makes it a great option.

The phone comes in two variants 8+128GB, 8+256GB, and is available in 3 great colours.

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Redmi Note 10T 5G at Rs 13,749

Redmi Note series is known for providing best in class features at an affordable price. The Redmi Note 10T 5G includes a 90Hz Adaptive Display, 48MP AI visioned triple rear camera and a whopping 5000 mAh Battery. The device comes up with 18W fast charging and in 2 variants being 4GB+64GB, 6GB+128GB. The device is available in 4 unique colours.

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Redmi 10 Prime at Rs 10,799

The recently launched, highly powered, packed with many great features budget smartphone is now available at an even lower price of Rs 10,799. Redmi 10 Prime with Helio G88 SoC India Debut, 6000 mAh battery, 90Hz Adaptive display and 50 MP Quad Rear Camera setup is a perfect phone for the casual gamer, office person, and practically for everyone for daily usage. This budget smartphone providing such great features, 18W fast charging and 9W reverse charging, available in 3 different colours is a perfect pick in this sale. The device comes in two options 4GB+64GB, 6GB+128GB.

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MI TV 5X Series

Mi TV 5X Series is available at the lowest price ever. Mi 55 TV is available at Rs 45,999 at a discount of 34.2 % (Rs 24,000) on MRP of Rs 69999. While 50 TV is available at Rs 39,999 at a discount of 20% (Rs 10,000) on MRP of Rs 49999, the smallest 43 TV available at Rs 30,999 at a discount of 38 % (Rs 19,000) on MRP of Rs 49999. The SBI Credit Card Cash cashback and Mi Reward coupon are added bonus over this amount.

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MI NoteBook 14

The MI NoteBook 14 Horizon edition is the latest addition to the family and supports 10 generation Intel 17 / i5 Chips along with NVIDIA GeForce MX350 graphics with 8 GB DDR4 RAM, 14 FHD Anti Glare Horizon Display, 512GB SATA SSD and upto 10 HRs of Battery life. This ultra-light notebook also supports Thin Bezels and comes with Windows 10 home edition. This notebook is available for Rs 52749 at a 13,250 discount on MRP of Rs 65,999. The SBI Credit Card cashback and Mi Reward coupon are added bonus over this amount.

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RedmiBook 15

Another Notebook RedmiBook 15 e-Learning Edition is also available at a similar discount of Rs 13250 on its MRP of Rs 55,999. This notebook comes with an 11th Gen Intel TigerLake Core i3 processor, 8 GB RAM, 15.6 Full HD display, 512 GB SSD and 10 hours of battery life.

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Redmi Watch GPS

Redmi Watch GPS blue is available at Rs 3,999, a whopping 40 % discount on its MRP of Rs 5,999. The watch has built-in GPS + GLONASS precision navigation, stylish 3.56 cm colour display, 5 ATM water resistance, monitors Heart Rate and Sleep pattern, provides over 10 days of battery life and supports over 200 watch faces.

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Mi Wifi Smart Speaker (With Google Assistant)

MI wifi smart speaker which comes with Google Assistant support is available for Rs3,999 a 33% discount over its regular price of 5,999. This is a powerful 12 W speaker with wifi and Bluetooth connectivity. The speaker provides DTS professional Tuned Sound and 2 Far-field intelligent mics which pick up your voice from anywhere in the room.

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Mi Robot Vacuum Mop P

MI Robot Vacuum Mop P is available at RS 19,999 at a discount of Rs 10,000 over its MRP of 29,999. The mop provides a 2-in-1 Sweeping and Mopping function with 2100 PA Powerful suction LDS Laser navigation. The mop comes with Smart App and voice control and provides anti-fall and anti-collide sensors. The device also supports automatic recharge and resume functions as well.

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Disclaimer: This article has been authored by a member of our Digit Squad community.
Google Chrome is currently experimenting with two new features : the addition of a new Journeys feature, as well as a side search panel.Both of these new experimental features are meant to be tweaks to the quality of life that the Chrome browser offers up. Chrome's one of the biggest browsers on the market, owing a 67% share of it as stated by a 2021 StatCounter report. Much of one's work at this point of success become changes to the features, and revamps to the interface that are meant to simply micromanage and improve upon features both large and small. The Chrome browser recently hit us with Tab Groups, it gave us the ability to link to specifically highlighted parts of a page. And now we move on to newer features.The point of both new features, Google prefaces with a statement, is that they help facilitate the fact that online searching is rarely ever a linear path for most users. Journeys rather directly feeds into this statement, so let's address it. This new feature's purpose will be to group together all of the links and webpages one goes through when researching a particular topic.Journeys is distinct from history, having it's own dedicated page on the browser, and features links segregated by the relevant topics they were being pursued for. It also becomes easier to find specific links, as opposed to rummaging through one's history on the faintest idea of what time it was back then. Currently, Journeys is even available for testing on the Chrome Canary browser, where the early access build can be used.The other feature's purpose is to allow for easy switching between links. Essentially, if a user makes a Google Search, for example, and stumbles upon a link that might be relevant, there's no need to click on it and lose previous Search results, or to even open up a new tab. Users can now easily open up that very link in a side bar, that allows them to simultaneously view both Search results while going through the link at the same time. The side bar that appears is in appearance rather similar to the mobile version of Google Chrome, even appearing in a narrower, rectangular aspect ratio.While screen recoding of the side bar feature is available, Google states that the feature is still being tested out by developers, and it might take a while before users can get their hands on it. Chrome Canary frequenters might want to keep a lookout for the side bar, because it'll make it's first public appearance there.Read next: Google Chrome to allow Android users to switch the websites from phone version to desktop version permanently
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SEATTLE (AP)  The Washington Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously upheld a new tax on big banks aimed at providing essential services and improving the state's regressive tax system.

The 1.2% business and occupation surtax  a tax added on top of other taxes  was passed by the Legislature in 2019. It applies to banks that make more than $1 billion in annual profits, but it is assessed only on their economic activity in Washington.





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By ROSALIE MURPHY

NerdWallet

Since the start of 2020, companies from Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase to Google and Twitter have pledged billions of dollars to support entrepreneurs of color.

All those dollars don't go directly into business owners' pockets, however. Many are being invested in other financial institutions  particularly community development financial institutions, whose services include making small-business loans to borrowers underserved by traditional banks.





. . .
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Banka OTP Albania are supporting the expansion of one of the countrys leading telecommunications providers, ONE Telecommunications.

Banka OTP Albania is providing a 2 million loan, with 1 million to be guaranteed by the EBRD, under a risk-sharing facility between the two financial institutions.

ONE Telecommunications offers telecommunications services in Albania, having significantly strengthened its market position in recent years. The joint OTP-EBRD facility will contribute to advancing telecommunications services and connectivity in the country at a time when digitalisation is key in the post-Covid-19 economy.

Enhancing private-sector competitiveness through wider access to finance is one of the EBRDs priorities in Albania and we are happy to further this by supporting ONE Telecommunications with our partner Banka OTP Albania. Our partnership will enable ONE Telecommunications to get more Albanians connected, which is increasingly important in our digitalised world, said Ekaterina Solovova, the EBRDs Head of Albania.

Bledar Shella, CEO, OTP Bank Albania said: The EBRD has created useful frameworks to support local businesses and we believe are the right financing partner to boost the development of local businesses. OTP Bank Albania and One Telecommunications have already established a strong and healthy relationship, which includes key bank-business cooperation areas, and we are happy that this partnership is successfully progressing.

Emil Georgakiev, CEO of ONE Telecommunications said: We are pleased that our efforts during these two years have been recognised by leading international financial institutions such as the EBRD. Thanks to our increasing market share, customer satisfaction and positive financial results we are now entering into a collaboration with the EBRD. We strongly believe that we will continue to grow and become the preferred operator in Albania. With this agreement, we can focus on the needs of our clients and continue with our investment plans.

The EBRD is a leading institutional investor in Albania. To date, the Bank has invested 1.68 billion in 115 projects in the country.

Banka OTP Albania has been a part of the EBRDs Risk Sharing Framework (RSF) since May 2019. The RSF allows partner banks to share with the EBRD their exposure to the loans that they provide to local enterprises through either funded or unfunded risk participation, contributing to the strengthening and expansion of local entrepreneurship.
EBRD Managing Director Patrone visits Giurgiulesti International Free Port

EBRD sole owner of Danube Logistics SRL, operator of the port

Bank to attract strong international investors to further develop port

Matteo Patrone, Managing Director for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), paid a visit today to Giurgiulesti International Free Port, Moldovas only sea-river port. The Bank is the sole owner of Danube Logistics SRL, the operator of the port.

Mr Patrone, who is visiting Moldova for meetings with the new government and private-sector companies, welcomed the professional management of the port by Danube Logistics SRL and stressed the importance of Moldovas only international port to the countrys trade and economy.

He said: The EBRD has been supporting the construction and operation of the Giurgiulesti port since 1995. We are actively working to promote the continuation of the successful operation and development of this key infrastructure asset and will seek to attract international investors to further support and develop the port.

Giurgiulesti International Free Port hosts 48 resident companies, employs 517 people and serves trade with more than 50 countries. It serves the export of grain and vegetable oil, as well as the import of fuel, construction materials and general cargo.

Mathias von Tucher, General Director of Danube Logistics SRL, said: After a challenging Covid-19 pandemic year which also saw poor harvests, we expect to increase transshipment volumes to more than 1 million tonnes in 2021 from 934,000 tonnes in 2020. In addition, in 2022 we plan to start building a new berth, allowing for transshipment of dry bulk cargo and general cargo in order to expand capacity.

When ongoing projects are completed in 2022, a total of 100 million would have been invested in the port since 2005.

The EBRD acquired 100 per cent of the shares of Danube Logistics SRL on 7 May 2021.

The Bank is a leading institutional investor in Moldova and, to date, has invested more than 1.4 billion in the country through 146 projects. It has also provided advisory services to more than 1,000 Moldovan firms to help them improve performance and grow.

Matteo Patrone is visiting Moldova to underscore the EBRDs support for Moldova, welcome the new governments commitment to reforms and discuss the investment climate with local businesses.
EBRD signs up 50 th participant in 3 billion urban sustainability programme

Medias will scale up urban regeneration with a RON 38 million (7.7 million) EBRD loan

Cities account for 70 per cent of energy use, 80 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions

The EBRDs fast-expanding 3 billion urban sustainability programme, EBRD Green Cities, has reached a new growth milestone, with Medias in Romania becoming the 50th city to sign up to improve the environment in which its citizens live and plan a more sustainable future. The EBRD will lend Medias RON 38 million ( 7.7 million) to part-fund a bigger EU project to improve its infrastructure.

We are delighted that Medias is becoming EBRD Green Cities 50th member, said Nandita Parshad, Managing Director, EBRD Sustainable Infrastructure Group.

When it comes to addressing the climate emergency, cities must be front and centre given the need for clean air, decarbonised urban transportation and green and reliable energy access for all. This is why we established our flagship EBRD Green Cities Programme - to introduce bottom up planning for green priority investments for cities.

Medias, located in Sibiu County in the central Romanian region of Transylvania, is an existing EBRD client. The city is looking to revitalise its public infrastructure as pre-requisite for business and economic development in the region. The city, with a population of approximately 56,400 inhabitants, suffers from legacy infrastructure issues across its transport network, public buildings and road systems. Medias plans to address these issues through a broad programme of investments, focused on accelerating the Citys sustainable development and transition to a low-carbon future.

Cities, which account for 70 per cent of energy use and 80 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, represent a big opportunity to tackle climate change and environmental degradation. This is particularly true of cities in the EBRD regions, where obsolete urban infrastructure diminishes the quality of life of citizens, increasing greenhouse gas emissions, and preventing communities from adapting to climate change.

EBRD Green Cities was launched in 2016 with just 250 million of funding, which was expected to last five years. The programme proved so popular that its funding was quickly increased. EBRD Green Cities has won support from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and attracted significant levels of co-finance, expanding the number of cities that can be supported and further raising the level of ambition.

EBRD Green Cities offers tangible support to help cities address their environmental issues and improve the quality of life of their residents. All participating cities embark on a trigger project to improve their local environment then, with EBRD help, work on a Green City Action Plan (GCAP) to create a tailor-made list of further environmental investments and policy changes most suitable to address their environmental challenges.

In the case of Medias, the trigger project will be work on rehabilitating, modernising and improving energy efficiency in public buildings, as well as public transport investments supporting e-mobility. Both will bring significant greenhouse gas emissions savings. The EBRD loan will represent the citys co-financing of a larger investment for a total value of RON 138.4 million (28.1 million), approved under the relevant EU Regional Operational Programme in Romania.

Medias is the 3rd green city in Romania, after Craiova and Iasi, while Timisoara and Constanta are expected to join the programme soon. To date, EBRD has signed 8.8 billion in over 460 projects in Romania.
Floating solar farms, solar window blinds and other pioneering projects

The COP26 climate summit is fast approaching. One of its main goals is to secure global net-zero emissions by mid-century and to keep within reach the possibility that the world can limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Countries are being asked to come forward with ambitious 2030 emissions reduction targets that align with reaching net zero by the middle of the century.

To meet these targets, countries need to encourage investment in renewables. Solar energy has a key role to play, thanks to low prices and promising innovation.

On hearing the term solar energy, most people immediately think of panels on rooftops or large solar farms. Indeed, so far, projects of this kind have dominated the renewables market, with citizens across the EBRD regions already seeing the benefits of such investments funded by the Bank and its donors.

However, projects like these are not the only option. There are innovative solar-power technologies on the market, such as floating solar farms, solar window blinds and bifacial solar panels.

Currently, two major technologies help convert sunlight into electrical energy: photovoltaic (PV) panels, which directly convert sunlight into electricity, and solar thermal technology, namely, mirrors that concentrate solar radiation.

Today, there is plenty of ongoing research and development (R&D) in the sector, with a variety of solutions under development, from rigid to flexible technologies and the use of precious metals to maximise efficiency.

These innovations can revolutionise the way we think about renewables.

The EBRD is a pioneer in this field, having supported numerous businesses and countries in their solar endeavours. The Banks clients are at the forefront of the renewables revolution.

As Erriyadi Mounir, Project and Energy Manager at Maghreb Industries, an EBRD client in Morocco, explains: We are one of the first companies in the region to have installed PV panels and an energy conversion system. Now other companies come to us seeking advice.

With support from the European Union (EU), the EBRD helped Maghreb Industries to install a photovoltaic plant on the roof of its factory and implement energy efficiency measures that have helped reduce the firms energy costs by 60 per cent.

In Ukraine, Yevhen Erik, another EBRD client supported by the EU, came up with SolarGaps, an innovative solution that produces energy and eliminates the need for air conditioning in buildings.

SolarGaps are window blinds equipped with photovoltaic modules, which can be installed on the outer side of a window. The solar modules act as the slats of the blind, collecting energy from sunlight, while the product itself provides optimal shade for the premises. Echoing the movement of sunflowers, the blinds automatically angle themselves towards the sunlight throughout the day to collect as much energy as possible.

And the list of examples goes on, with the EBRD promoting the use of solar energy in nearly all of the economies in which it invests, having supported the development of numerous pioneering projects and achieved many firsts.

A flagship EBRD project is Egypts Benban, the largest solar park in Africa and one of the largest in the world. It extends over 37 km2 and will generate 1.5 GW, enough to provide renewable energy to more than 1,000,000 homes.

The EBRD is proud to be the main financier of this park, having supported 16 of the 32 plots. The project is supported by the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the EU and donors to the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Multi-Donor Account (SEMED MDA) (Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Taipei China and the United Kingdom).

In Benban, the EBRD has also led the way in providing finance to roll out innovative bifacial panels, a product that is more efficient and achieves greater productivity in the generation of solar power.

The Bank worked with Norwegian developer Scatec Solar ASA, who proposed the use of bifacial panels for Benban on the basis that the groundbreaking product delivered better value in terms of yield and durability. The use of bifacial technology increases total generation because both sides of the panel can produce power.

The Egyptian site will power 1,000,000 homes More videos

Benban is not the only example from Egypt. The EBRD, the OPEC Fund for International Development (the OPEC Fund), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the GCF and the Arab Bank worked with ACWA Power for the construction of the Kom Ombo solar plant, the largest private solar facility in the country.

The development of this plant will add 200 MW of energy capacity, increasing the percentage of renewable energy in Egypts energy mix and further promoting private-sector participation in the Egyptian power sector.

The EBRD has also supported the countrys first private-to-private purchase agreement for solar photovoltaic power. With the help of the Banks Green Economy Financing Facility (GEFF) in Egypt, which is supported by the EU, SolarizEgypts first impactful project materialised when the company received assistance in the installation of a rooftop PV system for the Coca-Cola Company.

The GEFFs support provided SolarizEgypt with the opportunity to receive finance from QNB Alahli Bank, one of GEFFs partner banks. Although the 1 MW PV system is installed at the Coca-Cola Companys facility in Sadat City, SolarizEgypt retains ownership of the solar facility and sells the electricity produced to power the factory, so all parties benefit.

The success of this project paved the way for the market to replicate this new model and stimulated the partner banks appetite for financing similar projects with other clients.

Another EBRD-supported flagship investment is Hellenic Petroleums (HELPEs) set of 18 solar PV plants in Kozani, Greece. It is the largest renewable energy project in Greece and the biggest solar energy project in south-eastern Europe to date. The solar park will be built close to existing coal-fired power plants that are being phased out and is expected to reduce CO 2 emissions by 320,000 tonnes per year.

In Armenia, meanwhile, the EBRD, the IFC (a member of the World Bank Group), and the EU supported the countrys first utility-scale solar power plant (which was also the first for the Caucasus). The 55 MW facility will boost Armenias supply of renewable energy and help the country reduce its reliance on imported fuels.

Lastly, a 12.9 MW floating solar photovoltaic farm in Albania is the first floating solar plant of this size in the country and the Western Balkans. The EBRD provided a 9.1 million loan for its construction and mobilised 315,830 to support the project preparation, including from the green economy project-preparation and implementation framework financed by the Austrian government (the DRIVE Fund) and from the TaiwanBusiness-EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund.

These projects demonstrate that the solar-energy market has come a long way and its future looks bright!

For information on other solar projects supported by the EBRD  from smart benches to residential buildings and more  read the first part of the story:

The power of the sun
A CORK girl, who was lauded by her mum for her bravery when they were involved in a car crash last week, made her First Holy Communion at the weekend.

Ellie Walsh (9), a pupil at St Joseph's National School in Glanmire, was involved in a recent traumatic car incident in Castlelyons which resulted in her mother Caroline Bailey breaking her neck as well as her pelvis in three places.

Speaking to The Echo last week Caroline, who forms one half of popular Cork band Sparkle with her fiancee Jen, credited her daughter for keeping them both calm so they could escape from the vehicle safely.

She kept her cool and listened to everything I had to say. Thats what got us out of the car. She is so amazing," she said.

Caroline said the car had flipped three times until finally coming to a standstill and leaving them in mid-air.

Miraculously, Ellie only had to stay in Cork University Hospital overnight for observation.

Caroline, who is still recovering in hospital, was not able to attend Ellie's communion but did receive a visit from her daughter on the day.

"The day was the best it could be.

"Ellie was the happiest girl despite everything.

"We all got to see each other which was amazing and everyone in the CUH are just angels," Caroline said.

Fortunately, Caroline has been reassured by doctors that she will eventually be able to walk again and is expected to return home this week.
CORK City Council look set to scrap the entire budget for the provision of public toilets in the city in 2022.

Draft expenditure cuts under the title Operations Directorate, seen by The Echo, show cost-cutting measures for a number of areas, in a bid to save 1.5m.

The 125,000 for the provision of public toilets  it was campaigned for during the Covid-19 pandemic  now looks set to be slashed to zero.

The document states that this will involve the removal of the North Main Street facility and cancellation of all other proposals, such as the planned city centre facility in the library.

Some 30,000 will be taken from the toilet-maintenance budget, with 60,000 remaining, meaning the additional facility in Bishopstown Park will not proceed as planned in 2022.

The traffic-calming budget of 100,000 is also likely to be decimated, meaning there would be no traffic-calming measures in Cork city in 2022.

There seem to be no funds for the employment of a biodiversity officer, delaying their employment by 12 months, while there will likely be no budget for the eradication of Japanese knotweed in the city in 2022, either.

The 2022 dog fouling awareness campaign also looks in doubt, as that budget is also proposed to be scrapped.

Significant cuts to local footpath repair and abandoned vehicles budgets are also likely, while there could be a 70% reduction in tree pruning and maintenance across the city in 2022 with just 37,000 of the initially proposed 137,000 likely to be available.

The mechanical and electric budget looks set to be cut by just 20,000 from 230,000 to 210,000. However, listed among the effects is that it may impact on EPA licence and access to Tramore Valley Park, which may be restricted.

Draft document

While this is a draft document, changes can be made to the budget for 2022 up to and including the night it is agreed.

When queried on the proposals, a spokesperson for Cork City Council said:

The budget process in Cork City Council is currently ongoing with the budget meeting to be held on November 15, 2021."

Crisis in funding

Solidarity councillor Fiona Ryan said there is a crisis in funding for local authorities across the country.

Speaking in relation to Cork City Council, Ms Ryan said: The environment department, in particular, needs a significant increase in personnel and the reality is that through property tax, rates, and rents, its just not possible under the existing funding mechanisms to meet that demand and really what this [the proposed budget cuts] shows is the complete limitation and crisis in funding that exists for all local authorities around the country.

That has to be addressed if were actually going to be able to provide the type of services that a city of Corks size and growth requires, she said.

Ms Ryan said central Government funding, of which local authorities can avail, is often ring-fenced and that this needs to be addressed.

She said an example of the dysfunction of central Government funding is the CityTrees.

We have a situation here where the Government says, heres a fund, were ring-fencing it for very specific things, take it or leave it, and we cant say, well, we would like that money to hire, say, five extra people on decent wages, said Ms Ryan.

Sinn Fein councillor Mick Nugent said that the Covid-19 pandemic and the emergency measures taken to mitigate it have impacted the councils finances.

Like previous years, but particularly this year, its going to be a very challenging budget for city council, said Mr Nugent.

He said that there are ongoing meetings to see if there are ways to alleviate some of the proposed cuts.

We [Sinn Fein] feel that central Government should be supporting local authorities who have lost millions, including Cork city, through the effects of the pandemic.

While some funds did come back last year, it was some time after the budget.

We just feel that there needs to be support for local authorities to at least maintain the services, said Mr Nugent.
RATES of prostate cancer are higher than ever before, the latest research from the National Cancer Registry of Ireland shows.

In its most recent annual report, the NCRI reported that 3,890 cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed in 2020.

However, thanks to increased awareness, early detection and improved treatments, survival rates have never been higher.

The Marie Keating Foundations third annual Stand Up For Your Prostate Campaign, kindly supported by Astellas, is encouraging men to be more open about their health and to speak to their GP about a PSA test when they turn 50, or 45 with a family history of prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the number one most common cancer in men in Ireland (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer), with one in six men expected to be affected by the disease in their lifetime. However, when detected early, prostate cancer has very promising five-year survival rates of 92%. But like many other forms of cancer, these survival rates are all dependant on when the cancer is detected, and we know that early detection saves lives and improves survival.

Prostate cancer survivor and Stand Up For Your Prostate ambassador Raymond Poole, shares his experience with prostate cancer and what he wants the men of Ireland to know about looking after their prostate health in this new campaign.

He said: Im a prostate cancer survivor, and Im asking men like me to just go and get their prostate checked. Do it for me, for yourself, for your partner, your kids, your dogs! Guys, just get your PSA checked.

"My prostate cancer diagnosis has impacted almost every aspect of my life, but it doesnt have to when its detected early.

A PSA, or Prostate Specific Antigen testing, is a simple blood test which checks the blood for protein markers that can help to indicate issues in the prostate early. Consultant Urologist at St. Vincents Hospital, Dr David Galvin, explains why a PSA test is crucial for men once they reach a certain age.

When it comes to PSA testing, it is recommended that men start having that conversation with their GP around the age of 45. The difficult aspect of prostate cancer is that many men dont experience any symptoms or if they do, the warning signs of prostate cancer can be overlooked or easily dismissed. I am proud to help support the Marie Keating Foundation in their call for Irish men to speak up about prostate cancer and to get their PSA checked.

Prostate Cancers early warning signs can include:

frequency passing urine

getting up a night time to go to the toilet

pain on passing urine, difficulty passing urine, your flow has become weak or intermittent blood in your urine or semen at any time that is otherwise unexplained

This years Stand Up For Your Prostate campaign aims to encourage men to take an active role in their health, and to speak to their GP if they have any concerns or worries about a change in their bodies.

Urology Nurse Specialist and Director of Nursing Services at the Marie Keating Foundation, Helen Forristal explains: Men typically get a bad rap for not speaking about their health, but when resources and supports are put in place, we see that this is not the case. Our Stand Up For Your Prostate campaign is designed to give men an opening to speak about their health with others, and can be exactly what some men need to go to their GP.

Our message this year is a simple one, if you are 50, ask your GP to consider checking your PSA levels.it you are 45 with a family history of prostate or breast cancer in the family have that conversation. It could save your life.

The campaigns Little Blue Man emblem is being sold to help encourage the conversation about mens health and raise funds to support those on a cancer journey. The Stand Up for Your Prostate pin is available to buy for just 3 on www.mariekeating.ie. For more information about this campaign and information on prostate cancer, visit www.mariekeating.ie/standupforyourprostate/

To show their support for male cancer survivors or those currently on a cancer journey this September, the Marie Keating Foundation are running a series of support and information workshops for men at every stage of a cancer journey, completely free. For more information visit www.mariekeating.ie/events.

About Marie Keating Foundation:

Its 23 years since the Marie Keating Foundation was set up, following Maries death from breast cancer in 1998. After losing their mother, the Keating family promised that they would do everything they could to ensure men and women in every community in Ireland had access to the necessary information to prevent cancer or detect it at its earliest stages.

The Marie Keating Foundation supports families across Ireland at every step of their cancer journey.

Through its community information service, the Foundations nurses have talked to over 300,000 people about the causes and risk factors of cancer. The Foundation offers national cancer awareness and education campaigns covering the most common cancers affecting people in Ireland, including bowel, Testicular, breast, cervical, lung, prostate and skin cancer.

The Marie Keating Foundation supports cancer survivors through its Positive Living and Survive & Thrive programmes.
Changes to Island's border restrictions to reflect UK travel requirements

Changes to the Islands border restrictions have come into effect to reflect simplified rules for international arrivals into England, announced last month by the UK Government.

The current red, amber, green traffic light system has been replaced with countries being either on the red list or the rest of the world list. The rules in place for people travelling to England and onward to the Isle of Man from countries not on the red list will depend on vaccination status.

The Council of Ministers has decided that the Isle of Man will continue to broadly align its own border restrictions for international travel with those in place in England. This will ensure the process for Isle of Man residents travelling internationally into England and then back to the Island remains as simple as possible.

It means the existing test to release pathway will no longer be available for those who have travelled outside of the Common Travel Area (CTA) in the 10 days prior to arriving on the Island. All unvaccinated individuals who have been outside of the CTA will now follow one pathway.

Fully vaccinated residents and fully vaccinated non-residents who have travelled outside of the CTA within the preceding 10 days of arrival to the Island will still be allowed to enter the Island with no testing or isolation.

Non- or partially-vaccinated residents as well as non-residents who have permission to travel to the Island, who have travelled outside of the CTA within the preceding 10 days of arrival, will be required to follow the 7-day pathway. This involves a PCR test on the day of arrival, isolation for 7 days and a further test on day 6 which, if negative, means release from isolation.

Any person travelling from a country on the red list within the preceding 10 days to arrival on the Island is still prohibited from entry to Island and must follow the UKs red list requirements.

Chief Minister Howard Quayle said: After the initial opening of our borders earlier this year, our defences for COVID-19 have relied on that of the Englands border policy. Therefore, it makes sense to adjust our own pathways to maintain alignment with measures in England. The removal of the green and amber lists is a significant step forward, making it easier for people to go abroad and return home.

Individuals who are transiting through the UK following international travel are reminded that they need to complete a passenger locator form and state they are transiting through to the Isle of Man.

As part of the changes, the UK Government has also removed the need for pre-departure testing for those returning to the England, reducing the cost for travellers.

Full details of the Islands travel pathways can be found here.

The changes are only for international travel. The rules for those travelling within the CTA in the 10 days before their arrival in the Isle of Man will not change.

Additionally, all 12-15 year olds who have received at least one vaccination dose are now eligible to arrive in the Isle of Man with no isolation or testing requirements, following the commencement of the vaccine programme to this age group.

In order to qualify for this, individuals must meet the following conditions:

Have received the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine

On arrival, at least two weeks must have passed since the vaccine was administered

Applicants must not have visited any country on the UK red travel list in the 10 days prior to their arrival

For young people aged 15 and under, parents or guardians will be required to complete the vaccination exemption on their behalf.
If you can't access Facebook, Instagram, Messenger or WhatsApp, you're not the only one. Starting at approximately 11:38AM ET, Downdetector began logging a spike in outage reports across all four Facebook-owned services. Andy Stone, a spokesperson for the company, said at 12:07PM ET that the company was working to resolve the issue quickly. The error page you see when trying to connect to the platforms suggests a Domain Name System (DNS) error is responsible for the outage. At 3:52 PM ET, CTO Mike Schroepfer, who's slated to leave the company next year, said Facebook was sincerely sorry for the outage but stopped short of offering an explanation of what caused it.

As of late Monday afternoon, Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp have started to come back online for some people.

Were aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products. Were working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.  Andy Stone (@andymstone) October 4, 2021

It's not clear how widespread the issue was, but Downdetector showed more than 30,000 outage reports for Facebook alone at one point, with another 20,000 tied to Instagram. Per a tweet from the official Oculus Twitter account, the problem also affected the Oculus App, Store and website.

It took Facebook much of the day to resolve the issue. According to The New York Times, the outage took out Workplace, the company's internal communications platform. Additionally, employees reportedly couldn't receive external emails at the moment.

*Sincere* apologies to everyone impacted by outages of Facebook powered services right now. We are experiencing networking issues and teams are working as fast as possible to debug and restore as fast as possible  Mike Schroepfer (@schrep) October 4, 2021

Per journalist Brian Krebs, Facebook's DNS records were withdrawn from the global routing tables sometime this morning."We don't know why this change was made," Krebs wrote in a tweet. "It could well have been the result of an internal, system-wide change or update that went awry. It's all speculation at this point why. Facebook alone is in control over its DNS records."

Back in July, Akamai Technologies, one of the largest content delivery networks in the world, went through a similar outage, leading to a large section of the internet, including platforms like the PlayStation Store, TikTok and LastPass, becoming inaccessible. Akamai eventually fixed the problem later that same day.

Update 3:04PM ET: Added context from Brian Krebs.

Update 4:39PM ET: Added comment from Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer.

Update 6:07PM ET: Added a note that Facebook and Instagram started coming back online.

Update 6:48PM ET: Added a note that WhatsApp is also coming back online.
Internal documents published by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) recently revealed that Facebook allowed VIPs to break its rules and that it was aware of how Instagram affected the mental health of teens. Now, the whistleblower who brought that information to light has revealed herself as Frances Haugen in an interview with 60 Minutes, the New York Times has reported.

"Ive seen a bunch of social networks and it was substantially worse at Facebook than what I had seen before," Haugen told 60 Minutes. "Facebook, over and over again, has shown it chooses profit over safety."

Haugen joined Facebook in 2019, working on democracy and misinformation issues, while also handling counterespionage, according to a personal website and Twitter account she and her team set up. She worked as a Facebook product manager and left the company in May.

She first brought "tens of thousands" of pages of internal Facebook documents to Whistleblower Aid founder John Tye, requesting legal protection and help in releasing the information. The trove included internal company research, slide decks, cover letters and more. She also filed a whistleblower complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), accusing Facebook of taking internal actions that didn't match its public statements.

Whistleblower Frances Haugen is a data scientist from Iowa with a computer engineering degree and a Harvard MBA. She told us the only job she wanted at Facebook was to work against misinformation because she had lost a friend to online conspiracy theories. https://t.co/csgaRe6k5h pic.twitter.com/tSNav057As  60 Minutes (@60Minutes) October 3, 2021

In the SEC complaint, Haugen compared Facebook's internal research and documents to public statements and disclosures made by CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other executives. In one example, she said that Facebook contributed to election misinformation and the January 6th US Capitol insurrection.

"Facebook has publicized its work to combat misinformation and violent extremism relating to the 2020 election and insurrection," she wrote in a cover letter on the subject. " In reality, Facebook knew its algorithms and platforms promoted this type of harmful content, and it failed to deploy internally recommended or lasting countermeasures."

The site allows divisive content because it promotes engagement, she noted. "Its own research is showing that content that is hateful, that is divisive, that is polarizing, its easier to inspire people to anger than it is to other emotions, Haugen told 60 Minutes. Facebook has realized that if they change the algorithm to be safer, people will spend less time on the site, theyll click on less ads, theyll make less money."

On top of being in touch with the SEC's whistleblower office, which normally provides protections for corporate tipsters, she and her legal team contacted Senators Richard Blumenthal (D) and Marsha Blackburn (R). She also spoke to lawmakers in France and Britain, along with a member of the European parliament.

Facebook, which has struggled to quell leaks of late, preemptively pushed back ahead of the 60 Minutes interview, calling the accusations "misleading." VP for policy and global affairs Nick Clegg told CNN that Facebook represented "the good, the bad and the ugly of humanity" and that it was trying to "mitigate the bad, reduce it and amplify the good." He added that it was "ludicrous" to blame January 6th on social media.

In a statement to Engadget, Facebook spokesperson Lena Pietsch said the "segment also disregards the significant investments we make to keep people safe on our platform... to suggest we encourage bad content and do nothing is just not true." The company also pushed back against any claims it was misleading the public or regulators. "We stand by our public statements and are ready to answer any questions regulators may have about our work."

In the end, Haugen said she wants to help fix Facebook, not see it taken down. "The path forward is about transparency and governance, she said in the video. Its not about breaking up Facebook." Haugen is set to testify in Congress about issues surrounding Facebook's impact on young users on Tuesday, December 5th.
Back in April, Netflix released its Play Something feature for TV devices with the promise of making it available on mobile in the near future. If you've been waiting for it to make its way to your phone, you'll be thrilled to know that the time has come: The streaming giant's shuffle play functionality will start rolling out to all Android users around the world today.

Streaming services have such a wide variety of choices, which keep growing every day, that scrolling through them and deciding on what to play could take hours. If you don't have anything specific to watch at the moment, the Play Something feature could held you fend off decision paralysis and prevent you from wasting what little time you have to relax. Just tap it to watch something the service's algorithm thinks you might enjoy based on your history.

Netflix started testing the feature for both adult and kids' profiles on Android in May, and a spokesperson told us testing for iOS will begin in the coming months. According to the streaming giant, users have been loving its shuffle play function for leading them to hidden gems they might not have found otherwise. Of course, the opposite could also be true if it turns out that Netflix's algorithm doesn't know you at all.

You can find the floating Play Something button at different places within the app, including the home screen. If you're viewing the page of a specific show, a button that says Play Something Else will show up. Patrick Flemming, Netflix's Director of Product Innovation, said in a statement:

"Play Something helps Netflix members discover new shows and movies when they dont want to make decisions. Today, we're excited to bring this feature to Android, too - choosing what to watch on your phone has never been easier."

In addition, Netflix is launching Fast Laughs, its TikTok-style comedy feed that pulls funny clips from its catalog, for Android. Previously exclusive for iOS users, the feature will be available for Android in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, Ireland, India, Malaysia, Philippines and other select markets.
Image Credit: Microsoft

I'd expect many consumers will be upgrading their existing Windows 10 systems, rather than setting up a new computer. Unfortunately, Microsoft didn't have a way for me to upgrade my PC with a final Windows 11 release. Based on what I've seen with the latest Windows 11 Insider previews, though, moving to the new OS appears to be very similar to installing a major Windows 10 update. On a Surface Laptop 4 I had lying around, the upgrade process took around 15 minutes after downloading the new OS via Windows update.

You're going to have a tougher time if you own an older PC that doesn't meet Microsoft's hardware requirements. You'll need a compatible Intel, AMD or Qualcomm processor; 4GB of RAM; and at least 64GB of storage. Also, you'll have to enable Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 (Trusted Platform Module), features that should make it harder for spyware and malware to attack your OS. Microsoft's PC Health Check app can help you see if your system is ready for Windows 11.

If you don't meet the upgrade requirements, you can download a Windows 11 ISO and install it manually, a method that bypasses Microsoft's CPU restrictions. Still, you'll need to be savvy enough to create a boot disk and deal with a more complex installation. Another caveat: manual installations may not receive some future Windows Updates, according to The Verge. (It sounds like Microsoft hasn't decided how restrictive it wants to be just yet.)

If you've built your own desktop PC, I'd suggest bracing yourself for additional upgrade complications. Microsoft's Health Check app initially said that my system  powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X processor, an ASROCK motherboard and 32GB of RAM  wasn't compatible with Windows 11. It turned out I needed to enable the AMD TPM 2.0 module and Secure Boot in my BIOS. But once I did all that, my system couldn't boot into my Windows 10 installation.

After a bit of sleuthing, I learned that I needed to convert my Windows 10 installation disk from MBR (Master Boot Record) to GPT (GUID Partition Table). So off I went into the command line to run some strings and pray for my Windows installation's safety. Five sweat-soaked minutes later, I rebooted and saw my trusty Windows login screen. Whew. From there, I was able to proceed with the Windows 11 Update as normal.

I'm sure I'm not the only one with a Windows 10 installation on an MBR disk  that was the standard on older computers  so I'm hoping Microsoft eventually bakes that conversion into the entire Windows 11 setup process. I can't imagine average consumers trying to figure out command line prompts without wanting to throw their PCs out the window.

Microsoft

In use: A new look, new frustrations

Windows 11 is nice to use. Pleasant, even. Windows 10 wasn't ugly, but Windows 11's focus on design leads to a more refined experience at first. I enjoyed having color-matched themes. The new Settings app is a dream; it's actually easy to find things for once! I genuinely love the new automatic window snapping, which lets you shove an app to a particular area of your screen by hovering above the maximize icon. Even better, snapping a few apps together creates a group that you can easily revisit in the taskbar.

That facelift doesn't come at the expense of performance, either. Windows 11 feels just as fast as Windows 10 on all of my test systems. But I'll be more interested to see how it performs on PCs older than five years, which is about the cut-off for Microsoft's upgrade requirements.

As impressed as I am by the design changes, a part of me feels constrained by the new OS. No matter where you place your taskbar icons, for example, you won't be able to see app labels anymore. Microsoft has been pushing an icon-focused taskbar since Windows 7, but you always had the option to turn on labels, so you could see what was in an app window before you clicked on it. Dealing with that loss is the single biggest hurdle I had with Windows 11.

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

Now it takes me multiple clicks to find a specific Chrome window, or to locate an email I popped out of Gmail. Icons just aren't enough. I can understand why Microsoft took away labels: They make your desktop look chaotic. It's not nearly as zen as a simple line of high-resolution pictures.

But as a Windows user, I'm used to chaos. I was shaped by the instability of Windows 3.11; I learned to tame Windows XP as an IT admin; and I was there at the Windows 8 launch in Spain (an event that seems cursed in retrospect). Even after all of that, I'm still primarily a Windows user. If chaos can make me more productive, I embrace the madness. Sadly, Windows 11 doesn't give me that option. It just wants me to relax, damnit.

To be fair, I have similar issues with macOS. As pretty as it is, finding a specific app window can be frustrating. To mitigate that, I typically rely on Mission Control to establish hot corners that can either show me every open app, windows within a specific program, or the desktop. Windows 11 lets you set up a hot corner in the bottom right of your screen to show the desktop, but you'll have to rely on keyboard shortcuts to see open apps. (I'm still debating whether Alt + Tab or Win + Tab is better.)

After spending so much time with Windows 11, I'm begrudgingly getting the hang of the new taskbar, at least. I'd bet some Windows diehards will be similarly frustrated with the new Start menu, especially if they're used to seeing all of their apps instantly. Personally, I find the focus on shortcuts and recently added files and apps to be more useful. And as of Windows 10, I just hit the Windows key and start typing to search for specific apps. (I'm glad that's still practically instantaneous on the new OS.)

Ive only dabbled in the Windows 11 touchscreen experience so far, but in general it feels easier to hit specific targets. Microsoft has also made apps more responsive to touch, so its being able to quickly expand and maximize windows feels less frustrating. You still wont mistake Windows 11 for iPadOS, but I never expected Microsoft to go that far. This new OS is simply better for laptops that have touchscreens, and its far more usable for hybrid tablets like the Surface Pro.

While I've found Windows 11 pleasant overall, I'll be interested to see how mainstream users react to all of the changes. Some members of Engadget's staff initially found the new design to be ugly (some warmed up to it later), and at least one was grateful I explained how to move the taskbar back to the left. It's tough for Microsoft to make any major changes to Windows without having users throw a fit. (Remember everything that happened around Windows 8?) So I expect the initial reaction isn't going to be welcoming. Let's just say I'm glad I'm no longer in IT support for this transition.

Microsoft

So, who needs Windows 11?

To paraphrase Thanos, Windows 11 is inevitable. It's going to start rolling out to eligible Windows 10 users today, and it will ship with new PCs this Fall. Aside from re-learning the taskbar and Start menu functionality, there's not much of a reason to avoid it. The new Secure Boot requirements will make it a safer OS overall; gamers will eventually get faster loading times; and everyone can appreciate the clean new aesthetic.

It's a step forward, even if it isn't as momentous as Windows 10. It's also hard to ignore the story behind the new OS, which makes Windows 11 feel more like a way for Microsoft to save face after an embarrassing failure. In the fall of 2019, the company announced Windows 10X, an OS variant meant for dual-screened PCs. Those devices, like the intriguing Surface Neo, failed to arrive. (It's unclear if the complex new hardware was the roadblock, or if PC makers were waiting for Windows 10X to be completed.)

Microsoft announced last year that it was shifting the focus of 10X to single-screened devices, and it put the final nail in the coffin this May, when it said that Windows 10X development had stopped. A few weeks later, we got word that Microsoft was gearing up to reveal the next version of Windows, and shortly after that the Windows 11 leak occurred. On June 24th, with practically all of its new features spoiled, Microsoft officially revealed its new OS.

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

In my head, I imagine the frantic meetings around Windows 10X's rocky development like something from The West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin. With dual-screened devices a no-show, maybe they could just repurpose that work for traditional laptops, a harried Panos Panay would say. But why even make that a separate version of Windows 10? The PC market is pretty hot right now, perhaps there's a way to capitalize on that? And at some point, someone just said "Why not just go to 11?" A stunned silence. Applause all around.

Not to sound too cynical, but releasing a new OS is an easy way to encourage people to buy new computers. That's particularly true now that we're relying on our PCs more than ever, as many people are still working and doing schoolwork from home. A new version of Windows is no simple thing, and itll surely get more headlines and media attention than a mere Windows 10 update. (Stares directly into camera.)
Experts warn that Prince Harry may name the 'Royal racist' who asked about his baby Archie's racial color. They even said he will likely do it, not for anything else, but money. Given the large sum that was already advanced to him, he'll be too weak to resist, experts surmised.

Insiders are concerned that the Duke of Sussex's planned biography may be used to expose a member of his family, as Daily Mail UK reported.

In particular, royal expert Penny Junor told the Sun that, "The publishers are going to want a lot for their money, such as naming this so-called racist."

His revelations about Princess Diana's life would be bad enough, because they would reveal more about "his parents' marriage, the break up, the affairs," which would naturally paint Prince Charles and Camilla in the negative.

"That could be incredibly damaging for his father and Camilla. Charles is going to be king and Camilla his queen," Junor added.

ALSO READ: Lindsay Lohan Deemed 'Dangerous' Over a Bizarre Tweet

"Another upsurge of anger" might happen even if it is the last thing that the country needs, she added.

The 37-year-old is reported to be conducting intimate research into Princess Diana's life for the book, and has already received a 15 million advance from the publishers.

However, insiders say he may be compelled to reveal not just a lot about Princess Diana and other royal scandals but also about the most recent accusations that there lives a racist person in the Palace who made Meghan Markle and son suffer, in exchange for the large money he is being given.

As he develops the memoir, the Duke is said to be contacting Princess Diana's former acquaintances. Previously, it was thought that much of the work would be done by a ghostwriter, thus Palace insiders were taken aback by his hands-on attitude.

In his interview with Meghan Markle and Oprah Winfrey, Prince Harry stated that a member of the Royal Family inquired about Archie's skin color.

During a press conference at a London school, Prince William himself denied that his family was racist.

This is noted as an evidence that the palace is actually watchful of what Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are doing oceans' away and are affected by their interviews and bombshell revelations.

The pair, who moved to Los Angeles after leaving the Firm, have kept the identity of the accused perpetrator a secret, allowing the public to guess. Whether out of love and courtesy OR a plain strategy to loop the public along, remains to be seen.

Buckingham Palace is not just anxious about Duke's book; magazine editor Tina Brown's "The Palace Papers" will be out in April and the royals are allegedly bothered about it too. According to Penguin, the sequel to Miss Brown's best-selling "The Diana Chronicles," which was published in 2007, is "full of subtle nuances and searing insight."

According to the publisher, the book would expose "the actual tale" of the Royal Family in the 25 years following Princess Diana's death. It goes on to say that the book would "irreversibly transform the way readers view and comprehend the Royal Family." It sounds ominous.

ALSO READ: Ice-T Reacts to Backlash on His and Wife Coco Austin's 'Confusing' Parenting
2021-10-04

Maeci

Italy will be guest of honour at the 2022 edition of the Prague International Book Fair (Svet knihy). The main theme will be inspired by the title of a book by Umberto Eco dedicated to the experience and theory of translation, Saying almost the same thing, published by Bompiani in 2003.

The announcement was made by Radovan Auer, the festival's director, at the end of a much-applauded meeting between the audience of the Fair and the Italian author Sandro Veronesi, organised by the Italian Cultural Institute in Prague to present the Czech translation of 'Il Colibri' (The Hummingbird). The director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Prague, Alberta Lai, who promoted the Italian candidacy, said: "may I express my deep satisfaction for this announcement, which also took place in the presence of one of the most profound and appreciated among contemporary Italian writers, Sandro Veronesi. In 2022 the Institute directed by me will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of its foundation and the programme we will be offering to the International Book Fair in Prague will reflect the great importance of this anniversary.

Svet knihy Praha is the most important book festival in the Czech Republic. At the last event before the pandemic, the four-day event averaged 50,000 visitors, 400 exhibitors, 800 guests, and 650 accompanying programmes per edition. According to data released by the organisers, despite the restrictions for containing the Covid-19 emergency the 2021 edition of the fair boasted 34,000 visitors, 288 exhibitors, 607 guests, and 481 programmes, plus 11 exhibitions; 27 countries were present.
British military personnel in combat fatigues arrived on Monday at a BP storage depot after the government ordered the army to help deliver fuel to tackle an acute shortage of truckers, a Reuters reporter said.
The Pound US Dollar (GBP/USD) exchange rate has risen slightly today, as the UKs fuel supply crisis shows signs of normalising.

Meanwhile, an impasse in the US Congress over the debt-ceiling limit is causing concern among USD investors.

Pound (GBP) Exchange Rates Firm as Army Deployed to Tackle Fuel Crisis

The Pound (GBP) has been making modest gains against the US Dollar (USD) today, as the UK military has been deployed to help tackle fuel shortages in the hardest-hit areas in the country.

Outages in petrol and diesel, caused by a shortage of HGV drivers and panic-buying, saw the Pound slump last week. But, with the situation slowly returning to normal, GBP has been able to recover some of its losses.

While supply and demand are stabilising in most areas of the country, some areas  particularly London and the South East  are still experiencing significant shortages.

Today (Monday), the UK government deployed 100 military drivers to deliver fuel to forecourts that are still short on supplies.

Speaking to LBC Radio, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said that the situation continues to improve:

We know theres enough petrol at our refineries and our terminals, and the issue is weve had a very steep demand spike. The good news is it is getting better, so I think every single day since about last Tuesday weve delivered more petrol to forecourts than has been taken out, the number of people getting deliveries has increased, the volume of fuel getting delivered has increased.... The situation has been improving now for, I think, over a week; every day, as the stats have come on, its getting better and, as demand settles back to more normal levels, the strong expectation is things will resolve themselves.

However, Gordon Balmer, executive director of the Petrol Retailers Association, warned that outages may take up to ten days to return to normal. In an interview on Sky News, Balmer said:

We hope the situation will improve during the week, well continue to monitor it, but it might take a week to 10 days for members to build their stocks back up to normal levels.

With disruption expected to continue in some parts of the UK, GBP/USDs upside may be limited today.

US Dollar (USD) Exchange Rates Undermined by Risk of Debt Default

The US Dollar, meanwhile, is subdued today despite a fairly risk-off market mood and expectations that the Federal Reserve will begin tightening monetary policy next month, paving the way for a rate hike in 2022.

While these should be acting as a tailwind for the Greenback, so far USD has been softening against Sterling.

One factor could be the political standoff in the US, which is allowing the country to drift towards a debt default.

The US is inching closer to defaulting on its debt as Democrats and Republicans remain divided over the best way to raise the debt ceiling and avoid what Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan, calls a potentially catastrophic event.

While neither party wants a default  which could be devastating to the US and world economies  concerns are growing that the clock is running out, as whichever method they choose to increase the debt limit would take time to pass and implement.

These concerns are contributing to the current risk-off market mood but are simultaneously weighing on the US Dollar, as they could potentially cause a lot of damage to the US economy.

While commentators think a default is unlikely, it is not impossible. Barclays Plc said, in a note co-authored by analysts at the bank:

We still expect that the debt-ceiling impasse will ultimately be resolved, likely through reconciliation But, in our view, the risk of a breach is now greater than at any point over the past decade.

GBP/USD Exchange Rate Forecast: US Factory Orders to Boost USD?

This afternoon brings the latest factory orders data from the US. Orders are expected to have risen by 1% in August, increasing in pace from Julys 0.4% reading. If the report meets market expectations, USD could gain some traction.

Meanwhile, GBP investors will be keeping an eye on the fuel supply situation. If fuel stocks continue to improve as the day goes on, Sterling may find more support.
Thanks to BG Jim Bauerle.

As More And More Troops Die By Suicide, The Hardest Question Remains: Why?

(USA Today, Oct. 3, Staff Writer)

Nowhere is the Pentagons suicide crisis more acute than among active-duty Army soldiers.

The Pentagons annual report on suicide, released Thursday, found that the soldiers died by suicide at the rate of 36.4 per 100,000 in 2020, up from 29.9 two years before. For all active-duty troops  soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines  the rate of suicide has increased from 20.3 in 2015 to 28.7 per 100,000 in 2020.

Put simply, suicide is the military in a crisis, said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who chairs the Armed Services Committee on personnel.

In 2020, 580 troops died by suicide, compared with 504 in 2019, an increase of 15%, USA TODAY reported Wednesday.

Go back to 2011, and the Pentagon has seen the suicide rate rise steadily and tragically despite pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into programs to stem the crisis. In 2011, the rate was 18.7 per 100,000 troops. The Armys rate today is nearly double that.

Flags mark gravestones at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver on May 31, 2021. The number of

U.S. military suicides jumped by 15% last year, fueled by significant increases in the Army and Marine Corps that senior leaders called troubling.

The annual report notes that after adjusting for age and sex, the suicide rate for all troops, active, Reserve and the National Guard was comparable to the U.S. population in 2019, the last year for which there is similar data. Across society, the rate of suicide has increased for more than two decades. The overall age- adjusted suicide rate in the United States increased 35.2% from 10.5 per 100,000 in 1999 to 14.2 per 100,000 in 2018, according to the National Institute for Mental Health. It declined to 13.9 per 100,000 in 2019.

Young, enlisted men, the group the Pentagon depends on to fill its ranks, are at higher risk of suicide, according to the report.

Lawmakers are also concerned by clusters of suicides among soldiers. In the last week, three soldiers died by suspected suicide at Fort Drum in New York, Gillibrand said. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., wants a study of an installation in Alaska where USA TODAY reported earlier this year at least six suspected suicides took place in the first half of the year.

Suicide at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson: After coming out, a soldier was allegedly raped by another military member and died by suicide. Her family says its a hate crime

Why are more troops dying by suicide? Families, Congress demand answers

Why do more and more troops, especially soldiers, die by suicide? Experts say reasons vary greatly, even by base. Problems with relationships and money, and the stress and uncertainty of life in the military can contribute to suicide. Life on an isolated post, especially with the harsh weather in Alaska, can also add to troops despair.

Members of Congress, growing impatient with the Pentagons response to suicide, have been demanding answers.

Gillibrand sent a letter Thursday to the Defense Departments top personnel official seeking more information about how failed relationships and the stress of military life contribute to suicide, noting that nearly 40% of active-duty troops who died by suicide in 2018 had reported such problems.

Speier, Gillibrands counterpart on the House Armed Services Committee, won a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act that would require the Pentagon to conduct independent review of suicide prevention and response program at bases for each military service.

The suicide rate for active-duty service members increased by 41% over the past five years, Speier said. We are failing our service members and their loved ones at reducing these preventable deaths.

Long winters, common at Fort Drum and the rule at Army posts in Alaska, has been thought to contribute to stress that can lead to suicide. Among the general population, Alaska had the second highest suicide rate in the nation in 2019, according to the CDC.

The Army spent more than $200 million on quality-of-life initiatives in Alaska, including building facilities for soldiers to maintain their equipment in the winter, buying new gym equipment and designing new living quarters.

In a joint statement, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth and Gen. James McConville, the Army chief of staff, acknowledged the increase in soldier suicides remains a significant challenge that has defied solution.

While there is no clear understanding of what is causing the increase in suicides, we realize we have to do better in preventing suicide and ensure resources are available and readily accessible, they said. We want our soldiers to know that getting help is a sign of strength, not weakness.

The Army is launching several new programs to prevent suicide, including training to identify at-risk soldiers and to intervene on their behalf, said Lt. Col. Gabriel Ramirez, an Army spokesman. Another pilot program will explore how to bolster mental-health care counseling with chaplains.

Army mental health officials told USA TODAY earlier this year that the service is exploring ways to make soldiers lives more predictable, noting that abrupt changes to their schedules can trigger stress that leads to a crisis.

A soldier familiar with the Army programs and its problems with suicide but not authorized to speak publicly said the initiatives fail to address two key concerns: relentless training and deployment cycles that wear out soldiers and stress their relationships, and the lack of quick access to trained mental health counselors when stress overwhelms them.

Brad Carson, the former top Pentagon official for personnel in the Obama administration and under secretary for the Army, said suicide has occupied the attention of senior leaders who invested in program after program.

Each case of suicide has unique circumstances, Carson said. Yet he speculated that two decades of war could be an underlying factor

What could have been done differently? Maybe not send people into combat, said Carson, who is the president of the University of Tulsa. We have shown that ground combat has severe mental health consequences. We often think of possible casualties before evaluating the use of force, so perhaps it is time we factor the behavioral health consequences of war into our calculations to.

Meanwhile, the suicide toll continues to mount.

These numbers are going in the wrong direction and its our duty as leaders to protect the men and women who serve our nation, Gillibrand said. We have to treat a mental health diagnosis the same way we would approach any physical ailment and prioritize access to mental health care services.


Monday, October 4, 2021

Here are 8 ways you might be contributing to this [your own?] problem!

A serious but largely overlooked problem in philanthropy is feeling overwhelmed. As odd as it seems, overwhelm often comes more from our minds than from the physical world. That is, we may indeed have a boatload of tasks to take care of, but how we view our situation has a lot to do with whether we feel helplessly overwhelmed or appropriately busy. Our thoughts tip the boat in one direction or the other.

Here are eight ways you unintentionally contribute to a feeling of overwhelm:

1. You wear it like a badge of honor. When asked how you are, how often do you respond, Im busy? Im guessing fairly often. Im guilty of this, too. In fact, you might even boast about how busy you are. It might be your nonstop travel schedule, your upcoming board meeting, the gala you are planning, or juggling work and kids during the summer.

But being busy and feeling overwhelmed is not a badge of honor. Your booked schedule is not proof of your importance. Its probably proof of your exhaustion! In fact, keeping busy might be a form of procrastination. Instead of stuffing our calendars, we need to create more unstructured time to relax, think, and do nothing. In fact, studies show that periods of being idle makes us more creative and better at problem solving.

The busy brag is also contagious and can negatively impact organizational cultures. Netflix and Virgin Group have begun combating this by offering employees unlimited vacation time. Not only does this help them attract top talent, it neutralizes a culture of busy bragging even as employees are still held accountable for results. Carl Richards, author of The Behavior Gap, offers this practical advice: Take the busy badge, throw it in the trash, and replace it with one that says, rested.

2. You set unrealistic expectations. One way we do this is to set up a series of tight deadlines with no real plan for meeting them. Another example is scheduling relentless back-to-back meetings, with no time to think or follow up on what we agreed to do. A colleague told me his foundation has a culture of double-booking meetings: For example, you might schedule an hour-long meeting with a colleague to discuss an important matter, only to discover that you actually have just 10 minutes because she booked another meeting at the same time. Think of how much overwhelm that practice is causing!

3. You dont have a strategy, much less a plan. Its easy to feel overwhelmed when you dont know what you are trying to do and you dont have a plan. You end up engaging in lots of disconnected activities. You get pulled in different directions and jump on too many charitable bandwagons. As a result, you feel overwhelmed by a growing list of obligations, and you get frustrated that you arent making headway on any of them. You need a strategy to help you prioritize which tasks to do whenand which to ignore, at least temporarily.

4. You dont have systems in place. Perhaps you dont use basic systems and processes to help you conduct your work. As a result, youre frequently late and overwhelmed while completing routine activities. The systems you need might be simple, such as clearing your email inbox each day, or complex, such as installing a new grants management system.

One family foundation trustee described the chaos her family experienced without a grantmaking process. The board had no process or schedule for reviewing proposals or approving grants. This was intentional, because they thought the lack of a grantmaking system would allow them to be nimble and make quick decisions. In fact, the opposite was true. We were all over the place. . . . As proposals rolled in, we had to drop what we were doing and respond. We felt like we were being really responsive. But really, we were just disorganized. On one hand wed say we needed to hurry, but then wed reschedule board meetings, and funding decisions got postponed for six months.

5. You dont invest in technology that could help you. There are myriad ways that investments in technology make us faster, more effective, and less exhausted grantmakers. This might include online grant applications, employee volunteer systems, and giving platforms. Technology investments can also help our grantees to scale up their solutions.

For example, Business of Good Foundation (Ohio) supports mentoring to help first-generation, low-income college students persist to college graduation. It does this by supporting America Mentors, which uses MentorcliQ technology on a smartphone or tablet to match students with mentors and enable guided interactions between these pairs, fostering strong relationships through timely and relevant conversations. All for free. The outcome? More than 3,000 students have been mentored and graduation rates increased from 8% in 2011 to 80% in 2017. The foundation hopes there will be a time when all first-generation college students have mentors.

6. You dont invest in people who can help you. You dont need to go it alone. There are plenty of people with expertise who can help youyou just need to engage them. Who am I talking about? Virtual administrative assistants, speech writers, communications experts, family offices, strategic advisors, and event planners. Employees who could handle work you dont have the time or expertise to do. Im also talking about people who can handle nonwork- related tasks for you, such as mowing your lawn, cleaning your apartment, and preparing your taxes.

Why invest in outside help? I can think of at least three reasons:

First, you will free up your time and brainpower to do what you are best at. If youre best at engaging employees in meaningful volunteer opportunities, why would you spend your time on data entry?

Second, you can always improve. Why be good when you can be great? Why be great when you can be fabulous? A trusted advisor can help you prioritize your goals and hold you accountable for meeting them.

Third, when you invest in people who are smarter and better at an activity than you are, you might find that the quality of your organizations work improves dramatically. After all, if you have an entire group of people attacking projects from their own individual strengths, things start getting done quickly.

7. You dont take care of yourself. Its easy to feel overwhelmed when you run yourself ragged. We often forget how much our physical, mental, and spiritual health contributes to our success. Does any of this sound familiar? Lack of sleep, lack of exercise, unhealthy eating, and not enough time spent with the ones you care most aboutfamily, friends, pets, and yourself. Not to mention that this can contribute to serious problems such as diabetes and depression. The conventional wisdom is true: You cant take care of others until you take care of yourself.

8. You believe feeling overwhelmed is normal. Youve felt so harried for so long that youve come to expect it. Youve forgotten what its like to feel calm and on top of things. In fact, you wonder whether you ever felt this way. If youve gotten to this point, you need an interventionand quickly! This is especially challenging and insidious when those around you are suffering the same problem. When your colleagues, family members, and friends constantly describe being behind, busy, and stressed, you feel pressured to feel the same way.

What amazes me about the list above is that everything on it is usually within our power to changeor at least influence. In many ways, we enable and facilitate our own feelings of overwhelm.

Of course, overwhelm is also triggered and exacerbated by experiences and traumas beyond our control. You might live in a community experiencing a natural disaster or violence, experience racism or homophobia, have a serious health problem, or have lost a loved one. We are also still dealing with and responding to the ongoing pandemic that touches every funders mission, strategy, geography and focus area. There are a lot of real-world factors that can overwhelm us, whether they come from our workplace, community, national politics, or personal identity and experience. When oppression, physical health problems, mental health concerns, and similar major life issues are involved, it is important to take action.

Counseling, support groups, religion, peer groups, and family can be powerful sources of strength. So too can volunteering, community organizing, and participating in social change activities to eradicate the situations that cause these types of traumas.

Sometimes the contributors to overwhelm are powerful and constant. Other times they are more subtle. Regardless, they all have an effect. Although we might not be able to remove some of these at their source, we can at least try to mitigate them.
Hear Marilyn Redmond, BA CHT, IBRT tell her amazing stories on the program, "That's "Some Crazy Shit" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZN2EP71oz4. Her experiences with angels will astound you. Her experiences include their putting out a house fire and assisting her as she was going off cliffs at the Grand Canyon and Banff, Canada. An angel appeared in human form to help her with a flat tire in Oregon where there were no homes, town, or gas stations for help. Marilyn shares Archangel Michael's prophecy from thirty years ago about our problems currently in the government.

A multitalented Marilyn L. Redmond has her stories to share with all. She talks about how her life came together. Her husband trying to kill her forced her to call out for help, "God, please help me I really don't want to die".

Life opened up into many kinds of healing help and opportunities for spiritual growth. These included becoming a spiritual minister for counseling, mediumship, healing, past life therapy all of which brought accessing the realm of the spirit world. Archangel Michael, St. Germain, and other spiritual beings have been guiding her through life for her work in counseling, writing books, having radio programs, speaking, teaching, giving readings, assisting healings, and channeling information. In addition, Marilyn is available for past life regressions and holistic health assistance.

She shares about her many books. Currently, Marilyn is writing a book about all her angel experiences called, "Divinely Protected". In addition, she is writing a book, "Sorting the Truth from the False". Her books are from spirit information and are available at Amazon and Barns and Noble online. Her words of wisdom are to release all your fears, as the best is yet to come.

Marilyn's 10 books are at Amazon and on line at Barnes and Nobel. They have tools, information, and help find a higher consciousness of love, grace, and compassion. She produced and hosted two radio shows. In addition, her over 100 published articles and international monthly columns reveal how she achieved a consciousness of oneness in healing a traumatic life.

Receiving several writing awards, Marilyn's recent successes are that she was notified that her books are being distributed internationally to prisons and being used in a book study in San Quentin. In addition, another surprise is that Marilyn was accepted into the prestigious book, "Who's Who in America". Her web site is https://www.angelicasgifts.com /
Francine Romero, a department chair at the University of Texas at San Antonio, was picked Monday by a split CPS Energy board to replace outgoing trustee Ed Kelley.

The nomination requires City Council approval. She would replace Kelley after his second five-year term ends Jan. 31.

Romero, 60, is an associate dean and chair of the public administration department at UTSA, where shes been teaching since the late 1990s. She served as a commissioner on the citys planning commission in the mid-2000s and currently chairs the citys Conservation Advisory Board, which oversees the Edwards Aquifer Protection Program.

She was also a zoning commissioner under Mayor Ron Nirenberg when he was District 8 city councilman.

Ive done a lot of public service, Romero said in an interview Monday, and I cant really think of a more important venue for public service right now than CPS Energy.

Nirenberg, who is a CPS trustee, voted Monday with trustees Janie Gonzalez and Willis Mackey to approve the nomination. Kelley and Trustee John Steen voted to nominate Clayton Killinger, an executive with CST Brands.

On ExpressNews.com: CPS Energy CEO says utility under intense financial pressure, needs rate increase

City-owned CPS Energys board is self perpetuating, so outgoing trustees select candidates who may replace them from the pool of applicants. Any resident can apply to join the board.

Ray Whitehouse, Photographer / for the San Antonio Express-News

Romeros nomination comes after Kelley and Mackey over the past month whittled down the original list of 26 applicants.

Environmental organizers vocally backed Adelita Cantu, an associate professor at UT Health San Antonio. She wasnt among the four finalists trustees considered, however.

Meanwhile, Kelley  a former executive with USAA Real Estate and chairman of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce  has said he wanted his replacement to come from the business world and have expertise in corporate finance. He complained Monday that after he departs, CPS Energys board wont have anyone well-versed in finance and accounting.

Steen is a lawyer and former Texas secretary of state, Mackey is a retired public school administrator, and Gonzalez is founder and CEO of internet company Webhead.

Nirenberg suggested Romero can toe the line between financial discipline and a focus on climate change and economic equity.

She is committed to upholding the public trust and exercising responsible fiscal stewardship to protect ratepayers, Nirenberg said in a statement. Electricity is a key issue of our time. She has a true understanding of what that means to the most vulnerable members of our city as well as our economy.

In response to Kelleys comments regarding business background, Romero cited her experience making recommendations to council for how to manage the $100 million sales-tax funded Edwards Aquifer program. And she said that as a trustee she would prioritize improving lines of communication with the public as well as the environmental and business communities.

Thats something that would be very important for me to look at: two-way communication, Romero said.

On ExpressNews.com: Business stalwart Ed Kelley to leave CPS Energy board; new trustee sought to guide utility

She was circumspect on other CPS-related issues. She declined to give her thoughts on CPS Energys impending rate increase, which is expected to increase bills by about 10 percent. Its not clear whether the board or City Council will consider the rate increase before Romeros tenure would begin in February.

She also declined to say how the citys electric utility ought to manage its emissions or transition to greater reliability on renewable power sources.

I would want to, if I was chosen, see all the evidence, see all the different ideas, Romero said. Different people have different ideas.

If City Council members vote down her nomination, the board of trustees would have to select another nominee.

Among current board members, only Mackey experienced skepticism from council members after being nominated. He was approved as a trustee in April 2018 on an 8-3 council vote, with members dissenting because they said they wanted a female voice on the board.

Kelley glided onto the board in 2011 as then-Mayor Julian Castros pick to replace former AT&T executive Charles Foster. Steen and Gonzalez, respectively, joined the board in 2016 and 2019 with little fanfare or opposition.

diego.mendoza-moyers@express-news.net
A lot more goes into whether a person can take a job than simply having the skills, a fact that COVID-19 is making more apparent to almost every employer.

Companies are scrambling for workers, raising wages, increasing benefits and offering signing bonuses. Even then, nearly 4 million Americans quit their jobs in July, according to federal data, and the unemployment rate remains high despite 10.9 million job openings.

While some economists have blamed generous pandemic unemployment benefits for Americans staying home, those checks have gone away. And while there is a skills mismatch across the economy, that doesnt explain the challenges in finding low-skill workers.

TOMLINSONS TAKE: Americans don't trust government, but somehow trust their bosses

Economists are searching for new theories to explain the nations restive workforce, and they can find clues in who is not working and why.

COVID has driven more women  particularly women of color  out of the workforce than men.

NEWSLETTERS Join the conversation with HouWeAre We want to foster conversation and highlight the intersection of race, identity and culture in one of America's most diverse cities. Sign up for the HouWeAre newsletter here.

The loss of women talent during the pandemic is a huge blow to U.S. employers, said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president at the workforce consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Ultimately, companies will have to bring women back to the workforce if for no other reason than that they need the workers.

In the early months of the pandemic, women suffered the highest job losses because they filled a high proportion of customer-facing positions in industries that shut down, such as hospitality and retail. But many also remained home as the economy reopened because schools and daycare did not restart as quickly.

Families disproportionately expected women to remain home when a child or an elderly family member required care. Lastly, many women did not want to return to in-person jobs where they face unvaccinated adults and children spreading the virus because Texas and other states will not require masks.

Since the pandemic began, the proportion of mothers who say they would prefer to drop out of the formal workforce has jumped 8 percentage points to 27 percent, according to new polling by Pew Research. Two-thirds of those mothers were unemployed in October 2020, when vaccines were unavailable.

The share of mothers who said it would be best for them to work full time dropped from 51 percent to 44 percent during that span, while around three in 10 in both surveys said they would prefer to work part-time, Pews analysis said.

Fathers preferred work arrangements, meanwhile, were unchanged. Eight in 10 dads prefer to leave home for at least 40 hours a week.

Dropping out of the workforce hurts womens opportunities for career growth and decreases lifetime earnings. Changing diapers does not lead to merit raises, and childrens smiles do not add to retirement savings. The decision may be suitable for many women, but it comes at a high economic cost for others.

A study from the University of Chicago recently revealed the financial value of keeping women in the workforce. Researchers examined the spending by single mothers before and after the overhaul of the welfare system.

In 1996, former President Bill Clinton struck a deal with Republicans in Congress to end welfare as the nation knew it with the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. The federal government made government support dependent on working or searching for work.

The new policies pushed single moms into the workforce by expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, which pays people to work. Other programs expanded access to childcare, training and Medicaid, the health program for the poor.

Conservatives praised the new program, while liberals accused Clinton of selling out impoverished single mothers.

Researchers at the universitys Becker Friedman Institute discovered that they actually thrived when examining how much single mother households spent.

A combination of a reduction in unconditional aid and an expansion of aid conditional on work (with exceptions for those who could not work) was successful in raising material well-being for single mothers, the authors wrote.

TOMLINSONS TAKE: Racial wage gap remains stubborn, but trends are promising

People will not work unless the pay and benefits make it worthwhile. By supplementing low wages with tax credits, making childcare easier to find, and providing health care when an employer does not, Americans will happily work and see their lives improve.

Challenger, the workplace consultant, makes similar recommendations for getting women back to work. He recommends employers expand paid family leave, ensure workload matches available hours, and demonstrating empathy for family obligations.

All American workers, but especially low-paid women, are leaving lousy workplaces in droves. Experiencing a pandemic and seeing family and friends suffer and die has made many rethink their priorities.

To rebuild our economy, we need workers. But, to get them, we will need to understand their needs and meet them.

Tomlinson writes commentary about business, economics and politics.

twitter.com/cltomlinson

chris.tomlinson@chron.com
Pvt. Jason Menendez took the coronavirus vaccine as soon as it was offered. He was one of the first to get the shot, receiving it almost a year before he joined the Army.

Things were different for Illinois National Guard Pvt. Ethan Mudd. While he didnt have crazy reservations, he was concerned about the long-range effects.

Most vaccines are tested for a few years or just a little bit longer than this one was, and how fast they pushed it out initially made me nervous because we hadnt seen the long-term effects of the vaccine yet, he said.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sparked controversy when he mandated COVID-19 vaccinations for all troops, prompting some to say they would quit before complying. But if Mudd and Menendez are representative of soldiers in training at the U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence in San Antonio, few are squabbling over the issue.

On ExpressNews.com: Defense Secretary Austin orders mandatory COVID vaccinations for all troops

Soldiers say their conversations about the mandate have been reasoned and free of shouting.

There were a few stragglers, which is what Menendez, 18, of Thousand Oaks, Calif., called the recruits who initially refused to take the vaccine during basic training at Fort Sill, Okla. He estimates that 85 percent of previously unvaccinated recruits were open to the idea and/or wanted to get it as soon as possible.

In the end, everyone he and Mudd graduated with agreed to be immunized.

They were swayed by what the cadre and the experts told them about how the vaccine works and its benefits.

I think that it perhaps may be due to who theyre listening to down there in the ranks, whether someone is going to do it or not do it, said Maj. Gen. Dennis LeMaster, who commands the Medical Center of Excellence and is chief of the Medical Service Corps. I think most of the experienced soldiers anticipated this coming.

Billy Calzada /Staff photographer

Each service is setting its own deadlines for compliance, and some objectors may receive religious and medical exemptions. The Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps hope to have their members fully immunized this year, while the National Guard and reserves will wait until June, Pentagon spokesman Christopher Garver said. Those who refuse could be charged with violating a lawful order and face court-martial.

Cases also could be handled via nonjudicial punishment rather than a trial, LeMaster said, adding that most of those who refuse will leave the service.

The Army Public Health Center has said soldiers who refuse the vaccine will be counseled by their chains of command and medical providers, but it warned that continued failure to comply could result in administrative or nonjudicial punishment  to include relief of duties or discharge.

So far, Garver said, about 88 percent of all active-duty troops have taken at least one shot. Across the Defense Department, 58 out of 1.4 million service members have died of the virus.

The Army said about 90 percent of active-duty soldiers had received one or both shots as of Friday. There have been a total of 11 active Army, 11 Army National Guard, and 11 Army Reserve deaths to COVID-19, a spokesman, Lt. Col. Terence M. Kelley, said Monday.

The Navy reported that 93.5 percent of active-duty sailors have received one dose of vaccine and that 88 percent of active-duty personnel and 85 percent of its total force are fully immunized against COVID-19. There have been 13 deaths related to COVID-19 among Navy personnel, none of whom were immunized, the Navy said.

The Air Force reported that 75.1 percent of its active-duty personnel and 71 percent of the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve were fully vaccinated. Four airmen have died of the virus; the Air Force did not say whether they had been immunized. Space Force veterans were included in the numbers.

The Marines said 68.4 percent of active-duty members had been fully vaccinated as of Sept. 27. To date, two Marines have died of complications of the virus, said a spokesman, Capt. Andrew Wood.

The National Guard Bureau said 44.4 percent of its troops had been fully vaccinated as of Sept. 27. Seventeen national guardsmen have died, said Christina Mundy, a Guard Bureau spokeswoman.

Joint Base San Antonio reported that 129,096 COVID-19 shots had been administered here as of Thursday. The 37th Training Wing at JBSA-Lackland, which oversees basic training for all Air Force recruits, said nearly 9 in 10 of them had been immunized; it expects to reach nearly 100 percent when the squadron that arrived late last month graduates in seven weeks.

COVID-19 has forced the armed services to change the way members are recruited and trained. The Marines sent new recruits to a staging area for 14 days while medical teams assessed whether they had symptoms of the virus. At Lackland, Air Force recruits enter a similar two-week period of isolation when starting instruction.

Such precautions have paid dividends: Just 2,919 recruits have tested positive for COVID-19 since March 2020, and only five spent time in the hospital. None have died. Over that time, 51,602 airmen graduated from basic training at Lackland, spokeswoman Annette Crawford said.

On ExpressNews.com: Masked and Made Over

Vaccines have long been part of military life.

Mandatory vaccinations are familiar to all of our service members, and mission-critical inoculation is almost as old as the U.S. military itself, the defense secretary said in an Aug. 24 memorandum.

For the most part, service branches have higher inoculation rates than civilians.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 75 percent of the population 12 and over has received one dose of the Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

The CDC said 184,601,450 people, 55.6 percent of the U.S. population, were fully immunized. In Texas, 62 percent of people 12 and older have been fully vaccinated, according to the Department of State Health Services.

In Bexar County, 74.6 percent of residents eligible for the vaccine are fully vaccinated, according to the Metropolitan Health District.

On ExpressNews.com: Winter COVID-19 surge could be worse than last year, San Antonio doctor says

The militarys history with vaccines goes back to Gen. George Washington, who ordered the inoculation of Continental Army soldiers against smallpox, which threatened to decimate the ranks early in the Revolutionary War.

The Army, along with its medical department, was basically abolished after the conflict, but smallpox vaccinations resumed with the War of 1812. Vaccinations have been mandatory since then, Army Medical Center of Excellence historian Sanders Marble said.

Without health, theres not going to be readiness, he said, citing the ability of the British to fend off an American effort to capture Quebec in 1775 when half the invading force was sick. Washington saw this.

Today, recruits entering Army basic training receive vaccines against many diseases, including hepatitis A; hepatitis B; measles/mumps/rubella; tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis; varicella; meningitis; and polio.

GIs rarely get all of additional vaccines available.

I would say initially at least half a dozen, LeMaster, the Medical Center of Excellence commander, said of the shots he received after joining the Army. He added: And heaven knows how much blood I had to give.

Menendez said he has received six vaccines and is relieved for the sake of his family  including his father, who has pulmonary problems  that so many other soldiers have gotten their shots.

I was originally reluctant to invite my grandma to come see me for Family Day, he said, but because of the sheer amount of people that were vaccinated, I felt a lot more confident in her being safe and being able to come visit me and not be at risk, as well as my dad.

For Mudd, who will be a premed student at the University of Illinois while serving in the Illinois guard, getting vaccinated is consistent with why he and most of his peers enlisted.

A big part of taking the vaccine, he said, is protecting the others around you, not necessarily yourself.

sigc@express-news.net
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UPDATED: and Instagram users reported widespread outages Monday, as the social media giant appeared to be again experiencing serious technical problems. The companys WhatsApp and Messenger apps also were down, per user reports.

The company, in the spotlight over accusations by a whistleblower that the company prioritized profits over safety, saw its flagship Facebook app as well as Instagram and other apps go down for many users Monday before noon ET.

On Facebooks website, an error message Monday said, Sorry, something went wrong. Were working on it and well get it fixed as soon as we can and the Facebook app was not loading some content. Instagrams site displayed a 5xx Server Error and its app showed an error message that said, Couldnt refresh feed.

U.S. user reports of problems with Facebook and Instagram started to spike around 11:35 a.m. ET Monday, according to monitoring service DownDetector. Outages were also reported by users in other countries around the same time, per DownDetector.

In a message posted to Facebooks main account on Twitter at 12:22 p.m. ET, the company said, Were aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products. Were working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.

Were aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products. Were working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.  Facebook (@Facebook) October 4, 2021

Instagrams PR account on Twitter posted shortly afterward, Instagram and friends are having a little bit of a hard time right now, and you may be having issues using them. Bear with us, were on it! #instagramdown.

Facebook reps did not immediately respond to a request for more information.

For June 2021, Facebook reported 1.91 billion daily active users for its flagship app, up 7% year over year. Daily users across all of the companys family of apps (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger) averaged 2.76 billion for the month of June 2021, up 12% on an annual basis.

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MGM

A couple of entertainment icons return this week. James Bond is back in action in No Time to Die. And Colombian rocker Juanes hits town on a tour in support of his covers album Origen. Heres a look at the week ahead in arts and entertaiment.

Stage: Jose Ruben De Leon, a gifted theater artist known for his well-crafted solo pieces, is giving a single performance of St. Francis of Assisi. The musical explores the saints love of God, nature and people. 7 p.m. Monday, Holy Rosary Catholic Church, 159 Camino Santa Maria. Donations to the church will be accepted.
Actor Lee Marshall guesses he has donned Dr. Frank-N-Furters corset and towering heels thousands of times in productions of The Rocky Horror Show, but the first time he saw the film based on the stage show, it freaked him out.

To be fair, he was just 13 years old. And it wasnt so much the stuff on the screen that startled him as what was going on in the audience at the Northwest 10 movie theater. The movie was a participatory experience, and regulars would respond to the action by shouting responses to certain lines and throwing things like rice and rolls of toilet paper.

I was very scared of the goings-on in the theater, Marshall, 50, recalled. I had never seen anything like that before.

He was scared but also intrigued. He started going every week and soon was invited to be part of the shadow cast, actors who danced or acted out scenes live as they played out in the film. He played Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a role he loves to this day.

On ExpressNews.com: Woodlawn Theatres history includes Rocky Horror Show

Rocky Horror Picture Show When: 8 p.m. Oct. 8. Where: Brauntex Performing Arts Theatre, 290 W. San Antonio, New Braunfels. Tickets: $16-$26 at brauntex.org. Details: San Antonio actor Lee Marshall will host the screening, which will include a costume contest and audience participation. See More Collapse

That was Marshalls entry into the Rocky world. He will be returning to it for the first time since he moved back to San Antonio from California in March by hosting a screening of the 1975 movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Oct. 8 at the Brauntex Performing Arts Theatre in New Braunfels.

Rocky Horror is a campy spoof of B movies in which a naive couple (played in the film by Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick) seeks shelter on a stormy night in a spooky castle where cross-dressing mad scientist Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry) and his minions dwell. Over the course of the evening, the couples sexual inhibitions are challenged, secrets are revealed, and everyone does the Time Warp again. A message of acceptance is woven throughout the tale.

Marshall wont be in character as the Sweet Transvestite at the screening. Instead, he will be playing Deviant Lee, a character he created for another show, whom he describes as a cross between Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and the master of ceremonies from Cabaret. But fans of his take on Dr. Frank-N-Furter should take heart that he is making plans to play the character again in Mitchell Sanitorium, a mash-up of Rocky and Hedwig and the Angry Inch written by his husband, Todd Martens.

Cameo Theatre.

It got produced three different times professionally in Los Angeles before we produced it ourselves, Marshall said.

The couple is making plans to produce that show in San Antonio next year. Theyre also planning to stage Drink With Me, a rendering of Les Miserables told from the perspective of the thieving innkeepers.

Both shows have an interactive element, which means they require a specific kind of place to stage them.

Were looking for a venue, Marshall said. It works best in a lounge-ish setting instead of a proscenium theater.

Marshall is looking forward to returning to his Rocky Horror character. The role had a big impact on him right from the start. He started acting as a child and was part of the youth theater troupe at the San Antonio Little Theater (now The Public Theater of San Antonio). But playing the mad scientist felt different.

On ExpressNews.com: Breakfast taco muralist Eva Marengo Sanchezs work looks good enough to eat

He remembers shaking right before he made his first appearance. His nerves vanished the second he dropped the cape that was part of his costume and the audience started cheering.

I was like, Oh, Ive found where I belong. I totally belonged there, he said.

He also loved the Rocky Horror community.

Rocky Horror totally saved me, he said. It gave me an outlet. It let me express myself in an artistic way, in a safe way for sure, and some of the best people Ive ever known were Rocky Horror people  so loving and accepting and always had my back.

I loved it. Ill always have a place in my heart for Rocky Horror.

dlmartin@express-news.net | Twitter: @DeborahMartinEN
WASHINGTON - If any government entity needs thoughts and prayers these fractious days, the Supreme Court might be the most deserving.

On Sunday, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. was the sole member of the Supreme Court to join hundreds of other Washingtonians at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle for the Red Mass, a ceremony typically held on the Sunday before the first Monday in October, the opening of the high court's term. The purpose of the ritual, which at the Washington cathedral dates to 1953, is to "invoke God's blessings on those responsible for the administration of justice as well as on all public officials," according to the event's program.

The Supreme Court may need those blessings. On Monday, the justices will return to the courtroom for their first in-person session of oral arguments since the start of the pandemic. Their docket is explosive, to put it mildly: One case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, will ask the court to overrule Roe v. Wade to preserve a Mississippi law banning most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Another case, backed by the National Rifle Association, is challenging a New York law that limits gun usage by requiring law-abiding citizens who want a permit to carry a concealed firearm outside their home to demonstrate a "proper cause."

On top of the consequential docket, the court is mired in other volatility: In recent weeks, justices have been delivering public speeches against accusations of partisanship. (Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., nominated by President George W. Bush, said media and political commentary on the court's emergency decision docket makes it seem like a "dangerous cabal" is making decisions outside the normal process.) A presidential commission is weighing proposals to change lifetime tenure for justices and even expand the number of seats on the bench. Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who is an 83-year-old Bill Clinton appointee, is facing pressure to step down so President Joe Biden can replace him with another liberal who is younger.

And, if all of that weren't high-stakes enough, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, who has been fully vaccinated since January, tested positive last week for the coronavirus. In a statement Friday night, the court said he was showing no symptoms. He will participate in oral arguments by telephone from his home.

During Sunday's ceremony, though, the particulars of the court's problems were not aired inside the soaring cathedral. Instead, Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, the permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, spoke in general terms about the need for "fraternity," "justice" and "mercy."

Caccia also lauded the Red Mass as a "powerful reminder that justice has to do with something sacred, and that those who practice its administration are at the service of something larger and greater than themselves." At one point, he also cautioned, "Today, like at the time of Jesus, there is the risk to exploit justice instead of deliver it . . . if we do not place ourselves before God in this way, there is the risk to 'use' even God for our own ends instead of serving Him."

In previous years, more justices have attended the Red Mass, which is named for the red vestments that are worn by clergy during the ceremony and that represent "the tongues of fire symbolizing the presence of the Holy Spirit," according to the event's program.

In 2018, for instance, Roberts attended, but so did Justices Breyer and Clarence Thomas. In 2010, then-Vice President Biden plus five justices showed up: Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Antonin Scalia - all of them Catholic - plus Breyer, who is Jewish.

After Sunday's service, celebrants filed outside and chatted beneath the steps to the church entrance. The road had been blocked off to traffic. Bystanders stood outside taking photos, and protest signs were propped up on the sidewalk.

Jacob Thayer, 31, a federal government attorney from Alexandria, described himself as antiabortion and a supporter of the Second Amendment. He said he was not steeped yet in the details of the court's upcoming cases but hoped that the justices's eventual opinions "are rooted in law" and that they can "help bring us together."

Chris Huff, a law student at Catholic University, said he believed abortion rights deserved a reexamination.

"Roe v. Wade is based on science from the 1970s," he said. "We might have a better understanding of the science of personhood now."

His girlfriend, Nicole Schaeffer, also a Catholic University law student, said as far as the abortion case goes, "I'm praying they make the right decision. But the chances of it being overturned are unlikely due to Roe being a precedent."
VATICAN CITY (AP)  Pope Francis and dozens of religious leaders on Monday signed a joint appeal to governments to commit to ambitious targets at the upcoming U.N. climate conference, while promising to do their own part to lead their faithful into more sustainable behavior.

We have inherited a garden; we must not leave a desert to our children, said the appeal, which was signed at a formal ceremony in the Apostolic Palace before being handed over to the head of the COP26 conference, Alok Sharma.

For the religious leaders, care for the environment is a moral imperative to preserve Gods creation for future generations and to support communities most vulnerable to climate change.

Its an argument Francis has made repeatedly and most comprehensively in a 2015 encyclical, Praised Be and was echoed Monday by imams, rabbis, patriarchs and reverends who shared how their faith traditions interpreted the call, many of them insisting that faith and science must listen to each other to save the planet.

Faith and Science: An Appeal for COP26 is the latest initiative to rally momentum and outrage ahead of the Oct. 31-Nov. 12 summit in Glasgow, Scotland that experts say is a make-or-break chance to curb greenhouse gas emissions. It follows a youth climate summit in Milan last week and an earlier appeal by three Christian leaders: Francis, the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the spiritual leader of the worlds Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I.

They were joined Monday by leaders of other major faith groups representing Sunni and Shiite Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Jainism, Sikhism and more.

Conspicuously absent was the Dalai Lama. The Vatican has excluded the Tibetan spiritual leader from interfaith events for years to not antagonize China, and an appeal seeking to be heard by a top polluter like Beijing is no exception.

The Glasgow summit aims to secure more ambitious commitments to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius with a goal of keeping it to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. The event also is focused on mobilizing financing and protecting vulnerable communities and natural habitats.

Pope Francis is widely expected to attend, though the Vatican hasnt yet confirmed his presence.

The Vatican event was jointly organized by the Holy See and the two countries leading the push ahead of the Glasgow summit: host Britain and Italy, which currently heads the Group of 20. The appeal was crafted over months of discussions among religious leaders and scientists.

Bishop Frederick Shoo, president of the Lutheran Church of Tanzania, quoted Martin Luther in describing his vocation to plant trees on Mount Kilimanjaro that has earned him the nickname of the tree bishop.

Even if I knew I would die tomorrow ... I would plant a tree today, Shoo said, paraphrasing the 16th century Luther who broke away from the Catholic Church.

Francis arrived in the Hall of Blessings with Bartholomew at his side, and then greeted each of the delegates as a string quartet played Vivaldis Four Seasons. Usually Francis goes maskless inside the Vatican, but he donned a face mask Monday, as did the other delegates.

He had been scheduled to read a lengthy speech but gave just a brief welcome and then left the floor to others, starting off with Sheikh Ahmad al-Tayyeb, the imam of the Al-Azhar center for Sunni learning in Cairo. Al-Tayyeb urged young Muslims and religious scholars to carry out their religious duty by taking responsibility for the crisis.

The event was a global gathering of faith leaders, almost all of them male, including some who rarely are in the same room because of longstanding theological differences. But there was the Istanbul patriarch, Bartholomew, calling for continued dialogue as he signed a joint appeal alongside Patriarch Hilarion of the Russian Orthodox Church, who used his two-minute speech to call for repentance for all the damage already done.

It shall be remembered that the current ecological situation has been caused, among other factors, by the desire of some to profit at the expense of others as well as by the desire of unjust enrichment, Hilarion said.

In the appeal, the leaders begged political leaders to adopt measures to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius and for countries that are most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions to provide substantial financial support to most vulnerable communities.

For their own part, they vowed to promote environmentally aware educational and cultural initiatives and to urge their faithful to lead more sustainable lifestyles.

In his speech, Welby said over the past 100 years, humanity had declared war on creation and must now repent by not only to building a green economy but by bringing justice to the global south.

I have run out of time, Welby said at the end of his speech. The world has just enough time to get this right.
An art studio, computer stations for coding and design, and a kitchen are just a handful of the new facilities that local young girls will soon have at their fingertips.

The former Bethesda Christian Church on Basse Road begins major renovations this week as Girls Inc. of San Antonio creates a campus to offer its services to 6- to 18-year-olds.

For the past 17 years, the organization has been hosting camps, conferences and festivals all designed to help young women reach personal, educational and career goals. But prior to last year, when the group paid $2 million to purchase the church, the organization had to hop around town, said Lea Rosenauer, president and CEO of Girls Inc. of San Antonio.

This was the next step, Rosenauer said, to have a permanent place to put our roots in the ground and to be part of a neighborhood. Ive been with the organization for seven years, and that has been a dream for seven years.

On ExpressNews.com: Girls Inc. festival introduces young girls to exploration of science

The $6 million project includes the initial purchase of the building and $4 million to remodel.

The church was constructed in the late 1960s, so Rosenauer said a lot of improvements are needed, including adding an elevator and a fire sprinkler system. The old playground also will be replaced, and there will be an outdoor classroom. The church is two buildings, but the renovation will combine those structures and add 2,500 square feet.

The end product: a 25,000-square-foot campus with a building majorly reconfigured to better use space.

The Zachry Corporation Innovation Lab, which will include 3D printers and laser cutters, and the Frost Bank Entrepreneurship and Finance Lab, where girls will learn about money management and business models, are just a couple of things on the horizon.

The new facility will be the Harvey E. Najim Girls Inc. of San Antonio Campus. Najim donated $1.3 million to the effort, said Melissa Bauman, executive director and chief operating officer of the Najim Charitable Foundation. Rosenauer said the philanthropist was the first to make a seven-digit donation that allowed her organization to buy the church.

Najim told those who attended a groundbreaking ceremony last Tuesday that he fell in love with the new space when he first saw it.

Josie Norris /San Antonio Express-News

Im proud to support Girls Inc. of San Antonio in this endeavor and help provide a campus that is dedicated to helping girls learn, grow and thrive, he said.

On ExpressNews.com: SJRC Texas announces plans to build its first on-site education center

The Mays Family Foundation, the Mabee Foundation, Napier Charitable Fund and the Zachry Corporation are just a handful of the many parties who helped make the upcoming transformation possible.

Rosenauer said the group, still accepting donations, is about about 80 percent of the way toward its $6 million fundraising goal.

Prior to the pandemic, Girls Inc. of San Antonio served about 5,000 girls, and though the pandemic has limited some of its programming, it still serves about half that many people. Rosenauer said she hopes that the facility will be able to serve more than 6,000 girls once renovation finishes in June. There will be programs offered throughout the year during the week, on weekends and during the summer.

Justin Brandt, the churchs former pastor, said at last Tuesdays event that he is excited to see how the space is used for Girls Inc. Brandt is now the pastor of Restoration Church.

We know for a fact that it is going to be an amazing property, Brandt said, and that youre going to touch this community, maybe even better than we ever did during our time here.

megan.rodriguez@express-news.net
During the early days of the U.S. militarys involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq after 9/11, the yellow ribbon was a ubiquitous symbol of home-front support for troops overseas.

For some Boerne residents, the ribbon is now a symbol to commemorate the 13 service members killed at the Kabul airport in late August and for those Americans remaining in the country after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which the Taliban now controls.

Cheryl Gates, a local residential real estate agent, and several other residents have spent the last month tying yellow ribbons on nearly every corner of the stretch of Main Street in downtown Boerne.

The residents began the process Sept. 11  the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

The ribbons symbolize hope and remembrance, given that there are Americans and allies still in danger, Gates said.

The waterproof ribbons likely will remain until everyone returns home, she added.

If they get torn and tattered, I will bring more, Gates said.

The number of Americans still in Afghanistan is unknown. In his Aug. 31 speech about the end of the 20-year war, President Joe Biden said that the majority who wanted to get out had been evacuated and that another 100 to 200 Americans intend to leave.

Last month, the Express-News reported that the family of a San Antonio man who had been stuck in the country had returned safely. His wife and five children left Afghanistan on Sept. 17 on a Qatar Airways flight carrying 28 U.S. citizens and seven passengers with permanent visas.

Robin Jerstad /San Antonio Express-News

People in several other states, including a retired Army lieutenant colonel in Virginia, also have displayed yellow ribbons in an effort to keep the story of Afghanistan alive.

Gates, a 49-year-old mother of three, is not a military member. Born and raised in San Antonio, her father served in the Navy and she developed a close relationship with the local military community.

She said the idea about the ribbons likely came to her one day while visiting Veterans Plaza. The idea, however, didnt materialize until Gates and other Boerne residents were protesting the American withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Biden administration in downtown.

I thought, you know, this could make an actual difference, Gates said.

Gates purchased 2,000 yards of yellow ribbon. She soon heard from the likes of Cindy Edwards and hundreds of other Boerne residents who either wanted to help or to place the ribbons at their homes and businesses.

Edwards, 61, helped place the original ribbons on Main Street. She later returned to decorate Main Plaza in the heart of downtown.

Edwards was born and raised in Boerne and didnt meet Gates until they walked Main Street together putting up the ribbons. The pair connected over their love of America and its military.

Not doing this is kind of like turning our backs and walking away, Edwards said. When people go downtown and they see the yellow ribbons, they will know that we still have Americans trying to get home.

Timothy.Fanning@express-new.net
Watching models flaunt clothes shed made filled Soma Farzad with an emotion that might best be described as euphoria.

It made me very happy, she said with the aid of an impromptu translator, Catholic Charities caseworker Haajarah Bayat.

In fact, Farzad added with a shy smile, Ive never been this happy before.

Farzad was one of 14 Afghan seamstresses whose work was showcased at a fashion show at the Womens Club of San Antonio.

Some of the seamstresses had arrived in the United States as recently as a few months ago. However, Farzad immigrated to the United States from Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, 8 years ago. The family had left their home because her husband was as an interpreter for U.S. troops, a line of work that put his life as well as that of his wife and children at risk.

Bayat said many such newcomers have had a hard time adjusting to life in the U.S.

Ive always tried to get them to be kind of independent, and they always say things like, All I know how to do is sew and cook. And Im like, Thats not all you know how to do. Thats a very valuable skill and a talent, she said.

But since they largely work from home, they dont have many opportunities or the connections to showcase their skills and their wares. So I was like, What can we do to get them that networking and exposure, to have people recognize their talents? Bayat said.

That quest to help led to Friday evenings fashion show.

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Antonio provided the women with the tools and materials necessary to sew clothes and organized the show to exhibit the fruits of their labor.

Ronald Cortes /Contributor

For me, what is important is to give them a sense of becoming independent. They were in a country where they really were relegated to second place. Coming to the U.S. is a dream for some of them. Its a place to start a new life, said J. Antonio Fernandez, the president and CEO of the social services agency. Thats what we try to do: (give) them an opportunity to actually have a potential job, a potential career where they can have income.

Friday night, models of various ages and races cruised a makeshift catwalk in a display of radically different cuts, prints and fabrics as a crowd of about 50 people watched. Sequins were a common motif, as were pom-poms reminiscent of the ones sold in bulk at Michaels.

Seated in the second row, Draven Wagner, the husband of one of the models, bounced a diapered infant on his knee. It was just really powerful, he said of the experience, calling the clothes on display masterworks.

Many of the models were Catholic Charities employees, student Fidele Gazamoundjou said. However, at least one of them, June Griffin Garcia, had professional modeling experience.

Their turns on the runway came about through connections to Catholic Charities. Gazamoundjous sister works for the organization. Griffin Garcia started teaching English as a second language there three weeks ago.

One of Griffin Garcias students was a seamstress whose work was being showcased. That made it a no-brainer to help out, Griffin Garcia said.

I feel really honored to be a part of it, she said.

Ronald Cortes /Contributor

When the show was over, the clothes went on sale in the lobby one floor below: a taupe pantsuit; a calf-length black blazer with striking, jewel-toned trim; dozens of dresses in nearly every color of the rainbow. The prices ranged from $30 to $40 for baby clothes to $60 to $120 for adult clothes, Bayat said. Catholic Charities said 90 percent of the proceeds would be going to the Afghan seamstresses.

While the women might not have college degrees or formal resumes, they have years or decades of experience making clothes.

Farzad, for example, began to sew when she was 10 years old. She designed the dress Bayat was wearing Friday, a rose-pink creation that sported an intricately embroidered bodice embedded with silver discs that reflected the light like mirrors.

This one, she made in one day, Bayat said of the dress. Turning to Farzad, she listened as Farzad spoke. Translating, she said, If I really sat down and put my mind to it, I could do it in just two hours.

Both Farzad and another seamstress, Zarmena Effakhan, hope to turn their sewing expertise into a source of income.

Thats my dream, and that dream is what pushes me forward. For me, its not about making money; its about making something of myself and making a name for myself, Farzad said.

Judging by the reception the show received, that dream might be within reach.

Everyones asking for my number, Farzad said.

caroline.tien@hearst.com
San Antonio consumers may have a better chance of finding affordable health coverage for 2022 now that the federal government has granted $80 million annually for three years to fund the placement of navigators in communities, with $2.2 million of that yearly allotment coming directly to organizations in this area.

Under the Trump administration last year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services granted only $10 million for the national navigator program.

Previously, the program, administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, had allocated $63 million for its national call center and the hiring of navigators  people trained to help consumers review their health coverage options and complete eligibility and enrollment forms on the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

These cuts left the nations seventh-largest city with zero navigators for the past three years.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio is the biggest city in Texas without any funding through the federally facilitated navigator program

A coalition called EnrollSA and others picked up the slack by pooling funds from local partners to hire certified application counselors to connect historically underserved communities with health coverage on healthcare.gov.

EnrollSA helped more than 12,000 people enroll in health coverage during this past enrollment period, which had been extended by several months because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

HHS announced it would increase outreach and education funding by eightfold, and CMS recently announced plans to extend the open enrollment period by a month, enabling people to choose a plan from Nov. 1 to Jan. 15, 2022.

As part of the local share of the federal navigator funding, San Antonio-based health care provider CentroMed is getting a $600,000 federal grant annually for three years, which will be used to reach out to racial and ethnic minorities, rural communities, LGBTQ+ individuals, people with HIV or AIDS, domestic violence victims, people with mental health disorders and people experiencing homelessness.

Ana Maria Garza Cortez, vice president and chief development officer at CentroMed, said she is relieved that local funding has been restored because health coverage has become even more important during the pandemic.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio consumers urged to revisit insurance plans on healthcare.gov for better deals

The Bexar County Community Health Collaborative has been awarded more than $1.6 million per year for the three-year grant cycle to help low-income residents in Bexar, Atascosa, DeWitt, Karnes and Wilson counties.

Anel Trevino, who will lead the organizations navigator program, said it will also target uninsured children, pregnant women, mothers and young adults through its partnerships with nonprofits in these communities.

Understanding what their coverage means and how to use it, the ongoing support even after open enrollment periods, are some of the elements that will be provided by our program and through which we hope to make a difference in the lives of families in our community, Trevino said in an email.

Nearly 17 percent of Bexar County residents do not have health insurance, making the local uninsured rate almost twice that of the U.S. overall.

People without health insurance coverage suffer from worse access to health care because they are less likely to receive preventive care and services for major health conditions and chronic diseases.

Often, uninsured people end up in emergency rooms for more costly care and incur medical debt.

laura.garcia@express-news.net
A jury Monday began hearing testimony in the murder trial of a San Antonio man accused of a fatal shooting in early 2020 of his alleged accomplice in a botched killing the previous June.

John Anthony Scharringhausen was 22 when he was arrested and charged with killing Anthony Sanks, 30, in the parking lot of a Northwest Side apartment complex on Jan. 7, 2020.

Investigators also have described two other men, Andrew Salazar and Anthony Nash, as being part of a tangle of retaliatory violence that didnt end with Sanks death.

Salazar was shot to death a few days after Sanks was killed. Nash was indicted last week, charged with murder in Sanks killing.

On ExpressNews.com: New details reveal murder victim was allegedly planning violent crime with his killer

The day before Sanks was killed, he and Scharringhausen exchanged multiple messages via cellphone and Facebook regarding Salazar, whom the two had tried to kill in June 2019, investigators said in an affidavit released at the time of Scharringhausens arrest.

The affidavit stated that after the attempt on his life, Salazar made peace with Scharringhausen  then convinced him to kill Sanks.

Prosecutor Gretchen Flader warned jurors in her opening statement Monday morning that there is no clear motive in Sanks death. No one witnessed the shooting and no weapon was recovered, she said.

But threatening texts were found on Scharringhausens phone, Flader said. She promised other evidence that would link Scharringhausen to the killing, including the defendants evolving confessions to police.

On ExpressNews.com: Man accused of killing another man in retaliation for a botched shooting the year before

This defendant was texting and messaging the victim right before he was gunned down, Flader told the panel. If you dont believe he was the one, he aided in this murder by giving them his phone to make the threatening texts.

In his opening statement, defense attorney John Young said his client will testify that he is not the one who killed Sanks.

Testimony on Monday established that two guns were used in the crime  both 9mm Lugers. Investigators found bullets from one and shell casings from the other, though not the guns themselves.

Sanks roommate, Courtney Sorrell, testified she last saw him a little after 1 a.m., when an Uber driver dropped her off at the apartment they shared in the 8800 block of Cinnamon Creek.

Sorrell, 31, said the two were former high school sweethearts, and she had been out late with friends and picked up some food both of them shared just hours before he was killed.

It was a normal evening, Sorrell said. I gave Anthony his food, he was playing video games (in his room)  I went to my room, ate, and passed out.

She noticed Sanks was not in the apartment when she briefly woke up around 6 a.m. and sent him a text, Sorrell said. Around 9 a.m., she was awakened by San Antonio police detectives knocking on her door.

Sorrell said she later found out from Sanks mother that he had been killed.

The trial is being heard in the 226th District Court before state District Judge Velia Meza. It is the first in-person trial since jurors sent convicted cop killer Otis McKane to death row in August.

The communitys coronavirus case numbers temporarily halted courtroom proceedings, which resumed last week. Before the McKane trial, criminal trials had been delayed since the start of the pandemic.

Scharringhausen has been held in the Bexar County jail since he was taken into custody in February 2020.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio man indicted in connection with retaliatory killing

Young objected to Meza allowing some relatives of the victim who live out of town to watch the courtroom proceedings on Zoom, but the judge said because she is the one who controls the breakout page for the observers, she would allow them to watch virtually.

If convicted, Scharringhausen, now 23, faces up to life in prison.

ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863
Two suspects are being sought after a Bexar County Sheriff's Office deputy avoided serious injury when his patrol car was rammed by another vehicle on the West Side Sunday morning.

Deputies were called to the 200 block of Coriander Bend around 7:15 a.m. after someone called 911 and said "send the police," Sheriff Javier Salazar said.

When deputies arrived at the house they found three men, one who was bleeding from the head.

As one deputy stepped out of his vehicle to assess the situation, one of the men fled, driving off in a black Nissan sedan, according to Salazar.

Two deputies chased after the vehicle and when one of the deputies attempted a U-turn, the driver of the Nissan "center-punched" the deputy's patrol car. Air bag were deployed when the vehicle was T-boned.

Salazar said the "cover" deputy fired at the Nissan as it sped away.

Salazar said the Nissan was found in an adjacent neighborhood on a cul de sac on Fort Mason Street. Three handguns were found in the vehicle. The sheriff was not sure if the guns had been stolen.

EAGLE and the San Antonio Police Department are helping search for the suspects in a wooded area

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.


Qatar Airways plans to maintain limited operations to the former Yugoslavia this coming winter season, with the carrier to perform flights only to Belgrade and Zagreb. As EX-YU Aviation News learns, the airline also plans to resume flights to Skopje although this is unlikely to occur before the summer of 2022. Qatar Airways will operate daily operations between Doha and Belgrade this winter, which is on par with its pre-pandemic frequencies, as well as three weekly flights to Zagreb, increasing to four weekly from December 19. This is still significantly down from the double daily rotations maintained to the Croatian capital prior to the pandemic. At this point, there is no indication if the airline will restore its flights to Sarajevo. Qatar Airways plans to maintain limited operations to the former Yugoslavia this coming winter season, with the carrier to perform flights only to Belgrade and Zagreb. As EX-YU Aviation News learns, the airline also plans to resume flights to Skopje although this is unlikely to occur before the summer of 2022. Qatar Airways will operate daily operations between Doha and Belgrade this winter, which is on par with its pre-pandemic frequencies, as well as three weekly flights to Zagreb, increasing to four weekly from December 19. This is still significantly down from the double daily rotations maintained to the Croatian capital prior to the pandemic. At this point, there is no indication if the airline will restore its flights to Sarajevo.





Qatar Airways Belgrade service has performed well for the carrier this summer, buoyed by a significant number of transfer passengers from India, who are using the Serbian capital as a quarantine pitstop. They have effectively replaced transfer traffic to and from China, which made up a significant portion of the airlines passenger structure on the Belgrade flights prior to the pandemic. Qatar Airways launched its service between Doha and Belgrade in late 2012 and despite strong competition from other Gulf rivals vying mainly for transfer passengers, it has seen the fastest passenger growth on the Serbian market over the past few years.





Qatar Airways' top Belgrade pre-pandemic feeder routes





Qatar Airways Zagreb operations have been severely impacted by the closure of its traditional feed markets, including Australia and Asia. Inbound and outbound travel from Australia, which is to be eased for citizens and residents from certain Australian states next month, is not expected to be fully restored and operational until mid-2022, while the majority of markets in Asia are still closed for outbound travel or are limited to so-called travel bubbles. Qatar Airways became Zagrebs second busiest transfer airline in 2019 behind only Lufthansa but has since lost ground.





Qatar Airways' top Zagreb pre-pandemic feeder routes





The Qatari carrier discontinued flights to Skopje at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic last March, however, there are plans for the service to be restored in the coming period. The airlines Skopje operations rely heavily on feed from the Australian market, which will start to slowly reopen for fully vaccinated Australian citizens and residents next month. Plans are yet to be made public for the reopening of Australia to foreign non-essential travel.





Qatar Airways' top Skopje pre-pandemic feeder routes








The following is Part 3 of my interview with former President Donald Trump, in which he discusses whether hell run for the White House again in 2024 and his possible rationale for doing so.

To read Parts 1 and 2 of the interview, click here and here.

When I sat down with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago last week, my plan was to wait until the very end to ask him about running for president again. But before hed even taken his seat, Trump was touting his 2024 poll numbers.

In nearly every interview hes done since he left office on Jan. 20, Trump has been asked whether hell run again. Each time he has hinted and hedged, teased and toyed with his answer, saying only that his supporters would be very happy with his decision. I decided to ask the question a different way.

Given your dominance in Republican primary polls, and given that President Bidens approval ratings have fallen to 45% nationally and 31% in Iowa and 39% in Michigan, I asked, why wouldnt you run?

Trump parried with a noncommittal answer. I love the country, and I hate what happened, he said, adding that since he left office things have gone to hell. Its been a terrible time.

With that, the former president was off and running, lamenting what had taken place in Afghanistan, which led to a lengthy detour. A bit later, however, I gave it another try. So, I said, I know you might do it, but give me one reason you might not do it.

This time, Trump was somewhat more direct, and a tad fatalistic. Well, one reason could be your health. You get a call from your doctor and thats the end of that, he said. That stuff happens; you hope it doesnt. I just had a medical, just had great result. You never know, there are many things can happen; politics is a crazy world. It is a big commitment of you, your children, your wife and your family.

Trump couldnt resist delivering his standard line that people will be very happy with my decision, adding that his new slogan is Make America Great Again, Again.

If Trump still has some doubts about 2024, during the 90-minute interview he expressed no doubts whatsoever about 2020.

I feel very strongly that the election was rigged, he said. I dont feel like I couldve lost Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and I just needed a couple of them.

The issue of the fairness of the election has become the third rail of American politics. Among Trump and a good chunk of his supporters, there is a sincere belief that Democrats took advantage of pandemic-induced rule changes like universal mail-in ballots, ballot harvesting, drop boxes, etc., to corrupt the system enough to allow Biden to eke out victories in key battleground states. To Democrats and most of the media, it strains credulity that Trump could really believe such a thing. They dismiss these claims as The Big Lie, citing a host of lawsuits and recounts that have produced no evidence of fraud on anything approaching the scale necessary to have changed the outcome of the 2020 election.

Yet Trump still cannot get past a singular idea: that he could have done so much better in 2020 than in 2016, winning nearly 12 million more votes nationwide than he tallied four years earlier, and still lose the election.

You win South Carolina big, Alabama by record numbers, then you lose Georgia? he told me. Doesnt happen.

Trump also mentioned his victories in traditional bellwether states like Ohio and especially Florida where he garnered over a million more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016, nearly tripling his margin of victory from 1.2% to 3.3%. So many of those metrics that, when you add them all up, it gives very little chance to the other side, Trump said.

Trump related that, before the election, Republican pollster John McLaughlin told him if he was able to win 64 million votes in 2020, improving on his 2016 total by just 1 million votes, he would win.

I got 75 million votes and lost, Trump said, before catching himself and adding, Supposedly lost. I didnt lose. You know, Ive never conceded. Its okay for Stacey Abrams to not concede, but if I dont concede

Adding to Trumps skepticism about the accuracy of the election returns was what he experienced on the campaign trail, where he perceived a massive enthusiasm gap in his favor.

Dont forget when Biden went out, he couldnt fill his eight circles. They had to use the press to fill the circles because nobody was there, Trump said. And I go out and Ill get 40,000 or 50,000 people, and then I hear I lost the state? Its just not possible.

Trumps continuing claim that the 2020 election was rigged now presents him, and his party, with a quandary. According to a recent NPR/Marist survey, only one-fourth of Trumps 2020 voters express a great deal or a good amount of trust that elections are fair. On the other hand, 72% of Trump voters have not much trust or none at all in the fairness of elections.

Republicans have embarked on a series of legislative measures in state capitals that they insist will restore Americans faith in the electoral system and which Democrats and sympathetic journalists have attacked as everything from Jim Crow 2.0 to the greatest constitutional crisis since the Civil War. No one needs to guess where Trump comes down: He takes credit for leading the GOP push on voting procedures. Georgia has a bill, Texas has a bill. Some are stronger than others, he said. Thats one of the good things that I have done by being vocal about this.

Some in his party disagree and wish Trump would stop trying to relitigate the outcome of the 2020 election. Instead, they want him to look ahead and help Republicans win back majorities in the House and Senate in 2022. Trump thinks this is backwards.

The 2020 election fraud is the biggest and its most energizing issue within the Republican Party, Trump said, and a large percentage of elected Republican leaders, including Congress, dont understand that.

So far, Trump has a better track record of understanding what rank-and-file Republican voters want than the pundits and politicians in Washington, D.C. Whether he decides to run in 2024 or not, rest assured he will not stop talking about 2020 and the importance of election integrity.

I used to say you cant have a country without borders, Trump said. But these days he adds a qualifier. You also cannot have country with a corrupt election process. And we have a very corrupt election process.
A motion for preliminary injunction has been denied in a suit against Missoula County schools over masking requirements, allowing schools to continue requiring masks for in-person learning.

Local parents filed a suit Aug. 24 against Missoula County Public Schools, Target Range and Hellgate Elementary over masking requirements to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The parents are joined by Stand Up Montana, a nonprofit organization based in Gallatin County. The group seeks to provide support for legal action against school districts across the state that are illegally masking our children, according to its website.

Parents sue 3 Missoula public school districts over mask mandates

Missoula County District Court Judge Jason Marks denied the request and ruled that the mandate can remain in place while the case is adjudicated in court and the mandate's legality is determined.

In its decision, the court cited recent COVID-19 statistics in Missoula County that indicate case numbers are on the rise and wrote that the current masking rules in place are a rational response to the challenge of safely providing in-person learning during a pandemic.

The court says the underlying premise of the suit is unsupported by Montana law.

"A preliminary injunction does not resolve the merits of a case but prevents further injury or irreparable harm pending adjudication of the controversy on its merits," the court's denial of the motion reads.

The plaintiffs in the case are represented by Missoula attorney Quentin Rhoades. The defendant schools are represented by Elizabeth Kaleva and Kevin Twidwell.

Rhoades told the Missoulian he is planning on appealing the decision to Montanas Supreme Court.

Our clients have asked us to pursue an appeal to the State Supreme Court, so thats what were going to do, he said.

In their suit, the plaintiffs call into question the scientific evidence from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization regarding the effectiveness of masks.

The plaintiffs are disappointed the court didnt address the efficacy of mask requirements, he said. Our clients are concerned there is no analysis about masks affecting the spread of COVID, he added.

On Sept. 20, Missoula County broke its previous COVID-19 hospitalization record, active case record and incident rate record for the second week in a row, Judge Marks denial reads.

Judge Marks also noted key metrics calculated by the Missoula City-County Health Department show the seven-day average daily new cases per 100,000 people has risen from 49 on Sept. 1 to 87 as of Sept. 28. In contrast, on July 1, the seven-day average per 100,000 people was three cases.

Further, on Sept. 24, the CDC released three studies finding school districts without a universal masking policy in place were more likely to have COVID-19 outbreaks, Judge Marks wrote in the denial. Nationwide, counties without masking requirements saw the number of pediatric COVID-19 cases increase nearly twice as quickly during the same time period.

While the Court understands the frustrations of the parents in this case and the social impediments children in school may experience due to masking, masking in school during a pandemic is a far cry from an abuse of human dignity as recognized in Montana jurisprudence, Judge Marks wrote.

He also addresses the concern of remote versus in-person learning, saying children in Missoulas schools have the option of remote learning, and that while he understands in-person learning is preferable, there is no indication that remote learning does not meet the requirement of the schools to provide education to students in their districts.

Stand Up Montana filed a similar suit last month against Bozeman, Monforton and Big Sky school districts, also over complaints against masking mandates.

Mask-optional policies drive some families in Montana to home-school
HAMILTON, Mont., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Breakthrough U.S. indoor agriculture company Local Bounti Corporation ("Local Bounti"), today announced it will host a virtual Investor and Analyst Day in connection with its previously announced business combination with Leo Holdings III Corp ("Leo") (NYSE: LIII), a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company (the "Business Combination"). The event will be held on Wednesday, October 13, 2021, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Local Bounti's Co-CEOs Craig Hurlbert and Travis Joyner and Chief Financial Officer Kathleen Valiasek will present Local Bounti's differentiated approach to Controlled Environment Agriculture ("CEA"), growth strategies and key financial and operating highlights. Attendees will also have the opportunity to participate in a live Q&A session with the Local Bounti management team.

In June 2021, Local Bounti and Leo announced that they entered into a definitive business combination agreement. Leo's Class A ordinary shares and warrants are currently traded on The New York Stock Exchange (the "NYSE") under the ticker symbols "LIII" and "LIII WS," respectively. Upon the closing of the proposed Business Combination between Leo and Local Bounti, which remains subject to customary closing conditions, Local Bounti expects its common stock and warrants to trade on the NYSE under the new ticker symbols, "LOCL" and "LOCLW," respectively.

Investor Conference Details

Interested parties can register to attend the event here. A replay of the webcast will be made available on the Investor Relations section of Local Bounti's website at investors.localbounti.com.

For more information about the company, visit localbounti.com or follow the company on LinkedIn. For investor information and updates, visit investors.localbounti.com.

About Local Bounti

Local Bounti is a premier controlled environment agriculture (CEA) company redefining conversion efficiency and environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards for indoor agriculture. Local Bounti operates an advanced indoor growing facility in Hamilton, Montana, within a few hours' drive of its retail and food service partners. Reaching retail shelves in record time post-harvest, Local Bounti produce is superior in taste and quality compared to traditional field-grown greens. Local Bounti's USDA Harmonized Good Agricultural Practices (GAP Plus+) and non-genetically modified organisms (GMO) produce is sustainably grown using proprietary technology 365 days a year, free of pesticides and herbicides, and using 90 percent less land and water than conventional outdoor farming methods. With a mission to 'bring our farm to your kitchen in the fewest food miles possible,' Local Bounti is disrupting the cultivation and delivery of produce. Local Bounti is also committed to making meaningful connections and giving back to each of the communities it serves. To find out more, visit localbounti.com or follow the company on LinkedIn for the latest news and developments.

Additional Information

In connection with the Business Combination, Leo filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), on July 19, 2021, a Registration Statement on Form S-4 (as amended or supplemented through the date hereof, the "Registration Statement"), containing a preliminary prospectus and preliminary proxy statement. After the Registration Statement is declared effective, Leo will mail a definitive joint proxy statement/prospectus and other relevant documents to its shareholders and public warrant holders. This communication is not a substitute for the Registration Statement, the definitive joint proxy statement/prospectus or any other document that Leo will send to its shareholders in connection with the Business Combination and public warrant holders in connection with the proposed amendment to the warrant agreement that governs all of Leo's outstanding warrants (the "Warrant Amendment"). Investors and security holders of Leo are advised to read the preliminary joint proxy statement/prospectus in connection with Leo's solicitation of proxies for its extraordinary general meeting of shareholders to be held to approve the Business Combination (and related matters) and special meeting of public warrant holders to be held to approve the proposed Warrant Amendment and, when available, any amendments thereto and the definitive joint proxy statement/prospectus, because the joint proxy statement/prospectus contains important information about the Business Combination and the parties to the Business Combination and the proposed Warrant Amendment. The definitive joint proxy statement/prospectus will be mailed to shareholders and public warrant holders of Leo as of a record date to be established for voting at each of the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders and special meeting of public warrant holders. Shareholders and public warrant holders will also be able to obtain copies of the preliminary joint proxy statement/prospectus, the definitive joint proxy statement/prospectus and other documents filed with the SEC without charge, once available, at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov or by directing a request to: Leo Holdings III Corp, 21 Grosvenor Pl, London SW1X 7HF, United Kingdom.

Participants in the Solicitation

Leo and its directors, executive officers, other members of management, and employees, under SEC rules, may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies of Leo's shareholders in connection with the Business Combination and public warrant holders in connection with the proposed Warrant Amendment. Investors and security holders may obtain more detailed information regarding the names of Leo's directors and executive officers and a description of their interests in Leo in Leo's filings with the SEC, including the preliminary joint proxy statement/prospectus of Leo for the Business Combination. Shareholders and public warrant holders will also be able to obtain copies of the preliminary joint proxy statement/prospectus, the definitive joint proxy statement/prospectus and other documents filed with the SEC without charge, once available, at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov or by directing a request to: Leo Holdings III Corp, 21 Grosvenor Pl, London SW1X 7HF, United Kingdom.

Local Bounti and its directors and executive officers may also be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from the shareholders of Leo in connection with the Business Combination and the public warrant holders of Leo in connection with the proposed Warrant Amendment. A list of the names of such directors and executive officers and information regarding their interests in the proposed business combination will be included in the definitive joint proxy statement/prospectus for the Business Combination when available.

Forward Looking Statements

This communication includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Leo's and Local Bounti's actual results may differ from their expectations, estimates and projections and consequently, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Words such as "expect," "estimate," "project," "budget," "forecast," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "may," "will," "could," "should," "believes," "predicts," "potential," "continue," and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, Leo's and Local Bounti's expectations with respect to future performance and anticipated financial impacts of the proposed Business Combination, the satisfaction of the closing conditions to the Business Combination and the timing of the completion of the Business Combination. These forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from the expected results. Most of these factors are outside Leo's and Local Bounti's control and are difficult to predict. Factors that may cause such differences include, but are not limited to: (1) the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could give rise to the termination of the Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of June 17, 2021 (as it may be amended, supplemented or otherwise modified from time to time, the "Merger Agreement"), by and among Leo, Longleaf Merger Sub, Inc., Longleaf Merger Sub II, LLC and Local Bounti, (2) the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against Leo and Local Bounti following the announcement of the Merger Agreement and the transactions contemplated therein; (3) the inability to complete the proposed Business Combination, including due to failure to obtain approval of the shareholders of Leo or other conditions to closing in the Merger Agreement; (4) the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstance that could give rise to the termination of the Merger Agreement or could otherwise cause the Business Combination to fail to close; (5) the amount of redemption requests made by Leo's shareholders; (6) the inability to obtain or maintain the listing of the post-business combination company's common stock on the New York Stock Exchange following the proposed Business Combination; (7) the risk that the proposed Business Combination disrupts current plans and operations as a result of the announcement and consummation of the proposed Business Combination; (8) the ability to recognize the anticipated benefits of the proposed Business Combination, which may be affected by, among other things, competition, the ability of the combined company to grow and manage growth profitably and retain its key employees; (9) costs related to the proposed Business Combination; (10) changes in applicable laws or regulations; (11) the possibility that Local Bounti or the combined company may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; and (12) other risks and uncertainties indicated from time to time in the proxy statement relating to the proposed Business Combination, including those under "Risk Factors" and "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" in Leo's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2021, and which are set forth in the Registration Statement filed by Leo and in Leo's other filings with the SEC. Some of these risks and uncertainties may in the future be amplified by the COVID-19 outbreak and there may be additional risks that we consider immaterial or which are unknown. It is not possible to predict or identify all such risks. Leo cautions that the foregoing list of factors is not exclusive. Leo cautions readers not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. Leo does not undertake or accept any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.

No Offer or Solicitation

This communication is for informational purposes only and is neither an offer to purchase, nor a solicitation of an offer to sell, subscribe for or buy any securities or the solicitation of any vote in any jurisdiction pursuant to the Business Combination or otherwise, nor shall there be any sale, issuance or transfer or securities in any jurisdiction in contravention of applicable law. No offer of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act and otherwise in accordance with applicable law.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/local-bounti-to-host-virtual-investor-and-analyst-day-on-wednesday-october-13-2021-in-connection-with-its-previously-announced-business-combination-with-leo-holdings-iii-corp-nyse-liii-301391387.html

SOURCE Local Bounti
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave its blessing to a COVID-19 vaccine for use on a non-emergency basis. Now millions of Americans could face employer mandates: get your shots or lose your job. The $64 question is whether the courts will let employers make vaccination a condition of employment.

In Alexander Hamiltons America the answer is yes.

In the early days of the American Republic, Thomas Jefferson and Hamilton offered competing visions for the future. Jefferson advocated a country built on a human scale. He urged widespread land ownership so that Americans could farm, engage in cottage industries, and participate in local markets. Jefferson wanted the people to be independent of their betters. He realized that large employers could pressure wage earners to conform their political opinions and behavior to the boss mans liking.

Hamilton embraced industrial America

Hamilton, on the other hand, envisioned America not on a human scale, but on an industrial one. Rather than small cottage industries, Hamilton supported large manufacturing and banking operations. That huge corporations or powerful industrial barons could exert pressure on commoners did not trouble him. He made no secret of his admiration of the British monarchical system and distrust of the common man.

Looking at modern America, we know which vision triumphed. Big Business employs millions of Americans and dictates conditions of employment. Wall Street, rather than the Deplorables Main Street, decides who must be vaccinated.

But what about rights? After all, no vaccine has ever been rushed to the market so fast, and many Americans are concerned about long-term health effects. Surely, one of the agencies in the federal alphabet soup of the Administrative State can help.

The relevant agency would seem to be the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). But as its website states, it is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the persons race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, transgender status, and sexual orientation), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information.

In other words, unless an employee belongs to a specifically protected class and faces discrimination based on that classification, dont call Big Brother.

The only caveat, the EEOC says, is that employers must offer reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities or religious beliefs that do not allow for vaccinations. The employer might have to let such employees work at home or wear masks and keep social distance at the office instead.

Precedent for requiring vaccines

As for state laws, a precedent exists to permit the states to require vaccinations. For example, in the early 1900s the Supreme Court upheld a law mandating smallpox vaccinations for all inhabitants of Cambridge, Mass. (Jacobson v. Massachusetts,1905). The high court would likely follow this precedent.

In most states, employers can fire employees for any reason not specifically forbidden by law. And the EEOC has made clear that an employer vaccine requirement is not illegal under federal law. Unions possibly could protect employees pursuant to collective-bargaining agreements, but only about 10 percent of the workforce is unionized.

Though the news is not good, this issue provides an opportunity to rethink existing structures. While all 328 million Americans cannot return to the land and sustain themselves as Jeffersonian farmers, there are other options.

Small business a salvation?

Rather than working for a global corporation, Americans can start their own businesses. Recent statistics show that during the pandemic business startups grew from 3.5 million in 2019 to 4.4 million in 2020. If operating a small business is not a persons forte, how about working for one? Which company is more likely to listen to employee concerns about vaccinations: the global monstrosity with 100,000 employees or the startup company with 12 employees who all live in the same town?

From the early days of the Republic we traded life on a human scale for life on an industrial one. It does not have to be this way. Issues surrounding employer vaccine mandates should cause us to reexamine how we live and work. There is another path; we must simply exercise the initiative to explore it.
Pig producers have staged a protest outside the Conservative Party Conference after Boris Johnson played down the prospect of a mass cull of pigs due to a shortage of plant staff.

A group of farmers gathered outside the Manchester conference on Monday morning (4 October) to raise awareness of the industry's ongoing struggles with finding an available workforce.

Producers are now seeing a backlog of well over 120,000 pigs on farms, with many quickly running out of space and many more at or close to the limit.

The labour crisis at processing plants has resulted in a slowing down of the throughput of British pigs through plants, which is adding to the already severe backlog of pigs on farms.

It comes as the industry reacted with concern and anger after the prime minister downplayed the issue on the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, pointing out that pigs would be slaughtered regardless.

When Mr Marr pointed out the absurdity of the remark - pigs being slaughtered and incinerated versus going into the food chain - Mr Johnson added: The great hecatomb of pigs you describe on farm has not taken place. Lets see what happens."

The prime minister went on to blame the pig industry for the staff shortages in abattoirs for not paying enough or creating attractive working conditions.

While the industry is calling for temporary visas, Mr Johnson spoke of not wanting to return to 'uncontrolled immigration'.

As farmers protested outside the Conservative Party Conference this morning, NFU President Minette Batters told BBC Radio 4 Today programme that they were 'angry, distraught and extremely upset'.

"They have been calling for this, we have been calling for an emergency scheme, a Covid recovery scheme, to be put in place to avoid this very scenario," she added.

"I am desperate to get the facts of this story to the Prime Minister and that is what the pig farmers outside want to get across, the story of this disaster."

It comes the National Pig Association's (NPA) recently sent an open letter to UK retailers and supermarket chains urging them to buy British pork.

The NPA's letter said the industry needed more help to resolve the crisis, and for UK retailers not to instead turn to importing cheaper meat from the EU.
The FC Barcelonto and Real Madrid are, by history, the two bigger teams of Spain and probably lead the 'ranking' in Europe, but at present are to years light of his best version and, with the happen of the time, have turned into groups much more predictable to which can him hurt with very little, something that seemed impossible before. This does not remove that they are always candidates to win it all, and that probably carry some title (if they improve), but for the moment leave more doubts that hopes.

The Barca, possibly, is the one who is in a more delicate situation and will take long find conclusive solutions, because have the factor 'extra' of the economic that conditions everything. The club is submerged in a delicate financial crisis and has caused the exit of Leo Messi or Antoine Griezmann in the last summer, without clear reinforcements and with a too feeble staff in all the sectors. To this, adds him that Ronald Koeman does not give with the answers to all the problems that has the team and that for the moment goes worsening everything. Has the 'confidence' of the directive, but seems to be constantly sentenced.

The Barca has had a beginning of season that can compare to a film of terror, without problem any. The Barcelona have linked four pricks in LaLiga: three ties and a defeat in seven parties. Curiously, in all (to exception of the Real Sociedad and Raise) has left a very poor image, desvelando the fault of resources of the equipor and with the feeling that even a tie is too much for the cules. There is not a referent in attack and in the defence the errors become the norm. A contragolpe of a rival, for example, is lethal.

In the Champions League the history is worse, more sad and with the possibility that it turn into a nightmare, because as they are the things, only with a miracle would classify to the eighth of final, considering that in front of the Bayern (0-3) and Benfica (3-0) have remained portrayed and without options of at all. They have showed like a small team in nights of giants, no only by fault of resources, but also by the attitude and win to litigate (that they do not exist, seemingly).

The Madrid, also in crisis

In an also complicated position, but more positive, is the Real Madrid. The ones of 'Carletto' Ancelotti are having a lot of problems in this start of season, but yes that are leaving an image more 'decent' compared with the one of the Barca. Have in favour that they can look for solutions in January, in the wintry market, because they enjoy of economic health, without explaining that in the summer expect big incorporations, as the one of Kylian Mbappe, from the PSG. Nevertheless... It will be sufficient to go out 'to float' of here to January?

In this start of LaLiga, add five victories, two ties and a defeat in eight parties, but the image that have left has been very worrisome in the last. First it was a tie in front of the Villarreal in which they suffered to the end, without imposing in any moment and saving thanks to Thibaut Courtois that few times fails. This weekend, the Belgian could not 'rescue' to his team and the Espanyol finished carrying the victory in a party in which the madridistas did not achieve to start until the final minutes.

The Madrid, nevertheless, has the 'excuse' to have toor cho players lesionados, but the reality is that they are many the changes that has to generate Carlo Ancelotti to dissipate the doubts to his around in the beginning of his second stage like trainer madridista. In the Champions League, follow 'alive' in spite of his humiliation in front of the Sheriff and costing of the victory in front of the Inter in the first day.
3 words for you: Berets are overrated!

Enough fashion atrocities have been committed in the name of everyone trying to nail the French style of dressing. We are setting the record straight by diving deep into the Instagram account of the French blogger, Jeanne Damas, and ending this debate once and for all.

It Is Truly Minimal and Devoid of Unnecessary Layering

If we could describe the French aesthetics in a concise manner, we would call it nomadic chic. The clothes have some sort of move-around-without-tripping practicality to them and are effortlessly stylish. There is a liberated approach to dressing that is especially handy in dressing in a post-pandemic world.

It Is Bourgeois Chic

To the French, bourgeois is a way of life and not just a way to describe how people are dressed. The idea of mixing high-fashion with simple wardrobe pieces is a common practice. The emerging look is what the French call bourgeois chic, which is a systematically thought through process of making the everyday unremarkable items of clothing look great.

Even the Layering, When Done, Is Basic

The French shop like theyre always working around a capsule wardrobe that has only key pieces which can be mixed and matched to create new looks every time. A simple blazer jacket featuring classic patterns is a failsafe. It is not avant-garde and does the work of adding another dimension to the look without looking like too much effort has gone into it.

Theyre All About Embracing the Boudoir Styles



Singlets, satin dresses that have lace trimmings, robe-style jackets, and silhouettes that are reserved for loungewear in the other parts of the world are everyday mainstays of the French women that they wear with much aplomb. Minimalism doesnt necessarily mean boring and this style of dressing ensures that.

Accessories Are Minimal but Super Important



Hermes named a leather bag after Jane Birkin, sure, but the other kind of bag that the French artist was actually famous for was the wicker basket. Today the French choice of bags also includes the raffia variety that most women seem to carry. In fact, most women carry two bags, a shopping tote and a small bag. What do they carry? Their signature red lipstick, of course!
The Sultanate of Oman is now welcoming Indians who have received both doses of a vaccine approved by the country



If youre looking for grand palaces, massive parks, centuries-old forts, traditional souqs and marine parks, Oman is the place to go. An ideal blend of global and local influences, this charismatic Arabian nation is now welcoming Indians again. Indians, that is, who present a COVID-19 vaccine certificate containing a QR code that confirms that they are double vaccinated with a vaccine approved in Oman (for now, this means Covishied).



Visitors from India and 20 other countries including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Malaysia, Nigeria, the Philippines, Singapore, Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, the United Kingdom and Vietnam (all earlier on a travel red list) are now welcome.



The Civil Aviation Authority of Oman has issued the following guidelines for entry:

All passengers arriving in Oman will have to present a negative COVID-19 PCR test result containing a QR code stating that they have received both doses of a vaccine approved in Oman, or one dose if a single-dose vaccine is approved. You should have received the last dose no less than 14 days ahead of your estimated arrival time.

All citizens, residents, visa holders and all those who do not require a visa are allowed to enter Oman, and they can obtain it upon arrival according to the previously established system. Indians need to apply for and receive a visa.

All travellers entering Oman on long international flights (with a period of no less than eight hours) with a pre-travel negative PCR test (within 96 hours) are exempt from quarantine, and so are travellers on short-haul flights with a negative COVID-19 PCR test.

All travellers without a negative COVID-19 PCR test result will be required to take a PCR test upon arrival at the airport and wear a Tarrasud+ (electronic tracking bracelet) and adhere to quarantine until a negative PCR test result is detected. If the result is positive, a quarantine of 10 days is mandatory.

Children below 18 years of age are exempt from these testing and vaccination requirements.











What awaits you in Oman

The capital of the country, Muscat (above) makes a perfect introduction to Oman. View the Al Jalali Fort, built by the Portuguese in the 1580s, from outside, then head to Mutrah Fort for a closer look at an Omani fort from within. Or get insights into local history down the centuries at the National Museum. Visiting the Mutrah Souq and Mutrah fish market is a great way to immerse yourself in local life. Nizwa, gateway to the Hajar Mountains, can be reached in a couple of hours. Fly, rather than drive to Salalah (main image) and the lush Dhofar region.



Images: Shutterstock

Also see: France is welcoming Indian travellers
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Kareena Kapoor Khan is surely addicted to Instagram like no one else. The actress takes to her account to always share pictures from her fun night outs with her girls to sending out birthday messages and birthday love to her friends. Today she has taken to her social media to wish her sister in law  Soha Ali Khan.



Today Soha Ali Khan marks her birthday. To wish her, Kareena shared a paparazzi family picture from Soha and Kunal Kemmus wedding day. And wrote an interesting anecdote about Soha in the caption. Bebos caption reads  From the time I went for my first holiday with her in Maldives, where I watched her wash her chicken in a glass of water (to remove the spice) and then just casually eat it... I knew she was one cool woman! And... it has been a pleasure knowing you ever since @sakpataudi Happy birthday, sister-in-law lots of love always... P.S. I think we all look great in this picture and that's why it's on the gram now #OldIsGold. Now isnt that sweet.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kareena Kapoor Khan (@kareenakapoorkhan)

Kareena Kapoor Khan will be soon seen in Laal Singh Chadha with Aamir Khan which will have a theatrical release next year on Valentines Day.


Yesterday, Manoj Bajpayee lost his father RK Bajpayee. As soon as the news was out Manojs friends and colleagues started pouring in their condolence messages and sending out love and support to the actor.



Manoj Bajpayee today finally takes to his social media and thanks his fans and well-wishers for the messages and also shares his grief. Hes grateful for all the concern and calls his father the sole reason behind him entering the film industry. His tweet reads, Thank you all for sending prayers and love on the sad demise of my father who was the sole reason and support for me to venture on such a difficult journey which got me everything that I dreamt of!! Eternally grateful to you all.

Thank you all for sending prayers and love on the sad demise of my father who was the sole reason and support for me to venture on such a difficult journey which got me everything that I dreamt of!! Eternally grateful to you all!! AAAAAAAAAAaAiA  manoj bajpayee (@BajpayeeManoj) October 4, 2021

The actors father was hospitalized in September and was battling some age-related issues. His health deteriorated in the last few days and Manoj, who was shooting in Kerala, rushed to Delhi to be by his fathers side. The final rites were done last afternoon.
DGAP-News: Multitude SE / Announcement of the Results of the General Meeting

Multitude SE: Transfer of Registered Office Approved by the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of Multitude SE



16.09.2021 / 11:00

Announcement of the Results of the General Meeting, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



Transfer of Registered Office Approved by the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of Multitude SE Helsinki, 16 September 2021 - Multitude SE (ISIN: FI4000106299, WKN: A1W9NS) (\"Multitude\" or \"Company\"). DECISIONS OF MULTITUDE SE'S EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING Multitude SE held its Extraordinary General Meeting today under special arrangements and the meeting made the following resolutions. TRANSFER OF THE REGISTERED OFFICE OF MULTITUDE SE FROM HELSINKI, FINLAND TO HAMBURG, GERMANY Multitude SE has on 9 July 2021 announced that the Board of Directors had decided to approve a transfer proposal for the transfer of the registered office of Multitude SE from Helsinki, Finland to Hamburg, Germany (\"Transfer\") in accordance with the Council Regulation (EC) No 2157/2001 of 8 October 2001 on the Statute for a European Company (SE) (\"Transfer Proposal\") and a related report (\"Report\") explaining and justifying the legal and economic aspects of the Transfer and explaining the implications of the Transfer for the shareholders, creditors and employees. The Transfer Proposal has been registered in the Finnish Trade Register on 14 July 2021. The Extraordinary General Meeting approved the Transfer Proposal (including, without limitation, the proposed new Articles of Association (\"New Articles\") which will replace the current Articles of Association of the Company upon the registration of Multitude SE with the commercial register of the local court of Hamburg) and resolved on the Transfer in accordance with the Transfer Proposal. The reasons for the Transfer are strategic. While the Company was incorporated in Finland, its operations have since expanded across Europe and the world, and currently the Company is a multinational company having operative actions in several countries. In addition, the Company has strong ties to Germany. The Company is listed on the Prime Standard of Frankfurt Stock Exchange since 6 February 2015 and has several German subsidiaries. The Transfer will unite the Company's head office with the country of the exchange listing of the Company's shares. The Transfer and the New Articles will become effective upon the registration of the Company in the commercial register of the local court of Hamburg. The registration is expected to take place on or about 31 December 2021. TRANSFER OF COMPANY SHARES TO GERMAN CENTRAL SECURITIES DEPOSITORY SYSTEM The Extraordinary General Meeting also decided to transfer the Company shares to the securities depository system maintained by the German central securities depository Clearstream Banking Aktiengesellschaft and, consequently, remove the Company shares from the book-entry securities system maintained by Euroclear Finland Oy. The transfer and removal enter into force on the date when the Company will be registered in the commercial register in Germany, or on another date as decided by the Board of Directors. OTHER DECISIONS The Extraordinary General Meeting made also certain other decisions related to the Transfer which are conditional on the registration of the Company in the commercial register in Germany. Those decisions include a decision to authorise the Board of Directors to increase the registered share capital of the Company until 30 June 2025 in one or several occasions by up to EUR 6,020,034 by issuing up to 3,258,594 new registered non-par-value shares against contribution in cash and / or non-cash contributions and to amend the New Articles accordingly, a decision to amend the New Articles to include a provision stating that the German version of the New Articles will prevail as well as a decision to elect PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH Wirtschaftsprufungsgesellschaft as the auditor of the Company and Multitude Group for the financial year 2021. About Multitude SE: Multitude is an international provider of mobile banking and digital consumer and small business loans, distributed and managed by mobile devices. Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Multitude has expanded to operate across Europe, South and North America, Australia and Asia. As a pioneer in digital and mobile financial services technology, Multitude is at the forefront of the digital banking revolution. The Group has approximately 467,000 active customers that have an open Mobile Bank or Wallet account or an active loan balance in the last 12 months (as at 30 June 2021). Multitude SE is listed on the Prime Standard of Frankfurt Stock Exchange under symbol 'FRU.' For more information, visit www.multitude.com. Contacts: ir@multitude.com https://www.multitude.com/investors/ir-contact

16.09.2021 The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.

Archive at www.dgap.de


VIENNA, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The number of colorectal cancer (CRC) cases diagnosed fell dramatically by 40% in a year during the COVID-19 pandemic, new research presented today at UEG Week Virtual 2021 has shown.

The research, which was conducted across multiple hospitals in Spain, compared data from the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic with data from the previous year. Of 1,385 cases of CRC diagnosed over the two-year period, almost two thirds (868 cases, 62.7%) were diagnosed in the pre-pandemic year from 24,860 colonoscopies. By contrast, only 517 cases (37.3%) were diagnosed during the pandemic, which also saw a 27% drop in the number of colonoscopies performed, to 17,337.

Those who were diagnosed with CRC between 15 March 2020 and 28 February 2021 were also older than in the pre-pandemic year, had more frequent symptoms, a greater number of complications and presented at a more advanced disease stage.

Experts say the fall is a consequence of the suspension of screening programmes and the postponement of non-urgent colonoscopy investigations during the pandemic. Fewer cancers were identified by CRC screening in the pandemic period, with just 22 (4.3%) cases found in comparison to 182 (21%) in the pre-pandemic year. During the pandemic, more patients were diagnosed through symptoms (81.2% of diagnoses) compared with the pre-pandemic year (69%).

Dr Maria Jose Domper Arnal, from the Service of Digestive Diseases, University Clinic Hospital and the Aragon Health Research Institute (IIS Aragon) in Zaragoza, Spain, and lead author of the study, commented "These are very worrying findings indeed - cases of colorectal cancer undoubtedly went undiagnosed during the pandemic. Not only were there fewer diagnoses, but those diagnosed tended to be at a later stage and suffering from more serious symptoms."

There was a significant increase in the number of patients being diagnosed with serious complications - a sign of late-stage disease - with an increase in symptoms such as bowel perforation, abscesses, bowel obstruction and bleeding requiring hospital admission.

"Colorectal cancer is often curable if it's caught at an early stage. Our concern is that we're losing the opportunity to diagnose patients at this early stage, and this will have a knock-on effect on patient outcomes and survival. We are likely to see this fall out for years to come."

For further information, references or to request an expert interview, contact media@ueg.eu
Jetcraft, the world leader in business jet sales and acquisitions, is announcing the opening of an office in Singapore to support growth in Southeast Asia and across the region.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211003005018/en/

Tim Yue, sales director, Jetcraft Asia (left), will lead Jetcraft's new Singapore office, with the oversight of David Dixon, president, Jetcraft Asia (right). (Photo: Business Wire)

The office will be led by Tim Yue, who is currently Hong Kong-based and has over a decade of experience in business aviation. Tim will work closely with Jetcraft Asia President David Dixon, who will be overseeing all activities in the region.

David Dixon says: "Asia remains a crucial market for Jetcraft so expanding our footprint into Singapore is a logical step, providing further proof of our long-term commitment to serving our global client base and unrivalled market access.

"Singapore has seen significant growth in business aviation and the multiple maintenance facilities at Seletar Aerospace Park, paired with the region's role in the financial service sector, make it an optimum location. Worldwide, the real value of business aviation is increasingly being realized and we are encouraged by the significant number of first-time buyers entering our industry, albeit recently in an unexpected way."

UK-headquartered Jetcraft first established its Asia presence in Hong Kong in 2012, followed by the opening of an additional location in Gold Coast, Australia. Jetcraft will be recruiting a local team in Singapore, as well as relocating existing employees.

ENDS

About Jetcraft

Jetcraft is the leader in international aircraft sales, marketing and ownership strategies, managing and maintaining over 20 regional offices globally. The company's unparalleled success over nearly 60 years in business aviation has earned it a world-class reputation, along with an exceptional customer base, a wide network of connections and one of the largest inventories within the industry.

For more information, please visit www.jetcraft.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211003005018/en/

Contacts:

For more information, please contact 8020 Communications.

Anna Price

Email: jetcraft@8020comms.com

Telephone: +44 (0)1483 447380
EQS Group-Ad-hoc: Cassiopea S.p.A. / Schlagwort(e): Ubernahmeangebot

COSMO PHARMACEUTICALS N.V. LANCIERT OFFENTLICHES UMTAUSCHANGEBOT ZUR UBERNAHME VON CASSIOPEA S.P.A.



04.10.2021 / 07:00 CET/CEST

Veroffentlichung einer Ad-hoc-Mitteilung gemass Art. 53 KR

Fur den Inhalt der Mitteilung ist der Emittent / Herausgeber verantwortlich.



Ad hoc-Mitteilung gemass Art. 53 KR Dublin, Irland und Lainate, Italien - 4. Oktober 2021 -Cosmo Pharmaceuticals N.V. lanciert heute ein offentliches Umtauschangebot gemass den schweizerischen Ubernahmevorschriften zur vollstandigen Ubernahme und Dekotierung von Cassiopea S.p.A. Das Umtauschverhaltnis entspricht den aktuellen Marktpreisen. Weitere Informationen sind verfugbar unter https://www.cosmopharma.com/news-and-media/news-releases/2021/211004 und unter https://www.cassiopea.com/web-filter/ Uber Cosmo Pharmaceuticals

Cosmo ist ein pharmazeutisches Spezialunternehmen, das sich auf die Entwicklung und Vermarktung von Produkten zur Behandlung ausgewahlter Magen-Darm-Erkrankungen und zur Verbesserung von Qualitatsmassnahmen in der Endoskopie durch die Unterstutzung der Erkennung von Dickdarmlasionen spezialisiert hat. Cosmo hat auch medizinische Gerate fur die Endoskopie entwickelt und ist vor kurzem eine Partnerschaft mit Medtronic fur den weltweiten Vertrieb von GI Genius eingegangen, einem Gerat mit kunstlicher Intelligenz fur den Einsatz bei Koloskopien und GI-Verfahren. Cosmo hat Aemcolo an Red Hill Biopharma lizenziert und ist der Lizenznehmer von BYFAVO (Remimazolam) fur die USA zur Sedierung bei Eingriffen, welches es an Acacia sub-lizenziert hat. Fur weitere Informationen uber Cosmo und seine Produkte besuchen Sie bitte die Website des Unternehmens: www.cosmopharma.com



Uber Cassiopea

Cassiopea ist ein Spezialpharma-Unternehmen, das verschreibungspflichtige Medikamente mit neuartigen Wirkmechanismen (MOA) entwickelt und vermarktet, um langjahrige und wesentliche dermatologische Erkrankungen zu behandeln, insbesondere Akne, androgenetische Alopezie (oder AGA) und Genitalwarzen. Cassiopea investiert in Innovationen, die den wissenschaftlichen Fortschritt in Bereichen vorantreiben, welche jahrzehntelang weitgehend ignoriert wurden. Das Portfolio umfasst vier unbelastete klinische Kandidaten, fur die Cassiopea die weltweiten Rechte besitzt. Die Strategie des Unternehmens ist es, dieses Know-how zu nutzen, um das kommerzielle Potenzial fur seine Produkte direkt oder mit einem Partner zu optimieren. Fur weitere Informationen uber Cassiopea besuchen Sie bitte www.cassiopea.com. Kontakt Niall Donnelly, CFO & Head of Investor Relations Diana Harbort, CEO & Head of Investor Relations Cosmo Pharmaceuticals N.V. Cassiopea S.p.A. Tel: +353 1 817 03 70 Tel: +39 02 868 911 24, ndonnelly@cosmopharma.com dharbort@cassiopea.com Disclaimer (in Englisch) This communication (the "Communication") has been prepared by Cosmo Pharmaceuticals N.V. ('Cosmo" and together with its subsidiaries, "we", "us" or the "Group") solely for informational purposes and has not been independently verified and no representation or warranty, express or implied, is made or given by or on behalf of any of the Group. Cosmo reserves the right to amend or replace the Communication at any time, and undertakes no obligation to provide the recipients with access to any additional information. Cosmo shall not be obligated to update or correct the information set forth in the Communication or to provide any additional information. Nothing in this Presentation is, or should be relied upon as, a promise or representation as to the future.



Certain statements in this Communication are forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and assumptions could adversely affect the outcome and financial consequences of the plans and events described herein. Actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward looking statements as a result of various factors (including, but not limited to, future global economic conditions, changed market conditions, intense competition in the markets in which the Group operates, costs of compliance with applicable laws, regulations and standards, diverse political, legal, economic and other conditions affecting the Group's markets, and other factors beyond the control of the Group). Neither Cosmo nor any of its respective directors, officers, employees, advisors, or any other person is under any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak of the date of this Communication. Statements contained in this Communication regarding past trends or events should not be taken as a representation that such trends or events will continue in the future.



This Communication does not constitute or form part of, and should not be construed as, an offer or invitation or inducement to subscribe for, underwrite or otherwise acquire, any securities of Cosmo, nor should it or any part of it form the basis of, or be relied on in connection with, any contract to purchase or subscribe for any securities of the Group, nor shall it or any part of it form the basis of, or be relied on in connection with, any contract or commitment whatsoever. This Communication constitutes neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation to buy securities of Cosmo and it does not constitute a prospectus or similar notice within the meaning of articles 35 et seqq. or 69 of the Swiss Financial Services Act or a prospectus pursuant to the laws of any other jurisdiction. This Communication may be considered to be marketing material. The offer [and listing] will be made solely by means of, and on the basis of, a prospectus which is to be published. An investment decision regarding the publicly offered securities of Cosmo should only be made on the basis of the prospectus. The prospectus is expected to be published on or around 4 October 2021 and will be available free of charge at https://www.cosmopharma.com/investors.



United States of America



The securities described in this Communication have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or under any law of any state of the United States of America, and may not be offered, sold, resold, or delivered, directly or indirectly, in or into the U.S., except pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws. Neither this document nor the exchange offer described herein constitutes an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities in the U.S. or in any other jurisdiction in which such an offer or solicitation would be unlawful. Cosmo Pharmaceuticals N.V. will not register or make a public offer of its securities, or otherwise conduct any public tender offer, in the U.S. In the U.S., this document is being provided to "qualified institutional buyers" (as defined in Rule 144A under the U.S. Securities Act) only on a confidential basis. Neither the United States Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission in the United States has approved or disapproved the Offering of the shares or passed upon the adequacy or accuracy of the Prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offence in the United States. PROSPECTIVE PURCHASERS ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT SELLERS OF COSMO SHARES MAY BE RELYING ON THE EXEMPTION FROM THE PROVISIONS OF SECTION 5 OF THE US SECURITIES ACT PROVIDED BY RULE 144A.



By tendering securities of Cassiopea S.p.A. into this offer, you will be deemed to represent that you (x) (a) are not a U.S. person, (b) are not acting for the account or benefit of any U.S. person, and (c) are not in or delivering the acceptance from, the United States or (y) you are a "qualified institutional buyer" as that term is used in Rule 144A under the U.S. Securities Act.



United Kingdom



This Communication is directed only at persons in the U.K. who (i) have professional experience in matters relating to investments falling within article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the Order), (ii) are persons falling within article 49(2)(a) to (d) ("high net worth companies, unincorporated associations, etc.") of the Order or (iii) to whom it may otherwise lawfully be communicated (all such persons together being referred to as Relevant Persons). This communication must not be acted on or relied on by persons who are not Relevant Persons. Any investment or investment activity to which this communication relates is available only to Relevant Persons and will be engaged in only with Relevant Persons.



Australia, Canada, Japan



This Communication is not addressed to shareholders of Cassiopea S.p.A. whose place of residence, seat or habitual abode is in Australia, Canada or Japan, and such shareholders may not accept the offer.



European Economic Area



The offer set out in this Communication (the Offer) is only being made within the European Economic Area (EEA) pursuant to an exemption under Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 (as amended and together with any applicable adopting or amending measures in any relevant member state (as defined below), the Prospectus Regulation), as implemented in each member state of the EEA (each a relevant member state), from the requirement to publish a prospectus that has been approved by the competent authority in that relevant member state and published in accordance with the Prospectus Regulation as implemented in that relevant member state or, where appropriate, approved in another relevant member state and notified to the competent authority in that relevant member state, all in accordance with the Prospectus Regulation. Accordingly, in the EEA, the Offer and documents or other materials in relation to the Offer and the shares in Cosmo Pharmaceuticals N.V. (the Offeror Shares) are only addressed to, and are only directed at, (i) qualified investors (qualified investors) in the relevant member state within the meaning of Article 2(1)(e) of the Prospectus Regulation, as adopted in the relevant member state, and (ii) persons who hold, and will tender, the equivalent of at least EUR 100,000 worth of shares in Cassiopea S.p.A. (the Target Shares) in exchange for the receipt of Offeror Shares (collectively, permitted participants). This offer prospectus and the documents and other materials in relation to the Offer may not be acted or relied upon by persons in the EEA who are not permitted participants, and each Target shareholder seeking to participate in the Offer that is resident in the EEA will be deemed to have represented and agreed that it is a qualified investor or that it is tendering the equivalent of EUR 100,000 worth of Target Shares in exchange of Offeror Shares.



Italy



The offer set out in this Communication (the Offer) does not constitute a public offer nor a tender or exchange offer nor an advertisement of securities to the public in the Republic of Italy. Neither the Offer nor the COPN Shares have been registered with or cleared by the Commissione Nazionale per la Societa e la Borsa ("CONSOB") (the Italian securities exchange commission), pursuant to Italian securities legislation. Neither the CONSOB nor any other Italian public authority has examined, approved, cleared or registered this Prospectus or will examine, approve, clear or register this Offer. Accordingly, Italian residents cannot participate in the Offer nor may copies of this Communication or of any other document relating to the Offer be distributed or published in the Republic of Italy, either on primary and on secondary market. This Communication has not been prepared in accordance with the prospectus requirements nor the tender offer requirements provided for, or otherwise applicable in, Italy. Cosmo Pharmaceutical N.V. will not accept, directly or indirectly, any order relating to the Offer made in, or coming from, the Republic of Italy; any such order will be deemed null and void.



General



Cosmo Pharmaceuticals N.V.'s public tender and exchange offer for all publicly held shares of Cassiopea S.p.A. (the Offer) is not being made, directly or indirectly, in any country or jurisdiction in which such offer would be unlawful or otherwise violate any applicable law or regulation or which would require Cosmo Pharmaceuticals N.V. to make any amendment to the terms or conditions of the Offer, to make any additional application to, or to take any additional action with respect to, any governmental, regulatory or legal authority. It is not intended to extend the Offer to any such country or jurisdiction. Documents relating to the Offer may not be distributed in, or sent to, any such country or jurisdiction. Such documents may not be used for the purpose of soliciting purchases of Cassiopea S.p.A. securities by any person or entity resident or incorporated in such country or jurisdiction.



This Communication is not for distribution in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan or Italy. This communication does not constitute an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, securities in any jurisdiction in which is unlawful to do so.

Ende der Ad-hoc-Mitteilung
EQS Group-Ad-hoc: Cosmo Pharmaceuticals N.V. / Schlagwort(e): Ubernahmeangebot

COSMO PHARMACEUTICALS N.V. LANCIERT OFFENTLICHES UMTAUSCHANGEBOT ZUR UBERNAHME VON CASSIOPEA S.P.A.



04.10.2021 / 06:00 GMT/BST

Veroffentlichung einer Ad-hoc-Mitteilung gemass Art. 53 KR

Fur den Inhalt der Mitteilung ist der Emittent / Herausgeber verantwortlich.



Ad hoc-Mitteilung gemass Art. 53 KR Dublin, Irland und Lainate, Italien - 4. Oktober 2021 -Cosmo Pharmaceuticals N.V. lanciert heute ein offentliches Umtauschangebot gemass den schweizerischen Ubernahmevorschriften zur vollstandigen Ubernahme und Dekotierung von Cassiopea S.p.A. Das Umtauschverhaltnis entspricht den aktuellen Marktpreisen. Weitere Informationen sind verfugbar unter https://www.cosmopharma.com/news-and-media/news-releases/2021/211004 und unter https://www.cassiopea.com/web-filter/ Uber Cosmo Pharmaceuticals

Cosmo ist ein pharmazeutisches Spezialunternehmen, das sich auf die Entwicklung und Vermarktung von Produkten zur Behandlung ausgewahlter Magen-Darm-Erkrankungen und zur Verbesserung von Qualitatsmassnahmen in der Endoskopie durch die Unterstutzung der Erkennung von Dickdarmlasionen spezialisiert hat. Cosmo hat auch medizinische Gerate fur die Endoskopie entwickelt und ist vor kurzem eine Partnerschaft mit Medtronic fur den weltweiten Vertrieb von GI Genius eingegangen, einem Gerat mit kunstlicher Intelligenz fur den Einsatz bei Koloskopien und GI-Verfahren. Cosmo hat Aemcolo an Red Hill Biopharma lizenziert und ist der Lizenznehmer von BYFAVO (Remimazolam) fur die USA zur Sedierung bei Eingriffen, welches es an Acacia sub-lizenziert hat. Fur weitere Informationen uber Cosmo und seine Produkte besuchen Sie bitte die Website des Unternehmens: www.cosmopharma.com



Uber Cassiopea

Cassiopea ist ein Spezialpharma-Unternehmen, das verschreibungspflichtige Medikamente mit neuartigen Wirkmechanismen (MOA) entwickelt und vermarktet, um langjahrige und wesentliche dermatologische Erkrankungen zu behandeln, insbesondere Akne, androgenetische Alopezie (oder AGA) und Genitalwarzen. Cassiopea investiert in Innovationen, die den wissenschaftlichen Fortschritt in Bereichen vorantreiben, welche jahrzehntelang weitgehend ignoriert wurden. Das Portfolio umfasst vier unbelastete klinische Kandidaten, fur die Cassiopea die weltweiten Rechte besitzt. Die Strategie des Unternehmens ist es, dieses Know-how zu nutzen, um das kommerzielle Potenzial fur seine Produkte direkt oder mit einem Partner zu optimieren. Fur weitere Informationen uber Cassiopea besuchen Sie bitte www.cassiopea.com. Kontakt Niall Donnelly, CFO & Head of Investor Relations Diana Harbort, CEO & Head of Investor Relations Cosmo Pharmaceuticals N.V. Cassiopea S.p.A. Tel: +353 1 817 03 70 Tel: +39 02 868 911 24, ndonnelly@cosmopharma.com dharbort@cassiopea.com Disclaimer (in Englisch) This communication (the "Communication") has been prepared by Cosmo Pharmaceuticals N.V. ('Cosmo" and together with its subsidiaries, "we", "us" or the "Group") solely for informational purposes and has not been independently verified and no representation or warranty, express or implied, is made or given by or on behalf of any of the Group. Cosmo reserves the right to amend or replace the Communication at any time, and undertakes no obligation to provide the recipients with access to any additional information. Cosmo shall not be obligated to update or correct the information set forth in the Communication or to provide any additional information. Nothing in this Presentation is, or should be relied upon as, a promise or representation as to the future.



Certain statements in this Communication are forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and assumptions could adversely affect the outcome and financial consequences of the plans and events described herein. Actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward looking statements as a result of various factors (including, but not limited to, future global economic conditions, changed market conditions, intense competition in the markets in which the Group operates, costs of compliance with applicable laws, regulations and standards, diverse political, legal, economic and other conditions affecting the Group's markets, and other factors beyond the control of the Group). Neither Cosmo nor any of its respective directors, officers, employees, advisors, or any other person is under any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak of the date of this Communication. Statements contained in this Communication regarding past trends or events should not be taken as a representation that such trends or events will continue in the future.



This Communication does not constitute or form part of, and should not be construed as, an offer or invitation or inducement to subscribe for, underwrite or otherwise acquire, any securities of Cosmo, nor should it or any part of it form the basis of, or be relied on in connection with, any contract to purchase or subscribe for any securities of the Group, nor shall it or any part of it form the basis of, or be relied on in connection with, any contract or commitment whatsoever. This Communication constitutes neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation to buy securities of Cosmo and it does not constitute a prospectus or similar notice within the meaning of articles 35 et seqq. or 69 of the Swiss Financial Services Act or a prospectus pursuant to the laws of any other jurisdiction. This Communication may be considered to be marketing material. The offer [and listing] will be made solely by means of, and on the basis of, a prospectus which is to be published. An investment decision regarding the publicly offered securities of Cosmo should only be made on the basis of the prospectus. The prospectus is expected to be published on or around 4 October 2021 and will be available free of charge at https://www.cosmopharma.com/investors.



United States of America



The securities described in this Communication have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or under any law of any state of the United States of America, and may not be offered, sold, resold, or delivered, directly or indirectly, in or into the U.S., except pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws. Neither this document nor the exchange offer described herein constitutes an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities in the U.S. or in any other jurisdiction in which such an offer or solicitation would be unlawful. Cosmo Pharmaceuticals N.V. will not register or make a public offer of its securities, or otherwise conduct any public tender offer, in the U.S. In the U.S., this document is being provided to "qualified institutional buyers" (as defined in Rule 144A under the U.S. Securities Act) only on a confidential basis. Neither the United States Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission in the United States has approved or disapproved the Offering of the shares or passed upon the adequacy or accuracy of the Prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offence in the United States. PROSPECTIVE PURCHASERS ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT SELLERS OF COSMO SHARES MAY BE RELYING ON THE EXEMPTION FROM THE PROVISIONS OF SECTION 5 OF THE US SECURITIES ACT PROVIDED BY RULE 144A.



By tendering securities of Cassiopea S.p.A. into this offer, you will be deemed to represent that you (x) (a) are not a U.S. person, (b) are not acting for the account or benefit of any U.S. person, and (c) are not in or delivering the acceptance from, the United States or (y) you are a "qualified institutional buyer" as that term is used in Rule 144A under the U.S. Securities Act.



United Kingdom



This Communication is directed only at persons in the U.K. who (i) have professional experience in matters relating to investments falling within article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the Order), (ii) are persons falling within article 49(2)(a) to (d) ("high net worth companies, unincorporated associations, etc.") of the Order or (iii) to whom it may otherwise lawfully be communicated (all such persons together being referred to as Relevant Persons). This communication must not be acted on or relied on by persons who are not Relevant Persons. Any investment or investment activity to which this communication relates is available only to Relevant Persons and will be engaged in only with Relevant Persons.



Australia, Canada, Japan



This Communication is not addressed to shareholders of Cassiopea S.p.A. whose place of residence, seat or habitual abode is in Australia, Canada or Japan, and such shareholders may not accept the offer.



European Economic Area



The offer set out in this Communication (the Offer) is only being made within the European Economic Area (EEA) pursuant to an exemption under Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 (as amended and together with any applicable adopting or amending measures in any relevant member state (as defined below), the Prospectus Regulation), as implemented in each member state of the EEA (each a relevant member state), from the requirement to publish a prospectus that has been approved by the competent authority in that relevant member state and published in accordance with the Prospectus Regulation as implemented in that relevant member state or, where appropriate, approved in another relevant member state and notified to the competent authority in that relevant member state, all in accordance with the Prospectus Regulation. Accordingly, in the EEA, the Offer and documents or other materials in relation to the Offer and the shares in Cosmo Pharmaceuticals N.V. (the Offeror Shares) are only addressed to, and are only directed at, (i) qualified investors (qualified investors) in the relevant member state within the meaning of Article 2(1)(e) of the Prospectus Regulation, as adopted in the relevant member state, and (ii) persons who hold, and will tender, the equivalent of at least EUR 100,000 worth of shares in Cassiopea S.p.A. (the Target Shares) in exchange for the receipt of Offeror Shares (collectively, permitted participants). This offer prospectus and the documents and other materials in relation to the Offer may not be acted or relied upon by persons in the EEA who are not permitted participants, and each Target shareholder seeking to participate in the Offer that is resident in the EEA will be deemed to have represented and agreed that it is a qualified investor or that it is tendering the equivalent of EUR 100,000 worth of Target Shares in exchange of Offeror Shares.



Italy



The offer set out in this Communication (the Offer) does not constitute a public offer nor a tender or exchange offer nor an advertisement of securities to the public in the Republic of Italy. Neither the Offer nor the COPN Shares have been registered with or cleared by the Commissione Nazionale per la Societa e la Borsa ("CONSOB") (the Italian securities exchange commission), pursuant to Italian securities legislation. Neither the CONSOB nor any other Italian public authority has examined, approved, cleared or registered this Prospectus or will examine, approve, clear or register this Offer. Accordingly, Italian residents cannot participate in the Offer nor may copies of this Communication or of any other document relating to the Offer be distributed or published in the Republic of Italy, either on primary and on secondary market. This Communication has not been prepared in accordance with the prospectus requirements nor the tender offer requirements provided for, or otherwise applicable in, Italy. Cosmo Pharmaceutical N.V. will not accept, directly or indirectly, any order relating to the Offer made in, or coming from, the Republic of Italy; any such order will be deemed null and void.



General



Cosmo Pharmaceuticals N.V.'s public tender and exchange offer for all publicly held shares of Cassiopea S.p.A. (the Offer) is not being made, directly or indirectly, in any country or jurisdiction in which such offer would be unlawful or otherwise violate any applicable law or regulation or which would require Cosmo Pharmaceuticals N.V. to make any amendment to the terms or conditions of the Offer, to make any additional application to, or to take any additional action with respect to, any governmental, regulatory or legal authority. It is not intended to extend the Offer to any such country or jurisdiction. Documents relating to the Offer may not be distributed in, or sent to, any such country or jurisdiction. Such documents may not be used for the purpose of soliciting purchases of Cassiopea S.p.A. securities by any person or entity resident or incorporated in such country or jurisdiction.



This Communication is not for distribution in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan or Italy. This communication does not constitute an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, securities in any jurisdiction in which is unlawful to do so.

Ende der Ad-hoc-Mitteilung
LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Food service company Compass Group (CPG.L, CMPGF.PK) announced Monday the appointment of Palmer Brown as Chief Financial Officer Designate and a Director with immediate effect. Brown succeeds Karen Witts, who has mutually agreed with the Board to step down as Chief Financial Officer and as a Director of the company with effect from October 31. Brown will assume the CFO role with effect on and from November 1 and will also join the Corporate Responsibility Committee. He is currently Compass' Group Commercial Director and served as Interim CFO for a period from 2018 to 2019. He joined Compass in 2001 and held a variety of senior finance, strategy and legal positions. Dominic Blakemore, Compass Group's Chief Executive Officer , said, 'Palmer has contributed to the success of Compass over many years and his commercial and financial skillset and his deep knowledge of the Group are ideally suited to our next phase of development and growth.' 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.
Development Partners International (DPI), a premier investment firm focused on Africa, today announced that African Development Partners III Fund (ADP III), has exceeded its US$800 million target, and is set to hold a final close at US$900 million, with an additional US$250m of dedicated co-investment capital. This brings a total of US$1.15 billion for investments on the continent. The fundraising establishes ADP III as one of the largest funds dedicated to investing global capital in Africa.

ADP III will invest in established and growing companies in industries that benefit from Africa's fast-growing middle class and the increasing digital transformation of the continent. All investments have the highest standards of impact and environmental, social and governance ("ESG") work. In doing this work DPI is using its proprietary DPI Management System ("DPIMS") toolkit to deliver impact in line with 10 of the UN Sustainable Development goals, as well as driving the highest standards of ESG.

Runa Alam, co-founder and Chief Executive of DPI commented: "Africa remains an exciting investment destination with positive demographics, rising adoption of technology, and rising consumer and business spending. Against this backdrop, DPI has continued to generate top quartile returns by leveraging our team's deep-rooted local expertise across the African continent.

"As we look towards the future with our ADP III fund, we will focus on innovation-driven companies leading the digital transformation of the economies in which they operate. In addition, our deep integration of impact and ESG initiatives in the investment life cycle has been widely recognised and ensures we are known as a trusted partner."

ADP III secured capital from a broad range of leading pension and sovereign wealth funds, development finance institutions, endowment and foundations, insurance companies, fund-of-funds, asset managers, and impact investors. The global investor base represents 20 countries across North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa. In addition to strong support from existing investors, DPI welcomed over 25 new LPs into its investor base. This is testament to DPI's track record and ability to create institutional-grade investment opportunities in Africa, while continuing to deliver sustained environmental and economic impact.

Joanne Yoo, Managing Director at DPI, said, "The strong support for ADP III validates our strategic focus, creative approach and investment discipline. We are grateful for the trust that our investors have placed in DPI, and we are confident that our talented team will continue to deliver competitive returns and impact."

ADP III has made four investments to date, including:

Channel VAS, a leading global fintech business providing mobile financial services;

SICAM, a leading Tunisian tomato producer, in one of the largest private equity transactions undertaken in the country;

Kelix Bio, a biopharmaceutical platform broadening access to speciality generic drugs across Africa; and

MNT-Halan, Egypt's leading fintech ecosystem.

Additionally, DPI has a significant pipeline of investment opportunities across the continent, focused on key sectors of the economy such as financial services, healthcare, agri-business, education, and telecom infrastructure.

DPI places an emphasis on promoting best in class standards in ESG through its investments, with the aim of creating institutionalised high-performing companies at exit. Working with its portfolio companies, DPI seeks to contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals by implementing its proprietary Impact and ESG Management System based on three key impact themes: Job Quality, Climate Change, and Gender Balance.

ADP III was the first African fund signatory to the Operating Principles for Impact Management ("Impact Principles"), an international market standard for impact investing and the first to be granted 2x Flagship Fund status, as part of the 2x Challenge, a gender-lens initiative.

PJT Park Hill acted as advisor and placement agent for ADP III, and Debevoise Plimpton LLP served as legal adviser for the Fund.

Notes to Editors

About DPI

DPI is a premier investment firm focused on Africa, that has successfully advised funds through "up" and "down" cycles. Its first two funds, African Development Partners I and II (ADP I and ADP II), are ranked in the top quartile for performance by Cambridge Associates.

DPI has US$2.8bn in assets under management across its funds and committed co-investments.

The ADP funds' strategy is to build a diversified pan-African portfolio of private equity investments in established and growing companies benefiting from the continent's fast-growing middle class, innovation, and digital transformation

Since DPI's founding in 2007, its funds have invested in 23 portfolio companies across 29 African countries and 17 industries. ADP portfolio companies employ over 49,000 people. During DPI's investment, 18,000 jobs have been created.

In 2020, ADP III became the first 2X Flagship Fund, as part of the global 2X Challenge, committing to integrate a gender lens into its investment process, and reflecting DPI's long-standing commitment to gender equity. DPI has a female co-founder and CEO, one-third of the partners are women, and 50% of the firm are women.

As a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and the Operating Principles for Impact Management, DPI promotes high ESG and Impact standards and seeks to contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This includes the development of an innovative Impact and ESG Management System focusing on the following key impact themes:

Job Quality: SDG 8

Climate Change: SDG 13

Gender Balance: SDG 5

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View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211003005093/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact:

Edelman

Email: DPI@edelman.com

London

Alex Simmons Olivia Adebo

+44 7970 174 353 +44 7787 284 441

Africa

Kgomotso Moalusi Chloe Payne

+27 73 025 0216 +27 72 673 0535

New York

Tim Quinn

+1 646 258 2308
LONDON (dpa-AFX) - National Grid plc (NG.L, NGG) said the the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities has issued its rate case order for the Group's Massachusetts Gas business, approving a five-year rate plan with new rates effective 1 October 2021. This includes an allowed return on equity of 9.7% on an equity ratio of 53% and a revenue increase of $72 million. The Group noted that the order includes a new Performance Based Rate Mechanism, which will fund both capital and operational expenditure across the duration of the rate plan. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
LONDON, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Controversial artist Doctor Troller aka Andrew Brown has launched a limited edition set of collectable NFT tokens called Crocs League.

The first edition of tokens is set to drop early October and includes 4,444 unique animated cartoon crocodiles in various fun characters and styles.

There has already been a huge amount of interest in the first edition of artworks with over 10,000 pre-registrations so far for the Crocs League NFTs which are available to buy at 0.07 ETH (currently $200).

Pre-registration of the NFTs has been boosted by a promised $50,000 give-away to their holders in the first month, and a beta release of the Crocs Blockchain play-to-earn Game will be announced later this year which will give special access and extra bonuses to Crocs League holders.

Doctor Troller shot to fame last year when thousands of pounds of artworks were stolen from his Honest Gallery in London. Four original artworks by the artist were hung in Berwick Street in Soho with a collection box on the wall for donations, but all of the works were stolen within a couple of hours.

Andrew Brown said: "The collectables are beautiful and colourful caricatures of crocodiles that are fun to collect, but we also have a brand new interactive game element where you will be able to fight and breed your Crocs against other owners. We believe this is going to open up the NFT collectables market to a younger generation of gamers and fans of comics and graphic novels.

"So far the response has been really encouraging with thousands of signups, it has far exceeded our expectations, so we are already working on a second set of collectables as it's clear the first will sell out in the first day."

Pre-registrations can be made at CrocsLeague.com or https://discord.gg/e4mqn3NJ and for more breaking news on Crocs League check the twitter feed: https://twitter.com/CrocsLeague

@crocsleague

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COLOGNE (dpa-AFX) - Deutsche Lufthansa AG (DLAKF, DLAKY) Monday announced 130 additional flights to sunny destinations for the upcoming autumn holidays, citing increasing demand. The additional flights to leisure destinations are from Frankfurt and Munich. After August, October shows the highest increase in bookings to sunny, European destinations. Under the expanded flight program, there will be more than 80 additional flights from Frankfurt Rhein-Main Airport and over 50 additional flights from Munich to the most important European vacation destinations. The airline is now offering additional flights to destinations in Spain, including Palma de Mallorca, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Malaga and Seville. Portugal, Italy and Greece also remain particularly popular. Lufthansa is also offering additional flights to popular destinations in Portugal, Italy and Greece during the fall vacation time period. The company has asked air travelers to always observe the relevant and current entry and quarantine regulations. In addition, demand for air travel continues to grow strongly for business travel. Lufthansa will continue to expand its domestic flight offer on routes that are particularly important for business travelers. The airline had already expanded its services for October by 45 percent on certain routes over the last few weeks compared to July. Starting in October, there will be up to eleven daily connections from Frankfurt to Berlin instead of nine daily connections. 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.


Diagram 1: Shareholdings upon completion of acquisition of Acumen Diagnostics by Aoxin Q & M

SINGAPORE, Oct 4, 2021 - (ACN Newswire) - Aoxin Q & M Dental Group Ltd (SGX: 1D4.SI) ("Aoxin Q & M") and Q & M Dental Group (Singapore) Limited (SGX: QC7.SI) ("Q & M"), announced today that Aoxin Q & M will acquire 49% of Acumen Diagnostics Pte. Ltd. ("Acumen Diagnostics") for a consideration of S$29.4 million. Acumen Diagnostics has a preliminary valuation of S$60 million.Acquisition & ValuationAoxin Q & M has entered into a conditional sale and purchase deed with Acumen Diagnostics' shareholders, Dr Ong Siew Hwa and Acumen Holdings Pte. Ltd., to acquire their 49% shareholding in Acumen Diagnostics.The preliminary valuation of Acumen Diagnostics (upon completion of a restructuring exercise involving Acumen Research Laboratories Pte. Ltd.) is S$60 million, derived based on the latest financial statements of Acumen Diagnostics, taking into account the earnings and growth prospects of its business.The purchase consideration for the shares is S$29.4 million, to be satisfied by way of the allotment and issuance of new ordinary shares in the capital of Aoxin Q & M at an issue price of S$0.231 per share, credited as fully paid-up shares in the capital of Aoxin Q & M which will rank pari passu in all respects with the existing shares in the capital of Aoxin Q & M.Upon completion of the acquisition, Aoxin Q & M will directly hold 49% of Acumen Diagnostics, with Q & M holding the balance of 51%. Q & M's total effective ownership of Acumen Diagnostics will thus amount to 67.15%, based on its 32.95% equity stake in Aoxin Q & M. See diagram 1 below.Diagram 1: Shareholdings upon completion of acquisition of Acumen Diagnostics by Aoxin Q & Mhttps://www.acnnewswire.com/topimg/Low_aoxinqm20211004.jpgRationale of Acquisition & ValuationThe acquisition and integration of the Acumen Diagnostics business into Aoxin Q & M is timely and strategic, allowing Aoxin Q & M to enter the medical diagnostics business in Singapore and capture a significant portion of the testing capacity market in conducting frequent and widespread testing, in support of Singapore's national COVID-19 strategy.The proposed acquisition would also improve the profitability of Aoxin Q & M through the sharing of profits and improve the cashflow position of Aoxin Q & M as and when Acumen Diagnostics declares dividends down the line. Over time, Aoxin Q & M will benefit from potential commercial, operational and costs synergies between itself and Acumen Diagnostics. The Board of Directors of Aoxin Q & M believes that the proposed acquisition will enhance the long-term interests of Aoxin Q & M and its shareholders.With over 80% of the population now vaccinated, Singapore is moving towards a "living with COVID-19" strategy or treating COVID-19 as an "endemic" disease. In a live address in May 2021, the Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, laid out the government's three-pronged strategy of "vaccination, contact-tracing and testing" as the country starts to reopen.Mr. Ryan San, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Aoxin Q & M, said "Learning to live with COVID-19 in the new "normal" requires a deliberate and rapid response from both the public and private sector. We believe this acquisition is an important and strategic one for Aoxin Q & M as the availability of good quality performing test kits and testing services will be an important cog in the overall national response to treating and living with COVID-19. While the acquisition will be immediately profit accretive, we see this as a fantastic opportunity to assist in providing an essential capability to Singapore in this next phase of tackling the COVID-19 pandemic."Dr Ng Chin Siau, Chief Executive Officer of Q & M said, "Strategic business development is a top priority for Q & M as we look to drive sustainable growth and further bolster and balance our pipeline with innovations and businesses that contribute to our responses to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Q & M supports this transaction, and this transaction is likely to be beneficial to Q & M and its shareholders and financially strengthen Q & M and Aoxin Q & M in the mid and long term.""Acumen Diagnostics' innovative products and capabilities have yielded exciting growth that complements and strengthens our company's overall portfolio and pipeline and holds the potential to build upon our proud legacy in the healthcare sector. To date, it is able to handle 7,000 COVID-19 tests daily and has the ability to ramp up for more tests, if called upon by Health Promotion Board ("HPB") or Ministry of Health ("MOH")." added Dr Ng.Dr Ong Siew Hwa, Chief Executive Officer & Chief Scientist, Acumen Diagnostics said, "We are very excited about joining the Aoxin Q & M family and the new growth opportunities both in Singapore and China, that this acquisition will present. Our technical capabilities and infrastructure in molecular diagnostics, spanning R&D, manufacturing, clinical laboratory testing, positions us well to create value in the generation of both new patent assets and, revenues, through the sales of test kits and provision of testing services."Acumen Diagnostics will continue to operate independently post acquisition, driving forward a continued focus on its mission, employees, stakeholders, and community. Acumen Diagnostics will continue to be led by Dr Ong Siew Hwa and her team who will provide their unique expertise and technical know-how to manage the business. In the near term, Acumen Diagnostics will roll out in its clinical testing laboratory a pipeline of new tests, including PCR assays for dengue, sepsis and, identification of bacterial pathogens and their associated antibiotics resistance in pneumonia and bloodstream infections. Its longer-term plans include development of vaccines.This press release is to read in conjunction with the SGXNET announcements dated 4 October 2021.Link to SGXNET announcement https://bit.ly/3uAHpi2About Acumen Diagnostics Pte. Ltd.Acumen Diagnostics Pte. Ltd. ("Acumen Diagnostics") is a Singapore-grown, award-winning medical technology company. It is fully integrated with functions in research and development, manufacturing, as well as commercialisation of molecular diagnostics by distribution as well as conducting clinical laboratory testing services for (including but not limited to) infectious diseases, cancer, and COVID-19. It has also actively established frontline services such as COVID-19 on-site swabbing operations. For more information, please visit the company website at www.acumen-research.com.About Aoxin Q & M Dental Group Limited (Stock Code: 1D4.SI)Aoxin Q & M Dental Group Limited ("Aoxin Q & M" or together with its subsidiaries, the "Group") is a leading provider of private dental services in the Liaoning Province, Northern People's Republic of China ("PRC"). The Group operates 16 dental centres, comprising 10 dental polyclinics and 6 dental hospitals, located across 8 cities in Liaoning Province, namely Shenyang, Huludao, Panjin, Gaizhou, Zhuanghe, Jinzhou, Dalian and Anshan. We currently have 400 dental professionals, including 170 dentists, 180 dental surgery assistants and 50 laboratory technicians. A majority of the dental centres are accredited as Designated Medical Institutions of Medical Insurance. Additionally, the Group is engaged in the provision of dental laboratory services, as well as the distribution and sale of dental equipment and supplies in the Liaoning, Heilongjiang and Jilin Provinces in Northern PRC.Aoxin Q & M was listed on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited on 26 April 2017. For more information, please visit the company website at www.aoxinqm.com.sg.About Q & M Dental Group (Singapore) Limited (QC7.SI)Q & M Dental Group (Singapore) Limited ("Q & M" or together with its subsidiaries, the "Group") is a leading private dental healthcare group in Asia.The Group owns the largest network of private dental outlets in Singapore, operating 87 dental outlets across the country. Underpinned by about 230 experienced dentists and more than 350 supporting staff, the Group sees an average of 40,000 patient visits a month in Singapore. The Group also operates 5 medical clinics and a dental supplies and equipment distribution company.Outside of Singapore, the Group has 37 dental clinics and a dental supplies and equipment distribution company in Malaysia, as well as a dental clinic in the People's Republic of China ("PRC"). Q & M is also the substantial shareholder of Aoxin Q & M Dental Group Limited, a dental Group listed on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange, which operates dental clinics and hospitals primarily in the North-eastern region of the PRC. The Group aims to expand its operations geographically and vertically through the value chain in Malaysia, the PRC and within ASEAN.In 2018, the Group made inroads into the development of advanced technology in healthcare with the establishment of EM2AI Pte. Ltd. ("EM2AI", formerly known as Q & M Dental AI Pte. Ltd.). EM2AI focuses on developing AI-powered solutions in diagnosis and treatment planning.In 2019, the Group expanded into dental postgraduate education with the establishment of the Q & M College of Dentistry. It offers Singapore's first private postgraduate diploma programme in clinical dentistry.In 2020, the Group also expanded into the medical laboratories and research industry with the incorporation of Acumen Diagnostics Pte. Ltd. ("Acumen Diagnostics"). Acumen Diagnostics currently focuses on the manufacture, sale and distribution of COVID-19 diagnostic test kits, as well as COVID-19 testing.The Group was listed on the Mainboard of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited ("SGX- ST") on 26 November 2009. For further information on the Group, please visit www.QandMDental.com.sgFor more information, please contact: Waterbrooks Consultants Pte LtdWayne Koo (M): +65 9631 3602, wayne.koo@waterbrooks.com.sgDerek Yeo (M): +65 9791 4707, derek@waterbrooks.com.sgSource: Aoxin Q & M Dental Group LtdCopyright 2021 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.
FREYR Battery (NYSE: FREY) ("FREYR"), a developer of clean, next-generation battery cell production capacity,has hired three senior sales professionals to its Energy Storage System ("ESS") sales team.Zukui Hu, Valentin Rota and Guillaume Mancini join FREYR from Tesla, where they contributed to the success and growth of the EMEA regional energy storage division over the last six years. At FREYR, they will be responsible for sales in the company's ESS market segment.

"Today is an important day for FREYR as we add seasoned team members to the professional, dedicated, and rapidly expanding FREYR family to support our accelerating momentum in the marketplace," commented Tom Einar Jensen, the CEO of FREYR.

"We are thrilled to add such talented executives to our Energy Storage System team," said Gery Bonduelle, EVP for Sales at FREYR. "Each of them brings extensive experience and knowledge that will strengthen our sales initiatives in the important and rapidly expanding ESS market."

Zukui Hu joins FREYR as Vice President Sales, ESS. At Tesla, Mr. Hu most recently led the EMEA Energy Storage sales unit for grid scale, commercial, industrial, and microgrid applications. He has 13 years of project development and finance experience within the renewable energy industry, including solar, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and stationary storage from companies such as Tesla, Scatec Solar, and Engie.

Valentin Rota joins FREYR as Sales and Business Development Director, ESS. Mr. Rota brings 10 years of business development and sales experience in the renewable energy sector, having worked extensively with battery energy storage systems (BESS), wind power, and solar power at Tesla and at Siemens.

Guillaume Mancini joins FREYR as Application Engineering Director, ESS. He brings eight years of experience in engineering of energy storage systems, having worked across research, technical sales, design, construction, and operations of battery energy storage systems throughout the EMEA region at Tesla and at EDF.

"We are very excited to join FREYR and are extremely proud to continue our decarbonization journey by driving adoption of FREYR's clean, next-generation battery cell technology," said Zukui Hu, Vice President Sales, ESS at FREYR.

About FREYR Battery

FREYR plans to develop up to 43 GWh of battery cell production capacity by 2025 with an ambition of up to 83 GWh in total capacity by 2028 to position the company as one of Europe's largest battery cell suppliers. Five of the facilities will be located in the Mo i Rana industrial complex in Northern Norway, leveraging Norway's highly skilled workforce and abundant, low-cost renewable energy sources from hydro and wind in a crisp, clear, and energized environment. FREYR will supply safe, high-energy density and cost competitive clean battery cells to the rapidly growing global markets for electric vehicles, energy storage, and marine applications. FREYR is committed to supporting cluster-based R&D initiatives and the development of an international ecosystem of scientific, commercial, and financial stakeholders to support the expansion of the battery value chain in our region. For more information, please visit www.freyrbattery.com.

Forward-looking Statements

All statements, other than statements of present or historical fact included in this press release, including, without limitation, statements regarding strengthening FREYR's sales initiatives in the rapidly expanding ESS market are forward-looking and involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from the expected results.

Most of these factors are outside FREYR's control and difficult to predict. Information about factors that could materially affect FREYR is set forth under the "Risk Factors" section in FREYR's Registration Statement on Form S-1 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on August 9, 2021, as amended, and in other SEC filings available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005310/en/

Contacts:

Media contact:

Hilde Rnningsen

Director of Communications

hilde.ronningsen@freyrbattery.com

Tel: (+47) 453 97 184

Investor contact:

Jeffrey Spittel

Vice President, Investor Relations

jeffrey.spittel@freyrbattery.com

Tel: (+1) 281-222-0161
CHICAGO, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the report "Food Extrusion Market by Extruder (Single Screw, Twin Screw, and Contra Twin Screw), Process (Cold and Hot), Product Type (Savory Snacks, Breakfast Cereals, Bread, Flours & Starches, and Textured Protein), and Region - Global Forecast to 2026", published by MarketsandMarkets, the market is estimated to be valued at USD 73.1 billion in 2021. It is projected to reach USD 99.7 billion by 2026, recording a CAGR of 6.4% during the forecast period. The food extrusion market in the food industry has been growing in accordance with the processed food industry. The effect of busy lifestyles in developing economies has driven the market for processed food; hence, there is a rise in demand for extruded product types. In developing countries, the food extrusion market is also evolving in response to the rapidly increasing demand for convenience product type options.

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Savory snacks are projected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period.

Extrusion technology is mainly used to produce snack products. These snacks may be either ready to eat, ready to fry, or ready to bake and consume. Raw materials such as rice, corn, potato, and taro, high in starch content, have been popular feed materials for food extrusion because of their ease of availability and good functional properties. Potato-based extruded snacks are the most popular among the snack foods in most regions. Corn and tortilla-based extruded snacks are increasingly becoming a significant portion of snack foods consumed.

By extruder type, the twin screw extruder segment dominated the food extrusion market in 2020.

Twin screw extruders consist of two intermeshing, co-rotating screws mounted on splined shafts in a closed barrel. The extruder can ensure transporting, compressing, mixing, cooking, shearing, heating, cooling, pumping, shaping, and various other functions with a high level of flexibility. Twin screw extrusion equipment offers numerous advantages over single screw extrusion and is responsible for the increased demand for these extruders from various manufacturers in the food processing industry.

Browse in-depth TOC on "Food Extrusion Market"

315 - Tables

39 - Figures

243 - Pages

The US dominated the North America market for food extrusion market in 2020.

It is estimated that around two-thirds of the women in the US are estimated to work, leading to an increase of the working population. The US is estimated to lead the food extrusion market in North America. The market is highly fragmented, emphasizing the presence of companies of large, medium, and small scales, and comprises a complex supply chain that involves many intermediaries. It is the largest consumer of extruded food; it also exports extruded snacks to South America and Asia.

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Key Players:

The key service providers in this market include Buhler (Switzerland), Akron Tool & Die (US), Baker Perkins (UK), Coperion (Germany), GEA (Germany), KAHL Group (Germany), Triott Group (Netherlands), Flexicon (US), Groupe Legris Industries (Belgium), The Bonnot Company (US), American Extrusion International (US), Shandong Light M&E Co., Ltd (China), Snactek (India), Doering systems, inc. (US), PacMoore (US), Egan Food Technologies (US), Schaaf Technologie GmbH (Germany), Wenger Manufacturing, Inc. (US), Brabender GmbH & Co. KG (Germany), and Jinan Darin Machinery Co., Ltd., (China).

Related Reports:

Savory Ingredients Market by Type ((Monosodium Glutamate, Yeast Extracts, HVPs, HAPs, Nucleotides, and Other Types), Form (Powder, Liquid, and Others), Origin (Natural and Synthetic), Application (Food and Feed), and Region - Global Forecast to 2025

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/savory-ingredients-market-193325783.html

Food Robotics Market by Type (Articulated, Cartesian, SCARA, Parallel, Collaborative, Cylindrical), Payload (Heavy, Medium, Low), Function (Palletizing, Packaging, Repackaging, Picking, Processing), Application and Region - Trends & Forecast to 2026

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/food-robotics-market-205881873.html

Browse Adjacent Reports: Food and Beverage Market Research Reports & Consulting

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Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 4, 2021) - Maple Gold Mines Ltd. (TSXV: MGM) (OTCQB: MGMLF) (FSE: M3G) ("Maple Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to report results from the final nine holes completed during the 10,217-metre winter drill campaign at the Douay Gold Project ("Douay" or the "Project") in Quebec, Canada. Douay is held by a 50/50 joint venture (the "JV") between the Company and Agnico Eagle Mines Limited.

Highlights:

Drill hole DO-21-295 intersected 334.0 g/t gold (Au) over 1.0 metre (m) (from 57.0 m downhole) within the western portion of the Porphyry Zone (see Figure 1 for drill hole locations), representing one of the highest-grade intercepts ever encountered at Douay.

DO-21-295 also intersected 72.7 g/t Au over 0.7 m (from 358.0 m downhole), beyond the northern extent of the of the 2019 RPA NI43-101 Resource Estimate ("RPA 2019") Porphyry Zone conceptual pit (see Figure 2).

At the Main Zone, DO-21-304 intersected 1.5 g/t Au over 15.0 m (from 428.0 m downhole), one of the better sediment-hosted intercepts reported to date. In addition, DO-21-306 intersected 4.0 g/t over 5.0 m (from 143.0 m downhole), within a broader and more variable grade envelope that averaged 1.6 g/t over 15.0 m . Additional multi-gram gold intercepts were obtained from other drill holes in this area (see Table 1 for full results).

The JV's maiden drill campaign returned three of the top five intercepts ever reported at Douay in terms of gold accumulation (grade x thickness), validating the Company's targeting methodology.

Fred Speidel, VP Exploration of Maple Gold, stated: "Encountering multiple bonanza grade gold zones flanking either side of the Casa Berardi North Fault highlights the significant exploration potential for the sparsely-drilled northern flank of the Porphyry Zone. The deeper bonanza grade gold mineralization in hole DO-21-295 remains open to the east, with just a single drill hole over more than 600 m, which provides a compelling exploration target for follow up drilling. We are excited to build upon the impressive results from the JV's maiden drill campaign, with drilling expected to resume in the Nika and 531 Zones in Q4 2021."

The Company has now reported all assay results from the winter 2021 drill campaign. An updated Douay mineral resource estimate, which will include more than 19,000 m of additional drilling since the RPA 2019 mineral resource estimate, including over 15,000 m within the current resource area, is expected to be completed in Q4 2021. Additional details regarding Q4 2021 drilling sites and plans are expected be released in the coming weeks.





Figure 1: Plan view of 2021 drill collars (new results highlighted in blue).

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3077/98414_06e4c1bac4a1b91d_001full.jpg





Figure 2: Oblique section looking northwest (100 m total width) highlighting DO-21-295 bonanza grade intercepts, the lowermost of which is well north of the current conceptual pit.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3077/98414_06e4c1bac4a1b91d_002full.jpg

Background and Interpretation of Results

These additional new bonanza grade (> 34 g/t Au) intercepts in DO-21-295 underscore the potential for two distinct styles of mineralization at Douay: 1) more typical lower-grade disseminated gold mineralization closely associated with an alkaline intrusive complex; and 2) a structurally controlled, locally bonanza grade overprint associated with major deformation zones that can be found in a variety of rock types.

Earlier drill holes in this area also showed significant widths of >1 g/t Au (see Figure 2); The northern limit of the conceptual pit in the western Porphyry Zone remains open with significant drilling gaps, particularly to the east, where a single relatively short drill hole is noted over a distance of more than 600 m.





Plate 1: Altered syenite with bright yellow visible gold associated with quartz-feldspar veinlets. Note also granular silver-colored pyrite. Sample from 57.6 m downhole in DO-21-295, within a 1 m interval which returned 334.0 g/t Au. ~20mm field of view.

To view an enhanced version of Plate 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3077/98414_06e4c1bac4a1b91d_003full.jpg

Maple Gold has also received assay results for multiple drill holes within the Main Zone, where mineralized zones are relatively narrow, subvertical, and typically higher than deposit-average grade. The style of mineralization within the Main Zone more closely resembles orogenic gold systems, with strong Fe-carbonate-sericite alteration, quartz-carbonate-sulfide veinlets and absence of intrusive-related features commonly found in the intrusive and basalt-hosted mineralization. Within the Main Zone, the Casa Berardi North Fault, also auriferous, juxtaposes the highly altered Cartwright Hills Group basalts to the south against similarly deformed and highly altered Taibi Group sediments to the north. In the case of DO-21-304, these sedimentary rocks include a conglomerate unit that is consistently mineralized over an interval of 15 m (1.5 g/t over 15 m, including 2.2 g/t Au over 5 m), representing one of the better sediment-hosted zones to date and similar to the reported DO-20-272 intercept some 5 km to the northwest (see news from May 7, 2020).

Importantly, the DO-21-304 results confirm the continuity of Main Zone mineralization below the base of the current 2019 RPA conceptual pit. This may allow extending the underground resource wireframe to below the hole 70556 intercept (see Figure 3), which is not currently included in the resource estimation due to broad spacing between drill holes. The current Main Zone conceptual pit extends to a maximum depth of 145 m, with known mineralization now extending to a depth of over 450 m.





Figure 3: Main Zone oblique section looking northwest (50 m total width) highlighting results from DO-21-304. Note that in DO-21-304, the Casa Berardi North Fault is located just 10 m up-hole from the reported gold intercept.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3077/98414_06e4c1bac4a1b91d_004full.jpg





Table 1: Additional Winter 2021 Drill Program Highlights

To view an enhanced version of Table 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3077/98414_mapletable1.jpg

*Au assays are performed by SGS labs; initially by 30 g fire assay (FA) with ICP-AES finish; over-limits are re-assayed by 30 g fire assay with gravimetric finish; where visible gold is observed, the screen metallic method may be used. In the above table, all assays are FA-ICP-AES, except for the two bonanza grade intercepts in DO-21-295, where screen metallic results are reported. All reported assays are uncapped and downhole core lengths. True widths are ~70-90% of downhole lengths.

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical data contained in this press release was reviewed and prepared under the supervision of Fred Speidel, M. Sc., P. Geo., Vice-President Exploration of Maple Gold. Mr. Speidel is a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Speidel has verified the data related to the exploration information disclosed in this press release through his direct participation in the work.

Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC)

The JV implements strict Quality Assurance ("QA") and Quality Control ("QC") protocols at Douay covering the planning and placing of drill holes in the field; drilling and retrieving the NQ-sized drill core; drillhole surveying; core transport to the Douay Camp; core logging by qualified personnel; sampling and bagging of core for analysis; transport of core from site to the Val-d'Or, QC, SGS laboratory; sample preparation for assaying; and analysis, recording and final statistical vetting of results. For a complete description of protocols, please visit the Company's QA/QC webpage at www.maplegoldmines.com.

About Maple Gold

Maple Gold Mines Ltd. is a Canadian advanced exploration company in a 50/50 joint venture with Agnico Eagle Mines Limited to jointly advance the district-scale Douay and Joutel gold projects located in Quebec's prolific Abitibi Greenstone Gold Belt. The projects benefit from exceptional infrastructure access and boast ~400 km2 of highly prospective ground including an established gold resource at Douay (RPA 2019) that holds significant expansion potential as well as the past-producing Eagle, Telbel and Eagle West mines at Joutel. The Company holds an exclusive option to acquire 100% of the Eagle Mine Property.

The district-scale property also hosts a significant number of regional exploration targets along a 55 km strike length of the Casa Berardi Deformation Zone that have yet to be tested through drilling, making the project ripe for new gold and polymetallic discoveries. The Company is well capitalized and is currently focused on carrying out exploration and drill programs to grow resources and make new discoveries to establish an exciting new gold district in the heart of the Abitibi. For more information, please visit www.maplegoldmines.com.

ON BEHALF OF MAPLE GOLD MINES LTD.

"Matthew Hornor"

B. Matthew Hornor, President & CEO

For Further Information Please Contact:

Mr. Joness Lang

Executive Vice-President

Cell: 778.686.6836

Email: jlang@maplegoldmines.com

Mr. Kiran Patankar

SVP, Growth Strategy

Cell: 604.935.9577

Email: kpatankar@maplegoldmines.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 PRESS RELEASE.

Forward Looking Statements:

This press release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively referred to as "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation in Canada, including statements about exploration work and results from current and future work programs. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions, uncertainties and management's best estimate of future events. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company's expectations and projections. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, refer to Maple Gold Mines Ltd.'s filings with Canadian securities regulators available on www.sedar.com or the Company's website at www.maplegoldmines.com. The Company does not intend, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to, update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/98414
VANCOUVER, BC, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Surge Battery Metals Inc. (the "Company" or "Surge") (TSXV: NILI) (OTCQB: NILIF) (FRA: DJ5C) is pleased to announce that further to news release of September 20, 2021, the Company has received TSX Venture Exchange ("Exchange") approval of its option agreement with Lithium Corporation ("Optionor"), whereby the Company may acquire an undivided 80% interest in the San Emidio Property, located approximately 60 miles North East of Reno, Nevada.

The Company is also pleased to announce that it has retained Mr. Alan J Morris CPG (Surge's Qualified Person) to oversee exploration at the San Emidio Lithium prospect in Washoe County Nevada.

Mr. Greg Reimer, Surge President & CEO, comments, "Mr. Morris is a consummate professional and has deep roots within the Nevada lithium exploration industry having worked for several decades in this part of the world. In addition, Alan has previous experience exploring for lithium specifically in the San Emidio Desert, where he authored an NI 43-101 compliant technical report on an adjacent property in 2016. The San Emidio Desert holds great lithium exploration promise, and it is the Company's intention to determine the lithium brine and lithium clay potential for its properties in the region."

The San Emidio Desert Region and Summary of Prior Work Completed

Mr. Alan Morris, CPG states, "The geologic setting combined with the presence of lithium in both active geothermal fluids and surface salts within the San Emidio Property match characteristics of lithium brine and clay deposits at Clayton Valley, Nevada and in South America. There has been considerable geological, geophysical, and geochemical work done on the eastern margin of the playa here for geothermal energy, however only preliminary work has been done further to the west on the playa proper to fully evaluate the lithium-in-brine, and/or lithium clay potential of the area."

Prior to staking the property in 2011, the vendor of the property, Lithium Corporation, had performed preliminary geological, geochemical, studies on the area. The original geochemical work was comprised of both lithium and lithium associated pathfinder elements in brine and sediment samples. These early campaigns illustrated that lithium mineralization is present in sediments locally often in concentrations of up to several hundred parts per million (ppm), which is in line with that seen in the vicinity of Albemarle's currently producing Clayton Valley lithium brine mine, and Lithium Corporation's Fish Lake Valley lithium-in-brine prospect. Although only limited near surface brine sampling was done at this time, several anomalous lithium samples were recovered. The strongest mineralized sample being in the order of 80 milligrams per litre (mg/L) lithium. These anomalous samples appeared to be aligned in a NW/SE orientation possibly indicating that there may be some structural (fault) control. All were proximal to the loosely defined paleobasinal basement low, as is the case in Clayton Valley. In order to map the basement in greater detail a moderate resolution gravity geophysical survey was then undertaken to better define and understand subsurface geological conditions.

The gravity survey was successful in outlining the basinal low and shed some light on the location, and orientation of some of the bounding faults that have given rise to the subsurface basinal feature. Armed with this information, an application for a permit was made to allow probing of a number of additional shallow targets. The initial probing program was commenced in early February 2012, keying in on an interpreted linear feature (fault) that might be roughly coincident with the gravel road that travels NW-SE from Empire Farms to the US Geothermal plant. The information from this program led to a realignment of the claim block in mid-2012 with a focus on the northern claim blocks. Another direct push probing campaign was undertaken later in calendar 2012, which confirmed the previous data interpretation, with the best value being in the order of 23 mg/L Li.

Proposed Initial Exploration Work

With respect to exploration work the Company intends to embark immediately on an initial two-phase exploration program, with the first phase comprised of geological, geochemical and geophysical tasks that ultimately will assist in generating drill targets during the second phase.

Phase I is to start immediately and is planned as a multi-disciplinary approach:

Additional claim staking to strategically increase the size of the block, as the lesson at Clayton Valley has been that mineralization is associated with multiple structures and it can extend past the confines of a well-planned, well-placed claim block.

Acquisition/Compilation/Assimilation of geological, geochemical and geophysical data. As previously mentioned, considerable work has been done on the eastern extremes of the current claim block.

Following on these steps above, a program of geochemical fieldwork will be undertaken.

At this same time, a geophysical surveying program is to be conducted to determine where the most highly conductive brines exist, and there is a proven correlation between conductivity (due primarily to increased levels of NaCl) and lithium concentration in Nevada brines.

brines. A mini-bulk sample of lithium enriched brine is to be extricated and sent for bench tests for proof-of-concept production of lithium via Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE). Lithium concentrations here have been noted up to 80 mg/L which due to advances in DLE technology places it in the category of economically significant brine mineralization.

It is envisioned that the bulk of all this work will be completed over the next several months. Once all the data from this program is compiled and added to the newly expanded database drill target selection will commence, and subsequent to target selection and prioritization application will be made to the BLM for all the permits necessary to drill three exploratory drill holes.

It is anticipated that Phase II would commence by the third calendar quarter of 2022.

Complete the drilling of three - 215 meter (700') exploratory sonic drill holes. Sonic drilling is the preferred method on playas especially as it is far superior to all other techniques when it comes to maintaining both brine and clay sample integrity.

Subsequent to initial sonic drilling and the further assaying of the resultant geological material, the exploration team will then assess the Phase I and Phase II results to make additional exploration plans for the property during the fourth calendar quarter of 2022.

Qualified Person: The technical contents of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Alan Morris CPG, Elko, Nevada

About Surge Battery Metals Inc. surgebatterymetals.com

The Company is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company active in the exploration for nickel-iron alloy and Copper in British Columbia and lithium in Nevada whose primary listing is on the TSX Venture Exchange. The Company's maintains a focus on exploration for high value battery metals required for the electric vehicle (EV) market.

Nevada Lithium Claims

The Company owns a 100% interest in 38 mineral claims located in Nevada. The Northern Nevada Lithium Project is located in the Granite Range about 34 line- km southeast of Jackpot, Nevada, about 73 line-km north-northeast of Wells, Nevada. The target is a Thacker Pass or Clayton Valley type lithium clay deposit in volcanic tuff and tuffaceous sediments of the Jarbidge Rhyolite package. The project area was first identified in public domain stream sediment geochemical data with follow up sediment sampling and geologic reconnaissance.

Caledonia Project, Vancouver Island, BC

The Company has entered into a Property Option Agreement to acquire a 100% interest in 7 mineral claims known as the Caledonia, Cascade and Bluebell, subject to a NSR between 1-2%. Located in the Nanaimo Mining District of northern Vancouver Island. The claims are 7 km north-west of BHP's past producing Island Copper mine. During its prime operating period the Island Copper mine was Canada's third-largest copper producer. The Caledonia, Cascade and Bluebell claims area lies within a 50-kilometer-long copper belt northwest of the Island Copper mine.

British Columbia Nickel Project

Hard Nickel 4 and Nickel 100 Claims

The Company has entered into an Option Agreement with Nickel Rock Resources to acquire an 80% interest in 6 mineral claims in the Mount Sidney Williams area (Hard Nickel 4) covering 1863 hectares immediately south of and adjacent to the Decar Project and the Mitchell Range area (Nickel 100) covering 8659 hectares, located in Northern British Columbia. Three of the claims are subject to 2% NSR, including the Hard Nickel 4 claim and the two southernmost claims of the Nickel 100 claims. The acquisition is subject to final Exchange approval.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

"Greg Reimer"

Greg Reimer, President & CEO

604-428-5690

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release may contain forward-looking statements which include, but are not limited to, comments that involve future events and conditions, which are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Except for statements of historical facts, comments that address resource potential, upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt and security of mineral property titles, availability of funds, and others are forward-looking. Forward-looking statements are not guaranteeing future performance and actual results may vary materially from those statements. General business conditions are factors that could cause actual results to vary materially from forward-looking statements.

Surge Battery Metals Inc.

1220 - 789 West Pender Street

Vancouver, BC, Canada V6C 1H2

778-945-2656

www.surgebatterymetals.com

info@surgebatterymetals.com

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1651730/San_Emidio_Desert.jpg
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / October 4, 2021 / (CSE:ROO)(OTC PINK:JNCCD)(Frankfurt:5VHA) - RooGold Inc. ("RooGold" or the "Issuer") announces that it has closed a first tranche of its previously announced Non-Brokered Unit Private Placement, on a post-Consolidation basis, by issuing 10,530,000 Units at $0.25 per Unit and raising $2,632,500. Each Unit consists of a Common Share and a half (1/2) a Common Share Purchase Warrant, each whole Warrant entitling the holder to purchase an additional Common Share at $0.40 per Share for a two year period from Closing. The term of the Warrants is subject to an Accelerator Clause that the Issuer can elect to trigger if the Issuer's Share price trades above $0.50 for 30 consecutive trading days.

RooGold has also entered into a Strategic Shareholder Agreement with Crescat Capital LLC of Denver, Colorado. Crescat's Investment Team and its Geological and Technical Director will act as advisors to RooGold management when called upon. RooGold Shareholder Dr. Quinton Hennigh, through his role as Geological and Technical Director of Crescat, will be available to provide expertise regarding RooGold's exploration and development strategy and other geological and technical matters.

"We are pleased to welcome Crescat as a significant new shareholder of RooGold, along with our additional group of new stakeholders," commented Mike Mulberry, Chief Executive Officer of the Company. "We are very excited about the recent asset base we have acquired in New South Wales, Australia, and we believe that with hard work and perseverance, we will uncover some significant opportunities in the area. We hope to replicate other success stories which have been supported by Crescat and trailblazed by Dr. Hennigh over the past decade."

Crescat is a global macro asset management firm headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Crescat's mission is to grow and protect wealth over the long term by deploying tactical investment themes based on proprietary value-driven equity and macro models. Crescat's goal is industry-leading absolute and risk-adjusted returns over complete business cycles with low correlation to common benchmarks. Crescat's investment process involves a mix of asset classes and strategies to assist with each client's unique needs and objectives, and includes global macro, long/short, large cap and precious metals funds.

The net proceeds from the Private Placement will be used for phase 1 exploration of RooGold's Australian properties acquired from Southern Precious Metals Ltd. (see Aug. 19, 2021 news release), investor relations & marketing, as a reserve for exploration of its conditionally acquired Australian properties from RooGold Ltd, and Aussie Precious Metals Corp, and for working capital.

In connection with the Private Placement, Foundation Markets Inc., Echelon Wealth, Canaccord Genuity, PI Financial, Research Capital, and Gravitas Securities Inc. collectively received Finder's Fees of $166,200 and 664,800 Finders' Warrant, each Finder's Warrant entitling the holder to purchase a Common Share at $0.32 for a two year period. The term of the Finder's Warrants is subject to an Accelerator Clause that the Issuer can elect to trigger if RooGold's shares trade above $0.50 for 30 consecutive trading days.

The Units are subject to a statutory restricted trading period expiring on February 2nd, 2022.

About ROOGOLD

ROOGOLD is a Canadian based junior venture mineral exploration issuer which is uniquely positioned to be a dominant player in New South Wales, Australia, through a growth strategy focused on the consolidation and exploration of highly mineralized precious metals properties in this prolific region of Australia. Through its acquisition of Southern Precious Metals Ltd., RooGold Ltd. and Aussie Precious Metals Corp. properties, RooGold commands a portfolio of 13 high-grade potential gold (9) and silver (4) concessions covering 1,380 km2 which is home to 137 historic mines and prospects.

For further information please contact:

Michael Mulberry

T: 778-855-5001

info@roogoldinc.com

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking statements are 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.

Although the Issuer believes that the expectations reflected in applicable forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in such statements.

NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

SOURCE: RooGold Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/666338/RooGold-Closes-First-Tranche-of-Private-Placement-Welcomes-Strategic-Investor-Crescat-Capital-LLC
The Qatar FinTech Hub White Paper reviews the evolving sector and spotlights challenges, opportunities, and benefits for the international FinTech community

DOHA, Qatar, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Qatar FinTech Hub (QFTH), founded by Qatar Development Bank (QDB) to support the growth of the FinTech sector in Qatar, released its first ever White Paper on the state of the fast-developing FinTech industry in Qatar and MENA.

Titled "From Qatar to the World: A report on the state of FinTech in Qatar", the White Paper aims to provide a holistic review of the local and regional FinTech market, following the launch of Qatar's National FinTech Strategy by the Qatar Central Bank (QCB). The strategy aims to facilitate the set up and growth of local FinTechs, while creating a favorable business ecosystem to attract international ones and entice them to make Qatar a launchpad for their regional and global expansion.

The national efforts to boost the local FinTech sector has begun to bear fruit. Evidently, Qatar is emerging as a potential new home for FinTech in the region with QFTH becoming the 2nd largest FinTech venture investor in MENA in Q1 2021*. Such new status makes the White Paper a crucial and timely document for the global FinTech community, bringing entrepreneurs, investors, and stakeholders the insights and knowledge they need to identify gaps and possible market entry opportunities.

The report identifies challenges and opportunities within the context of global industry trends, while detailing the forces promoting the rapid growth of FinTech in the country, such as access to opportunities, favorable regulations, access to talent, and access to capital.

The country's FinTech capabilities, in comparison to leading FinTech hubs from the US, UK, Singapore, Australia, India, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, indicate that Qatar is in a good position in terms of access to capital and focus on innovation. The government has facilitated access to capital through several venture vehicles, and where innovation is concerned, Qatar was found to be performing better than its peers. Nevertheless, the country can further reinforce emphasis on innovation by launching a FinTech innovation division and an inter-university FinTech body to develop talent and raise awareness.

Mr. Abdulaziz Bin Nasser Al Khalifa, CEO of QDB and Chairman of QFTH Taskforce, said: "Qatar has been working hard to gain traction with globally trending technological developments and is shaping up as a technology-led economy. FinTech offers a significant opportunity to drive Qatar's economic diversification, one of the four pillars of Qatar's National Vision 2030. It also provides a massive opportunity for SMEs in GCC countries, particularly in Qatar, to gain greater access to funding, one of the major challenges they face globally."

"Emerging technologies could play a significant role in the country's overall economic transformation, especially where digitization of services is involved, including government to citizen, business to consumer, government to business, and business to business services. This report spotlights a myriad of opportunities for the FinTech community to become part of our success story," he added.

Available for download via their website, QFTH has worked with leading research partners to conduct the groundwork for the Whitepaper. QFTH is also a platform where companies can enjoy access to a wide network of partners, mentors, and experts from across the globe, which has enabled it to succeed in conducting the first ever specialized FinTech incubation and acceleration programs, graduating 40+ FinTechs.

QFTH was established by QDB in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030, and QCB's FinTech Strategy to build on Qatar's success in the financial sector and enhance the country's role in the field of financial innovation. The first wave of the program focused on Payment Technologies, whereas the second, which has recently graduated, centered around Emerging Technologies that address the challenges of financial institutions. The themes and solutions were curated in alignment with the Qatar FinTech Strategy, and in synergy with QCB - Sandbox. QFTH is currently getting ready to kick off Wave 3 under the theme "Embedded Finance and TechFin".

Download the White Paper on: www.fintech.qa

*According to MAGNITT FinTech Venture Report in MENA for Q1 2021.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1651805/QFTH_team.jpg


SAN DIEGO (dpa-AFX) - Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) and SSW Partners, a New York-based investment partnership, announced Monday that they have reached a definitive agreement to acquire Veoneer, Inc. (VNE) for $37.00 per share in an all-cash transaction, representing a total equity value for Veoneer of $4.5 billion.



Veoneer has terminated its prior acquisition agreement with Magna International Inc. (MGA) and canceled its October 19, 2021, special meeting that was previously scheduled to approve that agreement.



The cash purchase price of $37.00 per share represents an 18% premium to Veoneer's prior agreement with Magna, and an 86% premium to the unaffected share price prior to the announcement of the Magna agreement.



The transaction has been approved by the boards of directors of Qualcomm and Veoneer and is subject to approval by Veoneer stockholders and other customary conditions. The transaction is expected to close in 2022.



At closing, SSW Partners will acquire all of the outstanding capital stock of Veoneer, shortly after which it will sell the Arriver business to Qualcomm and retain Veoneer's Tier-1 supplier businesses. SSW Partners will lead the process of finding strong, long-term strategic partners. This transaction structure facilitates the long-term success of all Veoneer's businesses.



Upon close of the transactions, Qualcomm will incorporate Arriver's Computer Vision, Drive Policy and Driver Assistance assets into its leading Snapdragon Ride Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) solution. This will augment Qualcomm's ability to deliver an open and competitive ADAS platform for automakers and Tier-1s at scale.



SSW Partners' investment in Veoneer will represent its first capital commitment as a partnership since its founding at the beginning of the year.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

QUALCOMM-Aktie komplett kostenlos handeln - auf Smartbroker.de
LONDON (dpa-AFX) - bp (BP.L, BP_UN.TO, BP) announced plans for a $269 million investment in three projects at its Cherry Point Refinery in Washington state. The company said this investment will position it to provide lower carbon energy while creating jobs and reducing emissions in operations. This investment also include Renewable Diesel Optimization project, a $45 million investment that will more than double the refinery's renewable diesel production capability to an estimated 2.6 million barrels a year. bp estimates to reduce refinery's operational carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 160,000 tons per year, or seven percent. The investment is aligned with the company's plans to be net zero across operations by 2050 or sooner. 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.
TigerRisk Partners LLC, a leading risk, capital and strategic advisor to the global insurance and reinsurance industries, has today announced that Rob Bredahl will become Chief Executive Officer, while current CEO Rod Fox takes on the role of Executive Chairman, effective immediately.

Following the announcement that Tim Ronda will join TigerRisk starting October 14, he will be named President upon joining. Mr. Bredahl, who was formerly President, joined TigerRisk in 2019, with the strategic goal of succeeding Mr. Fox as CEO. Mr. Bredahl and Mr. Fox have known each other for more than 40 years, and first met at Middlebury College before working together at E.W. Blanch, Benfield and then TigerRisk.

"I am delighted to take up this role and continue the momentum and growth Tiger has seen over the last year and move the company into a new and exciting phase," said Mr. Bredahl. "The organizational changes we have announced this week signal the next step in our company's evolution. This CEO transition has been planned for a long time and has been implemented just as the business is gaining incredible traction in the market."

Mr. Bredahl, who will continue to be based in New York, added that when Mr. Ronda agreed to join the team from Aon, it was the right time to put in place the previously agreed succession plans in order for the well-known former Aon broker to take up the role of President.

Mr. Fox will now step up to allow Mr. Bredahl to take the helm. Mr. Bredahl added: "Rod will still stay in the business and be very hands-on, but the change will allow him to focus more on what he is great at advising clients and prospects and doing deals."

"This is an exciting time for the company," said Executive Chairman Mr. Fox. "I am proud of what we have achieved, but it is now time for a new breed of leaders. I will still be working full-time in the business making sure clients are getting what they need and allowing the company to move forward. When Jim Stanard and I founded the company in 2008, naysayers gave the company little chance to thrive, and we are thirteen years on with a phenomenal market-leading team and a bright future ahead of us."

Ends

Issued by Rein4ce on behalf of TigerRisk

About TigerRisk

TigerRisk Partners LLC is a leading risk, capital and strategic advisor to the insurance and reinsurance industries founded in 2008. TigerRisk Capital Markets Advisory (TCMA), a broker dealer registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a member of FINRA and a member of SIPC, is a wholly owned subsidiary providing clients strategic advice on mergers, acquisitions, and capital markets products and transactions.

Headquartered in Stamford, CT, TigerRisk has offices in Stamford, New York, Bermuda, London, Hong Kong, Minneapolis, Chicago, and Raleigh. For more information, visit www.TigerRisk.com.

Biographies

Rob Bredahl

Rob joined TigerRisk in 2019 as President, before being appointed CEO in September 2021. Prior to joining TigerRisk, Mr. Bredahl was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Third Point Reinsurance Ltd. and a member of the company's Board of Directors. During his tenure at Third Point Re between 2012 and 2019, he served in various senior roles including Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer.

Prior to joining Third Point Re, Mr. Bredahl was the Chief Executive Officer of Aon Benfield Securities, Aon's Investment Banking Group, and the President of the Americas division of Aon Benfield from November 2008 to January 2012. Prior to Aon's acquisition of Benfield in November 2008, he held various senior level positions at Benfield and at the time of acquisition was Chief Executive Officer of Benfield U.S. Inc. and of Benfield Advisory. Prior to joining Benfield in March 2002, Mr. Bredahl served as Chief Executive Officer of Inreon PLC and Managing Director and Head of U.S. Derivative Sales for Barclays Capital.

Mr. Bredahl earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Middlebury College. While at Aon Benfield Securities he held several securities licenses, including the Series 24, Series 7, and Series 63.

Rod Fox

Rod Fox is founder and Executive Chairman of TigerRisk. Before this he was Managing Partner and CEO. Prior to founding TigerRisk, Fox served as the Chief Executive Officer of Praetorian Financial Group where he led the re-structuring, re-branding, and successful sale of the $2B specialty property and casualty insurer to QBE the Americas.

Prior to PFG, Mr. Fox was the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Benfield Group's US reinsurance platform where he oversaw the profitable growth of the business while delivering industry leading trading margins. He was a member of the Board of Benfield and was instrumental in their initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange. He was also involved in numerous industry transactions, including the growth of Benfield's capital markets advisory business, the first Florida JUA depopulation, a restructuring of Allstate Group's catastrophe exposure, and the formation of Montpelier Re.

Mr. Fox started his career at E.W. Blanch Co., a privately held reinsurance intermediary. He was involved in EWB's initial public offering and enjoyed various positions within EWB; ultimately becoming President and Chief Operating Officer.

In conjunction with Jim Stanard, the former CEO of RenaissanceRe, Mr. Fox formed F&S Ventures in 2008, a privately-held insurance investment firm.

Mr. Fox holds the CPCU designation and is a graduate of Middlebury College and the Executive Risk Management Program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He serves on numerous industry boards and is active with the Navy SEAL Foundation. He has also completed the half and full IRONMAN endurance races.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005507/en/

Contacts:

Mairi Mallon mairi.mallon@rein4ce.co.uk +44 (0) 7843 076533

Sarah Hills sarah.hills@rein4ce.co.uk +44 (0) 7718 882011
Company Will Be Issuing Restricted Shares To Holders Of Common Stock As Of December 10, 2021.

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 4, 2021 / Green Stream Holdings Inc. (OTC PINK:GSFI) ("the Company") (https://greensolarutility.com), an emerging leader in the solar utility and finance space, announced today that its Board of Directors has approved a special stock dividend (the "Distribution") to Green Stream Holdings Inc. stockholders of one share of restricted common stock for every 100 shares of common stock presently owned.

On October 1, 2021, the Board of Directors of Green Stream Holdings, Inc. (the "Company") authorized a stock dividend of one (1) share of the Company's common stock, par value $0.001 par value (the "Common Stock"), for each one hundred (100) shares of Common Stock held on December 10, 2021 (the "Record Date").

The Distribution will take place in the form of a pro rata common stock dividend to each Green Stream stockholder of record on the Distribution Date.

No fractional shares of common stock will be distributed. Instead, Green Stream stockholders will receive a number rounded to the next highest number. The Distribution is intended to qualify as tax free to Green Stream stockholders for U.S. federal income tax purposes.

No vote or action is required by Green Stream's stockholders in order to receive the Distribution, which is subject to certain customary conditions, which conditions are expected to be satisfied on or prior to the distribution date.

About Green Stream Finance, Inc.

Green Stream Finance, Inc., a solar utility and finance company with satellite offices in Malibu, CA and New York, NY, is focused on exploiting currently unmet markets in the solar energy space, and is currently licensed in California, Nevada, Arizona, Washington, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Colorado, Hawaii, and Canada. The Company's next-generation solar greenhouses constructed and managed by Green Rain Solar, LLC, a Nevada-based division, utilize proprietary greenhouse technology and trademarked design developed by world-renowned architect Mr. Antony Morali. The Company is currently targeting high-growth solar market segments for its advanced solar greenhouse and advanced solar battery products. The Company has a growing footprint in the significantly underserved solar market in New York City where it is targeting 50,000 to 100,000 square feet of rooftop space for the installation of its solar panels. Green Stream is looking to forge key partnership with major investment groups, brokers, and private investors in order to capitalize on a variety of unique investment opportunities in the commercial solar energy markets. The Company is dedicated to becoming a major player in this critical space. Through its innovative solar product offerings and industry partnerships, the Company is well-positioned to become a significant player in the solar space.

Forward-Looking Statements:

This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and is subject to the safe harbor created by those sections. This material contains statements about expected future events and/or financial results that are forward-looking in nature and subject to risks and uncertainties. That includes the possibility that the business outlined in this press release cannot be concluded for some reason. That could be as a result of technical, installation, permitting or other problems that were not anticipated. Such forward-looking statements by definition involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Green Stream Finance, Inc. to be materially different from the statements made herein. Except for any obligation under the U.S. federal securities laws, Green Stream Finance, Inc. undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For All Inquiries Contact:

+1 (424) 280-4096

president@greenstreamfinance.com

Website: greensolarutility.com

Phone number: (646) 669-7007

SOURCE: Green Stream Holdings Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/666650/Green-Stream-Holdings-Inc-GSFI-Announces-Declaration-Of-A-Special-Common-Stock-Dividend
CHICAGO, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The emergence of edge facilities will be a major boost to European data center market growth in 2021. The market is expected to grow due to the growing procurement of renewable energy sources. Over 25 European cloud and data center operators, including AWS, Google, Equinix, Interxion, OVH Cloud, etc. have signed an agreement where 75% of the power supplied to data centers in Europe will be supplied through renewable energy or carbon-free energy by December 31, 2025. The objective is to reach 100% by December 31, 2030. This announcement is likely to offer a high impetus to the growth of the data center market in Europe.

Observing these rapid and drastic changes in demand and supply patterns encouraged the industry analysts at Arizton to publish exhaustive and data-driven insights on these current trends in the industry. Arizton has a dedicated vertical that focuses on data centre knowledge base across geographies. These market research reports cover a detailed analysis of the COVID-19-induced supply chain disruptions, innovations in technology, equipment financing, economic impact, and a detailed study of the competitive landscape.

Check out our portfolio: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/category/data-center-knowledge-base

Netherlands Data Center Market - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

The Netherlands data center market is expected to reach USD 4.52 billion in 2026 growing at a CAGR of 5.3%. The Netherlands is a mature data center market in Western Europe, and forms part of the FLAP markets, acting as a digital gateway to Europe. The country's data center scene is thriving due to increased digitalization, connectivity, and sustainable development of data centers. The data center market in the Netherlands includes about 47 unique third-party data center service providers operating over 113 facilities. Moreover, the country is witnessing further investments in about 3 new facilities that are expected to be operational over the next 2 years.

Key Highlights

About 15 data center projects by colocation and enterprise service providers contributed to over USD 2.7 billion in investments for data center facilities opened in the Netherlands in 2020.

in investments for data center facilities opened in in 2020. In 2020, cities such as Middenmeer, Rotterdam , Eindhoven, Naaldwijk, and Eemshaven witnessed increased data center investments due to low land cost and space availability.

, Eindhoven, Naaldwijk, and Eemshaven witnessed increased data center investments due to low land cost and space availability. Digital and technology companies from around the world have a presence in the Netherlands owing to its strong connectivity and strategic opportunities. This will propel data center growth in the region.

owing to its strong connectivity and strategic opportunities. This will propel data center growth in the region. Amsterdam , home to major ICT companies and leading start-up ecosystem in the country is a pivotal city for data center investments in the Netherlands . In 2020, Amsterdam was home to over 70% of the total number of colocation data centers built across the Netherlands . Adoption of cloud-based services by SMEs has increased during the pandemic, which is likely to aid data center market growth in the region.

, home to major ICT companies and leading start-up ecosystem in the country is a pivotal city for data center investments in . In 2020, was home to over 70% of the total number of colocation data centers built across . Adoption of cloud-based services by SMEs has increased during the pandemic, which is likely to aid data center market growth in the region. In 2020, cloud service provider Google added a data center space of around 500,000 square feet across two data centers, in Groningen and Middenmeer.

Read more now: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/netherlands-data-center-market-investment-analysis

Switzerland Data Center Market - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

The Switzerland data center market is expected to reach USD 2.07 billion in 2026 growing with the CAGR of 3.44%. Switzerland is a mature data center market and ranks 12th across the globe in terms of mobile internet speed and fourth in terms of fixed broadband services. The internet penetration in the country is over 95% of the overall population. The major data center investors in the country have been telecommunication providers, enterprises, the government, and cloud and colocation service providers.

Key Highlights

There are over 50 data center colocation facilities in Switzerland . The occupancy rate stands at over 80% of installed capacity across cities such as Zurich and Geneva .

. The occupancy rate stands at over 80% of installed capacity across cities such as and . In 2020, Switzerland attracted most investments from colocation service providers such as Equinix, Digital Realty (Interxion), Vantage Data Centers, and CKW.

attracted most investments from colocation service providers such as Equinix, Digital Realty (Interxion), Vantage Data Centers, and CKW. In 2020, Zurich was the major data center investment destination in Switzerland , followed by Geneva , with other regions such as Lausanne and Bern , among others, also expected to experience strong growth during the forecast period.

was the major data center investment destination in , followed by , with other regions such as Lausanne and , among others, also expected to experience strong growth during the forecast period. Retail colocation services dominate the market with an 81% market share, with wholesale colocation contributing to the rest.

The adoption of cloud computing technology has experienced considerable growth in Switzerland over the last few years. The adoption of cloud-computing technology in 2020 grew by around 30% from 2019.

Read more now: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/switzerland-data-center-market-size-analysis

Germany Data Center Market - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

The Germany data center market is expected to reach USD 6.46 billion in 2026 growing with a CAGR of 2.35% in the period 2020-2026. Germany has one of the most mature data center markets in Europe. Owing to the implementation of GDPR, investments in the German data center market have increased significantly in the last few years. The Germany data center market research report includes 49 unique third-party data center service providers, operating over 128 facilities. Additionally, the country also hosts several on-premise or dedicated data centers owned by local enterprises. Over the last 5-7 years, the market has grown significantly with an increase in the development of hyperscale data centers.

Key Highlights

Germany witnessed an investment of over USD 1.2 billion on data center facilities opened and under construction from January 2020 to June 2021 .

witnessed an investment of over on data center facilities opened and under construction from to . Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things (IoT) expect to drive the market growth in the coming years. By the end of 2021, Germany's IoT spending is likely to cross over USD 45 billion .

IoT spending is likely to cross over . In 2020, Frankfurt was a key investment destination in the data center market in Germany . Berlin , Hamburg , and Dusseldorf are other destinations that are witnessing high investments during the forecast period.

was a key investment destination in the data center market in . , , and are other destinations that are witnessing high investments during the forecast period. To run data center operations in Germany , electrical energy requirements are likely to rise 16.4 TWh by 2025.

, electrical energy requirements are likely to rise 16.4 TWh by 2025. NTT Global Data Centers, CyrusOne, Equinix, and Digital Realty are significant contributors to market growth. CyrusOne generated a revenue of USD 67 million in 2020. Digital Realty added a revenue of over USD 200 million . Equinix and NTT Global Data Centers contributed to the market, adding an estimated revenue of USD 150 million and USD 250 million , respectively, in 2020.

Read more now: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/germany-data-center-market-2025

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Mexico Data Center Market - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

Saudi Arabia Data Center Market - Investment Analysis & Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

United Arab Emirates (UAE) Data Center Market - Investment Analysis & Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

(UAE) Data Center Market - Investment Analysis & Growth Opportunities 2021-2026 Ireland Data Center Market - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

About Arizton:

Arizton Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers innovative research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.

We offer comprehensive market research reports on industries such as consumer goods & retail technology, automotive and mobility, smart tech, healthcare, and life sciences, industrial machinery, chemicals, and materials, IT and media, logistics, and packaging. These reports contain detailed industry analysis, market size, share, growth drivers, and trend forecasts.

Arizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports.

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CHICAGO, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In the Middle East & Africa, growing internet penetration, social media usage, and smart initiatives will continue to drive the market over the next few years. Africa is an emerging data center market, and it witnessed around 15 data center investments in 2020. The growth in the adoption of IoT and big data analytics services will result in the rapid acceleration of data center development in the Africa data center market. The market is evolving, and investments are expected to rise significantly with contributions from local and global data center operators. The Middle Eastern region witnessed investments from telecommunication service providers as well as global colocation operators. A major advantage in the Middle Eastern & Africa market is the low power cost.

Observing these rapid and drastic changes in demand and supply patterns encouraged the industry analysts at Arizton to publish exhaustive and data-driven insights on these current trends in the industry. Arizton has a dedicated vertical that focuses on data centre knowledge base across geographies. These market research reports cover a detailed analysis of the COVID-19-induced supply chain disruptions, innovations in technology, equipment financing, economic impact, and a detailed study of the competitive landscape.

Kenya Data Center Market - Investment Analysis & Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

The Kenya data center market is expected to reach USD 342 million in 2026, growing at a CAGR of 12.36% during the period 2021-2026. Kenya is one of the major data center hubs in Africa and is considered the gateway to the East African region. Nairobi, the capital city, is a favorable location for data center development. The data center market in Kenya includes around 6 unique third-party data center service providers, operating around 9 facilities. Over the past 3 to 4 years, the market has grown significantly, with an increase in the development of data centers.

Key Highlights

Over USD 480 million will be invested in data center development across Kenya between 2021 and 2026. During the forecast period, the country will witness investments in around 6 data center facilities.

will be invested in data center development across between 2021 and 2026. During the forecast period, the country will witness investments in around 6 data center facilities. The Kenyan government has set up Special Economic Zones (SEZs) to improve economic growth, offering tax-and duty-free exemption, and work permit facilitation to attract small and large investments in the country.

Commercial 5G network has been rolled out in Kenya by Safaricom along with Nokia in 2021, which will boost digital initiatives such as IoT and big data and heighten the demand for data centers.

by Safaricom along with Nokia in 2021, which will boost digital initiatives such as IoT and big data and heighten the demand for data centers. In Kenya , on-premises data centers are aiding digitalization. The forecast period will witness enterprises shifting to cloud and colocation data centers. Managed hosting services will be adopted by large enterprises.

, on-premises data centers are aiding digitalization. The forecast period will witness enterprises shifting to cloud and colocation data centers. Managed hosting services will be adopted by large enterprises. Nairobi is called the London for Kenya as it is the real tech hub and is leading the competition for attracting data center investments because it is one of the global United Nations HQs.

Read more now: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/kenya-data-center-market-investment-analysis

Nigeria Data Center Market - Investment Analysis & Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

The Nigeria data center market is expected to reach USD 218 million in 2026, growing at a CAGR of 17% during the period 2020-2026. Investments in the Nigerian data center market are majorly driven by factors such as digitalization of advanced technology, the presence of major operators, internet penetration, and government initiatives. Nigeria hosts 11 existing and will witness the deployment of 9 upcoming facilities spread across 2 cities, including Lagos and Abuja.

Key Highlights

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a major rapid growth enabler for the cloud market growth in Nigeria , with several enterprises migrating their workload to the cloud platform.

, with several enterprises migrating their workload to the cloud platform. The shift of industry sectors such as BFSI, education, retail, manufacturing, and others toward modern technologies such as cloud and big data is likely to aid the growth of the market during the forecast period.

In December 2020 , the Federal Government of Nigeria launched its "Solar Power Naija" project, focusing on 5 million solar connections by way of solar home installations as well as mini grids.

, the Federal Government of launched its "Solar Power Naija" project, focusing on 5 million solar connections by way of solar home installations as well as mini grids. With improved digital infrastructure and connectivity, an expected increase in colocation activities from cloud service providers is likely to boost the development of local data centers, significantly boosting the colocation market in Nigeria .

. By 2025, the government plans to increase the supply share of renewable electricity to 10% of the overall electricity generated in Nigeria .

Read more now: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/nigeria-data-center-market-investment-analysis

South Africa Data Center Market - Investment Analysis & Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

The South Africa data center market is expected to reach USD 3071 million in 2026, growing at a CAGR of 15.17% during the period 2021-2026. South Africa is the largest data center market in Africa. The market includes about 7 unique third-party data center service providers, operating over 22 facilities. The entry of new hyperscale data center operators expect to increase in the country during the forecast period. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a strong market driver for digital transformation initiatives in private and public sector enterprises in South Africa.

Key Highlights

The market will witness the entry of global data center colocation service providers through independent data center developments and partnerships or via acquisitions by major colocation providers in the country.

The expansion of 5G services is likely to propel the growth of data centers in the country.

M&A activities expect to continue in South Africa during the forecast period. In 2020, Africa Data Centers acquired Standard Bank's Samrand data center in Johannesburg .

during the forecast period. In 2020, Africa Data Centers acquired Standard Bank's Samrand data center in . Vendors such as IBM, Cisco, and Dell Technologies have a strong presence in the market. ODM servers will witness growth as investments in hyperscale data center facilities from cloud service providers, which is expected to increase during the forecast period.

Intelligent PDUs are likely to gain traction with the construction of new data centers. The demand for metered, monitored or switched intelligent PDUs is likely to dominate the market during the forecast period.

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Malaysia Data Center Market - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

Thailand Data Center Market - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Data Center Market - Industry Outlook & Forecast 2021-2026

and (MENA) Data Center Market - Industry Outlook & Forecast 2021-2026 Hong Kong Data Center Market - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

About Arizton:

Arizton Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers innovative research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.

We offer comprehensive market research reports on industries such as consumer goods & retail technology, automotive and mobility, smart tech, healthcare, and life sciences, industrial machinery, chemicals, and materials, IT and media, logistics, and packaging. These reports contain detailed industry analysis, market size, share, growth drivers, and trend forecasts.

Arizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports.

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MLG also surpasses $1 billion in historically invested equity since inception

BROOKFIELD, WI / ACCESSWIRE / October 4, 2021 / MLG Capital today announced that it has raised more than $140 million in equity for its latest diversified Private Real Estate Fund, MLG Private Fund V, nearing one-half of the $300 million equity raise goal for the fund. Private Fund V opened to investors in January 2021 and allows investors to contribute through July of 2023, or upon reaching its equity raise goal, whichever is first. The fund launched on the heels of MLG's most successful fundraise to-date, Private Fund IV, which raised $250 million and closed to new investors five months ahead of schedule.

Fund V has already acquired eight new properties since launch, totaling over 2,100,000 square feet of property and encompassing 1,990 multifamily apartment units across seven markets.

"We have a busy fall ahead of us," said David Binder, VP of MLG Capital. "There are several new acquisitions that we're targeting to close by year-end for Fund V, totaling over $250 million in transaction volume. We've continued to cast a wide net across the country and are finding the properties we are looking for. On top of deal flow, our family of investors, now spread across all 50 states, continues to trust us to do what we have been doing well for over 30 years."

MLG plans to acquire 25-30 real estate assets as part of Fund V and will focus on investing in diverse deals with different geographic, asset class and asset types. The fund targets robust cash on cash distributions and appreciation over time, in an investor advantageous model with an overall target of 11-15 percent IRR to investors.

Currently, the firm is also expanding it's Making a Difference (MAD) Initiative. This program allows both current and prospective investors to contribute a portion of their Private Fund V investment returns to a charitable organization. In past funds, MLG partnered with Lifesong for Orphans in this initiative and is excited to now work with four additional organizations specific to the local Milwaukee community. MLG will host an open house highlighting this program on Tuesday, October 12 at their Brookfield, Wis. Headquarters.

"One of our core principles here is to make a difference, while making a living," said Tim Wallen, Principal and CEO of MLG Capital. "We created this unique opportunity for our investors to participate in a social impact strategy with us and truly help the greater community."

In addition to the Private Fund V equity raise milestone, MLG also announced that it will soon surpass $1 billion in historically invested equity nationwide since its inception in 1987.

"This is an exciting milestone for our company to reach. For over three decades, we have worked hard to adapt our strategies, evolve in smart ways, and consistently perform among changing economies and markets. Even still, we've taken pride in staying true to our mission and commitment to our investors," said Wallen. "Our firm has grown significantly over the years, and I'm proud of our team members, deal partners and investors for being such an essential part of that growth."

###

About MLG Capital

MLG Capital is the premier outsourced investment manager in private real estate for investment advisors, family offices and accredited individuals. Since its inception in 1987, the firm and associated entities have had active, exited, or pending investments totaling approximately 27.5 million square feet of total space across the United States, inclusive of more than 22,700 apartment units, with exited and estimated current value exceeding $3.1 billion, as of 6/30/2021. MLG Capital targets to acquire $500+ million in commercial real estate annually; with approximately half of those acquisitions involving strategic partners. For more information about MLG Capital and its investments, visit the firm's newsroom.

For more information, contact:

Katie Whitlock, Public Relations

Laughlin Constable

kwhitlock@laughlin.com

414-305-5927

This release does not constitute an offer to sell an investment in a security. Offers to sell an investment in a security can only be made to a qualified purchaser by delivery of a Confidential Private Placement Memorandum (the "Memorandum"), any supplements to the Memorandum and accompanied by a Subscription Document Booklet. The information contained in this release may be preliminary in nature and may have not been independently verified by MLG Capital or its affiliates. The recipient of this release should consult with its own investment, tax and/or legal professionals about the merits of the investment. MLG Capital does not make any representation or warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of any information presented in this release. Any financial information or projections may be initial estimates and may be subject to change without notice to recipient. An investment into a private offering is subject to various risks, none of which are described herein. All figures as of 6/30/2021. Values noted generally consist of disposed of assets, pending acquisitions as well as the current internal valuation of currently held assets as of 6/30/2021. Values may not have been reviewed by an independent 3rd party and may be internal projections.

SOURCE: MLG Capital

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/666674/MLG-Capital-Private-Fund-V-on-Pace-to-Close-Ahead-of-Schedule-Nearly-Half-Raised-in-Nine-Months
Capelle aan den IJssel, The Netherlands 4 October 2021: Today, GeoJunxion publishes the convocation and meeting agenda for its 2021 Annual General Meeting of shareholders to be held on 16 November 2021.

The meeting material and the convocation including the agenda are available on the GeoJunxion website (https://www.geojunxion.com/all-news/documents-for-2021-annual-general-meeting-of-shareholders-on-16-november-2021/).

INVITATION TO ATTEND THE 2021 GEOJUNXION N.V.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS

GeoJunxion N.V. (GOJXN.AS) invites shareholders to attend its Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (GMS) on Tuesday 16 November 2021 at 10:00 a.m (CET). This meeting held as an online meeting and will be hosted from the offices of GeoJunxion located in Capelle a/d IJssel 2909 LC, Rivium Quadrant 75, 9th floor.

GeoJunxion requests its shareholders to attend the meeting online via the live webinar and to provide their voting instructions via internet or the voting instruction form no later than 9 November 2021, at 5 p.m. (CET) (in accordance with the usual procedures described in the convocation notice). Full Instructions on how to attend the webinar are outlined below in this convocation notice.

A limited number of seats at the offices of GeoJunxion in Capelle a/d IJssel will be allocated to shareholders on a first come first served basis for those who are unable to use the online webinar. We do request that they have registered in advance and submitted their voting instructions as detailed further below.

The following agenda items are scheduled for the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders in 2021:

1 Opening and Announcements Review of the Financial Year 2020 - 21 2 Business update and clarification of the updated strategy 3 Report of the Management Board for financial year 2020-21 4 Report of the Supervisory Board for financial year 2020-21 5 Remuneration policy in financial year 2020-21 voting 6 Adoption of the minutes of the EGMS of 29 December 2020 voting Annual Accounts 2020 - 2021 7 Proposal to adopt the financial statements voting 8 Policy on result allocation (discussion item) voting 9 Proposal to not to issue a dividend over 2019 voting 10 Corporate Governance (discussion item) 11 Proposal give discharge to the members of the Board of Management voting 12 Proposal give discharge to the members of the Supervisory Board voting Supervisory Board 13 Proposal to re-appoint Mr. C.S.M Molenaar as Chairman voting 14 Proposal to re-appoint Mr. S. Fernback as member voting 15 Proposal to authorize the Supervisory Board to nominate an external auditor voting Management Board composition 16 Proposal to confirm the appointment of Mr. I. Vleeschouwers as CEO/CFO voting 17 Proposal to appoint Mr. F. Altamura as CBO (Chief Business Officer) and Managing Director voting Shares related authorizations 18 Authorization of the Management Board to issue ordinary shares or to grant rights to subscribe for ordinary shares up to 5% to cover Share Options issued to Staff and for general purposes. voting 19 Authorization of the Management Board to restrict or exclude pre-emptive rights in connection with agenda item 18 voting 20 Any other business 21 Closing of the Shareholders meeting

Meeting documents

The meeting documents will be made available for review or download on the GeoJunxion website (https://www.geojunxion.com/all-news/documents-for-2021-annual-general-meeting-of-shareholders-on-16-november-2021/). Those will include the Convocation and Agenda, Agenda clarifications, the proxy voting document and the minutes of the Extraordinary Shareholder meeting of 29 December 2020.

The documents will also be available at the offices of the Company, Rivium Quadrant 75, 2909 LC, Capelle aan den IJssel, Tel. 010-8851200, Fax 010-8851240 and at ING BANK N.V., Issuer Services, Location code TRC 02.039, Foppingadreef 7, 1102 BD, Amsterdam, Tel. 020-5636799, e-mail iss.pas@ing.nl. A copy of these documents will be provided upon request.

The Consolidated Annual Accounts of GeoJunxion for the accounting year ending per 30 June 2021 will be published on 21 October 2021.

Registration date

Persons entitled to vote and/or attend the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders 2021, are holders of common shares who on 19 October 2021, after processing of all settlements per this date (the Record Date) are registered as such in a (sub)register designated by the Board of Management. The (sub)registers for bearer shares are those kept on the Record Date by the banks and brokers, which are according to Dutch Securities Giro Transfer Act (Wet giraal effectenverkeer) intermediaries (intermediairs) of the Dutch Central Securities Depositary (Euroclear Nederland).

Registration

Holders of common shares who wish to attend the 2021 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders either in person, by proxy or online, have to register for the meeting by Tuesday 9 November 2021, at 17.30 (CET) at the latest at ING BANK N.V., Issuer Services, Location code TRC 02.039, Foppingadreef 7, 1102 BD, Amsterdam, Tel. 020-5636799, e-mail iss.pas@ing.nl.

Attending the meeting online.

We will use the GoToWebinar online tool to give you the opportunity to participate to the shareholder's meeting and vote on the above items. You will be able to access the meeting via a simple web browser or the GoToWebinar app available for smartphones or tablets on the corresponding app stores. Once you have registered as a shareholder via ING, we will send you an email to register for the webinar. You will receive a link that is unique to you. Please make sure you have registered with ING with the correct email address. To test if your system is meeting the minimum requirement please click on this link:

https://support.goto.com/webinar/system-check-attendee (https://support.goto.com/webinar/system-check-attendee)

Proxy and voting instructions

Holders of bearer shares who wish to attend the meeting by proxy have to submit a power of attorney and provide instructions for the person voting on their behalf. In that case the shareholder needs to register his/her shareholding as described above and at the same time provide an electronic copy of the proxy. This proxy needs to be received no later than Tuesday 9 November 2021, at 17.30 CET at the service desk of ING Bank NV (email: iss.pas@ing.nl (mailto:iss.pas@ing.nl)).

The shareholder can inform the Company of such proxy using the following email address:

Info@GeoJunxion.com. Proxy documents be downloaded from its website (https://www.geojunxion.com/all-news/documents-for-2021-annual-general-meeting-of-shareholders-on-16-november-2021/). When attending the meeting in person, the proxy holder needs to have the proof of the registration, a copy of the proxy document and a valid identification document.

Identification

Holders of registered shares or proxy holders who wish to attend the meeting in person will be requested to provide a valid identification document before being admitted to the meeting.

Share Capital and voting rights

At the time of issuing this convocation notice, the company has a share capital of 3.182.217.75 consisting of 4.242.957 ordinary shares with a nominal value of  0,75. The number of voting right amounts to 4.242.957.

Capelle aan den IJssel, 4 October 2021

The Management and Supervisory Board

GeoJunxion N.V.

www.GeoJunxion.com (http://www.GeoJunxion.com)

Attachments
DALLAS, TX / ACCESSWIRE / October 4, 2021 / Uplift Education is happy to announce the launch of its re-designed website in preparation for the upcoming application season. The streamlined website is intended to provide potential families and friends with an informative and interactive experience and help them be able to quickly learn about the network and the benefits of its educational programs. "We wanted to provide a cleaner experience for our website visitors," said Yasmin Bhatia, CEO. "The new website is not cluttered with information geared toward our existing families and staff."

The new site features a school locator so families can easily see the Uplift schools closest to them and will eventually incorporate a chat function to allow potential families to get questions answered on the fly. "We know that it is often a tough decision for parents when deciding on a school for their child," said Bhatia. "We want parents to know that they have a choice and that Uplift Education is an excellent choice. We also want them to know that applying to an Uplift school is simple and free, and the new website helps us accomplish this goal."

Uplift will begin accepting applications for the 2022-23 school year on November 1, 2021. The network has 45 free public schools across the DFW metroplex and its high schools are ranked among the top in the nation.

Please visit us at www.upliftparent.org.

Uplift Education

Uplift Education is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to changing the lives of teachers, families, and, most importantly, students. With a network of 45 college preparatory, public charter schools in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Uplift offers students of any background the powerful chance to study within a multidisciplinary curriculum and prepare for the college career they deserve. Uplift is the largest International Baccalaureate district in Texas and the #2 IB district in the nation because of the number of holistic extracurricular and educational programs. The incredible educators in the Uplift network guide and teach over 21,000 students in Pre-K- 12th?grades, with the majority being low-income and minority students who will be the first in their family to attend college. For more information Uplift's mission and their blind lottery selection system, visit?www.upliftparent.org?or?facebook.com/uplifteducation.

The Hustle Marketing and Design

The Hustle Marketing and Design is a world-class marketing agency founded in 2020 in Dallas, Texas. The company works with B2B and B2C clients in all industries, across North America and internationally, and provides a wide range of marketing including strategic social media management, compelling email marketing campaigns, engaging websites, collateral, media relations campaigns, branding, stunning graphic design and more. Learn more at www.thehustlemarketinganddesign.com. Our all in-house team works closely with you to strategize and reach your marketing goals.With consistent communication, and personalized, local service, we work with you as a team allowing us to provide real-time solutions in a fast-paced environment. To keep up with everything Hustle, follow the brand on Instagram @hustle_mad.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Deekay Fox

Senior Marketing and Communications Director

dfox@uplifteducation.org

661-378-2353

SOURCE: Uplift Education

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/666676/Uplift-Education-to-Reveal-Redesigned-Website-for-Application-Season
CHICAGO, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The data center market in APAC is growing significantly, with multiple investments in Japan, Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Singapore. APAC region is among the fastest-growing digital markets worldwide. Internet usage and social media trends have increased the demand for faster internet networks and data centers to store data generated by them. Internet penetration is one of the strongest drivers for the APAC data center market. Moreover, social media usage among consumers and digital transformation by enterprises across industry verticals are other major factors promoting data center growth.

Observing these rapid and drastic changes in demand and supply patterns encouraged the industry analysts at Arizton to publish exhaustive and data-driven insights on these current trends in the industry. Arizton has a dedicated vertical that focuses on data centre knowledge base across geographies. These market research reports cover a detailed analysis of the COVID-19-induced supply chain disruptions, innovations in technology, equipment financing, economic impact, and a detailed study of the competitive landscape.

Japan Data Center Market - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

Japan data center market is projected to reach USD 10.22 billion in 2026, growing at a CAGR of 6.79% during the period 2020-2026.

Japan is a mature data center market in APAC and has a strong presence as a corporate hub and global financial center. Other than being economically forward, it is also a leader in technology, robotics, and machine learning. The country hosts around 22 third-part data center service providers operating over 93 facilities. Additionally, the country also includes several on-premise or dedicated data centers owned by local enterprises. Japan is one of the major connectivity hubs owing to its strategic location. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a strong market enabler for several digitization initiatives across Japan.

Key Highlights

The cloud market in Japan was valued at USD 10 billion in 2020, including private and public cloud, and is expected to be valued at around USD 15 -16 billion by 2023. The rise in cloud adoption is expected to propel the data center market demand in Japan .

was valued at in 2020, including private and public cloud, and is expected to be valued at around -16 billion by 2023. The rise in cloud adoption is expected to propel the data center market demand in . MC Digital Realty was the major contributor in terms of investment, with the development of two colocation facilities in 2020, followed by NEC and Colt Data Centre Service.

Tier III is the most adopted facility in Japan . Over 80% of recent data centers built between January 2020 and June 2021 are built according to Tier III standards.

. Over 80% of recent data centers built between and are built according to Tier III standards. As the price of SSDs is declining, the adoption of all-flash and hybrid arrays will grow with cloud data center deployments in Japan . Growing investments in start-ups such as FinTech and e-commerce using big data analytics and IoT applications are expected to increase the demand for all-flash storage.

. Growing investments in start-ups such as FinTech and e-commerce using big data analytics and IoT applications are expected to increase the demand for all-flash storage. Tokyo is currently the prime location for data center investment across Japan , with more than 35 data center facilities. MC Digital Realty, Colt Data Centre Services, Equinix & GIC, and KDDI were the major data center investors in Tokyo in 2020.

Read more now: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/japan-data-center-market-investment-analysis

Australia Data Center Market - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

Australia data center market is projected to reach USD 7,397 million in 2026, growing at a CAGR of 6.43% during the period 2020-2026.

Australia is among the mature data center markets in the APAC region. The data center market includes about 41 unique third-party data center service providers, operating about 112 facilities. Additionally, the country also includes several on-premises or dedicated data centers owned by local enterprises. Over the past 5-7 years, the market has grown significantly with an increase in the development of hyperscale data centers. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a strong market enabler for digital transformation initiatives across private as well as public sector enterprises in Australia.

Key Highlights

In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Australian cloud service market grew by over 15%, rendering around USD 10 billion in revenue.

in revenue. M&A activities continue in the Australia data center market. In April 2020 , Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) acquired 88% stake in AirTrunk ( USD 1.8 billion ).

data center market. In , Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) acquired 88% stake in AirTrunk ( ). Australia witnessed an investment of over USD 1.2 billion on data center facilities opened and under construction from January 2020 to June 2021 .

witnessed an investment of over on data center facilities opened and under construction from to . Sydney , home to major ICT companies and leading startup ecosystem in the country, is a pivotal city for data center investments in Australia . In 2020, Sydney was home to over 30 colocation data center facilities.

, home to major ICT companies and leading startup ecosystem in the country, is a pivotal city for data center investments in . In 2020, was home to over 30 colocation data center facilities. Renewable energy initiatives are being undertaken by colocation providers. For instance, in 2018, Equinix installed solar panels on the roofs of its Australian facilities. These solar panels are likely to power up to 10% power capacity of the facilities.

In 2020, around 70% of data center deployment fell under the Tier III category. Most new data centers are designed to be of Tier III standards with a minimum of N+1 redundancy and can be reconfigured with up to 2N+2 redundancy as the need arises.

Read more now: arizton.com/market-reports/australia-data-center-market-investment-analysis

Singapore Data Center Market - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

Singapore data center market is projected to reach USD 4.71 billion in 2026, growing at a CAGR of 8.16% during the period 2020-2026.

Singapore is among the mature data center markets in the Southeast Asia region. The data center market includes about 23 unique third-party data center service providers, operating over 38 facilities. Additionally, the country also has several on-premise or dedicated data centers owned by local enterprises. Over the past 2-4 years, the market has grown significantly with an increase in the development of hyperscale data centers. About 5 facilities have witnessed investments in the country, which are expected to be operational in the next 2-3 years. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a strong market enabler for digital transformation and initiated remote working amongst working population.

Key Highlights

AWS is building its first renewable power project in Singapore , a solar project with a series of solar panels mounted on a ground system, to generate over 60 MW of power and the project will be operational in 2022.

, a solar project with a series of solar panels mounted on a ground system, to generate over 60 MW of power and the project will be operational in 2022. In 2020, several telecom operators in Singapore deployed 5G, boosting edge data centers, especially in Tier II and Tier III cities with increased usage and demand.

deployed 5G, boosting edge data centers, especially in Tier II and Tier III cities with increased usage and demand. In 2020, Keppel Data Centres, ST Telemedia Global Data Centres, AirTrunk Operating, Digital Realty, Equinix, and Iron Mountain invested in the Singapore data center market.

data center market. The average rack power density in Singapore in 2020 was around 6-8 kW, with some data centers developed to support a rack power density of up to 20 kW.

in 2020 was around 6-8 kW, with some data centers developed to support a rack power density of up to 20 kW. Vertiv has identified that data center operators in Singapore , estimating 21% of their data center operations to be powered using solar and wind energy by 2025.

Read more now: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/singapore-data-center-market-size-analysis

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Mexico Data Center Market - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

US Hyperscale Data Center Market - Industry Outlook & Forecast 2021-2026

Italy Data Center Market Size | Investment Analysis & Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

South Africa Data Center Market - Investment Analysis & Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

About Arizton:

Arizton Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers innovative research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.

We offer comprehensive market research reports on industries such as consumer goods & retail technology, automotive and mobility, smart tech, healthcare, and life sciences, industrial machinery, chemicals, and materials, IT and media, logistics, and packaging. These reports contain detailed industry analysis, market size, share, growth drivers, and trend forecasts.

Arizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports.

Mail: enquiry@arizton.com

Call: +1-312-235-2040

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Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 4, 2021) - IAMGOLD Corporation (TSX: IMG) (NYSE: IAG) ("IAMGOLD" or the "Company") will release its third quarter 2021 operating and financial results after market hours on Wednesday, November 3rd, 2021.

CONFERENCE CALL

A conference call will be held on Thursday, November 4th, 2021, at 8:30 a.m. (Eastern Time) for a discussion with management regarding the Company's operating performance and financial results for the third quarter 2021. A webcast of the conference call will be available through the Company's website at www.iamgold.com.

Conference Call Information:

North America Toll-Free: 1-800-319-4610 or International number: 1-604-638-5340

A replay of this conference call will be available for one month following the call by dialing:

North America toll-free: 1-800-319-6413 or International number: 1-604-638-9010, passcode: 7829#

Please dial in 10 - 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start time as call volumes are heavy. If you are still unable to connect from your primary telephone network after attempting all of the dial-in numbers provided, if available, please retry using an alternate telephone network.

About IAMGOLD

IAMGOLD is a mid-tier gold mining company operating in three regions globally: North America, South America and West Africa. Within these regions the Company is developing high potential mining districts that encompass operating mines and construction, development and exploration projects. The Company's operating mines include Essakane in Burkina Faso, Rosebel (including Saramacca) in Suriname and Westwood in Canada. A solid base of strategic assets is complemented by the Cote Gold construction project in Canada, the Boto Gold development project in Senegal, as well as greenfield and brownfield exploration projects in various countries located in the Americas and West Africa.

IAMGOLD employs approximately 5,000 people. IAMGOLD is committed to maintaining its culture of accountable mining through high standards of Environmental, Social and Governance practices, including its commitment to Zero Harm, in every aspect of its business. IAMGOLD (www.iamgold.com) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:IAG) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:IMG) and is one of the companies on the JSI index1.

1 Jantzi Social Index ("JSI"). The JSI is a socially screened market capitalization-weighted common stock index modeled on the S&P/TSX 60. It consists of companies which pass a set of broadly based environmental, social and governance rating criteria.

For further information please contact :

Philip Rabenok, Manager, Investor Relations, IAMGOLD Corporation

Tel: (416) 933-5783 Mobile: (647) 967-9942

Toll-free: 1-888-464-9999 info@iamgold.com

Please note:

This entire news release may be accessed via fax, e-mail, IAMGOLD's website at www.iamgold.com and through Newsfile's website at www.newsfilecorp.com. All material information on IAMGOLD can be found at www.sedar.com or at www.sec.gov.

Si vous desirez obtenir la version francaise de ce communique, veuillez consulter le www.iamgold.com/French/accueil/default.aspx.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/98512
Stamford, Connecticut--(Newsfile Corp. - October 4, 2021) - Josh Schuster's Silverback Development announces an office complex on the edge of the downtown has sold for $8.5 million, although the seller will retain a long-term presence at the property.





Josh Schuster Silverback Development





Josh Schuster's Manhattan-based Silverback Development has sold the two-building site at 1111-1177 Summer St., after acquiring it for $12.4 million acquisition in 2018, according to property-transfer records in the Stamford Town Clerk's Office. The two six-story towers cumulatively cover about 137,000 square feet and have an appraised value of about $21 million.

The sale's terms entail Silverback leasing back 1111-1177 Summer for the next 98 years. A $12 million note on the leasehold interest is facilitating the transaction.

After acquiring the property, Silverback Development officials said their firm carried out a $4 million improvement plan that "stabilized" the asset and increased occupancy from 50 percent to 92 percent. They also cited the support of Plaza Realty Management, the property's manager and leasing agent.

"Silverback is excited to have effectuated this structure, as it allowed us to accomplish two principal objectives of the company: monetize our investment, while retaining a presence in Stamford and participating in the continued maturation of the market," said Silverback Development Vice President Alan Glick.

AGW Summer LLC, which lists a Queens, N.Y. business address, was the buyer, according to the property-transfer records. Officials at AGW Summer could not be reached for comment.

At the same time, Josh Schuster's Silverback Development is redeveloping a neighboring property.

In 2016, Silverback Development acquired for $12.5 million three downtown office buildings across 733-777 Summer St., and 612 Bedford St. About two years ago, Silverback gained approval from the city to demolish the two office buildings that then stood at 733-777 Summer to make way for apartments.

Today, the lot at 733-777 Summer is empty. But construction of the apartment complex is scheduled to start later this year, with a 376-unit building planned there, according to Stamford's economic development director Thomas Madden.

The sale generated $41,000 in local conveyance taxes. It was exempt from state conveyance taxes.

Stamford has seen a number of other major commercial property sales in the past few weeks.

In the city's largest real estate deal of 2020, telecommunications giant Charter Communications bought for $100 million the downtown office building at 400 Atlantic St., which has served as its headquarters since 2012. The company still plans to open a new headquarters this year a few blocks away, at 406 Washington Blvd., in a new 500,000-square-foot building next to the downtown Metro-North Railroad station.

A few blocks from 400 Atlantic, the downtown office tower at 1055 Washington Blvd., sold for $24 million in a "leasehold" deal. The approximately 183,000-square-foot property stands next to the Trump Parc condominium building and across the street from Mill River Park.

The acquisition added the first Connecticut property to the Rye Brook, N.Y.-based RPW Group's portfolio, which also includes nine buildings in Westchester County, N.Y., as well as 275 Madison Ave., in midtown Manhattan.

"In the past three years, we've been focused on expanding our real estate footprint throughout the tri-state area, and Stamford was a focus for us," RPW Executive Vice President Andrew Weisz said in a recent interview. "1055 presented a great opportunity for us to enter the Stamford market. It's a terrific building, it's got curb appeal and a terrific location. The infrastructure is excellent. and the tenant roster is very strong. It checked a lot of the boxes."

Also last month, the site of the former Stamford Sheraton hotel, which closed last October, sold for $6 million. The property appears to have been considered for uses including military veterans' housing, but the buyers have not publicly disclosed their plans.

https://slvrb.com/

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To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/98537
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / October 4, 2021 / Codebase Ventures Inc. ("Codebase" or the "Company") (CSE:CODE)(FSE:C5B)(OTCQB:BKLLF) announces it has completed its previously announced non-brokered private placement (the "Financing"). The Company raised proceeds on this final tranche of $134,400 through the sale of 1,280,000 Units. The Company paid finders fees to a qualified finder of $6,720 and issued 64,000 broker warrants, which are on the same terms as the warrants forming part of the units.

A total of 7,355,000 Units and 272,000 broker warrants were issued pursuant to the Financing.

Each unit consists of one common share in the equity of the Company and one common share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one additional common share of the Company at a price of $0.15 per share for 2 years from the date of closing, subject to the option of the Company to accelerate the expiry date in the event that its shares trade at $0.40 or more for 10 consecutive days.

Securities issued as a result of closing of this final tranche will be subject to a statutory hold period until February 5, 2022.

The net proceeds of the Financing will be used for working capital and for future investments.

After mutual determination, the Company also announces that it has accepted the resignation of Baker Tilly WM LLP ("Baker") as the auditors of the Corporation. Pursuant to the recommendations of the audit committee of the Corporation, the Board has appointed Antares Professional Corporation ("PKF Antares") as the new auditor of the Corporation.

The Company is pleased to announce that Mr. Harrison Ross, CFA, has been appointed to the Company's Board of Directors, and that Mr. Morie Shacker has resigned from the Board.

Harrison Ross, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), brings valuable experience and capabilities to the Company within the finance, capital markets and medical health technology fields. The Company thanks Mr. Morie Shacker for his leadership to the company and wishes him well in his future endeavours.

About Codebase Ventures Inc.

Codebase Ventures Inc. seeks early-stage investments in emerging technology sectors, including the blockchain ecosystem and fintech. The Company identifies such opportunities and applies its relationships and capital to advance its interests.

For further information, please contact:

George Tsafalas - Ivy Lu

Investor Relations

Telephone: Toll-Free (877) 806-CODE (2633) or 1 (778) 806-5150

E-mail: IR@codebase.ventures

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding future financial position, business strategy, use of proceeds, corporate vision, proposed acquisitions, partnerships, joint-ventures and strategic alliances and co-operations, budgets, cost and plans and objectives of or involving the Company. Such forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to management. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "intends", "targets", "aims", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. A number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions and dependence upon regulatory approvals. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The Company 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 as required by securities laws.

SOURCE: Codebase Ventures Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/666725/Codebase-Announces-Closing-of-Financing
Ottawa, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 4, 2021) - Canadians look to the 44th Parliament to apply lessons learned from COVID-19 to protect current and future generations. This includes building healthcare systems equipped for both exceptional and everyday circumstances. To be successful, we believe the government needs to partner with the entire health ecosystem in a way that leverages multiple strengths. Life science stakeholders, in particular, can play a central role in addressing current challenges, while delivering significant economic benefits including investment and jobs. Building back better will also require a cooperative approach across cabinet to recognize these benefits and, most of all, the value of access to treatments and therapies for Canadian patients and families.

With a view to collaboratively building a vibrant life sciences sector in Canada, we call on the Prime Minister to consider the following mandates for key members of the new cabinet:

The Minister of Health, together with the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, and the Minister of Economic Development, to work together to establish a predictable regulatory environment that aligns with investments in industry to ensure timely access to medicines for all Canadians, and to realize the economic value of growing Canada's innovative pharmaceutical industry in Canada.





The Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry to work in a whole-of-government approach to the life science innovation ecosystems in Canada, to support job creation, technology adoption, post-secondary partnerships, R&D investment, scale-up and strategically positioning Canada within the global pharmaceutical supply chain.





The Minister of Health, together with the Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, the President of the Treasury Board of Canada, and the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry to support life sciences innovation at home and abroad through international regulatory harmonization and by supporting intellectual property protection with the World Trade Organization and the World Health Organization.





The Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry together with the Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, and the Minister of Health to highlight and champion domestic strengths within the life science ecosystem, including artificial intelligence advancements, and stem cell and regenerative medicine leadership.



Increased promotion of Canada's universities and colleges and their existing and globally recognized medical, biomedical, software and computer engineering faculties.





The Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry together with the Minister of Economic Development, the Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, and the Minister of Health prepare Canada for future pandemics.



This includes incentives for the development of and access to new antibiotics to address anti-microbial resistance threats, an agile regulatory system, biomanufacturing capacity, and strong data collection resources protocol aligned with the provinces and territories, and greater collaboration with Canada's healthcare systems.



To achieve all the above, it is imperative that government:

Institute a moratorium on the implementation of the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB)'s regulatory changes and work collaboratively and constructively with patient groups, industry, and other stakeholders towards a regulatory approach that balances pricing considerations with timely access to new medicines for Canadians;





Establish a regulatory approach that enshrines and fosters innovation in health sciences, protects intellectual property through international agreements, increases access to clinical trials for patients, and increases the availability of new medicines to Canadians;





Commit to "whole-of-government" policies that impact the life sciences sector by recognizing the complexity, competitiveness, and value of the sector. A life sciences strategy for Canada is required that considers Canada's policy and regulatory environment in a holistic way and is harmonized with provincial and territorial needs and strategies;





Establish a comprehensive pan-Canadian strategy for drugs for rare diseases co-created with provincial and territorial governments to better support patients' access to lifesaving medicines.

The initiatives and investments already announced by government recognize the strategic importance of a strong domestic life sciences sector. We look forward to continuing to build a partnership with government and other stakeholders to ensure robust, resilient healthcare systems and a strong, competitive life sciences sector ready to meet future challenges.

Signatories to the news release include the following organizations:

Innovative Medicines Canada

BioAlberta

Life Sciences Ontario

BioQuebec

Montreal InVivo

CATALIS

CQDM

CQIB

Quebec International

Sherbrooke Innopole

BioNB

BioNova

PEI BioAlliance

About Innovative Medicines Canada

Innovative Medicines Canada is the national association representing the voice of Canada's innovative pharmaceutical industry. The association advocates for policies that enable the discovery, development, and delivery of innovative medicines and vaccines to improve the lives of all Canadians and supports the members' commitment to being a valued partner in the Canadian healthcare system. "The association represents 47 companies who invest nearly $1.2-billion in R&D annually, fueling Canada's knowledge-based economy, while contributing $8-billion to Canada's economy. Guided by the Code of Ethical Practices, all members work with governments, private payers, healthcare professionals, and stakeholders in a highly ethical manner."

- 30 -

For further information:

Corinne Crichlow

Director, Media and Public Relations

Telephone: (343) 998-5030

E-mail: media@imc-mnc.ca

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/98529
LONDON, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Economist Impact is delighted to programme two hybrid panel sessions at the Kyiv International Economic Forum. Taking place on October 7th with a live audience in Kyiv, the sessions will also be available online, free of charge, to a global virtual audience. The first of these hybrid sessions, Emerging from the pandemic: Can developing markets fuel global recovery?, sponsored by UFuture and programmed by Economist Impact, will convene economists and finance experts to examine the performance of emerging markets by country and sector, and identify which among them can fuel worldwide growth.

Questions to be explored include:

How has the covid-19 crisis impacted emerging-market economies in the short term, and what are the likely long-term ramifications?

How did the response to covid-19 diverge across countries and regions, and how has it impacted rates of recovery? Who are the outstanding performers?

Which markets have been most resilient and which have been hardest hit? What can be learnt from their experiences?

What policies should emerging-market economies pursue to accelerate recovery?

How are emerging-market economies contributing to global growth? To what extent will the growth be driven by China ?

? Are emerging-market economies poised to benefit from the "new normal" of business?

Featured Speakers:

Alvaro Santos Pereira , director, country studies branch, economics department, OECD

, director, country studies branch, economics department, OECD Dalia Marin , professor, international economics, TUM School of Management, Technical University of Munich

, professor, international economics, TUM School of Management, Technical University of Beata Harasim , senior investment strategist, BlackRock Investment Institute

, senior investment strategist, BlackRock Investment Institute Nicholas Tymoshchuk , chief executive, UFuture

, chief executive, UFuture Moderator: Robert Guest , foreign editor, The Economist

For more information or to register your interest, visit

https://bit.ly/3nIiRSB

About Economist Impact

Economist Events is now Economist Impact , empowering businesses, governments and foundations to catalyse change and enable progress. Uniting the expertise for which The Economist Group is known under a single brand, Economist Impact brings together policy research and insights, data visualisation, custom storytelling, events and media.

Economist Impact combines the rigour of a think-tank with the creativity of a media brand, engaging an influential audience in the areas of sustainability, healthcare and globalisation. View our global events .

About Kyiv International Economic Forum

Kyiv International Economic Forum (KIEF) is one of the largest international forums in Eastern Europe that brings together representatives of business, governments and society to discuss key economic issues and practical solutions for sustainable development. The mission is to promote Ukraine's integration into the global community as the most promising player.


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Social media giant Facebook Inc (FB) Monday asked to drop the charges put forward by the Federal Trade Commission that can end up making the company sell off their two most priced sister platforms, Whatsapp and Instagram.



In a filing, the company argued that the FTC failed to show how Facebook was monopolizing social media and therefore, the lawsuit should be taken off so that FTC cannot amend and refile their lawsuit. However, the judge has asked FTC to refile the case.



In June, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington had dismissed complaints against Facebook filed by FTC and state attorneys general led by New York's Letitia James. The complaint was seeking to break Facebook's monopoly in social networking, which could have resulted in the divestiture of Instagram and WhatsApp.



In August, FTC refiled the case saying "Today, the Federal Trade Commission filed an amended complaint against Facebook in the agency's ongoing federal antitrust case. The complaint alleges that after repeated failed attempts to develop innovative mobile features for its network, Facebook instead resorted to an illegal buy-or-bury scheme to maintain its dominance. It unlawfully acquired innovative competitors with popular mobile features that succeeded where Facebook's own offerings fell flat or fell apart" Facebook, however, claims that the filing is "at odds with the commercial reality of intense competition with surging rivals like TikTok and scores of other attractive options for consumers.'



Facebook has tried to blame FTC Chair Lina Khan for prejudice against the bigger companies and to recuse Khan but FTC refused.



Facebook also argued that it was the FTC that approved the acquisition of Instagram in 2012 and Whatsapp in 2014, making the entire anti-trust lawsuit counterintuitive. 'The FTC challenges acquisitions that the agency cleared after its own contemporaneous review...The case is entire without legal or factual support. This is as true now as it was before,' said the company.



A spokesperson of the company added, 'The FTC's fictional market ignores the competitive reality: Facebook competes vigorously with TikTok, iMessage, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn, YouTube, and countless others to help people share, connect, communicate or simply be entertained. The FTC cannot credibly claim Facebook has monopoly power because no such power exists.'



The lawsuit is an added pressure on the company as it deals with much more pressing issues like its intentional negligence of public safety over personal gains that was brought forward by a former executive Frances Haugen. Amidst all the chaos surrounding the company, all the platforms owned by FB suffered an outage on Monday.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

FACEBOOK-Aktie komplett kostenlos handeln - auf Smartbroker.de
Latch Bio, a San Francisco, CA-based company building data infrastructure for biocomputing, closed a $5m seed funding round.

The round was led by Lux Capital with participation from General Catalyst, Haystack, Fifty Years, and Asimov co-founder and CEO, Alec Nielsen, Ph.D.

Founded in 2021 by Alfredo Andere, Kyle Giffin, and Kenny Workman who met as undergraduates at the University of California, Berkeley, Latch Bio is building a web-based platform which enables any biologist to analyze CRISPR data without any code or cloud infrastructure setup.

Using the platform, any researcher can now create a centralized one-stop-shop for storing, transforming and visualizing their data without writing any code. Through the plugins, users can import files from their existing data stack including Amazon S3, Benchling, and Illuminas BaseSpace. Biologists have access to dozens of workflows including CRISPResso, MAGeCK, CasTLE, Cas.py, MultiQC, and CasOffinder, among others. After performing a specific workflow, users can further interrogate the results using the built-in genomic visualizer and quality controls. The platform is offered free to academic research users.

FinSMEs

04/10/2021
N.THINGs CEO & founder Leo Kim(left) and CFO, Chris Lee(right).

N.Thing, a Seoul, South Korea-based AgriTech startup, raised $21m in series B funding that is up from a $5m in previous series that is secured $26m in total.

The Series B round was led by InterVest and Kiwoom Investment where are the follow-on investment from existing investors as well, and new participation from Ascendo Ventures, SL Investment, IGIS Asset Management and KT&G.

The company will use the funds to execute its plans for global commercialization of CUBE with cultivated crops and portfolio expansion. Near-term milestones include scaling-up the supply chain, growing operations, and expanding its product lines and technology platform both domestically and internationally. N.Thing is currently working with Emart, a retailer in Korea to distribute crops via newly built vertical farm units which will launch within this year in Icheon, Korea.

Established in January 2014, N.Thing is a Agri-Food tech company leading innovation in agricultural products, by extension, in the farm-to-table food value chain by combining IoT technology and data. It developed a modular vertical farm CUBE with mass productivity where a dedicated OS provides the most optimized environment for each crop so as to create maximized efficiency.

May 2021, N.Thing signed a deal with Sarya Holdings in the United Arab Emirates to construct a $3 million vertical farm within this year. The company will also collaborate to bolster Abu Dhabis long-term focus on food resilience.

FinSMEs

04/10/2021
Crisp-Ellert Art Museum Announces Fall Artist in Residence Jillian Mayer

The Crisp-Ellert Art Museum and Flagler College are pleased to announce Miami-based artist Jillian Mayer as our CEAM Artist in Residence this fall. Mayer will be on campus October 4-15 to conduct class visits and undertake research for her upcoming exhibition at CEAM in January 2022. In addition, Mayer will give an artist talk on Thursday, October 7 at 6 pm in the Flagler Room, located in the campus's Ponce building. This event is free and open to the public.

Through videos, sculptures, online experiences, photography, performances, and installations, Mayer explores how technology affects our lives, bodies, and identities by processing how our physical world and bodies are impacted and reshaped by our participation in a digital landscape. Mayer investigates the points of tension between our online and physical worlds and creates work that attempts to inhabit the increasingly porous boundary between the two. Mayer's artwork has a consistent thread of modeling how to subvert capital-driven modes of technological innovation.

This emphasis on our complicated and often over consumptive relationship to technology also seeps into the artist's more recent growing interest in prepper and survivalist subcultures. Mayer grew up in Miami in the 1980s, the epitome of overdevelopment and lavish excess. This drive for more and more growth has led to the current moment in which environmental and infrastructural collapse plays out in real-time. It also serves as a backdrop to much of Mayer's recent work, in which she proposes how "humans might discover new ways to adapt to the natural world." Mayer has created an itinerant artist residency housed in a trailer outfitted as a bunker and complete with solar panels in one ongoing large-scale project. In the installation Bunker Mood Board (2019), Mayer presents us with a vision of how the Instagram/Pinterest generation might find refuge in a tastefully decorated underground bunker. Mayer's work draws us in with playfulness and humor while simultaneously forewarning the disasters that threaten our precarious future.

Jillian Mayer is an artist and filmmaker. She has held solo exhibitions including Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, Nebraska (2019), Kunst Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark (2019), University of Buffalo Art Museum, Buffalo NY (2018), Tufts University, Boston, MA (2018); Postmasters Gallery, New York, NY (2018); Perez Art Museum, Miami, FL (2016); LAXART, Los Angeles, CA (2016); Utah Museum of Fine Art, Salt Lake City, UT (2014); and David Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL (2011 & 2016). She has exhibited, screened films, and performed at MoMA PS1 (2017); MoMA (2013); the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, FL (2013); the Bass Museum of Art, North Miami, FL (2012); the Guggenheim Museum (2010); and the Musee d'Art Contemporain de Montreal, Quebec as a part of the Montreal Biennial (2014). Mayer's work has been featured in Artforum, Art Papers, Art in America, ArtNews, The Huffington Post, and The New York Times. Mayer is a recipient of the Creative Capital Fellowship, South Florida Cultural Consortium Visual/Media Artists Fellowship, Cintas Foundation Fellowship for Cuban Artists, and was named one of the "25 New Faces of Independent Film" by Filmmaker Magazine.

Mayer has lectured at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, CalArts, the Sundance Institute, ICA Miami, Carnegie Mellon University, Otis College of Art & Design, Tufts University, Salt Lake Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, University of Texas Arlington, McCord Museum, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, SXSW, Portland State University, Museum of Fine Arts St. Pete, Pitzer University, MoCA North Miami and more.

Her films have been screened at Sundance, SXSW, Rottenberg Film Fest, and the New York Film Festival. In addition, she is a fellow of the Sundance Institute's New Frontiers Lab and New Narratives on Climate Change Lab.

Mayer is represented by David Castillo Gallery in Miami, FL.

The CEAM Artist Residency, in collaboration with Flagler College's Department of Art & Design, is a regular program of artists-in-residence to engage in themes of place-making while collaborating with some aspect of St Augustine's local community, the city's significant and varied roles in American history, or its rich natural environment.

The CEAM Artist Residency is supported by a grant from the Dr. JoAnn Crisp-Ellert Fund at The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida.

For more information about our programming and upcoming events, please visit the website at www.flagler.edu/ceam, and follow us on Instagram (@crispellertart) or Facebook (Crisp-Ellert Art Museum).

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Flagler College fourth in U.S. News Best Regional Colleges in South

ST. AUGUSTINE, FL. - Flagler College was once again ranked fourth in U.S. News & World Reports 2021 Best Colleges guide for the Best Regional Colleges in the South. Flagler was also featured as first for colleges in the south with a strong commitment to Undergraduate Teaching, as well as ninth on the Best Value list in the south regional colleges category and second for Most Innovative Schools among southern colleges. Additionally, Flagler was ranked in the Top Performers on Social Mobility category, placing 44th.

Our number one ranking on the Best in Undergraduate Teaching list, is a testament to the commitment of our faculty to a customized education for each of our students, said Flagler College Interim President John Delaney. Flagler faculty are thought leaders in their field and pioneers in teaching; they wont let students fail.

The rankings for Best Undergraduate Teaching focus on schools whose faculty and administrators are committed to teaching undergraduate students in a high-quality manner. The Best Value list recognizes schools for offering high-quality programs at an affordable cost. Most Innovative Schools were nominated by top academics who took part in a peer assessment survey and were asked about schools that had made the most innovative improvements in terms of curriculum, faculty, students, campus life, technology or facilities.

Other schools in the top 10 Best Regional Colleges in the South category include High Point University, Ouachita Baptist University, Florida Polytechnic University, and Maryville College.

U.S. News defines regional colleges as those focusing on undergraduate education, but granting fewer than half their degrees in liberal arts disciplines. Academic quality is measured by gathering data in a number of categories: assessment by administrators at peer institutions, how well schools perform at retaining and graduating students, the quality of and investment in the faculty, student selectivity, financial resources and the state of alumni giving. A rank is arrived after calculating weighted scores for each school.

There were 70 colleges and universities included in the first tier of the rankings of southern colleges.

The Top Performers on Social Mobility category examines Pell Grant students six-year graduation rate and that rate against the performance of non-Pell Grant students. Those students are defined as students whose family income is less than $50k per year.

In August, Flagler College was also named one of the nations best institutions for undergraduate education in The Princeton Reviews The Best 386 Colleges guide.

The U.S News & World Reports Best Colleges 2022 guidebook is available for pre-order now. The print edition will ship in early October and be in bookstores on Nov. 2. For more information, visit https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges.

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Literallynothing's Build Thread

Banks Intercooler Kit (10/20)

KC Balanced assembly and turbo rebuild kit (5/21)

EBPV delete pedestal and outlet flange (5/21)

Riffraff bellowed up pipes (5/21)

Irate Diesel Performance E-Fuel system (4/21)

IPR valve (2/21)

ICP sensor (1/21)

EBP sensor and tubing (1/21)

CNC Fab Stage 2 HPOP (6/21)

Neutral Safety Switch (NSS, TPS, MLPS, whatever you want to call it) (9/21)

Shifter Cable (9/21)

Sky's Off-Road 2" RSK (to lower the front back to level) (10/20)

KYB monomax shocks on all 4 corners (10/20)

New wheel bearings, axle seals, and brakes on all 4 corners (10/20)

New Leaf spring bushings on front axle (10/20)

Red Head steering gears (4/21)

Moog Pitman arm (10/20)

Moog Drag link (10/20)

Moog Tie rod and tie rod ends (10/20)

Precision Track Bar (10/20)

PMF suspension dual steering stabilizer kit (11/20)

Upper and Lower Ball Joints (9/21)

ISSPRO gauges for Boost, EGT, and Trans temp

Weather stripping on Drivers door

Driver door control panel reinforcement, handle reinforcement, hinge pins, and striker

New grill, headlights, and headlight bezels

16" Pro Comp bullet hole style wheels

285/75R16 Toyo M-55 Tires (10/20)

Weatherguard tool box

Curt HD tow hitch

B&W Turnover Gooseneck hitch

Driver door handle reinforcement panel

Passenger rear door lock actuator and window motor rebuild

Headlight ****

Modified West Coast Mirrors

Weather stripping for all doors except driver door

Passenger door control panel reinforcement bracket

Melling LPOP

Fluidampr Harmonic Balancer

Water pump with a filter kit

Power Steering Pump

CNC Valve Springs, Retainers, Shims, and Seals

Push Rods

SD UVCH

Various wiring cleanup/replacement in engine bay

Hello everyone! I picked up my 1995 F350 back in August of 2020 and have put a lot of work into it so far. The main purpose of this truck is to tow my Tacoma to the trails. It has since become my daily driver as well. I figure I should stop bugging the Toyota guys with my Ford questions and issues, and instead post about it here. I have been reading on here and various other Ford forums, and that has gotten me this far. My truck is a 1995 CCLB XLT F350 with the 7.3L powerstroke motor. It started its life by leaving Ford and going to a company called A&J Vans. They then replaced the seats, overhead console, door trim, added an electric back window, and painted striping on the side. The truck then spent its life under its two main owner's for 20 years in Oregon and then California. In 2016 The owner sold it to his son in law, who brought it to Colorado. The truck had 190,000 miles on it at that point. In 2020 he sold the truck to me with 219,000 miles. At this time, there were only a few modifications to the truck, and the transmission was rebuilt at 195,000. The last owner received it bone stock and did the following: Turbo back exhaust with a small muffler, Full Force Diesel 160cc/0% injectors, a hydra tuner, S&B cold air intake, and a roughly 4" lift in the front with a reverse shackle kit. Other than that, at some point in its life, it received a Lund Visor, a trailer brake controller, and plenty of holes in the bed from 5th wheels and campers. Overall this truck has been fantastic. It pulls my Tacoma over steep mountain passes without missing a beat. The farthest haul I have made is from Northern Colorado to King of the Hammers in Johnson Valley California. So far, the truck is at 240,000 miles, and here is a list of what I have done as of 5/16/2021 (month of install listed on wear parts/parts I want to track):Engine/Performance/Etc.:Suspension, steering, and axles:Interior:Exterior:Parts Waiting to be installed:Parts I plan on installing/replacing:Mileage Tracker: 249,500 as of 9/27/21Given the time and the funds, I will eventually sand off all of the bed liner that the PO sprayed on, and repaint the truck the original red.I'll get some new pictures up soon, but here's the truck after the suspension, wheels and tires!
Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021.
SEATTLE, May 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Biomass solid fuel is a potential alternative to fossil fuels and can be used to generate energy. It is a renewable energy resource that can be derived from carbonaceous waste from animals, humans, or industrial activities. Biomass solid fuels are used in variety of applications, such as electricity generation, heat processing, cooking, and space heating and cooling, among others. Biomass solid fuel is the most suitable replacement for fossil fuels.

Biomass solid fuels are made up of a wide variety of sources, such as bark chips, palm oil residues, sawdust, wheat straw, peat moors, wood chips, and bagasse among others. Moreover, biomass solid fuels are derived from agricultural by-products, recycled materials, paper, animal farm litter, and sawmill residue, among others.

The global biomass solid fuel market is estimated to account for 425.8 Bn in terms of value by the end of 2027, witnessing a CAGR of 8.5%.

Market Drivers:

1. Government initiatives to support biomass solid fuel development are expected to augment growth of the global biomass solid fuel market over the forecast period.

Increasing utilization of biomass, for sustainable energy production, to provide solutions to the ever-increasing energy crisis and to reduce the environmental impact caused by greenhouse gas emissions. For instance, in May 2018, the Indian government launched a scheme to support biomass based cogeneration projects in sugar mills and other industries for power generation in the country (up to March 2020).

2. Increasing demand for energy worldwide is also expected to drive the global biomass solid fuel market growth.

Solid biomass fuel can be used as one of the alternatives to mitigate the consumption of fossil fuels. According to the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), the global energy consumption will grow by nearly 50% between 2018 and 2050. The industrial sector, which includes construction, agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and refining, accounts for the largest share of energy consumption of any end-use sector.

Request for Sample copy @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/3977



Market Opportunities:

1. Increasing adoption of bioenergy by many end-use industries, as a source of energy in place of fossil fuels, can provide major business opportunities for players in the global biomass solid fuel market.

2. Increasing demand for biomass solid fuels to produce suitable energy resources, such as electricity, transport fuels, and gases, is also expected to offer lucrative growth opportunities for players in the market.

Market Trends:

1. The growing trend towards industrial uses of bioenergy is growing rapidly. For instance, in 2018, many biomass-fired CHP plants were commissioned to achieve the European Unions (EUs) Renewable Resource Directive targets for 2020 and 2030.

2. Major players in the market are adopting various inorganic strategies, such as product launch, business expansion, partnership, collaboration, etc., to retain their position in the market or to strengthen their product portfolio. For instance, in October 2019, Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation announced that its consolidated subsidiary, SIGMA POWER Ariake Corporation, started the construction of a biomass power plant in Omuta City, Japan.

Competitive Landscape:

Major players active in the global biomass solid fuel market are Vattenfall AB, VGrid Energy Systems, PVM Environmental Products, Aggregated Micro Power Holdings, Drax Biomass Inc., SOCOTEC Group, Fulcrum BioEnergy, Eni S.p.A., BTG Biomass Technology Group, and Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget SCA.

Buy-Now this Research Report @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/buy-now/3977



Key Developments:

In January 2019, Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation signed a collaboration agreement with Omuta City, Japan to construct a new biomass power plant in Omuta City through SPAC. Moreover, Toshiba converted the Mikawa coal-fired power plant to operate as a biomass-fired power plant.

Market segmentation:

By Source:

Wood Pellets

Crop Residue

Energy Crops

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)

Others (Peat, Sawdust, etc.)





By Application:

Space Heating/Cooling

Cooking

Heat Processing

Electricity Generation and Others

By End Use:

Industrial

Institutional

Domestic





By Region:

North America

Latin America

Europe

Asia-Pacific

Middle East and Africa





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About Us:

Coherent Market Insights is a global market intelligence and consulting organization focused on assisting our plethora of clients achieve transformational growth by helping them make critical business decisions. We are headquartered in India, having sales office at global financial capital in the U.S. and sales consultants in United Kingdom and Japan. Our client base includes players from across various business verticals in over 57 countries worldwide.

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Dallas, TX, Oct. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sammons Industriala wholly-owned subsidiary of Sammons Enterprises, Inc. and parent company of the Enterprises industrial investments and operating companiescontinues to expand their business portfolio with the addition of SitePro Rentals, a carve-out of Briggs Equipments general rental business.

Briggs Equipment has focused their business on growth in material handling solutions through the separation of the general equipment rental business from their full-service material handling operations. While the general rental equipment business has shifted to the SitePro Rentals banner, Briggs will continue to provide material handling rentals, including forklifts and trailer spotters.

Distinguishing our general equipment rentals from our material handling operations will allow both companies to be laser-focused on their strengths, Sammons Industrial CEO Darron Ash said. I believe both companies are even more well-positioned as a leader in their respective spaces and for future investment and growth."

Briggs front-line focus has always been on providing best-in-class material handling solutions to our customers and having the most knowledgeable team in the industry, Briggs Equipment US President Dan Lister said. We are excited to continue our focus on providing service excellence in the material handling segments and growing the solutions portfolio we are able to offer our customers. We are located in some of the fastest growing regions in the country where we will continue to invest and grow.

Meanwhile, SitePro Rentals has implemented new systems and technology to support their 9 branches in the United States, as well as their planned branch growth in 2022 and beyond.

Were building SitePro from the ground up, so were not encumbered by legacy systems and processes like other industry players, SitePro Rentals President Tim Rule said. As a result, were able to combine our understanding of customer needs with cutting edge technologies to create an industry-leading customer experience.

--

About Sammons Industrial

Sammons Industrial, a Sammons Enterprises, Inc. wholly-owned subsidiary, is the parent company of the Enterprises industrial investments and operating companies. This includes a group of global materials handling companies operating under the Briggs Equipment trade names in the US, Mexico, UK and Republic of Ireland. In addition, Sammons Industrial owns SitePro Rentals, a general equipment rental business in the US, and has investments in other industrial ventures in the hydrogen fuels and warehouse-designed racking sectors.

For more information, please visit www.SammonsIndustrial.com.

About SitePro Rentals

SitePro Rentalsa wholly-owned subsidiary of Sammons Industrial and part of the Sammons Enterprises family of ESOP-owned companiesspecializes in rental of construction and industrial equipment. SitePro serves a broad variety of customers, including construction and industrial. With a unique value proposition focused on service, technology, and customer relationships, SitePros goal is to disrupt the equipment rental industry and become the recognized leader in customer loyalty.

For more information, please visit www.SiteProRentals.com.

About Briggs Equipment

Briggs Equipmenta wholly-owned subsidiary of Sammons Industrialis a leading provider of premium materials-handling equipment with operations in the United States, United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, and Mexico. Briggs Equipments US operations are headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with 24 locations in the south and southeast US. Briggs Equipment is a full-line materials handling distributor, offering sale of new and used equipment, long and short-term rentals, parts, service, material handling solutions, and fleet management programs.

For more information, please visit www.BriggsEquipment.US.

About Sammons Enterprises

Sammons Enterprises, Inc., is a diverse holding company composed of financial services, industrial equipment, real estate investments, and infrastructure businesses operating in five countries. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Sammons was established in 1938. With almost $6 billion in annual revenues and over $120 billion in assets, Sammons is one of the largest privately-held companies in the United States.

For more information, visit www.SammonsEnterprises.com.

Attachments
DeepUll Appoints Richard Ivey to its Board of Directors

Diagnostics industry veteran with forty years experience to support DeepUll in its continued development of its early sepsis identification system

BARCELONA, Spain  October 4 2021  DeepUll, a medical diagnostics company developing culture-free, affordable diagnostic solutions for the early identification of sepsis and other acute infections, announces today that it has appointed Richard (Rick) Ivey as a non-executive director. With four decades of senior leadership experience in the diagnostics sector at BD Diagnostics, Rick brings unparalleled industry perspective and guidance to the company as it continues to develop precision diagnostic solutions with the primary focus on the early identification of sepsis.

Early identification that a patient could be susceptible to sepsis, when they can still be effectively treated through narrow spectrum antibiotics, is essential in order to improve the patients prognosis and reduce mortality. DeepUlls first-in-class platform is based on culture-free diagnostics to enable sepsis recognition in pre-symptomic patients. DeepUlls technology aims to not only rapidly identify the causative infective agent(s) within a few hours, but will also provide antimicrobial susceptibility results at the same time, reducing the unnecessary use of antimicrobials. An artificial intelligence layer will offer seamless medical decision support across all phases of patient management from early disease recognition, to precise diagnostics, up to therapy guidance.

For over twenty years, Rick was Worldwide Vice-President of R&D for BD (Becton Dickinson) Diagnostic Systems, a global leader of products and instruments used for diagnosing infectious diseases. Throughout his career, he has worked closely with some of the worlds most prominent business leaders to drive new growth opportunities via technology and product development, and forged numerous external collaborative partnerships.

Rick has been integral to BDs continued growth and development that has seen the company deliver dozens of new diagnostic platforms, assays, and new technologies. Most relevantly, Ricks specific experience covers both automated blood sepsis and TB detection systems, bacterial identification and antimicrobial susceptibility systems, as well as informatics lab software-based systems, microbiology lab automation, and rapid/automated molecular diagnostic systems. Rick holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech and an MEA in Engineering Administration from The George Washington University.

Jordi Carrera, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of DeepUll commented: We are deeply honoured to have someone of Ricks vast experience and deep knowledge join DeepUll. Our mission to create innovative tools in the fight against acute infections, sepsis and antimicrobial resistance with the next generation of affordable, simple to use and rapid diagnostics is closely shared by Rick. We look forward to working with him.

Rick Ivey, newly appointed Board Member of DeepUll, commented: Most patients with sepsis first present to the ER where current diagnostic tools are both inadequate and slow to identify the cause of infection and provide timely administration of appropriate antibiotics. DeepUlls platform has the potential to speed up sepsis recognition and management and I am very excited to work with this highly experienced team to bring such a breakthrough innovation to market.

ENDS

About DeepUll

DeepUll is a medical diagnostics company developing culture-free diagnostic solutions for sepsis and acute infections. Founded in 2020 in Barcelona by the founders of STAT-Dx (sold to QIAGEN in 2018), DeepUll has assembled a team of world-class experts to create rapid, affordable and accessible diagnostic solutions.

For more information, please contact:

DeepUll

Elena Balsells de Sola ebalsells@deepull.com

Consilium Strategic Communications

Amber Fennell / Maya Bennison deepull@consilium-comms.com
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Headwater Gold Inc. (CSE: HWG) (OTCQB: HWAUF) (the "Company" or "Headwater") is pleased to announce the Company has acquired the Midas North gold-silver project (the Project or Property) in northern Nevada through claim staking.



Summary Highlights:

Company has acquired a 100% interest in a large, undrilled epithermal alteration cell immediately north of and adjoining Hecla Mining Companys (Hecla) (NYSE: HL) Midas mine;

Widespread sinter, water table silica, and clay alteration infers a fully preserved epithermal system is present;

Analogous geologic setting to Heclas Midas mine and the recent Green Racer Sinter vein discovery, where gold grades of 111.8 grams per tonne (g/t) and silver grades of 490 g/t Ag were intercepted over a drilled thickness of 1.4 metres (see Hecla news release dated February 18, 2021) (1) ;

; Widespread areas of highly anomalous mercury geochemistry, which is one of the key pathfinder elements for epithermal vein exploration; and

The Project was acquired through the staking of 199 unpatented claims on open Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land and is 100% owned and royalty-free.



Figure 1: Outcrop of opalized sediments and silica sinter at the Big Opal target area, Midas North Project, Nevada.

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/58c732ff-f04c-4892-bdb5-da55ebb2eccb

Caleb Stroup, Headwaters President and CEO, commented: It is very rare to have the opportunity to stake such a large, untested epithermal alteration cell in a prolific high-grade Nevada mining district. The Midas mine complex immediately to the south serves as clear geologic analog, with over two million ounces of gold and over 25 million ounces of silver historically produced from high-grade epithermal veins at Midas between 1998 and 2019(1, 2) by operators such as Franco-Nevada, Newmont and Hecla. The Midas North project has all the components we look for when targeting large, blind, high-grade epithermal veins. Heclas impressive Green Racer Sinter discovery announced earlier this year demonstrates that, despite a long history of mining, this district remains highly prospective and under-explored.

Figure 2: Location of Midas North Project and other Headwater Gold Nevada projects.

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3ebf2519-1e5c-4440-83b7-2250616524b5

About the Midas District:

The Midas North project is located in the Midas District of northern Nevada, approximately 100 kilometres north of the town of Winnemucca and directly adjoins Hecla Minings Midas mine complex. In 1994 an array of high-grade banded epithermal veins were discovered and historic production from the Midas mine was initiated by Franco-Nevada Corporation in 1998, with historic reserves of 2.46 million tonnes at a grade of 38.2 g/t Au(1),(2). Mining continued until 2019 when Hecla elected to temporarily halt production as a result of decreasing head grade. Existing infrastructure at the Midas mine includes a 1,200 ton per day mill, several production water wells, high voltage power, and a fleet of underground mining equipment.

Mineralization in the Midas area is related to mid-Miocene bimodal volcanism associated with the Northern Nevada Rift and is analogous to high-grade low-sulfidation epithermal veins in Northern Nevada including Sleeper, Fire Creek, and Hollister. Gold and silver mineralization in the Midas district typically occurs in sub-vertical banded low-sulfidation epithermal vein arrays, the most significant being the Colorado Grande vein in the central Midas mine area.



In February 2021, Hecla announced the discovery of a new high-grade vein system in a previously undrilled area, approximately 3 km southeast of the main mine area. This new discovery is reported to occur beneath a mapped exposure of geyserite sinter which was correctly identified as a surface venting feature of an epithermal vein system. This discovery highlights the potential for future exploration in the greater Midas district, targeting blind veins beneath widespread high-level epithermal alteration.

Figure 3: Midas North land position, showing the principal high-level epithermal target areas in the Midas district. Heclas recent Green Racer discovery occurs in an analogous structural and stratigraphic setting to Midas North, with similar high-level epithermal alteration features present at surface.

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b5e4476a-03ed-4f07-8765-bd2fdbd3a817

About the Midas North Project:

Headwaters Midas North project area covers a large hydrothermal alteration cell, extending at least 4 kilometres in strike and 1 kilometre in width, which is interpreted by Headwater geologists as representing the high-level manifestations of an epithermal precious metal system. This system occurs approximately 10 kilometres along strike north of the Midas mine. The Headwater Project consists of 199 unpatented mining claims on BLM land and covers approximately 1,530 hectares.

Figure 4: Headwaters Midas North property map, showing the location of the principal target areas with rock and stream sediment sample mercury geochemistry.

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f1858a7c-f03c-4881-8124-36804b1ed5b9



Two priority target areas have been identified by Headwater geologists in the field: the Nevada Grande target and Big Opal target areas (Figure 4), both of which exhibit widespread high-level chalcedonic to opaline silica flooding, clay alteration, and local sinter formation. The Nevada Grande target area consists of a ridge forming, linear zone of chalcedonic and opaline silicification over an approximately 1 km strike extent, interpreted to be the high-level manifestations of a potential epithermal feeder structure. The Big Opal target area consists of a widespread zone of sub-horizontal opaline and chalcedonic silica flooding, with localized occurrences of interpreted near-vent sinter facies, such as fossilized geyser vents (Figure 5). To date, 90 rock chip samples and 54 stream sediment samples have been collected by the Company from the Project area. This limited initial sampling as already highlighted several priority areas of anomalous precious metal values, with highly anomalous values of important epithermal pathfinder elements, such as mercury.

The Project area has seen very limited historic exploration. Although the Project was reportedly staked by Newmont Corporation in the past, Headwater is not aware of any historic exploration drilling on the property. Headwater geologists are currently planning an expanded multi-disciplinary surface exploration program which will be carried out in late 2021 and into 2022 with a goal of identifying additional high-priority drill targets. This program is expected to include detailed geologic mapping, rock chip sampling, systematic soil sampling, airborne magnetics, airborne radiometrics, and ground based resistivity profiles.

Figure 5: Interpreted fossilized geyser vent within the Big Opal sinter zone. Note the silica mound surrounding the vent throat as well as the desiccation cracks on the vent walls.

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c1aad06b-e571-49d0-9b93-9be2b56d2329



Update on Other Exploration Activities:

Spring Peak Project

Assays from five holes are pending from the Spring Peak drill program, which was completed earlier this month (see news release dated September 15, 2021). The Company expects assay results some time during the second half of October.

Highland Project

The Company has received assay results from the Highland drill program which was completed in early August (see news release dated August 10, 2021). No significant high-grade vein intercepts were encountered in the initial seven-hole program. The Company believes the high-priority targets in the district have been adequately tested and the underlying property owner has been notified of Headwaters intention to terminate its option agreement. The decision to terminate the option is in-line with the Companys disciplined exploration strategy of pursuing high-impact discoveries by testing high-quality targets as quickly and cost-effectively as possible.

Mahogany and Katey Projects

Federal and state drill permits have been received for the Companys 100% owned Katey and Mahogany Projects in eastern Oregon. A Boart Longyear diamond drill rig is scheduled to mobilize to the Mahogany Project in mid-October, where the focus will be testing multiple vein targets along the Main Ridge Fault zone, which locally contains high-grade gold values in surface sampling, up to 170 g/t Au. Following the conclusion of drilling at Mahogany, the rig is scheduled to move to the Katey Project.

Sample Quality Control:

Drilling at Highland was conducted by Boart Longyear using a wheel-mounted reverse circulation drill rig. The drill chips were logged on site and at Company offices in Reno, Nevada. Drilling totalled 2,097 metres, and 1,376 original samples were collected. Samples were transported from site to American Assay Laboratories (AAL), located in Sparks, Nevada by American Assay personnel. Prior to dispatch, samples were placed in numbered bags with regular insertion of blind internationally certified reference materials, blanks, or a sample duplicate. American Assay Laboratories are an accredited analytical laboratory meeting ISO/IEC 17025:2017 and AC89 IAS requirements. Samples were prepared by standard AAL crushing and grinding methods. The pulps were then assayed for 21 elements via AAL method ICP-2AM21 using a 0.5 g sample after a two acid near total digest with an ICP-OES/MS finish. Gold was assayed by fire assay using AAL method FA-Pb30 using a 30g sample charge and ICP-OES finish. Laboratory standards and QA-QC are monitored by the Company.

About Headwater Gold:

Headwater Gold Inc. is a technically-driven mineral exploration company focused on exploring for high-grade precious metal deposits in the Western USA. Headwater is aggressively exploring one of the most well-endowed and mining-friendly jurisdictions in the world with a goal of making world-class precious metal discoveries. Headwater has a large portfolio of epithermal vein exploration projects, and a technical team composed of experienced geologists with diverse capital markets, junior company, and major mining company experience. The Company is systematically drill testing several of its 100% owned projects in Nevada, Idaho, and Oregon.

For more information, please visit the Company's website at www.headwatergold.com.



On Behalf of the Board of Directors

"Caleb Stroup"

President & CEO

For further information, please contact:

Brennan Zerb

Investor Relations Manager

+1 (778) 867-5016

bzerb@headwatergold.com

Qualified Person

The technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Mr. Derrick Strickland, P.Geo. (1000315), a Qualified Person (QP) as defined in National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

The Qualified Person has been unable to verify the information on the adjacent properties. Mineralization hosted on adjacent and/or nearby and/or geologically similar properties is not necessarily indicative of mineralization hosted on the Company's properties. Historical resource estimates are treated by the Company as historical in nature, and not current. Goldstrand, P.M., and Schmidt, K.W., 2000, Geology, mineralization, and ore controls at the Ken Snyder gold-silver mine, Elko County, Nevada, in Cluer, J.K., Price, J.G., Struhsacker, E.M., Hardyman, R.F., and Morris, C.L., eds., Geology and Ore Deposits 2000: The Great Basin and Beyond: Geological Society of Nevada Symposium Proceedings, May 15-18, 2000, p. 265-287.

Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding future capital expenditures, anticipated content, commencement, and cost of exploration programs in respect of the Company's projects and mineral properties, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Often, but not always, forward looking information can be identified by words such as "pro forma", "plans", "expects", "may", "should", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "potential" or variations of such words including negative variations thereof, and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and other factors include, among others, statements as to the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, including the Company's exploration plans. the proposed expenditures for exploration work thereon, the ability of the Company to obtain sufficient financing to fund its business activities and plans, delays in obtaining governmental and regulatory approvals (including of the Canadian Securities Exchange), permits or financing, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, the Company's limited operating history, currency fluctuations, title disputes or claims, environmental issues and liabilities, as well as those factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's prospectus dated May 26, 2021 and other filings of the Company with the Canadian Securities Authorities, copies of which can be found under the Company's profile on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements, except as otherwise required by law.
TORONTO and KNOXVILLE, Tenn., Oct. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Solar Alliance Energy Inc. (Solar Alliance or the Company) (TSX-V: SOLR) is pleased to announce it has signed a contract for a 115 kilowatt (kW) solar project (the Project) for Todd County Pallets in Kentucky. The Project is the first project signed since Solar Alliance and Boyd CAT entered into a Joint Development Agreement and will provide low cost, renewable energy for Todd County Pallets.



This project for Todd County Pallets is representative of the quality of projects we are pursuing with Boyd CAT and further solidifies our position as a leader in Kentucky solar, said CEO Myke Clark. Since we signed the joint development agreement with Boyd CAT, our respective teams have been building a strong sales pipeline and this project is the first of many we anticipate signing in the coming months.

Todd County Pallets is pleased to be making the transition to solar energy to offset a portion of our energy demand, said Danny Beachy of Todd County Pallets. The team of Boyd CAT and Solar Alliance provides a low cost, turnkey solar solution that will help reduce our operating costs and increase our profits.

In support of Solar Alliances expanding presence in Kentucky, the Company has signed a lease for an office in Louisville, Kentucky. Opening an office in Louisville will provide an ideal location to collaborate closely with Boyd CAT and will also increase efficiency as the two companies continue to grow quickly in Kentucky.

Solar energy is a long-term strategic focus of Boyd CAT, said Clint Hutchcraft, VP Power Systems at Boyd CAT. Our goal is to meet our customers renewable energy needs with an affordable, trusted solar solution. This project for Todd County Pallets is the first of many solar systems we hope to build with the Solar Alliance team.

Boyd CAT is the authorized dealer of Cat solar equipment for businesses and contractors across Kentucky, Southern Indiana, West Virginia and Southeastern Ohio. To date, Boyd CAT and Solar Alliance have partnered on several projects including the recently completed 1 megawatt solar project for Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company.

Myke Clark, CEO



For more information:





Solar Alliance Sales

(865) 309-4674

info@solaralliance.com



Investor Relations

Myke Clark, CEO

416-848-7744

mclark@solaralliance.com





About Solar Alliance Energy Inc. (www.solaralliance.com)

Solar Alliance is an energy solutions provider focused on residential, commercial and industrial solar installations. The Company operates in Tennessee, Kentucky, North/South Carolina and Illinois and has an expanding pipeline of solar projects. Since it was founded in 2003, the Company has developed $1 billion of renewable energy projects that provide enough electricity to power 150,000 homes. Our passion is improving life through ingenuity, simplicity and freedom of choice. Solar Alliance reduces or eliminates customers' vulnerability to rising energy costs, offers an environmentally friendly source of electricity generation, and provides affordable, turnkey clean energy solutions.

Statements in this news release, other than purely historical information, including statements relating to the Company's future plans and objectives or expected results, constitute Forward-looking statements. The words would, will, expected and estimated or other similar words and phrases are intended to identify forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Companys actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different than those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include but are not limited to: uncertainties related to the ability to raise sufficient capital, changes in economic conditions or financial markets, litigation, legislative or other judicial, regulatory and political competitive developments and technological or operational difficulties. Consequently, actual results may vary materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release."
Omaha, NE, Oct. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bridgepoint Investment Banking (Bridgepoint) acted as the sole buy-side M&A advisor to Omaha-based packaging manufacturer Airlite Plastics (Airlite) on its acquisition of Cosmetic Specialties International (CSI). The acquisition of California-based CSI, a leading US manufacturer of cosmetic containers for the beauty and skincare industries, will allow Airlite to expand its footprint in the United States and enter the cosmetics industry through a well-established industry player in the space.

Airlite engaged Bridgepoint as their buy-side advisor targeting companies with proprietary product lines, a strong management team, a similar culture and a strong commitment to shared core values. Bridgepoints tenacity, expertise in the packaging and manufacturing sector, deep industry connectivity and ability to develop meaningful relationships were instrumental to finding the ideal acquisition target for Airlites next stage of growth.

Airlite CEO Brad Crosby commented, We are incredibly excited for the future with CSI. We gave the Bridgepoint team a narrow list of criteria and they delivered. Throughout the entire process, they provided a thoughtful external perspective, deep market knowledge, and advisory excellence.

Steve Kane, Airlite CFO added, The Bridgepoint team didnt stop at sourcing the opportunity. They worked tirelessly at a phenomenally high level to support us, from initial discussions to negotiations to diligence to close. And, we had fun doing it.

Bridgepoint Managing Director Mike Anderson commented, Bridgepoint has been impressed with the level of professionalism and integrity from both companies in this M&A process. Were committed to helping leading family- and founder-owned companies such as Airlite achieve their strategic goals. This acquisition is a good example of accomplishing that mission.

About Bridgepoint Investment Banking

Bridgepoint Investment Banking, a division of Bridgepoint Holdings NE, LLC, is a market-leading boutique impact investment bank. The Bridgepoint team, through their broker dealer relationship with M&A Securities Group, Inc., an unaffiliated entity, serves clients over their corporate lifecycles by providing capital raising and M&A advisory solutions. Bridgepoint serves clients globally across a range of focus sectors including plastics, packaging and manufacturing. Learn more about Bridgepoint Investment Banking at www.bridgepointib.com.

About Airlite Plastics

Airlite Plastics is a premier, privately held, family-owned packaging manufacturer headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. A pioneer in the plastics and packaging industry, Airlite offers packaging products and services with a focus on sustainability, customer service and their core values of integrity, respect and innovation. Learn more about Airlite Plastics at airliteplastics.com.

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NEW YORK, Oct. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Magnus Financial Group LLC ("Magnus") is pleased to announce that Jennifer Laughnan has joined the firm as Vice President of Investment Operations.

Prior to joining Magnus Financial Group, Jennifer was a Vice President of Investor Relations at Harbinger Capital Group, where she was the Head of Investor Relations and the primary point of contact for the firm's investor base. Jennifer began her career at Goldman, Sachs & Co., in their San Francisco Private Wealth Management office, where she held her Series 7 and 66 licenses. She went on to work for a top-producing broker at Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown in their San Francisco office.

"Jennifer is going to be supporting key wealth advisors in a broad client service capacity," stated Michael Schwartz, CFP, AEP, CEO of Magnus, adding, "This will allow those advisors to focus on advising new and active clients while she supports the everchanging needs of their clients."

Jennifer earned her Bachelor of Finance while attending the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She also studied French extensively, both at UW-Milwaukee and abroad in Paris, France.

About Magnus Financial Group:

Magnus Financial Group LLC is an SEC-registered, independent investment advisory firm located in New York City. Magnus provides customized wealth management and financial planning services for clients in all phases of their lives. As an independent RIA, Magnus provides high-quality service with a personalized client approach. The firm was founded in 2017 and consists of approximately 15 staff professionals, including wealth advisors, investment operations, compliance and marketing, research and trading personnel, client service members and administrative support.

Media Contact:

Thomas Barber

Phone: 800-339-1367

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Singapore, Oct. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- It can be overwhelming trying to cope with all the responsibilities of being an entrepreneur, and many struggle to juggle the various tasks like managing a team, dealing with admin, growing a business, and more besides. Sometimes you need expert support. Thats where Piloto Asia comes in.



Piloto Asias main goal is to be your ultimate partner in doing business in Singapore, allowing you to focus on important business activities while the Piloto Asia team offer full support with the tasks you dislike or simply dont have time for.

Piloto Asia works tirelessly to help support and grow your business, offering a whole host of personalized, reliable corporate services designed to fit your unique business needs. These services are delivered by an experienced team, so you know youre in good hands when working with Piloto Asia. Get in touch with the team today to find out how they can help you!

Services to help you thrive

Piloto Asia strive to offer only the very best in terms of corporate services to support and scale your business, such as:

Bank account opening You dont have to struggle to navigate complex bank account opening processes on your own, wasting your precious time on failed interviews. Piloto Asia can help! Piloto Asia offers three simple steps to helping you successfully open a bank account First, a free video meeting to assess your needs Then, a free pre-assessment with multiple banks Lastly, support in preparing for interviews Company incorporation Piloto Asias professional consultants are happy to help you incorporate your business online in a short timescale This leaves you with more precious time to invest in the heart and soul of your business Company secretary for admin support Piloto Asia helps you stay compliant with laws and regulations and avoid late penalties, giving you peace of mind while freeing up your time to focus on more important things Help with taxes and accounting Piloto Asia can help you avoid making costly bookkeeping and taxation mistakes by doing the bulk of the work for you Piloto Asia offers error-free, IRAS-compliant accounting, payroll, and tax return services that take responsibility off your shoulders HR services: Payroll Outsourcing and Employer of Record (EOR) services Expanding your business in a new jurisdiction can be slow, costly, and overwhelming if you have to figure everything out alone Piloto Asias specialist HR team can make your expansion overseas easier, helping you get speedy, impressive results. Their EOR services can help your business hire an expert team to manage the Singapore market without the hassle of having to set up a Singapore company first Once a decision to setup a subsidiary is made, Piloto Asia can assist with statutory payroll support and outsourcing, eliminating the need to figure out cumbersome local employment rules and administration Corporate immigration support For corporates expanding their regional headquarters to Singapore, Piloto Asia can assist with professional relocation via work visa application for key employees, including Employment Pass applications and S-Pass applications The dedicated team of consultants provide efficient immigration solutions for your business, from reviewing candidacies of applicants to liaising with statutory bodies in Singapore to dealing with renewals and appeals



Head to Piloto Asias website today to find out more about their comprehensive range of corporate services!

Why choose Piloto Asia?

With 65 combined years of staff experience, over 300 satisfied customers and a 5-star rating on Google, Piloto Asia has the skills and expertise needed to see your business not only survive, but thrive. The companys impressive local support network and full-suite corporate outsourcing services can help your business to beat the competition and become a leading player in your field.

The experts at Piloto Asia offer tailored business support, finding the perfect corporate solutions to suit your business, with flexible services and a speedy turnaround delivered by dedicated concierges instead of chatbots (because they understand that business is changeable and time is money). Whats more, Piloto Asias 360 business ecosystem means that, on rare occasions when Piloto Asia dont have the expertise you need, the team can put you in touch with expert partners who do  so youll never be left struggling alone.

What are you waiting for? Get in touch with Piloto Asia today to empower yourself and your business!

More information

As a leading corporate service provider in Singapore, Piloto Asia is here to help you with your business needs.

To discover more about the Piloto Asia, please visit: https://www.pilotoasia.com/. For inquiries, please call +65 6422 6319 or email business@pilotoasia.com.

https://thenewsfront.com/piloto-asia-helping-entrepreneurs-thrive-in-the-world-of-business-by-offering-premium-support-services/
NEWTON, Mass., Oct. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Paytronix Systems, Inc., the most advanced digital guest experience platform , today published the first annual Paytronix Loyalty Report, which found that most Paytronix loyalty programs consistently boost visits and spend by 1830% per enrolled member. The first annual Paytronix Loyalty Report examines restaurant and convenience industry trends across the loyalty landscape, including trends in visits, spend, member demographics, and program types.



Download the full report: 2021 Paytronix Loyalty Report

Key insights from the Paytronix Loyalty Report include:

Loyalty members checks were an average of 6% more than non-loyalty members over the course of the year.

The top 10% of loyalty members accounted for more than half of all loyalty spend at their favorite brands for eight months of 2020.

Ice cream and coffee brands had a banner year in 2020 despite the pandemic, realizing on average a 7% increase in visits and a 26.5% increase in spend.

Convenience stores saw a 10% increase in average spend per visit despite a decline in fuel sales.

Spend per visit increased across convenience stores and all restaurant segments.



During a tumultuous 2020, loyalty programs shone through as one of the key survival tools for brands in the restaurant and convenience industries, said Andrew Robbins, CEO of Paytronix Systems, Inc. The best programs are those that look beyond simply enticing customers with offers and leans into the idea of personalizing the customer journey. In this way a loyalty platform is part of a broader guest engagement strategy that touches all parts of the guest experience, whether thats digital, physical, or a combination of both.

The Paytronix report finds that critical mass for a loyalty program is reached at about 15% penetration, the baseline that brands should strive to achieve one year after launching a program for the first time. At this level, the program is producing material results: enough to make a noticeable difference on the top line.

Excellent performance falls between 25% and 35%, while top-tier brands can reach impressive penetration rates of 50% or even 70%. Panera Bread represents one of these exceedingly successful brands: the fast-casual giant has a 50% penetration rate and 40 million loyalty members  twice as many loyalty members as Starbucks, despite the brands significant size difference.

The Paytronix Loyalty Report is part of a series of data-driven analysis that includes the Paytronix Order & Delivery Report and the Paytronix Gift Card Report.

Methodology

The 2021 Paytronix Loyalty Report references data from the Paytronix database of in-store and online transactions between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2020 unless otherwise noted. While restaurant data in this report goes back to 2018, the convenience store data covers 2019 and 2020.

Paytronix Systems, Inc.

Based in Newton, Massachusetts, Paytronix is a provider of SaaS customer experience management (CXM) solutions for restaurants and convenience stores. Through its innovative software design and integrations with more than 30 widely used point-of-sale systems, Paytronix empowers more than 500 brands across 30,000 locations, giving them the flexibility to deliver unique, revenue-enhancing guest experiences. Through one-to-one engagement with more than 285 million guests via Order & Delivery, Loyalty, CRM, and Stored Value, Paytronix generates Big Data consumer insights that motivate increased visits and spend. For more information, visit www.paytronix.com.
Toronto, Oct. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Though the COVID-19 pandemic sent shockwaves through Canadas foodservice industry, inflicting a devastating impact across the entire foodservice landscape, the industry is finally seeing signs of positive change.



The release of Restaurants Canadas 2021 Foodservice Facts shows, come 2022, the industry is expected to not only rebound, but grow more than originally expected, as consumers are showing a willingness to return to restaurant dining.

Canadas most trusted foodservice industry research and insights guide, Foodservice Facts is an annual report presenting the latest foodservice statistics, trends and forecasts, along with a detailed analysis of how they will affect foodservice operators. The authoritative annual research report is a valuable tool for foodservice operators and chains to plan, invest and forecast their activities for the year ahead.

In April 2020, Canadas foodservice industry experienced its lowest level of sales in over two decades. While sales were expected to improve in 2021, the third wave of the pandemic caused another shutdown, with the elimination of in-person dining affecting restaurants, foodservice operators and suppliers across Canada.

However, despite the setbacks and challenges, the industry has been resilient, innovating, embracing new technologies, and exploring new revenue streams. It will take some time to bounce back, but expectations for 2022 show a promising return to pre-pandemic numbers:

As of September 2021, almost 70% of Canadians (12 and older) are fully vaccinated

As a result of high vaccination rates, annual commercial foodservice sales are expected to increase to $63.9 billion, which is higher than the previous prediction of $61.1 billion. However, the industry is tempering optimism with vaccine passports coming into effect alongside a fourth wave of infection.

The projection of 2022 looks even more promising, as overall foodservice sales are expected to grow to nearly $80 billion, 3.8% higher than pre-pandemic levels

While the economic outlook has significantly improved, Restaurants Canada remains cautious when it comes to the timing of the recovery, says Chris Elliott, Senior Economist at Restaurants Canada. We see our industry like a puzzle, trying to figure out what piece fits where, and figuring out how to fill in any gaps and holes in the industry. While our patios may be filling up and we can see that small pinhole of light at the end of the tunnel, it is not the time to relax or fall into old habits. We have survived the storm and now its time to learn from it. Its time to cautiously, yet optimistically, finish the puzzle. 



Labour shortages, increased costs, higher debts



COVID-19 brought about a slew of new challenges and hardships for the entire industry across Canada. Some of the biggest hurdles to overcome as a result of the pandemic include labour shortages, higher food and overall costs, as well as higher debts. Hundreds of thousands of employees across the restaurant industry have been laid off as a result of restaurant shutdowns, and more than 12,000 foodservice establishments permanently closing their doors since the start of the pandemic.

Labour shortages, already an industry-wide problem pre-pandemic, will continue as the hospitality sector begins to recover and open back up. Workers have had to find other employment opportunities in other industries after losing their jobs in hospitality. The pandemic is forcing the industry to reevaluate how they recruit, pay and retain their employees, especially as restaurant owners are struggling to fill their workforceonly 39% of restaurant operators expecting to return to pre-pandemic staffing levels in 2022 and 20% expecting to return in 2023.



The pandemic also managed to bring up price hikes in the foodservice industry and led to restaurants accumulating mounds of debt. Operational costs, food and menu prices and labour costs will continue to rise as the industry heads into the final months of 2021 and well into 2022. Many restaurants are already operating at a loss due to government shutdowns, and their debts seem to continue to grow as costs rise:

47% of foodservice operators said they would increase their menu prices 4% over the next 12 months

In a 2021 survey, 81% of independent restaurants had taken on new debt due to the pandemic**

Six out of 10 table-service restaurants are operating at a loss as of July 2021

As the industry emerges from the pandemic, paying off debt and lowering operating cost remain the top two priorities among foodservice businesses.

Despite the many negative effects as a result of the pandemic not all industry changes are considered bad. COVID-19 gave restaurants the opportunity to step back and truly focus on their businesses, seeing what works and what didnt and finding new ways to adapt to challenges brought about by the pandemic. The evaluation of their businesses allowed them to focus on creating the best experience for customers when in-person dining restarted - something that customers are very eager to return to.

Customers are ready to return to in-person dining

Customers are craving the opportunity to return to table-service restaurants and in-person dining to experience the moments and memories they were able to have pre-pandemic. 94% of Canadians say that restaurants are an important part of their communities and they want to continue to support them.



That said, takeout and delivery will continue to be offered by restaurants, especially those that had to pivot quickly to offer the service during the pandemic in order to meet new demands. But a considerable number of customers have shared they will begin to order delivery and takeout less once the pandemic subsides, as the desire to get together and socialize continues to grow.

Certain groups are more eager to return to in-person dining than others. Trends show delivery rates will remain the same post-pandemic as during the pandemic. However, differences in delivery can be seen across age groups:

50% of 18-34 year olds surveyed will order delivery less post-pandemic as compared to during the pandemic, being the most eager group to return to in-person dining

35-54 year olds and 55+ were similarly split, with about the same percentage of people preferring to order delivery less after the pandemic as those who will order about the same amount of delivery as during the pandemic.

Its clear Canadians want to return to the way things were before coronavirus hit, and indoor and in-person dining at restaurants are part of this transition to post-pandemic life, adds Todd Barcaly, President of Restaurants Canada. We realize the value that restaurants bring to Canadians and their communities, and we need to be ready to welcome them back with open arms. Restaurants Canada is working with all levels of government to help the industry with the transition from survival to revival, so they can welcome Canadian diners back with open arms.

Overall, 89% of Canadians are looking forward to going out to a restaurant with friends and family once the pandemic ends. With growing vaccination rates, Canadians continue to feel more comfortable about returning to in-person dining, and restaurants should continue to implement measures to enhance the customer experience and make them feel safe.

Offering a deeper dive into the Foodservice Facts Report, Restaurants Canada is hosting a free webinar on October 7, 2021, to help foodservice and hospitality industry professionals reach their consumers and win in todays competitive foodservice market. For more information, or to reserve your spot, visit https://info.restaurantscanada.org/foodservice-facts-2021-webinar.

Additional Noteworthy Survey Highlights

Commercial foodservice sales in Canada are predicted to grow from $13.7 billion in the first quarter of 2021 to $20.7 billion by the last quarter of 2022 (adjusted seasonally)

97% of Canadians believe restaurants provide a vital source of employment

Full-service restaurants are forecast to experience the strongest sales increase, rising, from a projected $25.6 billion in 2021 to $35.2 billion forecasted in 2022

Canadas tourism revenues are projected not to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2025 - foodservice spending by international tourists dropped 96% from April to December 2020; domestic tourist spending dropped 32% in the same period of time

The full report is available to all Restaurants Canada members through the Member Portal or for purchase online. To access the report, please call 1-800-387-5649 or email members@restaurantscanada.org.

** Source: Restaurants Canadas Q2 2021 Restaurant Outlook Survey

--30--



About Restaurants Canada

Restaurants Canada is a national, not-for-profit association advancing the potential of Canadas diverse and dynamic foodservice industry through member programs, research, advocacy, resources and events. Before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadas foodservice sector was a $95 billion industry, directly employing 1.2 million people, providing Canadas number one source of first jobs and serving 22 million customers across the country every day. The industry has since lost hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions in sales due to the impacts of COVID-19. www.restaurantscanada.org.

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LOUISVILLE, Ky., Oct. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GlowTouch LLC, a global Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services provider based in Louisville, KY, was awarded Silver and Bronze medals at the 2021 Stevie Awards for Women in Business. The Silver is in the category of Most Valuable Corporate Response to the pandemic and the Bronze is for Most Exemplary Employer. More than 1,500 entries were submitted this year for consideration in more than 100 categories.

"It's a tremendous honor for the company and our staff who invested countless hours in upholding the corporate motto of Putting People First," said Vidya Ravichandran, GlowTouch President and Founder. "There's no blueprint for addressing something like Covid which went well beyond a pivot to work-from-home. There were day-to-day needs that are usually separate from work. We engineered a grocery delivery system because of rules restricting individual movement and addressed the mental stress of sudden change through several engagement programs. I am so proud of the entire team."

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business honor women executives, entrepreneurs, employees, and the companies they run worldwide, and have been hailed as the world's premier business awards. "We thought the remarkable stories of achievement we saw in last year's awards couldn't be topped, but we were wrong," said Maggie Gallagher Miller, president of the Stevie Awards. "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."

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. In awarding the Silver for Most Valuable Corporate Response, one judge said, "They took care of their employees like they were family," while another remarked, "GlowTouch has put the interests of humanity before their own." In this category, the company's work included a Pandemic Response Team, a voluntary employee community outreach, and a corporate donation of 30 ICU beds to Mangalore's Wenlock Hospital.

"I love the wellness program and grocery delivery services," said one judge regarding the Bronze Award for Most Exemplary Employer. Another judge noted the campaign's "early and educated initial response that considered the well-being of employees. I was encouraged to see a strong focus on collaboration with daily check-ins."

Response coordination required multiple departments working as one to address individual employee needs and provide ongoing support of clients and their customers. The experience resulted in a new service delivery model, a modernized workforce, and a confirmation of GlowTouch's people-based corporate culture. "Tough times are often revealing; you learn about yourself and about the people around you," said Ravichandran. "We learned that the moment is never too big for our employees; they rally around each other and our clients without being asked to do so."

About GlowTouch

GlowTouch is a privately held and WBENC-certified, woman-owned enterprise, founded in 2002. We provide personalized, omnichannel contact center, business processing, and technology outsourcing solutions to clients around the world. Our 2,300+ employees deliver operational excellence with high-touch engagement garnering recognition by independent bodies such as Everest Group, International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP), and as a six-time honoree on the Inc. 5000. GlowTouch is headquartered in Louisville, KY, with onshore contact centers in Louisville, KY, and Miami, FL; a nearshore presence in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; and offshore locations in Mangalore, Bangalore, and Mysore, India. To learn more about GlowTouch, visit www.GlowTouch.com, or email Tammy Weinstein at Tammy.Weinstein@GlowTouch.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 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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GlowTouch Wins Silver & Bronze Stevie Awards









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NEW YORK, Oct. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP is investigating whether Owlet, Inc. ("OWLT or the "Company") (NYSE: OWLT) complied with federal securities laws.



On October 4, 2021, the Company disclosed through an SEC filing that it received a warning letter from the FDA. The FDA's letter informed Owlet that the Company's marketing for its Owlet Smart Sock in the United States "renders the Smart Sock a medical device requiring premarket clearance or approval from FDA, and that the Company has not obtained such clearance or approval in violation of the Federal, Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act." The FDA has requested that the Company take "prompt action" to remedy the alleged violations.

On this report, the price of the Company's stock declined over 33% intraday.

If you purchased Owlet, Inc. shares and suffered losses, please call Gregory Stone at (800) 575-0735 or (212) 545-4774, email gstone@whafh.com or submit this form:

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO CONTACT THE FIRM

Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP has extensive experience in the prosecution of securities class actions and derivative litigation in state and federal trial and appellate courts across the country. The firm has attorneys in various practice areas; and offices in New York, Chicago and San Diego. The reputation and expertise of this firm in shareholder and other class litigation has been repeatedly recognized by the courts, which have appointed it to major positions in complex securities multi-district and consolidated litigation.

If you wish to discuss this investigation or have any questions regarding your rights and interests in this matter, please immediately contact Wolf Haldenstein by telephone at (800) 575-0735, via e-mail at classmember@whafh.com, or visit our website at www.whafh.com.

Contact:

Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP

Gregory Stone, Director of Case and Financial Analysis

Kevin Cooper, Esq.

Email: gstone@whafh.com or classmember@whafh.com

Tel: (800) 575-0735 or (212) 545-4774

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome.




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LUCKNOW, India (AP)  Indian authorities suspended internet services and barred political leaders from entering a northern town Monday to calm tensions after nine people were killed in a deadly escalation of a yearlong demonstration against contentious agriculture laws.

Four farmers died Sunday when a car owned by Junior Home Minister Ajay Mishra ran over protesting farmers in the Uttar Pradesh town of Lakhimpur Kheri, officials and farm leaders said.

Mishra said his driver and three members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party who were in the car were all killed by the protesters in the violence that broke out after the incident.

They were beaten to death by the farmers, Mishra said in a statement.

Farm leaders alleged that Mishras son was in the car when it ran over the protesters, but Mishra denied it.

Police on Monday said they had so far arrested six people and filed a criminal complaint against 14 more, including the ministers son, in connection with the deaths of the four farmers. The BJP also lodged a criminal complaint against the farmers over the deaths of its members and the car driver, said Arvind Chaurasia, a senior official in charge of the district.

Police also said they recovered the body of a local journalist from the spot where violence ensued Sunday but did not provide further details on how he was killed.

The violence marked an escalation in ongoing protests against agriculture laws that farmers say will shatter their livelihoods. The protests have lasted since the government passed the laws last September and have been one of the biggest challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Last week, thousands of farmers gathered at the edges of the capital New Delhi to mark one year of demonstrations. The government says the changes in the laws were needed to modernize agriculture and boost production through private investment. But the farmers say the laws will devastate their earnings by ending guaranteed pricing and will force them to sell their crops to corporations at cheaper prices.

Police officer Arun Kumar Singh told The Associated Press that all schools have been shut in the district and people have been advised to stay indoors following the violence in Lakhimpur Kheri, 200 kilometers (124 miles) southeast of Uttar Pradesh's capital, Lucknow.

Authorities also barred leaders from various opposition parties from entering the district to meet the farmers amid concerns it could cause further disorder.

Senior police official Prashant Kumar said the administration would provide monetary compensation to the families of the deceased farmers and also set up a judicial inquiry to probe the violence. Farm leaders, however, demand action against the minister and his son, saying Mishra should be removed from office.

The deaths have led to more anger among farmers who rallied in multiple states, strengthening their protests. Opposition Congress Party also held a protest in New Delhi, where several party members scuffled with police and were later detained.

The protests are shaping up as challenge to Modi's BJP during its reelection bid early next year in Uttar Pradesh, which is considered India's political bellwether state.

The rallies have been largely peaceful, though clashes in January left one protester dead and hundreds injured after demonstrators broke through police barricades to storm a historic fort in Delhi.

Thousands of farmers have camped for nearly a year on the outskirts of New Delhi, and more than a dozen rounds of talks between the government and the farmers have failed to resolve the issues.

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Associated Press video journalist Shonal Ganguly contributed to this report.
Manchester Police / Contributed

MANCHESTER  Police have located a stolen vehicle that was taken from a parking lot with a child still inside it on Monday afternoon.

The 1-year-old boy was found safe after the alleged suspect dropped the child off on Summit Street, police said. The vehicle, a 2022 grey Lexus, was found unoccupied on Union Street at around 3 p.m., according to Manchester police.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP)  Captain Kirk is rocketing into space next week  boldly going where no other sci-fi stars have gone.

Jeff Bezos space travel company, Blue Origin, announced Monday that Star Trek actor William Shatner will blast off from West Texas on Oct. 12.

Yes, its true; Im going to be a 'rocket man!' the 90-year-old tweeted. He added: Its never too late to experience new things.

Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is a huge fan of the sci-fi series and even had a cameo as a high-ranking alien in the 2016 film Star Trek Beyond." His rocket company invited Shatner to fly as its guest.

Shatner will become the oldest person to go to space. Hell join three others  two of them paying customers  aboard a Blue Origin capsule. He'll wind up being the second actor to reach space this month: Russia is launching an actress and a film director to the International Space Station on Tuesday for almost two weeks of moviemaking.

Shatner's flight, by comparison, will last just 10 minutes and reach no higher than about 66 miles (106 kilometers). The capsule will parachute back to the desert floor, not far from where it took off.

With flights short or long, space tourism is picking up steam fast.

Virgin Galactic carried founder Richard Branson to the edge of space with five others in July, followed nine days later by Bezos' space hop. Elon Musk's SpaceX, meanwhile, launched its first private crew last month  a Pennsylvania entrepreneur who bought the three-day flight and took along two contest winners and a cancer survivor.

Virgin Galactic's ship launches from an airplane and requires two pilots. Blue Origin and SpaceX's capsules are fully automated, but the passengers must pass medical screenings and, among other things, be able to quickly climb several flights of steps at the launch tower to get to the capsule  or out of it in an emergency.

This will be Blue Origins second launch of a crew.

Bezos was on the debut flight on July 20. He took along his brother, an 18-year-old from the Netherlands and 82-year-old aviation pioneer Wally Funk  the youngest and oldest to fly in space. Shatner will break that upper threshold by eight years.

"Ive heard about space for a long time now. Im taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle, Shatner said in a statement.

Shatner played the role of the USS Starship Enterprise's commander for three seasons, from 1966 to 1969. He also portrayed Captain James T. Kirk in seven movies, directing one of them. He's currently the host and executive producer of a History Channel show, The UnXplained.

The ashes of two other Star Trek powerhouses  creator Gene Roddenberry and actor James Doohan, who played Scotty  rocketed into space years ago following their deaths.

Also launching with Shatner: a former NASA engineer who founded a nanosatellite company and the co-founder of a software company specializing in clinical research. The two took part in the auction for a seat on the first flight. That seat cost $28 million; Blue Origin isn't divulging any other ticket prices.

A fourth seat on the flight is going to Blue Origin's vice president of mission and flight operations, who used to work for NASA as a space station flight controller.

A Blue Origin spokeswoman said Shatner, like the others, met all the company's health and physical requirements.

Last week, more than 20 current and former Blue Origin employees accused the Kent, Washington-based company of having a toxic work environment and not adhering to proper safety protocols. Blue Origin said it doesnt tolerate harassment or discrimination and stood by its safety record.

Bezos' company is also challenging a NASA contract award to SpaceX for providing a lunar lander that will return astronauts to the moon in a few years. Blue Origin was unsuccessful in its bid for the job.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

___

This story has been corrected to show that Shatner will be oldest to go to space by eight years, not six.
Schools are the latest battleground in the culture wars. Protests over issues such as critical race theory, masks and vaccines have cropped up all over the state, including in the towns of Guilford, New Canaan, Glastonbury, Haddam, Cheshire, Bristol and Fairfield. The protesters often characterize themselves as concerned parents. This may be partially true, but it is not the whole story. If you dig deep enough, you will find a web of dark money fueling political operatives in so-called astroturf groups  those that purport to be grassroots but are in fact formed and funded by hidden corporate and political sponsors. Their agenda has little to do with improving public education.

Protesters have a right to state their opinions (even suicidal ones in the case of vaccine opposition). But as the right-wing agenda increasingly infiltrates small towns, members of local school boards might find themselves portrayed as purveyors of an increasingly hostile threat to the community rooted in Marxism who will stop at nothing as they are trying to socially replace you. Those are words from the websites of the Center For Renewing America and its Citizens Renewing America Toolkit.

In fact, hostility against board of education members has gotten so ugly that the National School Boards Association this past week asked President Biden for help from federal law enforcement agencies. In reality, most of these folks are hardworking volunteers who are far more concerned with balancing a budget than they are with a radical agenda  be it on the left or the right. And yet, recently in Haddam, police had to escort board members to their cars following a contentious meeting in which anti-maskers shouted through a bullhorn and drowned out much of the proceedings.

Clearly, something is afoot. Why is this happening suddenly and simultaneously in so many different places around the state (and indeed the country)? Why is the pattern so similar? Why does it seem peculiar to affluent Connecticut towns? Why do some protests turn disruptive? Why pick on CRT, which schools dont even teach (its a post-secondary pedagogical tool)? This doesnt sound like something that just happened to occur to parents at a local bake sale.

The explanation may lie with Steve Bannon. According to Bannon, This is the Tea Party to the 10th power, and The path to save the nation is very simple. Its going to go through the school boards. Before he was pardoned by Trump, Bannon was the guy arrested at sea off Westbrook on a Chinese billionaires yacht for allegedly siphoning over a million dollars from a We Build the Wall scheme. According to news reports, he was also accused by an ex-wife of objecting to the Archer School in Los Angeles for his daughters because, she said, he didnt want the girls going to school with Jews.

The phenomenon may also be explained by Nicole Neily  the president of Parents Defending Education, whose targets include several Connecticut towns. PDE describes itself as a grassroots organization, and Neily once was quoted as saying, Were all working moms. But according to several sources including Sourcewatch, Neily is a veteran operative of the Koch network. Shes not alone. Other astroturf operatives include Russ Vought, a former Trump official whose group publishes the Toolkit for taking over school boards; Christopher Rufo, whose anti-CRT activism earned him an invitation to the Trump White House; and Keri Rodriques, who was reportedly paid $388,000 in 2017 and 2018 for her advocacy work. Anti-CRT activity seems a profitable cottage industry for the apparatchiks of MAGA world.

Dark money is hard to ferret out because astroturf groups do not disclose their funders. But some information can be found. Among the sources are MassPoliticsProfs.org, the blog of Diane Ravitch, UnKochMyCampus.org, and a book called Outside Money in School Board Elections. Google searches also help. Our information is based largely on these sources.

A picture emerges of a shadowy and labyrinthine network of astroturf groups funded by big money. Funders include the Koch network, Turning Points USA, the DeVos Family Foundation, the Ed Uihlein Foundation, Donors Trust, and the Heritage Foundation. Some astroturf groups are local (Connecticut Parents Union). Most are national. Many have happy names like Citizens for Renewing America, the Center for Renewing America, Free to Learn, National Parents Union, Massachusetts Parents United, No Left Turn in Education, Moms for Liberty, and Fight for Schools. Some encourage their readers to report incidents (i.e., spy on teachers). One group calling itself School Board Watchlist models disruptive behavior on its website.

Our point is not necessarily to question the sincerity of the self-appointed disrupters, misguided though they are. But we believe they are pawns in a darker power grab of which they are probably unaware. The next time you hear that public schools are a threat to freedom, its good idea to follow the money.

Christine Palm is the state representative for the 36th Connecticut General Assembly District. Frank Hanley Santoro is a former assistant U.S. attorney.
Realme unveiled the GT Neo2 two weeks ago, and we have a confirmation from Madhav Sheth, CEO, that the device will hit India this month. The executive is also head of the European division, and while he hasnt said anything about the Old Continent, reports are the Snapdragon 870-powered phone will indeed hit the region as well.

If the rumors are true, the Realme GT Neo2 will cost 369 or 459, depending on the memory choice - 8/128 GB and 12/256 GB respectively. It will be offered in three colors - Black, Blue, and Black Mint, which is Green with some fancy stripes on the back. The source claims these will be the same options for the Indian customers as well.

When the Realme GT Neo2 arrives in Europe, will mark the first appearance of a Neo smartphone on this particular market - users did not get the original GT Neo or its renamed version X7 Max. Right now, Realme Europe offers the GT Master for 309 or the flagship GT 5G for 429, meaning the Neo2 will slot right in between them.

Via




Haiti - Environment : Waste collection, donation of heavy equipment by Japan





James Cadet, the Minister of the Environment, proceeded last week to the official hand over of the keys of heavy equipment to the town halls of Jeremie (Dept. GrandAnse) and Ouanaminthe (Dept. North-East).



The ceremony took place in the presence of the Ambassador of Japan in Haiti Mizuno Mitsuaki, Astrel Joseph Director General of the Ministry, Fernando Hiraldo, Representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP - Haiti), the Mayor of Jeremie, the representative of the Town Hall of Ouanaminthe, the coordinators of the Solid Waste Management (SCM) project and the executives of the Ministry.



This equipment delivery is part of the project "Strengthening the solid waste management system in Haiti" funded by Japan and technically supported by UNDP.



Through this project, the construction of two modern solid waste collection and management centers is also planned and that each Town Hall receives a set of materials which includes : a compression truck, a tipping truck and a backoe-loader.







In his speech, Minister Cadet affirmed that waste management was a major challenge for the entire planet and that Haiti was no exception to this sad reality. According to the Minister "[...] this large-scale project aims to stem the problem of solid waste in the two target cities."



While thanking the Japanese Government which finances this project and the UNDP for its technical support, the Minister invited the officials of these two Town Halls to make good use of this equipment for the benefit of the population.



Fernando Hiraldo explained "[...] waste represents a major issue in the world and especially in developing countries because of the poor means of institutions to manage this phenomenon. Through the GDS project, the municipalities of Jeremie and Ouanaminthe, which generate 6 and 10 tonnes of solid waste per day respectively, will be able to manage them better."



Ambassador Mitsuaki who said he was aware of the enormity of the challenges fazced by Haiti especially in terms of health, environment and natural hazards, renewed the commitment of the Japanese people alongside the Haitian people in the struggle to live in a healthy environment both on the socio-political level and on the environmental level.



It should be remembered that the SCM project is carried out in the communes of Jeremie and Ouanaminthe and supervised by the Ministry of the Environment through the Directorate of Living Environment and Sanitation (DCVA).



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Spain : Two other Universities are approaching the Haitian university sector





Within the framework of bilateral relations with Haiti, the Kingdom of Spain attaches more and more importance to the development of human capital. Indeed, after the arrival of more than a dozen Haitian students and professionals https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34652-haiti-spain-academic-and-scientific-cooperation-takes-shape.html two other Spanish universities "Complutense de Madrid" (UCM) and "Oviedo" join the initiative of the Embassy of Haiti and commit to work to strengthen the Haitian university sector through the signing of a Memorandum of understanding with the State University of Haiti (UEH).



More concretely, the UCM and the UEH propose, through their collaboration agreement, to carry out joint research activities on subjects of common interest by favoring the mobility of professors, researchers and students in the fields established, as well as the possibility of conducting doctoral theses jointly.



Likewise, the University of Oviedo and the State University of Haiti, through the inter-institutional agreement Erasmus +KA 107 (2014-2023), will reciprocally welcome students and professors from the two establishments, with the aim of contributing to the development of the academic and scientific sector.



For the Embassy "[...] the strengthening of academic and scientific cooperation between Haiti and countries friendly to the international community, especially Spain, is likely to instill in the juvenile population a tremendous hope, that of believing in a better tomorrow."



See also:

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33801-haiti-cooperation-training-of-teachers-and-university-staff-with-spain.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33733-haiti-spain-university-of-leon-excellence-scholarships-call-for-applications.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33671-haiti-politic-spain-a-privileged-partner-for-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34652-haiti-spain-academic-and-scientific-cooperation-takes-shape.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33623-haiti-spain-more-than-20-scholarships-awarded-to-haitian-students.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33534-haiti-cooperation-signature-of-a-mou-between-haitian-and-spanish-universities.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-31445-haiti-spain-first-academic-and-scientific-inter-university-cooperation-agreement.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30123-haiti-spain-haiti-seeks-to-promote-inter-university-cooperation.html



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping...





24 scholarship recipients on their way to Taiwan

Saturday, September 25, 2021, 24 scholarship students left Haiti on Saturday for destinations of the best universities in Taiwan (Republic of China). Ambassador Wen-jiann Ku recalls that the 2 scholarship programs initiated in 1998 and 2004 have already resulted in 264 Haitians (including the 24 who left on Saturday) to continue their higher education in Taiwanese universities.



Martine Moise in the South

The former First Lady Martine Moise went on Saturday 2 to Jeremie and Sunday 3 October to Les Cayes where she was greeted by a large crowd in an atmosphere which beyond the emotion and the jubilation had a little air of election campaign...



VISA : Moratorium for Haitian students

On Thursday, September 29, an important meeting was held between the James Jacques Consul General of Haiti in Santiago (Dominican Republic) and the Director of Immigration for the Cibao region, Colonel Cisneros Santana. At the end of this meeting, it was agreed to grant a moratorium to students participating in the Visa program. In this sense, a document that will be approved by the Immigration office in this area will be granted to them in order to prevent them from being deported.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34458-haiti-flash-200-first-dominican-visas-issued-to-haitian-students.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33683-haiti-flash-visa-applications-for-haitian-students-approved-by-the-dominican-authorities.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33662-haiti-flash-a-special-visa-for-haitian-university-students-in-the-dominican-republic.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33269-haiti-flash-towards-a-visa-for-more-than-2-800-university-students-in-dr.html



Diplomatic meeting in Japan

The Ambassador of Haiti to Japan Helph Monod Honorat received in audience this week the first Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan accredited to Haiti, Mr. Yuji Kubo. The two diplomats discussed the need to strengthen cooperation between Japan and Haiti, the progress of Japanese government projects in Haiti as well as new projects to be initiated. Ambassador Kubo will replace Mitsuaki Mizuno at the end of his term.



Goncourt 2021 : Louis-Philippe Dalembert on the first list

The novel "Milwaukee Blues" by Haitian author Louis-Philippe Dalembert is on the list of the first selection of novels competing for the 2021 Goncourt Prize.



Heritage between evaluation and reconstruction

Meeting between the Tourist Association of Haiti (ATH) and the Institute for the Protection of National Heritage (ISPAN) to discuss : the progress of the reconstruction of the chapel of Milot, the evaluation of the Matheux project and assessment of the assets affected by the earthquake in the south of the country.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















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Henderson County News City Council OKs 263 apartments on South Allen Road Hendersonville could see 356 new dwellings  single-family homes and apartments  if developers win City Council approval for two major projects developers have proposed. The City Council discussed the projects Thursday night. Read Story 

Henderson County News Two airlines debut AVL-to-Minneapolis flights Two airlines have added flights from Asheville Regional Airport to Minneapolis/St. Paul, including a Minnesota-based low-cost carrier that debuted its AVL service this week. Read Story 

Henderson County News Clear Creek Road closing Monday for sewer pipe upgrade Clear Creek Road between Carolina Village Road and Balfour Road is scheduled to be closed for a sewer line installation starting Monday, Oct. 11. The closure is expected to last for about one week. Read Story 
HENLEY Childrens Theatre and Henley Youth Festival are to receive grants from the town council.

The former will receive 1,425, which will cover the cost of hiring the Elizabeth II Hall at the town hall for three days in December for its pantomime performance.

The grant will also help fund drapes and curtains for a proper stage set and other technical requirements.

Henley Mayor Sarah Miller said: Im absolutely all for granting this money. The childrens theatre is a Henley institution and we should support it.

Last year, the theatre received 1,000 from the council but when its pantomime was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, it refunded the money.

The youth festival will receive 1,500 to help cover the cost of hiring the Kenton Theatre to stage performances during the event in March.

Councillor Stefan Gawrysiak said: There are lots of volunteers who give their time to it and the festival is a fantastic organisation. We should be supporting it.
RICHARD REED has resigned as a member of the Hneley Town Councils events sub-committee.

The journalist and former news editor of the Henley Standard said his increased commitments meant he could no longer attend meetings.

Councillor Kellie Hinton said: He put in a lot of time, just as much, if not more, than some councillors. I do think that we should be writing to thank him.
THE term chairman has been dropped by Oxfordshire County Council following a heated debate.

The ruling coalition of Liberal Democrat, Green and Labour councillors voted in favour of using chair instead in order to promote gender equality.

The motion was proposed by two Lib-Dem councillors at the first council meeting since the Oxfordshire Fair Deal Alliance took charge.

One of them, Andrew Gant, claimed that Conservative councillors were laughing during the 90-minute debate before voting against the motion.

He said: The reaction of Tory members to this simple and necessary change was deeply regrettable. Terms like new fascists and the woke left are not what our residents expect to hear.

Worst of all was the baying and hollering from the Tory benches while councillor [Kate] Gregory was speaking. I am shocked and disappointed.

Cllr Gregory described how women were disadvantaged in society.

She said: Research shows that having more women in local government and decision-making positions is good for society as a whole, yet only 35 per cent of councillors across the UK are women and at Oxfordshire County Council its even less.

Women are literally half the population so how can we, as a council, possibly represent our community when half the population are represented by only just over a quarter of the council?

By using a more gender neutral term like chair, it shows we dont expect all speakers to be men and therefore making it more inviting to women.

The motion was supported by Stefan Gawrsiak, who represents Henley on the council.

He said: Although chairman is historic, it does imply that a male is in the chair. We should have gender neutral terms, I never want to spend an hour and a half debating this again when we should be debating health, social and housing issues. It should have been decided in 10 minutes.

Shiplake Conservative councillor David Bartholomew said: I would question the priorities of the new administration when the first motion they bring to council is how to address someone who is running a meeting.

People have historically been given the courtesy of being addressed in a way that they see fit. Some of the most vociferous opponents were Conservative female councillors. I dont recall any laughter.
A FIRST-TIME author whose debut novel is expected to be one of next summers biggest bestsellers will be talking about it in public for the first time at this years Henley Literary Festival.

The nine-day festival, which starts tomorrow (Saturday), will welcome Scottish author Claire Alexander to the Laithwaites Stage at the town hall on Wednesday at 6.30pm.

Claire will be in conversation with fellow author Daisy Buchanan about her novel Meredith, Alone, which will be published on June 23 next year.

Organised by publisher Michael Joseph, the event is billed as a proof party, meaning attendees will receive an advance copy of the book, which has already been sold to 13 territories worldwide.

Claire, 43, lives in Ayrshire on the west coast of Scotland with her husband and three children.

A freelance journalist by trade, she has written about parenting, sobriety, mental health and wellbeing for publications including The Washington Post, The Independent, Glamour and The Huffington Post.

Having been conceived and written almost entirely before the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Meredith, Alone has been hailed for its prescient anticipation of themes that would run through many peoples lives during lockdown.

Meredith Maggs hasnt left her house in 1,214 days. But she insists she isnt alone. She has her cat, Fred, her friend Sadie visits when she can and Meredith is a member of an online support group.

She also has her jigsaws, her favourite recipes, her beloved Emily Dickinson, the internet, the Tesco delivery man and her treacherous memories for company.

But something is about to change. Whether Meredith likes it or not, the world is coming to her door. Does she have the courage to overcome what has been keeping her inside all this time?

Claire, who is a keen paddle-boarder in her spare time, agrees that with hindsight the themes of her book can be seen as prophetic.

Its bizarre when I think about it, she says. I started writing the novel in October 2019 and at that stage I had the premise  a woman who hadnt left her home for more than three years.

So basically I had to figure out what has happened to her to get her to that point and what would it take to actually get her out of her front door again.

And then, yes, six months later most of the world was self-isolating, just like Meredith the character.

Obviously that wasnt my choice but it definitely felt very strange that after months of writing that narrative, I found myself being able to relate to her on such a real, personal level in terms of what daily life was like when we were in lockdown.

While many debut novelists have previously written novels that they decided not to publish for one reason or another, Meredith, Alone is Claires first novel in every sense.

Its the first one Ive ever finished, she says. Ive been writing stories for as long as I can remember and, yes, in some of my earliest memories Ive got a notebook and a pencil in my hand.

I was always that weird little kid writing in a notebook in the corner of the gym and so, yeah, Ive always written various things. Ive been writing novels but never finishing them for 20 years.

Honestly, my only goal with this novel was to be able to type The End on the final page. But, yes, you could say it has taken me 20 years to write this book.

Something that Claire says helped make a difference this time around was her decision to enrol on a creative writing course shortly after starting work on Meredith, Alone. She says: I actually do have to give credit to the Curtis Brown online writing courses. I did three of their six-week courses, all online, throughout the period that I was writing the novel.

I mean, I dont know if I would have finished it if it hadnt been for not just the teaching on the course and the support but really the community of writers that I found there.

Theyre incredibly supportive and that was actually the first time that Ive ever been part of a writing community like that.

It was great to get feedback and to bounce ideas off each other but also to feel that we were all in the same boat.

We were all trying to write a novel and facing the same obstacles and celebrating the same little triumphs.

Ive made good friends through those courses and one of them I now consider to be a best friend.

We talk most days, not just about our books but about our lives, so that was a fantastic experience and I think it really helped give me the structure and the accountability that I needed to finish. It encouraged me to be more organised and to plan  Im not a massive planner, really, in life or when I write.

I tend to be character-driven and not so much focused on the plot in the first instance, so it was great to just get those practical writing tips.

Looking back, Claire says that while she was helped both by the content of the courses she took and the support of her fellow students, she had reached the point where she was ready to take her next step as a writer.

I dont think I could have written this book 15, 10 or even five years ago, she says. I think it really took me to get to this stage of my life and to have had certain life experiences.

I mean, Ive always been kind of obsessed with different relationships in our lives and how they can shape everything from our self-worth to our biggest life choices.

When I came up with the character of Meredith I was thinking a lot about what it means to be lonely versus being alone  and she came from that, really.

I always start with character, so I spent a lot of time working out who she was and what her backstory was before I even thought about what had happened to her throughout the course of the novel.

Claire describes herself as an avid reader but says that much of her inspiration as a writer is drawn from everyday life.

Im always drawn to books that really put relationships under the spotlight, she says.

Its also people I meet in real life  I mean normal, regular people who quite often end up in quite extraordinary circumstances and have to make very difficult decisions.

I get a lot of inspiration from that  people-watching and listening.

Claire says that when she first shared the premise of Meredith, Alone with people on her writing course last year, she was encouraged by their response.

It was a few months into covid and really everyone was feeling the effects of it  and a couple of people commented that it sounded like the perfect pandemic novel.

Even though I wrote most of it during lockdown, the idea definitely came before covid. But I hope people find Merediths story even more engaging, given what weve all been through during the pandemic, so that we might be able to relate to her on that deeper level.

 Tickets for the Michael Joseph Proof Party with Claire Alexander and Daisy Buchanan cost 10 and include a proof copy of Meredith, Alone. For more information and to book, call (01491) 575948 or visit www.henleyliteraryfestival.co.uk
Mexico received nearly $24 billion in inflows in 2007, 95 percent of which came from the United States. A transfer is a transfer of money, often from a foreign worker to a person in their home country. The money sent home by migrants competes with international aid, which is one of the largest financial inflows to developing countries. Labour transfers account for a significant share of international capital flows, particularly in labour-exporting countries. [1] The argument put forward is to what extent remittances bring benefits to developing countries. [69] Due to its large expatriate population from diaspora and overseas, India remains successively the best recipient of transfers, for example, with $80 billion in 2018,[2] $65.3 billion (2.7% of India`s GDP) in 2017,[2] $62.7 billion in 2016[2] and $70 billion in 2014. [3] In 2018, the other main beneficiaries were $67 billion in China, $34 billion for the Philippines and Mexico, $26 billion for Egypt and $23.12 billion for Pakistan. [2] According to the IMF, remittances in USD, AMD (Armenian Dram) and rubles increased from 2010, until they peaked in 2014 and then began to decline volatilely. TRANSFERS from AMD and USD have fallen to a level close to that of 2010. [54] Remittances sent home by expatriate Nigerians are an important source of foreign exchange income for Nigeria. [40] In 2014, 17.5 million Nigerians lived abroad, with the United Kingdom and the United States each having more than 2 million Nigerians.

[40] Remittances play an increasingly important role in the economies of small and developing countries. They are also seen as an important component of disaster assistance and often exceed official development assistance (ODA). Remittances are often used as a way to improve the standard of living of expatriates and fight global poverty. Indeed, since the late 1990s, remittances have exceeded development aid and, in some cases, accounted for a significant share of a country`s gross domestic product (GDP). According to the World Bank, the main beneficiaries in 2018 were India with $79 billion, followed by China ($67 billion), Mexico ($36 billion), the Philippines ($34 billion) and Egypt ($29 billion), the Estrada government declared it in 2000 Year of Filipino Workers Abroad in recognition of the determination and greater self-sacrifice of Filipino workers abroad. This statement combines remittances from foreign workers as the main foreign exchange earnings in the Philippines. [28] In September 2008, the World Bank created the first international database on transfer prices. Remittance Prices Worldwide Database[58] provides data to send and receive remittances for more than 200 country corridors around the world. The corridors studied include remittance flows from 32 major sending countries to 89 host countries, which account for more than 60 per cent of total transfers to developing countries. [59] The resulting publication of the global credit transfer price database has four main objectives: improving benchmarking, implementing cross-border comparisons, supporting consumer choice and making service providers feel they are improving their services.

[59] Since 1983, the United States has been the world`s largest source of wire transfers. Since 2007, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland have been the second largest senders of transfers. [7] At the G20 summit in Cannes in 2011, Bill Gates said: If the transaction cost of wire transfers in the world were reduced from about 10% today to 5% on average. It would free up $15 billion a year in poor countries. [61] A number of cheap online services have been set up with the aim of reducing the cost of remittances to developing and emerging countries. . . .
The Spurs waived a pair of recent roster additions over the weekend, cutting guard Nate Renfro and big man Aric Holman, according to NBA.coms transactions log.

Neither move comes as a surprise. San Antonio signed both players to non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 contracts with an eye toward having them eventually join the Austin Spurs in the G League. The Exhibit 10 deals will ensure that both players receive bonuses worth up to $50K if they spend at least 60 days with Austin.

Renfro, who went undrafted in 2019 out of San Francisco, spent the 2019/20 season recovering from a torn ACL, then played for the Austin Spurs  San Antonios G League affiliate  during the 2021 NBAGL bubble season.

Holman, who also went undrafted in 2019, played for the Texas Legends as a rookie and for Ratiopharm Ulm in Germany during his second professional season. The former Mississippi State standout suited up for Boston during the 2021 Las Vegas Summer League.

Following their cuts, the Spurs have 18 players under contract, including 17 on guaranteed standard contracts. Theyll have to trade or waive at least two of those players before the start of the regular season, and may continue shuffling players through their last two roster spots for G League purposes.
Rebranding

4 October 2021

Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) announced today the opening of the first JdV by Hyatt branded hotel in Italy - The Tribune Hotel. The newly renovated upscale property, operated by AG Group's AG Hotels, features 52 unique bedrooms. It joins Hyatt's existing portfolio in Italy: Hyatt Centric Murano Venice, Hyatt Centric Milano Centrale and Park Hyatt Milan.

Hotels within the JdV by Hyatt portfolio cater to free-spirited guests seeking vibrant and socially inclusive stays - bringing travelers and locals from all walks of life together. The Tribune Hotel, offering contemporary features and colorful and eclectic rooms, is thoughtfully designed to help guests work, relax, and socialize.

Situated just off the Via Veneto, made famous in Federico Fellini's film La Dolce Vita, and opposite the Villa Borghese in the famous Ludovisi neighborhood, The Tribune Hotel inspires playful travel. Set among some of the best-known museums, shops and cafes, the family-friendly hotel is within walking distance to some of the city's major tourist attractions such as the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain and is well connected by public transport for reaching the Colosseo.

Against this backdrop of classical Rome, The Tribune Hotel's rooftop terrace - Terrazza Borghese - offers the finest artisanal Italian fare and delightful cocktails with spectacular views over Villa Borghese, promising guests a magical, enchanted evening underneath the stars.

Guestrooms

The 52 guestrooms feature bright colors, making them as unique as the individuals who enter, and offer modern and fully-equipped amenities. Guestrooms range from 193 to 344 square feet (18 to 32 square meters) and include a family room category with space for four adults.

Food and Drink

The rooftop terrace Terrazza Borghese offers stunning views over Villa Borghese, a selection of gourmet dishes and a vibrant cocktail bar. Inside, the colorful and eclectic Lounge Rooms offer guests everything from delicious breakfast to aperitifs, snacks, and drinks.

Meeting and Event Space

The Tribune Hotel has a bespoke meeting space perfect for small groups that is outfitted with the latest technology and is highly flexible and adaptable to guests' needs. Catering is available through the hotel's food and beverage service.

Wellbeing

The intimate health and fitness suite offers a variety of high-quality fitness machines for every guest to achieve their fitness goals while also having the chance to relax and unwind after a busy day exploring the Eternal city.

As part of the JdV by Hyatt brand, The Tribune Hotel will be able to leverage Hyatt's global distribution network and award-winning World of Hyatt loyalty program.

Guided by its purpose of care, Hyatt's multi-layered Global Care & Cleanliness Commitment further enhances its operational guidance and resources around colleague and guest safety and peace of mind. More information on Hyatt's commitment can be found here: hyatt.com/care-and-cleanliness.
Now Open

4 October 2021

MIAMI - The Excellence Collection is proud to reveal the grand opening of Finest Punta Cana on October 1, 2021. This resort is the first of the collection's Finest Resorts brand in Punta Cana, and offers high end All Inclusive vacations for all ages. Finest Punta Cana sits along the same stretch of beach as the collection's two Excellence Resorts branded properties for adults only in the destination.

A strategic resort layout caters to guests of all ages at Finest Punta Cana, with different areas for families and for adults to share Extraordinary Moments with their loved ones in the setting that best suits their age group.

The 455-suite resort features the brand's iconic rooftop terrace suites, swim-up suites, family suites, and even more luxurious options, divided into three sections:

Finest Suites with infinite excellence amenities

with infinite excellence amenities Finest Club for families, with elevated in-suite amenities, complimentary hydrotherapy, and access to members-only lounges, beach area, pools, and restaurants

for families, with elevated in-suite amenities, complimentary hydrotherapy, and access to members-only lounges, beach area, pools, and restaurants Excellence Club for adults only, with elevated in-suite amenities, complimentary hydrotherapy, and access to exclusive lounges, private beach, pools, and restaurants. Excellence Club areas are set on their own side of the resort for a secluded adults-only environment.

Guests will have seven total pools with areas for families and adults, 10 international dining options, 15 bars, Imagine Kids Club, Imagine Lounge for mealtime childcare, ONE Spa with expansive hydrotherapy, and state-of-the-art fitness and meeting facilities. Of course, daytime and nighttime activities keep guests entertained throughout the week.

"It is a great joy for us to open Finest Punta Cana. The Excellence Collection's footprint in the Dominican Republic began in 2000 with the opening of Excellence Punta Cana, our first resort, and we are grateful to the incredible teams in the destination who built this stunning resort through a vision of Innovative Curation, and the staff who will bring our signature Bespoke Service." - Domingo Aznar, VP of Sales & Marketing.

Destination weddings take center stage at Finest Punta Cana, with venues from beach weddings to rooftop terraces and elegant indoor ballrooms, alongside an expert team to plan each event.

Just like every property within The Excellence Collection, Finest Punta Cana has extensive health and safety protocols, including a new feature for contactless online check-in and check-out. Additionally, all employees will be fully vaccinated by opening day.
Press Release

4 October 2021

As previously announced, under terms of an all-share merger, Accor becomes the majority owner of the new entity with 66.67% of the shareholding and Sharan Pasricha with 33.33% holding.

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This joint venture brings together the Ennismore know-how in building brands with purpose through creative storytelling, design and authentic experiences with Accors wealth of knowledge in delivering scale, network growth and distribution.

Simultaneously, Accor deconsolidates formerly leased assets into a separate structure created with a fund managed by Keys REIM as majority owner with 51% shareholding, while Accor and Ennismore affiliates both hold 24.5%.

Sharan Pasricha, Founder & Co-CEO and Gaurav Bhushan, Co-CEO, will lead the asset light entity which will run autonomously, comprising 14 hotel & co-working brands and a collection of over 150 culturally relevant and diverse restaurants and nightlife destinations.

The portfolio today includes 87 operating properties globally, with an additional 141 hotels in committed pipeline across different regions, operating under unrivalled brands including 21c Museum Hotels, 25hours, Delano, Gleneagles, Hyde, JO&JOE, Mama Shelter, Mondrian, Morgans Originals, SLS, SO/, The Hoxton, TRIBE and Working From_.

The Ennismore team is made up of some of the brightest doers, thinkers and makers from inside and outside the industry  including an in-house creative studio, a fully integrated restaurant and bars concept platform and a digital product & tech innovation lab, who together create brands and inspire discovery.

Speaking about the announcement, Sharan Pasricha said: Its a very exciting day and the start of a new chapter for Ennismore as we become the largest and fastest growing lifestyle hospitality company. I couldnt be more excited to bring together our unrivalled portfolio of brands in this new entity, and share the reins with my longtime friend and now co-CEO, Gaurav.

Gaurav Bhushan adds: This joint venture has been months in the making and I couldnt be happier to join Ennismore as Co-CEO, alongside Sharan. Our teams are ready and eager to build on each of our unique lifestyle brands, with a dynamic global pipeline, creating an ecosystem of memorable and curated experiences across all our properties.

About Ennismore

Ennismore is a creative hospitality company rooted in culture and community, with a global portfolio of entrepreneurial and founder-built brands with purpose at their heart. It curates and manages unique properties and experiences in some of the most exciting destinations around the world. The Ennismore team is made up of some of the brightest doers, thinkers and makers from inside and outside the industry - including an in-house creative studio, a fully integrated F&B concept platform and a digital product & tech innovation lab - who together create brands that inspire discovery.

Founded in 2011 by entrepreneur Sharan Pasricha, Ennismore and Accor entered a joint venture in 2021 creating the worlds fastest growing lifestyle hospitality company, bringing together an unrivalled portfolio of global brands, with Ennismores know how in building brands with creative storytelling, design, and authentic experiences, and with Accors wealth of knowledge in delivering scale, network growth and distribution.

Under the leadership of Sharan Pasricha, Founder & Co-CEO, and Gaurav Bhushan, Co-CEO, Ennismore comprises 14 hotel & co-working brands and a collection of over 150 culturally relevant and diverse restaurants and nightlife destinations. The portfolio includes 87 operating properties globally, with a further 141 hotels in the pipeline across different regions, with strong growth coming from The Hoxton, Mondrian, SLS, SO/ and Tribe; complemented by flagship restaurant brands Bibo, Carna, Filia and Seabird.

Ennismore is committed to making a positive impact on the world, with a key focus on creating inclusive communities among its own teams and in the places we call home. With an expertise in providing shelter, Ennismore is passionate about providing solutions for homelessness and addressing the many barriers facing the most marginalized people in society.

Ennismore has been included in Fast Companys Worlds Most Innovative Companies lists in 2020 and 2021; ranked#29 in FT1000: Europes Fastest-Growing Companies; and is part of FT Future 100 - the UKs fastest-growing businesses that are shaping the future of their sector.

The Ennismore Portfolio: 21c, 25hours, Delano, Gleneagles, Hyde, Jo&Joe, Mama Shelter, Mondrian, Morgans Originals, SLS, SO/, The Hoxton, Tribe and Working From_

For more information: visit ennismore.com.
External Article

4 October 2021

Luxury Travel Advisors parent company, Questex, owns the International Hospitality Investment Forum (IHIF), which recently convened in Berlin, bringing over 1,200 senior leaders in global hospitality investment and development together for the first time in 18 months. Tony Capuano kicked off the IHIF conference by speaking about how humbling it was to step into the position of Marriott Internationals CEO, following the tragic passing of Arne Sorenson this February. Capuano told the IHIF audience that the day the Marriott board announced his appointment, he received 18,000 emails from colleagues around the worldsome on furlough because of the pandemicoffering their support.

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I think their true love of this industry, the manner in which they care for each other, the manner in which they care for our guests, gives me enormous optimism about the ability to navigate the crisis that still is very much in front of us, Capuano told the audience.

He said hes seen that same collaborative spirit in the entire hospitality industry throughout the pandemic.

While we all have competitors and we all want to excel on behalf of our shareholders, maybe the most admirable thing about the last 18 months is the way that big brand companies have come together for the benefit of the industry, said Capuano. The brands and owners and franchisees have come together to innovate and brainstorm about how best to navigate the crisis. We were facedand continue to be facedwith a formidable and common crisis, and the collaboration I have seen has been inspiring and should fill us all with optimism.

Moving Forward

The hospitality industry has another crisis to face, that of the ongoing labor shortage. Capuano cited statistics indicating that 20 percent of employees in travel and tourism globally have left the segment permanently.

That will be among the most significant challenges we have to navigate: How do we restore confidence that this is not only an exciting and interesting industry but an industry where people can build lifelong careers? said Capuano. How do we wrestle with some of the employees we will be required to hire who dont have deep experience in hospitality, and, as a result, we end up with a much steeper training curve? he said.
Press Release

4 October 2021

The Urban Collectif is a new partnership between Citroen, Accor and JCDecaux, three French companies with an international presence in the daily lives of city-dwellers around the world and a shared vision for the future of urban mobility.



Their common ambition is to optimise mobility so that everyone can reclaim urban spaces and significantly improve the quality of life.

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This ambition relies on an innovative concept dubbed Citroen Autonomous Mobility Vision, which combines a high-tech and universal mobility platform, The Citroen Skate, with three new service Pods  Sofitel En Voyage, Pullman Power Fitness and JCDecaux City Provider  each offering a unique experience to explore cities in a new way.

Using autonomous, electric and agile Citroen technology, this disruptive, open-source urban mobility concept aims to decongest cities while also meeting citizens growing needs in terms of mobility, services, safety and well-being in cities.

This new concept of responsible and tailor-made urban mobility relies on an open-source approach: The Citroen Skate platform can accommodate all compatible Pods developed by a partner, thereby expanding mobility and service offerings.

This brand new mobility platform offers urban experiences curated by three partners know-how and expertise. It is built on a layer of technological, electric and autonomous Citroen mobility - The Citroen Skate. The three Pods illustrate the concept and extent of its potential, which is possible because of its open-source approach. Two Pods were developed with Accor and highlight two of the luxury, top-of-the-line brands in its portfolio: Sofitel (Sofitel En Voyage) and Pullman (Pullman Power Fitness). The third was designed with JCDecaux: JCDecaux City Provider.

THE ACCOR PODS: SOFITEL EN VOYAGE & PULLMAN POWER FITNESS

Through its Sofitel En Voyage and Pullman Power Fitness Pods, Accor, a world leader in the hotel industry, is inventing mobile hospitality in the city, enabling all of its customers as well as city-dwellers to immerse themselves in its brand experience outside its hotel walls.

With 200 years of combined experience in interior design and French automotive design, this partnership has given rise to innovative and daring Pods. During development with the Citroen teams, particular attention was paid to the quality of the materials, colours, assemblies and details, as well as the interfaces.

Damien Perrot, Global Senior Vice-President Design at Accor, comments: Each Pod is a bold and modern interpretation of interior and automotive design. They are designed beyond the conventions and standards that the industry is using today, with precision engineering, high-end materials, refined aesthetics and revamped functions and applications. Thanks to this unprecedented partnership, which is highly innovative both in form and substance, we are creating endless opportunities for the future.

Eventually, the two Pods could be reserved using the ALL - Accor Live Limitless app, the everyday lifestyle companion that brings together and enhances all the brands, services and partnerships operating within Accors ecosystem.

Steven Taylor, Chief Marketing Officer at Accor, notes: The presentation of the Sofitel En Voyage and Pullman Power Fitness Pods is a new example of our augmented hospitality strategy. We are resolutely focused on making our brands increasingly more visible and more relevant, in order to be there for our guests, beyond their stays in our hotels.

More than ever, brands and sustainable urban mobility are central to the vision of augmented hospitality offered by Accor.

About Citroen

Since 1919, Citroen has been creating cars, technologies and mobility solutions to meet societys changing needs. A brand characterised by boldness and innovation, Citroen places peace of mind and well-being at the heart of its customer experience and offers a wide range of models, from the distinctive Ami, an electric vehicle designed for the city, to saloons, SUVs and commercial vehicles, most of which are available in electric or rechargeable hybrid versions. Citroen is a pioneer in services and the attention paid to its private and business customers. It has a presence in 101 countries and a network of 6,200 sales and service outlets around the world.

About JCDecaux

JCDecaux, the world number one in outdoor advertising, is now present in over 80 countries and more than 3,670 cities of over 10,000 inhabitants. For more than 55 years, JCDecauxs products have been considered the benchmark in innovation, quality, aesthetics and functionality. Thanks to its employees expertise, the services provided by the Group, particularly in servicing and maintenance, are recognised around the world by cities, airport and transport authorities, and advertisers. JCDecaux is currently the only company in the world exclusively active in outdoor advertising and developing all of the associated activities: street furniture, advertising in transport and large-format displays. As smart cities enter our lives, JCDecaux is positioning itself to be one of the major players in this sector and is already involved in fostering the emergence of an increasingly human, open and sustainable smart city.

For more information: jcdecaux.fr. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Press Release

4 October 2021

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - White Lodging, one of the leading hospitality development and management companies in the United States, is enhancing the development of the next generation of hospitalitarians as part of the White family's significant continued support of Purdue University.

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In addition, Purdue University trustees voted Friday (Oct. 1) to rename the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management in honor of the White family's longstanding financial and in-kind support. At the request of Bruce White, White Lodging's founder and CEO, the school's name will also honor the career and contributions of J.W. "Bill" Marriott, Jr., executive chairman and chairman of the board of Marriott International.

Effective immediately, Purdue's School of Hospitality and Tourism Management will officially be known as the White Lodging  J.W. Marriott, Jr. School of Hospitality and Tourism Management.

Bruce and Beth White's and the Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation's $5 million pledge provides the foundation for an honors program in hospitality, an endowed scholarship for top hospitality students and a named headship in the school.

This follows Bruce and Beth White's and the Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation's pledge of $30 million in the aggregate in 2018 to Purdue for the transformation of the historic Union Club Hotel.

"Our goal is to create an environment that allows associates to be their best selves and grow through training, development and mentorship," Bruce White said. "This goal stands as a foundation that Bill and the Marriott team built for the hospitality industry and continue to support at all levels. I'm very appreciative of Bill's support throughout our time together and proud that we can play a role in creating the next generation of hospitalitarians at Purdue  at a time when it's needed more than ever."

J.W. "Bill" Marriott, Jr. said, "I am delighted and humbled by this incredible recognition. We have had a wonderful relationship with White Lodging and Bruce and Beth White for decades. The relationship with Purdue is also a longstanding one, and I am grateful to be part of this initiative preparing future hospitality leaders."

The Marriott family has a longstanding relationship with Purdue, including The J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation providing the lead donation of $5 million in 2012 to create Marriott Hall on Purdue's campus. The Marriott family also supports the annual Marriott Executive in the Classroom series, which brings top leaders from across all segments of the hospitality industry to West Lafayette, Indiana, to engage with students about the industry's exciting career pathways and visit with faculty to provide business insights to advance the students' learning experience.

Purdue's hospitality and tourism program, housed in the College of Health and Human Sciences, is widely known as one of the best in the nation, with graduates serving in hospitality positions the world over. Dean Marion Underwood said this gift and new name will help extend its reach even further.

"The generous endowment to support a named headship will allow the College of Health and Human Sciences to attract a creative, visionary and transformative leader of the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management," Underwood said. "The gift also provides vitally important support for exceptional students to pursue an education in finance and hospitality."

As part of the announcement of the school's name change, Marriott International, White Lodging and Purdue are working toward an agreement to designate the Union Club Hotel at Purdue as an Autograph Collection Hotel. Autograph Collection hotels are a collection of more than 200 independent hotels around the world hand-selected for their inherent craft and distinct perspectives on design and hospitality.

In 2020, the nearly 92-year-old, 182-room Union Club Hotel reopened on campus after a comprehensive $35 million, yearlong transformation. The project involved a complete overhaul of all guest rooms and public spaces, as well as the creation of three dining concepts honoring Purdue's legacy. Original Purdue architecture and academic-inspired design are preserved in carpet patterns, upholstery, room fixtures and countless other elements in the hotel.

The hotel is also used as a hands-on learning laboratory for Purdue hospitality students where they spend time working and learning about hotel and restaurant operations while earning college credits. Additionally, the Union Club Hotel is host to the White Lodging LAUNCH Hospitality Immersion Program designed to propel high-caliber university students into the industry by providing paid, hands-on experience.

The transition is expected to occur in early 2022. Upon the designation of the Union Club Hotel as an Autograph Collection Hotel, guests will be able to book stays on marriott.com and participate in Marriott Bonvoy  Marriott International's award-winning travel program  where members can earn and redeem points on stays and experiences.

"The continued involvement of Marriott, the Marriott family and White Lodging have helped accelerate our hospitality program to international recognition, and their latest endeavors on campus  today and in recent years  further position us as one of the top hospitality programs in the country," Purdue President Mitch Daniels said.

"Our students will have support and learning opportunities from the top hospitality company in the world and one of America's leading hotel owners, developers and management companies  a combination no other university has."

Developing the next-generation hospitalitarian

"While the definition of hospitality hasn't changed, the business of hospitality has evolved greatly  even before the COVID-19 pandemic," Bruce White said. "The industry is complex, and the key to thrive like we have in the past is by developing a generation of college graduates with advanced critical thinking, financial, business AND service skills. There's no question that hospitality remains an incredible career choice."

Purdue's hospitality program develops future global leaders through rigorous learning, cutting-edge research, and innovative engagement in the areas of hospitality and tourism, financial counseling and planning, retail management, and selling and sales management.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to today's 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/.
Opinion Article

4 October 2021

India has prolonged the suspension of scheduled international commercial passenger flights till the end of October 2021 due to the ongoing pandemic. Only flights under bilateral air bubbles, special flights, and cargo flights are permitted to operate. However, the central government is planning to welcome international travelers back to the country soon, albeit with several strict guidelines and protocols in place as the prospect of a third wave still looms large. The Indian government also recently announced its plans to provide free visas to the first 500,000 tourists once scheduled international commercial travel resumes in the country.

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Several other countries, meanwhile, have reopened their borders to fully vaccinated international tourists. In this article, we have highlighted some best practices followed by tourism-dependent destinations such as Maldives, Dubai, and Croatia, which are now hailed as leading examples of destinations getting their inbound tourism on track post-COVID.

To revive inbound travel, these countries have focused on vaccinating most of their population, especially tourism employees. Both the UAE and Maldives, for instance, have high vaccination rates, with over 84% and 63% of their respective populations fully vaccinated as of September 27, 2021. In the meanwhile, Croatia, where nearly 42% of the population is fully vaccinated, has emphasized COVID vaccination for tourism employees to jumpstart the industry and protect the workforce.

Besides the high vaccination rate, Dubai has earned a reputation as a safe travel destination thanks to effective testing, relaxed quarantine rules reserved only for people who tested positive or came into contact with COVID patients, effective government-private sector cooperation, and a zero-tolerance policy for non-compliance of COVID-related safety guidelines. As a result, Dubai tourism has recovered significantly since reopening in July 2020, attracting 3.7 million leisure and business visitors between July 2020 and May 2021 period. The city is currently preparing to host the Dubai Expo, which is expected to draw 25 million visitors over six months.

The Maldives, as one of the first few countries to reopen inbound tourism in 2020, benefitted from a first-mover advantage and made full use of its geographical advantages to attract international travelers. The countrys distinctive one island, one resort concept, in which most resorts are built on their private islands made isolation and social distancing for guests much simpler. Moreover, fairly relaxed quarantine norms compared to other parts of the world and long-stay resort packages helped entice guests. The Maldives is also the first country to introduce a loyalty program, through which travelers can earn points based on the length of their stay and number of trips to the country, which can be redeemed later.

Meanwhile, Croatia pursued a regional strategy by opening its borders to travelers from the European Union first, since they followed similar COVID-related protocols. The country also became the first in the world to impose a maximum validity period for the COVID-19 vaccination passport. Travelers need to present a negative COVID-19 PCR or rapid antigen test if more than 210 days have passed since they took the second dose of any approved vaccine.

The central government in collaboration with state governments and other key industry stakeholders can evaluate some of these best practices while charting out the steps to revive inbound tourism in the country. For instance, India could first resume commercial passenger flights to the nations with which it has air bubble agreements. Moreover, a uniform national travel guideline should also be implemented to ease travel within the country. While domestic tourists are helping rebuild the Indian tourism industry, resuming inbound tourism in a phased manner is crucial for a faster recovery.
When I drove up to Conroe to visit a facility where a new curbside compost company was dropping off the food waste it collected, I was ready to learn about how compost is conducted at a large scale. What I wasnt expecting was to learn about all the challenges that a composting facility can face outside of turning garbage to black gold.

Take, for example, bathroom permits.

When we started, we couldnt get permits, said John Ferguson, president of Natures Way Resources. According to his telling, the city of Houston was not enthused about a facility where piles of organic waste are turned into nutrient-rich compost (even though the citys lack of zoning has at other times led to odd juxtapositions such as a crematorium in a residential neighborhood).

So, Natures Way, struggled along without bathrooms until The Woodlands reached out about composting grass and other vegetative waste generated on its properties. The friendly municipality leased the company five acres to do it on; eventually, the compost facility found its way to its current site in Conroe.

Then theres the other nuisances that need to be dealt with  for example, the bugs that might like to feast on food waste.

On HoustonChronicle.com: These entrepreneurs plan to turn waste into black gold

For those, Ferguson depends in part on the wetlands adjacent to the composting. They provide the perfect habitats for dragonflies, which eat flies and mosquitoes. Hundreds of thousands of birds also frequent the facility, Ferguson said, looking for snacks  birds eat upward of 500 million tons of insects a year, according to a study published in The Science of Nature.

If that werent enough, the company each month orders a quarter million parasitic wasps, which kill flies by laying eggs inside their bodies, every month. So, we have no breeding population (of flies), Ferguson said.

And sometimes, even things that seem patently compostable  say, manure, which is often used to as a fertilizer on its own  can turn out to have complications. Ferguson wont take cow or chicken manure, he said, because of the chemicals, including arsenic and growth hormones, livestock can be fed to make them big and disease-free.

Ill only take (manure) from horses, he said. Because theyre peoples pets, people wont feed them that kind of stuff.

Inquiring minds

Shortly after writing about Natures Way and the curbside composting company, Moonshot, that drops off organic waste there, another issue that had never crossed my mind was brought to my attention.

Crazy question, wrote a reader in an email. I know cattle produce methane what about humans?

Methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to global warming, is not a problem that composting facilities must worry about. In fact, providing an environment where microbes can break food into compost averts the methane that is created when food slowly rots in the anaerobic environment of a landfill.

But another famous source of methane is cattle, whose flatulence releases the greenhouse gas in significant amounts.

The surprising (to me) answer to our readers question is yes, humans do emit methane  about 380,000 tons a year (the equivalent of 9.5 million tons of carbon dioxide), according to researchers at Heidelberg University in Germany.

But dont worry, theres other things humans can do to slow global warming that will have greater impact than solving our gastrointestinal gas. The biggest contributors to the methane released every year by human activities  the equivalent of 660 million tons of carbon dioxide, according to the EPA  are our oil and gas systems, livestock and landfills. While it can be enlightening to learn about small problems that never crossed our minds, its still the larger problems that should be kept in focus.

rebecca.schuetz@chron.com;

twitter.com/raschuetz
Amplify Energy's stock crashed Monday morning after a major oil spill over the weekend at its California offshore operations.

The Houston oil and gas company's stock plunged by nearly half in early Monday to $2.98, down $2.77 cents from Fridays close.

Amplify on Monday said it shut down its production and pipeline operations off the coast of Southern California in response to the 13-mile-long oil spill off of Newport Beach in California. Beta Offshore, a subsidiary of the company, on Saturday observed an oil sheen about four miles off the coast of Southern California. The company notified the U.S. Coast Guard and sent a remotely operated underwater vehicle to investigate and try to confirm the source of the leak.

Amplify Energy is a fully engaged member of and working cooperatively with the unified command, consisting of the Coast Guard, California Department of Fish and Wildlifes Office of Spill Prevention and Response, the company said Monday.

Crews are working 24 hours a day to clean up the 13-mile-long oil spill off Newport Beach in California. The cleanup operation consists of 14 oil recovery boats, three Coast Guard boats enforcing a perimeter around the spill and four aircraft to assess progress.

OIL SPILL: Hurricane Ida aftermath includes oil spill in the Gulf

So far, about 3,150 gallon of oil have been recovered from the water, and officials have deployed 5,360 feet of boom to try to stop the spread of the spill.

Officials said they are still investigating the cause of the spill. A report from The New York Times said the spill was caused by the failure of a 17.5-mile pipeline connected to an offshore oil platform called Elly that is operated by Beta Offshore.

The spill closed several beaches along Southern California, and cancelled the Huntington Beach air show over the weekend. California officials on Sunday closed fisheries and warned that consuming fish or shellfish affected by the spill in the area is a threat to public health.

The California oil spill is the latest in a string of spills over the past three months. Pemex, the Mexican state oil company, in July took more than five hours to extinguish a ring of fire from an underwater gas leak off the Yucatan peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico. Last month, Houston-based Talos Energy responded to a Gulf oil spill from a broken pipeline off of Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. Talos said the broken pipeline was not owned by the company.
The reaction from OPEC and its allies to concerns that energy demand is outstripping supplies will influence oil prices this week, analysts said.

The amount of crude oil in U.S. commercial inventories increased by 4.6 million barrels in the last full week of September, ending a run of declines driven by offshore oil production outages in the Gulf of Mexico caused by hurricanes Ida and Nicholas. And yet even with the build in petroleum stockpiles, crude oil prices continued to climb.

West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, increased 2.6 percent on the week and settled at $75.88 per barrel on Friday, the highest close in three years.

Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies, a group called OPEC+, meet Monday to determine if economic conditions warrant pumping more oil. The group in July agreed to put another 400,000 barrels per day on the market each month until at least April 2022.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Rig count rise by 7 as oil tops $75 a barrel

Some analysts, expect, however, that even more barrels are coming.

Phil Flynn, an energy analyst at The PRICE Futures Group in Chicago, said whatever OPEC+ decides to do will set the tone for oil prices for the rest of the week. The question, he said, is how much the group decides to increase output, if at all.

OPEC+ so far has resisted pleas from a Biden administration worried about rising gasoline prices to open the spigot, perhaps erring on the side of caution given the lingering economic uncertainties from the pandemic, even as vaccinations increase and summers surge in cases moderates.

Yet with the risk from the delta variant seemingly less than it was a month ago, Flynn said, perhaps they may be more accommodative.

Should those new barrels materialize, customers might well snap them up. With demand for natural gas strong and supplies tight ahead of the winter, power generators and other companies are turning to oil and coal as cheaper alternatives.

Worries about natural gas shortages has prompted the Chinese government last week to order state-owned power companies to buy up as much natural gas, coal and petroleum fuels as they can. That suggests that, even if OPEC+ puts more oil on the market, it wont stay there long.

Ed Longanecker, the president of Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Association, an oil industry trade group, said global supply is short of what the economy wants by about 1 million barrels per day. He expects the supplies to continue to tighten.

China preparing to buy significantly more crude oil to meet demand is further evidence of improving market conditions, which will be a consistent theme over the next 12 months, even if OPEC increases output, he said. The continued tightness in supply will help to maintain higher commodity prices.

More: Read the latest oil and gas news from HoustonChronicle.com

But Steins Law - the brainchild of U.S. economist Herbert Stein - states that if something cannot go on forever, it will stop. Consumer prices are up 5.3 percent during the 12-month period through August, but energy commodities are up 41.9 percent over the same period.

Ole Hanson, the head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, a Danish investment bank, said Steins Law could come into play should commodity prices continue to rise. If prices get too high, he said, consumers and businesses will cut back on their purchases of gasoline and other fuels and look for alternatives, such as taking mass transit or carpooling.

Those that cant find other expenses to cut, whether retail purchases by consumers or jobs by businesses.

In my opinion, we are going to see demand destruction on a major level and a slump straight back into recession should prices rise aggressively above $100 Hanson said.

The consensus may be that prices continue to rise, though the solution to higher oil prices is often higher oil prices.

The outlook that the economy will continue to improve, however, has yet to shift. The University of Michigans consumer sentiment index on Friday showed a sense of optimism about economic conditions.
Sentinel Midstream Texas of Dallas and Exxon Mobil Pipeline have formed a joint venture called Enercoast Midstream, the companies said Monday.

The joint venture will provide last-mile pipeline to connect areas including the Permian and Gulf of Mexico to the Houston-area crude oil market.

Exxon Mobil will contribute two existing pipelines to the project, including a 16-inch pipeline originating at that terminal in Webster, with delivery points at Exxon Mobil's Baytown Refinery and Seabrook export terminal.

COTERRA ENERGY: Cabot and Cimarex complete merger, reveal new name

A 20-inch pipeline will access Moore Road Station in Baytown and Channelview.

Sentinel, which contributed cash for a majority equity position and is the operator, will commercialize capacity on Enercoast's system and pursue opportunities to grow the company via building or acquiring new pipelines.

"We are extremely pleased to establish a joint venture with ExxonMobil to maximize the potential of Enercoast," said Jeff Ballard, President and CEO of Sentinel. "Sentinel looks forward to the opportunity to serve ExxonMobil and other shippers in the Houston market."
The top doctor at UT Health San Antonio Physicians in San Antonio has a grim warning for Texas: The pandemic could be even deadlier this fall and winter compared to the same time last year.

I hate to be doctor doomsday, said Dr. Robert Leverence, the chief medical officer for UT Health Physicians in San Antonio. But if vaccine rates dont get up significantly and if people go back to normal routines, factors are aligning with this being a particularly bad surge.

Leverence said there are two key conditions contributing to his grim winter forecast. First, children, who make up 20 percent of the population, are attending school in-person this year. While kids arent as likely to get seriously ill from COVID-19, they can still put older people, such as grandparents and parents, at risk of transmission.

On ExpressNews.com: This Texas city says it's the first to reach herd immunity against COVID-19

Another factor Leverence noted is that the brutal delta variant surge from this summer is subsiding later than last years spike in hospitalizations and deaths.

The summer 2020 wave functioned as a springboard for the winter surge, Leverence said. Our summer surge this year was not only higher but has lasted much longer. The tail end of it is already extending into the fall and winter and will once again act as a biological springboard for winter.

The doctor said the unvaccinated need to get vaccinated.

Not next month, but now, Leverence said.

On ExpressNews.com: Texas still has one of the nation's worst COVID death rates at 280 per day, even as delta subsides

Leverences warning is contrary to the latest COVID-19 modeling that forecasts a possible decline in cases and deaths through the spring without a significant winter surge. These projections are largely based on peoples behavior, vaccination rates and often dont account for deadlier or more transmissible mutations of the virus.

The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predicts that daily deaths in Texas will decline from the 200s and high 100s in September to 53 by the end of the year. The worst case scenario is that deaths remain in the mid to upper 100s if 100 percent of people go maskless, according to the prediction.

The institute also forecasts that daily infections could steadily decline before picking up by the end of the year.

These models are important but are also dependent on the things that we do, Leverence said.

On ExpressNews.com: Fair Oaks Ranch man who defrauded ex-San Antonio police officers sentenced to 11 years in prison

About 62 percent of Texans 12 and older are fully vaccinated, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. About 66 percent of Bexar County residents have received both vaccines.

In order for the virus to stop spreading, experts believe that between 85 and 90 percent of the population needs to be immune, either by vaccination or natural infection.

The delta surge, however, is finally subsiding in Texas and hospitalizations are declining.

There has also been a concerted effort to promote the vaccine booster shot. The Pfizer vaccine may also be available for children 5 and 11 years old as early as October.

We are moving in the right direction, Leverence said. But Im worried with all of the attention on the booster and childhood vaccines, that now may be the time for some other action because the likelihood of a winter surge is pretty significant.

Timothy.Fanning@express-news.net
Edward Djerejian, who built Rice Universitys Baker Institute for Public Policy into a world-class think tank, will retire at the end of the school year, he said Monday. Known campus-wide as the Ambassador, Djerejian, 82, was hired by the institutes namesake, James A. Baker III in 1994. Theyd become friends when Baker served as Secretary of State and Djerejian was the U.S. ambassador to Syria.

Dr. James McGann, director of the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program at the University of Pennsylvania, referred to Djerejians tenure as extraordinary and unparalleled in the think tank world.

If you look in terms of his work as an ambassador and his distinguished career in terms of service to his country, he easily could have rested on those laurels. Instead he chose to do something lasting and meaningful for Texas and Rice and the country.

Douglas Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice and a fellow in history at the Baker Institute, said, Ed worked hard to build this institute and to have Rice student involvement. Its been a big win-win for Rice University to have such a public policy beehive on campus, and hes an integral part of it. With great fortitude and wisdom, he built this institute at Rice and created a world-class public policy institution.

As the Baker Institute approaches its 30th anniversary, it continues to enjoy a respected reputation. In a 2020 report by the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program, the Baker Institute ranked No. 1 among university-affiliated think tanks, and No. 15 overall in the U.S. It was also cited as the Energy and Resource Policy Center of Excellence between 2017 and 2019.

Djerejians formidable role at the Baker Institute nearly didnt happen. He was serving as the ambassador to Israel when Baker approached him with the offer to help build a think tank from the ground up.

There was no chance hed give up what he was doing to come here to Rice to start an institute that had no money, Baker told the Chronicle in 2018. But he did.

Djerejians career in diplomacy had, at that point, spanned more than 30 years and eight different presidential administrations. He was born to Armenian immigrants in Queens, N.Y., where he grew up. After getting a degree from the school of foreign service at Georgetown University, he joined the Army. In 1962, he took a job with George Ball, President John F. Kennedys Secretary of State, that set the path for the rest of his life.

He earned this reputation in Washington, D.C., as being wise counsel, Brinkley said. It came a lot from world beat travel and a photographic memory and a diplomatic cunning. Hes earned respect around the globe. Nobody knows more about Syria, Jordan and the complexities of Middle East politics than Ed.

In 1993, Baker mulled the idea of opening a think tank in the nations capital, but thought the market there was saturated. He looked home to Houston, where he hoped to start what he referred to as a first-rate, non-partisan think tank affiliated with a fine academic institution with a long history.

Baker started by approaching Djerejians wife, Francoise, then the ambassador.

Diplomacy was the only thing I knew, Djerejian told the Chronicle. And I loved it. And Israel wasnt an insignificant post. We were at the height of our career. Long story short, the thing that really hit me is how many times in your life do you have the opportunity to create something totally new? Its a roll of the dice. This thing could have failed.

McGann confirmed that. May have tried and failed to do what he did. To step into an institution and do something like this. Some fail, some plateau. But he built it with a vision. And I think he had a profound impact  not only in terms of creating a critical mass of scholars who were great, but also in terms of teaching and connecting to students and having an effect on the real world.

Djerejian visited other prominent university-based think tanks. He remembered an economics class at Georgetown about competitive advantage. What could distinguish this institute from others? He settled on two Houston industries: energy and medicine, adding his and Bakers international experience as a third component. They determined the Baker Institute  despite Bakers work serving multiple Republican presidents  would be non-partisan and data-driven. They also envisioned it being intertwined with Rice University.

By every metric, Djerejian exceeded his own expectations, Brinkley said. The Baker institute became a frenetic and essential place for ideas.

And most of its fellows spend time in Rice classrooms teaching.

Over the decades, the organization expanded its areas of focus and welcomed additional fellows, who have studied subjects like cyber security, drug policy, religion, science, connections to Central America and South America. Some of the work done at the Baker Institute has hyper-local value, like researching the effects of flooding and urban planning. One fellow whose name recognition increased greatly over the past 18 months was Dr. Peter Hotez, a fellow in disease and poverty, who has become a leading voice in education and information related to the coronavirus pandemic. Hotez said the Baker Institute was a particular draw that brought him to Houston.

(Djerejian) is one of the thought leaders who helped make Houston an international city, Hotez said. I view Houston as a city of great intellects, with writers and artists and scientists. Much of that, in my opinion, can be credited to Ed and Francoise and the people they helped bring to Houston. I wanted to work at the Baker Institute, and he helped bring me here.Theyre a power couple in the best possible sense: They care about city and state and doing big things.

Djerejian and Baker, who is now 91, deliberately avoided creating a speakers bureau, which they felt the World Affairs Council already did well which isnt to say they didnt welcome guests. President Barack Obama visited in 2018 when the Baker Institute celebrated its 25th anniversary. He was the the fifth president to speak there.

Djerejian will serve as director of the institution until June 30, 2022. Rice and the Baker Institute have begun a search for his replacement, which the institutions agree will be conducted nationally and international.

Theyll certainly find a great replacement, Brinkley said. But anytime you lose somebody of Djerejians stature, those are hard shoes to fill.

andrew.dansby@chron.com
New York-based producer of sleep and home comfort products Soft-Tex Internationals new Sugar Land facility will be an industry game-changer, says Soft-Tex principal Mark Smiderle.

Described as their mad scientist and awesome inventor by his colleague Taylor Jones  Soft-Texs vice president of marketing and ecommerce  Smiderle is the creator of Reactex, the companys patented thermoregulation technology.

A few months after opening shop in Sugar Land, the self-taught Ontario native is happy to share his journey with the residents of his new city.

Im a worker, I have no formal education and didnt finish high school. Im just really good at inventing stuff, Smiderle said. Im an entrepreneur at my core. I was born a little bit different. I dont read or write very well but I can do complex calculations and I can see why physics works. I became really good at surrounding myself with people that could take what I can see and build things.

While Smiderle aims to reshore supply chains and address the dearth of innovation around U.S. home textiles, his prime motivation is to create more jobs

My mission is to create jobs, he said. Thats the legacy I want to leave. I want to give people meaningful employment. And so, anybody thats willing to work, okay, I want to help provide them a future and the way to do that is repatriate the supply chain.

Growing domestic footprint

The 170,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Sugar Lands Covington Woods area is expected to double Soft-Texs production capacity and add 150 new jobs over the course of 2021.

As promised, Soft-Tex has delivered and now continues to expand upon its commitment to growing its domestic footprint, Smiderle said.

Soft-Tex began manufacturing its fiber filled products at the facility by June. There are three ways of filling pillows and bedding with synthetic fibers  garnet, blow fill and foam pouring  Smiderle explained. Garneted pillows are inserted with roll of polyester fiber, while blown pillows contain loose synthetic fibers. The relatively newer foam pouring method of filling pillows involves a liquid urethane mix poured into pillow or cushion shaped molds. The liquid mix expands and solidifies into a comfortable pillow.

We import 1 million pillows (from China), said Smiderle. And were going to be able to pour 1 million pillows by the end of the year.

Manufacturing had been next to impossible in the U.S. due to lack of infrastructure and the markets addiction to low cost, Smiderle said.

The way to combat that is to put technology into the thing and add value to it, so people will make the leap, he said.

Smiderle became involved with Soft-Tex three years ago, when the bedding and home textile company expressed interest in commercializing Reactex, which Smiderle created in his workshop.

Reactex bedding products are designed to create a temperature-controlled sleeping environment. The self-recharging technology can store and release heat. The Reactex portfolio of technologies includes over 100 patents and patents pending.

I said (to Soft-Tex) this is what were going to do, Im going to merge with the company, Im going to take over and share the company with you, Smiderle said. And were not going to be a bedding company anymore. Were going to be an innovation company.

The Sugar Land facility

Innovation comprises building more manufacturing units as well as a bold plan to reverse the flow of goods.

What we build to here in Sugar Land were going to replicate all over the country, Smiderle said. We actually opened an office in Belgium, because I can actually export from Belgium into China and want to reverse the flow of goods from Belgium into China.

The company plans to build two more facilities in the U.S. but has not yet chosen their sites.

Soft-Tex selected Sugar Land for its second facility because of its strategic location. The new, high-efficiency facility can produce approximately 445 pillows an hour, Smiderle said.

We think weve done something good, Smiderle said with a smile. And I think its going to continue to fuel the system and job creation.

juhi.varma@hcnonline.com
DETROIT (AP)  Canada invoked a treaty with the United States and asked a judge Monday to suspend litigation over Michigan's effort to shut down a Great Lakes oil pipeline.

Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau made clear that his government is backing Enbridge, the Calgary-based company that operates Line 5.

Canada said it requested negotiations with the U.S. about the pipeline. It cited a provision in a 1977 treaty that says no public authority in either country can take steps to interfere with the flow of hydrocarbons.

For more than 65 years, Line 5 has been the safest way to transport Canadian hydrocarbons from western Canada to central Canada, helping provide energy that is essential for heating homes and powering Canadas economy, Garneau said.

Line 5 moves about 23 million gallons (87 million liters) of oil and natural gas liquids daily between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario, traversing parts of northern Michigan and Wisconsin.

A section of the pipeline runs on the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, which connects lakes Huron and Michigan at the top of Michigans Lower Peninsula. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel, both Democrats, say Line 5 is a grave threat to the Great Lakes and should be closed to prevent spills.

In a federal court in Michigan, an attorney representing Canada said the treaty's dispute settlement process must trigger a pause in any litigation.

Whitmer said she was disappointed by Canadas decision to invoke the treaty.

Rather than taking steps to diversify energy supply and ensure resilience, Canada has channeled its efforts into defending an oil company with an abysmal environmental track record, Whitmer said, noting a Enbridge pipeline rupture into a southwestern Michigan river in 2010.

A mediator had been working with Michigan and Enbridge to try to reach a settlement about Line 5, but the talks ended Sept. 9 without an agreement.

We greatly appreciate the efforts of 'Team Canada, from the government of Canada to the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and Saskatchewan, for their commitments and efforts to keep Line 5 open, Enbridge said Monday.

Before Whitmer took office in 2019, Enbridge had reached a deal with Republican Gov. Rick Snyder to protect the pipeline by building a tunnel by 2024.

Garneau said Canada supports that plan.

___

Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwritez
One person was killed and three others were injured following an argument between neighbors that escalated to a gun battle at a Hobby-area mobile home park Sunday afternoon.

Police were called to the trailer park shooting at 10801 Telephone Road in the Greater Hobby Area around 4 p.m., authorities said. Officers found four people with gunshot wounds.
George Floyd should be given a posthumous pardon for his 2004 arrest and subsequent conviction at the hands of a former Houston police officer now charged with murder and a raft of other misconduct  including repeated lying  after a botched 2019 drug raid, officials with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended Monday.

Floyd died in May 2020, during an arrest in Minnesota in which a police officer knelt on his neck, ultimately killing him. Floyds death, captured on camera, prompted nationwide riots against police brutality.

But Floyd spent much of his life in Houston, and had several run-ins with police here, including one in 2004 when Floyd was arrested by Gerald Goines on a minor drug charge. Court records show that Goines arrested Floyd for possessing less than half a gram of crack cocaine and Floyd had "provided drugs to an unnamed 'second suspect,' who was not arrested.

In the pardon application written on Floyds behalf, Harris County Assistant Public Defender Allison Mathis wrote that because of falsified evidence, Floyd had no ability to contest his guilt, and because of past convictions, was facing the possibility of a minimum of 25 years in prison.

Racial profiling?: Virtually everyone a Fort Bend police officer stopped was Hispanic. His bosses shrugged..

Instead, Floyd pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 months confinement in a state jail.

Floyd confessed to save his life, she wrote.

On Monday, Mathis said she was super happy to hear of the pardon boards recommendation and hoped Gov. Greg Abbott would concur.

A man was set up by a corrupt police officer intent on securing arrests rather than pursuing justice, she said. No matter what your political affiliation is, no matter who that man was in his life or in his death, that is not something we should stand for in the United States or in Texas.

Our freedom is the most important thing we have, and the State shouldnt be able to take it away so easily, she continued. I hope that Governor Abbott will agree and will grant the pardon, but I also hope that he, and the Texas Legislature, will work more stridently toward reforming the integrity of the racist, classist criminal justice system in Texas. That hope definitely runs counter to my experience as a criminal defense attorney in this state.

Casework re-examined: Harris County DA probing disgraced ex-cop's 2004 arrest of George Floyd

In Floyds pardon application, Mathis contended that Goines lied about a confidential informant and no one bothered to question his word because he was a veteran cop and his defendant was a previously-convicted Black man.

This pardon is being sought because it is just and right to clear a conviction that is not supported by evidence with the new information that has come to light since Floyd's conviction- and this is the only legal vehicle available to do so.

Goines came under suspicion in 2019 after the Harding Street drug raid, in which police raided a south Houston home looking for heroin. The raid turned into a firefight, in which two homeowners were killed and four officers injured. Police subsequently said they believed Goines lied about buying drugs from the home.

The scandal led to investigations from the FBI, the Harris County District Attorneys Office, and an internal probe by the police department. The FBIs investigation led to federal charges against Goines  for violating the rights of the slain couple, Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas  and Goines former partner, Stephen Bryant, with lying on government documents.

Bryant pleaded guilty in federal court, but has not yet been sentenced. A judge recently dismissed charges against Felipe Gallegos, accused of murdering Tuttle, after prosecutors raised concerns about a former prosecutor who presented the case to a grand jury. After the case was dismissed, District Attorney Kim Ogg said it would be presented to another grand jury  but its not clear when, or if, that will take place.

Wrong Door: Botched Houston drug raid not the first

Local prosecutors, meanwhile, began re-examining hundreds of cases Goines and his colleagues worked, dismissing many of them and pushing to have some convictions overturned. Ultimately, Goines was charged with felony murder, and a grand jury indicted him and 10 other current and former officers with a slew of other crimes, mostly related to lying on government documents to pad their overtime pay.

In the years since the Harding Street raid, at least four people have had their convictions overturned.

On Monday, Goines attorney Nicole DeBorde Hochglaube described the latest developments as a political statement, and nothing more.

There is no new evidence whatsoever to support there was anything wrong with the arrest of Mr. Floyd, she said.

The recommendation from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles now goes before Gov. Greg Abbott, who will decide whether or not to grant Floyd the posthumous pardon.

George Floyd: 'I'm gonna change the world'

In a news release, Ogg urged Abbott to follow the pardon boards recommendation and grant clemency.

We lament the loss of former Houstonian George Floyd and hope that his family finds comfort in Mondays decision by the Texas State Board of Pardons and Paroles to recommend clemency, she said.

In the letter, she noted that prosecutors had agreed with Mathis in April that the circumstances around Floyds arrest warranted a posthumous pardon.

Abbotts office Monday evening did not return a requesst for comment

In the afternoon, news of the pardon boards recommendation slowly filtered out to Floyds friends.

Wow, said Travis Cains, on learning of the news. His friend deserved it, he said. He saw the pardon as a repudiation of Goines years terrorizing Third Ward.

That man has done a lot to us in our neighborhood, Cains said. Now he is reaping what he sowed. We have to forgive, but we never forget what he did.

st.john.smith@chron.com
The thieves had a clear plan, said Police Chief Troy Finner: stalk shoppers in some of the citys most affluent shopping districts, then rob them of money and valuables.

On Monday, Finner announced arrests of some two dozen people, the result of a months-long operation to rein in two robbery crews that have committed violent assaults  including murders  and stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars of merchandise such as luxury watches.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Houston police arrest 10 in wave of robberies targeting affluent victims

These are very bad people, Finner said.

He went on to say investigators have tied the robbery crews to the killing of League City yacht dealer Jeff Johnson in June and the fatal shootings in August of a New Orleans police officer and another person at a Galleria-area restaurant.

Robbery Commander Tinsley Guinn-Shaver said the robbery crews worked two shifts, with one group targeting residents during the day and the other at night.

Of the 24 suspects police have brought charges against so far, 14 are in state custody and four are in federal custody, Guinn-Shaver said. Two suspects remain on the run, and four people are out on bail.

She said five suspects have been charged with capital murder and that defendants were hit with 36 other charges ranging from aggravated assault to engaging in a criminal conspiracy. Police said seven of the defendants were out on bail when they committed the crimes theyre now charged with.

Detectives said they recovered expensive watches  as well as 24 guns thieves had stolen during a pawnshop robbery.

Guinn-Shaver said she expected more charges to be filed, with additional suspects  all the way back to early 2020.

Mayor Sylvester Turner praised the work of the task force and urged local judges not to let the suspects out on low bails.

Once they are arrested, judges must be mindful of their criminal histories and not make it easy for them to return to the streets to become repeat offenders, he said.

st.john.smith@chron.com
The word of the day in the Lone Star State is obsequious. Its dictionary meaning is servile obedience or excessive eagerness to please. Heres how to use it in a couple of sentences:

In a state that prides itself on rugged independence and individualism, Gov. Greg Abbott was embarrassingly obsequious last week in response to a former presidents absurd demand for a Texas audit of the 2020 election.

Or

The Texas Railroad Commission, the states overseer of the powerful oil and gas industry, was as obsequious as the governor when natural gas suppliers sought to weasel out of requirements to weatherize their facilities to avoid a repeat of Februarys disastrous winter storm.

Of course, the Railroad Commission has always been a tool of the industry. Nothing has changed, even in the wake of a winter storm resulting in natural gas production plummeting by nearly half when Texans needed it most. The industrys failure was a major cause of widespread blackouts that left millions without power, caused billions of dollars in property damage and led to the deaths of 700 people, according to a BuzzFeed analysis.

However, according to a new report prepared by a gas industry trade group, oil and gas companies have no reason to spend what it will take to get ready for a winter-storm repeat.

Dont look at us, look at the Legislature, the trade group responds. In a way, the group is right. Abbott made weatherizing the states electricity generation infrastructure an emergency priority for the regular legislative session. In June, he signed bills lawmakers had crafted to ensure that the weatherization process happened. At the time, Abbott said everything that needed to be done was done to fix the power grid.

He was wrong, as energy experts noted at the time. They warned that the new rules didnt go far enough and left too much discretion to the industry. Fines would be minimal, plus the industry would be under the, shall we say, gentle oversight of the Railroad Commission. These elected members, as Chronicle reporter Jeremy Blackman observed last week, receive funding from the industry and have long opposed weather requirements.

But when the Railroad Commission acted predictably, letting industry slither through a giant loophole lawmakers had created, Republican lawmakers protested.

State Sen. Robert Nichols, a Republican oil and gas industry ally who keeps a fearsome stuffed hyena in the lobby of his Jacksonville office, bared hyenic teeth, so to speak, in a Senate committee hearing Tuesday with Wei Wang, the Railroad Commissions executive director.

Im very disappointed, Nichols said, taking issue with a provision in the new law that lets gas companies easily skirt weatherization requirements as long as they dont declare themselves to be critical infrastructure with the state.

Its not that hard to come up with the rule on something thats that critical. Please dont turn my electricity off, because were pumping gas to the power plant, Nichols told Wang.

State Sen. Donna Campbell, a New Braunfels Republican, warned that lawmakers would target the Railroad Commission if the agency doesnt reconsider its ruling.

You dont prove up your worth, it could just be moved to the [Public Utility Commission], she said.

Wang insisted that his agency was merely following the language enacted by the Legislature.

State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, was direct, if typically inelegant. Your rulemaking process sucks, he told Wang.

Whitmire knows House Republicans rejected amendments from Democrats during the regular session that would have increased penalties for gas suppliers that failed to make progress on winterization within six months of the measure becoming law.

Wang assured lawmakers his agency is still implementing the new law and is hiring and training inspectors to focus specificallyon weather preparations.

You have had a good seven months, Campbell said. Dont you think thats a little late, since we sure dont have seven months before our next winter starts?

Were pleased to see Campbell and her GOP colleagues stand up for regular Texans, but where were they last spring?

Actually, we know the answer to that question. She and her fellow Republicans were focused on banning abortion in Texas, making it more difficult to vote, snuffing out elusive critical race theory in the public schools and trying to persecute transgender youth. Easier to be obsequious to the governor, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton and their self-serving political ambitions than to protect their fellow Texans.

A report released last June entitled Never Again: How to Prevent Another Major Texas Electricity Failure, suggested what could have been done (and still could be). The authors, including five former PUC commissioners, offered 20 recommendations to protect the states power system. They called on the state to require backup power at critical facilities, including natural gas facilities; raise energy-efficiency standards in buildings and homes; retrofit existing systems; increase PUC funding and staffing; and improve planning and forecasting at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the agency that operates the electric grid that covers most of the state.

Natural gas will remain an essential fuel for Texas power generation for years to come, the authors pointed out. Thus, natural gas supplies must be more reliable in the future, with formal performance standards for the natural gas production and delivery systems.

Thats called governance. Unfortunately, its sadly lacking on the part of the current officials or serving members of the Legislature. Those folks, just like the for-profit energy companies, failed us, as they have so often after previous storms provoked similar crises and promises to do better.

Our lawmakers are busy redrawing legislative districts, cementing in as best they can their donor-friendly approach to governing.

Their response to the rest of us, regardless of their belated concern in last weeks meeting? Keep those coats and blankets handy. Its gonna get cold again, and youre pretty much on your own.
Regarding Afghans left behind face visa, logistical challenges as friends, family try to get them out, (Sept. 29): Contrary to President Bidens assurances that we will get you out, the United States has so far failed in its efforts to evacuate tens of thousands of Afghans that had worked with us for up to 20 years  including many that had applied for Special Immigration Visas. The article describes in detail the fears for physical safety of a typical family left behind to the mercy of the Taliban.

But threat to physical safety is not the only serious issue enveloping the Afghan people. Ramiz Alakbarov, UN Deputy Special Representative and Humanitarian Coordinator in Afghanistan, reports that over half of Afghan children under five, and over one-third of all citizens, are not getting enough to eat. Further, that the situation will get precipitously worse over the next month. A number of nations are sending aid but its not enough to meet the needs at hand.

Both President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken declared at the conclusion of the airlift that diplomacy would be employed to successfully extricate the remainder of our Afghan allies. But there has been absolutely no announcement of any success in that regard. The solution would appear to be obvious. The Taliban desperately needs food to forestall a revolt and stay in power, and the United States urgently needs to rescue our Afghan allies to keep its word. The State Department should immediately negotiate a deal: food for people. Our long-term credibility around the world, already severely damaged, may depend on it.

Ray Lawrence, Houston

Nothing is for free

Regarding Editorial: Winter is coming. Is the Texas power grid ready? (Sept. 28): All the myriad reports, analyses and Chronicle articles demanding that Texas power providers upgrade and winterize miss one important point: They cannot do it for free. Power companies are businesses like almost any other, and all their costs have to be passed on. Even if they did the work for no profit, they still need to buy the parts and pay the workers. There are costs. While I agree the state should set minimum standards, everyone must understand either their rates go up or the state pays for it and taxes go up. Either way, the population pays (of course how much they pay depends on the graft involved in the process). The power companies should stop fighting it, the state should assure the costs will be accounted for and get the job done.

Joe Williams, League City
The new Texas abortion ban has spurred a flood of women traveling sometimes hundreds of miles to access the procedure in neighboring states.

The law, which prohibits abortion after six weeks of pregnancy and calls for lets private citizens to enforce it by filing lawsuits, has been in effect for just over a month. But already, clinics in Oklahoma, Louisiana, Colorado and New Mexico have said theyre being inundated with Texas patients.

We havent seen numbers like this ever, Dr. Rebecca Cohen, a Denver OB/GYN, told CBS News last month.

An abortion can be painful, people can hurt, Cohen said of the emotional toll. But this is different. We are seeing patients who are traumatized when they arrive.

In Louisiana, officials at Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport said they went from seeing no more than 20 percent of their patients from Texas to now over 50 percent. Some patients are driving from as far as McAllen in the Rio Grande Valley.

Were being flooded with calls, clinic director Kathleen Pittman told KHOU 11. She added in an interview with CBS, Theyre literally begging to get in and be seen as quickly as possible.

One in 10 women of reproductive age in the U.S. live in Texas, or about seven million people. Texas providers performed about 54,000 abortions last year. The new law, which does not include exceptions for rape or incest, is expected to cut off abortion access for about 85 to 90 percent of those seeking it, according to providers.

IN-DEPTH: UT law professor warns Congress of broader threat from Texas abortion ban

So far Texas abortion providers say they are complying with the new guidelines, though they believe they are unconstitutional and are fighting for injunctions in state and federal court. Providers say they cannot afford the risk of even frivolous suits being filed, since the law bars them from recouping attorneys fees if they win a case.

The Guttmacher Institute, which supports for abortion rights, estimates that Texans are now traveling an average of 14 times farther to get the procedure. In states such as Louisiana, they then have to go through mandatory waiting periods.

The law is likely to disproportionately impact women of color, many of whom lack the time and money needed to get out of state.

In affidavits last month, abortion providers said Texas patients were undergoing traumatic and sometimes daunting trips to neighboring states. One child who was allegedly raped by a relative traveled with her guardian from Galveston to Oklahoma to get an abortion, and another woman was reportedly selling some of her belongings to pay for the trip to an out-of-state abortion clinic, according to the filings, which are part of a pending federal lawsuit over the law.

VIGILANTE JUSTICE: Federal government makes its case against Texas abortion ban

Allison Gilbert, a doctor with Southwestern Womens Surgery Center in Dallas, said in an affidavit that the clinic is struggling to stay afloat and has temporarily moved more than a dozen employees to its affiliate in Albuquerque.

While these staff members agreed to be away from their families in Texas for a short amount of time, the arrangement is neither financially nor practically sustainable and is far from a solution to the problems posed by S.B. 8, Gilbert said in the document. If the law is not struck down soon, Southwesterns clinic in Dallas will inevitably close.

Abortion rights opponents say the ban is insulated from legal challenges because of the unique private enforcement method, which allows nearly anyone to sue those who help provide an abortion, including doctors and funding groups. Any state action to enforce the law is expressly prohibited. Other states have enacted similar prohibitions, but all of them have been held up in court.

Several conservative states including Louisiana are now considering passing their own versions of the Texas law.

jeremy.blackman@chron.com
U.S. Reps Sheila Jackson Lee and Al Green traveled to Austin on Monday to make a rare in-person plea to members of the Texas Senate to change a redistricting plan that would shift hundreds of thousand of Black residents in Houston into new congressional districts.

Jackson Lee said the proposed redistricting plan for Houston is unnecessarily radical and drastic and would sever neighborhoods that have been in the 18th Congressional District for the last 50 years.

This surgery seems totally without purpose, said Jackson Lee, who is the longest-serving member of Congress from Houston.

Downtown Houston, Third Ward, Texas Southern University, and the University of Houston, would all be removed from Jackson Lees 18th Congressional District. Even her home of nearly 50 years would be removed from the district, preventing her from being able to vote for herself in future elections unless she moved. Parts of her district would be put into Greens neighboring 9th Congressional District or Rep. Sylvia Garcias 29th Congressional District. In all, more than 200,000 people in mostly Black neighborhoods would get new members of Congress.

I am respectfully asking for these districts to be repaired, Jackson Lee said.

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Despite the pleas of the two Democrats, the Senate Redistricting Committee voted 9-6 to adopt the proposed maps without any changes. State Sen. Joan Huffman, a Houston Republican who is leading the redrawing effort, said she is open to changes to the map and told Green and Jackson Lee they have to have those proposals in by Thursday morning to be considered by the full Senate. Huffman offered no promise that any of the changes would receive her support.

LAST WEEK: Houstons Black Democrats call GOP congressional redistricting plan racial discrimination

Every 10 years after the U.S. census, the Texas Legislature is required to redraw all of the states congressional districts to account for population shifts and to assure each district has a near-identical number of people.

The Republican plan created two entirely new districts in Houston and Austin, and mostly protects current members of Congress by making their districts more partisan.

While the districts of Jackson Lee and Green would remain Democratic strongholds, both objected to the shuffling of communities that could result in them being pitted against one another in the 9th District unless something changes. Members of the House, however, are not required to live in their districts.

Green questioned why Republicans would decide that the only two members of Congress in Texas who would be placed in the same district in all of Texas would be two of the longest-serving members who happen to be Black.

It doesnt look right, he said.

IN-DEPTH: Over 1 million Houston voters change congressional districts under GOP plan

Green took exception to Republicans taking parts of the International District out of his 9th Congressional District and moving them into the 7th Congressional District, represented now by U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, a Democrat.

After Green and Jackson Lee testified, Huffman insisted once again that the proposed maps are in compliance with the Voting Rights Act, which aims to protect minority communities from having their voting rights infringed upon. Huffman has repeatedly said she had the maps drawn without consideration of race.

jeremy.wallace@chron.com
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Hudson, NY (12534)

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WMG and Twitch: Why labels matter

Warner Music Groups recent announcement that it plans to partner with Twitch to cultivate a standalone music space for premium music-centric content demonstrates the labels continued relevancy in the rapidly evolving digital music economy.

Guest post by David Deal of the Superhype Blog

Warner Music Group (WMG) and Twitch recently announced a first-of-its-kind relationship to launch recording artist channels and create a standalone music space featuring premium music-centric programming on Twitch. The deal demonstrates that the legacy music labels such as WMG are as important as ever. In fact, they might play a more vital role as star makers in an increasingly cluttered digital world.

Why Digital Is a Two-Edged Sword

In the digital age, anyone who has a TikTok or YouTube account can publish music. And in that regard, digital is liberating: you dont need a deal with a record label to share your music to the world. But how do you find an audience after you upload your music when everyone around you is competing for eyeballs and ears, too? A Scooter Braun discovering a Justin Bieber on YouTube happens rarely. Music labels possess the muscle and money to amplify your name. If they do their jobs right, they solve the distribution and promotion problem for up-and-coming artists.

Why the Twitch/WMG Deal Matters

The Twitch/WMG deal will tap into the power of Twitch as a distribution platform for WMG artists. WMG acts Saweetie, Bella Poarch, and Sueco will receive artist channels on the platform, with more to come. Twitch may also become an important intermediary between artists and some of the brands that have marketing relationships with Twitch, ranging from Chipotle to the NFL.

The relationship will also give WMG a way to scout emerging talent on one of the most culturally relevant platforms in the world. For example, WMG and Twitch have already announced programming that includes a freestyle throwdown for Twitch rappers and a segment, The One, in which guest artists will meet up-and-coming Twitch musicians that they have inspired.

A closer relationship with Twitch should also give WMG an important listening tool to monitor the tastes of the all-important Gen Z/Millennial audience that Twitch attracts.

This Twitch/WMG deal is about two powerful brands understanding how to become more influential during the rise of the creator economy.

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Kazakhstani journalists, human rights defenders, and civil activists have launched a campaign to collect signatures under an appeal to the president and parliament of the country, in which they call to abandon the adoption of amendments to the legislation that would limit the work of foreign Internet resources, social networks, and messengers.

The text of the appeal was published on the Avaaz community petition website. The petition has already been signed by over 9 thousand citizens.

In September, the Kazakh parliament approved the draft law On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislative Acts on the Protection of the Rights of the Child, which contains mechanisms to block the operation of foreign Internet platforms, social networks, and instant messengers on the territory of the country.

For example, the bill proposes to oblige foreign Internet companies to register in Kazakhstan, open an official representative office in the country headed by citizens of Kazakhstan, and store the data of local users on servers located inside the country, and not abroad. If companies refuse to comply with these requirements, then their operations will be blocked. Kazakhstani Internet users rightly fear that the authorities will have official and legal leverage to block Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, WhatsApp, and other social networks and messengers.

We consider the proposed norms repressive and aimed not at regulating, but controlling the Internet, that is, in fact, at introducing censorship in the country, which is directly prohibited by the Constitution and international human rights standards, the petition says.  There is a very real risk that large Internet platforms such as Google, Mozilla, or social networks such as Facebook, with its WhatsApp messenger and the social network Instagram, as well as messengers such as Telegram, will refuse to register their offices in Kazakhstan on the proposed conditions, thereby depriving Kazakhstanis of the free Internet .

The authors of the appeal do not believe the developers of these amendments, who explain the proposed innovations as caring for children and combating cyberbullying.

We are convinced that the tactics of carrying out amendments under the pretext of protecting the rights of the child is manipulation. The adoption of these amendments will cause great international damage to the countrys reputation and roll Kazakhstan back in socio-political development. This also contradicts the obligations of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the field of human rights, part of which are digital rights, namely the right to access and disseminate information, including the right of children to receive and disseminate information; the right to privacy; the right to freedom of association on the Internet; and other human rights. Any restrictions imposed by the state on human rights, even for permissible reasons, such as the fight against cyberbullying, should not deprive a person of his rights, the authors of the petition emphasize.

In this regard, they ask the president and parliament of the country to refuse to accept these amendments and, when developing any similar initiatives, continue to accompany them with a discussion with the countrys IT community, human rights and civil society, interest groups, such as, in this case, the children themselves and teenagers, taking into account their best interests, as well as the principle of the evolving capacities of children, to exclude censorship and limit digital human rights.

Recall, as ACCA has already reported, in the study of Internet freedom in the countries of the world, conducted by the international human rights organization Freedom House, Kazakhstan was recognized as a country with a restricted Internet.

Source: https://acca.media/en/kazakhstan-citizens-oppose-blocking-social-networks-and-messengers/
Ameriprise Financial Services Moves

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  With a new office at 377 Main St., financial advisor Matthew Neely and the team at Inspire Confidence Group are ready to grow with the community.

The Neely family has been a safe set of hands for generations of families and, now with a move to Main Street, Inspire Confidence Group looks to build upon their own legacy by safeguarding others' legacies.

"My family has been in Williamstown for a long time ... people know us," Neely said. "We want to be here, and we are members of this community. We do business here to foster those relationships, and keep those ties going."

Inspire Confidence Group, which is part of Ameriprise Financial, Inc., offers a range of services including comprehensive financial planning, investment management, family finances, estate planning, and wealth preservation strategies.

All this is done with a personal touch, trust, and understanding as Neely's roots are deep in Berkshire County and Williamstown.

"For many families, we are basically their chief financial officers and are really involved in so many facets of their lives," he said. "It is a multigenerational practice, working with the parents, children and grandchildren. At one point I had a client who was 100 years old and one who was 18."

Neely has a family history in finance - his father, Tom Neely, was a financial advisor in Berkshire County since the early 1980s. So while it is in his blood, Neely approaches financial advising differently because he came to it differently.

Before Ameriprise, Neely was a professional actor in New York City for 11 years. He went to graduate school for acting and even moved into television production where he worked as an associate producer on the popular game show "Cash Cab."

While acting, he stayed close with his father, who often extended the invitation to come back to Berkshire County. Neely eventually did in 2007 when he joined his father at Neely Investments Inc., part of Wachovia Financial Network, in Pittsfield.

"He and I are very similar, and I could always tell he loved his job," Neely said. "I was focused on acting at the time but after a while, I decided I wanted to leave New York and start a family and do more in my life. So, I came up to join him."

So Neely made a big change in 2007 - the perfect time to join the industry.

"The 2008 financial crash. It was a great time to start," Neely laughed. "Actually it was. I got to see major market events up close. If you're new to the business and the market has been going up for a decade or more, it is easy to think that is normal and get lulled into complacency. After seeing the crash at the beginning of my career, I'm very aware that could happen again and I want to protect my clients from that."

Wachovia was eventually absorbed by Wells Fargo and, in 2016; the Neelys moved their office to 24 Water St. in Williamstown and joined Ameriprise Financial, Inc., as Neely Financial Advisors.

During this time, Neely became well acquainted with the Inspire Confidence Group, another Ameriprise franchise based in Albany, N.Y. Managing partner and founder Sasa Mirkovic became a mentor and friend.

In 2018, Neely's father Tom unexpectedly died. Not only was this heartbreaking for the Neely family, but to Tom's clients, many of whom had been with him since the beginning. As the torch was now fully passed on to Neely, he began to deal more directly with the clients who had previously worked with his father.

"After my father died several of my clients told me that he was their best friend which was so nice to hear," he said. "I had no idea and thought that was an amazing thing. I am a lot like him. I am very close to these people."

This people-first philosophy comes naturally to Neely and is the cornerstone of his work with the Inspire Confidence Group.

"It all comes down to client goals. What are they looking for? Often it is retirement or college savings," he said. "It really

depends on the client and their particular situation ... it all comes down to homing in on those client goals and helping them achieve those goals through financial planning."

In 2019, Neely Financial Advisors merged with the Inspire Confidence Group to become its Massachusetts office. Now,

Inspire Confidence Group enters into a new chapter as it moves to the new office on Main Street. A move that will allow it to continue to grow.

"We certainly are looking to grow. There is more office space," he said. "We couldn't grow in our old office, if we were to add more advisors ... we are in growth mode."

He said they have close relationships with tax professionals, attorneys, and others to help clients navigate the tricky waters of trust and estate planning.

But as mentioned before, Neely said it is first important to figure out what exactly clients want before rolling out the different services Ameriprise offers. He said peoples' goals, aspirations, and wants are just as important as the actual numbers.

"Even a husband and wife may have different goals, and they have different points of view and financial behaviors," he said. "Then you add in children and grandparents and you have a lot of different opinions and desires. We want to get everyone on the same page and make everybody happy."





Neely said Inspire Confidence Group wants to help clients set the groundwork for a happy future as well as build those safeguards that will help future generations succeed. They often look after a family's finances for decades.

"It is very common for me to have grandparents, children, and grandchildren as clients. I really get to know these families well," he said. "Personally I love the grandparents. Many of them were clients of my father. Over the years their families have grown, and I love having those relationships. I love these people and many of them I have known since long before I was in the business."

Although Neely has clients all over the country, many of them are local or have connections to Berkshire County. Neely is in many cases offering assistance to friends, family, and the larger community. And this is in line with Neely's own legacy. This is clear after a quick glimpse at his own family tree.

"My grandmother Dorothy Hickey started Sweet Brook Nursing Home," he said. "She was a nurse and stay-at-home mom who got together with a few local doctors and started the nursing home in her own house, taking in patients."

When his mother, Elaine Neely, moved back to the area she worked at the nursing home, which had moved to Cold Spring Road, and eventually became the administrator. She later founded the Sweetwood continuing care retirement community next door.

The family no longer owns the facilities.

"I grew up running around the halls of Sweet Brook so a lot of those people who worked there remember me as a kid," he said. "My family took care of generations, and I feel that way with my clients, too. That is my favorite part of the business."

Neely said this really ties into his holistic approach to financial advising. He said his goal is to simplify the often times

complicated financial landscape for people so it is one less thing they have to worry about.

"There are a lot of moving parts," Neely said. "There are people who get further along in their careers, they are making more money and they have more responsibilities ... it is something a lot of people have little time for because they have busy lives. It is all homework for them."

This is where Inspire Confidence Group comes in, and its services come in different forms.

In terms of legacy planning, he encourages having this often uncomfortable conversation early on. Neely said he has seen disputed wills cause issues.

"We never want to see that so we set it up ahead of time and direct your assets exactly where you want them to go so there is no confusion," he said. "... When you are gone, you know your family is provided for according to your wishes."

When it comes to investing, Neely said clients can be as involved as they want. We have some clients who take an avid interest and are involved in investment selection and some who give us discretion to run our in-house investment models on their behalf.

Either way, Neely said Inspire Confidence Group works to guide investments. Pointing to the Inspire Confidence Group's motto, he said they want to inspire confidence by simplifying your life and reducing stress.

In a different environment, some would consider Neely to be in the wellness business, which is not far from the truth. It is no coincidence that Neely is also a yoga instructor whose main goal is to help people live happier, more fulfilling lives.

"I also teach yoga ... I am full service. I will get your body and mind and finances in shape," he laughed. "But truly it is wellness. It is totally holistic in many ways. It is financial wellness and it is also familial wellness."

Neely said, for many, now is the perfect time to sit down for a free consultation with Inspire Confidence Group. With many looking to make changes in their lives during the pandemic, a steady financial bedrock is needed.

"Any time someone is in transition is one of the key times when I feel I can be helpful because that is when you are charting a new path and setting things in place that will support whatever your new venture is," Neely said. "It is these moments of change where people put the pieces on the chessboard, and they make the decisions that will affect the next many years of their lives."

Whether it's starting a new career, selling your house, setting up an inheritance, or moving, Neely said a guiding hand can do a world of good.

For those who may have put a little money aside during the pandemic, he said Inspire Confidence Group can also help them direct it in a productive direction.

"Some people have spent a lot less money, staying at home, so they were able to build up some savings and a cushion," he said. "At the same time, the market is doing well after the big drop at the start of the pandemic. Those things can be very beneficial to people who want to make a change."

And Neely would like to extend this hand to potential new clients reflecting on their own lives and finances. Schedule a free consultation and get in touch with Neely if you are interested in any of the services he and the Inspire Confidence Group offer.

"I am a people person. That is what is important to me. The finance stuff is a way to help people," Neely said. "I think what we offer is a lot of reassurance because people know that a big part of their life is under control. That stress is gone."
Steven and Trent Kinney, seen in this provided photo, are expanding their Mielke Confections candy and chocolate business to Stockbridge. They plan to open a retail shop on Main Street early in the new year.

Mielke Confections to Open Second Shop in Historic Stockbridge

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass.  Mielke Confections is opening a shop on Main Street to make the historic strip "sweeter."

Owners Steven and Trent Kinney decided to expand the Great Barrington candy operation when a storefront on the street that was famously captured by painter Norman Rockwell in "Home For Christmas" became available.

"Locations on that strip for commercial space don't become available very frequently, businesses that are there have been there for 30 years or more," Steven Kinney explained. "So when that opportunity came up, because we knew we wanted to expand at some point, this was really the best time for us to do it."

They will be settled in between the town library and general store in a structure known as the 7 Arts Building. Mielke Confections is leasing a space on the first floor that was formerly occupied by Wheeler and Taylor real estate and insurance company.

The owners are working with Berkshire Contractors to design an interior that fits the historic nature of the Main Street.

Kinney said the new storefront window will feature a custom chocolate fountain designed by a local glassblower.

Product-wise, the offerings will be similar to those available in the Great Barrington store. The owners hope to keep the motif of historic Stockbridge in their selections.

Mielke Confections offers handmade unique sweets as well as the classics. The menu includes a chocolate truffle with Lenox's Millbrook Sugarhouse maple syrup inside, a giant chocolate gummy bear filled with real gummy bears, and caramel Honeycrisp apples from Windy Hill Farm in Great Barrington.

Over the summer, they worked with a local lavender farm to make chocolates that incorporate the fragrant plant.

Kinney said that with the new store in Stockbridge, he hopes to continue cooperating with other nearby businesses.

The grand opening of the new location is staged to occur at the beginning of next year.

The Kinneys have 16 combined years of Army service. They served during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq as Apache helicopter pilots.

The couple moved back to the Berkshires, where Steven grew up, to raise their daughter.

They purchased the former Catherine's Chocolates more than two years ago to continue the tradition of a family-owned business. The original store was named for the grandmother of the former owner, Kathy Sinico, and operated for 40 years under that name.

https://www.iberkshires.com/story/60597/Biz-Briefs-Catherine-s-Chocolates-Changes-Name-to-Mielke-Confections.html

The Kinneys will continue making the products in the original location at 260 Stockbridge Road but the new location will be only a retail store.

"We've mostly maintained the same 40-year-old recipes, we've expanded on some flavors, including adding some Ruby chocolate candies, which is kind of like a fourth type of chocolate, and we've seen a lot of success with that kind of stuff," Kinney said.

"What we're hoping to do here, is the prior owner also had multiple locations as well, they were all serviced out of the same production facility in Great Barrington, so there's a lot of capacity there that we can use to open up just a retail location so not production, but just retail locations, and that's what this will be."

The name Mielke was Trent's last name, which he changed when they married, and its pronunciation sounds similar to "milky." Kinney said this makes for a great chocolate shop name.

Since taking over the business, the two have enjoyed being a part of the Berkshire business community and working with other local entrepreneurs and businesses to introduce their products into chocolate.

Kinney said the pandemic did put a strain on operations in the first year but they were fortunate to have a lot of support from the surrounding community.

"In the Great Barrington store, especially, a lot of our customers are repeat customers coming there with the expectation of the same product that they've been getting for many years," he said. "And a lot of them are local."

They believe it is important to support and grow the community and with this expansion hope to do so in Stockbridge as well.

Mielke Confections is currently hiring, as they need a couple more hands for the new location.
Journalist and director of both radio stations Raafat Rashad was arrested when he went to the headquarters of the Security Belt Forces to inquire about the closure of the radio stations. This military force controls Aden, and does not follow the orders of the Yemeni government and it's mostly funded by the United Arab Emirates. His whereabouts are still unknown.

The YJS said that it condemns this arbitrary raid and holds the Security Belt forces responsible for it. The union added that they demand not to restrict the media or to involve them in political conflicts.

In July 2021, the YJS noted that, since the beginning of the civil war, there have been over 1,400 violations of media freedoms, including 38 killings of media professionals.

Yemen is now one of the worlds most dangerous countries for journalists, with extremely high levels of impunity.

Anthony Bellanger, the Secretary General of the IFJ said: We join our affiliate the YJS in condemning this raid and the suspension of Adeniya FM and Bandar Aden. We urge local authorities to lift the suspension and free Raafat immediately.
Opinion: What future awaits journalists in Afghanistan? The IFJ calls on the United Nations to take a stand

Changing everything to change nothing. This could be the name of the cynical communication strategy of the new Taliban government in Afghanistan.

Taliban fighters are reflected in an under vehicle search mirror as they stand guard at the entrance gate of the Kabul Governor Building in Kabul on October 3, 2021. WAKIL KOHSAR / AFP

By Anthony Bellanger, General Secretary, International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

This Opinion was jointly published by Mediapart, L'Humanite, Le Soir, Le Temps, the Sydney Morning Herald, Lamrea.com, the Canberra Times and InfoLibre on 2 October 2021.

Just two weeks after August 31, 2021, the date set by the U.S. administration to leave Afghanistan, the Ministry of Women's Affairs was replaced by the Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in a government that no longer includes any woman. This is a morbid throwback from their years of learning about power between 1996 and 2001. Women can now only leave the family home to go to the mosque.

And after women, journalists have become the target.

In recent days, Qari Muhammad Yousuf Ahmadi, acting director of the Government Media and Information Center (GMIC) and long-time Taliban spokesman, unveiled 11 rules for journalists.

The first rule sets the tone: "Topics that contradict Islam must not be broadcast. The following points are of the same nature and confirm, for those who have not yet understood, that the new media bosses are the Taliban and them alone.

Ahmadi added that "issues that are not confirmed by officials during the broadcast should be handled with care"; that "issues that have a negative impact on the public mind and can affect the morale of the people should be handled with care during the broadcast. Finally, he warned that from now on, "the media will prepare detailed reports in coordination with the government media center GMIC...".

The fuse has been lit before the firestorm of censorship and repression.

What future awaits journalism and journalists in Afghanistan?

How many more days before there are only journalists paid by the Taliban regime? How many more days before ALL women disappear from the newsrooms for good?

At the time of writing, two women still work in a local TV station in Kandahar, a handful in Kabul, and a few more in Herat and Jalalabad.

Who can still believe Taliban claims that they have changed since 2001 when we see the violence perpetrated against dozens of journalists who have dared to cover women's demonstrations?

Who can still be so naive?

Since August 12, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the world's largest professional organization representing more than 600,000 journalists in 150 countries, has work to move several hundred journalists to safety after receiving thousands of distress messages. Thanks to its member unions, a number of Afghan journalists were able to obtain humanitarian visas and reach Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, Qatar, India and especially Pakistan.

These were emergency solutions for some of those most at risk and their families, who have left everything behind.

But what comes next? What future can they have in a host country where they may not speak the language and where beyond the promise of safety they are offered little by governments fearful of a political backlash.

The IFJ has been overwhelmed by donations to its IFJ Safety Fund from journalists and their unions around the world. But even this is just a drop in the ocean compared to the desperate requests for assistance.

There are still thousands journalists on the ground, in all regions, being actively supported by the Afghan Independent Journalists Association (AIJA) and the Afghan National Journalists Union (ANJU), the IFJs two affiliates. For the most part they are those who have not been able to flee (yet) or who did not want to leave, because they want, despite the risk to their lives, to continue their reporting in the field and bear witness to a historic political upheaval.

The trap of Taliban politics for the media is closing on the last representatives of journalism in Afghanistan. Without glorifying the last 20 years of American occupation, they all agree that there had been advances in media and social rights, even if patriarchy coupled with religion ultimately held power.

More than 120 media outlets have already folded, are no longer allowed to broadcast or no longer have the economic means to operate, as advertising has disappeared.

Unemployment among journalists is estimated at between 70 and 80 percent, and those who try to fulfill their mission of informing the public receive warnings and death threats by phone and mail from terrorist groups and local Taliban officials.

What will be left of the Afghan media after 20 years of apparent freedom of information, when the country already sits close to the top of the the IFJ's annual list of murdered journalists: 10 were victims of religious barbarism in 2020 - the second most dangerous country after Mexico. How can we also ignore the heinous and despicable murder of three women journalists on March 3?

What future awaits journalism and journalists in Afghanistan?

The UN Secretary General has stressed the absolute necessity to welcome Afghan refugees, but we must go further.

The IFJ is today calling on the Director General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, to take a stand to ensure the protection and safety of journalists in Afghanistan, both foreign and local reporters, who are on the front line.

The IFJ is also calling on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michele Bachelet, to ensure that independent journalism is safeguarded in Afghanistan, as a public good and one of the essential human rights for the maintenance of democracy.

The light of independent information must not be extinguished in Afghanistan.

"Totalitarian regimes have no better allies than lassitude and oblivion. Our watchwords are therefore obvious: memory and obstinacy," wrote Albert Camus, a French writer and journalist, in his message to Hungarian writers in exile in 1957.

All of us, the International Federation of Journalists and UN agencies, are accountable and responsible for the future of Afghan journalists  men and women.

Lets not forget them. Lets persist in shining a light. Lets act. Let's do it now.

A.B.
Creating a platform where your customers feel safe and welcome isn't just the right thing to do--it's good business.

That's according to Neha Utkur and Aarti Ashok, software engineering manager and senior manager at PayPal, respectively. The two spoke about building inclusive platforms at the Grace Hopper Celebration, an annual gathering for women in tech, named for the famed computer scientist and U.S. Navy officer.

In PayPal's case, the fintech giant has users in more than 200 countries, which means it has a huge range of locations, languages, and cultures of which it needs to be mindful. "One of PayPal's core values is to be able to democratize financial services for all," says Ashok, "regardless of where you're from or what your background, gender, race, or country."

Here's are three takeaways for business owners from the session.

1. Greet your customers differently based on their location.

Users will feel most comfortable using your platform if it addresses them in ways they're familiar with, says Ashok. Users in Germany and Japan, for example, prefer more formal language than users in the U.S. So PayPal tailors the language that users see on its websites and apps accordingly.

"The content can be personalized not just based on the location, but based on age, education, and a bunch of other things--data is credibly obtained from the users," says Ashok.

2. Add extra layers of customization based on language and region.

Tailoring language to users in different locations isn't as simple as a direct translation. As Utkur points out, an English speaker in the U.S. has a different way of speaking than an English speaker in India or the United Kingdom. Plus, terms that are perfectly acceptable in some regions can be offensive in others.

As such, PayPal collects geographic and language information from its users and customizes what they see accordingly. "[The platform] can figure out, 'Hey, this request is coming from a Portuguese speaker from Brazil," says Utkur. "So I need to get the market data and the content specific to Portuguese in Brazil and not Portuguese in Portugal."

3. Require verification for all accounts.
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The Indian cryptocurrency scene is leaving no stones unturned to boost the popularity of cryptocurrency trading in the nation. And now, one of Indias most popular crypto exchanges has brought onboard a Bollywood icon to promote its offerings and services.

Reuters

Also Read: India Ranks Second In Crypto Adoption Globally

CoinDCX has now signed the Bollywood legend, Amitabh Bachchan as its first-ever brand ambassador. The brand wishes to increase awareness around cryptocurrency, while also making it popular as an emerging and relevant medium of investment.



In the last two years, India has seen exponential growth in the crypto space and today it sits at a valuation of over $2 trillion which is only expected to increase further with more people seeing crypto as a viable investment medium.

Also Read: India Will Carve Own Crypto Path Instead Of Following US Or El Salvador, Says Jayant Sinha

According to CoinDCX, Bachchan would help in popularising crypto as an asset class, as well as creating awareness on how to make safe crypto investments.

Sumit Gupta, co-founder and CEO of CoinDCX said in a statement, We are honoured to have Mr Bachchan as our brand ambassador. Being a crypto investor himself and having launched his own NFT (non-fungible token) recently, Mr Bachchan is well-versed with the crypto space.

Amitabh Bachchan NFT

Gupta was referring to the NFT that Bachchan launched in collaboration with BeyondLife club and GuardianLink.io -- a blockchain R&D company -- where itll include unique and limited artworks.

Also Read: Non-Fungible Tokens: How 'Punk' Crypto Trend Gave Rise To NFTs For Digital Art

The NFT will include the stars recital of poems from Madhushala -- the renowned collection of poems by his father Harivansh Rai Bachchan, anecdotes from his career, signed posters highlighting the biggest milestones of Bachchans career, rare digital memorabilia from the past and present under undisclosed gifts.

Reuters

The NFTs will go on auction starting November this year and in case youre interested, youll have to sign up on BeyondLife.club to participate.



Also Read: New Game By Creator Of The Sims Will Turn Your Thoughts Into NFT Collectibles

Gupta added, His knowledge will prove valuable in building trust and credibility among new users. We are certain that this association with CoinDCX will help bring greater visibility to the world of crypto and develop a strong brand recall for us.

Do you invest in cryptocurrency? Whats your experience like? Tell us in the comments below and check out Indiatimes Worth for personal finance content. For more science and technology news, keep visiting Indiatimes.com.
Elon Musks Starlink satellite internet connection could soon go live in India, for ten rural Lok Sabha constituencies.

Starlink

Also Read: Elon Musk Says Starlink Internet Coming To India Soon, After Getting Regulatory Nod

This was revealed by Country Director for Starlink in India, Sanjay Bhargava via his LinkedIn post. In the post, he revealed how SpaceX is looking to focus on ten rural Lok Sabha constituencies for 80 percent of terminals shipped to India.



The company is also expected to meet legislators and ministers to bring in 100 percent broadband connectivity and how it could improve the lives of the citizens of the nation.

Bhargava stated, In October I am also keen to have 30-minute virtual conversations with MP's, Ministers, secretaries to GOI, or principal secretaries to states to see if they think 100% broadband would help improve lives.

He added, We will probably focus on ten rural Lok Sabha constituencies for 80% of the Starlink terminals shipped to India. The number of preorders from rural constituencies will be one factor that helps us select focus constituencies.

Bhargava became a part of Starlinks India division last week. The satellite-internet company that made its first launch in 2018 has sent over 1,600 satellites in lower-earth orbit that promise to provide high-speed internet connectivity to areas that arent connected to wired or wireless internet.

Also Read: SpaceX's Elon Musk Says Starlink Will Transfer Data Close To Speed Of Light

At the time of writing this article, Starlink is only available in the US, Canada, Australia, Chile, UK and Portugal as a part of the beta test. However, it did allow Indians to sign up for the beta testing when the satellite internet arrived in India.

Reuters

In another post from a few days ago, Bhargava highlighted that Starlink is aiming to have 200,000 terminals active in India by December 2022, with over 5,000 terminals already being pre-ordered in the nation.



Also Read: SpaceX's Starlink Satellites Cause 1,600 Near-Crashes In Orbit Per Week

The terminals come with a dish that wirelessly connects with the satellites in LEO (lower-Earth-orbit). The internet connection in the beta runs offers a latency between 20 to 40 milliseconds and internet speeds ranging from 50 to 150Mbps.

Do you think Starlink will be the answer for seamless internet connectivity in Indian rural areas? Tell us in the comments below. For more science and technology news, keep visiting Indiatimes.com.
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 tragic death.

Just 50.8 centimetres (20 inches) high, Rani became an instant internet celebrity when thousands of people reached outside Dhaka for a glimpse of the miniature cow.

Naija Campus

But just after its owners applied to Guinness World Records, tragedy struck on August 19 when the beloved bovine suddenly died due to a sudden internal build-up of gas.

The owner of this popular cow, 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 61 centimetres from hoof to withers.

Twenty Four News

"We sent several videos 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.



Sufian said he had also sent Guinness Rani's medical records after they asked whether she had received hormone injections. We had 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.



News 24

After getting to know about this recognition, her carer couldn't control his tears.

Well, at least she got her due credit.
Whenever a legal dispute arises as to insurance coverage, the court will evaluate policy language to determine if a specific cause of loss constitutes a covered event under the terms of that policy.

When workers compensation and workplace violence intersect, it must generally be shown that the loss occurred in the scope of employment and while the employee was working.

Some claims, however, involve gray areas raising questions as to whether coverage is invoked. This is particularly true in scenarios where the injured worker played a role in inciting, participating in or provoking the violence.

No cookie-cutter approach should be utilized in the investigation and adjustment of these losses, as they oftentimes involve complex fact patterns.

A thorough analysis should be conducted when workplace violence claims are reported so as to mitigate the risk of dreaded statutory or common law bad faith actions, amongst other concerns.

Workplace Violence, Defined

There is plenty of room for plaintiffs counsel to assert a rejected occupational violence-related workers compensation claim was wrongfully denied by the insurer.

Workplace violence manifests in a broad range of activities beyond the deadly, highly publicized active shooter episodes some automatically think of while considering this topic. Unwanted physical contact is not necessary to make a showing that workplace violence has occurred.

For instance, the National Institute of Safety and Health (NIOSH), an agency of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, states: Workplace violence ranges from offensive or threatening language to homicide. NIOSH defines workplace violence as violent acts (including physical assaults and threats of assaults) directed toward persons at work or on duty.

According to the U.S. Department of Labors Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA):

Workplace violence is any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behavior that occurs at the work site. It ranges from threats and verbal abuse to physical assaults and even homicide  however it manifests itself, workplace violence is a growing concern for employers and employees nationwide.

Workplace Violence Claims: Covered  or Not?

Determinations surrounding whether workers compensation provides indemnification for workplace violence are similar to inquiries involving any other type of insurance coverage.

As always, the analysis begins with the language of the operative insurance contract, bearing in mind that per well-settled principles of insurance law, disagreements over ambiguities in the policy will typically be rendered in favor of coverage.

Language in a stand-alone workers compensation policy or an employment practices liability (EPL) policy affording workers compensation indemnity might read something like:

Part One: Workers Compensation Insurance

This coverage applies to any occupational loss occurring during the policy period set forth in the Declarations Page for: (1) Bodily injury by accident occurring during the policy period. (2) Bodily injury by disease must be caused or aggravated by the conditions of your employment occurring during the policy period.

This insurance does not cover: (1) Bodily injury intentionally caused or aggravated by you. (2) Bodily injury intentionally caused or aggravated by your injured worker.

We will pay promptly when due the workers compensation benefits required of you by workers compensation law.

Turning to the Definitions section of the policy, the following is stated:

Workers compensation law means the workers compensation law of each state or territory named in the Declarations page of this policy.

Accordingly, inquiry into the laws of the jurisdiction where the loss occurred must also be considered before any final coverage decision is rendered.

States Weigh In

California has responded to the growing concern that is workplace violence by enacting a law authorizing employers to obtain injunctions to protect their employees from harm.

Pursuant to California Civil Procedure Code  527.8(a):

Any employer, whose employee has suffered unlawful violence or a credible threat of violence from any individual, that can reasonably be construed to be carried out or to have been carried out at the workplace, may seek a temporary restraining order and an order after hearing on behalf of the employee and, at the discretion of the court, any number of other employees at the workplace, and, if appropriate, other employees at other workplaces of the employer.

Per Californias Labor Code, Chapter One,  3208.1, an occupational injury may take one of two forms:

(a) specific, occurring as the result of one incident or exposure which causes disability or need for medical treatment; or (b) cumulative, occurring as repetitive mentally or physically traumatic activities extending over a period of time, the combined effect of which causes any disability or need for medical treatment.

Injuries suffered by a California-based employee arising from violence could meet either category, depending on the severity of the episode.

By way of example, a specific injury might occur if the injured worker, a cashier, was assaulted during an armed robbery of a retail store. Conversely, a tenured law enforcement officer who has been shot at repeatedly over time could possibly be deemed to have sustained cumulative injuries.

In contrast to California, Wisconsin Statute  102.01(2)(c) defines injury pursuant to that states Workers Compensation Act as:

 mental or physical harm to an employee caused by accident or disease, and also means damage to or destruction of artificial members, dental appliances, teeth, hearing aids and eyeglasses, but, in the case of hearing aids or eyeglasses, only if such damage or destruction resulted from accident which also caused personal injury entitling the employee to compensation therefor either for disability or treatment.

Wisconsin allows for statutory bad faith workers compensation damages per Wis. Stat.  102.18(1)(bg) as follows:

If the division determines that the employer or insurance carrier suspended, terminated, or failed to make payments or failed to report an injury as a result of malice or bad faith, the division may include a penalty in an award to an employee for each event or occurrence of malice or bad faith. That penalty is the exclusive remedy against an employer or insurance carrier for malice or bad faith  The division may award an amount that the division considers just, not to exceed the less of 200 percent of total compensation due or $30,000 for each event or occurrence of malice or bad faith. The division may access the penalty against the employer, the insurance carrier, or both.

Generally, the requirements to establish such bad faith will be: (1) There was no reasonable basis for denying the claim; and (2) The employer or insurance company knew or recklessly disregarded that there was no reasonable basis for denying the claim.

Consequently, in Wisconsin, a denied claim for post-traumatic stress disorder associated with a workplace violence episode could result in bad faith damages.

Later Injuries

What if the employee succumbs to injuries arising from violence sometime after the event giving rise to those injuries occurred?

Unfortunately, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) demonstrates that occupational deaths are on the rise. According to BLS, a total of 5,333 fatal work injuries were recorded in 2019, representing a 2% increase from the 5,250 reported in 2018.

In Florida,  440.16(1) mandates that If death results from the accident within one year thereafter or follows continuous disability and results from the accident within five years thereafter, the employer shall pay compensation and funeral expenses not to exceed $7,500.

It should also be noted certain jurisdictions provide for alternative dispute resolution concerning workers compensation as a way to keep these claims out of litigation.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, for instance, offers a proceeding called a Conciliation, an informal meeting between the insurer and the employee or the employees attorney. The employer typically does not attend Conciliation unless the claim involves Willful Misconduct of Employer per  28. In such cases, the employer is required to attend.

If an agreement is not reached, the next step involves an informal proceeding before an Administrative Judge. As with Conciliation, the carrier and employee must attend. As with Conciliation, the employer is not obligated to do so unless willful misconduct is involved.

Loss Mitigation

OSHA estimates that at least two million workers are victims of workplace violence each year. This equates to the approximate population of the entire state of New Mexico.

Moreover, OSHA advises that many cases of workplace violence go unreported each year. Thus, the potential exists for substantially more losses than estimates predicated on OSHAs two million figure suggest.

The underreporting problem could be attributed to the fact that employers may not wish to see their 100 days without a recordable accident winning streak broken by a workplace violence-related claim, or employees may not know where to report their safety concerns to, or they may hope that matters deescalate and try to deal with it themselves.

Whatever the underlying cause is, the time for the insurer to learn that a workplace violence claim is covered should never be when the matter is in litigation.

Investigation into the facts underlying the claim should be focused on such matters as whether there were prior interactions between the parties, and if so, what did the employer do (or not do) to address this past conduct. Any injunction involving a party associated with the loss should be a red flag for the carrier.

Additionally, a disagreement between the employer and the carrier may arise over how the facts at issue in the violence giving rise to the claim are evaluated.

For instance: The application of an employers zero tolerance policy governing workplace violence might result in two workers involved in an on-the-job physical altercation being automatically subjected to the same level of discipline up to and including termination, irrespective of who initiated the brawl.

Not Always Clear

The lines are not always so clear where insurance coverage is concerned, particularly for injuries sustained by the worker who struck the second blow.

Here, the claims examiners focus should be on whether Joe truly participated in the brawl of his own free will or was he protecting himself from further injury after being attacked by an out-of-control colleague? Joes attorney could make the argument that if Joe were assaulted on the street, he would have the right to defend himself, so why should he be denied workers compensation for taking the same action in the workplace?

Attention should also be directed toward uncovering any compliancy toward workplace violence on the employers part.

The employer might look the other way regarding occupational violence, especially when verbal abuse or threats directed toward workers have not crossed the threshold into the arena of physical violence. Such situations might arise when the abuser is a client or customer who does a lot of business with the employer, and that insured wants this beneficial financial relationship to continue.

Attention should be focused on actions the employer has taken to proactively mitigate the risk of workplace violence through not just instituting, but also enforcing effective violence prevention policies.

The best workplace violence prevention standard is essentially worthless if the employer does not uniformly and equitably apply it across the board. Differing levels of treatment for favored employees vs. the rest of the workforce can lead some to become disgruntled, which is the starting point for workplace violence.

Topics Workers' Compensation Claims Commercial Lines Business Insurance Talent
A plastics company in upstate New York agreed to pay $23.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit claiming it knowingly polluted well water with a toxic chemical.

The Times Union reports the proposed settlement, agreed to by Taconic Plastics, would benefit hundreds of residents in Rensselaer County whose drinking water was contaminated with a manufacturing chemical.

The settlement would establish funds to pay Petersburgh property owners and to set up a 15-year medical monitoring program for individuals who had a certain level of perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, detected in their blood.

Exposure to PFOA has been linked to cancer and other illness.

Taconics president issued a statement saying he was pleased the case had been settled.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics New York
LONDON  A record rebound in merger activity this year and a rise in litigation has brought with it an upsurge in insurance policies that give companies and private equity firms cover for when a deal goes wrong, industry officials say.

Keen for revenue after a year marked by payouts for event cancellations and shuttered businesses, insurers are tapping into the appetite of deal-seeking firms to protect themselves should the businesses they want to buy misrepresent their accounts.

For the sellers, insurance can help to guarantee a clean exit from any deal.

M&A protection can also remove a companys need to set money aside for potential disputes and help them to avoid costly and lengthy litigation.

As a result, a spate of insurers has entered the market, with around 30 crowding in in Europe alone, broker Paragon said. Despite the rising level of claims, the entrants have pushed down premiums, but that could be temporary.

In 2008, you could have probably sat the whole of the London M&A insurance community round a meeting room table, said Adrian Furlonge, partner at M&A insurance broker Helmsley Wynne Furlonge. Now there are more than 300 people in that market.

Mark Fellows, head of financial lines at Aviva, said the British insurer entered the sector in 2019, and M&A was becoming an established class of insurance.

M&A insurance premium is likely to total $2 billion worldwide this year, James Swan, partner at broker McGill and Partners, said.

The most common M&A protection in Europe is warranty and indemnity (W&I) insurance, to cover the warranties and indemnities provided in a deals sale and purchase agreement.

The buyer would take out insurance against any company information in those warranties  such as financial statements  being inaccurate.

The seller, which in many cases may be a private equity firm, would buy insurance instead of holding money in an escrow account in the event of a dispute.

Brokers said the sector, while small, had seen growth that continued this year, although companies have yet to give full-year figures for 2020.

Lloyds of London pointed to W&I insurance as one of the main contributors to increased premiums in 2019 and law firm CMS said 19% of the European M&A deals on which it advised last year used W&I insurance.

The expense is small compared with the cost in money and time when a deal goes wrong, a marked tendency as COVID-19 has led to claims of misleading valuations and broken business models.

Among high-profile deals leading to court battles, U.S. software giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) is suing Autonomy founder Mike Lynch along with his former finance chief Sushovan Hussain for more than $5 billion, alleging they inflated the value of the British data firm before selling it in 2011.

Small Beginnings

M&A insurance started with small deals involving private equity firms eager to avoid tying up money against future legal claims.

It has evolved for larger deals  up to $10 billion is not unusual, brokers say  and listed companies are also using it.

The London Stock Exchange bought insurance for the $27 billion purchase announced last year of data company Refinitiv, in possibly the largest deal using such cover, brokers said.

LSE said at the time of the deal announcement that it bought insurance providing $1.2 billion in cover from a group of insurers. Refinitiv is 45%-owned by Reuters parent Thomson Reuters.

Swan at McGill said the broker was fielding enquiries about M&A insurance from executives setting up special purpose acquisition companies, blank-check deal-hunters that have become the darling of the U.S. stock market this year.

Broker BMS said demand was also growing for M&A insurance to cover potential tax bills arising from a deal.

M&A activity, meanwhile, has rebounded.

The second quarter was barren for deals as the pandemic caused lockdowns around the world.

But the third quarter hit a record $1 trillion. And Furlonge said November had been the six-year-old broking firms busiest yet.

Changing Rates

Companies generally insure around 10% of the transaction value of the deal. The premium is around 1% of the sum insured, with premiums having fallen 50% in the last two-to-three years, brokers said.

So for a $10 billion deal, policyholders might insure $1 billion at a cost of $10 million.

Claims are also rising, deterring some market players and potentially paving the way for rate increases, industry sources said.

Nineteen percent of material claims made against AIG M&A policies in 2019 totalled more than $10 million, compared with 8% in 2017, the insurer said, with the increase partly down to greater use of the insurance for large deals.

Allianz and Canopius, which operates in the Lloyds of London market, are among a handful of insurers to have withdrawn from the sector, sources say.

Allianz was no longer backing an underwriter offering M&A insurance in North America, it said in an emailed statement, though it remained involved in Europe and Asia. All parts of its underwriting book had to meet optimal portfolio performance criteria, the insurer said.

Canopius declined to comment.

More insurers may withdraw in January, the traditional season for policy renewal, because of rising claims exposure, brokers said, which could drive premium increases of 10% or more.

Joe OBrien, co-managing director for Howden M&A, said a reasonable chunk of M&A provision could leave the market, potentially driving prices up.

Thats where we see a bit of a correction coming, he said. (Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; editing by Barbara Lewis)

Topics Mergers Trends Market
Argo Group International Holdings Ltd., an underwriter of specialty insurance, announced an agreement to sell its Brazilian operations, Argo Seguros Brasil S.A. (Argo Brazil), to Spice Private Equity Ltd. (Spice PE), an investment company focused on global private equity investments, for a purchase price of 160 million Brazilian Reais (approximately US$30 million), subject to the terms of the purchase agreement.

Spice PEs investments are managed by GP Advisors (Bermuda) Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of GP Investments Ltd., a leading private equity and alternative investments company, with a long and successful history of investing in Brazil. Closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to occur by the end of 2021.\

Argo Group launched Argo Brazil in 2011 with a local team of insurance executives to build a new insurance brand in the Brazilian insurance market, said Andy Borst, interim president of International Operations. This sale is an important milestone in the evolution of Argo Brazil and supports the Argo Group operating strategy to focus on U.S.-based specialty insurance risks.

Seneca Evercore acted as financial adviser, and TozziniFreire Advogados acted as legal counsel to Bermuda-based Argo Group in this transaction.

Argo Group International Holdings

Argo Group International Holdings is an underwriter of specialty insurance products in the property and casualty market. Argo offers a full line of products and services designed to meet the unique coverage and claims-handling needs of businesses in two primary segments: U.S. Operations and International Operations.

Source: Argo Group International Holdings
Aston Lark, the London-based insurance broker that is backed by Goldman Sachs, announced the acquisition of S. Johnson & Co. Ltd.

Established in 1990 and based in Birmingham, England, with a dedicated team led by Steven Johnson and Graham Ettrick, Johnsons provides insurance cover to a range of commercial clients.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

In addition, it has provided bespoke insurance solutions for the music industry for more than 20 years and the gun trade for more than 10, as well as high value personal household insurance.

At Aston Lark were really proud of our Lark Music business, where we insure some of the worlds most valuable musical instruments. As soon as I met with Steve and we started talking about Johnsons cover notes scheme for musical instrument retailers, the opportunities were really clear and extremely exciting, commented Peter Blanc, Aston Lark group CEO.

The gun cover scheme also represents a great opportunity, providing a new specialism for our group, and Steve and Grahams ethos and customer focus aligns perfectly with ours. Im delighted to welcome the whole team to Aston Lark, and I look forward to seeing both schemes thrive in their new home, Blanc added.

Steven Johnson, managing director of Johnsons, said: Our team has for over 20 years specialized in providing insurance services to clients in the gun and music trades. Our aim has always been to offer personal and expert service to our clients, and we believe that joining the Aston Lark Group will not dilute this objective but instead bring more resources to the table, as well as offering considerable potential for further growth.

About Aston Lark

Aston Lark has more than 1,600 employees across more than 55 offices in the UK and Ireland, 200,000 customers and around 900 million of GWP. The broker said it has expertise in all commercial sectors, industry-specific schemes, employee benefits consultancy, and a range of private client solutions. Founded in 2018, Aston Lark is an insurance broking consolidator, majority owned by Goldman Sachs.

Source: Aston Lark

Topics Mergers Agencies
McGill and Partners, the boutique specialist re/insurance broker, is set for further expansion following regulatory approval for its Bermuda operation. The office will officially open later this month.

The Bermuda office will complement McGill and Partners other international operations as it continues with the rapid build out of its global specialty business. Kate Vacher has taken on the role of CEO for the McGill and Partners Bermuda entity.

Vacher began her career in London, as an underwriter at Lloyds, before joining Aspen Insurance as one of the original team. Since then, Vacher has held a number of senior roles including group director of Underwriting with responsibilities for planning, reinsurance purchasing and capital optimization across all lines (property, casualty, specialty insurance and reinsurance). She was also active underwriter of the Aspen Syndicate for six years before moving to Bermuda as CEO of the Aspen Bermuda platform.

Vacher will report into Angus Milgate, head of International Treaty Reinsurance at McGill and Partners. Vacher is a further addition to the Treaty Reinsurance team which has grown substantially in the last year.

Since its inception in May 2019, McGill and Partners has undergone significant growth and now has a presence in London, New York, Miami and Dublin, in addition to the new Bermuda hub. Headcount has also grown substantially, and now surpasses 360 colleagues hired.

For decades, the re/insurance market in Bermuda has consistently innovated to maintain its position as a major global re/insurance centre. We expect this momentum to continue as Bermuda is a world-class re/insurance marketplace for both financial and human capital, and a natural location for McGill and Partners, commented Angus Milgate, head of Treaty Reinsurance at McGill and Partners.

Steve McGill, CEO of McGill and Partners, said: Bermuda was a clear next step for us as we continue our international expansion, and we are excited at the prospect of the hub growing over the next few years. Direct access to the market in Bermuda will help to facilitate mutual success across all our offices and compound the firms significant growth.

About McGill and Partners

Headquartered in London with an international presence in the U.S. and Europe, McGill and Partners is focused on larger clients and clients with complex and/or challenging needs. Launched in 2019, the firm has significant backing from funds affiliated with Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity firm.

Source: McGill and Partners

Topics Agencies Bermuda
This edition of International People Moves includes appointments at the first sustainable insurer, Parhelion; at brokers Piiq Risk Partners and Gallagher; and at Optio Groups Nuclear MGA Northcourt.

A summary of these new hires follows.

Howden-Backed Parhelion Appoints Former Ark Exec as Chair

Parhelion announced it has appointed insurance industry leader David Foreman as chair as it prepares to launch the worlds first fully sustainable insurer.

Backed by Howden, Parhelion continues to raise capital to meet its US$500 million target. The group is in discussions on a strategic partnership that will provide equity, a platform and licenses in target territories, including the European and U.S. specialty markets.

Foreman brings to Parhelion more than 45 years of insurance industry experience, including underwriting oversight of four profitable Lloyds syndicates. He was a founding member and chief underwriting officer of Ark Syndicate Management Ltd., one of the most consistently profitable syndicates at Lloyds.

To take on a leadership role at the worlds first fully-sustainable insurer was an opportunity I could not pass up; its exciting to lead a team focused on setting the standard for what insurers of the future could, and should, look like, commented Foreman. From inception, Parhelion intends to lead by placing the environment, people and governance first, thereby proactively responding to current global pressures with unique solutions.

Parhelion aims to actively promote the UNs Sustainable Development Goals through its use of new technologies and data to create and enhance ESG insights, products and customer services. This will help to accelerate customers ESG transition, improve their risk profiles and, ultimately, support societal ambitions and advance underwriting performance in a truly unique fashion.

A pipeline of new, cutting edge ESG insurance products, which will help to close existing and emerging protection gaps, are ready for launch, the company said. Organizations that make tangible improvements in environmental impact, governance practices, and social and employee policies will be rewarded with higher capacity and potentially lower insurance costs.

Foremans underwriting credentials and experience leading one of the best-performing insurance carriers will be invaluable as we set out to create a different kind of insurer with the transition to a more sustainable and resilient future at the very heart of our strategy, according to Parhelion Co-CEO Julian Richardson.

***

Aerospace Broker Piiq Bolsters European Team With Senior Hire

Piiq Risk Partners, the global aerospace reinsurance broker, has hired Sylvain Devouge as a senior partner. Based in Paris, Devouge reports to Mark Costin, senior partner.

Devouge will work across all aviation industry disciplines, developing re/insurance expertise and tailored solutions, and will be responsible for the drafting and negotiation of re/insurance documentation, contractual risk mitigation and claims advisory.

Devouge brings 15 years of expertise to Piiq, for the last five of which he provided Swiss Re with legal advice on commercial re/insurance contracts as a senior contract specialist. Prior to this, he was head of Marsh Frances aviation contracts and claims team, where he built extensive relationships with large aerospace manufacturers, maintenance, repair and overhaul companies (MROs) as well as airline clients.

About Piiq Risk Partners

Piiq Risk Partners is a global aerospace re/insurance brokerage, with offices in London and the U.S. Piiq is currently part of the insurance operations of BGC Partners and is set to join The Ardonagh Group as part of its acquisition announced in May 2021 (which is subject to regulatory approval). The Ardonagh Group is the UKs largest independent broking group and a top 20 broker globally.

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Gallagher Expands Aerospace Team With Senior Recruit From Etihad

Gallagher has appointed Martin Rossiter as partner in its aerospace practice. He will be focused on the further evolution of Gallaghers industry value proposition and will be supporting clients with their wider risk management needs.

Rossiter has an extensive background of more than 35 years in aviation risk spanning both insurance market and industry roles. He joins Gallagher from Etihad Airways where he spent the last five years as head of group insurable risk management delivering solutions and services to protect Ethiads assets, liabilities and human capital in line with corporate strategy.

Prior to this, he was head of aviation underwriting and industry proposition for Generali Global Corporate & Commercial, following senior broking and consulting roles at Aon and Sedgwick.

Gallagher is one of the leading providers of insurance and risk management advice to the aerospace industry through its 370 strong team, with a client portfolio which covers all aspects of the aerospace industry.

Gallagher is the brand name of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., the global insurance broker, risk management services and consulting firm headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Ill. With operations in 57 countries, Gallagher offers client service capabilities in more than 150 countries around the world through a network of correspondent brokers and consultants.

***

Optios Nuclear MGA Northcourt Names Tetley as MD

Optio Groups Nuclear MGA Northcourt, the specialist nuclear MGA recently acquired by Optio, announced the appointment of Mark Tetley as managing director, effective immediately. He will be based in London and report to Northcourt CEO Alan Rickett.

With extensive underwriting and broking experience, and having developed nuclear programs for Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria and China, Tetley is recognized as a leading expert in the nuclear insurance field.

During his career he has served as managing director of the UKs nuclear insurance pool, Nuclear Risk Insurers Ltd., assisting the government with changes to the statutory nuclear liability legislation required by amendments to the 2004 Paris Convention.

Tetley has also been an expert representative of the international nuclear insurance industry at the Nuclear Law Committee of OECDs Nuclear Energy Agency in Paris and is a lecturer at the International School of Nuclear Law. Recently, Tetley was engaged by the European Commission to lead a study on the insurance, private and financial markets in the field of nuclear third-party liability.

Mark understands not only the intricacies of the risks faced by nuclear facilities but has for many years led and been involved with the bodies that represent them at the highest international and governmental levels, commented Rickett.

With the minimum required liability limits for nuclear institutions set to rise dramatically in January 2022, Optio acquired Northcourt in April to not only capitalise on the growth potential this creates, but substantially change the dynamics of the nuclear insurance market, according to Optio CEO Matthew Fosh.

Marks joining represents a significant step toward realizing that ambition as, quite simply, there are very few people in the world with specialist knowledge to rival his, Fosh added. As governments look to nuclear energy to help decarbonize their economies and meet ambitious net zero targets, Marks expertise combined with that of the existing team places Optio at the forefront in meeting the changing needs of the nuclear industry.

About Optio Group

Optio brings together the specialist expertise of Cove Programs, Ascent Underwriting, Bay Risk Services and Northcourt to create one of the largest independently owned specialty MGAs, managing in excess of $250 million gross written premiums.

Topics Carriers Insurance Wholesale A.J. Gallagher Maryland
Jennifer Bridges loved her job as a nurse at Houston Methodist Hospital, where she worked for eight years, but she chose to get fired rather than inoculated against COVID-19, believing that the vaccine was more of a threat than the deadly virus.

Bridges was among about 150 employees who were fired or resigned rather than comply with the requirement at Methodist, which was the countrys first large health system to mandate vaccinations. About 25,000 other employees at the hospital system complied.

I have never felt so strong about anything, said Bridges, 39, who lives in Houston. She was terminated from her $70,000 per year post on June 21, the deadline for employees to get a jab. I did not feel there was proper research in this shot. It had been developed very quickly.

Houston Methodist is one of a growing number of private employers that have made vaccinations a requirement of the job. New York and California are among the states that have required vaccinations for healthcare workers.

Mandates have proven to be effective in boosting vaccination rates in healthcare. In New York, for example, Governor Kathy Hochul on Thursday said 92% of the states more than 625,000 healthcare workers were inoculated, up from 73% on Aug. 16 when former Governor Andrew Cuomo laid down a Sept. 27 deadline for vaccinations.

Then-Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said the mandate would help close the vaccination gap and reduce the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.

Even so, there are pockets of resistance in the healthcare field. Those interviewed by Reuters said they had been immunized for other diseases, but said a lack of long-term data on the three COVID vaccines available in the United States was reason enough for them to step into an uncertain future after years of job security.

Speaking in support of the vaccines available in the United States, medical experts have said they had received emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration in less than a year, instead of the usual several years, due to factors including ample funding and test subjects, piggybacking off earlier research, and international collaboration.

SLAP IN MY FACE

Many of the workers who walked away had enough financial wherewithal to allow them to stick to their convictions.

For Bridges, the high demand for nurses meant she could refuse the shot without sacrificing financial security. On the same day she was fired by Methodist, she started training for her next job at a private nursing company that has no vaccine mandate.

Nurse Katie Yarber also found a job after leaving Houston Methodist but only after going 12 weeks without a paycheck and depleting a big chunk of her savings. Still, she said she does not regret her decision to depart after 14 years of service.

Yarber, 35, said she would not get the vaccine because of her religious convictions, a stance that the hospital rejected. She is also wary of possible long-term side effects.

I kind of felt like it was a slap in my face, said Yarber, who began working at the hospital as a medical records clerk before earning a nursing degree. I went to work, I did my job, I did it with a smile. I was a really good employee.

Yarber, who said she has already had COVID, is now a work-from-home nurse case manager. She had a brief stint at Texas Childrens Hospital but that ended when it too required vaccinations.

Carolyn Euart is one of about 175 workers dismissed last Monday after refusing vaccinations at Novant Health, a North Carolina hospital network. She is now considering a new career.

With 24 years as a patient services coordinator, Euart, 56, had planned to retire from Novant, but is now exploring opening a dessert restaurant and sweet shop.

After battling cancer since 2008, she felt the risk of a vaccine was greater than COVID, which four of her family members have had.

I needed the job, but I didnt think that my job was worth my life, she said.

A Novant spokeswoman said on Tuesday that 99% of its more than 35,000 employees have been vaccinated against coronavirus.

Nationally, more than 77% of adults have received at least one vaccine dose, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The countrys COVID death toll has surpassed 700,000, according to a Reuters tally.

In upstate New York, Andrew Kurtyko said he is ready to be fired from his $90,000 nursing job at Mount St. Marys Hospital in Lewiston for refusing the shot. He knows he could earn more by working as a travel nurse, taking temporary jobs around the country.

Certainly with my years of experience, Im pretty marketable, said Kurtyko, 47, a divorced father of a college student who has a mortgage to pay.

Like some other medical workers, Kurtyko questions the efficacy and safety of the vaccines. He is also seeking a religious exemption from the Catholic Hospital. If he is denied, he expects to lose his job on Oct. 12.

Bob Nevens, 47, Houston Methodists top risk manager for 10 years, also prefers to take his chances with COVID over a vaccine. As a consequence, he became one of the countrys first workplace mandate casualties in April.

Besides a lack of long-term data, Nevens said he refused Methodists mandate because it did not acknowledge natural immunity for those who had already contracted COVID and because vaccine manufacturers are shielded from liability.

He said he was not worried about money.

Financially, Im fine, he said. Mentally, its exhausting, because I didnt want to make that decision. I had planned on retiring from Houston Methodist.

 (Reporting by Peter Szekely and Barbara Goldberg in New York; Editing by Frank McGurty and Daniel Wallis)

Topics COVID-19
At least one person has been arrested after more than 175 bronze vases were stolen off graves in two southwest Louisiana cemeteries.

More than 100 vases were stolen from Consolata Cemetery in Lake Charles and, next door, nearly 70 vases were taken from Prien Memorial Park.

Kevin Leger said seven of his loved ones are buried in Prien Memorial Park, KPLC-TV reported.

My grandmother has got her vase missing, my sister, Micheal Lejeune, my mommy and daddy, and his brother and his wife all missing their vases, Leger said. Theres no words, no words that could comprehend when you come out to the graveyard and you just see your families graves just desecrated like this. It shouldnt be like that.

Sue Way said she went to visit her husbands grave recently to recognize his birthday and found his bronze vase stolen too.

I was heartbroken, heartbroken for my husband but for all these other graves that had been desecrated, and I cant imagine what kind of person would do this, Way said.

At least one arrest has been made in connection with the investigation: Kenneth Stillson, 36, of Ragley. He faces several charges including aggravated assault with a motor vehicle, desecration of graves, obstruction of justice, aggravated flight from an officer and illegal possession of stolen things. He was being held without bond at the Calcasieu Parish Jail. It was unknown if he has an attorney.

All 112 vases stolen from Consolata Cemetery have been recovered, and 34 of the stolen vases from Prien Memorial Park Cemetery have also been recovered, authorities said.

Bubba Brasseaux, managing director at Prien Memorial Park, said they are working to get in touch with the families of those affected by the thefts.

When someone steals something off their grave, it brings all those emotions back. Its kind of like reliving their death again because the pain is still there and now theres just more pain because of whats happened, Brasseaux said.

If anyone has a loved one interred in Prien Memorial Park, and they are concerned that their final resting place may be affected, they can feel free to contact our office, and we will be happy to assist them, the cemeterys general manager, Joel Brinkley, said in a statement.

Topics Louisiana Fraud
U.S. senators from coastal states are predicting an actuarial disaster in the future once FEMAs new flood insurance rating systems goes into full swing.

In a press call on Sept. 30, Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy and New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez called for President Biden to delay the implementation of the National Flood Insurance Programs new rating system, Risk Rating 2.0, which went into effect on Oct. 1.

Cassidy acknowledged the new methodology would go into effect, but, he said, my personal plea is that the president would tell FEMA not to proceed with Risk Rating 2.0. but to look for alternatives.

Cassidy and Menendez held their press call just days after announcing they, along with U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), and John Cornyn (R-TX), had introduced legislation to delay the roll out of the new risk rating methodology from they say would result in flood insurance rate hikes for residents in their states. NFIP Risk Rating 2.0 Delay Act of 2021 would have required the FEMA, which manages the NFIP, to delay that agencys Risk Rating 2.0 rollout until Sept. 30, 2022.

Cassidy and Menendez said their ultimate goal is to inspire Congress to act to on reform proposals to revamp the flood insurance program.

They believe the new rating system, which calls for year-over-year rate increases capped at 18% for at least the next decade will raise rates to a point that they will not be sustainable for policyholders, and therefore the NFIP.

Cassidy said in the press call that an as yet unpublished evaluation by the Congressional Budget Office anticipates that as many as 900,000 policyholders in the NFIP would end up dropping their coverage over the course of 10 years. Thats about one-fifth of the policyholders, Cassidy said.

FEMA is saying that only 66% of the policies will see increases of 0 to 10 dollars per month. But this is actually a little misleading. Im looking at a quote from Lake Charles, Louisiana, from someone who does not live in a flood zone. Their policy rises from about $570 now to about $5,200 over the course of about 10 -15 years. you can say thats a long time, but hes not in a flood zone, Cassidy said in the press call.

Menendez said the statutory cap of 18% per year will result in increases that are higher than the annual 6 to 12% increases that policyholders have become accustomed to. He said that while 18% may look manageable to some in year one, it becomes very unmanageable when those 18% increases continuously compound for years to come.  In four short years, 18% compounding increases  a premium to nearly double. This is why we need the pause.

Both Cassidy and Menendez both decried what they said is the lack of transparency surrounding the roll out of Risk Rating 2.0. Neither policyholders nor insurance agents have been properly educated on the changes and the effect the new methodology will have on consumers, they said.

According to an Associated Press report, Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of Louisiana were unsuccessful with their request for rate charts showing the long-term pricing changes.

They said, We dont have that put together yet,' organization CEO Jeff Albright told the AP. How do you make that decision without having the full information?

The AP also reported that up to 80% of the 496,000 NFIP policies in Louisiana would likely see price hikes in the first year.

Its the rate increases that compound over time that will cause the actuarial disaster, Cassidy said. You have fewer policyholders that are lower risk  therefore you have to concentrate the price increases among those that are at higher risk. But progressively more of them drop coverage because they cant afford the increased premium  which continues the cycle of an actuarial death spiral.  Eventually the program becomes unsustainable.

Menendez said he supports revamping our flood insurance rating system to include the most sophisticated data including data on climate change. While I tried to give FEMA space to develop its new rating system and want to be supportive of a process to achieve that, risk rating 2.0 as it stands need to be delayed.

The senators also want Congress to fund robust mitigation to better protect homeowners from the next storm. For every dollar we spend on mitigation, the government saves six dollars on the back end. Putting the program on a path to solvency, Menendez said.

Risk Rating 2.0 represents 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 roll out 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.

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.

Topics USA Flood
The Florida Insurance Guaranty Association is urging insurers to hold off on sending homeowners policy renewals until state regulators decide if they will approve a surcharge on premiums to help cover more than $168 million in claims left from two carrier insolvencies this year.

With thousands of notices for 2022 policy renewals set to go out in the next few weeks, some insurers have begun to ask what they should do while the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation deliberates on the requested 0.7% increase in premium assessments.

Weve had a lot of calls about it, said Tom Streukens, executive director of the guaranty association, known as FIGA, which handles insurer insolvencies. Weve reached out to member companies and have asked them to stand down for now.

Streukens said Friday that he expects the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, headed by Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier, to make a ruling on the assessment in the next two weeks.

We havent heard much about it. Everyones just waiting on OIR right now, said William Stander, director of the Florida Property and Casualty Association.

FIGA requested the increased assessment in late August, after it became clear that more than 1,300 unpaid claims for the insolvent carriers would leave FIGA with a mounting deficit.

This is the first time since 2012 that FIGA has had to raise the surcharge. But with a property insurance market that has been buffeted by hurricanes and what insurers have called fraudulent assignment of benefits claims and excessive litigation, two carriers were liquidated this year: American Capital Assurance Corp., known as AmCap, and Gulfstream Property and Casualty Insurance Co. Those followed two other significant insolvencies in 2020.

In most insolvencies through the years, FIGA has been able to pay off claims without raising the surcharge, utilizing revenue from the liquidation of the carriers assets, from investment income, and from the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, FIGAs annual report explains. This year, though, with two major carriers in trouble, and perhaps more on the way, FIGA staff have warned that insolvent carriers assets werent enough to pay the bills, and the association could run out of cash by this time next year, according to Florida news reports.

The FIGA board of directors approved the 0.7% assessment increase Aug. 26, but little has been heard from Altmaier, the governor or cabinet members, who could delay or veto the assessment altogether.

The OIR did not respond to a request for comment by Friday afternoon. But if recent history is a guide, it would not be out of character for Altmaier, Floridas insurance commissioner since 2016 and current president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, to ask for a smaller surcharge.

In workers compensation insurance rate decreases, for example, Altmaier has bucked the National Council on Compensation Insurance on three of the last four filings, forcing NCCIs actuaries back to the drawing table to produce larger rate cuts.

And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has shown a willingness to block relatively minor spending increases, even when funding does not come from taxpayers. In 2020, DeSantis vetoed a bill that would have raised workers compensation judges salaries for the first time in two decades. The revenue would have come through a small fee on insurers.

For now, Florida insurers and agents have little choice but to wait and see if OIR approves the fee increase with whats known as a levy order.

We appreciate everyones patience and understand the time sensitivity for system changes required to implement FIGAs proposed assessment in advance of processing January 2022 renewals, FIGA posted on its website last week.

Streukens said its unclear what might happen if insurers start renewing policies without the assessment fee increase  if carriers could add the charge later in the policy year. With many homeowners premiums paid through escrow funds, that could get complicated, he added.

FIGA will provide members with special instructions at a later date for how to address impacted policies issued without the surcharge before the levy order was approved, FIGA wrote.

The rest of 2021 and 2022 may not be much easier for FIGA and some Florida property insurers. At a Sept. 22 Florida Senate Banking and Insurance Committee hearing, Altmaier said that his department is watching several carriers that may be in financial trouble.

Two, in particular, were keeping a very close eye on, the commissioner said.

FIGA officials are not looking forward to more insolvencies.

I hope the next one is the last one, Steukens said. But I said that about the last one.

Topics Florida
Digital managing general agency Roamly will link with Hippo-owned carrier Spinnaker Insurance Co. to sell insurance for recreational vehicle rentals.

Roamly is owned by Outdoorsy, a global online RV rental and outdoor travel marketplace. Earlier this summer, Outdoorsy raised more than $120 million in equity and debt financing to help fuel its own growth and the expansion of Roamly in the U.S. and in Europe.

Roamly provides digital insurance products for RV owners without the commercial exclusion clause that traditionally prevents online rental activity. Spinnakers platform will let Roamly underwrite and sell insurance policies for RV owners from the initial application through the handling of a claim. The arrangement lets Roamly cover RV renters who are on or off the Outdoorsy platform.

Global RV Rental/Travel Marketplace Outdoorsy to Expand Insurance Division

Why Sharing Economy Firms Just Might Be the Best Insurance Customers

In turn, this is Spinnakers debut in the RV sector, the companies said.

Spinnakers President and CEO Torben Ostergaard said that the partnership will help Roamly optimize its insurance operations and become more profitable and viable over time.

The deal makes Roamlys RV insurance available in Utah, Colorado, and Arizona, with additional states pending. Roamly already sells RV, homeowners and auto insurance through other carriers across the United States.

Source: Spinnaker/Hippo, Outdoorsy/Roamly

Topics Insurance Wholesale
A dairy in northern Colorado has been fined nearly $25,000 after the death of a worker whose truck slipped into a pit filled with liquid manure.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Shelton Land and Cattle LTD, which does business as Shelton Dairy Corp., on Sept. 24 for the March death of 44-year-old Juan Panzo Temoxtle, The Greeley Tribune reported Friday. Temoxtle was pulled from the cab of the vacuum truck and died at a nearby hospital.

Investigators say the LaSalle dairy failed to install adequate guarding or curbing to prevent vehicles from falling into the pit. OSHA also cited the company for safety violations in training to use equipment, along with failure to notify employees about hazardous chemicals used on the farm.

Shelton Dairy did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday but issued a statement earlier expressing sympathy for Temoxtles family and saying the company was cooperating with the investigation.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Agribusiness Colorado
A group of horse trailers pulls up to a trailhead outside of Carbondale, Colo. The doors open and more than 800 goats jump out onto the gravel parking lot. The goats head straight for the closest grassy hill and immediately start chomping away at the ground.

This is what these goats are here to do, eat, poop and stomp around, grinding their manure into the soil. The goats are snacking on a type of wheatgrass that once fed livestock at Sutey Ranch, which is overgrown and unappetizing to the local elk and deer.

Our hope is, if we can kick back some of these grasses, improve the soil and make room for some other more desirable plants to grow, the fields are going to be even more valuable for wildlife, said Hilary Boyd, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

This is one of the first projects goat herder Lani Malmberg has worked on with the BLM. She calls to her border collie, Rosco, to move the goats to where she needs them. Malmberg and her intern then unroll a portable electric fence around the herd, which quietly chews away at the ground.

Malmberg stays in a camper on the job site with her goats. She grew up raising cattle and went to graduate school at Colorado State University to study weed management. There, she learned that goats are good at eating weeds and clearing up pesky plants. She bought a herd of cashmere goats in 1996 to start her business managing private and public land without using pesticides or heavy machinery.

Malmbergs goats move around the country to work on different land-management projects. The animals clear noxious weeds and help with erosion control along rivers. The goats also eat brush that could fuel big wildfires, a job for which Malmberg and her herd are increasingly contracted.

Climate change is leading to hotter and drier conditions in the West and bigger and more frequent wildfires. When Malmberg and the goats finish at Sutey ranch, shell pack them up and move them to another BLM project where theyll clear oak brush near an area torched by last years Grizzly Creek fire.

Malmbergs goats were grazing that spot when the fire broke out. She said it was terrifying, she, her son and his wife, and over 1,000 goats ran down the mountain away from the flames.

The bears and mountain lions were running with us, we were all running together, Malmberg said.

Malmberg is glad to finally work with federal land managers, which control nearly half of the land in western states. She said the BLM should try new ways to care for public land with the warming and drying climate.

Boyd, the BLM wildlife biologist, wants to use the goats for another project. The agency cleared wildfire fuel from an area 15 years ago, but now those plants are starting to grow back. It may not be possible to clear that land with a controlled fire due to dry conditions and nearby homes and private land.

Were thinking that having the goats go in and eat back the brush might be the best way to maintain the treatment, Boyd said.

The goats will return to Sutey Ranch next year, and possibly for the next decade, to complete the work of restoring the former grazing land. Boyd says shes happy to work with the goats, even if the job takes a little longer.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire Colorado
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Read our full Opinion Policies here. Updated on 10/7/2020
Vicky Phelan has shared devastating news that she will no longer be receiving treatment in the US following the discovery of new tumours.

Taking to Instagram, Vicky told her followers she is no longer eligible for proton beam therapy as the new tumours are far too advanced.

Unfortunately, following a PET scan which my radiation oncologist at Georgetown University Hospital ordered, I have some new tumours.

I have two new tumours in my neck but the worrying one is a new tumour on my bowel....

This means that I am no longer eligible for proton beam therapy since my tumours are far too extensive, i.e. I have too much disease in my body for them to zap, she said.

The medical team at Georgetown University Hospital in Maryland recommended that Vicky return home to receive palliative chemotherapy.

All of this happened over the space of a few days when decisions had to be made very quickly.

With a very heavy heart, I made the decision to return home to Ireland.

I returned home earlier this week and am taking the time to reconnect with my kids and to absorb this news before I start down the chemotherapy road, Ms Phelan said.

In good news Vicky has said she hopes this new treatment will keep her alive for Christmas.

The 'good' news is that I can still have treatment and that this treatment will keep me alive until Christmas at least.

The bad news is that the treatment I am about to start on is extremely toxic and will take its toll on my body and my mind, she said.

The CervicalCheck campaigner will be taking a social media break over the coming weeks as she begins her new treatment and spends time with her family.

I will only post very sporadically. As always, I would like to thank you all so very much for your support, your kindness, your generosity, your prayers and positive messages which continue to lift me and keep me going.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly's spokesman has denied he is silencing his critics after disbanding the Slaintecare advisory council.

The implementation of Slaintecare remains full steam ahead, according to a spokesman for the health minister.

Mr Donnelly wrote to members of the council on Saturday night informing them it would be disbanded and a new group would advise the Department of Health on the six new regional health areas only, a controversial part of Slaintecare, which has so far not been implemented.

The Implementation Advisory Council has been hit by multiple resignations recently, with the departures of chairman Tom Keane, executive director Laura Magahy, and Dr Anthony O'Connor over dissatisfaction with progress in reforming Ireland's health system.

Mr Donnelly and his department's secretary general, Robert Watt, have both come under fire for their attitude towards the project and council in recent weeks.

Dr O'Connor said in his resignation letter that a meeting with Mr Watt left him feeling the project "was doomed to fail".

A spokesman for Mr Donnelly denied that the recent criticism led to the group's disbandment.

There is no delay here in terms of implementing the Slaintecare report, a spokesman for Mr Donnelly said.

Quite the opposite, its full steam ahead, he stressed, adding that 97% of the recommendations in the Slaintecare report are in progress.

Responding to the letter sent by Mr Donnelly, Social Democrats co-leader Roisin Shortall said it was an attempt to "silence" the people speaking out, and to gloss over the fact that the reform programme is being delayed and being blocked.

"They are all saying that there is no commitment within the Department of Health to implement it and senior officials are working to block it," Ms Shortall said.

"I believe those people," she added.

Liam Doran, the INMO general secretary and a member of the council, said he was not surprised when he received the letter, but he was disappointed.

He said the council had asked for a three-month extension of its term in light of "the recent difficulties".

"So it's disappointing to see that the minister, who has his prerogative, has decided not to grant our request. I'm not really surprised, I think nobody likes criticism and we obviously have been critical in recent weeks about the pace of progress and the nature of progress.

"So, not surprised but disappointed because at the end of the day, the council were set up to monitor and comment on the ongoing implementation of the totality of this Slaintecare report, that's what we've always tried to do.

Members of the council, including the chair, have said recently that they view progress as impossible because of the lack of governance and accountability and commitment. We can't ignore that.

"In our engagement over the last couple of weeks, we've had no explanation from the Government, or from senior management as to how very very excellent people like Tom Keane can arrive at that conclusion.

"But we now have a minister who has decided to dispense with our services and set up a group which has a one item agenda, of monitoring the regional health authorities, which is not the totality of Slaintecare and that of itself is disappointing as well."

A senior source indicated that some current members of the council are to definitely be transferred on to the new group, which will be smaller than the current committee, however it is not yet known how many.

Mr Donnellys letter to members stated: We must ensure we arrive at a structure that is respected by those working in our health service.

Mr Doran says he wishes "the new group well" however has concerns that the entire Slaintecare report will now not be implemented.
Health minister Stephen Donnelly has urged those most vulnerable to get the free flu vaccine as the country heads into the winter.

Mr Donnelly called on anyone eligible for a jab to ensure they were protected from the flu and said that high uptake would also help ease the toll on Irelands fragile health system.

Anyone aged 65 and over is eligible for a free flu vaccine, alongside healthcare workers and children aged between two and 17.

Pregnant women are also able to receive a free flu jab, as well as those with certain medical conditions.

As we emerge from the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is vital to remember that there are other viruses that can take an enormous toll upon the most at-risk in our society, as well as those working in our healthcare system," Stephen Donnelly said.

Mr Donnelly also said that people should take the vaccine as soon as its offered to them.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly (Niall Carson/PA)

A flu vaccine will protect those aged over 65 from the very worst effects of flu. For healthcare workers, getting vaccinated means protecting themselves, their patients, and their families," he added.

Last year we saw encouraging uptake among healthcare workers and my hope is that this trend will continue this year.

Between 200 and 500 people die from flu each winter.

Health officials are reminding people that the flu vaccine does not protect against Covid-19.

Dr Aparna Keegan, from the HSEs National Immunisation Office, said that flu is a serious illness.

Although the severity of the flu season can vary, we know that people aged 65 and over are most likely to impacted and have an increased likelihood of severe illness, being admitted into hospital or dying from flu when compared to the general population.

The flu vaccine is the best protection against flu this winter.

Ireland has among the highest rates of Covid-19 vaccine take-up in Europe, with more than 91% of over-16s fully vaccinated.

The country has now moved to offering a booster vaccine to some vulnerable groups.

Health officials have said that it is safe to get the Covid-19 vaccine at the same time as a flu jab.
The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission wants the High Court to permit it to make submissions in two lead challenges to the final report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes.

The lead cases are by retired nurse Philomena Lee, 88, who lives in England, and by Galway-based Mary Harney, 72, both former residents of mother and baby homes.

Both will be heard in November.

Dealing on Monday with case management issues, Mr Justice Garrett Simons said he would hear IRHECs application on Friday.

The commission wants to be joined to the cases as an amicus curiae, an assistant to the court on legal issues.

Patricia Brazil BL, for IRHEC, said both applicants were consenting to the commissions application and the State respondents were neutral, with the effect the application was unopposed.

The judge made directions for the exchange of further legal documents in preparation for the hearing of the lead cases on November 17 and 18.

He was told by Katherine Donnelly SC, for the State respondents, they will file further short affidavits.

The three cases are among a number of challenges brought over the commissions report. File picture: Andy Newman

The judge also made directions concerning an application for discovery of documents in a third case, that of Mari Steed.

The discovery application, by Siobhan Phelan SC, for Ms Steed, will be heard on November 19. A core issue in that regard concerns the ambit of section 12 of the Commission of Investigation Act 2004 which deals with the commissions power to make a decision to share information with a person who has given evidence to it.

Number of challenges

The three cases are among a number of challenges brought over the commissions report.

The lead cases will address a core claim in all cases concerning the ambit of section 34 of the 2004 act.

The applicants claim section 34 required them, as persons unnamed but allegedly identifiable in the commissions final report, to be given the commissions draft report and the opportunity to make submissions on that. The failure to do that breaches section 34 and their fundamental rights under the Constitution and European Convention on Human Rights, they claim.

The challenges are against the Minister for Children, the Government, Ireland and the Attorney General.

The applicants claim the final report does not accurately reflect their evidence to it and breaches their rights to fair procedures and natural and constitutional justice. Other issues include the nature of a redress scheme and the constitutionality of provisions of the 2004 Act.

Philomena Lee

Philomena Lee was sent to the Sean Ross Abbey Mother and Baby Home in Roscrea, Co Tipperary, when she became pregnant aged 18. When her son was aged three, he was sent for adoption by a US couple. Her life was subject of a book, The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, by Martin Sixsmith, and a film, Philomena, directed by Stephen Frears and starring Judi Dench.

Her solicitor Wendy Lyon, of Abbey Law, said in an affidavit the commissions findings included there was no evidence for the opinion of some women their consent to adoption was not full, free and informed.

Ms Lees evidence was that she was not given any time to consider a document which she was told to sign and which relinquished her rights to her son, Ms Lyon said.

Mary Harney

Mary Harney, born in the Bessborough Home in Cork in 1949, claims she is readily identifiable in the commissions report and was thus entitled to an opportunity to make submissions on the findings. File picture: Laura Hutton/RollingNews.ie

Mary Harney, born in the Bessborough Home in Cork in 1949, claims she is readily identifiable in the commissions report and was thus entitled to an opportunity to make submissions on the findings concerning her in the draft report. Had she had that opportunity, she could have said the commission should not have omitted evidence she gave to it of abuse and neglect while boarded out between 1951 and 1954, she claims.

Mari Steed

Mari Steed, of Virginia, US, born in the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home, Cork, in 1960, and adopted by an American family in 1961, claims her rights were damaged by being subject to the Quadrivax vaccine trial while in Bessborough. She says she was entitled to an opportunity to address the commissions finding there was no evidence of injury to the relevant children as a result of the vaccines.
Burma Global Charity Warns Thousands of Displaced Myanmar Children Facing Starvation

A displacement camp in Kayah State. / Free Burma Ranger Karenni

A large proportion of more than 76,000 children in Myanmar who have been forced to flee their homes since the February coup could go hungry as their families share a single meal per day, Save the Children has warned.

Citing the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, the charity said on Monday that around 206,000 people have been displaced by violence since the coup.

Of them, 76,000 are children and many are sheltering in forests during torrential rain under tarpaulins without enough food, it reported.

While the worlds attention has moved on, a hunger crisis is unfolding in Myanmar, Save the Children said. Children are already going hungry and very soon they will start to succumb to disease and malnutrition.

Myanmar is seeing growing popular resistance to military rule in response to attacks on peaceful protests.

The junta has retaliated with brutal raids on villages suspected of harboring resistance fighters while torching houses and making arbitrary arrests, particularly in Sagaing and Magwe regions, Chin and Kayah states.

While the displaced people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and food, delivery of aid is often blocked or restricted by the junta.

A volunteer at a displacement camp in Kayah State said hunger was a huge concern for displaced families.

In the beginning, they received public donations or from charities that were helping people in the camps. But now donations are limited because people are being prevented from going to the camps. Some rice bags were donated and every family got just five cups. Thats not much for a family of seven people to live off, the volunteer told Save the Children.

In Kayah State, around 22,000 people fled their homes in September alone, according to the UN, which said more than 79,000 people, including around 29,000 children, are displaced in the state.

Earlier this year, the World Food Programme estimated that the number of children in the country going hungry could more than double to 6.2 million this year, up from 2.8 million in February.



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Burma Myanmar Junta Rebuffs ASEAN Request to Meet Suu Kyi

Erywan Yusof addresses the United Nations General Assemblys seventy-fourth session in 2019. / UN Photo

Myanmars military regime has rejected a request for a meeting later this month between the countrys ousted leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) special envoy to Myanmar.

Instead of meeting with the detained State Counselor, ASEAN envoy Erywan Yusof has been offered a meeting with former Vice President Henry Van Thio and the former Lower House speaker T Khun Myat, sources said.

ASEANs envoy has been in talks with the regime since last month over the terms of a visit to Myanmar. Top of his list was a request to talk to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Myanmars military seized power from the Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy (NLD) government in a February 1 coup.

Erywan Yusof, Bruneis Second Minister for Foreign Affairs, was chosen as ASEANs special envoy to Myanmar in August after lengthy wrangling. He has called for full access to all parties when he visits the country, but his efforts to open dialogue between the military regime and the ousted government have failed so far.

There is an urgent need to go now to Myanmar. But I think before all that, I need to have assurances, the envoy told Reuters last month.

The envoy added that he has asked the State Administration Council  the juntas ruling body  for access to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

In September, the regimes spokesperson Major General Zaw Min Tun told AFP, We will allow meetings with official organizations.

Erywan Yusof plans to visit Myanmar this month, ahead of an ASEAN summit later this month. But the regime has reportedly told him that he will only be allowed to meet Henry Van Thio and T Khun Myat.

Both Henry Van Thio, an ethnic Chin former army officer, and T Khun Myat, an ethnic Kachin, are under house arrest, although no charges have been brought against the men. T Khun Myat previously served as an executive member of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party.

With most of the NLDs leadership in detention, it is expected that they will not support the ASEAN envoy meeting Henry Van Thio and T Khun Myat.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, 76, is being detained by the junta at an unknown location in Myanmars capital Naypyitaw. She faces a raft of charges including breaching COVID-19 regulations, sedition, illegal possession of walkie-talkies and a number of corruption cases.



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Burma Myanmars Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Says Ex-Ministers Bribe Claim Absurd

Currently detained State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi addresses a meeting at the National Reconciliation and Peace Centre, which she chaired, in January 2017. / The Irrawaddy

Myanmars detained leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has denied testimony from one of her ousted governments chief ministers that she took a bribe from him, dismissing his claims as all absurd, according to her lawyers.

Testifying as a civilian witness, detained Yangon Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein told the court last week that he paid her US$600,000 and 7 viss (11.4 kg) of gold. The regime has charged Daw Aung San Suu Kyi with corruption.

She said she didnt take anything [from him], and he didnt pay her the gold or dollars, U Kyi Win, one of her lawyers, quoting her as saying. Daw Aung San Suu Kyis legal team met with her for a few minutes on Monday before her trial hearings. She is facing 11 charges, including corruption charges, brought by the junta since her arrest following the coup in February.

She said U Phyo Min Thein was likely to have been forced [by the junta] to say so under detention, the lawyer said.

Another lawyer said, All absurd is what Daw Aung San Suu Kyi commented about the testimony.

The chief minister has been detained by the regime since February.

In March, the regime released a video that it claimed proved the graft allegation against detained State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. In the video, U Phyo Min Thein says he went to meet Daw Aung San Suu Kyi at least three times to give her the money and gold between December 2017 and March 2018. But the video met with public skepticism as the chief ministers lip movements were not synchronized with the audio.

On Friday, however, he appeared before the court and repeated what he said in the video, becoming the first plaintiff witness against her from the National League for Democracy (NLD). U Phyo Min Thein was a member of the Central Executive Committee of the party led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Unlike other senior NLD leaders and chief ministers, he has not faced any legal charges from the junta.



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Burma Some 100 Junta Troops Killed in a Day in Clashes Across Myanmar

Regime security forces search for supporters of the administrative body set up by elected lawmakers from the ousted NLD government.

About 100 junta soldiers were killed during fighting in a single day in Sagaing, Magwe and Tanintharyi regions on Sunday.

The Defense Ministry of Myanmars shadow National Unity Government (NUG) stated in a recent briefing that 37 attacks against junta targets were carried out on Sunday by local Peoples Defense Forces (PDFs) formed by civilian resistance fighters. During the attacks, the military suffered heavy losses with a total of 96 of its troops dead, the ministry stated.

Those included firefights with junta troops, bombings of military convoys, and raids on security outposts and military-owned businesses.

Myanmars junta is facing increasing attacks from armed resistance volunteers and ethnic armed groups across the country after the NUGs declaration of the start of a peoples defensive war on the regime on Sept. 7.

Since then, junta forces have also escalated inspections, arrests, raids and violence, including burning down and bombarding residential areas, especially in the resistance strongholds of Sagaing and Magwe regions and Chin and Kayah states.

According to the ministrys briefing, the junta suffered its heaviest losses over the weekend in Pale Township, Sagaing Region, where twin attacks on a military convoy in the township left 61 soldiers dead.

The Pale PDF also attacked a military convoy of more than 80 vehicles carrying reinforcements to the township on Monday morning. Five of the 80 vehicles were damaged and several soldiers were killed during the attack, in which 27 landmines were triggered, according to the groups announcement.

And in Sagaings Kale Township, PDF-Kale also attacked a military convoy with two landmines on Sunday morning. During the attacks, one soldier was killed and at least three were injured according to the PDF-Kale.

At around 11 a.m., a combined force of the group and the Chin National Defense Force (CNDF) ambushed a group of military vehicles. During the shootout, 10 junta soldiers were killed. On the civilian force side, one was injured, the PDF-Kale stated in its announcement.

In Gangaw of Magwe Region, nine soldiers were killed as local civilian resistance fighters ambushed troops returning from setting fire to internally displaced persons camps, the NUG said.

An attack also occurred in Putao, Kachin State, in which the local PDF attacked a security gate as a warning amid reports of a possible trip to the township by coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.

Attacks were also reported in places including Monywa, Sagaing Region; Mawgyun, Ayeyarwady Region; Wetlet, Sagaing; Yesagyo, Magwe Region; Thongwa, Yangon Region; and Thayatchaung, Tanintharyi Region.

Since the Feb. 1 coup, the junta has killed more than 1,154 people during crackdowns, arrests, interrogations, raids and random shootings, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners reported on Monday.

Over 8,700 people, including elected leaders, protesters, striking civil servants and student activists have been detained by the junta or face arrest warrants.



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REA Group is one of the most recent members of the Tech Council of Australia (TCA).

"We're excited to join the TCA and proud to support its goals of creating one million tech jobs by 2025 and contributing $250bn to the economy by 2030," said REA Group CEO Owen Wilson.

"The opportunity for continued growth of the sector is great. We look forward to working with other members to help shape Australia's digital future together."

REA Group CTO Chris Venter said "As a home-grown business, we look forward to working with the TCA to focus on initiatives that support the growth of, and investment in, Australia's tech sector. Importantly we want to generate more tech jobs and pathways into them, while creating space for innovation and boosting the growth of the tech sector."

The TCA now has 60 members ranging from start-ups to multinationals.

The 25 foundation members of the TCA include Afterpay, Airtasker, Atlassian, Canva, Deputy, Google, Microsoft, and Stripe. They were subsequently joined 35 other companies including Airwallex, AWS, Finder, LinkedIn, Telstra Ventures, and WiseTech.
Australias tech industry peak body the Australian Information Industry Association has welcomed the federal governments new tech and industry sector ministerial appointments and the prospect of the Ministers working closely together and engaging with the industry.

The AIIIA CEO Ron Gauci welcomed the appointment of Melissa Price for the Science and Technology portfolio and Angus Taylor for the Industry portfolio.

As Australias peak body for the technology industry, the AIIA welcomes Morrison Governments new ministerial appointments: The Hon Melissa Price MP for the Science and Technology portfolio and The Hon Angus Taylor MP for the Industry portfolio.

We look forward to working with both Minister Price and Minister Taylor over the coming months. Although technology will be spread across several portfolios we know that this will be a successful reshuffle; if Ministers continue to work closely together and engage with industry and our Association on behalf of its members.

We also recognise that the sharing of the Defense and Technology portfolios is a strategic move, given the key role technology will continue to play in protecting our country. The AUKUS pact demonstrates that technology is a strategic capability and we agree that AI, cyber and Quantum should be strategic priorities for Australia which highlights why an alignment with the Technology portfolio and Defence prescient decision.

Also, there is the potential for additional synergies by bringing Science and Technology under one minister. Australia already does R&D commercialisation so well and if these changes lead to some greater policy focus in this area then we would welcome it. The AIIA remains committed to working with the Government to ensure a thriving digital ecosystem that will position Australia as a leader globally in innovation technology, Gauci said.

Gauci noted that last month, the AIIA released its White Paper Growing Globally Competitive Industries: Powered by Australias innovation technology, challenging the countrys most influential decision makers to seize the opportunity for significant economic growth.

We remind the ministers that Australias ability to innovate and support innovation of digital technologies will determine our economic future.

ICT is now Australias third-largest industry and touches all Australians. If we are to remain a nation of producers and not simply consumers. Now is the time to act.

Australias ongoing prosperity depends on its ability to innovate, requiring strong leadership with clear policies and strategies in place. With the ICT sector at the heart of every industry, we must support our innovators and ensure Australia can retain ownership of our brilliant creations and ensure we do not fall behind our international peers.
The Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will lead a lineup of corporate leaders, politicians, bankers and economists at global investment bank Citis virtual annual Australia and New Zealand Investment Conference later this month.

Billed by Citi as Australias largest Investment Conference, the online conference willl take place on 13 and 14 October and feature other speakers including former US Treasury Secretary, Larry Summers and former Foreign Minister of Australia Julie Bishop.

The two-day event will be opened by Citis CEO, Jane Fraser, and will host over 1500 institutional investors, fund managers, CEOs, and CFOs from Australia, New Zealand and around the globe.

Citi says attendees will hear from a range of corporate leaders, prominent politicians, central bankers and economists, addressing crucial macro-economic issues, and providing in-depth, sector-based analysis into areas like healthcare, property, infrastructure and ESG.

Citi Australia and New Zealand CEO Marc Luet, says the conference is uniquely timed at a critical point for Australia and the Asia Pacific region.

Theres no doubt that COVID-19 has changed our lives. But even as we navigate the impact of the pandemic and begin re-opening the economy, its clear that a recovery is underway.

Sustainability themes have risen to the top of the political and financial agenda; and technology and e-commerce is helping companies experience unprecedented growth. Citi estimates the global economy is expected to rebound by 5.8% this year, following the 3.5% contraction in 2020. Investors are eager to understand these developments and the opportunities they present.

Other speakers presenting at the Citi Investment Conference include Reserve Bank of New Zealands Deputy Governor, Geoff Bascand, Schonfeld CEO and CIO, Ryan Tolkin and Foreign Investment Review Board Chair, David Irvine.

Citi says its leading global analysts on, equities, debt, currencies and commodities will also share their insights and trade ideas, and panel discussions will explore a range of topics including Healthcare: The way forward with Covid; Banks: Strong House Prices, Regulatory Intervention and the Competitive Dynamic: Infrastructure: The Electrification of Everything; REITs: The Structural Change in the Way we work and Mining: Decarbonisation in the resources sector, how do we get there?
FILE - In this Tuesday Sept. 28, 2021 file photo, smoke billows from an apartment building after an explosion in Annedal, central Gothenburg, Sweden. Swedish police said Thursday Sept. 30, 2021, they are seeking a man in connection with an explosion and fire at a large apartment building this week that injured 16 people, four of them seriously.
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.
THE ISAACS CONTINUE TO SOAR IN 2021



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October 4, 2021
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The 20th anniversary of 9/11 and of the global war on terror coincides with a momentous national movement for racial justice in the U.S. These milestones are linked, but efforts to address them remain largely isolated from each other. A carefully devised transitional justice process could offer an effective framework to address how the militarization of U.S. foreign policy and domestic policing are mutually reinforcing. It would also facilitate a reckoning with the deadly consequences.

Efforts to establish a transitional justice process in the U.S. have thus far been overwhelmingly focused on historical harms inflicted within U.S. borders. These include the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Maine-Wabanaki Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and a recently re-introduced resolution to establish a national U.S. truth commission for racial healing.

But can we separate the violent impact of American foreign policy from the violence of American domestic policing when drawing up a transitional justice plan for the U.S.? Many argue that they are inseparable. This includes American scholars, U.S. army veterans, former police officers, federal prosecutors, and advisors at the Department of Homeland Security.

Such experts draw attention to the ways in which the militarization of U.S. foreign policy has worsened domestic policing practices, especially since 9/11. Both are typically driven by national security priorities. Both are also driven by the racialization of U.S. and non-U.S. citizens at home and abroad.

Victims of U.S. foreign policy are in and outside the U.S.

American police officers have increasingly used military-grade weapons, including attack helicopters and armored vehicles, for everyday police patrolling that disproportionately targets Black and other marginalized communities. Police departments receive military training, which has led many of them to act with the mentality of soldiers, as opposed to that of peace officers. One stark example is that of collaboration between U.S. law enforcement agencies and the Israeli military, which, as human rights attorney Noura Erakat explains, has involved thousands of US police officers traveling to Israel to receive training in counter-terrorism methods. Erakat points to race as a major underlying driver of such practices, whereby Israeli officers train US law enforcement officers  responsible for peacetime order  in methods that Israel applies to Palestinians, whom it considers a foreign and enemy population.

It is time to devise a transitional justice process in the U.S. that addresses such direct as well as indirect linkages between American domestic policing and U.S. foreign policy. Calls for a national reckoning with systemic racism in the U.S. must address the impact of post-9/11 foreign policy on the militarization of domestic law enforcement, including policing of racialized communities in the U.S. Failure to do so would result in a transitional justice process that produces an amputated picture of historical injustices in the U.S., risking the repetition of policies that fuel racial inequality and injustice.

Victims of U.S. foreign policy reside both within and beyond U.S. borders. Since 9/11, over 929,000 people were killed as a result of direct violence in the U.S.-led war on terror. Brown Universitys Costs of War project estimates that several times as many have been killed by indirect effects of the war, and that 38 million people were displaced or became refugees.

Addressing collective amnesia on the pre-9/11 world

In addition to the militarization of U.S. law enforcement agencies across the U.S., the USA Patriot Act and other surveillance laws have vastly expanded the powers of domestic law enforcement agencies to monitor, racially profile, and detain individuals suspected of involvement in terrorist activity. Mass incarceration is another practice that cannot be understood without considering how policing is often shaped by race as opposed to public safety. The U.S. has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, whereby black people and other people of colour are at a much greater risk of being imprisoned compared to white people.

None of this is news to anyone  the history of systemic racism in the U.S. and its impact on law enforcement practices are well documented. But policymakers, and transitional justice practitioners in particular, must examine national security policies that target Americans and non-Americans at home, as well as those abroad, as inextricable. As Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law Asli Bali puts it, dismantling the structures of racist policing at home will require recognizing the continuum of security state violence that connects domestic policing, border enforcement and Americas ever-expanding military footprint abroad.

Of course, the newness of the post-9/11 world has been rightly challenged. Upendra Baxi, Professor of Law at University of Warwick, UK, sums it up by stating that the myth the 9/11 attacks were new in world history reduces many histories of multiple terrorisms to a single date. This leads to a collective amnesia regarding the pre-9/11 world. It is this collective amnesia that transitional justice  and indeed a national truth commission  could and should seek to redress.

Race as a central factor

The Black Lives Matter movement and its allies are crucial actors in redressing this societal amnesia by asserting the importance of a serious reckoning with historical and complex injustices.

For instance, in her 2016 article, Witness Against Torture, Guantanamo and Solidarity as Resistance, Colgate University Assistant Professor of Sociology Chandra Russo underscores the importance of solidarity movements that focus both on domestic policing and U.S. military practices abroad. Witness Against Torture (WAT), a group of U.S. citizens who advocate for Guantanamo Bay detainees, allied itself with the Black Lives Matter movement to link torture and detention abroad to the murderous policing and hyper-incarceration of black and brown communities throughout the U.S., exposing the deep hold of US racial despotism.

Through such alliances, the inhumane practices of American policing at home powerfully demonstrate the regimes of capture, incarceration and torture that undergird the US national security state.

A national truth commission and a broader transitional justice process that prioritizes accountability, reparations, and reform, would bolster the chances for such anti-racist solidarity to translate into policy.

As a movement that requires both looking back and looking forward, transitional justice could serve as a framework that exposes race, and not security nor public safety, as a major driver of harmful domestic policing and surveillance as well as destructive counter-terrorism wars abroad.

Expanding the reach of a national truth commission

But is transitional justice equipped to pursue such a task?

Few transitional justice initiatives address the transnational impact of crimes committed by state and non-state actors. Designing a transitional justice process in a way that takes into account the complex interplay of domestic and foreign policies and how they perpetrate crimes against those who reside within and outside the U.S. is no small feat, but it is possible.

Representative Barbara Lees resolution to establish a national truth, racial healing and transformation commission in the U.S. is gaining support among the movements supporters both in government and outside of it. Such a truth commission should establish a committee that documents how the militarization of foreign policy has in turn militarized domestic policing in the U.S. with deadly consequences.

Such documentation would serve as a powerful way to expose, memorialize, and reckon with individual stories about how domestic policing and U.S. foreign policy have impacted the daily lives of the most disadvantaged in the U.S. Through televised or streamed live hearings, it would engage with history in a way that recognizes and addresses that Americas actions abroad are intertwined with how it polices its own people within its borders. It would, ultimately, lead to more effective truth-seeking, accountability, reform, and historical narratives that better represent the contexts within which injustices are perpetrated.

Recommended reading How Bidens America can reverse its course on international justice
War crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Libya since 2016, a United Nations investigation revealed on Monday.

The Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya, commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council, said migrants and detainees were particularly exposed to violations.

There are reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes have been committed in Libya, while violence perpetrated in prisons and against migrants there may amount to crimes against humanity, the mission said in a statement.

The unrest in the north African country has had a dramatic impact on Libyans economic, social and cultural rights, as borne by attacks on hospitals and schools.

All parties to the conflicts, including third states, foreign fighters and mercenaries, have violated international humanitarian law, in particular the principles of proportionality and distinction, and some have also committed war crimes, said Mohamed Auajjar, who chaired the three-person mission.

The mission said it had identified individuals and groups  both Libyan and foreign  who may bear responsibility for the violations, abuses and crimes.

However, it said the list would remain confidential until it could be shared with appropriate accountability mechanisms.

Though the Libyan judicial authorities are investigating most of the cases documented in the report, the process faces significant challenges, the experts said.

In June 2020, the Human Rights Council  the UNs top rights body  adopted a resolution calling for a fact-finding mission to be sent to Libya. The move had Tripolis support.

The experts, appointed in August last year, were charged with investigating alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law and international humanitarian law committed in Libya since 2016.

Auajjar was joined by and fellow human rights experts Chaloka Beyani and Tracy Robinson.

They gathered and reviewed hundreds of documents, interviewed more than 150 individuals and conducted investigations in Libya, Tunisia and Italy.

Their report documents the recruitment and direct participation of children in hostilities, plus the enforced disappearance and extrajudicial killings of prominent women.

Oil-rich Libya has been torn by conflict since the 2011 toppling and killing of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in a NATO-backed uprising, with rival administrations vying for power.

The experts said anti-personnel mines left by mercenaries in residential areas have killed and maimed civilians.

Meanwhile migrants seeking passage across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe are subjected to a litany of abuses in detention centres and at the hands of traffickers, said Beyani.

Violations are committed on a widespread scale by state and non-state actors, with a high level of organisation and with the encouragement of the state  all of which is suggestive of crimes against humanity, the Zambian expert said.
As ties with France deteriorate, many in Algeria blame electioneering by President Emmanuel Macron, but analysts say he is also disappointed that his overtures to the former colony failed.

Algeria over the weekend recalled its ambassador from Paris and banned French military planes from its airspace, which France regularly uses to reach its forces battling jihadists in the Sahel region.

That came after a bitter row over visas, followed by media reports that Macron had told descendents of Algerias war of independence that the North African country was ruled by a political-military system that had totally re-written its history.

Journalist Ali Bahmane wrote in Algerias French-language daily El Watan that Macron was desperately trying to win April elections.

To do this, he is taking the foolish risk of getting lost in issues of extreme sensitivity, such as French colonisation in Algeria (in order) to win over part of the right and the extreme right.

Hassen Kacimi, an Algerian expert on migration, told AFP that politics in France is caught up in election campaigning, Macron included.

The atmosphere is dominated by far-right discourse ahead of the April polls, he said.

Relations between France and Algeria have never left the racist prism of colonist/coloniser which has always treated Algeria with condescension and mistrust.

Many Algerians on social media agreed, accusing Macron of using Algeria to undercut extreme-right rivals such as pundit Eric Zemmour.

 No repentance 

But for Geneva-based expert Hasni Abidi, Macrons comments also reflect his disappointment at Algerias unenthusiastic response to attempts to turn the page on Frances past in Algeria, which it occupied from 1830 until 1962.

Macron is first French president to be born after the end of Algerias eight-year war of independence.

He has made several overtures to the country, including repatriating the skulls of decapitated Algerian resistance fighters, admitting colonial authorities use of torture and even, in his 2017 election campaign, calling the occupation a crime against humanity.

Last year he tasked experts with drafting a report aimed at forging reconciliation, with historian Benjamin Stora recommending that symbolic acts be taken.

But the presidency later said there was no question of showing repentance or apologising for Frances colonial past.

Algeria slammed the report as lacking objectivity, saying it contained no official recognition by France of war crimes and crimes against humanity it carried out during the 130 years it occupied Algeria.

The report was meant to ease ties, but in the end contributed to a rise in tensions, Abidi said.

Macrons latest comments, he said, would anger not just the Algerian authorities but also many Algerians.

Many in the Algerian press have warned that ties with France could worsen.

Daily newspaper Liberte said relations between Paris and Algiers had never seen such a deterioration, despite regular episodes of turbulence, it said.

Abdelaziz Rahabi, an Algerian ex-minister and former diplomat, said Macron had seen Algeria as a client and security partner for the first four years of his mandate but was now treating it as a scarecrow.

Abderrahim argued however that Macrons comments make some sense.

He said out loud what Algerians have been saying for years now, especially since the Hirak (pro-democracy movement), he said, referring to mass pro-democracy protests that rocked Algeria in early 2019 and forced the resignation of longtime strongman Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

The official Algerian response to Macrons comments amounts to a new attempt by the regime to play on nationalist feelings, he said.
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Armed drones have been around for many years, and their use, especially by armed forces of countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, has grown as part of what is known as the war on terror. But civil society has complained again and again that civilians in places like Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen are dying in wrongly-targeted drone strikes. Now a top US military commander apologised for a mistaken drone strike in Afghanistan.

Is this now time for a real discussion about the principles of transparency and state obligations to follow the laws of war when deploying armed drones?

We brought a couple of women who are real experts in this area together to talk about it. They helped us to understand the size and shape of whats been happening, and consider whether advocacy can challenge the secrecy of security policies.

Jessica Dorsey is Assistant Professor at the University of Utrecht, Associate Fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism and Managing Editor of Opinio Juris. Heres a recent paper she co-wrote for Chatham House on drones. Aditi Gupta is the director of the all-party parliamentary group on drones and deputy director of the UK chapter of Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security.
Authorities in Libya on Monday announced the discovery of 10 bodies in a new mass grave in Tarhuna, the latest morbid find after years of rule by the notorious Kaniyat militia.

Two sites were discovered. Four unidentified bodies were extracted from the first and six from the second, the department charged with searching for remains said in a statement.

It also published pictures showing a number of holes in what it said was a local landfill site, adding that it expected to unearth more bodies.

The grim discovery came as a UN fact-finding mission found that all parties to Libyas decade-long conflict have violated international humanitarian law since 2016, with some possibly guilty of war crimes.

Mass graves were initially discovered in Tarhuna in June 2020 following the withdrawal of forces of Khalifa Haftar, an eastern Libya-based military chief who had spent a year trying to seize the western capital Tripoli, 80 kilometres (50 miles) northwest of Tarhuna.

The farming town was since 2015 ruled by the Haftar-allied Kaniyat militia, run by six brothers who systematically executed not only their opponents but their entire families.

After starting their reign of terror in 2015, the militia often abducted, detained, tortured, killed, and disappeared people who opposed them or who were suspected of doing so, according to residents testimonies cited by Human Rights Watch.

Haftar used Tarhuna as a rear base for his aborted attack on Tripoli, and more than 150 bodies have been found since his forces withdrawal in 2020.

Members of the Kaniyat have been sanctioned by the United States and Britain.

Their chief Mohamed al-Kani was shot dead in the eastern city of Benghazi in July and others are rumoured to have fled east or abroad, reports that are not possible to verify.

Libya has seen a decade of violence since the fall in 2011 of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in a NATO-backed rebellion, with a myriad of militias and foreign forces becoming involved.

A ceasefire between eastern and western powers after Haftars defeat last year paved the way for a UN-led political transition, with a unity government taking power this year to lead Libya to elections.
IBERIA PARISH, La. (KADN) - An Abbeville man reported missing Saturday by his family was later found dead in a single-vehicle crash.

Louisiana State Police said that Joshua Dean Meaux, 34, died after crashing on his motorocycle on Jefferson Island Road at Rip Van Winkle Road in Iberia Parish.

LSP was alerted to a single-vehicle crash Sunday evening.

Investigators determined that Meaux was driving a 2006 Harley-Davidson south on Jefferson Island Road when "he failed to negotiate a left curve and exited the roadway to the right."

LSP said that Meaux was thrown from the motorcycle, which then was fully submerged in a coulee.

Meaux was wearing an approved helmet at the time of the crash but died at the scene.

The crash remains under investigation.
Kim Yoo Jung celebrated her birthday in the most meaningful way.

The former child star turned one of the most sought-after leading ladies, chose to spend her special day by sharing her blessings to underprivileged children in Korea.

Kim Yoo Jung Made Meaningful Donation to ChildFund Korea

According to a media outlet, the international non-government organization ChildFund Korea or Green Umbrella Children's Foundation recently revealed the 22-year-old beauty's charitable activity.

Kim Yoo Jung, whose birthday falls on September 22, has donated $25,413 or 30 million won for the organization.

In the report, ChildFund Korea president Lee Je Hoon shared in an official statement how "grateful" they are for the "Backstreet Rookie" actress who "has warm-heartedly participated in giving."

"We at ChildFund Korea will join her in making it possible for young children in danger who are victims of crime to recover and return to their everyday lives," the organization's president said as obtained by the outlet.

Kim Yoo Jung's donation will cover the living and medical expenses of the victims for their continued recovery.

Interestingly, this isn't the first time that the actress extended her help to the kids.

During the surge of the global crisis in the country, the 22-year-old celebrity donated a generous amount for children in low-income households affected by COVID-19 and the expenses of medical treatment of young patients under the organization.

Kim Yoo Jung's New Drama' Lovers of the Red Sky'

Kim Yoo Jung appears in SBS "Lovers of the Red Sky" opposite Ahn Hyo Seop.

The historical fantasy Kdrama follows the story of Hong Cheong Gi (Kim Yoo Jung), a female painter who is born blind but manages to gain her sight through the goddess of life, Sam Shin.

Her life and fate intertwined with Ha Ram (Ahn Hyo Seop), the son of the Taoist priest who got blind during the rain ceremony.

Years later, Cheong Gi, who is now the sole female painter at the palace, meets Ha Ram, who turned out to be a skilled astrologer.

Apart from their reunion, the duo's budding romance will be interfered with by grand prince Yang Myeong, played by Gong Myung, as he shows deep interest in the female painter.

Kim Yoo Jung Share Thoughts on 'Lovers of the Red Sky'

During the drama's press conference, the actress spoke about landing another character in a historical series.

Kim Yoo Jung mentioned how fascinated she is at Hong Cheong Gi's strong personality.

"I think Hong Chun Gi's character has great merit. Along with 'the only woman female painter' and 'a rare beauty,' there is the fact that she courageously lives on and is different from other female characters in historical dramas. I was fascinated by the way she solved some things with the other characters."

Ahn Hyo Seop and Kim Yoo Jung's "Lovers of the Red Sky" is currently airing every Monday and Tuesday at 10 p.m. KST through SBS and Viki.

KDramastars owns this article

Written by Geca Wills
Two weeks after the record-breaking series premiered on Netflix, some of the actors Jung Ho Yeon, Wi Ha Joon, Lee Yoo Mi, and Lee Jung Jun became instant celebrities and gained millions of followers on Instagram.

'Squid Game' Stars Lee Jung Jae and Park Hae Soo Opened Instagram Accounts

As much as the viewers enjoyed the "Squid Game" hype, the cast of the Kdrama also started to recognize and give back all the love and support to the fans by regularly making updates on their social media accounts.

Two of "Squid Game" lead actors, Lee Jung Jae and Park Hae Soo became instant tech-savvy as they officially launched their Instagram accounts last October 2.

Due to the increasing popularity of their series, the two respected actors wanted to show their gratitude to the fans for their never-ending support. Lee Jung Jae and Park Hae Soo are now ready to show more of their behind-the-scenes to the public.

Just two days after he opened his Instagram account, Lee Jung Jae's followers are now near 1.5 million! Meanwhile, Park Hae Soo's account now has 800,000 followers.

The "Chief of Staff" star posted his first-ever selfie (selca) on his newly launched account. In less than two days, Lee Jung Jae's photo already gained 1.4 million reactions on Instagram. Many were delighted to see the actor use social media as a platform to communicate with fans all across the globe.

Lee Jung Jae Teases Fans with His First Directorial Film 'Hunt' with Jung Woo Sung'

On October 3, Lee Jung Jae shared a behind-the-scenes clip on his first directorial project along with a real-life friend, actor, and business partner, Jung Woo Sung. The two actors were seen goofing around while on break at work. The "Squid Game" actor is expected to make his much-awaited directorial debut with the movie "Hunt."

Jung Ho Yeon Surpasses 12.5 Million Instagram Followers

Starlet and "Squid Game" actress Jung Ho Yeon also achieved another milestone. From 6 million followers, she now has 12.5 million followers and counting on Instagram. She is now the fastest South Korean artist to ever reach this kind of mind-blowing following.

It has been said the model-turned-actress beats "Now, We Are Breaking Up" star Song Hye Kyo as the most followed South Korean actress on Instagram.

What can you say about Lee Jung Jae and Jung Woo Sung's upcoming film "Hunt"? Let us know in the comments!

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news and updates, keep your tabs open here at Kdramastars.

Kdramastars owns this article.

Written by Shai Collins.
An oil pipeline off the coast of Southern California has spewed more than 100,000 gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean, coating local wildlife habitats, shutting down a swath of popular beaches and potentially harming human health.

The leak appears to have stopped and oil removal efforts are underway, officials said Sunday.

The breach, reported Saturday, occurred about 5 miles off the coast of Huntington Beach in Orange County, spilling the equivalent of an estimated 3,000 barrels -- or 126,000 gallons -- of post-production crude, local officials said.

Divers have been inspecting the 17-mile pipeline, hoping to find its exact source. The leak's cause remains unknown.

By Sunday night, about 3,150 gallons of oil had been removed from the water and over a mile of oil boom -- floating barriers designed to contain an oil spill -- were deployed, the US Coast Guard said at that time.

'Fourteen boats conducted oil recovery operations Sunday afternoon,' the Coast Guard said. 'Four aircraft were dispatched for overflight assessments. Shoreside response was conducted by 105 government agency personnel.'

Because of the spill, Orange County health officials advised residents to avoid recreational activities on the coastline and recommended that people who may have encountered the oil seek medical attention. Effects of oil or dispersants on people could include eye and skin irritation, headache and vomiting, with children and older people more at risk, an area health agency said.

The city of Laguna Beach announced Sunday evening that all beaches would close to the public beginning at 9 p.m., while Newport Beach issued an advisory warning people to avoid contact with ocean water and areas of beach impacted by oil.

Already, dead birds and fish were washing up on the shore, Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said Sunday.

'The oil has infiltrated the entirety of the (Talbert) wetlands. There's significant impacts to wildlife there,' she said. 'These are wetlands that we've been working with the Army Corps of Engineers, with (a local) land trust, with all the community wildlife partners to make sure to create this beautiful, natural habitat for decades. And now in just a day, it's completely destroyed.'

Sections of the shoreline at Huntington Beach were closed on Saturday, with Mayor Kim Carr on Sunday describing the spill as a 'potential ecological disaster.'

'In a year that has been filled with incredibly challenging issues, this oil spill constitutes one of the most devastating situations that our community has dealt with in decades,' Carr said. 'We are doing everything in our power to protect the health and safety of our residents, our visitors and our natural habitats.'

Cause of leak under investigation

The pipeline is owned by the Houston-based oil and gas company Amplify Energy, its president and CEO Martyn Willsher said at a news conference Sunday afternoon.

The company was working with local, state and federal agencies on recovery efforts, Willsher said.

'Our employees live and work in these communities, and we're all deeply impacted and concerned about the impact on not just the environment, but the fish and wildlife as well,' he said. 'We will do everything in our power to ensure that this is recovered as quickly as possible, and we won't be done until this is concluded.'

The company notified the Coast Guard on Saturday morning when employees were conducting a line inspection and noticed a sheen in the water, Willsher said.

The facilities operating the pipeline were built in the late 1970s and early 1980s and are inspected every other year, including during the pandemic, he said.

The pipeline has been 'suctioned at both ends to keep additional crude out,' Willsher said, adding that he doesn't expect more oil to be released.

'We are still assessing to look for the source and figure out,' Eric Laughlin, California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesperson, said Sunday at a news conference. 'It doesn't appear there's further fuel leaking, but we're still working on identifying that.'

The federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement was assisting in Coast Guard-led response to the oil spill, the agency told CNN. Its role was to assist 'in identifying the location and source of any spills and provide technical assistance to the Unified Command in stopping the spillage,' it said Sunday in a statement.

The National Transportation Safety Board was sending investigators to gather information and assess the source of the oil leak, it said Sunday on Twitter.

Impacts on human health

Human health impacts from excessive exposure to oil or dispersants could include skin, eye, nose and throat irritation, headache, dizziness, vomiting or shortness of breath, the Orange County Health Care Agency said in a health advisory.

'Even when an oil sheen may not be visible, dispersed and dissolved oil contaminants may exist in the water,' County Health Officer Dr. Clayton Chau said.

Anyone experiencing adverse symptoms should contact their doctor, Chau said.

'Inhalation of toxic oil vapors or other aerosolized oil compound particles from wind-blown waves can cause these side effects. The elderly, children, and folks with respiratory diseases such as asthma will be more susceptible to adverse side effects from inhaling the oil vapors,' the agency said.

Correction: A prior version of this story incorrectly spelled Eric Laughlin's last name.

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GOLD HILL, Ore.  For the 10th year running, Del Rio Vineyards will donate from each bundle sold of their Jolee Rose to support Mammography Screening and Education at Asante.

Each October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Del Rio says it asks customers to "drink pink." This year the company is selling its semi-sparkling muscat Jolee Rose for $60 per bundle of six bottles, a $30 discount.

For each bundle sold, $5 is donated to Asante for Mammography Screening and Education. The funds are distributed by the Asante Foundation to three local imaging clinics in the Rogue Valley.

"It is a real privilege to be in a position where I have a role in bringing people together  whether it's a business owner who wants to support, or it's a patient that I get to hear a story that they had early diagnosis and therefore were able to get the cancer treatment they needed  it's really gratifying," said Andrea Reeder, campaign director at the Asante Foundation.

Bundles of Jolee Rose can be purchased in the Del Rio tasting room every day from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. or online at the company's website.

"The Jolee Rose has been a perfect partner for the cause," Del Rio said in a statement. "The pink semi-sparkling and semi-sweet wine has created a wide following. It is unconventional and delicious. The mission of the Jolee brand is to craft wines that are full of celebration, and while doing so spread joy and Cultivate Kindness. Jolee wines are creating a community that cares."

Breast cancer is the most commonly reported cancer in Oregon, and the second leading cause of cancer deaths among women. Survival is often tied to early detection, so Del Rio says "the more awareness the better."
EUGENE, Ore.  A convicted drug trafficker and multiple alleged accomplices were arrested in mid-September after law enforcement officers made the largest meth bust in state history, according to the US Attorney's Office for the District of Oregon.

A September 15 raid by the US Drug Enforcement Administration and Eugene-area police agencies targeted alleged ringleader 47-year-old Martin Manzo-Negrete, AKA Javier Cardenas-Manzo, a man who previously served 14 years in federal prison for drug trafficking. He now faces federal charges for possessing methamphetamine with intent to distribute.

Arrested at the same time were other Eugene residents residents Gustavo Manzo-Mares, 45; Candice L. Barrett, 52; John C. Willis, 59; and Nathan Lee Daniels, 46. A fifth associate, 52-year-old Frank Buehler, has also been charged in federal court, but remains at large.

Federal prosecutors said that law enforcement executed federal search warrants at multiple locations in Lane County, resulting in the seizure of 14 guns, some of them stolen; more than $76,000 in cash; and 384 pounds of methamphetamine  the largest single meth bust in Oregon state history and valued at over a million dollars.

Prosecutors said that the DEA and Eugene Police began investigating the Manzo-Mares cell in October 2020, believing it to be part of an operation that was smuggling large quantities of meth from California to Oregon for sale in the Lane County area. The organization allegedly brought the meth by car from southern California to Oregon, then stored them, divided them up, and distributed them into the community.

Manzo-Negrete was arrested during the operation and made his first appearance in federal court on September 16. He was ordered to be detained pending further court proceedings.
SALEM, Ore.  A serial killer who murdered at least three people during the 1990s has died in prison, according to the Oregon Department of Corrections. 53-year-old Sebastian Shaw, who was serving three life sentences at the state penitentiary, died on the morning of October 3.

Police in California first arrested Shaw in 1994 on suspicion of burglary, but he was released in spite of investigators' discovery of a "murder kit" and several weapons in the stolen vehicle.

It wasn't until 1998 that DNA evidence linked Shaw to the 1992 killings of 18-year-old Donna Ferguson and 29-year-old Todd Rudiger. He was eventually convicted of those two murders, the attempted murder of 18-year-old Amanda Carpova, and a third, the 1991 killing 40-year-old Jay Rickbeil. All three murders occurred in the Portland area, all of them killed in the same way.

While in prison, Shaw allegedly told another inmate that he was responsible for more murders, as many as a dozen, but follow-up from detectives did not result in any further convictions.

Investigators in Almeda County, California long suspected that Shaw was responsible for the 1994 killing of 14-year-old Jenny Lin, but he was never brought to trial for the crime. Shaw had lived and worked in the area during the time of Lin's killing, but there was no known physical evidence implicating him in the murder.

Initially convicted with two life sentences, Shaw entered Oregon DOC custody in February of 2000 with no release date, and a third life sentence was added for Rickbeil's murder.

The DOC said that, as with all in-custody deaths, the Oregon State Police has been notified and the state medical examiner will determine his cause of death.
MEDFORD, Ore. -- Unhoused individuals living at the Bear Creek Greenway and Hawthorne Park in Medford are growing frustrated as they continue to receive notices for illegal camping this week.

NewsWatch 12 spoke to several people who have been staying in the area, with many saying they have no place else to go with shelters and other facilities meeting full capacity.

Early last Thursday morning, the Medford Police Department Livability Team partnered with the Jackson County Sheriff Department and Rogue Retreats Clean Sweeps program to remove an estimated dozen unhoused individuals from the area, according to Kayla Wade, logistics director for the Southern Oregon Coalition for Racial Equity (SOEquity).

Many of the people living along the Bear Creek Greenway in Medford or at Hawthorne Park are dealing with chronic homelessness.

"No one was evicted. Their camps, which were a violation of an existing ordinance, were removed. Many of them were relocated to other options," said Sgt. Geoff Kirkpatrick of the MPD Livability Team.

The removal of people living in the area was a result of a 72-hour notice served on Monday, September 27, around 7:30 a.m.

SOEquity reports that the Medford Police Department and Jackson County Sheriff Department arrived at 6:30 a.m. to cordon off the area with yellow tape.

Mutual aid volunteers, who make regular visits to Hawthorne Park each week, were able to engage with the police and no arrests were made during the sweep at Hawthorne Park.

The Livability Team removed at least two individuals by car to take them to a local shelter and one individual was told he could stay at the local Gospel Mission shelter, where he had allegedly been kicked out a few weeks before, according to SOEquity.

He is an elderly man who can barely stand up on his own," said Wade. "I gave him my number and he called me a couple of hours later on the verge of tears because the shelter he was placed at did not have room for him to stay the night, out of the cold.

SOEquity reserved a hotel room for the man for the night but does not have the funds to house him long term.

Wade says it is typically teenagers who have phased out of the foster care system and the elderly who are turned away from housing facilities.

Regardless of them being turned away, SOEquity reports not following notice orders would be in violation of the law.

SOEquity asked for donations to provide cold weather gear for unhoused individuals over the weekend collecting "tarps, backpacks, hand-warmers, and water-resistant clothes and shoes to help people survive this transition in weather, says Mars Hints, Project Manager for SOEquity.

As someone who has been chronically unhoused, I know how hard it is to survive outside in harsh weather conditions," said Hints. "Our community has to act to make sure no one dies this winter.

As SOEquity hopes to establish a more consistent gear drive, it also works toward providing resources for mental health crisis deescalation.

Wade told NewsWatch 12 that because of the increase police presence in the park, there has been a crisis daily.

Members outside of the area or those who wish to donate funds can find instructions for contribution at www.soequity.org/donate. SOEquity plans to establish more consistent gear drives for the local unhoused community.
Lifeguards ready to post signs warning that water contact may cause illness, as they close the beach after an oil spill in Huntington Beach, Calif., Sunday., Oct. 3, 2021. The closure stretched from the Huntington Beach Pier nearly 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) south to the Santa Ana River jetty amid summerlike weather that would have brought beachgoers to the wide strand for volleyball, swimming and surfing. Yellow caution tape was strung between lifeguard towers to keep people away. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
Joan Phillip, shown here at a 2019 election forum, will run again for the NDP in the riding of Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola, the party has announced. The riding includes central Kelowna, West Kelowna, Peachland, and Summerland.
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President Biden recently unveiled a series of regulations aimed to increase COVID vaccination rates. Impacting up to 100 million people, the president will require government employees, businesses with 100 or more employees, and federal contractors to be immunized.

He did not go far enough.

Like many pediatricians, I have spent hours addressing parents concerns about receiving a COVID vaccine for themselves or their children. Whether in a hospital, clinic, grocery store, or on a treadmill at the gym, physicians have patiently answered questions from the simple, How long after the shot am I considered protected, to the absurd, Does the vaccine contain nanoparticle trackers that will magnetize my arm?

For months, I hoped reassurances about the overwhelming safety and efficacy of COVID vaccination, as well as data regarding its impact on reducing community spread, would inch hesitant parents toward immunization. I was incredibly wrong.

Many physicians feel those who remain willingly unvaccinated against COVID are so staunchly opposed to immunization that they are now essentially inconvincible. After so many laborious attempts to encourage vaccination, I applauded President Bidens attempts to provide some national policy on immunization requirements. The patchwork of regulations that varied by state, county, and school district created different rules across America.

However, the president did not use the full extent of his authority. He could have mandated the vaccine for interstate travel via airports and trains. He could have followed the example of the Los Angeles Unified School District, which requires all eligible faculty, students, and staff to be vaccinated, and imposed immunization requirements for schools to be eligible for federal funding, helping to even out the wide variability in state vaccination rates.

These actions are warranted because the United States still lags behind in COVID immunization. The U.S. rate of vaccines administered-per-100 people is last among major industrialized nations and trails Cambodia, Mongolia, and Turkey.

The results have been devastating, especially considering this new wave of COVID is essentially optional. Roughly half of Americans remain unvaccinated. Cases in children have increased to over 200,000 per week and many schools have just recently re-opened. Deaths and hospitalizations have overwhelmed hospital capacity such that last month Governor Abbott of Texas has called for facilities to again delay elective procedures, a precaution not taken since the earliest days of the pandemic. Governor Little of Idaho activated the National Guard recently to assist hospitals.

Like so many other frontline health care workers, I heralded the arrival of COVID vaccines, waiting patiently in line with my colleagues to get vaccinated last December  a time when my hospital was overcrowded with COVID patients. The arrival of effective vaccines signaled to the medical profession the beginning of the end of sick co-workers, potential ventilator rationing, delayed surgeries, and chemotherapy treatments, and morgue trucks parked outside to accommodate the dead.

We spent the first months after the immunizations were released addressing conspiracy theories, including misconceptions about social control, fertility, changes to DNA, and COVID infection from vaccination. Outreach occurred to communities traditionally distrusting of the medical community and the historically underserved. The public health campaign for COVID vaccination has included everyone from public health officials, to primary care physicians, to social media influencers and is the largest public health education effort in modern history.

Vaccination remains highly effective. While almost every case of breakthrough infection in a vaccinated individual makes news, COVID vaccines are highly successful at preventing hospitalization and death. Unvaccinated people are about 29 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19. The success of these immunizations has turned COVID into a vaccine-preventable disease.

Compassionate understanding for the unvaccinated is rapidly declining. Last month, the Kaiser Family Foundation estimated preventable COVID hospitalizations among the unvaccinated cost the U.S. health care system $2.3 billion dollars in 2 months. Editorials and ethicists openly discussed whether the unvaccinated should pay for their COVID-related care or increase insurance premiums. Delta Airlines instituted a $200 health insurance surcharge on unvaccinated employees. Governor Kay Ivey of Alabama spoke for many last summer when she said, Its time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks.

Meanwhile, as a public health tool, mandates are highly successful in increasing community immunization rates. Requirements for health care workers to receive flu shots, implemented in New York State more than a decade ago, raised vaccination rates to greater than 98 percent. A flu shot requirement for children in daycare resulted in over 80 percent of children being immunized in Connecticut. Strong vaccine rules for public school attendance have contributed to over 98 percent of kids being vaccinated.

This is why so many large corporations are instituting them for employees. Colleges, universities, health care systems, airlines, and technology companies have created vaccine requirements, and multiple states require COVID vaccines for all health care workers. At least one local hospital requires frequent testing or vaccination of visitors. New York City requires vaccination for places like restaurants and theaters.

The primary beneficiaries of these requirements would be the states most resistant to immunization but among those with the highest COVID rates per capita, like Mississippi, Idaho, Tennessee, and Alabama. But the sad logic is the states most in need of strong vaccine requirements are the least likely to enact them, to the detriment of their residents and their valiant health care workers struggling to deal with dwindling intensive care unit space. By creating stronger federal requirements for vaccination among eligible adults and children than those issued by President Biden, the White House could do a greater part in containing the spread of COVID, a measure gaining importance as new variants such as the Mu and Lambda strains gain traction.

These COVID measures may be unpopular, but they are necessary to ensure the publics health, prevent the development of new variants, contain localized outbreaks, reduce the strain on hospital capacity and accelerate our return to normal.

Shetal Shah is a neonatologist.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
EUGENE, Ore.  This fall, students all across Oregon headed back to the classroom during a time unlike any other.

We're not equipped for global pandemics. We've never been through one before, said Dr. B Grace Bullock, senior mental health strategist for the Oregon Department of Education. Any circumstance that is unpredictable - where change is constant - is stressful for people and can tend to evoke anxiety, worry, nervousness, agitation.

Bullock said the concern over students mental health and their social and emotional needs prompted ODE to launch its Care and Connection campaign. Initially, it was designed to be a couple weeks at the beginning of the school year where students could rebuild relationships and make sense of the past year and a half.

The response has been really wonderful. This is, I think, going to be something that moves forward throughout the school year, Bullock said.

As part of the campaign, Portland Public Schools hired more counselors and social workers. Another district outside Portland set aside time for students to come together and talk about whats going on in their lives. In Eastern Oregon, recent graduates returned to school to welcome back students.

Eugene 4J - they put together this lovely video of kiddos coming back to the school this year, Bullock said.

Bullock said ODE continues to encourage school districts to build care and connection activities into every school day.

For students who are still struggling, she says parents should help them get in touch with resources, like a school guidance counselor or medical provider.

It's important to recognize that this is a stressful period, and that the emotions that accompany stress, you know, sometimes sleeplessness or sadness, or frustration, all of those experiences are part of the human experience. And it's important to give ourselves time and space and grace to accept the fact that stress shows up in different ways

You can find more resources online at oregon.gov/readyschools.

This story was sponsored by the Oregon Department of Education.
(CNN) -- An Oregon man has been arrested and indicted on charges stemming from the fatal shooting of a man that prosecutors say occurred after the victim spoke to the suspect's girlfriend.

A grand jury this week indicted Ian Mackenzie Cranston, a 27-year-old White man, on six charges in connection to the shooting last month of 22-year-old Barry Washington Jr., a Black man, Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel announced in a news conference Thursday following Cranston's arrest.

Those charges include second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, second-degree manslaughter, first-degree assault and two counts of unlawful use of a weapon.

Cranston appeared in court Friday and is being held in the Deschutes County Jail without bond. He has not entered a plea.

Cranston allegedly shot Washington to death in downtown Bend early September 19, according to a September 22 news release by the Deschutes County District Attorney's Office. Cranston was initially arrested on a single charge of second-degree manslaughter and had been released on bail before the grand jury returned the indictment Thursday.

In a statement issued to CNN Saturday, Kevin Sali, an attorney for Cranston, said, "Indisputable video evidence shows that before Ian Cranston ever drew his weapon, Barry Washington had assaulted him without provocation, resulting in head injuries that required the police to take Mr. Cranston to the hospital where a brain scan and other procedures had to be performed."

According to CNN affiliate KTVZ, Hummel previously said that, prior to the shooting, Washington had complimented Cranston's girlfriend, but that there was "no allegation that anything Mr. Washington did was inappropriate."

"He complimented her in a respectful manner," Hummel said, per KTVZ. "She was fine back. She said, 'No, thank you. I'm flattered but I'm in a relationship."

However, Cranston was "not happy," Hummel said. "He said some words to Mr. Washington. Mr. Washington said some words back," Hummel said. "There was some pushing, some jostling, some punches thrown, but then it calmed down. It was not going to get out of hand. Then Mr. Cranston pulled a gun out of his waistband and shot and killed Mr. Washington."

While Cranston is White and Washington is Black, Hummel did not seek a hate crime charge, he said, telling reporters he felt prosecutors had insufficient evidence to make the case at this time. However, the case remains under investigation.

"If we obtain sufficient evidence to prove that this shooting was at least partially motivated by race, we will go back to that grand jury and ask them to add the charge," he said.

"It is believed that the initial interaction between Barry and Mr. Cranston began when Barry complimented Mr. Cranston's girlfriend," Hummel said. "Our country has a disgraceful history of denigrating, prosecuting and lynching Black men for talking to White women. Over the last week, literally hundreds of people called and emailed me to remind me of this history."

Cranston's attorney took issue with Hummel's comments at the news conference, saying in his statement, "After the evidence comes out at trial, I trust someone will ask the District Attorney why he deliberately inflamed the community with statements he knew were not supported by any evidence."

After the announcement of the charges, Washington's mother, Lawanda Roberson, posted on Facebook that, "This is really overwhelming," and that she hadn't even begun to grieve.

"The legal case is a lot ... all while trying to lay my son to rest," she said.

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EUGENE, Ore.--Eugenes first Safe Sleep Site is open.

Officials say about 13 people moved into the site at 310 Garfield Street Monday.

The site is capable of holding a total up to 55 small cars or RVs and has running water, food, and bathrooms. Residents of the site will have access to running water, bathrooms and hot food. The Portland chapter of St. Vincent de Paul also donated a kitchen bus that seats up to 18 people. This will provide campers access to hot meals.

MORE: Campers at Washington Jefferson Park in limbo as Safe Sleep Sites pushed back

KEZI 9 News spoke to some of the first few people moving into the site. Genni has been in a unhoused situation for a few months. She said she is thankful to be living at the 310 Garfield location for the city's "Safe Sleep Sites."

"How can you really pass it up when you've got a chance of being somewhere that you know you're going to be safe for an extended period of time compared to having to move," said Genni.

Genni is waiting for a house through the Homes for Good program; she said she should be hearing back soon on her future living situation.

City officials said sites like the 310 Garfield location are designed as a temporary spot for people to stay while they get things together to find a more permanent housing situation.

These "Safe Sleep Sites" will be monitored 24/7, so people living there can feel safe. There will also be codes given to residents of the sites to enter bathrooms and other facilities.

Kayla Pollard is a client service coordinator for St. Vincent de Paul; she has been working with the city to get people ready to move into the site.

"We went out a couple weeks ago and we just talked with the folks that were staying in the RV's or their vehicles and let them know that we were going to be launching this program to see if it was interest to them, and then we went out last week and actually scheduled appointments; today, tomorrow, and Wednesday for move-in times for individuals," said Pollard.

Pollard said the process has been smooth and she is excited to continue working with the community.

RELATED: City of Eugene hopes to provide smooth transition for Safe Sleep Sites

KEZI 9 News also spoke to another new resident of the site. Katherine Nodine has lived in Eugene for about 7 years. She said being able to move to the 310 Garfield location is a blessing.

"It really warms me up to know I've got people watching my stuff when I'm not here, and it's nice. I just hope that they can get it going even further and longer for other people," said Nodine.

Nodine also said she is thankful to finally get a good night's sleep aftering living off of Delta Highway for the last year and half.

Another location next door to the 310 Garfield is the 410 Garfield location. This site was approved in September by the City of Eugene. Officials said it will hold around 80 tents. The city is still working with the company that owns the building to figure out when the site will open and what it will offer people.

MORE: Eugene councilors approve 3 new 'Safe Sleep Sites'
A renowned man of the theatre has retired after an illustrious career spent working in theatres all over Ireland, including The Watergate in Kilkenny.

Gerry Taylor, Technical Manager at the Watergate Theatre for the past eight years, retired from his position last week. This was the last position in a professional life of huge variety spent mostly in the theatres all over Ireland. Gerrys expertise in lighting design was second to none and was reflected on by his huge network of friends and colleagues in a video montage of stories and greetings curated by his old friend and colleague Christine Scarry (Red Alchemy Theatre Company) shown at the Watergate at his retirement party.

This network of friends and colleagues couldnt express their gratitude, love and high esteem for Gerry strongly enough showing that his was a professional life characterised by generosity, a focus on solutions not problems, fun and above all else skill at the highest level.

Gerry was awarded a Mayors Certificate by Mayor Andrew McGuinness to mark his outstanding contribution to arts and culture in Kilkenny.

"Gerry, this Mayors Certificate is to acknowledge your outstanding contribution to the development of The Watergate Theatre and Arts and Culture in Kilkenny. For over 8 years your professionalism, attention to detail and dedication to your job, has ensured that every event at The Watergate Theatre was of an exceptional standard. Your great efforts have contributed to the development of arts and culture in Kilkenny and the high esteem in which The Watergate Theatre is held. It is my pleasure, as Mayor of Kilkenny, to present you with this certificate as a small token of appreciation," remarked the Mayor.
All private rental dwellings in six counties inspected by an oversight group failed to meet standards.

According to a report by the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC), 100% of the rentals dwellings inspected in Waterford, Carlow, Laois, Kilkenny, Galway City and Cavan in 2020 were non-compliant with Standards Regulations.

The best compliance by far was reported in Monaghan, despite 55% of rental properties breaching regulations.

The Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations demands landlords meet specific standards, including providing a structurally sound property free from damp, as well as safe electricity and gas supplies and ventilated rooms, among other stipulations.

The largest number of dwellings inspected was in South Dublin County with 2,987 while Carlow inspected the least number with just 113, followed closely by Cavan with 119.

The report notes the number of non-compliant dwellings then marked compliant after an inspection was 7400, a decrease from 9,326 in 2019.

Just 6.73% (or 22,517 properties) were inspected out of a total 334,588 registered tenancies in the Local Authority areas. This marks a decrease of 9.93% from 2019.
ROCHESTER, Minn. - A shooting early Sunday morning resulted in two people being taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Rochester police said it happened at 1:53 a.m.m in the 2000 block of NW Chardonnay Ln. when a male and female were involved in a suicidal situation.

Police said the male was suicidal and the female attempted to intervene when the woman grabbed the gun and it went off. The male had a wound to the hand and a female had an abdominal wound.

Both were in stable condition at St. Marys in Rochester.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP)  Police in Cedar Rapids are investigating what they say was an attempt to snatch a 2-year-old child from a sidewalk.

Police say in a news release that the incident happened Sunday afternoon, when officers responded to a possible child abduction attempt near Huntington Park in north-central Cedar Rapids.

Arriving officers learned that a man wearing a hooded shirt and mask tried to grab the 2-year-old from the sidewalk, but was thwarted by a nearby family member of the child.

Police say the person saw the man get into a white car and drive off.
CERRO GORDO COUNTY, Iowa - A Cerro Gordo County man was arrested over the weekend and is being held on $35,000 bond for ongoing criminal conduct and multiple counts of failing to appear.

Ryan Ihde, 40, of Plymouth, is accused of depositing four counterfeit checks into a stolen account he and another person had assumed control of.

Court documents state Ihde stole more than $7,300 between Jan. 18 and Jan. 22.

Ihde was arrested earlier this year for felony theft and drug charges.
Democratic Farm and Labour (DFL) Senate District 26 and Olmsted County 25 held their fifth annual FDR Day Fundraiser at the History Center of Olmsted County from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The fundraiser hosted an array of DFL speakers, which included: Representative Tina Liebling, Dan Feehan, former Governor Mark Dayton and others.

DFL Chair of Senate District 26 Mark Liebow said they named the fundraiser after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt due to his history with the Med-City.

FDR had visited Rochester in 1934, while he was on his way south towards Winona, and met with Doctor Charles and Will Mayo.

Liebow said FDR had qualities he hopes manifests in modern politics.

"When people are hurting we need to help them. We need to help them up. That audacity is a value. Franklin Roosevelt was nothing if not audacious at a time when the United States was in a very bad economic situation and he and a Democratic congress that worked with him helped turn it around and we hope we can do it now," Liebow said.
NORTHWOOD, Iowa - A 19-year-old Northwood man is facing a plethora of charges for repeatedly breaking into a gas station.

Samuel Crotty is facing charges of criminal mischief, burglary and theft in relation to incidents at 712 8th St. N.

Authorities said that on Aug. 16, the door to the gas station was broken, and an ATM was observed lying on the ground inside. Multiple items, such as Zippos, earbuds, sunglasses, vaping devices and lighters were missing.

Other items, including laptops, an ATM and gas pump controls were damaged.

Two days later, the store owner reported the business and ATM were damaged again.

Court documents state Crotty was a suspect who entered the building on multiple occasions.
The Minnesota GOP elected former State Senator David Hann over Businessman Jerry Dettinger as chairperson for the state party on Saturday.

Hann had previously been the Senate Minority Leader in the Minnesota Legislature, representing Minnetonka and Eden Prarie, from 2003 to 2017.

The election of Hann comes after a volatile summer for the Minnesota GOP, who ousted former Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan due to her relationship with federally indicted child sex trafficker Anton Lazzaro.

Olmsted County GOP Chair Chris Brantz said he voted for Hann and hopes his leadership will secure more legislative seats for the party.

"He is going to bring some very effective management to the state party. He is going to work on the finances, making sure everything is in order and making sure there are strong finances and that we do well in the 2022 elections," Brantz said.
MASON CITY, Iowa - For the first time since 1985, the Austin Bruins took on the North Iowa Bulls.

"Immediately, we were told that this is going to be a rivalry. And it felt that way as soon as we stepped into their building for the first time. I mean, 45 minutes bus ride right down the road and then hop on the ice," says Liam Whitehouse.

The Austin Bruins took the ice against the North Iowa Bulls for the first time in 36 years.

The Bruins won the first game in a shootout and lost the second one.

Liam says the team has a good mix.

There are veterans, but also young energy from the new athletes.

The Bruins have a strong power play and good penalty kills.

They're just fine-tuning the systems.

Liam says he looks forward to heading to the rink every day.

"We kind of all clicked right away, socially, which I've never seen anything like it before, clicking that quick. There are a lot of good guys in the room, friends on the team. No cliques. Everybody is just all in it together. We all have a common goal. We all know what we can do this year and we're going to do anything to achieve it," says Liam.

The Bruins take the ice against St. Cloud on Friday.
ROCHESTER, Minn. - The United Way of Olmsted County launched their first 21-Day Equity Challenge today!

The free challenge is a community opportunity for shared learning, action, and growth and all you need is an email.

The 21-Day Equity Challenge invites Minnesota residents to develop a deeper understanding of how inequality and racism affect our lives and community.

Participants commit to 15 minutes of daily learning about equity and justice.

United Way will send out a daily email every weekday from now until Nov. 1 with readings, videos, podcasts, and ways to take action.

While United Way's 21-Day Challenge has been prevalent in other states, this is the first year Olmsted County will be participating.

United Way of Olmsted County Advocacy and Engagement Coordinator Amy Wilfahrt said she has been working on bringing this event together for months.

"We learned from our neighbors over in Michigan," said Wilfahrt. "Their United Way launched a United Way 21-Day Equity Challenge. We loved it, we thought it was fabulous. We thought our community would buy-in if we made ours localized. So we made sure to do local United Way of Olmsted County data, local stories from Rochester, and greater Minnesota to make people feel like we're really speaking to our community's greatest challenges and greatest opportunities for growth."

You can join the 21-Day Equity Challenge by visiting the United Way of Olmsted County's website under the "Get Involved" tab.
WORTH COUNTY, Iowa - A report of a vehicle stuck on railroad tracks in Worth County resulted in drug and gun crimes.

Lucas Farris, 27, of Hanlontown, is facing charges of a felony in possession of a firearm and possession of a controlled substance (third or subsequent offense).

The sheriff's office said a vehicle was located Saturday at the railroad tracks near Wheelerwood Ave. and 355th St.

The driver had a hard time standing still prior to the vehicle being removed. Then Farris told authorities that he had a loaded 9mm Glock 26 in the center console. Baggies that contained methamphetamine were also found.

He's being held in the Worth County Jail on $10,000 bond.

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The State of Wisconsin will be supporting the expansion of Agropur Dairy Cooperative in Little Chute, Wisconsin, with as much as $4.5 million in business tax credits in the next four years. Agropur will be building a new $168 million cheese factory, which is expected to position the cooperative for future success. Agropur will be eligible for the business tax credits based on meeting hiring and capital-expenditure goals.
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Kadirov Doniyor, right, deputy adviser to the president of Uzbekistan on coordination of the activities of law enforcement and regulatory bodies, holds a meeting with Kim Chang-yong, commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency, at the National Policy Agency in Seoul, May 18. Courtesy of Uzbekistan Embassy to Korea



By Kim Yong-gu



Recently, there has been a significant revitalization of cooperation between the law enforcement agencies of Korea and Uzbekistan in a wide range of areas of mutual interest.





Kim Yong-gu, chairman of Korea-Uzbekistan Business Association

Over the past and current year, we have seen several mutual visits of delegations, including heads of law enforcement agencies of the two countries. As the outcome of the meetings and negotiations, a number of interdepartmental documents have been signed on the further intensification of cooperation between the law enforcement agencies, and cooperation plans have been concluded to provide specific practical steps for further cooperation.



The visit to the Republic of Korea of Kadirov Doniyor, the deputy adviser to the president of Uzbekistan on coordination of the activities of law enforcement and regulatory bodies, which took place in May, gave a strong impetus to upgrade the interaction level between the law enforcement agencies of the two countries to a new level. During the visit, meetings were held with the leadership of the Korean National Police Agency (KNPA), Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA), the Supreme Prosecutors' Office of the Republic of Korea, Korean Customs Service (KCS) and Korean National Police University.





Kadirov Doniyor visits the office of Lim Jae-hyeon, commissioner of the Korea Custom Service, May 20. Courtesy of Uzbekistan Embassy to Korea



In addition, KNPA Commissioner General Kim Chang-yong paid an official visit to Uzbekistan from June 16 to 20. During the visit, meetings were held with the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan (MIA), the National Guard of Uzbekistan, the University of Public Security of Uzbekistan and the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan. Memorandums of understanding were signed between the KNPA, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the National Guard of Uzbekistan.



Also, a trilateral Action Plan for 2021-22 was signed between the KNPA, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the National Guard of Uzbekistan, which incorporated the specific practical steps of interaction between the law enforcement agencies of the two countries.



KCS Commissioner Lim Jae-hyeon paid an official visit to Uzbekistan from Sept. 13 to 15. During the visit, the delegation held a meeting with Chairman of the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Major General Murotjon Azimov, during which the current state of cooperation issues was discussed and further detailed steps to intensify interaction between customs authorities of the two countries were identified.





Representatives from the Korean National Police Agency, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan and the National Guard of Uzbekistan sign a memorandum of understanding in Tashkent, June 17. Courtesy of Uzbekistan Embassy to Korea



The two sides also discussed issues of cooperation between the customs authorities of the two countries in the field of personnel training, exchange of experience in the fields of customs control and examination, risk management, counter-smuggling operations and customs audits.



At the end of the meeting, a memorandum of cooperation and exchange of experience in the field of professional training was signed between the State Customs Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the KCS.



In addition, during the visit, the guests were introduced to the Situation Center of the State Customs Committee, the Museum of the History of Customs, and also got familiarized with the landmarks of Samarkand.



At the end of October, Korea's Chief Justice Kim Myeong-su will pay an official visit to Uzbekistan. During the visit, further discussions are planned on specific steps to enhance interaction between the supreme courts of the two countries.



The two sides are expressing their readiness to further expand cooperation in a wide range of areas. In order to further improve the legal framework of interaction between the judicial authorities of the two countries, during the visit, the parties will sign a memorandum of cooperation between the supreme courts of Uzbekistan and Korea, encompassing the exchange of experience in judicial system advancement, strengthening the role and prestige of the judiciary and the activities of judicial institutions, as well provision of the independence of the courts and the training of judges.





Korea Custom Service Commissioner Lim Jae-hyeon, third from left, meets with Major Gen. Murotjon Azimov, third from right, in Tashkent, Sept. 13. Courtesy of Uzbekistan Embassy to Korea



At the end of November, SMPA Commissioner Choi Gwan-ho will pay an official visit to Uzbekistan. Within the framework of the visit, it is planned to determine further specific steps of interdepartmental cooperation, familiarize the Korean delegation with the activities of the Main Department of Internal Affairs of Tashkent (MDIA), as well as sign a memorandum of understanding between the MDIA of Tashkent and the Seoul police agency.



Furthermore, contacts between specialists as well as at the level of the heads of the prosecutor generals' offices are maintained on a regular basis. In 2018, the prosecutor general of Uzbekistan visited Korea, and in 2019, a reciprocal visit of Korea's prosecutor general to Uzbekistan was organized. Currently, the sides are considering organizing a visit of the prosecutor general of Uzbekistan to Korea after the pandemic situation in the two countries improves.



On an ongoing basis, work is being carried out on the exchange of experience in areas of mutual interest. The two sides organize lectures and seminars, as well as internships for law enforcement specialists of the two countries. In 2018, a 3-year cooperation program was signed between the prosecutor generals' offices of the two countries, which made it possible to implement many fruitful events. The two sides are also discussing activities to be included in the next interdepartmental cooperation program for 2022-23.



The prosecutor generals' offices of the two countries express their readiness to further intensify interaction and exchange of experience in a wide range of areas. In November, it is planned to conduct online seminars hosted by Korean specialists for employees of the Prosecutor General's Office of Uzbekistan on topics provided by the Uzbek side. Also, the two sides are preparing mutual visits of employees of the prosecutor generals' offices of the two countries for establishing direct contact and exchanges of experience in the law enforcement sphere.





Kadirov Doniyor, left, meets with Jang Ha-yeun, then-chief of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, May 17. Courtesy of Uzbekistan Embassy to Korea


Top Korean shipbuilder considers reorganizing LNG business



By Kim Hyun-bin



Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) is seeking conditional approval from the European Union for its proposed acquisition of the ailing Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME), sources and officials familiar with the issue said, Monday.



In 2019, HHI requested approval for its planned acquisition of DSME to China, Kazakhstan, Singapore, the EU, Japan and South Korea. As the acquisition would help HHI gain bargaining power both in terms of the rates and number of shipping routes, the company needs approval from six entities where the shipbuilding industries would be significantly impacted by the deal. So far, China, Singapore and Kazakhstan have given the green light.



Japan completed its first review of the proposal back in March 2020, while the EU begun its second assessment in December 2018. In Korea, HHI requested the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) to approve its acquisition plan in July 2019, but no visible progress has been made.



Meanwhile, officials say the EU is worried about monopolization of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry if HHI acquires DSME.



Because the EU holds the key for the entire process in terms of the region's market influence and size, HHI was said to have offered the EU its remedy plans to ensure that the merged entity won't hurt fair market competition.



While HHI vowed to freeze the cost of LNG ships over a certain period and clarified its intention to transfer some of its LNG vessel-related tech in exchange for receiving EU approval, its offer reportedly failed to impress the EU.



"HHI and KDB have switched their strategy aiming to receive EU conditional approval for the acquisition by the year end," a senior executive at a local investment bank said. The EU said the delay in the review process was due to the worsening COVID-19 situation. KDB is DSME's largest shareholder.



The continued delay in the EU's decision has worsened the situation for KDB and HHI as DSME's profitability continues to slump. DSME's first-half sales dropped 44.7 percent year-on-year. KDB Chairman Lee Dong-gull plans to complete the acquisition process before President Moon Jae-in ends his term next March, said banking sources.



As part of its next appeal to the EU for conditional approval, HHI is considering selling off some of its assets, which many experts expect to be Hyundai Mipo Dockyard and Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries, as a remedy to ease the EU's worries of a potential monopoly as well as competition relief for the combination of the two major LNG tanker businesses.



In order to keep the momentum of the review process alive, KDB, HHI and its sub-holdings company Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE) extended their investment contract for an additional three months recently to Dec. 31 of this year, marking the fourth extension since the contract was inked in March 2019.



On a related note, opposition to the acquisition is growing among the DSME union and Geoje City, located in South Gyeongsang Province where DSME operates dockyards and manufacturing facilities.



As a rare action, the KDB chief showed his dissatisfaction with the KFTC's continued muted stance regarding the issue, urging the country's top antitrust regulator to actively intervene in the stalled process. But the point is any active intervention for the process could lead to "fairness" issues in terms of preferential treatment for South Korean companies, the core factor behind the KFTC's quietness on the issue.



"When EU competition authorities try to regulate big tech platforms such as Amazon, Google and Facebook, the U.S. competition authorities protect them. But our country just sits back and waits until other countries make their decision, which is unfortunate," Lee told reporters recently.



"We are doing all we can and waiting for approval from the EU," a KSOE official said.


By Peter K. Lee





The Biden administration recently agreed to share its nuclear-powered submarine technology with Australia as part of the AUKUS partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The U.S. has called this arrangement a "one-off" deal, and it is the first time the U.S. has shared such technology, since it did so with the United Kingdom in 1958. The decision is a major milestone for Australia-U.S. relations. Could South Korea be next in line?







Some Korean experts have already argued that the U.S. should now also share its nuclear-powered submarine technology with South Korea. This technology is, after all, a capability that South Korea has seriously considered for many years in light of North Korea's escalating nuclear and ballistic missile threats, and intensifying regional tensions.







The new Dosan Ahn Chang-ho class submarines are currently entering service. Converting their diesel-electric engines to nuclear reactors would greatly extend the submarine fleet's time at sea and their area of operations. In addition, South Korea already has an advanced civil nuclear energy industry and is even exporting nuclear reactors to the Middle East in full compliance with non-proliferation protocols.







This background means that many of the technical issues of training suitably qualified submariners and nuclear experts to operate the reactors would seem far easier than in the case of Australia, which does not have a domestic nuclear industry.







However, the U.S. has thus far refused to support granting this technology to South Korea. What AUKUS reveals is a more fundamental question about how access to U.S. technology and the issue of self-reliance are perceived differently in Australia and South Korea, as well as how the U.S. sees its allies.







For some critics, AUKUS will reduce Australia's sovereignty, make it more reliant on the U.S., and risk entrapping it in a potential future U.S.-China conflict. If this view is correct, then nuclear-powered submarines would similarly undermine South Korea's commitment to greater self-reliance and quest to achieve defense sovereignty.







For supporters however, AUKUS will empower Australia without eroding its sovereignty over how to use the submarines. A great power like the U.S. does not share its military secrets easily. That it has done so without any obvious demands of its own reflects a high level of trust in the Australia-U.S. alliance.







AUKUS has also been tentatively endorsed by Australia's main opposition party in Parliament, the Australian Labor Party, which suggests that there is a bipartisan consensus on its merits, rather than a conservative political ploy to shore up a restored Anglosphere. If this view is correct, then nuclear-powered submarines might similarly empower South Korea and strengthen the Korea-U.S. alliance.







The coming 18 months of Australia-U.K.-U.S. trilateral consultations will determine which interpretation eventually proves more accurate. But it should be recognized that Australia has always relied heavily on U.S. equipment and technologies.







Australia's reliance is because one of its top priorities has been to ensure that its defense force is interoperable with the U.S. in joint military operations. From an Australian perspective, defense self-sufficiency was always undesirable, if not impractical.







The AUKUS announcement highlights a dilemma for South Korea. Over the decades, South Korea has steadily built up its own domestic defense industry and its weapons, vehicles, aircraft and naval vessels are now sold to partner militaries all around the world, including selling its submarines to Indonesia.







Given South Korea's more advanced nuclear technology base and shipbuilding industry, the benefits of closer technological dependence on the U.S. are less clear-cut than for Australia. For example, it is possible that a future South Korean administration could decide to develop indigenous nuclear-powered submarines that maximize Korean sovereignty without relying on the U.S.







South Korea already has most of the means available to build its own nuclear-powered submarines. Australia does not. These differences are important considerations for the U.S. in terms of how it shares its technology with allies.







What the AUKUS agreement instead suggests is that, rather than seeing self-reliance and technological dependence as binary choices, South Korean policymakers should see them as complementary endeavors that can both improve its security. After all, South Korea has not yet achieved total self-sufficiency in military technology. Even today, many of its flagship capabilities, including the locally built KF-21 fighter jet, continue to depend on critical U.S. technologies such as engines.







AUKUS and the provision of nuclear-powered submarines may ultimately prove to be a "one-off" deal between Australia and the U.S. and U.K. The U.S. may continue to resist sharing its nuclear technology with other allies, including South Korea. But that is less a reflection of the Korea-U.S. alliance than it is of South Korea's remarkable success as an advanced defense power in its own right.









Peter K. Lee (





peter.lee@anu.edu.au ) is a Ph.D. scholar at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University.
In this file photo, U.S. President Joe Biden, center, speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House during an April 12 virtual summit on the semiconductor shortage in Washington, D.C. AFP-Yonhap



By Kim Yoo-chul



Samsung Electro-Mechanics, a Samsung Group affiliate specializing in the manufacture of electronic and electrical components, is pushing to expand its collaborations with top-tier tech companies as global chip shortages are expected to continue well into next year.



The production of printed circuit boards (PCB), which is a strength of the Samsung unit, requires raw materials for circuit board fabrication and electronic parts for complete assembly. Mismatches in supply and demand for both components and materials are having a massive impact on the production of PCBs. Samsung Electro-Mechanics is responding to the shortage by boosting investments into PCB production.



Sources and officials said Monday that Samsung Electro plans to invest around 1 trillion won into its manufacturing facility in Vietnam to increase production of flip chip ball grid array (FC-BGA) circuit boards  a type of PCB package assembled around advanced, single-unit laminate or ceramic substrates.



"Samsung Electro-Mechanics' management reached a broad consensus for more investments in FC-BGAs," a source said. "However, no final decision has been made regarding the location of its new investment, while there's a smaller possibility of the Samsung affiliate choosing South Korea as the location for the new investment," a source said, adding that the company plans to stop producing legacy Rigid Flex PCBs at its plant in Vietnam.



Samsung Electro-Mechanics said nothing has been decided yet.



While the global automotive industry has been actively dealing with a protracted and unprecedented semiconductor shortage  triggered by surge in demand for consumer electronics during the COVID-19 pandemic  Samsung Electro-Mechanics' planned capacity expansion of FC-BGAs is attracting the attention of top-tier technology companies, such as Intel and AMD, according to sources.



"Thanks to the continued chip shortages, demand for advanced PCBs using FC-BGA technology will remain solid throughout the next couple of years, and that means top semiconductor companies such as AMD and Intel are taking pre-emptive steps in terms of striking pre-purchase deals with PCB suppliers and providing them with financial assistance for the custom production of the components," the source said.



On a related note, U.S. chip giant Intel was said to have offered Samsung Electro-Mechanics millions of dollars in financial backing in May for the custom production of FC-BGA circuit boards to ensure a smooth supply of the components.



It remains unclear whether Samsung Electro-Mechanics accepted Intel's offer of support or if the planned capacity expansion is unrelated.






Angola, IN (46703)

Today

Rain showers this evening with clearing overnight. Thunder is possible early. Low 58F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Rain showers this evening with clearing overnight. Thunder is possible early. Low 58F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.
ROME, OCT 4 - President Sergio Mattarella on Monday lauded the openness of the European Union in a speech accepting an honorary degree in Parma and stressed that "the EU homeland is also for those who flee slavery". Mattarella cited French philosopher and sociologist Edgar Morin in underscoring the importance of the four cornerstones of the EU: "liberty and equality, democracy and solidarity". He said "an open Europe is the only discipline possible". He also cited unification hero Giuseppe Mazzini in saying that the European homeland with its universities can be a landing stage for those who want to flee slavery through study and exchanges with teachers. Mattarella said there has been a "paradigm shift and a quality leap in Europe, and the post-COVID recovery plan must become the backbone of a new, more solidarity-based and fairer integration of the continent". (ANSA).
ROME, OCT 4 - Centre-left candidates were poised for victory in several of the big cities up for grabs in an important round of local elections in Italy, according to exit polls on Monday. The centre-left was above the 50% threshold in Milan, Bologna and Naples, meaning they would previous in these cities without the need for a run off. Centre-left Turin mayoral candidate Stefano Lo Russo, meanwhile, leads centre-right candidate Paolo Damilano by 44-48% to 36.5-40.5% in the first RAI exit poll by Opinio Italia with 5-Star (M5S) candidate Valentina Sganga on 7-9% and independent Angelo D'Orsi on 1.5-3.5%. In Rome, centre-right candidate Enrico Michetti was slightly ahead of centre-left rival Roberto Gualtieri in the first RAI exit poll at 27-31% against 26.5-30.5%, with independent centre-left candidate Carlo Calenda and incumbent anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) candidate Virginia Raggi both on 16.5-20.5%. The race there looks set to go to a runoff. Roberto Dipiazza, the centre-right candidate to be Trieste's mayor, is close to the 50% threshold needed win in the first round without a runoff, according to a Consorzio Opinio Italia exit poll. The poll gives Dipiazza 46-50% of the vote, followed by the centre-left candidate Francesco Russo on 29-33%. Centre-left incumbent Giuseppe Sala is projected to retain the Milan mayor's post in the first exit poll for RAI by Opinio Italia with 54-58% of the vote compared to 32-36% for the centre right's Luca Bernardo, followed by the 5-Star Movement (M5S)'s Layla Pavone and independent Gianluigi Paragone both on 2-4%. Gaetano Manfredi, the candidate to be the next mayor of Naples supported by the centre left and the 5-Star Movement (M5S), has 57-61% of the vote, compared to 19-23% for the centre right's Catello Maresca and 9-13% for former mayor and former Campania governor Antonio Bassolino, according to a poll. Centre-left candidate Matteo Lepore is on 61-65% of the vote in Bologna, compared to centre-right candidate Fabio Battistini on 26-5-30.5%. (ANSA).
ROME, OCT 4 - The centre right's Roberto Occhiuto appears to be heading to become Calabria's next governor with a 46.5-50.5% lead over the centre left's Amalia Cecilia Bruni, on 24-28%, in the first exit poll for state broadcaster RAI. Naples Mayor and independent leftist candidate Luigi de Magitsris is third on 21-25% in the poll by the Opinio Italia consortium. (ANSA).
ROME, OCT 4 - A Sassari appeals court on Monday suspended Spain's extradition request for exiled Catalan separatist Leader Carles Puigdemont pending a European Court of Justice ruling, after both the prosecution and defence asked for it to be rejected. "I am very happy," said Puigdemont, who was briefly arrested earlier this month on a Spanish extradition warrant. (ANSA).
ROME, OCT 4 - Centre-left candidates were poised for victory in several of the big cities up for grabs in an important round of local elections in Italy, according to projections on Monday. The centre-left was above the 50% threshold in Milan, Bologna and Naples, meaning they would prevail in these cities without the need for a run off. Centre-left Turin mayoral candidate Stefano Lo Russo, meanwhile, leads centre-right candidate Paolo Damilano by 44.3% to 40.4% in a RAI projection by Opinio Italia with anti-establishment 5-Star (M5S) candidate Valentina Sganga and independent Angelo D'Orsi both polling very low. In Rome, centre-right Rome mayoral candidate Enrico Michetti was tied with centre-left rival Roberto Gualtieri in a RAI projection by the Opinio Italia consortium at 27-31%, with incumbent anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) candidate Virginia Raggi on 17.5-21%, and independent centre-left candidate Carlo Calenda on 16-20%. The race there looks set to go to a runoff. In a SWG-La7 projection for Rome, however, Michetti led Gualtieri by 31.8% to 24.1% with Raggi a fairly close third on 21.1% despite woes with buses spontaneously combusting, rubbish piling up in the streets, and wild boar poking through it. Roberto Dipiazza, the centre-right candidate to be Trieste's mayor, is close to the 50% threshold needed win in the first round without a runoff, according to a Consorzio Opinio Italia projection. The poll gives Dipiazza 46.5% of the vote, followed by the centre-left candidate Francesco Russo on 29%. Centre-left incumbent Giuseppe Sala is projected to retain the Milan mayor's post in a projection for RAI by Opinio Italia with 56% of the vote compared to 33.9% for the centre right's Luca Bernardo, followed by the 5-Star Movement (M5S)'s Layla Pavone on 3.9% and independent Gianluigi Paragone on 2.9%. Gaetano Manfredi, the candidate to be the next mayor of Naples supported by the centre left and the 5-Star Movement (M5S), is set to win in the first round without the need for a run-off, according to an Opinio Italia projection for State broadcaster RAI. The poll gives Manfredi 62.4% of the vote, compared to 19.2 for the centre right's Catello Maresca and 10.9% for former mayor and former Campania governor Antonio Bassolino. Centre-left candidate Matteo Lepore, meanwhile, looks set to win the race to be Bologna's new mayor in the first round after a Consorzio Opinio projection gave him 62.6% of the vote there, well above the 50% threshold needed to avert a runoff. The poll gave centre-right candidate Fabio Battistini 27.6% of the vote. The centre right's Roberto Occhiuto appears to be heading to become Calabria's next governor with 56-60% compared to 24.6-28.6% for the centre left's Amalia Cecilia Bruni in a SWG projection for broadcaster La7. Naples Mayor and independent leftist candidate Luigi de Magistris is third on 11.7-15.7% in the poll. Opinio Italia's projection for RAI state broadcaster gave Occhiuto 52.9% compared to 25.6% for Bruni and 19.4% for de Magistris. Nationwide turnout in the elections was about 5% down on the last such poll in 2016 and Milan, Turin and Naples recorded their lowest-ever turnouts. Rome is Italy's biggest city, followed by Milan, Naples and Turin. Bologna is the seventh biggest, and Trieste the 15th biggest. (ANSA).
Sohanur Rahman, Beaumont senior

I was quite upset when my classmate, Thomas, could not give M.E. a valid answer for not casting his vote in the 2020 national election. Not voting has becoM.E. almost a cool trend for the young generation in the United States. As a person who grew up in a South Asian country where we struggled to cast our vote in the absence of a fair and uncorrupted system, I consider the opportunity to vote to be the part and parcel of democracy.

The current trend of young AM.E.ricans ever-growing disinclination toward voting is a sign of an imM.E.nse breakdown in civic engageM.E.nt and a political crisis.

For centuries, voter participation has been one of the most significant M.E.ans of democracy and civic activity. Voting is the most fundaM.E.ntal right and the best way to participate in governM.E.nt and its decision-making process.

A 2016 research paper of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance reveals that third-world countries have significantly higher voter participation than many developed countries, including the United States.

A 2020 journal on the civic attitude of young AM.E.ricans, published by Cambridge University Press, stated that only 43 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 29 ended up casting a ballot in 2016. A follow-up article added that, historically, about 55 percent of AM.E.ricans have voted in presidential elections.

It seems that the more partisan AM.E.rican politics becoM.E. in nature, the more young people are turning away from voting.

Harvard Professor and political scientist Robert Putnam argues there is a decline in social relationships and the inclinations that arise from networks to do things for each other. This decline in M.E.mbership in small, interactive groups is a reason for the decline in civic

This generation of young voters cannot relate to the issues put forth in a campaign, such as entitleM.E.nts for seniors, so they lose interest. Thus, young voters unwillingness to participate in the electoral process and civic engageM.E.nt for decades has becoM.E. a massive problem.

How to solve this political crisis is a big question? As a M.E.mber of the young generation and as a student engaged in student leadership organizations, I believe we need to educate our young citizens and future voters. Although many surveys show civic courses at educational institutions do not effectively encourage students to vote, they can be a great platform to educate teenagers about the theories of voting and civic responsibilities. When professors discuss contemporary political issues in the classroom, students becoM.E. more familiar with political issues.

We need to participate in civic and political activities, such as helping eligible citizens to register and to vote  and helping our classmates register. These are effective ways to encourage teenagers towards voting and civic activities.

Colleges should host voter registration campaigns. Current statistics say that 40 percent of 18-to-24-year olds in the United States are enrolled in college. They are our target audience and the future of the nation.

The governM.E.nt can also play a vital role in engaging young people in civic activities through non-governM.E.nt, neutral spaces, such as non-profit organizations, high schools and college campuses. The governM.E.nt needs build the trust of our generation.

Young voters complain they are ignored when they engage politically. The governM.E.nt needs to assure us that our opinions and needs are heard.

Students should join groups that strengthen the diverse pluralist structure of politics, including non-partisan organizational platforms such as Common Cause, Friends of the Earth and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which engage with civic and political activities at the grassroots level.

Casting a ballot is an integral part of the AM.E.rican governM.E.nt system. The problem of young peoples unwillingness to vote is becoming more complicated. This is undoubtedly a red flag for the future of a truly democratic United States.

It is high tiM.E. political parties and non-partisan organizations take efficient steps to encourage our generation population to take part in elections and civic activities.
Geneva, Colombo September 2021 Sri Lanka is pleased to confirm that the Humanitarian Demining Unit of the Sri Lanka Army has destroyed nearly 12,000 stockpiled anti-personnel mines almost a year earlier than the deadline set to us by the treaty that bans the production, use, stockpile, and transfer of these indiscriminate weapons, announced officials at the National Mine Action Centre (NMAC) of Sri Lanka in a statement sent to the secretariat of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. Also known as Ottawa Convention, the treaty unites over 80% of the worlds states and bans the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of these weapons.

NMAC, which oversees planning, coordination, and implementation of Sri Lankas obligations under the Convention, indicated that the mines were destroyed at the end of the summer in the Kilinochchi District, in the Northern Province. With this act, Sri Lanka signals to the world its steadfast commitment to eradicating this scourge in line with the ongoing endeavours for reconciliation and lasting peace. Our efforts towards clearing all known mined areas will continue in partnership with international allies to reach the target of a mine-free Sri Lanka, NMAC officials added.

Sri Lanka is one of a handful of countries in South Asia that have adhered to the international treaty, doing so in 2017. Since then, the country has led efforts in promoting the Convention and its norms in the region.

The Netherlands in its role as President of the Convention, warmly welcomed Sri Lankas contribution to the global efforts to eradicate an insidious weapon that has contaminated more than 70 countries.

With over 54 million anti-personnel mines destroyed in the past two decades by the Parties to this historic treaty, we can unequivocally say that the destruction of dangerous stockpiles has been one of our greatest successes, said the Ambassador of the Netherlands to the Conference on Disarmament H.E. Robbert Gabrielse who presides over the Convention. We salute Sri Lanka, as one of the youngest members of our Convention, for leading efforts to promote treaty norms, and seeking to ensure the safety of at-risk populations, said the Ambassador.

Sri Lanka is expected to present more information and table a formal Declaration during the upcoming (Nineteenth) Meeting of the States Parties to take place in The Hague, Netherlands from 15-19 November.

The international community is committed to supporting Sri Lanka as it continues its task to clear contaminated lands and meet the needs of all mine victims, concluded the Dutch Ambassador.

Editorial note: The Convention was adopted and signed in 1997, and entered into force on 1 March 1999. Over 80% of the countries in the world, or 164 States Parties have joined this landmark treaty; together these countries have destroyed nearly 54 million stockpiled anti-personnel mines and released millions of square meters of land once contaminated. The Convention was the first multilateral instrument to take into consideration the rights of the victims and has contributed to improving the lives of many mine victims across the world. The Conventions norms are almost universally respected by the few states that remain outside the treaty; landmine use remains largely confined to armed non-state actors.

Source:https://new.apminebanconvention.org/
BEIJING Fresh out of college and facing a mountain of debt, the 21-year-old woman was searching online for jobs when she hit upon a listing that sounded perfect: administrative assistant at a tutoring school in Beijing. She sent in her resume, then reread the ad and noticed that only men were asked to apply for the position.

I got no response, so I called and asked: If Im qualified but Im not male, will I still be considered? The woman who answered said if the ad says men only, its men only, she recalled.

I really wanted the job. It was already July, past the peak job-finding season, and I had loans to pay.

Through a nonprofit social justice and public health group, she connected with a lawyer and, after a battle lasting more than a year and a half, won Chinas first gender employment discrimination case.

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In December, Juren Academys principal apologized in court for the men-only ad, and the school agreed to pay about $5,000 in compensation to the woman, who adopted the pseudonym Cao Ju during the high-profile proceedings to shield herself from possible negative fallout.

Chinas constitution says all citizens are equal, and the country has laws barring employment discrimination on the basis of gender. In practice, though, regulations are often flouted, enforcement by regulators is lax, and until now courts have been unwilling to take up workplace gender bias cases.

But Cao, her attorney and many other young women like them have started pushing back, challenging blatant discrimination and demanding action from companies, government officials and courts. They are increasingly organizing through nonprofits, professional associations and educational networks; Beijing recently even got its own chapter of the Lean In organization, inspired by Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg.

A lot of women are now taking a tougher stand; they are no longer willing to tolerate routine abuses and discrimination that have been going on for decades in the workplace, said Geoffrey Crothall of China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based advocacy group. Increasingly, theyre backed by civil society organizations  not only to file legal proceedings but to do publicity and use social media and traditional media to publicize the individual cases and the wider issues they address.

Beijings Working Committee on Women and Children, a government panel, reported in a 2011 study that more than 61% of women said they suffered discrimination in the job search process.

Hurdles faced by women in Chinas employment market, even for government jobs, might come as a surprise to foreigners. Female applicants are often asked whether they have a boyfriend or plan to have a baby soon. Female university graduates taking the nations civil service exam are questioned about the details of their menstrual cycles, including the age when they got their first period.

What does it have to do with work? one woman complained in an interview with the state-run publication China Youth Daily. Do they think someone whose period starts on the first is more capable for this job than someone whose period starts on the 10th?

A 2012 study on gender discrimination in employment ads in China looked at more than 1 million online postings and found that more than 10% expressed a preference for male or female applicants. Ads seeking men were more likely to request older, experienced workers, and ads seeking women frequently specified tall, attractive applicants no older than 25, researchers Peter Kuhn of UC Santa Barbara and Kailing Shen of Xiamen University said.

Last winter, a group of women in eight cities complained about such sex-specific ads posted by 267 employers on a popular job website called Zhaopin. The website quickly removed all the postings.

Many women still feel uncomfortable raising their voices individually about discrimination and say they dont know where to turn for support. In a survey last fall of more than 400 women, Lean In Beijing found that 44% had experienced gender discrimination on the job and that 91% had never heard of an organization devoted to womens professional development.

The Sunflower Women Workers Center, a nonprofit in the southern city of Guangzhou, found in a fall survey of female factory employees that 70% of respondents said they had been sexually harassed at work and that more than 15% had quit jobs because of harassment. None had sought help from a trade union or womens group.

But Huang Yizhi, Caos 28-year-old attorney, said she sees hopeful signs. After taking on Caos case in the summer of 2012 and running into multiple hurdles trying to get the lawsuit to be accepted by a court in Beijing, publicity about her experience prompted an outpouring of support and action.

A group of young women staged a song-and-dance protest in front of Juren Academy. Later, a woman in Guangzhou, having read about Caos battle, complained about other discriminatory employment ads to the citys labor bureau, Huang said, and won an apology and token damages.

Seeking redress for her client, Huang filed complaints with the labor bureau and court authorities. Groups of female students and lawyers sent letters to the court and local government bodies, urging action.

Finally, in August 2013, Huang received word that the court would hear the case. She and Cao submitted their evidence, including an incriminating recording of Caos conversation with Juren Academy staff about the men-only ad.

On the day of the trial, Dec. 18, Cao recalled, she was nervous. I had never been to a court before. I was looking forward to it, but I didnt know what was going to happen.

She was shocked to find that dozens of female college students were in attendance to show their support, cramming two and three to a seat.

Even more surprising? When the proceedings started, the principal of Juren did not contest Huang and Caos complaint but immediately apologized. When the academys lawyer offered $500 in compensation  as opposed to the $8,300 Huang and Cao had asked for  the principal cut him off and offered $5,000, which the women accepted.

We didnt expect the result to be so positive, Huang said.

The principal suggested that she use the money to fund outreach and education on womens employment rights. Cao says shed like to, but isnt quite sure how to go about it yet. She is now working for an education consulting company.

Despite her legal victory, shes been keeping a low profile. She still uses the pseudonym and does not allow her full face to be photographed by the news media, in part because she fears she might have trouble getting a job in the future if employers regard her as a troublemaker.

She has never even told her parents, who are farmers in Shanxi province southwest of Beijing, that she was the plaintiff in the case, and only one of her friends knows.

I didnt want to make my friends or family anxious. I felt uneasy myself dealing with courts and judges, and I didnt want them to feel this too, she said. This court case has been a channel for me to deal with my anger about the discrimination, but its risky and I need to keep my privacy.

julie.makinen@latimes.com

Nicole Liu in The Times Beijing bureau contributed to this report.
Law enforcement officials in Georgia on Sunday shot down the reports of a possible sighting of Gabby Petito's fiance, Brian Laundrie, in the city of Newnan.

Newnan Police Department Chief Brent Blankenship told Fox News that they do not have an official sighting of Brian Laundrie within Newnan.

The reported sighting of Gabby Petito's fiance in Newnan, Georgia comes just hours after a Florida man hiking the Appalachian Trail claimed he saw Brian Laundrie driving in a white pick-up truck on Saturday in Tennessee.

READ NEXT: Brian Laundrie Manhunt: Florida Sheriff Says Police in Utah, North Port Missed Chances to Take Gabby Petito's Fiance Into Custody

Florida Hiker Claims He Saw Brian Laundrie in Tennessee

Florida hiker Dennis Davis claimed that he saw Gabby Petito's fiance driving the said vehicle at around 12:30 a.m. Eastern Time in Tennessee near the North Carolina border.

Together with some other hikers, Davis recalled pulling up alongside the white pick-up truck while about to make a U-turn on Waterville Road after accidentally passing a parking lot near the Appalachian Trail.

He noted that the truck approached from behind and flashed its headlights as if signaling him that he could complete his U-turn.

When he made the u-turn and was driving back in the direction of the pick-up truck, the Florida hiker said the man driving the vehicle, whom he believed was Laundrie, stuck his hand out of the vehicle, so he pulled up.

Davis said he rolled down his window and engaged in small talk with the man. The Florida hiker noted that he could tell that there was something wrong with the pick-up truck driver, thinking that the man could be on drugs. But he later realized that the man "looked mentally shot," adding that the driver "didn't look dirty at all."

The driver told Davis that he and his girlfriend had a fight and he was lost trying to get to California to see her.

"Man, I love her, and she called me, and I need to go out to California to see her," the man said.

Davis then suggested that he take I-40 West, but the driver insisted on staying on Waterville Road by the Pigeon River.

As he started to wonder whether it was Gabby Petito's fiance, Davis then looked up the picture of him on the internet and at that point, he was 95 percent sure he had seen Laundrie and called the FBI as well as Tennesee and North Carolina police.

The Haywood County Sheriff's Office in North Carolina reported receiving about 10 more sightings and calls over the weekend. The sheriff's office then sent a team to mile marker seven near the Waterville exit.

"There is no doubt about it. That was Brian Laundrie I was just talking to. 100 percent," the Florida hiker noted.

Brian Laundrie's Parents Could be Federally Charged

On Sunday, a former legal prodigy and federal prosecutor said that Brian Laundrie's parents, Roberta and Chris, could face criminal charges if they provided false information to authorities.

Former legal prodigy and federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani noted that there could be a basis to charge Laundrie's parents if they sent "law enforcement on a wild goose chase," telling authorities that their son was on the Florida reserve when he wasn't there.

West Coast defense attorney Lara Yeretsian said that Laundrie's parents could be charged related to obstructing justice or accessory-after-the-fact if they misled or misdirected authorities.

Gabby Petito disappeared on a cross-country road trip with Brian Laundrie. The couple was traveling to Oregon when the YouTuber stopped communicating with her family in Wyoming in late August.

Brian Laundrie was named a person of interest by North Port police after returning home on September 1 or 10 days before Gabby Petito was reported missing by her family.

On September 19, Petito's body was found at the Spread Creek Dispersed Campground near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

The FBI has already issued a federal arrest warrant for Brian Laundrie over debit card fraud. The manhunt for Gabby Petito's fiance already entered its third week.

READ MORE: Florida Campsite Documents Reveal Brian Laundrie and His Parents Went Camping After Gabby Petito Vanished

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Written by: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Dog the Bounty Hunter Offering $10,000 for Info Leading to Capture of Brian Laundrie - From FOX 5 Washington DC
The Ecuadorian police intercepted a total of 2.5 tons of cocaine in two separate operations and arrested five individuals running the drug shipments, authorities said.

According to Deutsche Welle, the first operation involved a ton of cocaine seized by the police in Ecuador bound for Europe, while the second operation intercepted a vessel that was allegedly being used to transport drugs by sea. Guayaquil law enforcement arrested five people behind the 1.5 tons of cocaine on a sailing boat that was headed to Chile on the same day.

One Metric Ton of Cocaine Seized in Guayaquil Port

The Ecuadorian police said that the anti-narcotics units in the southwestern city reported the discovery of a metric ton of cocaine in a container at the port of regional capital Guayaquil bound for Bulgaria.

Based on the Ecuadorian authorities, they seized the drugs on Saturday as part of an operation called "Matrix." The anti-narcotics chief from Zone 8 of the city, Manuel Gomez, said that the interception happened during a search at Guayaquil port.

The Ecuador police announced the details of the finds on their social media account.

The anti-narcotics officer said that a police dog drew attention to the substance in one of the containers in the port. After tests run in the substance found in the suspected container, they later confirmed that it tested positive, presumably, for cocaine.

Meanwhile, authorities in Ecuador have recently become aware of the ongoing drug shipments in Guayaquil port. The Ecuadorian authorities stated that the place is now being used as a new departure point for drugs like cocaine, the Ecuador news outlet El Comercio reported.

The drug shipments, which left the strategic point, often reach Europe via the Panama Canal.

READ MORE: Narco Jet Carrying $11 Million Worth of Cocaine Crashed in the Dominican Republic

Operation Jupiter Busts Drug Transport By Sea

The anti-narcotics chief revealed that the second operation, which was code-named "Jupiter," has raided a sailing boat through the coordination of the Ecuadorian Navy and the Colombian Police with personnel from the United States Coast Guard.

The multi-agency operation found out that the vessel was allegedly being used "to transport drugs by sea," said Gomez.

The police arrested two Ecuadorians, two Colombians and a Mexican in the raid. Gomez said that the arrested individuals were "allegedly responsible for the transport of approximately one and a half tons of cocaine."

Based on the authorities, Colombia is the main producer of cocaine in the region, with 212,000 hectares or about 524,000 acres dedicated to its production.

The Ecuadorian police will now transport the suspects and evidence to the United States, he reported.

"These results obtained will affect the coffers of organized criminals," added Gomez.

READ NEXT: Cocaine Smuggler Associated With Sinaloa Cartel Convicted for California-Delaware Cocaine Pipeline

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Written by: Jess Smith

WATCH: Ecuador: Weapons and drugs seized in Guayaquil prison after riot-Ruptly


More than 600 journalists have worked together in a massive investigation shedding light on the world's richest global leaders and other public officials and their offshore banking. The journalists named the expose "Pandora Papers."

Pandora Papers had shown how the world's ultra-rich hide their money and asset from authorities, according to an NPR report.

Usually, it is done with their creditors and lawyers, as well as financial institutions that offer clandestine ways to operate.

The trove containing 11.9 million records was leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The agency shared it with partner media outlets for a large-scale investigation.

Senior ICIJ reporter Will Fitzgibbon said that papers are secretive, confidential documents from tax havens and offshore specialists.

These specialists helped the wealthy and sometimes criminal individuals create a front company or trust to hide their wealth.

READ NEXT: National Archives Determined Founding Documents, Including Constitution May Be "Harmful Content"

Offshore Data Including World Leaders and Public Officials

The offshore data had included 35 world leaders, including former presidents, prime ministers, and heads of state in the expose, according to The Guardian report.

More than 300 other public officials such as government ministers, judges, mayors, and top military leaders were also mentioned.

The expose had revealed that the ruler of Jordan, King Abdullah II, has collected a secret $100 million property empire in Malibu, Washington, and London.

The King of Jordan had refused to answer specific questions but noted that there would be nothing improper about him owning properties through offshore companies.

Jordan had also blocked the ICIJ website on Sunday, hours before the Pandora Papers were published.

Pandora Papers had also shed light on Azerbaijan's ruling Aliyev family acquiring 400 million of UK property in recent years.

One of their properties was sold to the Queen's crown estate, now looking into how it came to pay 67 million to the family's front company.

The Aliyevs were also accused of running the country with rampant corruption. They had declined to comment on the matter.

Two European Union leaders were also mentioned in the Pandora Papers, including the prime minister of the Czech Republic, Andrej Babis.

Babis is currently up for election this week. He was reported to have used an offshore investment company to buy a $22 million chateau in the south of France.

Babis had also declined to comment on the reporting of his property procurement through an offshore account.

Russian President, Vladimir Putin, had not made it in the files by name. However, numerous close associates have been on the list, including Putin's best friend from childhood, as well as a woman the Russian leader was allegedly once romantically involved with.

Meanwhile, the United States has emerged as a leading tax haven, singling out South Dakota as a state sheltering billions of dollars linked to individuals previously accused of serious financial crimes.

according to a BBC News report, Ecuador President Guillermo Lasso, a former banker, had replaced a Panamanian foundation that made monthly payments to his close family members with a trust situated in South Dakota.

READ MORE: Donald Trump Would Win and Beat Pres. Joe Biden if Next Presidential Election Were Held Now, New Poll Shows

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Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: 'Pandora Papers' leak exposes secret offshore accounts of politicians, celebrities - from CBS News


Facebook whistleblower, Frances Haugen, had claimed that the social media platform had repeatedly been gaining profit over hate speech and misinformation.

Haugen said that her lawyers had filed at least eight complaints with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a Reuters report.

The Facebook whistleblower used to be a product manager on the civic misinformation at the company. She revealed that she was the whistleblower who gave the documents that prompted a Wall Street investigation.

She noted that there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for the social media platform.

Haugen said that Facebook had repeatedly chosen to optimize for its own interests, such as making more money.

One document provided by Haugen showed that they have evidence from a variety of sources that hate speech, divisive political speech, and misinformation on Facebook and affiliated apps are affecting societies globally, according to The Verge report.

READ NEXT: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Gets Pushback on Release of 'Instagram for Kids' Due to Mental Health Concerns

Facebook Algorithm

Haugen said that the root of the problem is the algorithms that were released in 2018 that rule what people see o the platform.

The whistleblower added that the algorithms were meant to drive engagement and that Facebook found that the best engagement is the kind that instills fear and hate in users.

Haugen said that it is easier to inspire people to anger than it is to other emotions.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg earlier presented the algorithm changes as positive, saying that they feel it is a responsibility to make sure that their services are not just fun to use but also good for people's well-being.

However, reports noted that the result from the algorithm changes had turned toward anger and hate. One internal memo of Facebook quoted that misinformation, toxicity, and violent content are prevalent among reshares.

The social media giant was also accused of being a tool in organizing the Capitol riot on January 6, according to Haugen. She noted that Facebook had turned off its safety systems after the U.S. presidential elections.

However, Nick Clegg, Facebook's vice president of policy and global affairs, had defended the company with the 1,500-word memo.

Clegg said that evidence does not support allegations that Facebook or social media, more generally, is the primary cause of the divide, according to The New York Times report.

Facebook spokesperson Lena Pietsch said in a statement that to suggest that the company encourages bad content and does nothing is not true, as Reuters reported.

Clegg also said that their job is to mitigate the bad, reduce it, and amplify the good, according to an Axios report.

The Facebook official went on to say that he thinks they do more than anyone else in the industry and more than any reasonable person can expect to.

Haugen had called for the regulation of social networks more broadly. She is also set to testify in a Senate hearing on October 5.

Facebook had also come under scrutiny when its affiliated app Instagram was probed for its adverse effects on teenager's mental health.

READ MORE: Facebook Introduces New Prayer Tool Prompting Mixed Reactions From Users

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Written by Mary Webber

WATCH: Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen: The 60 Minutes Interview - from 60 Minutes


Former President Donald Trump confidently said during an interview on Sunday that he would beat Florida Governor Ron DeSantis if the governor would run for the presidential post in the 2024 elections.

Trump made his comments during an interview with Yahoo! Finance, as he voiced out his confidence in beating DeSantis for the highest office in the United States.

"If I faced him, I'd beat him like I would everyone else," Trump said during the interview.

READ NEXT: Donald Trump Laments the Removal of Robert E. Lee Confederate Statue in Virginia

Donald Trump Predicts Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to "Drop Out" for President Post

Trump predicted that Ron DeSantis will be one of the GOP officials who will step away from running as president if he will fight for the said post.

"I don't think I will face him... I think most people would drop out, think he [DeSantis] will drop out," Trump stressed in the interview.

Trump showed off his confidence as several polls revealed that DeSantis will be one of his competitors if ever both of them decide to run for president in the 2024 elections.

A recent survey by the Super PAC of former Trump aide revealed that GOP supporters backed the ex-president with 26.2 percent support. Meanwhile, the Florida governor followed Trump in the ranking, garnering 25.2 percent support from GOP supporters.

Another poll from Emerson College in early September revealed that Trump defeated DeSantis 67 percent in a 10 percent eight-person field. The poll also showed that Trump would beat President Joe Biden in a "head-to-head" general election match-up.

Although Donald Trump confidently said that he would beat DeSantis on the 2024 election over the presidency. The Florida governor has yet to express his plan on seeking the highest office.

"I'm not considering anything beyond doing my job," DeSantis stressed in an interview, arguing that they've "got a lot of going on" in the state he is currently supervising.

Donald Trump Seeks Help From Florida Judge Retrieve Twitter Account

Donald Trump made his comments about the election showdown with DeSantis a day after he sought the help of a Florida Judge to retrieve his Twitter account, as the company banned him from the social media platform on January 8, following the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol.

It can be recalled the Twitter account of the ex-president with the handle @realDonaldTrump, became the signature mark of his run for the presidency in 2016, The Guardian reported.

According to the court filing submitted by the attorneys of the ex-president on the U.S. District Court in Miami, Trump sought a preliminary injunction against Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and the company to reinstate his account.

Trump argued that not granting him the injunction he seeks would cause his 88 million followers "irreparable harm" as they fail to get his message or comment on them.

It was still unclear when or if the Florida judge, which was not identified, will grant the injunction Donald Trump is seeking.

Aside from Twitter, it can be recalled that Facebook and YouTube also banned Donald Trump for the same reason as Twitter, claiming that the ex-president would incite violence. Trump will be banned from Facebook until January 2023, while YouTube's ban was indefinite.

READ NEXT: Olympic Swimmer Klete Keller Guilty on Charge in Jan. 6 Capitol Riot

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Written By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Trump's 2024 prediction: 'Most People Would Drop out' of the Republican Primary if I ran - From Yahoo Finance
The ongoing firefighting efforts against the Dixie Fire have seen more than 6,500 personnel; among them were Mexicans who were hired by a contractor and trained by the U.S. Forest Service to back up the country's firefighting crews.

Mexicans Fighting Dixie Fire

With an area of more than 960,000 acres, the Dixie Fire is currently considered California's largest fire and affected an area larger than the state of Rhode Island.

The Spanish-speaking firefighters and crews of the majority of Mexicans were working to stop further damages of the Dixie Fire.

According to ABC10, a crew boss from San Diego with more than 20 years of experience as a wildland firefighter, David "Buenos" Diaz, shared during an interview that the Mexicans were called "Trabajo de bombero," which in Spanish means workers of the fire.

READ MORE: California Governor Gavin Newsom Issues COVID Vaccine Requirement for Schoolchildren

Fire Crews with Mexicans

Despite the danger that they were facing in wildland firefighting and the difficulty of their work, Diaz said the bomberos from all over Mexico went for an opportunity in the U.S.

"People coming from Mexico, they're just like everybody. Everybody wants to make a good living, everybody wants to eat well, take care of our families," Diaz said.

On Sunday, Diaz's crew was working in a section of Lassen County where the Dixie fire had already blackened tree trunks. Aside from putting out hot spots in the area, the crew was also carving containment lines into the soil using their hand tools. The workers were hired and trained to do the firefighting techniques by a contractor with the U.S. Forest Service.

Moreover, 21-year-old Mexican national Sergio Coria Blanco was one of the youngest faces on the crew. Blanco left his family for an opportunity abroad. He left his brothers and sisters in his hometown of Morelia, in the state of Michoacan.

"There are many more possibilities to make money here, and I like the job," Coria said.

With wildfire conditions in the state of California growing ever more extreme, the U.S. Forest Service said that crews like the one held by Diaz were being utilized to mop up at the tail of the fire. The number of extra workers cleaning up the remains freed up more specialized crews to attack the head of the Dixie Fire.

The crew boss of another team, Ubaldo Vargas, shared that they are not only fighting fires as part of their job but also restoring nature. Vargas said that they were planting trees to make sure that the area would be taken care of.

Vargas added that his countrymen, the bomberos, who were working in the U.S., could expect to earn more money in the country than they might back home.

"For the people that come from Mexico, they always have a dream to come to work hard and help their families," Vargas said.

Furthermore, the workers also said that they felt a sense of brotherhood, accomplishment, and pride among the crew, especially when they were thinking about their loved ones back home.

"My daughters say, 'my dad's a firefighter, he works hard every day," Diaz said.

READ NEXT: Massive California Oil Spill Sends Crude Onto Orange County Coast, Killing Marine Life and Birds

This article is owned by Latin Post

Written by: Jess Smith

WATCH: Meet the Bomberos: These Mexican nationals are helping tame the Dixie Fire -ABC10


(Oct. 3, 2021) -- Cong. Alan Lowenthal (D, LB-west OC) has called for phasing out all existing offshore oil drilling operations immediately and banning future offshore oil development or production off in federal waters along California's coasts in the wake of the Huntington Beach oil leak/spill.

"Where you drill, you spill" Cong. Lowenthal said in a written statement, and "when you drill along the coast, when you pipe that oil ashore, our coastlines will bear the brunt of the impacts from such spills."

The crude oil petroleum release (current estimate 126,000 gallons) is strongly suspected by the City of Huntington Beach - but not yet federally determined -- to have come from a pipeline connecting an offshore oil rig 8.6 miles offshore southeasterly of Long Beach's Belmont Pier. Investigators are focusing on a portion of the pipeline about four miles from shore.

In a written statement, Cong. Lowenthal said:

"This oil spill off the coast of Orange County is as tragic as it was preventable. This environmental catastrophe highlights the simple fact that where you drill, you spill. As we are sadly witnessing, when you drill along the coast, when you pipe that oil ashore, our coastlines will bear the brunt of the impacts from such spills. "This will be devastating not only to our marine wildlife and ecosystem, but also to the livelihoods of our coastal communities which are built around fishing, tourism, and recreation. As long as these platforms and pipelines remain, our coastal communities remain under threat from potential disasters like we are now seeing. I have, and continue to, fight in Congress to prevent any future drilling in federal waters along our coasts, and we must recognize the will of coastal communities that their coastlines are off limits and will not be sacrificed to the fossil fuel industry. "There is no doubt that the cleanup of this disaster will take time, but the cost should not be brunt on the shoulders of the taxpayers--the industrial polluters must bear the cost to cleanup, rebuild destroyed habitats, loss of wildlife, and any economic loss associated with this event. "In May, I co-sponsored the North Pacific Ocean Protection Act, and the American Coasts and Oceans Protection Act, which together would stop future drilling off of the Pacific Coast. "We must once and for all take steps to prevent these events from happening again along our coastline. We must ensure there is no future offshore oil development or production off in federal waters California's coasts and all existing offshore operations must be phased out immediately."

At an Oct 3 afternoon news conference, officials in a multi-agency unified command said they haven't yet determined the exact location and cause of the oil leak/spill, which has created a crude oil petroleum sheen that has begun fouling Huntington Beach and Newport Beach beaches and oiling sea birds (potentially fatal to them if not swiftly cleaned.)

The Oiled Wildlife Care Network -- contact: (877) 823-6726 -- advises NOT to touch oiled or injured wildlife. Call the group and they'll know what to do.
The Cathaoirleach of Laois County Council is calling on the Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue and Senator Pippa Hackett, Minister of State who represents Laois and Offaly, to introduce a single consent forestry licence to solve the crisis in the industry.

Cllr Conor Bergin's motion to the September meeting of Laois County Council was widely supported by colleagues.

He said three separate licences are required to plant, thin and fell forests, with a backlog now of years to wait, but other EU countries require only one licence.

I attended a meeting as Cathaoirleach with Laois Farm Forestry Group. This is 650 farmers the same number as dairy farmers, with 7,200 hectares of forestry, employing 430 people and a major sawmills. We need emergency legislation.

This is our Google, our Facebook, if 400 jobs were at risk in Dublin the government would be on its knees trying to fix it, he said.

"It's like as if you were building a house and you had to get different permission for blocks and then the windows. I am now calling on Senator Hackett to do her job, we need action now," Cllr Bergin added.

A big Laois sawmills has to import timber, claimed Cllr Padraig Fleming.

Cllr PJ Kelly worked in the timber industry for 20 years he said.

Hundreds of thousands of saplings had to be binned this year because licences weren't granted. A shocking waste. Farmers spent hundreds of thousands on machinery to extract timber. It's a shocking shame we have to import it and leave our machinery idle here.

Cllr James Kelly said there is a glut of timber waiting to be felled.

The red tape is going to cost jobs, he warned.

Cllr Ben Brennan agrees.

"It's absolutely crazy. They were begging people to grow hard and soft wood. If you can't get a licence to thin it, the timber won't develop. Timber prices are up by 33%. You can't expect contractors to survive. The Government need to get up off their rear end and sort this straight away. People will be broke. They are bankrupt already," he said.
A number of key projects in Laois have been listed the in new National Development Plan, published by the Government, according to Laois TD Sean Fleming.

The Minister of State at the Department of Finance listed some of the promises.

Some specific items listed include the New Divisional Garda Headquarters for Laois, Offaly and Kildare which is to be built in Portlaoise.

Also listed is a new Courthouse for Portlaoise. Completing upgrade works at Portlaoise Prison which is the only high security prison in the State is also listed.

The development of Portlaoise is essential for the county and this can only happen if there is adequate supply of treated water for housing, industrial and employment related activities. Portlaoise is listed as a key water supply project for the Eastern and Midlands Region, he said.

Apart from these specific projects, he said substantial funding has been made available for new and improved school infrastructure and many local well known key priorities will come in under this heading.

There is also massive investment provided for Health Services which will result in significant improvements in Laois, he said.

Minister Fleming said work would continue to make Portlaoise move towards being a low carbon town.

The essential point of the National Development Plan is that funding is now being prioritised for investment up to 2030.

Finally I would call on all State Bodies i.e. Laois County Council , the HSE , An Garda Siochana, The Court Services, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, Irish Rail, Bus Eireann, The Department of Education, The Office of Public Works (regarding flood relief works) and Irish Water to immediately prioritise projects in Laois so that applications can be submitted and approved for funding as early as possible, said the TD.

Laois Offaly Fine Gael TD Charlie Flanagan highlighted one project.

I am delighted that the new Garda Divisional Headquarters at Portlaoise is a priority under the multimillion National Development Pan. I was pleased to advance this matter as Minister for Justice, and I look forward to an early commencement of this much needed project, he said.

Talks to fund the new garda station are ongoing with plans also being worked on. A site has been purchased for the courthouse.
A well-known journalism society has confirmed that Ireland is currently a de facto offshore location for a number of people and businesses based in eastern Europe and central Asia.

The Irish Times has reported that it was among the news publications (over 140 in total) which received millions of leaked documents, known as the "Pandora Papers".

The information contained within the papers originates from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), who are based in Washington DC.

It added that the findings are the result of the largest investigative project in history, involving more than 600 journalists.

The main findings  who is involved?

The leaked documents include details of the business affairs of more than 30 world leaders and 130 billionaires.

These include: King Abdullah II of Jordan, President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta, and Andrej Babis, the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic who is currently running in the country's upcoming general election.

Arguably the most interesting finding was reported by The Washington post, who claimed that a woman who is allegedly romantically involved with Russian leader Vladimir Putin has ties to a luxury Monaco apartment.

Her total net worth is estimated to be around $100 million (just over 86.11 million), according to The New York Post.

The Irish connection:

The Irish Times has established that an empty property located on Lower Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2, is the registered address of more than 800 limited partnerships.

It added that this is due to a type of legal structure which is designed to allow investors invest in businesses while also limiting their exposure."

The limited partnerships registered at the property on Lower Fitzwilliam St constitute about one-quarter of the total currently registered in Ireland.

The paper explained the implications of the deal: "The net effect is that the people using the partnerships control an entity that is based in an EU member state but their identity remains completely obscure."

"As long as the partnership does not engage in business in the State, and the partners are resident outside the State, no Irish tax charge arises."

Background information:

According to a study conducted last year by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), at least $11.3 trillion (around 9.73 Tn) is held offshore.

In addition, the leaked files have also shown the increasing role played by a number of US states in offshore-type structures.

The news of the Pandora Papers echoes the news of the Panama Papers in 2016, in which the law firm Mossack Fonseca leaked 2.6 terrabytes of data concerning offshore accounts.

The following year, another set of documents, known as the Paradise Papers, were released, which detailed the transactions of offshore funds provider Appleby, which is located in Bermuda.
A politician from Kildare has pleaded with the government to defer its upcoming carbon tax.

People Before Profit's Paul Mahon has called for an emergency cap on energy prices.

He has also asked the govt to defer any proposed increases in the carbon tax in Budget 2022, claiming that there has been a rise in energy costs for people.

Mr Mahon said in a statement: "Energy prices have gone through the roof due to a number of factors which are having a massive impact on ordinary people and their pockets."

He added that it was "totally unsustainable" for people to be expected to pay "extortionate" increases between 19 per cent and 40 per cent increase on their energy bills.

Mr Mahon elaborated: "Some providers have put their prices up four times this year."

"The government need to take action by implementing an emergency cap on energy prices, which they can do."

He continued: "I would also call on the government to now withdraw the planned carbon tax increase from Budget 2022.

The inequity of people having to fork out for these extortionate prices for energy and then for the government to add insult to injury by slapping on a carbon tax hike to people who are already at the pin of their collar.

The government is completely out of touch with the lives of rural people who don't have the luxury of public transport every 15 mins or shops on every corner or the money to switch from turf to solar energy."

Mr Mahon concluded: "These are the people that the carbon tax and increases in electricity prices will affect the most and no amount of lettuce on the windowsill will help that."

Similar sentiments have been expressed by former minister for rural development by Michael Ring, a TD based in Mayo, in a recent article published on TheJournal.ie.

Conversely, one proponent of the carbon tax in Ireland, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath TD, recently told RTE's Morning Ireland that it is his belief that the proceeds of 9.5bn in additional carbon tax receipts up to 2030 will be used to tackle fuel poverty measures, as well as to fund new agri-environmental schemes.

Last week, Paul Mahon lambasted the news that additional data centres are being planned for Ireland.

He claimed that the construction of such centres would go against the nation's climate targets.
Kildare Gardai made an arrest on a local train of a person who didn't turn up in court.

A bench warrant had been issued for the passenger - which means that a judge ordered that gardai arrest the person and bring them before the court.

Kildare Community Gardai along with Garda Reserve support and Irish Rail staff were carrying out a routine operation on a local train when the passenger's details were checked.

It emerged that a bench warrant was in existence for the person.

The person was later brought to court to face charges.

Gardai said: "One passenger was arrested on foot of an active bench warrant and will appear before court."

Gardai added that the on-going operations on trains are targeted at anti social behaviour on local trains and at rail stations.

Officers may also carry out searches under the Misuse of Drugs Act and detect public order offences.




















Macra na Feirme, the Irish voluntary rural youth organisation, is calling on the government to ensure that the upcoming CAP Strategic Plan (CSP) delivery and Carbon Budgets consider young farmers and the future of Irish farming.

According to Teagasc, Irelands emissions per kilogram of food production are among the lowest in the Europe and Irish farming is perfectly positioned as a global leader in sustainable food production.

It is important to recognise the contribution that Irelands largest indigenous industry has on the livelihoods of young people and ensure future plans keep farming viable.

Macra na Feirme National President John Keane said;

These plans and budgets will shape the future of farming in Ireland long into the future. What young farmers need is constructive engagement on both topics to ensure that a future is provided, for young people in farming.

If caps and limits are implemented by our government it would drive food production away from Ireland resulting in increased negative impacts on our climate and environment added Keane.

Young Irish farmers need government to provide supports and policies that deliver on environmental commitments while also allowing young farmers the opportunity to grow their family farm businesses.

Getting the balance wrong will result in Irish family farms being placed at a disadvantage compared to our international counterparts stated Keane.

Macra na Feirme asks government to ensure that the CSP and Carbon Budgets provide young farmers and new entrants the opportunity to enter and grow within the farming sector.

We cannot find ourselves in a position where farming in Ireland does not provide for new entrants into the sector or allow for young people to grow a business and develop a sustainable living added Keane.

Plans that restrict both new entrants and young people will not be conducive to meeting our environmental targets, generational renewal commitments nor ensuring the fabric of rural communities is maintained for generations to follow.
Sinn Fein spokesperson on Justice Martin Kenny TD has called upon the Garda Commissioner to give GSOC the power to investigate retired members of An Garda Siochana.

Speaking from Leinster House, the Sligo-Leitrim TD said, We have always been concerned that GSOC is limited to investigating current members of An Garda Siochana only. After the arrest of an as yet unnamed retired senior Garda, it brings to light the issue again. If it turns out that this person was going to be investigated by GSOC for wrongdoing during his time and decided to retire to avoid this, that will speak for itself.

"For the very few Gardai who have committed a breach in their duty of protecting the public, GSOC is easily avoidable for them  all they need to do is retire and any GSOC investigation will disappear. This is in stark contrast to overseeing bodies in other sectors, such as the Irish Medical Council, who have the ability to investigate allegations made against medical practitioners even after their retirement.

"This is denying justice to a certain extent and makes members of the public very uneasy about their ability to report perceived wrong doing by members of An Garda Siochana. Once again, I want to commend the determination and hard work of the Gardai involved in this case.
The death has occurred of Sarah (Sadie) Williams (nee Ross), Patrickswell.

Peacefully at Milford Care Centre, Limerick. Sarah (Sadie), (retired N.T. Borrisokane & Principal St. Michael's Limerick) beloved wife of the late Stanley & dear mother of Glenn & Colin. Sadly missed by her many relatives & friends.

Reposing at Thompson Undertakers, 40 Thomas St., Limerick, V94FT85 on Wednesday, October 6th, from 11am until 12 noon. Removal to St. Michael's Church, Pery Square V94HK09 for funeral service at 2pm. Burial afterwards at St. Mary's Cathedral, Bridge St., V94 E068.

In the interests of public health, attendance at the Service will be restricted to 50% of the churchs capacity and in line with social distancing protocols. Cards and messages of sympathy can be sent to Thompsons, Thomas Street, Limerick.

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The death has occurred of Eleanor O'Toole (nee O'Kelly), Ballypierce, Charleville, and Abbeyfeale, and retired from An Garda Siochana.

Peacefully, in the presence of her loving family at Cork University Hospital, after a long illness bravely borne. Beloved wife and best friend of Sean, adored mother of Gavin & Lorcan. Sadly missed by her heartbroken family, dear sister of, Kathleen (Fitzgerald, Abbeyfeale), brothers John & Mike, deeply regretted by her loving family, mother-in-law, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews, relatives, neighbours, work colleagues & dear friends.

Rest in peace

Funeral cortege leaving her residence on Wednesday at 12 noon for 12.30 Requiem Mass in Holy Cross Church, Charleville. Maximum of 50 percent capacity is allowed. A livestream is available on the Facebook page of charlevilleparish.ie Cremation after in Shannon at 3 pm. Messages of may be left in the condolence section on rip.ie or post to O'Malley Funeral Directors, Charleville. House private please.

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The death has occurred of Bride O'Connor (nee Mulvihill), Church Street and Caheragh, Glin and late of Bride's Boutique and Hair Studio, Church Street and Caheragh, Glin.

Peacefully surrounded by her loving family and in the exceptional care of the staff of Milford Hospice, Limerick. Pre-deceased by her parents Patrick and Elizabeth, her brother Patrick and her nephew Liam. Bride will be sadly missed and lovingly remembered by her loving husband Eddie, her son Seamus and his partner Kathleen, her daughters Maura and Stephanie, sons-in-law Kieran and Jimmy, grandchildren Dylan, Adam, Jack, Hannah and Tommy Joe; brothers, sisters, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, cousins, grand-nieces and grand-nephews, extended family, her past and present staff, her loyal customers, neighbours and her large circle of friends.

"May Bride Rest in Peace"

Removal from her family home on Thursday, 7th October, for Requiem Mass at 12 noon in The Church of the Immaculate Conception, Glin followed by burial in the Church Grounds. House strictly private please. For those wishing to pay their respects to the family, the funeral cortege will leave the family home via Caheragh and Mill Street for Mass at 12 noon. Please observe current covid-19 restrictions regarding attendance at funerals.

Family flowers only please. Donations, if desired, to Milford Hospice, Limerick. Messages of sympathy can be expressed by using the condolence option on rip.ie

Mass will be live streamed on the following link: www.churchservices.tv/glin

"So greatly loved, so sadly missed"

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The death has occurred of Bridget (Bridgie) MURPHY (nee Scannell), St. Ita's Road, Abbeyfeale.

Died at her home on Monday, October 4th 2021 in the presence of her family.

Bridgie, wife of the late Tom, is very sadly missed by her sons Seamus and John, daughters Joan, Helen, B.B., Pat and Caroline, sons-in-law John, Pat and Jimmy, grandchildren, especially Noelle and Sharon, who cared for her over the years, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, nephews, nieces, neighbours and a large circle of friends.

Rest In Peace

Reposing at her home on Tuesday from 5.00 p.m.

Funeral cortege will depart Bridgies home on Wednesday at 10.30 a.m. on route to The Church of the Assumption Abbeyfeale to arrive for Requiem Mass at 11.00 a.m.

Requiem Mass will then be live streamed on the following: www.churchservices.tv/abbeyfealeparish

Due to current HSE guidelines current church capacity limited to 50%.

Following Requiem Mass Bridgie will be laid to rest in Reilig Ide Naofa Abbeyfeale.

Please feel free to leave a message in the Condolence Book on rip.ie or send Mass cards and letters of sympathy by post C/O Harnetts Funeral Home, The Square, Abbeyfeale, Co. Limerick.

You may also send your condolences by email to: harnettsfuneralhome@gmail.com

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The death has occurred of Derek Mulqueen, Bru Na Grudan, Castletroy and late of Lenihan Avenue, Prospect.

Derek, died suddenly, Beloved husband of the late Nora. Very deeply regretted by his daughters Breda, Samantha, Karen and Nora, grandchildren Chanelle, Mollie, Lacie, Shania and baby Dean, sister Valerie, sons-in-law Dean, Shane and Joe, nieces, nephews, all other relatives and friends.

May He Rest in Peace

Reposing at Cross' Funeral Home, Gerald Griffin Street, for family and close friends, on Wednesday (October 6th) from 2pm to 4pm. Arriving on Thursday (October 7th) for 11.00am Requiem Mass, for family and close friends, in St. John's Cathedral, Cathedral Place.

Mass will be streamed live (to view click here)

Funeral afterwards to Mount St. Oliver Cemetery.

Please ensure social distancing and public health advice is adhered to.

Messages of sympathy may be expressed through the condolence section on rip.ie or cards and letters of sympathy can be sent to Cross's Funeral Directors, 2 Lower Gerald Griffin Street, Limerick.

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The death has occurred of Sarah (Sadie) McGarry (nee O' Connor), Lismoyne, North Circular Road.

Peacefully in the loving care of Ennis Road Care Facility. Beloved wife of the late James. Dearly loved mother of Ann, Derry, Joan, John, Peter and the late Sarah. Sadly missed by her sons-in-law, Joe and Niall, daughters-in-law Fiona, Mary and Edel, her beloved grandchildren, sisters-in-law Joan and Rita, nieces, nephews, extended family and friends.

May she rest in peace.

Reposing for family and close friends will take place in Thompson's Funeral Home, Thomas Street, on Tuesday (5th October) from 4.00pm to 5.30pm. Requiem Mass for family and close friends will take place in Our Lady of the Rosary Church, Ennis Road this Wednesday (6th October) at 11.00am with burial afterwards in Castlemungret Cemetery.

Sadies Requiem Mass will be live streamed on here

In the interests of public health, attendance at the Service will be restricted to 50% of the churchs capacity and in line with social distancing protocols.

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The death has occurred of David McCarthy, Kilcruaig, Glenroe.

David passed away peacefully on Sunday, 3rd Oct, at his residence, in the company of his loving family and the wonderful care of Milford Hospice, after a short illness bravely borne. Pre-deceased by his brother John. Dave will be sadly missed and fondly remembered by his loving wife Mary, sons Diarmuid, Justin, Stephen and David, daughter Maria, daughters-in-law Michelle and Olesya, son-in-law Pakie, adored grandchildren Rebecca, Liam, MJ and Alex, sisters Mary and Brid, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nephews, nieces, extended family, neighbours and a great circle of friends.

Reposing at his residence in Kilcruaig V35 P289 on Tuesday Oct. 5th, from 3pm to 8pm. Funeral cortege will leave his home on Wed. 6th Oct., at 10.15am and will travel via Glenroe GAA pitch for Funeral Mass in Our Lady of Ransom Church, Glenroe, at 11am. Burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. Please adhere to restrictions at all times. Messages of sympathy my be left in the condolence section on rip.ie or by email to jr963072@gmail.com

MAY DAVID REST IN PEACE

Mass will be streamed live password will be available later.

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The death has occurred of Sr. Marie Lyons, Salesian Sisters Caherdavin, and formerly of Ballybunion.

Peacefully at Carrigoran House Nursing Home. Predeceased by her parents Lil and Jack, her brothers Jim, Tim and sister Josephine. Sadly missed nieces, nephew, grandnieces, relatives, friends and her Salesian Sisters.

May she rest in peace.

Reposing for family and close friends will take place in Thompson's Funeral Home, Thomas Street, on Tuesday (5th October) from 6.30pm to 8.00pm. Requiem Mass for family and close friends will take place in Christ the King Church, Caherdavin, this Wednesday (6th October) at 11.00am, followed by burial in Castlemungret Cemetery.

Sr. Maries Requiem Mass will be live streamed here

In the interests of public health, attendance at the Service will be restricted to 50% of the churchs capacity and in line with social distancing protocols. Cards and messages of sympathy can be sent to Thompsons, Thomas Street, Limerick.

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The death has occurred of James Cullinane, Lodge View House, Ballyorgan.

James died peacefully on the 3rd of October 2021 at Nenagh General Hospital. Sadly missed by his brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, sisters-in-law and grandnephew Jamie.

May his gentle soul rest in peace

Funeral cortege will leave McCarthy's Funeral Home to arrive for Mass at 2pm this Wednesday at St Joseph's Church, Ballyorgan, Co. Limerick followed by burial afterwards in Darragh Cemetery, Glenroe. Please adhere to restrictions at all times. Messages of sympathy my be left in the condolence section on rip.ie
AN NEW initiative has been launched to stimulate hotel bookings and highlight the range of air services available from Shannon Airport.

Visitors who stay at a hotel which is a member of either Shannon, Ennis, Galway or Limerick Chamber will be eligible to enter a free competition to win one of four flights for two to any of the 18 destinations served by the airport this winter.

Free airport parking is also included in the prize.

The competition runs from October 4 to November 1, and four winners will be selected - one from guests of a hotel in each district - Limerick, Shannon, Ennis and Galway.

Shannon Airport says the idea behind the promotion is to support local hoteliers in the shoulder season and raise awareness of the range of air services available from the base.

It adds hoteliers will benefit as it gives them an incentive to gain extra business and reward loyal customers, and Shannon Airport routes benefit from the promotional campaign run by hotels and Chamber members and the airport.

Mary Considine, the chief executive of the Shannon Group said: "We are delighted to be working with our Chamber partners and hotels to stimulate footfall in the regions accommodation sector and raise awareness of the destinations available from Shannon Airport. We hope the first of many such collaborations."

Winners will be announced on the chamber's and Shannon Airport websites on November 2.
A GROUP of Limerick residents have launched High Court proceedings against the decision of Limerick City and County Council to grant planning permission for a significant housing development on the outskirts of the city.

Plans for the 253-unit development at Dromdarrig, Mungret - near the former Mungret College - were approved by councillors over the summer.

Last week, four residents who live in the Mungret Woods housing estate, initiated legal proceedings seeking to have the decision of the local authority overturned. The case, which came before a vacation sitting of the High Court, will be listed for mention again this week.

In a statement, issued since the High Court proceedings were lodged, the 'Concerned Mungret Woods Residents' sought to explain their concerns.

"We feel that development at all costs is a failed model and the results of this were borne out during the last housing boom in Ireland prior to the economic crash of the mid to late 2000's," read the statement.

They say they were shocked and dismayed when they learned of the proposed development and claim there was no engagement from the local authority in advance.

The group, which has launched a GoFundme page to fund its legal challenge, says it has a number of concerns about what is being proposed and that its members feel they had "no other option" but to initiate the legal proceedings.

"We do not have any objection to the overall proposed development, especially considering the national and local housing emergency we are all acutely aware of," read the statement.
CLIMATE change is going to be used for every kind of enforcement, Independent councillor Emmett OBrien declared at a meeting of the full Limerick City and County Council.

I am saying it here first. There will be climate lockdowns. The radical left and eco-socialists will have climate change lockdowns, he said.

He was speaking after Green Party councillor Sean Hartigan called for the council to appoint a biodiversity and a tree officer, a proposal which, for Cllr OBrien, smacked of another layer of bureaucracy sticking their head over the hedge and telling people what to do.

Is this yet another public official sticking their nose into other peoples business? Cllr OBrien (pictured above) demanded before warning that climate change would be used for every kind of enforcement

Earlier, Cllr Hartigan said Limerick needs to play its part in reversing the trend which has seen one third of wild bee species come close to extinction.

Another 60% of birds, commonly occurring in Ireland, are now on the red or amber conservation lists, he told the meeting.

The job of a biodiversity officer, he said, would be to draw up a biodiversity plan for the county and help it meet its obligations, to raise awareness of the issues involved and to work on specific projects with local communities.

We also need a Tree Officer. This would preferably be a separate position but could be combined with the role of biodiversity office, Cllr Hartigan said.

The job would entail developing a Tree Strategy, carrying out surveying, promoting tree planting and tree care and organising tree crews for works. The councillor also envisaged that the officer would engage with schools, resident associations and Tidy Towns or Tidy Districts groups.

In a separate motion, Cllr Hartigan also called for suitable council-owned land to be identified and planted under the Woodland Creation on Public Lands Scheme.

The scheme aims to conserve nature by promoting the establishment of permanent, non-commercial, native woodlands on public land, which is rich in biodiversity and cultural significance, he said.

Cllr Hartigan was told the council was committed to protecting and enhancing biodiversity and would review the proposal. Staff members were involved in overseeing a range of projects, including the Pollinator Friendly project, he was told.
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Ministers ratified the 400,000 barrel-a-day supply hike scheduled for November after a short video conference on Monday, according to a statement from the group. Going into the talks, there had been speculation that they could opt for a larger supply increase in November, but no such proposal was made, delegates said, asking not to be named because the meeting was private.

West Texas Intermediate crude jumped as much as 3.3% to $78.38 a barrel in New York, the highest in almost seven years.

The agreement comes as OPEC+ appears to be very much in control of the oil market. Crude is trading at multiyear highs without prompting a surge in rival supplies. The cartels production policy will be the main factor influencing prices in the coming months, according to oil trader Vitol Group.

Saudi Arabia is sitting pretty, with output close to pre-pandemic levels, the highest petroleum revenues since 2018 and its fellow members largely united behind the plan to gradually revive idle production each month. Washington is also satisfied with that pace of supply hikes, according to a U.S. official who asked not to be named.

This means Saudi Arabia is keen to tweak the current OPEC+ deal of monthly increases as little as possible," said Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst and co-founder of consultant Energy Aspects.

OPEC+ ministers will meet again on Nov. 4, according to the statement.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies have regained a remarkably stable footing after more than a year of tumult. The internal conflicts brought on by the pandemic -- from a vicious price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia to arguments between Gulf allies over production quotas -- seem like distant memories.

If there is a threat to the delicate balance OPEC+ has achieved, its the possibility of spillover from external crises. The shortage of natural gas, which has sent prices of the fuel to the equivalent of $190 a barrel, is spurring a switch to oil products for heating and manufacturing, boosting overall demand.

U.S. oil production is still recovering from Hurricane Ida, which has knocked out a total of almost 35 million barrels after slamming the Gulf of Mexico a month ago -- equivalent to almost two full months of OPEC+ supply increases.

Anxiety among key consuming nations is palpable, with rising prices from energy to food and metals threatening to cause an inflationary surge that complicates current monetary policy.

In conversations with the Saudis in recent days, the U.S. made clear that it wants OPEC+ to remain attentive to any potential changes in the balance between supply and demand, particularly any spillover from natural gas, said the U.S. official. Riyadh and Washington agreed to remain in close contact and continue monitoring the market, the official said.

Saudi Arabia is keen to cap the upside and downside of the oil market, if needed," said Sen of Energy Aspects.

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Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya today said that 70% of India's adult population has been administered the first shot of the Covid vaccine.

"Strong Nation, Rapid Vaccination: India has administered the first dose of #COVID19 vaccine on 70% of the population. Under PM @NarendraModiji, India is achieving new landmarks in the fight against the pandemic. Keep it up India, let us fight Corona," the minister said in a tweet.

Strong Nation, Rapid Vaccination: India has administered the first dose of #COVID19 vaccination on 70% of the population.



Under PM @NarendraModi ji, India is achieving new landmarks in the fight against the pandemic.



Keep it up India, let us fight Corona  pic.twitter.com/UIslHg8F09  Mansukh Mandaviya (@mansukhmandviya) October 4, 2021

With the administration of 23,46,176 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, the cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses administered has exceeded 90.79 crore as per provisional reports till 7 am.

Meanwhile, India today registered 20,799 fresh infections and 180 fresh fatalities. With the fresh cases, India's total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 3,38,34,70 while the death toll climbed to 4,48,997. The active cases declined to 2,64,458, the lowest in 200 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated at 8 am today.

The active cases comprise 0.78 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.89 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said.

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NEW DELHI : India on Monday handed over more than 1,200 houses constructed by New Delhi as part of its development efforts in Sri Lanka besides two educational facilities to the government of Sri Lanka.

Indian foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla handed over the houses and two colleges during his four day visit to the island nation.

Foreign Secretary @harshvshringla jointly inaugurated 4 projects in the housing & education sectors with Hon'ble Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Prof G. L Peiris in the presence of several Cabinet Ministers & MPs," said a Twitter post by the Indian High Commission in Colombo.

These projects, completed with Indian assistance, exemplify India's strong and multifaceted development cooperation profile in Sri Lanka," a second post said.

Shringlas visit is aimed at assessing possible ways to help Sri Lanka in its post covid-19 economic recovery and taking stock of the status of Indian development projects. Ties between the two countries have been buffeted by irritants in recent months on the back of Sri Lanka being seen as moving closer to Indias strategic rival China. Against this backdrop, Shringlas trip is seen as a signal of Indias aim to reach out to Colombo and put ties back on an even keel.

Besides inaugurating the projects, Shringla held talks with his counterpart Jayanath Colombage on Monday. He also called on Foreign Minister G.L.Peiris and Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa.

According to a person familiar with the development, one set of houses numbering 1,235 were completed and handed over under the third phase of the Indian Housing Project (IHP). This project is part of Indias biggest grant assistance project in Sri Lanka for the construction of 50,000 houses at a cost of 1,372 crore across various districts in Sri Lanka, the person said. The houses under this project were aimed at providing shelter to the thousands Tamils who were internally displaced due to the three decade long civil war that came to an end in May 2009. The welfare of Sri Lankan Tamils is an emotive issue in India given that the many of them have cultural and familial links with Indias Tamil population.

Under Phase III of IHP a total of 4,000 houses are to be built. Out of which, more than 3500 houses have been completed, the construction of around 400 houses is going on and 63 houses are yet to start. The 1235 completed houses under this Phase III were handed over by Foreign Secretary during his visit," the person said.

India is also involved in a Model Village Housing Project in Vavuniya District in northern Sri Lanka, the person said. This is part of another project under which 600 houses are to be built in 25 districts of Sri Lanka.

The project is being implemented as a High Impact Community Development Project under which 24 houses are being built for low-income families in each of the 25 districts, including Vavuniya District. The project at Vavuniya District is complete and was handed over during the visit," the person cited above said.

Shringla also inaugurated the Vada Central Ladies College in Vadamarachi in Sri Lankas Northern Province and the Saraswathi Central College in Pusellawa, in Kandy in central Sri Lanka, the person cited above said. The first was part of a project to build improved educational infrastructure in Sri Lanka under which 27 schools were to be renovated as a grant assistance project.

Out of 27 schools, 22 school buildings have been completed and handed over so far. Vada Central Ladies College in Vadamarachi is one of the 27 schools taken up for renovation and was handed over during this visit," the person said.

The Saraswathi Central College in Kandy was implemented as a High Impact Community Development Project under Indian grant assistance under the terms of a pact signed in 2017. The new premises contains science labs and lecture halls besides the supply of ICT equipment and furniture, the person added.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to the US last month included three notable events: His first in-person meeting at the Quad leaders summit, his first bilateral engagement with US President Joe Biden in person, and his speech at the 76th United Nations General Assembly. Within the overall framework of strategic engagement on these platforms, economic ties were a critical part of the discussions as well.

The Quad leaders summit moved forward on the groups vaccine partnership by agreeing to finance India-based Biological-Es production of one billion doses of a covid vaccine. Prime Minister Modi also announced the resumption of vaccine exports, which would contribute to Indias overall brand image and also spur overall pharmaceutical exports. Japans Bank for International Cooperation has pledged $100 million investment in Indias healthcare sector to advance industry capacities in vaccines and treatment drugs, which, coupled with the Quads plans for future disaster relief and pandemic preparedness, places Indian industry at the centre of the Quads economic and humanitarian agenda.

The economic impetus of the Quad will also benefit Indias infrastructure, green and critical technologies, and space industries. Since 2015, Quad partners have provided more than $48 billion of infrastructure funding throughout the Indo-Pacific, financing thousands of projects and catalysing private sector investment. The meeting announced a Quad Shipping Taskforce, including the Mumbai Port Trust, to form a Green Shipping Network. Indian industry is at the forefront of green technologies and climate-conscious infrastructure, including the new Clean Hydrogen Partnership that the Quad intends to leverage.

Indian Industrys technological leadership and innovation are of significant advantage to the Quads focus on critical technologies, including technical standards, 5G diversification and deployment, cyber security-resilient infrastructure, horizon-scanning, and technology supply chains. Initiatives such as the proposed Semiconductor Supply Chain Initiative and test facilities for 5G diversification can create substantive investments and job opportunities for India. The announcement that Quad countries will also begin space cooperation for the first time will boost Indias space sector and benefit related industries as well.

More development-led business opportunities were referenced by the Prime Ministers speech at the UN General Assembly, where he shared Indias initiative to provide clean and potable water and invited companies to undertake vaccine manufacturing in the country.

Modis meeting with Biden covered various areas of common interest that should contribute to strengthening both economies, preparations for international travel and our revitalized US-India Strategic Clean Energy Partnership. The steps announced to deepen advanced industrial cooperation, including the development of air-launched unmanned aerial vehicles under the Defense Technologies and Trade Initiative, as well as an inaugural meeting of the Industrial Security Agreement Summit, were especially welcome and will propel the US-India Defense Partnerships manufacturing aspects.

The finalization of an overarching memorandum of understanding on health and biomedical sciences will bolster cooperation in key areas affecting global health. Biden also acknowledged the importance of mobilizing finance for investments in renewables, storage, and grid infrastructure for an acceleration of Indias clean energy transition. Greater defence, healthcare, and energy cooperation and co-production will generate more opportunities for companies in both the US and India, as reflected in Modis later meeting with chief executive officers of General Atomics, First Solar, Qualcomm and other US-based firms.

Modi also underscored trade as a pillar of engagement. The two leaders committed their countries to re-engaging the Trade Policy Forum and the US-India 2+2 Strategic Dialogue later this year, and the US-India CEO Forum and Commercial Dialogue in early 2022.

Prior to the pandemic, India-US trade was at a peak, reaching nearly $146 billion in 2019, with the US as Indias largest trading partner that year. July saw a record $9.45 billion in total merchandise trade, with five straight months of trade worth over $9 billion. It is expected that aggregate goods trade will surpass $100 billion for the first time ever this year. On the services side as well, the data is encouraging and total trade may revert to pre-pandemic levels this year.

As India continues to build its reputation as a trusted and reliable partner in support of critical global supply chains of value to the US, the mutual goal of $500 billion in bilateral trade in goods and services is well on the way to achievement. This is the moment for the US to prioritize its economic and trade relationship with India. Prioritizing the economic partnership not only opens the door for discussions on larger agreements, but could help the small trade package that has already been put together get past the finish line.

US foreign direct investment continues to increase in India, reaching $45.9 billion in 2019. With Indias thrust on economic reforms and announcement of new initiatives such as a national infrastructure pipeline and an asset monetization programme, along with Make in India, further investments can be expected to be robust.

Meanwhile, Confederation of Indian Industrys Indian Roots American Soil 2020 survey has shown that Indian foreign direct investment and job creation in the US is also expanding, with $22 billion in investments and 125,000 jobs identified by the study as either created or safeguarded .

With these outcomes, the first in-person meeting of Prime Minister Modi and President Biden was a historic event, with many deliverables that will increase opportunities for industry in both countries. Critical to these discussions is a shared belief that the economic relationship is a core part of the strategic partnership, and that evolved trade and investment ties will strengthen India-US ties overall. Indian Industry is ready to support both governments in expanding this engagement, increasing economic opportunities and speeding up a covid recovery for all.

Chandrajit Banerjee is director general, Confederation of Indian Industry

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NEW DELHI (AP)  An Indian court on Monday denied bail to Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khans son, ordering him to remain in the custody of the narcotics agency, a day after officials arrested him in connection with a drug raid.

The Bombay High Court said Aryan Khan must remain in the Narcotics Control Bureau's custody until Thursday.

Khan and seven others were detained when agents on Saturday raided a rave party and seized drugs from a luxury cruise ship off the Mumbai coast. They were formally arrested on Sunday.

A lawyer arguing for the narcotics agency told the court that it had evidence in form of WhatsApp messages that Khan communicated with drug peddlers on a regular basis. It did not, however, specify whether any drugs were found in Khans possession when he was first detained.

Khans lawyer, Satish Maneshinde, denied the allegations.

He told the court that the agency did not find any drugs on Khan and the allegations that Khan was in contact with drug dealers were untrue.

Khan, 23, is the eldest son of Shah Rukh Khan.

Shah Rukh, 55, is one of the worlds most famous actors, also known as the King of Bollywood. He has been acting in Bollywood films for nearly three decades and has starred in more than 105 movies. He has more than 42 million followers on Twitter and also owns the Kolkata Knight Riders team, which plays for the Indian Premier League, the world's richest cricket competition.

In the last few years, Bollywood stars have often found themselves caught in cases related to drugs.

In September last year, some of Bollywoods most prominent actors were questioned by the narcotics agency in connection with the death of famous actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
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London-based Modern Films has bought U.K.-Ireland rights for Silent Land, the feature debut of Polish filmmaker Aga Woszczynska, which played in competition at the recently wrapped Zurich Film Festival. Variety has been given exclusive access to the films international trailer.

Set in Italy, the slow-burn drama follows a couple whose summer holiday goes terribly wrong when Rahim (Ibrahim Keshk), an illegal immigrant hired to fix the pool in the house they paid for, suddenly dies. Produced by Lava Films, Kino Produzioni and I/O Post, with world sales handled by New Europe Film Sales, the film had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.

Speaking to Variety ahead of the Zurich fest, Woszczynska described the refugee crisis at the heart of her film as a present-day plague. I would like for Silent Land to make people more socially sensitive and not just close themselves off in their homes, she said.

My film is about the condition of thirty-something Europeans, their emotional isolation and moral confusion. Its a tale of alienation  not just from each other but also from the world, about conformity and passivity, when the need for safety and convenience turns into a strategy for survival. I wanted to show, albeit not in a literal way, how the whole world remains blind to the tragedy of the immigrants.

Modern Films CEO Eve Gabereau said she was blown away by Silent Land, with all its layers, edges, nuances, observations and unspoken emotions.

It has thematic resonances of Force Majeure in the way the couples relationship unravels while on holiday, but here it is told not only from a distinct female perspective, but also that of Aga Woszczynska, she continued. We are looking forward to working with her, alongside Jan Naszewski and the New Europe Film Sales team, to distribute this first feature and be a part of her future filmography that already stands out.

Woszczynskas 2014 short film Fragments played in Cannes Directors Fortnight section. Silent Land features the same characters, played by Agnieszka Zulewska and Dobromir Dymecki. Woszczynskas next film, Black Water, focuses on two women stuck on an island and was inspired by the COVID-19 lockdown.

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The global success of Netflixs Korean survival drama series Squid Game has given Korean internet service provider SK Broadband a new opportunity to press claims for network usage fees. On Friday, the ISP said that it had begun legal action against the streamer.

Netflix, which has previously argued that SK already gets paid by corporate and individual users, said that it will review the claim.

We believe in a collaborative relationship between content providers and ISPs, with each providing the best experience to our mutual consumers. We are investing heavily in bringing great K-content to our audiences around the world, said a Netflix spokesman in a statement emailed to Variety. Despite ongoing litigation, we will continue to seek open dialogue with SK Broadband so consumers can continue to enjoy high-quality content streaming at fast speeds,

The streaming giant has found global success with Korean shows that it has either produced as originals or to which it licensed rights outside the home country. This has led it to take long term studio leases in the country and to commit spending close to $500 million on Korean content this calendar year.

The strong local content policy in Korea has also made Netflix the most successful streamer in the country. Data released last month by industry tracker WiseApp showed that Netflix earned revenues of $68 million in Korea in August, a 78% year-on-year-increase. WiseApp estimated that Netflixs subscription base in Korea has now reached 5.14 million, compared with 3.16 million a year earlier.

But such conspicuous success by a foreign entity has not sat easily in Korean business circles, where family-controlled conglomerates known as chaebols dominate the industrial landscape and are used to holding sway with government.

In recent years, Koreas ISPs have pushed government ministries  such as the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) and the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT)  to introduce legislation and guidelines which will help them pressure foreign streaming services into paying usage fees.

In 2020, the National Assembly passed legislation obliging those content providers which account for over one million users and 1% of traffic, to provide service stability guarantees. The intention was for the ISPs to be able to claim for shared cost payments from streaming services. While the decree defining the details of the service stability regulation ended up not obliging the streamers to pay network fees, the Korean ISPs saw the law as a precedent and an encouragement to press harder.

Netflix last year launched its own legal action against SK Broadband in order to test the fees question in court. In June, a Seoul District Court found against Netflix and ruled that SK is providing a service at cost and that it would be reasonable for Netflix to pay something in return. SK is understood to have argues that Netflix needed to pay it close to $23 million for 2020 carriage alone. Netflixs appeal against the decision is scheduled for December.

Netflix has also offered a hardware solution, called Open Connect Appliances, to help ISPs route traffic efficiently through local data centers which are quicker and cheaper than accessing overseas servers. But it says that SK Broadband has not taken up its offer. We provide Open Connect Appliances (OCAs) free-of-charge, which have proven to help ISPs significantly reduce traffic while lowering their costs, said the spokesman.

Meanwhile, Netflix co-CEO and content chief Ted Sarandos recently suggested that Squid Game could become the companys most successful non-English-language show of all time. The series director Hwang Dong-hyuk remains coy about a series sequel.

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SPOILER WARNING: Do not read if you havent seen Venom: Let There Be Carnage, currently playing in theaters.

At the end of 2018s Venom, audiences saw serial killer Cletus Kasadys execution go wrong, allowing his escape from San Quentin prison. It was also the first time audiences got a look at Ravencroft Institute, home to the criminally insane  and home to many of Spider-Mans (Tom Hollands) villains.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage, sees Tom Hardy as the symbiote alien returning as Eddie Brock, and the return of Woody Harrelson as serial killer Cletus Kasady, also housing his own symbiote, Carnage.

In the jailbreak sequence, Cletus returns to Ravencroft Institute, this time to be reunited with his long-lost love, Shriek (Naomie Harris). It starts as a love story, explains VFX supervisor Sheena Duggal. A gentle love story.

That alone was a challenge, because storywise, the team had to find a way for him to be softer and gentler in this moment. Hes this crazy violent character, Duggal explains. She calls it a love-fueled joy ride as the two are chased by security guards and in true Carnage style, creating chaos and mayhem.

Duggal and the team were working on post-production while Andy Serkis, the films director, was shooting in San Francisco. But when the film moved to Londons Leavesden Studios and the pandemic forced a lockdown, Duggal couldnt follow and her post-production VFX team was suddenly working remotely across the globe.

Duggal utilized key art and concept art to help the filmmakers and studio visualize the effects way ahead of time, We wanted to use VFX to fuel the story forward and not gratuitously.

The concept art came in handy in the jailbreak sequence. It takes on a few tones: theres the soft tone where he finds Shriek, and hes introducing us to Carnage and the tentacles come out. We had to come up with a different design and look at how the tentacles moved for that, Duggal says. The tentacle movements change dramatically, giving way to destruction as the two escape and he is now in fighting mode.

She looked at the tentacles as vine-like, but she also looked at how animals use weapons in nature. The way a scorpion moves its tail behind its head and moves it forward in this threatening way, I thought, Lets do that with Carnage. So, she leaned into how he would impale others and make different weapons with his tentacles as part of his transformation.

Aside from Serkis, Duggal collaborated closely with DP Bob Richardson. Duggal says, He set a nice canvas for everything. A lot of what I did was also based on what Bob did, and we all worked as a team for how best to shoot this.

The Ravencroft sequence was not easy for Duggal, since he is constantly in a state of transformation and change. One minute its just this decimated head, other times you see the full transformation, and other times hes deploying his tentacles and spawns out, she says. Early on, Duggal sculpted a maquette that served as a character reference for the character which also gave everyone something physical to interact with, such as determining lighting.

During this time, she admits she went down a rabbit hole of reading Reddit, Twitter, Instagram and other fan forums. I wanted to see what they wanted from this character and what behavior and look was important to them. We wanted fans to be very happy with this, Duggal says. She also looked at how different comic book artists had approached the character over the years and how that fit into their story.

One sequence inspired from the comic books but deemed too gruesome for the audience was Carnage putting his tongue down someones throat as a way to kill them. We had to tone that back a bit. He does it with a tentacle [in the comics], but I thought it would be fun to have him use his tongue to add that extra gruesome element. In the end, the sequence was toned down considerably for the big screen.

In creating Carnages movements, Duggal also looked to the Lindenmayer system (a mathematical formula) realizing his growth was symbiotic with the environment. We looked at that system and multi-cellular organisms. If you look closely in the scene, youll see how he emulates objects in the environment.

The difference between Carnage and Venom is while the latter takes over Eddies body, Duggal says, Hes just a host inside him. Carnage is birthed inside of Cletus, and they share the same DNA.

While fans were aware of that shared DNA, Duggal wanted Carnage to look like the idea of a monster inside of a serial killer. She created broken bones and this ripped look as Cletus Carnage pushes through.

She was also inspired by birth, so she had birthing goo made up of amniotic fluid and membranes as Carnage transforms and is breaking the anatomy of that shared DNA, violently breaking the bones and tearing the skin as his body takes over.

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Oct. 1 kicked off LGBTQ+ History Month and follows the Gateway City Pride Associations first-year anniversary. The month will be celebrated virtually through posts highlighting critical individuals who have continued to push LGBTQ+ rights forward throughout the years.

Over the span of October, 31 LGBTQ+ individuals will be recognized for their part in highlighting the achievements, struggles and importance of the community. The Gateway City Pride Associations President Jorge Quijano said that the daily history lessons help give an informative look into LGBTQ+ history that will include national and local individuals.

Earlier this year, Secretary of Gateway City Pride Association Mark Nix said that PRIDE has changed over time, but it continues to stand on its foundation of community, strength, bravery and pride. From the Stonewall riots that ultimately paved the way to the first PRIDE event in 1970 to the ongoing local efforts of advocates and organizations, change is here.

The virtual celebration first highlighted educator Rodney Wilson for being the founder of LGBTQ+ History Month. The post states that as a history and government teacher in Missouri, he proposed the designation to multiple groups. He believed that October was the right month, the post states, due to first and second LGBTQ+ marches in Washington taking place in October in 1979 and 1987.

Additionally, National Coming Out Day is on Oct. 11 in honor of the second march for Lesbian and Gay Rights in 1987.

The virtual event was planned in part due to the increased COVID-19 active cases earlier in September.

Earlier plans were to host an event at PLAMORE. Quijano said local non-profits were invited to promote their LGBTQ+ members and their work within the organization. For example, he outlined that the Laredo Film Society or the Laredo Border Slam could have had an LGBTQ+ member who provides insight about their background to attendees.

Despite the cancellation, the virtual month-long event will continue on the associations social media pages. The theme or feeling from the event is one of liberation and enlightenment, and as the month closes in on Coming Out Day, Quijano said that 11 local members will share their stories.

As a kid, I always knew I was different, Tiffany Arabella Kennedy said. Growing up, all I wanted was inner peace. When I came out as a transgender woman, it was like my spirit had freedom. I loved myself more, and with that, happiness has followed me along.

Inner peace could be said to be a longstanding desire for people throughout the world. Regardless of age, sex, race or sexual orientation, people yearn to be at peace. However, it is clear that the members of the LGBTQ+ community face obstacles that may hold them back from being themselves.

Quijano mentioned that despite the multiple achievements and advancements made in a 21st century society, people continue clinging to archaic and ignorant views. To this day, he and other members still get harassed and are discriminated by the public, coworkers, friends and family, thus highlighting the importance of LGBTQ+ History Month and similar efforts.

Due to the fear of this discrimination and harassment, many keep their orientation and other personal information hidden from others. One community member spoke out about his orientation and how it has affected his relationship with family and friends. For the sake of his family, relationships and career, he asked to remain anonymous.

He spoke about how relieving it felt to come out to his sibling. The acceptance allowed for a breath of fresh air, but that feeling wouldnt be shared among others. A close, long-time friend was surprised by the news and ultimately cut all ties.

As part of a Hispanic household, machismo is a prevalent issue that is a constant reminder at home, school and work. This results in bullying and mental anguish that can result in difficult circumstances for both children and adults.

He said that in these times, its an uplifting sight to see ongoing support by the Gateway City Pride Association. While the city takes baby steps to reach total acceptance, he said that local allies and community organizations that revel in accepting LGBTQ+ members are a boon to those who feel alone or lost.

For parents with children who have come out or will come out, a hug and a reassurance of how much they love their child will be what the child needs.

For one year, the Gateway City Pride Association has led the charge for change and improvements to the community, including a proclamation designating June 2021 as PRIDE Month. It acknowledged the challenges members face on a daily basis and is an active statement about the commitment by the city to be more inclusive and welcoming regardless of sexuality, gender, identity, age and/or religion.

The new non-profit officially signed their bylaws in 2020 and Quijano said that one of the goals was to improve the zero Laredo scored over the Human Rights Campaigns LGBTQ+ friendliness rubric. Laredo was the largest among 14 U.S. cities to score that low.

Another goal is to clear misconceptions normally had by members of the community. Through the use of local stories, Quijano said the association wants to bring more awareness to the reality of LGBTQ+ and eliminate stereotypical expectations. He said that an LGBTQ+ member is not only someone who is flamboyant, but they can be a doctor, administrator or a veteran.

Maria Mendoza, Gateway City Pride Association Treasurer, said that creating a platform of inclusivity is an effort to be a support system for those in the community. Growing the non-profit from scratch has seen obstacles in terms of fundraising, as the COVID-19 pandemic has put a halt on face-to-face events.

Both Mendoza and Quijano believe that a lax approach to safety guidelines could create unnecessary health risks for the community and have resorted to virtual events. They hosted a recent one-year anniversary celebration fundraiser at 550 Pizzeria in where a percentage of pizza purchases were donated to the non-profit.

With the lack of large crowd gathering face-to-face fundraisers, it may take longer to raise funds, but the safety of the community is paramount, Mendoza said.

Moving forward, she said that the non-profit will look to hire a grant writer for an additional fountain of funds, as well as more community partnerships. This includes 550 Pizzeria, PILLAR and Glorias Cafe, with the list expected to grow.

Gateway City Prides main focus is on LGBTQ+ community, but we also want to be there for the community in general, she said. You dont have to be a part/member of the LGBTQ+ community, but you can be an ally. You can support us in any way. That is our main goal, to provide and advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, but we also want to help out our community in any way.

At the end of the day, we all live here, and we all have to look out for each other, no matter our preferences.

cocampo@lmtonline.com
Teachers already have enough stressors in the workplace, but as many continue to perform their jobs amid a pandemic, new safety concerns are popping up including a dangerous one originating from TikTok.

Local school districts are doing what they can to stop a new trend  the Slap a Teacher challenge  before it starts. Just like it sounds, this particular challenge asks for students to hit their teachers in the face while they record it for the social media site.

In a written statement put out addressing the subject, schools in Laredo are saying these incidents will be penalized fully under the law. They also advise parents to tell their children to not get involved in this behavior.

The challenge is being called a form of assault by many authorities, and local school districts have made it clear that any student engaging in such behavior will be met with consequences. This is a similar action various other districts across the nation have taken in response to the possible attacks.

We notified campus administrators about the newest challenge and asked them to begin making announcements to their students, UISD Deputy Superintendent Gloria Rendon said.

LISD also issued a statement regarding the challenge and called it something that violates the very foundations of the student code of conduct of the school district.

Laredo ISD strives for a safe and nurturing learning environment where all staff and students are treated with dignity and respect, Laredo ISD Executive Director of Communications Veronica Castillon said. Students are aware of the Laredo ISD Student Code of Conduct and are expected to follow the expectations set forth in the Code. LISD distributes electronic and printed copies of the Code of Conduct annually at the start of the school year.

LISD also makes it clear that parents should review again the student code of conduct and ensure all the rules are followed and anything going against the guidelines would be penalized fully.

As partners in the education of their children, parents are expected to review the Code of Conduct and sign the Codes agreement, which is kept on file at the district, Castillon said. We will continue to work with our LISD family to provide the quality educational experiences and services to which all students are entitled.

UISD even went further than LISD by sending out clear messages to both individual schools and parents of students in their schools calling such actions seen in various TikTok videos as something that will not be taken lightly and will go against the law.

I want to advise of the newest TikTok challenge ... Smack a Teacher on the Backside is the theme for the month, Rendon said. Please announce to your students that type of behavior is considered an assault and could result in a criminal charge up to a felony. Please advise them that as the campus principal you do not want our students to engage in this type of act as it could impact their future.

UISD also made an announcement to the parents of students as well as they know that the TikTok challenge might trend locally as it begins to take effect around the country and elsewhere. The school district suggests no inappropriate behaviors should be considered acceptable in schools and parents should make this clear to their students.

Talk to your child about inappropriate behaviors and consequences, Rendon said. Remind everyone that we need to care for one another and that teachers are professionals who deserve to be treated with respect.

Parents have been reacting to the news saying they are shocked such a trend could even be considered.

Kids today are called many things for the usage of technology, and honestly I like defending them because I believe the technology makes them smarter. However, as evidenced through this, it is clear that these students are also very well influenced by what others do, local parent Clarrisa Sanchez said. Many children want to become the next influencer or popular kid, and eventually this will cause many to get in trouble because they do dumb things like this. I really hope none of our local children get involved in this, but if they do, I hope that they do get charged for the crimes they commit as it is just insane.

Another parent said they also agree the children should be penalized by law for such erratic behavior.

If a kid hits a teacher, they should press charges, said Mari Lee Paez, a local teacher and parent. They need to respect others and avoid that kind of reputation on their record for a dumb act.

One other parent said she hopes teachers do have the permission to defend themselves and not get reprimanded for the actions taken by them if they fend off an attack.

My son works as a teacher here in Laredo, and if (someone tries to slap him), I really hope he fends off the attack and responds against the attacker, Cruzita Ramirez said. I believe teachers should not be allowed to be hit and them to do nothing. Just like a teacher is hailed a hero for fending a bullet, the same should apply for those trying to protect their face from a student simply wanting to get likes on a video.

As of yet, no incidents regarding this TikTok trend have been reported in the city.

jorge.vela@lmtonline.com
Loma Alta residents have a lot to celebrate this weekend.

After community members organized for weeks asking for the support of local politicians to have a cumbersome median removed, they are finally starting to see results.

The movement was spearheaded by various concerned residents of the subdivision and also through the help of several local leaders like Texas Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D-TX-21).

Zaffirini initially worked to get TxDOT in contact with several of the leaders of the petition to remove the constructed median. City of Laredo District II Councilmember Vidal Rodriguez also helped get the attention of TxDOT after putting the item on the agenda of a city council meeting early last month.

The project became a major inconvenience, especially after immediate access from our only entrance/exit in the neighborhood was completed, said Victor Vasquez III, a resident of the Loma Alta subdivision who worked with various channels to help get this achieved. It is considered a victory for residents of Loma Alta. However, it should be considered a victory on both sides  not just a victory but a common-sense understanding.

TxDOT also made clear Friday they were announcing the removal of the median that had been constructed on the highway. They said after getting enough attention from city council and other entities, it was clear they had to do something about it.

The removal of the center median to allow left-turn access into the Loma Alta Subdivision from State Highway 359 between Cordova Lane and North Smith Avenue was requested by District II City Councilmember Vidal Rodriguez during the Sept. 7, 2021, Laredo City Council Meeting, an official from TxDOT said.

After further public comments by Mr. Victor Vasquez III  a resident representative  and remarks from Laredo District Engineer David M. Salazar, Jr., P.E., the Laredo City Council and the Texas Department of Transportation agreed to reopen the left turn access into the neighborhood.

Vasquez applauded the fact that it was their right to assemble and protest the matter resulting in the removal of the infrastructure they felt was unnecessary for the area. He believes it would have also not been possible without the support of Zaffirini and the councilmember who helped get their voices heard.

Through organization, diplomacy, civility and democracy, the community can come together for or against a certain project or idea, Vasquez said.

Infrastructure projects are important because they are the vision of ideas in 10, 20, 30 years from now, which is why its important to get them right. Its also important that the community be informed of ongoing projects and proposed ideas by leaders of all levels. I will agree the public safety of all area residents was always in mind when proposing the new modifications.

Other residents of the community of Loma Alta who were very involved in the process to take the matter into contention also celebrated the deconstructing of the median as they felt that it would better the lives of all the families affected in the community.

We really feel that this is a grand victory for us, because this helps us feel much more alleviated as this was a problem that affected more than 300 of our families, said Blanca Rodriguez, a resident of the Loma Alta subdivision. We were all having trouble with this issue, and at first we were all quiet and compliant. But then we got together and knew that we had to do something about it and see if they heard us. Thankfully, after a few struggles, we eventually found good people that did hear us and helped us out.

According to Rodriguez, she said at first she felt their voice was not heard when they went to TxDOT directly. However, this changed once they got the support of various leaders and the attention of the media as well.

We did go to speak to TxDOT directly, and they did not attend to our needs, Rodriguez said. They actually just basically shut the door to any of our concerns as they said that they were right and had the good reasons why the median should be kept, and that it was already a project that they had studied for a long time, and everything was good for the whole community both at large and around it.

They fully believe that they were doing good, but we definitely demonstrated to them that they made a mistake as they did not account for the authorization of the subdivision and they never sent us any of the letters they supposedly sent to us through the mail, only just a few families.

Vasquez said some letters were sent out to the residents of the area.

According to him, TxDOT did mail out a notice in mid-2020 advising only the residents who live along 359. However, he did say he has not met with TxDOT since the city council meeting held in September as all the parties involved agreed they did send out a letter to area residents formally advising of the modification and changes to the project.

Vasquez said some of the letters received of the project were back last year before TxDOT began the project in the first place.

It did come as a surprise to all of us that were not formally advised, he said. As you have seen, the project did not just impact the residents living along 359 but impacted an entire area of residents. Over 100 homes, which many signed the petition to TxDOT.

According to TxDOT, the project was designed and initially launched due to TxDOT statistics indicating 166 crashes and incidents between January 2017 and July 2021 on SH 359 between State Loop 20 and United States Highway (US) 83 in Laredo.

Rodriguez said the median was a true problem even for law enforcement passing through.

According to Rodriguez, who has photos of the incident, a Laredo Police Department officer also had trouble with the median as he tried to follow and give a citation to a motorist on the other side of the road, but since he did not see the median  which Rodriguez and many other community members described as barely visible at night or day  the police officers vehicle got stuck in the middle of the highway as it tried to go to the other side.

The tire marks of the patrol car are still visible there in the street, Rodriguez said. And before that incident, there was another incident there as a water vehicle also had trouble passing through the area as the median did not just cause traffic to have to go all the way around to simply go left but also caused various small accidents as well.

The residents of the area also have several ideas they hope serve as the new way to make the area safer for traffic but also more beneficial for the people who live there.

Now that the concrete is out, I wish they give us the opportunity as before and allow us to turn left onto the highway like we normally used to do, as there are clearly no plans for a street light to be put in the area, Rodriguez said. There are already street lights in the nearby area that are not really that necessary.

Vasquez said a median is not necessarily a bad thing, however, the lack of lighting and other issues to ensure that it was visible did block the way for people getting out of the subdivision.

A similar project to Clark Street that has a median, but with divisions and street lighting, Vasquez said. A project this massive and costly should have a larger benefit to area residents that includes lighting.

jorge.vela@lmtonline.com
SASSARI, Sardinia (AP)  Catalonia's former separatist leader Carles Puigdemont walked out of a Sardinian courthouse Monday after a judge delayed a decision on Spain's extradition request and said he was free to travel.

Puigdemont left with his lawyers, shook hands and embraced supporters, saying he was "very happy," as he got in a van and was whisked away. He then said on social media that he would participate in the afternoons session of the European Parliament by video link from the Mediterranean island.

His Italian lawyer, Agostinangelo Marras, told reporters that a decision on extradition to Spain, where he is accused of sedition, is pending decisions on two questions already being considered by European courts. But he said his client is free to travel as he pleases in the meantime.

He is absolutely free. The court will set a new date after the European court decides on the two pending questions. One is the immunity of President Piugdemont, and the other is the legitimacy of the Spanish judge to issue the arrest warrant, Piugdemonts Italian lawyer, Agostinoangelo Marras, told The Associated Press.

The Italian court first wants to see how the European Unions general court will rule on Puigdemont's appeal to the lifting of his immunity as a European Parliament member that this same court confirmed in July. Secondly, the Italian court will wait to see if the European Union Court of Justice rules that the Spanish Supreme Court has the authority to request the extradition of Puigdemont, after a Belgian court said in January that it didn't when it requested the return of another associate of Puigdemont.

Puigdemont was arrested on Sept. 23 in Sardinia, where he had arrived from his home in Belgium to attend a Catalan cultural festival at the invitation of a Sardinian separatist movement. He was freed by a judge a day later pending Mondays extradition hearing.

Puigdemont and fellow separatists Clara Ponsati and Toni Comin had their immunity as European Parliament members lifted earlier this year as requested by Spain after the European Unions general court said that they didn't demonstrate they were at risk of being arrested.

Ponsati and Comin were among a contingent of high-profile separatists who traveled to Sardinia to show their support for Puigdemont on Monday, triggering a request sent by a Spanish judge to Italy to have them detained as well. There was no indication that they had been taken into custody.

A group of about 20 supporters rallied outside the courthouse as Puigdemont arrived for the hearing. Some members of the crowd shouted freedom! and waved Catalan separatist flags.

Puigdemont, 58, has successfully avoided extradition since taking up residence in Waterloo, Belgium, after leading an illegal 2017 secession attempt by the wealthy Catalonia region in Spains northeast.

After a Belgian court declined to send him back in 2017, the following year he was arrested in Germany but a court there also refused to extradite him.

We have faced three extradition orders in three different jurisdictions: the Belgian, the German and the Italian, Puigdemont said. It is the moment to tell Spain, Enough! that this path does not lead anywhere and does not help solve a political conflict between Catalonia and Spain.

Several of Puigdemont's cohorts who stayed in Barcelona after the failed secession attempt were arrested and found guilty of sedition and misusing public funds.

In an attempt to defuse the political crisis he inherited from his conservative predecessor, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez pardoned nine imprisoned separatist leaders in June. Puigdemont, and others like him who fled, couldn't benefit from the act of grace since they have yet to face justice.

The detention of Puigdemont two weeks ago comes with the former regional president struggling to retain his preeminent role in the Catalonia separatist movement, which has surged in popularity over the past two decades.

Puigdemonts party has lost the regional presidency of Catalonia and is now the minor member of a coalition led by a separatist rival which is leading talks with Sanchezs government to resolve the festering crisis. Puigdemonts party isn't participating in the negotiations which its leaders have criticized as a distraction from rebuilding strength for another unilateral secession bid.

While some are trying to talk with the Spanish government, there are others like Puigdemont who are undermining the institutions of the state, said Jordi Puignero, the leading member of Puigdemonts party in Catalonias government.

Despite already enjoying a good degree of self-rule, polls and election results show that roughly half of Catalans want to form a new state. The other half wants to remain in Spain given the centuries of cultural and family ties linking Catalonia with the rest of the country.

The majority of Spaniards are against the loss of Catalonia, which for decades has represented a land of opportunity for those who moved there from poorer regions.

Sardinia has historic and cultural ties with Catalonia that date back to the 14th century.

___

Colleen Barry reported from Milan, and Joseph Wilson from Barcelona, Spain.
JERUSALEM (AP)  Jordans King Abdullah II was meeting with the World Bank president, asking for more financial support for his countrys battered economy, just around the time the news broke: A trove of leaked documents revealed the king had secretly bought more than a dozen luxury homes in the U.S. and Britain for over $100 million in the past decade.

Abdullah was one of scores of public figures identified as holders of hidden offshore accounts. But perhaps nowhere was there a more evident contradiction between the public man and the private one, for the king has carefully cultivated an image as a caring father of a struggling nation, and it turns out he has amassed an empire of luxury real estate.

Nobodys going to turn a blind eye to this, said Dave Harden, a former senior official at the U.S. Agency for International Development who is now running for Congress as a Democrat in Maryland. He said even a perception of misspending could lead to calls for greater oversight of future American assistance to Jordan.

Abdullah was on a long list of world leaders, politicians, billionaires, celebrities, religious leaders and drug dealers who have been hiding their investments in mansions, exclusive beachfront property, yachts and other assets for the past quarter-century, according to a report Sunday by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

The report, based on a review of nearly 12 million files obtained from 14 firms around the world, was dubbed the Pandora Papers. There were no allegations of illegal activity or misuse of international aid money.

Still, the report came at a delicate time for Abdullah. The countrys economy has struggled in recent years, and his leadership came under scrutiny earlier this year when his half-brother accused the ruling class of corruption. Seen by the West as a force of moderation and stability in the volatile Middle East, Abdullah relies on billions of dollars of international aid  a flow that could be disrupted if donors believe their assistance is being squandered.

Abdullah angrily denied any wrongdoing, saying the homes had been kept secret because of security concerns and were purchased with personal funds.

Any allegations that link these private properties to public funds or assistance are baseless and deliberate attempts to distort facts, a statement from the Royal Hashemite Court said Monday.

It called any such suggestions defamatory and designed to target Jordans reputation as well as his majestys credibility.

In the short term, Abdullah does not appear to face any threat at home. When his half-brother, Crown Prince Hamzah, leveled his accusations of corruption and incompetence last April, he was quickly placed under house arrest.

Hamzah has been seen in public just once since then and remains incommunicado. Two former top aides, meanwhile, have been sentenced to 15-year prison terms for incitement and sedition over their roles in an alleged plot with Hamzah.

In an apparent sign of concern, the Jordanian media, most of which is directly or indirectly controlled by the palace, made no mention of the Pandora Papers affair. Even independent Jordanian media outlets engage in self-censorship, avoiding criticism of the royal family and security forces.

Jordans economy has fallen onto hard times over the past decade, hit by an influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing war in neighboring Syria and, more recently, by the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the World Bank, Jordans economy contracted slightly last year, while unemployment spiked to 25%. The country of 10 million is divided between a small middle and upper class with close ties to the government, and impoverished masses living in city slums, outlying villages and refugee camps.

When anyone lives in hardship, difficult conditions and extreme poverty, it is difficult to see their rulers living in prosperous conditions, said Maisara Malas, a union activist who has joined antigovernment protests seeking lower taxes and an end to corruption.

Abdullah, who took power in 1999 after the death of his father, King Hussein, has sought to straddle these worlds by portraying himself as father figure.

He is careful not to flaunt his wealth. Though he spends lengthy periods overseas, he does so quietly, often at undisclosed locations.

He meets with powerful tribal leaders in Jordans hinterlands to underscore his local roots. Posters in government offices and on billboards often show the king wearing a red Arab headdress or military uniform.

Last year, his then-prime minister, Omar Razzaz, launched an effort to crack down on tax evasion, corruption and smuggling money into tax havens.

On Monday, the king paid a visit to tribal leaders and other dignitaries in Badia, a region south of the capital Amman, where he said Jordan was being threatened by destabilizing forces.

There is a campaign against Jordan, and there are still those who want to sabotage and build suspicions, he said. There is nothing to hide.

Labib Kamhawi, a Jordanian analyst, said that given the media blackout and lack of internet use among the poorest, he did not see any immediate threat to the king. But he said that as word of the scandal spread, it could be very damaging domestically.

But perhaps more troubling, he said, is that it could anger donor nations. According to Jordans official Petra News Agency, the country received some $5 billion in foreign aid last year, both in unrestricted budget assistance and specially earmarked grants. More than a quarter of that money came from the U.S. alone.

It is bound to affect the ability of Jordan to solicit aid easily, Kamhawi said.

As a strategic Western ally and with a peace agreement with Israel, Jordan remains too important to be abandoned by the international community. President Joe Biden this year called Abdullah a loyal and decent friend.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price would not comment specifically on Abdullah's real estate holdings but said: When it comes to our assistance to Jordan, we have been helping to improve the lives of the Jordanian people for over six decades. We carefully conduct monitoring and evaluation of all of our assistance programs to ensure theyre implemented according to their intended purpose.

Price said that American aid to Jordan is in the national security interest of the United States, because it helps the country secure its borders, promote stability and participate in countering the Islamic State group.

Harden, the former U.S. aid official, said it is a common concern in the profession that assistance ends up being misused and helping corrupt leaders instead of everyday people. He said to avoid that, money is often earmarked for specific development projects and tightly supervised.

He predicted a serious review of any unrestricted aid to Jordan but said he expects money to continue to flow to programs with tight safeguards. Even so, he said the disclosures in the Pandora Papers look bad for the king.

It cuts against the core of what we are trying to achieve, he said.
STOCKHOLM (AP)  Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for their discoveries into how the human body perceives temperature and touch, revelations that could lead to new ways of treating pain or even heart disease.

Americans David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian separately identified receptors in the skin that respond to heat and pressure, and researchers are working on drugs to target them. Some hope the discoveries could eventually lead to pain treatments that reduce dependence on highly addictive opioids. But the breakthroughs, which happened decades ago, have not yet yielded many effective new therapies.

Julius, of the University of California at San Francisco, used capsaicin, the active component in chili peppers, to help pinpoint the nerve sensors that respond to heat, the Nobel Committee said. Patapoutian, of Scripps Research Institute at La Jolla, California, found pressure-sensitive sensors in cells that respond to mechanical stimulation.

This really unlocks one of the secrets of nature, said Thomas Perlmann, secretary-general of the committee, in announcing the winners. Its actually something that is crucial for our survival, so its a very important and profound discovery.

The committee said their discoveries get at one of the great mysteries facing humanity: how we sense our environment.

The choice of winners underscored how little scientists knew about that question before the discoveries  and how much there still is to learn, said Oscar Marin, director of the MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders at Kings College London.

While we understood the physiology of the senses, what we didnt understand was how we sensed differences in temperature or pressure, Marin said. Knowing how our body senses these changes is fundamental because once we know those molecules, they can be targeted. Its like finding a lock, and now we know the precise keys that will be necessary to unlock it.

Marin predicted that new treatments for pain would likely come first, but that understanding how the body detects changes in pressure could eventually lead to drugs for heart disease, if scientists can figure out how to alleviate pressure on blood vessels and other organs.

Richard Harris, of the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center at the University of Michigan, also said the new laureates work might help design new pain medications, but noted the field has long been stalled.

He said that because pain also includes a psychological component, simply identifying how it is triggered in the body isnt necessarily enough to address it. Still, he said Julius and Patapoutians work would likely help doctors better treat pain that is caused by things like extreme temperatures and chemical burns.

Their discoveries are giving us the first inkling of how this type of pain starts, but whether its involved in many chronic pain patients remains to be seen, he said.

Still, Fiona Boissonade, a pain specialist at the University of Sheffield, said the Nobel laureates' work was especially relevant for the one in five people globally that suffer from chronic pain.

Such pain  including from arthritis, migraines and chronic back problems  "is a huge medical problem, and its quite poorly treated across the board, she said. Their research may lead us to identify new compounds that are effective in treating pain that don't come with the devastating impact of opioids, which have spawned a crisis of addiction in the U.S.

In keeping with a long tradition of difficulties in alerting Nobel winners, Julius said he was awakened by what he thought was a prank phone call shortly before the prize was announced.

My phone sort of bleeped, and it was from a relative who had been contacted by somebody on the Nobel Committee trying to find my phone number, he said from his home in San Francisco, where it was the middle of the night.

It was only when his wife heard Perlmanns voice and confirmed it was indeed the secretary-general of the committee who was calling, that he realized it wasnt a joke. Julius said his wife had worked with Perlmann years ago.

Julius, 65, later said he hoped his work would lead to the development of new pain drugs, explaining that the biology behind even everyday activities can have enormous significance.

We eat chili peppers and menthol, but oftentimes, you dont think about how that works, he said.

The Nobel Committee tweeted a photo of Patapoutian in bed with his son while he watched the announcement on his computer.

A day to be thankful: this country gave me a chance with a great education and support for basic research. And for my labbies and collaborators for partnering with me, Patapoutian, who was born in Lebanon, tweeted.

When the team made the discovery in 2009, we were of course so excited and literally jumping up and down. It was something we were looking for for years," Patapoutian said at a news conference.

Patapoutian is paid by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which also supports The Associated Press Health and Science Department. Julius is an HHMI trustee.

The prestigious award comes with a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (over $1.14 million). The prize money comes from a bequest left by the prize's creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1895.

The prize is the first to be awarded this year. The other prizes are for outstanding work in the fields of physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics.

___

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the pain specialists last name to Boissonade.

___

Cheng reported from London. Associated Press writers Frank Jordans and Emma Tobin contributed.
The beginning of the school year when you got to show off your new duds, new cars, new looks!

Sports! Playing, cheering, watching high school athletics.

The arts: Dramatic arts, musical groups and shows, graphic arts groups, debate, etc.

The prom! No dancing the night away or punch bowl antics.

The daily interactions. Just being with the group, hanging with friends and classmates.

Access to college recruiters and advisors  its harder to line up higher education.

Walking onstage to get a diploma while all the family is watching with everyone elses family.

Vote

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Gardai in the midlands are seeking the public's help in tracking down three bikers who were clocked travelling at more than double the speed limit.

The Gardai issued a statement this weekend after one of the division's traffic units was checking drivers for speed on Saturday, October 2.

"They encountered these three motorcyclists travelling together who had no regard for their own safety or that of others. They were clocked travelling at 188kph in a 80kph zone. Instant death for them and possibly another family if they lost control.

"Investigations are ongoing to identify them and any information that may assist will be helpful. They passed through the Meelaghans, Ballina Cross and Ballinagar areas," the said.

Anyone who thinks they can help is asked to contact Tullamore Garda Station on 0579327600.

The Laois Offaly Division says the Road Safety Authority (RSA) and the Gardai are appealing to motorcycle riders to slow down, ease off the throttle and keep within speed limits.

The appeal is being made in response to the high number of motorcycle fatalities seen this year.

Gardai say crash research shows that the four main causal factors that contribute to fatal motorcycle crashes are:



1. A motorcyclist overtaking another vehicle turning right, resulting in the motorcyclist colliding head on into the side of the turning vehicle.

2. A motorcyclist colliding head on with an oncoming vehicle while the motorcycle was overtaking a vehicle.

3. A motorcyclist losing control while taking a corner / bend and crossing into the path of an oncoming vehicle resulting in a head on collision.

4. Another vehicle (car, van, truck) turning or driving through a junction / joining a main road from a minor road and colliding with a motorcyclist.
A report will be launched today by Midlands Simon Community on their innovative supported housing project in Longford.

The innovative service has been up and running for 3 years and in that time has supported 14 people to move out of homelessness.

Longford councillor of taking of how lack of road markings are hindering driving test hopes A Longford county councillor told a meeting last week how he has been left frustrated at the increasing absence of road traffic signs in the county town as he prepares to take his driving test.

The service which was created with the support of Longford County Council, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the HSE took derelict apartments in the heart of Longford Town and refurbished them creating homes with support for people who had a history of homelessness.

The project has been a resounding success, with a 93% housing stability rate meaning that only one person supported in this service relapsed into homelessness. This stability rate far exceeds what would normally be expected in a similar service.

Emma Keane the manager of the services noted, Midlands Simon Community have progressed a model in Longford that exceeds the international standards in terms of outcomes.



Speaking before the launch, Mark Cooney (Chairperson of the Voluntary Board of Directors of Midlands Simon Community) said: "This service is a partnership that works, bringing together Midlands Simon, Longford County Council and the HSE to support people with multiple support needs and who had a history of repeat homelessness to have a permanent home of their own.

"In 2018, then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar T.D visited this service in Longford remarking at the time that the model of service delivery was one that could be replicated in other parts of the country. It was highlighted in the European Parliament by Mairead McGuinness who saw this unique Longford service as being an innovation that has been made to work in an Irish context. The apartments are also cost effective with a long term lease which is 20% lower than market rates."



Speaking in the foreword of the report John Brannigan Director of Services with Longford County Council, commended the work of Midlands Simon and wished the frontline workers and board members the very best in their future work in Longford.



Support from the community

The project would not be possible without the additional support and fundraising done by the local community.



The Kiernan family of Kiernan steel have fundraised so that staff can work on site and give intensive supports to the people who live there.



In the report Midlands Simon Community thank the donors, sponsors and volunteers who make their work they do possible. Thanks was also expressed to the Longford Leader, media partners to the Longford People of the year awards, and to Shannonside FM, media partners for the Simon Sleepout.
Music, Movies & Entertainment, Local News, Seasonal & Current Events

By Chris Boyle Published: October 04 2021

On Saturday, October 9 the festivals famed Clam Chowder contest will feature a sampling of this iconic destination-driven dish.

Long Islands renowned south fork destination, Montauk, kicks off the autumn season with its 40th annual Fall Fest October 9-10, 2021 boasting live music, Montauk staple- the annual Clam Chowder Contest, and fun for the whole family.

Known for its celebrity famed resort areas, scenic bluffs, fall foliage filled hikes, and historic attractions such as the Montauk Point Lighthouse, this year-round destination plays host to an array of seasonal events with fun for all. The annual Montauk Fall Fest is a favorite for families, locals and visitors alike boasting its farmers market, pumpkin decorating, Long Island beer and wine, childrens and family activities, live music and food. Held in the center of town at Montauks Village Green, the festival runs Saturday, October 9 and Sunday, October 10 from 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

On Saturday, October 9 the festivals famed Clam Chowder contest will feature a sampling of this iconic destination-driven dish. A panel of select judges will pick a favorite iteration of this classic Long Island fare featuring both white and red chowders from over 20 local restaurants for consideration to be dubbed best in class. Guests enjoy a free cup of chowder with the purchase of a commemorative 2021 Chowder Mug while supplies last. Skip the line and order your mug ahead of time at MontaukChamber.com/Shop

The weekend-long festival will include kid-friendly activities including an inflatable rock wall slide, 60-foot obstacle course, plus double and single row slides. Other activities for the whole family include pumpkin painting, cookie decorating and crab races. All rides are open-air and professionally attended.

Classic festival bites will be served up to attendees featuring a homegrown twist such as bratwurst, hamburgers, raw oysters and clams, cotton candy and more. Guests can imbibe local seasonal sips from the Montauk Brewing Co. or indulge in a crisp glass of rose or sauvignon blanc from Bridgehampton Breeze while taking in tunes from Joe Delia and the Thieves and The Realm playing live throughout the weekend. Attendees who participate in the Silent Auction, Chinese Auction, Cash Catch, and 50/50 Raffle have the opportunity to go home with a range of dream-worthy prizes.

This fall is the perfect time to explore all Montauk has to offer with seasonal savings at top hotels and resorts across Long Islands iconic South Fork. Whether you are looking for a mid-week getaway or a week-long escape Montauks seasonal experience will have you relaxed and ready for the holidays in no time. Visit MontaukChamber.com/stay to learn more about hotels.
Crime

By Chris Boyle Published: October 04 2021

While crime has spiked in other parts of the country, Nassau County is safer than ever," Curran said.

Nassau County Executive Laura Curran has announced that Nassau County has been named the Safest Community in America by US News and World Report for the second consecutive year. After taking the number one spot in 2020, Nassau County again ranks number one in US News and World Reports public safety ranking for 2021, a comprehensive assessment of nearly 3,000 Counties based on seven metrics in three key areas: crime, injuries and public safety capacity. Individual metrics on which counties were assessed included violent crime rate, property crime rate, vehicle crash fatality rate, the share of public safety professionals within a population and per capita spending on health and emergency services.

After being named the Safest Community in America by US News and World Report in 2020, crime in Nassau County has continued to decline to historic lows  down 10.5% over the past year and 36% over the past decade. Over the past year in Nassau County, there has been a 22.2% decline in homicides, a 15% decline in burglary (residential and commercial), and an 11% reduction in grand larceny.

While crime has spiked in other parts of the country, Nassau County is safer than ever. Nassaus success in holding crime down shows that intelligence-led, community-oriented policing works. It also shows that Nassau has the finest Police Department in the nation, and Id like to thank the brave men and women in uniform for all they do protect our communities. Keeping Nassau safe is a team effort, and I want to also thank the District Attorneys Office, Nassau's Fire Marshal, Fire Service, Corrections, Probation, Office of Emergency Management, and other dedicated first responders working non-stop for our County, said Nassau County Executive Laura Curran.

Todays announcement further validates the effectiveness of Nassau Countys community-focused and intelligence-based approach to law enforcement, said Nassau County Legislator Ellen Birnbaum. Thank you to all of our dedicated law enforcement professionals for making this possible!

The announcement by U.S. News and World Report ranking Nassau County the Safest Community in America for 2020 for the second straight year with a perfect 100% overall public safety score is not by chance, said Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder. The hard-working dedicated men and women, both sworn and civilian, of this police department along with our Intelligence Led Policing Model have brought our crime rate to historically low levels over the past ten years. A 31% drop in major crime over the past 10 years combined with another 7.4 % year to date is a true testament to the excellent work being done daily. While working with our great communities and continuing our Intelligence Led Policing approach, we will continue to keep our residents living in the Safest Community in America.

All of the agencies within the Public Safety vertical in Nassau County work tirelessly each and every day to ensure the safety and security of our communities, said Deputy County Executive of Public Safety Tatum Fox. This continuous effort includes our Police, Probation, Emergency Management, Sheriff/Corrections, and Fire Marshal/Fire Service agencies. Regardless of the nature of any incident, all of our Public Safety agencies work seamlessly together to provide our residents with the quality of services that have been recognized in this report. We are very proud of our Public Safety agencies and the work they perform on behalf of our residents.
4th October 2021

Runtime 21:53

AIM-listed Trinity Exploration & Production TRIN is Trinidads leading independent oil and gas business, and London South East have just interviewed the CEO Jeremy Bridglalsing and Non-Executive Chairman Nick Clayton.

Trinity have a Trinidad & Tobago focus and operate both onshore and offshore. They are keen to grow the business from its current stable base producing over 3,000 bpd. TRIN has strong operating cash flows, $19M on the balance sheet and a strong pipeline of near term and mid term growth opportunities.

In fact Chair Nick Claydon was keen to emphasise that that we dont hope for a re-rating, I would say that as a board we are very confident that we will see a re-rating. There is a lot going on and the onshore seismic is important because thats the trigger which allows us to get back to drilling and helps us move the focus to high-angle wells which have better economics.

Trinity is primarily a cash-generative business explained CEO Jeremy. We have been focused on converting 1P reserves into cash for the last few years and growing production. We are generating good strong operating cashflow and doing so at good operating breakevens as well [in the vicinity of $27].

The most mature opportunity is the Galeota Licence 11 kilometres off the East Coast of Trinidad in shallow water. That field has produced 30 million barrels of oil already and we are looking to go East and do a modern version of that development said Jeremy. And Nick added: We are looking for a partner to farm down that asset and share the risk. Thats a process which should take 6-9 months and we are about to appoint a third party to run this process for us.

The plan with 3D seismic purchased in February is to return to drilling in Q1 of 2022 and to drill high angle and even horizontal wells going forwards. So some exciting opportunities in Galeota and onshore says Jeremy.

The PS-4 acquisition is only a couple of weeks from reaching financial close and being completed. PS-4 sits next to WD5-6 and WD2 assets onshore, our most prolific onshore assets. WD5-6 does 1100 bpd right now. Through workovers, reactivations, recompletions and then by the drill-bit we hope to increase the production materially in a short space of time.

And the Supplemental Petroleum Tax has moved from 50$ to 75$ for a two year period. This may have saved as much as $2/3M for H1 only as we would expect to have paid $6/7M per annum said Jeremy.
(Alliance News) - Airtel Africa PLC on Monday outlined plans to buy back the 8% stake held by minority shareholders in its Nigerian subsidiary Airtel Networks Ltd.

The London-based firm initiated the buyout process at an offer price of NGN55.81 per share, or USD0.13, giving a total price of around NGN61.24 billion or USD148.1 million, if all shareholders tender their shares.

Airtel, which has offices in Lagos, Nigeria, is a telecommunications firm that offers mobile voice, data and money services.

The FTSE-250 constituent separately announced that Olusegun Ogunsanya began his new role as managing director & chief executive on Friday last week.

Ogunsanya joined the company in 2012 and was previously chief executive of Airtel Nigeria, responsible for the management of operations in the firm's largest market. Before joining Airtel he held leadership roles at Coca-Cola in Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya.

"I am looking forward to building on the solid foundations the group has established for future sustainable growth across Africa," commented Ogunsanya.

"Moving forward, we will invest even more in our network and distribution channels to serve the communities where we operate. By doing this, we will continue to sustainably bridge the digital divide, expand financial inclusion and meet the evolving needs of our customers," he added.

Shares in Airtel Africa were down 1.8% at 96.60 pence in London on Monday.

By Will Paige; willpaige@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Sharecast News) - London stocks were back in the red at the end of a turbulent Monday session, as rising bond yields across the pond turned up the pressure, after Hong Kong shares in Chinese property developer Evergrande were suspended.

The FTSE 100 ended the session down 0.23% at 7,011.01, and the FTSE 250 was off 1.4% at 22,654.92.



Sterling was stronger, meanwhile, last trading 0.49% higher on the dollar at $1.3613, and gaining 0.27% against the euro to 1.1724.



"Friday's optimism in US markets has disappeared in a flash, and with it have gone hopes of a continued recovery in equity markets," said IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp.



"This marks a resumption of the 'sell the rallies' approach that dominated in September, and it seems that this is still the way to go, as a cocktail of inflation, rate hike and China worries combine to send buyers running from the market once again.



"If this is a pre-earnings season drop then it looks like we have further to go before stocks start to look good value heading into the October reporting period."



On the fuel crisis, British military truck drivers began delivering to petrol stations on Monday, as industry officials said the situation appeared to be easing in the North and the Midlands, although there were still long queues in London and the South East.



A shortage of qualified truck drivers since Brexit was implemented had led to panic buying over the past week, despite no actual decline in fuel levels at refineries.



After pressure from industry and motorists to act, the government last week agreed to deploy 200 soldiers to help with deliveries.



"Stocks in London and the South of England have been recovering at slightly slower rates than other parts of the UK, so we have begun deploying military personnel to boost supply in these areas," a government spokesperson said.



"More than half of those who have completed training to make fuel deliveries are being deployed to terminals serving London and the South-East of England, demonstrating that the sector is allocating drivers to areas most affected in this first phase from Monday."



In Asia, embattled Chinese property developer Evergrande confirmed its shares were suspended from trading in Hong Kong ahead of a "major transaction".



In a brief statement, the firm said trading in its stock had been halted "pending the release by the company of an announcement containing inside information about a major transaction".



Trading in the firm's property management unit Evergrande Property Services, which was listed in Hong Kong just under a year ago, was also suspended.



On the global economic front, the Word Trade Organization (WTO) hiked its forecasts for the global trade in goods, but warned that downside risks from the pandemic and vaccine inequity in particular remained.



The global trade body said it expected world merchandise trade volume to grow 10.8% this year, up from its forecast for growth of 8.0%, made in March.



That growth was anticipated to moderate in the following year, improving by 4.7%, up from 4.0% predicted previously.



"Growth should moderate as merchandise trade approaches its pre-pandemic long-run trend," the WTO said.



"Supply-side issues such as semiconductor scarcity and port backlogs may strain supply chains and weigh on trade in particular areas, but they are unlikely to have large impacts on global aggregates."



In equity markets, BT closed down 4.66%, with traders pointing to a Telegraph article suggesting that Sky is closing in on a deal with Virgin Media O2 to become an investor in the telecoms operator's full-fibre broadband rollout.



Morrisons was also in the red, losing 3.74% after US private equity group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice won an auction for the supermarket chain with a 7bn bid.



The win was revealed by the Takeover Panel on Saturday. CD&R offered 287p a share, against a rival bid from Fortress, for 286p per share.



Rival Sainsbury's gained 3.37%, and Tesco advanced 1.49% .



Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said investors were speculating that Sainsbury's would be the next takeover target in the supermarket sector.



"Fortress, which was unlucky in the Morrisons bid, is seen to be eager to make a large transaction, so one must wonder if Sainsbury's is the next logical business to tick all the right boxes for the US dealmaker," he said.



Elsewhere, Mike Ashley's Frasers Group was knocked 6.92% lower by a double-downgrade to 'underperform' at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.



Catering group Compass fell 2.73% after it said chief financial officer Karen Witts would step down from the role at the end of October.



The company said Palmer Brown, currently its group commercial director, had been appointed to replace Witts on 1 November.



Media group Future also fell, by 4.47%, even after saying that full-year operating profit was set to be at the top end of expectations thanks to continued momentum in digital advertising, as it announced the departure of its chief financial officer.



Full-year adjusted operating profit will be at the top end of the consensus range of between 183.5m and 193.6m, it said, following July's upgraded forecast for the year.



That compared to 2020 adjusted operating profit of 93.4m.



On the upside, online trading platform Plus500 added 1.96% after it said it now expected 2021 revenue and core earnings to be ahead of analyst forecasts after delivering "further positive momentum" in the third quarter.



Market Movers



FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,011.01 -0.23%

FTSE 250 (MCX) 22,654.92 -1.40%

techMARK (TASX) 4,537.70 -0.99%



FTSE 100 - Risers



Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 294.10p 3.37%

Imperial Brands (IMB) 1,557.00p 1.96%

BP (BP.) 344.45p 1.92%

Informa (INF) 570.60p 1.75%

Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,670.80p 1.53%

Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,672.60p 1.51%

Tesco (TSCO) 251.65p 1.49%

Vodafone Group (VOD) 113.78p 1.41%

Glencore (GLEN) 355.00p 1.23%

British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,567.00p 1.08%



FTSE 100 - Fallers



BT Group (BT.A) 151.45p -4.66%

Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 285.90p -3.74%

Compass Group (CPG) 1,514.50p -2.73%

Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 1,352.00p -2.35%

Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 1,999.50p -2.32%

Royal Mail (RMG) 409.10p -2.30%

3i Group (III) 1,252.00p -2.26%

Flutter Entertainment (CDI) (FLTR) 14,500.00p -2.16%

Rightmove (RMV) 669.00p -1.99%

Ashtead Group (AHT) 5,504.00p -1.92%



FTSE 250 - Risers



Harbour Energy (HBR) 374.20p 5.41%

BH Macro Ltd. GBP Shares (BHMG) 3,560.00p 3.71%

Syncona Limited NPV (SYNC) 175.20p 3.06%

CMC Markets (CMCX) 277.50p 2.59%

Plus500 Ltd (DI) (PLUS) 1,407.00p 1.96%

Wood Group (John) (WG.) 229.80p 1.69%

Contour Global (GLO) 191.00p 1.49%

Energean (ENOG) 899.50p 1.41%

Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 1,108.00p 1.28%

Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 183.85p 1.24%



FTSE 250 - Fallers



Frasers Group (FRAS) 620.00p -6.91%

Trainline (TRN) 338.20p -5.53%

Restaurant Group (RTN) 100.00p -5.30%

Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 238.20p -5.18%

SSP Group (SSPG) 282.40p -5.01%

Liontrust Asset Management (LIO) 2,000.00p -4.99%

Clarkson (CKN) 3,700.00p -4.88%

Wetherspoon (J.D.) (JDW) 1,019.00p -4.68%

National Express Group (NEX) 233.20p -4.66%

Tyman (TYMN) 401.50p -4.63%
(Alliance News) - FTSE 250-listed Plus500 Ltd on Monday said it expects its annual results to exceed market expectations but remain below the prior year's levels.

Shares in Plus500 were up 2.5% at 1,414.00 pence in London early Monday.

The online trading platform said it delivered further positive momentum during the third quarter of 2021 despite more stable market conditions when compared to recent quarters.

Plus500 said it now expects full-year revenue and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to be ahead of current compiled analysts' consensus forecasts, which stand at USD555.8 million and USD277.9 million, respectively.

For 2020, Plus500 posted revenue of USD872.5 million and Ebitda of USD515.9 million.

The Israel-based company said the third quarter's positive momentum was highlighted by the consistent strength of customer income, a key underlying growth metric for Plus500.

The company's active customer base has grown during the last few years, it said, with Plus500 achieving on-going success in onboarding new customers during the year to date. This has been delivered as a result of investment in the company's marketing technology to drive attractive return-on-investment.

During the three months to September 30, Plus500 said it made further progress in establishing its position as a global multi-asset fintech group. The company said it is continuing to make progress in accessing additional growth opportunities through further organic investment and by targeting potential bolt-on acquisitions.

Plus500 will publish its third-quarter results on October 25.

By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Mai FM is super stoked to bring you Kiwi musics biggest party, Jim Beam Homegrown!

Its one of our favourite festivals and every year were stoked to go back! If youve never been, make 2022 your year to check it out!

On March 19th, fans will come from all over Aotearoa come together to celebrate who we are through our music. Jim Beam Homegrown is massive with five stages stretching across the beautiful Wellington Waterfront. There is something for everyone from hip hop, pop and rock through to reggae and electronic music. The vibes are off the chart!

This years line-up already features some of Aotearoa's best acts including,

Drax Project, Kora, Sons of Zion, Ladi6, Katchafire, Kings, JessB, Troy Kingi, Swiss & Tree and heaps more!

See below for the full first announcement. More acts will be announced next month!

Every year Jim Beam Homegrown sets new sell-out records, usually selling out quicker than the previous year. The organisers have said this year the festival will be selling fewer tickets than last year to ensure everyone has the best time possible, so make sure you secure your tickets TODAY to avoid missing out.



There is also a payment plan available where you can secure your ticket now and pay it off in eight easy installments.

Keep listening to Mai FM to win awesome experiences and grab your tickets now at www.homegrown.net.nz
20 YEARS AGO

Collecting pennies

Students of Barry Petersons fifth grade class at Kennedy Elementary are learning that every penny helps when it comes to helping out the victims of the recent terrorist attacks in New York. Peterons class had read that newspapers in the United States, Canada and Australia are helping young readers raise pennies for the purpose of purchasing new fire equipment for the New York City Fire Department. The students were excited about the idea.

60 YEARS AGO

MHS homecoming

Manistee High Schools Homecoming Queen, who will reign at the schools homecoming game this Friday night is Emilie Jach. Other members of her court are: Dale Adamski, Freshman; Jane Anderson, sophomore; JoAnn Knight, senior; and Kay Dinsen, junior.

Cooking school

Nearly 600 people attended last nights opening of the News Advocate sponsored two-day cooking school in the auditorium of the Manistee Armory. Preceded by a fashion show featuring styles and models provided by local merchants, the cooking demonstrations were presented by Susan Lowe, well-known food economist, assisted by Eloise Doolittle of Consumers Power Co.

80 YEARS AGO

Many expected for tour

Many people are expected to enjoy the annual fall Color Tour being sponsored by the Kiwanis Club and the board of commerce. The tour, which starts tomorrow, will extend through Oct. 20. The route for the tour includes stops at the File Fibre Co., Old Stronach Cemetery, a six-year-old pine plantation on M-55, the Udell Fire Tower, transplant extension to Chittenden Nursery, Wellston CCC camp, Wellston Fire Guard Station and Red Bridge Park.

Now playing

Now playing at the Vogue Theatre is Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hold That Ghost with showtimes are 2 p.m, 3:50 p.m., 5:45 p.m., 7:45 p.m. and 9:40 p.m. A special midnight showing is also scheduled.

Compiled by Mark Fedder at the Manistee County Historical Museum
Titre: Deputy Country Director

Team or Country office: DRC

Employment Classication: Regular, Full-Time Employee

FLSA Status (only applies to US employees): Choose an item

Location: Kinshasa, DRC

Full Time Equivalent: 1.

Pay Grade: DRC - 18

Travel %: 30%

Supervisors Name and Title: Freddy Nkosi, CD DRC

Date Last Updated: September 24, 2021

Application deadline: November 19, 2021

ABOUT VILLAGEREACH

VillageReach transforms health care delivery to reach everyone, so that each person has the health care needed to thrive. We develop solutions that improve equity and access to primary health care. This includes making sure products are available when and where they are needed and primary health care services are delivered to the most under-reached. Radical collaboration with governments, the private sector and other partners strengthen our ability to scale and sustain these solutions. Our work increases access to quality health care for more than 46 million people in sub-Saharan Africa. VillageReach in incorporated in Washington State and has offices in Seattle (USA), Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, and Mozambique.

DESCRIPTION

Summary

Based in Kinshasa, the Deputy Country Director (DCD), will support the Country Director (CD) in programmatic and administrative aspects of the organization in DRC. The position reports to the DRC Country Director. The Deputy Country Director is responsible for the overall programmatic aspects of the organization in DRC. This entails supervision of some of the units directly under the CD, support to overall strategic program development and coordination among programs and teams, external networking and contacts with donors, technical partners and government authorities. The Deputy CD is the acting CD in the absence of the CD. The successful candidate will be a person motivated by the VillageReach mission, a highly dynamic and innovative environment, and the understanding that their contribution is critical to the success of VillageReach.

Description

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following. Other duties, responsibilities, and activities may change or be assigned at any time.

Programmatic

Oversee VillageReachs programmatic portfolio:

* Ensure high quality implementation of all VillageReach programs in DRC, namely the Next Generation Supply Chain, Drones for Health, Supply Chain Integrators, Digital Solutions, COVID-19 impact mitigation (COVID-19 vaccine delivery including High Volume Vaccination Sites and PPE Distribution).;

* Provide the overall strategic guidance and vision for the program and ensure design and execution are aligned with the organizations global strategy;

* Monitor program implementation and refine program strategies and plans accordingly;

* Supervise and build capacity of program-related staff;

Contribute both strategically and tactically to analysis of new program opportunities.

Support program managers on donor reports and programmatic presentations, with a focus on increasing internal capacity across the organization.

Assist with additional programmatic activities and provide technical support to the Program Managers as requested by the Country Director.

Stay informed on local and international initiatives that support VillageReach objectives.

Assist Country Director, as needed, in maintaining strong relationships with donors and develop new business opportunities for the DRC programs.

Administrative

Act as the liaison between the programmatic staff and the finance team to ensure that the technical teams have the operational and financial support necessary to conduct program activities.

Manage and create professional development plans for direct reports.

Work with the Finance and Administrative Manager to develop budgets for program development.

Team Management

Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence

Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback via regular performance reviews;

Provide team members with information, tools and other resources to improve performance and reach objectives;

Contribute to country team-building efforts, help team members identify problem-solving options and ensure the integration of all team members into relevant decision-making processes.

Business Development

Assist Country Director, as needed, in maintaining strong relationships with donors and in developing new business opportunities for the DRC programs.

Support with proposal writing for ongoing programs and for identified new program opportunities

Competencies:

The following competencies reflect what is expected of all VillageReach employees; including examples of how one might demonstrate each of these competencies in ones role.

Personal Motivation and Drive : Is self-directed in ones approach to work, but asks for help when needed; holds oneself accountable; undertakes self-development activities; seeks to build and master new skills; looks for and takes advantage of opportunities within the organization

Is self-directed in ones approach to work, but asks for help when needed; holds oneself accountable; undertakes self-development activities; seeks to build and master new skills; looks for and takes advantage of opportunities within the organization Collaboration & Effective Communication : Establishes and maintains effective relations with coworkers, partners & stakeholders and external parties; works collaboratively with others to accomplish organizational and team goals and objectives; works actively to resolve conflicts; expresses ideas and thoughts effectively; selects and uses appropriate communication methods and maintains meaningful communication with virtual coworkers and other parties to keep them informed

Establishes and maintains effective relations with coworkers, partners & stakeholders and external parties; works collaboratively with others to accomplish organizational and team goals and objectives; works actively to resolve conflicts; expresses ideas and thoughts effectively; selects and uses appropriate communication methods and maintains meaningful communication with virtual coworkers and other parties to keep them informed Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion : Takes personal responsibility for and supports others across the organization in creating and sustaining a diverse work environment where individuals are welcomed, valued, respected and supported; personally committed to attaining cultural competency including self-awareness of ones own attitudes about culture and cross-cultural interactions; exhibits the willingness and ability to engage openly and respectfully around issues of race, colonialism, identity and culture; upholds equity in access to sharing of information, ideas, and opportunities throughout VillageReach

Takes personal responsibility for and supports others across the organization in creating and sustaining a diverse work environment where individuals are welcomed, valued, respected and supported; personally committed to attaining cultural competency including self-awareness of ones own attitudes about culture and cross-cultural interactions; exhibits the willingness and ability to engage openly and respectfully around issues of race, colonialism, identity and culture; upholds equity in access to sharing of information, ideas, and opportunities throughout VillageReach Commitment to Excellence : Produces a high output of work, both in terms of quality and quantity; looks for ways to improve and promote quality; monitors work to ensure quality; has a personal commitment to the mission of VillageReach

Produces a high output of work, both in terms of quality and quantity; looks for ways to improve and promote quality; monitors work to ensure quality; has a personal commitment to the mission of VillageReach Solution Orientation & Innovation : Focuses on results and desired outcomes and how to best achieve them; gets the job done; sees opportunities for creative problem-solving while staying within the parameters of good practice; sees old problems in new ways and has novel approaches to solving those problems; contributes original and/or resourceful ideas to their area of responsibility; is able to consider and articulate risks and consequences of proposed innovations and factor these into decision-making

REQUIREMENTS

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Qualifications & Characteristics

The ideal candidate will have the following professional qualifications and personal characteristics:

Experience managing finance and operations. Work experience building and managing budgets. Experience supervising finance, human resource, and operational staff is preferred. Experience managing finances and implementing financial policies and procedures, human resource management, and operational planning.

Writing and analytical skills. Experience writing donor reports and proposals, analyzing data and information, and clearly communicating complicated topics to a variety of audiences.

Management skills. Management experience and skills working in collaborative international office environment that enables learning and growing while also adhering to policies and procedures. Capable of encouraging and empowering staff to work independently, yet with sufficient controls.

Significant global health experience. Experience working and living in in low-income countries. Experience in global health and/or development program management or implementation. Experience with adolescent health and development, sexual and reproductive health and/or maternal health. Digital health, clinical, or health system background preferred. Experience working internationally in low-income countries with a variety of stakeholders, including experience working with Ministries of Health. Experience in Sub-Saharan Africa required.

Communication and interpersonal skills. Strong communication and cross-cultural management skills.

Personal qualities. Energy, intelligence, diplomacy, attention to detail, organizational skills, sound practical judgment and the ability to work independently without supervision.

Commitment to the mission. Passion for the mission of VillageReach, including strong commitment to global health, and a belief in the role of private sector solutions to augment public health systems.

Further Requirements

Excellent written and verbal communication in English and French;

Ability to establish and sustain professional relationships with key stakeholders and VillageReach staff in local and overseas offices;

Established cultural competency in partnering with racial, cultural and linguistically diverse groups.

Demonstrated understanding of challenges with working in rural, underserved and low-income context; experience living in and/or working in a low-income country a plus

Experience developing and monitoring budgets required;

Proficiency in word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation programs;

Strong oral and presentation-level communication skills;

Ability to work collaboratively and collegially in a small team and geographically dispersed team;

Ability to prioritize and perform multiple tasks, problem-solve, and work under pressure; and

Ability to travel at least 30% of the time within DRC and will require frequent engagement of local officials.

Education Requirements

An MPH, MPA, MA (in a relevant field) or equivalent degree preferred and at least ten (10) years of direct program experience with increasing responsibilities is required.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

This position directly supervises up to 2 employees directly and more than 30 indirectly. Carries out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with the organizations policies and applicable laws.

Environment and Physical Demands

VillageReach has no private offices, employees work in a shared, open environment with task and conference rooms accessible to employees for privacy and meetings. The noise level in the work environment is usually quiet. Due to the time zone differences between our Seattle office and our Country Offices and location of other global staff, US based staff are expected to be available for early morning meetings starting at 6am. In addition, our global HQ and Country office staff are expected to be available for late afternoon/evening meetings up to 6pm.

APPLICATION INFORMATION:

This is an immediate hire and therefore resumes will be reviewed on a rolling basis until filled. To apply, please submit your resume and a cover letter to our online portal: https://www.villagereach.org/join-us/

COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY & INCLUSION:

VillageReach is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer committed to workforce diversity. We believe that diverse, equitably weighted perspectives foster an organizational capacity to create novel solutions that improve health in the most underserved and hard-to-reach areas. To align our values, innovations and impact, VillageReach is committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse global workforce.

Compensation:

VillageReach has an established compensation structure that is based on the relevant market and internally transparent. We hire people into the established range based on ones experience and education and considering internal equity. We do not inquire about salary history.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

2900 Eastlake Ave. E., Suite 230 Seattle, WA 98102 USA

TEL: 1.206.512.1530 & 1.866.203.3175 FAX: 1.206.860.6972

www.villagereach.org // info@villagereach.org
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The rise in zika cases was accompanied by an increase in cases ofMore than 2,400 cases of microcephaly were notified in Brazil in 2015, compared with 781 in the previous five years.Although zika is usually asymptomatic, recent data shows a link between the disease and the development of neurological complications such as Guillain-Barre syndrome, encephalitis and meningitis in adults, and congenital malformations such as microcephaly in infants.It has been shown thatThere was plenty of evidence in the literature about dengue virus interaction with Gas6 protein. Using this interaction mechanism, the virus penetrates cells that destroy bacteria and replicate. This has now been demonstrated for zika as well.To find out how Gas6 levels correlated with the neurological complications associated with zika, the researchers used the ELISA enzyme-linked immunoassay to analyze blood samples from patients included in a cross-sectional study conducted between February 2016 and June 2017 in hospitals in Campinas, state of Sao Paulo.Ninety patients and 13 healthy controls were enrolled in the study: 57 patients had mild self-limited zika and were labeled "non-neuro", while 19 had neurological complications after being infected by zika ("neuro"), and 14 had neurological complications without having zika ("neuro non-zika").Meanwhile, another group of researchers was working with adult mice bred at the university with an immune system capable of combating the virus."We inoculated the virus with and without Gas6 into pregnant and non-pregnant mice. Viral load on the first day after infection was much higher in the adult mice that received the virus with Gas6, showing that the protein favors infection. A high proportion of their offspring had congenital malformations, with smaller heads and lower overall size," said Lilian Gomes de Oliveira, joint first author of the article with Joao Luiz da Silva Filho.To invade monocytes by binding to cell receptors, Gas6 must undergo a chemical reaction that enables it to interact with other molecules.Based on this fact,By explaining the mechanism behind neurological complications in zika virus, researchers have opened up the possibility of further research that could serve as a basis for intervention with drugs.These findings also contribute to a better understanding of the pathogenesis of severe zika and its outcomes and point in the direction of studies in pursuit of ways to use Gas6 as a therapeutic tool.Source: Medindia
Amid the fresh drug scandal surrounding Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan, who was detained for possessing drugs while being on board a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast, one can actually see that it is not the first time that such a thing has happened in Bollywood.

 BCCL

Drug scandals like these have often cropped up in the Bollywood that, in terms of the entire Indian film fraternity, is unlike any other because of the riches and glamour involved in it.



It is now Aryan Khan and a few others that are at the center of it, but let's take a look at some of the biggest Bollywood names that had a run-in with drugs back when they were bracketed under the popular category of being a Bollywood Star Kid.

1. Sanjay Dutt

 Twitter

There is no bigger star to be involved in a number of scandals than Sanjay Dutt, adored in the industry by the name of Sanju Baba. The actor, who has since then battled his fair share of challenges and come out on top of it, had his first run with drugs back in college. The Munnabhai MBBS actor admitted that there wasn't a time when he could be at peace with himself.



2. Prateik Babbar

 Instagram/Prateik Babbar

Prateik lost his mother at a very young age, so his childhood wasn't the easiest one for sure. The Dum Maaro Dum actor himself confessed that he started using drugs at the mere age of 13, only to then take the help of rehab to get out of it.



3. Sara Ali Khan

 Insight Productions

The name of Bollywood Superstar Saif Ali Khan's daughter Sara Ali Khan too cropped up just at the back of the drug probe linked to the suicide of Sushant Singh Rajpur. It isn't clear whether she really had anything to do with it, but the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officials sure questioned her along with some other well-known celebrities.



4. Fardeen Khan

 Insight Productions

Fardeen Khan, the son of the late Bollywood actor Feroz Khan got involved in a drug scandal back in 2001, after which he was reportedly arrested by the NCB on the charges of possessing cocaine. He was later granted immunity in 2012 after he went on to go through the de-addiction process.



5. Ranbir Kapoor

 Dharma Productions

Ranbir Kapoor is one of the biggest Bollywood stars in the film industry and comes from one of the biggest Bollywood families, being the son of late actor Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh.



However, like a few other Bollywood star kids, Ranbir too was linked with substance abuse with the Rockstar actor then admitting that he started using drugs back in college. I have tried drugs when I was in film school and got into bad influence. But I realized that nothing will happen in life if I continue with drugs," he had told a publication.

6. Pooja Bhatt

 Netflix

The retired actress was an alcohol addict and had revealed that she started it all at the age of 16, with smoking coming on at 23. While her name reportedly did crop up in a drug scandal, it was revealed that she never did drugs like cocaine.



With respect to alcohol, the actor, however, decided to put an end to it, after father Mahesh Bhatt became instrumental in convincing her to change her overall lifestyle.
Shah Rukh Khans son Aryan Khan has made headlines in the past few days for all the wrong reasons.

He was detained by the NCB (Narcotics Control Bureau) officials in a raid on a cruise ship going from Mumbai to Goa and was later sent to one-day custody.

As new developments in the case continue to update every odd hour, a particular piece of throwback news pieces has been catching the attention of people and is going viral on the internet, and it has to do with Gauri Khan, Aryan's mother and wife of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan.

In the past one and a half years, the NCB has been tracking the alleged 'drug mafia' nexus in the Bollywood industry and several celebrities, accused to be in possession of illegal substances, have been taken in for questioning.

However, this is nothing new, because, over the years, there have been several reports of celebrities getting caught in drug scandals and shocking their fans.

One such very similar incident is when Gauri Khans name popped up in a drug scandal. According to The Free Press Journal , Gauri Khan was caught at Berlin Airport for possession of Marijuana.

However, no official report confirmed her involvement in the matter, and back then, there were reports that also stated that Gauri Khan was a 'drug addict', which she strongly denied in an interview for a leading lifestyle magazine.

She also expressed that such false reports dont bother her at all.

Meanwhile, many pictures/videos of Aryan Khan sitting with few others in the NCB office are going viral on the internet and on several news channels.

An NCB official said that Shah Rukhs son Aryan is among several others who are to be questioned in connection with the alleged party that they attended aboard the luxury ship on a Mumbai-Goa cruise.

According to reports, Aryan Khan will be applying for bail today.


Bollywood is guilty of promoting sexism, casually slipping in rape jokes and normalising bad behaviour like harassment against women in some of its movies.

In fact, they disguise these problematic things as 'funny'. Thankfully, most of the audience is woke enough now to take notice and slam such scenes.

 Padmalaya Telefilms Ltd

However, crass and problematic jokes played on men in films still get away and are labelled as hilarious and harmless rather than hurtful.



The point is, theres no need to touch on sensitive social topics to make people laugh. It only makes it worse and normalises things that happen to men too.

 Vinod Chopra Films

Here are 4 such funny scenes in movies we all laughed at without realising how problematic they were, probably because the butt of jokes, in this case, were men, and not women:



1. The Ragging Scene In 3 Idiots

 Vinod Chopra Films

Ragging is a serious offence and many students commit suicide, drop out and suffer trauma because of being harassed as freshers by their seniors.



Thus, the scene where a bunch of first-year college students are stripped and forced to dance in 3 Idiots was not funny by a mile. In fact, it was extremely problematic and triggering.

2. Gay Jokes & Homophobia In Dostana

 Dharma Productions

The whole movie was based on straight people posing as gay and making fun of the whole LGBT community in the process.



From the offensive imitation of how they walk and talk to homophobic jokes, the movie left no stone unturned to piss off the LGBTQ community.

The scene where Priyanka asks both men to kiss in order to earn her forgiveness passed off as funny is categorically problematic.

3. Male Molestation In Badrinath Ki Dulhania

 Dharma Productions

Rape is not something to laugh about, no matter what gender. Male rape is as real and devastating and shouldnt be gift-wrapped as a comic scene.



In Badrinath Ki Dulhania, Varun Dhawan is abducted and molested on the streets of Singapore and when hes rescued, his friends burst into laughter seeing his state (torn clothes, obviously).

Since its a movie of recent times, people called out the scene and thought it was unnecessary and offensive.

4. Anmol Being Abused By His Wife In Awara Paagal Deewana

 Base Industries Group

Again, whether its a wife being mistreated and abused by a husband or vice versa, its simply not okay. We have seen domestic violence against women shown as funny in films like Aamdani Atthanni Kharcha Rupaiya but there are films where men have been shown as victims too. Again, not funny.



In Awara Paagal Deewana, both men are treated as servants, abused by their wives and are not even allowed to leave the country since their passports are withheld by them.

Last I checked, that was illegal, not to mention plain torture. Whats funny about that?
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AG Nessel Joins Amicus Brief Supporting Pennsylvania's Firearm Age Regulations

AG Nessel Joins Amicus Brief Supporting Pennsylvania's Firearm Age Regulations

Attorney General

Media contact: Lynsey Mukomel 517-599-2746

Public inquiries: 517-335-7622



October 4, 2021

LANSING - Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel joined a coalition of 19 other attorneys general in defending a Pennsylvania law limiting the issuance of concealed-carry licenses to people ages 21 and up. In an amicus brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, the coalition argues that states have the right to enact reasonable, age-based firearm regulations that protect public safety and reduce the prevalence of gun violence.

The coalition filed the brief in Lara v. Commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police, a lawsuit challenging a Pennsylvania law that generally restricts the issuance of concealed-carry permits to people ages 21 and up. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit claim that the law infringes upon the Second Amendment rights of people between the ages of 18 and 20. The lower court in this case rejected that argument, holding that laws regulating the sale of firearms to young people are longstanding and constitutional.

"States have the right and responsibility to protect our residents against harm by enacting laws and policies," Nessel said. "That includes recognizing that preventing people under the age of 21 from legally obtaining firearms is commonsense regulation."

In the brief, the coalition argues that the Second Amendment gives states the ability to enact sensible regulations designed to protect the public, including age-based restrictions that limit the ability of people younger than 21 to carry concealed firearms in public. Although regulations differ based on each state's needs, virtually every state and the District of Columbia has imposed some age-based restrictions on the sale or use of firearms, and over 30 states and the District of Columbia have enacted statutes which prohibit people younger than 21 from carrying concealed firearms in public.

Similarly, courts across the country consistently have upheld age-based regulations, noting that the goal of these regulations is to deter crime and promote public safety.

Joining Attorney General Nessel in filing the brief are the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
SG Hammoud to Make History Before SCOTUS

SG Hammoud to Make History Before SCOTUS

Attorney General

Media contact: Lynsey Mukomel 517-599-2746

Public inquiries: 517-335-7622



October 4, 2021

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud will make history tomorrow as the first Arab-American Muslim woman to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court. She will argue on behalf of the State in Brown v. Davenport.

The case is one of the first the High Court will hear in its October term. A live audio feed will be available on SCOTUS' website tomorrow morning when the argument begins at 10 a.m.

An audio recording will also be available following the argument.

"On a personal level, this is the highlight of my career, and I am deeply honored that the State and the Attorney General have entrusted me with this argument before the highest Court in the land," Hammoud said. "But more importantly, I am passionate about the position the State is asserting-a position that ensures that federal judges, when reviewing a habeas corpus petition, give appropriate respect and deference to our state-court decisions. And here, that means respect and deference, in accordance with congressional intent and Supreme Court precedent, to the eleven Michigan judges who adjudicated Davenport's case."

In addition to this history-making argument, Hammoud became the nation's first Arab-American Muslim Solicitor General when Attorney General Dana Nessel appointed her at the beginning of 2019 to serve as Michigan's 12th Solicitor General.

"I'm incredibly proud to have Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud appear before the Supreme Court on behalf of my office," Nessel said. "Not just because she's the first Arab-American Muslim woman to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court but also because she's such an effective advocate for the People of Michigan. I look forward to hearing her argument on Tuesday in this watershed case."

Both Hammoud's biography and a headshot is available on the Department of Attorney General's website. Use of the headshot must credit Todd Crespi.

CASE BACKGROUND

In 2007, Ervine Davenport was convicted of murder in Kalamazoo County Circuit Court. He strangled Annette White to death, threw her body in a field, then went to her apartment and stole her property. Davenport later bragged that he "offed" her.

Davenport was shackled at trial and the trial court failed to place on the record the reasons why he was shackled.

The State concedes that was a constitutional error, but it was a harmless error given the evidence of Davenport's guilt was overwhelming.

The case was adjudicated on the merits in state court, which found the shackling error to be harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Davenport then filed a petition for habeas corpus in the federal district court; that court upheld the state court findings of harmless error in Davenport's case.

Then, in September 2020, a divided panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, reversing the federal district court's denial of habeas corpus relief.

The State filed a petition for certiorari to challenge the Sixth Circuit's decision, arguing that the Sixth Circuit applied the wrong test, and, in doing so, disregarded the standard that Congress embodied in section 2254 of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), 28 U.S.C. 2254, and that U.S. Supreme Court habeas corpus jurisprudence has underscored: a writ shall not be granted with respect to any claim that was adjudicated on the merits in the state-court proceedings unless the state-court decision was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established federal law as determined by the United States Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court granted the petition.

The question before the Supreme Court is what the proper test is for a federal habeas court reviewing a constitutional error for harmlessness. The State will explain to the High Court that when a state court has adjudicated a criminal case on the merits, a federal judge on habeas review must give proper deference to the state-court determination prior to granting relief as Congress required when it enacted AEDPA in 1996. The federal judge may not simply substitute his or her own judgment for the judgment of a state court when it is not contrary to or an unreasonable application of federal law.

The State argues that a two-step approach is the proper test: the habeas judge should independently analyze whether the constitutional error at issue had a substantial and injurious effect on the jury verdict, and, in deference to the state court adjudication, must also analyze whether a fair-minded jurist could have agreed that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. The two tests are distinct, and both are necessary, as supported by U.S. Supreme Court precedent. In this case, contrary to this two-step application, the Sixth Circuit proceeded without giving the necessary deference to our state-court adjudications. The Sixth Circuit did not determine whether a fair-minded jurist could agree with the state courts' conclusions. And the Sixth Circuit considered its own circuit precedent and extrajudicial sources, which is improper under habeas review.
Gov. Whitmer on Efforts to Protect the Great Lakes from Line 5 Oil Spill After Canada Invokes Treaty with United States

Gov. Whitmer on Efforts to Protect the Great Lakes from Line 5 Oil Spill After Canada Invokes Treaty with United States

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 4, 2021

Contact: Press@michigan.gov

Gov. Whitmer on Efforts to Protect the Great Lakes from Line 5 Oil Spill After Canada Invokes Treaty with United States

LANSING, Mich. - Governor Gretchen Whitmer today released the following statement after Canada filed a letter in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan indicating that it had formally requested negotiations with the United States under Article IX of the 1977 Transit Pipelines Treaty in connection with Michigan's actions with respect to Line 5.

"I am profoundly disappointed that today the Government of Canada chose to invoke Article IX of the 1977 Transit Pipelines Treaty in a bid to help Enbridge, a private oil company, keep crude oil running indefinitely through Michigan's Straits of Mackinac," said Governor Whitmer. "So long as oil is flowing through the pipelines, there is a very real threat of a catastrophic oil spill in the Great Lakes. I have made clear to Enbridge that it cannot use our state-owned lakebed for these pipelines, but Enbridge has refused to stop. Moreover, rather than taking steps to diversify energy supply and ensure resilience, Canada has channeled its efforts into defending an oil company with an abysmal environmental track record."

"Michigan is, and will remain, a strong partner with Canada on a range of issues," continued Whitmer. "However, I will not remain silent when the fate of the Great Lakes and Michigan hangs in the balance. I had expected that Canada, a nation that prides itself on its commitment to environmental protection, would share my interest in protecting the Great Lakes. Instead, the Government of Canada has chosen to do the bidding of the very oil company responsible for the 2010 Kalamazoo River Oil Spill - one of the largest inland oil spills in the history of the nation that happened right here in Michigan. At the same time, Canada is proposing to store nuclear waste in the Great Lakes Basin, adding even more risk to our waters. I remain confident that Michigan will prevail in its legal efforts with respect to Line 5, regardless of today's action, and I will continue to fight to get the pipelines out of the water. I call on Prime Minister Trudeau to reverse his decision."

The Great Lakes are home to 21% of the world's fresh surface water. The lakes supply drinking water for 48 million people, including 5 million here in Michigan, and support 1.3 million jobs that generate $82 billion in wages annually across the United States. In Michigan, the Great Lakes support over 350,000 jobs. The Line 5 pipeline is a ticking time bomb that could lead to an oil spill in the Great Lakes, which would put families and small businesses across the region at risk.

Enbridge has a troubling environmental record, most notably when an Enbridge pipeline ruptured in 2010, causing one of the worst inland oil spills in U.S. history and dumping one million gallons of oil into a tributary of the Kalamazoo River. And Canada's push to store high-level radioactive nuclear waste near Lake Huron has shown that Canada is unwilling to prioritize the Great Lakes over their own energy interests.

In November of 2020, Governor Whitmer and Department of Natural Resources Director Dan Eichinger notified Enbridge that the 1953 easement allowing it to operate dual pipelines in the Straits of Mackinac to transport petroleum and other products was being revoked and terminated. The notice required Enbridge to cease operations of the dual pipelines in the Straits by May of 2021, allowing for an orderly transition that protects Michigan's energy needs.

Governor Whitmer and Director Eichinger also filed a lawsuit asking the Ingham County Circuit Court to recognize the validity of the revocation and termination of the easement. Enbridge subsequently removed this case to federal court, and the State of Michigan has filed a motion to remand the case back to state court. Twenty-eight entities, including sixteen states and the District of Columbia, four Native American Tribes, six environmental organizations and the Great Lakes Business Network have filed an amicus briefs in support of this motion to remand.

To ensure Michigan's energy needs are met, Governor Whitmer and the Michigan Public Service Commission launched the MI Propane Security Plan to protect jobs and diversify and expand our renewable energy resources. Since early in 2019, the Whitmer Administration has been preparing for potential alternatives to ensure energy security for both of Michigan's peninsulas in the event of a Line 5 closure.

As of May 12, Enbridge has been unlawfully trespassing on state land as it continues to pump oil under the Straits of Mackinac beyond the deadline to cease operations. If successful in its action to enforce its revocation and termination of the easement, the administration will seek disgorgement of Enbridge's profits derived from its wrongful use of the easement lands after May 12.

In addition to invoking Article IX of the Treaty, which provides a process for the resolution of Treaty disputes between the United States and Canada, Canada has asked the Court to hold its proceedings in abeyance while this Treaty process is ongoing. The first step in this process is formal negotiations, which Canada has now requested.

Michigan has made clear in its filings that there is no legal reason that the Court should wait to rule in our case, and this remains true, even in light of Canada's action today. Each day that Line 5 continues operating increases the risk of a catastrophic oil spill in the Great Lakes. Michigan's actions have been fully consistent with the Treaty and Michigan's authority with respect to environmental protection.

###
LANSING  The Michigan Works! Association has added Manistee Area Chamber of Commerce president Stacie Bytwork to its new board of directors.

Michigan Works! is the states primary workforce development association focused on ensuring Michigans employers and talent pipeline have access to the skills needed to support a robust economy, according to a press release.

The executive committee consists of chairperson John Kaczynski; first vice chairperson Shana Lewis; second vice chairperson Cindy Romanowski; secretary Jennifer Llewellyn and treasurer Jacob Maas.

It is an honor to work with this group of distinguished workforce and talent development leaders from across the state of Michigan, said Kaczynski, new chair of the Michigan Works! Association Board of Directors. This group will continue to advocate for access and opportunity to continue to develop the next generation of Michigans talent.

With changing workforce development needs, the Michigan Works! Association has recognized the need to adapt by ensuring it has "the most inclusive board representation possible," according to an association release.

"The association is excited about the increased diversity of voices on the new board from individuals who are devoted to creating opportunity and career pathways for all, supporting the growth of business and industry, and creating innovative, responsive, and successful Michigan Works! system to build the workforce of tomorrow," part of the release states.

The changes made to the Michigan Works! Association Board of Directors will result in:

 Increased representation of Michigan businesses including but not limited to, small businesses, entrepreneurs and some of Michigans largest employers across key industries and sectors.

 New strategic partners who understand the importance of local workforce development programs including, but not limited to, local elected officials, post-secondary education, economic development, vocational rehabilitation and corrections.

 Better geographic representation from across Michigan to ensure urban and rural voices are represented.

 Incorporation of key leadership from each of the 16 Michigan Works! organizations which will foster inclusiveness, local voices and statewide strategy.

We are excited to work with our new board of directors to continue creating innovative workforce solutions for Michigans businesses and residents, said Ryan Hundt, CEO of the Michigan Works! Association. The new board of directors will have a positive impact on the way we do business in the future by helping the Michigan Works! Association continue as a national leader in advocacy, leadership, training, communication and collaboration.

Board members include:

 Ed Benning, Flint Mass Transportation Authority general manager and CEO;

 Mark Berdan, Michigan Works! Region 7B Consortium executive director;

 John Bierbusse, Macomb/St. Clair Michigan Works! executive director;

 Stacie Bytwork, Manistee Area Chamber of Commerce president;

 Erika Comerford, Carmeuse North America human resources generalist;

 Ben Damerow, Michigan Works! Southwest director

 David Darbyshire, co-owner Revitalize IT and Cyb Lings, Inc.

 Jane Doty, H&H Restaurants, Inc., president

 Dan Dunn, vice president of human resources, Comerica Bank

 David Goudreau, Northern Wings president

 Lee Graham, Operating Engineers Local 324 Labor Management Education Committee, executive director

 Todd Gustafson, Michigan Works! Berrien, Cass, Van Buren Powered by Kinexus, president and CEO

 Shamar Herron, Michigan Works! Southeast, director

 Chris Holman, Michigan Business Network, founder and CEO

 John Kaczynski, director of Governmental Affairs Saginaw Valley State University

 Shelly Keene, Michigan Works! West Central executive director

 Jody Kerbyson, GST Michigan Works! CEO

 Shana Lewis, executive director of talent acquisition, Trinity Health Michigan

 Jennifer Llewellyn, Oakland County Michigan Works! director

 Lance Lyons, Lyons Industries, Inc. president

 Jacob Maas, West Michigan Works! CEO

 Charlie Mahoney, Four-M Associates Communications Group president

 Matt McCauley, Northwest Michigan Works! CEO

 Marisue Moreau, Michigan Works! Northeast Consortium director

 Bill Peterson, department and international representative assistant to secretary treasurer/skilled trades United Auto Workers International Union

 Greg Pitoniak Southeast Michigan Community Alliance Michigan Works! CEO

 Michelle Rafferty Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation, COO

 Bill Raymond, Upper Peninsula Michigan Works! CEO

 Chris Rishko, Great Lakes Bay Michigan Works! CEO

 Cindy Romanowski, director of human resources Arbre Group Holding

 Carrie Rosingana, Capital Area Michigan Works! CEO

 Robert Showers, Clinton County Board of Commissioners Chair

 Terri Weems, Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation president

 Kimberly Wood, Mann Construction controller
The drug possession case against Justen Michael Watkins in Huron County Circuit Court was adjourned Oct. 4 at the request of the Michigan Attorney Generals Office.

Watkins, the self-professed leader of the white nationalist group known as The Base, was arraigned in Huron County District Court Feb. 23 for one count of possessing a controlled substance.

Michigan Assistant Attorney General Sunita Doddamani asked Judge Gerald Prill for an adjournment in the case because she believes a plea deal will soon be made, resolving all of the cases against Watkins.

We have three cases against Mr. Watkins in three different counties, Doddamani said. We have made sort of a global offer to resolve all three cases and it is my understanding that he wishes to avail himself of that offer.

Watkins original charge was in 14A-1 District Court in Washtenaw County, where he was charged with with gang membership, unlawful posting of a message, and using computers to commit a crime, each felony charges. Watkins was arrested on that charge at a home in Bad Axe Oct. 29, 2020 during a joint effort by the Michigan State Police and FBI.

The state alleges Watkins and an his co-defendant Alfred Gorman had terrorized a family at their home in Dexter in December 2019.

In Tuscola County, Watkins, along with Thomas Denton and Tristan Webb, was charged with breaking into two former Michigan Department of Corrections sites on Oct. 3, 2020. Those charges included one count of larceny in a building, a four-year felony; one count of gang membership, a 20-year felony; one count of conspiracy to commit teaching use of firearms for a civil disorder, four-year felony; and one count of felony firearm, two-year felony.

During the court proceedings Monday, Doddamani told Prill that the offer made to Watkins could effect the charges in Huron County.

Part of that offer is that we would be dismissing this case in this county, she said.

Doddamani asked the court to push back until later this month to give time for more activities to occur on the other cases. Prill obliged the request by setting the case for a status conference Oct. 26.
The village of Elkton is considering whether to allow medical marijuana to be grown within the villages borders.

The proposed zoning amendment would allow the cultivation of medical marijuana within the village to those who acquire a medical marijuana home occupation permit. Applications for said permit would need to be made in writing to the village zoning administrator and include a permit fee of $500.

When they legalized marijuana in the state, we had the choice of opting out or in, said Elkton Police Chief Scott Jobes. We opted out because we didnt want any dispensaries or operations in town.

Jobes said that no medical marijuana businesses approached Elkton about growing there. The Elkton Planning Commission worked with the village attorney as they came with the ordinance.

It was something we figured we need to do, just to regulate where medical marijuana could be grown, Jobes said, adding that medical marijuana would still not be able to be sold in Elkton.

The city of Caseville is currently the only municipality in Huron County that allows medical marijuana establishments to be set up in its borders, approving it in 2020. It was also the only Huron County area where a majority of residents voted for Michigan Proposal 1 in 2018, which legalized the recreational use and possession of marijuana for those 21 years and older.

A public hearing for the zoning amendment will take place at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 11, at the Elkton Village Hall for the public to provide comment on it. After the hearing, the amendment will go to the village council for a vote.

Jobes said that Elkton had a public hearing on the issue in 2018 and there wasn't a great turnout. He recalled the people that did show up did not want people growing or selling marijuana in Elkton.

The zoning amendment states that permits may only be issued to those in R1 residential zoning districts, with home occupations permitted only in single family dwelling units.

Registered primary caregivers operating a medical marijuana home occupation must not be located within 1,000 feet of a school or child care facility. No more than one primary giver per parcel may be permitted to grow or cultivate medical marijuana, and no more than five qualifying patients may be assisted within any given calendar week.

All medical marijuana must be contained within an enclosed, locked facility inside the primary residence on the parcel. All necessary building, electrical, plumbing and mechanical permits must be obtained for any portion of the building with wiring, lights, and watering devices.

The premises must be open for inspection upon request by the zoning administrator, the Oliver Township Fire Department, and the Elkton Police Department for compliance with all applicable laws and rules.
LONDON (AP)  The adventures of the honey-loving bear "Winnie the Pooh have captivated children  and their parents  for nigh-on 100 years. Fans now have a chance to own a central piece of Pooh's history, when a countryside bridge from southern England goes up for auction next week.

The author of the hugely popular Pooh series of books, A. A. Milne, often played with his son, Christopher Robin, at the bridge in the 1920s. It became a regular setting for the adventures of Pooh and his friends in the series that launched in 1926.

Offering it at auction is probably the biggest opportunity globally for people to reach out and be able to buy it and put it in a museum," said James Rylands of Summer Place Auctions, which has previously auctioned items including 20 tons of the Berlin Wall.

Rylands described the bridge as one of the most important iconic literary objects there is," and laid out hope that it could go for 250,000 pounds, way beyond the 40,000 to 60,000-pound estimate placed on Tuesday's auction.

When you actually talk about history and add in the emotion and the happiness that Winnie the Pooh has brought to generations as children and adults over the years, it is very difficult to price it, Rylands said. If it fetches a quarter of a million pounds, then I wont be surprised.

The bridge, originally called Posingford Bridge, was built around 1907 and officially renamed Poohsticks Bridge in 1997 by the late authors son, whose toy animals were the basis of the Pooh series.

It was then taken down in 1999 after being worn out by visitors and was replaced by a newer structure funded largely by the Disney corporation.

The original bridge was dismantled and stored in Ashdown Forest Centre in the southern county of East Sussex, until the local Parish Council recently gave permission for it to be restored and rescued. The bridge, which measures 8.87 meters long by 4.5 meters wide (29 feet by 15 feet), has now been fully restored using local oak for any missing elements.

The auction coincides with the centenary of Poohs arrival in the world when Christopher Robin received a fluffy teddy bear from the luxury department store Harrods on his first birthday.

Rylands said there's been interest from around the world, but hoped that the bridge stays local.

I do hope it stays in Sussex because it obviously has great relevance to the locality," he said. "But if it does end up in the United States or indeed Japan, I have no doubt it will be a little bit loved over there as well.
Cassandra Day / Hearst Connecticut Media

MIDDLETOWN  A free program on indigenous people of Connecticut will be hosted virtually by the Humanists and Freethinkers of Fairfield County Monday in recognition of Indigenous Peoples/Columbus Day.

The event will feature Central Connecticut State University history professor, department chairwoman, and historian Katherine Hermes of Middletown, who will discuss the topic: Indigenous Connecticut: Wangunk Family Stories 1600-2021, according to a press release.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  North Korea restored dormant communication hotlines with South Korea in a small, fragile reconciliation step Monday in an apparent hard push to win outside concessions with a mix of conciliatory gestures and missile tests.

Its unclear how substantially the move will improve ties between the Koreas, as Pyongyang has a history of using the hotlines as a bargaining chip in dealings with Seoul. It often unilaterally suspended then reactivated them when it needed better relations with its southern neighbor.

North Korean liaison officers answered phone calls by their South Korean counterparts over a set of cross-border government and military channels on Monday morning for the first time in nearly two months.

Long time no talk. Were very pleased because the communication channels have been restored like this. We hope that South-North relations will develop into a new level, a Seoul official said during a phone conversation with his North Korean counterpart over one channel, according to video released by South Koreas Unification Ministry.

On a separate military channel, the Koreas exchanged information about fishing activities along their disputed westerns sea boundary  where several inter-Korean bloody naval battles have occurred in previous years  to prevent similar skirmishes, Seouls Defense Ministry said. A ministry statement said Seoul hopes the hotlines restoration would help reduce tensions on the peninsula.

The hotlines are phone and fax channels that the Koreas use to set up meetings, arrange border crossings and avoid accidental clashes. Theyve been largely stalled for more than a year as the North cut off them in protest of South Korean civilian leafleting campaigns. Communications were briefly revived for about two weeks this summer, but North Korea later refused to exchange messages again after Seoul staged annual military drills with Washington that Pyongyang views as an invasion rehearsal.

Last week, North Korea leader Kim Jong Un expressed his willingness to reactivate the communication channels, saying he wanted to realize the Korean peoples wishes to promote peace. His influential sister, Kim Yo Jong, earlier said North Korea was open to restarting talks and cooperation steps if conditions are met.

Some experts question the sincerity of such an overture because it came as North Korea renewed missile tests after a six-month hiatus. Kim Yo Jong has also said South Korea must abandon double-dealing standards and a hostile viewpoint if it truly wants improved ties, a position largely echoed by her brother.

The experts say North Korea is trying to use South Koreas desire to improve ties to pressure it to convince the United States to relax punishing economic sanctions on the North. Others say North Korea wants South Korea not to criticize its ballistic missile tests, which are banned by U.N. Security Council resolutions, in part of its efforts to receive an international recognition as a nuclear weapons state.

The South Korean authorities should make positive efforts to put the North-South ties on a right track and settle the important tasks which must be prioritized to open up the bright prospect in the future, bearing deep in mind the meaning of the restoration of communication lines, the Norths official Korean Central News Agency said ahead of the hotlines restoration.

Lee Jong-joo, a spokeswoman for the Unification Ministry, said Seoul hopes the two Koreas would reopen official talks soon on improving ties based on the stable operation of the hotlines.

Its not clear if the North will get what it wants from its pressure campaign. Kim Jong Un has said he wont return to talks with the United States unless it drops its hostile policy," an apparent reference to the sanctions. The United States, for its part, has offered talks anywhere and at any time without preconditions, a stance that Kim last week described as a cunning attempt to conceal U.S. hostility against North Korea.

The nuclear diplomacy between Pyongyang and Washington collapsed in early 2019 due to disputes over exchanging sanctions relief with denuclearization steps. Despite its recent streak of weapons tests, North Korea still maintains a self-imposed 2018 moratorium on testing long-range missiles that directly threatens the U.S. mainland, an indication that it doesnt want to scuttle prospects for future diplomacy with the U.S.
MANCHESTER, England (AP)  British Treasury chief Rishi Sunak promised Monday to deliver an economy based on good work, better skills and higher wages, as the governing Conservative Party tried to shrug off the U.K.'s economic turmoil as the growing pains of a thriving, self-reliant post-Brexit economy.

Sunak touted the U.K.s low unemployment rate of under 5% as a sign it is putting pandemic disruptions behind it. He said now that Britain has left the European Union, it will embrace the agility, flexibility and freedom provided by Brexit to create a dynamic, high-tech economy.

For some, Sunaks optimism in a speech to a conference of the ruling Conservatives struck a jarring note. It came as the combination of coronavirus and Brexit is sending shock waves through the British economy, with soldiers drafted in to ease fuel shortages and businesses scrambling to get enough staff.

Since the Tories' last in-person conference two years ago, the party won a huge parliamentary majority under Prime Minister Boris Johnson. But Britain also has been hammered by a coronavirus pandemic that has left more than 136,000 people in the U.K. dead, Europe's highest death toll after Russia. The country also left the EU last year, ending its seamless economic integration with a trading bloc of almost half a billion people.

In recent weeks, a shortage of truck drivers, due to factors including pandemic disruptions and a post-Brexit exodus of European workers, has snarled British supply chains, leaving some empty shelves in supermarkets, fast-food chains without chicken and gas pumps without fuel. Scores of soldiers began driving fuel tankers Monday after more than a week of gas shortages.

A major factor is post-Brexit immigration rules that mean EU citizens can no longer live and work visa-free in Britain. As well as trucking, staff shortages are hitting hotels, bars and restaurants, sectors that once relied heavily on European workers. Some hotels in the northern England city of Manchester, where thousands of Conservatives are meeting through Wednesday, have sent guests emails apologizing for being short-staffed.

Agriculture has also been hard hit, with abattoirs saying they are critically short of butchers. Angry farmers, some dressed as pigs, greeted Conservative delegates outside the conference center on Monday, demanding that the government Save our bacon.

Pigs are backed up, said Vicky Scott, a pig farmer from east Yorkshire in northern England. There are farmers who are having to make decisions about which pigs to kill on the farm, which is barbaric. (They go) to landfill, a complete waste. Its disgraceful.

Like businesses across the economy, British farmers are urging the government to let in more EU workers to ease the shortages.

Johnson has done that for truckers and poultry farmers, offering 5,000 emergency visas to foreign hauliers and 5,500 visas to chicken and turkey workers. But the government has resisted easing restrictions on what it calls low-skilled workers, saying British people should be trained to take the jobs.

The way forward for our country is not to just pull the big lever marked uncontrolled immigration, Johnson said Sunday. He said Britain was ending a broken model of the U.K. economy that relied on low wages and low skills and chronic low productivity.

Some economists point out that more immigration does not automatically mean lower wages. And, while the government insists wages are rising, many Conservatives are worried about the impact on voters pocketbooks of a new tax hike to fund health and social care, rising energy bills from a global surge in natural gas prices and a cut to welfare benefits for millions that kicks in this week.

Government opponents staged protests in Manchester ahead of the four-day conference, which is being held under tight security. Police said five people were arrested Monday after a former Conservative leader, Iain Duncan Smith, was harangued and hit with a traffic cone outside the convention center.

Police also were called to the conference hotel after a guest speaker said she was assaulted by a Conservative delegate. There were no arrests, but the party said the man accused of the assault had been expelled from the conference and suspended.

Sunak, whose Treasury has spent billions in the last 18 months supporting workers and businesses as coronavirus lockdowns put the economy on ice, hinted more tax hikes might be coming, saying Britain needed to cut its ballooning debt.

Yes, I want tax cuts," he said. "But in order to do that, our public finances must be put back on a sustainable footing.

To fuel growth, he promised programs to help young people get skilled jobs and more investment to make Britain a tech and science superpower.

Sunak's approach got a mixed reception.

David Willetts, president of economic think-tank the Resolution Foundation, said Sunak was "right that in the long run, it is innovation and investment that will boost productivity and pay.

But farmers like Scott say those long-term plans are little help to them now.

I agree we should upskill our workforce in the U.K., she said. But we should have done it months ago, years ago.

___

Follow all AP stories on post-Brexit developments at https://apnews.com/hub/Brexit.
BANGKOK (AP)  A U.S. journalist who has spent more than four months in pretrial detention in military-ruled Myanmar has been charged with a second criminal offense, his lawyer said Monday, while authorities refused to disclose the reason behind his arrest.

Danny Fenster, managing editor of the Yangon-based online news and business magazine Frontier Myanmar, has been charged under the Unlawful Associations Act, said lawyer Than Zaw Aung.

Fenster, 37, already was charged with incitement, also known as sedition, for allegedly spreading false or inflammatory information. That offense is punishable by up to three years in prison.

It is not known what Fenster is accused of doing that led to his arrest on May 24 as he was preparing to board a flight at Yangon International Airport to go to the Detroit area in the United States to see his family.

Asked last week about the reason for Fensters arrest, government spokesman Maj.-Gen. Zaw Min Tun responded: As for journalists, if they do only journalists work, there is no reason to arrest them. Danny Fenster did more than just what a journalist does.

Fenster is one of about 100 journalists detained since the militarys February takeover. More than half have been released but independent media are generally forced to operate underground or from outside the country.

Than Zaw Aung said a judge announced the new charge Monday during Fenster's hearing at the court in Yangons Insein Prison, where he is being held. He said he was not given further details.

The new charge says anyone who is "a member of an unlawful association, or takes part in meetings of any such association, or contributes or receives or solicits any contribution for the purpose of any such association, or in any way assists the operations of any such association may be punished by two to three years' imprisonment and a fine.

Fensters lawyer and colleagues have denied any wrongdoing on his part. The U.S. government and international media organizations have called for his release. Fenster is one of a handful of foreign journalists who have been arrested and the only one still in custody.

The charge of unlawful associations has largely been used against ethnic rebel groups seeking greater autonomy. Sympathizers and even journalists contacting such groups have also been prosecuted.

The list of designated groups includes popular opposition organizations representing the ousted elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The National Unity Government and the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), or parliament, were declared illegal after their formation following the armys seizure of power in February.

Suu Kyis government while in power also carried out prosecutions under the law, including against journalists.

The Unlawful Associations Act has an unsavory history of being used to prosecute political activists and journalists reporting on opposition groups, Linda Lakhdhir, Asia legal adviser for Human Rights Watch, said in March. By making the CRPH illegal, Myanmars junta is raising the stakes not only for its members, but for anyone supporting, writing on, or even just contacting the group.

Lawyer Than Zaw Aung said Fenster, whom he saw in the Insein Prison court, was in good health despite his previous assertions that he feared he was infected with COVID-19. The lawyer said he filed a bail application for Fenster in the incitement case.
MUNSTER, Ind. (AP)  A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to review its decision that a dairy farm built in northwest Indiana to house more than 4,000 cows is not subject to the Clean Water Act.

Environmental groups and several residents sued Texas-based Natural Prairie Dairy and the Army Corps of Engineers in 2019, accusing Natural Prairie Dairy of violating the Clean Water Act when it installed drainage tiles and filled ditches during the Newton County farm's construction.

The Hoosier Environmental Council and the Indiana Audubon Society said Natural Prairie Dairy did not contact the Army Corps to determine if the land and ditches were subject to federal regulation until nearly two years after the work was completed.

Kim Ferraro, senior staff attorney for the Hoosier Environmental Council, said the Army Corps summarily concluded that the land is not a wetland, and the ditches were not jurisdictional waters  effectively legitimizing Natural Prairies activities after-the-fact and eliminating the need for Natural Prairie to obtain a federal permit to build" the concentrated animal-feeding operation.

In last week's ruling, U.S. District Judge Damon Leichty in South Bend found that the Army Corps administrative jurisdictional determination was arbitrary and capricious, because it was not supported by facts in the administrative record.

He sent back the decision to the Army Corps for further consideration, The (Northwest Indiana) Times reported.

The dairy farm, which includes 4,350 cows and a 9-acre waste lagoon, was built in the Kankakee River basin in one of the most ecologically sensitive and historically significant areas in the state," the environmental groups said.

That area was part of the Grand Kankakee Marsh, which once stretched nearly a million acres across parts of northern Indiana and Illinois before it was drained for agriculture. The vanished wetland is often referred to as the Everglades of the North.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Around New York City in the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, as an eerie quiet settled over ground zero, South Asian and Arab men started vanishing.

Soon, more than 1,000 were arrested in sweeps across the metropolitan area and nationwide.

Most were charged only with overstaying visas and deported back to their home countries. But before that happened, many were held in detention for months, with little outside contact, especially with their families. Others would live with a different anxiety, forced to sign what was effectively a Muslim registry with no idea what might follow.

While the remembrances and memorials of 9/11s 20th anniversary slip into the past, hundreds of Muslim men and their families face difficult 20-year anniversaries of their own.

___

In the attacks aftermath, the immigrant advocacy group Desis Rising Up and Moving, or DRUM, anticipated a rise in hate crimes and harassment. So it set up a hotline and placed flyers primarily in South Asian neighborhoods.

We started getting calls from women saying, Last night, law enforcement busted into our apartment and took my husband and my brother. Children calling us and saying, My father left for work four days ago and he hasnt come home, and we havent heard anything, executive director Fahd Ahmed recalls.

There were people who were just disappearing from our communities, he says, and nobody knew what was happening to them or where they were going.

They were, according to the 9/11 Commission report, arrested as special interest detainees. Immigration hearings were closed, detainee communication was limited and bond was denied until the detainees were cleared of terrorist connections. Identities were kept secret.

A review conducted by the Justice Departments Office of the Inspector General said the Justice Departments hold until cleared policy meant a significant percentage of the detainees stayed for months despite immigration officials questioning the legality of the prolonged detentions and even though there were no indications they were connected to terrorism. Compounding that, they faced a pattern of physical and verbal abuse particularly at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York. Conditions were, the report said, unduly harsh.

Detainees were swept up a myriad of ways, the report said. Three were stopped on a traffic violation and found with school drafting plans. Their boss explained they were working on a construction project and were supposed to have them, but authorities arrested and detained them anyway. Another was arrested because he seemed too anxious to buy a car.

Although many of those who were held had come into the U.S. illegally or overstayed visas, it was unlikely that most if not all would have been pursued if not for the attack investigation, the report said.

The blunderbuss approach of rounding up Muslims and presuming there would be terrorists among them was pure racism and xenophobia in operation, says Rachel Meeropol, senior staff attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, who filed a lawsuit in 2002 on behalf of several of the men and continues to fight for additional plaintiffs to this day.

It shouldnt be a surprise to anyone that it didnt work, Meeropol says. Of course, what it did do was destroy whole communities and not to mention the lives of all the individuals rounded up.

___

Yasser Ebrahim, an original plaintiff in the lawsuit, was at a shop in his neighborhood and noticed people intently watching the television. I saw these images on the screen, and for a moment there was like some kind of a movie or something, he recalls. I couldnt believe what I was seeing.

He had been in the United States since 1992 and enjoyed his life. I loved everything about America, he said by Zoom from Egypt. As a teenager, even before arriving, he idolized American popular culture. The food, the music, the movies, everything was so attractive, and everybody wanted to go to America, he said.

After learning the hijackers were Muslims, he reassured his mother in a phone call that he and his brother would be fine. In other countries there might be problems, but America was a place of legal rights, where evidence mattered, he said. We still had faith in the system in America at that point," he said.

That ended on Sept. 30, 2001. Several federal agents showed up at his door in Brooklyn. He says he had requested an extension of his tourist visa, but agents told him they had no record of it. He thought the matter would be straightened out quickly, or he would be deported. He stayed in custody until the following June.

For three months, his family did not know what happened to him or his brother. A neighbor ended that mystery, explaining they had been taken into custody. Even then there was little outside communication. And some officers at the facility in Brooklyn were physically and verbally abusive. It was months before he saw his brother. There was the general feeling that were going to be here forever, he says.

Ebrahims brother was deported first. When Ebrahim was finally allowed to leave, he was given clothes several sizes too big, including pants he had to physically hold up with his hands.

He was placed on a plane without knowing the destination. On board, he realized no one looked Egyptian. The plane went to Greece and after spending a night in the custody of Greek authorities, he boarded a flight for Cairo, with no money. Another Egyptian, deported from Texas, gave him $20 to eat and contact his family to let them know he was home.

In 2009 he and four others, including his brother, reached a $1.26 million settlement on the lawsuit. Though not an apology, he says, we thought it was sort of admitting that something wrong was done to us.

___

Umair Anser was 14 as he and math classmates watched on a classroom television as the twin towers fell.

You cant accept something like that happening on American soil, Anser says. You know youre safe in the U.S.  but then something like that happens and you really question how safe you are, especially when youre that young.

His father, Anser Mehmood, left Pakistan in 1988 during a time of political turmoil, looking toward the safety and promise of the United States. He worked as a truck driver and sometimes drove a taxi. The family settled in Bayonne, New Jersey.

Anser came home from school on Oct. 3, 2001, and found his mom nearly catatonic, his home ransacked and the familys computers and his father gone. His uncle had disappeared in a similar way days earlier.

We didnt know where our father was for the next three months, Anser says.

He was, it turned out, in solitary confinement  in the special housing unit of Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, the same place chronicled by the inspector general, Anser says. When the family did see him again, they encountered a different man. He was so weak  I couldnt see my dad like that, Anser says. It was very emotional for me.

For the remainder of his detention, he wrote letters, talked about the difficulties and told his family to be strong and support their mother. He told us, Allah is there for us. He will be the provider; everything will be OK. I think he had to give us hope so we didnt lose hope.

Anser and his brothers attended protests with their mother organized by DRUM. But with their father gone, there was no financial support for the family. The sons were bullied at school; neighbors harassed them at home. It became untenable and the family returned to Pakistan, leaving Mehmood behind, in jail.

My mother was extremely heartbroken to leave the country because she knew the amount of effort and the amount of work that my father put in to make everything happen for us, Anser says.

Mehmood eventually pleaded guilty to working with an unauthorized Social Security number and was sentenced to eight months in prison. He was transferred to Passaic County Jail before finally being deported on May 10, 2002, to Pakistan, where the family now lives.

___

For Sultana Jahangir, there was a different anxiety.

It was one that intensified when her husband, Mohammed Alam, was called to register through the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, or NSEERS, a government policy introduced in 2002 as part of the war on terror. Some would call it a Muslim registry.

It required all noncitizen males 16 or older from 25 countries to register with the U.S. government. The only country among them that did not have an Arab or Muslim majority was North Korea.

Jahangir, now living in Toronto with her husband and family, came to the U.S. in 1994 from Bangladesh to visit her sister. During their stay, her sisters husband died unexpectedly, and Jahangir and her husband stayed to help.

We worked like crazy  many days, I wouldnt see the sun," she says. "The evening comes, I dont see the sunset. My life was stuck in a dark place.

They worked quietly this way for years  Jahangir at a cafe, Alam driving taxis  all the while trying to apply for political asylum.

In the days that followed the Sept. 11 attacks, Jahangirs co-worker called her Bin Ladens sister. Shortly after, her manager let her go. She struggled to find work after that. Nobody, she says, wanted to hire a Muslim then.

Meanwhile, she and her family would hear reports of Muslim men being taken off the street by law enforcement without explanation, and they worried for Alam.

When Alam responded to the call to register for NSEERS, he was held for hours and then released with a deportation order. Paranoid about what might follow, he retreated from public life. It didnt feel safe for him to go out and drive the taxi, Jahangir says. We discouraged him from going out. He stayed home with the children and I had to take on more responsibility.

Ultimately, the family was able to avoid being deported to Bangladesh by arranging a visa for Canada.

In the end, NSEERS resulted in no terrorism convictions. It was suspended in 2011 and completely dissolved in 2016. It did, however, land more than 13,000 boys and men in deportation proceedings.

___

Two decades later, no terror attack in the U.S. has come close to the scale of Sept. 11. The most serious threats have come from lone wolves. The most public of threats have been from Americans, not foreigners.

Joshua Dratel, co-chair of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers national security committee, says the detentions are a foundational piece of something troubling  an acceptance of more invasive law enforcement for protection from terrorists.

Searches at airports, in buildings, even on subways  these are things that were once exceptional and extraordinary, and now the exception has become the norm. I think that has put us in a position of vulnerability to more of it and a more malevolent version of it.

Shirin Sinnar, a law professor at Stanford University, says the extreme measures taken after 9/11 have been normalized to the point that now we dont even talk about them. Theyve just become part of the kinds of surveillance and deprivation of rights and profiling that we expect to see.

The positive, she says: More people seem willing to challenge that.

To a degree, that is true. Attitudes have trended toward people being more wary of the governments counterterrorism efforts. But a recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that a majority of Americans, 54%, still believe it is sometimes necessary to sacrifice rights and freedom to fight terrorism.

The long-running lawsuit in which additional plaintiffs were added after the first five were awarded a settlement has continued. It has ricocheted through the court system with mixed results. In 2017 the Supreme Court threw out parts of the suit but allowed one part to stand, sending it back to lower courts. Last month, a federal district court judge in Brooklyn dismissed the lawsuit.

Meeropol says the initial settlement was proof that the plaintiffs had a compelling case. She says no decision has been made yet on an appeal. That leaves a striking fact: Nearly 20 years later, no individuals have been held accountable for how the detainees were treated, she says.

For the families marking an ignominious anniversary, the question is basic and broad: What is different?

Jahangir runs a South Asian womens rights organization in Toronto, continuing her fight against systemic racism and discrimination. She misses seeing her sister but has no desire to step foot in America again. I look at my 10 years in the U.S. as a black hole for me, (and) after 9/11, I found out that this is not a place to live.

Ebrahim, now 49 and owner of a company that provides coding and other outsource services to other companies, shared Jahangirs anger after he returned to Egypt. But two decades later, he would consider bringing his teenage son to New York City to see sights and sounds that he found charming.

His advice for U.S. citizens: Never twist the Constitution again. What makes America America is the freedom, and the Constitution.

___

Nasir reported from New York City.
LAS VEGAS (AP)  A weekend protest of coronavirus vaccine and mask mandates drew several hundred people to the Las Vegas Strip, where marchers with signs and T-shirts declaring freedom of choice wound along sidewalks and into some resorts.

One man was arrested and two people were issued citations, Las Vegas police Officer Larry Hadfield said Monday, one on a disorderly conduct charge and one accused of misdemeanor battery.

The man who was arrested on misdemeanor obstruction and resisting a police officer charges was released without bond pending a Dec. 2 court appearance, according to jail and court records.

No damage or injuries were reported.

The Sunday evening demonstration was against mask and vaccine mandates that Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak enacted in the fight to stem the spread of COVID-19 and its more contagious delta variant.

Sisolak reimposed mask requirements July 30 for most indoor spaces and last month ordered mandatory vaccinations for state employees including those working with at-risk populations in state-operated detention and health care facilities.

Employees at all Nevada public universities and colleges are required to get COVID-19 vaccinations by Dec. 1 or face dismissal under a new policy adopted by the state System of Higher Education.

Brock Abbe, who moved to Las Vegas from New York in January, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Sunday he didnt think anyone should lose their job based on their vaccine status.

Review-Journal photos showed peaceful demonstrators on sidewalks, in the Bellagio resort and at the Miracle Mile Shops retail mall at Planet Hollywood.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given full approval to Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine, opening the way for universities, companies and local governments to make vaccinations mandatory.

Moderna has also applied to the FDA for full approval of its vaccine. Johnson & Johnson, maker of the third vaccine in the U.S., said it hopes to apply to the FDA later this year.

Drugmaker Merck said Friday it has developed an experimental pill that reduces hospitalizations and deaths of people who contract COVID-19.
OLD LYME  All Lyme-Old Lyme schools but the high school are in need of upgrades and renovations, according to a facilities study conducted by QA+M Architecture.

The Center School, Lyme School, Mile Creek School and Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School were last renovated between 2001 and 2003. The high school was built within the last 10 years. The average lifespan for a public building, especially a school, is about 20 years, according to QA+M.

Not only do we want to address the existing conditions and what the deficiencies are, we also wanted to look at education as its impacted by those existing conditions, firm principal Rusty Malik said while presenting the findings to the Board of Education Thursday night, according to the videorecording.

Malik said that the big issues with the buildings surveyed were HVAC systems, accessibility and code compliance, safety and security, acoustics, classroom finishes, millwork, technology, parking and site safety, parity of facilities, 21st-century and future-ready learning environments and use of space.

Some goals set forth are to increase energy efficiency of the buildings, bring more fresh air in, and enhance comfort levels within buildings, Malik said. The energy efficiency portion is a major goal, as the school board voted to convert all Region 18 buildings to 100 percent clean energy by 2030.

Malik shared an example of accessibility issues schools are facing, noting that at Center School, a door at the main entrance used for security was at one time accessible. He pointed out that the school needs to boost both its accessibility and security.

Since the school facilities were last updated in the early 2000s, Connecticut has introduced acoustical standards, Malik said. Mechanical equipment must be so quiet that they can be barely heard, he said. As equipment gets older, it gets louder, and, both due to age and standards, needs to be replaced, he added.

During past renovations and projects, not everything was completed. In some cases, objects such as windows were not replaced. This study looked at all the interiors of the four schools and all their technology to determine next steps, he said.

Center School

The first building discussed was Center School. Q+AM is recommending that rooftop equipment and hot water heaters be replaced, and the system converted to include central air conditioning and new controls.

Malik also said the schools Lyme Street entrance drive should be modified, parking should be added in the rear of the building, accessibility improved, and minor repairs made.

Building features that need work include replacing finishes and millwork, replacing or renovating rear portable spaces, accessibility, code and minor repairs, renovating rooms for appropriate uses, security updates, and adding toilet rooms per program needs.

Lyme Consolidated School

Lyme Consolidated needs the same mechanical system work, along with the replacement of exhaust fans, boilers, the heating system and eliminating unit ventilators, Malik said. A fire suppression system also made the list, and, if it is not required by code, still may be added.

The firm is also recommending repairing or replacing aging exterior components, upgrading technology and security, replacing finishes and doing accessibility, code and other repairs.

Mile Creek School

Mile Creek needs the same mechanical system work as the other facilities, including the fire suppression system. Lighting in the school also needs to be upgraded from fluorescent to LED, something that was has not been completed, Malik said. The public address system also needs to be upgraded and tied into the phones.

The grounds need the least work  minor repairs, such as replacing aging exterior components, updating security and accessibility, and replacing finishes.

Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School

Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School also needs the same mechanical system works as all the other schools, and needs accessibility, code and security updates. Recommendations include modifying the schools Lyme Street entrance and replacing pavement and markings around the school.

Next steps

A meeting will be held to determine what the district wants the buildings to look, feel and function like in the future. Then Q+AM would develop educational specifications for the projects, and the Board of Education would determine if it wants to submit the specifications to the state Department of Education and Office of School Construction Grants.

After this, a meeting with the state would occur to discuss options for the project. The state will determine what it does and doesnt approve, something important when it comes to reimbursement, Malik said.

The 2021 reimbursement rate for the school district is 36.43 percent, and changes yearly. Not everything is eligible for reimbursement.

Two options will be evaluated  maintaining or updating the existing facility, which will limit state reimbursement, or new renovations and alternations, which would allow for reimbursement of 36.43 percent of the eligible cost.

christine.derosa@hearstmediact.com
RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP)  The trial of a man accused in a fatal shooting in Rapid City more than three years ago continues Monday in Pennington County.

Ronald Black Cloud, 17, is being tried in adult court for second-degree murder in the death of 43-year-old Nathan Graham.

The victim's widow, Shayla Colbert-Brown, testified Friday that her husband picked her up from work the night of Aug. 17, 2018 and they returned home to watch a movie, then heard a knock on their door.

Colbert-Graham said she thought the person at the door was her son, Kyliel Colbert, assuming that he may have locked himself out of the house. But, she said instead her son's acquaintances were standing outside, Ross Johnson and Black Cloud. Johnson had not been allowed on the property after he was caught drinking with Colbert, the Rapid City Journal reported.

Graham came to the door and told the two to leave, then got into a shoving match with Johnson who lifted his shirt to reveal a gun, Colbert-Graham testified. Johnson gave the gun to Black Cloud and told him to shoot Graham. The victim was shot in the head and declared brain dead the following day.

Johnson was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June after he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and being an accessory to the second-degree murder.
"Black Hawk Down," which tells the story of the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, has become one of the most beloved war movies. We spoke with both Eric Bana, the actor who plays Hoot, and Mark Bowden, the journalist who wrote the original book, and learned a few things about the movie and the real-life events that inspired it.

1. America didn't see it coming.

"Black Hawk Down" (Sony)

In 1993, the Soviet Union had collapsed, and the United States won the first Gulf War in a cakewalk. The country (rightfully) saw itself as the world's last great military power, and there was a sense of invulnerability that was shattered by the events in Mogadishu.

2. Mohamed Farrah Aidid wasn't on our radar.

Mohamed Farah Aidid (YouTube)

Aidid was strictly a local warlord, a guy with zero international ambitions. He was wreaking chaos in Somalia, and removing him was supposed to be a simple operation. Imagine this: What if American troops were sent into Los Angeles at the height of the crack epidemic to remove Freeway Rick Ross and were pinned down in the crossfire of a Bloods vs. Crips gang war?

Aidid was just a local thug who managed to find the vulnerability in the vaunted Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter.

3. "Black Hawk Down" was the first war movie released after 9/11.

"Black Hawk Down" (Sony)

It was also the last war movie made before the start of the War on Terror. As Eric Bana pointed out in our interview, the military gave the filmmakers access to gear in a way that would have been impossible just a few months later.

As Americans were processing the fallout of an attack on American soil, "Black Hawk Down" showed U.S. troops regrouping and showing strength and heroism after another surprise attack.

4. Eric Bana helped write Hoot's climactic speech.

Eric Bana stars as "Hoot" in "Black Hawk Down." (Sony)

As Hoot prepares to head back into battle near the end of the movie, he tells Eversmann (played by Josh Hartnett) just why he chose to serve.

Bana told us that the script originally had him say that he did it because of "duty, honor, and love of country" but, after weeks of filming, that line no longer felt right to him. With encouragement from director Ridley Scott and screenwriter Ken Nolan, Bana tried out the version of the speech that we've all come to love, the one that made this movie a classic.

5. Mark Bowden almost didn't get to tell the story of "Black Hawk Down."

Bowden was a reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer when he started researching the story on his own dime. He only got to devote the time to finish it because The New York Times made him a job offer, and Bowden negotiated the freedom to do the story as a condition of staying with the Inquirer.

Even then, almost every publisher in New York turned him down, and he got only a small advance when Grove/Atlantic decided to take a chance on the book. Once the newspaper started running his articles, readers were electrified, movie producer Jerry Bruckheimer bought the film rights, and the book became a huge best-seller.

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WASHINGTON  The Biden administration is releasing nearly $200 million in military aid to Egypt but will hold back millions more over human rights concerns, the State Department said Tuesday in an announcement quickly criticized by rights groups and some lawmakers.

The department said Secretary of State Antony Blinken would withhold $130 million of $300 million in military financing for Egypt due to the concerns. It said he would allow the rest go through to preserve U.S.-Egypt security engagement that Washington believes is critical to Mideast stability.

The $170 million to be released will be sent using authority the administration has to waive human rights conditions placed on the assistance by Congress. Under federal law, the secretary of state must certify that Egypt is meeting those conditions or issue a waiver for the aid to be sent.

The department said Blinken was unable to certify compliance but added that continued engagement with Egypt is a critical U.S. national security interest. The decision was criticized by human rights groups and some lawmakers as an indication the Biden administration is reneging on pledges to put human rights at the center of its foreign policy.

Because we are continuing to discuss our serious concerns about human rights in Egypt, the secretary of state will not certify that the government of Egypt is taking sustained and effective steps related to the legislative human rights-related conditions" on the aid, the department said.

Nonetheless it said the administration would provide the majority of the assistance for border security, nonproliferation and counterterrorism programs while withholding the remaining $130 million. The withheld amount will be released if the government of Egypt affirmatively addresses specific human-rights related conditions, the department said.

Anticipating criticism of the announcement, which was previewed to some lawmakers on Monday, the State Department said the administration's human rights concerns about Egypt, which remains in the throes of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisis harsh crackdown on dissent, are significant.

But, it said maintaining positive ties with Sisis government is important and noted that new Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had visited Egypt just on Monday. Egypt is one of just two Arab nations to have gone to war with Israel to have signed a peace treaty with the Jewish state.

Our bilateral relationship with Egypt will be stronger, and Americas interests will be better served, through continued U.S. engagement to advance our national security interests, including addressing our human rights concerns, the State Department said.

Under Sissi, Egypt has seen the heaviest crackdown on dissent in its modern history. Officials have targeted not only Islamist political opponents but also pro-democracy activists, journalists and online critics. Lengthy pretrial detentions have become a common practice to keep the governments critics behind bars for as long as possible.

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a strong supporter of President Joe Biden who has repeatedly called for human rights conditions to be attached and enforced for foreign aid, lamented the decision. He called it a big missed opportunity to stand up strongly and unequivocally for human rights.

Continuing our security relationship with Egypt, with only minor changes, sends the wrong message, Murphy said in a statement. This was a chance to send a strong message about Americas commitment to human rights and democracy, with little cost to our security, and we fell short.

A group of 19 human rights groups, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Freedom House, also decried the decision, calling it a terrible blow to its stated commitment to human rights and to the rule of law.

This administration has repeatedly vowed to put human rights at the center of its foreign policy and specifically its relationship with Egypt, they said. This decision, however, is a betrayal of these commitments.
ATHENS, Greece (AP)  Against the backdrop of the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, the top U.S. military officer is meeting in Greece with NATO counterparts this weekend, hoping to forge more basing, intelligence sharing and other agreements to prevent terrorist groups from regrouping and threatening America and the region.

Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the meeting of NATO defense chiefs will focus in part on the way ahead now that all alliance troops have pulled out of Afghanistan and the Taliban are in control.

Milley, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and American intelligence officials have warned that al-Qaida or the Islamic State group could regenerate in Afghanistan and pose a threat to the United States in one year to two years.

The U.S. military has said it can conduct counterterrorism surveillance and, if necessary, strikes in Afghanistan from over the horizon  meaning from assets based in other countries. But they have made it clear that surveillance flights from bases in the Persian Gulf are long and provide limited time in the air over Afghanistan. So they have talked about seeking basing agreements, overflight rights and increased intelligence-sharing with nations closer to Afghanistan, including some neighbors.

In recent months, however, U.S. officials have reported little progress in any negotiations on any basing agreements.

Milly said he will be talking to his military counterparts to see what the possibilities are and then bring them back to U.S. defense and diplomatic leaders for additional discussions. Then, he said, officials will see what they can turn into a reality.

We are going to talk about over the horizon capabilities and where allies think appropriate that they can make a contribution , were certainly open to that, Milley told reporters traveling with him to Greece. There are opportunities where alliance members may choose to work closely with us on these over the horizon capabilities.

He said allies are concerned about counterterrorism and how to ensure an effective defense against terrorists.

At the opening of the morning session Saturday, NATO military leaders made it clear that avoiding a resurgence of terrorism in Afghanistan is a key goal for the alliance.

Greece's defense minister, Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos, told the group that allies must ensure the safety and security of at-risk Afghans who remain in the country and must prevent a humanitarian crisis.

More than 120,000 Americans, Afghans and others were flown out of Afghanistan during the chaotic and massive airlift operation in the days after Kabul, the capital, fell to the Taliban. But thousands more were left behind, with many fleeing to the borders and seeking help from aid agencies and ad hoc groups struggling to find ways out of the country.

Human rights and refugee groups are urging the European Union to step up its help for people trying to flee Afghanistan. The EUs asylum agency said that asylum applications by Afghans numbered 7,300 in July, before the government fell, and that was a 21% increase over June. Almost 1,200 were unaccompanied minors. More than half of asylum applications by Afghans in Europe are rejected.

We are going through a period of significant challenges in Afghanistan, said Panagiotopoulos, adding that a key risk is the migration flow toward Europe. He said allies need to provide support to those countries in the immediate neighborhood and must avoid a migration crisis at our borders.
The Air Force last week stood up its first permanent F-35A Lightning II squadron in Europe, a first for the U.S. and a major step toward stationing the advanced fighter jets on the continent.

The 495th Fighter Squadron, which is part of the 48th Fighter Wing and also known as the Valkyries, was reactivated at the RAF Lakenheath base in England on Friday morning, the Air Force said in a press release.

The squadron's first F-35s are scheduled to arrive at the base later this year, and it will eventually have 27 of the fighter jets and about 60 personnel, including pilots. The creation of the squadron marks the first time U.S. F-35s have permanently been stationed in Europe.

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"There has been a great deal of work done to get us this far, but there's a lot more that needs to be done prior to getting jets this winter," Lt. Col. Ian McLaughlin, the squadron's new commander, said at the reactivation ceremony.

Lakenheath has hosted F-35s in the past, and its existing infrastructure was a key reason the base was chosen in 2015 to house the squadron. The Air Force's ties with the U.K.'s Royal Air Force, which also flies the F-35, and opportunities for combined training at Lakenheath were other reasons it was chosen.

The Air Force has been preparing Lakenheath for the arrival of the F-35s. The Air Force Civil Engineer Center is upgrading the base's airfield, as well as adding a new F-35A flight simulator, hangars and storage facilities.

The service also plans to add a second F-35 squadron to Lakenheath in the future.

Since 2017, F-35s have periodically deployed to European bases on a temporary basis for missions such as exercises or deterrence operations. F-35s and airmen from Hill Air Force Base in Utah flew to Mont-de-Marsan Air Base in France in May for exercises with NATO allies such as Atlantic Trident 21.

And in 2019, a squadron of F-35s from Hill deployed to Aviano Air Base in Italy as part of a theater security package under the European Deterrence Initiative, which is an effort to bolster U.S. relationships on the continent to counter Russian aggression.

It also comes at a time when NATO is eyeing a greater presence of the fifth-generation fighter. Air Force Gen. Tod Wolters, who heads U.S. European Command and is NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe, said earlier this year that the coalition will steadily build up its F-35 capability throughout this decade.

The U.S. and other NATO allies could have 450 F-35s stationed in Europe by 2030, Wolters predicted during a June Atlantic Council discussion. Allies such as the U.K., Norway, Italy, the Netherlands and Denmark have at least 49 F-35s, and dozens more are on the way.

This marks the first time the 495th has been operational since it was inactivated in 1991.

-- Stephen Losey can be reached at stephen.losey@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @StephenLosey.

Related: There Will Be 450 F-35s in Europe by 2030, NATO Commander Says
FORT BENNING, Ga.  During 23 years in the Army  much of it in the elite ranks of the 75th Ranger Regiment  Jeff Struecker saw combat in Panama, Iraq and Afghanistan, but nothing compared to the infamous October 1993 gunfight through the streets of Mogadishu.

Id been to combat a couple of times before Somalia and a lot of times after, but Ive never seen heroism, Ive never seen fighting, like we saw among these guys on the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia, said Struecker, one of 18 veterans who fought in the battle officially known as Operation Gothic Serpent and awarded the Silver Star for valor Friday. Nothing came close to Somalia. I mean not even close.

The Silver Stars presented in a ceremony at Fort Benning, Ga., for those who were serving 28 years ago in the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment were upgrades of Bronze Star medals with combat V for valor that the Rangers were presented months after returning from Somalia. The Battle of Mogadishu, in which 18 American soldiers were killed, was later made famous by the best-selling book Black Hawk Down and the Hollywood movie of the same name.

For Struecker, the honor was bittersweet and unexpected. He said others who fought in that battle were more deserving of the Silver Star, the nations third highest honor for battlefield heroics. He said he was particularly proud to see some of the other troops from that fight honored.

Its truly an honor, said Sean Watson, who was a sergeant first class at the time and would go on to retire as a command sergeant major in 2015. I believe that being an awardee is actually a representation of everybody in the position I was in. They earned it  theyre the ones who really earned this.

Related: 5 Things You Didnt Know About Black Hawk Down

The Army announced in July, 60 veterans of the battle  mostly Army special operators, many of whom have not been named publicly  would receive award upgrades for their actions in the fight. That includes 58 Silver Stars and two Distinguished Flying Crosses. Award ceremonies are planned for other units in the future, Army officials said Friday.

The fight

The battle broke out as American special operators  primarily Rangers, and other elite soldiers from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment and 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, or Delta Force  set out to capture two top lieutenants of warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid, who was responsible for attacks on U.N. peacekeeping troops working to end civil war in Somalia.

The assault force was inserted into the city by helicopter, and another element was to follow that group into the city in Humvees, according to the Army, which said many elements of the battle remain classified despite the enormous attention it has received publicly.

Struecker, then a staff sergeant with the Rangers 3rd Battalion, was leading a squad assigned as the ground reaction force to support the helicopter-borne troops entering Aidids stronghold in the Bakara Market. The helicopter assault force went in first to search for the warlords henchmen and the ground force came into the market later, according to the Armys description of the battle.

It was the Rangers seventh mission in Somalia, but this one, Struecker said, was in broad daylight in a well-defended part of Mogadishu with an unknown number of enemy fighters.

This is the middle of bad-guy territory, and were kicking down the door and walking into the heart of it, he said. You know as soon as you get in its going to be a fight, and it's going to be a fight the whole time that you're in there, and it's going to be a fight until you get out. All of us knew that. What I don't think anyone anticipated was the sheer numbers.

That U.S. force of less than 200 operators would find itself in a fight with some 10,000 to 12,000 well-armed Somali fighters. After the assault force nabbed Aidids aides, militants attacked the troops and shot down two MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters with rocket-propelled grenades  something the Army had never seen before, officials said.

It set off a frantic mission to secure the locations of the downed Black Hawks and recover wounded and fallen Americans. U.S. special operators would spend 18 hours running and fighting their way through the citys streets, according to the Army.

Struecker, 52, led his ground unit through the city three times as the battle raged. Their Humvees were like bullet magnets, he recalled. His Silver Star citation credits him with repeatedly sacrificing his own personal safety to help other soldiers.

We go back and forth, in and out of the city all night long, Struecker said. The Humvees are the biggest, easiest target to hit out there, and so were losing guys right around me.

Dominick Pilla, a sergeant and machine gunner, was just behind Struecker when he was shot and killed  the first American death in the battle. His Silver Star citation credits Pilla with suppressing numerous enemy positions while under fire himself. His heroics, it added, saved the lives of all the other Rangers with him at the time. He was 21.

Meanwhile, Watson  a platoon sergeant at the time who had entered the fight by helicopter  moved his force toward one of the downed Black Hawks, fighting their way through the city. His Silver Star citation credited him with securing the crash site from enemy forces until reinforcements came the next morning.

It was brutal work, Watson said. But he was awed by the actions of the Rangers and others around him.

It was something to behold from my position to watch what was going on  the way they performed, he said. It was beyond compare.

The fall out

Three of the four pilots in the downed Black Hawks would die, and the fourth was captured and later released.

Two Delta Force operators  Master Sgt. Gary Gordon and Sgt. 1st Class Randy Shughart  were posthumously awarded Medals of Honor for their actions to secure the site of one of the Black Hawk crashes to recover survivors. Both of those operators were among the U.S. dead in the fight.

In all, 73 U.S. troops were injured in the battle, according to the Army. The botched mission left a long-lasting mark on American foreign policy after television news broadcast images of an U.S. soldiers body dragged through Mogadishus streets as locals cheered.

The defense secretary at the time, Les Aspin, would resign his post in wake of the battle. Ultimately, former President Bill Clinton elected to end the mission to capture Aidid and he removed all U.S. forces from Somalia by March 1994. U.S. troops would not return to the country until 2007.

The book Black Hawk Down would be published in 1999, receiving high praise for its detailed retelling of the battle. In 2002, the movie brought the Battle of Mogadishu onto American screens in the months after the first U.S. troops invaded Afghanistan in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Struecker, who would commission as an officer after 10 years of enlisted service and serve as a chaplain until retiring as a major in 2011, described the book as an extraordinarily accurate" accounting of the battle. The movie, he said, followed the book closely, though it took some liberties  blending several events into a single incident or multiple characters into a single individual.

What you see in the movie 'Black Hawk Down' basically happened, he said. It's about as accurate as you're going to get. It's not a documentary, but for a major motion picture, I don't know how you can make it much more accurate.

The difference, for those of us who were there, right, is the violence, Struecker said. "It isn't even close to the real thing  the level of violence, of course.

Watson said he rarely talks about his time in Mogadishu, and he does not think about it very often, either. Later, he deployed to Afghanistan three times and saw combat there. But, like Struecker, he said the fighting there was incomparable to Mogadishu.

I felt very fortunate that I never was in the extreme position that I was in Somalia ever again, he said. Was I prepared for it? Yes, I was. I was very prepared. And it was a lot. And, thankfully, [fighting] never, ever occurred at that level again for me.

At A Glance:

The Army on Friday presented 18 Silver Star medals to former members of the Fort Benning, Ga.-based 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment for their actions in Mogadishu, Somalia, on Oct. 3 and Oct. 4, 1993. The awards were upgrades of the Bronze Star medals with combat V device for valor that the Rangers received shortly after the battle  among the most infamous fights in recent decades in which U.S. troops fought.

Those receiving the Silver Star on Friday were (ranks at the time of the battle):

Sgt. Alan Barton

Sgt. John C. Belman

Staff Sgt. Kenneth P. Boorn

Spc. James M. Cavaco*

Spc. John M. Collett

Staff Sgt. Michael Collins

Sgt. James C. Joyce*

Pfc. Brad M. Paulsen

2nd Lt. Larry D. Perino

Spc. Robert R. Phipps II

Sgt. Dominick M. Pilla*

Sgt. Randall J. Ramaglia Jr.

Pfc. John D. Stanfield

Cpt. Michael Steele

Spc. Richard Strous

Staff Sgt. Jeffrey D. Struecker

Spc. Joseph F. Thomas

Sgt. 1st Class Sean T. Watson

*Denotes posthumous award to Rangers who died of wounds suffered in Somalia
A Navy officer has become a cooperating witness in a case of alleged bribery involving a contractor and port services in Bahrain resembling the years-long "Fat Leonard" scandal that snared senior sailors and others, according to unsealed court documents.

Military investigators allege that Frank Rafaraci, the chief executive of Multinational Logistics Services, or MLS, defrauded the Navy out of at least $50 million by inflating invoices for ship services between 2011 and 2018, the documents show.

Agents from the Defense Criminal Investigative Service told a U.S. district court that the scheme was made possible by not only a web of shell companies and coded emails but also bribes to the unnamed Navy official, who the documents say is still an officer in the service.

Rafaraci was arrested in Malta after an international manhunt, and the Justice Department is working to extradite him, according to The Washington Post, which first reported the case. He faces four charges in federal court that include bribery, and conspiracy charges for fraud and money laundering, court records show.

The U.S. Navy and other federal agencies have awarded about $1.3 billion in contracts to MLS for port services since 2010.

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The sailor in the case pleaded guilty to "one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and is cooperating with the government's investigation in the hope of obtaining favorable consideration regarding a potential sentence," according to the documents.

The sailor was a Marine Liaison Officer for the Navy in Manama, Bahrain, starting in 2006 until the present, with a several-year break when it appears the unnamed individual went to work for the U.S. Army.

The arrest warrant alleges that Rafaraci paid the sailor two bribes -- one in 2015 and another in 2018.

The first bribe occurred during a meeting at the Diplomat Hotel in Manama when Rafaraci handed over an envelope filled with $20,000 in cash and told the sailor "that he would be in touch, and to 'keep up the good work,'" court documents allege.

Three years later, Rafaraci met that sailor again, this time at a Miami hotel, and gave him an envelope with $13,500, according to the arrest warrant.

The sailor in question has since been arrested and pleaded guilty in June to a bribery charge in the U.S. District Court in Washington, agreeing to become a cooperating witness for the government, the court documents say. The person's identity and his criminal case file, however, remain under seal.

Details cited in Rafaraci's arrest warrant show the scale of the alleged fraud. One example in the court document shows that when MLS was engaged to provide docking services to the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson during a port call in Manama in January 2015, the company billed the Navy for $231,114.

"MLS accounting records, however, reflect that MLS paid only $12,686 to the Manama port authority," the warrant reads.

Another port visit by the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt to Manama in January 2018 cost the Navy $325,276, but MLS paid only $177,922 to port officials, according to court documents.

When asked for comment, spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Andrew DeGarmo told Military.com in an email that the Navy "expects all individuals and companies with whom it conducts business to act with the highest degree of integrity and to have effective standards of conduct" but that the service would not comment further during an ongoing investigation.

The case bears some similarities to the massive and far-reaching corruption scandal involving Leonard Glenn "Fat Leonard" Francis, the owner of Glenn Defense Marine Asia, a defense contracting business.

That ordeal, which goes back more than a decade, has resulted in bribery and fraud charges against several high-ranking officers and senior enlisted sailors, as well as letters of reprimand and censures.

Francis amassed a network of at least 200 Navy personnel that ranged from admirals to Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents to help bilk the service out of at least $35 million from inflated and fraudulent contracts for services while in port. As of 2019, nearly three dozen people had been charged in connection with the affair and 22 pleaded guilty.

Leonard himself pleaded guilty in federal court in January 2015 and began cooperating with investigators, but he has not yet been sentenced.

-- Konstantin Toropin can be reached at konstantin.toropin@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @ktoropin.

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A Black Navy veteran in Virginia who has been subjected to months of racist harassment by a neighbor took to the national airwaves to share her ordeal, which police say they can do little to remedy.

Jannique Martinez and her family moved to Jessamine Court in Virginia Beach five years ago, she told CNNs Don Lemon. Soon afterward, the neighbor began blaring recordings to antagonize other residents, and has now stepped it up by playing monkey noises and racial slurs whenever her family steps out of the house.

Martinez said her youngest son, who is 7, is terrified of the man. In addition to more typical bad-neighbor behavior like yelling at kids who step on his lawn, he has the cul-de-sacs residents under the eye of eight security cameras, she said.

As soon as she opens her front door, his lights flash or the speakers boom with the racist recordings. The noises were tailored to taunt whichever neighbor triggers the sensors after such innocuous behavior as pulling into their own driveway, she said.

The Virginia Beach Police Department has responded to several calls related to nuisance and loud music on the block, but it has no authority to intervene, it tweeted this week.

As appalling and offensive as the neighbors behaviors are, the city attorney and Virginia magistrates have separately determined that the actions reported thus far did not rise to the level that Virginia law defines as criminal behavior, police said Thursday.

Martinezs only direct interaction with the neighbor over the noise came about a year ago, when she was working from home and her children were starting virtual classes during the pandemic, she said. She asked him to turn down music that was blasting from his open window at 8 a.m.

His response to me was, Well, let me call the police to make sure Im in good standing with the law to play my music, she said on CNN. I was floored, because how about you just be a neighborly person, a parent, just anything to understand where Im coming from, and he was adamant that he was doing nothing wrong.

After her repeated complaints about the loud music, he set the sounds that played for her family to include screeching monkeys and skits using the N-word.

So racist its disgusting, she told the local NBC station WAVY News last week. I dont even know how else to explain it.

When she called police to complain about the noise, officers would come and tell him to turn his music down, and he would, she said on CNN.

But when she called about the escalation with the racist language and noises, she was told the department could do nothing and she was advised to go to a local magistrate.

When she did, she felt dismissed, she told Lemon, adding that he said that it was a figure of speech or freedom of speech or a phrase.

A civil court judge was a little more compassionate but told her that if the neighbor did not threaten the family or pose bodily harm, the courts could do nothing about it.

Leaving the courtroom, I felt deflated, she said. I just felt like I couldnt protect my kids. I couldnt imagine living like this in my own home. It really broke my heart.

Martinez served in the military for 11 years, and her husband is also a veteran, she told WAVY.

We fought for this country, but yet theres no one to fight for us, she said.

Several neighborhood residents gathered last week to protest, holding signs that said love thy neighbor and spread love not hate, WAVY reported.

Police pledged to help the family within the limits of the law.

The Martinezes plan to stand their ground. When asked on CNN if theyd considered moving, Jannique Martinez didnt hesitate: Absolutely not.
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.  Some residents, business owners and environmentalists questioned whether authorities reacted quickly enough to contain one of the largest oil spills in recent California history, caused by a suspected leak in an underwater pipeline that fouled the sands of famed Huntington Beach and could keep the beaches there closed for weeks or longer.

Booms were deployed on the ocean surface Sunday to try to contain the oil while divers sought to determine where and why the leak occurred. On land, there was a race to find animals harmed by the oil and to keep the spill from harming any more sensitive marshland.

People who live and work in the area said they noticed an oil sheen and a heavy petroleum smell Friday evening.

But it wasn't until Saturday afternoon that the Coast Guard said an oil slick had been spotted and a unified command established to respond. And it took until Saturday night for the company that operates the pipeline believed responsible for the leak to shut down operations.

Rick Torgerson, owner of Blue Star Yacht Charter said on Friday evening people were emailing, and the neighbors were asking, do you smell that? By Saturday morning boats were returning to the marina with their hulls covered in oil, he said.

Garry Brown, president of the environmental group Orange County Coastkeeper, decried a lack of initial coordination among the Coast Guard and local officials in dealing with the spreading oil slick.

By the time it comes to the beach, its done tremendous damage. Our frustration is, it could have been averted if there was a quick response, said Brown, who lives in Huntington Beach.

An estimated 126,000 gallons (572,807 liters) of heavy crude leaked into the water and some washed up on the shores of Orange County. The city and state beaches at Huntington Beach were closed, and late Sunday the city of Laguna Beach, just to the south, said its beaches also were shuttered.

Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr said the beaches of the community nicknamed Surf City could remain closed for weeks or even months. The oil created a miles-wide sheen in the ocean and washed ashore in sticky black globules.

In a year that has been filled with incredibly challenging issues this oil spill constitutes one of the most devastating situations that our community has dealt with in decades, Carr said. We are doing everything in our power to protect the health and safety of our residents, our visitors and our natural habitats.

Some birds and fish were caught in the muck and died, Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said. But by early afternoon Saturday the U.S. Coast Guard said so far there was just one ruddy duck that was covered in oil and receiving veterinary care. Other reports of oiled wildlife are being investigated, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

The state Department of Fish and Wildlife warned of a threat to public health from consuming any fish and shellfish taken from near the shoreline from Huntington Beach about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south to Dana Point.

The leaking pipeline connects to an oil production platform named Elly, which in turn is connected by a walkway to a drilling platform named Ellen. Those two platforms and another nearby platform are in federal waters and owned by Amplify Energy Corp.

Elly began operating in 1980 in an area called the Beta Field. Oil pulled from beneath the ocean and processed by Elly is taken by the pipeline to Long Beach.

Amplify CEO Martyn Willsher said the pipeline and three platforms were shut down Saturday night. The 17.5-mile (28.16-kilometer) pipeline that is 80 to 100 feet (24 to 30 meters) below the surface was suctioned out so no more oil would spill while the location of the leak was being investigated.

Crews led by the Coast Guard-deployed skimmers laid some 3,700 feet (1,128 meters) of floating barriers known as booms to try to stop more oil from seeping into areas including Talbert Marsh, a 25-acre (10-hectare) wetland officials said.

A petroleum stench permeated the air throughout the area. You get the taste in the mouth just from the vapors in the air, Foley said.

The oil will likely continue to wash up on the shore for several days and could affect Newport Beach and other nearby communities, officials said.

The closure included all of Huntington Beach, from the citys north edge about 6 miles (9.6 kilometers) south to the Santa Ana River jetty. The shutdown came amid summerlike weather that would have brought big crowds to the wide strand for volleyball, swimming and surfing. Yellow caution tape was strung between lifeguard towers to keep people away.

Officials canceled the final day of the annual Pacific Air Show that typically draws tens of thousands of spectators to the city of about 200,000 residents south of Los Angeles. The show featured flyovers by the U.S. Navy Blue Angels and the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds.

Huntington Beach resident David Rapchun said hes worried about the impact of the spill on the beaches where he grew up as well as the local economy.

For the amount of oil these things produce I dont think its worth the risk, Rapchun said. He questioned whether drilling for oil was a wise idea along some of Southern Californias most scenic beaches, noting the loss of the final day of the air show could deal a blow to the local economy.

We need oil, but theres always a question: Do we need it there? he said.

The spill comes three decades after a massive oil leak hit the same stretch of Orange County coast. On Feb. 7, 1990, the oil tanker American Trader ran over its anchor off Huntington Beach, spilling nearly 417,000 gallons (1.6 million liters) of crude. Fish and about 3,400 birds were killed.

In 2015, a ruptured pipeline north of Santa Barbara sent 143,000 gallons (541,313 liters) of crude oil gushing onto Refugio State Beach.

The area affected by the latest spill is home to threatened and endangered species, including a plump shorebird called the snowy plover, the California least tern and humpback whales.

The coastal areas off of Southern California are just really rich for wildlife, a key biodiversity hot spot, said Miyoko Sakashita, director of the Center for Biological Diversitys oceans program.

The effects of an oil spill are wide-ranging, environmentalists said. Birds that get oil on their feathers cant fly, cant clean themselves and cant monitor their own temperatures, Sakashita said. Whales, dolphins and other sea creatures can have trouble breathing or die after swimming through oil or breathing in toxic fumes, she said.

The oil spill just shows how dirty and dangerous oil drilling is and oil that gets into the water. Its impossible to clean it up so it ends up washing up on our beaches and people come into contact with it and wildlife comes in contact with it, she said. It has long-lasting effects on the breeding and reproduction of animals."

___

Associated Press reporters Felicia Fonseca in Phoenix and Julie Walker in New York contributed.
KABUL, Afghanistan  Taliban forces raided an Islamic State affiliate's hideout in the Afghan capital and killed several insurgents, hours after a deadly bombing outside a mosque in Kabul, the Taliban said Monday.

Sunday's bombing outside the Eid Gah mosque killed five civilians, and while no claim of responsibility was made, suspicion quickly fell on the Islamic State group, which has ramped up attacks against its Taliban enemy since their takeover of Kabul in mid-August.

Taliban officials had gathered at the mosque to mourn the passing of Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid's mother.

In a statement Monday, Mujahid said Taliban forces raided an Islamic State operations center in the northern Kabul neighborhood of Khair Khana. It did not say how many ISIS insurgents killed or whether any Taliban were injured in the operation.

Sunday's bombing was the deadliest attack since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan with the chaotic departure of the last U.S. troops on Aug. 31.

The Islamic State group had claimed responsibility for the horrific bombing on Aug. 26 that killed more than 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. military personnel outside the Kabul airport, where thousands of people were trying to reach the airport to escape Taliban rule.

The Islamic State reemerged in Afghanistan in 2020 after being weakened by a heavy U.S. bombing campaign directed against them in the eastern part of the country in 2019. They were blamed for a horrific attack in 2020 on a maternity hospital that killed 24 people, including newborn babies. Earlier this year, they were held responsible for a brutal attack on a school in Afghanistan's mostly Shiite neighborhood of Dasht-e-Barchi that killed more than 80 students.

Sunday's bombing underscores the growing challenges for the Taliban. The group carried out frequent attacks during their 20-year insurgency, but are now faced with trying to contain rival militants who have used the same methods. And they are doing so during a national economic meltdown without the massive foreign aid given to U.S.-backed government they toppled.
As Americans pause to remember 9/11, the anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and the crash of flight Flight 93 in Pennsylvania, haunting images of destruction, courage and sacrifice likely leap to mind. We can remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when we learned of the attacks.

But even decades later, rarely-seen photos can still offer a unique perspective on the moments of that day that have shaped who we have become as a nation and military in the aftermath of the terror attacks.

The Navy Archives recently released a collection of photos taken by first responders and military members in the hours after American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon at about 9:37 a.m. on September 11, blazing a path of destruction that ended in an alley between the C and B Rings.

Related: Check Out These 20 Rarely Seen 9/11 Photos

These vivid images offer a special glimpse into the events in and around the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

Fire crews work to put out the flames minutes after the attack, 11 September 2001. (U.S. Marine Corps/Cpl Jason Ingersoll)

The Pentagon seen from across VA-27 S Washington Blvd a few minutes after American Airlines Flight 77 hit the building, 11 September 2001. (U.S. Marine Corps/ Cpl Jason Ingersoll)

Pentagon employees gather in the South Parking Lot following the attack, 11 September 2001. (Courtesy of Alexandria Fire Department)

The first fire teams begin working to put out the flames in the minutes after the attack, 11 September 2001. (U.S. Navy/JO1 Mark Faram)

Pentagon employees along with members of the Crane Group gather in the South Parking Lot area following the attack, 11 September 2001. (Courtesy/Crane Group)

Fire crews work to put out the flames minutes after the attack, 11 September 2001. (U.S. Marine Corps/Cpl Jason Ingersoll)

Emergency response teams begin preparing triage areas outside of the Pentagon following the attack, 11 September 2001. (Courtesy of Alexandria Fire Department)

Pentagon employees walk away from the building along VA-27 S Washington Blvd following the attack, 11 September 2001. (U.S. Navy/JO1 Mark Faram)

Pentagon employees walk away from the building along VA-27 S Washington Blvd following the attack, 11 September 2001. (U.S. Navy/JO1 Mark Faram)

Fire crews work to put out the flames following the collapse of the E Ring, 11 September 2001. (Courtesy of Alexandria Fire Department)

An emergency response helicopter lands on Columbia Pike outside of the Pentagon, 11 September 2001. (Courtesy of Alexandria Fire Department)

Fire crews work to put out the flames after the E Ring of the Pentagon collapsed, 11 September 2001. (U.S. Marine Corps/Cpl. Jason Ingersoll)

Offices in the E Ring of the Pentagon are left exposed following the collapse of the neighboring section, 11 September 2001. (U.S. Marine Corps/Cpl Jason Ingersoll)

A triage team prepares to work, 11 September 2001. (U.S. Air Force/TSgt Louis Briscese)

Fire crews work to put out the flames following the collapse of the E Ring, 11 September 2001. (U.S. Air Force/TSgt Louis Briscese)

Fire crews work to put out the flames following the collapse of the E Ring, 11 September 2001. (U.S. Air Force/TSgt Louis Briscese)

Pentagon employees, law enforcement, and emergency response teams gather on VA-110 near the North Parking Lot, 11 September 2001. (U.S. Air Force/TSgt Louis Briscese)

Flames escape from E Ring office windows near the heliport control tower, 11 September 2001. (U.S. Air Force/TSgt Louis Briscese)

A firefighter works to put out fires burning in the E Ring of the Pentagon near the heliport control tower, 11 September 2001. (U.S. Ai Force/TSgt Louis Briscese)

Triage teams prepare to work, 11 September 2001. (U.S. Air Force/TSgt Louis Briscese)

Fire crews work while standing amidst piles of debris, 11 September 2001. (U.S. Air Force/TSgt Louis Briscese)

FBI personnel and emergency response teams work near the collapsed E Ring, 11 September 2001. (U.S. Air Force/TSgt Louis Briscese)

U.S. Army personnel take a break from duty at the Pentagon, 12 September 2001. (U.S. Air Force/TSgt Louis Briscese)

Volunteers and FBI personnel perform evidence sweeps near the point of impact, 11 September 2001. (U.S. Air Force/TSgt Louis Briscese)

Navy personnel return to their offices on the fourth deck of the E Ring to retrieve materials and view the point of collapse, 27 September 2001. (U.S. Navy/CDR George Navas)

This story was corrected to remove a typo regarding the flight number of the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania.

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The American Red Cross has been helping military families deal with the challenges of military life for more than 140 years. One of the ways the Red Cross helps military families specifically is through emergency communications, which they began facilitating in 1905.

In 2020, the Red Cross sent 344,000 emergency communications messages, said Yolanda Gainwell, a programs division director for the Red Cross. In addition, 200,000 critical community service cases were created, she said.

Gainwell said emergency communications messages deal with life expectancy, a birth, a death or an impending death.

"I would say the number one and number two [reasons] are death and illness," she said.

Critical community service cases are when a veteran -- retiree or not -- has an immediate urgent need. This could be food insecurity, pending homelessness or an extenuating medical circumstance, and the Red Cross connects them to another aid society or provides community referrals.

Why Send a Red Cross Message?

With social media and cell phones, it seems like sending a Red Cross message may not be important. However, Gainwell said it only makes them more important; in fact, they've seen an increase in the number of messages sent.

"We are congressionally chartered to provide emergency communication messages for all of our branches of services, 24 hours a day, seven days a week," she said. "The commands rely on us to verify every emergency that we get."

Army spouse Samantha Hamilton sent two emergency messages, both announcing the birth of a child. The first time, she sent one after an emergency cesarean section, and her husband, who was in the field, didn't get the message until three days later.

Hamilton said she learned how to send a message through a spouses' meeting where they made a deployment binder, which included the information about the Red Cross.

"The second time I sent it with my second child. It was much easier to get through and he was notified within the day to give me a call," Hamilton said. "It was much easier, because I was informed and prepared from the last time I did it."

How Do You Send an Emergency Message?

Gainwell says the most important thing military spouses and family members need to know about sending emergency messages through the Red Cross is that preparedness is key.

"Anyone with the pertinent information can initiate a Red Cross message," she said. "So that could be my neighbor. That could be my family member. That could be my girlfriend in another state that understands the situation and what's going on."

Gainwell suggests downloading the Hero Care app and loading in the key pieces of information, which includes the service member's first and last name; rank; the branch of service; the last four digits of their Social Security number, if you have it; the date of birth; and the military unit to which they're assigned. If the service member is deployed, include the rear-detachment contact information as well.

Gainwell also said that if you think something warrants an emergency message, contact the Red Cross, either online, on the phone or in person.

"If you ever have a question or a doubt in your mind, call us. If it is truly not an emergency, we will let you know," she said.

For those who don't want to use the app, emergency communications specialists are available 24/7 at 1-877-272-7337. Gainwell suggests putting the Red Cross information somewhere that a friend or family member could find easily, in case they need to make the phone call.

What Happens When You Contact the Red Cross?

After the information is received at the Hero Care Center, the verification process begins. This may mean contacting medical authorities, the funeral home or the police department. Gainwell says this is why providing as much information to the Red Cross is helpful, as it shortens the verification process timelines.

The goal is to get it verified as quickly as possible, but if key information -- such as the service member's unit -- is missing, it will take longer.

"We have access to DoD directories, where we can find that information, but that's going to take time. So the more information the client can share with us when they initially contact us, [the better]," Gainwell said.

Once the emergency message is verified, it is sent to the service member's command. Gainwell was very clear that any decision made after the message is sent is by the command. Sometimes that means nothing happens.

"Emergency leave, even with a Red Cross message, it's at the discretion of command," Gainwell said.

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How to use the mindat.org media viewer

Click/touch this help panel to close it.

Welcome to the mindat.org media viewer. Here is a quick guide to some of the options available to you. Different controls are available depending on the type of media being shown (photo, video, animation, 3d image)

Controls - all media types

Zoom in and out of media using your mousewheel or with a two-finger 'resize' action on a touch device.

Use the mouse or your finger to drag the image or the view area of the image around the screen.

< and > at the left and right hand side of the screen move forwards and backwards for the other images associated with the media you selected. Usually this is used for previous/next photo in a gallery, in an article or in search results. Keyboard shortcuts: use shift + the left and right arrow keys.

< and > in the bottom center are used for switching between the photos of the same specimen. Keyboard shortcuts: use the left and right arrow keys.

> in the bottom center, raises the information box giving details and further options for the media, < at the top of this box then hides it. Keyboard shortcuts: use the up and down arrow keys.

? opens this help window. Keyboard shortcuts: use the H key or the ? key.

Other keyboard shortcuts:

1 Fit image to screen 2 Fill screen with image 5 Display at full resolution < Make background darker > Make background lighter space Hide/dim titles and buttons

Scalebar

If the field of view (FOV) is specified for the photo, the scalebar appears in the left bottom corner of the viewer. The scalebar is draggable and resizeable. Drag the right edge to resize it. Double click will reset the scalebar to it's default size and position. If the scalebar is in default position, double click will make it circular.

Controls - Video

Video files have a standard set of video controls: - Reset to start, - Skip back, - Play, - Pause, - Skip forwards. Keyboard shortcuts: You can stop/start video play with the P key.

Controls - Animation (Spin Rotation)

Animation (usually 360 degree spin rotations) have their own controls: - enable spin mode. Note that while images are loading this option will not be available but will be automatically activated when the animation has loaded. Once active you can spin the image/change the animation by moving your mouse or finger on the image left/right or by pressing the [ or ] keys.

The button switches to move mode so that you can use your mouse/fingers to move the image around the screen as with other media types.

The button, or the P key will start playing the animation directly, you can interrupt this by using the mouse or finger on the image to regain manual movement control.

Controls - 3D Stereoscopic images

If a stereoscopic 3D image is opened in the viewer, the 3D button appears in the bottom right corner giving access to "3D settings" menu. The 3D images can be viewed in several ways:

- without any special equipment using cross-eyed or parallel-eyed method

- with stereoscope

- with anaglyph glasses.

- on a suitable 3D TV or monitor (passive 3D system)

For details about 3D refer to: Mindat manuals: Mindat Media Viewer: 3D

To enable/disable 3D stereo display of a compatible stereo pair image press the 3 key. If the left/right images are reversed on your display (this often happens in full-screen mode) press the 4 key to reverse them.

Controls - photo comparison mode

If a photo with activated comparison mode is opened in the viewer, the button appears in the bottom right corner giving access to "Comparison mode settings" menu.

Several layouts are supported: slider and side by-side comparison with up to 6 photos shown synchronously on the screen. On each of the compared photos a view selector is placed, e.g.: Longwave UV . It shows the name of currently selected view and allows to select a view for each placeholder.

Summary of all keyboard shortcuts
Rockies outfielder Charlie Blackmon isnt making any plans to leave Denver, as Blackmon told reporters (including Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post) that he is going to exercise the player options on his contract for both 2022 and 2023. An official decision about Blackmons 2022 plans will come soon after the World Series, and Blackmon doesnt have to make a decision on his 2023 option until after next season, should he change his mind in the next 12 months.

In exercising his 2022 option, Blackmon will earn $21MM next season, and there wasnt much doubt he would choose to prefer that big guaranteed payday over a visit to the free agent market. Blackmon entered Game 162 hitting .269/.349/.409 with 13 home runs over 581 plate appearances, his least-productive full season by OPS (.759), OPS+ (95) and wRC+ (94) since becoming a regular with Colorado in 2013.

At age 35 and coming off that lackluster platform season, there wasnt much chance Blackmon could find anything on the open market that would top the minimum $31MM in guaranteed money he has coming his way in 2022-23. Blackmons original extension with the Rockies has already earned him $63MM, and after the $21MM salary for 2022, he stands to make at least $10MM via the 2023 player option. That 2023 figure could end up being worth as much as $18MM should Blackmon hit various escalators based on plate appearances and MVP votes.

The Rockies inked Blackmon to that extension in April 2018, keeping Blackmon in the fold before his scheduled trip to free agency in the 2018-19 offseason. Over the extensions three guaranteed years, Blackmon has contributed a .295/.357/.489 slash line and 51 homers over 1462 PA, but most of that damage came in 2019.

His decline over the last two seasons doesnt bode well for Colorados chances of getting an acceptable return on that $21MM investment for next year. Blackmons hard-contact numbers have dropped, and opposing teams have been heavily deploying shifts to neutralize the left-handed hitting Blackmon over the last two seasons.
As the Competition Commission of India investigates Google and now Apple for anti-competitive conduct in the app store market, SAKSHAM MALIK explains what the issues at stake are and potential implications for app developers and consumers.

Last month, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) ordered an investigation against tech behemoth Apple for alleged anti-competitive conduct in the app store market. The primary allegation against the California-based corporate giant is that it forces app developers to exclusively use its payment gateway for in-app purchases and imposes commissions as high as 30% on these.

For the longest time, Apple has successfully evaded CCIs recent crackdown on big tech. However, those within the antitrust community had anticipated the investigation on the basis of national and international developments.

In November last year, the Commission had initiated an investigation against Google for similar anti-competitive conduct in its Play Store.

One of the major reasons behind the increased scrutiny of app store markets in India is the rising pressure from the start-up ecosystem. In October 2020 , 15 entrepreneurs and owners of some of the most influential start-ups in the country, including Paytm and Bharat Matrimony, met the CCI to discuss Googles policy of mandating the use of its payment systems and charging high commission fees. This meeting was preceded by another one between the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and 40 startup founders on similar issues.

Giving in to this increased pressure, in November 2020, the CCI invited comments from 17 start-up founders to collate their views on Googles dominant position and its alleged abuse in the app store market.

Under scrutiny abroad

Google and Apple have also been on the radar of policymakers and competition authorities in other jurisdictions. In July this year, the European Commission came to a preliminary view that Apple distorted competition in the music streaming market by mandating the use of its purchase mechanism for music streaming app developers like Spotify.

The introduction of bipartisan bills in the US Senate aimed at barring app stores from requiring developers to use their payment systems in August 2021 was followed by the South Korean parliament approving a bill on the same subject later that month. In September, a court ruling in the United States issued a permanent injunction stopping Apple from preventing app developers from directing users to alternative payment methods.

What the issue is

Antitrust scrutiny of app store markets revolves around the allegation that payment policies of Google and Apple specifically provide that app developers charging for apps and downloads from these entities app stores must also use their payment system. Further, app developers are charged exorbitant commission fees, which can go as high as 30%. If app developers do not agree to these terms, they are not allowed to access the app store.

This condition allegedly restricts the choice of developers and consumers to preferred payment methods. These conditions allow Google and Apple to abuse their respective dominant positions in the market for apps facilitating payments, violating Section 4 of the Competition Act, 2002 .

Google and Apples conduct has been defended primarily on the grounds of safety, convenience and the necessity to protect IPR (intellectual property rights) investments. The tech giants maintain that allowing users to utilize other sources of payment puts them at risk of fraud as third-party sources are likely to have weaker standards of safety. A close payment ecosystem allows users to feel secure which enables them to spend more freely, consequently benefiting app developers while simultaneously facilitating ease of convenience.

Regulatory conditions and consumer preferences in India

This assumption has limited credibility in the Indian context. Security of digital payments in India is tightly regulated, with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) publishing stringent guidelines for various stakeholders including mobile wallets payment aggregators/gateways and UPI interface

Notably, the recent Payment Aggregators and Payment Gateways Guidelines prohibited automatic recurring payments. Further, the National Payments Corporation of India closely monitors the largely popular UPI payments system.

Moreover, there is nothing to establish that Indian consumers find other payment methods inconvenient or unsafe. A recent study by the company Human Factors International observed that the mobile wallet system, one of the most important mediums left out of app stores, is used more than cash, cards and net banking for various payments. In the study, PayTM had emerged as the most trusted mobile wallet in the country.

It has also been argued that excluding other payment options and charging commission is necessary to ensure that app stores are able to protect the investments they make to constantly innovate. Big tech giants claim that restricting them from exclusively charging commissions is essentially punishing them for success and discouraging innovation in the market.

However, despite benefiting financially from the Indian market, neither Apple nor Google have made significant strides in terms of innovation in the app store ecosystems.

Implications of market dominance for app developers and consumers

On the other hand, unfair conditions on the part of app store owners have direct and adverse financial implications for app developers and consumers.

Mandatorily paying a commission of 1530% and being unable to choose other payment systems with potentially lower commissions directly increases costs for app developers, which is often passed on to consumers. If the app developer does not pass on the costs and instead decides to bear it, it has to divert an increased chunk of its resources to subsidize the app for consumers, which will affect its financial ability to innovate.

In either case, consumers and app developers stand to lose. Currently, service fees for paid purchases on Google Play is 15% for the first $1M (USD) of earnings each year and 30% of earnings in excess of $1M each year. Apple still charges a commission fees of 30% of earnings.

While the exact extent of the impact of commission fees on revenue models of Indian app developers will require economic analysis, the broad trend is discouraging.

As of August 2021 , only 3% of Indian apps were paid, and only 6% of them made use of in-app purchases. 40% of Indian app developers rely on ads for monetization, which is higher than the global average of 38%. A lower commission fees, brought about by allowing alternative payment methods on the app store, may make it financially feasible for more app developers to rely on direct payments; consequently, this would save the consumers from incessant targeted ads.

App store owners are able to engage in this conduct because of the market significance of their app stores and operating systems. Simply put, mobile manufacturers are subject to agreements that mandate the pre-installation of Google or Apples app stores if they want to use their operating systems.

Further, in order to list their apps on app stores, developers have to agree to unfair payment conditions. If they dont, they lose meaningful access to the iOS and android markets.

Various developers across the world have attempted to establish alternative routes like direct downloads from their websites. However, there is a consensus that the convenience provided by app stores is important for consumers. Outside of China, Google and Apple control more than 95% of the market share of the app store market. Since android is unavailable in China, various app stores like MyApp and Huawei App Market have been launched there.

In order to promote competition in the app store market, it is necessary to ensure that Google and Apple do not leverage their dominance in the operating systems market to strengthen their position in the app store markets.

The impact of the conduct of app store owners on app developers and consumers is visible and significant. It is expected that with South Korea and the United States now showing the way, competition authorities and policymakers in India will follow suit. Ensuring effective competition in the concerned markets will be crucial to safeguard the interests of app developers and consumers.

(Saksham Malik is a Delhi-based lawyer and consultant working in the areas of competition law, technology laws, and human rights laws. The views expressed are personal.)
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday superseded boards of Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd (SIFL) and Srei Equipment Finance Ltd (SEFL) due to governance concerns and defaults. RBI has appointed Rajneesh Sharma, former chief general manager (CGM) of Bank of Baroda as an administrator of these companies.

In a release, the central bank says, "The Reserve Bank also intends to shortly initiate the process of resolution of the two non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy (Insolvency and Liquidation Proceedings of Financial Service Providers and Application to Adjudicating Authority) Rules, 2019 and would also apply to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for appointing the administrator as the insolvency resolution professional (IRP)."

Srei group, however, expressed shock at the RBI decision. In a statement, a spokesperson of the Srei group says, "We are shocked by the RBI's move as banks have been regularly appropriating funds from the escrow account they have controlled since November 2020. Moreover, we have not received any communications from banks on any defaults. We are also surprised because the NCLT order for all creditors is still in process. There is also an order for "no coercive measures" by the creditors and regulators. We will take all necessary steps as advised by our lawyers in this regard."



However, he says, "we had submitted a proposal to pay the full amount to banks under a scheme filed under Section 230 of the Companies Act 2013 in October 2020. However, they have neither accepted the scheme nor proposed a payment schedule acceptable to them."



According to the spokesperson, banks have been controlling the company's cash flow since November 2020. "Almost Rs3,000 crore has been collected by them, out of which they have been disbursing to themselves. Over the last three decades, Srei has already paid Rs30,000 crore as interest and another Rs20,000 crore principal to banks. There has never been any delay in loan servicing by Srei in the past before COVID-19 ravaged the country," he added.

Earlier in June this year, Srei revealed in regulatory filings that RBI had detected under-provisioning against stress and had (in FY19-20) flagged off lending to probable related and connected parties by the SREI group.

RBI had initiated an audit of its books in November 2020 and identified certain borrowers with loans worth Rs8,576 crore as 'probable' connected or related parties. This corresponds to almost 30% of the group's total loan assets amounting to Rs28,794 crore. ( Read: Srei Quarterly Earnings Disclosure: RBI Flagged Under-Provisioning, Probable Related-Party Lending

For FY2020-21, the company had made expected credit loss provisions worth Rs4,685 crore. As per the RBI's directions, over and above this, the company made additional provisions worth Rs4,475 crore under the income recognition and asset classification norms.

CARE Ratings and Acuite Ratings & Research have already downgraded the company's rating. Since it is a known stressed account, many lenders were getting ready to have it appropriately recognised (downgrading to the non-performing assetNPAor stressed pool) or provisioning.

It may be recalled that a lot of retail investors, including many senior citizens, have invested in non-convertible debentures (NCDs) of Srei (both group companies) in the hope of earning better interest on their investment corpus. Since Srei has been a non-deposit taking non-banking finance company (NBFC), the retail investors' investments are restricted to only non-convertible debentures (NCDs).

Last December, the Kolkata bench of NCLT had issued an order stating that any non-payment by Srei will not be recognised as an event of default till a scheme of arrangement is signed by all creditors. However, last month, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) set aside the order passed by NCLT.

The company crisis has also led to mass-level exits, across all levels, from the company since December 2020. Nearly 250 employees of the company are learnt to have left the company so far, mainly because the lenders' consortium to Srei has taken control of the company's cash-flows.

Last month, SIFL announced sold shares in its subsidiary company Trinity Alternative Investment Managers Ltd (TAIML) to Backbay Investment Managers Pvt Ltd (BIMPL) for about Rs1.33 crore, or Rs166.23 per equity share.
October 04, 2021 U.S. Government Provides Another Trove Of Offshore Papers Of People It Dislikes So there is another 'leak' of papers about tax saving offshore investments by people the U.S. doesn't like: The secret deals and hidden assets of some of the worlds richest and most powerful people have been revealed in the biggest trove of leaked offshore data in history. Branded the Pandora papers, the cache includes 11.9m files from companies hired by wealthy clients to create offshore structures and trusts in tax havens such as Panama, Dubai, Monaco, Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.

...

The files were leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in Washington. It shared access to the leaked data with select media partners including the Guardian, BBC Panorama, Le Monde and the Washington Post. More than 600 journalists have sifted through the files as part of a massive global investigation. The Pandora papers represent the latest  and largest in terms of data volume  in a series of major leaks of financial data that have convulsed the offshore world since 2013. The papers are said to come from a total of 14 offshore providers of legal vehicles which allow people to hide their money and to avoid tax payments. There is however not hint of how these papers were acquired. Who had gained access to them? How? What was the chain of custody for these? Are these the complete files of those 14 companies or were some removed before publishing? Which ones? Are all of those files authenticated and verified or is some forged material mixed in between them? Unfortunately none of the reports about the 'leak' I have read has covered those questions. But there are at least two big hints that these 'Pandora papers' are, like the 'Panama papers' five years ago, and the 'Paradise papers' four years ago, part of an 'information operation' by the usual 5-eyes suspects, the secret services of the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. On June 3 2021 the White House held a Background Press Call by Senior Administration Officials on the Fight Against Corruption: SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Great. Thanks. Hi, everybody. Good morning and thanks for joining the call today. I am really excited to be speaking to all of you about the Presidents anti-corruption agenda in advance of our rollout later this morning of a national security study memorandum  thats NSSM  on the fight against corruption.

...

So, with the memorandum, President Biden is formally establishing the fight against corruption as a core national security interest of the United States. That was a commitment that he made during the campaign. And his pledge was that he would prioritize anti-corruption efforts and bring additional transparency to the U.S. and international financial systems. The memorandum in question is available here. It is quite short. Under "Section 2: Strategy" there are several interesting points: (c) Hold accountable corrupt individuals, transnational criminal organizations, and their facilitators, including by, and where appropriate, identifying, freezing, and recovering stolen assets through increased information sharing and intelligence collection and analysis, criminal or civil enforcement actions, advisories, and sanctions or other authorities, and, where possible and appropriate, returning recovered assets for the benefit of the citizens harmed by corruption;

...

(e) Support and strengthen the capacity of civil society, media, and other oversight and accountability actors to conduct research and analysis on corruption trends, advocate for preventative measures, investigate and uncover corruption, hold leaders accountable, and inform and support government accountability and reform efforts, and work to provide these actors a safe and open operating environment domestically and internationally; (f) Work with international partners to counteract strategic corruption by foreign leaders, foreign state-owned or affiliated enterprises, transnational criminal organizations, and other foreign actors and their domestic collaborators, including, by closing loopholes exploited by these actors to interfere in democratic processes in the United States and abroad; With yesterday's 'leak' we see a first implementation of that strategy. The U.S. is using its intelligence capabilities, i.e. to hack into the systems of offshore service providers, and selectively releases whatever it might find useful for its aim to the 'civil society' and media who publish (or not) whatever dirt they are given. In the Q&A of their background briefing the 'senior administration officials' confirmed that was exactly what they were planning to do: Q Thank you for doing this. As you know, anti-corruption activists periodically urge the U.S. government to use its various assets and capabilities, including the intelligence community, to expose specific cases of corruption overseas, to name and shame corrupt officials  and the arguments they make are familiar  but also include not only, you know, a deterrent to corruption, but also a possible contribution to the promotion of democracy. Does the does the memorandum  does the program include any component that connects with that? SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: What I can say on that front is that the memorandum includes components of the intelligence community. So, the work on that front, in part, remains to be seen, but they are included  the Director of National Intelligence and Central Intelligence Agency. And so were just going to be looking at all of the tools in our disposal to make sure that we identify corruption where its happening and take appropriate policy responses. And Ill take the opportunity to mention that were also going to be using this effort to think about what more we can do to bolster other actors that are out in the world exposing corruption and bringing it to light. So, of course, the U.S. government has its own internal methods, but, largely, the way that corruption is exposed is through the work of investigative journalists and investigative NGOs. The U.S. government  to my point earlier, in terms of the support were already providing  in some instances provides support to these actors. And well be looking at what more we can do on that front as well. Q What does the word support mean in that context? SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, sometimes it boils down to foreign assistance. There are lines of assistance that have jumpstarted investigatory journalism organizations. What comes to my mind most immediately is OCCRP, as well as foreign assistance that goes to NGOs, ultimately, that do investigative work on anti-corruption, as well. The allegedly independent Organized Crime And Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is funded, like the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), through various 'western' foundations and 'western' governments. As the 'senior administration official' admits it was 'jumpstarted' by the U.S. (and British) government. The U.S. has copied the model of WikiLeaks. In 2017 the Trump administration designated WikiLeaks as a non-state hostile intelligence service for publishing secret government papers given to it by whistle-blowers who exposed murder, hacking and other misdeeds by the U.S. government. The U.S. has for many years propped up competition to Wikileaks by founding and/or supporting OCCRP, ICIJ and similar organizations who are fed with materials provided by 5-eyes intelligence agencies. These organizations are "non-state friendly intelligence service for publishing private papers of people the 5-eyes dislike. A lengthy recent Yahoo piece on Julian Assange and WikiLeaks (see corrections to its 'Russiagate' nonsense here) explicitly made that point: Were kind of post-WikiLeaks right now, said a former senior counterintelligence official. Yet spy services are increasingly using a WikiLeaks-like model of posting stolen materials online. In 2018, the Trump administration granted the CIA aggressive new secret authorities to undertake the same sort of hack-and-dump operations for which Russian intelligence has used WikiLeaks. Among other actions, the agency has used its new powers to covertly release information online about a Russian company that worked with Moscows spy apparatus. The program was not launched under Trump but is, like the Biden memorandum above, just an extension of a program that has existed for years. OCCRP was founded in 2006 and at first hit only at eastern European governments. The 'Panama papers' came out in 2016. The new 'Pandora papers' are just a new variant of these. A main purpose of these releases of stolen data is propaganda. Just look at the picture the Guardian put on top its story about them:

bigger The by far biggest head in that picture is of Russia's president Vladimir Putin. He is however not mentioned at all in the 'Pandora papers' and there is no evidence that he has any offshore holdings or is exceptionally rich. The only relation he has with the story is this: King Abdullah is among dozens of current and former leaders whose overseas investments were exposed. Other leaders included President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, whose alleged former lover was found to have purchased an apartment in Monaco ... So some rich Russian girl, who some 20 years ago allegedly(!) had an affair with Putin, bought an apartment in a foreign country using an offshore vehicle. (The "alleged" affair is btw a never confirmed rumor that was spread by the Russian outlet "Proekt" which was financed by the anti-Putin oligarch Khodorkovky who is living in London.) How can that justify to lead the release, which names 35 current and former national leaders (but not Putin), many officials and dozens billionaires, with Putin's picture? (In 2016 the Guardian did the same with the 'Panama papers'. Putin was not mention in those either but led in the Guardian story about them.) Another hint that this is all U.S. government filtered propaganda (and blackmail material) comes from the lack of names of U.S. billionaires and corrupt politicians in the provided material.

bigger That none of their names are to be found in the published offshore services' files points to a careful elimination of these. The published papers are a system's fake critique of itself. While they support U.S. foreign policy objectives by accusing people the U.S. does not like they will also lead to more support for financial surveillance and spyimg. By disgracing or eliminating overseas competition they promote U.S. tax havens like Alaska, Nevada and Delaware to foreign 'customers': The Pandora Papers contains details on over 200 trusts set up in the U.S. in recent years. In dozens of cases, clients have abandoned more traditional havens, such as the British Virgin Islands and the Bahamas, in favor of the U.S. The most popular destination has been South Dakota, where the past decade has seen the value of assets held in trusts reach more than $360 billion. State laws in South Dakota allow for the establishment of secret trusts which dont have to pay a cent of tax to the state for any earnings. Unlike most states, which restrict the life of trusts to a century or less, South Dakota trusts are also perpetual, meaning they have no end date. This means they can continue making tax free gains and passing them on to future generations  theoretically forever. So the U.S. set out to blame offshore tax havens and foreign leaders of corruption while it itself is the biggest sinner with regards to both. There is pattern in this. Whenever the U.S. accuses some foreign person or government of doing 'something' their is a high probability that 'something' is exactly what the U.S. is doing itself. Posted by b on October 4, 2021 at 16:40 UTC | Permalink Comments next page  next page 
More FM is super excited to bring you Jim Beam Homegrown 2022!

On March 19th, fans will come from all over New Zealand to celebrate who we are through our music. Jim Beam Homegrown is massive with five stages stretching across the beautiful Wellington Waterfront.

There is something for everyone from pop and rock through to reggae and electronic music and some epic classics for a good sing along! This is not just a festival for the teens! People of all ages feel right at home at Jim Beam Homegrown.

This years line-up already features some of Aotearoa's best acts including,

Drax Project, Sir Dave Dobbyn, Gin Wigmore, Mitch James, Ladi6, Sons of Zion, The Beths, Katchafire and heaps more!

See below for the full first announcement. More acts will be announced next month!

Every year Jim Beam Homegrown sets new sell-out records, usually selling out quicker than the previous year. The organisers have said this year the festival will be selling fewer tickets than last year to ensure everyone has the best time possible, so make sure you secure your tickets TODAY to avoid missing out.

There is also a payment plan available where you can secure your ticket now and pay it off in eight easy installments.

Keep listening to More FM to win awesome experiences and grab your tickets now at www.homegrown.net.nz
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP)  The trial of the suspect in the 2018 Florida high school massacre for fighting a jail guard was delayed on Monday because his lead lawyer on the case is seriously ill.

Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer ruled that jury selection in Nikolas Cruz's trial on jail battery charges will now begin on Tuesday and testimony will begin Oct. 19, eight days later than scheduled. Cruz's primary public defender on the battery case, David Wheeler, was hospitalized for three days with an undisclosed illness and will likely need several weeks to recover, according to court documents and courtroom discussion.

Cruz, 23, is charged with attacking a Broward County jail guard, Sgt. Raymond Beltran, in November 2018, nine months after authorities say he killed 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Scherer said Cruz's other attorney on the battery case, Jaclyn Broudy, is experienced and capable to take over as lead counsel. The delay, she said, will give Broward County Public Defender Gordon Weekes time to assign someone to assist Broudy and for her to brief that attorney. She suggested that he assign one of the public defenders representing Cruz in the murder case, but Weekes said they are busy preparing for that trial.

Cruz's trial for the Feb. 14, 2018, slayings remains unscheduled. It has been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic and arguments over evidence and possible testimony. Throughout Monday's hearing, the former Stoneman Douglas student sat quietly at the defense table dressed in a dark blue sweater and white shirt instead of the orange jail jumpsuit he normally wore at pretrial hearings.

Weekes had asked that Scherer delay jury selection for two weeks so a second attorney could be fully briefed, but the judge said this is not a complicated case and would normally be handled by one attorney.

The trial's complicating factor is Cruz's notoriety in Broward County, which will make it difficult to find six jurors who can put aside their knowledge of the shooting and decide the brawl case solely on the evidence. Jury selection in a typical jail brawl trial would take a few hours and a prospect pool of 22, but for this case it is scheduled to last five days and have a pool of 400. Testimony is expected to last one or two days.

Cruz faces a possible 15-year sentence if convicted of attempted criminal battery on a law enforcement officer and three lesser charges. Cruz will get either death or life in prison without parole if he is later found guilty of first-degree murder, but this trial still has relevance.

If Cruz is convicted of attacking Beltran, prosecutors can argue that is an aggravating factor when they seek his execution during the penalty phase of his murder trial if convicted.

Beltran told investigators that Cruz attacked him after he asked him to stop dragging his feet and damaging his sandals. Cruz's attorneys are expected to argue that Beltran had a history of mistreating Cruz and verbally instigated the fight, which was recorded by a security camera that doesn't capture sound.

Cruz's murder trial is expected to take months. His attorneys have said he would plead guilty to 17 murders in exchange for a life sentence. Prosecutors have rejected that offer, saying this case deserves a death sentence.
STOCKHOLM (AP)  A tenant in a Swedish apartment building that was rocked by an explosion and fire last month that injured 16 people was formally remanded in custody Monday in his absence, suspected of attempted murder, arson and general destruction.

The move allows the prosecutor to go out with an international search warrant, although it is not certain the man is abroad.

Authorities in Sweden have not named the suspect, a man in his 50s, who also is suspected of causing the blast and the ensuing fires. He has not been arrested.

In the early hours of Sept. 28, a housing block in Goteborg, Sweden's second-largest city, was shattered by a powerful explosion. Ensuing blazes spread to several apartments and hundreds of residents were evacuated. Four of the injured are in serious condition and at least 140 apartments were damaged.

Swedish radio quoted an unnamed neighbor as saying the suspect had lot of chemicals, either in the apartment or in the basement, given the smell.

The property owner had been trying to evict the man and his mother from their apartment in the building, according to the Aftonbladet newspaper. Several Swedish media said an eviction was planned for the day the explosion occurred.

Aftonbladet said police had already charged the man with several offenses a week before the blast. The paper also reported that after he wasnt allowed to see his mother at a nursing home because of pandemic restrictions, the suspect harassed several people, including the owner of the building.
The Midland County Public Libraries will host two childrens authors for book signings as a part of the Project Literacy program.

Raul the Third, author and illustrator of Vamos! Lets Go to the Market, will sign books from 4:30-6 p.m. at the Centennial Library.
This Dia de los Muertos, aka Day of the Dead, the U.S Postal Service is honoring the everlasting legacy of our loved ones with commemorative Forever stamps.

The stamp sheet of 20, aptly released for the month of October leading up to the November 1 holiday, are now available for purchase at your neighborhood post office and at USPS centers of correspondence throughout the nation.

Designed and illustrated by artist Luis Fitch, with art direction by Antonio Alcala, each of the pane's five rows depict colorful sugar skulls. Each skull, which traditionally represent family members who have died, is accompanied by marigolds and a candle (a symbolic lighthouse to the deceased as they make their annual journey back to the land of the living).

Courtesy of USPS

Celebrating the lives of deceased loved ones is a traceable tradition in Latin American dating back 3,000 years. Hybridizing indigenous tradition with the Catholic Spanish settler tradition of All Souls Day, Dia de los Muertos has persevered as a wildly popular occasion, particularly in areas with strong Mexican and Central American communities. The holiday as it presents today caught fire in the 1970s, when Chicano artists worked to uplift these preexisting rituals.

In recent decades, Day of the Dead has caught on in the United States as a festive celebration for all ages, said Michael J. Elston, secretary of the USPS Board of Governors. These new stamps from the U.S. Postal Service provide a wonderful way to commemorate this colorful and life-affirming holiday.

The stamps are likely to be a hit in San Antonio, which hosts one of the largest public Day of the Dead celebrations in the country. This year, Muertos Fest participants can enjoy live music, food, and colorful skeletons at Hemisfair from Saturday, October 23 through Sunday, October 24. A dedication ceremony for the stamps was held at Centro Cultural Aztlan in San Antonio on Friday, October 1. Earlier, a similar ceremony was held in El Paso at the Museum of Art.

3 1 of 3 Contributor file photo Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Contributor file photo Show More Show Less 3 of 3





Stamps are available at the post office or you can now order a sheet of 20 stamps online for $11.60.
Michigan Technological Universitys bachelors degree program in mining engineering has been accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, the global accreditor of college and university programs in applied and natural science, computing, engineering and engineering technology.

ABET accreditation assures that programs meet standards to produce graduates ready to enter critical technical fields that are leading the way in innovation and emerging technologies, and anticipating the welfare and safety needs of the public.

Michigan Techs mining engineering program is one of only 13 such degree programs across the nation to earn ABET accreditation. In total, 13 different ABET-accredited degree programs are now offered by the College of Engineering at Michigan Tech.

ABET accreditation is a significant achievement, said Aleksey Smirnov, chair of the Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences (GMES). We have worked hard to ensure that our program meets the quality standards set by the profession. And, because it requires comprehensive, periodic evaluations, ABET accreditation demonstrates our continuing commitment to the quality of our program  both now and in the future.

This is a recognition by ABET that our students and the program meet the accreditation standards, said Leonard Bohmann, Michigan Techs associate dean of academic affairs in the College of Engineering. It signals to students that when they come here they will receive a strong education in mining engineering that has been rigorously reviewed. It informs employers that they can be confident that our students have an outstanding education in mining engineering. And, with an ABET accredited degree, students can become licensed professional engineers.

This success came through the dedicated and indefatigable efforts by Professor John Gierke, who served as department chair from 2014 to 2020, and our superb mining engineering faculty, Associate Professor Snehamoy Chatterjee and Senior Lecturer Nathan Manser, added Smirnov. Outstanding clerical support was provided by department staff Brittany Buschell and Carol Asiala.

The pandemic created additional challenges during the accreditation process, but also opportunities, noted Gierke. The responses to the onset of the pandemic in 2020 disrupted the installation of mine ventilation lab equipment. In addition, videos and video calling were required for the facilities tours as part of the virtual site visit. The need to thoroughly review the facilities was extra challenging in the virtual format.

Despite the fact that their final few months had to be conducted remotely, the adaptability of the students during their mining engineering senior capstone project  along with their advisor, Nathan Manser  allowed that project to conclude on several high notes. The senior students quickly learned how to use mine design software remotely, how to meet on Zoom and collaborate online, Gierke said. They probably didn't realize it at the time, but with their increased use of remote collaborations in professional work, the students all got some accelerated practice.

Michigan Techs degree program in mining engineering was reinstated in 2019 after a 15-year hiatus. In order to apply for accreditation, however, GMES had to wait until at least one student graduated with the degree. We graduated our first three students in the spring of 2020, said Smirnov.

The University is proud to see mining returning as an ABET-accredited program, said Jacqueline Huntoon, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. Michigan Tech was initially founded to support the mining industry and it is exciting to see us reaffirm our commitment to excellence for this segment of industry.

Sought worldwide, ABETs voluntary peer review process is highly respected because it adds critical value to academic programs in the technical disciplines, where quality, precision and safety are of the utmost importance.

Developed by technical professionals from ABETs member societies, ABET criteria focus on what students experience and learn. ABET accreditation reviews look at program curricula, faculty, facilities and institutional support, and are conducted by teams of highly skilled professionals from industry, academia and government, with expertise in the ABET disciplines.

ABET is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization with ISO 9001:2015 certification. It currently accredits 4,307 programs at 846 colleges and universities in 41 countries and areas.

Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, the University offers more than 125 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.
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Alert: Ex-US Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri, who sunk a Senate bid with a comment about 'legitimate rape,' is dead at age 74
According to the New York Times, the number of new daily cases has fallen 35% in the United States since Sept. 1, with cases worldwide dropping about 30% since late August. In Illinois, there were 3,356 new cases on Oct. 1, down from 5,178 cases on Sept. 1. The last time Illinois topped 4,000 new cases in a day was Sept. 16.

However, as Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, vaccination remains key to ensuring cases continue trending downward ahead of the holiday season. Madison County is currently at 50.21% vaccinated and Morgan is at 47.8% vaccinated, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The U.S. is "turning the corner" on its current COVID-19 surge, Fauci said, and the declines the U.S. is seeing recently are consistent with a pattern the New York Times calls the two-month cycle, where cases have often surged for about two months and then decline for two months, a pattern that has emerged since the coronavirus began spreading in late 2019. That means COVID-19 could once again resurge later this fall or early winter.

The US is averaging around 107,000 new infections every day, according to Johns Hopkins University -- down from more than 150,000 just last month. Rates of hospitalizations and deaths have also been on the decline, according to CNN.

Serious COVID-related illnesses are also declining, according to the Times. The number of Americans hospitalized with Covid has fallen about 25% since Sept. 1. Daily deaths -- which typically change direction a few weeks after cases and hospitalizations -- have fallen 10% since Sept. 20. It is the first sustained decline in deaths since early summer.

In Illinois, Region 4, which includes Madison County, has reported 10 straight days of COVID-19 hospital patient decreases or stability and Region 3, which includes Morgan County, has reported nine, according to IDPH. Eight deaths were reported in Madison County on Saturday or Sunday, a continued decrease. Morgan reported one, also within target.

"Barring something unexpected," Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA commissioner told the Times, "Im of the opinion that this is the last major wave of infection."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently stated that attending gatherings to celebrate events and holidays increases the risk of getting and spreading COVID-19. The safest way to celebrate is virtually, the CDC said, with people who live with you or outside and at least six feet apart from others. The CDC guidance also recommends people delay travel until they are fully vaccinated.

Nearly 56% of the total US population, or 65.4% of those ages 12 and up who are eligible, are fully vaccinated, according to data published Sunday by the CDC. However, 15 states, including Missouri, have yet to fully vaccinate more than half of their residents.

"The way to keep it down, to make that turnaround continue to go down, is to ... get people vaccinated," Fauci said. "When you have 70 million people in the country who are eligible to be vaccinated who are not yet vaccinated, that's the danger zone right there."

"We've just got to concentrate on continuing to get those numbers down, and not try to jump ahead by weeks or months and say what we're going to do at a particular time," he continued. "Let's focus like a laser on continuing to get those cases down, and we can do it by people getting vaccinated."
Baobao Ou | Getty Images

Daycare providers across the state will be working with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to remind parents of the importance of safe sleeping conditions for babies.

October is Safe Sleep for Infants Awareness Month. Infants should sleep alone, on their backs and in a safe crib. The sleeping area should have a firm mattress, tight sheets, and be empty of pillows, blankets or other loose items, such as toys.
Today

Walking for Wellness: 7 a.m.-1 p.m., Jacksonville High School Bowl, 215 S. Church St. Free | Indoor walking program open each day that Jacksonville schools are in session. For more information, call 217-479-5800.

Produce and Bakery Giveaway: 9 a.m.-noon, Jacksonville Food Center, 316 E. State St. Free | For Morgan County residents.

Blood Drive: 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Jacksonville Community Center, 1309 S. Main St. | To donate, contact ImpactLife Springfield 800-747-5401 or www.bloodcenter.org and use code 61209 to locate the drive. All donors receive a voucher for a t-shirt or $5 gift card.

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.



Tuesday

Walking for Wellness: 7 a.m.-1 p.m., Jacksonville High School Bowl, 215 S. Church St. Free | Indoor walking program open each day that Jacksonville schools are in session. For more information, call 217-479-5800.

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.

FAFSA Completion Event: 3-6 p.m., Lincoln Land Community College, 109 White Pine Lane, Beardstown. | Open to high school seniors and parents or guardians and current LLCC students. An online registration form and more information, including a list of required documents, is available at llcc.edu/beardstown. Register by phone at 217-323-4103.

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.



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.
News that a federal judge had approved the unconditional release of John Hinckley Jr. in June set my phone to ringing furiously earlier this week.

Journalists naturally wanted to know what I thought about the decision to let Hinckley go free after serving nearly 40 years in a mental hospital for trying to assassinate my father on March 30, 1981.

Hinckley, now 66, has been living on his own outside the mental facility for several years without incident and doctors say he is no longer violent and shows no signs of mental illness.

But my sister Patty and many conservatives think approving his release was the wrong decision.

They believe Hinckley, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity, is still a threat to society or doesnt deserve to be fully released.

I totally understand their emotional reactions, but none of them ever talked to Ronald Reagan about forgiving Hinckley like I did.

Last week, when people asked me about Hinckley, I told them I dont have a problem with him becoming completely free because Im going to side with Ronald Reagan.

My father publicly forgave Hinckley long ago.

He did it within days of being shot and before he went back to work at the White House on April 11. He even wanted to visit Hinckley, but the Secret Service wouldnt allow it.

What was good enough for my father is good enough for me.

He was one of those rare people who didnt just recite The Lords Prayer, he lived it.

When he asked God the Father to forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, he meant it.

Im not going to be angry for the rest of my life at a mentally disturbed guy who tried to take my fathers life. My father didnt hate Hinckley, why should I?

He was never a hateful or vengeful man  even after almost dying from an assassins bullet.

In private, and with his family, he was the same affable guy who quipped to Nancy Honey, I forgot to duck and said to the emergency room doctors I hope youre all Republicans.

To prove what I say, heres a loose retelling of the conversation I had with him six hours after he got off the operating table at George Washington University Hospital.

When my wife Colleen and I walked into his room, my dad looked up at me from his bed and said, Mike, if youre ever going to get shot, dont be wearing a new suit.

Excuse me?

Well, yesterday I was shot.

Yeah?

That blue suit I was wearing was a brand new suit. It was the first time I ever wore it. The last time I saw it they had cut it off me and it was in shreds in the corner of my hospital room. So thats why Im telling you, If youre ever going to be shot, dont be wearing a new suit. 

Then he said, That young man who shot me  Hinckley.

Yes, I said, John Hinckley.

I understand his family is in the oil business.

Yep.

Do you think they have any money?

Theyre in the oil business and they live in Denver. Of course theyve got money. Why?

Well, do you think theyd ever buy me a new suit?

That was what my father was really like. Unlike so many people in and out of politics today, he was never angry  even after being shot.

Humor was his way of putting people at ease, whether it was his worried son, his doctors or the entire country. His good-natured temperament  and the virtue of forgiving the trespasses of others  are what we miss and what we could all use a lot more of today.

Michael Reagan, the son of President Ronald Reagan, is an author, speaker and president of the Reagan Legacy Foundation.
Catalan ex-leader Puigdemont freed temporarily in Sardinia View Photo

SASSARI, Sardinia (AP)  Catalonias former separatist leader Carles Puigdemont walked out of a Sardinian courthouse Monday after a judge delayed a decision on Spains extradition request and said he was free to travel.

Puigdemont left with his lawyers, shook hands and embraced supporters, saying he was very happy, as he got in a van and was whisked away. He then said on social media that he would participate in the afternoons session of the European Parliament by video link from the Mediterranean island.

His Italian lawyer, Agostinangelo Marras, told reporters that a decision on extradition to Spain, where he is accused of sedition, is pending decisions on two questions already being considered by European courts. But he said his client is free to travel as he pleases in the meantime.

He is absolutely free. The court will set a new date after the European court decides on the two pending questions. One is the immunity of President Piugdemont, and the other is the legitimacy of the Spanish judge to issue the arrest warrant, Piugdemonts Italian lawyer, Agostinoangelo Marras, told The Associated Press.

The Italian court first wants to see how the European Unions general court will rule on Puigdemonts appeal to the lifting of his immunity as a European Parliament member that this same court confirmed in July. Secondly, the Italian court will wait to see if the European Union Court of Justice rules that the Spanish Supreme Court has the authority to request the extradition of Puigdemont, after a Belgian court said in January that it didnt when it requested the return of another associate of Puigdemont.

Puigdemont was arrested on Sept. 23 in Sardinia, where he had arrived from his home in Belgium to attend a Catalan cultural festival at the invitation of a Sardinian separatist movement. He was freed by a judge a day later pending Mondays extradition hearing.

Puigdemont and fellow separatists Clara Ponsati and Toni Comin had their immunity as European Parliament members lifted earlier this year as requested by Spain after the European Unions general court said that they didnt demonstrate they were at risk of being arrested.

Ponsati and Comin were among a contingent of high-profile separatists who traveled to Sardinia to show their support for Puigdemont on Monday, triggering a request sent by a Spanish judge to Italy to have them detained as well. There was no indication that they had been taken into custody.

A group of about 20 supporters rallied outside the courthouse as Puigdemont arrived for the hearing. Some members of the crowd shouted freedom! and waved Catalan separatist flags.

Puigdemont, 58, has successfully avoided extradition since taking up residence in Waterloo, Belgium, after leading an illegal 2017 secession attempt by the wealthy Catalonia region in Spains northeast.

After a Belgian court declined to send him back in 2017, the following year he was arrested in Germany but a court there also refused to extradite him.

We have faced three extradition orders in three different jurisdictions: the Belgian, the German and the Italian, Puigdemont said. It is the moment to tell Spain, Enough! that this path does not lead anywhere and does not help solve a political conflict between Catalonia and Spain.

Several of Puigdemonts cohorts who stayed in Barcelona after the failed secession attempt were arrested and found guilty of sedition and misusing public funds.

In an attempt to defuse the political crisis he inherited from his conservative predecessor, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez pardoned nine imprisoned separatist leaders in June. Puigdemont, and others like him who fled, couldnt benefit from the act of grace since they have yet to face justice.

The detention of Puigdemont two weeks ago comes with the former regional president struggling to retain his preeminent role in the Catalonia separatist movement, which has surged in popularity over the past two decades.

Puigdemonts party has lost the regional presidency of Catalonia and is now the minor member of a coalition led by a separatist rival which is leading talks with Sanchezs government to resolve the festering crisis. Puigdemonts party isnt participating in the negotiations which its leaders have criticized as a distraction from rebuilding strength for another unilateral secession bid.

While some are trying to talk with the Spanish government, there are others like Puigdemont who are undermining the institutions of the state, said Jordi Puignero, the leading member of Puigdemonts party in Catalonias government.

Despite already enjoying a good degree of self-rule, polls and election results show that roughly half of Catalans want to form a new state. The other half wants to remain in Spain given the centuries of cultural and family ties linking Catalonia with the rest of the country.

The majority of Spaniards are against the loss of Catalonia, which for decades has represented a land of opportunity for those who moved there from poorer regions.

Sardinia has historic and cultural ties with Catalonia that date back to the 14th century.

___

Colleen Barry reported from Milan, and Joseph Wilson from Barcelona, Spain.

By GLORIA CALVI, COLLEEN BARRY and JOSEPH WILSON

Associated Press
Pfizer Vaccine Clinic BlackOak View Photo

Tuolumne Public Health reports two deaths due to COVID-19 a woman in her 60s and a man in his 80s. There are 56 new COVID-19 cases since Fridays report with 223 active cases including 6 who are hospitalized. The total current case rate, a 14-day average for Tuolumne County is down to 38.8 from 39.2 per 100,000 population. A total of 4,670 have been released from isolation after testing positive for COVID-19, there have been 105 deaths, 4,998 community cases and 1,620 inmate cases with no currently active COVID-19 cases.

Todays newly reported cases include 20 cases age 17 or younger and 12 cases age 60 or older. The gender and age breakdown is; 4 girls and 4 boy age 0-11, 5 girls and 7 boys age 12-17, 2 women and 7 men age 18-29, 1 woman and 3 men age 30-39, 5 women and 4 men age 40 to 49, 1 woman and 1 man age 50-59, 1 woman age 60 to 69, 5 women and 3 men age 70 to 79, and 2 women and 1 man age 80 to 89.

Of the 56 new community cases, 48 were unvaccinated as were the two newly reported deaths and 8 of the new cases were vaccinated. Of Tuolumnes population eligible to be vaccinated 59% have been vaccinated. Tuolumne Countys active community cases went below 200 for 8 days. Cases were above 200 for 49 days between August 2 and September 19 with a high of 407 active cases. During the previous surge, active cases were above 200 for 36 days between November 15 and December 20 with a high of 350.

Calaveras County Public Health reports 8 new Covid cases since Fridays report. Active cases decreased to 49, including one Covid hospitalization. There is one new case age 0-17 and one new case iage 65 years old or older. Since the pandemic began Calaveras has had 558 Covid-19 positive children who are 17 and under and 619 Covid-19 positive people 65 and over. Calaveras has vaccinated 53.4% of their eligible population.

Last Weeks Overview (Sep 24- Oct 1) Tuolumne reported a total of 197 new COIVD-19 cases and Calaveras reported 151 new cases. There were two deaths of Tuolumne residents due to COVID-19 and three deaths of Calaveras residents. Hospitalizations in both counties decreased over the week although Friday Tuolumnes increased from four to six.

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, Thank you for continuing to take the positive actions 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 10/1 138 25 3,181 52 Calaveras 10/4 49 8 3,533 74 Mariposa 10/4 61 40 1,150 13 Mono 10/4 67 15 1,354 5 Stanislaus 10/1* 1,758 202 74,232 1,284 Tuolumne 10/4 223 56 6,618 105 *Stanislaus is delayed due to their technical difficulties
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP)  The Palestinian president hosted two Israeli Cabinet ministers for a late-night meeting Sunday, in a new sign of slowly improving ties between the sides.

Israeli Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz and Regional Cooperation Minister Esawi Freij were the second group of Cabinet members to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas since the new Israeli government took office in June. Defense Minister Benny Gantz also met with Abbas at his West Bank headquarters in August.

The new Israeli government is comprised of eight parties spanning the Israeli political spectrum, from far-right hardliners who oppose a Palestinian state to dovish parties that support a two-state solution. Horowitz and Freij were joined by other members of their Meretz party, the most dovish faction in the coalition. Horowitz leads the party.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett comes from a small, hardline religious party, and he has ruled out the establishment of a Palestinian state on his watch. But he has called for reducing frictions, primarily by taking steps to boost the Palestinian economy.

According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, Abbas stressed the importance of ending the Israeli occupation and achieving a just and comprehensive peace. Abbas autonomy government seeks the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem  territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.

Horowitz posted a picture of himself and Abbas on Twitter. We have a shared mission: to preserve the hope for peace, on the basis of a two-state solution, he said.
Advances in DNA technology gave authorities the breakthrough they needed to arrest a Houston man for the stabbing death of his sister-in-law 15 years ago.

Harris County authorities arrested Gregory Glenn Markwardt, 50, on capital murder charges Wednesday at his home.

Markwardt is accused of slaying Kathryn Louis Odom on March 3, 1987. Her battered body was discovered hours later in her Spring home with her two young children.

Investigators describe the crime as a "lust murder," saying Markwardt made romantic advances to Odom, but she rejected him.

Markwardt is still married to Odom's sister, Shelley Markwardt, sheriff's officials said.

Authorities said in Thursday's editions of the Houston Chronicle that Markwardt has always said he had nothing to do with the crime and repeated his claim when arrested.

But well preserved evidence and new technology involving more specific DNA processing pointed to Markwardt. Authorities declined to identify the DNA evidence.

"DNA is now more capable of capturing smaller pieces of evidence," said assistant district attorney Kelly Siegler, who will prosecute the case. "In 1987, no one had even heard of DNA. As time went on and technology got better, different evidence was submitted to different labs. A month ago, a final piece of evidence was submitted that linked this defendant to the crime."

Odom's nude body was found in her children's bedroom by a neighbor who was sent to check on Odom because her worried husband was unable to reach her by phone.

She had been stabbed 16 times and her throat had been cut. She also had been sexually assaulted.

Her two children, then 4 years old and 2 months, had been left in the house with her body for as long as eight hours, authorities said.

The older child, who had been beaten and was found unconscious on a couch, has never been able to tell detectives much. The infant was found in a bedroom and hadn't been battered. Both were hospitalized with dehydration and non life-threatening injuries.

Authorities said Markwardt's wife was at work when he was arrested. The newspaper could not reach her for comment Wednesday.
AGUA FRIA, Panama (AP)  In an isolated cemetery in Panamas Darien province, migrants who die crossing the most treacherous segment of their journey toward the United States are buried with a plasticized card containing what little information is available about them in case one day someone comes looking.

On a recent afternoon, white-suited workers laid to rest 15 sets of remains in a long trench at the back of the cemetery. A local priest standing at the head of the trench with a candle, crucifix and flowers performed a simple ceremony. On the white body bags were handwritten clues: Unknown in Bajo Grande, Unknown in Turquesa river, and Unknown #3, Minor.

So far this year, Panama has recovered at least 50 sets of remains from migrants crossing the Darien Gap, a number officials believe is only a portion of those who died in the dense, lawless jungle. In recent years, 20 to 30 bodies on average have been recovered annually, but this year Panamanian authorities say more than 90,000 migrants  mostly Haitians  have crossed the Darien Gap from Colombia and the body count reflects that surging migration.

That number is a minimum quantity of the human remains there are along the whole route, said Jose Vicente Pachar, director of Panamas Forensic Sciences Institute. Many of them die of natural causes, for example, a heart attack; they fall and no one attends to them. They stay there or theyre assaulted or the waters current comes and takes the bodies that end up floating along the rivers edge. Snake bites are also common.

Right now we dont have a way to investigate like we want to with international support, to go on the trails, the paths, because all the descriptions and statements (say) there are human remains, Pachar said.

Agents of Panamas National Border Service help recover bodies, sometimes extracting them with helicopters, along with investigators from the Darien prosecutors office.

But the recovery is only the first challenge facing investigators.

The bodies are often badly decomposed in the high-humidity environment or partially eaten by animals. Those who may have witnessed a death, being migrants themselves, keep going and are not around to assist in identifications. And most of the bodies are without identification, it having been stolen or lost.

Julio Vergara, Darien provinces top prosecutor, says that even when migrants report a death, when we do the recovery and are going to corroborate the facts, the migrants who reported it have unfortunately continued on their route. He said that of the cases he has opened this year, five Haitians, two Cubans and a Brazilian have been identified. Four of the victims were children.

Haitians made up the majority of the 15,000 migrants who camped for days in Del Rio, Texas, last month beside a border bridge. The U.S. has deported thousands of them to Haiti.

In Panama, much of the identification work falls to Pachars staff at the morgue in Panama City.

If possible, they fingerprint the victims, create dental records and try to determine a cause of death. All of that information is entered into a database.

It is a laborious process because generally the bodies are in a putrefaction stage, many individual characteristics have been lost, Pachar said.

The burial of 15 victims in Agua Fria followed a similar ceremony in the same cemetery weeks earlier. In that case, six sets of remains were interred.

Pachar said the burials are necessary not only out of respect for the victims, but because morgues across Darien need to open space for new victims.

If someone comes later who wants to take the remains of their loved one, we have a way to tell them: Here they are, Pachar said.

Vergara said that so far a family had claimed the body of a Cuban migrant and relatives of another non-Latin American migrant confirmed the identity so the person could be buried in Panama according to the familys customs and religious beliefs.

Among the most recent burials was a fetus that Vergara said a Haitian woman had delivered to authorities in a bag. She told them she had miscarried when she fell during the crossing, the prosecutor said.

Migrants have been buried in at least a half-dozen other communities in Darien. The burials have caused resentment in some Indigenous communities where locals do not want the migrants buried in their cemeteries. There had been rumblings in Agua Fria as well, so a local leader asked Rev. Delgado Diamante, who performed the burial ceremony, to address the matter in his homily during Mass at the local church.

The day after the burials, farther down the pot-holed highway that leads deeper into Darien, more than 800 migrants  mostly Haitian  got off boats in the Chucunaque River that had carried them out of the jungle and joined nearly 300 already waiting in a migrant camp. Many boarded government buses that would drive them across Panama to a camp near the border with Costa Rica.

Iseris Shily, a 34-year-old from Haiti, remained shaken by his ordeal in Darien Gap. He and his wife, Siberisse Evanette, had traveled to Chile in 2017 and left there this year hoping to make it to the United States.

Shily said his wife had a miscarriage during the crossing and was hospitalized Friday with bleeding.

She almost died, he said. We were like six days in the jungle without water, without food, because everything we had brought was gone.

He said they had been robbed when approaching the first town, then threatened with death because they said he couldnt pass without paying. Now I dont have money to continue on my way.

Shily had called relatives in the U.S. before entering the jungle. On Friday, he wanted to let them know they had made it, but his cellphone was dead.

I remember a lot of things. I didnt want to talk about that, Shily said. I saw how six people died in front of me in the river. This tragedy is very difficult. It is not an adventure I want to relive.
MOSCOW (AP)  A prospective Russian hypersonic missile has been successfully test-fired from a nuclear submarine for the first time, the military said Monday.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that the Severodvinsk submarine performed two launches of the Zircon cruise missile at mock targets in the Barents Sea.

It first test-fired Zircon from the surface, and then launched another missile from a submerged position in the White Sea.

The launch marked Zircon's first launch from a submarine. It previously has been repeatedly test-fired from a navy frigate, most recently in July.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Zircon would be capable of flying at nine times the speed of sound and have a range of 1,000 kilometers (620 miles). Putin has emphasized that its deployment will significantly boost Russian military capability.

Officials said Zircon's tests are to be completed later this year and it will be commissioned by the Russian navy in 2022.

Zircon is intended to arm Russian cruisers, frigates and submarines. It is one of several hypersonic missiles under development in Russia.

The Kremlin has made modernizing the countrys arsenals a top priority amid the tensions with the West that followed Russias 2014 annexation of Ukraines Crimean Peninsula.
MERIDEN  The city has hired Josephine Agnello-Veley of Kensington as its new human resources director, filling a spot left vacant when Robert Scalise resigned in July.

Agnello-Veley has more than 30 years experience in human resource positions in both private companies, such as Northeast Utilities and United Technologies, and public sector jobs, including the state of Connecticut. Her most recent post was human resources director at West Haven Public Schools, which has about 1,500 employees.

Agnello-Veley was selected from 54 applicants and nine semi-finalists, according to City Manager Timothy Coon. Interviews were conducted in August and an employment contract drafted on Aug. 30. The job pays $119,000 annually and includes a $200 a month car allowance and use of a city-provided cell phone and laptop. Her first day was Monday.

Meriden is very close to the community that I live, Agnello-Veley said. Ive been coming to Meriden for a long time. My daughter went to dancing school in Meriden and I go to the Meriden mall. Being close to the community is very important to me. It feels like home.

Agnello-Veley retired from her job with the state of Connecticut and is well versed in legislative changes in the workplace. She wanted to keep working and her plans to move to the shoreline suddenly changed. The Meriden position offered a new direction, she said.

Scalise resigned in July after two years to be closer to his family on the West Coast. His last day was Aug. 13.

Josephine was selected out of the finalists because of her experience and organizational fit, City Manager Timothy Coon said in an email response. She expressed herself very well and was very accomplished in her field. We spoke about goals for the department when she was hired and they centered around customer service, staff training, increasing city staff diversity and maximizing efficiency.

The citys Human Resources Department is well run, Agnello-Veley said, but she will be looking to potentially streamline some processes. However, her first step is getting to know her colleagues and all city employees.

Every organization has its own culture, Agnello-Veley said. I cant make an impact unless I understand the people I work with. I still have a number of good years left. Id like to bring it to another level if I could.

Being in public service you have to walk a fine line by doing the right thing and look like youre doing the right thing, she added.

Thats just the nature of public service.

The Human Resources Department services more than 600 city employees. T

he department strives to promote, growth, accountability and increased skill level, according to the city website.

mgodin@record-journal.com203-317-2255Twitter: @Cconnbiz
STOCKHOLM (AP)  Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who had lived under police protection since making a sketch of the Prophet Muhammad with a dogs body in 2007, died in a weekend car crash along with two police bodyguards, police said Monday. He was 75.

Vilks and two plainclothes officers were killed in a head-on crash with a truck on Sunday afternoon, said Carina Persson, the police chief for southern Sweden. All three died on the spot. The 45-year-old truck driver was flown to a hospital with serious injuries.

Persson said the police car, which was being driven by one of the bodyguards, had left Stockholm and was heading south when it veered into the path of the truck. Both vehicles then burst into flames. The accident occurred near Markaryd, 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Malmo, Swedens third-largest city.

There is nothing else for now that indicates that it was something else but a traffic accident, Persson told a press conference.

Swedens top police chief, Anders Thornberg, said an investigation would take place, but was expected to take a relatively long time.

Swedens Culture Minister Amanda Lind called it an extremely tragic traffic accident.

Vilks was largely unknown outside Sweden before 2007, when he drew a sketch of Muhammad with a dogs body. Dogs are considered unclean by conservative Muslims and Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.

Al-Qaida put a bounty on Vilks head. In 2010, two men tried to burn down his house in southern Sweden.

Since that time, Vilks was forced to live under police protection, due to the fact that he made use of his freedom of expression and his artistic freedom," Lind said Monday.

Over the years he continued to face death threats.

In 2014, a woman from Pennsylvania pleaded guilty in a plot to kill him.

The following year, a free-speech seminar that Vilks attended in Copenhagen, Denmark, was attacked by a lone gunman who killed a Danish film director and wounded three police officers.

Vilks, who was widely believed to have been the intended target of that 2015 attack, was whisked away unharmed by bodyguards. The gunman later killed a Jewish security guard outside a synagogue and wounded two more officers before he was killed in a firefight with police.

Police said Monday they did not know why Vilks' car drove into the wrong lane but they were investigating whether a tire might have exploded. The car had puncture-proof tires, police said.

The accident happened on the north-south E4 highway on Sunday afternoon. The unmarked police car apparently ploughed through a cable guardrail separating the north- and south-bound lanes, senior police officer Stefan Siteus said at the news conference.

We have found residues of tire on the E4 before the accident, and we are looking into the possibility that there could have been some kind of tire explosion, Siteus said.

The police vehicle weighed 4.5 tons, which could explain how it could drive through a cable guardrail, Siteus said. An ordinary large vehicle weighs less than 2 tons. He added that the speed limit at the site was 110 kilometers per hour (68 mph).

Two investigations are now taking place. Chief Prosecutor Kajsa Sundgren said she had taken over a preliminary investigation into whether any police officer may have committed a crime in connection with the accident.

As to whether the accident may have been caused by someone else, that is being investigated by the police, she said.

There is a lot of speculation going on about what may have happened, and I am careful not to contribute to them, Home Affairs Minister Mikael Damberg told the Swedish news agency TT. I know that the police take this very seriously.

Born in 1946 in Helsingborg, in southern Sweden, Vilks worked as an artist for almost four decades and rose to fame for challenging the boundaries of art through several controversial works.

His most famous pieces included Nimis  a sculpture of driftwood built without permission in Swedens Kullaberg nature reserve  as well as Prophet Muhammad drawings, including the one that showed the prophet as a dog.

Vilks initially planned to display the drawing at an exhibit at a Swedish cultural heritage center, but the drawing was removed over security concerns. It went largely unnoticed until a Swedish newspaper printed the drawing with an editorial defending freedom of expression.

Several of his works, including driftwood sculptures and Mohammad drawings, including the one showing the Muslim prophet's head on the body of a dog, are currently on display in Warsaw, Poland. The works are being shown as part an exhibition curated by a right-wing director that aims to challenge left-wing political correctness.

___

Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.
The Broadway Corridor expansion is bringing in a list of Pearl-area types for swanky cocktails, elevated plates and posh aesthetics, but sometimes you just want to roll up your sleeves, listen to some oldies, but goodies and mosey up to a bar where everyone knows your name for a cold one. Enter: Three Star Bar.

Boulevardier Group owner Jeret Pena, chef Josh Calderon, and lauded local bartender Rob Gourlay are days out from opening their new concept at 521 E Grayson Street, which formerly housed Grayze. The bar opens to the public on Friday, October 8. Pena, a James Beard semi-finalist, is known for bringing spots like The Brooklynite, which served artisanal cocktails, to San Antonio. He also owned approachable craft bars Still Golden and Stay Golden. The latter is temporarily closed while its future home, Jefferson Bank's headquarters, is being built. Hello Paradise, a tiki-inspired outdoor hangout is also Pena's.

He describes his latest as a "neighborhood, old-timey dad bar." Neon beers signs hang on walls intentionally covered in wood paneling sourced from a Hill Country mobile home outfitter, stained glass lamp lighting, a pinball machine and no music made after 1996, Pena jokes.

Jess Elizarraras/MySA

"We noticed there really hasn't been a kind of dad bar anywhere in San Antonio," he explains. "What that means is really having all the crap that we grew up with design wise."

Instagram influencers looking for a trendy backdrop to add to their grid might not find their aesthetic at Three Star Bar, but the space may unlock a memory for them, if they're old enough to have ever seen the 1984 movie The Gremlins.

"I always tell people my goal was to make it feel like the bar from Gremlin," Pena adds. "It's one of my favorite scenes in the whole movie."

Three Star Bar's no-fuss appeal extends to the drink menu. Pena mentions "dad beers" as he runs down a list compiled of Coors Banquet, Shiner Bock, Lone Star and Pabst Blue Ribbon. He's also debuting Three Star Seltzer, made in house and available on tap. Pena says it'll have a "light and bright" taste with hints of lemon and mint.

The mixologist authority says mixed drinks will be of the more of the "high ball" type, like Moscow mules or his self-proclaimed "hoodrat" spin on gin and tonic, which calls for pickle juice. He says his favorite New Orleans bar, Spotted Cat, an easygoing Frenchmen Street jazz club, inspired his menu to feature "quicker-style" drinks.

"Really, the goal on the drinks is to make it very fast, approachable, fun and cheeky," he adds.

Jess Elizarraras/MySA

Pena and his co-owners faced a setback in July, when a chunk of their kitchen equipment was stolen from the bar. The owners pivoted to creating a more bar-centric focus, but there will still be a healthy amount of food to nosh on. Three Star Bar will serve meatball sandwiches, a grilled cheese on jalapeno cheddar bread, burgers and tater tots. A late night menu, offered from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., comes with chili dog Frito pies. Food menu prices will be in the low teens, with smaller plates under $10.

The bar will be able to seat 40 to 50 people inside. The backyard space will offer for more outdoor seating. Pena says original fans of Stay Golden, which closed in June 2017 to make way for Credit Human headquarters, may notice some parallels between old and new.

"It's very reminiscent of Stay Golden, there are a lot of similarities," he adds. "I mean, it's not exact, but there are some strong similarities from the atmosphere, how we're serving, what we're serving."

Speaking of the Stay Golden/Still Golden brand, Pena says there are still plans for its return, once the Jefferson Bank building is complete, though he says that's going to be a while. Once open, Pena will have three bars within walking distance from each other. Turning East Grayson into a hub for nightlife is a goal.

"I think there's an opportunity to turn East Grayson, or as we like to call it 'East Gray,' into a kind of nightlife district," he says.

Three Star Bar will be open daily. Hours are 3 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Friday and noon to 2 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
A couple of San Antonio businesses received some recognition for their Latino entrepreneurship in a recent Time Magazine article.

On Friday, October 1, the magazine published its piece that shed light on how Latino owners were among the ones who took the hardest hit during the pandemic and how they will help repair the pandemic economic downfall in the U.S.

To help highlight that, the magazine talked to several owners in the Alamo City thanks to its massive Hispanic population. According to Time Magazine, a fifth of businesses, or roughly 7,000, are owned by Hispanics in San Antonio. The magazine reported the city is one of the highest proportions in the nation as the actual population is 68 percent Hispanic.

In San Antonio, Hispanic residents are almost twice as likely as non-Hispanic white residents to be living on an income of less than $25,000, the magazine added.

Time Magazine reporters spoke to Jaime Macias, the owner of Jaime Place's on 1514 W Commerce Street, about the struggles he faced when he tried to open his doors for the first time in October 2020. In San Antonio, officials temporarily shut down bars and restaurants due to a spike in COVID-19 cases.

While he poured his life savings into the establishment on the West Side, Macias told the Times he renewed his lease at the bar after loyal customers supported him over the past year. He said, "Gentrification has a way of eradicating what once was...I wanted to make sure that Jaime's Place planted the flagWe're here por vida [for life]."

Lazaro Santos, the owner of Me Latte, told the magazine things started off slow for the business when they opened in August 2020. However, things picked up after popular local food influencer, S.A. Foodie, raved about the coffee shop on her platform.

He said the social engagement across all their social media accounts has led directly to a 60 percent increase in sales.

Mariangela Zavala, the executive director of the Maestro Entrepreneur Center, a small-business incubator in west San Antonio, explained to the magazine how many Latino-owned small businesses in San Antonio experienced a boom in sales after adopting digital strategies.

"COVID has opened our eyes to the fact that nobody is successful working in silos," Zavala said. "We're vulnerable by ourselves, and we really need community in order to grow."

According to Time Magazine, Latino entrepreneurs have started small businesses at a higher rate than any other demographics in the past 10 years. Before the pandemic, the roughly 400,000 Latino-owned businesses in the U.S., with at least one employee, generated nearly $500 billion in revenues a year and employed 3.4 million people, the article stated.

Now, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, Latinos will make up a projected 78 percent of net new workers between 2020 and 2030.

For more on the Time Magazine article, click here.
This Dia de los Muertos, aka Day of the Dead, the U.S Postal Service is honoring the everlasting legacy of our loved ones with commemorative Forever stamps.

The stamp sheet of 20, aptly released for the month of October leading up to the November 1 holiday, are now available for purchase at your neighborhood post office and at USPS centers of correspondence throughout the nation.

Designed and illustrated by artist Luis Fitch, with art direction by Antonio Alcala, each of the pane's five rows depict colorful sugar skulls. Each skull, which traditionally represent family members who have died, is accompanied by marigolds and a candle (a symbolic lighthouse to the deceased as they make their annual journey back to the land of the living).

Courtesy of USPS

Celebrating the lives of deceased loved ones is a traceable tradition in Latin American dating back 3,000 years. Hybridizing indigenous tradition with the Catholic Spanish settler tradition of All Souls Day, Dia de los Muertos has persevered as a wildly popular occasion, particularly in areas with strong Mexican and Central American communities. The holiday as it presents today caught fire in the 1970s, when Chicano artists worked to uplift these preexisting rituals.

In recent decades, Day of the Dead has caught on in the United States as a festive celebration for all ages, said Michael J. Elston, secretary of the USPS Board of Governors. These new stamps from the U.S. Postal Service provide a wonderful way to commemorate this colorful and life-affirming holiday.

3 1 of 3 Contributor file photo Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Contributor file photo Show More Show Less 3 of 3





The stamps are likely to be a hit in San Antonio, which hosts one of the largest public Day of the Dead celebrations in the country. This year, Muertos Fest participants can enjoy live music, food, and colorful skeletons at Hemisfair from Saturday, October 23 through Sunday, October 24. A dedication ceremony for the stamps was held at Centro Cultural Aztlan in San Antonio on Friday, October 1. Earlier, a similar ceremony was held in El Paso at the Museum of Art.

Stamps are available at the post office or you can now order a sheet of 20 stamps online for $11.60.
Before we get to taking stock of where the effort to salvage Bidens big legislative initiative stands, the Build Back Better labels abject lameness signifies why negotiations among House progressives and moderates, the Senate, and the White House went off the rails. If the back part was openly Back to the New Deal, it might make a smidge of sense to the great unwashed public. But a grab bag of social and climate change programs, which is stuff many voters ought to like if explained properly, instead has such a flabby name that theres good reason to wonder whether its a very pricey but largely empty box. And the focus in the press and even among many of the principals, on the price and not the content, has only reinforced this concern.

Yes, it was good fun to see Nancy Pelosi having to pull back a scheduled vote not once but twice because she could get the progressive bloc led by Pramila Jayapal to fall in line. Yes, the House progressives not only drew blood, but even got Joe Biden to trek to the House to pour oil on the water. However, the progressives are already retreating.

Do not forget that the progressives already made the concession of agreeing to reduce the top line for the Build Back Better bill to $3.5 trillion over ten years, down from the original $6 trillion, in return for having the bill passed in tandem (via reconciliation) with the smaller, supposedly $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, which represents only $550 billion in new spending. The Senate effectively reneged on both by sending only the infrastructure bill on and insisting it be passed on an up/down vote, no amendments.

Even after Bidens lese-majeste appearance, he and Pelosi were not on the same page, with Biden trying to appear relaxed about the progressive revolt and saying the legislature could take all the time it needed to sort his bills out, versus Pelosi in wrangler mode, saying there would be a new vote within a month. Narrowly this is correct since at a minimum Congress would need another extension by then to transportation funding to prevent furloughs. Biden was also not too subtly for the moment backing the progressives as his best hope for getting his big deal through, while at the same time telling them to walk their ask way back, to less than half of the difference between their $3.5 trillion ask and Manchins $1.5 trillion bid. Per Politico:

Biden sought to lower those expectations in the meeting Friday, where he discussed a price tag for the legislation between $1.9 trillion and $2.3 trillion, implying that it could win the backing from Senate moderates. Progressives, who had previously balked at the idea of a lower price tag, rallied around it afterward.

The Sunday talk shows confirmed that the progressives were capitulating:

"There's no number on the table yet that everyone has agreed to," Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal tells @DanaBashCNN when asked about the ongoing negotiations on the larger spending package. Adding, $1.5 trillion is "too small to get our priorities in." #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/KV2EZ3Ig49  State of the Union (@CNNSotu) October 3, 2021

Jayapal tries to maintain that shes not negotiating against herself as she does precisely that. Shes abandoned the $3.5 trillion while trying to pretend that shifting the grounds of the negotiation from dollars to content is not to finesse a further retreat.

Sanders has also conceded:

Sen. Bernie Sanders tells @jonkarl that the $3.5 trillion budget resolution price tag will likely be lowered. The $3.5 trillion should be a minimum, but I accept that there's gonna have to be give and take. https://t.co/5MGcXtm7a4 pic.twitter.com/efP8oRyu7m  This Week (@ThisWeekABC) October 3, 2021

AOC effectively admits that Manchin and Sinema hold the cards and follows the new line that the numbers could be finessed by shorter sunset periods for new programs:

WATCH: @RepAOC tells @margbrennan one way to met in the middle is to "fully fund what we can fully fund" and suggests scaling back the time table on how long some programs are funded for. pic.twitter.com/1mb8iFSJDt  Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) October 3, 2021

Wellie, this strategy wont work so well for climate change programs, since private sector types will be more reluctant to commit resources to programs that might go poof in five years. And as in the assumption that any social spending program wont be rolled back because it will become popular? It depends who the constituency is. A fair chunk of the new social social spending is directed at low income families, particularly an extension of annual tax credit for children. The Hill described it as The largest anti-poverty program in a half century, a permanent expansion of this tax credit would increase after-tax income of the bottom quintile of families by 14.5 percent in 2022. If you think if the Republicans ever get in charge that they wont either let it die or mean-test it into a much smaller scheme, you are smoking something strong.

One could argue that Bidens oblique mention of Manchin and Sinema signifies that the equation could change soon:

Biden: We could bring the moderates and progressives together very easily if we had two more votes. Two. Two people pic.twitter.com/mR7gwnkgoJ  Acyn (@Acyn) October 2, 2021

However, its just as easy to see Biden giving the two Senators the They who must not be named treatment is an admission of their strength. Manchin signaled as much by widening the bid-asked spread by insisting the Hyde Amendment be part of the reconciliation bill. Manchin has also not budged from his $1.5 trillion-as-max position. For him, this appears not to be just a matter of what will fly in West Virginia; he seems to be a true believer. Oh, and remember he wants means-testing too, which translates into not-really-free community college and only partial expansion of pre-K despite research showing that those expenditures more than pay for themselves. Sinema for now is keeping mum, apparently content to let Manchin do the heavy lifting.

It isnt obvious how Manchin or Sinema could be coerced. Since they are in red states, you think it would be possible for the Administration to slow walk absolutely everything they need and hope the locals notice. My friends who claim to be knowledgeable about DC say that isnt how it is done. Both are bought and paid for by various interest groups, so they dont need Team D much/at all for funding. What Sinema wants most, immigration controls, will not be delivered by the Democrats. Manchin has interests in coal companies and comes from a coal-lovin state, so he is personally and politically at odds with cutting carbon emissions. If Manchin hasnt pissed off too many important Republicans personally, it isnt hard to imagine that hed cross the aisle if the Democrats tried to rough him up.

So now we are seeing the Congressional progressives tested, and they are found wanting. I suspect if you asked the representatives who were willing to defy Pelosi last week, they would say that climate change was an existential threat and they therefore thought they needed to Do Something. Yet faced with two Senators they apparently cant budge, the progressives have revealed themselves to be what Lenin called careerists. If they were committed to their goals, they would have been willing to go full Tea Party and risk being one-term Congresscritters.1 They probably wouldnt even be taking a financial risk, since they could almost certainly land in the NGO/industrial complex or the media.

So well see how hard the progressives play-fight with Manchin and Sinema. If they deny Pelosi her promised end-of-month vote and push the negotiations into November, that would show willingness to buck convention and mark up their opponents a bit more. But until you hear of at least a dozen reps willing to vote against anything other that a pretty close to $3.5 trillion bill, dont mistake this negotiation a fight. The progressives are just wrangling over the terms of a Peace with Honor treaty.

________

1 In fairness, while the progressive reps all or nearly all believe in taking concerted action to combat climate change, they may not believe enough in how Biden wants to go about it to commit political career seppuku.
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) Pharmaceutical companies act like mafia thugs, deploying messages of GUILT and FEAR to coerce people into doing things to their body they wouldnt normally do. Over 70 percent of Australian aboriginals arent afraid to refuse disastrous covid vaccines and live a normal life, free of fear. These indigenous people were marked as priority groups when the vaccines first came out.

From the start, governments worked hand-in-hand with pharmaceutical companies to pressure and shame indigenous people to line up and take the shots. Pharmaceutical reps are reportedly approaching elders in the Maningrida and Djarindjin nations to guilt them into vaccinating for the benefit of their community. One indigenous leader from the Waka Waka tribe was coerced into taking the Pfizer covid vaccine. He suffered sudden death just six days later, sending shock waves through the indigenous community.

A nefarious psychological operation is weakening and misleading people to their death

The pharmaceutical mafia were able to coerce Mr. Bevan Costello, a 65-year-old Wakka Wakka tribal elder. Believing that he was doing the right thing for his community, Mr. Costello lined up for his first covid shot in August. On September 9, he received a second dose of Pfizer mRNA at a pop-up event that was being promoted by ABC. Mr. Costello was interviewed by the network. He said many of his fellow Wakka Wakka tribe members were hesitant to take the shots because they did not understand the information and were misled by social media posts.

The Wakka Wakka aboriginal settlement is home to approximately 1,200 residents. As of September 9, 2021, only 4.6 percent of the community were considered fully vaccinated. Mr. Costello was recruited to promote the vaccines, so more of his tribe would follow along. In the interview with ABC, Mr. Costello said he got his confidence back after getting the second shot. This statement proves that people like Costello are psychologically abused and coerced into the protocol. When a person has no confidence to live unless they receive multiple vaccinations, that person is being tormented by a psychological system of control. Mr. Costello also told ABC that the vaccine would protect him because he was diabetic. He was made to believe that he would suffer if he got covid-19. He was made to believe there was nothing he could do to improve his immune system or ameliorate certain suffering.

Indigenous elder experiences sudden death six days after he was guilted into taking Pfizer vaccine

Sadly, six days after Mr. Costello took the second shot, he suddenly passed away. The Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council posted on Facebook that Mr. Costello underwent sudden death. ABC called the sudden death a heart attack, with no mention of the vaccine, which is damaging to the cardiovascular system.

The community mourns Mr. Costellos abrupt passing. He was a respected elder, an educator and a mentor who was tirelessly devoted to his community. As a pillar of his community, Mr. Costello represented the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders on the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council. He was also a founding member of Ration Shed Museum, which tells the history of Cherbourg. He worked with magistrates at the Murri Court to further their understanding of aboriginal culture.

His death will go down as an unvaccinated death because fourteen days had not passed since his second shot and therefore, he was not considered fully vaccinated. During this tragedy, all the current information on covid-19 vaccines causing blood clots and heart inflammation was considered misinformation and disregarded. However, if this misinformation was taken seriously, it could have saved his life. If he wasnt guilted into the decision, he could have made a rational choice. If he knew about the risks to his heart at the time he took the vaccine, he might have made a different choice. His life could have been saved if the cardiovascular risks of the vaccine were taken seriously. Because informed consent is now replaced with psychological manipulation, guilt and fear, more people will inevitably become victims of this worldwide genocide.

Sources include:

TheCovidBlog.com

ABCNet.au

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Based on the way the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has manipulated the classification standards for Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine deaths, many fatalities are being falsely categorized as unvaccinated deaths.

Hospitals and laboratories have been given the green light by the CDC to report only those deaths from Chinese Virus injection that occur 14 days or later following the procedure. This means that if a person dies on day 13, for instance, he or she will be classified as an unvaccinated death.

Abusing this misclassification standard is how the system is getting away with concealing many vaccine-caused deaths and effectively skewing the official data to push the plandemic narrative.

This medical fraud and morbid treachery allows [sic] the CDC to continue on with the false narrative that the nation is suffering from a pandemic of the unvaccinated,' reported Crack Newz.

People who die from the vaccine are used as props to falsely advertise the need for more of these deadly vaccines.

Here is how it works: A person who receives one dose of a Fauci Flu shot is still considered to be unvaccinated until two weeks after they receive their second dose.

Since the typical time period between the first and second dose is about a month, this means that a person is not considered fully vaccinated until about a month and a half after the first shot. Whatever happens during that waiting period, including receiving a positive test result, will be officially logged as an unvaccinated case.

In the event that symptoms emerge, the resulting sickness is likewise not labeled as a vaccine reaction. Instead, the system automatically classifies it as a healthy immune reaction, meaning the jab is supposedly working as intended.

Covidism is a cult

Fully vaccinated patients who ask questions about any of this are told as a rule that their issues would have been much worse had they refused the injections in the first place. There is no science to back this narrative, of course, but that is the line they are fed.

Even though there is no way to compare a vaccine injury with a hypothetical, nonexistent case of illness, vaccinated patients are told to accept this conjecture as fact, Crack Newz says.

It doesnt matter how many drugs the patient needs to manage the pain after they get sick from the vaccine. It doesnt matter how many times the vaccinated patient needs to see a doctor or seek the ER after being vaccinated.

As a rule, the CDC does not count any injuries or deaths as vaccinated deaths until about 45 days after someone receives their first dose. This ensures that very few vaccinated deaths get logged into the system.

This rule conveniently hides 80 percent of the deaths that occur after vaccination and slyly mis-attributes these deaths as unvaccinated deaths,' Crack Newz further explains.

This fraudulent rule inflates the unvaccinated death toll and hides the real medical issues that are the result of covid shots.

As it turns out  and this is no accident  the vast majority of post-vaccination deaths occur either within the waiting period between the first and second shot or within 14 days following the second shot. This means that only a tiny fraction of vaccine-caused deaths gets classified as such.

This deliberate obfuscation of the data allows the CDC to control the narrative as well as continue pushing more deadly shots as the solution to the problem that these very same shots are creating.

The CDCs morbid distortion of death is not the only process that obfuscates data and deceives the nation, Crack Newz warns.

More of the latest news about covid vaccine injuries and deaths can be found at ChemicalViolence.com.

Sources for this article include:

CrackNewz.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Brits are reportedly panic buying gasoline due to an ongoing energy crisis that is spilling out of China into Europe  and from there into the United States, potentially.

As natural gas prices in Europe and Asia soar, protests are breaking out all over the place. The story is that India and China are both seeing shortages of coal, which has prompted energy rationing in multiple Chinese provinces.

With winter soon on this way, this is an ominous development that comes at a time when the global supply chain is already teetering on the brink of collapse due to nearly two years of government-imposed Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) tyranny.

First came the COVID-induced global supply chain crisis for container shipping, reports American Shipper.

Now comes a power crunch across Asia and Europe. Energy commodity stockpiles  just like U.S. retail inventories  did not build back up fast enough to contend with post-lockdown demand.

How does any of this affect ocean shipping, you might be asking? Since many consumer goods sold in North America come from Asia, and particularly China, this just adds another crimp in the supply chain.

For commodity shipping  dry bulk, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and possibly oil tankers  its a recipe for higher rates, American Shipper further explains.

Shipping container prices are skyrocketing, driving up costs that are later passed on to consumers

Nomura analyst Ting Lu told Bloomberg that the power curbs in China and India will ripple through and impact global markets.

Very soon the global markets will feel the pinch of a shortage of supply from textiles and toys to machine parts, he added.

Increased emissions restrictions in China are hitting particularly hard, especially since the regions of China most affected are those heavily into the manufacturing sector.

A Foxconn facility where iPhones are made had to be shut down temporarily due to no power. Other supplies that produce parts and goods for Tesla and other tech companies have had to do the same.

It is also becoming increasingly more expensive to ship goods across the ocean, which is prompting further shortages and supply chain disruptions. Something has got to give, at some point.

Stoppages of Chinese factories would further delay deliveries of U.S. imports, which have already been waylaid by extreme congestion at ports in Southern California and, more recently, ports in China, American Shipper reported.

Another factor in all this is a persistent lack of capital for reinvestment into the energy sector. A big stockpile, according to Clarksons Platou Securities analyst Omar Nokta, was created in the first few months of the pandemic, but the world went right through it as soon as lockdowns abated, [and] capital hasnt been redeployed.

Whether it was coal or natural gas or oil, Nokta added, there was very low capital available for companies to continue to reinvest [in production] for several years heading into the pandemic.

Thermal coal, which is used for power generation, is facing some of the steepest restrictions under Beijings emissions rules. Consequently, the electricity supply is dwindling away over time, especially as demand for thermal coal has skyrocketed.

People expected some bounce back in demand for thermal coal in 2021, but the surge in demand was not at all anticipated, Nokta says.

That resurgence is keeping Panamaxes and Capes very busy when they cant count on the cargoes they normally would  grain for Panamaxes and iron ore for Capes. Grain has been consistent throughout the year and now the Panamaxes have this added thermal coal element. Capes have faced a somewhat inconsistent Chinese steel market [production plunged in August], but it hasnt mattered because of all of these thermal coal cargoes theyve been able to carry.

The latest news about the impending global economic collapse can be found at Collapse.news.

Sources for this article include:

FreightWaves.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) A coalition of whistleblowers from the infamous Ford Foundation has come forward to expose the organizations communist leanings and anti-America agenda.

They released a trove of archived emails to the public showing that the Ford Foundation, which is legally classified as a non-profit, has deviated from its stated purpose and thus no longer qualifies as a valid 501(c)(3) group.

In practice, the Ford Foundation is one of the greatest enemies of Free Expression in the world, notes Chris from Karlstack, Creativity and Free Expression being one of the Ford Foundations central core missions.

I also believe that  if properly investigated  they would run afoul of the regulations regarding The organization must not be organized or operated for the benefit of private interests and Section 501(c)(3) organizations are restricted in how much political and legislative (lobbying) activities they may conduct.'

It turns out that many of the people who innocently joined the Ford Foundations Fellowship Program, believing it to be what it purports to be, are now feeling betrayed. This is why some of them are coming forward anonymously to tell all about what really goes on there.

For their own safety, they have chosen to not disclose their identities. However, these individuals should still be looked at as brave, all things considered.

These whistleblowers cant speak up publicly because any Fordie (they call themselves Fordies) who dares do anything other than pledge full-throated fealty to the woke party line is systematically harassed, doxxed, and blackballed from academia, Chris explains.

If you cross them, their modux operandi is to send your LinkedIn profile to their entire listserv so that everyone may harass your current and former employer.

Ford Foundation cultists accuse Chris of being a fascist and a white supremacist simply for asking questions

When Chris attempted to reach out to the Ford Foundation for a comment on his story before publishing time, he was accused of being a fascist and a white supremacist.

His LinkedIn was then spammed out to the Ford Foundation listserv, just as he was told would happen, in an attempt to smear him and destroy his career.

Keep in mind that many of the Ford Foundation cultists are proud communists. They include blurbs and recognition of communist leaders like Che Guevara and Angela Davis in their email signatures, and praise communist regimes on the regular.

Many of these Fordies make guest appearances on CNN, MSNBC, Democracy Now, NPR, etc. Chris says about the types of places where these hacks are given a platform to speak their idiocy.

Each of the whistleblowers brings a unique perspective to the situation, but all of them basically said the same thing: the Ford Foundation is anti-America, anti-White, and anti-freedom. The true goal of the organization is to advance communism and bring about a global totalitarian state.

The Ford Fellowship is simply ANTI WHITE, and in my view ANTI AMERICAN because they wish to divide our nation according to our skin color, and give power to those who agree with their political agenda, one of them wrote.

I am very sad that American tax dollars go to support this government created, government sanctioned political activist organization.

After reading through all of the accounts, Chris determined that Fordies are the most effete, verbose, pretentious, sheltered d**chebags you could possibly imagine  and not half as smart as they think they are  and this is probably being too nice.

Picture a Key & Peele skit where they play a caricature of goofy CRT (critical race theory) scholars. Common themes in their emails include them being petty, Machiavellian, vindictive, holier-than-thou, careerist narcissists.

To keep up with the latest news about corrupt organizations like the Ford Foundation, be sure to check out Fascism.news.

Sources for this article include:

Karlstack.substack.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) For years, the conservative media told us that Europe is a left-wing cesspool and that the United States is the chosen land. It turns out that we were lied to.

When it comes to accepting the transgender mutilation of children, the U.S. has welcomed this abomination with open arms, while Europe is much more skeptical of, and even outspoken against, this heinous evil.

In France, of all places, doctors and academics are speaking out against the Cult of LGBTQ, warning that giving puberty blockers and irreversible genital mutilation surgeries to children is insane. Remember, France is the same place that Fox News accused of being full of wimps, hence all that talk about freedom fries a few years back.

An open letter that contains the signatures of more than 50 medical professionals and prominent academics, including doctors, legal experts, educational experts, philosophers, sociologists, psychiatrists, judges and psychoanalysts from Europe absolutely eviscerates the LGBTQ agenda. It reads:

We can no longer remain silent about what appears to us to be a serious drift committed in the name of the emancipation of the transgender child (the one who declares that he was not born in the right body). Radical discourses legitimise requests for sex change on the basis of feelings alone, which are set up as the truth. But this is at the cost of lifelong medical or even surgical treatment (removal of breasts or testicles) on the bodies of children or adolescents. It is this phenomenon and its high media profile that concerns us, not the choices of transgender adults.

This same letter goes on to state unequivocally that the only reason some children believe they are in the wrong body is because someone else other than their parents is goading them with bad advice, and this is happening at an increasingly young age.

LGBTs that coax children into transgenderism are abducting the lives of innocents

These professionals warn that what is happening in some neighboring countries, mainly the United Kingdom, could come to France if a strong force of opposition is not levied against it, and quickly.

Compared to 10 years ago, the number of children seeking sex changes in Paris has skyrocketed from about 10 per year to 10 per month. This, the letters signatories say, is a worrying acceleration in medical responses to these transitional requests.

This phenomenon, the transgender child, is in reality a contemporary mystification that must be vigorously denounced because it is a matter of ideological embrigadement, the letter further reads.

They would have us believe that, in the name of the well-being and freedom of each individual, a child, freed from the agreement of its reactionary parents, would be able to choose its so-called gendered identity.

LGBTQs that set out to manipulate and recruit children into transgenderism are engaging in child abductions, the letter warns. What we are witnessing is brain-damaged LGBTQ cultists commodifying childrens bodies to push their own selfish, evil agenda  and many people are not only turning a blind eye to it but also supporting it.

We denounce this abduction of childhood, the letter says. It is now urgent to inform as many citizens as possible, of all professions, of all sides, of all ages, about what could well appear tomorrow as one of the greatest health and ethical scandals, which we would have watched happen without saying a word: the commodification of childrens bodies.

For by persuading these children that they have been assigned a sex at birth, and that they can freely change it, they are made lifelong patients: lifelong consumers of hormonal chemicals marketed by pharmaceutical companies, recurrent consumers of ever more surgical operations in the pursuit of the chimerical dream of a fantasy body.

More related news about how the Cult of LGBTQ is destroying childrens lives by lying to them about gender identities and other made-up concepts can be found at Evil.news.

Sources for this article include:

LifeSiteNews.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) The highly intellectual comedian Russell Brand breaks down the outright bigoted hypocrisy on display on CNN talk shows, where the mindless vaccine-pushing puppets say everything science is to the benefit of mankind and should never be questioned by anyone, ever. Lemons argument is that everything we do is based on science, including eating food and flying on airplanes, so why question vaccines? Russell Brand then points out the opioid epidemic, which was based on scientists in laboratories designing the deadly drugs, so, you were saying?

According to CNNs pundit, Don Low-Brow Lemon, millions of Americans who are against getting Covid vaccines (because they dont know the ingredients) all get botox injections for their lips and butts without questioning those ingredients. After Lemon goes off on his botox rant, he then twists the conversation into ingredients in food, with his simpleton cohort chiming in, Chris Cuomo, agreeing that nobody ever looks at ingredients in anything, so why question vaccine ingredients? This is their Covid bombshell coverage thats supposed to convince the remaining (unadulterated) 150 million Americans to get injected with the experimental, deadly Covid clot shots.

CNN vaccine-pushing pundits are completely ignorant about Covid vaccines, functioning as the epitome of the lowest level of health idiocy on the planet

Russell Brand pushes back intelligently on the debate about all things science being 100 percent wonderful and never to be questioned again: You cant just say science only brings about good things, like its a lovely, friendly old, Grand-Dad-Science just issuing stuff, theres been all sorts of complications, heck, the opioid crisis, do you know what that was? Science!

CNN wants to convince all Americans to starve out the Covid vaccine deniers and call them all anti-science, but should everyone against the opioid pandemic be ostracized also as anti-science, because it took scientists to create those drugs in labs? Thats absurd, but thats the logic on CNN for all the sold out Democrats who truly believe socialism and communism arent that bad for America, and that theres no chance that the same pharma companies responsible for the opioid crisis could possibly put anything harmful in vaccinations.

Yet, the vaccine manufacturers cannot be held liable for any injuries or deaths caused by them, and right now there are 50,000 deaths by Covid jab (within two weeks of injection) recorded by the Medicare system.

Vaccine apartheid now sweeping across the country thanks largely to morons on television

Hitler accomplished the same, killing off millions of unwanted humans, and he was just one guy, so why not Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo? Hitler convinced all of Germany to blame the Jews for all their economic, financial, social, health and biological problems. Kill them and everything will be wonderful, he believed, while convincing the military (SS Police) and Big Pharma (IG Farben) to enforce it, using medical experiments, vaccines and toxic gas. Millions died based solely on their religion. Now theres a vaccine-religion, and if youre not worshipping it, the Left wants you cut off from society and starved to death.

Todays no different than Nazi Germany in that regard. Think about it. Now that hatred and psychotic belief system is being cast on people who have made an informed medical decision, and CNNs message to the world is kill these people by excluding them from all things in society, including travel, grocery shopping, working at a job or even children attending school, at all levels.

Next CNN will want Amazon to starve us all out while were on house arrest from the Biden Regime, all for refusing the clot shots. Welcome to the vaccine holocaust folks, with your hosts at CNN. Anyone who opposes taking opioids for pain must also be exterminated, according to CNN pundits, because thats science-based.

According to the Counterfeit News Network and their talking heads, anyone opposed to breathing in automobile exhaust fumes in big cities should be jailed or starved to death, because automobiles were created by science, just like planes and heroin-based painkillers and vaccines. Some of us dont want blood prion diseases for the rest of our (shortened) lives, but that doesnt mean were anti-science.

Is someone you know suffering from post-Covid-vax Spike Protein Syndrome? Tune your truth news dial to Pandemic.news for the best ways to keep your body healthy, your home safe and your constitution protected.

Sources for this article include:

Pandemic.news

NaturalNews.com

TruthWiki.org

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com

LifeSiteNews.com
(Natural News) A 57-year-old actor is dead, in another near-term, post-injection death being classified as cancer.

(Article republished from TheCOVIDBlog.com)

Mr. Willie Garson, whose real name is William Paszamant, received his second Pfizer mRNA injection on April 14, according to his Twitter account.

Its unclear when he received his first injection. But his vaxx zealotry mushroomed in March. This blogger has covered unpleasant individuals whose entire existences revolved around mask and vaxx-worshiping, regurgitating mainstream media and government propaganda, and belittling the non-vaxxed. But it was genuinely difficult and stressful reading through Mr. Garsons Twitter history. He was very angry and bitter on social media.

Willie Garson on Twitter

The hostility and contempt for the non-vaxxed and non-masked started in late March, after his first injection. Mr. Garson said everyone will be wearing masks for the rest of our lives and referred to non-masked people as fucking idiots.

He then tried to blatantly coerce someone with preexisting medical issues to get the mRNA or viral vector DNA injections despite the obvious risks to their health and well-being.

Mr. Garson continued attacking non-vaxxed people, calling then selfish and irresponsible.

By July, Mr. Garson went into full attack dog mode. He first gloated about being Jewish and being a good Jew compared to other Jewish people.

Mr. Garson was also the self-anointed number-1 troll of Congressman Glenn Grothman, R-Wisconsin. Granted Grothman does not strike this blogger as a decent human being by any stretch of the imagination. But speak once and let it be done. Grothman lived rent-free in Mr. Garsons head for much of 2021. The following is just one of at least one hundred vitriolic tweets directed at Grothman.

Mr. Garson could not help himself when it came to virtue signaling and attacking the non-vaxxed. He re-tweeted someone calling the non-vaxxed selfish and stupid with the hashtag #TRUTH.

He then called the non-vaxxed idiots and blamed them for, apparently, his bad investments on the stock market.

Mr. Garson not only implied that he knows whats best for everyone, but also called every non-vaxxed person willfully ignorant.

Willie Garsons death

Mr. Garson averaged about 450 tweets per month from September 2017 to February 2020, before the so-called pandemic. He averaged about 1,400 tweets per month from March 2020 when the so-called pandemic began, until February 2021. Those numbers steadily dropped after his injections. But the vitriol got nastier and was essentially present in every tweet from March 2021 forward.

Mr. Garson went from tweeting 1,768 times in January 2021, to only 237 tweets in June 2021, his lowest monthly total dating back to August 2017. But he rebounded in July with 754 tweets in July, his highest since March. Perhaps he felt something wrong in his body and wanted to go out swinging as much as possible. Mr. Garson tweeted only 105 times in August. That number dropped to only four times in September, with his final tweet on September 4 being his first sign of human decency from him at least since March 2021.

Mr. Garson passed away on September 20. Mainstream media immediately reported that Mr. Garson died of a short illness.

But the cause of death changed to pancreatic cancer a few days later.

Another doctor links mRNA injections to cancer

Dr. Judy Mikovits told Alex Jones last month that the artificial spike proteins in the Pfizer and Moderna injections are cancer envelopes. Now another doctor is upholding his Hippocratic Oath and speaking out about cancer-causing agents in the mRNA injections.

Dr. Ryan Cole is a board-certified pathologist and medical director of Cole Diagnostics in Idaho. He is licensed to practice medicine in 11 states. Dr. Cole appeared on The Highwire with Del Bigtree. He spoke about a colleague in Ireland. That doctor told him hes seeing inexplicable cancer in a six-week time frame like hes never seen in his 40-year career in regular patients. Many of said patients received mRNA or viral vector DNA injections.

Dr. Cole cited a study by Dutch researchers that found the mRNA injections suppress the immune response of Toll Like Receptor 4 (TLR4). This protein-coding gene is responsible for fighting off numerous cancers, according to Dr. Cole. Thus quiescent (dormant) cancers activate and spread more easily in vaxxed people. Here is the clip.

The fact remains that Mr. Garson died five months after his second Pfizer mRNA injection. Based on his Twitter activity, his health deteriorated in August and progressively worsened until he died in September.

The official cause of death is pancreatic cancer. Mr. Garson also displayed the same nasty, vitriolic behavior as many of the most infamous virtual signalers covered on this blog have displayed. Its becoming clear, based on our data, that mRNA and viral vector DNA injections change peoples personalities or enhance already-rancorous personalities. They become acrimonious, irrational vaxx zealots that are 100% loyal to the Cult of COVID. Weve even covered cases of dementia shortly after the injections. Its clear Mr. Garson was operating under the influence of mRNA, if you will.

The lethal injections kill slowly or quickly. They maim severely and cause grisly injuries. The only way to avoid the adverse effects is to avoid the injections. Stay vigilant and protect your friends and loved ones.

Read more at: TheCOVIDBlog.com
(Natural News) Monday, FNCs Tucker Carlson warned Christianity was being replaced by what he called the cult of the coronavirus and what cultural impacts that would have on the country.

(Article by Jeff Poor republished from Breitbart.com)

Carlson referred to Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY), who he noted wore a vaccinated necklace, and called her the high priestess of the cult.

Transcript as follows:

CARLSON: Is God dead? Thats the question that Time Magazine famously asked way back in 1966 when Time Magazine mattered. The answer then and now is, No, God is not dead. But a lot of the people who believed in Him are dead, it turns out.

Not so long ago, this was an enthusiastically Christian country. As recently as 2009, seventy seven percent of Americans told pollsters they considered themselves to be believing Christians. Then in just 10 years, over the course of the Obama administration, that number dropped by 12 points. Over the same period, the number of atheists and self-identified non-religious people in America dropped dramatically. That was before COVID.

Politicians used the pandemic across the country to close thousands of churches and throw Christians in prison for practicing their faith. Here was the scene for example last fall in Idaho, police arresting a congregation for singing hymns outdoors.

[VIDEO CLIP PLAYS]

CARLSON: Socially distanced hymn singing outside, so what exactly was these peoples crimes? That tape will be studied by future generations of historians trying to figure out what was going on. What did these people do wrong?

Well, they publicly affirmed their belief in a power higher than government, not allowed

Fewer and fewer Americans do that or even think to, but that does not mean  and this is the critical point  that does not mean this has become a secular country. There are no secular countries, just as there are no secular people. Everybody believes in something. All of us are born with the need to worship. The question is, what?

So, no, America has not lost its religion, it just replaced its religion. Whats dying is the faith that created Western Civilization  Christianity. In its place is a new creed and like all religions, it has its own sacraments, its own sacred texts. Its the cult of coronavirus.

Kathy Hochul is one of the high priestesses of this new faith. She is the Governor of New York. Now, no one voted for her as Governor and that seems odd for a politician, but its typical for a faith leader. No one voted for Jim Jones either.

Yesterday, Kathy Hochul held her first service as the leader of the New York diocese of the corona cult. Around her neck, she wore, not a cross, thats yesterdays symbol, but instead a vaccination necklace. That necklace signified to the faithful gathered that Hochul has ascended to the select priesthood of those who have taken full intravenous communion.

Listen to Bishop Hochul preach.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D-NY): 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 there are people out there who arent listening to God and what God wants. You know this.

You know who they are. 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 vaccinated because I love you. I want you to live.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: How do you show your love to one another? The old way was to visit people say in the hospital, as they died. Thats no longer allowed. The new way to show your love is to get the vax. God himself wants you to take the vaccine. I need you to be my apostles, Hochul thundered.

No one comes to the Father except through the shot. Sinners in =the hands of an angry healthcare worker.

At the pulpit, Kathy Hochul, not super bright as you may have noticed seemed suddenly transformed, a transfiguration if you will. Standing there, she wasnt merely a mediocre unelected Governor of a dying state with bad weather, no, Hochul was the vaccine messiah preaching the undying word of Saint Anthony Fauci. Can I get an, amen, ladies and gentlemen?

Now it may sound unlikely to those of you used to the older faiths, but many are joining this new church and for $39.00 right now on amazon, you too can buy a sterling silver necklace that declares that you have been vaccinated, literally declares it. Just spells it out in cursive, vaccinated.

There is no mistaking what incredibly good person you are. Everyone will see it. You can also buy vaccination bracelets and vaccination pins and vaccination earrings, vaccination shirts, vaccination socks. Its all at Kathy Hochuls church gift shop. Go there today.

And while youre shopping, be certain to pick up a Tony Fauci prayer candle. In fact, get two.

All good decent people have more than one. For just 15 bucks on Etsy, you can buy a Patron Saint of staying home prayer candle. Thats a real thing. We read the reviews today. Here is one of them: Love it. (Exclamation point). I think I may have to set up a little altar to place it on. (Another exclamation point). Theres a new convert.

Heres another review from a woman called Kelly Hannon, quote: I put this in my office. I work in public health and this makes me smile every time I look at it. Of course, it makes you smile, Kathy Hannon. Virtue is its own reward.

Now for those still making the tough transition from a traditional western religion, a religion about God to this new religion which is not about God, its really about you and only you and more of you and you, you, you, you, you can pick up this masked nativity scene online. It looks conventional, but look closely.

It features Mary, Joseph, and the Baby Jesus all with their faces covered as they should be even in a manger. Theyre masked just like you are.

In this religion of narcissism, the holiest figures look exactly like you do. Thats the point. Well reach back 2,000 years and change the appearance of historical figures to look exactly like the people in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Thats what this religion is about.

And speaking of babies, you want to celebrate your childrens baptism by vax, by purchasing a sacred text to memorialize this moment. We recommend this age-appropriate Tony Fauci coloring book. This book promises, quote: Hand illustrated coloring pages starring your quarantine dreamboat. Not surprisingly, the reviews online are glowing. Everyone loves it with one exception. Of course, theres always an apostate, the kind of person burning stakes were created for.

Heres what that nasty non-believer said in the snarkiest possible way, quote: Theres a section at the back of the book where kids color numerous pages solid black to help Dr. Fauci cover up his involvement in the pandemic. Yes, I guess we know who to report to the religious police.

For the rest of us though, there are Tony Fauci pins, Tony Fauci mugs, Tony Fauci Christmas ornaments. Theres a cornucopia of Fauciana. Its all part of the practice of this young, but growing faith.

Soon the especially devout will set out on pilgrimages to Wuhan, China where the very first miracle of pangolin to human transmission occurred. Some believe a visit to the wet market will heal them, and who are we to say that it wont?

Youre not going to hear Joe Biden doubting this new religion, Joe Biden is its chief apostle. He knows that the kingdom of corona can exist right here on Earth and that it will endure forever, but first, everyone must convert, every last person.

This is an evangelical faith. It will be spread by the sword if necessary.

Here was Joe Biden be vaccinated today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: How many Americans need to be vaccinated for us to get back to normal? What is the percentage? Total vaccinations that have to be deployed?

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I think  look, I think we get the vast majority like whats going on in some of the  some industries and some schools 97 to 98 percent. I think weve got awful close and  but Im not the scientist, I think  but one thing for sure, a quarter of the country cant go unvaccinated, and if not, we are going to continue to have a problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: There he is getting another shot, another. Why not? Its not just once a year, no, not for the devout. Some people take communion every day. Joe Biden would like to see everybody on board with this program, everyone believing wholeheartedly in this new faith. He has called for 98 percent of the United States of America to convert, to get those shots.

One, two, three, maybe every Sunday. Thats a lot. Thats a big percentage of people.

For context, according to the CDC  and we looked it up today  just 92 percent of American two-year-olds are vaccinated against polio and some say polio is almost as bad as corona, but here is the difference, fighting polio was never a religion, it was just science.

The whole project was overseen by a logical little man called Jonas Salk. Jonas Salk did not wear a vaccine necklace, he created the vaccine, but it never occurred to him to make jewelry out of the cause. No one lit candles in Jonas Salks name.

Jonas Salks job was to stamp out a disease, and he did that. It never occurred to him to start a cult.
(Natural News) In order to keep the case count high and the plandemic moving right along, government officials in Alberta, Canada, are now counting all illnesses as covid in order to justify all the tyranny.

In an announcement, Alberta Chief Health Officer Deena Hinshaw explained that people who test negative for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19), as well as people who never get tested at all but who show respiratory symptoms of any kind, will be automatically added to the official case count that the government relays to the media.

So, we do have that framework where schools, if they see that there are an increased number of children who are ill because of respiratory illness, or teachers or staff, they can work with Alberta Health Services, Hinshaw revealed.

And in some ways, that is adding an additional layer of protection because if individuals choose to not get tested for covid but are home with an illness, theyre now counted in the list as being part of that outbreak.'

Words like outbreak really get the people going, even if they are completely fictitious, so this approach is likely to keep the Branch Covidians scared as can be and ready to get their next Biden Booster shot the moment it becomes available.

So, its less dependent on needing a test to be a part of identifying where there is an issue, Hinshaw added, indicating that the government is making everything up on the fly to push an agenda.

We are, as I mentioned, working with education to determine if there are any adjustments that need to be made to this framework. But there are no other settings right now aside from continuing care and acute care at locations where theres a significant risk of transmission and severe outcomes.

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

Covidism is the real virus

As it turns out, most new cases of the Chinese Virus are fictitious, even outside of Canada. Here in the United States, every reported surge or outbreak is completely made up to scare people into compliance.

At least half of all new cases are either asymptomatic or erroneous, a recent study found. The same is true about hospitalizations, which are largely being manufactured to create the illusion that sickness is spreading like wildfire.

The disease that threatens us all is the religion of Covidism, and Hinshaw is one of its high priestesses. Watch below as she runs through a ridiculous masking and hand sanitizing ritual before speaking to the press:

If there should be an outbreak in those settings, we are ensuring that follow-up takes place to mitigate and to manage outbreaks, Hinshaw added in a statement.

However, in schools, again we are taking the approach that an illness that fits that definition of respiratory illness is treated the same way whether its someone who is diagnosed with covid or not.

Meanwhile, India is seeing the fewest real-life cases of illness because of its use of ivermectin as opposed to vaccines. Conversely, Israel is seeing a massive spike in disease thanks to the country now being about 80 percent vaccinated with more booster shots soon on the way.

No one in their right mind believes you clowns anymore, wrote one commenter at Citizen Free Press about Hinshaw and her fellow Branch Covidians.

It has nothing to do with a virus and has never had anything to do with the virus, wrote another. This is all orchestrated to take our rights away and push us towards a socialist utopia that most of us do not want.

The latest news stories about Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) lies and deception can be found at Propaganda.news.

Sources for this article include:

CitizenFreePress.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Localized electricity constraints are hitting Chinese component suppliers that provide parts for companies like Apple and Tesla.

According to reports, component suppliers for a number of major technology and automobile corporations have suspended operations because they claim that there is not enough energy available to produce their wares.

Pegatron, which assembles iPhones for Apple at manufacturing plants in Kunshan and Suzhou, announced that it is taking energy-saving measures to comply with local government policies  which means fewer iPhones available to consumers.

The company says that as of Sunday all operations are still running normally. However, there are alternative power generation sources available in the event that the Chinese government shuts off power to their plants, which could happen at any time.

Pegatron has been adopting energy- and water-saving measures over the past few years and there is a comprehensive response program for the current situation to reduce the impact on our operations and production capacity, the company announced in a statement.

Other suppliers have warned that they, too, are facing power outages that could last anywhere from a few days to several weeks. Several top suppliers for both Apple and Tesla have already had their power cut off, forcing them to cease production indefinitely.

Foxconn, a subsidiary of Eson Precision Engineering and one of the worlds largest iPhone assemblers, announced that it had to suspend operations for about a week in the Chinese city of Kunshan due to environmental measures.

The company will leverage its inventory to maintain the operation while production is halted, Eson wrote in a filing with the Taiwan stock exchange. We expect to arrange production on the weekends or in the upcoming holidays [next month] to meet customers needs.

Is this another form of Chinese warfare against America?

Interestingly, many of the areas where power is being cut off in China are considered to be top industrial hubs, meaning consumer goods exported to North America are manufactured there.

The more things shut down, in other words, the fewer products make it to the United States, which is already struggling with labor shortages and supply chain disruptions that have left shipping barges stuck at sea with nowhere to port.

Unimicron Technology Corporation, a major printed circuit board manufacturer and a top supplier for Apple, announced that operations would cease until the end of the month due to new restrictions. Concraft Holding, which makes speakers for iPhones, issued a similar announcement.

Each one of these companies and many others claim that they have backup energy or other manufacturing facilities in unaffected areas that can help to pick up the slack. This may or may not be true, and only time will tell.

At the order of Beijing, China has to abide by new energy restrictions that are limiting the countrys ability to manufacture goods for the West. This is all too convenient for Chinas long-term goal of destroying the West, especially at a time when the Chinese Virus is already creating major chinks in the global supply chain.

So, China is a manufacturing superpower no more? asked a commenter at Zero Hedge. Never put all your eggs in one basket, and never put all your factories under one foreign nation and one foreign government.

China is more democratic and more anti-communist than the USA these days, responded another with a different perspective. Not to say they are good. Just to say they are better. Were controlled by the Larry Finks of the world: capitalism for them and communism and slavery for everyone else.

To learn more about how a global economic collapse is right now being ushered in through the Trojan Horse of covid, visit Collapse.news.

Sources for this article include:

ZeroHedge.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) As bad as things have become due to all the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) fascism, things are especially bad on college campuses, which have become incubators, of sorts, for testing out the worst kinds of surveillance and tracking schemes.

Students have become certifiable prisoners at their own academic institutions, it turns out. And because they are cut off, in many ways, from the rest of society, college campuses function well as experimental Chinese Virus concentration camps.

If they are accepted and assimilated into the new normal of campus life, you can be sure that these concentration camps will eventually extend beyond academia and into everyones daily life. We are already seeing this happen, especially in the more progressive enclaves of our country.

Most colleges and universities seem to be demanding that all students, and in some cases staff as well, mask up, get vaccinated and avoid socializing with others. Some schools are even prohibiting students from drinking water inside buildings, forcing them to either dehydrate or go outside every time they want to take a drink.

Contract tracing is also rampant in academia, even though society at large, at least here in the United States, largely rejected it in the early days of the plandemic. The goal seems to be to warm up the younger generation to think of constant tracking and surveillance as normal so they can bring that mindset with them post-graduation.

Parents: Dont send your children to a covid concentration camp school

The same institutions pushing the worst kinds of covid fascism are right now churning out the next generation of leaders who will govern the world with an iron fist. They are being trained as foot soldiers for the new (communist) world order.

Back in the day, this was all supposed to just be about flattening the curve, which was supposed to take a mere two weeks. And here we now are two years later with college campuses functioning like something out of a World War II documentary.

How did we get here? Well, as is typically the case, young people were exploited to usher in and normalize the agenda. Students both young and old have it the worst right now, as they are being forced to suffocate behind a face covering for eight hours a day after rolling up their sleeves for the required injections.

Students are also being encouraged to snitch on their classmates who defy the orders, or at least to look down on them with shame and condemnation. Recognizing the power of peer pressure and immaturity, the powers that be are creating monsters out of the next generation  and they are using your tax dollars to do it.

First: unless and until COVID cases are abandoned as a metric by which policy action is presumptively dictated, these institutions are destined to continue flailing from irrational measure to irrational measure for the foreseeable future, warns Michael Tracey on his Substack.

Tracey brings up an important point that must be addressed, and it has to do with what was used as justification to let this all happen in the first place: testing.

As is now admitted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), covid testing is an absolute fraud. And yet it underlies all the fascism taking place because it scares people into thinking there is a problem that can only be dealt with through extreme measures.

 the infrastructure wont be dismantled any time soon because doing so would also require accepting a major paradigm shift in how COVID is understood, says Tracey. And for certain segments of society, that whole system of thought is just too all-consuming.

To keep up with the latest news about Chinese Virus fascism, visit Fascism.news.

Sources for this article include:

MTracey.substack.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Our country is still reeling from the still-lingering COVID-19 pandemic, but thats not because the virus is such a massive threat to the survival of the human race.

Its because leftists in government at all levels continue to exploit the coronavirus in ways that greatly enhance their own power and authority, which is part of the same long game that leftists always play in their quest to someday completely trash our founding constitutional system and replace our republic with a dictatorial regime centering all power, ultimately, in Washington, D.C.

An increasing number of governments, including the federal government, are mandating that their employees get a COVID-19 vaccine or else lose their jobs; an increasing number of Americans are opting out of the mandate, and while we applaud them for standing up for bodily autonomy, it seems that many of the vaccine rejectors are frontline emergency personnel and caregivers.

The Daily Mail reports, for example, that dozens of Massachusetts State Troopers have left the force in opposition to Gov. Charlie Bakers vax mandate:

A Massachusetts police union said on Friday that dozens of state troopers have resigned over a COVID vaccine mandate for state workers.

The mandate requires state workers to get the vaccine shot by October 17 or may face termination from their jobs.

A lawsuit was filed by The State Police Association of Massachusetts  a union that represents 1,800 officers  in an attempt to delay the mandate enforced by Republican Governor Charlie Baker. That suit was thrown out Thursday.

Many of these troopers are going to be returning to their previous municipal police departments within the state that allow for regular testing and masks, union president Michael Cherven noted. To date, dozens of troopers have already submitted their resignation paperwork.

What is angering is that not long ago police officers, nurses, teachers, paramedics and other frontline workers (including truck drivers) were being hailed as heroes as they carried out their duties without a vaccine being available  and without anyone seeing them as some sort of societal threat.

Not anymore, which again shows you just how politicized the left has made this virus and the vaccine.

Throughout COVID, we have been on the front lines protecting the citizens of Massachusetts and beyond, SPAM chief Cherven added.

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, he added.

However, Judge Jackie Cowin of the Massachusetts Supreme Court denied the request last week.

Specifically, the public interest is, unquestionably, best served by stopping the spread of the virus, in order to protect people from becoming ill, ensure adequate supply of medical services, and curtail the emergence of new, deadlier variants of the virus, Cowin told the Daily Wire.

Only, the vaccine isnt doing that; there have been an increasing number of so-called breakthrough infections in people who have been vaccinated. So what is the point of getting one? And remember when we were being told life would get back to normal with the availability of the vaccine?

How come COVID has become a vaccine mandate throughout society but flu vaccines havent, though flu kills children and is a seasonal death threat?

But its not just police officers were losing; nurses and teachers have lined up to refuse the vaccine as well.

Yahoo News recently reported on one case involving Texas nurses:

More than 100 staff members at Houston Methodist Hospital who were fired for refusing to get vaccinated for COVID-19 appealed a judges ruling that sided with the hospitals right to terminate their employment.

We are going to most likely go all the way up to the Supreme Court, Jennifer Bridges, a registered nurse and the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, which was enjoined by 117 former employees of the hospital.

And in New York City, as many as 28,000 public school teachers and employees risk losing their jobs if they dont take the jab by an Oct. 1 deadline.

So much for the lefts chant, My body, my choice! What hypocrites.

Sources include:

BizPacReview.com

News.Yahoo.com

DailyMail.co.uk
(Natural News) New York Gov. Kathy Hochul used a Brooklyn-based evangelical megachurch, the Christian Cultural Center, as her bully pulpit on Sunday.

(Article by Amy Gamm republished from WesternJournal.com)

Hochul called upon vaccinated congregants to be her apostles to promote New Yorks vaccine mandate agenda because their unvaccinated brothers and sisters arent listening to God and what God wants.

Speaking of the vaccines, the states first female governor said that God had answered prayer about the pandemic. 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.'

The Democratic governor made the remarks at the Christian Cultural Centers Sunday morning services one day before New Yorks vaccine mandate for health care workers went into effect on Sept. 27.

I need you to be my apostles, Hochul told the congregation. 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 because I love you and I want you to live.'

On Aug. 16, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the New York Department of Health regulation mandating all health care workers in the state receive their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine by Sept. 27  with limited exceptions for those with religious or medical reasons  or risk termination.

On Aug. 26, just days after Hochul was sworn in as New Yorks first female governor, New Yorks Public Health and Health Planning Council approved an emergency regulation completely removing the religious exemption but leaving the medical exemption in place.

This sparked a group of anonymous health care workers, represented by the Thomas More Society, to file a lawsuit on Sept. 13 against the state, arguing that their constitutional rights were violated when the state issued a vaccination mandate with no exemption for sincere religious beliefs.

The next day, Judge David Hurd of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York temporarily blocked the mandate for those seeking religious exemption. This pushed back the requirement at least another two weeks until Oct. 12 when the judge will decide whether to make the preliminary injunction more permanent, the New York Post reported.

According to the lawsuit, all 17 plaintiffs conscientiously objected on religious grounds to the COVID-19 vaccines because they all employ fetal cell lines derived from procured abortion in testing, development or production of the vaccines.

The National Center for Biotechnology Information, a research and resource arm within the National Institutes of Health, acknowledged in a recent paper that the top religious opposition to receiving COVID-19 vaccines stems from the fetal cell lines linked to abortion that were used during the testing, development or production of the vaccines.

The particular cells in question are the HEK 293 kidney cells that came from an elective abortion performed in 1972 in the Netherlands, according to NCBI.

National Review reported that no HEK 293 kidney cells actually exist in either the Pfizer or the Moderna vaccines; they were only involved in the post-production process of the final vaccine product: that is, they are not part of the vaccine but rather were test subjects used to help determine how effective it was.

However, other vaccines such as the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines did use fetal cells in the actual production process, according to National Review.

Despite what NCBI calls an ethical vaccine research and policy controversy, Hochul, who comes from a big Irish Catholic family and is a pro-abortion advocate endorsed by Planned Parenthood, told The Associated Press that shes not aware of any major religious group that prohibits its followers from getting the jab.

Everyone from the Pope on down is encouraging people to get vaccinated, she said.

Indeed, the nonprofit Ad Council recently produced a pubic service video promoting vaccines in which Pope Francis said, Getting the vaccines that are authorized by the respective authorities is an act of love.

The pope has made several other announcements via social media to promote COVID-19 vaccines, saying that they promote the common good and caring for each other, especially the most vulnerable.

Vaccination is a simple way of promoting the common good and caring for each other, especially the most vulnerable. https://t.co/j9prRxvpoi  Pope Francis (@Pontifex) August 18, 2021

This view is not limited to leaders within the Catholic faith. In March, evangelist Franklin Graham told ABC News, I think if there were vaccines available in the time of Christ, Jesus would have made reference to them and used them.

Not long after, Graham composed a lengthy Facebook post supportive of the COVID-19 vaccines, which resulted in an outcry of dissent among those of his followers who oppose the vaccines on religious grounds.

Keeping in line with these pro-vaccination views from many prominent Christian leaders, the Rev. A.R. Bernard, the senior pastor of the Christian Cultural Center who founded the church in 1978, invited Hochul to speak at his church on Sunday, introducing her to his 37,000-member congregation as a person of faith.

According to The Christian Post, Bernard went on to tell his flock that when he first met Hochul while she was running for lieutenant governor of New York, it struck me that she was a person of faith. Really liked her spirit.

Hochul addressed the church attendees  both live and online  for several minutes, ending her speech with the pledge to use the inspiration of God in my life and fight for you every single day as your governor and beyond without quoting a single verse of Scripture.

Read more at: WesternJournal.com
(Natural News) National security expert Peter Pry explains the importance of the U.S.s nuclear triad and how it helps deter potential enemies. He tackled the topic with Dan Happel on the Sept. 28 edition of the latters show, Connecting the Dots on Brighteon.TV.

In the show, Pry warns that the nuclear triad, a key component of the countrys security, is under threat from the Biden administration and anti-nuclear activists who are part of it.

Pry defines the three legs of the nuclear triad. First, there are intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) such as the land-based Minuteman III missiles numbering more than 400. Second, there are the nuclear bombers  the B-29, B-36, B-52 and the B2 bombers  with the U.S. Air Force oversees. Third, there are the ballistic missile submarines (BMS) comprising of the 14 Trident-class underwater vessels.

According to Pry, the Greatest Generation  born from 1901 to 1927  is responsible for the existence of the nuclear triad. Having lived through World War II and the early Cold War period, they have realized that even the best-laid plans can go wrong and that things fail in war. Thats why we have a triad, [so] that at least one of these things will be able to work, he tells Happel.

Watch the full Sept. 28 episode of Connecting the Dots below or on Brighteon.TV.

Pry says that the U.S. has invested substantial amounts on the nuclear triad for decades to avoid a nuclear war with other nations such as China and Russia. He comments: A lot of people think that the [nuclear] triad and those advocating nuclear preparedness are eager to fight a nuclear war, that they are nuclear hawks. Not so. The people who are most concerned with building up our nuclear strength have shown greater seriousness than the anti-nuclear activists about trying to prevent nuclear war.

He then asks Happel to imagine two men seeking to prevent burglars from breaking into their homes. One man simply puts a sign in his front yard. The other man not only puts a sign on his front yard  but also gets burglar alarms and guard dogs, undergoes training to fight home intruders and supports a robust police force to arrest burglars.

Its obvious that the second man is much more serious about preventing burglary than the first man, Pry says, comparing the first mans action to minimum nuclear deterrence. Unfortunately, the people who dont take the deterrence of nuclear war as seriously as the Great Generation did  [are] in charge now, he continues. (Related: Pentagon warns: China will double the size of its nuclear arsenal in the next decade.)

Anti-nuclear personalities in the Biden administration threaten the nuclear triad

The national security expert warns that the Biden administration and the Democratic Party espouse an anti-nuclear stance, which threatens the nuclear triad and national security at large. Pry names Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) and Rep. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) as some of the politicians who want the U.S. to adopt a minimum deterrence posture.

In particular, he cites Smiths chairmanship of the House Armed Services Committee as having a key role to play in the fate of the nuclear triad. The committee is in charge of writing the defense budget and deciding how much will be spent on nuclear deterrence. What Smith wants to do is hold hearings on this, and hes written letters to President [Joe] Biden about it, Pry notes.

Pry warns of the consequences if in case the Democrats succeed in dialing down the nuclear triad. This would eliminate our land-based ICBMs  [and] the nuclear bombers, and it would cut the number of [BMS] we have  by less than half, as a matter of fact  going down from 14 to six, he says.

Right now, we have a triad. A biad would just be bombers and submarines, and a monad is just submarines. [The Democrats want to] go to this much-scaled back monad of ballistic missile submarines  and that might happen, Pry continues.

Furthermore, Pry also touches on the Biden administrations Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) set to be finished in January 2022. These anti-nuclear activists both within the Biden administration and the [Democratic] Party that Ive been telling you about have been urging  Biden to have the [NPR] support this concept of minimum deterrence and a missile submarine monad, he tells Happel.

According to the national security expert, NPRs do not happen that often  with only five or six reviews occurring throughout the history of the U.S.s nuclear deterrence program. He adds that NPRs are usually written to justify big crossroads in the evolution of the U.S. nuclear triad.

Ultimately, Pry expresses his suspicions over the sudden shift away from nuclear preparedness. He notes how Biden and the Democratic Party have espoused an anti-nuclear stance. Its very suspicious, all of this happening at the same time, he says. (Related: STRATCOM commander sounds the alarm bell, says nuclear war very real possibility with Russia or China.)

Connecting the Dots with Dan Happel airs every Tuesday, 5-6 p.m. Eastern time, on Brighteon.TV.

NationalSecurity.news has more articles about the U.S. nuclear triad and its role in defending the nation.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

Large.Stanford.edu
(Natural News) Community members and activists expressed anger and concern Monday to a Minnesota school board that reportedly has been using a sex ed program that asks straight students to role play gay and transgender relationships.

(Article by Dr. Susan Berry republished from Breitbart.com)

This type of teaching has no place in our schools, one speaker told the Richfield School Board, reported independent news outlet AlphaNews.

Another speaker alleged parents were not told about the graphic nature of the sex ed curriculum.

Parents are intentionally being deceived and misled about what their children are being taught, she said.

Not age appropriate "1 lesson designed for kindergartners, teachers are directed to refer to females as "a person with a vulva," while lessons for upper-grade level students list anal sex alongside vaginal and oral sex as routine intimacy options."https://t.co/ZBwXA5Eoxz. .  CPL Action (@CPLAction) September 24, 2021

The K-12 comprehensive sex education (CSE) program, called 3Rs, for rights, respect, responsibility, was developed by Advocates for Youth, which bills the curriculum on its website as honest, inclusive sex education for all students.

The program teaches about gay sex, gender ideology, abortion, racial justice, and more, and utilizes visuals and role playing activities.

Advocates for Youth, which partners with Planned Parenthood, was confirmed by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in 2015 to be using taxpayer funds to advocate for abortions as reproductive care.

3Rs teaches from the perspective of gender ideology. A lesson for kindergartners instructs teachers to refer to a woman as a person with a vulva.

An elementary level supplemental lesson plan is titled Thinking Outside the (Gender) Box, and states it aims to help upper elementary students understand the basic definitions related to gender identity and gender expression.

AlphaNews provided the following report on the role play activities:

In one series of lessons, 3Rs asks students to role play through various relationship scenarios as part of education on consent and violence prevention. These scenarios ask students to pair up, pretend they are in gay or lesbian relationships and navigate the process of deciding whether or not to have sex. One activity in the curriculum directs a male student to pretend his name is Morgan, a boy who is very active in his schools LGBTQ club, while another student pretends to be Terence, a closet homosexual who wants to have sex with Morgan. In this scenario, Morgan plans a secret rendezvous and the two role-playing students are asked to make a decision about whether to have sex.

In another scenario, students are asked to pretend they are transgender and make a decision about having sex with a woman.

The program notes to teachers that heterosexual boys may display a a homophobic response to being asked to engage in gay role playing.

The curriculum states:

Should this happen in your class, its important to stop what you are doing, notice the interaction, and ask for the class members to reflect on whats happening and why. Direct the students back to your class ground rules  and reinforce the agreement to be respectful  and that making homophobic comments is not respectful.

Roe isnt and has never been enough and #WHPA is step in the right direction. The right to an abortion means nothing if young people, BIPOC folks, or LGBTQ individuals don't have equal access to abortion care. We're not stopping until EVERY PERSON has access to abortion care.  Advocates for Youth (@AdvocatesTweets) September 24, 2021

The topic of anal sex for grades K-5 is raised in the context of HIV/AIDS prevention. For children in the upper grades, however, anal sex is listed, with vaginal and oral sex, as another routine option for sexual intimacy.

One middle school level supplemental lesson plan in 3Rs sex ed teaches pre-teens understanding how racism impacts sexual health and wellness  particularly for racialized people  is paramount to providing inclusive and affirming sex education.

Sex education has a history of centering white, cisgender, heterosexual people, which can promote harm and/or erasure of everyone else, the curriculum states.

"Because of access to safe medical abortion, I was able to graduate from college and live my life as a transgender non-binary person. Abortion is a transgender issue, too."  Jae #ActForAbortionAccesshttps://t.co/lHItnbiTYj pic.twitter.com/bAvhVwO3rJ  Advocates for Youth (@AdvocatesTweets) September 24, 2021

Middle schoolers are taught about condoms and birth control in Lesson 9, and in a supplemental lesson learn about sex trafficking.

A group called Stop CSE has compiled a summary of the 3Rs content.

Julie Quist, a Child Protection League board member, told the Richfield school board, Programs like 3Rs are not effective.

Quist elaborated:

The Institute for Research and Evaluation conducted a comprehensive study on the effectiveness of programs such as this. Out of 60 school-based studies, no credible evidence of effectiveness was found for sustained reductions in teen pregnancy or STDs. There was no evidence of effectiveness for increasing consistent condom use. Failure rates included 88% failure to delay teen sexual initiation and 94% failure to reduce unprotected sex. 12% of these programs found significant negative effects on adolescent sexual health and/or risk behavior.

Claims that explicit sex education has been proven effective are not supported by the evidence, Quist stated.

Were calling our Senators to demand they #StopKavanaugh and protect abortion access, LGBTQ rights, immigrant rights and workers. Join us by calling your Senators: 202-849-7460! pic.twitter.com/xsmWAZ9gqg  Advocates for Youth (@AdvocatesTweets) September 4, 2018

AlphaNews reported Richfield Board of Education Chairman Timothy Pollis responded to the concerns at the meeting by stating, The board does not actually know all the details of our curriculum; I think I can say that with confidence.

He stated nevertheless that all the content is age appropriate and was selected in partnership with parents and guardians.

Breitbart News also reached out to Pollis for comment on the sex ed curriculum and is awaiting his response.

Read more at: Breitbart.com
(Natural News) The purpose of this report is to document how all over the world millions of people have died, and hundreds of millions of serious adverse events have occurred, after injections with the experimental mRNA gene therapy.

(Article by Dr David John Sorenson & Dr Vladimir Zelenko MD republished from Principia-Scientific.com)

We also reveal the real risk of an unprecedented genocide.

F A C T S

Our aim is to only present solid facts, and stay away from unfounded claims. The data is clear and verifiable. References can be found with all presented information, which is provided as a starting point for further investigation.

C O M P L I C I T Y

The data shows that we are currently witnessing the greatest organized mass murder in the history of our world. The severity of this situation compels us to ask this critical question: will we rise up to the defense of billions of innocent people? Or will we permit personal profit over justice, and be complicit?

Networks of lawyers all over the world are preparing class action lawsuits to prosecute all who are serving this criminal agenda. Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are rising up against this criminal operation. To all who have been complicit so far, we say: There is still time to turn and choose the side of truth. Please make the right choice.

W O R L D W I D E

Although this report focuses on the situation in the United States, it also applies to the rest of the world, as the same type of experimental injections with similar death rates  and comparable systems of corruption to hide these numbers  are used worldwide. Therefor we encourage everyone around the world to share this report. May it be a wake up call for all of humanity.

AT LEAST 5 TIMES MORE DEATHS

VACCINE DEATHS ARE SEVERELY UNDERREPORTED

VAERS data from the American CDC shows that as of August 26, 2021 already half a million people suffered severe side effects, including stroke, heart failure, blood clots, brain disorders, convulsions, seizures, inflammations of brain & spinal cord, life threatening allergic reactions, autoimmune diseases, arthritis, miscarriage, infertility, rapid-onset muscle weakness, deafness, blindness, narcolepsy and cataplexy.

Besides the astronomical number of severe side effects, the CDC reports that approx. 16,000 people died as a result of receiving the experimental injections. However, according to a CDC whistleblower who signed a sworn affidavit, the actual number of deaths is at least five times higher. This is what the CDC healthcare fraud detection expert Jane Doe officially stated in a sworn affidavit:1

I have, over the last 25 years, developed over 100 distinct healthcare fraud detection algorithms, both in the public and private sector. () When the COVID-19 vaccine clearly became associated with patient death and harm, I was inclined to investigate the matter. It is my professional estimate that VAERS (the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) database, while extremely useful, is under-reported by a conservative factor of at least 5 () and have assessed that the deaths occurring within 3 days of vaccination are higher than those reported in VAERS by a factor of at least 5.

The CDC is also vastly underreporting other adverse events, like severe allergic reactions (anaphylaxis). The Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) reported that a study showed that the actual number of anaphylaxis is 50 to 120 times higher than claimed by the CDC. 2, 3

On top of that, a private researcher took a close look at the VAERS database, and tried looking up specific case-IDs. He found countless examples where the original death records were deleted, and in some cases, the numbers have been switched for milder reactions. He says:

What the analysis of all the case numbers is telling us right now is that theres approximately 150,000 cases that are missing, that were there, that are no longer there. The question is, are they all deaths?4

How criminal the CDC is, was also revealed a few years ago, when researchers investigated the link between vaccines and autism. They found that there indeed is a direct connection. So what did the CDC do?

All the researchers came together and a large dustbin was placed in the middle of the room. In it they threw all the documents that showed the link between autism and vaccinations. Thus, the evidence was destroyed.

Subsequently, a so-called scientific article was published in Pediatric, stating that vaccinations do not cause autism. However, a leading scientist within the CDC, William Thompson, exposed this crime. He publicly admitted:

I was involved in misleading millions of people about the possible negative side effects of vaccines. We lied about the scientific findings. 5

Maybe the worst example of criminal methodology used to hide vaccine deaths is the incredible fact that the CDC doesnt consider a person vaccinated until two weeks after the injection.

Therefore everyone who dies withing the first two weeks after being injected, is not considered a vaccine death, further skewing the data. 6,7

MODERNA: 300,000 ADVERSE EVENTS

HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS IN THREE MONTHS TIME

A whistleblower from Moderna made a screenshot of an internal company notice labeled Confidential  For internal distribution only, showing there were 300,000 adverse events reported in only three months time. This is a quote from this confidential notice:

This enabled the team to effectively manage approximately 300,000 adverse event reports and 30,000 medical information requests in a three month span to support the global launch of their COVID-19 vaccine.

https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/some-actual-news

LESS THAN 1% IS BEING REPORTED

STUDY SHOWS REAL NUMBER OF ADVERSE EVENTS IS 100X HIGHER

All this information already shows us that the number of adverse events and deaths is a multitude of what is being told to the public. The situation is however still far worse, than most of us can even imagine.

The famous Lazarus report from Harvard Pilgrim Health Care inc. in 2009 revealed that in general only 1% of adverse events from vaccines is being reported:

Adverse events from drugs and vaccines are common, but underreported. Although 25% of ambulatory patients experience an adverse drug event, less than 0.3% of all adverse drug events and 1-13% of serious events are reported to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Likewise, fewer than 1% of vaccine adverse events are reported.

LESS THAN 1% IS BEING REPORTED

STUDY SHOWS REAL NUMBER OF ADVERSE EVENTS IS 100X HIGHER

All this information already shows us that the number of adverse events and deaths is a multitude of what is being told to the public. The situation is however still far worse, than most of us can even imagine.

The famous Lazarus report from Harvard Pilgrim Health Care inc. in 2009 revealed that in general only 1% of adverse events from vaccines is being reported:

Adverse events from drugs and vaccines are common, but underreported. Although 25% of ambulatory patients experience an adverse drug event, less than 0.3% of all adverse drug events and 1-13% of serious events are reported to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Likewise, fewer than 1% of vaccine adverse events are reported.

See: https://digital.ahrq.gov/sites/default/files/docs/publication/r18hs017045-lazarus-final-report-2011.pdf

REASONS FOR UNDERREPORTING

THE POPULATION IS UNAWARE AND MISINFORMED

The reason that less than 1% of adverse events is reported, is first of all because the vast majority of the population is not aware of the existence of official reporting systems for vaccine adverse events.

Secondly, the pharmaceutical industry has been waging an unrelenting media war the past decades against all medical experts, who attempted to inform the public about the dangers of vaccines.

One deployed strategy is name calling, and the negative label anti-vaxxer was chosen to shame and blame all scientists, physicians and nurses who speak truth.

Because of this criminal campaign of aggressive suppression of adverse events data, the majority of the population is clueless that vaccines can cause any harm at all.

The message the general public constantly hears and sees, couldnt be further from the truth: Vaccines are safe and the best way to protect yourself from disease. The thousands of books, scientific studies, and reports documenting the devastating effects of vaccines in general, have been suppressed by all possible means. The undeniable fact that children (and people of all ages, for that matter) are far more ill today than ever before in history, while at the same time they are the most vaccinated population in all of history, is flatly denied.

The widespread propaganda by the vaccine companies, who use government agencies as their main carrousel, simply told humanity for decades that adverse events are a very rare occurrence.

When vaccinated people therefore suffer from serious adverse events, it doesnt even occur to them that this could be from previous injections, and therefor dont report it as such.

During the current world crisis the attacks on medical experts who are warning about vaccines, have gone to an even higher level. Medical experts are now being completely deplatformed from all social media, their websites are deranked by Google, entire YouTube channels are deleted, many have lost their jobs, and in some countries medical experts have been arrested, in an attempt to suppress the truth about the experimental covid injections.

Scientists who speak out against vaccines are even labeled domestic terrorists. All means are deployed by the criminal vaccine cartel to suppress the truth.

As a result countless medical professionals are afraid to report adverse events, which further contributes to the underreporting of these side effects. Additionally, the amount of scientific information warning for these dangerous biological agents, and the number of medical experts warning humanity, is so overwhelming and almost omnipresent  despite the aggressive attempts to silence them  that it is virtualy impossible for any medical professional to not be at least somewhat aware of the risk they are taking, by administering an untested DNA altering injection, without even informing their patients of what is being injected into their body.

If they then see their patients suffer or die, they are naturally afraid of being held accountable, so they refuse to report it.

Lastly: many medical professionals receive financial incentives to promote the vaccines. In the United Kingdom for example nurses get ?10 per needle they put into a child. That again is a reason for them to not report adverse events.

PROJECT VERITAS WHISTLEBLOWERS

DOCTORS AND NURSES SPEAK OUT: THEY ARE NOT REPORTING!

Project Veritas is a journalistic organization that has been exposing crime and corruption in our world for years. They often receive video footage from hidden cameras, that reveal what is going on behind closed doors. They were contacted by several federal doctors and nurses, who can no longer be silent.

S T O P W O R L D C O N T R O L . C O M

T H E V A C C I N E D E A T H R E P O R T

They see large numbers of patients come in with serious adverse reactions, like heart failure, and they notice how the authorities of their hospitals are not reporting any of these vaccine injuries. Dr. Maria Gonzales, ER doctor from the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, expresses her outrage about this in the Phoenix Indian Medical Center.

She discusses with a colleague how a patient was vaccinated and as a result got heart failure:

Theyre not going to blame the vaccine. But he has an obligation to report that, doesnt he? They are not reporting!  Right!  Because they want to shove it under the mat. The government doesnt want to show that the vaccine is full of shit.

In an interview with James OKeefe from Project Veritas, the nurse Jodi OMalley testifies:

Ive seen dozens of people come in with adverse reactions.

She adds that none of these are being reported. When asked if she isnt afraid for repercussions for speaking the truth, she answers:

I am not afraid, because my faith is in God. This is evil at the highest level.

The video also shows nurse Jodi talking to a doctor, who is desperate to break the silence:

It is bullshit. I am about tired of it. So what were going to have to do, cause were on the inside Ive been thinking about it.  And, what do we do?  I dont know, but theres so much I want to blow up.  So much. How do we do that?  You know Project Veritas?

There are thousands of doctors and nurses like this, whose hearts are burning to speak out, but who are afraid. I have personally been contacted by different groups of hundreds of medical professionals. If you are a medical professional and want to speak out, please contact Project Veritas [email protected] or Stop World Control: [email protected]

You will be not be alone, but you will find a vast army of freedom fighters, worldwide, who will stand with you. Please come forward and share your story. Humanity needs you!

Watch the videos from Project Veritas with the medical whistleblowers here:

https://www.projectveritas.com/news/federal-govt-whistleblower-goes-public-with-secret-recordings-government/

THOUSANDS OF STORIES

FACEBOOK POST REVEALS TSUNAMI OF ADVERSE EVENTS

A local ABC News Station posted a request on Facebook for people to share their stories of unvaccinated loved ones that died. They wanted to make a news story on this. What happened was totally unexpected. In five days time over 250,000 people posted comments, but not about unvaccinated beloved ones. All the comments talk about vaccinated loved ones that died shortly after being injected, or that are disabled for life. The 250,000 comments reveal a shocking deathwave among the population, and the heartwrenching suffering these injections are causing. The post was already shared 200,000 times, and counting

Notice in the last comment how the lady says that everybody in the hospital is afraid to report this as a vaccine reaction, and another person says the doctors cant report it. That is proof of what I explained earlier: Most medical professionals are terrified to report adverse events, which causes the true prevalence of vaccine injuries to remain hidden from the world.

The 250,000+ comments show that once people find a safe place to report their suffering caused by the injections, we see a tsunami This is only one single Facebook post, that is getting no media attention whatsoever. What would we see if this was announced on the news, and everyone was allowed to report their stories?

https://www.facebook.com/80221381134/posts/10158207967261135/?d=n

VACCINE DEATHS SUMMARY

WHAT IS HAPPENING IS FAR WORSE THAN WE THINK

VAERS published 16,000+ deaths and 450,000+ adverse events, as of August 28, 2021

CDC fraud expert says that number of deaths is at least five times higher150,000 reports have been rejected or scrubbed by the VAERS system.

The actual number of anaphylaxis is 50 to 120 times higher than claimed by the CDC

Vaccinated people who die within two weeks, are not listed as vaccine deaths

Moderna received over 300,000 reports of adverse events in only three months-time

The Lazarus Report shows that only 1% of adverse events is being reported by the public

The majority of the population is not aware of the existence of systems where they can report vaccine adverse events

Aggressive censorship and propaganda told the public that adverse events are rare, causing people to not understand how their health problems stem from past injections

The shaming and blaming of medical professionals who say anything against the vaccines, cause many in the medical community to avoid reporting adverse events

The fear of being held accountable after administering an injection that killed or disabled patients, further prevents medical personnel from reporting it

Having accepted financial incentives to promote, and administer the covid vaccines, also stops medical personnel from reporting adverse events

Profit driven vaccine manufacturers have every reason not to report the destruction their untested experimental products are causing 250,000+ Facebook users comment about vaccine deaths and serious injuries

Nurses and doctors testify how their hospitals are hiding vaccine injuries.

WORLD EXPERTS WARN HUMANITY

LEADING SCIENTIFIC VOICES ISSUE GRAVE WARNINGS

This alarming data leads world experts, like the Nobel Prize Winner in Medicine, Dr. Luc Montagnier, to issue a grave warning that we are currently facing the greatest risk of worldwide genocide, in the history of humanity. Even the inventor of the mRNA technology, Dr. Robert Malone, warns against these injections that are using his technology.

The situation is so severe that former Pfizer vice president and chief scientist Dr. Mike Yeadon came forward to warn humanity for these extremely dangerous injections. One of his best known videos is titled A Final Warning.

Another world renown scientist, Geert Vanden Bossche, former Head of Vaccine Development Office in Germany, and Chief Scientific Officer at Univac, also risks his name and career, by bravely speaking out against administration of the covid shots. The vaccine developer warns that the injections can compromise the immunity of the vaccinated, making them vulnerable for every new variant.

WWII holocaust survivors wrote to the European Medicines Agency demanding the injections to be stopped, which they consider to be a new holocaust.

Read more at: Principia-Scientific.com
(Natural News) YouTube continued the expansion of corporate censorship on the Internet with the encouragement of leading Democratic leaders. The company has banned channels associated with anti-vaccine activists like Joseph Mercola and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Once again, rather than rebutting or refuting claims made by others, many sought to silence those with opposing views. YouTube will not allow people to hear views that do not comport with an approved range of opinions. The move magnifies concerns that we are seeing the emergence of a new type of state media as private companies conduct censorship operations barred by the Constitution for the government to conduct directly. This move comes days after Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) asked Amazon to steer customers to true books on subjects like climate change to avoid their exposure to disinformation. It also follows YouTube censoring videos of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny before Russias parliamentary elections. The move helped Putin and his authoritarian government crack down on pro-Democracy forces.

The Google-owned site is now openly engaged in viewpoint regulation to force users to view only those sources that are consistent with the corporate agenda. Facebook banned misinformation on all vaccines seven months ago and Twitter regularly bans those questioning vaccines.

(Article republished from JonathanTurley.org)

These companies are being encouraged by many on the left to expand censorship.

Faculty and editors are now actively supporting modern versions of book-burning with blacklists and bans for those with opposing political views. Columbia Journalism School Dean Steve Coll has denounced the weaponization of free speech, which appears to be the use of free speech by those on the right. So the dean of one of the premier journalism schools now supports censorship.

Free speech advocates are facing a generational shift that is now being reflected in our law schools, where free speech principles were once a touchstone of the rule of law. As millions of students are taught that free speech is a threat and that China is right about censorship, these figures are shaping a new society in their own intolerant images.

In one critical hearing, tech CEOs appeared before the Senate to discuss censorship programs. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey apologized for censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story, but then pledged to censor more people in defense of electoral integrity.

Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, however, was not happy. He was upset not by the promised censorship but that it was not broad enough.

He noted that it was hard to define the problem of misleading information, but the companies had to impose a sweeping system to combat the harm of misinformation on climate change as well as other areas. The pandemic and misinformation about COVID-19, manipulated media also cause harm, Coons said. But Id urge you to reconsider that because helping to disseminate climate denialism, in my view, further facilitates and accelerates one of the greatest existential threats to our world.

Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal also warned that he and his colleagues would not tolerate any backsliding or retrenching by failing to take action against dangerous disinformation. He demanded the same kind of robust content modification from the companies  the new Orwellian term for censorship.

This is the face of censorship. As demanded, the companies are now sanitizing their sites to remove opposing views on these subjects. Rather than offer a free forum for the full debate on such issues, anti-free speech advocates have again prevailed in silencing those with opposing views.

Read more at: JonathanTurley.org
Male walrus Odin is pictured in the Polar Sea enclosure at the Hagenbeck Zoo in Hamburg, Germany, on March 26, 2013. After long preparations four walruses have been brought from the zoo in Moscow to Hamburg. (Photo : Photo credit: CHRISTIAN CHARISIUS/DPA/AFP via Getty Images)

After disappearing for more than five months around the UK and Ireland, observers feared for Wally the walrus whereabouts. After about three weeks at sea, the celebrity walrus was rediscovered in Iceland on Sunday, looking skinnier but getting closer to his Arctic home.

Wally was first spotted a few weeks ago by fishermen at the mouth of a fjord in the south-east of the country, resting on a sea wall.

"He was first seen on 18 September by some fishermen that were coming into the mouth of Hornafjorur," said Lilja Johannesdottir, a biologist who lives in Hofn and works at the south-east Iceland nature research center, which monitors Wally.

"Then on the following day he followed some boats into the harbour and climbed up to this small boat pier," she added.

Experts hope he is resting and building up blubber reserves before returning to Arctic to join his fellow walruses and find a mate.

Wally's Trip Across Europe

According to Johannesdottir, Wally had been sighted in the area four times since he got there, resting by a fuel pump, and swimming in a nearby fjord, Skarsfjorur a few days later. Recently, he was spotted again twice at the pier.

Johannesdottir said it is quite uncommon for walruses to show up in the area.

Wally seems to have had fun traveling across Europe, sinking and hitting several boats in Ireland and the Isles of Scilly. However, the mammal "appears to have had a largely peaceful time, sleeping and going out feeding" since arriving in Iceland.

He also gained more local and international fandom.

"When he's on the pier he comes up to the pier and stays there for up to 12 hours just trying to rest," said Johannesdottir.

"They look kind of clumsy, but he's just so majestic in everything he does. He moves with such grace," she said. "It's also sad because he shouldn't really be here and he definitely shouldn't have been in Spain, so it makes you wonder, obviously all species are facing all sorts of problems because of anthropogenic influences," she added.

Also read: Beachgoers and Experts Baffled as Rare Yellow Whales Suddenly Appear in California

Going off alone is not uncommon for male walruses





Ester Rut Unnsteinsdottir, a mammal ecologist at the Icelandic Institute of Natural History, said that young male walruses usually go off alone after separating from their mothers at two years old to find a group and compete with other males for access to female walruses.

"Male walruses become mature at seven years of age so he has more years to wander, grow bigger and get longer teeth," Unnsteinsdottir said.

Melanie Croce, the executive director of Seal Rescue Ireland also added that Wally is likely to be hunting food in shallow waters on his long journey to Iceland, which explains why he lost a lot of weight.

She hopes Wally gets enough strength to continue his travels north, far from human sight. "That means he has gone the rest of the way up to the Arctic and he's with his own kind."

Also read: Common Drug for Depression Can Halt Growth of Cancer Cells in Mice
An 8-year-old girl has already made an impressive opinion on the solar system even though she has stayed on planet Earth not too long.

World's Youngest Astronomer

Nicole "Nicolinha" Oliveira who is from Brazil has been nicknamed the "world's youngest astronomer."

In Nicolinha's recent interview with AFP, she explained that she has already succeeded in discovering 18 preliminary detections that have a high chance of being asteroids.

But certification of the preliminary observations still has to be done and this process can take years at times.

However, every one of the observations holds strong, Nicolinha will become the world's youngest person to make a discovery concerning an asteroid. This will break the record of an Italian astronomer named Luigi Sannino.

Sannino discovered an asteroid now called 12575 Palmariaat aged 18 back in 1999. If Nicolinha's directions stand up to more observation, the 8-year-old hopes to give the asteroids the name of well-known Brazilian scientists and members of her family.

Also Read: Massive Asteroid Twice the Size of Empire State Building Will Pass By Earth on September

Asteroid Hunters

Recently, Nicolinha has been among the Asteroid Hunters, a project which International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC) and Brazil's ministry of science runs and is designed to make people involved in astronomy.

As yet, the project has seen hundreds of amateur scientists from all over the world - India, Iraq, Spain, and Nigeria - succeed in making not less than 185 preliminary detections as well as 85 objects discovered. IASC reveals that the 8-year-old made seven preliminary detections in the latest campaign.

Nicole's mother, Zilma Janaca, told AFP: "When she was two, she would raise her arms to the sky and ask me, 'Mom, give me a star.'

Janaca added: "We understood that this passion for astronomy was serious when she asked us for a telescope as a birthday present when she turned four. I didn't even really know what a telescope was."

Nicolinha's Obsession with Space

Similar to any juvenile buck with their head up in the stars, by just having a look at Nicolinha's room one can tell she's very obsessed with space. Her room is filled with Star Wars toys, astronaut-themed decorations, and astronomy posters, together with the computer she uses to go through pictures of space to search for asteroids.

Using this computer, the 8-year-old also broadcasts her YouTube channel, interviewing several world's famous names including a Brazilian astronomer, Duilia de Mello and an ambitious Brazilian female astronaut, Andressa Costa Ojeda.

Nicolinha has possibly achieved quite a large amount within the short time she has spent in the world, but it seems this is just the beginning of her astronomical ambitions.

She said: "I want to build rockets. I would love to go to the Kennedy Space Center at NASA in Florida to see their rockets."

Heliomarzio Rodrigues Moreira, Nicole's astronomy teacher, said: "She really has an eye. She immediately spots points in the images that look like asteroids and often advises her classmates when they are not sure they have really found any."

Related Article: Asteroid Three Times Bigger Than Statue of Liberty Will Hurl Past Earth on Fall Equinox

For more news, updates about Asteroids and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News!
The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department is stressed over the likelihood that the potentially deadly insect-borne epizootic hemorrhagic infection will plague the state's deer populaces.

Although no confirmed instances of the ailment have been recorded in the state yet, outbreaks are reported from neighboring areas.

Heightened Alert

On account of the potential spread, the fish and wildlife department is on heightened alert for any possible sign of the disease, particularly in the Castleton region, where there have been reports of a few dead deer.

However, as indicated by division authorities, scientists couldn't say whether the disease infected those deer because they could not gather samples before they decomposed.

Researchers need new samples, so now, authorities immediately respond to any reports of dead or dying deer that it gets, said Nick Fortin, the project leader from the department's Rutland office.

Not Enough Samples

"Many times we get a call from somebody who tracked down a dead deer in their patio or whatever, and they'll tell us, yet when we're ready to arrive, it's excessively decayed to test," Fortin said in a telephone meeting.

On the off chance that deer kick the bucket out of the blue, Fortin said researchers could assume that the reason was an epizootic hemorrhagic infection, yet it is impossible to be sure without a valid sample.

Related Article: Experts Warn Pet Owners to be Vigilant of Hookworms, a Parasite Immune to All Treatments



Spreading Disease

While the sickness is normal in southern states, where some deer have started, outbreaks in the Northeast are inconsistent, so most contaminated deer pass on rapidly.

Fortin said that if deer in Vermont are suspected of carrying it, very little could be done to stop the spread. There is no treatment for the disease and no real way to forestall the spread, Fish and Wildlife authorities said.

Epizootic hemorrhagic disease is the most common infection among white-tailed deer in the eastern United States, as indicated by the Cornell Wildlife Health Lab. While an outbreak might briefly lessen the local deer populace, as indicated by a fish and wildlife office public statement, it would not impact the population long-term.

In case there was a significant enough outbreak to threaten the deer population, Fortin said, the state would stop hunting privileges.

"The most probable spot where this would appear would be in southwestern Vermont, similar to Rutland and Bennington areas," Fortin said. "We are attempting to mitigate deer populations there, so I would prefer not to say it would help, yet we presumably will not see sufficient effect where we would need to scale back hunting."

Outbreaks

Outbreaks are more common in early fall and late summer when midges reproduce. Then, at that point, they are killed by frost.

As per the Cornell lab, signs and symptoms usually begin showing up around seven days after a deer is infected. These include loss of hunger, dread of people, shortcoming, fever, edema, and swelling of the head, neck, tongue, or eyelids. After manifestations begin appearing, deer pass on inside eight to a day and a half. Contaminated deer will, in general, pass on almost a water source, and different deer might be found together.

The illness is analyzed by a mix of clinical signs and testing for the infection on tissue and blood.

Any individual who tracks down a dead or wiped out-looking deer can contact the neighborhood office of the Vermont State Police, which will report it to Vermont Fish and Wildlife.

Also Read: Rat Bite Fever: Deadly Rat-Borne Disease is Spreading Quickly in the US

For more health and medicine related news, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
Opinion



Norwich Cathedrals Dippy and the Genesis deluge

Following the news last month that well over 100,000 people have been to visit Dippy the Diplodocus at Norwich Cathedral, Matthew Pickhaver explains why he believes that Dippy helps to throw light on the biblical story of the great flood.

Since Dippy the Dinosaur arrived at Norwich Cathedral some interesting articles have been written  or talks given  in response, mostly from a similar perspective. But alongside the Diplodocus in the nave I believe there is also an elephant in the room! This is the iconic skeletons obvious connection to a large-scale flood event such as that described in Genesis.



Earlier this year, in anticipation of Dippys visit, I made a five-minute video called Dippy and the Deluge. It begins with some background about the skeleton and its discovery: its both a plaster cast copy and a composite  the original consisting of the bones of at least six individuals dug out of the Morrison Formation in the western US, pictured right.



I then describe features of this sedimentary rock layer that are consistent with rapid burial by a watery catastrophe, including:

 Concentrated fossil bone beds with animal remains highly fragmented and jumbled.

 Dinosaurs alongside invertebrates, fish, amphibians, smaller reptiles and mammals.

 Bones sorted by size.

 Signs of tissue still attached to bones.

 A large number of other sauropods besides Diplodocus, without evidence of the substantial vegetation required to support such a population in one location.

 Material from volcanic eruptions, a long way from any trace of volcanoes.

 Evidence of mudflows caused by volcanic eruptions and water.

To see these features illustrated, you can watch the video at this link .



Besides such mass burials, there are many other ways in which dinosaur discoveries in general help to reinforce an historical reading of Genesis:

 When first appearing in the fossil record in the upper Triassic, dinosaurs are already specialised into about twenty diverse but distinct groups, and widely distributed across separate continents. Lacking transitional forms, this record fits the rapid successive burial of ecosystems by a global flood better than slow burial over long ages.

 Increasingly, soft tissue such as muscle fibres and proteins are being extracted from dinosaur fossils or actual non-fossilized bones. It is difficult to see how such tissues could survive for millions of years so this is a challenge to conventional dating.

 Many dinosaurs are preserved with their heads thrown back and tails arched  a position that indicates that drowning was the cause of death. Others have been preserved while fighting each other or sitting on nests of eggs, again suggesting very rapid burial in water.

 Job 40:15-24 is thought by some scholars to describe a sauropod or at least some sort of dinosaur. And cultural dragon myths found all over the world have been cited as evidence that mankind and dinosaurs did at some point exist together.



As for the question of dinosaur extinction, the radical climate change that would have occurred after a global flood provides an alternative hypothesis for their demise: the gymnosperm plant communities that herbivorous species had previously thrived on greatly decreased in quantity and variety, which in turn impacted higher up the food chain too.



Dippys visit then is a Gospel opportunity  in fact, I like to think of dinosaurs as evangelizards! Rather than icons of molecules-to-man evolution, as reminders of the Flood they point us to the reality and necessity of a Holy Gods judgement of sin. Yet as well as reshaping the physical world, the Flood also ushered in the era of grace we are still living in, which has at its centre the cross of Christ.



Jesus certainly taught that the Flood was historical (e.g., Luke 17:26-27) and calls us to repent and trust him if were to be part of the New Creation he will usher in at his equally real return.





The Dippy exhibition continues at Norwich Cathedral until October 30.



The top picture shows the original Dippy skeleton in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is courtesy of Matthew Pickaver. The other two pictures, of the Dinosaur National Monument visitor centre in Utah, located on Morrison Formation outcrops where Dippy's bones were excavated, and the Natural History Museum model of a Diplodocus model, are courtesy of Paul Garner.



Read our most recent story on Network Norfolk about Dippy here .



Matthew Pickhaver BSc(Hons), PGCE, works for Biblical Creation Trust, which you can find on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and at www.biblicalcreationtrust.org

The views carried here are those of the author, not of Network Norwich and Norfolk, and are intended to stimulate constructive debate between website users.


Black Lives Matter talk at Norwich church Black Lives Matter talk at Norwich church

Christian Aid speaker Chine MacDonald will speak on Wednesday October 6 about the vital importance of involving black voices in the climate justice movement  especially in this pivotal year for climate justice as the UK hosts COP26 this year.



Both in the UK and in countries in the global south, black lives are disproportionately under threat from the climate emergency. Communities in countries that have contributed least to the climate emergency are facing the full force of the droughts, floods and storms that put black and brown lives at risk. And yet the climate movement remains remarkably un-diverse, with black and brown people often missing from movements such as Extinction Rebellion. Its time to build a new coalition of people to recognise the inextricable link between climate justice and racial justice. Because Black Lives Matter everywhere.

About Chine



Chine is Head of Public Engagement for Christian Aid. Chine has nearly 15 years of experience working in journalism, media and communications. Previous roles include working at World Vision and as director of communications at the Evangelical Alliance, including running threadsuk.com  an online collective for people in their 20s and 30s exploring faith and life. Chine read theology & religious studies at Cambridge University before training as a newspaper journalist and over the years has written for several regional and national publications. Chine is a regular media commentator and broadcaster on religion & ethics programmes including the BBCs Thought for the Day.

Event details

Wednesday 6th October, 7:30pm

St Peter Mancroft

Click here to view on St Peter Mancroft's website
NEW MILFORD  While the pandemic has been credited for a drop in student enrollment in New Milford Public Schools across all grade levels, total enrollment is projected to rebound in the short term and then decline over time, according to a recent study.

At a presentation given at a recent Board of Education meeting, Meghan McGaffin of SLR Consulting provided an analysis of current enrollment and also spoke about enrollment projections over the coming decade.

The study, which looked at enrollment data through the 2020-21 school year, took into account factors such as population, births, employment and home sales in town.

Overall, the population in New Milford at 28,115  has remained stable, according to the U.S. Census. Since 2010, NM has seen a decline of about 25 residents.

On the topic of employment, the pandemic hit the town very hard, McGaffin said.

She said historically, New Milfords unemployment rate has remained just below that of Litchfield County. According to the Connecticut Department of Labor, last year was the first in recent history where town unemployment, at 7.5 percent, was higher than the unemployment rate for the county, which was 6.9 percent.

When it comes to births, data about current births is used to predict kindergarten enrollment five years in the future, McGaffin said.

Through data received from the Connecticut Department of Public Health, New Milford births have ranged from 367 in 2004 to 238 in 2010. From 2015 to 2019, birth rates were pretty stable, averaging 243 a year.

Last year, though, births in town fell to 199, which was a historic low for the community, McGaffin said.

In terms of home sales, the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to high home sale prices in New Milford and throughout the state, McGaffin said.

The number of single family home sales in town grew from a low of about 200 in 2011 to a peak of nearly 400 last year.

Additionally, there are about 400 future housing units in town that are anticipated to become available, .

The units are located in the following developments: Riverwalk by the Housatonic, 69 Lanesville Road, 189 Danbury Road and 143 West Street, 1 & 2 Bucek Lane/Poplar Street, 38-46 Lanesville Road, 64 Boardman Road, and 69 Sunny Valley Road.

The majority of these developments are one- and two-bedroom, multi-family units.

McGaffin said, however, that those types of homes are often not a driver of new students into the area.

Those tend to be geared for young professionals or people looking to downsize, she said. Your major drivers of growth come from three bedroom units.

Enrollment

While there was a large drop in school enrollment last year, this can be attributed to the pandemic, McGaffin said.

In the 2019 to 2020 school year, there were about 3,900 total enrolled students from Pre-K to grade 12, and the following school year, this number dropped by about 200 students.

Over the past five years, elementary school enrollment has remained generally stable while enrollment at the intermediate, middle and high school levels decreased consistently, McGaffin said.

Kindergarten enrollment in the last school year dropped by about 50 students, which has been consistent with trends throughout the state, she added. Factors such as homeschooling, private kindergarten, and delayed entry all play an impact in those figures.

Birth projections, combined with housing and demographic data such as unemployment, home sales, women of child bearing age, fertility rates, and population, are all factored into enrollment projections, according to McGaffin.

The study she referred to, called the Cohort Survival Methodology, relies on data from the recent past in order to predict the future, she said.

Persistency ratios are also used in predicting future school enrollment, McGaffin said. This accounts for factors such as housing construction, residential development, economic conditions, and student transfers.

Despite last years big dip in births, we do anticipate a recovery and then some rebounding of the birth rates, McGaffin said. We do expect, by 2025, some recovery back to recent trends of the past for your birthrate, which will then inform future kindergarten classes.

Housing currently in development in town is yet another factor used when determining future enrollment, she said.

The two housing developments expected to have an impact on future student enrollment will be the proposed 150 units at 189 Danbury Road and 109 units at 143 West St, she said.

About 60 students are expected to come out of those two developments. Both of these developments are in the Hill and Plain Elementary School districts. She said, however, that those units are not expected to be occupied until about 2025.

Using district-wide predictions, overall school enrollment in New Milford is projected to continue declining to about 3,500 students (from about 3,700) by the 2030-2031 school year.

She added the number of students enrolled is projected to rebound next year as home-school students, delayed entry students and private school students return to New Milford Public Schools.

We dont predict any major, earth shattering changes, McGaffin said. We predict a return to the way things had been historically in the district.

sfox@milfordmirror.com
Reporter

Debra Pressey is a reporter covering health care at The News-Gazette. Her email is dpressey@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@DLPressey).
Reporter

Mary Schenk is a reporter covering police, courts and breaking news at The News-Gazette. Her email is mschenk@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@schenk).
Australia adopted a quick and stern response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic by closing international borders, as well as locking down localities and regions for varying periods of time to stop the transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) across the country. However, common beliefs fueled by celebrity endorsements caused a temporary rise in the use of some medications said to help prevent the infection or mitigate its severity.

A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv* describes the nature and extent of the shift in dispensing these medications, as well as its eventual outcome.

Study: Changes In Dispensing of Medicines Proposed for Re-Purposing in the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Australia. Image Credit: Horacio Selva / Shutterstock.com

Background

A number of medications were proposed to be effective in preventing COVID-19, treating the infection, and/or limiting the progression of the disease. Among these are undeniably useful drugs such as dexamethasone, as well as potentially useful drugs such as certain cytokine inhibitors and remdesivir.

Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug, hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial and anti-rheumatic drug, and vitamin D, have been widely touted, in some cases by celebrities, as being highly effective in COVID-19 prevention and treatment. Despite the fact that their safety and efficacy in this regard are unsupported by large well-designed trials, these drugs are still being prescribed on a large scale.

Earlier studies of such trends have focused mainly on areas with a high incidence of COVID-19, such as the United States, where hydroxychloroquine prescriptions rose seven-fold in March 2020 over the previous year.

The current study aimed to explore changes in medicine prescribing in an area in Australia with a COVID-19 incidence of less than 120/100,000 population. This means that a jump in prescriptions of hydroxychloroquine, for instance, is unlikely to be due to its use in the actual management of COVID-19 cases. Rather, the chances are that it is being stored by rheumatic patients to avoid running short of it or to prevent COVID-19 in individuals who think it will be of benefit.

The National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce, which was set up to continuously assess available evidence and issue current guidelines on COVID-19 prevention and management, undertook the current study to understand how these drugs are being dispensed since the start of the pandemic in Australia between March a d November 2020.

Study findings

The researchers found that all medications dispensed by community doctors went up by 20% above expected levels in March 2020 but then dropped for several months. Azithromycin dispensing was lower from April to November 2020, by about 64,000 dispensings.

Hydroxychloroquine dispensing went up by 25,000 in March 2020, or an astonishing 99.4% increase over the predicted level, but by 5,000 in April 2020. Thereafter, the prescriptions of this drug dropped such that the overall increase over expected values was 9,000 more over the whole study period. About 70% of the March increase was attributed to stockpiling by existing users, while there were over 700 new users during the study period.

New users in March and April 2020 were mostly female at 70% as compared to 75% over the same months in the previous year. General practitioners (GPs) contributed many additional new dispensings, at 43% as compared to 25% the previous year. Rheumatologists wrote 26% of the prescriptions in 2020, as compared to 45% in 2019.

Only 16 new prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine also contained a prescription for azithromycin during this period.

Ivermectin prescriptions rose between May to November 2020, peaking in May with a 56% increase above predicted demand. The dispensings rose by almost 2,000 over expected levels during the study period. Almost two of every three prescriptions were by GPs in both 2019 and 2020.

Colchicine dispensing rose in March, and smaller increases in June and September 2020, without any significant difference over the whole period, or new users.

Calcitriol is a form of vitamin D. This was prescribed more often in March, June, and September 2020, with the same pattern as colchicine.

Corticosteroids were prescribed less often overall, with a drop of 77,000 below expected levels.

Heres What You Need to Know about Ivermectin The FDA has not authorized or approved ivermectin for use in preventing or treating COVID-19 in humans or animals. Ivermectin is approved for human use to treat infections caused by some parasitic worms and head lice and skin conditions like rosacea.

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.

Taking large doses of ivermectin is dangerous.

If your health care provider writes you an ivermectin prescription, fill it through a legitimate source such as a pharmacy, and take it exactly as prescribed.

Never use medications intended for animals on yourself or other people. Animal ivermectin products are very different from those approved for humans. Use of animal ivermectin for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 in humans is dangerous.

Implications

The current study shows that hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin were prescribed more often than expected during the COVID-19 period. This was especially true at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, when all commonly prescribed drugs saw a rise in prescriptions by about 20%. This is partly due to hoarding as a result of shortage fear by people already using these drugs.

The rise in GP prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine is similar to that seen in the United States, where primary care physicians prescribed the drug at over ten-fold higher levels during the pandemic period. This drug is not known to be effective in treating or preventing COVID-19; therefore, the Taskforce recommends against its use.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in Australia regulated its prescription for new users on March 24, 2020, in response to such unwarranted prescriptions. An earlier study in the same country showed that half the new users of this drug who had received a prescription from their GPs actually had an indication for its use.

The drop in azithromycin prescriptions is likely due to the observed dramatic drop in the incidence of respiratory infections during this period. Ivermectin prescriptions rose later than hydroxychloroquine and persisted longer, probably because it was touted as an effective preventive against severe COVID-19 only from April 2020 onwards.

The Taskforce does not recommend Ivermectin either, as clinical trials are still going on to evaluate its efficacy. The relatively small increase in prescriptions indicates that some people still believed in its preventive effects.

The changes in prescriptions for stockpiling purposes can create shortages where there are none, or worsen existing ones. So far, people in Australia have not experienced drug shortages. Local policies and regulatory agencies can help avoid such events during supply chain disruptions, as happened with the ongoing pandemic, by quickly restricting the indications for vulnerable drugs and the practitioners who can prescribe them.

Balanced and informed communication of the changing evidence, including up-to-date and reliable access to evidence-informed advice is necessary to minimise any negative health impacts related to re-purposing of medicines.

*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.
Accurate and real-time disease prediction is vital for the prevention and control of healthcare-related infections. Although contacts between individuals are primarily responsible for infection chains, most prediction frameworks do not capture the contact dynamics.

A real-time framework using patient contact networks to predict hospital-onset COVID-19 infections

Researchers from the UK recently developed a real-time machine learning framework that uses dynamic patient contact networks to predict hospital-onset COVID-19 infections (HOCIs) at the patient level. They then tested and validated the framework on international multi-site datasets across various epidemic and endemic periods. This study can be found on the medRxiv* preprint server.

The framework extracts dynamic contact networks from hospital data collected routinely and combines them with clinical attributes and background contextual hospital data of the patient to predict the infection status of patients. The research team trained and tested the HOCI framework using over 50,000 patients admitted to a UK National Health Service (NHS) Trust hospital between 01 April 2020 and 01 April 2021, thus spanning COVID-19 surges 1 and 2 in the UK.

They then validated the HOCI framework by applying it to data from 40,057 inpatients gathered from a hospital site in Geneva during an epidemic surge and data from 43,375 inpatients collected from the same NHS Trust from a subsequent period after surge 2, when COVID-19 had become endemic.

Overview of forecasting framework. Patient pathways are extracted from electronic health records which specify the locations each patient has visited over the duration of their hospital stay. Pathways are overlaid with COVID-19 testing results, capturing the space-time positions of patients that tested positive for COVID-19. Forecasting is based on extracting individual patient clinical variables (fixed) and hospital contextual variables (dynamic) during a defined time window, as well as variables capturing the centrality of a patient within the different contact networks (dynamic). We iterate variable extraction over multiple time windows and use the cumulative information for model training and predictions.

The HOCI framework demonstrated high predictive performance while using only contact network variables

Based on the training data from London spanning COVID-19 surges 1 and 2, the HOCI framework showed high predictive performance using all variables but was almost equally predictive using only contact network variables and more predictable than using only hospital contextual or patient clinical variables.

Background hospital infections and contact structure across the study period. Daily new COVID-19 positive patients within the hospital (COCI and HOCI) varied dramatically across the study period. Peaks of 59 and 64 cases were reached on March 30, 2020, and January 06, 2021 respectively, whilst dipping to zero new daily cases over days during July, August, September, and October. The patient contact network also varied across the study period, panels i-iii, with differences in connectivity and size of patient contact clusters between each of the infection surges and during the summer period.

The top 3 risk factors identified by the team comprised one hospital contextual variable, namely, background hospital COVID-19 prevalence, and two contact network variables, namely, the number of direct contacts of infectious patients and network closeness. Moreover, the addition of contact network variables boosted performance related to hospital contextual variables on both the UK and non-UK validation datasets.

Our study highlights the predictive power that can be mined from networks of patient contacts to aid with personalized predictions of infectious disease in healthcare settings.

Findings show that integration of patient contact networks in clinical care could improve infection prevention and help early diagnosis

According to the authors, this is the first study to predict individual patient HOCIs using routine patient and hospital data and dynamic contact networks. The research team combined machine learning with network analysis and developed a HOCI prediction framework with the help of routine electronic health data.

Epidemiology curves of validation datasets. Newly identified COVID-19 cases are reported across time and are broken down by HOCI and COCI case types. Panel A shows the non-UK (Geneva) hospital case load during an epidemic surge of cases. Panel B shows the UK hospital group post pandemic surges 1 and 2, when COVID-19 became endemic and non-surging.

The results showed that dynamic patient contact networks could be a strong predictor of transmission of respiratory viral infections in hospitals. Thus, the integration of these networks in clinical care could improve individualized prevention of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection as well as early diagnosis.

The framework provides daily patient-individualized predictions and can identify dynamic disease acquisition risk factors.

They found that centrality measures calculated from patient contact networks together with some hospital contextual variables represent a key HOCI risk factor, which can boost the performance of predictive models in a pandemic as well as endemic conditions.

To demonstrate the transferability of the framework, they applied it to data from a Geneva-based hospital during COVID-19 surge 1 and showed increased predictive power by including contact network risk factors. However, access was only available for room-level contacts that were less predictive in the London data.

With no end in sight to the COVID-19 pandemic, this new predictive framework and contact risk factors offer a valuable tool to assist identification of potential HOCI cases across various epidemic and endemic periods.

Further work will be needed to extend this work to other healthcare-acquired infections by assessing how the inclusion of variables capturing a patients environment within an underlying contact network could aid prediction with a view to informing infection prevention and control measures.

*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 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was a profoundly disrupting influence worldwide that has caused devastating effects on human health and economic stability. In the absence of any specific antiviral measures, the focus has been on attempting to contain viral spread by non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv* analyzes the impact of such measures in the United States.

Study: Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions and COVID-19 Burden in the United States. Image Credit: Corona Borealis Studio / Shutterstock.com

Background

Various NPIs have been used over the last century in a number of local and global viral outbreaks. Throughout the current COVID-19 pandemic, the United States adopted multiple interventions such as travel restrictions, declaration of an emergency, social distancing, self-quarantine advisories, and mask recommendations.

However, there is limited evidence for the efficacy of such NPIs on respiratory illnesses. Most available data refer to individual NPIs rather than multiple. The current study aimed to assess how these steps, both when they were implemented in a state-specific manner and after they were relaxed, affected the incidence of COVID-19 in the country.

About the study

With a retrospective observational design, the researchers covered the U.S. population between January 19, 2020, which is when the first American case was identified, and March 7, 2021.

The scientists determined that during this period, there were approximately 28.6 million cases of COVID-19 that resulted in about 512,000 deaths. More than 400 NPIs were adopted and stopped over this period.

Case breakpoints were identified, where the case velocity changed in relation to NPI adoption or discontinuation. The highest number of breakpoints was one per week. Overall, there were about 600 breakpoints, with a decrease in 433 and an increase in 170. The median number of case breakpoints was 12 for all the states, ranging from 7-17.

Study findings

It appears that with the use or relaxation of shelter-in-place orders or mask use in public, the odds of a reduction in case velocity are doubled. With a ban on indoor restaurant dining, the odds are increased by 62%.

Comparably, with bans on indoor gatherings of less than 10 people, the odds of reduced case velocity increase by almost 70%. A mild ban limiting gathering to more than 10 people was not as effective, as it was associated with a 50% increase in the odds of a rapid decrease in cases.

After adjusting for other NPIs, the use of shelter-in-place orders led to 50% greater odds of decreasing case velocity, while with public mask mandates, the reduction was more 2.3 times more likely. A mild ban on indoor public gatherings led to a 50% increase in case velocities.

Breakpoints leading to increased death velocity occurred at 461 points. About 72% of these breakpoints were related to a reduction in case velocity, while 28% were related to an increase.

The adjusted odds of reduced death velocity with a shelter-in-place order were 90% higher. The unadjusted odds were doubled with this NPI, while the odds of a decrease were 50% higher with a ban on indoor dining or on the indoor public gatherings of fewer than 10 people.

Implications

The researchers found correlations between the number of NPIs and a decrease in the number of new cases and deaths in corresponding periods of time. The adjusted models show that new cases were diagnosed far less frequently following the implementation of shelter-in-place orders and public mask mandates.

In fact, mask use in public was related to more than twice the chance of containing the transmission of the virus even, after allowing for the effects of other NPIs. The effect of this single measure may be due to other behavioral changes that accompany the use of a mask in public, as well as the effect of the face barrier on viral transmission.

Masks are key in interrupting the aerosol spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, according to the current understanding of viral transmission. As such, these findings support public health guidance for mask use in public during respiratory virus outbreaks.

Restricting gatherings indoors to more than ten people, not of the same household led to an increase in new cases, thereby demonstrating that this measure was inefficient in limiting spread. In other words, NPIs that limit large public gatherings are more effective.

Shelter-in-place orders were the only measure that effectively reduced COVID-19 deaths. It may be that decreased numbers of cases occurred mostly among younger people with a low risk of death, thus accounting for the apparent mismatch between reduced case numbers and mortality rates.

Some earlier studies diverged from the conclusions of this study, showing that more restrictive NPIs did not reduce viral spread better than less restrictive ones. However, these studies were small in size and did not account for diversity.

In contrast, the current study shows that limiting public indoor gatherings to less than ten changes both the fraction of reduction in case numbers and ensures restricted transmission. Multiple NPIs were highly efficient at reducing the number of new cases after adjusting for simultaneous effects.

[The current study] is supportive of prior expert opinions encouraging early, sustained, and layered application of NPIs to mitigate consequences of pandemic viral disease.

*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.
In an effort to bring robotic assistance to workers, the elderly and more, a University of Michigan team is developing a new type of powered exoskeleton for lower limbsfunded by $1.7 million from the National Institutes of Health.

One in eight Americans faces a mobility disability, with serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs, but a robotic solution could be far less bulky than sci-fi's full-body suits. The U-M team plans to develop a modular, powered exoskeleton system that could be used on one or multiple joints of the legs. The three-year project will first study workers who lift and lower objects and the elderly who have lost mobility with age. In future work, the team would like to include people with other disabilities.

Imagine adding a small motor to a bicyclethe rider still pedals, but there's that extra power to get up hills without breaking too much of a sweat, said project lead Robert Gregg, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.

Similarly, we can take the conventional ankle, hip or knee braces used today, add a self-contained specialized motor and gear system, and provide power at a specific joint to increase mobility.

Conventional braces, or orthotics, cannot actively assist human joints during challenging activities. State-of-the-art exoskeletons, on the other hand, are built in a way that makes it difficult for users to move against the motor, also known as backdriving the motor. This is in part because these exoskeletons are usually designed to replace the complete function of an entire limb. Partially assisting specific joints is a different challenge.

However, one of the greatest hurdles for exoskeletons is that they must accurately recognize the user's intent, and match that intent with a correct action. Otherwise, the exoskeleton adds to the effort required from the user.

There is a continuum of human movement possibilities, from jumping jacks to walking up a slightly different incline. If the exoskeleton recognizes the wrong activity, then it's getting in the way of the human. Robert Gregg, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, University of Michigan

There are two keys to the system Gregg and his team envision will make up for these shortcomings: a newer style of motor and transmission and a different kind of control algorithm.

The challenge with the motor is delivering enough torquethe exoskeleton equivalent of muscle strengthwhile being small and lightweight enough to wear. Usually, this is achieved by using a small motor that spins quickly and converting that speed into torque with a highly-geared transmission. That transmission makes it hard for a user to move against the motor.

Gregg's team will solve this problem by using flat, "pancake" style motors that were originally utilized in drones and have more recently been used in the Open Source Lega project from team member Elliott Rouse, assistant professor of mechanical engineering. These motors don't need as many gears to deliver enough torque to help power a human, which makes them easy to backdrive.

To control the motor and transmission, the team will develop a "task-invariant" control algorithm, which will not rely on knowing the task the user is trying to complete in order to effectively provide assistance.

You have to make sure that when you tell the motor what to do, it's not fighting the human, but that's a big challenge because you don't always know the human's intent, Gregg said. Instead of predicting where a human will move, the team will simplify the problem and work on altering how the human moves.

With this method, we may compensate for gravity: no matter where you move, the motor can assist with that. Another example is inertia: no matter where you move, the motor can compensate for limb inertia to make movement easier, Gregg said.

Working with Chandramouli Krishnan, an associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation, and Alicia Foster, a certified prosthetist orthotist at U-M's Orthotics and Prosthetics Center, the team will determine the best configurations of the modular system for different populations. The team will also study whether the additional weight of the motor is helpful overall.

Gregg hopes that the project will result in a low-cost system that any clinician would be able to replicate by simply adding it to current off-the-shelf ankle, hip and knee orthoses. And beyond the workers and elderly populations of this project, Gregg hopes the system could be helpful to the broad populations that require just a bit, but not complete, assistance with getting around.
The coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has presented an unprecedented challenge to the scientific community. One of the crucial questions facing scientists is regarding the magnitude and durability of the immune response to SARS-CoV-2, given that virusspecific antibody responses are relatively shortlived.

Study: Function Is More Reliable than Quantity to Follow Up the Humoral Response to the Receptor-Binding Domain of SARS-CoV-2-Spike Protein after Natural Infection or COVID-19 Vaccination. Image Credit: True Touch Lifestyle/ Shutterstock

The kinetics of the humoral response in vaccinees, both with and without prior SARSCoV2 exposure, is being actively researched. Discussion is mainly around the effectiveness of the immune response to natural infection or vaccination. However, the issue is more complex and requires a better understanding of innate and cellularmediated immune responses. The latter is proven to be highly effective and durable against the SARSCoV2 natural infection.

A new study addressing this issue has been published in Viruses that shows that functional neutralizing antibody tests are more relevant indicators than the presence or absence of binding antibodies.

A new study

Researchers followed a cohort of 59 individuals of Hispanic/Latino origin with prior exposure to SARSCoV2 to learn more about the kinetics of the humoral immune response to natural infection over time. The group comprised individuals who were pre-exposed (mild symptoms) to infection and unexposed individuals following vaccination.

Neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) were found to wane over time, highlighting the utility of functional neutralization assays. Pre-exposed individuals generated similar amounts of antibodies, after one vaccine dose, as the unexposed after two vaccine doses. These results have important implications for future public health guidance and global vaccine distribution.

Previous research showed a longterm stabilization of antiS IgG values and nAbs. The results obtained in the current study could be due to stabilization at a plateau. Researchers documented that nAbs and antiS IgG persisted in most recovered patients regardless of disease severity, age, and comorbidities. These nAbs lasted up to eight months from symptoms onset. However, a longer followup period could be beneficial in understanding the antibody kinetics over longer periods.

Scientists observed sustained neutralizing capacity, which remained relevant despite the decline in IgG titers. Some individuals with undetectable IgG titers retained neutralization activity (32-76%), measured by a surrogate virus neutralization assay. This result suggests the applicability of functional assays, measuring neutralization potential, at the population level.

Recent studies have reported that antiRBD antiS IgA positively correlates with reduced persistence of SARSCoV2, early SARSCoV2 specific humoral responses are dominated by IgA antibodies, and the IgA isotype contributes to virus neutralization to a greater extent compared with IgG. The current study found that IgG1 was the predominant isotype, while the IgA response was more limited. Similar results were documented in India, a country heavily impacted by the pandemic.

Scientists also observed an expected trend of IgM decline, and two subjects, who were IgG/IgM+, also showed detectable neutralizing activity both two and four months after the first samples were collected. This suggests that IgM may contribute to sustained neutralization capacity in some individuals.

The study revealed a rapid decline in antiS antibodies just 40 to 80 days after a boost with the mRNA vaccine. It also revealed the sustained level of neutralization ability while antiS antibodies were declining. This vaccination pattern is the same as the one observed following naturally acquired SARSCoV2 infection in the study cohort.

The decline in titers was more precipitous in the unexposed group relative to their pre-exposed counterparts. The results suggest that similar quantities of antibodies generated post-natural infection were significantly better functionally natural infection precedes vaccination. Natural infection may expand B cells, thereby causing the production of more S-specific antibodies post-vaccination.

Conclusion

The study has some limitations, among which the most important is the limited sample size and associated clinical data. The examination of the T-cell compartment could also benefit this work, and this research is already underway. It is difficult to gauge the usefulness of the second vaccine dose in pre-exposed individuals from the results.

Despite the limitations, this research furthers our understanding of immune responses to the mRNA vaccines beyond the data provided by the vaccine manufacturers. It is beyond doubt that natural infection leads to a strong and superior-quality humoral and cellular immune response. Hence, it is unclear why this is not considered in the public safety guidelines.

In this context, the results documented in this study are highly relevant to consider standardizing methods. These methods could serve as tools to follow up immune responses after vaccination and provide a correlate of protection.
The number of Covid cases in the UK has risen 12% this week, but while some people may be hospitalized, others will suffer little more than a loss of smell. London Medical Laboratory says new research is now revealing everyones immune system is as unique as their fingerprint.

Dr Quinton Fivelman PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at London Medical Laboratory says over 82% of UK adults have now received two jabs, but that doesnt mean everyone will be saved from the worst effects of the virus. New research is revealing why some Covid patients may still die from the disease, while others barely know they have had it.

Dr. Fivelman has authored the White Paper Has your vaccine worked? Are you immune to Covid-19?. He says that, though the number of deaths and hospitalisations has reduced significantly for fully vaccinated people, new research has determined that everyones immune system is unique, and some individuals will still become very ill with the disease.

Says Dr Fivelman: Everyones immune system is different. Our antibody testing has shown everyone responds differently to vaccinations. Some people create a very effective immune response, while others fail to do so.

We now believe that everyones antibody profile is as unique as their fingerprint. Exactly how many different antibodies are in our blood at any one time was previously unknown; many scientists estimated it to be over several billion. In fact, we now know most people, whether sick or well, have just a few tens to hundreds of distinct antibodies present at high concentrations.

London Medical Laboratorys own tests have revealed a growing number of people who have been jabbed now have lower values (50 to 500 AU/ml) of antibodies. If someone takes a test and their score is low, their unique immune system may not have responded as well as other peoples to the vaccine, and their antibody levels may have significantly declined over time. That means they may be more susceptible to the virus as time passes.

Our findings are supported by new research from Professor Albert J.R. Heck, Professor of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University. Using mass spectrometry, his team measured antibody profiles in about 100 people, including Covid-19 patients and people receiving different Covid vaccines.

They did not find the same antibodies in any individuals, even if they had received the same vaccine. The team found that, even though the differences in antibodies are small, it appears that this can have a significant impact. If someone makes antibodies that are less effective at killing the disease, then they may suffer more severe symptoms, or catch Covid again within a short time.

The results also showed that every individuals concentrations of these antibodies changed in a unique way during illness or after a vaccination. This certainly helps to explain why some people become more ill from Covid-19 than others.

We already know that the jab doesnt work for everyone. 1 in 100 fully vaccinated people fail to develop any antibodies at all after vaccination. That means that, even if every UK adult is vaccinated, half a million adults will have no protection whatsoever, and not even realize. Identifying those people is crucial, which is why widespread antibody testing is vital.

If anyone is concerned about their own immune response to the jabs and how well they continue to produce antibodies, the new generation blood tests we offer are highly accurate, quick and simple to carry out, either in their own home or at a clinic. These tests are available privately for those who dont qualify for the Governments new limited testing programme." Dr Quinton Fivelman PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, London Medical Laboratory
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic swept across the globe in 2019, causing worldwide health and economic crises resulting in millions of deaths. While the disease is being brought under control by mass vaccination programs, monoclonal antibodies, and repurposed drugs, worries remain over the rise of variants of concern that can evade both natural and vaccine-induced immunity.

Study: Emergency drug use in a pandemic: Harsh lessons from COVID-19. Image Credit: Mongkolchon Akesin/ Shutterstock

During the pandemic, there have been many instances of drugs being repurposed for use against the disease. These include trialed and approved drugs such as Remdesivir and Tocilizumab to potentially dangerous and ineffective drugs such as Ivermectin. This repurposing of drugs is primarily due to the limited treatment available against the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

Developing new drugs would take far too long, given the speed at which the pandemic spread. To date, the most common drugs that are used to treat COVID-19 include steroids and interleukin-6 (IL-6) blockers.

In a paper published in the journal Cell, researchers have investigated and criticized clinical care management and drug administration within the pandemic.

The study

The researchers identified pattern recognition as one of the most important factors in clinical care. There was much confusion from the general population in the early days of the pandemic, and government advice on symptoms changed several times.

In more serious clinical cases, one of the biggest factors in the deaths of many early COVID-19 patients was inflammatory respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). While ARDS has been treatable for years, arguments among clinical and scientific fields led to many patients remaining untreated. Another key factor in COVID-19 mortality is immune dysfunction - similarly seen in SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. Once again, early confusion and uncertainty led to slow reactions.

Another factor the scientists heavily criticized was the abandonment of evidence-based care due to hysteria enhanced by the media. While Ivermectin has made the headlines recently, most doctors remained reluctant to prescribe it. Much more was made of hydroxychloroquine before any strong evidence was present, and current studies indicate it likely caused significant harm.

Another common factor between these two drugs was the emergence of political fighting over their effectiveness, with highly viewed political figures making claims with little to no evidence. The authors point out that such arguments and in-fighting undermine public trust in healthcare. However, most frantic arguments and wild claims did not come from clinical figures, and it is disingenuous to imply that they did.

Further condemnation falls upon drug development, with the researchers targeting 'systematic' failures and inefficiencies. These include panicked rushing for emergency response drugs and reduced scrutiny of candidates, resulting in any potential drug that passed screening assays being investigated whether or not the mechanism was known. Ultimately, this led to massive wastes of time developing drugs that showed no actual effectiveness.

Another factor the scientists identify was the failure to consider viral dynamics, for example, developing preventative drugs or drugs that work very early in infection. Not only do most individuals not become aware of infection for several days, but prophylactic therapy would be massively expensive a huge logistical issue. It would likely cause issues for health services with the sheer numbers risking large numbers of adverse events.

Despite the general lack of success, the scientists show more support for attempts to repurpose immunomodulatory therapies for use against COVID-19. Unfortunately, relatively few antivirals and immunomodulatory drugs are available for use. The failure to find one of use was not due to poor decision-making or frantic scrambling for anything effective.

Conclusion

Overall, the authors recommend several adjustments for future pandemics, including a pre-established rationale for attempted drug repurposing, as well as established safety profiles and toxicities before beginning. They highlight the need for more and quicker research and development into antiviral drugs, which are neglected than antibiotics or anti-cancer drugs. Finally, they recommend a global cooperative scientific effort to find drugs that could be on 'standby' to be tested for repurposing for any future pandemic.
Kaitlyn Hevner expects to complete a 15-month accelerated nursing program at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville in December. For her clinical training this fall, she's working 12-hour shifts on weekends with medical-surgical patients at a hospital.

But Hevner and nursing students like her who refuse to get vaccinated against covid-19 are in an increasingly precarious position. Their stance may put their required clinical training and, eventually, their nursing careers at risk.

In early September, the Biden administration announced that workers at health care facilities, including hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers, would be required to receive covid vaccines. Although details of the federal rule won't be released until October, some experts predict that student nurses doing clinical training at such sites will have to be vaccinated, too.

Groups representing the nursing profession say "students should be vaccinated when clinical facilities require it" to complete their clinical training. In a policy brief released Monday, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing and eight other nurse organizations suggested that students who refuse to be vaccinated and who don't qualify for an exception because of their religious beliefs or medical issues may be disenrolled from their nursing program or be unable to graduate because they cannot fulfill the clinical requirements.

"We can't have students in the workplace that can expose patients to a serious illness," said Maryann Alexander, chief officer for nursing regulation at the national council. "Students can refuse the vaccine, but those who are not exempt maybe should be told that this is not the time to be in a nursing program."

"You're going to go into practice and you're going to be very limited in your jobs if you're not going to get that vaccine," Alexander said.

Hevner, 35, set to finish her clinical training in early October, said she doesn't feel it's acceptable to benefit from a vaccine that was developed using fetal cells obtained through abortion, which she opposes. (Development of the Johnson & Johnson covid vaccine involved a cell line from an abortion; the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines were not developed with fetal cell lines, but some testing of the vaccines reportedly involved fetal cells, researchers say. Many religious leaders, however, support vaccination against covid.)

With vaccines for nursing students still optional in many health care settings, nursing educators are scrambling to place unvaccinated students in health care facilities that will accept them.

Down the coast from Jacksonville in Fort Pierce, Florida, 329 students are in the two-year associate degree nursing program at Indian River State College, said Roseann Maresca, an assistant professor who teaches third-semester students and coordinates their clinical training. Only 150 of them are vaccinated against covid, she said.

Not all of the eight medical facilities that have contracts with the school require student nurses to be vaccinated.

"It's been a nightmare trying to move students around this semester" to match them with facilities depending on their vaccination status, Maresca said.

Commonly, health care facilities have long required employees to be vaccinated against various illnesses such as influenza and hepatitis B. The pandemic has added new urgency to these requirements. According to a September tally by FierceHealthcare, more than 170 health systems mandate covid vaccines for their workforces.

In May, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission made it clear that under federal law employers can mandate covid vaccinations as long as they allow workers to claim religious and medical exemptions.

Under the Biden administration's covid plan, roughly 50,000 health care facilities that receive Medicare or Medicaid payments must require workers to be vaccinated. Until the administration releases its draft rule in October, it is unclear how nursing students assigned to health care sites for clinical training will be treated.

But the federal rule published in August that lays out regulations for government hospital payments in 2022 offers clues. It defined health care personnel that should be vaccinated as employees, licensed independent contractors and adult students/trainees and volunteers, said Colin Milligan, director of media relations at the American Hospital Association.

In addition to staff members, the Biden plan says mandates will apply to "individuals providing services under arrangements" at health care sites.

A spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services declined to clarify who would be covered by the Biden plan, noting the agency is still writing the rules.

Nonetheless, vaccination mandates threaten to derail the training of a relatively small proportion of nursing students. A recent survey by the National Student Nurses' Association reported that 86% of nursing students and 85% of new nursing graduates who responded to an online survey said they had been or planned to be vaccinated against covid.

But the results varied widely by state, from 100% in New Hampshire and Vermont on the high end to 63% in Oklahoma, 74% in Kentucky and 76% in Florida on the low end. The survey had 7,501 respondents.

Students who don't want to be vaccinated are asking schools to offer them alternatives to on-site clinical training. They suggest using life-size computer-controlled mannequins or computer-based simulations using avatars, said Marcia Gardner, dean of the nursing school at Molloy College in Rockville Centre, New York.

Last year, when the pandemic led hospitals to close their doors to students, many nursing programs increased simulated clinical training to give nursing students some sort of clinical experience.

But that's no substitute for working with real patients in a health care setting, educators say. State nursing boards permit simulated clinical study to varying degrees, but none allow such instruction to exceed 50% of clinical training, said Alexander. A multisite study found that nursing students could do up to half their clinical training using simulation with no negative impact on competency.

The policy brief by the council of state nursing boards states that nursing education programs "are not obligated to provide substitute or alternate clinical experiences based on a student's request or vaccine preference."

As more nursing students become vaccinated, the issue will grow less acute. And if the Biden plan requires nursing students to be vaccinated to work in hospitals, the number of holdouts is likely to further shrink.

Hevner, the University of North Florida student, said she's not opposed to vaccines in general and would consider getting a covid vaccine in the future if she could be assured it wasn't created using aborted fetal cells. She filed paperwork with the college to get a religious exemption from vaccine requirements. It turned out she didn't need one because Orange Park Medical Center, where she is doing her clinical training, doesn't require staffers or nursing students to be vaccinated against covid "at this time," said Carrie Turansky, director of public relations and communications for the medical center, in Orange Park, Florida.

Although Hevner opposes getting the vaccine, "I take protecting my patients and protecting myself very seriously," she said. She gets tested weekly for covid and always wears an N95 mask in a clinical setting, among other precautions, she said. "But I would ask: Do we give up our own religious rights and our own self-determination just because we work in a health care setting?"

She hopes the profession can accommodate people like her.

"I'm concerned because we're in such a divisive place," she said. But she is eager to find a middle ground because, she said, "I think I would make a really great nurse."
Online searches for symptoms of arthritis and osteoarthritis increase with residents throughout the UK.

As National Arthritis Week approaches, B-Cure Laser by Good Energies have released findings from a study of health issues that are seeing notable spikes in Google search traffic in 2021.

The highest searches in the category came around arthritis symptoms with a total of 14,800 across the UK. Followed by osteoarthritis symptoms at 6,600 searches, arthritis signs at 2,400 searches, and arthritis help at 590 searches, as the decrease in physical activity throughout the COVID-19 pandemic begins to show possible implications.

As restrictions eased through the summer though and people started to return to their GPs and support once again became accessible, there was a 41% decrease in people searching for arthritis help, from 1,000 searches to 560 year-on-year.

Good Energies launched its laser-powered pain relief device for at-home treatment earlier this year in the UK and has delved into more than 70 key terms covering both mental health and physical pain problems. More than 760,000 searches were conducted over the past 12 months relating to arthritis, fibromyalgia, and the menopause, as well as anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and autism.

UK manager of B-Cure Laser, Itay Avni said: As we approach National Arthritis Week in October, we wanted to understand the health problems of the nation. By exploring peoples concerns, both from a mental health and physical health viewpoint, we have been able to see clear areas that are troubling UK residents, including clear increases in arthritis related concerns.

Following a challenging 18 months for our society and COVID-19 concerns causing increased anxiety about visiting GPs offices, its no surprise that people are turning to the internet to self-diagnose. While the internet will provide many useful guidelines on healthcare topics and staying fit for longer, wed still advise anyone that has concerns for their wellbeing to seek help from a professional. Itay Avni, UK Manager, B-Cure Laser

The highest searches in the UK per capita came around anxiety symptoms (165.04 per 100,000 people), menopause symptoms (135.78) and depression symptoms (111.03). Also on the list was fibromyalgia, a disorder which is which is associated with widespread musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, sleep, memory, and mood issues. There were 40,500 total searches for fibromyalgia symptoms.

Earlier this year, the B-Cure Laser team also revealed the results of a Pain Survey of UK adults, which revealed that the UK population spends an anticipated 1.14bn (1,140,633,600) on pain treatments every month.

While 75% of respondents acknowledged they were happy with their current pain treatments, 25% said they either werent content or did not use treatments. A total of 54% of respondents said they manage their ailments through painkillers (34% via over-the-counter painkillers and 20% through prescribed painkillers), while 10% and 7% claimed they had turned to alcohol and recreational drugs respectively to ease their suffering.

The survey showed that more than a quarter of the UK (26%) experiences pain at least once a month, with one in five claiming they have trouble sleeping because of their pain.

Lower back pain, which accounts for 40% of pain across the UK, was most prevalent in Swansea, where 64% of residents reported difficulties, with the city that reported the most serious pain being Worcester, where 27% of people were really struggling  that pain really stacks up when you hear that 98.59 is spent on average each month on pain relief by Worcester residents.
A previously unknown virus that can infect humans and cause disease has been identified by scientists in Japan. The novel infectious virus, named Yezo virus and transmitted by tick bites, causes a disease characterized by fever and a reduction in blood platelets and leucocytes. The discovery was made by researchers at Hokkaido University and colleagues, and the results have been published in the journal Nature Communications.

Keita Matsuno, a virologist at Hokkaido University's International Institute for Zoonosis Control, said: "At least seven people have been infected with this new virus in Japan since 2014, but, so far, no deaths have been confirmed."

The Yezo virus was discovered after a 41-year-old man was admitted to the hospital in 2019 with fever and leg pain after being bitten by an arthropod believed to be a tick while he was walking in a local forest in Hokkaido. He was treated and discharged after two weeks, but tests showed he had not been infected with any known viruses carried by ticks in the region. A second patient showed up with similar symptoms after a tick bite the following year.

Genetic analysis of viruses isolated from blood samples of the two patients found a new type of orthonairovirus, a class of nairovirus, that includes pathogens such as the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus. The scientists named it Yezo virus, after a historical Japanese name for Hokkaido, a large island in the north of the country where the virus was discovered. The novel virus was found most closely related to Sulina virus and Tamdy virus, detected in Romania and Uzbekistan, respectively, the latter of which reportedly caused acute fever in humans recently in China.

The scientists then checked blood samples collected from hospital patients who showed similar symptoms after tick bites since 2014. They found additional positive samples from five patients. These patients, including the first two, had a fever and reduced blood platelets and leucocytes, and showed indicators of abnormal liver function.

To determine the likely source of the virus, the research team screened samples collected from wild animals in the area between 2010 and 2020. They found antibodies for the virus in Hokkaido shika deer and raccoons. They also found the virus RNA in three major species of ticks in Hokkaido. Matsuno says, "The Yezo virus seems to have established its distribution in Hokkaido, and it is highly likely that the virus causes the illness when it is transmitted to humans from animals via ticks."

As the Covid-19 pandemic so dramatically demonstrates, animals carry many unknown viruses and some of these can go on to infect people. "All of the cases of Yezo virus infection we know of so far did not turn into fatalities, but it's very likely that the disease is found beyond Hokkaido, so we need to urgently investigate its spread,"said Matsuno.

The research team now plans to track the possible nationwide distribution of the novel virus in wild animals and patients. And they say more hospitals should test for the virus in patients who complain of the symptoms.

The study was carried out in collaboration with researchers at the Graduate School of Veterinary Medicine and One Health Research Center of Hokkaido University, Sapporo City General Hospital, Nagaoka Red Cross Hospital, Hokkaido Institute of Public Health, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Nagasaki University, Rakuno Gakuen University, Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, and the University of Liverpool.
insights from industry Dr. Pat Gilbert Technical Director Purolite

In this interview, News-Medical talks to Patrick Gilbert, Technical Director at Purolite, about the work Purolite do and how their chemical synthesis processes are benefitted by the Radleys Mya 4 reaction station.

Streamlining chemical synthesis and process development with Radleys Mya 4 Play

Video credit: Radleys

Could you give our readers a brief overview of Purolite and the work that you do?

At Purolite we are 100% focused on resin technology - small beads used for purification in industrial applications or new life sciences. This technology was originally used in water treatment where water had to be cleaned before or after use. Over the last 10 to 15 years we have been diversifying into the life sciences market, and 10 years ago, we embarked on an agro resin program.

Traditionally resin technology is made of synthetic polymers, but our new product line is made of a seaweed-derived polymer. We work from proof of principle and feasibility studies, all the way through to full-scale commercialization and adoption into CGMP and FDA-approved drugs.

What are the main goals of the company in terms of the products that you supply?

Image credit: Radleys

Our goals typically begin with an unmet customer need. Our sales team is in direct contact with clients, and these clients often have unique challenges, for example, air purification. Often, current commercially available resins do not meet the clients requirements, so we provide custom solutions. We start at the R&D scale and produce proof of concept material, then either test this in-house or send it to the client to evaluate internally at their site.

Once we have that proof of concept approved, we take it through an optimization stage to expand the key parameters and evaluate whether or not these can be improved. This gives us a lead candidate, which we then take through upscaling at the liter or two-liter scale, depending on the end application.

Once we have positive confirmation of a suitable lead candidate, we then take it through to full commercialization, into the pilot, and then into full-scale production. Depending on its end usage, we can offer that solution globally or as a bespoke solution to that one client.

How much does the Mya 4 factor into Purolite's process?

Image credit: Radleys

For us, the Mya 4 is a daily workhorse. We had previously used round-bottom flasks in water baths, but as we upscaled, we would have to reformulate everything. This would take a lot of time, but with the Mya 4, we can skip that reformulation step.

We also have fantastic scale-down data now, so we can go directly from a 100 milliliter Mya flask directly into a 100 liter glass jacket, keeping formulation and processing parameters the same to ensure quick and reproducible results.

The Mya 4 also enables the bench chemist to perform multiple projects simultaneously. Because all four stations on the Mya are independent, we can operate completely different reactions, freeing up time and increasing our resin throughput and lead time.

What factors made the Mya 4 your first choice for this kind of system?

Historically, we used water baths and round-bottom flasks, but we wanted to move away from this approach for several reasons. One of the main issues with the water bath and round-bottom flask system was that we were limited to one reaction temperature. We could only do one project at a time or look at one variable, and this was slowing down our reaction time. The other downside was that whenever we scaled up into pilot or into process vessels we had to reformulate, because of the different mixing.

We decided to look for an alternative - small-scale parallel synthesis reactors. Our key criteria was the availability of overhead stirring. A lot of systems only offer magnetic stirring with a small bead in the flask, but for our product, this will cause degradation and potentially destroy the end product.

We were also looking for an independently controlled system in terms of heating and cooling. We needed this level of process control to maintain the process temperature independently of the jacket or block temperature.

The Mya 4 ticked all of those boxes at a good cost point. We purchased our first instrument a few years ago, and we have used this on a daily basis. We haven't looked back.

How has the Mya 4 benefited the work that you do day to day? Are there projects that you have been able to complete that would have been difficult otherwise?

Image credit: Radleys

The Mya 4 reduces the cycle time of projects and can significantly condense timelines. The quickest project we have done to date - from proof of principle to upscale - has taken just six weeks. Previously, this timeframe would have been unmanageable and would likely have taken at least three or four months.

Being able to do true DOE work on this system while ensuring reliability and reproducibility of results is critical. It also allows the free zones to be used by other R&D scientists to produce small-scale prototyping material for other projects. Overall, the Mya 4 enables us to deliver higher throughput in a smaller, more condensed space.

What challenges and opportunities do you see in the future for Purolite, and how will Radleys and the Mya 4 help and support you with these?

Purolite is still rapidly growing, the number of projects we take on is continually increasing, and this extra workload will require increased use of the Mya system. We purchased a second Mya system about a year after the first one, and as we grow, we will be looking to purchase more of these systems to keep pace with our R&D programs.

Image credit: Radleys

About Dr. Gilbert

Dr. Patrick Gilbert is Technical Director for Purolite, where he has worked for over 9 years and is part of the amazing team behind a revolutionary protein A resin range. Responsible for the management of the agarose resin technical team at Purolite including R&D, Production, and Quality. Leading NPD and commercialization of agarose resins into dedicated production facilities for use in highly regulated environments.

About Radleys

Radleys, world leaders in innovative productivity tools for chemists. Radleys provide innovative chemistry equipment for safer, cleaner, greener and more productive chemical research.

Radleys have been manufacturing scientific glassware and laboratory instruments for over 50 years and our customers include leading blue-chip industrial and academic research facilities around the world.

Established in 1966

Based in Saffron Walden, United Kingdom

Instrument and glassware manufacturer

In-house Research and Development facilities

Distributors in 47 countries

Our areas of expertise are focused on equipment for chemical synthesis, process development, work-up and evaporation.
Phebe Cox grew up in what might seem an unlikely mental health danger zone for a kid: tony Palo Alto, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. But behind its facade of family success and wealth, she said, is an environment of crushing pressure on students to perform. By 2016, when Cox was in middle school, Palo Alto had a teen suicide rate four times the national average.

Cox's family lived by the railroad tracks where many of the suicides occurred. She got counseling. But that option, she told KHN, is not always easily available to teens in crisis  and she and her peers regarded school mental health services as their last choice because of concerns about either confidentiality or anonymity.

A new program, designed largely by the people who use it, provides an alternative. Called Allcove, it offers standalone health and wellness sites to those ages 12 to 25, often on a walk-in basis, at minimal or no cost. Although Allcove is built to support a wide range of physical, emotional and social needs, its overarching goal is to deal with mental health challenges before they develop into deeper problems.

Allcove is yet in its infancy, with two sites just opened in the Bay Area and five more in the pipeline around California. It's modeled on a 15-year-old program in Australia, Headspace, which has 130 such clinics. Headspace has inspired programs in other countries as well, including Jigsaw in Ireland and Foundry in Canada. All of them, including Allcove, also offer online and phone services.

Allcove's core values resonate with Cox, now 19 and a student at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, and one of dozens of young people who have offered advice on the program's structure and services.

"Right away, I knew it was going to be a big thing," Cox said. "I felt pretty helpless as a young teenager, but Allcove is all about the students and the students' needs."

About half of all lifetime mental illness begins by age 14, and 75% before age 25, according to researchers. Yet access to mental health care in the U.S. is lacking. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, some 30 million adults and children with mental health conditions go without treatment, and 129 million people live in areas with shortages of mental health professionals. A 2017 survey found that Californians were five times more likely to go outside their private insurance network for mental health office visits than for medical or surgical needs.

Allcove meets some of that head-on by providing fully staffed safe spaces for teens and young adults to discuss and deal with their health, both mental and physical, along with substance misuse issues and educational support. California law allows those 12 and older to get outpatient mental health or counseling services without a guardian's consent.

Allcove's sites in Palo Alto and San Jose are filled with vibrant colors and plenty of open space, the result of input by a youth advisory group that numbers a dozen or more members and changes out about once a year. Inside Allcove, clients can access group or individual care, ask a doctor about a problem, and even get help preparing for college.

Unlike the Australian program, Allcove has no ongoing funding source yet. Allcove is "a really big lift, and we [at the state level] want to say, 'How can we help you?'" said Toby Ewing, executive director of the California Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, which administers the fund that seeded the first two sites with $15 million.

Funding eventually may come from a combination of state, private and nonprofit sources, as well as Medi-Cal reimbursements, said Dr. Steven Adelsheim, a psychiatrist who directs Stanford University's Center for Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing.

Adelsheim previously spent nearly 30 years in New Mexico, helping that state build a network of school-based health centers. His experience convinced him that many students were likely to avoid mental health services at school. They were reluctant, he said, to discuss such issues with their own counselors, who might be the same people writing the students' letters of recommendation for college and might unwittingly breach privacy.

That realization led Adelsheim in 2014 to get exploratory funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to create Allcove. (KHN, which produces California Healthline, also receives funding support from the foundation.) "There is a crying need in the U.S. to reach kids with early intervention and help," Adelsheim said.

The idea struck a chord with Santa Clara County officials, who'd seen Palo Alto lashed by teen suicide clusters during the 2009-10 and 2014-15 school years. "The saddest part of the story is that a teen didn't reach out earlier, didn't have the opportunity to get help when and where they needed it," County Supervisor Joe Simitian said in announcing Allcove's opening in June. "The appeal of the Allcove model is it's designed to engage young people who are struggling, long before they hit a crisis point."

When Cox moved from middle school to Palo Alto's Henry M. Gunn High School, her therapist told her about Adelsheim's project and suggested Cox apply to be part of Allcove's youth council. One of Cox's contributions was to suggest weekday hours extending at least to 7 p.m., "because young adults are doing things and on the move all day. It's the evenings  and even the weekends  when we're dealing with things or feeling more helpless. For a lot of my friends, at night is when things can get overwhelming."

Both Foundry, the Canadian program, and Allcove address physical health as well. Steve Mathias, CEO of Foundry, said his program's emphasis is "on health and wellness, not just mental health, which is a part of wellness." Said Adelsheim, "Sometimes a kid may come in with a physical complaint, and only after a few visits is the mental suffering brought out into the open." When that happens, Allcove can make a "warm handoff" to a mental health specialist on-site.

The most significant difference between Headspace and Allcove may be funding. Headspace is part of the Australian government's mental health initiative, and thus budgeted. Allcove is essentially building on the fly, and its long-term ability to grow will depend on money.

California's Proposition 63, written in 2004 by then-Assembly member Darrell Steinberg (now the mayor of Sacramento), levies a 1% tax on personal incomes over $1 million to fund community mental health services. This year, the tax may yield $2.4 billion, Ewing said. Most of that goes to existing programs, but about 5% each year  more than $100 million in 2021  feeds an innovation fund to encourage new approaches to mental health.

Santa Clara County got $15 million from that fund to launch Allcove. The state also has helped fund Allcove sites, in Sacramento, San Mateo and Orange counties, and two in Los Angeles County.

"We've made a $30 million-plus investment in this model," Ewing said. "We are assuming that it's going to be successful."

Success, say Adelsheim and Cox, would mean the establishment of hundreds of Allcove centers up and down the state, readily available to young people. The hope is that, if it catches on, Allcove could become a well-known brand for young Californians  and, eventually, others around the country.

This story was produced by KHN, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.
(Newser)  In a normal year, the smokehouses and drying racks that Alaska Natives use to prepare salmon to tide them through the winter would be heavy with fish meat, the fruits of a summer spent fishing on the Yukon River like generations before them. This year, there are no fish. For the first time in memory, both king and chum salmon have dwindled to almost nothing and the state has banned salmon fishing on the Yukon, even the subsistence harvests that Alaska Natives rely on to fill their freezers and pantries for winter. The remote communities that dot the river and live off its bountyfar from road systems and easy, affordable shoppingare desperate and doubling down on moose and caribou hunts in the waning days of fall, per the AP. Nobody has fish in their freezer right now. Nobody, said Giovanna Stevens, 38, a member of the Stevens Village tribe who grew up harvesting salmon at her family's fish camp. Opinions on what led to the catastrophe vary, but those studying it generally agree human-caused climate change is playing a role as the river and the Bering Sea warm, altering the food chain in ways that aren't yet fully understood. Many believe commercial trawling operations that scoop up wild salmon along with their intended catch, as well as competition from hatchery-raised salmon in the ocean, have compounded global warming's effects on one of North America's longest rivers. The assumption that salmon that aren't fished make it back to their native river to lay eggs may no longer hold up because of changes in both the ocean and river environments, said Stephanie Quinn-Davidson, who has worked on Yukon River salmon issues for a decade and is the Alaska Venture Fund's program director for fisheries and communities.

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King, or chinook, salmon have been in decline for more than a decade, but chum salmon were more plentiful until last year. This year, summer chum numbers plummeted and numbers of fall chumwhich travel farther upriverare dangerously low. Everyone wants to know, What is the one smoking gun? What is the one thing we can point to and stop? she said of the collapse. People are reluctant to point to climate change because there isnt a clear solution ... but its probably the biggest factor here." Many Alaska Native communities are outraged they are paying the price for generations of practices beyond their control that have caused climate changeand many feel state and federal authorities aren't doing enough to bring Indigenous voices to the table. The scarcity has made raw strong emotions about who should have the right to fish in a state that supplies the world with salmon, and underscores the powerlessness many Alaska Natives feel as traditional resources dwindle.

The nearly 2,000-mile-long (3,200-kilometer) Yukon River starts in British Columbia and drains an area larger than Texas in both Canada and Alaska as it cuts through the lands of Athabascan, Yupik and other tribes. The crisis is affecting both subsistence fishing in far-flung outposts and fish processing operations that employ tribal members in communities along the lower Yukon and its tributaries. In the tribal villages, our people are livid. Theyre extremely angry that we are getting penalized for what others are doing," said P.J. Simon, chairman and chief of the Tanana Chiefs Conference, a consortium of 42 tribal villages in the Alaska interior. As Alaska Natives, we have a right to this resource. We have a right to have a say in how things are drawn up and divvied up. More than a half-dozen Alaska Native groups have petitioned for federal aid, and they want the state's federal delegation to hold a hearing in Alaska on the salmon crisis. The groups also seek federal funding for more collaborative research on effects that ocean changes are having on returning salmon.

Citing the warming ocean, Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy requested a federal disaster declaration for the salmon fishery this month and has helped coordinate airlifts of about 90,000 pounds (41,000 kilograms) of fish to needy villages. The salmon crisis is one of the governor's top priorities, said Rex Rock Jr., Dunleavys advisor for rural affairs and Alaska Native economic development. That's done little to appease remote villages that are dependent on salmon to get through winter, when snow paralyzes the landscape and temperatures can dip to minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 29 C) or lower. Families traditionally spend the summer at fish camps using nets and fish wheels to snag adult salmon as they migrate inland from the ocean to the place where they hatched so they can spawn. The salmon is prepared for storage a variety of ways: dried for jerky, cut into fillets that are frozen, canned in half-pint jars or preserved in wooden barrels with salt. Without those options, communities are under intense pressure to find other protein sources. In the Alaska interior, the nearest road system is often dozens of miles away, and it can take hours by boat, snow machine or even airplane to reach a grocery store. (Read more climate change stories.)
(Newser)  A Romanian billionaire and his family were among the dead when a private jet flew into a building Sunday afternoon in Milan, Italy. All eight people on board were killed, including property tycoon Dan Petrescu, 68, his wife, and their 30-year-old son, the BBC reports. Family friends were also reportedly aboard as the group headed to visit Petrescu's mother at the family villa on the island of Sardinia, the Sun reports, and a child was said to be among the dead. Petrescu, who owned a number of malls and supermarkets and was one of Romania's richest men, was piloting the plane.

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The single-engine Pilatus PC-12 had just taken off 11 minutes earlier from Milan's Linate airport when it crashed into an office building that was under renovation and empty about 6 miles away, setting it and several parked, unoccupied cars on fire but injuring no one on the ground. "I heard the sound of a plane above me as if the plane was shutting down its engine," one witness says; some of those who saw the crash report that the plane was already on fire before it hit the building. The National Agency for Flight Safety (ANSV) is investigating the cause of the crash, Deutsche Welle reports. (Read more Italy stories.)
(Newser)  Exactly how do the rich and powerful get out of paying taxes? The answer, in part, is in the Pandora Papers, 11.9 million files exposing offshore financial dealings of the very rich, with the secrets of 35 world leaders and 300 other public officials, the Guardian reports. The massive data leak was sent to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in Washington. Its a cache of date similar to the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers. Journalists pored over the files which detail how people like King Abdullah II of Jordan or former British Prime Minister Tony Blair used shell companies to hide wealth in real estate. Its the biggest cache of financial data so far. The new data leak must be a wake-up call . Global tax evasion fuels global inequality, Sven Giegold, a Green party lawmaker in the European Parliament said p er the AP .

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Revelations in the papers include:

Svetlana Krivonogikh, a Russian woman with a modest background, suddenly owned an offshore company that owned a swanky apartment in Monaco shortly before giving birth to a girlduring a time when she was reported to be in a relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Washington Post reports.

reports. King Abdullah II of Jordan, at a time when he placed under house arrest his half brother, former Crown Prince Hamzah, apparently for accusing the royals of corruption, bought property in Malibu, Washington, and London through secret offshore companies, per the Guardian .

. Former British PM Tony Blair and his wife Cherie avoided paying property taxesstamp dutyon the London building that houses Cheries law firm, by buying the offshore shell company that owned it, the BBC reports.

The Czech PM, Andrej Babis, had no comments about why he used an investment company to buy a $22 million French chateau. Hes facing an election next week.

(Read more Pandora Papers stories.)
(Newser)  A scary bout with low blood sugar ended in relief for an elderly Michigan man thanks to a quick-thinking McDonald's worker last month. On Sept. 20, Sue Causey went to pick up her husband, 84-year-old Ron Causey, at a senior center in Southgate, where he'd been playing cardsand right away, she knew something was wrong. He wasn't walking right, and when he climbed into the car, "he couldn't even talk," she tells WXYZ. Ron Causey, who has diabetes, had suddenly experienced a drop in blood sugar, and Sue Causey knew he could go from shock to coma very quickly if she didn't get something sugary in him.

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Where she headed immediately: a local McDonald's, whose indoor section was shut down and whose drive-thru had several cars ahead of her. By the time she got up to the speaker, she was frantic. "I need a large orange juice," she told drive-thru staff. "Can you please have someone run it out to me? My husband's in diabetic shock." That's when an employee told shift manager James Dalpiaz what was going on, a lucky turn of events since Dalpiaz knew a little something about diabetes.

It turns out his aunt has the disease, so he knew the OJ needed an extra helping of sugar. "I said, 'I know what I'm doing ... just trust me,'" he tells the station, recalling how after he dumped the sugar into the drink, he ran it out to the Causeys. Ron Causey was able to get the juice down and immediately started feeling better. "I didn't even think to tell him to put sugar in it," Sue Causey says of Dalpiaz's actions. "You've got to react pretty quick to it. And he did."

A bit of coincidence also found its way into this story: When Sue Causey saw the name on Dalpiaz's name badge, it rang a bell, and they soon figured out that Dalpiaz's aunt used to be her neighbor, per the News-Herald. Sue Causey made sure to thank her husband's rescuer on Facebook. "You are my hero!!" she wrote of Dalpiaz later that day. "He was an angel on my shoulder," Ron Causey adds to the News-Herald. (Read more uplifting news stories.)
(Newser)  The Facebook whistleblower revealed herself, as promised, Sunday night on CBS' 60 Minutes. Frances Haugen is the formerly anonymous ex-Facebook employee who filed complaints against the social media company with federal law enforcement agencies last month, and leaked private Facebook research to the Wall Street Journal resulting in a series of investigative pieces that made big waves. (More on them here and here, or Facebook's rebuttal here.) The 37-year-old data scientist, who's also worked at Google and Pinterest, discussed what she saw as "conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook," accusing the social network of prioritizing profits over making actual strides against hate, violence, incitement, and misinformation online.

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"The version of Facebook that exists today is tearing our societies apart and causing ethnic violence around the world," she says. When she was first hired she was assigned to fight election misinformation, but, she says, as soon as the presidential election was over, many of the safeties Facebook put in place were removed. "Facebook has realized that if they change the algorithm to be safer, people will spend less time on the site, they'll click on less ads, they'll make less money," she explains. Her belief is that the federal government should regulate the company.

Facebook issued a statement in response to the interview, reading in part, "Every day our teams have to balance protecting the right of billions of people to express themselves openly with the need to keep our platform a safe and positive place." "Zuckerberg" was trending on Twitter after the interview, with people noting his silence on the matter. "One of the interesting things about the latest Facebook scandal is Zuckerbergs decision not to address itreportedly as a strategy to distance himself from the scandal," reads one sample reaction. "Does he think people will forget he is the CEO and maintains complete control over the company?" Another notes that Zuckerberg posted about his family going sailing on Sunday. (Read more Facebook stories.)
(Newser)  New Zealand's government acknowledged Monday what most other countries did long ago: It can no longer completely get rid of the coronavirus. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a cautious plan to ease lockdown restrictions in Auckland, despite an outbreak there that continues to simmer, the AP reports. Since early in the pandemic, New Zealand had pursued an unusual zero-tolerance approach to the virus through strict lockdowns and aggressive contact tracing. Until recently, that elimination strategy had worked remarkably well for the country of 5 million, which has reported just 27 virus deaths. But that all changed when the more contagious delta variant somehow escaped from a quarantine facility in August after it was brought into the country from a traveler returning from Australia.

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Despite New Zealand going into the strictest form of lockdown after just a single local case was detected, it ultimately wasn't enough to crush the outbreak entirely. One factor may have been that the disease spread among some groups that are typically more wary of authorities, including gang members and homeless people living in transitional housing. The outbreak has grown to more than 1,300 cases, with 29 more detected on Monday. A few cases have been found outside of Auckland. Under Ardern's plan that starts Tuesday, Aucklanders will be able to meet outdoors with loved ones from one other household, early childhood centers will reopen, and people will be able to go to the beach.

The dates for a phased reopening of retail stores and later bars and restaurants have yet to be decided. "For this outbreak, its clear that long periods of heavy restrictions has not got us to zero cases, Ardern said. But that is OK. Elimination was important because we didnt have vaccines. Now we do, so we can begin to change the way we do things. About 65% of New Zealanders have had at least one dose and 40% are fully vaccinated. Among people age 12 and older, about 79% have had at least a single jab. Ardern said that most measures would remain in place to keep the outbreak under control, including exhaustive contact tracing and isolating those who got infected.

(Read more New Zealand stories.)
(Newser)  A federal judge in California made Clint Eastwood's day on Friday with a ruling in a lawsuit against a CBD company. The judge awarded Eastwood and Garrapata, a company he runs that owns the rights to his likeness, $6.1 million in a ruling against a Lithuanian company that used his name and image to suggest that he endorsed their cannabis products, the New York Times reports. The judge issued a default judgment after the company, Mediatonas UAB, failed to respond to a March summons. Eastwood filed lawsuits last year against CBD companies he said had illegally tried to profit off his name and likeness, reports TMZ.

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Eastwood's lawsuit accused the company of producing a fake online articlewith a real photo of Eastwood from a Today show interviewincluding an interview in which he praised its CBD products. The judge awarded Eastwood and Garrapata $6 million for the unauthorized use of his name and likeness, plus almost $100,000 in legal fees. He did not, however, grant the lawsuit's defamation claim. "It requires additional context to understand what CBD products are and why a person like Clint Eastwood would not endorse a marijuana-based product," he wrote.

Eastwood's lawyers praised the ruling, which bans the company from ever using the 91-year-old actor's name or image again. "In pursuing this case, and obtaining this judgment, Mr. Eastwood has again demonstrated a willingness to confront wrongdoing and hold accountable those who try to illegally profit off his name, likeness, and goodwill," attorney Jordan Susman said in a statement, per Fox Business. (Read more Clint Eastwood stories.)
(Newser)  Update: Two surgeries later, Eric Steinley is "still in disbelief that I'm alive" after coming face to face with a great white shark. The surfer says he was dragged underwater Sunday at California's Salmon Creek Beach when a great white confirmed to be at least 10 feet long bit down on his left leg. So he punched it. "It was such a measly punch compared to how big this creature was," the 38-year-old tells ABC News. But the shark loosened its grip, allowing Steinley to surface and call for help. Fellow surfer Jared Davis helped him reach shore, where onlookers applied a makeshift tourniquet and used a long board to move him to the parking lot. That "really helped to save his leg," a first responder tells ABC. Our original story from Monday follows:

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A surfer was critically injured in a rare shark attack in California on Sunday. The man in his 30s was out with a group at a beach near the mouth of Salmon Creek, just north of Bodega Bay, around 9am when he was bitten on his left thigh, per the San Francisco Chronicle. A witness tells KPIX that he heard the man yell "Shark!" and "Help!" "I saw the dorsal fin of the shark, and then I saw the tail fin of the shark ... going down into the water," the witness says. "It definitely wasn't a quick attack. It was nice and slow." Fellow surfers had taken the man to the beach parking lot and applied a tourniquet made of surfboard leashes by the time emergency responders arrived.

A volunteer firefighter says the tourniquet was applied within 10 minutes of the bite, which reportedly damaged an artery, and the man was "conscious and alert" when he was airlifted from the scene, per the San Jose Mercury News. "CHP H-32 is en route to Santa Rosa Memorial with a trauma patient who was reported to have been bitten by a shark," the California Highway Patrol's Golden Gate Division's Air Operations unit said in a statement, describing the victim as "critically injured." It later shared an update, saying "the surfer is stable and will survive although the injuries are severe."

The victim said it was "a pretty large shark" and "he had a struggle with it," a paramedic tells KPIX, which shares footage of deep teeth marks in the victim's surfboard. It's unclear what species of shark was involved. But of 198 shark incidents in California since 1950, at least 176 have involved great white sharks, including the 14 fatalities. Still, a 2015 study determined a surfer's risk of being attacked by a great white shark off California was 1 in 17 million, per the Mercury News. (Read more shark attack stories.)
(Newser)  Former President Trump is still fuming about the investigation into whether his campaign colluded with the Russians before the 2016 election, and now he wants repercussions for two newspapers that reported on it and jointly won the Pulitzer for national reporting in 2018. The former president released a statement Sunday that blasted the New York Times and Washington Post for their coverage, published over a seven-month period in 2017, which he calls a "politically motivated farce." Trump faults the newspapers' use of anonymous sources, calls the collusion theory a "debunked" one, and claims the publications ran with their articles despite a "complete lack of evidence."

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"It has since been confirmed that the allegations were false, and I have been exonerated of these charges," Trump writes. Insider's take: not quite. The outlet notes that while special counsel Robert Muellerwho oversaw the probe into Russian election interference in 2016 and possible collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaigndidn't recommend prosecutors charge Trump based on the evidence he saw, he also didn't recommend they not charge him. In fact, in May 2019, Mueller noted that "if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so."

That isn't stopping Trump from demanding consequences for what he calls "shoddy" and "dubious" reporting and "sensational" headlines, citing the recent indictment of Michael Sussman, a cybersecurity lawyer who used to work for the Clinton campaign, to bolster his case. Insider notes that Sussman, who tipped off the FBI on possible correspondence between the Trump campaign and a Russian bank, is accused by special counsel John Durham of lying to the FBI about who his employer was at the time he alerted the agency.

Trump says in his statement that he hopes the two newspapers will give back their awards on their own, but if not, "the Pulitzer Prize Board must act accordingly" and "rectify the situation." He also wants the panel to wipe "false statements which remain on the Pulitzer website." The Guardian notes that only one Pulitzer has ever been withdrawn, in 1981, when Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke admitted to making up a story about an 8-year-old heroin addict. (Read more Donald Trump stories.)
(Newser)  Former US Rep. Todd Akin, a conservative Missouri Republican whose comment that women's bodies have a way of avoiding pregnancies in cases of "legitimate rape" sunk his bid for the US Senate, and who became a cautionary tale for other GOP candidates, died late Sunday. He was 74. Akin had cancer for several years, his son Perry said in a statement. He died at his home in Wildwood, a St. Louis suburb. "As my father's death approached, we had people from all different walks of life share story after story of the personal impact he had on them," Perry Akin said in a statement to the AP. "He was a devout Christian, a great father, and a friend to many.

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Akin represented a GOP-leaning eastern Missouri district that included St. Louis-area suburbs for 12 years, giving up a safe seat to run for the US Senate in 2012 against the incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskillonly to seriously hurt Republicans' chances of recapturing a Senate majority less than two weeks later. Akin, a strong abortion opponent, was asked during an interview by a St. Louis television station whether he supported allowing abortions for women who've been raped. He answered that "from what I understand from doctors" such pregnancies are "really rare."

He added: "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." His comments sparked an outcry. The Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, immediately rebuked Akin and said his campaign would allow abortions in such cases. Criticism of Akin's remarks clouded his US Senate bid until the end, making him a symbol of how Republicans could fumble away races they had a good chance of winning with a candidate deemed too far to the right. Akin's campaign initially said he "misspoke," and Akin later said he was wrong.

Akin faced pressure from the national GOP to withdraw and allow the state party to pick a replacement. He refused and ended up losing the race by nearly 16 percentage points, receiving 39% of the vote. Two years later, Akin published a book, Firing Back, in which he accused GOP leaders of abandoning him and letting McCaskill win. He also retracted his public apology for his "legitimate rape" remark. Akin never ran for office again. Survivors include Akin's wife, Lulli Boe Akin, his mother, Nancy Bigelow Akin, four sons, two daughters, and 18 grandchildren.

(Read more Todd Akin stories.)
(Newser)  We're learning more about the tax avoidance schemes of the uber-rich courtesy of the Pandora Papers, published Sunday by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which are putting Jordan's King Abdullah II in a particularly bad light. The longest-serving monarch in the Arab world, who's ruled Jordan since the death of his father in 1999, owned at least three dozen front companies in secretive tax havens, used to purchase 14 homes worth more than $106 million from 2003 to 2017, amid widespread economic hardships in Jordan, per the AP. More on the revelations and backlash:



The purchases: King Abdullah II secretly owned three companies in the British Virgin Islands that separately purchased three side-by-side clifftop mansions in Malibu, Calif., for a total of $68 million, from 2014 to 2017, reports the BBC. It adds the king's identity remained secret even after the passage of a 2017 law that required the owners of all BVI companies be identified on an internal government register.

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Poor timing: Most of the real estate deals in the US and UK came after 2011, when Arab Spring protests against government corruption and economic hardships "posed the first serious threat to the Jordanian monarchy in generations," according to the ICIJ.

Most of the real estate deals in the US and UK came after 2011, when Arab Spring protests against government corruption and economic hardships "posed the first serious threat to the Jordanian monarchy in generations," according to the ICIJ. Hardships at home: One in four Jordanians were unemployed in 2020, per the Guardian. "It's just very, very difficult for the average Jordanian to achieve a basic level of home and family, and a good job," Middle East analyst Annelle Sheline tells the BBC. "To have it really thrown in Jordanians' faces that [the king has] just been funneling money abroad all this time ... would look really bad."

International aid: Sheline tells ICIJ that the king's purchases should also "piss off Western donors who have given him money." The ICIJ notes Jordan "depends on foreign aid to support its own people and to house and care for millions of refugees." It receives billions of dollars in aid from the international community each year. Last year, the US contributed more than $1.5 billion in aid and military funding.

Sheline tells ICIJ that the king's purchases should also "piss off Western donors who have given him money." The ICIJ notes Jordan "depends on foreign aid to support its own people and to house and care for millions of refugees." It receives billions of dollars in aid from the international community each year. Last year, the US contributed more than $1.5 billion in aid and military funding. Critic detained: Jordanian authorities acted quickly to stifle rumors about Abdullah's holdings in October 2019, with the arrest of a Ministry of Justice employee and independent researcher who was investigating state property registered to Abdullah. Moayyad al-Majali's electronic devices were seized under accusations of "inciting strife" and slandering the king, according to Human Rights Watch. He was ultimately fined, per the Guardian.

The defense: The king, lately the subject of a scandal involving allegations of corruption by his own half brother, said Monday that no public funds were used in the purchases. Jordan's royal court claimed the properties, used for private and official visits and to host foreign dignitaries, were only kept quiet "out of security and privacy concerns," per AFP. The leak is a "flagrant security breach and a threat to His Majesty's and his family's safety," the statement adds.

The king, lately the subject of a scandal involving allegations of corruption by his own half brother, said Monday that no public funds were used in the purchases. Jordan's royal court claimed the properties, used for private and official visits and to host foreign dignitaries, were only kept quiet "out of security and privacy concerns," per AFP. The leak is a "flagrant security breach and a threat to His Majesty's and his family's safety," the statement adds. Lawyers say he's charitable: Abdullah's lawyers add the king isn't required to pay taxes under Jordanian law, but that he gives a "significant percentage" of his personal wealth to charitable causes in keeping with his "vision towards achieving an equitable society," per the Guardian. They note his personal wealth comes "not from public monies, rather from personal sources."

Abdullah's lawyers add the king isn't required to pay taxes under Jordanian law, but that he gives a "significant percentage" of his personal wealth to charitable causes in keeping with his "vision towards achieving an equitable society," per the Guardian. They note his personal wealth comes "not from public monies, rather from personal sources." ICIJ is blocked: Meanwhile, the monarch appears to be doing his best to block coverage of the leak. The ICIJ website was blocked in Jordan hours before the Pandora Papers were shared, per the Guardian. The AP notes "Jordanian media, much of which is directly or indirectly controlled by the palace, made no mention" of the reported purchases.

(Read more King Abdullah II stories.)
(Newser)  Lawyers say Ernest Lee Johnson has the intellectual capacity of a child, and Pope Francis is among those urging Missouri to spare the death row inmatebut the state is proceeding with plans to execute him at 6pm Tuesday. Johnson, 61, was sentenced to death for killing three people during a convenience store robbery in 1994. Advocates urging Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to commute his sentence to life in prison say the Black inmate was born with fetal alcohol syndrome and his intellectual capacity was further reduced by the removal of around a fifth of his brain in a tumor operation in 2008, the Guardian reports. Missouri's Supreme Court has refused to halt the execution. On Friday, it declined to take the case up again.

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Two death sentences were overturned before Johnson was convicted a third time in 2006. The US Supreme Court stayed Johnson's execution in 2015. Earlier this year, the court refused to hear an appeal from Johnson asking to be executed by firing squad instead of lethal injection. Democratic Reps. Cori Bush of St. Louis and Emmanuel Cleaver of Kansas City, both members of the Congressional Black Caucus, have urged the Republican governor to spare Johnson, but Parson said Monday that he will not intervene, the AP reports. "The state is prepared to deliver justice and carry out the lawful sentence Mr. Johnson received in accordance with the Missouri Supreme Courts order," Parson said.

A representative of Pope Francis, writing in the pontiff's name, also urged Parson to show mercy. The plea is not based on the facts of Johnson's undeniably "grave crimes" or entirely on his "doubtful intellectual capacity" but on "the simple fact of Mr Johnsons humanity and the sacredness of all human life," Archbishop Christophe Pierre wrote in a letter last week, per Vatican News. "When all violence of all types is restrained, even the violence of legal execution, all of society benefits," he wrote. (Read more execution stories.)
(Newser)  A new twist in the rise and fall of Ozy Media: an attempt to rise again. After the company's board on Friday announced Ozy was immediately shuttering following bombshell reporting from Ben Smith at the New York Times, Ozy CEO Carlos Watson told the Today show on Monday that the doors were staying open. "We're going to open for business, so we're making news today. This is our Lazarus moment, if you will, this is our Tylenol moment. Last week was traumatic, it was difficult, heartbreaking in many ways." Watson said operations were indeed suspended on Friday, and the plan was "to wind down.

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But "over the weekend we talked to advertising partners, we talked to some of our readers, some of our viewers, our listeners, our investors." Smith's reporting alleged long-running deception directed at investors, advertisers, and the media. As for the call with Goldman Sachs in which COO Samir Rao allegedly pretended to be a YouTube executive, Watson said he wasn't on that call and wasn't aware of what Rao had planned to do.

In the aftermath of the call, Goldman declined to invest in Ozy, but Watson said that months later Goldman entered into a "new advertising partnership" with Ozy, which he described as proof that "Ozy has done some pretty special things when it comes to premium content, forward-looking content, and really a diverse set of audiences." Watson spoke to the Today show just as Smith published yet another piece on the company, a reflection on the handful of insights it provides "into the top tiers of the business world." But it's also based on part on a Zoom conversation Smith had with Watson on Sunday in which Watson "conceded nothing."

Still, Smith writes that as he has continued reporting on the story, he has surfaced more "instances of possible deception," including a company document that suggested an advertiser on The Carlos Watson Show would appear on Hulu, though the show didn't run on that platform. Another document featured a laudatory quote from the Times that Smith couldn't confirm ever ran in the publication. Watson said he wasn't familiar with the document. "If we got it wrong, then that is unfortunate," he told Smith. (Read more Ozy Media stories.)
(Newser)  The estate of Henrietta Lacks sued a biotechnology company on Monday, accusing it of selling cells that doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took from the Black woman in 1951 without her knowledge or consent as part of "a racially unjust medical system." The estates federal lawsuit says Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., of Waltham, Massachusetts, knowingly mass produced and sold tissue that was taken from Lacks by doctors at the hospital, the AP reports. The HeLa cells taken from the woman's tumor before she died of cervical cancer became the first human cells to be successfully cloned and have been reproduced infinitely ever since.

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The cells have been used in countless scientific and medical innovations including the development of the polio vaccine and gene mapping. Lacks cells were harvested and developed long before the advent of consent procedures used in medicine and scientific research today, but lawyers for the family say the company has continued to commercialize the results well after the origins of the HeLa cell line became well known. "Thermo Fisher Scientific has known that HeLa cells were stolen from Ms. Lacks and chose to use her body for profit anyway, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit asks the court in Baltimore to order Thermo Fisher Scientific to disgorge the full amount of its net profits obtained by commercializing the HeLa cell line to the Estate of Henrietta Lacks. It also seeks an order permanently enjoining Thermo Fisher Scientific from using the HeLa cell line without the estate's permission. "The exploitation of Henrietta Lacks represents the unfortunately common struggle experienced by Black people throughout history," the suit says.

HeLa cells were discovered to have unique properties. While most cell samples died shortly after being removed from the body, her cells survived and thrived in laboratories. This exceptional quality made it possible to cultivate her cells indefinitelythey became known as the first immortalized human cell linemaking it possible for scientists anywhere to reproduce studies using identical cells. The remarkable science involvedand the impact on the Lacks family, some of whom suffered from chronic illnesses without health insurancehave been documented in a bestselling book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The lawsuit was filed exactly 70 years after the day she died, on Oct. 4, 1951.

(Read more Henrietta Lacks stories.)
(Newser)  Donald Trump is now more popular in Iowa than he ever was as president, according to a new poll. The Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa found that 53% of Iowans now have a favorable view of Trump. That's the highest favorability rating he's ever scored in the state. A record low of 45% of Iowans said their view of Trump was mostly unfavorable or very unfavorable. Some 2% still haven't made their minds up about the Republican. In the 2020 election, Trump won the state over Joe Biden 53% to 45%. The poll found President Biden's approval rating in Iowa has hit a new low: Only 37% have favorable feelings toward him.

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Poll respondents said they like Trump because he is not a traditional politician, the Register reports. "Doesnt make a difference whether they were Democrat or Republicanthey were all politicians," 81-year-old Jerry Steward said of Trumps predecessors. "He is not that. I dont know what he is, but hes not that." Trump plans to visit the state Saturday for a rally at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, his first rally in the state since his 2020 campaign.

The Iowa caucuses have long been the first step in the nominating process, and Trump isn't the only potential GOP 2024 hopeful planning to visit the state in the near future. Mike Pence, his former vice president, plans to kick off a lecture tour with a Nov. 1 appearance at the University of Iowa, Fox reports. Early polls show Trump with a commanding lead over all his potential 2024 rivalsbut the polls found that if Trump wasn't on the ballot, Pence and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would be strong contenders. (Read more Donald Trump stories.)
(Newser)  Update: Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram began slowly returning to the internet Monday evening, about six hours after crashing. A tweet from Facebook around 6:30 ET said they were "coming back online now," CNN reports. "Thank you for bearing with us," the tweet said. The restoration was not complete, however; service was inconsistent, the company said, per the New York Times. Our original story follows:

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Sunday was a very bad day for Facebookand Monday isn't looking any better. Facebook and the Facebook-owned platforms Instagram and WhatsApp are experiencing widespread outages, Variety reports. Users worldwide are getting error messages when they try to access the site. The company issued a statement on a platform it doesn't own. "Were aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products," Facebook tweeted. "Were working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience."

Facebook did not disclose the cause of the outages, which began around 11:40am Eastern, but security experts suspect a domain name service (DNS) issue is to blame, Gizmodo reports. Facebook's share price is also taking a beating, per the Motley Fool. It sank more than 5% in trading before noon Monday. On Sunday night, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen revealed her identity. The data scientist, who leaked internal Facebook research to the Wall Street Journal, told 60 Minutes that there were clear "conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook," and Facebook is "substantially worse" in this regard than other social networks. (Read more Facebook stories.)
(Newser)  Since coronavirus vaccination cards became a feature of pandemic life, authorities have said they've thwarted schemes to sell fake cards. Investigators say a Veterans Affairs nurse in Michigan was selling the real thing, going so far as to provide her customers with genuine lot numbers. Bethann Kierczak was arrested and charged last week, the Washington Post reports. The criminal complaint says Kierczak, 37, stole the cards and sold them in the Detroit area for $150 to $200. It was her job to administer the doses, so she had access to vaccination records.

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Kierczak mostly dealt with potential customers through Facebook Messenger, the charges say. When she received one request for 10 cards and answered, "I will get em," the customer answered, "Rockstar." A tip from someone who then cooperated with authorities launched the investigation. The nurse offered the tipster a commission for help selling cards, the filing says. Later, Kierczak reportedly sold the informant five blank cards for $1,000, adding a $300 commission. She also gave the informant a paper with a list of lot numbers, the charges say, most of which were from vaccine shipments to the VA hospital.

An acting US attorney did address such crimes. "Regardless of whether an individual chooses to get vaccinated, we urge everyone to avoid turning to schemes like these to evade vaccination requirements," said Saima Mohsin. She added that selling such cards is a crime. So is buying them, per WDIV. "You're committing a fraud," Mohsin said. Kierczak, her lawyer, and the VA declined to comment on the case. She was released after posting bond and has a hearing scheduled for Oct. 22. (Read more coronavirus vaccine stories.)
(Newser)  Film and TV production in Hollywood and beyond could soon be grinding to an indefinite halt. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees voted overwhelmingly in favor of strike action Monday, Deadline reports. The union says the strike, the first in its 128-year history, was approved by a near unanimous margin of 98.7%, with around 90% of its approximately 60,000 members casting a ballot. Contract talks between the IATSE and a group representing studios have been going on since May, but they have stalled over issues including pay and long hours worked on sets, reports Variety.

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IATSE president Matthew Loeb is now expected to call a strike if he is unable to reach a deal with Alliance of Motion Picture Television Producers president Carol Lombardini in the coming days. "This vote is about the quality of life as well as the health and safety of those who work in the film and television industry," Loeb said Monday, per CNN. "Our people have basic human needs like time for meal breaks, adequate sleep, and a weekend. For those at the bottom of the pay scale, they deserve nothing less than a living wage." Union members, he said, "have spoken loud and clear."

"This is the biggest private sector strike in the US in 10+ years, and the first in the industry's 128-year history," tweeted economist Robert Reich, who was secretary of labor during Bill Clinton's first term. "A milestone moment for the labor movement." The AMPTP said in a statement that it is "committed to reaching an agreement that will keep the industry working" and wants to work with crew members "to avoid shutting down the industry at such a pivotal time." (Read more labor unions stories.)
(Newser)  Four men from the same family all died in a freak winemaking accident in Paola, Italy, Saturday as one went in after another trying to save each other. The men had gathered to transfer vats of grape juice fermenting into oak barrels. The fermentation process produces a lot of carbon dioxide, and the process was underway in a shed with little ventilation, the Telegraph reports. Once levels of the colorless, odorless, tasteless gas reach 10%, people can pass out pretty quickly, and if nobody is there to get them to safety, they can asphyxiate. Police are investigating what happened, but their working theory is that either Santino Carnevale, 70, or relative Giacomo Scofano, 70, went to stir the fermenting wine. Then the other one of the two went to check on him.

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Then, Santino's 45-year-old son, Massimo Carnevale, and Valerio Scofano, 50, Giacomos younger brother, followed to lend assistance and were also overcome by fumes. A woman, believed to be a daughter-in-law of one of the older men, was found passed out at the entrance to the shed, but family members were able to revive her. When police arrived, there was a little ruckus between the family and reporters who followed ambulances to the scene, possibly because Valerio was supposed to be on house arrest instead of with the family. The woman was taken to a local hospital. The local prosecutor says there will be an inquiry, but foul play is not suspected, reports the Daily Beast. (Read more weird news stories.)
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Chief of Public Security Lt-General Tariq Al Hassan commended the Gulf efforts in fighting corruption and reinforcement of awareness. Lt-Gen.

Al Hassan made the statement as he chaired an online meeting of the GCC anti-corruption ministerial committee yesterday. The event was attended by heads of integrity protection and anti-corruption authorities in the region.

Lt-Gen. Al Hassan delivered a speech, in which he hailed the dedication of the committee members to achieve the goals of their Gulf leaders.

He highlighted that the COVID-19 pandemic had imposed major challenges in the fight against corruption, urging for the continuation of joint efforts to promote transparency and integrity.

Lt-Gen. Al Hassan conveyed the greetings of Shaikh Nasser bin Hilal Al Mawali, Chairman of the Omani State Audit Institution (SAI), who couldnt attend the meeting because of the climatic conditions in Oman.

He prayed for the safety of Omans leadership, government and citizens. The meeting reviewed topics related to GCC cooperation in integrity protection and anti-corruption.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

The Cultural Hall witnessed the second evening of the 30th Bahrain International Music Festival yesterday with French pianist Maxime Zeckenny presenting a memorable performance entitled A Musical Journey from Mozarts Time to Today.

Present were Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities (BACA) President Shaikha Hala bint Mohammed Al Khalifa, French Ambassador to the Kingdom of Bahrain Jerome Cochard, in addition to members of the diplomatic corps in the Kingdom.

The event was held in cooperation with the French Embassy. Shaikha Hala stressed the importance of cultural mobility in recovering from the global health crisis and creating hope for the return of life to norma.

She expressed her pleasure at the launch of the cultural hall concerts within the festival, which promises the audience unique musical experiences.

Ambassador Cochard expressed his happiness to cooperate with BACA to enrich the cultural movement in the Kingdom. He also expressed his joy at introducing to the Bahraini public Zeckenny, wishing everyone a festival that carries joy and beauty.

The festival offers a number of music-related workshops. Those wishing to participate can register by visiting the BACA website www.culture. gov.bh.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Representatives Council Speaker Fawzia bint Abdullah Zainal commended yesterday the unlimited support of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa to Bahraini women.

She also praised the efforts of Her Royal Highness Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, Wife of HM the King and President of the Supreme Council for Women, to showcase the contributions of the Bahraini women as an essential partner in the national development march.

The Speaker lauded the efforts of the government, led by HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, in implementing national policies aimed at supporting the advancement of Bahraini women and catering to their needs.

She affirmed the parliamentary support to the national empowerment programmes, stressing the role of the Supreme Council for Women (SCW) as a strategic partner. Speaker Zainal was speaking as she received yesterday SCW Secretary General Hala bint Mohammed Al Ansari.

The meeting was attended by First Deputy Speaker Abdulnabi Salman Ahmed, Second Deputy Speaker Ali Ahmed Zayed, Head of the Services Committee Ahmed Yousef Al Ansari, Head of the Woman and Child Affairs Committee Kaltham Abdulkarim Al Hayki, Assistant Secretary General for Resources and Services Affairs and Head of the Equal Opportunities Committee Dr Yasser Saqr Al Shirawi and Presidency Affairs Advisor Mustafa Abdulaziz.

It was also attended by SCW Assistant Secretary General Shaikha Dina bint Rashid Al Khalifa, International Relations and Follow-up Advisor Mohammed Al Faris, Legal Advisor Dr Mohammed Walid Al Masri and Secretary General Office Director Shaikha Mariam bint Khalifa Al Khalifa.

The meeting cast light on ways of boosting cooperation between the Representatives Council and SCW and issues of common interest.

Al Ansari conveyed the greetings of HRH Princess Sabeeka and her support to the efforts of the legislative branch to tackle issues of priority for Bahraini women. She also praised cooperation with the legislative branch as a key partner to implement the national model for gender equality
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Information and eGovernment Authority (iGA) Chief Executive Muhammad Ali Al Qaed visited the Bahrain pavilion at Expo 2020 in Dubai, on the sidelines of his participation in the Digital Economy Technologies Conference and Exhibition.

Al Qaed congratulated the UAE for organising the event, noting that Dubai has succeeded in presenting an impressive level in organising an international event of such magnitude.

He also lauded the efforts of Shaikha Mai and the Bahrain team, stressing that the pavilion has turned the vision and aspirations of the wise leadership into reality. In particular, Al Qaed commended the contributions of the 60 Bahraini volunteers from the youth sector in putting up the pavilion, saying: This step confirms the support given by the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities to the youth, especially young people interested in the cultural field.

He expressed his sincere wishes for Bahrains continued excellence and success in participating in this global event, and reflecting the ancient Bahraini culture and its richness. It has brought together authentic Bahraini hospitality and Bahraini fashion, he added.

During his tour, Al Qaed also visited the UAE pavilion, which is distinguished in design and content. He praised the design of the pavilion, which represents the falcon, the symbol of the UAE, the colours used and the messages carried by its sections, and distinguished Gulf culture. He also visited other pavilions, including those of Morocco, Indonesia and Pakistan.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Mentorship Forum Middle East (MFME) 2021 announced Gulf International Bank (GIB) as a partner for its second annual forum taking place as a hybrid event (on-site and virtual) in the Kingdom of Bahrain on 11 November at the Gulf Hotel.

As a forum partner, GIB supports regional initiatives that help raise awareness about mentorship to accelerate career progression and professional growth for the next generation of business leaders in Bahrain and across the Middle East.

MFME 2021 will focus on the importance of Prioritising Mentorship in a New World.

Given the talent development challenges businesses face as a result of COVID-19, the forum will look at how mentorship can play a role in ensuring the organisations talent development goals get back on track in todays new working environment where in person, on-the-job-learning from peers and senior leaders have been severely curtailed.

Abdulaziz Al Helaissi, GIBs Group Chief Executive Officer, said: We are delighted to support the 2nd Annual Mentorship Forum Middle East. As a talent-driven financial organisation, we continue to be committed to train and develop our employees.

Mentorship has proven to be a very effective way to help younger professionals gain exposure and fast track their learning and career progression.

At GIB, we have seen the benefits first-hand and look forward to be part of this forum and share GIBs experience.

Zahraa Taher, Managing Director of FinMark Communications, the forums founder and organiser, said: We are proud to announce GIB as a partner for this years forum.

Having taken part in the inaugural event, GIBs vote of confidence in the forum and the importance of mentorship is particularly gratifying.

We look forward to working closely with GIB to maximise their use of mentorship internally as another key training and development tool.

The forum is expected to attract strong participation from the leading regional and international speakers and attendees.

The inaugural event in 2019 saw more than 250 senior HR and mentorship practitioners as well as C-suite leaders take part.

Similar numbers are expected to attend this years forum, both virtually and in person, arranged in line with the governments current regulations for events.

The event will be highly interactive and feature a series of keynote addresses, panel discussions and workshops to promote knowledge sharing and hands-on-learning.

A key aim of the forum is to provide the attending HR managers and decision makers with practical insight and tips on how to evaluate effective mentorship schemes and develop tailored internal programmes to meet their goals.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Talk about patriotism, a Filipino-American soldier from US Navy gallantly saved a Philippine flag from being taken down, if not totally destroyed, by the Taliban forces in Kabul airport during their takeover two months ago.

US Naval Officer Lieutenant Commander Emiliano C. Rabor, who is currently stationed as Deputy Director Medical Planner of Task Force 51/5 with headquarters at the US Navy Central Command (NAVCENT) base in the Kingdom of Bahrain, handed over the flag to former Philippine Ambassador to Bahrain Alfonso A. Ver.

A short but meaningful ceremony for its turnover was held at the residence of Lt. Cmdr. Rabor during a farewell reception he and his wife, Fil-Am Lory Evanoso Edera-Rabor, hosted in honour of Ambassador Ver who left Bahrain at the conclusion his tour of duty on 30 September. Lt. Cmdr. Rabor, who like his wife is orginally from Butuan City in Mindanao, south of the Philippines, retrieved the flag at the Hamad Karzai International Airport (HKIA) in Afghanistan in August as hundreds tried to flee the Taliban who were poised to overrun the capital Kabul and take over the airport. Lt. Cmdr. Rabor, fondly called Em by his friends and fellow Filipinos in Bahrain, grew up in the Philippines before migrating to the US where he later joined the US Navy.

He was part of the US military contingent tasked to secure the HKIA to oversee the withdrawal of American citizens, Afghans and other nationals from the onslaught of the Islamic State-Khorasan Group (ISIS-K) who were threatening the airport with rocket fire and mobile explosives.

During the operation, Lt. Cmdr. Rabor saw the Philippine flag prominently at the airport, which he felt was most likely displayed to represent the hundreds of Filipinos who had worked in Afghanistan since the start of the 20-year US-led coalition.

He knew of the dedication and resilience of the Filipinos who were widely admired by the US and coalition forces.

He was sure that the flag would be unceremoniously taken down, if not totally destroyed, once the Taliban arrive, which was an eventuality that he would not, by any means, allow to happen.

Upon finishing his mission in Afghanistan and returning to base in Bahrain, Lt. Cmdr. Rabor decided to turn over the flag to Ambassador Ver and hoped that the diplomat would be able to find the Filipino workers who originally displayed the flag at the HKIA.

Ambassador Ver praised the action of Lt. Cmdr. Rabor in saving the flag and vowed to locate the whereabouts of the workers and return the Philippine flag to them who had ably and honestly represented their home country in Afghanistan from 2011 until they had to leave 20 years later.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Al Salam Bank-Bahrain has signed a memorandum of understanding and entered into discussions with Ithmaar Holding, the parent of Ithmaar Bank, for the

potential acquisition by Al Salam Bank of a group of assets from Ithmaar Holdings group of companies.

Al Salam Bank said it is keen to maintain its growth trajectory and these discussions with Ithmaar Holding on a potential group of assets would complement Al Salam Banks existing business lines.

The potential acquisition of assets will be subject to the completion of successful due diligence, the agreement of terms between both parties, and the receipt of all necessary regulatory and corporate consents, the statement said.

Shaikh Khalid bin Mustahil Al Mashani, the Chairman of Al Salam Bank  Bahrain, said, Further cementing Al Salam Banks position as a leading financial institution in Bahrain, these discussions are earmarked to supplement the recently approved three-year strategy, accelerate Al Salam Banks growth trajectory, and further enhance our market positioning.

HRH Prince Amr Al Faisal, the Chairman of Ithmaar Holding said, The discussions with Al Salam Bank are in line with Ithmaar Holdings long-standing strategy of creating value for its shareholders, and we are pleased to sign this memorandum of understanding. This potential transaction will have a significant positive impact on Bahrains national economy and reinforce the Kingdoms position as a key regional Islamic banking hub, Prince Amr Al Faisal added.
SOUTHBURY  The town is seeking input from residents and the business community as it updates its 10-year master plan.

First Selectman Jeffrey Manville said the town is updating its Plan of Conservation and Development, which will serve as a guide for future growth in Southbury. The plan, often abbreviated as the POCD, was last updated in 2012.

The state requires that municipalities update their POCDs every 10 years to establish what they plan for the future with objectives focused on housing, business and infrastructure development along with parks, open space and sustainability, Manville said.

The town has just started the process, which includes getting feedback from the public and businesses, he said.

At some point there will be public meetings, he said. Residents, community members, businesses and organizations are encouraged to participate and share their opinions.

The Southbury Planning Commission, the staff in the Land Use Department and Cheshire-based consultant SLR International Corporation (formerly Milone and MacBroom, Inc.) are overseeing the update.

Part of the public input comes from a survey the Planning Commission and SLR have created for residents. The questions address quality of life in Southbury, recreation, land use and other topics. Information and a link to the survey can be found at the town website at southbury-ct.org/pocd.

Paper copies of the survey are available at Southbury Town Hall, 501 Main St. South; Southbury Senior Center, 561 Main St. South; Southbury Parks and Recreation, 561 Main St. South; Southbury Library, 100 Poverty Road; and Heritage Village Activities Building, 11 Heritage Way.

Asking for the publics input isnt new. Town officials recently asked Southbury residents to share ideas on how to spend federal funds awarded by the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA.

Were getting input from the public on a lot of things, said Manville, who has been first selectman for six years. Its not unusual, and many times we have reached out to the community during my administration. When it came to ARPA, we needed input and now we need input again from residents and the business community and we will embrace their ideas.

The feedback has been helpful, he said. For example, when the town surveyed residents in 2018 for its strategic plan, officials found 51.3 percent of residents thought quality of life in Southbury was good, while 47.8 percent said it was great.

What that does is it helps you be more prepared when making decisions, Manville said.

The town is simultaneously working on an Affordable Housing Plan, with the help of SLR International. A government grant of $6,500 is helping to cover the cost, Manville said.

It made sense to have SLR do both plans because they are tied together, he said.

Manville said affordable housing is an important issue in town.

We have little affordable housing in Southbury, but there is some, he said. The state encourages municipalities to get to 10 percent of affordable housing. But it takes time and there are issues involved. There is the cost to get it done, you need to find property to build on and you need approval from the health department for items like septic systems. The POCD will get done soon but it will take time to get the Affordable Housing Plan done.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  Iran wants you to put politics aside and marvel over its ornate carpets. Syria wants you to forget about its brutal war and learn about the worlds first alphabet. Yemen, on the brink of famine, is very excited about its honey and coffee.

Welcome to Dubais Expo 2020, the first worlds fair in the Middle East that boasts over 190 participating countries  except Afghanistan, whose new Taliban rulers are a no-show.

Dubai has gambled billions to make the built-from-scratch Expo village a triumphant tourist attraction and symbol of the United Arab Emirates itself  a feast for the eyes designed to be devoid of politics and built on the promise of globalization. But even as nations use their pavilions as benign infomercials, the political turbulence of the wider world manages to intrude.

We had one bullet to shoot, said Manahel Thabet, Yemeni pavilion director. We wanted to present Yemen in a different manner  to demonstrate the people and not any political agenda.

But the winding journey the exhibit's handicrafts took from the nation's rebel-held north to the sleek Emirati-funded pavilion betrays a very different Yemen. Merchants described harrowing nights trekking with Expo-bound sacks of stones, spices and honey through the battlefields of Marib, Yemen's last government stronghold now under siege by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

The pavilion for Myanmar, where the army's seizure of power has spiraled into a bloody conflict, displays a golden chariot and beckons visitors to its pagoda-studded plains.

The previous government, which was toppled by a coup in February, had appointed a leading Burmese philanthropist to direct and sponsor the showcase years ago.

But a person familiar with pavilion's operations, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said Myanmar's military junta in recent weeks had been trying to overhaul the philanthropist's exhibit and change the event schedule, with hopes to host nationalist, military rallies over the fair's six months. Expo organizers, the person added, were trying to prevent the takeover, but the pavilion's fate remains uncertain.

After the UAE announced it would normalize relations with Israel last year, infuriating the Palestinians and upending a long-standing Arab consensus, the Palestinian Authority declared it would boycott Dubai's Expo.

And yet just a two-minute stroll from Israel's mirrored arch, Palestine's pavilion stands tall, its vast exterior painted with Arabic calligraphy reading: Yesterday it was called Palestine. Today it is called Palestine.

The exhibit creates a full sensory experience, inviting visitors to touch handmade ceramic jugs, watch vendors slicing knafeh, a syrupy cheese-filled pastry, and smell oranges from Palestinian farms.

However, the Palestine pavilion has not officially opened to the public, as employees described a litany of headaches trying to get approval from Israeli authorities to get certain goods out of the occupied West Bank. When asked what prompted the about-face on Palestine's participation, staffers said it was decided that a Palestinian absence at the massive world's fair would be worse.

While many countries received invitations to participate in Expo almost immediately after Dubai won the bid in 2013, Syria said it was invited just two years ago  not long after the UAE reopened its embassy in Damascus in a sign of improved ties with President Bashar Assad following years of devastating civil war. It was the last nation to begin construction.

Staffers at the black box theater, replete with inspiring slogans like we will rise together and lengthy explanations of ancient Mesopotamia's written alphabet, lamented the last-minute scramble and lack of funds. Noting that Assad was focused on rebuilding Syria's shattered cities, pavilion designer Khaled Alshamaa said the government provided largely moral support."

Illustrated wooden tablets sent in from 1,500 ordinary Syrians around the world blanket the pavilion's walls. But visitors won't find references to death or displacement  something that staff insists is a happy coincidence, not proof of free speech restrictions. Miniature portraits of Assad and his wife Asma stare down from the mosaic. Other postcard images show musical instruments, flower bouquets and sprawling Syrian breakfasts.

The war is over, Alshamaa said. Even though there are sanctions, we are alive. This is the message we want to show you.

A large mirror at the pavilion bears a more cryptic message: What you see isn't all there is."

Other politically sensitive pavilions have struggled even to show up.

North Korea is nowhere to be found. The pavilion for Libya, which slid into violent chaos after a NATO-backed uprising toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, still reeks of fresh paint. Display cases sit empty but for layers of thick dust and TV screens flicker between children's cartoons and static scenes of Tripoli's beaches.

Signage points toward Afghanistan, but its pavilion appears closed  nothing more than a sparse showroom for office furniture. The country's previous government had arranged the pavilion before the Taliban overran Kabul in the final days of the U.S. troop withdrawal on Aug. 15, forcing President Ashraf Ghani into exile in the UAE and scrapping plans for an Expo showcase, among other things.

At the exhibit for the Islamic Republic of Iran, a female staffer beams at visitors, gushing that her trip to the surreal theme park is her first time out of the sanctions-hit country. Although the booth features portraits of Irans past and current supreme leaders, the showcase for the Shiite powerhouse makes no mention of religion, nor the nation's other sources of pride like its contentious ballistic missile and nuclear programs.

Instead, Iran went for a hard-core handicraft spiel, pitching Persian carpets with no reference to the American sanctions crippling the trade. Merchants sell saffron candy. Chefs gently spice kebab. Businessmen extol economic free zones.

Perhaps the Iranian pavilion presents the most fitting metaphor for Expo. In one room, visitors must peer through tiny holes in the wall to view real-life scenes from Iran, where nameless people dig vast copper mines, stroll calmly along village roads and weave colorful textiles. The brief, optimistic glimpses offer nothing more or less than what the country wants you to see.
DANBURY - Yes, the Connecticut Department of Transportation is looking at an option to build a half-mile tunnel on the west side to straighten Interstate 84 between Exits 2 and 4.

But no, leaders involved in planning the billion-dollar reconstruction of I-84 through Danbury do not consider the west side tunnel a viable option.

We are wrapping up the concept development phase in the fall and the tunnel is one of the concepts, but we have over 20 concepts that we have looked at, and ones that dont make sense dont go very far, said Andy Fesenmeyer, the project manager for the I-84 Danbury Project. But we do want to make sure that we have looked at every single option.

By the DOTs own assessment, the prospects of cutting a tunnel under University Boulevard would not reduce congestion or improve mobility on the highway, and therefore It is recommended that this concept be dismissed from further consideration.

Thats good news to state Rep. Bob Godfrey, the dean of Danburys Hartford delegation.

This tunnel proposal destroys two neighborhoods, a business community and cuts under Western Connecticut State University, said Godfrey, who has represented Danbury for 32 years. This aint gonna fly.

Then why did the DOT call attention to the tunnel option in a tweet last week, along with two other project concepts?

The DOT wants to be transparent about investigating every option, Fesenmeyer responded.

We look at everything - so we say, What would it look like if we straighten the highway? Fesenmeyer said. We dont want someone to come back to us later and say, You didnt investigate the tunnel option.

The tunnel option is one of three plans currently on the I-84 Danbury Project website to improve the stretch between New York and Exit 8.

The project, which is yet to be funded by the state Legislature, is at least a generation away from completion, although smaller upgrades related to the over project could begin late in the decade.

The next public outreach meeting, which has not been scheduled, will likely follow two project meetings this fall - the first on Oct. 14 between the project team and Danbury officials, and the second with the project advisory committee - a large group of municipal and private sector leaders from greater Danbury.

The goal is to finish the concept plan by the end of 2022, after which a specific proposal would be developed to be funded, engineered and vetted.

This is not a simple operation with easy answers - were talking about billions of dollars and a huge undertaking, Fesenmeyer said, estimating the project might not begin until the mid-2040s. But there could be some early action in the mid-to-late 2020s.

Godfrey said re-engineering was overdue, especially in the area of the Danbury Fair mall.

The highway came through Danbury in 1963, and professionals have learned a lot in the last 60 years about whats wrong with left-handed exit ramps and the highway being more curvy than straight, Godfrey said. It was a good design for its time, but that time has passed.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342
ABOARD GEO BARENTS (AP)  The number of migrants rounded up as part of Libya's unprecedented crackdown exceeds 5,000 people, including hundreds of children and women  dozens of them pregnant, according to a United Nations tally obtained by The Associated Press on Monday.

The raids left a migrant shot dead and at least 15 others injured, the U.N. said. The crackdown began Friday in the western town of Gargaresh, a major hub for migrants in the North African nation, and spread to surrounding areas. The tally, dated Sunday Oct. 3 and obtained Monday by The Associated Press, showed the roundup netted 215 children and over 540 women. Among them, at least 30 were pregnant, according to the U.N.

Libyan authorities described the crackdown as a security operation against illegal migration and drug trafficking. Libya has emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East, hoping for a better life in Europe. Oil-rich Libya plunged into chaos after the 2011 NATO-backed uprising ousted and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Georgette Gagnon, the U.N.s humanitarian coordinator for Libya, criticized the raids, in which unarmed migrants have been harassed in their homes, beaten and shot.

But the Interior Ministry, which led the crackdown, made no mention of any traffickers or smugglers being arrested. It has yet to address causalities among migrants and alleged abuses during the raids, including the use of lethal force, that have been raised by the U.N.

The U.N.'s International Organization for Migration report obtained by the AP showed that 5,152 migrants have been detained in the raids since Friday. Those numbers are likely to increase, the report said, as the crackdown continues in several parts of the area, also known as the Andalus neighborhood.

Authorities have distributed the migrants to detention centers in the capital of Tripoli, the IOMs document said. At least 4,187 of the detainees, including 511 women and 60 children, were sent to the Mabani detention center, well over its capacity. The Abu Salim center received at least 570 migrants, it said.

At least 390 others were taken to Share al-Zawiya detention center, including the 30 pregnant women and 155 children, the document showed. The center has already 182 migrants intercepted previously on the Mediterranean Sea, it said.

These detention centers are rife with abuses, according to rights activists. The AP also reported in June that guards at Share al-Zawiya sexually assaulted young Somali female migrants.

The European Union, which has come under fire for its support of Libya's domestic efforts to stem migrant crossings in the past, condemned the use of violence in the recent crackdown. EU spokeswoman Nabila Massrali said the union had long been calling on Libya to find an alternative to the system of arbitrary detentions in managing the migrant population.

While fully supportive of Libyan sovereignty, the EU also strongly encourages Libyan authorities to refrain from the use of lethal force in these operations," she said.

Alexandra Saieh, Libya advocacy manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council, said refugees and migrants in different parts in Libya have been scared to leave their homes, for fear of being detained.

People are quite horrified, she said. This is really a wake-up call to the dire situation that exists in Libya for migrants and refugees and the international community must step up.

___

Associated Press writer Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.
Canadian municipalities can now apply for Municipal Climate Resiliency Grants

TORONTO, Oct. 4, 2021 /CNW/ - Across the country this past summer, Canadians have experienced the devastating impacts of climate change-induced extreme weather: from record-breaking heat waves to destructive wildfires to catastrophic flooding.

Municipalities play a critical role in protecting communities from the impacts of climate change. More than ever, investment is needed to support municipalities as they adapt to extreme weather. Intact Public Entities (TSX: IFC) and the Intact Foundation are here to help.

Through the Municipal Climate Resiliency Grant, they're investing $1 million in cities and towns across Canada that are developing practical and effective solutions to protect communities from floods or wildfires.

"We need to enable municipalities across Canada to build resilient communities together. We're in a unique position to help bring plans to life so we can action change and make a difference," said Larry Ryan, President, Intact Public Entities. "We all understand the urgency and these grants will help municipalities to protect people from the impacts of climate change we're experiencing today and build our resilience for the future."

"Successfully adapting to extreme weather is key to fighting climate change and keeping our communities safe. We need to act urgently to implement adaptation solutions to limit the impacts of otherwise unrelenting extreme weather," said Diane Flanagan, Chair of the Intact Foundation. "It will depend on taking collective actions, and the ability of governments to direct resources and implement proven solutions."

The Municipal Climate Resiliency Grants will prioritize the following types of projects:

Shovel-ready projects : greening and natural infrastructure solutions such as wetland restoration to reduce flood risk or vegetation management techniques to create a community fire guard.

: greening and natural infrastructure solutions such as wetland restoration to reduce flood risk or vegetation management techniques to create a community fire guard. Climate mitigation tools : these could include incentives for homeowners to install sump pumps or fire-retardant roofing.

: these could include incentives for homeowners to install sump pumps or fire-retardant roofing. Research readiness and feasibility assessments : these could include updating flood and/or wildfire-risk mapping or undertaking a flood or wildfire hazard assessment.

: these could include updating flood and/or wildfire-risk mapping or undertaking a flood or wildfire hazard assessment. Awareness and education: these could include distributing home flood and/or wildfire protection materials or creating an online portal for residents to obtain flood-risk information.

Over the years, the Intact Foundation has supported more than 90 projects through climate adaptation grants across Canada, committing more than $16 million to support these practical solutions.

For more details about the Municipal Climate Resiliency Grant program, including the link to apply, visit Intact Public Entities or the Intact Foundation websites.

Key facts

About Intact Financial Corporation

Intact Financial Corporation (TSX: IFC) is the largest provider of property and casualty (P&C) insurance in Canada, a leading provider of global specialty insurance, and, with RSA, a leader in the U.K. and Ireland. Our business has grown organically and through acquisitions to over $20 billion of total annual premiums.

In Canada, Intact distributes insurance under the Intact Insurance brand through a wide network of brokers, including its wholly-owned subsidiary BrokerLink, and directly to consumers through belairdirect. Intact also provides affinity insurance solutions through the Johnson Affinity Groups.

In the U.S., Intact Insurance Specialty Solutions provides a range of specialty insurance products and services through independent agencies, regional and national brokers, and wholesalers and managing general agencies.

Outside of North America, the Company provides personal, commercial and specialty insurance solutions across the U.K., Ireland, Europe and the Middle East through the RSA brands.

SOURCE Intact Financial Corporation

For further information: Media Inquiries: Jennifer Beaudry, Manager, Media Relations, 514 282-1914 ext. 87375, [email protected]; Investor Inquiries: Maida Sit, Director, Investor Relations, 416 341-1464 ext. 45153, [email protected]

Related Links

www.intactfc.com


Featuring over 400 items across 10 categories of the hottest holiday gift ideas and fifteen "TRU TOP PICS" plus a curation of items selected from our Chief Play Officer, Aiden Hepburn the Toys"R"Us Top Toy List is designed to help parents and gift givers decipher what their kids are really asking for the Holiday season. It will translate your child's ask of, "Daddy? Can we get a car? That changes colour? And matches our dolls hair?" to the Rainbow High Colour Change Car, or "MOM! DAD! We saw this awesome game where you build your own city and get tokens" to Monopoly Builder Game, making your shopping experience efficient and, more importantly, accurate.

"Toys"R"Us is here to help you understand exactly what toys your kids want this year. Our team of toy buyers are experts in toys of all categories and have spent the entire year researching what's hot so that parents and gift givers are equipped with knowing what the latest toy trends are so that we can put their minds at ease this holiday season," says Doug Putman, Owner, Toys"R"Us Canada. "This year's Top Toy List is the ultimate resource for Toys"R"Us exclusives and must-haves that will bring joy to kids of all ages and togetherness for all families."

After a year of exciting new launches for collector fans and TV and movie buffs, this Top Toy List features unique toys that will not only keep children engaged but make parents and gift givers want to join in on the play and imagination. Curated by a team of toy professionals, the list includes items exclusive to Toys"R"Us such as; PAW Patrol The Movie: Liberty's Deluxe Vehicle, Harry Potter Wizarding World: Magical Minis Deluxe Hogwarts Castle & Playset, and My Squishy Little Marshmallow.

The Top Toy list is available now for in-store and online shopping. Some items will continue to roll out in-store and online at toysrus.ca throughout October and November. Now's your chance to finally get your holiday shopping done early!

Now, without further ado, we present THE Top Toy list from Toys"R"Us Canada!

Toys"R"Us Top Picks!

Dolls: for pretend-parents + fashion mavens

Preschoolers: for littles with BIG imaginations

Games: a little friendly family competition

Books: for unplugged moments of pure enjoyment

Electronic Friends: amazing, interactive pals + pets

Collectors: for super-fans + unboxing enthusiasts

Vehicles: for feeding their need for speed

Active Play: for kids with energy to burn

Builders: the coolest construction toys

Makers: STEM-tastic skill-building sets

CLICK HERE to see the entire Top Toy List!

Stay up to date with Toys"R"Us Canada by following Toys"R"Us Canada on Facebook , Instagram , and Twitter .

ABOUT TOYS"R"US (CANADA) LTD. ("TOYS"R"US CANADA")

Toys"R"Us Canada has been Canada's dedicated specialty retailer of toys and baby products since 1984, spreading happiness throughout its 80+ stores across Canada and e-commerce sites, Toysrus.ca and Babiesrus.ca. The company nurtures the needs for Canadian families in every stage from baby essentials to learning, and play, with a wide range of national brands, exclusive products, innovative programs and unique partnerships. Committed to creating an experience-driven destination for the whole family, Toys"R"Us Canada offers a fun and memorable in-store experience for children and their parents. The company also focuses on giving back to its communities through charitable efforts that support children in need and their families. Toys"R"Us Canada is a subsidiary of Putman Investments. Toys"R"Us and Babies"R"Us are registered trademarks owned by Toys"R"Us (Canada) Ltd. All rights reserved.

SOURCE Toys "R" Us (Canada) Ltd.

For further information: INTERVIEWS OR MEDIA REQUESTS, PLEASE CONTACT: Paige Exell, Jr. Account Manager, [email protected], 807-626-3041; Aimee Cook, Account Manager, [email protected], 647-231-5106

Related Links

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Aryan Khan's lawyer argued in court that the accused was not in possession of banned substances and that his WhatsApp chats were the only prima facie evidence against him.

Narcotics Control Bureau(NCB) arrested Aryan Khan along with two other detainees in connection with the Mumbai cruise party raid, on Sunday. The three arrested had been remanded to NCB custody by the Esplanade Court in Mumbai till Monday. Aryan Khan, along with Arbaaz Seth Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, was taken for medical examination by the NCB before he was produced in court. Any reaction by Shah Rukh Khan on Aryans arrest is still awaited.

Aryan Khans lawyer argued in court that the accused was not in possession of banned substances and that his chats were the only prima facie evidence against him. Satish Maneshinde, the lawyer arguing in defence of Aryan Khan said in the Court, Accused number 1, Aryan Khan was invited for the cruise party. However, he did not have a boarding pass. He didnt have any seat or cabin there. Secondly, according to the seizure, nothing has been found in his possession. He is arrested only based on chats.

As per the NCB, the three persons have been booked under Section 8C, 20b, 27 (Punishment for consumption of any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance) and 35 (Presumption of culpable mental state) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS Act). Section 8C refers to prohibition to produce, manufacture, possess, sell, purchase, transport, warehouse, use, consume, import inter-State, export inter-State, import into India, export from India or tranship any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance while Section 20B is invoked in punishment for producing, manufacturing, possessing, selling, purchasing, transportation, imports inter-State, exports inter-State or use of cannabis.
The Congress leader lashed out at the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government following several instances of being stopped on her way to Lakhimpur.

Slamming the BJP government over the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday said that the government is using politics to mow down the farmers. While en route to Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh from Lucknow to meet the kin of the victims there, Priyanka Gandhi said, Todays incident shows that this government is using politics to mow down farmers. This country is a country of farmers, not a fiefdom of BJP ideology. Im not committing any crime by deciding to meet victims kinWhy are you stopping us? You should have a warrant?, the Congress leader lashed out at the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government following several instances of being stopped on her way to Lakhimpur.



As many as eight people died in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident on Sunday, said Uttar Pradesh police. Additional Superintendent of Police, Lakhimpur Kheri Arun Kumar Singh confirmed eight deaths including four farmers and four occupants of the vehicle(s) that allegedly ran over the farmers.



Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) issued a statement regarding the incident claiming the death of four farmers and alleged that one of the four farmers was shot dead by Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Tenis son, while the others have been allegedly run over by the vehicles of his convoy.



Commenting on the incident, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had tweeted, How much does BJP hate the farmers of the country? Dont they have a right to live? If they raise their voice, will you shoot them, will you trample on the car? Enough. This is a country of farmers, not a fiefdom of BJPs brutal ideology. Kisan Satyagraha will be strengthened and the voice of the farmer will be louder.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, who has been appointed as AICC senior observer for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, will also be visiting Lakhimpur today. Samajwadi Partys National President and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary and Bhim Army Chief Chandrashekhar will also visit here.



Meanwhile, refuting SKMs allegations, MoS Teni said that his son was not present at the spot, adding that some miscreants merged with protesting farmers and pelted the stones on the car which lead to the unfortunate incident. My son wasnt present at the spot. There were miscreants who attacked workers with sticks and swords. If my son wouldve been there, he wouldnt have come out alive.

During the Lakhimpur Kheri visit, our workers came to receive us amid farmers protest. Some miscreants from agitating farmers started stone pelting on the car and injured our driver. Due to this, our car got imbalanced and 2 people died coming under it. After this, our 3 workers were killed and cars were set on fire, Teni told ANI in a phone call. Theyve killed people and damaged and torched cars. We have video evidence, he added. He said that four of our (BJP workers) workers were killed and asserted that cases under section 302 will be lodged against the culprits.
Farmers have submitted a complaint against Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni and his son Ashish Mishra Teni at Tikunia over Lakhimpur Kheri violence on Sunday.

[Oct 04, 2021 15:04]

The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday announced a judicial inquiry in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident stating that an FIR has been registered based on farmers complaints.

Addressing a joint press conference flanked by BKU leader Rakesh Tikait, Additional Director General (Law and Order) of Uttar Pradesh police Prashant Kumar also informed that the farmers have now allowed the police to take the victims bodies for postmortem after being assured of arrests soon. An FIR has been registered based on farmers complaints under the relevant sections. A judicial inquiry will take place to probe the matter under a retired high court judge, the ADG said.

[Oct 04, 2021 13:48]

The Centre has deployed four Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) companies in Uttar Pradeshs Lakhimpur Kheri where eight lost their lives following violence on Sunday. As per the order issued from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Sunday following the request of the Uttar Pradesh government, four CAPF companies two each from Rapid Action Force (RAF) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) will be deployed in Lakhimpur Kheri till October 6 with immediate effect to control law and order situation in the area with the help of Uttar Pradesh Police. Soon after the order, one RAF and two SSB companies were deployed by Sunday evening while one RAF team is in its way and it will reach Lakhimpur Kheri anytime by this evening, a government source told ANI requesting anonymity.

As per Home Ministrys initial order, both RAF and SSB companies will be deployed in Lakhimpur Kheri till October 6, said the source, adding the deployment can be extended or cut short as per the need. The highly placed source said that nearly 500 personnel of the CAPFs will be deployed round the clock in the area to maintain law and order as well as prevent any untoward incident until a further order is received.

[Oct 04, 2021 13:40]

The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday announced an ex-gratia of Rs 45 lakh and a government job for the kin of four farmers who died in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident yesterday.



The state government has also announced that a retired High Court judge would probe the issue. Additional Director General (Law and Order) of Uttar Pradesh police Prashant Kumar said: Government will give Rs 45 lakhs and a government job to the families of four farmers who died in Lakhimpur Kheri yesterday. The injured will be given Rs 10 lakhs. FIR will be registered based on farmers complaints. Retired High Court judge will probe the matter.

[Oct 04, 2021 10:11]

Farmers have submitted a complaint against Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni and his son Ashish Mishra Teni at Tikunia over Lakhimpur Kheri violence on Sunday. Meanwhile, Lakhimpur Kheri District Magistrate Arvind Chaurasiya said, I have received a memorandum (from farmers), demanding dismissal of MoS Home Ajay Mishra Teni, registration of FIR based on their complaint, ex gratia payment to kin of the victim and government jobs to the family member of the deceased and judicial probe into the incident. As many as eight people died in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident on Sunday, said police.



[Oct 04, 2021 03:38]

Ashish Mishra, son of Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni, on Sunday said that the allegations against him regarding the Lakhimpur Kheri incident are baseless and that he was not present at the scene of the incident.



Denying the allegations put against him, Ashish Mishra said that he was attending an event at Banbirpur at the time of the incident. Some unruly elements attacked our workers, killed 4-5 of them. I was in Banbirpur from 9 am till the endI have not been at the (incident) spot for two daysIt could be that they dont like me and using politics, Ashish Mishra told ANI.



Allegations against me are completely baseless and I demand judicial inquiry of this matter and culprits should get punished, he added.

He further alleged, Our three vehicles went to receive Deputy Chief Minister for an event. On their way, some miscreants pelted stones, set cars on fire, and killed our 3-4 workers by thrashing them with sticks.

[Oct 03, 2021 22:34]

Following the death of eight people in the Lakhimpur incident, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over the incident called it unfortunate.



Chief Minister had expressed grief in the Lakhimpur incident. He called the incident very unfortunate. Uttar Pradesh government will investigate the matter in detail and will take strict actions against the culprits, reads the state government statement. ADG Law and Order, IG Lucknow Range and Aditional Chief Secretary are present at the spot, the statement added.

[Oct 03, 2021 22:16]

Additional Superintendent of Police, Lakhimpur Kheri Arun Kumar Singh confirmed eight deaths including four farmers and four occupants of the vehicle(s) that allegedly ran over the farmers.
For eight months in 1995, LaResse Harvey said, she was held as a sex slave by her cellmate at York Correctional Institution in Niantic.

In the 26 years since, the landmark Prison Rape Elimination Act was signed into federal law. The legislation gave prisoners several avenues to report sexual misconduct; required changes to buildings for added safety, such as adding doors with windows and installing more cameras; and mandated regular audits of each facility.

But people incarcerated in Connecticut say they still face sexual abuse from other prisoners and guards and that reporting the crimes isnt always worth the consequences.

It does not work, said Harvey, who pushed for PREA in Connecticut after her release from prison and later co-founded the advocacy agency Once Incarcerated.

819 Reports; Few Are Substantiated

In Connecticut, there were 819 reports of sexual abuse or harassment in prisons and state-contracted judicial programs between 2015 and 2020, according to PREA data from the Connecticut Department of Correction and the state judicial branch.

The bulk of the reports, about 72 percent, accuse another inmate or client of court programs, such as a drug rehabilitation program. Just more than 10 percent came from juveniles in the system.

About 13 percent of Connecticut reports were confirmed after being investigated. Only about 6 percent of cases across the country are substantiated, according to the most recent national data published in June. The national rates dont include harassment figures or judicial programs, like the state figures.

PREA has become a common phrase in Connecticuts prisons. The fact that people know how to report, and do so, is a positive sign, said David McNeil, the PREA Unit director for the state Department of Correction.

The system is working, McNeil said. Were getting the phone calls, the letters, the cases.

PREA rules went into effect in 2013. That year, the state DOC began teaching staff and the prison population the new rules and bringing the buildings into compliance.

Almost a decade later, allegations of sexual assaults in prisons across the country continue to increase yearly, except for an overall decrease in 2017.

In contrast, reports in Connecticut have decreased over time, from 182 in 2015 to 94 in 2019. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, there were only 47 reports, a dip officials attribute to fewer interactions in the prison over the past year.

But the numbers understate the real threat, according to victim advocates, who said there is a culture of ambivalence and fear of retribution. Many reach out to Just Detention International, an advocacy group that seeks to end sex crimes behind bars.

When we talk about a preventable tragedy, a preventable human rights crisis, its in these letters. Its in the voices of survivors who call us. Its also in the data, said Jesse Lerner-Kinglake, communications director for Just Detention International.

Officials said they take the law and their role to keep people safe seriously.

Its a balance of safety, security and personal privacy, McNeil said. Youre looking out for individuals in an environment that is not designed for personal privacy. You have to monitor them, but while trying to give them space to go about their everyday life.

Atmosphere Of Acceptance

Though the law refers to prison rape, it covers all types of sexual misconduct and applies to courthouses and any residential facility or part of the judicial system, such as a halfway house or drug rehabilitation center. One-third of Connecticuts reports between 2015 and 2020 came from facilities other than prisons.

Kristal Lis is one such case. She said she was violated repeatedly in 2018 by a pair of judicial marshals tasked with her transport between York Correctional and the New London Judicial District Superior Courthouse.

Lis first was plied with cigarettes for sexual favors, according to her lawsuit against one of the marshals and judicial branch administration.

The PREA coordinator for the state judicial branch declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Any sexual encounter, even consensual, between staff and inmates is a PREA violation due to the power differential.

The abuse escalated, Lis said, and she was sexually assaulted by the marshal while she was shackled and alone in the courthouse lockup. She cried and loudly told him to stop, according to her lawsuit, and he left when other staff came near.

Lis first reported the accusations a year later, staggered by the trauma of the incident and fear of retribution.

She was retaliated against by being threatened with prison time if she continued to speak out, said civil rights attorney Alexander Taubes of New Haven, who is representing Lis.

Lis said that after filing her PREA report, she was denied mental health services at the prison.

I said, I need counseling. So, I wrote reports, numerous things begging for counseling, Lis said, and they just wrote back saying, Oh, you dont qualify, Take deep breaths, and stuff like that.

The state data doesnt detail demographics such as race or gender, but the highest number of reports were from York Correctional Institution, the states only prison for females. Out of the more than 50 prisons and judicial programs statewide, about 24 percent of all reports were made at York.

Former York inmates describe an atmosphere of acceptance for regular, dehumanizing sexual encounters.

Tracie Bernardi, who served 23 years at York before her release in 2015, said she never reported such incidents because the odds are against prisoners.

The harassment included inappropriate comments during strip searches and unnecessary touching. Bernardi said that when drivers would help her in and out of the transport van for court dates, they often would grope her buttocks. She said she maintained a relationship with a guard who provided special benefits such as extra meals or time out of her cell.

If I made complaints, the fear was I would lose everything while they investigated, said Bernardi, who co-founded Once Incarcerated with Harvey in 2019. You cant prove it, so why even waste your time?

Once Incarcerated receives similar reports from people still in the system. Reports can also be made anonymously through a tip line or other third parties, such as clergy, triggering the same PREA report.

Complaints about regular security pat-downs and strip searches are not covered by PREA, according to McNeil, and do not become part of the PREA data.

Mental Health Help Lacking

Advocates said one of the most egregious offenses against inmates  isolation  is done in the name of protecting them. At the start of a PREA investigation, the complainant and the accused are kept apart until the details are sorted out.

That separation is not intended to be punitive, said Karen Martucci, director of external affairs for the state correction department. Its a safety issue.

Bernardi said she tried to kill herself while in isolation.

By putting me in solitary confinement, if I was in college courses, I would lose that because you cant miss a certain amount of time. You lose housing. All of your property is packed up by other inmates or staff. Your stuff will end up missing or stolen, Bernardi said. Those kinds of things are complete trauma; your stability is uprooted.

Sometimes PREA reports are used as revenge between inmates, who report past consensual behavior after a breakup, called dropping a note inside the prison, according to McNeil.

Every allegation is taken seriously and investigated, McNeil said, noting that all criminal activity is referred to the state police.

Such a policy could have helped Harvey when she faced abuse. Harvey immediately told a prison counselor, but the incident was brushed aside as a lovers quarrel; she was even celled with the accused at the accuseds request.

Though Harvey said PREA is better than nothing, she denounced how PREA is practiced.

Theyre doing the opposite of what the PREA law says, Harvey said. The PREA law says keep them in their support team, remove the assailant, and make sure they get immediate mental help. All the things I did not get.

Under the mentorship of JodieMozdzer Gil, associate professor of Journalism at Southern Connecticut State University, W. Tanner Bryant began reporting this story in a data journalism course in spring 2021, and completed reporting over the summer. Bryant graduated from Southern in May 2021. This story was reported under a partnership with the Connecticut Health I-Team (c-hit.org), a nonprofit news organization dedicated to health reporting.
WEST HAVEN  A Bronx-based realty company purchased the historic Armstrong Building on Elm Street, according to property records.

City Corporation Counsel Lee Tiernan said he met with representatives of Bajraktari Realty in July for a tour of the building. The building, which was purchased by W H Realty LLC for $700,000 in 1994 before the deed was shifted to a Stop & Shop LLC in 2013, sold for $975,000, according to a property deed.

Stop & Shop, a Massachusetts-based chain owned by Dutch company Ahold Delhaize, has a supermarket location at 460 Elm St. just across from the property. As a condition of the sale, the new owners are forbidden from selling food. Tiernan said representatives with Bajraktari Realty said the intent is to develop apartments.

Representatives of Bajraktari Realty did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Tiernan said that, during the realty company representatives visit, he explained the terms of the Transit Oriented District where the building, which is recorded by the assessors office as being six stories, sits.

The Transit Oriented District is supposed to encourage uses that complement the train station, Tiernan said. Apartments would clearly complement the train station.

Despite the $975,000 sale, the property is appraised at $2.67 million. However, Tiernan said there is considerable cleanup work that must be done to the contaminated site.

If they value it at $2 million, thats probably the discount, he said. Tiernan said he expressed to the developer the citys willingness to apply for a competitive grant from the state for funding to remediate contamination such as asbestos from the site.

Tiernan said that, during discussions, the developer did not discuss seeking any tax abatement. He said he understands from discussions that the proposed apartments would target a demographic of young professionals  apartments that are neither income-subsidized nor high-end.

Mayor Nancy Rossi said the Armstrong Building has been one of the sites with development potential she has been asked about most. She said she was happy with the news of the transaction.

Thats another development where we can do something good there, she said.

Rossi said her administration now hopes to entice developers to take a look at a building on an adjacent parcel.

Hopefully the other piece will sell, too, she said.

Alan Olenick, executive director of the West Haven Chamber of Commerce, said he believes the site could be an economic engine for the city if developed properly.

That would be a huge boon if that could get developed into something, he said. The timing of this is very good.

The site also has attracted the attention of officials such as U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. In 2014, Blumenthal toured the site with former Mayor Ed OBrien to tout the sites potential.

The potential to unlock development here is absolutely unparalleled, Blumenthal said of the building at the time.

The building gets its name as the one-time headquarters of the Armstrong Rubber Co., a major tire manufacturer and a large employer in the region.

Tiernan said residents of West Haven might expect to see Bajraktari Realtys name again, as the company had expressed interest in other sites.

Theyre dipping their toe into West Haven, he said. And now I have 975,000 reasons to believe them.

Maura OBrien, external communications and community relations manager for Stop & Shop, said in an email that there has been a change of ownership for the property at 475 Elm St. in West Haven.

Stop & Shop intends to continue serving the West Haven community in our store located at 460 Elm Street and does not intend any change to our West Haven store's operation, OBrien said.

brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com
RUSTAVI, Georgia (AP)  Hundreds of demonstrators rallied Monday outside a prison where former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has been held since his arrest after returning to the country last week.

Saakashvili, who left Georgia in 2014 and became a Ukrainian citizen, was later sentenced to up to six years in prison on abuse of power convictions handed down in absentia.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  The Ohio police officer who shot and killed Andre Hill will stand trial next spring, a judge decided Monday.

Hill, 47, who was Black, was fatally shot by Officer Adam Coy, who is white, on Dec. 22 as Hill emerged from a garage holding up a cellphone. Coy has since been fired from the Columbus police department.

Coy, 44, has pleaded not guilty to murder and reckless homicide. Franklin County Judge Stephen McIntosh set Coy's trial for March 7.

In August, McIntosh denied a request by Coy's attorneys to move the trial out of concern that extensive local and national publicity  including news coverage, posts on social media and billboards around Columbus  would make it impossible to assemble an impartial jury for Coy in Franklin County.

McIntosh sided with prosecutors, who argued there was no reason to believe that people elsewhere were less likely to have read about the case than were Franklin County residents.

In May, the city reached a $10 million settlement, the largest in Columbus history, with Hill's family.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  Gov. Laura Kelly on Monday created an independent office to review complaints against Kansas' foster care system and recommend changes in child welfare policies, a longtime goal of advocates for abused and neglected children.

The Democratic governor's move to create the office by executive order bypasses the Republican-controlled Legislature. It deadlocked on the issue earlier this year after some lawmakers pushed to put the new office under the GOP official expected to challenge Kellys reelection next year.

Kelly issued an order to create the Division of Child Advocate within the state Department of Administration, whose head reports to the governor. The governor would appoint the new division's director for a five-year term.

We want this to be an office that works on behalf of our children and on behalf of our families, she said after signing the order at a children's museum in Topeka.

Kelly said that even though she would appoint the director of the child advocate's division, that person's five-year term would make the office about as independent as you can get.

Many Republican legislators have argued that the governor shouldn't appoint the child advocate or have a hand in the appointment because the new office monitors state agencies under the governor's direct control. GOP senators pushed for putting the child advocate in the attorney general's office.

Republican Sen. Molly Baumgardner of Louisburg said the child advocate's office is likely to be handling material from whistleblowers.

We felt that was appropriate because of all of the confidential materials that move into the attorney generals office on a daily basis, she said.

Baumgardner called Kelly's arguments about her division's independence disingenuous" and noted that a future governor could rescind the order creating it.

The Republican-controlled Senate in March approved a proposal for a child advocate in the attorney general's office, only to see it stall in the GOP-controlled House. Many Democrats saw the measure as partisan because Attorney General Derek Schmidt is widely expected to be the GOP nominee for governor next year against Kelly.

A House committee approved its own, bipartisan plan to have the governor and Kansas Supreme Court chief justice appoint the child advocate, with the Legislature directing the work of the advocates office. But GOP leaders never scheduled a full House debate.

___

Andy Tsubasa Field 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.

____

On Twitter, follow John Hanna at https://twitter.com/apjdhanna and Andy Tsubasa Field at https://twitter.com/AndyTsubasaF
ROCHESTER, Mich. (AP)  The president of Oakland University said she is donating $1 million to the school for scholarships.

I want to attract students who may not be thinking about Oakland. We have so much to offer them," Ora Pescovitz told The Detroit News.
One of the states major hospital systems has vaccinated 99 percent of its workers against COVID, but 300 employees remain unvaccinated.

On Monday, Ajay Kumar, chief clinical officer of Hartford HealthCare, released a statement on the status of its quest to vaccinate all colleagues and related clinical staff. Hartford HealthCare facilities include St. Vincents Medical Center in Bridgeport and Hartford Hospital.

In July, Hartford HealthCare announced it would require employees to get the COVID vaccine. At that time, HHC stated in a letter to employees that colleagues who do not fulfill the vaccination requirement, and do not have an approved exemption or postponement, by Sept. 30, 2021, will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including separation of employment.

Leading up to the deadline, the chain reported 683 employees  3 percent of its workforce  had been vaccinated. But Kumar reported Monday many colleagues came forward just ahead of the deadline with proof of CDC vaccination cards and exemption requests.

The remaining 300 employees who have not been vaccinated are facing suspension, Kumar said.

We remain hopeful that people will choose to stay in health care and with Hartford HealthCare, he said.

Kumar emphasized that all vaccines have proven to be safe and extremely effective at reducing serious illness and death. Hartford HealthCare remains deeply committed to patient safety and our role in limiting the spread of this virus.
Tara ONeill / Hearst Connecticut Media

NEW HAVEN  City police say a Middletown man was in stable condition at the hospital after a shooting in the city early Sunday.

Minutes before 4 a.m., officers were sent to a ShotSpotter activation on Davenport Avenue between Stevens and West streets, Officer Scott Shumway said.
NEW HAVEN  Southern Connecticut State University music professor Walter Stutzman is making all kinds of beautiful music at the school to the tune of $3 million  and counting  for students through his family foundation.

But its not just a mere money toss  its a gift from deep in the heart of a man who loves music and came out changed after surviving the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City.

I remember thinking that if 9/11 had been my last day on earth, what had I done to leave the world a better place? I believe that helping people to enjoy and understand music is a worthy goal, said Stutzman, a Madison resident.

It would take Stutzman, who had high-end technology career, a few more years to make that change after prompting from his dying mom.

In one of his last conversations with her, his mother said, If youre going to make this change, do it now.

He listened.

In 2005, in his late 50s, married with two children ahead of him with college, Stutzman, a lifelong pianist, enrolled in Southerns music program as a student.

But he and his family were trustees of the Stutzman Family Foundation set up by his parents.

He wanted students at Southern to have a meaningful experience and the foundation funded music lessons for them  still the core of the gift  and then added other valuable endeavors, including sending the SCSU choir to international performances each year, helping to fund the Electronic Music Studio, tuition scholarships and support of the Blue Steel Drumline.

As of February 2021, the Stutzman Family Foundation had donated $2.8 million to Southerns music program and also committed to $225,000 for the next two years, so theyll be over $3 million in January 2022.

Isabel E. Chenoweth / Southern Connecticut State University /

The best thank you I see for this program is when I walk through and see people playing, practicing and that is a great thank-you, Stutzman said.

The goal of all of this is to enable Southern students to become the musicians that they want to be, he said. Whatever that may be  jazz, classical voice, electronic music for visual media  if theyre serious, the Southern Music Department will help them achieve their goals.

Stutzman, who also went to college in the 1960s, and already held a masters degree in linguistics from Yale University, planned to get a teaching job at a high or junior high school after graduating from SCSU, but the timing was perfect because an SCSU professor was retiring.

Previously he worked on the Yale Artificial Intelligence Project and later for the Digital Equipment Corp. for 16 years. In 1996, he joined a small consulting firm,

Today Stutzman is an adjunct professor at SCSU who teaches music history of the western world and a freshman seminar on the power of music. He joined the University Symphonic Band and is still there on timpani and other percussion.

This is both the most challenging and most rewarding, work that Ive done, he said.

SCSU music grad Johnathan Moore had cello lessons weekly through the foundation and said that allowed me to learn more about my gifts and talents. Moore said he wouldnt have been able to afford the lessons out of pocket, so hes grateful.

I wanted to explore more of the sounds and techniques of the cello and the cello lessons gave me that opportunity to learn them, Moore said. Professionally, the lessons played an important part in opening doors for my music career.  I am truly grateful for that, including shows for the New Haven Symphony.

Contributed photo /

Joshua Groffman, associate professor and chairman of Southerns Music department, said, Its fair to say that the foundation has had a transformative effect at Southern and reflects an ongoing support that is humbling to contemplate and that is never taken for granted.

Stutzman said music has been a part of his life since he was 8 and he started piano lessons. He played oboe in high school and college and piano for enjoyment. Since 1985, Stutzman has also been the accompanist for the cantor and choir at Temple Beth Tikvah in Madison.

He remembers first strongly coming to appreciate the beauty of music in 1962 at Northridge Junior High School in California.

My teacher played a movement from a Mozart piano concerto and explained its form to us, he said. This was a light-bulb moment where I first understood something about beauty and form in music.

But the impetus to change careers from the lucrative tech world to music came after his 9/11 experience.

Stutzman was working as a software consultant and talking to his boss at the World Trade Center when the planes hit the towers, shaking his building.

He made it down a staircase, later had nightmares, and like so many touched closely by the tragedy of that day, analyzed his own direction.

This did make me think about what did I do with my life? he said.

Stutzman said they were told not to get near any windows and not to leave. At 9:07 when second plane hit, I knew something was up and he left, as did others in the office, despite being told not to. Everyone he worked with made it to safety.

He fled the area as quickly as he could and from a good distance witnessed the towers crumble  making it extra eerie that he was so far away, there was no sound.

Melanie Stengel / Hearst Connecticut Media file photo

Stutzman said the number of lessons through the family foundation has gone up as enrollments increased and were trying to get the message out there are advantages here and this is the place to be.

In the freshman seminar he plays A hymn for the lost and living, written by Eric Ewazen, which portrays the sad, painful days following the Sept. 11 attacks. He tells students of his 9/11 experience and the healing power that music has for him.

He says of the SCSU music department, Theyre small but mighty and if youre serious about music, well help you become the musician you want to be.

The endowment was set up with the blessing of his father, Jacob, a physician who worked in pharmaceutical research and lived to see two years of the delight SCSU brought his son. Jacob Stutzman died in summer 2007.

Walter Stutzman told the Register while enrolled at SCSU as a student that a gift to the school was fitting because he felt gratitude to fellow students, as well as the school, that he said was rich with talented and dedicated instructors.
LEESVILLE, La. (AP)  A Louisiana sheriff's deputy was stabbed by a suspect before firing two rounds and wounding his attacker, authorities said Monday.

The American Press reports that the suspect, Malcomb Holcomb, 46, of Leesville, was recovering from surgery at a central Louisiana hospital following the Sunday evening attack.
DJ Switch, the Nigerian disc jockey and activist, will speak at the 2021 Oslo Freedom Forum in Miami. The DJ took to Twitter on Sunday...





DJ Switch, the Nigerian disc jockey and activist, will speak at the 2021 Oslo Freedom Forum in Miami.





The DJ took to Twitter on Sunday night to share a video clip from the #EndSARS protest.

The conference is billed to hold on Monday at the New World Center in Miami, Florida.

Themed Truth Ignited, the event promises to celebrate stories that spark action globally in service of the truth.

It will host dissidents, philanthropists, journalists, artists, entrepreneurs, public intellectuals, and world leaders.

Guests are expected to witness talks, art installations, interactive programming, and live musical performances.

The event comes as Nigerians mark a year after the shooting of #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos.





DJ Switch had been in the news after she filmed the infamous October 20, 2020 army crackdown on the protesters.

Ill be speaking @ the OSLO freedom Forum 2mr in Miami @HRF

October is 4 every Nigerian youth & nt a false celebration of @MBuhari s lies which hes been telling around d world.

True independence is free 4m borrow borrow, free 4m death of our brothers & sisters, free 4m poverty pic.twitter.com/mNZj0dKQQC  Dj Switch (@dj_switchaholic) October 3, 2021





The DJ, whose real name is Obianuju Udeh, had gone into hiding over alleged threats to her life.

For the Miami conference, DJ Switch was listed among personalities who speak truth to power and ignite movements that seek justice and defy authoritarian regimes.

Speaking about her activism in Nigeria, she wrote in an Instagram post: Buhari and his cohorts want us to celebrate independence while many Nigerians live in extreme poverty.

Police kill innocent young Nigerians, government officials steal like armed robbers, Naira is headed to 600 Naira.

This month of October is for the youths and not for the lies Buhari tells the world. I will be speaking at the OSLO freedom Forum in Miami tomorrow! We all have to contribute as we can!
Everton winger, Andros Townsend, has said he pestered Cristiano Ronaldo for his shirt after copying his Siu celebration during their 1-1 dra...





Everton winger, Andros Townsend, has said he pestered Cristiano Ronaldo for his shirt after copying his Siu celebration during their 1-1 draw with Manchester United last weekend.

After equalizing from a counter-attack, Townsend celebrated by running over to the corner flag and copying Ronaldos trademark goal celebration.

The Portuguese superstar appeared to storm off furiously towards the tunnel after the final whistle, with Townsend seen trying to talk to him before his exit and the Toffees winger has now revealed the details of their brief conversation.

I made it my goal that I was not leaving Old Trafford without Cristiano Ronaldos shirt, Townsend told talkSPORT.

You saw after the final whistle, I ran straight to him, I dont know what he was muttering but it wasnt English.

He was muttering in Portuguese and I asked him three or four times for his shirt and eventually he gave in and said he would give it to me inside.

I had to wait inside the dressing room and thankfully the kit man was able to sort it for me. That shirt I am going to keep with me.
The proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has called on the south-west and middle belt to observe a one-month sit-at-home if Nnamd...

The proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has called on the south-west and middle belt to observe a one-month sit-at-home if Nnamdi Kanu, its leader, is not produced in court on October 21.

IPOB said the sit-at-home would be a show of support for Kanu, who is currently in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS).

In a statement issued on Sunday by Emma Powerful, IPOB spokesperson, the group also asked Igbo businessmen and women outside the south-east to shut down their businesses in support of Kanu.

Following our earlier declaration of one month lockdown of Biafra land should the Nigeria Government fail to bring our Leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to the court on October 21, the statement reads.

We, the global family of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), request our brothers and sisters in Oduduwa Republic and Middle Belt including Igbo and Biafra businessmen and women, traders, who is doing business outside Biafra land to shut down his or her business for us to demonstrate our resolve for the emergence of our new nation Biafra and support for our leader Mazi Nnamdi KANU and others who are facing similar fate with us to join us in sympathy protest.

All lovers of Biafra including Christian communities in the north and other parts of Nigeria, who receive unnecessary humiliation, intimidation and killings from Fulani terrorists, bandits and murderous herdsmen should understand that time has come for all victims of Fulani impunity and atrocities to unite together for resistance.

We advise all oppressed people in Nigeria to be prepared for the one month sit-at-home if the federal government of Nigeria and the Department of State Services, DSS fail to produce Nnamdi Kanu in court on the next court adjourned date.

Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is a freedom fighter demanding justice for the oppressed Indigenous people in Nigeria. He committed no crime to deserve his continued detention without trial.

In June, Kanu was arrested and extradited to Nigeria to face trial. He was remanded in the custody of DSS after he was re-arraigned.

On July 26, Binta Nyako, judge of the federal high court, Abuja, adjourned the trial of Kanu till October 21, owing to the failure of the federal government to produce him in court.
COVID is killing rural Americans at twice the rate of urbanites
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said Sunday that the U.S. is turning the corner on the recent surge of COVID-19. Jim Lo Scalzo/Pool/Abaca/TNS
Lab manager Robyn Schuman holds blood samples to be tested Sept. 1 for COVID-19 at the Bellville Medical Center, in Bellville, Texas. Francois Picard/AFP via Getty Images/TNS
Editor's note: This story originally appeared as a post on The Historic New Orleans Collections First Draft blog.

The water management system of New Orleans as we know it today has its roots in the response to the yellow fever epidemics that plagued the city for much of the 19th century. The period between the deadly yellow fever outbreak of 1878, which killed 4,000 people in New Orleans, and the discovery of the cause of the disease, in 1900, saw huge changes in the infrastructure surrounding drinking water and waste management.

Before the 20th century, the pedestrian was often confronted with offensive sights and smells, and in the years after the Civil War, New Orleans was one of the largest, smelliest and deadliest cities in the United States. The citys gutters, drainage canals and streets  80% of which were unpaved in 1880  were littered with refuse, including garbage, food waste, and human and animal waste. Dirty, stagnant water could be found everywhere.

Although the Department of Public Works was responsible for maintaining drainage, the lack of elevation inside the city meant that water had nowhere to go, and workers cleaned the gutters and canals by shoveling muck onto the streets, only to have it wash back during the next rain.

By 1880, most big cities had installed some sort of sewerage system, but New Orleans still depended almost entirely on privies. Even houses and commercial buildings with the luxury of plumbing had to connect pipes to a privy or a gutter.

Drinking water came from cisterns because well water was unsanitary, and city water from the New Orleans Waterworks Co. was dispensed straight from the Mississippi River. These water sources could easily become contaminated, leading to a host of gastrointestinal illnesses and, though it was not understood at the time, swift transmission of diseases such as dysentery, cholera, typhoid and yellow fever.

New Orleans was a city of epidemics, and yellow fever was the worst, with outbreaks occurring almost annually after 1825. It was thought to be caused by miasma  humid air acting on filthy, undrained soil. The theory led residents to burn tar and shoot cannons into the air as preventative measures to purify it.

Another idea, known as importation theory, held that the disease was spread by contact with individuals who came to the city aboard ships and railway systems. This belief led to strong anti-immigrant rhetoric and an insistence that locals were unaffected.

Mosquitoes, which were discovered at the turn of the 20th century to be the actual vectors of transmission, found a perfect breeding ground in the citys haphazard drainage system. But in the 19th century, these misconceptions meant that the real problem went unnoticed while the disease returned again and again during the hot summer months.

Enormous strides were made nationally in city services after the Civil War, but in New Orleans, these changes did not come easily. Topography and climate made improvements expensive; city government was often mismanaged, with little money to spare; and the public remained largely unconcerned about the state of sanitation.

One report said that "insalubrity was flatly denied, or disbelieved," and many people maintained "the nonexistence of the most dreadful evils."

In 1878, the community was shocked out of its lethargy when a devastating yellow fever epidemic originated in New Orleans and spread as far as Memphis, killing almost 20,000 people across the Mississippi River valley. Upriver towns and neighboring Gulf Coast cities like Mobile, Alabama, ended travel to and from New Orleans, closing trade with the city at the first hint of disease.

The economic impact of quarantine, which included disruptions to shipping and local commerce, moved New Orleans business class to find a way to stop the disease from returning. The Board of Health and the Howard Association, both of which were formed to deal with earlier bouts of yellow fever, had for years been trying to educate the public about the citys shameful sanitation condition. Now they were joined by business and social leaders demanding change.

Some large businesses, such as D.H. Holmes and the St. Charles Hotel, constructed their own sewer lines to the river, while prominent New Orleans people formed organizations to decide how to solve the problems of the rest of the city.

Their answers ranged from cleaning up the gutters to cleaning up the government. However, the general public clung to the theories of miasma and importation as to how the disease spread and remained unaware of the connection to sanitation, prompting most of the groups to disband.

One group that survived was the Auxiliary Sanitary Association, which formed in 1879 and was financed almost entirely by private contributions from the citys moneyed elite. (Additional contributions were roused when the Times threatened to print the names of wealthy people who had failed to contribute.) The association improved drainage canals, donated garbage barges to the city and repaired city-owned equipment. Its most successful endeavor was a system of gutter flushing that cleaned up many streets.

Throughout the 1880s, there were relatively few deaths attributable to yellow fever. Consequently, there were several failed voter initiatives to secure funding to improve water infrastructure. Beginning in 1884, the city hosted the Worlds Cotton Centennial and Exposition in the well-drained area of Carrollton, hiding the controversial gutters from international visitors. That same year, the city also hosted a sanitation conference for members of the state Board of Health and other public health representatives from the Gulf Coast region, where they made commitments to prevent the spread of contagious disease, including discussions of how to enforce a multistate quarantine and increasing resources for municipal sanitation.

By the 1890s, state and municipal efforts aligned with private enterprise and Progressive Era education surrounding public health. When yellow fever struck again in 1897 it killed almost 300 people, which was the highest death toll since 1878. Officials and the population alike were frightened into action, and in 1899 voters, encouraged by a group of Progressive reformers known as the Municipal Improvement Association, at last approved funds for a drainage and sewerage system that would permanently clean up the city.

In 1902, the new Sewerage and Water Board began drainage work that would forever change the landscape of New Orleans. A system of subsurface piping was installed to replace the gutters, a water purification plant was built in Carrollton, and three pumping stations were installed.

The pumps carried standing water into the citys existing outflow canals, which emptied sewerage into the river and water drainage into the lake. Over the next two decades, these improvements allowed the city to drain the backswamp and open new areas for settlement. By 1923, the Sewerage and Water Board claimed that 92% of the citys population had access to sewer lines.

When yellow fever broke out again in New Orleans in 1905, city leaders were armed with the knowledge that the disease was spread by mosquitoes, thanks to the discovery made by U.S. Army researchers in Cuba five years earlier. Citizens were ordered to eliminate any stagnant water and to cover their cisterns, thus preventing breeding areas for mosquitoes.

A quarantine was also imposed to keep people in their homes. It marked the last outbreak of yellow fever on the North American continent. The time to call New Orleans Americas most plague-ridden city was over.
A Musical Journey begins on Monday night when the Musaica chamber music ensemble kicks off its 2021-22 season a month late, a delay due to Hurricane Ida.

The nine-member, 16-year-old classical music group consisting primarily of Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra musicians will perform its opening concerts in a season titled A Musical Journey on successive nights at two different venues in New Orleans this week.

The first performance will be at the St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church at 7:30 p.m. Monday, and the second will take place at the University of New Orleans Performing Arts Center recital hall on Tuesday, also at 7:30 p.m.

A spokesperson and performer for the group, LPO assistant principal violist Bruce Owen, expressed relief that Musaica will be performing once again for live audiences after nearly a full season of live-streaming due to COVID-19 restrictions on live performances.

Were really excited about this, Owen said. The last concert we did last season was live, but this will be the first time in two years we will actually be doing our entire season for a live audience. Last year, we just streamed one performance of each program, and so were glad to be doing two performances of the same program once again.

The first concert, titled Adoration, takes its name from the eponymous piece composed by Florence Price for a clarinet and string quartet that will be performed by the group. Price (1887-1953), was the first African American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer and the first to have a composition played by a major orchestra, the Chicago Symphony in 1933.

Daniel Parrette is the clarinet soloist on the Price piece.

Also on the program will be a composition by another pioneering woman composer, Amy Beach (1867-1944), whose Gaelic Symphony premiered with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1896, making it the first symphony composed and published by an American woman.

Beachs Theme and Variations for Flute and String Quartet, will feature Sarah Schettler on flute.

The opening piece in the program will be a violin solo by Yuki Tanaka titled Mirior Pour Violon (French for Mirror for Violin) composed in 1981 by Akira Miyoshi. Tanaka was a student of Miyoshis from 1987-92.

Other works to be performed include Robert Schumanns Fairytales for clarinet, viola and piano; Max Bruchs duet Kol Nidrei featuring David Rosen on cello and Diana Thacher on piano; and Ennio Morricones Gabriels Oboe, composed for an oboe and string trio and featuring Jane Gabka on oboe.

Other Musaica concerts this season will be presented on Feb. 15-16 and April 18-19.

What we are really going for this year is trying to explore works from composers from a lot of different backgrounds and different points in time, Owen said. Every program were doing this season has works by women, Black and Asian composers, as well as other nationalities.

Theres so much great music out there that isnt getting performed, Owen added. Were trying to do what we can to get some of it done.

Schettler, the LPOs second flute chair, described her featured work as a delightful little piece thats a theme in five variations. The strings play the themes first and then the flute comes in as an extended solo. And then together the flute and quartet play for the rest of the piece.

Noting that it will be her first time performing the work, Schettler said, Its very flowing and it alternates between lower energy and higher energy and it has a very beautiful ebb and flow to it. The flute itself flows very nicely. Its really nice to dive into some different female composers and bring these to the audience.

MUSAICA

2021-22 SEASON SCHEDULE

Adoration

Oct. 11, 7:30 p.m.

St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church

1545 State St. (at St. Charles Avenue)

Oct. 12, 7:30 p.m.

University of New Orleans Performing Arts Center recital hall

UNO Lakefront Campus

Music Through a Prism

Feb. 15, 7:30 p.m.

Marigny Opera House

725 St. Ferdinand St.

Feb. 16, 7:30 p.m.

UNO Performing Arts Center recital hall

Angel Fire

April 18, 7:30 p.m.

Munholland Methodist Church

1201 Metairie Road, Metairie

April 19, 7:30 p.m.

UNO Performing Arts Center Recital Hall

All concerts are free with a recommended donation of $20 for adults and $10 for students and seniors. Information: www.musaica.org

+3 N.O. Opera brings on a community partnership director to tackle declining audience numbers Longtime patrons of the New Orleans Opera have watched, with apprehension, the sharp decline in attendance at productions in the Mahalia Jacks
Ryan Kurr reached the finals of the Food Network competition Ben & Jerrys: Clash of the Cones, which aired in late summer. He has a background in pastry and desserts, but he left a writing program to start his confectionary career. After working at Chicago spots including Hot Chocolate, La Boulangerie, Sugar Hills Bakery and other places, he wrote a memoir, Sugar Burn: The Not So Hot Side of the Sweet Kitchen, about working in professional bakeries and restaurant kitchens. In 2016, he came to New Orleans to be the pastry chef at Susan Spicers Mondo and Rosedale. Now he runs his own ice cream business, Arcana Creamery, and continues to write.

Gambit: Whats your approach to ice cream?

Ryan Kurr: I am pretty wild about ice cream and I think about flavors in a little bit of a different way than most ice cream makers. I try to go beyond the standard things and bring in things that are savory or not common in pastry or sweet dishes.

One of my biggest inspirations is trying to interpret flavors based on music. Thats where the ice cream endeavor came from. I would take songs, and if there was a music video, I would look at the visuals and the mood of the song, and the theme and lyrics and try to interpret that in a flavor. That sort of pushed me outside of my comfort zone.

One of the early ones was Black Lake, which was a song by Bjork. In the video, there is black volcanic lava, and shes Icelandic, so I took that into account as well. In the video, theres a lot of blue lava thats exploding throughout the whole thing. At the end of the video, shes wearing a costume that is covered in gold feathers. I turned that into a black cocoa and black licorice ice cream. The licorice comes from my time in Iceland, when I found out that 90% of the candy there is black licorice  for some reason I will never understand. I took that and turned that into the base flavor. I made a cream cheese swirl that I had colored with blue spirulina swirl to mimic the blue lava in the video. I seasoned it with black lava salt from Iceland. I garnished it with goldleaf to echo the visuals of her dress.

Gambit: What was it like competing on the show?

Kurr: They didnt give us too much to work with. They said do whatever you want, your style. For each episode, we had a challenge and we had to work within those parameters based on what a celebrity said they would like to see.

My favorite (ice cream flavor) was the final one I did. We didnt have any constraints or limitations. It was, Show your personality. Do what you do best. Anything was game. I was the most creative with that one, so it was my favorite. I did a couple different things that I turned into one solid flavor. I did a raspberry-balsamic sorbet that I swirled with a smoked blueberry and roasted cinnamon ice cream, and I included a brown sugar cookie dough chunk. Everything in that episode had to have a chunk. I was going to do a lemon curd swirl, but time was an issue, so I turned that into cream, and I swirled that throughout the whole thing.

I had never done anything like (a TV competition) before and I had no idea what to expect. Its very intimidating when youre used to doing your thing in a kitchen with a small crew, and then there is a crew of 200 people and five cameras in your face. Its strange but you get acclimated to it. Me and the other contestants got along well and there was some nice camaraderie. It was kind of stressful to figure everything out. In the first couple challenges, youre in a new kitchen, you dont know how any of the equipment is going to react. You dont know where anything is. But it was fun.

We didnt see Ben (Cohen) and Jerry (Greenfield) until the last episode. Jerry talked to us individually for quite a while. That was helpful. It wasnt just about what we produced but about the industry and our approach. I think the biggest takeaway was the support I heard from him about my approach to ice cream. Its really difficult to make anything work in any sort of creative profession. A lot of people dont think about the work that goes into it. That was a nice, validating thing to hear.

Gambit: How is your writing career going?

Kurr: I write for a British magazine called Witches. Its delivered internationally. I write about tarot, metaphysical topics, astrology, crystals, mediation, anything that falls in line of that esoteric nature.

I am working on a fantasy trilogy. The first, Sage, Smoke & Fire, was released last July [2020]. The second, is currently with my editor right now. That should be coming out in October/November. The third one, I am doing the outline right now.

(My memoir) was about my journey through pastry school and working for high-profile restaurants and James Beard winning chefs. I noticed it is a very hard industry, and pastry school will only prepare you so much for what the industry actually is like. I am a big advocate for changing how that industry works. There isnt a work-life balance, and they tend to be toxic and grueling places to work. I wrote that with the hopes of preparing people and changing peoples perspective and making them aware of what needs to change. The environment can be nurturing and set you up for success rather than failure.

For more information, visit the Arcana website or his writing website.

New Orleans food events in October The October calendar is filling with food events. A few Oktoberfest celebrations already have begun, and Deutsches Haus kicks off its annual e
Two of Iwan Santosos favorite things are hanging out and eating ramen. With the opening of his new restaurant, Hangout Ramen, hes giving his customers the chance to do both.

The Jakarta, Indonesia, native has spent the last 20 years in the U.S. and the last 10 in New Orleans, working in Asian-themed restaurants including Tennou Sushi Bar and Umi 2 Sushi & Hibachi on the West Bank. Hes done every imaginable kitchen job, from dishwashing and cooking to serving and managing the front of the house.

Combining pluck and a lot of hard work, Santoso realized his dream of owning his own restaurant, and got off to an unpredictable start. He opened the spacious eatery at 1340 S. Carrollton Ave. on Aug. 22  just in time for Hurricane Ida.

We opened five days before the storm, Santoso says. I stayed open  I wasnt going anywhere.

After Ida, with the city out of power, he cooked all the food in the refrigerator for the community, donating it to local churches and the fire department. But things are getting back to normal.

The space previously was home to the Japanese restaurants Masterp1ece and Little Tokyo, and the modern decor features bright shades of red and cobalt accented by dark wood and linen-covered tables. Theres a small sushi bar and a larger bar where he plans to serve cocktails once the business gets its liquor license. In the meantime, he encourages diners to bring their own alcohol.

There are four private dining rooms for parties and soon they will be available for private karaoke events. The restaurant can accommodate up to 150 patrons for indoor dining.

Santoso runs Hangout Ramen with his Thai-born fiance Nisanart Nisa Chutipanyaboot. They met a few years ago when she was working at Thai Mint restaurant, nearby on Carrollton Avenue. Hangout Ramens menu includes dishes that nod to his Indonesian and her Thai heritage, along with Japanese and Chinese offerings.

Ramen soups, noodles and fried rice are the three pillars of the all-day menu, available from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Santoso prepares the pork for his ramen with a six-hour process that delivers intensely flavored broth and tender meat. Diners can choose heat levels  from mild to explosive  for popular combos like chicken katsu ramen, with creamy pork broth and a fried chicken cutlet.

The house special Hangout ichimi ramen has a garlicky pork broth spiced with chiles, rounds of crisp pork belly and skewered fried shrimp. Portions are large, with ramen bowls easily feeding two. There is a miso vegetarian option with shiitake mushrooms, bok choy and tofu as well as the coconut-heavy laksa version, and tonkotsu with fried pork and crispy pork gyoza.

The range of Asian noodle dishes includes curried Singapore noodles, Korean spiced kimchi udon and Chiang Mai pad thai. Mie tek tek is a Javanese specialty stir fried with chicken, shrimp or beef. Fried jasmine rice is paired with vegetables, egg and the likes of salmon, kimchi and shrimp, salted cod and anchovy. Drunken fried rice is a popular riff on the usual savory drunk noodle dish notable for its chili-fueled heat  which some locals consider a perfect hangover street food. Noodle dishes, ramen and rice dishes generally fall between $11.95 and $18.95.

A selection of banh mi is available with shrimp or oysters or the namesake Hangout banh mi with grilled pork belly. Sushi lovers can enjoy Hangout Ramens extensive menu of specialty rolls prepared with names like the Shaggy Dog roll (tempura-fried shrimp, crabstick, masago and eel sauce) and the Burning Man roll made with spicy tuna, asparagus and spicy pepper tuna. Diners can choose three house rolls and soup for $18.95 or two specialty rolls and miso soup for $28.95.

Appetizers mirror Santosos wide culinary reach, with options including bao, fried wontons, agedashi tofu and lettuce wraps.

I first came to New Orleans on vacation, Santoso recalls. I wanted to see famous Bourbon Street and have fun drinking too much. I just stayed  working and hanging out. Hangout Ramen combines everything Ive learned. This is my first baby."

1340 S. Carrollton Ave., (504) 571-5024

11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily

New Orleans food events in October The October calendar is filling with food events. A few Oktoberfest celebrations already have begun, and Deutsches Haus kicks off its annual e
Like with New Orleans other music venues, the coronavirus pandemic forced Chickie Wah Wah to close its doors. Owner Dale Triguero  who turned the Canal Street building damaged by Hurricane Katrina into a well-respected club  made a successful pivot to livestreaming weekly shows from the space as 2020 crept along. He didnt anticipate the bar reopening until 2021, he told The Times-Picayune late last year.

But just as more venues in the city were reopening early this summer, buoyed by the availability of vaccines, Triguero died on July 8 from complications following a heart surgery. He was 68.

After a few months to let Trigueros estate and affairs settle  and some delays caused by the Delta surge and Hurricane Ida  Chickie Wah Wah will reopen this week, with the estates blessing and under the direction of musician Meschiya Lake and Trigueros longtime friend Jacques Ferland.

Its a wonderful room. Its got a great sound system, and Dale built the place to be kind of like a music church, Lake says, a place where artists can come do what they want, to do their best, and be treated with some respect.

Friends and family of Triguero hold a celebration of his life at Chickie Wah Wah from 5-8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 5. The venue will have its official reopening at 7 p.m. Wednesday with a performance by Lake and pianist Tom McDermott. The duo held a weekly gig at Chickie Wah Wah for years and recorded a live album in the room in 2012.

The Chickie Wah Wah calendar is filling up. There are more bands than places to play right now, Lake says.

Music is scheduled for most nights Tuesdays through Saturdays in October, with performances by Mike Dillon and Tiffany Lamson, Dayna Kurtz, Michael Cerveris and Loose Cattle, Aurora Nealand, Jon Cleary, Extended Trio, Alex McMurray, Gal Holiday and more.

Part of what I really want to do is make it a space for musicians to come do the project they love, says Lake, whos handling booking.

Lake says there will be some minor tweaks  theyre taking out TVs, closing on Sundays and adding a green room for musicians  but she and Ferland want to preserve Trigueros vision for the club as a space for people to focus on the music on stage.

Triguero moved from New York to New Orleans in the 1990s and began booking shows at the Old Point Bar in Algiers. The Mid-City building that now houses Chickie Wah Wah was once home to the Canal Bus Stop, a bar that occasionally hosted brass bands. The building was badly damaged during Katrina, and Triguero took over the space in a lease-to-own arrangement.

Trigueros estate owns the business, Lake says, and Triguero was close to paying off the building before he died. Details about the property and Lake and Ferlands part in the business are still being settled, Lake says.

Were going to do our best, and I think its going to be really good, Lake says. Weve had some really positive community response.
Born in Chicago, Marcus put himself through college during the Great Depression, studying at the Illinois Institute of Technology and the University of Illinois School of Medicine. His son said Marcus' early interest was in neurosurgery, though he would later treat and study the brain rather than operate on it.

He performed his medical residency at Chicagos Cook County Hospital, one of the largest and most familiar teaching hospitals in the country. There, his wife said, he displayed the gift for listening that would form his professional career.

He would go back to visit with patients after his shift had ended, just to check on them, ask how they were doing and learn more about them as people, Hill said. Other doctors questioned him for that, but to me it was so emblematic of the empathy and care he had for his patients, believing that being a doctor is about more than just treating someones medical condition.

Marcus was in his third year of medical school when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. He called the U.S. Army the next day but was told to finish medical school first. After enlisting, he rose to the rank of captain in the Army Medical Corps, treating wounded U.S. soldiers in France. Because he had some college training in neurology and psychiatry, he was also assigned to treat brain injuries. He was badly injured while helping relocate an Army evacuation hospital and was sent back to the U.S. for treatment. After recovering, he worked at an Army medical center in El Paso, Texas. There, he created a clinic to diagnose and treat brain trauma. He later received several commendations for his military service.

After the war, Marcus completed his training at Columbia Universitys College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, where he studied psychiatry, child psychiatry and psychoanalysis. He served on the medical faculty and in private practice.
A Confederate monument rests in front of the courthouse in Shreveport, covered by a box and still waiting to be carted off four years after Caddo Parish leaders voted 7-5 to remove an object of division and painful reminder of racial inequities.

Many of those inequities played out inside the courthouse, in convictions reached under a Jim Crow-era jury law that sent Black defendants away at a far higher rate than White ones and stood for more than a century like the monument outside.

Recently, though, Caddo Parish District Attorney James Stewarts office began offering deals for reduced sentences to some state prisoners who were convicted years ago under Louisianas now-defunct non-unanimous jury law.

Stewart is the second district attorney in the state, after Orleans Parish DA Jason Williams, to voluntarily target older split jury convictions and make new deals, advocates said. Both Williams and Stewart are Black, and both succeeded White district attorneys whose notion of justice was significantly more punitive.

Suzanne Ellis, who heads the appeals division in Stewarts office, declined to offer details.

This office has identified a number of cases where their current legal status warrants consideration in the interest of justice, Ellis said in an e-mail about the split-verdict cases. Offers have been extended in some of these cases to bring them to a resolution.

Claude-Michael Comeau, an attorney with the New Orleans-based Promise of Justice Initiative, said Stewarts office so far has reviewed a dozen cases and made six new plea offers to clients who were convicted by split juries years ago. Five of the six are Black.

The offers address members of a group of at least 103 defendants convicted by split juries in Caddo Parish, and about 1,500 statewide, advocates say, who were denied relief this year when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to make its 2020 ban on split verdicts retroactive.

The law allowed for felony convictions by just 10 of 12 jurors before Louisiana voters barred them three years ago for future crimes, and the U.S. Supreme Court followed suit in April of last year.

Stewarts office so far has focused on defendants who all were convicted by split juries and then sentenced as habitual offenders -- a prosecutor's choice that can hike prison terms exponentially.

One of them, Derek Hayes, appears poise to go free soon, to the delight of his wife and family. Now 53, Hayes is 13 years into a life sentence as a repeat offender from a 2008 conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Officers arrived at his house in Shreveport to investigate a narcotics complaint, police said, when a woman showed up waving money and asking for drugs. A search turned up a handgun between the mattresses in the bedroom.

Hayes said the gun was his brothers but admitted he knew it was there, police said. The brother testified that he gave the gun to Hayes wife, Wondalin Hayes, to ease her fears while her husband played poker at casinos.

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Playing cards was among several money-making schemes that Hayes deployed, including chess and dealing drugs, family members said.

He was trying to do it all. He was providing. We was making it, Wondalin Hayes said of the years before his conviction. Hes just a very family personHe gives a lot.

A jury found in an 11-1 vote that Hayes was guilty of possessing the gun. Prosecutors then invoked two prior felony convictions for simple burglary and a judge sentenced Hayes to life without parole, saying he found it excessive but that his hands were tied. An appeals court agreed on the latter point.

He never thought theyd take his life from him behind that, said his sister, Deborah Hayes. Hes never been violent. Hes never been to jail for hurting nobody or nothing like that.

Wondalin Hayes said Derek Hayes was previously diagnosed with cancer and needs medical care once released. Comeau, the attorney, said the case exemplifies how harsh sentencing can be under the habitual offender law.

It just seems like a really bad case of over-aggressive prosecution, he said.

Stewart is a retired appeals court judge who took over a DAs office led by the controversial Dale Cox, whose office furnished Louisiana's death row with an outsized share of its occupants. Cox's prosecutors were found to have removed Black people during jury selection at vastly higher rates than they did White jurors. Cox declined to seek re-election in 2015.

Comeau said the offers to the six defendants would mean immediate release for some, but others will have more time to serve.

Among the six with offers are Tyrone Gipson, who is serving a 35-year top sentence as a habitual offender from a 2007 conviction on drug possession charges for cocaine, MDMA and hydrocodone; and Michael Ellis, who got 22 years for possession with intent to distribute cocaine.

Bobby Byrd, the only White defendant among the six, doesn't think much of the 25-year offer he received, which would replace a life term as a habitual offender. in 2013, an 11-1 jury convicted Byrd of aggravated flight from an officer, a crime that normally carries a maximum penalty of two years.

Prosecutors used his past convictions for drugs and attempted simple battery to launch him.

Byrd, 48, said Friday that the offer he received -- a straight 25 years -- won't do him much good, given troubled health.

Personally, I think the DA isnt doing anything to right any wrongs done to any of us, hes just trying to look like he is righting a wrong, Byrd wrote.

The Supreme Court said a non-unanimous verdict is no verdict at all, so how am I still here, ya know.
Weeks after a judge ordered a Covington hospital to give ivermectin to a critically ill COVID-19 patient, St. Tammany Health System has fired back, arguing that the order, if left standing, invites others to ask courts to force hospitals into prescribing or administering unapproved drugs for life-threatening illnesses.

Charlotte Ratley, a 64-year-old Abita Springs resident, died at St. Tammany Parish Hospital on Aug. 21, less than 24 hours after Judge John Keller of the 22nd Judicial District ordered the hospital to administer the drug or let the patient's daughter, a licensed physician assistant, administer it. Ratley's family said she had been prescribed the controversial ivermectin after her COVID diagnosis but before she was hospitalized, yet St. Tammany Health System refused to administer the drug, an anti-parasitic used mainly for livestock but also for conditions in humans like intestinal worms and scabies. It has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treating COVID in human beings.

In their petition, Ratley's relatives cited the rapid progression of COVID, saying "every minute and day counts," and that she was deteriorating without the drug. "The potentially great benefits of ivermectin certainly outweigh the slight potential harm of prescribing ivermectin and administering it to Charlotte," the petition said.

While her death makes the question of Ratley receiving the drug moot, the hospital, in a petition filed Wednesday, said it could still be subject to a contempt of court claim for damages.

"To the best of our knowledge, this is the first ivermectin case in Louisiana," the hospital said. "However, Louisiana hospitals and hospitals all over this country face the threat of an escalation of litigation forcing hospitals and physicians to administer ivermectin, and other unsafe and unapproved medications, to patients unless courts stop this threat by ruling against these well-intentioned litigants."

Who should decide a COVID patient's treatment? In St. Tammany, a judge intervened over ivermectin Medical decisions are usually made in a hospital or doctors office, not in a courtroom. But last month, as an Abita Springs woman was fightin

Similar suits have been filed in other states, including New York and Ohio.

St. Tammany Hospital said the suits challenge the authority of medical staffs and hospitals to provide safe, quality care and dangerously substitute the lay judgment of patients for professional judgment.

Its filing includes a list of agencies that have raised red flags about ivermectin's use for COVID-19, among them the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Infectious Disease Society of America, the World Health Organization and Merck & Co., which makes ivermectin. The filing also cited an Aug. 21 FDA tweet that said, "You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it."

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You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it. https://t.co/TWb75xYEY4  U.S. FDA (@US_FDA) August 21, 2021

St. Tammany Health Systems is asking the judge to nullify the order he issued Aug. 20, and has laid out extensive arguments against allowing it to stand.

Ratley's attorney, her cousin Rene Frederick, said he would not comment on the hospital's petition until he reviewed and researched the extensive filing. The patient's family has not taken any further court action since Ratley's death.

The hospital says an emergency court order is not only an extreme measure but is permitted only after another proceeding has been filed.

It also says it wasn't given adequate notice of the Aug. 20 proceeding and therefore wasn't able to send a representative to court, file pleadings or otherwise object to the emergency order. When the issue was brought before the judge, the hospital says, the plaintiffs' attorney should have told the court that ivermectin is not approved by the FDA for COVID use, that the hospital's formulary doesn't allow its use for the disease and that Ratley's daughter did not have work privileges at St. Tammany Health System.

The plaintiffs also failed to tell the court that the ivermectin prescription Ratley received before she was hospitalized was made by a pediatric specialist, the filing said.

This story was altered on Oct. 4 to reflect that ivermectin is approved to treat some conditions in humans.
The Orleans Parish Coroner's Office identified a 34-year-old man shot dead in Treme on Sept. 30 as Brian Thomas.

The shooting was reported to police in the 2400 block of Ursulines Avenue at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 30. The man died of gunshot wounds at the scene, police said.

NOPD Homicide Unit detectives are also seeking a person of interest, 34-year-old woman Ginoka McDowell (pictured). Police said she is not wanted on criminal charges, but detectives want to interview her because they believe she has information vital to the investigation.

Anyone with information on the killing was asked to call detective Lucretia Gantner at (504) 658-5300 or Crimestoppers Inc. at (504) 822-1111.

This report has been updated. Drew Broach contributed to this report.
The Orleans Parish Coroner's Office has identified the man fatally shot in Holy Cross on Sept. 26 as Ronald Felt, 19.

The shooting was reported to police at 9:39 p.m. Sept. 26 in the 5200 block of North Rampart Street. Felt was pronounced dead from gunshot wounds at the scene, police said.

No other details were immediately available, including a possible motive or a description of a shooter. Anyone with information is asked to call NOPD Detective Rayell Johnson at 504-658-5300 or Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111.

Chad Calder contributed to this report.
TEHRAN  A suicide bomber killed at least 27 members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and wounded 13 on a bus in a restive region of southeast Iran on Wednesday, Iranian media reported. It was among the deadliest attacks in Iran in years.

The Revolutionary Guards, an elite Iranian paramilitary force, quickly blamed the United States for the assault, which came during the week that Irans leaders have been celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, which overthrew the American-backed shah in 1979.

The Revolutionary Guards did not explain precisely how the Americans could have been involved in the attack. But Iranian officials suggested it was more than coincidental that it happened as the Trump administration was hosting an anti-Iran-themed meeting in Poland that included delegations from Irans regional adversaries, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Dispatches by the official Islamic Republic News Agency and the Fars News Agency said the victims had been traveling between the cities of Zahedan and Khash near the Pakistan border, a haven for militant separatist groups and drug smugglers.
Igor Bastidas

Mind GamesThe Conservation Test

By Erik Vance

The mind of a small child is, in turn, inspiring, fascinating, confusing and supremely frustrating. As parents, we spend half our time marveling at what our kid can do and half pulling out our hair because the little monster used a toilet brush to draw a mural in the den. If youve ever wondered whats happening in those wonderful, hectic little heads, researchers have a few classic experiments designed to observe exactly how young brains develop. We asked experts in cognitive development to demonstrate these experiments, using their own children as their subjects. The good news is you dont even have to be a scientist to do them.



Pull up a chair, because whether you know it or not, you have a front-row seat to one of the most complicated and interesting mysteries in brain science: How does the human brain come to be the way it is?

The Concept of ConservationFew things in a childs world are as precious as a pristine cookie. And, as many parents know, few things are as worthless as that same cookie once its broken and your kid is screaming No, its ruined! I dont want it! While, yes, it may just be time for a nap, from his perspective, hes right: The old cookie is gone.



Theyre crying because its not the same snack anymore, said Stephanie Sitnick, an associate professor of psychology at Caldwell University in New Jersey. And then you try to convince them, but now you have two pieces where before you only had one piece. And it doesnt matter, because theres no putting the cookie back together.



Thanks to an odd quirk in the developing brain, small children cant always understand that things can look different and still be the same. That concept is what child psychologists call conservation. And, it turns out, there is a very simple test you can do on your child to see how it works.

First, a Little BackgroundThe basic concept of conservation comes from Jean Piaget, the Albert Einstein of child psychology, who was a brilliant pioneer and whose ideas dominated the field for decades. He was interested in the predictable ways that children develop, often studying his own kids. It wasnt just how we crawl before we walk, but how certain concepts seem totally alien to us until we hit a certain age.



For instance, he noticed that kids ages 2 to 7 have a tough time holding two ideas about a single thing in their head at the same time. A ball can be round and red, but it cannot also be flat  the flat ball is something else.



To be able to hold both of those things constant in your mind while comparing it to something else, thats a lot of internal manipulation that has to happen, Dr. Sitnick said.



Scientists call this centration, the habit of focusing on one thing and ignoring all others. Its no secret that kids rarely think of other peoples feelings, but centration is deeper than that. It deals with their inability to hold onto any two ideas about a single thing at the same time.



We asked Dr. Sitnick to demonstrate this idea in a simple, elegant experiment with her 4-year-old son, Elliot. It tested whether he could track two glasses of water that contained the same amount but looked different. (You can find the steps to re-create this experiment below.)
Israel has long opposed the nuclear deal, and if its agents were indeed responsible for the killing of a man considered a national hero, there could be political pressure in Iran to move forward with its current effort to gradually rebuild the stockpile of nuclear fuel that it gave up in 2015.

American officials would not comment on the assassination on Friday morning, saying they were seeking information. But some American officials argued that the death of Mr. Fakhrizadeh, the latest in a string of such mysterious killings of Irans top nuclear scientists, would send a chilling message to the countrys other top scientists working on that program: If we can get him, we can get you, too.

The killing of Mr. Fakhrizadeh comes just two weeks after intelligence officials confirmed that Al Qaedas second-highest leader was gunned down on the streets of Tehran by Israeli assassins on a motorcycle on Aug. 7, at the behest of the United States.

The Qaeda figure, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, went by the nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al-Masri and was accused of being one of the masterminds of the deadly 1998 attacks on two U.S. embassies in East Africa. He was killed along with his daughter, Miriam, the widow of Osama bin Ladens son Hamza bin Laden.

Iran asks U.N. leader to strongly condemn the assassination.

Irans U.N. ambassador warned Friday that his country reserved the right to take all necessary measures to defend itself, asserting in a letter to the leader of the United Nations that the assassination of Irans top nuclear scientist bore indications of an Israeli attack abetted by the United States.

The ambassador, Majid Takht Ravanchi, said he expected that Antonio Guterres, the secretary general of the United Nations, and the 15-member Security Council would strongly condemn this inhumane terrorist act and take necessary measures against its perpetrators.

The letter, which was shared with The New York Times, said nothing of Mr. Fakhrizadehs alleged links to any Iranian weapons work, instead praising him for what Mr. Ravanchi called the scientists outstanding role in developing a Covid-19 test kit to help the country deal with the pandemic, which has struck Iranian particularly hard.
In Bolivia, bodies are piling up at homes and on the streets again, echoing the horrific images of last year, when a deadly surge in coronavirus infections overwhelmed the countrys fragile medical system. The Bolivian police say that in January they recovered 170 bodies of people thought to have died from Covid-19, and health officials say intensive-care units are full.

When 10 or 20 patients die, their beds are full again in a few hours, said Carlos Hurtado, a public health epidemiologist in Santa Cruz, Bolivias largest city.

The resurgence of the virus in Bolivia is part of a larger second wave throughout Latin America, where some of the worlds strictest quarantine measures are giving way to pandemic fatigue and concerns about the economy.

The International Monetary Fund said on Monday that it was revising its 2021 growth forecast for Latin America and the Caribbean to 4.1 percent from 3.6 percent. Warning that the surge in cases could threaten an economic recovery that is already expected to take longer than in other parts of the world, the fund predicted that regional output will not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2023.
ASUNCION, Paraguay  Protesters clashed with the police in Paraguays capital, Asuncion, late on Friday as anger over the governments handling of the coronavirus crisis boiled onto the streets and forced the resignation of the countrys top health official.

Security forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators who had gathered around the Congress building, while protesters broke down security barriers, burned road barricades and threw stones at the police.

The protests broke out amid growing outrage as coronavirus infections hit record levels and hospitals verged on collapse throughout Paraguay.
Is the goal to turn Hong Kong into another Chinese city  one thats politically indistinguishable from, say, Shanghai  or does the leadership still want Hong Kong to be distinct?

The framework that has always been used to describe Hong Kong post-handover is one country, two systems. Many people understood the two systems part to be twofold: Not only was Hong Kong capitalist while China was socialist, but Hong Kong also was relatively politically free, while the mainland was not.

Chinese officials still insist that theyre committed to one country, two systems. But their focus seems very much to be on keeping Hong Kong as a separate, hypercapitalist system, not on keeping its separate political identity. Many Hong Kongers have long said that they expected their city to become just another mainland metropolis eventually.

I have a hard time seeing how this story ends with anything other than victory for Chinas leaders and defeat for the pro-democracy movement. Do people within the movement see any reason for optimism?

Ever since the security law was enacted, the mood within the pro-democracy movement has been bleak. I expected at least some people to offer fiery defiance and remind people that there is still hope  if only just as a rallying cry, whether they believed it or not. But pretty consistently across people I talk to, the consensus is that theres not much they can do to change the situation, at least for now.
ASUNCION, Paraguay  For nearly a year, Paraguay was a leader in keeping the pandemic at bay, and despite its persistent troubles, the country remained fairly calm. Not any more.

Paraguays coronavirus infection rate has soared, becoming one of the worst in the Americas, and its already shaky health system has been stretched to the breaking point. In the last few days, demonstrators by the thousands have filled streets, demanding the ouster of President Mario Abdo Benitez, and in a few instances there have been bloody clashes with the police.

For many Paraguayans, corruption and elite entitlement that were once just unpleasant facts of life have become intolerable in the face of the pandemic. There is a shortage of basic drugs that doctors and nurses blame on graft; nonemergency surgery has been suspended because of a shortfall in medical supplies, and there are few vaccines to be had.

The crisis has spilled into the streets with a level of rage the countys leaders have not faced in years. Daily protests started last Friday with medical workers, who were quickly joined by other frustrated people. Most have been peaceful, but in some cases security forces have met the demonstrators with rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons.
RIO DE JANEIRO  Taiwan has built thousands of homes for the poor in Paraguay, upgraded the countrys health care system, awarded hundreds of scholarships and even helped fund the futuristic Congress building in the capital, spending generously over decades to nurture their diplomatic ties.

But the alliance, which makes Paraguay one of only 15 nations to have full diplomatic relations with Taiwan, and the only one in South America, is facing an existential threat as Paraguays quest for vaccines becomes increasingly desperate.

With its health care system buckling as Covid-19 cases soar, Paraguayan officials across the political spectrum say the time has come to consider dumping Taiwan, which doesnt export vaccines, in order to establish diplomatic ties with China, which does.

This is really a life and death situation, said Pepe Zhang, an associate director at the Atlantic Council who specializes in relations between Latin America and China. In this very acute phase of the pandemic, less resourceful countries like Paraguay are asking where theyre going to get the vaccine.
PRAGUE  Russias unraveling relations with the West took a dramatic turn for the worse on Thursday when the Czech Republic, furious over what it said were Moscows fingerprints on a military-style sabotage attack on a Czech weapons warehouse in 2014, ordered the expulsion of as many as 60 Russian diplomats.

The Czech move, announced a day after President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia warned that the West risked a fast and tough response if it interfered with his country, escalated not only a diplomatic crisis between Prague and Moscow but also a wider showdown between Russia and NATO, of which the Czech Republic is a member.

With Russian troops massing near the border with Ukraine and President Biden taking a tough stand against the Kremlin, Mr. Putin on Wednesday bluntly warned the West not to test Russias resolve in defending its interests, telling it not to cross unspecified red lines that he said would be defined by Russia.

The slashing of staff at Moscows embassy in Prague does not directly challenge Russian security. But it will severely damage intelligence operations, something that Mr. Putin, a K.G.B. officer in Eastern Europe during the Cold War, views as vitally important.
Viljandi is a charming little place, with a compact inner core made up of a well-defined old town in classic Baltic style  rows of wooden houses in varying states of renovation and decay, some painted pastel shades and others in raw wood; cobblestone streets and some grander buildings in a variety of styles, from Art Deco to Swiss chalet. Its also unusual for Estonia in that its hilly. The land around and just beyond the old town undulates in small, green hills that give way to a longer slope, leading to Lake Viljandi, which runs along its southeast edge and is a popular spot in warmer months.

Perched above the large lake are the ruins of an old fortress, the setting for many of the performances at the annual Folk Music Festival, the towns main draw. After a year off, it is returning this month, from July 22 to 25.

During the festivals four days, this town of 17,000 people usually more than doubles in population. This year the maximum daily attendance will be limited to 5,000. But the festival is not the only show in town. The Culture Academy, an offshoot of Tartu University, offers degrees in traditional arts and crafts of many kinds, from woodworking to weaving, and music as well. There is a national theater for stage productions, the Ugala, that wouldnt be out of place in a capital city. A massive outdoor amphitheater (the location for the all-important Song Festival) adds yet another performance venue.

All of this feeds a cycle of cultural instruction and production that keeps the town feeling like a hub despite its small size and remote location. And as more creative types from Tallinn have based themselves here with their families, there has been a snowball effect. You might expect one restaurant in a town this size, said Martin Bristol, an Estonian craftsman who lives in the small town of Esna, about an hours drive to the north. But here we have 40, and 20 of them you might actually like to eat in.
Two Myanmar citizens living in New York plotted over the past month to attack and potentially kill the countrys ambassador to the United Nations who resides in Westchester County, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said on Friday.

After being contacted by an arms dealer in Thailand, one of the men, Phyo Hein Htut, agreed to hire attackers to injure the ambassador, U Kyaw Moe Tun, in an effort to force him to step down, according to court documents. If the ambassador, whom Myanmars military has repeatedly tried to replace, refused to resign, the dealer proposed the attackers kill him, prosecutors said.

Mr. Phyo Hein Htut, 28, and Ye Hein Zaw, 20, who prosecutors say served as intermediaries and made payments to fund the attack, each face a charge of conspiracy to assault and make a violent attack upon a foreign official. Neither entered pleas on Friday as they made initial court appearances in White Plains, N.Y., on their criminal complaints.

Time was of the essence when we received information about a threat to Myanmars Ambassador to the United Nations, Jacqueline Maguire, an acting assistant director at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said in a statement. Our laws apply to everyone in our country, and these men will now face the consequences of allegedly breaking those laws.
Before, we had a lot of hope and anticipation. Now, it feels like our hands and feet are tied, said Zoe Chow, an elected district official who had represented the working-class neighborhood of Sham Shui Po since 2015 before resigning in July. We have to think very hard about what to do next because it feels as though everything we do is considered wrong.

By targeting opposition figures in local councils, the authorities are effectively burying the last vestige of democracy in Hong Kong. Dozens of politicians are in jail and facing potential life sentences on national security charges. Apple Daily, a major pro-democracy newspaper, has been forced to close after the arrest of its founder and top editors. Hong Kongs largest teachers union and the Civil Human Rights Front, which organized large protest marches, both said in recent days that they would disband. Beijing has rewritten the rules for future elections to bar candidates it deems disloyal.

The district councilors said they were alarmed by the governments plans to impose a new loyalty oath on them and reports that perceived violations could leave them imprisoned, barred from politics or bankrupted.

District councilors are not usually in the political limelight. They handle unglamorous tasks such as dealing with pest infestations, overflowing trash and illegal parking. They help residents with everyday problems such as the payment of bills or economic aid.
Some have arrived with completed visa applications in recognition of their service alongside the U.S. military. Those people, and their families, will become permanent residents and could earn citizenship.

But the vast majority of the refugees are being granted what is known as humanitarian parole, which allows them to live in the United States for a fixed period, in most cases two years. They may be required to apply for asylum and will get help to find a home in the United States while they wait for their cases to be processed.

Officials said they were considering asking Congress to pass legislation that would provide all of the refugees with legal status, much the way lawmakers did for Cubans in the 1960s and Vietnamese refugees in 1975.

As of Thursday, more than 26,100 Afghans fresh off planes had been shuttled to a cavernous room near Dulles, including 3,800 on Wednesday alone. Officials said the arriving evacuees were usually there for less than a day for processing  and in some cases out in an hour or two  surrounded by the sound of crying babies and exhausted-looking people.

During a tour on Thursday evening of the hangar-size facility, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken was told that many people arrived dehydrated and in need of medical care; several women have given birth since they arrived in the United States, including one who had triplets on Wednesday. Additional interpreters have been sent to the center to make up for a shortage of staff who spoke Dari or Pashto when it first opened on Aug. 22.

Children ran throughout the maze of hallways between curtained-off rooms where people slept, covered with blue blankets. Seeing three children standing off to one side, Mr. Blinken stopped, crouched down and introduced himself.

Welcome to America. My name is Tony, he said, tapping his chest. Nice to meet you.

Jennifer Steinhauer contributed reporting.
WASHINGTON  Moscows intelligence services have influence over Russian criminal ransomware groups and broad insight into their activities, but they do not control the organizations targets, according to a report released on Thursday.

Some American officials said there had been a lull, at least for now, in major ransomware attacks against high-profile American critical infrastructure that were attributed to Russian criminal groups  a pause that reflects Moscows ability to partly check the criminal networks operating in the country.

But a ransomware group that faded away after attacks over the summer, REvil, appears to have returned this week to the dark web and reactivated a portal victims use to make payments.

While attacks have fallen off, it's a fair bet that the criminal networks are looking for signals from the Russian government about how they can restart their attacks, said Chris Inglis, the national cyberdirector.
NAIROBI, Kenya  President Biden signed an executive order on Friday threatening sweeping new sanctions that aim to stop the escalating war in northern Ethiopia and allow urgently needed humanitarian aid to flow into the region.

The administration has not yet applied the sanctions, hoping to shift the course of the war without directly punishing officials from Ethiopia, Africas second most populous country and an important strategic ally. With both sides pushing hard for a military victory, critics said the latest measures may be too little, or too late.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate now exposed to possible sanctions, reacted with indignation and defiance. In a three-page statement, his office accused the West of bias, denounced any criticisms of Ethiopia as the product of neocolonial impulses, and showed no sign that he intended to bow to Mr. Bidens demands.

The U.S. action is driven by a sense of urgency at a rapidly deteriorating situation and fears that fighting could intensify with the coming end of the rainy season. Just 10 percent of required humanitarian aid reached the Tigray region in the past month as a result of Ethiopian government obstruction, according to two American officials who provided a background briefing to reporters.
Angelo M. Codevilla, a conservative political theorist whose writings in the 1980s helped define the hawkish wing of the Republican Party and over the last decade both predicted and gave intellectual shape to the populist revolt against the partys establishment that coalesced behind Donald J. Trump, died on Sept. 20 in Tracy, Calif. He was 78.

His son David said the cause was a car accident, which occurred while Dr. Codevilla was returning to his vineyard near Sacramento after a medical appointment on the campus of Stanford University.

Dr. Codevilla (pronounced co-deh-VILLA) came to prominence in the early 1980s when, as an aide to Senator Malcolm Wallop, a Wyoming Republican, he was a leading advocate of a space-based antimissile system, a sharp critic of the Cold War arms control regime and a sworn enemy of the C.I.A., which he said should be broken up.

Running through much of his work, which he continued as a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford and later at Boston University, was a belief that American foreign policy was controlled by an insular, mostly liberal elite, which suppressed dissent, promoted groupthink and hamstrung the countrys military.
MY MONTICELLO

Fiction

By Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

In the essay The Site of Memory, Toni Morrison described the crafting of her fictional worlds as a quest to access the interior lives of her ancestors. Its a kind of literary archeology, she explained. On the basis of some information and a little bit of guesswork you journey to a site to see what remains were left behind and to reconstruct the world that these remains imply.

The title novella at the end of Jocelyn Nicole Johnsons startling and powerful debut collection, My Monticello, is an apt illustration of Morrisons concept. Not only do we join along as Johnsons characters journey to Monticello  Thomas Jeffersons plantation in Virginia  but we also bear witness as they rifle through and reclaim what remains in that fraught, abandoned place, refashioning its legacy to their own liking. Our proximity is part of the astonishment of this story, which thrusts upon us an intimacy with Monticellos many physical spaces, from the welcome pavilion to the gift shop to the museum and then up a hill to the house itself, with its rooms full of a plunder of artifacts from Native peoples, and Jeffersons personal, rambling suite, comprising a cabinet room, library and bed chamber, as well as the narrow stairwells that slaves once climbed. Up close, we cannot ignore our present-day complicity with history even as the novella moves propulsively toward tomorrows inevitability. Simply put, a masterly feat.

Image These prescient, wide-ranging stories reveal finely-drawn Black men, women, boys and girls awash in micro-aggressions even as they strive to be and have more.

Johnson pulls off this survivalist tale with a brilliant setup: In an apocalyptic near future, a motley crew of Black and brown neighbors band together as they run for their lives, their houses set ablaze by a militia of armed white men, chanting vicious patriotisms and proclaiming OURS! Our narrator, DaNaisha Love, once worked security at Monticello, so she knows the place well; she suggests the displaced group, which includes her grandmother MaViolet, seek refuge there. They take over Jeffersons estate for 19 days, during which DaNaisha reveals that she and MaViolet are descendants of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. As she approaches the majestic presidential plantation, built by slaves atop a hill, DaNaisha reflects: Id kept real life in one place, and the imagined life of my ancestors in another unexamined place, like a room with no windows. Now my real life flailed and smoked behind me. Now this was my life.
Through the spring and summer, Ive been watching the daily maps of Covid-19 cases and vaccinations  the diagonal slash through Appalachia and the South to the Ozarks and Texas, where cases soared; the high vaccination rates in New England  and Ive thought back to ALBIONS SEED: FOUR BRITISH FOLKWAYS IN AMERICA, David Hackett Fischers classic history of British migration to colonial America, which was published in 1989 and explained these phenomena with a clarity that seems even more stunning today. The divide between maskers and anti-maskers, vaxxers and anti-vaxxers is as old as Plymouth Rock. It is deeper than politics; it is cultural.

The Appalachian hill country and much of the Deep South were settled by a wild caste of emigrants from the borderlands of Scotland and England. They brought their clannish, violent, independent culture, which had evolved over seven centuries of border warfare. They were, Fischer wrote, a society of autonomous individuals who were unable to endure external control and incapable of restraining their rage against anyone who stood in the way. The spirit of the Scots-Irish borderlanders could also be seen in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol; their ancestors staged the Whiskey Rebellion against the U.S. Constitution.

In New England, it was quite the opposite. Order was an obsession for the Puritan founders. Everything was regulated. Local selectmen had to report  that is, to spy  on the domestic tranquillity of every family in their jurisdiction. Cotton Mather defined an honorable person as one who was studious, humble, patient, reserved and mortified. These habits have lingered, too.

Albions Seed makes the brazen case that the tangled roots of Americas restless and contentious spirit can be found in the interplay of the distinctive societies and value systems brought by the British emigrations  the Puritans from East Anglia to New England; the Cavaliers (and their indentured servants) from Sussex and Wessex to Virginia; the Quakers from north-central England to the Delaware River valley; and the Scots-Irish from the borderlands to the Southern hill country. This is a controversial argument, especially now, as the very nature and importance of culture has become a point of contention, especially by those who would reduce the American experience to the single lens of race. And, of course, our national sensibility has evolved since the colonial migrations. There are centuries of non-British immigrants to account for and there are the formerly enslaved African Americans, who brought distinctive cultures of their own to the mix. (Fischer planned a second volume on Southern plantation culture, but it hasnt appeared. He drops a hint, though: The values of the Virginia Cavaliers caused the unusual brutality of the American system of Black enslavement.)
Biden takes a hard line on trade with China

The Biden administration offered its strongest signal yet that the U.S. would maintain the combative economic approach toward China that was adopted under former President Trump, using trade barriers and other punitive measures.

Senior administration officials said before U.S.-China trade talks that President Biden would not immediately lift tariffs on Chinese goods and that he would hold Beijing accountable for trade agreements made during the Trump administration.

Katherine Tai, the U.S. trade representative, said she would begin talks in the coming days with her Chinese counterpart. We will use the full range of tools we have and develop new tools as needed to defend American economic interests from harmful policies and practices, she said in a speech on Monday.

Details: The strategy will require China to uphold commitments from an initial trade deal reached in 2020, including its promise to buy an additional $200 billion worth of American goods and services by 2021. China is on pace to fall short of its purchasing commitments, according to one expert tracking the purchases.
WASHINGTON  President Biden excoriated Republicans on Monday for blocking his partys efforts to raise the debt ceiling weeks before a projected government default, calling their tactics reckless and disgraceful and warning they risked causing a self-inflicted wound that takes our economy over a cliff.

Mr. Biden, trying to convey the risks to everyday Americans, warned that they could see the effects as early as this week if Senate Democrats were not able to vote to raise the debt limit. That cap dictates the amount of money the government can borrow to fulfill its financial obligations, including paying Social Security checks, salaries for military personnel and other bills.

As soon as this week, your savings and your pocketbook could be directly impacted by this Republican stunt, Mr. Biden said, cautioning that a failed vote could rattle financial markets, sending stock prices lower and interest rates higher. A meteor is headed for our economy.

Despite Mr. Bidens attempts to blame Republicans for the impasse, Democrats are increasingly confronting the possibility that they may need to raise the debt limit through the one legislative path that Republicans have left open: a process known as budget reconciliation that bypasses a Senate filibuster. Mr. Biden and Democratic leaders have chafed at that approach, saying Republicans bear a share of responsibility for Washingtons ongoing budget deficits and must at least allow an up-or-down vote, as has been the case under previous presidents.
In the past month, the United States has announced a new deal to provide nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, an effort to push back on Beijings military modernization and its claims of territory in the South China Sea. Mr. Biden also met at the White House with the leaders of Japan, Australia and India, aiming to put the major democracies of the region in accord on how to deal with Chinas influence and authoritarianism. And the United States and China are both seeking technological advantage, even if it means cutting off each others access to key goods.

China, having repressed dissent in Hong Kong and essentially wiped away its guarantees to Britain about keeping its hands off the territory for decades, is now regularly threatening Taiwan. The United States formally protested some of Chinas actions on Sunday, after dozens of military aircraft flew on Friday and Saturday into Taiwans air defense identification zone, although not over the island itself. While U.S. officials do not expect Beijing to move against Taiwan, they are increasingly concerned about the possibility of an accidental conflict.

Trade was one area  along with climate  where mutual interest might steer the two countries to some agreements, even as they compete in other areas. But it is unclear whether they can find a way to reach an accord amid other tensions.

Mr. Trumps deal halted the trade war, but it did not put an end to economic hostilities. China still maintains tariffs on 58.3 percent of its imports from the United States; the United States imposes tariffs on 66.4 percent of the products it brings in from China, according to Mr. Bown.

Some Biden officials, like many economists, have made clear that they see the tariffs as counterproductive and taking a toll on American consumers and manufacturers as well as Chinese businesses. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said in July that the China deal had hurt American consumers.

Asked if they would consider additional tariffs on China, officials said the Biden administration would not be taking any tools off the table. The administration planned to use the enforcement mechanism established in the trade deal, they said, which would allow the United States to resort to further tariffs if consultations were unsuccessful.
But OPEC and its allies on Monday merely reconfirmed existing plans for a modest rise in November. They are reluctant to produce more for the same reasons that many U.S. oil and gas companies are unwilling to do so.

Oil executives contend that while prices may seem high, there is no guarantee that they will stay elevated, especially if the global economy weakens because coronavirus cases begin to increase again. Since the pandemic began, the oil industry has laid off tens of thousands of workers, and dozens of companies have gone bankrupt or loaded up on debt.

Oil prices may seem high relative to 2020, but they are not stratospheric, executives said. Prices were in the same territory in the middle of 2018 and are still some ways from the $100-a-barrel level they topped as recently as 2014.

Largely because of the industrys caution, the nationwide count of rigs producing oil is 528, roughly half its 2019 peak. Still, aside from recent interruptions in Gulf of Mexico production from Hurricane Ida, U.S. oil output has nearly recovered to prepandemic days as companies pull crude out of wells they drilled years ago.

Another reason for the pullback from drilling is that banks and investors are reluctant to put more money into the oil and gas business. The flow of capital from Wall Street has slowed to a trickle after a decade in which investors poured over $1.4 trillion into North American oil and gas producers through stock and bond issues and loans, according to the research firm Dealogic.

The banks have pulled away from financing, said Scott Sheffield, chief executive of Pioneer Natural Resources, a major Texas oil and gas producer.

The flow of money supplied by banks and other investors had slowed even before the pandemic because shale wells often produced a lot of oil and gas at first but were quickly depleted. Many oil producers generated little if any profit, which led to bankruptcies whenever energy prices fell.
The federal governments top auto-safety regulator has declined to open a formal investigation into the fire risk in Tesla vehicles with fully charged batteries after finding no relevant incidents in the United States in the last two years.

The regulator, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, received a petition in 2019 requesting an investigation following reports of fires in China that started after certain Tesla vehicles had been charged at one of the companys fast-charging stations.

In documents posted in the Federal Register, the agency said it had found no such incidents in the United States since receiving the petition.

The available data indicate that noncrash battery fires in Tesla vehicles are rare events, the agency wrote.
Like many businesses, the publishing industry was profoundly impacted by the racial reckoning of 2020, when its overwhelming whiteness was called into question both online and behind closed doors. Now, more than a year later, the results of calls for greater diversity among those who decide what gets published have begun to materialize.

Titles by Black authors are hitting the market at an increased rate, including within the food sphere, where Black chefs are landing more lucrative deals for cookbook projects. Through 4 Color Books, Mr. Terry hopes not only to diversify shelves but also to open avenues to bring more Black people into publishing.

Following the reckoning, a lot more people became intentional about their book purchases, said Toni Tipton-Martin, an author and journalist, and the editor in chief of Cooks Country magazine. Ms. Tipton-Martin contributed to the Black Food anthology, and has spent much of her career documenting the work of Black food professionals in the United States in books like Jubilee: Recipes From Two Centuries of African American Cooking.

She sees 4 Color Books as a way to increase the number of authors of color who are able to secure deals. Before receiving an offer from a publisher for her 2015 book, The Jemima Code, Ms. Tipton-Martin posted free selections from the book online to drum up interest, saying it was her only option. The book went on to win a James Beard Foundation book award in 2016. What this imprint says is that now there will be more room for more and varied voices, she said.

Aaron Wehner, the executive vice president of Crown Publishing and the publisher of Clarkson Potter and Ten Speed Press, said the new imprint was a natural extension of the companys work with Mr. Terry. Bryants entire career has been about successfully creating and nurturing communities, he wrote in an email. We jumped at the chance to expand our longtime relationship beyond his own books.

In some ways, Mr. Terry always knew this moment was coming. Having written five cookbooks highlighting vegetarian and vegan African American cooking  including Vegan Soul Kitchen, Afro-Vegan and Vegetable Kingdom  as well as recipes inspired by the African diaspora, he often felt as if he was challenging both historical and contemporary ideas about what Black cooking looked like in the public imagination.

The institution of chattel slavery was complex, and it wasnt a monolith, he said. Enslaved Africans relationship to food and cooking was shaped by a number of factors, including geographic location and the financial status and disposition of plantation owners.
Jose Andres, the Spanish chef and restaurateur known for feeding those in need through his organization, World Central Kitchen, is ready to ship some of his specialties to food-lovers able to pay a substantial price. While his paella kits were available in the New York area through his Mercado Little Spain in Hudson Yards, Goldbelly has given him the ability to go wider with a collection of dinners, along with the makings of a tapas party. Some cooking and other prep work is required; the ingredients are shipped frozen or chilled. Theres paella with red shrimp ($179, serving three), Iberico pork steak with aioli and pan con tomate ($199, serving four), Wagyu rib-eye steak with a salad ($329, serving six) and tapas of charcuterie, cheese, croquettes and pan con tomate ($179, serving four to six). Cheesecake meets creme brulee in the burnt Basque cheesecake for $109 to serve 12. The prices include shipping.

Chef Jose Andres meal kits, goldbelly.com.

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Sarahs is the first documented case of personalizing a technique called deep brain stimulation to successfully treat depression. Much more research is needed before its clear how effective the approach could be and for how many patients. But several teams of scientists are now working on ways to essentially match the electrical stimulation to what happens in an individual patients brain.

Deep brain stimulation is used to treat Parkinsons disease and several other disorders, but isnt approved by federal regulators for depression because results have been inconsistent. While some previous studies suggested benefits, two trials sponsored by U.S. device companies were stopped in the last decade because stimulation seemed no better than the placebo effect of a sham implant that provided no stimulation.

But those studies didnt target individualized locations or patterns of electrical activity in peoples brains. It was one size fits all, said Dr. Darin Dougherty, director of neurotherapeutics at Massachusetts General Hospital, who worked on one of the halted trials. He called the personalized approach with Sarah, which he wasnt involved in, very exciting.

One persons depression might look very different from another persons depression, said Dr. Katherine Scangos, an assistant professor of psychiatry at U.C.S.F. and an author of a report about Sarahs case, published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine. The senior authors were Dr. Andrew Krystal, an expert in neuro-modulation and mood disorders, and Dr. Edward Chang, whose work includes brain implants for paralyzed patients who cannot speak.

To identify the specific brain activity pattern linked to Sarahs depression, researchers conducted an intensive 10-day exploration of Sarahs brain, placing multiple electrodes in it and asking about her feelings when they applied stimulation to different locations in varying doses.
Every person, every mouse, every dog, has one unmistakable sign of aging: hair loss. But why does that happen?

Rui Yi, a professor of pathology at Northwestern University, set out to answer the question.

A generally accepted hypothesis about stem cells says they replenish tissues and organs, including hair, but they will eventually be exhausted and then die in place. This process is seen as an integral part of aging.

Instead Dr. Yi and his colleagues made a surprising discovery that, at least in the hair of aging animals, stem cells escape from the structures that house them.

Its a new way of thinking about aging, said Dr. Cheng-Ming Chuong, a skin cell researcher and professor of pathology at the University of Southern California, who was not involved in Dr. Yis study, which was published on Monday in the journal Nature Aging.
At that point, scientists in Dr. Juliuss lab knew that the receptor they had identified  TRPV1, a channel on the surface of cells activated by capsaicin  had to have evolved primarily for a more common stimulus, beyond the rare instances when someone might encounter hot peppers. That other stimulus turned out to be heat, said Dr. Michael Caterina, a professor of neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who helped run a critical 1997 study on the topic in Dr. Juliuss lab. Acid activated the channel, too.

Tobias Rosen, an undergraduate in the lab, came up with the clever recognition that essentially what we had cloned was a hot and sour soup receptor, Dr. Caterina said. It has acid, it has hot temperature, and its spicy.

In search of the molecular basis for touch, Dr. Patapoutian, too, had to sift through a number of possible genes. One by one, he and his collaborators inactivated genes until they identified the single one that, when disabled, made the cells insensitive to the poke of a tiny pipette.

The channel integral to the sense of touch became known as Piezo1, after the Greek word for pressure. That channel and a similar one, both described in a 2010 paper, are now known to regulate a number of bodily functions that involve stretching, said Dr. Walter Koroshetz, the director of the N.I.H. National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke, which provided funding to Dr. Juliuss and Dr. Patapoutians labs.

Those functions include the working of blood vessels, breathing and sensitivity to a full bladder.

Why is the work important?

The identification of pain receptors prompted a flurry of interest from pharmaceutical companies: If you could block the channel identified by Dr. Julius, they reasoned, you could address chronic pain.

But there were several major problems. One is that some sensitivity to pain is useful; without it, people risk running a scalding hot bath or burning their hands on a stovetop. Pain serves a purpose, Dr. Caterina said.

Another is that the same channels responsive to heat also turned out to contribute to the control of body temperature. Blocking them was found to cause a slight fever  a potentially major liability.
Nearly 100,000 people have disappeared in Mexico since 1964, many of them victims of the countrys seemingly endless drug war. The grim phenomenon has left thousands of families searching, sometimes futilely, through deserts and other rural areas in hopes of locating the missing. And it has also resulted in countless unidentified bodies at morgues throughout the country.

Fred Ramos, a photographer based in Mexico City, followed mothers on their searches, and also found another unique way to illustrate the missing: He produced stark photographs of the clothing that dressed some of the unidentified bodies. The project was inspired in part by a similar undertaking in visual storytelling that he pursued years ago in his native El Salvador. In an interview, Mr. Ramos discussed the challenges of producing the photographs and the experience of touching the garments, which even when arranged flatly on a white background tell a gruesome tale.

How did you get the idea to do this?

I was interested in making a project about the missing, because you never close the mourning process. Sometimes mothers feel like their son is alive or in jail or in another part of the country, or that he or she went to the United States. You never know what happened. Maybe you know your son is dead but you wont accept that idea. For me that is a very horrible way to live.
When New York City locked down in March 2020, the meal delivery organization Gods Love We Deliver received 3,500 calls from people seeking help in a single weekend. By the end of June that year, the number of daily meals it was producing had increased by 2,500.

Since then, the organization, which was founded in 1986 to serve homebound AIDS patients but throughout the years has broadened its mission, has brought on additional caseworkers and nutritionists. This has squeezed the nonprofits SoHo headquarters for space.

Weve gone from pandemic to pandemic, said Karen Pearl, the president and chief executive of Gods Love We Deliver.

But because of a combination of quirky real estate laws and timing, the nonprofit is set to expand its operations into a long-vacant building in need of a very specific tenant, for which Gods Love fits the bill. The organization has signed a four-year lease to occupy the Northern Dispensary, a historic structure in the West Village and formerly a health clinic.
The students at Public School 13 in Elmhurst, Queens, are learning a name  Fumio Kishida, not because he is the new prime minister of a country 6,700 miles away, but because they have something in common with him. He attended P.S. 13.

Evelyn Velez, the principal, emailed the teachers last week after hearing that Kishida  a former foreign minister who is widely considered an uncontroversial moderate in Japan  was all but assured of becoming prime minister. She said Kishida would become a topic in social studies lessons at P.S. 13, a Leader in Me school that adapts ideas from the book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

One of the things I tell the kids at the beginning of the year is they are definitely all leaders, she said.

Kishida gives Velez another famous alumnus to point to. As the principal since 2013, she has repeatedly told students about former Associate Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court, a straight-A student at P.S. 13 in the 1940s. Scalia had been born in New Jersey, but his family moved to Elmhurst when he was 3 years old, and he defined himself as someone from Queens. Thats what Joan Biskupic, the author of a biography about Scalia, told me in 2010.

He loved that borough, she told me then. (Scalia died in 2016.)

As for Kishida, he wrote that he had just turned 6 when his father, a government trade ministry official, was posted to New York. He said his language skills were inadequate when the family arrived. But after a year, he wrote in the political memoir Kishida Vision, I came to make myself understood in English.

He was wary of the United States at first  the United States had bombed Hiroshima during World War II. But I was young, he wrote, and to me, the U.S. was nothing but a country that was generous-hearted and filled with diversity. I think its no doubt that such experience influenced my political attitude and ideology, which he described as pro-America. (As foreign minister, he helped to arrange President Barack Obamas visit to Hiroshima in 2016.)

He absorbed American culture, going to Manhattan to see Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, which were released during the years he attended P.S. 13.
While the mandate clearly pushed many employees to get vaccinated, the mayors decision to impose it will be further tested this week, as some schools grapple with possible staff shortages caused by the departure of unvaccinated employees.

At many schools, nearly all staff members are vaccinated, and the mandate will have little to no effect. But some schools are likely to have to call on large numbers of substitute teachers. Others will probably have to switch from serving hot lunches to offering grab-and-go options because of a lack of cafeteria aides. About 92 percent of school food workers are vaccinated, leaving about 500 vacancies across the school system.

School lunch aides are part of District Council 37, a union that has led the legal and political charge against the vaccine mandate. But on Monday, Freddi Goldstein, a spokeswoman for the union, said 93 percent of its 20,000 members working in schools, including lunch aides, support staff and crossing guards, had received at least one dose of a vaccine  up from 68 percent last month. D.C. 37 members who refused to get vaccinated, like educators, have the option of taking a one year unpaid leave.

Mr. de Blasio and Meisha Porter, the schools chancellor, said Monday that staffing shortages were either handled over the weekend or were being addressed in real time. The city has a reserve of roughly 9,000 substitute teachers and another 5,000 substitute paraprofessionals who are vaccinated.

Those substitutes would be filling in for employees who have refused to be vaccinated, some of whom protested outside of the Department of Educations Brooklyn office on Monday along with other people who oppose the vaccine or vaccine mandates, then marched over the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan.

While substitutes are available to fill in gaps, that does not mean there are permanent solutions for all schools that have lost significant numbers of teachers or staff members. Union leaders have raised concerns that some substitutes may not be experienced in the subject matters they are asked to cover. The mayor said Monday that some of the substitutes would be hired for permanent positions.
How about you?

Bret: Believe it or not, I agree with a lot of what youre saying. It still boggles my mind that we could only cut visa-processing wait times for our Afghan interpreters from about two years to one before the curtain came down. And our inability to extend citizenship to the Dreamers who arrived here as children without documentation is one of the worst moral and legislative failures of our time.

Gail: Amen.

Bret: Where we disagree is on border enforcement. We need to deter people from trying to cross the southern border illegally. And the best way to do it, Im sorry to say, is to build a wall along much of it. It wont stop everyone, but it will reduce the incentive for migrants to make dangerous border crossings. It will also shut up right-wing populists who want to blame the Biden administration for being indifferent to the crisis at the border.

Gail: OK, kneeling down, hands over ears, going Noooooooo! Realize that does not suggest a depth of survey research.

Bret: Ha! I actually felt the same way as you do until the last year or so, when I reluctantly came around to being pro-wall. I still think theres a grand immigration bargain to be struck here between Democrats and Republicans: full funding for a border wall in exchange for immediate citizenship for Dreamers and a path to citizenship for every undocumented immigrant except those with a criminal record.

Gail: Is that on the table? If any bipartisan group of senators wants to give it a shot, Id be ready to listen. Grumpily, maybe, but still open to discussion.

Bret: I think you could get some pro-business Republicans to come around. Aside from the humanitarian and moral case for immigration, the country also needs more workers.

Gail: I remember the days of yore when youd see deals like that being proposed. That was so long ago, right? At the time I tended to scoff at the compromisers as sellouts, but obviously if I had been able to travel through time and take a peep at the future, Id have been way more appreciative.
This role was almost constitutional. Half a century ago, Franz Josef Strauss, leader of the C.D.U.s Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, justified his own rock-ribbed conservatism by saying it came with a guarantee that no legitimate political party could exist to his partys right. Many felt they could trust Mr. Strauss to police the countrys rightmost ideological boundary.

But in electoral politics, or game theory, or whatever you want to call it, there is a fallacy in such an arrangement. Ms. Merkel was not slow in discovering it: If there really were no legitimate viewpoints to the right of the C.D.U., then the partys optimal strategy would be to move ever leftward, which it could do with no fear of an alternative right-wing party ever outflanking it.

And this is what Ms. Merkel did, whether out of idealism or calculation. In the wake of the Fukushima meltdown of 2011, she announced an exit from nuclear power, long sought by the Greens. In 2015, she joined Social Democrats in passing a minimum wage. In 2017, she secured a vote legalizing gay marriage (without voting for it herself). Most crucially, in 2015, she announced that Germany would welcome hundreds of thousands of migrants fleeing the war in Syria, creating a continentwide political crisis that, among other consequences, arguably drove Britain out of the European Union.

The effect on German politics was unnerving. The Alternative for Germany party, up to that point a wonkish group obsessed with the European Unions monetary policy, changed its focus to immigration in July 2015. The following March  eight months before Donald Trumps election  the party harvested 13, 15 and 24 percent of the vote in state elections. In 2017, Alternative for Germany, now well established on the C.D.U.s right, not only sent nearly 100 members to the Bundestag; it also became the leading opposition party. It appeared that Ms. Merkel was heedlessly allowing votes to drain out of her party into an American-style populism.

Ms. Merkel, of course, is not the first conservative politician to poach voters from her progressive opponents. But certain problems come predictably with this strategy. The leader benefits more than the partys rank and file, because the landscape of progressive issues is foreign territory to them. In last months rout, things that Christian Democrats might ordinarily have talked about and rallied kindred spirits around  Covid-19, migrants, the euro  were suddenly off limits. The rank and file fell silent. In last weeks elections, the C.D.U. lost half its voters from the previous ones. Fewer than 3 percent defected to Alternative for Germany. The lions share went to the Social Democrats, the Free Democrats and the Greens.
Last month, the Biden administration announced that it had cleared a makeshift tent camp where thousands of Haitians had congregated under a bridge linking Mexico and Del Rio, Texas. They had arrived there desperate to gain admission to the United States, many fleeing persecution in Haiti and seeking the protection of our asylum law. The administrations unsteady response to this crisis has revealed, once again, the broken nature of this countrys asylum system. It also is a grim reminder of the longstanding U.S. tolerance of government corruption and the denial of basic human rights in Haiti.

Since the adoption of the Refugee Act of 1980, those who arrive at our border or have already entered the country are entitled to seek asylum if they can demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a social group. This law has roots in the Holocaust and U.S. commitments made after World War II to provide refuge to people fleeing persecution. But the asylum system has been hampered from the outset by political controversy and bureaucratic dysfunction.

Many of the Haitians who camped under the bridge in Del Rio had made multiyear journeys through Latin America and then to our southern border. Some were inspired to try to enter the United States now because of a misimpression that President Bidens replacement of former President Donald Trump  and the Biden administrations decision to extend temporary protected status to Haitians already in the country  signaled an opportunity for them to come here, too. Temporary protected status suspends deportations of Haitians already in the United States because of the current instability in their country. Like immigrants from around the world, these Haitians, including the many asylum seekers, are looking for a new home where they will find stability, better jobs and more security than their own country can offer.

Discriminatory treatment of Haitians is not new. Forty years ago, I was an expert witness in litigation in Florida where lawyers representing an earlier generation of Haitian asylum seekers successfully challenged the Reagan administrations Haitian program. U.S. authorities at that time targeted Haitians arriving in Florida for mass detention, and intercepted Haitian boats in the Caribbean to prevent them from reaching this country.
These prices are not surprising, said Nick Jushchyshyn, program director for Virtual Reality and Immersive Media at Drexel University. You have world-renowned designers creating something absolutely unique, with attention to detail  it is beyond what you expect to see in a typical digital rendering  and its a one of one. It makes perfect sense that there would be an NFT collector in the world who would value it.

Merav Ozair, a leading expert on blockchain and FinTech professor at Rutgers Business School, concurred. In fact, I thought it would come sooner, Dr. Ozair said. We are moving toward a virtual reality world, and when we get to that state  sooner than we think, in a matter of years  luxury goods will be part of that world.

The project was born in April, when Shashi Menon, the Dubai-based publisher of Vogue Arabia, and the founder and chief executive of UNXD, approached Dolce & Gabbana with the idea. They were instantly taken with it, he said  even though the brand is known more for its over-the-top luxury happenings than its pioneering technological spirit (see its semiannual couture Alta Moda weekend, most recently held in Venice in August, during which Jennifer Hudson belted out Puccinis Nessun Dorma during the womens fashion show and Helen Mirren danced to Ciara performing 1, 2 Step at the closing party).

Together, they created Collezione Genesi  or the Genesis Collection (there are said to be more coming). Dolce & Gabbana did not respond to a request for comment.

Five of the pieces were physical creations, designed and executed by Dolce & Gabbana, with virtual iterations by UNXD for the metaverse: two versions of The Dress from a Dream, in gold and in silver, both with shimmering beads and crystal accents; The Glass Suit, an emerald green mens suit, similarly embellished; and two gold-plated and gem-studded silver crowns, called The Lion Crown and The Doge Crown.
PARIS  In one of the more unexpected runway trends of the moment, the middle-aged model is hot. (Also the edging toward middle-age-in-model-terms model.)

It started with the return of the supermodels in Milan: Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Amber Valletta, Shalom Harlow. At times, they seemed to be making more news than the clothes. Now the trend has been building in Paris, moving past the celebrity billing into more insider names who strutted along the catwalk earlier in the millennium being sprinkled among the current Bambi-like crop: Carmen Kass, Caroline Trentini, Natasha Poly, Mariacarla Boscono  women whose bodies and faces look grown-up, and even sometimes lived-in.

Its a welcome, long overdue change, giving further substance to the idea of inclusivity, even if it is partly to do with the youth of the designers booking them, for whom such women represent formative history.
Born in Brooklyn to a mother from Puri and a father from Hyderabad who met in New York City after having immigrated there in the 1970s, Rao was always attracted to creative pursuits, and to drawing in particular. Her incredibly open-minded parents, as she describes them, embraced and encouraged her exploration, which was not the norm among other Indian families she knew growing up. Artistic acquaintances also had an impact. She remembers going to the Museum of Modern Art to see the work of the filmmaker B. Narsing Rao, a close friend of her parents, when she was nine. Eventually she gravitated toward fashion, which she studied at F.I.T. in Manhattan and then at Scotlands Edinburgh College of Art before returning to work in New York. She designed in-house collections for major department stores, but was working with large factories where the administration seemed to show little interest in the finer details of the product, including the provenance of the fabrics. Rao felt disconnected from the whole process and left that job for a brief stint at the art auction house Phillips de Pury & Company (now Phillips). In 2010, unsure of her next career move, she did what she instinctively felt was right and booked a trip to India.
[Watch the Facebook hearing live.]

Facebook filed a motion on Monday to dismiss the Federal Trade Commissions revised antitrust lawsuit against the company, saying the agencys complaint still lacked evidence that the company had violated antitrust laws.

In a filing to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Facebook said the agency failed to provide adequate evidence and analysis that the company had a monopoly and harmed rivals through its dominant position. The judge overseeing the case, James E. Boasberg, said in June that the agency had not established Facebook as a monopoly in its original lawsuit but gave the agency a chance to amend its complaint with a stronger analysis.

This court gave the agency a second chance to make a valid claim, the company said in its filing. But the same deficiency that was fatal to the F.T.C.s initial complaint remains: the amended complaint still pleads no facts plausibly establishing that Facebook has, and at all relevant times had, monopoly power.

Facebooks motion to dismiss the case was widely expected. The companys chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, has promised to fight any government attempt to hobble the company through antitrust action.
Greek masks in ancient theater were both practical and ritualistic; they allowed performers to change roles and genders, and also to let an immortal howl out of a face that became more than mortal with artifice. From African masks in theater and dance, to Tibetan masks in ceremonial traditions, to commedia dellarte masks in 15th-century Italy, masks were thought to unleash an almost supernatural power in the actor. But masked theater in the West is now rare, and the particular genius of most New York actors is they can make us believe that they are revealing themselves fully while they are in fact masked by a role. So, two weeks ago, we in the audience sat in actual masks, in reverent silence, seeing the actors naked faces once again, feeling the incredible warmth of communal theater.

Finally being together again in an audience felt miraculous, and also  if I am being completely honest  a little strange, and unfamiliar. There was a time many of us thought wed hunker down for a couple months, perhaps learn a new hobby or two, and come back neatly to doing what wed been doing before. In my case, that was writing plays and being in a rehearsal room. I know Im not the only one in the theater community who feels oddly dislocated now; the quarantine itself was awful but had a glacial clarity about it; at least one knew what to do  one stayed put. Now that theater, dance and music (our secular New York City worship rituals) are back, there is celebration, and, I find, a sense of floating oddly  in a landscape that should feel like home.

If I thought there would be a knife-edged clarity to the return to the theater, as though I could walk in the door of my childhood home and pick up right where I left off, the warm mug still on the table where I left it  I was mistaken. The liquid in the mug needs to be warmed. The mirrors need to be dusted. Can we still recognize our faces in those same mirrors weve been accustomed to using, to confirm our identities in the eyes of the people we trust and work with?

I SUSPECT that, behind our masks right now, some of us dont even feel ready to smile yet. How to return to life after a long illness as an individual, or as a theater community, or as a body politic, especially when there is not a clear return to health? And how to acknowledge the losses, the transformations, the seismic gaps?

When I ran into colleagues at the theater recently, most of whom I hadnt seen in 18 months, all of us masked, partially revealed, the simple question, How are you? hovered with new weight. I didnt know who, in the last year and a half, had had a marriage break up; or a teenager going through a mental health crisis; or lost a parent, an aunt, a cousin, a spouse; who was suffering from long Covid; who might not be able to afford paying the rent. So to ask How are you? no longer felt like small talk. We relied on our eyes above our masks to make connections. And then the theater darkened, the curtain went up, and we reveled in the unmasked actors giving us their full-throated artistry. If actors have always been avatars for what we cannot express, they seemed even more so now.

I think we all want to come back into our old rehearsal rooms, studios, and offices with confidence and gleaming smiles; but for some of us, right now, a half-smile is a more accurate expression of our emotional states. We are learning to be a work in progress together again. Unfinished, masked, and hopeful. As we slowly take our masks off in the coming months, let us be tender with one another. Let us be patient as we relearn the beautiful, and once automatic, act of smiling face to face.

Sarah Ruhl is a playwright, essayist and poet living in Brooklyn. Her new book is Smile: The Story of a Face, published by Simon & Schuster.
Why did cases and deaths decline?

Two things. The first is that the virus had a remarkably efficient run in the first couple of waves. The Indian government did some studies that showed two-thirds of the population showed antibodies. The sample sizes were small, and some have questioned the survey, but even if its not hard evidence, its an indication, backed up by what experts were saying, that the official numbers were undercounting the infections. So if you take the findings from the government survey at face value, the first and second waves reduced the population vulnerable to infection. So that, coupled with a pretty impressive push in vaccinations after a start that was deeply mismanaged  theyve now administered about 900 million doses so far  has resulted in the downward trend of daily cases.

How are Indians feeling?

The mood and mentality is still one of caution. The second wave was ridiculously bad. It was like the worst thing India had seen in a long time  oxygen running out, people dying in parking lots, people dying on the streets. So when things started opening up, there was fear of a third wave. But because people have decently embraced vaccination and because the case numbers havent returned, theres less and less talk of a third wave now, at least in major population centers like Delhi.

But the message from the government is still one of caution. Warnings are still being put out about festivals, for example, to say: Listen, we may feel like weve turned the corner, but remember how badly things went in the second wave?

What are the possible pitfalls ahead?

Looking forward, I think there are the two concerns. One is watching for new variants and studying the changing nature of the virus, because that wasnt watched as closely before the second wave. The second is political complacency. India is a country of festivals and politics. Diwali is coming up in November, and there are a couple of big elections around the corner, and there will be a build up to that election with big campaigns and rallies. So looking forward, the fear is how much festival season and campaign season will play into creating another wave of cases, because they were certainly a factor in driving the second wave.

Vaccine rollout
A Missouri man convicted of beating three people to death during a 1994 convenience store robbery was executed on Tuesday night despite calls for clemency from Pope Francis and other supporters who said the mans intellectual disabilities made the execution unconstitutional.

Ernest Lee Johnson, who was on death row at a state prison in Bonne Terre, Mo., was executed by lethal injection at 6:11 p.m. local time on Tuesday, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections.

In his last statement, which was released by the department, Mr. Johnson said he was sorry and had remorse for what he did.

I want to say that I love my family and friends, he wrote, adding that he was thankful for his lawyer. For all the people that has prayed for me I thank them.
In the first legislative finding justifying the law, its drafters looked abroad for support. The United States is one of only seven nations in the world that permits nontherapeutic or elective abortion-on-demand after the 20th week of gestation, the finding said. In fact, fully 75 percent of all nations do not permit abortion after 12 weeks gestation, except (in most instances) to save the life and to preserve the physical health of the mother.

The law was a calculated challenge to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion and prohibited states from banning the procedure before fetal viability, or around 23 or 24 weeks. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in December in a challenge to the law.

The lawmakers statements about foreign practices appear to be generally correct. A fact-checking column in The Washington Post in 2017 largely confirmed the first one: This statistic seemed dubious at first, because it seemed extreme for just seven countries out of 198 to allow elective abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, it said. But upon further digging, the data back up the claim.

And 12 weeks is a common nominal limit, said Mary Ziegler, a law professor at Florida State University, though the social context is usually quite different.

Most places in the world have something like 12 weeks, but with public health insurance, she said. They pay for it. If you want to have an abortion in the first 12 weeks, theres no real reason that you cant.
Andrew Yang, the former long-shot presidential candidate and onetime technology entrepreneur, announced on Monday that he had left the Democratic Party and become an independent.

In an essay on his website, Mr. Yang, who built a passionate following in 2019 during the partys primary race, highlighted his work for Democrats. He noted the deep relationships he had developed with activists and local leaders and the fund-raisers he had headlined, and he took credit for helping to elect the partys candidates, including President Biden.

Yet he described the two-party system as stuck, saying he could be more honest about politics and politicians if he were not constrained by official membership as a Democrat. Mr. Yang offered his support for alternative election systems, like open primaries and ranked-choice voting, saying these were key reforms that would give voters more choices in campaigns.

I believe I can reach people who are outside the system more effectively, he wrote. I feel more  independent.
After the meeting, Ms. Smith Laceys foundation notified the council that the Hungarian government was no longer interested in the project.

Our board has decided that the project was not a good fit for us due to FARA considerations, Ms. Smith Lacey said in an email to The Times.

But Daniel Fried  a former U.S. ambassador to Poland who was on the trip as an Atlantic Council scholar  said he was left with the impression that the change of heart occurred high up in Mr. Orbans government.

The question is, and its a fair question, did they want to move to the center and have us help sort of validate that kind of move, or did they want to stay on the hard right and simply use us as cover? Mr. Fried said in an interview. If Orban was interested in finding a way back to a center-right place, this would have been one way he could do it. But in my view, he wasnt interested. He was going to go all in on hard right.

Last year, the Atlantic Council returned a $158,000 grant for the retreats and ended its relationship with the Hungary Foundation, which has been funded almost entirely by $21 million in grants from the Hungarian government, according to Hungarian and U.S. government documents.

The Center for European Policy Analysis also ended its relationship with the foundation amid concerns about its ties to Mr. Orbans government as well as a potential conflict between Mr. Volkers roles as a board member of the foundation and a fellow at the center, according to people familiar with the situation.

Ms. Smith Lacey rejected the idea that the foundation was part of a Hungarian government influence operation, saying our mission is cultural, educational and scholastic. We are not a lobby. Hungary has lobbying firms. I am not interested in that at all.
For federal regulators and the governments panels of outside experts, key questions remain: How long after an initial Johnson & Johnson injection should a second shot be administered? And would it be better to boost Johnson & Johnson recipients with a shot of Modernas or Pfizers vaccine?

If the Food and Drug Administration authorizes a second shot six months after the initial injection, that would allow the company to market its vaccine as a one-shot regimen, plus a booster. Some data indicate a second shot at six months produced a stronger immune response than a second shot at two months.

Researchers found a nine- to twelvefold increase in antibodies among clinical trial recipients who received a second shot after six months, compared with a roughly fourfold increase for people who received a second dose after two months, Dr. Barouch said.

But there could be a trade-off: Some argue that Johnson & Johnson recipients would not be sufficiently protected during the extra months before a second shot, and that a two-dose regimen made more sense from the start.

The timing is not a trivial question: According to C.D.C. data, more than two-thirds of Johnson & Johnson recipients were vaccinated at least four months ago. Many would not be immediately eligible if a booster shot was available only six months after the first injection.

The prospect of using a different vaccine as a booster presents another dilemma. A study by the National Institutes of Health suggests that Modernas vaccine works better as a booster than a second shot of Johnson & Johnson. But Dr. Barouch said that study only measured antibody levels  an indication of the strength of the immune systems response  while Johnson & Johnsons study of a second shot of its own vaccine looked at efficacy data.

Johnson & Johnson is also considered likely to fight for using its own vaccine as a second shot to protect its public image. The company struggled for months with manufacturing problems that delayed delivery of tens of millions of doses it had promised to the federal government. And the vaccines appeal dropped after it was linked to a rare but serious blood-clotting disorder and injections were paused for 10 days in April. It remains a distant third in the number of shots administered in the United States.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the only member of the court who wore a mask.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who retired in 2018, attended the argument, seated in the section of the courtroom reserved for visiting dignitaries. He wore a mask.

Justice Clarence Thomas, who very seldom voiced inquiries from the bench before the pandemic, asked the first questions of both of the main lawyers in the case.

The lawyers wore masks except when they were presenting arguments. The lectern at which they made their presentations had been moved back from the bench by several feet.

The public was barred from the courtroom, but the court is providing live audio on its website. Members of the news media were scattered throughout the front rows of the courtroom, a change from their usual spots on benches along its left side. The court required reporters to be tested for the coronavirus and to wear N95 masks.

The justices asked questions in the familiar free-for-all fashion that has long been their practice. But they supplemented such free-form questioning with an opportunity for justices to ask questions in order of seniority one by one after each lawyer argued, replicating the format the court used in the telephone arguments while it was exiled from its courtroom.
The gunman died in one of the train cars after barricading himself inside a bathroom, the authorities said, though it was not clear if he had been killed by the police or had taken his own life. The other suspect was taken into custody, according to the Tucson Police Department.

What set off the gunfire was not completely clear, Chief Magnus said, adding that he did not know whether any guns or drugs were found by officers. On Tuesday, the D.E.A. identified the agent who was killed as Michael G. Garbo, a group supervisor who had worked for the agency for more than 16 years combating criminal drug traffickers from the southwestern United States to Kabul, Afghanistan. Officials did not release the names of the other officers or the two suspects.

It was not clear if all the gunfire happened aboard the train or whether some shots were fired on the platform.

The gunfire prompted the evacuation of the Sunset Limited Train 2, which had been carrying 137 passengers and 11 crew members at the time of the shooting. All of those aboard the train, which had been traveling from Los Angeles to New Orleans, were safely evacuated, an Amtrak spokesman said.

The gunfire began at around 8 a.m. local time while the double-decker train was stopped at a platform at the station in Tucson, and intensified about 15 minutes later, live web-camera footage from the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum showed.
NEW DELHI  Eight people were killed on Sunday in an incident that protesting farmers said was the fault of the son of a prominent Indian leader, as nearly yearlong demonstrations against a government revamp of the countrys agriculture laws threatened to enter a more volatile phase.

The police have said they are investigating the deaths of four farmers and four others in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Protest leaders said a vehicle plowed into demonstrators as part of a convoy traveling past the site.

The police said they were investigating whether Ashish Mishra was in the car that struck the protesters, as the protest leaders have claimed. He is the son of Ajay Kumar Mishra, Indias minister of state for home affairs.

Ashish Mishra told Indian TV news channels on Monday that the allegations against him were baseless.
In 1980, thousands of women marched in protest in cities across India after the countrys Supreme Court acquitted two police officers in the rape of a girl named Mathura in a rural police station. The court said that she had not been raped because she did not scream at the time and had not suffered bodily injury.

The case was a catalyst in the birth of the womens movement in India. Ms. Bhasin, who was working for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, plunged into the movement. (She continued to work for the organization until 2001.) She attended protests, performed street plays and set out to educate citizens about equality and social justice. Rape laws were amended in 1983 in large part because of the campaign by feminist groups.

Ms. Bhasin remained dedicated to the womens movement even in the face of personal struggles. Her 27-year-old daughter, Kamaljit Bhasin Malik, killed herself in 2006. Her son, Jeet Kamal, was left disabled by a severe reaction to a vaccine as a baby and required round-the-clock care.

In addition to her sister, Ms. Bhasin is survived by her son and two older brothers, Bharat and Brij Bhasin.

In recent years she talked about the sexual abuse she had suffered as a young girl. She wrote a book on the subject for children, If Only Someone Had Broken the Silence.

Kamla Bhasin was born on April 24, 1946, in Shaheedanwali, in what is now Pakistan; she was the fourth child of Mangat Ram Bhasin, a doctor who worked for the Indian government, and Sukanya Devi. She spent most of her childhood in villages in Rajasthan, moving wherever her fathers job took the family. Her sister, Ms. Kak, recalled her as a free-spirited tomboy who refused to follow traditional dictates about how girls should behave.
On Friday, some restrictions were eased for Bangkok and other hard-hit areas. A curfew was pushed back by an hour, to 10 p.m., and fitness centers, beauty salons, massage and tattoo parlors, libraries, museums and movie theaters were allowed to reopen.

On Phuket, some of the programs rules have also been eased, which officials hope will lead to more visitors. On Friday, the maximum required stay on the island was reduced to seven days, from 14. Just two Covid tests are now required during that time, and vaccinated visitors from any country are welcome, not just from places deemed low-risk. And Phukets restaurants can sell alcohol again.

In Patong, once-boisterous streets have largely been deserted for months. Enterprising vendors have taken over the street fronts of empty nightclubs to sell fruit, clothing or other wares.

But on Friday evening, street life seemed to be seeping back. Though bars were still forbidden to serve alcohol, some did so anyway, selling it to customers in paper or plastic cups.

Ms. Kanyaphak, the seller of tour packages, said that since the Phuket program began, some visitors had been disappointed to find Patong nightclubs and many other businesses closed.
AUCKLAND, New Zealand  For a year and a half, New Zealand has pursued a strategy of Covid zero, closing its borders and quickly enforcing lockdowns to keep the coronavirus in check, a policy it maintained even as other Asia-Pacific countries transitioned to coexisting with the viral threat.

On Monday, New Zealand gave in.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern acknowledged an end to the elimination strategy seven weeks into a lockdown that has failed to halt an outbreak of the Delta variant, announcing that restrictions would be gradually lifted in Auckland, the countrys largest city.

Were transitioning from our current strategy into a new way of doing things, Ms. Ardern told reporters. With Delta, the return to zero is incredibly difficult, and our restrictions alone are not enough to achieve that quickly. In fact, for this outbreak, its clear that long periods of heavy restrictions has not got us to zero cases.

What we have called a long tail, she added, feels more like a tentacle that has been incredibly hard to shake.
Lars Vilks, an artist and free speech activist whose cartoon depiction of the Prophet Muhammad on the body of a dog in 2007 made him the target of numerous assassination attempts, was killed in a car crash in Sweden on Sunday, the police said.

Mr. Vilks, who had been under police protection since 2010, was headed toward his home in southern Sweden when the civilian police vehicle he was traveling in veered across the median and collided head-on with a truck, killing Mr. Vilks, 75, and his two bodyguards, the police said.

The truck driver was taken to a hospital with serious injuries.

We are looking at the possibility that it was a tire explosion, Stefan Sinteus, a regional police official, said during a news conference on Monday. There is nothing at this point to indicate that this was an assassination.

Mr. Sinteus said the two police officers who were killed in the crash had worked with Mr. Vilks for several years.
The European Medicines Agency, the European Unions main drug regulator, said on Monday that a booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine could be given to healthy adults at least six months after the second dose.

The agency said data showed that antibody levels increased in people age 18 to 55 with normal immune systems who had received a third dose of the vaccine. It is still assessing booster shots of the Moderna vaccine.

The agency also said that people with severely weakened immune systems could receive an extra dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines as early as 28 days after a second dose. It is expected that an additional shot would increase protection in at least some of the patients, the agency said.

The recommendation is based on studies showing that an extra dose of those vaccines could increase the ability to produce antibodies in organ transplant recipients.
But the citys problems piled up on her watch, as did uncollected garbage, attracting swarms of sea gulls, crows, and even hungry boars. A pothole epidemic saw no fix in sight. Public buses caught on fire, and some cyclists complained that the bike lanes the mayor had installed were unsafe and poorly maintained.

Then on Saturday night, just hours before polls opened, a 19th century bridge in a trendy Rome neighborhood caught fire. Investigators and experts are still looking into the causes of the fire, but the metaphor of Rome burning was not lost on Ms. Raggis critics.

Municipal elections were held on Monday in over 1,000 Italian cities and towns, but it is not yet clear what they mean for national politics. The next parliamentary elections could be more than a year and a half away.

Prime Minister Mario Draghi, an independent and the former president of the European Central Bank, has broad support in Parliament, but low voter turnout may be a reflection of general disaffection among the electorate. Only 48.8 percent of Romes electors went to the polls, about ten percent less than five years ago, and the national average fell just short of 55 percent, the lowest ever.

Ms. Raggis fate was, in part, a reflection of her partys. Five Star has hemorrhaged support since triumphant national elections in 2018, when it won the largest share of the vote and formed part of the governing coalition.

Its one thing to promise changes when youre in the opposition, another to transform them into effective policies when youre in the government, said Roberto Biorcio, a professor of political sociology at the University of Milan at Bicocca. In this sense, she followed this downward trajectory.

In Rome, disillusionment with Ms. Raggi grew as she failed to build a strong team, frequently replacing top cabinet members, which paralyzed administrative decisions.
Military personnel in Britain began driving fuel tankers on Monday as the government stepped up efforts to tackle a shortage of truck drivers that has closed some gas stations, caused panic buying and long lines at others, and threatened wider disruption in the run-up to Christmas.

Around 200 soldiers were deployed in the south of England, where the problems are now concentrated, with around half of them driving civilian vehicles and the others providing logistical support.

In an interview with LBC Radio, Rishi Sunak, chancellor of the Exchequer, said that although fuel supplies were improving, the military was being deployed as a backup.

As an extra precaution we have put the extra drivers on, Mr. Sunak said, adding we are doing everything we can.
LONDON  Londons Metropolitan Police on Monday announced an independent review into its culture and standards following damaging revelations about police behavior during the sentencing hearing last week for the police officer who killed a 33-year-old woman as she was walking home at night.

The review comes after several high-profile events in the last year, including the killing of the woman, Sarah Everard, have revived scrutiny of the police department and Britains justice system.

The sentencing of Ms. Everards attacker, Wayne Couzens, a police officer at the time, and the disclosure that he used the authority of his position to commit the crime, has outraged critics who say the police and the courts have not done enough to address male violence against women.

They cite repeated failures by prosecutors to punish domestic abusers and systemic missteps in dealing with the complaints of sexual assault and rape victims, and they accuse the police of failing to deal with a culture of misogyny within the force.
VENICE  As the pandemic chased away visitors, some Venetians allowed themselves to dream of a different city  one that belonged as much to them as to the tourists who crowd them out of their stone piazzas, cobblestone alleyways and even their apartments.

In a quieted city, the chiming of its 100 bell towers, the lapping of canal waters and the Venetian dialect suddenly became the dominant soundtrack. The cruise ships that disgorged thousands of day-trippers and caused damaging waves in the sinking city were gone, and then banned.

But now, the citys mayor is taking crowd control to a new level, pushing high-tech solutions that alarm even many of those who have long campaigned for a Venice for Venetians.
Gone Nearly 100,000 people have disappeared in Mexico. Their families now search for clues among the dead.

They lie in clandestine graves strewn across the desert, mingled in communal pits, or hacked to pieces and scattered on desiccated hillsides.

Buried without a name, often all thats left once their bodies are gone are the empty casings of a person: a bloodied sweatshirt, a frilly top, a tattered dress.

All over Mexico, mothers wander under the scorching sun, poking at the earth and sniffing for the tell-tale scent of decomposing flesh, hoping for a scrap that points toward their missing son or daughter. For most, the answers never come. A New York Times photographer documented their search, and in Chihuahua state, he photographed the clothing that was found with unidentified bodies and preserved by investigators.

Its a horrible uncertainty I dont wish on anyone, said Noemy Padilla Aldaz, who has spent two years looking for her son, Juan Carlos, who was 20 years old when he vanished after finishing his night shift at a local taqueria. If I knew he was dead, then I would know that hes not suffering, she said. But we dont know, and its like torture, that not knowing.

Mexico is nearing a grim milestone: 100,000 disappeared people, according to Mexicos National Search Commission, which keeps a record that goes back to 1964. In a country wracked by a drug war without end, death can feel pervasive. Murder rates climb inexorably, now topping 30,000 a year. Macabre images of bodies strung up on bridges or tossed on roadsides as warnings appear on newscasts. Torture techniques get nicknames. But disappearance can be the cruelest blow. It deprives families of a body to mourn, of answers  even of the simple certainty, and the consolation, of death. The missing haunt Mexicos collective memory, a crushing testament to the inability of government after government to staunch the bloodshed and bring criminals to justice.

Disappearance is perhaps the most extreme form of suffering for the relatives of victims, said Angelica Duran-Martinez, a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, and an expert on violence in Latin America.

The faces of the disappeared loom, larger than life, on banners and posters in public squares across Mexico, over messages from relatives pleading for any information about their fate.

But even when remains are found, the task of identifying the dead can be arduous, at times taking investigators months of digging through the brush and combing through dirt for tiny fragments of bone, many of which can be too small or worn to help identify the body.

According to Ms. Duran-Martinez, the crisis of the disappeared in Mexico speaks not just to the prevalence of organized crime, but also to the propensity for state security forces to be engaged in the violence. Among the most widely known examples: the 2014 disappearance of 43 students from a rural teachers college in the town of Ayotzinapa. An investigation under Enrique Pena Nieto, the president at the time, placed blame on a local drug cartel and the municipal police. But that explanation has been widely condemned by international experts, including the United Nations, which found the process had been marred by torture and cover-ups. The students are widely believed to be dead, but no one knows where their bodies are, who did it  or why.

Under the current president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the authorities have tried to make amends for such atrocities and help families find answers. As well as relaunching an investigation into the fate of the 43 students, Mr. Lopez Obrador has thrown his support behind the National Search Commission to locate the missing.

Heading up the effort is Karla Quintana Osuna, a Harvard-trained lawyer who previously worked at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. When she started at the search commission, in 2019, there were some 40,000 officially reported as disappeared.

By compiling records from state prosecutors across the country, Ms. Quintana was able to determine that the total was far higher  it is now more than double. Although there are state prosecutors who do not report their figures in full, she said the tally is now far more accurate than in years past, and also available to the public online. But locating the missing remains a monumental task. The challenge is abysmal, its titanic, Ms. Quintana said of trying to find answers in a country where only a fraction of crimes are ever solved. As long as there is no justice, a clear message is being sent that this can continue to happen.

At the state level, improved forensic technology and search equipment like drones have helped find the bodies, according to Cesar Peniche Espejel, the attorney general of Chihuahua, which is among Mexicos most violent states. But until the authorities can truly take down organized crime groups, such efforts will remain a drop in a bloody tide, he said, that adds thousands to the list every year.

According to the latest data, between September 2020 and the end of July, an additional 6,453 people have been reported disappeared or missing. Every day, every day across the country, disappearances continue to be reported, Mr. Peniche said. Thats what the federal government has been unable to tackle.
Surgeons at a hospital in Lithuania spent over three hours saving the life of a man who, for some reason, had swallowed more than a kilogram of metallic objects over the last month.

Lithuanian media recently reported the shocking case of a man who arrived at the Klaipeda University Hospital in the Baltic port of Klaipeda complaining of severe abdominal pain but conveniently failed to mention that he had swallows over a kilogram of metal objects over the last 30 days. An X-ray examination revealed that the mans stomach was full of metal objects of all shapes and sizes, including nails, screws, and blades. They prepped the man, whose identity has not been revealed, for emergency surgery and spent over 3 hours removing the metal objects.

Photo: Edge2Edge Media/Unsplash

We have never seen anything like this, Algirdas Slepavicius, chief surgeon at Klaipeda hospital, told local reporters.

Surgeons at Klaipeda University Hospital get around a couple of dozen cases of foreign bodies discovered in peoples gastrointestinal tract, so they are fairly common, but the sheer quantity found in this Lithuanian mans stomach made the case unprecedented in nature. About 80% of foreign bodies are eliminated naturally, nearly 20% of them are removed endoscopically, and less than 1% require surgery.

Although the procedure itself is not very complex in nature, the sheer quantity of metallic objects in the patients stomach made it difficult. Doctors were concerned that the sharp objects could perforate the stomach and put his life at risk, so they operated as quickly as possible.

Photo: Klaipeda University Hospital/Facebook

The procedure took three hours to complete, during which time they removed dozens of objects, reaching from a couple of millimeters, up to 10 centimeters in size, including nails, screws and blades. All the while, doctors used the X-ray machine to make sure they removed all the metallic objects, down to the smallest ones.

Doctors havent been able to find out too much from the patient about why his stomach was full of metal, but apparently, he had started swallowing the metallic objects about a month ago, right around the time he stopped drinking alcohol

The unnamed patient is in stable condition following the surgery, and he has been provided with psychological assistance.

Photo: Klaipeda University Hospital/Facebook

From whistling party toys to magnets and toothbrushes, weve seen people accidentally swallow all kinds of stuff, but this case takes the cake!
Letitia James

New York attorney general Letitia James, who is weighing a primary challenge to governor Kathy Hochul, may bring on SKDKnickerbocker for political counsel, according to the New York Post.

Hochul was lieutenant governor of the Empire State and moved into the top job after Andrew Cuomo stepped down amid charges of sexual harassment.

James has ties to SKDK through Javier Lacayo, senior VP at the firm who served as her press secretary for when she was New York Citys public advocate.

The Post noted that SKDKs relationship with Cuomo may not be a good look for James.

The firm worked for him during the successful effort to legalize same-sex marriage.

John Kelly was a senior VP at SKDK before becoming Cuomos press secretary.

SKDK vice-chair Hilary Rosen was a founder of the Times Up Legal Defense Fund, which came under fire for helping the ex-governor smear some of his accusers.

Democrat strategist Hank Sheinkopt said reaching out to SKDK shows James is seeking a pro-establishment kind of outlook.

SKDK played a key role in Joe Bidens presidential run.

Partner Anita Dunn was a senior advisor to the campaign and the firm led its direct mail and vote-by-mail operations. She took a job at the White House helping Biden with messaging but is now back in SKDKs Washington office.

Stagwell owns SKDK.
Ruder Finn has acquired Mantis, a British medtech company that targets companies operating in the public sector.

Mantis has a dozen staffers who counsel 23 clients, 85 percent of which work with the National Health Service, social care providers and private healthcare sectors.

Eleanor Willock, managing director at Mantis, said her firm brings the stories of life-changing technology powering public services to industry and consumer attention.

Ruder Finn has momentum in the medtech space and has been looking for the right partner to take it to the next level, according to Nick Leonard, UK MD at the independent shop.

Many agencies claim to target the MedTech space but very few will have the clinical and technical credentials and capabilities of our combined proposition, he added.

Ruder Finn ranks No. 6 in ODwyers rankings of independent PR firms with 2020 fees of $87.8M.
Breelyn Pete

McGuireWoods Consulting hires Los Angeles deputy mayor Breelyn Pete as senior VP and director of California government relations and national municipal strategies. Based in Los Angeles, she will advise clients on local, state and federal issues related to their policy priorities and business objectives. As LA deputy mayor, Pete oversaw all aspects of the citys local, state and federal affairs. During the Obama administration, she was senior advisor in the U.S. Department of Commerces Economic Development Administration and has also served as communications director to former U.S. Representative Janice Hahn of California. Her proven leadership and breadth of experience in local, state and federal government are invaluable and will enhance our footprint in California, with large cities around the country, and in Washington, D.C., said McGuireWoods Consultings president and former South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges.

Michelle Anderson

ROKK Solutions promotes Michelle Anderson to head of marketing and development. Anderson has been with the firm since April 2020, previously serving as a senior advisor. Before coming to ROKK, she was vice president, marketing at Spectrum. Anderson has also held marketing positions with T. Rowe Price and Capital One. In her new role, she oversees marketing, business development and talent and culture for the agency. As we move into the next phase of our growth, delivering the best thinking and strategic execution for our clients means having someone focused not just on bringing in new business, but on talent and culture initiatives, said ROKK co-founding partner Rodell Mollineau. Michelles background and personality are a great fit for this critical role.

Dino Bernacchi

Sonic Automotive hires Dino Bernacchi as chief marketing officer of EchoPark Automotive, its pre-owned vehicle segment. Bernacchi was most recently senior vice president of marketing for the Cleveland Browns. Before that, he served as CMO for Mazdas North American operations and director of U.S. marketing at Harley-Davidson. His vast expertise in brand development and marketing is a natural fit with our goal of making EchoPark a nationwide household name, said Sonic Automotive CEO David Smith.
While the Sacred Heart School has a long tradition of hosting International Students, it is increasingly the school of choice for many students coming to Ireland to learn English. This year alone the school has been asked to host over thirty students from Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Spain.

The girls who have joined the school are participating in all years and with a full timetable but Assistant Principal, Mr Sean Mc Fadden ,reports that History, Music and Language classes are particularly popular this year.

We have introduced the International girls to camogie and so far theyre proving to be really good at itwho knows, we might encourage them to stay here permanently and try out for the local teams,  he mused.

He added that the girls have adjusted particularly well to Irish life and the school has established a language club for all to participate it. This has been an outstanding success for the short time that they have been here. They have a great energy about them and for us, as a school, its a win win situation.

He went on to explain the that the Sacred Heart School has a specific objective over the next five years to promote languages as the new STEM.

For us, international languages will be at the forefront of our educational programme. We have developed the digital aspect of our school to national and international acclaim and we have established ourselves firmly as a STEM school with our national success in Biology, Physics and Chemistry, Coding and Robotics but it is important to remember that languages are central to this new diverse world that we live in. he said.

We have noticed particularly over the last 3 years that junior students will increasingly opt for at least two languages, perhaps German and Spanish but there is also an increasing number of students who want to take French with those two as well. For us, we want to encourage language participation and development and as one of the few schools offering three languages, we know that we can offer career opportunities for our students with additional benefits. Increasingly, our senior students will look to careers like Law , Accounting, Business and Science but with a language addition. Travel and cultural experiences are now seen as a vital part of life for young people and we want to be able to support that vision," he concluded.

He also added that he hoped this number of International students would double next year and that in itself would bring added benefits for Irish students who are exposed to other languages and cultures.
Women's health campaigner Vicky Phelan has shared a heartbreaking update on her cancer treatment in the USA this Sunday.

She took to Instagram to let the countless people, who both admire and have been inspired by her, know that she has returned to Ireland.

The Kilkenny native, who resides in Limerick, wrote that she has some new tumours.

"This means that I am no longer eligible for proton beam therapy since my tumours are far too extensive, i.e. I have too much disease in my body for them to zap.

"And so, the recommendation from the team at Georgetown University Hospital was for me to return home for systemic therapy, i.e. palliative chemotherapy," wrote Ms Phelan.

With a very heavy heart, the mum-of-two said she made the decision to return home to Ireland.

"I returned home earlier this week and am taking the time to reconnect with my kids and to absorb this news before I start down the chemotherapy road.

"The 'good' news is that I can still have treatment and that this treatment will keep me alive until Christmas at least. The bad news is that the treatment I am about to start on is extremely toxic and will take its toll on my body and my mind," wrote Vicky.

She told her tens of thousands of followers on Instagram: "As always, I would like to thank you all so very much for your support, your kindness, your generosity, your prayers and positive messages which continue to lift me and keep me going. THANK YOU ALL."

Ms Phelan became a leading figure in the CervicalCheck controversy after she was awarded a settlement by the High Court in April 2018 in a case taken against the US laboratory that carried out her cervical smear test.

Since then she has been a powerful advocate for women's health and has given her support to many charitable organisations and people despite her own cancer treatment.
Michael McGrath, The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has said "transformative change" is needed in the area of transport policy in Ireland.

The National Development Plan (NDP), which is due to be announced later today, is the largest public capital investment programme in the history of the state in relation to transport and housing.

Significant investment in housing, along with grants and low interest loans for retro fitting homes is among the plans that the Government will sign off in UCC this morning, before formally launching it in Pairc Ui Chaoimh.

35bn is set to be spent on transport up to 2030 which will include 12bn for public transport, 6bn on roads, 4bn on walking and 13 on maintenance.

Speaking on RTE's Morning Ireland, Minister McGrath said that the proceeds of 9.5 billion in additional carbon tax receipts up to 2030 will be used to tackle fuel poverty measures and to fund new agri-environmental schemes.

Some 4.5bn will be set aside for water improvements up to 2025 and there will be 68m to replace lead pipes in rural areas.

More than 500m will also be available for a waste water system to service the greater Dublin area.

The minister said a new major projects Advisory Group is being established and that availing of "the expertise of a number of experts in different areas" will help to "avoid problems down the line".

Niall Cussen, the chief executive of the Office of the Planning Regulator, welcomed the Governments commitment saying it has been 20 years since the Planning Act was first prepared.

He said the changes are "altering our development patterns so we are more public transport-centred, much less carbon-dependent and are really putting climate into the heart of our future generational plans".

Mr. Cussen said the Regulator has intervened with plans to improve climate credentials and to ensure clearer commitments to climate targets and to promoting the delivery of alternative, renewables sources of energy are made.
The Governments plan for a new bank holiday and pandemic bonus payment to be paid to frontline workers has been labelled as a "bad idea" and "a poor use of taxpayers funds".

Neil McDonnell, CEO of the Irish Small and Medium Business Association(ISME), said the plans need to be scrapped because it will burden future generations with increased debt.

With more sectors, including pharmacists, teachers, transport workers, retail staff and soldiers, seeking recognition payments for what they claim were Covid-19 frontline duties, Mr McDonnell said the trade union movement needs "the moral courage" to say the "bonus plans should not happen".

"We are asking Minister Donohoe and Minister McGrath to call a halt to all this rather excited talk about 1 billion to say thanks to people. Just stop, do not make the problem any worse," he said.

"There is somewhat of an air of unreality. When you think about the great recession that we all went through just over a decade ago, we went in to that recession with a national debt of 50 billion and within a few years that national debt had gone up to 200bn. In the last year and a bit, we have now added another 50bn of debt to that.

"The reality of this is that the people that are beating their breasts, and saying they are entitled to extra holidays  in reality they are never going to repay this debt and they are passing it to their children."

"People have lost the run of themselves" over bonus payments, Mr. McDonnell added.

The introduction of an additional bank holiday is also rejected by ISME because the cost would be carried by the private sector.

"The proposal to introduce a bank holiday, as some sort of means to express gratitude to people in the public service, while it's well intentioned, is asking the private sector to carry the can for a cost that should be borne by government," said Mr. McDonnell.

Speaking on RTE's Morning Ireland, Stephen Kinsella, associate Professor of Economics at the University of Limerick, said the cost of an additional bank holiday is bigger than the benefit.

"You shouldnt do it. The cost to the private sector is going to be in the hundreds of millions and the benefits for one sector tourism are going to be in the tens of millions," he added.

Although an extra bank holiday could generate up to 20 million in tourism revenue, shown in a recent analysis by Failte Ireland, Mr. McDonnell said some traders in tourism and hospitality support this while many others do not.

Michael McGrath, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, said the Government plans to put forward a proposal in the coming weeks that "appropriately and sensitively" recognises the efforts of frontline workers during the pandemic.

"We don't want to adopt a divisive approach now, while recognising some people did go above and beyond and do deserve special recognition", added the Minister.
The bad Hindu, good Muslim narrative is pushed so hard in Mumbai Diaries 26/11 that it becomes unmissable. All point to a well-crafted scheme of depicting the nauseous terror attacks that shook the foundations of Bharats democracy as a one-off incident

India was terrorised by a bunch of jihadis on 26/11/2008, a day which has ever since become a watershed in the history of Indias long fight against Pakistan sponsored terrorism. The attacks which shook Mumbai, the economic capital of India, not only made us realise the importance of strengthening our security apparatus but also served as a wake-up call for all of us, particularly the Government machinery. Some of the scenes from the video footage are still fresh in our memories and will perhaps continue to remain so because of the ghastly nature of the attacks. Mumbai was under siege and so was the rest of the country. 26/11 has elicited a lot of response from various sections of the intelligentsia, and over the years many books and articles have appeared which deal with the terrorist attacks that took place on that fateful day. Many filmmakers have also dealt with this theme in their attempt to showcase what can definitely be referred to as one of the most gruesome terror attacks on Indian soil.

Lesson on Secularism, Not on Terrorism

With the OTT platform gaining ground in the country from urban to rural areas, filmmakers have been focussing on releasing their works through this medium, and two web series made on the 26/11 incident are particularly engagingState of Siege: 26/11 which was released on Zee 5 in March 2020 and the recent offering of Amazon Prime, Mumbai Diaries 26/11. While both the series deal with the terrorist attacks which occurred on 26/11, Mumbai Diaries 26/11 portrays the hardships of the frontline workers  doctors, nurses, ward boys, security guards, police personal, journalists, among others  who stood as a shield between the jihadis and the people whom they were committed to kill. The Mohit Raina and Konkona Sen Sharma starrer has some power-packed performances with Raina perhaps at his best. The series is gripping enough for a binge watch session on Saturday night, but what separates it from State of Siege: 26/11 is the overwhelmingly irrational secular narrative which runs through the series. In fact, the dominant discourse of forced secularism is so pervasive that Mumbai Diaries comes across more as a lesson on secularism and less on terrorism.

Glorification of Muslim Doc

The glorification of a soft-hearted Muslim doctor, Ahaan Mirza, as the epitome of virtue; the spiel on why Islam is a religion of peace; the intolerant attitude of the Maharashtrian male nurse, Samarth; and the ramblings of Mansi Hirani, played by Shreya Dhanwanthary, in the last episode on why the 26/11 attacks were not jihad; all point to a well-crafted scheme of depicting the nauseous terror attacks that shook the foundations of Indias democracy as a one-off incident which should not be seen through the prism of religion.

On one hand, is Ahaan Mirza, played by Satyajeet Dubey, a chicken-hearted Muslim junior resident doctor who is tolerant, kind and merciful, and on his very first day at work, is faced with the mighty challenge of saving the life of a nurse who is injured badly at the CST shootout. Mirza is so emotional that he even enters the morgue and offers prayers for the deliverance of the nurses soul. On the other hand, is the Maharashtrian male nurse, Samarth, who is suspicious of Mirzas actions. Samarth is unkind, intolerant, and overtly communal. He even roughs up the poor Muslim doctor on a couple of occasions. The bad Hindu, good Muslim narrative is pushed so hard that it becomes unmissable. The character assassination of the Hindu Samarth does not stop there. He is shown to be uttering some expletives against the jihadis who went on rampage at the government hospital in Mumbai, in this case the Bombay General Hospital. Beeji, the grand old lady admitted to the hospital under the social care scheme, makes Samarth understand that Islam is not bad, in fact it is a religion of peace and tolerance. The pontificating Beeji then goes on to reminiscence her experience of 1984 riots in Delhi in which she and her family had to bear the brunt of Hindu mob violence. Samarths communal soul is finally quietened and he makes peace with Ahaan Mirza and realizes that Islam is indeed a religion of peace.

Immature Interpretation of Jihad

Mansi Hirani, the brave journalist who can go an extra mile or two to get at the heart of the story, is seen soliloquising in the last episode of the seriesJihad toh insaan ke antarman ki ladayi hoti hai na jo woh apni khamiyon se ladta hai. Humari aankhon ke samne jo hua woh jihad nahi ho sakta. The journalist gives her final verdict in what can be called the most immature interpretation of the term jihad which has very clearly been defined in the Quran as an armed struggle against the infidels. The demarcation between Jihad-e-Akbar (greater jihad against the impurities of the self) and Jihad-e-Asghar (exertion of power through violence) holds no meaning in the context of an all-out war which has repeatedly been perpetrated by Islamic fundamentalists not only in India but also globally. The inane attempt to downplay the injunctions of Islam which not only promote violence and bloodshed but also direct every true Muslim to fight against the infidels and subdue them comes across as a deliberate endeavour.

26/11 was a jihad and it was engineered and executed by jihadis from Pakistan. The makers of Mumbai Diaries couldve done a better job by showing the attacks exactly as what they were, instead of trying to justify jihad and shove the same old sad secular story down everyones throat

Bundle of Lies

Mumbai Diaries 26/11 could have been a tolerable series but for the lies and abject rejection of reality which has made it a laughable attempt at showcasing the 26/11 attacks. The brilliant performances and stories of unity and resilience could have made for an enjoyable treat but for the exasperatingly awful attempt at rationalising jihad. When the perpetrators of the attacks had no qualms in admitting that they were indulging in jihad, what can possibly justify the this was not jihad dialogue. If anything, 26/11 was a jihad and it was engineered and executed by jihadis from Pakistan. The makers of Mumbai Diaries couldve done a better job by showing the attacks exactly as what they were, instead of trying to justify jihad and shove the same old sad secular story down everyones throat.
After being arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Aryan Khan cried inconsolably during the interrogation, and it was further revealed that Aryan Khan had been consuming drugs for almost four years.



NCB sources have revealed that they have found that Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan was consuming drugs for four years.

Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan was arrested in the Mumbai cruise drugs case on Sunday (October 3). After being arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Aryan Khan cried inconsolably during the interrogation, said sources.

NCB's official sources said Aryan Khan continuously cried during the interrogation. During the questioning, it was further revealed that Aryan Khan had been consuming drugs for almost four years.

The NCB arrested a total of 8 people on Sunday, a day after they were picked up from the Cordelia cruise off the Mumbai coast, where the narcotics bureau bust a rave party.

Besides Aryan Khan, the others who were arrested are Munmun Dhamecha, Arbaaz Merchant, Ismeet Singh, Mohak Jaswal, Gomit Chopra, Nupur Sarika, and Vikrant Chhokar. Aryan Khan and Arbaaz have been friends for almost 15 years.
The illegal migration in Assam has led to demographic, democratic and territorial encroachment of the indigenous population. The mob subversion of eviction from the massive encroachments symbolises the correlation between illegal migration and criminality in the entire Northeast

What happened on the Dhalpur eviction site on September 23, the nation has witnessed? How 25,000 acres of government land in Dhalpur in Darrang district have been encroached on by the migrant Muslims in the past four decades is now known to all. But this is not the end of the encroachment story. The fertile lands of Assam have been a target of Bangladesh origin Muslims for several decades. Lakhs of illegal Bangladeshi Muslims had crossed to this part of India and grabbed thousands of hectares of land in the last several decades. Assam Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma informed that land twice of the total area of Goa and a little less than of Sikkim are being encroached in Assam. And most of them are migrant Muslims. Assam Assembly reports suggest that a total of 49 lakhs bighas or 6,652 square kilometres of land is under encroachment across the State. This includes 3,172 square kilometres of forest lands. BJP leader and former MLA from Hojai Siladitya Dev filed a legal petition in the Guwahati High Court seeking direction to evict the encroachers in the Lumding reserve forest. The government reports states that 3953 acres of land have been encroached by migrant Muslims in the Lumding forest reserve. Siladitya Dev told Organiser, This is a planned module by the migrant Muslims to encroach government land in every possible area. This way they are trying to invade each and every Hindu majority constituency of Assam. If the government tries to evict them from forest land or government land, they would try to resist it through violent means like what we saw in Dhalpur.Islamist forces are helping these encroachers to attack police in a pre-planned way and they are now playing the victim card all over the world. The PFIs role in the Dhalpur attack on police is uncovered in the ongoing investigation. Police Intelligence sources told Organiser that PFI is trying to create an intellectual network to fortify its political ambition. PFIs role in the violent anti-CAA protest in 2020 in Assam was proved in the subsequent investigation. Assam police registered 18 cases against PFI activists in different parts of lower Assam. Police had registered cases of mob violence, anti-national activities, attack on police using sharp weapons, vandalising and destroying public property, conspiracy against the government etc. Mongoldoi MP and National General Secretary of BJP Dilip Saikia said that PFI designed the Dhalpur police attack. It was Kashmir-like planned stone-pelting on security forces conceived by the extremist Muslim organisation PFI. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma also said that PFI collected Rs 28 lakh from the encroachers to halt the eviction. PFI leaders and other radical Muslim leaders visited the Dhalpur eviction site prior to the eviction. The police investigation revealed that these leaders instigated the mob to attack the police. Two such leaders have been arrested by CID, which is investigating the case. Assam Police sources said the arrested persons have proximity with PFI. Intelligence reports suggest that PFI is working on the ground to establish the root for political party SDPI. PFI is primarily targeting the migrant Muslims and supporters of Left parties. The extremist Islamist organisation is also playing an anti-BJP card and trying to bring tribal Christians by their side. PFI in July organised a candle march protest after Stan Swamys death in the Baksa and Chirang districts of Assam with Adivasi and tribal people. The organisation is also organising various training camps in minority areas of Nagaon, Darrand, Barpeta and Dhubri districts. Assam police is strictly monitoring the activities of PFI. Reports suggest that PFI is funding various Muslim organisations in the State, including various radical organisations and even a few Left-liberals. PFI is also working to bring all the Muslim organisations under one roof, including Muslim political parties and Muslim politicians. Many Congress, AIUDF, AAMSU leaders have been seen in PFIs meetings in different parts of the State in the recent past.

A total of 49 lakhs bighas or 6,652 square kilometres of land is under encroachment across Assam. This includes 3,172 square kilometres of forest lands

Assam Police conducting an eviction drive to clear illegal encroachments in Darrang district

Land encroachment by migrant Muslims is well-designed in Assam. After the eviction drive in Dhalpur, hundreds of evicted people fled to a different locations. Dispur BJP MLA Atul Bora wrote to the Deputy Commissioner of Guwahati on September 25 that hundreds of doubtful people have come to the riverine areas of his constituency through small boats after the eviction in Dhalpur. They have settled in locations like Sonapur, Hohora, Dimoria on the banks of Brahmaputra. AASU leader Dibyajyoti Medhi informed that more than 10,000 unidentified people have encroached hundreds of acres of land on the bank of Brahmaputra in the past several years. The area has now become a mini-Bangladesh. Radical Muslim organisations with PFI funding are now planning to send groups of people to encroach lands in different parts.

Assam CM Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma inspecting the encroachment in the riverine areas of Sipajhar

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma revealed that Muslim land mafias have grabbed up to 60-70 acres of government land. This fact has come to light in the Dhalpur eviction. These people have their land property in some other place or district, and still, they relocate and encroach government land. More worrying is the fact that they now dare to attack security forces. On September 23, the police force of 450 personnel went to evict 60 families in 3rd Sector of Dhalpur where encroachers gathered and attacked the police with sharp weapons. To make matters worse, Dhalpur is a riverine area, and the only means of communication are the small boats. From where the attackers get thousands of stones to attack police is a big question. BJP MLA Mrinal Saikia said that whether the PFI brings the Kashmir model of stone-pelting on security forces to Assam needs to investigate.

People have seen the shift of power in the 2021 Assembly election in two constituencies, Batadrava and Sarukhetri. The aim is to change the pattern by 2050 by grabbing maximum constituencies

The Power Grabbing Jihad

Assam Chief Minister on September 30 said that migrant Muslims are now in a constituency grabbing practice. Translocation of Muslim voters to Hindu majority constituencies confirms his statement that. These people are now targeting three Hindu majority constituencies of the State. Large numbers of people from minority-dominated districts like Barpeta and Dhubri are relocating to the Sipajhar constituency. Similarly, huge numbers of Muslims from Nagaon district are relocating to Barsala constituency in Sonitpur district. The primary reason behind this relocation is to change the demography and electoral fate. The Chief Minister further added that people have seen the shift of power in the 2021 Assembly election in two constituenciesBatadrava and Sarukhetri. The aim is to change the pattern by 2050 by grabbing maximum constituencies. As a part of this plan, huge encroachment is being done in Lumding constituency too. Local BJP leader Siladitya Dev said that from 2007 onwards, suspicious people from bordering districts of Dhubri, South Salmar, Barpeta started relocating to Lumding. In the last 15 years, under the patronage of the previous Congress Government. These people have encroached around 4000 acres of forest land in Lumding. There are now approximately 20,000 people in the forest land with voting rights. They are ready to change the political fate of Lumding constituency in 2026 Assembly election if we cant secure our land, then nothing is safe in this State. People have to be vigilant and come together against this planned invasion. They have are a dept in grabbing land with the help of government officials, especially with Muslim land dalals and surveyors. With their help, the migrant Muslims are grabbing the government land, Dev added.

Interestingly, recent data shows that most of the women drug peddlers are Muslims. In the last two months, Guwahati city police arrested several Muslim women drug peddlers

Narco Jihad

If you go through the social media pages of Assam police district branches, you will be surprised to see page full records of Muslim criminals arrested by police these days. And most of these arrested criminals are Bangladeshorigin Muslims, known as Migrant Muslims in Assam. Situated in the heart of Assam, the Nagaon district carries a great significance to the Assamese society. Nagaon is the birthplace of the Vaishnavite Guru Srimant Shankar Dev, the Saint who reformed the greater Assamese society. But the destiny of this beautiful place changed due to the constant aggression and population explosion of the migrant Muslims. Almost two decades ago, Nagaon became a Muslim majority district. And now, Nagaon has become a den of crime, illegal and anti-social activities. Its also a hub of drug trafficking. Ever since the Assam Government has started the War against Drugs, unbelievable truths of crimes by Muslims have been uncovered. The Nagaon police has arrested almost 400 drug peddlers from various parts of the district in the last four months. Of the 400 arrested peddlers, 380 are Muslims, including a dozen Muslim women drug peddlers. The scene is not much different in other districts of Assam. In the last four months, the State police so far arrested 2369 drug peddlers in the State. Strangely, out of which 2118 are Muslims. In the last five years, Assam police has has arrested 6690 drug peddlers in the State, most of these drug traffickers (85 to 90 per cent) are Muslims.

The Assam Police are not taking this disturbing development lightly. The big question is whether Muslim drug peddlers are on a mission to launch Narco Jihad in Assam? Top Assam Police intelligence believes that, even though most of these Muslim drug peddlers are not under any organised international drug racket, the Narco-Militancy angle cant be ignored. The crime amongst migrant Muslims is so deep-rooted that they dont think before getting involved in drug trafficking. Assam Police intelligence is investigating whether the money earned through drugs are being diverted to strengthen Islamic militancy activity in Assam or not? But the major concern for police is the banned contraband Yaba tablets. Police have seized more than one and a half million Yaba tablets in Assam in the last four months. Police sources says that most of these banned contrabands are smuggled to Bangladesh. Some of the banned Islamic terrorist organisations like Neo-JMB are involved in the smuggling of Yaba tablets. Police intelligence believes that the money created made through the trafficking of Yaba tablets is being diverted to radicalise Muslim youths and strengthen Islamic terrorism in Bangladesh, which remains a threat to India. Central Governments intelligence reports suggest that the Siliguri corridor with its porous borders along with Bangladesh and Nepal has become a major conduit for Pakistani intelligence agency that has been conducting ISI subversive activities in the North East. The mushrooming of madrasas in the border areas is a design prepared by ISI to make the Muslims pockets of Assam a breeding ground of illegal and anti-national activities, including narco-trafficking.

Drug trafficking is not the only crime that the migrant Muslims are involved in Assam. Assam police data reveals that most of the criminals arrested by police in the last several months are migrant Muslims. Whether human trafficking, fake currency or fake gold, or fake documents, the migrant Muslims are making all possible illegal and criminal trades in Assam

In connection with the viral video of an incident at Gorukhuti, the said Cameraman has been arrested and a case has been registered by Assam CID for further investigation. Assam Govt has decided that inquiry by a retired Judge of Gauhati High Court would be conducted into incident at Darrang District where two illegal migrants lost their lives and a large number of on-duty Assam Police personnel were injured

Drug trafficking is not the only crime that the migrant Muslims are involved in Assam. The State police data reveals that most of the criminals arrested by police in the last several months are migrant Muslims. Whether human trafficking, gambling or fake currency or fake gold, or fake documents, the migrant Muslims are involved all possible illegal and criminal trades in Assam. In the month of September, Sonitpur district police in seized 25 kilograms of fake gold and arrested eight criminals; all are migrant Muslims. Similarly, Nagaon police arrested 35 Muslim criminals in the last 30 days, including touts, gamblers, human-traffickers, drug paddlers, robbers, and thieves. The growing crime rates amongst Muslims is undoubtedly impacting the social life in Assam. Demands are on the upward sides from the society to curb the crime and criminals as it could lead to a social imbalance. Assam Public Works (APW) president Aabhijeet Sharma said, the migrant Muslims are criminals by nature. The growing rate of crimes by them could lead to a social disbalance in Assam. The Muslim organisations should do something for a reform in their society, but they only do politics.
We must take care that the friction should not be allowed to go so far as to put a stop to this motion. We have our limits. We want unanimous consent. If not, we will have the resolution passed by the majority and if it is passed, it must be carried. Even the President-elect has no right to change this.  Our opponents create rowdyism when they fear defeat. We are fighting against foreign autocracy. Why should we allow this home-autocracy? So we want to prevent the autocratic rule in the Congress. The Congress is an organisation of all the people and the voice of the people- ought to predominate. We should not allow any man, high or low, to ruin the cause of the Congress. Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak , Principles of the Nationalist Party, speech at Surat on December 23, 1907

Captain Amarinder Singh distancing himself from Congress and Tukde Tukde fame Communist student brat Kanhaiya Kumar joining the same Congress may look two different political developments. In reality, they are part of the same process--the decay and de-nationalisation of the Congress party. Communists infiltrating the Congress is not a new phenomenon. The ambit was, however, limited to the intellectual space through State-run institutions. But what is happening since the UPA period and more so after Rahul-Priyanka takeover, is much more sinister.

Take the case of Galwan conflict with China. Congress along with its media friends has been toeing the Chinese diplomatic line that India suffered a bloody nose. China is killing us by entering our country  was the Congress refrain. This chorus (jugalbandi) with China and Pakistan was aimed at demoralising the nation and our jawans who were bracing the Chinese deceit. Moreover, what transpired in the bilateral agreement between the Chinese Communist Party and the Congress continues to remain a riddle. When the Home Ministry called for a meeting of Chief Ministers of the Maoist affected states, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel gave it a miss. Is it a coincidence or strategic compliance to conceal commitments made in China?

During the entire COVID-19 crisis, from migration issue to vaccination process, at every stage, Congress chose to peddle the Maoist agenda of creating divisions and confusions. Even when the entire country celebrated the making of indigenous vaccines and the entire world recognised the efficacy of CoWin App, Congress and its leadership joined the cynicism and negativity peddled by the Communists.

Recently, displaying his typical comic ignorance, Rahul Gandhi passed a verdict on the idea of India invoking Veer Savarkar. He said, they say India is a territory, we say India is people, relationships. Veer Savarkar was the one who articulated the significance of Sacred Geography and its interconnectedness with the people. The inherent idea of Hindutva, that is Hinduness, is premised on the inalienable bond between the sacred land and the values cherished by its people. The strategy of mocking and targeting Hinduness, while showcasing Hindu symbols and rituals during the election season, has exposed the duplicity and hollowness of Congress style Secularism.

Communists not appreciating the ancient concept of Rashtra is understandable. For them Pan-Communism is above nationhood. That is why they call themselves the Communist Party of India and not the Indian Communist Party. On the contrary, Indian National Congress represents a specific geography, ie, Bharat and National connotes the ideological moorings. This entire edifice is now in a shambles both at the organisational and ideological levels. The leadership is in a disarray, as many Congressees openly state. Geographically, Congress is shrinking. But the most alarming sign is the way the grand old party is being taken over by different shades of Communists and Islamists, leading to its stark de-nationalisation.

As a democracy, we need a national level opposition in geographical and conviction terms. The Congress failure on both the fronts is giving space to regional parochial or the Breaking Bharat forces. It is the Congress that is ensuring that Bharat is Congress-Mukt. From Cambridge Analytica fiasco to the Kanhaiya Kumar entry, the rapid de-nationalisation of Congress is the real danger for democracy.


Religious intolerance, discrimination against Muslims, violation of human rights, etc. have been deliberately woven to camouflage the real problem that cannot be understood simply as a Hindu-Muslim concern. It has more to do with the land rights of the natives and the constant threat posed to their lives and livelihoods by immigrants

The recent incident at Gorukhuti near Sipajhar in the Darrang district of Assam is just another dreadful manifestation of a problem plaguing Assam since the pre-Independence era. It is a part of the larger conspiracy of making Assam an Islamic State, oft-quoted as the policy of Lebensraum by several Bangladeshi academics and political leaders on numerous occasions. In the post-Independence era, this thought process has received academic and moral support from an entire network of self-proclaimed intellectuals, journalists, writers, public speakers, and a few lawyers and human rights activists.

The Congress Party and the Communist leaders have been responsible for providing fuel to such devious political designs for a long time now. They are always on the forefront of accusing the common Assamese people of xenophobia and therefore repeatedly targeting one particular religious community (Muslims) in the name of protecting their identity. No wonder this particular incident at Gorukhuti caught the headlines in international news networks like Al Jazeera and Pakistans Dawn, at a time when our Prime Minister was on the United States tour.

The incident at Gorukhuti on September 23, 2021, again drew our attention to the issue of land, which is the primary target of illegal encroachers of dubious nationality. It was a long-pending demand of various organisations in Assam, including the All Assam Students Union (AASU), to clear the large-scale encroachments in Kuruwa, Fuhuratoli and Dholpur areas under the Sipajhar revenue circle in Darrang district. Around 77,820 bighas of Government land in these areas had been under the occupation of illegal migrants for a long time.

There is an ancient Shiva Mandir in the nearby Dholpur hill and the land belonging to it has also been encroached upon by the infiltrators. It is now under tight security arrangements due to the frequent eviction drives in this area that poses an existential threat to this Mandir. As per historians, Ahom kings looked after the Mandir for a long time. Later, other Nepali kings and a few kings of the Koch-Rajbongshi kingdom too were devotees of this Mandir.

It all began during the late 1970s when many Bengali-speaking Muslim families had migrated from Nagaon district and settled here through illegal encroachment. During the Assam Agitation in 1983, former PM Indira Gandhi visited this area and handed over tin sheets, blankets, food, and other relief material to people of various regions of Assam to settle at Dholpur. On February 15, 1983, several people lost their lives in protest against the occupation of lands by illegal intruders in and around the Dholpur and Rangamati areas. Years later, these very settlers encroached upon the lands of the native inhabitants and began occupying more and more farming land that was owned by the locals but who did not necessarily reside in the vicinity.

Earlier this year, Assam CM Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma had announced that Government lands all over the State would be freed from encroachment. Over 400 bighas or roughly 132 acres of encroached land have already been freed in Hojai, Karimganj, and Darrang districts. The land is indeed the most valuable and prized possession for the illegal infiltrators and many a time, it is also noticed that they are even ready to die than lose their land. The encroachers brutal attack on the State police forces using sharp weapons and sticks during the Dholpur evictions is a case in point. It eventually resulted in 11 policemen and a few locals, too, being critically injured.

A report on Illegal Migration into Assam was submitted to the President of India by the then Governor of Assam Lt. Gen (Retd.) SK Sinha in 1998 clearly showed that the Muslim population of Assam rose by 77.42 per cent in 1991 from what it was in 1971

Their modus operandi is to grab the land of the native residents of the area through means, fair or foul. In many instances, they also try to legally possess cultivable land. The process of completely evicting the illegal infiltrators from their lands is tenuous. These are mostly Government lands or lands that have been procured through land mafias who force the owners of these lands to sell them at throwaway prices. Perhaps the police believed that the migrants would be deterred by the show of force and were therefore unprepared for the kind of mob reprisal that took place that day.

But, several episodes in the socio-political history of Assam are proof enough of the fact that these encroachers are not the ones who would give up their landholdings so easily. The State Government has announced the Gorukhuti Multipurpose Agricultural Project worth Rs. 9.60 crore in the 77,000 bighas of Government land, huge parts of which had been occupied by illegal infiltrators. These lands are mostly located in the riverine areas, prone to flooding and erosion. The people of Gorukhuti, comprising primarily of Assamese and Nepali Hindus, are mainly associated with dairy and agricultural farming related activities. The idea is to set up collective farms of local Assamese youth in the migrant-occupied Government lands.

The State Government has announced the Gorukhuti Multipurpose Agricultural Project worth Rs. 9.60 crore in the 77,000 bighas of Government land, huge parts of which had been occupied by illegal infiltrators

If the endeavour is successful, this is going to usher in a new era of cultural change in the overall societal landscape of the Assamese society. But, certain shocking revelations later came to light, pointing fingers at the Popular Front of India (PFI) role behind instigating the illegal encroachers to fire at the police. CM Himanta Biswa Sarma himself said that a PFI team had visited the area a day before the incident on the pretext of distributing food items. Earlier, the State Government had sent a dossier to the Centre seeking an immediate ban on the PFI after its activists were arrested during the CAA agitation.

Besides Darrang district, many suspected illegal Bangladeshis have settled in the areas surrounding Tezpur in Sonitpur district. Here also, they have occupied huge chunks of government lands at the Burhachapori Reserve Forest area. Among the nine LACs in the Sonitpur district, Sootea, Biswanath, Tezpur, and Barchala have been the most highly affected ones. After making these areas their safe haven, the illegal migrants carry out various unlawful activities such as car-lifting, burglary, theft and robbery, running of cow syndicates in close association with certain local influential forces, etc.

A report on Illegal Migration into Assam was submitted to the President of India by the then Governor of Assam Lt. Gen (Retd.) SK Sinha in 1998 clearly showed that the Muslim population of Assam rose by 77.42 per cent in 1991 from what it was in 1971. Comparatively, in the same period, the Hindu population had risen by a mere 41.89 per cent. The vast change that has taken place in the demography of Assam and discussions around it might as well sound rhetorical. But, can rhetoric take away the merit of well-documented facts already in the public domain? While Muslims constituted 30.9 per cent of the population of Assam in the year 2001, this share jumped to 34.2 per cent in 2011. In 2001, only six districts had a Muslim majority. Whereas, in 2011, they constituted the majority in nine districts.

The issue of illegal infiltration from Bangladesh is not merely a religious one but a serious economic, political, and cultural problem. The demographic change is alarming, especially in those districts of Lower Assam that share a contiguous boundary with neighbouring Bangladesh. E.g. till almost the turn of the last century, Dhubri was a Hindu-majority area. It was once a part of the Koch-Rajbongshi kingdom of present-day Cooch-Behar in West Bengal. Dhubri also boasted of prosperous Rajbongshi zamindaris such as Golakganj and Gauripur. But, at present, the Rajbongshis account for a mere 11 per cent of the electorate of Dhubri district. As per the 2011 Census, Muslims constitute almost 80 per cent of the population in the District.

The demographic transition of the Lumding region in the undivided Nagaon district is equally shocking. In the Census of 1901, 31 per cent of the districts population consisted of people belonging to the Dimasa and other communities. Today, Census data barely finds any count of them in the district. Many of the smaller groups were either wiped away or moved out to other districts due to the increasing pressure on their land and resources by the incoming immigrant population. The name Lumding itself traces its roots to the Dimasa language. Once the traditional homeland of the Dimasas, Lumding today is chiefly dominated by a non-indigenous population of migrants. Sadly, not a single Dimasa person has represented the constituency till date.

The issue of illegal infiltration from Bangladesh is not merely a religious one but a serious economic, political, and cultural problem. The demographic change is alarming, especially in those districts of Lower Assam that share a contiguous boundary with Bangladesh

A newspaper report published way back on September 17, 2010, in The Deccan Herald, reported that more than 7,000 bighas of land belonging to 39 Sattras of Assam in Dhubri, Barpeta, Nagaon, and Morigaon are in the grip of illegal encroachers. As per the Brahma Committee Report, this number is far higher. It had clearly mentioned that the identity of as many as 18 Sattras in Assam is under threat, following large-scale encroachment by illegal Bangladeshi migrants.

This again draws our attention to the fact that the problem of illegal encroachment of Government lands by infiltrators in Assam is real. Politically motivated narratives such as religious intolerance, discrimination against Muslims, violation of human rights, etc. have been deliberately woven to camouflage the real problem that cannot be understood simply as a Hindu-Muslim concern. It has more to do with the land rights of the natives and the constant threat posed to their lives and livelihoods by the migrants.
ITBP officers confirmed that transgression incidents happen on the India-China border because of differences in perception of the Line of Actual Control in the area.



New Delhi: Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) Director General Sanjay Arora on Monday (October 4) accepted that "small transgression incidents happen periodically" on the India-China border with the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops trying to enter into Indian territory, clarifying "we (ITBP) keep giving them appropriate responses".

Speaking on the sideline of the flag off event of the 4th Phase cycle rally being carried out by the ITBP personnel, Arora said that the force "last year showed its preparedness and its capability and that it will serve the nation with the same spirit in future too".

Asked over some media reports regarding transgression of over 100 Chinese troops in Indian territory in August end, Arora said: "ITBP is a border guarding force. Our mandate is to maintain the integrity of the border. We have earlier shown our capabilities. ITBP's capability and preparedness is satisfactory. At the border, incidents of small transgression happen periodically and we keep giving them appropriate responses."

However, the 1988-batch Tamil Nadu cadre IPS officer did not clarify if the report of transgressing of 100 PLA troops was right or wrong.

Other ITBP officers confirmed that transgression incidents happen on the India-China border because of differences in perception of the Line of Actual Control in the area.

As India and China do not share a defined and demarcated border, it leads to frequent incursions, said an ITBP officer, requesting anonymity, adding instead, there is the LAC on the border that stretches thousands of kilometres from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh.

The ITBP chief expressed his views after flagging off the 4th phase of the cycle rally from the National Police Memorial. This rally covering 2,700 km from Gogra (Ladakh) will reach Kevadia (Gujarat) to participate in the National Unity Day Parade on October 31.

The cycle rally started on August 27 from an altitude of 4,500 metres in Ladakh and crossed harsh climatic and terrain conditions before reaching Manali via Atal Tunnel.

The rally crossed some of the very high motorable passes such as Marsimik-La (5,582 metres), Changla (5,319 metres), Tanglang-La (5,328 metres), Baralacha-La (4,892 metres), Lachung-La (5,059 metres).

Courtesy: ANI
The Government of Assam instituted the award in the memory of the first Chief Minister of Assam Bharat Ratna Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi and the award is bestowed upon institutions and individuals from diverse fields in honour of their exemplary contribution towards national integration.

Guwahati: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu conferred upon the prestigious Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi Award for National Integration and Contribution for the year 2021 to an eminent writer, scholar Dr. Nirode Kumar Barooah, Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust, Assam Branch and Shillong Chamber Choir, Meghalaya in the presence of Governor of Assam Prof. Jagdish Mukhi, Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma in a programme held at Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra in Guwahati on Sunday (October 3).

The Government of Assam instituted the award in the memory of the first Chief Minister of Assam Bharat Ratna Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi. The award is bestowed upon institutions and individuals from diverse fields in honour of their exemplary contribution towards national integration. The award carries a cash reward of Rs. 5.00 lakh, a citation and a shawl.

Germany-based writer-scholar Dr. Nirode K. Barooah, alumni of Cotton College, Guwahati and University of Banaras, taught modern history at the University of Delhi. He published several books and research paper on the Indian Freedom Movement with particular reference to Assam. He wrote several books both in English and Assamese language on historical themes. Barooah, who obtained a Dr. Phil. degree from the University of Bonn in 1975, had also been a member of the Association of the Foreign Press in Germany for some time.

Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi founded Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust, Assam Branch on January 9, 1946. The Trust initiated huge efforts to forge national integration and promote the ideals of non-violent resistance. The Trust has been contributing immensely to the empowerment of women.

Shillong Chamber Choir is an Indian chamber choir based in Shillong, Meghalaya, that was founded in 2001. It has performed on several national and international platforms and received much acclaim. Notable achievements of the choir include its performance at President Pratibha Patil's presidential banquet at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on November 8, for the U.S. President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, during their November 2010 state visit to India.

Earlier in the day, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated a PET-MRI Wing at State Cancer Institute, Guwahati Medical College & Hospital, in the presence of Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma. The state of the art wing has been set up with a total project cost of Rs 62 crores. This is India's 4th such PET- MRI machine installed at a Govt sector hospital equipped with 'Time of Flight' tech. This machine is faster than PET-CT and essential for advanced cancer research activities. After this, Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu, who is in Guwahati as part of his North-East tour, inaugurated Mahabahu Brahmaputra River Heritage Centre. The Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority is building the Brahmaputra River Heritage Centre, dedicated to the spirit and legacy of the majestic Brahmaputra in Guwahati city.
The sickular spin masters would be telling a different story as if Mamata Banerjee had snatched the seat from the BJP. But in all these, the debate also necessitates the need to acknowledge that in West Bengal, the politics is between the TMC and the BJP.

New Delhi: The by-poll for a sitting, but non-MLA Chief Minister in independent India's history has always been a cakewalk.

The fact that Trinamool cadres, Ministers and councillors, along with Mamata Banerjee herself, spent a lot of energy and time showed BJP's nominee Priyanka Tibrewal had fought a difficult battle valiantly. The sickular spin masters would be telling a different story as if Mamata Banerjee had snatched the seat from the saffron party's kitty. But in all these, the debate also necessitates the need to acknowledge that in West Bengal, the politics is between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP.

In the by-poll held on September 30, the CPI-M nominee Shrijeeb Biswas bagged only three per cent votes. The Congress had declined to field a candidate in solidarity with Mamata, whose party is now busy taking in many Congress leaders.



The winning candidate Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, herself polled 71 per cent of votes. Though it is a record, BJP's Priyanka polled 26,428 votes, making it 22.29 per cent. In 2016 polls also, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee had won the seat.

"I am the 'Man of the Match' in this game because I contested the election in Mamata Banerjee's stronghold and got more than 25,000 votes. I will continue doing the hard work," Ms Tibrewal said as trends made it clear that she had lost the race.

Of course, in the April-May summer polls, Trinamool nominee Sovandeep Chattopadhyay had polled 57.71 per cent votes to win the seat, defeating actor-turned-Neta Rudranil Ghosh, who had polled 44,786 votes making it 35.16 per cent of votes polled.

The BJP issued a statement stating, "After being demolished in Nandigram, Mamata Banerjee may have survived in Bhabanipur for now, but it has never happened that a losing candidate chose to thrust herself as the chief minister, in violation of all democratic norms and proprietary."

"The elections were held under an overbearing state administration, with the dark shadow of fear, intimidation and gloom of the post-poll violence hanging over the electorate," the BJP said in the statement.

Former BJP chief Dilip Ghosh was heckled during campaigning. On the run to the by-polls, Mamata was so touchy about her politics that she ensured 'defection' of BJP leader and ex-Minister Babul Supriyo. Mamata's nervousness before the polls was palpable, without a doubt.
The Afghan media and journalist fraternity are going through the worst time in the last 20 years, and many have fled their nation.

Guwahati: Condoling the demise of Afghan journalist Sayyed Marof Saadat in a shooting incident on 2 October the Geneva-based global media rights body Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) lamented over missing newspapers from the stands across Afghanistan as most of the media managements shifted to online space after the arrival of the Taliban forces in the capital city of Kabul.

Expressing serious concern on the growing security threats for professional journalists in the southeast Asian country, the PEC calls

upon the United Nations and the international community to urge the new government in Kabul to respect press freedom and the safety of journalists.

It may be mentioned that Afghan scribe Saadat was travelling along with others in a vehicle towards Jalalabad city on Saturday evening when the miscreants targeted them with bullets. The incident took place in the Nangarhar locality of Afghanistan, where two other people also died, and a few others were injured.

Meanwhile, the press has been paralyzed, particularly in Kabul, which is under the grip of the Taliban once again after the fall of President Ashraf Ghani's government on 15 August. Before their advent, the ancient city witnessed several newspapers and other media outlets that surfaced in the last two decades to cater to the need of readers, listeners, and viewers.

"Overall, a total of 150 newspapers/magazines out of 500 media outlets including television & radio channels and news agencies have closed in the past month. The space for independent press and freedom of expression is shrinking day by day," said a report in Afghanistan Times, adding that the safety & security of scribes and overall financial problems have deteriorated the situation.

The Afghan media and journalist fraternity are going through the worst time in the last 20 years, and many have fled their nation. If the international community and the Taliban do not pay attention, the remaining media will also collapse very soon.

"Kabul alone had around 20 newspapers available to readers in English and local languages before the arrival of Taliban forces. Now the media persons are under severe security threats and financial crisis as most of the foreign governments & non-government offices have abandoned the country and their potential supporters have also disappeared," said PEC General secretary Blaise Lempen.

Recently, around 150 Afghan journalists urged the United Nations and other international groups to ensure their protection against the backdrop of threats issued by the Taliban militants. Speaking to the PEC, an Afghan journalist revealed that the media fraternity has lost its female members as the Taliban regime is understood to maintain its harsh policy towards women journalists all along.

The freedom of expression of Afghan journalists who fled the country in August is also limited, said an Afghan journalist who has found refuge in Belgium during August. Talking to the PEC, he commented, "Due to the risks for my colleagues, who are still in Afghanistan, I can't talk or write my own story now, probably another time, when they are also out of the country or at least there is no high risks for them."
In the history of modern polling, Bidens ratings have sunk lower than the ratings for all but two presidents at similar points in their terms  Gerald Ford and Donald Trump.

Gradually, American voters have started realizing their greatest blunder of considering Joe Biden as the alternative to Donald Trump. Bidens approval rating among key Democratic constituencies has declined drastically in the recent months, eroding or even reversing decades-long patterns in public opinion. Analysts are seeing this as a warning sign of even deeper dissatisfaction among Democratic-leaning voters. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris has already lost total credibility as the vice president because of her inability in properly implementing tasks Biden assigns her. Moreover, she already has been branded as a filthy individual with no quality of holding any position in the White House.

According to The New York Times, a large number of voters  women, young people and those who are Black or Latino  have all soured on Bidens performance, according to polls conducted since the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, even while Biden has retained more of his support among men, college-educated white voters and older voters.

Bidens ratings have fallen more among women than any other demographic group. Forty-eight percent of women approve of Bidens performance in polls conducted since the fall of Kabul, Afghanistan, down from 57 percent in earlier surveys by the same national pollsters.

In the history of modern polling, Bidens ratings have sunk lower than the ratings for all but two presidents at similar points in their terms  Gerald Ford and Donald Trump.

Although NYT wants to see this decline in Bidens support as temporary and even hopes, the enactment of the presidents stalled legislative initiatives in Congress would be enough for Joe Biden to renew his reputation with Democratic-leaning voters, the reality is just the opposite. The corrupt and rogue media conglomerate and the Islamist-socialist bloc cannot salvage a sinking Joe Biden from the political catastrophe.

According to neutral analysts, a heavy setback for the Democrats will start becoming visible from the midterm elections, while Joe Biden will continue to lose his physical and mental ability to run the country until 2024, where his running mate Kamala Harris can not be trusted as his replacement because of her disastrous performance during the past nine months. According to critics, Kamala Harris does not have the maturity or experience even as the vice president of the US. She is a real liability inside the White House.

Courtesy: Weekly Blitz
Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in mid-August, attacks by ISIL-affiliated terrorists against them have increased.





At least 12 people have died, and 32 others suffered injuries in a blast at a mosque in the Afghan capital on Sunday (October 3). Qari Saeed Khosty, a spokesperson for the Afghan Interior Ministry, said that three people had been detained in connection with the incident.

The incident took place in a crowded place at the Eid Gah Mosque. Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in mid-August, attacks by ISIL-affiliated terrorists against them have increased. The rise in terrorist attacks has raised the possibility of a wider conflict between the two groups.

Writing for the US-based think tank Gatestone Institute, Con Coughlin argued that the Eid Gah Mosque blast has reminded the world of the prospects of Afghanistan once more becoming a safe haven for terrorists.

Following the Taliban take over the country, Coughlin pointed out that all the indications were that jihadist terror groups have been growing in strength in Afghanistan, with all the implications this deeply concerning trend will have both for Afghanistan and the wider world.

"There is deep concern within Western intelligence circles that a consolidation of power is already taking place in Afghanistan among a number of Islamist terror groups that are taking full advantage of the Taliban takeover," he said.

On Sunday, the Taliban had said that Daesh (ISIS-K) is not a serious threat to Afghanistan's security and that they will crackdown on the group.

"Daesh is not a serious threat to Afghanistan's security, and they (Daesh) are not able to threaten Afghanistan's security," said Saeed Khosti, spokesman for the MoI. The outfit said that Daesh has no active presence in the country and falsely claims responsibility for attacks.

The growth in ISIS-K's strength in Afghanistan is also reflected in the creation of a specialist unit called Al-Sadiq. This unit used to coordinate its activities with other Islamist terror groups in South Asia.
Mr Shringla inspected the Indian Oil Tank Farm in Trincomalee and Lanka Indian Oil officials briefed him on the developments undertaken at the Lower Bank Farms and the possibilities to further strengthen the India-Sri Lanka energy partnership to enhance Sri Lanka's energy security.



New Delhi: On a visit to Sri Lanka, Foreign Secretary Harsh V Shringla on Sunday (October 3) visited the iconic Jaffna Cultural Centre built with Indian grant assistance.

"The iconic, state-of-the art cultural centre will help people of Northern Province reconnect with their roots and in nurturing our shared cultural heritage," a tweet from the Indian High Commission in Colombo said.

Jaffna was once Sri Lanka's second-most populous city after Colombo. The 1980s insurgent uprising led to extensive damage, the expulsion of part of the population, and military occupation. Since the end of the civil war in 2009, refugees and internally displaced people have begun returning to their homes, while government and private sector reconstruction have also started taking place.

Meanwhile, Mr Shringla on Sunday also inspected the Indian Oil Tank Farm in Trincomalee.

Lanka Indian Oil (LIOC) officials briefed him on the developments undertaken at the Lower Bank Farms and the possibilities to further strengthen the India-Sri Lanka energy partnership to enhance Sri Lanka's energy security.

The Foreign Secretary was also at hand to launch LIOC's new product 'Servo Pride ALT 15W-40'.

Apart from the bilateral discussion with the Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary, Mr Shringla's programme includes a call on the President, Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, and the Foreign Minister.

The Foreign Secretary is on an official visit to Sri Lanka from 2 to October 5 at his Sri Lankan counterpart, Admiral Prof. Jayanath Colombage.

The visit will contribute towards consolidating the longstanding multifaceted relations and enhance bilateral partnerships between the two countries.

"Sri Lanka occupies a central place in India's 'Neighbourhood First' policy. Foreign Secretary's visit signifies the importance both countries attach to strengthening their close and cordial relations in all spheres of mutual interest," an MEA statement has said.
The high-level visits, in particular, the state visits of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to India in November 2019 and February 2020, respectively, have given fresh impetus to the bilateral relations.



New Delhi: The Government of India will also support the development of facilities for tourists and pilgrims at sites associated with the Ramayana circuit in Sri Lanka.

This was stated by Foreign Secretary Harsh V Shringla, who is on a visit to the island nation.

"Let me state on this occasion that on our part, we will leave no stone unturned in mitigating the adverse impact of the COVID-19 restrictions on our socio-economic engagement and will stand together with Government of Sri Lanka in its efforts for post-Covid recovery," he said during the inauguration of Indian Development Cooperation projects at Temple Trees in Colombo.

He said the bilateral engagement between two countries is across different spheres.

The high-level visits, in particular, the state visits of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to India in November 2019 and February 2020, respectively, have given fresh impetus to the bilateral relations.

The Virtual Bilateral Summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in September 2020 was an important milestone as it set the template for the future evolution of our cooperation in fields such as defence and security, health, tourism, trade and commerce and people to people ties, Mr Shringla said.

He maintained that India buttressed its credentials as a net security provider and first responder in HADR situations in the wider Indian Ocean region in the past year.

He further said that India was happy to respond to Sri Lanka's requests in recent fire and marine pollution cases in its waters. The Foreign Secretary also called on Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lankan President in Colombo, on Monday (October 4).

Both sides had a productive discussion on further consolidating the multifaceted India-Sri Lanka partnership, officials said.
The radical Islamists who have established control over most of the territory of Afghanistan have learned from their mistakes 20 years ago and want to prove to the whole world their legitimacy and readiness for dialogue.

And in Kabul, radical Islamists have not held and will not hold anything even remotely resembling an election. Secondly, the Taliban is not a political party but a very radical political and religious organization. It pursues the goal of spreading its ideology to at least all the historical lands of Muslims from Chinese Xinjiang to Spain! And their weapons are terror, sabotage, propaganda.

The Taliban wants to prove to the whole world their legitimacy and readiness for dialogue. The radical Islamists who have established control over most of the territory of Afghanistan have learned from their mistakes 20 years ago. They even created an anti-terrorist structure; however, the question is, who will it catch? Now the Taliban need international recognition and diplomatic relations with the leading players in international politics.

True, they do not intend to hold elections and referendums, having taken power by force, which international law does not welcome. However, as long as there is even a drop of hope in the West and Russia that the Taliban will turn Afghanistan into a stable country, the Taliban can count on the actual recognition of their power. China, which simultaneously persecutes its citizens, the Islamist Uyghurs, and supports Pakistan, which lives according to Sharia law, is not afraid of the Taliban. Chinas tough laws allow Beijing to believe that the Peoples Army and Security Services will easily eliminate any threat of terrorism.

However, the West should not flatter itself for two reasons. First, because of democratic values. They are the cornerstone of European democracy, which is at the heart of the very existence of the EU. Only a democratically elected government is legitimate. And in Kabul, radical Islamists have not held and will not hold anything even remotely resembling an election. Secondly, the Taliban is not a political party but a very radical political and religious organization. It pursues the goal of spreading its ideology to at least all the historical lands of Muslims from Chinese Xinjiang to Spain! And their weapons are terror, sabotage, propaganda.

Seeing Taliban Afghanistan as a way to distract Russia from European problems is like taking napalm to ants in your house. The ants will burn, but the house also will burn with them. Terror has no boundaries. So, whether old Europe wants it or not, the only alternative to the Taliban now is the abandoned leader of the National Resistance Front, Ahmad Masud, who continues to fight in the Panjshir Gorge! However, he has enough potential allies. It must be known that the Taliban are, first of all, the Pashtun movement  an ethnic group that makes up 50% of the population of Afghanistan.

On the other hand, Massoud represents not only the democratic forces but also 23 per cent of local Tajiks. He, in turn, is supported by the Hazaras (10 per cent) and Uzbeks (9 per cent).

In addition, the danger of ethnic cleansing of local Tajiks and Uzbeks is forcing Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to support the last stronghold of democratic forces in Afghanistan. Namely, relying on the ethnic diversity of Afghanistan, Masood, who remains in the country and controls part of the Panjshir Province, repeatedly declares the need to create a more decentralized government and de facto federalization of the country.

He started talking about it back in August after giving up his decorative position in the Taliban government and continues now. According to Massouds plan, the regions should receive more autonomy and ethnic groups more rights. This, at least, will allow them to protect themselves from the Taliban laws at the local level. This is especially significant if we keep in mind that Taliban laws are contrary to all modern legal norms. In support of Massouds ideas, rallies are held in the provinces inhabited by Uzbeks and Hazaras. For example, in the mountainous Bamiyan, 130 kilometres from Kabul. There, under the pro-Masudian slogans, the riots have been going on for days. Locals are asking the Taliban to leave, and radical Islamists are afraid to take tough measures

Russia also demands an inclusive, democratic government from the Taliban, although it is obvious that Moscow will, in any case, be forced to communicate with the new masters of Kabul. Without the intervention of the Kremlin, the region will face a big war, which is not good for Europe. The flow of refugees, and with it the terrorists, will rush not to the north, to Russia, but along the old routes through Turkey and Greece to prosperous Europe.

So, Ahmad Massoud remains the only hope for containing the Taliban, and perhaps those who can transform Afghanistan into a relatively peaceful federation, where there will be no ethnic cleansing that radical Islamists have already begun in Panjshir. And the Western world is simply obliged to support him, to support pro-democratic forcesperhaps even enlisting the support of Russia.

Courtesy: Weekly Blitz
BIG RAPIDS  Big Rapids Department of Public Safety officers responded to the following calls.

All calls may not be reported.

Friday, Oct. 1

 Big Rapids police officers assisted CPS in the 300 block of Morrison Street for a possible child abuse. The mother admitted to spanking her 2- and 5-year-old children earlier in the week, leaving bruises on both.

 A property damage accident was reported near State and Cedar streets.

 Suspicious activity was reported in the 1000 block of Perry Avenue. A cleaning crew found possible narcotics in room. The substance was seized and entered into property for further investigation.

 A trespassing incident was reported in the 300 block of South Warren Avenue. A man was being disorderly and was asked to leave the building. The man was upset because he was unable to get his recently obtained phone activated so he could attempt to contact family. Officers assisted in getting the phone activated and found a hotel in Evart willing to take him and his dogs until family can come get him.

 A property damage accident was reported near Warren Avenue and Maple Street.

 Big Rapids police officers assisted the Big Rapids Fire Department in the 1700 block of South State Street with a vehicle on fire. The vehicle owner had a probation violation warrant out of Florida. Florida wanted her lodged. She was lodged and waived extradition.

 Suspicious activity was reported in the 600 block of South State Street. A van was parked at the back door and the back door was open. Cleaners were on the scene.

 A man was located urinating on a tree in the 100 block of North Stewart Street. The man was cited for minor in possession of alcohol and urinating in public. He was later released.

Saturday, Oct. 2

 A verbal argument was reported in the 1300 block of Catherine Street. The parties were separated for the day.

 Suspicious activity was reported in the 1500 block of Darwin Street. A 14-year-old took a package off of the complainants porch, but she put it back right away.

 A traffic stop  in the 600 block of Maple Street  for littering and expired plate led to the driver being cited for no insurance. The vehicle was impounded.

 A traffic stop near South State and Cedar streets for no lights led to the driver being cited for improper plate. The vehicle was impounded.

 A traffic stop near Maple and North State streets for a red light violation resulted in the driver being cited for improper plate. The vehicle was towed.

 A noise complaint was made in the 500 block of South Michigan Avenue. The complainant reported a possible fight in the alley behind a residence. Upon arrival, people were arguing over having to leave large party with loud music. The resident was given a written noise warning.

 Suspicious activity was reported in the 500 block of South Michigan Avenue. A man was found to be the cause of an argument and wanted to report his $20 vape and $50 cash being stolen at the party by a resident because he was the one yelling at the man to leave.

Sunday, Oct. 3

 Suspicious activity was reported in the 1100 block of Catherine Street. A man and woman were upset because they invested their money in a scam.

 A man called and advised he was getting kicked out of the hotel. A short time, later the manager called and requested authorities trespass the man.

 Child neglect was reported in the 1800 block of Milton Street. A 4-year-old child was found to be unattended on a playground for over an hour. The mother was located sleeping. The case was forwarded to CPS for review.

 A traffic stop near Water Tower Road and Perry Avenue for no taillights resulted in a driver being cited for no operators license. The vehicle was impounded.
Do you know what fire safety sounds like?

It is National Fire Protection Week and the National Fire Protection Association announced this year's theme is Learn the Sounds of Fire Safety.

From beeps to chirps, this years campaign works to better educate the public about the sounds smoke alarms make, what those sounds mean, and how to respond to them.

Lorraine Carli, National Fire Protection Association vice president of outreach and advocacy, said in a news release about the campaign that smoke alarms are a key piece of fire prevention.

Smoke alarms have played a leading role in reducing fire death rates over the past 40 years, but we still have more work to do in maximizing their effectiveness, Carli said in the release.

According to the latest Smoke Alarms in the U.S. report from the association, working smoke alarms in the home reduce the risk of dying in a reported fire by about 55%.

However, the release states that almost three out of five home fire deaths occur in homes with no smoke alarms, 41%, or smoke alarms that failed to operate,16%; missing or non-functional power sources, including missing or disconnected batteries, dead batteries, and disconnected hardwired alarms or other alternate current power issues, are the most common factors when smoke alarms fail to operate.

When the smoke alarms in your home beep or chirp and you cant figure out why  or how to make them stop  it can be frustrating. All too often, that frustration leads people to remove the batteries from their alarms or dismantle them altogether, Carli said. These actions place people at serious risk in the event of a home fire.

This years Fire Prevention Week theme helps people better understand the reasons smoke alarms may sound and the know-how to effectively address them, helping ensure that smoke alarms remain in working order.

The campaign also addresses special considerations for the deaf and hard of hearing, along with information about carbon monoxide alarms.

Giving people the tools to properly respond to alarms sounding  whether its an actual fire or simply time to change a battery  can make a life-saving difference, Carli said.

Key messages for Learn the Sounds of Fire Safety include:

 When a smoke alarm or carbon monoxide alarm sounds, respond immediately by exiting the home as quickly as possible;

 If your alarm begins to chirp, it may mean that the batteries are running low and need to be replaced. If the alarm continues to chirp after the batteries are replaced, or the alarm is more than 10 years old, it is time to replace the alarm;

 Test all smoke and CO alarms monthly. Press the test button to make sure the alarm is working;

 If there is someone in your household who is deaf or hard of hearing, install bed shaker and strobe light alarms that will alert that person to fire; and

 Know the difference between the sound of a smoke alarm and a carbon monoxide alarm  three beeps for smoke alarms; four beeps for carbon monoxide alarms.

For more information about Fire Prevention Week, this years theme, along with other resources, visit fpw.org.

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Facebook and its Instagram and WhatsApp platforms are back online after a massive global outage plunged the services and the businesses and people who rely on them into chaos for hours.

Facebook said late Monday that the root cause of this outage was a faulty configuration change and that there is no evidence that user data was compromised as a result of the outage.

The company apologized and said it is working to understand more about the cause, which began around 11:40 a.m. Eastern Monday.

Facebook was already in the throes of a separate major crisis after whistleblower Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, provided The Wall Street Journal with internal documents that exposed the companys awareness of harms caused by its products and decisions. Haugen went public on CBSs 60 Minutes program Sunday and is scheduled to testify before a Senate subcommittee Tuesday.

Haugen had also anonymously filed complaints with federal law enforcement alleging Facebooks own research shows how it magnifies hate and misinformation and leads to increased polarization. It also showed that the company was aware that Instagram can harm teenage girls mental health.

The Journals stories, called The Facebook Files, painted a picture of a company focused on growth and its own interests over the public good. Facebook has tried to play down their impact. Nick Clegg, the companys vice president of policy and public affairs, wrote to Facebook employees in a memo Friday that social media has had a big impact on society in recent years, and Facebook is often a place where much of this debate plays out.

The outage didn't exactly bolster Facebook's argument that its size and clout provide important benefits for the world. London-based internet monitoring firm Netblocks noted that the company's plans to integrate the technology behind its platforms  announced in 2019  had raised concerns about the risks of such a move. While such centralization gives the company a unified view of users internet usage habits, Netblocks said, it also makes the services vulnerable to single points of failure.

This is epic, said Doug Madory, director of internet analysis for Kentik Inc, a network monitoring and intelligence company. The last major internet outage, which knocked many of the worlds top websites offline in June, lasted less than an hour. The stricken content-delivery company in that case, Fastly, blamed a software bug triggered by a customer who changed a setting.

For hours, Facebooks only public comment was a tweet in which it acknowledged that some people are having trouble accessing (the) Facebook app and said it was working on restoring access. Regarding the internal failures, Instagram head Adam Mosseri tweeted that it feels like a snow day.

Mike Schroepfer, Facebooks outgoing chief technology officer, later tweeted sincere apologies.

In Monday night's statement, Facebook blamed changes on routers that coordinate network traffic between data centers. The company said the changes interrupted the communication, which had a cascading effect on the way our data centers communicate, bringing our services to a halt.

There was no evidence as of Monday afternoon that malicious activity was involved. Matthew Prince, CEO of the internet infrastructure provider Cloudflare, tweeted that nothing were seeing related to the Facebook services outage suggests it was an attack.

Facebook did not respond to messages for comment about the attack or the possibility of malicious activity.

While much of Facebook's workforce is still working remotely, there were reports that employees at work on the company's Menlo Park, California, campus had trouble entering buildings because the outage had rendered their security badges useless.

But the impact was far worse for multitudes of Facebook's nearly 3 billion users, showing just how much the world has come to rely on it and its properties  to run businesses, connect with online communities, log on to multiple other websites and even order food.

It also showed that despite the presence of Twitter, Telegram, Signal, TikTok, Snapchat and a bevy of other platforms, nothing can easily replace the social network that over the past 17 years has effectively evolved into critical infrastructure. The outage came the same day Facebook asked a federal judge that a revised antitrust complaint against it by the Federal Trade Commission be dismissed because it faces vigorous competition from other services.

There are certainly other online services for posting selfies, connecting with fans or reaching out to elected officials, But those who rely on Facebook to run their business or communicate with friends and family in far-flung places saw this as little consolation.

Kendall Ross, owner of a knitwear brand called I'd Knit That in Oklahoma City, said she has 32,000 followers on her Instagram business page @id.knit.that. Almost all of her website traffic comes directly from Instagram. She posted a product photo about an hour before Instagram went out. She said she tends to sell about two hand-knit pieces after posting a product photo for about $300 to $400.

The outage today is frustrating financially, Ross said. Its also a huge awakening that social media controls so much of my success in business.

So many people are reliant on Facebook, WhatsApp or Instagram as primary modes of communication that losing access for so long can make them vulnerable to criminals taking advantage of the outage, said Rachel Tobac, a hacker and CEO of SocialProof Security.

They dont know how to contact the people in their lives without it, she said. Theyre more susceptible to social engineering because theyre so desperate to communicate. Tobac said during previous outages, some people have received emails promising to restore their social media account by clicking on a malicious link that can expose their personal data.

Jake Williams, chief technical officer of the cybersecurity firm BreachQuest, said that while foul play cannot be completely ruled out, chances were good that the outage is an operational issue caused by human error.

What it boils down to: running a LARGE, even by internet standards, distributed system is very hard, even for the very best, tweeted Columbia University computer scientist Steven Bellovin.

Twitter, meanwhile, chimed in from the companys main account on its service, posting hello literally everyone as jokes and memes about the Facebook outage flooded the platform. Later, as an unverified screenshot suggesting that the facebook.com address was for sale circulated, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted, how much?

___

AP business writer Mae Anderson in New York and AP technology writer Matt O'Brien in Providence, R.I., contributed to this report.

-

This article has been updated to correct the name of the business to Id Knit That, rather than, Knit That, and pronoun for owner to she, not he.
A 44-year-old Gladwin County resident died Sunday after sustaining injuries in a two-vehicle traffic crash last week, according to the Midland County Sheriff's office.

Jason Gransden of Gladwin County was traveling northbound on North Eastman Road on Monday, Sept. 27. He was riding a maroon 2012 Harley Davidson motorcycle when a 29-year-old Midland County man was traveling southbound in a 2006 Chevrolet Silverado.

Gransden, who was wearing a helmet at the time of the crash, was thrown from the motorcycle, according to a press release from the sheriff's office issued Monday, Oct. 4.

The Chevrolet Silverado driver was uninjured. The sheriff's department said the Silverado was struck on the front passengers side by the motorcycle; the front air bag deployed.

According to the sheriff's office, the Midland County man failed to yield the right of way to Gransdens motorcycle by attempting to turn left into a private business parking lot, in front of Gransden.

At the time of the crash, Gransden was transported to Mid-Michigan Medical Center-Midland in critical condition. Gransden was later pronounced dead on Sunday, Oct. 3.

By approximately 7:38 p.m. on Sept. 27, the Midland County Sheriffs Office responded to and investigated the two-vehicle traffic crash that took place at the intersection of North Eastman Road and East Schneider Court in Larkin Township.

As standard procedure, the sheriffs office is awaiting toxicology reports to determine if alcohol or drugs were a factor in the crash. The report will be forwarded to the Midland County Prosecutors office for review once it has been completed.

Midland County Sheriffs office personnel were assisted at the scene by the Michigan State Police and MPS's Third District Accident Reconstruction Team, Larkin Township Fire Department and Mid-Michigan EMS.
Film and television production in North America is in jeopardy of coming to a standstill after its behind-the-scenes workers overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike for the first time in its 128-year history.

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees said Monday that nearly 99% of registered members who participated, or 52,706 people, voted in support of a strike over the weekend.

At issue is a contract standstill over requests for more reasonable conditions for the craftspeople, technicians and laborers working for streaming companies like Netflix, Apple and Amazon, including better pay, reasonable rest periods, safer hours and guaranteed meal breaks.

I hope that the studios will see and understand the resolve of our members, the alliances president, Matthew Loeb, said in a statement. The ball is in their court. If they want to avoid a strike, they will return to the bargaining table and make us a reasonable offer.

The most recent three-year contract expired in July, leading to four months of negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the group that represents studios and streamers in negotiations. But on Sept. 20, the day after streaming shows like The Crown, Ted Lasso and The Queens Gambit swept the Emmy Awards, conversations came to a halt.

Loeb has said his goal is to reach an agreement, not to have a dispute, but noted the vote was about the quality of life as well as the health and safety of those who work in the film and television industry.

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees has said it is incomprehensible that the AMPTP, an ensemble that includes media mega-corporations collectively worth trillions of dollars, claims it cannot provide behind-the-scenes crews with basic human necessities like adequate sleep, meal breaks, and living wages.

The union added its members worked through the coronavirus pandemic to ensure their business emerged intact. "Now, we cannot and will not accept a deal that leaves us with an unsustainable outcome.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said in a statement it remains committed to reaching an agreement that will keep the industry working, particularly since it's still recovering from the economic fallout of the pandemic.

A deal can be made at the bargaining table, but it will require both parties working together in good faith with a willingness to compromise and to explore new solutions to resolve the open issues, it said.

While unions like the Writers Guild of America have more frequently found themselves on the brink of a strike, and in 2007-08 did indeed go on strike for 100 days, Hollywood crews and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees do not have a significant strike history. The only other previous dispute was when set decorators walked out for six months in 1945, resulting in a riot at the Warner Bros. studio gates that became known as Bloody Friday. Should the stalemate this time result in a strike, it would be the first nationwide movement in the theatrical stage worker group's history.

Many prominent names in Hollywood have voiced public support for the crews demands, including actor and producer Octavia Spencer who tweeted her support Monday.

I hope #AMPTP does the right thing and sits down again, Spencer wrote. Theyre not asking for anything unreasonable.
Due to technical difficulties, the state's COVID website was not updated before the Daily News press deadline on Friday. As a result, today's report reflects the cases added between Thursday, Sept. 30 and Monday, Oct. 4.

COVID-19 numbers reported from Sept. 30-Oct. 4

Midland County: 190 cases and five deaths were added; pandemic total is 8,466 cases, 770 probable cases, 116 deaths and four probable deaths. Bay County: 340 cases were added; pandemic total stands at 12,467 cases, 860 probable cases, 355 deaths and 15 probable deaths. Gladwin County: 74 cases were added; pandemic total stands at 2,438 cases, 494 probable cases, 62 deaths and four probable deaths. Isabella County: 182 cases and one death were added; pandemic total stands at 6,625 cases, 1,177 probable cases, 99 deaths and five probable deaths. Saginaw County: 392 cases and three deaths were added; pandemic total stands at 23,371 cases, 1,743 probable cases, 632 deaths and 21 probable deaths. The state added 16,762 cases and 141 deaths between Thursday and Monday. Overall, Michigan is at 1,039,337 cases and 21,139 deaths.

Recovered

According to the Midland County Health Department website, which was updated Oct. 4, 8,179 Midland County individuals have recovered from COVID. The state reported that as of Oct. 1, a total of 931,115 persons have recovered.

Testing

Midland Countys seven-day rolling positivity rate on Sept. 30 was listed at 12%, and Gladwin County's was listed at 15%. Our 12-county region was listed at 145% and Michigan was at 9%.

MidMichigan Health statistics

As of Oct. 4, MidMichigan Medical Center in Midland was listed as having a 79% bed occupancy, with 30 COVID patients and five in the ICU. MidMichigan Medical Center in Gladwin was listed as having a 32% bed occupancy, with two COVID patients and none in the ICU.

Both medical centers reported having at least 15-30 days worth of personal protection equipment (N95, surgical masks, gowns, gloves and eye protection) on hand.

Schools

As of Friday, Midland Public Schools reported 120 staff/students were in close contact to an individual who was confirmed COVID-19 positive and 30 staff/students currently tested positive for the virus. Schools with one or more staff/student confirmed positive for COVID-19 as of Friday include Dow High (5), Midland High (5), Jefferson Middle (1), Northeast Middle (2), Adams Elementary (1), Central Park Elementary (4), Plymouth Elementary (2), Siebert Elementary (1) and Woodcrest Elementary (9).

Bullock Creek reported on Monday that there are five staff members and 33 students who are active confirmed cases. There are also 210 students and no staff members currently in quarantine. Schools with one or more staff/student confirmed positive for COVID-19 as of Friday include Floyd Elementary (6), Pine River Elementary (3), Middle School (9) and High School (20).

Midland County vaccinations

The Michigan COVID-19 Vaccine Dashboard lists Midland's completed vaccine rate is 66.1%. Currently, the vaccines are not authorized to be given to those under age 12.

Midland County Health Department is hosting a weekly walk-in COVID vaccination clinic from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every Tuesday and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Friday on the second floor of the Midland County Services Building, 220 W. Ellsworth St., Midland.

Future COVID-19 vaccine clinics in Midland County are listed at www.co.midland.mi.us/HealthDepartment/COVIDVaccineInformation.aspx. Those with questions may call 989-832-6380 or email MCDPH@co.midland.mi.us.
Asha Asokan, Rotarian, Nonviolent Peaceforce member, and director of NuclearBan.US, recently came to Midland to both educate and challenge attendees to think about the presence and impact of nuclear weapons in our world. The presentation was sponsored by Midland Rotary and Nonviolent Peaceforce Midland Chapter (NPMC).

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) is a coalition of non-governmental organizations promoting adherence to and implementation of the United Nations nuclear weapon ban treaty. They are focused on mobilizing civil society around the world to support the objective of prohibiting and eliminating nuclear weapons. The 2017 Nobel Peace Prize was presented to ICAN to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and ICANs ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons.

In 2017, the UN General Assembly convened a United Nations conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, potentially leading towards their total elimination. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) includes a comprehensive set of prohibitions on participating in any nuclear weapon activities. These include undertakings not to develop, test, produce, acquire, possess, stockpile, use or threaten to use nuclear weapons. The United States has not yet signed or ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (www.icanw.org/the_treaty).

At that 2017 ceremony, a survivor of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima 75 years ago, Setsuko Thurlow, spoke these words:

To every president and prime minister of every nation of the world, I beseech you: Join this treaty; forever eradicate the threat of nuclear annihilation. When I was a 13-year-old girl, trapped in the smoldering rubble, I kept pushing. I kept moving toward the light. And I survived. Our light now is the ban treaty. To all in this hall and all listening around the world, I repeat those words that I heard called to me in the ruins of Hiroshima: Dont give up! Keep pushing! See the light? Crawl towards it.

Asha Asokan, an advocate for a safer world, brought to Midland a similar challenge, Dont give up. Act now! Her challenges to the engaged audience included:

1. Reach out to your elected U.S. representative to have him or her sign the ICAN Pledge, which can be signed by an individual legislator. Also, state and city legislators or other leaders can be approached to sign the ICAN Pledge.

2. Ask your representative to sign on to US House Bill 2850  Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act of 2021 (which is also known as the Norton Bill). Only 11 members in the House have signed on to the Bill at this time. (U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Midland, has not.)

3. Become knowledgeable about U.S. and other countries positions on nuclear weapons. Resources include www.icanw.org/how_is_your_country_doing and www.icanw.org/united_states.
PARIS (AP)  An independent commission examining sex abuse within the Roman Catholic Church in France believes 3,000 child abusers  two-thirds of them priests  have worked in the church over the past 70 years.

The estimate was given by the commission president, Jean-Marc Sauve, in an interview published Sunday in the newspaper Journal du Dimanche. The commission has been investigating for 2 1/2 years. Its full findings are scheduled to be released on Tuesday.
Director of Content and Operations

Spencer McKee is OutThere Colorado's Director of Content and Operations. In his spare time, Spencer loves to hike, rock climb, and trail run. He's on a mission to summit all 58 of Colorado's fourteeners and has already climbed more than half.
New York, US (PANA) - The UN Secretary-General has condemned an attack against peacekeepers in Mali on Saturday which left one Egyptian blue helmet dead, and four others seriously injured
Washington, DC, US (PANA) - The US has send a message of congratulations to the people of the Kingdom of Lesotho on their 55th Independence Day which falls on Monday
Swiss Post has unveiled its plans to launch 175,000 Swiss crypto stamps on November 25, 2021.

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The crypto stamp consists of two parts: the physical stamp and the digital design. The physical stamp has Switzerlands traditional stamp design, with the Matterhorn mountain and the moon set against a blue background. This physical version can act as an ordinary stamp  it is self-adhesive and has a face value of CHF8.90 (US$9.60). However, it primarily serves to provide access to the digital design.

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The digital design is accessed via a QR code printed on the physical stamp. By scanning this code, customers can view their digital crypto stamp online. The digital crypto stamps come in 13 designs. When purchasing a Swiss crypto stamp, customers will not know which digital design is linked to it. Buyers will only discover what the digital twin of their physical stamp looks like when they go online. As the stamps are designed to be digital collectors items, some designs are common and others are rarer and therefore more sought-after. For example, there are 65,000 copies of the most common digital design but just 50 of the rarest.
Photo: (Photo : Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)

Half of the children in the U.S. are still at risk for lead poisoning as a new study has found high levels of the toxic substance in their blood samples.

In a study published in the JAMA Pediatrics journal, Dr. Marissa Hauptman and her Boston Children's Hospital staff learned that 50.5 percent of children under six years old have "detectable blood lead levels" (BLL). Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, and Nebraska have the highest number of children exposed to lead poisoning at 75 percent.

The experts looked into over one million blood samples from kids across the country and discovered at least two percent have a BLL of five micrograms per deciliter. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this level is qualified as "elevated" in kids.

However, Hauptman and the CDC said that there is no safe level for the presence of lead in children's blood. Hauptman wrote in the study that any level detected is "potentially harmful," especially to younger and smaller children.

Read Also: Doctors Thumb Down TikTok Deworming Trend, May Cause Long-Term Damage to Gut

The Silent Epidemic Remains

Doctors Philip Landrigan of Boston College and David Bellinger of Harvard Medical School agree that the silent epidemic of lead poisoning continues. In the 1980s, 90 percent of children in the U.S. had 10 micrograms per deciliter of lead in their blood, prompting the government to ban products with lead content, especially paint, plumbing fixtures and water pipes in many homes.

Dr. Morri Markowitz of the Montefiore Children's Hospital told Bloomberg that despite a significant change from 50 years ago, the goal moving forward should be zero detectable blood lead levels among the children. However, if the lead is still present in many older or non-refurbished homes or buildings, children will continue to be at risk.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden wants to eliminate all lead pipes for his government's trillion-dollar infrastructure proposal. While the doctors support the plan, they believe that the most significant source of lead poisoning in kids is still lead-based paint used in many old homes that haven't been renovated, particularly in impoverished communities with high BLLs.

Risks and Prevention of Lead Poisoning

Exposure to lead for children under six years old has serious health repercussions, affecting their brain and nervous system. Symptoms of lead poisoning don't usually manifest until it's already severe and the contamination has been present for some time, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Kids exposed to the toxic substance may experience weight loss, appetite loss, sluggishness, loss of appetite, irritability, learning difficulties, developmental delays, vomiting, constipation, and seizures. While there are treatments for lead poisoning, it's more important to prevent exposure by eliminating and reducing contaminants.

In homes, parents need to be conscious of the toys their children play with. If they are outdoors, they should be taught to wash their hands before coming inside to have their meals, as lead can be found in the soil.

Moms or dads must also regularly dust and clean the home to prevent the accumulation of dirt. Fixtures in the house, such as peeling paint, must be repaired as soon as possible. For homes with older plumbing, the experts recommend letting the water run at least a minute before using.

Related Article: How to Prevent Salmonella in Kids as Mysterious Outbreak Impacts 29 States
Photo: (Photo : Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced that a vaccine mandate for schoolchildren will be in effect in California as soon as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) grants full approval for the vaccination of kids in the ages of 5 to 11 years old.

The state is the first in the U.S. to impose the requirement for both private and public school students. According to the Los Angeles Times, the vaccine mandate for schoolchildren could take effect as early as January 2022 and might be rolled out in two phases.

Newsom said that California needs to do more to "get to where we need to be" in containing the virus and achieving herd immunity. This means that unvaccinated students will not be allowed to join in-person classes, but they can attend online studies or be homeschooled.

The governor said California would adopt the same standards as the vaccine mandate for schoolchildren for measles, mumps, chickenpox, or polio. California has had at least ten established mandatory vaccinations for decades, and COVID-19 will be added.

Read Also: Halloween 2021: CDC Director Says Trick-Or-Treating Possible With Some Safety Guidelines

School Closures Due to Delta

California was also the first in the country to require vaccination for the teachers and staff in August. Infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci supports such mandates in the school community because the Delta variant spreads and impacts people faster.

Newsom's announcement comes as COVID-19 cases have forced some schools to close temporarily. According to Burbio, which tracks school activities during the pandemic, at least 2,200 in-person classes in 539 school districts have shut down since the resumption of classes this fall because of the infection.

More than 62 percent of parents said their children are at greater risk of virus transmission this year than last year because more schools are re-opening. Of these parents, 59 percent are supportive of the vaccine mandate for schoolchildren.

However, some parents are opposed to the requirement because they are not comfortable inoculating young children with a new vaccine. Before Newsom's announcement, a few schools in California had issued their independent mandates, but the school districts of Los Angeles and San Diego got a cease-and-desist letter from parents who wanted to challenge these rules in court.

Dr. Peter N. Bretan of the California Medical Association said that the vaccine mandate for schoolchildren is simply an extension of the public health protections enforced by the state for all deadly diseases. In a time when COVID-19 has brought "so much pain and suffering across our state," Bretan said that they support the governor's decision.

Where are the Vaccines?

Currently, everyone above 12 years old may be vaccinated in the U.S. Pfizer received full approval of its COVID-19 vaccines for those above 16 years old in August, while vaccination between 12 to 15 years old remains under emergency use authorization (EUA).

Pfizer is currently working on getting a full approval for the vaccines for 12 to 15 years old, and it has submitted its clinical trial data for the vaccines 5 to 11 years old with the FDA. Data for the trial for 2 to 5 years old will soon be out as well.

As of mid-September, 54 percent of kids between the ages of 12 to 15 have had one Pfizer dose. Of these numbers, fewer than 400 cases were linked to myocarditis. However, most vaccinated kids generally had mild reactions, and there have been no reported deaths.

Related Article: Trial for COVID-19 Vaccines for Toddlers Gives Parents Peace of Mind
Photo: (Photo : YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images)

A mother from Idaho, born with osteogenesis imperfecta, has defied medical science and carried a baby through 32 weeks of pregnancy despite warnings that the baby would crush her frail body. Trisha Taylor, 32, is now happily raising her 5-year-old son with her husband, Michael Taylor, amid the obstacles of her genetic condition.

In 2016, Trisha welcomed Maven into the world via C-section. However, before getting pregnant and having two miscarriages, the mother knew the risks of having a baby in her fragile state.

Trisha relayed that her doctors used "could" a lot to convince her not to push through with her pregnancy plans, saying she or the baby "could die." She said that she didn't have time for the "coulds" and happily welcomed the confirmation of her pregnancy with her husband.

Doctors had to watch Trisha closely since she also developed pre-eclampsia or severe high blood pressure, raising her pregnancy risk. In a video, the mother said that her biggest challenge while pregnant with Maven was breathing well. As the baby grew, her lungs had a harder time functioning well as her baby belly was pressing on her lungs.

At 31 weeks, the pregnant mom was admitted to the hospital because she was coughing incessantly to make air. The doctors said that she needed to deliver her baby to save both their lives.

Read Also: Texas Baby Grows Excessive Body Hair Due to Medication Saving His Life

A Healthy Baby Boy

Maven stayed at the neonatal intensive care for a few more weeks as a premature baby. Trisha also had to remain in the hospital for additional treatments. The doctors advised her to regain her strength.

"To this day people still can't believe I gave birth to him," Trisha said. "They ask if Maven's my baby and I always tell them - very proudly - 'Yes, he grew in my belly.'"

Maven has grown to be a healthy boy and did not inherit his mother's genetic condition. During an ultrasound early in the pregnancy, the parents were aware of this, but they confirmed that the baby didn't have osteogenesis imperfecta when Maven's bones didn't break when his father held him.

Trisha, who stands at two feet only, is proud that her son is now taller than her. His growth has assured the mother that Maven is developing well since Michael is over six feet tall.

Trisha's Brittle Bone Disease

At birth, Trisha weighed a normal six pounds, but doctors immediately noticed that she had bowed arms and legs. An X-ray showed that she fractured 150 bones in her body within hours of her stay at the nursery. Following some tests, doctors diagnosed that she has the rare brittle bones disease, osteogenesis imperfecta. This meant that she would live most of her childhood in a wheelchair. She suffered bone fractures at least once a month.

At 12 years old, Trisha started a new treatment drug, pamidronate, which helped with bone fractures. This changed her life as she could sit independently, get out of bed, and wean off the oxygen tank that helped her breathe.

The medication also allowed Trisha to live independently at 17 and go off to college, where she met her husband. In an interview with Kidspot, the mother said they might likely adopt a baby one day because getting pregnant for a second time is no longer an option. Trisha said that she didn't want Maven to lose his mother at such an early age.

Related Article: Zolgensma Gene Therapy: Babies Gain Approval To Use World's Most Expensive Drug
Photo: (Photo : Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

During the pandemic, stay-at-home orders and school closures delivered an unexpected benefit as vaping in teens dropped to 40 percent. The survey among American students showed that only 11 percent of high school kids and three percent of middle school children used e-cigarettes in recent months.

Harvard University's Dr. Nancy Rigotti said that the survey's results made sense because vaping in teens is usually associated with social activities. However, for most of the pandemic, school kids were limited to socializing online, contributing to the dramatic drop in their e-cigarette use.

The expert said that if the numbers hold up or continue to drop in the next survey, due at the end year, e-cigarette use among high schoolers could decline.

Read Also: EPA Bans Chlorpyrifos: Pesticide for Food Crops Linked to Health Issues in Kids

Pre-Pandemic Numbers on Vaping in Teens

The survey, conducted from January to May 2021, took place both online and in some schools. The results conveyed that vaping in teens was higher among students in the classroom (16 percent) than students in online learning programs (eight percent).

Overall, however, government officials believe that over two million teenagers in the U.S. vape or have tried vaping. The numbers are concerning for Dr. Karen Hacker of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) because e-cigarette remains a serious public health issue.

In 2018, the CDC learned that vaping in teens increased by 78 percent within a year. Dr. Wilson Compton, the National Institute on Drug Abuse deputy director, told NBC News that one-third of seniors in high school are using vaping products.

This has prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to impose a series of directives to cut down access to vaping products among the youth. Despite what the kids might think, vaping products still contain addictive substances than just flavoring.

More Limits to Vape

Despite the dip in numbers for 2021, the FDA is still bent on placing more limitations against the vaping industry as it reviews which e-cigarette products may remain in the market. Last September, the FDA has banned nearly a million vaping and vaping-related products, except for Juul, a leading brand, which has been in business for a decade.

However, the latest survey showed that fewer teenagers are patronizing Juul, which is only available in two flavors - menthol or tobacco. High school students prefer to vape Puff Bar, a type of disposable e-cigarette with attractive flavors like pink lemonade and strawberry.

In a statement, the FDA revealed that the ban is in line with the reviews to ensure the protection of young people. The agency said that it had rejected 93 percent of the six million vaping product applications in the last year, and 75 percent of these rejections were immediately denied because of missing key information related to teen's dependency on e-cigarettes.

Anti-tobacco advocates have been criticizing the FDA for its slow action on the accessibility of vapes to teenagers, saying that the review has been long overdue. The agency will also look into other products for smoking, such as pipes, mini-cigars, and hookahs.

Related Article: Study Says Parents Who Smoke Marijuana Make Their Kids Weak Against Respiratory Infections
Photo: (Photo : HANNAH MCKAY/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

A Florida nurse has lost her job after posting photos of a baby with birth defects on her social media accounts. Sierra Samuels was fired because she violated the privacy of a patient at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital.

According to reports, Samuels had access to the baby with birth defects since she works at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). She posted two photos with a caption that allegedly read, "Your intestines are supposed to be inside not outside baby."

The Jackson Health System told WFOR that they are taking the breach of privacy seriously. Employees who violate the privacy rules accorded to patients could face disciplinary action, suspension, or termination from work. The Florida nurse was under investigation for weeks, and the hospital found cause to terminate her employment.

Read Also: CDC Appeals to Pregnant Women: Get Your COVID-19 Vaccination

Baby Had Gastroschisis

Samuels included "gastroschisis" as one of the hashtags on the photo post. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this is a birth defect where the baby's intestines are outside the abdominal wall and coming out from the baby's belly button.

Gastroschisis happens during the early stages of the pregnancy when the abdominal wall muscles fail to form properly. The hole then develops, causing the intestines to come out. In some cases, it's the other organs that extend outside the body. Organs that form outside are at risk of swelling or becoming irritated because they are exposed to the womb's amniotic fluid.

Every year, at least 1,871 babies with this stomach birth defect are born in the U.S. However, the CDC said that more and more children develop gastroschisis, especially if they have young mothers. Diagnosis of this condition may be possible during the pregnancy.

Some experts believe gastroschisis might be a gene or chromosome condition but could be triggered by the mother's health and eating habits while pregnant. Babies born with a gastroschisis birth defect will require surgery. However, they could still encounter problems post-operation. In this case, the baby might have digestive problems and challenges in absorbing nutrients.

Protected Health Information

According to the HIPAA Journal, photos of patients are categorized as "protected health information" under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act signed in 1996. Medical workers should have authorization from the patient to share any of their medical photos, even in private groups on social media.

HIPAA also stated that healthcare providers should train their staff about protecting the patient's privacy. Reinforcements and refreshers of this training are also encouraged annually.

Reports cited that the hospital became aware of Samuels's post in early September, but it's unclear how they were alerted to the privacy breach. The mother of the child was also informed of the incident.

The Florida nurse, who has been working at the Jackson Memorial Hospital since 2016, had more than 600 followers on her Instagram and regularly posted photos from work. Samuels was placed on administrative leave before her termination. Her social media pages are now switched to private.

Related Article: Ugly Baby TikTok Challenge Has Moms Embracing Their Children's Flaws
Photo: (Photo : Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

New legislation for paid family leave could take effect into a law that will benefit all parents across the country. If passed, the proposal will allow parents 12 weeks of paid time off from work to care for a newborn or other family members with medical issues.

Currently, some states and private companies provide paid family leaves for their employees.

According to the survey, only 21 percent of workers in the U.S. are benefitting from a private or state-wide provision. Many lawmakers on both sides of the political spectrum agree that this should be adopted as a national policy.

The need to change the existing Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which allows workers to take long but unpaid leaves during a family crisis, was highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic. While Congress approved the release of stimulus packages and business support packages for employers to help their workers, the lawmakers said such benefits should become a permanent part of the federal system.

Read Also: Workplace Discrimination: New Mom Wins $255,000 From Employer Who Denied Her Reduced Hours Request

Benefits of Paid Family Leaves

Under the program, workers in all sectors, including gig and self-employed workers, who have been employed for at least six months, will be qualified to receive at least two-thirds of their earnings during the time they take time off from the federal government. However, their paid family leave should fall under specific qualifications, such as birth, adoption, or foster care of a child.

If workers need to look after a family member with a serious illness or a loved one's military deployment would impact their lives, they could also take a paid family leave. This policy will also cover bereavement leave, which has not yet been covered under federal law.

States with existing paid family leave benefits, such as California, New York, or Colorado, and 25 percent of the companies in the U.S. could still keep their existing policies if it's equal or higher than the federal plan.

Democrats in Congress are hoping that the policy will be in effect by June 2023. Analysts believe that the ambitious plan has a high chance of turning into law, especially when 80 percent of American voters support the bill. As it is, the U.S. is the only developed country in the world without a federal paid family leave benefit.

The Congress Debate and Your Support

Paid family leave is one of the provisions under President Joe Biden's $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act, which has been under deliberation in Congress since he took office. Because of the proposal's scale, Congress has to ensure that there will be enough federal funding to support the programs under Biden's reforms.

However, there's still a good chance Congress could scrap this particular provision on paid family leaves if the budget does not suffice. Biden's administration said that this plan would entail a budget of over $225 billion in government spending for at least a decade.

Thus, advocates are mobilizing the public to let their congressmen know that they favor the paid family leave proposal. Philanthropist Melinda Gates urged her followers on Twitter not to let this opportunity slip away because it will be women and moms who will suffer. Women are usually the primary caregivers whenever a family plunges into a health crisis.

If you care about these thingswomen, families, our economyjoin me and other leaders in calling your representatives in Congress today. Tell them we cant have a budget that leaves women behind. Tell them paid leave must stay in. pic.twitter.com/KrUvre5Q2f  Melinda French Gates (@melindagates) September 27, 2021

"Whether the legislation will cross the finish line remains the '$500 billion question,'" Michelle McGrain of the National Partnership for Women and Families said. "I think many members of Congress understand how life-changing this kind of a program would be."

Related Article: A 12-Week Paid Family Leave Policy Has Started Moving in Congress
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Chinas Supreme People's Court has made a civil ruling in favor of a consumer versus the China subsidiary of Apple, in a legal development lawyers say could open the gates for more consumers in the country to file similar complaints against the iPhone maker in local courts.

In a decision last month the 'Supreme Peoples Court' in China ruled that a lawsuit filed by a Chinese consumer against Apples China entity on antitrust grounds could proceed in a Shanghai court, rejecting Apples plea that its China entity, which mainly distributes Apples products in China, should not be sued over issues related to App Store operations.

The case involves Jin Xin, who is demanding Apple stop charging 30 per cent commission on purchases in the China App Store, and to allow Chinese consumers to make payments through wallets other than Apple Pay, to provide 100,000 yuan (US$15,500) in compensation and to issue a public apology. The Shanghai Intellectual Property Court has yet to make a ruling over whether the persons demands should be met.

But the decision by Chinas top court to allow the lawsuit to be considered by the Shanghai court could signal more trouble ahead for Apple in China, which now accounts for a fifth of its iPhone sales. Wang Qiongfei, Jins attorney, told the South China Morning Post in a telephone interview that a hearing is expected to take place in Shanghai next January.

You Yunting, a senior partner at Shanghai Debund Law Firm, said that the top courts ruling could have a far-reaching impact. "I think this case has established a new principle namely that antitrust cases are also rights infringement cases and thus can be adjudicated by local courts."

In August, South Koreas parliament approved a bill that bans app store operators, including Apple and Google, from forcing software developers to use their payment systems, effectively prohibiting them from charging commissions on in-app purchases. For more on this, read the full South China Morning Post.
A centralised cyber security system has been set up by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) as part of its enhanced effort to deal with electronic fraud and cyber risks in the banking sector.

Known as the Financial Industry Command Security Operation Centre (FICSOC), the system is to be hooked up to the individual security information and events management (SIEM)/security operation centres (SOCs) of banks and other institutions to receive real-time reports and trigger actions, when necessary.





The Governor of the BoG, Dr Ernest Addison, said at a news conference last Monday that the system would help the BoG undertake real-time monitoring of transactions in all banks and other deposit-taking institutions.



The establishment of FICSOC was completed this year by Virtual Infosec Africa (VIA), an indigenous company, allowing banks and other institutions regulated by the BoG to start connecting their systems to it.





It is expected that the successful operationalisation of the centralised command centre would help reduce electronic fraud such as theft and duplication of automated teller machines (ATMs), which more than doubled last year.





To get the system started, the central bank has named the Agricultural Development Bank Limited (ADB) as the first institution to be connected to FICSOC to help check malpractices in electronic and financial technology transactions.



The ADB has thus become the first bank to be hooked up to the system after successfully setting up its SIEM/SOC earlier this year.





Dr Addison, who was answering a question on how the central bank was working to reduce electronic fraud in the financial sector, said FICSOC and the subsequent hooking up of the security centres of financial institutions were a sure way of fighting the canker.



Our financial services are becoming more technology driven, and with technology, the risks associated with ATMs and point of sale (PoS) fraud also go up. Fortunately, we are looking closely at that, he said during the press conference to announce the banks policy decision for the last quarter of the year.



We have what we call FICSOC, the security operating centre of the central bank, which monitors our cyber resilience real-time. Currently, we are in the midst of setting up the financial industry SIEM/SOC. I believe the BoG is ready and the ADB is getting connected to that FICSOC, he said.



Earlier this month, the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) busted one Bachir Musa Aminou with 656 ATM cards, a development which Dr Addison said was being investigated.





Other banks



To help address some of those challenges, Dr Addison said the BoG directed banks to set up and maintain SIEM/SOCs to be connected to the industry command centre.



The directive was contained in the Cyber and Information Security Directive issued by the BoG in October 2018, which, among other things, mandates banks and other institutions to use the SIEM/SOC for network security event monitoring, compliance reporting and user activity monitoring.



He said after the ADB had successfully been connected to the command centre, other banks and deposit-taking financial institutions would follow, making it possible for the central bank to track electronic transactions in real-time.



Hopefully, a year from now, we should have all 23 banks in the financial industry SOP and it will allow us to monitor the cyber risks associated with the entire banking system in Ghana, he said.





ADB MD



When contacted, the Managing Director of the ADB, Dr John Kofi Mensah, said it was out of a desire to provide full-proof services for customers and stakeholders that the bank worked hard to meet the requirement and subsequently became the first to be connected to the industry command centre.



He described the process as tasking, yet fulfilling, and expressed the hope that its full deployment would help minimise incidents of fraud in the banking sector.



Dr Mensah said the ADB used a local firm, the VIA, which built FICSOC, to execute its project, in line with its commitment to grow local businesses.



He added that the SIEM/SOC was linked to the recent granting of an ISO 27001 certification to the bank in recognition of robust cyber security measures put in place.



Peace of mind



The Chief Executive Officer of VIA, Mr Emmanuel Sekyere Asiedu, said the company was proud to be executing the systems for the central bank and the ADB.



He said it was structured in such a way that its full deployment would give peace of mind to the regulator, the banking public and stakeholders.



He said the solution was world class, robust and standard, which that made it impossible for third parties to infiltrate.



BoGs report on banking industry fraud



In its Executive Summary on the Banking Industry Fraud report for 2020, the BoG reported that many routine activities of institutions, including financial transactions that usually would have been undertaken in-person, were conducted online.



It said customers who were not used to digital/electronic methods of making financial transactions were compelled to use them and, consequently, some sections of the banking sector were exposed to heightened levels of fraud-related risk due to the increased patronage of electronic/digital products and services.



The report also said the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic propelled the use of digital/electronic modes of transacting business, leading to a higher exposure to fraud.



In the report, the BoG indicated that 2020 recorded a marginal increase in reported fraud incidents, with a minimal decrease in losses.



The reduction in losses was mainly due to a reduction in the rate of success for most fraud types. A total of 2,670 cases were recorded in 2020, compared to 2,311 in 2019.



The reported value of fraud for 2020 was GH1.0 billion, compared to GH115.51 million in 2019. The notable increase in the value reported was as a result of high values recorded in attempted correspondent banking fraud (forgery of SWIFT advice), the executive summary said.



It further indicated that although the banking sector did not suffer any losses from any of the correspondent banking fraud attempts, it posed a reputational risk to some banks, whose staff were found culpable in two of the three reported incidents.





Source: graphiconline.com









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The Executive Director of the Africa Education Watch, Mr Kofi Aare, has supported a directive given by the Minister of Education Dr Yaw Osei Adutwm to universities to admit students with grade D7.



Mr Asare stated that it does not make sense for students with grade D7 in Mathematics and B2, or even an A in French, to be denied admission to read French related courses because they had a weak pass in Mathematics.



He said there is no correlation between French and Mathematics hence, such students should not be denied admission.



A student wants to specialise in French and you say that you need a minimum of C6 in Mathematics. It doesnt make sense because there is virtually no correlation between French and a D7 in mathematics.



One will not be able to make it to any university if they had D7 in mathematics, it doesnt make sense. In fact D7 is a pass according to the assessment body, he said.



Speaking at the swearing-in and inauguration of Governing Councils of some public technical Universities, Dr Yaw Osei Aduwtum charged the schools to innovate and create access programmes for such students.



He said Our gross tertiary enrollment ratio is 18.8%, South Korea is 73.6%, so no nation has been able to show transformation without hitting 40 to 50% tertiary enrollment ratio.



Mauritius is 40%, you go there and everything is changing. Our 18% will not change Ghana and that is why the President has set an agenda of 40%, what it also means is that you have to start looking at your programmes, more diploma programmes so that students sitting home with D7 will find a place in your institution.



There are institutions that are saying we are not getting the numbers but what happened to support students offering courses in diploma, electrical engineering and after that, youre going to see the numbers going up and after that, they can go to work. And then if they want to continue they can continue. So we shouldnt see D7 as a barrier for students accessing tertiary, he added.













Source: 3news.com









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The Ghana Education Service (GES) has cautioned final-year students writing the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) against any acts of indiscipline after the examination.

According to the GES, "it has come to the attention of management, rather regrettably, plans by some students to misbehave as they end their examination.







"We wish to caution all students to be careful since no act of indiscipline will be tolerated," the Director-General of the GES, Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, stated.



He, therefore, directed all regional directors of education to work with heads of schools and the security agencies to ensure maximum protection of lives and properties in all senior high schools (SHSs) in the country.



Any student who misbehaves should be made to face the full rigours of the law, Prof Opoku-Amankwa said.







The examination, which began on August 16, 2021, ends on Friday, October 8, 2021.



Claims



Intelligence gathered indicates that some final-year students intend to attack some teachers, headmasters and students in their schools and also vandalise school properties.



Prof. Opoku-Amankwa, therefore, called on parents and guardians to advise their children to conduct themselves responsibly as they neared the end of the examination, saying any student who would be arrested for misconduct would be punished accordingly.







He said it was the expectation of the management of the GES that all stakeholders, including the security agencies, would work together to ensure an incident-free end to the 2021 WASSCE.



On behalf of the management of the GES, he expressed appreciation to staff of SHSs for their dedication and commitment to duty.



He also commended them for their sacrifices in the interest of the nation.



"All candidates are encouraged to continue to work hard as they enter the last phase of the examination. We pray for God's continued guidance and providence," he added.





Precautionary measures



Meanwhile, some heads of SHSs have invited the police to their schools to provide security for them from tomorrow to Saturday as part of efforts to avert any possible incident.



Also, messages have been sent to parents, urging them to advise their children against carrying out any intended acts of vandalism after their final papers.



One of such notices sighted by the Daily Graphic read: Please kindly put on your PTA platforms for the information of parents that we have picked pockets of intelligence that some students are planning to embark on a mission of vandalising school properties and attacking some teachers in the school when they finish writing their last paper on October 8, 2021.



In view of that, we are requesting that all final-year parents and guardians should talk to their children to refrain from getting themselves into any trouble during and after the WASSCE, as the school will not hesitate in handing over any students who will engage themselves in any form of indisciplined act to the police.





Source: graphiconline.com









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A bomb targeted the entrance of a mosque in the Afghan capital on Sunday leaving a number of civilians dead, a Taliban spokesman said.



The blast struck near the entrance of the Eid Gah Mosque in Kabul where a memorial service was being held for the mother of Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.



I heard the sound of an explosion near the Eid Gah Mosque followed by gun firing, Abdullah, a nearby shopkeeper, told AFP news agency, adding that the Taliban blocked the road shortly before the blast struck.



Ambulances carrying the wounded were seen rushing towards Kabuls Emergency Hospital in the Shahr-e Naw area.





The hospital said on Twitter that four patients were being treated.



There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. However, since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in mid-August, attacks by ISIL fighters against them have increased. The rise has raised the possibility of a wider conflict between the two groups.







Read Full Story .... Aljazeera >>> :









Source: Aljazeera









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The National Secretariat of the Ghana School Feeding Programme has strongly refuted what it described as false claims by some uninformed caterers who are accusing the programme handlers of paying an amount of 12.9 million Ghana cedis to some so-called 510 ghost schools in the 2019/2020 academic year.



The caterers who claim to be members of the Ghana National School Feeding Caterers Association alleged that their independent investigations had led to the uncovering of the alleged ghost schools in all the 16 regions of Ghana.



But, according to the Public Relations Officer of the Ghana School Feeding Programme, Mr. Siiba Alfa, the allegations of ghost schools and payment of money to ghost caterers are utterly false, misguided and misleading.



He said it is a calculated attempt by one Ms. Caroline Aboagye, a caterer in the Central Region who has joined forces with some mischievous elements who are bent on destroying the hard earned reputation of the management of the GSFP.



Ms. Caroline Aboagye who claims to be the PRO of the Ghana National School Feeding Caterers Association at a press conference in Accra fiercely attacked the personality of the National Coordinator of GSFP, Mrs. Gertrude Quashigah.



Describing management of GSFP as corrupt, Ms. Caroline Aboagye commissioned her rented followers to chant and wield placards some of which read: Stop the Widows Appointment, School feeding not for Voltarians, Thank you Mr. President for 1st term payment, Quashigah and all her directors at national and regional level must go.



But Mr. Siiba Alfa expressed disappointment about the indecent name calling and tribal bigotry by Ms. Aboagye and her group against Mrs. Gertrude Quashigah, whom he said remains a motherly figure to all staff and caterers under the programme.



Reacting to the call on President Akufo-Addo by Ms. Aboagye to remove the GSFP National Coordinator together with all other national and regional staff of the programme over allegations of corruption, Mr. Siiba Alfa insisted that the allegations from Ms. Caroline Aboagye clearly attest to how ill-informed she is about the operations of school feeding programme.



According to him, the GSFP just as any other agency of the Government undergoes regular audits from the appropriate state institutions and that the Secretariat had never been implicated since the assumption of office of Mrs. Quashigah.



We have a very transparent payment process that conforms to standard public financial procedures. Thus, the feeding aspect of the programme has a separate account, which is lodged at the Bank of Ghana in the name of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP). The National Secretariat of GSFP only facilitates payment by coordinating the process which involves the Ministry of Finance, Controller and Accountant General's Department, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and finally, the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) which electronically transfers the feeding grants to caterers on their e-zwich cards.



Mr. Siiba Alfa added that the National Secretariat of GSFP does not see, touch or disburse feeding grants; and it is therefore extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the GSFP leadership to divert funds meant for feeding to be used for private gains.



He therefore challenged Ms. Caroline Aboagye to come out with evidence of the alleged payment of 12.9 million cedis to non-existing caterers, provide the account details of those caterers and how much they received individually.



According to him, It is not just enough for those making these allegations to spew debris without further and better particulars to authenticate their claims.



He insisted that the current leadership of GSFP is NOT corrupt or incompetent. The PRO touted that for the first time in the history of school feeding programme, the management was able to make savings of over 27 million Ghana cedis from non-cooking days in the 1st term of this 2021 academic year and the money duly declared to the appropriate authorities.



He also talked about the many changes and initiatives carried out by the current GSFP leadership which include the practical nutrition and innovation training for all caterers and head cooks across Ghana; increase in beneficiary pupils from 1.6 million in 2016 to 3.4 million; employed 10,850 caterers working in 10,832 schools in all the 260 districts; development of GSFP bill; development of new GSFP operational manual and the digitization of GSFP monitoring system among others.



Mr. Siiba Alfa wondered why Ms. Caroline Aboagye could not at least appreciate a single achievement of the National Coordinator but was rather interested in accusing her falsely.



In the recent payment of the 1st term arrears, Ms. Caroline Aboagye insisted on the GSFP Secretariat to pay some new schools she has forcibly allocated to herself, but the secretariat could not agree to pay her for those new schools which are not on their payment file.



All these and more, coupled with her bitterness against the current management of the GSFP led her to manufacture these wild allegations.



The GSFP Management says it is ever ready to subject itself to any investigation by the relevant agencies concerning the allegations levelled against the secretariat.

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 Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has advised Exton Cubic Group, owned by Ghanaian businessman, Ibrahim Mahama, to consider tendering for a concession to mine for bauxite at Nyinahin, in the Ashanti Region.



He said he was aware that Exton Cubic Group had in the past tried unsuccessfully to mine for bauxite at Nyinahin, therefore the company should give it a try once again, now that the huge bauxite concession has been divided into three parts.



Exton Cubic Group should tender for the remaining part of the vast bauxite concession at Nyinahin and if they are able to prove that they have the capacity to operate, then they should be given part of the concession to ensure peace," he said.



Otumfuo also stressed the need for fairness to prevail in the allocation of concessions to companies to operate at Nyinahin, saying that any company that has the capacity to operate should not be discriminated against by the authorities.



Rocksure Internationals Visit



The Asantehene was speaking when the management of Rocksure International, the firm that had abeen awarded part of the concession at Nyinahin to mine for Bauxite, paid a courtesy call on him at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi.



The historic visit was among other things, intended to give the leadership of Rocksure International the opportunity to officially inform Otumfuo and Asanteman about their readiness to mine for bauxite at Nyinahin very soon.



Rocksure Internationals Selection



The Asantehene said Rocksure International was selected to mine for bauxite at Nyinahin after the company had gone through the laid down procedure and beaten stiff competition from 38 other equally competent companies.



In all, 39 companies put in tender for a concession to operate at Nyinahin and Rocksure International, which was one of the bidders, emerged tops, " he said, adding that, "Exton Cubic did not put in a bid, and they should do so now.



NDCs Threat Against Otumfuos Words



Interestingly, whilst Otumfuo is clearly pushing for authorities concerned to consider giving allocation to Exton Cubic Group to also mine for bauxite at Nyinahin, the Minority in parliament seems to have a contradictory agenda.



The Minority Leader, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, has threatened on Citi FM that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Minority MPs, would kick against the governments allocation of a bauxite concession to Rocksure International, a Ghanaian firm.





Source: Peacefmonline.com/ghana









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The Registrar-General's Department will in October begin the delisting of dormant Companies from the Companies Register.



The delisting will affect companies which failed to comply with the Department's directive to file their Annual Returns or Update their records.



These Companies are Public/Private Companies Limited by Shares, Public/Private Companies Limited by Guarantee (Associations, Fun Clubs and Churches), Private Unlimited Companies and External Companies.



A statement issued in Accra by Mrs Jemima Oware, the Registrar, said the exercise had become necessary after the end of the three months validation process conducted by the Department from July to September this year to review the sampled group of Companies not in good standing with the Department.



It said over 257,241 Companies existing in the database had not filed their Returns or Amendments with the Department since 2011.



The statement also said 670, 282 Companies in the Legacy System (Old database) had not carried out the update of their data dubbed "Re-registration" as at March, 2020.



It said the delisting process was commencing with 3,100 Companies being taken off the Companies Register by being made inactive in the database.



"This will be the first batch of companies to be delisted this month out of the over 100,000 Companies registered since 2011," the statement added.



It, therefore, urged defaulting Companies (whether in operation or not in operation) to take measures to regularize their business and update their records with the Department to avoid being delisted.



The statement said any Company official with knowledge of the Company's non-existence or having no more interest in the Company's Name or willfully wanting to wind-up or dissolve the Company or being no more interested in the Company's Business Name should write to the Registrar-General indicating such intention.



The Provision under section 289 of the Companies Act 2019 (Act 992) states that a Company can be stricken off the Register due to the failure of the Company to file its Annual Returns on time or due to a change in the Company's Registered Office and Principal Place of Business without notifying the Registrar of Companies.



The Act mandates the Registrar of Companies to wind up Companies whose office is known not to be in operation after notices and a moratorium have been given to such companies to file their Annual Returns and yet have not complied.



A Company's status after the strike off at this period would be classified as being inactive and would not be able to be accessed for any business transaction for the next 12 years except by a Court Order to the Department to restore it to a status of good standing in the Companies Register.



It said the Department in accordance with the Companies Act, 2019 (Act 992), made three publications on their website and the national dailies serving notice of the Department's intent to undertake its maiden clean-up exercise of the Companies Register to make it accurate and credible.



"Two notifications were earlier issued on 12th May and 1 st December, 2020 with the final notice published on 19th March, 2021," it said.



The Department entreated defaulting Companies to visit its website www.rgd.gov.gh, click on News and scroll down to find the first batch of Companies listed for deletion or find them in the National dailies.



The statement said Company Officials, who find the name of their companies in the published list could still file their Annual Returns with the Department to get their names off the list and avoid being delisted by the end of October, 2021.



It said the exercise of the sampled list of Companies to be delisted on their website would continue until the end of December, 2021.



The next batch of businesses to be sent notices to would be the Companies, Partnerships and Business Names in the Legacy Data from 1963 to 2011, who have still not updated their records with the Department dubbed 'Re-registration.



The Department therefore urged defaulting businesses to file their Annual Returns, Renewals, Amendments or update their records dubbed "Re-registration" to avoid being delisted.



It said the end of the exercise would ensure a credible, reliable and updated Register of Companies, Partnerships and Business Names that were carrying out business in compliance with the different Acts governing their operations.

Source: GNA









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The International Advertising Association (IAA) has declared the 3rd of October every year as World Marketing and Communications Day.



The day will recognize and celebrate the world of marketing and communications, its players, practices, history and achievements. It is also a day when the IAA will lead the rest of the marketing communications world to recognize and celebrate purpose-led communications or marketing for good.



For this years inaugural celebration, the focus is on Covid 19 and showing compassion to all who have been affected by this pandemic in anyway.



To commemorate the day, the IAA is launching the Bring Compassion Back campaign, which encourages people across the world to show acts of compassion and also celebrate individuals who have contributed to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The campaign hashtags are #BringBackCompassion and #IAACares.



Speaking at a virtual global inauguration ceremony, the World President and Chairman of the IAA, Joel E. Nettey, said: Setting aside a day on the calendar every year to rally all brands, marketeers and agencies around the world to focus on marketing for good is an initiative the IAA is very proud of and is very much in keeping with our positioning as the global compass of marketing communications.



It is our hope that over time organizations such as the UN will adopt it as well and encourage the whole world to recognize and celebrate brands and people who make the world a little brighter.



Joel E. Nettey further encouraged marketing, advertising and communications professionals around the world to change their email sign-offs to Compassionately Yours for the month of October and to make a conscious effort to show compassion to people they come into contact with everywhere.



Sasan Saeidi, Senior Vice President of the IAA, commented: There has never been a more important time for us to ensure our marketing and communication is healing divides, healing hearts and bringing the world together. This is where purposeful communication comes to stage.



The IAAs Managing Director, Dagmara Szulce, added: Consumers are moving faster than our industry rewarding brands focused on sustainability, community and governance. Its time to expedite progress on our side of the table and create a behavioral change for good.



World Marketing and Communications Day will be celebrated on the 3rd of October every year focus areas for the year announced by the IAA.

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 Ghana Free Zones Authority (GFZA) has embarked on a robust program to showcase Ghanaian businesses and products to the regional and international markets. As part of this drive, the GFZA recently took part in the second edition of the Ghana Business Expo in Abidjan.



The three-day event organized by Global Afrique Ltd. between 15th and 17th September 2021 had as its primary focus an objective to help introduce Ghanaian businesses and products to the Ivorian market whilst also creating trading and economic opportunities for both Ghanaian and Ivorian companies.



Leading the Ghanaian delegation to the expo was Ambassador Michael Oquaye Jnr., the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GFZA, who also chaired a seminar organized on the side-lines of the expo to share ideas on trading and business development. He was accompanied by Mr. Kwame Nsiah Asante, Director of Estate and Zones, Mrs. Patience Acorlor, Director GFZA Tema Regional Office, Ms. Anita Novi Quashie Marketing and Promotions Manager, and other staff members from GFZA.



In attendance at the expo was the Minister Plenipotentiary (Economic and Political) of the Ghana Embassy in Cote dIvoire, Mr. Moses Envolah who represented the Ghana Ambassador in Cote d`Ivoire; high ranking representative of the Ivorian Customs who educated participating Ghanaian businesses on the tax and tariff systems in Cote dIvoire and duties aligned to the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).



Officials of the Ivorian Food and Drugs Authority (CODINORM) were also present to apprise the Ghanaian companies of standards and certification for entry into the Ivorian market.



Making his opening remarks, Amb. Oquaye expressed his delight at seeing businesses in the two sister countries create more avenues for trade investments. He was hopeful the Business Expo would create a deeper linkage between Ghana and Cote d`Ivoire to ensure a quicker economic recovery from the Covid-19 scourge.



According to him Statistics shows that in 2019, Ghana exported $114 million worth of goods mainly made up of unglazed ceramics, used clothing, and synthetic filament yarn woven fabric to Cote dIvoire. In the same year under discussion, Cote dIvoire also exported $234 worth of goods to Ghana he added.



Amb. Oquaye advised Ghanaian businesses participating in the expo to take advantage of the opportunities presented under AfCFTA and enter into joint ventures with their counterparts from Cote dIvoire to create economies of scale to better serve the whole of Africa.



The GFZA CEO and his team took the opportunity to have private industry meetings with several Ivorian institutions, notable amongst these are the Centre de Promotion des Investissements en Cote dIvoire (CEPICI) and the Village des Technologies de LInformation et de la Biotechnologie de Cote dIvoire (VITIB).



The team also travelled to VITIB Free Zones in Grande Bassam where they met with the Chief Executive Officer of VITIB - the Free Zones Authority in Cote d`Ivoire, Dr. Philippe A. Pango. Discussions centered on investment opportunities flowing into Ghana and Cote dIvoire and how the two countries could build synergies to attract more investments.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/ghana









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Vodafone Ghana Foundation through its annual Homecoming initiative has discharged 375 financially challenged patients facing insolvency from various health facilities across the country.



The 2021 version which was similar to last year was divided into three phases to help pay the medical bills and other ancillary medical costs of patients who are in financial distress in the major government hospitals across the 16 regions of Ghana.



Speaking at the event held at the LEKMA Hospital in Accra to climax this years edition of the Homecoming initiative, the Director in charge of Legal and External Affairs at Vodafone Ghana, Geta Striggner-Quartey reaffirmed the Telcos dedication to improving livelihoods and communities throughout the country.



Healthcare is a primary focal area for the Vodafone Ghana Foundations strategic orientation, and we continue to champion this course with a variety of health initiatives. Currently, patients medical expenses have been reimbursed in selected hospitals across the Southern belt, as we usually do, and our team will guarantee that these patients are discharged to return home to their families, she said.



Vodafone, as a company, recognizes the value of investing in people and we believe that such expenditures will go a long way toward putting smiles on the faces of these beneficiaries, their families and the communities in which they live. Just as we did last year, we kick started this years edition with a set target of discharging over 300 insolvent patients in health institutions across the Northern, Middle & Southern belts of Ghana. These beneficiaries have had a prolonged stay in these health facilities and today we are glad to intervene by offering our support to them, she added.



Lead of Vodafone Ghana Foundation, Rev. Amaris Nana Perbi said he was excited all 357 patients are reuniting with their families.



In the first phase, we helped 127 patients from the Tamale Teaching Hospital, Bolgatanga Regional Hospital, Baptist Medical Centre, West Gonja Hospital and Nadowli District Hospital. Then we moved to the second phase where we discharged 108 patients from Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi South Regional Hospital, Holy Family Hospital, Sunyani Regional Hospital, Goaso Municipal Hospital, Bibiani Government Hospital and St. Joseph Hospital, Nkwanta. We also made a special presentation to the Sickle Cell Clinic at St. Joseph Hospital in Nkwanta which attends to 50 sickle cell children.



The final phase paid medical bills of 73 patients. It covered the Ledzokuku-Krowor Municipal Assembly (LEKMA) and Shai Osudoku Hospitals in the Greater Accra region, Eastern Regional hospital in Koforidua, Cape Coast Teaching hospital in the Central region, Ho Teaching hospital in the Volta region and Effia Nkwanta regional hospital in the Western region. All these 357 patients were provided with a Vodafone farewell package which comprises of NHIS renewal or registration, an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, a pack of disposable nose masks, a pack of Vitamin C and a pair of reusable nose masks with a face shield, he added.



On her part, the Acting Medical Superintendent of the LEKMA Hospital, Dr. Akua Gyimah Asante commended Vodafone Ghana Foundation for the intervention.



The Homecoming initiative is a laudable idea. We have benefited from this initiative for so many years and to our clients, it is a great relief. We have lots of clients who are unable to settle their bills. As stakeholders we intend to strengthen this collaboration with Vodafone Ghana Foundation to support clients who require financial aid.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/ghana









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Former Member of Parliament(MP) for Upper Denkyira West, Benjamin Kofi Ayeh, has supported the move to vacate residents of the Buduburam Camp.



State authorities have issued a notice to the residents to leave the camp.



A notice signed by the Gomoa East District Chief Executive (DCE), Solomon Darko-Quarm indicated they should leave by September 30.



But the residents have expressed their frustrations arguing that the way and manner in which they were asked to leave was not right.



Some of them stated, according to a Daily Graphic publication, the District assembly's decision should have been "channelled through the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Ghana Refugee Board, since it was through the UN body and the government of Ghana that they settled at the camp".



Others also said they can't leave because the borders were closed but if the necessary access was created for them, they would vacate the camp.



Discussing the issue during Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Hon. Ben Ayeh strongly opined that ejecting the refugees is long overdue.



According to him, the camp has become a crime zone, hence a good decision for the residents to either return home or be reintegrated into the society.



He told host Kwami Sefa Kayi; "I feel the time has come for us to close that place down . . . If per international rules [laws] and per the Ghana Immigration Authority feel some 400, for whatever reason they should be given a refugee status, dealing with that issue shouldn't have been an issue. 10 years along the line, resettling 400 people within the larger Ghanaian community shouldn't have been an issue, especially when we know that where they have congregated doesn't help this nation to keep them there."



"The Refugee Board should be able to meet them and look at ways to integrate those, even within the 400, that we will accept; every means we will use to integrate them within the larger society, we should go ahead and demolish that place for the place is giving us a bad name. Our security, I mean the crime rate and things that go on there are unacceptable. So, when you weigh the pros and cons, I support any call that yes, we have to have the courage and do the needful by demolishing that place."

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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National Chairman of the Progressive People's Party (PPP), Nana Ofori Owusu, has blamed the Government of Ghana and security agencies for the Buduburam Camp being a crime zone.



Nana Ofori Owusu, speaking to Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme, rejected the decision that the Buduburam refugees, mostly Liberians, should leave the camp.



According to him, the notion that the camp has become a hub for criminal activities is neither here nor there.



This is because, to him, if the place breeds criminals, it means those charged with the responsibility to maintain law and order as well as provide the neccesities of life to the refugees have failed.



He wondered why the camp is surrounded by security agencies, yet the crime rate is high.



"What has been the role of Ghana Police and Ghana security agencies in making sure we bring this thing to a minimum? It means that somebody too has reneged on their responsibility in terms of what they are there to do because crime is crime and you're trained to stop crime irrespective of the people who are there. That is our job to bring internal security; so that argument, to me, it falls on deaf ears from the beginning. That because the place is a high-prone crime, who made it a high-prone crime?'', he exclaimed.



He further argued; "Any place wihout job, any place without proper schooling and the opportunity to get out, you put the people there; you and I, if we grew up there, we will also have some propensity to do inappropriate things in the name of survival . . . So, you can't now go back to the victim and say that having been victimized all this time, we are doubling it. No, no, no; I can't subscribe to that mindset and that argument.''

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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The police have picked up five armed robbers in Afiadenyigba in the Volta Region, a social media update from the Service on Sunday said.



The police said the arrest was done in a joint operation with the people of the town.



The armed robbers allegedly attacked a shop and shot into a vehicle. No casualty was recorded, the brief statement posted on the Ghana Police Services Facebook page said.



Police-community partnership is the master key to crime fighting, it added.



Two more arrests

Meanwhile, the police have commended the people of Tadzewu in the Ketu North Municipal area of the Volta Region for partnering with them to arrest two other armed robbers on Tuesday 28 September 2021.



The suspects, Michael Maccatus, aged 31, and Wisdom Agbotokpo, aged 25 robbed a victim of his motorcycle after attacking him with a machete.



The suspects are in police custody and the motorcycle has been retrieved.



As we commend the people of Tadzewu for their patriotic spirit and support, we encourage the public to continue to support us to make criminal activities unattractive, the police said.

Source: asaaseradio.com









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Closed-Circuit Television ( CCTV) has exposed a thief who snatched a ladys phone in broad daylight.



The incident, which is believed to have happened in Senegal, saw the defenseless young lady calmly surrender her phone in order not to get attacked.



The video captured the young lady walking by the road side while attending to her phone. In some few seconds, she came face-to-face with the man who aggressively demanded for her phone.



After taking the phone and dipping it into his pocket, the thief hopped onto a motorbike and left.

She helplessly looked on as the pair drove off with her property.



Watch video below:



















Dangay cett li rek  pic.twitter.com/rfwtiULJQ9





 Sidy Abass (Se7en ASM) + (@bigbeuz33) September 30, 2021









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Swedish cartoonist, Lars Vilks, who lived under police protection after his 2007 depiction of the Prophet Mohammed prompted death threats, has died in a car accident.



The 75-year-old and two police officers were killed in a collision with an oncoming truck on Sunday, October 3, Swedish police confirmed to AFP.



"This is being investigated like any other road accident. Because two policemen were involved, an investigation has been assigned to a special section of the prosecutor's office," a police spokesperson told AFP, adding that there was no suspicion of foul play.



The accident occurred near the small town Markaryd when the car Vilks was travelling in crashed into an oncoming truck. Both vehicles caught fire and the truck driver was hospitalised, according to police.



In a statement, the police said the cause of the accident was unclear.



"The person we were protecting and two colleagues died in this inconceivable and terribly sad tragedy," said regional police head Carina Persson.

Vilks had been under police protection since his 2007 cartoon of Mohammed with a dog's body prompted outrage among those who consider depictions of the Muslim prophet deeply offensive or blasphemous.



Al-Qaeda offered a $100,000 reward for Vilks' murder.



The depiction also sparked diplomatic friction, with Sweden's then prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt meeting ambassadors from several Muslim countries to ease tensions.



In 2015, Vilks survived a gun attack at a free-speech conference in Copenhagen that left a Danish film director dead.













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Isaac Ayitey, the driver of a truck that got stuck under the Hong Kong Footbridge on the George Walker Bush motorway has been arrested.



The long vehicle got stuck on Sunday, October 3, 2021, while the driver was travelling to Tema.



Police are currently investigating the circumstances that led the truck getting stucked. The truck, with registration number WR 1546-U, has also been impounded at the Odorkor Police Station.



It took several hours for the police, officials of the Ghana Highway Authority, and some welders for the truck to be removed to allow a free and safe flow of traffic. The Police Administration thanked motorists and other road users who ply that stretch for their cooperation, and the Ghana Highway Authority, for their timely support, the police said in a statement.



The service went on to caution all road users to comply with the road traffic laws to avoid preventable road crashes and congestions.









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Purchase new pairs of jeans and boots as the task ahead would be arduous, Mr Henry Quartey, the Greater Accra Regional Minister has charged the newly elected Municipal Chief Executive for Tema West, Ms Anna Adukwei Addo.



"You need many pairs of Jeans and boots because we will be hitting the ground to begin to correct the wrongs of the past but ultimately with a mindset to develop the region," he said.



Mr Quartey noted: this time Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDEs) in the Region will not be office jobs because we will be hitting the road running.



The Regional Minister who was speaking at the confirmation of the Presidents MCE nominee at the Tema West Municipal Assembly said, he would require dedication in working for the people to ensure that their respective developmental needs were approached with the seriousness required.



He applauded the outgoing MCE, Mrs Adwoa Amoako for her commitment to providing leadership and ensuring development at all levels since the inception of the Municipal Assembly in March 2018.



Mr Quartey, who is also the Member of Parliament for Ayawaso Central Constituency, congratulated the elected MCE and called for inclusiveness with a united agenda.



Mr Enoch Teye Mensah, Member of the Council of State, Greater Accra Region, in an address, admonished the newly elected MCE to inspire hope in the people and be a leader who consults, adding that consultative leadership was key in building trust and would help in achieving desired outcomes.



Ms Anna Adukwei Addo, newly elected MCE for Tema West, admitted that there was an arduous task to be undertaken in providing social-economic development through revenue mobilisation and utilisation of quality human and material resources to improve the living conditions of people.



Tema West Municipal Assembly, situated in the South-Eastern part of the Greater Accra Region, with three zonal councils, was inaugurated in March 2018 after it was carved out of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly by the Local Government Act (2016), Act 936, and the Legislative Instrument, 2017, LI 2317.

Source: GNA









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The Asantehene has praised President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for his commitment to the development of the Ashanti region and the country.



He also praised the President for his tour of the country, adding that, if you stay in your office, your appointees will tell you what you want to hear. This tour will help you verify what you hear and know the truth.



I know you and you do not disappoint. I trust you and I know you will honour Asanteman, the Asantehene said.



On his part, the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, expressed gratitude to the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, and Asanteman for supporting the New Patriotic Party and his candidature in the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections.



President Akufo-Addo made this known on Friday, 1st October 2021, when he paid a courtesy call on the Asantehene at his Palace at Manhyia, at the commencement of his 4-day working visit to the Ashanti Region.



I am here to show my gratitude to you and Asanteman for your support in the last elections. You have supported the NPP since time immemorial, and in the last elections, but for your unshrinking support and that of Asanteman to me and the NPP, we would not have been in government, the President said.



He continued, I am here to show you and the entire kingdom my gratitude for that solid support that has seen us in power.



President Akufo-Addo, in explaining the rationale for his visit to the Region, indicated that he is in the Region to familiarize himself with the numerous developmental projects going on in the Region, and listen for himself the concerns of residents, the traditional authority and opinion leaders.



The President also used the opportunity to assure the people of the Ashanti Region that he will not take their support for him and the NPP for granted, stressing that it is for this reason that several developmental projects have been done, with many still ongoing in the Region.



There are many ongoing projects. We can all attest to the fact that Kumasi and Asanteman have not witnessed such massive road infrastructural projects in our political history. Other projects like the 1D1F, the ongoing Kumasi Airport construction which is 77% complete and by June next year, it will be completed after which its international status will be achieved," he said.



President Akufo-Addo also assured Otumfuo Osei Tutu II that, even though there were delays with respect to the Boankra Inland Port project, plans are far advanced for the project to take off.



President Akufo-Addo was accompanied by the Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah; Minister for Food and Agriculture, Hon. Owusu Afriyie Akoto; Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kwadwo Kyeremanteng; Minister of Transport, Kwaku Ofori-Asiamah; Hon. Francis Asenso-Boakye, Minister for Works and Housing; National Security Minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah; and the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP, Bernard Antwi-Boasiako; amongst others.

























Source: Peacefmonline.com









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President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo appears to have announced contenders for the next leader of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) as his tenure comes to an end.



The Minister of Trade and Industries, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen as well as the Minister of Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, have reportedly harboured ambitions to becoming the flagbearer of the ruling party.



Both men are part of the Presidents team touring the Ashanti Region.



At the Manhyia Palace, the seat of the Asantehene, on Friday, Ocotber 1 at the start of the four-day tour, President Akufo-Addo made a huge announcement.



Nana let me introduce my team, he started. This is your grandson Dr Afriyie Akoto, my Agric Minister who wants to become the president.



Sitting next to the Agric Minister was Mr Kyerematen as introduced by the President.



Nana, this is Alan Kyeremanten, he has been vying for my seat for a very long time, a very workaholic minister, he chuckled amidst loud noise from the crowd gathered at Manhyia.



The NPP has barred party members from campaigning ahead of the presidential primaries in 2023.



The party has issued a code of conduct to all aspiring members and warned of punitive measures if any campaign.



The leading contenders include Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.



President Akufo-Addo, who has led the party since 2008, continues his tour of the Ashanti Region on Saturday with a visit to Darko Farms and inspection of the Abuakwa-Tanoso Road.

Source: Peacefmonline









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 General Secretary of the governing NPP, John Boadu, has eulogized the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Food Buffer Stock Company, Alhaji Abdul Hannan Wahab, for his instrumental contributions to the NPPs 2020 electoral victory particularly in the 5 regions of the north, describing him as the chief patron of the regions.



Mr. John Boadu made these remarks on Friday, October 1, 2021, at Daboya, when he was addressing the Savannah Regional Annual Delegates Conference of the Party, at which occasion, the Buffer Stock CEO, was given special citation by the Savannah regional executives of the party, in recognition of his significant logistical and financial support to the regional party in the run up to the 2020 general elections.



Abdul Hannan Wahab is not only a leading financier of the NPP in the Savannah Region, but also in the other 4 regions of the North, and indeed, in the last general elections, he alone served as a patron (party financier) for all the 5 regions of the north comprising Upper East, Upper West, Northern, Savannah and the North East Regions.



Performing his role in this capacity, Abdul Hannan Wahab supported the NPP regional campaign teams of each of these regions with hundreds of Motorbikes and other campaign logistics as well as significant cash donations to assist the regions in effectively prosecuting the partys 2020 campaign.



It is on account of the foregoing, and the many other things Abdul Hannan had done and continues to do for the NPP in the northern part of the country that the General Secretary of the Party, John Boadu, described the benevolent Abdul Hannan Wahab, CEO of the Ghana National Food Buffer Stock Company, as the chief patron of the party in the entire 5 regions of the north.

Source: Peacefmonline









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After a successful conclusion of the Savannah regional conference yesterday October 1, 2021, Aspiring National Chairman and current national treasurer Honourable Kwabena Abankwa-Yeboah and his team mover to Upper West Region to attend the regional conference today 2nd October 2021.



Historically the home region of SD Dombo one of the founding fathers of the New Patriotic Party's tradition.



Abankwah-Yeboah had an excellent reception in the Savannah region yesterday when he graced the occasion.

The suave spoken Chairman aspirant anticipates same from the regional executives, constituency executives in the Upper West Region saying: "Mr Kwabena Abankwah-Yeboah your delegates awaits, to vote for you when the time is up. By the grace of God."



Mr Abankwa-Yeboah wishes them safe travels to the events venue as they gather to strategise in breaking the 8 years cycle for good governance for the people of Ghana.

Source: Peacefmonline









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Charles Owusu, formerly of the Forestry Commission has criticized the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress for mocking the height of President Akufo-Addo



Johnson Asiedu Nketia says government's decision to purchase a new presidential jet is ill-timed and will be fiercely challenged by the largest opposition party.



The Director of Communications at the presidency, Eugene Arhin hinted at a press briefing at the Jubilee House on Monday evening (September 27, 2021) that plans were afoot to procure a new and bigger aircraft [over 100 passengers] for the Ghana Airforce, which will also serve presidential travel needs.



His disclosure has ignited a public debate on whether a new and bigger presidential jet is needful in the midst of the effects of covid on the economy.



Speaking in an interview on NEAT FMs morning show with host Mac Jerry Osei Agyeman, the outspoken politician said:



Honestly, when [former] President Kufuor bought this jet, I thought he placed into context President Nana Akufo-Addos height. Because I believe they (NPP then in power) expected Akufo-Addo to win. Thus when Kufuor acquired that jet (Falcon), I said to myself, how can this lanky person fit into this aircraft, but apparently he did so with his (Nana Addos) height in consideration . . . Kufuor had to bend slightly in order to fit into that aircraft, but Akufo-Addo on the other hand, has no such issues. He [President Nana Addo] fits perfectly in the jet. So if by the Grace of God you are now president, why this desire for a new aircraft when this Falcon was purchased quite clearly with your stature in mind."



"I'm not being harsh . . . I' ve had the privilege of sitting in that aircraft before in 2009 that's why I'm saying so. Why does he need a bigger presidential jet, for what? He doesn't even need to bend over to fit into it or has he grown in height recently?



However, Charles Owusu reacting to this in a panel discussion on Peace FM's morning show 'Kokrokoo' expressed his disappointment in Asiedu Nketiah.



"I don't think such languages can help in solving any problem," he admonished



Listen to him in the video below





Source: Peacefmonline.com









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The Member of Parliament for Klottey Korle, Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, says combatting extremism and piracy in West Africa is a collective regional responsibility.

According to Dr. Agyeman-Rawlings individual ECOWAS member states cannot deal with the issues unilaterally because they are huge and complex.



Security issues require international collaboration and cooperation and it means member states should be able to draw each others attention to happenings within their territories that have the potential of creating vulnerability for the sub-region.



Dr. Agyeman-Rawlings, who is also the Deputy Ranking member on Parliaments Defence and Interior Committee, was, however, quick to point out that tackling the crisis was not only about meetings and conferences but also required member states to share candid information about developments and vulnerabilities within their territories that require support from the regional body.



The Klottey Korle legislator said in a statement, that previously when one heard of piracy, it was mainly in the Horn of Africa and seemed far away, but statistics on maritime crime last year indicated that ninety per cent of piracy was in the Gulf of Guinea.



She attributed the whole state of insecurity and piracy to the scramble for resources, adding; the huge oil reserves in the West Africa sub-region have led to the movement of commercial vessels which make it an important region economically.



The Member of Parliament also highlighted the fact that the landlocked areas in the region rely on access to the sea for imports and exports, further contributing to the vulnerability and insecurity.



She added that in the wake of the spread of violent extremism, it is becoming obvious that the perpetrators are drifting southwards, intent on having access to the sea and obviously they would want to target coastal countries such as Cote dlvoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria.



Dr. Agyeman-Rawlings also expressed worry over the penchant for elected leaders to extend their tenure by amending their constitutions to seek further terms. She said these are issues many do not want to talk about, they are the causes of discontent and instability which can be capitalized upon by extremists.



She said such developments lead to weaknesses within our sub-region that need to be addressed and taken on board seriously. It defeats the purpose of having ECOWAS and AU. Member states are to adhere to the various agreements for the betterment of the citizens, she emphasized.



The Klottey Korle MP said another factor that contributes to the spread of violent extremism was corruption and the inequitable distribution of resources which results in gaps in local government, creating a vacuum capitalized upon by some of these extremist groups. These extremists then take advantage to radicalize the youth and in some instances provide the necessary amenities that governments fail to provide communities.





Source: graphiconline.com









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The family of Kenya's President, Uhuru Kenyatta, that has dominated the country's politics since independence, secretly owned a huge network of offshore companies for decades, according to a new leak of financial papers.



The financial papers known as the Pandora Papers - is the biggest financial leak in history, with about 12 million files linking Kenyatta and six members of his family to 13 offshore companies.



The Kenyattas' offshore investments, including a company with stocks and bonds worth $30m (22m), were discovered among hundreds of thousands of pages of administrative paperwork from the archives of 14 law firms and service providers in Panama and the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and other tax havens.



The secret assets were uncovered by an investigation, published on Sunday, October 3 by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), Finance Uncovered, Finance Uncovered, Africa Uncensored and other news organisations.



Documents show that a foundation called Varies was set up in 2003 in Panama, naming Kenyatta's mother, Ngina, 88, as the first benefactor and Kenya's leader as the second benefactor, who would inherit it after her death.



Panamanian foundations are much sought after because the true owners of the assets are only known by their lawyers and they do not have to register their names with the Panamanian government, ICIJ reports.



The assets can also be designed to be transferred tax-free to a successor.

Kenyatta family's vast business interests span transport, insurance, hotels, farming, land ownership and the media industry in Kenya.



In 2018, Kenyatta told the BBC Hardtalk programme that his family's wealth was known to the public, and as president he had declared his assets as required by law.



"As I have always stated, what we own - what we have - is open to the public. As a public servant I'm supposed to make my wealth known and we declare every year," Mr Kenyatta said.



"If there's an instance where somebody can say that what we have done or obtained has not been legitimate, say so - we are ready to face any court," he added.



In the same interview, Kenyatta said he wanted his legacy to be fighting corruption and promoting transparency.



Other world leaders named in the Pandora Papers include the King of Jordan Abdullah II, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Gabon's President Ali Bongo Ondimba and President of Congo-Brazzaville Denis Sassou-Nguesso.



After his father's death in 1978, Ngina Kenyatta, his father's fourth wife, in 1999, set up an offshore company - Milrun International Limited - which was incorporated in the BVI.

According to the ICIJ, Mrs Kenyatta and her daughters were advised by experienced international wealth experts from the Swiss bank Union Bancaire Privee (UBP), which recruited Alcogal, a Panamanian law firm specialising in setting up and administering offshore companies.



The consortium says invoices from Alcogal to the bank show that the Swiss advisers referred to the Kenyattas with the code "client 13173".



This company was used by Mrs Kenyatta and her daughters to buy an apartment in central London, which it still owns, according to filings at the UK Land Registry seen by Finance Uncovered.



According to Finance Uncovered, the Kenyatta family has used other offshore companies to buy two more properties in the UK.



UBP private-wealth advisers also helped Kenyatta's brother, Muhoho, set up a Panamanian entity called Criselle Foundation in 2003.



It was set up for the benefit of Muhoho Kenyatta, with his son Jomo Kamau Muhoho, as successor.



Another BVI company which Mr Muhoho owned had a $30m valuation in stocks and bonds as of November 2016.



The Pandora Papers, however, show no evidence that the Kenyatta family stole or hid state assets in their offshore companies.













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 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. A coroner's inquest into the RCMP fatal shooting of an Indigenous man in New Brunswick has heard the 911 calls and police transmissions from June 12, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Kevin Bissett
The reliever airport on Johns Island will grow by more than a hundred acres after Charleston County Aviation Authority paid $4 million for land where a housing development was proposed, and the agency is seeking conservation funding to reimburse one-fourth of the purchase price.

The agency bought two parcels totaling 137 acres at the end of August from Dr. Keith Lackey and eight others after several months of negotiations, according to Charleston County land records.

The other sellers were John J. Horres IV, Jennifer G. Lackey, Anne L. Hungerford, Jennifer Horres McCall, Louise Horres Ojeda, Brian P. Shepherd, John R. Shepherd and Clyde E. Shepherd III, according to the property deed.

A developer had proposed dividing the property, called Oakville Plantation off Burden Creek and River roads, into 242 lots for a development to be called River Run.

Charleston airport officials wanted to buy the land to prevent a new home community from sprouting on the edge of the 1,333-acre Charleston Executive Airport next to the Stono River.

The purchase will allow the Aviation Authority to consider revamping a taxiway that runs north-south through the center of the airport by returning it to its original use as a runway when the military built the airfield at the end of World War II, said Elliott Summey, the agency's CEO.

That will require widening it and extending it on the north side where the purchased parcels are located since the south side is hemmed in by the river. The newly purchased parcels will serve as an undeveloped clear zone for the future runway.

"Buying the land gives us a chance to extend the runway and protect the wetlands and the clear zone," Summey said. "We don't need to put any buildings there ... and putting houses there was the wrong idea."

The airfield has two runways: one is 5,350 feet long and is laid out east-west while the other is about 1,000 feet shorter and runs next to the river.

The length of the new runway would be between 6,700 and 7,000 feet if built, Summey said.

Development of the new landing strip is at least four years away, he said.

To help fund part of the land purchase, the South Carolina Conservation Bank awarded $500,000 to the Lowcountry Land Trust Sept. 22 for an easement on 94 acres. An equal amount of money will be sought through the Charleston County Greenbelt Program.

"It will help pay us back some of the money for buying the land," Summey said.

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The application for greenbelt funding has not been made yet, according to program director Cathy Ruff.

Applications for the next funding round open in November, but they won't be considered until the spring of 2022, she said.

Projects awarded funding by the Greenbelt Advisory Board must then be considered by Charleston County Council. Ruff said the process will likely bleed into next summer before a decision is made.

If approved, a joint announcement is expected once all of the funds are in hand, Summey said.

The future addition of a third runway is not the only development occurring at the airport on Johns Island.

Qatari defense firm Barzan Aeronautical plans to break ground in mid-October on a new light industrial development code-named "Project Rose."

Barzan, which has an office in Charleston, proposes to build three structures and a 200-space parking area on about 10 acres near an abandoned taxiway beside the airfield to develop spy drones.

Site plans presented to the city of Charleston in April show a 54,000-square-foot aircraft manufacturing plant, an 18,400-square-foot office building and another structure near the parking area with offices, conference room and classroom.

Also, in the works at the Johns Island airfield are proposals for two new privately owned hangars.

JZI Hangars LLC wants to build an 8,000-square-foot airplane storage building at the airport. The firm is registered to Johns Island resident Adam Baslow of New Leaf Builders.

Also planning to build a 5,370-square-foot hangar is UEC Aviation LLC, registered to Philip J. Ufkes of Sullivans Island. Ufkes and his wife, Rebecca Ufkes, once owned defense contractor UEC Electronics in Hanahan before selling it in 2014 to Michigan-based Arotech.

With the land purchase completed, Summey said the next step is to develop a comprehensive master plan for the airport and to seek approval from the Federal Aviation Administration for future development.

The master plan, including a financial analysis, is expected to take several months, he said.
A three-building office park in West Ashley is now under new ownership after selling for $31.25 million, about $8 million more than the previous sale three years ago.

Boyd Watterson Asset Management of Cleveland, Ohio, bought South Park Plaza at 1-3 South Park Circle near Citadel Mall, commercial real estate firm CBRE announced Oct. 4. The sale took place in mid-September.

The previous owner of the 139,060-square-foot property across 7.6 acres was JEMA II LLC of Charleston. It paid $23 million for the site in 2018, according to Charleston County land records.

"Charleston is quickly rising on the list of target investment markets for national investors," said Patrick Gildea, a CBRE vice chairman.

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He pointed to the region's rising population during the past decade and said the sale "reflects on the high demand we have been seeing here in recent years."

Charles Carmody of CBRE pointed out the firm has now brokered the property's sale three times during the past 14 years.

In 2007, the site sold for $11 million before changing hands again three years ago, public property records show.

For the past three years, South Park Plaza has been about 91 percent occupied by the Medical University of South Carolina Hospital Authority.

Also representing the seller in the transaction were Matt Smith, Grayson Hawkins and Ryan Carmody of CBRE.
A South Carolina commercial real estate firm that was established in Charleston has been acquired by the global franchise it's been affiliated with for years.

Cushman & Wakefield announced the acquisition of Virginia-based Morton G. Thalhimer Inc.s Palmetto State operations on Oct. 1.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

The transaction includes three former Thalhimer offices in Charleston, Columbia and Greenville. Theyll be overseen by Brett Gray of Cushman & Wakefields Charlotte outpost.

During the past five years, Cushman & Wakefield has experienced tremendous growth throughout the Carolinas, which has continued to establish itself as an attractive geography as corporate relocations and investor demand are higher than ever, Gray said in a written statement. The acquisition of these offices in high-growth markets throughout the state was a natural next step as we expand our offerings and service delivery to our clients.

Thalhimer CEO Lee Warfield said the sale will free up the Richmond-area firm to focus our full attention and resources on the growth and continued success of our Virginia operations.

The Palmetto State firm was started off East Bay Street in Charleston in 2004 as Commercial Carolina of South Carolina and added a Greenville office. The firm was renamed a few years later as Coppedge & Tison, which became a Cushman & Wakefield franchise and remained so after its sale to Thalhimer in 2012.

The Columbia office was opened about two years ago.

Chicago-based Cushman & Wakefield is among the world's largest full-service commercial real estate firms. It has about 50,000 employees in 400 offices in 60 countries. Its revenue totaled $7.8 billion last year.
GEORGETOWN  Firefighters at Georgetown County's two fire departments say they have reached their breaking points and are now asking residents to call their council members and demand change.

Issues with turnover, recruitment, pay and required overtime were outlined in two separate statements this week from the unions at Georgetown County Fire/EMS and Midway Fire Rescue.

"We always do everything possible to be there for anyone who needs our help. We always will. We need you now. Please, help us so we can continue to provide you the best quality service possible," Midway said in its Sept. 26 statement on Facebook.

Kevin McLaughlin, president of Midway's union, has been at the department for 11 years and said the main issue is applicants aren't coming through the doors like they used to.

"We're barely getting a trickle of applicants at this point, and getting qualified applicants has become rather challenging," he said.

The county's emergency management director, Brandon Ellis, said there are 30 vacancies between the two departments as of Sept. 29, and that normal staffing is about 120 between the two. People are leaving their positions for a variety of reasons, Ellis said, from retirement to leaving fire service entirely.

Though the reasons for the vacancies vary, McLaughlin and both statements said pay has a lot to do with it.

Base pay for a firefighter/EMT is $36,212, Ellis said, and $44,120 for a firefighter/paramedic. In Myrtle Beach, firefighter/EMTs now make $43,005 to $66,757 and firefighter/paramedics now make $50,005 to $73,757, based on training and experience levels.

Though McLaughlin makes around $48,000 as a master firefighter/paramedic, he said he struggled for years at lower pay before getting his promotion. A single father to a 10-year-old daughter, McLaughlin said he had to get a second job at Marlboro County Rescue at one point. And his situation is not unique  many firefighters he works with also have second jobs, he said.

"It's not to buy goodies, it's not to buy boats and mountain houses. It's to survive," McLaughlin said.

Originally from New Jersey, McLaughlin worked as a volunteer firefighter in his neighborhood before moving to Georgetown in 2011 to become a full-time firefighter. Though the hours are long and the work is stressful, he loves what he does because he can help people on their worst days, he said.

But that passion hasn't been as strong lately, as both unions say their shifts have changed to 48 hours on, 24 hours off, when they're supposed to be the other way around.

The new overtime schedules are exhausting the already short-staffed departments, McLaughlin said, and Ellis said these shifts are required to ensure the same level of service and capabilities is being given to residents.

But even then, the vacancies are so impactful that some services and capabilities have had to be cut back anyway, Ellis said. What used to be five advanced life support ambulances staffed at Georgetown County Fire/EMS is now down to four advanced life support and once basic life support ambulance.

The Georgetown County Fire/EMS union statement also said there is only one person on a fire engine when it arrives to a call, while the National Fire Protection Association recommends four people. Ellis said Georgetown County Fire/EMS has always operated with only one person per fire engine because of budget constraints.

The same statement also said two engines have had to be shut down on multiple occasions in the past month due to short staffing; the number of EMTs and paramedics on an ambulance has had to shift on some from one of each to only two EMTs; and that firefighters can't expect longevity pay.

"You can work here for 20 years and the new employee that was just hired will be paid the exact same you are. So there is no incentive to stay," Georgetown County Fire/EMS' statement said.

Ellis said nothing in either of the statements was inaccurate, adding that while some firefighters who have worked at their department longer than others may have a higher salary, there is currently no system to ensure salary growth based on merit or training.

Many firefighters have had enough, McLaughlin said, and now is the time for their fellow residents to stand up with them.

"We need them to get in the ear of their council persons, and just very bluntly tell them that this is not acceptable any longer," McLaughlin said. "If the people see this as being wrong, then they can stand up and say this is wrong and go to the council meeting to speak and tell them."

Georgetown County council chairman Louis Morant could not immediately be reached for comment.

Georgetown County Council meets next at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 12 at the Howard Center in Georgetown.
Leaders from the New Morning Foundation say they've helped prevent nearly 22,000 abortions and more than 65,000 unintended pregnancies in South Carolina.

In 2019, when New Morning announced the launch of Choose Well, a privately funded, statewide contraceptive access program, it shared a vision of reducing unintended pregnancies in the state by 25 percent by the year 2021.

Since its inception, participating clinics have provided free contraceptive services to more than 300,000 women in the state.

Choose Well partners include the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, federally qualified health centers and hospitals.

Choose Well senior program manager Tiffany Byrd said the need for the program was evident in South Carolina as results from a needs assessment found that most of the women who were both sexually active and not planning on an upcoming pregnancy were not using a high quality birth control method.

"For most of the women in that group, a major barrier to receiving high quality care was being noninsured," said Byrd. "Some of the longer-acting methods of birth control can be quite costly if you don't have insurance. It was clear there was a group of women who wanted to have access to these methods, but weren't seeking care because of the cost."

Choose Well offers all eight federally approved contraceptive options free-of-charge to women across the state and in rural areas. Included in the clinics' offerings are long-acting reversible contraceptives like hormonal and non-hormonal IUDs and implants.

With the pandemic initially closing many of their clinics and creating a higher population of uninsured women, Byrd said access to no-cost contraception has never been more important.

Help from legislators

Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, agreed. He was an integral part in introducing the Pharmacy Access Act, which, if passed by the state Legislature, would make birth control accessible through pharmacies in South Carolina without requiring a prescription.

Davis also helped grant New Morning $750,000 in state-appropriated funds to help expand birth control access in the state. His original request was for more than $3 million.

Davis originally wanted to include the language of the Pharmacy Access Act in South Carolina's recent anti-abortion bill but was denied, leading him to file it separately.

"The Choose Well Program saves the state by decreasing unintended pregnancies, which cost the state as much as $79 million annually, the direct result of publicly funded births, neonatal and postpartum inpatient care," said Davis in his request for appropriation.

Bonnie Kapp, president and chief executive officer for New Morning said the grant will be sub-granted to Choose Well-participating clinics, which will purchase family planning supplies with the state funds.

Money from the original out-of-state grants, which enabled the organization to scale-up the Choose Well program, will go away in 2022.

"The Legislature, through this appropriation, has stepped up to help sustain family planning services at our current level in participating clinics," said Kapp. "We are enormously grateful to our legislators."

Along with contraceptive options, Choose Well partners provide counseling, training and educational opportunities for community members and clinical providers.

Kapp said the program's website, nodrama.org, has accomplished more than they could have ever imagined, drawing in 1.3 million visitors since it began.

Under the Comprehensive Health Education Act, passed in 1988, public high schools are required to teach at least 750 minutes of reproductive health and pregnancy prevention with a strong emphasis on abstinence and the risks associated with sexual activity outside of marriage. Theyre forbidden from distributing condoms or other contraceptives.

Sustaining the program

The news of Choose Well's recent milestone comes just a few weeks after the first six-week abortion ban in the United States, the Texas Heartbeat Act, went into effect on Sept. 1. The law is also the first of its kind to rely on enforcement by private individuals through civil lawsuits, rather than by criminal procedures.

Between Jan. 1, 2011, and July 1, 2019, states enacted more than 480 new abortion restrictions, accounting for nearly 40 percent of all abortion restrictions since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973.

The most recent abortion law passed in South Carolina would make an abortion illegal if an ultrasound detects a heartbeat, which can be heard as early as six weeks. Abortion providers who fail to determine whether a heartbeat exists or who terminate a pregnancy anyway could be fined upward of $10,000 or face imprisonment up to two years. The law faces challenges in federal court and has not yet been implemented.

As for the future of the Choose Well program, Kapp says the organization needs $2 million each year to continue expanding contraceptive services in the state.

"Its New Mornings responsibility to raise funds to ensure that our partner-clinics can financially sustain the services, which we have developed together over the last five years," said Kapp. "Women and families needs will not go away, and so we have to sustain this program."
MYRTLE BEACH  Gov. Henry McMaster wants $300 million committed to Interstate 73 on Oct. 4 as a part of $1.6 billion plan to build the long-promised highway.

The proposed interstate would connect Myrtle Beach to Interstate 95 and stretch up to Michigan.

The three-tiered funding approach  which will include funding from local, state and federal leaders  was announced during a news conference in Myrtle Beach hosted by the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce where McMaster along with dozens of lawmakers revealed the plan.

To achieve the total $1.6 billion funding plan, local leaders are committing $350 million, federal leaders $430 million, and state leaders $795 million  $300 million of which was announced Oct. 4.

The proposed funds will come from a combination of sources including a portion of South Carolina's COVID-19 relief funding and surplus from the state's budget.

It will not receive the final green light until the General Assembly approves the funding in the coming months, McMaster said.

If we seize this moment by thinking big, being bold, and making transformative investments, I believe we can change South Carolinas future for the better, McMaster said. I can think of nothing more transformative than the state committing the first $300 million to kickstart this critical project.

"It is my hope that this commitment will serve as a catalyst for our local government partners to finalize their investment plans and will strengthen the position of our congressional delegation as they work to secure federal funding, so that we can finally make I-73 a reality.

The $300 million dollars would kick off the first phase of the project which will connect I-95 to U.S. 501, about six miles, and create a new interchange at I-95.

S.C. Department of Transportation Secretary Christy Hall called the project "shovel ready," which she said means all that is left to start construction is to secure funding.

Hall added during the news conference that the project could get started in the next six to nine months if state lawmakers approve the $300 million soon.

On the local level, Horry County is looking to put up to $4.2 million annually for 30 years or $126 million total towards the construction of the proposed interstate. The money would come from the countys 1.5 percent hospitality fee.

This will only include funds from Horry County's unincorporated areas, as the county's municipalities, including Myrtle Beach and Conway, have not announced if they will be joining the county's plan.

Myrtle Beach Mayor Brenda Bethune and North Myrtle Beach Mayor Marilyn Hatley spoke during the Oct. 4 press conference about their backing for I-73.

Details are still being worked out on how Horry County and its municipalities will reach the $350 million commitment leaders pledged.

"We, of course, are talking to not just Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach but we are talking to all the cities, because I-73 is going to benefit all cities and the county," Hatley said. "If the federal government is going to be involved and the state government is going to be involved, county government is going to be involved then all municipalities should be a part of it."

Horry County is set to discuss its funding plan for I-73 on Oct. 5 during its Administration Committee meeting, an arm of county council.

It is not clear how lawmakers plan to secure $430 million from the federal government yet, but Hall said leaders are looking at President Joe Biden's infrastructure plan as one major source.

U.S. Rep. Tom Rice and U.S. senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott  who are all in support of the interstate  will have a large hand in securing federal funding. Earlier this year Graham asked for a $13 million earmark for I-73.

I-73 is one of the most game-changing infrastructure projects in our state, Graham said in a press release. "We need to responsibly fund our roads, bridges, and ports to make sure that taxpayer dollars are spent in a beneficial way. I-73 meets that test.
The sons of a former housekeeper for the prominent Murdaugh family will be paid some of $4.3 million in settlements collected after their mothers mysterious 2018 death, their attorney wrote on Oct. 3.

Cory Fleming and his law firm, Moss, Kuhn and Fleming, will pay the sons all legal fees and expenses the firm received from settlements connected to claims asserted against Alex Murdaugh for the death of Satterfield, according to a statement by the Bland Richter law firm.

Ronnie Richter, their attorney, filed a lawsuit on Sept. 15 alleging the sons were not included in settlement talks related to their 57-year-old mothers death. Fleming represented the sons in a lawsuit against Murdaugh in connection with their mothers death.

The Oct. 3 statement did not specify how much money the sons would be receiving from Fleming and his firm.

The payout comes after Richter said on Sept. 17 that a court order indicated the sons were entitled to about $2.7 million settlement in connection with Satterfields death  which totaled $4.3 million including legal fees  and not a cent had gone to her sons.

The order was signed by a circuit judge, but was never filed in the court system, Richter said.

The lawsuit claimed that Alex Murdaugh  a well-known attorney in the southern tip of the state  introduced one of the sons to attorney Fleming and encouraged him to ask Fleming to represent him and his brother in a lawsuit against Murdaugh.

The brothers were unaware that Fleming was a former college roommate of Murdaugh and the godfather to one of his sons, according to the suit. It accuses Murdaugh and Fleming of conspiring against the sons.

In addition, Fleming and his firms malpractice insurance carrier agreed to pay to the sons their full policy limits, according to the Oct. 3 statement.

Mr. Fleming stepped forward and did the right thing by the Estate, the statement said.

Richter said on Sept. 17 more than $1.4 million was set aside for attorneys fees. He said it was not clear who was supposed to receive that money.

Court records show a proposed $505,000 settlement in the case, but not a final signed order approving the arrangement, the lawsuit states.

Richter said one of Satterfields sons, Tony, was originally the personal representative for the estate but he was replaced by Chad Westendorf, a banker who was appointed the personal representative of Satterfields estate. Tony was replaced by Westendorf before the December 2018 court filing announcing the proposed $505,000 partial settlement.

Much of the little that is publicly known about Satterfields death comes from the 2018 court filing in her wrongful death case.

It states that Satterfield died after a trip-and-fall accident in Hampton County. The recent lawsuit on behalf of her sons, filed Sept. 15, provides some additional information. It said Satterfield fell in the Hampton home of Alex Murdaugh, whose family she had worked for as a nanny and housekeeper for more than two decades.

SLED opened an investigation into Satterfields death and the handling of her estate, its spokesman announced on Sept. 15.

Hampton County Coroner Angela Topper told SLED in a letter that her office was never notified of Satterfields death and no autopsy was conducted. Satterfields death certificate indicates she succumbed to natural causes, which was inconsistent with the trip-and-fall injuries she reportedly sustained, she stated.

Investigation into Satterfields death and estate comes after the June killings of Alex Murdaughs wife and son, along with allegations that he embezzled funds from his familys law firm.

The 53-year-old attorney who is said to have suffered from a 20-year opioid habit was arrested Sept. 16 on insurance fraud charges after he was accused of staging a failed suicide plot to collect on a $10 million insurance policy.
On September 29, the President and the Interim CEO of the National School Boards Association sent a letter to Joe Biden requesting federal help in dealing with domestic terrorism and hate crimes. What is the source of such terrorism and hate crimes? Unhappy parents who have been attending school board meetings.

According to the NSBA, school board members, teachers and others are subject to frequent threats of violence:

Americas public schools and its education leaders are under an immediate threat. The National School Boards Association (NSBA) respectfully asks for federal law enforcement and other assistance to deal with the growing number of threats of violence and acts of intimidation occurring across the nation.

The violence is so severe that local law enforcement is not capable of dealing with it:

While local and state law enforcement agencies are working with public school officials in several communities to prevent further disruptions to educational services and school district operations, law enforcement officials in some jurisdictions need assistance  including help with monitoring the threat levels.  NSBA specifically solicits the expertise and resources of the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Secret Service, and its National Threat Assessment Center regarding the level of risk to public schoolchildren, educators, board members, and facilities/campuses.

While the NSBA letter footnotes a number of news stories in support of its request, few of them document actual violence at school board meetings. There is this statement in a report on the famous Loudon County school board encounter: A third person received a minor injury, officials said, without releasing details. And in Mendon, Illinois, school officials attempted to escort Felde out of the meeting when he struck one of them before leaving the school. It doesnt sound like a national wave of violence that is too severe for local authorities to handle.

But the NSBA wants to bring the full weight of the federal government down on parents who express displeasure with the public schools at school board meetings:

As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes. As such, NSBA requests a joint expedited review by the U.S. Departments of Justice, Education, and Homeland Security, along with the appropriate training, coordination, investigations, and enforcement mechanisms from the FBI, including any technical assistance necessary from, and state and local coordination with, its National Security Branch and Counterterrorism Division, as well as any other federal agency with relevant jurisdictional authority and oversight. Additionally, NSBA requests that such review examine appropriate enforceable actions against these crimes and acts of violence under the Gun-Free School Zones Act, the PATRIOT Act in regards to domestic terrorism, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the Violent Interference with Federally Protected Rights statute, the Conspiracy Against Rights statute, an Executive Order to enforce all applicable federal laws for the protection of students and public school district personnel, and any related measure. As the threats grow and news of extremist hate organizations showing up at school board meetings is being reported, this is a critical time for a proactive approach to deal with this difficult issue.

I think this is part of the broader effort by liberals to brand mainstream conservatives as domestic terrorists. The NSBA letter says that parents are angry about two issues: mask mandates and Critical Race Theory. Lets focus for the moment on Critical Race Theory. Part of the problem here is that schools boards, administrators and many teachers are chronically dishonest about what is going on in the schools. Their first line of defense always is to deny that CRT plays any part in K-12 education. It is just an obscure doctrine found in law schools. That is what the NSBA does in its letter to Biden:

[M]any public school officials are also facing physical threats because of propaganda purporting the false inclusion of critical race theory within classroom instruction and curricula. This propaganda continues despite the fact that critical race theory is not taught in public schools and remains a complex law school and graduate school subject well beyond the scope of a K-12 class.

Really? The leaders of the National School Boards Association cannot possibly be unaware of the fact that in its annual meeting just two months ago, the National Education Association, the union that largely controls K-12 education in the U.S., pledged its undying fealty to Critical Race Theory. It adopted New Business Item #39, which encouraged teachers to instill the principles of Critical Race Theory in their students, even if doing so is illegal in their state. Here is New Business Item #39:

The NEA will, with guidance on implementation from the NEA president and chairs of the Ethnic Minority Affairs Caucuses: A. Share and publicize, through existing channels, information already available on critical race theory (CRT)  what it is and what it is not; have a team of staffers for members who want to learn more and fight back against anti-CRT rhetoric; and share information with other NEA members as well as their community members. B. Provide an already-created, in-depth, study that critiques empire, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, anti-Indigeneity, racism, patriarchy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, ableism, anthropocentrism, and other forms of power and oppression at the intersections of our society, and that we oppose attempts to ban critical race theory and/or The 1619 Project. C. Publicly (through existing media) convey its support for the accurate and honest teaching of social studies topics, including truthful and age-appropriate accountings of unpleasant aspects of American history, such as slavery, and the oppression and discrimination of Indigenous, Black, Brown, and other peoples of color, as well as the continued impact this history has on our current society. The Association will further convey that in teaching these topics, it is reasonable and appropriate for curriculum to be informed by academic frameworks for understanding and interpreting the impact of the past on current society, including critical race theory. D. Join with Black Lives Matter at School and the Zinn Education Project to call for a rally this year on October 14George Floyds birthdayas a national day of action to teach lessons about structural racism and oppressioneven in places where it is illegal and requires civil disobedience. Followed by additional days of action that recognize and honor lives taken such as Breonna Taylor, Philando Castile, and others. The National Education Association shall publicize these National Days of Action to all its members, including in NEA Today. E. Conduct a listening tour that will educate members on the tools and resources needed to defend honesty in education including but not limited to tools like CRT. F. Commit President Becky Pringle to make public statements across all lines of media that support racial honesty in education including but not limited to critical race theory.

So this is what is happening:

1) For some years, driven by extreme left-wing teachers unions, most of Americas public schools have been replacing education with left-wing indoctrination. The principles of Critical Race Theory are now an important element of that politicizing of education.

2) When parents learn what is going in the schools, most of them dont like it, because Critical Race Theory is racist and anti-American.

3) When parents voice their displeasure, as at school board meetings, educators consistently lie. They say they dont teach CRT, which only exists in the law schools. Of course, they dont teach students the words Critical Race Theory. Rather, the noxious doctrines of CRT drive the racist and anti-American messages that the schools deliver.

4) Many parents have caught on to the fact that they are being lied to. As a result, they sometimes express their entirely appropriate anger with too much vigor. Nothing like a George Floyd riot, of course, but sometimes shouting and insults are directed at school officials.

5) School officials like the ones who run NSBA desperately want to shut down debate over what is going on in our schools. Therefore, they try to label concerned parents as domestic terrorists and hate criminals, and now are enlisting the sympathetic Biden administration in their cause.

Where will it end? Millions are fleeing the public schools, understandably and appropriately. But the fight over the public schools is perhaps the most important one we are now waging. Will our schools perpetuate and help to improve the America that we know and love, as they used to in the past? Or will they continue to undermine our country by teaching our children to hate the United States and its history, and by dividing our children by skin color and teaching them to hate one another? There is no more important question now before us.
Last week, Karim Clayton was arrested by the Fairfax County, Virginia police for assault and battery. The police held him on $2,000 bond.

The next day, Clayton posted bail and was released. The day after that, he was arrested for trying to steal electronic equipment from a store in Arlington County, Virginia.

A tipster has described Clayton as a one-man petty crime wave. That, he is, but not all of his crimes are petty. According to Arlington Now:

He was found guilty of petit larceny on June 8, 2020, according to the Fairfax County Police Department, just three days before he robbed a CVS in the Fair Oaks section of Fairfax County and led Virginia State Police on a high-speed chase through part of Arlington. On June 11, Clayton attempted to elude police and during his flight from police, he hit a parked car and kept driving, FCPD said. State troopers pursued on I-66 him until he crashed near N. Ohio Street in Arlington. Clayton was charged with grand larceny, larceny with intent to sell or distribute, speeding to elude law enforcement, a hit and run and driving without a license. He was only prosecuted in Arlington on the charges of eluding police, and sentenced to 180 days in prison with 171 days suspended, according to court records. His license was suspended for 30 days and he was fined $572. The fine is now past due, along with three others levied in Arlington General District Court over the past year or so, records show. Between then and his alleged attempted robbery on Tuesday, hes been charged with five counts of grand and petit larceny. He has been found guilty three times so far, with one case pending. In those cases, he was sentenced to two 180-day stretches in prison, each with 135 days suspended, and one 90-day sentence fully suspended.

(Emphasis added)

Believe it or not, this understates the extent of Claytons criminality. A review of Virginia court records shows that since June 8, 2020, he has been charged two dozen times. Eighteen of the cases were dismissed and two are pending. Four resulted in guilty pleas or findings of guilt.

Clayton also has a criminal record in Washington, D.C. Charges there include theft, assault, and sexual assault. He is a registered sex offender in D.C.

Clayton is required by a D.C. court to wear an ankle monitor. In 2020, he was caught tampering with it. He is now considered a fugitive from the District.

The two Soros-backed Northern Virginia prosecutors  Parisa Dehghani-Tafti in Arlington County and Steve Descano in Fairfax County  or their offices surely know of Claytons record. Its all there in court documents.

Yet, they continue to let this incorrigible criminal loose, enabling him to continue his one-man crime wave.

We shouldnt be surprised. Dehghani-Tafti and Descano dont believe in holding criminals in jail. Both oppose cash bail and have stopped using it in most cases. They share George Soros view that criminals are victims of an unjust, racist society. Thats why Soros backs them.

The Democrat-controlled Virginia legislature has chipped in by removing the rebuttable presumption that defendants charged with certain crimes  from murder, robbery and aggravated assaults to many involving domestic assaults, guns and drugs  dont qualify for bail release.

In Claytons most recent case, bail was set at only $2,000. Thus, he was able to rob a store just one day after being arrested for assault.

Only prosecutors ideologically indifferent to crime would allow someone like Clayton to pass in and out of their counties jails this way.
The stalking of Senator Kyrsten Sinema into a bathroom stall during her return to Arizona over the weekend (video below) is disgusting. I would like to say it is disgusting beyond comment, but there is much that might be learned or inferred from it. Here are 10 notes and queries that occur to me this morning.

 Did you know that this happened yesterday at Arizona State University? If I hadnt checked Twitter during the day, I wouldnt. It was all over my Twitter feed.

 The story is covered in media outlets including the Washington Post, the New York Post, the Daily Mail, and FOX News.

 So the story was covered, but if it involved a hero of the left  Sandy Cortez, say, or Ilhan Omar  the Democratic establishment and its media adjunct would be calling for a national day of mourning, if not of reckoning.

 The stalking, harassment, and recording are in fact disgusting. They are intended to humiliate. They are beyond the pale of civilized discourse.

 The lead harasser in the video production is an illegal immigrant. LUCHA (Living United for Change in Arizona)  the distributor of the video on Twitter  refers to her as an immigrant youth.

 LUCHAs harassment of Sinema supports the Biden administrations dystopian Build Back Better Bill. Does the bill have goodies for illegals tucked away in its 2400 pages of small print? I believe that it does. I take it that the Senate parliamentarian who ruled out the bills legalization of illegals provision would be well advised to avoid Arizona bathrooms for the foreseeable future.

 The opening paragraph in the Washington Post story reads: Anger and frustration over Sen. Kyrsten Sinemas refusal to fall in line with other Senate Democrats and pass legislation central to President Bidens agenda boiled over on Sunday, not in the marble halls of the Capitol but in a bathroom in Phoenix. How does the reporter know that anger and frustration have anything to do with it? This is sheer fabrication and leftist apologetics in support of the cause.

 The Post adds: The person filming on Sunday, who identified herself as Blanca, told Sinema that we need this pathway to citizenship, explaining that she was undocumented and had been brought to the United States as a child. Undocumented reflects the Democrat media adjuncts support of the cause. The Post story reflects support of the harassment in this case. It too is disgusting.

 Blanca and her friends feel themselves immune from consequences. We have no reason to doubt their judgment in this respect. Indeed, they have the full-throated support of the Washington Post in its news pages.
In 2004, Thomas Frank published a widely-discussed book called Whats the Matter with Kansas? I didnt read the book, but my understanding of Franks smug thesis is that Kansans, and by extension Americans (the title of the book overseas was Whats the Matter with America?), were voting against their interests, as Frank saw them, because they were distracted by cultural issues.

These days, Democrats are asking, whats the matter with Florida? As they see it, Florida twice voted for the devil incarnate for president. It also elected Ron DeSantis, someone almost as bad as Donald Trump, to be governor. And now, despite ruinous governance (as the Dems see it), they seem likely to reelect DeSantis.

For the first time in history, there are nearly as many Republicans registered in Florida as there are Democrats. And Republican candidates are outperforming Democrats by increasing margins (Trump carried Florida in 2020 by three times his 2016 margin) even though, according to the Washington Post, new census numbers show that Whites now make up only 51 percent of the states population.

This article in the Post gives voice to the Democrats high anxiety:

To Kelly Smith, the case against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is strong. More than 50,000 Floridians killed by covid-19. A confrontational opposition to mask mandates and vaccines that has rubbed even some Republicans the wrong way. But the Pasco County Democratic Party head is skeptical that Florida Democrats can capitalize on it to topple DeSantis (R) next November. My concern is [DeSantis] is going to win again, simply because people know his name and we havent been able to connect how his policies and executive orders impact them, Smith said. And we are a little behind in getting out and meeting the voters. Smiths angst [is] echoed by local Democratic officials throughout Florida. . . .

Steve Simeonidis, former chairman of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, puts the problem in Frankian terms.

We have failed to counter Republican propaganda, which has been especially aimed at Independent and no-party affiliated voters. Republicans have been able to convince them to vote against their own values. . . .

(Emphasis added)

There it is, again  the view that people vote Republican because they are too benighted to understand their interests or to translate their values. An obvious alternative explanation  that Democrats have abandoned traditional values and turned their back on the working class  is off the table.

Florida Democrats could learn from Terry McAuliffe in Virginia. Locked in a tight race for governor with Glenn Youngkin, McAuliffe is suddenly backing away a bit from the hard-left Democratic agenda. In his debate against Youngkin, McAuliffe allowed that the Democrats $3.5 trillion reconciliation package is too high. He also claimed he supports protecting qualified immunity for police officers and played down the idea that he would ever sign legislation ending Virginias status as a right-to-work state.

Too little, too late? Maybe. But shrewd, nonetheless.

Florida Dems might nominate a customer even more slippery than McAuliffe. Charles Crist is once again seeking to be governor. However, he faces strong opposition from a principled leftist  state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried.

Fried has a very small lead over Crist in the early polling. Polls show DeSantis defeating Fried. They are mixed as to a race between DeSantis and Crist.

The fly in the ointment for DeSantis is the high number of Wuhan coronavirus cases and deaths in Florida. Deaths attributed to the virus are well in excess of the national average. Thats not surprising given the age of Floridas population. However, the surge in cases and deaths undoubtedly explains DeSantis decline in the polls.

If the pandemic wanes in Florida  and I think theres a good chance it will  DeSantis should prevail in next years election, leaving Democrats to wonder: Whats the matter with Florida?
Airtel Africa has announced that its subsidiary, Airtel Networks Ltd., (Airtel Nigeria) has initiated a process to buy back 8.27 per cent minority shareholdings at N55.81 per share.

The Group Company Secretary, Simon OHara, disclosed this in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos.

The statement noted that the total consideration was estimated to be N61.24 billion (using an exchange rate of N413.38) assuming all minority shareholders decide to tender their shares.

It said: This represents an open offer to all shareholders.

A further announcement will be made in due course.

Airtel Africa is a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services, with presence in 14 countries in Africa, primarily in East Africa and Central and West Africa.

It offers an integrated suite of telecommunications solutions to its subscribers, including mobile voice and data services as well as mobile money services, both nationally and internationally.

The group aims to continue providing a simple and intuitive customer experience through streamlined customer journeys.

(NAN)
Christopher Bayo Ojo, who between June 2005 and May 2007 was Nigerias Attorney General and Minister of Justice, received $10.026 million the infamous Malabu OPL 245 share-outs, a payment investigators said was a bribe for his earlier controversial decision to reassign the lucrative oil block to Dan Etete, Nigerias former petroleum minister.

Mr Ojo in 2006 handed control of the Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL) 245 to Malabu Oil and Gas, owned by Mr Etete, despite the Nigerian government having won the right to retain it, court papers obtained by PREMIUM TIMES say. The former attorney general, who also acted as a legal adviser and consultant to Mr Etete, was later handsomely rewarded.

Although the Malabu case has lasted years, the court documents provide clearer details on Mr Ojos role and how the Malabu largesse was shared.

The OPL 245, at the centre of far-reaching lawsuits in Europe and the U.S., was originally awarded by erstwhile military Head of State General Sani Abacha to Malabu, a briefcase firm hurriedly put together by Mr Etete, who would be later convicted of corruption on a separate matter. The firm was asked to pay a measly $20 million for the block which holds as much as 9 billion barrels of oil, vast enough to supply the entire Africa for seven years.

Mr Abacha, a notorious kleptocrat, ensured his son was a part-owner of Malabu. But the fraudulent deal was annulled following Abachas death, and Mr Etete went to court to challenge the decision.

Malabus licence was reinstated in November 2006 by Mr Ojo after entering an out-of-court agreement with the firm, requiring Malabu to pay the signing bonus of $210 million in the 12 months from the re-registration of the licence.

It is recalled that Christopher Adebayo OJO was a legal consultant of ETETE during the last stages of the negotiation, but, above all, he is the former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, who, in 2006, reassigned OPL 245 to Malabu, waiving the appeal in the lawsuit filed by Malabu against the Nigerian government against the revocation of the licence and its assignment through a tender process to Shell, the court paper says.

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Such a waiver, and the resulting settlement with Malabu, took place in an unexpected and unreasonable way, in spite of the fact that the Nigerian government had won the case in the court of first instance. The reassignment of the licence in 2006 to Malabu, subsequent to the transaction desired by Bayo OJO, is therefore the essential prerequisite of all events and subsequent acts, up to the Settlement Agreements on 29 April 2011 and to the actual collection by Malabu of over $800 million in the performance of those agreements.

The final settlement agreement was later implemented by President Goodluck Jonathan and his cabinet members, namely Mohammed Adoke (attorney general), Diezani Alison-Madueke( petroleum minister) and Aliyu Gusau (National Security Adviser).

It involved Shell and Eni taking over the contentious block after paying $1.2 billion to Malabu through the Jonathan government which claimed it acted as a mediator.

Top government officials received payments from the huge fee, and Mr Etete paid the former Nigerian Minister of Justice, as well as his latest legal counsel, Bayo Ojo, for the favour that he did for him in 2006 by reassigning to him, at no cost, the OPL 245 prospecting licence, from the funds of $411,233,907, transferred from Malabu to Rocky Top Resources Ltd, the document states.

Mr Etete would later acknowledge owning Rocky Top Resources Limited and that the money transferred into the current account of the company were proceeds from the re-allocation of OPL 245.

The bribe of 10 million dollars to Bayo Ojo was not only the payment of a fee for generic legal advisory services supplied in 2011 but also includes remuneration for a favour done for Etete five years earlier and, therefore, represents the execution of the original corruptive pact stipulated by ETETE with the minister of justice in office at that time, the document says.

Vincenzo Armanna, a former Eni manager, received $1.2 million in his current account domiciled at the Banca Popolare di Bergamo on May 8, 2012 at the behest of Mr Ojo from Oceanic Bank International (Nigeria) Limited with the description: Giuseppe Armanna Inheritance, it also says.

The court papers said Mr Ojo handled some other suspicious assignments, citing one mystery in which the Nigerian lawyer redeemed Guiseppe Armanas investment in Kenya more than a decade after it was made without the slightest documentary proof.

The fact that Bayo Ojo provided Nigerian investigators with an explanation similar to that of Armanna does not affect, in the opinion of this court, the Plaintiffs reconstruction, because its unthinkable that Bayo Ojo would confess to the authorities of his Country his active role in a corruption matter of such immense size, it said.

Mr Ojo declined to comment on the issues raised in the court documents when PREMIUM TIMES contacted him on Monday. The former attorney general of the federation said he could not react to an issue that he is not aware of.
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has berated the political elites for the dwindling state of the nation after years of independence.

Mr Falana, in an interview on Sunday Politics, a programme of Channels Television, blamed the countrys retrogressive situations on the reluctance of its leaders to design its structures.

Nigeria marked its 61st Independence anniversary on October 1.

He said Nigerias 61 years journey has been so far, so bad, given the fact that countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia who were on the same pedestal as the country in the 1960s have frog jumped their third world status to world leading economies.

So, for the majority of our people, 1960 provided an opportunity to start all over again but, unfortunately, the nationalist politicians, who took over the reins of power from the British colonial regime, did not decolonise the country and the psyche of our people, and all of them retained the colonial structures.

The laws and ordinances were simply changed to the Act of Parliament. The institutions were left intact, Mr Falana, who spoke after a Bauchi Senator, Adamu Bulkachuwa, said.

He said the country started missing its opportunity for a better status the moment its political elites started embracing colonial pathways rather than creating its own.

Mr Falana also criticised President Muhammadu Buhari Independence Day broadcast, where he thanked the British for uniting Nigeria, despite the notoriety of the colonial regime for divide and rule approach, a feature that has continued to describe the countrys political landscape.

On the debate for the zoning of the 2023 Presidential ticket by southern and northern political leaders, the lawyer noted that such tussle is divisive and should not be condoned in the political space.

He argued that such debate will further reduce the countrys political development to regional affairs rather than promoting better governance for all.

Finally, on the presidency, I am very reluctant to join issues with those who want the presidency in the south or north, and I am going to appeal to the media to assist Nigerians to challenge those who are reducing the politics of 2023 to regional affairs.

We must ask those who want the president and their candidate to address the problems of underdevelopment of our country, what will be your position on VAT? What will be your position on access to education for Nigerian children? What will be your position on going abroad for medical treatment? Unless you ask these questions, you must ask these questions, otherwise, it becomes a question of it is my turn, Mr Falana said.
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Faruk Yahaya, has advised criminal elements in the country to surrender their arms and embrace peace or face serious security measures.

Mr Yahaya, a lieutenant general, gave the advice on Monday in Enugu during the launch of three new security exercises for the various sections of the country.

The exercises include: Golden Dawn for the South-east; Still Water for the coastal areas and Enduring Peace for some states in the North-central and Federal Capital Territory.

He said the exercises, which would entail joint operations between the military and other sister security agencies, were designed to check all forms of criminality.

He said the operations would help to promote greater security for free movement of persons, following a build up in the end-of-year activities.

The COAS further said the operations meant field training exercises routinely conducted yearly to enhance troops combat proficiency.

According to him, the exercises, which will run from 4 October to 24 December, will create an enabling environment for socioeconomic activities to thrive in all regions in the country.

He thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for his unwavering commitment and support to the Nigerian Army and other sister security agencies in the country.

We must be loyal and professional to justify the trust the president reposed in us all and the generous support from him to tackle all forms of criminality headlong with the dedication they deserve.

I must commend the personnel of the Nigerian Army and other security agencies in the South-east for their sacrifice and gallantry disposition to ensure peace and progress in the region, notwithstanding obvious challenges.

We are also grateful to the state governors, council chairmen and other leaders in the country for their support and encouragement, Mr Yahaya said.

He appealed to residents to volunteer useful information on the activities of criminal elements in their neighbourhoods in order for the exercises to achieve their purpose.

He also urged members of the sister security agencies and military personnel to work as a team and bring out their various specialties to drive the overall success of the exercises.

You should leverage their friendship and linkages with members of the public to provide real-time security information meant to checkmate activities of all sorts of criminal elements, he said.

Earlier, the General Officer Commanding, 82 Division of the Nigerian Army, Taoreed Lagbaja, a major general, said that Exercise Golden Dawn would be used to improve civil-military cooperation through the provision of boleholes, free medical outreaches and educational materials, amongst others.

Mr Lagbaja said the exercise would reduce criminality in the South-east to the barest minimum.

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The unknown gunmen are advised to surrender their illegal arms or face the brutal force of the exercise, he said.

He admonished residents of the Divisions Area of Responsibility to be law abiding and support Exercise Golden Dawn with necessary information.

I assure them that troops for the exercise will display discipline and carry out the exercise within the ambit of the rules of engagement for internal security duties, Lagbaja said.

Highlights of the event included the presentation of an official vehicle to the Regimental Sergeant Major of 82 Division by the COAS.

The other sister security agencies for the exercises included: Nigerian Air Force, Nigerian Navy, Nigeria Police, NSCDC, DSS, NDLEA, Nigerian Custom Services, FRSC and Nigerian Immigration Service, among others
The Importers Association of Nigeria has called on the federal government to include the association in the board of the proposed National Commission for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons.

The association made this call on Monday at the public hearing on a bill to give effect to the ECOWAS convention on small arms and light weapons control.

The hearing, organised by the House Committee on Protocol, Agreement and Treaties, is on domesticating the ECOWAS convention.

Chijioke Okoro, the director-general of the national task force of IMAN, said the association is in the best position to assist the government to eradicate importation of arms.

He noted that the organisation has the capacity to work with the government in gathering intelligence on importers involved in the illicit act.

We synergize with security agencies in providing information on such importation or where consignment have left the ports and border posts even on transit, we share information with security agencies which leads to arrest, seizure and prosecution of offenders, he said.

Speaking on behalf of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Kunle Osisanya, an assistant controller-general in charge of armoury, said the NIS is currently marking and tracing all arms in charge of the NIS.

The tracing of arms, marking arms and border control, the NIS has commenced the marking of arms, the ones in headquarters and FCT are completely marked. Those in commands, we are on it. In the next few weeks, will get to it.

The proliferation of small arms and light weapons remains a major challenge across the country. Last week, the Nigerian Navy blamed neighbouring countries for the proliferation of arms in Nigeria and called for strong measures against those countries.

Currently, there are two bills on the creation of a body to regulate small arms in the House.

Last week, President Muhammadu Buhari transmitted a bill to the National Assembly, seeking to convert the Presidential Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons into National Centre for Control of Small Arms under the Office of the National Security Adviser.

There is another bill to establish the National Commission Against the Proliferation of Small Arms and Light weapons by the Whip of the House, Mohammed Monguno (APC, Borno).

Mr Mongunos bill was introduced in 2019 and a public hearing was conducted on the bill last week.

In April, a former Head of State, Abdusalami Abubakar, said there were over six million small arms and weapons in the country
The General Officer Commanding (GOC) 81 Division, Nigerian Army, Lawrence Fejokwu, says that Operation Still Water will address insecurity during the festive periods in Lagos and Ogun States.

Mr Fejokwu, a major-general, said this, on Monday, during the inauguration of Operation Still Water held at Digital Bridge Institute, Cappa, Oshodi, Lagos State scheduled to hold from 4 October to 23 December .

The exercise is an ember month programme which we conduct over the years since the days of Python Dance, Crocodile Smile, which has now been reviewed as Still Water.

The whole idea of the exercise is for us to come out on the field to rehearse all we have been teaching ourselves in our various classrooms.

It will serve as a rehearsal on how to tackle criminal elements which is what we do in our various classrooms and now we are bringing it down to the fields, he said.

The GOC said the exercise is in conjunction with other sister agencies, stating that there would be increased military movement by day and night in Lagos State and its environs.

We will be working in synergy with other agencies so that when we conduct raids in future such as Stop and Search, all security services will be on the same page.

We will do it together the way it should be done because we have rehearsed it and know what each service ought to do in any given situation.

This is what this operation basically, is meant to serve, he said.

Mr Fejokwu said it was necessary to clamp down on security situations to ensure a safe environment where we can go about our businesses without fear of the activities of criminals.

We expect hightened security awareness and expect that citizens in the course of this exercise can report any case to the nearest field location which are evenly distributed in the state.

We have rules of engagement, therefore lawful citizens have nothing to fear, but if we find criminals in the course of conducting the exercise, we will deal with them accordingly, he said.

The GOC assured that the waterways would also be secured because there would be military gun boats on the patrol and soldiers would be deployed to the banks and jetties across the state.

Also speaking, Lander Saraso, commander, 9 Brigade, Nigerian Army, Ikeja Cantonment, said the exercise was designed to prepare and plan the conduct of military operations, other than war, in a multi-agency setting.

The exercise is also designed to practice the troops in certain aspects of counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations in Lagos State.

The setting of exercise still water is premised largely on the conduct of military operations other than war to provide military aid to civil authority.

Accordingly, the exercise is designed to curtail the activities of militants, bandits, armed robbers, cultists, hoodlums, illegal oil bunkers, and the likes within Lagos and environs, he said.

Mr Saraso said that recent intelligence reports revealed that criminals within the environs have taken over some communities to perpetuate their criminal acts.

In spite of efforts of security agencies, these criminal elements have continued to engage in criminal activities such as kidnapping, banditry, militancy, cultism, and other crimes within the city of Lagos.

Recently, a senior Police officer was killed in the line of duty and a retired military officer was also kidnapped within Lagos, but we thank God that he has been rescued.

In view of this, the brigade is tasked to conduct this exercise to curtail these criminal activities in conjunction with other sister services and security agencies as we approach the yuletide season, he said.

The commander said the exercise involves the physical deployment of troops to the field where they would conduct real-time patrols against criminal elements within the environment.

He said the exercise would test the unit and sub-unit commanders in battle procedure and decision-making processes regarding employment of weapons and assets in internal security operations.

The exercise will test the ability of troops on communication skills and communication security in an operational environment.

It will also expose commanders to levels of service support available to them at the tactical level for Operations, among many other things, Mr Saraso said.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that free medical service was conducted for residents of the host community in Oshodi.

(NAN)
The World Banks Board of Directors has approved a $400 million credit to Nigeria in additional financing, from its International Development Association (IDA), for COVID-19 vaccine acquisition, the bank announced in a statement it issued on Friday, in Washington.

The bank said the fund is meant to provide upfront financing for safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine acquisition and deployment within the country and that it would be implemented as part of the COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Project.

Building on the Federal Governments plan to break the chain of local transmission of COVID-19 and limit the spread of the virus, the original COVID-19 response program would be expanded to enable equitable access, the statement said.

This is in order to purchase affordable COVID-19 vaccines for 18 per cent, or about 40 million of Nigerias population and support effective vaccine deployment to 50 per cent, about 110 million Nigerians.

It also said that the additional financing would allow Nigeria purchase and deploy COVID-19 vaccines, strengthen relevant health systems that are necessary for a successful deployment and to prepare for future health emergencies.

Critically, it will permit the acquisition of vaccines to support Nigerias objective of having access to vaccines under the right conditions of value-for-money, regulatory approvals, and delivery time, among other important features.

This will ensure that the government meets its plans to vaccinate 51 per cent of its population in two years.

Shubham Chaudhuri, World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, said as the Nigerian government continues to tackle the effect of a third wave of the pandemic, it was crucial to continue to vaccinate citizens in addition to the use of non-pharmaceutical interventions.

This, he said, was to avoid the dreadful consequences of another lockdown that left in its wake an economic toll the country was still grappling with.

This additional funding would ensure that the Nigerian government has the necessary financial resources to keep its vaccination drive going. This would mean that Nigerians will have increased access to the COVID-19 vaccination.

Mr Ayodeji Ajiboye, the World Bank Task Team Leader for the project, said recognising that there was currently an excess in demand for vaccines from both high-income and lower-income countries, the additional funds would let Nigeria acquire the vaccine at the earliest.

He said it would strengthen the capacity of all states and the Federal Capital Territory to deploy the vaccines.

It will also strengthen the countrys health system interventions, such as enhancing health-emergency response capacity of health workers, cold chain equipment, disease surveillance, data management and use, and laboratory testing for the long-term.

The bank recalled that since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it had deployed over $157 billion dollars to fight the health, economic and social impacts of the pandemic, the fastest and largest crisis response in its history.

Similarly, it also said that it was supporting over 50 low- and middle-income countries, more than half of which are in Africa, with the purchase and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines and was making available $20 billion dollars in financing for that purpose until the end of 2022.

(NAN)
Ahead of its national convention later in the month, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has fixed a meeting of its National Executive Committee (NEC) for Thursday.

This was disclosed in a statement by the partys National Secretary, Umaru Tsauri, on Sunday in Abuja.

Mr Tsauri said the 94th NEC meeting, which will hold at the PDP national secretariat in Abuja, will discuss crucial matters.

All members are enjoined to attend as the meeting will discuss crucial matters, he said.

At its 93rd meeting on 9 September, the NEC constituted two committees, namely the national convention organising committee chaired by Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State and Zoning Committee headed by Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State.

The convention committee has since created subcommittees to ensure smooth organisation of the event.

The Zoning Committee last Thursday zoned the position of the national chairman of the party to the north while the rest national officers positions will be swapped between the north and the south.

The decision was announced by Mr Ugwuanyi after at least three meetings of the 44-member committee in Enugu.

Although Mr Ugwuanyi said his team never considered zoning of the presidential or vice-presidential ticket, there is a high possibility that the party will zone the apex political seat to the south as it did in the past.

The outgoing national chairman, Uche Secondus, who has been barred by court to stop parading himself as the occupier of that office, hails from the south.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the decision of the committee will form a major agenda of the meeting.

It was learnt that the party is eager to resolve all contentious issues before holding the National convention slated for 30 and 31 October.

There are speculations that despite the zoning of the position of the national chairman to the north, the party may throw its presidential ticket open to all the zones in the country.

Although the mood of the nation favours power shift to the south, some PDP faithful still hold the view that for the party to snatch power from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 2023 poll, it would be expedient to field a northern candidate given the regions voting population advantage.

Meanwhile, the APC may field a southern candidate since President Muhammadu Buhari whose tenure expires in 2023 is from the northern part of the country.
Troops of Operation Safe Haven say some gunmen have attacked Ungwan Taila village, Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State in which two residents died.

The states Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, confirmed the incident in a statement he issued on Sunday in Kaduna.

Mr Aruwan said the troops arrived in the village to find that the gunmen had killed two residents.

Receiving the report, Gov. Nasir el-Rufai expressed deep regret at further loss of life from such attacks in the area.

He prayed for the repose of the souls of the deceased and conveyed his heartfelt condolences to their family.

In the meantime, the troops will continue search-and-rescue operations in the area.

Citizens will be briefed on further updates. the statement said.
The Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has said it will commence the process of reviewing the current revenue allocation formula for governments in the country today.

It will commence the process with a two-day public hearing in Lagos.

In a release by the commission, the South-west public hearing will kick off the nationwide consultations expected to lead to a new revenue sharing formula for the country.

The states expected to participate are Lagos, Ekiti, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo and Osun.

Under the current sharing arrangement, the federal government takes 52.68 per cent of the revenue shared, states get 26.72 per cent while the local governments get 20.60 per cent.

The current review will focus only on the vertical allocation which covers allocation to the federal, states and local governments and does not imply reduction in the cost of governance.

The commission said the review is in pursuant of its constitutional mandate that empowers it to review from time to time, the revenue allocation formula and principles in operation to ensure conformity with changing realities.

The schedule also shows that the South-south zone will hold in Rivers State on Thursday, October 7, to Friday October 8, with participants expected from Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta and Edo States.

For the South East which will hold in Imo State from 11-12 of October, participants are expected from Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states.

In the North West, Kaduna State will host the public hearing with participants expected also from Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, and Zamfara States.

Kogi State will be the host for the North Central on the October 19 to 20, with participants from Benue, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger and Plateau States.

In the North East, the public hearing will hold in Gombe State on 21 and 22 October. Participants are expected from Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Taraba, and Yobe States.

In the Federal Capital Territory, the public hearing will hold on 25 and 26 October.

Participants at the zonal public hearings are expected to be drawn from states executives, legislatures, judiciary, local government officials, civil society groups, organized labour, elder statesmen, traditional rulers, and the general public.

The Commission urged stakeholders to participate effectively in the process and to submit five hard copies of their memoranda as well as soft copy of the proposed review to its office in Abuja or during the hearings across the zones.
The Attorneys-General of the 36 states of the federation have filed a suit at the Supreme Court to challenge the legality of the Presidential Executive Order 10 issued last year to shore up the financial independence of state judiciaries and legislatures.

In the suit which challenges the widely accepted norm that states are to fund their courts, the plaintiffs argue that it is the constitutional duty of the federal government to fund the capital and recurrent expenditures of states High Courts, as well as their Sharia and Customary Courts of Appeal.

They argued that the Executive Order violated the Nigerian constitution by seeking to compel state governments to fund the recurrent and capital expenditures of state courts, which according to them ought to be that of the federal government.

It is the plaintiffs argument that the Presidential Executive Order No. 00-10 issued by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on 22 May 2020 is unconstitutional as the said Executive Order seeks to compel state governments to fund recurrent and capital expenditures of the State High Courts of Appeal, which form part of the courts whose funding is the prerogative of the federal government in line with the provisions of sections 6, 81(3) and item 21(3) of the Third Schedule to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, their filing read in part.

The Executive Order empowers the Accountant-General of the Federation to make deductions meant for state judiciaries from the state governments allocations and pay them to the National Judicial Council (NJC), which will then remit the deducted funds to the heads of the various state courts.

This, the plaintiffs argue, is against the provisions of sections 6(5), 81(3) and item 21(3) of the Third Schedule of the Nigerian constitution.

According to them, the constitutional provisions, when read together, clearly impose and create a constitutional duty, responsibility and obligation on the federal government to fund both the capital and recurrent expenditure of the courts established by section 6 of the constitution.

The courts established under section 6 of the constitution are the High Courts, Sharia Courts of Appeal and the Customary Court of Appeal of states, along with the federal courts, including the Supreme Court.

The plaintiffs asked the court to not only declare the Executive Order 10 unconstitutional, but to also order the federal government to fund the capital and recurrent expenditure of the state courts.

They also sought another order compelling the federal government to refund to the state governments all the sums they have so far expended in funding the capital expenditure of the High Courts, Sharia Courts of Appeal and Customary Courts of Appeal.

The suit, scheduled for hearing at the Supreme Court today (Monday), has the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, the federal governments representative, as the sole defendant.

FG reacts

In its counter-affidavit filed in opposition to the suit, the federal government admits it is its responsibility to undertake recurrent expenditure of the courts only to the extent of paying the remuneration, salaries, and allowances of the judges.

Mr Malami opposed the scope of the recurrent and capital expenditures of the state courts, which the state governments claimed should be the federal governments responsibility.

He noted that although the constitution provided for the establishment of states High Courts, Sharia Courts of Appeal and Customary Courts of Appeal it was the respective state laws which created them that actually set the operations of these courts in motion.

It is also the state laws, according to the AGF, that confer powers on the courts to make them functional as the states courts.

By virtue of this, Mr Malami said it is no doubt, the duty of the executive arm of government in every state of the federation to fund the recurrent and capital expenditure of the courts.

He also argued that the federal government could not possibly be held liable to incur any alleged capital and recurrent expenditure for the various states Sharia Courts of Appeal and Customary Courts of Appeal which are at the discretion of state governments to create.

If a state considers that it, in fact, requires a Customary or Sharia Court of Appeal, the presumption of regularity presupposes that such a state has prepared, evaluated and estimated both the capital and recurrent expenditure that will be necessarily occasioned before committing itself to its establishment and captured same in its annual budget estimates, he added.

He contended that it would be inequitable for states to demand a refund of alleged expenditures from the federal government.

That the federal government has since May 1999 been funding recurrent expenditure of state judiciaries as charged by section 84 of the constitution and captured in the annual budget estimates presented to the National Assembly respectively, in the fiscal years.

That all capital expenditures are to be captured in the estimate included in the appropriation bill of the state Houses of Assembly, the counter-affidavit read in part.

He also accused the state governments of unjustified and indefensible rebellion against the Constitution by continuing to defy constitutional provisions guaranteeing the independence of the state judiciaries.

He added that despite the constitutional provisions and series of court judgments, state governors had continued to wrongly subject the funding of state judiciaries to executive control.

Mr Malami also defended the constitutionality of the Executive Order 10, which he said was issued by the President in a bid to fulfill his duty of executing and maintaining the constitution.

The President sought to achieve this, according to Mr Malami, by directing the Accountant-General of the Federation to do the needful to ensure the implementation of the constitutional provisions on financial autonomy for state judiciaries.
The Lake Chad Basin region is plagued by insecurity. In addition to the terror inflicted by Boko Haram, organised crime and kidnappings for ransom in the area, it is feared that Cameroons community conflicts could spread, further destabilising the entire region.

Land and water are at the root of the inter-communal rivalries in Cameroons Far North that have claimed the lives of 15 people and injured 50 since May. The availability of illegal homemade or manufactured weapons makes the clashes deadlier.

People in these areas make a living from livestock, agriculture and fishing. These livelihoods are concentrated around rivers and streams that offer grazing, water and arable land. Climate change increases the competition for scarce resources, which, fuelled by identity-based politics, leads to bloody conflicts.

Many communities live in the large cross-border areas shared by the four Lake Chad Basin countries  Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. For example the Kanuri, Shuwa Arabs and Boudouma can be found in all four countries, while the Kotoko and Musgum reside in Chad and Cameroon. The borders are extremely porous, especially when located on rivers or the lake.

On August 11, the Shuwa Arab and Musgum communities clashed over land in El Birke canton in the Logone-Birni district. Twelve people died and 48 were seriously injured. Since then, more than 11 000 people from Cameroon have crossed the Logone River to seek safety in Chads Ondouma and Ngama Kotoko areas.

Conflict zones in Cameroons Far North Region

The attacks occurred in the middle of the rainy season when extensive flooding makes it difficult to get emergency aid to the refugees. This is on top of the growing humanitarian needs caused by the protracted Boko Haram crisis.

In June, bloody conflicts over land pitted the Shuwa Arab against the Kotoko community in the Aboudangala canton, also located in Logone-Birni. Two people were killed and four seriously injured. In May, a dispute over access to water led to battles between the Kanuri and Shuwa Arabs in Waza. One person died and four were wounded.

These communal tensions are not new. Clashes between the Kotoko and Musgum in Zina in 2007 left eight people dead and 60 wounded. Similarly, violence between the Shuwa Arabs and Kotoko in Kousseri in 1992 left 68 people dead and 395 wounded.

Almost all those involved in these conflicts live in Cameroon and Chad, and along the border between the two countries. The Shuwa Arab also live in parts of Borno State in Nigeria, and in Niger. During the latest August conflict, Institute for Security Studies research revealed an influx of people from various Chadian communities into the Cameroon conflict zone to join forces with their families. Porous borders in the area, especially rivers, make this movement easier.

Theres a strong likelihood that these problems could worsen regionally. Security issues in the Lake Chad Basin often become regional because of the anthropological, historical and economic proximity of the people living in the area.

The circulation of firearms in the hands of former rebels, national army members and smugglers is nothing new because of the long-standing armed conflicts in Chad, Sudan, Libya, Nigeria and the Central African Republic. But the increasing use of guns in community clashes in this already volatile region requires urgent attention from Lake Chad Basin governments.

The Cameroonian authorities have already stepped up with the launch of a disarmament operation after the August violence in El Birke. This should be maintained and extended to the entire conflict zone and coordinated with other Lake Chad Basin countries to effectively silence the guns in the region.

Finally, responses to the local rivalries should be reassessed. The reconciliation initiatives led by Cameroons government, while attracting media attention, are unlikely to resolve the disputes. They consist of official meetings of community leaders under the aegis of higher authorities, and as such, remain merely protocol. A long-term approach is needed that addresses the nature of the conflicts and their historical and economic underpinnings.

Understanding the underlying causes of the clashes rather than their sporadic manifestations would help craft sustainable solutions. Transitional justice mechanisms are also worth exploring to address prosecutorial concerns, truth-seeking, reconciliation and healing of the affected communities. Investigating and prosecuting the alleged perpetrators of attacks and compensating the victims could help quell the thirst for intra- and inter-community reprisals.

The role of traditional authorities (village and community chiefs and religious leaders) and the means they use to manage resources and prevent and resolve conflict, must also be strengthened. Because of their social standing and their vital roles as guarantors of tradition, these leaders are best placed to organise reconciliation processes that their communities will trust and participate in.

Hoinathy Remadji, Senior Researcher, ISS Regional Office for West Africa, the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin and Celestin Delanga, ISS Research Associate

This article was produced with funding from the government of the Netherlands.

(This article was first published by ISS Today, a Premium Times syndication partner. We have their permission to republish).
The former vice-chancellor of the Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, Fagbohun, has enjoined Nigerian universities to lead discourse around intergenerational contracts towards addressing the contemporary challenges facing Nigeria, and Africa by extension.

The professor of environmental law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria gave insight into how wide intergenerational gaps have significantly contributed to the difficulties being experienced by successive administrations in finding lasting solutions to the myriad of problems facing the country.

According to Mr Fagbohun, each generation has its unique strengths and weaknesses, and until cross-fertilisation of ideas among representatives of each of the available generations is done, the country and, indeed, Africa, may not be out of the woods.

Mr Fagbohun spoke on the theme; Towards Harnessing Intergenerational Opportunities for Inclusive Growth and Development in Nigeria, as the guest lecturer at the 10th convocation ceremony of the Osun State University.

He said the Nigerian universities, such as Harvard University has reportedly done, must research into the working systems of apprenticeship of the Southeastern region of Nigeria; the Esusu guild of collaboration culture of the Southwestern people, among others.

He said until such a time when the beauties of the past are combined with the modernity of the present with its technological advantage, the continent of Africa, and Nigeria in particular, may continue to grope in the dark.

Reasons for intergenerational exchanges

A 30-page lecture, a copy of which was made available to PREMIUM TIMES, provides its sound footing for intergenerational contracts and opportunities in the efforts of global organisations such as the United Nations towards finding solutions to such problems as ageing population, family life and as embedded in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

He said; The development of intergenerational relations has not just been informal or serendipitous. In April, 2002, Member States of the United Nations adopted the Political Declaration and Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing. The emphasis was on the mainstreaming of ageing and older persons into policies and planning.

In 2007, the General Assembly adopted a supplement to the World Programme of Action for Youth. It among others proposed action on strengthening families and bolstering intergenerational solidarity. In 2009, United Nations International Experts Group meeting on Family Policy on a Changing World: Promoting Social Protection and Intergenerational Solidarity recommended building partnerships and cooperation between youth and older persons organizations.

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In 2012, the Commission for Social Development adopted Advancing Social Integration and Intergenerational Solidarity as one of the themes of the preparations for the twentieth anniversary of the International Year of the Family, 2014. Many issues related to intergenerational contracts are also deeply engrained in the Sustainable Development Goals.

He said the working together of those he described as the Traditionalists (1926  1945), Baby Boomers (1946  1965), Gen-Xers (1966  1980), Millennials (1981  2000), and Gen-Zers (2001  2015), will help to advance proper solutions to contemporary challenges.

He, however, cautioned that these ideas as advanced by the United Nations, cannot be adopted hook, line and sinker without domesticating it on the continent, saying while ageing population could be the trouble with Europe, a booming younger population is the challenge of the continent.

So, we must situate our problems properly and locate the solutions within rather than blanket endorsement of the idea.

In the context of development, the focus of intergenerational contracts is that people of different generations should work together to address social problems. Rather than have philanthropy of the rich to the poor, intergenerational contract enjoins collaboration and partnership of different generations towards the achievement of a common goal of better living standard and equitable income.

Intergenerational contract is holistic in approach and recognises that the multifaceted challenges facing the society require solutions that involve all generations within their different social support networks, working together in a coordinated manner to think fresh, spot opportunities, and creatively find new paths to ensure the well-being of all, Mr Fagbohun said.

Why mentorship matters

According to the lecturer, the craze for freedom and independence by the younger generation of Nigerians should be discouraged, saying mentorship cannot be ruled out on a journey to sustainable excellence.

He commended the management of the Osun State University for introducing a seed capital to support graduates with entrepreneurial skills and innovations. He, however, suggested that beyond the seed money, these young innovators should be attached with successful business men and women who can reproduce themselves through the young graduates.

This is where the apprenticeship culture of the Igbos comes in. The leverage of intergenerational opportunities for inclusive growth and development is not new to Africa and in particular, Nigeria. For instance, up to Harvard University, the Igbo apprenticeship system of South-eastern region of Nigeria (locally known as IgbaBoi) has been the focus of research.

Under this apprenticeship arrangement, a man trading in the city returns to his traditional community to pick young adults (usually boys) from poor families and trains them in the line of his business. They would serve him for some years, and during this period of apprenticeship, they are not paid. He feeds, clothes and houses them. Upon completion of their apprenticeship, he invites his kinsmen, business partners and others to a ceremony where he settles the young adults, that is set them up in business. He sends them business opportunities to ensure that they thrive. By the time these young adults are stable in the business, they also go back to the community to bring other younger adults.
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has intercepted 15 sacks of pangolin scales weighing 1,014.5kg with a value of over N1.7 billion.

The National Public Relations Officer, NSC, DC Joseph Attah, disclosed this to journalists on Monday. He said two suspects were arrested with the items.

This criminality was not essentially a Nigerian thing, sadly some foreigners with active connivance of few Nigerians are bent on using our dear country as a transit route for illegal wild life trade, he said.

He said a DNA test would be conducted on the scales to know which country the scales emanated from.

He further said that those who bought these things were not Nigerians but from Asian countries and well developed countries, stating that Nigerians that were involved were lured by money to provide warehouse where the parts could be stored.

Today we are here to showcase the success story of the NCSs ongoing crackdown on illegal wild life trade.

You will recall that two months ago, NCS acting on credible intelligence provided by our international partners announced wild life seizure worth over N22 billion with arrested suspects currently facing prosecution.

In the course of further investigation to arrest other members of the gang, we received another credible intelligence from the same international partner, Wildlife Justice Commission, and swiftly deployed our intelligence operatives with the Strike Force as a SWAT team.

This led to the interception of One Mercedes Benz Bus with registration number BGT 256 LG along Kudirat Abiola Way Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos, he said.

The CGC said that upon examination, the bus was found to contain the following: pangolin scales; 60kg, 35kg, by 54kg, 64kg, 66kg, 58kg, 50kg, 73kg, 61kg, 64kg, 92kg, 89kg, by 60kg, by 92.5kg totalling 1,009.5kg and one sack of Pangolin Claws by 5kg all totalling 1,014.5kg with a DPV of N1. 7 billion.

He named the two suspects already arrested in connection with the seizure as: Salif Sanwidi and Sunday Ebenyi, adding that they would be charged to court to answer for their crimes.

For the avoidance of doubt, illegal wild life trade contravenes Section 63 e and g of CEMA Cap 45 LFN 2004.

Nigeria is a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. As responsible member of the global community, we cannot allow our nation to be used as a conduit pipe for illegal trade on wild life.

We remain committed to the quarterly meeting with embassies of U.S., UK and Germany and welcome on board other International organizations that are joining the fray, he said.

He commended Wildlife Justice Commission for their continued commitment to the course through the provision of credible and actionable intelligence, including technical aids.

NCS appreciates this working synergy and looks forward for more, he said.

(NAN)
In parsing President Buharis Independence Day speech, therefore, the gap between reality and aspiration that has been much commented upon, especially the exaggerated sense of the administrations achievement, must be squarely blamed on those who put the speech together.

One of the easiest things to do in Nigeria today, is publicly declaim ones love for and undying commitment to the country. In the end, it really does not invite the speaker and his or her audience to do much. It does involve some form of criticism, though. Especially dense discussions of how the countrys considerable problems must be measured against those of the likes of Pakistan and Afghanistan (never Botswana). And how as an emerging democracy, it is only a tiddler compared to the many centuries the U.S. has under its belt (Singapore?). The point is that the place is work-in-progress.

These excuses go hand-in-hand with a readiness to condemn as unpatriotic opinions that do not sit well with this perspective. I guess from this vantage, To keep Nigeria one is a task that must (still) be done. Even though much of the case made by those who ask questions of the country today is more commentary on how criminally it is being managed.

To continue to shout One indivisible Nigeria on the mountains, over the hills and everywhere is also a staple of our current leaders and those aspiring to supplant them. Unfortunately, it has very little substance to it. Across the diverse fields that I have had to work and collaborate with my compatriots (the civil service, print media, the financial services sector, and a little politicking), the most fervent advocates of the indissoluble unity of Nigeria are the countrys most corrosive elements  daily undermining the economys capacity for self-regeneration and growth by their avarice.

A large part of my seven-year stint in the civil service had me write speeches for a bewildering array of functions. I still write those speeches. And in over three decades of writing speeches, only one of the owners of my speech has ever asked that we sit together and agree the dimensions of his intent in taking up the invitation to speak.

Thus, over the years, explaining this contradiction between the spoken word and action, between intent and outcome, has become a favourite national pastime. At the macro-level, this hiatus is most noticeable in the failure of governance in the public sector  where the distance between our loftily named annual budgets and our economys performance is as risible as it is unbridgeable. Until that is, you pay attention to an underlying tension. A large part of my seven-year stint in the civil service had me write speeches for a bewildering array of functions. I still write those speeches. And in over three decades of writing speeches, only one of the owners of my speech has ever asked that we sit together and agree the dimensions of his intent in taking up the invitation to speak.

With highs so few, the lows have been instructive. As in when one of my bosses, going through a speech with me standing across his expansive desk from him (poor etiquette, if you ask me) stumbles on a strange (to him) word, and goes What kind of nonsense speech is this? It took me a while to persuade this captain of industry that he was wrong. You cannot pass judgment on a speech whose dimensions you and your speechwriter did not agree on. Or take the public sector case. Where having invited the State governor to a function, the Protocol Unit of the governors office reaches out to your department to prepare a draft for the governor. I didnt get it, first time  not sure I still get it. An invitation to a public office holder to speak in public is an opportunity for him to either reinforce a policy plank, or describe an entirely new platform. But no. The Protocol people informed me that having invited the governor, it behoved us to do a draft of what wed want him to say. Draft? I cobbled a half-hearted speech together, persuaded that they were going to graft the governors vision on to it  he was a military governor, though, so I guess he was not strong on the vision thing. What an unpleasantly surprise, then, to have the governor read my draft verbatim.

In that gap between the Nigerian leaders aspirations and his eventual actions lie the ambitions of a speechwriter. The bigger the gap, the more ambitious the speechwriter, and vice-versa. Now, of course, this relationship this true only for leaders big enough to have speechwriters.

That was my epiphany as a speechwriter. In that gap between the Nigerian leaders aspirations and his eventual actions lie the ambitions of a speechwriter. The bigger the gap, the more ambitious the speechwriter, and vice-versa. Now, of course, this relationship is true only for leaders big enough to have speechwriters. Aspirant leaders just follow their leaders penchant for ringing declamations. Both aware that the audience is too jaded to demand more.

In parsing President Buharis Independence Day speech, therefore, the gap between reality and aspiration that has been much commented upon, especially the exaggerated sense of the administrations achievement, must be squarely blamed on those who put the speech together. Our leaders having structured the country in a way that it is unable to manage consequences, tyrannical speechwriters, using their principals as stalking horses, will continue to inflict their pet peeves on us.

Uddin Ifeanyi, journalist manque and retired civil servant, can be reached @IfeanyiUddin.
As part of its social investment efforts to promote quality and affordable services in the health sector, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc (FMN) renovated the dental clinics at the Faculty of Dental Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Lagos.

FMN commenced the first phase of the renovation process, with four dental units with a N35 million naira funding in 2018. The second phase was the completion of an additional bay of four dental units in 2019. Plans to commence the third phase are in the works. The initiative which is also part of the companys Corporate Social Responsibility pillars aligns with the United Nations Social Development Goals (SDGs) for good health and well-being.

The clinic has close to 100 dental resident doctors providing subsidised care to the public, especially low-income earners and remains one of the best centres for comprehensive dental care and management in Lagos.

Speaking at the official unveiling and handover ceremony of the first two dental bays, Joseph Umolu, the Company Secretary and Director, Legal services, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc said:

Our decision to renovate the Dental Clinic is primarily motivated by the desire to give back to our communities. As a socially responsible business, we are especially concerned about the health and well-being of Nigerians. We understand that poor dental health can have a profoundly negative effect on not just our ability to eat but also on sensitive areas outside of the mouth, including the heart, and other chronic inflammation concerns.

With the upgraded facilities, the clinic will now be better equipped as a training facility for students and continue to offer subsidized dental care for its immediate environs as well as a referral centre for the management of all manners of dental diseases in the State primarily and Nigeria at large.

Also speaking at the event, Professor Oluranti daCosta, the Dean, Faculty of Dental Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, said:

On behalf of the Faculty of Dental Sciences, we extend our extreme appreciation to Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc. This project has made a remarkable change in our clinic and we are very excited to better serve our patients. The new dental units and improved surgical departments will also enable a more conducive environment for us to work and for patients to undergo special care. We recently have also been reaccredited having received this support from Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc and we look forward to a continued collaboration with Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc.

Media Contacts:

Modupe Thani / Samuel Iboroma

Phone: 0908 747 4588

pressoffice@fmnplc.com

About Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc

Incorporated in September 1960 and quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange since 1978, Flour Mills of Nigeria (FMN) Plc. is one of Nigerias leading food and agro-allied companies. With a broad basket of food products, an iconic brand Golden Penny and robust pan-Nigerian production, distribution, and supply chain network, FMN is a fully integrated and diversified food and agro-allied group.

The FMN group strives in its mission to Feed the Nation, Everyday through its five core food value chains: Grains, Sweeteners, Oils and Fats, Proteins, and Starches. FMN creates value along the entire food chain with its farm-to-table model by providing inputs and know-how to farmers, aggregating and sourcing crops and raw materials to supply its world-class processing facilities across Nigeria, and distributing its innovative food brands to its customers.

More information can be found at www.fmnplc.com

Follow FMN, on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube

Follow Golden Penny Foods, on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
The Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, and two of his officials are flying to Paris to attend a summit on agriculture in the French capital.

According to a statement by his spokesperson, Rafiu Ajakaye, on Monday, the governor and his delegation will also seek partnership of the French government on the multibillion naira special agriculture processing zone (SAPZ) in Lata (Patigi) and other investments in the sector.

Other members of the delegation are the Commissioner for Agriculture, Sabbah Gideon, and Technical Assistant to the Governor on Agriculture, Abdulquawiy Olododo.

The Kwara team will also seek prospects for the Gidan Magajiya grazing reserve in Baruteen. Such partnership, which will complement Federal Governments support on the same project, aligns with the state governments agricultural transformation plan that was recently launched, the governors spokesperson said in a statement on Monday.

READ ALSO:

He said the partnership drive will be held on the sidelines of a three-day summit on livestock value chains and agricultural development in Paris/Clermont-Ferrand.

Kwara is attending alongside delegations from at least 15 states from Nigeria, including Ogun and Ondo states led respectively by Governors Rotimi Akeredolu and Dapo Abiodun.

SOMMET DE LELEVAGE 2021 (SUMMIT) is the biggest livestock summit in Europe. It is being attended by over 1,700 exhibitors and 95,000 participants from across the world.

The move comes ahead of the upcoming AfDB board meeting in which the Kwara request on the Lata SAPZ will be discussed, the statement said.
The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has made a case for affordable healthcare services for every Nigerian, saying that those who cannot travel abroad for medical treatment do not deserve to die from ill-health.

Mr Wike said this on Saturday while inspecting the ongoing construction work at the Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease Diagnostic and Treatment Centre, Port Harcourt.

The N25 billion centre is one of the major health projects of Mr Wikes administration, and is named after a former governor of Rivers State, Peter Odili. Its construction began in June this year.

Mr Wike said that it is the primary responsibility of any government to ensure equitable access to basic healthcare for the citizens, especially the poor and most vulnerable.

The Rivers State Government, the governor said, has made huge investment in the tertiary hospital and public health infrastructure, and that the government wants the oil-rich state to become the hub for medical tourism in Nigeria.

My own motivation is that if I have the opportunity to travel overseas, what about others who do not have the opportunity to travel overseas. Must they die simply because they dont have opportunity?

It is the obligation of the government to make sure that our citizens are given the best in terms of protecting their lives. It is the responsibility of the government to protect lives.

So for me, it is our responsibility and so we must do everything we can to see that we save the lives of our people by making sure that our healthcare delivery system is working and the doctors are also given the best for them to work with, he said.

Governor Wike said Nigerian doctors and other medical experts can do their job well if they are provided with the enabling environment and proper incentives.

How many people can afford to travel overseas? We have all it takes to improve our health sector, to provide the necessary facilities. We have our doctors, all we need to do is to train and retrain them.

Look at Government House Hospital (Port Harcourt), look at how people troop in there, because the basic facilities are there and the doctors are willing, committed to work because of the environment they have found themselves in.

READ ALSO:

If you give our people the required environment and give them the facilities, the tools to work with, there is no need for us to travel overseas.

Mr Wike said he was satisfied with the level of construction work at the cancer treatment centre, and that he was confident the contractor would meet the completion deadline.

The state government is also constructing departmental buildings at the Rivers State University.

The buildings, which are for Basic Clinical Sciences and Clinical Sciences, Renal and Pathology Departments, are required for the state university to become a full-fledged teaching hospital.
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has arrested a suspected kidnapping syndicate collaborator and informant operating within Enugu metropolis and its environs.

The corps said it recovered N2,100, three ATM cards, two mobile phones, a wrap of substance suspected to be cannabis and an improvised pistol hidden under other contents in a mini-bag, among others.

The NSCDC spokesperson, Enugu State Command, Danny Manuel disclosed this in a statement on Sunday in Enugu.

The suspect has been identified as Oguchi Oguamanam, male, 24, residing at 7 Monarch Avenue by Timber Junction, near Ugwu-Aji community in Enugu metropolis.

He was arrested on September 30.

Mr Manuel said the suspect was arrested by operatives on routine patrol duty at WTC Estate axis of Enugu at about 2 p.m. after students returning from school spotted him using the pistol to rob a resident.

On interrogation, the suspect admitted to be working with a criminal gang based in Lagos.

He revealed that the gang usually pay money into his account which he will withdraw and pay into whatever account they send to him and therein take his own percentage.

He also claimed that some group of boys once robbed him in the same estate and that he prepared the improvised pistol to use it a revenge strategy whenever he sees any of the boys.

He said that one of the handsets found on him actually belonged to him, but as to the android phone he could not explain how he came about it, the NSCDC spokesperson said.

Mr Manuel assured the residents of the NSCDC readiness to collaborate with sister security agencies in the state to defend and secure the people at all times.

(NAN)
The governorship candidate of Africa Democratic Party (ADP) in Anambra State, Afam Ume-Ezeoke, has urged the people to be resolute in voting a credible person in the November 6 election.

Mr Ume-Ezeoke made the call while addressing members of his party drawn from the 21 local government areas of the state on Sunday in Awka.

He spoke on the need for a seamless political transition in Anambra.

The people should understand that they have the final say, in spite of the insecurity and other challenges confronting the conduct of a peaceful, credible, free and fair election in the state.

The governorship candidate cautioned the people to be warry of being manipulated by people who were planning to use money and other forms of inducement to buy votes.

He said the delay in kicking off his campaign was because he was making wide consultations.

I am very confident to inform you that we are now good to go on the November 6 project and by the grace of God, we shall make it, he said.

Mr Ume-Ezeoke said that Anambra election was a microcosm of what Nigerians should expect in the next general election in the year 2023.

The South-East Zonal Vice Chairman of ADP, Emeka Agbaponwu, also spoke at the meeting.

He said the national leadership of the party met over the need for the flag off of the governorship campaign in Anambra, but said the worsening insecurity in the state was hampering the exercise.

Mr Agbaponwu said, in the interim, the ADP was embarking on a door-to-door campaign to ensure they cover ground in the state.

The state chairman of ADP in Anambra, Mathias Ameke, described the party as the only hope for Anambra people.

He advised the people to be careful in their choice of next governor. It is only the right choice that will save Anambra from impending danger, he said.

(NAN)
The police in Ogun State, on Sunday, arrested two suspected kidnappers while trying to collect ransom from the family of a seven-year-old victim.

The victim was also rescued by the police.

In a statement by Abimbola Oyeyemi, the Ogun police spokesperson, the suspects abducted the seven-year-old, when he was sent on an errand by his mother.

According to Mr Oyeyemi, the suspects, Muhammed Abubakar, 42, and Clinton Niche,18, were apprehended following a report lodged at Agbara Area command by one Stephen Ajibili that his seven years old son, Daniel, was abducted by unknown persons.

Mr Ajibili told the police that his wife sent their son on an errand around 11:20 a.m. on Sunday, after which he went missing.

He added that the kidnappers had called him and demanded N1 million if he wanted his son released.

Mr Oyeyemi, a deputy Superintendent of Police, said following the report, the acting Area Commander of Agbara, Kayode Shedrack, mobilised police officers to investigate the incident and fish out those behind the act.

The efforts of the detectives paid off when the suspects, who had directed the victims parents to drop the ransom money somewhere, were ambushed and apprehended by the police detectives. The suspects subsequently led the policemen to a bush where the innocent young boy was tied to a tree, by his abductors.

On interrogation, the suspects informed the police that they are three in number, but the remaining member of their gang was the person watching over their victim while they came out to collect the ransom. Having discovered that his two accomplices have been arrested, he took to flight immediately, the statement reads.

In another operation on Friday, the police arrested one armed robbery suspect, Bolanle Ojomu, while robbing at Ilese Ijebu.

READ ALSO:

The suspect was arrested following a distress call received by the police in Ilese ijebu divisional headquarters at about 12:30 midnight that armed robbers were terrorising residents of Silva Estate Odomalasa area of Ilese ijebu.

Upon the distress call, Dpo Ilese ijebu division, CSP Amuda Bolaji quickly mobilised his patrol team and moved to the scene.

The hoodlums, on sighting the policemen took to flight immediately, but they were hotly chased and one of them was apprehended with the assistance of members of the community, while others escaped,Mr Oyeyemi said.

Mr Oyeyemi said a locally made gun with one live cartridge was recovered from the arrest suspect.

The acting commissioner of police, Abiodun Alamutu, ordered the immediate transfer of the suspect to the state criminal investigation and intelligence department for investigation.

He also directed a manhunt for the fleeing members of the gang, with the view of bringing them to justice.
Plasma  the straw-colored, liquid portion of blood  contains proteins necessary for carrying out critical functions in the human body, such as antibodies to fight diseases and clotting factors to regulate bleeding. If a person has insufficient levels of any one plasma protein, his/her body cannot carry out these vital functions, causing a variety of chronic and life-threatening medical conditions. Plasma donation requires commitment from the donor, as it can take more than one hour per donation, and it can be donated more often than whole blood. The foundation of safe plasma therapies is a regular healthy plasma donor population.

Plasma collections declined nearly 20 percent last year compared to 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and appear to still be down this year. Considering the complex manufacturing of plasma-derived therapies can take 7-12 months, any decline in plasma donations could impact patients' ability to access their lifesaving therapies, ultimately jeopardizing their health.

"300,000 patients across Europe rely on plasma-derived medicinal products (PDMPs), which can only be made out of human plasma," said Maarten Van Baelen, Executive Director PPTA Europe. "However, the EU still relies for 30% of its plasma on the United States. It is up to policymakers to remove barriers that limit opportunities for committed and healthy adults to donate their plasma and to address Europe's reliance on plasma from third countries. We should all work together towards a broader European plasma donation ecosystem."

Learn more about the importance of plasma and plasma-derived medicines by visiting and supporting www.ItsInUsAllToSaveALife.org.

About PPTA

The Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association (PPTA  www.pptaglobal.org) is the global industry trade association with a strong European presence representing the private sector manufacturers of PDMPs and privately-owned plasma donation centres, including more than 150 centres in Europe. PPTA is steadfast in its mission to promote the availability of and access to safe and effective plasma protein therapies for patients worldwide.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/807867/Plasma_Protein_Therapeutics_Association_Logo.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1640266/PPTA___Plasma_Week.jpg

Related Links

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SOURCE Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association (PPTA)
Low manpower cost & operational time, improvement in efficiency, and better transport infrastructure and security system as compared to existing ones drive the global passenger ticket vending machine market growth

PORTLAND, Ore., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Passenger Ticket Vending Machine Market by Component (Hardware, and Software), Input Type (Smart Card, Near Field Communications, and Others), and Application (Railway Stations, Subway Stations, Bus Stations, and Airports): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030." According to the report, the global passenger ticket vending machine industry generated $0.73 billion in 2020, and is estimated to reach $1.11 billion by 2030, witnessing a CAGR of 4.4% from 2021 to 2030.

Drivers, restraints, and opportunities

Less manpower cost & operational time, enhanced efficiency, and improved transport infrastructure and security system drive the growth of the global passenger ticket vending machine market. However, high cost of operation and maintenance hinder the market growth. On the other hand, increase in digital payments and surge in agreements and contracts with rail operators present new opportunities in the coming years.

Download Report (272 Pages PDF with Insights, Charts, Tables, Figures) at https://alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/14000

Covid-19 Scenario

Owing to lockdown restrictions and travel bans across different countries, the demand for passenger ticket vending machines decreased as people needed to stay home and high risk of contamination from public transportation.

The payment scenario has changed drastically during the Covid-19 pandemic as passengers have been preferring digital payment solutions to carry out contactless operations.

In the post-Covid scenario, increase in health concerns and penetration of digital technologies would lead to contactless and automated payment systems. This, in turn, will lead to increase in demand for passenger ticket vending machines.

Request for Customization at https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/14000

The hardware segment to maintain its lead position throughout the forecast period

Based on component, the hardware segment held the largest share in 2020, accounting for more than three-fifths of the global passenger ticket vending machine market, and is expected to maintain its lead position throughout the forecast period. This is attributed to surge in demand for on-board efficient and quick fare payment devices. However, the software segment is expected to witness the highest CAGR of 5.5% from 2021 to 2030. This is due to rise in dependency on the cloud-based system by public transportation providers.

The subway stations segment to continue its dominant share in terms of revenue by 2030

Based on application, the subway stations segment accounted for the highest share in 2020, contributing to more than one-fourth of the global passenger ticket vending machine market, and is expected to continue its dominant share in terms of revenue during the forecast period. Moreover, this segment is estimated to manifest the fastest CAGR of 5.0% from 2021 to 2030. This is due to changing urban commute requirements and growing number of metro projects. The report also analyzes the segments including railway stations, bus stations, and airports.

Interested to Procure the Data? Inquire here at https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/14000

Europe, followed by North America, to continue its leadership status by 2030

Based on region, Europe, followed by North America, contributed to the highest market share in 2020, accounting for nearly one-third of the global passenger ticket vending market, and is expected to continue its leadership status by 2030. In addition, this region is estimated to portray the largest CAGR of 5.5% during the forecast period. This is attributed to presence of a strong public transportation network and rise in adoption of the smart technologies across the region.

Leading market players

AEP Ticketing Solutions Srl

DUCATI Energia SPA

Flowbird SAS

ICA Chipkartensysteme GmbH

Init Innovation In Traffic Systems SE

OMRON Corp.

Scheidt & Bachmann GmbH

Sigma Spa

Thales Group

Xerox Corp.

Schedule a FREE Consultation Call with Our Analysts to Find Solution for Your Business at https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/connect-to-analyst/14000

Similar Reports We Have on Automotive Industry:

Automated Fare Collection System Market by Application (Bus, Toll, Train, and Car Rental), Component (Hardware, and Software), and Technology Platform (Smart Card, Near Field Communications, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20202030.

High-Speed Biometric and Microchip Ticketing System Market by Application (Bus, Toll, Train, and Car Rental), Component (Hardware, and Software), and Technology Platform (Smart Card, Near Field Communications, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030.

Asia-Pacific Tolling and City Congestion Market by Product Type (Electronic Tolling, ATMS, and UTM): Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2018  2030.

Thailand and Philippines Tolling & City Congestion Market by Product Type (Electronic Tolling, ATMS, and UTM): Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2018  2030.

Electronic Toll Collection Market by Subsystem (Automated Vehicle Identification, Automated Vehicle Classification, Violation Enforcement System, and Transaction Processing), Technology (Radio-frequency Identification, Dedicated Short-range Communication, Infrared, GNSS & GPS, and Video Analytics), and Application (Urban and Highways) - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2018-2030.

U.S. & Europe Automatic Toll Payment Machine Market by Component (Hardware, Software, and Service) and Application (Tollink, Transportation, Parking, Kiosk, and Others): Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast,20202027.

About Us

Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.

We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Allied Market Research CEO Pawan Kumar is instrumental in inspiring and encouraging everyone associated with the company to maintain high quality of data and help clients in every way possible to achieve success. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.

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SOURCE Allied Market Research
LONDON, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- For more than a decade, FBR Energy LTD experts have helped British commercial and industrial energy customers make smart choices for their energy needs. Now the London-based company is expanding its presence in the United Kingdom, offering a complete suite of energy consulting services including energy and carbon markets, ESG (environmental, social and governance), benchmarking and energy-efficiency evaluations.

FBR Energy's large client portfolio includes high-profile hotel operators, educational institutions, hospitals, food distribution and manufacturer distribution facilities. FBR Energya division of Good Energy LP, headquartered in New York, New Yorkis an officially registered United Kingdom business, company number 11448467.

FBR Energy has long helped customers in the United Kingdom secure low energy rates and boost their sustainability and ESG commitments. FBR hospitality clients have seamlessly incorporated environmentally friendly practices while maintaining high levels of service and luxury yet also saving money on energy expenditures. FBR Energy shows customers how to implement cost-saving changes, such as installing smart monitors, and create sustainable day-to-day practices. In addition, FBR Energy's consultants understand the complexities of energy and carbon market procurements for commercial and industrial facilities.

"With decades of experience and contacts throughout the United Kingdom, European Union and North America, FBR Energy excels at navigating volatile commodity markets," says Edward Carey, FBR Energy's Senior Business Development Manager. "FBR Energy experts will help U.K. commercial and industrial energy customers secure the lowest rates possible with no upfront feesenergy suppliers pay our fee."

About FBR Energy LTD

London-based FBR Energy provides cost-saving commercial and industrial energy consulting services throughout the United Kingdom and the European Union. With extensive experience in hospitality, commercial and industrial energy procurement, FBR Energy's client list includes high-profile hotel operators, hospitals and manufacturer distribution facilities. FBR Energy is a division of United Statesbased Good Energy LP. FBR Energy LTD's company number is 11448467. For more information, visit fbrenergy.com.

About Good Energy LP

For more than two decades, Good Energy LP, based in New York, New York, has been a worldwide leader in structuring and implementing community and government energy aggregation programs and providing energy procurement expertise for commercial and industrial customers. Good Energy now serves more communities and residents than any other single energy consultant in the United States. In addition to the United States and the United Kingdom, Good Energy has shared its energy consulting expertise with communities and businesses in Canada, Mexico, the European Union and Japan. Good Energy has achieved hundreds of millions of dollars in savings for commercial, industrial and individual customers with services such as benchmarking, retro commissioning, energy procurement and predominant use studies. Learn more at goodenergy.com and follow on Twitter @GoodEnergyUS.

FBR Energy LTD

85 Gracechurch Street

London, United Kingdom EC3V 0AA

Registered in England and Wales No. 11448467

fbrenergy.com



U.K. media contact:

Edward Carey

Sr. Business Development Manager

+44 (0)207 807 0653

edwardcarey@fbrenergy.com



Related Links

https://fbrenergy.com



SOURCE FBR Energy LTD
DETROIT, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Black Podcasting, LLC has launched the Black Podcasting App as the central destination for a wide array of podcasts celebrating African American culture and topics of interest. "Our mission is to make it easy for people to discover, connect and to engage with thousands of high-quality black podcasters," says Black Podcasting, LLC CEO, Mike Chandler. "Our goal is to become the largest gathering of black podcasters in the world. We are creating a non-exclusive directory of African American and urban oriented podcasters. Whether, the podcast has 500 followers or 500,000 followers, this is the central hub to find them, and it's absolutely free."

Black Podcasting Promotional Flyer

On the app, listeners can hear everything from the NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt to Red Table Talk with Jada Pinkett. There's also access to Former First Lady Michelle Obama's popular "Higher Ground" podcasts, The Steve Harvey Morning Show, the Black Girl Podcast, The Breakfast Club, and The Big Podcast with Shaq, among many others. The thousands of podcast episodes are categorized under headings such as Business, Fitness, Relationships, Religion, Society & Culture, Sports, Technology, etc.

The Black Podcasting App also features music channels where listeners can hear R&B, Hip-Hop, Classic Soul, and Gospel Music within the app. The Black Podcasting App is available in the App Store, Google Play, and www.blackpodcasting.com

About Black Podcasting: Black Podcasting, LLC is a 100% minority owned and operated company. The President and CEO is Mike Chandler, a veteran broadcaster, and CEO of the syndicated radio network, REJOICE! Musical Soul Food. Chandler and his business partners expect to broaden their reach into the urban marketplace with this innovative new app that is currently available in the App Store, Google Play, and www.blackpodcasting.com.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Black-Podcasting-104683135175529

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackpodcasting/

MEDIA CONTACT: Bill Carpenter

(202) 441-9870 / [email protected]

SOURCE Black Podcasting, LLC

Related Links

http://www.blackpodcasting.com


"Plavac Mali is a predominant red wine variety growing in Dalmatia which is very recognizable for its distinct aroma and tannins, and deserves a celebration around the time it is typically harvested," said Mirena Bagur, co-founder of Croatian Premium Wine Imports, Inc., an importer, online retailer, and advocate for wines of Croatia. "This day will be recognized annually in the week surrounding September 21 st , with various events, educational and promotional content in local geographies where Plavac Mali is presented. For example, in Boston we are organizing a wine pairing dinner featuring various Plavac Mali wines and a few tastings in boutique wine stores."

About the Croatian Wine Alliance  a Public-Private Collaboration

Lead by Aroma Wine Co., and Croatian Premium Wine Imports, Inc.,the US-based duois working with organizations around the globe to raise awareness of premium Croatian wines, including the Wines of Croatia, https://vinacroatia.hr/en/, a wine organization within the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, Vino Dalmacije, https://vinodalmacije.com/ the association of winemakers in Dalmatia, and Croatian National Tourist Board, importers and distributors in US, Canada, Australia, and Europe. In addition, the Republic of Croatian Embassy and Consulates in the US are supporting the US importers. For a full list of participating organization, visit https://www.facebook.com/internationalplavacmaliday.

How to Celebrate International Plavac Mali Day

Follow Plavac Mali's adventures on https://www.facebook.com/internationalplavacmaliday

Tag that page when you post your own content and use hashtag #plavacmali and #internationalplavacmaliday

Create your own tastings, wine pairings, giveaways or educational events  in person or virtually, and tag the social media handles

Write articles about #plavacmali

Invite the media to the virtual event on September 20 , at noon Eastern time to present Plavac mali and the wine industry in the region. Media can register for the Zoom link, here: http://eepurl.com/hGY1xf

to present Plavac mali and the wine industry in the region. Media can register for the Zoom link, here: http://eepurl.com/hGY1xf Encourage others to participate in celebrations.

About Plavac Mali

The UC Davis and University of Zagreb conducted a DNA study of the variety only to discover that Plavac Mali (vitis vinifera) is a descendant of Zinfandel (aka Tribidrag or Crljenak kastelanski) created a natural hybrid with another indigenous variety, Dobricic. Plavac Mali produces several styles of wines, from medium-bodied and easy-drinking, to elegant and robust wines. The aromas in Plavac mali are predominantly dark berries and Mediterranean herbs with expressive tannins, and mineral on the palate. Plavac Mali means 'little blue', referring to its appearance, small and dark blue berries.

The annual production of Plavac Mali is over five million bottles annually, which is 7.5% of the total Croatian wine production, according to the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, and due to its distinct taste and a capacity to age well is the most likely red wine purchased and exported by both the wine industry and the consumers.

"Plavac Mali is the most important variety in Dalmatia, as well as the main variety in two PDOs, including Dingac, the first Croatian PDO and the recently protected Ponikve," said Leo Gracin, Doc. Dr. Sc. of Oenology, president of Vino Dalmacije Association and assistant professor at the University of Split, Studies of Mediterranean Agriculture. "Plavac Mali achieves a distinctive quality on the steep, southern slopes of the islands and coast of Dalmatia. The wines from Plavac mali are full-bodied, strong with ripe tannins and pronounced aromas of dark-berry fruit. In addition, by maturing in wooden barrels, this varietal acquires an additional structure and, with its delicate oak aromas, achieves its full potential that only the world's best wines from warm areas can be proud of."

Croatia's Wine Tourism

Croatia has a unique wine history dating back 5000 years, and four key wine regions, each growing distinct grape varieties  Slavonia and Danube, Uplands, Istria, and Dalmatia. Croatia's gastronomic offerings have been on the rise and its exceptional wines are beginning to get the attention they deserve. Plavac Mali variety is grown in the Dalmatian wine region of Croatia, which has begun engaging with tourism as early as 1800, based on its natural beauty, mild climate and its millennia of history. With the recent changes in economic development in the region, it has quickly become a sought-after destination for many around the world.

"There are countless vineyards in Croatia, each with its own character, that reflect the various terrains, and the region of Dalmatia is certainly one of our jewels," said Ina Rodin, Director of the Croatian National Tourist Office, North America. "In Dalmatia, one can enjoy sophisticated experiences in Michelin Star restaurants to the local konobas, world-known vineyards to smaller producers -- all taking pride in the country's gastronomic legacy and celebrating our ties with the land and sea."

While tourism is a very strong industry sector, Dalmatia has also invested in the IT infrastructure on the continent and the islands to make it possible to not only offer a complete solution to visitors, but also enable everyday productivity for the digital nomads.

"We have looked at ways to combine various branches of economy into making Dubrovnik and Dalmatia an enjoyable and productive destination for people who would like to stay here longer than for a quick vacation," said Nikolina Trojic, Mr.Sc, president of the Dubrovnik county's Chamber of Commerce. "From the older, famous appellations to the newer ones, wineries have created wine tourism content, combining their award-winning wines with gastro offerings, and fun and educational content."

Aroma Wine Co.

As the Founder and CEO of Aroma Wine Co., NJ, Anna M. Viducic taps into her 20-plus years of experience and knowledge of the hospitality and wine industries to strategically guide wineries through the intricacies of the U.S. trade, media, and consumer markets. For more information, follow Anna on social media: Instagram and Facebook and website: Aroma Wine Co..

Croatian Premium Wine Imports

Based in the Boston Metro Area, Mass., CPWI imports, distributes, and online retails indigenous Croatian wines to most US states. The company portfolio includes 70+ wines from all Croatian wine regions. For more information, inquiries or to place an online order, visit www.CroatianPremiumWine.com/wine, contact us at [email protected] and follow us at LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

SOURCE Croatian Premium Wine

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LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Debiopharm (www.debiopharm.com), a Swiss-based global biopharmaceutical company, today announced the two winners of the 17th annual JCA Mauvernay Award for breakthrough Japanese oncology research projects in 2 categories: Innovative and/or Disruptive Research  Dr. Shumpei Ishikawa and Translational Research  Dr. Hiromichi Ebi. The winners were honored with trophies and a monetary prize during the hybrid (virtual/live) meeting of the 80th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Cancer Association (JCA) on Saturday, October 2nd in Yokohama, Japan by Prof. Hideyuki Saya President of the JCA and Dr. Takato Noumi, Debiopharm's representative in Japan along with Thierry Mauvernay, President of Debiopharm, Bertrand Ducrey CEO of Debiopharm who joined virtually.

"Japan and Switzerland share several common values such as commitment to excellence and professional diligence. That's one of the reasons why I believe Japanese research continues to excel and surpass our expectations," expressed Thierry Mauvernay, president of Debiopharm. "It is our honor to award these two new JCA Mauvernay Award winners and realize what their early research could mean for patients in the future through further development."

"We were impressed with the potential implications of Dr.Ishikawa and Dr. Ebi in different cancer types. Cancer remains the leading cause of death worldwide so it deserves the deep exploration by great minds in order to come closer to a cure. Japanese cancer researchers continue to capture the attention of the international community as seen in several of the past Nobel Prizes in Medicine. So, we are very pleased to continue to this important award and hope to spark further collaboration," explained Bertrand Ducrey, CEO of Debiopharm.

Dr. Shumpei Ishikawa's disruptive research at the University of Toyko, is offering new insights into an aggressive form of gastric cancer, diffuse-type gastric carcinoma (DGC), by exploring the genomic characterization the cancer's life cycle. His comprehensive characterization of DGC includes the identification of genes that drive the transformation of cells to cancer cells (oncogenes), the molecular and cellular dissection of the tumor microenvironment and the environmental factors contributing to the disease. This holistic approach has led to several influential discoveries that have been published in top-ranking scientific journals.

Dr. Hiromichi Ebi's translational research at the Aichi Cancer Center Research Institute is examining the development of targeted therapies against tumor with aberrant MAPK signaling. His work is focusing on the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms underlying the differential clinical activities of drugs targeting mutated oncogenes depending on the cancerous tissue and the tumor microenvironment.

The JCA-Mauvernay Award

Since 2005, the Japanese Cancer Association (JCA) and Debiopharm Group have co-organized the 'JCA-Mauvernay Award'. This prize illustrates the curiosity that drives researchers as well as the scientific cooperation between Japan and Switzerland. It aims at recognizing outstanding achievements in the field of oncology amongst Japanese researchers, in both the fundamental and the clinical aspects. The award has a total value of CHF 25'000.

Debiopharm's commitment to patients

Debiopharm develops innovative therapies that target high unmet medical needs in oncology and infectious diseases. Bridging the gap between disruptive discovery products and real-world patient reach, we identify high-potential compounds and technologies for in-licensing, clinically demonstrate their safety and efficacy and then select large pharmaceutical commercialization partners to maximize patient access globally.

For more information, please visit www.debiopharm.com

We are on Twitter. Follow us @DebiopharmNews at http://twitter.com/DebiopharmNews

Debiopharm Contact Dawn Haughton-Bonine Communication Manager [email protected] Tel: +41 (0)21 321 01 11



SOURCE Debiopharm International SA

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TURKU, Finland, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- DelSiTech Ltd, the leader in silica based drug delivery technologies with its headquarters in Turku, Finland, and Unitaid, a global health initiative hosted by the World Health Organisation, announce the awarding of significant funding to DelSiTech over the next two years for development of novel delivery strategies for children as part of the UnitaidExplore program "Innovations in Paediatric Medicines Delivery".

The latest UnitaidExplore program is aimed at fostering a new generation of technologies for the delivery of medicines specifically targeted for use in paediatric patients. Children in low- and middle-income countries suffer significantly lower health outcomes compared to adults, a major challenge being the lack of paediatric specific formulations. Medicines may lack effective taste masking proving challenging to swallow when large doses are considered or may not be available in dose units appropriate for children needing treatment for HIV, malaria, tuberculosis or a host of other diseases.

Unitaid Director of Strategy Janet Ginnard said: "Innovations in medicine delivery that are specifically aimed at children are of utmost importance and we are delighted to announce funding to DelSiTech. These investments fit firmly with Unitaid's proven track record in facilitating access to the best medicines for the most vulnerable people. These innovations will help ensure that children can benefit from lifesaving treatment and have the best possible health outcomes."

In this program, DelSiTech will work to develop novel long-acting injectable formulations tailored specifically for treating children. DelSiTech's Silica Matrix technology aims to not only produce novel treatment alternatives for underserved patient population, but to also alleviate treatment burdens of frequent oral medicines and the social stigma often associated with them.

"Alliances with global health initiatives such as Unitaid are essential to us and to healthcare organisations around the world to enable the realisation of our common goal, securing real advancements in global health. DelSiTech is committed to pursuing long lasting strategic partnerships, enabling us to play a vital role in improving treatment outcomes, for clearly underserved children. We are thrilled to collaborate with Unitaid and are prepared to leverage the full extent of our technologies and expertise for paediatric solutions for patients, globally" said Dr. Lasse Leino, Chief Executive Officer at DelSiTech.

About DelSiTech

DelSiTech Ltd., located in Turku, Finland, is the leading technology specialist in biodegradable silica-based controlled release of small molecule drugs, biologics and viral vectors. It develops and commercializes its proprietary, drug delivery technology in collaboration with a number of pharma and biotech companies to turn their ideas into novel drug products. For more information, see www.delsitech.com.

About DelSiTechTM Silica Matrix

Silica Matrix is an advanced delivery technology platform for parenteral and local administration of injectable and implant dosage forms as well as eye drops. The proprietary technology is based on silica (SiO2) matrix into which the molecule or therapeutic agent of interest is embedded using a process called sol-gel. The resulting Silica Matrix is non-porous, biocompatible and it can be designed to biodegrade by matrix dissolution at the desired rate to ensure a tightly controlled release of the active substance over periods of days up to many months or a year.

About Unitaid

Unitaid, is a Geneva based global health initiative working towards solutions for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of major disease in low- and middle-income countries, namely HIV, malaria and tuberculosis. As a part of Unitaid's core activities, UnitaidExplore represents a novel agile funding mechanism to incubate significant advancements in global health.

SOURCE DelSiTech
"Consumers with a financial plan are nearly three times more likely to feel confident about achieving their life goals," said CEO of FPSB, Noel Maye. "FPSB's World Financial Planning Day is an opportunity for the global CFP professional community to empower members of the public to increase their financial literacy and capability, and take control of their financial futures. It's also an opportunity to promote to the regulatory community how having a global community of financial planners committed to standards of competence and ethics, and to putting clients' interests first, can restore trust in financial services marketplaces."

On World Financial Planning Day, FPSB will broadcast a global event on Wednesday, 6 October at 13:00h UTC, featuring an address from Martin Moloney, IOSCO's Secretary General, and a panel discussion moderated by CNBC contributor Janet Alvarez, among Jose Alexandre Vasco, coordinator of IOSCO's C8 World Investor Week Working Group; Miles Larbey, Acting Head of Consumer Finance, Insurance & Pensions at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); and Amy Richardson, CFP, Senior Manager, Financial Planner at Charles Schwab, on the future of client needs and advice delivery. Registration is still open for CFP professionals and the global financial planning community to attend.

Other activities carried out by the FPSB Network to mark World Financial Planning Day, include:

Territory-Specific WFPD Events: The FPSB Network will host a variety of local initiatives in support of World Financial Planning Day. To learn about programs and events in your territory, and how you can participate, visit worldfpday.org or follow the #WFPD2021 news feeds on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.



The FPSB Network will host a variety of local initiatives in support of World Financial Planning Day. To learn about programs and events in your territory, and how you can participate, visit worldfpday.org or follow the #WFPD2021 news feeds on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Research on Current and Future Financial Planning Practice : FPSB recently completed two pieces of global research among 16,000+ CFP professionals across 24 territories to better understand the current and evolving practice of financial planning, and to identify trends and future expectations of financial planners and their clients. FPSB has already announced findings of its Global Job Analysis Study, with more to come, and will share findings from the Future of Financial Planning Practice Survey as part of World Financial Planning Day.



: FPSB recently completed two pieces of global research among 16,000+ CFP professionals across 24 territories to better understand the current and evolving practice of financial planning, and to identify trends and future expectations of financial planners and their clients. FPSB has already announced findings of its Global Job Analysis Study, with more to come, and will share findings from the Future of Financial Planning Practice Survey as part of World Financial Planning Day. Showcase Advice from CFP Professionals: To demonstrate the value of working with a CFP professional, FPSB launched a social media momentum campaign inviting CFP professionals to share financial planning advice they give their clients to help them achieve their financial goals. To track advice CFP professionals around the world are sharing, or to join the campaign, log onto the LinkedIn #WFPD2021 news feed.

Further information about World Financial Planning Day and the programs and events taking place around the world are available on worldfpday.org and by joining the #WFPD2021 conversations on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

About FPSB Ltd.

FPSB manages, develops and operates certification, education and related programs to benefit the global community by establishing, upholding and promoting worldwide professional standards in financial planning. FPSB demonstrates its commitment to excellence with the marks of professional distinction  CFP, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER and CFP Logo Mark  which it owns outside the United States. FPSB and the FPSB global network administer CFP and other certification programs in the following 27 territories: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Columbia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, People's Republic of China, Peru, Republic of Korea, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. At the end of 2020, there were 192,762 CFP professionals worldwide. For more, visit fpsb.org.

CFP Certification Global excellence in financial planning

SOURCE Financial Planning Standards Board

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NEW YORK and ZURICH, Sept. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Fireblocks ( www.fireblocks.com ), announced today it will be dedicating significant resources toward expanding its presence and growth in the DACH market with the opening of a new office headquartered in Switzerland. Over the last six months, Fireblocks has doubled the size of its European team to support the increasing number of institutional customers in the region with close to 200 customers in the DACH market.

To support Fireblocks' customer-base in the region, the company has appointed Richard Astle and Ana Santillan as co-Heads of Switzerland. Richard brings extensive knowledge of the Swiss financial services industry from top tier banks where he participated in launching Swiss Crypto Vault, and was a founding member of the Bitcoin Suisse Institutional Services and Products Division. Ana's background is in debt capital markets, having established Morgan Stanley's Swiss fixed income institutional service team. She held senior positions in Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse wealth management before transitioning to digital assets. With over a decade of financial experience, Richard and Ana have been advising hedge funds, banks, and corporate clients implementing trading and custody of digital assets.

"It is important for us to work with Switzerland-based companies because of the value they bring to the financial market, having established themselves as one of the world's leading financial centers," said Michael Shaulov, CEO of Fireblocks. "Now these financial institutions are seeking to rapidly deploy digital asset custody, trading, and tokenization products and are turning to vetted technologies to help them remain at the forefront of this space and securely tap into the global crypto-ecosystem."

After onboarding over 500 financial institutions and growing it's custody technology to support $1 trillion in digital assets, Fireblocks is solidifying its investment and focus in Switzerland, one of the most diverse, and fastest growing financial hubs in the world. Further expansion in the DACH region is fueled by an increase in demand from financial institutions worldwide to transition from traditional HSMs to an infrastructure that utilizes MPC and SGX confidential computing. Last year, Fireblocks' R&D team developed MPC-CMP , a new breakthrough MPC algorithm, released as an open source contribution to the digital asset industry in order to bolster digital asset security and transaction signing speeds. Today, Switzerland-native institutions have been the first to implement MPC-CMP, remaining at the forefront of digital asset innovation and adoption in Europe.

"Fireblocks was the first solution to bring confidential cloud computing and MPC technology into the digital asset space and we are glad to see this approach is being adopted among major financial institutions" said Andy Flury, Founder and CEO at AlgoTrader. "With Fireblocks now firmly entering the Swiss market and seamlessly integrating with our WIRESWARM solutions to provide a single, end-to-end experience from trading to settlement and custody, we look forward to our customers and any financial institutions being able to access the proven Fireblocks custody and settlement technology platform for their growing digital asset businesses."

In its effort to support the growth of digital assets in Switzerland, Fireblocks recently joined as a member of The Crypto Valley Association, an independent, government-supported association established to take full advantage of Switzerland's strengths to build the world's leading blockchain and cryptographic technologies ecosystem along with Bitcoin Suisse, Accenture, Ledger, Okex, PWC, Kraken among other leaders in the blockchain space.

"As an early backer of Fireblocks, we strongly believe the banks and institutions in the Swiss region are primed for onboarding its solutions as new products and services are gearing up to come to market," said Stefan Kuentz, Investment Partner at Swisscom Ventures. "Not only will Fireblocks enable Swiss-based banks and institutions an easy way to launch or expand their digital asset businesses, but will also serve as a straight path to plug into the global digital asset market and liquidity."

Switzerland is significant to the growth and development and adoption of digital assets because it was one of the first financial sectors to welcome cryptocurrency and decentralized finance with a full set of regulations governing the industry. The region is home to over 960 blockchain/cryptocurrency companies, which include 11 unicorns and employ over 5,000 people. In February, Switzerland ushered a tokenized Securities Law that backs the country to have one of the most advanced jurisdictions in the world for crypto.

Fireblocks has grown to support some of the largest global banks such as Siam Commercial Bank, SVB, and Bank of New York Mellon (BNY), as well as many institutions based in the EU region like Revolut, Algotrader, GSR Markets, Woorton, Enigma Securities and Scrypt Asset Management powering the custody, transfer and issuance of digital assets.

About Fireblocks

Fireblocks is a leading enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Fireblocks enables banks, fintechs, exchanges, liquidity providers, OTCs and hedge funds to securely manage digital assets across a wide range of products and services. The technology consists of the Fireblocks Network and MPC-based Wallet Infrastructure. Fireblocks serves over 500 financial institutions and has secured over $1 trillion in digital assets. Fireblocks has a unique insurance policy that covers assets in storage & transit and offers 24/7 global support. For more information, please visit www.fireblocks.com .

SOURCE Fireblocks
HENDERSON, Nev., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- After over 18 years of service as a judge in Henderson, Nevada, the Honorable Douglas Hedger has announced his retirement from the bench. Judge Hedger's last day in the judicial robes is October 4, 2021, after which he will devote his skills and experience to practicing law as a criminal defense attorney at Clear Counsel Law Group.

Judge Douglas Hedger

Judge Hedger's experience with criminal law is deep. Beyond his normal responsibilities overseeing criminal cases as Municipal court judge, Hedger created and presided over the Assistance in Breaking the Cycle (ABC) Drug Court. Since 2008 that program helped many people get clean and sober and escape the cycle of substance abuse. The ABC court has been recognized nationally and has been used as a model for similar programs in other courts. He also continues to serve as an instructor for the National Drug Court Institute. Prior to serving as a judge, Hedger was a Chief Deputy Public Defender in Clark County.

Judge Hedger will bring his experience, wisdom, connections, and legal knowledge to Clear Counsel Law Group where he will protect the constitutional rights of those accused of a crime. His unique background makes him an ideal advocate in the criminal courts of Southern Nevada. He expects to serve the people of Clark County for many more years in this role and through educating the public on matters of safety, substance abuse, impaired driving, and the rights of citizens.

Clear Counsel Law Group was founded in 2013 and has grown to serve thousands of clients in the areas of personal injury, probate and trusts, estate planning, civil litigation, and more. Clear Counsel Law Group has been featured in national media outlets for the work of its attorneys and has been honored with numerous awards from the legal community, including the "2020 Pro-Bono Law Firm of the Year" award from Nevada Legal Services. Clear Counsel Law Group continues to serve the community by sponsoring safety programs, motorcycle safety training, food insecurity programs, and through its ongoing "Free Will Friday" program for senior citizens.

Those who have been accused of a crime are invited to call Clear Counsel Law Group at 702-522-0696 to schedule an appointment to speak with Douglas Hedger or one of his associates.

Media Contact:

Greg Hamblin

[email protected]

702-522-0696

SOURCE Clear Counsel Law Group
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman ("Milberg") has filed a class action lawsuit to recover damages for individuals and businesses damaged by the Huntington Beach oil spill.

The spill, discovered on October 2, occurred from an offshore oil production facility owned by Houston-based Amplify Energy Corporation. Milberg attorneys Alex R. Straus and Blake Hunter Yagman filed a class action lawsuit against Amplify Energy and its Beta Offshore division on October 4. It includes claims for monetary damages, injunctive relief, response costs, and medical monitoring.

Plaintiff Peter Moses Gutierrez Jr. owns a disc jockey (DJ) company that regularly performs along Huntington Beach. He alleges in the complaint that he is losing and will continue to lose a substantial amount of his DJ business due to the closure of Huntington Beach and other negative consequences of the oil spill. He also claims he has been, or will be, exposed to toxic oil contaminants.

"After years fighting for business owners and residents devastated by the BP oil spill in the Gulf Coast and other oil spill victims around the country, we understand the terrible impact these events have on the environment, wildlife, and people," said Straus. "Today it is reported that 120,000 gallons of crude oil spilled from an offshore rig. But those numbers may increase as the investigation and clean-up efforts continue. The impacts on businesses, homeowners, and their families are likely to be felt for years."

An oil slick plume measuring six nautical milesand spreadinghas already caused significant harm. Shortly after the spill was discovered, beaches were closed, dead birds and fish were found washed up on shore, nearby wetlands were inundated with oil, and beachgoers reported feeling sick. Southern California officials fear "irreversible" damage. Oil spill contamination can persist for a decade or more.

"This is the latest tragedy of the oil industry, but it certainly won't be the last," said Milberg Partner Greg Coleman. "Our attorneys are already working with the Huntington Beach community and surrounding communities to protect their legal rights. These innocent victims deserve justice. With this lawsuit we hope to help them clean up their beaches and force the fossil fuel industry to clean up its act."

Milberg's Environmental and Toxic Torts Litigation group has helped thousands of homeowners and businesses that have been forced to pay the price for similar man-made disasters, including the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The firm seeks to represent all persons and businesses harmed as a result of the Huntington Beach oil spill.

More information about the lawsuit is available on Milberg's website. Local residents and business owners affected by the Huntington Beach oil spill are encouraged to reach out to Milberg for a free legal consultation.

Media Inquiries: Angel Persaud, Director of Marketing, [email protected] or (646) 906-9205

SOURCE Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman PLLC
DALLAS, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A new study, a collaboration of the Vision Impact Institute, EdGuard Institute, and ESSILOR's Vision for Life social impact fund, offers new insight into the correlation between uncorrected poor vision and children's functional, learning, and behavioral capacities.

The study, the first of its kind conducted in Kosovo's schools, suggests that one in three children reported difficulties seeing the board in their classroom. Findings also show that children with poor vision have a higher risk of developing incapacitating symptoms than children with good vision. These children:

Often report headaches and eye disorders (tired, itching, burning eyes), and modify their physical behavior when learning: squinting, getting closer to the book, resting on their wrist, or sitting in the first desk.

Have their learning capacity (reading, writing, doing homework) affected more often than children with good vision, and encounter more difficulties playing sports.

Feel uncomfortable when playing with others, and frustrated when poor eyesight hinders completion of homework.

"This research is an important collaborative effort, because it not only addresses the issues that children with poor vision experience when learning, but also addresses the psychosocial impact that affects how children learn to interact with their peers and their environment," says Eva Lazuka-Nicoulaud, Director, Europe and Africa.

"The baseline findings show the need to develop a sustainable roadmap and introduce policies to ensure every child has access to universal eye care services," says Kristan Gross, Global Executive Director. "All stakeholders, parents, teachers, and eye care professionals have a role to play in creating a foundation for a healthy and productive future for children."

About the Vision Impact Institute

The Vision Impact Institute's mission is to raise awareness of the importance of vision correction and protection to make good vision a global priority. Its Advisory Board is comprised of four independent international experts: Pr. Clare Gilbert (United Kingdom), Mr. Allyala Nandakumar (United States), Dr. Serge Resnikoff (Switzerland), and Dr. Wang Wei (China).

The Vision Impact Institute is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, which receives support from the Vision for Life Fund from Essilor, the world leader in ophthalmic optics. The Vision Impact Institute hosts a unique database of research and advocacy tools at visionimpactinstitute.org.

Contact:

Kristan Gross

Global Executive Director

[email protected]

SOURCE Vision Impact Institute

Related Links

http://visionimpactinstitute.org/


LIMASSOL, Cyprus, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- International financial services provider Orbex has officially launched a year-long gold promotion entitled: The Orbex Gold Rush.

The promotion will see the broker giving away a grand total of 4kg of 24K gold bars over a 12-month period. The bars are worth over $270K and will be split across 24 winners.

Running from September 29th, 2021 until October 31st, 2022, the Gold Rush will be divided into four three-month rounds, with 6 winners to be announced at the end of each round.

The rules of the promotion are simple: trade 20 lots on your Orbex live account and obtain a Golden Ticket ID which enters you into the draw. The more times you hit 20 lots in a round, the more Golden Tickets you receive.

The winners will be chosen at random via a third-party digital app, and the gold bar prizes per round will be split as follows: 350g for the grand prize, 250g for second, 150g for third, and 3 x 100g bars as the base prize.

"We are so proud to be launching a promotion that rewards our trading community throughout the entire year. It's the perfect way to celebrate our 11th year as a regulated broker and to give back to the loyal clients, both old and new, who have made us what we are for over a decade," says Managing Director, Mohammad Yaghi.

The regulated firm recently debuted a complete brand makeover with an all-new website and over 200 new stocks available to trade with spreads from 0.0 pips.

"We wanted to reward as many of our traders as possible, which is why we have opted to do the promotion in the form of a raffle. We don't want professional traders to have an advantage, so no trading strategy performance parameters will be considered at all. All traders are welcome to join, and leverage up to 1:500 is permitted. Our aim is to unite our entire community in a fulfilling and engaging trading event that includes everyone," Yaghi continued.

This is the largest and longest-running promotion of its kind ever conducted by the broker, and is the first to be as widely accessible by traders of all experience levels.

The company continues to offer its clients competitive trading conditions on over 300 financial instruments, with fast execution, no requotes, 0 margin on hedged positions, and negative balance protection.

To improve on their reliable customer service, Orbex has also launched a robust Support Center packed full of useful FAQs and user manuals in order to provide a helpful hub as a first point of contact for everyday queries.

To find out more about the Gold Rush or to enter the promotion, click here.

About Orbex

Orbex Global Limited is fully licensed and regulated by FSC Mauritius and headquartered in Ebene, Mauritius.

The company offers multiple asset trading including forex, indices, stocks, commodities and metals. With a focus on research, analysis and enhanced security of client funds, Orbex upholds a reputation of seasoned expertise within the industry.

SOURCE Orbex
PEORIA, Ill., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- OSF Ventures has joined a $25 million investment in TailorMed, a leading financial navigation technology company that helps patients and health care organizations remove financial barriers to care.

The corporate investment arm of OSF HealthCare joined an extended round of funding, that increased overall investment to the $25 million level. OSF Ventures joins new investors: The American Cancer Society's venture capital fund, BrightEdge, and the Citi Impact Fund. Existing investor Sanara Capital, Sanara Ventures' follow-on fund, also participated.

The round, led by Providence Ventures, also included new investors Almeda Ventures, Bridges Israel, Discount Capital, and UnityPoint Health Ventures. Existing investors Accelmed, and Triventures also joined in the latest financing.

TailorMed is focused on ensuring patients get the care they need in a difficult financial environment. TailorMed's financial navigation platform automates the processes of identifying financially at-risk patients, matching and enrolling them in funding programs such as co-pay assistance, replacement drug programs, government subsidies, community and state resources, assistance from disease-specific foundations, and programs that support patients with their living expenses.

"It's exciting to see a health system with the reputation of OSF HealthCare recognizing the value of a platform that gives health care providers more tools to help more patients avoid crippling medical debt," said Srulik Dvorsky, CEO and co-founder of TailorMed. Medical debt is the single largest kind of debt owed to collection agencies in the U.S., according to a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). It has reached a total of $140 billion, twice as much as previously thought and yet the data does not cover the period that included the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dvorsky co-founded TailorMed on the premise that no one should have to abandon treatment that could save their life because of their inability to pay. He points to research that showed even among cancer patients with insurance, 16% quit their treatment plans because they could not afford life-saving chemotherapy drugs, and patients with higher copayments were 42% more likely to skip treatment.

Mayank Taneja, director of Venture Investments, says the Ventures team at OSF HealthCare believes the TailorMed financial navigation platform is superior to what competitors offer because it includes access to resources not only for people with cancer, but for those with other chronic diseases and conditions as well.

"Chronic diseases such as congestive heart failure (CHF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and multiple sclerosis (MS) can also place a significant financial burden on patients," said Taneja. "Additionally, the astronomical cost of specialty pharmacy drugs (current and new) across multiple disease specialties can present a prohibitive barrier for patients and health systems trying to provide the best treatment available."

TailorMed's predictive analytic capabilities leverage electronic medical records to reveal patients with the highest financial vulnerability. Financial navigators can then proactively match patients with resources early on to reduce their out-of-pocket treatment costs. This early intervention can help patients avoid dropping out of treatment before it's completed because of financial worries.

Hospital systems can also benefit by incurring less bad debt, freeing up resources to invest in operations and offer additional options to access care.

OSF HealthCare is an integrated health system owned and operated by The Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, headquartered in Peoria, Illinois. OSF HealthCare employs nearly 24,000 Mission Partners in 150 locations, including 15 hospitals  10 acute care, five critical access  with 2,089 licensed beds, and two colleges of nursing throughout Illinois and Michigan. The OSF HealthCare physician network employs more than 1,500 primary care, specialist and advanced practice providers. OSF HealthCare, through OSF Home Care Services, operates an extensive network of home health and hospice services. It also owns Pointcore, Inc., comprised of health care-related businesses; OSF HealthCare Foundation, the philanthropic arm for the organization; and OSF Ventures, which provides investment capital for promising health care innovation startups. More at www.osfhealthcare.org.

OSF Innovation, launched in 2016, is a multidisciplinary innovation center focused on internal and external innovation to solve the largest health care challenges. More at www.osfinnovation.org.

OSF Ventures specializes in venture optimization, partnering financially and operationally in companies that improve patient outcomes and reduce costs to health care systems. OSF Ventures is a division of OSF HealthCare. More at www.osfventures.org.

TailorMed is a healthcare technology company founded to help patients and healthcare providers remove financial barriers to care by making it easier for patients to cover the cost of treatment. TailorMed has helped health systems, clinics, and pharmacies across the United States to ensure that patients can afford the care that they need. Learn more at www.tailormed.co.

Additional photos and logos available at https://newsroom.osfhealthcare.org/

CONTACT: Colleen Reynolds | Media Relations Coordinator, OSF HealthCare | (309) 825-7255

SOURCE OSF Ventures

Related Links

http://www.osfhealthcare.org


"We are thrilled to have Dr. Larson join our team and lead the next phase of the Community College Growth Engine Fund," said Kathleen deLaski, founder, CEO and chair of the board of the Education Design Lab. "It is becoming increasingly apparent that innovative community colleges can -- and are -- leading the design of employment-connected learning. Dr. Larson has been one of those leaders in Minnesota and in Maine and it is the Lab's honor for her to champion the learner-driven models that are emerging through partner co-design and gaining momentum around the country."

The Community College Growth Engine Fund was launched in October 2020 to help position community colleges as a bridge between education and employment. Selected community colleges within the Fund work collaboratively to develop scalable models for micro-pathways, which are two or more stackable credentials that can be achieved within less than a year and result in a job at or above the median wage. Participating institutions in the first cohort include: The City University of New York, Ivy Tech Community College, Prince George's Community College, Austin Community College District, Pima Community College, and Seattle Colleges. In her new role, Dr. Larson will oversee the strategic direction of the Fund, including advancing the continued work of the first cohort, collaborating with evaluators to determine impact, building the relationships between community colleges and employers, and launching the second cohort, which will be announced in the coming weeks.

"It has been the honor and pleasure of my life to serve Maine's learners as president of Eastern Maine Community College and I thank the entire Maine Community College System for welcoming me these last five years," said Dr. Lisa Larson. "I will miss that community greatly, but recognize that by joining Education Design Lab and leading the Fund, I will hopefully be a part of driving positive change for community college students across the country, including at institutions such as EMCC."

Most recently, Dr. Larson served as the President of Eastern Maine Community College for six years, working alongside the Lab team on the BRIDGES Rural initiative and as a Designer in Residence. Dr. Larson holds an Ed.D. from St. Mary's University of Minnesota, a M.A. from Minnesota State University, Mankato and a B.S. from Northern State University.

"Lisa has been a wonderful leader who relentlessly pursued innovations to strengthen our institutions and expand meaningful learning opportunities for students," said David Daigler, president of the Maine Community College System.

About Education Design Lab: Education Design Lab is a national nonprofit that designs, tests, and implements unique higher education models and credentials that address the rapidly changing economy and emerging technology opportunities. The Lab demonstrates where technology, rigor and design can improve opportunity for historically underserved learners to maximize their potential in the higher education system.

Education Design Lab works across disciplines and alongside schools, employers, entrepreneurs, government, foundations, nonprofits and innovators. The organization has significant experience managing national and local learning cohorts, working with organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Lumina Foundation, the Walmart Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, the United Negro College Fund, Walmart, American Council on Education and the ECMC Foundation. Learn more: www.eddesignlab.org .

SOURCE Education Design Lab

Related Links

https://eddesignlab.org


CHICAGO, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The emergence of edge facilities will be a major boost to European data center market growth in 2021. The market is expected to grow due to the growing procurement of renewable energy sources. Over 25 European cloud and data center operators, including AWS, Google, Equinix, Interxion, OVH Cloud, etc. have signed an agreement where 75% of the power supplied to data centers in Europe will be supplied through renewable energy or carbon-free energy by December 31, 2025. The objective is to reach 100% by December 31, 2030. This announcement is likely to offer a high impetus to the growth of the data center market in Europe.

Observing these rapid and drastic changes in demand and supply patterns encouraged the industry analysts at Arizton to publish exhaustive and data-driven insights on these current trends in the industry. Arizton has a dedicated vertical that focuses on data centre knowledge base across geographies. These market research reports cover a detailed analysis of the COVID-19-induced supply chain disruptions, innovations in technology, equipment financing, economic impact, and a detailed study of the competitive landscape.

Check out our portfolio: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/category/data-center-knowledge-base

Netherlands Data Center Market - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

The Netherlands data center market is expected to reach USD 4.52 billion in 2026 growing at a CAGR of 5.3%. The Netherlands is a mature data center market in Western Europe, and forms part of the FLAP markets, acting as a digital gateway to Europe. The country's data center scene is thriving due to increased digitalization, connectivity, and sustainable development of data centers. The data center market in the Netherlands includes about 47 unique third-party data center service providers operating over 113 facilities. Moreover, the country is witnessing further investments in about 3 new facilities that are expected to be operational over the next 2 years.

Key Highlights

About 15 data center projects by colocation and enterprise service providers contributed to over USD 2.7 billion in investments for data center facilities opened in the Netherlands in 2020.

in investments for data center facilities opened in in 2020. In 2020, cities such as Middenmeer, Rotterdam , Eindhoven, Naaldwijk, and Eemshaven witnessed increased data center investments due to low land cost and space availability.

, Eindhoven, Naaldwijk, and Eemshaven witnessed increased data center investments due to low land cost and space availability. Digital and technology companies from around the world have a presence in the Netherlands owing to its strong connectivity and strategic opportunities. This will propel data center growth in the region.

owing to its strong connectivity and strategic opportunities. This will propel data center growth in the region. Amsterdam , home to major ICT companies and leading start-up ecosystem in the country is a pivotal city for data center investments in the Netherlands . In 2020, Amsterdam was home to over 70% of the total number of colocation data centers built across the Netherlands . Adoption of cloud-based services by SMEs has increased during the pandemic, which is likely to aid data center market growth in the region.

, home to major ICT companies and leading start-up ecosystem in the country is a pivotal city for data center investments in . In 2020, was home to over 70% of the total number of colocation data centers built across . Adoption of cloud-based services by SMEs has increased during the pandemic, which is likely to aid data center market growth in the region. In 2020, cloud service provider Google added a data center space of around 500,000 square feet across two data centers, in Groningen and Middenmeer.

Read more now: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/netherlands-data-center-market-investment-analysis

Switzerland Data Center Market - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

The Switzerland data center market is expected to reach USD 2.07 billion in 2026 growing with the CAGR of 3.44%. Switzerland is a mature data center market and ranks 12th across the globe in terms of mobile internet speed and fourth in terms of fixed broadband services. The internet penetration in the country is over 95% of the overall population. The major data center investors in the country have been telecommunication providers, enterprises, the government, and cloud and colocation service providers.

Key Highlights

There are over 50 data center colocation facilities in Switzerland . The occupancy rate stands at over 80% of installed capacity across cities such as Zurich and Geneva .

. The occupancy rate stands at over 80% of installed capacity across cities such as and . In 2020, Switzerland attracted most investments from colocation service providers such as Equinix, Digital Realty (Interxion), Vantage Data Centers, and CKW.

attracted most investments from colocation service providers such as Equinix, Digital Realty (Interxion), Vantage Data Centers, and CKW. In 2020, Zurich was the major data center investment destination in Switzerland , followed by Geneva , with other regions such as Lausanne and Bern , among others, also expected to experience strong growth during the forecast period.

was the major data center investment destination in , followed by , with other regions such as Lausanne and , among others, also expected to experience strong growth during the forecast period. Retail colocation services dominate the market with an 81% market share, with wholesale colocation contributing to the rest.

The adoption of cloud computing technology has experienced considerable growth in Switzerland over the last few years. The adoption of cloud-computing technology in 2020 grew by around 30% from 2019.

Read more now: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/switzerland-data-center-market-size-analysis

Germany Data Center Market - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

The Germany data center market is expected to reach USD 6.46 billion in 2026 growing with a CAGR of 2.35% in the period 2020-2026. Germany has one of the most mature data center markets in Europe. Owing to the implementation of GDPR, investments in the German data center market have increased significantly in the last few years. The Germany data center market research report includes 49 unique third-party data center service providers, operating over 128 facilities. Additionally, the country also hosts several on-premise or dedicated data centers owned by local enterprises. Over the last 57 years, the market has grown significantly with an increase in the development of hyperscale data centers.

Key Highlights

Germany witnessed an investment of over USD 1.2 billion on data center facilities opened and under construction from January 2020 to June 2021 .

witnessed an investment of over on data center facilities opened and under construction from to . Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things (IoT) expect to drive the market growth in the coming years. By the end of 2021, Germany's IoT spending is likely to cross over USD 45 billion .

IoT spending is likely to cross over . In 2020, Frankfurt was a key investment destination in the data center market in Germany . Berlin , Hamburg , and Dusseldorf are other destinations that are witnessing high investments during the forecast period.

was a key investment destination in the data center market in . , , and are other destinations that are witnessing high investments during the forecast period. To run data center operations in Germany , electrical energy requirements are likely to rise 16.4 TWh by 2025.

, electrical energy requirements are likely to rise 16.4 TWh by 2025. NTT Global Data Centers, CyrusOne, Equinix, and Digital Realty are significant contributors to market growth. CyrusOne generated a revenue of USD 67 million in 2020. Digital Realty added a revenue of over USD 200 million . Equinix and NTT Global Data Centers contributed to the market, adding an estimated revenue of USD 150 million and USD 250 million , respectively, in 2020.

Read more now: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/germany-data-center-market-2025

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About Arizton:

Arizton Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers innovative research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.

We offer comprehensive market research reports on industries such as consumer goods & retail technology, automotive and mobility, smart tech, healthcare, and life sciences, industrial machinery, chemicals, and materials, IT and media, logistics, and packaging. These reports contain detailed industry analysis, market size, share, growth drivers, and trend forecasts.

Arizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports.

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SOURCE Arizton Advisory & Intelligence
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Freenome, a privately held biotech company, presented at the American Association of Family Practitioners (AAFP) Family Medicine Experience virtual meeting last week. The poster1 describes the development of Freenome's multiomics blood test for the detection of early-stage colorectal cancer (CRC) and its validation study. The study, called PREEMPT CRC, is the largest registrational study to date for a noninvasive test for CRC screening in an average-risk population.

PREEMPT CRC, builds on the results from a study at last year's American Society of Clinical Oncologists (ASCO) Gastroenterology annual meeting, that demonstrated Freenome's blood test detected early-stage (I/II) CRC with a sensitivity of 94% and specificity of 94%.

Freenome's multiomics approach combines tumor and non-tumor signals from DNA and protein and uses machine learning to detect CRC and advanced adenomas. The registrational study, PREEMPT CRC, is a large, multi-center study of average-risk participants that uses both traditional and virtual recruitment to ensure a diverse and representative clinical trial population.

"Regular screenings can help detect colorectal cancer early, providing a better chance of survival," said Theodore R. Levin, M.D., clinical lead for colorectal cancer screening for the Permanente Medical Group, research scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, principal investigator of PREEMPT CRC and co-author of the study. "Continued research will help us develop a test that makes it easier for patients to be screened, ultimately saving more lives."

Currently, only 67% of average-risk individuals over the age of 50 are up to date on CRC screening,2 which is likely to decrease even more with new guideline changes recommending lowering the age to initiate CRC screening from 50 to 45.3

"This presentation demonstrates how our multiomics platform works in detecting early-stage colorectal cancer," said Mike Nolan, chief executive officer of Freenome. "We want to make CRC screening easy and accessible, so as we near the completion of PREEMPT CRC, we're driven to accomplish that goal."

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.

1Girish Putcha, Jeff Gregg, Chuanbo Xu, Freenome Holdings, Inc.; Aasma Shaukat, University of Minnesota; Theodore R. Levin, Kaiser Permanente Division of Research.

2Joseph DA, King JB, Dowling NF, Thomas CC, Richardson LC. Vital Signs: Colorectal Cancer Screening Test Use  United States, 2018. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2020;69:253259.

3United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), May 18, 2021; American Cancer Society.

SOURCE Freenome Holdings, Inc.
RUTHERFORD, Calif., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- This autumn through March 2022, St. Supery, a Napa Valley community leader with a deep commitment to sustainability, will celebrate unsung everyday heroes who make a difference in communities and neighborhoods across the country. Through the #InJoyEverydayHero project, St. Supery hopes to inspire people to give back and spread joy.

Explore St. Supery's Dollarhide Estate Vineyard & Visit the winery in Rutherford St. Supery Everyday Hero David Eakle and crew captured by photographer Keith Blodgett St. Supery Estate Vineyards & Winery Entrance. Photo Credit, Meg Smith

In addition to highlighting the stories of everyday heroes on the winery's website and social media platforms, St. Supery will feature local volunteers at the winery in its art gallery with the #InJoyEverydayHero Art Exhibit, curated by Virgie Giles Foundation founders, Topher Delaney and Calvin Chin. This inspirational exhibition of 25 large-scale black-and-white photographs by eight professional visual artists and photojournalists captures each hero in the fields of food security, mental health, animal rescue, youth mentorship and more.

"During the 2020 wildfires, unasked, our neighbors showed up with bulldozers and shovels to cut firebreaks. We lost 98% of our crop but they halted the fire's progression. We are celebrating these everyday heroes and those around the world who just show up to help," says Emma Swain, CEO of St. Supery Estate Vineyards and Winery.

This celebration and multifaceted fundraiser showcases everyday heroes nominated by local nonprofits and captured by noted regional photographers. Nominate your own hero at https://stsupery.com/everydayheroes/ and view the inspiring photographs and stories at the winery and online.

Read the full press release, link below, to find more ways to get involved including virtual wine tastings with guest appearances from everyday heroes and #GivingTuesday chats with national philanthropic entrepreneurs.

About St. Supery Estate Vineyards & Winery

St. Supery, a CHANEL owned winery, is 100% estate grown and sustainably farmed. It is located in the renowned Rutherford growing region in the heart of Napa Valley. The winery specializes in sauvignon blanc and red Bordeaux varietals.

The full press release (includes everyday hero imagery, winery imagery and press kit) can be found at https://stsupery.com/trade-media/press/

Media Contact:

Annie Watterson

[email protected]

707-302-3442

SOURCE St. Supery Estate Vineyards & Winery
"David Mandell is a transformational leader in the whiskey industry, and we could not be prouder to have him join the exceptional team we are building at Stoli Group," said Damian McKinney, Global CEO of Stoli Group. "Mandell is an innovator, trailblazer and entrepreneur with the track-record and skill set to bring Kentucky Owl Park to life."

Mandell comes to Stoli Group after co-founding the Bardstown Bourbon Company where he created, launched and managed the company's Napa Valley bourbon distillery destination experience in Bardstown. Mandell led the development and operation of what is now one of the largest and most sophisticated whiskey distilleries in the United States, producing custom rye, whiskey and bourbon for prominent brands including Kentucky Owl Wiseman Bourbon. Mandell was also responsible for the development and launch of the company's bourbon brands, full-service restaurant and bar, and visitors center. Mandell is currently chairman of the Kentucky Bourbon Festival Board of Directors and a shareholder of the Bardstown Bourbon Company.

"I could not be more excited to join the Stoli Group and help build what is sure to be one of the most exciting new projects in the whiskey industry," said Mandell. "Kentucky Owl Park will be unlike any distillery on The Kentucky Bourbon Trail and will draw visitors from around the nation and the globe."

Stoli Group, the leading global ultra-premium spirits and wine company, purchased Kentucky Owl in 2017. Originally founded by C.M. Dedman in 1879, the Kentucky Owl Bardstown distillery went dark during the Prohibition era and remained dormant until a descendent revived the brand in 2014. Since then, the company's small batch releases have sold out quickly and received rave reviews.

Last month, Stoli Group launched The Wiseman Bourbon (90.8 proof/45.4% ABV, $60/750mL), its first Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey produced and distilled by Kentucky Owl in collaboration with the Bardstown Bourbon Company.

About Kentucky Owl:

Founded in 1879 by C.M. Dedman, Kentucky Owl offers an artfully blended line of craft bourbons and ryes, each bottled at barrel proof for the truest expression of whiskey. Kentucky Owl is for those who appreciate high quality, attention to detail, craftsmanship and authentic heritage. For more information, visit kentuckyowlbourbon.com.

About Stoli Group:

Stoli Group was established in 2013 and is responsible for the production, management, and distribution of SPI's global spirits portfolio. Mainly known for the Stolichnaya Vodka brand, Stoli Group has expanded its portfolio in recent years to appeal to premium on-premise and more sophisticated global consumers. Signature brands are: Stoli Vodka, Elit Vodka, Bayou Rum, Kentucky Owl, Villa One, Gator Bite Rum Liquers, Cenote Tequila, and Se Busca Mezcal. With a presence across a network of more than 176 markets, Stoli Group works with a passionate team of 200 distributors around the world. Headquartered in Luxembourg, Stoli has production facilities in Spain, Italy, Argentina, and the United States, some of which are steeped in history dating back to the early part of the last century. For more information, visit stoli-group.com.

Contact: Tracy Green

[email protected]

(502) 614-5994

Or Sallie Greco

[email protected]

(502) 614-5998

Estes Public Relations

More on Facebook | Twitter

SOURCE Stoli Group

Related Links

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MADRID, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Westinghouse Electric Company has signed a definitive agreement with Iberdrola and Naturgy to acquire 50% of Tecnatom. This acquisition advances the company's strategy to expand its technical nuclear outage, engineering, and digital services capabilities worldwide. Once completed, Westinghouse will co-own and co-manage Tecnatom with Endesa through a joint venture.

"Tecnatom's talented people and innovative products will complement and strengthen our outage maintenance, engineering and digital services portfolio," said Patrick Fragman, Westinghouse President and Chief Executive Officer. "We are looking forward to expanding our nuclear capabilities to provide a wider range of customized solutions for our customers in Europe and globally."

Tecnatom is a Spanish engineering company that has been providing services to the nuclear sector since 1957, mainly on inspection and structural integrity, operation personnel training, plant operation support engineering and digital solutions. Westinghouse and Tecnatom have been long term partners in these focus areas, and also on AP1000 technology.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

Westinghouse Electric Company is shaping the future of carbon-free energy by providing safe, innovative nuclear technologies to utilities globally. Westinghouse supplied the world's first commercial pressurized water reactor in 1957 and the company's technology is the basis for nearly one-half of the world's operating nuclear plants. For over 130 years, innovation makes Westinghouse the preferred partner for technologies covering the complete nuclear energy life cycle. For more information, visit www.westinghousenuclear.com and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Westinghouse Contact: Chantal Dorange

Telephone: +34 91 2106410

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Westinghouse Electric Company

Related Links

www.westinghousenuclear.com


COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --Zipline Logistics is again celebrating its valued carrier partners on "10/4 Day"a holiday the company coined in 2016 to recognize top trucking companies in the logistics provider's network.

"This year has once again highlighted the enormous impact truck drivers make on the domestic supply chain," explains Andrew Lynch, President, and Co-Founder of Zipline Logistics. "Their work may sometimes go unseen, but inside the walls of Zipline, they are celebrated for their efforts in keeping commerce throughout the country moving. We're especially thankful for our carrier partners who uphold our standards of visibility, communication, and accountability even during this challenging period."

The Columbus logistics solutions provider awarded carriers based on numerous qualifiers. Selection criteria included but were not limited to commitment to high-quality service, overall performance, ease of working relationship, and load volume.

Top carrier partners were selected by region, and are listed below:

Northeast  James E Owen Trucking Inc

Midwest  Carver Trucking LLC

Southeast  Mercer Transportation

Westcoast  C & S Transportation Inc

Intermodal  Bayview Logistics

Zipline Logistics' operation teams are organized and structured into four distinct regional groups as well as an additional group for intermodal-based providers. This organizational structure allows representatives to build impactful carrier relationships and effectively minimize volatile market swings. Regional coordinators are true experts, acting as authorities on area lane activity, rate changes, and geographic influences.

History of 10/4 Day

"10-4" is a common phrase used by truck drivers to close radio correspondence and loosely means "agreed" or "understood." Zipline Logistics began publicly celebrating the event on October 4, 2016, but has recognized the date internally and with carriers since the company's inception in 2007.

Operating with the purpose of "improving the lives of transportation professionals," this holiday is a hallmark for Zipline Logistics. The company issues certificates and gifts to recognized carriers, going above and beyond to show its appreciation.

About Zipline Logistics

Zipline Logistics is a digitally-enabled, managed transportation partner specializing exclusively in the consumer goods sector. We proudly work alongside clients ranging from some of the world's largest food and beverage businesses to the brightest up-and-coming CPG brands in North America. Whether providing transactional or strategic counsel, all customers receive best-in-class service and access to shipper intelligence tools.

For more information, go to www.ziplinelogistics.com.

SOURCE Zipline Logistics

Related Links

https://ziplinelogistics.com/


OKOTOKS, AB, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - (TSX: MTL) Mullen Group Ltd. ("Mullen Group" and/or the "Corporation") intends to release its 2021 Third Quarter earnings results after market close on Wednesday, October 27, 2021, and has scheduled a conference call and webcast as follows:

Date: October 28, 2021



Time: 11:00 a.m. ET



Conference Call Dial-in: 1-800-319-4610 (for participants in North America)

416-915-3239 (Toronto or Overseas participants)



Webcast: www.mullen-group.com

A replay of the call will be available approximately two hours after the completion of the call until Thursday, November 11, 2021, by dialing 1-800-319-6413 or 604-638-9010, access code 7806 followed by the pound sign.

About Mullen Group Ltd.

Mullen Group is one of Canada's largest logistics providers. Our network of independently operated businesses provide a wide range of service offerings including less-than-truckload, truckload, warehousing, logistics, transload, oversized and specialized hauling transportation. In addition, we provide a diverse set of specialized services related to the energy, mining, forestry and construction industries in western Canada, including water management, fluid hauling and environmental reclamation. The corporate office provides the capital and financial expertise, legal support, technology and systems support, shared services and strategic planning to its independent businesses.

Mullen Group is a publicly traded corporation listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "MTL". Additional information is available on our website at www.mullen-group.com or on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Contact Information

Mr. Murray K. Mullen - Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and President

Mr. P. Stephen Clark - Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Richard J. Maloney - Senior Vice President

Ms. Joanna K. Scott - Corporate Secretary & Vice President, Corporate Services

121A - 31 Southridge Drive

Okotoks, Alberta, Canada T1S 2N3

Telephone: 403-995-5200

Fax: 403-995-5296

SOURCE Mullen Group Ltd.

Related Links

www.mullen-group.com


The intelligent parking systems market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Though the use of telematics for car parking will offer immense growth opportunities, high deployment costs will challenge the growth of the market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

Intelligent Parking Systems Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Type

On-street Parking



Off-street Parking

Geography

North America



Europe



APAC



South America



MEA

To learn about market segmentation in detail, Download a Free Sample

Intelligent Parking Systems Market 2020-2024: Scope

Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our intelligent parking systems market report covers the following areas:

Intelligent Parking Systems Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of vendors operating in the Intelligent parking systems market, including 3M Co., Conduent Inc., Flowbird SAS, International Business Machines Corp., IPS Group Inc., Kapsch TrafficCom AG, Libelium Comunicaciones Distribuidas SL, Nedap NV, Siemens AG, and SKIDATA AG. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research report on the intelligent parking systems market is designed to provide entry support, customer profile, and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Intelligent Parking Systems Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist intelligent parking systems market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the intelligent parking systems market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the intelligent parking systems market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of intelligent parking systems market vendors

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Intelligent Parking Systems Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2019 Forecast period 2020-2024 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of over 22% Market growth 2020-2024 USD 5.2 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 18.34 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and MEA Performing market contribution North America at 37% Key consumer countries US, UK, Germany, China, and France Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled 3M Co., Conduent Inc., Flowbird SAS, International Business Machines Corp., IPS Group Inc., Kapsch TrafficCom AG, Libelium Comunicaciones Distribuidas SL, Nedap NV, Siemens AG, and SKIDATA AG Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, market growth inducers and obstacles, fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and future consumer dynamics, market condition analysis for the forecast period





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Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

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Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

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UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio

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CleanCo, the U.K.'s leading No/Low spirits brand launches in the U.S. Tweet this

Following his own desire to reframe his relationship with alcohol in 2018, Matthews discovered there were no options in the market that could match the taste and mouth feel of full-strength spirits in a mixed drink. CleanCo is for people who want to enjoy a full-flavor alternative, when the occasion calls for it, that also gives the sensation and taste of their favorite spirit.

With the dedication of Matthews and his U.K. team, CleanCo is off to a strong start and is set to achieve its projected sales of at least 50,000 9 liter cases across the U.K. and U.S. in 2021 alone - making it one of the world's largest and fastest growing No/Low spirits brands.

Spurred on by consumers growing interest in health and wellness, CleanCo seeks to empower a new category of cocktail lovers in the U.S. who wish to moderate without compromise.

"The No/Low alcohol industry is embarking on a major revolution driven by a large and growing consumer audience," enthuses CleanCo Founder, Spencer Matthews.

"There's this incredible surge of global cocktail lovers seeking to moderate their drinking habits to be healthy, happy and connected. In the U.S, our research found that one in five premium spirits drinkers sought a way to moderate while still enjoying the cocktails they love."

"With everything we learned, it is the right time for us to introduce CleanCo to the U.S., the world's largest alcohol market, before expanding globally."

To build a global brand at speed, Matthews and his team have partnered with Demeter & Co led by Jim Clerkin, former CEO of Americas for Moet Hennessy and Jim Beam, and Jeff Menashe, founder and CEO of Demeter Advisory Group, the leading investment bank to the adult beverage industry in the U.S.

As two of the U.S.'s most proven industry leaders, Clerkin and Menashe are the only team in the industry to blend the dynamic perspective of entrepreneurs and corporate brand stewards, investment banking and operations, as well as digital and field marketing across both U.S. and global markets.

Significantly, CleanCo's proposition is so compelling, Clerkin and Menashe have put their stake in the ground by launching the No/Low alcohol spirit company as Demeter & Co's first brand in its portfolio.

NEW BOUNDARIES

Matthews' ambition for CleanCo to lead the charge in this rapidly growing billion dollar No/Low category are rooted in the changing cultural landscape which CleanCo has tapped into in the U.K., and in addition to the special relationship cultivated with Demeter & Co.

"CleanCo is the first example of Demeter & Co's approach to building global adult beverage brands, which involves pushing new boundaries and making a positive impact on culture," comments Jeff Menashe, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Demeter & Co.

"Spencer and his team have a proven concept in the U.K. and deep learnings that help inform how we will approach the U.S. consumer. As the only brand with an existing portfolio of traditional spirit alternatives, CleanCo is able to customize the launch of each market with the spirit most aligned with its cocktail culture," added Jim Clerkin, Co-Founder and CEO of Demeter & Co.

"So, in the U.K., CleanCo leads with Clean G [Gin], whereas in the U.S., we will lead with Clean T [Tequila], our take on an agave forward Tequila Blanco. In this way, we are complimenting the significant growth of Tequila in the U.S., while showcasing CleanCo in one of the country's fastest growing cocktails - the Paloma," continues Clerkin.

CleanCo's arrival in America is being elevated with key distribution deals, including with the world's largest distributor of beverage alcohol, Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits, who launches CleanCo next month across seven states, which include California, Texas, Florida.

Wayne Chaplin, Chief Executive Officer, Southern Glazer's said: "The consumer is telling us that the opportunity in No/Low alcohol is now. For Southern to be part of a team to help develop and lead this cultural movement in the US with a proven group of industry experts like Demeter & Co is incredibly exciting."

To build immediate national relevance, CleanCo is entering the U.S. with a digital first marketing focus, and a sales strategy that has an equal focus on wholesale and direct-to-consumer. These efforts are led by CleanCo's global chief brand officer Lana Buchanan, former VP of Beyond Beer at Anheuser Busch, and Demeter & Co's head of sales Rudy Costello, former global CEO, Stoli Group.

NO/LOW INDUSTRY

To put this in perspective, Nielsen reported a 37%-dollar growth in non-alcoholic Beer, Wine and Spirits for 2020 compared to 2019, in a recent Beverage Alcohol Webinar. In the U.S. alone, IWSR projects No/Low spirits sales to grow to $1B by 2025. Sales projections for the global No/Low overall category are projected to reach $74B in 2025, equating to 6.2% of global beverage alcohol.

For more information, visit www.drinkclean.com and follow the brand on Instagram at @CleanCo.US

About CleanCo

Founded in the U.K. in late 2019 by entrepreneur Spencer Matthews, CleanCo is the world's only premium No/Low spirits brand that offers a range of superior tasting, full-flavored alternatives to full strength spirits without compromising on taste, aroma or mouth feel.

CleanCo makes its debut into the U.S. in early October 2021 with a product portfolio that includes Clean T (Tequila), Clean G (Gin), Clean R (Dark Rum), and Clean V Spiced Apple (Flavoured Vodka).

About Demeter & Co

Established in 2021, Demeter & Co is an adult beverage company co-founded by Jeff Menashe, Founder and CEO of Demeter Advisory Group, the leading investment bank to premium adult beverage brands in the U.S., and Jim Clerkin, former CEO of the Americas for Moet Hennessy and Jim Beam.

Demeter & Co's mission is simple and bold - to grow and develop global, digital-first adult beverage brands that are as authentically bold and expressive as the consumers who love them.

In addition to founders Jeff Menashe, and Jim Clerkin, Demeter & Co's team include Jacques Mantz, chief financial officer and former global chief financial officer and chief operating officer, Moet Hennessy, Rudy Costello, head of sales and former global chief executive officer, Stoli Group, Lana Buchanan, chief brand officer and former VP Beyond Beer, Anheuser Busch, Stephanie Olmstead, head of ecommerce and former director, commercial strategy and transformation, Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits, Richard Hurst, head of strategy and former head of strategy / M&A, Moet Hennessy Americas, Laurence Wolfe, head of operations and former senior vice president operations and chief supply chain officer, Heineken USA, Elizabeth Lee, head of financial planning and analysis and former manager, Business Transformation Group, Mattel, Amee Lile-Schrock, controller and former vice president and controller of finance, Sacramento Kings LP, Linda King, accounting director and former senior accounting manager, Campari America LLC.

For more information, visit www.demeterandco.com.

Media Assets, interviews and images:

Press Contact:

Tara O'Driscoll [email protected] +44 7791 091 909

Pippa Lawton [email protected] +44 7823 336 291

Alexandria Nahlous [email protected] +1(646) 515-1322

Sources:

https://www.theiwsr.com/wp-content/uploads/IWSR_No-and-Low-Alcohol-Gains-Share-Within-Total-Beverage-Alcohol-2021.pdf

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizthach/2021/04/06/no-low-alcohol-wines-hit-the-us-looking-to-gain-traction/?sh=5aae0de8257c

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisfurnari/2021/02/09/iwsr-report-noand-low-alcohol-products-gaining-market-share/?sh=dffeb22484bc

https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2018/08/these-are-the-5-fastest-growing-spirits-in-the-us/

https://www.thespiritsbusiness.com/2020/07/most-spirits-categories-up-30-or-more-in-us-off-trade/

https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2020/05/tequila-sales-soar-in-us-during-lockdown/

https://www.theiwsr.com/global-beverage-alcohol-expected-to-gain-3-volume-in-2021/

SOURCE The Prophets Agency

Related Links

http://theprophets.co.uk


ACON Investments Appoints Meena D. Thever as Partner, Head of Capital Formation and Investor Relations Tweet this

Ms. Thever joins ACON from Bridge Investment Group, where she served as Partner in the Client Solutions Group. Prior to joining Bridge in 2018, Ms. Thever served as a Director on the BlackRock Alternative Specialists team where she was a senior product and distribution specialist focused on private equity and real assets. Previously, Ms. Thever led the North America pension and insurance distribution efforts within JPMorgan Asset Management, Alternative Investment Strategies. Ms. Thever began her career in investment banking in the Financial Sponsor Group at JPMorgan and was a member of the investment team within the Credit Suisse Customized Fund Investment Group, a leading private equity fund of funds.

Ms. Thever holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Tufts University, a Master in Business Administration from The Wharton School and a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. She is a Fulbright Scholar and published author.

About ACON Investments

ACON Investments, L.L.C. is a Washington, DC-based international private equity investment firm that manages private equity funds and special purpose partnerships that make investments in the United States, Latin America and Europe. Founded in 1996, ACON has responsibility for managing approximately $6 billion of capital. ACON has professionals in Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Madrid, Sao Paulo and Bogota. For more information, visit www.aconinvestments.com.

CONTACTS:

Meena Thever Jon Ginns ACON Investments, L.L.C. ACON Investments, L.L.C. (202) 454-1100 (202) 454-1100

SOURCE ACON Investments, L.L.C.

Related Links

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CHICAGO, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In the Middle East & Africa, growing internet penetration, social media usage, and smart initiatives will continue to drive the market over the next few years. Africa is an emerging data center market, and it witnessed around 15 data center investments in 2020. The growth in the adoption of IoT and big data analytics services will result in the rapid acceleration of data center development in the Africa data center market. The market is evolving, and investments are expected to rise significantly with contributions from local and global data center operators. The Middle Eastern region witnessed investments from telecommunication service providers as well as global colocation operators. A major advantage in the Middle Eastern & Africa market is the low power cost.

Observing these rapid and drastic changes in demand and supply patterns encouraged the industry analysts at Arizton to publish exhaustive and data-driven insights on these current trends in the industry. Arizton has a dedicated vertical that focuses on data centre knowledge base across geographies. These market research reports cover a detailed analysis of the COVID-19-induced supply chain disruptions, innovations in technology, equipment financing, economic impact, and a detailed study of the competitive landscape.

Kenya Data Center Market - Investment Analysis & Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

The Kenya data center market is expected to reach USD 342 million in 2026, growing at a CAGR of 12.36% during the period 2021-2026. Kenya is one of the major data center hubs in Africa and is considered the gateway to the East African region. Nairobi, the capital city, is a favorable location for data center development. The data center market in Kenya includes around 6 unique third-party data center service providers, operating around 9 facilities. Over the past 3 to 4 years, the market has grown significantly, with an increase in the development of data centers.

Key Highlights

Over USD 480 million will be invested in data center development across Kenya between 2021 and 2026. During the forecast period, the country will witness investments in around 6 data center facilities.

will be invested in data center development across between 2021 and 2026. During the forecast period, the country will witness investments in around 6 data center facilities. The Kenyan government has set up Special Economic Zones (SEZs) to improve economic growth, offering tax-and duty-free exemption, and work permit facilitation to attract small and large investments in the country.

Commercial 5G network has been rolled out in Kenya by Safaricom along with Nokia in 2021, which will boost digital initiatives such as IoT and big data and heighten the demand for data centers.

by Safaricom along with Nokia in 2021, which will boost digital initiatives such as IoT and big data and heighten the demand for data centers. In Kenya , on-premises data centers are aiding digitalization. The forecast period will witness enterprises shifting to cloud and colocation data centers. Managed hosting services will be adopted by large enterprises.

, on-premises data centers are aiding digitalization. The forecast period will witness enterprises shifting to cloud and colocation data centers. Managed hosting services will be adopted by large enterprises. Nairobi is called the London for Kenya as it is the real tech hub and is leading the competition for attracting data center investments because it is one of the global United Nations HQs.

Read more now: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/kenya-data-center-market-investment-analysis

Nigeria Data Center Market - Investment Analysis & Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

The Nigeria data center market is expected to reach USD 218 million in 2026, growing at a CAGR of 17% during the period 2020-2026. Investments in the Nigerian data center market are majorly driven by factors such as digitalization of advanced technology, the presence of major operators, internet penetration, and government initiatives. Nigeria hosts 11 existing and will witness the deployment of 9 upcoming facilities spread across 2 cities, including Lagos and Abuja.

Key Highlights

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a major rapid growth enabler for the cloud market growth in Nigeria , with several enterprises migrating their workload to the cloud platform.

, with several enterprises migrating their workload to the cloud platform. The shift of industry sectors such as BFSI, education, retail, manufacturing, and others toward modern technologies such as cloud and big data is likely to aid the growth of the market during the forecast period.

In December 2020 , the Federal Government of Nigeria launched its "Solar Power Naija" project, focusing on 5 million solar connections by way of solar home installations as well as mini grids.

, the Federal Government of launched its "Solar Power Naija" project, focusing on 5 million solar connections by way of solar home installations as well as mini grids. With improved digital infrastructure and connectivity, an expected increase in colocation activities from cloud service providers is likely to boost the development of local data centers, significantly boosting the colocation market in Nigeria .

. By 2025, the government plans to increase the supply share of renewable electricity to 10% of the overall electricity generated in Nigeria .

Read more now: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/nigeria-data-center-market-investment-analysis

South Africa Data Center Market - Investment Analysis & Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

The South Africa data center market is expected to reach USD 3071 million in 2026, growing at a CAGR of 15.17% during the period 2021-2026. South Africa is the largest data center market in Africa. The market includes about 7 unique third-party data center service providers, operating over 22 facilities. The entry of new hyperscale data center operators expect to increase in the country during the forecast period. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a strong market driver for digital transformation initiatives in private and public sector enterprises in South Africa.

Key Highlights

The market will witness the entry of global data center colocation service providers through independent data center developments and partnerships or via acquisitions by major colocation providers in the country.

The expansion of 5G services is likely to propel the growth of data centers in the country.

M&A activities expect to continue in South Africa during the forecast period. In 2020, Africa Data Centers acquired Standard Bank's Samrand data center in Johannesburg .

during the forecast period. In 2020, Africa Data Centers acquired Standard Bank's Samrand data center in . Vendors such as IBM, Cisco, and Dell Technologies have a strong presence in the market. ODM servers will witness growth as investments in hyperscale data center facilities from cloud service providers, which is expected to increase during the forecast period.

Intelligent PDUs are likely to gain traction with the construction of new data centers. The demand for metered, monitored or switched intelligent PDUs is likely to dominate the market during the forecast period.

Read more now: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/south-africa-data-center-market-investment-analysis

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Read some of the top-selling reports:

About Arizton:

Arizton Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers innovative research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.

We offer comprehensive market research reports on industries such as consumer goods & retail technology, automotive and mobility, smart tech, healthcare, and life sciences, industrial machinery, chemicals, and materials, IT and media, logistics, and packaging. These reports contain detailed industry analysis, market size, share, growth drivers, and trend forecasts.

Arizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports.

Mail: [email protected]

Call: +1-312-235-2040

+1 302 469 0707

SOURCE Arizton Advisory & Intelligence
NEW YORK, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Anchin, Block & Anchin LLP ("Anchin") is pleased to announce its placement on three prominent 'Best Places to Work' lists. The firm has been ranked among the Top 5 of large accounting firms nationwide by Accounting Today. This is the 6th time Anchin has been ranked on Accounting Today's national Best Accounting Firms to Work For list.

In addition, Anchin has recently been awarded a #4 ranking on the Society for Human Resources Management's (SHRM) Best Companies to Work For in New York State (large companies) list. Anchin has been ranked on this list for the last 15 years, since it's inception.

This is Anchin's 12th year on the Crain's New York Business Best Places to Work in New York City list. The firm is proud to have achieved such strong employee support as demonstrated by our ranking during these challenging times. Additionally, Anchin is the highest ranked accounting and advisory firm on Crain's 2021 list.

In 2021, these awards are the results of comparative assessments of employee responses to surveys regarding their experiences at Anchin, and a culture audit. Each of the above ranking organizations or publications evaluated the types of work atmospheres, benefits, leadership styles, and opportunities for mentorship or professional growth that make a company a best place to work.

In year two of businesses being affected by the pandemic, Crain's assessed the Best Places to Work on how companies helped employees weather the prolonged impacts of the pandemic. Anchin implemented a mental health benefit that expanded its employee assistance program so that it is available to all members of each employee's household  providing an important resource to Anchin's employees. Additionally, the firm organized virtual 'Anchin Connect' community groups centered around common interests such as cooking, gaming, or Peloton. These groups helped employees stay connected and communicating even during busy seasons.

Anchin's Managing Partner, Russell B. Shinsky, said, "All of Anchin's partners share concerns about the well-being of the firm's employees, their families and friends. We have been striving to balance that concern with the needs of our clients every day. It is immensely motivating to know that our employees recognize the efforts the firm has made to achieve this balance of employee engagement and positive workplace culture with client service excellence, as well as the continuing commitment and confidence they have in Anchin through these turbulent times."

About Anchin:

Anchin is consistently recognized as one of the "best of the best" accounting firms in the country, a Best Place to Work in New York City and New York State, and a Best Accounting Firm to Work For nationwide. The full-service firm, with a staff of nearly 400, including 56 partners, focuses on the financial goals of privately held companies, investment funds and high net worth individuals and families, providing a wide range of financial reporting, tax and advisory services, including accounting and auditing; tax planning and compliance; tax credits and incentives; management and succession advisory; growth, transition and exit strategies consulting; transaction advisory; client accounting advisory services; cybersecurity and digital risk solutions; and litigation support, forensic accounting and valuation services. Additional information is available at www.anchin.com .

For further information:

Lisa Tomlinson

212.863.1433

[email protected]

SOURCE Anchin, Block & Anchin LLP

Related Links

http://www.anchin.com


AnDAPT's programmable power solutions speed up development of power supplies for a variety of industrial and computing applications, including machine vision, networking, industrial, motor control, Programmable Logic Control, Internet of Things (IoT), medical, and datacenter equipment. These ready-to-use programmable products provide easy and reliable solutions to power the entire Xilinx Kintex and Artix family FPGAs/SoCs while taking care of complexities such as rail consolidation, sequencing, and disparate power requirements.

"The benefits of these ready-to-use programmable products include faster time-to-market, reduced complexity, and greater reliability through fewer ICs. These solutions can be used as-is or further modified with our software design tools to create custom solutions," said Bill McLean, AnDAPT CEO. "The goal of these solutions is to enable faster product development, thus drastically reducing time to market, while ensuring high reliability and performance," Bill continued.

The Kintex and Artix devices can require greater than 11 power rails. In addition, there are variations in the number and power requirements of each rail depending on the system and application requirements. AnDAPT power solutions meet or exceed Xilinx power performance specifications while achieving a reduction in solution PCB area by merging and reducing the number of devices used. All AnDAPT power management solution PMICs use the same silicon which can be configured to support the customer's design requirements. Using one configurable device to support multiple designs simplifies customer inventory management.

Next on the AnDAPT roadmap are plans to release similar programmable power solutions for Xilinx Virtex, Versal, and Spartan families along with other FPGA/SoC vendors in the near future.

AnDAPT WebAmP R.D. (Reference Design) Software Tool

AnDAPT has created an intuitive software tool, WebAmp R.D., to provide ready-to-use PMIC solutions with optimum flexibility. These solutions are based on Xilinx FPGA family device part numbers and use cases which have been defined by Xilinx. Users can utilize these PMIC solutions as-is or modify rail sequencing, revise output voltages, alter maximum current per rail, or disable unused rails if desired. WebAmp R.D. provides all the necessary design documentation including design files, reference schematics, datasheets, BoM, and layout guides. If additional functionality is desired, such as system rails or glue logic, the generated design files can be used on AnDAPT's WebAmP software tool for further modifications.

AnDAPT Power Management Solutions

The AmP IC uses a compact 5mm x 5mm package and a high level of integration to provide a best-in-class system power solution. Each PMIC incorporates a single and a two phase DrMOS controller (up to 70A), multiple buck converters (10A/6A), high current LDOs (up to 2A), load switches (LDSW), four general purpose LDOs (200mA) and power management features including fault protection and sequencing.

These PMIC solutions are available on the "Reference Design PMIC" page on the AnDAPT website. The designs make it remarkably simple for the designer to pick and choose a solution and get it up and running within minutes for evaluation. Further, the WebAmP R.D. tool enables designers to scale a solution both up and down quickly depending on the design requirements. In addition, these reference designs can be used in the WebAmP tool for further customization including addition of other systems rails. This makes the AnDAPT AmP IC solution ideal for Xilinx FPGA applications and other system power requirements.

About AnDAPT

A privately held fabless Power semiconductor company, AnDAPT Holdings Ltd, designs, manufactures and markets On-Demand and programmable pre-defined power management solutions. Incorporated in 2014 and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, the company is funded by Intel, Cisco, Atlantic Bridge, Vanguard and has pioneered a new genre of adaptive analog technology. AnDAPT offers AmP Adaptive multi-rail power platforms, cloud-based software tools such as WebAmP and WebAmP R.D.TM, and AmP power components targeting applications in medical, industrial, enterprise, server/client, storage, communications, IoT, drones and telematics applications. Visit the company website ( AnDAPT.com ) or call for more information.

Contact:

Zaryab Hamavand

AnDAPT, VP Marketing +1 (408) 406-5669

[email protected]

Copyright  2021, AnDAPT, LLC

SOURCE AnDAPT

Related Links

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LEICESTER, England, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Earlier this month, industry leader Angus Lift Trucks released a memo about the technology trends creating a mass evolution in the forklift industry. Each of these technologies will streamline the tasks of companies and keep workers safe. Despite widespread concern about technologies like automation and AI making the human workforce redundant, Adam Lantsbery, Commercial Director at Angus Lift Trucks, assures that "these technologies are changing the forklift industry for the better."

On average, around five people receive life-changing injuries from forklift accidents every day in the UK, with trends showing an increase in fatalities in recent years. It is increasingly imperative to utilize emerging technologies to innovate in the forklift industry.

Angus Lift Trucks' review of five transformative technologies shows that automation can improve the safety of forklifts without replacing workers. Automated Lift Trucks (ALTs) receive training from operators, who then step aside and monitor the forklifts at a safe distance.

Automation is already in place in other industries. For instance, automated guided vehicles (AGVs) are widely used at Amazon, creating 300,000 new jobs. Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), like Google's automated cars, utilize artificial intelligence to gather knowledge about their surroundings and make changes as needed.

Adam Lantsbery believes that implementing these technologies in the forklift industry can open jobs, reduce costs, improve efficiency, and keep companies up-to-date on market trends. Furthermore, ALTs will place people in more meaningful jobs that eschew monotonous tasks for human interaction.

Another vital technology detailed by Angus Lift Trucks is artificial intelligence. "Artificial intelligence will revolutionize the forklift industry," Lantsbery says. AMRs and AI forklifts can detect traffic patterns, choose efficient routes, and work in spaces that humans cannot.

AI forklifts can reduce work-related injuries and fatalities, boost efficiency and productivity, and assist human workers. Also, they can work in tight spaces or with hazardous materials in dangerous conditions without threatening human life.

"You may not think about it", but Adam Lantsbery pointed out how "5G can also change how we use forklifts. By accelerating technology speeds, 5G devices can enhance the connectivity of warehouse workers."

Angus Lift Trucks believes that 5G will aid in remote-controlled forklifts, enhanced safety, and workplace comfort. While forklift operation is typically viewed as a job that must be performed in-person, 5G and automation technologies make working from home a possibility.

Imagine a world where construction workers don't need hard hats! Adam Lantsbery knows it's possible, and it's coming soon. Linde, Toyota, CESAB, Hyster, and Geodis have all integrated AI forklifts with remote operations in their companies. Soon, it will be commonplace.

5G connects to the Internet of Things (IoT), which includes all objects with an internet connection. Supply chain management and warehouses have already seen the use of Palletech's smart pallets and RFID tags to track shipments and inventory while preventing fraud.

According to Adam Lantsbery, the future involves AI forklifts operated remotely using 5G and working with smart pallets. By further integrating these technologies, companies can optimize their use of these technologies to create a safer workplace environment.

The last technology covered in this must-read memo concerns fuel. Forklift operation power or fuel technology is essential to the operation of forklifts. Due to the environmental and quantitative drawbacks of these resources, an emerging fuel may transform the forklift industry - hydrogen fuel cells.

Hydrogen is efficient, safe, fume-free, and zero-carbon. It improves the productivity of forklifts without being detrimental to the health of workers or the environment. Hydrogen fuel is the next big thing in vehicular power.

Angus Lift Trucks dives much deeper into each of these technologies to see how they will innovate the forklift industry, and everyone should read this post to learn what the future will look like.

Read the rest of this powerful article on technologies impacting forklift industry on Angus Lift Trucks website.

About Angus Lift Trucks LTD

Angus Lift Trucks LTD is a notably large and successful independent dealership of forklifts for sale and https://anguslifttrucks.co.uk/forklift-hire-uk/hire, floor care equipment, and access platforms. They have received the national certificate of compliance from the Forklift Truck Association FLTA. The company prides itself on high-quality customer service and its practical training and development strategy.

Trainers at Angus Lift Trucks provide forklift operation training in the following areas: Birmingham, Derbyshire, East & West Midlands, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, and Northamptonshire.

Angus Lift Trucks is the go-to-vender for learning how to embrace the changing landscape of forklift operation. Whether reading their blog to learn more about the industry or utilize their services, there is something on their website for all things forklifts.

SOURCE Angus Lift Trucks
NEW YORK, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- Ankura Consulting, a global expert services and advisory firm, today announced the appointment of Fernando Batlle as the Firm's first Chairman of its Latin America & Caribbean (LATAM) region. Mr. Batlle's new position as LATAM Chairman underscores Ankura's commitment to strengthening its presence in the region and to offering an expansive suite of solutions for clients across the world.

"We are thrilled to have an experienced executive like Fernando lead our growing LATAM team. This is a critically important region to many of our clients, and Fernando's addition bolsters our ability to support them in the market," said Ankura's Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Lavin. "Fernando brings broad industry expertise complemented by a deep connection to and knowledge of the regional landscape, and truly embodies the collaborative culture at Ankura."

Prior to his appointment as LATAM Chairman, Mr. Batlle served as a Senior Managing Director at Ankura and helped establish the Firm's position in the turnaround and restructuring market. He holds three decades of leadership and executive experience in both the private and public sector, with a proven track record of executing turnarounds and growing businesses at high profile financial institutions. Mr. Batlle has provided strategic and financial advisory for the Government of Puerto Rico throughout the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. He has held senior leadership positions in commercial and investment banking, securities brokerage, asset management, and public finance. His multiple areas of expertise encompass financial services, energy, capital markets, public-private partnerships, implementation of performance improvement and major transformation initiatives and debt restructuring. He has extensive experience advising governments, state-owned entities, and businesses on strategic and financial matters from development of comprehensive financial plans to economic strategy, debt management strategy, and governance.

"I look forward to growing our team and presence in Latin America and the Caribbean so that we are optimally positioned to address the complex business and financial issues our current and prospective clients face in the region," said Mr. Batlle. "I'm honored to assume this new position and to advance the Firm's commitment to developing innovative solutions and driving impactful results for our clients' continued success around the world."

Mr. Batlle holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS from Northeastern University.

About Ankura

Ankura Consulting Group, LLC is an independent global expert services and advisory firm that delivers services and end-to-end solutions to help clients at critical inflection points related to change, risk, disputes, finance, performance, distress, and transformation. The Ankura team consists of more than 1,500 professionals in 34 offices globally who are leaders in their respective fields and areas of expertise. Collaborative lateral thinking, hard-earned experience, expertise, and multidisciplinary capabilities drive results and Ankura is unrivaled in its ability to assist clients to Protect, Create and Recover value. For more information, please visit, www.ankura.com

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/659817/ankura_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Ankura

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PHOENIX, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- This October marks the first-ever National Economic Education Month. The Arizona Council on Economic Education (ACEE) is at the forefront and joins hundreds of organizations nationwide in this movement. Governor Ducey has signed the proclamation to declare October as Economic Education Month in Arizona, joining the governors of Georgia, Maryland, Ohio, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Tennessee among many others.

The global pandemic has really underscored that economics is all around us. It teaches us that scarcity forces everyone to make choices, and our choices come with costs. All students must understand how everyday economic decisions and policies affect their lives, their families, and their world. Effective personal finance management originates from the understanding of economic principles of choices, incentives, and opportunity cost.

"When our children understand these fundamental economic principles," Said Elena Zee, President and CEO of ACEE "they will understand the meaning of 'there is no such thing as a free lunch' to manage their personal finances more effectively."

Economic education in our schools depends on K-12 educators being equipped with high-quality training. They also require resources to ensure students have equitable access to classroom experiences that develop the skills necessary to make informed choices as individuals and members of their community. ACEE launched the program Teaching Fiscal Policy during the COVID Era to ensure that high school students understand the connection between the economic way of thinking, personal finance, and the real world.

ACEE is a 100% privately funded 501(C)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to financial, economic and entrepreneurship education. ACEE partners with 16,000 K-12 teachers to ensure every student in Arizona is financially and economically literate, reaching more than 200,000 students statewide annually. Sixty five percent of the students are from low to moderate income families, attending public, charter, home, private, tribal, and juvenile correction schools.

ACEE is hosting the 8th annual Champions in Education to honor Economic Education Teachers of the Year and rally the community. To join the conversation, follow the Arizona Council on Economic Education on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and go to www.azecon.org. #EconEdMonth

Contact: Elena Zee, [email protected]

SOURCE Arizona Council on Economic Education
ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. today announced that its specialist underwriting subsidiary Pen Underwriting has acquired 100% of UK-based Manchester Underwriting Agencies Limited and its wholly owned subsidiary, Manchester Underwriting Management Limited ("MUM"). Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 2010 by Charles Manchester as a specialist underwriting agency, MUM has grown organically and through bolt-on acquisitions into a multi-class, full-service managing general agent (MGA) with five locations in the UK. MUM specializes in providing professional indemnity and management liability coverages for SMEs through its independent retail broker clients. The business will become part of Pen Underwriting and Charles Manchester will continue to lead MUM.

"MUM is a highly regarded specialist underwriting agency that will be a fantastic addition to the Pen family," said J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr., Chairman, President and CEO. "It brings a complementary book of business and deep market expertise. We are delighted to welcome Charles and his associates to our growing global team."

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE: AJG), a global insurance brokerage, risk management and consulting services firm, is headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. The company has operations in 57 countries and offers client service capabilities in more than 150 countries around the world through a network of correspondent brokers and consultants.

Investors: Ray Iardella Media: Linda J. Collins VP  Investor Relations VP  Corporate Communications 630-285-3661/ [email protected] 630-285-4009/ [email protected]

SOURCE Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

Related Links

http://www.ajg.com


"Increasing real estate transparency. Powering innovation. Investing in data and people. These are the key components of ATTOM's mission that continue to drive our strategic vision, rapid growth, and data expansion initiatives," noted Barber. "We are committed to serving as a transformative information and property data services organization that fuels innovation, growth and strategy for our customers. This mantra has proven especially important in persevering through the pandemic. Even in today's current climate, we continue to influence and secure partnerships with industry-leading companies to bring new datasets to the market to power innovation."

Rob's true passion for property data guides the ATTOM team comprised of forward-thinking experts, committed to being the one source its customers need for real estate data solutions that impact decisions, innovation and profits. This enthusiasm continues to motivate the company's growing team of data experts dedicated to ensuring ATTOM's key stakeholders  ranging from customers to subsidiary partners  achieve success through a culture of integrity and excellence in a positive and collaborative environment.

"The Vanguards have become one of the highest achievements in housing and this year's list of award recipients represent an elite group of executives who proved to be resilient and adaptable throughout this past 18 months of extraordinary circumstances in the industry," said Clayton Collins, CEO of HW Media. "The 2021 Vanguards have proven to be true leaders, driving their organizations towards greatness, tackling challenges head on and making major waves in the housing market."

"We are proud to recognize the 2021 Vanguard winners, who represent the industry's most impressive leaders. They are leading through an incredible time for those in the housing market  whether real estate, mortgage or fintech  and driving one of the largest sectors of our economy," said HousingWire Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler.

About HousingWire

HousingWire is the most influential source of news and information for the U.S. mortgage and housing markets. Built on a foundation of independent and original journalism, HousingWire reaches over 60,000 newsletter subscribers daily and over 1.0 million unique visitors each month. Our audience of mortgage, real estate and fintech professionals rely on us to Move Markets Forward. Visit www.housingwire.com or www.solutions.housingwire.com to learn more.

About HW Media

HW Media aspires for audiences to "Come for the content, and stay for the community." By aligning vertical expertise and innovative B2B marketing solutions, HW Media answers the ever-evolving needs of modern professionals, brands and marketers. With a premium suite of advertising solutions, HW Media builds upon this principle, improving reader experience and delivering brand results. Based in Dallas with team members across the country, HW Media was founded in 2016 through the acquisition of HousingWire and is owned by Riomar Capital, an entrepreneurial investment firm.

About ATTOM

ATTOM provides premium property data to power products that improve transparency, innovation, efficiency and disruption in a data-driven economy. ATTOM multi-sources property tax, deed, mortgage, foreclosure, environmental risk, natural hazard, and neighborhood data for more than 155 million U.S. residential and commercial properties covering 99 percent of the nation's population. A rigorous data management process involving more than 20 steps validates, standardizes, and enhances the real estate data collected by ATTOM, assigning each property record with a persistent, unique ID  the ATTOM ID. The 20TB ATTOM Data Warehouse fuels innovation in many industries including mortgage, real estate, insurance, marketing, government and more through flexible data delivery solutions that include bulk file licenses, property data APIs, real estate market trends, and more. Also, introducing our latest solution, that offers immediate access and streamlines data management  ATTOM Cloud.

Media Contact:

Christine Stricker

949.748.8428

[email protected]

SOURCE ATTOM Data Solutions

Related Links

www.attomdata.com


"Members of the Chemical Guys' Family 'Down Under' have been one of the most engaged audiences among our nearly 1 million followers on Instagram and our 120 million video views on YouTube," said Chemical Guys Chief Revenue Officer, John Mansfield. "We are extremely thankful to have Supercheap Auto as our first major Australian retail partner to exclusively launch the Chemical Guys brand in their stores, making it possible to build an even stronger connection with our customers."

This new retail partnership offers detailing enthusiasts wide-scale access to the most popular Chemical Guys products including HydroSuds Ceramic Car Wash Soap and HydroThread Ceramic Fabric Protectant & Stain Repellant from the Hydro-line of Chemical Guys' proprietary, premium and easy-to-apply ceramic coatings and protectants; the Big Mouth Max Release Foam Cannon; VRP Vinyl, Rubber, Plastic Shine and Protectant; Total Interior Cleaner and Protectant; Mr. Pink Super Suds Car Wash Shampoo; Butter Wet Wax and many other fan favorite products.

"For almost a year, Chemical Guys has been working with Supercheap Auto to curate a tailored assortment of our premium car care items specifically for customers in Australia and New Zealand," says Chemical Guys Director of Sales, Philip Reed. "We are excited to see that work come to life with the help of our new Australian distributor, Shine Guys Pty Ltd., as 41 items are now available in all Supercheap Auto Retail Outlets and through their e-commerce platform for home delivery or in-store pick-up, expanding our mission to help people find their passion and make it shine. We look forward to building this new and exciting partnership as Chemical Guys continues to expand our world-wide presence."

"Supercheap Auto is delighted to be launching Chemical Guys detailing range in our stores in both Australia and New Zealand just in time for our peak season," says Supercheap Auto Business Manager of Auto Maintenance, Emma Quilter. "It's a super fun brand that we've admired from afar for several years, watching the strong growth in global retail stockists. It has been some years since we launched a new brand in Car Detailing and there is a real buzz of excitement amongst the whole team!"

ABOUT CHEMICAL GUYS

Driven by adventure, a passion for shine, and a love for the road ahead, Chemical Guys is a worldwide leader in automotive detailing products for car care enthusiasts and professionals. From exclusive small-batch waxes to cutting edge ceramic coatings, and specialty cleaners for exteriors and interiors, Chemical Guys sets the industry standard when it comes to product innovation, technological advancement and education. Based in Southern California, Chemical Guys has evolved from a handful of passionate car fanatics to a global lifestyle brand with the largest digital library of automotive detailing "how to" content available. Learn more and join the Chemical Guys family at www.ChemicalGuys.com.

SOURCE Chemical Guys

Related Links

http://www.chemicalguys.com


TULSA, Okla., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Avantive Solutions, a global technology and business services company specializing in innovative customer engagement, strategic sales and robust digital marketing solutions, today announced it will now offer contact center support in South Africa through a new partnership with Outworx Contact Center, a business process outsourcing and contact center provider. The partnership is expected to bring job opportunities to Durban as Avantive Solutions expands its global customer base.

As a result of the partnership, Avantive Solutions will now offer contact center support in four global regions: North America, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. The new location in Durban, South Africa, offers a competitive alternative to the Philippines market and other offshore locations with talented English-speaking teams to support inbound and outbound sales, lead generation, and customer service.

"We are excited to partner with Outworx as we look to expand and diversify Avantive Solutions' global footprint," said Frank Pettinato, CEO of Avantive Solutions. "As we continue to grow, we're committed to strategically investing in our business to offer a wide variety of geographies to deliver solutions that meet  and exceed  the needs of our clients. We look forward to kicking off our partnership with the Outworx team and supporting our clients in South Africa."

Avantive Solutions will benefit from Outworx's significant contact center experience and local market knowledge. Client work delivered in South Africa will continue to leverage Avantive Solutions technology, operational excellence, and innovations.

"We are delighted to be working closely with the Avantive team on this partnership," said Robin Hoekstra, CEO of Outworx. "We look forward to contributing our capabilities and having a strong, mutually beneficial relationship for many years to come."

For more information on Avantive Solutions and its innovative solution offerings, visit avantivesolutions.com.

About Avantive Solutions

Avantive Solutions, founded in 1988, is a Purpose-Driven global technology and business services company specializing in innovative customer engagement, strategic sales, and robust digital marketing solutions. The Company's Omni-Touch platform provides actionable insights through a proprietary stack of cloud-based analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence technology. Avantive Solutions partners with world-respected brands, including Fortune 100 companies in the fast-growing tech and communications, financial services, and healthcare industries. To learn more about how Avantive Solutions is bringing purpose to customer experience, go to avantivesolutions.com .

SOURCE Avantive Solutions

Related Links

http://avantivesolutions.com


TUPELO, Miss., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BancorpSouth Bank (NYSE: BXS) will release third-quarter 2021 earnings on Monday, October 25, 2021, after the close of the financial markets. It will also hold its regularly scheduled earnings webcast on Tuesday, October 26, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. CDT.



The webcast is live coverage of management's conference call with analysts and can be found by visiting: www.BancorpSouth.com/Webcast . This will be an interactive session between management and analysts; others may listen to the live broadcast as it happens. The conference call will also be available in archived format at the same address.



BancorpSouth Bank (NYSE: BXS) is headquartered in Tupelo, Mississippi, with approximately $28 billion in assets. BancorpSouth operates approximately 315 full-service branch locations as well as additional mortgage, insurance, and loan production offices in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas, including an insurance location in Illinois. BancorpSouth is committed to a culture of respect, diversity, and inclusion in both its workplace and communities. To learn more, visit our Community Commitment page at www.bancorpsouth.com ; "Like" us on Facebook; follow us on Twitter and Instagram: @MyBXS; or connect with us through LinkedIn.

SOURCE BancorpSouth Bank

Related Links

http://www.bancorpsouth.com


CHARLOTTE, N.C., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of America Corporation announced today that it will redeem on October 21, 2021 all $500,000,000 principal amount outstanding of its Floating Rate Senior Notes, due October 2022 (CUSIP No. 06051GFY0) (the "Floating Rate Notes"), and all $2,000,000,000 principal amount outstanding of its 2.503% Senior Notes, due October 2022 (CUSIP No. 06051GFZ7) (the "Fixed Rate Notes" and, together with the Floating Rate Notes, the "Senior Notes").

The redemption price for each series of the Senior Notes will be equal to 100% of the principal amount of such series, plus accrued and unpaid interest to, but excluding, the redemption date of October 21, 2021. Interest on each series of the Senior Notes will cease to accrue on the redemption date.

Payment of the redemption price for the Senior Notes will be made through the facilities of The Depository Trust Company. The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, N.A. is the trustee and paying agent for the Senior Notes.

Bank of America

Bank of America is one of the world's leading financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving approximately 66 million consumer and small business clients with approximately 4,300 retail financial centers, approximately 17,000 ATMs, and award-winning digital banking with approximately 41 million active users, including approximately 32 million mobile users. Bank of America is a global leader in wealth management, corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world. Bank of America offers industry-leading support to approximately 3 million small business households through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services. The company serves clients through operations across the United States, its territories and approximately 35 countries. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Forward-looking statements

Certain information contained in this news release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are not guarantees of future results or performance and involve certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions difficult to predict or beyond our control. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statement and should consider the uncertainties and risks discussed under Item 1A. "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, and in any of our subsequent Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect the impact of circumstances or events that arise after the date the forward-looking statement was made.

For more Bank of America news, including dividend announcements and other important information, visit the Bank of America newsroom. Click here to register for news email alerts.

www.bankofamerica.com

Investors May Contact:

Lee McEntire, Bank of America

Phone: 1.980.388.6780

[email protected]

Jonathan G. Blum, Bank of America (Fixed Income)

Phone: 1.212.449.3112

[email protected]

Reporters May Contact:

Jerry Dubrowski, Bank of America

Phone: 1.646.855.1195 (office) or 1.508.843.5626 (mobile)

[email protected]

Christopher P. Feeney, Bank of America

Phone: 1.980.386.6794

[email protected]

SOURCE Bank of America Corporation

Related Links

www.bankofamerica.com


The conference theme is Bigger Than COVID: Forecasting the Future and Mitigating Impact in Tourism. It is designed to arm regional governments and businesses centered around tourism with the information they need to remain operable.

Ralph Moore, CEO of MAAG, says,

"We have assembled a coterie of well-versed experts who can provide valuable insights and recommendations to our attendees. COVID was, and is, unlike anything we've seen in our lifetime. It has changed our entire way of living. Moreover, it has decimated, if not destroyed, so many smaller businesses. The ones that have survived thus far will more likely than not have to weather more crises in the future. We want to make sure our fellow colleagues in the Delta region are on guard and on point. And most importantly, we want to ensure that they experience longevity."

The conference will be produced by KUDZUKIAN and will go live via the organization's Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/maagov/ ) and via KUDZUKIAN's Facebook and YouTube channels. Registration is free. To register visit, https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bigger-than-covid-forecasting-the-future-and-mitigating-impact-in-tourism-tickets-180268527017.

For more information on the organization, visit www.maagov.com.

SOURCE KUDZUKIAN
NEW YORK, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BizVibe has added key challenges and trends for household appliances and electronics wholesale industry profiles on their platform. All 10,000+ company profiles will now contain 50+ company data points, including a list of potential challenges which are expected to impact market participants over the next few years.

Snapshot of key challenge impacting BizVibe's household appliances and electronics wholesale industry group.

One challenge which is being highlighted is direct-to-consumer (D2C) initiatives from manufacturers. Manufacturers across industries are increasingly launching D2C channels that completely bypass intermediaries. D2C is becoming popular in the electronics industry, with several reputed names launching and expanding their online retail stores. Brands are also aggressively expanding their own product assortments for their online D2C stores to replace any third-party products they used to sell. These initiatives have the potential to shift a part of sales from traditional electronics stores directly to the manufacturers and reduce their dependence on intermediaries, making them a serious threat to the sales and negotiation power of wholesalers. By identifying such challenges, BizVibe is helping users analyze which suppliers are right for their business, while allowing them to efficiently monitor the risk of doing business.

Get Free Access to all Industry Challenges

Key Insights Provided for Household Appliances and Electronics Wholesalers

In addition to analysis on how key challenges are expected to impact businesses, BizVibe company profiles contain numerous high-quality insights to help users discover, track, compare, and evaluate suppliers or sales prospects. These insights include:

Relevance and influence of industry trends and challenges, segmented by region

Press releases and news coverage referencing key trends and challenges

Risk of doing business score, segmented by operational, financial, compliance, and country risk

Top company competitors at the global, regional, and national levels

Names of top company decision makers, including job titles and social profiles

Company financials such as annual revenue, profitability ratios, and management effectiveness

View 50+ Company Data Points for Free

Household Appliances and Electronics Product and Service Categories

BizVibe's platform provides access to over 10 million buyer and supplier company profiles. Businesses from more than 200 countries are categorized into 40,000+ product and service categories, each providing detailed insights tailored to the needs of procurement and sales teams globally. The household appliances and electronics wholesale industry group features 10,000+ company profiles categorized into 50+ product and service categories, enabling clients to identify and connect with potential new business partners across diverse market segments.

Product and service categories for the household appliances and electronics wholesale industry include:

Appliance parts

Fuse cartridges

Batteries

Electric fans

Consumer electronics

Get Free Company Profile Access for all Categories

BizVibe for Buyers and Sellers

BizVibe is a modern B2B platform dedicated to connecting buyers and sellers from around the world. Powered by the latest best-in-class solutions, BizVibe is designed to help companies generate leads, shortlist suppliers, request proposals, and identify global companies. Evaluate companies side-by-side to compare key metrics and initiate productive partnerships.

Buyers use BizVibe to discover suppliers from among more than 5 million companies using advanced search filters and comparison tools. Features for buyers include:

Shortlist potential suppliers

Track and compare companies

Set up custom news alerts

Quickly create and customize RFIs

Explore BizVibe's buyer services: https://www.bizvibe.com/buyers

Sellers can take advantage of BizVibe's smart sales intelligence tools to discover, evaluate, and communicate with prospects across 300+ categories. Features for sellers include:

Identify and qualify sales prospects

Receive customized prospect recommendations

Analyze and evaluate potential buyers

Integrate CRMs for efficient data transfer

Discover BizVibe's seller tools: https://www.bizvibe.com/sellers

About BizVibe

BizVibe has been conceptualized and built by a team based out of Toronto, Bangalore, and London. We are a branch of Infiniti Research and have dedicated units in all three locations. BizVibe helps buyers find the most relevant suppliers from around the world and helps sellers target prospects who need their products and/or services. For more information, please visit www.bizvibe.com and start for free today.

Contact

BizVibe

Jesse Maida

Email: [email protected]

+1 855-897-5880

Website: https://www.bizvibe.com/

SOURCE BizVibe

Related Links

https://www.bizvibe.com/


EAGAN, Minn., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of a continuing effort to improve the health of members by addressing the societal factors that impact health, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (Blue Cross) today announced it will become the first insurer in the state offering no-cost coverage of community health worker benefits to commercial health plan members.

Beginning on January 1, 2022, Blue Cross will cover services delivered by community health workers across all fully insured commercial health plans. These include Individual and Family plans  both on and off MNsure  in addition to small and large fully insured employer groups (plans in which Blue Cross designs the benefit structure and pays for covered health care costs). Commercial plans in which employers design their own health benefits and pay for their own health care costs  known as self-insured plans  will also have this new benefit available for 2022.

Community health worker programs focus on culturally appropriate assistance and education provided by front-line public health professionals who work in conjunction with primary care providers. Additionally, community health workers serve as trusted liaisons between individuals, the health care system, health insurers and social service agencies. Through community outreach, social support and patient advocacy, community health workers are key to bridging gaps in communication and improving health outcomes in communities with cultural and language barriers.

"Navigating the complexities of the health care ecosystem is even more challenging when facing cultural, language, and other sociodemographic barriers that affect our members' health," said Dr. Mark Steffen, chief medical officer at Blue Cross. "Community health workers play a crucial role in advancing health outcomes and reducing inequities that disproportionally affect BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) communities."

"Community health workers have been instrumental in helping our Medicaid members achieve their optimal health for more than a decade," said Paul Valley, vice president of commercial sales. "By expanding this benefit to our commercial member population, Blue Cross is taking a significant step toward making health care more equitable, sustainable and affordable for all."

The benefit will go into effect for all eligible members on January 1, 2022, regardless of specific plan renewal dates.

About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota

For nearly 90 years, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (bluecrossmn.com) has supported the health, wellbeing and peace of mind of our members by striving to ensure equitable access to high quality care at an affordable price. We are on a mission to inspire change, transform care and improve health for the people and communities we serve by reinventing both ourselves and the broader system. Our more than 2.5 million members can be found in every Minnesota county, all 50 states and on four continents. As a proud nonprofit organization, we believe working to advance wellness for all Minnesotans is the greatest investment we can make. Our goal is nothing less than for everyone to be able to achieve their full health potential, regardless of race or other socially defined circumstances. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, which serves more than 107 million members across the U.S.

# # #

SOURCE Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota

Related Links

https://www.bluecrossmn.com/


CALGARY, AB, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust - (TSX: BEI.UN)

Boardwalk REIT would like to announce that its financial results for the three and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2021, will be released after the market closes on Thursday November 11, 2021.

We invite you to participate in the teleconference to be held to discuss these results the following morning (Friday November 12, 2021) at 9:00 am (Mountain),11:00 am (Eastern). Senior Management will speak to the results and provide a financial and operational update. Presentation and supplemental materials will be made available on our website prior to the call (please visit: www.bwalk.com/investors).

Teleconference:

The telephone numbers for the conference are toll-free 1-888-664-6383 (within North America) and 416-764-8650 (International).

Note: Please provide the operator with the below Conference Call ID or Topic when dialing in to the call.

Conference ID: 12312360

Topic: Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust, 2021 Third Quarter Results.

Webcast:

Investors will also be able to listen to the call and view the slide presentation by visiting www.bwalk.com/investors on the morning of the call. An information page will be provided for any software and system requirements. The live webcast will also be available by clicking below:

Boardwalk REIT Q3 2021 Earnings Call Link

Corporate Profile:

Boardwalk REIT strives to be Canada's friendliest community provider and is a leading owner/operator of multi-family rental communities. Providing homes in more than 200 communities, with over 33,000 residential units totaling over 28 million net rentable square feet, Boardwalk has a proven long-term track record of building better communities, where love always livestm. Our three-tiered and distinct brands: Boardwalk Living, Boardwalk Communities and Boardwalk Lifestyle, cater to a large and diverse demographic and has evolved to capture the life cycle of all Resident Members. Boardwalk's disciplined approach to capital allocation, acquisition, development, purposeful re-positioning, and management of apartment communities allows the Trust to provide its brand of community across Canada creating exceptional Resident Member experiences. Differentiated by its peak performance culture, Boardwalk is committed to delivering exceptional service, product quality and experience to our Resident Members who reward us with high retention and market leading operating results, which in turn, lead to higher free cash flow and investment returns, stable monthly distributions, and value creation for all our stakeholders.

Boardwalk REIT's Trust units are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, trading under the symbol BEI.UN. Additional information about Boardwalk REIT can be found on the Trust's website at www.bwalk.com/investors.

SOURCE Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust

Related Links

www.bwalk.com


Ellen Zucker is one of the most powerful and respected civil rights litigators in the country. She gives voice to those wronged in the workplace and has been a legal champion of civil rights throughout her career. She secured a trailblazing $13 million settlement for an orthopaedic surgeon, Dennis W. Burke, M.D., who blew the whistle on a practice at the Massachusetts General Hospital of allowing surgeons to book and conduct multiple surgeries at the same time and who  as a result of his standing up for patient safety  had his longtime Medical Staff appointment terminated. The case has had a national impact: in Massachusetts, the Board of Registration in Medicine promulgated regulations that limit the practice of concurrent surgery and set standards for informed consent; the American College of Surgeons has changed its policies and major medical centers have changed their practices. As part of the settlement, MGH acknowledged Dr. Burke's advocacy, invited him to return to the medical staff and established a lecture series in his name.

Zucker also represented Carol Warfield, M.D., the first woman ever to chair a major clinical department at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston. She endured years of gender discrimination and was removed as chair after she raised concerns about what she faced. Zucker secured a landmark settlement for Dr. Warfield on the eve of trial for $7 million. Dr. Warfield remains a professor at Harvard Medical School and the BIDMC Pain Clinic was named in her honor. Zucker represented Malvina Monteiro, a Cape Verdean public employee who suffered retaliation after raising concerns about discrimination in the City of Cambridge. She secured a $8.9 million judgment in Ms. Monteiro's favor. Her work on this and other cases has earned her recognition by the local branch of the NAACP and the National Organization for Women, as well as other professional organizations.

Beth R. Myers is a well-known plaintiff employment litigator who is highly-regarded for her advocacy representing employees in cases involving claims of discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, wage and hour disputes, and non-compliance with the Family Medical Leave Act. In 2020, Myers helped obtain a $3.25 million settlement from the City of Boston on behalf of a former female firefighter who was sexually assaulted by a male firefighter at work. One of Myers' important litigation wins involved securing a $2.3 million jury verdict for a female police officer against the Town of Winthrop over unlawful sex discrimination and retaliation. Myers ultimately settled the case, and a subsequent retaliation case, for more than $3 million. She also negotiates severance agreements and advises executives on issues involving employment agreements as well as non-competition agreements.

Myers currently serves as an appointed member of the Supreme Judicial Court's Standing Committee on Lawyer Well-Being, and is the immediate past-president of the board of directors of Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, Inc. She is involved in the Massachusetts LGBTQ Bar Association as a mentor in its Mentorship Program. She has also held numerous leadership roles with the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Employment Lawyers Association since 2011, most recently serving as the organization's president from 2018-2020.

Zucker received her J.D. from Boston College Law School in 1994, her M.S. in political theory from the London School of Economics and political science and her B.A. from Wesleyan University. She began her legal career as law clerk to the Honorable Nancy Gertner in the Federal District Court/District of Massachusetts. Myers received her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law in 2009 and her B.A. from New York University.

About Burns & Levinson LLP

At Burns & Levinson, we provide high-level, client-centric and results-oriented legal services to our regional, national and international clients. We are a full-service law firm with 125 lawyers in Boston, Providence and London. Our areas of expertise include: business/finance, business litigation, divorce/family law, venture capital/emerging companies, employment, estate planning, government investigations, intellectual property, M&A/private equity, probate/trust litigation, and real estate. We partner with our clients to solve their business and personal legal issues in a collaborative, creative and cost-effective way. For more information, visit Burns & Levinson at www.burnslev.com.

Contact:

Amy Blumenthal Kristen Weller Blumenthal & Associates Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer 617.879.1511 617.345.3555 [email protected] [email protected]

SOURCE Burns & Levinson

Related Links

https://www.burnslev.com


JERSEY CITY, N.J., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CarePoint Health, an independent healthcare system providing consistent, equitable, and localized care in Hudson County since 2008, will enter a new chapter of stewardship following the formation of a community-based, non-profit organization. The non-profit will be led by CarePoint CEO Achintya Moulick MD, MBA in collaboration with local community leaders to ensure community control of the hospitals moving forward. This announcement follows recent news that Christ Hospital is now ranked the Most Socially Responsible Hospital in the US by The Lown Institute, a ranking based on hospital equity, value, and outcomes.

CarePoint Health employs over 3,000 people in Hudson County and provides acute care to a majority of the county's population, including treatment of more than 22,000 COVID-19 patients to date over the course of the pandemic. The importance of such consistent safety net hospital care in urban areas cannot be understated. Between 1970 and 2010, 46% of urban hospitals in major US cities were closed, many of which were independent community hospitals that cared for underserved populations. CarePoint continues to care for a high percentage of uninsured and Medicaid patients, especially at Christ Hospital and Hoboken University Medical Center where they make up approximately 60% of the current patient mix. The transition to non-profit control will open up a wide array of opportunities to support Hudson County's underserved patients moving forward.

Dr. Achintya Moulick will oversee the formation of the new non-profit which was conceived in collaboration with the founders, Mr. Vivek Garipalli and Mr. James Lawler, who, along with their affiliates, will pledge their majority interest in CarePoint Health hospitals and Christ Hospital land. Dr. Moulick is presently engaging in discussions with key Hudson County community members and an official announcement of the new board formation and non-profit mission statement will follow in due course. Mr. Garipalli and Mr. Lawler will step down from their roles of oversight following the formation of the new non-profit board.

"The formation of a new non-profit will allow the three-hospital system to continue its trajectory of bringing in multiple tertiary level clinical services with nationally known clinical organizations while giving these precious assets back to the community. This is a significant milestone that will secure the provision of accessible healthcare in Hudson County," said CarePoint CEO Achintya Moulick, MD, MBA. "The pandemic has shown community hospitals to be the cornerstones of healthcare delivery in Northern New Jersey and the transition to a non-profit is the best way to ensure we remain so for future generations."

"Dr. Moulick and CarePoint's leadership team have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to preserving community healthcare in Hudson County, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. After working closely with Dr. Moulick, we decided together that CarePoint is ready to begin its next chapter under the guidance of a new non-profit board," says Vivek Garipalli, co-founder of CarePoint Health. "Following 13 years of hard work transforming the hospitals, our biggest priority is preserving CarePoint's future so that the hospitals remain a vital resource for families in Hudson County for many years to come."

"Safety net hospitals have a precarious existence, placing incredible stress on organizations that are dedicated to serving our most vulnerable citizens. Having spent well over 40 years working to sustain safety net hospitals in New York and New Jersey, I've seen firsthand how critical this care is for our underserved populations and how challenging it is for colleagues to maintain, often against all odds," says James Lawler, co-founder of CarePoint. "It has always been our intention to move from stabilizing the hospitals, to securing their future, and today is the culmination of that work."

Since joining CarePoint in January of 2020, Dr. Moulick has enhanced quality and significantly expanded services available to the community with new programs and institutional affiliations:

CarePoint partnered with Rothman Orthopaedic Institute in March 2021 to establish a world-class orthopedic services institute at Hoboken University Medical Center and Christ Hospital.

to establish a world-class orthopedic services institute at Hoboken University Medical Center and Christ Hospital. In May 2021 , Christ Hospital launched a Women's Health Pavilion that offers a comprehensive range of full-service imaging performed by expert radiologists, including digital screening and diagnostic mammography, MRI, bone density scans, and interventional radiology.

, Christ Hospital launched a Women's Health Pavilion that offers a comprehensive range of full-service imaging performed by expert radiologists, including digital screening and diagnostic mammography, MRI, bone density scans, and interventional radiology. The Healthcare Innovation Center opened in July 2021 at Bayonne Medical Center and strives to improve the patient experience and deliver actionable insights by connecting ideas, thought leaders, and technologies.

at Bayonne Medical Center and strives to improve the patient experience and deliver actionable insights by connecting ideas, thought leaders, and technologies. As of August 1, 2021 , CarePoint's participation agreements with remaining "out-of-network" insurance carriers took effect, giving most patients in Hudson County in-network access to CarePoint Health. CarePoint is now officially "in network" with all major insurance carriers in New Jersey .

The transition to non-profit stewardship opens up new opportunities for hospital staff, patients, and the greater Hudson County community. Moving forward, CarePoint's objectives include growing its oncology services, providing comprehensive cardiac care, establishing the only interventional stroke program in Hudson County, and further developing subspecialized surgical services.

About CarePoint Health

CarePoint Health brings quality, patient-focused healthcare to Hudson County. Combining the resources of three area hospitals, Bayonne Medical Center, Christ Hospital in Jersey City, and Hoboken University Medical Center, CarePoint provides a new approach to deliver healthcare that puts the patient front and center. CarePoint leverages a network of top doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals whose expertise and attentiveness work together to provide complete coordination of care, from the doctor's office to the hospital to the home. Patients benefit from the capabilities of a broad network of leading specialists and specialized technology. CarePoint emphasizes preventive medicine and focuses on educating patients to make healthy life choices.

CarePoint Health is led by CEO Achintya Moulick, MD, MBA. Achintya Moulick is a clinical, business, and thought leader in the healthcare industry. A neonatal cardiac surgeon by training with expertise in congenital and acquired heart disease, he has led hospitals for 20 years, as Executive Director, Chairman in Cardiovascular Surgery, Chief Medical Officer, and Chief Executive Officer.

For more information on its facilities, partners, services, and management team, visit www.carepointhealth.org.

This donation will be subject to appropriate structuring and applicable consents and approvals.

SOURCE CarePoint Health

Related Links

https://carepointhealth.org


"This year's class of award winners and honorees reflects the big changes that are coming at us," said Steve Schmith, director of PACE judging. "In our 27th year of the PACE program, it's striking to see how innovation is continuing to improve the auto industry."

The 27th annual PACE Awards were presented by Automotive News and the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association (APMA). The Automotive News PACE Award is accepted around the world as the industry benchmark for innovation. CarSaver earned this award following an extensive multi-tiered evaluation by an independent panel of automotive experts as judges.

"Winning a 2021 Automotive News PACE Award is a defining achievement for CarSaver," said Chad Collier, CEO of CarSaver. "Our success would not be possible without the vision and support from Nissan and all the participating dealers across the U.S. They've worked closely with us to implement a frictionless online car buying experience, saving customers time and money."

"Receiving the PACE Award is like receiving an Oscar in our industry, it's an incredible honor," said Sean Wolfington, Chairman of CarSaver. "We really appreciate the recognition of our team's hard work and efforts to drive the industry forward."

CarSaver makes it easy for consumers to buy, finance and lease new and used cars from their phone, and have the vehicle delivered directly to their driveway, through a fully automated online buying process, from first click through home delivery. CarSaver supports all tiers of the industry, from brands and manufacturers like Nissan, to local dealers and lenders. CarSaver was also selected to power e-commerce for the largest retailer in the world, Walmart, as well as iHeartMedia.

Nissan selected CarSaver to power its new online shopping platform, [email protected] CarSaver's enterprise technology enables Nissan and Nissan dealers to be the first to sell new, used and CPO vehicles 100% online. The [email protected] purchasing experience integrates CarSaver's industry leading features including:

End-to-end online purchase of new, certified pre-owned and used vehicle inventory

VIN specific pricing and payments

Real-time, OEM direct rebates and incentives

AI enabled deal structuring

Captive and retail lender loan and lease integration

eF&I

eContracting

Guaranteed online trade-ins

Vehicle delivery management software

"We've seen great success with the [email protected] purchase experience in terms of meeting customers' desires for an efficient, seamless, online car-buying solution," said Dan Mohnke, vice president, eCommerce, Nissan U.S. "Anecdotal feedback from customers, dealers, as well as sales results indicate that [email protected] is of great value to our customers."

"When I came upon CarSaver, I knew this e-commerce platform was going to be the leader in the industry," said Eric Frehsee, president, Jeffrey Nissan. "Now combine that with the fact that the OEM is rolling it out to all the dealers nationwide, it's game over."

For complete details of the Automotive News PACE Award, visit www.autonews.com/pace .

To learn more about CarSaver click here and to view testimonials from dealers, visit www.CarSaverCommerce.com .

ABOUT CARSAVER

Launched in 2016, CarSaver is the first and only online automotive marketplace for new and used cars, helping buyers and sellers save time and money by automating the entire process, from first click to home delivery. CarSaver makes it easy to do everything 100% entirely online; buy, finance, lease, insure, repair and sell, all the top brands of new and used vehicles. The CarSaver marketplace aggregates hundreds of suppliers and automates thousands of complex, time-consuming functions, to deliver a simple and seamless online experience that is personalized to each customer.

CarSaver's marketplace is being utilized by car companies, dealers and trusted brands, like Nissan, Walmart, SHOP.COM and iHeartMedia to help their customers save time and money when buying new and used cars online. For more information, follow CarSaver on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram , YouTube and LinkedIn .

For more information:

Ian Guss, High10 Media for CarSaver, [email protected]

Maria Maestro, CarSaver, [email protected]

SOURCE CarSaver
ALBANY, N.Y., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ceramic tiles are gathering traction owing to their several advantages such as cost-effectiveness and strong nature. Moreover, they are easy to maintain. Due to all these advantages, ceramic tiles are preferred over other flooring options, including wood and vinyl. Furthermore, end users can select from a broad range of colors, shapes, designs, and sizes of ceramic tiles.

According to analysts at Transparency Market Research (TMR), the global ceramic tiles market is projected to exceed the valuation of US$ 180 Bn by 2027.

Ceramic Tiles Market: Key Findings

Market Players to Witness High Demand for Floor Tiles

Floors are one of the larger parts of any construction activity and thus, the number of tiles required for floors is high. Ceramic floor tiles are gaining impetus due to their ability to resist odors, stains, bacteria, or allergens. Thus, they are highly preferred for toilet and shower flooring.

Growth in Number of Residential Renovation Activities Boosts Demand Opportunities in Market

With improved disposable income of people in many developed and developing countries, there is a notable growth in the number of renovation activities in these regions. This factor is resulting into increased demand for ceramic tiles manufacturers.

Request a sample now  https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=1688

Ceramic Tiles Market: Growth Boosters

Government authorities of many developing countries, including India , have several policies that boost the development of the regional housing sector.This factor is creating lucrative opportunities in the country, thereby fueling the overall market growth.

, have several policies that boost the development of the regional housing sector.This factor is creating lucrative opportunities in the country, thereby fueling the overall market growth. Major market players are increasing focus on incorporation of advanced technologies in their production activities. A case in point is the use of EFI (Electronics For Imaging) cretaprint hybrid technology by Azuliber, a Spain -based ceramic producer. The technology is gaining popularity, as it has a positive environmental impact on the ceramic tile production procedure.

-based ceramic producer. The technology is gaining popularity, as it has a positive environmental impact on the ceramic tile production procedure. The Asia Pacific ceramic tiles market is likely to exhibit growth at a CAGR of over 9% during the forecast period. This growth can be attributed to many factors such as improved disposable incomes, low manufacturing cost, and surging construction activities in the region.

Request the Corona Virus Impact Analysis  https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=covid19&rep_id=1688

Ceramic Tiles Market: Growth Restraints

Kaolin, feldspar, silica sand, and bentonite are some of the key raw materials used in the manufacturing of ceramic tiles. There has been a notable increase in the prices of these materials following the 2008 economic crisis across the globe.

Moreover, these raw materials are being increasingly used in many other industries such as thermal and electric insulation, glass, refractories, food packaging, and paints. This factor has resulted into a surge in prices of these materials after2010.These aspects are anticipated to affect the growth of the ceramic tiles market in the upcoming years.

Ceramic Tiles Market: Competition Landscape

Presence of many large- and small-scale players makes the market highly competitive. Thus, players are growing focus on executing different strategic moves to stay ahead in the competition.

Several market enterprises are concentrated on using the pricing strategy. In addition, many players are focusing on R&D activities to improve the quality of their products.

Many companies in the ceramic tiles market are strengthening their production capabilities as well

Buy our Premium Research Report on Ceramic Tiles Market @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/checkout.php?rep_id=1688<ype=S

Ceramic Tiles Market: Key Players

The report profiles all key players from the global ceramic tiles market. Thus, the study document delivers all key information including company overview, product portfolio, financial overview, recent developments, and business strategies of all players operating in the market.

Some of the key players operating in the ceramic tiles market are:

Siam Cement Group

Mohawk Industries, Inc.

Grupo Lamosa

Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) Ceramics

(RAK) Ceramics China Ceramics Co. Ltd.

Kajaria Ceramics

Panariagroup Industrie Ceramiche S.p.A.

LASSELSBERGER GmbH

Gruppo Concorde S.p.A

Kale Group

Johnson Tiles

The report segments the global Ceramic Tiles market as follows:

Global Ceramic Tiles Market, by Product

Floor Tiles

Wall Tiles

Others (Ceiling Tiles, Roofing Tiles, Countertop Tiles, etc.)

Global Ceramic Tiles Market, by Application

Residential Replacement

Commercial

New Residential

Industrial

Global Ceramic Tiles Market, by Region

North America

U.S.



Canada

Europe

Germany



France



Turkey



Spain



Italy



Russia



Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific

China



India



Japan



ASEAN



Rest of Asia Pacific

Latin America

Brazil



Mexico



Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa

GCC



South Africa



Rest of Middle East & Africa

Chemicals & Materials Industry battles Tangible Impact of Economic and Cultural changes, Explore Transparency Market Research's award-winning coverage of the global Chemicals & Materials Industry:

Friction Pads Market - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/friction-pads-market.html

Wollastonite Market - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/wollastonite-market.html

About Us

Transparency Market Research is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. Our experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information.

Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.

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SOURCE Transparency Market Research
Expands footprint into U.S. Air Force and Space Command

Stock Market Symbols

GIB (NYSE)

GIB.A (TSX)

www.cgi.com/newsroom

FAIRFAX, Va,, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - CGI Inc. (NYSE: GIB) (TSX: GIB.A) announces that CGI Federal Inc. acquired Array Holding Company, Inc. (ARRAY) a leading digital services provider that optimizes mission performance for the U.S. Department of Defense and other government organizations. This merger will expand CGI Federal's footprint into strategic markets, such as the U.S. Air Force and Space Command and add to its digital modernization and DevOps capabilities. The two companies entered into a definitive agreement on July 16, 2021 and the transaction closed on Oct. 1, 2021.

ARRAY brings approximately 275 professionals to CGI, while enhancing and accelerating CGI's position as a leading provider of digital modernization services to meet the growing demand of U.S. public sector clients. The combined portfolio of enterprise application expertise in modernization, DevSecOps, cloud, data analytics and cybersecurity further strengthens CGI's position as a powerful end-to-end solutions provider to federal, state and local governments.

"ARRAY has made significant contributions to the missions of U.S. government organizations," said CGI Federal President Stephanie Mango. "This transaction is consistent with CGI's 'Build and Buy' strategy and will expand CGI's reach into strategic public sector markets."

About CGI Federal

CGI Federal Inc., a wholly-owned U.S. operating subsidiary of CGI Inc. (CGI), is dedicated to partnering with U.S. federal agencies to provide solutions for defense, civilian, healthcare and intelligence missions. Founded in 1976, CGI is among the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world. With 78,000 consultants and other professionals across the globe, CGI delivers an end-to-end portfolio of capabilities, from strategic IT and business consulting to systems integration, managed IT and business process services and intellectual property solutions. CGI works with clients through a local relationship model complemented by a global delivery network that helps clients digitally transform their organizations and accelerate results. With Fiscal 2020 reported revenue of C$12.16 billion, CGI shares are listed on the TSX (GIB.A) and the NYSE (GIB). Learn more at www.cgi.com.

Forward-looking information and statements

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities laws and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other applicable United States safe harbors. All such forward-looking information and statements are made and disclosed in reliance upon the safe harbor provisions of applicable Canadian and United States securities laws. Forward-looking information and statements include all information and statements regarding CGI's intentions, plans, expectations, beliefs, objectives, future performance, and strategy, as well as any other information or statements that relate to future events or circumstances and which do not directly and exclusively relate to historical facts. Forward-looking information and statements often but not always use words such as "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "anticipate", "foresee", "plan", "predict", "project", "aim", "seek", "strive", "potential", "continue", "target", "may", "might", "could", "should", and similar expressions and variations thereof. These information and statements are based on our perception of historic trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other assumptions, both general and specific, that we believe are appropriate in the circumstances. Such information and statements are, however, by their very nature, subject to inherent risks and uncertainties, of which many are beyond the control of CGI, and which give rise to the possibility that actual results could differ materially from our expectations expressed in, or implied by, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include but are not restricted to: risks related to the market such as the level of business activity of our clients, which is affected by economic conditions, and our ability to negotiate new contracts; risks related to our industry such as competition and our ability to attract and retain qualified employees, to develop and expand our services, to penetrate new markets, and to protect our intellectual property rights; risks related to our business such as risks associated with our growth strategy, including the integration of new operations, financial and operational risks inherent in worldwide operations, foreign exchange risks, income tax laws, our ability to negotiate favorable contractual terms, to deliver our services and to collect receivables, and the reputational and financial risks attendant to cybersecurity breaches and other incidents; as well as other risks identified or incorporated by reference in this press release, in CGI's annual and quarterly MD&A and in other documents that we make public, including our filings with the Canadian Securities Administrators (on SEDAR at www.sedar.com) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (on EDGAR at www.sec.gov). Unless otherwise stated, the forward-looking information and statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and CGI disclaims any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information or forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. While we believe that our assumptions on which these forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are based were reasonable as at the date of this press release, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking information or statements. Furthermore, readers are reminded that forward-looking information and statements are presented for the sole purpose of assisting investors and others in understanding our objectives, strategic priorities and business outlook as well as our anticipated operating environment. Readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. Further information on the risks that could cause our actual results to differ significantly from our current expectations may be found in the section titled "Risk Environment" of CGI's annual and quarterly MD&A, which is incorporated by reference in this cautionary statement. We also caution readers that the above-mentioned risks and the risks disclosed in CGI's annual and quarterly MD&A and other documents and filings are not the only ones that could affect us. Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently deem to be immaterial could also have a material adverse effect on our financial position, financial performance, cash flows, business or reputation.

SOURCE CGI Inc.

Related Links

www.cgi.com


CHICAGO, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cheetah Digital , a leading provider of cross-channel customer engagement solutions for many of the world's most well-known brands, has announced the agenda and details of its annual Signals conference . The 2021 event will feature multiple sessions each Wednesday between 11:00  4:00pm ET starting October 6th through November 3rd. This year's event will be primarily virtual with select in-person sessions that are available by invitation only.

The key theme for 2021 is anchored in making human connections, and that relationship management is the core discipline for brands to understand and engage their customers on an individual level. While consumers are increasing their demands for truly personalized messaging and offers from the brands they support, they are also weary of how, where, and when their personal data is collected and exploited by other companies. This balance between privacy and personalization is impossible to achieve when using third-party data, which was recently showcased in the company's new creative campaign starring Wayne Knight. The biggest takeaways for attendees of the 2021 Signals conference will be how marketers can end their reliance on cookies and third-party data, how to ramp up their collection and use of zero-party data, which includes crucial psychographic information from consumers, and why a loyalty program rooted in emotion can be the best long term relationship tool a brand can invest in.

"The 2021 Signals event was designed to address some of the most pressing trends facing the marketing industry right now  notably how to build 1:1 relationships with customers in a digitally accelerating world," noted Richard Jones, Chief Marketing Officer for Cheetah Digital. "Over the course of five weeks and 20+ sessions, we will feature a fantastic lineup of impressive speakers and clients who are both implementing world-class loyalty programs at their organizations whilst understanding the importance of next-gen personalization and proper data collection."

Themes for each week include Inspire (10/6), Innovate (10/13), Understand (10/21), Activate (10/27), and Engage (11/3). Cheetah Digital's President, Bill Ingram will address attendees at the beginning of the conference on 10/6 and Chief Product Officer, Manoj Goyal will provide a session on product vision on 10/13. Keynote addressed by Lauren Bush Lauren (CEO and co-founder of FEED Projects and granddaughter of President George H.W. Bush), addresses value driven marketing, and the conscious consumer.

The conference is free to attend, and multiple sessions are available each day. Interested attendees can learn more about the Signals conference and sign up for specific events by visiting www.cheetahdigital.com/signals . For more information about Cheetah Digital, visit www.cheetahdigital.com .

About Cheetah Digital

Cheetah Digital is a cross-channel customer engagement solution provider for the modern marketer. The Cheetah Digital Customer Engagement Suite enables marketers to create personalized experiences, cross-channel messaging, and loyalty strategies, underpinned by an engagement data platform that can scale to meet the changing demands of today's consumer. Many of the world's best brands, including Hilton, Neiman Marcus, Walgreens, and Williams-Sonoma trust Cheetah Digital to help them drive revenue, build lasting customer relationships, and deliver a unique value exchange throughout the customer lifecycle. To learn more, visit www.cheetahdigital.com .

SOURCE Cheetah Digital

Related Links

http://www.cheetahdigital.com


"During a week to raise awareness about mental illness, it's heartbreaking to continue seeing a rising demand for mental health services among our youth, with many children and teens spending days in emergency rooms waiting for a psychiatric bed to open up," said Dr. Marc Gorelick, president and CEO of Children's Minnesota. "As the kid experts, it's our duty at Children's Minnesota to address this crisis and support families with the full spectrum of pediatric resources they need."

"The stress and isolation caused by the pandemic has made the need for mental health care greater than ever," said Governor Tim Walz. "We're committed to expanding access to that care for our kids, and I applaud Children's Minnesota for their commitment to ensuring all our children have somewhere to turn for help."

The announcement comes on the heels of other large investments in mental health services by Children's Minnesota:

This summer, Children's Minnesota opened a mental health day-program for teens at its specialty center at Lakeville . The outpatient program allows teens to receive intensive mental health care during the day and return home with their families on evenings and weekends.

opened a mental health day-program for teens at its specialty center at . The outpatient program allows teens to receive intensive mental health care during the day and return home with their families on evenings and weekends. Children's Minnesota has also expanded virtual mental health care and integrated behavioral health across its primary care clinics.

"As we continue rebuilding from the challenges of the past 20 months, expanding access to mental health support, services and resources is vital," said Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter. "This new center will provide responsive care from mental health professionals who are committed to supporting children in our community."

"Children and youth are struggling with their mental health and we do not have the resources to meet their needs. Stories of boarding in emergency rooms are frequent and the need for more intensive services is growing," said Sue Abderholden, executive director of NAMI Minnesota (National Alliance on Mental Illness). "NAMI Minnesota is pleased that Children's Minnesota is going to add inpatient psychiatric beds and invest in much-needed services for Minnesota's children and youth."

The new inpatient mental health center at the Children's Minnesota St. Paul hospital is part of a vision to create a mental health hub on that campus, which already houses many outpatient mental health services, including Developmental Pediatrics, the Center for the Treatment of Eating Disorders, Psychiatry, Psychology, Neuropsychology, Integrated Behavior Health and more.

The center will provide a healing environment, specifically designed for kids and youth and will include:

Twenty-two large private rooms that will allow parents to stay overnight with their child.

Design focused on safe access to the outdoors, natural light, and calming sensory-friendly spaces.

A multi-disciplinary care team, including psychiatrists, psychologists, licensed clinical social workers, nurses, and expressive arts therapists will provide individualized treatment tailored to meet each child's needs.

About Children's Minnesota

Children's Minnesota is the seventh largest pediatric health system in the United States and the only health system in Minnesota to provide care exclusively to children, from before birth through young adulthood. An independent and not-for-profit system since 1924, Children's Minnesota serves kids throughout the Upper Midwest at two free-standing hospitals, nine primary care clinics, multiple specialty clinics and seven rehabilitation sites. As The Kids Experts, Children's Minnesota is regularly ranked by U.S. News & World Report as a top children's hospital.

Find us on Facebook @childrensminnesota or on Twitter and Instagram @childrensmn. Please visit childrensMN.org.

SOURCE Children's Minnesota

Related Links

www.childrensmn.org


I want to change the world of healthcare  for children in Cincinnati and beyond.

Mark Jahnke, chair of the Board of Trustees and leader of a national search to find Fisher's successor, said the board voted Oct. 4 on the selection of Davis as the next chief executive.

Jahnke said the experience of Davis, both as a pediatric critical care physician and as a highly accomplished hospital operations executive, positions Cincinnati Children's well for the future.

"A strong pool of qualified candidates was considered  and in the end, Steve was the clear choice," Jahnke said. "In addition to medical expertise, Steve brings exceptional problem-solving skills and a collaborative nature to the position of chief executive. He is 100% all in  and inspires others with his work ethic, which ensures the best outcomes for the children in our care. Steve is a husband, the father of four, and grandfather of two, and his compassion is evident in how he has helped lead the medical center in recent years. He is a relentless advocate for children and families."

Cincinnati Children's is the region's largest hospital and second largest employer  a $2.6 billion nonprofit with a workforce of more than 16,500. Davis was interim CEO for six months during 2018, and he worked closely with the board at that time.

Davis also was the driving force in construction of the medical center's largest expansion ever, a Critical Care Building to serve patients with cancer, heart ailments and other complex conditions. Set to open Nov. 6, the $600 million facility also features a state-of-the-art emergency department to serve the residents of Cincinnati and surrounding neighborhoods.

"I came to Cincinnati Children's because I want to change the world of healthcare  for children in Cincinnati and beyond," Davis said. "I envision a world where all children can reach their full potential  where racial and economic disparities have been eliminated, and where the ZIP code you were born in doesn't shorten your life expectancy or quality of life.

"At Cincinnati Children's, our people have the expertise, dedication, and heart to transform child health," Davis added. "Our clinical excellence, focus on safety and improvement, and deep research experience is unmatched. Our collaborative spirit provides the space for each of us to learn, grow, and thrive. It is a remarkable organization, and I am proud to work here."

Liza Smitherman, a vice chair of the Board of Trustees at Cincinnati Children's and a member of the search committee that recommended Davis, said: "We were looking for someone bold who could take us to the next level, and Steve Davis is that person. He is passionate about improving children's health and the healthcare system. Because of the work he's already done leading the Critical Care Building project and advocating for the team, he can hit the ground running  and that will have a tremendous impact."

Fisher joined the medical center as chief executive in January 2010 and is the longest-serving CEO among local health systems.

"I'm grateful to have had the privilege of leading the incredible team at Cincinnati Children's, whose care for kids and commitment to scientific research and education has made this one of the best medical centers in the world," Fisher said. "I love Cincinnati Children's, and so I'm extremely pleased that the board has selected an exceptional leader in Dr. Steve Davis as the next CEO. Having worked closely with Steve for the last six years, I can tell you that he has high integrity, an innovative spirit, and a deep caring for patients and his fellow employees."

Cincinnati Children's 1.38 million patient encounters in 2020 benefited children from all 50 states and 51 countries, including those treated for complex or rare disorders.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Davis has played a key role in coordinating the response of local hospitals. As co-chair of the Regional COVID-19 Steering Committee and co-chair of the Hamilton County Test and Protect COVID-19 Project, Davis helped create policies and procedures designed to ensure the best care for patients and to safeguard hospital workers.

Also under the leadership of Davis, Cincinnati Children's ramped up telehealth during the pandemic. Many clinical areas now offer telehealth appointments via the CincyKids Health Connect app for patients who don't require an in-person visit, providing easier access to care for more kids.

Before joining Cincinnati Children's, Davis was chief operating officer of Hillcrest Hospital, a 500-bed facility with 2,500 employees that is part of the Cleveland Clinic system. Davis served the Cleveland Clinic in a variety of key positions from 1996 to 2015, including as: program director for the Pediatric Critical Care Fellowship Program; medical director of Pediatric Respiratory Therapy; chair of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine; vice chair of pediatrics; and executive director of critical care across the Cleveland Clinic health system.

After receiving a bachelor's degree from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1984, Davis earned a medical degree in 1989 from the University of Vermont. In 2012, Davis received a master's in medical management from the Heinz College of Business at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he serves on the faculty and teaches leadership development. He earned a master's in strategic leadership from Michigan State University in 2020.

Davis was a resident at Pittsburgh Children's Hospital 1989-92 and chief resident 1992-93. He completed a fellowship in pediatric critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1996.

SOURCE Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

Related Links

www.cincinnatichildrens.org


NEW YORK, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Quality healthcare outcomes largely depend on patient adherence to recommended treatment regimens. Even more so when treating patients with chronic and complex conditions. Data from Clalit, Israel's largest HMO, shows that approximately 50% of its chronic patients do not adhere to their recommended medical treatment, thus hindering care outcomes.

A collaboration between Clalit HMO, IQVIA and Octopus.Health, a start-up co-founded by Clalit and IQVIA, has yielded the design, development and implementation of an AI-based platform that identifies patients who need better support to comply with and adhere to their medical treatment plans. The platform has been integrated in Clalit's systems earlier this year, targeting 300,000 of Clalit's chronic patients, studying their preferences, and interacting with them to enhance adherence to their treatment plans. The platform implementation at scale has already provided measurable clinical impact and indicates significant results.

The system's interaction with patients is personally tailored to their demographics and clinical data, and applies behavioral economics trial-and-error models to increase its effectiveness. Once treatment gaps are identified, the system begins interacting with the patient to understand these gaps and address them by introducing accessible healthcare services. For example, in case a critical medication has not been picked up from the pharmacy, the patient will be offered home delivery of the medication. Additional proactive services include, scheduling appointments in case patients have discontinued their medication intake, providing complementary information when side effects are reported and more. All interactions generated by the system are preformed online and immediately.

Octopus.Health provides a comprehensive platform that includes an AI-based patient support solution for patients and health service providers. It offers patients a digital tool for managing their appointments, medications, communities, documents, educational material and a communication channel to health service providers. Health service providers are able to initiate proactive processes through the system to manage treatment gaps, adherence issues, follow ups, adverse events, reminders and more.



Dr. Doron Netzer, Head of Clalit's community medicine division, stated "this service was created given the realization that in modern medicine, we cannot maintain the concept of reactive medicine. Rather, we need to transition to a proactive approach, which assists patients in making health-promoting decisions on an ongoing basis, not only during the medical encounter initiated by the patient. In this day and age, it is crucial not only to formulate optimal treatments for each patient but also to make sure that the patient understands and applies the guidelines. The platform we developed has already identified thousands of treatment gap cases due to misunderstanding of treatment recommendations, manner of administering medication, or the occurrence of side effects, and provides patients with an adequate response."

Prof. Ran Balicer, Clalit's Chief Innovation Officer, stated "Clalit is one of the first health organizations in the world to have implemented such an advanced, AI-driven system to promote individually tailored proactive medicine. Technology finally allows us to provide solutions that link patients and their care providers in a way that empowers patients and allows informed shared decision-making. We are proud that the data assets of Clalit and Clalit Innovation's business development unit, together with Octopus.Health were able to provide unique value, that I believe will be useful to many health organizations globally which all share similar challenges".

Yoav Ariav, CEO of Octopus.Health, stated "the reasons why patients struggle to adhere to treatment vary and are not merely the result of forgetfulness. They depend on the patient's health literacy, support of family and close environment, cultural aspects, the patient's self-image, willingness to acknowledge the medical condition at hand, the rapport patients have with their medical team, existing or perceived side effects, as well as financial aspects. The goal of our platform is to emphasize to patients that their treatment serves them in achieving their goals and to harness them to its success. The process led by Clalit and Octopus.Health empowers patients in their role of managing their medical conditions, and creates another role in the patient's journey  a personal, AI-based medical assistant, serving as a connecting link between patients and their care teams."

Alon Schwartz, Head of Clalit's IT, digital and data division, stated "this new service is part of a comprehensive organizational approach to advance patient-tailored digital services. We have developed an AI-based system that identifies patients that need support in complying with their treatment, studies their habits, and communicates with them in a personalized manner."

Contact:

Yoav Ariav

CEO

[email protected]

SOURCE Octopus.Health

Related Links

https://www.octopus.health/


TEL AVIV, Israel, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CoreBone, a company that produces bioactive, coral-based bone graft material, announced that it has completed an investment round of $3.7 million. The Guangzhou Sino-Israel Biotech Investment Fund ("GIBF"), which focuses on introducing Israeli medical technologies to the Chinese market, invested $3 million in CoreBone's Chinese subsidiary; The Trendlines Group and Agriline (a trust of which Vincent Tchenguiz is a discretionary beneficiary) invested $700,000. The funds will be used for extending CoreBone's commercial global presence, primarily in China, which is the world's fastest growing market.

Corals grown in the south of Israel, in a closed, controlled aquatic (aquarium) system are used to produce bioactive bone graft material.

CoreBone develops and sells bioactive bone graft material for dental and orthopedic indications. It is the only company that uses cultured coral for bone grafting. Corals are grown on Moshav Ein Yahav in the south of Israel, in a closed, controlled aquatic (aquarium) system using proprietary technology and laboratory-made sea water enriched with bioactive nutrients and CoreBone's own coral breeding source. The coral has similar properties to human or animal bones and replaces the need for using animal or human bone for bone grafting. This eliminates the risk of disease transfer associated with these products. In China, the import of foreign human-derived bone grafts is banned  creating a tremendous growth opportunity for CoreBone's products.

Commenting on the investment, CoreBone CEO Ohad Schwartz said, "This investment in CoreBone will accelerate our sales efforts in China. CoreBone's graft material provides all the required bone formation qualities and more, without the limitations associated with animal or human sources. We are excited to bring this alternative technology to the bone graft market worldwide."

Prof. Shlomo Noy, GIBF's Managing Partner and Chief Medical Officer, said: "CoreBone's Chinese subsidiary started in the technological incubator that our group is managing in Guangzhou according to the principles of the renowned Israeli incubation system. The current subsequent investment by our fund is therefore another great example for our unique success in bringing Israeli companies to China, while protecting their IP and maintaining their own control and management over the Chinese subsidiary. During the incubation period, we had a chance to work closely with CoreBone's team and to make significant progress towards Chinese regulatory approval for its unique products. We are confident that CoreBone will be successful in fulfilling the great unmet medical need it is targeting, partly by our unique capability to perform clinical trials in China."

About Corebone

CoreBone has developed, and is distributing, bioactive, coral-based bone graft material that provides a natural alternative to synthetic or human and animal-derived (bovine, porcine) bone graft material for dental and orthopedic indications. CoreBone is a portfolio company of The Trendlines Group Ltd. (SGX: 42T) (OTCQX: TRNLY), with support from the Israel Innovation Authority.

Contact Information

Ohad Schwartz

+972.52.260.5252

[email protected]

https://core-bone.com/

SOURCE CoreBone
Purchase Empowers Bernhard to Continue its Leadership in the Energy-as-a-Service Market

NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- DIF Capital Partners ("DIF"), a leading global independent infrastructure investment fund manager, through its fund DIF Infrastructure VI, today announced an agreement to acquire Bernhard, LLC ("Bernhard") the largest privately-owned Energy-as-a-Service ("EaaS") solutions company in the United States, from an affiliate of Bernhard Capital Partners.

Bernhard has provided solutions to its customers' energy and infrastructure needs for more than 100 years and shifted its focus in 2014 to becoming a leading Energy-as-a-Service provider. As part of this business model, Bernhard enters into long-term turnkey EaaS concession contracts to upgrade, retrofit and service large existing building energy facilities in order to achieve substantial energy savings. Clients are currently predominantly higher education and healthcare institutions. To date, Bernhard has closed 15 EaaS transactions, including the largest EaaS concession in U.S. history. Senior management will retain a meaningful ownership position and continue its groundbreaking work leading Bernhard.

"Bernhard delivers distributed energy through its unique EaaS model which provides clients access to fully integrated and efficient energy solutions, thereby significantly reducing the carbon footprint of their buildings and utility systems. Bernhard's approach fits perfectly with DIF's Public-Private Partnership expertise and ambition to invest in clean energy infrastructure solutions around the globe," said Gijs Voskuyl, Partner and Head of Investments for DIF Infrastructure VI. "We are excited to partner with Bernhard's outstanding management team and support the company in their rapid growth at the forefront of the energy transition."

"As Bernhard continues pushing to new heights in the EaaS market, we are excited to join forces with DIF Capital Partners given its extensive experience with Public-Private Partnerships, district energy, Energy-as-a-Service projects, and a shared commitment to efficiency, ESG and sustainability," said Ed Tinsley, Bernhard CEO. "The support and strategic counsel from DIF will help to guide Bernhard through the next chapter of its story."

With DIF's acquisition of Bernhard, the company will continue the acceleration of its market leading core EaaS business to healthcare and higher education facilities while expanding those services to other markets and geographies.

"The future of Bernhard has never been brighter," said Tinsley. "Our track record proves we have the expertise and capabilities to push the industry to places it has never been before. With this announcement, we are truly at the forefront of a new era for energy solutions that will shape the world for generations to come."

About Bernhard

Bernhard, a portfolio company of Bernhard Capital Partners, is a leading Energy-as-a-Service company delivering turnkey projects and custom solutions in the United States with 100+ years of energy and infrastructure project experience servicing higher education, healthcare, commercial and specialty markets. Bernhard combines development, financing, design, construction and operations to deliver turnkey Energy-as-a-Service solutions that reduce energy use, risk and cost so that our clients can focus on their everyday work. Headquartered in Metairie, Louisiana, Bernhard has more than 2,000 employees in more than 20 office locations across the country. For more information, visit Bernhard.com.

About DIF Capital Partners

DIF Capital Partners is a leading global independent fund manager, with more than 9.0 billion in assets under management across nine closed-end infrastructure funds and several co-investment vehicles. DIF has invested in more than 100 Public-Private Partnership projects over the past 16 years in sectors such as healthcare, government, and education, where the provision of energy, management of energy systems and efficiency of outputs are often a key feature of projects. DIF Capital Partners invests in greenfield and operational infrastructure assets located primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia through two complementary strategies:

Traditional DIF funds, of which DIF Infrastructure Fund VI is the latest vintage, target equity investments with long-term contracted or regulated income streams including public-private partnerships, concessions, utilities, and (renewable) energy projects.

DIF CIF funds target equity investments in small to mid-sized economic infrastructure assets in the telecom, energy, and transportation sectors.

DIF Capital Partners has a team of over 170 professionals, based in ten offices located in Amsterdam (Schiphol), Frankfurt, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, New York, Paris, Santiago, Sydney, and Toronto. For more information please visit DIF.eu.

About Bernhard Capital Partners

Bernhard Capital Partners is a services and infrastructure-focused private equity management firm established in 2013. Bernhard Capital Partners has deployed capital in three funds across five strategies and has approximately $2.5 billion of gross assets under management and is ranked as one of Private Equity International's 300 largest private equity firms worldwide. Bernhard Capital Partners seeks to create sustainable value by leveraging its experience in acquiring, operating, and growing services and infrastructure businesses.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC served as Bernhard's financial advisor, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP provided legal counsel. Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc. served as financial advisor, White & Case LLP served as legal advisor, Black & Veatch Management Consulting served as technical advisor, RWDI served as energy advisor, Deloitte LLP (Canada) served as financial, accounting and tax advisor and Oliver Wyman as commercial advisor to DIF.

SOURCE Bernhard
CHICAGO, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The data center market in APAC is growing significantly, with multiple investments in Japan, Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Singapore. APAC region is among the fastest-growing digital markets worldwide. Internet usage and social media trends have increased the demand for faster internet networks and data centers to store data generated by them. Internet penetration is one of the strongest drivers for the APAC data center market. Moreover, social media usage among consumers and digital transformation by enterprises across industry verticals are other major factors promoting data center growth.

Observing these rapid and drastic changes in demand and supply patterns encouraged the industry analysts at Arizton to publish exhaustive and data-driven insights on these current trends in the industry. Arizton has a dedicated vertical that focuses on data centre knowledge base across geographies. These market research reports cover a detailed analysis of the COVID-19-induced supply chain disruptions, innovations in technology, equipment financing, economic impact, and a detailed study of the competitive landscape.

Japan Data Center Market - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

Japan data center market is projected to reach USD 10.22 billion in 2026, growing at a CAGR of 6.79% during the period 2020-2026.

Japan is a mature data center market in APAC and has a strong presence as a corporate hub and global financial center. Other than being economically forward, it is also a leader in technology, robotics, and machine learning. The country hosts around 22 third-part data center service providers operating over 93 facilities. Additionally, the country also includes several on-premise or dedicated data centers owned by local enterprises. Japan is one of the major connectivity hubs owing to its strategic location. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a strong market enabler for several digitization initiatives across Japan.

Key Highlights

The cloud market in Japan was valued at USD 10 billion in 2020, including private and public cloud, and is expected to be valued at around USD 15 -16 billion by 2023. The rise in cloud adoption is expected to propel the data center market demand in Japan .

was valued at in 2020, including private and public cloud, and is expected to be valued at around -16 billion by 2023. The rise in cloud adoption is expected to propel the data center market demand in . MC Digital Realty was the major contributor in terms of investment, with the development of two colocation facilities in 2020, followed by NEC and Colt Data Centre Service.

Tier III is the most adopted facility in Japan . Over 80% of recent data centers built between January 2020 and June 2021 are built according to Tier III standards.

. Over 80% of recent data centers built between and are built according to Tier III standards. As the price of SSDs is declining, the adoption of all-flash and hybrid arrays will grow with cloud data center deployments in Japan . Growing investments in start-ups such as FinTech and e-commerce using big data analytics and IoT applications are expected to increase the demand for all-flash storage.

. Growing investments in start-ups such as FinTech and e-commerce using big data analytics and IoT applications are expected to increase the demand for all-flash storage. Tokyo is currently the prime location for data center investment across Japan , with more than 35 data center facilities. MC Digital Realty, Colt Data Centre Services, Equinix & GIC, and KDDI were the major data center investors in Tokyo in 2020.

Read more now: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/japan-data-center-market-investment-analysis

Australia Data Center Market - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

Australia data center market is projected to reach USD 7,397 million in 2026, growing at a CAGR of 6.43% during the period 2020-2026.

Australia is among the mature data center markets in the APAC region. The data center market includes about 41 unique third-party data center service providers, operating about 112 facilities. Additionally, the country also includes several on-premises or dedicated data centers owned by local enterprises. Over the past 5-7 years, the market has grown significantly with an increase in the development of hyperscale data centers. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a strong market enabler for digital transformation initiatives across private as well as public sector enterprises in Australia.

Key Highlights

In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Australian cloud service market grew by over 15%, rendering around USD 10 billion in revenue.

in revenue. M&A activities continue in the Australia data center market. In April 2020 , Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) acquired 88% stake in AirTrunk ( USD 1.8 billion ).

data center market. In , Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) acquired 88% stake in AirTrunk ( ). Australia witnessed an investment of over USD 1.2 billion on data center facilities opened and under construction from January 2020 to June 2021 .

witnessed an investment of over on data center facilities opened and under construction from to . Sydney , home to major ICT companies and leading startup ecosystem in the country, is a pivotal city for data center investments in Australia . In 2020, Sydney was home to over 30 colocation data center facilities.

, home to major ICT companies and leading startup ecosystem in the country, is a pivotal city for data center investments in . In 2020, was home to over 30 colocation data center facilities. Renewable energy initiatives are being undertaken by colocation providers. For instance, in 2018, Equinix installed solar panels on the roofs of its Australian facilities. These solar panels are likely to power up to 10% power capacity of the facilities.

In 2020, around 70% of data center deployment fell under the Tier III category. Most new data centers are designed to be of Tier III standards with a minimum of N+1 redundancy and can be reconfigured with up to 2N+2 redundancy as the need arises.

Read more now: arizton.com/market-reports/australia-data-center-market-investment-analysis

Singapore Data Center Market - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

Singapore data center market is projected to reach USD 4.71 billion in 2026, growing at a CAGR of 8.16% during the period 2020-2026.

Singapore is among the mature data center markets in the Southeast Asia region. The data center market includes about 23 unique third-party data center service providers, operating over 38 facilities. Additionally, the country also has several on-premise or dedicated data centers owned by local enterprises. Over the past 24 years, the market has grown significantly with an increase in the development of hyperscale data centers. About 5 facilities have witnessed investments in the country, which are expected to be operational in the next 23 years. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a strong market enabler for digital transformation and initiated remote working amongst working population.

Key Highlights

AWS is building its first renewable power project in Singapore , a solar project with a series of solar panels mounted on a ground system, to generate over 60 MW of power and the project will be operational in 2022.

, a solar project with a series of solar panels mounted on a ground system, to generate over 60 MW of power and the project will be operational in 2022. In 2020, several telecom operators in Singapore deployed 5G, boosting edge data centers, especially in Tier II and Tier III cities with increased usage and demand.

deployed 5G, boosting edge data centers, especially in Tier II and Tier III cities with increased usage and demand. In 2020, Keppel Data Centres, ST Telemedia Global Data Centres, AirTrunk Operating, Digital Realty, Equinix, and Iron Mountain invested in the Singapore data center market.

data center market. The average rack power density in Singapore in 2020 was around 68 kW, with some data centers developed to support a rack power density of up to 20 kW.

in 2020 was around 68 kW, with some data centers developed to support a rack power density of up to 20 kW. Vertiv has identified that data center operators in Singapore , estimating 21% of their data center operations to be powered using solar and wind energy by 2025.

Read more now: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/singapore-data-center-market-size-analysis

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Arizton Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers innovative research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.

We offer comprehensive market research reports on industries such as consumer goods & retail technology, automotive and mobility, smart tech, healthcare, and life sciences, industrial machinery, chemicals, and materials, IT and media, logistics, and packaging. These reports contain detailed industry analysis, market size, share, growth drivers, and trend forecasts.

Arizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports.

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WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- An all-star cast comprised of former U.S. education officials and an Emmy award-winning creative artist have been brought together by Richard Collins, a pioneer in interactive learning and President of the Today Foundation, to launch The Story of America , a premier online learning tool for schools and parents concerned about declining American history and literacy standards. The Today Foundation is developing The Story of America curriculum in coordination with former Secretary of Education and NY Times Best Selling Author, William Bennett, Emmy award-winning animation artist and former Disney Animations Studios executive Dan Kuenster, and Kathleen Leos, a former Assistant Deputy Secretary and Director to the US Department of Education.

The curriculum is currently in development and is based on Secretary Bennett's best-selling history series, America: The Last Best Hope. The series was lauded by many historians, as well as liberal and conservative education experts. The curriculum will be released in the Fall of 2022. It will be a bilingual program offered in both English and Spanish.

"For too long, an anti-America ideology that radically misrepresents U.S. history has infiltrated our education system and misled our kids. The need for a program like this has never been greater. The Story of America will shine a light on our current educational crisis and share the history of our country with the next generation in a way that is truthful, engaging, and gives students the full, complex story of America, which is sadly no longer shared in many of our classrooms," said former Education Secretary William Bennett.

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, scores for reading comprehension and history have declined, showing the need for new tools to boost academic achievement. The Story of America is an interactive, easy-to-use online U.S. history curriculum for middle and high school students. The program, which satisfies U.S. History requirements, explores our nation's journey through time, while strengthening literacy.

The Today Foundation has a proven track record in creating engaging educational programs designed to help students achieve their academic goals. The Story of America is modeled after The Today Foundation's successful Texas History Awakens curriculum , an interactive online educational program focused on Texas history aligned to the state's Social Studies Standards. The curriculum is currently being used by thousands of students throughout Texas. The Today Foundation is now leveraging its success to bring this unique online educational experience into classrooms and homes throughout the country.

Educators who have used the Texas History Awakens curriculum in their classrooms had the following to say:

"I love it. I could see using this almost daily. Use it as a resource for our projects, and daily lessons and content learning. Utilize the content for our testing and teaching the TEKS. I think is an outstanding program and would love to use it more.  Steven Campbell, Denton ISD

"We have an online textbook, and this is MUCH better."  Angela Geiger, Coppell ISD

"I think it has been designed in easily, digestible chunks for students. The images and videos enhance the content."  Melissa Shaw, Region 10

"The Today Foundation's mission is to give the next generation the most innovative and engaging educational experience possible to allow them to take part in the America Dream. A truthful understanding of our nation's history, devoid of political activism, is an essential component of that education. The Story of America will provide educators, parents, and caregivers with an engaging online educational tool that strengthens literacy skills and teaches the real history of America," said The Today Foundation Founder Richard Collins. Collins is also the Founder of Istation, which currently serves over 4 million students in the United States and other countries with award winning E-Learning programs.

The Story of America team is comprised of experienced educators, authors, technology experts, and creative artists who have developed a universal approach to learning. In this approach, students are immersed in an engaging history curriculum powered by interactive educational technology that creates a multi-dimensional experience to integrate history and literacy skills.

A former Assistant Deputy Secretary and Director to the US Department of Education, Kathleen Leos has decades of educational experience, particularly around literacy. "Across our country, politics has replaced teaching at the expense of our children. Politicized classrooms have caused education standards to fall, leaving children without the proper core competencies in literacy and history. This curriculum explores our nation's journey through time, while also reinforcing literacy skills through critical reading and writing instruction using this innovative platform," Leos said.

Dan Kuenster, an Emmy award-winning artist and a former Disney Animation Studios executive, is creating The Story of America's multi-dimensional, interactive platform. "In order for any educational program to be successful, it must be engaging for the student. This has been our experience with Texas History Awakens and our creative team is excited to bring the story of America to life with this new interactive and innovative curriculum." Kuenster said.

Click here to watch The Story of America trailer.

For further information or to set up an interview, please send an email to

Victoria Kucharski: [email protected]

Josh Devin: [email protected]

John Hasson: [email protected]

SOURCE Today Foundation
AKRON, Ohio, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) today issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) to purchase Ohio-compliant Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) for its Ohio utilities  Ohio Edison, The Illuminating Company and Toledo Edison. The purchases will help meet the companies' 2021 renewable energy targets established under Ohio's alternative energy law.

RECs sought in this RFP must be eligible for compliance with the companies' 2021 renewable energy obligations, be sourced from generating facilities certified in accordance with rules and procedures put forth by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO), be deliverable through PJM Environmental Information System Generation Attribute Tracking System (EIS GATS), and generated between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2021. The companies plan to purchase 426,600 RECs, which can include solar renewable energy credits.

One REC represents the environmental attributes of one megawatt hour of generation from a PUCO-qualified renewable generating facility. The cost of the RECs is recovered from customers through the utility's standard service offer through a monthly charge filed quarterly with the PUCO.

No energy or capacity will be purchased under the RFP. The number of individual bidders is not limited. Participants in the RFP must meet and maintain specific credit and security qualifications and must be able to prove their REC generating facilities are certified or in the process of becoming certified by the PUCO.

The RFP is a competitive process managed by Guidehouse Inc. ("Guidehouse"), an independent evaluator and a global consulting firm with expertise in energy markets, renewables and competitive procurements. Based on the RFP results, the Ohio utilities will enter into agreement(s) with winning suppliers to purchase the necessary quantities of RECs.

FirstEnergy's Ohio utilities have a website, http://www.FEOhioRECRFP.com, to provide bidders with a central source of documents, data and other information for the RFP process.

On October 11, 2021, at 11:00 a.m. EPT, the FirstEnergy Ohio utilities and their consultant, Guidehouse, will conduct a webinar to outline the RFP process and the terms of the agreement, as well as to provide a forum to submit any questions. Questions also may be submitted during the RFP process directly through the RFP website.

To participate in the RFP, potential bidders are encouraged to submit credit applications by November 2, 2021, and proposals are due November 10, 2021, by 5 p.m. EPT.

The RFP Manager is Dan Bradley, Partner at Guidehouse. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].

FirstEnergy is dedicated to integrity, safety, reliability and operational excellence. Its 10 electric distribution companies form one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems, serving customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland and New York. The company's transmission subsidiaries operate more than 24,000 miles of transmission lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. Follow FirstEnergy on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp or online at www.firstenergycorp.com.

SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.

Related Links

http://www.firstenergycorp.com


TOLEDO, Ohio, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- During National Primary Care Week, Oct. 4-8, five Toledo doctors will be honored as "Best Physicians" for providing exemplary health care to their senior patients. Nidaa Khamousia, M.D., Jahangir Adir, M.D., Ann Marie Wolfe M.D., and Mary Baldwin M.D., The Toledo Clinic; and Reeshad Buhariwalla, Wood County Medical Associates; 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, 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 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 The Toledo Clinic
DUBLIN, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Clinical Oncology Next Generation Sequencing Market 2021-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global clinical oncology next generation sequencing market size is expected to reach USD 892.61 million by 2028 registering a CAGR of 14.70%

Technological advancements in next-generation sequencing coupled with high adoption of companion diagnostics and personalized medicine drive the global market growth.



In addition, a rise in the utility of next generation sequencing (NGS) for liquid biopsy is expected to increase revenue generation in the market. NGS is employed to sequence circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) for the analysis of liquid biopsy samples. This leads to efficient molecular profiling of tumors, which, in turn, facilitates real-time, non-invasive monitoring of tumors.



Moreover, a rise in market competitiveness, growth in oncology diagnostics spending, and increasing research activities to develop solutions that can potentially be used for clinical oncology drive market progression. For instance, in January 2021, Spectrum Solutions, LLC collaborated with the UCLA School of Dentistry on saliva-based NGS liquid biopsy research, which would be used for early diagnosis of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC).



North America dominated the global market in 2020 owing to multiple initiatives taken by various government bodies in the region to screen and prevent cancer, such as Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network, a flagship program by the CDC. Asia Pacific is projected to be the fastest-growing regional market over the forecast period owing to continuous reforms in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries in the region.



Key players in this market have undertaken strategic alliances to strengthen their market position. For example, in March 2020, Thermo Fisher Scientific signed an agreement with Janssen Biotech, Inc. for the development of CDx for tumor management. Under the agreement, Janssen Research & Development, LLC would validate multiple biomarkers to be used with Thermo Fisher's Oncomine Dx target test for identification of patients with NSCLC.



Clinical Oncology NGS Market Report Highlights

Targeted sequencing & resequencing accounted for the largest market share in 2020 owing to the high adoption of targeted gene panels for oncology diagnostics

Moreover, the discovery of novel cancer biomarkers further boosts the development of targeted sequencing oncology panels

Whole-Genome Sequencing (WGS) is projected to register the fastest growth rate from 2021 to 2028 as the technology offers a complete genomic survey of the tumor genome

This helps in the generation of a detailed map of indels, copy number changes, Single Nucleotide Variations (SNV), and complex structural rearrangements with a single assay

Companion diagnostics is projected to be the fastest-growing application segment from 2021 to 2028 owing to the high adoption and benefits offered by the technology

Therefore, major market participants focus on innovative R&D in companion diagnostics to gain approval for novel tests

For instance, in August 2020 , the FDA approved Guardant360 CDx assay; an NGS-based liquid biopsy CDx to identify Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) gene mutations in metastatic NSCLC

Market Dynamics

Market driver analysis

Decrease in costs for genetic sequencing

Advancements in the field of personalized medicine

Rise in competition amongst prominent market entities

Growing healthcare expenditure triggering development of effective PM diagnostic & therapeutic procedure for cancer

Rise in prevalence of cancer

Growing adoption of NGS over single gene testing

Market restraint analysis

Lack of computational efficiency for data management

Non-value based NGS reimbursement policy

Business environment analysis tools

Impact of COVID-19 on Market Growth

Next-Generation Sequencing Reimbursement Environment

Regulatory and Political Environment



Companies Mentioned

Illumina, Inc.

F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd

Agilent Technologies

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

Myriad Genetics, Inc.

Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI)

Qiagen NV

Perkin Elmer, Inc.

Pacific Bioscience, Inc.

Partek, Inc.

Foundation Medicine Inc.

Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd.

Paradigm Diagnostics, Inc

Caris Life Sciences

urofins Scientific S.E.

Perkin Elmer

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ekp97c

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



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Chris Taylor, President and CEO of Great Bear said, "Our systematic deep drilling of the LP Fault along 1.4 kilometres of strike length has successfully intersected the target geology with gold mineralization in all areas. These results establish significant continuity of both high-grade and bulk tonnage style gold over a broad area at depth, which remains open to extension in all directions . The LP Fault has no geological analogs in the Red Lake district, with the closest being the Hemlo gold deposit located near Marathon, Ontario."

Deep LP Fault Drilling

Seven new drill holes are representative of deeper LP Fault mineralization across a broad area of 1.4 kilometres of strike length between approximately 450 and 750 metres downhole depth. Deeper drilling will continue along an additional 2.6 kilometres of strike length during the ongoing Phase 2 program.

The same pattern of high-grade domains surrounded by lower grade envelopes are observed as had previously been drilled at shallower depths. Results are provided in Table 1 .

Highlights include:

These new drill holes are not infill drilling , and significantly extend gold mineralization to depth on their respective drill sections. Figure 1 , Figure 2 , Figure 3 and Figure 4 .

, and on their respective drill sections. , , and . New drill hole BR-385 intersected multiple high-grade gold domains , including 157.00 g/t gold over 1.20 metres from 696.45 to 697.65 metres downhole, within a broader interval of 41.76 g/t gold over 5.15 metres from 696.45 to 701.60 metres.

, including from 696.45 to 697.65 metres downhole, within a broader interval of from 696.45 to 701.60 metres. The total mineralized interval using the same calculation criteria applied to the shallow LP Fault zone since its discovery (i.e. composite intervals cannot include more than 3 metres assaying less than 0.10 g/t gold) is 6.90 g/t gold over 36.95 metres from 673.25 to 710.20 metres downhole.

using the same calculation criteria applied to the shallow LP Fault zone since its discovery (i.e. composite intervals cannot include more than 3 metres assaying less than 0.10 g/t gold) is from 673.25 to 710.20 metres downhole.

However, given the greater depths explored by these drill holes, a more relevant interval that excludes peripheral bulk tonnage style gold mineralization and may be more representative of any future potential underground development scenarios is 11.01 g/t gold over 22.85 metres from 678.75 to 701.60 metres downhole.

from 678.75 to 701.60 metres downhole. New drill hole BR-386 intersected 16.92 g/t gold over 4.90 metres from 525.00 to 529.90 metres downhole, within a broader interval of 2.21 g/t gold over 49.55 metres from 522.45 to 572.00 metres downhole.

from 525.00 to 529.90 metres downhole, within a broader interval of from 522.45 to 572.00 metres downhole. New drill hole BR-411 intersected 13.84 g/t gold over 3.15 metres from 459.15 to 462.30 metres downhole.

from 459.15 to 462.30 metres downhole. BR-411 is significant as it intersects high-grade gold below the "Gap" area of the LP Fault, and is over 500 metres above the deepest LP Fault intercept to-date in previously reported drill hole BR-260 ( March 29, 2021 ) which assayed 15.57 g/t gold over 3.05 metres from 942.20 to 945.25 metres downhole . More drilling is required to determine if both intercepts occur along a controlling plunge within the same high-grade gold domain.

) which assayed . More drilling is required to determine if both intercepts occur along a controlling plunge within the same high-grade gold domain. New drill hole BR-384 intersected multiple mineralized intervals including 50.50 g/t gold over 1.00 metre from 587.50 to 588.50 metres downhole, and 6.71 g/t gold over 6.30 metres from 687.50 to 693.80 metres downhole. The total mineralized interval was 3.97 g/t gold over 17.50 metres from 687.50 to 705.00 metres downhole.

Shallow Drill Results

Seventeen additional drill holes intersected the shallow LP Fault along 3.6 kilometres of strike length. Most of these targeted the bulk tonnage style envelope adjacent to higher-grade domains for resource delineation purposes. Maiden mineral resource estimate disclosure is planned for Q1 of 2022.

Highlights include:

Eastern LP Fault (Viggo area) drill hole BR-379 intersected 1.84 g/t gold over 28.05 metres from 101.35 to 129.40 metres downhole. This included high-grade intervals of 15.90 g/t gold over 1.00 metre from 101.35 to 102.35 metres downhole and 28.70 g/t gold over 0.50 metres from 123.50 to 124.00 metres downhole.

from 101.35 to 129.40 metres downhole. This included high-grade intervals of from 101.35 to 102.35 metres downhole and from 123.50 to 124.00 metres downhole. This drill hole is significant as it adds bulk tonnage style gold mineralization at shallow depths to this area. A steeply plunging area of stronger gold mineralization is currently being defined here (see news release of August 25, 2021 ).

). Drill holes characterizing additional shallow bulk tonnage style mineralization are summarized in Table 2 and include:

and include: BR-425 which intersected 1.09 g/t gold over 80.55 metres from 62.50 to 142.75 metres downhole,

from 62.50 to 142.75 metres downhole,

BR-441 which intersected 1.08 g/t gold over 30.25 metres from 13.00 to 43.25 metres downhole, and

from 13.00 to 43.25 metres downhole, and

BR-443 which intersected 0.55 g/t gold over 66.20 metres from 38.50 to 104.70 metres downhole.

An additional 16 shallow drill holes were collared outside the LP Fault zone and targeted areas up to 200 metres away from the zone which may be incorporated into any future mineral resource estimation or infrastructure development planning. All holes intersected anomalous to low-grade gold mineralization. The most significant intercepts were 0.52 g/t gold over 20.00 metres from 56.50 to 76.50 metres downhole in drill hole BR-435, and 0.55 g/t gold over 26.25 metres from 10.85 to 37.10 metres downhole in drill hole BR-444. Results from this drilling are included in a separate table on the Company's web site at www.greatbearresources.ca.

Ongoing Phase 2 LP Fault Expansion Drilling and Upcoming Reports

With the 42 new drill holes contained in this release, Great Bear has reported 446 LP Fault drill holes. Including in-progress drill holes, Great Bear has completed 300,000 metres of drilling at the Dixie property to-date.

Phase 1 drilling consisted of 440 LP Fault drill holes and was completed in July 2021 . The program was designed to support mineral resource estimation along approximately 4 kilometres of strike length to a depth of approximately 450 metres.

. The program was designed to support mineral resource estimation along approximately 4 kilometres of strike length to a depth of approximately 450 metres. Phase 2 drilling is designed to expand LP Fault gold mineralization between approximately 450 and 900 metres depth over approximately 4 kilometres of strike length.

Great Bear will continue Phase 2 expansion drilling with the goal of significantly expanding the drill confirmed extent of gold mineralization at the LP Fault by late 2022 .

the drill confirmed extent of gold mineralization at the LP Fault . Other Phase 2 drilling will include regional drilling of new targets, and mineral resource definition and expansion drilling of the Dixie Limb and Hinge zones. The Company is fully funded for this work.

In addition to regular releases detailing Phase 2 drill results, deliverables for 2022 are expected to include: 1) a maiden mineral resource estimate in accordance with NI 43-101 of the LP Fault zone Phase 1 drilling, 2) a Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") of the LP Fault zone, and 3) a mineral resource update which will include deeper drill results from the LP Fault, plus maiden mineral resource estimates for the Dixie Limb and Hinge zones. Further details will be provided as results continue to be received and processed.

Table 1: New deep LP Fault drill results along 1.4 kilometres of strike length.

Drill Hole

From (m) To (m) Width* (m) Gold (g/t) Section BR-411

34.50 41.30 6.80 0.30 21325

and 152.50 155.50 3.00 1.98



and 184.00 221.60 37.60 0.34



and 238.75 263.35 24.60 0.59



and 454.60 466.50 11.90 3.98



and including 459.15 462.30 3.15 13.84

BR-386

435.20 437.20 2.00 5.93 20875

and 502.75 516.00 13.25 1.46



and 522.45 572.00 49.55 2.21



including 525.00 529.90 4.90 16.92



and 648.30 651.15 2.85 3.13

BR-385

598.40 620.70 22.30 1.06 20800

and including 605.80 606.70 0.90 9.79



and 673.25 710.20 36.95 6.90



including 678.75 701.60 22.85 11.01



and including 696.45 701.60 5.15 41.76



and including 696.45 697.65 1.20 157.00



and including 700.60 701.60 1.00 25.00

BR-384

583.00 594.10 11.10 4.74 20750

including 587.50 588.50 1.00 50.50



and 602.00 637.00 35.00 0.33



and 653.35 716.00 62.65 1.42



including 687.50 705.00 17.50 3.97



and including 687.50 693.80 6.30 6.71



and including 702.55 705.00 2.45 6.42

BR-383

392.60 424.30 31.70 0.35 20750

including 418.80 420.10 1.30 4.26



and 509.45 526.00 16.55 1.47



including 509.45 510.35 0.90 14.30



and including 525.00 526.00 1.00 9.34

BR-280

675.00 685.20 10.20 0.34 20125

and 741.20 755.40 14.20 0.22





849.85 851.15 1.30 1.98

BR-419

603.00 644.60 41.60 0.59 20075

including 634.55 635.20 0.65 8.99



and 654.00 656.70 2.70 9.59



including 654.65 655.30 0.65 32.00

BR-430

538.85 557.75 18.90 1.49 19975

including 550.00 554.00 4.00 5.09



and 585.00 590.00 5.00 2.33



* Represents core length. True mineralization widths range between 65- 95% of reported intervals as they are determined by both structural

analyses obtained from oriented drill core data and orientations of individual high grade domains and bulk tonnage domains. Mineralized

domains vary in strike between 340 to 270 degrees and dip between 85 to 65 degrees to the north. All drillholes intersect both high grade and

bulk tonnage domains and often intersect multiple domains resulting in a range of true widths within the same drillhole.

Table 2: Shallow drill results along 3.6 kilometres of strike length targeting the bulk tonnage mineralized envelope that surrounds the high-grade gold domains.

Drill Hole

From (m) To (m) Width* (m) Gold (g/t) Section BR-424

278.15 286.00 7.85 0.58 22675

including 279.80 280.20 0.40 6.80

BR-442

31.00 32.00 1.00 6.89 22350

and 51.70 85.65 33.95 0.40

BR-443

38.50 104.70 66.20 0.55 22300

including 69.90 85.85 15.95 1.18

BR-421

385.50 456.85 71.35 0.68 22275

including 420.00 431.50 11.50 1.82



and including 422.30 425.55 3.25 3.36

BR-440

71.00 95.80 24.80 0.72 22225

including 82.30 91.30 9.00 1.50



and including 88.30 91.30 3.00 3.06

BR-422

60.00 61.10 1.10 7.12 22225

and 310.40 323.60 13.20 0.60

BR-423

199.90 222.30 22.40 0.54 22225 BR-441

12.25 55.40 43.15 0.86 22175

including 13.00 43.25 30.25 1.08



and including 22.00 33.00 11.00 2.22



and including 29.00 33.00 4.00 4.19

BR-412

119.20 121.10 1.90 3.65 21375

including 120.10 121.10 1.00 6.07

BR-417

49.00 82.95 33.95 0.31 21225 BR-433

53.60 88.00 34.40 0.34 21125

including 75.50 87.00 11.50 0.55



and 168.90 206.30 37.40 0.42



including 175.95 185.35 9.40 1.01

BR-432

51.10 76.00 24.90 0.34 21125

and 108.40 116.90 8.50 1.13

BR-431

25.05 75.00 49.95 0.33 21125

including 54.20 70.85 16.65 0.52

BR-425

62.20 142.75 80.55 1.09 20525

including 70.15 78.70 8.55 5.86

BR-323

154.80 163.00 8.20 0.31 20225



176.80 197.40 20.60 0.33



including 176.80 178.60 1.80 1.84

BR-378

172.50 182.00 9.50 0.46 18875

including 191.00 192.00 1.00 2.02

BR-379

83.20 86.20 3.00 0.73 18725

and 101.35 129.40 28.05 1.84



including 101.35 124.00 22.65 2.22



and including 101.35 111.30 9.95 2.92



including 101.35 102.35 1.00 15.90



and 123.50 124.00 0.50 28.70



* Represents core length. True mineralization widths range between 65- 95% of reported intervals as they are determined by both structural

analyses obtained from oriented drill core data and orientations of individual high grade domains and bulk tonnage domains. Mineralized

domains vary in strike between 340 to 270 degrees and dip between 85 to 65 degrees to the north. All drillholes intersect both high grade and

bulk tonnage domains and often intersect multiple domains resulting in a range of true widths within the same drillhole.

Figure 1: LP Fault long section showing only high-grade gold domain intercepts. Gold intercepts from the surrounding bulk tonnage style domains have been removed for clarity. New drill results inside of the high-grade domains are highlighted.

All LP Fault drill hole highlighted assays, plus drill collar locations and orientations can be downloaded at the Company's web site.

Drill collar location, azimuth and dip for drill holes targeting the LP Fault zone included in this release are provided in the table below (UTM zone 15N, NAD 83):

Drill Hole Easting Northing Elevation Length Dip Azimuth BR-280 457638 5634448 373 1053 -60 213 BR-323 457356 5634144 355 309 -44 203 BR-378 458589 5633576 360 350 -55 213 BR-379 458686 5633455 365 270 -55 212 BR-383 456650 5633873 358 594 -44 25 BR-384 456650 5633873 358 822 -55 27 BR-385 456564 5633897 359 756 -53 26 BR-386 456529 5633987 363 765 -57 28 BR-411 456221 5634368 365 501 -46 37 BR-412 456231 5634453 362 450 -47 37 BR-417 456423 5634421 359 234 -54 210 BR-419 457689 5634363 369 790 -59 207 BR-421 455733 5635325 377 570 -58 226 BR-422 455481 5635448 386 429 -58 225 BR-423 455430 5635385 386 381 -58 224 BR-424 455349 5635498 389 364 -56 224 BR-425 456908 5633934 357 300 -54 210 BR-430 457779 5634318 364 810 -60 207 BR-431 456467 5634343 359 207 -55 211 BR-432 456492 5634391 358 231 -56 214 BR-433 456517 5634430 358 282 -55 214 BR-440 455561 5635012 376 201 -61 227 BR-441 455635 5635011 376 273 -60 228 BR-442 455507 5635173 379 222 -56 228 BR-443 455549 5635146 378 261 -61 228

About the Dixie Project

The 100% owned flagship Dixie project boasts one of the largest recent gold discoveries in a Canadian mining jurisdiction. Proximal to major infrastructure near the town of Red Lake, Ontario, the Dixie property comprises over 91.4 square kilometres of contiguous claims that extend over 22 kilometres with a paved highway and provincial power and natural gas lines. The property also hosts a network of well-maintained logging roads which facilitate access.

The 23 high-grade domains discussed in this release are structurally and geologically distinctive from the surrounding lower grade, bulk tonnage style gold mineralization. Together, they span a strike length of 4.2 kilometres and occur within larger stratigraphically controlled lower grade domains. They are characterized by high degrees of strain and/or transposed quartz vein zones following two distinct structural fabrics and transition from upper greenschist to lower amphibolite facies metamorphism. Gold in the high-grade domains is generally observed as free gold, is often transposed into, and overgrows the dominant structural fabrics, and is higher-grade on average than the surrounding bulk tonnage gold zones.

To date, Great Bear has completed a total of 672 drill holes, identifying three high-grade gold discoveries. The most significant discovery is the large-scale "LP Fault" zone, which comprises high-grade disseminated gold mineralization within broad moderate-to-lower-grade envelopes in felsic volcanic and sediment units. LP Fault drilling has identified gold mineralization along 11 kilometres of strike length to date, and a detailed drill grid is being completed along approximately 4 kilometres of strike length. The nearby "Hinge" and "Limb" gold zones are more characteristic of the renowned Red Lake mined deposits, comprising gold-bearing quartz veins and silica-sulphide replacement zones hosted by mafic volcanic units. Over 80% of the Company's drill holes into the LP Fault, Dixie Limb and Hinge zones contain visible gold mineralization. Gold occurs mainly as free gold, neither bound to nor within sulphide minerals.

Great Bear adheres to industry-leading quality assurance / quality control (QA/QC) practices in data collection, analysis and disclosure, and detailed assays including all historical LP Fault drill hole data are available on the Company's website at https://greatbearresources.ca/projects/overview/dixie-project-data/.

About Great Bear

Great Bear Resources Ltd. is a Vancouver-based gold exploration company focused on advancing its 100% owned Dixie project in Northwestern Ontario, Canada. A significant exploration drill program is currently underway to define the mineralization within a large-scale, high-grade disseminated gold discovery made in 2019, the LP Fault. Additional exploration drilling is also in progress to expand and infill nearby high-grade gold zones, as well as to test new regional targets. The Company is currently in the process of compiling all historical data together with incoming assay results, with the goal of publishing an initial NI 43-101 compliant multi-million ounce mineral resource estimate for the Dixie project in early 2022.

Great Bear is a committed partner to all stakeholders, with a long-term vision of sustainable exploration to advance the Dixie project in a manner that demonstrates good stewardship of land, operational excellence and accountability.

QA/QC and Core Sampling Protocols

Drill core is logged and sampled in a secure core storage facility located in Red Lake Ontario. Core samples from the program are cut in half, using a diamond cutting saw, and are sent to Activation Laboratories in Ontario, an accredited mineral analysis laboratory, for analysis. All samples are analysed for gold using standard Fire Assay-AA techniques. Samples returning over 10.0 g/t gold are analysed utilizing standard Fire Assay-Gravimetric methods. Pulps from approximately 5% of the gold mineralized samples are submitted for check analysis to a second lab. Selected samples are also chosen for duplicate assay from the coarse reject of the original sample. Selected samples with visible gold are also analyzed with a standard 1 kg metallic screen fire assay. Certified gold reference standards, blanks and field duplicates are routinely inserted into the sample stream, as part of Great Bear's quality control/quality assurance program (QAQC). No QAQC issues were noted with the results reported herein.

Qualified Person and NI 43-101 Disclosure

Mr. R. Bob Singh, P.Geo, VP Exploration, and Ms. Andrea Diakow P.Geo, VP Projects for Great Bear are the Qualified Persons as defined by National Instrument 43-101 responsible for the accuracy of technical information contained in this news release.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Chris Taylor"

Chris Taylor, President and CEO

www.greatbearresources.ca

Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements

This release contains certain "forward looking statements" and certain "forward-looking information" as defined under applicable Canadian and U.S. securities laws. Forward-looking statements and information can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may", "will", "should", "expect", "intend", "estimate", "anticipate", "believe", "continue", "plans" or similar terminology. The forward-looking information contained herein is provided for the purpose of assisting readers in understanding management's current expectations and plans relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes.

Forward-looking information are based on management of the parties' reasonable assumptions, estimates, expectations, analyses and opinions, which are based on such management's experience and perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, and other factors that management believes are relevant and reasonable in the circumstances, but which may prove to be incorrect.

Such factors, among other things, include: impacts arising from the global disruption caused by the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak, business integration risks; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; fluctuations in spot and forward prices of gold or certain other commodities; change in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations pressures, cave-ins and flooding); discrepancies between actual and estimated metallurgical recoveries; inability to obtain adequate insurance to cover risks and hazards; the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities and indigenous populations; availability of increasing costs associated with mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development (including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses, permits and approvals from government authorities); and title to properties.

Great Bear undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information except as required by applicable law. Such forward-looking information represents management's best judgment based on information currently available. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed and actual future results may vary materially. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information.

SOURCE Great Bear Resources Ltd.

Related Links

https://greatbearresources.ca/


The Greek yogurt market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Nutritional benefits of Greek yogurt, the increasing usage of Greek yogurt for breakfast and snacking, and the increasing demand for gluten-free Greek yogurt will offer immense growth opportunities. However, the presence of stringent government regulations, negative environmental impact of the Greek yogurt manufacturing process, and the increasing popularity and lower prices of other categories of yogurt will challenge the growth of the market participants.

To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments. The nutritional benefits of Greek yogurt have been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. However, the presence of stringent government regulations might hamper market growth.

Greek Yogurt Market in Europe 2020-2024: Segmentation

Product

Plain And Low-fat Greek Yogurt



0% Fat Or Non-fat Greek Yogurt

Geography

France



Germany



UK



Rest Of Europe

To learn about market segmentation in detail, Download a Free Sample

Greek Yogurt Market in Europe 2020-2024: Scope

Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. The Greek yogurt market in Europe report covers the following areas:

This study identifies marketing initiatives adopted by the players in the market as one of the trends in the Greek yogurt market in Europe growth during the next few years.

Greek Yogurt Market in Europe 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of vendors operating in the Greek yogurt market in Europe, including Danone SA, Dodoni SA Agricultural Dairy Industry of Epirus, Emmi Group, Fage International SA, General Mills Inc., KOLIOS SA Greek Dairy, Kri-Kri Milk Industry SA, The Hain Celestial Group Inc., Unilever Group, and Unternehmensgruppe Theo Muller. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research report on the Greek yogurt market in Europe is designed to provide entry support, customer profile, and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Greek Yogurt Market in Europe 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

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growth during the next five years Estimation of the Greek yogurt market in Europe size and its contribution to the parent market

size and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the Greek yogurt market in Europe

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of the Greek yogurt market in Europe vendors

Related Reports on Consumer Staples Include:

Frozen Yogurt Market by Distribution Channel and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025

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Greek Yogurt Market In Europe Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2019 Forecast period 2020-2024 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 8% Market growth 2020-2024 $ 1.33 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 6.50 Regional analysis France, Germany, UK, and Rest of Europe Performing market contribution ROE at 31% Key consumer countries France and Germany Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Danone SA, Dodoni SA Agricultural Dairy Industry of Epirus, Emmi Group, Fage International SA, General Mills Inc., KOLIOS SA Greek Dairy, Kri-Kri Milk Industry SA, The Hain Celestial Group Inc., Unilever Group, and Unternehmensgruppe Theo Muller Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, market growth inducers and obstacles, fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and future consumer dynamics, and market condition analysis for the forecast period Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

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STOCKHOLM, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sandvik will publish its third quarter results on Monday, October 18, 2021 at approximately 11:30 PM CEST.

A combined webcast and conference call for investors, analysts and financial media will be held at 1:00 PM CEST.

The report will be presented in a webcast and conference call by Stefan Widing, President and CEO as well as by Tomas Eliasson, CFO.

The presentation will be broadcasted live on our website home.sandvik

Dial-in details for the conference call:

SE: +46 8 505 583 65

UK: +44 333 300 9271

US: +1 646 722 4904

From about 12:00 PM CEST presentation slides will be available on our website home.sandvik

For further information, contact Louise Tjeder, Vice President Investor Relations, phone: +46 70 782 6374 or Johannes Hellstrom, Press and Media Relations Manager, phone: +46 70 721 1008.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/sandvik/r/invitation---presentation-of-sandvik-s-report-of-the-third-quarter-2021,c3426515

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/208/3426515/1476661.pdf Invitation - presentation of Sandvikas report of the third quarter 2021

SOURCE Sandvik
PHOENIX, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Item 9 Labs Corp. (OTCQX: INLB) (the "Company"), a vertically integrated, cannabis dispensary franchisor and operator that produces premium, award-winning products, today announced that the Company has added a senior-level marketing executive and a mid-level marketing professional to its marketing team. Their focus is on managing and advancing the accelerated sales and brand momentum that the business is experiencing nationally across its cannabis dispensary franchise, Unity Rd., and high-quality cannabis brand, Item 9 Labs. The hires include:

Kristen Mathis , Vice President of Marketing: Mathis has 15 years of successful brand and sales-building experience, both corporate and agency, in a variety of consumer package goods (CPG) spaces. With deep expertise in direct-to-consumer, omni-channel marketing campaigns, she will lead the Company's marketing department, re-position strategic objectives and define the most impactful tactics to drive true incremental growth across the Company and its brands. Recently, Mathis served four years as Head of Brand, Marketing, Creative + Social for Dansons Portfolio, where she built her department from four to 28 employees, created affiliate marketing programs, launched paid and email marketing, and introduced a variety of social media strategies -- including partnerships with NASCAR and ESPN. Many of these campaigns were deemed highly profitable wins for the brands.





Mathis has 15 years of successful brand and sales-building experience, both corporate and agency, in a variety of consumer package goods (CPG) spaces. With deep expertise in direct-to-consumer, omni-channel marketing campaigns, she will lead the Company's marketing department, re-position strategic objectives and define the most impactful tactics to drive true incremental growth across the Company and its brands. Recently, Mathis served four years as Head of Brand, Marketing, Creative + Social for Dansons Portfolio, where she built her department from four to 28 employees, created affiliate marketing programs, launched paid and email marketing, and introduced a variety of social media strategies -- including partnerships with NASCAR and ESPN. Many of these campaigns were deemed highly profitable wins for the brands. Emily Gritti , Senior Manager, Trade Marketing & Events: Gritti brings a strong seven-year marketing track record in various CPG spaces in which she designed and successfully implemented digital merchandising, social media content, email marketing strategies, local events, street team & brand rep. management and more to build brand value and revenue growth. In her new role, she will be building holistic, best-in-class trade marketing programs to foster growth, retention, engagement and sales for the Company's dispensary and franchise partners. She will also be leading events, demonstrations and ground-level marketing strategy to further support top-line corporate priorities and growth objectives.





Gritti brings a strong seven-year marketing track record in various CPG spaces in which she designed and successfully implemented digital merchandising, social media content, email marketing strategies, local events, street team & brand rep. management and more to build brand value and revenue growth. In her new role, she will be building holistic, best-in-class trade marketing programs to foster growth, retention, engagement and sales for the Company's dispensary and franchise partners. She will also be leading events, demonstrations and ground-level marketing strategy to further support top-line corporate priorities and growth objectives. A brand marketing consultant with an impressive track record comprised of branding and marketing highly recognized national CPG and retail brands  including several years' experience building cannabis and celebrity-driven CBD brands, many from their conception and launch. This consultantwhose name is withheld due to competitive considerationswill provide cannabis-specific brand experience design strategy, innovation, direct-to-consumer and brand-family integration expertise to round out the new marketing team hires.

"We are moving swiftly on our growth initiatives and building up our marketing team with high-level talent, which is a top focus as we are solidifying our current position and plotting our entrance into new markets with our Unity Rd. and Item 9 Labs brands," said Item 9 Labs Corp.'s Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Bowden.

Item 9 Labs recently earned a Cannabis Cup win in Arizona, marking its 9th first place finish in a cannabis competition within the past three years. The Company recently secured a $19 million construction financing loan with Pelorus Equity Group for master site development of its Arizona cultivation and lab site as well as completion of its facility in Nevada. Currently, Unity Rd. has a franchise shop open in Boulder, Colorado as well as multiple agreements signed with more than 15 entrepreneurial groups who are developing the franchise in at least 8 states.

Bowden added, "Kristen and Emily have hit the ground running. Their enthusiasm and drive are infectious, infusing a new, synergistic energy throughout our organization as they work closely with sales, distribution, product management, packaging, operations, franchising and business development to boost our brands."

The Company's Director of Communications, Jayne Levy, was also promoted to Vice President of Communications. Levy spent nearly a decade working in franchise-focused communications where she executed public relations initiatives for 70-plus franchisors, spanning across 20 different industries and networks of one to 3,000-plus locations. She began working with the Unity Rd. team in December 2018 and upon acquisition of the franchise in March 2021 has taken a lead role in guiding internal and external communications across the Company. Additionally, Hannah Dahlgren was promoted to Senior Brand Manager and Veronica Paz Booth to Director of Education. Paz Booth is currently enrolled in the nation's first cannabis graduate program, Master of Science in Medical Cannabis Science and Therapeutics at The University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.

Item 9 Labs Corp. is currently seeking to add several director and management-level positions including Director of Licensing, Creative Design Manager, Field Marketing Manager and Digital Marketing Manager, among other roles. Click here to view current available positions.

About Item 9 Labs Corp.

Item 9 Labs Corp. (OTCQX: INLB) is a vertically integrated cannabis operator and dispensary franchisor delivering premium products from its large-scale cultivation and production facilities in the United States. The award-winning Item 9 Labs brand specializes in best-in-class products and user experience across several cannabis categories. The company also offers a unique dispensary franchise model through the national Unity Rd. retail brand. Easing barriers to entry, the franchise provides an opportunity for both new and existing dispensary owners to leverage the knowledge, resources, and ongoing support needed to thrive in their state compliantly and successfully. Item 9 Labs brings the best industry practices to markets nationwide through distinctive retail experience, cultivation capabilities, and product innovation. The veteran management team combines a diverse skill set with deep experience in the cannabis sector, franchising, and the capital markets to lead a new generation of public cannabis companies that provide transparency, consistency, and well-being. Headquartered in Arizona, the company is currently expanding its operations space by 650,000+ square feet on its 50-acre site, one of the largest properties in Arizona zoned to grow and cultivate flower. For additional information, visit item9labscorp.com.

Forward-Looking Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, risks and effects of legal and administrative proceedings and governmental regulation, especially in a foreign country, future financial and operational results, competition, general economic conditions, proposed transactions that are not legally binding obligations of the company and the ability to manage and continue growth. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual outcomes may vary materially from those indicated. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements we make in this news release include the introduction of new technology, market conditions and those set forth in reports or documents we file from time to time with the SEC. We undertake no obligation to revise or update such statements to reflect current events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Media Contact:

Item 9 Labs

Jayne Levy, VP of Communications

Email: [email protected]

Investor Contact:

Item 9 Labs

800-403-1140

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Item 9 Labs Corp.
Jackson Professional Tools, an American made and grown manufacturer, marks its 100-year anniversary at the PA plant. Tweet this

In celebration of the anniversary, a historical marker has been installed on the building, marking the location's significance in American manufacturing history. Jackson Professional Tools was established during the New Industrial Revolution in 1876 by Caleb Jackson, who, after recognizing the role the wheelbarrow would play as the nation grew, left his job at a farm machinery manufacturer to start his own wheelbarrow company in Harrisburg.

The original factory was located nearby at 4th Street and Boyd Alley until 1921 when Jackson expanded operations to the current location. Over the years, the plant adapted and grew to produce new tools that would equip building projects across the country. Today, the Harrisburg plant manufactures over two million tools and wheelbarrows each year and employs over 140 team members.

"Reflecting on our humble beginnings at this plant compared to where we are today reaffirms our responsibility and privilege for the next 100 years to continue manufacturing our tools on American soil," said Shutt.

Jackson Professional Tools will mark its 100-year anniversary with an employee appreciation event. The event will include a historical marker unveiling, door prizes, music and a cookout.

The AMES Companies has three additional manufacturing and distribution centers nearby in Carlisle, PA and Camp Hill, PA.

For more information, visit JacksonProfessional.com .

About Griffon Corporation

Griffon is a diversified management and holding company that conducts business through wholly-owned subsidiaries. Griffon oversees the operations of its subsidiaries, allocates resources among them and manages their capital structures. Griffon provides direction and assistance to its subsidiaries in connection with acquisition and growth opportunities as well as in connection with divestitures. In order to further diversify, Griffon also seeks out, evaluates and, when appropriate, will acquire additional businesses that offer potentially attractive returns on capital.

Griffon conducts its operations through three reportable segments:

Consumer and Professional Products ("CPP") conducts its operations through The AMES Companies, Inc. ("AMES"). Founded in 1774, AMES is the leading North American manufacturer and a global provider of branded consumer and professional tools and products for home storage and organization, landscaping, and enhancing outdoor lifestyles. CPP sells products globally through a portfolio of leading brands including True Temper, AMES, and ClosetMaid.

Home and Building Products conducts its operations through Clopay Corporation ("Clopay"). Founded in 1964, Clopay is the largest manufacturer and marketer of garage doors and rolling steel doors in North America . Residential and commercial sectional garage doors are sold through professional dealers and leading home center retail chains throughout North America under the brands Clopay, Ideal, and Holmes . Rolling steel door and grille products designed for commercial, industrial, institutional, and retail use are sold under the CornellCookson brand.

Defense Electronics conducts its operations through Telephonics Corporation, founded in 1933, a globally recognized leading provider of highly sophisticated intelligence, surveillance and communications solutions for defense, aerospace and commercial customers.

For more information on Griffon and its operating subsidiaries, please see the Company's website at www.griffon.com.

SOURCE Jackson Professional Tools

Related Links

https://www.jacksonprofessional.com/


Leading the way is a TV and digital ad featuring an energetic and vibrant 'Anthem' that seeks to get people back on their feet and moving again  as they start to socialise with confidence. The new Anthem is an infectious, feel good mash-up of famous songs all about walking that has been created to put a spring in people's step as they head back into the world once again. The mash-up includes samples of songs including Run DMC and Aerosmith's Walk this Way, Loretta Lynn's version of the iconic These Boots Are Made for Walking and Lou Reed's 1970s' classic Walk on the Wild Side.

Alongside the Anthem, Johnnie Walker will unveil epic city takeovers, projecting inspiring quotes from cultural trailblazers, over city skylines and cultural hotspots around the world. The quotes from the likes of Grace Jones, Mark Twain and Ayrton Senna will be seen across New York City, Mexico City, Cape Town, Tokyo and Bangkok amongst others.

For over two centuries Johnnie Walker has been committed to a spirit of progress and moving forward; with this new Keep Walking instalment the brand wants to help inspire people to take their own next step by reflecting the energy, words and thoughts of cultural icons and pioneers who share that spirit.

Julie Bramham, Johnnie Walker Global Brand Director, said: "Johnnie Walker has always been defiantly optimistic and a beacon of progress - that's what Keep Walking is all about.

"Keep Walking is two little words that say so much about positivity, possibility and resilience. After everything we've all been through in the past few years, we can't imagine a time in recent history when those sentiments could be more relevant."

The campaign will also see a series of local partnerships that will drive tangible actions that 'walk the walk'. In 20+ countries around the world change-makers and artists like DJ Alok (Brazil), CL (Korea) and Alfonso Herrera (Mexico) will join forces with Johnnie Walker to help reinvigorate social spaces like bars, clubs and venues as the world begins to reopen.

The campaign launch comes just weeks after Johnnie Walker opened the doors to its new landmark visitor attraction, Johnnie Walker Princes Street, in the heart of Edinburgh, Scotland, giving people a unique and immersive way to experience whisky and socialise together again in the brand's homeland.

It also follows $100m of investment from parent company Diageo over the past 18 months to help pubs and bars post-pandemic recovery, supporting jobs and communities around the world through their Raise The Bar programme.

1. IWSR 2020.

Assets:

Anthem YouTube: https://youtu.be/0TlpDQjqB1k

Anthem video: https://app.box.com/s/9hfavfdm30dnh9c4gb6ftnv7jxhelxju

More images: https://app.box.com/s/ct4xbr8uubbpwb9x0x3o07287wi2coxx

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1640916/Johnnie_Walker_Keep_Walking.jpg

SOURCE Johnnie Walker

Related Links

https://www.johnniewalker.com


TORONTO, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Khiron Life Sciences Corp. ("Khiron" or the "Company") (TSXV: KHRN) (OTCQX: KHRNF) (Frankfurt: A2JMZC), a vertically integrated cannabis leader with core operations in Latin America and Europe, is scheduled to participate in the following virtual investor conferences in October 2021:

A.G.P.' S VIRTUAL FALL CONSUMER CANNABIS CONFERENCE

Attending 1x1 Meetings: Tuesday, October 5th 2021

Moderator: Aaron Grey, Managing Director, Equity Research Consumer & Cannabis

LYTHAM PARTNERS FALL 2021 INVESTOR CONFERENCE

Khiron Presentation: Thursday, October 7th at 9:30 p.m. ET

Webcast: https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/2783/42914

Panel "Growing without Borders, an International Perspective":

Thursday, October 7th at 11:30 p.m. ET

Webcast: https://www.meetmax.com/sched/event_75709/conference_register.html?bank_access=0&event_id=75709&attendee_role_id=INVESTOR

MJBIZ CONFERENCE

Thursday, October 15th at 4:00 p.m ET

Panel Participation: The Latin American Cannabis Supply Chain: Do's, Don'ts and Industry Domination

BENZINGA CANNABIS CAPITAL CONFERENCE

Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City

Khiron Presentation: Friday, October 15 th at 3:45 p.m ET

at 3:45 p.m ET Virtual executive interview with Mr. Vicente Fox : Thursday, October 14 th & 15 th at 1:10 p.m ET

: & 15 at 1:10 p.m ET Panel: International Spotlight - Continued Cannabis Expansion in European Markets: Friday, October 15 th at 2:10 p.m ET

A.G.P's hosted events are intended for prospective and existing A.G.P's clients only. To listen to the live event, please contact you're A.G.P's representative with interest.

For more information about the Lytham Partners Conference or to schedule a 1-on-1 meeting with Khiron, please contact a Lytham Partners representative at [email protected] or register at www.lythampartners.com/fall2021invreg

Interested parties for the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference can register to attend here.

Members of the Khiron management will also be holding one-on-one investor meetings throughout the day. For more information about the conference or to schedule a 1-on-1 meeting with Khiron management, please call the company's investor relations team at 1-647-556-5750

Interested parties for the MJBizCon can register to attend here.

About Khiron Life Sciences Corp.

Khiron is a leading vertically integrated international medical cannabis company with core operations in Latin America and Europe. Leveraging wholly-owned medical health clinics and proprietary telemedicine platforms, Khiron combines a patient-oriented approach, physician education programs, scientific expertise, product innovation, and agricultural infrastructure to drive prescriptions and brand loyalty with patients worldwide. The Company has a sales presence in Colombia, Peru, Germany, UK, and Brazil and is positioned to commence sales in Mexico. The Company is led by Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Alvaro Torres, together with an experienced and diverse executive team and Board of Directors.

Visit Khiron online at investors.khiron.ca

Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/company/khiron-life-sciences-corp/

Cautionary Notes

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain certain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. All information contained herein that is not historical in nature may constitute forward-looking information. Khiron undertakes no obligation to comment on analyses, expectations or statements made by third-parties in respect of Khiron, its securities, or financial or operating results (as applicable). Although Khiron believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking statements in this press release are reasonable, such forward-looking statement 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 Khiron's control, including the risk factors discussed in Khiron's Annual Information Form which is available on Khiron's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. The forward-looking information contained in this press release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement and is made as of the date hereof. Khiron disclaims any intention and has no obligation or responsibility, except as required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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 press release.

SOURCE Khiron Life Sciences Corp.

Related Links

https://khiron.ca/


TORONTO, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Kontrol Technologies Corp. (NEO: KNR) (OTCQB: KNRLF) (FSE: 1K8) ("Kontrol" or the "Company"), a leader in smart building technologies, is pleased to announce the results of voting at its Annual General Meeting held Thursday, September 30, 2021.

Shareholders overwhelmingly voted in favour of all items put forward by the Board of Directors ("the Board") and Management. At the meeting, Mr. Joseph Ragusa was elected to the Board. Kontrol's Board now consists of Paul Ghezzi (CEO), Claudio Del Vasto (CFO), Andrew Bowerbank (Independent), Ernest Belyea (Independent), Joanna Osawe (Independent), Zhengquan Chen (Independent) and Joseph Ragusa (Independent).

As a founding partner and former Principal of Sussex Strategy Group ("Sussex"), Mr. Joseph Ragusa was involved in every facet of the business, taking the firm from being a start up to one of Canada's premier public affairs consulting firms. With over 30 years of experience in business, government, consulting, and politics, Mr. Ragusa has strength in assessing complex situations, devising plans to achieve outcomes, then leading the execution of those plans. Mr. Ragusa is an expert at identifying and working toward the right solutions, be they legislative, regulatory, policy, fiscal or political, to accomplish win-win scenarios for clients and government.

Shareholder also voted in favour of: (i) receiving and considering the comparative financial statements of the Company for the financial year ended December 31, 2020; (ii) setting the number of Directors at seven; (iii) electing Directors for the ensuing year as noted above; (iv) appointing MNP LLP, Chartered Professional Accountants as auditor of the Company; (v) approving the adoption of the Company's Stock Option Plan, as described in the Information Circular; and (vi) approving the adoption of the Company's Restricted Share Compensation Plan, as described in the Information Circular.

Company COO Transition

Mr. Kristian Lavereau will transition from the Company's Chief Operating Officer (COO) to Director of Smart Building Technologies. Mr. Lavereau will take on the important responsibility of product management and innovation for Kontrol's smart building technologies. In particular, he will focus on the growth of the SmartSuite and SmartSite building technologies which also has a direct relationship with the monetizing of carbon credits for customers.

"We thank our Board and welcome Mr. Joseph Ragusa as new independent board member," said Paul Ghezzi. "We would also like to thank Mr. Lavereau for his efforts as he continues as part of the Kontrol leadership team in the role of Director of smart building technologies."

About Kontrol Technologies Corp.

Kontrol Technologies Corp. (NEO:KNR) (OTCQB:KNRLF) (FSE:1K8) is a leader in smart buildings and cities through IoT, Cloud and SaaS technology. Kontrol provides a combination of software, hardware, and service solutions to its customers to improve energy management, air quality and continuous emission monitoring.

Additional information about Kontrol Technologies Corp. can be found on its website at www.kontrolcorp.com and by reviewing its profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com

Neither IIROC nor any stock exchange or other securities regulatory authority accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements contained herein that are not clearly historical in nature may constitute forward-looking information. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by words or phrases such as "may", "will", "expect", "likely", "should", "would", "plan", "anticipate", "intend", "potential", "proposed", "estimate", "believe" or the negative of these terms, or other similar words, expressions, and grammatical variations thereof, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" happen, or by discussions of strategy.

Where Kontrol expresses or implies an expectation or belief as to future events or results, such expectation or belief is based on assumptions made in good faith and believed to have a reasonable basis. Such assumptions include, without limitation, that sufficient capital will be available to the Company and that technology will be as effective as anticipated.

However, forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors, which could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed, projected, or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks include, but are not limited to, that sufficient capital and financing cannot be obtained on reasonable terms, or at all; that those technologies will not prove as effective as expected; those customers and potential customers will not be as accepting of the Company's product and service offering as expected; and government and regulatory factors impacting the energy conservation industry.

Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements and the forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained herein are made as at the date hereof and are based on the beliefs, estimates, expectations, and opinions of management on such date. Kontrol does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or revise any such forward-looking statements or any forward-looking statements contained in any other documents whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise or to explain any material difference between subsequent actual events and such forward-looking information, except as required under applicable securities law. Readers are cautioned to consider these and other factors, uncertainties, and potential events carefully and not to put undue reliance on forward-looking information.

SOURCE Kontrol Technologies Corp.

Related Links

https://kontrolcorp.com/


FREMONT, Neb., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Kubat HealthCare, a leading health care service provider, announces today the acquisition of Miller Pharmacy Specialties located at 322 E 22nd St, Fremont, Nebraska, 68025.

"We are excited to join forces with Miller Pharmacy Specialties," said Jim Rich, CEO of Kubat Healthcare, "With our established Kubat Healthcare locations serving Fremont and surrounding communities for the last 13 years, the addition of Miller Pharmacy Specialties will allow us to continue and expand healthcare service offerings within long-term care facilities. It's our mission to improve the well-being of our patients by providing exceptional access to care delivered with compassionate service."

Purchased by Mark Vogt in 2014, Miller Pharmacy Specialties, a Kubat HealthCare Partner, will continue to offer a full-service pharmacy 24/7 out of their same location in Fremont serving long-term care residents. Residents will still receive the same care they are receiving today with additional service offerings of respiratory, customized medication compounding, at home infusion services and home medical equipment. "I am excited to partner with Kubat HealthCare in providing residents and facilities with expanded services we can now offer," said pharmacist Jon Ciochan, PharmD, manager of Miller Pharmacy Specialties.

"Jon, Becky and the wonderful team from Miller Pharmacy Specialties are an amazing group of professionals and will add tremendous value to Kubat HealthCare," said Tony Schmid, Pharmacy Director of Kubat HealthCare, "providing pharmacy services to long-term care and assisted living facilities through Miller Pharmacy Specialties enhances our offering in the Fremont area."



For more information regarding Kubat HealthCare's services and a list of all their locations, visit their website at https://www.kubathealthcare.com.

Media Contact:

Dawn Wierzbicki

[email protected]

SOURCE Kubat Pharmacy

Related Links

kubathealthcare.com


MIAMI, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- LatinFinance has announced the winners of its 2021 Project & Infrastructure Finance Awards.

Every year, the Project & Infrastructure Finance Awards recognize the most impressive transactions and institutions in an area that is crucial to the economic progress of Latin America and the Caribbean. The winners are determined by LatinFinance's editorial staff based on an exhaustive selection process.

The full list of winners can be found in the Q3/Q4 2021 edition of LatinFinance magazine. For more information about the selection process, visit www.latinfinance.com/pifawards.

Winning transactions and institutions

Click a winning transaction or institution to read more about it.

Infrastructure Financing of the Year - Andes Autopista Del Norte

Infrastructure Financing of the Year - Brazil Eixo SP

Infrastructure Financing of the Year - Caribbean Enadom LNG

Infrastructure Financing of the Year - Central America CMI Energy's Green Financing

Infrastructure Financing of the Year - Latin America and Power Financing of the Year EnfraGen

Infrastructure Financing of the Year - Mexico Tierra Mojada Refinancing

Infrastructure Financing of the Year - Southern Cone Empresa de los Ferrocarriles del Estado (EFE)

Airport Financing of the Year Lima Airport Expansion

Digital Infrastructure/Telecoms Financing of the Year ATP Group's LatAm Bond Regional Debut

Mining Financing of the Year Mantoverde Copper Mine

Oil & Gas Financing of the Year Costa Azul LNG

Port Financing of the Year Salaverry Port

Road/Rail Financing of the Year Rumo

Renewable Energy Financing of the Year Huemul Renewables Portfolio

Water/Sanitation Financing of the Year Corsan Green Bond

Social Infrastructure Financing of the Year Project Condor

Local Currency Financing of the Year Puerto de Hierro

Bond of the Year Chile's Electricity Tariff Stabilization

Loan of the Year CCEE

Project Sponsor of the Year AES

Infrastructure Bank of the Year - Latin America, Infrastructure Bank of the Year - Mexico and Financial Advisor of the Year SMBC

Infrastructure Bank of the Year  Brazil Itau BBA

Infrastructure Bank of the Year - Central America & Caribbean Scotiabank

Infrastructure Bank of the Year - Andes Santander

Infrastructure Bank of the Year - Southern Cone Goldman Sachs

Infrastructure Law Firm of the Year - Mexico Ritch Mueller y Nicolau

Infrastructure Law Firm of the Year - Brazil Pinheiro Neto

Infrastructure Law Firm of the Year  Central America BLP

Infrastructure Law Firm of the Year - Andes PPU

Infrastructure Law Firm of the Year - Southern Cone Garrigues

Infrastructure Law Firm of the Year - Latin America Milbank

Upcoming award nominations

Nominations for the 2021 Deals of the Year Awards will be open October 417, 2021. Learn more at www.latinfinance.com/dealsoftheyear.

Sign up to be notified when information on LatinFinance's 2022 awards series is available at www.latinfinance.com/awardalerts.

About LatinFinance

LatinFinance is the leading global platform providing intelligence on the financial markets and economies of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Drawing on more than 30 years of editorial excellence, its English-language publications deliver high-value information to an international readership of companies, governments, financiers and investors, while its events convene those communities for high-level networking forums focused on the dynamics of those markets, by geography and sector.

Media contact: Richard Iurilli, [email protected]

SOURCE LatinFinance

Related Links

www.latinfinance.com


SOUTHFIELD, Mich., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Lear Corporation (NYSE: LEA), a global automotive technology leader in Seating and E-Systems, will hold a conference call to review the company's third quarter 2021 financial results and related matters on November 2, 2021, at 8:30 a.m. EDT.

To participate in the conference call:

Toll-free calls: 877-883-0383

International calls: 412-902-6506

The conference code is 4615282.

You also may listen to the live audio webcast of the call, in listen-only mode, on Lear's Investor Relations website at ir.lear.com. The webcast replay will be available two hours following the call.

Note: The third quarter 2021 slide presentation will be available on Lear's website before the earnings call begins on November 2, 2021.

SOURCE Lear Corporation

Related Links

http://www.lear.com


COURTLAND, Ala., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is breaking barriers in hypersonic technology, adding to its world-class portfolio another milestone with the grand opening of an advanced production facility in Courtland, Alabama, focused on hypersonic strike production. Capitalizing on critical digital factory capabilities to deliver this technology, the corporation is working closely with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to deliver new 21st-century warfare capabilities.

"Lockheed Martin has manufactured defense systems in Courtland since 1994, providing increasingly sophisticated capabilities to protect our nation, allies, and security partners," said Sarah Hiza, vice president and general manager of Strategic and Missile Defense Systems at Lockheed Martin Space. "Our long-time partnerships with Alabama, the Department of Defense, and academic researchers have paved the way to develop the most advanced hypersonic strike capabilities using the best-of-the-best digital technologies from across our enterprise."

Driving Advanced Production Through Digital Readiness

The facility represents Lockheed Martin's commitment to establishing northern Alabama as the base of the company's hypersonic strike programs. The 65,000-square-foot Hypersonic Missile Assembly Building 4 (MAB 4) is built on the digital foundation that Lockheed Martin has prioritized through mission-driven transformation efforts across the enterprise to meet customer needs with speed and agility while bolstering U.S. manufacturing capability.

The second Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) production facility onsite, this location integrates critical digital transformation advancements such as robotic thermal protection application capabilities, smart torque tools and mixed-reality capabilities for training and virtual inspections. The machines in this facility also will connect to the company's Intelligent Factory Framework early next year, which digitally links production facilities and assets across the Lockheed Martin enterprise to help enable unprecedented insights into the health, status and optimization of operations.

The Courtland site houses one of four transformational manufacturing facilities Lockheed Martin is opening in the United States within one year.

Delivering Hypersonic Strike Production

Lockheed Martin continues to make significant investments in the development and manufacturing of hypersonic systems to counter rapidly emerging threats from near-peer adversaries. The programs produced at this site support several U.S. military branches and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, including CPS, Long Range Hypersonic Weapon and the Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon.

"Hypersonic strike capabilities are critical to combat evolving threats, giving our warfighters the tools they need to complete complex missions," said Jay Pitman, vice president of Air Dominance and Strike Weapons at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "The talented teams who work at these new advanced strike production facilities are delivering essential missile and hypersonic vehicle technologies in support of the U.S. National Defense Strategy."

Developing the Northern Alabama Workforce

Lockheed Martin has had a presence in northern Alabama for over five decades. Within the last two years, Lockheed Martin has added a total of 117,000 square feet at the Courtland facility. The opening of MAB4 will bring an estimated 70 jobs to the area, adding to the approximately 2,600 employees already based in the state.

To support continued growth, Lockheed Martin is committed to developing a strong talent pipeline through initiatives like the Lockheed Martin-created AMTAP program, a training program that allows participants to develop manufacturing skills in electronic, mechanical, electromechanical and optical areas. Additionally, the company has actively engaged with the Aerospace States Association Alabama Chapter to host engagement opportunities with students and small businesses.

In 2020, the company donated more than $300,000 to Alabama charities, provided nearly 15,000 PPE items to frontline workers and delivered hundreds of meals to healthcare workers.

About Lockheed Martin

Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin Corporation is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 114,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.

Please follow @LMNews on Twitter for the latest announcements and news across the corporation.

SOURCE Lockheed Martin

Related Links

http://www.lockheedmartin.com


SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Mary Alexander & Associates filed a clergy abuse lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court alleging that a Catholic priest sexually molested, assaulted, and abused a then six-year-old girl for a span of roughly four-and-a-half years.

The alleged abuse of Jane Doe (the name used to protect her identity) began in 1981 and ended in 1986 when she entered puberty. In her lawsuit, Jane Doe alleged that she had been "groomed" by the priest, whom she trusted as an authority figure of the church, and that the priest then sexually abused and assaulted her.

The priest had been previously convicted of sex crimes. In spite of this priest's obviously criminal and predatory past, he was assigned to be a pastor of St. Anthony Parish in San Jose in the early 1980's. He served as a clergy member in several Catholic churches over the course of his career until he was publicly accused in 2002 of sexually assaulting several other children. He passed away in 2005.

The case is Jane Doe v. Doe 1, San Francisco Superior Court, Case No. CGC-20-586529.

This case is now part of a larger group of sexual abuse cases filed against religious entities in Northern California that have been consolidated and are being heard in Alameda County Superior Court.

About Mary Alexander & Associates

Mary Alexander & Associates has been successfully fighting for its clients for years. Our attorneys have handled various child sexual abuse and clergy abuse cases, winning millions in verdicts and settlements for our clients. These include a $3 million result in a clergy abuse case.

To learn more, go to https://maryalexanderlaw.com/san-francisco-clergy-abuse-attorney/. If you are a survivor of abuse or know of one, please contact our law firm at 415-433-4440 and let us be of service.

SOURCE Mary Alexander & Associates
DALLAS, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Dallas brand response agency Media Culture joins the MAGNET Global Network (www.MAGNETGlobal.org), the Marketing & Advertising Global Network of leading independent advertising agencies. With this partnership, Media Culture joins more than 40 agencies with $300 million USD in revenue from offices in major U.S. and international markets such as Hong Kong, London, Melbourne, Moscow, Copenhagen, Buenos Aires, Seoul, and Tokyo.

"For more than 25 years, our agency has been at the forefront of change in the direct response industry," said Christena Garduno, Media Culture's CEO. "As technology and media consumption has evolved, so have we  growing from a singularly focused direct response agency to the global, multi-channel brand response agency we are today," said Garduno. "Becoming part of the MAGNET Global family was a no-brainer. We are confident that our partnership will enable us to better serve our clients and allow us to share our expertise with like-minded agencies on a global scale."

As a MAGNET member, Media Culture gains a global network of CEOs and Principals, resources, and the opportunity to work with various clients across markets, languages, and cultures. And, much like the other agencies in the network, Media Culture will collaborate with MAGNET by sharing trends that impact the direct response industry as well as insight on what continues to drive the agency's success for more than 25 years.

"We are beyond delighted to welcome Christena and Media Culture into our MAGNET family of innovators, business owners, and creative thought partners," said Melissa Lentz, MAGNET GLOBAL's CEO. "The collective instincts, generosity, and smarts of our agency principals is the lifeblood of the network. Christena and Media Culture possess that wonderful combination of traits in abundance."

Media Culture, which underwent a rebrand earlier this year, continues to make an impact in the brand response industry and is working diligently to scale its efforts internationally.

"We couldn't be more excited about this next chapter in our company's history and would like to thank our current and former employees, clients, and partners for their support," said Garduno. "Throughout our history, we've prided ourselves on upholding our values of trust, transparency, and tenacity, and with MAGNET by our side, we'll continue to build on that foundation."

About MAGNET Global Network

Providing global experts and local expertise, MAGNET's independent marketing and communications agencies work with more than 800 consumers, retail, business-to-business and industrial clients worldwide. Members share experience, knowledge, and ideas with partner agencies domestically and internationally, collaborating on business opportunities and enhancing their ability to compete, serve clients, grow their businesses, and raise the standard of work in the advertising agency industry. Members must maintain a level of commitment to the Network, and new independent agencies are carefully screened before membership is granted. MAGNET is always seeking to add leading independent agencies throughout the world. For more information, visit www.MAGNETGlobal.org or contact Melissa Lentz, CEO, at [email protected].

About Media Culture

Media Culture is a global, multi-platform brand response agency that delivers nimble, bespoke omnichannel media campaigns to generate qualified leads and drive sales. Advertisers turn to Media Culture for a one-stop solution to omnichannel performance marketing, including creative and strategy, media planning and buying, and campaign analytics and optimization services for all forms of response-driven media  including linear and streaming video and audio, paid search, paid social, programmatic, OOH, and print. The agency generates exceptional results for a wide range of products and services across various industries - such as financial services, automotive, online dating, and more.

SOURCE Media Culture

Related Links

www.mediaculture.com


LANSING, Mich., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Michigan Chamber of Commerce today announced its strong support of bipartisan legislation to improve safety and ensure fairness in Michigan's growing cannabis industry.

The Michigan Cannabis Safety Act (House Bills 5300-5302) will help Michigan become a national leader in cannabis safety and testing by requiring cannabis growers be licensed and require testing, tracking and labeling of cannabis products to promote safety.

"Michigan voters changed the landscape when they chose to legalize both recreational and medical cannabis," said Rich Studley, President and CEO for the Michigan Chamber. "Now, as the industry matures in Michigan, policy makers should focus on ensuring Michigan is a national leader when it comes to cannabis safety and innovation."

"The Michigan Cannabis Safety Act will help bring the huge illicit market into the regulated system to ensure all cannabis products sold in Michigan are safe, tested, labeled and taxed," said Wendy Block, Vice President of Business Advocacy and Member Engagement for the Michigan Chamber. "Michigan's cannabis industry is currently at a crossroads and now is the time to ensure all cannabis providers follow the same rules and standards like testing, tracking and licensing to promote safety, fairness and a level playing field."

The Michigan Cannabis Safety Act creates a new Specialty Medical Grower license for Unlicensed Marijuana Growers, frequently referred to as caregivers. Right now, caregivers are not required to test, track or label patient product and cannot sell their extra marijuana. The bipartisan legislation would still allow unlicensed growers to grow for themselves and one patient without a license.

"All cannabis products should be rigorously tested to ensure product quality and safety and the Michigan Cannabis Safety Act makes that a top priority," continued Block.

"We urge the Legislature to enact this bipartisan legislation without delay," concluded Block. "There's no better time than the present to improve the safety of Michigan's cannabis industry so we can unleash the potential of cannabis to create jobs, investment and opportunities."

SOURCE Michigan Chamber of Commerce

Related Links

http://www.michamber.com


"We see a huge potential of the Indian market and remain committed to establishing ourselves as one of the top lifestyle brands in this dynamic country," said Li Lin, General Manager of MINISO India.

"Our expansion has been possible due to our swift action in response to the pandemic and our approach of combining offline and online retailing that has given our partners confidence in the MINISO brand in India. Despite the price of imported products in India increasing, we have managed to avoid price fluctuation by optimizing our online channels and expand our procurement and product lines. Following these changes, we look forward to continuing to surprise and delight our customers in our new stores."

Responding to the Pandemic: A New Model of Combining Offline and Online

Since 2020, MINISO has quickly adjusted its operation strategy to limit the impact of mandatory physical store closures. Utilizing its social media accounts to conduct weekly live broadcasts and communicate with its over 300,000 followers on social networks, MINISO has maintained strong connections with customers and communities via its eCommerce platform and online communities.

Through conversations with MINISO fans and in response to their changing needs, MINISO also updated its products categories and procurement plans. For example, it has expanded its furniture and home fitness range, such as yoga mats.

The company also increased its local sourcing activities to ensure stable supply chains and competitive pricing. It moved to reduce the number of products whose prices deemed to exceed MINISO's pricing guidelines for this special period.

MINISO's proactive actions on channels and products adjustment reflect its position as an international brand with a global supply chain. By acting swiftly, MINISO has survived the pandemic, minimized the impact and continued its expansion with more than 20 new stores opening in India since the beginning of 2020.

About MINISO Group

MINISO is a lifestyle product retailer, offering high-quality household goods, cosmetics, food, and toys at affordable prices. Since its first store opened in Guangzhou in 2013, MINISO has opened more than 4,587 stores in over 95 countries and regions. With a focus on sleek design and fun trends, its mission is to enable everyone to enjoy life's little surprises.

For more information, please visit

https://www.instagram.com/miniso.official/

www.miniso.com

SOURCE Miniso Group
SHENZHEN, China, and TORTOLA, British Virgin Islands, October 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Nam Tai Property Inc. ("Nam Tai" or the "Company") (NYSE Symbol: NTP) is to provide an update on its appeal before the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal in the British Virgin Islands (the "Court of Appeal") against the judgment issued by the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court in the High Court of Justice in the British Virgin Islands on March 3, 2021 in relation to the litigation filed by IsZo Capital LP against the Company together with Greater Sail Limited and West Ridge Investment Company Limited.

On October 4, 2021, the Court of Appeal handed down a judgment holding that, among other things, the private placement previously announced by the Company on October 5, 2020 was ineffective and void, and the Court of Appeal dismissed the Company's appeal except to the extent that the appeal against the conclusion that the Company's directors acted in breach of section 120(1) of the BVI Business Companies Act 2004 is allowed. Further, the Court of Appeal ordered that the Company shall convene a special meeting of shareholders regarding the election of directors on November 30, 2021.

"The Company is extremely disappointed with today's ruling. Upon receipt of the written Judgment from the Court of Appeal, the Company will make decisions as to whether to exercise its right to appeal the Court of Appeal's decision and seek a stay until the appeal is decided. The Company will keep its shareholders informed from time to time when appropriate."

Forward-looking Statement and Factors that Could Cause our Share Price to Decline

Certain statements included in this announcement, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may", "might", "can", "could", "will", "would", "anticipate", "believe", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "forecast", "intend", "plan", "seek", or "timetable". These forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, may include projections of our future financial performance based on our growth strategies and anticipated trends in our business and the industry in which we operate. These statements are only predictions based on our current expectations about future events. There are several factors, many beyond our control, which could cause results to differ materially from our expectation. These risk factors are described in our Annual Report on Form 20-F and in our Current Reports filed on Form 6-K from time to time and are incorporated herein by reference. Any of these factors could, by itself, or together with one or more other factors, adversely affect our business, results of operations or financial condition. There may also be other factors currently unknown to us, or have not been described by us, that could cause our results to differ from our expectations. Although we believe the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. These forward-looking statements apply only as of the date of this announcement; as such, they should not be unduly relied upon as circumstances change. Except as required by law, we are not obligated, and we undertake no obligation, to release publicly any revisions to these forward-looking statements that might reflect events or circumstance occurring after the date of this announcement or those that might reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

ABOUT NAM TAI PROPERTY INC.

We are a real estate developer and operator, mainly conducting business in Mainland China. Our main land resources are located in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area ("Greater Bay Area") and Wuxi, China, of which the three plots in Shenzhen will be developed into Nam Tai Inno Park, Nam Tai Technology Center and Nam Tai Inno Valley. We plan to build these technology parks into landmark parks in the region and provide high-quality industrial offices, industrial service spaces and supporting dormitories to the tenants. Based on the experience of developing and operating technology parks and an industrial relationship network accumulated over the past 40 years, we have also exported the operation model of technology parks to other industrial properties. Through an asset-light model, we have leased industrial properties for repositioning and business invitation. We will also expand the commercial and residential property business in China as an auxiliary development strategy of the Company. As the growth prospects of China maintain, we shall seize development opportunities in the Greater Bay Area and other first- and second-tier cities in China, and continue to strengthen and expand the business of industrial real estate, and commercial and residential properties. Nam Tai Property Inc. is a corporation registered in the British Virgin Islands and listed on the New York Stock Exchange (Symbol: "NTP"). Please refer to our corporate website (https://www.namtai.com/) or the SEC website (www.sec.gov) for our press releases and financial statements.

Contacts

Media and Investor Relations Department

Nam Tai Property Inc.

E-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE Nam Tai Property Inc.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Media accreditation is open for the upcoming launch of NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, an evaluation of technologies for preventing a hazardous asteroid from striking Earth.

DART is targeted to launch at 10:20 p.m. PST, Nov. 23, 2021, (1:20 a.m. EST, Nov. 24), aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Live coverage of the launch will air on NASA TV, the NASA app, and the agency's website.

DART will be the first demonstration of the kinetic impactor technique, which involves sending one or more large, high-speed spacecraft into the path of an asteroid in space to change its motion. Its target is the binary near-Earth asteroid Didymos and its moonlet.

Credentialing deadlines are as follows:

International media residing in the U.S. must apply by Friday, Oct. 8, 2021 .

. U.S. media must apply by Sunday, Oct. 15, 2021 .

NASA's media accreditation policy is available online. Requests must be submitted online at:

https://media.ksc.nasa.gov

NASA's COVID-19 policies are updated as necessary and to remain consistent with guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and White House Safer Federal Workforce Taskforce. COVID-19 safety protocols for this event will be communicated closer to the date of the event. The agency also will communicate any updates that may impact mission planning or media access as necessary.

DART is directed by NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office to the Applied Physics Laboratory with support from several NASA centers: the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, Johnson Space Center in Houston, Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, and Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The launch is managed by NASA's Launch Services Program, based at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

To learn more about the DART mission, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/dart

Para obtener informacion sobre cobertura en espanol en el Centro Espacial Kennedy o si desea solicitar entrevistas en espanol, comuniquese con Antonia Jaramillo 321-501-8425.

SOURCE NASA

Related Links

http://www.nasa.gov


PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) will conduct a three-day, live virtual congress October 14-16, 2021 addressing the latest in therapeutic advances, updates to the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines), and treatment debates across the broad spectrum of blood cancers. Incorporating interactive polling and moderator-facilitated Q&A sessions, the NCCN Virtual Congress: Hematologic Malignancies is designed to meet the needs of the full interprofessional care team, including physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, physician assistants, pharmacists, and other health care professionals who manage the care of patients with hematologic malignancies.

Additionally, NCCN will host the NCCN Virtual Nursing Forum: Advancing Oncology Nursing in Hematologic Malignancies, on Friday, October 8, 2021 to provide nurses with comprehensive and clinically relevant information to optimize care for patients with blood cancers.

"In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this year's congress will again be presented in a virtual format through both live and on-demand webcasts," said Andrew D. Zelenetz, MD, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and congress co-chair. "While we prefer face-to-face interactions, we are gratified that we can still deliver a valuable interactive experience that helps maintain the high quality of patient care across the countryand the globe."

"The NCCN Annual Congress for hematologic malignancies provides a platform for leading experts to share and debate the latest evidence and practice recommendations for patient management," said event co-chair Ranjana H. Advani, MD, Stanford Cancer Institute. "Our hope is that clinicians who attend will be better equipped to put novel therapies and treatment guidelines into practice."

Interactive Virtual Conference

The NCCN 2021 Virtual Congress: Hematologic Malignancies will focus on the current standards of hematologic oncology care as well as key updates to the NCCN Guidelines. Presentations will include treatment updates and patient case studies on:

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia/Small Lymphocytic Lymphoma

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma

Follicular Lymphoma

Histiocytic Neoplasms

Hodgkin Lymphoma

Mantle Cell Lymphoma

Marginal Zone Lymphomas

Monoclonal Gammopathy of Clinical Significance

Multiple Myeloma

Myeloproliferative Neoplasms

Non-Hodgkin Lymphomas

Plasma Cell Neoplasms

Peripheral T-Cell Lymphomas

Systemic Light Chain Amyloidosis

Waldenstrom Macroglobulinemia

The congress' virtual format will offer opportunities for participants to engage with faculty in real time, to visit an online exhibition hall, and to network with colleagues in breakout rooms. For 60 days following the event, registrants will also be able to access all of the recorded presentations, allowing time to review sessions they may have missed or revisit sessions important to their practice. NCCN expects more than 500 healthcare professionals to participate.

"We are gratified by the broad range of oncology professionals who attend this congress," said Robert W. Carlson, MD, Chief Executive Officer, NCCN. "Last year, attendance was 29% physicians, 30% nurses, 11% pharmacists, and 30% other healthcare professionals; 69% of the respondents to our survey reported that they work as part of an interprofessional health care team. This mix makes for dynamic practice discussions based on multiple informed perspectives that are critical to improving patient outcomes."

Join the conversation online with the hashtag #NCCNhem21.

About the National Comprehensive Cancer Network

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) is a not-for-profit alliance of leading cancer centers devoted to patient care, research, and education. NCCN is dedicated to improving and facilitating quality, effective, efficient, and accessible cancer care so patients can live better lives. The NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines) provide transparent, evidence-based, expert consensus recommendations for cancer treatment, prevention, and supportive services; they are the recognized standard for clinical direction and policy in cancer management and the most thorough and frequently-updated clinical practice guidelines available in any area of medicine. The NCCN Guidelines for Patients provide expert cancer treatment information to inform and empower patients and caregivers, through support from the NCCN Foundation. NCCN also advances continuing education, global initiatives, policy, and research collaboration and publication in oncology. Visit NCCN.org for more information and follow NCCN on Facebook @NCCNorg, Instagram @NCCNorg, and Twitter @NCCN.

Media Contact:

Rachel Darwin

267-622-6624

[email protected]

SOURCE National Comprehensive Cancer Network

Related Links

www.nccn.org


NEW YORK, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- False information online has left one in five girls (20%) feeling physically unsafe, according to The Truth Gap, a new report by Plan International.

The research includes a landmark survey of more than 26,000 girls and young women from 26 countries, which also found that exposure to lies and mistruths are having a profound impact on how they engage with issues ranging from COVID-19 to politics. Plan International USA is urging the Biden administration to ensure online freedom and protection from violence for girls by committing to convene a National Task Force on Online Harassment and Abuse to tackle this crisis, because girls have the right to be online AND safe.

Please join us and sign the girls' petition to rally support for  and ensure they are represented on  this critical issue.

"Being online opens up opportunities for girls to learn and connect, but being online is intrinsically dangerous for us as misinformation/disinformation continues to add back more barriers," said Rohini, age 18, a co-author of the petition and a Plan Youth Advisory Board member.

In the first large-scale global study to examine the gendered impact of misinformation and disinformation online, 86% of girls and young women think it has had a negative impact on their lives.

One in three girls report that false information is affecting their mental health, leaving them feeling stressed, worried and anxious.

More than a quarter (28%) of those surveyed have been led to believe a myth or "fake fact" about COVID-19, and one in four (25%) have questioned whether to get vaccinated against the virus.

One in five (19%) say mistruths have led them to distrust election results, while 18% have stopped engaging in politics or current affairs all together as a result.

"The internet shapes girls' opinions about themselves and the issues they care about. Our research makes clear that the spread of false information online is dangerous. It affects girls' mental health and it's yet another obstacle holding them back from engaging in public life," said Shanna Marzilli, Interim CEO of Plan International USA.

The survey found that Facebook was the social media platform that girls believe to have the most misinformation and disinformation, selected by 65% of respondents, followed by TikTok, WhatsApp and YouTube  all at 27%.

According to the Biden campaign, the national task force will be charged with developing cutting-edge strategies and recommendations for how federal and state governments, social media companies, schools and other public and private entities can get to the root of online harassment and abuse.

Sign the girls' petition now!

NOTES TO EDITORS

Research for The Truth Gap  how information and disinformation online affect the lives, learning and leadership of girls and young women  was carried out in 33 countries. This includes a survey of over 26,000 girls and young women aged 15 to 24 in 26 countries, conducted by Ipsos and GeoPoll on behalf of Plan International between February 5 to March 19, 2021 , and an additional series of 22 in-depth interviews across 18 countries.

was carried out in 33 countries. This includes a survey of over 26,000 girls and young women aged 15 to 24 in 26 countries, conducted by Ipsos and GeoPoll on behalf of Plan International between , and an additional series of 22 in-depth interviews across 18 countries. Ipsos and GeoPoll surveyed girls in Brazil , Canada , Colombia , U.S, UK, France , Germany , Finland , Netherlands , Spain , Sweden , Italy , Indonesia , Philippines , Vietnam , Australia , Nepal , Jordan , Ecuador , El Salvador , Peru , Burkina Faso , Kenya , Malawi , Togo and Zambia .

About Plan International USA

Powered by supporters, Plan International USA partners with adolescent girls, young women and children around the world to overcome oppression and gender inequality, providing the support and resources that are unique to their needs and the needs of their communities, ensuring they achieve their full potential with dignity, opportunity and safety. Founded in 1937, Plan is an independent development and humanitarian organization that is active in more than 80 countries.

For more information, please visit PlanUSA.org.

SOURCE Plan USA

Related Links

http://www.planusa.org


APPLETON, Wis., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Agropur is pleased to formally announce the expansion of its facility in Little Chute, Wisconsin. Agropur is building a new state-of-the-art facility to meet growing market demand and significantly increase its production of cheese and dairy ingredients.

"Having a new state-of-the-art facility in Little Chute will help us solidify our leadership position in the dairy industry. Beyond speed and efficiency, the new processes and equipment will provide greater flexibility and will allow Agropur to offer a broader line of products to meet our customers' needs. With this new plant, we're increasing production capacity so Agropur can help its clients live up to their brand promises," says Doug Simon, President, US Operations, Agropur.

The $168 M investment is Agropur's second largest ever in the United States, after the expansion of the Lake Norden facility in 2018.

"The announcement of this significant investment highlights our commitment to modernize our asset base in both Canada and the United States and expand our cheese manufacturing activities in the U.S. Midwest. It pursues the vision behind other major projects we have carried out, such as the Lake Norden plant, which has already reached record production levels in recent months," says Emile Cordeau, CEO of Agropur.

Cutting-edge facility

The innovative facility with an area of more than 210, 000 square feet will increase capacity and expand Agropur's production of cheese and ingredients. In addition, the project will involve construction of a cutting-edge waste-water treatment facility that will generate energy, supporting our sustainability efforts.

The new plant will be built just north of Agropur's existing Little Chute facility at 2701 Freedom Road. The facility's milk processing volume should more than double, from 300 million pounds to 750 million pounds per year. The expanded plant is expected to be fully operational by early 2023.

54 new high-paying jobs, increased milk demand and $100 million in local economic spin-offs

With sales of approximately US$5.7 billion, Agropur has grown to become the fifth-largest producer of cheese and dairy ingredients in the United States and one of the 20 largest dairy processors in the world. With this new ultramodern facility, Agropur will create up to 54 new high-skilled and well-paying jobs for local workers. Employees will have the opportunity to be trained in new skills and to continue growing within the organization. Given the current labour shortage, recruiting activities will be key in the months prior to the commissioning of the plant.

The Little Chute expansion will also lead to a significant increase in milk demand from local farms that supply Agropur. Wisconsin is the state with the most dairy farms, 6,700 to be exact, and the dairy industry has considerable economic weight in the state. The dairy industry contributes more than $45 billion to the American economy each year. It is with great pride that Agropur continues to be involved in the community and participates in the economic development of the region.

The construction itself will have a significant economic impact on the Fox Valley area. It is projected that, as a result of this project, over $100M will flow directly or indirectly to Wisconsin suppliers and subcontractors for concrete, tradespeople, materials, project management, packaging, transportation, etc.

About Agropur

Agropur inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Agropur Cooperative, a North American dairy industry leader founded in 1938. With sales of $5,7 billion (USD) in 2020, Agropur is a source of pride to 2,974 members and 7,700 employees who pursue its vision every day: "Better dairy. Better world." Agropur processes more than 13 billion pounds of milk per year at its 32 plants across North America, including 1.6 billion gallons of milk per year at its 9 plants in the United States. www.agropur.com

SOURCE Agropur

Related Links

http://www.agropur.com/fr/


DALLAS, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NoiseAware, the global leader in privacy-safe noise monitoring, has launched AutoResolve, the vacation-rental industry's most effective guest-messaging platform for noise mitigation.

The architect of noise-measurement technology for short-term rentals, NoiseAware developed AutoResolve to address one of the industry's biggest property-management challenges: late-night noise. The service detects noise problems during the guest stay and resolves them remotely, through direct guest communication.

NoiseAware

"Our mission is to help protect the freedom to rent and the freedom to roam by solving the unknown of what happens during the guest's stay," said NoiseAware chief operating officer Peter Taylor. "We identify and resolve in-stay noise events, saving work and labor costs for property managers."

Prior to the release of AutoResolve, property managers had to monitor notifications and intervene with guests when a noise event occurred. With this pioneering new technology, a gentle but firm message is sent automatically to the guest when a late-night noise event is detected by the NoiseAware algorithm, reminding them to turn down the volume. If NoiseAware detects continued noise, the guest receives a second, more urgent, message.

AutoResolve solves a full 90% percent of noise problems without management intervention or labor cost. In the rare case that guests don't reduce their noise, AutoResolve reports the issue to the host or property manager so they can take action.

"Our NightAgent service has been the trusted nightly guardian for our customers for over two million reservations, and we now have enough data to make late-night noise resolution more automated and available to all PMs in the industry," said Andrew Schulz, CEO of NoiseAware. "With AutoResolve's 30-minutes-or-less resolution rate of 90%, we're moving closer to the day that party-house headlines and unfair regulation are no longer a burden on the industry."

AutoResolve launches on Oct. 4 and will be available to all short-term-rental property managers and owners. To learn more about AutoResolve, and NoiseAware services, features and customer experience, visit noiseaware.com/autoresolve.

About NoiseAware

NoiseAware helps keep neighbors happy and property owners profitable by solving the number one cause of rental property damage  noise. The privacy-safe smart noise monitoring solution saves short-term rental property managers and hotel operators time and money, allowing them to maximize guest revenue and minimize hassle and expense. The company has protected more than one million stays and has helped short-term rental homeowners and managers save $105 million in lost rental revenue due to noise disturbances. NoiseAware helps create responsible guests, good neighbors, and community harmony. To learn more visit www.noiseaware.com .

Press Contact:

NoiseAware | Natasha Garber | (310) 770-2154 | [email protected]

SOURCE NoiseAware

Related Links

https://noiseaware.com/


SAN DIEGO, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- As the Premier Sponsor of the Classroom of the Future Foundation (CFF), North Island Credit Union recently presented the organization's prestigious 2021 Innovation in Education Impact Award to Adobe Bluff Elementary School (ABES) for its Chinese Mandarin language and cultural immersion programs. In recognition of the award, North Island Credit Union provided ABES with $10,000 to help ensure it continues to encourage and cultivate global learners through its programs.

"We congratulate all of the outstanding educators at Adobe Bluff Elementary School for receiving CFF's Impact Award, which is well-deserved recognition of their efforts to promote cultural diversity, awareness, acceptance and inclusion across their community," said North Island Credit Union President/CEO Steve O'Connell. "ABES' innovative programs go beyond helping students acquire the language, empowering them to be culturally and globally responsive world-class learners."

ABES immerses its students in Chinese culture and the Mandarin language through offering two comprehensive programs. Students can engage in a Two-Way Dual Language Chinese Mandarin Immersion Program or the school's Foreign Language in Elementary School program. Through local and international cultural partnerships and innovative teaching practices, ABES students participate in cross-cultural experiences amongst students, families, staff and the local communities.

"In our immersion pathway, our mission is teach and foster bi-literate and multicultural students who become global citizens and global leaders," said ABES Principal Hee-Jin Peterson. "The goal is for students to become proficient in two languages while reaching a high level of academic achievement in all core subjects. Students develop proficiency by using both English and Mandarin to learn all of their school subjects rather than by studying the language itself."

The CFF annual Innovation in Education Awards program honors innovative classroom programs, educators, and students in San Diego County schools that model the future of K-12 education. Following an intensive application and selection process, four classroom programs are recognized for their ability to get students excited about learning and enhance outcomes through the effective use of technology. The Impact Award is given to the program that exceeds all others in its ability to impact students and teachers. A complete list of 2021 CFF Innovation in Education Award recipients is available here.

"Innovation isn't about technology; it's about identifying where there are gaps in our existing systems and plugging them, and about creating new supports so every child can gain the skills needed to thrive," said San Diego County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Paul Gothold. "We are thankful to the Classroom of the Future Foundation and North Island Credit Union for shining a spotlight on programs like these that create a foundation for success when students leave the K-12 school system."

In its third year as Premier CFF Sponsor, North Island Credit Union has provided $20,000 annually to support the organization's mission. Since 1997, CFF has united business, community, and educational leaders to create innovative learning environments in San Diego County public schools that prepare students to thrive in a competitive, global society.

Event photo available here.

About North Island Credit Union, a division of California Credit Union

California Credit Union is a federally insured, state chartered credit union founded in 1933 that serves public or private school employees, community members and businesses across California. With more than 165,000 members and assets of over $4 billion, California Credit Union has 25 branches throughout Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties. The credit union operates in San Diego County as North Island Credit Union, a division of California Credit Union. California Credit Union offers a full suite of consumer, business and investment products and services, including comprehensive consumer checking and loan options, personalized financial planning, business banking, and leading-edge online and mobile banking. Please visit northisland.ccu.com for more information or follow the credit union on Instagram or Facebook @northislandcu.

SOURCE North Island Credit Union
InterVest, one of the leading superb startup investors in Korea and now expanding their presence in Southeast Asia globally, led this fundraising as a financial investment party. E1, Korea's innovative eco-friendly energy & LPG company, joined N.THING as a new strategic investor, which runs a mega ICT, energy and ESG related business fund. And KT&G, the leading tobacco company in South Korea also joined this round expecting to enrich the diversity of the crops and its market abroad. With this raise, N.THING aligned themselves with patient capital to expand their market globally based on their advanced farm solution.

The 7-year-old Seoul based company is one of the frontier of vertical farming, where vegetables are grown without pesticides, pollution and contamination all year round. N.Thing aims to encourage everyone to adopt farming by developing sustainable smart farm products and services. Started in 2014, N.Thing offers 'CUBE', a modular container vertical farm and its solution 'CUBE OS'. In May 2021, N.Thing signed a deal with Sarya Holdings in the United Arab Emirates to construct a $3 million vertical farm within this year.

The Company will use its latest investment to execute its plans for global commercialization of 'CUBE' with cultivated crops and portfolio expansion. Near-term milestones include scaling-up the supply chain, growing operations, and expanding its product lines and technology platform both domestically and internationally. The Company is currently working with Emart, the largest retailer in Korea to distribute crops via newly built vertical farm units which will launch within this year in Icheon, Korea.

N.Thing will also collaborate to bolster Abu Dhabi's long-term focus on food resilience. As a strategic partner to Sarya Holdings, N.Thing will evaluate the establishment of vertical farm clusters in Abu Dhabi to supply its cultivated crops across the UAE and the broader GCC region.

Jinwoo Song, a managing director at InterVest, said, "N.THING bears two key factors of beating the market such as enabling sustainable supply and accessibility to buyers, therefore we expect they can play a key role in shaping this agenda across global markets by innovating the food value chain. We are delighted to partner with them."

Chris Lee, CFO of N.Thing, added, " This round was very meaningful for our further growth and global expansion joined by strategic investors including KT&G highly supporting us to jump up to the world-class agri-tech entrepreneur that we had oriented from the beginning."

N.Thing has recently opened its first smart farm showroom, 'Sik Mul Sung Dosan' in Seoul, the premium shop complex space with N.Thing's flagship product while communicating with customers more closely and sharing the value and essence of the freshness.

"New capital from our current and new investors, and additional support of our long-term investor partners is concise of the critical need for new solutions to our agricultural system. This funding not only fuels our continued expansion but evaluating ESG(Environmental, Social, and Governance), food-miles eventually for digital transformation in agriculture." said Leo Kim, CEO & founder of N.THING.

About N.THING

Established in January 2014, N.THING is a Seoul-based Agri-Food tech company leading innovation in agricultural products, by extension, in the farm-to-table food value chain by combining IoT technology and data. It developed the world's first modular vertical farm 'CUBE' which is easy to expand. N.THING CUBE is a modularized farm with mass productivity where a dedicated OS provides the most optimized environment for each crop so as to create maximized efficiency. N.THING is the world's first smart farming company that won the iF Design Award, Architecture in 2020. Also, it is a winner of Best of Innovation at the CES 2020 for its excellence in technology, which is the first ever in the agricultural field. N.THING is planning to expand its business on a large scale this year after it successfully completes the PoC process in the U.A.E.

(website) www.nthing.net

(LinkedIn) https://www.linkedin.com/company/n.thing

About Sarya Holdings

Sarya Holdings is a general trading business of the U.A.E. that owns Smart Acres, an agritech business that launches and operates IoT-based hydroponic vertical farms in tandem with N.THING in the Middle East. It is also a parent company of Sarya General Trading, a food trade company, and Sarya Industries, a chemical manufacturer and distributor. For more information; http://www.sarya.ae

About InterVest

Established in 1999, as a top-tier VC in Korea, Intervest provides a differentiated value proposition to superb startups by providing hands-on management support and a world class globalization platform. Investing globally, gradually expanding its geographical presence from Southeast Asia with currently managing approximately $1 billion assets. For more information; http://www.intervest.co.kr

N.THING footage: link

SOURCE N.THING

Related Links

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PHOENIX, Ariz., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Questions around pricing for assisted living and other levels of senior living come into special focus in October as Long-Term Care Planning Month. Assisted Living Locators, a leading nationwide senior placement and referral service, is encouraging seniors and caregivers to develop a plan to help meet the high costs of long-term care.

"Long-term care is a range of services and supports seniors may need to meet their personal care need," said Angela Olea RN, Assisted Living Locators CEO. "For the most part, a majority of long-term care costs are not covered by most health insurance plans or Medicare. That is where planning for long-term care becomes so important. Research has found that nearly 40 percent of people underestimate their future costs for assisted living, and many wrongly believe that Medicare will cover the expense," she added.

"The median monthly rate for a one-bedroom unit in an assisted living community is $3,500 per month and in some regions it's even higher," said Olea. "Many families are understandably concerned about how to pay for assisted living, and I advise they learn about creative financial resources that are available."

Personal savings and investments, along with the proceeds from selling a home, may help fund a move. Olea suggests for people whose homes are on the market, bridge loans can provide temporary funds.

"Most people use their pension or Social Security benefits to help pay monthly fees and other expenses," Olea explained. "Family members may choose to assist with the costs of moving or help with ongoing fees. In some cases, veterans' benefits may help defray costs for individuals with military service."

Olea stated that long-term care insurance policies typically pay some portion of fees for assisted living, and some people cash out life insurance policies to put the proceeds toward their move.

"Have a discussion with your family and make a plan," urged Olea. "Advance planning offers seniors more choices and decision-making opportunities. Taking steps now can help prepare for a smoother tomorrow."

If you have questions about a move to assisted living, speak to an Assisted Living Locators Senior Care Advisor at 877-266-7788 or visit www.assistedlivinglocators.com.

SOURCE Assisted Living Locators

Related Links

http://www.assistedlivinglocators.com


CHARLESTON, S.C., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BOX Pure Air has seen an increase in orders received from schools all across the state of North Carolina for the new Apex 2.0 unit. The latest order comes from beautiful Pasquotank County in eastern North Carolina. A number of these units included in their order will be put to use in larger areas such as gymnasiums, locker rooms and auditoriums throughout the school district.

An uptick in the number of schools showing interest or purchasing the Apex 2.0 comes at a time where classroom units have already been widely implemented, yet large spaces continue to be problem areas. The Apex 2.0 is a professional-grade unit capable of cleaning up to 4,500 sq ft with 99.999% particulate reduction, making it a simple and easy choice for these large spaces. Cafeterias, locker rooms and gymnasiums are areas difficult for teachers to enforce mask and social distancing practices, which makes having the proper ventilation and purification even more important.

"People are beginning to realize that just because the room is larger, it doesn't mean people will be spread out more than they typically are," says BOX Pure Air CEO Ryan Cowell. "If anything these larger spaces are more of a free for all, and with proper air filtration more difficult to achieve, the Apex 2.0 provides a constant added layer of protection."

As flu season approaches, many schools are expecting an uptick in cases and any protection they are able to provide against the virus is increasingly important. The return of colder weather also means a return to the indoors. During temperate seasons; on a nice day, you would see students outside eating lunch, studying, or having gym class. However, as we usher in cooler temperatures the opportunity for outdoor activity lessens. Cold weather also means closing windows, which decreases the amount of natural ventilation. Schools expect more bodies in these communal spaces moving forward, creating a pressing need for air purification solutions.

This shift in focus is evident by the uptick in purchases in North Carolina, coming both from public school systems and individual private schools. BOX Pure Air is continually landing more orders in the state and quickly becoming the most common brand of air purifier found in any given North Carolina school. It is not unfair to say BOX Pure Air is marking the North Carolina school territory as our own, due in large part to the effectiveness and uniqueness of the Apex 2.0.

BOX Pure Air is committed to providing schools with viable solutions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, allergens and other unwanted particulates. We see the Apex 2.0 as a revolutionary new tool in doing just that, providing schools with portable, professional-grade air solutions they wouldn't otherwise know were available.

About BOX Pure Air LLC.

Box Pure Air strives to provide the best products to help clean air through the deployment of high-efficiency air purification technologies. Learn more at www.boxpureair.com

Contact Information

[email protected]

(843) 936-6649

SOURCE Box Pure Air

Related Links

http://www.boxpureair.com


TORONTO, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Payfare Inc. ("Payfare" or the "Company") (TSX: PAY), a global financial technology company powering digital banking and instant payment solutions, is pleased to announce the appointment of Cihan Tuncay as Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Development effective November 22, 2021. Mr. Tuncay will be responsible for communicating financial information and corporate updates to investors and the analyst community, as well as assessing various strategic investments including potential acquisitions. He joins Payfare from Stifel Financial Corporation where he was most recently Director of Equity Research covering fintech and diversified financial services for its Canadian broker-dealer subsidiary Stifel GMP.

"Payfare is moving into its next phase of strategic growth following strong signals of the market's need to power instant access to earnings for gig workers," said Marco Margiotta, Payfare CEO and Founding Partner. "Cihan's deep knowledge and experience in the Financial Services and fintech sectors will complement the skillsets of our growing executive team as we strive for global financial inclusion."

Including his tenure at Stifel GMP, Mr. Tuncay has over 12 years of sell-side and buy-side capital markets experience, and is a CFA Institute charter holder. "Payfare is a pioneer in facilitating on-demand and instant payments," said Mr. Tuncay. "I could not be more excited to join the company in the early stages of its growth cycle to further empower entrepreneurs around the world with dignity and financial security through modern payments solutions."

About Payfare

Payfare (TSX: PAY) is a global financial technology company powering digital banking and instant payout solutions for today's gig economy. Payfare partners with leading platforms and marketplaces, such as Uber, Lyft and DoorDash, to provide financial health for their workforce.

For further information please visit www.payfare.com or contact:

Lindsey Abshire

(647) 417-4788

[email protected]

or

Su Chun, Chief Compliance & Legal Officer

1 (888) 850-2713

[email protected]

SOURCE Payfare

Related Links

http://www.payfare.com


The dosage cups market analysis conducted by Future Market Insight (FMI) offers insights into factors influencing the market through 2031. The report reveals growth drivers and opportunities facilitating the dosage cups demand outlook in terms of product type, capacity, printing and end users

DUBAI, U.A.E, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- As per a recently published study by FMI, the global dosage cups market is estimated to total US$ 3.3 billion by the end of 2031, expanding at a CAGR of 5% over the forecast period from 2021 to 2031.

Surging demand for accurate measuring equipment in hospitals, medical institutions, and pharmaceutical sectors is augmenting the market growth. Driven by this, the sales of dosage cups are anticipated to spur by 4.4% year-over-year growth, totaling 45.2 billion units in 2021.

Request a report sample to gain comprehensive insights at https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-13441

Increasing prevalence of chronic ailments such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, skin diseases, and others is fuelling the demand for medicines, ointments, and vaccines across the world. As dosage cups are used for measuring the dose of the medication or drug to be administered to any patient, their sales are expected to rise to offer precise drug delivery in hospitals, clinics, and homecare settings alike.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has favored the expansion of the medical, healthcare, and pharmaceutical industries. To cater the surging demand for effective therapeutics, governments across various nations are encouraging pharmaceutical companies to increase their production capacity of pharmaceutical bionics and drugs. Considering this, the pharmaceutical industry is projected to create an incremental opportunity of US$ 889.5 million, accounting for 58% of the overall dosage cups sales through 2031.

"Key manufacturers are emphasizing on offering innovative products such as dosage cups with child resistance caps. Besides this, they are extensively focusing on using recycled plastics to produce disposable dosage cups to meet increasing demand and offer sustainable drug measuring devices," says the FMI analyst.

Key Takeaways from the Dosage Cup Market Analysis

Sales of dosage cups in the U.S. are estimated to rise at 3.7% year-on-year, surpassing a valuation of US$ 429.5 million by the end of 2021.

by the end of 2021. Germany is forecast to dominate the market in Europe , accounting for around 1/5th of sales in the region over the assessment period 2021-2031.

is forecast to dominate the market in , accounting for around 1/5th of sales in the region over the assessment period 2021-2031. The market in China is expected to grow at a healthy CAGR of 6.7%, contributing more than 72% of the revenue share in East Asia through 2031.

is expected to grow at a healthy CAGR of 6.7%, contributing more than 72% of the revenue share in through 2031. India , being one of the leading pharmaceutical producers in the world, is projected to account for nearly 45% of the sales in the South Asia market by 2031.

, being one of the leading pharmaceutical producers in the world, is projected to account for nearly 45% of the sales in the market by 2031. In terms of capacity type, up to 15ml is anticipated to project the fastest growth in the segment, surging at a CAGR of 6.8% during 2021-2031.

Key Drivers

Growing demand for cost-effectiveness and convenient drug measuring devices and rising sales of over-the-counter drugs across the globe are driving the market.

The adoption of printed dosage cups is increasing across clinical labs and hospitals because they offer greater accuracy in drug delivery.

Key Restraints

Stringent regulations implemented on the manufacturing of plastics products across North America and Asia Pacific are hampering the growth of the dosage cups market.

and are hampering the growth of the dosage cups market. Availability of more precise and reusable dosage measuring devices such as droppers, syringes, and cylindrical spoons are hindering the sales of dosage cups.

Visit For More Information: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/dosage-cups-market

Competitive Landscape

As per FMI, the top player operating in the dosage cups market are Sonoco Products Company, Gerresheimer AG, Medline Industries, Inc., Comar LLC, SGH Healthcaring, H&T Presspart Manufacturing Ltd., Hammarplast Medical AB, and Origin Pharma Packaging. These companies are expected to account nearly 20% to 25% share in the global landscape.

Leading players are focusing on launching new products and increasing their production capacity to cater the increasing demand for dosage cups. Some of the players are aiming at expanding their global footprint by merger & acquisitions with local players. For instance,

In July 2021 , H&T Manufacturing Ltd., a leading manufacturer of drug-delivery systems and pharmaceutical components, announced acquiring Novelex AG, a pharmaceuticals plastic components and devices manufacturer, to expand its product portfolio and global footprint.

, H&T Manufacturing Ltd., a leading drug-delivery systems and pharmaceutical components, announced acquiring Novelex AG, a pharmaceuticals plastic components and devices manufacturer, to expand its product portfolio and global footprint. In January 2020 , LLC Farmmash, a manufacturer of polymer closures and dose measuring, announced launching its new dosing cup SD-15. The dosing cup ranges from 20 ml to 25 ml and can be equipped with a child resistance cap. The strategy will assist the company to increase their market share.

Leading players operating in the market profiled by FMI are:

Sonoco Products Company

Origin Pharma Packaging

Comar LLC

Adelphi Healthcare Packaging

SGH Healthcaring

Gerresheimer AG

Hammarplast Medical AB

Medline Industries, Inc.

Plastic Bubbles

Hiwalt (Pty) Ltd.

H&T Presspart Manufacturing Ltd.

LLC Farmmash

Reynard Health Supplies

Phormpak SA

Techplas Aust Pty Ltd.

Parekhplast India Limited

AG Poly Packs Private Limited

Suzhou Xuanweicheng Biotechnology Co., Ltd

Plasticmate Sdn Bhd

UD Pharma Rubber Products

More Valuable Insights on Dosage Cups Market

FMI, in its new report, offers an unbiased analysis of the global dosage cups market, analyzing forecast statistics through 2021 and beyond. The survey reveals growth projections on in dosage cups market with detailed segmentation:

By Capacity:

Upto 15ml

16ml to 35ml

Above 35ml

By Product Type:

Reusable

Disposable

By Printing:

Printed

Non-printed

Embossed

By End-Users:

Hospitals

Clinical Labs

Medical Institutions

Households

Pharmaceuticals

Others

By Region:

North America

Latin America

Europe

South Asia

East Asia

Oceania

Middle East and Africa (MEA)

Discover more about the dosage cups analysis with figures and data tables, along with the table of contents, ask an [email protected] https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ask-question/rep-gb-13441

Key Questions Covered in the Report

The report offers insight into dosage cups market demand outlook for the forecast period 2021-2031

The market study also highlights projected sales growth for dosage cups market between 2021 and 2031

Dosage cups 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

Dosage cups market share analysis, covering key companies within the industry and coverage of strategies such as mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, collaborations or partnerships, and others

Browse Extensive Coverage of our Ongoing Reports:

Aluminium Cup Market: The market is set to witness steady growth during 2021-2031. Sales of crane motors is expected to expand at CAGR of ~7% during 2021 to 2031.

Paper Pleated Cups Market: The sale of paper pleated cups is getting traction due to demand from fast food centre, cafes, hospitals and restaurants

About Future Market Insights (FMI)

Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in Dubai, and has delivery centers in the UK, U.S. and India. FMI's latest market research reports and industry analysis help businesses navigate challenges and make critical decisions with confidence and clarity amidst breakneck competition. Our customized and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. A team of expert-led analysts at FMI continuously tracks emerging trends and events in a broad range of industries to ensure that our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.

Contact:

Future Market Insights,

1602-6 Jumeirah Bay X2 Tower,

Plot No: JLT-PH2-X2A,

Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai,

United Arab Emirates

For Sales Enquiries: [email protected]

For Media Enquiries: [email protected]

Website: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/

Report: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/dosage-cups-market

Press Release Source: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/press-release/dosage-cups-market

SOURCE Future Market Insights
DENVER, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Inc. magazine announced that for the second year in a row, PHOENIX's Mortgage Services division (Phoenix Collateral Advisors - PHOENIX) is on its annual Inc. 5000 list, placing on the prestigious ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy's most dynamic segmentits independent small businesses. Amongst fellow mortgage industry members, PHOENIX placed in the top 50 at 43rd, with 356% growth over the past three years.

PHOENIX, a premier provider of trading, analytics, and transaction services for mortgage servicing rights and whole loans, attributes the growth to recent enhancements to the Company's third-party diligence and quality control solution. As mortgage lenders, servicers, and investors face unprecedented challenges brought on by the pandemic; PHOENIX has demonstrated the continued ability to thoughtfully scale our transactional services to meet the TPR diligence, brokerage, and analytics needs of our clients. As record production and transaction levels strained underwriting and analyst resources across our industry, PHOENIX maintained our high standards in boarding and training new resources while never over committing or underdelivering for our existing and new clients.

As an industry pioneer in the trading and valuation of mortgage servicing rights and whole loans, expanding into diligence and sub-servicing oversight is a natural extension to the transactional connectivity between PHOENIX and the mortgage industry's capital markets sector. PHOENIX launched its Mortgage Services division in 2010 to further align with our client's objectives and pursuit of supporting a profitable asset class for the industry. Over the last five years, PHOENIX has made substantial investments into the business with the addition of several industry veterans, next-generation mortgage review technology partners, and a panel of industry veteran underwriters.

"The 2021 Inc. 5000 list feels like one of the most important rosters of companies ever compiled," says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. "Building one of the fastest-growing companies in America in any year is a remarkable achievement. Building one in the crisis we've lived through is just plain amazing. This kind of accomplishment comes with hard work, smart pivots, great leadership, and the help of a whole lot of people."

About PHOENIX:

Phoenix Collateral Advisors, LLC (PHOENIX) is a leading provider of loan review solutions for the full mortgage lifecycle, including Third-party Diligence (TPR), quality control, and sub-servicing oversight. PHOENIX strives to integrate the most experienced mortgage analysts and underwriters with cutting-edge technology to deliver reliable and seamless loan analysis. The Company's Third-party review (TPR) platform connects counterparties, provides live feedback, and document/data transparency, all in one ecosystem. Our people and systems ensure that loan production or servicing adheres to regulatory, investor, and client-tailored loan program guidelines. For more information on PHOENIX, visit https://www.phoenixtma.com/

CONTACT:

Earl Anema

720.466.1678

[email protected]

SOURCE PHOENIX CAPITAL

Related Links

https://www.phoenixtma.com


DENVER, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Platte River Equity ("Platte River") announced today that it has acquired Municipal Emergency Services, Inc. ("MES" or the "Company") from HB Equity Partners. Headquartered in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, MES is a leading equipment supplier and service provider to first responders throughout the United States.

"We are looking forward to our new partnership with Platte River," said Tom Hubregsen, CEO of MES. "Over the last 15 years, our team has helped make MES the top choice for first responders to meet their equipment and service needs. The team at Platte River will provide a unique perspective and insight to help us continue our expansion of product and service offerings and geographic reach."

"We are excited about the opportunity to work with Tom and his team," said Eric Crawford, Principal of Platte River. "MES represents the leading brands in the industry and has built a strong organization and stellar reputation for customer service. We look forward to building upon these successes."

Michael Bonnet of HB Equity Partners said, "We are proud of what Tom and the team at MES have accomplished over the last 15 years and are looking forward to the opportunity to participate alongside Platte River in the next phase of the Company's growth."

Nelson Mullins served as legal counsel and Jefferies served as financial advisor to MES. Bartlit Beck LLP served as legal counsel and Houlihan Lokey served as financial advisor to Platte River. Varagon Capital Partners, L.P. served as Administrative Agent and Joint Lead Arranger for the financing; Crescent Direct Lending served as Joint Lead Arranger and PennantPark Investment Advisers and Siemens Financial Services, Inc. served as co-lenders.

About Platte River Equity

Founded in 2006 and based in Denver, CO, Platte River Equity is a private equity firm focused on investments in established lower middle market operating companies within targeted industrial sectors where it has substantial operating and investing experience. Platte River utilizes conservative capital structures in order to invest in future growth opportunities and withstand changing economic environments. The firm also provides significant ongoing support to its portfolio companies through dedicated resources across functional areas.

The firm has raised funds with committed capital in excess of $1.3 billion and is currently investing out of its $625 million fourth fund. Platte River's employees are the largest collective investor across its funds, deeply aligning the firm with its investors and portfolio company management teams.

About Municipal Emergency Services, Inc.

Established in 2001, Municipal Emergency Services, Inc. has quickly grown to be a leading supplier for first responders. MES represents the industry's best brands, including 3M Scott, Point Blank, Honeywell, FireDex, RevolveAir Systems, Seek Thermal, Hurst Jaws of Life, Matex Hose, Elbeco, 5.11 Tactical, and many more. MES has a national network of sales representatives, mobile service technicians, and in-house service centers strategically located around the United States.

Contact

Brian P. Klaban

Director of Business Development & Debt Capital Markets

Phone #: +1 303 292 7317

Email: [email protected]



Lauren A. Metz

Business Development Senior Associate

Phone #: +1 303 292 7321

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Platte River Equity
LONDON, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- PSYCH , the premium business-to-business media and content platform for the psychedelic science and healthcare industry, today announced the release of the third issue of its flagship publication, The Psychedelics as Medicine Report.

The Psychedelics as Medicine Report is the most comprehensive account of the global psychedelics industry, with unparalleled market intelligence and insights empowering investors, operators, researchers and regulators to identify emerging opportunities. The report reveals the medical psychedelic market is currently valued at US$190 million, and is expected to exceed US$2.4 billion by 2026.

Attitudes towards psychedelics are shifting dramatically, with two-thirds of Europeans and North Americans supporting the legalisation of psychedelic-assisted therapy. Eighty per cent of doctors are familiar with psychedelic research surrounding mental health disorders, with the majority of healthcare providers excited by the prospect of psychedelics as medicines.

As a result of the transformative potential of these novel therapies, psychedelic companies have attracted over US$2 billion in investment and been valued at over US$9 billion. More than 47 organisations have listed on stock exchanges internationally, with atai Life Sciences conducting an initial public offering earlier this year and securing a US$2.3 billion valuation.

'For too long, we have been reliant on limited treatment options for patients suffering from mental health disorders, while potentially useful treatment modalities, including psychedelic compounds, have been overlooked or underused,' said Florian Brand, Co-founder and CEO at atai Life Sciences. 'Like all those who have contributed to this year's Psychedelics as Medicine report, we believe that it's high time patients had access to more innovative treatments.'

To reflect the flourishing industry, the annual report has been expanded to encompass new regulatory frameworks and associated market opportunities. William Potts, CEO at Psych Capital, commented: 'The updated report presents an expert overview of the market opportunity that psychedelics as medicine offer. It provides unique insights into consumer and healthcare providers' attitudes, outlining the compounds poised to disrupt conventional treatments for a wide array of debilitating health.'

PSYCH partnered with atai Life Sciences, Beckley Psytech, Compass Pathways, Braxia Scientific, Novamind, Filament Health, Aird & Berlis LLP and Diamond Therapeutics on this year's publication. To learn more about the future medical and commercial potential of the psychedelics industry, download The Psychedelics as Medicine Report: Third Edition .

About PSYCH

A premium business-to-business media and content platform for the psychedelic science and healthcare industry, PSYCH highlights key psychedelic players, innovations and milestones. For more information, please visit the website: https://psych.global/

SOURCE Psych Capital Plc

Related Links

www.psych.global


For its inaugural grantmaking, the Fund is investing an initial $1 million in 19 nonprofit partners aligned with this mission. As more people participate and contribute, the Fund will scale this investment accordingly. The new charity builds on the co-op's decades of philanthropic commitment. To date, the co-op has invested over $120 million in hundreds of nonprofit partners across the country.

"We believe connection to nature is fundamental for the health and well-being of all people and that time outside is a human right," said Ben Steele, REI Chief Customer Officer. "As a community of millions of members, thousands of employees and hundreds of partners, we are uniquely positioned to drive meaningful change. Through the REI Cooperative Action Fund, we can harness the collective strength of the co-op to ensure that all people have their right to the outdoors protected."

The Fund is part of the co-op's broader effort to advance racial equity, diversity and inclusion within REI and broader society. The Cooperative Action platform harnesses the collective strength and size of the co-op's 20 million members and more than 15,000 employees, empowering them to fight for a more sustainable and equitable future for the planet and the people on it. REI invites everyone to participate in Cooperative Action by donating to the Fund, voicing their support for legislation that impacts the outdoors through the Cooperative Action Network, and reducing their carbon footprint by purchasing and trading in used gear.

The Fund will focus on three specific grantmaking initiatives:

Connecting more people outside: The Fund will support outdoor-focused organizations led by and serving Black communities, Indigenous peoples, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, people with physical disabilities, and women.

The Fund will support outdoor-focused organizations led by and serving Black communities, Indigenous peoples, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, people with physical disabilities, and women. Creating more space outside : The Fund will support efforts to increase equitable access to the outdoors, with specific emphasis on community-led carbon reduction projects that bring environmental benefits closer to home for marginalized communities.

: The Fund will support efforts to increase equitable access to the outdoors, with specific emphasis on community-led carbon reduction projects that bring environmental benefits closer to home for marginalized communities. Centering health outside: The Fund will support efforts to strengthen and amplify scientific research, and support Traditional Ecological Knowledge to demonstrate that time outside improves mental, physical and emotional health and well-being.

"REI has worked for decades to drive meaningful change against some of the most complex issues facing our industry and society," said Kristen Ragain, managing director of the REI Cooperative Action Fund. "Now, with the REI Cooperative Action Fund, everyone can contribute to the organizations, community leaders and initiatives building more just, accessible and inclusive outdoor spaces and places for everyone."

As an independent, 501(c)(3) organization, the Fund will be led by its own board of directors with the support of a dedicated staff and compensated community advisors. REI will continue to invest more broadly in its local, national nonprofit partners through its annual philanthropic giving, while providing additional support for the Fund's operations and grantmaking. In the coming years, REI will wind down its private charity, the REI Foundation, and direct its $6 million to the Fund. To start, REI will also pay the full salary of every staff member of the Fund and provide compensation for the Fund's community advisors and board members. This will ensure that 100% of donations from the general public to the Fund are invested in organizations promoting justice, equity and inclusion in the outdoors.

As the REI Cooperative Action Fund looks to scale its investments and impact, REI members, employees and the public can support the Fund in numerous ways, including:

Direct donations : As a community-supported public charity, REI members, employees and the public can make a one-time investment or set up recurring donations to the REI Cooperative Action Fund. All donations to the Fund are tax deductible.

: As a community-supported public charity, REI members, employees and the public can make a one-time investment or set up recurring donations to the REI Cooperative Action Fund. All donations to the Fund are tax deductible. Making purchases with the REI Co-op World Elite Mastercard: This year, REI will donate up to $1 million to the REI Cooperative Action Fund on behalf of its cardmembers using the REI Co-op World Elite Mastercard.*

This year, REI will donate up to to the REI Cooperative Action Fund on behalf of its cardmembers using the REI Co-op World Elite Mastercard.* Gifting the outdoors with REI gift cards: From now until the end of the year, REI will donate $1 to the REI Cooperative Action Fund for every gift card purchased in an REI store, on REI.com or on the REI shopping app.**

From now until the end of the year, REI will donate to the REI Cooperative Action Fund for every gift card purchased in an REI store, on REI.com or on the REI shopping app.** Purchasing products that give back: To celebrate the launch of the Fund, REI has created a collection of products designed to benefit the Fund. REI will donate 10% of sales of the collection to the REI Cooperative Action Fund.

To celebrate the launch of the Fund, REI has created a collection of products designed to benefit the Fund. REI will donate 10% of sales of the collection to the REI Cooperative Action Fund. Recommending a grantee: As it continues to grow, the Fund will look to support additional organizations aligned with its mission. REI members, employees and the general public can recommend a potential grantee for funding.

*This year, REI will donate $0.10 per REI Co-op World Elite Mastercard purchase transaction to the REI Cooperative Action Fund, up to $1 million. The 501(c)(3) Fund makes grants to nonprofits that promote justice, equity and belonging in the outdoors. Non-Purchase transactions, including cash advances, convenience checks, balance transfers, and other advance transactions as defined in the Cardmember Agreement, as well as interest charges and fees, do not qualify. Transactions posted in late December of the current year may be applied in the following year. REI may change the benefit or named charity in future years. REI is solely responsible for making the donation. For details about the REI Cooperative Action Fund, please see REIfund.org.

The creditor and issuer of the REI Co-op Mastercard is U.S. Bank National Association, pursuant to a license from Mastercard International Incorporated.

 2021 U.S. Bank

 2021 Recreational Equipment Incorporated. All rights reserved.

** This year, REI will donate $1 to the REI Cooperative Action Fund for each REI gift card sold in an REI store, on REI.com or on the REI app. The 501(c)(3) Fund makes grants to nonprofits that promote justice, equity and belonging in the outdoors. For details about the REI Cooperative Action Fund, please see REIfund.org.

About the REI Cooperative Action Fund

The REI Cooperative Action Fund is a 501(c)(3) public charity founded in 2020 by REI Co-op to build a movement to promote justice, equity and belonging in the outdoors. The Fund aims to bring together millions of REI members, thousands of REI employees, and hundreds of nonprofit partners and community leaders to support organizations that are improving the well-being of all people through time outside. With ongoing support from REI Co-op, 100% of donations from the general public to the Fund go to the people and organizations leading this work in communities across the country.

About the REI Co-op

REI is a specialty outdoor retailer, headquartered near Seattle. The nation's largest consumer co-op, REI is a growing community of more than 20 million members who expect and love the best quality gear, inspiring expert classes and trips, and outstanding customer service. REI has 171 locations in 39 states and the District of Columbia. If you can't visit a store, you can shop at REI.com, REI Outlet or the REI shopping app. REI isn't just about gear. Adventurers can take the trip of a lifetime with REI's active adventure travel company that runs more than 100 itineraries across the country. In many communities where REI has a presence, professionally trained instructors share their expertise by hosting beginner-to advanced-level classes and workshops about a wide range of activities. To build on the infrastructure that makes life outside possible, REI invests millions annually in hundreds of local and national nonprofits that create access toand stewardthe outdoor places that inspire us all.

SOURCE REI Co-op

Related Links

http://www.rei.com


NEW YORK, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Religions for Peace World Council , composed of roughly 60 top leaders from diverse religious institutions and faith communities, released a joint statement this morning expressing interfaith solidarity against violence, climate change, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The human family faces numerous crises, from extremists who perversely justify gender-based and political violence on religious grounds; to unsustainable economic practices that threaten the environment and public health; to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic that has exacerbated global inequities," said Dr. Azza Karam , Secretary-General of Religions for Peace. "Never has there been a more urgent need for interfaith cooperation to serve the common good of humanity. That's why we've released this new statement of solidarity."

The World Council Statement on Faith and Diplomacy kicks off a four-day conference of more than 600 religious, government, and civil society leaders from across the world in Lindau, Germany. The statement sets the tone for a week of growing interfaith partnerships and forging actionable strategies against the many difficult challenges facing our world today.

The conference is hosted by Religions for Peace , the world's largest and most representative multi-religious coalition. Religions for Peace has worked as an accredited partner of the United Nations for over 50 years, has helped the U.N. Security Council to foster interfaith coexistence, and advised the White House on religious freedom issues.

"We stand united against existential threats to our common humanity," announced Dr. Karam. "And we look forward to working with governments, NGOs, multilateral groups, and religious leaders across the world to build a better tomorrow."

The "Conference of the World Council of Religious Leaders on Faith and Diplomacy: Generations in Dialogue" began on Monday, October 4th, but it is not too late to participate in upcoming sessions.

To see the lineup of sessions and speakers and to watch the live streamed events, please visit gid2021.ringforpeace.org/ . Members of the media may register here for press talks on October 7th.

For more information, please view the Religions for Peace press kit . To request an interview with Dr. Azza Karam, Secretary-General of Religions for Peace, please contact Elyse Sheppard at [email protected] or 202-471-4228 ext. 127.

About Religions for Peace

Religions for Peace is the world's largest and most representative multi-religious coalition with national member associations, called "Inter-religious Councils" (IRCs) in nearly 100 countries. Since 1973, Religions for Peace has been accredited as a non-governmental organization with the United Nations and is particularly engaged in the areas of transforming conflict, promoting just and harmonious societies, fostering sustainable human development, protecting the earth and advancing the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at www.rfp.org .

SOURCE Religions for Peace
RICHARDSON, Texas, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sentinel Midstream Texas LLC ("Sentinel") today announced the formation of a joint venture with ExxonMobil Pipeline Company that owns crude oil pipelines and related transportation infrastructure in the Houston area. The joint venture, Enercoast Midstream LLC ("Enercoast"), provides the critical last-mile link for Permian, Gulf of Mexico, and other barrels in the Houston crude oil market.

For the joint venture, ExxonMobil will contribute two existing crude oil pipelines into Enercoast: a 16-inch pipeline originating at Webster Terminal with delivery points at ExxonMobil's Baytown Refinery and Seabrook export terminal and a 20-inch crude pipeline with access to Moore Road station. Sentinel contributed cash for a majority equity position and will be the operator for the joint venture.

As operator, Sentinel brings an experienced, results-oriented management team with a proven track record of maximizing value while maintaining its core values of safe, reliable operations and environmental stewardship. Sentinel will undertake efforts to commercialize capacity on Enercoast's system while pursuing opportunities to grow it's operating footprint by building or acquiring new pipelines.

"We are extremely pleased to establish a joint venture with ExxonMobil to maximize the potential of Enercoast," said Jeff Ballard, President and CEO of Sentinel. "Sentinel looks forward to the opportunity to serve ExxonMobil and other shippers in the Houston market."

Enercoast began serving shippers as a common-carrier pipeline on October 1, 2021. Enercoast's tariffs are available on Sentinel's website.

About Sentinel

Sentinel is headquartered in Richardson, Texas, offering midstream solutions for crude oil transportation, storage, and terminalling. Sentinel is backed by Cresta Fund Management, a middle-market infrastructure firm focused on investing in hard assets that transport, store, process or sequester basic materials.

For more information about Sentinel, please visit www.sentinelmidstream.com.

SOURCE Sentinel Midstream

Related Links

www.sentinelmidstream.com


SOUTHLAKE, Texas, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Solo Brands, Inc., owner of the popular Solo Stove, Chubbies, Oru Kayak, and Isle paddleboard brands, announced today that it has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering of its Class A common stock. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined.

BofA Securities, J.P. Morgan, and Jefferies are serving as joint book-running managers for the proposed offering.

The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. A copy of the prospectus relating to this offering, when available, may be obtained from BofA Securities Inc., Attn: Prospectus Department, NC1-004-03-43, 200 North College Street, 3rd floor, Charlotte NC 28255-0001, or by email at [email protected]; J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, by telephone at 866-803-9204 or by email at [email protected] and Jefferies LLC, Attn: Equity Syndicate Prospectus Department, 520 Madison Avenue, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10022, by telephone at (877) 821-7388, or by email at prospectus_departme[email protected].

A registration statement on Form S-1 relating to these securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold nor may offers to buy these securities 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 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. Any offers, solicitations or offers to buy, or any sales of securities will be made in accordance with the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

About Solo Brands, Inc.

Solo Brands is a DTC platform that offers innovative products directly to consumers primarily online through four lifestyle brands  Solo Stove firepits, stoves, and accessories, Chubbies apparel, Oru Kayak, a folding portable kayak, and Isle paddleboards.

Forward-Looking Statements.

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" regarding the Company's plans for its proposed initial public offering. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding the proposed public offering and other statements identified by words such as "could," "may," "might," "will," "likely," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "seeks," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "continues," "projects" and similar references to future periods. Forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions regarding capital market conditions, our business, the economy and other future conditions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, by their nature, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. As a result, actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include regional, national or global political, economic, business, competitive, market and regulatory conditions, including risk regarding when we can complete the offering and other factors set forth under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's registration statement on Form S-1. Any forward-looking statement made in this press release speaks only as of the date on which it is made.

SOURCE Solo Brands
AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern Careers Institute (SCI) will offer a Women in Tech training grant to support women pursuing careers in the growing technology field. Despite the proliferation of tech jobs, women remain underrepresented, comprising just 25 percent of computer-science related jobs. Grants for up to $1,000 will be available to women training in software and web development, cybersecurity, data science, and mobile app development.

"The goal of this grant is to encourage women to train for careers in technology," said Nikki England, SCI president. "We want to provide them with financial support to ensure that they aren't left behind and feel confident in entering these high-paying, rapidly growing, career fields."

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, computer and information technology occupations are projected to grow 13 percent by 2030, faster than the average for all occupations. Some fields, like software development, are expected to grow by as much as 22 percent.

"At SCI, we are committed to ensuring that our programs are focused on industries with projected labor growth," England added.

The Women in Tech training grants are available to qualifying aspiring female programmers applying for technology programs at SCI. Candidates must complete an application and be committed to continuous enrollment. For more information on qualifications, and to apply, complete the "Request More Info" form found here.

About Southern Careers Institute

Southern Careers Institute began serving Texas students in 1960. They offer a diverse list of programs that create employment-ready students who can go on to serve their community. With eight convenient locations in Austin, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Harlingen, Pharr, San Antonio NW Loop 410, San Antonio SW Military Drive, and Waco, Southern Careers Institute offers programs in:

Business : Administrative Assistant, Business Administration, Business Accounting Specialist

: Administrative Assistant, Business Administration, Business Accounting Specialist Beauty : Cosmetology Operator

: Cosmetology Operator Medical : Medical Assistant, Medical Billing and Coding, Medical Office Specialist, Nurse Aide, Pharmacy Technician

: Medical Assistant, Medical Billing and Coding, Medical Office Specialist, Nurse Aide, Pharmacy Technician Technology : Computer Support Specialist, Software Development, Data Science, Cyber Security, Mobile Application Developer

: Computer Support Specialist, Software Development, Data Science, Cyber Security, Mobile Application Developer Trades: Automotive Service Technician, Commercial Motor Vehicle Operator, Electrical Technician, HVAC, Welding

SCI also offers an online and hybrid curriculum.

SOURCE Southern Careers Institute
HARTFORD, Conn., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Maryanna Polukhin, M.D. of Starling Physicians is one of a select group of primary care physicians chosen out of more than 1,000 independent primary care physicians nationwide as a "Best Physician" during National Primary Care Week, Oct. 4-8. She was recognized for providing exemplary care to her senior patients.

A total of 32 physicians nationwide were selected as winners by medical directors at agilon health, 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.

"Dr. Polukhin is very deserving of this honor," acknowledges Starling Physicians CEO Sarit Patel, M.D. "She started a program to ensure senior patients can be cared for in the comfort of their own homes. She also works closely with care coordinators responsible for outreach to at-risk senior patients who have been isolated at home during the pandemic."

"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. "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, 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 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.

Starling Physicians is Connecticut's leading multispecialty group offering 27 specialties in over 30 locations.

For more information about agilon health, visit www.agilonhealth.com and connect with us on Twitter, Instagram, Linked In and YouTube.

SOURCE Starling Physicians
BOSTON, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Steward Health Care has been recognized by the American College of Cardiology in the "Best Hospitals" issue of U.S. News & World Report as one of the top health systems in the U.S. for providing top quality care to heart patients in 2021. Steward is one of only 87 health systems nationwide to be included.

The U.S. News & World Report issue recognizes Steward's commitment to drive preeminent hospital care for heart patients. Through participation in the ACC's National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR) and/or Accreditation programs, Steward informs a robust quality improvement processes using data to drive improvements in adherence to guideline recommendations and overall quality of care provided to heart patients.

ACC's NCDR is cardiology's most established, comprehensive registry offering, consisting of eight hospitalbased registries and two outpatient registries. Participants are committed to ensuring evidencebased cardiovascular care, improving patient outcomes, and lowering health care costs. ACC Accreditation Services provides hospitals with practical resources and support to minimize gaps in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Facilities achieving an ACC accreditation are committed to establishing a method for sustainable quality improvement.

"As an ACC quality programs participant, Steward Health Care has established itself as a leader in setting the national standard for improving quality of care in patients with cardiovascular disease," said ACC President Dipti Itchhaporia, MD, FACC. "Steward has demonstrated a commitment to providing reliable, comprehensive treatment for heart patients based on current clinical guideline recommendations. The ACC is proud to include Steward among the Best Hospitals of 2021."

"Providing the highest quality cardiovascular care to our patients has always been our top priority, guiding everything we do," said Dr. Joseph Carrozza, Vice President of the Steward Cardiovascular Network, and Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston. "It's an honor to receive this recognition by the ACC and we look forward to continuing to drive innovation forward to improve care for all heart patients."

In addition to St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, several Steward hospitals in the Boston region were recognized, including Holy Family Hospital, Good Samaritan Medical Center, and Saint Anne's Hospital.

"We are proud of the physicians and clinical teams across our network who have provided the highest quality cardiovascular care amid the challenges of responding to the pandemic," said Harrison Bane, Steward North Regional President. "This important honor demonstrates the value of Steward's physician-led, patient-centered care to drive the highest-quality outcomes for our local communities."

About Steward Health Care

Steward Health Care's physician-led business model was built to unlock access to the highest-quality care at a sustainable cost, committed to providing personalized, ongoing medical services that positively impact patients' physical, emotional, and mental well-being.

Founded in 2010, Steward Health Care is the largest physician-led health care network with more than 5,500 providers and 43,000 health care professionals caring for 12.3 million patients a year through its global network of hospitals, urgent care centers, skilled nursing facilities and behavioral health services.

Based in Dallas, Steward currently operates 44 hospitals around the world, including 34 across Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Utah, as well as five internationally within Malta and Colombia.

The American College of Cardiology envisions a world where innovation and knowledge optimize cardiovascular care and outcomes. As the professional home for the entire cardiovascular care team, the mission of the College and its 54,000 members is to transform cardiovascular care and to improve heart health. The ACC bestows credentials upon cardiovascular professionals who meet stringent qualifications and leads in the formation of health policy, standards and guidelines. The College also provides professional medical education, disseminates cardiovascular research through its worldrenowned JACC Journals, operates national registries to measure and improve care, and offers cardiovascular accreditation to hospitals and institutions. For more, visit acc.org.

SOURCE Steward Health Care

Related Links

http://www.steward.org


"These locations fit very nicely into our existing portfolio of assets and our Greater London strategy. We have had a banner year for performance of our existing UK portfolio, and expansion of our UK footprint makes a lot of sense for us at this time as a result." Alex Burnam, Director of Acquisitions.

The new stores are located on Blackburn Road in Dunstable and Smeaton Close in Aylesbury. Both are gated facilities in suburban areas and offer indoor units in a variety of sizes, as well as outdoor yearlong and seasonal car storage. Upgrades to the property will include powerful, efficient LED lighting and enhancements to on-site security features such as 24-hour video surveillance and electronic gating.

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


AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Summit Hotel Properties, Inc. (NYSE: INN) (the "Company") today announced that it has published its annual Corporate Responsibility Report for 2020, which presents the Company's ongoing commitment to the environment, its community, and stakeholders.

"We are pleased to report our continued progress furthering our corporate mission focused on environmental stewardship, social responsibility, governance and resiliency," stated Jonathan Stanner, President and Chief Executive Officer. "While we are proud of the progress we have made on our sustainability efforts broadly, we also recognize that these initiatives represent an ever-evolving journey for which we will continue to strive to raise our standards of excellence," added Mr. Stanner.

The purpose of our sustainability program is to create long-term value for our stakeholders by investing responsibly in our business, environment, people and communities. Our Corporate Responsibility Report is designed to help our stakeholders better understand our commitment and efforts regarding environmental stewardship, social responsibility and governance and resilience and can be viewed in the "Responsibility" section of the Company's website at www.shpreit.com/responsibility/about.

About Summit Hotel Properties

Summit Hotel Properties, Inc. is a publicly traded real estate investment trust focused on owning premium-branded hotels with efficient operating models primarily in the Upscale segment of the lodging industry. As of October 4, 2021, the Company's portfolio consisted of 73 hotels, 61 of which are wholly owned, with a total of 11,398 guestrooms located in 23 states.

For additional information, please visit the Company's website, www.shpreit.com, and follow us on Twitter at @SummitHotel_INN.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains statements that are "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, pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "potential," "intend," "expect," "seek," "anticipate," "estimate," "approximately," "believe," "could," "project," "predict," "forecast," "continue," "plan," "likely," "would" or other similar words or expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and can include future expectations, future plans and strategies, financial and operating projections or other forward-looking information. Examples of forward-looking statements include the following: the Company's ability to realize financial and operational synergies; projections of revenues and expenses or other financial items; descriptions of the Company's plans or objectives for future operations; forecasts of EBITDAre; and descriptions of assumptions underlying or relating to any of the foregoing expectations regarding the timing of their occurrence. These forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, not all of which are known to the Company and many of which are beyond the Company's control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the state of the U.S. economy, supply and demand in the hotel industry, and other factors as are described in greater detail in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). Unless legally required, the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

For information about the Company's business and financial results, please refer to the "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and "Risk Factors" sections of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, filed with the SEC, and its quarterly and other periodic filings with the SEC. The Company undertakes no duty to update the statements in this release to conform the statements to actual results or changes in the Company's expectations.

SOURCE Summit Hotel Properties, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.shpreit.com


TORONTO, Oct. 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSX: SLF) (NYSE: SLF) ) today announced it intends to acquire DentaQuest, a leading provider of dental benefits in the United States. Sun Life will hold a conference call and live webcast, followed by a question and answer period to detail the announcement.

Date: Monday, October 4, 2021 Time: 8:00 a.m. ET

To listen to the live webcast and view the presentation slides, visit https://www.sunlife.com/en/investors/presentations-and-events/upcoming-events/ 10 minutes prior to the start of the presentation. An archive will be available on the website following the event.

To listen via telephone, please call 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time as follows:

Participant Dial In (Toll Free): 1-(877) 658-9101, conference ID 6465183

Participant Dial In (International): (602) 563-8756, conference ID 6465183

A replay of the conference call will be available from Monday, October 4, 2021 at 11 am ET until 11 am ET on Monday, October 11, 2021 by calling 404-537-3406 or 1-855-859-2056 (toll free within North America) using Conference ID: 6465183

About Sun Life

Sun Life is a leading international financial services organization providing insurance, wealth and asset management solutions to individual and corporate Clients. Sun Life has operations in a number of markets worldwide, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, China, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Bermuda. As of June 30, 2021, Sun Life had total assets under management of C$1.36 trillion. For more information, please visit www.sunlife.com.

Sun Life Financial Inc. trades on the Toronto (TSX), New York (NYSE) and Philippine (PSE) stock exchanges under the ticker symbol SLF.

In the United States, Sun Life is one of the largest group benefits providers, serving more than 55,000 employers in small, medium and large workplaces across the country. Sun Life's broad portfolio of insurance products and services in the U.S. includes disability, absence management, life, dental, vision, voluntary, supplemental health and medical stop-loss. Sun Life and its affiliates in asset management businesses in the U.S. employ approximately 5,500 people. Group insurance policies are issued by Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada (Wellesley Hills, Mass.), except in New York, where policies are issued by Sun Life and Health Insurance Company (U.S.) (Lansing, Mich.). For more information, please visit www.sunlife.com/us.

About DentaQuest

DentaQuest is a purpose-driven oral health care company dedicated to improving the oral health of all. We do this through Preventistry  our all-in approach to better care, expanded access, value-based financing, and innovative solutions. We manage dental and vision benefits for 30+ million Americans and direct patient care through our network of more than 80 oral health centers in six states. We provide outcomes-based, cost-effective dental solutions for Medicaid and CHIP, Medicare Advantage, small and large businesses, and individuals nationwide. And, we've invested more than $230 million in grants, programs and other corporate citizenship efforts to achieve measurably healthier communities across the country. By advancing prevention-focused oral health, we will achieve better overall health for everyone. Learn more at www.dentaquest.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Sun Life Media and Investor Relations contacts:

Corporate Communications: Rajani Kamath Associate Vice-President Corporate Communications T. 647-515-7514 [email protected] Investor Relations Contact: Yaniv Bitton Vice-President, Head of Investor Relations &

Capital Markets T. 416-979-6496 [email protected]

SOURCE Sun Life Financial Inc.

Related Links

www.sunlife.com/us


Strategic fit for Sun Life in attractive dental segments, more than doubling its U.S. employee benefits revenues and complementing its existing portfolio as a leader in health and group benefits

Positions Sun Life as a leading dental benefits provider

DentaQuest is the second largest provider of dental benefits in the United States , serving more than 33 million members

Leading manager and provider of Medicaid dental benefits in the U.S. with growing Medicare Advantage and commercial businesses

Immediately accretive to both underlying EPS and ROE; highly cash generative

Conference call to be held on Monday, October 4, 2021 , at 8 a.m. ET , details below

WELLESLEY, Mass., BOSTON and TORONTO, Oct. 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSX: SLF) (NYSE: SLF), through its U.S. business, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire DentaQuest, for US$2.475 billion (approximately C$3.1 billion). Headquartered in Boston and founded in 2001, DentaQuest is the largest provider of Medicaid dental benefits in the U.S. with growing Medicare Advantage, commercial and U.S. Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchange businesses. Currently DentaQuest has more than 33 million members in 36 states and approximately 2,400 employees.

Upon close of the transaction, DentaQuest will become part of the Sun Life U.S. business. Sun Life U.S. currently offers dental benefits through employers for their employee benefits plans and has an extensive national commercial dental network. The acquisition of DentaQuest aligns to Sun Life's business strategy of being a leader in health and group benefits.

"We're excited about the acquisition of DentaQuest and expanding our leadership into the U.S. dental benefits space," said Kevin Strain, President and CEO of Sun Life. "DentaQuest is a values-driven industry leader dedicated to improving oral health, with a focus on underserved populations and access to dental care. The addition of DentaQuest is consistent with our strategy to focus on health and group benefits in the U.S. More importantly, it supports both our Purpose to help Clients achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives and our sustainability focus on improving health and wellness outcomes for all."

Upon close, DentaQuest will more than double the size of Sun Life's U.S. employee benefits business by revenues and will position it as a leader in providing government dental benefits, alongside another leading business at Sun Life U.S., its medical stop-loss business.

"DentaQuest is a great organization that provides high-quality dental care and insurance benefits to tens of millions of people in the United States, with an emphasis on government programs, a fast-growing segment that now rivals the size of the employee benefits space," said Dan Fishbein, M.D., President of Sun Life U.S. "DentaQuest brings Sun Life a leading dental business, and we plan to build on DentaQuest's strength in dental programs along with Sun Life's national commercial provider network and distribution team. DentaQuest's strong values are highly compatible with our own, focused on delivering quality oral health care to all communities. We're thrilled to have DentaQuest's team join us."

"DentaQuest's combination with Sun Life marks an important next step in our long-term transformation that will enhance and broaden our existing capabilities," said Steve Pollock, President and Chief Executive Officer of DentaQuest. "A variety of longstanding barriers have created significant unmet oral health needs, which are disproportionately felt by historically marginalized groups. With support from Sun Life, we will be even better positioned to fulfill this critical need, and we look forward to partnering with them as we begin this exciting next chapter."

Over the past 20 years, DentaQuest has pioneered a differentiated approach to oral health that emphasizes prevention, innovation and expansion of value-based solutions, with a focus on underserved communities. DentaQuest innovated its Preventistry model, which aligns providers, payors and members by focusing on access, quality care and measurable outcomes, with its broad and deep Medicaid dental network in the U.S. and its proprietary claims management system, Windward. In addition to its leadership in Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Programs (CHIP) programs, DentaQuest has seen robust growth in its Medicare Advantage and other segments, including offerings through health plan partners, as well as individuals on the U.S. ACA healthcare exchanges.

Dental benefits are the second-most popular benefit after health insurance and are growing in importance because of the correlation between oral and overall health. Dental benefits programs continue to be an area of growth in employer and government benefits programs. Millions of Americans, especially low-income populations and the elderly, have insufficient access to dental care and benefits, spotlighting the importance of the work that DentaQuest does.

The transaction will also enable CareQuest Institute for Oral Health ("CareQuest Institute") to expand on its strategic priorities in support of its mission. CareQuest Institute, the current parent organization of DentaQuest, is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that seeks to advance a more accessible, equitable, and integrated oral health system, particularly for underserved communities. DentaQuest and CareQuest Institute will continue to work closely together following Sun Life's acquisition of DentaQuest. CareQuest Institute plans to deploy the proceeds from the transaction into programs and initiatives that advance its mission.

"Today marks an important milestone in our journey with DentaQuest to improve the oral health of all, and we believe that Sun Life is the right partner for DentaQuest going forward given their similar cultures and shared purpose," said Myechia Minter-Jordan, MD, MBA, President and Chief Executive Officer of CareQuest Institute. "The transaction will also enable CareQuest Institute to expand on our strategic priorities in support of our mission. We are pleased that CareQuest Institute and DentaQuest will continue to work together closely so that we can advance our mission of creating a more accessible, equitable, and integrated health system."

DentaQuest's minority shareholder, Centerbridge, will also be selling its stake in DentaQuest. "It has been a great pleasure to work so closely with Steve Pollock and the DentaQuest management team, who stand out for their exceptional skill in delivering value for customers, members, and all stakeholders, always in constant pursuit of DentaQuest's important mission," said Dan Osnoss, Senior Managing Director of Centerbridge. "We are also honored by our association with our partners at CareQuest Institute, who make critical contributions to the wellbeing of so many people. Sun Life is a fantastic home for DentaQuest with complementary capabilities and an aligned mission, and we look forward to their success together."

The acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive, adding approximately C$0.17 to underlying earnings per share and 42 basis points to underlying return on equity in 2022 on an annualized basis. In 2024, upon realization of expense synergies, Sun Life expects the acquisition to add approximately C$0.24 to underlying earnings per share and 50 basis points to underlying return on equity. The transaction will be financed using a combination of cash and debt and is expected to close in the first half of 2022, subject to receipt of regulatory approvals and satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Barclays is acting as exclusive financial advisor to Sun Life on the transaction. Debevoise & Plimpton LLP is serving as legal advisor to Sun Life. Centerview Partners LLC, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and CapM Advisors are acting as financial advisors and Ropes & Gray LLP serves as legal counsel to DentaQuest in connection with this transaction. Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP serves as legal counsel to Centerbridge Partners L.P. in connection with this transaction.

Slides related to this announcement are available at www.sunlife.com.

Conference call

Sun Life will hold a conference call and live webcast, followed by a question and answer period with analysts.

Date: Monday, October 4, 2021

Time: 8:00 a.m. ET

To listen to the live webcast and view the presentation slides, please visit https://www.sunlife.com/en/investors/presentations-and-events/upcoming-events/ 10 minutes prior to the start of the call. An archive will be available on the website following the event.

To listen via telephone, please call 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time as follows:

Participant Dial In (Toll Free): 1-(877) 658-9101, conference ID 6465183

Participant Dial In (International): (602) 563-8756, conference ID 6465183

About Sun Life

Sun Life is a leading international financial services organization providing insurance, wealth and asset management solutions to individual and corporate Clients. Sun Life has operations in a number of markets worldwide, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, China, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Bermuda. As of June 30, 2021, Sun Life had total assets under management of C$1.36 trillion. For more information, please visit www.sunlife.com.

Sun Life Financial Inc. trades on the Toronto (TSX), New York (NYSE) and Philippine (PSE) stock exchanges under the ticker symbol SLF.

In the United States, Sun Life is one of the largest group benefits providers, serving more than 55,000 employers in small, medium and large workplaces across the country. Sun Life's broad portfolio of insurance products and services in the U.S. includes disability, absence management, life, dental, vision, voluntary, supplemental health and medical stop-loss. Sun Life and its affiliates in asset management businesses in the U.S. employ approximately 5,500 people. Group insurance policies are issued by Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada (Wellesley Hills, Mass.), except in New York, where policies are issued by Sun Life and Health Insurance Company (U.S.) (Lansing, Mich.). For more information, please visit www.sunlife.com/us.

About DentaQuest

DentaQuest is a purpose-driven oral health care company dedicated to improving the oral health of all. We do this through Preventistry  our all-in approach to better care, expanded access, value-based financing, and innovative solutions. We manage dental and vision benefits for 30+ million Americans and direct patient care through our network of more than 75 oral health centers in six states. We provide outcomes-based, cost-effective dental solutions for Medicaid and CHIP, Medicare Advantage, small and large businesses, and individuals nationwide. And, we've invested more than $230 million in grants, programs and other corporate citizenship efforts to achieve measurably healthier communities across the country. By advancing prevention-focused oral health, we will achieve better overall health for everyone. Learn more at www.dentaquest.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

About CareQuest Institute

CareQuest is a national nonprofit championing a more equitable future where every person can reach their full potential through excellent health. We do this through our work in grantmaking, research, health improvement programs, policy and advocacy, and education as well as our leadership in dental benefits, care delivery, and innovation advancements. We collaborate with thought leaders, health care providers, patients, and local, state, and federal stakeholders, to accelerate oral health care transformation and create a system designed for everyone. To learn more, visit carequest.org and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

About Centerbridge Partners, L.P.

Centerbridge Partners, L.P. is a private investment management firm employing a flexible approach across investment disciplines private equity, private credit and real estate in an effort to develop the most attractive opportunities for our investors. The Firm was founded in 2005 and as of August 1, 2021 has approximately $31 billion in capital under management with offices in New York and London. Centerbridge is dedicated to partnering with world-class management teams across targeted industry sectors and geographies. For more information, please visit www.centerbridge.com.

Non-IFRS Financial Measures

Underlying earnings per share and underlying return on equity are Non-IFRS financial measures.

We report certain financial information using non-IFRS financial measures, as we believe that these measures provide information that is useful to investors in understanding our performance and facilitate a comparison of our quarterly and full year results from period to period. These non-IFRS financial measures do not have any standardized meaning and may not be comparable with similar measures used by other companies. For certain non-IFRS financial measures, there are no directly comparable amounts under IFRS. These non-IFRS financial measures should not be viewed as alternatives to measures of financial performance determined in accordance with IFRS. Additional information concerning these non-IFRS financial measures and reconciliations to the closest IFRS measures are included in the Annual MD&A and the Supplementary Financial Information packages that are available on www.sunlife.com under Investors  Financial results & reports.

Forward-Looking Information

In this news release (other than the DentaQuest, CareQuest Institute and Centerbridge quotations and the "About DentaQuest", "About CareQuest Institute" and "About Centerbridge L.P." sections), "we", "our", "us" and "Sun Life" refer to Sun Life Financial Inc. and its subsidiaries and joint ventures. Certain statements in this news release are forward-looking, including, but not limited to, statements (i) relating to our growth strategies and strategic objectives, (ii) relating to our anticipated acquisition of DentaQuest, (iii) the prospects of our U.S. group benefits business, (iv) the expected timing of the closing of the transaction, (v) the expected source of funding, (vi) the expected impact of the transaction on our employee benefits revenues, underlying earnings per share and return on equity, (vii) that are not historical or that are predictive in nature or that depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, and (iv) that include words such as "intends", "expect", "will", and similar expressions. All such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the "safe harbour provisions" of applicable Canadian securities laws and of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

The forward-looking statements in this news release represent our current expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events as of the time of this news release and are not historical facts. These forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties and are based on key factors and assumptions that are difficult to predict, particularly in light of the ongoing and developing COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the global economy and its uncertain impact on our business, including the assumption that the transaction will be completed. The forward-looking statements in this news release do not reflect the potential impact of any non-recurring or other special items or of any dispositions, mergers, acquisitions, other business combinations or other transactions that may be announced or that may occur after the date of this news release. If any non-recurring or other special item or any transaction should occur, the financial impact could be complex and the effect on our operations or results would depend on the facts particular to such item and we cannot describe the expected impact in a meaningful way or in the same way we could present known risks affecting our business. Except as may be required by Canadian securities laws, we do not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this news release.

Forward-looking statements are presented for the purpose of assisting investors and others in understanding our expected financial position and results of operations as at the date of this news release, as well as our objectives for the transaction, strategic priorities and business outlook following the transaction, and in obtaining a better understanding of our anticipated operating environment following the transaction. Readers are cautioned that such forward-looking statements may not be appropriate for other purposes and undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements.

The following are transactional risk factors that could have an adverse effect on the forward-looking statements in this news release: (1) the ability of the parties to complete the transaction; (2) failure of the parties to obtain necessary consents and approvals or to otherwise satisfy the conditions to the completion of the transaction in a timely manner, or at all; (3) our ability to realize the financial and strategic benefits of the transaction; (4) the dedication of our resources to the completion of the transaction and the effect of the transaction on our continuing operations in the U.S.; and (5) the impact of the announcement of the transaction on Sun Life and DentaQuest. These risks all could have an impact on Sun Life's business relationships (including with future and prospective employees, Clients, distributors and partners) and could have an adverse effect on our current and future operations, financial conditions and prospects. Other important risk factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking statements in this news release are listed in the annual information form of Sun Life Financial Inc. for the year ended December 31, 2020, under the heading "Risk Factors" and other regulatory filings of ours filed or furnished to Canadian and U.S. securities regulators available at www.sedar.com and www.sec.gov.

Connect with Sun Life U.S.

https://www.facebook.com/SLFUnitedStates/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/sun-life-financial/

https://twitter.com/SunLifeUS

SOURCE Sun Life Financial Inc.

Related Links

www.sunlife.com/us


CHARLOTTE, N.C., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Take 5 Oil Change, home of the stay-in-your-car, 10-minute oil change, is proud to announce that it has raised, in total, $1,226,770 for 60 local children's hospitals in the markets it serves. All donations help cover the cost of patient treatment and aid the efforts to find groundbreaking cures for chronic illnesses. Take 5 is thrilled to see its contributions benefit the commendable work of the leaders on the front lines of pediatric care.

"I am very proud of the team's passion to give back to the community," said Danny Rivera, group president and executive vice president of Driven Brands, Inc. "These hospitals are a cornerstone for so many across the country, including family members of us here at Take 5. We're honored to be able to take part in those efforts."

The local hospital fundraiser officially closed on September 25, 2021. Take 5 sincerely thanks its customers for their support and donations to the hospitals. Those who donated three dollars or more will be entered into a raffle for the chance to win one of 1,800 free oil changes. To learn more about Take 5's services or the brand's ongoing community involvement, visit http://www.take5oilchange.com/.

About Take 5 Oil Change

Established in 1984, Take 5 Oil Change is a quick-lube franchise under Driven Brands featuring a unique stay-in-your-car concept. The brand offers an on average 10-minute oil change service and ancillary services, such as air filter replacement, wiper blade changes, and coolant exchanges. Take 5 has more than 600 company-owned and franchised service centers throughout the United States and Canada.

About Driven Brands

Driven Brands, headquartered in Charlotte, NC, is the largest automotive services company in North America, providing a range of consumer and commercial automotive needs, including paint, collision, glass, vehicle repair, oil change, maintenance and car wash. Driven Brands is the parent company of some of North America's leading automotive service businesses including Take 5 Oil Change, Meineke Car Care Centers, Maaco, 1-800-Radiator & A/C, and CARSTAR. Driven Brands has more than 4,300 locations across 15 countries, and services over 50 million vehicles annually. Driven Brands' network generates more than $1 billion in revenue from more than $3 billion in system-wide sales.

SOURCE Take 5 Oil Change

Related Links

http://www.take5oilchange.com/


SACRAMENTO, Calif., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The California Fire Safe Council (CFSC), a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) which serves as California's leader in community resiliency and wildfire risk reduction, is hosting its Inaugural Resilience Brilliance Awards Ceremony & Annual Conference on Oct 5 & 6 in Sacramento. As another devastating fire season hits the state, these urgent times call for thought leaders and organizers to come together and heed the call to help. The awards ceremony and conference recognize vital wildfire prevention and mitigation groups, and brings together local community-based organizations who are conducting critical wildfire mitigation work. In 2021 alone, CFSC will have provided close to $6M in grant-funding to worthy grassroots organizations defending their communities against the massive, ongoing wildfire threat.

The Resilience Brilliance Awards Ceremony held on October 5 proudly honors local Fire Safe Councils, businesses, and leaders for their hard work, dedication, and commitment to wildfire mitigation, awareness and preparedness. Popular Sacramento emcee Rob Stewart will host the event with attendees, including core participants in the wildfire fight such as CFSC, and representatives from CAL FIRE, Cal OES, California Natural Resources Agency, Orange County Fire Authority and more. The awards ceremony will feature the inaugural Bruce Turbeville Award including a special tribute to CFSC's late founder Turbeville, and other categories.

With drought and heat conditions worsening across California, preparedness is critical. The Conference on October 6 brings together local community organizations to collaborate through a series of peer-learning workshops and forums around wildfire preparedness and community efforts to help protect their communities.

"We are proud to host our inaugural Resilience Brilliance Awards & Annual Conference this year. It is a crucial time to bring key stakeholders together and recognize the outstanding work of our integral, grassroots partners while offering a powerful community-building and learning forum for those on the frontlines of community wildfire risk reduction," said Hedi Jalon, Executive Director of CFSC.

Awardees include :

New Fire Safe Council Recognition Provided to  Three Rivers Fire Safe Council near Sequoia National Park , 40 Acres Fire Safe Council in Bishop , and Fire Safe Council Wilkerson.

Fire Safe Council near , 40 Acres Fire Safe Council in , and Fire Safe Council Wilkerson. Bruce Turbeville Award - presented to Tuolumne Fire Safe Council in Tuolumne County for construction of the North Tuolumne County Fuel Break System which extends for 27 miles and has treated over 3,000 acres in the north Tuolumne County area. It provides wildfire protection to over 32,000 persons in the north Tuolumne County area.

- presented to Fire Safe Council in for construction of the North Tuolumne County Fuel Break System which extends for 27 miles and has treated over 3,000 acres in the north area. It provides wildfire protection to over 32,000 persons in the north area. Community Collaboration Award - presented to Mountain Communities Fire Safe Council in Riverside County for removing 21,615 tons of fuel reduction to generate defensible space. Their work has helped save homes and properties in both Mountain Center and Idyllwild .

- presented to Mountain Communities Fire Safe Council in for removing 21,615 tons of fuel reduction to generate defensible space. Their work has helped save homes and properties in both and . Lifetime of Leadership & Support Award - presented to Senator Dianne Feinstein for her longstanding support of the California Fire Safe Council.

- presented to Senator for her longstanding support of the Fire Safe Council. Perimeter Solutions ( Phos Chek ) Award - presented to 40 Acres Fire Safe Council in Bishop .

- presented to 40 Acres Fire Safe Council in . Business Leadership Award - presented to Bonnie Burchill from the Sunrise Powerlink Fire Mitigation Grants Program i n Alpine for creating technological solutions to chip away over 10 million square feet of brush for ground-breaking fire prevention.

- presented to from the n Alpine for creating technological solutions to chip away over 10 million square feet of brush for ground-breaking fire prevention. Political Leadership Award - presented to Katie Rice , Supervisor, District 2, Marin County , who created a county-wide organization, "Joint Powers Authority," and ballot measure to fund prevention.

- presented to , Supervisor, District 2, , who created a county-wide organization, "Joint Powers Authority," and ballot measure to fund prevention. Outstanding Leadership Award - presented to Mary Schreiber from Fire Safe Council East Orange County who has led a Firewise Community for residents over 12 years, in an area evacuated many times.

For more information around Preparedness Tips, the Awards Ceremony, and mission of California Fire Safe Council, please visit cafiresafecouncil.org. Join them on social using #ResilienceBrilliance.

About California Fire Safe Council

California Fire Safe Council's mission is to be "California's leader in community wildfire risk reduction and resiliency!" Since 2004, California Fire Safe Council has provided grants totaling more than $100 million to organizations and agencies located throughout California.

SOURCE California Fire Safe Council

Related Links

http://www.cafiresafecouncil.org


CHICAGO, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Chicago Lighthouse celebrates October as National Disability Employment Awareness Month. As an organization championing access and inclusion for all in every part of society, The Chicago Lighthouse encourages all businesses and organizations to prioritize hiring of people with disabilities this month and every month.

A few facts about people with disabilities and their role in the workplace:

More than 61 million adults (about 26% of the population) have a disability, making them the third-largest market segment in the country. People with disabilities control about $21 billion in discretionary income.

in discretionary income. In 2020, only 18% of people with disabilities were employed in the United States , compared with 62% of those without disabilities, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

, compared with 62% of those without disabilities, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Inclusive organizations, on average, have 28% higher revenue, 200% higher net income, and 30% higher economic profit margins than those that do not, according to Accenture. In fact, 87% of Americans say they prefer to patronize businesses that hire people with disabilities.

Most (about two-thirds) of accommodations for people with disabilities cost less than $500 . In fact, one quarter of those accommodations cost nothing at all, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The Chicago Lighthouse has been helping people with disabilities find jobs since 1922. The organization is one of the largest employers with disabilities in the workplace. Approximately, 30% of The Lighthouse's XXX employees are individuals with disabilities.

Sources available to reporters working on stories for Disability Employment Awareness Month are:

Dr. Janet P. Szlyk , President and CEO of The Chicago Lighthouse . As the driving force behind The Lighthouse's Call Centers, Dr. Szlyk can speak about the importance of creating employment opportunities.

, . As the driving force behind The Lighthouse's Call Centers, Dr. Szlyk can speak about the importance of creating employment opportunities. Kathy Stoeberl , Executive Vice President and Chief Business Development Officer . Ms. Stoeberl oversees The Chicago Lighthouse's social enterprise Call Centers and can speak to the value employees with disabilities bring to the workplace.

, . Ms. Stoeberl oversees The Chicago Lighthouse's social enterprise Call Centers and can speak to the value employees with disabilities bring to the workplace. Martha Younger-White , Senior Vice President of Employment and Rehabilitation Services. With more than 30 years of experience helping people with disabilities find employment, Ms. Younger-White can address the ways in which employers can make their workplaces more accessible.

Reporters wishing to interview these executives or employees with disabilities during National Disability Employment Awareness Month can contact Aaron Baar at 312-997-3662 or [email protected].

SOURCE The Chicago Lighthouse
To date, over three and a half million tickets have been sold for Immersive Van Gogh exhibits across North America, making it one of the most sought-after attractions on the continent. Rising to blockbuster status, Immersive Van Gogh is one of the hottest shows, selling out across North America in Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and more. Orlando natives and tourists alike will be joining residences in Phoenix, Minneapolis, Denver, and Cleveland in having the opportunity to step into this unique space that will be transformed with Van Gogh's paintbrush in a swirl of color brought to life with over 90,000,000 pixels of animation.

This breathtaking exhibit features state-of-the-art technology and immersive storytelling. It has been described as an "Artistic Spectacle" by the New York Times and "A Mesmerizing Interactive Experience" by Architectural Digest.

"Immersive Van Gogh has been hailed as an entirely new way of encountering art, and we're delighted to see the way the city and people of Orlando have embraced the exhibit," says Lighthouse Immersive Producer Corey Ross.

"We've created a unique and enthralling production where Orlando residents and visitors alike can quite literally surround themselves with the work of Vincent van Gogh, one of the greatest artists who ever lived," added Producer Svetlana Dvoretsky.

For more information about Immersive Van Gogh Orlando, visit www.orlandovangogh.com . Follow the exhibition on social media on Instagram and Facebook .

For images, click here, and for video, click here

SOURCE Lighthouse Immersive
Des Moines Area Real Estate Broker Taylor Marvin Named Principal Broker

TORONTO and NEW YORK, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Real Brokerage Inc. ("Real" or the "Company"), an international, technology-powered real estate brokerage, today announced its launch of operations in Iowa. Real is now operating in 36 states, the District of Columbia and Canada.

As part of the expansion, the Coluzzi Real Estate team will be joining Real. The team has a unique model with 15 core team members, including agents and construction workers. The Coluzzi Real Estate team has completed hundreds of transactions since 2019.

Leading the expansion as Real's principal broker in Iowa from the Coluzzi team will be Taylor Marvin. After working internationally in London, Taylor moved back to the US and worked in Connecticut before moving back to Iowa in 2013. He earned his real estate license and joined one of Iowa's largest brokerages, Iowa Realty. During that time Taylor was a Member of Des Moines Area Association of Realtors, the Iowa Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors. Mr. Marvin was also a consistent "Multi-Million Dollar Producer" while at Iowa Realty. After four years with Iowa Realty, Mr. Marvin joined Coluzzi Real Estate.

"Coming from a small independent company, I am really looking forward to all the benefits that Real has to offer, from technology that aids in completing transactions to great commission splits," said Iowa Principal Broker, Taylor Marvin. "Real will allow us to better serve our clients and also attract better agents and ultimately grow across the state."

Coluzzi Real Estate is led by third generation real estate investor Mitch Coluzzi. Mr. Coluzzi has been the principal broker at the company since 2014 after getting his real estate license at age 18 in 2008. In college, Mr. Coluzzi worked with local investors, acting both as an agent and on the construction side, helping to flip houses. Mr. Coluzzi's expertise is in private investing for real estate and construction.

"What attracted me to Real was the executive team," Coluzzi said. "I trust their heart; I trust their vision. I recognized that there is a better opportunity for the agents with Real and I wanted to be able to provide that for my team. I feel the tide shifting in the national arena for real estate, and Real allows individual agents to build their own brand as we are seeing a shift in the value of name brand recognition. This will build whole new opportunities for agents."

"Mitch, Taylor and the Coluzzi team are staples in their community and across Iowa," said Real co-founder and CEO Tamir Poleg. "It is an honor to have them join our team here at Real. We are really looking forward to working with them in a real estate market that is growing, and building even more relationships with agents and clients in Iowa."

About Real

Real (www.joinreal.com) is a technology-powered real estate brokerage operating in 36 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and Canada. Real is building the future, together with agents and their clients. Real creates financial opportunities for agents through better commission splits, best-in-class technology, revenue sharing and equity incentives.

Contact Information

For additional information, please contact:

The Real Brokerage Inc.

Caroline Glennon

[email protected]

1+201-564-4221

Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "likely" and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may", "will", "should", "could" or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions. These statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on information currently available to management as at the date hereof. Forward-looking information in this press release includes, without limiting the foregoing, information relating to Real's expansion to Iowa, and the business and strategic plans of Real.

Forward-looking information is based on assumptions that may prove to be incorrect, including but not limited to Real's business objectives, expected growth, results of operations, performance, business projects and opportunities and financial results. Real considers these assumptions to be reasonable in the circumstances. However, forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. These factors should be carefully considered, and readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based upon what management believes to be reasonable assumptions, Real cannot assure readers that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release, and Real assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances, except as required by law.

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, and the NASDAQ has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

SOURCE The Real Brokerage Inc.

Related Links

http://www.joinreal.com


SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Thunder, a leading Salesforce and Copado consulting partner, today announced the closure of a growth capital investment with participation from Clearsight Advisors , Salesforce Ventures , and Winning Streak Ventures to support its rapid growth. Thunder is also announcing the strategic hire of Susan Jaggers, formerly of IBM, to lead and develop Thunder's Employee Experience and Change Management practice to drive effective top-down innovation strategies for customers.

Thunder specializes in helping organizations adopt Salesforce by delivering extraordinary experiences for customers and employees using Salesforce solutions from Service to Marketing Clouds. Thunder helps organizations with the end-to-end customer journey and creates amazing experiences on how to better support, market, and sell.

"Nothing is more important than creating the ultimate customer experience and happiness for your employees and customers. This isn't easy to do, but it's why Thunder is amazing and our customers love us," explains Carter Wigell, Thunder's CEO. "In our experience, organizations love Salesforce when they master three dimensions of innovation: business alignment, technological excellence, and program governance. If these three pillars are not optimized daily, business challenges can sneak in and disrupt the chances of success and adoption."

Carter Wigell, a three-time founder and former Salesforce, Accenture, and WeWork executive said:

"We are delighted to be backed by Salesforce Ventures. We're excited to continue to surpass customer expectations on each and every project and to help organizations find opportunities to improve the way they market and sell to their customers, and to drive revenue and employee happiness."

This round of investment will fuel Thunder's continued expansion into key areas of cloud innovation and customer experience while additionally growing the leadership team.

Along with Susan Jaggers, Thunder has assembled an all-star team from some of the biggest partners in cloud consulting including IBM, Cloud Sherpas, and Accenture. Thunder creates incredible value for customers by leveraging its experience and building innovative solutions.

To celebrate the close of its round, Thunder is offering Salesforce customers free health checks and optimization roadmaps for your Support, Sales, and Marketing teams. Contact Thunder at www.thundersf.com.

ABOUT SALESFORCE VENTURES

Salesforce Ventures is the global investment arm of Salesforce and is focused on partnering with the most ambitious enterprise technology companies at every stage in their journey. Since 2009, Salesforce Ventures has invested over $3 billion in over 400 leading companies including Auth0, Databricks, DocuSign, Guild Education, Hopin, monday.com, nCino, Snowflake, Snyk, Stripe, Tanium, Twilio, and Zoom. Salesforce Ventures provides portfolio companies with unparalleled access to Salesforce, one of the fastest-growing enterprise software companies in the world, including strategic advisory, customer introductions, and the strongest cloud ecosystem. Salesforce Ventures has invested in more than 25 countries with offices all over the world including in San Francisco, Irvine, New York, London, Tokyo, and Sydney. Follow @SalesforceVC and learn more at salesforce.com/ventures.

ABOUT CLEARSIGHT ADVISORS

Clearsight Advisors is an independent merchant banking firm dedicated to driving the Knowledge Economy by providing world-class M&A and capital raising solutions exclusively to growth-oriented Business Services and Technology companies. Clearsight combines deep market insights across software, services, and data. Clearsight Capital Advisors, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary, is a registered member of FINRA & SIPC. For more information about Clearsight, visit www.clearsightadvisors.com

ABOUT WINNING STREAK VENTURES

Winning Streak Ventures was founded in the shadow of Silicon Valley and is pushing the envelope of what's possible with venture capital in Sacramento, California. Focused on both pioneering and disruptive technologies in the market, WSV actively engages with their founders to maximize growth and accelerate their success. WSV is meticulous about the investments it makes, taking the time to precisely analyze opportunities before participating. For more information about Winning streak Ventures, visit winningstreakventures.com

ABOUT SALESFORCE

Salesforce is the global leader in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), bringing companies closer to their customers in the digital age. Salesforce Ventures, the global investment arm of Salesforce, invests in the next generation of enterprise technology that extends the power of the Salesforce Platform. Salesforce Ventures is building the world's largest ecosystem of enterprise cloud companies and extending that technology to customers. Portfolio companies receive funding, strategic advisory, and operating support, and can easily join Pledge 1% to make giving back part of their business model. Salesforce Ventures has invested in more than 400 companies, including DocuSign, GoCardless, Guild Education, nCino, Twilio, Zoom, and others across 22 countries since 2009. For more information, please visit www.salesforce.com/ventures .

SOURCE Thunder, Inc

Related Links

https://www.thundersf.com/


DUBLIN, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "U.S. and China Glucose Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis 2020-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The U.S. and China glucose market size is expected to reach USD 9.44 billion by 2028, expanding at a CAGR of 4.8% from 2020 to 2028

The demand for glucose (dextrose) in the U.S. and China market is estimated to be driven by the expanding and developing sugar products sector, the growing pharmaceutical sector, and shifting preference towards natural ingredients across cosmetics and personal care products.



In the food and beverages application segment, the bakery and confectionery segment dominated the U.S. and China market with a revenue share of 9.5% in 2020. The rapidly increasing demand for a variety of bakery products, such as biscuits, bread, cakes, pastries, cookies, frostings, crackers, rolls, and doughnuts, is driving the market value of the segment.

Moreover, increasing innovations in bakery items, particularly to meet the changing eating habits of the consumers, are boosting the market growth. Corn syrup is not a direct substitute for sugar but it provides several benefits like it promotes browning and consistency in baking when combined with other sugars and it is not as sweet as sugar.



Confectionery products are gaining growth in the U.S. and China market owing to the increasing number of manufacturers in the local markets. Glucose (dextrose) is an essential ingredient in the development of a wide range of confectionery products, such as candy, sweets, gums, and jellies. The inclination towards organic chocolates and candies in the market is likely to create potential demand over the forecast period.

Additionally, the rising awareness and demand for medicated gummies that provide health benefits are supporting the demand for glucose in the confectionery market. For instance, YUM-V'S Glucose Gummies with fruit flavor is a chewable nutritional supplement for men and women that can increase blood sugar levels and boost energy.



The glucose (dextrose) market in China captured the largest revenue share of 50.9% in 2020. There is a slight difference in the revenue share of the U.S. and China owing to the large customer base in the China market.

The country has a large number of local players such as Guangzhou Shuangqiao Company LTD., Fengchen Group Co. Ltd., Sinofi Ingredients, Henan Fenghe Chemical Co., Ltd., Dancheng Caixin Sugar Industry Co. Ltd., and Xiwang Group, which is supporting its dominating share in terms of both revenue and volume.

The rapidly growing population, coupled with the changing food habits of the consumers, is supporting the market growth.



U.S. And China Glucose Market Report Highlights

The syrup form segment accounted for the largest revenue share of 69.2% in 2020. This is because of its exceptional properties such as prevention of crystallization and enhancing taste and texture, which has increased its application in bakery, confectionery, and dairy products in the U.S. and China . On the back of this, the syrup segment is projected to maintain its lead from 2020 to 2028

. On the back of this, the syrup segment is projected to maintain its lead from 2020 to 2028 The food and beverages application segment accounted for the largest revenue share of 54.9% in 2020 owing to the potential demand for glucose across confectionaries, soft drinks, energy drinks, fruit drinks, bakery products, and soups. Rising demand for on-the-go packaged products, along with a growing preference for functional food and beverages, is anticipated to support the glucose (dextrose) market growth from 2020 to 2028

The China glucose (dextrose) market is expected to register the fastest CAGR from 2020 to 2028. This is supported by the expansion plans of major manufacturers in order to take advantage of available opportunities. The market is gaining pace owing to the increasing investments in research and development (R&D) activities in the F&B sector and the strong presence of local players in the China market. For instance, Guangzhou Shuangqiao Company LTD. has the largest production base of starch sugar in South China and its sales volume has more than 90% share in the starch sugar market of South China . Additionally, the company is making its way for ingredients in the major global brands like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, China Resources Breweries, Robust, Uni-president, Wahaha, Yili, Want-Want, and Masterkong in Chongqing , Sichuan , Yunnan , and Guizhou

glucose (dextrose) market is expected to register the fastest CAGR from 2020 to 2028. This is supported by the expansion plans of major manufacturers in order to take advantage of available opportunities. The market is gaining pace owing to the increasing investments in research and development (R&D) activities in the F&B sector and the strong presence of local players in the market. For instance, Guangzhou Shuangqiao Company LTD. has the largest production base of starch sugar in and its sales volume has more than 90% share in the starch sugar market of . Additionally, the company is making its way for ingredients in the major global brands like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, China Resources Breweries, Robust, Uni-president, Wahaha, Yili, Want-Want, and Masterkong in , , , and Major manufacturers are investing in the Chinese glucose (dextrose) industry to increase their production capabilities in order to meet the evolving needs across the food and beverage sector. The country has the largest and most dynamic food market across the globe and serving around 1,445.3 million population. For instance, in 2018, Tate & Lyle PLC has doubled the size of its food application laboratory in Shanghai , particularly to meet growing consumer demand

Market Variables, Trends, and Scope

Market Lineage Outlook

Parent Market Outlook: Sugar and Sweeteners Market

Related Market Outlook: Fructose Market

Industry Value Chain Analysis

Raw Material trends

Major Raw Material Analysis

Corn/Maize

Wheat

Potato

Procurement Best Practices

Manufacturing Trends

Technology Trends

Vendor selection criteria

Market Driver Analysis

Upsurge in the consumption of food & beverages

Growing demand for sweeteners in cough medicines

Market Restraint Analysis

Health risks associated with excessive consumption of sugar

Market Challenge Analysis

Availability of alternatives

Companies Mentioned

ADM

Ingredion Incorporated

Agrana Beteiligungs-Ag

Tate & Lyle

Cargill, Incorporated

Roquette Freres

Grain Processing Corporation

Tereos

FOODING

Guangzhou Shuangqiao Company Ltd.

Fengchen Group Co., Ltd.

Sinofi Ingredients

Henan Fenghe Chemical Co., Ltd.

Dancheng Caixin Sugar Industry Co. Ltd.

Xiwang Group

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/jcqevx

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



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MILFORD, Mich., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The North Group (TNG), a top-tier private security and risk management company, announced today the appointment of former US Army Ranger and current entrepreneur, actor, writer, and producer, Vincent Vargas. In this role, Vargas will facilitate growth and increase sales by leading TNG's business development, marketing, and standard operations strategy and execution.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Vargas spent his military career in the Second Battalion of the elite 75th Rangers Regiment, serving three combat deployments during his tenure. After four years of active-duty service, Vargas joined the US Army Reserves, where he continues his service. In 2009, he became a Federal Agent with the Department of Homeland Security  serving extensively on the US border  and also served as a Medic with the Special Operations Group. Today, you may recognize him as 'Gilly' on the #1 cable tv series "Mayans MC" on FX.

"TNG is proud to continue our legacy of hiring highly-experienced veterans such as Vince," said Steven Hernandez, CEO of The North Group. "He proved himself to be an asset even before he came on board when he developed a highly-robust security protocol  while on location/at a movie shoot in Mexico  that we have since implemented and expanded upon to create one of the most intensive, well-rounded protective protocols in existence. Having him as a member of our team only serves to further solidify our arsenal of highly-intelligent risk management professionals who are, quite simply, the best in the business."

Vargas added, "Since filming in Mexico, I have been closely observing security and the different mindsets in Hollywood. I felt there was a need for someone to be able to provide a more well-rounded approach to safety mitigation and risk management, which leads me to where I am today. I am excited to be working with TNG to help them solidify and create a standard operating system for risk mitigation in high-profile scenarios like Hollywood. I hope that we can bring comfort to production companies and that high-profile individuals can get the comfort they deserve in their personal and professional lives."

Headquartered in southeast Michigan, TNG offers custom security and risk mitigation solutions at both the individual and organizational levels. While most security companies service only one need, TNG manages complex projects with global teams of highly specialized individuals. TNG service offerings include:

Protective Services: Executive protection, workplace security, security drivers, residential security, venue/event security, global crisis management, asset transport, protective surveillance, tactical surveillance countermeasures (TSCM)

Executive protection, workplace security, security drivers, residential security, venue/event security, global crisis management, asset transport, protective surveillance, tactical surveillance countermeasures (TSCM) Analyst Services: Due diligence, travel assessments, country briefs, secure travel planning

Due diligence, travel assessments, country briefs, secure travel planning Cybersecurity Services: System analysis and penetration testing, social media monitoring, cursory digital footprint validation, concentrated monitoring, digital forensics

System analysis and penetration testing, social media monitoring, cursory digital footprint validation, concentrated monitoring, digital forensics Crisis Mitigation: Threat assessments, red teaming, business continuity planning, emergency preparedness planning and training

Threat assessments, red teaming, business continuity planning, emergency preparedness planning and training Special Projects: Security system integration, crisis response, drone detection, electronic tracking, aviation support, specialized vehicle support

TNG operates worldwide with US management and offices in Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Texas, Utah, and California. To learn more about The North Group, or to schedule a free consultation, visit tngdefense.com.

About The North Group (TNG)

The North Group is an intelligence-driven, security and global risk management firm headquartered in southeast Michigan. TNG offers elite-level protective and intelligence services, complete with crisis mitigation, strategic analysis, cybersecurity, special projects and custom security resources to both corporate and individual clients. Their team consists of first-class field experts with highly-specialized military, law enforcement, private security and intelligence agency backgrounds. TNG operates worldwide, with US management offices in Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Texas, Utah, and California. To learn more about The North Group, or to schedule a free consultation, visit tngdefense.com

MEDIA CONTACT:

Devon Bradley

517-474-1573

[email protected]

SOURCE The North Group

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DENVER, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Voyager Space (Voyager), a global leader in space exploration, today announced the acquisition of Valley Tech Systems (VTS), a technology company focused on developing controllable solid hypersonic propulsion and open architecture ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) technologies. Voyager's acquisition of Valley Tech Systems highlights the company's intent to further expand its defense capabilities and apply these technologies to support Voyager Space's existing complementary capabilities and address customer demand across the defense and commercial sectors.

This acquisition marks an important milestone for Voyager as the company expands its focus to further support DoD missions that help ensure a safe operating environment for commercial space. ISR technologies are increasingly important in both the commercial and government sectors and have become a recommended first line of defense to address national security challenges.

"VTS is a leader in controllable solid propulsion and ISR technologies and can help to solve key pain points for space missions and create a safer and more affordable space ecosystem," said Dylan Taylor, CEO of Voyager Space. "We are eager to work with the VTS leadership team to further support VTS' continued growth and success."

Headquartered in Folsom, Calif., VTS was founded in 2007 and is known for pioneering technologies such as open architecture airborne ISR and controllable solid hypersonic propulsion. The company is focused on redefining technology to provide the highest standard of safety and affordability as applied to maneuvering reentry systems, missile defense, commercial and DoD space launch systems, small launch vehicles, and payloads. VTS also holds multiple awards from the Missile Defense Agency, NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Army for its technologies including reaction control systems, next-generation propulsion, active thruster nozzles, and more.

"We are focused on breaking technology barriers in space and joining forces with Voyager was an essential step in not only gaining additional access to capital but having the resources and collaboration needed to continue to push the barriers for innovation and affordable solutions in the field, all while remaining an agile, non-traditional supplier" said Mike O'Brien, president of VTS. "We look forward to becoming part of Voyager as we support upcoming launches with the U.S. government and the commercial space industry using our mission-focused solutions."

Voyager's acquisition of VTS adds to the company's expanding expertise relative to the defense industry to complement its deep capabilities in civil and commercial space. Most recently, Voyager added Jim Bridenstine , former NASA administrator, Ellen Lord , former undersecretary of defense and Dr. Cheryl Shavers , former undersecretary of technology to its Board of Directors and Advisory Board. The company also brought on Eric Stallmer as executive vice president of government affairs and public policy earlier this year.

For more information on Voyager please visit: https://voyagerspace.com/

About Voyager Space

Voyager Space is a global leader in space exploration. Voyager's long-term mission is to create a vertically integrated, publicly traded NewSpace company capable of delivering any space mission humans can conceive. The firm's first-in-industry model is uniquely tailored to support the growth needs of commercial space companies by replacing traditional private capital models with a longer-term approach that provides permanent capital. Voyager is led by founders and space industry veterans Dylan Taylor and Matthew Kuta, along with the Board of Directors which includes National Security Expert and four-star Air Force General William Shelton; leading institutional investor Gabe Finke; world-leading planetary scientist, Dr. Alan Stern; noted public company director and former U.S. undersecretary of technology Dr. Cheryl Shavers; experienced technology executive, board director, and financial leader, Marian Joh; and former undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, Ellen Lord. To learn more about Voyager Space, please visit: https://voyagerspace.com/

About Valley Tech Systems

Valley Tech Systems, a Voyager Space company, is an innovative engineering company that is leading the way in controllable solid propulsion and open architecture airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) technologies. VTS' cutting-edge solutions address technology needs across the U.S. Government and commercial space industry.

Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements." All statements, other than statements of historical fact, including those with respect to Voyager Space Holdings, Inc.'s (the "Company's") mission statement and growth strategy, are "forward-looking statements." Although the Company's management believes that such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee that such expectations are, or will be, correct. These forward-looking statements involve many risks and uncertainties, which could cause the Company's future results to differ materially from those anticipated. Potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, general economic conditions and conditions affecting the industries in which the Company operates; the uncertainty of regulatory requirements and approvals; and the ability to obtain necessary financing on acceptable terms or at all. Readers should not place any undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve these known and unknown uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond the Company's control and which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Any forward-looking statement reflects the Company's current views with respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

SOURCE Voyager Space

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https://voyagerspace.com/


London, Oct 4 : Another 30,439 people in the UK have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 7,900,680, according to official figures released Sunday.

The country also recorded another 43 coronavirus-related deaths, Xinhua news agency reported.

The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in the UK now stands at 136,953. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.

There are currently 6,733 patients in hospital with Covid-19.

The data came as Eddie Gray, chair of the British antivirals taskforce, has hinted the country could buy a new pill called molnupiravir after "very encouraging" clinical trial results showed it cut hospitalizations and deaths by half.

"We are involved in looking closely at all of the options available, but we're really not in a position to give out the details around specific conversations at this moment in time," said Gray.

US pharmaceutical giant Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said early results showed patients who received the drug within five days of displaying Covid symptoms had half the rate of hospitalization and death as those who were given a placebo.

Meanwhile, nearly 90 per cent of people aged 16 and over in Britain have had their first dose of vaccine and more than 82 percent have received both doses, the latest figures showed.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
New Delhi, Oct 4 : After the violent clash in Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday, a panchayat was called by Naresh Tikait, national president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), in Sisauli village of Muzaffarnagar late in night, wherein it was decided that a demonstration will be staged at the district collectorate on Monday.

Reportedly six people died in the violence, however officially four deaths have been confirmed so far.

An atmosphere of tension prevails in the state since the incident.

From farmer leaders to political leaders, everyone is making efforts to reach Lakhimpuri Kheri.

Naresh Tikait addressed the farmers and expressed displeasure over the incident.

As per the information, it has been decided that the farmers will stage protest against the violence at the district collectorate.

Security arrangements have also been beefed up on the Delhi borders.

Administrative officers also took stock of the movement site at Ghazipur.

Farmers were staging a sit-in at Benipur village located in Lakhimpur Kheri and sat on protest at a Helipad, where the helicopter of Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Maurya was supposed to be landed.

After which it was decided that the Deputy Chief Minister will reach Lakhimpuri Kheri via road.

The incident reportedly occurred after the farmers showed black flag to the convoy of the Deputy Chief Minister and Union Minister of State Ajay Mishra.

However, heavy police force has been deployed in the district and internet services have also been suspended.
Tehran, Oct 4 : The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) must "clarify its position" concerning a sabotage act in June against a building of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), the head of the AEOI said on Sunday.

It is important to note that there was "a terrorist incident there," and Israel has acknowledged it, Mohammad Eslami told journalists after a meeting with members of Iran's parliament, Xinhua news agency reported, citing state TV.

Answering a question regarding the UN nuclear watchdog's demand for access to a centrifuge-component-manufacturing workshop to service surveillance cameras, the Iranian official said Iran has no obligation to grant such access.

On September 26, the IAEA said in a statement that Iran had failed on September 12 to fully honour the terms of an agreement with the UN agency by not allowing access to the workshop in Karaj, west of capital Tehran.

Reacting to the statement, the Iranian ambassador to the IAEA, Kazem Gharibabadi, wrote on Twitter that the agency's report was not accurate, saying "any decision taken by Iran on monitoring equipment is only based on political rather than legal considerations." On July 6, Iran blamed Israel for a sabotage act against the AEOI facility in Karaj on June 23, with the alleged objective of derailing the talks to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement.
Lucknow, Oct 4 : Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was arrested from Hargaon in Sitapur district while she was on her way to Lakhimpur Kheri where violence had reportedly claimed eight lives on Sunday.

Priyanka Gandhi's convoy was stopped in Lucknow and the police surrounded the Kaul House where she stays during her Lucknow visits.

However, Priyanka managed to hoodwink the cops and walked out of her residence form the side gate and after a short distance, she got into a waiting car and left for Lakhimpur Kheri with Congress leader Deependra Singh Hooda at the wheel.

As soon as Priyanka reached Hargaon in Sitapur district around 6 a.m. on Monday, she was stopped. After a minor scuffle with women constable, Priyanka demanded to see her arrest warrant. The police personnel took her into custody and she was taken to the PAC office in the district.

Congress leaders who were accompanying Priyanka created a ruckus and staged a dharna to protest against her arrest.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Pyongyang, Oct 4 : North Korea has decided to restore all the north-south communication lines starting from Monday, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The report said the decision was announced to follow the promise made by the North Korea's top leader Kim Jong Un in a speech on last Thursday in which he expressed the intention of restoring the cut-off north-south communication lines as part of the effort to realize the expectation and desire of the entire nation who want the north-south relations to be restored, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The South Korean authorities should make positive efforts to put the north-south ties on a right track and settle the important tasks which must be prioritized to open up the bright prospect in the future, bearing deep in mind the meaning of the restoration of communication lines," the KCNA report added.

Inter-Korean relations have remained cold since the summit between the North Korea and the US reached no deal in early 2019.

The inter-Korean hotlines were briefly back in operation in late July, but the North Korea began refusing Seoul's regular calls again two weeks later in protest against the joint military drills by South Korea and the US.
Lucknow, Oct 4 : Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has been arrested from Hargaon in Uttar Pradesh's Sitapur district while she was on her way to Lakhimpur Kheri where violence had claimed eight lives on Sunday.

Other opposition leaders are also being stopped form proceeding towards Lakhimpur Kheri after Sunday's incident, where the death toll has gone up to eight.

Priyanka Gandhi's convoy was stopped in Lucknow and the police surrounded the Kaul House where she stays during her Lucknow visits.

However, Priyanka managed to hoodwink the cops and walked out of her residence form the side gate and after a short distance, she got into a waiting car and left for Lakhimpur Kheri with Congress leader Deependra Singh Hooda at the wheel.

As soon as Priyanka reached Hargaon in Sitapur district around 6.a.m on Monday, she was stopped. After a minor scuffle with women constable, Priyanka demanded to see her arrest warrant. The police personnel took her into custody and she was taken to the PAC office in the district.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, "I am not committing a crime by stepping out of the house. I just want to meet the affected families and share their grief. What wrong am I committing? And if I have done something wrong, then you (UP Police) should have an order, a warrant. You (UP Police) are stopping me, my car, but for what reason?" Congress leaders who were accompanying Priyanka created a ruckus and staged a dharna to protest against her arrest.

UPCC president Ajay Kumar Lallu said that the arrest of Priyanka proved again that there was no democracy left in the political system.

"We are well within out rights to protest and we are not going to be cowed down by such repressive measures," he said.

The death toll in Sunday's violence has gone up to eight and the BJP claimed that the deceased included one driver and three BJP workers.

Bahujan Samaj Party MP Satish Chandra Mishra was not allowed to move out of his house in Lucknow at 3 a.m. when he tried to move towards Lakhimpur Kheri. Mishra demanded a written order which prevents him from moving out of his house.

The BSP general secretary, said, "We want to visit Lakhimpur Kheri. We are not being allowed to move citing law and order disturbance there. We demand written order if they want to house arrest us." The Uttar Pradesh police tweeted that the situation in Lakhimpur Kheri was under control and adequate deployment of forces had been done to prevent any 'untoward incident'.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said in a statement issued late on Sunday night that he was 'saddened' by the violence in his state that left eight people, including four farmers, dead.

He promised strict action against those responsible following an investigation and made an appeal to maintain peace.

BKU leader Rakesh Tikait's convoy was also stopped on its way to Lakhimpur Kheri. He had reached Puranpur in Pilibhit district.

Tikait said that he will hold a press conference later in the day.

He said BKU would stage demonstrations at all district headquarters on Monday to protest against the Sunday's incidents.

Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Ravan's convoy was stopped near Khairabad in Sitapur. He has been detained at Sitapur police line.

Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh was stopped in Sitapur on his way to Lakhimpur Kheri on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday. He was stopped during checking of vehicles in Laharpur area of the district.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary and former minister, Om Prakash Rajbhar, are scheduled to leave for Lakhimpur Kheri on Monday. A heavy police force has been deployed outside their respective residences.

A senior police official, who spoke to IANS on condition of anonymity, said, "We are not going to allow any political leader to go to Lakhimpur Kheri and worsen the situation. We are trying our best to defuse tension and normalize the situation. We cannot allow some leaders to derive political mileage at the cost of the situation." In another major development, union minister of state for home, Ajay Mishra Teni, whose earlier statement apparently triggered off trouble on Sunday, said that his son Ashish Mishra Monu was not present at the site where the violence took place.

The farmers had alleged that Monu had mowed down farmers while driving his SUV.

The police have taken Ashish Mishra to a safe house to ensure his safety and security.
Seoul, Oct 4 : South and North Korea restored their direct communication lines on Monday, raising hopes for the resumption of stalled dialogue amid a deadlock in denuclearization talks.

The two sides had contact through a military hotline and a separate joint liaison office channel, Yonhap News Agency quoted South Korean officials as saying.

Hours earlier, North Korea's state media announced that the lines would be back to normal operation as of 9 a.m. on the day.

Last year, North Korea blew up a liaison office in its border town of Kaesong and unilaterally cut off all inter-Korean communication lines in anger over anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent from South Korea.

The hotlines were briefly back in operation in late July before being suspended by North Korea in protest of an annual combined military exercise of South Korea and the US.

The North has long denounced the allies' annual military exercise as a rehearsal for invasion.

On Monday, South Korea immediately expressed hope for the resumption of inter-Korean dialogue.

The reconnection of the communication lines is viewed as having "laid the ground for bringing the relations between the two Koreas back on track", the Unification Ministry said in a statement.

"Through that stable management of the communication lines and swift resumption of dialogue, the government hopes to begin and advance substantive discussions on improving inter-Korean relations and making peace take root on the Korean Peninsula, along with implementing agreements between the two Koreas." The South Korean Defence Ministry also expressed hope that the restoration of the hotlines would ease military tensions with North Korea.

The Ministry added that both of the two direct military communication lines -- the western and eastern hotlines -- operated normally but Pyongyang has not answered the South's calls via ship-to-ship radio links that use the global merchant marine communication.

Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said South Korea "should make positive efforts to put the North-South ties on a right track and settle the important tasks bearing deep in mind the meaning of the restoration of communication lines".

Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un expressed his willingness to restore cross-border communication lines from early October, citing a bid "to realise the expectation and desire of the entire nation who want the North-South relations to be restored as soon as possible and lasting peace to be settled on the Korean Peninsula".

But he stressed that it is entirely up to South Korea when it comes to the future trajectory of their ties.

In his address to the UN General Assembly last month, South Korean President Moon Jae-in again proposed the declaration of a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War.

North Korea called the offer an "admirable idea", saying that it is willing to discuss improving inter-Korean relations only when Seoul stops double standards against its "defensive" weapons tests and "hostile" policy toward its regime.

Unification Minister Lee In-young told reporters on Sunday that South Korea will push to arrange high-level talks with North Korea before the end of this year.
Chennai, Oct 4 : The forest combing team, which has been in search to track and hunt down the killer tiger, code-named MDT23 has now extended its search to Tamil Nadu's Masinagudi and Singara areas.

Two Kumki elephants have been pressed into service to track the killer tiger. The elephants, Udayan and Srinivas have rejoined the task force which has spread out into the forest areas.

The Chief WildLife Warden, Tamil Nadu, Shekar Kumar Neeraj had on Saturday ordered to shoot down the tiger after local people protested following the death of four men and 12 cattle in village localities bordering the forest area in Gudalur.

The tiger, according to the forest officials is not healthy and hence it was not able to hunt down its prey in the forest and had made a habit of venturing out into human settlements to find its prey easily. The tiger has already killed four men.

The forest officials in the combing team while speaking to IANS said, "The tiger is hungry and according to our information it has not taken food since the past seventy-two hours and it will definitely venture out.

Around 60 forest personnel from Tamil Nadu forest department and the tiger trackers from the Kerala forest department are into the operation to hunt down the tiger for the past few days but the big cat remains elusive.

The team is led by the Chief Wildlife Warden of Tamil Nadu, Shekar Kumar Neeraj. After villagers informed about the presence of a weak tiger in the nearby forest at Singara, the combing operation commenced from this area.

Forest official sources told IANS, "Some statements cannot be taken into account. But we are not leaving any stone unturned and are in full throttle to get the animal. Hope it will be successful by today." A senior official said, "We have searched five km radius within the forest land on Sunday but there was no trace of the animal. Drones and sniffer dogs were used, but the animal remains untraceable. We are tracking MDT 23 by its stripes and have circulated the printout of this tiger to all the teams." The Masanigudi-Theppakadu road remained closed for the second day creating loss of tourist inflow in the area.
Bengaluru, Oct 4 : Karnataka's Minister for Health K. Sudhakar has announced that Covid-19 vaccines in the form of nasal drops for children would mostly be available by the month of November or December.

Speaking to reporters in New Delhi after his meeting with Union Minister for Health Mansukh Mandaviya on Sunday, Sudhakar said that the Central government is negotiating the price of Covid-19 vaccines for children with Zydus Cadila company which has developed the jab.

If these negotiations are fruitful, the vaccine for children should be available by the month of November and December in the state of Karnataka, he said.

"In the meeting with the Union Health Minister, this matter was discussed," the state Minister added.

Sudhakar maintained that it was not possible to predict the third wave in the state, saying: "We have to see who situation unfolds in the months of November and December. However, we have taken all precautions and stringent restrictions are still in place despite the pressure from neighbouring states of Kerala and Maharashtra." Karnataka is also discussing administering booster shots for those who have taken two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine. But, no decision is being made in this regard, according to the Minister.

He opined that the state government should have taken a decision to open primary classes for the students of the first standard to fifth standards by this time.

"In my opinion, children have more immunity power compared to others. After the Dussehra festival, the government will hold a meeting with experts and take a decision in this regard."
Seoul, Oct 4 : Incheon Port Authority, a South Korean port operator, said in Monday that it will lift its entry ban on international cruise ships starting from March next year, more than two years after it was banned due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The South Korean government imposed an entry ban on luxury liners in February 2020 to contain the spread of the coronavirus after reports that 130 confirmed cases were found on a cruise ship quarantined off the Japanese coast near Yokohama, reports Yonhap News Agency.

Incheon Port Authority said it will allow three international cruise ships to stop at Incheon Port, about 40 km west of Seoul, next year.

MS Artania will be coming into the port in March 2022 and Hanseatic Inspiration in May, with MS Regatta slated to anchor in the port in October.

In particular, Hanseatic Inspiration plans to use Incheon Port as its home port, which means passengers of the cruise ship will start their local travel after entering South Korea via Incheon International Airport.

Since February 2020, no international cruise ships have arrived in the country's ports.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Chennai, Oct 4 : Chennai and its surrounding areas will receive light to heavy rains on Monday, according to a report from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).

The rains, according to weathermen, are due to the Upper air circulation.

Rains are also likely in southern Tamil Nadu also due to the Upper air circulation phenomenon, weather officials told IANS.

The weather forecast also said that Chennai would be cloudy during the day and that thunderstorms will accompany rains in the state capital and surrounding areas.

On Sunday, Chennai received light to moderate rain with Ennore recording 1 mm of downpour. Satyabhama University on OMR road recorded 3 mm rain.

Nungambakkam, Royapettah areas also had light to moderate rains on Sunday and weathermen forecast that the rains could continue on Monday also followed by thunderstorms.
Lucknow, Oct 4 : Reports of damage to a Kashmiri cemetery and a dilapidated Imambara, allegedly by a local builder, has put the Shia community on the boil.

Shia clerics and a lawyer have vowed to rebuild the structures.

Pictures of an earthmover excavating the site went viral on social media on Sunday after which Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad reached the site near the King George's Medical University (KGMU) and got the work stopped.

Maulana Kalbe Jawad also held a majlis on the premises and assured rebuilding of the Imambara through crowdfunding.

"Work has been stopped but a few graves have been damaged. We will help in rebuilding the damaged graves along with the boundary wall and a proper gate. The land is registered as a waqf property and is in use by the Kashmiris in Lucknow," said Maulana Saif Abbas, another Shia cleric.

Maulana Kalbe Jawad said, "All efforts to free the land will be made. We will rebuild it through crowdfunding. I, along with another cleric will donate Rs 50,000 each for the Imambara and Rs 30,000 has been pledged by a few members of the community." He demanded that an FIR should be lodged in this connection.

Mehmood Abidi, a Mumbai-based lawyer from Lucknow who is of Kashmiri descent and whose ancestors are buried at the cemetery, has also written to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath seeking his intervention on the issue.

He has written that his great grandfather was buried in the cemetery. "Graves of our community elders are maintained there. We visit this cemetery on Shab-e-Barat and other special occasions during Ramzan and Muharram to pay respect to our ancestors," he said.
Sanaa, Oct 4 : At least eight people were injured after ballistic missiles fired by the Houthi militia struck Yemen's oil-rich province of Marb, causing huge explosions, a military official said.

The official told Xinhua news agency that a total of three missiles were fired which landed on the Al-Rawdah residential neighbourhood of the densely populated city of Marib.

Preliminary information indicated that nearly eight people including women and children were injured, in addition to damaging a number of residential houses, according to the official.

The local authorities in Marib reported earlier this week that the Houthi militia bombed the city with more than 300 ballistic and non-ballistic missiles during the past period, in addition to drones that targeted densely populated neighbourhoods.

The Iran-backed Houthi militia launched in February a major offensive on Marib in an attempt to seize control of the oil-rich province, the last northern stronghold of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government.

Yemen has been mired in civil war since September 2014 when the Houthi militia forced the internationally recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa.
October 04 : Soon after Shah Rukh Khan's elder son Aryan Khan was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau and sent to one-day custody on Sunday, Salman Khan visited the Pathan actor at his residence. Salman was spotted arriving at Mannat on Sunday night and was also clicked by the paparazzi.

Salman Khan, who has just returned from Europe tour, where he was shooting for his forthcoming film Tiger 3, is currently busy hosting Bigg Boss 15. The actor was among the firsts to visit Shah Rukh and be with him in his time of crisis. Salman and Shah Rukh have recently done cameo roles in each others filmsPathan and Tiger 3. Many Bollywood celebs including Pooja Bhatt, Suniel Shetty, and Suchitra Krishnamoorthi expressed solidarity with Shah Rukh on social media.

Twenty-three-year-old son Aryan Khan was arrested along with seven others on Sunday after Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) raided a party on a cruise ship off the coast of Mumbai. According to NCB, the raid yielded 13 grams of cocaine, 21 grams of charas, 22 pills of MDMA, and 5 grams of MD in all.

Even before the arrest was confirmed, Shah Rukh Khan was spotted leaving his home and heading for his lawyer's office. Aryan Khan has been book for the purchase, possession and use of banned substances. He was produced in court on Sunday evening when NCB was given custody of Aryan and others who were arrested. The custody is till today.

An NCB official has reportedly said that Aryan Khan was apologetic when we asked him to accompany us to the NCB office. Aryan and others were taken for medical examination at JJ Hospital at 4pm on Sunday. They were brought back to the NCB office and produced before a holiday court at 7pm. NCB officials reportedly said that they did not recover any contraband from Aryan Khan, but found a small quantity of charas in another celeb kid Arbaaz Khan Merchants shoes, who was sharing a room in the cruise liner with Aryan.

Aryan Khan's lawyer Satish Maneshinde has filed bail plea on his behalf, saying that his client has been arrested only on the basis of chat messages. "Aryan had no ticket, no cabin or seat on board the cruise. He was there because he had been invited. He didn't even have a boarding pass. Nothing has been found on him. He was arrested on the basis of chat only," Satish Maneshinde said.
Phnom Penh, Oct 4 : Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has called on people to take extra precautions to prevent large-scale Covid-19 transmission during the Pchum Ben religious holiday from Tuesday to Thursday.

During the holiday, people are expected to travel across the Southeast Asian nation, which can pose high risk of large-scale transmission, especially the Delta variant, Xinhua news agency quoted Hun Sen as saying in a statement on Sunday.

He advised local authorities to enforce preventive measures at tourism-related businesses and resorts during the holiday and encouraged state institutions and private companies to rapid test their employees for Covid-19 when they return to work from the holiday.

"The measures aim to prevent and contain large-scale Covid-19 transmission and to protect people's lives and health as the Kingdom of Cambodia is stepping toward reopening the country fully in all fields in the near future," Hun Sen said.

Pchum Ben festival is the kingdom's second largest festival after the Khmer New Year.

Cambodia on Sunday confirmed 199 new Covid-19 cases, pushing the national total caseload to 113,256, the Ministry of Health (MoH) said in a statement.

Twenty-three more fatalities were registered, taking the overall death toll to 2,383, it said, adding that an additional 490 patients recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 104,408.

The Kingdom launched a Covid-19 vaccination drive in February and till date, 13.42 million people or 83.9 per cent of its 16-million population have received at least one dose.

Meanwhile, 11.1 million peeople, or 69.4 per cent, have been fully vaccinated, and 901,907, or 5.6 percent, have received a booster dose.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
New Delhi, Oct 4 : The late Jnanpith award-winning author Indira Goswami was a great literary writer of her generation and a feminist icon. Most of her major works have been translated from Assamese into English; however, some of her works are yet to be discovered by a larger audience. "Five Novellas About Women" (Niyogi Books) represents a cross-section of her writing, with a special focus on the courage of women under trying circumstances.

Sensitively translated, with detailed notes on the translation, these stories bring to light the human condition that Goswami portrayed in her writing. The lives of the rural poor, the situation of widows, the plight of the urban underclass and various social constraints under which people are forced to live are depicted in these impactful narratives.

The deft use of language, striking imagery and strong characters are a hallmark of Goswami's writing. The stories in this selection exhibit these unique characteristics of her work in abundance. These nuanced translations bring the literary creations of one of the great writers of our times to new life and a wider audience.

An Introduction, Translator's Note and Author's Timeline add value to the book by discussing the nuances of the translation process as well as contextualising the author's life and work.

Indira Goswami (1942-2011), who wrote as Mamoni Raisom Goswami in Assamese, popularly known as Mamoni Baideo, wrote about people rarely represented in Indian writing-women, the maginalised, the powerless, the unfortunate.

Apart from India's highest literary award, the Jnanpith (2001), Goswami also honored with the Sahitya Akademi Award (1983), and the Principal Prince Claus Laureate (2008), She was also an editor, poet, professor, and scholar, best known for her novels such as "The Moth Eaten Howdah of the Tusker", "Pages Stained with Blood" and "The Man from Chinnamasta".

She is also known for her attempts to structure social change, both through her writings and through her role as mediator between the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the Indian government through the People's Consultative Group, a peace committee.

Translator Dibyajyoti Sarma has published three volumes of poetry (the last being "Book of Prayers for the Nonbeliever", 2018) and two books of translations of Assamese poets Sananta Tanty and Kamal Kumar Tanti, and an academic book, besides numerous writing credits in edited volumes, journals and websites.

He was born in Assam and now lives in Delhi, where he works as a journalist and editor and runs the independent publishing outfit Red River.
Guwahati, Oct 4 : After dumping two of its old allies -- AIUDF and BPF, the opposition Congress in Assam will now forge an alliance with the Asom Jatiya Parishad (AJP) and Raijor Dal to take on the ruling BJP in the October 30 by-polls to the 6 Assembly seats.

Assam state Congress President Bhupen Kumar Borah said that of the six seats, Majuli will be left to the AJP while the Bhawanipur seat is likely to be given to Raijor Dal even as a final decision was expected from the party President Akhil Gogoi.

By-election for the Majuli seat, which fell vacant after former Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha on September 27, might be announced soon and discussions were held on the election related issues for all the six constituencies at a party meet, Borah added.

The Election Commission on September 28 announced the by-polls to Gossaigaon, Tamulpur, Bhabanipur, Mariani and Thowra which will take place on October 30.

Borah and AJP President Lurinjyoti Gogoi emphasised the "need to defeat the divisive agenda of the BJP, which was dabbling in communal politics only for electoral gain".

Gogoi expressed the need for all like-minded opposition parties to come forward "to stem this destructive communal tide unleashed by BJP on the people of Assam".

"The systems of purchase of MLAs would keep democratic traditions in bondage and this is dangerous for all of us. The need of the hour is to create an environment in Assam which is free from communal politics and agenda of hate," the AJP President said.

The AJP and the Raijor Dal together fought the March-April Assembly polls but only Gogoi was elected to the assembly.

The Congress, which ruled Assam for 15 years (2001-2016), managed to get 29 seats in the March-April Assembly elections, three more than the 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 (AIUDF) 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 last 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 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.

BJP sources said that the party would field candidates in four seats and leave the Tamulpur constituency for UPPL.

The party's state unit chief Bhabesh Kalita has claimed that the BJP would win all the five seats in the by-elections.

In the 126-member Assam Assembly, the 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 previous time, while the new alliance partner, UPPL, got six seats.
New Delhi, Oct 4: The Azerbaijan-Pakistan-Turkey axis, it seems, has not roiled India alone. Iran too seems to be infuriated by the trilateral alliance. Recent tensions between Iran and Azerbaijan point to Tehran's disquiet about the alliance, especially its military angle.

A war of words has erupted between Iran and Azerbaijan over the past week. The apparent raison d'etre was the military drills that Iran had begun along its Azeri borders.

Rich in oil and gas, Azerbaijan was part of the former Soviet Union. It is a pivotal state in the Caucuses, sharing borders with Iran and Armenia, whose importance is enhanced on account of its potential wealth and influence.

Iran's influential Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in a statement said that the Islamic Republic would not tolerate any changes in the geopolitics of borders and would confront with all its might the inimical actions of its enemies. "We warn all those who are trying to destabilize the northern borders of Iran, and assert our preparedness to impede the evil designs of our enemies." The Iranian state media reported that the drills involved armoured and artillery units as well as drones and helicopters.

The Azeri President Ilham Aliev expressed surprise at the drills. On Sunday Iranian Supreme Leader on his Twitter handle said, "The issues concerning Iran's north-western neighbours should be resolved wisely by relying on nations, through the cooperation of the armies of neighbouring countries and by avoiding the presence of any foreign military forces...... 'Those who dig a hole for their brothers will be the first to fall into it'." The reference was obviously to Iran's northern neighbour Azerbaijan. The latter had earlier in September held the first ever trilateral military exercises with Turkey and Pakistan in Baku. Azeri Defence Minister Hikmat Mirzayev was quoted as saying, "Azerbaijan, Turkey and Pakistan have entered the history of humanity as close friends and brothers. At the heart of these relations are the close ties between our peoples. Evidence of this can be seen in the solidarity and support of Turkey and Pakistan to Azerbaijan from the first day of the 44-day counteroffensive operations launched by Azerbaijan against the Armenian armed forces on September 27, 2020." No doubt, the Iranian military exercises were a response to it. But it also marks an ongoing cycle of bilateral tensions. Last year a similar spat had broken out between Iran and Turkey after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had recited a poem on his trip to Baku to commemorate Azerbaijan's victory in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The poem alluded to a vision of "Greater Azerbaijan" which includes Iran's northern districts populated by Iranian ethnic Azeris, the largest non-Persian ethnic minority in the country.

Since Azerbaijan's emergence as a sovereign nation, tensions have marked bilateral relations. For Baku, a staunchly secular state in the fashion of most ex-Soviet ones, Shiite radicalism and "Khomeinism" were threats emanating from Iran. For Iran, potential irredentist claims by sections of Azerbaijan's population on Iran's northern provinces constituted a major threat.

The recent rise in "Turkic nationalism" and close cooperation between Ankara and Baku, which helped cement Azerbaijan's victory in its war with Armenia last year, as well as give NATO member Turkey a strategic foothold in the South Caucasus, has not gone down well in Iran.

Though it tried to keep equidistance, given its excellent relations with Armenia, Iran had to bat for Azerbaijan as ethnic and cultural sentiments engulfed its Azeri population. Tehran is worried that the newly stirred up nationalism witnessed in Azerbaijan during the war and especially following its victory may stir up similar sentiments and provoke secessionist tendencies among its Azeri population. The war victory has also meant that some bordering regions with friendly Armenia have now become part of its border with Azerbaijan.

But yet another angle in bilateral tensions is Azerbaijan's close relations with Iran's arch-enemy Israel. At least since 2012 Azerbaijan is widely believed to be hosting an Israeli military base on its territory. It also has a $1.6 billion arms deal with Azerbaijan, committing to sell drones and anti-aircraft missile defence systems to Baku. Along with Turkey's unpiloted aerial vehicles it was drones purchased from Israel that helped Azerbaijan suppress Armenian air defences.

Following the war, Azerbaijan opened its first trade and tourism office in Israel in July this year. It also allows Israel intelligence gathering on its territory. Given that Iran's traditional rivals in the region -- the UAE and Saudi Arabia have been trying to mend fences with it recently, and given the recent statement by Israeli Chief of General Staff Aviv Koha that preparations for possible action against Iran are being intensified Tehran fears that Azerbaijan's territory could be used as a launchpad against it.

Finally, Iran's strained relations with Pakistan are poised to get worse because of the Afghan crisis. Iran has slammed Pakistan for its role in the fall of Panjshir valley to the Taliban and demanded a probe. Alongside this, Pakistan's protege -- the Taliban are continuing with their persecution of Shiite Hazaras inside Afghanistan.

Therefore, the trilateral military show of strength and camaraderie between Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Pakistan may have just triggered yet another regional flashpoint -- this time in the South Caucuses.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative
Mumbai, Oct 4 : A full 18 months after remaining shut during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, a majority of the schools in Maharashtra - barring the primary sections - reopened on Monday.

Schoolbells started ringing at the appointed morning hour urging students to hurry for classes, while in many schools, teachers and non-teaching staff welcomed the pupils with roses, chocolates, or sweetmeats to mark the special day.

Enthusiastic students turned out in their crisp uniforms, lugging their schoolbags, in singles, double or in groups of friends, and waited patiently at the gates for their temperature checks and hand sanitisation, before proceeding to the classrooms.

School Education Minister, Prof Varsha Gaikwad visited a few schools in Sion-Dharavi and interacted with the students in their classrooms, counselling to take all cares and return to the school routines as in the pre-pandemic era.

"A new day has come, a new journey begins, step out into the light and step inside the classroom. Welcome!" she said.

Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar also visited a couple of schools, spoke with the students, and staff and directed all protocols be followed plus all amenities like drinking water, clean toilets, fumigated classes, be available to the children.

Following a government decision, all schools from Class 5-12 in the rural areas and from Class 8-12 in urban areas have thrown the doors open for students from Monday.

However, some like the Gyan Ganga International School in Pune, shut the gates on many of the students ostensibly since they had not paid their fees for the previous year, sparking protests from parents and political parties.

In several districts, some government and semi-private schools, students attended their first day in darkness as power supply was snapped off allegedly due to non-payment of old bills.

Students and parents were harried in some urban centres like Mumbai, Thane and Pune, as they had to make own commuting arrangements as school buses did not resume services.
Kabul, Oct 4 : A new Unicef report has revealed that more than 2 million children under five years of age are suffering from acute malnutrition, and 600,000 of them are currently suffering from severe acute malnutrition, which is the most dangerous form of undernutrition in kids.

Afghanistan is one of the countries with the highest numbers of children under the age of five suffering from severe acute malnutrition, alongside Yemen and South Sudan.

In 2018, Unicef, who is the sole provider of ready to use therapeutic food for malnourished children in Afghanistan, could so far only target less than 50 per cent of severely malnourished children due to limited supplies (275,000), said the report.

The situation is complex against the backdrop of continued violence, climatic extremes (droughts and flash floods) multiple displacements, growing food insecurity and improper feeding habits, according to the report.

"Across Afghanistan today, millions of children are in desperate need for health and nutrition services,. around 14 million people in Afghanistan are food insecure today, among them around 3.5 million children, whom, we expect will suffer from acute malnutrition, within them around one million children," TOLO News quoted Salam Al-Janabi, communication specialist for Unicef in Afghanistan, as saying.

He said that UNICEF and WFP have been working to the full extent of their capability over the past two months.

"Around 40,000 children were provided with treatment for severe acute malnutrition." The findings of the most recent nutrition surveys across Afghanistan also show that 22 out of 34 provinces are currently above the emergency threshold of acute malnutrition.

The Unicef program on nutrition in Afghanistan is only 50 per cent funded of the $13 million.
Lucknow, Oct 4 : The UP Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has arrested the managing director of a private company for siphoning off Rs 3.03 crore in the name of construction of schools.

The accused, Vinod Singh, was arrested on Sunday from his apartment in Lalbagh locality in Lucknow.

According to reports, the Centre had released funds in 2008 for the construction of Kasturba Gandhi Residential Schools for girls in the state.

"A Lucknow-based private company got a contract to build schools in 26 districts of the state. The project cost was Rs 36 lakh per school. Bijnor was allotted 13 schools and the construction deadline was 2010. However, the company constructed only a few buildings and made off with almost 90 per cent of project funds, allegedly in collusion with Education Department officials," a senior EOW officer said.

Subsequently, the company was blacklisted and an FIR filed against its MD Vinod Singh, Manager Dharmendra Singh, and President Bhikhari Singh.

They were booked under charges of criminal breach of trust and dishonesty.

"Dharmendra Singh was arrested earlier. We are yet to arrest Bhikhari Singh," the officer said.

The FIR was registered in 2012 in Bijnore by the local police. In 2014, the case was transferred to the EOW.

The names of two basic shiksha adhikaris had also come to the fore following which a report had been sent to the state government.
Sanaa, Oct 4 : At least 28 Houthis were killed in airstrikes launched by the Saudi-led coalition forces in Yemen's Marib province, a government source said.

"Twenty-eight rebels were killed and 10 weapon-mounted vehicles were destroyed in the coalition airstrikes on the rebel positions at the adjacent frontlines of Lam'aa and Om Reesh in Harib district," the source told Xinhua news agency on Sunday.

"The airstrikes were a response to the rebels' ground attack on the positions of the government forces at the frontlines," the source added.

Meanwhile, the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported 20 Saudi-led airstrikes in the Harib and three in Sirwah on Sunday, without providing the details of the militia casualties.

The report claimed that the Houthi forces were advancing in Marib province despite the heavy airstrikes.

The frontlines of Lam'aa and Om Reesh are about 60 km south of the government-controlled Marib city.

The Iran-backed Houthi militia launched in February a major offensive on Marib in an attempt to seize control of the oil-rich province, the last northern stronghold of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government.
October 04 : After Shah Rukh Khans son Aryan Khan was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Sunday, many Bollywood celebrities have come out in support of the Pathan actor. Filmmaker Hansal Mehta openly supported the actor and said that it is painful for a parent to deal with the situation.

Hansal Mehta ensures that he extends support to his Bollywood colleagues whenever they are in trouble. Taking to his Twitter account, the filmmaker wrote, It is painful for a parent having to deal with a child getting into trouble. It gets compounded when people begin to arrive at judgements before the law takes its course. It is disrespectful and unfair to the parent and to the parent-child relationship. With you @iamsrk.

It is painful for a parent having to deal with a child getting into trouble. It gets compounded when people begin to arrive at judgements before the law takes its course. It is disrespectful and unfair to the parent and to the parent-child relationship. With you @iamsrk.  Hansal Mehta (@mehtahansal) October 4, 2021

Earlier, Pooja Bhatt, Suchitra Krishnamoorthy and Suniel Shetty took to Twitter and extended support to the superstar. I stand in solidarity with you @iamsrk Not that you need it. But I do. This too, shall pass, Pooja Bhatt tweated.

After Aryan Khan was arrested in the Mumbai cruise drug bust case, actor Suniel Shetty urged everyone to not assume the worst. He asked the media to let Aryan Khan breathe and not jump to any conclusions. I would like to say that wherever there is a raid, several people are caught. And we assume that this child must have consumed drugs or this child must have done it. But the proceedings are on, give that child a chance to breathe. The actor further wrote, Whenever something happens in Bollywood, the media scrutinises everything and jumps to conclusions. Give the child a chance. Let the truth come out. It is our responsibility to take care of the child. Suniel Shetty also wrote that Aryan is a lovely boy and that he loves him. Suniel also pointed out that while several people have been detained, and many more were at the party, only Aryan Khans name is being highlighted because he is linked to Bollywood.

SRKs friend Salman Khan also visited the Pathan actor at Mannat on Sunday night.

Aryan Khan was detained late Saturday night by the NCB and after a raid on the cruise he was on. After questioning, Aryan was arrested and produced at a holiday court on Sunday night, where he was sent to NCBs custody for a day till today.

Aryan has been arrested under the sections 8C, 20B, 27 and 35 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Proposals For A European Union : army have re-emerged after the Afghan fiasco - but many member states still remain 'hard to convince, about its feasibility.

It seems that the EU has learnt the lessons of the abrupt end of the US-led mission in Afghanistan and furthermore after AUKUS, that the US is a trying to build a coalition of English speaking Anglophonic nations in the defence realm and that time has now come for them to guard their interests themselves.

In her annual state of the union speech in the European Parliament in Strasbourg recently, Ursula von der Leyen, a former German defence minister, described the withdrawal of the US-led mission in Afghanistan, and the subsequent collapse of President Ashraf Ghani's administration troubling. She urged the European leaders to acquire the "political will" to build up its own military force to de deployed at or prevent any future crises.

She is also reported to be working with the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, on issuing a "new declaration" on EU-Nato relations by the end of the year. She has also said there would be crises where the EU's own military force should operate independently from both the UN and Nato.

Germany's current Defence Minister, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has said that von der Leyen is right. Real EU defence depends on the political will of the member states. That's why Germany and France must lead any such exercise.

European solidarity For some, this state of affairs revived the old idea of a European military - with the EU's chief diplomat himself urging the bloc to create a collective armed force.

"The need for more European defence has never been as much evident as today after the events in Afghanistan," EU foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell told journalists at a meeting of the bloc's foreign and defence ministers in Slovenia recently, where the Afghanistan debacle featured prominently.

The EU needs to create a "rapid response force" of 5,000 soldiers, Borrell said. EU military committee chairman Claudio Graziano also agreed with the idea, which should be supported with a genuine "will to act" he is reported to have said.

This phrase appeared once again, when Macron talked about Afghanistan with visiting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at the ElysEe Palace. The two leaders gave a joint statement urging the EU to develop "strategic autonomy" so it can take "more responsibility for its security and defence".

Going one step further France has recently inked a defence deal for supply of 13 Rafael jets and 3 frigates to Greece. By choosing French Rafael, Greece rejected the bid by US's Boeing for F-16 planes.

Critics of the proposal The idea of common defence, one attacked by some critics of the EU as evidence of fomenting nationalism building, has a long and chequered history. It dates back to 1990s and the Yugoslav Wars. A joint 1998 statement by France's then President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair declared that the EU "must have the capacity for autonomous action, backed up by credible military forces", an assertion which fits Emmanuel Macron very well today.

In 1999, the EU agreed to raise a contingent of 50,000-60,000. In 2007, the bloc created a network of two "battle groups" of 1,500 troops from each country. They have since never been requisitioned.

Proponents of an EU armed force that operates independently of Washington will also have to win over sceptics within the bloc; the Baltic states and Poland are not in favour of any new defence pact excluding the US.

In addition perceptions within the EU states differ as to what is a threat to its interests. For example the Baltic states consider Russia as an existential threat as per geopolitical realities but Russia is a key energy partner for Germany, and an ally for Hungary.

Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel also backed the EU army idea in 2018, amid suggestions that the EU "could no longer count on the United States" under Donald Trump's leadership. Other European leaders who had advocated for such an army have included Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Italy's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Czech President Milos Zeman and former Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka.

Pushes for an EU-force have public support, too. A 2017 Eurobarometer poll collated by Statista found that 74 per cent of respondents in the Netherlands and Belgium supported the idea. In France and Germany, backing for the proposal was 65 per cent and 55 per cent percent respectively, but in EU's traditionally more neutral countries, like Austria (45 per cent), Ireland (46 per cent), Finland (42 per cent) and Sweden (40 per cent) it was mellowed. In the UK, only 39 per cent of survey respondents were in favour.

Other critics of the proposal include Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg himself, who has warned that an EU force "cannot defend Europe" without NATO assistance.

Military analysts say that most EU governments can't investment more in defence and they are further concerned about the risk of undermining Nato. In 2019 EU's 27 member states' expenditure on defence stood at 1.2 per cent of the GDP compared with 3.4 per cent by the US.

International security and defence analyst Brooks Tigner has also pointed to potential funding issues. In a 2018 opinion piece for the Atlantic Council, Tigner wrote that while the idea for an EU army might appear "impressive on paper", but none has any realisation of what the collective cost of operations might be. He added that the bloc would have to resolve a plethora of other "technical, legal, and administrative differences" that would "boil down to the most mundane things such as soldiers' rights".

A leaders' summit dedicated to European defence will be convened by von der Leyen and tMacron, in the first half of next year, when France holds the rolling presidency of the EU. The concept of an EU army would be debated and discussions will be held about "why this has not worked in the past" at the next summit von der Leyen has said.

Overall, as in the past, this time too it seems that the idea might get turned down due to its feasibility but it would help politicians like Macron and other European leaders to root for more nationalism and nationalistic tendencies, independent of the US.

(Asad Mirza is a political commentator based in New Delhi. He writes on Muslims, educational, international affairs, interfaith and current affairs. Views expressed are personal)
Chennai, Oct 4 : An advocate practicing in the Madras High Court on Monday urged the court to take suo moto action contempt of court proceedings against Tamil Nadu Congress unit chief K.S. Alagiri for his purported remarks against a high court judge.

Appearing before Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee, advocate M.L. Ravi mentioned his e-mail sent to the high court registry on Sunday regarding Alagiri's statement against Justice Anand Venkatesan.

In his mail, Ravi said that Justice Venkatesan was miffed as a traffic jam on Chennai roads due to the 93rd birth anniversary celebrations of the late actor Sivaji Ganesan caused him to reach the court late. On reaching the court, the judge had called up the Home Secretary to ask how public servants are held up on road due to traffic jams following government events and prevented from reaching their workplaces on time.

The Home Secretary, according to the lawyer, had expressed regret over the incident and assured the judge that this would not recur. However, Ravi said that Alagiri on Sunday stated that the judge should not have called up the Home Secretary on the matter.

Chief Justice Banerjee told the petitioner that he would look into the matter.
New Delhi, Oct 4 : Reflecting a deep-rooted sense of community, time, and geography, three debut authors and two Malayalam translations feature in the shortlist of the Rs 25 lakh JCB Prize for Literature 2021, India's most coveted literary award that celebrates the very finest achievements in Indian writing announced on Monday.

The shortlist: "Anti-Clock", translated from Malayalam by Ministhy S. (Penguin Random House India, 2021) "Name Place Animal Thing" by Daribha Lyndem (Zubaan Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 2021) "The Plague Upon Us" by Shabir Ahmad Mir (Hachette India, 2020)

"Delhi: A Soliloquy" by M. Mukundan, translated from Malayalam by Fathima E.V. and Nandakumar K. (Westland, 2020) "Gods and Ends" by Lindsay Pereira (Penguin Random House India, 2021)

Daribha Lyndem, Shabir Ahmad Mir and Lindsay Pereira are the debut authors.

The winner will be announced November 13.

Each of the five shortlisted authors will receive Rs 1 lakh; the translators will receive an additional Rs 50,000. If the winning work is a translation, the translator will receive an additional Rs 10 lakh.

Announcing the shortlist, Mita Kapur, Literary Director of the JCB Prize, said: "Things are looking up slowly and there are a few things that have kept us going through these times: empathy, love, art. The publishing industry has powered on in bringing a treasure trove of literature from all regions of India to the forefront to reach out to readers here and throughout the world.

"Now more than ever, we need to listen to the other, lose ourselves in a new story. These books will spirit you away to worlds unknown, yet familiar in the emotions each human heart shares with the other," Kapur added.

Presenting a cross-section of the multiple diversities in India, Jury Chair Sara Rai said the five novels "speak in layered voices often laced with irony. Inventive and insightful in the way only literature can be, they create disparate worlds, each a microcosm with larger resonances and significance.

"The anguish of Kashmir, the turbulence of ethnic conflict in the Northeast, the disharmony of lives spent in narrow social and psychological confines, each with their specific difficulties -- the novels dive deep into these particular, ordinary lives and come up having discovered in them the extraordinary," Rai added With Covid-19 restrictions slowly easing, the Prize is back this year with new on-ground collaborations with stand-alone book stores and Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters with the aim to provide wider access to the novels across India and create a one-on-one interaction between readers and books. The Prize is also collaborating with Amazon Books India for the fourth year in a row as its official online partner to ensure that the shortlisted books reach people in every corner of the country.
Ramallah, Oct 4 : Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held talks with two Israeli Ministers to discuss the peace process between the two sides in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the state-run WAFA news agency reported.

During the meeting on Sunday with Israeli Minister of Health Nitzan Horowitz and Minister of Regional Cooperation Issawi Frej, Abbas said that it is important to end the Israeli occupation and achieve just and comprehensive peace in the region, through the implementation of international resolutions, Xinhua news agency reported citing WAFA.

Abbas stressed the necessity of halting Israeli settlement, stopping raids on Palestinian towns and villages, and ceasing homes demolition and displacement of the Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

The two Israeli Ministers explained to Abbas their position, which supports the two-state solution and the joint cooperation to build confidence between the two sides.

Meetings between Abbas and Israeli ministers and officials have been taking place over the past three months as the bilateral direct peace negotiations had been stalled since March 2014.

The US-sponsored talks between Israel and the Palestinians stopped in 2014 following disagreements on Israeli settlement and the recognition of establishing a Palestinian state on the 1967 border.

Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are claimed by the Palestinians, in the 1967 Middle East war and has controlled them ever since.
New Delhi, Oct 4 : Two companies of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) have been deployed in Lakhimpur Kheri following the violence in which nine persons died, including a journalist, an official in the security set up said here on Monday.

Around 300 security personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)'s RAF have been deployed on the ground to control the situation apart from the Uttar Pradesh Police force.

The official also said that the deployment was made to prevent any further deterioration in the law and order situation as many leaders of the political parties, including Congress and Samajwadi Party have been trying to visit Lakhimpur Kheri with their supporters.

The Chief Ministers of Chhattisgarh and Punjab have been denied permission to visit the area by the Uttar Pradesh government.

After the incident, the state government suspended the Internet services in the district as a precautionary measure and high officials of the state government have been camping in the area and monitoring the situation, the state government officials said.

The UP Police has registered a case against 15 persons, including the son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra.

On Sunday, several persons were injured and three vehicles set on fire when protests on farm laws took a violent turn in Lakhimpur Kheri. The protesters are alleged to have clashed with the BJP workers in the Tikunia village in Lakhimpur Kheri after some of the protesters were run over by the vehicles. One of the vehicles belonged to Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, Oct 4 : Citing the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, Attorney General K.K. Venugopal on Monday told the Supreme Court that an "unfortunate incident" happened and the protest against the farm laws must stop now. At this, the top court said that when "such incidents happen, nobody takes responsibility".

"A large number of petitions (against the three farm laws) have been filed. Unfortunate event happened at Lakhimpur Kheri. Such incidents should not happen. The protests must stop..", Venugopal told a bench headed by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar.

"When such incidents happen, nobody takes responsibility," said the bench, noting that when it had already stayed the three farm laws, there is nothing to be implemented and what are the farmers protesting for.

Stressing that no one other than the top court can decide the validity of the farm laws, the bench said: "When that is so, and when farmers are in court challenging the laws, why protest on streets?" It said the principal question for adjudication before it is whether the principal issue of right to protest is absolute, when petitioners have moved the court, and can they still resort to protest when matter is sub-judice.

"Protest why? When the law is not in force at all and the court has kept it in abeyance. Law is made by Parliament, not by the government." The top court made these observations while agreeing to examine the plea by Kisan Mahapanchayat seeking space for protesters to conduct protest at Jantar Mantar against the three farm laws. The top court has scheduled the matter for further hearing on October 21.
Madrid, Oct 4 : Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has promised an aid package of 206 million euros ($239 million) to help the island of La Palma overcome the effects of the ongoing eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano.

The aid package, which is aimed at supporting infrastructure, tourism and water supplies, would be approved at Tuesday's cabinet meeting and passed by a royal decree as quickly as possible, Xinhua news agency quoted Sanchez as saying.

This "potent aid package" will be added to the 10.5 million euros in aid approved last week to be granted to help people displaced by the eruption.

"I want to underline the exemplary response of the population. We have to communicate a feeling of security to the residents and to tourists who could visit the island," said Sanchez, who made his third visit to the island on Sunday as the eruption entered its 15th day.

The eruption has so far led to around 6,000 people being evacuated from their homes, while destroying more than 1,000 homes.

Angel Victor Torres, regional president of the Canary Islands, said that the eruption looks set to continue.

"We don't know for certain in what moment we are, the end doesn't look to be close," said Torres, who added that the 80 million cubic metres of lava the eruption has already thrown out is already twice as much as the amount in the last eruption on the island in 1971.

As well as the homes and agricultural land, the lava has also destroyed 30 km of road on the island and led to the formation of around 50 hectares of new land as the lava flows into the ocean on the southwest coast of the island.

The volcano increased its activity on Saturday night, when over 20 tremors with a magnitude of up to 3.5 on the Richter Scale were measured, while two new fissures opened on the side of the mountain.

The new fissures, which are around 15 metres apart, began to expulse molten lava parallel to the earlier flows which have reached the ocean.
New Delhi, Oct 4 : The vehicular movement on Delhi's Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg was disrupted on Monday due to a protest march organised by the Youth Congress workers against the Lakhimpur Kheri violence.

Both the carriageways were blocked by police barricades put up near the Ranjit Singh flyover. Along with the Delhi Police personnel, Central Reserve Police (CRP) was also deployed to control the situation.

Hundreds of the Congress workers and leaders started their protest march from their party office and moved towards the BJP headquarters. They were, however, stopped by the police near the Ranjit Singh flyover.

The protesters shouted slogans against the BJP and Uttar Pradesh government. With slogans such as "Kisano ke samman mein, Congress hai Maidan mein (For the honour of farmers, Congress is ready to fight)", they demanded justice for the farmers, who were allegedly killed in Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday.

The Youth Congress protesters were trying to cross the police barricades, however, the police managed to control the situation.

As many as four farmers were allegedly killed in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri following violence, which resulted in a massive protest at the spot. The state police said on Monday that the situation would be normalised soon.
New York, Oct 4 : Daniel Craig's final outing as James Bond has shaken and stirred the international box-office with a first-weekend earning of $119 million, even as the 'Venom' sequel starring Tom Hardy brought cheer to the U.S. market by setting a pandemic record of raking in $90.1 million in its opening weekend.

According to Variety.com, 'Venom: Let There Be Carnage' beat the previous records set by another Marvel property, 'Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings', and the Scarlett Johansson-starrer 'Black Widow'.

The 25th James Bond movie, 'No Time to Die', meanwhile, looks all set to recover its delayed production costs of $250 million, plus another $100 million spent on marketing and promotions, when it releases in the week ahead in 15 major markets, including France, Russia and North America, before it lands in China on October 29.

China, incidentally, is now the world's largest movie theatre market, having toppled the U.S. when the pandemic was raging. This past Friday, September 30, 'No Time to Die' opened in 54 markets internationally.

'Venom: Let There Be Carnage', which is much darker than its 2018 predecessor, which also had Tom Hardy in the lead, interestingly, is playing only in cinemas, as opposed to being also available on-demand in a hybrid release format.

Although a Marvel franchise, like Disney's 'Shang Chi', which it has displaced from the No. 1 spot, 'Venom: Let There Be Carnage' is being released by Sony Pictures.

The second movie of the Sony Spider-Man Universe, the super villain action thriller will arrive in India on October 14. It will be the first Hollywood film to be released theatrically across Maharashtra after cinemas are allowed to open in the state on October 22.

Exulting over the box-office numbers (the film also made $13.8 million in Russia, the only other market where it has been released), Sony's Chairman, Tom Rothman, said in a statement quoted by Variety.com. "With apologies to Mr Twain: The death of movies has been greatly exaggerated."

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, Oct 4 : The Congress said that it will stage protests at all District Collectors' offices across the country on Tuesday in support of farmers and to demand action against those responsible for the violence in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday party leader Rajeev Shukla said: "The party stands in support of farmers in the entire nation, and we demand that the Prime Minister and the UP Chief Minister should take strict action against those who have committed this crime and it should not look that government is against the farmers." The party also demanded that the government should release party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who has been detained by the UP Police while on her way to Lakhimpur Kheri, and also allow its two Chief Ministers - Punjab's Charanjit Singh Channi and Chhattisgarh's Bhupesh Baghel - to visit the site of incident as they have been denied permission to land in the state capital by the UP administration.

The Tikunia police in Lakhimpur Kheri lodged an FIR against Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Misra's son Ashish Mishra and 15 others for murder and inciting violence in Lakhimpur Kheri, even as the death toll reached nine on Monday.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha claimed that Ashish Misra's vehicle ran over farmers who were protesting against Uttar Pardesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya's visit to a village in Lakhimpur Kheri.

Ajay Misra and his son, however, claimed that protesters attacked the convoy and killed a driver and three others, including two BJP workers.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Chennai, Oct 4 : A police inspector attached with the Thirukazhakundram police station in Tamil Nadu's Chengaplattu district was transferred to reserve vacancy after a video of him surfaced in which he was seen having an inappropriate conversation with a married woman.

The video went viral leading the police department to take action against the officer. He was transferred on Saturday.

The police registered a case based on the complaint filed by the husband of the woman. The man in the complaint said his wife was seen regularly chatting and when he searched her phone, found several videos of the policeman. The person said that when he approached the inspector, the officer threatened that he would be killed.

Munisekar was earlier in the news after the accidental killing of his colleague Periyapandy, another inspector with the Tamil Nadu Police in Rajasthan four years ago. A team of policemen led by Munisekar and Periyapandy had gone to Rajasthan in December 2017 to arrest the culprits in a gold theft case.

However, the police party during the raids late at night was attacked by the local people with sticks and stones and in the melee, Periyapandi was shot dead. Police initially said the villagers had shot the inspector dead, but later on a detailed study of the bullet and other circumstantial proofs, it was clear that Periyapandi was accidentally killed by Munisekar.

Police had even recovered an empty cartridge and two 9 mm pistols from the crime scene.

Chengalpattu Superintendent of Police, Vijayakumar told media persons that an Assistant Superintendent of Police had recorded the statement of Munisekar in the viral video case.
Mumbai, Oct 4 : Animated movie 'The Boss Baby 2: Family Business' is scheduled to release in India on October 8.

The film is a sequel to the 2017 film 'The Boss Baby', which starred Alec Baldwin as the title character.

Like its predecessor, the new film, directed by Tom McGrath and written by Michael McCullers, will see Baldwin reprise his role as the title character.

'Boss Baby 2' will see the return of Lisa Kudrow and Jimmy Kimmel as their respective characters.

It will also feature new voices to the cast, with James Marsden replacing Maguire's character, and Jeff Goldblum as the voice of Dr Erwin Armstrong.

The movie will be released in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Panaji, Oct 4 : Goa does not need people who take drugs, state Tourism Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar said on Monday, while responding to questions related to the arrest of eight persons, including Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan's son Aryan.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a government event, Ajgaonkar also said that while the Goa government was "strict" in cracking down on drug consumption by tourists, he also said that the reins of drug control rests with the Home department only.

"We do not want people who take drugs. We are strict," Ajgaonkar said, when asked to react to the arrest of 23-year-old Aryan Khan by the Narcotics Control Bureau officials onboard a cruise liner travelling from Mumbai to Goa.

When asked to comment on how the Tourism Ministry planned to thwart tourists coming to Goa with or for the purpose of drug consumption, Ajgaonkar said: "These things are not in my hands. It is in the hands of the Home department".

The Tourism Minister also said that Goa should be clean of drugs and garbage.

When asked if the state government would permit music festivals during the upcoming festival season of Christmas and New Year, Ajgaonkar said: "We will also host music festivals, but after Covid precautions. We will follow up the SOPs".

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, Oct 4 : The Supreme Court on Monday junked an application by Supertech Ltd seeking modification in the court's direction to demolish its twin 40-storey towers in Noida.

A bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and B.V. Nagarathna noted that grant of such a relief is in the nature of a review of the judgement passed by the top court, as it held that its judgment directing demolition of twin towers specifically affirmed the directions which were issued by the Allahabad High Court for the demolition of the towers - T 16 and T 17.

Supertech had moved the top court seeking direction to allow it to only partially demolish 224 flats of one tower, along with its community area on the ground floor, to conform with the building norms.

The bench noted in essence, what the applicant seeks is the direction for the demolition of T 16 and T 17 should be substituted by a retention of T 16 in its entirety and a slicing of a portion of T 17.

"Clearly, grant of such a relief is in the nature of a review of the judgement of this court," it said, holding that this application styled as miscellaneous applications or applications for clarifications in the guise for review cannot be countenanced.

The top court said that there is no substance in the application filed by Supertech Ltd, hence it is dismissed.

Supertech Ltd had contended that due to the proximity of Tower 17 (Ceyane) with the other residential towers in its Emerald Court project, the process of demolition by blowing through explosives cannot be carried out, and rather it would have to be done brick by brick. The real estate firm said the proposed modifications if allowed, it would save crores of resources from going to waste in the construction of towers T 16 (Apex) and T 17 (Ceyane).

In its August 31 judgment, the Supreme Court besides ordering demolition of Supertech twin towers in Noida and refund for the flat purchasers, ordered prosecution of errant NOIDA and real estate company officials under Section 49 of Uttar Pradesh Urban Development (UPUD) Act for their "nefarious complicity", which resulted in the construction of towers.

In its 140-page judgment, the bench noted the real estate firm raised false pleas and attempted to mislead the court, while the officials of NOIDA have not acted bona fide in the discharge of their duties. "The appellant (Supertech Ltd) has stooped to the point of producing a fabricated sanctioned plan," said judgment authored by Justice Chandrachud on the behalf of the bench.

The top court had said the demolition of towers should be carried out within 3 months and the builder will bear its cost.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Lucknow, Oct 4 : The Bahujan Samaj Party now faces a threat to its Dalit votes in Uttar Pradesh from BJP leader and former Uttarakhand Governor Baby Rani Maurya.

Maurya, who was recently appointed BJP national Vice President, will campaign in UP to woo Dalit voters.

BJP's SC Morcha Secretary Rahul Kumar said: "Progammes are being chalked out for the former Governor in an attempt to woo Dalits, especially Jatavs, who were the core vote base of BSP until 2019 Lok Sabha elections." The party will organise programmes in Dalit-dominated constituencies to welcome Maurya, who also belongs to the Dalit community.

"We will begin our programme from Navratri and plan to create a buzz. Prominent BJP leaders will participate in these programmes and Baby Rani Maurya may even stay on in some districts to interact with the local leaders," Kumar said.

BJP General Secretary Priyanka Rawat, who is coordinating the campaign, said that this programme would continue in October and November and the biggest programmes would be organised in the main districts of party's six organisation regions - Lucknow (Avadh region), Varanasi (Kashi region), Gorakhpur (Gorakhpur region), Kanpur (Kanpur-Bundelkhand region), and Meerut and Saharanpur (West UP).

This is the first time that the BJP is specifically targeting Dalit votes, particularly Jatavs, who form the backbone of the BSP.
New Delhi, Oct 4 : Expressing sympathy with the families of the farmers killed during a protest in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri district, the BJP on Monday said the incident was a part of a bigger conspiracy and alleged that anti-national elements have infiltrated the ongoing farmers' agitation.

Vijaypal Singh Tomar, Rajya Sabha MP and former National President of the BJP Kisan Morcha while speaking to IANS alleged that foreign forces were involved in the violence on Sunday. He claimed that the incident in Lakhimpur Kheri was part of a bigger conspiracy and, therefore, a high-level inquiry must be ordered.

The BJP leader said before and after India's Independence, there have been many farmer protests. And leaders like Sardar Patel, Sharad Joshi and Mahendra Singh Tikait, and he himself also has been a part of many agitations and been to prison several times. But, he said, never has any farmer protest affected the fundamental rights of any individual. "What kind of a farmer protest is this that you will not allow political leaders to hold rallies and their choppers to land here." Tomar alleged that anti-national elements have infiltrated the farmers' protest and said similar anti-national elements had orchestrated the violence in Red Fort on January 26, and now in Lakhimpur Kheri also. "Some people wearing Khalistani terrorist Bhindranwale's T-shirts were seen among the crowds during the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, which needs to be investigated and the truth must come out," he said.

Expressing condolences towards all the farmers killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, the BJP leader said, "Every opposition party is playing politics over the incident and making baseless allegations against the ruling Yogi Adityanath government." Vijaypal Singh Tomar said, "Allow the investigation to take place, the truth will eventually emerge. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has already assured of strict punishment to all culprits involved in the violence." Responding to Pilibhit BJP MP Varun Gandhi's letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, the BJP Rajya Sabha MP said, "It is not right to term the violence as murder even before conducting an investigation. Let the investigation take place first, let the truth come out and as far as the demand for a CBI inquiry is concerned, the Uttar Pradesh government is conducting a high-level inquiry and if need arises, a CBI inquiry will also be ordered as well." Asked about targeting the Union Minister of State for Home, Ajay Mishra by opposition parties, the former National President of BJP Kisan Morcha, said the Union Minister has clarified that his son Ashish Mishra was present in the village and video footage is also being cited in this regard.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Beijing, Oct 4 : Over 16,000 residents in northeast China's Liaoning province have been affected by extensive heavy rainfall that began two days ago, the local flood control and drought relief headquarters said on Monday.

From 8 p.m. Saturday to 6 a.m. Monday, most areas of Liaoning were battered by moderate to heavy downpours, with some areas hit by extreme rainstorms and hail, reports Xinhua news agency.

A total of 16,583 people have been affected so far.

The province has relocated 4,513 people to safety.

The affected area of crops has totaled 2,533.13 hectares, of which 27.33 hectares were destroyed, leading to a direct economic loss of 168 million yuan.
New Delhi, Oct 4 : Kapil Sibal on Monday came out in support of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra after she was stopped and detained by the Uttar Pradesh Police from going to Lakhimpur Kheri.

Sibal tweeted, "Priyanka Gandhi Her detention is illegal. In a State where lawlessness is the norm; where the perception is that in such situations violation of personal liberty is guaranteed.

"Instead of prosecuting those responsible, you detain those who seek justice." He had earlier on Sunday said, "Lakhimpur Kheri incident Convoy of Union Minister riding over farmers as if their lives don't matter! The minister be sacked; the role of all concerned including the state government be assessed An independent enquiry be conducted by a sitting Judge." The statement comes after Kapil Sibal questioned the Congress leadership last week and alleged that the party decisions 'are being taken without consultation' and demanded elections in the party.

Meanwhile, Priyanka said she has not been told why she has been detained and not allowed to meet lawyers.

She was detained from Hargaon in Sitapur district while she was on her way to Lakhimpur Kheri where violence had reportedly claimed nine lives on Sunday.

A video of Priyanka sweeping a room with a broom has gone viral on social media. According to sources, the video is of the room where Priyanka has been detained since Monday morning at the Sitapur PAC headquarters.

The room was apparently dirty and Priyanka asked for a broom and cleaned it herself.

The Congress workers slammed the police officials for not even giving a clean room to their leader.

"Is this their Swachh Bharat? This is our leader who is cleaning the broom without any fuss," said a local Congress leader.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Kabul, Oct 4 : About 600 displaced Afghans, who were displaced by intense fighting in the months prior to the Taliban takeover, have returned to their homes in northern Badakhshan province from an Afghanistan-Tajikistan border area, provincial Governor Maulvi Amanuddin Mansoor said on Monday.

The returnees were displaced during clashes prior to the Taliban's takeover of capital Kabul ion August 15, Xinhua news agency quoted Mansoor as saying to reporters.

"They were living in a dire situation on an open ground. They returned after provincial officials ensured their security," he said.

Efforts are underway to help all displaced people return to their villages at an early date in the mountainous region as winter is approaching, according to the Governor.

The province fell to the Taliban on August 10.

Late last month, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that more than 6,35,000 people in Afghanistan were routed from their homes this year due to escalated violence, with over 12,000 displaced to Kabul.
Chennai, Oct 4 : The residents of middle class Govardhan Giri Apartments in Chennai's Kolapakkam are now wary.

For they are seeing a lot of visitors these days - media, probe agency officials - after the seizure of huge heroin in Gujarat's Mundra Port late last month.

After Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials seized a huge haul of 3,000 kg heroin, estimated to be valued at about Rs 21,000 crore, from the port, the development had its reverberations in Govardhan Giri apartments with residents, Machavaram Sudhakar and wife Govindaraju Durga Purna Vaishali, getting picked by the agency.

The arrests came as a huge surprise and shock not only for other residents of the apartments but also for those living on that street.

The couple certainly does not seem to be capable of having means to source heroin of huge scale or value.

With little prodding, residents with a bit of reluctance would tell the media that the Sudhakar and Vaishali, who have two small children, were leading a normal life.

According to the neighbours, the couple were religious and used to conduct prayers in the morning.

The Telugu couple who spoke fluent Tamil were generally reserved and did not have many visitors, a resident said.

As to Sudhakar's job, police said he was employed with a cargo agent while the residents were told that he was working with a company.

It is said Sudhakar had lost his job last year post Covid-19 pandemic and the company Aashi Trading Company came into being around that time.

The heroin shipment originated from Afghanistan, and was shipped to Gujarat from Iran's Bandar Abbas Port. The goods and services tax (GST) number used for consignment allegedly belongs to a company registered in Andhra Pradesh's Vijayawada.

However, it was later found that Vaishali, a resident of Chennai, had taken the GST registration last year giving the Vijayawada address.

The building is owned by Vaishali's mother Govindaraju Taraka.

Vaishali had also taken an import and export license (IEC Code) from the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) for export and import purposes.

After the DRI got a tip off that the narcotics were declared as semi-processed talc stones, originating from Afghanistan and shipped via Iran's Bandar Abbas to Mundra, it detained two containers for examination under the provisions of Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act.

Subsequently, the couple were arrested and taken to Gujarat for further investigation while their two children were with their close relative.
Lucknow, Oct 4 : The Uttar Pradesh government spokesman and senior minister Sidharth Nath Singh on Monday said the farmers have a trust and belief in the Yogi Adityanath government, and it was because of this that they worked towards an agreement after the Lakhimpur Kheri incident.

"Under the leadership and direction of Yogi Adityanath, the administration has worked. FIRs have been lodged on both sides and action will be taken strictly as per law. This is Yogi government and there is the rule of law. There is no raja or rank (king or pauper)," Singh said.

Talking about permissions being denied to Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav for going to Lakhimpur Kheri, Singh said opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh were indulging in "political competitiveness due to the 2022 elections", and said the Opposition must desist from "political tourism and photo-ops".

"In politics and in a democracy, the Opposition has a right to go amidst the people and listen and understand their issues. But when there is a serious and sensitive situation and atmosphere, one must let the investigation happen first. The Opposition should wait patiently for 24-48 hours and go once the investigation becomes clear and the situation improves. No one will stop them then," Singh said.

He said the Opposition should not be "trying to take political mileage in sensitive situations".

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is in the "business of photo-ops and political tourism" in Uttar Pardesh, he said. "Samajwadi Party and the other opposition parties have political competitiveness in light of the 2022 elections," he added.
Abohar, Oct 4 : An unobservant traveller, driving from Rajasthan and entering Punjab through the city of Abohar in the Fazilka district, might completely miss the fact that they are passing through a wildlife sanctuary. The animals know to keep away from the open and busy roads criss-crossing the land. And there are no forests here, only farmlands.

The sanctuary is essentially a close-knit community of nearly a dozen densely populated villages where hundreds of the rare blackbuck roam fearlessly in the fields amidst the bustle of agrestic life. The forest department does not own any land in this area and yet there is a thriving wildlife sanctuary, home to thousands of wild animals.

The sanctuary, which begins from the Punjabi village of Bazidpur Bhoma, is also home to over 30,000 people of the Bishnoi community. The Bishnois are a Hindu sect founded in the late 15th century in Rajasthan and are well-known for their fierce love for the environment and all things living.

The Bishnois here in Abohar have solidified that legacy over the last century by allowing their private land to moonlight as a special reserve for the protection of the Krishna (blackbuck) and Chinkara deer (Indian gazelle).

Establishing a 'private' sanctuary The person credited for the founding of the sanctuary is Chaudhary Sant Kumar Bishnoi of Dotaranwali village, born in the year 1915. Sant Kumar grew up in the tradition of wildlife preservation; his father and grandfather were persistent in their patrols to drive poachers out of the area. Sant Kumar was more radical and started fining the poachers and handing them over to the police. He mobilised people in the surrounding villages to become more proactive in protecting the deer, eventually forming the All India Wildlife Defense Bishnoi Committee (AIWDBC).

At the request of the Bishnois, the Punjab Government issued a notification in the year 1975, declaring the villages of Raipura, Dotaranwali, Rajwali, Sardarpura, Khairpura, Sukhchain, Seetoguno, Maharana, Himmatpura, Rampura, Narainpura, Bishanpura and Bazidpur Bhoma as the Abohar Wildlife Sanctuary. Sant Kumar was felicitated with the Indira Gandhi Environment Award in 1992, and he passed away six years later. In 2000, the 13 villages were legally declared a sanctuary under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

Ashok Bishnoi, the grandson of Chaudhary Sant Kumar and a retired forest range officer, is now the National Vice President of the AIWDC.

He told 101Reporters: "Thousands of people of the Bishnoi community are involved in protecting wildlife. They guard these creatures day and night. As a result, this is the only area in Punjab where blackbucks are now found." Guardians of the blackbuck

The Bishnois are zealous in their mission to protect the wildlife here and have been managing the sanctuary with the support of the forest department. The Forest Department has deployed 11 employees in the sanctuary and, together with 10 daily wage contract workers, they oversee the vast reserve spread over 46,513 acres.

But the real deterrent for hunters and poachers are the Bishnois who number in the thousands. The other communities living here, though small in number, have assimilated into the Bishnoi way of life and are just as committed to the cause. RD Bishnoi, head of the Punjab branch of the AIWDBC, said that many a time unarmed Bishnois have caught gun-wielding poachers and handed them over to the police. When the wildlife is in any perceivable danger, even women single-handedly take on the hunters, he said.

Anita Rani, Acting Range Officer, Punjab Forest and Wildlife Protection Department, credits the Bishnoi community for the lack of poaching in the area for several years now. "The people of the Bishnoi community have saved these innocent creatures. They are always ready to protect them from poachers and provide first aid if they get injured," she told 101Reporters.

For the last 26 years, Rajendra Bishnoi has been guarding the sanctuary. He said: "The forest department and the villagers work day and night. We have no fixed work hours. As soon as there is information about a wild animal being injured, we immediately reach the spot. If it is a minor injury, the animal is treated on the spot and freed. If it is serious, it is taken to the rescue centre for treatment. Many times we have even taken injured animals to Ludhiana." Apart from the blackbuck, other animals such as nilgais, pheasants, hares, jackals, wild cats, porcupines, wild boars and black ducks are also found in abundance. The community here takes efforts to make arrangements for food and water for the animals at different places in the fields.

From birth to death, the Bishnois nurture the wildlife around them like they are part of a large family. RD Bishnoi said that the community performs the last rites of animals killed in accidents. Sometimes, after the death of a female deer, villagers are known to bottle-feed the newborn fawns.

"Visitors come here in large numbers and find inspiration to protect nature," said Kuldeep, the watchman at the Shaheed Mata Amrita Devi Bishnoi Park that was inaugurated last year by former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh. The state government spent Rs 10 crore to construct this memorial in Maharana village to honour the sacrifice of 363 Bishnois in Jodhpur three centuries ago, who laid down their lives to protest the felling of trees by the king for his new palace.

In the shadow of this memorial, the Bishnois continue to cement their legacy.

A dogged situation The sanctuary also has its fair share of difficulties and a recent development has left the Bishnois between a rock and a hard place. Attacks by stray dogs on deer are increasing. Also, the barbed cobra wire that was installed around the fields to protect the crops from wandering animals has been causing fatal injuries to the deer during dog attacks. RD Bishnoi said: "When we raised our concerns, the administration banned cobra wire. So far, most of the cobra wires have been removed. But the dogs are still a threat as their number is increasing exponentially. These dogs attack the deer whenever they get the chance. In the last two years, about three dozen deer have died in dog attacks. Many nilgais have also been killed by dogs." With the last wildlife census conducted in the area ten years ago, there are no recent numbers to drive home the seriousness of the situation and, in fact, there are conflicting views. According to Rani, when the census in 2011 found about four thousand deer in the sanctuary. She believes that this number has not decreased as the Bishnois have consistently protected them. But RD Bishnoi said that the number of deer has been falling due to the dog attacks. Rani promises a new census soon. "We had sent a proposal to the Wildlife Institute of India Dehradun in this regard, which they have accepted," she said.

Ashok Bishnoi considers the increasing number of stray dogs a major threat to the sanctuary. "For us, all living beings are equal. We cannot protect the deer at the cost of harming or torturing the dogs. The administration should come up with a safe and speedy resolution for the stray dog problem," he said, highlighting the helplessness of the Bishnois in handling the dog attacks.

Forest department officials have taken up the issue with the district administration who are considering a sterilisation drive for the stray dogs. But in the meanwhile, the number of dead blackbucks and nilgais are piling up, according to locals.

(The author is a Hanumangarh-based freelance journalist and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.)
Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 4 : The entire Congress legislators in the Kerala Assembly on Monday protested before the official residence of Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan against the detention of party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in Uttar Pradesh.

The legislators led by the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly V.D. Satheesan, who said, "What happened in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri was the work of a Union Minister and his son who are operating like mafia dons to finish off the farmers.

"The act of taking into Gandhi into custody and the waylaying of Congress Chief Ministers is a blot on the democratic rights. The farm laws that have been passed should be withdrawn as it is meant to help only the corporate. The Centre should introspect and take the correct decision to help the farmers," said Satheesan.

Priyanka has been detained since Monday morning at the Sitapur PAC headquarters and the room was dirty and Priyanka asked for a broom and cleaned it herself. This video of Gandhi cleaning the room has now gone viral.
Kochi, Oct 4 : In a major intervention, the Kerala High Court on Monday asked the ruling Pinarayi Vijayan government to see that discussions are held with laboratory owners in the state to determine the prices for conducting an RT-PCR test.

Consequent to this, the court cancelled the Kerala government's order asking all laboratory owners to charge only Rs 500 for the test.

The state had reduced the prices of RT-PCR test from Rs 1,700 to Rs 500 and the Pinarayi Vijayan government was praised for this move.

The court directed this move after hearing a petition filed by laboratory owners who said the rate of Rs 500 was fixed without any discussions, besides saying the state government had fixed the prices overlooking the ICMR rules.

The laboratory owners informed the court that the prices were low due to which they are incurring losses.

The court has asked the state government to see that they look into the matter and decide upon it.

The state government has only two options -- to hold discussion with the laboratory owners or approach the court's division bench to stay the new single bench court order.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, Oct 4 : The National Highway-24, which was barricaded by the Ghaziabad Police early on Monday, is now functional and the movement of traffic has returned to normal, the Delhi Traffic Police said here.

Earlier, in the morning, the Delhi Traffic Police were forced to divert traffic on several roads as both NH-9 and NH-24, which connect the national capital with Uttar Pradesh and are among the key routes towards the Ghazipur border, were barricaded by the Ghaziabad Police.

Informing about the closure, the Delhi Traffic Police had said that diversion was created at the Akshardham Setu towards Noida and Vikas Marg for Ghaziabad. "The traffic was diverted from Road number-57A to Hasanpur Karkari Mod for Shahdara, Anand Vihar and Ghaziabad," the Traffic Police added.

The traffic was diverted from roundabout Ghazipur towards Anand Vihar, Bhopura border (Ghaziabad) via Road number-56 and from roundabout Murga Mandi towards Dr Hedgewar Marg and Nala Road up to UP Gate, Ghaziabad, for Vaishali, Vasundhara, and Ghaziabad through Ghazipur Paper Market.

Earlier, the Delhi Traffic Police had advised commuters going to Ghaziabad from Sarai Kale Khan to take an alternate route.

"Commuters coming from Sarai Kale Khan, take an alternate route for Ghaziabad i.e. Vikas Marg via Road Number-57A, Road Number 56, Anand Vihar and Paper Market for Ghaziabad and for Noida through the DND," the Traffic Police had tweeted which was later deleted.

The heavy barricading comes in the wake of violence at a farmers' protest in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri that left at least eight people dead and 15 others injured. The protest took a violent turn as unknown persons opened fire at the farmers on Sunday, following which angry farmers set three jeeps on fire after some of the protesters were run over by the vehicles. One of the vehicles allegedly belongs to Ashish Mishra, the son of the Union Minister Ajay Mishra.

Since Sunday, the incident became a political hotspot with leaders from the opposition parties targeting the ruling Uttar Pradesh government and vowed to visit the incident site.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
October 04 : Days after returning from London with his family where he was filming for a movie, Akshay Kumar resumed shoot for his upcoming film Raksha Bandhan in Chandni Chowk, Delhi.

Taking to social media, the BellBottom actor expressed nostalgia as he was shooting at Delhis Chandni Chowk, which is his birthplace. Taking to Twitter, Akshay wrote that it brought back many memories. The actor resumed shooting for Aanand L Rai directorial Raksha Bandhan on Sunday, two months after he had completed the Mumbai schedule.

Taking to Twitter, the actor shared a video of his morning run in Chandni Chowk from the film sets. Todays morning run on the sets of #RakshaBandhan brought back so many memories as it was in my birthplace, Chandni Chowk. And how lovely it was to hear the chatter of the people around, never gets old, the actor wrote.

Todays morning run on the sets of #RakshaBandhan brought back so many memories as as it was in my birthplace, Chandni Chowk. And how lovely it was to hear the chatter of the people around, never gets old  pic.twitter.com/osK9j1iUIQ  Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) October 4, 2021

Raksha Bandhan, starring Akshay Kumar and Bhumi Pednekar, is a story that celebrates relationships. The film also features Sadia Khateeb, Sahejmeen Kaur, Deepika Khanna and Smrithi Srikanth, who play Akshays sisters. The film went on floors in June this year, and the first schedule was shot in a Mumbai studio, where a portion of the city was recreated.

Akshay had gained 5 kgs for his role in the film. "I quite enjoy the process of losing or gaining weight for a character because I am able to do it in a healthy way. I have gained 5 kg in a totally natural process," he had said earlier.

The actor had announced the film last year on the occasion of the Raksha Bandhan festival. Directed by Aanand L Rai, the film revolves around the brother-sister bond. Raksha Bandhan is Rais second collaboration with Akshay Kumar after his musical romantic drama Atrangi Re. Announcing the film on social media in August last year, Akshay had written, Raksha Bandhan is a special film for all of us, rarely are such pure and simple films made. Cant wait to begin filming for this one!

Raksha Bandhan is presented and distributed by Zee Studios in association with Alka Hiranandani and Aanand L Rai. It is written by Himanshu Sharma and Kanika Dhillon. Earlier, the makers of the film were aiming for a November 2021 release, but owing to the pandemic, shootings couldnt start off till June this year.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Akshay Kumar has been basking in the success of his latest release BellBottom, where critics and audiences have appreciated his performance. The film is one of the first movies to release in theatres after the second Covid-19 pandemic. Besides Raksha Bandhan, Akshay has Sooryavanshi, Prithviraj, Ram Setu and Bachchan Pandey in the pipeline.
Kolkata, Oct 4 : In a major embarrassment to the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Calcutta High Court on Monday asked the premier agency to appear before West Bengal Speaker Biman Banerjee.

Ruling on the CBI's appeal challenging the Speaker's decision to summon agency officials in the Narada bribery case, Justice Rajsekhar Mantha said: "Speaker is a constitutional post and so if the Speaker calls, then the person will have to go." The court said that the CBI officers will have to appear before the Speaker at 4 p.m. but made it very clear that no coercive steps cannot be taken against the agency. The case will again be heard on Tuesday.

Banerjee summoned two senior officers - one from Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation each, asking them to appear before him on October 4 in regards to the charge sheet filed against three MLAs, including two ministers, by the two agencies in Narada bribery case without taking his permission.

However, the CBI moved the court challenging the summons, contending that they have followed all the legal formalities and it is not necessary to take the permission of the Speaker in this regard.

Earlier the Speaker had summoned the officers of the two agencies on September 22 but they refused to appear to him. This is the second time they have been summoned.

The two probe agencies recently charge sheeted and summoned several MLAs of the ruling Trinamool Congress, including ministers, for their alleged involvement in ponzi scam cases and the Narada sting operation case. In the charge sheet by both the ED and the CBI, names of state Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee, State Transport Minister Firhad Hakim and MLA from Kamarhati Madan Mitra, figured.

The CBI has issued summons against them and they have been asked to be present in court on November 16. The letters have been sent to the Assembly.
Shimla, Oct 4 : The ninth edition of Hero MTB Himalaya-Shimla Edition will be organised from October 8 to October 10 in Himachal Pradesh.

The two-day mountain bike racing has been pioneered by Shimla-based HASTPA and is in its sixth year now.

The race is organised in the state capital and covers 120 km with an elevation gain of 3,500 metres.

The race route takes the riders through forests, river crossings, rugged terrains and meadows, giving an ultimate off-road experience to the participants, the rally organisers said.

"Our team is excited to see the large volume of participation and will constantly work towards putting Shimla on the global map as a destination for mountain biking," HASTPA President Mohit Sood told IANS.

He said a large number of registrations have been received from Gurgaon, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Bengaluru, Manali and Shimla.

The trophy was bagged by Shimla last year with boys from the city vying across the podiums in multiple categories.
October 04 : Bollywood celebrities spend hours to get ready and look pretty for the camera, but for the first time, Yami Gautam, who is probably one of the most beautiful ladies in film industry opens up about her skin condition Keratosis  Pilaris, and embracing it.

Yami Gautam took to her social media profile and dropped a series of gorgeous pictures of herself from her recent photo-shoot and wrote a note. It read, Hello my insta family, I recently shot for some images and just when they were about to go in for post-production (a common procedure) to conceal my skin-condition called Keratosis- Pilaris, I thought, Hey Yami, why dont you embrace this fact and accept it enough to be OKAY with it. Just let it be... (Yes, I do talk out loud to myself)

For those who haven't heard about this, its a skin condition wherein you get tiny bumps on the skin. I promise they arent as bad as your mind and your neighbor aunty makes it out to be) I developed this skin condition during my teenage years, and there is still no cure for it. I've dealt with it for many years now and today finally, I decided to let go of all my fears and insecurities and found the courage to love and accept my flaws wholeheartedly. I also found the courage to share my truth with you. Phew!

I didn't feel like airbrushing my folliculitis or smoothing that under-eye' or shaping up that waist a tiny bit more! And yet, I feel beautiful:) read the full note.

On the work front, Yami was last seen in Bhoot Police, next she has lined up a slew of movies, such as Dasvi, A Thursday, Lost, and OMG  Oh My God! 2.

Dasvi is written by Ritesh Shah and directed by newcomer Tushar Jalota. The film is produced by Dinesh Vijan under his banner Maddock Films in collaboration with Jio Studios.

It stars Abhishek Bachchan, Yami Gautam and Nimrat Kaur as leads. Bachchan plays the role of an uneducated politician, with Gautam as an IPS officer.
New Delhi, Oct 4 : A group of leaders of the Communist Party of India (CPI) on Monday held a protest march at ITO junction here in Delhi to extend their support to the farmers who were allegedly killed in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday.

Senior CPI leaders -- former Rajya Sabha MP D. Raja and general secretary Atul Anjan sat on protest at the ITO junction around at 2 p.m. on Monday.

The movement of vehicles from ITO to Pragati Maidan and Mandi House was halted for around 30 minutes due to the protest.

Delhi police officials were seen requesting Raja and other CPI leaders to leave the place as the protest resulted into traffic snarls at ITO junction.

After refusal by CPI leaders to leave the place and allow traffic movement, Delhi Police imposed section 144 in the area.

"Section 144 has been imposed at ITO and the surrounding areas. I would request you all to leave the place and allow traffic movement," a senior police official heard making announcement.

Later the protesters were detained and were taken to other place after which the traffic at the ITO junction could resume.

Meanwhile, talking to IANS Atul Anjan said, "What has happened in Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday is not acceptable. This is a clear case of murder of farmers who were protesting against draconian laws enacted by the Centre. We demand immediate arrest of Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra and his son Ashish Mishra." Before this, some Congress workers of the Delhi unit held a protest march on Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (DDU) Marg in solidarity of farmers.
Mumbai, Oct 4 : After almost 18 months closure during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport's Terminal 1 will resume for domestic operations from October 20, an official said on Monday.

Initially, it will cater to around domestic 156 flights daily, while 396 domestic and international services shall be handled by Terminal 2.

After a brief resumption in March this year, the operations on T1 were suspended and all operations continued from T2 in the wake of the second wave.

The CSMIA said that the move follows the nationwide vaccination drive and the increased passenger confidence in air travel and all Covid-19 protocols shall be strictly adhered to for peoples' safety.

From October 20, Star Air, AirAsia, TruJet, GoFirst will resume services from T1, while a few flights of IndiGo will restart operations from October 31.

The CSMIA has made arrangements for 12 registration desks and 12 testing booths for the incoming-outgoing passengers at T1 to enable them to undergo RT-PCR tests at the airport.

The T1 will also implement physical distancing through measures such as the re-arrangement of seating, and installation of plexi-glass to minimise face-to-face interactions amongst others at the terminal.
New Delhi, Oct 4 : The Director General of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Sanjay Arora, said on Monday that small transgressions occur at the India-China border and the force gives appropriate response to them.

Speaking after flagging off the fourth phase of a cycle rally of the force at the National Police Memorial here, Arora said that the ITBP is a border guarding force and it has been mandated to maintain the integrity of the border.

"ITBP has better preparation and capabilities to handle these challenges. Last year too, the force handled the situation in an apt manner," Arora said.

When asked about the around 100 soldiers of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) who had reportedly transgressed into the Indian territory in Barahoti In Uttarakhand on August 30, Arora, without clarifying the incident, said that the force is taking appropriate action whenever required.

However, the officials in the force said that since the border has not been well defined or demarcated at many places along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), sometimes PLA troopers come into the Indian territory and they normally go back when the ITBP reminds them by displaying messages that they have entered into the Indian territory.

The ITBP DG on Monday flagged off the ITBP cycle rally covering a total distance of 2,700 km from Gogra (Ladakh) to Kevadia (Gujarat) to participate in the National Unity Day Parade on October 31.

On August 30 this year, over 100 Chinese soldiers riding horses reportedly transgressed into the Indian territory in Barahoti up to 5 km inside through the Tunjun-La pass and also damaged some road infrastructure before the Indian Army and ITBP personnel arrived on the spot.

This transgression was reported to the ITBP by the locals who saw the PLA troopers in the Indian territory.

Barahoti is a border village near the India-China border which continues to be undemarcated, and the plains remain a demilitarised zone patrolled by ITBP personnel who do not carry firearms.
New Delhi, Oct 4 : Some mobile phones and wallets belonging to some Congress workers were stolen when they were protesting over Lakhimpur Kheri incident at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) marg in the national capital on Monday.

Around 1 p.m. scores of Congress workers started their protest march from their state party office at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (DDU) Marg and marched towards the BJP headquarters near Minto Bridge, however, they were stopped by Delhi police at Ranjit Singh flyover.

During the protest march Congress workers were seen tearing BJP's banners and posters put up across DDU marg.

While some of the protesters burnt the effigy of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at the protest site, they noticed that wallets and mobile phones of some of their party colleagues were stolen.

Delhi Police came into action and made an announcement, saying, "Please be alert, some protesters' mobile phones have been stolen. We would request to maintain peace here and keep your pockets and mobile phones safe." Meanwhile, some people from the group caught a suspected thief and started beating him. Subsequently, cops came in and took up the inquiry and took him to the police station for interrogation.
Guwahati, Oct 4 : The Congress on Monday suspended its Assam MLA Sherman Ali Ahmed, who was arrested on Saturday for his "communally provocative" comments on the September 23 violence during an eviction drive in the state's Darrang district, which left two dead and 20 others injured.

State Congress General Secretary Bobbeeta Sharma said that state party President Bhupen Kumar Borah has suspended Ahmed with immediate effect for violating party discipline.

Assam Police on Saturday first detained and then arrested the MLA from his official residence in Guwahati for his "communally provocative" controversial comments on martyrs of Assam agitation (1979-1985).

The 54-year-old three-time legislator justified the killing of eight people in Darrang in 1983 during the Assam agitation, triggering controversy across the state with various organisations lodging complaints at different police stations, leading to the police arresting him under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Many parties and civil society organisations have been organising demonstrations during the past two weeks in many districts demanding action against him.

The Congress last week served Ahmed show-cause notice and asked him to reply within three days.

Sharma said that the MLA's "provocative comments and statements" have damaged the reputation and credibility of the AICC and the state Congress.

"You are acting as an 'agent of the BJP' due to your closeness to the Chief Minister (Himanta Biswa Sarma). You might have been sponsored to make such provocative and communal comments to cause harm to the Congress, especially ahead of the by-elections in the state," she had told Ahmed in the show-cause notice.

Sharma, who is also the chief spokesperson of the Congress in Assam, in her notice, said: "As an MLA, your provocative comments in the media, reviving old wounds of the past incidents of Assam agitation when people of various communities had suffered, are totally insensitive and unwarranted." Ruling BJP's ally the Asom Gana Parishad, born out of the Assam agitation, held demonstrations in different districts and burnt effigies of Ahmed.

Ahmed, who represents western Assam's Baghbar assembly seat, apparently made the comments while reacting to media reports that the alleged encroachers at Gorukhuti (Sipajhar) in Darrang district disrespected the memory of those who died during the 1983 Assam agitation.

The eight people killed in Darrang district in 1983 during the Assam agitation were earlier declared "martyrs" but Ahmed, in his recent comments, termed them as "killers".
San Francisco, Oct 4 : After spending three days in orbit, the world's first civilian mission of SpaceX's Inspiration4 returned to Earth safely last month and now mission commander Jared Isaacman has shared an incredible Earth image shot on iPhone.

"Amazing that an iPhone can take a shot like this. I really love the nosecone in the picture," Isaacman said in a tweet while sharing the photo.

Isaacman shared a clear video taken inside the cupola, which he said was shot on his iPhone during the flight. He added the crew were "so fortunate to have this perspective and we will do all we can to share the experience with the world".

It was the first civilian mission by SpaceX and the crew included Hayley Arceneaux, a physician assistant, Christopher Sembroski, an aerospace data engineer and Air Force veteran, and Dr Sian Proctor, a geoscientist.

Meanwhile, Arceneaux posted a 360-degree view of Earth from space and called the experience "absolutely life changing".

The fully automated Dragon capsule reached an unusually high altitude of 585 kilometres, surpassing the International Space Station by 160 kilometres. The Dragon's dome window, inspired by the Cupola on the ISSl provided the crew with incredible views of Earth.

"The Dragon performed a series of departure phasing burns to leave the circular orbit of 575 kilometres and then jettisoned its trunk ahead of de-orbit burns. After re-entering the Earth's atmosphere, the spacecraft deployed its two drogue and four main parachutes in preparation for the soft water landing," the company said on its website.

"We loved space but it's great to be home!" Isaacman wrote on Twitter.

"The absolute most incredible experience of my life. Can't wait to share more with you all! Red heart," added Arceneaux.

"What an amazing adventure! I'm so glad to be home on earth and to be back with my family. There is so much to share! What an amazing @inspiration4x team! Thanks @SpaceX!a Sembroski said.

"Inspiration4, which was aimed at inspiring humanity as well as to raise money for St. Jude, surpassed "the 200m goal", Isaacman shared in his tweet.
Chennai, Oct 4 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Monday launched face recognition software to aid the state police in its investigations. The software would help compare the photos of suspects with a data resource of over 5.30 lakh photos updated in the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network Systems (CCTNS).

An official statement from the state police said that the software would help track down accused persons, suspected persons, and missing persons. It would also help in identifying corpses by comparing with the data available with the CCTNS.

The software would also share the information about a person to all the police stations and would help nab the culprit if he or she commits an offence in another police station area.

The arrest warrant pending against an individual will also be identified by the software and also if there is any crime history of the concerned person. This software can be installed in the computers used in the police stations as well as in the smartphones of the police personnel who are on the ground doing duty.

The statement from the police department said that there are plans to update the software to identify faces obtained in CCTV visuals which could help track down people who are missing.

Senior officials including Chief Secretary, V. Irai Anbu, and Police Chief C. Sylendra Babu were present on the occasion.
Bengaluru, Oct 4 : The Karnataka government is all set to restart the mid-day programme across the state to attract children to schools after the Dussehra festival.

The mid-day meal programme offers free lunch to children studying in government schools, including aided institutions. It was stopped last year as schools were closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The government will relaunch the scheme after the Dussehra vacation in the last week of October. The decision was taken following the announcement to resume primary schools for Class 1 to 5. Mid-day meal will be provided to children studying in Class 1 to 10.

Though the mid-day meal programme was halted at schools due to the pandemic in March 2020, the state government had evolved a scheme to provide ration to the families of school children. This decision was taken in the interest of children belonging to the marginalised sections, who faced the threat of malnourishment.

As many as 60 lakh children will benefit from the mid-day meal scheme. Presently, 25 to 30 lakh students are attending classes across the state in government and aided schools from Class 6 to 10.

Meanwhile, students who attended classes for three days a week will now attend day-long classes on all weekdays.
Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 4 : Kerala State BJP president K. Surendran on Monday said that only a detailed probe will reveal if the ruling Pinarayi Vijayan government allegedly used now arrested antique dealer Monson Mavunkal to create trouble in the famed Sabarimala temple.

Ever since Mavunkal was arrested last month by the Crime Branch Police, news reports surfaced about the authenticity of a copper plate inscription on Sabarimala in his possession.

Incidentally things took a turn when the Pandalam royal family, trustees of the Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple, sought an investigation into the authenticity of it in Mavunkal's possession.

The president of the Pandalam palace managing committee P.G. Sasikumar Varma, went public and demanded a verification of the copper plate with the help of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) after unverified claims relating to Lord Ayyappa surfaced, which they had earlier ignored.

He also pointed out that the document in possession of Mavunkal had a royal insignia, while those in possession of the palace do not carry any such emblems and legal action should be initiated if the inscription is found to be fake.

The copper inscription had assumed widespread attention during the 2018 Sabarimala protests after the apex court ruled that all women can pray at the famed temple (while the tradition is women aged between 10 and 50 were barred entry).

For several weeks then, it was a standoff between the police and the pro Sabarimala activists demanding that they will not allow anyone to break the tradition.

At the height of the protests, certain media outlets, including the CPI-M party organ, stated that copper plate inscription is an authentic document on the rituals and customs of the ancient Sabarimala.

The inscription, claimed to be over three centuries old, which is reportedly stated that the temple had followed a Dravidian ritualistic tradition in the olden days and the present customs was not prevalent then.

Surendran said that this was a ploy of the Vijayan government and alleged that Mavunkal was the tool for it, to create confusion and unrest in the minds of the believers.

"For the entire truth to come out, a high level probe into this has to take place, as there are doubts if this was a purposeful creation with the help of a section of the media. If appropriate action against this is not taken, the BJP will begin a protest, as this was done to create a divide in the minds of Sabarimala faithfuls. It's been a while since the antique dealer has been arrested and till now Vijayan is yet to speak a word on this and this is because a few of them who are in it are close to Vijayan," said Surendran.
Bengaluru, Oct 4 : Incessant rains, due to Cyclone Shaheen, have caused havoc in Silicon Valley Bengaluru. Due to increased water levels in stormwater drains, houses in many localities are inundated, roads are covered with thick mud and slush, and vehicles and properties have been damaged.

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday said that he is aware of the existing situation. "I have been getting updates from the Commissioner of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) since yesterday (Sunday) and directed him to take up relief measures quickly," he said.

The priority is to clear the water from houses and then, roads will be cleared, he said, adding that relief measures have been taken up.

The government has directed the officers to deal with the situation and necessary funds have already been released, Bommai said.

A decision will be taken on old buildings and properties keeping the safety of the public in mind, he added.

Houses in the upscale K.R.Puram, Mahadevapura, Horamavu, Rammurthynagar, Rajarajeshwarinagar, BDA Layout in Nagarbhavi and other localities have been inundated. Rains have also affected Hosakote in the outskirts of the city.

Residents complained that five to six feet of water suddenly inundated their houses. The water gushing out of stormwater drains have also inundated the basements.

There are reports of compound walls collapsing, trees being uprooted, as well as of loss of liveestock.

Textile Minister Muniratna has stated that he would visit the rain-hit areas and take up relief measures. The meteorologists have warned of incessant rains across the state up to October 6 due to the cyclone.
Chandigarh, Oct 4 : Back in public glare after a long hiatus, Punjab Congress chief Navjot Sidhu was detained along with party legislators on Monday after they held a protest outside the Punjab Governor's residence here, demanding the arrest of the Union minister's son in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence.

Sidhu led a protest outside the Raj Bhavan, raising slogans against the Centre against the new farm laws, provocative statement by the Haryana Chief Minister and arrest of Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

He demanded the arrest of Union minister of state Ajay Kumar Mishra's son for allegedly running a car over protesting farmers.

Chandigarh Police later detained Sidhu and the Congress workers.

"Arrested for protesting against atrocities of the Central Govt's barbaric murders of farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri, UP. We stand firmly with the farmers, till our last breath!!" said Sidhu in a tweet, adding, "Courage, thy name is @PriyankaGandhi!!" Sidhu had resigned as the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief in protest against the appointments of the Advocate General and the DGP last week. He has neither withdrawn his resignation, nor has the high command clarified so far on his status.
Panaji, Oct 4 : Goa Tourism Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar on Monday warned of action against tourists putting up in rented villas and bed and breakfast facilities which were not registered with the state Tourism Department.

Talking to reporters here, he also said that department officials would also soon enforce a crackdown on such unregistered hotels, villas and accommodation facilities.

"We will be taking strict action going ahead. Only a hotel registered with the Tourism Department will be allowed to accept (room) bookings. And tourists should only book hotels or other facilities approved by the department," Ajgaonkar said, suggesting that booking a room in a non registered accomodation facility would be considered illegal.

The Tourism Department had already issued notices to several hotels, bed and breakfasts, and owners of rooms which are made available for booking via room aggregator websites, for not registering their properties with the tourism authorities, he said.

Due to non-registration of such facilities, it was difficult to ascertain the exact number of tourists who visit Goa every year, he added.

The Minister also said that with tourists slowly trickling into Goa, his Ministry would soon start a publicity blitz to re-position Goa as a tourism destination.

"We are preparing a media plan and advertising (campaign) we will announce that now. We want good tourists to come to Goa," he said.
Hyderabad, Oct 4 : Telangana Minister K.T. Rama Rao on Monday commended two traffic policemen for imposing a fine on his car for a traffic rule violation.

Two days after the policemen - Sub-Inspector of Police Ilaiah and constable Venkateshwarlu - issued a 'challan' for the minister's vehicle for plying on the direction, he called them to his office to expressed his appreciation by presenting them bouquets and shawls in the presence of Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar.

The Minister, who is also son of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, appreciated the policemen for discharging their duties sincerely and assured that he will always stand by such officers.

Stating that he will always be in forefront in obeying traffic rules, he clarified that he was not in the vehicle when it was fined for traffic rule violation. He also paid the fine imposed.

KTR, as the minister is popularly called, said rules are same for all whether they are general public or public representatives in power. He said he congratulated the traffic policemen to convey right message to his party workers and leaders.

The policemen imposed fine on KTR's vehicle when it was being driven in the wrong direction near Bapu Ghat under the limits of Langar Houz police station on October 2. This happened when the minister was about to leave Bapu Ghat after paying tributes to Mahatma Gandhi along with Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya and Home Minister Mahmood Ali.

As the road was blocked due to the movement of the Governors' convoys, the driver of KTR's vehicle took the wrong route to reach Bapu Ghat. The policemen stopped the vehicle and this reportedly led to an argument between them and some TRS leaders. Some police officers reportedly clarified that the policemen who stopped the vehicle did not know that it belong to the minister.

The incident also triggered debate on social media with many netizens praising the policemen for discharging their activity and criticized those who raised an objection and entered into an argument with them.
Mumbai, Oct 4 : Actor Avinash Tiwary, who is currently shooting in Jharkhand for his upcoming OTT project, is smitten by the state's culture and beauty.

The 'Bulbul' actor took out sometime to explore the local vicinity and also went to Betla National Park in his time off from the shoot.

"Jharkhand has been a revelation for me, I was unaware of its natural beauty. We have been shooting in the rural areas in and around Palamu," the actor tells IANS.

Last seen in the film 'The Girl on The Train', Avinash plans to visit some more locations before wrapping up the shoot.

"It has been a very tight schedule for me and I have not been able to make much time for pleasure but I do intend to visit Dasham Falls and Jagannath Temple before I make a trip back to Bombay," shares the actor.
Mumbai, Oct 4 : 'Bigg Boss 15' hosted by Salman Khan has started and this time as the theme is 'jungle' so contestants are experiencing altogether different situations.

As the contestants settle inside the house, the 'sankat' in the jungle has started creeping in. We already saw Donal Bisht was saved from the nomination as Ieeshan Sehgal nominated himself and during a conversation with other contestants Umar Riaz called Donal manipulative.

Also Afsana Khan shares about her marriage in November with other contestants and how she has put her wedding plans on hold for this show. Jay Bhanushali suggested to Ieeshan that he should open up as he is nominated for the week and needs votes. There were also some heated conversations among the participants.

In today's episode a big fight erupted between Afsana and Vidhi right after 'Bigg Boss' commanded everyone to turn in their belongings except for the essentials. As Vidhi hurried everyone to follow the order, Afsana suddenly lost her nerve and started screaming at her. "Tu hoti kaun hai mujhe bolne waali?" (who are you to say all this to me) she fired at her. Equally strong-willed herself, Vidhi also lashed out at Afsana, threatening to hit her to quieten her down.

Meanwhile, another fight took place between Jay and Pratik. The continuous shenanigans of Pratik regarding the house rules irked Jay and Umar. While Jay warned Pratik to watch his mouth, the latter hit back by bringing up orders from Bigg Boss. While Umar and Karan sided with Jay, Nishant took Pratik's side. Thus alliances have started forming in the jungle, where survival will become challenging with every passing minute! 'Bigg Boss 15' airs every Monday to Friday at 10:30 pm and Saturday-Sunday at 9:30 pm on COLORS.

Latest updates on Bigg Boss Season 15
Vijayanagar : , Oct 4 (IANS) The administration of Karnataka's newly created Vijayanagar districtis on high alert after the death toll due to consumption of contaminated water in Makarabbi village in Hoovinahadagali taluk of the state rose to 6.

Considering the emergency, the district administration has stationed two ambulances in the village to shift patients quickly to hospitals in case anyone develops symptoms of diarrhoea and vomiting.

The deceased are identified as Lakshmamma, Basamma Havanooru, Neelappa Belavagi, Goneppa, Mahadevappa and Kenchamma, all from Makarabbi village. As many as 200 people who fell sick after drinking contaminated water are being treated at Ballary, Hospet, Hubballi, Haveri and other hospitals.

Two people died on September 23 and another person, a 50-year woman succumbed on October 1.

Sources said Makarabbi village where the tragedy took place has a population of more than 2,000 people. During installation of new pipeline to borewells, old pipes got damaged and sewage water got mixed up with drinking water.

More than 50 people whose health condition turned critical have been shifted to various hospitals in Hubballi, Davanagere, Haveri, Ballary and other places. Sources say that many are still in a critical state.

Taluk Health Inspector Dr Vinod said that 9 cases of vomiting and loose motion were reported first on Aug 26 and they were admitted to a nearby hospital. They responded to the treatment and recovered. A team of officers visited the village and collected three samples of water. Among these, 2 samples report showed that the water is unfit to be used for drinking purposes.

On September 23, cases of vomiting and loose motion were reported again. The district administration opened a temporary hospital at the village and two ambulances were stationed to shift the patients in case of emergency, he explained.

The action has been taken to close three bore wells and a well in the village. The water is being provided by tankers and a RO plant has also been established in the village, he explained.
Hyderabad, Oct 4 : The inaugural Kisan Rail service for onions from Moula Ali in Telangana, is setting off with 361 tonnes of onions to West Bengal.

Comprising of 15 parcel vans, the Kisan Rail from Moula Ali railway station, terminates at New Jalpaiguri Station of West Bengal.

South Central Railway has been operating Kisan Rails to assist the traders, cargo operators and farmers in and around Twin city areas of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, in transporting their Agri products to farther destinations across the country. South Central Railway is operating Kisan Rail services from suburban railway stations of twin city area, an SCR release stated on Monday.

The Business Development Unit (BDU) teams formed across the Zone are playing vital role including in new commodities in the freight basket of South Central Railway. The BDU teams of Secunderabad Division are in regular contact with farmers and traders who desire to transport agricultural products. These consistent efforts have yielded results and the Secunderabad division is able to capture the onion loading from Moula-Ali railway station, said a senior SCR official.

So far, the farmers and traders have been regularly sending their products by road to the eastern parts of the country, which involves lot of effort and abnormal delays. Transportation of agricultural products through Kisan Rails has proved to be safe, economical and cost effective when compared to the roadways. The time taken to reach the destination is very less, besides being hassle-free transportation with least enroute damage to their product. The BDU team clearly explained all these factors to the freight customers and convinced them for offering loading by Kisan Rail, the official explained.
Bhubaneswar, Oct 4 : The Odisha police on Monday arrested a person named Hemanta Dash (59), who reportedly committed burglaries at 500 places across India, a police officer said here.

The special squad of Commissionorate of Police arrested Dash from Cuttack where he had gone to commit a crime, said Umashankar Dash, DCP, Bhubaneswar.

According to the DCP, Dash has admitted to have committed burglaries at around 500 places all over India. He confessed to have looted over Rs 5 crore in all the cases, an amount he spent on alcohol and brothels.

Dash travelled to Gangtok, Kolkata, Bihar, Mumbai, Chennai, Shimla, Nainital and Jammu and Kashmir, among other places, on plane and stayed at expensive hotels.

On record, Dash is involved in 82 cases of burglary in the state. He was presently wanted in three cases, one each at Badagada, Bhubaneswar and Chandrasekharpur. Two court warrants were also issued against Dash.

Dash got involved in criminal activities at the age of 24 along with his associates who are mostly dead now.

According to Dash, said during his college days in 1986, he met a burglar in police custody. Since then, he took this route and looted mostly cash in cities like Mumbai and Chennai.

The police said that Dash will be produced in court on Tuesday.
Vatican City, Oct 4 : Faith leaders along with Pope Francis on Monday requested political action for climate change ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) scheduled for November 1-13 in Glasgow, Scotland.

The Pope and the faith leaders also presented a joint declaration to Alok Sharma, the president-designate of the COP26 summit, and to Luigi di Maio, Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs.

In his address to the participants at a meeting, Pope Francis expressed gratitude for their presence, which shows a "desire for a deepened dialogue among ourselves and with scientific experts" and proposed three concepts to guide their reflection: Openness to interdependence and sharing, the dynamism of love, and the call to respect.

"COP26 represents an urgent summons to provide effective responses to the unprecedented ecological crisis and the crisis of values that we are presently experiencing, and in this way to offer concrete hope to future generations," said the Pope.

He said "care for our common home is also a call to respect: respect for creation, respect for our neighbour, respect for ourselves and for the creator".

Responding to the 'religious' call, Sharma said in a tweet: "An honour to receive, together with @luigidimaio, the #Faith4COP26 Appeal from His Holiness Pope Francis. This is a critical message to the world and world leaders ahead of #COP26 #G20." The latest report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations organisation, is a stark warning from scientists around the world that human activity is damaging the planet at an alarming rate.

The report warns that climate change is already affecting every region across the globe and that without urgent action to limit warming, heatwaves, heavy precipitation, droughts, and loss of Arctic Sea ice, snow cover and permafrost, will all increase while carbon sinks will become less effective at slowing the growth of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The report highlights that cutting global emissions, starting immediately, to net zero by mid-century would give a good chance of limiting global warming to 1.5C in the long-term and help to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

As extreme events are felt across the globe, from wildfires in North America to floods in China, across Europe, India and parts of Africa, and heatwaves in Siberia, COP President Sharma has been negotiating with governments and businesses to increase global climate ambition and take immediate action to help halve global emissions in the next decade and reach net zero emissions by mid-century in order to keep the 1.5C goal set out in the Paris Agreement within reach.

The UK is already showing leadership with clear plans to reduce its emissions by 68 per cent by 2030 and 78 per cent by 2035, leading to net zero by 2050.

Today, more than 70 per cent of the world's economy is now covered by a net zero target -- up from 30 per cent when the UK took over as incoming COP Presidency.

Some progress has been made since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015. More than 85 new or updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to 2030, representing over 110 parties, have been submitted to set out how countries will cut their emissions and address the climate crisis.
New Delhi, Oct 4 : A 27-year-old woman, who took an auto-rickshaw, was allegedly taken elsewhere and gang-raped by four men near the ITO area of the national capital, and one accused has been arrested, police said on Monday.

In her complaint, the woman, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal, stated that she boarded the vehicle from northeast Delhi's Khajuri Khas area for Kashmere Gate on Saturday.

However mid-way, she was taken to an isolated room where she was raped by the auto-rickshaw driver and three others and then dropped at the Kashmere Gate. Sources said that doctors have medically examined the victim.

Police, meanwhile, have arrested the auto-rickshaw driver who has confessed to his crime.

The police have registered an FIR against the 4 accused people including the auto-rickshaw driver at the IP Estate police station.

Searches are going on to nab the other three accused.
New Delhi, Oct 4 : The electric bicycle business in the country, which was poised to displace China as the world leader in e-bicycles manufacturing, seems to be at risk in its infancy following a policy snub with electric bicycles getting excluded from all major manufacturing and export promotion policies, including the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India Phase II (FAME-II) and production-linked incentive (PLI), the top official of Hero Cycles, one of the world's largest bicycle manufacturers, said on Monday.

The company, which has crossed the 150 million production milestone since its operation began in 1956, said that due to policy snub for the industry, India risks losing a visible pipeline of Rs 10,000 crore worth of e-bicycles export orders to the European Union over the next five years as the bloc reduces its dependence on China and firms up reshoring e-bike production.

"The EU levies a heavy anti-dumping tariff on e-bike imports from China that may go as high as 83 per cent. It initiated a resultant re-shoring of e-bike production in 2019, and the estimated re-shored e-bike production was 930,000 units with countries like Portugal, Poland, France, Bulgaria, Italy and Romania grabbing more than 80 per cent of it.

"With quality products at a competitive price, Indian manufacturers are poised to grab this opportunity to secure the migrating business out of China and the encouraging response to our first batch of e-cycles delivered in June is a testament to it," said Pankaj M. Munjal, Chairman and Managing Director, HMC Group.

"However, we are losing out on the policy side that would have helped the industry take advantage of the shrinking share of China and the far-East as the suppliers of e-bikes to the EU, as e-bicycles are conspicuous in their absence in the FAME II and PLI schemes despite several representations to the ministries concerned, even as every electric vehicle, including e-scooters, e-motorcycles, e-cars, and e-buses, enjoy incentives under these schemes.

"We are afraid that the specific exclusion has mass migrated the manufacturing value of around Rs 1000 crore going up to Rs 3,000 crore in FY24 to the re-shored capability of the EU. In the next five years, India would lose a visible pipeline of Rs 10,000 crore worth of export orders of e-bicycles if re-shored capability of the EU manages to secure the migrating business out of China instead of India," Munjal added.

Hero Cycles, which leads bicycle production globally, started manufacturing electric bicycles three years ago.

Following the Make-in-India initiative, the company invested more than Rs 300 crore to manufacture e-bicycles, and another Rs 400 crore through its vendor base, and Rs 300 crore in the UK for exporting to international markets to grab the lion's share of migrating e-bicycle manufacturing from China to the EU countries.

"E-bike sales in Europe are expected to grow five times in the next decade at a CAGR of 16 per cent. India has the second largest bicycle making capability in the world and lower import duty would help increase export to the UK. Further, generalised systems of preferences (GSP) benefits are given to many Indian products in the UK, but not to bicycles that attract an import duty of 14 per cent.

"Therefore, to compete against the least developed countries and GSP countries enjoying zero import duties in the UK and to remain competitive globally, India must negotiate and lock a deal to bring down the import duties on bicycle to the level of LDC and GSP countries, i.e., 0 per cent from existing 14 per cent," said Munjal.
New Delhi, Oct 4 : The Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain a plea seeking a CBI probe in connection with medical oxygen shortage during course of second wave of pandemic, and also constituting a commission of inquiry headed by either top court judge or chief justice of a high court.

A bench headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said: "We have set up a national task force... we cannot encroach upon the executive domain." It also remarked: "Sometimes P in the PIL goes beyond public into other interests. We don't want our court to be an instrument to pursue other Ps in a public interest litigation." The bench also comprising Justice B.V. Nagarathna noted the responsibility of the task force has been formulated in broad terms, wherein one issue was ensuring adequate supply of oxygen to meet requirement of patients.

The lawyer, representing the petitioner, submitted that his client had suffered due to lack of oxygen and pointed out than many citizens died during the second wave of the pandemic. To this, the bench replied that it is very easy to criticise the government, and even the court without being in the hot seat.

The bench emphasised that it has already set up a task force comprising of leading doctors, therefore there is no need for other inquiry or a parallel investigation.

On the aspect of a CBI probe into the oxygen crisis, the bench said the allegation with regard to criminal wrong cannot be assumed nor can be levelled lightly without adequate material.

The bench noted that CBI is always matter of last recourse and asked the counsel, has his client filed an FIR? It also noted that even the most developed nations in the world with advanced health infrastructure have struggled during the pandemic.

"Do we do a legal post mortem or do we do something positive which we have done in setting up of a task force," it asked.
New Delhi, Oct 4 : Land held by any agency, originally acquired for non-forest purposes before October 1980, will be exempted from seeking any approval under the Forest Act 1980 for linear infrastructure projects - such as railway line or a road - as per a proposed amendment to the Act.

"A landholding agency (Railways, NHAI, PWD etc.) is required to take approval under the Act as well as pay stipulated compensatory levies such as net present value (NPV), compensatory afforestation (CA) etc. for use of such land which was originally been acquired for non-forest purposes. The Environment Ministry is considering now to exempt such lands acquired before 25.10.1980 from the purview of the Act," said a consultation paper on the proposed amendments to the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, prepared by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).

The consultation paper has been posted online for inviting comments/suggestions on the proposed amendments to the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 within 15 days. Although the paper was posted online on Monday, it is dated October 2, thus effectively leaving just 13 days for comments/suggestions.

"During the intervening period of 40 years, there has been considerable change in the ecological, social and environmental regimes in the country. Efforts have been made during the intervening period to keep the provisions of the Act in tandem with the dynamic changes in the ecological and economic needs of our country by introducing appropriate legislations in the form of rules and guidelines. Yet, to effectively fit into the present circumstances, particularly for accelerated integration of conservation and development, it has become necessary to further amend the Act," according to the Assistant IG (Forests) in Ministry, Sandeep Sharma.

Sharma has written to all additional chief secretaries (forest)/principal secretaries (forests), all states/ UTs, principal chief conservators and regional officers of all integrated regional offices of the Ministry apart from "all concerned".

The proposed amendments include whether projects related to the development of infrastructure along the international border areas, which should be exempted from obtaining prior approval of the Central government under the provision of the Act and allow the states to permit non-forest use of forest land for implementation of such strategic and security projects that are to be completed in a given time frame.

One of the proposed amendments also said that offences under Section 2 of the Forest Act, 1980 are now proposed to be made punishable with simple imprisonment for a period, which may extend to one year and the offence shall be cognizable and non-bailable.

"There is no clarity whether this is only for state and UT governments or also for public comments," said Vikrant Tongad, environment conservationist and founder member, Social Action for Forest and Environment (SAFE), who was instrumental in getting the Ministry to agree to translate the draft of a similar proposed amendment to the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Act to translate the draft in 22 official languages.

"If it is for public comments, then this needs to be put out in all regional languages. There needs to be widespread publicity for the material to reach a large number of people, the real stakeholders," Tongad said, adding, "If not, the basic question is, why it is not opened for public consultation?" Tongad's petition about the draft EIA Act is still pending in the Delhi High Court.

However, founder of Legal Initiative for Forests and Environment (LIFE) and environment lawyer Ritwick Dutta termed it as a "good step" that the Ministry has at least asked for views at the pre-legislative stage, rather than presenting with a draft law.

"They are asking for comments on essential ideas," he said.

Stating that some of the ideas (in the consultation paper) are indeed problematic, Dutta said, "But the Ministry, technically, has not formed its opinion. There are serious issues of concern. On the face of it, basically, it is talking about how to facilitate diversion. There is no talk of conservation." Earlier, owing to the pressure from the other ministries, the Environment Ministry used to bring out office memorandum. Now at least it is issuing a consultation paper before bringing in the amendment.

"That means, we are hoping, there would be at least three steps of consultation. The pre-legislative stage, the draft act, and the Bill in the Parliament," Dutta said, adding, "Then, it can also go to a select committee of the Parliament and then for MPs to raise objections."
New Delhi, Oct 4 : After Priyanka Gandhi led an agitation against the alleged killing of farmers and has been detained by Uttar Pradesh Police, the support for her came from the unexpected quarters, the G-23 which openly backed her and termed her detention illegal.

After Kapil Sibal, Congress Deputy leader in the upper house Anand Sharma too condemned her detention. He said, "strongly condemn the repressive manhandling and detention of Priyanka Gandhi and Deepender Hooda by the UP police. Such repressive actions cannot suppress the voice of farmers and call for justice... Justice must prevail." While Kapil Sibal came out and tweeted, "Priyanka Gandhi, Her detention is illegal. In a state where lawlessness is the norm; where the perception is that in such situations violation of personal liberty is guaranteed." He said the government, "Instead of prosecuting those responsible, you detain those who seek justice." He had earlier on Sunday said, "Lakhimpur Kheri incident! Convoy of Union Minister riding over farmers as if their lives don't matter! The minister be sacked; the role of all concerned including the state government be assessed. An independent enquiry be conducted by a sitting Judge." Priyanka Gandhi had tactically managed to take Deepender Hooda with her who is the son of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and one of the prominent leaders of the dissenting group. Priyanka Gandhi, who is more into talking to leaders could emerge as pointsperson to pacify the G-23 group. Though Kamal Nath has been roped in again by Sonia Gandhi to break the ice but since past one year there has been no forward movement. The Congress leadership has to offer something to the group and make some adjustments in the party.

The backing to the Gandhi siblings comes after Kapil Sibal questioned the Congress leadership last week and alleged that the party decisions are taken without consultations and demanded elections in the party. This is important since the Congress needed to reach out to the dissenters.

Meanwhile Priyanka Gandhi said she has not been told why she has been detained and not allowed to meet lawyers. She was arrested from Hargaon in Sitapur district while she was on her way to Lakhimpur Kheri where violence had reportedly claimed eight lives on Sunday. A video of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra sweeping a room with a broom has gone viral on the social media. According to sources, the video is of the room where Priyanka has been detained since Monday morning at the Sitapur PAC headquarters.
New Delhi, Oct 4 : For the first time, a 'Make in India' drone has been used to transport Covid vaccines over an aerial distance of 15 km, from the Bishnupur district hospital to Loktak lake in Manipur, for their administration at the PHC, Union Health Minister Mansukha Mandaviya said on Monday, adding that in a geographically diversified country like India, drones can be used to deliver essentials to the last mile.

In an effort to make healthcare accessible to the last citizen of the country, Mandaviya launched ICMR's Drone Response and Outreach in North East (i-Drone) programme on Monday.

This is a delivery model to make sure that life-saving vaccines reach everyone. The actual distance by road between these locations is 26 km. On Monday, 10 beneficiaries received the first dose while 8 received the second dose at the PHC.

Congratulating the people on this innovative step, Mandaviya said, "We can use drones to deliver life-saving medicines and collect blood samples. This technology can also be used in critical situations. It may prove a game changer in addressing the challenges in healthcare delivery, particularly health supplies in difficult areas." Launching the initiative, which would facilitate vaccine delivery to the hard-to-reach terrains of the country, the minister said, "Our immunisation programme for Covid-19 has already exceeded all expectations. I strongly believe that this initiative will further help us achieve the highest possible immunisation coverage for Covid-19.

"Incorporating such drone technologies into the national programmes would help deliver other vaccines and medical supplies as quickly as possible." The minister also said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the nation is progressing at a great pace.

"Today is a historic day, which showed us how technology is making life easier and bringing social change," he said.

i-Drone has been designed to overcome challenges by deploying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to remote areas. Currently, the drone-based delivery project has been granted permission for implementation in Manipur and Nagaland, as well as Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

ICMR conducted an initial study in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, to test the capacity of drones to carry and transfer vaccines safely.

The study was conducted in Manipur, Nagaland and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. These studies provided promising results on the basis of which the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and other regulatory authorities have granted permission to fly drones beyond the visual line of sight.
Mumbai, Oct 4 : Spelling a setback, a Mumbai Magistrate Court on Monday extended the NCB custody of Aryan Khan - son of Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan and producer Gauri Khan till October 7, though no drugs were found from him during the rave party bust aboard a luxury cruise ship on Saturday (October 2).

At a hearing on Monday, the Additional Chief Metropolitan Court R.M. Nerlikar also sent the two co-accused Munmun Dhamecha and Arbaaz Merchant to the custody of Narcotics Control Bureau till October 7.

After several hours of heated arguments between the NCB lawyers and the advocates of the three accused, the court rejected the latter's plea for bail and sent them to the agency's custody for another 3 days.

In the order, ACMM Nerlikar noted that the accused (Aryan Khan) had accompanied the co-accused (Merchant) from whom the contraband drugs were recovered.

Seeking extended custody for the accused trio till October 11, the Additional Solicitor-General Anil Singh argued that links found on Aryan Khan's WhatsApp chats point to an international racket.

Besides the 8 nabbed from the swoop on the cruiser, Singh said that one more person has been arrested by the NCB from Juhu and recovered 'commercial quantity' of drugs from him, and the custody of the accused trio was necessary to unearth their nexus.

Making a strong plea for bail, Khan's lawyer Satish Maneshinde said that he was invited by the party organisers, he did not pay for the party, was allotted the best suite on the ship, no drugs were found on him, but a small quantity of 6-gm Charas was recovered from his friend Merchant.

Merchant's lawyer Taraq K. Sayed pointed out that the NCB remand application was absolutely silent on the quantity of drugs recovered from each accused.

At this, when the ACMM asked the agency, the NCB replied that small quantities of 6 gm and 5 gm respectively were recovered from Merchant and Dhamecha, besides 5 gm MDMA and 10 gm Cocaine found from another accused Vikrant Chhoker, but did not mention Aryan Khan's name here.

Singh contended that though commercial quantity of drugs may not be found, the accused trio's custody was required for a few days more to find out the links, who is the sources, how it was financed.

The NCB added that Aryan Khan's phone was being investigated to ascertain his involvement in the consumption or possession of drugs, and Maneshinde cited past judgements to prove that commercial quantity of drugs found on someone else cannot be used to incriminate another accused, while WhatsApp chats can't be used to frame the accused.

The trio was produced before the court after their one-day remand granted on Sunday ended on Monday.

Khan, along with 8 others were apprehended by the NCB raids on Cordelia Cruise ship where the alleged rave party took place on October 2 evening, and on Sunday arrested them, sparking a major sensation across the country.

After the operation, the NCB said it had recovered 13 gm Cocaine, 21 gm Charas, 5 gm Mephedrone, and 22 MDMA Ecstasy pills besides Rs 133,000 cash.

Besides Khan, Merchant, Dhamecha and Chhoker, the NCB nabbed others like Nupur Sarika, Ismeet Singh, Mohak Jaswal and Gomit Chopra.

The Spokesperson of Congress Atul Londhe and Shiv Sena's Kishore Tiwari have slammed the NCB action as a diversionary tactic intended to shift attention from the huge quantity of drugs allegedly smuggled through the Mundra Port in Gujarat which is operated by the Adani Group.

Last month, the DRI had raided the port and found two containers with around 3,000 kg of drugs worth Rs 21,000 crore from there, and the Opposition parties have demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the incident.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in)
Amaravati, Oct 4 : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has directed the government machinery to eliminate the drug menace from colleges and universities, of the state. Reviewing the law and order situation in the state, on Monday, the chief minister called for constant monitoring of the situation in educational institutions.

The officials have been asked to submit a monthly report along with action plan to curb the drug menace especially in educational institutions.

The Chief Minister told them to study the drug cases by mapping them to colleges, and to pay special attention to drug peddling, a state government media statement noted.

Referring to the major drug haul recently in Gujarat, which turned out to have an Andhra-link, the chief minister said, "the opposition leaders have been falsely propagating a drug deal which is not connected to the State. The opposition is acting irresponsibly and aiming to tarnish the image of the police department, government as well as the people. Despite the fact that the drugs scandal is not true, a few media houses and websites are promoting the fake news." He told the officials to be vigilant about such things.

Reviewing the Disha Bill and Disha App, the chief Minister opined that it is not fair to keep it pending so long even after Assembly passing the Bill. He directed the officials to ensure that the Bill completes due process, and ensure that every woman downloads Disha App on her phone.

Officials informed the chief minister that so far, 74,13,562 persons have downloaded the Disha app. While 5,238 persons have sought assistance through the app, 684 FIRs were registered through the app in 2021. The police said that all the crime hotspots are being mapped and informed that all Disha Police Stations have received ISO certification.

Home minister Mekathoti Sucharitha, chief secretary Sameer Sharma, DGP Goutham Sawang, finance secretary K. Satyanarayana, home secretary Kumar Vishwajeet, and senior government and police officials attended the meeting.
New Delhi, Oct 4 : The Income Tax Department carried out a search and seizure operation on September 30 on 37 premises of businesses and individuals spread across multiple cities including Mumbai, Pune, Noida & Bangalore, it said on Monday.

These groups/individuals were in varied businesses such as cable manufacturing, real estate, textile, printing machineries, hotels, logistics etc.

During the course of the search operation, several incriminating documents, loose sheets, diaries, emails and other digital evidences etc have been unearthed which indicates ownership of a large number of foreign bank accounts and immovable properties, unreported to the Department, the I-T department said in a statement.

These groups/individuals utilized the services of a Dubai based financial service provider to create a dubious and complex web of foreign companies and trusts based in tax havens such as Mauritius, UAE, BVI, Gibraltar etc, to hold their unaccounted assets, the statement added.

The credits in the bank accounts of these groups and individuals maintained by the Dubai based financial service provider exceed 100 Million Dollars (about Rs 750 crore) accumulated over a decade and were found to be parked in bank accounts in Switzerland, UAE, Malaysia and several other countries.

Evidences gathered during the search operation reveal that the undisclosed funds parked abroad have been used by these groups for acquiring immovable properties in several countries such as UK, Portugal, UAE etc in the name of defunct companies incorporated abroad, with funds layered through foreign bank accounts, for meeting the personal expenses of the promoters and their family members abroad and routing back funds in their Indian entities, the department said.

During the course of the search, evidence related to bogus payments to suppliers for generating cash, unaccounted cash expenditure, hawala transactions, over-invoicing have also been gathered. Unaccounted cash and jewellery to the tune of over Rs 2 crore has been seized from the residential and business premises respectively. More than 50 bank lockers have been kept under restraint.

Further investigations are in progress.
Islamabad/New Delhi, Oct 4 : The Opposition leaders in Pakistan have slammed Prime Minister Imran Khan and demanded his resignation following the revelations made in the Pandora Papers, Geo TV reported.

A huge tranche of leaked data on offshore companies that is larger in size and scope than the Panama Papers hit the global headlines on Sunday night, laying bare the financial secrets of the global rich and powerful, including Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's cabinet members, financiers, retired generals, media owners and businessmen.

The names of more than 700 Pakistanis were discovered in the data and the majority of them are tax residents in this country.

The Pandora leaks have "opened a new Pandora's Box" against Imran Khan, said PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal.

"The leader who used to present himself as 'sadiq' (honest) and 'ameen' (trustworthy) has two more offshore companies," PML-N's secretary-general Iqbal was quoted as saying by The News.

The PML-N stalwart said that even before the Pandora Papers were released, government spokespersons had started defending PM Imran Khan, the report said.

Imran Khan wore a "cloak of honesty" and "fooled" the people, Iqbal said, adding that the premier eroded Pakistan's respect and pride.

PPP Senator Sherry Rehman isn't surprised that the premier's close aides were named in the Pandora Papers, the report added.

In a post on Twitter, the PPP leader said that "we all know that slogans of 'corruption, free Pakistan and accountability' are all hollow and a way to target the opposition".

"Will the Prime Minister go to the Supreme Court against his people? Or will a report be called for like in other scandals," Rehman asked.

Imran Khan must ensure investigation of the ministers and other people around him mentioned in the Pandora Papers in the same way he did in the case of Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz's spokesman Muhammad Zubair said on a Geo News programme.

Jamaat-e-Islami chief Sirajul Haq, meanwhile, demanded immediate resignation of government ministers and advisers named in the Pandora Papers.

The names of 700 Pakistanis, including government ministers and advisers, have appeared in the Pandora Papers.

In his statement, the JI chief said that ministers and advisers should resign if their names are mentioned in the Pandora Papers, otherwise they should be sacked.

He said that for transparency in the investigation and to avoid government influence, it is necessary to remove the government employees named in the Pandora Papers.
Dubai, Oct 4 : Ambati Rayudu's unbeaten 55 carried Chennai Super Kings to 136/5 in 20 overs in Match 50 of IPL 2021 at Dubai International Stadium here on Monday. Apart from a 70-run partnership between Rayudu and MS Dhoni, Chennai's batting was lacklustre. Delhi put up an impressive show with the ball, with spin twins Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel sharing three wickets for just 38 runs, conceding no boundaries.

Pushed into batting first, Chennai lost their prolific opening pair of Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad in power-play. While du Plessis pulled to deep mid-wicket off Axar Patel, Gaikwad, who had reversed a lbw decision off Anrich Nortje in the opening over, top-edged a pull on a pacy short ball to mid-wicket, giving the South African pacer his first wicket of the match.

Patel grabbed his second wicket of the match in the eighth over as Moeen Ali's half-hearted flick was caught by deep mid-wicket. In the next over, Chennai plunged into deep trouble as Robin Uthappa's miscued slog was caught by Ravichandran Ashwin off his own bowling.

Ambati Rayudu crunched Avesh Khan for boundaries through backward point and extra cover in the 12th over as he and MS Dhoni started to rebuild Chennai's innings. Rayudu brought up Chennai's hundred in the 17th over with a full toss from Kagiso Rabada slammed down the ground.

In the next over, Rayudu heaved Khan across the line for a boundary before bringing the half-century of the partnership in 55 balls with a full toss smacked over deep square leg. Rayudu then slapped Nortje for a six over deep extra cover followed by a slash over point for four, bringing his half-century in 40 balls.

Khan, who was hit for 32 runs in three overs, ended the 70-run partnership as Dhoni pulled but the bottom edge went behind to keeper Rishabh Pant. Khan conceded four in the final over to keep Chennai under 140.

Brief Scores: Chennai Super Kings 136/5 in 20 overs (Ambati Rayudu 55 not out, Robin Uthappa 19, Axar Patel 2/18, Ravichandran Ashwin 1/20) against Delhi Capitals

Latest updates on IPL 2021
New Delhi, Oct 4 : Delhi Police has detained 95 protesters, including 25 women, near the Uttar Pradesh Bhavan in the national capital for staging a protest in the wake of Sunday's Lakhimpur incident which claimed the lives of eight people.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi district) Deepak Yadav said that the protesters were given repeated warnings regarding the imposition of Section 144 in the area and DDMA guidelines.

"However, when they did not leave the area, they were detained and taken to the Mandir Marg Police Station," the DCP informed.

A total of 95 members from eight political parties were detained by the police which included 27 from Indian National Congress, 17 from Janvadi Mahila Samiti and Krantikari Yuva Sangthan each, 15 from Students' Federation of India, 13 from Rashtriya Lok Dal, 11 from All India Students Association, eight from Samajwadi Party and six from All India Kisan Sabha.

The agitation was carried out in the wake of violence at a farmers' protest in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur-Kheri that left at least eight people dead and 15 others injured. The protest took a violent turn, there, as unidentified persons opened fire at the farmers on Sunday. Infuriated farmers then set three jeeps on fire after which some of the protesters were run over by the vehicles. One of the vehicles is said to belong to Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra.

Since Sunday, the incident became a political hotspot with leaders from the opposition parties targeting the ruling Uttar Pradesh government.

Hundreds of members of Opposition parties staged protests outside Uttar Pradesh Bhawan between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m., here, amid a heavy police deployment. The party workers demanded the sacking of Union MoS Ajay Mishra and the arrest of his son in connection with the death of farmers.

The senior police official said that appropriate legal action is being taken against all the people who were detained today.
Agartala/Kolkata, Oct 4 : Amid dissidence by a section of BJP MLAs and leaders in Tripura, a ruling party legislator, Ashis Das, on Monday praised West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee.

Talking to the media in Kolkata, Das, an MLA from Surma in northern Tripura, also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "selling most government properties to private parties".

Praising Banerjee for winning the bypoll in Bhabanipur by a record margin, the BJP MLA said that many people and organisations want Banerjee as the Prime Minister and her elevation to the post is very crucial as she is a Bengali.

"Mamata Banerjee is now a very popular political face in India. Once Modi's messages stirred the minds of people from all sections across the country. Modi had once said that 'Na khaunga, na khane dunga', but now it has become a popular jumla (joke) in the country," the 43-year-old saffron party legislator said.

He said that at the Centre and the states, the BJP has been running governments in an "autocratic style".

Das, who is in Kolkata for the past two days, said that he has some programmes in Kalighat on Tuesday and after completing the events, he would disclose his future course of action.

"At the moment, I will not disclose Tuesday's programmes in Kalighat, whether it is religious or political," Das told IANS.

When asked about Das's comments, BJP spokesman Nabendu Bhattacharjee told IANS that the senior party leaders would look into the matter.

Das and four other BJP MLAs -- Sudip Roy Barman, Ashis Kumar Saha, Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl and Burba Mohan Tripura - recently held a big gathering in Agartala which was attended ny many local BJP leaders and workers.

To plug the rebellion in the organisation and to set the governance right, several central party leaders led by BJP's North East Zonal Secretary (Organisation), Ajay Jamwal, have rushed to the state several times.

In the presence of the central leaders, three BJP MLAs -- Ram Prasad Paul, Sushanta Chowdhury, Bhagaban Chandra Das -- were on August 31 inducted into the Tripura cabinet in its first expansion after the BJP-IPFT (Indigenous People's Front of Tripura) alliance assumed office in March 2018.

In a sudden political development, Tripura Assembly Speaker Rebati Mohan Das also resigned from his post citing "personal reasons" and Congress-turned-BJP leagilator Ratan Chakraborty was chosen for the post on September 24.

Since the BJP-IPFT government assumed office on March 9, 2018, three ministerial berths were lying vacant and in May 2019 former Health and Information Technology Minister Sudip Roy Barman was sacked following differences with the Chief Minister, taking the number of vacancies to four.

Barman's removal from the ministerial post had fuelled open resentment in the ruling party.

Barman, the son of former Chief Minister and Congress leader Samir Ranjan Barman, recently said that he would not work under the leadership of Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb.

"Leaders of the government and party organisations are not keen to listen to the opinion, grievances and suggestions of the district and grassroots leaders. That's why we recently organised a conference. That was not against the BJP or to join the Trinamool Congress," Barman said.

Barman, who along with six other Trinamool Congress MLAs and a large number of workers and local leaders joined the BJP in 2017, said that he recently met BJP President J.P. Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah and other central leaders and apprised them about the political situation in the state.

However, the dissident BJP leader on Monday refused to divulge the details of his meeting with the central leaders.
New Delhi, Oct 4 : Taking cognisance of the reports of a dead body of a girl that was found in a naked state on Sunday in a park opposite Nand Nagri Depot here, Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal on Monday issued notice to Delhi Police demanding a report on the incident.

"It has been alleged that the girl may have been murdered after being sexually assaulted. This is a very serious matter," the DCW chief said.

The Commission demanded a copy of the FIR, details of the accused arrested, a copy of the post-mortem report of the deceased, and a detailed action report taken in the matter.

Maliwal also asked the police to furnish the details of the identity of the victim girl. "If the deceased has not been identified, please provide the details of the steps taken by police to identify the body," she said in a notice.

The Commission has sought all the information from the police by October 7.

Furnishing details about the incident, the police said that they had received a PCR call at the Harsh Vihar police station regarding the dead body of a girl in a park opposite Nand Nagri Depot.

The police team rushed to the spot and shifted the girl to GTB Hospital where she was declared brought dead.

An official said that on physical inspection, apparent marks of strangulation on the neck and some cut marks on hands were found on the victim's body. However, after preliminary medical examination, the police did not confirm any sexual assault.

The cops are currently investigating the case and various angles are being examined.
New Delhi, Oct 4 : Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger went down for millions of users, including in India, on Monday evening, as they were unable to send or receive messages on social media platforms.

According to DownDetector, a website that tracks WhatsApp outages, 40 per cent users were unable to download the app, 30 per cent had trouble in sending messages and 22 per cent had problems with the web version.

People took to Twitter to report the problems they were facing with Facebook family apps, including posting memes and GIFs.

"Sorry, something went wrong. We're working on it and we'll get it fixed as soon as we can," a message on the Facebook website read.

"All of us coming to Twitter to see if Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook are really down," a user tweeted.

"Everyone rushing to Twitter to see if WhatsApp is actually down," another tweeted.

"Instagram down, Facebook down, WhatsApp down. You know who's in-charge now?" another user posted.

In April, Facebook and Instagram went down for millions of users for a couple of hours in various parts of the world. The outage was the second in less than a month for the social networking giant.

People took to DownDetector as they were welcomed with "sorry something went wrong" error message from Facebook and Instagram.

The outage appeared to affect Facebook's internal websites as well, famed developer Jane Wong noted in a tweet.
New Delhi, Oct 4 : The Delhi government on Monday directed all all banks, financial institutions and NBFCs to integrate their vehicle loan related data with Vahan portal latest by October 31.

The Delhi Transport Department has issued a circular instructing the vehicle loan provider banks, financial institutions and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) to integrate their services with Vahan portal latest by October 31.

As per the circular, the No Objection Certificate (NOC) for Hypothecation Termination from the banks and other financial institutions will be received only in the digital format at the Vahan platform of the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

Hypothecation services which include addition, continuation and termination of hypothecation on vehicle loans is one of the most availed services of the transport department under 'faceless services' launched in August this year by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Recently, Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot had a meeting in this regard with all major banks offering loans on vehicles in the city.

It was decided in the meeting that all the banks and other financial institutions would ensure the integration of their vehicle loan data with NIC Vahan software. HDFC and ICICI together comprise 70-80 per cent of all vehicle loans in Delhi and have already integrated their loan related data with Vahan portal.

In a statement Delhi Transport department said that with this order general public are now not required to visit the bank for the NOC, they can directly apply for hypothecation removal on the Transport Department website under the Faceless Services of the Delhi Government.

Earlier, an applicant after foreclosure of a loan had to apply for termination of Hypothecation and submit Form 35 and NOC from the bank for termination within 90 days.

The circular also says that from November 1, onwards, those banks or financial institutions who fail to integrate the data with the Vahan portal, would not be allowed to enter their data of hypothecation onto the Transport Department database.

The circular further instructs the banks and financial institutions not to wait for any request from the vehicle owner to issue the NOC. Instead, they are required to share the data of all vehicles with the Transport Department, immediately after the loan has been repaid.

In a statement Gahlot said, "We had, in the last month set a strict deadline to take all Banks on board for integrating their data with VAHAN to allow termination on HPT services and I'm happy to see that the process has picked pace and nearly complete. This will be a big step that we will be taking in the direction of going completely Faceless, and doing away with long queues at not just our RTOs, but any place that is involved in delivery of services by Transport Department."
New Delhi/Mumbai, Oct 4 : Just in time for the World Animal Day on Monday, Lakme has agreed to join PETA US' 'Global Beauty Without Bunnies' programme, which certifies cosmetics, personal-care, and household goods companies and brands that don't test on animals.

"Lakme, which is owned by Hindustan Unilever, will now feature the programme's PETA-approved bunny logo on its packaging," PETA India said in a release here.

"Not testing any of our products on animals is critical to our values at Lakme and is in line with Unilever's Positive Beauty vision," said head of innovations at Lakme, Sumati Matti.

In India, testing cosmetics or their ingredients on animals was banned in 2014, as was the importation of animal-tested cosmetics. In 2020, the government released the Cosmetics Rules 2020, which include provisions to strengthen the ban on the importation of animal-tested cosmetics.

PETA India advised consumers to purchase only from companies listed as not testing on animals by PETA US' Global Beauty Without Bunnies programme.

"PETA's 'Beauty Without Bunnies' programme is recognised worldwide for its high-quality standards and rigour, and we are proud to be a brand that is officially PETA-approved. With Lakme's range of high-performance and world-class cosmetics, skin-care products, and beauty salons, women can own their look while knowing that the beauty and safety from our products are from scientific alternatives to animal testing," Matti said.

"Thanks to Lakme's compassion and conscientiousness, animals will be spared the ugly tests for beauty products," said PETA India science policy advisor, Ankita Pandey.

PETA India - whose motto reads, in part, that "animals are not ours to experiment on" - notes that more than 5,400 companies around the world have banned all animal tests in favour of effective, modern, non-animal methods, thereby sparing animals painful and deadly tests.
Patna, Oct 4 : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday challenged the report of Niti Aayog saying that it is not based on ground reality.

Niti Aayog on Friday (October 1) in its report said that the health infrastructure of Bihar is on the top from the bottom in the entire country.

"The working style of Niti Aayog is absolutely weird. It has calculated every state and union territory with just one parameter. Bihar is number 3 in population and 12th in area wise. When you calculate the health infrastructure per square km area, the calculation always goes wrong. The way Niti Aayog calculated the health infrastructure of Bihar is not an actual report," Kumar said.

"When I took over the charge of Bihar as chief minister, the health infrastructure was pathetic. Animals were sleeping inside hospitals. Now, we have opened many medical colleges and hospitals in the state. We are continuously improving the health sector," he said.

"We have asked the senior officials of the health department to prepare a report to counter Niti Aayog," he said.

As per the report of Niti Aayog, Bihar has just 6 hospital beds for one lakh population, lowest among all 36 states and union territories in the country.

The Niti Aayog prepared the report with the help of the health and family welfare ministry and WHO India, where hospitals of the districts have made good progress with 24 beds per one lakh population. Puducherry has 222 beds per one lakh population which is the highest in the country while Bihar has the lowest with just 6 beds.
Hyderabad, Oct 4 : Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief A. Revanth Reddy on Monday reiterated the demand for probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the auction of government lands at Kokapet in Hyderabad.

The MP alleged that the hacking of website of Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) has raised suspicion about internal involvement in the scam.

He said the information from HMDA office disappeared after he lodged a complaint with the CBI and demanded a thorough probe into the auction. Reddy said the CBI inquiry should be ordered immediately.

Reddy was reacting to reports about hacking of a year's data of the Development Permission Management System (DPMS) belonging to HMDA.

Files relating to building and layout permissions including those of the Kokapet auction and integrated master plan have reportedly vanished from servers and from computers of officials connected to these servers. The DPMS website is allegedly dysfunctional for last 20 days.

It is for the third time this year that data from website has been hacked. Congress party leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka also raised the issue in the state Assembly on Monday and demanded immediate action.

Revanth Reddy had last month filed a complaint with the CBI alleging Rs 1,000 crore loss to the state exchequer in Kokapet land auction.

The Congress leader claimed that certain officials colluded with public sector units and a few builders in the e-auction, resulting in loss to the exchequer. He also alleged that some realty companies close to the chief minister were favoured in the auction.

In July, HMDA earned revenue Rs 2,000 crore with the auction of 49.949 acres of land in Kokapet.

HMDA had fixed the price at Rs 25 crore per acre but the e-auction fetched maximum price of Rs 60.2 crore per acre for 1.65 acre plot.

The state government also earned Rs 729.41 crore from auction of 14.91 acres at Khanamet near HITEC City.

These e-auctions were undertaken under the first phase of the government's plan to sell its surplus land to mobilize Rs 20,000 crore during 2021-22 as non-tax revenue to deal with the economic crisis arising from coronavirus pandemic.
Amaravati, Oct 4 : A minister in Andhra Pradesh clarified on Monday that Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy or the state government has nothing to do with the elections to Movie Artists Association (MAA), the apex body of Tollywood.

Minister for information and public relations Perni Nani said the Chief Minister or YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) are in no way connected to the MAA elections.

His clarification came amid reports that the Jagan Mohan Reddy government is backing a particular panel in MAA elections, scheduled to be held on October 10.

Actor Prakash Raj, who is contesting for the post of MAA president, thanked the chief minister and minister for the clarification. He took to Twitter to thank the Andhra leaders.

Panels led by Prakash Raj and Vishnu Manchu are locked in a direct fight. The two actors are fighting for president's post while several film personalities from both the panels are in the fray for other key posts.

Prakash Raj had earlier slammed the rival panel for allegedly claiming support of Jagan Mohan Reddy in the elections. While campaigning for his panel, the actor criticized those dragging the names of politicians in the elections.

The MAA elections are being held in the backdrop of a bitter war of words between actor politician Pawan Kalyan and Perni Nani and other Andhra Pradesh ministers over the issue of online sale of movie tickets in the state.

The Jana Sena leader had hit out at the YSRCP government for its move for online sale of tickets saying this will harm the interests of the film industry. He also questioned the silence of veteran actor Babu Mohan, who is father of Vishnu Manchu. Barring a couple of actors, the Tollywood has not backed Pawan Kalyan.

Since megastar Chiranjeevi, brother of Pawan Kalyan, has announced support to Prakash Raj panel, the other panel is reportedly claiming support of Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Meanwhile, Prakash Raj also came down heavily on outgoing MAA president Naresh for branding him non-Telugu. The actor claimed that nobody in Vishnu's panel can speak Telugu like him. He reiterated that he is trying to work sincerely for the welfare of artistes.
Hyderabad, Oct 4 : Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday alleged that the central government is neglecting Telangana in tourism and other sectors.

Speaking in State Legislative Assembly, he slammed the Centre for its indifference towards the state. He said though Telangana has a very rich culture, long history, traditions and a land of great arts, it was neglected by the government at the Centre.

The chief minister made an intervention during the question hour when tourism minister was answering a query about Ramappa temple, which was recently designated as UNESCO World Heritage site.

KCR, as the chief minister is popularly known, said for 58 years when Telangana was part of Andhra Pradesh the region was neglected in all sectors. He said Telangana was never promoted though it had several historic monuments and a glorious past.

He pointed out that Telangana also has several places of tourist attraction. He said the state has beautiful waterfalls and historic forts but it was not given the due recognition.

The chief minister also found fault with the Centre for not recognizing the artists and distinguished personalities of Telangana by conferring them with Padma awards. He said he has already asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah whether they wanted Telangana to send the names for Padma award or not. He said they promised necessary action in this regard.

KCR said his government has constituted a committee with MLAs from all districts to showcase various historical sites, forts, scenic locations and unique temples before the world.

The chief minister said it has been six-and-a-half years since the state government has urged the Centre to sanction airstrips to the state but there has been no action. He alleged that the union government was procrastinating the proposals though the state government offered to develop the airstrip with its own funds.
Bengaluru, Oct 4 : Karnataka BJP on Monday finally included the name of B.Y. Vijayendra, son of former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa in the list of the team in charge for the bypoll of the Hangal assembly constituency after dropping his name initially.

Vijayendra's supporters protested his non-inclusion in the in-charge list for bypolls of Hangal and Sidhangi assembly constituencies scheduled to be held on October 30. Vijayendra had appealed to his supporters not to express their anger and anguish by making statements against party and party leaders. He has also appealed to them not to make comments that embarrass the party, senior leaders and himself.

However, the party reconsidered its decision and included his name on the list of in-charges. The earlier list was announced on October 1. Vijayendra will work along with ministers J.C. Madhuswamy, Murugesh Nirani, B.C. Patil, Shivaram Hebbar and Member of Parliament Shivakumar Udasi.

Vijayendra was regarded as the star campaigner when Yediyurappa was the Chief Minister. His efforts to win seats in K.R. Pet and Sira assembly constituencies, which have been considered as bastions of JD(S) and Congress parties were lauded by the party leadership. Even party high command recognized his capabilities as a strategist. But, his victory run was halted with the defeat of Pratap Gouda Patil in Maski bypoll.

The Hanagal assembly segment was earlier represented by former minister C.M. Udasi, a close confidante of Yediyurappa. The constituency is located next to the Shikaripura constituency represented by Yediyurappa.

The in-charges of Sindhagi are ministers Govind Karajol, V. Somanna, C.C. Patil and Shashikala Jolle. The bypolls are being held following the death of Hanagal MLA Udasi and M.C. Managuli, MLA of Sindhagi.
Bengaluru, Oct 4 : Karnataka Congress President D.K. Shivakumar on Monday set a one-month deadline for the ruling BJP government in the state to lay the foundation stone for the implementation of the Mekedatu project, failing which the Congress will organise a massive protest.

"Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has been the Irrigation Minister before, so he knows the legalities. He has just stated that Tamil Nadu has no right to obstruct the Mekedatu project. We have also been making the same statement. Since the time you (Bommai) have become the Chief Minister, no action has been taken for the implementation of the project. Why are you not starting the work on the Mekedatu project? Why you are not able to commence the Upper Krishna and Mahadayi projects in the interest of the state," Shivakumar asked.

"We don't require anything from Tamil Nadu to begin the project work at Mekedatu. We don't need their water, money or land. The project is being implemented on our soil. There is a double engine government with the BJP both at the Centre and the state. Why is it not possible to begin the project within the legal framework," he asked.

The Congress leader further said that the party is setting a one-month deadline for the state government, as by-elections are scheduled to be held on October 30.

"The state government should begin the work on the Mekedatu project to provide drinking water for Bengaluru city. They must prepare to organise a groundbreaking ceremony to commence the work by that time," Shivakumar said.
New Delhi, Oct 4 : Delhi PWD Minister Satyendar Jain on Monday conducted an inspection visit to take stock of the ongoing massive road reconstruction drive being carried out by the Delhi Government.

During the visit he inspected the entire stretch from Ashram to Kalindi Kunj Metro Station and instructed the PWD officials to speed up the work so that all the potholes can be filled by October 20.

The inspection was part of Delhi Government's special drive to fill all the potholes and repair the roads damaged due to high-intensity rainfall. The initiative will also aid in preventing environmental pollution during the winter season which is caused due to the construction work, Jain told the press.

Meanwhile, the minister also asked the officials that besides repairing the roads, they should also repair the damaged sewage openings, open choked storm drains, repair footpaths, clean bell mouths and kerb channels, repair non-functional street lights and street-light panels, lifts and escalators in subways.

"Filling up all the potholes of Delhi is our topmost priority. The officials should focus on working efficiently and should strive to complete the work within the directed time frame. The work of filling all the potholes and reconstruction of roads is to be done before October 20," Jain added.

Earlier, Jain held a review meeting during which the officials presented a master plan to overhaul the city's 1,260 km length of road that falls under PWD.

Satyendar Jain further added that due to heavy rainfall this year in Delhi these measures are being taken so that all the roads can be repaired. This process will contribute to reducing the water logging problems in Delhi and also reduce pollution during the winter season.
New Delhi, Oct 4 : Air carriers' association IATA said on Monday that the global net aviation industry losses are expected to come in at $11.6 billion in 2022, down from $51.8 billion on a year-on-year basis.

"The magnitude of the Covid-19 crisis for airlines is enormous. Over the 2020-2022 period, total losses could top $200 billion. To survive, the airlines have dramatically cut costs and adapted their business to whatever opportunities were available," said IATA's Director General, Willie Walsh.

"That will see the $137.7 billion loss of 2020 reduce to $52 billion this year. And that will further reduce to $12 billion in 2022. We are well past the deepest point of the crisis. While serious issues remain, the path to recovery is coming into view. Aviation is demonstrating its resilience yet again," Walsh added.

According to IATA, domestic travel demand will near pre-crisis levels in 2022.

However, the association pointed out that challenge remains in international markets, which are still severely depressed as government-imposed restrictions continue.

"People have not lost their desire to travel as we see in solid domestic market resilience. But they are being held back from international travel by restrictions, uncertainty and complexity. More governments are seeing vaccinations as a way out of this crisis.

"We fully agree that vaccinated people should not have their freedom of movement limited in any way. In fact, the freedom to travel is a good incentive for more people to be vaccinated. Governments must work together and do everything in their power to ensure that vaccines are available to anybody who wants them," Walsh added.
Chennai, Oct 4 : Puthiya Tamilagam (PT) leader Dr Krishnaswamy has said that those Scheduled Caste people who wanted to convert to Christianity should shun their SC identity and join the new religion.

He said that people may convert to Christianity if they believe in the faith and not for reservation benefits. In a statement, the Puthiya Thamilagam leader said that he demands the removal of Devendra Kula Vellalar from the SC list.

He also said that the SC/ST Atrocities Act must not be misused. He said that he had been educating Puthiya Thamilagam members not to misuse the Act and not to complain under the law even if they were beaten up.

The PT leader said that the usage of the law divides society and also called upon the officials not to misuse the Act to get the money paid to a victim.

He said that he agreed with the views of the movie 'Rudra Thandavam' on SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act as also that of the presence of crypto-Christians in the society.

Dr Krishnaswamy is a former legislator of the Tamil Nadu Assembly and founder leader of the PT party and has always been vocal in airing his views.
New Delhi, Oct 4 : Automobile major Tata Motors on Monday unveiled its first sub-compact SUV -- Punch -- with the vehicle slated to be launched in 2-weeks time.

According to the company, the sub-compact SUV will be available in both manual (MT) and automatic (AMT) transmission options.

"Tata Motors design studios in India, UK, and Italy collaborated to develop this unique vehicle to herald the creation of an entirely new category - the sub-compact SUV, to address a growing customer need for a small in size but large in space SUV," the company said in a statement.

"Built on the proven and modern 'Agile Light Flexible Advanced' (ALFA) architecture, the Punch incorporate several industry first innovations to enhance both functionality and driving pleasure." Besides, the company said the new vehicle is powered by a "New Gen 1.2L Revotron BS6 Engine".
New Delhi, Oct 4 : Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday extended financial assistance of Rs 48.14 crore and handed over the cheques to 6,820 students pursuing higher education under the Merit-cum-Means financial assistance scheme.

Distributing the cheques to students, Sisodia said, "it is the responsibility of the Delhi Government that any student in Delhi who is talented and ready to work hard does not miss out on the opportunity to study. It is the responsibility of the Delhi government that any child who is progressing in the field of higher education should not stop his studies due to lack of fund." The Deputy CM said that only 2,500 students were benefited with a budget of Rs 14 crore in the beginning of this scheme, adding that, it is a matter of great happiness that this year 6,820 students are getting benefit from this scheme. "This year the budget for this scheme has been increased to Rs 48 crore," said Sisodia.

Sisodia, who is also Delhi's Education Minister, said that unemployment is the biggest crisis the country is facing today. "We have to make India a country of job providers," he aded.

He appealed to students to become a job provider and make such companies that the children living abroad start dreaming of getting jobs in Indian companies. He said that any country becomes a developed nation not on the strength of the governments or their policies but on the basis of a better quality education.

The Deputy CM appealed to the beneficiaries that it is now their responsibility to become a good businessman, a good officer, a good teacher and do their duty towards the country.

Over 13,000 students have been benefited under the scheme in the last 3 years with an amount of Rs 87 crore. The scheme provides hundred per cent financial assistance to the children of ration cardholder families, 50 per cent financial assistance to those whose annual family income is less than Rs 2.50 lakh, and 25 per cent to those whose annual family income is more than Rs 2.50 lakh but less than Rs 6 lakh.
New Delhi, Oct 4 : In a big outreach programme, the BJP in Madhya Pradesh is aiming to bring Dalit and tribal people closer to the party.

As part of this initiative, the party will highlight the lives and personalities of freedom fighters and prominent personalities from the SC and ST communities.

The party's Madhya Pradesh in-charge, P. Murlidhar Rao, told IANS that it is a movement to restore the pride of Dalit and tribal heroes whose contributions have been forgotten.

"With public participation, we will remember the forgotten heroes of the SC and ST community and their contributions will be told to the current generation," he said.

Rao explained that the BJP will recognise and remember the contribution of all the iconic figures from the SC/ST community, including freedom fighters or those who worked for the nation's pride and sacrificed their lives for the country.

"It will be a movement of cultural pride where people will remember the contributions of unknown or unsung heroes from SC/ST community. It will start soon," Rao said.

Last month, while addressing an event in Jabalpur, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said, "It is very unfortunate that the previous governments committed the crime of forgetting and not recognising the contributions and sacrifices of freedom fighters belonging to the SC/ST community." Shah had mentioned that Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to organise the 'Azadi Ke Amrit Mahotsav' in honour of those freedom fighters who have not been given due recognition.

"All the unknown freedom fighters will be given their due and their supreme sacrifices will be remembered. Programmes will be held so that future generations continue to remember them," Shah had said.

Madhya Pradesh will go to the polls in 2023.
Dubai, Oct 4 : Shikhar Dhawan and Shimron Hetymer played critical knocks to guide Delhi Capitals to a tense three-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings in Match 50 of IPL 2021 at Dubai International Stadium here on Monday.

Chasing 137, Delhi hunted down the target with two balls to spare and now sit on top of the points table.

Delhi began well with Prithvi Shaw taking two fours off Josh Hazlewood in the second over. But Deepak Chahar took him out in the next over as Shaw sliced to mid-off. Shikhar Dhawan tore into Chahar in the fifth over, smacking the pacer for four boundaries in a row.

Hazlewood took his first wicket of the match as Shreyas Iyer sliced a catch to cover in the final over of power-play. Rishabh Pant, who survived caught behind and stumping appeals, smashed two boundaries to long-on off Ravindra Jadeja and Moeen Ali. But Pant played one shot too many as he top-edged a slog-sweep to point off Jadeja in the ninth over.

Debutant Ripal Patel picked two boundaries off Jadeja, pulling through mid-wicket which was followed by late cutting a faster delivery past slip in the eleventh over. Jadeja bounced back in his next over as Patel mistimed the loft to long-on.

Ravichandran Ashwin's promotion backfired in the 15th over as a cross-seam delivery from Shardul Thakur went through the gate and hit the stumps after brushing past the back pad.

Dhawan overturned a caught behind decision. But three balls later, the left-hander chipped a drive straight to cover.

Shimron Hetmyer welcomed Dwayne Bravo in the 18th over with boundaries slammed over bowler's head followed by ball running to the rope after K Gowtham spilled a catch at long-on.

In the next over, Hetmyer whacked a six over deep square leg off Hazlewood to bring the equation down to six in the final over.

Bravo had Axar Patel dismissed in the final over, driving straight to cover. Kagiso Rabada finished off in style with a clip through fine leg to seal a tight win for Delhi.

Brief scores: Chennai Super Kings 136/5 in 20 overs (Ambati Rayudu 55 not out, Robin Uthappa 19, Axar Patel 2/18, Ravichandran Ashwin 1/20) lost to Delhi Capitals 139/7 in 19.4 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 39, Shimron Hetmyer 28 not out, Shardul Thakur 2/13, Ravindra Jadeja 2/28) by three wickets

Latest updates on IPL 2021

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Patna, Oct 4 : The stand of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar against the BJP over caste-based Census seems to have softened a bit in view of the upcoming by-elections in the state.

By-elections to Tarapur and Kusheshwar Asthan Assembly segments will be held on October 30. The counting will take place on November 2.

Nitish Kumar was challenging the BJP a week ago, claiming that caste-based Census is his priority. However, when the media asked about his stand on the issue now after the 'Janta Darbar' on Monday, the Chief Minister said that the matter would be taken up after bypolls.

"Let the by-elections get over first, then only we will discuss this subject (caste-based Census). Till then, leave it," Kumar said.

The JD(U) is contesting in both Tarapur and Kusheshwar Asthan with outside support from the BJP. As a result, the ruling party cannot afford to lose the supporters of the BJP and RSS, which might be a reason for Nitish Kumar's latest stand on the issue.

"We will call all the parties next month for a meeting wherein we will discuss this issue (caste-based Census). Whatever decision we take in this matter will be in the interest of all the parties," Nitish Kumar said.

The Centre recently filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court wherein it refused to conduct caste-based Census in the country.
New Delhi, Oct 5 : Union Minister of State for Earth Sciences, Jitendra Singh, on Monday said India is committed to curtail carbon emissions in the Antarctic atmosphere.

"India has already adopted the green energy initiative by experimenting with the feasibility of wind energy production and installed moderate output of Wind Energy Generators (WEG) on an experimental basis. The choice of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) for Bharati station to reduce carbon emissions in the Antarctic also promotes India's pledge to protect the environment," Singh said as he addressed an international conference commemorating the signing of the Madrid Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty.

The conference was attended virtually by Prime Minister of the host country Spain, Pedro Sanchez; Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern; Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison and ministers and delegates representing the different countries that are signatory to the Protocol.

The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty was signed in Madrid on October 4, 1991 and entered into force in 1998. It designates Antarctica as a "natural reserve, devoted to peace and science".

Singh said that India is looking forward to contributing to the evolving Climate Change Response Work Programme of the Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP).

He said, climate-induced Carbon Dioxide (CO2) uptake by polar oceans is causing acidification that destroys marine environments and ecosystems.

"It is gradually affecting fisheries, and lastly, propelling disastrous biome shifts. It is one of the challenges for the next 30 years," the Minister observed and reiterated that India also anticipates tourism growth and Illegal Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing as potential issues.

India is committed to the comprehensive protection of the Antarctic environment and dependent and associated ecosystems, and the designation of Antarctica as a natural reserve devoted to peace and science, he said, adding, India also reaffirms its commitment to the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty.

Forty-two state parties acceding to the Madrid Protocol are a remarkable feat of sustainable manner of preserving the Antarctic environment, he added.

India signed the Antarctic Treaty on August 19, 1983 and soon, thereafter, received consultative status on September 12, 1983. The Madrid Protocol was signed by India, which came into force on January 14, 1998.

India is one of the 29 Consultative Parties to the Antarctic Treaty. India is also a member of Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programme (COMNAP) and Scientific Committee of Antarctica Research (SCAR). All these representations show the significant position that India holds among the nations involved in Antarctic research.

India has two active research stations; Maitri (commissioned in 1989) at Schirmacher Hills, and Bharati (commissioned in 2012) at Larsemann Hills in Antarctica. India has successfully launched 40 annual scientific expeditions to Antarctica till date. With Himadri station in Ny-Alesund, Svalbard, Arctic, India now belongs to the elite group of nations that have multiple research stations within the Polar Regions.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Strengthening the Marital Bond by Gods Design: an encouraging approach to developing and nurturing a successful marital life. Strengthening the Marital Bond by Gods Design is the creation of published author Alan Douglas McMillan, a loving husband and father who holds an Associate of Arts degree and Bachelor of Science degree in Christian education from Mid-American Christian University. McMillan recently obtained a Masters degree in Ministry Leadership from MACU, as well. He is a current student at Liberty University pursuing a PhD degree in Biblical Exposition.

McMillan shares, Have you ever wondered what it takes to have a happy, successful, fruitful marriage? What does a healthy marriage resemble? These are the types of questions Pastor Alan D. McMillan receives as both pastor and chaplain.

The institution of marriage is one of the most sacred unions God created for humanity. In the publication, Pastor McMillan plans to address all aspects of marriage from a biblical perspective. He also intends to discuss the impactful perception of marriage from a secular perspective and give practical ways to build, nurture, and enjoy a fruitful marriage how God established the marital union.

Marital relationships are receptive to outside interference and interactions. In this book, Pastor McMillan will explore the various pitfalls and nuances that can erode the union. Also, he will explore the data and statistics relating to the awareness of various unresolved issues. Illustrations given within this book will share several constructive steps if applied to the marital relationship and will help combat the rigors of daily life.

Strengthening the marital bond by Gods design is a scriptural journey into the institution of marriagebuilding a marital bond from the foundation of a Christ-centered union, using the essential components of love and prayer. This book covers the physical, emotional, and spiritual DNA of the marital relationship. It also will focus on the imprint of Gods presence within the union of his design.

God has not finished creating. Allow this book to guide you into his creative process. God has many aspects that he wants to share with you. Pastor Alan D. McMillan invites you to relax your mind and allow the Holy Spirit to impart to you the wisdom of the scriptures. Prayerfully, this book will not only have an impact on the perception of the union of marriage but also, hopefully, it will illustrate how the design of God molds and shapes every aspect of marital life.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Alan Douglas McMillans new book encourages couples to keep God within the union to achieve marital harmony.

McMillan offers readers a straightforward guide to maintaining a marriage for long term success and happiness.

Consumers can purchase Strengthening the Marital Bond by Gods Design at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Strengthening the Marital Bond by Gods Design, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
We are honored to work with such a respected financial leader as TIAA, which is committed to supporting early stage digital infrastructure projects.

Arcadian Infracom, a fiber infrastructure company, and TIAA, a leading provider of secure retirements and outcome-focused investment solutions to millions of people and thousands of institutions, have partnered to finance Arcadians first long haul fiber routes. TIAA will invest up to $140 million to accelerate fiber projects traversing the four-corners region of the Southwestern United States and grow the Arcadian digital infrastructure investment platform. The financial commitment from TIAA, along with customer purchase commitments will enable Arcadian to accelerate fiber construction.

We are honored to work with such a respected financial leader as TIAA, which is committed to supporting early stage digital infrastructure projects. TIAAs investment has the ability to significantly scale Arcadians capital-intensive business across multiple fiber routes as well as create additional synergistic investment opportunities as we route the digital ecosystem directly through rural and tribal markets, said Dan Davis, CEO and co-founder of Arcadian. As the son of a retired music teacher from rural Illinois, I am personally committed to the mission of TIAA and its founder, Andrew Carnegie, to provide long term financial security for education professionals.

The highly anticipated fiber infrastructure routes connecting Phoenix to Salt Lake City and Phoenix to Denver are purposefully routed through remote rural and tribal communities. The routes are enabled by the 2018 first-of-its-kind value sharing partnership between Arcadian and Navajo Nation for the construction of long-haul fiber routes through the Navajo reservation. This diverse fiber routing provides much needed network diversity, resiliency, security and improved latency for Arcadians global cloud, content, carrier, cable and ISP customers. This routing strategy also synergistically enables high-speed broadband access and creates economic development opportunities in rural and tribal communities along Arcadian routes.

Nuveen, the investment manager of TIAA with over $1 trillion of assets, originated, underwrote and will manage the investment. Key tenets of our portfolio strategy include identifying exceptional growth opportunities, managed by best-in-class teams and executed through responsible investment strategies, said Andrew Deihl, Sector Head of Private Infrastructure at Nuveen. The long term investment focus of TIAA aligns well with the patience and focus required for success in building Arcadians new core long haul fiber infrastructure with a life cycle measured across multiple decades.

TIAAs commitment to working with Arcadian Infracom will help meet the increasing global demand for responsible infrastructure investments that also aim to provide alternative sources of attractive returns. The investment will enhance Nuveens existing private infrastructure platform, which manages $5 billion across renewable energy, digital, telecoms, transportation and social infrastructure sectors globally and has delivered consistent investment performance for more than 10 years for our organization and our clients.

Houlihan Lokey acted as exclusive financial advisor to Arcadian with Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner providing legal counsel and Greenberg Traurig as special counsel to Arcadian on American Indian law matters. Bank Street Group LLC served as exclusive financial advisor to TIAA with Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP providing legal counsel and Lewis Roca as special counsel to TIAA on American Indian law matters. CMA Strategy Consulting served as market consultant to TIAA and Broadband Success Partners served as technical advisor to TIAA.

About Arcadian Infracom

Founded in 2018 by seasoned communications industry leaders and headquartered in St. Louis, MO, Arcadian Infracom is an internet infrastructure development, construction, and operations company. Arcadian builds diverse, lower latency long-haul fiber routes connecting major data center locations for its cloud and content customers while providing low cost backhaul to digitally stranded rural and tribal communities for its telecom, cable company, ISP and enterprise customers. Arcadian purposefully routes its fiber through remote rural and tribal communities to help close the digital divide in the U.S.

About TIAA

TIAA is a leading provider of secure retirements and outcome-focused investment solutions to millions of people and thousands of institutions. It is the #1 not-for-profit retirement market provider,1 paid more than $3.6 billion to retired clients in 2020 and has $1.3 trillion in assets under management (as of 6/30/2021).2

1 Based on data from 56 providers in PLANSPONSOR magazines 2019 DC Recordkeeping Survey, combined 457, 403(b) and money purchase plan data as of December 31, 2018.

2 Based on approximately $1.3 trillion of assets under management across Nuveen affiliates and TIAA investment management teams as of 6/30/2021.
Aquelia Walker, a full-time author and current staff writer at Majestic Records Company who was born in Oklahoma and grew up in Fresno, California, has completed her new book My Best Friends a Girl: a heartwarming celebration of diversity, tolerance, and friendship for young readers.

Back at Fronco Elementary School, Jamel is back to shed the limelight, this time on his best friend Bonnie. Jamel and Bonnie are best friends forever, and not everyone seems to see why. To some, a girl best friend is unheard of, but he and Bonnie have been best of friends their entire childhood. Jamel knows firsthand that its probably not wise to judge or categorize others. Now he would like to convince the other boys at school that having a girl best friend can be fruitful. In the meantime, we get to learn a lot of cool stuff about Bonnie and what she likes. Jamel will convey to us some of the great benefits of having a girl best friend and exactly why Bonnies considered to be his.

Published by Page Publishing, Aquelia Walkers engrossing book is a delightful addition to any childrens library.

Readers who wish to experience this engaging work can purchase My Best Friends a Girl 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


Rochelle L. Black, a camping and fishing enthusiast, has completed her new book Artemis SSI: The New Journey: a captivating and engrossing story that takes place in a world of space travel and epic fights against dangerous aliens. All the while, six childhood friends are forced together in a twist of fate and must rely on each other to endure.

As Black says, The year is 2305, and humans have long since found out that they are no longer the only sapient race in the universe. As humans join forces with other alien races to fight a common enemy known as the carians, two military mights emerge. Council Militia and sentinel fleet take up the fight, driving back the carians and slowing their attacks, but they are unable to completely stop them, thus having to always battle small factions throughout the galaxy.

Published by Page Publishing, Rochelle L. Blacks gripping tale introduces readers to new and strange aliens where danger lurks around every corner. Three humans and three aliens, once childhood friends, are now grown and serving aboard two large military battlecruisers continuing the fight against the Carians. They suddenly find themselves teaming up to repair a derelict, prototype spaceship which brings major changes to their lives. As events transpire and secrets are revealed, their connections to each will be what they need to get through it all or all those they love will be destroyed.

Readers who wish to experience this mesmerizing work can purchase Artemis SSI: The New Journey 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 knows that authors need to 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.
Mergers and Acquisitions advisory firm, B&A Corporate Advisors, today announced the addition of Steve Schram to its Advisory Board.

Schram has agreed to assist the company and its founder, Eric Bosveld, with its vision of establishing itself as the leading independent, Agri-Food M&A Advisory firm in the lower middle market.

Steve brings a wealth of experience in the animal health and nutrition space, which is a key focus area for our M&A practice, said Bosveld. He also has been involved in several M&A transactions, both as an acquirer and a seller, which gives him a healthy perspective on the nuances involved in successfully closing an M&A transaction.

I first met Eric years ago, when I was leading AgriLabs, and I welcome the opportunity to work with him to provide M&A services in the dynamic and rapidly changing animal health sector, said Schram. B&As approach to building a trusting relationship with private business owners resonated with me as I was contemplating how to bring value to my network as many consider their options regarding transitioning from the business.

In addition to his of years or experience at the helm of AgriLabs, Schram has held leadership roles at Norbrook Labs, Syntex Animal Health and worked on numerous animal health-related consulting engagements.

Schram is currently the CEO at Phoreus Biotech, a start-up focused of novel delivery of mRNA vaccines and other therapeutics.

About B&A Corporate Advisors: B&A Corporate Advisors is a Mergers and Acquisitions Advisory firm focused exclusively on the Canadian and U.S. food and agribusiness industries in the lower middle market. While we are small and nimble, we pride ourselves on producing outsized results for our clients, through a blend of industry experience, best practices know-how, negotiating skills and strategic outsourcing of back-office support services to keep our services lean and cost-effective.
You dont need special powers, the right personality, or an MBA to enjoy the personal freedom that business ownership provides.

The candid advice and no-nonsense business lessons found in Leonard Fischers new book, Make It Rain, have captured readers attention, launching the book to the top of the Best-Seller List right after its publication.

Leonard Fischer, a late-blooming millionaire and founder of Benetrends Inc., offers hope to frustrated entrepreneurs and small business owners who may be struggling to get their dreams off the ground. Make It Rain explains how Fischer harnessed hard work, ingenuity, and creativity to launch a Multi-Million Dollar business, Benetrends Inc. when he was 50 years old and down to his last dollar.

You dont need special powers, the right personality, or an MBA to enjoy the personal freedom that business ownership provides, Fischer said. When I started, I had none of those secret weapons for business. Im an ordinary guy who grew up in a low-income section of Brooklyn, sleeping on a pull-out couch with my brother.

Drawing on his 30-plus years of experience as an industry leader, Fischer explains how budding entrepreneurs can get more out of their businesses and finally take charge of their lives using his ten SUPER pragmatic imperatives for running a successful small business.

The book is an essential read for any modern professional who needs help taking their business to the next level. Make It Rain features:



Essential business practices every entrepreneur and small business owner needs to know.

Candid advice for professionals who feel stuck, frustrated, and burnt out on the journey to success.

Personal stories of Len Fishers life as a leading ERISA attorney and entrepreneur who founded a $20 million company that helps small businesses get funding and manage their long-term strategic growth.

Make It Rain is available in paperback and Kindle formats on Amazon.

Leonard Len Fischer, Esq., is among the nations leading ERISA attorneys and founder of Benetrends Inc., a retirement services provider based in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. For more information about Benetrends Inc., please visit https://www.benetrends.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.
Beyond Blindness, formerly known as Blind Childrens Learning Center, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to prepare children with visual impairments and other disabilities to live full and rewarding lives, has received a grant from STAAR Surgical, a leading ophthalmology company that designs, develops, manufactures and markets implantable lenses for the eye with companion delivery systems. STAAR Surgicals grant was given in support of the core services of Beyond Blindness including Early Intervention, Education and Enrichment, and Family Support.

The Beyond Blindness team is very grateful for the generosity and support of STAAR Surgical, says Angie Rowe, Beyond Blindness President and Executive Director. As we continue to push through the pandemic, the services we provide have become more crucial than ever before. Because of this grant, we will be able to reach even more children and families in need of these essential programs.

The funding provided by STAAR Surgical will support Beyond Blindness Early Intervention, Education and Enrichment, and Family Support services, providing the necessary education, therapies, and support throughout each familys entire journey of care. Beyond Blindness serves clients ages 0-22 in addition to their families who are given access to various resources through the three core areas of service.

STAAR Surgical has embraced the mission of Beyond Blindness. Caren Mason, President and CEO of STAAR Surgical, currently serves on Beyond Blindness Ophthalmic Advisory board, which is comprised of top medical and ophthalmic professionals.

While serving on the Ophthalmic Board for Beyond Blindness, Ive seen first-hand how instrumental Beyond Blindness services are to the families it serves, stated Caren Mason, President and CEO of STAAR Surgical. The wonderful work of Beyond Blindness is why we at STAAR Surgical felt compelled to provide a grant. We know Beyond Blindness is positively impacting its clients lives, and we feel fortunate to contribute.

Beyond Blindness remains a key resource in serving families and children with visual impairments and other disabilities through its Early Intervention, Education and Enrichment, and Family Support services. STAAR Surgicals donation will facilitate the work of Beyond Blindness in providing care to over 300 families as Beyond Blindness expands its reach in Orange County.

More About Beyond Blindness

Beyond Blindness, formerly Blind Childrens Learning Center, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with the mission to empower children with visual impairments and other disabilities to achieve their fullest potential. Areas of service include Early Intervention, Education + Enrichment, and Family Support, which all aim to help children, no matter their abilities, live full and rewarding lives. The Beyond Blindness team embraces a people-first approach and values family, connection, impact, inclusion, stewardship, and optimism. For more information, please visit https://www.beyondblindness.org/

More About STAAR Surgical

STAAR, which has been dedicated solely to ophthalmic surgery for over 30 years, designs, develops, manufactures and markets implantable lenses for the eye with companion delivery systems. These lenses are intended to provide visual freedom for patients, lessening or eliminating the reliance on glasses or contact lenses. All of these lenses are foldable, which permits the surgeon to insert them through a small incision. STAARs lens used in refractive surgery is called an Implantable Collamer Lens or ICL, which includes the EVO Visian ICL product line. More than 1,000,000 Visian ICLs have been implanted to date and STAAR markets these lenses in over 75 countries. To learn more about the ICL go to: http://www.discovericl.com. Headquartered in Lake Forest, CA, the company operates manufacturing and packaging facilities in Aliso Viejo, CA, Monrovia, CA and Nidau, Switzerland. For more information, please visit the Companys website at http://www.staar.com.
BK Global Better Bankruptcy Solutions Over 95% of delinquent homeowners in bankruptcy  Chapters 7 and 13  are at risk of going into foreclosure.

BK Global has teamed up with Real Estate Business Services (REBS), a subsidiary of the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS (C.A.R.), to provide education, training, tools, and support for homeowners in need of real estate services associated with bankruptcy.

With over 46,000 California homeowners filing bankruptcy in the past year, C.A.R. has taken essential steps to proactively assist these homeowners in their quest to keep or sell their real estate properties.

With a membership of over 205,000 brokers and agents, C.A.R. is perfectly positioned to mobilize its members to provide homeowners, attorneys, bankruptcy trustees and the big banks with boots on the ground to implement cutting-edge solutions for bankruptcies.

Bankruptcy is a broken system, states Brad Geisen, CEO of BK Global. For the past six years, BK Global has been the go-to solution for banks and trustees in the sale of real estate in bankruptcy. Bankruptcy law is extremely well-written. However, it is implemented differently in virtually every court district across the country.

We realized that often, homeowners in bankruptcy are either ill-advised, or have few resources to understand their situations and more importantly, make smart decisions to truly effect a 'fresh start' in todays environment, states Steven Shiller, President, BK Global.

The partnership brings BK Globals Bankruptcy Specialist program and C.A.R.s Education division into a unified mission to enable California REALTORS to reach out to homeowners (or their attorneys) with simple solutions to ensure they are not failed by the system and end up in foreclosure.

Over 95% of delinquent homeowners in bankruptcy  Chapters 7 and 13  are at risk of going into foreclosure even after the discharge of their debt (Chapter 7) or entering a confirmed repayment plan (Chapter 13).

This is a staggering figure because most have options that are not communicated to them throughout the process.

We are the first REALTOR Association to get ahead of the curve as the foreclosure and eviction moratoria come to an end, says REBS Chair Jared Martin. Bankruptcy is a complicated process, and the sale of homes in or just out of bankruptcy in California requires specific skills that REALTORS dont get in license class or traditional broker training.

The partnership with BK Global is a win-win for all stakeholders in the process. The homeowner avoids foreclosure and can be bankable again within 18-24 months. The banks financial recovery averages 28% better in a pre-foreclosure sale and industry professionals can earn their respective fees for services rendered.

In an inventory-depleted real estate market, having agents list assets now versus waiting months or years to show up as REO (foreclosure) listings makes perfect sense.

About Real Estate Business Services

Real Estate Business Services LLC (REBS) is a subsidiary of the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS (C.A.R.) and is the leading provider of real estate products and services to practitioners in California and nationwide.

About C.A.R.

Leading the way in California real estate for more than 110 years, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS (http://www.car.org) is one of the largest state trade organizations in the United States with more than 200,000 members dedicated to the advancement of professionalism in real estate. C.A.R. is headquartered in Los Angeles.

About BK Global

BK Global is the nations leader in bankruptcy and short sale default solutions. BK Global provides industry-changing technology and solutions to Mortgage Servicers, Bankruptcy Trustees, GSEs, Non-profit organizations, Brokers and Consumers. Their mission is to create better mitigation and property disposition methods in bankruptcy that help borrowers/debtors, mortgage servicers and creditors with positive outcomes in even the most complex scenarios.

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If you would like more information about this topic, please call Patrick Butler at (561) 866-7155 or email info@bkginc.com or BKGinc.com.
CEO, Rob Fallon, has been accepted as a member of the Forbes Agency Council, the invitation-only, fee-based Community For Senior-Level Agency Executives.

Bluewater, a direct-to-consumer marketing and advertising agency that has fully converged services including production and creative, media planning and buying, commerce and sales support with analytics, announced today that its CEO, Rob Fallon, has been accepted as a member of the Forbes Agency Council, the invitation-only, fee-based Community For Senior-Level Agency Executives.

Members are respected leaders and executives of PR, media, creative, and ad agencies who are selected for the council based on the depth and diversity of experience in their industry.

Fallon will contribute thought pieces on issues of utmost importance to marketing and advertising as the fields continue to be impacted by the pandemic. These will include articles on creative services, media buying and social media marketing.

In fact, Fallon has already been cited by the Forbes Agency Council in a roundup article about unique ways for brands to leverage TikTok. It can be found here: 17 Unique Ways For Brands To Leverage TikTok This Holiday Season (forbes.com).

Fallon is a creative and analytical thinker with over 20 years of experience in advertising. Hes an outcome-focused executive who excels at connecting creatives with marketers. He has an outstanding leadership track record and has successfully shepherded thousands of successful projects in his career for both D2C products and giant household brands.

Diving into what makes a product or service special and developing the narrative of how to market it is Fallons favorite part of his job. His Make it Happen leadership approach has helped lead Bluewater from infancy to explosive growth over the last 14 years. In his tenure, Fallon has helped Bluewater become an Inc. 5000 company four times, and an Adweek Top 100 fastest growing agency two years in a row. By the numbers, he has helped propel the agency to over $100 million dollars in revenue with a head count of nearly 100 employees headquartered in a 36,000 square foot studio. In 2018, Fallon was personally recognized for his business success as one of Tampa Bays 40 under 40.

About the Forbes Agency Council:

Forbes, one of the most iconic media companies in the world, and the team behind the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), one of the most world-class entrepreneurship organizations, have partnered to create a new kind of professional community for top agency directors and chief executives that proactively connects them to each other as well as best-in-class resources based on their specific business needs.

After years of talking to top professionals about what they were missing, YECs team started looking more closely at the professional and trade organizations available to the kinds of world-class founders, business owners, executives and professionals they work with every day. What they saw was an industry in need of an update; many such organizations offer only a limited roster of superficial benefits and do little to connect members to each other in meaningful ways.

By partnering, YEC and Forbes combined YECs deep understanding of community building with Forbes' global reach and resources to create a better kind of professional organization -- one that considers what a leader needs in every facet of their business life, and provides one-on-one attention based on those individual needs.

Members, who are hand-selected by the Councils Selection Committee, will gain access to a wide range of business benefits and services, including the opportunity to share business insights on Forbes.com with tens of millions of monthly readers. The Forbes Agency Council is one of several industry-specific communities in the Forbes Councils network.

Other benefits and resources include a business services concierge team to connect members with curated resources like travel concierge services, financing, insurance, a global workspace network and volume discounts from hundreds of vetted vendors; exclusive access to members-only VIP events and experiences; and peer-to-peer learning and educational content, to name a few highlights.

And because Forbes Agency Council has a rigorous selection process, every member can be assured that they are part of a vetted peer community of the highest caliber.

About Bluewater:

Bluewater is an Inc. 5000 company and an Adweek Top 100 Fastest Growing Agency, employing over 100 people in Florida, Pennsylvania, and Spain.

Bluewater has one core metric of success: yours. Were a direct marketing and advertising agency converging all the services needed to be relevant to consumers where they live, work and play. Our experienced, talented team of converged professionals make us remarkable. We attack the work differently. We are always inquisitive. The pride and accountability we put in our work is at the root of what makes us better. Just ask to see our results. Visit the company website at https://bluewater.tv or on LinkedIn @bluewater-media.
Dr. Ruff and Dr. Mudgil "To me, being a great cosmetic surgeon means you are knowledgeable about the latest invasive and non-invasive technologies and techniques. I am excited to work with Cartessa as they bring new, exciting products to market." - Dr. Paul Ruff

Cartessa Aesthetics has disrupted the aesthetic industry with its curated product portfolio and best-in-class customer support. To support their ambitious business growth, Cartessa has announced two new advisory appointments to support their ambitious business growth.

Plastic Surgeon Paul Ruff has joined Cartessas Medical Advisory Board. The founder of West End Plastic Surgery and Assistant Professor of Clinical Plastic Surgery at Georgetown University, Dr. Ruff is recognized as one of the top cosmetic plastic surgeons in Washington, D.C. He is admired for his skill and compassionate care as well as his progressive aesthetic approach. When asked why he accepted a position on Cartessas Medical Advisory Board, he cited their impressive technology and shared goals:

To me, being a great cosmetic surgeon means you are knowledgeable about the latest invasive and non-invasive technologies and techniques. You know how to listen to your patients and strive to offer the best of the best. Cartessa does the same  they listen to their customers and present products that truly address unmet needs in the aesthetic space.

Dr. Ruff will work with the other members of Cartessas Medical Advisory Board to provide ongoing clinical guidance and practical insights to inform product selection and planning.

Dr. Adarsh Vijay Mudgil has been named Cartessa Aesthetics Medical Director. With offices in New York Citys Greenwich Village and on Long Island, Dr. Mudgil is board-certified in both dermatology and dermatopathology. In addition to his successful practices, Dr. Mudgil has built a significant audience on social media and The Dr. Mudgil Podcast, sharing stories that inspire and empower. His recent book Lets Get it! explores his own journey to self-empowerment.

Cartessas founder and CEO, Gabe Lubin has been a guest on Mudgils podcast where he shared the importance of perseverance. I can appreciate Gabes hustle  his determination to start Cartessa and commitment to challenge the industry norms. I am excited to support the great work their team is doing shared Mudgil.

Dr. Mudgil will partner with Cartessas sales, marketing, clinical and regulatory teams as they continue to build clinical programs and protocols and look to expand into new categories.

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About Cartessa Aesthetics

Cartessa Aesthetics, LLC sources leading aesthetic medical devices for distribution to dermatologists, plastic surgeons, cosmetic physicians and medical spas. Cartessa selects the most cutting-edge technologies that offer clinically proven efficacy, patient safety, and the best possible investment for patients and professionals. Cartessa is the exclusive US and Canadian partner for Quanta Systems. The companys portfolio also includes VirtueRF and PHYSIQ, Deka manufactured Motus AX & Motus AY, Tetra CO2 with CoolPeel and Luxea as well as Subnovii Advanced Plasma Technology and Skinwave. For more information visit: http://www.cartessaaesthetics.com or email the company at info@cartessaaesthetics.com.
Richard B. Lanman, M.D. The companys innovations in liquid biopsy, particularly adding prediction of immunotherapy response as well as high sensitivity for rare but targetable genomic alterations such as gene fusions, advance our ability to get the right medicine to cancer patients at the right time.

CIRCULOGENE, an innovative liquid biopsy company transforming precision medicine through the rapid delivery of actionable results, and the only laboratory in the world that reports levels of the immunotherapy biomarker PD-L1 with a simple blood test, today announced the appointment of Richard B. Lanman, M.D., to the CIRCULOGENE Board of Directors. Dr. Lanman is a serial entrepreneur who has led medical affairs for three biotechnology companies from seed stage to public.

Most recently, as Global Chief Medical Officer at Guardant Health, Inc., Dr. Lanman planned and executed the research studies, publications, and physician education in oncology genomics required to obtain broad insurance coverage, incorporation in clinical guidelines, and FDA approvals and clearances in record time. A team builder, he engaged premier academic centers and pharmaceutical company strategic partners to accelerate translational research. Dr. Lanman served in a similar capacity as the Chief Medical Officer of Veracyte, a developer of minimally invasive cytology-based genomics tests in endocrinology and pulmonology. Previously, he was Chief Medical Officer for two cardiovascular biodiagnostics companies, diaDexus and Atherotech, which underwent reverse IPO and private sale, respectively.

I am excited to again work with Dr. Lanman and to welcome him to the CIRCULOGENE Board, said CIRCULOGENE President and CEO Mike Mullen. I appreciate that Dr. Lanman brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from our early days at Atherotech, developing innovative technology for precision medicine. I am thrilled that together we will continue to evolve CIRCULOGENEs specialized, specific, and unique approach to diagnostics and patient care.

I am honored to join the Board of CIRCULOGENE, said Dr. Lanman. The companys innovations in liquid biopsy, particularly adding prediction of immunotherapy response as well as high sensitivity for rare but targetable genomic alterations such as gene fusions, advance our ability to get the right medicine to cancer patients at the right time. I am excited to work with the CIRCULOGENE team and leading academic and pharmaceutical leaders to transform cancer into a manageable chronic disease.

About CIRCULOGENE

Transforming precision medicine through the rapid delivery of actionable results, CIRCULOGENE provides comprehensive biomarker testing for a broad range of cancers, allowing physicians to match patient results with specific therapies (or clinical trials) in just one week. The company has developed proprietary next-generation sequencing and qPCR methods that provide a full genomic load analysis, enabling greater data accuracy to help clinicians select targeted therapies, monitor efficacy, and assess recurrence for cancer patients. Applying proprietary liquid biopsy innovation for cfDNA and cfRNA, including PD-L1 and MSI detection, CIRCULOGENE can detect circulating germline and somatic mutations and RNA fusions from a single tube of blood, enabling physicians to tailor targeted therapy and immunotherapy without delay.

CIRCULOGENE is a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) and College of American Pathologists (CAP) certified laboratory and a Verified Vendor for the federal System for Award Management. For more information, visit our website at circulogene.com, connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, email info@circulogene.com, or call us at 855-614-7083. Clinicians interested in ordering tests may also visit our contact page at circulogene.com/contact.
"With Accrue and Core10 combining resources, we see an incredible opportunity to use the tech talent at Core10 and the iPaaS platform at Accrue to enable scalable innovation that generates revenue for these organizations," Joe Maxwell, Managing Partner at FINTOP Capital

Core10, a leading Nashville, TN-based provider of API Integration and SaaS implementation services to the fintech and finserv industries, announced today its acquisition of Accrue Technologies, Inc., a St. Louis, MO digital lending and banking SaaS provider. Core10 connects talent based in the U.S. to fintech companies and financial institutions looking to solve the industrys most pressing challenges. The combined Core10 and Accrue provides scalable fintech solutions designed specifically to support transformation of the financial industry and deliver user-friendly digital banking solutions to community banks, credit unions, fintechs, and consumers.

An OEM Salesforce Platform provider, Accrue360 is a powerful, configurable lending and banking application, designed specifically for community banks and credit unions. Accrues robust banking platform is designed to help small- and medium-sized financial institutions compete in a digital world with increased revenue, transparency, efficiency, analytics, and compliance, providing big bank tech without the big bank budget. With innovative technology solutions designed to meet the needs of the fintech industry, Accrue helps community banks grow and deliver the digital banking experience consumers expect. Accrue comes with pre-built integrations to core banking platforms and fintechs such as Plaid, Stripe, and Alloy, as well as leading credit bureaus and the SBA. These innovations provide financial institutions and fintech startups with access to the core banking platforms and other fintech partners they need to provide the digital transformation their businesses and customers demand.

By giving community banks and fintechs the tools to compete and providing access to high-quality talent resources, the merger of Accrue and Core10 makes it easier for banks to deliver the customer experience their clients expect, says Jim McKelvey, co-founder of Square and investor in both Core10 and Accrue. Other St.Louis-based Accrue advisors include Travis Liebig, CEO of Saint Louis Bank, and Eric Hallgren, Chief Credit Officer of First Bank.

A combined Accrue and Core10 delivers the power of digital banking solutions and integration as a service, with talent and experience to develop API integrations and custom software. Great banking products require customization and integration, and the marriage of these two companies creates a one-stop shop for community banks and fintechs who want to innovate but may not have the expertise or the budget to do so on their own, said Jeff Hanson, CEO of Core10.

Core10 is the industrys leading provider of U.S.-based tech talent to support innovative API software development. The companys pool of experienced, trained developers and implementation talent brings proven knowledge and hands-on work in the financial industry. Core10s flexible, scalable talent solutions give clients the technology skill sets needed to compete in the 21st-century economy, at a competitive cost. Core10 is committed to delivering high-paying technology jobs to Americas heartland by assembling the best U.S.-based talent to support the growing financial technology sector.

We share a similar philosophy in supporting communities by creating a positive economic impact through technology and digital transformation, said Chris Sommers, founder of Accrue. Not all banks have the expertise or budget to implement costly, complex solutions like nCino. Accrue, like nCino, is a Salesforce OEM partner, and Accrue360 is built on the same world-class infrastructure. Accrue360, however, is designed specifically for community banks and credit unions, with pre-built integrations to cores and fintechs. Our rapid implementations and ongoing support are better suited for banks who need digital transformation now, within a price tag they can afford, Sommers added.

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About Core 10

Core10 is a leading provider of API integration and implementation services to the fintech and financial services industry. Founded in 2016 and backed by FINTOP Capital, our team is well versed in new and existing financial technology APIs and integration layers, as well as open banking initiatives. We make it a priority to construct functional and scalable API solutions that are easy to understand and consume. Our 100% U.S.-based development team is located in smaller U.S. Hereshore communities, including Huntington, West Virginia, Johnson City, Tennessee, and Martin, Tennessee, that produce highly educated developers and offer a significantly lower cost of living than the major U.S. hubs. In turn, this allows us to deliver value to our clients by providing expert resources at a competitive rate.

About Accrue Technologies, Inc.

Accrue is in the business of helping small- to mid-sized banks deliver the digital banking experience customers and employees expect. They combine industry and market expertise with a deep knowledge of financial technology to deliver a secure platform with everything in one place. Accrue connects banking systems and processes into one convenient platform, providing consumer and business digital account opening, automated and configurable decisioning, online forms, onboarding, borrower and customer portals, digital document management, and more. With ready-to-go, secure integrations to industry-leading core banking platforms and other fintech leaders, Accrue can get you up and running in as little as 90 days.
Darnleys Gin, the award-winning, premium London Dry spirit from Scotland, and International Distributor Network (IDN) announced today a distribution partnership in 24 markets across the U.S. Darnleys Gin, which is distilled in the quaint village of Kingsbarns, Scotland, utilizes its propertys unique landscape to forage for high quality ingredients that sets the spirit apart from other premium gins. We are thrilled to be partnering with IDN to create more accessibility for Darnleys Gin in the US, says founder William Wemyss. The team at IDN, along with our importer Palm Bay International, understands what makes Darnleys Gin unique and shares our vision to bring our gin to the forefront of conversation about traceability in spirits.

Darnleys Gin uses only the finest elderflower sourced from the distillerys local grounds, resulting in a fresh, floral and fruit-forward gin that delivers a full expression of Eastern Scotlands unique coastal terroir. Combined with other non-native ingredients like juniper, orris root, citrus, coriander and grains of paradise from trusted grower partners around the world, the result is a curious and refreshing spirit that is created from sustainably sourced, traceable botanicals and pure Scottish water. Darnleys is distilled four times in pot stills, yielding a tasting experience that leads with primary notes of juniper berries supported by fresh elderflower, with secondary notes of pine and grapefruit and a clean, delicate finish with no additional flavorings or additives.

At Darnleys, we pride ourselves on an endless quest for botanical exploration. Foraging the lands around the distillery brings the natural bounty of our native land into the bottle for a true experience of regional Scotland. We are proud to bring this unique flavor profile to the American audience, and are confident in our new relationship with IDN to drive trial and awareness for our Scottish gin, adds Wemyss.

IDN, which was born out of the need for distribution services for emerging, niche, and craft brands, launched in 2019. Today IDN represents multiple wine & spirits brands, with Darnleys Gin being the premium gin in the portfolio. Supporting the gin category is vitally important and Darnleys will serve as a key contributor in our mission, says President of IDN David Browne.

Darnleys Gin is imported by Palm Bay International, and IDN will be distributing Darnleys in 24 different markets in the US, with an SRP of $31.99.

About Darnleys Gin

Darnleys Gin prides itself on making a gin thats perfectly natural. By respecting the ingredients gifted to them by nature, and not using colors, sweeteners or artificial flavorings, they have created a London Dry gin that brings a nuanced and authentic taste to the glass. Their carefully selected combination of botanicals, all of which are illustrated on the label, are steeped in the base spirit to macerate, allowing the flavours to be released before distillation begins. The Darnleys story is rooted in Fife, Scotland where the Wemyss family have lived and worked for generations, and its here the Darnleys journey begins. In partnership with local experts, they forage for some of their botanicals, like elderflower that grows wild in the grounds of Wemyss Castle, their familys ancestral home. Darnleys Gin has been awarded a Best Buy from Wine Enthusiast, a Double Gold Medal from the International Spirits Challenge, and was noted as Excellent, Highly Recommended, from the Ultimate Spirits Challenge.

About International Distributor Network

Independent Distributor Network was established in late 2019 with the goal of overcoming industry consolidation by offering a new model for wine and spirits distribution.

The alliance of members consists of 24 local distributors in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin. IDN provides a sales, marketing, and distribution solution for mid-to-large scale wineries and distilleries seeking a fair and equitable opportunity for national sales and distribution services, through a combination of brand building, local market expertise, and proven growth strategies.

About Palm Bay International

Celebrating 44 years in 2021, Palm Bay International is a progressive, family-owned wine & spirits organization that is a proven industry leader. Palm Bay has its roots in Italian wine and now offers one of the most comprehensive wine & spirits portfolios in the U.S., comprising prestigious estates, distilleries and popular brands from 15 countries. In collaboration with its valued long-term wholesale partners, Palm Bay is well-equipped to meet the needs of all segments of the market on a national basis.

For more information, please contact Andrew Quinzi at aquinzi@colangelopr.com or Hannah Bromberg at hbromberg@colangelopr.com.
Law Office of Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP For more information about the class action lawsuit against Yardi Systems, Inc., call (800) 568-8020 to speak to an experienced California employment attorney today.

The Los Angeles employment law attorneys, at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP, filed a class action lawsuit against Yardi Systems, Inc., alleging the company violated the California Labor Code. The lawsuit against Yardi Systems, Inc. is currently pending in the Ventura County Superior Court, Case No.56-2021-00557901-CU-OE-VTA. To read a copy of the Complaint, please click here.

According to the lawsuit filed, Yardi Systems, Inc. allegedly (a) failed to pay minimum wages, (b) failed to pay overtime wages, (c) failed to provide legally required meal and rest periods, (d) failed to provide accurate itemized wage statements, (e) failed to reimburse employees for required expenses, and (f) failed to provide wages when due, all in violation of the applicable Labor Code sections listed in California Labor Code Sections  201, 202, 203, 226, 226.7, 510, 512, 1194, 1197, 1197.1, 2802, and the applicable Wage Order(s), and thereby gives rise to civil penalties as a result of such alleged conduct.

The complaint further alleges Yardi Systems, Inc. committed acts of unfair competition in violation of the California Unfair Competition Law, Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code  17200, et seq. (the UCL), by engaging in a company-wide policy and procedure which allegedly failed to accurately calculate and record all missed meal and rest periods by Plaintiff and other California Class Members. As a result of Defendant's alleged disregard of the obligation to meet this burden, Defendant allegedly failed to properly calculate and/or pay all required compensation for work performed by members of the California Class and violated the California Labor Code.

For more information about the class action lawsuit against Yardi Systems, Inc., call (800) 568-8020 to speak to an experienced California employment attorney today.

Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP is a labor law firm with law offices located in San Diego County, Riverside County, Los Angeles County, Sacramento County, Santa Clara County, Orange County and San Francisco County. The firm has a statewide practice of representing employees on a contingency basis for violations involving unpaid wages, overtime pay, discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination and other types of illegal workplace conduct.

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13090 131st Ave W Madeira Beach, FL 33708 We are thrilled to support our advisors with the tools and resources they need to continue to obtain higher end listings in our market, said Kelly Kepler, License Partner of Engel & Volkers Belleair.

Engel & Volkers Florida today announced the sale of 13090 131st Ave in Madeira Beach, Florida. Kristin Hallamek and Welly Garza of the Hallamek Team with Engel & Volkers Belleair held the listing. With a $2,229,000 price tag, the transaction marks the highest price per square foot garnered for a single-family home in the citys history.

Its not about just selling houses, said Hallamek. Its about finding the right buyer for that specific home. Of course, this is a business transaction, but myself and Welly feel that the emotional part of the sale is an important factor to providing the quality of service we give to all our clients. When you do, it results in fireworks for both the buyers and sellers.

Totaling 1,238 square feet, the quintessential beach bungalow comprises two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Old Florida charm is evoked by the home, which was built in 1925; yet it has been completely remodeled to offer modern amenities.

We are thrilled to support our advisors with the tools and resources they need to continue to obtain higher end listings in our market, said Kelly Kepler, License Partner of Engel & Volkers Belleair. This was a truly unique listing and impeccably restored. Kristin and Welly worked closely with the owners in order to meet their goals and obtain the highest sales price. We are proud of their efforts as they consistently have success in bringing buyers and sellers togetherall while breaking records!

13090 131st Ave sold for roughly $1,800 per square foot; surpassing the record previously held by 100 137th Ave Cir, which sold for about $958 per square foot in 2006. According to Zillow, the typical home in Madeira Beach is worth $612,429 and values have gone up 27-percent over the past year.

We are proud that Kristin and Welly are trusted Engel & Volkers advisors, who use the tools available to them to secure top listings in their area. Congratulations to both of them and their client on achieving this business and personal goal.

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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
A house in Petit Trou de Nippes that was damaged by the earthquake. Photo courtesy of the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti Through this partnership with Food for the Poor, we are leveraging our extensive network of churches and community partners to meet the basic need for shelter, so vulnerable Haitians can begin to recover in dignity, said Nagulan Nesiah, Senior Program Officer, Episcopal Relief & Development.

Episcopal Relief & Development is partnering with Food For The Poor to provide humanitarian assistance to communities in Haiti that were impacted by the recent 7.2 magnitude earthquake.

With the support of Episcopal Relief & Development and other partners, Food For The Poor has designed a multi-step response that will support marginalized communities both in the short term and over time.

The August 14 earthquake and Tropical Storm Grace destroyed nearly 61,000 homes and damaged another 76,000 in the Grand'Anse, Nippes and Sud departments. In response, Episcopal Relief & Development, through Food For The Poor, is sending tents that will provide shelter. The Episcopal Diocese of Haiti will distribute the tents to vulnerable groups such as families led by women or those with young children in hard-to-reach communities.

Food For The Poor is also shipping parcels of food for immediate distribution. Over the long term, the organization is planning to build schools and houses.

For many Haitians, the recent earthquake was a vivid reminder of the trauma of the 2010 earthquake, said Nagulan Nesiah, Senior Program Officer, Disaster Response and Risk Reduction, Episcopal Relief & Development. Through this partnership with Food for the Poor, we are leveraging our extensive network of churches and community partners to meet the basic need for shelter, so vulnerable Haitians can begin to recover in dignity.

Episcopal Relief & Development has a long history of disaster response and community-building in Haiti. Since the recent earthquake, the agency has been working directly with the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti, Church World Service and other local partners to provide emergency assistance such as medical care, food, clean water and hygiene kits. Donations to Episcopal Relief & Developments Haiti Fund will support continued response efforts.

ABOUT EPISCOPAL RELIEF & DEVELOPMENT

For over 80 years, Episcopal Relief & Development has been working together with supporters and partners for lasting change around the world. Each year the organization facilitates healthier, more fulfilling lives for more than 3 million people struggling with hunger, poverty, disaster and disease. Inspired by Jesus words in Matthew 25, Episcopal Relief & Development leverages the expertise and resources of Anglican and other partners to deliver measurable and sustainable change in three signature program areas: Women, Children and Climate.
September 28, 2021  Exago has been named to the 2021 Marcum Tech Top 40, an annual awards program recognizing Connecticuts fastest growing technology and life sciences companies. This is the fifth consecutive year the company has achieved a top 40 spot.

Exago (http://www.exagobi.com) is a leading business intelligence platform provider that delivers embedded reporting and dashboarding solutions to SaaS companies and their customers.

The team has been keeping up the hard work in developing the most innovative BI solutions to support our clients, even in these challenging times, says Exago Co-Founder and CEO Mike Brody. A top 40 ranking by Marcum Tech for the fifth straight year demonstrates our teams talent and commitment to excellence. I look forward to continued success.

About the Marcum Tech Top 40

Now in its 14th year, the Marcum Tech Top 40 recognizes technology leaders in six industry sectors that reflect the states technology landscape:



Advanced Manufacturing

Energy, Environment, and Green Technology

IT Services

Life Sciences

New Media, Internet, and Telecommunications

Software

Tech Top 40 companies are both privately and publicly held, must have $3 million in annual revenue and demonstrate a record of revenue growth in the past four years. Companies that successfully scaled to $3 million in revenue in less than three years can also apply for the Accelerator award.

Virtual Celebration

A virtual event on October 14 will celebrate this year's winners and bring together industry leaders, observers and newcomers committed to the growth of the Connecticut tech and life sciences sector. Josh Geballe, chief operating officer for the State of Connecticut, will be keynote speaker. For event details and registration, visit https://www.marcumevents.com/events/marcum-tech-top-40-2021.

The Marcum Tech Top 40 celebrates the advancements, culture, and individuals driving the tech and life sciences community in Connecticut. We extend our warmest congratulations to Exago for its leadership, vision and success, said Michael K. Brooder, CPA, managing partner of Marcums Hartford, Connecticut office and the Firms national Technology & Life Sciences leader.

About Exago

Exago Inc. was founded in 2006 with the objective of helping SaaS providers give their users an easy, flexible, powerful, ad hoc reporting and analytics solution. Today, the flagship product, Exago BI, is the premiere embedded BI solution for leading companies like Walmart, Deloitte, Lockheed Martin, Datto, Kronos-UKG, Transactis-Mastercard, DealerSocket, Vivify Health, and KPMG who chose for it embedding and seamless integration with their customer-facing web applications. To learn more about Exago BI, visit http://www.exagobi.com.

About Marcum LLP

Marcum LLP is a top-ranked national accounting and advisory services firm dedicated to helping entrepreneurial, middle-market companies and high net worth individuals achieve their goals. Marcum offers industry-focused practices with specialized expertise to privately held and publicly registered companies, and nonprofit and social sector organizations. Through the Marcum Group, the Firm also provides a full complement of technology, wealth management, executive search and staffing, and strategic marketing services. Headquartered in New York City, Marcum has offices in major business markets across the U.S. and select international locations. Marcum is committed to the advancement of diversity, equity and inclusion. The Firm is a founding member of LEA Global and is the exclusive U.S partner firm of ECOVIS International. Ever wonder where the people with all the answers get all the answers? #AskMarcum. Visit http://www.marcumllp.com for more information about how Marcum can help.

CONTACT:

Suzanne Ryan, CMO

sryan@exagobi.com
I always wanted to find a way to get men more involved and it turns out we needed more than just encouraging men to attend therapy with their wives."

As society has evolved over the years, author and family therapist Thomas Nolan, LCSW has observed that womens roles have changed and adjusted while mens roles have mostly stayed set. Men on the Cusp: Stepping Up, Reaching Out, Moving Forward by Thomas Nolan helps readers navigate the internal challenges many men struggle with, including emotions and defining the deeper meaning of what it means to be a father, son, brother and partner. Nolan hopes to shed light on mens resistance and lack of awareness to change and be happy so that they can learn to open themselves up to opportunity and reach their full potential.

Throughout the insightful text, Nolan seeks to answer questions such as: How can men take more control over their lives? How can men work better alongside women? How can men get a clearer sense of direction? How can men get better at sharing ideas and feelings? Nolan explores the expectations society has set for boys and men and why these outlooks can be problematic. Laced with real case examples, readers of all genders can get a better perspective of what holds many men back from exploring their depths.

I worked with men my whole career and most of them are very resistant to go to therapy, said Nolan. I always wanted to find a way to get men more involved and it turns out we needed more than just encouraging men to attend therapy with their wives. The question I asked myself was how can I get men more involved? I decided to write the book and through the many examples in the book, men can find different ways to get more involved.

Men on the Cusp has received praise on Amazon:

I love this book! Thomas Nolan's use of language is powerful, transformative and speaks to a deeper part of me. His writing engages you, transports you to other worlds. . . While this book is about men, and their journey to wholeness, integration and possibility, it is instructive for women as well. Being a woman, I found this book so enlightening, freeing and exciting.

With his book, Nolan strives to enlighten men on their tremendous potential to grow within themselves as well as in their relationships. To learn more about Men on the Cusp, make sure to check out the official book launch.

Men on the Cusp: Stepping Up, Reaching Out, Moving Forward

By Thomas Nolan, LCSW

ISBN: 9781665701006 (softcover); 9781665701013 (hardcover); 9781665701020 (electronic)

Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Archway Publishing

About the author

Thomas Nolan, LCSW, has maintained a private practice as an individual and family therapist for more than 40 years. He is also a certified hypnotherapist. Nolan is a member of the National Association of Social Workers as well as the International Association of Counselors and Therapists. He earned two masters degrees: one in pastoral counseling and one in clinical social work. He has always been interested in the area of mens development and has been an active member of an ongoing mens support group for almost 20 years. Nolan has been living with Parkinsons disease for the last 12 years. He currently resides in Waldwick, N.J. To learn more about the author, please visit http://www.thomas-nolan.com.

General Inquiries:

LAVIDGE  Phoenix

Meghan Bowman

480-306-6597

mbowman@lavidge.com


Foxbox Digital, a leading digital product agency, is excited to announce the hiring of Steve MacKinnon as Chief Digital Officer.

MacKinnon joins Foxbox with over 20 years of experience in management and technology consulting at Accenture, Avanade (an Accenture & Microsoft joint venture), and most recently with IBM.

The Foxbox team has done some amazing things and worked with some remarkable clients, including helping to change peoples lives during the pandemic by building an AI-enabled mobile telehealth product. I am excited to join such a brilliant team at Foxbox, and Im looking forward to expanding our Foxbox Innovation Team (FIT Lab), Product Strategy, Data, Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence solutions, says Steve MacKinnon.

He has deep experience leading Digital & Business Innovation teams for Fortune 500 companies, delivering customer solutions across e-Commerce, mobile, machine learning, analytics, artificial intelligence, marketing automation, loyalty solutions, and digital innovation strategy.

Steve brings decades of enterprise experience across technology, business development, marketing, and innovation. He has an amazing ability and track record of helping clients drive real value and impact. Were so excited to continue building on our success, and Steve is the perfect fit for Foxbox Digital, says Rob Volk, Founder and CEO of Foxbox Digital.

Foxbox Digital clients include Fortune 500 healthcare, media, retail, and many other organizations across various industries.

About Foxbox

Foxbox Digital is an award-winning digital product agency headquartered in Chicago. We are a team of engineers, product people, designers, and entrepreneurs that Move Purposely to build and launch successful digital products. From Fortune 50 brands to successful startups, we arm best-in-class businesses with innovative solutions for an increasingly digital world.
The Frederick Arts Council is seeking qualifications for Artist /Teams for an exhibition of ideas for artwork at key roundabouts and gateways across the county.

Models will be displayed in an exhibition at the FAC Art Center in Winter of 2021-2022. Applications are due on Oct. 22, 2021.

The goal of the charrette is to spark discussion and innovation about the potential for artwork at Fredrick gateways to activate Fredericks unique identity. Proposed designs should explore a coherent approach across the county and build upon a common idea/ theme to enhance the entryways and roundabouts, turning important transitions in and out of Frederick into unique and memorable experiences.

Artwork may consist of variations that are unified by a consistent theme, but vary across multiple gateways and roundabouts throughout the county (i.e. if the concept is Fredericks agricultural products then a series featuring a different product at each roundabout could be explored). In addition to the example of an agricultural theme, additional themes to consider include history, natural resources, and scientific innovations or alternatively the artwork can display an abstract style. The exhibition of models for gateway artwork will serve as a catalyst for gathering even more ideas and approaches for these gateways.

The call for proposals is opened to all artists and the deadline has been extended to October 22, 2021. The FAC requests that interested applicants submit their CV, examples of past work via a link to their website or portfolio. Selected artists will receive a budget of $600 to create a model of their concept that will then be displayed in the winter of 2021-2022 at the FACs Art Center located at 5 E. 2nd Street Frederick, MD.

The FAC believes exceptional public artwork can become the best possible emissary for our community. Our vision is a Frederick where public art connects residents and visitors, expresses an authentic and unique sense of place, drives economic prosperity through creativity and advances a culturally inclusive and empowered future.

Please visit the Application Portal to submit your submission:

https://frederickartscouncil.slideroom.com/#/permalink/program/63771

Applicants should contact Nicole Ringel, Public Art Program Manager, FAC with any questions: nicole@frederickartscouncil.org

What: Charrette for Gateways and Roundabouts

Where: Models to be displayed at FAC Art Center, 5 East Second St.

Submission Extended Deadline: October 22, 2021

About the Frederick Arts Council

The Frederick Arts Council invests in a vibrant and cohesive arts community for the people of Frederick County. The organization fosters an environment where the arts flourish in the community through grants and scholarships, arts advocacy, and links to essential resources. FAC is responsible for large-scale programming such as the Frederick Festival of the Arts, Sky Stage, Frederick Public Art Initiative, Art in the Park, and Arts in Education grants. For more information about the Frederick Arts Council, visit http://www.frederickartscouncil.org
Greenberg Traurig Leaders Launch European Leg of Firms Getting Together Tour with Vintage Van

Hot off the conclusion of Greenberg Traurigs three-leg, 30-city "Getting Together Tour" in the United States, Executive Chairman Richard A. Rosenbaum, and CEO Brian L. Duffy, have headed to Europe. Having kicked off in Warsaw on 29 September, the tour then visited Berlin, moving on to London, and Milan, where it wraps up on 7 October.

In the United States, Rosenbaum and Duffy were often noted for their personal bond, camaraderie, unity of purpose, down-to-earth humour, courage, conviction, and forward-thinking strategy. They met with thousands of employees during the three legs of the U.S. tour which took place between 10 April and 13 September.

During that time, Rosenbaum and Duffy often lived and travelled in "Mel on Wheels," a motorhome lovingly named in memory of one of the firms founders, Mel Greenberg. Rosenbaum was most often at the wheel, while Duffy served as navigator. They note that the trust they have in each other on the tour reflects the trust that the members of the Greenberg Traurig family have always had in one another, no matter where in the world they may be.

The European Greenberg Traurig Getting Together Tour will have a 1970 Volkswagen Camper Van visiting each office. As with the U.S. events, the tour will feature mostly outdoor locations and will observe COVID-19 protocols.

"The camper immediately recalls the founding days of our firm. It is a reminder of our essential core values of respect, trust, empowerment, meritocracy, entrepreneurship, creativity, and collaboration, Rosenbaum said. It also harkens back to days many saw as a global freedom movement, one that gave rise to the creativity and innovation that inspired the founding of Greenberg Traurig in 1967, and to which we cling to even today. We are very proud that our firm continues to embody the idea that every individual has a dream and should be able to build it within Greenberg Traurig, and that absolutely anything is possible.

Additionally, given that the Volkswagen Camper Van, was also founded in the 1960s, this was an obvious perfect fit for the firm, Rosenbaum noted.

"The tour idea seemed far-fetched when Richard initially came up with it, Duffy said. However, it ended up leading to a series of incredible events that we will likely never forget, turning the pandemic crisis into an opportunity to get closer together.

This next leg of the tour is well timed, as the firm has been in the process of key strategic growth in all five of its European offices, with important new attorney additions in each one. Additionally, Rosenbaum notes that Europe is where the firm has had its most significant increase in headcount and revenue during the last several years. He attributes that growth to the fact that, unlike so many others, Greenberg Traurig is one unified firm across all its 40 offices. It is not a verein, we operate with a unified culture, unified finances, and a unified level of excellence across the globe, he said.

In addition to engaging Greenberg Traurig employees and members of the various communities the firms leaders visit, the goal is also to send a message about the firms core values of respect, trust, empowerment, meritocracy, entrepreneurship, creativity, and collaboration.

We are very proud that our firm continues to embody the idea that every individual has a dream and should be able to build it within Greenberg Traurig, and that absolutely anything is possible, Rosenbaum said. We are in a people business and these are the things so essential to a professional services firm, as was well understood by our three founders, Mel Greenberg, Bob Traurig, and Larry Hoffman.

Greenberg Traurig Offices in Europe



Greenberg Traurigs Amsterdam office is home to more than 55 lawyers, tax advisors, and civil-law notaries. It was founded in 2003 as the firms first office outside of the United States.

At Greenberg Traurig in Germany, attorneys and notaries provide legal advice on transactions, projects and litigation as well as on the development of new business models. It was opened in 2015 and today has more than 80 attorneys.

In London, Greenberg Traurig has established itself as a multi-disciplinary law firm, with more than 100 lawyers. The London office provides partner-led advice to domestic and international clients on a range of matters across the legal spectrum. The office was founded in 2009.

In Milan, Greenberg Traurig Santa Maria was established in 2019 as a result of the combination of Greenberg Traurig, LLP with its long-term ally, Santa Maria Studio Legale Associato - a renowned legal boutique, founded in 1970 by Prof. Alberto Santa Maria in Milan. The office is home to more than 50 lawyers.

The Warsaw office opened in 2012. GREENBERG TRAURIG Nowakowska-Zimoch Wysokinski sp.k. in Warsaw provides legal services to clients in Central Europe and beyond and comprises approx. 100 lawyers.

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
Get The Look: James Bond-"No Time to Die" Style Modelling its design on British Military Commando sweaters & Combat Trousers, N.Peal developed these pieces with No Time To Die costume designer Suttirat Anne Larlarb.

Exclusive cashmere knitwear brand N. Peal is delighted to announce the launch of its Navy Ribbed Army Sweater and 007 Combat Trousers as worn by 007 in the upcoming James Bond film, No Time To Die, releasing in theaters October 8, 2021.

Available in a blend of 90 per cent superfine Merino wool and 10 per cent cashmere, the Navy Ribbed Army Sweater features canvas patches on the shoulders, cuffs and elbow and is augmented by a drawstring neck. The 007 combat trouser is made from 100% Cotton, features -Gun metal zips and poppers- 3 pockets, two zipped and one poppered. It epitomises the modern and informal utility look and marries perfectly with the N. Peal commando sweater.

Modelling its design on British Military Commando sweaters & Combat Trousers, N. Peal developed these pieces with No Time To Die costume designer Suttirat Anne Larlarb. We wanted to give Bond a unique look in specific scenes of the film, begins Larlarb, And yet the piece had to be action-ready. It needed to be a strong silhouette, something that harks back to his military past and which also had a timeless quality to it as well.

The N. Peal team worked with Larlarbs brief, detailed photographs of authentic Commando Sweaters and 007 Combat Trousers and samples of extant vintage pieces to create the unique piece of clothing that Bond wears in the film and in his striking character poster. When you have the number of decisions that you are required to make, for each and every detail, for every item of clothing, in a film of this scope and size, having a collaboration such as the one we had with N. Peal was a godsend, Larlarb concludes.

For N. Peal managing director, Adam Holdsworth, the collaboration was equally rewarding. Were very pleased to work with the James Bond franchise and our project with Suttirat and No Time To Die is something of which we are very proud. N.Peal also supplied a cashmere T-shirt for the film, worn by Madeleine Swann. These signature pieces are exclusively available from N. Peal prior to No Time To Dies theatrical release on October 8, 2021. Interest can be registered on their website now.

N. Peal previously worked with the filmmakers on Skyfall (2012), providing a Blue Wave Roundneck Sweater for Bond and on Spectre (2015), supplying 007 with a superfine cashmere Turtleneck and a light grey Rollneck.

STYLE INFORMATION

Navy Ribbed Army Sweater with canvas patches as worn by James Bond. 90 per cent superfine merino, 10 percent cashmere. Priced at US $465.00

007 Combat Trouser (download hi-res imagery here) https://app.box.com/s/jm8l8v6wyh6cs3wi3wqsh3pbt5q1iwuf)

Made from 100% Cotton

Gun metal zips and poppers

3 pockets, two zipped and one poppered.

Priced at US $345.00

NOTE TO EDITORS

N. Peal London is a long established specialist in luxury cashmere knitwear. Founded in Mayfairs iconic Burlington Arcade in 1936 the brand has enjoyed a long association with the movie industry - from being the cashmere brand of choice for the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Cary Grant and Elizabeth Taylor to the modern day Bond franchise designing and providing sweaters for Skyfall, Spectre and the upcoming and eagerly anticipated No Time To Die. N Peal has a strong online presence supported by 5 stores in London and a flagship on Madison Avenue in New York. The brand is owned by Adam Holdsworth who lives in Yorkshire, England and who has 30 years experience in the cashmere industry.

ABOUT NO TIME TO DIE

No Time To Die is the official title of the 25th James Bond adventure. The film, from Albert R. Broccolis EON Productions, Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios (MGM), and Universal Pictures International is directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and stars Daniel Craig, who returns for his fifth film as Ian Flemings James Bond 007. Written by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade (Spectre, Skyfall), Cary Joji Fukunaga, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Killing Eve, Fleabag) The film will be released in the US on October 8, 2021, from MGM via their United Artists Releasing banner.

In No Time To Die, Bond 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.

ABOUT EON PRODUCTIONS

EON Productions Limited and Danjaq LLC are wholly owned and controlled by the Broccoli/Wilson family. Danjaq is the US based company that co-owns, with Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios, the copyright in the existing James Bond films and controls the right to produce future James Bond films. EON Productions, an affiliate of Danjaq, is the UK based production company that has made the James Bond films since 1962 and together with Danjaq controls all worldwide merchandising. For more information, visit http://www.007.com.
Ideal Option, a national leader in evidence-based medication-assisted treatment for substance use disorder, and Carrs-Safeway, one of the largest grocery retail chains in Alaska, have teamed up to make recovery from addiction easier to sustain. Eligible Ideal Option patients can now schedule their follow up appointments inside the stores Wellness Center, located at 1650 W Northern Lights Blvd., Anchorage, AK 99517.

The Anchorage Carrs-Safeway is the third location to open an Ideal Option clinic inside its Wellness Center this year. The first was in Vancouver, Washington earlier this summer, a ground-breaking initiative that signified an enormous step toward reducing stigma and the mainstreaming of addiction treatment. Since June of 2021, nearly 500 appointments have been completed inside the Vancouver clinic, proof positive of the popularity of the arrangement among patients and acceptance among the community.

We couldnt be more excited to be expanding access to life-saving medical treatment for those working to sustain their recovery from addiction, said Tim Kilgallon, CEO of Ideal Option. With well over 400 patients currently eligible to transition to Carrs-Safeway for maintenance care from our existing clinics in the Anchorage / Wasilla area, this was a natural choice for our third co-location with Safeway.

Increasing capacity for treating patients with substance use disorder in the Anchorage area is timely. According to Alaska emergency department data, the average number of overdoses per week since March 2021 is almost three times higher than the weekly average number for 2019 and 2020. Ideal Options own lab data show that 33% of Alaskans who enrolled in treatment in July 2021 tested positive for fentanyl compared to just 7% in January 2021. While heroin and meth usage is declining, fentanyl use is skyrocketing, which puts thousands of Alaskans at risk for fatal overdose from this highly potent, dangerous synthetic opioid.

Carrs-Safeway is dedicated to supporting Anchorage area residents with all the resources they need to stay healthy and safe, said David Green, Director of Pharmacy Operations at Safeway. Through this collaboration with Ideal Option, we are able to offer patients a safe, friendly and convenient place to check in with their treatment provider and stay on the path to long term recovery.

The Ideal Option clinic inside Carrs-Safeway is open Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m.  5:00 p.m. and is located next to the pharmacy, inside the Wellness Center. The clinic offers maintenance appointments for existing Ideal Option patients who are undergoing maintenance treatment for addiction to fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, alcohol and other substances.

Anyone is welcome to visit the Ideal Option clinic inside Carrs-Safeway to pick up information to and learn more. All new patients will begin treatment at the Ideal Option clinic in Anchorage, located at 2421 E. Tudor Rd., Ste. 108, or in Wasilla, located at 5431 E. Mayflower Ln., Ste. 4. Most patients will be eligible to transition to Carrs-Safeway for ongoing care after 3-4 weeks of consistent progress in recovery. Most forms of insurance are accepted, including Medicare and Medicaid, and patients can typically get started within 1-3 business days.

Patients can make an appointment by calling 1.877.522.1275 or visiting http://www.idealoption.com.

About Carrs-Safeway and The Albertsons Companies

Albertsons Companies is a leading food and drug retailer in the United States. The company operates stores across 34 states and the District of Columbia under 20 well-known banners including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market, Haggen and Carrs-Safeway. Albertsons Cos. is committed to helping people across the country live better lives by making a meaningful difference, neighborhood by neighborhood. In 2019 alone, along with the Albertsons Companies Foundation, the company gave $225 million in food and financial support. In 2020, Albertsons Cos. made a $53 million commitment to community hunger relief efforts and a $5 million commitment to organizations supporting social justice. These efforts have helped millions of people in the areas of hunger relief, education, cancer research and treatment, social justice and programs for people with disabilities and veterans' outreach.

About Ideal Option

Headquartered in Kennewick, Washington, Ideal Option was founded in 2012 and has since helped nearly 50,000 patients through a network of 70 office-based medication-assisted treatment (MAT) clinics across 10 states, including 26 locations in WA state. With a mission to serve under-served communities, Ideal Option accepts all forms of insurance including Medicaid and Medicare. Financial assistance and payment plans are also available.

Ideal Option's team of medical providers carry certifications in Addiction and Emergency Medicine, Internal, OB/GYN, and Family Medicine, among other specialties. The company also employs social workers, caseworkers, counselors, and mental health practitioners. This holistic approach helps drive positive outcomes, including family stability, stable housing, improved overall health, and reduced rates of recidivism.

In all the communities it serves, Ideal Option collaborates with existing stakeholders and providers to improve the continuum of care. This approach includes partnerships with emergency rooms and county jail systems, where individuals with substance use disorder often appear, as well as collaborating with numerous support agencies and municipal programs addressing social needs such as housing, mental health, and nutrition support.
INSIDE Public Accounting (IPA) named KROST CPAs & Consultants Top 100 Firm, Top 100 Fastest-Growing Organic Growth Firm, Top 100 Fastest-Growing All Growth, and best of the best in 2021. The firm placed 81st on the prestigious top 100 list, a substantial leap from 116th in 2020. KROST along with other recipients of these distinguished awards will be highlighted in the August and September issues of IPAs monthly newsletter.

Our firm has continuously strived to provide value-add services for our clients. This last year, we added new service lines, including Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC), PPP Loan Assistance, KROST Business Intelligence Solutions (Data Analytics), Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Reporting, and Consulting, and Client Accounting Services (CAS). The PPP and ERTC services were life-changing for many of our clients  they truly have appreciated our initiative in helping them through the pandemic by providing tools and resources needed to take advantage of government subsidies. In looking back, not only for this last year but the last several years, we attribute all of our growth to our amazing people. We hope to build upon our past success and create new opportunities for all of our team members in the future. said Greg Kniss, Managing Principal.

Learn more about our new services. - https://www.krostcpas.com/services

View INSIDE Public Accountings 2021 Top 100 Rankings - https://insidepublicaccounting.com/top-firms/ipa-400/

View INSIDE Public Accountings 2021 Best of the Best Rankings - https://insidepublicaccounting.com/top-firms/best-of-the-best/

For more information about KROSTs awards and recognition, visit: https://www.krostcpas.com/awards

IPA is a highly regarded independent publication that produces one of the most comprehensive benchmarking reports in the profession. The independent and confidential report is a valuable tool to improve firm management, which is why firms across the country trust IPA with detailed financial information annually. This is IPAs 29th annual independent ranking of top firms in the nation and is one of the highest honors in the industry today. Over 70 metrics are analyzed from more than 550 accounting firms across the nation to tally the results.

ABOUT KROST CPAS & CONSULTANTS

KROST is a full-service Certified Public Accounting and Consulting firm headquartered in Pasadena, California. As trusted advisors and industry leaders, clients depend on KROST for timely information, innovative solutions, and results-driven teamwork in the areas of accounting, assurance, business management, consulting, tax, mergers and acquisitions, and wealth management.
Having the right amount of coverage and protection that encompasses their specific small business needs is not only essential but required

A General Liability Insurance policy can help keep a small business or Artisan Contractor financially stable if they have a claim against them or if they are sued by a customer following an accident, began Lisa Cordero, COO, InsureOnline.com. Having the right amount of coverage and protection that encompasses their specific small business needs is not only essential but required. InsureOnline.com team of licensed insurance agents utilize their extensive knowledge of the commercial auto insurance market to obtain the coverage the artisan contractors need at a price that makes the most business sense.

InsureOnline.com is an independent insurance agency in business since 1980. InsureOnline.com has created the largest network of independent insurance offices to help serve their clients. The benefit of working with an independent agent, such as InsureOnline.com, is they have access to a variety of Commercial Insurance policies from different companies, meaning the insured will have more options to choose from. They can secure coverages tailored to meet their specific Commercial insurance needs and budget.

What is an Artisan Contractor?

An Artisan Contractor is typically anyone who can provide a specified type of skilled service or improvement within a customers home or business. This includes but is not limited to carpenters, electricians, plumbers, landscapers, and janitorial/cleaning services.

What is Artisan Contractor General Liability Insurance?

These trades provide services that require specialized liability needs, as each has its own potential for risk. Artisan Contractors General Liability insurance covers bodily injury, damages to the client or a third-party property, personal injury or injury made against the reputation of a third party, advertising injury and medical payments. Because General Liability Insurance provides such important coverage, most small business owners buy the policy right after they start their business.

Artisans General Liability Insurance only provides liability coverage and does not cover property (business/building location, supplies, work vehicles). InsureOnline.com does however offer the ability to cover tools and equipment via endorsement for an additional premium.

Personal Auto vs. Commercial Auto

Depending on the type of business, an Artisan Contractor may be required to carry Commercial Auto Insurance. If not properly insured, an Artisan Contractors personal insurance may leave them exposed to additional risk while on the job. The insured can use their vehicle to get themselves to and from work or a meeting, however they may not have insurance coverage for their work exposure unless they have the right insurance coverage in place.

What is Commercial Auto Insurance?

If youre an Artisan Contractor who specializes in a service trade, you already know how important it is to fully insure and protect your business, which of course also includes your business automobiles. In order to ensure an Artisan Contractor has the right insurance coverage in place, it is important they work closely with a licensed insurance agent who specializes in Commercial Auto insurance. Cordero explained, The InsureOnline.com team are comprised of licensed insurance agents who specialize in a variety of insurance lines including Commercial Auto. They will work closely with the customer in order to fully understand their business and what their commercial insurance needs include. When preparing a quote for a commercial vehicle insurance policy, there are many factors that come into play such as the type of vehicle(s) the Artisan Contractor owns, the number of vehicles, who drives the vehicle, and the duration.

InsureOnline.com is able to shop Commercial Auto insurance plans from many carriers such as First Chicago Insurance Company, Next Insurance, Progressive and State Auto who can help protect an Artisan Contractor whether they have one vehicle, or an entire fleet used for transporting tools and equipment to and from job sites. Commercial Auto Insurance plans can include a wide range of coverage options which include newly acquired autos, owned, or leased vehicles, light trailers, hired and non-owned and limits ups to 500 CSL or higher.

About InsureOnline.com

InsureOnline.com is a digital insurance agency that provides affordable insurance to consumers who want to shop and purchase insurance online while still having the option to work with an agent if they wish. The agency offers auto, home, life, health, and commercial as well as other specialty lines of insurance. Our goal is to provide an easy, fast, convenient, and safe online shopping experience for consumers looking for the best price by utilizing all the latest and greatest technology. Based in Bedford Park, IL, we are licensed to write business in 48 states and have a multilingual staff licensed and certified in a variety of insurance lines. We partner with many highly rated insurance companies to provide the best insurance solutions to meet your individual needs and your budget. Buy insurance online in less than 10 minutes or talk to a certified licensed agent! Its your choice. http://www.InsureOnline.com 1-844-358-5605
In August 2021, Intellias, a trusted technology partner to visionary enterprises and progressive companies worldwide, reached the milestone of 2,000 seasoned professionals on board globally. The companys rapid growth can be attributed to a trusting work environment, which itself is a testament to Intellias dedication to people, projects, and clients.

Intellias empowers businesses operating in Europe, the US, the MENA region, and the APAC region to embrace innovation at scale. Over 2,000 Intellias experts located in Ukraine, Germany, Poland, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates deliver competence and expertise in various domains, covering future-oriented projects all over the globe.

Having increased the number of specialists from 1,570 to 2,006 in six months, Intellias has made it on the list of Ukraines 10 biggest IT companies according to DOU, the largest Ukrainian IT community. Compared to the same ranking in 2020, Intellias has gained four positions and become one of the leading companies in terms of growth. In March 2021, Intellias was also rated among the 100 most dynamic companies in Ukraine by Novoe Vremya, a reputable media company in Ukraine. The company was honored with the twenty-first position and was the only IT company with Ukrainian roots to be included on the list.

Intellias is also actively developing a Technology Office, an IT advisory and excellence organization that guides the companys clients through the uncertainty that comes with technological innovation. Solution architects, UI/UX designers, machine learning engineers, security experts, and many other specialists have joined the Technology Office team since the beginning of 2021.

The companys impressive growth over the past several months showcases Intellias as a favored employer for best-in-class engineers. Intellias was repeatedly rated as the best Ukrainian IT employer in 2020. The company has been named among Ukraines top employers by Ernst & Young, DOU, and Forbes Ukraine. As for now, the organization has a steadily growing global client base and is constantly expanding its global presence to cover innovative projects in different parts of the globe.

About Intellias

Intellias is a global technology services provider partnering with visionary enterprises and progressive companies to help them accelerate their pace of sustainable digitization. Intellias empowers businesses operating in Europe, the US, the MENA region, and the APAC region to embrace innovation at scale. Over 2000 Intellias experts located in Ukraine, Germany, Poland, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates deliver competence and expertise in various domains. The company has been featured in the Global Outsourcing 100 list by IAOP, recognized by Inc. 5000, acknowledged in the GSA UK Awards, and named the winner of a Silver Stevie Award in the 17th Annual International Business Awards. With nearly two decades of experience, Intellias helps both industry leaders and startups deploy innovative customer-facing solutions, build award-winning software, and modernize technical infrastructure.
Kainero Media Group (KMG), a performance marketing agency focused on making sales and maximizing ad spends for subscription-based and trial-continuity eCommerce clients, announced today that Ryan Bautista and Ryan Stroble were elevated to executive vice president (EVP).

Bautista was previously a director and vice president at KMG. There, he managed the companys affiliate network, generating tens of millions of dollars for brands and advertisers.

In his new role as EVP, Bautista will operate on a dual-track; expanding KMGs footprint in the marketplace and scaling the marketing efforts for large clients. This includes CTRwow, a drag-and-drop eCommerce sales funnel building tool, and CSwow, a customer service provider and platform.

Im thrilled with KMGs growth over the last two years, said Bautista. Im excited to focus efforts and bring new capabilities and growth to a few large clients.

Previously, Bautista was senior business development manager at Global Digital Marketing Group, a performance marketing company delivering services in mobile, video, and media buying. He also spent time at Avazu Holding and Mundo Media. He holds a bachelors degree in marketing management from Ryerson University and is based out of Toronto. In his free time, youll find him searching for a beach, gym, and new restaurants.

Additionally, Ryan Stroble was promoted to executive vice president. He was previously director of strategic partnerships, where he was responsible for new business acquisition and  you guessed it  strategic partnerships.

In this new role, Stroble will bring a robust suite of media and technology capabilities and services to subscription, trial, and nutraceutical eCommerce businesses of all shapes and sizes.

Stroble has been with KMG for more than two years. He was hired as a senior business development manager and transitioned into the director of strategic performance marketing partnerships, where he has quickly developed a presence for KGM within the direct-response community.

Im excited to hit the ground running. The team here is like family, and the support given has been crucial to our evolution, said Stroble. The future of eCommerce is bright, and I have lofty expectations for KMGs role in it.

Before his time at Kainero Media Group, Stroble was the business development and performance marketing manager at Moo! Media Group, where he built relationships with existing affiliate networks to increase promotion and sales efforts for their branded products. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce from University of Guelph in marketing management and is based out of Toronto, Canada. In his free time, youll find him hunting new restaurants and other hidden gems with his fiance.
Paula Havard TruBlue is unique because were built on providing our clients with high-quality customer service, doing excellent work and offering the peace of mind other companies cant promise. - Paula Havard

After 20 years of helping families find stability as a leader of a local non-profit, Paula Havard is looking forward to helping families in a new way through her new business  TruBlue Total House Care of Pineywoods.

Clients looking for dependable, high-quality, customizable services can hire TruBlue for handyman repairs, cleaning services, yard work, seasonal services and minor home renovations. TruBlue also works with homeowners, realtors and property managers who need to get homes move-in ready quickly and keep them maintained. Additionally, TruBlue does Senior Home Safety Assessments, performs age-friendly renovations and offers House Care Plus, a regular service program that can help seniors and busy families enjoy the comforts and convenience of owning a home without worrying about the maintenance hassles.

TruBlue of Pineywoods works with clients in Lufkin, Nacogdoches, Diboll, Corrigan, Groveland, Apple Springs, Jasper, San Augustine, Pineland, Brookeland as well as the surrounding areas.

TruBlue is unique because were built on providing our clients with high-quality customer service, doing excellent work and offering the peace of mind other companies cant promise. Our professional technicians are experienced, vetted, background checked and insured. You dont have to worry about contractors showing up on time or running home at lunch to check on them. This is the next level of home service. I built my career on serving families and Im looking forward to continuing that with TruBlue, Havard said.

Havard and her husband, Kip, have two adult children, one teenager, two dogs and two pigs. Havard is a native Texan and has lived in East Texas for the last 35 years. Before opening TruBlue, Havard spent 20 years with The Pregnancy Help Center of Lufkin, where she helped expecting and new parents navigate the first three years as a family.

I loved working with families through The Pregnancy Help Center, but I felt like God was calling me out of that ministry to do something else. Ive always enjoyed working with seniors  and I think theyre an important and often under-served community  so as I started looking into ways to work with older adults, I found TruBlue, Havard said. As I looked around, I realized we had handyman services, but no one designed to meet the often-unique needs of senior services. We are able to offer a suite of senior-focused services and our one-call-does-it-all approach makes us an ideal choice for seniors and their families. Im excited to be serving the people in East Texas in a new way through TruBlue.

TruBlue of Pineywoods is licensed, bonded and insured. To learn more about TruBlue of Pineywoods, call 936-261-7033, email PHavard@TruBlueHouseCare.com or visit http://www.TruBlueHouseCare.com/Pineywoods.


We are better at proactive wildfire defense than private, just-in-time firefighters because our program is in place and ready to defend twelve months a year, said Steve Conboy, Founder and CEO of Mighty Fire Breaker, LLC.

Mighty Fire Breaker LLC (MFB) recently launched its patent-protected Mighty Fire Breaker Wildfire Home and Community Defense Licensing Program to expand the availability of its Locked-n-Loaded System and to meet and support the new seller disclosure laws in California.

MFB trains contractors to assess and reduce wildfire risk with its Locked-n-Loaded System which uses the safest and best early fire elimination chemistry on the planet. The Locked-n-Loaded System is always ready to defend, deploys only when its time to evacuate, and 100% safe for people, animals and the environment.

MFB has perfected its training program for contractors. It is poised to rapidly expand the program so that the Locked-n-Loaded System will now be available to homeowners and communities throughout the ten Western States. The Locked-n-Loaded System was initially launched in San Diego County and has been implemented gradually up the California coast to Sonoma County. Qualified and trained contractors can now become exclusive licensees of MFB for specified territories throughout California. MFBs first such licensee is located in the foothills of Redlands, a wildfire-threatened community.

In another major development, MFB can now provide financing plans for homeowners and other property owners so that the cost of a Locked-n-Loaded System can be amortized over a five- or ten-year period with low monthly payments. The financing option will make it affordable for any property owner to defend their home and assets from wildfires.

The licensing and financing programs are intended to support the Home Hardening Disclosure Law that went into effect on January 1, 2021, which requires sellers to complete a new home hardening disclosure (Fire Hardening and Defensible Space Advisory, FHDS) for most residential properties that are within high fire hazard zones and built before 2010.

The new MFB programs are also a game changer for insurance providers that are increasingly declining coverage in fire-threatened areas across the Western States. As drought conditions persist and water becomes less available for wildfire defense, protecting homes and obtaining affordable insurance will become more challenging. MFB believes that insurers in the Western States will eventually require homes in fire-threatened zones to be fire defended and/or they will provide discounts to property owners who install a Locked-n-Loaded System.

MFB is proactive, not reactive. We are better at proactive wildfire defense than private, just-in-time firefighters because our program is in place and ready to defend twelve months a year, said Steve Conboy, MFBs Founder and CEO. MFB embraces the same engineering mindset used to design and retrofit buildings to protect them from other natural hazards like earthquakes  before the hazard occurs. The Mighty Fire Breaker approach will significantly reduce losses to property and life by wildfire that would otherwise occur using reactive conventional fire prevention methods and technologies. Proactive wildfire defense is now recognized as a new, year-round industry that requires trained licensed contractors.

Trained licensed contractors are critical because there is so much more to true wildfire hardening than just buying fire retardant products from big box stores to spray around homes. MFBs Chain of Custody (CoC) also adds quality assurance to its wildfire defense system that separates MFB from fire retardants sold in big box stores. MFB documents the sequence of custody, quality control, and new location transfer including physical and electronic GPS-tracked evidence. Deploying advanced GPS-tracking and mapping techniques and GPS-tracked Locked-n-Loaded Wildfire Defense Systems for homes and entire communities will provide crucial information to firefighters and insurers.

As consultants, we rely exclusively on General Contractors. Our team and I are so happy that we were trained by Steve Conboy, the founder of MFB, on large Locked-n-Loaded Systems on multiple jobs in San Diego, Redlands and Julian, California, including a Wolf Rescue, according to Scott Willis of Best Home Wildfire Defense, a DBA of Infinity Group Consulting in Riverside California and the first program licensee. We believe this MFB Program is truly the best in Proactive Wildfire Defense. MFB recognizes that General Contractors are needed to recognize and remove wildfire risk. The fact that MFB uses a human and animal safe chemistry that defends the future of our environments from toxins makes its Locked-n-Loaded System all the better!

Grigg DeWitt of Monterey, California, says, As a retired healthcare professional, I always practiced prevention for my patient's health. That's why I love this advancement in proactive wildfire defense. We live in an area that is highly threatened by wildfires. I called my community together to listen to what Steve Conboy had to say about his fire suppression system. I knew I had to be a leader in my community to explore the technology that would protect our property from potential wildfires. Mighty Fire Breaker retrofitted all my vents and installed two Locked-n-Loaded Systems. It makes us feel like we have done all we could to embrace this new technology to reduce the risk of losing what we could never replace. We are big supporters!

If you are a licensed contractor interested in learning more about the Mighty Fire Breaker program or a property owner seeking to proactively protect your home or community from the threat of wildfire, please contact MFBs founder and CEO, Steve Conboy at (949) 510-5470.

The Mighty Fire Breaker mission is to bring best practice, documented, proactive wildfire defense systems and program supported by safe, environmentally friendly chemistry to home hardening to help lower the risk of property loss from wildfire better than any other products used by just-in-time private firefighters. By using Mighty Fire Breaker CitroTech fire inhibitor products in your home, at work, and within your community, you are joining us to promote a healthier, sustainable world for generations to come. Learn more at http://www.mightyfirebreaker.com or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

To watch a demonstration of the Mighty Fire Breaker Wildfire Home and Community Defense Network, https://youtu.be/2CSyu7CVcRY.
Scott Medford, MobileDemand VP of Sales Enhancing the companys sales strategy to encompass the best elements of VAR, ISV, OEM, distribution and direct selling engagements will yield greater revenue for the company, and the served markets will realize much better access to our products," says Medford.

MobileDemand, provider of rugged tablets and mobile computing solutions for enterprise productivity, is proud to announce the appointment of its new VP of Sales, Scott Medford. In this role Medford will be responsible for worldwide direct and channel sales of all MobileDemand rugged xTablet and xCase products and services.

Medford brings his vast experience and expertise to MobileDemand from his 35 years of leading a wide range of business technology companies, with a special focus in AIDC, RFID, Wi-Fi and near-field communications. Prior to joining MobileDemand, Medford served in international sales and leadership roles at Apex Supply Chain Technologies, Invengo Technology, Impinj, Spraycool and at Intermec Technologies. Working through standards bodies and industry forums such as IEEE, AIM Global, EPCGlobal and RAIN, Medford has bridged the gap between the what of technology and the why of implementation.

In his new position at MobileDemand, Medford will help refine the companys sales strategy, identify new market requirements, and oversee implementation of programs to build MobileDemands presence and global market share.

This is an exciting time to join the MobileDemand team, Medford says. Enhancing the companys sales strategy to encompass the best elements of VAR, ISV, OEM, distribution and direct selling engagements will yield greater revenue for the company, and the served markets will realize much better access to our products. The customers will benefit by getting the right solution to address unique needs, and their feedback will be the foundation for future improvements.

Scott is a highly respected sales leader in the various industries we serve, says Matt Miller, Founder and President of MobileDemand. Were truly excited to bring on his talent, network and leadership to drive strategic growth and entry to more strategic accounts. The timing is right as MobileDemand is launching many strategic initiatives to new industries, driving growth in retail with tablet-based mobile POS systems, and distribution and logistics with innovative mobile 3D box dimensioning systems.

About MobileDemand

MobileDemand is a technology leader in rugged tablets and mobile computing solutions, committed to bringing more functionality and capabilities to the mobile workforce. Specializing in the design of integrated productivity tools for barcode scanning, point-of-sale, magnetic stripe reading, PIN pad entry, 3D and thermal imaging, dimension measurement, and mounting hardware for myriad on-the-go applications, the company is driving the future of mobile productivity. MIL-STD 810G certified, rugged protection features of cases and accessories empower organizations to get more done with rugged tablets that withstand drops, dust, water, humidity and adverse conditions where unprotected electronics fail. Since 2003, the Iowa, USA-based company has grown to serve more than 40 countries. To learn more and contact MobileDemand, visit ruggedtabletpc.com.

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Using Gods Word As Medicine: a spiritual prescription for wellness. Using Gods Word As Medicine is the creation of published author Monica Thornton, a devoted wife and passionate Christian.

Thornton shares, Take these prescribed pills, and call the doctor (the Holy Spirit) in the morning!

The best known people in the Bible are God and his Son, Jesus, whom he sent to this earth two thousand years ago. He sent his Son for a reason, and that reason was to let everybody on this earth know that there is a Savior. Jesus left us with a word before he left, and his word was that he would leave us with peace. When will we take this and make it applicable to our lives?

We have troubles all around us. But the Holy Spirit is there for us. Some of us dont even think to say, Good morning, to the Holy Spirit, who wakes us up each day. We just go along our way. Here are some of the issues in this book that we face, and the Holy Spirit helps us along the way with a word from the Bible.

Finances is a major problem in todays society. We invest in the stock market, lottery, casinos, and other investments that take money right out of our hands. However, the Holy Spirit tells us to invest only in him, and he will supply all our needs. He tells us to test him and see if he wont open up the heavens and pour you out a blessing.

The Holy Spirit has a word for our enemies too. The Old Testament says, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. However, when we come up against the enemy, the Holy Spirit tells us in the New Testament that the battle is his, not ours. The Spirit saves us from going to jail or to our graves. The Holy Spirit knows whats best for us.

Dont our emotions get out of context! We are emotional people on this earth. We let some of the smallest things upset us. Then we end up taking it out on our family and friends. We end up always on the losing end and later apologize for our mistakes. However, as you read this book, youll find scripture in the Bible stating, We do not fight against flesh and blood but against rulers, authorities, against the powers of this dark world and spiritual forces of evil. Wow! Weve been fighting the wrong person. The devil does come to steal, kill, and destroy.

The list goes on and on from our marriages, finances, and family. My book will not only lead you to do the right things in life but lead you into the hands of God, which is the Bible. We all must evangelize Gods word in this fallen world! Lets do so before we go home to our Father, who is in heaven. Then hell say, Job well done, thy good and faithful servant!

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Monica Thorntons new book is a considerate approach to examining how one practices their faith.

Thornton writes in hopes of encouraging others to reinvest in their spiritual health and seek a deeper relationship with God.

View a synopsis of Using Gods Word As Medicine on YouTube.

Consumers can purchase Using Gods Word As Medicine at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Using Gods Word As Medicine, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
The mortgage industry is quickly embracing and leveraging technology compared to a decade ago. Borrowers are getting comfortable with a loan experience that blends local mortgage expertise with a streamlined online process. More and more borrowers are leveraging the internet to search for mortgage professionals and learn more about them, before making a decision on who to use.

NAMB+ President, Mike DeSantis and Anthony Balsamo, Co-Founder of Vonk Digital announce a partnership for NAMB members with the goal of providing a mortgage industry-focused website solution that is turnkey, but also highly customizable to more members of the Association. Mortgage originators, brokers, and lenders can leverage the Vonk Digital platform as a foundation for marketing and sales efforts online.

At Vonk Digital we are focused on helping our clients get credit for their offline expertise, online. We believe that the career originator looking to create stability and growth over the next 5-10 years needs to implement a website solution into their sales and marketing process. At Vonk Digital we have spent the last 10 years fine-tuning a turnkey solution that does just that and we look forward to expanding awareness around our platform to the industry. Anthony Balsamo, Vonk Digital Co-Founder & Former COO of an Inc 500 mortgage company.

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About NAMB +

NAMB+ Inc. is the wholly-owned, for-profit marketing and communications subsidiary of NAMB, a trade association of mortgage professionals with membership in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. For more information, visit NAMBPlus.com.

About Vonk Digital

Vonk Digital is a premium website and marketing platform for modern mortgage professionals. The Vonk Digital mortgage website platform is built exclusively for mortgage originators, brokers, branches, and IMBs looking to leverage the internet as part of the modern-day sales process. Monthly and Annual Plans include a fully hosted and customizable website built out for you and packed with all the tools and content you need to differentiate yourself and build trust. Customizable lead forms, blog platform, educational content, Mismo 3.4 online 1003, POS and CRM integrations, responsive mortgage calculator, support team, and more all come included. Learn more about their platform and additional services at: http://www.vonkdigital.com/.
The nominees have a strong understanding of our industry and the needs of NAIFA members. They will work with our Executive Committee and returning Trustees to continue with our year-two implementation of the NAIFA 2025 strategic plan.

The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors Committee on Governance has nominated Thomas M. Cothron, LUTCF, Agency Manager with Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company in Ocala, FL, for the position of 2022 NAIFA Secretary. A former member of NAIFAs Board of Trustees, Cothron has been a loyal NAIFA member since 1981.

The Committee has also nominated five members to serve two-year terms on the NAIFA Board of Trustees. The nominees are: Mark Acre, LUTCF, CEO of OneSource Insurance Group in Ozark, MO, (loyal member since 2009); Christopher Gandy, LACP, Founder of Midwest Legacy Group (OneAmerica) in Lisle, IL, (loyal member since 2003); Evelyn Gellar, LUTCF, RICP, CLTC, Partner with New York Life in Melville, NY, (loyal member since 1993); Win Havir, CPCU, CLF, LUTCF, FSS, AIC, LACP, Executive Vice President of Business Development with Educators Insurance Resources Services, Inc. (Horace Mann) in Stillwater, MN, (loyal member since 1997); and Danny OConnell, LACP, CEO of Next Level Insurance Agency in Addison, TX, (loyal member since 2008).

Acre and Havir are nominated to serve second terms on the Board. Gandy and Gellar are currently appointed Trustees and have been nominated to serve full terms.

Lawrence Holzberg, Managing Director and Director of Insurance and Advance Sales, at Fortis Lux Financial, in Melville, NY, (loyal member since 1990) is slated to serve as 2022 President; Bryon Holz, CLU, ChFC, LUTCF, CASL, LACP, President of Bryon Holz & Associates in Brandon, FL, (loyal member since 1987) as President-Elect; and Brock Jolly, CFP, CLU, ChFC, CLTC, CASL, CFBS, of Veritas Financial LLC/MassMutual Financial Group in McLean, VA, (loyal member since 2001) as Treasurer. Thomas O. Michel, LACP, Managing Director of Michel Financial Group in Los Angeles (loyal member since 1986) will continue his service as Immediate Past President.

The nominees will stand for election during the NAIFAs annual business meeting, to be held during the National Leadership Conference in Washington, DC, December 6-7. The Governance Committee consists of 12 NAIFA members and is chaired by NAIFA Past President Jill Judd, LUTCF, FSS, RICP.

The Governance Committee considered the applications of many strong candidates and decided on a slate of nominees with passion, commitment, and visionary thinking to serve on NAIFAs Board of Trustees, Judd said. The nominees have a strong understanding of our industry and the needs of NAIFA members. They will work with our Executive Committee and returning Trustees to continue with our year-two implementation of the NAIFA 2025 strategic plan, focused on membership growth, brand amplification, and continued improvement of the membership experience.

ABOUT NAIFA: The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors is the preeminent membership association for the multigenerational community of financial professionals in the United States. NAIFA members subscribe to a strong Code of Ethics and represent a full spectrum of financial services practice specialties. They work with families and businesses to help Americans improve financial literacy and achieve financial security. NAIFA provides producers a national community for advocacy, education and networking along with awards, publications and leadership opportunities to allow NAIFA members to differentiate themselves in the marketplace. NAIFA has 53 state and territorial chapters and 35 large metropolitan local chapters. NAIFA members in every congressional district advocate on behalf of producers and consumers at the state, interstate and federal levels.


The National Association of Locum Tenens Organizations (NALTO) recently announced two new officers to its Board of Directors.

Jarin Dana, CFO of Fusion Healthcare Staffing, has been elected Vice President of NALTO.

NALTO is the most collaborative industry association I have ever seen. Im honored to be a part of it and serve in this new capacity. I look forward to the challenge of taking on key industry issues over the years to come, says Dana.

Replacing Dana as Treasurer of the organization is James Chandler, Senior Vice President of Health Carousel Locum Network (HCLN).

"NALTO's growing impact and reach are more evident now than ever before. I am humbled to serve in this new role and look forward to the opportunities and challenges ahead! says Chandler.

Both officers will be serving two-year terms in their new roles and currently head NALTOs Legislative Committee.

I couldnt be happier for both of these gentlemen, Jarin has served on the board with distinction for the last two years and always is willing to volunteer his time for the betterment of the industry, says Matt Young, NALTO President.

And when the Treasurer position became open with Jarins move to Vice President, I can think of no better replacement than that of Jim Chandler. Jim is not only a CFA and has many years of experience in financial analysis, but he has been in this industry for over 15 years and knows it inside and out, adds Young.

In two weeks NALTO members will meet in New Orleans for its annual Fall Fly-In, October 18-19, in New Orleans, Louisiana. More information, including registration to attend the event, can be found on here.

About NALTO: The National Association of Locum Tenens Organizations (NALTO) is the only professional association of temporary physician staffing firms committed to a code of ethics and to maintaining the highest industry standards.

###

Contact:

Dawn McKnight, Executive Director

National Association of Locum Tenens Organizations (NALTO)

(407) 774-7880

info@nalto.org
Bringing the benefits of LexisNexis directly into NetDocuments will help users vastly streamline their understanding of briefs, create better documents, save time on research, and ultimately augment their intelligence and value to clients in every case.Dan Hauck, NetDocuments Chief Product Officer

NetDocuments, the cloud content management platform where legal professionals do work, today introduced Highlights powered by LexisNexis (NetDocuments Highlights) at the Association of Legal Administrators 2021 Annual Conference & Expo in Austin, Texas. By embedding LexisNexis case analysis and intelligence technology directly into the NetDocuments platform, legal professionals with a Lexis or Lexis+ subscription can enrich their documents  briefs, memos, motions and more  with citations, automatic classifications, and entities while viewing any content in NetDocuments. Highlights will be available to U.S. law firms with up to 100 users as an add-on to the NetDocuments LEARN Solution.

With NetDocuments Highlights, every document uploaded to the NetDocuments cloud is scanned for information about caselaw, judges, lawyers, document type and much more. The extracted intelligence is indexed into the firms repository, making it easy to search for specific information. This approach means documents can remain in the NetDocuments platform throughout processing.

Highlights delivers a revolutionary new experience when it comes to viewing content. While previewing in NetDocuments, lawyers can easily navigate throughout the content with the extracted insights, seeing Shepards Signal indicators delivered in real time. When more information is desired, the lawyer can simply follow the link to view the case directly in Lexis or Lexis+.

We continue to focus on delivering unmatched experiences for legal professionals, and NetDocuments Highlights solution is a prime example of that, stated Dan Hauck, NetDocuments Chief Product Officer. Bringing the benefits of LexisNexis directly into NetDocuments will help users vastly streamline their understanding of briefs, create better documents, save time on research, and ultimately augment their intelligence and value to clients in every case.

NetDocuments Highlights enables users to:



Seamlessly work within NetDocuments and LexisNexis together, removing the need to search in two windows or copy citations from one system to another.

Automatically link to the citations in documents, enabling review of cited documents, and ensuring relevant, case-specific information.

Quickly identify the validity of any citation with Shepards Signal indicators within NetDocuments to determine if cited documents are good law neutral, or harmful to an argument.

Automatically classify documents  e.g., complaint, answer, motion to dismiss, etc.  and group them together, a tremendous time saver for attorneys dealing with hundreds of motions and responses.

We are excited to bring the power of LexisNexis to NetDocuments customers with Highlights, said Jeff Pfeifer, Chief Product Officer for LexisNexis North America. This product allows our joint legal customers to address their research needs without leaving NetDocuments, further driving efficiency and client productivity. Bringing LexisNexis insights into NetDocuments Highlights enhances the drafting process by eliminating the need to change product experiences.

For more information about NetDocuments Highlights, please click here.


Emerging from COVID-19, the use of decentralized solutions continues to rise worldwide.

Focus on decentralized clinical trials (DCTs) has taken a massive leap over the course of the pandemic. COVID-19 forced an accelerated use of telemedicine, home health options and digital applications to keep studies running. Emerging from COVID-19, the use of decentralized solutions continues to rise worldwide. Although somewhat slower to adopt, the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region has seen a dramatic shift in elements critical to implementation of decentralized solutions, including emerging clarity in regulatory guidance and greater acceptance of home health services, which will serve as important drivers of accelerated future use of decentralized clinical trials.

As APAC developers continue to explore opportunities to incorporate decentralized clinical trials into their clinical strategies, understanding what is working well in other markets  whether it be with the intent of leveraging to bring their asset into those markets or with an eye toward adapting these best practices to the unique APAC landscape  is key to success.

Register for this webinar to learn best practices for decentralized clinical trials implementation and how these can be applied to APAC trials.

Join Russell Griffith, Decentralized Clinical Trials Manager, Syneos Health; Kevin Wightman, Senior Director, Corporate and Business Development, Illingworth Research Group; and Francesca Scaramozzino, Senior Project Director, Real World Late Phase, Syneos Health, in a live webinar on Tuesday, October 19, 2021 at 11am JST (Japan).

For more information, or to register for this event, visit Planning for Implementation of Decentralized Clinical Trials in APAC: A Global Overview.

ABOUT XTALKS

Xtalks, powered by Honeycomb Worldwide Inc., is a leading provider of educational webinars to the global life science, food and medical device community. Every year, thousands of industry practitioners (from life science, food and medical device companies, private & academic research institutions, healthcare centers, etc.) turn to Xtalks for access to quality content. Xtalks helps Life Science professionals stay current with industry developments, trends and regulations. Xtalks webinars also provide perspectives on key issues from top industry thought leaders and service providers.

To learn more about Xtalks visit http://xtalks.com

For information about hosting a webinar visit http://xtalks.com/why-host-a-webinar/


www.FollowPureRoots.com The team at Pure Roots is excited to be the exclusive distributor for Forte Cannabis in the Ann Arbor market and proud to be supporting the deep cannabis culture in Michigan, said Pure Roots Vice President of Government Affairs, Reni George.

Pure Roots, an Ann Arbor-based Cannabis dispensary, is excited to be the exclusive distributor in Ann Arbor for a new product to its already impressive lineup  Forte Cannabis, which is cultivated and owned by a small group of caregivers in Michigan.

Forte Cannabis operates in a Class C licensed cultivation company. Its growers started back in 2008, growing in small scale facilities under the medical caregiver laws. Over the last 13 years, the cultivators at Forte Cannabis have sourced and selected only the highest quality genetics and systematically chosen the best strains.

After our long journey of bringing Forte Cannabis to market, we are thrilled that cannabis connoisseurs will now find our products on Pure Roots shelves, said Forte Cannabis Director of Operations, Gary Omell. We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with Pure Roots as we both continue to grow in the Michigan market.

The premium flower, currently offered in over 20 strains, is crafted in small batches, hand trimmed and terpene tested. Forte Cannabis offers, wholesale pounds, pre-packed Eighths, and pre-rolls. Prices vary from $50 to $65 for 3.5grams (eighth).

The team at Pure Roots is excited to be the exclusive distributor for Forte Cannabis in the Ann Arbor market and proud to be supporting the deep cannabis culture in Michigan, said Pure Roots Vice President of Government Affairs, Reni George. Forte was carefully cultivated by Michigan Caregivers for more than 10 years and offers premium, small batch, non-remediated cannabis to our customers.

Pure Roots opened in June 2020 and has quickly become a go-to for cannabis users in and around Metro Detroit, for their offering of non-remediated cannabis only. The team consists of cannabis connoisseurs and enthusiasts who carefully select every single product sold in the store. The Pure Roots Cannabis dispensary will continue its retail growth this year as well, by opening additional locations throughout Michigan before the end of 2021, including Centerline and Battle Creek.

For more information about Forte Cannabis, visit http://www.ForteCannabis.com. For more information about Pure Roots, visit http://www.FollowPureRoots.com.


Discovering the Joys of Life: The 7 Life-Giving Principles for a Meaningful Life: a potent opportunity for spiritual growth and renewed sense of faith. Discovering the Joys of Life: The 7 Life-Giving Principles for a Meaningful Life is the creation of published author Rev. Fr. Joe Blas Nolasco, a Catholic priest born in the Philippines. He has served in high school, college, and parish settings in various capacities and has seven years of clinical experience in hospital chaplaincy in Toronto, Canada.

Rev. Fr. Nolasco shares, This is an invitation that, before the big sleep, we must learn to discover the joys of life where peace, love, and serenity thrive; that Gods love is the foundation of all forms of love and a driving force to share the love through our compassion and charity.

Being self-aware is an essential step in our understanding of who we are, what we do, and why we do it, and what gives meaning to us in life. The mystery of prayer is key to understand the mystery of human life; that living the present moment is the grace that we have every day. Being grateful of life, of people, of events, and moments that we are called to take an adventure and learn to be playful as children of God.

I love this book. So simple and powerful! Thank you Fr. Joe for refreshing my spirit with your words and life.  Bo Sanchez, Best Selling Author and Inspirational Preacher

Fr. Joe Blas Nolascos book is a very helpful guide to living a truly meaningful, happy, and fruitful life. It is the fruit of his prayerful and biblically guided reflection on his many years of experience as a priest-chaplain dialoguing with thousands of patients and people in difficulties. Fr. Joe writes engagingly and challenges you to reflect and act on your own life. Reading this book will be a grace for you as it has already been for me.  Most Rev. Teodoro Bacani, D.D.

This book is a ray of hope in this troubled time. It will restore our conviction and strengthen our faith in a God who assures us, BE NOT AFRAID! (Mt. 14:27)  Most Rev. Gerardo A. Alminaza, D.D., Bishop of the Diocese of San Carlos, Philippines

I commend Fr. Nolasco for writing this book and for sharing the fruits of his pastoral experience to us all. His work will surely aid us in our journey towards spiritual maturity and realization as Christians. Its publication is definitely timely. The book creatively spells out moments of joy even in most difficult situations in our lives.  His Eminence Jose Cardinal F. Advincula, Jr. D.D., Archbishop of Manila

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Rev. Fr. Joe Blas Nolascos new book is a uniquely invigorating text that pushes readers to make decisive moves within their spiritual life.

Rev. Fr. Nolasco presents a compelling guide to living a life of meaning. Through careful guidance based in his years of pastoral experience, Rev. Fr. Nolasco hopes to encourage and promote believers of any background.

Consumers can purchase Discovering the Joys of Life: The 7 Life-Giving Principles for a Meaningful Life at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Discovering the Joys of Life: The 7 Life-Giving Principles for a Meaningful Life, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
Sainhall Nutrihealth Pte Ltd announces the successful completion of migrating old database software into the new SAP Business One on Hana ERP (Cloud-based Version 10) solution.

SAP Business One on HANA ERP (Cloud hosted) is probably the best ERP solution for small & medium business enterprises; its fully integrated modular functions can support all Sainhall key business processes, said Mr Tony TC Foong, Ex-Director for Global Supply Chain, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) IT Services; and Ex-CIO of Xian Janssen Pharmaceutical (Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of (J&J) in China) and the current Head of Department in Operations & Logistics for Sainhall Nutrihealth.

With his experience and involvement in SAP ERP systems, from R3 to his first SAP S4/HANA 1610 ERP System implementation in 2016 in China & Asia for the past thirty over years; Mr Tony added: Sainhall Nutrihealth is implementing its SAP Business One on HANA ERP system at the right time. This will ensure it has a fully integrated, real time enterprise system to enhance its fast growing and expanding business for the next five years.

Sainhall Nutrihealths move to implement SAP Business One ERP solution will improve performance in areas such as Production, Procurement, Inventory Management, Finance, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM), as the company strives to deliver an excellent level of service to maintain long-lasting relationships with clients and suppliers.

"Implementing SAP Business One is one of the key strategies we are adopting to support the exponential growth of Sainhall Nutrihealth business, said Mr TC Yeap, Sainhall Nutrihealth CEO and President. Having completed a brand-new health supplement packing facility in 2020, the company has been seeking ways to improve its performance progressively.

Sainhall Nutrihealth will demonstrate better transparency in data management for business negotiations and an overall improvement to customer satisfaction from seamless customer experience.

About Sainhall Nutrihealth

Sainhall Nutrihealth Pte Ltd, founded by Mr TC Yeap in Singapore, 1990, is a distributor and major player for Health and Nutritional products in Southeast Asia. We distribute premium brands for health and nutritional products such as Sundown Naturals from NBTY, USA. We are also the exclusive distributor in ASEAN region for Cyanotech Corporation in the US; a world leader in the production of natural spirulina and astaxanthin.

Sainhall Nutrihealth has a re-packing facility in Singapore, a powder blending facility in Shah Alam, Malaysia, and an E-Commerce Portal; http://www.vitamin.sg. We also have a Research and Development (R&D) team to develop new products for our clients and for our future house brand.

For more information, visit http://www.sainhall.com and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

Contacts:

Media:

Muhammad Bin Rahman

muhammad.br@sainhall.com

Investors:

Ong Yijun

yijun.ong@sainhall.com

Pinky Bajamundi

pinky.bajamundi@sainhall.com

Tel : +65 6255 7533
Sarah Gibson Tuttle, Founder/CEO of Olive & June

Inc. announced its fourth annual Female Founders 100 list, honoring the most exceptional, trailblazing, and diverse group of 100 women who powered through adversity in a very tough year and changed the world.

The final list honors entrepreneurs of every age, background, and geographyfrom very early-stage founders with world-changing ideas to women who have taken companies public, sold them to big buyers, or spent decades building and running their businesses. These women are leading innovative companies in a vast range of global industries, including tech, retail, finance, fitness, health care, consumer products, food, and more.

What an incredible honor it is to be included in Inc.s Female Founders 100 list and congratulations to all of my fellow honorees, said Sarah Gibson Tuttle, Founder/CEO of Olive & June. Our mission at Olive & June is to bring beautiful nails to everyone and I am grateful every single day for our tremendous team who works tirelessly to bring this dream to life and create an incredible experience for our community.

Olive & June was founded by Sarah Gibson Tuttle as an elevated salon experience in Beverly Hills, California. After years of owning and operating salons, Sarah realized that to truly deliver on the brands mission of beautiful nails for everyone, the salon experience needed to be democratized. As a result, in 2019 Olive & June introduced a full line of at-home nail products including a patented polish bottle handle, the Poppy, and the first all-in-one system to enable the consumer to achieve salon-quality nails at-home.

In 2020, Olive & June expanded the line to include hand, nail and foot care including a patent-pending Pedi System for at-home pedicures. Beyond product innovation, the brand introduced educational content series aimed at teaching everyone how to paint their own nails and fostering an amazing community of nail obsessees. To-date, over 1 million people have learned to paint their nails with Olive & June.

Inc. editors and writers went through thousands of impressive applications that revealed how so many female founders triumphed in a year filled with challenges. The result is an incredible list of founders who have improvised, adapted, and made something from nothing. They join game-changing past honorees Jessica Alba, Tracee Ellis Ross, Rihanna, Shonda Rhimes, and more. Taken together, they represent the female-led future of business.

The 100 women highlighted on this list are inspiring, creative, tenacious, and trailblazing role models in entrepreneurship. Whats more is they were able to achieve success during one of the toughest years ever. Thats something certainly worth celebrating, says Inc. editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk.

To see the complete list, go to: https://www.inc.com/female-founders

Introduced in 2018, the Female Founders 100 list quickly became one of Inc.s most esteemed franchises.

Inc.s Female Founders 100 issue (October 2021) is available online at https://www.inc.com/magazine and on newsstands on October 5. Join the Female Founders 100 conversation using #FemaleFounders.

About Inc. magazine

The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning, multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels, including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion among the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com.

About Olive & June

Your BFF for all things nails, Olive & June was founded in 2013 by mani-obsessee Sarah Gibson Tuttle in Beverly Hills, California as an elevated salon experience, giving personalized attention and luxury service at an approachable price. In 2019 with the mission to bring beautiful nails to everyone, Olive & June introduced a full line of products for a salon-quality experience at home. Through these first-of-their-kind products and educational content, Olive & June revolutionized the at-home nail experience. For more information, visit http://www.oliveandjune.com.
Johnson Family Dental Im excited for the opportunity to partner with Johnson Family Dental and serve the community of Paso Robles.

Smile Brands Inc., one of the nations leading dental support organizations (DSO) providing business support services to nearly 700 affiliated offices across 30 states, is pleased to announce the grand opening of Johnson Family Dentals eighth location, located in Paso Robles.

Patients will enjoy convenient hours, a comfortable office, and full-service general dentistry at the new Paso Robles location. Located at 2051 Theatre Drive, Suite 105, in Paso Robles, the office will be open four days a week, including evenings. Johnson Family Dental accepts most major insurance plans and offers flexible financing options so patients can afford the dental care they need.

To celebrate the grand opening, the new Paso Robles office will offer a special $49 new patient check-up package, including an exam and digital x-rays, and $100 off dental services over $300. Opening this new location helps bring affordable dental care to local neighborhoods.

Leading the clinical team in the new Johnson Family Dental office is Dr. Christopher Neale. Dr. Neale has advanced training in General Dentistry and 47 years of dental experience. His friendly and knowledgeable approach puts patients at ease. I enjoy getting to know the patients so they can have a positive dental experience, explains Dr. Neale. Im excited for the opportunity to partner with Johnson Family Dental and serve the community of Paso Robles.

This new office is open on Mondays and Thursdays from 8am  5pm, Tuesdays from 9am  6pm, and Fridays from 7am  4pm. Prospective patients can call the new Paso Robles Johnson Family Dental office at 805-322-3555 or schedule appointments online.

About Smile Brands Inc.

Smile Brands, based in Irvine, California, is one of the largest providers of dental support services in the United States. The company supports nearly 700 affiliated practices, with more than 7,500 dedicated team members across 30 states. Smile Brands supports a portfolio of over 75 brands including well-known regional brands: Bright Now! Dental, Castle Dental, Merit Dental, Midwest Dental, Monarch Dental, and Mondovi Dental. The company provides comprehensive business support services through exclusive long-term agreements with affiliate dental groups, allowing affiliated practices to spend more time caring for patients and less time on the administrative, marketing, and financial aspects of operating a dental office. The organization receives frequent recognition for its award-winning culture and has been on Glassdoors Best Places to Work for three consecutive years. Smile Brands is a portfolio company of Gryphon Investors, a leading middle-market private equity firm based in San Francisco, CA. Visit smilebrands.com for more information.

About Johnson Family Dental

Johnson Family Dental is a growing group dental practice based in Santa Barbara, California. Since 1963, Johnson Family Dental has been delivering quality care to Central California residents. With eight convenient locations, Johnson Family Dental provides comprehensive general, specialty, and orthodontic care in Santa Barbara, Ventura, Goleta, Solvang, Camarillo, San Luis Obispo Santa Maria, and Paso Robles. Driven by their belief that a smile can change your life, the Johnson Family Dental team is committed to delivering gentle and compassionate care at an excellent value. Johnson Family Dental relies on Smile Brands to provide world-class business support services so they can focus on delivering highly personalized patient care. Learn more at johnsonfamilydental.com.
Smith is excited to continue expanding our presence in the region and will continue to offer our global customers the premier service they rely on to keep their supply chains moving.

Smith, a global distributor of electronic components and semiconductors, today announces the opening of its sales office in Berlin, Germany. This new office will closely support local customers in the burgeoning German tech market and expand Smiths European footprint.

The Berlin office is the second of the distributors locations in Germany, following the 2017 opening of Smiths Munich office. The companys growing presence in this technology and engineering hotspot will position Smith at the forefront of innovation.

Germany has the most vibrant electronics market in Europe right now, said Mark Bollinger, Smiths Chief Globalization Officer. As a strategic partner in the global semiconductor sphere, Smith is at home anywhere in the world and ready to offer flexible solutions to address our customers unique supply chain challenges.

Dubbed as Silicon Allee, Berlin is home to numerous startups, automotive manufacturers, and medical and financial technology companies, as well as a highly skilled, educated workforce.

Berlin is a leader in the European technology sector and is growing rapidly, said Cleat Kimbrough, Smiths Vice President, EMEA. Smith is excited to continue expanding our presence in the region and will continue to offer our global customers the premier service they rely on to keep their supply chains moving.

About Smith

Founded in 1984, Smith sources, manages, and distributes the electronic components that go into everything from mobile phones and computers to appliances and directional drilling systems. In 17 cities around the world, Smiths legion of employees communicates in 50 languages and dialects and buys and sells components 24 hours per day, generating global annual sales in excess of $1.39 billion. Smith is always moving: helping manufacturers navigate market shifts; customizing supply chain solutions; testing components using cutting-edge technology. The support of Smiths flexible Intelligent DistributionTM model optimizes customers supply chains from beginning to end, including offering customized options for IT asset disposition that deliver maximum ROI, sustainability, and security. Smiths testing and logistics hubs in Houston, Hong Kong, and Amsterdam cover critical areas like quality management, counterfeit prevention, and environmental safety. Smiths operations, purchasing, and sales worldwide are seamlessly integrated with the companys global IT infrastructure, offering real-time, global inventory and logistics visibility. Smith is the leading independent distributor of electronic components and ranks number eight among all global distributors. For more information, please visit http://www.smithweb.com or reach out to a Smith representative any time of day at +1 713.430.3000.
"Now that we have demonstrated accuracy, robustness, ease-of-use, and with the comparatively low price and high throughput we offer, these look to be the first of many conversions to clinical use," said Dr. Paul Rhodes, CEO of Specific.

Specific Diagnostics today announced it has signed multi-year reagent rental agreements with two clinical microbiology laboratories in France, marking the commercialization of Specifics transformative Reveal rapid AST instrument. These purchases come on the heels of 11 successful studies across France and England comprising over 1,400 positive blood culture samples, yielding overall accuracy of 97.6% and average time-to-result of about 5 hours.

Reveals low cost, high throughput, broad menu, and small footprint are all suited to wide-spread adoption. Modular system design ensures no single point of failure, 100% uptime, and incremental adoption by hospitals of any size. The unique Reveal Dashboard provides the lab easy-to-use realtime tools to monitor instrument utilization as well as trends of infection and resistance.

Our direct teams on the ground in both France and England have seen a great deal of momentum for evaluation and now adoption for clinical use, said Dr. Paul Rhodes, CEO of Specific. We find almost universal interest in rapid AST for blood infection, and a great deal for high-urgency isolates as well, across all the distinguished labs we visit in Europe. The need is widely recognized. Now that we have demonstrated accuracy, robustness, ease-of-use, and with the comparatively low price and high throughput we offer, these look to be the first of many conversions to clinical use. Our whole team has worked years to get to this point and is very gratified that the Reveal system will now be available to help hospital teams better-treat patients suffering from the most deadly and fast moving infections.

Specifics direct team will be broadening to Spain and other countries in Europe and the Middle East in the coming months, and will be joined by the continent-spanning commercial organization of Specifics distribution partner to continue to bring Reveals to hospitals around Europe.

About Specific

Specific Diagnostics has developed in vitro diagnostic systems based upon a unique, patented metabolomic signature technology that enables rapid detection and identification of microorganisms as they grow in culture. Its first commercial application applies this fundamental new platform to the rapid determination of antimicrobial susceptibility directly from positive blood cultures, as well as isolate dilutions. Specific is based in Mountain View, CA, with subsidiaries in Ireland, France and the UK.

For press inquiries, please contact: press@specificdx.com


Dead Sea 1 Metzuke Dragot 2016

Artist-photographer Spencer Tunick is returning to the Dead Sea Region to make a new Live Nude Group Installation Artwork on October 17th. The live artwork will coincide with the launching of the brand-new Dead Sea Museums virtual exhibition of Tunick's photographs containing all of his Dead Sea photographs taken over the last 10 years. Its the first time these works are presented together. The exhibition is on view through April 21, 2022 and can be visited from anywhere in the world by visiting http://www.thedeadseamuseum.com.

The exhibition contains photographs from 2011, 2012 and 2016, including never before seen photography from the Ein Gedi and Ein Bokek waterfalls where a group of 30 women participated. The virtual exhibition consists of still photography, but also a video room, where a single-channel video is projected on the wall. Some well-known scenes come to life in this footage, bringing the visitor even closer to a long-gone environment that should still exist.

Ten years ago, on September 17, 2011, Spencer Tunick created his first Dead Sea Installation. He enlisted 1,200 Israelis and travelers from other countries to pose in and around the salty waters of Mineral Beach. The images captivated the world. Part of their appeal was an almost communal atmosphere; without clothes or any other artificial matter, the group of people transcends class, religion and nationality. They simply appeared together in a moment in time, sharing an environment that welcomes their presence. A first glance at these images might invoke a Zen-like feeling, yet the harsh reality of the Dead Sea disappearing at a rapid pace is asking for a very different analysis. Knowing the urgency, one could also feel these people committed to a joined effort to protect the Dead Sea.

There is no way to determine a date in these photographs by looking at them. Witnessing 1,200 people with no suggestion of time is rare. The complete absence of fashion or any form of design makes these works timeless; simply human bodies in an environment of water, mud and rocks. It looks eternal: past, present and future in single frames.

Now, time is of the essence, since the land and seascapes visible in these photographs are gone. Of course, the people in this installation moved on, too. They are a decade older; their bodies more seasoned, and their minds filled with ten additional years of experiences. Most still live, but way more alarming is that parts of the sea have perished. One would expect a sea to remain, but the Dead Sea is truly dying. The environment, utterly as vulnerable as the human bodies that posed within it. An eternity that has been saved in a single frame, has perished in reality. It is both shocking and mystifying.

The locations in Spencer Tunicks 2011 installation are now unrecognizable. The water has retreated and dangerous sinkholes have transformed Mineral Beach and many other places in the region. Tunick went back to the Dead Sea in 2016 to create new installations, exploring the sink holes that changed the landscape so dramatically. These works are presented in the exhibition as well.

It seems only right that these preserved moments in a lost landscape are presented in a virtual exhibition. Its there, its real, and yet it isnt. Everyone can join Tunicks ephemeral moments, on the web or in Virtual Reality  yet visiting the actual location will not measure up to its past.

Tunick said, "To immerse yourself in the preservation of a natural cause with one's art is a very rewarding experience, but it also comes with the sad realization that often man-made disasters are hard to stop. This does not mean one should not try to make a difference. With my works at the Dead Sea, I attempt to poetically visually create pushback against the loss of a natural wonder of the world. The works touch on the hope that early warnings of environmental catastrophe will spark quicker responses from people. Change does not happen in a vacuum, sometimes it takes art to spread the word."

The Dead Sea Museum is founded to raise awareness of the dire situation in this area. The museum begins as a virtual entity, but a physical museum in Israels city of Arad is currently being planned. Tunick returns to the region to create a third installation in this unique landscape, to embolden us all to do what is needed to save the Dead Sea from complete oblivion.

(For optimum VR experience, when viewing exhibition from a computer or laptop, please use Chrome browser and avoid Safari.)
Rob Fields, the new director of the Sugar Hill Children's Museum photo credit: Abbie Fields Not only do we have the opportunity to make the Sugar Hill community even more vibrant, but we can show howthrough creativity and collaborationthe arts build better citizens. And were going to start with our youngest citizens and their families.

The Sugar Hill Museum of Art & Storytelling announced today that Rob Fields has been appointed as its new director. An experienced cultural leader, Fields succeeds Lauren Kelley, who stepped down in June of 2020 to pursue other opportunities after successfully leading the institution for three years. Serving as Interim Director has been Charlene Melville, Associate Executive Director of Broadway Housing Communities.

Fields, who assumed the role on September 27, envisions a thoughtful return to the core storytelling and artmaking offerings of the Museums recent past, as well as activating the exhibition spaces through exciting visual arts and performance offerings. He also sees the Museums potential for field-wide impact.

Too often, the arts are seen as non-essential, and given a back seat to pressing, existential needs such as food, healthcare and housing. But because of the Museums relationship with Broadway Housing Communities, theres this unique opportunity to show how the arts can be an equally integral component of any community-building effort, noted Fields, who was previously the president and executive director of Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn. Not only do we have the opportunity to make the Sugar Hill community even more vibrant, but we can show howthrough creativity and collaborationthe arts build better citizens. And were going to start with our youngest citizens and their families.

"Rob comes to the Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art & Storytelling with a proven commitment of championing the role of arts and culture in underserved communities," said Neil A. Bhargava, Managing Director at Accenture and the Museum's board president. "We're thrilled that he's bringing that same energy uptown to the Sugar Hill community."

Were excited to have Rob onboard and leading the evolution of the Museum, added Broadway Housing Communities board chair Alan Weil, Esq, a partner at Sidley Austin LLP. Bringing the Sugar Hill Childrens Museum of Art & Storytelling back online is critical to the success of this particular site, which was designed to be that shining example of how affordable housing, early childhood education and art experiences work together to enrich and develop communities.

While at Weeksville, Fields led the organization's turnaround, which prevented the venerable historic site from closing its doors permanently. His efforts culminated in its designation as the first new member of the New York City Cultural Institutions Group (CIG) in over 20 years. Along with the other 33 members of the group, Weeksville now has a permanent line item in the City's budget. He also launched Weeksvilles artist-in-residence program; oversaw exhibitions featuring emerging and established artists; and launched its literary series featuring award-winning authors.

"To elevate this special museum to its next level, we were looking for a cultural activist and leader, rather than a museum executive, said Ellen Baxter, Founder and Executive Director of Broadway Housing Communities. Rob's determination and grounded and powerful experience transforming the Weeksville Heritage Center, as well as the distinctively high regard that artists, other cultural leaders, funders and elected officials have of him presents a most promising future to realize the full potential of the Sugar Hill Childrens Museum of Art & Storytelling.

The Museums fall season opens with the dual exhibit "Home/_other Nature - Cicadas" on October 16. Co-curated by Charlene Melville, the Associate Executive Director of Broadway Housing Communities and former Sugar Hill Childrens Museum artist-in-residence Damien Davis, the show features the work of Max Colby, Suchitra Mattai, Albert Peguero and Cecile Chong, and will be on view on Saturdays through February 19, 2022. The Museum will also present its second annual Storytelling Festival on October 16, which kicks off the weekly return of the Museums Saturday Story Hour each Saturday through the end of the year. More information on both of these programs can be found on http://www.sugarhillmuseum.org

About Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art & Storytelling

Sugar Hill Childrens Museum of Art & Storytelling, the cultural capstone of the Sugar Hill Development designed by architect Sir David Adjaye OBE, provides our culturally rich neighborhoodhome to the Harlem Renaissancewith a space where children and their families grow and learn about Sugar Hill, and about the world at large, through intergenerational dialogue with contemporary artists, art and storytelling. Designed to nurture the curiosity and creative spirit of three- to eight-year-old children, the Museum provides opportunities to grow as both author and audience, as children engage with the work of accomplished artists and storytellers, and create and share their own. The Museum is a separate 501(c)(3) organization founded by and sponsored by BHC.

https://www.sugarhillmuseum.org/

About Broadway Housing Communities

Since 1983, Broadway Housing Communities has provided permanent homes for thousands of adults, children and families, high quality early childhood programs that improve outcomes for resident and community children, and opportunities for local artists to exhibit their work and engage the community. The success of our model is rooted in community, and a commitment to ensuring that the adults, children and families we serve receive the support they deserve to live independent, stable lives.

https://www.broadwayhousing.org/
Many gender issues are very subtle and difficult to combat, often because the problem is not recognised in the first place.

The event Genuine Qualities in achieving Gender Equity will be held on 15th of October at 11:00 am UTC, 12:00 pm London and 07:00 am New York. It will also be broadcast on the website http://sustainfinance.org/

The discussion will be hosted by Ilkay Demirdag, ESG and Investor Relations Strategist. It will be about how a company can attain the right culture and how this starts at the very beginning: with the hiring process.

At the event, our article https://www.thebanker.com/ftauthor/view/Nouriel+Roubini%2C+Kubra+Koldemir+and+Paul+Smith will be discussed published by The Banker and authored by renowned economist Dr. Nouriel Roubini, Kubra Koldemir and Paul Smith, CFA. Dr. Nouriel Roubini is CEO of Roubini Macro Associates and the Co-Founder of theboombust.com, Kubra Koldemir is Sustainability Business Writer at SustainFinance & Researcher at Arguden Governance Academy and Paul Smith, CFA is Founder at SustainFinance and former CEO at CFA Institute.

The distinguished speakers are Sarah Maynard, Global Head, External Inclusion & Diversity Strategies at CFA Institute, Martina Macpherson, Head of Strategy at ODDO BHF Asset Management and Caroline Codsi, Founder and Chief Equity Officer at Women in Governance.

Company culture is vital. Companies need to hold themselves accountable for their actions from the very beginning of the hiring process and for the systems they put in place. When an equal number of women and men are hired into entry-level positions, both genders can move up the corporate ladder in lockstep. However, if your entry-level hiring is biased towards men, the disparity will automatically increase as there are fewer women who are qualified to move into leadership positions.

A better approach would be to design the hiring process to ensure that organisations recruit a genderbalanced intake while working consciously to ensure that as people move up the organisation, and new blood is brought in at senior levels, a gender-equal workforce is maintained. This needs to be intentional  it will not happen naturally or by accident, as the biases within society work against women at all levels from entering and staying in the workforce.

Many gender issues are very subtle and difficult to combat, often because the problem is not recognised in the first place. For instance, the presence of a dominant group or a gender imbalance in leadership can make it extremely difficult to prove gender bias or to improve female mentorship and promotion prospects. When we dont recognise the existence of a problem, structural issues will remain and solving the challenge becomes much harder.

In the article, Yapi Kredi Bank from Turkey was demonstrated as a good practice example. Its late Executive Vice-President, Hakan Alp, was an advocate of gender diversity. Its female employees currently outnumber male staff, representing 62% of the workforce. Yapi Kredi Bank approaches its employees in a holistic way, supporting female employees work-life balance and, when necessary, even providing support in their private lives. In 2021, Yapi Kredi Bank was included in the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index, where corporations are evaluated on pay equality, culture of inclusion, womens talent pipeline, policies to combat sexual harassment and women-friendly brand identity. They are taking deliberate measures in the HR department to increase the middle-level female manager ratio, which was 40.3% in 2020.

This event will be powered by https://www.instaacoders.com/ on SustainFinance website.
T. Ryan Kennedy Under Ryans stewardship, our blossoming culture will continue to propagate and the experience of working with Consortium Networks  for our employees, customers, partners and greater community  will also continue to excel.

Consortium Networks, a cybersecurity intelligence, collaboration and consulting organization, today announced T. Ryan Kennedy has joined the company as Chief Operating Officer (COO).

As COO, Kennedy will oversee the day-to-day administrative and operational functions of the business. His objectives include further developing and expanding the companys business strategy and processes, enhancing employee personal growth and development initiatives, and evaluating performance through data and metrics.

Kennedy has over 20 years of experience driving operational and process improvement across public and private sector organizations. Most recently, as Director of Strategy at Thomson Reuters Special Services (TRSS), Kennedy was responsible for developing the firms growth strategy, building the team and infrastructure, and delivering a lasting culture and leadership development program. During his tenure, TRSS was recognized as a Top Workplace by The Washington Post for three consecutive years (2019-21). In addition, Kennedy also served at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), where he was responsible for designing and implementing the FBIs enterprise strategic management system. During this time, Kennedy was a major architect of the Bureau-wide effort to improve and transform its intelligence processes and capabilities, both nationally and locally within 56 field offices, impacting everything from cyber operations to criminal investigations to better performance management.

Since our inception, we have strived to create a unique culture to support our mission to ease the frustration of finding solutions for todays growing cyber threats, said Tim Murphy, CEO of Consortium Networks. Under Ryans stewardship, our blossoming culture will continue to propagate and the experience of working with Consortium Networks  for our employees, customers, partners and greater community  will also continue to excel.

It has quickly become apparent that Consortium is not like most organizations, said Kennedy. They are striving to do something unique and truly create a blend between business and community welfare. Cyber risks are pervasive and I am excited to work with a company dedicated to using collaboration and intelligence sharing to solve cybersecurity challenges.

Consortium Networks is on an exciting growth trajectory, and we will continue to support that growth by adding experienced, first-class leaders to our team, said Larry Pfeifer, Founder and Chief Disruptor for Consortium Networks. Ryan has rich experience and a successful track record of making a positive, measurable impact and we proudly welcome him to the Consortium team and look forward his insight, ideas, and innovation.

About Consortium Networks

Consortium Networks is committed to providing businesses with the most relevant, up-to-date technology information, with a focus on cybersecurity. By connecting technology customers, vendors, and experts, we strive to be the go-to resource for guidance regarding all your IT requirements. We are the first organization dedicated to providing real-world feedback and data on solutions in operation in production environments at peer organizations. Learn more about Consortium Networks at https://consortium.net/.
There currently are more than 90 startups that are building the foundations of the metaverse. While metaverse marketing is still relatively new, and its future unclear, it is widely expected to become a major component of successful retailers strategies in the near future.

The term metaverse was coined by science fiction novelist Neal Stephenson nearly 30 years ago, as a name for the place where people go when they don virtual reality headsets to interact within a game-like digital world.(1) In recent years it has come to mean a kind of all-encompassing internet marketplace in which brands and retailers seek to heighten customer engagement, fintech companies seek to meet metaverse financial needs, and a slew of startups are creating entirely new virtual products, from avatars to cryptocollectibles.(2)

Retail is an area thats expected to become increasingly involved in the metaverse over the next several years. says Maury Rogow, CEO of Hollywoods Rip Media Group. This, as Rogow notes, is to some degree a result of the COVID pandemic, which closed stores all over the world and forced consumers to shop at home via the internet. So far, global ecommerce has grown 25.7% in 2021 and is on track to increase another 16.8%.(3) Growth at this level, Rogow observes, especially in an intensely competitive industry, is a powerful driver of change. While metaverse marketing is still relatively new, and its future unclear, (4) it is widely expected to become a major component of successful retailers strategies in the near future.(5)

Whos in the Metaverse?

At the end of June, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees that the future of the company lies in the metaverse. In fact, Zuckerberg said the companys aim is to have the public no longer see them as a social media platform, but as a metaverse company.(6) Moreover, there currently are more than 90 startups that are building the foundations of the metaverse. Some of these companies come from the following industries: software engines, hardware interfaces, financial services, asset marketplaces, retail products, and more.(2)

Since the metaverse is a virtual location, adds Rogow, companies can sell real estate within it. They can also develop their own cryptocurrency to use within this world. On the real estate side, companies can open stores in the metaverse, and the customer can purchase virtually to receive their items in the (real) physical world.

Southeast Asias RedFox Labs, an internet-technology firm, is one of the companies building its own ecosystem within the metaversea place they call RFOX VALT. This is a fully immersive virtual ecosystem that puts traditional commercial enterprises inside the metaverse and powers them with their unique cryptocurrency.

In this place, youll find shops, billboards, art, games, meeting places and so on. Imagine youre in the metaverse and you walk into your favorite restaurant and place an order to go. And soon after, that same order arrives at your own physical house. It gives a whole new meaning to take-out food, says Rogow.

A single unifying metaverse doesnt exist yet, but that hasnt stopped companies like Facebook, Microsoft, Epic Games, Nvidia and Roblox, to name a few, from staking their claim. An August Washington Post article described it as follows: To be a full universe, no single company could own the metaverse, similarly to how no one owns the Internet. But companies may try to monopolize their respective corners of the metaverse, just as a handful of large tech companies dominate online content today. Firms could do this similarly to how they make money off apps via subscription services, shopping carts and advertising.(8)

The Challenge

In this transition, just as in the early days of ecommerce, says Rogow, brands and retailers face a major challenge. For metaverse marketing to boost sales, recognition, and customer engagement, it will be necessary for a significant percentage of consumers to actually participate in the experience it offers. For this to happen, says Rogow, two things need to occur. The public needs to be educated on how the metaverse will affect the future of buying, and businesses need to be prepared for the next level of storytelling.

To succeed at the next level of storytelling, says Rogow, brands and retailers should make certain that the stories they are telling are as compelling and well-crafted as possible. As for the medium to tell their story, the choice should be video as consumers are used it, he adds. Video marketing is an effective tool for marketing. Videos run the gamut of messagingfrom a very simple message to a special-effects-laden production and even by the use of animation. Videos capture consumers attention as it is the basic component of todays online retail marketing, and it isand continues to beessential to the world-creating activities of the metaverse.

There are rules for storytelling; it is important to know what they are and how best to use them. It is of dire importance that the messagethe promise of the metaverseand the consumer connect, and video is that bridge. Video will connect todays marketing to metaverse marketing. It will be an essential part of carrying well-crafted stories into the future of retailing.

About Rip Media Group

Rip Media Group, founded in 2007, is a trailblazing video marketing company based in Los Angeles, California. Founded by digital pioneer Maury Rogow, Rip Media Group brings a unique combination of storytelling art and ROI strategy to the field of animation and live action video. Maury is a member of the Producers Guild of America, with several feature films to his credit. His unique background in film production led to an epiphany in the intrinsic value of storytelling in marketing, no matter how technical the subject. This led to his work in a high-tech firm and its purchase by Cisco for over $1Billion. He went on to form Rip Media Group, a collection of award-winning storytellers, technicians, and artists, selected from the Producers Guild, Writers Guild, and Screen Actors Guild. Their Green Light Production Process and other proprietary systems are used to create world-class voiceover, animation, and live action video to grow businesses of any size. https://ripmediagroup.com/

1. Berry, Vyomica. What Is Metaverse, the New Buzzword in Internet Technology? WION, WION, 11 Sept. 2021, wionews.com/technology/what-is-metaverse-the-new-buzzword-in-internet-technology-412364.

2. Research Brief. The Future of Socialization: 90+ Companies Shaping the Metaverse. CB Insights Research, CB Insights, 9 Sept. 2021, cbinsights.com/research/metaverse-market-map/.

3. Gaubys, Justas. Global Ecommerce Sales Growth (20192025) [Sep 2021 Update]. Oberlo, oberlo.com/statistics/global-ecommerce-sales-growth.

4. Seiferth, Jonas. Shopping in the Metaverse. Medium, BosonProtocol, 10 May 2021, medium.com/bosonprotocol/shopping-in-the-metaverse-a3e4af61e2f9.

5. Stephens, Doug. The Metaverse Will Radically Change Retail. The Business of Fashion, 7 June 2021, businessoffashion.com/opinions/retail/the-metaverse-will-radically-change-retail.

6. Newton, Casey; Mark in the Metaverse: Facebooks CEO on why the social network is becoming a metaverse company; 22 July 2021; The Verge; theverge.com/22588022/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-ceo-metaverse-interview

7. Brown, Dalvin; Big Tech wants to build the metaverse. What on Earth does that mean?; 30 August 2021; The Washington Post; washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/08/30/what-is-the-metaverse/
This marks a new era for Tosoh Bioscience and confirms our commitment to provide our customers with the latest solutions and technologies.

Tosoh Bioscience LLC, a leading supplier of separation and purification products and technologies to the life sciences industry, announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Semba Biosciences, a privately held Wisconsin company. Semba Biosciences is a leading innovator in the field of multi-column chromatography (MCC) instrumentation and technology for downstream purification of biologics.

Ali Soleymannezhad, VP global marketing and business development of Tosoh Bioscience LLC said, We are thrilled to welcome the Semba Biosciences team to the Tosoh family. For long we have admired Sembas technology and innovation, pioneering the Simulated Moving Bed (SMB) technology in the biopurification processes. Since our first equity investment back in 2018, the company has successfully hit every product development milestone set by Tosoh Bioscience and will soon be ready to launch the Octave BIO System, a state-of-the-art benchtop MCC unit for bioprocess development, and ProGMP, the most efficient MCC skid designed for larger-scale biological manufacturing. This marks a new era for Tosoh Bioscience and confirms our commitment to provide our customers with the latest solutions and technologies.

We are extremely pleased and excited to become part of the Tosoh Bioscience worldwide organization, said Robert Mierendorf, Ph.D., president and CEO of Semba Biosciences. By combining Semba Biosciences advanced Simulated Moving Bed (SMB) technology with Tosoh Biosciences best-in-class resins, we will be able to offer unparalleled efficiency and productivity in downstream processes and significantly decrease the cost of manufacturing.

Tosoh Bioscience LLC is planning on expanding the current Semba team in Madison, WI, creating a global center of excellence for continuous chromatography.

TOSOH BIOSCIENCE LLC

Tosoh Bioscience LLC provides liquid chromatography products to laboratories and manufacturing plants in the Americas. While the majority of our customers work in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, our U/HPLC columns and systems are essential tools for sample analysis in most industries. The LenS3 Multi-Angle Light Scattering Detector offers a revolutionary approach for the measurement of molecular weight (MW) and radius of gyration (Rg) of synthetic polymers, polysaccharides, proteins, and biopolymers. Our all-in-one dedicated GPC system, the EcoSEC GPC System, is predominantly used in the chemical and polymer industries while our EcoSEC High Temperature GPC System is ideal for the polyolefin and oil industries. In the field of biotechnology, our preparative chromatography resins play a critical role in the purification of proteins and nucleic acids for medical purposes.

The company is a subsidiary of Tosoh Corporation in Japan, the parent of the Tosoh Group, which comprises over 100 companies worldwide and a multiethnic workforce of over 12,000 people and generated net sales of 732.9 billion (US $6.9 billion at the average rate of 106.1 to the US dollar) in fiscal 2021, ended March 31, 2021. Tosohs Bioscience Division comprises products and solutions of both separation and purification and of clinical diagnostics serving customers worldwide.

Tosoh Bioscience and EcoSEC are the registered trademarks of Tosoh Corporation in Japan, the United States, and other countries/territories. LenS is a registered trademark of Tosoh Bioscience LLC in the USA, India and Japan.

SEMBA BIOSCIENCES, INC.

Semba Biosciences is a life science company based in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. Founded in 2005, the company pioneered the development of bench top continuous chromatography systems for efficient and scalable purification of biomolecules. Today the companys lab-scale Octave Systems are used in the food, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries worldwide. The new Octave BIO and ProGMP products bring the power of continuous chromatography to the biopharmaceutical industry for downstream process development and single-use manufacturing.

Semba and Octave are registered trademarks and ProGMP is a trademark of Semba Biosciences, Inc.
Purchase tickets to Quarter Rican via: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/quarter-rican-tickets-172383482637 The Yendor team is excited to re-engage the community for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic and are committed to reviving the relationship between community artists and the Launch Pad space by participating in the 20th anniversary of the Newark Arts Festival.

For the first time since 2017, Yendor returns to the Newark Arts Festival, just in time for the festivals 20th anniversary. It is the organizations return to visual arts exhibits and programming since the transition of its Founder, Rodney Gilbert. Over the course of the weekend Yendor will transform coworking space, Launch Pad Newark, into Price Ah FREEDOM Aint Cheap, a multimedia art exhibition, as well as activate Newark Symphony Halls Black Box space, for Quarter Rican, a dynamic new one person show, by Jersey based artist Gabriel Hernandez. Also packed into Yendors weekend offerings are pop up performances in the exhibition space, an afterparty, and the launch of limited edition merchandise, designed by local artists.

The Yendor team is excited to re-engage the community for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic and are committed to reviving the relationship between community artists and the Launch Pad space by participating in the 20th anniversary of the Newark Arts Festival. Heres an overview of the organizations activations for the iconic weekend:

"Price 'Ah FREEDOM ain't Cheap"

Price 'Ah FREEDOM ain't Cheap is the title of Yendors visual arts exhibit that serves as an exploration of the macrocosm that is black expression. Curated by YENDOR in partnership with Launch Pad Newark and installed by Hans Lundy, the exhibit celebrates artists of African descent throughout the diaspora. It presents an opportunity for them to break free from the usual constraints of themed exhibitions and to present their most authentic work, be it experimental or tightly researched. Yendors hope is to remove barriers to expression and to facilitate the artist expressing themselves in ways they may not have been able to do for quite some time. The Opening Reception will be Friday, October 8th at 6:30pm in the Launch Pad facility located in Downtown Newark. The artwork selected to be featured in the exhibit will be on display until the end of the year.

Quarter Rican at Newark Symphony Hall

Quarter Rican, a new one person play, drawn from Gabriel Hernandezs personal life experiences, touches on identity in the Latino community, the challenges of fatherhood, and the tension that exists for mixed race individuals. Quarter Rican delicately weaves original rap with narrative to create an intimate, yet immersive theatrical experience. This beautiful show is a celebration of the richness of Puerto Rican culture, a critique of the complexities as well as an ode to fatherhood. Reserve in-person or live stream tickets here!

Yendor remains committed to the continued transformation of communities through high quality, engaging, thought provoking and riveting arts and cultural offerings. To keep up with their work and upcoming events, visit their website here.
On a warm and sunny Sunday, October 3, outside Borough Hall in Downtown Brooklyn, this year's Brooklyn Book Festivalback in-person after a one-year hiatus due to the pandemicreturned to the borough and to the delight of publishers and the reading public alike.

In response to the ongoing pandemic, this years Brooklyn Book Festival was a hybrid event and included both in-person panels at three outdoor stages, publisher-exhibitors at Borough Hall plaza and at other nearby venues, and virtual panels. Proof of vaccination and masks were required for adults and children 12 and up at all indoor and outdoor author programs, and the vibrant outdoor Literary Marketplace, which hosted some 250 publishers, magazines, and other literary organizations, bustled with festival goers both masked and unmasked.

Liz Koch, co-producer and v-p of the Brooklyn Book Festival, estimates that the weekend eventsthe childrens day on Saturday and the main festival on Sundaydrew 20,000 to 25,000 people to Borough Hall and nearby venues. People are excited to be back at the festival, she said. We had large crowds for our outdoor stages and vaccination checks and, judging by the wristbands identifying the vaccinated people, the New York literary community is well vaccinated.

Koch pointed out long lines for panels featuring such authors as Paul Auster, Chris Hayes, Heather McGhee, Joyce Carol Oates, and George Packer. The outdoor stages had 100 to 300 people. The marketplace on the plaza had more than 140 publishers, and many of them told us they were glad to back live and that the event turned out to be better than they hoped for, Koch said. The virtual panels, held after 5pm on Sunday evening, looked pretty good, she added, though she emphasized that she would need check the numbers.

Hosting a hybrid festival, Koch noted, is really like having two festivals. That meant lots of coordination, but it also meant extended reach. Last year, we had so many people who tuned into the festival who would never have been able to attendpeople saying they were in Hawaii or wherever, Koch explained. People all over the world want to see the festival, and we saw that last year. The virtual Brooklyn Book festival also gives us access to more authors. We had a debut author from Kenya this year, and we cant normally bring in authors from across the globe. (The virtual panels, Koch said, will be archived and made available via the Book Festivals YouTube channel in the near future.)

The Brooklyn Book Festival is New York City's largest free literary festival, connecting publishing professionals and readers, and publishers and other literary organizations from across the country attend each year. The festival also recognizes authors whose work exemplifies or speaks to "the spirit of Brooklyn" with its annual Best of Brooklyn Award, which this year went to Toi Derricotte. In comments to PW, nearly all attendees with booths expressed excitement about the event's return.

Brittany Dennison, co-director of publicity at New Directions, said that the festival had been far busier than expected, and the days book sales had been high. She was especially happy to see lots of people out and about after spending so much of the past year and a half in isolation.

Elly Hong, literary editorial fellow at the literary magazine The Common, said the magazine has published its last three issues virtually due to the pandemic, so she was thrilled to be able to share physical copies with people. Its been wonderful to be back in person and being able to meet people face to face, Hong said. She was surprised by how busy the day was, and said sales had far exceeded expectations.

Vic Rose, a volunteer with House of Speakeasy, manned the organizations maroon Bookmobile, which, he explained, serves underbooked areas, or book deserts, and provides books. At the festival, though, the vehicle was used as a mobile bookstore. Last year this wasnt able to happen, Rose said, so the energy Im getting from everyone is excitement that this is back and that we can get physical books into the community.

Atom Atkinson, director of writing programs at Catapult, was especially excited to see colleagues, as all Catapult classes have been held virtually for a year and a half. They are grateful for how Catapult has adapted and expanded its online programs, but the in-person festival provided a small glimmer for what the future might look like. Im not only getting to see my colleagues in person for the first time in a long time, but Ive seen about half a dozen Catapult instructors and students today, Atkinson said, and its a very welcome reminder of the energizing quality of in-person learning.

Rachel Fershleiser, associate publisher and executive director of marketing at Catapult, Counterpoint, and Soft Skull, has attended every Brooklyn Book Festival since it began in 2006. It feels really good to be back here with all these human beings who love books, she said. Accompanying Fershleiser was her two-year-old daughter Peony, who she said has also attended every Brooklyn Book Festival in her lifetimeincluding one in utero. Peonys take on the festival was resounding: Good!
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  China flew more than 30 military planes toward Taiwan on Saturday, the second large display of force in as many days.

Taiwans Defense Ministry said 39 aircraft entered Taiwans air defense identification zone in two sorties, one during the day and one at night. That followed a similar pattern on Friday, when 38 planes flew into the area south of the self-governing island.

China claims Taiwan, which lies off its east coast, as its territory. The two split in 1949 during a civil war in which the Communists took control of mainland China and the rival Nationalists set up a government on Taiwan. The Communist Party marked the 72nd anniversary of its rule on Friday.

Taiwans premier, Su Tseng-chang, spoke out on Saturday against the first days flights.

China has always conducted brutal and barbarian actions to jeopardize regional peace, he said while attending the opening ceremony of a science park in southern Taiwan.

China has been sending military planes into the area south of Taiwan on a frequent basis for more than a year. The 38 and 39 planes on Friday and Saturday were the most in a single day since Taiwan began releasing reports on the flights, Taiwans Central News Agency said.

The Defense Ministry said 20 planes took part in the daytime flights on Saturday and another 19 at night. It identified most of them as J-17 and SU-30 fighter jets.

 copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
The joint Belarusian-Russian Zapad 2021 combined strategic exercise (sovmestnoe strategicheskoe uchenie), which lasted from September 10 to 16, witnessed numerous tests and experiments involving Russias Armed Forcessomething that was entirely expected, since the annual strategic-operational military exercises naturally serve as the culmination of the combat training year. The Russian combined strategic exercises rotate every four years between four of the countrys five military districts (Western, Eastern, Central and Southern; excluding the newly added Northern Fleet Military District). Such exercises are used by the General Staff to assess a broad array of themes linked to military capability, combat readiness, strategic mobility and capacity to fight a wide range of conflict types. Unsurprisingly, given its prominence in exercises and combat operations, Zapad 2021 also featured further testing of the militarys network-centric warfare capability: in Russian parlance, this is essentially the Reconnaissance-Fire System (Razvedyvatelno-Ognevaya SistemaROS), which has been successfully combat tested in Ukraine and Syria. However, this year also included a new dynamic: the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for strike missions rather than mainly for reconnaissance purposes (Mil.ru, September 11).

Russian military media, including official sources, reported on the use of the Strelets-M intelligence management and communications complex (Kompleks Razvedki Upravleniya i SvyaziKRUS) during Zapad 2021, which was jointly used by Belarusian and Russian forces. Strelets-M, the technological enabler for the KRUS, harnesses modern computer and communications systems to integrate various radar, sensors and means of reconnaissance and fires at operational-tactical levels. In the active phase of Zapad 2021, this was used for transferring target designations to several types of drone platforms. The Forpost and Inokhodets UAVs received data directly from motorized rifle and tank subunits. Reconnaissance officers in these units detected enemy targets using target rangefinders and through the KRUS Strelets-M; they then transmitted the data in real time to both the command post and the UAV operators, coordinating with strike UAVs. For the purposes of conducting drone strikes, the Forpost and Inokhodets were used with guided missiles. During initial advances by Ground Forces units, the Inokhodets worked in conjunction with the light UAVs Lastochka and Orlan-10; the latter conducted reconnaissance. However, all unmanned assets were integrated within the Reconnaissance-Fire System, or ROS (Izvestia, September 21).

Integrating reconnaissance and strike drone platforms together with the KRUS Strelets-M system facilitates a rapid response to situational changes at tactical levels and improves the kill chain timing. The Moscow-based military expert Viktor Murakhovsky, outlined some features of using the Strelets-M: Before the attack, reconnaissance reveals important targets that need to be destroyed first. But in battle, enemy reinforcements or, for example, well-camouflaged defensive structures that can stop an attack and turn the tide of an operation are often revealed. To prevent this from happening, they must be quickly destroyed. Units with KRUS Strelets[-M] in this case will be able to quickly report the coordinates of the target, and UAVs deliver an accurate strike that will decide the outcome of the battle. Murakhovsky added that UAVs combined with on-the-ground reconnaissance spotters can accurately target enemy headquarters, communication centers, technical reconnaissance equipment or air-defense batteries (Izvestia, September 21).

In Zapad 2021, joint Belarusian-Russian reconnaissance missions exploited the KRUS Strelets-M. They searched for the deployment of armored vehicles as well as the location of command posts, fuel and ammunition depots, and railway stations for unloading the hypothetical enemys military echelons. The Strelets-M allows the reconnaissance group to identify and transmit exact coordinates of the targets to artillery units and aviation (Mil.ru, September 11). The Inokhodets-RU, also known as Sirius, is the first large reconnaissance and strike unmanned platform adopted by Russias Armed Forces. The unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) weighs a little over a ton and can remain airborne for up to 24 hours. The Inokhodets-RU has a range of more than 250 kilometers and can carry approximately 200 kilograms of ammunition. It is capable of using 120-kilogram OFAB-100-120 high-explosive fragmentation bombs. By integrating the unmanned platforms into the ROS and relying on the Strelets-M, the accuracy of striking a target from a height of four kilometers is around ten meters. The Inokhodets-RU, like the network-enabled ROS, was extensively tested in operations in Syria. Inokhodets-RU UCAVs were involved in approximately 60 combat missions for a total duration of more than 200 hours. The Forpost reconnaissance UAVs have been in service for some time. However, the modernized 500-kilogram Forpost-R was originally developed to use weapons. During Zapad 2021, it was demonstrated in action. The Forpost used the corrected 20-kilogram KAB-20S bombs created specifically for this platform (Izvestia, September 21).

In addition to the continued training of personnel in the use of the KRUS Strelets-M, which occurred in Zapad 2021, tactical units recently tested its use in the Eastern and Southern military districts. These have shown the ease of integration of fires from either artillery or helicopters (Mil.ru, Tvzvezda.ru, September 20). However, in the course of these tactical exercises, the UAV platforms were used for reconnaissance rather than strikes on enemy targets.

The use of reconnaissance and strike UAVs and UACVs integrated with the Strelets-M to link into the ROS further enhances Russian conventional strike capability. As well as greatly enhancing target acquisition and strike in real time, the KRUS Strelets-M can provide data to commanders from numerous sources. These include complexes of small-sized UAVs, portable thermal imaging devices, digital data processing sights, radiation reconnaissance devices, mine detectors, and reconnaissance-signaling equipment complexes. Acting in conjunction with laser designators that illuminate a target, high-precision systems of fire destruction of aviation and artillery are able to accurately strike their marks.

The Strelets-M is battery dependent, capable of functioning for only up to twelve hours on a single charge. Thus, the number of battery kits that the group can take with them determines the time frame for the group to complete the assigned task (Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye, September 2).

Russias Armed Forces have dramatically improved fire accuracy through the creation of the Reconnaissance-Fire System, which offers a wide range of accurate fires in real time. Yet the experimentation that resurfaced in Zapad 2021using UAVs and UACVs with the KRUS Strelets-M to offer accurate strike capability rather than simple reconnaissancesuggests a longer-term trend for the Russian Armed Forces.

Roger N. McDermott specializes in Russian and Central Asian defense and security issues and is a Senior Fellow in Eurasian Military Studies, The Jamestown Foundation, Washington DC, Senior International Research Fellow for the Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO), Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and Affiliated Senior Analyst, Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen. McDermott is on the editorial board of Central Asia and the Caucasus and the scientific board of the Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies. He recently wrote The Reform of Russias Conventional Armed Forces: Problems, Challenges and Policy Implications (October 2011).

This article appeared originally at The Jamestown Foundation's Eurasia Daily Monitor.
At the beginning of the last week, House Democrats had concrete plans only to pass the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure framework (BIF), a narrowly crafted bill living up to its nickname  it mainly funds bridges, roads and airports, as well as greater broadband Internet access in rural areas.

Most political observers believed Democratic leaders had decided to take the bird in the hand and rack up an accomplishment rather than force a vote on a much more sweeping and controversial $3.5 trillion spending measure, known as the human infrastructure bill, or simply Build Back Better after Joe Bidens 2020 campaign slogan. The BBB was still facing a two-senator blockade in the Senate and was always the more aspirational legislation  the biggest expansion of social spending since the Great Society, providing funds for everything from universal pre-K to community college, as well as new outlays for Medicare and the Democrats climate-change agenda.

By Friday, all bets were off. Speaker Nancy Pelosi twice broke her big promise to moderates to hold a vote on the $1.2 trillion bill, and even President Biden was singing from the progressives song sheet, instructing all House Democrats to hold off on that bipartisan measure until theres a deal on BBB.

Theres no doubt that the Congressional Progressive Caucus, led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal and backed up by Sen. Bernie Sanders, is responsible for upending the legislative plan, refusing to accept House and Senate Democratic leaders legislative priorities while demonstrating the new power they wield.

But a quieter group of critics is pointing out another dynamic that may have been crucial to the progressives ability to revive the once moribund BBB bill: House Republicans near lock-step opposition to the Senate-negotiated BIF.

Without the House GOP turning their backs on BIF, the progressives may not have had enough leverage to stop the vote from taking place. All but the most conservative House Republicans were facing significant pressure from business groups, including the U.S Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable, to support the bipartisan infrastructure package. There are 56 members of the Problem Solvers Caucus, half Democrats and half Republicans, who vowed to work together to break through Washingtons gridlock. A good portion of the centrist groups Republican members planned to follow GOP leadership orders and vote against BIF last week, House GOP sources told RealClearPolitics.

There are nearly 100 members of the progressive caucus, but its unclear exactly how many would follow Jayapals directive to sink a popular spending bill that all Democrats back on the merits. Before the progressive revolt, the BIF was poised to pass alone, untethered to the BBB measure and with support from a large group of House Republican moderates. Pelosi, having secured a major accomplishment to tout in next years midterms, would likely have later deemed the sweeping BBB bill as too heavy of a lift and eventually let it die on the vine with little in the way of a public eulogy.

Biden too seemed satisfied with that outcome early last week before the progressive revolt. Leading up to the planned Monday BIF vote, the president had done little public or private lobbying on behalf of the bigger BBB measure, which Democrats planned to pass through reconciliation  except that centrist Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema were holding it up while ridiculing its $3.5 trillion price tag.

A few weeks ago, however, the right wing of the Republican Party convinced House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to whip against the BIF vote as well  a decision viewed at the time as helping him shore up support from the conservative Freedom Caucus and Republican Study Committee to become House speaker if the GOP regains the majority next fall. The influential American Conservative Union, which sponsors CPAC, the largest annual gathering of conservatives, designated the BIF as a key no vote in their annual members scorecards, signaling just how important it was for Republicans to hold the line.

There were still between a dozen to 15 centrist GOP House members planning to vote for the bipartisan bill, which they helped negotiate, had it come to the floor last week. But that contingent wasnt enough to offset the mass exodus of progressives that ultimately held the measure hostage until theres a deal on BBB.

At the end of the day, Democrats know they need to get something done  they cannot go back to their districts empty-handed having had full control of the House, Senate and the presidency, said Nick Rathod, a Democratic strategist who worked in the Obama White House and former executive director of the State Innovation Exchange, an organization devoted to creating progressive power in state legislatures.

If they were smart, Rathod told RealClearPolitics, Republicans would have just stood back and watched the infighting among Democrats potentially tank both the BIF and reconciliation bills. The latter was poised for near certain legislative stalling and inaction.

Instead, they likely overplayed their hand on a bipartisan compromise on infrastructure that is popular regardless of party and positioned the Democrats to not only reach a compromise position on both bills but allow for them to push through on their own and take full credit for delivering for their constituents, without any Republican support, he said.

Before last week, Manchin was calling for strategic pause  perhaps into next year  for the BBB measure, enough time, many analysts believed, for it to lose all momentum. With progressives able to up the ante, by the end of the week Manchin had disclosed that he would accept a $1.5 trillion price tag, and Democrats were expressing confidence that a BBB bill between that number and $2 trillion would pass in the days or weeks ahead.

With progressives crowing about their success in forcing a BBB deal over the weekend, and Democratic and GOP moderates licking their wounds, Republicans focused on the short term, celebrating several straight days of Democrats in disarray headlines last week.

Economist Stephen Moore, co-founder of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity and the leader of the Coalition to Save America, which oppose the BBB measure, called the last week a total train wreck for the Democrats.

They cant move anything. They cant move their infrastructure bill. They cant increase the debt ceiling, they cant move the $5 trillion spending bill and they had to pass a temporary continuing resolution, he told RCP, referring to the BBB measure, which critics say will cost far more than the $3.5 trillion Democrats claim. Theyre firing at each other and Sinema and Manchin are personas non grata with their own party.

Rep. Jim Banks, who chairs the Republican Study Committee, on Friday issued a statement denouncing Democrats messy infighting as proof that they cant govern.

Its official. Democrats failed, he declared. This week was their shot to pass the infrastructure deal and a massive spending bill via reconciliation, and they couldnt get it done because their party has been taken over by radicals.

But Banks and other conservatives were mum about both bills prospects in the weeks ahead. He didnt respond to an RCP question about whether Republicans had scored a pyrrhic victory in last weeks infrastructure battle but would ultimately lose the spending war.

Moore was more cautious about the bills fates, acknowledging that defeating any form of the BBB bill  even one with a lower price tag  remains an uphill climb.

Its all in play right now and everything is very fluid, he said. Im hardly declaring victory here.

Every Republican in the Senate is against passing a BBB bill of any shape or size, Moore said, insisting its opponents are in a much, much better spot today than we were several weeks ago.

With both measures back on the table, however, and Biden now committed to passing them even if it takes weeks to do so, the next legislative phase many produce some honest GOP introspection  at least privately.

If Democrats cant reach an agreement and both bills fail, the House GOP strategy was a stroke of genius. But if Democrats end up passing the BIF and a more narrowly tailored BBB, it will amount to trillions in new spending that will be difficult to reverse in the years ahead. Under that very plausible scenario, House Republicans will be at least partly responsible for both empowering progressives and helping to transform their aspirational agenda into reality  together a big win for the Biden presidency.

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that Nick Rathod is executive director of the State Innovation Exchange. He is a former executive director.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 10/04/2021



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STEVEN AND ALINA

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ARIELA AND BINIYAM

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KENNY AND ARMANDO

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ELLIE AND VICTOR

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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

: The Other Way featured Steven dropping a bombshell about his past and Alina feeling "betrayed," Ariela Weinberg breaking Biniyam Shibre's heart over surgery plans for their son, Ellie and Victor not seeing eye-to-eye about how to proceed after the hurricane, and Kenny Niedermeier experiencing a breakthrough with Armando Rubio's father during Sunday night's Season 3 episode on TLC.: The Other Way follows American citizens moving to foreign countries for the sake of love and their future spouses, and they must marry within 90 days in order to stay.The third-season of : The Other Way stars Victor, a 28-year-old from Providencia, Colombia, and Ellie, a 45-year-old from Seattle, WA; Biniyam, a 31-year-old from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Ariela, a 29-year-old from Princeton, NJ; and Corey Rathgeber , a 34-year-old from Mill A., WA, and Evelin Villegas , a 28-year-old from Engabao, Ecuador.The series also stars Jenny Slatten , a 63-year-old from Palm Springs, CA, and Sumit Singh, a 33-year-old from New Delhi, India; Steven, a 25-year-old from Salt Lake City, UT, and Alina, a 20-year-old from Russia; and Armando Rubio, a 32-year-old from Mexico, and Kenny Niedermeier, a 58-year-old from St. Petersburg, FL.Below is what was shown on the sixth episode of : The Other Way's third season.Since Alina expected to marry sooner than Steven had been anticipating in Turkey, Steven asked Alina to participate in a couples' skill-building exercise after they moved into a bigger apartment together.Alina said it was "painful" to know Steven wasn't ready to wed her yet, and she wondered if Steven truly loved her and was committed to her.Steven and Alina discussed their strengths and weaknesses in the relationship, and they both agreed a strength was how they had been willing to sacrifice so much for one another.Alina, however, expressed her concern over Steven spending a lot of time with his female friends, some of whom he had dated before. Steven had told Alina that he valued his friendship with these women and she was clearly projecting an insecurity.Alina recalled how Steven had asked her for permission to go on dates with other women when they had been dating for a couple of weeks, and Steven said he wasn't ready to be in an exclusive relationship at the time.Although Alina said she didn't like the idea of Steven dating anyone else, Steven admitted he had hung out with girlfriends one-on-one, "like a date.""For two months, when Alina and I were dating long-distance, I continued going on dates with other girls," Steven told the cameras."But about a month ago when I found out we'd be able to move to Turkey together, I stopped going on dates. Dating those women helped me realize that it's definitely Alina I want to be with, but I'm not ready to get married yet."Alina was very upset to learn Steven had gone on dates with other women during their relationship, and Steven apologized for hurting her."It's a huge betrayal," Alina said in a confessional."This is the thing that makes me doubt our relationship, because I don't trust him to be honest with me. And I feel he has more secrets that he hides from me. I'm afraid my friend Masha will confirm my fears."Steven told Alina that she should trust him because he had given up his whole life to be with her and she's "more important" to him "than anything."Alina later followed up with her pretty Russian friend Masha, who had sneakily messaged Steven on Instagram -- at Alina's request -- to test his loyalty and faithfulness to his relationship and future with Alina.Masha said it was "a red flag" that Steven had lied to Alina about going on dates with other women.Masha then revealed to Alina that Steven had answered her Instagram message with "hey," a smiley emoticon, and the following message, "They say we have the best snow in the entire world. Better to come in the winter?"Masha thought that sounded like an invitation from Steven to have Masha visit him in the United States, even though he didn't know her at all."I was hoping to find out that Steven didn't reply or at least just said that he has a girlfriend," Alina explained. "But he invited her to go to America. I am like, 'What is he doing?'"Alina said Steven's politeness worried her and she wondered how many women he had spoken to on social media before and after they met online. Alina wasn't sure she was ready to marry Steven after hearing this news, and she intended on questioning him.Masha advised Alina to stand her ground, have a tough conversation with Steven and demand a ring on her finger."I don't think I know who is the real Steven anymore," Alina lamented.Alina asked Masha to continue writing to Steven by answering with a sweet message. She wanted Steven to get excited about the attention, and explained, "Based on what will happen, I'll make a decision to stay or end it all."Alina said she wasn't ready to confront Steven about the social-media message just yet, and she wanted to test him more and figure out if she could trust him once and for all.Alina, however, asked Steven more about the dates he had embarked on with friends. Steven confessed to kissing some of the girls when he was dating Alina, and she said she felt "furious and hurt" and didn't know what to do.Steven said he was scared about giving everything up for Alina and so that's the way he dealt with that fear. Steven said he didn't kiss most of the women, but that didn't make Alina feel any better.Steven acknowledged his words to Alina didn't match his actions and genuine level of commitment at the time.Alina asked Steven to stop communicating with his female friends, but Steven said even Jesus had female friends and he could be completely faithful to Alina while maintaining those friendships.Alina therefore suggested Steven should delete his social media, which would make her feel more comfortable."I am willing to submit to you. I will delete my social media," Steven replied.Alina still had her doubts, but Steven was showing that he was willing to make changes. She was also happy about the fact he wouldn't be able to reply to Masha again."I need to tell Alina that there was more than just kissing and since we had met each other, I had some sexual relationships with some of those girls with whom I had gone on dates," Steven said."If we're going to get married, she needs to know... but it's only going to get worse when I tell her what I need to tell her."Alina later asked Steven to go wine tasting when he doesn't drink alcohol or do drugs as a Mormon. She suggested they could taste and spit out the wine, but he was still surprised and taken aback.Steven said it was okay to do this activity for cultural fun as long as they didn't swallow the wine. Alina began following the rules of the Mormon church since she planned to be baptized, but she apparently missed drinking wine with her friends.The date was a little bit awkward, but Steven thanked Alina for pushing him out of his comfort zone. He thought the week had been challenging for them but also successful."Something else I wanted to kind of confess -- I haven't been 100 percent open and candid with you about my past," Steven told Alina during the wine tasting, trying to squash the secrets that kept them apart.Steven came clean and continued, "Something I want to tell you is I am not a virgin. I have had sexual relations. I'm telling you this because I love you and I want to make sure you know everything about me before we get married.""So many words," Alina replied in disbelief.Ariela and Biniyam took their son Avi to a pediatrician in Ethiopia because they had noticed a bulge in Avi's groin area whenever he cried and whined.The pediatrician revealed Avi had a hernia at nine months and would need surgery as soon as possible to avoid further complications involving the baby's intestine.Ariela wished she could wait until Avi was older to have a major surgery, so she immediately became worried and nervous.The pediatrician revealed how the surgery is common, but Ariela seemed mainly concerned about Avi undergoing anesthesia at such a young age.Ariela looked forward to talking to her mother who works in medicine, and she told Biniyam, "I think it's a possibility we may have to take him to the U.S."Biniyam said he didn't want his son to travel to America for "a small thing," but Ariela argued a surgery is not a small thing.Biniyam was frustrated Ariela didn't seem to trust the doctors in his native country, but Ariela said her insurance would pay for the surgery in the U.S. and her parents would be around to watch Avi and take care of him."I'm trying not to freak out, but I need a little time to process it," Ariela snapped at her husband.Ariela knew Biniyam wouldn't like her traveling to the U.S. with Avi since he couldn't join them due to the U.S. Embassy being closed amid the coronavirus pandemic. She said Biniyam was "traumatized" when his first wife and son left him to go to the U.S. and never returned."As much as I want to do what's best for Bini, ultimately I know I have to do what's best for Avi. If that means going to America, then that's what I'm going to do," Ariela told the cameras.After talking to her parents, Ariela made a decision about Avi's surgery, and she was afraid to break the news to Biniyam.Ariela said since Avi's surgery was necessary, urgent, and covered by her insurance in the United States, she decided to take Avi to America for the surgery. Ariela explained how the surgery would be cheaper this way, and Biniyam started to cry."I don't want to leave you. I'm not trying to leave you. I am sad about this and I'm sorry but I have to do it and it's really important. I don't want you to hate me but I'm really worried about it," Ariela cried to her husband.Biniyam said Ariela probably broke this news to him while he was in a barber shop so he couldn't shout and flip out. Biniyam told Ariela that he didn't want to lose his baby and lose his family."My ex-wife went on a trip. She cried and convinced me like this. She took my child and didn't come back. For Ari to repeat this, this is a difficult thing for me," Biniyam said.Biniyam begged Ariela not to go, insisting he would find her a special doctor and do anything it takes. But Ariela revealed how she had already purchased her plane ticket.Biniyam feared Ariela would return to her ex-husband Leandro and never come back, and he was "so angry" she had bought a ticket without telling him first. Biniyam asked Ariela for some time because he wasn't sure he'd be able to control his reaction.Biniyam got down on his knees in the middle of a busy street and pleaded with Ariela not to leave him, but she asked him to think about what's best for their son.The couple later Zoomed with Ariela's mother Janice to talk about the situation further. Janice assured Biniyam that she'd take care of Avi and he'd always be a part of his son's life.Ariela told Biniyam that she had nothing to go home to other than her family because she had given everything up for him. Janice, however, made Biniyam feel better that everything was going to be okay."Please come back if you go," Biniyam told his wife, although he wasn't happy about the situation at all.Ariela determined a trip to America was best for their son, and so her plan was apparently set in stone.But before she left, Ariela had to break the news to Biniyam's sisters about her trip. Ariela shared the news during a spa day with the women.Ariela promised that she'd return to Ethiopia and would never hurt Biniyam in the way his ex-wife had. The girls worried Ariela was going to take Avi away from their family, and Ariela hoped the women could start fresh and fix their relationship once she came back to Ethiopia."I don't want to take Avi forever. When I come back, you'll see," Ariela insisted.Kenny asked Armando how his sit-down conversation with his father Armando Sr. went, and Armando shared how it was a good chat overall in which his father had expressed his love and how Armando Jr. would always be his son."He supports us basically and is fine with everything. And then I did tell him about us being engaged and that we had a wedding planned, and that's where he seemed to hesitate a little bit," Armando shared.Armando said his father wouldn't commit to attending the wedding and it "shocked" him a little bit that his father needed time to think it over since things had been going so well.Given it took 20 years for Armando to accept himself and come out as an openly-gay man, he said he understood how his parents needed time to embrace the news and fully accept his new life.Kenny didn't seem pleased about Armando Sr.'s reaction, telling the cameras, "What's it going to take for him to just say, 'Yes, I'll be there for my son!?'"Kenny felt like Armando's father wasn't accepting his son "fully," which was upsetting and disappointing, but he decided against being "a wet blanket" and ruining Armando's moment since Armando apparently went the talk went well.Armando told Kenny that his family was making progress and he felt good about things.Kenny's daughter Cassidy, Armando's sister Deborah, and Armando's mother Virginia then visited a store to have a flower-girl dress made for Armando's daughter Hannah. Cassidy looked forward to bonding with the women.Cassidy cried in the store about how it was hard to watch Armando's family slowly accept Armando's choice to marry Kenny. Cassidy grew up with a gay father and wasn't used to people opposing Kenny's way of life.Cassidy told the women that Kenny truly loved Armando and Hannah and that Kenny would make both a great husband and father figure for Hannah. She just wanted the women to know that Kenny and Armando were in love and that Kenny did a great job raising his four children.Armando, Kenny, and Cassidy later visited with Armando's family to say goodbye and thank them for their hospitality. Armando Sr. gave Cassidy a necklace, and that just melted her heart as well as Kenny's.Kenny saw a light at the end of the tunnel for the first time, but he feared the rug was going to be pulled from beneath him eventually. Kenny wondered if Armando's father would show up at the wedding, which really concerned him.After witnessing the devastation on Providencia Island in Colombia after a powerful hurricane, Ellie and Victor had to determine their next move and where they were going to live.Ellie said it was "heartbreaking" and "overwhelming" to see how Victor's home had been destroyed. The pair had been hoping to start a little bar in paradise, and now their plans had obviously changed."I want to support you and help you, but I don't know if we can live there full-time for a long time," Ellie told her partner.Victor worried about running away and losing everything considering they had purchased a home in Providencia. Victor didn't want to see a stranger moving into his home or stealing his belongings in the aftermath of the storm."That's where our life is," Victor noted.Ellie wasn't surprised Victor wanted to rebuild his home where he grew up, but Ellie desired "a solid plan" since she had given up her house, her business and her friends to be with him.Victor suggested they could work hard in Providencia three days at a time and then return to San Andreas to rest and recuperate. Victor told Ellie it would take a long time but they could do it together."I hope I'm up for the challenge, but honestly, I don't know," Ellie said in a confessional, before assuring Victor, "I'm not going to give up."The meeting with Sumit's parents -- when Sumit had revealed he's engaged to Jenny -- did not go well. Sumit wasn't feeling good after his mother Sahna had cried about the news and walked away from him in despair.Sumit said once he returned home, Sahna called and explained how she was really upset."My mom was blaming my father that my father is not able to stop me from getting married or living with Jenny. After that, I was so broke that I could not even talk about it," Sumit told the cameras.Sumit told Jenny that his mother threatened to make his life "hell" if he continued with his engagement to Jenny, and so Jenny asked, "What should we do?... I'm starting to feel really bad here, like, 'Is this all because of me?' I don't want to destroy your family."Sumit said he had learned to lie from his father and avoid certain situations instead of telling the truth and suffering because of it.Sumit revealed his younger sister had passed away at eight-months-old from jaundice and so his mother Sahna felt like Sumit was divorcing her and snatching away her happiness.Sumit said Sahna blamed him for losing another daughter when he chose to get a divorce from his Indian wife."Sometimes I feel like my mom is getting revenge, like she is mad at me because she's not happy and she lost the girl she had a connection with," Sumit explained in a confessional."So maybe this explains that's why my mom [doesn't] like Jenny, because she considers Jenny to be the one who helped me in getting a divorce."Jenny said Sahna needed professional help because she clearly didn't know how to control her anger, and Sumit said they needed a family counselor or psychiatrist for her mother."And we need someone for us, because I feel like we are going through hell," Sumit said."I agree," Jenny noted.Want more spoilers or couples updates? 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British actor Damian Lewis has exited Showtime's high-finance drama, Billions, after five seasons.

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"Thank you @SHO_Billions thank you @briankoppelman @DavidLevien. A pleasure and a privilege to play Axe for 5 seasons with some of the smartest, funniest most talented cast and crew I've worked with. I'll miss the Billions family. Yep, some jobs are more than just a job.... Love," Lewis tweeted Monday.

Lewis' wife, Peaky Blinders and Harry Potter actress Helen McCory, died of cancer in April. She was 52. The couple have two children.

Showtime said Sunday Season 6 of Billions is scheduled to debut in January.

"Chuck Rhoades and Mike Prince can't wait to sink their teeth into each other, and we won't keep you waiting long either," the cable television network tweeted.

The post included a minute-long trailer showing U.S. Attorney General Chuck Rhoades ( Paul Giamatti ) vowing to continue his war against the "criminally rich."

Corey Stoll from The Many Saints of Newark plays business titan Mike Prince. He was a recurring character in Season 5, but has been promoted to full-time cast member for Season 6.
Athens, GA (30605)

Today

Isolated thunderstorms this evening. Skies will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Isolated thunderstorms this evening. Skies will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%.
Brian Kemp has been through the wringer.

The first-term governor and University of Georgia alum has caught flak from all sides. Liberals and leftists have derided him since day one for trying to make Georgia 19th century again, whether that be in terms of abortion or voting rights. But surprisingly, the Trump loyalists of the state have been ready to sic the dogs on Kemp, too. To them, he had not gone far enough to essentially steal the Democrat victory in 2020 for former president Donald Trump.

Kemp may need a public image retool to have a shot to keep his office in 2022, so leave it to the self-proclaimed politically incorrect conservative to resort back to what put him on the map in the first place in 2018: xenophobia.

It would be one thing if Brian Kemp just brought his truck back out and revived his promise to round up criminal illegals. Frankly, this rhetoric around the border is boiler-plate for the new wave of Republicans, so it wouldn't be out of place. But if hes going to spew anti-migrant bile, Kemp might as well be consistent.

In order to understand Kemps pick-and-choose logic about immigration, we have to look at the nexus of migrant and refugee crises that we find ourselves in as a nation and a state. Just in recent months, there has been a surge of Haitians crossing our southern border after a torrential hurricane and political instability; the fallout of our deadly follies in nation-building in Afghanistan; and the ongoing abuse and terror committed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on asylum seekers from various parts of the world.

The Department of Homeland Security and ICE, under Barack Obama, Trump and now Joe Biden, has caged human beings, ripped children from their families, blown up native burial sites for the border wall and is now potentially carrying out what could be the largest mass expulsion of would-be asylum-seekers in recent American history. We used to try government officials at The Hague for such deliberate disregard for the value of humanity. No party has clean hands here.

In fact, Biden has cited COVID-19 concerns to turn away this wave of migrants, but NBC News has reported that they are not using the surplus of testing kits at the governments disposal. Trump used this same tactic.

The policy has changed, said Kemp on Fox News on Sept. 22. He refers to some stark difference in border policy between a hawkish Trump and an open-borders Biden that just isnt there. Trumps senior policy advisor Stephen Miller came up with claiming public health concerns to blanket deny migrants in the first place in 2020. Bidens DHS is actively appealing court decisions to continue his predecessors policy. On this issue, the policy is the same.

On Afghanistan, Kemp fares no better. In a statement on Aug. 17, the governor panned Bidens lack of preparation for the Taliban takeover, and signaled possible support of resettlement, albeit over an extended period of time with a thorough vetting process. Even this middle-of-the-road endorsement is an empty one, since such a process is the federal governments burden.

For a 20-year-long conflict to end that poorly, Trump was likely bound to fare the same, if not worse. Kemp never gave a statement decrying Trump's intended withdrawal, which would have removed troops months earlier than Biden. Time and time again, the plight of people trying to escape danger are interpreted differently depending on who's in charge.

Conservatives won the presidency in 2016 and the governorship in Georgia in 2018, and no small part of that was built on a foundation of scapegoating immigrants for the disenchantment many Americans and Georgians felt and still feel.

Now with Biden in office, Kemp is all at once trying to backpedal to a more centrist stance while still being cynically critical of the president. When Biden does something Trump might have done, it's a disaster. In the moments where Biden is tough on immigration, it's not enough.

Of course, little of this will matter in Kemps attempt to keep his job. His political career appears to be completely subject to Trumps will. The former president got closer to endorsing Stacey Abrams than giving Kemp any compliments at his packed rally in Perry, Georgia on Sept. 25.

For now, Brian Kemps time in the wringer continues. The more time Trump spends taking jabs at him to his Georgia faithful, the longer Kemp will have his work cut out for him.
Athens, GA (30605)

Today

Cloudy with rain this morning...then scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon. High 76F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Locally heavy rainfall possible..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening, with mostly cloudy skies after midnight. Low 64F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

Today

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 52F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 52F. Winds light and variable.
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 52F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 52F. Winds light and variable.
Hartford Police / Contributed

HARTFORD  Police say they are investigating a shooting after a man was wounded in the city on Sunday night.

Just before 7 p.m., officers responded to the 50 block of Annawan Street for a ShotSpotter gunfire activation alert.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)  Three people have been injured in a late-night shooting at a Kansas City bowling alley, police said.

Investigators said police were called to Ward Parkway Lanes around 11 p.m. Sunday for reports of a shooting. Arriving officers found two men with critical injuries and a woman with injuries not believed to be life-threatening in the bowling alleys parking lot.
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren agreed to resign shortly before her term ends as part of a deal to settle charges she violated campaign finance rules during her 2017 reelection campaign.

Warren was scheduled to go on trial Monday on felony charges she and two assistants took steps to evade contribution limits. Instead, Warren and her two co-defendants each pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of accepting campaign contributions that exceeded legal limits, according to the Monroe County district attorney's office.

The deal also resolves separate charges related to unsecured firearms in her home.

The resignation will provide an early end to a tumultuous mayoral term in New Yorks third-largest city. Warren had been under heavy criticism for the city's handling of the suffocation death of Daniel Prude, a Black man who died in March 2020, a week after being held by police officers against the pavement until he stopped breathing. Prude had bolted from his brothers home and shed his clothes during an apparent mental health episode.

Her resignation will be effective by Dec. 1. Warren was set to leave office in January after losing a Democratic primary earlier this year. Deputy Mayor James Smith is expected to finish out the remainder of her term.

Warren faces a year-long conditional discharge along with the agreement to submit her resignation.

She did not answer questions from reporters as she left court, but later in the day posted a statement on Facebook.

Leaving the past behind and looking forward to a brighter future. Thank you Rochester, Warren wrote. Weve accomplished a lot together, but in the end, I thank God that Im able to choose family over everything.

Warren had previously denied any attempt to evade campaign finance rules, blamed errors on sloppy bookkeeping and referred to the investigation as a political witch hunt.

Clearly, there was no scheme to defraud, Warrens attorney, Joseph Damelio, told reporters outside of court.

District Attorney Sandra Doorley called the resolution fair and just" and said it was an important step in promoting ethical elections.

Moving forward, the ramifications of the Mayors conduct spans beyond the criminal justice system. The Monroe County District Attorneys Office is pleased that all three defendants are willing to take responsibility for their actions and admit their wrongdoing, Doorley said in a prepared statement.

The plea deal also resolves separate gun and child endangerment charges against Warren. In July, Warren and husband Timothy Granison pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from a police raid that allegedly turned up a rifle and pistol, and her 10-year-old daughter alone, in the home they share.

Prude's death received no public attention until months later when his family released police body camera video. Nightly protests erupted after the body camera video was released following pressure from Prudes family.

Warren said in September 2020 that it wasnt until the previous month that she learned officers had physically restrained Prude. But a report commissioned by Rochesters city counci l faulted her and the former police chief for keeping critical details of the case secret for months and allegedly lying to the public about what they knew.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP)  A judge has reduced the sentence of a Mississippi truck driver convicted in an alcohol-related crash on a Pennsylvania interstate three years ago that killed three people, including a toddler.

A Dauphin County judge originally sentenced 32-year-old Jack Satterfield to 28 to 78 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to charges including vehicular homicide while driving under the influence in the October 2018 crash on Interstate 83 in Lower Paxton Township.

PennLive.com reports that Judge Deborah Curcillo on Monday reluctantly imposed a new term of 27 to 54 years after the state Supreme Court ruled in June that Satterfield had been sentenced three times for leaving the scene of the wreck when he had in fact only done so once.

Authorities said Satterfield had consumed eight drinks earlier in the day before his rig slammed into a line of cars stopped in a construction zone. The crash killed 24-year-old Zachary Lybrand of Middletown; his 16-month-old daughter, Elliana, and 22-year-old Ethan Van Bochoven, a college student from Pompton Plains, New Jersey.

Rachel Timler, one of the sisters of Jessica Lybrand, Zachary's wife, told the court that the defendant had caused immeasurable pain in so many lives."

I never believed that I could feel so constantly empty inside, she said.

Carmen Timler, another sister, blasted Satterfield for forcing her family to relive the horrors of the most tragic day of our lives.

Public defender Jessica Bush said excusing her client's actions would be an impossible task but cited a history of substance abuse and family violence, as well as mental illness since the age of 6. The defense sought a sentence reduction that would allow Satterfield to someday speak to others about the dangers of drinking and driving.

It haunts him every day, Bush said of the crash. He is still haunted by what hes done.  He is suffering as well.

Satterfield said there was no excuse or justification for his actions.

My values and morals were all messed up, he said. When I got behind the wheel that day I was thinking very selfishly.
PORTLAND, Maine (AP)  The number of asylum seekers is growing, with hundreds staying in hotels while awaiting permanent housing in Greater Portland.

Many of the families made their way from the southern border from places like Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, along with earthquake-ravaged Haiti, the Portland Press Herald reports.

More than 300 asylum seekers have arrived in recent weeks, representing a similar scale to the summer of 2019, when the Portland Expo was converted into a temporary shelter with the arrival of 450 people.

Scarce housing is contributing to an unmanageable situation, said state Rep. Victoria Morales, D-South Portland.

Housing is the linchpin that ensures immigrants get the assistance they need to be successful," she said.

The southwest border has been dealing with a surge of migrants this summer. Authorities detained more than 200,000 migrants in August. Some of them, from Haiti, were immediately returned.

Those asylum seekers who make their way to Maine don't have official immigration status or work permits, so they arent eligible for most public housing programs offered through state and local housing authorities, said Cheryl Sessions, executive director of the Portland Housing Authority.

Even if they were eligible, theres a two-year wait for an apartment in a Portland Housing Authority property, she said.

Surrounding communities are assisting in lining up housing even as the state prepares to resettle up to 100 Afghan evacuees expected to arrive in Maine in the coming weeks, the newspaper said.

Gov. Janet Mills has targeted $50 million from the American Recovery Plan Act for affordable housing, and she recently named longtime housing advocate Greg Payne to be her senior adviser on housing policy.

The state needs about 20,000 affordable, safe and accessible housing units to stem the shortage, according to the Maine State Housing Authority.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP)  While the number of Connecticut state employees who remain noncompliant with Gov. Ned Lamont's COVID-19 vaccination mandate continues to shrink, hundreds still face the possibility of unpaid leave as Monday night's deadline loomed.

As of 5 p.m., about 2,200 workers  7% of the affected employees  had not yet received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine or submitted necessary testing results for the coronavirus.

Lamont's office said it continued to expect most of the remaining noncompliant employees to submit the required documentation by the 11:59 p.m. deadline. The office said there should be minimal impact to state operations on Tuesday.

The overwhelming majority (are) vaccinated, getting back to work or testing, Lamont told CNN on Monday.

Lamont last week ordered the Connecticut National Guard to be on standby, should they be needed to ensure critical public health and safety needs are met in the event of a larger worker shortage.

I dont think its going to be necessary, though, he said.

About 32,000 employees who work in executive branch agencies are affected by the order, which does not apply to the legislative or judicial branches of state government. The judicial branch, which oversees the state's courts, is following a similar process and timeline while the legislative branch is developing similar requirements for its employees, who work for the General Assembly. The governor has said unpaid suspensions of executive branch employees could start Tuesday and would go into effect no later than Oct. 11.

The state's labor unions have asked for a 20-day extension.

Im fully vaxxed and submitted my information months ago, but the state keeps telling me I am not in compliance, Steve Anderson, president of CSEA-SEIU, Local 2001, said in a statement. The governor plans to disrupt services and put soldiers to work in state worksites when the real problem is short staffing combined with a poorly executed compliance system.

Several private health care systems also had recent deadlines for their employees to be vaccinated or show proof they were being regularly tested for the virus.

Officials at Hartford HealthCare said that like the state, it is still analyzing the data, with many employees choosing to wait until just before the Oct. 1 deadline to submit their paperwork.

But Dr. Ajay Kumar, that system's chief clinical officer, said it believes 99% of employees are in compliance, leaving about 300 facing suspensions.

We remain hopeful that people will choose to stay in health care and with Hartford HealthCare, he said.
SOUTHINGTON, Conn. (AP)  Police are investigating the stabbing of a teenager at an apple festival in Southington.

The 16-year-old boy was stabbed at about 8 p.m. Saturday at the Southington Apple Harvest Festival.
CURRITUCK, N.C. (AP)  A Virginia woman is accused of stealing an SUV with five children inside after the driver had stopped to help her following a multi-car crash, a North Carolina sheriff's office said.

The Currituck County Sheriffs Office said in a news release that the SUV driver stopped and got out to assist after witnessing the crash on U.S. Highway 158 in Grandy on Sunday. One of the drivers involved in the crash got out of their car, jumped into the SUV and drove off with the children, the news release said.
McKEE, Ky. (AP)  The remains of a Kentucky soldier killed during World War II will be buried this month in his hometown, the Army said.

The burial at Wind Cave Baptist Church in McKee for Pfc. Berton J. McQueen was rescheduled for Oct. 16 and will follow funeral services by Lakes Funeral Home in McKee.
Star War's alum William Shatner is all set to join the crew of Blue Origins next space flight on October 12. At the age of 90, Shatner will become the oldest person to fly into space. Amazon founder and multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos's aerospace company Blue Origin confirmed on Monday that Shatner will be joining three others, two of them paying customers, aboard a Blue Origin capsule. Bezos himself had launched into orbit on one of the companys rockets earlier this year in July.

William Shatner joins the crew of Blue Origin's next space flight

Jeff Bezos space travel company, Blue Origin, announced on Monday that William Shatner will blast off to space from West Texas on October 12. At the age of 90, Shatner will become the oldest person in space. Hell join three other crew members and two of them are paying customers. It will be the companys second launch with a crew. Shatner in a statement given to AP said, "Ive heard about space for a long time now. Im taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle." At the age of 90, the actor, known for his role a Captain Kirk will be the oldest person to fly off into space. Shatner also took to his Twitter and expressed his excitement.

So now I can say something. Yes, its true; Im going to be a rocket man!  https://t.co/B2jFeXrr6L  William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) October 4, 2021

Shatner will be joining crew members Chris Boshuizen, co-founder of Earth observation company Planet Labs and Glen de Vries vice-chairperson for life sciences and healthcare at French software company Dassault Systemes and co-founder of Medidata. The up-and-down space hop will last 10 minutes and reach no higher than about 66 miles (106 kilometres).

More about William Shatner

William Shatner has had a long, prolific career of over 60 plus years and has received numerous accolades for his performances. The veteran actor also has a proficient career in the music industry with 8 solo albums under his belt. After his stint on Star Trek, Shatner got a lead role in a TV series as the titular police officer in T. J. Hooker, which ran from 1982 to 1986. From 2004 until 2008, he played the role of attorney Denny Crane both in the final season of the legal drama The Practice and in its spinoff series Boston Legal, the role later went on to earn Shatner two Emmy Awards.

Image: AP
Colombo, Oct 3 (PTI) Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Sunday inspected Jaffna's Palaly airport in Sri Lankas Tamil-dominated Northern province where he was briefed by officials on the development work undertaken with India's assistance.

Shringla arrived in Sri Lanka on Saturday on a four-day visit during which he will meet the top leadership, including President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, and review the bilateral ties between India and the island nation.

"Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Sunday inspected Jaffna's Palaly airport, yet another of India's development engagements in the island," the Indian High Commission here said in a statement.

In 2019, India provided Sri Lanka with 300 million Sri Lankan rupees towards upgrading the Palaly airports runway.

After Sri Lanka christened Palaly as its third international airport in November 2019, Indias Alliance Air ran a twice weekly flight between Palaly and Chennai.

With the outbreak of Covid-19 in March 2020, the operations were halted.

Shringla also visited the Jaffna Cultural Center which, he said, was constructed with an Indian government grant of USD 11 million.

He visited the iconic Jaffna Cultural Centre, which is built with Indian grant assistance.

The iconic, state-of-the-art cultural centre will help people of Northern Province reconnect with their roots and in nurturing our shared cultural heritage," the statement said.

Shringla talked about India's help to support the maintenance of the Jaffna Cultural Centre.

I am happy to announce that the government of India will support the maintenance of this building for a period of 5 years, Shringla said.

Shringla arrived in Jaffna after his visit to the Temple of the Tooth in the central town of Kandy.

This is a site of spiritual importance not just for Sri Lanka but also for India, he said after being received at the foremost Buddhist shrine in the island and receiving blessings there.

The Jaffna leg of the trip in the North was his last for the day after visiting Kandy and Trincomalee in the east.

In Trincomalee, he visited the World War II oil tanks farm, a key Indo-Lanka economic partnership link for decades.

Since 2003, the Indian Oil Corporations local entity LIOC has been running an operation there.

Shringlas key political appointments are to take place on Monday in Colombo, official sources said.

In addition to the Rajapaksa brothers, Shringla would meet a delegation of the main Tamil party, Tamil National Alliance for discussions.

India has been consistently calling upon Sri Lanka to fulfil its commitments to protect the interests of the Tamil community and preserve the island nation's character as a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society.

The Tamil community in Sri Lanka has been demanding the implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution that provides for devolution of power to it. The 13th Amendment was brought in after the Indo-Sri Lankan agreement of 1987.

Ahead of Shringla's visit, the Ministry of External Affairs said that Sri Lanka occupies a central place in Indias Neighbourhood First policy. The foreign secretarys visit signifies the importance both countries attach to strengthening their close and cordial relations in all spheres of mutual interest, it said.

"The visit of Foreign Secretary will provide an opportunity to review our bilateral ties, progress of ongoing bilateral projects and ongoing cooperation to tackle Covid related disruptions," the MEA said in a press release. PTI CORR RUP ZH AKJ

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On Shyamji Krishna Varma's Jayanti, Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid homage to him. PM Narendra Modi also mentioned returning Shyamji Krishna Varma's ashes to India from Switzerland in 2003 and receiving his reinstatement certificate from the United Kingdom in 2015. PM Modi put up a series of tweets on his handle.

"Tributes to the great revolutionary and freedom fighter Shyamji Krishna Varma on his birth anniversary. He dedicated his life to free the country from slavery. A grateful nation will never forget his contribution in the freedom struggle. Tributes to Shyamji Krishna Varma on his Jayanti."

"I consider myself blessed to have got the opportunity to bring back the ashes of Shyamji Krishna Varma back from Switzerland in 2003 and receive his reinstatement certificate during my UK visit in 2015. It is important that young India knows more about his courage and greatness[sic]," tweeted PM Modi.

I consider myself blessed to have got the opportunity to bring back the ashes of Shyamji Krishna Varma back from Switzerland in 2003 and receive his reinstatement certificate during my UK visit in 2015. It is important that young India knows more about his courage and greatness. pic.twitter.com/WDoMN0BFmD  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 4, 2021

PM Modi pays tribute to Shyamji Krishna Varma

Shyamji Krishna Varma was an Indian fighter, lawyer, and writer. He founded the Indian Home Rule Society, India House, and The Indian Sociologist in London. He was a Balliol College graduate, and a well-known scholar of Sanskrit and other Indian languages. In India, he had a brief legal career and served as the Divan of several Indian princely states. He settled in Ajmer, the headquarters of his Guru Swami Dayananda Saraswati, after a brief stay in Mumbai, and continued his practice at the British Court in Ajmer. In 1885, he returned to India and began practising law. The King of Ratlam State then nominated him as Diwan. He put his money into three cotton presses and was able to secure enough long-term income to be self-sufficient for the rest of his life.

Life and work of Shyamji Krishna Varma

From 1893 until 1895, he worked as a council member for the Maharaja of Udaipur, then as the Diwan of Junagadh State. After a difficult encounter with a British agent that shattered his faith in British rule in India, he quit work in 1897. The lawyer had disagreements with Crown authority, was removed in Junagadh as a result of a rumoured conspiracy of British colonial authorities. He then decided to return to England. To avoid prosecution, he relocated to Paris in 1907.

(Image: @narendramodi/Twitter)
Aryan Khan, Son Of Shah Rukh Khan, Sent To NCB Custody Till Oct 7 In Cruise Ship Drug Bust

In a major update in the Mumbai cruise ship drug bust case, the city's Killa court on Monday remanded Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan, as well as Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, to the NCB's custody till October 7. This development comes after NCB on Saturday unearthed a high-profile drug party on the Goa-bound ship off the Mumbai coast. Drugs such as Cocaine, Hashish, MD were seized from the accused. Aryan Khan along with seven others were detained by the NCB and was put on official arrest after 15-hours of interrogation. Later, an organiser was also arrested.

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PM Modi Congratulates New Japan PM Kishida On Becoming Country's 100th Prime Minister

After being formally elected as the 100th Prime Minister of Japan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter and extended his greetings to Fumio Kishida. Emphasising that both Head of States would work towards strengthening India and Japan's 'Strategic Global Partnership', PM Modi wished prosperity for Japan's 100th PM. The new leader is associated with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and was elected after narrowly defeating his arch-rival Taro Kono after Suga announced he would not re-run the election for Japan PM from LDP.

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Lakhimpur Clash: Priyanka Gandhi Protests Detainment By UP Police; Sweeps PAC Guest House

In a mark of silent protest, Congress General Secretary (UP) Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who has been detained in Sitapur PAC guest house on Monday was spotted sweeping the guest house. Vadra has vowed that she will not return till she meets the farmer victims' families in Lakhimpur. Sources report that Vadra has not been allowed to seek legal help as she has not yet been arrested. UP police have booked Union MoS Ajay Misra and his son - Ashish after eight were killed in Lakhimpur on Sunday in clashes between farmers and BJP workers.

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CM Arvind Kejriwal Announces 10-point 'winter Action Plan' To Curb Pollution In Delhi

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a 10-point 'winter action plan' on Monday to tackle air pollution in Delhi as the forecast suggests that air quality will deteriorate soon. The Delhi government has formed teams to check garbage burning, dust and vehicular emissions. Kejriwal said that even though the pollution in Delhi is under control, it will rise with stubble burning in the neighbouring states in winters. CM Kejriwal said, "I have been posting Delhi's air quality recordings since September 15, and we have seen that Delhi's pollution levels are in control. But since the central and neighbouring state governments have not done much to help farmers, Delhi's air quality will start deteriorating in a few days because of stubble burning".

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Lakhimpur Violence: Congress Workers, Priyanka Vadra, Sidhu Detained For Staging Protests

Amid ongoing tensions surrounding Lakhimpur Kheri violence, Youth Congress leaders on Monday staged protests in Delhi against the BJP government as Section 144 has been implemented in Uttar Pradesh, denying entry to political leaders. Several Congress workers are being detained by the police as the protest continues against the UP government.

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Foreign Secretary Shringla Pays Homage To Mahatma Gandhi In Sri Lanka During 4-day Visit

On the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi's 152nd birth anniversary, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla paid tribute to him alongside Sri Lankan Foreign Minister GL Peiris and India's High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Gopal Baglay. The High Commission of India to Sri Lanka posted an image of FS Harsh Vardhan Shringla paying tribute to Bapu. The tweet's caption read, "Paying homage to #Mahatma Gandhi on his 152nd birth anniversary, which fell on 2nd Oct, Foreign Minister Prof. GL Peiris, Foreign Secretary @harshvshringla, High Commissioner of India and other dignitaries garlanded the Gandhi bust at Temple trees. @MEAIndia."

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70% Of India's Adult Population Administered First Dose Of COVID Vaccine: Centre

India has administered the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to 70 per cent of its eligible population, the Union Health Minister announced on Monday. Taking to Twitter, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya stated that India had achieved a new landmark in the fight against the pandemic and had given the first dose of the vaccine to 70 per cent of the population.

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Aryan Khan's Arrest Memo Accessed As Bollywood Star's Son Sent To 2 Day Custody

In a major development in the Mumbai cruise drug bust case, actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan and seven others have been arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Sunday. The agency detained eight people on Saturday after raiding a high-profile drug party aboard a cruise ship off the coast of Mumbai in which drugs such as MD, Cocaine, Hashish were found seized following which the detainees were brought to NCB's office in Mumbai. As per NCB, three grams of cocaine, 22 MDMA pills, 21 grams of Charam and five grams MD have been recovered. The accused will be produced before the Killa court in Mumbai around 7 pm.

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Lakhimpur Kheri Violence: Akali Dal Demands Legal Action Against Ajay Mishra's Son

Amid several political leaders expressing their criticism against the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, Shiromani Akali Dal President (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal also opined that 'Central Govt doesn't understand the emotions of farmers'. Badal also urged the Uttar Pradesh Government to arrest the BJP minister's son accusing him of killing the four farmers and 'to rise above political compulsions'. Violence erupted between farmers and BJP workers during a demonstration staged by the former leaving 8 persons including 4 farmers dead and many others injured.

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'A Day Of Sadness': Amarinder Singh Express Grief Over The Plight Of Farmers In Lakhimpur`

Punjab's former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, who recently announced that he is quitting the Congress party, has asked the government to repeal the three farm laws following the Lakhimpur-Kheri violence. Speaking to Republic, Captain Amarinder also cautioned the centre that there is a possibility that Pakistan might take benefit from the ongoing farmer's agitation by recruiting sleeper cells and therefore the government must resolve the farmers' issue on paramount.

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After being arrested for "provocative" remarks on 1983 agitation, the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) on Monday suspended MLA Sherman Ali Ahmed. According to the party, Congress' Assam Chief Bhupen Borah cited 'repeated violation of party discipline' as a reason behind the suspension. Ahmed was earlier heard saying the alleged encroachers in the Sipajhar area of Darrang district "had killed" eight people in 1983 during the six-year-long Assam agitation.

Assam Congress MLA, arrested for remark on 1983 agitation suspended from the party.

Honourable President APCC Shri @BhupenKBorah has suspended Shri Sherman Ali Ahmed MLA, member ACLP from @INCIndia party with immediate effect for repeatedly violating party discipline. pic.twitter.com/dM1BpvnFLw  Assam Congress (@INCAssam) October 4, 2021

What had Congress MLA said?

According to a PTI report, Ahmed had allegedly said that the eight people who died in the 1983 agitation were "not martyrs, but killers", as they were involved in slaughtering people from the minority community of the Sipajhar area where Gorukhuti is located. He had termed "the attack" on the eight people as an act of "self defence" by the Muslim population of that area.

The Congress leadership in Assam had also issued a notice to Ahmed asserting, "as a lawmaker, your communally provocative comments in media, gnawing at old wounds of the past incidents of Assam Agitation when people of Assam across communities had suffered, is totally insensitive and uncalled for." The state's ruling alliance partner, Asom Gana Parishad, born out of the Assam agitation, had organised protests at various places, including Dibrugarh, Barpeta, Mangaldoi, Dhemaji, Tezpur, Biswanath, Nalbari, Bongaigaon, Majuli and Morigaon, and burnt effigies of the Congress MLA.

1983 massacre in Assam

The six-year-long Assam Agitation was driven by the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) in 1979, demanding the identification and deportation of illegal immigrants. The agitation was marked by episodes of violence, the most prominent being the Nellie massacre of 1983, which according to unofficial figures, left over 3,000 people (mostly Bengali Muslims) dead.

On 18 February 1983, more than 2,000 Bengali-speaking Muslims were massacred in Nellie and its 13 surrounding villages in Assam. The attack lasted 6 hoursfrom 9 am-3 pm. The attackers hacked in cold blood, using machetes and other weapons. Eighty per cent of those who died were women, children and the elderly. Bengali-speaking Muslims in villages decided to go ahead and vote on 14 February 1983. This was the trigger for the Nellie massacre.

Since 1980, the anti-foreigner movement began in Assam against migrants being included in the voter's list. Later, in 1982 the Assembly was dissolved and elections were held in February 1983. Few days after casting their votes, thousands of Assam agitation leaders were killed and villages dominated by Bengali Muslims who had migrated from Bangladesh were killed.
New research claims that COVID patients who take blood thinners before or after getting infected with the disease can cut their death rate in half. The study, which was published in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal EClinicalMedicine - The Lancet, looked at how to use prescribed blood thinners to prevent clotting and hospitalisations linked to COVID-19.

Despite being older on average and having more chronic medical illnesses than their counterparts, people on blood thinners before catching the virus were admitted to hospitals less frequently. Between March 4 and August 28, 2020, the researchers looked at 6,195 adult COVID-19 patients, including 598 who were admitted to the hospital right away and 5,597 who were treated as outpatients. 160 outpatients were already on blood thinners, and 331 were admitted to the hospital. Outpatients who were taking blood thinners at the time of diagnosis had a 43 per cent lower probability of being admitted to the hospital.

"They help protect the brain from blood clots"

Dr Sameh Hozayen, who is the main author of the study and an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School, said in a press release that patients with a previous blood clot in their lungs take blood thinners to prevent blood clots. They help protect the brain from blood clots caused by irregular heart rhythms such as atrial fibrillation. Blood thinners are the standard of care for these disorders, which is why they looked at data to determine if they had an influence on COVID-19-related hospitalisations, according to CTV News.

According to Dr Hozayen, most medical centres across the world now have protocols in place for starting COVID-19 patients on blood thinners as soon as they arrive in the hospital. As per the news channel, while it is simple to maintain track of prescription drug use in the hospital, one of the obstacles for patients who have previously been prescribed blood thinners and may be eligible for this study is getting them to stick to their schedule.

Blood thinners have been shown to save lives

He further said that they can potentially lessen COVID-19's negative effects by improving adherence among those who are currently on blood thinners. According to him, blood thinners have been shown to save the lives of people with blood coagulation disorders who do not have COVID-19.

(Image: Unsplash)
Three Vatican Swiss Guards who have refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19 upon Holy See orders have voluntarily left the storied corps to return to Switzerland, a Swiss Guard official said Sunday.

Lt. Urs Breitenmoser told The Associated Press that all Swiss Guards had been asked to be vaccinated to protect their health and that of the others they come into contact with as part of their service.

"Three members of the Guard have chosen not to adhere to that request, voluntarily leaving the corps,'' Breitenmoser said in a statement.

Three other guardsmen are temporarily suspended from duty while they await vaccination, he said.

The prime duty of the all-male corps, with its colorful uniforms and plumed helmets, is to protect the pontiff. The members stand guard during papal ceremonies as well as at the various entrances of the tiny, independent walled city state near Rome's Tiber River. During the pandemic, the guardsmen on duty don protective surgical masks.

Pope Francis, who has been vaccinated against COVID-19, has repeatedly stressed the altruistic and health value of receiving the shots during the pandemic.

Breitenmoser noted that last month the head of the Pontifical Commission of Vatican City State had issued an ordinance that people entering Vatican areas need either to be vaccinated or have a recent negative test. That includes tourists wanting to see the Vatican's treasures, including Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel.

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Thousands of protestors gathered on Dam Square in central Amsterdam to denounce the COVID restriction before they marched through the city.

Despite the wet weather, the protestors walked 5 kilometres chanting slogans against the Netherlands government. The protest march was organized by Together for the Netherlands Group, which attracted a wide range of people, including couples with children, men in army outfits, and members of extreme-right political parties, carrying banners and placards with a message that read, "QR is going too far" and "Unvaccinated lives matter".

The opponents of the COVID restriction marched through the city amid a heavy deployment of security officials. They even carried loud music systems and umbrellas, while many were seen waving Dutch flags upside-down. The crowd walked through the route of Rozengracht to Marnixstraat and the Haarlemmer Houttuinen.

According to NLTimes, over 70 small and big organizations took part in the march under the motto of "Coffee drinking" to protest against the ongoing COVID measures.

In a massive demonstration for FREEDOM the Dutch party Forum for Democracy today walked the streets of Amsterdam and celebrated life. End the COVID-measures, the forced vaccination programmes and the Great Reset! #FVD @thierrybaudet pic.twitter.com/IojALuIjpD  Forum for Democracy International (@FVD_int) October 3, 2021

COVID-19 protests: Thousands gather in central Amsterdam to protest against the government's measures

This is the second time that protestors have gathered in central Amsterdam to oppose the COVID restrictions. Earlier in September, a similar incident was recorded where people in large numbers demonstrated against the COVID restrictions imposed by the Dutch government.

This time, protestors were chanting "Freedom" slogans and anti-vaccination taglines. During the protest, the demonstrators were also seen displaying gallows along with anti-government slogans. The major reason behind the protest is the government's norms that ask citizens to show COVID passes to enter restaurants, cafes, and other public places.

Today the Dutch are sending a VERY CLEAR SIGNAL to the world. End the lockdowns. No more COVID measures. No more forced vaxxing. No more QR-codes and medical apartheid. Our land is the home of liberty. We are a nation of free people. And we are prepared to fight for it! pic.twitter.com/ynu6yhNv3E  Thierry Baudet (@thierrybaudet) October 3, 2021

Image: AP/Representative Image
On September 13, Lithuania made it mandatory for its citizens to obtain national COVID-19 certificates in order to avail certain services. People who have recovered from COVID in the last 180 days, have tested negative for coronavirus, or have been fully vaccinated are eligible for the 'Opportunity Pass,' according to Xinhua news. It further stated that the Digital COVID Certificate issued by the European Union is also valid. People without such certifications will be prohibited from entering non-essential goods stores, major shopping malls, and marketplaces larger than 1,500 square metres. They would also be barred from beauty salons, gyms, and events with more than 500 attendees. People without national certificates, on the other hand, will still be permitted to visit stores and markets that offer food, veterinary products, animal feeds, pharmacies, as well as stores that sell vision correction products, orthopaedic products, fertilisers, seeds and plants, reported the media agency.

It should be noted here that Lithuania began issuing the EU's COVID pass on June 7. With more stringent regulations, the government intends to encourage higher immunisation rates in the country. According to the National Public Health Center (NPCH), Lithuania has reported as many as 42 coronavirus infections in educational institutions since the beginning of September, with around 90 per cent of them occurring in schools and the remaining 10 per cent in kindergartens. The new cases have been reported from almost all of Lithuania's counties, with the counties of Siauliai, Kaunas, and Klaipeda reporting the highest numbers. Over 1,000 beds have been set aside in Lithuanian hospitals for serious Coronavirus cases, out of which, 850 of them are currently occupied, stated Lithuanian National Television and Radio (LRT) news.

Lithuanian hospitals increasing COVID dedicated beds

The situation is stressful but stable, according to the Santara Clinic in Vilnius, one of the country's largest hospitals. It further stated that a number of beds have been dedicated for COVID-19 patients at the facility. Meanwhile, other hospitals in Vilnius and the surrounding area are also boosting the number of beds available for COVID patients. In southern Lithuania, Alytus Hospital added 10 new beds, and Druskininkai Hospital began accepting COVID patients. Infections and hospitalizations have been on the rise in Siauliai, Lithuania's fourth-largest city, for the past month. To deal with the surge of Coronavirus patients, the town's major hospital has opted to halt non-essential scheduled surgeries, reported LRT news. According to the country's health ministry, as of now, Lithuania has registered a total of 3.09 lakh COVID-19 cases with 4,711 deaths.

(Image: Unsplash/ AP)
On Sunday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced a 206 million euro (239 million dollars) relief package to fight the effects of the continuous eruption from the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma. As per the reports of Xinhua, the aid package, which will boost infrastructure, tourism and water supplies, will be authorised at Tuesday's cabinet meeting and will be passed as swiftly as possible by royal decree.

This significant aid package will be added to the 10.5 million euros (12.18 million dollars) in aid agreed last week for individuals displaced by the eruption. The Prime Minister said that he want to call attention to the public's outstanding response. They need to instil a sense of security among the island's residents as well as potential visitors. As the volcano's eruption approaches its 15th day, Sanchez is making his third trip to the island.

6,000 people have been forced to flee their homes

Around 6,000 people have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the eruption. The eruption appears to be continuing, according to Angel Victor Torres, regional president of the Canary Islands, who was with Sanchez at a meeting with local officials in La Palma.

According to Xinhua, Torres said that they don't know for sure where they are but the end doesn't appear to be close, adding that the 80 million cubic metres of lava pushed out by the eruption so far is already twice as much as the last eruption on the island in 1971. In addition to destroying homes and agricultural land, the lava has till now damaged 30 kilometres of road on the island and created roughly 50 hectares of new land as it is flowing into the ocean on the island's southwest shore.

Lava has covered around 1,750 acres or 709 hectares of land area

On Saturday night, the volcano became more active, with over 20 earthquakes measuring up to 3.5 on the Richter Scale recorded, as well as two new fissures on the mountain's flank, according to Xinhua. The new fissures, which are around 15 metres apart, started spewing molten lava on a line parallel to the previous flows that had reached the water. The streaming lava has covered around 1,750 acres or 709 hectares of land area and has destroyed over 1,000 properties, including residences and agricultural buildings.

Image: PTI/ AP
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has allegedly used an offshore scheme to provide benefit to his close circle, including family and friends, from their unregistered businesses overseas, reported the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), citing Pandora Papers. Zelensky won the Presidential elections in 2019 on a wave of public outrage against the country's political establishment, including some former leaders who used secret firms to store their wealth overseas. Leaked documents now show that Zelensky and his immediate entourage have their own offshore company network, and two of the President's partners' money was used to purchase expensive properties in London, reported OCCRP. The documents show that Zelensky and his partners in Kvartal 95, a television production company, established a network of offshore companies in 2012 when the company began producing regular content for TV stations owned by Ihor Kolomoisky, who was facing multibillion-dollar fraud allegations.

The documents also show that shortly before Zelensky was elected president, he gave his ownership in a significant offshore company, the British Virgin Islands-based Maltex Multicapital Corp., to a business partner who would later become his senior presidential assistant. Although he gave up his shares, the documents show that an agreement was quickly reached to allow the offshore to continue paying dividends to a business owned by his wife. Amid the 2019 presidential campaign, Volodymyr Ariev, a close ally of the then President Petro Poroshenko, posted a chart on Facebook purporting to show that Zelensky and his television production partners were the beneficiaries of a web of offshore companies that allegedly received $41 million in funds from Kolomoisky's Privatbank. However, Ariev could never provide evidence to substantiate his claims, and his assertions have never been confirmed.

'Pandora Papers based on a leak of 11.9 million data'

On the other hand, the Pandora Papers revealed that at least some parts of the details in this purported conspiracy are accurate. The released documents reveal the details of at least ten companies in the network that correspond to the structures depicted in Ariev's diagram, reported OCCRP. The new documents indicate that Fidelity Corporate Services, an offshore consultant that was one of 14 firms whose documents were leaked as part of the Pandora Papers, assisted in managing a portion of the network. Zelensky and his partners used corporations based in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Belize, and Cyprus reported OCCRP. It is worth mentioning here that on Sunday, October 3, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) released a new leak on the purported financial secrets of over 35 current and former world leaders, as well as over 330 politicians and bureaucrats from across the world. The publication, dubbed Pandora Papers after the 2016 Panama Papers incident, was based on a leak of 11.9 million data, according to the ICIJ.

Image: AP
Iraq's president Barham Salih on Sunday said that upcoming parliamentary elections were a "chance" for Iraqis to "draw their own future" and "re-take the initiative".

Salih was speaking at a final vote simulation presentation organised by the IHEC (Independent High Electoral Committee), aimed to explain the voting process.

At the event, the head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said that "these elections have the potential to be very different from the elections in 2018".

In the 2018 elections, which predated electoral reforms passed in 2019, a manual recount had been ordered but encountered problems when a storage unit containing ballots caught fire.

The October 10 election is being held under the new reformed electoral law that divides Iraq into 83 constituencies, instead of 18, which theoretically allows more independent candidates to participate.

In the upcoming elections, 3,449 registered candidates are running for 329 parliamentary seats.

Over 24 million registered voters are expected to participate in the election.

IMAGE: AP

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With Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, at least 70 per cent of media outlets have stopped working in the war-torn country since August 15. As per the Khamma News, this was revealed on Sunday during the National Association of Journalists' (NAJ) press conference in Kabul. Highlighting the situation of media in Afghanistan, the NAJ speaker said the national media came to halt owing to financial problems and immense pressure from the Taliban-led government.

The statistics were obtained after a widely conducted survey, including over 1500 Afghan journalists based in 28 provinces. The online survey revealed worrisome results. As per the statistical analysis, at least 67 percent of Afghan journalists lost their jobs due to reasons unspecified in the report. Next, another 33 per cent continue to work under acute pressure and blasphemous situations.

Afghan media under dire financial loss

Speaking at the event, NAJ Head Masroor Lufti asserted that most of the actively participating Afghan media are facing dire financial crises and safety issues. "40 per cent of the journalists are worried about their safety in Afghanistan and the rest of them are living a difficult life as they have lost their jobs," Lufti said at the conference. The re-emergence of the Taliban has not only taken the world powers by surprise (as said by Pentagon) but also raised serious concerns about the life of journalists in Afghanistan, who live in fear of silent dissent, the NAJ report stated.

'Free and Independent' media, a mere publicity blitz: HRW

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), with the wide-ranging imposition of restrictions on national media, promises of the right to "free and independent" speech were merely a "promotional blitz". The comment was made referring to Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid's claim to allow unbiased media broadcast, "provided they worked according to Islamic Principles and national interest".

It is to mention that since the formation of the all-male interim government, Taliban militants have arbitrarily detained journalists, beaten them, and taken them into custody. Currently, at least 32 journalists remain under Taliban custody, the HRW said. Earlier in September, two journalists were also beaten and left profusely bleeding for covering the women's rights protest in Kabul.

(Image: AP)
Three months into the Taliban regime, people in Afghanistan have continued to plunge deeper into political, social and economic instability, ANI reported citing local media on Saturday. Citizens are facing a "sharp jump" in poverty, unemployment, food and fuel prices across the country. According to Ariana News, residents have claimed that the dramatic increase in food and fuel prices is a result of a blockade of access to the country's international reserves.

Notably, since the formation of an all-male interim government defying and other factors defying international law, assistance organisations across the world have ceased financial support to the outfit-led Afghanistan. Underlining the need for the immediate release of foreign aid, citizens appealed to the international community to accelerate the delivery of humanitarian aid to the country, Ariana News reported.

"If aid comes, it is good, because people are upset and prices have increased," Zamari, a resident of Kabul told Ariana. The outcry against poverty and unemployment aligns with a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report published earlier this month, which stated that by mid of 2022, 97% of the country could plummet into a serious economic crisis due to the freezing of funds.

Call for an immediate economic response

"Half of the population is already in need of humanitarian support. This analysis suggests that we are on the course of rapid catastrophic deterioration in the lives of Afghanistan's most vulnerable people," Kanni Wignaraja, UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Director of the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific.

Currently, the country is dwindling on the brink of 'universal poverty,' UNDP said in a statement. The study suggested an immediate need for an economic response program to counter the ongoing crisis in the war-torn nation. The study published by the UNDP analysed as many as four political scenarios of "escalating intensity and isolation" that indicated the real GDP contraction by 13.2%. The estimated percentage hinted that at the current rate the poverty graph would rise by at least 25%. The UNDP report also highlighted the need for immediate humanitarian assistance to restore normalcy after the "catastrophic deterioration in the lives of Afghanistan's most vulnerable populations."

Similar concerns were stated by International Monetary Fund (IMF) spokesperson Gerry Rice after the organisation decided to half funds to Afghanistan on September 17 owning to international standards of government recognition. "The funds will remain suspended until there is clarity within the international community on recognition of the Taliban-led government," he had said. However, deeply concerned about the economic condition in Afghanistan, Rice urged the international community to ascertain a response deemed fit to curb the "looming humanitarian crisis."

Nevertheless, Afghan people have remained calm and hopeful that the situation will change sooner than expected. "People's problem has increased, but we should be patient," another Kabul resident Mohammad Baqi told Ariana. Recently, EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid delivered 14.4 metric tonnes of urgent life-saving supplies to WHO in Afghanistan. Similar shipments and donations have been made by world powers to avert deeper crises.

With inputs from ANI

Image: AP
The Taliban-controlled Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has resumed international services from Kabul Airport in Afghanistan. The airport was shut down for commercial travel after the Taliban tookover Kabul on 15 August. According to TOLO News, the CAA Spokesperson Mohammad Naeem Salehi said that that the airport is "ready" for international flights following complete resolution of technical issues.

The CAA on Saturday had announced that Kabul Airport is currently "fully operational" for domestic and international flights to resume "normal activity." "Technically, there is no problem ahead of international flights. We are looking to find answers from neighbouring countries about whether they will start flights to Kabul airport or not. Currently, domestic flights are continuing," CAA spokesperson Salehi told TOLO News, adding that the department has written to neighbouring countries and the international community requesting them to resume flights to Kabul.

Some countries resume flights to Kabul

Recently, Kabul also received some flights from Qatar, Pakistan and the UAE. On 27 September, Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) allowed the operation of Afghanistan-based Kam Air to run flights between Islamabad to Kabul. The largest private airline company of Afghanistan will conduct three flights per week, Pakistan CAA Director Irfan Shabir told Anadolu Agency. The permission was granted after Kam Air applied for a flight permit to initiate commercial flights. Initially, the airline is scheduled to operate only chartered flights owing to the limited passenger count. However, in the coming days, Kam Air might also begin commercial flights from Kabul to Islamabad, CAA Director Shabir added. It is to be mentioned that Afghanistan began its domestic flights on 5 September.

Doha opens air corridor for humanitarian aid to Afghan refugees

Meanwhile, Doha facilitated easy access to air space in Afghanistan. The announcement came after Qatari experts fixed "some of the equipment at Kabul airport in the past 24 hours," said Multaq bin Majed Al Qahtani, a special envoy on counter-terrorism and conflict resolution. As per reports, a group of Qatari and Turkish technicians and engineers flew to Kabul on 2 September to mend the tattered airport. "Technical experts were able to restore some of the equipment at Kabul airport in the past 48 hours, including one of the radars," Majed Al Qahtani told on Wednesday. The aircraft with the technicians was the first to land at the Kabul Airport tarmac after it was closed on 1 September for unspecified reasons.

(With inputs from ANI)

(Image: AP)
In a key development, the Taliban government has denied the presence of foreign troops at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. This came after the locals reported the presence of external military forces near the airfield. Meanwhile, a member of the cultural commission, Omar Mansor, said that "There are no foreign troops currently in Afghanistan, including Chinese," reported news agency ANI citing Tolo News.

Earlier, on Saturday, Afghan civilians residing at Bagram claimed that they saw the lights of the base for the first time since the US military left Afghanistan. However, Mansor denied all such claims and said Taliban members were present at the Bagram Airfield and they had switched on the lights of the airbase. According to a report published by Tolo News, a resident of the area named Shamshad said, "The lights were switched on again at Bagram air force base. There were some voices heard at the base. A plane has also been seen there".

'No foreign troops in Afghanistan': Cultural Commission leader Omar Mansor

However, there are speculations about the alleged takeover of Chinese troops at the Bagram base after the US Force pullout. So far, there has been no clear evidence of the Chinese Army in the Taliban-ruled country, but the two neighbouring nations share a great rapport as China has always been an avid supporter of the terror outfit ruling Afghanistan.

According to foreign experts and analysts, the Communist regime of China is aiming to gain control over the Afghan airbase of Bagram, which was earlier controlled by the US Force. Analysts believe that the Chinese government may take this step to increase its influence in the region and embarrass the United States. Earlier, the US former president, Donald Trump, had said that China had received access to the equipment of the US military in Afghanistan.

Image: AP
Edward Snowden, a former US intelligence officer and whistle-blower who revealed classified material on digital surveillance operations, claims offshore firms continue to construct secret databases despite revelations like the Pandora Papers. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) released a new leak on the purported financial secrets of over 35 current and former world leaders, as well as over 330 politicians and bureaucrats from around the world, earlier in the day, according to Sputnik. The publication, dubbed Pandora Papers after the 2016 Panama Papers incident, was based on a leak of 11.9 million data, according to the ICIJ. More than 600 reporters from 117 nations contributed to the probe, which spanned the world.

Snowden went on Twitter on Saturday and wrote, "The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) released a new leak on the purported financial secrets of over 35 current and former world leaders, as well as over 330 politicians and bureaucrats from around the world, earlier in the day. The publication, dubbed Pandora Papers after the 2016 Panama Papers incident, was based on a leak of 11.9 million data, according to the ICIJ. According to the ICIJ, more than 600 reporters from 117 nations contributed to the probe, which spanned the world."

The humorous side of this very serious story is that even after two apocalyptic offshore finance/law firm leaks, those industries are still compiling vast databases of ruin, and still secure them with a Post-It Note marked "do not leak."



Hats off to the source!#PandoraPapers  Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 3, 2021

In 2013, Snowden disclosed hundreds of thousands of confidential documents

In 2013, Edward Snowden disclosed hundreds of thousands of confidential documents. Snowden's disclosures revealed the breadth and scope of US spying on other countries, including routine eavesdropping on international leaders, in addition to exposing the US domestic surveillance programme. Snowden fled the United States for Hong Kong and then Russia, where he was held at the Moscow airport for more than a month while the US attempted to extradite him to face criminal prosecution on spying accusations. In the summer of 2014, the whistleblower was given refuge in Russia and obtained a three-year residency permit, which was later extended and replaced with a permanent one.

More about Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden is a former computer intelligence analyst who, while working for the CIA as a subcontractor, disclosed highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013. His revelations exposed a slew of global surveillance programmes, many of which were run by the National Security Agency and the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance with the help of telecommunication companies and European governments, and sparked a cultural debate about national security and individual privacy.

Image: AP
Several temples in an ancient city of Ayutthaya are under water and residents are still struggling after flooding from overflown rivers inundated low-lying parts of the town. In many areas, water supply has been affected forcing those trapped at home to use flood water instead.

Eight people have died, and one person is missing since last weekend from flooding triggered by Tropical Storm Dianmu, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigations said. It announced Monday that 271,092 households in 32 provinces, mostly in the north, northeast and central regions had been affected. The situation has eased in 14 provinces. Officials in Thailand said the threat of flooding in the Bangkok region has lessened after upstream reservoirs and dams are able to release rainwater from several storms into rivers without inundating the capital city.

The Director General of the Royal Irrigation Department said that with no major rainfalls in the past few days, the department is able to decrease the amount of water discharged from Chao Phraya Dam, in Chai Nat province, Rama VI Dam, in Ayutthaya province and Pasak Chonlasit Dam, in Lopburi province which will help ease the flooding in cities and farms downstream.

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
On Monday, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla jointly launched four housing and education projects with Sri Lankan foreign minister Prof GL Peiris. Shringla is in Sri Lanka for a four-day visit. "Foreign Secretary @harshvshringla jointly inaugurated 4 projects in the housing & education sectors with the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, Professor GL Peiris in the presence of several Cabinet Ministers & MPs," tweeted High Commission of India in Colombo.

"These projects, completed with Indian assistance, exemplify India's strong and multifaceted development cooperation profile in Sri Lanka," added the tweet. Earlier, FS Harsh Vardhan Shringla met with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and discussed ways to strengthen the two countries' comprehensive collaboration. After the PM of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Foreign Secretary is also slated to meet with Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and other top cabinet members during his four-day visit.

FS Harsh Vardhan Shringla's trip includes an evaluation of the progress of initiatives sponsored by India. The handing over of 1,235 houses to beneficiaries under the Indian Housing Project (IHP) Phase III was one of the key projects that was inaugurated virtually. This project is part of India's largest grant aid project in Sri Lanka, which will see 50,000 dwellings built at a cost of INR 1,372 crore across the island nation's several districts.

A total of 4,000 houses will be built under IHP Phase III. Notably, more than 3,500 houses have been built, 400 houses are currently under construction, and 63 houses are still to begin. Shringla also handed over the 1,235 houses that had been completed under Phase III. Meanwhile, under the Model Village Housing Project, the Indian government is also assisting in the construction of as many as 600 houses in Sri Lanka's 25 districts.

Foreign Secretary @harshvshringla jointly inaugurated 4 projects in the housing & education sectors with Hon'ble Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Prof G. L Peiris in the presence of several Cabinet Ministers & MPs.(1/2)@MEAIndia pic.twitter.com/6z4B808Fmn  India in Sri Lanka (@IndiainSL) October 4, 2021

Foreign Secretary's visit focuses on strengthening ties between both nations

During the Foreign Secretary's visit, Vada Central Ladies College in Vadamarachi was also virtually inaugurated. This is in the Northern Province, and it is in line with the Indian government's ongoing commitment to improving Sri Lanka's educational infrastructure. The Government of India has taken on a grant aid project for the restoration of 27 schools in Northern Province at a cost of SLR 250 million.

So far, 22 of the 27 schools have had their buildings built and handed over. One of the 27 schools renovated and handed over during Shringla's visit was Vada Central Ladies College in Vadamarachi. It is worth mentioning here that the main purpose of Shringla's four-day visit is to further deepen bilateral connections between both countries and address community development issues.

(With ANI inputs)

Image: Twitter/@ India in Sri Lanka
Iran, on Sunday, asked the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to clarify its position related to a sabotage act against a building of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) that it blames on Israel. Speaking to media reporters, the head of AEOI, Mohammad Eslami, emphasised that it was a terrorist attack on Iranian soil which the zionists have already acknowledged. Last month, the IAEA attributed the attack to Israeli Intelligence Agency Mossad and also said that some of its equipment were destroyed in the attack.

Earlier in June, a drone struck the Iran Centrifuge Technology Company, or TESA, in the city of Karaj, northwest of Tehran. Notably, TESA belongs to Iran's Atomic Energy Organization and has been subjected to repeated calls for inspection by the IAEA. On Sunday, Eslami was questioned on the same by media reporters. Asked about IAEAs demand to access the Karaj based centrifuge manufacturing workshop, he said that Iran wasnt obliged to grant such access.

Mossad responsible for attack

On 14 September, the IAEA disclosed that the Mossad was behind the strike that obliterated some of the equipment that belonged to them. Addressing a press conference, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said that the aerial strike on Iranian Nuclear facilities eventually hampered the agency operations in the Islamic Republic but stopped short of revealing its extent. It is imperative to note that the nuclear watchdog is tasked with monitoring Irans nuclear operations and its compliance with the 2015 JCPOA pact.

During the conference, Grossi also spoke about the 2015 nuclear deal, which has been in limbo despite American President Joe Biden vowing to bring back Iran at the earliest. Grossi said he didnt expect Iran to return to JCPOA compliance before talks with the US had yielded a path to both nations returning to the deal as a whole. Notably, Washington has asserted that the deal would only be resumed once Tehran comes into full compliance with the terms. Tehran, on the other hand, demanded Washington to comply first by lifting all the sanctions and embargoes imposed by then US President Donald Trump.

(Image: AP)

(With inputs from ANI)
Syrian President Bashar Assad dialled Jordan's King Abdullah II on 3 October, the first coversation between the two leaders in a decade after a strain over Syria's civil conflict. The call comes as part of efforts to strengthen collaboration between the two nations, which are suffering difficult economic conditions. The leaders discussed relations between the "brotherly countries and ways to enhance cooperation between them,", according to the Jordanian royal court, AP reported.

During the call, Abdullah affirmed his country supports for "efforts to maintain Syria's sovereignty, stability, territorial integrity, and people." AP reported, quoting Syria's national news agency, SANA that Assad spoke with Abdullah about bilateral relations and "reinforcing cooperation in the favour of the two countries and people". The call comes as part of a new thaw in relations between the two neighbours following the Syrian civil war. Furthermore, the United States and many other Western countries have imposed sanctions on Syria.

Syria-Jordan Conflict

Following the start of the civil war in Syria in 2011, Jordan, like most Arab countries, cut diplomatic ties with Syria. Jordan hosted Western-backed rebel organisations and took in hundreds of thousands of refugees. Arab and Western countries primarily criticised Assad for the violent crackdown on protests that started in 2011, and initially supported the opposition during the conflict, which displaced and killed millions.

Since late 2015, when Russia threw its military weight behind Assad, the war's momentum has shifted. The phone call comes only days after Jordan reopened its main border crossing with Syria, which serves as a vital trade link between the two countries. The crossing reopened in 2018, but was closed again in 2019 due to coronavirus restrictions and deteriorating security on Syria's southern borders.

Late last month, Syria's defence minister paid a visit to Jordan. In September, a 10-year-old arrangement to export Egyptian natural gas through Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon was resurrected.

(With inputs from AP)

(Image: AP)
Marking the occasion of World Habitat Day on Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for cities to be more environment-friendly. He claims that embracing this approach has "enormous" benefits, including less climate risk, more jobs, and improved health and well-being. In his message on World Habitat Day, Guterres stressed that city leadership in employing green materials and constructing energy-efficient, resilient buildings powered by renewable energy is critical to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

COVID-19 and climate change are wreaking havoc on cities around the world, said the UN chief. Cities are responsible for roughly 75% of worldwide energy use and over 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to UN News. It should be mentioned here that the theme for World Habitat Day 2021 is "Accelerating urban action for a carbon-free world."

According to the report by the UN News, cities currently house 4.5 billion people, but by 2050, that number is expected to increase by 50% and by mid-century, nearly 1.6 billion urban people may have to contend with average midsummer highs of 35 degrees Celsius. The UN chief said that cities and towns are at the heart of climate action in order to meet the 1.5-degree target.

Three-quarters of the infrastructure that will exist in 2050 is yet to be developed, he said, adding that economic recovery plans provide a once-in-a-generation chance to prioritise climate change, renewable energy, and sustainable development in city strategies and regulations, reported the UN News. As the population of emerging economies grow, so does the demand for transportation, which accounts for almost 20% of global carbon emissions. In this regard, the UN Secretary-General stated that cities are already working on this, attempting to meet this demand with zero-emission automobiles and public transportation. To support these efforts, Guterres called for a global moratorium on internal combustion engines, which he said should happen by 2040 at the latest.

By 2050, over 1.6 billion urban residents may have to survive through average summertime highs of 35C.



On #WorldHabitatDay, let's commit to sustainable urban action for the benefit of our planet and all people.https://t.co/sHxo5pYJlM pic.twitter.com/aDztcw53lU  Antonio Guterres (@antonioguterres) October 4, 2021

World Habitat Day is being observed since 1985

It should be mentioned here that the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) declared World Habitat Day to be observed annually in 1985. The inaugural World Habitat Day was held in Nairobi, Kenya in 1986, with the theme "Shelter is my Right." Since then, every year, different countries have fueled this campaign by selecting appropriate themes to support the drive to end the lack of housing and shelter concerns. In 1989, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme launched the UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour Award to encourage countries to find solutions to habitat concerns.

Image: Twitter/ @Antonio Guterres/AP
A serving Metropolitan Police officer from the same unit as Durham University student Sarah Everard's assassin has been allegedly slapped with rape charges, reported Daily Mail citing the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). 46-year-old PC David Carrick, a resident of Stevenage in the United Kingdom, is scheduled to appear in Hatfield Magistrates' Court on Monday. He has been accused of raping a woman in St Albans on September 4, 2020. PC Carrick is also a member of the Met's Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, which patrols some of the UK's most guarded institutions, including 10 Downing Street, and was off duty at the time of committing the crime. The new accusation comes after the Couzens was sentenced to life in prison for the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Everard last week.

Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick has been bombarded with calls to resign in recent days, following several missed opportunities to identify officer Wayne Couzens as a sexual predator. On Sunday, October 3, the police head expressed her 'deep concern' over the rape complaint and also stated that Carrick was detained on October 2 by Hertfordshire Constabulary. The Metropolitan Police Service said it was awaiting the outcome of criminal proceedings and that a reference to the Independent Office for Police Conduct had been made, reported Daily Mail. Meanwhile, the Met Police has also taken the unprecedented step to issue a statement advising women and girls on how to protect themselves if they are stopped on street by officers. The statement comes after testimony presented during Wayne Couzens' sentence showed that he used his police identification to stop Sarah Everard on March 3, before taking her to a distant spot where he raped and killed the 33-year-old student, reported The Associated Press (AP).

British PM calls for reform in criminal justice system's response to crimes against women

It should be mentioned here that last week, Couzens was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty. Meanwhile, On September 17, the murder of Sabina Nessa, a primary school teacher, as she strolled through a south London park to meet a friend has shattered public trust in the police force's ability to protect women. However, the department stated that a new plan for combatting violence against women would be released soon. While Prime Minister Boris Johnson stated that the public should continue to trust the police and admitted that the criminal justice system's response to crimes against women needs to be reformed, reported The AP.

Image: AP
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to announce this week that by 2035, all electricity in the United Kingdom will come from renewable sources, reported news agency Sputnik citing The Times, a British daily. The report claimed that the declaration would most likely be made during a conference speech announcing an increase in state spending on renewable and nuclear energy. The announcement is expected to come at a time when the UK is experiencing an unprecedented fuel shortage and high gas prices. However, Prime Minister Johnson claims that the new renewable energy investment plan will help the UK achieve its goal faster of net-zero emissions by 2050, reported the British daily. One of the long-term issues that the government must address is the cost of electricity and energy, Johnson said, adding that "it's high time for the country to return to nuclear power and enhance its clean energy generation which will lower energy and transportation costs," reported the daily.

According to the report, renewable energy sources produced just 43 per cent of the country's electricity in 2020, with the remaining 40 per cent coming from gas, oil, and coal, and the rest from nuclear power. Johnson has stated that by the end of the decade, he wants to expand Britain's offshore wind energy production from 10 GW, which is enough to power 10 million homes, to 40 GW. His long-term goal is to reach 60 gigawatts of power. Meanwhile, the United Nations Climate Conference (COP 26) will be held in Glasgow later this month and into early November. The United States and Canada, like the United Kingdom, have committed to achieving zero emissions from power by 2035.

PM Johnson vows to take 'decisive action' to revive country's economy

It should be mentioned here that on Sunday, October 3, PM Boris Johnson promised that the government will take "decisive action" in the domains of jobs, crime, health, and social care in an attempt to help the country's economy recover from the COVID pandemic. In response to pandemic-related concerns, the UK Prime Minister stated that the government had provided "historic levels of economic support." He also claimed that the government had protected livelihoods and kept businesses afloat in the country, reported the Russian news agency. Meanwhile, in a separate development last week, the UK Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) imposed a price restriction on home energy bills, affecting at least 15 million customers in England, Wales, and Scotland.

(Image: AP/Pixabay)
As a month completes after the US troops' pullout that prompted the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan's ambassador to the US Adela Raz in an interview, said that the war-torn country's citizens are unlikely to trust any US President. In an exclusive interview with Axios, which was her first televised appearance after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Raz exchanged views on a wide range of topics.

During the interview, Adela Raz noted that she is not quick to fully believe or trust the United States. According to her, a similar sentiment is carried by several Afghans who think they were abandoned by US President Joe Bidens administration. Raz said No, sorry - I trust and believe the people. I have lost some trust in US policies, and probably government policies, and added that Afghan nationals are unlikely to trust in the United States anytime soon.

The Afghan ambassador to the US in a separate interview stressed that she is grateful for the sacrifices that US troops made while stationed in Afghanistan for around two decades after they first arrived in the war-ravaged country. When asked if she views the United States as the leader of the free world, Raz said that she would probably either question the remark or laugh it away.

Raz said in the televised interview that the US was engaged in building [a democracy] in Afghanistan, and the people believed in it, and fought for it, but when the negotiations arrived with the Taliban, that was not the priority to be negotiated. The Afghan envoy also said that she does not think the Biden administration cares about the fate of women and girls in Afghanistan. In the interview, she recalled US President and US armys commander-in-chiefs remarks that the US could not be the police of the world.

Raz regrets motivating women to work for women

Raz, who created history on becoming Afghanistans first female ambassador when she acquire the post, said that she feels guilty for motivating Afghan women to believe in a new future of the country and serve with her in the government. In the same interview, Raz expressed guilt for promoting people to stay in Afghanistan. While choking up, Raz said, One of them was a young woman that was assassinated. She was a human rights advocate.

IMAGE: AP/Twitter
Expressing concerns over the escalated Chinese incursions into Taiwan's air defence territory, the United States has slammed Beijing for its 'destabilising' and 'provocative' behaviour. State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Sunday urged Beijing to "cease its military, diplomatic, and economic pressure and coercion against Taiwan," adding that the US has an "abiding interest" in peace and stability across the Strait.

Underlining the US's stance on the commitments as outlined in the Three Communiques, The Taiwan Relations, and the Six Assurances, Price added, "The U.S. commitment to Taiwan is rock solid and contributes to the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and within the region. We will continue to stand with friends and allies to advance our shared prosperity, security, and values and deepen our ties with democratic Taiwan."

The U.S. urges Beijing to cease its destabilizing behavior across the Taiwan Strait. https://t.co/oo7EQFT4i7  Ned Price (@StateDeptSpox) October 3, 2021

39 Chinese planes infringe Taiwan air space

The US State Department spokesperson's comments came at the heels of a new record of Chinese infringement in Taiwanese Air Defence Space, i.e near the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands. According to Taiwan's claim, at least 39 planes, including nuclear-capable H-6 bomber, 18 J-16 and four Su-30 fighters and an anti-submarine aircraft, were intercepted in close proximity to the self-ruled nation on Saturday while Beijing marked its National Day, Kyodo News reported citing Defence Ministry.

As per reports, Taipei Defence Military deployed combat aircraft to warn the Chinese warplanes and activates missile systems to monitor them. Taiwan on Saturday also claimed that at least 58 Chinese warplanes entered its air identification zone (ADIZ) in the last two days. 20 airplanes out of them flew in on Saturday alone.

Claiming to be one of the biggest intended infringements by the People's Liberation Army (PLA), Taiwanese Premier Su Tseng-chang told reporters on Saturday that China has been "bellicose" and "damaging regional peace engaging in many bullying acts," Al Jazeera reported. Until Saturday, the largest air space infringements by the PLA were recorded in June with 28 airplanes spotted near Taiwan. The current developments from the Chinese Front also came after Taiwan allowed a British warship to cross the Strait as a part of the "freedom of navigation" exercise. However, the move was criticised by Beijing accusing Britain of acting out of evil intentions to sabotage peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

With inputs from ANI

Image: AP
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, on Sunday, said that it was an honour to meet India's Chief of Defence Staff (CDS)Bipin Rawat during the latters visit to Pentagon last week. Terming the meeting as historic in a tweet, Austin disclosed that a variety of issues made it to the discussion table including commitment to a free and fair Indo-pacific region and higher cooperation between armed forces of both countries. Rawat met Austin on September 30, days after meeting his American counterpart General Mark Milley.

It was an honor to meet Indian Chief of Defense Staff Gen. Rawat during his historic visit to the Pentagon last week. We reaffirmed our enduring commitment to a #FreeandOpenIndoPacific and discussed ways to drive greater interoperability between the U.S. and Indian armed forces.  Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (@SecDef) October 3, 2021

Previously, the Pentagon released a readout of their conversation, specifying that the US-India defence Partnership topped the agenda. The two leaders exchanged views on priorities for advancing the US-India defense partnership, including through enhanced cooperation in new defense domains such as space, cyber, and emerging technologies, US defence department said in a statement. Additionally, it also stated that both the leaders also discussed opportunities for expanding multilateral cooperation with regional partners.

"This historic meeting highlights the enduring strength of the U.S.-India Major Defense Partnership as the two countries work in concert with like-minded partners to sustain a free and open Indo-Pacific," Pentagon said.

Rawat holds talks with Milley

In an addendum to meeting Austin, General Bipin Rawat met the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark A Milley in Washington, DC, and discussed a range of issues including ways to ensure regional security. According to a press release, Milley welcomed General Rawat during an Armed Forces full honour arrival ceremony on Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall. The two military leaders then met at the Pentagon, where they agreed to continue cooperation in training exercises and creating more opportunities to increase interoperability between the two militaries.

During the arrival ceremony, General Rawat laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as part of his official visit. US General Milley even thanked General Rawat for his meritorious service and leadership, which has contributed greatly to the strength of the US and India partnership. Later, at Pentagon, they both discussed a range of issues, including ways to ensure regional security and their respective roles as principal military advisors to civilian leadership.

Image: AP
Its not uncommon for Chinese vessels to show up uninvited in the EEZs of its neighbors.

Malaysia protested on Monday the presence of a large Chinese survey ship which sailed into its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) last week.

Ship-tracking data on Sept. 29 revealed the 4,600-ton Da Yang Hao operating in an area that runs through the EEZs of three countries: Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines.

At one point it was only 40 nautical miles from Philippines' Balabac Island and 60 nautical miles from Malaysia's coast.

The Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement Monday saying it "called in the Ambassador of the Peoples Republic of China to convey Malaysias position and protest against the presence and activities of Chinese vessels, including a survey vessel, in Malaysias Exclusive Economic Zone off the coasts of Sabah and Sarawak.

The statement said the presence and activities of these vessels "are inconsistent with Malaysias Exclusive Economic Zone Act 1984, as well as the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)."

"Malaysia had also protested against the previous encroachments by other foreign vessels into our waters," it added.

Malaysia reiterates that all matters relating to the South China Sea must be resolved peacefully and constructively, in accordance with universally recognized principles of international law, including the 1982 UNCLOS."

UNCLOS defines an EEZ as extending 200 nautical miles ((370 km) from shore, and grants the coastal state the sole right to explore and exploit the natural resources.

While it took several days for Malaysia to issue this statement after the Chinese survey ship showed up in its EEZ, the strong wording shows that Kuala Lumpur, under increasing domestic pressure, felt the need of speaking up against China's assertiveness in the disputed South China Sea.

In June, Malaysia reportedly summoned the Chinese ambassador after 16 Chinese military aircraft flew over disputed waters off its eastern state of Sarawak, calling the maneuver a "serious threat to national sovereignty."

The Da Yang Hao first appeared in the area around Sept. 25-26. Its exact location on Monday could not be determined by ship-tracking as it was not broadcasting its position.

Its not uncommon for Chinese vessels to show up uninvited in the EEZs of its neighbors.

Another Chinese survey vessel, the Haiyang Dizhi 10, was conducting a survey in an oil field in Indonesia's EEZ for a month before retiring to Fiery Cross Reef last week for re-supply.

And last Thursday, the Philippine foreign secretary ordered that diplomatic protests be filed against Beijing over the ongoing presence of more than 100 Chinese ships in waters claimed by Manila in the South China Sea. He complained about incessant and unlawful restriction of Filipino fisherman at Scarborough Shoal.

Like its neighbors, Malaysia faces a dilemma in its relationship with China  challenging Beijing over its maritime incursions without straining ties with what is the regions dominant economic power.

"A fundamental calculation for Malaysia in managing China's increasingly aggressive approach in the South China Sea is the latter's escalation dominance and willingness to escalate if given an excuse. Malaysia has and will practice caution in its response, especially at sea," Thomas Daniel, senior fellow at the Malaysian Institute of Strategic and International Studies, told BenarNews last week.

"Unfortunately, Malaysia's strategic space continues to tighten, leading to difficult challenges that policymakers might not have an immediate solution to," he added.

Last year Malaysia and China were entangled in a month-long standoff in South China Sea. Chinese survey ship Haiyang Dizhi 8 was operating in the EEZ, close to a drillship contracted by Malaysian state oil firm Petronas in waters claimed by Malaysia and Vietnam as well as China.

Both the Malaysian drill ship and the Chinese ship left after a month. The incident had prompted the United States to call on China to stop its "bullying behavior" in the disputed waters.

At that time, Malaysian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hishammuddin Hussein, now defense minister, said in a statement: Due to the complexity and sensitivity of the issue, all parties must work together to maintain peace, security and stability in the South China Sea.

He said that disputes should be resolved amicably, indicating that even if Malaysia had not spoken publicly about it, it had been working to resolve the situation behind the scenes.

On Sept. 22 this year, Hishammuddin told parliament he would seek Beijings views on a new U.S.-U.K.-Australia security pact and determine what action China plans in response  comments that some critics viewed as inappropriate given Chinas frequent incursions by its ships and planes around Malaysia.

Hishammuddin said he would have to tread carefully to try and balance the two major powers (China and the U.S.) and that was not any easy thing to do.
China sends nearly 100 fighter jets and other aircraft into Taiwan's air defense identification zone during its National Day holiday.

The United States has hit out at "provocative" military action by China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) near the democratic island of Taiwan, which it says risks destabilizing the situation and undermines regional peace and stability.

"The United States is very concerned by the People's Republic of China's provocative military activity near Taiwan, which is destabilizing, risks miscalculations, and undermines regional peace and stability," U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement on Sunday.

"We urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic, and economic pressure and coercion against Taiwan," he said.

Price, whose statement came after the PLA dispatched 93 aircraft to enter Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from Friday to Sunday, vowed that the U.S. would abide by its commitment to help Taiwan maintain its ability to defend itself. Another 56 aircraft entered the ADIZ Monday, Taiwan said.

"The U.S. commitment to Taiwan is rock solid and contributes to the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and within the region," he said, adding that the Biden administration would continue to "deepen our ties" with Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), nor formed part of the People's Republic of China.

The incursions began on China's Oct. 1 National Day, and are the biggest military incursion seen since the Taiwan government started keeping records in September 2020.

Taiwan foreign ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou welcomed the U.S. response.

"The ministry of foreign affairs expresses its heartfelt thanks to the Biden administration for continuing to condemn China's provocative actions with its public statements and reiteration of its commitment to Taiwan at the weekend," Ou told a news briefing in Taipei on Monday.

"Our government is committed to improving our defensive capabilities in the face of Chinese aggression," she said. "We will also continue to strengthen cooperation with the United States and other like-minded countries."

Attempt to intimidate

Former Taiwanese general Yu Pei-chen said the number of sorties being flown by the PLA was an attempt to intimidate Taiwan, possibly because U.S. and U.K. naval vessels are in the area.

"They are sending J-16s and Su Kai-30 fighters," Yu told RFA. "Our information is that they are flying, unarmed, with no payload."

He said the CCP leadership is likely looking to distract China's 1.4 billion population from a rolling wave of power outages in the northeast and eastern seaboard.

"They want to shift the focus, and show the West that their determination to defend their territorial claims is unchanged, even if their people have no electricity," Yu said.

But former defense minister Yang Nien-tsu said the CCP seems intent on threatening Taiwan regardless of what is happening at home, and looks set to continue to do so in future.

'An insidious intention'

British Royal Navy frigate HMS Richmond has arrived in Vietnam on a four-day friendly visit after transiting through the Taiwan Strait, angering China.

China condemned the frigates passage through the Taiwan Strait saying the United Kingdom is carrying out a meaningless display of presence with an insidious intention."

In an unusual move, HMS Richmond broadcast its location while sailing through the sensitive strait, prompting China to dispatch military units to follow and monitor the passage. Publicizing the passage was widely seen as a deliberate act by the U.K. to confirm that the Taiwan Strait is international waters and part of a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) president Tsai Ing-wen has been a vocal supporter of Hong Kong protesters' aspirations for full democracy, and against the use of police violence and political prosecutions to target protesters, and argued during a presidential election debate that China is the biggest threat to Taiwan's way of life.

Taiwan was ruled as a Japanese colony in the 50 years prior to the end of World War II, but was occupied by the 1911 Republic of China under the Kuomintang (KMT) as part of Tokyo's post-war reparation deal with the allies.

Beijing insists it will reclaim the island, by force if necessary.

Public opinion polls have shown that the violent suppression of Hong Kong's anti-government protest movement last year fueled fears for Taiwan's national security and democracy, and that only around 4.5 percent of Taiwan's 23 million people welcome the idea of Chinese rule.

The island began a transition to democracy following the death of President Chiang Ching-kuo in January 1988, starting with direct elections to the legislature in the early 1990s and culminating in the first direct election of a president, Lee Teng-hui, in 1996.



Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
After the jailing of other high-profile figures, China's leadership doesn't appear to trust those charged with enforcing its decisions.

Fu Zhenghua, former deputy director in the Chinese People's Consultative Conference (CPPCC), is shown in a file photo.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is investigating the second senior law enforcement figure for "serious violations of discipline" to make headlines in a week.

Fu Zhenghua, deputy director of the social and legal affairs committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), is currently under disciplinary investigation, the graft-busting arm of the CCP announced on its website at the weekend.

Fu, 66, is suspected of "serious violations of the law and of party discipline," the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said in a statement dated Oct. 2.

Before taking up his post at the CPPCC, Fu had served as justice minister and deputy police chief for the Beijing municipal police department, where he was credited with a crackdown on the city's sex industry, earning himself a promotion to executive vice minister for public security.

The announcement of Fu's investigation came just days after the CCP announced it was expelling former vice minister of public security Sun Lijun, accusing him of "forming cliques and cabals to take over a key department," and of having a private stash of confidential documents.

A report from state news agency Xinhua accused Fu of "overweening political ambition and very poor political integrity," and of spreading groundless criticism of party policy and political rumors. Both charges have also been leveled at Sun.

A Beijing-based rights lawyer who gave only the surname Li said both Fu and Sun had been relentless in pursuing rights activists and lawyers, and were driving forces behind a nationwide police operation targeting hundreds of rights attorneys, law firm staff, and activists that began on July 9, 2015.

"Fu Zhenghua and Sun Lijun are said to be the main forces behind the July 9 arrests of lawyers," Li told RFA. "Naturally, they implemented them rather than making that decision."

"Lately I heard [Fu] had many enemies within the [law enforcement] system, so a lot of people in and outside the political establishment will be celebrating his detention," he said.

'Plenty for them to find'

A person familiar with the case said CCDI investigators have been interviewing judicial officials across the country and in several cities that Fu often visited, including officials who had the most contact with him or who had been promoted by him.

"They are looking at the period from 2010 to 2015, but are starting with the five-year period prior to Fu Zhenghua taking up his post at the Beijing municipal police department," the person said. "There's probably plenty [for them to find]."

Fu was also among those tasked with investigating disgraced former public security minister Zhou Yongkang, who rose to power at the head of China feared "stability maintenance" system.

Zhou was jailed for life by the Tianjin No. 1 Intermediate People's Court in June 2015, after being found guilty of bribe-taking, abuse of power, and disclosure of state secrets in a secret trial.

Zhou's sentence came amid rumors of a political coup attempt to topple Xi by him and jailed former Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai. China's securities regulator Liu Shiyu later told top finance officials during the 19th Party Congress in 2017 that senior figures had "conspired openly to usurp party leadership."

Earlier that year, Xi had accused five disgraced party officials, including Zhou and Bo, of involvement in "political conspiracies."

A human rights activist surnamed Zhou, who was among those targeted in the July 9, 2015 crackdown, said Fu was also behind the persecution of peaceful critics of the CCP, and of members of the banned spiritual movement the Falun Gong.

"Fu Zhenghua rose from the Beijing municipal police department to vice minister for public security," Zhou said. "He cracked down on civilians with huge force, although he was just an enforcer [of other people's orders]."

"[That included] the New Citizens' Movement in 2013, the crackdown on lawyers on July 9, 2015, and the persecution of the Falun Gong," he said. "He spared no effort in suppressing dissidents."

"He also led investigations when some of the leading figures in the [law enforcement] system were being purged," Zhou said. "So everyone in the [law enforcement] system hated him with a passion as well."

Fu was detained in the southwestern megacity of Chongqing in mid-to-late September. The Beijing municipal police department vowed at a meeting on Oct. 2 to cooperate with the newly announced CCDI probe.

Judicial and law enforcement departments across China have called ad hoc meetings to express their support for the investigation, and to "improve their political judgement," according to state media reports.

'Everyone is a suspect'

Independent political commentator Wei Xin said the fall of Sun and Fu comes ahead of the 20th Party Congress likely to be held in late 2022, and amid a growing sense of paranoia from the CCP leadership that those tasked with enforcing its totalitarian surveillance state could also turn against it.

"The central government is increasingly relying on the domestic security apparatus to maintain the stability of the regime," Wei said.

"But then there was the cognitive dissonance caused by [the alleged conspiracies by former Chongqing police chief] Wang Lijun and [former Chongqing party chief] Bo Xilai."

"Now, everyone in the [law enforcement system] is a suspect," he said. "They are seen as politically unreliable will never win the ultimate trust [of the CCP leadership]."

The flight by then Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun to the U.S. consulate in Sichuan's provincial capital Chengdu on Feb. 6, 2012 began a string of events that led to his jailing, as well as that of his boss Bo Xilai for corruption and Bo's wife Gu Kailai for the murder of British businessman and family friend Neil Heywood.

Bo was handed a life sentence in prison on bribery charges, a 15-year jail term for embezzlement, and seven years for abuse of power in September 2013.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
A man uses his smartphone flashlight to light up his bowl of noodles as he eats his breakfast at a restaurant during a blackout in Shenyang in northeastern China's Liaoning Province, Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021.

Rolling blackouts in northeastern China have deprived North Korean factory workers of hot water and lighting in their cramped dormitories, making their living and working conditions even more unbearable, sources in China told RFA.

Though power outages are commonplace in North Korea they have been much less frequent until recently in China, where Pyongyang sends laborers to earn desperately needed foreign cash for the government.

Power has been cut off to some of the large factories in Hunchun since the 24th of September, a Chinese citizen of Korean descent, from Jilin province in Chinas heavily industrialized northeast, told RFA s Korean Service Sept. 29th.

The Chinese authorities explain that its because crowded large factories increase the risk of COVID-19 infection, said the source, who requested anonymity for security reasons.

The source said that the governments explanation was a ruse.

We all know that there are power shortages because theres been fuel shortages, and the power shortages are particularly serious in the three northeastern provinces of Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang, the source said.

The shortages are a result of a reduction in coal imports and decreased production, as Beijing tries to balance its growing energy demand with a desire to curb pollution by transitioning to alternative energy sources.

According to a recent estimate by Goldman Sachs, as much as 44 percent of China's industrial activity has been hit by power shortages, leading analysts to cut their 2021 GDP growth forecast for China to 7.8 percent from an earlier estimate of 8.2 percent.

For the North Korean clothing manufacturers in Hunchun, who toil away in harsh working conditions as their government takes up to 90 percent of their salaries, the power outage was initially seen as some much-needed time off, according to the source.

They didnt understand the situation well, so they were saying, Finally we can rest! but the company brought in generators and restarted the factory, so they had to work in even worse conditions than before, the source said.

Though the generators supply electricity to the production line, the company did not power up the workers dormitory, leaving them without light, heat, and warm water.

They have to bathe in cold water and stumble in the dark because they have no electricity in the dormitory They appealed to the factory officials for basic standard living conditions, but nothing has changed so far, said the source.

Even their Chinese coworkers are feeling sorry for them, saying, What have they done to deserve such conditions? the source said.

Another Chinese citizen of Korean descent from Dandong, just across the border from North Korea, confirmed that power had been cut off to large factories in the city since the previous week.

The authorities say that it is because of coronavirus quarantine measures, but factory officials already know that it is because of the power shortages happening all across China, said the second source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

More than 200 North Korean workers at a livestock processing plant here in Dandong are working the same hours as before because the factory hooked up its own generator, the second source said.

Like the garment workers in Hunchun, the meat packers in Dandong have to return to an unlit dormitory after work and bathe in cold water, the second source confirmed.

How terrible it is that they work all day processing livestock into meat, and they cant even wash properly after work, the second source said.

The North Koreans I met at the plant talked about how they work 16-hour days, and they are covered in blood and animal waste, but the only thing waiting for them is a tiny dormitory with only cold water for comfort.

According to a recent RFA report, there are about 30,000 North Korean workers in the Dandong area employed in the regions factories.

Though international nuclear sanctions prohibit North Korea from sending workers overseas and preclude countries from issuing work visas to North Koreans, Pyongyang has been known to dispatch workers to China and Russia on short-term student or visitor visas to get around sanctions.

Reported by Jeong Yon Park for RFAs Korean Service. Translated by Jinha Shin. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
'One of them fired three bullets at Muhib's chest,' says a man who was there when Muhib Ullah was gunned down.

Bloodstains are seen in the office of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights where Rohingya leader Muhib Ullah was shot and killed by intruders at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Oct. 3, 2021.

A Rohingya day-laborer, who was in the room when gunmen killed prominent refugee community leader Muhib Ullah in southeastern Bangladesh, described in an interview with BenarNews how the intruders forced him and other eyewitnesses to the ground before they interrogated their target and shot him in cold blood.

Muhib Ullah, who was advocating for the repatriation of Rohingya refugees back to nearby Myanmar, was gunned down at close range after the intruders burst into his office at the Kutupalong camp in Coxs Bazar on the night of Sept. 29.

The 40-year-old eyewitness demanded a transparent investigation and justice for the death of the community leader who chaired the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, a group advocating for the rights of Rohingya, and who was known on the international stage.

The witness said he entered Ullahs office while Ullah was talking with about a dozen other men about surging commodity prices, issues related to health services, and other crises affecting the Rohingya refugee community.

A few minutes later, seven to eight armed men wearing caps and masks entered the room and said, nobody move, stay where you are. They pointed a gun at me and told me to lie down on the ground and not to look at them, the eyewitness recalled.

BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service, has chosen not to reveal his identity for safety reasons.

I heard them ask Muhib Ullah, Why did you form groups in each block? Is it to send people to Myanmar?

The witness was referring to a seven-member team that the Rohingya leader had formed in the camps through the advocacy group he chaired, to motivate the refugees to support repatriation.

Almost immediately after the intruders asked the question, the witness said, one of them fired three bullets at Muhibs chest and Muhib fell to the ground.

Muhib tried once to stand up as he bled profusely from being shot. Then a gunman came back and fired two more bullets  one in the chest and another in the eye, he said.

He said he could not run away because the gunmen had forced him and the other men to the ground and were blocking the exit.

The assailants then fled the scene. He said they wore t-shirts and three-quarter pants.

The witness has been living in fear since the night of the murder, he told BenarNews on Monday.

Muhib Ullah, 50, in his work as a leading champion for Rohingya rights, represented his community internationally, including in visits to the United Nations and the White House.

About 740,000 stateless Rohingya Muslims crossed into the southeastern Bangladeshi district since 2017 and have been sheltering here after fleeing a brutal anti-Rohingya offensive launched by the military in their home state of Rakhine.

Khin Maung, founder of the Rohingya Youth Association founder, said his group was planning to organize a protest demanding justice for Muhib Ullah.

There is very little hope of getting justice. We want punishment of the real killers, he told BenarNews.

Police escort Mohammad Selim (second from the left) and Sawkat Ullah to the Coxs Bazar Judicial Magistrate Court after they were arrested as suspects connected to the killing of Rohingya Leader Muhib Ullah, Oct. 3, 2021. [Sunil Barua/BenarNews]

Arrests made

In the wake of the killing, Bangladesh police have arrested five men as suspects connected to it, including four who were taken into custody during the past weekend.

Police have not released more details about the suspects.

We are now interrogating them. There is no scope of sharing any more information about an under-investigation case, said Kartik Chandra Paul, a sub-inspector for Ukhia police, who is investigating the case.

On Monday, Muhib Ullahs brother, Habib Ullah, told BenarNews that none of the five arrested so far were among the men he saw fleeing the incident.

The younger brother was in his own house nearby and ran out when he heard the gunshots. He said he saw some people running out of his brothers office.

Now the police have arrested them, saying they might be involved in the murder, he said.

Meanwhile on Saturday, Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen told reporters he suspected that some vested quarters had killed the Rohingya leader because Muhib Ullah wanted to return to Myanmar.

Our stand is very clear. Serious action will be taken against the people involved in the brutal murder, Momen told BenarNews. The police investigation will unearth the motive of the killing. Our authority will take stern action against those who have carried out the killing mission.

His statement, which came out three days after the killing of the Rohingya leader, was the strongest one issued by a senior Bangladeshi government official. Momen issued the statement after international human rights advocacy groups and the U.S. State Department had called for a full and transparent probe into the killing.

When asked why it took officials so long to issue a strong statement about the killing of a prominent refugee on Bangladeshi soil, Momen replied that he could not speak about the killing immediately because he was traveling back to Bangladesh from Washington.

The minister declined to explain what he meant to say by vested quarters being responsible for the killing, but he said that many local and international groups were working on the Rohingya issue.

On Sunday, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, Bangladeshs home minister, said that the situation in the Rohingya camps was stable, but arms had been smuggled from Myanmar in the past to disturb the situation in the camps.

Foreign agencies might have a hand in the incident, Khan told reporters in Dhaka, he said but without elaborating.

Imtiaz Ahmed, a professor of international relations at Dhaka University, supported the ministers view, saying there was a huge possibility of Myanmars involvement in the murder.

Myanmar always tries to make the Rohingya community leaderless. In recent years, Muhib has become a popular leader and represented his community in various international forums, Ahmed told BenarNews on Monday.

The Myanmar Embassy in Dhaka did not immediately respond to a BenarNews request to respond to the Bangladeshi ministers allegation.

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.
Dinh Huu Thoai had criticized the government's National COVID-19 Vaccination Fund, which many say lacks transparency in its handling of donations.

A Catholic priest in Vietnam has denounced demands in official media that he be handled by authorities for criticizing the governments handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, describing as slander accusations in the press that he has broken the law by speaking out.

Dinh Huu Thoai, a priest in central Vietnams Quang Nam province, has posted writings on his Facebook page criticizing the governments creation of a National COVID-19 Vaccine Fund and calls for ordinary citizens to contribute to it.

In response, Quang Nams provincial television station on Saturday aired a news story accusing Thoai of smearing and distorting the Party and the States fight against COVID-19.

The broadcast was followed a day later by an article in a Ministry of Public Security newspaper saying that Thoai had broken the countrys Law on Cyber Security and calling for him to be handled by authorities.

Speaking to RFA on Monday, Thoai called the charges of lawbreaking made against him in the mainstream press slanderous.

How dare they run their news stories in that way? Thoai asked.

So far, no responsible agencies have affirmed any violations I may have committed, and no records of any violations have been made. Its completely slanderous, he said.

Thoai said that Quang Nams Department of Information and Communications had invited him on three separate occasions to meet with them regarding his posts, but said he had declined to speak with them. Authorities had also recently closed his Facebook account without explanation, making the issue irrelevant, he said.

Its reasonable and legitimate for me or for any citizen to question the transparency of the COVID-19 Vaccine Fund. Its not an infringement of the law, he said. In fact, its the people who attack those who speak up who are the lawbreakers, as they have violated the peoples right to freedom of expression.

Vietnams state media have impunity to say whatever they want to say, Thoai told RFA.

They can even make up stories and slander people freely without being sanctioned, while people are attacked and accused [by the authorities] when they tell the truth if that truth makes officials unhappy. This is what they have been doing to me, he said.

Vietnams government established the COVID-19 Vaccine Fund in late May to receive and manage donations to purchase and import vaccines as well as conduct research to produce domestic vaccines, collecting over VND 8,700 (U.S. $384 million) so far from individuals and organizations in Vietnam and overseas.

A call from the government for officials, civil servants, and employees to contribute a days salary to the Fund has prompted criticisms nationwide, with officials remaining silent on how much interest is being generated by donated funds still kept in the bank.

As of Monday, Vietnam has reported a total of 19,845 deaths from COVID-19, with 813,961 cases of infection also recorded.

Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Tahmina Talash and her husband, Tamim, both worked for civil society organizations in Afghanistan's Takhar Province as the Taliban gained power there. Fearing for their lives amid death threats, they fled to Tajikistan just before Tahmina gave birth to a daughter, Mohanna. Like thousands of other Afghans seeking safety in Tajikistan, they now face financial hardships and the challenges of rebuilding their lives in a new country.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has expressed readiness to meet Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to discuss further steps to regulate the situation in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as being part of Azerbaijan, but the entire territory and seven surrounding districts were controlled by ethnic Armenian forces from the early 1990s until recently.

The two sides have skirmished regularly over the years.

Internationally mediated negotiations under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) involving the so-called Minsk Group co-chaired by Russia, the United States, and France have been unable to produce a lasting settlement of the conflict.

In September 2020, Azerbaijan launched a military offensive that resulted in Baku regaining control of the seven surrounding districts and a significant chunk of Nagorno-Karabakh itself.

Speaking to members of the Armenian diaspora in Lithuania, Pashinian on October 3 said that it would be possible to discuss the issue at the level of the two countries' foreign ministers.

"In my recent speech in the United Nations, I stated that the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh is awaiting its solution, and I can say that we have hailed several times the statements by the OSCE's Minsk Group about the necessity to regulate the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and reestablish the peace process," Pashinian's press service quoted him as saying.

Pashinian also said that he is ready to hand all mine maps to the Azerbaijani side in exchange for Armenian military personnel captured by the Azerbaijani Army during last year's 44-day war.

Last week, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said he was ready to meet with Pashinian if such a meeting were organized by the OSCE Minsk Group.
SOFIA/SKOPJE -- Bulgaria says it does not plan to lift its veto on long-delayed accession talks between North Macedonia and the European Union over a language and history dispute with its neighbor.

No change in Bulgaria's national position regarding the Republic of North Macedonia can be expected," caretaker Bulgarian Foreign Minister Svetlan Stoev said after meeting with visiting EU officials in Sofia on May 21.

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said that EU enlargement in the Balkans must be based on achieving sustainable results in building good neighborly relations.

"That is why we want to see not declarations, but clear guarantees for our national security and for our national interests," Radevs office quoted him as saying.

In November 2020, Bulgaria blocked the start of EU accession talks with North Macedonia by refusing to approve the so-called negotiation framework with Skopje.

Unanimity is required from all EU member for the adoption of the negotiating framework.

Any new developments on the issue before Bulgaria holds snap parliamentary elections on July 11 appear unlikely.

European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi and Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, also visited North Macedonia after their talks in Sofia.

North Macedonia Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said the two EU officials presented a proposal which he said provided a good basis for resolving his countrys dispute with Bulgaria.

This draft solution does not touch or encroach our Macedonian identity issues, Zaev said, without revealing any details of the proposal.

Bulgaria, which joined the EU in 2007, wants Skopje to acknowledge that both its identity and language have Bulgarian roots.

Skopje has long insisted Macedonian is a distinct South Slavic language that forms part of the country's culture and national identity, while Sofia says Macedonian is a regional dialect of Bulgarian.

A joint commission of historians was established to resolve the standoff but has failed to find common ground.

With reporting by AP
TBILISI -- Georgia's ruling party has won the October 3 nationwide municipal elections that outside observers said were well-run but tainted by irregularities -- a victory overshadowed by the arrest of returning former President Mikheil Saakashvili, whose supporters staged protests for his release on October 4.

The October 2 vote was held in a highly polarized atmosphere, with the results seen as a referendum on the Georgian Dream party's rule and the prospect that a bad showing by the ruling party could prompt early parliamentary elections.

Georgian Dream passed the test, with results after all the votes were counted showing that it easily cleared the threshold to avoid an early parliamentary vote under a foreign-brokered agreement to end a long-brewing political crisis between the ruling party and the opposition.

After all results from the country's 3,743 precincts were tallied, the ruling Georgian Dream party had 46.7 percent, according to the Central Election Commission (CEC) on October 4. The main opposition party, the United National Movement (ENM), had 30.7 percent. The rest of the vote was split among the remaining 48 parties, with the For Georgia party third at 7.8 percent.

The five major mayoral races held on election day -- in Tbilisi, Batumi, Kutaisi, Poti, and Rustavi -- will all head to runoffs after no candidate won an absolute majority, according to early results.

While the ruling party appeared to have scored a convincing victory, the opposition and outside observers alleged numerous irregularities while Saakashvili, the founder of ENM, vowed to continue a hunger strike he reportedly started after his arrest upon return from self-exile in Ukraine.

Waving Georgia's red-and-white flags and chanting Saakashvili's name, hundreds of demonstrators rallied on October 4 outside the prison in Rustavi, southeast of Tbilisi, where the former president has been held since his arrest after returning to the country last week.



Supporters vowed to stage mass protests in the coming days, as his lawyer, quoted by Russia's state-run TASS news agency, said Saakashvili plans to keep up the hunger strike he declared on the evening of his arrest until he is freed.

The U.S. State Department said on October 4 that Washington was paying close attention to developments in Georgia and urged the government in Tbilisi to ensure Saakashvili is treated fairly.



"We're following developments very closely," spokesman Ned Price told a regular news briefing.



"We urge Georgian authorities to ensure that Mr. Saakashvili is afforded fair treatment in accordance with Georgian law, and Georgia's international human rights commitments and obligations."

Tensions were heightened by Saakashvili's arrest within hours of his return from eight years in self-exile abroad on October 1. The 53-year-old Saakashvili, who was president from 2004-13, was sentenced in absentia to prison in 2018 for abuse of power and seeking to cover up evidence about the beating of an opposition member of parliament when he was president. Saakashvili has said the charges against him are politically motivated.

Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said on October 3 that Saakashvili would serve his full term of six years in prison before being allowed to return to Ukraine, where he briefly served as governor of the Odesa region, has held several top government positions, and currently heads the executive committee of Ukraine's National Reform Council.

"As of today, he [Saakashvili] is sentenced to six years in prison," he was quoted as telling Georgia's Imedi television channel. "No one on the planet can convince us to release Saakashvili."



Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy said he would personally press for Saakashvili's return.



"Mr. Saakashvili is a Ukrainian citizen," Zelenskiy said at an event in the western Ukrainian town of Truskavets.



"We will use the level of all government institutions, including the [Ukrainian] Foreign Ministry, our ambassador to Georgia, and the Georgian ambassador to Ukraine. The governments, the prime ministers [of Ukraine and Georgia] -- we all will be working on it (Saakashvili's return to Ukraine)."

In its preliminary report of its observer mission's findings, the OSCE/ODIHR said the local elections were "generally well-administered but held against the backdrop of a protracted political crisis and characterized by hardened polarization."



The election watchdog noted that, while contestants were "able to campaign freely in a competitive environment," the process was "marred by wide-spread and consistent allegations of intimidation, vote-buying, pressure on candidates and voters, and an unlevel playing field."



The U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi echoed the assessment, congratulating the people of Georgia on the high voter turnout, but also describing the lack of focus on local issues as a "missed opportunity."



"While voters were able to cast their votes in a largely calm environment on October 2, the election process is about more than Election Day," the embassy wrote. "We share ODIHR's concerns about the polarized media landscape, the significant imbalance of resources and insufficient oversight of campaign finances, the under-representation of women in the campaign, reports of misuse of administrative resources, and pressure against journalists."



President Salome Zurabishvili, speaking to TASS on October 3, said the vote "took place in a calm, fair, safe, and competitive environment."



"It is very important that today one more step toward democracy and stabilization was made," she said.

The local elections come as the country has been in a protracted political crisis since Georgian Dream -- founded by former prime minister and reclusive billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who openly clashed with Saakashvili -- won parliamentary elections a year ago.

Under an EU-brokered agreement reached in April to defuse the paralyzing political crisis between Georgian Dream and opposition parties, early parliamentary elections were to be called in 2022 if Georgian Dream received less than 43 percent overall nationwide in the local elections.

But in July, Georgian Dream leader Irakli Kobakhidze annulled the so-called April 19 agreement, blaming the opposition for its failure and claiming most other key provisions had been met.

At the time, Kobakhidze said that smaller opposition parties signed the agreement, but that the larger "radical opposition" blocs, including the ENM, refused to join the deal.

As the results came in, opposition leaders said there were widespread irregularities in the the October 2 vote despite Georgian Dream saying the elections had been held to the "highest democratic standards."

The Interior Ministry announced on October 3 that it had launched 16 criminal investigations related to incidents that took place on voting day, including physical violence near or at polling stations.

Nongovernmental organizations monitoring the elections reported dozens of suspected cases of electoral fraud, including vote-buying, violations of the secrecy of the ballot, and "carousel voting" -- where voters are bused into multiple polling stations as an organized group.

According to the Central Election Commission, 366 complaints were filed with the district election commissions on election day, most of them being "procedural deficiencies [that will] require disciplinary action against commission members.

Transparency International, whose Georgia branch had about 300 observers on the ground, reported 160 violations, including multiple voting, the obstruction of monitoring, and the harassment of journalists. The violations led to the filing of 30 complaints, the corruption watchdog said.

Overall, voters cast ballots for mayors in 64 municipalities, as well as nearly 2,100 members of local self-governing councils. Voter turnout nationally stood at nearly 52 percent, according to election authorities.

In the mayoral election in the capital, Tbilisi, the incumbent, Kakha Kaladze of Georgian Dream, had nearly 45 percent of the vote, while ENM party chief Nika Melia was at 34 percent.

With reporting by civil.ge, AFP, TASS, and Reuters
Iran is calling on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to clarify its position regarding an alleged Israeli attack on a centrifuge-component manufacturing workshop near Tehran in June, amid a dispute with the UN nuclear agency over access to the site.

Speaking to journalists on October 3, the head of Irans Atomic Energy Organization, Mohammad Eslami, deplored that the Vienna-based IAEA and Western powers have not condemned the "terrorist act" in which the TESA Karaj facility was severely destroyed.

Eslamis comments come after the IAEA said on September 26 that it was denied indispensable access to the site contrary to a September 12 agreement under which Tehran allowed international inspectors to service surveillance cameras at its sensitive nuclear sites and to continue filming there.

The United States and European Union have called on Iran to allow UN inspectors access to the site.

Tehran has claimed that the facility is exempt from the agreement, which averted the agencys 35-nation Board of Governors issuing a resolution criticizing Iran for stonewalling the IAEA.

The IAEA representatives in both Tehran and Vienna were told about these important details: the facility was severely destroyed, in particular where the cameras were supposed to be located, Eslami said on October 3.

It is regrettable that neither the IAEA nor the countries that have made monitoring claims against us condemned that terrorist act, he added.

Satellite images appeared to show damage to the TESA Karaj facility after the June incident, and reports suggested that one out of four IAEA cameras at the site were destroyed during the incident.

Iran has accused Israel of sabotaging its nuclear program and assassinating its nuclear scientists, including top scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh who was killed near Tehran last year. Fakhrizadeh was credited with beginning an alleged military nuclear program decades ago that U.S. intelligence and the IAEA say was abandoned in 2003.

Eslamis comments also come amid stalled nuclear talks aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal under which Tehran significantly limited its nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief.

That deal started to fall apart in 2018 when then-U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from it and reinstated crippling economic sanctions. Iran reacted by gradually ramping up its nuclear activities.

U.S. President Joe Biden has promised to rejoin the deal if Tehran returns to full compliance.

Irans new Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has said that Tehran would resume the nuclear talks very soon while being vague about the time frame.

Speaking on October 4, Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh suggested that talks with world powers aimed at reviving the 2015 deal could resume by early November.



"The government of [President] Ebrahim Raisi has been in power for 50, 55 days...I don't think that the [return to talks] will be less than the 90 days that it took the Biden administration to return to negotiations," he added, indicating that Iran believes talks will be under way again by the second week of November.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned last week that time was running out for Tehran to return to the deal.

The ball remains in their court, but not for long," Blinken told reporters, adding that "there is a limited runway on that, and the runway is getting shorter."
NUR-SULTAN -- Kazakhstan's human rights commissioner, Elvira Azimova, has held a rare meeting with a group of people whose relatives are being held in custody in China's northwestern region of Xinjiang and who have asked for the Central Asian country's government to help secure their release.



Azimova did not talk to the press after the meeting on October 4 in the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan, but one of the participants, Baibolat Kunbolatuly, told RFE/RL that the commissioner had promised to look into each case presented to her by the group.



Police in Nur-Sultan last week detained eight protesters, mostly women, who demanded the release of relatives from China's so-called reeducation camps in Xinjiang.



They were later fined for violating regulations on public gatherings.



The October 1 protest was the latest in a series of demonstrations in Kazakhstan linked to the mass detention of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other ethnic groups in the neighboring Chinese province of Xinjiang.

The latest protests started on September 20, with demonstrators traveling to Nur-Sultan from the country's commercial capital, Almaty, where groups had rallied for months in front of the Chinese Consulate.



Demonstrators have been demanding that Kazakh authorities do more to protect ethnic Kazakhs who have been caught up in the Chinese sweep.



The Kazakh government, however, has been wary of angering Beijing, which is a major investor in Kazakhstan and the whole of Central Asia.



As many as 2 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and members of Xinjiang's other indigenous, mostly Muslim, ethnic groups have been taken to detention centers in the western Chinese region, according to the U.S. State Department.

China denies that the facilities are internment camps but people who have fled the province say that thousands are undergoing "political indoctrination" at a network of facilities known officially as reeducation camps.



After Kazakhstan gained independence following the Soviet collapse in 1991, many ethnic Kazakhs from Xinjiang and elsewhere resettled in Kazakhstan, as part of a state program.



Many obtained permanent residence or citizenship but continue to visit Xinjiang either to see relatives or for bureaucratic reasons. Some have reportedly faced pressure from Chinese authorities or even arrests and imprisonment



Kazakhs are the second-largest Turkic-speaking indigenous community in Xinjiang after Uyghurs. The region is also home to ethnic Kyrgyz, Tajiks, and Hui (aka Dungans).



China's largest ethnicity, the Han, is the second-largest ethnic group in Xinjiang.
Vehicles are moving across two contentious crossings along the Kosovar-Serbian border without issue as a new measure requiring vehicles to cover up the two countries state symbols on license plates went into effect.

Automobiles with their license plates bearing white stickers were moving from both sides of the Jarinje and Brnjak crossings on October 4, and Kosovar police said the new measure was also being implemented at the four other crossings with Serbia.

The decision to cover up the state symbols came as the result of last weeks EU-mediated negotiations between Pristina and Belgrade intended to defuse a heated dispute over license plates.

The dispute erupted on September 20 after Kosovar authorities ordered all drivers entering Kosovo from Serbia to use temporary, 60-day, printed license plates in response to measures in Serbia against drivers from Kosovo that have been in place since 2008, when the country declared independence from Belgrade.

Serbs from northern Kosovo blocked the Jarinje and Brnjak crossings with vehicles and makeshift barricades, while Kosovo's government sent in police units and Serbian military jets and helicopters buzzed the border in a show of force.

Serbia does not recognize Kosovos independence, nor its right to impose rules and regulations such as registering cars and trucks.

On October 2, the two crossings were reopened to traffic as ethnic Serb protesters removed vehicles, workers dismantled their barricades, Kosovar special police units withdrew, and NATO troops deployed there in keeping with the EU-brokered deal.

Besnik Bislimi, the deputy prime minister of Kosovo and head of the Kosovo delegation for dialogue with Serbia, told RFE/RL on October 1 that Kosovo has 300,000 packages of stickers to be pasted over state symbols on license plates.

The Serbian government also announced it would provide stickers for all Serbian-registered vehicles seeking to cross into Kosovo from its side.
Kyrgyzstan has brought back dozens of children from Iraq, becoming the latest Central Asian state to repatriate its citizens since thousands from the region went to fight with extremist groups in Iraq and Syria.

A special plane carrying 79 children born to Kyrgyz parents in Iraq and Syria landed at Bishkek's Manas Airport on March 16 as part of a humanitarian mission dubbed "Meerim" (Grace).

Hundreds of women from Central Asia have been languishing in prison in Iraq or at special camps in northeastern Syria since the Islamic State extremist group was largely defeated. Many of their husbands are believed to be imprisoned or dead.

Kyrgyzstan's Foreign Ministry said the repatriation was carried out with the consent of the children's imprisoned mothers in Iraq and on the commitment of relatives in Kyrgyzstan to accept the children into families for upbringing.

It also said the government would support the children's rehabilitation and reintegration.

The operation was conducted with the support of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Kyrgyzstan Red Crescent.

In a statement, UNICEF representative Christine Jaulmes commended the Kyrgyz government for repatriating the children and "treating them primarily as victims in need of protection."

"Children are just children," the Kyrgyzstan Red Crescent wrote on Facebook. "They are not guilty of anything and adults must care of children no matter where they were born and or their destiny."

More than 800 Kyrgyz, including an estimated 150 women, went to Syria and Iraq to join extremist groups during the conflicts in those countries. Most ended up with the Islamic State group.

Kyrgyzstan follows Central Asian neighbors Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in completing a repatriation mission from either Iraq or Syria.

"The United States applauds the Kyrgyz government's repatriation of 79 children from Iraq, which will give these young people a chance to live a normal life in their home country," the U.S. Embassy in Bishkek said in a statement.

"The Kyrgyz government deserves praise for its commitment to help the returned children and to carry out all measures for their early rehabilitation, reintegration, and return to a safe and peaceful life."

"We encourage other nations around the world to follow the example set by the Kyrgyz Republic and other Central Asian nations that have made progress in repatriating their citizens from conflict areas," it added.

More than 41,000 foreigners from more than 100 countries joined the Islamic State or other extremist groups in Syria and Iraq, both before and after the declaration of its so-called caliphate in June 2014.

At least 6,000 of them are believed to have come from Central Asian countries, according to a 2018 study by the International Center for the Study of Radicalization at King's College in London.

In addition to several thousand foreign fighters and their wives being held in Iraqi prisons, almost 62,000 people are being held by Syrian Kurdish forces at the Al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria.

According to UNICEF, there are more than 22,000 foreign children of at least 60 nationalities at the camp.
Dozens joined a rally held in North Macedonia's city of Tetovo on September 11 following a deadly fire at a makeshift COVID-19 unit of a local hospital. Participants planted 14 trees, matching the number of victims. The Balkan country's health minister and Tetovo's hospital managers resigned in wake of the September 8 incident that shook the predominantly ethnic Albanian population of the city.
BARNAUL, Russia -- A well-known opposition activist in the Siberian city of Barnaul says he has left Russia after the authorities launched criminal investigations into allegations that he repeatedly violated the law on mass gatherings.

Viktor Rau wrote on social network VKontakte on October 3 that he and his grandson are currently in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.

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"Police have registered criminal cases against me and my grandson Miron due to my opposition activities, Rau wrote, adding: The totalitarian authorities do not need dissent, they need to silence people.

My motherland, Russia, will be free! I will back someday," Rau said.

Investigations against Rau were launched in April when police searched his home and confiscated his computer, telephone, and 65 posters.

The opposition activist, who has been a vocal critic of local and federal authorities, took part in many unsanctioned rallies in Barnaul in recent years.

Rau tried to get elected to the parliament's lower chamber, the State Duma, last month.

Although election officials initially registered him as a candidate, they later rejected his candidacy, citing his links to groups related to jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny that were labeled by the authorities as extremist and banned earlier this year.

Many opposition activists and politicians have left Russia in recent years amid an increasing crackdown on opposition groups and independent media across Russia.
A Russian court has extended by three months the pretrial detention of Ivan Safronov, a prominent former journalist accused of high treason in a case widely considered to be politically motivated.



On October 4, the Moscow City Court ordered Safronov, who covered the defense industry for the newspapers Kommersant and Vedomosti, be remanded in custody until January 7.



The 31-year-old suspect is a former adviser to the head of Russia's space agency Roskosmos, Dmitry Rogozin.



He was arrested on July 7, 2020 on allegations that he had passed secret information to the Czech Republic in 2017 about Russian arms sales in the Middle East.



Safronov has repeatedly denied the accusations and his supporters have held pickets in Moscow and other cities demanding his release.



Human rights organizations have also issued statements demanding Safronov's release and expressing concerns over an intensifying crackdown on dissent in Russia.



One of Safronov's defenders, prominent rights lawyer Ivan Pavlov, fled to Georgia last month after Russian authorities launched a probe against him earlier this year, accusing him of disclosing data from the journalist's case.

Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax
Russian authorities have finally revealed to which clinic Yakut shaman Aleksandr Gabyshev was transferred after a court ordered him to be confined to forced psychiatric treatment in July, his lawyer says.

Gabyshev had been stopped by the authorities several times as he attempted to march to Moscow by foot in his self-proclaimed effort to drive President Vladimir Putin out of office.

"We have received a written answer to our query from the acting warden of the Detention Center No. 1 in Yakutsk, the capital of Russia's Far Eastern region of Yakutia, lawyer Aleksei Pryanishnikov wrote on Telegram on October 4.

Pryanishnikov quoted the official as saying Gabyshev was sent to a psychiatric clinic in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, almost 3,000 kilometers west of his native Yakutsk.

Earlier, the lawyer had told RFE/RL that his client was transferred from Yakutsk to an undisclosed psychiatric clinic.

Gabyshev was found "mentally unfit" during a court hearing where he had been accused of committing a "violent act against a police officer" as he was being taken forcibly from his home to a psychiatric clinic in late January.

The decision to confine Gabyshev for forced psychiatric treatment was challenged by his lawyers and supporters, who say it was an attempt to silence dissent.

Domestic and international human rights organization have condemned the court decision, comparing the move with the Soviet-era practice of using psychiatric clinics to silence dissidents.

Police have said the incident between Gabyshev and the law enforcement officer took place on January 27, less than three weeks after the shaman had announced a plan to resume his trek to the Russian capital.

Gabyshev's sister, Kyaiyylana Zakharova, told RFE/RL in April that her brothers state of health had dramatically deteriorated, most likely due to unspecified injections he received while in the psychiatric clinic.

Gabyshev first made headlines in March 2019 when he called Putin "evil" and announced that he had started his march to Moscow. He then walked more than 2,000 kilometers, speaking with hundreds of Russians along the way.

As his notoriety rose, videos of his conversations with people were posted on social media and attracted millions of views.

In July of that year, Gabyshev led a 700-strong rally under the slogan "Russia Without Putin" in the city of Chita.

His march was halted when he was detained in the region of Buryatia later in September and placed in a psychiatric clinic in Yakutia for several months against his will.

Shamans have served as healers and diviners in Siberia for centuries. During the Soviet era, the mystics were harshly repressed, but in isolated parts of Siberia they are now regaining prominence.
Supporters of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili rallied outside the prison in Rustavi where he is being held to demand his release. Saakashvili was sentenced to prison in absentia in 2018 for abuse of power during his presidency, but he has said the charges against him are politically motivated.
An EU-mediated agreement to cover up state symbols on the license plates of vehicles from Kosovo and Serbia was put into effect at border crossings between the two countries on October 4. Police in Kosovo put white stickers over the state symbols of Serbian license plates and the same procedure was followed by Serbian police officers for vehicles registered in Kosovo. The deal ended a 13-day standoff between Kosovo police and local Kosovar Serbs who had blocked roads at border crossings.
Editor's Note: Swedish artist Lars Vilks, ensnared in controversy after he drew a cartoon in 2007 depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a dog, died in a traffic accident on October 3, 2021.

Vilks and two of his police bodyguards were killed when the police car they were in veered into the path of an oncoming truck in southern Sweden. Vilks, 75, had lived under police protection since he received death threats owing to his Muhammad sketch, which was printed by a Swedish newspaper alongside an editorial defending freedom of expression.

Here is a 2012 interview with Vilks conducted by RFE/RL's Rikard Jozwiak.

BRUSSELS -- Swedish artist Lars Vilks caused a storm of controversy when his cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad's head on a dog's body was published in 2007. Large-scale protests ensued around the Muslim world, and Vilks has since lived under what he describes as "house arrest" for his own safety.



Speaking to RFE/RL's Rikard Jozwiak, Vilks gives his views on freedom of speech in today's society and what consequences it has had in his life.



RFE/RL: You have claimed that freedom of speech, in a sense, was the loser in the debate that followed the publication of your cartoons, and that the Islamists are winning. What do you mean by this?



Lars Vilks: It has resulted in the fact that it has become very restrictive to use and produce images concerning Islam's religious symbols.



You can simply conclude by saying that the Prophet has become impossible to reproduce or copy and every time a case of this nature has emerged and been brought to wider attention, problems occur and we can see that there has been general self-censorship on this topic. This is what has been revealed.



RFE/RL: Salman Rushdie recently said that, whereas in 1989 there was massive support for him in the West, today no one wants to stick their neck out. Do you feel that artists have become scared to back you up?



Vilks: You need a very strong person to stand up for something because there is enormous pressure. And it will continue to be like this for some time. Who would want to sacrifice something on my behalf [when] they don't get anything in exchange? They will only see that everything becomes more complicated. You can question how one could understand things in such a way, but it is a fact that it is something that a person would be careful with.



It is interesting that this is how things are. I really think it is telling us something about our time. A fear has appeared, a McCarthy-like history has arrived in which political correctness is an absolute necessity and this political correctness, this story, cannot be disturbed and doesn't want to see any criticism.

The film is made in an amateurish way but that is not the point. The point is that that both good and bad films are made and that bad films are allowed to be made. If you have intentions to attack the Prophet, then you are, of course, allowed to do that. Nobody can stop that. Freedom of speech exists as a tool to promote one's views.One has to remember that I am not particularly interested in Islam. This [the cartoon] was something I did in 2007 which I didn't think would create a big fuss, because most things that are produced concerning this topic pass unnoticed.It is when attention is created and enough reaction is triggered that something like this can accelerate. I haven't really done much else since these drawings in 2007, but since then I have been pulled into this. And the issue itself has become an art project since I have followed its entire development.So I am involved in this, but in a way it is the rest of the world that has created this, not my burning interest [in Islam]. I have become engaged in the question [of freedom of speech versus religion] so I have, in a sense, ended up here. But I don't see myself as a salaried employee engaged in attacking religions.I live under a type of house arrest. I cannot leave my home without informing the security police. In that way it has changed. But on the other hand, I cannot say that there have been any cataclysmic changes. It is a way of organizing one's existence. It works well for me.I cannot say it has been a big problem but, of course, this situation is not something one aims for. Obviously, one wouldn't want things this way. But it hasn't been as difficult for me as it might have been for others.I have made several variations of my. A recurrent complaint is that many think that it [the drawing] is bad, I don't consider it to be bad. So, in order to satisfy different technical and art directions, I have made different variations and also many oil paintings where I have placed it [the dog] in different traditional and well-known artworks throughout history. I sell these privately on the Internet. There has been quite a lot of interest.The reason I do this is not only because it provides income. It is also because they cannot be exhibited [due to the reluctance of galleries to display Vilks' drawings], even if you may think they are quite innocent. The dog element is reduced quite a lot and involved in different contexts, and it would be a fun exhibition, but it cannot be done. The [Muhammad drawings] can't even be sold at auction on the Internet. They are being removed even there.
KAZAN, Russia -- Authorities in Kazan have allowed activists to gather in the capital of Russia's Republic of Tatarstan next week for a public event commemorating the 1552 siege of Kazan by Russian troops -- but only if they remain inside a park.



"It is a cruel joke, a mockery. The city administration just mocked the whole Tatar people," the chairman of the All-Tatar Public Center, Farit Zakiyev, told RFE/RL on October 5.



Zakiyev said earlier that he had filed a request with the city administration asking permission to organize a march from Liberty Square to the Kazan Kremlin on October 15 to mark the 469th anniversary of the fall of the then-capital of the Kazan Khanate.



The event has been marked in the city since the collapse of the Soviet Union, but Kazan authorities have been reluctant to allow activists to hold such public commemorations in recent years.



Zakiyev said the authorities agreed that the activists will hold the commemoration in Tinchurin Park, which is located close to the city center.



Last year, the local administration initially allowed a public event to mark what is known as Commemoration Day, but that permission was later withdrawn, triggering protests in Kazan.



The move came after a local prosecutor requested that the commemoration not be allowed, saying that "the goal of the event was unclear."



Several participants in the 2019 commemoration were sentenced to community work or fined for praying and reading the Koran at the gathering and using the words "Tatarstan's statehood."



In October 1552, Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible conquered the Khanate of Kazan after a two-week resistance. Many of the Khanate's Muslim population were killed after the siege or forcibly Christianized.
TASHKENT -- U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman has met with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev in Tashkent to discuss ways to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries and the situation in Afghanistan.



During the October 4 meeting in the Uzbek capital, Sherman thanked Mirziyoev for his country's "close cooperation with the United States in Afghanistan," and "underscored the importance of the United States' strategic partnership with Uzbekistan," according to a statement from the State Department.



The U.S. official also called for "continued progress on economic, democratic, and human rights reforms" in Uzbekistan.



The Uzbek presidential press service said that the two sides "noted with satisfaction that in recent years the multifaceted cooperation between Uzbekistan and the United States has been developing rapidly."



The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August has triggered alarm among Uzbekistan and other neighboring Central Asian states over possible security threats emanating from the war-torn country and the potential for tens of thousands of refugees to cross the border.



Mirziyoev has positioned himself as a reformer since taking office following the death of his authoritarian predecessor, Islam Karimov, in 2016, releasing political prisoners and opening his country to its neighbors and the outside world.



However, human rights groups say the reforms have not gone far enough.
LAKHIMPUR TRAGIC INCIDENT

CHANDIGARH: Terming the Lakhimpur Incident unfortunate and tragic, Agriculture Minister Punjab Randeep Singh Nabha on Monday said that an inquiry should be immediately initiated by the High court Judge in a time-bound manner so that the culprits are arrested and punished under the law.

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Nabha also demanded the immediate release of the senior congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi and Deepinder Singh Hooda and others who were detained by the state police.

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Nabha further said that this incident happened when already the farmers were suffering because of the Central Government led by BJP under the three black laws for the last one and half years. This case is also a perfect example of suppressing democracy and the voice of common people - he added.



It proves the high-handedness of the state government not to register a case against the culprits and letting them go Scott free and also said the state government is trying to suppress the voice of people in a democracy which is most unfortunate.

Nabha also said that the Congress party fully stands with the farmers and the deceased ones who lost their lives in this incident.
This volume is equal to 58.3% of the total amount of cashew nuts imported by Vietnam in 2020. This has brought the import of cashew to an unusually high level in the last eight months, causing Vietnam to face a trade deficit.

Cashew is one of Vietnam's key export products. Since 2010, cashew nut exports have reached USD 1 bn, with a turnover of USD 1 bn per year or more, ranking 3rd out of nine items of agricultural and aquatic products, bringing Vietnam to number one position in the world in cashew exports. However, due to the confusion from planning of raw materials to planting, tending, processing, and exporting, the results have not been as expected. In 2020, Vietnam exported USD 3.21 bn of cashew nuts, seeing a decrease of 2.3% in turnover, while the quantity increased by 13% because the average export price decreased by 13.6%. It is a worry for many businesses on how to ensure the source of input material.

Therefore, for cashew nut exports from Cambodia to Vietnam, a large part requires Vietnamese enterprises to cooperate, invest in planting materials in Cambodia and bring them to processing factories for export from the country. In fact, the cashew nut growing area in Vietnam in recent years has been decreasing steadily, from nearly 450,000 ha to just over 300,000 ha, leading to a decline in cashew nut production and a decline in quality as well. The reason is due to erratic weather changes, the proliferation of pests and diseases, degeneration of varieties, inadequate investment in farming techniques, the mentality of following the crowd, competing for planting, and not getting along with each other. Currently, up to two-thirds of raw cashew nuts have to be imported to meet processing requirements. This makes cashew nut processing enterprises having to struggle to meet orders.

Since 2005, Vietnam has been one of the largest import markets for raw cashew nuts in the world, mainly from 25 countries, and the most from the Ivory Coast in Nigeria. However, due to the diversity of import sources, everyone imports, leading to the uneven quality of raw cashew nuts. More worrisome is that many shipments of raw cashew nuts from Africa have been found to have beetles. This is the most dangerous insect ever and must be put on strict quarantine lists by many countries. Notably, many countries in Africa, instead of exporting raw cashew nuts to Vietnam, have turned to export processing to improve the value of finished products. This means that sooner or later the supply of this produce will become less and less, and Vietnamese cashew nut export processing enterprises will fall into a state of passivity.

Vietnam's cashew nuts have been present in over 40 countries and territories for several years, of which the US market ranks first with 40%, China 20%, Europe 20%, and the rest are exported to Russia, Japan, and the Middle East. Therefore, the import of raw cashew nuts from Cambodia is replacing most of the sources, so it is not a cause for concern, but on the contrary, can be expected to contribute to improving input for cashew nut processing. There are advantages such as road access, large quantities, stable supply, favorable price, and convenient quality control of raw material.

Nguyen Duy Nghia


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Columbus Day is a federal holiday that Americans celebrate on the second Monday in October. President Roosevelt first made Columbus Day a national holiday in 1934, and Americans celebrated it every October 12th. Then, in 1972, President Nixon changed the day of the holiday to the second Monday in October. In modern times, some schools observe this holiday and are closed. If you and the kids are out and about on that day, you may wonder, Is Target closed on Columbus Day, too?

Columbus Day Controversy

Columbus Day is a federal holiday, which means government offices close on that day. However, in recent years, 18 states have opted not to celebrate Columbus Day. Instead, these states celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day on the same day as Columbus Day. While many states call Indigenous Peoples Day something different, such as Discovers Day in Hawaii and Native Americans Day in South Dakota, they are celebrating the same thingthe long history of Native Americans in the United States.

Is Target Closed on Columbus Day?

While federal offices and some schools may close for Columbus Day, Target does NOT close on Columbus Day. Target will be open regular store hours on Columbus Day.

Target often only closes for Easter and Christmas Day, but that has changed. In 2020, amid the pandemic, Target opted to close on Thanksgiving Day to show appreciation to their employees for working so hard during the pandemic. Target has since announced that it will also close on Thanksgiving Day 2021.

Are There Sales at Target on Columbus Day?

This year, Columbus Day falls on October 11th, which also happens to coincide with Targets holiday season kick-off sale.

Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, Target, like many other retailers, doesnt want to wait until Black Friday to kick off holiday sales. First, they dont want to have that many shoppers in the store at one time due to health and safety concerns. Second, thanks to pandemic shipping delays, Target wants to make sure everyone has enough time to buy their gifts for Christmas.

This year, starting on October 10th and running through October 12th, Target will have Deal Days. During this sale, Target will offer deep discounts on electronics, kitchen appliances, and TVs, among other favorites. They will also start their holiday price match guarantee on October 10th. From that day to December 24th, if you buy something at Target and later its on sale for a cheaper price, they will refund you the difference.

Final Thoughts

If youre wondering, Is Target closed on Columbus Day?, the answer is no. In fact, Columbus Day might be an excellent day to stop by your local Target or place an order online so you can enjoy the deep discounts during their Deal Days. Get a jump on your holiday shopping.

Read More

10 Ways to Save Money at Target

Federal Holiday Schedule 2021

Is Target REDcard Worth It?

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Check out these helpful tools to help you save more. For investing advice, visit The Motley Fool.
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Earlier this year, astronomers determined the biggest comet ever, which is almost a hundred miles wide. Now, in addition, the study reveals this behemoth is heading toward the sun. But don't worry, it won't be posing any threat to us on Earth as it won't come any closer than the orbit of Saturn.

The comet, named Bernardinelli-Bernstein after its discoverers, is estimated to be around 95 miles in diameter and was once recognized using data from the Dark Energy Survey. Since its discovery, researchers have been poring over records to examine more about it. They will put up the study, titled "C/2014 un271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein): The Nearly Spherical Cow of Comets," in Astrophysical Journal Letters soon.

Giant Comet Spotted Hurling Towards Milky Way

According to The New York Post, the comet has an extraordinarily elongated orbit and is currently heading in from the Oort cloud. NASA said the celestial body is a hypothesized group of icy bodies coming from the orbit of Pluto. According to the new paper, it will reach its perihelion or the closest factor to the sun in 2031. Express.co.uk said it will come within 10.71 astronomical units of the sun (1 AU is equal to the average distance between the solar and the Earth), which places it past the orbit of Saturn.

This offers scientists an exciting possibility to study the comet up close(ish), the usage of tools like the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory. This observatory will be performing a sky survey to perceive many comets, even these a whole lot smaller than Bernardinelli-Bernstein. The observatory will also ring the comet as it allowed researchers to analyze extra about objects from the Oort Cloud and what they can tell us about the early photo voltaic system.

ALSO READ: Solar System Is Expecting a Visitor From the Oort Cloud Soon; Could It Be Among the Largest Comets Yet?

Studying the Comet Since Six Years Ago

Discoverer Gary Bernstein said in a statement that they had the privilege of finding possibly the biggest comet ever considered - or at least larger than any well-studied one - earlier this year. They caught it early enough for humans to watch it evolve as it approaches and warms up. According to Bernstein, the comet not visited the Solar System in more than 3 million years.

The said Bernardinelli-Bernstein comet is estimated to be 60 to 120 miles wide, which is 1,000 times the dimension of a regular comet. Astronomers printed the dimension when they first located it in June 2021. It is said to be bigger than the largest moon of Mars.

The comet, however, does not pose any harm to Earth. Its ride began at an estimated 40,000 au from the Sun, placed deep in the mysterious Oort Cloud. Scientists cited that the comet ought to sincerely be the greatest object from the mysterious Oort Cloud ever detected. It is also the first comet on the incoming route that is detected so some distance away.

RELATED ARTICLE: Over 100 Trillion Objects at the Oort Cloud Icy Edge of the Solar System Are From Interstellar Space Like Comet 2I/Borisov

Check out more news and information on Space in Science Times.
The whistle-blower whose revelations about Facebook have set off shock waves from Silicon Valley to Washington stepped into the spotlight this weekend.

Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, revealed her identity Sunday on 60 Minutes as the person who leaked tens of thousands of internal research documents to lawmakers, regulators and the media. She said they showed the social media giant was concealing information about its risks to users, and about its progress in combating hate and misinformation.

The thing I saw at Facebook over and over again was there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public, and what was good for Facebook, and Facebook over and over again chose to optimize for its own interests like making more money, she said in the interview.

She was also confirmed as the source for the Wall Street Journals recent investigative series based on the documents, called The Facebook Files.

Heres what we know about Haugen and her allegations regarding Facebook:

Who is the whistle-blower?

Haugen, 37, is a former product manager at Facebook. Her personal website says she is originally from Iowa City and studied electrical and computer engineering at Olin College, then received her M.B.A. from Harvard University.

She worked at Google, Pinterest and Yelp before landing at Facebook. In the 60 Minutes interview, she said she was recruited by the company in 2019 and said she would take the job only if she could work against misinformation. She was assigned to the civic integrity team.

In the 60 Minutes interview, Haugen said the root of the problem at Facebook started in 2018 when it changed its algorithms that pick and choose what users see. Its own research is showing that content that is hateful, that is divisive, that is polarizing  its easier to inspire people to anger than it is to other emotions, she said.

Haugens own turning point, she told 60 Minutes, came when Facebook dissolved her civic integrity team after the 2020 presidential election, and turned off safety systems that were used to reduce misinformation. She said she then realized, I dont trust that theyre willing to actually invest what needs to be invested to keep Facebook from being dangerous.

In response, according to the New York Times, she decided to copy reams of internal Facebook documents, taking them first to John Tye, founder of the legal nonprofit Whistleblower Aid. She shared many of them with the Wall Street Journal, as well as with some lawmakers, and has submitted them in a complaint to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

She submitted her resignation in April and left Facebook in May, according to the Wall Street Journal.

What are her allegations about Facebook?

Haugen has said the internal documents shed light on a number of allegedly harmful practices by Facebook. Among them:

 Misleading the public: According to 60 Minutes, Haugens complaints say the internal documents show that Facebook knows its platform amplifies hate, violence and political unrest, but that it conceals that from its users. She also told the program that she believes Facebooks reports on its regulation of COVID-19 misinformation and hate speech are not fully transparent.

 Misleading investors: Haugens complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission also allege Facebook has deceived investors by making public statements that dont square with its internal actions, according to the New York Times.

 Harm to teens: The documents also revealed that Facebook knew that Instagram, which it also owns, is harmful to teen girls. These revelations were published in a story by the Wall Street Journal last month.

 Affecting global societies: Haugen said the version of Facebook that exists today is tearing our societies apart and causing ethnic violence around the world. The 60 Minutes report cites 2018s genocide in Myanmar as an example; Facebook has acknowledged it failed to prevent its platform from being used to foment division and incite offline violence there.

 Contributing to political polarization that led to the Capitol riots: Haugen told 60 Minutes that the dissolving of her civic integrity team and turning off misinformation safety systems contributed to the U.S. Capitol riot in January. She called those actions a betrayal of democracy.

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How has Facebook responded?

Lena Pietsch, Facebooks director of policy communications, issued a statement in response to the 60 Minutes interview. In it, she said allowing hateful content on its platforms is bad for business and that the company has invested ... heavily in safety and security.

We continue to make significant improvements to tackle the spread of misinformation and harmful content, the statement reads. To suggest we encourage bad content and do nothing is just not true.

Facebook executive Nick Clegg on Sunday said blaming the Capitol riot on social media was ludicrous.

The responsibility for the violence on January 6, the insurrection that day, is squarely on the people who inflicted the violence and those who encouraged them, Clegg, the companys vice president for global affairs, said in a CNN interview.

What comes next?

Haugen will appear Tuesday at a Senate subcommittee to discuss approaches to updating childrens privacy regulations and other online consumer protection laws. According to the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data Securitys website, Haugen will share insights on Instagrams effects on teenagers, and how the social media outlet handles children who use it. The hearing, scheduled for 7 a.m. PDT, will be livestreamed at www.commerce.senate.gov.

A British parliamentary committee is also scheduled to hear from Haugen this month, the New York Times reported, citing Tye. She will then appear at the Web Summit technology conference in Lisbon, and meet with European policymakers in Brussels in November.

A federal antitrust lawsuit against Facebook is ongoing. Also, the company has said it will submit documents requested by a congressional panel investigating the role of major social media platforms in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Kellie Hwang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KellieHwang
Patrick T. Fallon/Agence France Presse

Wildfire smoke from Southern California was expected to drift into the Bay Area on Monday, causing hazy skies, officials said.

The Bay Area Air Quality District did not extend a Spare the Air alert, set for expiration on Sunday, and the air quality was not expected to be unhealthy. The agency updates an air quality index throughout the day.
UCSF biochemist and molecular biologist David Julius on Monday won the Nobel Prize in the physiology or medicine category.

Julius shared the prize with Ardem Patapoutian, a professor at Scripps Research in La Jolla (San Diego County) and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The two were cited for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch, according to the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute, which confers the awards.

This really unlocks one of the secrets of nature, said Thomas Perlmann, secretary-general of the Nobel Committee, in announcing the winners. Its actually something that is crucial for our survival, so its a very important and profound discovery.

At news conference Monday morning, Julius recognized his team. This is a great honor and, most importantly, its really a great honor for all the trainees who work with me and my colleagues, he said.

Julius, 65, said he discovered he won the prestigious prize at 2 a.m. when a relative called to tell him that a Nobel committee was trying to reach him.

I knew within about 15 minutes life is going to get pretty busy, so its been a busy morning, he said.

He joined the faculty at UCSF in 1989. Before that, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University in New York. He received a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1984.

His research focuses on how people sense cold, heat and chemical irritants, which has helped develop treatments for a wide range of disease conditions, including chronic pain, the Nobel committee said in a news release.

Using capsaicin, a chemical compound found in chili peppers, Julius was able to identify the protein that causes the sensation of burning pain.

Julius lab used gene cloning techniques to identify the protein that is activated by capsaicin. He found a microscopic pore in the cell membrane called an ion channel. Capsaicin apparently uses that opening to move sodium and calcium into the pain-sensing fibers on your tongue, causing a painful electrical current.

The chili pepper has millions of years of evolution, presumably to protect the pepper from being chewed on by a squirrel or a deer, he told The Chronicle in 2019. It takes advantage of how our body senses heat and its attempts to protect us from heat and inflammation.

Julius also studied the numbing pain sensations caused by horseradishes, like wasabi, and venoms from spiders, scorpions and snakes.

The research on scorpion venom may be useful as a tool to benefit people who suffer from chronic pain and inflammation and could lead to the development of new types of non-opioid pain relievers.

UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood lauded Julius work and his leadership on campus.

He absolutely exemplifies the tenacious curiosity that drives the universitys research mission, and that can lead to exciting and unexpected advances for human health, Hawgood said at a Monday news conference.

Julius told the New York Times that while growing up in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, he began considering a career in science while at Abraham Lincoln High School. A former minor-league baseball player turned physics teacher spoke to students about calculating the trajectory of a baseball.

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He was the person who made me think, Maybe I should do science, Julius said, according to the Times.

At UC-Berkeley and Columbia, the Times reported, he became interested in how magic mushrooms and LSD worked, and more broadly in how things from nature interact with human receptors.

Patapoutian, who was born in Lebanon, was recognized for finding pressure-sensitive sensors in cells that respond to mechanical stimulation, or touch.

A day to be thankful: this country gave me a chance with a great education and support for basic research. And for my labbies and collaborators for partnering with me, he tweeted Monday.

The prestigious award comes with a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (over $1.14 million). The prize money comes from a bequest left by the prizes creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1895.

The prize announced Monday is the first to be awarded this year. The other prizes are for outstanding work in the fields of physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Jessica Flores is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jessica.flores@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jesssmflores
WASHINGTON (AP)  Calls grew Monday for an end to the financial secrecy that has allowed many of the worlds richest and most powerful people to hide their wealth from tax collectors.

The outcry came after a report revealed the way that world leaders, billionaires and others have used shell companies and offshore accounts to keep trillions of dollars out of government treasuries over the past quarter-century, limiting the resources for helping the poor or combating climate change.

The report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists brought promises of tax reform and demands for resignations and investigations, as well as explanations and denials from those targeted.

The investigation, dubbed the Pandora Papers, was published Sunday and involved 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 countries.

Hundreds of politicians, celebrities, religious leaders and drug dealers have used shell companies or other tactics to hide their wealth and investments in mansions, exclusive beachfront property, yachts and other assets, according to a review of nearly 12 million files obtained from 14 firms located around the world.

The Pandora Papers is all about individuals using secrecy jurisdictions, which we would call tax havens, when the goal is to evade taxes,'' said Steve Wamhoff, director of federal tax policy at the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington.

The tax dodges can be legal.

Gabriel Zucman, a University of California, Berkeley, economist who studies income inequality and taxes, said in a statement one solution is obvious: Ban shell companies  corporations with no economic substance, whose sole purpose is to avoid taxes or other laws.

The legality is the true scandal,'' activist and science-fiction author Cory Doctorow wrote on Twitter. Each of these arrangements represents a risible fiction: a shell company is a business, a business is a person, that person resides in a file-drawer in the desk of a bank official on some distant treasure island.''

The more than 330 current and former politicians identified as beneficiaries of the secret accounts include Jordans King Abdullah II, former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, Czech Republic Prime Minister Andrej Babis, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso, and associates of both Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Some of those targeted strongly denied the claims.

Oxfam International, a British consortium of charities, applauded the Pandora Papers for exposing brazen examples of greed that deprived countries of tax revenue that could be used to finance programs and projects for the greater good.

This is where our missing hospitals are," Oxfam said in a statement. This is where the pay-packets sit of all the extra teachers and firefighters and public servants we need."

The European Commission, the 27-nation European Unions executive arm, said in response to the revelations that it is preparing new legislative proposals to enhance tax transparency and reinforce the fight against tax evasion.

The Pandora Papers are a follow-up to a similar project released in 2016 called the Panama Papers" compiled by the same journalistic group.

The latest bombshell is even more expansive, relying on data leaked from 14 different service providers doing business in 38 different jurisdictions. The records date back to the 1970s, but most are from 1996 to 2020.

The investigation dug into accounts registered in familiar offshore havens, including the British Virgin Islands, Seychelles, Hong Kong and Belize. But some were also in trusts set up in the U.S., including 81 in South Dakota and 37 in Florida.

The document trove reveals how powerful people are able to deploy anonymous shell companies, trusts and other artifices to conceal the true owners of corrupt or illicit assets. Legally sanctioned trusts, for example, can be subject to abuse by tax evaders and fraudsters who crave the privacy and autonomy they offer compared with traditional business entities.

Shell companies, a favored tax evasion vehicle, are often layered in complex networks that conceal the identity of the beneficial owners of assets  those who ultimately control an offshore company or other asset, or benefit from it financially, while other peoples names are listed on registration documents. The report said, for example, that an offshore company was used to buy a $4 million Monaco apartment for a woman who reportedly carried on a secret relationship with Putin.

While a beneficial owner may be required to pay taxes in the home country, its often difficult for authorities to discover that an offshore account exists, especially if offshore governments dont cooperate.

A Treasury Department agency working on new regulations for a U.S. beneficial ownership directory has been debating whether partnerships, trusts and other business entities should be included. Transparency advocates say they must or else criminals will devise new types of paper companies for slipping through the cracks.

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International bodies like the G7 group of wealthiest nations and the Financial Action Task Force have begun initiatives in recent years to improve ownership transparency, but the efforts have moved at a modest pace.

Pointing to the secrecy behind many of the tax dodges, some critics are calling for a global wealth registry that would make sham investments in shell companies public, embarrassing politicians or celebrities worried about their reputations.

In the U.S., the House passed legislation this summer that would require multinational corporations to publicly disclose their tax payments and other key financial information on a country-by-country basis. Anti-money laundering and corporate transparency measures were tucked into legislation funding the Defense Department; it has yet to be implemented by the Treasury Department.

The Biden administration is also pushing for U.S banks to be required to report customers account information to the IRS as part of the $3.5 trillion economic and social spending package before Congress. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other officials say its an important way to prevent tax dodging by wealthy individuals and companies, but it has raised fierce opposition from banking industry groups and Republican lawmakers, who maintain it would violate privacy and create unfair liability for banks.

Tax havens have already come under considerable scrutiny this year.

In July, negotiators from 130 countries agreed to a global minimum tax of at least 15% to prevent big multinational corporations from minimizing taxes by shifting profits from high- to low-tax jurisdictions such as Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. Details of the plan by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, have yet to be worked out; it's supposed to take effect in 2023.

And while the plan would cover huge multinational corporations, it would not include the shell companies and other entities behind the schemes described in the Pandora Papers.

___

Associated Press writers Stan Choe in New York and John Rice in Mexico City contributed to this report.

___

This story was first published on October 4, 2021. It was updated on October 5, 2021 to remove a photo with a caption that erroneously identified Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan as one of 330 current and former politicians who reportedly benefitted from secret accounts. The report identified Khans associates as beneficiaries, but not Khan himself.
Ive recently become very interested in the question of beef. Not regarding the flavor per se, but the why of it. Nearly 30 years after the debut of the sticky ad slogan, Beef. Its Whats for Dinner, beef reigns in American home and restaurant kitchens. Last year, beef sales in this country soared, up almost 24% from 2019 as Americans stocked up on ground beef and sought takeout burgers during the first year of the pandemic. As Michelin star announcements have come in, Ive also noticed that it seems almost obligatory for starred restaurants to have some cuts of A5 Miyazaki Wagyu on-hand. (With the noted exception of Atelier Crenn, which does not serve red meat, though lab-grown meat will be on the table once it gains regulatory approval.)

In my first year of restaurant criticism, almost every fine dining restaurant I went to served beef as the savory, hearty climax to the meal, or offered it as a luxurious upgrade. Before Dominique Crenn took meat off her restaurants menus in 2018, her flagship Atelier Crenn served dishes like Wagyu ribeye with porcini mushroom and slivers of kombu seaweed. At Manresa, there was the Wagyu with nasturtiums and matsutake mushroom; at the French Laundry, charcoal-grilled Wagyu with a potato frittata; at Maum, pristine slices of Wagyu beef rib galbi with abalone rice.

So will Americans ever reach terminal velocity on beef, or will we remain increasingly trapped in its orbit, forever bound by this fixation? There are definitely lots of environmental reasons to drastically reduce our outsized consumption of cows, as the editors of food publication Epicurious pointed out early this year when they announced that they would stop running beef recipes. And debates over reducing beef consumption can get political, fast. If last years trend continues, we may never stop gobbling up steaks and hamburgers as long as we have access to those things. For a small glimpse into the why of beef, I spoke to a few fine dining chefs from around the Bay Area (and northern California) about why they use it.

Eating beef is such an American thing, said Matthew Kammerer, the chef at the Harbor House Inn in Elk. Like going out for a steak and eating it all is a source of pride: It goes hand in hand with luxury in our country. if you do something that you should be rewarded for, get a steak dinner. Its just how a lot of us were raised. On the day I dined at Harbor House, beef happened to be on the menu: sourced from a cow that feasted on salty grasses fed by sea mist, the meat was faintly briny.

(Beef) goes along with peoples perception of value, said Kim Alter, the chef-owner of Nightbird in San Francisco. Even if her tasting menu ($185) features another kind of meat  lets say a heritage breed of acorn-fed Mangalitsa pork  diners might complain that theyre being shortchanged. On one notable occasion at Nightbird, the restaurant received the worst customer reviews its ever had on the night it served pork.

No matter how lovely of a story her servers can tell about the origins of her non-beef dishes, Alter said, its stuck in peoples heads that when theyre spending a certain amount of money, they have to get beef. The meat seems to have an inescapable gravitas to it.

These days, Alter keeps a secret stash of Flannery beef in her arsenal, prepped for diners whose preferences lean bovine.

Richard Lee, the chef de cuisine at San Franciscos Saison, echoed Alters experience. On Saisons $178 tasting menu, you may see antelope, duck hearts or pork at the savory finish line, though the challenge for him lies in convincing diners that these things are fancy enough for the occasion. Im trying to create a menu that would please every diner. Some are here to eat the weird things, be inspired. Then there are the diners who save up for their anniversary  for whom this is a once-in-a-year kind of restaurant. You have to find that balance of making it exciting for them.

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Michelin expectations also have an effect on the menu, said Paul Chung, the culinary director of the Saison Hospitality group. Generally speaking, a lot of diners, when they go to Michelin restaurants in New York, its expected to have some luxury cut of beef on the menu or as a supplement. That audience, who most certainly come to the Bay Area just to eat at restaurants like Saison, live for those touches. When you book a dinner at Saison, youre invited to add Wagyu to your menu for a $58 surcharge.

According to Kammerer, who came to Harbor House from Saison, beef is a rarity on his menus. Its not the most obvious fit on a Mendocino County-specific menu full of foraged kelps and seasonal fish and mollusks. Early on, at our ($220-245) price point, there was pressure: to get white asparagus from Holland, caviar, imported beef that came in plastic wrap from Japan, he said. But hes proud of the work his team has done to make turnips and potatoes taste worthy of a destination restaurants tasting menu.

(Chung)s Korean, Im Chinese, and in those cultures, youre used to using everything, Lee said. Using weird cuts sparks both of our interests more than taking that ribeye and putting truffles on it. Thats a delicious combination, he said, but it doesnt exactly inspire them.

But in a way, being recognized by institutions like Michelin, while seemingly limiting, could lead to more opportunities to become outspoken on menu matters. For instance, the Michelin-starred Singlethread team will soon be opening a 100% plant-based restaurant in Healdsburg. Lee and Chung equate awards to public trust: Once they have enough, they can make bigger leaps  maybe even start serving insects, like Noma in Copenhagen. Im looking forward to that menu, whenever it comes.
Kitchen Istanbul was always one of those good neighborhood restaurants: not too fancy, the sort of place you could count on walking into and getting a table. For the last eight years, it has served reliably tasty Turkish dishes like lamb kebabs and lentil soup for its Inner Richmond neighbors. The main customer base for Kitchen Istanbul, according to owner Emrah Kilicoglu, was people 65 and older who live in the Presidio.

That all changed during the pandemic. Kitchen Istanbul has now transformed from a sleepy neighborhood haven into the citys buzziest destination for wine. Its an oenophiles paradise, with a thrilling selection of wines from France, Italy, California, Germany and beyond, particularly rich in allocated bottles that are hard to find elsewhere, and at exceedingly fair prices.

On any given night  but especially Mondays, when many restaurant workers have the night off  Kitchen Istanbul is teeming with hospitality-industry folks. A recent Monday saw groups of co-workers from Spruce, Saison and Sons & Daughters, each at their own table, awash in bottles. Local sommeliers celebrate their birthdays here. For winemakers coming into the city from Napa or Sonoma, its become the requisite dinner pit stop. The spirit recalls Elaines, that bygone New York restaurant that was the place to see and be seen  but instead of movie stars, Kitchen Istanbuls fan base is wine-and-food professionals, which consider it an insider secret.

The metamorphosis began as an accident. Like many restaurateurs, Kilicoglu transitioned his space into a retail shop during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. He thought that selling bottles of wine to passersby on Clement Street would be his last-ditch effort to stay in business. He had no idea that it would lead to a reinvention of his business.

Jen Fedrizzi/Special to the Chronicle

Walking into Kitchen Istanbul today, a wine geek would immediately discern the wealth of prestigious French bottlings, like the Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage Blanc, a waxy white wine from the Rhone Valley, or premier-cru Pinot Noir from Burgundys Domaine de lArlot. But this isnt your average trophy-wine selection. Alongside these classics are bottles from newer, countercultural heroes, many of them natural. Theres Pearl Morissette, a venerated winery on the Canadian side of Niagara. And theres Oriol Artigas, a natural-wine zeitgeist from Catalonia.

The vibrant selection of California wines spans practically the whole stylistic spectrum, from old-school Napa Cabernet (Mayacamas) to plush Russian River Pinot Noir (DuMol) to new wineries that arent yet widely known (Dunites).

Kilicoglu has pulled off an impressive feat, maintaining a wine selection that will still hold plenty of appeal for those Presidio dwellers who kept Kitchen Istanbul in business before the pandemic, while simultaneously expanding into a list that will spur newfound discoveries in even the most seasoned wine nerd.

I wanted to remain a neighborhood place but also become an industry destination, Kilicoglu says.

He began working at this restaurant 13 years ago, soon after moving to the Bay Area from Turkey. Back then, it was known as Troya. Kilicoglu got a job as a busboy.

Jen Fedrizzi/Special to the Chronicle

Eventually, he worked his way up to becoming a co-owner, and then became the full owner. (His former business partners opened a different restaurant, also called Troya, on Fillmore Street.) In late 2013, Kilicoglu reopened the restaurant at the corner of Clement Street and Fifth Avenue under a new name, Kitchen Istanbul.

He was interested in wine, having enjoyed drinking Eastern European bottles while in university in Turkey. Yet in the early years of Kitchen Istanbul, Kilicoglu says he didnt know very much about it. Hungry to learn, he attended every industry tasting event that he could. Anytime a sales representative came in, hoping to sell wine to the restaurant, Kilicoglu would pepper him or her with questions about growing regions. Eventually, he convinced some reps  including Andrew Nelson, now a co-owner of the wine bar Habibi  to hold informal wine classes for him and his staff.

Kilicoglu became obsessed. He started collecting bottles faster than he could drink them. It got a little out of control, he says.

As his passion grew, the Kitchen Istanbul wine list got better and better. It punched way above its weight, with interesting wines from Turkey, Lebanon and the Republic of Georgia alongside American standbys like Heitz Zinfandel and Robert Sinskey Pinot Noir. At its pre-COVID peak, the restaurant carried about 300 different wines, far more than what youd find at your average casual restaurant. But it never advertised itself as having a wine program in the way that fancier restaurants often do. Kilicoglu didnt call himself a sommelier.

Then, in March 2020, the world came to a halt.

That was a dark time for Kilicoglu. He felt a lot of anxiety about his staff, who had to collect unemployment when the restaurant closed. (His four kitchen employees have worked with him for 13 years, he says.) Kitchen Istanbul had never offered takeout before, and Kilicoglu wasnt even sure that takeout could keep them in business anyway, given the high fees levied by third-party delivery apps.

I was ready to give up, he says, and close the restaurant altogether.

But his wife, Ayca, urged him to try takeout anyway, so he did. He did the deliveries himself, driving around San Francisco to drop off moussaka and Turkish lamb chops. It helped, but not a lot.

It wasnt until the spring of 2020 that the thought occurred to him: Why not open a bottle shop? Even if customers couldnt dine in, they could stop inside to pick up a bottle of wine.

Jen Fedrizzi/Special to the Chronicle

Rather than just setting out some wine bottles on a table, though, Kilicoglu decided to transform Kitchen Istanbul completely. Ayca, an artist who has a thriving scarf business, set to work on a re-brand, designing whimsical merch like tote bags with blind contour drawings of faces. She updated the logo on the restaurants awning, switching out a loud, all-caps typeface for a quieter, handwritten cursive. Kilicoglu painted the walls a lighter color and hung playful, brightly colored art on the walls. He moved tables out of the front section of the restaurant and nailed shelves into the walls there instead.

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And he supercharged the selection, doubling the number of wines he carried and slashing the markups. He now charges about 25% less than he did pre-COVID, he says. Kilicoglu brought out wines from his personal stash, like Syrah from Pierre Gonon, a beloved winemaker in Frances Rhone Valley, or Sancerre from Edmond Vatan, a wine made in miniscule quantities. He launched a wine club, with an option for three bottles a month ($95) or four ($175, and it always includes Champagne).

It took several months, but then the word got out.

Now, Kitchen Istanbuls Instagram grid reads like a whos who of the local scene, with restaurant owners like Shelley Lindgren of A16 and Paul Einbund of the Morris appearing near winemakers like Steve and Jill Matthiasson of Matthiasson Wines and Matthew Rorick of Forlorn Hope. The wine geeks, it seems, cant stay away.

But you dont have to be a wine geek to appreciate what Kitchen Istanbul is doing right now. Most of the few dozen people who have joined Kilicoglus wine club are laypeople, he says, and hes gotten to know their palates so well that he personalizes their shipments every month, writing handwritten notes. (Prospective members can sign up at the restaurant or by emailing Kilicoglu.) Even though hes charging less for wine than he used to, hes selling a lot more of it.

If you serve interesting wines at reasonable prices, theyre asking before they leave to buy another bottle to take home, Kilicoglu says.

Jen Fedrizzi/Special to the Chronicle

Of course, it isnt only the awe-inspiring wine list that keeps people coming back. Its Kilicoglu. His brand of warm, gracious, accommodating service feels like the antidote we all needed to a long season of isolation and uncertainty. His eyes light up as he describes a wine, and theres no trace of snobbery or exclusivity in his language. I get thirsty just listening to him speak.

There are a few things you can count on always being at Kitchen Istanbul. There will always be a Syrah available by the glass, since Kilicoglu believes its gamy, savory elements are a perfect match with dishes on the menu like braised beef with smoky eggplant puree. Right now the Syrah comes from Darling, a new Sonoma County label. And one by-the-glass slot will always be held by a Turkish wine. Currently, its Karasakz, a spicy red grape variety, from a winery called Pasaeli.

In many other ways, however, the restaurant is still in flux. Kilicoglu has aspirations for growing his wine club. Once social-distancing measures ease and he can fit more seats inside, he hopes to bring back his communal tables and offer a lighter menu there, with more of a wine-bar feel.

In fact, more than a decade in, Kilicoglu says he feels like the restaurant is just now in a kind of beginning.

Think about a place youve been coming every day for 13 years. You think you know it so well, he says. But now I feel like this is a new place.

Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicles wine critic. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley
A rising tide of workers requesting religious exemptions to workplace vaccination mandates is making it difficult for employers to discern legitimate requests from spurious ones. Its raising questions about how to accommodate workers once the requests are granted. California will become the first state in the U.S. to require children in schools to be vaccinated against COVID-19, starting Jan. 1 or July 1, depending on when the vaccines are approved by the FDA for younger age groups. While COVID is expected to linger for years, experts are hopeful that in the Bay Area, the worst may be in the past. And the drugmaker Merck has announced that its experimental oral antiviral drug halved the risk of COVID hospitalizations and deaths in a new study.

Resources on COVID-19 and Californias reopening: For detailed maps and new city-by-city Bay Area data, check out The Chronicles Coronavirus Tracker. To get regular updates on our coverage, sign up for our coronavirus newsletter.

Latest updates:

FDA gives thumbs up to new rapid home test with huge volume expectation: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday issued an emergency use authorization for an ACON Laboratories COVID-19 rapid home test, saying the step is expected to double rapid-at home testing capacity in the U.S. over the next several weeks. The product is an over-the-counter antigen test, the latest on a growing list of tests available for home use. The FDA said on its website that its action should significantly increase the availability of rapid, at-home tests ... By years end, the manufacturer plans to produce more than 100 million tests per month, and this number will rise to 200 million per month by February 2022. The FDA thus far has authorized more than 400 COVID-19 tests and sample collection devices, including over the counter home tests.

Largest health care provider in N.Y. sheds unvaccinated workers: Northwell Health in New York announced on Monday that 1,400 employees  less than 2% of its staff  had to leave their jobs because they refused to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, the New York Times reported. New York is requiring the states more than 650,000 hospital and nursing home workers to be vaccinated. As in California, the mandate has prompted tens of thousands of employees to get their shots. New York does not allow employees an option for weekly testing or exemptions for religious reasons, though the latter is being challenged in the courts. California does allow religious and medical exemptions under its health-care worker mandate.

S.F. to count homeless people for first time since 2019: San Francisco will conduct its next formal count of homeless people in January 2022, a citywide effort that will finally give officials a sense of how the pandemic has affected the number of people living on the streets. The biennial Point in Time Count, a federal requirement in nearly every major community, was canceled this year due to the pandemic. San Franciscos latest homeless tally is from 2019, and thus does not capture the tumult of the past 18 months. Read the full story here.

Oaklands vaccine mandate for city staff goes into effect: All Oakland city mployees must be fully vaccinated by Nov. 29 as a condition of employment, unless theyve applied for an exemption, under a new policy effective Monday. Employees have until Nov. 15 to report and verify their vaccination statuses. The new mandate applies to all city staff, volunteers and interns. The city is hosting three free vaccination clinics at City Hall, and workers get two hours paid time to get their shots. Vaccinations are safe and effective and, at this point, essential; they are free and easy to get. I firmly believe the most responsible action for us to take as an employer  particularly a public employer  is to require our employees to be vaccinated, said City Administrator Ed Reiskin.

Fauci encourages Christmas gatherings for vaccinated: Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations top infectious disease expert, on Monday walked back comments he made over the weekend that said people should be cautious about gathering over the holidays. On Sunday, Fauci said during an appearance on Face The Nation that its too soon to tell whether it will be safe for Americans to get together over Christmas. On Monday, he walked back those comments during a CNN appearance, saying, I will be spending Christmas with my family. I encourage people, particularly the vaccinated people who are protected, to have a good, normal Christmas with your family.

Pentagon civilian workers have to get vaccinated: All civilians who work for the Defense Department and the military services must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Nov. 22, the Associated Press reports. Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said the new guidelines released Monday are in line with the presidential directive issued last month requiring federal agencies to implement vaccine requirements. Vaccinating (department) civilian employees against COVID-19 will save lives and allow for the defense of our nation, said Hicks. The Pentagon earlier this year required all members of the military to get vaccines, and each service set up its own dates for the active duty and reserves to comply with the mandate.

First Santa Cruz County COVID deaths among vaccinated people: Two vaccinated women with underlying medical conditions have died from COVID-19, the first deaths from the disease among Santa Cruz County residents who had received shots against the coronavirus, officials reported Monday. Previously, 213 county residents had died from COVID, all unvaccinated. One of the women, in her mid-60s, died Sept. 3. The other, in her early 70s, died Sept. 24. County officials urged everyone with underlying medical conditions to get a booster shot against the coronavirus, and unvaccinated people age 12 and older to get vaccinated immediately.

COVID should not be different, Newsom says: Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday doubled down on his insistence that California school kids get vaccinated against COVID-19 once the vaccines are approved for younger age groups. CA will require our students to be vaccinated. Why? Because its the right thing to do. It will keep our kids safe, Newsom tweeted Monday. We already require vaccines for the measles, mumps, and more. COVID shouldnt be any different.

National Guard helping hard-hit hospitals in parts of California: The California National Guard has dispatched medical teams to hospitals straining under COVID-19 pressure in Northern California and the Central Valley, media accounts report. Surges of COVID-19 cases and deaths led to activation of teams of 16 Guard members to help health care staffs at Memorial Hospital and Mercy Hospital Southwest in Bakersfield and Mercy Medical Center Redding, the reports said. Adventist Health in Bakersfield said it anticipated Guard help also.

COVID death toll in U.S. tops 700,000: U.S. deaths from the coronavirus have surpassed 700,000, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. The milestone was reached on Friday. Deaths continue averaging about 1,900 a day, despite wide availability of vaccines, with the last 100,000 deaths coming after the shots became available to everyone as young as 12. The four largest states have recorded more than 50,000 deaths each: California, New York, Texas and Florida. The latter two  with governers that have disavowed masking and other mitigation measures  account for 15% of the U.S. population, but more than 30% of U.S. deaths since the nation crossed the 600,000 threshold. Dr. David Dowdy, a Johns Hopkins infectious disease epidemiologist, told the Associated Press that in that last 100,000, at least 7 in 10 were among unvaccinated people. If we had been more effective in our vaccination, then I think its fair to say, we could have prevented 90% of those deaths, he said. President Biden called the 700,000 deaths a painful milestone.

Children represent nearly 27% of new weekly COVID cases in U.S.: There were 173,469 child COVID-19 cases reported in the United States in the week ending Thursday, with children representing 26.7% of reported cases overall for the week, according to the latest data collected by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Pediatric cases have been declining since peaking at over 250,000 in the week ending Sep. 2, but still remain high. Over the past two weeks, there was a 7% increase in the cumulated number of child COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic.

CDC says guidance for holidays is coming soon: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is updating its guidance on holiday celebrations and travel, after saying a technical update posted on Friday is not the current information.

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EU regulator OKs booster shots: The European Medicines Agency, which makes recommendations to EU nations, on Monday endorsed administering booster shots of the Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine for people 18 and older, saying the third shot may be considered at least 6 months after the second dose, the Associated Press reports. The agencys human medicines committee also said it supports a booster of either the Pfizer or the Moderna vaccine to people with severely weakened immune systems at least 28 days after their second shot. The agency cited studies showed the booster increased ability to produce antibodies against the coronavirus in organ transplant patients with weakened immune systems. Some EU countries already have begun administering booster shots

Heart condition still very rare, but more frequent after second shot in men: A second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 can nearly triple the chances of a rare heart condition, myocarditis, in young men, according to a new study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine. Still, the condition occurs extremely rarely, at 5.8 cases per million after second doses in men, with an average age of 25 years. After just one vaccinet dose, it was 0.8 cases per million, not more than normally would be seen in that age group.

Northern Californias largest school district requires staff to be vaccinated or test weekly: Elk Grove Unified School District, outside of Sacramento, as of Monday requires employees to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or register for weekly coronavirus testing, according to a memo from Superintendent Christopher R. Hoffman.

N.Y.C. school employees race to get vaccinated ahead of deadline: New York Citys mandate that nearly all public school employees get vaccinated against COVID-19 led thousands of employees to get at least one dose of a vaccine before Mondays deadline for them to do so, the New York Times reported. About 95% of full-time school employees have received at least one vaccine dose to date.

Delta variant caused a spike in nursing home deaths, study finds: Nursing homes across the country reported nearly 1,800 COVID-19 deaths in August, according to a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Deaths attributable to COVID-19 increased at a faster rate in nursing homes than among all others in the community between July and August 2021, the report found. Thats the highest monthly death toll since February for nursing homes.

J&J plans to ask FDA to authorize booster shot, report says: Johnson & Johnson is planning to ask the Food and Drug Administration to authorize a booster dose of the companys single-shot COVID-19 vaccine, the New York Times reported, citing unnamed people familiar with J&Js plans.

Californians reportedly arrested in Hawaii over fake COVID test results: Hawaii authorities say they arrested two California residents who submitting false COVID-19 test results to avoid the mandatory traveler quarantine. According to the Associated Press, a 34-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman posted fake negative test results into the Hawaii Safe Travels portal and traveled from Los Angeles to Lihue on an American Airlines flight last week, Kauai police said. They were arrested and subsequently released, with an investigation pending, and caught a flight back to Los Angeles, officials said.

Studies indicate newer variants may spread better through the air: Two new studies suggest that newer coronavirus variants like alpha and delta are more contagious because the coronavirus is evolving to transmit better through the air. Experts said several factors may facilitate the high transmissibility of the variants  including that lower levels can cause infection, or that they replicate faster, or that higher levels are exhaled into aerosols  or all three. The findings indicate that better masks might be needed in some circumstances, the New York Times reports.

Demands for religious exemptions rise as vaccine mandates kick in: As local, state and federal vaccine mandates kick in, more workplaces are requiring employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19. But some workers are invoking their religion to avoid getting the shot, setting off a tense dynamic thats resulting in employers having to discern between legitimate and not-so-legitimate requests for exemptions, and working out ways to accommodate those who are granted such requests on a case-by-case basis. Read the full story.
Jason Geller, an employment attorney in San Francisco, had a busy week handling calls and meetings with employers who had a crucial inquiry: How to best navigate requests from employees seeking religious exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine?

A lot more employers are starting to get prepared for the process of evaluating whether somebody has a sincerely held religious belief or not, said Geller, who works at the San Francisco office of law firm Fisher Phillips. Ive been getting a ton more calls on this matter lately.

As local, state and federal vaccine mandates kick in, more workplaces are requiring employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19. But some workers are invoking their religion to avoid getting the shot, setting off a tense dynamic thats resulting in employers having to discern between legitimate and not-so-legitimate requests for exemptions, and working out ways to accommodate those who are granted such requests on a case-by-case basis.

No major religions have publicly opposed COVID-19 vaccination. Some religious leaders have even endorsed it: Pope Francis called getting vaccinated an act of love, and rabbis in Orthodox Jewish communities across the country have urged their followers to take the vaccine.

In some instances not related to the coronavirus, an expression of belief can prohibit a medical intervention. Jehovahs Witnesses, for instance, do not allow blood transfusions, so followers can reject that procedure. (The faith says it is not opposed to the COVID-19 vaccine.) The Christian Science church leaves the vaccine decision up to its individual members, while Seventh-day Adventists encourage getting the shot.

The choice between personal freedom and societal well-being has resulted in workplace tumult as some employees choose to remain unvaccinated  sometimes because of misunderstandings and misinformation about the vaccine. But some workers have legitimate concerns about getting the shots on medical grounds or because of personal convictions that take the form of ideology or faith. This leaves employers wrestling with the knotty issue of where to draw the line between individual prerogative and the common good.

Golden State Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins, a holdout for weeks before reversing course and announcing he got vaccinated, had been denied a religious exemption request from the NBA. Hundreds of San Francisco police officers remain unvaccinated and are awaiting decisions on their religious exemption requests while the city figures out staffing duties.

Jana Asenbrennerova/Special to The Chronicle

Vaccine mandates have been legal in the U.S. for more than a century. In 1905, the case of Jacobson vs. Massachusetts, the Cambridge, Mass., Board of Healths authority, was upheld in requiring vaccinations against smallpox during an epidemic at the time.

Whats crucial about this law is that it can be invoked in the setting of a public health emergency even if it infringes on personal liberties, said Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious diseases doctor and professor at UCSF. And the COVID-19 pandemic is very much a public health emergency.

On the other hand, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 grants people the right to religious exemptions based on protections set in place against religious discrimination in the workplace. For workers who have sincerely held religious beliefs, employers are required to provide reasonable accommodations unless doing so poses an undue hardship, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

A way to make granting a religious exemption easier would entail looking at the medical history of a person, Gandhi said.

Does this person have a demonstrated history of vaccine refusal because of religious beliefs? Have they refused the flu vaccine or any other kind of vaccine before based on religious reasons? she said. These are the questions Id be asking.

But cracking down on those who may be attempting to misuse religious exemptions will be hard because it can be challenging to determine what a sincerely held religious belief is, said Dorit Reiss, a professor at UC Hastings who specializes in vaccine law.

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Employers cant limit them to organized religion, because that would discriminate against those with sincere beliefs that are not a part of an organized religion, she said.

Jana Asenbrennerova/Special to The Chronicle

After granting approval of a religious exemption request, employers will then decide on what a reasonable accommodation looks like for employees. United Airlines, for example, said it would put hundreds of its unvaccinated staff on unpaid leave. Several United employees have filed lawsuits against the company.

Geller said just recently he had 10 employer clients asking him for advice on religious exemption requests. His law firm exclusively represents employers, and Geller said the inquiries represented a range of industries, including retail, education and manufacturing, among others.

He said legal challenges were already on the rise, and that most would center not on whether a persons religious belief was sincere, but rather whether the employer was capable of accommodating an exemption request.

I think given that COVID is in full force and does present a serious health risk to people, employers are going to have strong arguments that therell be undue burden or undue hardship in accommodating some religious exemptions, especially where spread is likely in the workplace.

Shwanika Narayan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: shwanika.narayan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @shwanika Instagram: @shwanika
In just the past week, three people died at three different stations inside the vast Bay Area Rapid Transit system from causes believed to be drug overdoses. Efforts to resuscitate them, including by administering the opioid reversal drug Narcan, were unsuccessful, reports said.

The deaths occurred in Fremont, Daly City, and Pleasant Hill, cities in three different counties  Alameda, San Mateo, and Contra Costa, respectively  that are all miles from San Franciscos toughest streets.

Reports like these of drug overdose deaths, especially involving the synthetic opioid fentanyl, are becoming increasingly frequent in other parts of the Bay Area than just San Francisco, where the deadly impact of the opioid epidemic has been most pronounced over the last decade.

In recent years, fentanyl, which is exponentially stronger and more lethal than heroin but cheaper to produce, has saturated the regions drug market and driven up the rate of opioid-related deaths. Every Bay Area county except Napa has been affected so far, according to the Chronicles analysis of data from the California Department of Public Healths overdose dashboard.

As California began to see a growing number of overdoses from fentanyl and fentanyl analogs, the departments opioid safety workgroup warned first responders: With fentanyl in our drug supply, first responders are likely to encounter it on the job and may have safety concerns.

The department did not respond to requests for an interview by publication time.

Across California, more than 5,000 peoples deaths were related to opioid overdoses in 2020, about 72% of which involved fentanyl, data shows. San Francisco has the highest death rate among all California counties, at about 49 per 100,000 people.

In the Bay Area, Sonoma County has also experienced spikes in opioid-related deaths, notably since 2018. County health officials reported during a March meeting that overdoses were more prevalent among people in their mid-30s and 40s, and in the Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa and Sonoma Valley areas.

Dr. Sarah Mars, a UCSF researcher who has authored several studies on fentanyl and the opioid epidemic has noted the close relationship between spiking deaths and the high potency of fentanyl, which is sold and consumed in various forms, and often mixed  sometimes without the users knowledge  with other drugs such as cocaine or heroin.

There are also many counterfeit opioid pills in circulation which contain hidden fentanyl at much higher doses than the prescription medication they are pretending to be, she said.

The Chronicles analysis of Bay Area data shows opioid-related death rates were relatively stable until late 2010s, which is when experts say fentanyl broke through to U.S. regions west of the Mississippi. Fentanyl-related deaths made up just 8% of all opioid-related deaths in the Bay Area in 2015, compared with 79% in 2020.

Along with deaths, emergency department visits related to opioids also have risen in the Bay Area and statewide in recent years, but not hospitalizations, though San Franciscos opioid-related hospitalization rates trended higher than those in other counties.

In explaining its approach to the opioid epidemic, the California Department of Health says its important to recognize that overdoses in the state are closely tied to other problems such as social inequities, homelessness, mental illness and despair that are more common among the states most marginalized communities.

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To people experiencing such problems, seeking treatment at a hospital, which can be costly, is simply not an option, said Kristen Marshall, manager of the Drug Overdose Prevention and Education Project, a city-funded overdose response program. Aside from the costs, there is also a stigma associated with seeking care for addiction and overdose.

People who use drugs do not want to engage with emergency and medical systems because of the harm and rough treatment they experience at the hands of paramedics and clinicians in the hospitals, she said. With emergency department visits, though, people who are overdosing often dont have a choice to refuse, even though they may want to for the same reasons.

As it stands, most hospitals dont have the resources that people need or want, such as access to permanent housing and treatment options, and often have law enforcement or private security present in their facilities, which can further discourage people from seeking care, Marshall said.

Hospitals are also under-resourced and their workers exhausted, she added. Theyre forced to triage people out if the acute issue is dealt with. The purpose of ERs is to deal with emergencies, and if there is no other medical issue other than the overdose, the hospital says their job is done and discharges the person.

Some facilities in the region, including Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and the UCSF Medical Center, provide excellent substance abuse services, Marshall said. But like any group of workers serving our communities, they can only do so much in the face of massive structural inequities and systemic violence.

Without investment in addressing the root causes of the epidemic and providing dignified treatment options, she added, the hospitals would be completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of overdoses that occur in our communities.

Yoohyun Jung is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: yoohyun.jung@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @yoohyun_jung
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) 

Former University of South Carolina President Bob Caslen who resigned after less than two years in the wake of a plagiarism and misidentification controversy during a commencement speech called taking the job the biggest regret of his life in a newspaper interview.

As his problems grew in May, Caslen wrote in an email to a university vice president that he admired his perseverance staying at the university and in the state so long, according to emails obtained by the Post and Courier newspaper through a public records request.

I cant help but comment on this community and its hostility. By far the most hostile and destructive community Ive ever been a part of. Not sure how anyone can stand being here," Caslen wrote.

The newspaper reviewed nearly 3,800 pages of Caslen's email and in an interview Thursday, the retired Army general who was superintendent of West Point and served nearly 43 years in the military told the paper he still felt that way nearly five months later.

You have a good description of what I felt and what my wife felt, Caslen said. If I were a member of the South Carolina community, I would ask myself, Why does a guy like him whos been in all these different communities throughout his entire life, feel this way about our community?

Trustees hired Caslen in July 2019 after a contentious search that initially saw him rejected with three other finalists and the board unanimously vote to reopen the president search, Critics said Caslen was inexperienced in running a large public university and knew nothing about the school.

Gov. Henry McMaster, an ex officio trustee, stepped in and asked board members to hire Caslen, even as the school's top two living donors asked for a no vote because the process had become too political.

The Democrats hate us. We took their castle, McMaster's Chief of Staff Trey Walked texted to a trustee after they hired Caslen on an 11-8 vote.

Caslen's resignation came after a May 7 commencement speech where he used two paragraphs without attribution on being resilient from a Navy SEAL's speech.

In that same address, Caslen called the school The University of California.

Caslen blamed the misidentification on being tired and distracted after a long speech in the heat. He told the newspaper he took responsibility for the plagiarism because he is a man of integrity and what he says ultimately is his responsibility.

Im not going to throw my speechwriter under the bus, but, having said that, speechwriters normal responsibility is to ensure that whatever is said by the boss is legitimate," Caslen said.

As criticism grew after the speech, he wrote to then-South Carolina State University President James Clark, who was fired two months later by his trustees after five years on the job.

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This place sucks so bad, Caslen wrote. I dont know how anyone can stand it. At some point you have to ask why do you put up with this stuff. It is insane. I dont know how you can stand living here.

Caslen offered his resignation several times after the speech and it was accepted five days later. When that happened, his emails showed he made plans to move two hours later.

I want to get out of here as quickly as possible, he wrote to a staffer.

Former University of South Carolina President Harris Pastides is leading the schoo l temporarily during the search for a new president. Caslen said the next person offered the job should review his experiences carefully.

Of course, they will say, Well, youre not a Bob Caslen and youre the right fit and he was the wrong fit,  Caslen told The Post and Courier. My advice is make sure you come with your eyes open because I regret coming to the University of South Carolina.
MANILA, Philippines (AP)  The popular mayor of the Philippine capital registered his candidacy for the presidency in next years elections on Monday, promising to ease coronavirus outbreaks, fix the countrys battered economy and heal deep political divisions.

Mayor Isko Moreno is one of several aspirants in what is expected to be a crowded and politically hostile race to succeed Rodrigo Duterte. Senator and retired boxing star Manny Pacquiao filed his certificate of candidacy Friday, and Duterte's daughter is among others likely to seek the presidency in the May 9 elections.

The 46-year-old Moreno, who grew up in Manilas slums and at one point scavenged for food as a child, is expected to bank on his rags-to-power life story, movie star looks and widely praised projects in Manila, including restoring order in its chaotic streets and public markets.

But hes up against formidable politicians and celebrities, including whichever candidate Duterte and his ruling party will endorse.

We are too divisive and indecisive (and) that caused the stomping of our economy on top of the pandemic, Moreno told reporters. My countrymen, give me a chance to heal our country for a bright future.

Dutertes successor stands to inherit enormous problems led by the pandemic, which caused the countrys worst economic recession, long-entrenched poverty and decades-long communist and Muslim insurgencies. The next leader will also take over in a politically charged atmosphere with Duterte facing a possible array of legal cases from his brutal anti-drugs crackdown that has left more than 6,000 mostly petty drug suspects dead. The International Criminal Court is investigating the killings.

The ailing Duterte, 76, announced Saturday he was retiring from politics and withdrew from an earlier plan to run as vice president under the ruling PDP-Laban party. That decision opened an option for his daughter, southern Davao city Mayor Sara Duterte, to run for the presidency.

Sara Duterte has said she and her father have agreed that only one Duterte will run for a national office next year. She has registered to run for reelection as mayor but speculation remains rife that she will decide to seek the top post.

Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard said Dutertes exit from politics should not mean that his role and responsibilities for the widespread drug killings would end too.

His political retirement should, in fact, strengthen the possibilities and avenues for accountability, Callamard, a former U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, told The Associated Press. What I do hope is that whoever follows on his bloody steps will fully reverse the bloody policies he conducted against the poor, the sick, the addicts.

Duterte has denied authorizing extrajudicial killings although he has repeatedly threatened drug suspects with death in public speeches human rights activists say foster impunity among law enforcers.

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Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Monday a recent government review of police records found more than 150 officers could be criminally liable for abuses in dozens of anti-drug raids. He said there will be further investigation.

The campaign against illegal drugs could be successfully waged within the bounds of the law and without the use of excessive force," Guevarra told the AP. Any law enforcement agent who oversteps these bounds or abuses his authority shall be held accountable,."

Only a handful of officers have been convicted for wrongful killings of drug suspects since Duterte launched the bloody campaign in 2016. Human rights groups have called for an independent investigation and welcomed the International Criminal Court probe, but Dutertes spokesman has said the Philippine leader will die first before he faces foreign judges.

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Associated Press writer Jim Gomez contributed to this report.
STOCKHOLM (AP)  Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for their discoveries into how the human body perceives temperature and touch, revelations that could lead to new ways of treating pain or even heart disease.

Americans David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian separately identified receptors in the skin that respond to heat and pressure, and researchers are working on drugs to target them. Some hope the discoveries could eventually lead to pain treatments that reduce dependence on highly addictive opioids. But the breakthroughs, which happened decades ago, have not yet yielded many effective new therapies.

Julius, of the University of California at San Francisco, used capsaicin, the active component in chili peppers, to help pinpoint the nerve sensors that respond to heat, the Nobel Committee said. Patapoutian, of Scripps Research Institute at La Jolla, California, found pressure-sensitive sensors in cells that respond to mechanical stimulation.

This really unlocks one of the secrets of nature, said Thomas Perlmann, secretary-general of the committee, in announcing the winners. Its actually something that is crucial for our survival, so its a very important and profound discovery.

The committee said their discoveries get at one of the great mysteries facing humanity: how we sense our environment.

The choice of winners underscored how little scientists knew about that question before the discoveries  and how much there still is to learn, said Oscar Marin, director of the MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders at Kings College London.

While we understood the physiology of the senses, what we didnt understand was how we sensed differences in temperature or pressure, Marin said. Knowing how our body senses these changes is fundamental because once we know those molecules, they can be targeted. Its like finding a lock, and now we know the precise keys that will be necessary to unlock it.

Marin predicted that new treatments for pain would likely come first, but that understanding how the body detects changes in pressure could eventually lead to drugs for heart disease, if scientists can figure out how to alleviate pressure on blood vessels and other organs.

Richard Harris, of the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center at the University of Michigan, also said the new laureates work might help design new pain medications, but noted the field has long been stalled.

He said that because pain also includes a psychological component, simply identifying how it is triggered in the body isnt necessarily enough to address it. Still, he said Julius and Patapoutians work would likely help doctors better treat pain that is caused by things like extreme temperatures and chemical burns.

Their discoveries are giving us the first inkling of how this type of pain starts, but whether its involved in many chronic pain patients remains to be seen, he said.

Still, Fiona Boissonade, a pain specialist at the University of Sheffield, said the Nobel laureates' work was especially relevant for the one in five people globally that suffer from chronic pain.

Such pain  including from arthritis, migraines and chronic back problems  "is a huge medical problem, and its quite poorly treated across the board, she said. Their research may lead us to identify new compounds that are effective in treating pain that don't come with the devastating impact of opioids, which have spawned a crisis of addiction in the U.S.

In keeping with a long tradition of difficulties in alerting Nobel winners, Julius said he was awakened by what he thought was a prank phone call shortly before the prize was announced.

My phone sort of bleeped, and it was from a relative who had been contacted by somebody on the Nobel Committee trying to find my phone number, he said from his home in San Francisco, where it was the middle of the night.

It was only when his wife heard Perlmanns voice and confirmed it was indeed the secretary-general of the committee who was calling, that he realized it wasnt a joke. Julius said his wife had worked with Perlmann years ago.

Julius, 65, later said he hoped his work would lead to the development of new pain drugs, explaining that the biology behind even everyday activities can have enormous significance.

We eat chili peppers and menthol, but oftentimes, you dont think about how that works, he said.

The Nobel Committee tweeted a photo of Patapoutian in bed with his son while he watched the announcement on his computer.

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A day to be thankful: this country gave me a chance with a great education and support for basic research. And for my labbies and collaborators for partnering with me, Patapoutian, who was born in Lebanon, tweeted.

When the team made the discovery in 2009, we were of course so excited and literally jumping up and down. It was something we were looking for for years," Patapoutian said at a news conference.

Patapoutian is paid by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which also supports The Associated Press Health and Science Department. Julius is an HHMI trustee.

The prestigious award comes with a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (over $1.14 million). The prize money comes from a bequest left by the prize's creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1895.

The prize is the first to be awarded this year. The other prizes are for outstanding work in the fields of physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics.

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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the pain specialists last name to Boissonade.

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Cheng reported from London. Associated Press writers Frank Jordans and Emma Tobin contributed.
While incarcerated at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, Ashok Babu asserts he was held in isolation for 23 hours a day for six weeks in the midst of a mental health crisis, something the United Nations equates with psychological torture. He then spent nearly 15 months on Intensive Observation Log status, a form of suicide watch where he was placed alone in a cell with only a hole in the floor to relieve himself. Individuals on this status cannot participate in recreation or programming, are deprived of socks and underwear, and are unable to access toothbrushes or other basic hygiene.

Babu isnt alone in his treatment. Hes one of eight plaintiffs who sued Alameda County in the 2018. The suit alleges that the jail denied medical treatment and punished those incarcerated for behaviors resulting from their medical conditions.

Rather than go into litigation over these conditions, Babus attorneys negotiated a settlement with the county that was made public on Aug. 26. The incarcerated plaintiffs wont receive any financial compensation from this settlement. Instead, it will force improvements to regional mental health care based on the recommendations of experts who previously worked in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation system.

If approved, the settlement mandates Alameda County, its Behavioral Health Services department and the Alameda County Sheriff Office dramatically overhaul their mental health programs and create a new therapeutic housing unit. Last month, the presiding judge in the case said he would approve the settlement assuming no significant objections.

Good news, right?

A coalition of advocates, civil rights attorneys, community organizations, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people say ... No.

Hundreds of objections by incarcerated people have already been gathered and more are being drafted. Thats because rather than investing in mental health services that would prevent incarceration and re-arrest, the settlement resorts to a familiar trick in the Sheriffs Office playbook: hiring more deputies.

The settlement would add 259 new deputies. Meanwhile, Alameda County would hire less than half that number in new mental health clinicians.

Experts in the Babu case said reducing the jail population is a strategy to relieve staffing shortages, reduce county spending and provide better and more consistent mental health care.

This isnt even mentioned in the settlement.

Since 2014, 50 people have been killed at Santa Rita. Of those, 19 were labeled suicide.

Nineteen?

Suicide is the most radical expression of mental health crisis that exists, and the sheriffs department has done an abysmal job of preventing it. According to the Babu complaint, deputies at Santa Rita actively exacerbate the psychological trauma experienced by prisoners with serious mental health conditions who are housed in isolation.

Why would we give them more money and more responsibility?

Santa Rita Jail is already the largest provider of mental health services in Alameda County.

Shame on us.

Alameda isnt the first county to demand shifting mental health care away from law enforcement. In 2019, community organizers successfully pushed the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to cancel a nearly $2 billion contract to build a jail for prisoners with mental health issues. The community instead shifted the focus and dollars toward community-based mental health treatment and support.

For decades Los Angeles criminalized people with mental illness, Patrisse Cullors, one of the lead organizers of that effort and co-founder of Black Lives Matter, told me. And for decades organizers, educators, artists and advocates pushed to challenge this war against mostly Black and Brown poor disabled folks. Groups like JusticeLA, Reform L.A. Jails and Re-imagine LA successfully stopped the jail plan, but then developed a pipeline of resources away from the carceral system and into alternatives to incarceration.

While Babu attorneys have argued that pushing this settlement through as soon as possible is the best way to prevent more suicides or other tragedies, many community members argue the opposite is true. They assert this settlement is exactly what Alameda County Sheriff Gregory Ahern wants: more money to hire 259 more deputies while keeping decarceration low on the radar.

Alameda County certainly does need a new mental health facility. But, just like Los Angeles, we need one not rooted in incarceration and criminalization.

Jails should not be in the business of providing mental health services. (Jails really shouldnt be in business at all. A girl can dream)

People incarcerated at Santa Rita need counseling and mental health care that promotes emotional stability  not the cocktail of psychotropic meds currently used to medicate prisoners into compliance. Accomplishing this will require extending the time frame for final settlement approval beyond 90 days, transparent monitoring, allowing community members and incarcerated people to testify with their concerns, to strike additional deputies from the settlement and assert the need for community-based mental health in a revised settlement approved by community.

The people who run Santa Rita have shown themselves definitively and repeatedly that they dont care about, nor are they capable of, taking care of people in crisis. It is unacceptable to continue to subject human beings to this treatment, much less expand it.

Cat Brooks is an award-winning actress, playwright, the executive director of the Justice Teams Network, the co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project, an advocacy organization that also provides mental health crisis counseling services, and the co-host of UpFront on KPFA.
After months of temporary closure, Comstock Saloon has announced its plan to reopen later this month.

The popular North Beach bar shared the news on Instagram in a brief statement that indicated its plan to reopen Oct. 19, though it did not share any additional information.

More for you Flaviar's whiskey advent calendar is available for pre-order

Mark your calendars and get your drinking boots on because Comstock Saloon is officially reopening Tuesday, Oct. 19th! Well cheers to that, the message read.

Comstock Saloon has remained closed ever since mandatory shelter-in-place orders in March 2020 and had not reopened for takeout or indoor and outdoor service as many San Francisco restaurants and bars did during the pandemic. Jonny Raglin, the co-founder of Comstock Saloon, told SFGATE that he and the Absinthe Group, which owns Comstock Saloon, Absinthe Brasserie & Bar and Bellota, among others, had floated the idea of building a parklet for the North Beach bar but decided against it. All the other Absinthe Group restaurants and bars eventually reopened.

Alex Nicholson

"We would really have our work cut out for us," Raglin said on operating a parklet at Comstock Saloon. "The beauty of [the bar] is being inside of it. Its a museum piece. We couldnt provide that in a different way ... [for what is] indicative of our space."

Raglin, who is also the director of development for the Absinthe Group, shared that his team had considered reopening the bar around the summertime when coronavirus cases eased but said that the delta variant pushed the opening even further. Raglin admits that he's apprehensive about the Oct. 19 reopening date because he's currently searching to fill a bartender position.

"Weve been careful not to commit to a date because its hard to find bartenders. We're hunting hard right now and hopefully, everything will square away, but thats been my biggest challenge."

One saving grace to remaining in hibernation mode, Raglin said, has been having a fair landlord who waived his rent fees. Raglin said that he returned to Comstock Saloon in June to assess the space during its lengthy closer and said it had fallen into bad shape. Since then, the team has worked diligently to restore the 1907 saloon.

Last year, the Absinthe Group sold gift cards during the early stages of the pandemic as a means to support its staff, according to a tweet from March 26, 2020. The restaurant group also organized a GoFundMe page that same month with a goal to raise $25,000 towards staff aid, though it only raised about $2,300 of its overall target.

Just before the shutdown in 2020, Comstock Saloon began hosting burlesque shows inside the bar as a planned series intended to run every other month. Performer Frankie Fictitious kickstarted the shows on March 4, 2020, and there were plans to host the following event in May 2020, until the pandemic derailed the hospitality industry.

This story has been updated.
WASHINGTON (AP)  With only hours to spare, President Joe Biden signed legislation to avoid a partial federal shutdown and keep the government funded through Dec. 3. Congress had passed the bill earlier Thursday.

The back-to-back votes by the Senate and then the House averted one crisis, but delays on another continue as the political parties dig in on a dispute over how to raise the government's borrowing cap before the United States risks a potentially catastrophic default.

The House approved the short-term funding measure by a 254-175 vote not long after Senate passage in a 65-35 vote. A large majority of Republicans in both chambers voted against it. The legislation was needed to keep the government running once the current budget year ended at midnight Thursday. Passage will buy lawmakers more time to craft the spending measures that will fund federal agencies and the programs they administer.

Theres so much more to do, Biden said in a statement after the signing. But the passage of this bill reminds us that bipartisan work is possible and it gives us time to pass longer-term funding to keep our government running and delivering for the American people.

The work to keep the government open and running served as the backdrop during a chaotic day for Democrats as they struggled to get Bidens top domestic priorities over the finish line, including a bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure bill at risk of stalling in the House.

It is a glimmer of hope as we go through many, many other activities," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

With their energy focused on Biden's agenda, Democrats backed down from a showdown over the debt limit in the government funding bill, deciding to uncouple the borrowing ceiling at the insistence of Republicans. If that cap is not raised by Oct. 18, the U.S. probably will face a financial crisis and economic recession, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.

Republicans say Democrats have the votes to raise the debt limit on their own, and Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is insisting they do so.

The short-term spending legislation will also provide about $28.6 billion in disaster relief for those recovering from Hurricane Ida and other natural disasters. Some $10 billion of that money will help farmers cover crop losses from drought, wildfires and hurricanes. An additional $6.3 billion will help support the resettlement of Afghanistan evacuees from the 20-year war between the U.S. and the Taliban.

This is a good outcome, one Im happy we are getting done, Schumer said. With so many things to take care of in Washington, the last thing the American people need is for the government to grind to a halt.

Once the government is funded, albeit temporarily, Democrats will turn their full attention to the need to raise the limit on federal borrowing, which now stands at $28.4 trillion.

The U.S. has never defaulted on its debts in the modern era and historically, both parties have voted to raise the limit. Democrats joined the Republican Senate majority in doing so three times during Donald Trumps presidency. This time Democrats wanted to take care of both priorities in one bill, but Senate Republicans blocked that effort Monday.

Raising or suspending the debt limit allows the federal government to pay obligations already incurred. It does not authorize new spending. McConnell has argued that Democrats should pass a debt limit extension with the same budgetary tools they are using to try to pass a $3.5 trillion effort to expand social safety net programs and tackle climate change. He reiterated that warning as the Senate opened on Thursday, even as Democrats have labeled that option a nonstarter."

Were able to fund the government today because the majority accepted reality. The same thing will need to happen on the debt limit next week," McConnell said.

House Democrats pushed through a stand-alone bill late Wednesday that would suspend the debt limit until December 2022. Schumer said he would bring the measure to the Senate floor, but the bill is almost certain to be blocked by a Republican filibuster.

The arguments made in both chambers about the debt ceiling have followed similar themes.

You are more interested in punishing Democrats than preserving our credit and that is something Im having a real tough time getting my head around, House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern, D-Mass., told Republicans. The idea of not paying bills just because we dont like (Bidens) policies is the wrong way to go.

Undaunted, Republicans argued that Democrats have chosen to ram through their political priorities on their own and thus are responsible for raising the debt limit on their own.

So long as the Democratic majority continues to insist on spending money hand over fist, Republicans will refuse to help them lift the debt ceiling," said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla.

The Treasury has taken steps to preserve cash, but once it runs out, it will be forced to rely on incoming revenue to pay its obligations. That would likely mean delays in payments to Social Security recipients, veterans and government workers, including military personnel. The Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank, projects that the federal government would be unable to meet about 40% of payments due in the several weeks that follow.

___

Associated Press writer Brian Slodysko contributed to this report.
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP)  Kentucky's bourbon industry is signaling that it's increasingly bullish on its future after reaching new production heights despite the COVID-19 pandemic and trade disputes in key overseas markets.

Bluegrass State bourbon producers filled nearly 2.5 million barrels in 2020, setting a new production record, the Kentucky Distillers Association said Monday. It marked the third straight year that Kentucky distilleries filled more than 2 million barrels of bourbon.

And for the first time in the modern era of American whiskey, Kentucky has 10 million barrels of bourbon aging in distillery warehouses, it said. The state of 4.5 million people has more than 10.3 million barrels of maturing bourbon, according to the latest figures.

Kentuckys signature bourbon industry continues to invest in our commonwealth at unprecedented levels, despite global pandemic disruptions, exorbitant taxes and ongoing trade wars, said Eric Gregory, president of the distillers group. This is truly a historic and landmark record.

Massive inventories are a bet on the future because most bourbons typically age four to eight years before reaching their market. Bourbon gets its flavor and golden brown color during aging. New production numbers are based on inventories reported as of Jan. 1, 2021, submitted to the state for tax purposes.

Kentucky distillers are in the midst of a $5.1 billion capital investment campaign that includes expanding production facilities and warehousing to meet the global thirst for Kentucky bourbon.

Production has continued to rise despite some industry headwinds both at home and abroad.

Kentucky bourbon exports to the European Union and the United Kingdom  the states largest whiskey export market  have taken a hit from ongoing Trump-era tariff disputes. Overall American whiskey exports have declined by 37% to the EU and by 53% to the UK as a result, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.

American whiskey makers have been caught up in a trans-Atlantic trade dispute since mid-2018, when the EU imposed a 25% tariff on American whiskey and other U.S. products in response to then President Donald Trumps decision to slap tariffs on European steel and aluminum.

The Kentucky distillers' group has joined a coalition of 50 U.S. alcohol-related trade associations in pressing President Joe Biden's administration to secure the suspension of tariffs on American whiskey.

Our industry is collateral damage in trade disputes that have nothing to do with bourbon, Gregory said.

Meanwhile, Kentucky distillers are seeking relief from barrel taxes on aging whiskey.

Distillers will pay a record $33 million in aging barrel taxes in 2021, a production cost that distillers in other states don't face, putting Kentucky producers at a competitive disadvantage, the distillers' association said.

Most of the barrel tax revenue goes to local school districts. Under a plan floated by the distillers' group, distillers would continue paying barrel taxes, to maintain the revenue for schools, and the state would refund distillers the equivalent amount from the General Fund, Gregory said. The distilling industry would commit to reinvesting the refunded money into its operations, he said.

The bourbon industry is investing more than $5 billion in this state to increase production, build innovative tourism centers and create thousands of new jobs, Gregory said. But punitive barrel taxes are punishing this growth and harming our chances to land new distilleries.

Kentucky lawmakers passed a corporate income tax credit in 2014 to offset barrel taxes, but the escalating number of barrels - and therefore taxes - far outpaces the amount of credit that distillers can take, Gregory said. Some distillers now only realize 30% of the credit, he said.

Kentucky is home to 95% of the world's bourbon production, the association said. The $8.6 billion bourbon industry generates more than 20,100 jobs with an annual payroll topping $1 billion, it said.
It's counterintuitive.

Northern California receives more annual rain and snow than Southern California, with 75% of the state's precipitation falling in the watersheds north of Sacramento. Yet amid a drought, it seems people in the north are conserving water by letting their lawns turn brown and taking shorter showers as districts and municipalities impose mandatory water-use restrictions, while urban areas of the arid south are lush and green with well-watered gardens and lawns.

More for you 9 drought-tolerant plants for any outdoor space

Gov. Gavin Newsom asked Californians in early July to voluntarily reduce their water consumption by 15% in response to the state's shrinking reservoirs after two consecutive dry winters. Recent data from the state showed that in July the North Coast reduced water use by 17% compared with July 2019 and the Bay Area cut back 8%, while the South Coast region that includes Los Angeles and San Diego increased used by 0.1%.

Why is Southern California facing less pain in the drought than Northern California?

Southern California's urban areas have a more robust and varied water supply than those in Northern California and are generally better prepared for drought conditions. Roughly half of Southern California's water is transported from other places through a vast system of aqueducts drawing from water rights agreements that go back decades. The other half draws from local sources, such as groundwater basins and recycled water.

It also has the powerful Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the regional wholesaler that's the largest supplier of drinking water in the country. Importing water into the region from the Colorado River and Northern California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, Met sends water to the region's most most heavily populated places. It serves more than 19 million people in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura counties.

Eighty percent of California's urban and agricultural water demand comes from the southern two-thirds of the state. Southern California's hold on water dates back to the late 1800s to early 1900s, when people were drawn to to Southern California's mild climate, and several water projects were built to transport water to the most arid places in the state. The highly engineered water system made water plentiful across the state but has changed the states natural environment and wildlife habitat.

The Met was established in 1928 with a founding mission "to build and operate the Colorado River Aqueduct."

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Jeanine Jones, the interstate resources manager for the Department of Water Resources, explained that the Metropolitan Water District supplements local agencies' stores that mostly pull from groundwater. The region is lucky to have underground aquifers, and Jones said these have been well recharged with groundwater.

"When you move outside Southern California, what you dont have in the Bay Area is one overarching large wholesaler that brings in water from multiple sources," explained Jones, who is managing the state's drought response. "You have San Francisco with its water supplies from the Hetch Hetchy System, you have East Bay MUD [Municipal Utility District] with its Mokelumne River Aqueduct and much of the Peninsula and the Bay Area does not have ground water resources.

"They're in an area where Mother Nature was just not favorable for groundwater so they rely more heavily on those surface sources."

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Surface sources are reservoirs, and across Northern California, they are dropping down to near record-low levels. Take the state's largest reservoir, Shasta Lake, which feeds into the federal Central Valley Project, providing Central Valley farmers with water and supplementing the supply of some municipalities such as Santa Clara County's Valley Water District. Fed by the Sierra snowpack, it's at 23% of capacity after back-to-back dry winters.

In Marin County, reservoir levels are at 34% of capacity compared with the 70% historical average for this time of year. The Marin Municipal Water District is exploring desalinization and seriously considering building a pipeline that would stretch across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and pull in water from the Central Valley.

Jones noted that looking back to the 1977 drought, Marin was famous for building an emergency pipeline to supplement its water from a handful of small reservoirs. Since then, the county formed a partnership with Sonoma Water to also pull from the Russian River Basin, but amid this severe drought, the additional supply was cut.

"Obviously, the Russian River Basin is also dry," Jones said. "The State Water Resources Control Board has curtailed diversions on the Russian River, and, of course, the local supplies to Marin Municipal Water District. Their reservoirs are low. ... If next year were to repeat last years hydrology, they believe that they would be having big problems."

Santa Clara Valley Water District

Jones also pointed to Santa Clara County's Valley Water as an example of another water district struggling in Northern California. "They had imported supplies from two sources, the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Water Project, but both of those sources have been cut back in response to dry hydrology and they have the additional difficulty that their largest reservoir is out of service," Jones said, noting that the district's Anderson Reservoir was recently drained for a seismic retrofit. "Horrible timing with respect to hydrology."

Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Imag

Meanwhile in Palm Springs, water seems to be plentiful. A community in the middle of the Sonoran Desert of Southern California is among the top 10% of water users in the state, Ashley Metzger, a spokesperson for the Desert Water Agency, told NBC News.

Where is this place in the middle of the desert getting its water from?

"It may sound counterintuitive because Palm Springs is in the middle of a desert," Jones said. "But on the other hand, theyre sitting over a very large groundwater basin and theyve had historically very reliable supplies from the Colorado River even if their State Water Project supplies are reduced in dry years."
Editor's note: In this monthly column, San Francisco singer and artist La Dona will celebrate the city's vibrant Mexican food scene by reviewing a different burrito each month from taquerias across town. You can find a Spanish language version of this story here.

My name is Cecilia Cassandra Pena-Govea, aka La Dona, and I am an educator, music analyst and artist born and raised in San Francisco. The music I make is a sweltering blend of regional Mexican styles, American roots music, cumbia and reggaeton, wrapped up in a concise tortilla of salsa instrumentation and arrangement and topped with a blistering bath of furious and hyphy-ass feminism. I am amped to occupy space here at SFGATE and in your beautiful brains as the new head of the burrito bureau, the interrogatah of flavah, the goddess of gastronomy, the one and only Dona 415, as I take you down the hyphy brick road that leads to my favorite burrito spots.

---

I grew up in Bernal Heights between a couple of churches and a couple of laundromats and a couple of corner stores. Bernal was a windy, hilly set in the early '90s, but we had the best library and the best of Friscos 48 hills. (Fight me.) There were only a few restaurants around, including my homegirls familys Hungarian restaurant and a perpetually empty Chinese spot that HAD to be a front, but at least there were still brown and Black people in the neighborhood!

I was born in the hood, on my block, in my parents room, to a fiddling folk revivalist lawyer and a trumpet-tooting bridge tender, while a party was underway in the music room. That is probably the furthest I have been  and ever will be  from the center of the party and Im coo with that!

My parents, sister and I formed a band, La Familia Pena-Govea, when I was still quite young and played professionally all over the city and larger Bay Area. When I was in 4th grade, I organized a group of my friends to join a youth salsa band at Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts called Futuro Picante. We would lug around our instruments all day (I played trumpet and my very petite homegirl played the bulkier sax) and head over to 25th and Mission after school.

Patricia Chang/Special to SFGATE

Having been a professional musician for at least two years already with my family, 10-year-old me was used to attending rehearsals, ironing my gig clothes and having performances, but Futuro Picante was different. This was a group made up of all my friends! They, too, thought salsa and cumbia and son were cool! And we sounded GOOD! All of the art heroes of the Mission would pop their heads into our rehearsal room and freak down, reminiscing on their early years of discovering and creating the culture of the neighborhood; and when we played at 24th Street BART station or in front of the center, all the borrachos would echarse gritos, cheering and waving their arms in the air, showering us all in a celebratory fountain of Miller High Life  you know the vibes.

Every Wednesday after rehearsal we would all cross the street and lovingly share a meal, which brings me to our first burrito destination, La Taqueria.

Patricia Chang/Special to SFGATE

Growing up, I would always order two chicken tacos with guacamole; in those days there was no dorado or regular, the tortilla came just one way, which was crunchy and fried and heavenly. My dad always grumbled about eating at La Taqueria because, no lie, these tacos were about four times as expensive as the other ones in the hood and Who pays more for a burrito without rice? Of course, since I loved these tacos and the time spent with my band (and I was his baby girl) he would give in and walk me across the street for dinner.

La Taqueria Delivery La Taqueria Door Dash Shop Now

La Taqueria has been owned and operated by Miguel Jara since 1973. He is sometimes heralded as the innovator of the Mission burrito but anyone who is actually from the Mission, or even San Francisco, knows that this is not true: This burrito is different from any other you will find in S.F. Even Jara denies this attribution, stating, Its my own style. ... I dont know what a Mission-style burrito is. There are a couple things that make this burrito different from others in S.F., which I will touch on now before we dig in:

There is no rice. And listen, Im not a big rice person, not at all. But for the burrito-scape that we reside in, this is weird af. Like who fills a burrito with real and costly food when they could fill it with a filler ingredient like rice  The burrito is squishy, drippy and floppy. Related to the lack of rice but also concerned with the sauciness of the meats and frijoles and the consistency of the avocado. The salsa verde is hella hot. I am Mexican, the kinda Mexican that bullies all their non-Mexican friends for not being able to eat chiles, whose housemates have to beg me to stop adding jalapenos to the salsa, who will literally not eat if I dont have a chile or something picoso on hand. For context, my grandmother would carry a bag of pickled jalapenos with her if we werent eating at home because otherwise she couldnt taste anything. And I think this salsa is hot.

Patricia Chang/Special to SFGATE

My recent date with the Taqueria started with me driving my 65 Impala with no power steering to my car dads, Luis and Aldo, at Cesar Chavez Service Station. It was one of those rare days in the city when it is hotter than 65 degrees, and between the no-tree-ass walk from the auto shop and my impromptu arm day from steering my car, a dona was SWEATING.

Thankfully, I got to flash my vaccine card and sit down to eat with my wonderful homegirl Alyssa Aviles. We ordered a carne asada burrito dorado, a super chicken burrito dorado, an horchata and an agua de fresa, and WENT IN.

La Taqueria is one of the few taquerias in the hood that has very high-quality meat. I grew up in a vegetarian household, and kinda fearful of meat, so I dont typically order meat burritos because it is hard to interrogate the quality of every bite of meat when your meal is all cozy in a tortilla blanket. But here, I am happy and trusting enough to just bite right on in: They have super high-quality meat, saucy and yummy whole pinto beans that are fried in a big batch and delectable spicy salsa. This is what you can expect from the asada burrito.

Patricia Chang/Special to SFGATE

The star of the show, however, is definitely the pollo. They cook it in a tomato-based sauce that is so much better than the typical grilled chicken you usually get in a burrito. From my first bite of chicken burrito, I met the saucy, chunky pollo and its friends  smooth aguacate and salty cheese. Both burritos were done in a dorado style, which means it is lightly fried on the grill, so get that extra ounce of smack.

Though not your typical San Francisco burrito, La Taquerias burrito comes with a high recommendation, 9/10, and some advice: Double wrap any leftovers because this saucy little thang will end up all over you.

Keep an eye out for La Donas new single Mi Nuevo Amor dropping Oct. 15.

You can catch La Donas upcoming shows at UC Berkeley Theater on Nov. 2, De Young Museum Gala on Nov. 5, Amoeba Records on Nov. 12 for her vinyl release party and KQED on Nov. 17.

La Taqueria is at 2889 Mission St., San Francisco. Their hours of operation are Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m.-8:45 p.m.; closed Monday and Tuesday.
William Shatner is boldly going where Jeff Bezos has gone before.

On Monday, Bezos's commercial spaceflight venture Blue Origin announced that the "Star Trek" actor will fly to space on board the company's New Shepard spacecraft on Oct. 12. Joining him will be Audrey Powers, the company's vice president of mission and flight operations, along with crewmates Chris Boshuizen and Glen de Vries.

At 90, Shatner will be the oldest person to fly to space.

"I've heard about space for a long time now," Shatner said in a news release. "I'm taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle."

Shatner is best known for his run as Capt. Kirk on the original "Star Trek" series, and he later played Sgt. T.J. Hooker in the eponymous series. Nowadays, he's become something of a living meme, due in part to his musical career in which he delivers theatrical spoken-word versions of popular songs, including Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" and Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody."

He also has an abiding interest in space travel. In 2011, he recorded a wake-up call for astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery.

"These have been the voyages of the space shuttle Discovery," Shatner said in the prerecorded call that riffed on the "Star Trek" opening theme. "Her 30-year mission: to seek out new science, to build new outposts, to bring nations together in the final frontier, to boldly go and do what no spacecraft has done before."

The company's statement did not address how far into space Shatner would venture or for how long the mission would last.

Shatner will be following in the footsteps of Bezos, a die-hard Trekkie who - clad in a cowboy hat that delighted internet jokesters - flew past the edge of space on July 20 with his brother Mark; Wally Funk, 82, an aviation pioneer, and Oliver Daemen, 18, a student from the Netherlands. (Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post)

As The Washington Post's Christian Davenport and Dalvin Brown reported at the time, the "launch set a record for both the oldest and youngest person to fly to space and came nine days after Richard Branson flew on a similar suborbital trajectory. The back-to-back launches amounted to yet another sign of space exploration's modern renaissance, a movement that is being fueled not by nations but by a surging commercial space industry backed by billionaires."

After Monday's announcement, Twitter users buzzed with excitement - and jokes - about the upcoming flight. Shatner himself got in on the fun, tweeting, "So now I can say something. Yes, it's true; I'm going to be a 'rocket man!'"

Shatner "is going to space? My man! I guess this means I have to become a marine biologist," tweeted Jason Alexander, referring to his "Seinfeld" character.

Some noted an oddly prescient sketch from during last weekend's "Saturday Night Live" premiere, in which Owen Wilson played a space-bound Bezos in a "Star Trek" parody. "The fact that SNL aired a Star Trek parody with Blue Origin the day before William Shatner was announced to be flying on Blue Origin is proof that the universe is beyond parody at this point," one user tweeted.

The announcement comes days after Alexandra Abrams, the former head of Blue Origin employee communications, published an essay on the whistleblowing website Lioness accusing that the company fosters a sexist work environment.

"We are a group of 21 former and current employees of Blue Origin," Abrams essay begins, before claiming the company's "culture sits on a foundation that ignores the plight of our planet, turns a blind eye to sexism, is not sufficiently attuned to safety concerns, and silences those who seek to correct wrongs.

The essay describes, for example, one former executive who "frequently treated women in a condescending and demeaning manner, calling them 'baby girl,' 'baby doll' or 'sweetheart' and inquiring about their dating lives."

One former staffer confirmed the allegations to The Post. Blue Origin denied the claims, saying in a statement that it "has no tolerance for discrimination or harassment of any kind. We provide numerous avenues for employees, including a 24/7 anonymous hotline, and will promptly investigate any new claims of misconduct."
The word salumi ( or its singular, salume) seems to be popping up more on restaurant menus, Instagram feeds, even at some deli counters. Maybe youve been wondering what exactly salumi means, as opposed to salami, or charcuterie, or....?

A little 101 on the topic:

Salumi is the category of high-quality cured meats that includes salami, prosciutto and others, many of them pork-based. The definition of salumi is subjective and evolving, and producers are stretching the old boundaries.

Traditionalists limit the definition of salumi to cured meats, made in Italy, while others are using the term to describe meats preserved in various ways -- including cooked -- and produced around the world.

Emilia-Romagna is the region of Italy most renowned for its salumi, prosciutto in particular, though cured meats are produced throughout the country.

Charcuterie is the famous French cousin of salumi  also a wide range of cured meats, also mostly made from pork.

Salumi was born out of necessity to preserve meat before there was refrigeration, and to use all parts of the pig. Now, there are many manufacturers of commercially packaged salumi available at supermarkets. (Some good, readily available brands include Olli, Gusto, Coro, Creminelli and Daniele.)

Across the U.S., producers and food business are ramping up their salumi games. Northern Waters Smokhaus in Duluth, Minnesota, is a destination for cured meat, featured in sandwiches, while in Pittsburgh, Salty Pork Bits makes cured meats that can be shipped nationwide.

For a long time options for salumi in the U.S. were very limited," says Cesare Casella, an Italian chef and expert in salumi. "Then they slowly started to import some products from Italy. Now, in maybe the past five or so years, many more producers are showing up  a lot more small producers showing up and experimenting.

Many people don't understand that salumi is a cured product, Casella adds.

It is not raw and you do not need to cook it. Its cured, so just like pickles, the fermentation process makes it safe (and delicious) to eat, he says.

The world of salumi is vast. Just a few of its greatest hits:

SALAMI

Salami is the type of salumi many of us are most familiar with. In America, it's generally seen as firm-textured, dry-cured and sausage-style, sometimes made of beef, and sold either in a whole piece or sliced. It's a huge category, with many types of salami available, and within each type many variations, influenced by region.

Salamis are mostly made with chopped or ground meat that has been salted and seasoned, stuffed into a casing, and hung to cure and dry. There are also cooked salamis and soft cured salmis. In many cases, youll want to remove the casing before eating salami.

Sopressata is a dry-cured pork salami that uses virtually all parts of the pig. Its shape is long and slightly flattened, and its usually got some kick from chili peppers, black pepper and other spices. It can be sliced thick or thin.

Mortadella is a pink, smooth, lightly cured and cooked salami made throughout Italy. It is flavored with different seasonings and sometimes includes pistachio nuts. It's usually served in thin slices.

Nduja (en-DOO-ya) hails from the Calabrian region of Italy, and is distinctive in that it is a spreadable meat, hot with peppers. Its often served with a knife to be spread on bread as an appetizer or snack.

WHOLE MUSCLE SALUMI: INCLUDING PROSCIUTTO, SPECK, GUANCIALE

Many of these kinds of salumi are dry-cured with salt, seasonings and wine. They are made from the whole muscle of the animal, not ground or combined. This salumi is usually eaten thinly sliced and uncooked (but sometimes cooked), often as an ingredient in other dishes.

In the most perfect world, you would purchase these kinds of salumi sliced to order at a store with high turnover, but you can also find packages of them in the grocery store, often by the fine cheese section or near the deli counter.

The most familiar is probably prosciutto, a whole category unto itself. And the most common type of prosciutto is salt-rubbed whole pork leg, cured for at least 400 days in cool dark rooms. Prosciutto is usually sold in paper-thin slices and has a salty, funky flavor, a silky texture and a delicate toothsomeness.

Italian or Italian-style speck is somewhat similar to prosciutto but with a bit more oomph, seasoning and smokiness, and a bit denser. It can be eaten as is or used in recipes.

Pancetta is essentially the bacon of Italy, a cured version of pork belly that is often sold rolled into a cylinder, sometimes sliced and sometimes diced. It can be eaten as is, but is often sauteed and used in all kinds of dishes from braises to pasta sauces to salads.

Guanciale is made from the pig's jowls, seasoned with bay leaves, pepper and juniper. Its also usually sold rolled and then sliced, and is most famously used in pasta sauces like carbonara and amatriciana.

Coppa or capicola is from the top of the pigs shoulder and is seasoned differently throughout Italy. Its usually quite flavorful  often made with wine and bright red, smooth in texture, fatty in the best way.

The best way to start to get to know the wide world of salumi? Taste them!

If you have a good gourmet or Italian market near you, hit up the deli counter and ask to try some samples. Remember, you can buy a quarter of a pound of lots of different things. Keep salumi in the refrigerator but bring it to cool room temperature (in the 60F range) for the best eating experience.

Casella thinks we should all be eating more salumi: Every Italian household probably has a few types of salumi in the refrigerator that can be pulled out to make a quick meal.

Sounds like a plan.

___

Katie Workman writes regularly about food for The Associated Press. She has written two cookbooks focused on family-friendly cooking, Dinner Solved! and The Mom 100 Cookbook. She blogs at http://www.themom100.com/about-katie-workman. She can be reached at Katie@themom100.com.
JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images

Is that loud roar you just heard the sound of the apocalypse finally happening, once and for all? Nah, it's just San Francisco Fleet Week. But we don't blame you for forgetting  the Blue Angels haven't flown over the city since 2019.

The U.S. Navy's acrobatic fighter jet pilots will return to the sky after a pandemic hiatus this Friday to kick off the San Francisco Fleet Week Air Show. Technically, Fleet Week began Oct. 3 with ship tours of U.S. Navy vessels, a neighborhood concert series and an "Honor Our Fallen concert at the San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center.
It seems we have yet another instance of unnamed Biden White House advisors or "allies" complaining about Vice President Kamala Harris.

Over the weekend, Vice President Kamala Harris made an overnight trip to Palm Springs with no public appearances. She arrived Friday evening and departed Saturday morning with the White House providing no stated purpose of the trip.

On Monday morning, New York Times White House reporter Annie Karni tweeted, "This trip to California is confusing to some Biden allies, who are wondering why the VP who was a Senator is not more involved in helping the administration's domestic agenda gain the support it needs in the Senate."

Congressional Democrats are currently struggling to agree on legislative language that would advance stalled infrastructure and social spending bills. Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had to again delay a vote on a bipartisan infrastructure package after House progressives threatened to vote it down due to a lack of progress on a separate spending bill.

Harris, who was indeed a member of Congress from 2017 until the start of this year, has seemingly been sniped at via leaks more than any other vice president in recent memory.

After Harris' much-maligned interview with NBC's Lester Holt, CNN reported that multiple administration officials were "quietly perplexed about what they perceive as her bumpy answers to questions about whether she will go to the US-Mexico border."

When Politico reported that that her office is an "abusive environment" where "people are thrown under the bus from the very top," anonymous members of Biden's team said they were "concerned about the way Harris staffers are treated."

The most damning report came from Axios in July. The term "stshow" was thrown around in reference to Harris' office, and Democratic operatives said they were growing increasingly pessimistic on the prospects of Harris being the standard bearer for the Democratic Party once Biden is done.

"Most Democrats aren't saying, 'Oh, no, our heir apparent is fking up, what are we gonna do?' It's more that people think, 'Oh, shes fking up, maybe she shouldn't be the heir apparent,'" Axios quoted one Democratic operative as saying.
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP)  At least 14 soldiers were killed and seven injured by extremists at the Yirgou military barracks in Burkina Fasos Sanmatenga province on Monday, the government said.

The soldiers were targeted at 5 a.m. by a large number of heavily armed men and showed great combativeness, Minister of Defense Aime Barthelemy Simpore said in a statement. The government immediately launched an aerial and ground offensive, he said.

Locals near the attack said they were shocked, given there had been an increased military presence in the area recently.

We are totally devastated because of what happened, Abdoulaye Pafadnam, the mayor of nearby Barsalogho town, told the Associated Press by phone. Many defense and security forces were sent to cover the area, and it was very encouraging to see that. We did not think that such an attack would happen in our zone....But when 12 soldiers get killed and equipment is taken away, it creates a big fear, he said.

Violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State is increasing across the once peaceful West African country. As of Saturday there were six explosives detonated within seven days killing eight people and wounding several others, according to a tweet by Menastream, a conflict monitoring consultancy. While attacks had previously been concentrated in the north and east, theyre expanding across the country. At least three of the explosives last week occurred in the west and southwest including the first deadly explosive in the Cascades region, according to Menastream.

Conflict analysts say the intensifying of attacks are due to some jihadist groups trying to consolidate gains before the rainy season ends, when violence typically increases and that the spike in explosives is a response to more airstrikes by the army, said Heni Nsaibia a senior researcher at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

One could assume that the explosives are both a response of choice to the airstrikes, and a way to deter movements by ground forces, in order to force them to become more static. he said.
ROME (AP)  Italys center-left forces, spearheaded by the Democrats, were sweeping to victory Monday in Milan and other big city mayoral races while clinching a runoff berth in Rome, where the populist 5-Star Movement's Mayor Virginia Raggi faced a stinging defeat, according to partial vote counts and projections.

The 5-Stars, currently Parliament's largest party, also failed to clinch a mayoral runoff slot in Turin, where one of their own had been mayor since 2016, with nearly 40% of the ballots counted.

In both Rome and Turin, 5-Star leaders had rebuffed Democrat Party overtures to join in an election alliance to battle right-wing forces and chose to run solo. Where the two forces did team up, the candidates backed by Democrats and the 5-Stars appeared headed to resounding victories.

"You win where you broaden the coalition,'' said Democratic Party leader Enrico Letta, citing the joint ticket's first-round outright victories in Naples and Bologna.

Letta has been trying to convince the 5-Stars to embrace campaign alliances with an eye to national voting for Parliament in early 2023. He is determined to shut out of Italys next government the right-wing forces that in past years have been gaining in popularity, especially in gubernatorial races and especially the anti-migrant League party led by Matteo Salvini.

Separately, Letta, a former premier, won a seat in the lower Chamber of Deputies in a by-election in Siena to fill a vacancy.

Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala, a center-left leader as well as a Europe Greens party proponent, claimed a decisive win for a second term based on partial returns indicating he would take 56% of the vote in Italy's financial and fashion capital. Trailing badly, with 33.4% was Luca Bernardo, a Milan pediatrician who was Salvini's candidate.

Salvini has ambitions to win the premiership of a center-right government he hopes will be formed after Italy's next parliamentary election.

But with wins in Milan, Naples and Bologna and spots in mayoral runoffs in Rome and Turin, we showed that the center-right is beatable, Letta told supporters.

If projections hold, Rome's mayoral runoff will pit Democrat Roberto Gualtieri, a former finance minister, against Enrico Michetti, a radio commentator selected by Giorgia Meloni, who leads the far-right Brothers of Italy party. Meloni and Salvini are unofficial rivals for the next premiership.

Premier Mario Draghi, an economist who formerly headed the European Central Bank, is currently heading a pandemic-unity government that includes Letta's Democratic Party, Salvini's League as well as the 5-Stars and smaller parties.

A key to winning the Rome mayoral runoff will be wooing support from Raggi's disappointed backers. The 5-Star Movement has been squabbling for months, including among left-leaning and right-leaning factions.

With ballots counted in 23% of precincts, Michetti was leading with nearly 31% of the vote and Gualtieri had nearly 27%. Raggi was shut out of the runoff with just under 20%, along with Carlo Calenda, a centrist former minister who won 17.3%. Projections suggested a similar final finish.

Yet six hours after polls closed, Raggi wasn't conceding.

I'd say this: let's wait for definitive data,'' Raggi was quoted as saying by LaPresse, an Italian news agency.

When Raggi won in 2016, she inherited Romes entrenched problems  unreliable trash collection, mass transit woes and streets in dire need of repair. Those woes largely persisted during her tenure. The 5-Star Movements new leader, former Premier Giuseppe Conte, campaigned heavily for her.

Rome can be reborn and well-governed, Gualtieri told supporters Monday night.

Michetti expressed satisfaction that he was leading.

Today the city is immobile when it comes to potholes, caring for green spaces and other problems, he said, referring to Rome's many poorly paved streets and waist-high weeds in parks.

In all, 12 million of Italy's 60 million population were eligible to vote in 1,000 cities and towns nationwide, but turnout, at just under 55%, was down 7% compared to the last mayoral elections in 2016.

How Salvini's League fares in races in Italy's south was being closely watched as a litmus test of whether he can convincingly expand his north-based political power into a nationwide force. His candidate in Naples, the south's largest city, polled about 20%, badly trailing the winning candidate backed by the Democrats and 5-Stars who was taking 65.5% of the vote, according to partial returns.

But a center-right candidate backed by former Premier Silvio Berlusconi triumphed in the sole governor's race in the southern region of Calabria. Roberto Occhiuto, a businessman who is the Chamber of Deputies whip for Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, was winning 54.7% of the votes, compared to the center-left challenger's 28.4%, with ballots counted from 40% of the polling places.
AUBURN, Ala. (AP)  An east Alabama man charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of a 13-month-old girl also is being charged with marijuana possession, police said.

Police were called to an apartment complex on Saturday afternoon and found the child suffering from a gunshot wound to the upper torso, authorities said. The girl was rushed to a hospital emergency room but died less than an hour later, the coroner said.
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Alert: Jordan's king denies impropriety in secret multi-million-dollar purchase of luxury homes, cites security needs
PHOENIX (AP)  U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema said Monday that activists who confronted her outside an Arizona State University classroom and filmed her inside a restroom were not engaging in legitimate protest.

The Democratic senator said that the immigration reform activists unlawfully entered the suburban Phoenix campus building, which was only open to ASU students and faculty, and recorded her and her students. Sinema, a former social worker, is a lecturer at ASU's School of Social Work.

In the 19 years I have been teaching at ASU, I have been committed to creating a safe and intellectually challenging environment for my students," Sinema said. Yesterday, that environment was breached. My students were unfairly and unlawfully victimized.

Living United for Change in Arizona, also known as LUCHA, posted video of the Sunday encounter on its social media.

The video showed group members chastising Sinema on accusations that she did not adequately support expectations of a pathway to citizenship for people in the country illegally and has not been supportive enough of President Joe Biden's $3.5 trillion infrastructure proposal.

Sinema did not say anything to the activists while they filmed her.

LUCHA said its members were forced to confront Sinema at ASU because she has been inaccessible.

Sinemas constituents have not been granted access to her office, they have been ignored, dismissed, and antagonized, the group said in a Monday statement said.

Sinema said in her statement she has met with the group multiple times since she was elected to the Senate.

Both Sinema and fellow Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin have been criticized for not fully backing the Democrats' $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act, saying it's too expensive. Manchin, of West Virginia, was also confronted by activists over the weekend. People on kayaks approached his boat to yell at him.

When asked about the incidents, President Joe Biden, whose first year of office could be defined by this package passing, agreed they weren't the best strategies.

I dont think theyre appropriate tactics, but it happens to everybody ... the only people it doesnt happen to are people who have Secret Service standing around them," Biden said. "So, its -- its part of the process.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki sought to emphasize that Biden supports people's fundamental right to speak up. But in Sinema's case, boundaries were crossed.

Thats inappropriate and unacceptable, Psaki said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also took offense at the ASU confrontation.

I started my career protesting the Vietnam War, and I get protested all the time, said Schumer, who is trying to usher the Build Back Better Act through Congress. And I understand and so feel for the immigrant community and what they are going through, but following someone into a bathroom and recording them, thats over the line.

LUCHAs statement did not address the criticism of the tactics. Tomas Robles, the group's co-director, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the backlash over ASU bathroom confrontation.

This is Sinemas moment to do the right thing and stop blocking the Build Back Better Act, the statement said. We - her constituents - need a pathway to citizenship, access to healthcare and lower drug prices, better-paying jobs, education funding, and the ability to keep our families safe. Senator Sinema must listen to constituents and support a Build Back Better agenda."

Immigration reform advocates were outraged after an effort to add immigration provisions to the infrastructure bill, including a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants, was rejected. They believe Sinema's stance on the infrastructure package makes any immigration provisions unachievable.

Sinema spokesman John LaBombard told The Arizona Republic last month that she supports both securing our border and fixing our broken immigration system, including passing a permanent fix for Dreamers.

The DREAM Act  Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors  is congressional legislation that would allow young immigrants in the country illegally who were brought here as children to remain in the country if they meet certain criteria. The legislation has never been approved by Congress. It is similar to but not the same as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Many refer to immigrants who would benefit from either the DREAM Act or DACA as Dreamers.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP)  Police issued an arrest warrant Monday for a man suspected of fatally shooting a Rhodes College student during an off-campus home invasion in Memphis, Tennessee.

Rhodes College Interim President Carroll D. Stevens said senior Andrew Rainer was killed early Sunday in a home invasion. Rainer attended high school in Memphis and was pursuing a major in English and a minor in music, Stevens said in a statement.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Its one of House Speaker Nancy Pelosis favorite sayings, a guidepost for Democrats in trying times: "Our diversity is our strength. Our unity is our power.

But as Democrats try to usher President Joe Biden's expansive federal government overhaul into law, it's the party's diversity of progressive and conservative views that's pulling them apart.

And only by staying unified does their no-votes-to-spare majority have any hope of pushing his rebuilding agenda into law.

Biden will set traveling to Michigan on Tuesday to speak directly to the American people on his vision: It's time to tax big business and the wealthy and invest that money into child care, health care, education and tackling climate change  what he sees as some of the nation's most pressing priorities.

Together, Biden, Pelosi and other Democrats are entering a highly uncertain time, the messy throes of legislating, in what will now be a longer-haul pursuit that could stretch for weeks, if not months, of negotiations.

Let me just tell you about negotiating: At the end, thats when you really have to weigh in, Pelosi said recently. You cannot tire. You cannot concede.

This, she added on a day when negotiations would stretch to midnight, this is the fun part.

The product  or the colossal failure to reach a deal  will define not only the first year of Biden's presidency, but the legacy of Pelosi and a generation of lawmakers in Congress, with ramifications for next years midterm elections. At stake is not only the scaled-back $3.5 trillion plan, but also the slimmer $1 trillion public works bill that is now stalled, intractably linked to the bigger bill.

As Democrats in Congress regroup, having blown Pelosi's self-imposed Friday deadline for passing legislation in the House amid bitter finger-pointing, they now face a new one, Oct. 31, to make gains on Biden's big plans. The $3.5 trillion package is being chiseled back to around $2 trillion and final approval of the Senate-passed $1 trillion public works bill is on hold, for now.

Attention remains squarely focused on two key holdouts, Sen. Joe Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who along with a small band of conservative House Democrats are the linchpins to any deal.

Biden is expected to be in touch as the senators return Monday to Washington. Pelosi has been in conversations with both West Virginia's Manchin and Arizona's Sinema.

The president wants both bills and he expects to get both bills, Biden adviser Cedric Richmond said on Fox News Sunday. Were going to continue to work on both.

The inability to win over Manchin and Sinema to support Biden's broader vision contributed to the collapse last week of a promised House vote on their preferred $1 trillion public works bill, which they had negotiated with Biden.

Tempers flared and accusations flew over who was to blame. Progressives lashed out at the two senators for holding up Biden's big agenda; the centrists blamed Pelosi for reneging on the promised vote; and progressives were both celebrated and scolded for playing hardball, withholding their votes on the public works bill to force a broader agreement.

Ultimately Biden arrived on Capitol Hill late Friday afternoon to deliver a tough-love message to all of them  telling centrists they would not get their vote on the bipartisan deal he helped broker until the progressives had a commitment on the broader package and warning progressives the big bill's price tag would likely come down to around $2 trillion.

In many ways, the weeks ahead are reminiscent of the last big legislative undertaking by Democrats pushing the Affordable Care Act toward the finish line during the Obama administration.

No one doubts Pelosi  and Biden  can do it again. But the fight ahead is certain to be politically painful.

With no support from Republicans who deride Biden's vision as socialist-style big government, Democrats must decide among themselves what size package can win over support in the 50-50 Senate and narrowly held House.

Paid for by raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy, those individuals earning more than $400,000 a year, or $450,000 for couples, the measure, Biden insists, will carry an overall price tag of zero.

Still, private discussions about trimming back various programs have now delved deeper into conversations over wholesale cuts that may need to be made. It's all on the table.

For example, will the push from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to expand Medicare to include dental, vision and other health care benefits survive? Or will those benefits have to be scrapped or reduced?

What about the new child care subsidies or COVID-19-related tax credits for families with children  will those be able to run for several years or have to be scaled back to just a few?

Will free community college be available to all, or only those of lower incomes, as Manchin proposes?

Can Biden's effort to tackle climate change be extended beyond the money already approved for electric vehicles and weather-resilient buildings in the public works bill?

"What we have said from the beginning is, its never been about the price tag. Its about what we want to deliver, said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., a leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, in a Sunday interview on CNN.

The president said this to us, too. He said dont start with the number. Start with what youre for, she said.

Pelosi has been working the phones to win over Manchin and Sinema, who in many ways are outliers among Democrats in the House and Senate who lean more progressive.

The two senators' prominence has morphed beyond the beltway into popular culture  Sinema was lampooned on Saturday Night Live over the weekend, while a flotilla of kayak-activists recently swarmed Manchin's D.C. houseboat.

Pelosi and Sinema had a prickly relationship when the Arizonan first joined Congress, but they now share a common interest in tackling climate change.

Manchin and Pelosi have a warmer alliance, and she showered the senator with praise as someone with whom she shared values as Italian Americans and Roman Catholics. Were friends, she said.

But Pelosi has made it clear she is prepared to fight to the finish for a bill she called the culmination of my service in Congress."

At a private caucus meeting last week, when one lawmaker suggested she had gone back on her word to have the infrastructure vote, she said that was before some among them were joining with the senators to reject Biden's broader plan, according to a person who requested anonymity to recount her private remarks.

Lets try to at least stick together, Pelosi implored the Democrats.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP)  Police are investigating what they say was an attempt to snatch a 2-year-old child from a sidewalk in Cedar Rapids.

The incident happened around 4 p.m. Sunday, when officers responded to a possible child abduction attempt near Huntington Park in north-central Cedar Rapids, police said in a news release. Arriving officers learned that a man wearing a hooded shirt and mask tried to grab the 2-year-old from the sidewalk, but was thwarted by a nearby family member of the child.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP)  Democrat Mike Collier on Monday formally launched a second try for Texas lieutenant governor in a race that also now includes former Bush campaign strategist Matthew Dowd.

Collier, an accountant who lost to Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick by 4.8 percentage points in 2018, made his entry official months after forming an exploratory campaign, although he had made clear that he intended to make another run.
BOSTON (AP)  A former executive at a Massachusetts shoe manufacturer convicted last month of embezzling $30 million from the company must also now surrender his $800,000 home, according to court records.

A federal forfeiture notice shows the government will seize a Duxbury home owned by Richard Hajjar, Masslive.com reported. The home is assessed at $802,400.
BRAINERD, Minn. (AP)  Maya Stovall was a student at Carleton College helping organize on climate issues when she learned about the Line 3 oil pipeline.

She decided to travel to northern Minnesota to join the protests against the pipeline  and kept going back.

Fighting Line 3 felt like the thing to be doing, said Stovall, 20, who is from Illinois and majoring in political science and international relations. We cant have new fossil fuel infrastructure like Line 3 if were going to have a breathable planet.

In March, Stovall was arrested along with other protesters who locked themselves together surrounding a prayer lodge at a pipeline construction site in Hubbard County. She was arrested twice more at other protest actions during the summer.

For the March incident, Stovall faces misdemeanor charges of trespassing, unlawful assembly and public nuisance. But after a July arrest in Pennington County, she received a more serious gross misdemeanor charge of trespassing on critical infrastructure.

Stovall had to wait months to be assigned a public defender to represent her.

Its stressful  a lot of weight from not being able to move forward, she said. I would really like to file motions to dismiss my charges, and I cannot do that without representation.

Nearly 900 people have been arrested during protests against the Line 3 oil pipeline, the last stage of which is being built in northern Minnesota following completion of portions in North Dakota and Wisconsin. Most were cited with misdemeanors. But many, like Stovall, have been charged with gross misdemeanors, and some face felony charges, Minnesota Public Radio News reported.

The number of legal cases is straining resources in the northern Minnesota counties where most of the protests took place. In addition to waiting for months for a public defender, some defendants also argue that the charges theyre facing are unfairly severe.

What we are seeing at Line 3 are definitely more significant charges or serious charges with the potential for more serious punishments, said Lauren Regan, executive director and a senior attorney at the Civil Liberties Defense Center, which is helping represent pipeline activists.

She said charges against Line 3 protesters have escalated since the protests began, even though she says their actions have been nonviolent and fairly run-of-the-mill acts of civil disobedience.

You see the state ... getting real creative in sticking felonies to people that we would not expect otherwise to have felonies, Regan said.

Mac Laurel Sutherlin, who works for Rainforest Action Network, was arrested in July along with Ginger Cassady, the organizations executive director, after they participated in a lockdown that shut down pipeline construction in Hubbard County.

Sutherlin is charged with felony theft for allegedly locking himself to construction equipment. He said the charge, which carries a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison, is disproportionate to what hes accused of doing.

Its clearly a blatantly political choice meant to intimidate and dissuade free speech and to dissuade further protests, Sutherlin said.

Hubbard County Attorney Jonathan Frieden, whos overseeing prosecution of nearly 500 Line 3 protest cases, disputes that the charges have escalated, or are out of proportion.

Frieden said county attorneys make their own charging decisions based on the law and the facts of each case. He said the felony theft cases typically involve people locking themselves to property or equipment, and depriving its owner of using it.

Most of the time, these are either $500,000 or million-dollar pieces of equipment, Frieden said. Them not being able to be used for even a short period of time usually costs thousands and thousands of dollars in lost revenue or lost productivity.

Law enforcement officials say some protesters actions have been not only criminal, but a danger to themselves or others.

Aitkin County Sheriff Dan Guida oversaw his countys law enforcement response to several Line 3 protests. He doesnt decide how to charge those arrested but makes recommendations to the county attorneys office.

Guida said many of the protesters have been peaceful and law-abiding. But he said some are trying to get arrested and disrupt the legal system.

Ive had numerous times where people have said, Hey, Im getting arrested today. What do I need to do? Guida said. Theyre there to get arrested, which is unfortunate because the court systems dont need to be bogged down with all these criminal behaviors.

In July, Guida and other officers extracted two protesters who crawled inside a pipe in Aitkin County. In court documents, authorities said the two refused to leave despite being in danger from extreme heat and a lack of oxygen.

The protesters have been charged with felony aiding attempted suicide, though no one died. Guida said he believes the charges are justified.

They were actually willing to die in that pipe, he said. Instead of holding up a sign and being in a public space and doing everything legal, they trespassed onto that property. They crawled into the back of a pipe, and they put themselves in a situation that was absolutely 100 percent very dangerous.

Defense attorney Jordan Kushner, who is representing the two defendants, disputes the charges.

They jazzed up the complaint in a way that looked like their life was in danger, and therefore they took that to mean that they were trying to help each other kill themselves, he said. Dont ask me to try to make sense out of it.

The Line 3 protests have stretched the already-thin public defenders offices in the 17-county Ninth Judicial District in northwest Minnesota, which is handling more than 250 pipeline cases.

Several defendants wrote to state public defender William Ward last week, complaining of more than 100 people being put on a waiting list for a public defender in the Ninth Judicial District. They said the delay had created numerous issues and violated their constitutional rights.

Throughout this time, court administration continued to schedule us for court appearances, while being repeatedly reminded that we lacked any actual counsel, the letter stated.

Kristine Kolar, the districts chief public defender, said the influx of pipeline cases combined with an existing staffing shortage created the delay.

Everybodys understaffed these days, she said. It extends into the legal field, and its particularly felt in rural Minnesota.

The staffing equivalent of just 2.75 public defenders were assigned to Hubbard County, where the bulk of the cases are, Kolar said. Then, one quit.

Im down to 1.25 attorneys in that county, so Im going to have to start shuffling attorneys just to handle the regular caseload, she said. So theres no way my office could handle this type of influx of cases.

Kolar is contracting with outside attorneys to help represent the pipeline defendants. She said all of the pipeline defendants in the Ninth Judicial District waiting for a public defender have now been assigned one.

Other defendants who dont meet the income threshold to qualify for a public defender are scrambling to find private attorneys, which are also in short supply in northern Minnesota, Regan said.

The influx of pipeline cases also could slow down the courts, which will need to schedule hearings and potentially trials for the hundreds of defendants.

A spokesperson for the state judicial branch says some district courts are using senior or semi-retired judges to handle pipeline cases. That allows regular judges to handle existing caseloads without delays.

Its likely that many of these cases wont be resolved anytime soon. Some defendants have vowed to fight the charges, or try to get them dismissed. The defendants include some notable leaders of the Line 3 resistance, such as Winona LaDuke.

Some likely will be resolved through plea agreements, while others will go to trial, Regan said. She said some defendants may argue that their actions were justified because of the threat they believe the pipeline poses to the climate or the cultures of Indigenous tribes.

The state is supposed to be representing the public, not Enbridge, she said. In the interest of justice, and certainly given the global pandemic, we would expect the state to reconsider some of its charging decisions and act accordingly.

Frieden said he hopes to work through most of the cases within the next six months to a year. He said his office will continue reevaluating cases and is open to plea agreements involving lesser charges in some cases.

But unless theres new evidence, Frieden doesnt anticipate dismissing the charges.

They should have a consequence if they broke the law, he said.
ABERDEEN, S.D. (AP)  An effort to return the remains of young men and women who died at the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania will include those of two young men from the Sisseton area.

While Carlisle is just one of many Indian boarding schools used across the country starting before the 1900s, this cemetery is unique.

Unlike many of the school cemeteries, these grounds, which were once operated by the Department of Interior, are now under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army, which is working with tribes from across the country who are interested in claiming the remains of their ancestors and bringing them home. That process started in 2016, according to Justin Buller, an attorney with the U.S. Army Generals office at a public meeting in Sisseton last week.

Tamara St. John, tribal historian for Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, has been looking into the lives of six children who left the Sisseton area in 1879. Theyre significant, she said, because these two girls and four boys were the first to leave the area. Of this group, three of the boys died at the school and two are buried in the school cemetery.

St. Johns work has taken many twists and turns, and sparse documents available from that time period have made it a challenge, but through the help of the few documents shes found and local tribal veterans, shes been able to confirm the remains of two students buried in the school cemetery are local ancestors of significance, the Aberdeen American News reported.

Now, the Lake Traverse and Spirit Lake Indian reservations will be working together to bring these remains home next summer.

The remains belong to Amos LaFramboise and Edward Upwright, both of whom are descendants of tribal leaders.

LaFromboise went to school with his sister Emily, who completed her education at the boarding school and returned home. St. John said the fact that she completed her education at Carlisle was a point of pride for the family.

Amos, however, died Nov. 26, 20 days after his arrival in Pennsylvania. Their father, Joseph LaFromboise, was a founding father who helped set up the Lake Traverse Reservation government after the Sisseton Wahpeton treaty was signed in 1867.

Hes the first to die at Carlisle, St. John said, noting he was initially buried in the county cemetery, but the county residents objected to having a Native American buried there and Amos was ultimately moved onto the school grounds.

Though her research has been ongoing since 2016, St. John said only recently she was able to confirm Upwrights ancestry as the son of Waanatan II, an early tribal chief.

We all as tribal nations have our historical figures, and American history doesnt even touch that, she said. And so for us, our children here, we try to educate them.

Upwright died in March 1881.

St. John said limited information is available about the cause of death, but many at that time died from tuberculosis. In Upwrights case, he caught the measles.

When she thinks about bringing Upwright home, St. John said, It would be much like the Lakota were bringing back a child of Sitting Bull.

The balance of the group included John Renville, his sister Nancy and George Walker.

St. John said shes still piecing together Walkers story, and although he was the last of the four to die, she believes his health was failing and he left the school. That, she said, is supported by two letters written by Walker in the Dakota language.

Hes lonely, she said. He wants to go home and hes very hopeful.

In one letter, St. John said, Walker talks about leaving the school with an agent and another student. This leads her to believe Walker died after leaving the school.

I couldnt find any record after that, she said. The idea that he wanted so desperately to come home, it speaks to the level of loneliness and sadness.

The Renville siblings were also the children of tribal chief Gabriel Renville.

He was chief until 1892, St. John said. The Renville family has a huge presence.

John Renville would have been the oldest son, who was 13 when he died. St. John said according to documentation at the school, Renville and his classmates were heading out to camp in the area and he became sick after drinking water from a stream.

When Gabriel Renville came to the school to pick up his sons body, St. John said, Nancy Renville returned home.

But, the fact that Gabriel Renville was able to come get his son and bring him home was a rare occurrence.

Gabriel Renville had resources that many of our chiefs would not, she said. Raised by a fur trader, Renvilles ancestry was a mix of both French and Sioux.

St. John said in the case of Waanatan, he had a signed pass that allowed him to go certain places.

How do you go get your child if you needed a written document that says you have permission to go off the reservation? she asked.

These six werent the only Sisseton Wahpeton tribal members who attended Carlisle. St. John said theres a long list of youth who attended the school, but these six were the first to leave the area in 1879 and, within a very short period of time, the four boys were gone.

St. John said discussion about bringing these youth home started with a group of Rosebud youth who visited Carlisle, saw the graves and started asking about who they were.

They looked at the kids... and realized that some were from Rosebud, she said. They saw names that were familiar to them. That sparked something within them and they started to ask about their story.

In 2016, they met with them in Rosebud, St. John said. By then, she said, several tribes were looking at this cemetery to see if there was a way to bring their ancestors home.

These children arrived at Carlisle not long after the battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.

I tried to remind people to take into consideration the political climate at the time, she said.

Through her research she found an article from the time that references a meeting of tribal chiefs in Washington, D.C. and how the chiefs were able to see their children while they were there.

That says right there they were used as a pawn, she said.

While some didnt make it home, others did. St. John said her grandmother attended a boarding school in Rapid City.

There are a lot of things that happened, but she said theres a lot of things a person could learn, St. John said. The fact remains that those things are a part of people today.

The first meeting to discuss the process of digging up the remains from the cemetery was last week at the Sisseton Wahpeton College in Agency Village. Thats when Buller explained how disinterment works.

Buller said the process requires a signed affidavit from the closest living relative, which is a determination made locally. This process is outlined in U.S. Army regulations for any family wishing to claim the remains of a relative in a military cemetery.

The family and tribe can decide who is the closest living relative, he said.

Once that affidavit is received, he said, a notice about the planned disinterment is published in the federal register. If another tribe objects, Buller said, the tribes are asked to settle the dispute.

Some tribes have chosen to leave the remains where they are, he said. Others have asked for modified gravestones with the removal of the cross at the top of the headstone and corrections to the childrens names.

Expenses for the disinterment process and gravestone modifications are covered by the U.S. Army, Buller said, but also limited. As an example, Buller said the U.S. Army will cover travel expenses of two family members and two tribal leaders for each disinterment.

Because the extended families of these two boys are significant, those limited travel expenses were a point of concern by tribal members who were at the meeting, which was recorded and posted on YouTube.

Buller said the graves have already been moved once in 1927. Thats when the Army decided to move the cemetery, because it was next to a dump. In retrospect, he said officials should have moved the dump, but as early as 1927, families were asking for the return of family members.

Those requests went unanswered.

In 2016, notices were sent to every tribe giving them an opportunity to decide if they want to claim the remains of children in the cemetery. Since then, he said, 21 of the 188 Native American children buried there have been disinterred.

Buller said the original cemetery site has been subject to extensive excavation and no remains were found and documentation they have supports the fact that the cemetery was moved.

Once excavated, remains are evaluated to confirm they are the person who should be in that place. Buller said thats done by checking to make sure they are the correct gender and the size matches a person of that age.

The final resting place for Upwright and LaFramboise is yet to be determined, and is a decision that will be made by the families, but, St. John said, some possible sites are under discussion.

For example, Joseph Lafromboise is buried near Veblen in St. Matthews cemetery. Waanatan is buried at St. Michaels cemetery in North Dakota.

Now, with the tribes involvement and participation from family members who can help with the process, St. John said, she doesnt see any roadblocks.

I dont see anything that would stop us from moving forward in their next cycle of disinterment, she said.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  A Democratic state senator from Milwaukee announced Monday she will run for lieutenant governor.

Sen. Lena Taylor made her announcement on the steps of the state Capitol. She would be the state's first Black female lieutenant governor. Incumbent Mandela Barnes, the state's first Black lieutenant governor, has decided to give up the post to run for U.S. Senate.

Three Republicans are vying for the position, including state Sen. Patrick Testin; Lancaster Mayor David Varnam; and Ben Voelkel, a former aide to Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson. They'll face off in an Aug. 9 primary. The winner will be paired with whoever emerges from the GOP gubernatorial primary to form the ticket that will take on Gov. Tony Evers in November 2022.

No other Democrats besides Taylor have announced plans to run. She holds a law degree from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. She won election to the state Assembly in 2003 and to the Senate in 2004. She made headlines in 2018 when she used a racial slur with a Milwaukee bank teller who wouldn't give her information about one of her tenant's accounts.
DETROIT (AP)  Aretha Franklin was given a bit of posthumous R-E-S-P-E-C-T on Monday when a post office in her hometown of Detroit was named after the late singer.

Members of Franklins family as well as postal and elected officials visited the former Fox Creek post office to celebrate the name change honoring the Queen of Soul.

Her legacy lives on in her music, in her family. But we have added to that list of her legacy: A post office with her name on it, said U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence, a Michigan Democrat and longtime postal service worker.

Lawrence also was a friend of Franklins and introduced the bill in Congress that resulted in the name change.

That legislation, which was signed by President Donald Trump in January, sailed through Congress, U.S. Sen. Gary Peters said.

Sometimes people wonder if Congress can come together," the Democratic senator said to laughter during the dedication ceremony Monday. "Congress can come together when it comes to standing up and recognizing this amazing person.

The post office is located about five miles east of downtown and not far from a concert amphitheater on the Detroit River that also is named for Franklin. It now will be known as the Aretha Franklin Post Office Building.

Franklin died in 2018 at age 76 in her Detroit home. A number of the songs she recorded during a legendary career, including Think, I Say a Little Prayer and Respect, are considered classics.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  The Mississippi Supreme Court acted quickly Monday to block a circuit judge's order in a dispute over whether a special election is needed to fill a vacancy in the state House of Representatives.

Two people signed up to run in a Nov. 2 special election in District 29 in parts of Bolivar and Sunflower counties. The seat came open when Democratic Rep. Abe Hudson resigned in late August.
The COVID-19 patient's health was deteriorating quickly at a Michigan hospital, but he was having none of the doctor's diagnosis. Despite dangerously low oxygen levels, the unvaccinated man didn't think he was that sick and got so irate over a hospital policy forbidding his wife from being at his bedside that he threatened to walk out of the building.

Dr. Matthew Trunsky didnt hold back in his response: You are welcome to leave, but you will be dead before you get to your car, he said.

Such exchanges have become all-too-common for medical workers who are growing weary of COVID-19 denial and misinformation that have made it exasperating to treat unvaccinated patients during the delta-driven surge.

The Associated Press asked six doctors from across the country to describe the types of misinformation and denial they see on a daily basis and how they respond to it.

They describe being aggravated at the constant requests to be prescribed the veterinary parasite drug Ivermectin, with patients lashing out at doctors when they are told that it's not a safe coronavirus treatment. People routinely cite falsehoods spread on social media, like an Illinois doctor who has people tell him that microchips are embedded in vaccines as part of a ploy to take over people's DNA. A Louisiana doctor has resorted to showing patients a list of ingredients in Twinkies, reminding those who are skeptical about the makeup of vaccines that everyday products have lots of safe additives that no one really understands.

Here are their stories:

LOUISIANA DOCTOR: Just stop looking at Facebook

When patients tell Dr. Vincent Shaw that they dont want the COVID-19 vaccine because they dont know whats going into their bodies, he pulls up the ingredient list for a Twinkie.

Look at the back of the package, Shaw, a family physician in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Tell me you can pronounce everything on the back of that package. Because I have a chemistry degree, I still dont know what that is.

He also commonly hears patients tell him they havent done enough research about the vaccines. Rest assured, he tells them, the vaccine developers have done their homework.

Then there are the fringe explanations: Theyre putting a tracker in and it makes me magnetic.

Another explanation left him speechless: The patient couldnt understand why they were given this for free, because humanity in and of itself is not nice and people arent nice and nobody would give anything away. So theres no such thing as inherent good nature of man. And I had no comeback from that.

People who get sick with mild cases insist that they have natural immunity. No, youre not a Superman or Superwoman, he tells them.

He said one of the biggest issues is social media, as evidenced by the many patients who describe what they saw on Facebook in deciding against getting vaccinated. That mindset has spawned memes about the many Americans who got their degrees at the University of Facebook School of Medicine.

I am like, No, no, no, no, no. I shake my head, No, no. That is not right, no, no. Stop, stop, just stop looking at Facebook.

DALLAS ER DOCTOR: Baffled at how he's lost all credibility with anti-vaccine patients

Dr. Stu Coffman has patients tell him they are scared about vaccine side effects. They dont trust the regulatory approval process and raise disproven concerns that the vaccine will harm their fertility. He said the most unexpected thing someone told him was that there was actually poison in the mRNA vaccine  a baseless rumor that originated online.

He is confounded by the pushback.

If youve got a gunshot wound or stab wound or youre having a heart attack, you want to see me in the emergency department, he said. But as soon as we start talking about a vaccine, all of a sudden Ive lost all credibility.

He said the key to overcoming hesitancy is to figure out where it originates. He said when people come to him with concerns about fertility, he can point to specific research showing that the vaccine is safe and their issues are unfounded.

But he says there's no hope in changing the minds of people who think the vaccines are laced with poison. "Im probably not going to be able to show you anything that convinces you otherwise.

And he thinks he could change peoples minds about the vaccine if they could follow him around for a shift as he walks past the beds of the sick and dying, almost all of whom are unvaccinated.

KENTUCKY: Political views come into clear focus after diagnosis

Dr. Ryan Stanton recently had a patient who began their conversation by saying, I'm not afraid of any China virus. From that point on, he knew what he was up against in dealing with the patient's politics and misguided beliefs about the virus.

Stanton blamed people like far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for spreading some of the misinformation that has taken root among his patients. Among them is that the vaccine contains fetal cells. Another said it is a simple fact that the vaccine has killed millions.

In fact," he said, that couldnt be more wrong.

It's tough to watch, especially after living through the early surges. On his worst shift last fall, an elderly nursing home patient arrived, close to death. She hadnt seen her family in months, so staff wheeled her outside in the ambulance bay so her relatives could say their goodbyes from 20 feet away. He snapped a picture of the scene so he could remember the horror.

There was hope after the vaccines arrived, but then came the delta variant and a slowdown in immunizations.

Really it amazes me the number of people who have this huge fear, conspiracy theory about vaccines and will honest to God try anything, including a veterinary medicine, to get better, said Stanton.

MICHIGAN PULMONOLOGIST: Facebook post unleashes his frustration

For Trunsky, the vaccine pushback grew so intense that he turned to Facebook to describe the ire he confronts on a daily basis at Beaumont Hospital in Troy, Michigan. The post listed eight encounters he had in the two previous days alone in which COVID-19 patients explained misinformation-fueled reasons for not getting vaccines or made demands for unproven treatments.

Example No. 5 was a patient who said hed rather die than take the vaccine. Trunskys response: You may get your wish.

He has heard a litany of misinformation about the vaccine: They say its not proven and only experimental when in fact it is not. Others tell him the vaccine is a personal choice and that the government shouldnt tell me what to do. He also has heard patients tell them they are too sick and didnt want to risk the side effects of the vaccine. One young mother told him she wasnt vaccinated because she was breastfeeding, although her pediatrician and obstetrician urged her it was safe. She had to be hospitalized but eventually got a shot.

Others, though, take out their anger on health care providers. Some threaten to call attorneys if they dont get a prescription for Ivermectin, commonly used by veterinarians to kill worms and parasites. The drug can cause harmful side effects and theres little evidence it helps with the coronavirus.

He estimates that he has cared for 100 patients who have died since the pandemic began, including the man who threatened to walk out of the hospital.

ILLINOIS FAMILY PHYSICIAN: Traces misinformation back to Scripture, Nicki Minaj

Dr. Carl Lambert hears lots of wild misinformation from his patients. Some comes from the Bible interpretations; some originates from the rapper Nicki Minaj.

Some of it is the stuff of internet conspiracy theories, like there's a chip in the vaccine that will take over their DNA.

Impossible scientifically," says the family physician in Chicago. He also hears patients tell him that the vaccine will weaken their immune systems. He responds: Immunology 101. Vaccines help your immune system."

Recently he received a flurry of messages from patients who were worried about damage to their testicles  a rumor he ultimately traced back to an erroneous tweet from Minaj alleging that the vaccine causes impotence.

And I was like, Thats outlandish. Thats a bit outrageous.' So a lot of just kind of counseling that I did not expect to have to do."

Some of the misinformation is delivered from the pulpit, he said. People have sent him sermons of preachers saying the vaccine is ungodly or theres something in it that will mark you," a reference to a verse in Revelation about the mark of the beast that some Christians cite in not getting vaccinated.

Theres a mixture of like almost fear ... and saying, Hey, if you do this, maybe youre not as faithful as you should be as, say, a Christian.'"

Most common, though, is patients just wanting to wait, uneasy with how quickly the vaccine was developed. But he warns them, Please do not try to wait out a pandemic. A pandemic will win.

He said his job is a lot of just dismantling what people have heard," answering their questions and reassuring them that vaccines work like this just like when we were kids."

He has had some luck lately in changing minds. Ive had patients that maybe four months ago said You are wasting your time. Dr. Lambert, I dont want to hear you talking about it. And theyll come back and say, Hey, you know what? Ive been watching the news. Ive seen some stuff. I think Im ready now.

UTAH DOCTOR: Fear of vaccine side effects, then fear of dying

When Dr. Elizabeth Middleton talks to COVID-19 patients about why they arent vaccinated, they often cite fear of side effects. But as they get sicker and sicker, a different sort of fear sets in.

They sort of have this sinking look about them, like Oh, my God. This is happening to me. I should have been vaccinated, said the pulmonary critical care doctor at the University of Utah hospital in Salt Lake City.

She hears often that the vaccine was developed too quickly. Who are you to judge the speed of science? she wonders.

Also frustrating is the idea among some patients that there is a secret agenda behind getting vaccinated.

There must be something wrong if everyone is forcing us to do this or everyone wants us to do this, patients tell her. And my response to that is, They are urging you to do it because we are in an emergency. This is a pandemic. It is a national and international crisis. That is why we are pushing it.

Getting through to patients and their families is a delicate line, she says. She tries not to disrupt the patient-doctor relationship by pushing vaccines too hard. But often the people who have been on ventilators need no convincing.

They are like, Tell everyone that they have to be vaccinated. I want to call my family. They need to be vaccinated.
AMSTERDAM (AP)  The European Unions drug regulator gave its backing Monday to administering booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for people 18 and older.

The European Medicines Agency said the booster doses may be considered at least 6 months after the second dose for people aged 18 years and older.

The agencys human medicines committee issued the recommendation after studying data for the Pfizer vaccine that showed a rise in antibody levels following boosters given around 6 months after the second dose in people from 18 to 55 years old.

The agency also said it supports giving a third dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or the Moderna vaccine to people with severely weakened immune systems at least 28 days after their second shot.

The agency said its decision came after studies showed that an extra dose of the vaccines increased people's ability to produce antibodies against the virus that causes COVID-19 in organ transplant patients with weakened immune systems.

Although there is no direct evidence that the ability to produce antibodies in these patients protected against COVID-19, it is expected that the extra dose would increase protection at least in some patients, the agency said in a statement.

The EMA recommendations go to the European Commission for approval and then to health authorities in all 27 EU nations, whose national health authorities decide on vaccination strategies. Some countries already have begun administering booster shots.

Numerous studies have shown that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines remain strongly protective months after people receive their second dose, dramatically cutting the risk of hospitalization and death.

The World Health Organization's chief had urged wealthy nations not to use booster doses this year, saying there is no scientific data that proves the shots are necessary. He said COVID-19 vaccines would be put to better use in developing countries, where many people still have not received their first vaccine shots.

The United States government launched a campaign last month to offer boosters of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine to millions of Americans even as federal health officials stressed the real problem remains getting first shots to the unvaccinated.

Pfizer-BioNTech said in a statement that they do not expect the introduction of booster doses in the United States and the EU, if authorized, to impact the existing supply agreements in place with governments and international health organizations around the world.

The coronavirus pandemic has killed at least 4.8 million people around the world.

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Follow all AP stories on the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.
BOSTON (AP)  A former Boston police union boss has pleaded guilty to collecting more than $16,000 in fraudulent overtime pay while working at the department's evidence warehouse, federal prosecutors said Monday.

Thomas Nee, 64, of Quincy, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit theft concerning programs receiving federal funds and embezzlement from an agency receiving federal funds. A plea hearing has not yet been scheduled.
NEW YORK (AP)  A data scientist who was revealed Sunday as the Facebook whistleblower says that whenever there was a conflict between the public good and what benefited the company, the social media giant would choose its own interests.

Frances Haugen was identified in a 60 Minutes interview Sunday as the woman who anonymously filed complaints with federal law enforcement that the company's own research shows how it magnifies hate and misinformation.

Haugen, who worked at Google and Pinterest before joining Facebook in 2019, said she had asked to work in an area of the company that fights misinformation, since she lost a friend to online conspiracy theories.

Facebook, over and over again, has shown it chooses profit over safety, she said. Haugen, who will testify before Congress this week, said she hopes that by coming forward the government will put regulations in place to govern the company's activities.

She said Facebook prematurely turned off safeguards designed to thwart misinformation and rabble rousing after Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump last year, alleging that contributed to the deadly Jan. 6 invasion of the U.S. Capitol.

Post-election, the company dissolved a unit on civic integrity where she had been working, which Haugen said was the moment she realized I don't trust that they're willing to actually invest what needs to be invested to keep Facebook from being dangerous.

At issue are algorithms that govern what shows up on users' news feeds, and how they favor hateful content. Haugen said a 2018 change to the content flow contributed to more divisiveness and ill will in a network ostensibly created to bring people closer together.

Despite the enmity that the new algorithms were feeding, Facebook found that they helped keep people coming back  a pattern that helped the Menlo Park, California, social media giant sell more of the digital ads that generate most of its advertising.

Facebooks annual revenue has more than doubled from $56 billion in 2018 to a projected $119 billion this year, based on the estimates of analysts surveyed by FactSet. Meanwhile, the companys market value has soared from $375 billion at the end of 2018 to nearly $1 trillion now.

Even before the full interview came out on Sunday, a top Facebook executive was deriding the whistleblowers allegations as misleading.

Social media has had a big impact on society in recent years, and Facebook is often a place where much of this debate plays out, Nick Clegg, the companys vice president of policy and public affairs wrote to Facebook employees in a memo sent Friday. But what evidence there is simply does not support the idea that Facebook, or social media more generally, is the primary cause of polarization.

The 60 Minutes interview intensifies the spotlight already glaring on Facebook as lawmakers and regulators around the world scrutinize the social networkings immense power to shape opinions and its polarizing effects on society.

The backlash has been intensifying since The Wall Street Journals mid-September publication of an expose that revealed Facebooks internal research had concluded the social networks attention-seeking algorithms had helped foster political dissent and contributed to mental health and emotional problems among teens, especially girls. After copying thousands of pages of Facebook's internal research, Haugen leaked them to the Journal to provide the foundation for a succession of stories packaged as as the Facebook Files.

Although Facebook asserted the Journal had cherry picked the most damaging information in the internal documents to cast the company in the worst possible light, the revelations prompted an indefinite delay in the rollout of a kids version of its popular photo- and video-sharing app, Instagram. Facebook currently requires people to be at least 13 years old to open an Instagram account.

Clegg appeared on CNN's Reliable Sources Sunday in another pre-emptive attempt to soften the blow of Haugen's interview.

Even with the most sophisticated technology, which I believe we deploy, even with the tens of thousands of people that we employ to try and maintain safety and integrity on our platform, Clegg told CNN, were never going to be absolutely on top of this 100% of the time."

He said that's because of the instantaneous and spontaneous form of communication" on Facebook, adding, I think we do more than any reasonable person can expect to.

By choosing to reveal herself on 60 Minutes, Haugen selected televisions most popular news program, on an evening its viewership is likely to be inflated because, in many parts of the country, it directly followed an NFL matchup between Green Bay and Pittsburgh.

Haugen, 37, is from Iowa and has a degree in computer engineering and a Master's degree in business from Harvard University  the same school that Facebook founder and leader Mark Zuckerberg attended.

Haugen, 37, has filed at least eight complaints with U.S. securities regulators alleging Facebook has violated the law by withholding information about the risks posed by its social network, according to 60 Minutes. Facebook in turn could take legal action against her if it asserts she stole confidential information from the company.

No one at Facebook is malevolent," Haugen said during the interview. But the incentives are misaligned, right? Like, Facebook makes more money when you consume more content. people enjoy engaging with things that elicit an emotional reaction. And the more anger that they get exposed to, the more they interact and the more they consume. 

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Liedtke reported from San Ramon, California.
Former U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, a conservative Missouri Republican whose comment that women's bodies have a way of avoiding pregnancies in cases of legitimate rape sunk his bid for the U.S. Senate and became a cautionary tale for other GOP candidates, has died. He was 74.

Akin had cancer for several years, his son Perry said in a statement. He died late Sunday at his home in Wildwood, a St. Louis suburb.

As my fathers death approached, we had people from all different walks of life share story after story of the personal impact he had on them, Perry Akin said in a statement to The Associated Press.

He was a devout Christian, a great father, and a friend to many. We cherish many fond memories from him driving the tractor at our annual hayride, to his riveting delivery of the freedom story at 4th of July parties dressed in the full uniform of a colonial minuteman. The family is thankful for his legacy: a man with a servants heart who stood for truth.

Akin represented a Republican-leaning eastern Missouri district that included St. Louis-area suburbs for 12 years, giving up a safe seat to run for the U.S. Senate in 2012. He emerged from a crowded GOP primary to challenge then incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, only to seriously hurt Republicans' chances of recapturing a Senate majority less than two weeks later.

Akin, a strong abortion opponent, was asked during an interview by a St. Louis television station whether he supported allowing abortions for women who have been raped. He answered that from what I understand from doctors that such pregnancies are really rare.

He added: If its a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.

His comments sparked an outcry. The Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, immediately rebuked Akin and said his campaign would allow abortions in such cases.

Criticism of Akin's remarks clouded his U.S. Senate bid until the end, making him a symbol of how Republicans could fumble away races they had a good chance of winning with a candidate deemed too far to the right. Akin's campaign initially said he misspoke, and Akin later said he was wrong.

Akin faced pressure from the national GOP to withdraw and allow the state party to pick a replacement. He refused and ended up losing the race by nearly 16 percentage points, receiving 39% of the vote. Yet other Republican officials and officeholders across the U.S. occasionally echoed his remarks  signaling how conservative some of the party's base had become on the issue.

Two years later, Akin published a book, Firing Back, in which he accused GOP leaders of abandoning him and letting McCaskill win and labeling news organizations as bullies. In the book, he also retracted his public apology for his legitimate rape remark.

Akin never ran for office again, though early in 2015, he briefly fueled speculation about a 2016 primary challenge to GOP U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt with remarks that tea party Republicans wanted new blood.

Akin was born July 5, 1947, in New York City, but grew up in the St. Louis area. He received a bachelor's degree in engineering and management from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts in 1970, served in the U.S. Army and worked for IBM. He worked in corporate management at the St. Louis-based Laclede Steel Co.

He won a seat in the Missouri House in 1988 and served in the Legislature for 10 years. He won Missouri's 2nd Congressional District seat in 2000 and was reelected five times. He also served on the board of the anti-abortion group Missouri Right to Life.

Republican U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner, who has represented Missouri's 2nd District since winning election in 2012, said in a statement that Akin was a man of great faith and an unwavering conservative. He was deeply devoted to God, his Country, and Family.

Another Republican congressman from eastern Missouri, Blaine Luetkemeyer, called Akin a dedicated husband, father, grandfather and public servant, serving the Show-Me-State for decades at both the state and federal level.

In the 2012 U.S. Senate primary, Akin faced two formidable opponents, former State Treasurer Sarah Steelman and businessman John Brunner.

Many Democrats thought McCaskill's best shot at winning reelection would be with Akin as the GOP nominee. Her campaign aired television ads suggesting Akin was too conservative, Brunner was not a reliable conservative and Steelman represented more politics as usual.

Republicans took the ads as McCaskill's attempt to help Akin win the GOP primary. An autobiography that McCaskill published in 2015 said she also tried to boost Akin's campaign by urging it through back channels to resume airing a television ad featuring an endorsement from former conservative GOP presidential candidate and ex-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

McCaskill's moves paid off. Akin prevailed in the eight-person GOP field with only 36% of the vote.

Funeral information has not been announced. Survivors include Akin's wife, Lulli Boe Akin, his mother, Nancy Bigelow Akin, four sons, two daughters and 18 grandchildren.

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Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas. Salter reported from O'Fallon, Missouri.
HOUSTON (AP)  A Texas agency on Monday approved a request that George Floyd be granted a posthumous pardon for a 2004 drug arrest made by a now-indicted ex-Houston police officer whose case history is under scrutiny following a deadly drug raid.

The unanimous recommendation by the seven member Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles will now be forwarded to Gov. Greg Abbott, who will make the final decision.

It was not clear when Abbott would decide the fate of the request. A spokeswoman for Abbott did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

Allison Mathis, an attorney with the Harris County Public Defenders Office who submitted the pardon request in April, said she was pleased by the boards decision.

A man was set up by a corrupt police officer intent on securing arrests rather than pursuing justice. No matter what your political affiliation is, no matter who that man was in his life or in his death, that is not something we should stand for in the United States or in Texas, Mathis said.

The boards recommendation was first made public on Monday by a reporter with The Marshall Project.

The May 2020 killing of Floyd, who was Black, by a white Minneapolis police officer prompted worldwide protests against racial injustice. The officer, Derek Chauvin, was sentenced in June to 22 1/2 years in prison for Floyds murder.

Floyd, who grew up in Houston, was arrested in February 2004 by Officer Gerald Goines and accused of selling $10 worth of crack in a police sting. Floyd later pleaded guilty to a drug charge and was sentenced to 10 months in a state jail.

Goines casework has been under scrutiny following a deadly 2019 drug raid he led that resulted in the deaths of Dennis Tuttle, 59, and his wife, Rhogena Nicholas, 58. Goines, who is no longer on the Houston force, is facing two counts of felony murder, as well as other charges in state and federal court over the raid.

Prosecutors allege Goines, 57, lied to obtain the warrant to search the couples home.

More than 160 drug convictions tied to Goines have since been dismissed by prosecutors, and a dozen current and former officers, including Goines, tied to the narcotics unit that conducted the drug raid have been indicted.

In May, the top leaders in Harris County, where Houston is located, unanimously approved a resolution to support the pardon request for Floyd.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg urged Abbott to grant the posthumous pardon.

We lament the loss of former Houstonian George Floyd and hope that his family finds comfort in Mondays decision by the Texas State Board of Pardons and Paroles to recommend clemency, said Ogg, who submitted a letter to the board supporting the pardon request.

During a public visitation in Houston in June 2020 before Floyds funeral, Abbott expressed a commitment to pursuing policing reforms. But a sweeping reform bill named for Floyd failed to gain traction in the regular Texas legislative session earlier this year.

Since he took office in 2015, Abbott has granted just a handful of pardons each year.

Mathis said she was hopeful Abbott would grant this one.

I also hope that he, and the Texas Legislature, will work more stridently toward reforming the integrity of the racist, classist criminal justice system in Texas, Mathis said.

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Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70
MIAMI (AP)  A Miami nurse was reunited with his family after a severe COVID battle that left him fighting for his life for three months at the very hospital where he worked.

Carlos Olano thought he was having asthma complications when he was rushed to the hospital in early July. But the 64-year-old, who had not gotten the COVID-19 vaccine, was immediately admitted into Jackson Memorial Hospital's COVID unit.
Former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen has been revealed as the source behind tens of thousands of pages of leaked internal company research, which she says show that the company has been negligent in eliminating violence, misinformation and other harmful content from its services, and that it has misled investors about these efforts.

For Facebook, the document leak - and the public reveal of the source - represents perhaps the most significant crisis in the company's history, further deteriorating relationships between the company and Washington politicians. The company is the target of a historic federal antitrust case and is fielding document requests as members of Congress investigate its role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Widely referred to as a "Facebook whistleblower" responsible for leaking documents behind a Wall Street Journal series, Haugen spoke publicly about her complaint to federal authorities, disclosing her identity for the first time in an interview airing Sunday night on "60 Minutes."

"There were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook. And Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money," Haugen said in the interview.

A veteran of tech companies including Pinterest, Yelp and Google, Haugen, 37, left Facebook in May after developing serious reservations about the company's policies, particularly surrounding the events of Jan. 6. Before the 2020 election, Haugen said, Facebook implemented measures to prevent the spread of misinformation, but the company decided to dissolve many of these protections after the election. She said she stopped trusting that her employer was willing to limit growth to improve public safety.

"As soon as the election was over, they turned them back off, or they changed the settings back to what they were before to prioritize growth over safety," she said. "And that really feels like a betrayal of democracy to me."

Haugen's lawyers have filed at least eight complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has broad oversight over financial markets and can bring charges against companies suspected of misleading investors, resulting in fines or other penalties for companies and executives. The complaints compare Haugen's findings with the company's public statements, according to "60 Minutes." The SEC did not comment Sunday on the documents or whether it planned to bring action against Facebook.

Facebook spokesperson Lena Pietsch said in a statement: "Every day our teams have to balance protecting the ability of billions of people to express themselves openly with the need to keep our platform a safe and positive place. . . . To suggest we encourage bad content and do nothing is just not true."

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., whose congressional panel will hear testimony from Haugen on Tuesday, said in a phone interview following Haugen's "60 Minutes" appearance that the SEC should take "very seriously" her allegations that Facebook may have misled its investors and should be "very likely investigating formally."

"Facebook certainly misled and deceived the public, and so their investors may well have been deceived as well," Blumenthal added.

Blumenthal said that in addition to delving into how Facebook's products harm children, lawmakers at the hearing will dig into Haugen's claim that the social media giant undermined its safety efforts by disbanding the civic integrity team she worked on after the 2020 election.

For weeks, revelations from the documents, which were at the center of the Wall Street Journal's "Facebook Files" series, have bolstered claims that Facebook's researchers and executives have a deep understanding of the ways its products harm people - beyond what had been previously known to the public and key policymakers. The wide-ranging documents represent an unprecedented look inside Facebook's struggles with an assortment of problems including child safety, political polarization, human trafficking and drug cartels.

Andrew Bakaj, who represents Haugen at Whistleblower Aid, said it was "immediately clear" that she had materials that were critical for lawmakers and regulators seeking to hold the company accountable.

"She's a perfect example of why whistleblowers are so important: Without her, we didn't know what we didn't know," Bakaj told The Post.

The material has only added to the embattled company's woes in Washington, including Haugen's upcoming testimony before the Senate Commerce consumer protection subcommittee Tuesday and documents she has shared with congressional offices probing Facebook. Haugen said she hopes the leaks will aid lawmakers to "get the fortitude and motivation to go put those regulations into place."

Facebook has sought to deny and deflect the revelations, downplaying the documents - even tearing into its own internal research - in blog posts, interviews and congressional testimony. Facebook's vice president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, appeared Sunday morning on CNN, calling allegations that the company is to blame for the violence on Jan. 6 "ludicrous." (The company's top executives, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, have not addressed the reports.)

"The responsibility for the violence on January the 6th and the insurrection on that day lies squarely with the people who inflicted the violence and those who encouraged them, including then-President Trump and candidly many other people in the media who were encouraging the assertion that the election was stolen," Clegg said.

Lawmakers in the House and Senate have demanded that Facebook turn over documents pertaining to its handling of the Jan. 6 insurrection, including an order from the House select committee investigating the matter to preserve communications on its platforms related to the riot at the Capitol. Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said at the time that the company looks "forward to continuing to work with the committee" in the House but did not say whether it will fully comply with the requests. Lawmakers across Capitol Hill have at times criticized the company for not turning over documents about its policies and practices on misinformation, violent rhetoric and more.

Despite repeated pleas from lawmakers to make more of its research public, so far the company has turned over two partially redacted slide decks looking at Instagram's impact on children and teens' mental health, along with annotations downplaying their findings.

The company agreed to partially comply with the Facebook Oversight Board's recommendation that the company take "a comprehensive review" of its impact on the events of Jan. 6, reflecting on "the design and policy choices that . . . may enable its platform to be abused." Instead Facebook committed to making data available to a select group of its existing research partners.

Clegg said despite the public backlash, Facebook would continue to do research into the negative impacts of its products.

"We're going to continue to ask ourselves these difficult questions," Clegg said in the interview.

Facebook has been under the microscope in Washington for nearly five years for concerns ranging from foreign disinformation to privacy abuses. The company is already the target of a historic Federal Trade Commission antitrust case, which it is expected to respond to on Monday. In 2019, it also had to pay a record-setting $5 billion fine to settle with the FTC over alleged privacy abuses.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill responded last week by hauling Facebook executive Antigone Davis before Congress to testify on a Wall Street Journal report, including company research that showed that Facebook-owned Instagram was making teen girls' body image issues worse. At the hearing, lawmakers accused Facebook of burying these findings and pledged to further investigate the matter.

Haugen addressed the findings about social media's impact on teen girls in the "60 Minutes" interview.

"As these young women begin to consume this eating disorder content, they get more and more depressed," Haugen said. "And it actually makes them use the app more. And so, they end up in this feedback cycle where they hate their bodies more and more."

Haugen is going public with her findings amid a growing debate about the power and influence of the world's largest tech companies and a growing push from countries worldwide to pursue regulation.

"It's important because Big Tech is at an inflection point," said Bakaj, her lawyer. "It touches every aspect of our lives - whether it's individuals personally or democratic institutions globally. With such far-reaching consequences, transparency is critical to oversight, and lawful whistleblowing is a critical component of oversight and holding companies accountable."
BRUSSELS (AP)  France and Spain pressed Monday for changes to rules governing the European Unions energy markets as prices for gas and electricity surge, ramping up already-high utility bills and tightening yet another notch the belts of people hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

European governments are scrambling to find ways to limit the costs to consumers as scant natural gas reserves expose the continent to price spikes and possible shortages if its a cold winter. Natural gas prices are lower in the U.S., which produces its own, while Europe must rely on imports.

The gas price has massively and brutally increased over the last weeks. It is clearly a matter of huge concern for all of us. It is unfair. It is inefficient and it is very costly, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said, before meeting with his counterparts from the 19 countries using the shared euro currency.

It is time to have a look at the European energy market, Le Maire told reporters.

Spanish Economy Minister Nadia Calvino, whose country has been among the hardest hit by surging energy prices, said this is not an issue that we can tackle at national level.

We need a European coordinated response, Calvino told reporters at the meeting in Luxembourg. She urged the EUs executive branch, the European Commission, to take decisive and urgent action to address this issue.

Energy analysts put the problem down to tight supplies of natural gas used to generate electricity, high demand, notably in Asia, and higher costs for permits to emit carbon dioxide as part of Europes fight against climate change.

But EU Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said the sweeping package of measures meant to tackle global warming  the European Green Deal aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels  is not the problem, but it is an important part of the solution.

Gentiloni said the commission will shortly present a toolbox of measures to mitigate the impact of the energy price surge. He urged countries to take only temporary and targeted measures to help those hardest hit that are consistent with Europes aim to move to a non-carbon economy.

Almost 3 million EU workers currently cant afford to heat their homes, according to the European Trade Union Confederation. A study last month by ETUC, which represents 45 million members, showed that 15% of the EUs working poor  or 2.7 million people  lack enough money to turn on the heating.

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Follow all AP stories on climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-change.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  A Wyandotte County Republican leader has filed a battery complaint against a Republican leader in neighboring Johnson County saying he forcibly kissed her at an anti-abortion event in August.

Stephanie Cashion, the vice chair of the Wyandotte County Republican Party, told the Associated Press that she made a complaint to police last month accusing Fabian Shepard, the Johnson County Republican Party chairman, of kissing her without her permission at a Kansans for Life fundraising event in Bonner Springs.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  Hundreds of people not wearing masks packed a legislative hearing Monday to urge Utah lawmakers to fight President Joe Bidens plan to require most workers to get either vaccinated or regularly tested for COVID-19.

The vast majority of people who attended the hearing in person criticized Biden's plan, saying they fear it will infringe on personal freedom and cripple Utah's economy. Sen. Curt Bramble said that about 600 to 700 people attended the hearing in person with another 200 who attended virtually.

The mandate would impact about 3% of businesses in Utah, but those companies account for more than 60% of employees in the state, according to figures provided by legislative staffers.

Last week, Republican Gov. Spencer Cox threatened to veto any legislation that blocks businesses from mandating employees to get the vaccine. He has said that he opposes government mandating vaccines but supports businesses implementing their own mandates.

Bidens Sept. 9 announcement is expected to cover as many as 100 million Americans  private-sector employees as well as health care workers and federal contractors. Some mandates seem to have converted hesitant workers, but employers are still dealing with holdouts.

At United Airlines, for example, about 96% of employees have been vaccinated. About 3% sought an exemption and fewer than 1% will be fired, the company has said.

The COVID-19 vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. were tested on tens of thousands of people and have proven to be both safe and effective at dramatically reducing the risk of serious disease and death.

The vaccines now have been given to more than 200 million Americans and that real-world use plus extra government safety tracking have made clear that serious side effects are extremely rare -- and that any risk is far lower than the risks posed by COVID-19.
BOISE, Idaho (AP)  Idaho Gov. Brad Little will tour the U.S.-Mexico border on Wednesday with nine other Republican governors.

Littles office on Monday announced that Little plans to take a boat tour of the Rio Grande River with the Texas Department of Public Safety. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey are also taking part.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The International Monetary Fund said Monday its board of directors has been briefed by attorneys from the law firm whose investigation found that current IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and other officials pressured World Bank employees to alter data affecting the business rankings of China and other nations.

The IMF said the 190-nation lending agency's board of directors met with representatives of the WilmerHale law firm as part of an on-going review of the issues raised by the firm's investigation into the World Bank's Doing Business 2018 report.

The Doing Business report evaluated a countrys tax burdens, bureaucratic obstacles, regulatory system and other business conditions, and its rankings was used by some governments to try to attract investment.

The IMF said in a statement that the board board would soon meet with Georgieva as part of its review of the matter. The statement said the IMF's board remains committed to a thorough, objective and timely review of the issues raised by the report.

The investigation prompted the World Bank to end the annual Doing Business reports. The report found that Georgieva, then the chief executive of the World Bank, and other senior World Bank leaders had pressured the bank's economists to improve China's 2018 ranking at a time when she and other officials were attempting to persuade China to support a boost in the World Bank's funding resources.

The incident has led to calls for Georgieva to resign from the IMF's top job. It has also served to underscore complaints that China has too much influence over global financial institutions.

Georgieva has denied all wrongdoing. Let me be clear. The conclusions are wrong. I did not pressure anyone to alter any reports," she said in a statement issued after the report came out last month.

Georgieva said she was looking forward to meeting with the IMF board to brief them on her actions.

The controversy is coming ahead of the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank, which will take place next week in Washington.
Anger and frustration over Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's refusal to fall in line with other Senate Democrats and pass legislation central to President Biden's agenda boiled over on Sunday, not in the marble halls of the Capitol but in a bathroom in Phoenix.

Activists followed Sinema into a bathroom at Arizona State University, where Sinema is a lecturer, as they urged her to pass the reconciliation bill that she has held locked in negotiations.

As she was exiting a classroom at ASU's campus in downtown Phoenix, activists from the organization Living United for Change in Arizona, or LUCHA, confronted Sinema, telling her that "we need a 'build back better' plan right now," invoking the name of the $3.5 trillion domestic policy bill that would expand the social safety net.

"Actually, I am heading out," Sinema told the activists as she walked into a bathroom. One person followed her into the bathroom, standing outside the stall that the senator entered, while another person stood at the entrance, recording the interaction.

"We knocked on doors for you," the person filming told Sinema while she was in the stall. A toilet flushed, and Sinema ignored the people as she washed her hands and walked back to the classroom as the activists chanted, "Build back better, back the bill!"

Seemingly unsuspecting women in the bathroom, meanwhile, conducted their business as usual, ignoring the argument between the high-profile U.S. senator and the activists that was unfolding in an otherwise drab facility.

The episode is representative of the dissatisfaction that many Arizona Democrats - and Democrats across the country - have voiced over Sinema's resistance toward the reconciliation bill. Sinema, along with Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., has demanded that the $3.5 trillion price tag for the legislation be reduced, though Biden and liberals have said that the bill includes essential initiatives such as addressing climate change and increasing federal social safety-net programs.

The bill had been set to include a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, but the Senate parliamentarian, a nonpartisan arbiter of the Senate's rules, said last month that including the immigration measure was "not appropriate" for the bill, which Democrats are seeking to pass through budget reconciliation, a process that would allow them to pass the legislation with a simple majority instead of 60 votes.

But activists have continued to push party leaders to pass immigration reform, including through the spending bill.

The person filming on Sunday, who identified herself as Blanca, told Sinema that "we need this pathway to citizenship," explaining that she was undocumented and had been brought to the United States as a child.

"We wouldn't have to resort to confronting" Sinema, the activist group tweeted, "if she took meetings with the communities that elected her."

"She's been completely inaccessible," LUCHA wrote. "We're sick of the political games, stop playing with our lives."

Sinema has built a reputation for rarely holding town halls with constituents or speaking with the press, often brushing aside the Capitol Hill press corps.

Asked for comment on Sunday evening regarding the altercation, John LaBombard, a spokesman for Sinema, told The Washington Post: "We are not dignifying this behavior with a response."

Democrats organized widely for Sinema in 2018, electing the state's first Democratic senator in three decades. As Sinema has emerged as a roadblock for liberal initiatives, such as the reconciliation bill or an increase to the federal minimum wage, some Democrats in Arizona have argued that Sinema is ignoring the communities that got her elected, including the state's large Hispanic and immigrant populations.

According to her university profile, Sinema teaches two classes at ASU during the fall semester, one held online and one with a series of five in-person lectures on weekends. Sunday's was the third lecture for a graduate-level course that Sinema teaches on grant writing, according to a course catalogue.

The senator's trip back to Arizona from Washington amid the ongoing negotiations over the legislation garnered criticism over the weekend, not for the lecture on Sunday but over her plans the evening before. The New York Times reported that on Saturday evening, Sinema was scheduled to attend a retreat with donors at an upscale resort in Phoenix. A spokesman for Sinema told the Times that she had left the capital on Friday to get treatment for a foot injury.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)  North Carolina's highest court weighed Monday whether the legislature's decision 10 years ago to begin charging some retired state government workers and teachers a premium for health insurance violated an agreement the state made with these workers.

The courts didn't immediately rule following oral arguments in the case, which could affect hundreds of thousands of retirees and cost the state over $100 million in premium refunds, as well as expenses to cover additional retiree benefits.

Retired employees sued the State Health Plan in 2012, saying the state was contractually obligated to offer them premium-free benefits through a plan in which they paid 20 percent of their co-insurance. The plaintiffs included retired Chief Justice Beverly Lake Jr., who died in September 2019.

The legislature and ultimately the State Health Plan initiated the premium requirement in 2011 for workers and retirees with the most generous plans to close spending shortfalls.

A trial court judge in 2017 sided with the retirees who sued, saying the plan and the state substantially impaired contracts with more than 220,000 retirees or their estates within the class that could benefit financially. But the state Court of Appeals overturned the trial court decision in March 2019, saying no such obligation exists.

Attorneys for the retirees said in a Supreme Court brief that several legal rulings involving other public employee or retiree benefits in North Carolina have found them to be contractual in nature. The retirees were promised a level of premium-free core health benefits for working, lawyer Sam McGee told the court Monday, and those benefits already have been earned.

Everybody knows that what these people were told was that if you meet these vesting requirements, you will get the regular state health (insurance) plan premium-free throughout your retirement, McGee told the court. This is what was actually sold to the (retiree) class.

But lawyers for the state wrote it was clear that the health benefits differ from pension benefits. While courts have previously ruled public pensions are contractual  all employees must send a set portion of their income to the retirement system  participating in health insurance is voluntary.

State law and State Health Plan documents have made clear the benefits could be changed at any time to respond to rein in costs, state Solicitor General Ryan Park said. The three-judge panel noted that the legislature or health plan had changed coverage hundreds of times since the General Assembly first authorized premium-free benefits in 1981.

We think this case is about democratic governance, Park told the justices. Its about who has the authority to decide how to spend these massive amounts of money that hamper the states fiscal planning going forward.

The legal class impacted by the case would include almost all retirees eligible for health coverage as of September 2016.

Today, current workers and retirees can still both receive premium-free individual benefits in 70/30 health care plans. Retirees can also participate in a premium-free Medicare Advantage plan. Otherwise, retirees pay this year either $73 or $110 per month for more generous plans. Over 750,000 current and retired government workers and their dependents are now covered under the State Health Plan.

A final ruling could come months from now. The Supreme Court almost didn't hear this case  it wrote in January that five of the seven justices had living or deceased family members who were once state workers or teachers, raising recusal questions that could have left too few justices to rule.

But the court decided in August to hear arguments after all because of the case's significance to citizens, the potential impact to the state's fiscal condition and the court's place as a last resort" venue to resolve legal matters.

Still, Chief Justice Paul Newby did not participate in deliberations leading to that decision or in Monday's arguments. No reason was given Monday about why he is recused. The court's order from January said Newby's mother is a retired public school and community college teacher.
TOKYO (AP)  Japan is focusing on its neighbors in Asia as it hopes to take a leadership role in the growing push to reduce emissions, having earmarked $10 billion to help the region speed up the move away from fossil fuels.

The Economy and Industry Ministry hosted the first "Asia green growth partnership meeting Monday, bringing together more than 20 nations, including Thailand and India, as well as the U.S., Australia and countries in the Middle East.

There are a variety of energy transition pathways in each country. It is most effective to make efforts according to each countrys economic, social and energy situation and technological capabilities, said Hiroshi Kajiyama, the outgoing minister, with the Cabinet reshuffle being held about the same time as the meeting.

He stressed the importance of various options, "such as nuclear power, hydrogen and ammonia, to promote energy transitions in a realistic way.

The meeting was held online because of COVID-19 restrictions. Japan hopes it will be an annual gathering, with the goal of helping nations meet the Paris accord on climate change. The goal of the Paris accord is to cap global temperature rise at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) by 2100.

A ministry official told The Associated Press the effort to get Asia on board helps Japans energy transition in the long run because that would mean a bigger market in that sector, which Japan sees as critical. Asian nations will be free to develop their own solutions, he said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

The minister's statement that there is no single pathway to carbon neutrality echoes the views of the International Energy Agency, based in Paris, which also took part in Mondays meeting.

China was invited but is not taking part, citing the recent national holidays.

Japan has among the worlds highest per capita emissions, although experts say it holds potential in making a shift to renewable energy because of its natural environment and technological prowess.

Japan remains more than 80% dependent on fossil fuels but ranks third in the world in solar power generation capacity after China and the U.S., according to IEA data.

Experts are warning the world continues to heat up, despite various nations emissions targets. Last year, Japan pledged to become carbon neutral, achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Resource-poor Japan includes nuclear power in its energy mix plans, although some nuclear plants remain offline after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

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Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
A Texas man who joined the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6. was sentenced Monday to 45 days behind bars even though prosecutors weren't seeking jail time, after the judge blasted comparisons between the riot that day and the Black Lives Matter protests over racial injustice.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan called it a false equivalence to compare the actions of people protesting, mostly peacefully, for civil rights to the mob that "was trying to overthrow the government." She said doing so ignores the very real danger that the Jan. 6 riots pose to the foundation of our democracy."

The judge's remarks in the case against Matthew Mazzocco of San Antonio came days after another judge in Washington's federal court suggested that the Justice Department was being too hard on the Jan. 6 defendants when compared to the people arrested during the protests after George Floyd's murder.

Judge Trevor McFadden, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, questioned Friday why federal prosecutors had not brought more cases against those who had taken part in the 2020 summertime protests and said the Justice Department would have more credibility if it was even-handed in its concern about riots and mobs in this city. He sentenced Danielle Doyle of Oklahoma to probation even though prosecutors had recommended two months of home confinement.

Chutkan, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, said she flatly disagreed with the suggestion raised by some people that the Jan. 6 defendants were being treated unfairly. In fact, she said she believes those who joined the pro-Trump mob were being treated more leniently than many other defendants.

She noted the vast majority of rioters were not arrested on Jan. 6 but were allowed to return home and that many defendants, like Mazzocco, were charged only with misdemeanors despite what she called the "premeditated decision to come to the District to try to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

Some Jan. 6 defendants and their Republican allies have claimed that the Justice Department has treated the Capitol rioters harshly because of their political views, while those who caused violence in the wake of Floyd's killing were given leniency. But an Associated Press analysis of court documents in more than 300 federal cases stemming from the racial injustice protests showed that dozens of people have been convicted of serious crimes and sent to prison.

Prosecutors had been seeking three months of home confinement for Mazzocco, who pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor charge of demonstrating in the Capitol. Mazzocco spent 12 minutes inside the building and posted a selfie on Facebook after the riot with the caption: the capital is ours!" Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberley Nielsen noted that he was among the first 10 Jan. 6 defendants to accept responsibility for his actions.

In a letter Mazzocco's attorney read to the judge, he called his decision to enter the Capitol one of the most foolish and impulsive decisions of his life. He told the judge his actions have taken a massive toll on him and that he has received countless death threats.

Since that day, Ive lived with the feeling of shame, sorrow and remorse, not because Im going through legal troubles, but because Im seeing the country I love so dearly divided like never before," Mazzocco wrote.

The judge said Mazzocco's participation in the riot warrants time behind bars even though he didn't steal or destroy anything or hurt anyone at the Capitol. She said that the rioters who committed violence that day did so because they had the safety of numbers," thanks to those like Mazzocco.

Mr. Mazzocco did not go to the United States Capitol out of any love or support for our country, he went there to support one man who he viewed had the election taken from him," she said.

About 90 Jan. 6 defendants have pleaded guilty, mostly to low level misdemeanor charges, but only a handful have received their punishments so far. Two other defendants, who pleaded guilty to a different misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct, were also sentenced last week to 45 days behind bars.
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday advanced the nomination of longtime federal prosecutor Darcie McElwee to serve as U.S. attorney for Maine.

The nomination will likely be acted on by the full Senate this week or next week, officials said. McElwee has been a federal prosecutor since 2002.
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP)  Kentucky is planning an outreach campaign in coming months to continue encouraging more people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, Gov. Andy Beshear said.

The campaign also will focus on the virus's symptoms and long-term effects, he said.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP)  Louisiana residents grappling with severe home damage from Hurricane Ida and unable to shelter nearby may be eligible for a new program offering travel trailers and other temporary housing, the state announced Monday, five weeks after the storm struck southeastern parishes.

Registration for the state-run Hurricane Ida Sheltering Program opened online at www.Idashelteringla.com or by calling 844-268-0301.

We're starting to purchase the travel trailers now and move them into the state. We think that we're just days away from starting to get some families into these trailers, said Gov. John Bel Edwards.

The Democratic governor said the state will use barges, recreational vehicles and modular sites in addition to trailers to create housing, to keep people away from group shelters where COVID-19 could spread and to allow them to be closer to home as they gut, repair and rebuild their houses.

I think you're going to start seeing this come online very quickly, Edwards said.

State Rep. Tanner Magee, a Houma Republican who represents portions of heavily damaged Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, said estimates are that 10,000 homes in Terrebonne Parish alone were made uninhabitable by Ida.

Magee described people living in tents or vehicles, struggling to find places to take a shower or do laundry. But he said many people don't want to stay in hotels or lease homes elsewhere because that would send them too far away from their jobs, schools and rebuilding work.

The closest hotel room we can find somebody right now is in Mississippi, a two- to three-hour drive from the area, Magee said in a speech to the Press Club of Baton Rouge.

That doesn't make any sense whatsoever" for people trying to repair and reconstruct their houses, he said.

Magee hopes the state sheltering initiative will help fill some of the housing gaps.

The state's program will run separate from other housing programs led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but is designed to dovetail with those efforts to offer more options to people in heavily damaged parishes whose homes were destroyed or are currently unlivable because of its destruction.

FEMA approved the state's temporary housing program and will pick up 90% of its cost, Edwards said.

Meanwhile, FEMA is sheltering 23,000 people whose homes were wrecked by Ida in hotels. The federal agency also is planning to offer travel trailers and manufactured homes to people in the hardest-hit parishes, but cautioned those often take months to set up because of federal requirements, site assessment and construction.

Magee said FEMA has told local officials that it will start providing trailers in mid-November. He lamented that after years of disasters, the federal government hasnt come up with ways to speed recovery and lessen bureaucracy. Though the state's program is expected to move faster, Magee said it's all too slow for someone grappling with a wrecked house.

Six weeks is (considered) fast. Yeah, it's fast when you go home and you sleep in a bed and you have A/C on and you have a roof. When you're living not in that condition, that's not fast at all. That's damn near a turtle pace, Magee said.

Louisiana hired contractor APTIM, an engineering and construction management firm, to run its temporary housing program. It wasn't immediately clear how much the state expected the full program to cost or how many people it was expected to assist. The Edwards administration didn't immediately provide a copy of the contract, requiring the filing of a public records request to get that information.

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Follow Melinda Deslatte on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatte.
PORTLAND, Maine (AP)  Gov. Janet Mills on Monday attended the departure of about 120 Maine National Guard soldiers to the southern border, wishing them a safe deployment.

The soldiers from the 488th Military Police Company departed from the Portland International Jetport. They'll be assisting the U.S. Customs and Border Protection for about a year but won't serve in a law enforcement capacity, officials said.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP)  A Massachusetts man who was the first person charged under a Rhode Island law that provides for stiff punishments for people who sell illicit drugs that result in death will spend 18 years in prison, prosecutors said Monday.

Cary Pacheco, 57, of Westport, Massachusetts, was sentenced last week after pleading no contest to selling the fentanyl that resulted in the death of Andrew Paiva in Newport in 2018, according to a statement from the office of Attorney General Peter Neronha.
MEXICO CITY (AP)  A regulatory commission in Mexico fined three manufacturers of tampons and diapers just over $15 million Monday for allegedly conspiring to fix prices for the products.

Mexicos Commission on Economic Competition said the price-fixing probably cost consumers about $73 million in artificially inflated prices.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Most people in the U.S. want to see Afghans who worked with Americans offered resettlement in the United States, a new poll shows, confirming support across political divides for former military translators and others struggling to escape Taliban rule.

The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds 72% of Americans say they favor the U.S. granting refugee status to people who worked with the U.S. or Afghan governments during the war in Afghanistan, if they pass security checks.

For officials of refugee resettlement groups, veterans and others working to get Afghan allies on planes out of Afghanistan, the poll findings bear out what they are seeing on the ground: Large numbers of Americans regard giving the Afghans a refuge from any Taliban retaliation as a duty and a necessary coda of the nearly 20-year war.

Patrick Raglow, a local Catholic Charities executive director in Oklahoma City preparing for at least 1,800 Afghan refugees in the state, said he is fielding hundreds of community offers of help and support for the Afghan immigrants.

Oklahoma farmers and ranchers have even volunteered to donate a few acres for the Afghan families to homestead, Raglow said.

I see this very much as a continuation of the mission of those brave 13 Americans who gave their lives, protecting and sheltering and bringing to safety these very people, Raglow said of the resettlement, invoking the U.S. service members killed when a suicide bomber targeted the U.S.-run evacuation at Kabuls airport on Aug. 26, an attack that also killed 169 Afghans. It is a way to continue that mission.

Matt Zeller, an Afghanistan war veteran and founder of the veterans group No One Left Behind, said he has also seen widespread support for Afghan refugees.

I dont think theres any more unified issue that the American public has had since 9/11, said Zeller, whose group is part of a civil society effort encompassing veterans, liberal suburbanites and hardcore conservatives, Democratic and Republican lawmakers and others that has mobilized to get more at-risk Afghans out of the Taliban-held country.

Zeller and others are frustrated that U.S. airlifts and subsequent private flights  handicapped by the Taliban and by U.S. bureaucracy  have evacuated only a fraction of the thousands of Afghans potentially eligible for special immigrant visas.

In a time of sharp political divide, about three-quarters of both Republicans and Democrats support granting refugee status to Afghans who worked with the U.S. or Afghan governments. Overall, just 9% of Americans say they are opposed.

We owe it to them, said Andrew Davis, a 62-year-old Republican and Army veteran in Galloway, Ohio. Itd be dangerous for them to stay there, I think, if they helped us.

More favor than oppose the U.S. taking in other Afghans if they pass security checks, the survey showed. Still, fewer than half, 42%, support that category of refugees, while 26% are opposed. An additional 31% say they're neither in favor nor opposed.

More Democrats than Republicans support refugee status for others who fear living in the Taliban-ruled country, 57% to 27%. Twenty percent of Democrats are opposed, while 23% are neither in favor nor opposed. Among Republicans, 38% are opposed and 35% hold neither opinion.

Davis said he supported accepting former Afghan employees of the U.S. or Afghan governments and was open to doing the same for other Afghans who felt in danger from the Taliban. But he stressed the importance of security vetting for all Afghan refugees to screen out any security risks.

If we can do that ... I do think we should take them in, he said. I mean, theyre obviously at threat."

Bill Cronin, a 74-year-old retiree and Republican in the San Francisco Bay area, said he supported helping Afghan interpreters and others who went out of their way to aid American service members and civilians.

While he spoke with dismay of immigration across the U.S.-Mexico border, he made clear he put former Afghan colleagues of Americans in a special category.

Those people stuck their neck out knowing, or maybe not knowing, that they could be killed by the Taliban, Cronin said. So why would you not want to take care of those people?"

Lauren Schulman, a 63-year-old bookstore worker and Democrat in Florida who said she strongly approves of granting the special immigrant visas, said the knowledge that only a small number of desperate Afghan allies has escaped Taliban rule so far makes their plight all the more compelling.

Americans have "been watching them for days and weeks now  trying to get out," Schulman said.

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,099 adults was conducted Sept. 23-27 using a sample drawn from NORCs probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Around New York City in the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, as an eerie quiet settled over ground zero, South Asian and Arab men started vanishing.

Soon, more than 1,000 were arrested in sweeps across the metropolitan area and nationwide. Most were charged only with overstaying visas and deported back to their home countries. But before that happened, many were held in detention for months, with little outside contact.

Twenty years later, in the aftermath of all the remembrances and memorials to the events of 9/11, little attention has been paid to the fate of these men and their families, collateral damage of a horrific terrorist act and the hysteria it spawned.

Fahd Ahmed, executive director of the immigrant advocacy group Desis Rising Up and Moving, said after the attacks, his group started getting calls from women saying, Last night, law enforcement busted into our apartment and took my husband and my brother. Children calling us and saying, My father left for work four days ago and he hasnt come home, and we havent heard anything.

There were people who were just disappearing from our communities, he says, and nobody knew what was happening to them or where they were going.

They were, according to the 9/11 Commission report, arrested as special interest detainees. Immigration hearings were closed, detainee communication was limited and bond was denied until the detainees were cleared of terrorist connections. Identities were kept secret.

A review conducted by the Justice Departments Office of the Inspector General said its policy meant a significant percentage of the detainees stayed for months despite immigration officials questioning the legality of the prolonged detentions and even though there were no indications they were connected to terrorism.

Although many of those who were held had come into the U.S. illegally or overstayed visas, it was unlikely they would have been pursued if not for the attack investigation, the report said.

The blunderbuss approach of rounding up Muslims and presuming there would be terrorists among them was pure racism and xenophobia in operation, says Rachel Meeropol, senior staff attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, who filed a lawsuit in 2002 on behalf of several of the men and continues to fight for additional plaintiffs to this day.

Yasser Ebrahim, an original plaintiff in the lawsuit, was at a shop in his New York neighborhood and noticed people intently watching the television. I saw these images on the screen, and for a moment there was like some kind of a movie or something, he says. I couldnt believe what I was seeing.

He had been in the United States since 1992 and enjoyed his life. I loved everything about America, he said by Zoom from Egypt.

On Sept. 30, 2001. Federal agents showed up at his door in Brooklyn, New York. Ebrahim thought the immigration matter would be straightened out quickly, or he would be deported. He remained in custody until the following June.

For three months, his family did not know what happened to him or his brother. Even then there was little outside communication. And some officers at the facility in Brooklyn were physically and verbally abusive. It was months before he saw his brother. There was the general feeling that were going to be here forever, he says.

Ebrahims brother was deported first.

When Ebrahim was finally allowed to leave, he was given clothes several sizes too big and placed on a plane but without being told the destination. The plane went to Greece and after spending a night in the custody of Greek authorities, he boarded a flight for Cairo.

In 2009 he and four others, including his brother, reached a $1.26 million settlement on the lawsuit. Though not an apology, he says, we thought it was sort of admitting that something wrong was done to us.

Umair Anser, was 14 and living in Bayonne, New Jersey, when he and math classmates watched the twin towers fall on a classroom television.

Less than a month later he came from school and found a nearly catatonic mom and a ransacked home. His father, Anser Mehmood, was gone, along with the familys computers.

We didnt know where our father was for the next three months, Anser said.

When the family did see him again, it was a different man. He was so weak  I couldnt see my dad like that, Anser said.

With their father gone, there was no financial support for the family. Anser and his brothers were bullied at school; neighbors harassed them at home. It became untenable and the family returned to Pakistan, leaving Mehmood behind, in jail.

Mehmood eventually pleaded guilty to working with an unauthorized Social Security number and was sentenced to eight months in prison. He was transferred to Passaic County Jail before finally being deported to Pakistan on May 10, 2002, where the family now lives.

Joshua Dratel, co-chair of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers national security committee, says the detentions are a foundational piece of something troubling  an acceptance of more invasive law enforcement for protection from terrorists.

Searches at airports, in buildings, even on subways: These are things that were once exceptional and extraordinary, and now the exception has become the norm. I think that has put us in a position of vulnerability to more of it and a more malevolent version of it.

Shirin Sinnar, a law professor at Stanford University, says the extreme measures taken after 9/11 have been normalized to the point that now we dont even talk about them. Theyve just become part of the kinds of surveillance and deprivation of rights and profiling that we expect to see.

The positive, she says: More people seem willing to challenge that.

To a degree, that is true. Attitudes have trended toward people being more wary of the governments counterterrorism efforts.

But a recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that a majority of Americans, 54%, still believe it is sometimes necessary to sacrifice rights and freedom to fight terrorism.

The long-running lawsuit in which additional plaintiffs were added after the first five were awarded a settlement has continued. It has ricocheted through the court system with mixed results, including a 2017 stop at the Supreme Court. Last month, a federal district court judge in Brooklyn dismissed the lawsuit.

Meeropol says the initial settlement was proof that the plaintiffs had a compelling case. She says no decision has been made yet on an appeal. That leaves a striking fact: Nearly 20 years later, no individuals have been held accountable for how the detainees were treated, she says.

Ebrahim, now 49, and owner of a company that provides outsource service, including coding, to other companies, said now, he would consider bringing his teenage son to New York City to see sights and sounds that he found charming.

But, he has advice for U.S. citizens: Never twist the Constitution again. What makes America America is the freedom, and the Constitution.

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Nasir reported from New York City.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP)  A medical glove manufacturing facility promising to employ nearly 2,500 people is coming to southwest Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Monday, calling the news the biggest job-creation announcement in the struggling region in a generation.

Backed by significant federal spending, the project in Wythe County, 250 miles west of the state capital, is expected to create a number of jobs per capita equivalent to Amazon's new headquarters in Arlington, according to the governor's office.

In an interview with The Associated Press ahead of a formal announcement Monday afternoon, Northam called the project a big win for southwest Virginia and said the pandemic and associated supply chain problems had shown the need for more on-shore production of personal protective equipment.

Two companies, Blue Star Manufacturing and American Glove Innovations, have agreed to form a joint venture and invest $714 million to create both a nitrile butadiene rubber manufacturing facility and nitrile glove production operation, according to a news release. The facilities are expected to occupy more than 200 acres at an industrial park near the junction of interstates 77 and 81.

The project will increase the raw material production and manufacturing of gloves now primarily made in Asia, Northam's office said. The company aims to sell the gloves to distributors and large end users, like health care companies.

The announcement comes after one of the LLCs that is part of the venture was awarded a $123.1 million Department of Defense contract to increase the production capacity of nitrile butadiene rubber in May, federal spending records show.

Virginia competed with Tennessee and Texas for the project, which state officials said was expected to result in 2,464 new jobs within the next three to five years.

In order to secure the project, the commonwealth agreed to pay for $8.5 million in water infrastructure upgrades to the industrial site, called Progress Park.

An Associated Press review in 2019 found that despite hefty spending, many of the states industrial parks were sitting empty. Local officials said in the news release that Monday's announcement showed their previous investments in Progress Park had paid off.

The Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission, the entity created to spend and invest Virginia's portion of the national tobacco settlement, also approved $1.02 million from the Tobacco Region Opportunity Fund to support additional public infrastructure, Northam's office said.

A legislative commission created to tighten the oversight of economic development initiatives signed off on the $8.5 million water infrastructure investment, according to the news release. The project is also eligible to apply for state benefits from a rail access program and a workforce services initiative.

GOP Rep. Morgan Griffith, who represents southwest Virginia's 9th congressional district, called the announcement tremendous news for the region.

It will provide opportunity for our citizens, economic growth for local communities, and tax revenues to support public services, he said in a statement.

Northam said the project would create good-paying jobs. The news release did not specify the average wage.

Wythe County is located about an hour's drive southwest of Roanoke. For over a decade, its unemployment rate has trended higher than the state as a whole, according to state data, though in 2020 its rate was lower than the national average.

Southwest Virginia has been on a long economic decline as coal mining jobs dried up and many manufacturing jobs moved overseas. The region has also been losing population. An initiative examining how the state can provide economic transition support to the coalfields is currently underway, with a report expected later this year.

The Northam administration has also sought to improve broadband access and transportation in the region, including rail access.
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP)  Doctors in Nigeria's government hospitals have suspended a two-month strike for payment of salaries owed to many and improved working conditions.

The resident doctors, the mainstay of health care at government hospitals throughout the West African country, said they will resume work Wednesday after they achieved some positive results in talks with the government, Dr. Dare Ishaya, president of the National Association of Resident Doctors, told The Associated Press Monday.

Although members owed salary arrears are beginning to get paid, some key demands that led to the strike have still not been addressed, said Ishaya. The outstanding demands include salary shortfalls and arrears, some owed for more than a year, failure to increase the 5,000 naira ($12) monthly health hazard allowance last reviewed in 1991, and failure of some states to implement the monthly national minimum wage of 30,000 naira ($73) for the resident doctors.

However, even with their grievances not fully addressed, the doctors have decided to return to work because, the masses are bearing the brunt of the strike amid Nigeria's battle with the third wave of the pandemic, Ishaya said. About 20 of our colleagues died as a result of the pandemic," he added.

On Aug. 3, the resident doctors in Nigeria, Africas most populous nation with 206 million people, embarked on their fourth strike since the pandemic began, leaving government-run hospitals and COVID-19 treatment centers short-staffed. The doctors' organization has 16,000 members, according to its immediate past president, making it one of the largest single groups in Nigerias health sector.

The doctors have also urged the government to improve working conditions in hospitals and to provide adequate funding for the health sector. Nigeria's minister of health has not yet responded to all the doctors' demands but the problem of poor funding is not new in the health sector.

According to budget documents reviewed by AP, Nigerias public health sector has not been sufficiently funded for years despite the country having one of Africas biggest economies.

In 2021, for instance, funding for the Federal Ministry of Health was only 4% of the entire national budget, or 549.8 billion naira ($1.34 billion). An additional 70.2 billion naira ($171.6 million) was provided because of the pandemic but that allocation is still considerably lower than the African Unions recommendation that governments increase health care spending by 15% during the pandemic.

Previous dialogues between the doctors and Nigeria's federal government to address the challenges facing the health sector have collapsed and authorities have gone as far as threatening to replace the striking doctors if they do not resume work.

On Sept. 17, a court granted an application filed by the government which ordered the doctors to call off the strike, and both parties continue to negotiate even as the case is still in court. The doctors rejected the court ruling and the government's posture in addressing issues raised.

"If we had sat on the table and agreed on these things from the beginning, the strike would not have reached even a week, Ishaya told AP.
BOSTON (AP)  President Joe Bidens pick for U.S. attorney for Massachusetts fought back during a radio interview Monday against Republican claims that she's not tough enough on criminals

Rachael Rollins, who is currently the top prosecutor for the city of Boston and several suburbs, said on GBH News that her progressive approach to crime, including her decision to not prosecute low-level crimes and back police reform, is working.

Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee split 11-11 along party lines in a vote that followed strong objections from Republican members of the panel, including Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who called Rollins a "pro-criminal activist."

Rollins said Monday she is pro justice," which means accountability for victims and their families, but at the same time making sure the system works all the time, and I am not going to be silent when it doesn't."

She said Republicans' contentions that her approach does not work is not supported by the evidence.

Boston remains one of the only major cities in America where violent crime is down," she said.

She acknowledged that speaking out during the confirmation process is unusual, but said she will not remain silent and everything about me breaks a pattern."

The committee's vote last week broke with a nearly 30-year precedent in forcing a roll call vote on Rollins nomination. Seven other nominees advanced easily.

The move forces Democratic leaders to call a vote of the full Senate just to bring the nomination up for consideration. That vote  and then the final vote confirming Rollins nomination  would require a simple majority in the evenly split chamber.

I remain optimistic and look forward to the confirmation in the full Senate," she said Monday.

An email seeking comment was left Monday with a spokesperson for Cotton.

Last week a spokesperson for Cotton said: Rachel Rollins measures success as a prosecutor not by the number of victims she secures justice for, but by the number of criminals she helps avoid consequences.

Rollins, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Massachusetts, has pushed for progressive criminal justice reforms since being elected in 2018 as the first woman of color to serve as Suffolk district attorney.

If confirmed by the Senate, shed become the first Black woman to serve as U.S. attorney for Massachusetts.
NEW BERN, N.C. (AP)  A North Carolina man has been charged after a deputy was shot and wounded as he and two others went to serve him an involuntary commitment order, a sheriff's office said.

Robert Joseph Westrup, 41, of New Bern appeared in court on Monday on charges of assault on law enforcement with a deadly weapon and attempted first-degree murder, news outlets reported.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP)  A nurse has been charged with taking the powerful opioid fentanyl from medicine cabinets at two Kansas City-area hospitals.

The U.S. attorney's office for Kansas announced Monday that a federal grand jury has indicted Faith Naccarato, 41, of Kansas City, Missouri, on four charges. She is charged with two counts of illegally possessing fentanyl through deception or subterfuge and two counts of tampering with a consumer product.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP)  Illinois and federal officials on Monday unveiled a mobile unit that they say will add speed and efficiency to digital investigations of child pornography and exploitation at a time when young people are using the internet more than ever before.

The gray van is assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children task force, said Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, whose office oversees the group and its increasing caseload. Tips about alleged exploitation received by the task force increased by 118% from 2017 to 2020 and are on pace to jump another 23% this year.

Child predators are actively trolling the internet, trading, selling and collecting images of the most vile sexual acts involving children," Raoul said. Other predators log on to appear to innocently befriend young people, he said, then lure them to meet-ups for sex.

Raoul touted tutorials his office developed for schools and parents, which have gone from being conducted in-person to online since the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic also had the added effect of keeping families home and kids in front of screens.

A parent's eyes light up when they start thinking about this," Raoul said. "They do believe that when their kid is in their room on a computer or playing a video game that theyre extremely safe. They dont think about the vulnerabilities that are associated with it.

The mobile unit is funded by a $174,000 federal grant and outfitted with amenities such as a tool that allows investigators to download information from a suspect's electronic device in a read-only format. That's critical when evidence is introduced in court because a defendant can raise doubt about someone tinkering with what was found.

Additionally, the mobile unit affords privacy for such sensitive work  not to mention safety, said Zeus Flores, a digital forensic examiner for the task force. Instead of having to work in what could be squalid conditions  some of the homes we're going into are frankly biohazardous, Flores said  the mobile unit will be a centralized laboratory.

Its a very dynamic scene, Flores said. Investigators are trying to talk to subjects, trying to find out what they know and were trying to provide them intelligence so they are armed with the proper information. It gives us an opportunity to triage the devices  and were not, for example, taking a childs laptop who needs it for their homework. We can look it over, exclude it, and give it right back.

Raoul's office said the task force has been involved in the arrests of more than 1,780 alleged predators since 2006, the year the Justice Department ordered states to begin maintaining statistics on such cases.

Last week, Raoul said, state and federal prosecutors obtained a conviction in Peoria of a man who traveled to Kankakee County to have sex with who he thought was a 14-year-old child but who was actually an investigator. The task force's cooperation with the Winnebago County state's attorney led to recent charges of possession of child pornography against a Rockford police officer.

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Follow Political Writer John OConnor at https://twitter.com/apoconnor
MOLALLA, Ore. (AP)  Officers responding to a medical call on Monday arrested a man after he fired guns at them from a house northeast of Salem in Molalla, police said.

Police Chief Frank Schoenfeld said during a news conference that when police arrived at the home Monday, a man put on body armor and fired from inside.
WARSAW, Poland (AP)  Poland's influential Catholic Church appealed Monday for humanitarian assistance for migrants from Iraq, Syria and elsewhere who have been seeking to reach Europe by crossing from Belarus into Poland.

Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, the president of the Polish Bishops Conference, called for permission to launch humanitarian corridors in order to control the relocation of refugees and put an end to a chaotic migration happening at the hands of gangs of smugglers.

Church authorities have been largely aligned with Poland's conservative government and the statement appeared to be an unusual reproach of how the state authorities have been handling the migration crisis.

Warsaw has responded to the large-scale migration with a tough approach, refusing to let migrants apply for asylum and pushing some back across the border into Belarus. Those policies violate international law, but the Polish government argues that it must protect the nations borders and security in the face of a hybrid war attack from Belarus.

People have been getting trapped at the border, suffering thirst, hunger and exhaustion. There are reports of several deaths from exposure. Many Poles were horrified last week at images of children, including toddlers, who arrived in Poland only to be sent back to Belarus.

The right and duty to defend the state borders can be reconciled with bringing help to people who find themselves in dramatic situations, Gadecki wrote in his appeal.

Poland's right-wing government accuses Belarus of facilitating the large-scale migration into Poland to create instability in the European Union. Poland and other EU countries  particularly Lithuania and Latvia, which also border Belarus and have seen migrants enter their countries  believe it is revenge for EU sanctions against the government of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Top government officials have portrayed some of the migrants as dangerous criminals, terrorists or people with sexual perversions. Meanwhile, those Poles who criticize the government's approach have been accused of siding with Lukashenko against their own nation.

Gadecki said that the authorities have the duty to detect potential threats from people crossing the countrys borders, but shouldn't stigmatize newcomers by making harmful generalizations.

He recalled the Christian duty to help migrants and refugees.

He also expressed his gratitude for the help given to Afghans who were evacuated by the Polish authorities as the Taliban seized control of Kabul.

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Follow APs global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
SEATTLE (AP)  Seattles police oversight office says the abandonment of a precinct by officers during last summers racial justice protests didnt violate laws or departmental policies.

The Office of Police Accountability on Monday released its findings from a monthslong investigation into the abandonment of the precinct on June 8, 2020, after 10 days of protests over George Floyds murder by a Minneapolis police officer in late May.

The Seattle Times reports that two department leaders were investigated in connection with the evacuation orders  the then-chief of police and the assistant chief of patrol operations.

Though the Office of Police Accountability didnt name either person in its report, Carmen Best was Seattle's police chief at the time, and Assistant Chief Thomas Mahaffey heads the departments patrol operations.

In the oversight office's investigation, police leaders faced four allegations of misconduct: that they failed to take responsibility for their respective commands, did not adhere to laws or policy, used improper discretion and were unprofessional. None of the allegations was sustained by the office.

The precinct was abandoned a little over a week after nightly protests on Capitol Hill made their way to the building.

During that time, the Seattle Police Department closed off street access with fence barricades to maintain a perimeter around the East Precinct, the Monday Office of Police Accountability statement said.

The barricades became flashpoints for nightly standoffs between police and protesters, often resulting in protesters throwing objects at officers and officers using tear gas, blast balls and other weapons against the crowd.

Angelo Calfo, a lawyer who represents a group suing the city over the precincts abandonment, declined to comment to the newspaper, saying he had yet to read the report. His clients include residents and businesses who allege they were harmed by the evacuation of the precinct and subsequent unrest in the area.

While the watchdog group found that the decision to leave the precinct was consistent with department policy, Andrew Myerberg, Office of Police Accountability director, recommended that in the future the police department use more transparency when communicating about decisions of public concern.

In this case, the public and media were forced to speculate as to what occurred, he said. In OPAs estimation, this created a sense of distrust and belief that there was something nefarious at play, when, in fact, there wasnt.

The Seattle Police Department said in a statement Monday that the department recognizes its 2020 response to protests  especially in the weeks after George Floyds murder  negatively impacted many people of Seattle.

Since the watchdog investigation began, the police department said it has adopted new tactics, including reducing the departments visible footprint around crowded events; clarifying the rights, roles and identification of volunteer medics, media and legal observers; emphasizing de-escalation tactics when controlling crowds; and providing consistency in warnings around using less-lethal tools.
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden on Monday urged Republican senators to get out of the way and let Democrats suspend the nations debt limit, hoping to keep the U.S. government from bumping dangerously close to a credit default as Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell refuses to lend his partys help.

Bidens criticism came with Congress facing an Oct 18 deadline to allow for more borrowing to keep the government operating after having accrued a total public debt of $28.4 trillion. The House has passed a measure to suspend the debt limit, but McConnell is forcing Senate Democrats into a cumbersome process that could drag on and approach the deadline with little margin for error.

Both Biden and McConnell have promised that the country will avoid default, yet the public fight and political posturing risks an economic meltdown. The global economy relies on the stability of U.S. Treasury notes, and unpaid debt could crush financial markets and hurl America into recession. Biden noted that the debt limit applies to borrowing that has already occurred, including under former President Donald Trump, and said Republicans are hurting the country by blocking the limit's suspension.

They need to stop playing Russian roulette with the U.S. economy, Biden said at the White House. Republicans just have to let us do our job. Just get out of the way. If you dont want to help save the country, get out of the way so you dont destroy it.

Unmoved, McConnell said Republicans had given the Democrats a roadmap for dealing with the debt ceiling with months of warning.

I suggest that our Democratic colleagues get moving, McConnell said at the Capitol.

Once a routine vote, the need to raise the nations debt limit has become increasingly partisan. Its become a favorite political weapon of Republicans to either demand concessions or force Democrats into unpopular votes to enable more borrowing. McConnell has tied the vote to Biden's multitrillion-dollar tax and economic agenda that awaits Congressional approval. But Biden says the price tag in terms of debt for his plan will be zero, paid for by raising taxes on corporations and on the wealthy, whom the House Democrats have defined as individuals earning more than $400,000 a year, or couples making more than $450,000.

Biden said he planned to talk with McConnell, who dug in with a letter of his own to the president.

We have no list of demands. For two and a half months, we have simply warned that since your party wishes to govern alone, it must handle the debt limit alone as well, the Kentucky senator wrote in the Monday letter.

The financial markets have stayed relatively calm with interest rates on 10-year Treasury notes holding just below 1.5%. That rate is slightly higher than the all-time lows set last year as the coronavirus pandemic spread, but it's still lower than at any other time over nearly 60 years of data tracked by the Federal Reserve.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has projected the government will exhaust its cash reserves on Oct. 18, an event she says would likely trigger a financial crisis and economic recession. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer warned Monday that it would be hazardous for the economy to come anywhere near that deadline.

The consequences of even approaching the X date could be disastrous for our economy and devastating to American families, raising the costs of borrowing for average Americans and hampering our economic recovery over the long-term," Schumer said in a letter to Democratic senators.

Democrats and Republicans are in a standoff over how to handle an extension for the debt ceiling. Republicans are insisting that Democrats go it alone with the same legislative tool that is already being used to try and pass Bidens plan to boost safety net, health and environmental programs. Democrats say that extending the debt limit has traditionally been a bipartisan effort and that the debt cap was built up under presidents from both parties.

Schumer said that if the debt issue is not resolved this week, the Senate will likely be forced to remain in session during the weekend and possibly the following week when senators were scheduled to be back in their home states.

Schumer also discussed the current state of play with the bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure bill that has already passed the Senate and is stuck in the House, as well as Biden's larger, $3.5 trillion effort focused on social programs and the environment that would be offset by tax increases on corporations and the wealthy. He noted that the president visited with House Democrats on Friday to generate support for both measures.

He encouraged them to stick together, compromise, and find the sweet spot that will allow us to complete our work," Schumer said. I agree with his sentiment wholeheartedly  we can get this done, together, if we put aside our differences and find the common ground within our party."

Biden discussed the larger plan with progressive House Democrats during a virtual meeting Monday afternoon. And Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top White House advisers huddled late Monday at the Capitol over it.

Were making progress, Pelosi said as she exited. Schumer had said in an earlier letter to colleagues they need to reach a deal soon, preferably days, not weeks.

Schumer and McConnell debated the debt ceiling when the Senate earlier Monday.

McConnell noted that Biden voted against raising the debt ceiling as a senator when Republicans controlled Congress and the presidency.

But Schumer said Democrats allowed for an up-or-down vote back then rather than requiring the majority to overcome a filibuster. He said Republicans should follow that example when he seeks to bring up the House-passed bill that would suspend the debt ceiling until December 2022.

We arent asking Republicans to support it when it comes time for a vote. We only ask that they get out of the way, let Democrats pass it on our own just as the majority party did in the early 2000s, Schumer said.

The fact is we dont have the luxury of waiting until Oct. 18 to extend the debt ceiling, Schumer added. Even a near miss can have dramatic consequences."

Biden will be traveling to Michigan on Tuesday to promote his legislative plan as negotiations resume in Washington. Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have said they won't back a $3.5 trillion spending bill. And many House Democrats won't support the smaller bipartisan infrastructure plan until they get an agreement on the larger measure.

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AP Chief Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
A Drug Enforcement Administration special agent was killed Monday when a passenger, who also died, opened fire as officers were doing a routine inspection for illegal contraband on an Amtrak train in Tucson, Arizona, authorities said. A second agent and a Tucson police officer were wounded.

Its very horrific and were all just coming to terms with just how terrible a loss this is, Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus said. But I also want to reflect on the really heroic actions of the officers at the scene. They literally ran towards the danger, into the car, where there was an active shooting situation going on.

Magnus spoke outside the hospital where the wounded agent and Tucson officer had been taken. The agent was listed in critical condition while the officer was in stable condition. He said authorities would not be releasing their names.

The FBI has taken over the investigation of the shooting, which sent passengers fleeing. It happened just after 8 a.m. on a train stopped at the station in the city's downtown. A regional task force of DEA agents and Tucson police officers had boarded one of the cars to do a typical check for illegal money, weapons and drugs. It's a common occurrence at all transit hubs, Magnus said.

Officers were in the middle of detaining a man on the upper level of the double-decker car when a second man pulled out a handgun and began firing. He exchanged several rounds with police and then barricaded himself in a bathroom on the lower level, Magnus said.

He was later found dead inside.

The other suspect has been arrested. It wasn't immediately known what charges he faces or his relationship to the second man.

Magnus praised Tucson police officers for getting the injured DEA agent off the train and rushing him to the hospital in the back of a patrol car. The hospitalized Tucson officer had been on the platform when he heard the shooting. He was shot when he ran into the car to help.

There were about a dozen other passengers in the car where the shooting occurred.

I just think its kind of incredible here there werent other people who were hurt, even though were completely so saddened by the loss of the officer, Magnus said.

Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams also confirmed there were no reported injuries to the crew or other passengers.

The Sunset Limited, Train 2, was traveling from Los Angeles to New Orleans, and arrived at the Tucson station at 7:40 am, Abrams said. There were 137 passengers and 11 crew members, he said. All have been evacuated to the station.

Evan Courtney was in a lounge car when people suddenly came running in yelling: Shots fired!

I grabbed my backpack and ran, Courtney told The Associated Press via Twitter direct messaging.

He said he huddled with other passengers while looking out the window. He saw several tactical police officers with assault rifles behind barricades. After 15 minutes, police ran to us and told us to get out of the car and run in the opposite direction.

Courtney later tweeted a photo of nearly two dozen officers including two embracing.

Dramatic video taken by a camera at the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum shows some of the shooting.

Multiple shots can be heard from inside a train before a man, who appears to be a security officer with a dog, boards in the middle of the second-to-last car through an open door. Two bystanders back away and then run past a baggage cart, joining four others as they usher each other into the last car and the door slides shut, the video shows.

One shot is heard and the security officer, holding a gun, backs off the train with the dog still on the leash. He runs behind a structure on the train platform as a man appears at the passenger car door, fires three shots toward the fleeing man and dog, and disappears back inside.

The camera belongs to Virtual Railfan, which operates more than 50 cameras livestreaming train operations around the country for train buffs. Kathy Abbott, operations manager, said both Tucson police and Amtrak police have asked for any footage to be made available.

Virtual Railfan's cameras do capture crime but maybe not this dramatic, Abbott said. This was definitely an adrenaline rush.

Tucson, home to the University of Arizona, is about 110 miles (180 kilometers) south of Phoenix.

We at the DEA are heartbroken by todays events and ask that you keep the families of the agents and task force officer in your thoughts and prayers, said Anne Milgram, administrator for the agency.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The son of an Iranian-American man who has been detained in Iran for more than five years called for his father's immediate release on Monday so that he can receive emergency and potentially life-saving surgery.

Baquer Namazi, 84, requires an operation within days to clear up a severe blockage in the main artery that supplies blood to his brain, according to his son, Babak, and the family's lawyer, Jared Genser.

My father has already lost so much precious time. I'm begging Iran to let him spend whatever small amount of time he has left with his family, Babak Namazi told reporters Monday in urging Iran to lift a travel ban that has kept his father inside the country.

The elder Namazi, a former UNICEF representative and dual Iranian-American national, was detained in 2016 when he traveled to Tehran to see his son Siamak Namazi, a businessman arrested in Iran months earlier. Both Namazis were sentenced to 10 years in prison in Iran on what the United States and United Nations say were trumped-up spying charges.

Baquer Namazi was granted medical furlough in 2018 and his sentence was subsequently commuted to time served, but Iranian authorities have not permitted him to leave the country. Siamak Namazi remains jailed in Iran's notorious Evin prison, and Babak Namazi reiterated Monday his demands for his brother's release as well.

Baquer Namazi's doctors have said that he needs surgery within seven to 10 days to avoid a potentially catastrophic stroke, his son said. Namazi's supporters have made their demands known to Iran, but are also seeking direct intervention from President Joe Biden's White House.

The legal team appealed for help Monday from the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, writing in a detailed document that due to the severity of his medical problems, Baquer especially faces high risk of mortality unless Iran rapidly reverses course.

The time for best efforts is over, Genser told reporters. The time for action is now.

Later in the day, State Department spokesman Ned Price said the Biden administration repeatedly raises with Iran its concerns about Americans and other foreign nationals who are unjustly held against their will. And Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted that Iran should allow Namazi to seek the medical attention necessary to save his life.

Blinken added: Its been almost six years since hes seen his children. At a time like this, he should be surrounded by his entire family."

Advocates for the elder Namazi say they're desperate that he be treated outside of Iran given how overwhelmed hospitals there have been with treating COVID-19 patients and the risk that poses to his health. If he is not permitted to leave within days, Babak Namazi said, his father will have to undergo the operation in Iran  a less than ideal scenario.

If it's between him dying and not dying, of course it's an option, Babak Namazi said.

___

Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP
DALLAS (AP)  Southwest Airlines on Monday became the latest U.S. airline to require its employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

The Dallas-based company said its workers must be fully vaccinated by Dec. 8 in order to remain at the airline. Employees can seek approval to skip the shots due to medical or religious reasons.
ATLANTA (AP)  Both of Georgia's schools for the deaf and hard of hearing are now headed by people who can hear, and the latest hiring has prompted protests by students and resignations by some teachers.

The Georgia Department of Education hired a new superintendent last month at the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf in Clarkston, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The school's former superintendent, who is deaf, left in June for another job.

The new superintendent is white, and some former employees say Black employees were overlooked for promotion, according to the report.

Students at the school held protests last week, before COVID-19 led to a two-week closure. News outlets for the deaf reported students were concerned about audism  discrimination against and dismissive attitudes toward deaf people. They also raised concerns about discrimination against people of color.

A state education department spokeswoman said the agency stands opposed to audism and other forms of prejudice and wants to meet with students.

The schools top leadership includes no people of color or deaf people. The superintendent and one of two assistant principals are white women who can hear, the agency said. Another assistant principal position is unfilled.

Black students make up the largest proportion of enrollment, followed by Hispanic students.

State officials confirmed 12 employees have quit the school. Terynce Butts is one of them. Butts, who can hear and is Black, told the Journal-Constitution that several Black employees, both hearing and deaf, were among those who quit because they thought the hiring process did not respect diversity.

Im concerned with equity and inclusion for everyone. Racism is a concern, yes, but also audism and homophobia, Butts wrote.

He said a Black, deaf woman applied to be superintendent and left the school after she didnt get an interview.

The state says it hired the best person for the job based on a full vetting process including review of applications, interviews, and reference checks."

The former superintendent, John Serrano, is now an administrator at Gallaudet University, a private school for the deaf in Washington. He declined to be interviewed, saying in an email that his heart goes out to the students and teachers/staff affected by the turn of events following my departure.

Tawny Holmes Hlibok, a deaf professor of deaf studies at Gallaudet, said Georgia set a precedent of deaf leadership by hiring Serrano but rolled back that progress by replacing him with someone who is not deaf.

If a deaf student goes to a deaf school and they see the leader as a hearing person theyre going to say, You know, that means that I cant be a leader, Holmes Hlibok said.

The longtime leader of the Georgia School for the Deaf in Cave Spring also is not deaf.

Nationally, deaf leaders of deaf schools remain in the minority but their numbers are growing, Holmes Hlibok said. She said Louisiana recently hired its first deaf and Black leader for a school for the deaf and a Tennessee school has a leader raised by deaf parents.
CAIRO (AP)  Sudan's security forces killed four suspected Islamic State group militants in lengthy raids on their hideouts Monday in the capital, in an operation that also left one military officer dead, officials said.

The raids took place in the same Gabra neighborhood in southern Khartoum where five intelligence officers were killed in a shootout with suspected IS militants last week.

The General Intelligence Agency said in a statement that forces detained four other suspected militants in two hideouts. The militants opened fire on forces using Kalashnikov rifles, RPGs and grenades, it said.

The statement said the clashes also wounded three other offices, including two from the GIA and one from police.

The GIA said its forces also raided a hideout Sunday in Khartoums twin city of Omdurman, arresting eight suspected foreign militants.

The agency did not reveal the nationalities of suspects arrested or killed in the raids.

Militant attacks have been rare in Sudan, which hosted Osama bin Laden in the early years of his jihadi movement that led to the creation of al-Qaida.

The latest incidents, however, underscore the fragility of Sudans path to democracy, more than two years after the militarys overthrow of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir amid a public uprising against his three-decade rule.

Authorities said last month they foiled a coup attempt that has since increased tensions between the generals and civilians in the joint transitional government.
BILOXI, Ms. (AP)  A military manufacturer and a contracting company are being sued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for allegedly ignoring claims of sexual assault by staff members on Coast Guard ships in Mississippi, a news outlet reported.

Huntington Ingalls Industries and NSC Technologies are both accused of ignoring pleas for help from women on a cleaning crew who claimed that a supervisor on a Coast Guard ship in Mississippi assaulted them and coerced one of them into having sex, the Sun Herald reported.

The EEOC lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Alabama and accuses the two companies of violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits sexual harassment in the workplace or retaliation against those who report it. According to court documents, both companies were notified of the lawsuit in May 2021.

Huntington Ingalls Industries is the largest military shipbuilding company in the nation and NSC Technologies is a staff contracting company. Both are based in Virginia. The women in the lawsuit worked for NSC on the Coast Guard ship at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi. According to local news outlets, they accused a Huntington Ingalls supervisor of assaulting and harassing them over the course of several months.

The lawsuit does not indicate how many women were harassed but details specific cases of two women and others on the cleaning crew of a Coast Guard ship at Ingalls.

The EEOC is asking the U.S. District Court judge to order the companies and their employees to halt sexual harassment and retaliation, and begin training programs that will prevent further abuse.

The federal agency also asked the court to punish the companies for malicious and reckless conduct, back pay and compensation for the womens financial losses and emotional suffering.

According to the lawsuit, the supervisor sexually harassed and abused the women multiple times from September 2017 until May 2018 by groping them, making vulgar comments, and masturbating in front of them. He forced one woman to have sex with him on a ship in November 2017 by threatening her job, court documents say.

The womens immediate supervisor at NSC was well aware of the harassment, the lawsuit says. The NSC supervisor reported the complaints to an NSC branch manager who took no action and later said his concern was with keeping the companys contract with Huntington Ingalls, the lawsuit says.

In April 2018, a second woman was fired after she refused to have sex with the Huntington Ingalls supervisor. The woman then reported the harassment and termination to an NSC recruiter.

(The recruiter) acknowledged that she knew other female employees had made similar complaints but that there was nothing she could do and emphasized that (the woman) should not do anything that would cause NSC to lose its contract with HI, the lawsuit says.

The supervisor accused of harassment threatened one women, saying she would lose her life if he lost her job after she and several others called the Huntington Ingalls hotline in April 2018.

Huntington Ingalls permitted (the supervisor) to continue to work around . . . female employees, which allowed him to continue harassing them and gave him the opportunity to threaten (one womans) life, the lawsuit says.

NSC closed its office in Mobile this week, a company branch manager told the Sun Herald. Neither NSC nor Ingalls Shipbuilding has responded to requests for comment from the Sun Herald.
LAS VEGAS (AP)  The Nevada Highway Patrol says an officer fatally shot a man suspected of physically abusing a woman.

The agency says the incident happened Sunday shortly after 8 a.m. in the northeast Las Vegas metro area.

The Nevada Highway Patrol received reports of possible domestic battery with witnesses describing a man hitting a woman several times while in a car.

About 20 minutes later, state troopers found the car.

Trooper Travis Smaka says an officer-involved shooting was reported a few minutes later.

The suspect, whose name has not been released, was taken to the hospital but pronounced dead.

Smaka did not say what led to the shooting or the woman's status. But at least two dozen officers ended up responding to the scene.

The Nevada Highway Patrol will oversee the investigation with Las Vegas police assisting.
GALESBURG, Mich. (AP)  A sheriff's deputy fatally shot a man armed with a knife early Monday in southwestern Michigan after being called to a gas station for an unknown emergency, authorities said.

Bodycam footage released by the Kalamazoo County Sheriffs Office showed R.V. Johnson, 22, of Galesburg held the knife in a threatening fashion and took several steps toward the deputy, a sergeant, before being shot once.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  The Taliban doubled down on their hard-line trajectory Monday in a third round of Afghanistan government appointments that encompassed a host of men named to deputy positions, a spokesman said.

None of the 38 new appointments announced by chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid included women. They were comprised of members drawn entirely from the Taliban with little representation of minority groups.

Also included were postings to humanitarian organizations.

The appointments are the latest indication the Taliban government has no intention of heeding conditions from the international community that formal recognition of their rule would depend on their treatment of women and minority groups.

Still, the Taliban seek international support as they grapple with the daunting challenges of an economy on the brink of collapse, drought and a growing security threat from the Islamic State group.

Among the new appointments was a political deputy for the prime minister, deputy ministers, and deputy head of the Afghan Red Crescent Society. Most of the positions consisted of army and defense ministry commanders and deputies across Afghanistan's provinces including Kabul, Helmand, Herat and Kandahar.

Since the militant group took control of Afghanistan in a blitz campaign in mid-August, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have paused disbursements to Kabul. The U.S. froze billons of dollars in assets held in U.S. accounts by the Afghan Central Bank.

Foreign aid previously accounted for nearly 75% of Afghanistans public expenditure, according to a World Bank report.

Without those funds, the Taliban are unable to pay public sector salaries, precipitating a spiraling economic crisis.

The Taliban have described their appointments as part of an interim government but have not elaborated on whether there will be elections. In late September, Mujahid had held out the possibility of adding women to the Cabinet at a later time, but provided no more details.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  Taliban forces raided an Islamic State affiliate's hideout in the Afghan capital and killed several insurgents, hours after a deadly bombing outside a mosque in Kabul, the Taliban said Monday.

Sunday's bombing outside the Eid Gah mosque killed five civilians, and while no claim of responsibility was made, suspicion quickly fell on the Islamic State group, which has ramped up attacks against its Taliban enemy since their takeover of Kabul in mid-August.

Taliban officials had gathered at the mosque to mourn the passing of Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid's mother.

In a statement Monday, Mujahid said Taliban forces raided an Islamic State operations center in the northern Kabul neighborhood of Khair Khana. It did not say how many IS insurgents killed or whether any Taliban were injured in the operation.

Sunday's bombing was the deadliest attack since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan with the chaotic departure of the last U.S. troops on Aug. 31.

The Islamic State group had claimed responsibility for the horrific bombing on Aug. 26 that killed more than 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. military personnel outside the Kabul airport, where thousands of people were trying to reach the airport to escape Taliban rule.

The Islamic State reemerged in Afghanistan in 2020 after being weakened by a heavy U.S. bombing campaign directed against them in the eastern part of the country in 2019. They were blamed for a horrific attack in 2020 on a maternity hospital that killed 24 people, including newborn babies. Earlier this year, they were held responsible for a brutal attack on a school in Afghanistan's mostly Shiite neighborhood of Dasht-e-Barchi that killed more than 80 students.

Sunday's bombing underscores the growing challenges for the Taliban. The group carried out frequent attacks during their 20-year insurgency, but are now faced with trying to contain rival militants who have used the same methods. And they are doing so during a national economic meltdown without the massive foreign aid given to U.S.-backed government they toppled.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  Tennessee officials say they are receiving more than $116,000 in federal funding to address the mental health needs of victims of deadly flooding in August.

The Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services says the money through the Federal Emergency Management Agency will be directed toward services for survivors of the Aug. 21 flooding that killed 20 people in Humphreys County.
LONDON (AP)  British military personnel have begun delivering fuel to gas stations after a shortage of truck drivers disrupted supplies for more than a week, leading to long lines at the pumps as anxious drivers scrambled to fill their tanks.

About 200 service personnel were deployed Monday to boost deliveries after undergoing training at commercial fuel depots last week, the government said.

The U.K. is short tens of thousands of truckers, because of a confluence of factors including the coronavirus pandemic, an aging workforce and an exodus of foreign workers following Britains departure from the European Union. The problem has contributed to empty supermarket shelves and shuttered gas pumps.

Army drivers have gone out, Treasury chief Rishi Sunak told LBC Radio. The situation has been improving now for, I think, over a week; every day, as the stats have come on, its getting better and, as demand settles back to more normal levels, the strong expectation is things will resolve themselves ... People should know were doing everything we can.

While the government says supply disruptions are easing, fuel retailers continue to report local shortages.

Gordon Balmer, executive director of the Petrol Retailers Association, said the problem is particularly bad in London and southeastern England, where 22% of the groups members are still without fuel. The association represents about 5,500 independent fuel retailers across the country.

Some of our members tell us that they have been without fuel for a number of days, some over a week now, Balmer told Sky News.
MANCHESTER, England (AP)  All of Britains electricity will come from renewable sources by 2035, the governing Conservatives announced Monday, saying the move would help end the countrys reliance on imported fuel.

Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the only way to strengthen Britains energy security is zero carbon power that is generated in this country.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson also said he believed the U.K. could get to get to complete clean energy production  including renewable sources and nuclear power  by the middle of the next decade.

Britain gets a big chunk of its energy from renewable sources such as wind and sun, and has largely ended the use of coal power, but remains heavily reliant on natural gas. Surging gas prices worldwide are driving up energy bills for millions of people in Britain.

The advantage of that is that it will mean that, for the first time, the U.K. is not dependent on hydrocarbons coming from overseas, with all the vagaries in hydrocarbon prices and the risk that poses for peoples pockets, Johnson said in Manchester, where the governing Conservatives are holding their annual conference.

Johnson is eager to burnish Britains green credentials before a major U.N. climate summit that is due to open in Glasgow, Scotland, on Oct.31. Johnson, as host, is trying to get other world leaders to increase their carbon-cutting pledges so the world can keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Doug Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace U.K., welcomed what he called the British governments realization that gas needs to be taken out of the electricity system, but said he was disappointed by the government's continuing commitment to nuclear energy.

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Read all AP stories on climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-change
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP)  Several hundred unionized group home and day program workers in Bridgeport and eastern Connecticut have reached a new contract with the latest provider, ending a strike that was threatened to begin Tuesday, their union announced Monday,

The agreement with Whole Life Inc., which has more than 39 locations, is the second reached by the New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199, SEIU in less than a week. While the union withdrew its strike notice to Whole Life, unionized workers are still planning to walk out at Sunrise Northeast Inc. and Alternative Services-Connecticut Inc. on Oct. 12, affecting 160 and 100 workers respectively.
One of the two men shot while sitting in a car in Providence over the weekend has died, police announced Monday.

Niberto Diaz, 21, and Samuel Corcoran, 29, were shot in a car outside an apartment complex on Glasgow Street just before 1 a.m. on Sunday and Diaz later died at the hospital, Maj. David Lapatin said during a news conference.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Supreme Court returned to the courtroom Monday for the start of a momentous new term, after a nearly 19-month absence because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Abortion, guns and religion all are on the agenda for a court with a rightward tilt, including three justices appointed by former President Donald Trump.

Chief Justice John Roberts was in his usual place in the center chair and Justice Clarence Thomas, the court's longest serving member, was to his right. But almost everything else was a little different for a court that, like the rest of the country, still is dealing with the virus.

Inside the courtroom, eight of the nine justices took the bench at 10 a.m. EDT. Justice Brett Kavanaugh participated remotely from his home after testing positive for COVID-19 late last week, his voice echoing in the courtroom when he had a question to ask while his high-backed chair sat empty. Kavanaugh, who was vaccinated in January, is showing no symptoms, the court said. All the other justices also have been vaccinated.

Monday was also the first time that new Justice Amy Coney Barrett participated in arguments in the courtroom, despite nearly a year on the court as its most junior member.

Only about 50 people were in attendance  lawyers involved in the cases, reporters who regularly cover the court, retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, some of the justices spouses and some court employees. Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the only justice who wore a mask. Sotomayor, who has had diabetes since childhood, is the only one of the justices with a known chronic condition.

Spectators sat in socially-distant spots and wore masks, although the lawyers removed theirs for their arguments. The lectern the lawyers were arguing from was also placed farther away from the justices than before the pandemic.

The court is also requiring negative COVID-19 tests from lawyers and reporters who want to be in the courtroom. Lawyers who test positive will be able to present their arguments via telephone, the court said. Thats the way lawyers had been arguing before the court because of the pandemic.

With the building closed to the public, the courts hallways, normally bustling on mornings when the court is in session, were eerily quiet. A portrait of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died just over a year ago, hangs in a main corridor, directly across from her friend and colleague who died in 2016, Justice Antonin Scalia. As visitors enter the building from its north side, the liberal Ginsburgs portrait is on the left, the conservative Scalias on the right  in death as in life.

Monday was the first time the public was able to listen live to courtroom proceedings, via a link on the courts wesbite. The court first allowed live audio for the telephonic arguments it conducted in 2020 and earlier this year because of the pandemic.

Those who listened in heard Thomas continue to ask questions, a practice he began during the telephonic arguments. Before that, it had been years since he asked a question in the courtroom. His colleagues appeared to defer to him Monday, as Thomas asked the first questions in the day's two cases  a water fight between Tennessee and Mississippi and a dispute over an enhanced prison term for a repeat offender.

Well counsel, you seem to complain about Tennessee pumping water from Mississippi, but you admit that Tennessee does not enter across the border into Mississippi, isnt that correct?" Thomas said, asking the term's first question.

Monday's cases were not among the highly anticipated disputes the court will referee this term.

In the dispute over water, there seemed to be little support for Mississippi's claim that the Memphis area has been taking the state's water from an underground aquifer that sits beneath parts of both states. The dispute stretches back to 2005 when Mississippi first claimed that Memphis was pumping water from the Mississippi portion of the aquifer. Tennessee says water doesn't work that way, contending the aquifer is an interstate resource that should be shared fairly.

In the other case, the justices appeared favorable to William Wooden of Tennessee, a man with a prior criminal record who was given a mandatory 15-year minimum prison sentence when he was convicted of having a gun. Federal law prevents felons from owning firearms.

The case arises under the Armed Career Criminal Act and the issue is whether the theft of items from 10 units on the same day at a mini storage facility should count as one conviction or 10, which lower courts found made the man eligible for the longer prison sentence.

Who thinks that, Ms. Ross, in the real world? Justice Neil Gorsuch asked Justice Department lawyer Erica Ross as she explained why the court should consider that Wooden committed 10 crimes.

Thomas, though, was skeptical of part of lawyer Allon Kedem's argument on behalf of Wooden. What if they took a smoke break? Thomas asked. Or if Wooden and his accomplices decided to have lunch or a cup of coffee before resuming the break-in at the storage units, would that be considered one crime or more, Thomas wanted to know.

Also on Monday the court affirmed a lower court ruling that said District of Columbia residents are not entitled to voting representation in the House of Representatives. That was among hundreds of appeals the court rejected.

The justices also:

 Declined to get involved in a lawsuit over a disputed Pentagon cloud computing contract, a decision that follows the cancellation of the contract for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud computing project earlier this year.

 Left in place a lower court ruling that revived a lawsuit by the brother of a man who, as a passenger in a fleeing car, was fatally shot by police in Hayward, California.

 Rejected an appeal from the Philadelphia-area transit system of a lower-court ruling that would force it to display ads touting a prize-winning investigation by the Center for Investigative Reporting into racial bias in the mortgage market.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources officials on Monday dramatically scaled back the number of wolves hunters can kill during the state's fall season in open defiance of its policy board.

The move marked another clash between the DNR's liberal-leaning administration and the conservative-leaning board, and it came after animal welfare advocates sued in state and federal court to block the hunt. The season is set to start Nov. 6.

The DNRs move left board member Greg Kazmierski flabbergasted. He said state law makes clear that the board directs and supervises the department.

They are not free to just do that, Kazmierski said. Theyve gone rogue, is what theyve done.

Department biologists originally recommended setting the quota at 130 wolves, saying they were uncertain what effects the state's unprecedented spring hunt had on the wolf population. The policy board bumped the limit to 300 animals in August, prompting outrage from conservationists and wolf advocates.

The DNR announced in a news release Monday that it was unilaterally moving the quota back to 130 animals. Under treaties established in the 1800s, the state's Chippewa tribes can claim up to half of the quota, but the Chippewa consider wolves sacred and won't hunt them. The DNR said the tribes have claimed 56 animals, leaving state-licensed hunters 74.

DNR spokeswoman Sarah Hoye said the department has a responsibility to manage wildlife scientifically, pointing to agency regulations that grant the department that authority. The 130-wolf quota will protect the wolf population as a whole, she said.

Public relations officials for the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, which represents 11 Chippewa tribes across Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, didn't immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

The wolf hunt has morphed into one of the most contentious wildlife management issues Wisconsin has faced in decades. State law requires the DNR to hold a hunt between November and February whenever the animal isn't on the federal endangered species list.

Conservationists have maintained for years that the overall population is too fragile for hunting. The DNRs latest population estimates, compiled during the winter of 2019-20, put the number of wolves in the state at around 1,000. The state's management plan calls for 350 wolves on the landscape, although DNR officials dispute that's a population goal.

The Trump administration took the final steps to remove Great Lakes wolves from the endangered species list in January. The DNR was preparing for a November season but hunter advocacy group Hunter Nation won a court order forcing the department to hold a February hunt. The group argued that the Biden administration could put wolves back on the endangered species list at any moment, robbing hunters of their season.

The DNR rushed the season framework, setting a quota for state-licensed hunters at 119 wolves. Hunters blew past the limit, killing 218 wolves in just four days and forcing an early end to the season.

Wildlife advocates flew into a rage  the Chippewa called the season a slaughter  and demanded the DNR cancel the fall season. The department's biologists said they didn't know what effects the February hunt, held during breeding season, might have had on the overall wolf population. They said the 130 number would protect the overall population.

But conservatives on the board wanted to up the limit, batting around numbers as high as 500, before settling on 300 during an August meeting. That would translate to 150 wolves for state-licensed hunters assuming the Chippewa claim 50%.

That decision prompted a coalition of wildlife groups to sue in Dane County Circuit Court in August to stop the hunt. The Chippewa filed a similar suit in federal court in Madison last month. A hearing on a preliminary injunction in that case is set for Oct. 29.

Paul Collins, Wisconsin state director of Animal Wellness Action, one of the groups that sued in state court, issued a statement saying the DNR's new quota still isn't good enough.

The courts should shut down any more wolf killing this year and restore federal protections for wolves, he said.

Meanwhile, the board and the DNR are in the midst of a nasty power struggle. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' administration runs the department but former Republican Gov. Scott Walkers appointees currently control the panel.

Evers saw an opening to regain control of the board in May when Chairman Fred Prehn's term expired. The governor appointed Sandy Naas to replace Prehn, a move that would give Evers appointees a majority on the board.

But Prehn has refused to step down, arguing that he doesn't have to go anywhere until the state Senate confirms Naas. Republicans control the chamber and have taken no steps toward confirming her, ensuring Walker appointees maintain their majority.

DNR officials told Prehn last month that they had no items to bring before the board at its September meeting and that no one from the department would attend. Prehn canceled the meeting, accusing department officials of playing political games.

Prehn said the board is trying to manage wolves to the 350 number in the management plan and he's frustrated with the department acting unilaterally. He said he doesn't know if his refusal to step down has anything to do with scaling back the quota. He said he hasn't spoken with anyone at the department since the August meeting.

(The board) has always set the quota, Prehn said. There's no communication occurring (with the department). It's not the way to conduct business. It's crazy.

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This story has been corrected to show the statement from Animal Wellness Action came from the state director, not the executive director.

___

Follow Todd Richmond on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trichmond1
SOUTH FULTON, Ga. (AP)  A woman wanted for a killing in North Carolina was found in Georgia with her 2-year-old son on Sunday, police said.

Camille Singleton, 31, was taken into custody at a Walmart, according to a news release from the South Fulton Police Department. She is a suspect in the killing of Inita Gaither in Clayton, North Carolina.
2021 - Samuel Basoah

After graduating from the University of Ghana, Samuel Basoah joined the master's in economics program at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in 2019. Eager to expand his knowledge in economics and further his education, Samuel moved on to pursue his PhD with SFU Economics after completing the MA program with distinction within a year. His areas of specialization are macroeconomics (experimental and computational), applied-micro-econometrics, monetary, labor, and international finance. He is also interested in the economics of space particularly how the cryptocurrency market affects space exploration, and how countries can attain sustainable debt.
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[Editor's note: A federal district court has upheld the employer's vaccine requirement.]



Coming on the heels of Kentucky's record-high number of COVID-19 infections, dozens of employees of St. Elizabeth Healthcare just filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Covington against the hospital in response to its announced workplace vaccine mandate.

The Sept. 3 lawsuit alleges the employees have been coerced into being vaccinated. All previous efforts by workers across the country to overturn an employer vaccine mandate through litigation have failed, but what do employers need to know about this latest attempt?



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COVID-19 Vaccination Resources



State of Emergency in Kentucky

Kentucky's COVID-19 infection rates continue to rise rapidly, and the commonwealth recently reached a record-high number of infections in early September. In August, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear called on Kentucky's private sector employers to require their employees to get vaccinated, absent any applicable religious or medical exemption. Notably, even the EEOC has indicated that employers may mandate COVID-19 vaccines at their workplaces.

In light of these developments, multiple hospital systems in Kentucky, including the St. Elizabeth health care system in Northern Kentucky as well as hospitals in Lexington and Louisville, announced in early August 2021 that they would require their employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. St. Elizabeth's announcement indicated there would be exceptions to the requirement if employees qualified for a religious or medical exemption. In addition, the hospital agreed to allow their staff until Sept. 15 to get their first shot. These mandates have been endorsed by a number of state health care associations, including the Kentucky Hospital Association, Kentucky Nurses Association, and the Kentucky Medical Association.

Hospital Employees File Suit to Block Mandate



Regardless of the facts laid out above, the plaintiffs allege mandatory vaccinations are "a fraud upon the entire American public" and claim a vaccine mandate requires them to "participate in a medical experiment." Indeed, the 23-count complaint alleges, among other things, a claim of "fraud in the concealment," which alleges St. Elizabeth's was "fully aware and/or recklessly ignored the inaccuracy of both the internal and external reporting regarding COVID-19" in order to fit the hospital's "intended narrative" regarding the vaccine.

A similar lawsuit filed by Methodist Hospital employees in Texas was dismissed by the court in June. In that case, employees alleged they were being forced to participate in a "human experiment" by being required to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The court determined the plaintiffs were free to refuse the vaccine but would simply have to find work elsewhere if they did.

Vaccine Mandates Gain Popularity

As vaccines were rolled out in late 2020 and early 2021, employers seemed hesitant to impose vaccine mandates. A combination of factors over the past two months, including the high transmissibility of the delta variant, the full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and the impending mandate-or-test rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, will no doubt lead more employers to implement a mandate. In addition, at this stage, many employers may find that those employees who were voluntarily going to be vaccinated have already done so, leaving a mandate a final option to get remaining employees vaccinated.

According to the Fisher Phillips COVID-19 Employment Litigation Tracker, employees have filed 24 lawsuits against employers across the country challenging vaccine mandates. To date, none of them have been successful. However, just because employers have enjoyed universal success in rolling out vaccine mandates doesn't mean that your organization is without risk if you pursue such a course of action.

Most significantly, you need to ensure you have a robust religious and medical accommodation system in place.

Todd B. Logsdon and Ashby Angell are attorneys with Fisher Phillips in Louisville, Ky.  2021 Fisher Phillips. All rights reserved. Reposted with permission.


Afghanistan is one of the countries with the highest numbers of children under the age of five suffering from severe acute malnutrition, alongside Yemen and South Sudan.

Kabul, Oct 4 (IANS) A new Unicef report has revealed that more than 2 million children under five years of age are suffering from acute malnutrition, and 600,000 of them are currently suffering from severe acute malnutrition, which is the most dangerous form of undernutrition in kids.

In 2018, Unicef, who is the sole provider of ready to use therapeutic food for malnourished children in Afghanistan, could so far only target less than 50 per cent of severely malnourished children due to limited supplies (275,000), said the report.

The situation is complex against the backdrop of continued violence, climatic extremes (droughts and flash floods) multiple displacements, growing food insecurity and improper feeding habits, according to the report.

"Across Afghanistan today, millions of children are in desperate need for health and nutrition services,. around 14 million people in Afghanistan are food insecure today, among them around 3.5 million children, whom, we expect will suffer from acute malnutrition, within them around one million children," TOLO News quoted Salam Al-Janabi, communication specialist for Unicef in Afghanistan, as saying.

He said that UNICEF and WFP have been working to the full extent of their capability over the past two months.

"Around 40,000 children were provided with treatment for severe acute malnutrition."

The findings of the most recent nutrition surveys across Afghanistan also show that 22 out of 34 provinces are currently above the emergency threshold of acute malnutrition.

The Unicef program on nutrition in Afghanistan is only 50 per cent funded of the $13 million.

--IANS

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During the holiday, people are expected to travel across the Southeast Asian nation, which can pose high risk of large-scale transmission, especially the Delta variant, Xinhua news agency quoted Hun Sen as saying in a statement on Sunday.

Phnom Penh, Oct 4 (IANS) Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has called on people to take extra precautions to prevent large-scale Covid-19 transmission during the Pchum Ben religious holiday from Tuesday to Thursday.

He advised local authorities to enforce preventive measures at tourism-related businesses and resorts during the holiday and encouraged state institutions and private companies to rapid test their employees for Covid-19 when they return to work from the holiday.

"The measures aim to prevent and contain large-scale Covid-19 transmission and to protect people's lives and health as the Kingdom of Cambodia is stepping toward reopening the country fully in all fields in the near future," Hun Sen said.

Pchum Ben festival is the kingdom's second largest festival after the Khmer New Year.

Cambodia on Sunday confirmed 199 new Covid-19 cases, pushing the national total caseload to 113,256, the Ministry of Health (MoH) said in a statement.

Twenty-three more fatalities were registered, taking the overall death toll to 2,383, it said, adding that an additional 490 patients recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 104,408.

The Kingdom launched a Covid-19 vaccination drive in February and till date, 13.42 million people or 83.9 per cent of its 16-million population have received at least one dose.

Meanwhile, 11.1 million peeople, or 69.4 per cent, have been fully vaccinated, and 901,907, or 5.6 percent, have received a booster dose.

--IANS

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One of the residents pointed to the five posters scribbled in Urdu and pasted on the wooden shutters of a shop, barely 100 metres short of the National Conference Minister's house. With purported signatures and stamps of five jihadist organisations, the hand bills warned death to anybody participating in the elections. The 'commanders' had decreed that a democratic exercise was 'prohibited in Islam'. In my report for a Jammu newspaper, I published that anything--catastrophic--was possible in Lolab.

Three days later, on Wednesday, September 11, 2002, the NC's MLA and candidate for his third consecutive Assembly election, Mushtaq Lone, who had also served as Minister of State for Home, was gunned down along with one security guard and four other Police personnel and a civilian at a public meeting.

A caller, who identified himself as Mohammad Shakeel, the spokesman of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), told a local news agency over telephone that the attack had been carried out by his organisation and led by a 15-year-old militant Abu Veqas. An identical claim poured from Al-Aarifeen Squad.

On the previous Friday, an independent candidate, Abdul Rehman Sheikh, had been shot dead in the same district's Handwara segment. Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen had set the deadline of September 10 for all candidates to withdraw from the poll race or face consequences.

Even as the election in Lolab was countermanded, Mushtaq Lone's contractor-brother, Mohiuddin Lone, who was among the first four militants who laid down arms and engaged in talks with the then Union Home Minister Shankarrao Chavan, was shot dead close to his home on December 5, 2002.

In the previous year, 2001, on June 23, Union Minister of Commerce Omar Abdullah, accompanied by State Minister Mushtaq Lone, had a narrow escape when the militants from the nearby Sheikhnar forest targeted their helicopter while landing in Sogam. The alert pilot quickly took the helicopter out of the militants' firing range and diverted to Kupwara where the Ministers addressed a small gathering.

Before Omar's landing back in Srinagar, the LeT spokesman Abdullah Gaznavi called me to record his statement. "Your friend (Omar) had a providential escape today. Had he landed, he would have gone. But rest assured, next time we will have him," Gaznavi said. Omar, as well as the then SSP Kupwara, Ghulam Mohammad Dar, confirmed the militants' ambush and firing when I shared with them Gaznavi's claim.

Some residents claim that the militants also fired rockets towards the Union Defence Minister George Fernandez's helicopter when he arrived in after Mushtaq Lone's killing in September 2002.

Sitting on the centre of a 5 km x 26 km valley, Sogam remained infested with militants--mostly foreigners from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Chechnya, Afghanistan and Pakistan--from 1990 to 2003. Their codename for Lolab was 'University'. The maximum bloodshed occurred in the years from 1996 to 2002, when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan and Masood Azhar launched Jaish-e-Mohammad after Pakistan's retreat in Kargil.

According to one investigation, one of Mushtaq Lone's assassins, who later got killed in a suicide attack on Police in the Kupwara town, used to stay as a Special Police Officer at the Police Station of Sogam.

"Notwithstanding a thick military concentration, it was like a completely liberated zone. Nobody would dare to act or speak against the militants. All those who did were killed. Today, it is a totally different situation. There's no fear but most of us avoid speaking out to media on record. We fear, after consolidating their gains in Afghanistan, Pakistan could divert them to Kashmir and they would start a fresh spell of bloodshed here," a 65-year-old shopkeeper shared his nightmarish memories when I visited Sogam after 19 years on Friday, October 1.

A 38-year-old IAS officer said that the militants in the Sogam belt lost their public support completely mainly due to the brutal civilian killings, followed by introduction of mobile phone after 2003.

"The situation is a little different in Lalpora area where militants and separatists still enjoy a degree of the support," he added quickly. Senior Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ashraf Sehrai, who is believed to be among the founders of Hizbul Mujahideen, as also Manan Wani, the Aligarh Muslim University's Ph.D scholar-turned-militant, were from Lalpora area.

Sehrai, who succeeded hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani as Chairman of the pro-Pakistan faction of the Hurriyat Conference, died early this year after contracting Covid-19 at a jail in Jammu early this year. Manan Wani got killed in an encounter with security forces in Shatgund Handwara in October 2018.

Mushtaq Lone's assassination was preceded by a trail of killings in Sogam. Residents remember when two Kashmiri Pandits Ratan Lal and Prudman Krishen Bhat were killed respectively in March and April 1990. A 70-year-old businessman recollected how a Pandit woman was shot dead at her home. Years later, it was followed by the murder of a local photographer 'Gasha Batta', another Pandit.

Despite a chain of such killings, some Pandits like Rita stayed put at Lalpora where a large number of her fellow villagers participated in the marriage ceremony of her daughter.

A poor Muslim shepherd was labelled as Army's informer and hanged to death against a mulberry tree in Sogam. A woman from Habbakadal, Srinagar, who was in the 8th month of her pregnancy, and a local barber Nisar Ahmad Hajam, were beheaded over the same unsubstantiated allegation.

One cold blooded murder was committed at the entrance of Sogam's Jamia Masjid. Three gunmen with boots entered the mosque when the residents were performing their late evening prayers. They caught hold of a civilian, Nazir Ahmad Mir, labelled him as an informer of the Army and dragged him out. One of the terrorists held him by his legs, another by head and yet another chopped off his head with butcher's mutton cleaver. They left back the torso and left with the man's severed head.

The year 2010 IAS topper Shah Faesal's father Ghulam Rasool Shah was shot dead at his home in the same village in 2002 when he refused shelter to some foreign terrorists and, according to some residents, objected to a commander's offer of a handshake to a woman.

Prominent businessman Haji Ghulam Hassan Shah and journalist Sajid Yusuf Shah's mother and uncle were also shot dead in the same village. Journalist Asiya Jeelani was killed while her associate, human rights activist Khuram Parvez's leg was amputated after an Improvised Explosive Device hit their vehicle at Chandigam, short of Sogam, in 2004.

According to the residents, the terrorists killed around 50 civilians of Sogam from 1990 to 2003 while an equal number of the militants were also killed by security forces. The militants and their accomplices torched about 50 houses of the displaced Pandits. The security forces too set on fire a number of the militants' houses. "In the last 17 years, we have enjoyed peace. We wish Lolab-the valley Iqbal praised for its beauty in his poets-never again becomes a university of terror," said a retired school teacher.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)

--indianarrative
A huge tranche of leaked data on offshore companies that is larger in size and scope than the Panama Papers hit the global headlines on Sunday night, laying bare the financial secrets of the global rich and powerful, including Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's cabinet members, financiers, retired generals, media owners and businessmen.

Islamabad/New Delhi, Oct 4 (IANS) The Opposition leaders in Pakistan have slammed Prime Minister Imran Khan and demanded his resignation following the revelations made in the Pandora Papers, Geo TV reported.

The names of more than 700 Pakistanis were discovered in the data and the majority of them are tax residents in this country.

The Pandora leaks have "opened a new Pandora's Box" against Imran Khan, said PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal.

"The leader who used to present himself as 'sadiq' (honest) and 'ameen' (trustworthy) has two more offshore companies," PML-N's secretary-general Iqbal was quoted as saying by The News.

The PML-N stalwart said that even before the Pandora Papers were released, government spokespersons had started defending PM Imran Khan, the report said.

Imran Khan wore a "cloak of honesty" and "fooled" the people, Iqbal said, adding that the premier eroded Pakistan's respect and pride.

PPP Senator Sherry Rehman isn't surprised that the premier's close aides were named in the Pandora Papers, the report added.

In a post on Twitter, the PPP leader said that "we all know that slogans of 'corruption, free Pakistan and accountability' are all hollow and a way to target the opposition".

"Will the Prime Minister go to the Supreme Court against his people? Or will a report be called for like in other scandals," Rehman asked.

Imran Khan must ensure investigation of the ministers and other people around him mentioned in the Pandora Papers in the same way he did in the case of Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz's spokesman Muhammad Zubair said on a Geo News programme.

Jamaat-e-Islami chief Sirajul Haq, meanwhile, demanded immediate resignation of government ministers and advisers named in the Pandora Papers.

The names of 700 Pakistanis, including government ministers and advisers, have appeared in the Pandora Papers.

In his statement, the JI chief said that ministers and advisers should resign if their names are mentioned in the Pandora Papers, otherwise they should be sacked.

He said that for transparency in the investigation and to avoid government influence, it is necessary to remove the government employees named in the Pandora Papers.

--IANS

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The campaign, which will continue till October 17, will begin at a temporary set-up at Dhaka University's Martyred Intellectual Doctor Muhammad Murtaza Medical Centre, reports Xinhua news agency.

Dhaka, Oct 4 (IANS) Bangladesh will launch a special Covid-19 vaccination drive on Monday for teachers, students, officials and employees at a top university here.

According to a statement, students, teachers and officials will receive the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine through on-the-spot registration.

Also, it said another campaign to offer the second dose would begin from November 1.

The vaccination campaign is being launched as the varsity's authorities have recently recommended the reopening of halls from October 5 for bachelor's final year and master degree students.

The university's halls remained closed since March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

--IANS

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"If (US President Joe) Biden's intentions are serious, he must first issue a serious signal, and one of those signs is to release at least $10 billion of our own money," Xinhua news agency quoted Amir Abdollahian as saying in an interview on Iran's IRIB state TV.

Tehran, Oct 4 (IANS) Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said that he has demanded the US to show the "true will" of reaching an agreement with Tehran by liberating part of the country'sassets frozen abroad under American sanctions.

The Foreign Minister said he recently sent that request during the UN General Assembly in September when .S officials "tried to contact" him through different mediators.

Iran will "soon" return to negotiations over the 2015 nuclear agreement, but the US "must show their true intention and will", he added.

Concerning Western governments hastening Iran to resume talks quickly, the minister said Iran's current administration, which assumed office in late August, needed a "reasonable amount of time" to prepare its negotiating team and strategy.

The precise composition of Iran's new negotiating team is currently being finalised, and the overall approach of the current administration to the nuclear negotiations is nearly completed, he said.

On September 30, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell voiced confidence at a news conference in Qatar's capital Doha, that talks to reactivate the 2015 nuclear agreement will resume "within an acceptable period of time".

In the interview, Amir Abdollahian added if Iran's Western counterparts in the negotiation do not "show their true intention and will", the current Iranian administration will not "be idled at such a negotiating table".

Regarding the location and the format of negotiations, the Foreign Minister said he has no problem in continuing the talks in Austria's capital Vienna on the same format that was used in the previous six rounds, between April 6 and June 20.

Gilad Erdan, Israel's Ambassador to the UN, said last week that the US and its allies were increasingly considering a "plan B" to "stop Iran's nuclear program".

On this matter, the Iranian Minister said that Western countries should make more efforts to the Iranian side that it will actually benefit from the nuclear agreement instead of talking about a "plan B," which is "some kind of a threat".

Amir Abdollahian also pointed out that Iran has made progress in its nuclear technology, which can make a contribution in the field of "peaceful nuclear science" for the world.

--IANS

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The settlement to scrap the retrospective taxation plan, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) under the Ministry of Finance has notified rules to help close tax conflicts with organizations like Cairn Energy and Vodafone Plc. The rules also define other contingencies, such as issuance of a public notice or press release by the company stating that claims resulting out of or relating to the appropriate orders or any related award, judgment, or court order, no longer exist, and include an indemnity against any claims against the Republic of India or any India affiliate contrary to the undertaking.

How retro tax issue started with Vodafone?

Vodafone had acquired a 67% stake in Hutchison Whampoa for $11 billion. This included the mobile telephony business and other assets of Hutchison in India. In September that year, the Indian government, for the first time, raised a demand of Rs 7,990 crore in capital profits and withholding tax from Vodafone, saying the organization should have deducted the tax at source before initiating a payment to Hutchison.

The government said that its inquiring about the verdict, and it must let go and make a new start. The disputes reasons lie in the government questioning Vodafones indirect purchase of its Indian telecom assets. Vodafone asked for the demand notice in the Bombay High Court, which was directed in favor of the Income Tax Department. After, Vodafone challenged the High Court judgment in the Supreme Court, which is 2012 ruled that Vodafone Groups interpretation of the Income Tax Act of 1961 was proper and that it did not have to pay any taxes for the stake buying.

The same year, the Finance Minister, the late Pranab Mukherjee, circumvented the Supreme Courts ruling by introducing an amendment to the Finance Act, thereby giving the Income Tax Department the power to tax such deals retrospectively. The Act was passed by Parliament that year, and the onus to pay the taxes fell back on Vodafone. The case had by then become famous as the retrospective taxation case.

PCAs verdict gives India a fortune to wash its hands of an unfavorable decision that political parties probe in private but brace in Parliament. India needs investments to kickstart economic growth, and investors seek a stable environment, of which tax policy is a crucial ingredient. A tax policy that is anticipated and simple to understand is the best viable way to promote investments. The 2012 amendment undermined Indias claim to be a jurisdiction underpinned by the rule of law. Reputations matter in bringing investments.

Retrospective taxation

The Retrospective taxation permits a country to establish a law on taxing specific products, items, or services and deals and charge businesses after the date on which the law is passed. Countries use this way to correct any irregularities in their taxation policies that have enabled companies to benefit from such deceptions in the past. While governments regularly use a retrospective amendment to taxation laws to clarify existing laws, it ends up damaging companies that had knowingly or unknowingly read the tax rules differently.

Apart from India, various countries, including the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Canada, Belgium, Australia, and Italy, have retrospectively taxed companies, which benefited from loopholes in the previous law. India passed the retrospective taxation law. Where Parliament passed the amendment to the Finance Act in 2012, the onus to pay the taxes fell back on Vodafone. The amendment was criticized by investors globally, who said the change in law was perverse in nature.

Following international criticism, India decided to settle the matter amicably with Vodafone but could not do so. After the new NDA government came to power, it said it would not create any new tax obligations for companies using the retrospective taxation route. By 2014, all efforts by the telco and the Finance Ministry to settle the issue had failed. Vodafone Group summoned Clause 9 of the Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) signed between India and the Netherlands in 1995.

Central Board of Direct Taxes scrap the retrospective taxation provision

The repayment might require at least two months as per the timeline outlined in the rules. An Indian subsidiary is any department, agency, instrumentality, public sector company, or other government entity owned directly or indirectly in India or abroad. The organizations will have to withdraw any pending lawsuit or proceeding before any forum on the levy of the retrospective tax and ensure that they wont attempt any further claims in the future. Also, companies will have to provide a declaration with the income tax authorities along with a board resolution or legal authorization besides an indemnity bond, the rules indicated.

The first submission of an undertaking to withdraw all pending legal proceedings has to be completed in 45 days. After that, the proper Principal Commission of Income-tax has to give a certificate accepting or pass an order denying the claim in 15 days from the acknowledgment of the application. After the grant of the certificate, the companies will have to fulfill the condition of payment by all interested parties within 60 days. After this, the order granting relief has to be made within 30 days, and only after this, the refund will be initiated.
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The US appears more concerned about the implications of cryptocurrencies for financial stability and consumer protection than in emulating Chinas attempt to wipe out digital currencies. The recent hacking of Coinbase, one of the largest digital assets exchanges, which resulted in the cryptocurrencies of more than 6000 customers stolen, can only add momentum to Genslers efforts to gain regulatory authority over the sector to protect consumers. It seems a foregone conclusion that the major central banks and financial regulators will move to neutralise the threats to their own position and the stability of their systems by issuing their own digital currencies while forcing the digital challengers into the regulated financial system. The primary concern of the Fed and US Treasury, however, appears to be the potential threat stablecoins, in particular, might pose to the stability of the financial system. Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are so volatile that they make poor mediums of exchange and therefore dont represent much of a threat to central-bank issued currencies, whether physical or virtual.

Stablecoins  tokens backed by baskets of physical assets, or tied to reserves of US dollars  could be much more of a threat to central-bank issued currencies, even if they only represent about $US125 billion of the $US2 trillion crypto asset market today. The US authorities would be particularly mindful that the Facebook-sponsored Diem (formerly Libra) consortium hasnt abandoned its cryptocurrency plans. Loading Its ambition of creating a global network for digital payments has evolved  the initial plan for Diem tokens to be backed by a basket of multi-currency assets has been replaced by a peg to the US dollar  but hasnt been abandoned despite significant international regulatory opposition. The US focus on stablecoins is driven by the theoretical stability of the value of the digital tokens, which would make them a far more viable alternative to central bank-issued currencies than Bitcoin.

The backing of the tokens with real financial assets, however, would also introduce vulnerabilities that bank regulators are very familiar with. Banks and other regulated financial institutions are required to hold capital and minimum levels of high-quality liquid assets to protect against runs by their depositors and lenders. China is well down the track of issuing a digital yuan program. Credit:AP It is apparent that the US regulators are contemplating imposing similar regulations on sponsors of stablecoins to protect investors and level the playing field for regulated institutions. Some stablecoin promoters have been seeking to offer bank-like financial products. The response from authorities to the increased acceptance of cryptocurrencies as an investment class and the ambitions of some, most threateningly Facebook, to leverage their vast consumer bases and infrastructure to disrupt physical currencies and existing payments systems, is developing into something of a pincer strategy.It is apparent that governments will regulate crypto assets, albeit perhaps not as draconically as China. It is also almost inevitable that China wont be the only major economy to issue its own digital currency.

The UK set up a taskforce earlier this year to explore the potential for a Britcoin, the US has had the Boston Fed and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology researching a digital dollar for more than a year and the BIS has commissioned and published ever more detailed and granular research from its member central banks (including the Reserve Bank) into central bank-issued digital currencies. Its not just the perceived threats to financial stability and consumers, or even the challenge to existing currencies and central banks authority over monetary policy, that is motivating the efforts. Where the promoters of crypto assets today see themselves as disrupters of the establishment, the establishment sees digital currencies and the blockchain technologies that underpin them as a pathway to a more efficient, innovative and inclusive financial system. Western governments are likely to be more concerned about privacy issues than China but, even so, central bank-issued digital currencies are likely to give the banks and their governments greater control over their financial systems, not less. The design of these systems  the role of existing institutions and the extent to which privately-issued crypto assets should be allowed to exist and, if they are allowed, how they are regulated  will be important.
Qantas will apply to the competition watchdog to extend its partnership with Dubai-based Emirates for another five years, shoring up a cornerstone of the airlines international strategy until 2028.

The two carriers said extending the partnership first struck in 2013 would bring financial upside as they recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, and deliver benefits to customers itching to travel overseas again.

Tim Clarke and Alan Joyce, pictured first announcing the Qantas-Emirates partnership at Sydney Airport in 2012. Credit:Ben Rushton

This marks the continuation of one of the most significant bilateral partnerships in aviation, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said in a statement.

The international aviation market will take years to fully recover so close collaboration between

airline partners is going to be more important than ever.
The clock is ticking for Prime Minister Scott Morrison on whether he can develop a climate change policy to take to the Glasgow conference in November that is ambitious enough to be vaguely credible without being so ambitious that it tears the Coalition apart.

The tension within the Coalition on the issue has burst into the open in recent weeks, driven by Liberal MPs in inner-city seats that could be threatened at the next election by pro-climate action independents like Zali Steggall in Warringah.

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Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Sydney MPs Dave Sharma and Trent Zimmerman among others want the government to take to Glasgow a firm commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050, and to increase 2030 reductions in line with global expectations.

At present, Australia is unique among wealthy nations in not increasing its 2030 targets.
There are more than 12,000 active coronavirus patients in Victoria. Dr Benson said general practitioners provided healthcare in the home to about 80 per cent of them to ensure hospital beds were free for the most critically ill. If GPs continue to be taken out of action its going to have huge impact, Dr Benson said. Spotswood doctor Todd Cameron said it took nine days for Victorias Health Department to contact him after a pre-symptomatic patient with COVID-19 visited one of his clinics. Dr Cameron, who runs several medical clinics and has implemented hospital-grade protocols to protect staff and patients, immediately enacted tier-2 exposure protocols, shutting the clinic while staff were tested and waited for their results.

The following day, the department declared the clinic a tier-1 site. Fully vaccinated staff, who had worn hospital-ward-standard protective gear  including N-95 masks, goggles, gloves and gowns during a 10-minute socially distanced consultation  were sent into isolation. Loading The department also requested a deep clean of the clinic before it was allowed to reopen. Its just colossal diaster at the moment, said Dr Cameron, who wants a dedicated Health Department contact for GPs to assess clinic exposures on a case-by-case basis. To request a deep clean nine days later, for an airborne virus is just absolute stupidity. Were running the same standard as youd expect in a COVID ward, and everyone is double vaccinated.

Last month, Dr Umber Rinds practice, located in the COVID-19 epicentre of Melbournes northern suburbs, was shut for two weeks after a visit from an infected patient made it a tier-1 exposure site. This was despite the fact all staff who came in contact with the infected woman had been fully vaccinated and wearing protective equipment, including highly protective N95 face masks. Dr Rind estimated up to 600 medical consults were cancelled, including appointments for patients having breast cancer checks and those requiring treatment or medication for chronic illness, while a further 300 people had coronavirus vaccinations postponed. My concern is that if this continues, its going to put immense pressure on surrounding GPs, and increased pressure emergency departments, which are already under huge strain, she said.

A person seriously ill with coronavirus, who is relying on their GP for care, could also fall through the cracks. Dozens of medical clinics have been shut across the state in recent months as COVID-19 infections swell beyond 1000 new cases each day. A practice in Tarneit was forced to close for four weeks after two separate COVID-19 exposures. Dr Benson said despite the highly infectious nature of the Delta variant, many staff at GP clinics were still using surgical masks, unable to source N95 masks. The doctors want Victoria to adopt the same model used by NSW Health for GP clinics, where exposure risk is measured on an individual basis, allowing most clinics to keep their doors open. The risk matrix needs to be reviewed and brought into line with NSW, which is tried and tested, and has not resulted in a case explosion of outbreaks in GP clinics, Dr Benson said.

The NSW Health matrix considers the nature and length of an appointment and the protective equipment worn by those taking part to evaluate the level of risk. If a masked and fully vaccinated GP conducted a standard 10-minute, socially distanced appointment with a masked patient who later tested positive to coronavirus, that meeting would be deemed a low to moderate risk. Staff who came in direct contact with the patient would be required to be tested twice for the virus in the next five days, and allowed to return once cleared of the virus. The practice would not be automatically closed. If the same scenario occurred in Victoria, the medical practice would automatically be deemed high risk and staff would be quarantined for two weeks. Loading Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Victorian chair Anita Munoz said, until recently, concerns about the mandatory two-week furloughing of healthcare workers was centred on hospital outbreaks. But following repeated closures of GP clinics, she said the medical college requested the state government urgently update its advice.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has released a statement congratulating NSWs new Premier Dominic Perrottet.

Dominic Perrottet being sworn in as the states new Premier. Credit:AAP

Dom and I have worked closely together for a long time, including both when I was Treasurer, and as Prime Minister, Mr Morrison said.

I know the commitment and dedication he will bring to his new role, and the energy he will invest in continuing to deliver for NSW.

Dom is also someone who has strong beliefs, a keen commitment to family and the Liberal values that respect reward for effort, personal responsibility and doing whats right by your community.

Appearing on breakfast TV this morning, the Mr Morrison was asked about his relationship with Mr Perrottet following reports he lost his temper and swore at the then NSW Treasurer during a meeting to discuss the JobSaver program.

Weve known each other for a long time and we have an honest relationship and we ... get a lot done together, the Prime Minister said.

When we disagree, we disagree. The next day we get back to work. That is how normal people get on with each other when they know each other well. And we do.
Vacant student accommodation and hotels should be made available for temporary social housing solutions as housing affordability worsens throughout the state, councils say.

Canterbury-Bankstown Council, which has the most social housing in the Sydney region, said various accommodation types, including hotels, motels, boarding houses and secondary residences, could be co-ordinated as vacant options for financially vulnerable people or essential workers.

Vacant student accommodation could be used as temporary social housing, councils say. Credit:Nick Moir

In its submission to the NSW parliamentary social housing inquiry, the council used the example of vacant student accommodation in Western Sydney Universitys former Milperra campus as the institution relocates to Bankstown, which means the existing accommodation on the Milperra site could support meanwhile use.

The nearby Inner West Council agreed in its submission to the lower house inquiry that the significant reduction in international students created an opportunity, singling out new-generation boarding houses, also called co-living spaces, as suitable for social housing.
Coronavirus cases and hospitalisations in NSW have continued to decline, as the states private hospitals prepare to reopen for non-urgent surgery on Tuesday.

Despite warnings October would be the worst month for the states health system, the number of hospitalised COVID-19 patients has fallen to its lowest level since the start of September: a total of 959 cases were in hospital on Monday, including 193 in intensive care.

There were 623 new local infections reported, the lowest daily figure since August 17.

From Tuesday, non-urgent day surgery including hand orthopaedic surgery and ears, nose and throat procedures will resume at 19 critical operator private hospitals.
Whither now the euthanasia legislation? Rod Hughes, Epping Pro-Trump social media posts. Measures designed to address climate change described as gratuitous waste. A record of voting on social issues that would be best suited to the 18th century. Perrottet sounds like the premier we really need right now. Not! Paul Parramore, Sawtell Does a hard right, religious fundamentalist really represent the majority of NSW residents interests? Greg Thompson, Bega How will our new premier and the Prime Minister converge in their decisions affecting NSW and the nation, considering the often-troubled relations between Pentecostals and Roman Catholics, and the two mens admissions that their actions are influenced by their faith? Could we have church and state problems on the horizon? Surely, it would be better for all if they left their religions out of politics. Mark Pearce, Richmond I disagree with your correspondent (Letters, October 4) on the value of politicians being beholden to God. If more of our leaders gave their first allegiance to God, they might be more humble and more sympathetic to the needs of the people. David Morrison, Springwood

I am sad that Gladys is no longer this states premier. The thought of yet another white bloke being the next Liberal premier worries me. It will be an easy decision to vote Labor at the next state election. Bring it on! Karen Eldridge, Leichhardt I am sick to death of trying to keep up with all the factions. The politics in Monty Pythons Life of Brian were easier to understand. Peter Miniutti, Ashbury Own goal brought Berejiklian down Despite the genuine outpouring of voters emotions ranging from sympathy to quiet outrage, former Coalition minister Michael Yabsley highlights an important distinction (She passed the pub test: now its the real thing, October 4). Gladys Berejiklian served the state with relentless energy and determination but arguably made a series of errors in her judgment. Errors that were never publicly admitted and their consequences corrected. Had they been, possibly the outcome of the past few days may have been different. While its human to err, voters understandably expect the highest level of integrity of our elected leaders. Anything less is in a democratically transparent process amounts to political suicide. All the best, Gladys. Youll be missed. Cleveland Rose, Dee Why Michael Yabsley is probably right that Gladys Berejiklian passed the pub test. If so, it indicates that, perhaps, we need to be more discerning and insightful and to not allow ourselves to be distracted by an unlucky in love media campaign as Berejiklian undertook. Her carefully crafted image of benignity and likeability does not reveal all. It is questionable if any politician rising to premier and remaining in place for five years has not trampled some opponents and gathered a few skeletons. Sentimentality on the resignation of the premier is most likely misplaced, as is the case for the vast majority of our politicians. Ross Butler, Rodd Point

It is amazing how many people think corruption should not be investigated. Lindsay Foyle, Stanmore Let ICAC flourish Rosalind Dixon may be a law professor but her article reads like a Liberal Party whinge (ICAC timing reeks of Comey, October 4). ICAC was set up to investigate corruption and so far it has operated as it should. If it waited for every emergency to pass before it proceeded with its investigations, then we might as well abolish it. Berejiklian had a choice and she exercised it. Whether she is guilty of any offence remains to be proved. If a politician has acted corruptly and has been found to have acted corruptly, then they cannot stay in office. Dimitris Langadinos, Concord West End of aid an outrage The likelihood that anyone, particularly families with young children, should be consigned to a life of poverty in this seemingly rich country is completely outrageous (Poorest to be locked into poverty as payments finish: study, October 4). The stresses of homeschooling and nurturing a family have weighed particularly on the poor during the pandemic and the impending problem of reduced government support is totally undeserved. The government should understand that the opportunities of some extremely bright children who can do much for the country can be severely prejudiced by a childhood in poverty. The Labor mantra from the 1980s that no child shall live in poverty is well worth revisiting. Geoff Harding, Chatswood

The University of NSW/ACOSS report in COVID-driven poverty is both timely and not hugely surprising. In the queues stretching outside Centrelink offices during the first wave of the pandemic, somewhat reminiscent of images of the Great Depression, hundreds of thousands of people would have been seeking welfare for the first time. The absence of those queues today is not necessarily an indicator of economic recovery, nor is it an indication that people have stopped needing support. The problem has shifted to the relevant agencies online and call centre services  out of immediate sight and out of mind for those resistant to the impact of the virus. The fact of the matter is that we were never in it together. Josh Frydenberg is correct when he says wage subsidy payments cant go on forever, but he is wrong to stop financial support at 70 or 80 per cent vaccination rates. Nothing in the vaccination take-up tells businesses they must go back to pre-COVID employment levels. Jack Dikian, Mosman It is evident that the cutting of benefits to workers who have lost their jobs or had their hours cut due to the pandemic will lead to extreme hardship for many. Surely, the role of government is to ensure that all citizens are able to lead a decent life? Adequate government benefits are key to achieving this. Its time government stopped punishing people unduly who, for a range of reasons usually beyond their control, are not in the labour force. Alan Morris, Eastlakes A weight off my pate When I phoned my trusted hairdresser, he said that as a valued customer I wouldnt have a wait problem and he booked me in for opening day (New guidelines, fines for operators as freedom nears, October 4).Th e haircut will be good but I still have a weight problem. Phil Cocks, Waverton Its all ovaries

Thank you (Letters, October 4). I am now taking a keen interest in reading more of Fallopians. I got a good laugh in a depressing weekend of reading about the candidates for premier. Ann Babington, Lambton The concern of your correspondent is reflected in the Hilaire Belloc poem that ends: And always keep a-hold of nurse/for fear of finding something worse. Ray Seymour, Castle Hill Pantheon of greats South Sydney put up a brave fight so their supporters dont need to hop back to their burrows with cottontails between their legs. But Penrith have won gloating rights so you might wish to follow Ogden Nashs advice: If called by a Panther, dont anther. Doug Walker, Baulkham Hills Departure terminal

Something about rats and ships (John Barilaro to resign as NSW Deputy Premier, smh.com.au, October 4). John Bailey, Canterbury Its so good to hear that another passenger has found a life jacket on that sinking ship. Vince Scoppa, Tennyson Point At a time of great financial stress, three selfish politicians (Berejiklian, Barilaro, Constance) have put to us the unnecessary expense of three byelections. And they wonder why politicians are held in such low regard. Bill Young, Killcare Heights The gaggle of resigning NSW Coalition members and consequent costs and contamination risks of byelections indicates how shallow their commitment to the finances and health of constituents is.

Tony Doyle, Fairy Meadow Berejiklian, Constance and Barilaro. Is it dominoes or a house of cards? Peter Butler, Wyongah
Residents in Brisbanes north are on high alert after a woman was revealed to be infectious in the community with coronavirus for 10 days.

The woman, a resident of Fitzgibbon aged in her 50s, was infectious in the community since September 23, and only came forward for testing at the weekend after feeling unwell.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said the woman was fully vaccinated with two doses, and she was still waiting on genomic testing to see where she had acquired the virus.

At this stage, there are no close links that weve been able to identify. She hasnt been to any known exposure sites, she said.
A double murderer who broke into a Melbourne pub, robbed a staff member at gunpoint and then hid inside a wall cavity for 14 hours has been jailed for 11 years.

John Lindrea spent more than two decades in prison after he shot dead two people and seriously injured a third at a party in Kinglake in 1992. During a rare stint out of jail last year he and another man broke into the Westmeadows Tavern and pointed shotguns in the assistant managers face.

John Lindrea murdered two people in 1992 and committed a hold-up at the Westmeadows Tavern in 2020. Credit:Victoria Police

The two men gained entry to the pub by ripping up corrugated iron on the roof at 3am on March 3, and were wearing black balaclavas when they ambushed the assistant manager when she arrived at work at 4.45am.

The woman had a shotgun pointed at her face from 15 centimetres away, County Court judge Daniel Holding said, as she was escorted through the building and ordered to open safes, cash registers and ATMs. During the ordeal she was also locked inside a storage cupboard.
Departing Deputy Premier John Barilaro says the corruption watchdogs independence would have been undermined had it delayed an announcement into its inquiry into Gladys Berejiklian.

Mr Barilaro on Monday revealed he would resign as NSW Nationals leader and quit state politics to pave the way for the incoming premier to appoint a new cabinet to take to the 2023 election.

NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro will leave state politics, triggering a byelection in the seat of Monaro. Credit:Photo: Dominic Lorrimer

In an interview with the Herald, Mr Barilaro said he took the work of the Independent Commission Against Corruption very, very seriously and its importance should never be dismissed.

Asked whether the timing of the ICACs public hearing into Ms Berejiklian was inappropriate given the critical stage of the pandemic, Mr Barilaro said: No.
Wesfarmers, Waitsia gas field operator Mitsui and the Japanese government have teamed up to investigate the export of low-carbon ammonia from Western Australia that will need a $1 billion-plus processing plant and large-scale carbon storage.

Wesfarmers chemicals energy and fertilisers chief executive, Ian Hansen, said the parties have signed a memorandum of understanding and are determining the details of a joint feasibility study.

Mitsui owns 50 per cent of the Waitsia gas field in WAs Mid-West region, about 340 kilometres north of Perth. Mitsuis 125 terajoules a day share of stage two that will flow from late 2023 is sufficient to make more than 1 million tonnes of ammonia a year.

Waitsia Stage 1 gas production facility in WAs Mid-West.

The third member of the consortium is Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC), a government body that supports Japans oil and gas companies. In February, Japan set a target to use 3 million tonnes of ammonia a year for fuel by 2030.
Further loosening is promised, but unlike in Australia, it has not been tied to any set level of vaccination. This is a shame as the rate of first doses has fallen sharply in recent weeks, and those wavering clearly need more encouragement. Around 77 per cent of the 12+ population has had at least one dose in New Zealand, while the Auckland rate is slightly higher.

Its hard to escape the suspicion the Prime Minister has not linked further reopening to a vaccine target because shes not sure the country can reach one. A far smaller proportion of the country  about 39 per cent  has had both doses, but this could change rapidly in the next few weeks.

Then theres the rest of the country south of Hamilton, which does not yet have COVID-19 in the community, and would quite like to keep it that way. At this stage movement in and out of Auckland remains heavily restricted, but this will be hard to maintain as the weeks go on. Yet for people in Wellington and the South Island, elimination remains the goal.

And while Ardern has given up on elimination, many New Zealanders have not  lockdowns are much more bearable with the light of zero cases at the end of the tunnel. Instead, Aucklanders have been given a gradual phaseout of restrictions, and many will remain terrified of getting infected (There were 29 new cases in the country on Monday, all but one in Auckland). The exuberance seen after our other lockdowns, which helped the economy rebound so quickly, seems less likely this time. And to Arderns left, the Green Party has immediately attacked the decision, in its fiercest critique of the government yet.
PHILIPSBURG:--- On Wednesday, September 29, the Honorable Minister of Justice Anna E. Richardson visited the National Police Academy in Apeldoorn, Netherlands as her last stop before returning to Sint Maarten. Minister Richardson received a warm welcome from Team Chief and Project Leader for Education in the Dutch Caribbean Region, Mr. Rob Appelhof, and Sector Head of Basic Police Education of the Police Academy, Mr. Rik de Boer. During the work visit, a presentation was given as it relates to the institution, the curriculum, and the training that the National Police Academy offers in the Netherlands and in Sint Maarten.

The Police Force of Sint Maarten (KPSM) currently benefits from a cooperation agreement whereby instructors from the National Police Academy visit Sint Maarten to administer courses. Minister Richardson sees this cooperation as an added value for KPSM however, she firmly believes that an on-campus experience is more impactful and ingraining. As such, the Ministry of Justice is exploring opportunities for officers in training to be afforded an opportunity to experience a blended education trajectory that includes either the ORV (Opleidingsinstituut Rechtshandhaving en Veiligheid) Institute in Curacao or the National Police Academy in the Netherlands.

Minister Richardson was particularly intrigued by Mr. Appelhofs vision to develop a unified learning curriculum for all the police forces within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. He foresees a future where the Caribbean countries of the Kingdom along with the Dutch Caribbean municipalities (Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba) each have their own accredited training institute in an effort to train all officers within the Kingdom in a uniformed manner. This is in total alignment with Minister Richardsons vision and pursuit to have the Law Enforcement Institute of Sint Maarten, established.

Having a tour of the National Police Academy in the Netherlands gave Minister Richardson and her support staff a chance to see the various classrooms and training equipment needed to ensure the institute is outfitted with the necessary environments to help facilitate specialized courses and more. As the National Police Academy has seven locations in the Netherlands, Minister Richardson requested that the blueprint of the most modern institution be shared with her, so that the design for the Law Enforcement Institute of Sint Maarten can use this as a guide when the design is being made.

During the discussions, Minister Richardson stated her wish to support KPSM and its officers to be the best that they can be and queried about the areas of improvement needed. Mr. Appelhof stated that a fitness and dojo facility is needed for KPSM so that they can conduct proper fitness training for the staff. Prior to hurricanes Irma and Maria, equipment was shipped to Sint Maarten for this purpose, however, the intended space was damaged. The equipment remains secured, however, the Ministry is in need of a location to execute the training.

Minister Richardson and her delegation were also given an opportunity to experience the virtual shooting range. With the virtual shooting system, the cost of purchasing ammunition for training can be reduced significantly. Where the National Police Academy once used over two thousand rounds of ammunition, they can now use less than one thousand rounds of ammunition as officers first sharpen their skills on the virtual platform and test these skills with live ammunition thereafter. This is a direction Minister Richardson wishes to explore for Sint Maarten as a means to also reduce cost.

Mr. Appelhof and his team expressed much gratitude to Minister Richardson for visiting their institution. He expressed that it was quite an honor that the Minister saw it of importance to visit and learn about their National Police Academy. This working visit paves the way for the opportunity to make a connection and build a meaningful working relationship with the National Police Academy in the best interest of KPSM.

Mr. Appelhof is expected to visit Sint Maarten in the coming weeks in connection with an upcoming graduating class of KPSM. During that visit, Mr. Appelhof and Minister Richardson will meet again to discuss their vision and plans.

Minister Richardson expressed her commitment to strengthening all agencies within the Ministry of Justice. That is the purpose of my work visit to the Netherlands. Mission accomplished! stated Minister Richardson.

"I am grateful that this work visit has brought much awareness and many connections in various areas that directly or indirectly affect the services of the Justice chain in Sint Maarten. The face-to-face meetings have intrigued our colleagues and partners in the Netherlands to work more closely with us, to support us, and give guidance where and when necessary as we are all dealing with the same or similar matters," she continued.

The real work begins as my team and I forge forward to apply what we have learned. There are a lot of changes and improvements up ahead. I assure the civil servants of the Ministry of Justice and the people of Sint Maarten that all efforts are geared towards the overall betterment of our justice system with the sole interest of protection, safety and, security. concluded Minister Richardson.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The House of Parliament will sit in a Central Committee meeting on October 4, 2021. The Central Committee meeting is scheduled for Monday at 10.00 hrs. in the General Assembly Chamber of the House at Wilhelminastraat #1 in Philipsburg.

The Central Committee meeting, which was adjourned on June 17, 2020, will be reconvened on Monday at 10.00 hrs.

The Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure, Mr. Ebert J. Doran, and the management team of the Government-owned company, NV G.E.B.E will be present to answer questions posed by Members of Parliament regarding

the financial status of the organization.

This meeting was requested by MP S.A. Wescot-Williams, MP M.D. Gumbs, MP C.A. Buncamper and MP G.S. Heyliger-Marten.

The agenda point is:

The (financial) status of NV G.E.B.E. (IS/1135/2019-2020 dated August 18, 2020, and IS/169/2020-2021 dated November 16, 2020)

Due to measures taken to mitigate the coronavirus (COVID-19), the House of Parliament is only allowing persons with an appointment to enter the Parliament building.

The parliamentary sessions will be carried live on St. Maarten Cable TV Channel 115, via SXM GOV radio FM 107.9, via Pearl Radio FM 98.1, the audio via the internet www.sxmparliament.org, www.pearlfmradio.sx and Parliaments Facebook page: Parliament of Sint Maarten
PHILIPSBURG:--- The House of Parliament will sit in a Central Committee meeting on October 4, 2021.

The Central Committee meeting is scheduled for Monday at 14.00 hrs. in the General Assembly Chamber of the House at Wilhelminastraat #1 in Philipsburg.

The Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labor, Mr. Omar E.C Ottley will be present in Parliament to discuss the Ministrys detailed plans and policies relating to job creations and views on the current labor market on Sint Maarten.

The agenda points are:

1. Approval provisions President of Parliament to participate in Board of Directors of Parlatino (IS/050/2021-2022 dated September 24, 2021)

2. Approval composition delegation and provisions Members of Parliament to attend and participate the 31st Congress and Trade Mission titled: Ten years after dismantling

Netherlands Antilles, December 8-9, 2021 in the Hague, the Netherlands. (IS/937/2020-2021 dated August 18, 2021)

3. New policies and plans for job creation

4. The current state of the labor market

5. Plans to support unemployed persons (IS/549/2020-2021 dated March 31, 2021)

Agenda points 3, 4 and 5 were requested by MP S.L. Duncan, MP G.C. Pantophlet, MP H.L. Richardson, MP W.V. Marlin and MP A.J.G. Romou

Due to measures taken to mitigate the coronavirus (COVID-19), the House of Parliament is only allowing persons with an appointment to enter the Parliament building.

The parliamentary sessions will be carried live on St. Maarten Cable TV Channel 115, via SXM GOV radio FM 107.9, via Pearl Radio FM 98.1, the audio via the internet www.sxmparliament.org, and www.pearlfmradio.sx
PHILIPSBURG:--- Within the scope of a general review, the second sub-inspection of five reports about the Public Prosecutors Office and the Crime Prevention Fund in Sint Maarten by the Law Enforcement Council (hereafter: the Council) has found that the vast majority of recommendations were not (fully) implemented.

The Council is carrying out sub-inspections to monitor the status of the execution of recommendations listed in the 43 inspection reports that it has drafted from 2012 up to 2018. The report on the first sub-inspection was published earlier this year, and the Council published the report on the second sub-inspection on October 4th.

The second sub-inspection addresses the extent to which the recommendations made in five earlier reports were implemented: Crime Prevention Fund, Review of investigative and prosecutorial policies of the Public Prosecutors Office, Review Enforcement of fines, damages and dispossessions, Review of the Public Prosecutors Office in an incident-based investigation, and Cooperation between the Public Prosecutors Offices.

In general, reports of the Council reveal a persistent shortcoming: the lack of follow-up of the recommendations presented by the Council. The second sub-inspection showed that of a total of 29 recommendations, 6 were fully implemented, 9 were partially addressed, and 14 were not implemented. Therefore, the Councils recommendation to the Minister of Justice is to implement the 23 recommendations which are not yet (fully) addressed and to make the necessary financial resources available as soon as possible.

The sub-inspection also confirmed the commitment of the justice organizations to comply with the Councils recommendations. The efforts undertaken by the various organizations are proof of this. In practice, however, the implementation of the Council's recommendations often does not take place, usually due to a lack of fundamental prerequisites, such as a strategic vision, proactive management, insufficient budget, shortage of capacity, and a lack of policy.

Overall analysis

In its overall analysis, the Council pointed out that the capacity of organizations to work consistently on law enforcement requires further growth. Local governmental-strategic prioritization in the law enforcement chain, based on an integrated vision, is required. Integration is important for focusing resources and creating synergy through collective efforts. All reviews of the Council also showed the need for strategic principles. The Minister of Justice, the Ministry of Justice, and the Public Prosecutor's Office (Attorney General) play essential roles in this process.

For example, the Crime Prevention Fund requires an annual policy plan and a determination of strategic choices for investigative and prosecutorial policies which are important for effectiveness. Strategic prioritization of issues also proved to be critical in the inspections related to the enforcement of sentences and incident-oriented investigations.

Furthermore, some reviews, such as the one on the enforcement of fines, damages, and dispossessions and the one on the Crime Prevention Fund, indicate that legislation and regulations require greater compliance during work performance. Risks have been identified in terms of integrity and for the credibility of law enforcement in general because laws and regulations are not always adequately obeyed, stated the Council.

Crime Prevention Fund

As part of the second sub-inspection, the Council furthermore reviewed its inspection reports and the follow-up on the recommendations about the Crime Prevention Fund. Earlier reports showed that there was a need to establish a steering committee to advise on the fund and it was found that the legal obligations stipulated in the National Ordinance Crime Prevention Fund were not being implemented consistently, resulting in a recommendation. The Council at the time made 5 more recommendations, amongst other things to develop a policy for the Fund, to reduce the risks of improper use of the Fund, and to raise awareness.

The current assessment reveals that the Fund's legal framework has not changed, nor has it been further clarified since the Councils last investigation. Whereas the law states that the Fund should be used for the financing of projects to combat crime, the Councils review found that in practice the terminology used in the law is interpreted ambiguously. Because of this, in practice, there is still a lack of clarity about the procedures relating to requests and approval processes, and how to give content to the Funds processes and procedures.

According to the Council, very little progress is evident in terms of compliance with legal obligations when using the Crime Prevention Fund. The daily and long-term management of the Fund is therefore compromised. The Fund's management and the Steering Committee for Crime Prevention are not getting off the ground; a policy, policy plan, and associated budget or related preparation are not in place; the bookkeeping and registration are by no means in order, and the Fund is not receiving publicity.

Positive is that the Council observed that there is greater oversight and control over the Fund's assets and expenditures. However, these are not supported by formal or approved policies, processes, and objectives from the persons legally responsible for the Fund. If these matters are sorted, this would give greater insight and better clarity for all those involved.

Investigative and prosecutorial policies

This is the second review of the recommendations made about the investigative and prosecutorial policies of the Public Prosecutors' Office and it was concluded that the majority of the recommendations still have to be addressed which mostly concern the Public Prosecutors Office as well as the National Detectives agency. Based on this review, it appears that an examination was not conducted by the minister / the ministry to determine how the Public Prosecutor's Office, the KPSM, and the National Detectives Agency can reinforce the effectiveness of law enforcement. The Minister of Justice and the Attorney General are both involved in the (strategic) management of effective law enforcement. The Council has identified several specific topics that will certainly have to be addressed, such as plans, cooperation agreements, quality, information (sharing), capacity, education and training, expertise, resources, and ICT. In the opinion of the Council, the Public Prosecutor will have a stronger position within the chain and will be better able to manage it, if continuity of its in-house capacity is present. A personnel policy on a central level is still lacking, however, a policy is being prepped and local employment is being worked on.

Reasonable deadlines

According to the Council, the Public Prosecutors Office lacks an overall overview on cases, partly due to the internal organization of the Public Prosecutor's processes and the inadequate PRIEM system. Meeting reasonable deadlines also requires a good interaction between partners in the investigation and adjudication phase. There are delays and stagnation in the processing of cases within the investigation as well as in making timely decisions within the context of the investigation due to the lack of manpower. In selected areas of investigation, such as robbery and severe crimes, the situation is generally a bit better, but it remains vulnerable, the Council stated.

The same applies to the prompt processing of cases in court. Particularly for the major cases, it is important to have judges on the island. The absence of optimal staffing in the judicial organization on Sint Maarten creates bottlenecks in the quality and timeliness (processing times) of hearings. COVID-19 has made this process even more complicated, causing longer waiting times before cases are heard.

The Public Prosecutors Office indicated that online hearings have not been effective in improving the quality of cases, but that smaller cases proceeded better.

In terms of communication and the establishment of new policies, the Council recognized the positive developments and said it looked forward to their implementation.

Fines, damages, and dispossessions

In its review of the enforcement of fines, damages, and dispossessions, the Council looked at the status of the implementation of four recommendations in earlier reports regarding the modalities: compensation (to victims), fines (general), traffic fines, and dispossessions. The Council believes that a considerable effort still needs to be made with the organization and administration of enforcement to ensure an effective and efficient process. This is particularly the case for the recommendations regarding the organization of the accounting system and the use of the legal mechanisms (authorities). The Public Prosecutors Office is also aware of this. The PRIEM system is not functioning optimally.

As for the method of compensation for damages, victims continue to experience excessive disadvantage. They are not sufficiently assisted in filing claims for damages. If the judge grants a claim, there is little prospect of payment. This is not only due to the poor administration but also because of the often-poor financial position of the defendant (offender) and the financial position of the Sint Maarten Government. In major cases, the support for victims is better. The Public Prosecutor's Office has created victim policies to address the needs of the victim.

Regarding the method of dispossessions or confiscations, it was determined that data collection is very poor. According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, statistics are recorded, but not consistently. The financial data relating to confiscations is also absent. A point of concern is not having enforcement projects continue due to a lack of preconditions, but the Council also recognizes a few positive developments with the handling of 6-hour cases and more awareness about the position of victims amongst other things.

Incident based investigations

The Council also reviewed the role of the Prosecutors Office in incident-based investigations for the second time. The current situation in 2021 is that of the six recommendations, two have been addressed (feedback and communicating priority 1 cases) and four recommendations have still only been partially met (evaluation of approach, compliance with agreements, provision of information, and provision of insight). A lack of comprehensive oversight of cases, the flawed PRIEM system, and the police capacity that is continually under pressure also play a role with regards to this topic and the follow-up of the recommendations. Also, positive developments are being worked on with regards to victims, training, and sharing of information.

Public Prosecutors Offices cooperation

The Council also reviewed an earlier inspection on the topic of cooperation between the Public Prosecutors Offices in the Dutch Caribbean. The intention was to examine the status of compliance with earlier recommendations, but during the recent review, the Prosecutor's Office indicated that this topic was no longer being pursued.

Nevertheless, the Council advised the Attorney Generals to again discuss if the cooperation between the Public Prosecutor's Offices should be revisited on the continued value of having subject matter specializations and, at least, the required approach. If it is decided to use subject matter specializations, the recommendations already formulated by the Council remain relevant.

Small successes

Overall, the Council was positive about the achievements of the law enforcement sector. The actions of justice-stakeholders are not always effective or efficient, but small successes have been achieved and the Council recognizes the perseverance of stakeholders. Because of this attitude, the Council anticipates future opportunities. The Council, therefore, stresses the paramount importance of a strategic plan and the desired objectives that can be achieved with it. The Council announced that it will initiate periodic monitoring of progress on the follow-up of the recommendations in 2021.

The second sub-inspection report can be found on: www.raadrechtshandhaving.com or http://rrh-sxm.org
~ Minister they are setting you up. MP Emmanuel~

PHILIPSBURG:--- Members of Parliament expressed concerns over the answers to the questions they posed regarding NV GEBE's financial status.

Minister of VROMI Egbert Jurendy Doran returned to Parliament on Monday to provide the answers to the questions that were posed. The answers that were read out by the Minister were the ones provided by the Temporary Manager of NV GEBE, Mauricio Dembrook.

The Temporary Manager did not show up to Parliament as he reported sick on Monday morning.

Members of Parliament were furious with the answers provided by the Minister to the Parliament of St. Maarten. Member of Parliament Claudius Buncamper pointed out several areas where the answers were not clear or the questions he posed were not answered.

Buncamper said he asked about water that is sold to the French side of the island and GEBE in their response said they only sold water to Anse Marcel. He called on the Minister to review the answer to that question.

Further Buncamper highlighted the response to the questions regarding the Chief Internal Auditor. A breakdown based on the answers, it states that there is a yearly internal audit plan that is presented to the Supervisory Board. In 2015 GEBE said 3 of the 11 audits were received, in 2016, 3 of the 7 audits were received, 2017, one of 7 was received, in 2018 one of 6 was received, 2019, 2 of 7 received, while in 2020 1 of 6 was received.

Buncamper said he wants to know if he as a Member of Parliament what exactly NV GEBE is telling him, are they trying to say the Chief Internal Auditor is not functioning? He asked if its the same person NV GEBE and the Shareholder wants to appoint as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO)?

The USP Faction leader said he did not ask for those answers, but he gets the impression that the answers provided were to set up the CEO candidate and that is not his intention. Buncamper said he just wanted to know if the Chief Internal Auditor was doing her job but he is of the opinion that the answers provided are to set up the candidate, therefore he asked for clarity.

As for Seven Seas Buncamper asked how much does the company pays per KWH on electricity? He said he wants to know who is paying the rest of what is not being paid by Seven Seas. The MP said he wants to know who is covering the loss, he asked if its the shareholder or the residents of St. Maarten.

He asked about the water management agreement, he wants to know if the contract is valid. Buncamper cautioned the Minister by saying that his intention is not to shoot down anything but warned that prevention is better than cure.

Member of Parliament Sarah Wescot Williams also shared the same sentiments about the answers that were provided. Wescot Williams pointed out that the Minister received the answers from NV GEBE on Saturday, October 2nd, 2021 while the Members of Parliament received it at 10:01 am on Monday. She asked the Minister where are the attachments were referred. She said it would have been better if the was postponed so that the Minister could get the time he needed to review the answers. Wescot Williams said the Parliament of St. Maarten is taken for granted.

Sharing the same sentiments was Member of Parliament Christopher Emmanuel said that the Dutch Government already took possession of the Princess Juliana International Airport. He said very soon the Dutch will take possession of NV GEBE because of the firestorm within the company.

He warned the Minister that he is being set up by the management of NV GEBE. Emmanuel said that the answers provided are incorrect. He said he asked about the repairs of the main building, and he is told that the repairs were scheduled in the loan agreement of 2019 and now its taken up in the draft strategic plan 2021-2026.

The Independent Member of Parliament made clear that the Minister got the answers to parliaments questions from NV GEBE. He said that it was impossible for NV to provide such answers to parliament. Emmanuel advised the Minister to go to NV GEBE and demand the answers to their questions while asking for documents to back up the answers he is provided with, he said only then the Minister would realize that he is being played as a fool.

He asked the Minister why he did not terminate the two Supervisory Board members? Emmanuel said he know for a fact that the parliament of St. Maarten was misled by the incorrect answers provided.

He asked if anyone reached out to the internal audit department for the answers and asked about the results of the 2019 audit done by Ernest and Young. Emmanuel also asked about the recent court injunction and the verdict rendered on Friday last week. He asked the Minister to provide parliament with his opinion on the various court proceedings initiated against the government of St. Maarten by NV GEBE.

Emmanuel asked how much reliance was placed on the Internal Auditor by the SBOD because of their lack of knowledge of financials. Emmanuel referred to the letter sent to the Council of Ministers by the chairman of SBOD Bienvenido Richardson.

Emmanuel further asked why was the internal audit department shut down in 2019 by the former management board for executing the 2018 audits. Emmanuel made clear shutting down the internal audit department was a serious violation.

The Independent MP asked why he did not dismiss the two remaining SBOD. He asked the Minister to come clean, Emmanuel said whoever prepared the answers for the Minister should be fired immediately because they lied to the Minister, the Parliament of St. Maarten, and the people as a whole.
Today, we live in a technology-obsessed age. Whichever way you look, its hard to avoid the increasing number applications, products and solutions that continue to redefine the boundaries of what we previously thought possible. From autonomous vehicles and edge computing to 5G and the Internet of Things, all facets of our lives are continuing to evolve, thanks to an endless stream of differentiated innovations. In this article, well be focusing on the latter of these - the Internet of Things (IoT).

Deployment of IoT technologies

Smart homes, smart utilities, smart retail, smart farming, smart supply chains and many of the other smart versions of sectors that were already familiar with, are all called as such because of the implications of IoT. Indeed, it is a technology that has manifested itself in billions of devices, which today underpin the truly transformational levels of connectivity that we see across industries of all shapes and sizes.

The statistics speak for themselves. According to Statista, over US$ 1 trillion is expected to be spent on IoT technology worldwide, in 2022. Be it added convenience, efficiency, productivity or intelligence, many benefits are poised to emerge from this spike in IoT-related activities. Yet to say this digital transition is going to be entirely positive would be naive.

Threats faced by smart cities

It is said that by 2040, 65 per cent of the worlds population will be living in cities

Lets consider smart cities. It is said that by 2040, 65 per cent of the worlds population will be living in cities. To accommodate such an influx, without facing significant logistical issues, with limited space and infrastructure, policy makers have begun to recognise that these urban environments need to become not only larger, but smarter as well.

As a result, the global smart cities market is on the rise. Statista states that, globally, technology spending on smart city initiatives is expected to double from US$ 81 billion in 2018 to US$ 189.5 billion in 2023.

Threat of attackers with expanding IoT landscape

The challenge here is that such a stark uptick will drastically expand the IoT landscape, presenting more opportunities than ever to threat actors. As connectivity and computing power is distributed more widely across large-scale outdoor networks, hackers will scale-up their own operations in tandem.

According to a Nokia report from October 2020 (based on data aggregated from monitoring network traffic on more than 150 million devices globally), IoT devices now account for roughly 33 per cent of all infected devices, up from the 16 per cent estimated in 2019.

Whats more concerning is how these figures are translating into real world events. 2021 alone has already witnessed an attack on a water plant in Oldsmart, Florida, which was designed to poison residents drinking water. Furthermore, Colonial Pipeline, one of the largest fuel pipelines in the US was also hacked, earlier this year, resulting in major shortages across the countrys East Coast.

Security through IoT authentication

From weak password protection, a lack of regular patch updates and insecure interfaces, to insufficient data protection, poor IoT devices management and an IoT skills gap, there are plenty of weaknesses existing within the IoT ecosystem, which continue to provide open goals for attackers.

To defend against such lethal threats, security-by-design and open standards should be the guiding principles of IoT, working to prioritise security, interoperability and robust, internet-based protocols to mitigate risks.

Device authentication and encryption

A sound place to start is to make device authentication and encryption the central pillars of your IoT security architecture

A sound place to start, in this regard, is to make device authentication and encryption the central pillars of your IoT security architecture. The goal is to be able to prove that each and every device joining a network is not malicious, with tell-tale signs being rogue code, for example.

By ensuring each device is uniquely identifiable with digital certificates and therefore, properly authenticated when joining a network, you can ensure no tampered devices are able to infiltrate your overarching network.

Using technologies, such as Hardware Secure Element

Critically, passwords should be avoided altogether, these vulnerable to being stolen and cracked. And, while a similar vulnerability lies in the fact that all secure devices contain a private key, you can leverage technologies, such as Hardware Secure Element (a chip designed specifically to protect against unauthorised access, even if the attacker has physical access to the device), as an extra layer of defence.

Digital certificates are not the only option available in protecting those IoT devices that, if tampered with, could become the cause of physical threats. Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) can also be used to prevent tampering.

Physical Unclonable Function (PUF)

Through Physical Unclonable Function (PUF), a form of IoT device fingerprint is developed from the unique make up of a piece of silicon, which can be used to create a unique cryptographic key.

Unlike digital certificates, a secure infrastructure can be achieved through PUF, without the need for any additional hardware, as the key is not only stored securely, but it also becomes invisible to hackers, when the device is not running.

The importance of encryption

Use of AES encryption within radio chips, to scramble messages on the move, is the method adopted at Wi-SUN Alliance

Now, lets turn attentions to encryption. The use of AES encryption within radio chips, to scramble messages on the move, is the method that we have adopted here at Wi-SUN Alliance. Its a means of maximising data security, but also reducing power consumption in the devices themselves. Beyond AES encryption, its also worth considering topography at the design stage. Indeed, mesh networks are advantageous for several reasons.

They are more reliable, allowing data to be re-routed, should devices lose contact unexpectedly. Transmissions usually travel shorter distances, which improves power efficiency and performance, and frequency hopping functionality prevents attackers from jamming signals, which could deny the service altogether.

Open standards and interoperability

But where do open, interoperable standards fit in? As is defined by the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS), interoperability enables a computer programme to communicate and exchange information with other computer programmes, allowing all programmes to use that information.

Open standards then allow any vendor of communications equipment or services to implement all standards necessary, to interoperate with other vendors. This is incredibly useful from a security perspective. It means that all specs are stress-tested and verified by many users, and that any vulnerabilities are quickly detected, and remediated, enhancing security and reliability.

Need for open standards

Equally, open standards can accelerate time-to-market, reduce costs and ensure products are usable, with a variety of manufacturers processors and radios, with a steam of publicly available protocol stacks, design information and reference implementations available that can help build and future-proof secure products.

Indeed, large-scale corporate IoT networks alongside smart cities, smart utilities, and other key smart infrastructure will only continue to evolve, in the coming years. With the immense threats of attackers in mind, these systems must prioritise security-by-design, both now and in the future.
It has to be both. To successfully meet the needs of any customer you have to understand their specific objectives and then truly be able to say, this will help solve the challenges you face. For manufacturers, this means looking at products from a wider perspective; enabling their tech to play well with others and leveraging emerging cloud-based, AI and deep-learning capabilities to meet modern-day security requirements. For integrators, its about having the manufacturer relationships to influence product roadmaps, the knowledge to recommend the best possible combination of technologies for the task, and then having the skills to make it happen. Seamlessly. With the rapid pace of technological evolution, this means staying on top of developments in physical, virtual (AI, analytics, cloud etc.) and cybersecurity, and constantly expanding our technical, engineering and project management skills to ensure customers benefit from whats right, and dont have to settle for whats available.
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NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP)  Flood insurance premiums figure to increase for thousands of Connecticut residents when the federal government implements a new rate system, some by as much as $100 per month  but most by up to $10 monthly.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency estimates that more than 22,000 state residents will see their premiums rise, though preliminary data show that rise will be small, the New Haven Register reported.
HELENA, Mont. (AP)  A district judge has denied a request by several parents to halt mask mandates in Missoula schools while a legal challenge of the mandates is underway.

The parents sued several Missoula schools in August over their mask requirements, arguing they violated the state's constitution, which guarantees individuals the right to make their own medical decisions.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP)  A New York mother and son have been charged with theft in aiding the disappearance of a laptop belonging to the staff of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the Jan. 6 insurrection after the FBI initially raided a home 4,500 miles away in Alaska, looking for the computer.

The FBI on Friday arrested Maryann Mooney-Rondon, 55, and her son, Rafael Rondon, 23, of Watertown, New York, in connection with the stolen laptop used only for presentations, according to court documents. Both also face other charges related to the riot at the Capitol.

Rafael Rondon also faces possession of an unregistered sawed-off shotgun charge

Both appeared in federal court Friday in Syracuse, New York, and released pending further proceedings, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of New York.

A message left at a listing for Mooney-Condon in Watertown was not immediately returned Monday. Attempts to locate Rafael Rondon were not immediately successful.

The Capitol riot was well documented by those who took part. Law enforcement used photos from the social media accounts of those who took part to search for the suspects.

A tip to the FBI led them to the mother and son, according to a statement of facts documented by an unnamed FBI special agent.

Mooney-Rondon allegedly admitted to being in both the Capitol the day of the riots and Pelosis conference room, the document says. She allegedly provided gloves or a scarf to a man to steal the laptop without leaving fingerprints.

He asked, he said, give me  I dont know if it was gloves or a scarf I was wearing  and like I said he scared me, the documents quotes her as saying.

There was an ethernet connected to the computer, her son told FBI agents.

If I recall, the guy was going to yank it out. Im like, dude, dont do that, I mean thats, I mean just the computer, you cant pull the cables out, itll ruin everything, Mooney-Rondon said, according to the document.

Mooney-Rondon then said she believes she saw the man put the computer in his backpack. Her son told investigators that be thinks he might have pushed the computer in his bag a little bit using a glove cause he didnt want to get his fingerprints on it, the document says.

So I assisted him a little bit, and that was probably stupid of me, he's quoted in the document as saying.

She and her son then went to the Senate Gallery and then left the building when they saw it was overrun with protesters.

Rafael Rondon told officers that he and mother took the metro into Washington on Jan. 6 because Im not taking my car into the city which, the Capitol building Im about to break into, the FBI agents statement alleges.

Both mother and son admitted they were the ones depicted in the photos taken at the Capitol during the riots and distributed by the FBI, the document says.

In late April the FBI raided the Homer, Alaska, business owned by Paul and Marilyn Hueper, who were in the Washington for then-President Donald Trumps rally that preceded the breach at the Capitol but said they didnt take part in that. Marilyn Hueper told reporters it was a case of mistaken identity.

Photos of the two women showed they had similar hairstyles and wore a similar black coat that day.

Hueper said when an FBI agent arrived at the boutique resort, they said they were looking for Nancy Pelosis laptop. That still doesnt explain why youre in my home. Or in Homer, Alaska, Hueper told agents, she later recalled to The Associated Press.

In the FBI statement filed in the case of the New York residents, it notes that a search warrant was obtained for the Alaska residence based in part on evidence showing that residents (a married couple) trespassed on the ground of the U.S. Capitol. It also says two people in Homer identified Marilyn Hueper as being the person seen in photos taken inside the Capitol during the riot.

However, the document states, the FBI now says there is probable cause to believe the mother and son are the two people shown in the photographs, plus their alleged admissions to being there and other evidence.

"I feel like a cloud has lifted for sure," Hueper said in a text message to The Associated Press. However, she said she remains concerned about the freedom that the FBI and others seem to have to run amuck over peaceable people, and are without concern for how their poor investigative skills and super aggressive tactics are causing harm while theyre on their noble cause quests.

A message sent to the FBI Anchorage office seeking comment was not immediately returned Monday.

___

This story has been updated to correct that the laptop did not belong to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but was a staff laptop stolen from a conference room that was used only for presentations. It was also updated to correct the spelling of the Alaska woman's last name. She is Marilyn Hueper, not Huepner.
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP)  Thousands of Tunisians attended demonstrations in Tunis and other cities this weekend in a show of support for President Kais Saieds recent consolidation of power  a move that his critics have dubbed a coup.

Thousands stood on Tunis central thoroughfare Sunday waving the nations crimson flag demanding tough action against corruption, and chanting The people want the dissolution of parliament! One demonstrator wore a T-shirt emblazoned with We are Kais Saied." Another held a sign that read You are not alone Mr. President, we are with you."

On July 25, following nationwide anti-government protests, Saied abruptly dismissed his prime minister, assumed all executive powers and froze parliament in the North African nation.

While constitutional lawyers and political opponents including the influential Islamist party say his actions are unlawful, the decision has proven widely popular with the Tunisian public. It followed a long period of political and economic crisis for Tunisia that was exacerbated by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Sept. 22, Saied followed up on his "exceptional measures" with the announcement of a new constitutional order, effectively suspending part of the countrys 2014 constitution and transferring sweeping legislative powers to the president, giving him the right to rule by decree.

Thousands gathered for protests last weekend against that decision, notably from Islamist party Ennahdha, which has been sidelined by the president's moves. Human rights advocates and civil society organizations have openly condemned his actions, calling them a threat to Tunisias democratic transition.

On Sunday, Tunisias state agency TAP reported that a lawmaker and a television host had been arrested over TV remarks critical to Saied, quoting lawyer Samir Ben Amor.

But the crowd at Sundays demonstration was a satisfied and hopeful one.

I came here to support the dissolution of the parliament, because we are tired of these corrupt politicians, these thieves, demonstrator Intissar Slits, 45, told The Associated Press. We are here to support our president, this is the will of the people. The people are tired of being poor, tired of being hungry, we are tired of everything.

Another demonstrator said the countrys 2014 constitution was a failure and did not represent the wishes of the Tunisian people, only those of a small group of politicians.

Despite concerns about the legitimacy of Saied's moves, demonstrator Sonia Belnasser said a return to authoritarian rule is impossible for the Tunisian people.

The Tunisian people are now on the street supporting Kais Saied, the professor Kais Saied, the president Kais Saied, because he said no to corruption. If one day he becomes part of the bad system, then all the people will turn against him she said, adding that she was happy with Saieds appointment of Najla Bouden as head of government last week, the Arab worlds first female prime minister.

Protests were also held in several cities, from the coastal town of Sfax to Sidi Bouzid in the impoverished interior  the birthplace of Arab Spring uprisings. Tunisia was the only country to emerge from that tumultuous time with a democratic government.

___

Bouazza ben Bouazza in Tunis contributed.
There was always something about Sixto Cancel, the way the Bridgeport teenager carried himself, his direct gaze, the fact that he spoke in full paragraphs. He seemed older than his years.

I met him in 2011, when he was writing a college essay in which he called himself Americas Angriest Colored Child.

And who could blame him? Cancels life reads like a roadmap to hell. The fifth of 10 children, he never met his father, and his mother, addicted to heroin, was not around. Before he turned 1, Cancel entered Connecticuts foster care system and over the years lived with more families than he could count, including families that beat him, called him names, and put locks on the refrigerator. A church usher once took him in, but decided the fit wasnt right. Cancel found out on a school trip that his stuff had been packed yet again, and that hed be moving to a group home.

He spent his formative years with his clothes in a trash bag, shuffling from one placement to the next. How could he not be angry?

But he earned scholarships to Virginia Commonwealth University. He won an award from Connecticut Voices for Children. He appeared on ABC with Katie Couric in a show about foster care. Along the way, he learned the power of storytelling  not storytelling for a storys sake, but advocacy storytelling, something meant to bend the arc. He started a D.C.-based nonprofit, Think of Us, dedicated to amplifying the voices of foster care clients. Foster care policy  most policy, really  is too often made miles away from the actual issue. Who else to better shape how we move forward than people whove lived the business end of policy?

In September, Cancel published a guest essay in the New York Times. He shared some of his own story to hammer home this: Children in the foster care system deserve better than congregate care.

The response  including a letter from former Department of Children and Family Commissioner Joette Katz  was instantaneous. Katzs letter credited Cancel for the states decision to vastly reduce its reliance on congregate care, increase the placement of children with family members, and shift state funds to mental health supports.

Sixtos voice is an important one to listen to, she wrote. I did, and Connecticut has been the beneficiary.

Think of Us recently published a study, funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, that is heavy on lived experience in the countrys foster care system. Youths equate group homes to prison. The trauma of being in foster care gets ignored and is often compounded by more trauma meted out by a system that is supposed to protect them. Medication is a panacea to dull the hurt and  coincidentally  keep the youths behavior in check. Young people are pushed into a world for which they are ill-prepared. Along the way, they are told  as Cancel was  that this is their only option.

They blame themselves, and they internalize this blame, Cancel said. All young people believed they were in a group setting because there were no other options. They all had a relative or family friend they could have lived with, but they didnt get that support. People think young people are in these group home settings because they misbehaved.

In fact, its because the system pushes them there. Traditionally, the foster system was not designed to find a family member or friend to foster a child. Cancel realized that when he attended a family reunion three years ago in New York. He met cousins he didnt know he had, and as he listened to their stories, he realized he had aunts and uncles whod fostered strangers children. Certainly they could have taken in their nephew.

At that very moment, and it was numbing, I thought, How did this get missed? Cancel said. For so much of my life, I was told there was no other place for me to go. That wasnt the actual truth.

As he listened to family stories, he took out his phone, called up Google maps, and typed in his last foster home address and the address of his family in New York.

All this time, they were 58 miles away, he said. I could have lived with people who would have treated me like family, who were family.

Foster children age out of the system and, with scant support, too often end up homeless or in jail. Just 3 percent earn college degrees, Cancel said. Homelessness and incarceration are hugely expensive, as opposed to wraparound services that would help ease these young adults into a productive life, Cancel said.

Next up? Cancel will finish his last few college credits, and then he has his eye on earning an MBA at Howard University. If that august body is paying attention, they could use the likes of Cancel, who still marvels that he and his fellows seem to have the ear of powerful policymakers.

I went from having no voice to being able to have a voice and to channel the voices of so many young people, Cancel said. I am walking the halls of the White House. That sometimes seems so surreal.

Susan Campbell is the author of Frog Hollow: Stories from an American Neighborhood, Tempest-Tossed: The Spirit of Isabella Beecher Hooker and Dating Jesus: A Story of Fundamentalism, Feminism and the American Girl. She is Distinguished Lecturer at the University of New Haven, where she teaches journalism.


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The members of parliament belonging to the National Liberal Party (PNL) will attend the debate in Parliament of the censure motion, but will not vote, announced, on Monday, Prime Minister Florin Citu, chairman of the PNL.

"The PNL MPs will attend tomorrow's motion, but won't vote," said Citu, at the end of the meeting of the PNL's Executive Bureau.
Seven Romanian citizens are among the deceased people in the airplane crash that occurred on Sunday, on the outskirts of the city of Milan, Italy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) informs.

According to the piece of information communicated by the Italian authorities, following the action of identifying the victims of this incident, there are 7 Romanian citizens among the casualties (all having other citizenships as well). Furthermore, MAE mentions that until now, the Consulate General of Romania in Milan has not received any requests for consular assistance regarding this incident, the MAE press release reads.

A small aircraft used for tourism crashed on Sunday near Milan, in Northern Italy, leading to the death of seven passengers and the pilot, according to the Italian media, quoted by AFP.

The aircraft, a Pilatus PC-12, which had taken off from the Linate Milan's airport, heading for Olbia, Sardinia, Southern Italy, crashed five minutes after taking off, at the beginning of the afternoon, in San Donato Milanese, a town with approximately 30,000 residents, South-East of the capital of Lombardia, according to the Milanese daily newspaper Corriere della Sera.

The plane caught on fire after smashing into an empty office building, which was being renovated. The pilot, a 30 year old Romanian, and the seven passengers, of which one child, have died, Il Corriere adds.

The office building, where there was also a bus parking, was near the San Donato subway station, which ties the city to Milan.
The Romanian state should never again be in the "dire situation of having to suppress fires" and the national health system requires a profound reform, President Klaus Iohannis this morning told the opening ceremony of the academic year at the "Carol Davila" University of Medicine and Pharmacy.

He also noted that "the pandemic has taught us many lessons in many areas."

"Under the pandemic pressure, the vulnerabilities of the Romanian health system, perpetuated for decades, have been exposed more dramatically than ever and have generated human tragedies that have grieved an entire nation. We must never again be in the dire situation of having to suppress fires. We must fulfill as soon as possible the commitment of carrying through the deep reform of the health system the future of doctors' generations and the patients' safety depends upon," said the head of the state.

He explained that with approximately 2.4 billion euros earmarked for the medical system under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, investment needs can be covered from these funds too.

"Dear professors, I know that many of you have been through a busy and difficult period, which seems to never end. The pressure on the medical system and the difficulties of organizing the educational process in an online or hybrid system have rendered medical higher education particularly complicated," Iohannis told the attendance.

He also spoke of the gratitude due to health workers. "So much has been asked of you during this period and perhaps we - as a society - have not always shown you the gratitude you deserve, but you are indispensable for the future of this nation," Iohannis said, underscoring also that the pandemic has raised awareness of the needs of the national medical system.

"Medicine was obviously at the forefront of the fight against the effects of this terrible epidemic. We were all aware of the important role the family doctor can play in the constant dialogue and correct information of the patients, of the need to develop telemedicine and cut procedural red tape, but also of the role of medical assistance and laboratory medicine," said the President.
National leader of the opposition Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR) George Simion said on Monday that lawmakers of the National Liberal Party (PNL), major at rule, have tried to "bribe" AUR lawmakers to skip the vote session for a motion of censure against the Citu government by promising them public offices; he added that AUR will file a corruption complaint with the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA).

Simion said that he has audio and video evidence proving his words.

"People from PNL have tried to buy us apiece; they tried to bribe us and we went to DNA. The first thing we have to do is to notify the relevant agencies, and I want to reveal to the Romanians the whole scheme by which Florin Citu has made his MPs offer us a bribe: public offices for relatives. They practically tried to buy us so that the AUR lawmakers would skip the vote on the motion. All the AUR lawmakers will be there to vote for the motion. We are not for sale, we do not betray; not only that, but we do not make allegations either," Simion said at the Parliament House.

He added that he would make all the details public, insisting that they were not "populist allegations."
The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Ludovic Orban, reiterated, on Monday, that upon the expiration of the 15-day term announced regarding his resignation from this office, in case the PNL (National Liberal Party) leadership does not "find it appropriate" to use, he will submit the document personally, pointing out that there will be no extension period in this case.

"At the end of the 15-day period, if the party leadership does not find it appropriate to use the resignation that is made available to the party, I will resign personally," Orban said at the Parliament Palace.

"I did not resign directly in the Chamber of Deputies in order to allow my colleagues to negotiate, which is obviously related to the political crisis and the way in which parliamentary groups are relocated after the motion of censure. So, I wanted to gave them the possibility maintaining this position of President of the Chamber, because I did not want in any way to have the slightest responsibility in leaving this office to be won by a representative of PSD (Social Democratic Party)."Ludovic Orban announced on September 27 that he submitted to PNL his resignation from the office of president of the Chamber of Deputies.
The PNL (National Liberal Party) chair, Prime Minister Florin Citu, said on Monday that there is will in Parliament to change the provisions so that access to restaurants and cinema halls is allowed to people with a negative COVID-19 test.

"That proposal came from specialists. It is a proposal that was unanimously supported by specialists. I spoke with former minister Nelu Tataru. It seems that there is a will in the Romanian Parliament to change the provisions in this regard, to allow access based on a negative test. I will support the modifications if the Parliament does it and introduces testing," Citu said after the meeting of the Executive Bureau of PNL.

He was asked how a government decision could be modified.

"It can be changed, they have found another option. You will see that it can be done in the Romanian Parliament as well. (...) If they don't do it, of course we will do it, but I think it will be good the MPs to do it," Citu explained.
President Klaus Iohannis will attend the informal meeting of the European Council and the European Union (EU)-Western Balkans Summit on Tuesday and Wednesday in Brdo, Slovenia, the Presidential Administration informed.

According to the Presidential Administration, the main topic of discussion will be the role of the EU at global level. In this context, the situation in Afghanistan, the security agreement between the USA, Great Britain and Australia (AUKUS), as well as the relations with China will be addressed.

The EU-Western Balkans Summit will discuss issues related to reaffirming the European perspective for the countries in the region, cooperating with these to manage the socio-economic effects of the health crisis, strengthening dialogue and cooperation in the political and security field.
Three young people, aged between 25 and 30, are being investigated for dangerous drugs trafficking, as they were caught red-handed by the police of the Service for Combating Organized Crime in Mehedinti, together with the policemen of the Craiova Organized Crime Brigade and the DIICOT (Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism) - Mehedinti Territorial Office prosecutors, while harvesting their own cannabis plants.

According to DIICOT and IGPR (General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police), the three were found while harvesting cannabis plants, which they packed in bags and cellophane foil, in order to transport them to Drobeta Turnu Severin.

"During 2021, one of the defendants purchased, through specialized sites, seeds and materials used for the cultivation of a cannabis crop, on a plot of land in Mehedinti County, the plants being cared for together with other two defendants. On the occasion of the search that the police conducted at the plot of land, located in the suburbs of a village in Mehedinti County, 20 cannabis plants were identified and picked up, about one meter high, 16 cannabis plants harvested and packed in plastic wraps, as well as materials used for their packaging," the same sources specify.

The Mehedinti Court ordered the measure of pre-trial detention for a period of 30 days, against one of the defendants, and the preventive measure of house arrest against the other two. The specialized support was provided by the Special Operations Department.
Senate Chair Anca Dragu of the Save Romania Union (USR), minor at rule, said on Monday that all USR lawmakers will be in the chamber on Tuesday to vote on a motion of censure initiated by the opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD), adding that the party did not make a decision yet whether the vote will be open or not.

"We will certainly vote for this motion, because we believe that we can no longer continue with this government (...). Yes, everyone will come to the chamber, there are no signs that some colleagues would not come. I think every party thinks that maybe there are some who can't come for medical reasons, but yes, all our lawmakers will be in the chamber. We have not decided yet [whether or not the vote will be open], but there is no reason for me to doubt all my colleagues will vote on the motion as we have discussed and stated publicly," Dragu said at the end of a meeting of the Senate's Standing Bureau.

She added that "probably" the motion will succeed, the government will be dismissed and consultations with President Klaus Iohannis will come later.
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Disney Streaming and the Global OTT Market

See more videos like this on StreamingMedia.com.

Learn more about global OTT at Streaming Media West 2021.

Read the complete transcript of this video:

Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen: It's hard to think of a bigger global brand than Disney. So, obviously, Rebekah, Disney is coming at it from a slightly different perspective. What are your thoughts on one global market?

Rebekah Mueller: I think Disney's brands definitely resonate globally. That's what we've seen. It's very beloved. We made a really conscious choice when we were supporting, for example, new languages around the product to make them available globally. So if we have languages available for a piece of content, we allow our customers to experience that around the world. So if you speak French-Canadian and you're in Quebec, you're covered; or if you speak French-Canadian in Germany or Argentina, you can experience it as well. So we really try to bring our capabilities at a global standpoint, and we think of English and United States as just one country and one language of many that we support in our product.

Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen: Could you talk a little bit about the process for launching a product or building, and then launching a product for international markets, as opposed to a domestic one? Do you take a fundamentally different approach, or is the approach the same at the foundation and you just tailor it at a higher level?

Rebekah Mueller: I think we were fortunate in that. When I joined the team, I was the first person on the team focused on the global expansion, and it was pre-launch of the product. So we can make some really strong architectural decisions.

What I mostly tell folks when they are thinking about taking a domestic product--whatever country that may originate from--and they're trying to take it outside of that country, a lot of the things that people are surprised about that they need to support are things that are hidden within products that you already use. And you don't realize it because you've had them for every product that you've experienced for the most part. For example, payments are different, and how people use payments. There are different legal requirements for payments. Or content or content ratings. There are different devices that people use, and different penetration of devices for streaming in different countries. There's different language support.

Think about Japanese. We're coming to Japan this fall. It's a meaning-based language, so it has core fundamental changes to how search works or how the language displays. But most people don't realize these things because you experienced the products that you have. And really, we know we're successful when you don't feel any friction in the product and it's just seamless. It's silent. Our success is just a seamless experience and you don't realize where it originates from.

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BEIJING, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sunlands Technology Group (NYSE: STG) ("Sunlands" or the "Company"), a leader in China's online post-secondary and professional education, today announced that it has received a notification letter from the New York Stock Exchange (the "NYSE") dated October 1, 2021, informing the Company that it has regained compliance with the NYSE's continued listing criterion of a minimum share price as set forth in Section 802.01C of the NYSE Listed Company Manual.

As previously announced, the Company received a letter from the NYSE dated July 23, 2021 notifying the Company that it was below compliance standards due to the fact that the average closing price of the Company's American depositary shares (the "ADSs") was less than $1.00 for a consecutive 30 trading-day period. In order to regain compliance with the minimum share price requirement, the Company changed the ratio of the ADSs representing its Class A ordinary shares from one (1) ADS representing one twenty-fifth (1/25) Class A ordinary shares to one (1) ADS representing one half (1/2) Class A ordinary shares. The change of the ADS ratio became effective on August 31, 2021.

On October 1, 2021, NYSE provided confirmation to the Company that its average closing share price for the consecutive 30-trading days ended September 30, 2021 was above the NYSE's minimum requirement of $1.00 per share. Accordingly, the Company is no longer considered below the $1 continued listing criterion and has regained compliance on this matter.

About Sunlands

Sunlands Technology Group (NYSE: STG) ("Sunlands" or the "Company"), formerly known as Sunlands Online Education Group, is the leader in China's online post-secondary and professional education. With a one to many, live streaming platform, Sunlands offers various degree and diploma-oriented post-secondary courses as well as online professional courses and educational content, to help students prepare for professional certification exams and attain professional skills. Students can access its services either through PC or mobile applications. The Company's online platform cultivates a personalized, interactive learning environment by featuring a virtual learning community and a vast library of educational content offerings that adapt to the learning habits of its students. Sunlands offers a unique approach to education research and development that organizes subject content into Learning Outcome Trees, the Company's proprietary knowledge management system. Sunlands has a deep understanding of the educational needs of its prospective students and offers solutions that help them achieve their goals.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements made under the "safe harbor" provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "confident" and similar statements. Sunlands may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed with or furnished to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 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. Any statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Sunlands' beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements that involve factors, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such factors and risks include, but not limited to the following: Sunlands' goals and strategies; its expectations regarding demand for and market acceptance of its brand and services; its ability to retain and increase student enrollments; its ability to offer new courses and educational content; its ability to improve teaching quality and students' learning results; its ability to improve sales and marketing efficiency and effectiveness; its ability to engage, train and retain new faculty members; its future business development, results of operations and financial condition; its ability to maintain and improve technology infrastructure necessary to operate its business; competition in the online education industry in China; relevant government policies and regulations relating to Sunlands' corporate structure, business and industry; and general economic and business condition in China. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors is included in the Sunlands' filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release is current as of the date of the press release, and Sunlands does not undertake any obligation to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

For investor and media enquiries, please contact:

Sunlands Technology GroupInvestor Relations Email: sl-ir@sunlands.com

The Piacente Group, Inc. Brandi PiacenteTel: +1-212-481-2050Email: sunlands@tpg-ir.com

Yang SongTel: +86-10-6508-0677Email: sunlands@tpg-ir.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sunlands-technology-group-regains-compliance-with-nyse-minimum-price-continued-listing-criterion-301391451.html

SOURCE Sunlands Technology Group
Texas National Guard troops have begun to clear land for construction of a border wall under the direction of Gov. Greg Abbott. About 60 of the more than 1,000 troops deployed on state orders are working on the border wall. The majority of troops are supporting the Department of Public Safety. (Texas Military Department)

More than 1,000 Texas National Guard members are now deployed to the states border with Mexico, with some troops helping with the early stages of building a border wall, the governors office said.

Gov. Greg Abbott announced the additional construction mission Tuesday, saying he has surged troops to the border under state orders.

He initially deployed 500 troops in March to work with the Department of Public Safety in a border security mission dubbed Operation Lone Star.

More than 60 Guard engineers are now working with local and state agencies to construct temporary barriers in key areas along the border, supporting the immediate need to deter criminal activity in the area, according to the Texas Military Department.

The Texas National Guard engineer force is trained to [construct] expeditionary and temporary structures and barriers as a part of their base skill sets. Additionally, every service member assigned to Operation Lone Star receives additional training specifically for this mission, the department said.

Abbott, a Republican, secured $250 million in state funding and then began requesting donations to build a border wall this year following President Joe Bidens announcement to end the construction started under former President Donald Trump. Abbotts office said they have more than $1.2 million in donations as of last week.

The Texas National Guard is playing an unprecedented role to secure the border because of the unprecedented refusal of the federal government to fulfill its obligations under federal law, he said in a statement.

Guard troops from at least two other states with Republican governors  South Dakota and Arkansas  were deployed to Texas.

Abbott also has requested more funding for border security that, if approved, could increase the number of troops deployed.

The state-controlled troops are in addition to about 3,800 troops deployed under federal orders to support the Department of Homeland Security across the entire U.S. border with Mexico. Those troops were initially deployed on the federal mission under Trump and remain under Biden, even after the national emergency declaration at the border was rescinded.

Last month, Abbott announced the Texas Guard members would shift from a largely supportive role with the Department of Public Safety to helping state troopers arrest migrants for trespassing. The governors office and the Texas Military Department declined to say whether troops were only allowed to arrest people for certain violations or if they had the authority to enforce all state laws.

The Department of Public Safety did not immediately respond to questions.

Rose Thayer
Buy Photo Tokyo reported another 1,052 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)

TOKYO  New coronavirus cases in Japans capital city are continuing to drop to levels not seen since the runup to the fifth and highest wave of infections, which peaked a month ago.

Tokyo reported 1,052 newly infected people Wednesday, according to public broadcaster NHK. For 24 consecutive days, new case numbers have fallen below those a week prior, according to metropolitan government data.

Tokyo and other major Japanese cities are under a state of emergency aimed at stemming the virus spread by limiting business hours and curtailing alcohol sales at restaurants and bars, among other measures. The emergency ends Sept. 30.

U.S. Army Japan has experienced 22 new cases of COVID-19, the coronavirus respiratory disease, since Sept. 8, according to a news release Wednesday.

One individual was tested by Japanese authorities upon arrival in Japan, and three more recent arrivals turned up positive while in restricted movement, the release said. Four became ill and 12 were discovered through contact tracing. Two tested positive before leaving Japan on international travel.

Also Wednesday, two Defense Department schools at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa resumed classes with the end of contact tracing linked to several coronavirus cases over the weekend.

Four classes at the middle school and eight at the high school were canceled Monday and Tuesday, according to messages from their principals posted late Tuesday on the Marine Corps Community Services, School Liaison Officer Facebook page.

More than seven people tested positive at six on-base schools, according to messages sent to parents Sunday. Four of those schools canceled classes, citing ongoing contact tracing and quarantine requirements.

Okinawa prefecture, where Kadena and most of the III Marine Expeditionary Force are located, had another 255 people turn up positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, according to the prefectural Department of Public Health and Medical Care.

Japan on Tuesday reported 6,255 new cases and 65 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Nearly 52% of Japans population, or 65.2 million people, are fully vaccinated.

Stars and Stripes reporter Mari Higa contributed to this report.
Buy Photo Afghan children hold up four fingers during an English lesson led by volunteer teacher Morgan Guinn at Rhine Ordnance Barracks in Kaiserslautern, Germany, Sept. 23, 2021. The Army facility is housing 5,400 evacuees from Afghanistan until flights to the U.S. resume. (Karin Zeitvogel/Stars and Stripes)

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany  The sounds of gleefully screaming children rose from a large tent that had been transformed from a dining hall to a party venue on a fall evening on Rhine Ordnance Barracks.

A DJ spun Afghan and American tunes, a machine spewed out bubbles, disco lights threw off shafts of color, and kids lined up for fresh popcorn and slushies that didnt quite freeze, provided by the USO.

Sgt. Michael Daniels, a lead firefighter with the 23rd Ordnance Company out of Grafenwoehr in Bavaria, who has been working with the 5,400 evacuees at ROB, roused the crowd while DJ Corey Mackey sorted out some electrical and WiFi problems.

I do this because I love the kids and love having the opportunity to share joy with them, Daniels said.

I know they have been through a difficult situation and want to allow them to be kids again, having fun, dancing, he said before marching to the far end of the tent, clapping and shouting, Hey! Lets go! as a group of children followed him.

Buy Photo Afghan children take part in an English class led by volunteer teacher Morgan Guinn at Rhine Ordnance Barracks in Kaiserslautern, Germany, Sept. 23, 2021. (Karin Zeitvogel/Stars and Stripes) Buy Photo An Afghan child runs to English class after being allowed through a makeshift gate on Rhine Ordnance Barracks, Sept. 27, 2021. (Karin Zeitvogel/Stars and Stripes) Buy Photo An Afghan girl writes on a whiteboard during an English lesson at Rhine Ordnance Barracks in Kaiserslautern, Germany, Sept. 23, 2021. (Karin Zeitvogel/Stars and Stripes)

The glee at ROB contrasted sharply with the situation in Afghanistan, where in the six weeks since the Taliban returned to power, music and dancing have been severely limited.

Schools have reopened, but the future of education for girls remains uncertain. Food is so scarce the U.N. and aid agencies are warning that many Afghans could starve when winter comes, and the countrys economy is on the brink of collapse.

Getting out of Afghanistan was very hard  Taliban were everywhere and we had to walk through a canal filled with waste  but now we have opportunities and we are with friends, said an Afghan father who has been at ROB for a month.

Flights from overseas bases to the U.S. were temporarily halted last month after some evacuees were diagnosed with measles. They could resume over the Columbus Day weekend, Lt. Col. Will Powell, spokesman for the 86th Airlift Wing, said in a statement sent to Stars and Stripes.

As the Afghans wait to move on, they are being introduced to aspects of American life  things like popcorn, slushies and different ways of doing things, like teaching.

In Afghanistan, some of the teaching methods are too difficult for kids, said the Afghan father, who worked as an interpreter for U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Army personnel asked that he not be identified to protect family and colleagues still in the country.

But the way the teachers here on ROB teach is the way they teach in the States, so our kids will learn good stuff, he said. And American teachers are so kind. The teachers in Afghanistan, most are very good and kind but some of them beat the kids and shout at them.

Buy Photo An Afghan girl points to another girl's bingo card during a game hosted by American Red Cross volunteers for refugees who are being temporarily housed at Rhine Ordnance Barracks in Kaiserslautern, Germany, Sept. 24, 2021. (Karin Zeitvogel/Stars and Stripes) Buy Photo Volunteer teacher Morgan Guinn, second from right, and one of her Afghan students, Heri, right, lead other evacuee children to an Army tent on Rhine Ordnance Barracks for English lessons, Sept. 23, 2021. (Karin Zeitvogel/Stars and Stripes) Buy Photo An Afghan girl is seen in a screengrab of a video, dancing to music at Rhine Ordnance Barracks in Kaiserslautern, Germany, on Sept. 30, 2021. (Karin Zeitvogel/Stars and Stripes)

Behind him, eager children ran toward two large Army tents where classes are held. In one tent, American Red Cross volunteer Yuki Hwong was introducing the kids to puppet shows and bingo games.

We saw that the kids really needed some play, Hwong said. Were working to help them express their emotions and what theyre going through, to deal with the trauma and stress of their situation.

After the puppet show was over, Morgan Guinn taught the children English, and Faiza Nguyen sang songs and told stories in the tent next door.

Buy Photo English teacher Morgan Guinn, right, works with three Afghan boys during a writing class at Rhine Ordnance Barracks in Kaiserslautern, Germany, Sept. 27, 2021. Volunteers and soldiers have been introducing the 5,400 Afghans who are temporarily housed at ROB to aspects of American life. (Karin Zeitvogel/Stars and Stripes) Buy Photo Volunteer teacher Morgan Guinn, center, leads an English language class for Afghan refugee children at Rhine Ordnance Barracks in Kaiserslautern, Germany, Sept. 23, 2021, with help from Tammy Cortez-Janes, back left. Around 5,400 people who fled Afghanistan after the Taliban took control of the country in August are housed at ROB until flights to the U.S. resume. (Karin Zeitvogel/Stars and Stripes)

Girls sat next to boys, and sometimes outnumbered them. Military cots served as desks or seats. Whiteboards, pens and erasers were handed out at the start of Guinns class and collected at the end, ready for the next students.

The children mimicked Guinns tone and gestures as she taught them to count and write the numbers one through five. Thirteen-year-old Edris helped keep the class under control. He wants to settle in California and become a doctor, he said. Several other teenage boys at ROB said they want to join the U.S. military when they grow up.

In another part of the camp, dozens of men gathered for an English class, taught by an Afghan who had worked as an interpreter for U.S. forces. Separate classes are held for women.

The days lesson focused on pronouns and enriching the mens vocabulary.

We are students, they chanted in unison after their teacher.

We are refugees, they said next, hesitating briefly, as if they didnt fully understand the word or the situation they have found themselves in since fleeing the Taliban more than a month ago.
The 2nd Cavalry Regiment displays national flags and the regimental guidon during a change of responsibility ceremony in 2014 at Rose Barracks in Vilseck, Germany. The U.S. and German flags were stolen from the regiments headquarters overnight between Oct. 3 and Oct. 4, 2021, Army officials said. A Confederate battle flag was found on a flagpole outside and removed upon discovery, officials said. (William Tanner/U.S. Army)

GRAFENWOEHR, Germany  Military police are investigating after a Confederate flag was found flying from a flagpole outside 2nd Cavalry Regiment headquarters Monday and removed upon discovery, Army officials said.

An American flag and a German flag also were stolen from inside the headquarters building in Vilseck sometime between Sunday night and Monday morning by an unknown person, regiment spokesman Maj. John Ambelang said.

The incident at Rose Barracks, which is home to a regiment of about 4,800 soldiers, comes more than a year after the Defense Department effectively banned the Confederate flags and other symbols deemed divisive from public display on military bases.

The regiment takes this misconduct very seriously, Ambelang said in a statement. Should the culprit be identified, the command will take appropriate action after considering all the facts surrounding the incident.

Commanders across the regiment conveyed the seriousness of the situation to soldiers at a morning formation, the statement said.

Neither the theft nor the display of the Confederate battle flag align with the Armys values, Ambelang said.

Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin directed the military to conduct training to address extremism in the ranks. Service members gave the training mixed reviews.

The regiment is working with military police to review base camera footage, Ambelang said. Officials also have asked anyone with information on the incident to contact the Department of Emergency Services on Rose Barracks at +49 966-283-3397.
A view of U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan in Seoul, South Korea. A former medical records administrator there was sentenced to over 12 years in prison for participating in an ID theft scheme that defrauded military members and veterans of more than $1.5 million. ()

A former U.S. Army medical records administrator in South Korea was ordered to serve more than 12 years in prison for his role in an identity theft scheme that targeted military members and their families, including elderly and disabled veterans.

Fredrick Brown, 40, of Las Vegas, was sentenced last week, nearly two years after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to a Justice Department statement.

Brown was also ordered to pay more than $2.3 million in restitution.

The victims, who included eight general officers and numerous disabled veterans, lost more than $1.5 million, according to the Justice Department.

Brown had access to personal identifying information while working as a civilian medical records technician and administrator with the Armys 65th Medical Brigade at Yongsan Garrison in Seoul.

He admitted in court that between July 2014 and September 2015 he stole names, Social Security numbers, military ID numbers, dates of birth and contact information for thousands of service members, civilians, veterans and their families.

He captured the information by taking digital photographs of his computer screen while he was logged into a military electronic health records database, according to court documents.

He provided the stolen data to co-defendant Robert Wayne Boling Jr., a U.S. military dependent raised in South Korea and living in the Philippines who was described in court documents as the schemes ringleader.

Boling and others used the information to access Defense Department and Veterans Affairs benefits sites to steal or attempt to steal millions of dollars in pensions and disability benefits.

They also stole from personal bank accounts, in some cases contacting banks and other financial institutions and posing as military-affiliated individuals, according to court documents.

In July 2020, the Justice Department said Boling and two other foreign co-defendants in the Philippines were still in that country, where measures were being taken to transfer them to the United States for legal proceedings.

The Justice Department statement on Browns sentencing included no update on the efforts to prosecute Boling and the other two defendants who were in the Philippines.

They are charged with conspiracy, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Another co-defendant, Trorice Crawford, 34, of San Diego, was sentenced in 2020 to 46 months in federal prison, according to the Justice Department.

Crawford recruited and supervised people who provided their bank accounts to be used to receive stolen funds, according to court documents.

Jennifer H. Svan
A Marine fires an M249 light machine gun during training at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, Sept. 1, 2017. (Amy Phan/U.S. Marine Corps)

The U.S. Navy awarded a $122 million contract to a Guam-based construction company to build a machine-gun range at Andersen Air Force Base that will support the new Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz.

The new facility will include a multilane, multipurpose gun range, a range control tower, an ammunition distribution point and covered bleachers. The project is expected to be completed in October 2024.

The Navy gave the firm-fixed price contract to Black Construction Corp., based at Harmon, Guam, on Tuesday, according to a news release from Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Pacific.

Blaz commander, Col. Christopher Bopp, called the range a significant step toward completing the installation.

This range will provide critical training capabilities to our forces while ensuring our continued operational readiness to respond to any crisis or contingency in the region, he said in the release.

It will be part a larger complex known as the Mason Live-Fire Training Range at Andersens Northwest Field.

The Navy previously awarded Black Construction a $78 million contract in August 2017 to build four other ranges and supporting facilities for the complex.

The other ranges are for rifles, pistols, non-standard small arms and a modified record fire, a spokeswoman for Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Pacific, Krista Cummins, told Stars and Stripes in an email Friday.

The announcement follows a slew of other projects on Guam recently announced by the Navy as part of the camps ongoing construction. Blaz, activated in October 2020, is the first newly commissioned Marine Corps base since 1952.

The Navy has awarded more than $1 billion in contracts to build barracks, officer quarters and medical and logistics facilities.

Blaz and the associated projects are part of the Defense Policy Review Initiative, a deal between the United States and Japan that includes the relocation of 5,000 members of the III Marine Expeditionary Force from Okinawa to Guam.

Under the deal, Japan is paying $3 billion to build portions of Blaz, while the U.S. is spending another $5.7 billion.
The aircraft carriers USS Ronald Reagan, USS Carl Vinson and HMS Queen Elizabeth join the Japanese helicopter destroyer JS Ise in leading vessels from six nations through the Philippine Sea near Okinawa in this undated photo from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. (JMSDF)

Three aircraft carriers  two American and one British  were among an armada of 17 warships from six countries that trained together over the weekend in the Philippine Sea.

The USS Ronald Reagan, fresh off its deployment to the Middle East, met the USS Carl Vinson and HMS Queen Elizabeth on Saturday southwest of Okinawa, according to a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force news release Monday. They were accompanied by other vessels from the United States, Japan, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Netherlands and Canada.

The training, which included air defense, anti-submarine warfare, tactical maneuvers and communication drills, continued through Sunday, the release said.

Seventh Fleet on Monday referred questions about the exercise to the Hawaii-based U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, which did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

U.S. Navy ships involved in the exercise included the guided-missile destroyers USS Shiloh, USS Chafee, USS The Sullivans and the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain, according to the release. The other nations vessels included destroyers, frigates and replenishment ships.

Photos of the training showed the three carriers, along with the Japans flattop helicopter destroyer JS Ise, leading the 13 other vessels through the sea.

The exercise wrapped up as the Chinese military flew 16 warplanes over waters south of Taiwan, less than 400 nautical miles from Okinawa.

China sent 38 warplanes into the area on Friday and 39 aircraft on Saturday, the most in a single day since Taiwan began releasing reports on flights in September 2020. The flights came in daytime and nighttime sorties.

A statement from U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price warned that Chinas military activity near Taiwan risks miscalculation and undermines regional peace and stability.

We urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic, and economic pressure and coercion against Taiwan, the statement said.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Rear Adm. Gregory Huffman, commander, carrier strike group (CSG) 12, taxis an FA-18E Super Hornet on the runway of Naval Air Station Oceana during an airborne change of command ceremony for Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 8, Sept. 30, 2021. Huffman was the senior officer in attendance at the ceremony where Capt. Joshua A. Sager was relieved by Capt. Dary E. Trent as Commander, CVW-8, during a ceremony attended by family, friends and staff. (Jeff Troutman/U.S. Navy)

(Tribune News Service)  The radio call boomed out over Naval Air Station Oceana as the two F/A-18 Super Hornets and the E-2D Hawkeye roared by:

DT, you have the lead, on the right, from the F/A-18 at the front of the triangle of planes. as Capt. Joshua Sager pulled his plane up.

LT, Ive got the lead, said Capt. Daryl Trent, in the E-2D Hawkeye.

And with that, the kid who enlisted in Navy fresh out of Monacan High School in the Richmond suburbs, more interested in cars than college, took command of the air wing attached to the Navys newest carrier, USS Gerald R Ford.

Ive heard a lot of people say, theres no possibility for me ... I want to say, there is no ceiling, the only thing that holds you back is you, Trent said.

Ive been told no plenty of times, but I kept trying, he said.

But hes also been told he could find the place he dreamed of as a young sailor minding the radar and identification-friend-or-foe systems in the combat information center of the destroyer USS Arleigh Burke  a place on an E-2D as it leads Navy fighters into harms away above the skies of Iraq three decades ago.

I was an OS (operations specialist) on air intercept. We were the gatekeepers, we did the red crown check as they took off, before the E2 took over, and we picked them up and IDed them, friendly or not, when they came back, he said. And I wanted to fly with them when they were over Iraq.

Back in Norfolk, his new wife, a Navy nurse, had told him he should try a college course  taking a literature class would be a different experience for a sailor three years into his first hitch than it would be for the gearhead high schooler who enlisted in the Navy.

On Arleigh Burke, his department head saw something in the young sailor, already scrambling for his surface warfare specialist qualification that looked a lot like commissioned officer material.

A leader is looking out for everybody, and I promise you, if you look out for them, theyll look out for you, as Trent told the sailors of Carrier Air Wing 8 after that flying change of command ceremony.

He kept taking classes over the half-dozen years after that first literature class, eventually earning an associates degree. He pushed for additional Navy certifications for specific shipboard functions, too. And in addition to pushing ahead of schedule for promotion to Petty Officer 1st Class, he put in for the handful of slots that opened up every year for enlisted sailors hoping to earn a commission.

After two rejections, he won a chance to go to the grueling Officer Candidate School in Rhode Island. He made it through. Then, 29, he won a place at flight school.

I dreamed of flying off a carrier back in high school, but figured I couldnt if I didnt go to college, and I am now just putting on a flight suit at 29 and I am thrilled, he said.

Qualified as a Naval Flight Officer, he won promotions to serve as commanding officer of VAW-125, a Norfolk-based E-2D squadron and battle director at the 609th Combined Air and Space Operations Center in Qatar.

Now, as commanding officer of Carrier Air Wing 8, he leads the pilots and sailors who fly off the the Ford, and who have been busy perfecting operations with nearly two dozen new systems on the first of its class carrier, setting standards that will shape Navy air operations for decades to come.

The air wing consists of six aircraft squadrons flying FA-18E/F Super Hornets, E-2D Advanced Hawkeyes, and MH-60R/S Seahawk helicopters. More than 1,500 personnel are assigned to it.

You know, their average age is 20, 21. Were asking them to taxi planes that cost $80 million each  an E-2D costs $200 million and theyre in there taking things apart and fixing them, he said. When youve got a plane captain, an enlisted sailor whos maybe 20, 21, telling a pilot that his plane is checked out and ready to fly, theres a lot of trust involved.

Trent said demands on enlisted sailors have grown over the 33 years hes been in the Navy. But he also knows some things havent changed.

I know what its like to haul out trash, clean the head (a ships toilet) or wax the deck and I know what its like to tell somebody to do that, he said.

And I tell sailors: we dont do anything alone in the military.

dress@dailypress.com

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Buy Photo The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier arrives for a port call at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021. Billing related to a 2015 visit by the aircraft carrier to Manama is mentioned in recently unsealed court documents. (Daniel Betancourt/Stars and Stripes)

US Navy hit by another international bribery scandal

Federal agents are investigating a new U.S. Navy corruption case that has strong echoes of the Fat Leonard scandal, with a defense contractor facing accusations that he delivered cash bribes and bilked the Navy out of at least $50 million to service its ships in foreign ports, according to recently unsealed court records.

The Justice Department is trying to extradite the contractor  Frank Rafaraci, chief executive of Multinational Logistics Services, or MLS  from Malta, the Mediterranean island where he was arrested last week after an international manhunt.

Rafaraci, 68, is a dual U.S.-Italian citizen who splits his time between the United Arab Emirates and Sicily. Since 2010, the Navy and federal agencies have awarded MLS about $1.3 billion in contracts to resupply and refuel U.S. warships in the Middle East, Asia and other regions.

According to an arrest warrant unsealed last week in U.S. District Court in Washington, Rafaraci and MLS defrauded the Navy of at least $50 million by inflating invoices for port services between 2011 and 2018.

In one instance, when the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson visited Manama, capital of the Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain, in January 2015, MLS billed the Navy for more than $231,000 in "port authority fees," even though the Manama port authority charged only $12,686, the court documents show.

Federal authorities are also seeking Rafaraci's extradition on suspicion of money laundering and bribery. The arrest warrant alleges that he met with an unnamed U.S. Navy official at the Diplomat Hotel in Manama in August 2015, handed over an envelope stuffed with $20,000 in cash and told the official to "keep up the good work."

Three years later, at a Miami hotel, Rafaraci passed another envelope to the same U.S. official that contained $13,500, according to the arrest warrant.

The unnamed U.S. Navy official served for several years as a liaison officer in Bahrain before taking a job with the U.S. Army. Court papers show that the official pleaded guilty in June to a bribery charge in U.S. District Court in Washington and agreed to become a cooperating witness for the government. His identity and his criminal case file remain under seal.

In many ways, the allegations against Rafaraci and MLS mirror the "Fat Leonard" corruption scandal that has rocked the Navy since 2013.

In that case, a rotund Malaysian defense contractor, Leonard Glenn Francis, pleaded guilty to bribing scores of Navy officials with cash, prostitutes, extravagant meals and other favors so he could overcharge the Navy for port services in Asia. Several hundred Navy officials came under investigation, and 27 people have pleaded guilty in federal court to corruption-related charges. Seven more defendants - all current or retired Navy officers  are scheduled to go on trial in San Diego in February.

Navy officials pledged to clean up their contracting processes in response to the Fat Leonard scandal, but the case against Rafaraci alleges that corruption persists.

MLS took over numerous U.S. government contracts that had been handled by Francis's Singapore-based firm, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, and became the largest provider of port services to the Navy in the world. It operates throughout Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe. The Navy relies on private contractors to supply fresh water, fuel, food, security, tugboats, barges and other equipment and services in foreign ports.

The Navy suspended MLS and Rafaraci on Friday from doing future business with any federal agency, though they will be allowed to fulfill their current contracts with the Navy, according to Cmdr. Courtney Hillson, a spokeswoman for the branch. The Navy "expects all individuals and companies with whom it conducts business to act with the highest degree of integrity and to have effective standards of conduct," she said.

Hillson said agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) uncovered the alleged wrongdoing and "have been actively coordinating with other law-enforcement authorities around the globe."

An investigator from the Fat Leonard case  DCIS agent Cordell "Trey" DeLaPena  is also a lead agent in the MLS matter, court records show.

It can be difficult to extradite international defense contractors to the United States. Francis, a Malaysian citizen, was arrested in a sting operation in 2013 after NCIS and DCIS agents lured him to San Diego on the pretense of meeting with Navy admirals to discuss expanded business opportunities. He had been under criminal investigation for several years, and federal authorities at one point considered capturing him aboard a U.S. Navy warship in Singapore and bringing him to the United States against his will.

Rafaraci lives primarily in Dubai, but the United States does not have an extradition treaty with the United Arab Emirates.

Federal agents had been tracking his movements and learned last month that he was planning a brief visit to Malta, where MLS is headquartered. He arrived in Malta on Sept. 26 and was arrested hours later by local authorities at a hotel in St. Julian's, a town on the east coast near the capital, Valletta.

Since then, efforts by Maltese and U.S. officials to keep him in custody have gone awry. At Rafaraci's initial court appearance, on Sept. 27, a Maltese magistrate ruled that the businessman could remain free while his extradition proceedings unfold.

Prosecutors had argued that he should remain in detention because he posed a flight risk. But Rafaraci's attorneys successfully challenged the legitimacy of the arrest warrant, saying that U.S. and Maltese officials had not followed proper legal procedures, according to news reports in the Times of Malta and other local publications.

Rafaraci is scheduled to have another court hearing Monday. One of his attorneys, Stefano Filletti, did not respond to emails Sunday seeking comment.

Unlike Francis, a flamboyant figure who flaunted his wealth and loved to entertain Navy admirals at parties and Michelin-starred restaurants, Rafaraci maintains a low public profile.

He is scarcely mentioned on his company's website except for a page detailing MLS's code of business ethics. Under the code, Rafaraci pledges that he and his company will follow "individual conscience, common sense, good judgment and compliance with governmental laws and regulations."

In an affidavit filed in support of the arrest warrant, DeLaPena accused Rafaraci of using a network of shell companies to launder money obtained illicitly so he could evade U.S. income taxes. Rafaraci code-named the scheme "Keep Going" and used it to transfer funds from corporate accounts in Malta and Britain to a shell company in the United Arab Emirates, court records show.

The affidavit also accused Rafaraci of conspiring with MLS's chairman to commit bribery. Though the individual was not identified by name, the chairman of the company is listed publicly as Thomas Rafaraci, Frank's brother.
A health care worker administers a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine at a mass vaccination site at The Forum arena in Inglewood, Calif., on Feb. 26, 2021. (Eric Thayer/Bloomberg)

WASHINGTON  All Defense Department civilian employees must be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by Nov. 22, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said in a memorandum issued Monday.

While seven weeks remain until the deadline, Defense Department employees only have until Nov. 8 to receive their final shots. The Pentagon does not consider a person fully vaccinated until two weeks after the last shot in the series is administered.

Two available vaccines  by Moderna and Pfizer  require two shots. Those receiving the Moderna shot must receive their first dose by Oct. 11, and Pfizer recipients by Oct. 18 to be ready for the second dose by Nov. 8.

The Johnson & Johnson shot requires a single dose, which can be taken any time before Nov. 8.

Hicks memo did not say what would happen if personnel refuse the shots, but she noted that more guidance is forthcoming, including on possible exemptions for Defense Department employees for medical or religious reasons.

While the vaccinations are given at many public pharmacies and clinics, Defense Department civilian employees are also eligible to receive the shots at any military vaccination site, including military hospitals typically reserved only for troops and their families.

The Pentagon guidance comes after President Joe Biden on Sept. 9 ordered all federal agencies to require their employees get the vaccine to ensure the health and safety of the federal workforce and members of the public with whom they interact, according to the memo.

Since the start of the pandemic, 321 Defense Department civilians and 58 service members have died from the coronavirus, according to the DOD, which does not break down the numbers by service.

Once vaccinated, personnel must be prepared to provide a copy of their vaccine record to their employers, though Defense Department procedures to verify vaccination status have not yet been announced.

Vaccinating DOD civilian employees against [the coronavirus] will save lives and allow for the defense of our nation, Hicks said in the memo.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin required the vaccine for all service members on Aug. 24, one day after the Food and Drug Administration gave full approval to the Pfizer shot. The service branches have set individual vaccination deadlines for their troops.

Active-duty soldiers have until Dec. 15 to become fully vaccinated, and Reserve and National Guard units have until June 30, 2022, the Army announced Sept. 14.

Active-duty airmen and Space Force guardians must be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by Nov. 2, Air Force officials announced Sept. 3. Air Force reservists and Guard troops have until Dec. 2 to meet the requirement.

Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro on Aug. 30 ordered active-duty sailors and Marines get the vaccine by Nov. 28 and reservists by Dec. 28.
Buy Photo American and Japanese students work on a project during a cultural-exchange camp at Matthew C. Perry High School on Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021. (Jonathan Snyder/Stars and Stripes)

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan  Thirty American and Japanese students gathered at this base near Hiroshima over the weekend for a cultural immersion program designed to help them grow as global thinkers.

Two-day Global Friendship Camps are taking place at several U.S. military bases in Japan, the Department of Defense Education Activity announced last month. They involve hands-on activities that aim to develop problem-solving skills, encourage a diverse perspective on the world and sensitivity to accept others differences.

At MCAS Iwakunis camp on Saturday and Sunday at Matthew C. Perry High School, students taught each other greetings in their native languages before working in teams to design and create artworks representing the friendship between the United States and Japan.

One group incorporated a white snake, which is native to the Iwakuni area and is considered to bring good fortune. It was included with the American and Japanese flags drawn into the shape of a heart.

It can be very nerve-racking at first to talk with people, but once you do its just like talking with anyone else, ninth-grader Teresa Taylor, 14, told Stars and Stripes on Sunday. There is a little bit of a language barrier, but we work towards a middle ground. I learned how to get out of my shell, and I also learned more about Iwakuni from a different perspective.

Buy Photo American and Japanese students present their project during a cultural-exchange camp at Matthew C. Perry High School on Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021. (Jonathan Snyder/Stars and Stripes)

The students were also given free time to talk and interact.

One of the things Ive enjoyed watching most about this is the unstructured activities, where the students are exchanging social media contacts and just engaging in play by themselves without scripting and just building those relationships with high-fiving and cheering each other on, M.C. Perrys principal Latressa Renee Cobb, told Stars and Stripes on Sunday. Its a great partnership we see developing over the two days.

The event ended Sunday with a ceremony where students received awards for their projects from Iwakuni city major Yoshihiko Fukuda, MCAS Iwakuni commander Col. Lance Lewis and DODEA-Pacific chief of staff Todd Schlitz.

Upcoming camps are slated for Oct. 23-25 and Feb. 5-6 at Sasebo Naval Base; Nov. 6-7 at MCAS Iwakuni; Dec. 4-5 at Misawa Air Base; and Jan. 22-23 at Yokosuka Naval Base.

Middle and high school students can apply for the program, and the Japanese students, who must have some English-speaking ability, are chosen from schools near the bases that are hosting the event.
Fumio Kishida, center, is applauded after being elected as Japan's prime minister at the parliament's lower house Monday, Oct. 4, 2021, in Tokyo. (Eugene Hoshiko/AP)

TOKYO  Japans parliament on Monday elected Fumio Kishida as the new prime minister, who will tasked with quickly tackling the pandemic and security challenges before an imminent national election.

Kishida replaces Yoshihide Suga, who resigned with his Cabinet earlier in the day. Kishida and his Cabinet will be sworn in at a palace ceremony later Monday.

Suga left after only one year in office after seeing his support plunge over his government's handling of the pandemic and insistence on holding the Olympics as the virus spread.

A former foreign minister, Kishida, 64, used to be known as a dovish moderate but turned hawkish apparently to win over influential conservatives in the party. He is firmly entrenched in the conservative establishment and his victory in the party election was a choice for continuity and stability over change.

All but two of 20 Cabinet posts under Suga will be replaced, 13 them appointed to ministerial posts for the first time, Japanese media reported. Most of the posts went to powerful factions that voted for Kishida in the party election. Only three women are reportedly included, up from two in Sugas government.

Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi are to be retained, ensuring continuity of Japans diplomacy and security policies as the country seeks to closely work with Washington under the bilateral security pact in the face of Chinas rise and growing tensions in the region, including around Taiwan.

Kishida supports stronger Japan-U.S. security ties and partnerships with other like-minded democracies in Asia, Europe and Britain, in part to counter China and nuclear-armed North Korea.

Kishida is to create a new Cabinet post aimed at tackling economic dimensions of Japan's national security, appointing 46-year-old Takayuki Kobayashi, who is relatively new to parliament.

Japan faces growing nuclear and missile threats from North Korea, which last month test-fired ballistic missiles capable of hitting targets in Japan. Kishida also faces worsening ties with fellow U.S. ally South Korea over history issues even after he struck a 2015 agreement with Seoul to resolve a row over the issue of women who were sexually abused by Japan's military during World War II.

An urgent task at home will be turning around his partys sagging popularity, hurt by Sugas perceived high-handedness on the pandemic and other issues. Kishida is expected to make a policy speech later this week before dissolving the lower house of Parliament ahead of the general election expected by mid-November.

He'll also have to ensure Japan's health care systems, vaccination campaign and other virus measures are ready for a possible resurgence of COVID-19 in winter, while gradually normalizing social and economic activity.

Kishida said last week that his top priority would be the economy. Kishidas new capitalism is largely a continuation of Abes economic policies. He aims to raise income of more people and create a cycle of growth and distribution.

A third-generation politician, Kishida was first elected to Parliament in 1993 representing Hiroshima and is an advocate for nuclear disarmament. He escorted former President Barack Obama during his 2016 visit to the city that, along with Nagasaki, was destroyed in U.S. atomic bombings in the closing days of World War II.
Buy Photo The guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson arrives at its new homeport, Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. (Daniel Betancourt/Stars and Stripes)

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan  The USS Ralph Johnson steamed into Yokosuka on Monday, completing a nearly three-week journey from the United States to its new homeport in Japan.

The guided-missile destroyer arrived at 10 a.m. with more than 100 sailors manning the rails and working the decks. It departed its former home, Naval Station Everett in Washington state, on Sept. 15.

"Ralph Johnson comes over as one of the newest and most capable destroyers in the U.S. Navy," Capt. Chase Sargeant, commander of Destroyer Squadron 15, said in a Navy new release. "The addition of Ralph Johnson demonstrates our unwavering commitment to maintain maritime security in the Indo-Pacific alongside our alliances and partnerships."

The ship is replacing the USS Mustin, which departed Yokosuka for San Diego in June.

Commissioned in March 2018, the Ralph Johnson boasts one of the newest versions of the Aegis Combat System. Those ballistic-missile defense capabilities can make significant contributions to the 7th Fleet, according to executive officer Cmdr. Isaiah Infante.

Buy Photo The guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson arrives at its new homeport, Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. (Daniel Betancourt/Stars and Stripes)

It has the upgraded baseline, which obviously has different capabilities when it comes to missile defense, he told Stars and Stripes on Monday.

The Baseline 9 system, launched in 2015, features remote launching capabilities, improved target identification and better performance against more advanced threats, according to a Sept. 30 report from the Congressional Research Service.

The USS Rafael Peralta, which joined 7th Fleet in February, is also equipped with the Baseline 9 system.

The Ralph Johnson arrives in the wake of a series of North Korean missile tests over the past few weeks, the most recent of which launched on Sept. 30. Those weapons include short-rage hypersonic, long-range cruise and anti-aircraft missiles.

En route to Yokosuka, the Ralph Johnsons crew received a crash course in Western Pacific weather while navigating around Typhoon Mindulle.

Thats just part of working out here in the 7th Fleet area of operations, Infante said.

Now that theyve safely arrived, Infante said the crew is looking forward to learning more about the area.

Were happy to be here, and were looking forward to getting to know our new home, he said.
Iran said its demand that the U.S. unblocks $10 billion in trapped Iranian oil funds is one example of how Washington could generate goodwill and enable a resumption of big-power talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.

The U.S. can show that its changing its actions in many ways. Releasing $10 billion of our money is just one example, Saeed Khatibzadeh, Irans Foreign Ministry spokesman, told reporters. His comments appeared to be an attempt to modify a statement made over the weekend by Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian.

Speaking on Iranian state TV on Saturday, Amirabdollahian said hed told U.S. officials via intermediaries at a recent summit at the United Nations that they should release at least $10 billion in oil remittances that are frozen in Irans foreign accounts in order for international negotiations over the nuclear agreement to resume.

Over the months that Biden has been power, not only has the U.S. not changed at all, but its actually continuing Trumps course, Khatibzadeh said, referring to former U.S. President Donald Trump who abandoned the nuclear deal in 2018 before imposing severe sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

The months-long delay in resuming atomic talks has raised questions about Irans intentions to revive the nuclear accord after the government of former President Hassan Rouhani, who championed the agreement, was replaced by a much more hard-line administration. The stalling also means that its unlikely that Iranian oil will return to markets before the end of the year.

Though the U.S. hadnt yet commented on Tehrans latest overtures, Germany, one of the nuclear deals signatories, rejected the idea of Iran tying new preconditions to the negotiations, and urged the Iranian government to rejoin the talks as soon as possible. The deal jettisoned by Trump capped Irans nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.

If new demands surface from Iran for restarting talks, then we reject that, Foreign Ministry spokesman Christofer Burger said on Monday. Germany wants the talks in Vienna to pickup from where they were halted in June, when hard-line cleric Ebrahim Raisi was elected president of Iran.

Iran has billions of dollars, mostly payments for oil exports, trapped abroad as a result of U.S. sanctions.

Raisis election marked a dramatic shift in Tehran to a more hard-line stance on the nuclear deal and relations with the U.S.

Amirabdollahian said on Saturday that Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani, a vocal critic of the deal with staunchly anti-Western views, would lead the nuclear negotiations when they resume.
Taliban fighters patrol a neighborhood in search for a man accused in a stabbing incident, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021. (Felipe Dana/AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan  It wasn't 7 a.m. yet and already the line outside the police station's gates was long, with men bringing their complaints and demands for justice to Afghanistan's new Taliban rulers.

Something new they immediately found: The Taliban fighters who are now the policemen don't demand bribes like police officers did under the U.S-backed government of the past 20 years.

"Before, everyone was stealing our money," said Hajj Ahmad Khan, who was among those in line at the Kabul District 8 police station on a recent day. "Everywhere in our villages and in government offices, everyone had their hands out," he said.

Many Afghans fear the harsh ways of the Taliban, their hard-line ideology or their severe restrictions of women's freedoms. But the movement does bring a reputation for not being corrupt, a stark contrast to the government it ousted, which was notoriously rife with bribery, embezzlement and graft.

Even residents who shudder at the potential return of punishments - such as chopping off the hands of thieves - say some security has returned to Kabul since the Taliban swept in on Aug. 15. Under the previous government, gangs of thieves had driven most people off the streets by dark. Several roads between cities are again open and have even been given the green light for travel by some international aid organizations.

Still, there are dangers. On Sunday, a bomb outside Kabul's Eid Gah mosque killed several civilians and targeted Taliban members attending a memorial service. No one took responsibility for the bombing but the rival Islamic State group has ramped up attacks against the Taliban in an IS stronghold in eastern Afghanistan.

During their last time in power in the late 1990s, the Taliban offered a trade-off: They brought a stability Afghans desperately sought and eliminated corruption, but they also imposed their harsh interpretation of Islamic law. That included punishments like the hand amputations, executions of murderers with a single bullet to the head, most often by a relative of the murder victim and all carried out in public. Religious police beat men for trimming their beards or for not attending prayers.

In the past week, the Taliban arrested 85 alleged criminals, some accused of petty crimes, and others of murder, kidnapping and robbery, said Noor Ahmad Rabbani of the Taliban's anti-crime department.

The Taliban say they will bring back their previous punishments. The only question is whether they will carry them out publicly, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, former justice minister and current official in charge of prisons, told The Associated Press.

Some punishments have already reappeared. The bodies of four men were hung from cranes in the center of the city of Herat, after being killed by Taliban while allegedly attempting a kidnapping. On at least two occasions in Kabul, petty thieves were paraded around the streets to shame them, handcuffed, with their faces painted or with stale bread stuffed in their mouths.

Gun-toting Taliban have taken up positions at checkpoints across Kabul and gradually some have been made to wear uniforms -- the beginnings of a new national security force, officials say. For many Kabul residents -- particularly the young who grew up on horror stories about the previous period of Taliban rule -- the sight of the fighters is frightening as they roam the streets freely, with their signature long hair, traditional dress and Kalashnikov rifles hanging by their sides.

But so far, they appear to have brought relief from corruption. Before the Taliban takeover in August, people had to pay bribes simply to settle a utility bill. Rampant fraud in the military was one reason it collapsed so quickly in the face of the advancing Taliban. Despite the overt graft, the U.S. and Europe poured billions of dollars into the government with little oversight.

As in the past, the Taliban have turned to tribal elders to settle disputes. Last week, a group of elders gathered in a Kabul mosque to adjudicate a stabbing attack that caused minor injuries. The elders ordered the culprit's father to pay the victim the equivalent of nearly $400, enough to cover the medical expenses.

Muhammed Yousef Jawid accepted his punishment.

"It's fast, and much less expensive than it was under the previous system," he said.

At the District 8 police station, the new commander, an affable Taliban named Zabihullah, said the Taliban had fought for 20 years to bring Islamic laws to Afghanistan. "Now people are safe under our government," he said.

Zabihullah, who like many Afghans goes by one name, is from central Ghazni province, where the insurgents waged some of their most bitter battles during the last two decades.

At 32, he said he hasn't trained to be a police commander, with most of his education at a madrassa, or religious school. But Zabihullah said his years at war and adherence to the Taliban interpretation of Islamic law had prepared him.

Outside the police station gates, the line was getting longer.

Sixty-year-old Khan had come from eastern Khost province to seek Taliban help in collecting an outstanding loan. He said he supported Taliban punishments like amputations, though not for petty thieves.

He said they have brought some security "because they treat the criminal under Islamic law."

A school principal, who didn't want to give his name fearing repercussions, had come to the police station to complain about parents who are months behind on school fees.

He said he wanted to give Taliban rule a chance. Under the previous government, he was charged bribes each time he went to the police to complain about delinquent payments.

"America invested lots of money in Afghanistan, but it was a mafia that was running the country," he said.

Another complainant, who gave his name only as Dr. Sharif, had returned recently from Saudi Arabia where he had worked for several years. He had no objection to Taliban-style punishments but argued strenuously against putting Taliban leaders and religious clerics in charge of government departments.

"We need professional people ... we need economic specialists, not a maulvi who has no idea about business," he said, using a word for a Muslim cleric.

Still, he welcomed having his complaint heard without any demand for a bribe from the Taliban police. Before, police demanded a bribe just to get into the station.

"The mistake of the past governments," he said, "was that they put all the money into their pockets."

Associated Press Writer Samya Kullab in Kabul contributed to this report.
Dr. Vincent Shaw poses for a portrait in Baton Rouge, La., Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021. He commonly hears patients tell him they havent done enough research on the COVID-19 vaccines. Rest assured, he tells them, the vaccine developers have done their homework. (Dorthy Ray/AP)

The COVID-19 patients health was deteriorating quickly at a Michigan hospital, but he was having none of the doctors diagnosis. Despite dangerously low oxygen levels, the unvaccinated man didnt think he was that sick and got so irate over a hospital policy forbidding his wife from being at his bedside that he threatened to walk out of the building.

Dr. Matthew Trunsky didnt hold back in his response: You are welcome to leave, but you will be dead before you get to your car, he said.

Such exchanges have become all-too-common for medical workers who are growing weary of COVID-19 denial and misinformation that have made it exasperating to treat unvaccinated patients during the delta-driven surge.

The Associated Press asked six doctors from across the country to describe the types of misinformation and denial they see on a daily basis and how they respond to it.

They describe being aggravated at the constant requests to be prescribed the veterinary parasite drug Ivermectin, with patients lashing out at doctors when they are told that its not a safe coronavirus treatment. An Illinois family practice doctor has patients tell him that microchips are embedded in vaccines as part of a ploy to take over peoples DNA. A Louisiana doctor has resorted to showing patients a list of ingredients in Twinkies, reminding those who are skeptical about the makeup of vaccines that everyday products have lots of safe additives that no one really understands.

Here are their stories:

LOUISIANA DOCTOR: Just stop looking at Facebook

When patients tell Dr. Vincent Shaw that they dont want the COVID-19 vaccine because they dont know whats going into their bodies, he pulls up the ingredient list for a Twinkie.

Look at the back of the package, Shaw, a family physician in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Tell me you can pronounce everything on the back of that package. Because I have a chemistry degree, I still dont know what that is.

He also commonly hears patients tell him they havent done enough research about the vaccines. Rest assured, he tells them, the vaccine developers have done their homework.

Then there are the fringe explanations: Theyre putting a tracker in and it makes me magnetic.

Another explanation left him speechless: The patient couldnt understand why they were given this for free, because humanity in and of itself is not nice and people arent nice and nobody would give anything away. So theres no such thing as inherent good nature of man. And I had no comeback from that.

People who get sick with mild cases insist that they have natural immunity. No, youre not a Superman or Superwoman, he tells them.

He said one of the biggest issues is social media, as evidenced by the many patients who describe what they saw on Facebook in deciding against getting vaccinated. That mindset has spawned memes about the many Americans who got their degrees at the University of Facebook School of Medicine.

I am like, No, no, no, no, no. I shake my head, No, no. That is not right, no, no. Stop, stop, just stop looking at Facebook.

DALLAS ER DOCTOR: Baffled at how hes lost all credibility with anti-vaccine patients

Dr. Stu Coffman has patients tell him they are scared about vaccine side effects. They dont trust the regulatory approval process and raise disproven concerns that the vaccine will harm their fertility. He said the most unexpected thing someone told him was that there was actually poison in the mRNA vaccine  a baseless rumor that originated online.

He is confounded by the pushback.

If youve got a gunshot wound or stab wound or youre having a heart attack, you want to see me in the emergency department, he said. But as soon as we start talking about a vaccine, all of a sudden Ive lost all credibility.

He said the key to overcoming hesitancy is to figure out where it originates. He said when people come to him with concerns about fertility, he can point to specific research showing that the vaccine is safe and their issues are unfounded.

But he says theres no hope in changing the minds of people who think the vaccines are laced with poison. Im probably not going to be able to show you anything that convinces you otherwise.

And he thinks he could change peoples minds about the vaccine if they could follow him around for a shift as he walks past the beds of the sick and dying, almost all of whom are unvaccinated.

KENTUCKY: Political views come into clear focus after diagnosis

Dr. Ryan Stanton recently had a patient who began their conversation by saying, Im not afraid of any China virus. From that point on, he knew what he was up against in dealing with the patients politics and misguided beliefs about the virus.

Stanton blamed people like far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for spreading some of the misinformation that has taken root among his patients. Among them is that the vaccine contains fetal cells. Another said it is a simple fact that the vaccine has killed millions.

In fact, he said, that couldnt be more wrong.

Its tough to watch, especially after living through the early surges. On his worst shift last fall, an elderly nursing home patient arrived, close to death. She hadnt seen her family in months, so staff wheeled her outside in the ambulance bay so her relatives could say their goodbyes from 20 feet away. He snapped a picture of the scene so he could remember the horror.

There was hope after the vaccines arrived, but then came the delta variant and a slowdown in immunizations.

Really it amazes me the number of people who have this huge fear, conspiracy theory about vaccines and will honest to God try anything, including a veterinary medicine, to get better, said Stanton.

MICHIGAN PULMONOLOGIST: Facebook post unleashes his frustration

For Trunsky, the vaccine pushback grew so intense that he turned to Facebook to describe the ire he confronts on a daily basis at his hospital in Troy, Michigan. The post listed eight encounters he had in the two previous days alone in which COVID-19 patients explained misinformation-fueled reasons for not getting vaccines or made demands for unproven treatments.

Example No. 5 was a patient who said hed rather die than take the vaccine. Trunskys response: You may get your wish.

He has heard a litany of misinformation about the vaccine: They say its not proven and only experimental when in fact it is not. Others tell him the vaccine is a personal choice and that the government shouldnt tell me what to do. He also has heard patients tell them they are too sick and didnt want to risk the side effects of the vaccine. One young mother told him she wasnt vaccinated because she was breastfeeding, although her pediatrician and obstetrician urged her it was safe. She had to be hospitalized but eventually got a shot.

Others, though, take out their anger on health care providers. Some threaten to call attorneys if they dont get a prescription for Ivermectin, commonly used by veterinarians to kill worms and parasites. The drug can cause harmful side effects and theres little evidence it helps with the coronavirus.

He estimates that he has cared for 100 patients who have died since the pandemic began, including the man who threatened to walk out of the hospital.

ILLINOIS FAMILY PHYSICIAN: Traces misinformation back to Scripture, Nicki Minaj

Dr. Carl Lambert hears lots of wild misinformation from his patients. Some comes from the Bible interpretations; some originates from the rapper Nicki Minaj.

Some of it is the stuff of internet conspiracy theories, like theres a chip in the vaccine that will take over their DNA.

Impossible scientifically, says the family physician in Chicago. He also hears patients tell him that the vaccine will weaken their immune systems. He responds: Immunology 101. Vaccines help your immune system.

Recently he received a flurry of messages from patients who were worried about damage to their testicles  a rumor he ultimately traced back to an erroneous tweet from Minaj alleging that the vaccine causes impotence.

And I was like, Thats outlandish. Thats a bit outrageous. So a lot of just kind of counseling that I did not expect to have to do.

Some of the misinformation is delivered from the pulpit, he said. People have sent him sermons of preachers saying the vaccine is ungodly or theres something in it that will mark you, a reference to a verse in Revelation about the mark of the beast that some Christians cite in not getting vaccinated.

Theres a mixture of like almost fear ... and saying, Hey, if you do this, maybe youre not as faithful as you should be as, say, a Christian.

Most common, though, is patients just wanting to wait, uneasy with how quickly the vaccine was developed. But he warns them, Please do not try to wait out a pandemic. A pandemic will win.

He said his job is a lot of just dismantling what people have heard, answering their questions and reassuring them that vaccines work like this just like when we were kids.

He has had some luck lately in changing minds. Ive had patients that maybe four months ago said You are wasting your time. Dr. Lambert, I dont want to hear you talking about it. And theyll come back and say, Hey, you know what? Ive been watching the news. Ive seen some stuff. I think Im ready now.

UTAH DOCTOR: Fear of vaccine side effects, then fear of dying

When Dr. Elizabeth Middleton talks to COVID-19 patients about why they arent vaccinated, they often cite fear of side effects. But as they get sicker and sicker, a different sort of fear sets in.

They sort of have this sinking look about them, like Oh, my God. This is happening to me. I should have been vaccinated, said the pulmonary critical care doctor at the University of Utah hospital in Salt Lake City.

She hears often that the vaccine was developed too quickly. Who are you to judge the speed of science? she wonders.

Also frustrating is the idea among some patients that there is a secret agenda behind getting vaccinated.

There must be something wrong if everyone is forcing us to do this or everyone wants us to do this, patients tell her. And my response to that is, They are urging you to do it because we are in an emergency. This is a pandemic. It is a national and international crisis. That is why we are pushing it.

Getting through to patients and their families is a delicate line, she says. She tries not to disrupt the patient-doctor relationship by pushing vaccines too hard. But often the people who have been on ventilators need no convincing.

They are like, Tell everyone that they have to be vaccinated. I want to call my family. They need to be vaccinated.
Oil is shown washed up in Huntington Beach, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021. (Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP)

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.  Officials investigating one of Californias largest recent oil spills are looking into whether a ships anchor may have struck an oil pipeline on the ocean floor, causing heavy crude to leak into coastal waters and foul beaches, authorities said Monday.

The head of the company that operates the pipeline said company divers were inspecting the area of the suspected leak that was discovered Saturday, and he expected that by Tuesday there would be a clearer of what caused the damage.

A anchor from a cargo ship striking the pipeline is one of the distinct possibilities behind the leak, Amplify Energy CEO Martyn Willsher told a news conference. He said divers have examined more than 8,000 feet (2,438 meters) of the pipeline and were focusing on one area of significant interest.

Cargo ships entering the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach routinely pass through the area, Coast Guard officials said. Backlogs have plagued the ports in recent months and several dozen or more of the giant vessels have regularly been anchored as they wait to enter the ports and unload.

Were looking into if it could have been an anchor from a ship, but thats in the assessment phase right now, Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Jeannie Shaye said.

The spill sent up to 126,000 gallons of heavy crude into the ocean, contaminating the sands of famed Huntington Beach and other coastal communities. The spill could keep beaches closed for weeks or longer.

The Orange County district attorney, Todd Spitzer, said he has investigators looking into whether he can bring state charges for the spill even though the leak occurred in waters overseen by the U.S. government.

Spitzer also said Amplifys divers should not be allowed near the pipeline without an independent authority alongside them.

Other potential criminal investigations were being pursued by the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Central District of California, the Coast Guard and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, officials said.

Safety advocates have pushed for years for federal rules that would strengthen oil spill detection requirements and force companies to install valves that can automatically shut down the flow of crude in case of a leak. The oil and pipeline industries have resisted such requirements because of the high cost.

If the operator had more valves installed on this line, theyd have a much better chance at having the point of failure isolated by now, said Bill Caram with the Pipeline Safety Trust, an organization based in Bellingham, Washington.

The pipeline was built using a process known as electric resistance weld, according to a regulatory filing from the company. That welding process has been linked to past oil pipeline failures because corrosion can occur along seams, according to government safety advisories and Pipeline Safety Trust Director Bill Caram.

Annual reports filed with federal regulators in 2019 and 2020 showed inspections for the inside and outside of the pipe revealed nothing requiring repairs.

On Sunday as the extent of the spill was being revealed environmentalists had feared the oil might devastate birds and marine life in the area. But Michael Ziccardi, a veterinarian and director of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network, said only four oily birds had been found so far. One suffered chronic injuries and had to be euthanized, he said.

Its much better than we had feared, he said at a news conference Monday.

Ziccardi said hes cautiously optimistic, but its too soon to know the extent of the spills effect on wildlife. In other offshore oil spills, the largest number of oiled birds have been collected two to five days after the incident, he said.

Amplify operates three oil platforms about 9 miles off the coast of California, all installed between 1980 and 1984. The company also operates a 16-inch pipeline that carries oil from a processing platform to an onshore storage facility in Long Beach. The company has said the oil appears to be coming from a rupture in that pipeline about 4 miles from the platform.

In a 2016 spill-response plan submitted to federal regulators, the company said its worst-case spill scenario was based on the assumption of a full guillotine cut of the pipeline occurring 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) inland from one of its platforms. But an outside consultant concluded that a spill of that size was very unlikely at that location because the line is 120 feet deep and beneath a shipping lane where ships do not normally anchor.

The Beta oil field has been owned by at least seven different corporations since it was discovered by Royal Dutch Shell in 1976, records show. A corporate predecessor of Amplify bought the operation in 2012.

The Amplify subsidiary known as Beta Operating Co. has been cited 125 times for safety and environmental violations since 1980, according to a database from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the federal agency that regulates the offshore oil and gas industry. The online database provides only the total number of violations, not the details for each incident.

The company was fined a total of $85,000 for three incidents. Two were from 2014, when a worker who was not wearing proper protective equipment was shocked with 98,000 volts of electricity. The worker survived. In a separate incident, crude oil was released through a boom where a safety device had been improperly bypassed.

In 1999, an undersea pipeline running between two platforms sprang two leaks totaling at least 3,800 gallons of oil, causing tar balls to wash up on beaches in Orange County.

The cause of of the leaks was determined to be corrosion that caused pin-sized holes in the steel walls of the pipeline. The owner of the oil field at the time, a partnership between Mobil Oil Corp. and Shell Oil Co. called Aera Energy LLC, was fined $48,000 by federal regulators  a penalty environmental groups criticized as a slap on the wrist.

Before the spill, Amplify had high hopes for the Beta oil field and was pouring millions of dollars into upgrades and new side track projects that would tap into oil by drilling laterally.

We have the opportunity to keep going for as long as we want, Willsher said in an August conference call with investors. He added there was capacity up to 20,000 barrels a day.

Investors shared Willshers optimism, sending the companys stock up more than sevenfold since the beginning of the year to $5.75 at the close of trading on Friday. The stock plunged 43% in trading Monday.

The company filed for bankruptcy in 2017 and emerged a few months later. It had been using cash generated by the Beta field and others in Oklahoma and Texas to pay down $235 million in debt.

___

Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker in Washington, Bernard Condon in New York, Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, and Amy Taxin in Huntington Beach, California, contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON  President Joe Bidens top trade negotiator said China was failing to live up to its commitments under an agreement signed last year and was ignoring U.S. objections to its use of state power to dominate global markets at the expense of American workers.

In a speech to a Washington think tank, Katherine Tai, the U.S. trade representative, laid out a road map for reengaging with Beijing after a months-long internal policy review..

Tai said she plans to hold frank conversations with Chinese officials and warned that the U.S. would take all steps necessary to defend U.S. workers against fallout from Beijings mercantilism. But after years of ignoring similar complaints from Washington, the administration sees little chance that Beijing will change its ways, according to three senior administration officials, who insisted upon anonymity to brief reporters..

For too long, Chinas lack of adherence to global trading norms has undercut the prosperity of Americans and others around the world. In recent years, Beijing has doubled down on its state-centered economic system, Tai said. It is increasingly clear that Chinas plans do not include meaningful reforms to address the concerns that have been shared by the U.S. and many other countries.

While insisting that China comply with the phase one trade deal it signed at a lavish White House ceremony in early 2020, the administration has scrapped former president Donald Trumps plan to seek a second agreement, designed to limit Beijings use of state resources for economic advantage, the officials said.

Instead, the administration is emphasizing domestic investments in infrastructure, education and worker training to boost U.S. prospects for competing with China, Tai said.

Appearing at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Tai said Chinas growth was coming at the expense of workers and economic opportunity here in the U.S. and other market-based, democratic economies. She sketched a pattern of Chinese market-distorting behavior, beginning with Chinas 2001 entry into the WTO, which enabled it to dominate global markets in steel and solar panels and threaten to do the same in advanced technology industries such as semiconductors.

The administrations plan to renew trade talks with China comes after its earlier outreach efforts produced little progress toward the U.S. aim of an understanding over how to balance cooperation and competition. Chinese and U.S. diplomats openly clashed during an initial meeting in Alaska. Subsequent visits to China by John Kerry, Bidens climate envoy, and Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman also were unproductive.

Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by phone in September  the first time since February.

The administration officials took pains to contrast Bidens approach to that of his predecessor, which they called chaotic and ineffective. Biden seeks to shore up U.S. supply lines and promote domestic manufacturing while enlisting U.S. allies in a campaign to press China to drop the subsidies that distort global markets, the officials said.

But it remains unclear what the U.S. will do if Chinese reluctance to modify its state-centric policies continues, as most analysts expert. And Tai provided no details of what new tools the administration plans to deploy.

We must chart a new course to change the trajectory of our bilateral trade dynamic, she said.

Administration officials have discussed using Section 301 of a 1974 trade law to mobilize European and Asian allies for a WTO trade complaint over structural elements of the Chinese economy they say disadvantage its trading partners.

Still, at least for now, Biden is maintaining the tariffs of up to 25% on roughly $360 billion in U.S. imports from China that Trump imposed beginning in 2018. Answering pleas from the business community, Tai will reinstate a process for U.S. companies to seek an exclusion from paying the tariffs if there is no domestic alternative to the goods they want to import.

Under the phase one trade deal signed last year, China promised to buy an additional $200 billion in U.S. farm, energy and manufactured goods by the end of this year.

Chinas purchases are not close to those legal commitments, economist Chad Bown, of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said in a recent Twitter post.

Through August, China had placed 89% of the required purchases of farm goods, but only 42% of stipulated energy buys, said Bown, who has tracked the deals progress from its inception.

Xi has moved away from the economic reform and market-opening policies that China adopted in 1978. He has promoted greater Chinese self-reliance in key technologies, including computer chips, and has waged an aggressive campaign to bring major Chinese businesses under greater political control.

The administration has made several moves that have upset the Chinese, including labeling its treatment of Muslims in the Xinjiang region genocide. On Sunday, the State Department blasted China for provocative military activity after a record number of fighter jets and bombers in recent days probed Taiwans air defense zone.

Chinese officials frequently lash out in response to criticism from abroad. Administration officials and business leaders are uncertain what to expect in the aftermath.

This isnt going to be an olive branch to China, said one business executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve relationships with administration officials. If it signals a tougher line, I can only imagine how Beijing will receive this.
(Tribune News Service)  The good news is that the Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery just received a $5.9 million grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs for an expansion that will see 1,099 pre-placed concrete crypts added behind the administration building on a 1-acre parcel.

The crypts, once in the ground at the Kaneohe cemetery, allow crews to remove just 1 feet of earth rather than dig a much deeper grave for each burial.

In October 2020, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, announced that Kauai Veterans Cemetery was receiving a $5 million grant for 215 of the precast crypts, 407 in-ground grave sites for cremated remains and 640 columbarium niches.

At the same time, the Maui Veterans Cemetery received $1 million from the VA cemetery grant program to fund the construction of 640 columbarium niches, among other projects.

The bad news is that in a June report the VA Office of the Inspector General noted noncompliance issues within the states system of eight veterans cemeteries, including critical deficiencies at the Hilo and Makawao facilities.

One grave at the Maui cemetery had a temporary marker for 54 years. In Hilo, 75 markers were not properly installed and were merely placed on the ground over the gravesite, according to the June 24 Inspector Generals report. That meant they could be easily moved and placed over the wrong gravesite.

Ron Han, director of the state Office of Veterans Services and a retired Air Force colonel, said a complex set of circumstances led to the findings, which pertain to the Maui site and to East Hawaii 1 and East Hawaii 2 in Hilo, which are considered one cemetery.

Although the Office of Veterans Services has administrative oversight for the cemeteries, operational control falls to the counties and different departments within them, he said. That means for the Hawaii island and Kauai veterans cemeteries, its the parks departments that are managing them, Han said. On Maui it is the Department of Public Works.

The counties are working as best that they can with what they have to work with, Han said. They never had any formal cemetery training.

The first National Cemetery Administration base-line compliance report was conducted in 2015 and 2016, he said.

Theyve been slowly trying to work some of those base-line (issues) without formalized training, which normally, you would send folks to St. Louis, and theres a cost factor involved, Han said.

Again, theyve never failed on interments ; theyve never failed on providing the honor, dignity and respect to our veterans,  he said.

At Hilo and at the Maui Veterans Cemetery, the Inspector General team identified critical deficiencies including a lack of permanent or properly installed grave markers, inaccurate and missing maps of graves, no process for tagging caskets and urns, and inconsistent safety standards,  according to the June report.

At Hilo a veterans spouse had a temporary marker for 19 years. NCA shrine standards require a permanent marker within 60 days of interment. Two veterans had temporary markers for 12 and 13 years.

Regarding the 75 flat markers improperly installed at Hilo, a parks and recreation superintendent said that the county does not have the staffing to permanently set the markers in the ground, as required by NCAs installation procedures, because it does not receive money from the state to run the cemetery,  the report said.

At Makawao some temporary markers had been in place for three, five and 54 years. Two other grave sites still had wooden crosses, rather than VA-issued headstones, from interments in 1963 and 1990.

Although NCA staff identified deficiencies at the two sites in 2015 and 2016, the agencys improvement and compliance officials did not sufficiently follow up with cemetery managers to ensure completed action plans were submitted,  the report states.

Between 2015 and 2020, problems persisted, and NCA did not impose conditions to compel correction, such as withholding future grants.

The VA Office of the Inspector General recommended that NCA work with state officials to assess all eight of the cemeteries. Oversight of Hawaiian cemeteries needs significant improvement, the report said.

Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery in Kaneohe did very well in the inspection,  Han said. The West Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery in Kailua-Kona also did well, he said.

To fix the problems, weve been having some high-level meetings involving Maj. Gen. Ken Hara, the state adjutant general, with NCAs undersecretary for memorial affairs, Han said.

The state hopes a mobile training team can come out to conduct training at the Hawaii State Veterans Ceme tery. A request will be made to other counties to pay for county personnel involved in veteran cemetery affairs to come to Oahu for the training, Han said.

Our biggest thing is we have not failed in this mission, knock on wood, with any of our interments and things of that nature,  Han said. Now, there are some things that go back (many years), and there are issues that need to be fixed.

He added, Well work it as hard as we can with our county counterparts.

(c)2021 The Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Visit The Honolulu Star-Advertiser at www.staradvertiser.com

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Christopher Diltz, an Iraq veteran and VA police officer, was killed in Birmingham on Sept. 16, 2021. (Contributed/TNS)

(Tribune News Service)  A man found dead inside a burning home more than two weeks ago has now been identified, and investigators say he was killed before the fire started.

Authorities identified the victim as 33-year-old Christopher Diltz. Birmingham police said he was stabbed to death.

Diltz is being remembered for being kind-hearted and always putting others before himself. He served as drum major for Woodlawn High School, and then went on to join the Alabama National Guard where he served in Iraq with the 217th Military Police Company.

Diltz was a member of the 128th Military Police Company and worked as a police officer with Veteran Affairs in Birmingham.

Those who knew Diltz said everyone loved him.

Friends said he had not shown up for work for a couple of days prior to his body being discovered and they had just started asking on social media for help in finding him.

Then, about 5 a.m. on Sept. 16th, police and firefighters responded to a house fire in the 4500 block of 11th Avenue North. The blaze was fully involved when firefighters arrived.

Once the house cooled enough for a search, Diltz was found dead inside.

Ditlz is the citys 90th homicide so far in 2021. Of those, 12 have been ruled justifiable and therefore arent deemed criminal.

In all of Jefferson County there have been 146 homicides, including the 90 in Birmingham.

At this time last year, there had been 93 homicides in Birmingham, and 132 in all of Jefferson County.

Police said they have little information in the Diltz case. Anyone with information is asked to call Birmingham homicide investigators at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.

2021 Advance Local Media LLC.

Visit al.com .
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says Cabinet will be looking to ease lower risk options in Auckland and the cases in the Waikato are not material to that decision.

The Covid-19 community cases that emerged in Waikato yesterday have been genomically linked to the Auckland outbreak.

More positive cases have been detected overnight in the household of the Raglan case which was reported yesterday.

Raglan, Te Kauwhata, Huntly, Ngaruawahia, and Hamilton City in Waikato in the Waikato region went back to alert level 3 at midnight and will stay there for at least five days.

Ardern told Morning Report the "movement" in the Waikato is not "material" to the alert level decision considerations for Auckland.

"For us it is still around the nature of the outbreak itself in Auckland. We do need to take a very cautious approach."

She says while people look for singular level shifts, Cabinet is looking "across the board at all of the restrictions ... whether or not there are some options there that are lower risk that we could ease just to support Aucklanders at the same time".

Would Auckland simply move to level 2?

"There are other options available that aren't just that, and also we do want to give a bit of sense of the longer term for Auckland," Ardern says.

"Elimination was right for now while we vaccinate and so we are still vaccinating, we're in a transition, so we are changing our strategy as we move."

She says "seven weeks ago, we needed to go into lockdown".

"We still need to control this outbreak, but we are transitioning."

Tamaki anti-lockdown protest 'was illegal'

Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki is promising to continue holding anti-lockdown protests despite the threat of prosecution.

Nobody was arrested or issued with infringement notices following the anti-lockdown rally at the Auckland Domain on Saturday.

"That gathering was illegal ... because it sat outside all of the rules we had around a level 3 environment around gatherings," Ardern says.

She says the decision around prosecution has not yet been concluded, but it is a matter for the police.

"I have a personal opinion on this, which is that it was absolutely wrong. It was a massive slap in the face to every Aucklander who has been doing their bit for New Zealand."

National Party leader Judith Collins says police are likely to see more breaches of lockdown laws.

She told Morning Report police need to ensure that they are approaching lockdown breaches in the same way, whether it's a protest or a large gathering for a gang funeral.

"You can't seriously expect that they're going to be arresting thousands of people, but it is important though, that the public sees the police ... are using an even hand."

Collins says that people are becoming frustrated with lockdown but protests are not the way to express dissatisfaction.

She says it would have been "better for it not to have happened and the police could have no doubt stated that to Brian Tamaki and others it is very important that we don't end up with these big gatherings because of their possibility of becoming super spreader event".

-RNZ.
https://www.sunlive.co.nz/news/278206-covid19-29-new-community-cases.html

Auckland will remain at Alert Level 3 but with easing of some restrictions from 11.59pm Tuesday October 5.

The rest New Zealand will remain at Alert Level 2. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has made the announcement at a post Cabinet briefing this afternoon.

Ardern says right at the beginning the government described Delta as a game-changer, "and it has proven to be so. It has been more infectious and more persistent ... what we have called a long tail feels more like a tentacle that has been incredibly hard to shake".

She says restrictions have prevented what could have otherwise been exponential growth in the virus over many weeks.

She says it was the right choice, and the only choice at the time because of the vaccination levels - 42 per cent of Aucklanders with one dose and 25 per cent fully vaccinated.

In the seven weeks since, those numbers have risen to 84 percent and 52 percent, she says.

"Modelling is also now telling us that while we're still seeing cases, it's now 50 per cent less than what we could've seen without vaccinations."

She says the vaccinations mean in future we will not need so many restrictions, but "we're not there yet".

Cabinet has been asking, she says, how to make things a bit easier, and together with the public health team has designed a road map.

For this outbreak, it's clear that long periods of heavy restrictions has not got us to zero cases "but that is okay. Elimination was important because we didn't have vaccines, now we do".

She says we need to keep using the tools we have, including vaccination, testing, tracing, isolation, and controlling any outbreak now and into the future.

"This is a change in approach we were always going to make over time, but the Delta outbreak has accelerated that transition. Vaccines, will support it."

From Wednesday Aucklanders will be able to extend their bubble and meet with in groups of up to 10 people from the same household outside.

Ardern says children can have a play date at the park, people can see their friends as long as it is one household at a time.

She says keeping it outside is fundamental to this changes because the natural ventilation outside makes it harder for the virus to spread.

Outside is the safest option.

She says people need to wear masks and if they are eating or drinking they need to keep their distance from each other.

Reach out and see people, I know it will help, says Ardern.

Another change that is being made if more children are able to attend early childhood centres.

There will be a limit of 10 children within a bubble at early childhood centres and strict infection control. Early childhood teachers will also be included in Covid-19 surveillance testing.

This is an added precaution and an acknowledgement that children at that age cannot be vaccinated."

People in Auckland will now be able to move around the city for recreation. People can visit a beach, hunt, take part in a fitness class outdoors, provided it is socially distanced and at maximum of 10 people, she says.

Ardern says the public health advice is that these changes are unlikely to contribute to uncontrolled growth in the outbreak. They are believed to also make a material difference to Aucklanders' lives.

The easing of restrictions in Auckland does not extend to the north west Waikato though, she says.

While the rest of New Zealand remains at Alert Level 2 there is a further restriction being eased and that is the cap of 100 people allowed in hospitality venues.

People in venues must still remain seated and separated but venues will now be able to host more than 100 people. Although for social gatherings the limit of 100 people will continue to apply, says Ardern.

Ardern says she knows continued alert level restrictions are frustrating, particularly in the South Island where no cases have been seen for some time, but it is important to remember that it is the restrictions which has meant the virus has not spread further.

"Vaccines mean that in the future we can do things differently ... but that does mean that we need you to be vaccinated. I have heard some people who are willing to be vaccinated say they are waiting just a little bit longer before they make that choice.

"They may not be worried about the immediate side effects but they want to see long-term health effects. I want to give you the assurance you need that the vaccine is safe ... I encourage you to have that conversation with your health professional."

"This is not an Auckland problem, but rather a solution that only the team of 5 million can deliver on and we need everyone to play their part."

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says as well as the 29 new cases today, there are three other household cases linked to the Raglan case who will be included in tomorrow's number as they were entered into the system after 9am.

Seven of today's cases remain unlinked, and nine of yesterday's new cases remain unlinked.

He says an additional 25-30 more cases are expected from household and other close contacts.
A small number of North Shore Hospital staff have been stood down as a precaution after a baby has tested positive for Covid-19.

Waitemata DHB has advised the Ministry of Health that late yesterday, a nominated visitor to North Shore Hospitals maternity ward tested positive for Covid-19.

The baby and the babys mother were subsequently tested and the baby has returned a positive result, while the mother was negative, says an MOH spokesperson.

The mother and baby had been in a single room in hospital  separated from other mothers and babies  for the duration of their care and the positive case visited them twice while potentially infectious.

The mother and baby have now been relocated to a Covid-19 appropriate ward and safety protocols are in place.

The MOH says a small number of staff who have potentially interacted with the visitor have been stood down as a precautionary measure while investigations continue and Waitemata DHB fully assesses the situation to determine if any other actions are required.

The Ministrys thoughts are with this family at this stressful time.

Covid-19 case at Auckland City Hospital

A person who went to Auckland City Hospitals Emergency Department yesterday and was admitted to intensive care for non-Covid-19 reasons, has tested positive for Covid-19.

Auckland DHB is working at pace with the Auckland Regional Public Health Service to investigate this case and identify any potential contacts.

The patient was separated appropriately on arrival at the ED as being at risk for Covid-19 and staff were wearing appropriate PPE including N95 masks, says the MOH.

They had also previously visited the ED and returned a negative test on Saturday, so it is believed the infection has been identified early.

Auckland DHB advice is that patients and whanau who have been at Auckland City Hospital and in the ED do not need to take action unless they are contacted by public health officials.

Waikato, Palmerston North cases update

Three household contacts of the Raglan case tested positive for Covid-19 overnight  one of which is a newly identified household contact living on the property  and all have now been moved to an Auckland quarantine facility.

The Ministry says these will be officially recorded in tomorrows case numbers.

Meanwhile, initial tests from all four close contacts associated with worksites of the Auckland-based truck driver, who is isolating in Palmerston North, have returned initial negative results.

Testing in Waikato

Waikato DHB advises there has been a strong response to calls for people in Hamilton with symptoms to get tested.

Yesterday, more than 600 swabs were taken across the testing centres at Founders and Claudelands in Hamilton, and around 150 swabs were taken at the pop-up testing site in Raglan, says the Ministry.

It is important that testing facilities are available for priority groups, to help us determine whether there has been any undetected community spread of the virus.

So, if you are experiencing cold or flu-like symptoms, are following guidance relating to a location of interest, or have been directed by Healthline or your GP, please seek a test immediately.

Waikato DHB advises there is high demand at community testing centres in Hamilton and Raglan.

Its encouraging to see the local community taking care and seeking a test, but if you do not match the above criteria, please call Healthline on 0800 358 5453 or your GP for guidance before seeking a test.

Testing is available at a range of dedicated sites, including Founders Theatre (8am - 4.30pm), Claudelands Event Centre (8am - 8pm), Raglan Rugby Grounds (10am - 4.30pm), as well as GPs and designated GP practices (which do not require you to be enrolled as patient).

For Covid-19 testing locations nationwide, visit the Healthpoint website, which will include details of a new pop up testing site in Huntly, which is expected to be open from this afternoon.

The Ministry also urges people to regularly check the locations of interest on the Ministrys website, which provides specific guidance for each location.

Anyone who is not symptomatic and has not visited a location of interest, does not need to get tested at this point, says the Ministry.

Vaccinations remain steady, with more than 3000 (3082) vaccinations administered across the Waikato Region in the past 24 hours.

Around 426,925 vaccinations have been delivered across the Waikato region to date  thats 264,224 first doses and 162,701 second doses. Around 71 per cent of the regions eligible population have had their first dose, and 42 per cent are fully vaccinated.

If you havent already been vaccinated, now is a good time. Please dont put it off.

Whole genomic sequencing

Whole genome sequencing for the Raglan case and the Hamilton case have both been completed, confirming both cases are linked and both cases are also linked to one of the sub clusters in Auckland, says the Ministry.

For the Auckland based truck driver, currently in isolation in Palmerston North, whole genome sequencing is expected later today.

Wastewater testing

The Ministry says there are no unexpected wastewater detections to report.

The virus that causes Covid-19 was not detected in wastewater samples taken from 14 Waikato sites between September 23-30, which includes sampling in Hamilton which did not detect Covid-19 in samples taken on September 28 and 29.

Wastewater sample collection has been arranged from locations within the Waikato and Manawatu-Whanganui regions. This includes Raglan, Huntly, Te Kauwhata, Ngaruawahia, Feilding, Hunterville, Tooroa, Putaruru, Hamilton and Palmerston North.

Results of these are expected over the coming days, however the timing of the results depends on various factors including the sample arrival times and need to re-run tests.

Alert Level 3 boundary exemptions

With the change to alert levels in parts of Waikato, the Ministry will be processing personal travel exemptions from 7am tomorrow, in the same way it has been processing applications for Auckland personal travel exemptions

The criteria for personal travel exemptions into or out of the Waikato Alert Level 3 region will be the same as they currently are for the separate Auckland Alert Level region.

Two million second doses of vaccine

Today weve passed the two million mark for second doses of vaccine administered (2,018, 305). This is a really pleasing milestone and we want to reiterate our thanks to everyone who has so far had either their first, or final vaccination. Vaccination continues to be one of our strongest defences against Covid-19.




The Three Waters reform debate is waging on as commissioners discuss the implications of the proposal at a Tauranga Council meeting today.

Protesters gathered outside council chambers on Willow Street to voice their objections about the governments Three Waters proposal.

The Government asked for feedback from local government regarding plans to transfer management of New Zealands three water services - drinking water, wastewater and stormwater - from the 67 local councils to four regional entities before the end of September. Councils have not yet been asked to commit to any reform programme.

Instead, they had until October 1 to provide feedback to the government.

The plans have received pushback from some members of the community, especially as the current Commission appointed to Council were done so by Minister Nanaia Mahuta.

Lobbying group the Tauranga Ratepayers Alliance, whose steering group contains several previously elected Councillors, believe this represents a potential conflict of interest.

Many of the group were part of todays protest, which saw people wearing masks in accordance with current alert level restrictions.

Speaking to SunLive on Friday, October 1, Tauranga City Council commissioner Stephen Selwood says all commissioners bring specialised knowledge and experience to the council table.

But it is a fundamental requirement of the governance role that we keep an open mind, listen to the views of others, consider the evidence and make informed decisions in the best interests of the city and the community.

Council will consider and approve a response to the initial Three Waters feedback request to Minister Mahuta at todays Council meeting.

The Tauranga Council meeting can be viewed on YouTube.
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Karmic justice It seems the old proverb there is honor among thieves doesnt extend to cybercriminals. Gangs using ransomware-as-a-service plans are complaining that the crooks they rent the malware from are robbing them.

ZDNet writes that the group behind the notorious REvil ransomwarethe same one used in attacks on Kaseya, Acer, and Apple manufacturing partner Quantaleases the malware out to other criminals in exchange for a cut of the victims ransom.

Surprisingly, it seems this group of thieves cannot be trusted. On September 20, a threat actor discovered a secret backdoor in the REvil ransomware program that allows the creators to restore encrypted files, all without the involvement of the affiliates.

The backdoor means the REvil group can also hijack support chat negotiations with victims and take the entire ransomware payments for themselves.

Risk Intelligence firm Flashpoint writes that there has been an outcry at the discovery on underground Russian-language forums, with one user claiming the backdoor resulted in negotiations for a $7 million ransomware payment abruptly ending. Another complained of lousy partner programs used by ransomware collectives you cannot trust. Affiliates who find themselves in this position have little recourse. One said trying to deal with the group was like arbitrat[ing] against Stalin.

Flashpoints cybersecurity analysts note that the number of high-profile ransomware attacks has intensified the spotlight on cybercriminal communities, leading to increased animosity towards ransomware-involved threat actors.

Even if REvils reputation among fellow criminals takes a hit, many believe the group will continue to survive and thrive. According to Tech Monitor, REvil is the most common ransomware variant alongside Conti, found in 13.1% of incidents from this year.

Image credit: Africa Studio, Andrey_Popov
A hot potato: Proponents of decentralized finance love to tout the cost, speed, privacy, and security benefits compared to the traditional banking system, but it's still in the early days for this new concept. Compound, the world's fifth-largest decentralized finance protocol with a total value of $10.3 billion, experienced a smart contract glitch that resulted in a fund loss totaling $162 million.

Last week, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform called Compound Labs accidentally gave away no less than $162 million worth of its COMP token. As expected, this made many account owners happy about the windfall, but the CEO is asking them to return the funds voluntarily.

When learning of the issue on Friday, Compound Labs founder and CEO Robert Leshner was told that a bug in an update to the comptroller contractused to distribute COMP tokens to customerscaused $92.6 million worth of COMP to be distributed to users. Coincidentally, the figure represents the hard cap for how many COMP tokens could be accidentally distributed (280,000 tokens).

On Sunday morning, Compound had replenished the pool to 202,472.5 COMP tokens using reserved funds worth $66.9 million. Initially, Leshner asked the people that received more coins than they should have to keep 10 percent and return the rest, or else their windfall be reported to the IRS as income to pressure them into paying taxes on it. He has since apologized for the threatening tone of his request, but it did leave a stain on the public image of what is purportedly a decentralized finance platform.

The blunder will go down in history as the largest-ever fund loss that has happened as a result of a smart contract incident. Most investors don't seem to be worried, however, and at least 162,505 COMP tokens worth $51.1 million have been returned as of this writing.

Financial policy analyst and cryptocurrency critic Andrew Park told Bloomberg that incidents such as this aren't a good look for decentralized finance projects. Park notes, "there are reasons to criticize the existing banking system, but there are a lot of safeguards in place to prevent these kinds of things from happening."

In related news, El Salvador's whole-hearted embrace of Bitcoin continues with an ambitious volcano-powered Bitcoin mining project that has already mined its first Satoshis, which are tiny fractions of a Bitcoin.
Rumor mill: The latest rumors regarding the launch of Intel's first line of gaming graphics cards indicate they may be pushed back slightly. The main culprit behind any delay might be uncertainty in the supply chain, which could separately push back the arrival of the laptop or desktop variants.

As of right now, Intel's official site for its upcoming discrete graphics cards states a release window in the first quarter of next year for both laptops and desktops. YouTuber Moore's Law Is Dead, however, claims his sources tell him that isn't set in stone.

MLID says his sources are almost 100 percent certain the desktop Arc Alchemist cards won't launch until the second quarter of 2022. They also say some of the laptop models can arrive before that, possibly in the Q1 window Intel currently has on its website.

Late last month when rumors indicated a possible naming scheme for the Arc cards, MLID's sources told him the main x-factor in determining an exact release date for them was how the display drivers were coming along. MLID's sources now say Intel's Arc drivers are rapidly improving.

Conversely, MLID claims to have contacts in East Asia telling him of Covid outbreaks in factories along the supply chain for Intel Arc. There have been recent reports of Covid lockdowns in Malaysia that certainly don't help the global chip shortage, but it's unknown if those are related to Intel Arc. China's recent energy crunch could also be a factor. It must be stressed, however, that these products are potentially six months out. A lot can change in that time frame.

Previous rumors indicate that when they do launch, the top-end desktop Intel Arc Alchemist card could perform as well as Nvidia's RTX 3070 or closer to the 3060 Ti. The lower-end model might be somewhere around a GTX 1650 Max-Q. The latter has made some hopeful that Intel Arc could target the lower GPU price brackets that Nvidia and AMD have seemingly abandoned.
In context: Facebook has once again asked a judge to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit brought against it by the Federal Trade Commission. The social media giant argues that the FTC's complaint that it holds monopoly power in the market has no "factual basis."

The FTC initially filed its suit last December in hopes of undoing Facebook's acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. It alleged that the buyouts harm competition and give consumers few choices for personal social networking. It also leaves advertisers with fewer competitive choices.

Facebook moved to dismiss the case, arguing that the accusations were meritless and did not prove that the company held monopoly power. In June, a judge agreed with Facebook, saying that the case was "legally insufficient." However, he allowed the FTC to bring back an amended suit, which it filed in August.

The new filing did not change the charges. Instead, the FTC opted to provide more details regarding the alleged behavior. It claims that Facebook purchased the companies to eliminate competition it viewed as an "existential threat."

"Facebook lacked the business acumen and technical talent to survive the transition to mobile," said FTC Bureau of Competition Acting Director Holly Vedova. "After failing to compete with new innovators, Facebook illegally bought or buried them when their popularity became an existential threat. This conduct is no less anticompetitive than if Facebook had bribed emerging app competitors not to compete."

The FTC filed the amended complaint on August 19th, 2021. On Monday, The Washington Post noted, Facebook reiterated its argument that the Commission "still has no factual basis for alleging monopoly power."

The judge will review the case and decide whether to move forward with it on November 17. If the judge dismisses the suit a second time, the FTC will unlikely get another chance to refile. That said, it would be just a small victory for the social media platform.

In June, European regulators launched an antitrust investigation looking into the company's alleged practice of collecting rival advertisers' data to give it an advantage in classified advertising. Additionally, a whistleblower has recently emerged alleging the company allowed VIPs to break its rules and that it was aware of the adverse mental health effects that Instagram has on teens.

Image credit: Facebook App by Brett Jordan, Zucked by Annie Spratt
Google Chrome is perhaps the world's most popular web browser, and rightfully so. But if you're using it for your personal and work purposes, you must update it now.

That's because two new vulnerabilities, classified to be allegedly Zero-day, have been found in Google Chrome, reports Express UK. The update is called 94.0.4606.71, which was designed to fix the two vulnerabilities, alongside two others.

The Google Chrome update is live now at the time of this writing. You can perform the update by simply launching (or re-launching it if you already have the browser open) and going to Settings by clicking the three vertical dots in the top right corner.

From Settings, click "About Chrome" in the lower left corner, then the update will install itself.

This new Google Chrome update was released for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

According to ZDNet, the update specifically targets a high-severity flaw called CVE-2021-37975, which is linked to the V8 JavaScript engine which is a bit hard to protect.

The other flaw, classified as medium severity, called CVE-2021-37976, is considered as a so-called "information leak in core." This was identified and reported by the Google Threat Analysis Group (TAG), who was working with researchers from Google's Project Zero.

Zero-day exploits have been making the rounds in the cybersecurity field lately, with Google Chrome being one of the most recently affected.

Apple and its newly released iOS 15 have also suffered from these Zero-Day attacks, with more still at risk.

Read also: Three Apple iOS 15 Zero-Day Vulnerabilities Still Active? Security Experts Share iPhone Maker Covers Up the Flaws

Google Chrome Zero-Day: What Is It Really, And Why Is It Bad News?

Do you want to keep your most sensitive information, such as bank details and address, private?

Well, then you have to be worried about these hackers and their Zero-Day exploits, because they're very bad news.

The term Zero-Day itself means that hackers already have access to the hack, and they're actually using it.

This is not a hack still waiting to happen--it's already happened, and any information on the affected platform (in this case, Google Chrome) has already been accessed.

Investopedia shares more information against this kind of cyber attack, and it's all quite scary.

One key takeaway is in the name itself: "zero-day" comes from how many days a given software developer has known about the issue. And since it's "zero," it basically means that the hack is happening right under the developer's nose, and barely anyone will ever until damage has already been done.

Think of it this way: it's like a house's front door that the owner thinks is locked, but a thief eventually discovers it's not. By the time the homeowner discovers, a lot of valuables have already been taken.

Zero-Day attacks like this one involving Google Chrome can use almost anything in the hackers' arsenal. It could come with malware, spyware, adware, and general unauthorized access to private user data. Fortunately, constant system updates tend to be good protection against this kind of attack.

Update your Google Chrome browser NOW.

Related: UK Researchers Develop Device That Could Fend Off Cyberattacks

Ok

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Unclaimed Amazon and USPS (United States Postal Service) packages are being sold, which many users don't know about. Since some consumers already tried to purchase them, these giant e-commerce companies and postal services offer them lower prices than their original cost.

Related Article: Rare Used Xbox Series X Sold on Amazon at a Very High Price-Costing More Than $900! Is This an Error or a Real Offer?

Before a packaged is considered unclaimed, the buyer must be ignoring it for months or depending on the ruling of Amazon or USPS. Once the agency discovers that the consumer is not accepting their packages, Amazon and USPS have the right to auction them.

Now, the price would depend on the amount of money offered by the interested buyer. This means that it could still reach the original price or even higher. But, if an unclaimed item becomes pricier, that means that it is rare. If you are one of the interested consumers, here are some details you need to know.

Purchasing Unclaimed Amazon, USPS Packages

According to CNET's latest report, USPS is currently reselling or auctioning unclaimed packages via GovDeals if the original consumer were not able to accept the item within 90 days.

Also Read: Amazon is Getting Sued by Chinese Companies Over Bans on 'Paid Reviews' Claiming The Ecommerce Giant is Withholding Their Earnings

Once you visit the website, you can scroll through the offered products, such as gadgets, sporting equipment, and beauty supplies. On the other hand, the unclaimed items from Amazon, Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and Lowes are auctioned on the Liquidation web page.

However, some of the items being offered there only have photos of their boxes. This is why you need to be careful when purchasing these unclaimed goods since some of them could already be damaged.

When it comes to the security of the unclaimed Amazon and USPS packages, various experts warned interested buyers about the rising scams within this ecosystem. Remember, when you are purchasing an unclaimed item, you run the risk of buying something damaged or unimportant to you.

There are even some cases where consumers are only given empty boxes, which could really be disappointing.

Are Unclaimed Amazon, USPS Packages Really Cheap

Yahoo News recently reported that some TikTokers were able to purchase various unclaimed items from Amazon for only $1. However, they can't choose the product they will purchase since these deals are actually mystery boxes.

The viral video posted by the TikTok influencer named Stephanie Grime (caloriequeen14) has now generated more than 8 million views. You can check the video below about her popular mini-series vlog.

@caloriequeen14 Does anyone know how this is even a thing? Mystery box unopening. Opening lost mail packages. Part 1.  Creative - SmiLE

For more news updates about unclaimed Amazon and USPS packages, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

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Taiwan has reported that Mainland China is sending over threats in the form of almost 80 fighter planes to enter its airspace and make a fly-by over the weekend. With this, the United States has shown support for the former and is willing to back the Taiwanese's fight against China, which continues to show its iron fist.

It was known that the country has had a massive relationship with Taiwan, and has supported the country several times, as well as the recent COVID-19 pandemic where the people were having a hard time. That being said, there were a lot of incidents where the US and China had run-ins, especially with TikTok and Huawei.

China's 80-Plane Flyby in Taiwan's Airspace

According to Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Twitter page, over the weekend and last October 1, Chinese fighter planes have entered the Taiwanese airspace without proper clearance. There were a total of 77 planes that have flown above the Taiwanese region, which received no explanations or reasons from China.

Oct. 1 wasn't a good day. The #PLAAF flew 38 warplanes into #Taiwan's ADIZ, making it the largest number of daily sorties on record. Threatening? Of course. It's strange the #PRC doesn't bother faking excuses anymore. JW



( via @MoNDefense) pic.twitter.com/U2fHUwV5uK   Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan)  (@MOFA_Taiwan) October 2, 2021

This was a massive dispute for Taiwan, especially as they have had a dispute over their recognition as an independent country in the past years. Taiwan is also referred to by Mainland China as "The Republic of China" or R.O.C., and not recognized as a democratic country of its own, saying that they are under the PRC.

Read Also: USPS Slowdown Plan Starts Oct. 1 | Here's Everything That You Need to Know

While no specific actions were made by the Mainland, this was something that Taiwan recognizes as a threat that the country face and its leaders fear. This is because the fleet of China is massive, and it can damage any country it has disputes with.

The US Supports Taiwan

The People's Republic of China or the Mainland has imposed on this for a long time now, something which ally countries and co-supporters did not approve. Taiwan allies include that of the United States, which has helped the country for a long time now, more apparent in recent times, especially as they remain in dispute with the PRC.

According to News.com.au, the United States has shown its support for Taiwan and has urged China to cease its military operations. The aggression of China for the likes of the Taiwanese country has a massive effect on its behavior and future, especially as misunderstandings or disputes arise during these times.

Taiwan and China's Dispute

China and Taiwan have long fought concerning the ownership of the country, especially as the Taiwanese people have long practiced democracy as their form of government. Also, it is a sovereign country to which the PRC has long challenged, claiming that Taiwan is a part of their regions and jurisdiction.

Related Article: Apple To Be Investigated in Taiwan as Consumers' Foundation Accused Company of Exploitation Due to Lack of Charger

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 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Image from Unsplash Website) Frontline Workers to Wear Panic Buttons Amidst Spike in Assaults Against Employees | New Law Makes It a Class D Misdemeanor

Frontline workers over at a certain Missouri hospital are now being provided with different personal panic buttons after the number of assaults directly against employees has recently tripled, according to officials. Between about 300 and 400 staff working in the emergency department and inpatient hospital rooms over at the Cox Medical Center located in Branson will be wearing the buttons on their badges, according to the hospital.

'Spike' in Assaults Against Employees

A story by 6abc notes that if the workers are in distress, they can then push the button, which alerts the security on hospital computers showing the exact location of the employees. The distress calls will also be displayed in the hospital's very own nurse call system.

The safety button system is now set to be implemented by the end of 2021 and comes due to the "spike" when it comes to assaults against employees, as noted by the hospital. Between the years 2019 and 2020, Cox Medical Center has been able to see total violent events increase from a massive 94 to 162.

Violence from Patients and Visitors

The total assaults increased from 40 up to 123, and the total injuries have jumped from 17 up to 79. The assaults that were leading to injury have ticked up from a smaller 42.5% up to 63%, as seen on the hospital data. As of the moment, a 3D vaccine patch is being developed to help cater to those that might be scared of needles and more.

A number of the assaults actually come from patients, as said by the hospital, but the staff has also seen a number of visitors become violent. Not all of the incidents are reported to the police as a number of staff sometimes might feel like it is still part of the job. Cox Branson Patient Safety Facilitator Angie Smith gave a statement.

Read Also: Ivermectin's Fraudulent Studies Suggesting it is Effective Against COVID-19 is Causing Confusion Online

New Law Makes Assault a Class D Misdemeanor

According to Smith, a number of workplace violence incidents are actually underreported due to staff not feeling like they would be able to do anything about the situation. A new law reportedly came into effect in Missouri in August 2021 makes it equivalent to a Class D misdemeanor to threaten healthcare workers.

Staff from the Cox Medical Center noted that they were grateful for the newly added security measure. Nurse Kimber Unruh gave a statement to ABC News in a video diary noting that they had quite a large number of cases of violence that have been reported when it came to the emergency department that has been continually going on over the last three to five years.

It was noted that staff has actually complained of being spit on, grabbed, held, along with a number of other things. It was noted that they are thankful to have the new option to help keep them safe. Nurse Whitney Gott stated to the ABC News in a video diary noted that the panic button helps get security to them faster when staff would feel threatened or unsafe in the particular environment.

Related Article: Anti-Vaccine Facebook Groups Have Been Imploring People to Stay Away from the ICU

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The Pandora Papers are a collection of millions of images, a handful of emails, and several electronic files that focus on the illegal actions that were done by the rich and powerful in the world. These were investigated by a collective group of journalists and other sources, exposing those who have engaged in the act.

Think of it this way, the Pandora Papers are whistleblowers' research that now exposes those that have engaged in illegal activity, something that denounces the acts of these people.

In the past, several whistleblowers have surfaced to expose the powerful people for their cover-ups and lies, particularly that of Dr. Li Meng-Yan for China's COVID-19 secrets in Wuhan, as well as former NSA analyst Edward Snowden, which talked about the US's surveillance.

Pandora Papers

The Pandora Papers is now a trending thing, and it is not because it has a collection of new jewelry from a company of the same name or new technology. Rather, it is a collection of illegal activities where the rich and powerful of this world have engaged and were caught doing so by those who started this campaign.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has contributed massively to this research and information gathering, especially as it focuses on getting the answers to several unexplainable wealth. Also, the ICIJ said that this was an unprecedented leak, something which they did not expect as the organization has come across some.

Offshore havens and hidden riches were discovered, citing the likes of the Czech Republic's Prime Minister's French Riviera vacation house, purchased discreetly despite campaigning against corruption. Other notable mentions also include Malibu beachfront houses from the King of Jordan, despite jobless issues in the country.

Read Also: Chinese Virologist Dr. Li-Meng Yan to Publish Scientific Proof that Coronavirus Was Manmade at a Wuhan Lab, Not a Wet Market

What is the Pandora Papers

The cases above are not the only discovered issues and leaks from the hands of these influential people.

The Pandora Papers is a collection of 6.4 million documents and other proof which has been gathered for the past couple of months that follow the trail of illegal activities of the rich and powerful. The documents and intel talk about how these people, despite showing that they care for their country's needs, are in reality, swindlers.

The papers expose these people, especially during this time, where a global crisis is upon us, and everyone is pre-occupied to provide for their family the best they can despite these restrictions.

Why are the Pandora Papers Trusted?

The Pandora Papers have massive proof and research behind the claims, and it leads to legitimate accounts, as well as connections, despite its anonymity and discretion. That being said, the investigative journalists behind this case aim to deliver justice and expose the people behind it, so that they answer for their actions.

Investigations would be made, and the information that the Pandora Papers hold aims to present a case against these people and have them liable for the crimes which they committed.

Related Article: Toshiba Ousts Chairman, Increasing Shares by 1.3%

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Growing criminal activity online has left modern law enforcement agencies in need of an innovative solution - one that Tal Dilian's Intelligence company, Intellexa, has developed with their needs in mind

"First there was the iPhone, then came encrypted apps" - Intellexa's founder, Tal Dilian, explains the Cyber-Darwinism that has led to technology evolving faster than law enforcement and intelligence services' ability to adapt.

Despite its many advantages, the rise of encrypted apps and networks has made the lives of criminals easier while making law enforcement agencies work much harder to catch them and uncover incriminating activity.

This is where Tal Dilian's company, Intellexa, comes in.

"First there was OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence) and GEOINT (Geospatial Intelligence), but that wasn't enough -every criminal with an iPhone can now operate under the device's encrypted networks that were built under the company's attempt to maintain the privacy of its customers," explains Dilian. "There was a need for tactical solutions to replace the old methods of detecting and catching suspects and criminals."

Tal Dilian has witnessed many major changes in the digital world throughout his decades of experience. These have led him to achieve great success while cofounding and managing multiple businesses and developing leading technologies, spanning from the 3D printer's giant, Stratasys, to a leading company in sustainable energy solutions, SolarEdge.

With the combined experience acquired through business ventures and a former commander in the Intelligence force of the IDF (Israeli Defense Force), Dilian knows the ins and outs of the digital sphere and the dangers it poses.

He claims that "we now know that it's simply not enough to be able to gather data". With intelligence and law enforcement agencies spending their valuable time on research to fend off the next crime, only to eventually conduct an unsuccessful operation, it was clear that they needed a better method to gather and analyze intelligence regarding criminals, their whereabouts, and the networks they could be operating under.

To answer this gap in the intelligence market, Dilian cofounded Intellexa, a leading intelligence company that helps modern law enforcement agencies catch criminals by providing them with insightful, data-driven intelligence.

With innovative systems that offer tactical solutions to modern law enforcement, Intellexa offers services for both gathering and analyzing information that help LEAs catch criminals by providing them with an intelligence report that leads to faster and better results, improving their operations.

Having been on the decision-making side for many years himself, Tal Dilian understands that data collection is just part of the equation. To truly provide a complete intelligence picture, Intellexa develops solutions that are adapted to this new era of data-driven insights.

What is Data-Driven Intelligence?

Data-driven intelligence unlocks data's fullest potential by introducing artificial intelligence into its collection process. The primary goal of this type of intelligence is to extract meaning and knowledge from data.

As Dilian explains, "It fuses Big Data resources to put together a complete picture, to make sense of shattered pieces of information by analyzing it and providing an insightful report while minimizing human error by using AI."

Dilian believes that to break the organizational silo, an intelligence company must put together a complete picture that makes sense. This is why Intellexa systems utilize data-driven intelligence in their work with modern law enforcement and intelligence agencies: "Having an almost fully automated system saves time and ensures success, improving our clients' workflow and efficiency by up to 200%".

Why is Data-Driven intelligence important for Modern Law Enforcement?

Conducting operations to protect citizens based on data-driven intelligence is crucial for modern law enforcement. In this digital age, it is no longer enough to rely on traditional intelligence methods, as those are not accurate or relevant enough to prevent the next crime or incident.

Data-driven intelligence not only uses a wealth of data sources from criminal records to the geospatial information of potential offenders but goes a step further by creating predictive analytics that helps provide proactive insights that prevent incidents before they occur.

Intellexa works with official law enforcement and intelligence agencies to provide a deep, insightful, and actionable intel image that helps them ensure their civilians' safety and win the race against criminals in the digital space.

The company will be showcasing its platform in the 22nd session of the Milinpol convention for Homeland Security and Safety hosted in Paris this upcoming October.

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The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a Louisiana case that involved a man who defaced his state-issued identification badge by removing the designation sex offender from it.

A petition to the high court from the Louisiana solicitor general for a writ of certiorari was denied, according to the courts order list revealed Monday.

The case involved Tazin A. Hill, who pleaded guilty in 2010 to the charge of having sex with an underage girl  she was 14, he was 32. Hill formerly had an address in Duson.

Hill served prison time for the crime and after he was released was required to carry a state-issued ID bearing the words Sex Offender printed in orange. Such explicit identification was mandated by a 2006 law.

When Hill reported to the Lafayette Sheriffs to update the badge in 2016, it was discovered that he had defaced the ID by removing the words Sex Offender.

Penalties for defacing the card could have ranged from two to 10 years in prison with a fine of up to $1,000. The case of defacing the card was taken in 2019 before 15th Judicial District Judge Patrick Michot Sr., now retired, who ruled in Hills favor that the state should have taken less restrictive ways than those taken on the ID badge to notify law enforcement officers that Hill had previously committed a sex offense.

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The initial sex offense charge was not at issue in the case, only the charge of defacing the ID.

Neither the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center, which represented Hill, nor state Solicitor Liz Murrill, who sought the high courts review of the case, could be reached for comment early Monday.

"We are certainly disappointed that the Supreme Court denied the writ and we hope the Legislature will take this up as soon as possible," said Cory Dennis, Attorney General Jeff Landry's spokesman.

The state Legislature took up legislation last session to provide an alternate way to indicate on state ID that the holder had committed a sex offense. The bill did not make it out of committee.

Currently, the state does not put the words "Sex Offender" on licenses or other IDs held by people who have been convicted of sex offenses.
The small, rectangular strips that quickly detects whether a deadly synthetic opioid known as fentanyl is present in drugs are no longer illegal in East Baton Rouge Parish.

A unanimous vote by Metro Council Wednesday cuts away red tape that prevented people from buying and distributing the rapid-test strips to those struggling with addiction, something advocates and police say can decrease the risk of fentanyl overdoses.

We just want to help people, said District 7 council member LaMont Cole, who introduced the item.

The measure came before the council at a time when opioid overdoses  a vast majority tied to fentanyl  are skyrocketing in the parish.

About 75% of the 242 overdose deaths in the parish last year were fentanyl-related, according to the Parish District Attorneys Office. That number is even higher in 2021. Roughly 89% of the confirmed overdose deaths in the parish this year included fentanyl in the toxicology report, the office said.

This is an epidemic that affects everyone in the parish, from the curbside to the country club, said Tonja Myles, an advocate and proponent of the measure who has been in recovery for more than 30 years.

The first fentanyl-linked overdose death was reported in the parish in 2014. Fatal overdoses from all drugs steadily increased since then before exploding last year.

+4 Baton Rouge overdose deaths are soaring. Could a settlement with Big Pharma turn the tide? Baton Rouge could be getting a lot of money from a $26 billion national settlement with opioid makers, and those battling the city's soaring o

From 2014 through 2017, only 8.3% of the 348 overdose deaths involved fentanyl, according to the District Attorneys Office. Some 31% of the 103 overdose deaths were attributed to fentanyl in 2018. In 2019, fentanyl became the deadliest drug in the parish, attributed to 51% of the 126 overdose deaths.

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Until we can get people into recovery, the risk of them dying outweighs a lot of things going on, Myles said. This is not a license for people to use. Its something we hope will save lives until the recovery outweighs the risks.

District Attorney Hillar Moore III also voiced support for the measure despite hearing arguments that it could encourage people addicted to opioids to keep using.

From what weve seen, those who are addicted are going to continue using until theyre ready to quit, Moore said. Wed rather they have the option of having a strip that can test for fentanyl.

While the measure is targeted toward people addicted to opioids, several overdoses involving using cocaine or marijuana laced with fentanyl have been reported in the parish, Moore said. Increasing access to the test strips may prevent people who have no intention of using opioids and no tolerance to its effects from accidentally ingesting the drug, he said.

Its becoming more of the norm that every drug could be laced with fentanyl, Moore explained. Thats why were in favor of people being able to have access to this rather than risk themselves dying.

Myles and Moore both said research from academics supports increasing the access to the test strips.

A study from Harvard University called the tests a "cheap and cost-effective way to reduce the risk of overdose and death" and encouraged the removal of legal barriers to their access.

Providing the test strips to lessen harm is hardly a new concept nationally or in Louisiana.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced in April that federal funding can be used to buy the test strips to curb the dramatic spike in overdose deaths largely driven by fentanyl. And in May, New Orleans approved a measure identical to the one that just passed in Baton Rouge.
Baton Rouge could be getting a lot of money from a $26 billion national settlement with opioid makers, and those battling the city's soaring overdose death rate say it could be a huge help  if the money is used for the right things.

That includes outreach, treatment, data collection, and overdose-reversing drugs, treatment providers, advocates and health officials said.

Louisiana stands to receive as much as $350 million over 18 years from the settlement with drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and the three largest distributors, McKesson Corp., AmerisourceBergen Corp. and Cardinal Health Inc. That amount will be split among municipalities around the state, the Louisiana Attorney Generals Office said in a news release last week.

The agreement settles more than 3,000 lawsuits from all over the country accusing the companies of selling opioid painkillers despite knowing they were fueling an addiction epidemic.

Baton Rouge has one such lawsuit. It's up to the Metro Council to decide whether to continue with that individual lawsuit or accept a share of this settlement.

If Baton Rouge does sign on, it's not clear yet how much it might get. That's because it's not yet clear which other cities and states might sign onto the suit, said Burton LeBlanc, the lawyer representing Baton Rouge.

Some governments have rejected the settlement, criticizing the size of the payout or the fact that it doesn't require the companies to admit wrongdoing. Those governments are moving forward with their own, individual lawsuits.

East Baton Rouge saw 242 overdose deaths last year, a new record  and that record is likely to be broken again this year, District Attorney Hillar Moore and Coroner Beau Clark said. About 95% of those deaths involved some type of opioid, according to Moores office.

Im worried things are becoming worse, and this money can hopefully be put into programs and places as fast as possible so we can slow all this down, Clark said.

+2 'Frightening' spike in East Baton Rouge drug overdose deaths in 2020: Over 200 lives lost At least 232 people died of a drug overdose last year in East Baton Rouge Parish  almost twice the 127 fatal overdoses in 2019, which was the

Programs that provide treatment for people struggling with addiction need to receive the lion's share of the funding rather than advertising and public outreach, because billboards dont save lives, Clark said.

We really should put all of our money into the side of treatment  finding individuals in the community that have substance abuse issues, get them the help they need so that they dont become one of the individuals where Im investigating their death, Clark said.

That can be accomplished, Moore said, by sending money toward data collection so resources can be better targeted to areas in the parish with high overdose rates.

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Moores grant writer, Jon Daily, said hes been working with outside groups and gathering studies on how best to address the crisis, such as studies released by Johns Hopkins University and Harvard University.

Those studies have prompted the DA's office and parish government to create the East Baton Rouge Overdose Coalition, which will gather data to get help to those who need it the most.

The organization will also try to help get more people into treatment and better train first responders.

The coalition includes several advocate like Tonja Myles, who has been in recovery herself for more than three decades.

Myles says a priority should be decreasing the time it takes to get treatment. There's a "small window," she says, when someone battling addiction is open to getting professional help.

"If theres a wait time, most people are going to relapse, Myles said. Theyre going to want to use because its hard for them to stay clean during that time. Making sure they can get into a treatment provider when theyre ready is necessary."

Myles pointed to the newly opened Bridge Center for Hope, a nonprofit crisis and addiction center funded by the city-parish, as a good example of meeting people in that window.

Part of the issue is nobody really knows where to go when they are having a crisis situation, whether they be on substances or with mental health, said the centers executive director, Charlotte Claiborne. The Bridge Center, it takes that guesswork out.

But Claiborne said her facility is just set up for short-term care, which can only do so much for someone recovering from addiction. She said Baton Rouge does not have any long term drug rehab centers, which are a necessary place for a 28-day detoxification that starts the road to recovery.

Dr. Jan Laughinghouse, the executive director for Capital Area Human Services, said that 28-day detoxification process should be a key goal of any settlement funds.

These companies are what caused the issue, we have these funds and we should be able to treat anybody who wants to be treated for an opioid use disorder, Laughinghouse said.

While the discussions of where the money should be spent are still in early stages, Laughinghouse said she has hope they can be used to blunt the impact of the opioid epidemic.

Im just glad that a terrible wrong is being righted, Laughinghouse said. It will not help all of those people who have gone on, but it will help the people who are struggling now.
The pregnant mother and self-described stepfather of slain Baton Rouge toddler Nevaeh Allen are now sitting in jail on $375,000 bonds in the death of the 2-year-old whose remains were found in a wooded area in Mississippi.

Lanaya Cardwell, 25, and her live-in boyfriend, Phillip Gardner, 30, both were booked last week on second-degree murder charges. Gardner also is charged with obstruction of justice and unlawful disposal of remains.

State District Judge Christopher Dassau on Monday set Cardwell's bond at $375,000 on the murder charge, and Gardner's bond at $300,000 on the same charge.

Gardner's total bond is also $375,000 because his previous $75,000 bond on the obstruction and unlawful disposal charges remains in effect, the judge said.

Both Cardwell and Gardner told Dassau that they will be financially unable to make those bonds. If they do, they will be under house arrest with a number of conditions attached, including no contact with each other or minors. They would not be allowed to live together.

East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's deputies kept Cardwell and Gardner separated while they stood before Dassau. Cardwell wore blue-green prison clothes and Gardner was dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit.

Cardwell's attorney, Gail Ray, said she will appeal her client's bond. Ray had asked for a bond no higher than $100,000. Cardwell is eight months pregnant, the lawyer told the judge.

Gardner is represented by the East Baton Rouge public defender office. Assistant Public Defender Margaret Lagattuta characterized his bond as an average amount for a homicide and told reporters she doesn't anticipate an appeal.

Assistant Public Defender Terri Mayes had told Dassau that Gardner cooperated with investigators, had three jobs at the time of his arrest and has other children that he needs to care for.

Dassau cited the seriousness of the alleged crime in setting the bonds.

Prosecutor Kathleen Barrios asked the judge to take into consideration that local, state and federal resources were used in the search for Nevaeh while the defendants knew that the child was no longer alive.

Ray noted that a cause of death has yet to be determined for Cardwell's daughter.

"The last time she saw the child, the child was alive," Ray told the judge.

Barrios said in court that the preliminary autopsy results did reveal "severe brain swelling." The prosecutor also noted that the state has taken custody of Cardwell's other children.

Cardwell is accused of punching Nevaeh on Sept. 24. Gardner is accused of disposing of the child's body in a remote patch of woods in Mississippi after her mother reported her missing Sept. 24 from a Belaire neighborhood apartment. He was accused of second-degree murder by investigators who said he didn't seek emergency care for the injured child.

Baton Rouge toddler died after mom punched her torso, causing her to hit head, police say A Baton Rouge mother was accused of murder after police say she punched her toddler in the torso for playing with her contact lenses, causing 

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Authorities found the girl's remains buried beneath trees by the bank of the Pearl River.

A distraught Cardwell told investigators and a TV news reporter that Gardner set Nevaeh down for a nap the morning of Sept. 24, only for her older siblings to return from school a few hours later to an empty apartment and an open door.

A high-profile search ensued, spanning two states and involving nearly a dozen law enforcement units, including the FBI.

According to Baton Rouge Police Department arrest affidavits accusing Cardwell and Gardner of murder, hours before the girl was reported missing, Cardwell was in the bathroom preparing to go to work for the day when Nevaeh picked up her moms contact lenses. Police say her mother responded by punching her daughter in the torso with a closed fist.

Mother, stepfather of Nevaeh Allen arrested on second-degree murder after child reported missing The mother and stepfather of Nevaeh Allen  the 2-year-old who was reported missing last week and whose body was found in Mississippi on Sunda

The arrest records say Nevaeh fell backwards and hit her head on a cabinet before her mother forcefully grabbed her and took her to another room, where Gardner later told police he could hear what sounded like two adults fighting.

When Cardwell and Nevaeh emerged, Gardner said the girl was crying and had a large bruise on her forehead.

Gardner told investigators he then drove Cardwell to work, and when he returned to the apartment, the toddler refused to eat and complained about stomach pain. She then lay down on the couch, where Gardner said he later found her unresponsive.

Gardner told police he tried to resuscitate the girl, and, when his attempts failed, he admitted to placing Nevaeh in a suitcase and driving across state lines to dispose of her body, ultimately placing her in a makeshift grave deep in the woods.

Police say Gardner initially told police he had laid down for a nap and awoke to find the girl missing. Later, police say he admitted he had found Nevaeh "unresponsive and lifeless."

+3 Missing toddler's death was a homicide, East Baton Rouge coroner rules The East Baton Rouge Parish coroner says a Baton Rouge toddler found dead in southern Mississippi on Sunday was the victim of a homicide.

Before Nevaehs body was discovered, Cardwells mother, Jessica Billiot, described her daughters relationship with Gardner as toxic and said it was oftentimes marked with violence, recalling one incident where she witnessed Gardner have a fit at the toddler after she spilled a slime toy on the carpet.

Billiot said Gardner yelled at the girl and forced her to hold a vacuum as he attempted to make her clean up the mess.

A second-degree murder count was leveled against Gardner because police say he failed to help the girl after she complained of stomach pain and because the coroner was unable to determine whether Nevaeh was still alive after he stuffed her in the suitcase.

Despite the coroners initial findings that the girl's death was the result of a homicide, East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore III has cautioned that final autopsy results can take weeks, adding that details known about the case may change as police continue their investigation.

Cardwell has no prior criminal history. Gardner has no convictions, Barrios disclosed, but does have prior arrests including one for domestic abuse battery in St. Tammany Parish. The charges were eventually dismissed.
The state has cleared a key hurdle for the widening of Interstate 10 between La. 415 and the I-10/12 split, Louisiana transportation chief Shawn Wilson said Thursday.

Wilson said the federal government has approved its environmental assessment of the project and that one of the most visible parts of the overhaul will begin before summer -- the revamp of the College Drive exit for westbound motorists.

"This is a significant accomplishment in moving this much-needed project forward," Wilson said in a statement.

+2 Taxpayers get first look at $30M College Drive flyover on I-10 in Baton Rouge; see details Taxpayers on Thursday got their first look at details of a $30 million project aimed at making it easier for westbound motorists on Interstate

"Past efforts to make these necessary improvements have never reached this stage and it's a testament to this administration, the local, state and federal officials and the hardworking staff of DOTD that we have reached this milestone," said Wilson, who is secretary for the state Department of Transportation and Development.

The federal action clears the way for the state to launch right-of-way purchasing and to begin the design process.

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The initial, $360 million part of the work is being financed with federal bonds.

Other money is coming from the East Baton Rouge City-Parish -- $12 million -- and the Capital Region Planning Commission -- $24 million.

+2 Noticeable work on widening I-10 in Baton Rouge a year away, transportation chief says Visible work on the $360 million plan to widen Interstate 10 in Baton Rouge is likely a year away, Louisiana's transportation chief said Thursday.

The work includes the addition of new lanes in each direction through the corridor, which is one of the most heavily traveled in the Baton Rouge area.

Wilson said construction from just west of Washington Street to Essen Lane is expected to begin in early 2023.

Previous work around the site includes the building of an off-ramp at Terrace Avenue to ease congestion around the Washington Street exit.
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A former Facebook product manager has become one of the companys highest-profile critics after exposing thousands of internal documents she said showed the social media giant failed to protect users.

Frances Haugen, who tackled misinformation on the platform, turned over internal research to US lawmakers and the Wall Street Journal, which reported the company knew, but didnt disclose, the negative impact of services like Instagram. She said she was sounding the alarm over the companys practices after seeing repeated evidence that Facebook prioritises profits over the well-being of its users.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The company is under scrutiny for covering up internal research about its negative effects. Credit:Bloomberg

There were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook, she told 60 Minutes in her first public interview on Sunday.

Facebook over and over again chose to optimise for its own interests like making more money.
The number of young people in the workforce reporting high levels of psychological distress has doubled during the coronavirus pandemic, raising concerns about a disproportionate impact on their mental health.

The Black Dog Institute released new research on Tuesday which suggests instability in employment and work hours during the pandemic, along with other factors including a lack of social support during lockdowns, has contributed to a dramatic rise in mental health problems in young people.

Acting director and chief psychiatrist at the Black Dog Institute Sam Harvey said that in the past decade young workers had started to report worsening mental health and this spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic for those aged 18 to 34.

Younger workers have reported a steep increase in mental health symptoms over the last year, suggesting changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic may have accelerated the worsening mental health that was already occurring, Professor Harvey said.
POLITICS: Peril, Bob Woodward & Robert Costa, Simon & Schuster, $49

For a journalist as thorough and exacting as Bob Woodward, the coda to Rage, his second book on the Trump presidency, was stunning. The greatest threat to the presidency was Trump himself, and Trump was the wrong man for the job. That Trump incited the insurrection against the Capitol, which was intended to disrupt the sealing of Joe Bidens election victory, proved the point and led the House of Representatives to impeach Trump. But the Senate acquitted.

The masterful and explosive reporting in Peril by Woodward, now teamed with Robert Costa, also of The Washington Post, convicts Trump of being unfit for office.

Supporters of President Donald Trump storm the Capitol on January 6. Bob Woodward and Robert Costa say Trump wallowed in denial of his election loss. Credit:AP

Peril joins the searing I Alone Can Fix It by Phil Rucker and Carol Leonnig, documenting Trumps threat to the Republic. They show not only how Trump wallowed in denial at his election loss  Let it go, both Hope Hicks and Ivanka Trump implored  but his compulsive immersion in the Big Lie that the election was stolen.
John Clunies-Ross, who has died aged 92, became the last king of the Cocos, a tiny (5.5 square miles) coral archipelago in the Indian Ocean, in 1944, but spent much of his reign fighting rearguard actions against hostile governments in Canberra, which assumed sovereignty in 1955.

The islands, roughly halfway between Sri Lanka and Australia, were discovered in 1609 by Captain William Keeling of the East India Company and named the Cocos-Keeling Islands by a British hydrographer in 1805. John Clunies-Ross great-great-grandfather and namesake, a sea captain from the Shetland Islands, visited in 1814 and returned with his family and eight sailor-artisans in 1825. They dug wells and established a coconut plantation for copra production, subsequently importing Malay labourers to work it.

John Clunies-Ross on his paradise island in 1972. Credit:Fairfax

Another adventurer, Alexander Hare, an English merchant infamous for his polygamous lifestyle, had arrived shortly before Ross with a harem of 40 Malay women, whom he established on Direction Island to be as far as possible from the sanctions of civilisation. By 1830, however, the Clunies-Ross community on Home Island had a population of 175, most of whom were men.

The attractions of Home Island proved too great for Hares harem, who sought Clunies-Ross protection, and in 1831, after a period of high tension between the two would-be colonisers, Hare was driven out.
One man has been charged with driving offences after police say a crowd of about 400 residents took to the streets in Sydneys west.

As fans celebrated the NRL grand final on Sunday night, officers were called to the suburb of Dharruk about 9pm following reports a large group of people had gathered in the street.

Police arrived a short time later and found about 400 people at the location and heavy traffic in the area, NSW Police said in a statement on Monday morning.

The Panthers beat the South Sydney Rabbitohs 14-12, sealing their victory shortly before 9.30pm.
Brisbane has recorded the warmest October day since 2004, as the long weekend and last day of school holidays concluded with a sweltering spring day.

The Bureau of Meteorology said Brisbane recorded 36.6 degrees about 2pm on Monday, meaning it was the warmest October day since 2004, when a high of 38.7 degrees was recorded.

Cooler temperatures were forecast for the south of the state on Tuesday, but the mercury would remain either above average or pushing the average October maximums for the rest of the week.

New Farm Park in Brisbane on a glorious spring day. (File image) Credit:Fairfax Media

Brisbane was expecting a top of 30 degrees on Tuesday and 27-29 degrees through to Sunday. The October average maximum is about 28 degrees, according to the weather bureau.
Contact tracers will stop trying to track down casual contacts of known COVID-19 cases within days as the virus becomes more widespread in the community.

As Victoria recorded 1377 new coronavirus cases and four deaths on Monday, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the listing of tier-2 sites, which are lower-risk locations visited by a COVID-positive person, will be progressively scaled back over the next few days.

Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation chief Jill Gallagher with one of three new mobile vaccination vans. Credit:Joe Armao

We will be publishing the highest-risk tier sites as well as letting households and those businesses know what they need to do for those higher-risk exposures, Professor Sutton said.

We have had to focus our efforts on where we get most bang for our buck.
A record $2.7 million judgment has been awarded to a former Geelong College student over the schools handling of the sexual abuse he suffered more than 25 years ago.

Though there have been more significant settlements reached out of court, the decision of Supreme Court judge Stephen OMeara last Friday is believed to be the highest judgment for institutional abuse in Australia to date.

Geelong College. Credit:Pat Scala

The former student was abused by Bert Palframan, who volunteered in the schools woodwork and craft area, called the House of Guilds, from 1988. The abuse occurred after another boy complained to two teachers about the assaults that he and other classmates were subjected to from Palframan.

Geelong College defended the case, which required a nine-day trial in August and September, meaning the former student, now aged in his 40s, his family, and Palframans other alleged victim had to give evidence.
Police say they will have a highly visible presence on Tuesday as the construction industry reopens after being closed for two weeks amid violent protests.

Building workers who are not vaccinated face being turned away from their jobs from Tuesday morning after the Victorian government made it mandatory for them to have had at least one COVID-19 jab in order to return.

Police outside the CFMEUs office last month. Credit:Getty

Master Builders Victoria chief executive Rebecca Casson said there had been concerns from some builders about reopening.

Some members have expressed concern about reopening their worksites, especially considering the recent behaviour seen in Melbourne, she said. However, on behalf of our members, Master Builders Victoria has been working closely with Victoria Police on this issue ahead of our industrys reopening.
They said case numbers in Melbournes north, including the local government areas of Hume and Moreland, were stabilising, but numbers had grown Melton and Brimbank to the citys west, and in the south-east at Casey and Greater Dandenong. The Health Department reported that 38,000 people were now isolating in Victoria because they had been a primary close contact of someone carrying the virus. Infections spread at five Victorian prisons There are now COVID-19 infections at five prisons in Victoria, with 36 prisoners testing positive for the virus.

Corrections Victoria said in an update on Tuesday that 16 prisoners had tested positive at the Melbourne Assessment Prison, 11 at the Metropolitan Remand Centre, five at Ravenhall Correctional Centre, three at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre and one at Port Phillip Prison. COVID-19 survivor says virus stripped her of dignity

A COVID-19 survivor spoke at Tuesdays press conference about how the virus stripped her of her dignity when she was in hospital with the illness, leaving her unable to go to the bathroom or wash herself in an intensive care unit. Kim Hanrahan, a 49-year-old from Newport, said she and her husband contracted COVID-19 from their cleaner last July, despite both wearing masks and staying in a different part of the house when the cleaner visited.

By day 11, I continued to be bedridden, unable to sleep with body aches and pains that not even strong pain relief could mask, she said. It was during my daily COVID call with [the Department of Health] that I was unable to talk properly, [and] they thankfully realised how unwell I was and advised [me] to call an ambulance straight away. Ms Hanrahan later learned her lungs had collapsed. She spent six days in an intensive care unit, followed by nearly a week isolated in hospital. A couple of months after returning home, Ms Hanrahan said her hair unexpectedly fell out: I lost about three-quarters of it over a six-week period, she said. Pre-COVID, I had no underlying health conditions and was a reasonably healthy woman.

Fourteen months later, and I feel like Ive aged 10 years. Im still feeling the long-term effects of COVID. Loading My fitness has been severely impacted. I have brain fog at times and fatigue [and Im] taking a lot more effort to do the same daily activities. I feel a lesser version of myself due to this horrible, debilitating disease, which makes me sad for my boys. Ms Hanrahan urged all Australians to not play Russian roulette with your health, or the health of those you love. Please get vaccinated, she said. Latrobe to exit lockdown, Andrews says road map on track

Although some COVID cases reported on Tuesday were in the Latrobe Valley, the seven-day lockdown of the regional area in Gippsland would end at midnight, Mr Andrews confirmed. There are some new cases in Latrobe today  but we feel that we have a good understanding of that outbreak, and we can move Latrobe back to the regional Victorian settings from midnight tonight, Mr Andrews said. So Im very grateful to everybody across the Latrobe City for the contribution theyve made. On Monday, more than 96,000 people booked in to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in Victoria, 82,000 of which were for a second Pfizer vaccine dose. The Premier said Monday was one of the largest days ever in the state for vaccine bookings.

More than 27,000 doses of Moderna vaccines are currently available in state-run clinics. More than 96,000 people rolled up their sleeves to get a COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, including 35,253 at state-run clinics, and more than 62,189 test results were processed. Victorias new COVID-19 cases In Melbournes northern suburbs, 681 cases, including 309 in Hume, 180 in Whittlesea, 90 in Moreland and 50 in Darebin;

In the western suburbs, 514 cases, including 111 in Wyndham, 105 in Melton, 103 in Brimbank, 57 in Moonee Valley, 48 in Maribyrnong and 35 in Hobsons Bay;

In the south-eastern suburbs, 370 cases, including 131 in Casey, 63 in Greater Dandenong, 37 in Cardinia, 22 in Monash and 27 in Port Phillip;

In the eastern suburbs, 108 cases, including 26 in Knox and 25 in Manningham;

Eighty-six in regional Victoria, including 16 in Greater Geelong, 15 in Mitchell, 14 in Shepparton and nine in Latrobe; and

Another four in other areas. *Source: Victorian Health Department deputy secretary Kate Matson Victorian health authorities have started providing postcode-based COVID-19 vaccination data. Mr Andrews said that authorities would initially be targeting 27 priority suburbs for the data where vaccination rates are not as high as we would like. We do need to go even a step further, and not just target a local government area but target individual postcodes  those 27 postcodes where the current first dose coverage rates are under 75 per cent, Mr Andrews said.

Were going to work to try and get those up as high as we possibly can. The suburbs with the lowest rates include Campbellfield, St Kilda, Kensington and Frankston North. At the other end of the spectrum, the first-dose vaccination rate has tipped over 90 per cent in 22 local government areas. Deputy secretary of Victorias COVID-19 response Naomi Bromley said 54 of the states 79 local government areas were now above the 80 per cent first-dose vaccination mark, and statewide 83 per cent of people over 16 had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

As of Monday, Wyndham had 89 per cent of its eligible residents vaccinated with a first dose, Casey and Cardinia had 83 per cent and Hume 80 per cent. Loading Mr Andrews said authorities were committed to their stated timeline for Victoria to open up, and that state was still on track, if not ahead of schedule, to meet its October and November vaccination targets. At this stage, Ive got no advice that wed have to alter anything on the road map; I want to try and give people as much freedom as fast as I can, as [safely] as possible, Mr Andrews said. But I dont have any advice that sees us having to alter that now.

Construction workers back at sites Victorias construction sector emerged from an industry shutdown on Tuesday morning, with locked-down workers returning to building sites after two weeks off the job. The shutdown was a period of unrest for some workers, who last month clashed with CFMEU officials at the unions Elizabeth Street office in the CBD following news of a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all those in the industry. The following day, after the shutdown was announced, construction workers were among protesters who brought traffic to a standstill on the busy West Gate Freeway as they marched to the centre of the West Gate Bridge.

The number of construction workers among protesters appeared to diminish by the time demonstrators gathered at Melbournes Shrine of Remembrance, primarily to rally against vaccinations and coronavirus lockdowns. Victorian health authorities said at the weekend that five cases of COVID-19 were linked to recent gatherings at the CFMEU, and of those cases, four were staff. Paramedics test positive Ambulance Victoria confirmed on Tuesday morning that three of its paramedics tested positive for COVID-19 at the weekend.

Loading Two were not working while infectious. The third was asymptomatic and did work while infectious, but was wearing full protective gear and followed COVID-safe protocols. Close contacts of the paramedic were asked to get tested for COVID-19 and isolate. An Ambulance Victoria spokesperson said: (This is the) first time in 2021 that a paramedic has returned a positive test, which shows how our policies and procedures to protect paramedics and patients are working. The paramedics are doing well, and we are supporting them to isolate and recover safely, the spokesperson said.
NSW deputy premier John Barilaro announced his resignation from politics on Monday, forcing a by-election in his seat of Monaro and the third across the state.

It comes after former premier Gladys Berejiklians resignation on Friday amid an Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry.

ICAC is investigating whether Ms Berejiklian breached public trust or allowed or encouraged corrupt conduct by her former long-term boyfriend, disgraced former Liberal MP Daryl Maguire.

Transport Minister Andrew Constance has also announced his retirement from state politics to contest the federal seat of Gilmore.
Outgoing Deputy Premier John Barilaro insists Dominic Perrottets faith has seen him unfairly portrayed as ultraconservative and says he has matured as a leader during his years as Treasurer.

Mr Perrottet is the frontrunner to replace Gladys Berejiklian, but Attorney-General Mark Speakman warned a conference call of moderate Liberal MPs on Monday night that the Treasurer would be the most conservative Premier the state has had since World War II.

Still the favourite: Dominic Perrottet outside his Beecroft home on Monday. Credit:Nick Moir

Mr Perrottet will face a leadership ballot against Planning Minister Rob Stokes on Tuesday to decide the next premier of NSW after Ms Berejiklians shock resignation on Friday. He will nominate for the position with Jobs Minister Stuart Ayres as his deputy.

Mr Stokes insisted on Monday he was still a strong candidate for the job, committing to address a lack of gender diversity by promoting more women to cabinet if he is chosen for the top job.
The staggered return of students to classrooms across Melbourne in a bid to minimise coronavirus outbreaks will be disruptive to families with children at different year levels, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has conceded.

While year 12 students return from Tuesday, a state government plan will involve grades prep to two returning to classrooms from October 18 for two to three days a week. Other grades will then gradually follow until all students are back at school for five days a week in November.

Students at St Brendans Primary School in Flemington returning to school in October last year after a COVID-19 shutdown. Credit:Jason South

Victorian schools have had six terms of moving in and out of lockdowns, and students in Melbourne have already missed more than 150 days of face-to-face learning because of the coronavirus pandemic.

One education and health expert said Victorias plan walked a fine line between the need to keep coronavirus cases low and getting as many students as possible back in school.
Singapore: Embattled Chinese property developer Evergrande went into a trading halt on Monday as it looks to secure a rescue merger to avoid defaulting on billions of dollars worth of debt.

The company has seen its share price fall by more than 80 per cent since January as it struggled to service the interest on $400 billion in loans, complete construction projects and sell properties in a slowing property market.

The market is nervous about Evergrande defaulting, given the size of its debts, but so far, the impact has been minimal. Credit:Bloomberg

Trading in the shares of China Evergrande Group will be halted, the company told the Hong Kong stock exchange on Monday, without adding further details.

Accordingly, all structured products relating to the Company will also be halted from trading at the same time.
Australia is a major world economy, Sharma said. And if you compare to where other major world economies are, I hope that we could get to 45 to 50 per cent from Australia. That would mean theyd be comparable with other major economies in the world. Labor took a 45 per cent target by 2030 to the 2019 federal election  a policy the government claimed would take a wrecking ball to the economy. Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has since called Labors pledge a mistake. But the NSW Liberal government last week promised to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent by 2030, building on the same policy unveiled by the Victorian Labor government earlier this year. Sharma said he has had candid conversations with the Australian government over the need to make much deeper cuts before the end of the decade.

I say to them basically what I say to everyone, which is that we need to do more. If we want to ensure that we are at a point of net zero by the middle of the century, then we have to have ambitious 2030 emission-reduction targets which align with that goal. Loading A report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in August found a 45 per cent cut by 2030 was essential to meeting the Paris Agreements goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. But on the current trajectory, we will see an increase of 16 per cent in emissions by 2030 rather than a reduction, Sharma said. A spokesperson for the Prime Minister said Australia would take part in the COP26 summit and had a strong record of meeting and beating its emissions reduction commitments. We are working closely with the UK on the technology advances that will be needed for the world to transition to a net zero economy. Technology not taxes is the way to tackle climate change, keep the lights on and keep people in jobs. This will continue to be at the heart of Australias response.

The government has promised to release an updated 2030 projection and its long-term strategy ahead of the Glasgow meeting. The more ambitious action from NSW and Victoria could help the government lift its 2030 target of a 26 to 28 per cent cut to something approaching 35 per cent, but the politics within the Coalition is fraught and most cabinet ministers still do not know what Morrison is planning just three weeks out from the Glasgow summit. Sharma said the urgency of the climate crisis warranted bold decisions from Australia. Australia is a great friend, and I really want one of my closest mates to come to my party and I want them to sing the same songs, he said. And that in a climate context means more ambition on cutting emissions and it means more support in terms of financing for developing countries.

Asked whether it was possible to achieve net-zero emissions without a price on carbon  which Morrison and Albanese are opposed to  Sharma stressed the international landscape was shifting rapidly. I mean, even China now has an emissions trading scheme, he said. It is internationally acknowledged that countries are going to have to domestically and internationally address the whole issue of carbon pricing and carbon leakage  every country will have to get there. And so my advice to any country is to start to think about this now. Sharma also thanked the Morrison government and Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor for assisting Pacific islands attendees with travel to the Glasgow event.

More than 20,000 people are expected to arrive in the Scottish city during the first two weeks of November. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has made climate change a key plank of his leadership. Credit:Getty Johnson recently said the gathering would be held in the full glare of the global spotlight. And when the summit ends, when most of the world has committed to decisive, game-changing action, it will be clear to all which of us has lacked the courage to step up, he said. The world will see, and your people will remember, and history will judge.
London: Military personnel in Britain have begun driving fuel tankers as the government stepped up efforts to tackle a shortage of truck drivers that has closed some petrol stations, caused panic buying and long lines at others, and threatened wider disruption in the run-up to Christmas.

Around 200 soldiers were deployed in the south of England, where the problems are now concentrated, with about half of them driving civilian vehicles and the others providing logistical support.

Fuel bowsers out of order in London. Credit:AP

In an interview with LBC Radio, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said that although fuel supplies were improving, the military was being deployed as a back-up.

As an extra precaution we have put the extra drivers on, Sunak said. We are doing everything we can.
And in the London Financial Times: Europes battered left draws comfort from Scholz victory in Germany. Olaf Scholz, now trying to form a coalition government in post-Merkel Germany, sees his victory as the beginning of something bigger: Our success will inspire other social democratic parties in Europe and maybe beyond, the leader of the Social Democratic Party told Der Spiegel. The emerging landscape even hints at the possibility of a global realignment as consequential as the one that followed World War Two, according to Robin Archer, associate professor of political sociology at the London School of Economics. The pandemic has unleashed some structural forces that are good for the broad centre-left in the advanced capitalist countries, he tells me. The way to think about it is how big, exogenous shocks have affected political attitudes, for example after World War Two when the great shift in attitudes led to the creation of the welfare state.

He draws the analogue of the last century. The Great Depression in the 1930s showed the destructive potential of markets. This was followed by the savage violence of the war and its shattering after-effects. After World War Two, governments were seen to be effective and essential  you cant have a market strategy for winning a war. This century, the global financial crisis of 2008 followed by the pandemic displays the same pattern - market-made disaster followed by state-led salvation. Theres no neoliberal strategy for dealing with the COVID crisis and thats evident to everybody. In other words, events starkly have displayed the unique power of the nation state to solve problems that markets alone cannot.

Archer adds that the pandemic has changed peoples attitudes to each other, much as World War Two did: Its the standard analysis of the war to say that bombing, rationing and evacuations affected all classes together and created a common sense of experience, and that produced feelings of reciprocal responsibility and social solidarity. Risk-sharing and social insurance are natural outgrowths. The outcome was state-led reconstruction and the modern welfare state. Like a bombing raid, COVID-19 dealt death and illness indiscriminately: Anybody could be hit, and its in everybodys interest that nobody should be sick because they could pass it on to you, says Archer. Is there going to be a new social contract after the pandemic? Theres potential for it. Hold on. Might this be too grand a psycho-political interpretation? Might not recent elections have been much simpler tests of competence? Where governments dealing incompetently with the pandemic were dismissed, as Donald Trumps was in the US? And governments managing competently were re-elected, as Justin Trudeaus was in Canada?

Archer makes the point that itd be hard to see the German election as a contest of competence versus incompetence. The coalition led by outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel was broadly seen as a competent manager of the pandemic. Indeed, the winner of the election, the Social Democratic Party of Olaf Scholz, was a part of Angela Merkels grand coalition of the last three years. Scholz himself was finance minister in her government and was responsible for delivering generous pandemic stimulus packages. His SPD improved its share of the vote by 5 per cent and displaced Merkels centre-right Christian Democrats with a core message about economic security, says Archer. Yet for all of the prognostications, a prudent overview of the centre-lefts revival would emulate the late Chinese Premier Zhou Enlais famous 1970s assessment of the French Revolution two centuries earlier: Too soon to tell. (It was a misunderstanding but one too delicious to correct, as Nixons interpreter Chas Freeman has said.) The centre-left is struggling for oxygen in France and the Netherlands. The long-running erosion of voter loyalty to traditional parties of the left and right rolls on in many countries. So that while Germanys SPD won more votes than Merkels Christian Democrats, the two traditional mainstays won a combined total of only 50 per cent.

Loading This condition afflicts the two main parties in Australia too. The centre-lefts recent revival might prove to be simply short-term upward spasms on a longer-term trend decline. In the short run, at least, the prospects of the Australian centre-left are promising. Anthony Albaneses Labor is profiting from the Morrison governments woes  its slowness in supplying vaccines and its insistence on leaky hotel quarantine. Labor cannot assume it will ride to victory on Morrisons incompetence, however. Archer points out a British cautionary tale. Boris Johnsons Tory government screwed up big time in every imaginable way, but once people got their vaccine shots he got huge credit. So in Australia the argument over competence will be a historical case by early next year. The election is due by May. Albaneses Labor, like Americas Biden and Germanys Scholz, also has an economic security offering, including universal childcare and improvements to workers rights. The international evidence is that it will need it.
Land Rover News: SAS Land Rover Gunship with machine guns for sale to the public this week

SAS Spec Land Rover Gunship To Launch In This Week's RM Sotheby's Auction

 An SAS specification military Land Rover has been released by John Brown 4x4

 The vintage restoration and rebuild will go to auction at RM Sotheby's on 6th October

 This unique vehicle is completely road legal and comes with a 12-month MOT

 The car will be offered in its own dedicated auction, offered without reserve

Supplied from the John Brown 4x4 private collection, this completely one-off 1984 LHD 109inch Series 3 Land Rover(r) 'Gunship' will become available to the public at RM Sotheby's Open Road auction, October 6th to 13th.

The car was built at Land Rover's Solihull plant in 1984, and then utilised in mainland Europe, likely by the German military. Two military enthusiasts in York purchased the car in 2010 and conducted a replication to 'SAS' specifications, sourcing and fitting various parts to give the look we see today.

Both machine guns ( .30 and .50 calibre) are professionally made 'dummy' guns by Crossfire of West Sussex. These guns carry certificates from Crossfire to this effect and are legal for civilians to own, display, and drive the car equipped with them on UK roads.

Classic Land Rover(r) experts John Brown 4x4 purchased the Gunship in 2020 after it had been in dry storage for some time. The team of experts recommissioned the vehicle over the course of 12 months, improving the driveability with new shock absorbers, brakes, a new fan belt, and a carburettor, among other correct specification parts. Military fitments and extra items were also sourced during the recommission to complete the outfit.

Due to the unique nature of this vehicle, the John Brown 4x4 team originally decided that it would be retained as both a showpiece in the showroom and for special outings with staff. However, the John Brown 4x4 showroom has recently been rearranged, so the vehicle is now available for purchase through RM Sotheby's.

"The military features and touches all over this Land Rover(r) come together to create an exceptional SAS car recreation. The two dummy machine guns fitted to the car, in .30 and .50 calibre specifications, really catch your attention.

"While the car is left-hand drive owing to its military use on mainland Europe, no windscreen or roof provides the driver fantastic visibility on UK roads.

"The car has been professionally repaired and restored, so that the driving experience matches the car's looks.

"Our team have had a fantastic time working on this car. It's been a centrepiece in our showroom, where it catches the attention of every customer that comes to visit our site. We've even occasionally used this Gunship to make customer collections that bit more special.

"However, we've recently rearranged our showroom, and have decided to give a member of the public the opportunity to own this fantastic car. The Gunship is a thrilling drive that turns heads wherever you take it."

You can have the chance to purchase this one-off car between the 6th and 13th of October, at RM Sotheby's Open Roads auction<https://rmsothebys.com/en/home/lots/1021>. The auction is fully online, and open for bidding from any country across the globe.

The Land Rover(r) Gunship will be presented for auction along with other vintage and rare cars from across the world.

About John Brown 4x4

John Brown 4x4 are the UK's leading dealer of Classic Land Rovers(r) and 4x4s. They provide a wide variety of vehicles, stocking the nation's largest indoor collection of vintage Land Rovers, and catering to each customer's needs. All Land Rovers(r) for sale are thoroughly road-tested, have a current MOT and are inspected in-house with a detailed custom inspection.

John Brown 4x4 pride themselves on having an excellent reputation and providing an honest and efficient service to each customer.


























-- Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc. (MMNA) today announced it will enter a 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander in this year's Rebelle Rally , unveiling a rendering of the vehicle that will contest the grueling all-women's off-road navigational competition this October. The Outlander's special paint scheme pays tribute to a history-making Dakar Rally win twenty years ago, whendrove a Mitsubishi Pajero to victory in 2001, becoming the only woman ever to win the world-famous. In addition to honoring the 20anniversary of Kleinschmidt's momentous win, MMNA will celebrate the brand's 40anniversary in, partnering with military veterans charity Record the Journey to contest the Rebelle for a third consecutive year.

"Mitsubishi Motors has much to celebrate this year, including the 40th anniversary of MMNA, the 20th anniversary of our success at Dakar with Jutta Kleinschmidt, and the successful launch of our all-new flagship vehicle, the 2022 Outlander," said MMNA Chief Operating Officer Mark Chaffin. "Returning to the Rebelle with an Outlander inspired by that Dakar-winning Pajero is a fitting tribute to our history, a powerful statement about our ongoing commitment to women's achievement, and the exciting future ahead for our brand."

Mitsubishi Motors is the most successful manufacturer in Dakar Rally history with 12 wins, including seven consecutive starting with Kleinschmidt's victory in 2001. The Super All-wheel Control (S-AWC) all-wheel drive system, as well as other innovations on the all-new 2022 Outlander, can trace their concept and development directly back to the legendary racing Pajero (known as Montero in the U.S.).

MMNA's participation in the Rebelle Rally started in 2019, when the brand partnered with Record the Journey (RTJ), a nonprofit dedicated to helping military veterans successfully transition to civilian life. As part of MMNA's "Small Batch  Big Impact" social-good program, RTJ received the loan of an Eclipse Cross to compete in the Rebelle, finishing second in the CUV class with the event's first adaptive athlete  U.S. Air Force veteran Karah Behrend  at the wheel. In 2020, MMNA and RTJ again broke ground at the Rebelle, finishing third in a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, the first plug-in hybrid electric vehicle ever to complete the multi-day off-road navigation-focused event. The 2021 Rebelle Rally is scheduled for Oct. 7-16 and will cover more than 2,000 km across Nevada and Southern California.

The "Small Batch  Big Impact" program is a continuation of MMNA's corporate social responsibility initiative, through which the company and its dealer partners create a series of vehicle loans to small nonprofits to help support local communities.

For more information and images, visit https://media.mitsubishicars.com/en-US/releases/mitsubishi-motors-enters-2021-rebelle-rally-celebrates-companys-dakar-rally-history-with-special-tribute-livery.

About Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc.



Through a network of approximately 330 dealer partners across the United States, Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc., (MMNA) is responsible for the sales, marketing and customer service of Mitsubishi Motors vehicles in the U.S. MMNA was the top-ranked Japanese brand in the J.D. Power 2020 Initial Quality study, ranking sixth overall and experiencing the greatest year-over-year improvement of any brand. In its Environmental Targets 2030, MMNA's parent company Mitsubishi Motors Corporation has set a goal of a 40 percent reduction in the CO2 emissions of its new cars by 2030 through leveraging EVs  with PHEVs as the centerpiece  to help create a sustainable society.

With headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee, and corporate operations in California, Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey, Texas, Florida and Virginia, MMNA directly and indirectly employs more than 8,000 people across the United States.

For more information on Mitsubishi vehicles, please contact the Mitsubishi Motors News Bureau at 615- 257-2698 or visit media.mitsubishicars.com.
States With the Worst Drunk Driving Problems in 2021

October 4, 2021; Arrest Records.Com reported that since the 1980s, drunk driving has become less and less common in the United States, a trend reflected in a persistent drop in overall DUI arrests and fatalities over time. During this period, enforcement of DUI laws has grown more strict, which makes these statistical improvements more remarkable. 2019the latest year for which complete FBI arrest statistics are availablewas no exception, and

at least half of U.S. states

witnessed a reduction in their DUI arrest rates.

Many attribute this continued reduction in drunk driving to decades of successful awareness-raising campaigns by non-profit groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), which claims to have saved around 350,000 lives through their advocacy work. Another factor is the increasing popularity of ridesharing apps like Uber and Lyft, which make getting a lift home from a night out easier than ever before, although studies on these services direct effect on lowering the prevalence of drunk driving remain less-than-conclusive.

Despite these reasons to be optimistic, drunk driving has not yet become a thing of the pastnot by a long shotwith the nation tallying over 1 million DUI arrests in 2019, according to FBI data. As with many types of crime, driving under the influence is much more prevalent in some regions compared to others.

In order to give a complete picture of drunk driving in America, weve ranked U.S. states according to the severity of their DUI problem. We produced ranking by giving each state a DUI severity score based on the latest FBI crime statistics, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration DUI fatality statistics, and U.S. Census Bureau data.

The states with the biggest drunk driving issues

Wyoming  the state which topped our 2019 DUI rankingonce again earns the dishonorable distinction of being the worst state for drunk driving in the United States in 2020. The Cowboy State garnered its position due to a high DUI fatality rate and the 3rd highest DUI arrest rate in the country. Long distances between nightlife spots and homes, as well as the states reputation for rugged independence, may have something to do with the high tendency for drunk driving in the state.

However, there are signs to be optimistic: Wyomings DUI arrest rate dropped nearly 8% between 2018 and 2019, and DUI fatalities have steadily decreased over the past decade, as well. Additionally, despite having a high DUI fatality rate, the state only had 34 such fatalities in 2018, placing it in the bottom six states in total DUI fatalities. However, the states low population accounts for its high rate.

Interestingly, the states in the 2nd to 6th spots (South Dakota, Montana, North Dakota, Mississippi, New Mexico) all retained their positions from the previous year, as well. Like Wyoming, these states are all plagued by high DUI arrest rates and high DUI fatality rates. Yetas with Wyomingeach of these states witnessed a reduction in their DUI arrest rates over the previous year. New Mexico in particular showed a marked reduction in DUI arrests of about 33%.

Filling out the top ten are Alaska (#7, up two spots from last years #9), Idaho (#8), Wisconsin (#9), and Missouri (#10), which jumped up in the ranking considerable from 2019 to 2020.

The states where drunk driving is of least concern

As with the states at the top of the list, the five states with the least severe drunk driving problemsMassachusetts (#46), Delaware (#45), Utah (#44), New Jersey (#43), and Ohio (#42) all more or less retained their spots from the previous year.

The position of many Northeastern states near the bottom of the list (New York and Rhode Island are not far behind) suggests that drunk driving is not a major issue in this region compared to in other parts of the country, such as the West and Northwest. However, Massachusetts, Delaware, and New Jersey all experienced an increase in their DUI arrest rates from 2018 to 2019.

Utah, the state with the 3rd least serious drunk driving problem according to our ranking, is an interesting anomaly: nearby states such as Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana are much closer to the top of the list, yet the Beehive State is in the bottom ten in both DUI fatality rate and DUI arrest rate. The states position can be better understoodif not explained, outrightby a couple of factors: Mormonism, Utahs predominant religion, bars consumption of alcoholic beverages, while the sale and distribution of alcohol are heavily regulated in the state.

Where has drunk driving gotten worse?

A fair number of states jumped up in our rankings from 2019 to 2020, although several of these jumps can be disregarded due to the fact that there are only 46 states in the ranking this year (Illinois, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Alabama all reported insufficient arrest data to be included).

Most notably, Missouri jumped up 22 spots from #32 to #10, owing to a significant 68% increase in DUI arrest rate over the previous year. Idaho (up 11 spots) and Louisiana (up 7 spots) went up considerably in the ranking from 2019 to 2020, as both states experienced double-digit percentage increases in DUI arrest rate.

Overall, five states had double-digit percentage increases in DUI arrest rate compared to 2018 numbers, and 21 states had at least modest increases.

Which states have shown improvement in regards to drunk driving?

As previously mentioned, at least half of U.S. states experienced a reduction in DUI arrest rate between 2018 and 2019. Most notably, seven states achieved remarkable double-digit percentage drops in their DUI arrests for the year (two additional statesGeorgia and Alabamaalso reported double-digit percentage drops, although their crime data reporting represented a small fraction of their populations).

Of these states, North Carolina experienced the most significant improvement, with a near 69% year-over-year reduction in DUI arrest rate. This allowed the Tar Heel State to go down 25 spots, from 7th to 32nd, in our ranking of the worst states for drunk driving. North Carolinas reduction in DUI arrests is so significant that it raises the question as to whether its 2019 drunk driving arrests were underreported to the FBI, although there is no evidence for this.

The states neighbor, South Carolina, earned the second greatest reduction in DUI arrest rates between 2018 and 2019 (a 48% drop), which allowed it to drop from 8th to 12th in the overall ranking.

Summary

With a couple of notable exceptions, the 2020 ranking of states by their drunk driving problems closely resembles the previous years ranking: most states retain a similar position on the list compared to 2019.

Zooming out and looking at entire regions, the north-central block of Wyoming, Montana, and the Dakotas is still the worst part of the U.S. for drunk driving, characterized by high DUI arrest rates and a high number of drunk driving-related deaths relative to their low populations.

Contrastingly, Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states typically have the lowest DUI arrest and fatality rates.

Nevertheless, despite the disparity between various regions in the seriousness of their drunk driving issues, the general trend across the nation is one of a reduction in the tendency of people to drive while intoxicated, and this is reflected in a wide range of statistics. Lets hope this trend continues for the foreseeable future.

Drunk Driving by State Rankings, Worst to Best

Methodology

In order to rank U.S. states by the seriousness of their DUI issue, each state was given a DUI Severity Score, calculated by using its DUI arrest rate per 100K and DUI fatality rate per 100K. Each states DUI arrest rate per 100K was calculated using the latest 2019 FBI statistics for DUI arrests, and each states DUI fatality rate per 100K was calculated using 2018 NHTSA DUI fatality statistics. Note: Four states reported 2019 crime data from areas representing just 25% of the states population, or less, and were not included in the final ranking. These states are Alabama, Illinois, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.
Hispano Suiza and Power Electronics announce a collaboration agreement

Legendary automotive Brand Hispano Suiza and Power Electronics, world leader in sustainable energy, signed today an alliance that will be officially presented at the next Intersolar Europe fair, which will take place in Munich (Germany) from October 6 to 8. Visitors to the Exhibition will be able to appreciate the ultimate in electric mobility, the Hispano Suiza Carmen, an authentic work of art delivering 1,019 CV of power, zero emissions and a design that leaves no one indifferent: the hypercar will be on display on the stand of the Valencian multinational.

Hispano Suiza is a historic Spanish car brand that has been part of the Suque Mateu family for four generations. Hispano Suiza was founded in Barcelona in 1904 by Damian Mateu, with the help of technical director and engineer Marc Birkigt, also a partner in the company. Between 1904 and 1946, Hispano Suiza manufactured more than 12,000 high-performance luxury vehicles and 50,000 aircraft engines. Its headquarters, technical centre and manufacturing plant are located in Barcelona (Spain).

In March 2019, Miguel Suque Mateu relaunched the brand at the Geneva Motor Show, unveiling a truly impressive, fully electric vehicle: the Carmen. This elegant and exclusive 1,019 CV model has been designed, developed and built entirely in Spain. Its most radical version, the Carmen Boulogne, joined the family in 2020. The Carmen Boulogne delivers 1,114 CV and its name pays tribute to the competition in which Andre Dubonnet won his first race with Hispano Suiza. Only 19 Carmen and 5 Carmen Boulogne will be made. Each vehicle is completely tailor-made: they take an average of 7 months to build.

Sergio Martinez Campos, CEO of Hispano Suiza comments This agreement with Power Electronics is strategically very important for Hispano Suiza because we complement the technological cycle of charging our electric hypercars to offer our customers state-of-the-art, reliable and safe chargers, thus contributing to sustainable mobility .

Javier Rodriguez, Commercial Director of Power Electronics Electric Mobility Division has highlighted the importance of this collaboration between the two companies where Power Electronics fast-charge chargers are complemented with the Carmen Boulogn 750V Battery Pack and where the two companies lead the way to decarbonisation in the Spanish automotive scene.

In addition to being leaders in energy storage, Power Electronics are also firmly committed to the development of electric mobility, thanks to their own engineering department from which numerous resources are allocated to research and develop solutions for charging electric vehicles. Currently they design, manufacture and distribute charging stations and poles that supply power to all types of electric vehicles. Their durability, reliability, safety and ease of maintenance make them the best option on the market.

The Intersolar Europe Exhibition is the perfect setting to present this partnership, since it represents the most important meeting point within the sustainable energy industry to showcase their products, innovations and new developments. Manufacturers, suppliers, distributors and service providers will meet at this fair, consolidated as one of the most important events and with the greatest capacity to generate new business.

About Power Electronics

Power Electronics is the world's number one manufacturer of energy conversion systems for energy storage and a leading manufacturer of solar inverters for photovoltaic plants in the US, LATAM, Australia, the UK and Spain. Its products are present in nearly 1,300 plants distributed over 35 countries around the world. The company closed 2020 with a figure of 40GW of installed AC power, which has made it possible to avoid the discharge of more than 56.3 million tons of CO2 into the environment.

Sobre Hispano Suiza

Hispano Suiza is a historic Spanish car brand owned by the Suque Mateu family for four generations. Hispano Suiza Fabrica de Automovil S.A. was founded in Barcelona in 1904 by Damian Mateu, with the help of the technical director and engineer Marc Birkigt, also a partner in the company.

Between 1904 and 1946, Hispano Suiza manufactured more than 12,000 high-performance luxury vehicles and 50,000 aircraft engines. Its headquarters, technical centre and manufacturing plant are in Barcelona (Spain). Hispano Suiza embodies a spirit that combines the pride of being a Spanish brand with a strong family legacy.

Since its foundation, four generations of the Suque Mateu family have preserved the family brand, providing momentum and dynamism to maintain its significant heritage. Upon taking control of the company Miguel Mateu, the founders son, continued to produce luxury high-end vehicles.

In March 2019 Miguel Suque Mateu, relaunched the brand at the Geneva Motor Show where he unveiled a fully electric, truly breath-taking vehicle: the Carmen. This elegant and exclusive 1,019 hp model has been designed, developed, and built entirely in Spain. Its exterior is inspired by the classic Dubonnet Xenia and shares the values that turned Hispano Suiza into one of the greatest exponents of the luxury automotive industry, with timeless design, meticulous craftsmanship and scrupulous attention to detail. In 2020, Hispano Suiza presented the Carmen Boulogne, an evolution of the Carmen focused on sportiness and tailor-made to reflect the brand's racing heritage. It boasts 820 kW (1,114 hp), a top speed of 290 km/h and a 0 to 100 km/h time of less than 2.6 s. Thanks to the recently launched Unique Tailormade programme, based on the brands DNA values - Heritage, Sport and Elegance - clients can choose from 1,904 ways to personalise their dream car, choosing interior and exterior details that make their hypercar truly unique. Hispano Suiza will only produce 19 units of the Carmen and 5 Carmen Boulogne. On average, building time for each vehicle is approximately seven months.

Hispano Suiza is part of the Peralada Group, which represents the pinnacle of luxury in gastronomy and entertainment through its global portfolio of casinos, restaurants, hotels, golf courses, vineyards, music festivals and marinas.
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Democratic presidential hopefuls (LR) former US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), entrepreneur Andrew Yang, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee arrive on stage ahead of the second round of the second Democratic primary debate of the 2020 presidential campaign season hosted by CNN at the Fox Theatre in Detroit, Michigan on July 31, 2019. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

2020 Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang Officially Leaves Democratic Party

Businessman Andrew Yang, who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2020 and mayor of New York City, said he has left the Democratic Party.

Throughout my twenties, I remained a staunch Democrat, though like many others I was drawn primarily to national races, Yang wrote on his website. I co-hosted a small fundraiser for John Kerrys campaign at a bar when I was 29I think we raised maybe $3,000. I thrilled to Barack Obamas victory in 2008 and, to a lesser extent, his re-election in 2012.

Years later, Yang said, he donated to Bernie Sanders campaign and then voted for former 2016 candidate Hillary Clinton over then-candidate Donald Trump. Last year, after losing the Democratic nomination, Yangwho had championed universal basic incomerecalled campaigning in favor of then-candidate Joe Biden and later, for Democrat candidates Jon Ossof and Raphael Warnock, both of whom were vying to win Georgias two Senate runoff races in early January.

And yet, Im confident that no longer being a Democrat is the right thing, Yang wrote. He then wrote that the United States is stuck in part because polarization is getting worse than ever.

Explaining that now he can be even more honest about both the system and the people in it, Yang said that breaking up with the Democratic Party feels like the right thing to do because I believe I can have a greater impact this way.

It isnt clear if Yang will join another party or create his own.

Im not very ideological. Im practical. Making partisan argumentsparticularly expressing what I often see as performative sentimentis sometimes uncomfortable for me, Yang said. Im actually more comfortable trying to fix the system than being a part of it.

Yangs announcement comes just one day before his book, Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy, is slated to be released.

Yang wrote for Politico on Oct. 3 that when he ran for president last year, the newfound fame was enough to go to ones head, noting: Id been a CEO and founder of a company, but running for office was a different animal.

The people around me treated me as either a celebrity or a product that hundreds of staffers were focused on selling, and everyone in my orbit started treating me like I might be a presidential contender, he said. I was getting a crash course in how we treat the very powerfuland it was weird.

There are psychological consequences to being treated this way for months on end. Yang suggested that elected officials who acquire power are susceptible to growing so out of touch with their constituents. Empathy becomes optional or even unhelpful. Leadership becomes the appearance of leadership.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the Democratic National Committee for comment.
6 Ways to Protect Yourself From Cyber Theft

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and this year marks an especially vulnerable time for consumers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it a surge in cybercrime, according to Matt Donahue, a compliance and risk analyst at Sentient Digital, Inc., a technology solutions and IT managed services provider with offices in New Orleans and Norfolk.

Despite businesses aiming to adapt to the rapid technological changes that accompanied more remote work, cybercriminals are ready to exploit the gaps left behind, he told The Epoch Times.

With a higher number of shoppers making purchases online, thieves have found additional ways to carry out digital attacks. It is estimated that cybercrime will cost the world $6 trillion in 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015, according to Cybersecurity Ventures.

Fortunately, staying safe online often starts with recognizing signs that could indicate a scam. By knowing what to look for, you can reduce your risk of falling victim to cyber theft. Follow these guidelines as you work, shop, and spend time online.

Dont Click on Phishy Links

Phishing scams involve a message, such as an email, text, or online advertisement, that tries to obtain personal information. For instance, you might get a message asking you to click on a link. When you click, you are taken to a phony website, where you are asked to confirm your account information or update your password. The thief then takes your identifying information and uses it to make purchases in your name or access your account.

There are a lot of phishing scams out there that are taking advantage of peoples fears about the COVID-19 pandemic, Robert Siciliano, a cyber social identity protection instructor at ProtectNow, told The Epoch Times. Right now, the most prolific are coming out about the World Health Organization.

Make Online Purchases Carefully

When using food services, Donahue suggests paying through the app only. If they request a different method, cancel the order.

Be tentative about buying items at a website youve never heard about.

There are also a ton of new fake e-commerce sites popping up, most of them claiming to sell things like masks, gloves, and other COVID-19 related products, Siciliano said.

Before buying anything, look for the name of the website and carry out a search to verify its legitimacy. Check online reviews about the company and make sure the URL is spelled correctly. Also be wary of sites that offer extremely low prices or heavy discounts.

Hang Up the Phone

If you pick up the phone and hear an urgent story, followed by a request for financial help or your account information, dont share anything personal. Scammers often pose as a relative in need of financial assistance, a government agency, or a charity that needs funds. Rather than responding, hang up the phone and call the person or organization yourself to see if the request is legitimate. Also keep in mind that the IRS or Social Security Administration will not insist you make payments over the phone.

There are no government agencies that will ask you for money or personal info, Siciliano said.

Research Work from Home Offers

Because of the large pool of unemployed and underemployed workers this pandemic has caused, scammers and cybercriminals find work-from-home schemes an ideal opportunity for fraud, Matthew Paxton, a cyber tech expert and the founder of Hypernia, a gaming review site, told The Epoch Times. These scams often promise high salaries or easy work, but then ask the job seeker to first pay for training or other hiring-related costs. If a company or recruiter contacts you, take time to look up the offer and organization online. Turn down opportunities that require you to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars before getting hired.

Connect Safely

Use antivirus software and a VPN to ensure safe and secure browsing, Donahue said.

A VPN, or virtual private network, creates a private network from a public network, giving you online privacy. When it comes to passwords, focus on strength and uniqueness.

Avoid repeating passwords and use a password manager software to store them, Donahue said.

Roboform, Nordpass, and LastPass are password manager tools to help you create and maintain online passwords. If possible, use multifactor authentication when logging into accounts to provide an extra layer of security. For instance, with this setup, you may be asked to enter a password, followed by a code that is sent to your phone, to verify your identity.

Watch Out for False Apps

Fake mobile apps are also on the rise, and when downloaded, these apps can install things like spyware, malware, and ransomware on the persons device, Siciliano said.

Spyware can be used to collect your personal information, malware can damage your device, and ransomware may block access to a computer system until you pay a certain sum or ransom. Before downloading a new app, look up reviews and check its rating. If youre not sure whether it is legitimate, avoid adding it to your device until you can verify it is for real.
Algeria's President Abdelmadjid Tebboune speaks outside a polling station in Bouchaoui, on the western outskirts of Algeria's capital Algiers, on June 12, 2021. (Ryad Kramdi/AFP via Getty Images)

Algeria Closes Airspace to French Military, French Army Says, as Row Grows

PARIS/ALGIERSAlgeria has closed its airspace to French military planes, Frances military said on Sunday, escalating the biggest row between the countries in years.

A spokesperson for the French Armed Forces said Algeria had closed its airspace to two flights, but that it would have no major consequences for operations in the Sahel region, south of Algeria.

Algerias government and military were not immediately available for comment on the closure of airspace.

On Saturday, Algeria recalled its ambassador to Paris citing comments attributed to French President Emmanuel Macron, who was quoted in Le Monde as saying Algerias politico-military system had rewritten the history of its colonization by France based on a hatred of France.

The Algerian government did not specify which Macron comment had prompted the recall of its ambassador, but it accused him of interfering in Algerian internal affairs.

Macron was also quoted questioning whether there had been an Algerian nation before French colonial rule. Algeria won its independence from France in 1962 after a bloody military struggle.

A source in the Algerian government said the comment about Algerias existence as a nation had caused particular anger.

Algerias ruling elite since independence has been largely drawn from veterans of its war of liberation from France.

We understand Macron is on campaign and that he wants to get far-right support by all means, such as insulting Algerias history This is unacceptable to us, a former Algerian minister said. Frances holds a presidential election next April.

The row comes on top of strains last week when France said it would slash the number of visas available to citizens of Maghreb countriesdrawing a formal protest from Algeria.

France has about 5,000 troops in the Sahel region, south of Algeria, fighting alongside regional militaries against Islamist terrorist groups mainly in Mali and Niger.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) is seen during a hearing in Washington on July 16, 2019. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo)

Arizona Authorities Probing Illegal Recording of Sen. Sinema

Authorities in Arizona are probing the illegal bathroom recording of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), officials confirmed with The Epoch Times on Oct. 4.

Sinema was harassed over the weekend at Arizona State University (ASU) in Phoenix, where she teaches. She was followed by activists into a bathroom and recorded while inside, a violation of state law.

The ASU Police Department is working with Senator Sinema and conducting a full investigation of the incident that occurred Sunday, Adam Wolfe, the public information officer for the university, told The Epoch Times in an email.

Due to the active status of the investigation, we are unable to provide more information at this time, he wrote.

A state statute makes it illegal for any person to film another without their consent in a restroom or bathroom.

Violators can be charged with a class 5 felony. Violators can be sentenced to up to 2 1/2 years in jail.

The person who was filming appears to be with Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA), an activist group that supports drastically loosening laws against illegal immigration.

LUCHA didnt respond to a request for comment, neither did the offices of Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich nor Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.).

Sgt. Vincent Cole, a spokesman for the Phoenix Police Department, indicated that the investigation would be taken care of by university police.

Arizona State University has their own Police Department and are the investigating agency for this incident, he told The Epoch Times via email.

Like many, General Brnovich was disturbed by the video that surfaced this weekend by political activists. We cannot tolerate lawlessness and this type of conduct to occur. People can disagree without being disagreeable, Katie Conner, a spokeswoman for Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a U.S. Senate candidate, added in an email.

Sinema denounced what happened in a lengthy statement released on Oct. 4.

Yesterdays behavior was not legitimate protest. It is unacceptable for activist organizations to instruct their members to jeopardize themselves by engaging in unlawful activities such as gaining entry to closed university buildings, disrupting learning environments, and filming students in a restroom, she said in part.

Senator Sinema works hard on behalf of Arizonans every day and this is not the way to handle disagreements. These actions were completely inappropriate, Kelly wrote in a separate statement.

Activists have been trying to pressure Sinema to support a mammoth $3.5 trillion budget proposal that Democrats hope to ram through Congress with zero Republican votes, which would require every Democrat in the Senate to support it. Sinema has been joined in opposition to the proposal by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who was confronted by activists on kayaks while on his houseboat last week.

Asked about what happened to Sinema and Manchin, President Joe Biden on Oct. 4 told reporters in Washington, I dont think theyre appropriate tactics but it happens to everybody.

The only people it doesnt happen to is people who have Secret Service standing around. So its part of the process, he said.

But Blake Masters, who is running in the Republican primary for the seat Kelly currently holds, offered a different view.

Recording people in bathrooms is illegal. In a sane country, these agitators would be arrested and prosecuted, he told The Epoch Times in an email. Ive been shocked at Mark Kellys refusal to defend Sen. Sinema or even critique the activists.

Editors Note: This article has been updated with additional comments.
Australia to Profit From Global Energy Crunch as Coal Prices Surge

Australias resource and energy exports are expected to bring in a record $349 billion (US$253 billion) in 2021-22, according to a new report by the Department of Industry, Science, Energy, and Resources.

While iron ore export profits will fall amid crashing iron ore prices, surging demand for thermal and metallurgical coal will drive Australian resource and energy exports to new record levels.

Volatile weather conditions across the northern hemisphere have pushed up demand for Australian coal, and new supply chains created following Chinese import restrictions have now solidified and begun to gain the benefits of experience and scale, the report said.

Consumers across the Asian region may also be attempting to build stockpiles given the increasing likelihood that supply tightness will persist for at least another year.

Aerial view of a modern large coal power plant in Dezhou City, Shandong Province, China in this undated photo. (chungking/Adobe Stock)

The global energy crunch has pushed coal and gas prices up to the advantage of Australian exporters.

Newcastle coal prices, the benchmark for Asia, has surged to US$203 (AU$280) per tonne, breaking the previous record. Global coal prices also jumped over 13 percent in a single day on Sept. 27, when it broke US$200 (AU$279) a tonne, and has since kept climbing.

These record prices confirm that, far from declining, global demand for Australian premium thermal coal is rising, and forecasts indicate it will remain high for several years at least, Resources Minister Keith Pitt told The Australian.

With metallurgical coal prices also at a record level and LNG (liquified natural gas) fetching high prices, the outlook for Australian exporters is extremely good.

The Chinese Communist Partys ban on Australian coal as part of its trade war with Australia has led to rolling blackouts across the Asian nation, disrupting its factories and supply chains.

The UK and Europe are also facing large energy shortfalls. At the same time, Russia, Europes biggest exporter of natural gas, has not increased its gas supply, forcing Europe to compete with Asia for gas.

Russia could do more to increase gas availability to Europe and ensure storage is filled to adequate levels in preparation for the coming winter heating season, the International Energy Agency said in a statement.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor said the global energy crisis is a wake-up call for countries heavily pushing for renewable energy without a reliable energy grid to back it up.

Minister for Energy Angus Taylor looks on for the opening remarks of the Leaders Summit on Climate hosted by United States President Joe Biden in Sydney, Australia, on April 22, 2021. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

There are some who want to shut down these industries overnight. Look around the world about what happens when you cut supply lines, Taylor told The Australian Financial Review. It is simply not economically or politically sustainable to do so.

If you lose balance, you pay for ityou cant have more renewables without dispatchable generation. Thats a hugely important lesson.

In fact, the Australian Energy Market Operator has already warned that the country faces an electricity shortfall this decade unless a new generation is brought in to offset the exit of ageing coal plants.

Taylor said Australia had learnt its lesson when there were grid reliability issues following the closure of coal plants in South Australia and Victoria.

We received our wake-up call, and were determined not to have a third one with Liddell, he said, referring to the upcoming closure of another coal-fired plant in 2023.
A Chinese bank employee counts 100-yuan notes and U.S. dollar bills at a bank counter in Nantong in eastern China's Jiangsu Province on Aug. 6, 2019. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Australian Tax Office to Investigate Pandora Papers

The Australian Tax Office will investigate data from the Pandora Papers, which contain around 12 million leaked documents revealing the offshore accounts of well-known political figures.

Will Day, the ATOs deputy commissioner and chief of the Serious Financial Crime Taskforce (SFCT) will probe the data leak to identify any possible offshore tax evasion.

We are well connected locally and globally in our efforts to fight financial crime. We will certainly look at this data set and compare it with the data we already have to identify any potential connections, Day said in a press release on Oct. 4.

He noted that being named in the data leak did not automatically guarantee that a person was guilty of a crime.

There are a range of legitimate reasons that someone may have for an offshore bank account or structure. We know most Australians do the right thing. However, there are some who attempt to hide their ownership interests or financial misdoings through offshore arrangements, he added.

The message is clear for those who try to cheat the systemyour secrets are no longer safe, and you can expect to feel serious consequences for your actions. No complicated money trail is too difficult for us to unravel.

The ATOs intelligence on tax evasion comes from several sources including advisors, partner agencies, the community, and international bodies.

The Pandora Papers, revealed on Oct. 4, contains over 11.9 million financial records amounting to 2.94 terabytes of data of confidential information. The data has been drawn from 14 different sources.

In comparison, the infamous Panama Papers released in 2016 contained 11.5 million leaked documents and 2.6 terabytes of information.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) shared the files with 150 media outlets and over 600 journalists in 117 countries. Australias public broadcaster, the ABCs Four Corners and Background Briefing were also granted access to the leak.

From the very first data leak, we responded quickly through JITSIC, Day said. JITSIC brings together 42 national tax administrations that have committed to more effective and efficient ways to deal with tax avoidance and evasion.

JITSIC member countries will collaborate to develop a more accurate picture of what the data reveals.
Trade Representative Katherine Tai testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 12, 2021. (Susan Walsh/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Biden Administration to Offer Targeted Tariff Exclusion on Chinese Goods

WASHINGTONThe Biden administration will announce on Monday its new strategy on trade relations with China, which will include extending tariff exclusion on certain Chinese goods, according to senior administration officials.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, in a speech at a Washington think tank on Monday, is planning to reveal the China trade policy of the Biden administration. Her announcement will focus on the bilateral trade agreement and the tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese imports imposed by the previous administration.

First, our objective is not to escalate trade tensions with China or double down on the previous administrations flawed strategy, a senior administration official told reporters on Sunday during a conference call ahead of the announcement.

As part of the new trade strategy, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) will revisit the phase one trade agreement signed between the United States and China in January last year and ask Beijing to follow through on the commitments it has made.

The phase one trade deal signed during the Trump administration requires China to buy $200 billion worth of additional U.S. goods and services during the two-year period of 2020 and 2021. Analysis of Chinese trade data by the Peterson Institute for International Economics showed that China has met about 58 percent of its purchase commitments in 2020 and 69 percent through Aug. 2021.

According to the Biden administration, results from the agreement are mixed, with the agriculture sector benefiting the most from the agreement. Beijing has met about 92 percent of its import target in agriculture but has fallen short in meeting its commitments in manufactured goods and energy.

After a comprehensive review, the administration plans to use the enforcement mechanism under the agreement to ensure that China meets those commitments.

Second, we will start a targeted tariff exclusion process. We will also keep open the potential for additional exclusion processes in the future, the official said.

President Joe Biden has maintained the tariffs on nearly $360 billion worth of Chinese goods enacted by the previous administration.

But Biden officials believe that the previous administrations tariff campaign didnt address Chinas unfair trade practices and instead, hurt select sectors of the economy.

While its unclear which goods or sectors will benefit from the tariff exclusion process, the administration says it will align existing tariffs with its priorities, which is to protect American workers and producers.

We will see how China responds to what Ambassador Tai will detail tomorrow, and we will adjust accordingly, the official said. But we do not want to take any options off the table or preemptively box ourselves into a set course of action.

The administration also said it recognized the fact that China simply may not change and that we have to have a strategy that deals with China as it is, rather than as we might wish it to be.

The Trump administration previously indicated that tariffs on Chinese goods were justified to address Beijings unfair trade policies, including intellectual property theft, forced technology transfers, and massive government subsidies for its companies.

During the signing of the phase one agreement, then-President Donald Trump said he would retain tariffs on Chinese goods as leverage for the next round of talks.

The Biden administration says it doesnt plan to pursue a second phase agreement with Beijing.

Well focus on phase one engagement, the senior administration official said. We will raise concerns on industrial policies, but we are not seeking a phase two negotiation.

Biden has repeatedly indicated that his strategy will be tackling China from a position of strength by investing domestically and building close ties with allies as a way to address Chinas unfair practices.

Ambassador Tai is expected to engage with her Chinese counterparts soon to discuss progress made in the trade deal and Chinas industrial policies.

Companies and trade associations have been pushing hard against tariffs imposed on Chinese goods. More than 6,000 U.S firmsincluding Ford, Tesla, and Home Depotfiled lawsuits in the U.S. Court of International Trade seeking to upend these tariffs.

Companies have also sent a letter to Biden asking him to settle the litigation. They stated that the levies are not tough on China but are tough on U.S. companies, U.S. workers, and consumers who have paid these tariffs as a tax out of their own pockets.
President Joe Biden gestures as speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, on Sept. 24, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Biden Blames Republicans in Address on Debt Ceiling

President Joe Biden in a speech Monday urged Congress to raise the countrys debt ceiling to avoid defaulting on the money it owes for the first time ever.

Defaulting on the debt would lead to a self-inflicted wound that takes our economy over a cliff, he said in a White House live stream from the State Dining Room.

Congress has until an Oct. 18 deadline to increase the nations limit on what it allows the Treasury to borrow. The limit was suspended three times during the Trump administration and has been raised dozens of times since its creation at the start of World War I.

Biden blames Republicans for the inaction to raise the limit now, saying they are obstructing a vote with the use of the filibuster and playing Russian Roulette with the U.S. economy.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other Republicans have voiced opposition to raising the limit and have called for less government spending.

In a letter to the president Monday, McConnell reiterated that position saying Democrats will need to raise the debt limit on their own. McConnell urged Biden to lean on Democratic leadership to raise the debt ceiling through the reconciliation process writing, Senate Democrats do not need Republican cooperation in any shape or form to do their job. Democrats do not need our consent to set a vote at 51 instead of 60.

Biden told reporters he has read the letter and plans to talk to McConnell about it.

He and I have been down this road once before back when I was Vice President, said Biden. And I hope we can have some intelligent and honest conversation.

At a Sept. 28 press conference, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) rejected using the reconciliation process to raise the limit calling it risky and a non-starter.

Biden echoed that sentiment Monday saying that path is fraught with all kinds of potential danger of miscalculation.

National Economic Council senior advisor Jesse Lee also responded to McConnells letter on Twitter, writing, All Sen. McConnell has to do to remove his own political threat from the US economy & American families is stop filibustering. Democrats will do their jobs to address the debt limit since he refuses to. Just stop blocking the vote. American has been through enough. Lets do it today.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said the Treasury is using extraordinary measures to continue to fund the government, and has warned it would be catastrophic, if the nation defaults, financial analysts at Moodys and J.P. Morgan Bank agree. The suspended debt limit was reinstated in August at a level of $22 trillion, about $6 trillion less than the current U.S. debt.

Congress was able to unite on Sept. 30 to pass stopgap legislation to fund the government through December and avert a shutdown, but that measure did not address the debt ceiling.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai testifies before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee during a hearing on Capitol Hill, in Washington, on April 28, 2021. (Sarah Silbiger/Reuters)

Bidens New China Trade Plan Seeks to Enforce Trump-Era Trade Deal, Unwind Some China Tariffs

The top U.S. trade negotiator vowed on Oct. 4 to unwind some Trump-era tariffs on Chinese goods and to press the Chinese regime for frank talks, in a bid to end Beijings unfair trade practices.

In recent decades, Beijing has poured billions in state subsidies into targeted industries such as steel, solar, and agriculture, leading to the shuttering of U.S. factories and a zero-sum dynamic in the world economy, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai told an Oct. 4 panel hosted by Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Above all else, we must defendto the hiltour economic interests, she said at the event, explaining that she would be taking all steps necessary to protect ourselves against the waves of damage inflicted over the years through unfair competition.

Tai said her office has conducted a comprehensive review of the phase one trade agreement the United States reached with China last year during the Trump administration. Shes expected to have a telephone call with her Chinese counterpart, Vice Premier Liu He, to discuss Chinas performance.

She said that Washington will start a targeted tariff exclusion process to exempt some Chinese imports from punitive U.S. tariffs, with potential additional exclusion processes in the future.

While Tai stopped short of saying whether China had fulfilled its commitments under the deal, she said that most importantly, we have to take up with China.

The phase one trade deal signed during the Trump administration requires China to buy $200 billion worth of additional U.S. goods and services during the two-year period of 2020 and 2021. Analysis of Chinese trade data by the Peterson Institute for International Economics shows that China has met about 58 percent of its purchase commitments in 2020 and 69 percent through August 2021.

The deal, which halted the escalation of a trade war that heaped tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods from both countries, also called for the Chinese regime to improve protections for some U.S. intellectual property and market access for U.S. agricultural biotechnology and financial services firms.

While acknowledging the trade deals role in stabilizing the market, she shared reservations about the agreement, saying that it hadnt addressed Chinas state-centered and nonmarket trade practices.

Tai indicated that she wouldnt rule out levying new tariffs to force China to make good on its word.

History of Trade Abuses

The U.S. trade relationship with China had traditionally focused on securing market access to China, but that approach has clashed with realities in the communist country that are today causing us to open our eyes, she said.

Since the Chinese regime joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in December 2001, the United States has for three successive generations engaged with Beijing through high-level strategic dialogues to ensure that Beijing complied with WTO rules. But Chinas follow-through was inconsistent and impossible to enforce, said Tai, who was involved in some of 27 WTO dispute settlement cases against China.

The World Trade Organization headquarters (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 4, 2021. (Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

Even when China changed the specific practices we challenged, it did not change the underlying policies, and meaningful reforms by China remained elusive, she said.

Along with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Tai believes that decoupling with China isnt a realistic outcome in terms of our global economy. Rather, Washington will pursue a course of durable co-existence with Beijing, she said.

Our objective is not to inflame trade tensions with China, she said, defining the administrations goal as re-coupling, or to have trade with China but without falling into dependency.

China is a participant in the global economy, and it is the one that we have unresolved issues with. I dont think there is a path to addressing those issues without having a direct conversation with China and direct communication with China.

She said the United States will continue to support the WTO, but will also need to be agile, and think outside of the box with respect to how we can be more effective in addressing the concerns that we have been struggling to address with China on trade.

The administration is also looking into incentives to encourage companies to buy American up and down the supply chain, she said, and, at the same time, collaborate with like-minded allies to shape the rules for fair trade.

The United States wont pursue phase two negotiations with China on deeper structural issues such as massive subsidies to vital industries that skew global markets, because Beijing is doubling down on its authoritarian state-centric approach, senior administration officials said during a press call on Oct. 3.

We recognize that China simply may not change, and that we have to have a strategy that deals with China as it is, rather than as we might wish it to be, one of the officials said.

A Work in Progress

Robert Atkinson, president of public policy think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, said that Tais speech fell somewhat short of expectations.

I would have liked to see her say, were going to give the Chinese two months on the stage one commitments, and after that, forget it. Were not going to waste our time anymore, he told The Epoch Times.

The Chinese are masters of rope-a-dope, he said, referring to a tactic coined by legendary U.S. boxer Muhammad Ali, in which one allows an opponent to punch himself out.

Theres a level of urgency here that has to be confronted, said Atkinson. The longer the Chinese would go on with this, the more relative advantage they get over us.

Tais remarks, according to Atkinson, signal that the administration will focus more on limiting the harms of unfair Chinese policies, rather than continuing the  fruitless effort to get them to stop doing what they are doing.

Workers unload bags of chemicals at a port in Zhangjiagang in Chinas eastern Jiangsu Province on Aug. 7, 2018. (Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images)

Claude Barfield, a former consultant to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative and a senior fellow at Washington-based think tank American Enterprise Institute, noted that Tai danced around the details, which he said shows that the administrations trade policy was still very much a work in progress.

It was a well-delivered speech, but I dont think she advanced substantively a lot, Barfield told The Epoch Times. It shows the administration is still making up its mind as to what to do.

The Biden administration is trying to distinguish its policies from those of President Donald Trump, but so far it has been largely carrying on what the Trump administration has put in place, he said. For instance, Tai didnt commit to joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade pact from which Trump withdrew the United States, Barfield noted.

The Biden administration is also unlikely to cut steel and aluminum tariffs due to the foreseeable pushback from trade unions, he said.

Meanwhile, Tai faces major roadblocks ahead in trying to curb the list of trade abuses she highlighted from Beijing, according to Barfield.

Since the WTO makes decisions by consensus, Beijing could veto new rules Washington seeks to push through to hold the regime in check, he said.

Working with allies also will likely come with its own challenges.

During the panel, Tai evaded a question on how she would reconcile enforcing Chinas purchase commitments with the United States and its effect on allies, given that Beijing had canceled its barley imports from Australia as it stepped up those purchases from the United States.

Nor would it be possible to get some European countriesnamely France and Germanyto go along with really strong retaliatory policy, Barfield said.

I just dont think thats in the cards, he said. The administration is kind of trapped itself by saying that it would actually work with allies in terms of China. Good luck with that.

Emel Akan contributed to this report.
Signs reading "No Irish Sea border" and "Ulster is British, no internal UK Border" are seen affixed to a lamp post at the Port of Larne, Northern Ireland, on March 6, 2021. (Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters)

Britain Again Warns EU: We Will Trigger Brexit Safeguard Measures

MANCHESTER, EnglandBritain warned the European Union on Oct. 4 it would trigger safeguard measures in their divorce deal if the bloc failed to agree to changes to smooth trade with Northern Ireland, saying the agreement had come apart even more quickly than we feared.

Brexit minister David Frost told the ruling Conservative Partys conference he would present a new set of legal texts to support the governments earlier proposals for change to the Northern Ireland protocol.

Frost didnt say when the government would trigger what is known as Article 16allowing either side to take unilateral action if the protocol is deemed to have a negative effectbut British newspapers said he could move by the end of next month.

The EU has said the triggering of Article 16 would be extremely unhelpful and it would look at all options in response.

Without an agreed solution soon, we will need to act, using the Article 16 safeguard mechanism, to address the impact the protocol is having on Northern Ireland, Frost told a sparsely populated hall at the Conservatives annual conference in the northern English city of Manchester.

That may in the end be the only way to protect our countryour people, our trade, our territorial integrity, the peace process, and the benefits of this great UK of which we are all part.

He told a later event that intensive talks with Brussels needed to start soon, saying Britain couldnt wait long although it would try everything before triggering Article 16.

Binding Solution

Britains Northern Ireland minister, Brandon Lewis, told the conference the reason the government hadnt yet triggered Article 16 was because it wanted to negotiate a solution that is binding and sustainable.

Since Britain left the EUs single market at the beginning of this year, difficulties in sending some goods from the mainland to its province of Northern Ireland have prompted the government to repeatedly call for changes to the protocol.

The EU has repeatedly said it wont renegotiate a deal that was signed by both sides in good faith and has urged Britain to find solutions rather than resort to threats.

We are working intensively to find practical solutions to some of the difficulties that people in Northern Ireland are experiencing and we intend to come forward with solutions soon, European Commission spokesman Daniel Ferrie told a news briefing on Oct. 4.

Frost blamed the EUs heavy-handed actions for threatening the delicate balance brought by the 1998 peace process that ended three decades of conflict between Irish Catholic nationalists and pro-British Protestant unionists.

He said the government had wanted to negotiate something better than the protocol, which created a de facto customs border between Britain and Northern Ireland, but would act independently to protect peace on the island of Ireland.

Yes, we agreed on the protocol in that difficult autumn of 2019 [during Brexit negotiations]. We knew we were taking a risk, but a worthy one, he said.

And we worried right from the start that the protocol would not take the strain if not handled sensitively. As it has turned out, we were right. The arrangements have begun to come apart even more quickly than we feared.

By Kylie MacLellan and Elizabeth Piper
Britain Deploys Hundreds of Army Personnel to Deliver Fuel After Panic-Buying Prompts Shortages

Britain has deployed its army to restore fuel supplies across the nation after panic-buyers raced to forecourts to fill their cars over the past 10 days, leading to lengthy lines at gas stations and shortages across the country.

Around 200 service members are being drafted from the army and Royal Air Force as part of Operation Escalinreportedly an existing plan to draft military drivers to deliver fuel to petrol stations in case it was needed after Brexitand will deliver gasoline from depots to gas stations.

Ministers had previously said they had no plans to draft in assistance from the army, but Prime Minister Boris Johnson was reportedly triggered to execute the operation amid mounting pressure to solve the shortages of heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers and other labor shortages that have impacted the fuel supply chain.

British military personnel arrived in combat gear on Monday at gas stations across Britain, of which at least two dozen are still closed throughout London and the south of England.

Brian Madderson, chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), told Sky News on Sunday that while there were only one or two dry sites north of London and that while the general improvement has continued, the situation in London and the southeast remained difficult.

Gordon Balmer, the associations executive director, said it might take a week to 10 days to get stocks back up to normal.

More than 65 army drivers are being deployed as of Monday, with plans to increase this to 200 personnel to be deployed in total, including 100 drivers, the BBC reported.

The drivers have undergone refresher training with the fuel delivery firm Hoyer, which said the training included company safety procedures as well as familiarization with the equipment used to transport fuel, as well as forecourt driving maneuvers.

Meanwhile, a government spokesperson told the BBC that the situation was improving across average forecourt stocks in the UK, and things were continuing to stabilize.

An armed soldier and an armed police officer patrol the streets in London on May 24, 2017. (Carl Court/Getty Images)

More than half of those who have completed training to make fuel deliveries are being deployed to terminals serving London and the southeast of England, demonstrating that the sector is allocating drivers to areas most affected in this first phase from Monday, the spokesperson said.

In a joint statement on Sept. 27, industry leaders including BP, Shell, and Fuels Transport & Logistics said they expect the spiking demand will return to its normal levels in the coming days as cars are fully fueled, and said they were working closely with the government to ensure fuel is available.

There is plenty of fuel at UK refineries and terminals, and as an industry we are working closely with the government to help ensure fuel is available to be delivered to stations across the country, the statement reads.

Britain is in the midst of a fuel crisis triggered by a shortage of around 100,000 HGV drivers, which, along with Brexit, has been further exacerbated by people leaving the industry as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, which halted driver training and testing for nearly a year.

On Sept. 26, the government issued three-month visas to 5,000 foreign HGV driversalong with 5,500 poultry workersto alleviate pressure during this Christmas season.

In addition, up to 4,000 people will be trained as new truck drivers, and nearly 1 million letters will be sent out to people with HGV licences in the coming days in an effort to entice them to give the job another go.

But while the issues appear to be facing Britain and Britain alone, some experts have warned that driver shortages may well extend to part of continental Europe, where there have been long-standing issues with a lack of workers.

Were not in as dramatic and desperate situation yet, but it might come, Frank Huster, director general for the Federal Association for Freight Forwarding and Logistics Germany, told CNBC.

The logistics sector lacks qualified personnel such as lorry drivers but also trained locomotive drivers, inland navigation workers, terminal workers, as well as management people  We have less and less people to work in Western markets, he added.

Reuters contributed to this report.
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Bennett, director of the Cardus Religious Freedom Institute and Canada's former religious freedom ambassador, is pictured in Ottawa on May 8, 2018. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

Canadas New Parliament Should Prioritize Freedom of Conscience Protection, Says Think Tank

When Parliament returns this fall it should take steps to better protect freedom of conscience, a vital component in harmonizing diverse views on various social and medical issues in Canada, a new report says.

Titled Our Inner Guide: Protecting Freedom of Conscience and published by public policy think tank Cardus, the report emphasizes the importance of freedom of conscience, noting that it appears in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and many other bills of rights.

Yet, despite its universality, this human right is, by and large, universally neglected by courts, legislatures, and policymakers, the report says.

We aim to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of conscience in a liberal democracy and alert Canadians to the pressing need for this human right to be afforded due respect.

Given that many people live in diverse, multicultural, and plural societies, the report says, different views can lead to sharp disagreements between citizens on what is good, right, and trueas well as the need to resolve these disagreements.

We need to recognize that there is not a commonly held view, that there are different viewsoften very divergent viewsand for the sake of our common life, we need to ensure that conscience rights are protected, Rev. Dr. Andrew Bennett, the program director for religious freedom and faith community engagement at Cardus, told The Epoch Times.

The report touches on several social issues where peoples right to conscientiously object should be protected, including medical assistance in dying, abortion, and those that relate to the addition of gender identity and gender expression to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination in human-rights codes in Canada.

Enacting legislation to protect conscientious objection, particularly when it comes to health-care professionalsreally, its essential as we expand access to various morally controversial types of medical services, medical treatments, Bennett said.

All that those types of actions, those types of treatments, those types of services are morally challenging, he adds. This relates to some fundamental questions about human life, about the nature of the human person, so many traditions, religious and non-religious, have a lot to say about that, and those beliefs shape our conscience.

The report notes that in Canada, while doctors are usually free to refuse to prescribe certain drugs or perform certain procedures or services they disagree with, thats not the case when it comes to providing referrals to patients to seek that service through another doctor or health professional.

Referrals are problematic for some health-care workers because, in their view, they amount to material co-operationsignificant complicitywith immoral or unethical activity, the report said.

In a situation where a doctor is put into a basically moral jeopardy, it can be very harmful to that persons moral compass, and theres sort of a moral injury that takes place, Bennett said.

And I think most Canadians would want to ensure that their physicians are guided by their conscience, as all of us would want to be guided by our conscience when were called to make difficult decisions.

In March, a controversial bill to expand access to medical assistance in dying, including potentially to people suffering solely from mental illness within two years, was passed into law in Canada, despite opposition from multiple groups. The government appointed an expert panel to review the mental illness provision and provide guidelines and recommend safeguards by March 2022.

Cardus is calling on provincial legislatures to enact legislation that would embed conscientious objection rights for medical professionals in law, noting that Manitoba enacted such a law in relation to assisted suicide in November 2017.

Passage of a bill that robustly protects freedom of conscience would specifically recognize the freedom of health-care workers and the institutions that employ them to refuse any participation in a procedure or service they believe to be immoral or unethical, the think tank said in a press release.

The release notes that Parliament has a duty to prioritize freedom of conscience, especially when it has created laws that undermine or constrain this freedom.

We have already seen regulatory bodies, like the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, actively curtailing doctors freedom of conscience and the courts loosely interpreting the constitutional protections this freedom affords, it says.

Bennett, who was Canadas religious freedom ambassador under the previous Harper government, said he is very concerned that if the freedom of conscience is not protected, Canadians will lose more liberties in the future, noting that there are some worrying trends around respect for freedom of conscience.

I dont think were anywhere near the situation in communist China or Cuba, or other places where conscience rights and fundamental freedoms are regularly violated on a daily basis, and also institutionally and systemically, he said.

Were not there, but as a democracy we shouldnt take [these freedoms] for granted and we have to be vigilant.

Editors note: This article has been updated to mention the expert panel review of mental illness provisions in the medical assistance in dying law.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney gives a COVID-19 update in Edmonton on Sept. 21, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Jason Franson)

Canadian Military Nurses Sent to Alberta to Help Fight COVID-19

The Canadian Armed Forces are lending support to Albertas hospitals by dispatching eight critical care nurses to the provinces intensive care units.

Public Safety Canada said in a release that Alberta had asked for additional medical personnel needed to combat the fourth wave of COVID-19 across the province.

A military contingent was expected to arrive on Oct. 4 to decide where to deploy the critical care nurses.

The Canadian Red Cross is also preparing to send up to 20 medical professionals, some with intensive care unit experience, to relieve medical staff working in Alberta hospitals.

Hospitals in the province have been struggling to accommodate an influx of new COVID-19 patients in recent weeks. Alberta Health Services reported 263 COVID-19 patients in intensive care on Oct. 4, representing a slight drop in the number of critically ill patients since last week.

The Government of Canada said in a news release that the Red Cross is working closely with Alberta Health Services to finalize a plan to position the medical personnel in areas with the greatest needs.

The Red Cross is ready and well-positioned to provide support with medical personnel. Throughout the pandemic, the Red Cross has sent specialists to intensive care units in hospitals, supported public health units with vaccination, and provided comfort and care to returning travellers requiring isolation, Conrad Sauve, President and CEO of the Canadian Red Cross, said in the release.

Newfoundland and Labrador is also sending a medical team of five or six intensive care staff to help out in Fort McMurray, in northern Alberta.

I know that Alberta healthcare workers will be grateful for the helping hand and that all Albertans are thankful for any assistance at this challenging time, Kenney said at a news conference on Sept. 30.

Kenney also said last week that the military support would likely be deployed to Edmonton, the Red Cross to the Red Deer Regional Hospital, and the Newfoundland team to Fort McMurray.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said in a news release that the members of the Canadian Armed Forces will make use of their experience, particularly from Operation LASER, to assist Albertans through the pandemic. Operation LASER is the Canadian Armed Forces response to COVID-19.

Sajjan said that since the beginning of the pandemic, the military has responded to more than 65 requests for assistance from provincial or federal partners.

According to Public Safety Canada, the Government Operations Centre has administered over 130 requests for assistance from federal, provincial, and territorial partners, since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With files from The Canadian Press
Chinas Economy Hit With a 3-Punch Combination

News Analysis

Chinas economy has had a rough summer, hit first by a rise in COVID-19 infections, then by the impending bankruptcy of the giant real estate developer Evergrande, and now by severe power shortages throughout the country.

The coming months might bring relief on the COVID-19 front, but though the authorities are scrambling, the other two problems will linger and are more likely to get worse before they get better.

Most statisticsofficial and unofficialtestify to these economic difficulties. Beijings monthly index of manufacturing activity sank in September to 49.6 from a reading of 50.1 in August. Any figure below 50 indicates a contraction. Perhaps even more telling than the falling aggregate, every major subcategory of the surveyproduction, total new orders, export orders, and hiringall showed declines. The figures are the lowest they have been since February 2020. A private survey, the Caixin Index, was slightly less depressing, showing the manufacturing index at 50, up from 49.2 in August and indicating neither growth nor decline, but hardly anywhere near the rates of expansion to which China has long been accustomed. To be sure, non-manufacturing activity showed some growth in September. There the official survey recorded an index level of 53.2, up from a troubled 47.5 in August, but that is not where Beijings planners have placed their long-term emphasis. Even with this rise, the full array of Chinese economic indicators shows September as the third straight month of economic weakness.

The rise in COVID-19 infections has had a greater economic impact in China. Beijings zero-tolerance policy set this in motion by immediately implementing severe lockdowns and quarantines on the first signs of increased infection. While the wisdom of such a policy is debatable, there can be little doubt of the economic ramifications. There is, of course, every reason to expect these adverse effects to reverse quickly as restrictions lift, but Chinas other problems will not dissipate quickly.

On top of this is the burden of debt plaguing China, with Evergrande, to be sure, but more generally as well. For years, the opportunities offered by Chinas rapid pace of development naturally encouraged the use of debt by private firms, like Evergrande, but also by provincial and local authorities. Now that Chinas general economic slowing has limited revenue flows, that debt has become increasingly difficult to shoulder.

Evergrande is prominent but surely not the only troubled player. Beijings recent use of regulations to contain the growth of debt, though no doubt a response to the problem, has only compounded it by constraining the ability of debtors to use long-term borrowing as a way to buy time for their adjustment. Should this situation metastasize, people and businesses will become fearful that others will fail to meet their obligations and become reluctant to trade and do business with each other. Should this occur, economic activity would suffer even more than it has from the power shortages.

China offers no statistics on the exact kilowatt shortfall facing the country. Its size and scope are nonetheless apparent in widespread residential blackouts and brownouts, as well as in the shutdown orders in many Chinese factories, extending over 20 of Chinas 23 provinces. Part of this problem is of Beijings own making. For diplomatic reasons, and clearly without much economic consideration, Beijing cut China off from Australian coal, a major source of fuel for the countrys electric generators. At the same time, Beijings commitment to reduce the economys carbon footprint has shut down or severely curtailed many domestic mining operations, leaving power generators scrambling to substitute for the loss of Australian coal.

In the meantime, renewable alternatives have fallen short. Wind power production has increased a mere 7 percent this year compared with 24.5 percent last year, and droughts have reduced the hydroelectric power output some 4 percent.

Compounding problems still more, increased fuel demands from the recovering global economy and the decision by the Biden administration in the United States to curtail fracking, have driven up fuel costs everywhere. With coal prices up some 40 percent from year ago levels and oil prices up some 95 percent, some Chinese production has become unviable even if it could get the power.

Power lines and wind turbines are pictured at a wind and solar energy storage and transmission power station of State Grid Corporation of China, in Zhangjiakou of Hebei Province, China, on March 18, 2016. (Jason Lee/Reuters)

All these problems will only become more severe as the weather gets colder and residential demand picks up. Even if, as is likely, the power supply can increase in time, this years shortfall seems poised to exacerbate yet another adverse economic development.

Even before power shortages curtailed Chinese output, producers and retailers in the United States, Japan, and Europe were rethinking their heavy reliance on Chinese sourcing. They were responding to the rise in Chinese wages relative to those elsewhere in Asia and how it has eroded Chinas once great appeal as a source of cheap labor and inexpensive manufactures. Then in 2020, Beijing shut down certain sales. That decision, though understandable in the pandemic emergency, nonetheless led foreign buyers to question the reliability of Chinese sources.

Now that power shortages have limited Chinas ability to meet delivery targets, that sense of unreliability has become that much more intense and is further impelling these Japanese and Western buyers to look elsewhere. These efforts will continue even after China overcomes its power shortage.

The array of problems has become a huge test for Chinas leadership. The economy and Chinese finance are at a turning point. Beijing will have to do more to contain the debt situation so that it does not create the widespread fears that would constrain economic activity. It will also have to reconcile its diplomatic initiativeswith Australia and with its climate initiativeswith the economys immediate and long-term needs. A market-driven economy would rely on demand and price signals to direct these adjustments. But since China remains centrally planned, and more so in recent years than in a long time, that responsibility lies with the leadership in Beijing.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Power lines and wind turbines are pictured at a wind and solar energy storage and transmission power station of State Grid Corporation of China, in Zhangjiakou of Hebei Province, China, on March 18, 2016. (Jason Lee/Reuters)

Chinas Energy Crisis: A CCP-Made Emergency

News Analysis

Factories in China are being forced to shut down amid an energy crisis, as more than half of the provinces have imposed electricity-use restrictions. Forced reductions even apply to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong provinces, which generate roughly one-third of the nations GDP.

Local governments are enforcing shut-down rules in their attempt to meet energy-use and emissions reduction targets set by Beijing. As a result, some companies have cut production by as much as 50 percent, adding to existing supply chain disruptions. The situation is particularly damaging as exporters scramble to fulfill merchandise orders for the upcoming Christmas season.

Previous COVID-19 lockdown measures included shutting factories, preventing migrant workers from getting to the cities to work, and closing ports. After a year and a half of disruptions, many companies were hoping that Christmas orders would pull them out of the economic doldrums, only to be hit by the latest restrictions.

Chinas overall economic outlook was already quite grim, after more than a year of reduced exports and increased unemployment. Plagued by a potential credit crisis, the Chinese banking and real estate sectors are both facing possible fallout from the Evergrande defaults. The company is one of the largest property developers in the world and could potentially default on loans equal to 2 percent of Chinas GDP. Other crackdowns by Xi Jinping are also straining the economy such as banning for-profit education, a move which instantly eliminated 11 million jobs.

Xis new restrictions on tech companies and the halting of the Ant Group IPO are sending ripples through the stock market, as investors are uncertain about the risk and potential rewards, or lack thereof, in the various investments they used to believe were solid. Reduced returns, combined with an increased risk of arbitrary changes in government regulations, could mean reduced investment, which ultimately results in increased unemployment and a slowing economy.

Blackouts are interfering with manufacturing industries, as well as aluminum smelters and textiles producers. Even soybean processing plants are shutting down, threatening Chinas food security. Around 160 energy-intensive companies have been closed. Smaller companies, listed on stock exchanges, have already informed regulators that they have been told to cut production by as much as half.

Global shortages are expected in toys, textiles, and machine parts, while even iPhone manufacturers are expected to reduce output. Heavy industry, such as steel production, as well as downstream sectors, are all expected to feel the crunch, driving prices higher. Apple Inc. and Tesla Inc. have stopped production at some of their facilities in China. Analysts in China have said that they cannot predict when the supply chain bottlenecks will end.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has issued statements, saying that it is trying to avoid having the power shutdowns affect peoples homes. In spite of the CCPs promises to the contrary, the outages are already impacting the lives of ordinary citizens. Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang have been suffering blackouts for weeks. Guangdong has asked residents to use natural light indoors and to refrain from using air conditioning. In Jiangsu, steel mills have closed and street lights are out. Some companies have been told to operate only every other day. Local governments project that the problems will persist until next year. They have also warned residents to expect periodic water cuts.

China, the worlds largest polluter, has set a goal to be carbon neutral by 2060. With the upcoming COP26 at the 26th U.N. Climate Change Conference, it appears the CCP wants to show the world that it is taking climate change seriously. Additionally, Xi is focused on having blue skies at the 2022 Winter Olympics. Consequently, the central government has set draconian pollution reduction targets, which over half of Chinas regions have failed to achieve. Now, the CCP is ratcheting up the enforcement.

Another reason for the blackouts has been surging prices of coal and gas. Coal power accounts for 70 percent of Chinas electricity generation. Over the years, Chinas electricity demand has grown at nearly the same rate as its GDP. As part of his climate agenda, Xi has capped coal mining. Pandemic lockdowns have boosted pent-up demand, while decreased investment in the mining sector has decreased the supply of coal. As a result, the prices of thermal coal futures have surged in China as production slows down, just before the winter.

The Dendrobium Coal Mine in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, on Feb. 1, 2021. (Brook Mitchell/Getty Images)

In addition to reducing local coal production, the CCP has banned coal shipments from Australia because of a political row. Beijing could be making up the deficit by increasing coal imports from Mongolia, but Mongolian coal exports to China have actually declined due to Chinas increased border restrictions.

Global coal prices are increasing, while the price Chinese utility companies can charge customers for electricity is fixed by the central government, causing a shortage of electrical power. If power prices were allowed to adjust to market levels, Beijing fears that increased power costs and rising prices of raw materials would drive up the wholesale price of Chinese goods, making them less competitive. Additionally, this would make China a less attractive place for foreign companies to do their manufacturing.

The power shortages and resulting supply chain disruptions in China are not entirely unavoidable consequences of market forces. Much of the problem has been caused by and is being exacerbated by the poor policy decisions of the CCP. Now, people from China, the United States, and around the world will be looking at increased unemployment, supply chain interruptions, product shortages, slowing economies, and higher prices.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Chinese sailor Ding Yiduo talks to The Epoch Times in Los Angeles, CA on Sept. 22, 2021. (Linda Jiang/The Epoch Times)

Chinese Pro-Democracy Supporter Receives Threats After Fleeing to America

A Chinese sailor received threats from a government official in his hometown on Sept. 27 after giving an interview with The Epoch Times Chinese Edition.

The man, named Ding Yiduo, fled to the United States in 2020 after police harassed him for posting messages online supporting Hong Kongs pro-democracy movement.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is a terrorist organization, Ding told The Epoch Times on Sept. 22, 2021. He was forced out of his job and assaulted in police custody after showing his direct opposition to the Chinese regime.

Friends overseas, please donate money or efforts to overthrow this authoritarian, corrupt regime, he posted just over two years ago on Sept. 30, 2019, in Chinas most popular messaging app WeChat. His post was made one day before the CCP celebrated its takeover of power in China.

Police Intimidation and Blood Tests

Hours after he posted his pro-democracy message, police subpoenaed him to the local station in Xiamen city, Fujian Province. A friend of his who worked for a legal advisory office in China encouraged him to go immediately, otherwise, he would be in greater trouble.

After he arrived at the police station, Ding was taken into a room with the label National Security on the door.

Police showed him piles of printed papers of his WeChat conversations that included his latitude and longitude at the time of writing. His WeChat friends are from countries and regions where he had traveled, including the United States, Australia, Hong Kong.

What right do you have as a small potato to comment on state affairs? The police sneered at him. They forced him to sign a guarantee letter, saying he would not express any improper political opinions again. Otherwise, I will be held responsible for criminal charges.

The police then took him to another building for blood tests before they let him leave.

I was feeling weird at the time, but I didnt dare to ask why they wanted me to do the blood tests, Ding said. Later, I learned that my organs could possibly be harvested if I get caught again for posting such messages.

I know the CCP has killed millions of people in various political campaigns and in the so-called family planning in the past decades, Ding said.

He received a notice of dismissal the next day from his employer.

Want for Freedom

As early as 2013, Ding began to search for information about what the CCP has done in its history. The more he read, the more he came to know the true nature of the CCP.

I saw a slogan on a wall in Beijing in 2013, which says, the Communist Party is good: every day of the Chinese people is like a New Year holiday.

Ding strongly disagreed, I would say ordinary Chinese peoples life in China is like hell.

The CCP is a demon; it has no humanity at all.

Paramilitary police officers patrol along a street after the closing session of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference in Beijing on May 27, 2020. (Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images)

In 2014, Ding and about 60 of his colleagues went to the Shenzhen municipal office complex to request help from the government. Their employer owed them salaries for the past four months, and they were not able to obtain their payment through legal proceedings.

The government sent police to take them to police stations. Ding himself was beaten up by police in a toilet.

There is no surveillance camera in the toilet, Ding said. They punched my face and kicked my stomach, and I couldnt fight back, he said.

Ding said he came to learn that the CCP cracks down on ordinary people all the time to maintain its rule. He wanted to leave the country.

His chance came in September 2020, when Ding arrived in Los Angeles as a sailor working for another Chinese company.

I saw American flags when the ship was approaching Los Angeles, Ding said he was filled with excitement to be in a free country again. I know that in the United States, people enjoy the freedom of speech and wont be prosecuted for criticizing any party, Ding said.

When the ship was about to leave for China, Ding suddenly realized this might be the opportunity of a lifetime to escape to freedom.

He jumped into the sea at dawn and swam to freedom.

If I went back to China, I would live in the CCPs demonic grip again and I couldnt even think freely, Ding said.

Threats from Home

Two days after the Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times published the interview on Sept. 25, Ding received a phone call from his hometown. It was the top village official, who hadnt contacted him since the previous year.

Ding told The Epoch Times that the phone came at about 9 p.m. The village official talked for over eight minutes on the phone, conveying two messages to Ding.

The first message was that Ding is a traitor and he has betrayed the CCP and the motherland.

The village chief said I had smeared the CCP in my interview, Ding said. He told me that the Ministry of Public Security has listed me as a key target for monitoring and control.

The official said Ding wouldnt be as lucky this time as he was two years ago for posting the pro-democracy message; this time, it would be a dead-end for him.

The second message was that Ding must eliminate the negative effect of the interview.

Ding refused.

I told him that I didnt smear the country or the CCP, Ding said. I love China.

What I have said about the CCP is what it has done.

Ding added that he felt sorry for his village chief. He has been brainwashed by the CCP, mixing up the country with the CCP, Ding said. What he said is something that the CCP has been instilling into Chinese people.

Ding said he was not the only Chinese-American that the CCP has threatened in this way.

The CCPs purpose is to silence us, Ding said. We shouldnt be afraid.

We should tell the world the truth and let the world know the evil nature of the CCP.
Following a mandate for hospital staff to be vaccinated, a group of protesters gather outside New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City on Sept. 1, 2021. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Now in Effect for New York City Teachers

A mandate requiring New York City teachers and other school staff members to get the COVID-19 vaccine went into effect, marking one of the first U.S. school district mandates requiring employees to be inoculated.

On Oct. 1, Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, warned the citys 150,000 public school workers that unvaccinated employees would be placed on unpaid leave and wouldnt be allowed to work. The mandate went into effect that afternoon, meaning that all teachers and workers would have to have received at least one dose by the morning of Oct. 4.

Michael Mulgrew of the United Federation of Teachers said that about 97 percent of its members have received one dose of the vaccine.

At any time, if they get vaccinated, they can go back to work the following day, he told CNN on Oct. 4.

According to data provided by the city as of Oct. 1, 98 percent of principals, 93 percent of teachers, and 90 percent of Department of Education workers have received at least one dose.

Meanwhile, city schools chancellor Meisha Porter told the news outlet that she doesnt expect the mandate to trigger a teacher or staffing shortage.

We have more subs that are vaccinated than unvaccinated, teachers and our superintendents have been working with our principals to develop plans to ensure our students get the education and continue to get the education they deserve in person, Porter said.

However, Mark Cannizzaro, president of the Council of Schools Supervisors and Administrators, said that some principals in New York City were having trouble finding enough staff to replace teachers who arent vaccinated.

While were thankful that the percentage of vaccinated staff has increased systemwide since the deadline was extended, there are still too many school leaders that have been unable to find qualified substitutes for Monday, Cannizzaro said, The Associated Press reported.

A similar mandate for teachers and school staff is scheduled to go into effect in Los Angeles on Oct. 15.

A group of teachers and other employees filed a lawsuit against the citywide mandate, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. Justice Sonia Sotomayor denied the request on Oct. 1.

Numerous studies have shown that of all the age groups, children appear to have the lowest risk of dying from COVID-19, suffering serious symptoms, or being hospitalized. A landmark study from several UK universities published over the summer revealed that five times more children have committed suicide during the pandemic than died from COVID-19.

COVID-19 is the illness caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.
Efforts Underway by Land and Sea to Clean Oil Spill Off Huntington Beach

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.Efforts continued around Huntington Beach Oct. 4 to clean up a massive oil spill from an offshore rig that threatened the lives of fish, birds, and other ocean wildlife, and threatened to keep visitors from enjoying the area for weeks or months.

The U.S. Coast Guard was leading the response to the spill, which comprised 126,000 gallons of oil and covered about 5.8 nautical miles or 13 square miles between the Huntington Beach Pier and Newport Beach. The spill was likely caused by a pipeline leak from a facility operated by Beta Offshore about five miles off the coast, officials said.

The agency reported that 14 boats conducted oil recovery operations Sunday afternoon while three Coast Guard boats enforced a safety zone off 1,000 yards around oil spill boats while four aircraft assessed damage and progress.

About 3,150 gallons of oil has so far been recovered from the water and 5,360 feet of boom has been deployed to control the spread of the oil.

A massive oil spill caused beaches to close in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Oct. 4, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The spill was reported at about 9 a.m. Saturday, although some people reported smelling oil in the water late Friday. It drew a response from all levels of government.

Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr described the situation as a potential ecologic disaster, and said some of the oil had reached the shore and was impacting the Talbert Marshlands and the Santa Ana River Trail.

Our wetlands are being degraded and portions of our coastline are completely covered in oil, Carr said Sunday, adding that all beaches south of Seapoint were closed, and the state beach in the city was also closed.

Carr said the closures could last anywhere from a few weeks to a few months.

Health officials warned people not to swim, surf, or exercise by the beach because of the potential health hazards. People were also urged not to fish in the area since the waters are considered toxic.

Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Huntington Beach) sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Sunday requesting a major disaster declaration for Orange County.

It is imperative that the federal government assist in recovery efforts. Constituents who live along the shoreline are already reporting oil on the beach and strong odors, Steel wrote. Officials are already responding to protect sea life. Dead fish and birds are already being reported on beaches and shorelines. I have serious concerns about the environmental impacts of the spill and applaud the workers who are doing their best to prevent the oil from hitting sensitive wetlands.

A massive oil spill caused beaches to close in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Oct. 4, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Skimming equipment and booms were deployed to prevent the inflow of oil into the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve and Huntington Beach Wetlands, although officials said wildlife was already affected.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife set up the Oiled Wildlife Care Network hotline, at 877-823-6926, for people to call if they see wildlife impacted from the oil. Members of the public were urged not to approach any animals themselves.

Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foleywho represents the impacted cities of Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, and Seal Beachalso said the spill has already killed some fish and birds.

Oil has washed up now onto the HB beachfront. Weve started to find dead birds & fish washing up on the shore, Foley wrote on Twitter at 12:48 a.m. Sunday.

She added that the damage from the spill could be irreversible, calling the beaches and marshlands part of our heritage that draw countless numbers of people to the shore.

Oil also began to wash ashore in Newport Beach on Sunday, where officials were asking people not to enter the water, although they hadnt officially closed the ocean.

The City of Laguna Beach also closed its beaches to the public effective 9 p.m. Sunday.

Though the spill has not yet reached the shoreline of Laguna Beach, Laguna Beach Marine Safety, Fire, Public works, and police personnel are anticipating this may happen and are ready to respond. Beach closures are needed to protect the health and safety of the public and to allow contractors to begin oil cleanup if such an event occurs, officials said.

A massive oil spill caused beaches to close in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Oct. 4, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

People whose boats sustain oil damage were asked not to clean the boats themselves since they could spread the oil, but to contact county officials who could refer them to the proper channels for possible reimbursement of cleaning expenses.

A claims number was established for any people or businesses who feel they may have been affected by the incident at 866-985-8366 (reference Pipeline P00547).

The spill caused Huntington Beach to cancel the final day of the Pacific Airshow, which drew hundreds of thousands of people to the shore on Saturday. The need for prompt and intensive intervention efforts requires complete and unfettered access to the marine environment, Huntington Beach officials said in a statement.

The unified command said the public was asked to avoid any oiled areas. Trained spill response contractors were cleaning up the disaster.

People wishing to assist with cleanup or wildlife recovery efforts were asked to visit the Surfrider Foundation and HB Wetlands & Wildlife websites.

The spill occurred in federal waters at the Elly platform, built in 1980 to process crude oil from two other platforms, which draw from a large reservoir called Beta Field. Houston-based Amplify Energy Corp. is the parent company of Beta Offshore.

Elly is one of three platforms operated by Beta Operating Co., which also operates Ellen and Eureka nearby. Elly processes oil production from Ellen and Eureka and is fed by some 70 oil wells. The processing platform separates oil from water. Its just crude oil thats sent to the shore, Willsher said.

Elly is one of 23 oil and gas platforms installed in federal waters off the Southern California coast, according to the Interior Departments Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Besides Elly, a processing facility, there are 20 others that produce oil and gas, and two are being decommissioned.

A massive oil spill caused beaches to close in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Oct. 4, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The potential source of the oil leak is about 4 1/2 miles off the coast, along the 17 1/2-mile pipeline to shore, where it is delivered to a local refinery, Martyn Willsher, president and chief executive of Houston-based Amplify Energy, the parent company of the pipelines operator, said at a briefing Sunday afternoon, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The offshore platform system has been linked to earlier leaks, including a 2,000-gallon spill that led to a $48,000 federal fine against the operator for improper calibration of a leak-detection system. The corroded pipeline carried oil, water, and gas from Eureka to Elly, The Los Angeles Times reported about the 1999 incident.

Regarding the Saturday spill, Workers moved to shut down the pipeline and used pressurized equipment to retrieve as much oil as possible soon after the incident was reported at 12:18 p.m., Kate Conrad of Beta Offshore told the Los Angeles Times.

The head of Amplify Energy joined Coast Guard, state wildlife, and county officials at a news conference Sunday in Long Beach, and said company divers were on location investigating the source and potential cause of the leak.

Our employees live and work in these communities and were all deeply impacted and concerned about the impact on not just the environment but the fish and wildlife as well, Willsher said. We will do everything in our power to ensure that this is recovered as quickly as possible, and we wont be done until this is completed.

Willsher said the companys complicated processing operation was shut down entirely for now.

Dr. Clayton Chau, Orange Countys chief health officer, issued a health advisory Sunday for residents who may have encountered contaminated materials.

The effects of oil spills on humans may be direct and indirect, depending on the type of contact with the oil spill, Chau said. People may come in direct contact with oil and/or oil products while walking in a contaminated area (e.g., beach). An initial irritation will be obvious.

Additionally, contaminants may be absorbed through the skin. Even when an oil sheen may not be visible, dispersed and dissolved oil contaminants may exist in the water.

Please contact your family physician or call 911 if you are experiencing adverse symptoms. Currently, we are asking residents to please refrain from participating in recreational activities on the coastline such as swimming, surfing, biking, walking, exercising, gathering, etc., the

statement continued.

A massive oil spill caused beaches to close in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Oct. 4, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

This oil spill is a tragic reminder that offshore drilling is a devastating threat to our coast and its wildlife, said Miyoko Sakashita, director of the Center for Biological Diversitys Oceans program. Ive seen the aging oil platforms off Huntington Beach up close, and I know its past

time to decommission these time bombs. Even after fines and criminal charges, the oil industry is still spilling and leaking into Californias coastal waters because these companies just arent capable of operating safely. The only solution is to shut this dirty business down.

State wildlife officials said at least one soiled ruddy duck was receiving medical care, while local wildlife rescue groups were mobilizing to help.

We have all our gear out, which includes masks, goggles for our staff, Debbie McGuire, director of the Wetlands & Wildlife Center in Huntington Beach, told the Orange County Register. We also have IV fluids ready to stabilize the animals. The center received at least five birds from the spill Sunday, she said.

The Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach was also making its staff and facility available if needed.

The spill was reminiscent of another ecological disaster decades ago.

An estimated 3,400 birds were killed when the American Trader oil tanker ran over its anchor and punctured its hull on Feb. 7, 1990, spilling an estimated 416,600 gallons of crude oil off the coast of Huntington Beach.

As a result of the spill, the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center was established March 31, 1998, at 21900 Pacific Coast Highway to help injured and orphaned wildlife including oil-soiled birds, according to the DFW. A makeshift facility at that site treated birds injured in the 1990 spill, according to the centers website.
A vial labelled with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is seen in this illustration picture taken on March 19, 2021. (Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters)

EU Regulator Backs Pfizer Booster Shots for People 18 and Older

The European Unions drug regulator on Monday gave the approval to administer booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine dubbed Comirnaty to people aged 18 and older.

The [Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use] has evaluated data for Comirnaty showing a rise in antibody levels when a booster dose is given approximately 6 months after the second dose in people from 18 to 55 years old, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in a statement.

On the basis of this data, the Committee concluded that booster doses may be considered at least 6 months after the second dose for people aged 18 years and older, it added.

The health agency also confirmed it backs giving a third dose of either Comirnaty or Modernas Spikevax COVID-19 vaccine to people with severely weakened immune systems at least 28 days after their second shot.

The agency said its decision came after studies showed that an extra dose of the vaccines increased peoples ability to produce antibodies against the virus that causes COVID-19 in organ transplant patients with weakened immune systems.

Although there is no direct evidence that the ability to produce antibodies in these patients protected against COVID-19, it is expected that the extra dose would increase protection at least in some patients, EMA said.

The EMA recommendations go to the European Commission for approval and then to health authorities in all 27 EU nations, whose national health authorities decide on vaccination strategies. Some countries already have begun administering booster shots.

An exterior view of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on April 20, 2021. (Peter Dejong/AP Photo)

An international group of vaccine experts, including officials from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and World Health Organization (WHO), previously said theres no evidence to suggest that the general population needs COVID-19 vaccine booster shots.

The authors warned that if booster shots are introduced too soon, they may cause more side effects in the general population, including myocarditis or Guillain-Barre syndrome. Should that occur, the researchers said, it would create even more problems with vaccine acceptance in the general population.

The paper was published Sept. 13 in The Lancet medical journal and was co-authored by Marion Gruber and Phil Krause, two top FDA officials in charge of regulating and approving vaccines.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also urged wealthy nations not to use booster doses this year, saying there is no scientific data that proves the shots are necessary.

A month ago, I called for a global moratorium on booster doses, at least until the end of September to prioritize vaccinating the most at-risk people around the world who are yet to receive their first dose, Tedros said.

So today, Im calling for an extension of the moratorium until at least the end of the year to enable every country to vaccinate at least 40 percent of its population, he added.

Jack Phillips and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

From NTD News
Facebook logo in 3D in front of the EU flag, on May 15, 2015. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

European Politicians Call for Facebook Investigation After Whistleblower Revelation

BRUSSELS/STOCKHOLMTwo members of the European parliament have called for an investigation into allegations by a whistleblower that Facebook prioritised profits above the public good.

The whistleblower, Frances Haugen, who had worked as a product manager on the civic misinformation team at Facebook, shared internal documents with newspapers and attorneys general from several U.S. states.

A statement from European Parliament lawmakers said they were requesting further investigations into the revelations.

The Facebook Filesand the revelations that the whistleblower has presented to usunderscores just how important it is that we do not let the large tech companies regulate themselves, said Danish lawmaker Christel Schaldemose.

Schaldemose is the lead rapporteur for the Digital Services Act, announced by the European Commission in December last year that requires tech companies to do more to tackle illegal content.

The documents finally put all the facts on the table to allow us to adopt a stronger Digital Services Act, Alexandra Geese, a German lawmaker at the European parliament, said.

We need to regulate the whole system and the business model that favours disinformation and violence over factual contentand enables its rapid dissemination, she said.

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen is interviewed by Scott Pelley for a CBS News 60 Minutes program in an undated photograph. (Robert Fortunato for CBS News/60MINUTES/Handout via Reuters)

Both Geese and Schaldemose said they are in touch with Haugen.

A Facebook spokesperson said: Every day, we make difficult decisions on where to draw lines between free expression and harmful speech, privacy, security, and other issues.

But we should not be making these decisions on our own  weve been advocating for updated regulations where democratic governments set industry standards to which we can all adhere.

European Union regulators have been considering whether all online platforms, or only larger ones or those at particular risk of exposure to illegal activities by their users, should be subjected to take-down notices, and how prescriptive these should be.

Our position is clear: the power of major platforms over public debate and social life must be subject to democratically validated rules, in particular on transparency and accountability, an European Commission spokesperson said when asked about the allegations against Facebook.

Tech companies have said it was unfair and not technically feasible for them to police the internet. The current EU e-commerce directive says intermediary service providers play a technical, automatic, and passive role.

Haugen will testify before an U.S. Senate subcommittee on Tuesday, and is expected to speak at the Web Summit conference in Portugal in early November.
For new moms, there are some problems you really can run away from. (Nicoleta Ionescu/Shutterstock)

Exercise Helps With Postpartum Struggles: Study

Outdoor exercise benefits new moms mental health during the pandemic

The extended duration of the COVID-19 pandemic means that more women will give birth during the pandemic, and some will have more than one pregnancy and postpartum experience. As physical activity researchers who advocate for exercise as medicine, were studying the impact of exercise on the well-being of postpartum women during the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyones day-to-day lives, but mothers have been especially challenged. Women have experienced a negative impact on mental well-being and physical activity behavior, with mothers being especially vulnerable because of increased child care responsibilities. New mothers in the postpartum phase are at an additional disadvantage due to the heightened challenge of caring for infants.

Postpartum Challenges

The postpartum phase is often defined as the first six weeks after childbirth, when post-pregnancy physical changes such as uterine shrinking and hormonal fluctuations are the greatest. These changes can also greatly affect the mental health of new mothersthe prevalence of depression is approximately 15 percent. However, its possible for new mothers to continue to experience post-partum effects for up to one year.

Since the onset of COVID-19, mental health issues have increased among postpartum women, with 41 percent reporting depression and 72 percent reporting moderate-to-high anxiety (compared to 15 percent and 29 percent pre-pandemic).

Pre-pandemic challenges such as sleep deprivation, lack of self-care, and medically complicated deliveries are now exacerbated. For example, women who gave birth during the pandemic may have experienced reduced direct maternal care, a lack of a home support system due to visiting restrictions, and a lack of in-person breastfeeding support.

Physical activity is an effective therapy for anxiety and depression and may be beneficial to new mothers. As little as a single group exercise session of 45 minutes can improve anxiety levels in women without a history of mental illness. Women who engage in physical activity in the postnatal period report better mental well-being than those who are less physically active.

However, physical activity levels are lower in the postpartum period than prior to pregnancy. This is despite the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists recommending that women slowly return to physical activity four to six weeks after giving birth and work their way up to the general physical activity guidelines of 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week. Barriers in the postnatal period include a reduced motivation due to the lack of social support and child care responsibilities.

Pandemic-Safe Exercise Solutions

At 18 months into the pandemic with no end in sight and safe indoor opportunities for exercise less accessible, moms are in need of innovation. An outdoor environment has the advantage of being easily accessible and COVID-19 safe, as well as having additional beneficial effects. Exercising in nature, known as green exercise has been associated with reductions in anxiety and stress, while being outside has been shown to increase the enjoyment of exercise.

With the high degree of safety in an outdoor environment, could we support new moms with safe physical activity programming outdoors? We were interested in providing moms with the tools they need to return to physical activity safely and to ensure that they have the added competence to engage in physical activity with a new baby. If we want moms to thrive in this new normal, we need to help them find their way back to movement and optimal mental well-being.

Working with a team at the University of the Fraser Valley in the spring, we enrolled 21 women who were less than nine months postpartum in an eight-week, biweekly outdoor group exercise program. As a mother of two (including one born in the midst of the pandemic), Iris (one of the co-authors of this article) had both personal and professional interests in finding ways to meet the physical activity needs of new mothers.

Engaging in the program in an outdoor location with physical distancing allowed women to fully participate without the risk of exposure to COVID-19. Mothers reported a decrease in depression after the program, along with an improvement in motivation and in meeting basic psychological needs. Perceived stress and anxiety also were reduced, but not significantly.

Ongoing Research

These findings suggest that new mothers may experience an improvement in overall well-being after engaging in group exercise. This form of group exercise addressed a number of the common barriers to exercise participation during the postnatal phase. This includes the opportunity to bring their child to the program, engaging with other new mothers, and the program being designed specifically for postpartum fitness. To determine the long-term effects on physical activity, we plan to conduct a follow-up study at six months.

Supporting postpartum women with physical activity opportunities may help them exercise more in the postpartum period. This may further improve mental well-being in this at-risk population.

However, theres still a large gap in the literature regarding womens postnatal physical activity experiences. Were currently recruiting women less than 12 months postpartum to complete an online survey to help us learn more.

Iris Lesser is an assistant professor in kinesiology at the University of the Fraser Valley in Canada, and Scott Lear is a professor of health sciences at Simon Fraser University. This article was first published on The Conversation.
A 3D-printed Facebook logo is seen placed on a keyboard in this illustration taken March 25, 2020. (Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters,File Photo)

Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram Online After Hourslong Outage

Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram appear to be back online after an outage that lasted several hours on Monday.

Earlier on Monday, when one tried to access Facebook, it returned a message: This site cant be reached, adding that the websites DNS address couldnt be found. Instagram merely displayed the message: 5xx Server Error.

But at around 5:45 p.m. ET, Instagram and Facebook appeared to be back online for many, according to Downdetector.com.

Were aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products, Facebook wrote on Twitter at around 12:30 p.m. New York time. Were working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.

Hours later, at around 3 p.m., the companys outgoing chief technology officer, Mike Schroepfer, wrote that the firm is still working to fix the issue.

*Sincere* apologies to everyone impacted by outages of Facebook-powered services right now, he wrote on Twitter. We are experiencing networking issues and teams are working as fast as possible to debug and restore as fast as possible.

Twitter, YouTube, iMessage, Signal, and other popular services not operated by Facebook were still working as of noon on Oct. 4. However, some Twitter users reported problemsnamely with their replies.

Some speculated that Facebook suffered major DNSor Domain Name Systemas well as Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) failures. DNS essentially translates domain names to IP addresses required for locating and identifying computer services and devices.

By not having BGP announcements for your DNS name servers, DNS falls apart = nobody can find you on the internet. Same with WhatsApp btw. Facebook have basically deplatformed themselves from their own platform, wrote Kevin Beaumont, former head of security operations at Microsoft, in a Twitter post.

In afternoon trading, Facebook shares were down by about 5 percent.

In March 2019, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram were down for more than 24 hours worldwide in one of the longest outages the company has faced in years.

The outage on Oct. 4 comes as two members of the European Parliament called for an investigation into allegations by a whistleblower that Facebook prioritized profits above the public good.

The whistleblower, Frances Haugen, who had worked as a product manager on the civic misinformation team at Facebook, shared internal documents with newspapers and attorneys general from several U.S. states. Haugen will testify in front of the Senate on Oct. 6.

The Facebook Filesand the revelations that the whistleblower has presented to usunderscores just how important it is that we do not let the large tech companies regulate themselves, said Danish lawmaker Christel Schaldemose.

The documents finally put all the facts on the table to allow us to adopt a stronger Digital Services Act, Alexandra Geese, a German lawmaker at the European Parliament, said. We need to regulate the whole system and the business model that favors disinformation and violence over factual contentand enables its rapid dissemination, she said.

A Facebook spokesperson issued a response to the claims, saying the firm has to make difficult decisions.

Every day, we make difficult decisions on where to draw lines between free expression and harmful speech, privacy, security, and other issues, the spokesperson said. But we should not be making these decisions on our own.  Weve been advocating for updated regulations where democratic governments set industry standards to which we can all adhere.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen is interviewed by Scott Pelley for a CBS News 60 Minutes program in an undated photograph. (Robert Fortunato for CBS News/60 Minutes/Handout via Reuters)

Facebook Whistleblower Claims Profit Was Prioritized Over Clamping Down on Hate Speech

A Facebook whistleblower who is due to testify before Congress on Oct. 5 has accused the Big Tech company of repeatedly putting profit before doing what was good for the public, including clamping down on hate speech.

Frances Haugen, who told CBS News 60 Minutes program that she was recruited by Facebook as a product manager on the civic misinformation team in 2019, said she and her attorneys have filed at least eight complaints with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

During her appearance on the television program broadcasted on Oct. 3, Haugen revealed that she was the whistleblower who provided the internal documents for a Sept. 14 expose by The Wall Street Journal that claims Instagram has a toxic impact on the self-esteem of young girls.

That investigation claimed that the social media giant knows about the issue but made minimal efforts to address these issues and plays them down in public.

The thing I saw at Facebook over and over again was there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook. And Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money, Haugen said.

She explained that Facebook did so by picking out content that gets engagement or reaction, even it that content is hateful, divisive, or polarizing, because its easier to inspire people to anger than it is to other emotions.

Facebook has realized that if they change the algorithm to be safer, people will spend less time on the site, theyll click on less ads, theyll make less money, she claimed.

Haugen is expected to testify at a Senate hearing, titled Protecting Kids Online, about Facebooks knowledge regarding the photo-sharing apps allegedly harmful effects on children.

During her appearance on the television program, Haugen also accused Facebook of lying to the public about the progress it made to rein in hate speech on the social media platform. She further accused the company of fueling division and violence in the United States and worldwide.

When we live in an information environment that is full of angry, hateful, polarizing content it erodes our civic trust, it erodes our faith in each other, it erodes our ability to want to care for each other. The version of Facebook that exists today is tearing our societies apart and causing ethnic violence around the world, she said.

She added that Facebook was used to help organize the breach of the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, after the company switched off its safety systems following the U.S. presidential elections.

While she believed no one at Facebook was malevolent, she said the company had misaligned incentives.

Facebook makes more money when you consume more content, she said. People enjoy engaging with things that elicit an emotional reaction. And the more anger that they get exposed to, the more they interact and the more they consume.

Shortly after the televised interview, Facebook spokesperson Lena Pietsch released a statement pushing back against Haugens claims.

We continue to make significant improvements to tackle the spread of misinformation and harmful content, said Pietsch. To suggest we encourage bad content and do nothing is just not true.

Separately, Nick Clegg, Facebooks vice president of global affairs, told CNN before the interview aired that it was ludicrous to assert that social media was to blame for the events that unfolded on Jan. 6.

Facebook officials didnt immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for additional comment.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Dr. Anthony Fauci at a hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington on July 20, 2021. (Stefani Reynolds/Pool via Reuters)

Fauci Shifts Position on Americans Gathering for Christmas

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Oct. 4 shifted his position on whether Americans should gather for Christmas.

Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had said on Oct. 3 that he wasnt sure yet when asked if Americans could get together to celebrate the winter holiday.

Its just too soon to tell, he said on CBSs Face the Nation.

About 24 hours later, Fauci changed his position, claiming his remarks were misinterpreted.

I said We dont know because weve seen slopes that went down and then came back up. The best way to assure that well be in good shape as we get into the winter would be to get more and more people vaccinated. That was misinterpreted as my saying we cant spend Christmas with our families, which was absolutely not the case, Fauci said on CNN.

I will be spending Christmas with my family. I encourage people, particularly the vaccinated people who are protected, to have a good, normal Christmas with your family.

Faucis original remarks drew widespread pushback.

I dont think anyone is going to be listening to Scrooge Fauci. I know I wont be, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a doctor who has referred Fauci for a criminal probe because he allegedly lied about his agency funding gain-of-function research in China, wrote on Twitter.

Fauci has lost all credibility with the American people. We arent waiting on his permission to celebrate Christmas together, said Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), a member of the House Republican leadership.

Even figures who have generally urged being cautious during the pandemic signaled opposition to Faucis position.

Nothing is going to stop us from getting together, and were going to be getting together for Thanksgiving and were going to be getting together for Christmas, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner and now a Pfizer board member, said on CNBCs Squawk Box.

I think what people need to do is judge what the prevalence is in their local community and what the risk is within their family setting.

Fauci last year encouraged people not to gather in person for Christmas, and he ended up skipping a gathering with his own family. He said the level of CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus spread was too high at the time.

However, predictions that Fauci and some others made of large jumps in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations after holidays didnt come to pass. Critics have increasingly called for Fauci to step down or be fired due to a litany of missed predictions and reversals on key issues, but he has continued to enjoy support from President Joe Biden and other top administration officials.

Fauci was asked last week if he would resign if that would lead to bolstered public support in top health officials, which could then lead to a boost to the COVID-19 vaccination drive. Hugh Hewitt, a radio host, noted that Fauci has admitted he misled Americans early in the pandemic on the efficacy of masks in a bid to try to preserve enough masks for health care workers. Hewitt also accused the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of botching testing and creating controversy over ivermectin while downplaying or ignoring research on natural immunity.

Ive lost confidence in the CDC and the FDA. And I actually believe a lot of Americans, a significant part of America, now have lost confidence in you, Dr. Fauci. Is there a point where you will say I do more harm than good because people dont listen to me anymore and step aside? Hewitt said.

No, absolutely, unequivocally no, Fauci responded.

The idea that people right now are not listening to what Im saying; what Im saying is the truth. It is a fact.
Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis is seen in a file photograph in Miami, Fla. (Wilfredo Lee/AP Photo)

Florida Governors Wife Diagnosed With Breast Cancer

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Monday that his wife has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

I am saddened to report that Floridas esteemed first lady and my beloved wife has been diagnosed with breast cancer. As the mother of three young children, Casey is the centerpiece of our family and has made an impact on the lives of countless Floridians through her initiatives as First Lady. As she faces the most difficult test of her life, she will have not only have my unwavering support but the support of our entire family, as well as the prayers and well wishes from Floridians across our state, DeSantis, a Republican in his first term, said in a statement.

Casey is a true fighter, and she will never, never, never give up, he added.

Casey DeSantis, 41, has not commented on the diagnosis as of yet.

She is mother to Madison, 4, Mason, 3, and Mamie, 1.

Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis, left, is seen with her children and her husband, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in an undated photograph. (Courtesy of Gov. Ron DeSantis Office)

During her time as first lady, Casey DeSantis has launched four major initiatives, including an effort to destigmatize seeking help for mental health issues.

Gov. DeSantis is thought to be a possible 2024 Republican presidential contender but he has said he is focused on winning reelection in 2022. Still, at the same time, he has traveled to multiple states in recent months, including Texas and Nebraska.

Messages of well-wishes began pouring in after the diagnosis announcement.

Crushed to hear the news about Casey DeSantis having breast cancer. Godspeed with prayers for full recovery. Shes a terrific, kind-hearted woman all around, Daniel Horowitz, an editor at The Blaze, wrote on social media.

Thinking of Casey DeSantis today and other women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. A reminder that its #BreastCancerAwarenessMonth and its so important to get checked, added Julia Manchester with The Hill.
Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz (L) confers with his attorney David Wheeler (R) during a motion to dismiss a jailhouse assault case at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Sept. 28, 2021. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

Florida School Massacre Suspects Jail Brawl Trial Delayed

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.The trial of the suspect in the 2018 Florida high school massacre for fighting a jail guard was delayed on Monday because his lead lawyer on the case has been hospitalized.

Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer ruled that jury selection in Nikolas Cruzs trial on jail battery charges will now begin on Tuesday and testimony will begin Oct. 18, a week later than scheduled. Cruzs primary public defender, David Wheeler, has been hospitalized since last week with an undisclosed illness and will likely need several weeks to recover, according to court documents and courtroom discussion.

Cruz is charged with attacking a Broward County jail guard, Sgt. Raymond Beltran, in November 2018, nine months after authorities say he killed 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Scherer said Cruzs other attorney on the battery case, Jaclyn Broudy, is experienced and capable to take over as lead counsel. The delay, she said, will give Broward County Public Defender Gordon Weekes time to assign someone to assist Broudy and for her to brief that attorney.

Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz (L) confers with his attorney David Wheeler (R) during a motion to dismiss a jailhouse assault case at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Sept. 28, 2021. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

Weekes had asked that Scherer delay jury selection for two weeks so a second attorney could be fully briefed, but the judge said this is not a complicated case and would normally be handled by one attorney.

Cruz, 23, faces a possible 15-year sentence if convicted of attempted criminal battery on a law enforcement officer and three lesser charges. Cruz will get either death or life in prison without parole if he is later found guilty of first-degree murder, but this trial still has relevance.

If Cruz is convicted of attacking Beltran, prosecutors can argue that is an aggravating factor when they seek his execution during the penalty phase of his murder trial if convicted. His murder trial remains unscheduled. It has been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic and arguments over evidence and possible testimony.

By Terry Spencer
John Wes Townley speaks at a news conference after qualifying for the Arca Racing Series auto race at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., on July 19, 2014. (Nam Y. Huh/AP Photo)

Former NASCAR Driver Townley Killed in Georgia Shooting

ATHENS, Ga.A former NASCAR driver was killed Saturday in a shooting in Georgia that also wounded a woman, investigators said.

John Wes Townley, 31, died in the shooting in a neighborhood around 9 p.m., Athens-Clarke County Coroner Sonny Wilson told the Athens Banner-Herald.

A 30-year-old woman was hurt, but police didnt give details about her injuries.

Police have spoken to the shooter, who knew the victims. The shooting appeared to be domestic violence related, Athens-Clarke County Police Lt. Shaun Barnett said.

No charges have been filed and the investigation continues, Barnett said.

Townley raced eight seasons and made 186 starts across the NASCAR Xfinity and Truck Series, NASCARs lower two national divisions. His victory in the Truck Series at Las Vegas six years ago Sunday was the only national series win of his career.

Townley drove a car owned by his father, who was a co-founder of the vehicles primary sponsor, restaurant chain Zaxbys.
Former Rep. Todd Akin Dies at 74

Former Rep. Todd Akin, a conservative Missouri Republican, has died. He was 74.

Akin had cancer for several years, his son Perry said in a statement. He died late Sunday at his home in Wildwood, a St. Louis suburb.

As my fathers death approached, we had people from all different walks of life share story after story of the personal impact he had on them, Perry Akin said in a statement to The Associated Press.

He was a devout Christian, a great father, and a friend to many. We cherish many fond memories from him driving the tractor at our annual hayride, to his riveting delivery of the freedom story at 4th of July parties dressed in the full uniform of a colonial minuteman. The family is thankful for his legacy: a man with a servants heart who stood for truth.

Akin represented a Republican-leaning eastern Missouri district that included St. Louis-area suburbs for 12 years, giving up a safe seat to run for the U.S. Senate in 2012. He emerged from a crowded GOP primary to challenge then-incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, only to seriously hurt Republicans chances of recapturing a Senate majority less than two weeks later.

Akin, a strong abortion opponent, was asked during an interview by a St. Louis television station whether he supported allowing abortions for women who have been raped. He answered that from what I understand from doctors that such pregnancies are really rare.

He added: If its a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.

His comments sparked an outcry. Then Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, immediately rebuked Akin and said his campaign would allow abortions in such cases.

Criticism of Akins remarks clouded his U.S. Senate bid until the end. Akins campaign initially said he misspoke, and Akin later said he was wrong.

Akin faced pressure from the national GOP to withdraw and allow the state party to pick a replacement. He refused and ended up losing the race by nearly 16 percentage points, receiving 39 percent of the vote.

Two years later, Akin published a book, Firing Back, in which he accused GOP leaders of abandoning him and letting McCaskill win and labeling news organizations as bullies. In the book, he also retracted his public apology for his legitimate rape remark.

Akin never ran for office again, though early in 2015, he briefly fueled speculation about a 2016 primary challenge to GOP Sen. Roy Blunt with remarks that tea party Republicans wanted new blood.

Akin was born July 5, 1947, in New York City, but grew up in the St. Louis area. He received a bachelors degree in engineering and management from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts in 1970, served in the U.S. Army, and worked for IBM. He worked in corporate management at the St. Louis-based Laclede Steel Co.

He won a seat in the Missouri House in 1988 and served in the Legislature for 10 years. He won Missouris 2nd Congressional District seat in 2000 and was re-elected five times. He also served on the board of the anti-abortion group Missouri Right to Life.

In the 2012 U.S. Senate primary, Akin faced two formidable opponents, former State Treasurer Sarah Steelman and businessman John Brunner.

Many Democrats thought McCaskills best shot at winning reelection would be with Akin as the GOP nominee. Her campaign aired television ads suggesting Akin was too conservative, Brunner was not a reliable conservative and Steelman represented more politics as usual.

Republicans took the ads as McCaskills attempt to help Akin win the GOP primary. An autobiography that McCaskill published in 2015 said she also tried to boost Akins campaign by urging it through back channels to resume airing a television ad featuring an endorsement from former conservative GOP presidential candidate and ex-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

McCaskills moves paid off. Akin prevailed in the eight-person GOP field with only 36 percent of the vote.

Funeral information has not been announced. Survivors include Akins wife, Lulli Boe Akin, his mother, Nancy Bigelow Akin, four sons, two daughters, and 18 grandchildren.

The Epoch Times staff contributed to this report.
Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, President of France Emmanuel Macron, along with Australian ministers on the submarine HMAS Waller at Garden Island, in Sydney May 2, 2018. (AAP/Brendan Esposito/via Reuters)

French Should Have Seen Sub Deal Cancellation Coming: Defence Analyst

French authorities, although upset at being kept in the dark around AUKUS, shouldnt be surprised at Australias decision to cancel the troubled A$90 billion (US$65 billion) Future Submarines Programaccording to a defence expert, who now says its time for governments to move forward.

Greg Copley, president of the International Strategic Studies Association, said that the trilateral AUKUS agreement between the United States, Australia, and United Kingdom had to be kept tight-lipped until its unveiling last monthwhich surprised many.

The problem was that in order to maintain the secrecy of this new alliancebound to be controversialwas that it risked the alienation of some other allies, particularly France, he told Emeritus Professor of Law David Flint in an episode of Australia Calling.

So, the French were, in a sense, rightly offended and humiliated by the sudden announcement that the Americans or the British would be providing the submarines, he added, noting that AUKUS meant the cancellation of the Future Submarines Program, which was signed-off in 2016 by former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

The original plan was for French defence contractor Naval Group to convert 12 of its new Barracuda-class nuclear submarines into diesel-electric powered Attack-class submarines fitted with U.S. weapons systems.

In this photo taken on Oct. 12, 2016, a Royal Australian Navy diesel and electric-powered Collins Class submarine sits in Sydney Harbour.

(Peter Parks/AFP via Getty Images)

Turnbulls predecessor, Tony Abbott, had initially wanted to buy off-the-shelf submarines, the Soryu-class from Japan, eschewing the need for Australian industry to build the project.

However, he faced resistance internally from fellow party members who were keen to see the submarines built in Australia (a standard political move to use defence projects as sources of employment).

The pioneering, hybrid project which resulted was riddled with ongoing delays and cost blowouts from original estimates of A$10 billion to A$89.7 billion. Recently, current Prime Minister Scott Morrisonwho cancelled the dealrevealed $2.4 billion (US$1.7 billion) had already been sunk into the project before construction had begun.

French ministers have reacted angrily to its cancellation, accusing Australia and the United States of stabbing it in the back and recalling its ambassadors from Canberra and Washington D.C.

Trade deal discussions between the European Union and Australia have also been postponed.

The reality is that the French should have seen this coming. They should have seen the fact that the submarine they had sold to the Australians under the previous government was not working out, Copley said. We would not see this new French design submarine into Australian service for at least 20 years.

This is absolutely unacceptable in either economic, political, or strategic terms because we dont know what the strategic environment is going to be like in 20 years time, he added. And the French persisted in this knowing that this was a great rip-off of Australian taxpayer money for a product which didnt exist.

The Royal Australian Navys HMAS Waller (SSG 75), a Collins-class diesel-electric submarine, is seen in Sydney Harbour on Nov. 2, 2016. (Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images)

He noted that the French were not solely to blame, as Turnbull, former Defence Minister Christopher Pyne, and top Australian naval officials had supported the program.

The French should have been busy cutting their wrists as a form of apology for having attempted to steal so much money from Australia, Copley said.

But the deed has been done, and now Australia moves into a new era, and so does Britain and the United States.

The AUKUS pact will not only see the U.S. and UK governments assist Australia with acquiring nuclear-powered submarinesa move that will significantly change the power balance in the Indo-Pacificit will also spur greater collaboration on development in cyber, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and undersea capabilities.

The U.S. and UK militaries will also look at stationing more troops and military forces permanently in Australia.

Copley noted that a nuclear industry was likely to emerge following the acquisition of the submarines but said the discussion around nuclear weaponry was misplaced.

Nuclear weapons are so 20th century. They have become eclipsed by newer technologies. We dont need the massive costs, not only of creating but maintaining nuclear weapons when other weapons can do these strategic missions so much more effectively, he said.

Those other weapons are largely built around cyber and space-based weapons, and to some degree, kinetic weaponslike hypersonic weaponswhere you can use the kinetic impact of non-nuclear weapons to take out key targets. The reality is that very few wars are won by the destruction of mass urban populations.
A man looks at a George Floyd statue at Union Park in New York City on Sept. 30, 2021. (John Minchillo/AP Photo)

George Floyd Statue Vandalized Days After Unveiling

A statue of George Floyd that was unveiled in New York City on Sept. 30 was vandalized on Sunday.

Surveillance footage showed a white male dressed in black pants and a green long-sleeved shirt tossing gray paint from a cup onto the statue in Union Park at approximately 10:15 a.m.

The man was riding a skateboard and continued by after vandalizing the statue.

New York Police Department (NYPD) hate crimes detectives are investigating.

No suspect has been identified or arrested, an NYPD spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email on Monday.

Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2020 after resisting arrest. Former police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 22.5 years in prison.

Floyds statue was placed in the New York park alongside busts of late Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot last year by police officers in Kentucky conducting a raid after her boyfriend fired at them.

The installation was dubbed Seeinjustice by its designers, a group called Confront Art. It is slated to be in the park until Oct. 30 before moving to other cities.

Confront Art and We Are Floyd issued a joint statement after the vandalism.

It takes a lot of courage to display the 3 statues we are exhibiting in Union Square. It also takes a good deal of courage to vandalize a statue on a global stage in broad daylight. This continues to bring light to our mission that art is a conversation catalyst, a place for public discourse, and through these acts, we can hopefully overcome hate and find unity for the future. We continue to be inspired to create and display public art to further this important mission, they said.

The same statue was defaced in the borough of Brooklyn when it was on display there in June.

The statue at Union Square Park was cleaned up on Sunday. On Monday, law enforcement officers were standing nearby.
A STEAG Gmbh coal-fired power station beside the River Rhine at twilight in Dinslaken, Germany, on April 19, 2007. (Lars Baron/Getty Images)

German Electricity Producer Forced to Shut Down Power Plant After Running Out of Coal

The global energy crisis forced one German electricity producer to shut down its power plant last week after it ran out of hard coal.

Steag GmbH, which operates six large-scale hard coal plants in Germany, was forced to close its Bergkamen-A plant, located in the western part of the country, due to shortages, a Steag spokesperson told Bloomberg.

This isnt the first time the Bergkamen-A plant has been forced to halt its operations. According to court filings, the plant was put on pause four times for as long as six days at a time in September due to external factors, according to Bloomberg. Three other German coal plants were also halted on Oct. 1 for maintenance.

We are short of hard coal, Steag spokesman Daniel Muhlenfeld said. There is a strong demand for coal per se, and secondly, there is a strong demand for transport by barge. And since Bergkamen has no rail connection, there are no logistical alternatives available here.

Steag, which employs more than 6,000 people around the world, is also facing logistical issues amid a surge in demand for river transport as Germanys economy slowly recovers from pandemic lockdowns.

Despite the logistical issues, the company is still optimistic that its Bergkamen-A plant will be up and running again quite soon, and noted that Steag isnt the only energy company facing such issues.

We are dealing with a double bottleneck, Muhlenfeld said. This is not a specific problem for Steag, but a common problem for nearly all owners of hard coal-based power plants these days.

Surging energy prices are currently playing out across the globe, with several European countries facing soaring energy bills as gas prices have risen by more than 35 percent in the past month amid lower supplies of natural gas and a surge in demand as pandemic-hit economies around the world reopen.

Lackluster output from Europes windmills and solar farms and maintenance work taking nuclear generators and other plans offline have also contributed to the energy price hike.

In Europe, supply levels are 16 percent below the five-year average, a record low for this time of year, and European utilities have turned to coal to combat such shortages, even asking Russia for more supplies. As a consequence, coal is now trading at sky-high levels.

Meanwhile, China, which is almost totally reliant on coal, moved last week to secure more suppliesincluding electricity and oilas the country faces electricity supply issues that have forced factories to shut down and caused supply disruptions to large global companies such as Apple and Tesla, as well as small U.S. businesses.

Vice Premier Han Zheng, who supervises the nations energy sector and industrial production, ordered Chinas energy companies to do whatever it takes to secure fuel supplies.

Power rationing is also taking place in at least nine provinces and regions as China attempts to combat its power troubles.

Curbs have been imposed on household power use in northeastern Liaoning Province and two neighboring provinces that are home to nearly 100 million people. Several residents in Liaoning confirmed to The Epoch Times that theyve experienced unannounced power cuts recently.

But the countrys top provincial official said on Sept. 26 that rationing power for industrial usage, which accounts for about 70 percent of the countrys electricity consumption, still cant fill the massive gap between power supply and demand. Meanwhile, neighboring Jilin Province has vowed to source more coal for household heating use as winter approaches.

Chinas move to secure more supplies is likely to make matters even worse, leaving Europe scrambling to secure fuel this winter.

Dorothy Li contributed to this report.
A researcher plants a semiconductor chip on an interface board, at the Tsinghua Unigroup research center in Beijing on Feb. 29, 2016. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Global Semiconductor Chip Shortage Could See Painful Period Extend Into 2022: Marvell CEO

The global semiconductor chip shortage that is impacting the production of automobiles and consumer electronics will last until 2022 and possibly beyond, according to the CEO of semiconductor company Marvell Technology.

Right now, every single end market for semiconductors is up simultaneously; Ive been in this industry 27 years, Ive never seen that happen, Marvell CEO Matt Murphy said during a CNBC Technology Executive Council event on Thursday. If it stays business as usual, and everythings up and to the right, this is going to be a very painful period, including in 2022 for the duration of the year.

While multiple chip producers, including Japanese chipmaker Renesas Electronics, Intel, and TSMC have all expressed plans to double down on manufacturing, Murphy noted thats not going to kick in until 2023 and 2024so theres this painful period.

Last month, consulting firm AlixPartners predicted the global semiconductor shortage will lead to 7.7 million fewer vehicles produced in 2021, costing automakers billions in lost sales.

In a forecast released Sept. 23, the firm estimated that the shortage will cost the auto industry $210 billion globally in lost revenue in 2021, a sharp increase from the May projections of $110 billion in forgone sales and 3.9 million fewer vehicles built.

Everyone had hoped that the chip crisis would have abated more by now, but unfortunate events such as the COVID-19 lockdowns in Malaysia and continued problems elsewhere have exacerbated things, Mark Wakefield, global co-leader of the automotive and industrial practice at AlixPartners, said in a statement.

Wakefield noted the current semiconductor crisis is just one of many supply issues that automakers are facing, along with a shortage of materials and labor.

But some industry experts have a more promising outlook for the future, and believe the chip shortage could settle down as early as next year as new factories that were planned last year begin to open and manufacturing capacity increases.

Weve always gone through cycles of ups and downs, where demand has exceeded supply or vice versa, AMD CEO Lisa Su said Monday at the Code Conference in Beverly Hills, California. This time, its different, she said, adding that while she expects the first half of 2022 to be tight, the second half could see an improvement.

It might take, you know, 18 to 24 months to put on a new plant, and in some cases even longer than that, Su said. These investments were started perhaps a year ago.

Murphy said he believes the chip shortage may see a decline when demand for certain chip-using products finally begins to drop, allowing producers to meet demands.

I think theres no way, from my point of view, that every segment of the electronics industry stays up and to the right, ripping demand for another 12 months; it doesnt make any sense, Murphy said on Thursday. I think somethings got to give. And when it gives that should free up the capacity in aggregate for the rest of the industry to go consume and ultimately align it with the true demand.

Still, carmakers in particular are facing stiff competition from the consumer electronics industry amid the supply in chips, leading many to cut production.

General Motors announced several weeks ago it was cutting production at six North American assembly plants due to the chip shortage, while Chrysler parent Stellantis NV said last week it was cutting additional production at three facilities in the United States and Canada. And Ford announced in late August that it would temporarily shut its Kansas City assembly plant, which builds its best-selling F-150 pickup truck.

Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.
These Polish-style cabbage rolls call for softened cabbage leaves wrapped around a grain and meat filling, simmered for hours in a tomato-based sauce. (from my point of view/shutterstock)

Golabki, 2 Ways: Traditional and Cheaters

However you make themin 3 hours or 30 minutesthese Polish stuffed cabbage rolls are classic comfort food

Roll out the special characters for another great Polish dish: goabki. You will hear it as go-LAHB-kee, but in Polish, that unusual (for us) l makes the word sound like ga-WOMP-kee.

While the literal translation means little doves, these are stuffed cabbage rolls (the size of little doves, but likely better tasting!). As I wrote in a previous article about Czech kolache, in Texas, a nontraditional sausage-filled kolache is what many Americans could call a pig in a blanket. In northern Wisconsin, a pig in a blanket is one of these cabbage rolls. If I asked my Slovak grandmother, shed tell me they are halupki. Hey, to each their own! (I may take to calling these Polish enchiladas.)

Making goabki requires a bit of work and time, so families often make them around the holidays or for special gatherings. But most Polish restaurants here in the United States or typical cafeterias in Poland will have them on the menu. This is hearty food, and I tend to get a hankering for it in the colder months. My grandparents used to make them, and I learned from my mother.

Making goabki requires a bit of work and time, so families often make them around the holidays or for special gatherings. (Cherries/Shutterstock)

The Polish-style cabbage roll calls for softened cabbage leaves wrapped around a grain and meat filling, simmered for hours in a tomato-based sauce. Our family prefers sauerkraut to the tomato.

Tomatoes are New World food, so while cabbage rolls may date farther back, the recipes we see today are no older than the arrival and dispersion of those foods through workaday populations of Europe. Recipes can vary, and I include notes for some variations in this one.

My family never used rice, but preferred barley, which has a firmer bite to it. We used ground beef only, as the pork tended to be too greasy, we thought. But the real way, according to my mother, is half beef, half pork.

Im including a tomato sauce for cooking the rolls, but my family always used sauerkraut instead, and that was typically homemade from Grandma. I like Franks brand in a glass jar myself. You can swap out the tomato sauce for 1 pound drained sauerkraut, or even combine the two, if you prefer.

Nowadays, Mom is cooking for just herself and my father, and forgoes the extra work with a shortcut version: We [call] it cheaters because were cheating. Rather than cooking the rolls for 3 to 4 hours, she arrives at all the flavor of golabki without all the work and time.

Golabki

Makes 16 to 18 golabki

1 to 2 heads green cabbage (16 to 18 leaves, plus 2 to 3 cups roughly chopped cabbage)

For the Filling

2/3 cup uncooked barley (or white rice)

1 medium onion, finely diced

2 tablespoons butter

1 1/2 pound ground beef, or 1 pound ground beef plus

1/2 pound ground pork

1 large egg, beaten

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/2 to 1 teaspoon garlic powder (optional)

1/2 teaspoon paprika (optional)

For the Tomato Sauce

2 16-ounce cans crushed or diced tomatoes (or whole and crushed yourself)

2 8-ounce cans tomato sauce

2 bay leaves

Pre-cook the barley or rice and let cool. If making the tomato-based sauce, mix the undrained tomatoes, tomato sauce, and bay leaves in a large pot. Simmer, covered, while you prepare the rest of the dish.

Remove the largest leaves from a head of cabbage, one for each roll16 to 18 depending on leaf size and how you distribute the filling. If the larger outside leaves have a thick vein, trim that down with a paring knifebut dont cut all the way through! Place the leaves in boiling water until they are pliable enough to fold without cracking. Remove and let cool before handling.

Saute the diced onions in butter until very lightly browned. Mix the raw ground meat, cooked grains, sauteed onion, beaten egg, and any additional seasonings together.

Spoon about 1/2 cup filling into the lower half of each cabbage leaf. In a method a bit similar to making spring rolls or burritos: Roll it up and away from you just a half turn, then fold the two sides into the center, then roll forward until the leaf is wrapped completely around the filling. Set the finished roll down on top of the seam to hold it in place. Repeat with the remaining leaves and filling.

Lightly grease a Dutch oven or large kettle and put down a layer of chopped cabbage, along with enough water to just cover the bottom of the pot. (Mom uses a layer of sauerkraut instead of the chopped cabbage and water.) Layer in the rolls.

Remove the bay leaves from the tomato sauce, then pour the sauce (and/or the remaining sauerkraut) over the rolls and cover. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce to a very low simmer for about 3 hours.

Serve with mashed potatoes, rye bread, or even beets. (Thats a no for me, but trying to be respectful of alternative tastes!) Cabbage rolls freeze well in a good airtight container.

Note: A nice alternative to the stovetop method is to put everything in a slow cooker and let it sit on low for 3 hours. One can also bake this, covered, at 350 degrees F for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes.

Moms Cheaters

It almost seems insulting after that long, traditional process, but we are cheating, after all. Pan-fry 1 pound of ground sirloin with a bit of diced onion, then add half a head of roughly chopped cabbage and a jar of sauerkraut. Simmer it all together for half an hour. Salt and pepper to taste.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer speaks during a drive-in campaign rally with Democratic presidential-elect Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama at Belle Isle in Detroit, Mich., on Oct. 31, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Group Launches Petition to Limit Emergency Health Powers in Michigan

Michigan residents who are fed up with government-imposed lockdowns and health department mandates have begun a petition drive to put control over departmental orders into the hands of their elected representatives.

The proposal preserves the authority of public health professionals to initially determine the need to control an outbreak of an infectious disease by public health orders, although it would require the determination to be in writing. The change also wouldnt hinder the health departments ability to quickly respond to a health emergency.

Under the proposal, all emergency public orders to fight an epidemic would expire after 28 days. It would then be up to health officials to request an extension for a specific number of days from either the state legislature or, in the case of local departments, from elected county commissions and municipal councils.

The Michigan constitution gives citizens the right to initiate legislation by petition.

If the petitioners obtain the required 340,000 valid signatures within 180 days, the proposal will go before the state legislature, which has two options: It may place the proposal on the ballot as a referendum in the next general election, or the legislature itself may vote on the proposal.

If the proposal is approved by a majority vote of both houses of the legislature, it becomes the law of the land and isnt subject to a veto by the governor.

Citizens used this procedure successfully earlier in 2021 to abolish the 1945 Emergency Powers Act, which gave Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, statutory authority to impose stringent public health restrictions on Michigans people, schools, businesses, and other institutions during the pandemic.

Whitmer reacted to the move by shifting the responsibility of ordering lockdowns and mandates from the Office of the Governor to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, as well as to county and municipal health departments.

The citizens group that spearheaded the successful effort to curtail the powers of the Michigan governor was Unlock Michigan. It has since evolved into Unlock to ReformMI, a group dedicated to limiting the emergency powers of the health department and to restoring its accountability to elected leaders.

We did it once, now lets do it again! Only this time, lets put the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services in line. No more endless governing by decree, the group said in an online statement.

Department health officials didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.
An exhibition of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions in Hong Kong on Sept. 25, 2021. (Peter PARKS/AFP)

Hong Kongs Largest Pro-Democracy Labor Union Disbands Under Political Uncertainty

Hong Kong saw its largest pro-democracy trade union broken up on Oct. 3 under a deepened security law, despite the pro-Beijing government denying that it was clamping down on civil society.

The city has seen about 50 independent groups dissolved in 2021 alone.

The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) stated that 57 members voted in favor of dissolving the union and eight voted against, with two abstentions, fulfilling the four-fifths threshold for official disbandment, RTHK News reported.

The ceasing of operations comes under political uncertainty, said HKCTU Vice Chairman Leo Tang, who declined to elaborate on where the pressure came from.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam denied on Aug. 31 claims that the government is suppressing civil society, but said that its upholding national security. Yet, the HKCTU was one of several opposition groups targeted by local authorities.

The disbandment comes after the HKCTU announced in a statement that its members had received messages two weeks ago threatening their safety if the group wasnt dissolved.

HKCTU Chief Executive Mung Siu-tat said on Facebook that he had resigned and fled Hong Kong. Co-founder Lee Cheuk-yan was sentenced in April to 14 months in jail for his role in anti-government protests in 2019.

Police also arrested HKCTU Chairperson Carol Ng on Jan. 6 amid the largest clampdown by authorities on the citys opposition camp since the Beijing-decreed new national security law went into effect. Ng was alleged to have committed the crime of subverting state power.

Pro-Beijing media have suggested that the union was a foreign agent or colluding with foreign forcespunishable by up to life in prison under the national security lawdue to its affiliation with the International Trade Union Confederation, an accusation both the HKCTU and the global group deny.

As the citys largest pro-democracy labor union, the HKCTU represented more than 93 affiliated organizations, and its duties included organizing independent trade unions, resolving labor disputes, and providing vocational training and education for workers.

Of course, it is a heartbreaking decision, Tang said, stating that the spirit behind the independent labor movement in Hong Kong would live on.

Teachers and pro-democracy supporters hold placards saying No Fear to White Terrorism as they take part in a rally in the central district of Hong Kong on Jan. 3, 2020. (Philip Fong/ AFP)

At least 29 trade unions have dissolved since the start of 2021. Fears of falling foul of the law and facing terms of up to life in jail left civil leaders with no choice but to disband.

In the past two months, Hong Kongs largest teachers union, representing more than 100,000 educators; the citys main advocacy group for prisoners rights; and the Civil Human Rights Front, known for organizing massive pro-democracy rallies that once drew almost 2 million people in 2019, have all folded.

Observers say that number will continue to climb.

Yet, the Security Bureau of the city said any organization and its members remained criminally liable for offenses they had committed after disbanding.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Image of the Birmingham and Fazeley viaduct, part of the proposed route for the HS2 high speed rail scheme in England, in an undated handout photo. (HS2/PA)

HS2: UK Ministers Will Not Blindly Follow Plans Drawn up Years Ago

The Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has added to growing speculation over the future of the eastern leg of HS2, saying ministers will not blindly follow plans drawn up almost two decades ago.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Shapps signaled that a major rethink of the high-speed rail project between Birmingham and Leeds could be in order.

He told the paper, We want to make sure we get trains to Leeds in a way that actually benefits people on the network and not blindly follow some plan invented 15 to 20 years ago which no longer benefits people.

Infographic of HS2 route. (Infographic PA Graphics)

Construction work on phase one of the high-speed rail project from London to Birmingham is ongoing.

Phase 2a is planned to run from Birmingham to Crewe, and phase 2b from Crewe to Manchester, and from Birmingham to Leeds.

But after the government-commissioned Oakervee Review warned last year that the final bill for HS2 could reach 106 billion ($144 billion) at 2019 prices, there were concerns that the eastern leg of phase 2b could be scrapped.

This was further compounded when the National Infrastructure Commission said in December that the focus should be on regional connectivity.

Shapps told the Financial Times the creation of the Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) scheme, which is aimed at connecting cities in the region on an eastwest route, should also be taken into account.

He said: Midlands Rail Hub and Northern Powerhouse Rail are things  theyve been invented, they hadnt been when HS2 was first designed.

We need to work these things together. Are we doing things in the best way and in the right order?

Shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon called Shappss comments insulting.

You cannot trust a word the Tories say, he said. Expecting people to accept endless rebadging of promises made years ago is insulting.

Poor transport connectivity continues to hold back the North, Midlands, and beyond and the Conservatives record is one of total failure to deliver.

Communities that stand to lose out once againthanks to the governments incompetence and inability to keep projects on trackwill rightly feel betrayed by yet another broken promise dressed up as a new announcement.
This photo taken on Sept. 10, 2014, shows a ship loaded with containers ready for departure at the Chinese-majority owned Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT) in Colombo. (Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP via Getty Images)

India to Build Deep Water Port Terminal in Sri Lanka to Counter Beijings Influence

An Indian company has signed a contract worth US$700 million to build a strategically important deep-water container terminal in Sri Lanka, a move considered a countermeasure to Chinas growing influence in South Asia.

The Adani Group of India signed the agreement with the Sri Lanka Port Authority (SLPA) on Sept. 30 to build the terminal at the port of Colombo, the island nations capital.

The period of the agreement is for 35 years, the SLPA said in a media release. The ownership of the terminal will be then transferred to Sri Lanka.

Local company John Keells will hold a 34 percent stake in the joint venture while the Adani Group will hold a 51 percent. The Port Authority, which is owned by the Sri Lankan government, will also become a minority shareholder.

The so-called Colombo West International Terminal will be is 1.4 kilometers (0.87 miles) long and some 20 meters (66 feet) deep. It will be expected to handle some 3.2 million containers per year.

The initial phase of the project, which involves building a 600-meter (0.37 mile) terminal, is expected to be completed within two years.

The terminal will be built right next to the Chinese-run Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT).

In 2014, two Chinese submarines berthed at the CICT which generated alarm in New Delhi, AFP reported. Sri Lanka has not allowed any more Chinese submarines to be stationed there since.

Colombo is located in the Indian Ocean and is a strategic point between the important shipping hubs of Dubai and Singapore. Neighboring India also considers Sri Lanka as part of its area of influence.

The countrys second-largest portHambantota International Porthas been run by China Merchants Port Holdings since the end of 2017 after Sri Lanka was unable to repay a large Chinese loan, raising concerns of Beijings use of debt-trap diplomacy through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

According to AFP, both India and the United States have expressed concerns that a Chinese footing at this port could give Beijing a military advantage in the Indian Ocean.

India, along with the U.S., Japan, and Australia, is a member of the Quadrilateral coalition of four Indo-Pacific nations (Quad). The coalition, formed in 2007, is largely seen as a response to Chinas economic and military rise in the Indo-Pacific region.
Signage for people to stay home is seen at Federation Square in downtown Melbourne, Australia, on August 6, 2021, (Con Chronis/AFP via Getty Images)

Its Going to Be Tough: $700 Million Lost per Week as Lockdown Devastates Australia City

Melbourne is a "broken place"

Victorias economy has lost over $700 million (US$508 million) per week since the start of the lockdown, with business and consumer confidence levels bottoming out.

This comes as Melbourne claims the world record for the longest locked down city in the world, overtaking Argentinian capital Buenos Aires for the number of days under government-mandated lockdown.

We are going to get past this, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters on Oct. 3.

We are going to end this lockdown and open up, and all that we will enjoy then will be a result of all that we have given.

But the premiers sentiments were not shared by the CEO of Australian Industry Group, Innes Willox, who said Victorians feared the sixth lockdown would not end after the three weeks promised by the premier.

Melbourne is pretty much a broken place, and 246 days of lockdown would do that to youthats eight months of lockdown in 18 months, Willox told Sky News Australia.

The economic devastation is hugeits emotional devastation, its impacted our education, our economy, and Melbournes resilienceits been very tough and will continue to be tough.

Former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett also criticised the lockdowns saying the citys longest lockdown title was nothing to be proud of.

[T]heres a massive loss of trust in the leadership of Victoria, Kennett told the Herald Sun newspaper.

What it represents is a great deal of inconvenience, hardship, loss of industry, businesses and major events, he said.

According to the state governments statistics, Victorias tourism economy experienced a significant decline of 50 percent, or a loss of $12.7 billion, in the year to June 2021 compared to the previous year.

Meanwhile, total visitors to and within Victoria decreased by 33 percent to 53.7 million from the year ending June 2020, compared to the previous yearrepresenting a loss of 26.7 million visitors.

Melbournes lost all of the attributes that made it strong, events-strong culture, the education sector was so important to Victoria, Willox told the Today show.

Events are really the core part of Melbourne, he said.

Those sorts of things that are really important to Melbournes status and sense of well-being, and weve lost two grand finals.

On Sept. 30, the Victorian government and the federal treasurer announced a $2.27 billion support package for businesses most affected by restrictions as Victoria worked to increase the vaccination rate to cover 70 and 80 percent of the state population. A move that aligns with the national plan agreed to by the intergovernmental National Cabinet body comprised of the prime minister, along with the state and territory leaders.

Our economy has bounced back strongly before once restrictions are eased and is well-positioned to do so again when lockdowns lift, Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said in a statement.

According to Victorias roadmap, Melbournes lockdown is due to end on Oct. 26 when 70 percent of residents are fully vaccinatedhowever only fully vaccinated Victorians will enjoy more freedom.

Victoria will also be able to keep up with the national plans 80 percent threshold only until Nov. 19, which is supposed to see more freedoms released.

People are at their wits end. They want their kids back at school; they want businesses to reopen, Frydenberg said.

They are getting the jab in record numbers because they believe thats the part of the compact they have with their governmentsthat when they get the jab, the restrictions will ease.

Ernst and Young chief economist Jo Masters told News Corp in June that Australias vaccination drive was critical in limiting the economic impact from lockdowns.

Locking down is a health decision but has an economic consequence (but) we know that not tackling the virus is a worse outcome, Masters said.

Meanwhile, protesters took to the streets of Melbourne on Oct. 2 following an announcement by the Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews that vaccination would be mandated for authorised workers.

On Oct. 4, Victoria recorded 1,377 new cases, with 82 percent of Victorians over 16 having received their first vaccine dose and 52.1 percent being fully vaccinated with two doses.
Fumio Kishida, Japan's prime minister, speaks during a news conference at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo, Japan, on Oct. 04, 2021. (Toru Hanai/Pool/Getty Images)

Japans New PM Vows to Bolster Economy, Counter Security Threats From China

Japans parliament on Monday elected former foreign minister Fumio Kishida as the 100th prime minister of Japan after he won the majority of votes in both houses.

The 64-year-old politician replaces outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who is stepping down after serving only one year. Kishida will become the new leader of Japans Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

Kishida said on Monday during his first news conference since taking office that he will dissolve the lower house next week in preparation for Oct. 31 elections as he seeks a fresh mandate to deal with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic, the sagging economy, and security threats from China and North Korea.

The newly elected official said he is planning to create a new ministerial post for economic security aimed at protecting sensitive technology that is allegedly being stolen by neighboring communist regimes, China and North Korea. The new minister set to fill the post is yet to be named.

News agency Reuters reported that the post is filled with a close ally to Akira Amari, the secretary-general of the LDP. Amari was the architect of policies aimed at protecting sensitive technology from China in areas such as supply chains and cyber security while he served as economy minister.

Then Japanese Economy Minister Akira Amari gestures during a session of the World Economic Forum annual meeting on Jan. 23, 2016. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)

Kishida also pledged to push through with a large-scale recovery package to support those hit by the CCP virus pandemic.

COVID-19 measures are the urgent and top priority, and I will handle the problem taking into consideration the worst-case scenario, Kishida said, explaining that he will review the past virus handling and seek to set up a crisis management unit.

In order to take large-scale COVID-19 measures, I need to get the peoples mandate, he said.

Kishida supports stronger JapanU.S. security ties and partnerships with other like-minded democracies in Asia, Europe, and Britain, in part to counter China and nuclear-armed North Korea. He pledged to beef up Japans missile and naval defense capability.

He acknowledged the importance to continue dialogue with China, an important neighbor and trade partner, but said that we must speak up against Chinas attempt to change the status quo in the East and South China Seas.

Newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (C) poses with his cabinet members at the prime ministers official residence in Tokyo, Japan, on Oct. 04, 2021. (David Mareuil/Pool/Getty Images)

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken congratulated Kishida on his election victory, saying he is grateful for the friendship between the United States and Japan and will stay committed to advancing the shared priorities of our two countries.

Our partnership demonstrates that when free and democratic nations work together we can address global threatssuch as COVID-19 and the climate crisiswhile defending and reinforcing the free and open rules-based international order, Blinken said in a statement.

Kishida also said he is open to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un without preconditions to resolve the issue of Japanese citizens abducted to the north decades ago. He said he will cooperate with President Joe Biden in resolving North Koreas nuclear and missile threats.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

From NTD News
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is shown ahead of a meeting at the EU Charlemagne building in Brussels, on Nov. 6, 2019. (Stephanie Lecocq/Pool via AP)

Leaked Pandora Records Show How the Powerful Shield Assets

A new report sheds light on how world leaders, powerful politicians, billionaires, and others have used offshore accounts to shield assets collectively worth trillions of dollars over the past quarter-century.

The report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists brought promises of tax reform and demands for resignations and investigations, as well as explanations and denials from those targeted.

The investigation, dubbed the Pandora Papers, was published late Sunday and involved 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 countries.

Hundreds of politicians, celebrities, religious leaders, and drug dealers have been hiding their investments in mansions, exclusive beachfront property, yachts, and other assets, according to a review of nearly 12 million files obtained from 14 firms located around the world. Much of the activity did not appear to be illegal.

The more than 330 current and former politicians identified as beneficiaries of the secret accounts include Jordans King Abdullah II, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Czech Republic Prime Minister Andrej Babis, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Ecuadors President Guillermo Lasso, and associates of both Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The billionaires called out in the report include Turkish construction mogul Erman Ilicak and Robert T. Brockman, the former CEO of software maker Reynolds & Reynolds.

Many of the accounts were designed to evade taxes and conceal assets for other reasons, according to the report. Some of those targeted strongly denied the claims on Monday.

The European Commission, the 27-nation European Unions executive arm, said in response to the revelations that it is preparing new legislative proposals to enhance tax transparency and reinforce the fight against tax evasion.

The Pandora Papers are a follow-up to a similar project released in 2016 called the Panama Papers compiled by the same journalistic group.

The latest bombshell is even more expansive, relying on data leaked from 14 different service providers doing business in 38 different jurisdictions. The records date back to the 1970s, but most are from 1996 to 2020.

The investigation dug into accounts registered in familiar offshore havens, including the British Virgin Islands, Seychelles, Hong Kong, and Belize. But some of the secret accounts were also scattered around in trusts set up in the United States, including 81 in South Dakota and 37 in Florida.

The investigation found advisers helped Abdullah, the king of Jordan, set up at least three dozen shell companies from 1995 to 2017, helping the monarch buy 14 homes worth more than $106 million in the United States and the UK. One was a $23 million California ocean-view property bought in 2017 through a British Virgin Islands company. The advisers were identified as an English accountant in Switzerland and lawyers in the British Virgin Islands.

Abdullah denied any impropriety in a comment Monday by the Royal Palace, citing security needs for keeping the transactions quiet and saying no public funds were used.

UK attorneys for Abdullah said he isnt required to pay taxes under his countrys law and hasnt misused public funds. The attorneys also said most of the companies and properties are not connected to the king or no longer exist, though they declined to provide details.

Blair, UK prime minister from 1997 to 2007, became the owner of an $8.8 million Victorian building in 2017 by buying a British Virgin Islands company that held the property, and the building now hosts the law firm of his wife, Cherie Blair, according to the the investigation. The two bought the company from the family of Bahrains industry and tourism minister, Zayed bin Rashid al-Zayani. Buying the company shares instead of the London building saved the Blairs more than $400,000 in property taxes, the investigation found.

The Blairs and the al-Zayanis both said they didnt initially know the other party was involved in the deal, the probe found. Cherie Blair said her husband wasnt involved in the purchase, which she said was meant to bring the company and the building back into the UK tax and regulatory regime. She also said she did not want to own a British Virgin Islands company and that the seller for their own purposes only wanted to sell the company, which is now closed.

A lawyer for the al-Zayanis said they complied with UK laws.

The report also analyzed a transaction involving the British monarchy.

Britains Crown Estate, the property business owned by Queen Elizabeth II, said it would review the 67 million ($91 million) purchase of a London building from a company reported to be a front for the family of Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev. The Guardian said the deal raised questions about whether the transaction should be investigated on money-laundering concerns. Aliyev, who has ruled Azerbaijan since 2003, has been accused of corruption and rights abuses.

The Crown Estate said it had conducted checks before the purchase but amid the questions raised is now looking into the matter again.

Khan, the Pakistani prime minister, is not accused of any wrongdoing. But members of his inner circle, including Finance Minister Shaukat Fayaz Ahmed Tarin, are accused of hiding millions of dollars in wealth in secret companies or trusts, according to the journalists findings.

In a Twitter post, Khan vowed to recover the ill-gotten gains and said his government will look into all citizens mentioned in the documents and take action, if needed.

The consortium of journalists revealed Putins image-maker and chief executive of Russias leading TV station, Konstantin Ernst, got a discount to buy and develop Soviet-era cinemas and surrounding property in Moscow after he directed the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Ernst told the organization the deal wasnt secret and denied suggestions he was given special treatment.

In 2009, Babis, the Czech prime minister, put $22 million into shell companies to buy a chateau property in a hilltop village in Mougins, France, near Cannes, the investigation found. The shell companies and the chateau were not disclosed in Babiss required asset declarations, according to documents obtained by the journalism groups Czech partner, Investigace.cz.

A real estate group owned indirectly by Babis bought the Monaco company that owned the chateau in 2018, the probe found.

Babis has denied any wrongdoing. He said the report was meant to harm him ahead of the Czech Republic parliamentary election being held on Friday and Saturday.

The Czech polices organized crime unit said it would launch an investigation.

Montenegros President Milo Djukanovic faced calls to resign after he was listed as one of the world leaders who used secret accounts to hide their property. His office denied a report by the local Montenegrin Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector, which alleged he and his son established a trust to conceal their wealth behind a complicated network of companies.

By Michael Liedtke And Jonathan Mattise
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks to reporters following a weekly Senate lunch at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on July 20, 2021. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)

McConnell and Graham Ask CBO True Cost of Dem Reconciliation Bill

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have blasted Democrats spending plans and asked for information on the true cost of Democrats $3.5 trillion spending bill in a letter sent to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Since its earliest stages, Republicans across both chambers of Congress have opposed the Democrats $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, now known as the Build Back Better Act. Democrats have called the bill a human infrastructure package, intended to be passed alongside the bipartisan $1.2 trillion hard infrastructure bill. Both bills are part of President Joe Bidens ambitious agenda.

To pass the bill through the Senate, Democrats are using the reconciliation process. This process, which is limited certain forms of spending and revenue bills, can pass through the upper chamber by a simple majority, avoiding the normal 60 vote threshold to end a filibuster.

Thus far, no Republicans have come out in favor of the bill.

Democrats are in the midst of passing a partisan bill with multi-trillion dollar implications for federal spending, revenues, and deficits, The letter, addressed to CBO Director Dr. Phillip Swagel, states. (pdf).

McConnell and Graham said that because of the Majoritys intent to completely ignore Senate committees as well as the limited debate allowed on the reconciliation bill, it is critical that the [CBO] provide Senators and the public with information related to the fiscal consequences of the reckless changes being proposed.

The senators also accused the House of process[ing] legislation in a manner meant to hide the true cost to American taxpayers.

Despite Democratic leaderships intention to hold a vote on the bill by the end of September, continued infighting among the Democrats caucus forced leadership to extend a new deadline to the end of October. Though a final draft of the bill is far from ready, Democratic leaders have insisted that taxes will not increase for anyone making less than $400,000 per year.

Leaders, including the president, have been trying to navigate a path forward between progressive demands and moderate expectations. Much of this negotiating has been done behind closed-doors.

McConnell and Graham criticized this closed-door policymaking, musing that Democrats are keeping tight-lipped about the bill in order to avoid making estimates available.

They listed several questions for the CBO.

First, they noted that only four out of thirteen House committees had reported having received cost estimates for their reconciliation proposal, and asked Swagel when these estimates would be available for the other nine committees.

Even Democrats have noted the lack of transparency.

A proponent of the bill, Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) said during a hearing of the House Ways & Means Committee that she and other House Democrats had not received a great deal of information about the bill.

I dont know how much were spending, how much were raising, how were spending some of the money, how were raising any of the money, Murphy said at the time. She added that without more information on the bill, she would be forced to hesitantly vote against it.

They also asked for information on the gross level of new spending from the bill as well as how much it is projected to raise the deficit. Both of these figures, however, remain very up in the air as Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) recently doubled down on their opposition to a $3.5 trillion bill.

This has left leaders scrambling to find a compromise price tag acceptable to all factions of the party. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that it was self-evident that the final bill would be less than $3.5 trillion.

The senators listed a slew of other questions, about specific components of the bill, asking for a response by Wednesday. At the time of publication, Swagel has not yet responded to this request.
The New Scotland Yard logo is displayed on a revolving sign outside the Curtis Green Building, the new home of the Metropolitan Police in London on Feb. 22, 2017. (Jack Taylor/Getty Images)

Met Officer Denies Rape Allegation in Court

A Metropolitan police officer has been remanded in custody on Monday after denying a rape allegation in court.

The hearing came as Britains criminal justice system is under pressure to prosecute rape allegations more aggressively in the wake of Sarah Everards abduction, rape, and murder in March by then-serving Met officer Wayne Couzens.

Met officer David Carrick, 46, who serves in the parliamentary and diplomatic protection command, where Couzens also served, appeared in court on Monday over one court of rape following an alleged attack, a charge he emphatically denied.

According to media reports, Carrick is alleged to have taken a woman, who he met on a dating app in August 2020, back to a Premier Inn after visiting two pubs in a Hertfordshire town.

The alleged attack is said to have taken place the following morning.

Carrick was arrested on Oct. 2 by Hertfordshire Constabulary and remanded in custody.

The Met suspended him on the same day.

Authorising the charging of Carrick on Sunday, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the alleged assault was on the night of Sept. 4, 2020.

He was charged under the threshold test, a testing regime the CPS uses in some limited circumstances to decide whether its justifiable to charge suspects when the usual full code test is not met.

Carrick appeared at St Albans Magistrates Court on Monday by videolink from a police station in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, wearing a white collared shirt, and spoke only to confirm his identity.

Defending Carrick, Ryan Dowding confirmed his client had been suspended from duty and said, He emphatically denies the allegations.

Carrick was remanded in custody after the hearing and is due to appear in court again on Nov. 1.

Hertfordshire Constabulary said on Sunday that specially trained officers were supporting the alleged victim.

Malcolm McHaffie, the CPS chief crown prosecutor of Thames and Chiltern, reminded all concerned on Sunday of the defendants right to a fair trial.

As CouzensEverards killerwas handed a life sentence on Thursday, the high-profile case has sparked a fresh round of debates on police vetting, womens safety, and the criminal justice system, with the response to rape allegations often lack[ing] focus, clarity, and commitment, according to a watchdog report published in July.

The report said the inspectors of the police and the Crown Prosecution Service were told time and again that these cases were difficult to investigate, difficult to prosecute, difficult to explain to victims, and difficult for juries to understand.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the BBC on Sunday that his government will stop at nothing to get more rapists behind bars.

Asked to comment on the allegation against Carrick, Johnson said on Monday that he couldnt comment on ongoing cases.

That will clearly have to go through [the courts], the prime minister told broadcasters at a Network Rail site in Manchester.

PA contributed to this report.
Minnesota School Removes F Grade and Allows Retests to Combat Systemic Racism

A Minnesota middle school said it will no longer allow teachers to give students an F grade for failure, as part of the schools effort to tackle systemic racism.

In a video shared on YouTube, Sunrise Park Middle School Principal Christina Pierre explained that the new grading system will replace the F with an I, which stands for incomplete, and teachers will no longer assign a letter grade to students who receive below 50 percent for their work.

Instead, students will get a percentage grade and be given an opportunity to improve if they receive 49 percent or below. Students are encouraged to retake tests, quizzes, papers, and projects, and have 10 days to do so after the date the grade is posted.

The new grading system will also end taking into consideration factors like a students behavior, attitude, tardiness to class, and whether the assignment is turned in on time. Theres other ways that we can communicate those things to parents, Sunrise Parks Associate Principal Norman Bell said in the video, adding that this is meant to make sure that grades focus on the process of learning.

The changes at Sunrise Park are championed by White Bear Lake Area Schools Superintendent Wayne Kazmierczak, a long-time educator who seeks to address grading disparities among students of color. The school district said it dramatically changed grading practices last year as part of its strategic plan and commitment to eliminating systemic racism.

Grading can be one of the largest areas in which systemic racism and inequities are perpetuated, the school districts website reads. Grading should not be a behavior punishment and should not be a measure of how well a student can survive stress at home.

A middle school serving the northeastern suburb of Minneapolis, Sunrise Park made national headlines earlier this year after a teacher asked 6th grade students to assess how much privilege they supposedly possess.

According to documents posted to social media, the teacher asked her class to consider whether they belonged to the privileged groupa collective term for those who are white, male, Christian, heterosexual, and born in the United States, or the targeted group, referring to those who are non-white, female, non-Christian, LGBT, and immigrants.

It is our responsibility to ensure that each of our students needs are being met, Kazmierczak said in a statement after the class activity caused controversy online. We know from listening to our students that our continued and sustained commitment to educational equity is a critical part of how we achieve our stated district mission and close gaps that currently exist in our student outcome measures.
The Maclaurin Building is shown on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Feb. 22, 2006 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Institute admitted its first students in 1865 and continues with the mission to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

MIT Cancels Guest Lecture by Scientist Who Questioned Diversity Hiring

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has caved to the demands of progressive activists to cancel a guest lecture because of the speakers opinions on diversity hiring.

Dorian Abbot, a geophysicist at the University of Chicago (UC), had been invited by MITs Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences to give its prestigious Carlson Lecture on Oct. 21. He was to talk about the climate on exoplanets, or planets that orbit stars other than the sun of our solar system.

On Oct. 2, however, Abbot wrote on Twitter that MIT has cancelled his lecture, a move he described as a bad decision under pressure.

Abbot became the target of the progressives last year after he expressed doubts about certain aspects of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies at the UC. In August, the UC campus left renewed its effort to cancel Abbot, after he co-authored an opinion piece in Newsweek discussing the flaws of race-centric DEI hiring.

American universities are diverse not because of DEI, but because they have been extremely competitive at attracting talent from all over the world, he says in the article, noting that German universities never fully recovered from the Nazi years, during which their employment policies focused on race instead of merit. We should view this as a warning of the consequences of viewing group membership as more important than merit, and correct our course before it is too late.

In a petition sent to the UC Department of the Geophysical Sciences, activists declared that Abbots opinions threaten the safety and belonging of all underrepresented groups and were an aggressive act, and demanded, among other things, his immediate removal from his teaching position. In response, UC administrators made it clear that they wont punish a faculty member for simply expressing his views on the universitys policies.

Faculty are free to agree or disagree with any policy or approach of the University, its departments, schools or divisions without being subject to discipline, reprimand or other form of punishment, UC President Robert Zimmer said in a letter to campus community.

Several academics have voice their support for Abbot, including Robert George, a Princeton University professor and vocal opponent of cancel culture. In a Twitter thread documenting the incident, George urged academia to condemn the politicization of science.

Its not just the scientists who need to speak up against this outrage against academic freedom and integrity, he wrote. It is all of us in academiascholars in every field, and scholars from across the ideological spectrum. Please, dont be silent.

George was joined by Jeffrey Flier, the former dean of Harvard Medical School. Filer argued that MIT should reinstate Abbot as the Carlson lecturer and apologize for their treatment of him.

By capitulating to a mindless Twitter mob as it did in this sad case, MIT has severely diminished its institutional reputation. Reversal of the absurd award cancelation and high level and sincere apologies are required, he wrote on Twitter.

MIT didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.
The German and European Union flags fly at half mast after German ambassador to China Jan Hecker passed away, at the Germany embassy in Beijing, China, on Sept. 6, 2021. (Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

New German Government Is Alliance Opportunity Against the CCP

Germany must walk its talk on China

News Analysis

Germanys Angela Merkel is on the way out and a new government is comingpotentially the Greens, which takes a stronger stand against Beijings human rights abuses.

A new coalition government is expected in Germany soon and the Greens might be taking the foreign policy portfolio. This is good and bad news for those expecting a tougher stand from Germany on Chinas growing power and belligerence. The Greens have a human rights-based foreign policy and it has often been vocal about some of Beijings worst abuses. But it also plans to decrease the defense budget. This means Germany will likely switch from a tight-lipped country with low defense spending, to a human rights loudmouth with even lower defense spending. The change will be six of one, half a dozen of another, and likely leave the United States and its closest allies on the China issue, including the United Kingdom and Australia, to do the heavy lifting.

On the back of late-September elections, Olaf Scholz of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) is the most likely to emerge as Germanys next chancellor. The Social Democrats are more hawkish on China than is the outgoing Chancellor Merkel.

But Merkels chosen successor, Armin Laschet, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), still has a chance. After the general vote, since there is no clear leader, those who came closest to the mark are scrambling to build a coalition of parties. This is how parliamentary systems work, which is different from the American presidential system.

As noted by Frederick Kliem in Nikkei Asia, we can expect a weaker chancellor in Germany, who changes more often, due to the new necessity for multiparty governing coalitions. Governments will be less stable and comparatively short-lived, and the chancellery less powerful, he wrote. The Greens, which increased their vote shares to 14.8 percent, will likely get a role in government. In exchange for their support, they could get control of foreign affairs and environmental policy.

According to Kliem, this will deemphasize the German militarys role, which, believe it or not, Merkel supported (in her small way) relative to the Greens, which wants to make Germanys military even smaller.

An SPD-led government, especially with the deeply pacifist Greens, is bad news for traditional supporters of the trans-Atlantic alliance who welcome a larger German security footprint globally and increased defense spending in line with Germanys NATO commitments, wrote Kliem. But for those who want to see Germany take a stronger position when it comes to Chinaand that includes Washingtona three-party traffic light coalition may be the best possible outcome.

A traffic light coalition in Germany is one composed of the SPD, Free Democratic Party (FDP), and the Greens. The SPD traditional color is red, and the FDP color is yellow.

Previously, Merkel monopolized foreign policy, which was nonchalant and taciturn on China, according to Kliem. She was Europes most powerful supporter of strong EU-China ties, including support for an EU-China investment deal that was scuttled by the European Union after Beijing counter-sanctioned its lawmakers over their sanctions on Chinese officials for involvement in the Uyghur genocide.

Merkel visited China 12 times during her chancellorship, which was excessive given Beijings increasing human rights abuse over that period. On at least one of those trips, she tried to convince an advocate for judicial independence and other Chinese liberals and critics of Beijing that China doesnt seem that bad at the moment.

Germanys Chancellor Angela Merkel walks with Chinas Premier Li Keqiang as they arrive for a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on June 13, 2016. (Andy Wong/AP Photo)

Despite Merkels many visits with liberal intellectuals in China, which the United States and other heads of state reportedly did not mirror, Chinas liberals ultimately became disappointed by her as too much emphasis has been placed on business interests, according to press freedom advocate Zhan Jiang, who met with Merkel twice in Beijing, and was recently quoted by the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

Merkels attempts to gradually improve Chinas human rights, while always thirsting for more trade, proved a failing strategy. Trade won, and human rights lost through an engagement strategy that is better described as appeasement. Merkels Germany ultimately served as a powerful lever for Beijing to divide the EU.

Ding Chun, director of the Center for European Studies at Shanghais Fudan University, told the SCMP recently that China was willing to meet with Merkel, even when not meeting the Brussels leaders, and now China will again observe how the EU will come up with its renewed strategy with Merkel as outgoing leader. Ultimately, China believes that the EUs China strategy depends much on Germany.

Merkel was also too close to Chinas ally Russia, having pushed to accept its Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which stabs democratic Ukraine in the back and will give Russia increased leverage, in the form of dependence on scarce Russian fuel during the winter, over not only Germany, but all of Europe. Merkel played into Vladimir Putins hands, and by doing so, she played into the hands of Putins more powerful ally, Xi Jinping.

Even President Joe Biden is tougher on Xi than was Merkel, and her younger sidekick, President Emmanuel Macron of France.

According to the SCMP, Xi spoke by video call with two European leadersoutgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Frances President Emmanuel Macrontwice this year, with all expressing hopes to increase cooperation and expand the EU-Chinese relationship, according to the Chinese readouts from the calls.

Both leading European countries are too busy tending their growing and lucrative trade with China to notice, let alone react effectively against the growing threat from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This threat is not only against Chinas own citizens, but includes a growing risk of military invasion against Taiwan, which could pull the United States and its allies into war.

Yet Merkel and Macron, along with many leading EU politicians, have been so desperate for trade and more recently so impossibly hopeful that the Meng-Two Michaels prisoner-hostage exchange is a break in the dam of Sino-U.S. tensions, that Xi is now snubbing them all by delegating further talks to his deputy, Premier Li Keqiang.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Chinese leader Xi Jinping, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel hold a news conference at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris on March 26, 2019. (Thibault Camus/Pool via Reuters)

That has the Europeans confused, because they dont yet understand that Xi sees them all as unruly subordinates to whom he should not give the plum of a public meeting. He will only truly come to the negotiating table when forced by greater alliance cohesion and tougher economic sanctions against the CCPs human rights abuses.

Even Germans have been critical of Merkels failure to call out Beijing on human rights issues. That failure is in part what opened up an opportunity for the Greens. The Greens are more vocal against the CCPs abuses and are also adamant about decreasing global emissions. But the Germans have little bargaining leverage against China because they do not more actively support unified alliance sanctions, so they will only be able to decrease emissions through inflicting economic damage on themselves, further weakening their economic, and therefore military, competitiveness against Beijing.

A possible new German foreign minister is Greens co-leader Annalena Baerbock, who would then be able to assert a Green foreign policy, which includes identification of Beijing as a systemic rival.

The FDP also advocates taking a stronger stand against both China and Russia. It has advocated support for Hong Kongs democracy movement and improved ties with Taiwan. The FDP argues that Taiwan is a successful democratic counterpart to the PRC [Peoples Republic of China], which hits the nail on the head.

Beijing sees Taiwan as a threat because it proves beyond doubt that mainland China has a democratic alternative that is more successful economically, when considering the island democracys much higher GDP per capita. The success of Taiwan could at some point lead the Chinese people to wake up and remove their authoritarian leaders for something much wealthier and more democratic.

In the light of the center lefts pacifist base, Germany will not become a hawkish balancer of Chinese power, wrote Kliem. But a traffic light coalition government has an opportunity to align closer with Germanys partners and work toward a united trans-Atlantic position on the challenges posed by Beijing, including through accepting more economic risk.

One of the most important foreign policy tools to rein in the CCPs power will be economic sanctions, and these only have a chance if the worlds two biggest economies by GDP, the United States and European Union, take joint and concerted action. If only the United States imposes sanctions on China, then China can simply shift its trade to Europe, not to mention the rest of the world.

The shifting political landscape in Germany provides an opportunity to bring the country, and the EU, onside against the CCP. As soon as the government is chosen, Biden must redouble his efforts to bring Germany and France into a closer alliance system that includes Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan, and India.

And the pacifist German public must realize that pacifism fails against aggressive dictators like Xi Jinping. Theres no time to lose in being not only more vocal about the CCPs human rights abuses, but more vigilant in achieving peace through strength, and a credible military deterrent against one of the worlds biggest risks to peace and security: a Chinese military invasion of Taiwan.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
New South Wales Deputy Premier Resigns Following Resignation of Premier Gladys Berejiklian

John Barilaro, NSW Deputy Premier and Leader of the National Party, has announced his resignation from politics on Oct. 4 after five years in leadership.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Barilaro dismissed rumours that he would be running for the federal election and said he would be leaving politics entirely.

I am going to be a keen watcher of politics but not a participant, he said.

I will make this clear now, so I dont have to answer the question laterI have no intention and nor will I be running for Monaro or for federal politics. I am leaving politics, and I look to a new career, he said.

Barilaro said his defamation case with the YouTuber Jordan Shanksknown for the FriendlyJordies Youtube channeland Google had been a big reason for his resignation.

Calling the case unbelievable, the Deputy Premier said that he had had to defend himself from vile and racist attacks in a social media setting. Barilaro noted that as a child of migrant parents, he understood racism implicitly.

It was very difficult this year, he said, noting that he would prefer to continue with the defamation case privately.

Barilaro said that Berejiklians sudden resignation on Oct. 1 hasnt played any part in the decision that Ive made and that he was inspired to resign after Minister of Roads and Transport Andrew Constances resignation.

Ive been thinking about this for a while. I had another date picked in mind, not too far off, but I just think with the opportunities that have now arisen, he said.

Meanwhile, Youtuber Jordan Shanks issued a statement on Twitter that pushed back at Barilaros claims and declared the Deputy Premier had defamed him.

John Barilaro has the gall to use his final press conference to defame me as a racist. That in itself is a vile and offensive accusation about me that anyone following these issues can see straight through, Shanks statement read.

Barilaro resignation comes after Premier Gladys Berejiklian resigned on Oct. 1 after it was announced the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) would launch an investigation into the premier.

Currently, NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet is set to replace Berejiklian, with Barilaro declaring he genuinely believes that Perrottet would do an excellent job if endorsed as the new premier.

As we emerge from lockdown, we must embrace this time as a new beginning for our State, and welcome the opportunity it presents for a refresh. I have decided now is the right time for me to hand the reins over to new leadership, and resign as Deputy Premier of NSW. pic.twitter.com/MeWBWMR38P  John Barilaro MP (@JohnBarilaroMP) October 3, 2021

In regards to possible candidates for National Party Leader, he said that: I have been serving with incredible people, and anyone can take up that mantle.

Barilaro added that there is never a right or wrong time to leave politics and that he felt it would be unfair to be sworn in with the new premier in the new cabinet and only weeks later to step aside.

Serving as Deputy Premier of NSW, as Leader of the NSW Nationals and as the Member for Monaro has been the honour and privilege of a lifetime.

I will be calling a Party Room meeting for this Wednesday 6 October where I will formally resign as Leader and call for a ballot for a new Leader.

The state will now also face at least two by-elections both in Monaro and WilloughbyBerejiklians seat.

AAP contributed to this report.
No End in Sight to Politicians Draconian Measures in War Against COVID

Commentary

When false philosophies have been cultivated and have attained a wide sphere of dominion in the world of the intellect they are no longer questioned. False superstructures are raised on false foundations, and in the end systems barren of merit parade their grandeur on the stage of the world.  Francis Bacon

There have been two threats to human health in the past 18 months: the immediate biological threat of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and the political decision to wage asymmetric warfare on it through social restrictions that destroy jobs, contravene human rights, and trash medical ethics.

The political decision to contravene standing law was taken, like every globalist advance, under the auspices of an emergency. Since in war the first casualty is truth, the malign asymmetric effects of these political decisions on public health are getting less publicity than the virus. Yet they are worse, and increasingly so as the war progresses.

Some of the traumas of these political decisions have to be acknowledged. The bitter pill came first. Rather than adopt the sensible, focused protection of the vulnerable elderly proposed by the Great Barrington Declaration, the authorities implemented mass lockdowns and painful restrictions, intensifying the demand for vaccines. The financial consequences of that decision will affect public health for decades.

The decision was sold to the public without debate as a tough but necessary phase that the vaccines would end. There was no indication that the arrival of vaccines would require further stages, or an infinite regress of booster shots, or an advancing police state. No one mentioned it would require us to lose individual identity by being indefinitely masked in public or in school, or receive a QR number to identify usas in prison.

Once the vaccines came, we were assured, things would return to normal.

But it appears the vaccines cannot deliver such a result. Since COVID is a mucosal respiratory virus, and the vaccines are intramuscular vaccines, the virus replicates in the respiratory tract long before any humoral immune response provided by the vaccines can even begin. That means that vaccinated people have viral loads and replication numbers just as high as unvaccinated people.

Neither the threat of the virus nor the threat of the governments draconian measures has ended, or will end.

You might say that vaccine passports offer hopeful signs. I disagree. Vaccine passports, an odious term that normalizes restrictions, are political theatre that suggests that freedom is a gift granted by a benevolent government. Vaxxports are simply a carrot to reward the masses and to give them a scapegoat (the unvaccinated) for the evident failures of vaccines, while distracting them from the fact that the stick of the ongoing political warfare against everyone continues apace.

The vaccines do not stop further waves, and never will. SARS-CoV-2 is endemic.

So apparently is the political war.

As we can already see, public health dictates that everyone must continue to wear masks and practice social distancing and follow mandatory contact tracing protocols. And worse still, rather than admit the failure of the vaccines, because of the sunk costs of both the politicians and the credulous public, people are more willing to do what would have been unconscionable a year ago: dividing their own society, firing employees without cause, and even extending the vaccine mandate to 5-11 year olds who are at no risk, as announced recently by the City of Toronto.

So what is behind the politicians continuation of the manifest failures in the fight against COVID?

It is not ignorance. Destroying economic independence, restricting access to medical care, and restricting civil liberties are well known social determinants of poorer health. It is part of the human rights case against dictatorships.

The terrible biological threat posed by COVID may be the excuse, but it lacks any substance. In Canada, life expectancy rose in 2020 and has continued to climb in 2021, and the statistical average age of death from COVID in Canada reflects that it remains a threat to the elderly.

Furthermore, if vaccines spell an intensification of government restrictions, in the form of so-called vaccine passports and government-mandated job losses for the non-compliant, mirrored in the corporatist world, then once again, we dont just face a failure of public health but an atrocity against it. Firing thousands of health-care workers in systems that were said at the outset of the war to be at capacity makes the individual health assaults into a mismanaged social health disaster.

If firing front-line health-care professionals is what it looks like when the government is protecting public health, what does it look like when it is assaulting it?

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
An Air New Zealand plane is seen at Auckland Airport in New Zealand, on March 16, 2020. (Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

No Entry Into New Zealand for the Unvaccinated

New Zealand (NZ) will bar all non-citizens over 17 from entering the country from Nov. 1 if they are not fully vaccinated.

To further reduce the possibility of the virus getting through our border, we are introducing the requirement for air travellers aged 17 and over, who are not New Zealand citizens, to be fully vaccinated to enter New Zealand, COVID-19 response minister Chris Hipkins said in a statement. This is an important step in our Reconnecting New Zealand strategy.

Once they land, travellers will be required to declare their vaccination status and present proof of vaccination or medical exemption.

The statement said an entire course of any of the 22 COVID-19 vaccines approved by the government or authorities, with the last dose at least 14 days before arrival, would be sufficient at this stage. Guidance will also be prepared on what will qualify as proof of vaccination or an exemption.

All travellers will also still be required to undergo 14 days in quarantine, and everyone, except for those in exempt locations, must provide an accredited negative COVID-19 test result within 72 hours of their first scheduled flight.

Hipkins said most people entering NZ are already reporting that they are vaccinated, and this requirement would simply formalise the procedure.

Minister for COVID-19 Response Chris Hipkins speaks to the media during a post-cabinet press conference at Parliament on June 28, 2021, in Wellington, New Zealand. (Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

This requirement will be an interim measure while development continues on the traveller health declaration system, which will introduce the ability to digitally verify the vaccination status of people arriving into New Zealand, he said.

Those who fail to present proof of vaccination may be subjected to an infringement notice that currently carries a maximum fine of $4,000 (U.S.$2,775).

The new government requirement comes as Air New Zealand announced that all customers aged 18 and over travelling on its international network must be fully vaccinated from Feb. 1, 2022.

Being vaccinated against COVID-19 is the new reality of international travelmany of the destinations Kiwis want to visit are already closed to unvaccinated visitors, Air NZ CEO Greg Foran said. Mandating vaccination on our international flights will give both customers and employees the peace of mind that everyone onboard meets the same health requirements as they do.

Air NZ will also require all staff travelling on board to be fully vaccinated as part of its health and safety measures.

As with anything, there will be some that disagree, Foran said. However, we know this is the right thing to do to protect our people, our customers, and the wider New Zealand community.

Flyers who are not vaccinated will be required to present proof of medical exemption.

At present, around 79 percent of Kiwis have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccination, and 48 percent are fully vaccinated.
A South Korean government official communicates with a North Korean officer during a phone call on the dedicated communications hotline at the border village of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea on Jan. 3, 2018. (South Korea Unification Ministry/Yonhap via AP, File)

North Korea Restores Hotline With South

SEOUL, South KoreaNorth Korea has restored a communication hotline with the south after weeks of a hiatus in a small, fragile reconciliation step on Monday, despite the Kim regime continuing to conduct its missile tests.

Liaison officials from the two Koreas exchanged messages over a cross-border communication channel on Monday morning, Seouls Unification Ministry said.

The North is also expected to restore other communication channels running across the tense border later Monday.

The phone and fax channelswhich the liberal democratic South and the socialist North use to set up meetings, arrange border crossings and avoid accidental clasheshave been largely dormant for more than a year.

In June last year, North Korea blew up a liaison office and unilaterally cut off all inter-Korean communication lines over anti-regime materials flown over by people in the South with balloons.

Anti-North Korea activists launch balloons, carrying anti-regime leaflets and a photo of Hwang Jang-Yop, the highest-ranking defector ever to flee to the South, in Paju near a heavily fortified border on Oct. 10, 2011. (Park Ji-Hwan/AFP/Getty Images)

Communications were briefly revived for about two weeks this summer, but the North later cut communications again when Seoul and Washington went ahead with their annual military drills against Pyongyangs wishes. North Korea views the drills as an invasion rehearsal. The latest freeze in communications lasted 55 days.

Seouls Unification Ministry said the hotlines reconnection laid a foundation for the restoration of ties between the two Koreas and stability on the Korean Peninsula. A ministry statement said Seoul hopes the two Koreas will resume talks soon to discuss how to implement previous cooperation agreements and establish a peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Last week, North Korea leader Kim Jong Un expressed his willingness to reactivate the communication channels, saying he wanted to realize the Korean peoples desire to promote peace on the peninsula. But Kim urged Seoul to abandon a double-dealing attitude and hostile viewpoint over North Koreas recent missile tests and other developments, while shrugging off U.S. offers for dialogue.

Some experts say North Korea is trying to use South Koreas desire to improve ties to pressure it to persuade the United States to relax punishing economic sanctions.

Separate from its peace overtures, North Korea has conducted a series of missile tests that were its first weapons launches in six months. The weapons tested include potentially nuclear-capable missiles that place South Korea and Japan, both key U.S. allies, within striking distance.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Shipping containers are loaded onto trucks at the Port of Los Angeles, in Long Beach, Calif., on Jan. 12, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

One of Worlds Largest Port Operators Warns Global Supply Chain Crisis Will Last Longer Than Expected

The operator of one of the busiest ports in the world has suggested that global supply chain bottlenecks will last for around two years.

Speaking to Bloomberg News, Dubais DP World Chairman and Chief Executive Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem said he expects bottlenecks to continue until 2023, and warned that the issues will result in higher costs for shipping goods.

The global supply chain was in crisis in the beginning of the pandemic, Sulayem told the media outlet. Freight rates will continue to increase.

Maybe in 2023, well see an easing.

Some analysts and other port operators have said that supply chains are struggling to keep pace with demand and deal with labor disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns, and quarantines.

Sulayems DP World is one of the largest operators of marine ports and cargo terminals in the world, with hubs in Africa, India, Russia, Europe, and the Americas.

Even now, every time they see an incident of COVID in China, they shut down a port, he said. Many manufacturers around the world are delayed by as much as three years because they cant get components from China. Theyre taking a very, very aggressive approach.

Suggesting a move away from relying on Chinese markets and possibly the regimes controversial Belt and Road Initiative, Sulayem noted that theres huge potential in India and that reflects in DP Worlds investments. Africa continues to grow, and theres also Southeast Asia, mainly Indonesia.

The worlds largest shipping firm, A.P. Moller-Maersk, warned that bottlenecks could last longer than anticipated.

There have been many challenging periods over the years, but the situation over the last 12 months is unique, in as much as it has had a global impact. All continents are seeing high volumes and operational challenges, restricting both ocean and land-side capacity at the same time, Maersk said in a mid-September update.

The firm pointed to COVID-19 outbreaks and associated shutdowns for the slowdown in operations.

Regardless if it is a port, vessel, or warehouse, when one becomes impacted, it quickly results in a downward spiral as delays accumulate, Maersks update reads. We see pockets of improvements, only to get setbacks when our operations encounter new COVID-19 outbreaks and lockdowns.

Last week, several industry groups that represent truck drivers, shipping workers, and airline workers issued a warning to the U.N. General Assembly that governments need to work toward improving freedom of movement relating to trade.

They warned of a global transport system collapse if nothing is done and suggested that global supply chains are beginning to buckle as two years worth of strain on transport workers take their toll, according to an open letter.

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, the letter reads. We also ask that WHO and the ILO [International Labour Organization] raise this at the U.N. General Assembly and call on heads of government to take meaningful and swift action to resolve this crisis now.
Pennsylvania Lawmaker Introduces Parody Forced Vasectomy Bill

In an effort to promote his views on abortion, a Pennsylvania lawmaker has issued an official memo loaded with sexual double entendre, announcing startling proposed legislation.

Democrat state Rep. Christopher Rabbs memo calls for all inseminators to undergo vasectomies within six weeks from having their third child or 40th birthday, whichever comes first. The legislation would allow Pennsylvanians to take civil action for unwanted pregnancies against inseminators who wrongfully conceive a child with them. It would also offer a $10,000 reward for reporting to the proper authorities those scofflaws who have not complied with this statute within the allotted time frame.

As long as state legislatures continue to restrict the reproductive rights of cis women, trans men and non-binary people, there should be laws that address the responsibility of men who impregnate them, Rabb writes in the memo. Thus, my bill will also codify wrongful conception to include when a person has demonstrated negligence toward preventing conception during intercourse.

The memo is peppered with awkwardly placed words of innuendo. It also includes abortion imagery, saying our social fabric is being sliced up by bitter acrimony, and suggesting we should come together to address it with surgical precision.

The bill seeks to end a gendered double standard, Rabbs memo said, adding the debate around abortion, contraception, and related productive matters centers on the bodily autonomy of women and girls.

Rarely is there a meaningful dialogue around public policy focusing on the personal responsibility of cisgender men in this sphere, the memo said. The rights of cisgender men have always been paramount in our society with little focus on their responsibility as inseminators to change their behaviors for the good of their partners, families, and society at large.

The memo came on the heels of rallies Saturday, organized by abortion activists across Pennsylvania and the nation. The rallies were spurred by abortion discussions planned Monday at the Supreme Court and the passage of the Texas bill that bans abortion once a heartbeat is detected, typically at six weeks.

My public memo summarizes a parody bill that I will be introducing in order to raise awareness about how government wrongfully infringes on the personal liberty of women and their bodily autonomy, Rabb told The Epoch Times in a text message. He did not respond to why he chose to use sexually charged phrases throughout the memo.

Republicans didnt take Rabbs forced vasectomy bill seriously.

As you are aware, the bill has no chance of committee consideration, Mike Straub, spokesman for House Speaker Rep. Bryan Cutler told The Epoch Times in an email. It proves Rep. Rabb is not interested in actually trying to work together towards solving issues facing the Commonwealth.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the conclusion of military operations in Afghanistan and plans for future counterterrorism operations in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Sept. 28, 2021. (Patrick Semansky/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Pentagon Gives Civilian Employees Until Early November to Get Fully Vaccinated

The Department of Defense (DOD) said all U.S. civilian employees need to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 by Nov. 22, giving them only a few weeks to get the shots. The workers are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, or the single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

For employees opting to receive the two-dose Moderna vaccine, they would have to receive their first shot by Oct. 11, said a DOD memo. Individuals who are slated to get the two-shot Pfizer vaccine would have to get their first dose by Oct. 18.

The second dose deadline for both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines is Nov. 8. Employees who get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is only a single dose, will have to receive the shot also by Nov. 8, according to the memo.

To defend the Nation and protect the American people, we need a healthy and ready Total Force, the DOD said. To accomplish this, the Secretary of Defense directed the mandatory vaccination of Service members against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by signing the memorandum in August, the memo continued to say, adding that President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Sept. 9 that requires federal employees and contractors to be vaccinated.

COVID-19 is the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

A similar directive was issued over the weekend by the White Houses Office of Personnel Management, saying that federal workers have until Nov. 8 to get both doses of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine or the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Employees who refuse to be vaccinated or provide proof of vaccination are subject to disciplinary measures, up to and including removal or termination from Federal service, the agency said. The only exception is for individuals who receive a legally required exception pursuant to established agency processes.

Last month, several federal employees filed a lawsuit against Biden, arguing that his vaccine mandate unfairly affects workers who belong to the Christian faith. Lawyers for the plaintiffs also stated Bidens order fails to take into account natural immunity afforded by a prior COVID-19 infection, noting that some studies have found it provides protection against the Delta variant.

One of the plaintiffs, identified as a U.S. foreign service officer, belongs to a faith that also instructs him that vaccination is not morally obligatory in principle and therefore must be voluntary, the lawsuit said. There is, his attorneys argued, a general moral duty to refuse the use of medical products, including certain vaccines, that are produced using human cells lines derived from direct abortions.
Photo of Spiderman Dachshund on Pub Rooftop in Sheffield Goes Viral, Baffles Brits

A little dachshund who thinks hes a superhero claimed internet fame after being spotted on the roof of a pub on the outskirts of Sheffield, UK.

The extraordinary dog was captured on camera when one local was walking, and heard barking. The walker looked around, but saw no doguntil they looked up, and was shocked.

The stubby-legged brown dog stood high above, on the peak of the pub roof.

A photo was snapped. It found its way onto Reddit, and internet fame followed.

On the morning countryside dog walk when I hear barking, couldnt figure out where it was coming from until I look up, the caption by u/Rocketmandan123 read.

The family who own Three Merry Lads puband who live above the establishmentwere blown away by all the attention their dog, 1-year-old pup Chester, received.

Soon, their dachshund garnered national media attention and was even featured on BBC Radios Sunday morning show.

Cannot believe the reaction to the image, completely beyond belief! pub owner Nicole told The Epoch Times.

He has done it before, we live above the pub and he has access from the roof terrace, up several smaller tiered roofs to where the image was taken.

After the daredevil pooch started a buzz on the social media site, the pub owners joined the conversation.

Hes finethinks he is Spiderman. We live in the flat above pub and he likes to escape and have a look around, they wrote.

To be fair to him we do have some amazing views so get why he enjoys it!!

Redditors found loads of amusement in the spectacle of the short dog towering overhead.

That dachshund is finally as tall as he feels, user Elgato13 wrote.

One resourceful internet user shared, Looking at satellite imagery on Google Maps, there seems to be a large complex of extensions hidden behind the Georgian front, all with different heights.

So theres probably a window it can just plod out of.

But for some, the Spiderman narrative stuck.

I think it climbed up the side of the building, for sure, Redditor BoogelyWoogely wrote.

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
Silke Lohmann of Summers Place Auctions stands on the original Poohsticks Bridge from Ashdown Forest, featured in A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh books and E.H. Shepard's illustrations, near its original location in Tonbridge, Kent, England, on Sept. 30, 2021. (Gareth Fuller/PA via AP)

Pivotal Bridge From Winnie the Pooh Series to Be Auctioned

LONDONThe adventures of the honey-loving bear Winnie the Pooh have captivated childrenand their parentsfor nigh-on 100 years. Fans now have a chance to own a central piece of Poohs history, when a countryside bridge from southern England goes up for auction next week.

The author of the hugely popular Pooh series of books, A. A. Milne, often played with his son, Christopher Robin, at the bridge in the 1920s. It became a regular setting for the adventures of Pooh and his friends in the series that launched in 1926.

Offering it at auction is probably the biggest opportunity globally for people to reach out and be able to buy it and put it in a museum, said James Rylands of Summer Place Auctions, which has previously auctioned items including 20 tons of the Berlin Wall.

Rylands described the bridge as one of the most important iconic literary objects there is, and laid out hope that it could go for 250,000 pounds, way beyond the 40,000 to 60,000-pound estimate placed on Tuesdays auction.

When you actually talk about history and add in the emotion and the happiness that Winnie the Pooh has brought to generations as children and adults over the years, it is very difficult to price it, Rylands said. If it fetches a quarter of a million pounds, then I wont be surprised.

The bridge, originally called Posingford Bridge, was built around 1907 and officially renamed Poohsticks Bridge in 1997 by the late authors son, whose toy animals were the basis of the Pooh series.

It was then taken down in 1999 after being worn out by visitors and was replaced by a newer structure funded largely by the Disney corporation.

The original bridge was dismantled and stored in Ashdown Forest Centre in the southern county of East Sussex, until the local Parish Council recently gave permission for it to be restored and rescued. The bridge, which measures 8.87 meters long by 4.5 meters wide (29 feet by 15 feet), has now been fully restored using local oak for any missing elements.

The auction coincides with the centenary of Poohs arrival in the world when Christopher Robin received a fluffy teddy bear from the luxury department store Harrods on his first birthday.

Rylands said theres been interest from around the world, but hoped that the bridge stays local.

I do hope it stays in Sussex because it obviously has great relevance to the locality, he said. But if it does end up in the United States or indeed Japan, I have no doubt it will be a little bit loved over there as well.

By Khadija Kothia
Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) in an interview with NTD in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 30, 2021. (NTD/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

Rep. Bob Good: Teaching CRT Violates Students Civil Rights

Teaching critical race theory (CRT) in federally funded institutions would violate a students civil rights and should be punishable by law, Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) told NTD.

On Sept. 30, Good introduced a bill named Defending Students Civil Rights Act of 2021, (pdf) outlawing teaching CRT in public educational institutions.

One of the most dangerous things right now is our country becoming divided on race in a manufactured way, Good told NTD, saying the left has been trying to divide the nation on race. And one of their tools is critical race theory,  saying that our race defines us, that were responsible for the sins of our past, that our race determines whether or not were a victim or whether or not were an oppressor, simply based on our race, that our race determines our future.

CRT is a quasi-Marxist ideology, redefining Americas history as a struggle between oppressors (white people) and the oppressed (everybody else), as was done with Marxisms reduction of human history to a struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

The bill states that it would be a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to use critical race theory or critical race pedagogy in any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a benchmark civil rights legislation. It prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

It is completely irresponsible for our government to violate the civil rights of our nations youth, and that is why I have introduced the [bill], Good said in a statement. The hyper-politicization of our public education system has created a trojan horse for Marxists to hide within while making a direct attack against our federalist system and foundational values.

Good pointed out that parents and others also have an on-the-ground effort to push back against CRT.

A woman holding a sign at a rally outside the Loudoun County Public Schools administration building in Ashburn, Va., on Sept. 28, 2021. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times)

Also on the ground, we want to support parents and come alongside them, Good told NTD. I have attended eight or nine school board meetings in my district in the last few weeks, where Im trying to encourage those parents to be engaged, to be involved, to hold their local school board accountable.

Goods bill was co-sponsored by 17 House Republicans.

Congressman Goods bill is the next key line of attack that both Washington and the states must take in the fight against state-sanctioned racism, said Russ Vought, former White House Office of Management and Budget director and president of Citizens for Renewing America. Its high time any school that behaves in this manner be held accountable.

GOP lawmakers across the nation have introduced bills to fight against CRT. Some governors have signed laws or issued executive orders prohibiting teaching CRT in public schools or government institutions, such as in Tennessee, Idaho, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, Iowa, Florida, and South Dakota.

However, thousands of people signed a petition pledging to continue teaching CRT even if their states had outlawed it.

The number has recently risen to nearly 7,500.

Some educators are reported to be trying to teach others how to back-door CRT into the classrooms.

In April, the Biden administration proposed a rule to prioritize funding education programs that incorporate The New York Times 1619 Project and critical race theory ideas.

Steve Lance contributed to this report.
In this photo taken from video distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Oct. 4, 2021, a new Zircon hypersonic cruise missile is launched by a submarine of the Russian navy from the Barents Sea. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

Russia Test Launched New Hypersonic Missile From Nuclear Submarine

The Russian military on Monday announced that it has successfully test-fired a Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile from a nuclear-powered submarine for the first time.

The tests involved two missiles and took place in the Barents Sea in the Arctic, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed, adding that the missiles destroyed its mock targets.

The test-firing of the Tsirkon missile from a nuclear submarine was deemed successful, the ministry said.

It first test-launched Tsirkon from the surface, and then fired another missile from a submerged position in the White Sea.

According to a source cited by local news agency TASS, Russia has another launch scheduled in November. The second test will also be fired from the Severodvinsk nuclear-powered submarine, but from underwater at a sea target.

Low-quality video footage made public by the ministry showed a missile being launched upwards from the submarine at nighttime.

The launch marked Tsirkons first launch from a submarine. It previously has been repeatedly test-fired from a navy frigate, most recently in July.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Tsirkon would be capable of flying at nine times the speed of sound and have a range of 620 miles (1,000 kilometers). Putin has emphasized that its deployment will significantly boost Russian military capability.

According to sources cited by TASS, the first test from the nuclear-powered submarine was postponed from September to October due to the need to carry out all technical preparations.

The network reported that two Tsirkon launches are scheduled to be performed later this year, with the same trials continuing into 2022.

Tsirkon is intended to arm Russian cruisers, frigates, and submarines. It is one of several hypersonic missiles under development in Russia.

The Kremlin has made modernizing the countrys arsenals a top priority amid the tensions with the West that followed Russias 2014 annexation of Ukraines Crimean Peninsula.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

From NTD News
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) speak after a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 20, 2020. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Schumer Calls for Passage of Infrastructure Bill by End of October

After infighting again delayed votes on the Democratic budget and bipartisan infrastructure bills, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has set a new deadline goal: the end of October, when federal highway funding will run out.

Oct. 1 was the original deadline for highway funding. Both chambers of Congress quickly responded, with both the House and Senate passing a stopgap measure to continue funding for highways until the end of the month.

Democratic leaders in Congress originally believed they would have the Senate-approved $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, which extends highway funding for five years, on the presidents desk and signed before the Oct. 1 deadline. However, that deadline passed with no vote because of continued divisions between moderate expectations and progressive demands.

Everybody Is Frustrated

Initially, the bill, which was approved by the Senate with 69 votes in August, was set for a vote in early September. However, Democratic infighting delayed a vote on the bill to Sept. 27. Continued division pushed that vote off to Sept. 28. But by Sept. 29, the bill still didnt have enough support to pass the lower chamber.

Even a rare visit to Congress by President Joe Biden couldnt resolve the situation. During his visit to the Capitol, Biden reportedly admitted that the bill didnt have enough votes to pass, despite a promise by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that the bill would have a vote that same day.

Everybody is frustrated, Biden told reporters outside the White House before departing for Wilmington, Delaware, for the weekend.

The situation has largely arisen from divisions between moderates and progressives.

Moderates are partial to the infrastructure measure and have demanded swift passage of the legislation without linking it to the more partisan $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill. Progressives have demanded that the budget bill be passed before the infrastructure bill. Both have threatened to tank and are capable of tanking either bill.

Only a handful of Republicans have indicated that theyll vote for the bill, and Republican and Democratic proponents of the bill would easily be overwhelmed by the progressive caucuss 95-strong voting bloc.

In the Senate, the budget also doesnt have enough votes. Two Democratic moderates, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have said repeatedly that they will not support a $3.5 trillion bill. Even as one deadline after another has passed, these two rebels have stuck to that promise.

With no resolution to these conflicts in sight, votes on both bills have been pushed off again.

Bills Will and Must Pass in October

Pelosi and Schumer have picked a new deadline for the bills at the end of October. This new Oct. 31 deadline, nearly two months after both bills were due for a vote, is being emphasized as crucial by Democratic leaders.

After his meeting with the House, Biden told reporters, It doesnt matter whether its in six minutes, six days, or six weekswere going to get it done.

However, Democratic leaders in Congress have their sights set on four weeks at the most.

Pelosi said in a note to Democratic colleagues that they must pass the infrastructure bill before Oct. 31, adding that she didnt allow a vote on the infrastructure bill because it would have failed.

We will and must pass both bills soon, Pelosi said.

Negotiations will continue now, with more time for decisions, legislative language, Senate parliamentarian review, and public awareness, she wrote.

Schumer in a statement dismissed the bills earlier failures, writing that Doing big things in Congress is hard. Doing really big things all at once is really hard. He added that leadership knew from the very beginning that passing the two bills would be difficult and, at times, messy.

But, he said, [Democrats] can get this done, together, if we put aside our differences and find the common ground within our party.

This will require sacrifice, he said, adding that not every member will get what he or she wanted.

Despite these divisions, Schumer said, we will pass legislation that will dramatically improve the lives of the American people. I believe we are going to do just that in the month of October.

Schumer emphasized the importance of this deadline, noting that highway funding would expire within the month.

Our new legislative goal must be to enact [the infrastructure] bill and the Build Back Better [reconciliation] bill before the new [highway funding] expiration date at the end of October.

A final agreement between the House, Senate, and President on the Build Back Better Act as soon as possible is crucial, Schumer said.

He added that such an agreement will be reached preferably within a matter of days, not weeks.

Zachary Steiber contributed to this report.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) walks in the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Aug. 1, 2019. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Sen. Sinema Responds After Left-Wing Protesters Follow, Record Her Inside Arizona Bathroom

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) on Monday issued a lengthy statement condemning the actions of left-wing protesters who followed the senator inside a womens bathroom and recorded her while making demands.

Several individuals disrupted my class in Arizona State University, Sinema said, adding that these individuals filmed and publicly posted videos of my students without their permissionincluding footage taken of both my students and I using the restroom.

While Sinema said that she respects the right to demonstrate, the activist groups behavior on Sunday in Phoenix was not legitimate protest, adding: It is unacceptable for activist organizations to instruct their members to jeopardize themselves by engaging in unlawful activities such as gaining entry to closed university buildings, disrupting learning environments, and filming students in the restroom.

Under Arizona state law, its illegal to film people while theyre in the bathroom. The Epoch Times has contacted Sinemas office about whether the senator will press charges.

Sgt. Vincent Cole, a spokesman for the Phoenix Police Department, indicated that the agency would not be pursuing charges.

Arizona State University has their own Police Department and are the investigating agency for this incident, he told The Epoch Times via email.

The university later confirmed it is probing what happened.

Statement Following Events at ASU on Sunday pic.twitter.com/4d3BF9P8CO  Kyrsten Sinema (@SenatorSinema) October 4, 2021

Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA) did not respond to a request for comment.

According to video footage posted online, apparent immigration activists followed Sinema into a bathroom at Arizona State University and called on her to pass the mammoth $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill that has been locked in negotiations.

The group, LUCHA, confronted Sinema and asserted we need a build back better plan right now, referring to the campaign slogan from President Joe Biden.

We knocked on doors for you, the unnamed person filming told Sinema while she was in a bathroom stall. Sinema ignored the people and she washed her hands before walking inside the classroom as activists chanted: Build back better, back the bill! The individual who was filming, who called herself Blanca, also told the freshman Arizona senator that we need this pathway to citizenship.

We wouldnt have to resort to confronting Sinema, wrote LUCHA in a Twitter post, if she took meetings with the communities that elected her.

According to the groups website, Living United for Change in Arizona is a membership-led, grassroots organization that builds power with Arizonas working families to advance social, racial and economic justice for all.

Top Democrat members of Congress including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), havent issued any public statements on the incident, although several current and former Republican officials condemned the activists.

Former Trump administration adviser Stephen Miller wrote on Twitter that an illegal alien is stalking a US Senator to demand passage of Bidens reconciliation bill b/c it includes mass amnesty for illegals. In a functioning democracy, ICE would swiftly deport this person, but under Bidens new edict (as the lawbreaker knows) shes immune from removal.

After a White House speech on Monday, President Joe Biden responded to a question about the harassment incident, saying that its part of the process for anyone who doesnt have secret service protection.

The incident comes amid stalled negotiations on both the reconciliation bill and a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that was passed along bipartisan lines in the Senate. The chair of the House Progressive Caucus, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), told CNN on Sunday that House progressives will not pass a reconciliation bill worth less than $1.5 trillion, and her caucus has said the infrastructure bill cannot be passed unless the reconciliation measure clears the Senate.

Another moderate Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), has also faced left-wing pressure over the budget reconciliation bill. A group of kayakers was seen approaching Manchins houseboat in Washington D.C. before yelling a the senator.

We just passed a Pentagon budget of $788 billion, one activist yelled. And that over 10 years is $6 trillion.

How much do you think that we spend on non-discretionary, basically non-defense? Just as much, Manchin said in response.

Asked about what happened to Sinema and Manchin, President Joe Biden on Monday told reporters in Washington, I dont think theyre appropriate tactics but it happens to everybody.

The only people it doesnt happen to is people who have Secret Service standing around. So its part of the process, he added.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
Illegal migrants board a bus after being apprehended near the border between Mexico and the United States in Del Rio, Texas, on May 16, 2021. (Sergio Flores/AFP via Getty Images)

Senate Parliamentarian May Decide If Millions of New Immigrants Can Enter US

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has previously knocked down Senate Democrats Plan A and Plan B immigration proposals in their draft versions of President Joe Bidens $3.5 trillion Build Back Better spending program.

What MacDonough recommends on the expected Plan C that Senate Democrats are preparing could determine whether Americas borders are opened to millions of new legal immigrants and a new mostly open borders immigration system is thus erected for the federal government.

MacDonoughfirst appointed to the nonpartisan post in 2012 as the first woman ever to hold itthen is in the hot seat because Democrats are pushing the gargantuan Biden spending plan through Congress under its reconciliation process. They are doing so because reconciliation proposals need only 51 votes to pass the Senate instead of the usual 60.

With the Senate split 5050, Democrats must corral all of their caucus members to vote for the plan, the biggest, most comprehensive expansion of the federal government since the New Deal, then have the tie broken by Vice President Kamala Harris.

MacDonough previously knocked down the Democrats first and second attempts to gain her positive recommendation for inclusion of multiple immigration provisions that are already in the 2,400+ page House version of reconciliation.

Under the standing rules of the reconciliation process, provisions in reconciliation bills must have an effect on the federal governments spending and revenues that is more than merely incidental.

Changes that are strictly of a policy nature dont qualify, even though they may affect the budget. That means theres a gray area between the two absolutes of merely incidental and wholesale changes. Democrats hope the third time will be the charm as MacDonough opens the door to some or most of their reform proposals.

What is certain is the huge impact on the United States that will result from enactment of the major Democratic proposals, according to immigration experts interviewed on Oct. 4 by The Epoch Times.

MacDonough recommended against the earlier Democratic proposals to authorize amnesty for as many as 8 million illegal aliens already in the country in September, but millions more legal immigrants would be covered by various provisions in the House bill that Senate Democrats are seeking to advance.

The provisions would substantially increase permanent, legal immigration using a combination of interpretation gimmicks and exemptions to current immigration law, according to a recently published analysis by Robert Law, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) director of regulatory affairs and policy.

Step one involves a concept advocates of unlimited immigration have dubbed recapturing unused immigrant visas. By law, family-based immigration has a floor of 226,000 green cards per year, while the employment-based immigration level is set at 140,000, Law wrote.

Under this theory, a green card that could have been issued in a given fiscal year in the past but was not (either family-based or employment-based) is unused and, therefore, should be brought back to life for the benefit of a current or future prospective immigrant.

But in fact, Law notes, green cards dont go unused. Those from one category that remain available at the end of a year are transferred to the other category for the following year. Democrats instead want to recapture all unused green cards issued between 1992 and 2021 and make them permanently available.

If what Law calls the Democrats resurrection fantasy becomes law, he estimates that nearly 800,000 green cards will thus be added to the supply. Also added would be a second step, in which winners of the immigration lottery between 2017 and 2021 who were unable to complete the process effectively get a free pass.

But the third step in the Democratic proposals is the most significant because it provides another way around the green card process.

Step three in the legal immigration bonanza is rather crass, as it offers an exemption from the green card annual numerical limits and the per-country cap if they have the means to pay a supplemental fee, Law said.

More precisely, this carve-out applies to those aliens seeking to adjust status to lawful permanent resident, a process reserved for aliens already in the country, but who have to wait at least two years for a green card to become available based on the Department of States Visa Bulletin.

Through Section 60003 of the [House reconciliation bill], any family-based prospective immigrant with a two-year wait can jump the line for an additional $2,500, any employment-based prospective immigrant (preference categories 1-3) can jump the line for an additional $5,000, and any EB-5 immigrant investor can jump the line for an additional $50,000.

Provisions like those are why Laws CIS colleague Jessica Vaughan told The Epoch Times that, even without the amnesty previously rejected by MacDonough, the reconciliation bill being pushed by the House Democrats includes the most consequential changes to U.S. immigration law in 60 years. With a series of gimmicks, the bill would expand legal immigration dramatically, essentially bypassing the numerical limits set by Congress by offering work permits to those who can get into the country with a visa and find a job.

Vaughan, who is director of policy studies for CIS, said millions of foreign students who would get indefinite work permits while waiting for a green card would be big winners. This would mean a big expansion in the number of de facto immigrants, and especially those competing with U.S. college grads for jobs.

While MacDonough has been in the national media spotlight in recent weeks, Chris Chmielenski, deputy director of NumbersUSA, told The Epoch Times that Senate Democrats can choose to ignore the parliamentarian if they want to. It wouldnt be good, and it would set a precedent, and they would have to have a vote on it, but they could do it, and probably successfully.

And Liberty Government Affairs founder Brian Darling, former general counsel to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), told The Epoch Times that in the final analysis, Senate Democrats can do as they please as long as they keep their caucus voting in unison.

The Senate parliamentarian does not rule on anything. That is a myth perpetuated by Senate Majority Leader [Chuck] Schumer. The parliamentarian recommends rulings, and nothing prevents the vice president, who serves as president of the Senate, or the senator sitting in the Chair, from ignoring the recommended ruling of the parliamentarian, Darling said.

This is political theater, because if the Democrats wanted to ignore the recommended ruling of the parliamentarian, the only thing preventing it is their own caucus. Ultimately, a Republican senator would appeal any ruling on controversial provisions and Democratic senators could allow in certain controversial provisions to the bill if they could hold their caucus together.

Darling added that it all comes down to partisan fights and if Democrats want to use reconciliation to do an end-run around the filibuster. They can, even if the parliamentarian recommends against it, if they can hold their caucus together.
Members of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Homeless Outreach Services Team (HOST) and the Los Angeles Services Authority offer homeless residents food, water, and transportation and housing options in Malibu, Calif., on Sept. 23, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Sheriffs Deputies Warn Homeless Individuals in Malibu of Fire Risk

Franklin swings down a rope from a blue camping tent perched a couple of hundred feet high, tucked between a thicket of shrubs and trees about a mile up Tuna Canyon Road in the western Santa Monica Mountains. Hes without a shirt, wearing just a pair of faded black shorts.

I dug this spot out a long time ago, maybe 20 years ago; it was only big enough for one person to sit. And its fallen down a couple times, but its cool. I can get out of here in five seconds if I needed to, for a fire or anything, Franklin told The Epoch Times.

Surrounding the area is the remainder of belongings other homeless people have left behind, Franklin said. Clothes, trash, propane tanks, containers, suitcases, and bicycle parts can be seen in plain view.

All these black trash bags, I take my trash down, and I dont have no garbage laying around my house. I come down here, I clean this stuff up all the time, and they just come back and mess it up again, he said.

Members of the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department Homeless Outreach and Services Team (LASD HOST) and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) hand Franklin a lunch pack with chicken, waffles, fruit, and water. One deputy whispers to his partner: Hes gotten skinnier since the last time.

Their presence is part of an effort by the Malibu City Council to crack down on encampments located in regions that are at high risk of wildfires. On Aug. 23, the Malibu City Council declared a local state of emergency to establish a program for reducing the risk of fires associated with unhoused people engaged in unpermitted and unregulated camping in City limits.

According to a Malibu homeless count earlier this year, there are currently 157 people experiencing homelessness in the city. In the entire county, LAHSA data shows there are over 66,000 homeless people.

Members of the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department Homeless Outreach Services Team (HOST) and the Los Angeles Services Authority talk to Franklin, a homeless man, in Malibu, Calif., on Sept. 23, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

City Amends Camping Ordinance

The risk of vegetation fires increases during the fall when the nights are cooler and the Santa Ana winds may be present, the city noted. Fires may be started by the homeless using stoves to stay warm or cook. Franklins encampment is considered to be in a high fire risk zone.

So far this year, there have been a total of 19 fires caused by homeless encampments in Malibu. It received the attention of Sheriff Alex Villanueva, and a handful of HOST deputies were deployed to assess the area, engage homeless individuals, and provide fire safety information.

During a special meeting this month, the council unanimously approved an amendment to the citys original camping ordinance, which has been in place for nearly 20 years, to make it enforceable by the LASD within the perimeters of the Martin v. Boise court decision.

The ruling determined that cities cant enforce camping ordinances if there arent enough homeless shelters available, and it was decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2018 in response to a lawsuit filed by six homeless individuals against the city of Boise, Idaho, due to the citys anti-camping ordinance.

Members of the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department Homeless Outreach Services Team (HOST) and the Los Angeles Services Authority travel to connect with the homeless population in Malibu, Calif., on Sept. 23, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The ordinance will not be used to be enforced against individuals based solely on the fact that they are sitting, lying, or sleeping on city-owned public property when they do not have access to adequate temporary shelter, Malibu Public Safety Manager Susan Duenas said during a special meeting on Sept. 13.

Our existing ordinance is very short and all-inclusive; it just says no person shall camp or sleep overnight in any public park public beach, et cetera. But it doesnt recognize individuals who have no alternative location to sleep, she said.

Under the amendment, the ordinance prohibits people from living unhoused in areas that pose an immediate threat of fire. The city attorney and the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriffs Station gave their full support of the amendment, which passed on Sept. 27.

There are many reasons, as Ive articulated in the past, that Martin versus Boise doesnt apply to the facts on the ground in Malibu, including but not limited to the fact that all but a handful at most of people living unhoused in Malibu were actually from Malibu, as opposed to people who have traveled to Malibu, to live unhoused in public in Malibu. That is a stark distinction from Boise and from every other city where Martin has been applied, Mayor Pro Tem Bruce Silverstein said during the Sept. 13 council meeting.

A Los Angeles Sheriffs Department Homeless Outreach Services Team deputy checks on a homeless encampment in Malibu, Calif., on Sept. 24, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

LASD Homeless Outreach

But the involvement of the LASD with the homeless is relatively new and has thus triggered local activists who claim law enforcements involvement criminalizes the unhoused population.

People think what were doing isnt humanitarian. Well, it wouldnt be humanitarian to let them live like this, Los Angeles Deputy Sheriff Shai Sheklov told The Epoch Times. There have been some shelters who hated us, who were pretty standoffish and didnt want to work with us, but we kept reaching out and now they come out with us to do outreach.

Franklin has been homeless in Malibu for over 40 years, moving from one location in the beach town to the next. Now 57 years old, he said he was emancipated at 16. Originally from La Jolla, he got on a bus to Malibu when he was 17 and has not left the town since. While hes not using any drugs, he says he struggles with mental illness.

LAHSA team member Shane True gives Jon, a homeless man living within the brush of Zuma Beach, Calif., a tent and a sleeping bag while Los Angeles Sheriffs Department officers offer Jon housing and travel to return to family members in other states, on Sept. 24, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

HOST Deputy Heriberto Gutierrez asks Franklin if hes interested in any resources, such as shelter placement and mental health support.

You deserve better than this, Gutierrez tells Franklin. We can get you into inner city housing.

Franklin declines the offer and says he lived in supportive housing in Los Angeles for three years.

I dont want to sit half a block from the liquor store, I can hear the walls, I can hear right through the window screen, and I can hear people singing, running down the floor, he said. I like being free, you know, out of sight, out of mind.

I can just take care of myself  but I dont want to get a job because Im like 57 years old and its freaking hard enough just to go to town to get stuff when youre homeless, Franklin said. Like I went the other day, I had to carry my big DVD player, all my freaking batteries, speakers, and stuff. I cant leave anything because the thieves are coming to take it all.

When items are left behind by homeless individuals moving from one area to the next, it increases the threat of a fire hazard even more. Malibu has experienced numerous wildfires that have destroyed many homes, threatened lives, and required massive evacuations in the last few decades. The 2018 Woolsey Fire was the largest in Malibus history, which burned nearly 100,000 acres, destroyed 500 homes in Malibu, and killed three people.

A homeless encampment discovered by the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department in Malibu, Calif., on Sept 24, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Boots-on-the-Ground Perspective

The Epoch Times joined LASD HOST and LAHSA on Sept. 23 as they reached out to homeless individuals congregating in zones in Malibus unincorporated regions of the county that are classified by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Cal Fire (Cal Fire) as a very high fire hazard severity zone (VHFHSZ).

The goal of HOST, a small team of 26 deputies for all of Los Angeles County, is to first be a liaison between homeless individuals and the countys numerous homeless programs. Secondly, they enforce city codes and bolster cleanup efforts.

But encampments have been a problem at large for the entire county. In June, the HOST team entered the spotlight for their cleanup and outreach efforts in Venice Beach, also spearheaded by Villanueva. They received both praise and pushback from locals. And Tiny Home villagestemporary supportive housing unitshave begun to spring up across the county as a more cost-effective short-term solution for those experiencing homelessness.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, HOST and LAHSA spend up to eight hours conducting outreach in the unincorporated areas of Malibu where homeless people reside, in preparation to enforce a camping ordinance the Malibu City Council passed on Sept. 13. So far, theyve identified seven encampments that will eventually have to relocate or be placed into temporary shelter should they accept it.

Members of the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department Homeless Outreach Services Team (HOST) and the Los Angeles Services Authority offer homeless residents food, water, and transportation and housing options in Malibu, Calif., on Sept. 23, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Like other homeless individuals theyve met during outreach, they built a relationship with Franklin over the years as they encountered him in various spots around the city. Deputy Sean Priestley told The Epoch Times it may take up to five encounters before homeless individuals accept services.

After you do something so long, its hard to break that, Priestley told The Epoch Times. Some people can change, and more power to you. I dont know if I could if I had to live out here for 10 years.

Kenny, a homeless individual living in Zuma Beach, said hes traveled all across the country, finding a new place to live for a few months before packing up and moving again. He has a family, a home, and an off-and-on job, but he suffers from mental health issues that make it difficult for him to stay in one area.

Im real reclusive, because I dont know how to properly communicate with people, Kenny told The Epoch Times. But patience is the thing that really gets me. Im not patient, Id rather have me and my music.

He once served seven years in Texas prison, he said, for stealing a vehicle.

After that, it just caused a lot of friction in my life, he said. I would accept mental services if they could help me get back my medications. But I like being out here, I prefer to be alone.

The HOST team jots down Kennys information again and tells him theyll be in touch.

A homeless man named Kenny in Malibu, Calif., on Sept. 23, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Some residents are urging city officials to do more to ensure Malibu retains its safe environment. Earlier this month, a father of five lost his eye and suffered multiple stab wounds after he was allegedly attacked with a machete by two homeless suspects.

One resident, who preferred to stay anonymous, told The Epoch Times he recently moved to Malibu with his wife, who is pregnant, because he believed the area was safe. But after seeing the news of the man who was attacked, he became worried and told his wife not to go outside alone.

Its just its crazy to see tents everywhere, he said. We first noticed it right away when we moved in, about a week ago, and theres just a lot of drinking and trash.

I hope they can get them some mental help, and you know, just keep the area safe; thats why we moved here.

LAHSA outreach members collect information about each unhoused person they make contact with. The information about the persons identity and location is entered into an application database shared by both LASD and LAHSA to keep track of each individual, whether they are interested in services or not. A photo is also uploaded to the database.

Jon, a homeless man, cries while speaking with members of the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department Homeless Outreach Services Team (HOST) in Malibu, Calif., on Sept. 23, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Now that the city gave LASD the green light to enforce the ordinance, LASD will create postings informing the individuals of the motion.

Most of the time, by the time of cleanup day, theyve already removed all their stuff, or theyll leave all their trash behind and then well have the cleanup come in, Priestley said. Typical protocol is a two-weeks notice.

Its unclear when the enforcement will begin.

Ive been working hard to get something like this in place for almost a year now. And  I think weve gotten it over the finish line, Silverstein said.
An Amtrak train in the Worlds Fair Train Show at the Queens Botanical Garden on May 25, 2015 presented by the Long Island Garden Railway Society, Inc. (Holly Kellum/Epoch Times)

Shots Fired on Amtrak Train in Arizona, 1 in Custody

One person is in custody after someone opened fire Monday aboard an Amtrak train in Tucson, Arizona, police said.

The shooting happened just after 8 a.m. on a train parked at the station in the citys downtown. Authorities say the scene has been secured and no threat remains.

There are no reported injuries to the crew or passengers, said Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams.

The Sunset Limited, Train 2, was traveling from Los Angeles to New Orleans, and arrived at the Tucson station at 7:40 am, Abrams said. There were 137 passengers and 11 crew members, he said. All have been evacuated to the station.
Singapore Reports Worst Daily Number of COVID-19 Cases, Despite High Vaccination Rate

Singapore on Oct. 1 hit its record daily number of COVID-19 infections since the start of the pandemic, despite vaccinating the majority of its population.

The Southeast Asian city-state recorded a new high of 2,909 COVID-19 cases on Oct. 1, the Ministry of Health said in a statement on Oct. 2, but noted that more than 98 percent of infected individuals have mild or no symptoms.

This is a result of having vaccinated the great majority of our population, who experienced mild illness even as breakthrough infections occur, the statement said. Nevertheless, we are ramping up our health care and response capacity to cope with the rising cases.

The recent surge in infections of COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, after the relaxation of some restrictions has prompted Singapore to pause further reopening. It also tightened curbs from last week that limited social gatherings to two people and made work from home a default.

The government has said the tighter measures are temporary breaks needed to buy time to expand health care capacity, set up more isolation facilities, reach more of the unvaccinated, and get booster shots to those who need them.

More than 80 percent of Singapores population has been vaccinated against the CCP virus.

We have already said because of our high vaccination rate, we are no longer focusing solely on headline numbers, the minister of finance, Lawrence Wong, told reporters at a news conference on Oct. 2. Our focus is on the people who are seriously ill and to make sure that our health care system is able to take care of them.

The ministry of health statement noted that although daily case numbers are expected to rise this month, the rate of increase appears to have slowed down slightly, and the vast majority of COVID-19 patients currently are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, and are suitable for home recovery.

The percentage of patients who require ICU care remains low, at about 0.2 percent, it said.

However, with higher cases, this can translate to a larger absolute number. Currently, 34 ICU beds are occupied and we expect the number to rise, the health ministry noted.

Officials didnt specify how many of the newly reported cases were breakthrough infections in people fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Cases in Singapore are estimated to surpass 3,200 daily cases soon, and the city-state may even start to see 5,000 cases daily around mid-October, health officials said.

It comes after Singapore made headlines when Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced in May the governments plan to live with the virus and gradually transition away from a COVID-zero approach.

Our aim must be to keep the community as a whole safe while accepting that some people may get infected every now and then, the prime minister said at the time.

The government has said that Singapore will expand its COVID-19 booster shot program this month amid the recent surge in infections, with residents aged 50 to 59 becoming eligible for a third COVID-19 vaccine dose beginning Oct. 4.

Health officials are also deliberating on recommending a booster shot for a few more population groups, such as for health care workers, frontline workers, and persons in other vulnerable settings.

The health ministry reiterated Singapores plan to live with the virus, saying that its aim has always been to minimize deaths while re-opening our social and economic activities progressively.

This also requires a collective shift in our mindsets. We need to learn to live with the virus, and understand that for the vast majority, especially those vaccinated, it is not a serious illness.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Vials of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are seen in Jackson, Miss., on Sept. 21, 2021. (Rogelio V. Solis/AP Photo)

Students Sue St. Johns University Over Vaccine Mandate, Citing Use of Aborted Fetus Cells in Testing

A group of students at St. Johns University (SJU) in New York are suing the school over its COVID-19 vaccination requirement, which they say violates their religious belief regarding abortion.

The 17 students filed the lawsuit against the Manhattan-based Catholic university in Suffolk County Supreme Court. They are seeking $2.75 million in damages, barring a change in the universitys position, according to the New York Post.

In the court papers, the students said that the COVID-19 vaccines that are being administered in the United States were tested by using aborted fetal tissue or human embryonic stem-cell derivation.

According to a report published by the British Medical Journal, the Johnson & Johnson vaccines manufacturing process used cell lines derived from elective abortions performed decades ago. The other COVID-19 vaccines being used in the United States, by Pfizer and Moderna, used these cell lines in testing but not in production.

As a devout Roman Catholic, I believe life is precious. In the Ten Commandments, it says, Thou Shall Not Kill,' one of the suing students told the Post.

While SJU does offer religious exemption to the vaccination requirement, it has rejected the suing students requests, saying there are questions about the genuineness of their purported religious beliefs.

Numerous applications were denied because the students appeared to have submitted materials purchased from the Internet, or copied verbatim from online sources, which called into question the genuineness of their purported religious beliefs, an SJU official told the Post.

In a similar case, four female students last month sued Creighton University, a Jesuit Catholic institution in Nebraska, for refusing to grant them religious exemptions to its COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The women argued that even remote cooperation with abortion would violate their conscience.

The use of fetal tissue, fetal cells, or any product of abortion in the development or testing of a vaccine or any medical treatment, is abhorrent to me, a student wrote in an affidavit. This is a sincerely held religious belief, which impacts my moral and ethical views of the world.

According to the court filings, Creighton initially offered a medical exemption and a temporary exemption while the vaccines were under emergency use authorization by the federal government. The students were given a temporary exemption, which expired on Aug. 23, when the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine received formal federal approval.

In a Sept. 22 decision, a judge rejected the students request for a temporary order blocking the vaccine mandate, saying that their case would likely fail because they had accepted the temporary exemption.
Study: Homeschooling Became Viable for Many During COVID-19 Pandemic

Homeschooling has become an increasingly popular choice during the COVID-19 pandemic as parents, frustrated by remote learning and strict COVID-19 rules, take matters into their own hands.

U.S. Census Bureau data released earlier this year show the percentage of households with children being homeschooled doubled to 11.1 percent in fall 2020 from 5.4 percent in spring 2020.

Homeschooling became a viable alternative for many parents who had considered it in the past or who were curious but never prompted to change, William Heuer and William Donovan, authors of a new study on the shift, said in a summary of the research.

Parents who took their children out of public or private school in recent months had various motivations.

Some cited concerns about their children contracting COVID-19 and bringing it home, Jacklynn Walters, media director of the Midwest Parent Educators, told The Epoch Times. Others grew worried about what was being taught at their childs school. There was also anxiety over remote learning and the lack of social contact.

Children nationwide suffered from remote learning, which has long been understood to be inferior to in-person instruction. The decrease in proficiency on English and math tests during the pandemic was as high as 15 percent, according to the Center for Assessment, which works with departments of education across the United States.

In core subjects like math and reading, there are worrisome signs that in some grades students might be falling even further behind pre-pandemic expectations, the U.S. Department of Education found (pdf).

Even as millions of students returned to school, many had to abide by harsh rules such as constant masking.

My daughter, after a while, she wasnt even getting on the bus anymore, she wasnt getting up because she was just so traumatized. She didnt really want to go to school anymore, Stephanie Saja, a Shelton, Connecticut, resident, told The Epoch Times.

The frustration began building almost immediately when Sajas daughter started distance learning in March 2020. A mix of remote and in-person learning was implemented briefly in the fall of 2020 but it was distance learning again until January.

After children started full-time in-person instruction then, all of them had to wear masks and had to stay six feet apart. There was little interaction.

Within a month of beginning homeschooling, Saja saw her daughter perk up.

Saja, who works part time, is handling most of the instruction. Shes been emphasizing hands-on instruction with only occasional supplemental videos.

Not only did she tell me more than once she doesnt ever want to go back to public school again, she doesnt want to do any computer [work]. She likes to learn just from the books, Saja said.

Davina Owens, an estate planning attorney in Sharon, Massachusetts, took her 14-year-old and 9-year-old children out of school because of the sudden remote learning. Owens started teaching her sons in the morning and going to work in the afternoon.

The world was different, Owens told Heuer and Donovan. Everything was changed. The only thing that was the same was that I valued education and I love my kids. So with all of that, I said, Why not try something new this year? It can only be a year and it doesnt matter because no one is getting a great education this year. So if I fail, whatever failing is in homeschooling, theyll go back next year, pretty much no harm, no foul. So I gave myself permission to try.

Owens wasnt sure whether shell continue homeschooling. And it remains to be seen how many families who utilized homeschooling in the 202021 school year will keep doing it, Heuer and Donovan wrote. But most parents involved with the Midwest Parent Educators plan to, Walters said.

I would say that most of them are actually deciding to stick with it. They really love the opportunity to be with their children and their family more, and so theyre just really enjoying that family time but also being able to be involved in their childrens academics, she told The Epoch Times.

Homeschooling does take time and money, primarily in terms of needing a parent to be available to teach. Some parents, though, manage it while working. A couple with different work schedules, for instance, can trade off duties. Most schoolwork can be done on weekends. And in some cases, fathers have been taking on the bulk of the teaching, according to Walters.

There are also different approaches to homeschooling. Parents can go it alone, form learning pods with other parents, pay for outside tutors, or have children take a few classes at a private school or a microschool. Some mix and match the options.

There are increasingly more resources now and in the future for homeschoolers to make this easier, Kerry McDonald, a senior education fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education, told Heuer and Donovan. Certainly, there will be more investments in online learning and education startups that will facilitate the process of parents taking their children out of school.

Heuer and his wife homeschooled their sons from kindergarten to 12th grade. He sits on the board of directors of the Massachusetts Home Learning Association, which advocates for homeschooling.

Donovan is a business journalism teacher and a former writer for the Providence Journal.

They produced the report for the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research, a nonprofit that has a mission of developing and communicating dynamic ideas that advance prosperity and a vibrant civic life in Massachusetts and beyond.

Heuer said the disruption to learning that came during the pandemic made it a good time to make the change for parents who had been considering a shift to homeschooling.

Its unclear how many families view homeschooling as a temporary solution during the pandemic and how many will continue to do it, Jamie Gass, director of education policy at Pioneer Institute, said. But after years of steady increases, it is clear that the practice is common enough to be treated as a viable educational choice.
The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on Oct. 4, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Supreme Court Opens New Term, Will Hear Cases on Abortion and Second Amendment

Court rejects many appeals beforehand, including effort to give DC a voting member of Congress

The Supreme Court on Oct. 4 opened a new term thats filled with crucial cases on how much access to abortion can be restricted and whether New York state infringed on the Second Amendment.

Chief Justice John Roberts opened the term by noting that Justice Brett Kavanaugh was participating remotely. Kavanaugh tested positive for COVID-19 last week, although a court spokeswoman said his family members all tested negative and that he was showing no symptoms.

Oct. 1 was the first time the justices convened in person since arguments went remote during the pandemic.

Two cases were scheduled to be heard before justices headed home for the evening.

One deals with a challenge filed against Tennessee by Mississippi concerning the former allegedly pumping out groundwater from an aquifer beneath the latters territory. Mississippi is seeking more than $600 million in damages.

The other concerns the entry into a mans home by a law enforcement officer who didnt identify himself. Lawyers for the man say the entry violated the mans constitutional rights.

Later this term, justices will listen as parties argue whether Mississippis 15-week abortion ban is legal. Opponents say its not legal under the precedent set by Roe v. Wade, while supporters say that decision was wrongly decided and hope the Supreme Court overturns it.

Roe has been on shaky ground since the day it was decided. Even eminent liberal pro-choice scholars said that Roe has no basis in the Constitution itself, John Malcolm, vice president of the Institute for Constitutional Government for the Heritage Foundation, said on C-SPANs Washington Journal.

Another high-profile case regards New York states law that applicants for pistol permits must prove proper cause to carry a gun, a requirement that opponents say violates the Second Amendment.

If ever blockbuster term was appropriate, this term is definitely going to be an enormous term when it comes to cases of great significance for the country. We have abortion rights, gun laws, issues related to religious instruction in schools, Elizabeth Wydra, president of the Constitutional Accountability Center, said on C-SPAN.

Court Rejects Some Cases Before Term Opens

Justices got together for a private conference last week to decide on hearing or outright rejecting a number of cases. Just before the new term opened, a 66-page document was released (pdf) outlining their decisions. They denied many of the appeals.

One notable denial: a case that saw District of Columbia residents try to get a voting member of Congress. Right now, Washington only has a non-voting delegate.

The plaintiffs, a group of 11 residents, were rejected by an appeals court panel last year that noted that the Constitution says the House of Representatives members must be picked by people in states. The district is not a state, the judges noted.

Another denial concerns a New York state law that taxes opioid manufactures and companies that distribute the drugs. Two trade groups tried challenging the law but ultimately failed.

Justices also denied petitions from convicted criminals on death row.

The only written opinions concerned two of the denials.

Justice Stephen Breyer wrote that he continues to believe that excessive delay in carrying out an execution undermines the death penaltys penological rationale. The inmate in question, Carl Wayne Buntion, was convicted of capital murder in Texas and sentenced to death in 1991 and resentenced in 2012. He has reportedly spent the last 20 years in solitary confinement.

His lengthy confinement, and the confinement of others like him, calls into question the constitutionality of the death penalty and reinforces the need for this Court, or other courts, to consider that question in an appropriate case, Breyer wrote.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor took issue with another denial, of a petition from capital murderer Mickey Thomas. She said Thomas, who argued he had ineffective counsel, should have been granted relief by a lower court. However, she said the Supreme Court denial was proper.
The U.S. Supreme Court is seen in Washington on Oct. 4, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Supreme Court to Hear Case of Ownership of Painting Stolen by Nazis Now Worth Millions

The Supreme Court has decided to hear an appeal about ownership of a valuable painting that was seized by the Nazis from a German Jewish family during the Holocaust and is now on display in an art museum in Madrid.

The case is Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation, court file 20-1566. The foundation is an agency of the Kingdom of Spain. The petitioners are: David Cassirer, a descendant of the original painting owner, Lilly Cassirer; an estate; and the Jewish Federation of San Diego County.

This is a miscarriage of justice that has been going on for way too long, Steve Zack, an attorney for the petitioners told the San Francisco Chronicle. It goes back to the Ten Commandments.  A person who has an item stolen from them, they are entitled to get it back when the people who are holding it know that they shouldnt have possession.

The Supreme Court agreed on Sept. 30 to consider the petition for certiorari, or review, which was filed with the court on May 6. In an Aug. 17, 2020, ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled unanimously against the petitioners, who now argue that that court misapplied the applicable law.

The Impressionist painting by Camille Pissarro, who died in 1903, called Rue St.-Honore, Apres-Midi, Effet de Pluie (English: Rue Saint-Honore, Afternoon, Rain Effect), depicts a Paris street.

The Nazi regime required Fritz and Lilly Cassirer to swap the painting in exchange for exit visas and roughly $360, far short of the real value of the work. The Cassirers complied and escaped with their lives. Lilly Cassirer was never able to receive the payment from the Nazis because the account was blocked, and she spent years trying to locate the missing painting before she died in 1962. Before that, in 1958, she accepted $13,000 in reparations from the German government.

But two decades ago, a friend of one of her descendants spotted the painting, now worth in the tens of millions of dollars, on display in a Spanish museum, NPR summarizes.

It is undisputed that the Nazis stole the Painting from Lilly in 1939, and the record shows that it was smuggled out of Germany into California after World War II in violation of U.S. Military law, and traded privately in the United States between 1951 and 1976, according to the petition.

Even though the U.S. Court of Restitution Appealsa court established by the U.S. government in occupied Germanypreviously determined Mrs. Cassirer to be the rightful owner of the painting, it was assumed at the time to have been lost or destroyed in the war.

The foundation bought the painting in 1993 from Baron Hans Heinrich von Thyssen-Bornemisza, who had purchased it under suspicious circumstances from a New York gallery in 1976, the petition states.

An issue in the current case is whether the baron put sufficient effort into trying to ascertain if the painting was looted art when it bought it for $275,000. Also at issue is whether curators in Spain practiced due diligence in researching the ownership history of the painting when the Spanish government-controlled foundation bought it and hundreds of other artworks from the barons portfolio in 1992 and established the museum that bears his name.

The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act states that where a foreign nation isnt immune from jurisdiction in the courts of the United States or of any state, it shall be liable in the same manner and to the same extent as a private individual under like circumstances.

Under California law, a holder of stolen property (such as the Spanish museum here), can never acquire good title, the petition states.

Thieves cannot pass good title to anyone, including a good-faith purchaser.
Swedish artist Lars Vilks, known for his drawing of Prophet Muhammad, takes part in a freedom of speech discussion in Helsinki, on April 14, 2015. (Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva/Reuters)

Swedish Mohammad Cartoonist Lars Vilks Killed in Car Crash

STOCKHOLMSwedish artist Lars Vilks, who stirred worldwide controversy in 2007 with drawings depicting the Prophet Mohammad with the body of a dog, was killed in a car crash near the southern town of Markaryd on Sunday, police said.

Vilks, 75, who had been living under police protection since the drawings were published, was travelling in a police vehicle that collided with a truck. Two police officers were also killed.

This is a very tragic incident. It is now important to all of us that we do everything we can to investigate what happened and what caused the collision, Swedish police said in a statement on Monday.

Initially, there is nothing that points to anyone else being involved.

Most Muslims consider any depiction of the founder of Islam as offensive.

Since the publication of the cartoons, Vilks had been living under round-the-clock police guard following threats against his life. He had a bounty put on his head and his house was fire-bombed.

In 2015, one person was killed in Copenhagen, Denmark, at a meeting meant to mark the 25th anniversary of an Iranian fatwa against British writer Salman Rushdie, which Vilks attended.

Vilks was widely seen as the intended target.

Vilks had said that the cartoons were not intended to provoke Muslims, but to challenge political correctness in the art world.
Taliban Government Behavior Not Encouraging, Says EU Foreign Policy Chief

RIYADHThe European Union foreign policy chief said on Sunday the Taliban governments behavior up to now was not very encouraging, and any economic collapse in Afghanistan would raise the risk of terrorism and other threats.

Josep Borrell, speaking at a joint news conference with his Saudi Arabian counterpart, also said he hoped nuclear talks between global powers and Iran would restart in Vienna soon.

The EU diplomat, who is in Riyadh following visits to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, said he briefed his partners on the prospects for restarting nuclear talks and exchanged views with Saudi officials on Yemen and Afghanistan.

The EU has increased its humanitarian aid to Afghanistan since the Taliban took power, but halted development assistancea move also taken by other countries and the World Bank.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and Saudi Arabias Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud hold a joint news conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Oct. 3, 2021. (Ahmed Yosri/Reuters)

Certainly its a dilemma. Because if you want to contribute to avoid the collapse of an economy, in a certain way, you can consider supporting the government  Depending on their behavior. And their behavior until now is not very encouraging, Borrell said.

If the economy collapses, then the humanitarian situation will be much worse. The tension for people to leave the country will be bigger, the threats the terrorist threat will be bigger and so the risks emanating from Afghanistan affecting the international community will be bigger, he added.

Turning to the region, he said the EU was ready to pursue trade deals with Gulf countries, saying the bloc supported Saudi Arabias modernization drive.

Brussels was also engaging on human rights and voiced hope the dialogue would produce real results, he added.

Saudi Arabias social and economic reform drive has been accompanied by a crackdown on dissent, which drew intense international scrutiny following the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdoms Istanbul consulate.

Riyadh has also faced criticism over Yemen, where it leads a military coalition that has been battling the Iran-aligned Houthi movement for over six years.

Describing Yemen as a terrible tragedy, Borrell voiced support for a peaceful settlement of the conflict, largely seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud said Riyadh has a very robust dialogue with the United States to end the war.

By Raya Jalabi
Dr. Anthony Fauci, via video, speaks during The Creative Coalition's 7th Annual Television Humanitarian Awards in Los Angeles on Sept. 18, 2021. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

The Cost and Irritation of Abandoning Common Sense in Dealing With COVID

Commentary

So, St. Anthony Fauci has come down from his mountain top with a new list of thou-shall-nots and the news that it is too early to say whether he will allow families and friends to congregate for Christmas.

It isnt too early for the body politic to engage in one gigantic spasm of retroperistalsis and expel that tyrannical medical pest from the community.

After all, Dr. Fauci is the chap who tells anyone who will listen that, when it comes to vaccine mandates, There comes a time when you do have to give up what you consider your individual right of making your own decision for the greater good of society.

Ah, yes, greater good of societyas defined, it goes without saying, by A. Fauci.

Its long past time for this fomenter of hysteria to go. He has been terrorizing the American populace for decades.

Give him a padded cell, a mirror, and a TV camera and he will be happy.

In the 1980s, Fauci was a superspreader of the myth that an important vector for the transmission of HIV was heterosexual intercourse.

For the past couple of years, he has been terrifying the public with tales from the crypt about the virus he helped develop with U.S. taxpayer money for gain-of-function research in a Chinese virology lab in Wuhan.

The fact that this Bela Lugosi of the medical establishment also is a publicity addict who cant pass a television camera without primping and dispensing contradictory but depressing dicta makes him a public nuisance.

You see his baneful influence everywhere.

In our former newspaper of record, for example, The New York Times.

On Oct. 1, the NY Times ran one of its long emetic specials on COVID, the Delta Diaries.

Deploying their signature mixture of nauseating human interest pabulum and tendentious statistics, they paid homage to the CCP virus for giving them something to write about now that Donald Trump is, for the time being, off the menu.

According to the NY Times, the fact that the deaths of 700,000 people in the United States have been attributed to the virus means that its now officially more deadly than the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, which killed about 675,000 people in the United States.

Remember the old saw about lies, damned lies, and statistics?

The NY Times specializes in that wheeze.

The CCP virus can be serious, no doubt about it. But it represents a significant threat to a tiny part of the population, mostly the elderly, especially those with certain co-morbidities like diabetes and obesity.

The Spanish flu, by contrast, cut a wide swath through the young and healthy.

The so-called Delta variant seems to be more infectious but less virulent than the original.

It has affected some younger people, much to the delight of the NY Times and other members of the Fauci fan club.

But the NY Times story is just the Gray Lady version of a domestic-strife story like those in the sensationalistic rags you see in the supermarket checkout line: Betts and Andy on the Rocks: What Really Happened on Their Honeymoon.

Now, on to those numbers.

One critical distinction you wont find mentioned in the NY Times cri-de-coeuris is the difference between dying from the CCP virus and dying with it. Millions upon millions are infected.

It is, after all, a very contagious virus.

But not only is it the case that many who are infected experience mild or no symptoms, its also the case that many who are infected with the virus and happen to die, in fact, die from other things.

Remember the chap who was in a fatal motorcycle accident, spread like jam across the highway, but had his death listed as due to COVID because the goo tested positive?

Another set of numbers you rarely see in the reporting about COVID fatalities is the age of the people who died.

The average life expectancy for males in the United States is around 78.

If Mr. Smith, who suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, comes down with COVID and dies at 87, is his death due to COVID?

You see why I like to say that the great thing about COVID is that it abolished death from old age.

It also essentially abolished death from influenza.

Generally, there are anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 deaths from the flu in this country per annum.

Last year, there were some 700 . Amazing.

The CCP virus is a seasonal respiratory virus. The key to public health regarding it is the achievement of herd immunity.

Masks, lockdowns, and social distancing impede the achievement of herd immunity.

Harvard epidemiologist Martin Kulldorff and Stanfords Dr. Jay Bhattacharya got it exactly right when they wrote last spring that the idea that everybody needs to be vaccinated is as scientifically baseless as the idea that nobody does. COVID vaccines are essential for older, high-risk people and their caretakers and advisable for many others. But those whove been infected are already immune.

At last, the clear voice of common sensewhich is also, by the way, the voice of that science were supposed to be following.

Messrs. Kulldorff and Bhattacharya go on to offer these wise observations:

Vaccine passports are unjust and discriminatory.

Most of those endorsing the idea belong to the laptop classprivileged professionals who worked safely and comfortably at home during the epidemic.

Millions of Americans did essential jobs at their usual workplaces and became immune the hard way. Now, they would be forced to risk adverse reactions from a vaccine they dont need.

Passports would entice young, low-risk professionals, in the West and the developing world, to get the vaccine before older, higher-risk but less affluent members of society. Many unnecessary deaths would result.

The widespread use of vaccines against polio, measles, mumps, rubella, rabies, and other pathogens has saved millions of lives. Vaccines are one of the most important inventions in human historythe reason that before last year many in the West had forgotten that infectious disease could pose a population-wide threat.

Those pushing for coercive COVID vaccination threaten all this progress by undermining public trust in vaccines. In this sense, they are more dangerous than the small group of so-called anti-vaxxers have ever been.

What a pity that the media didnt elevate experts such as Martin Kulldorff and Jay Bhattacharya to the sacrosanct position it saved for Anthony Fauci.

We all would have been saved a great deal of irritation, not to mention economic ruin and political despotism.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
The Euthanasia Slippery Slope: A Demand Driven Business

Commentary

In May 2003, the International Trade and Business Law Annual, of which I was founding editor-in-chief, published an article on Belgiums new euthanasia laws, which were passed on May 28, 2002.

Written by Prof. Walter De Bondt of the University of Ghent, it provided an overview of one of the earliest iterations of voluntary assisted dying (VAD) lawonly the Netherlands legislation preceded the Belgian law.

The Belgian Act on Euthanasia, which entered into force on Sept. 22, 2002, defines euthanasia in Article 2 as intentionally terminating life by someone other than the person concerned, at the latters request.

Article 14 explicitly states that a medical practitioner may not be compelled to perform euthanasia.

Article 15 indicates that A person who dies as a result of euthanasia performed in accordance with the conditions specified in the Euthanasia Act, is considered to have died from a natural cause with regard to the execution of agreements to which he was a party, and notably, the insurance agreements. The Act then goes on to describe the euthanasia procedure in detail.

Voluntary Assisted Dying legislation, once it is adopted and implemented, becomes nigh impossible to repeal.

Indeed, the only discussion surrounding such legislation is likely to deal with how the law could be further liberalised.

The Belgian law illustrates the validity of this view: the Act has since been amended even to allow children to apply for euthanasia. This amendment was passed on Feb. 13, 2014, and it legalised euthanasia by lethal injection for children, removing any age barrier to this practice.

Professor Stefaan Van Gool shows a map of local paediatricians at a press conference after euthanasia laws were expanded for minors in Brussels, Belgium, on Feb. 11, 2014. (Dirk Waem/AFP via Getty Images)

This culture of death has now been detailed in a thoughtful new book by Australian Reverend John Fleming, entitled To Kill or Not to Kill: Euthanasia in a Society with a Cultural Death Wish. This book is a meticulous defence of the sanctity and inviolability of life and a powerful argument against societys adoption of a culture of death.

The book is a veritable treasure trove, which offers an in-depth discussion on a range of relevant issues against which the adoption of euthanasia laws is considered and assessed.

Fleming aptly notes that euthanasia as an issue is just a part, but a representative part, of the determination of certain elites to de-Christianise Western societies, to rid society of the most important ingredients of civil society.

He argues that VAD laws create a slippery slope that frustrates any attempts at reversing the practice and, in turn, stimulates demand for euthanasia. As William Tighe writes in the foreword, the book explores the entire expanse of legal, medical, philosophical, religious and social contexts in which advocacy for legally-permitted euthanasia has become a widespread and successful reality in the world today.

Tighes admission of how successful the practice has spread assumes it is also popular.

There is no doubt that many in Belgium favour the adoption of such a law. Whenever I talked to family members in Belgium, they all displayed indignation when I even dared to question the morality of euthanasia. They consider VAD to be a sacred right, enabling them to assume total control over their bodies and decide how and when to die.

In the period 2002 to 2020, around 24,000 people have been officially euthanised in Belgium.

In chapter nine of his book, Fleming compellingly describes the slippery slope generated by the adoption of the Belgian legislation in 2002.

He says the problem is compounded when lethal doses are often administered without an explicit request from the patients, and when doctors fail to report euthanising an individual to the overseeing Federal Commission on Control and Evaluation because they do not believe they have carried out the practice.

The right to die is not found in international human rights instruments, which in contrast, emphasise the right to life.

Article 6 (1) of the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights stipulates accordingly that, Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law.

VAD also effectively destroys the Hippocratic Oath in medicine.

Disturbingly, the trust that indeed must exist between patientsespecially older or vulnerable patientsand their doctors will be severely tested, because it can no longer be assumed that doctors will work to prolong the life of a patient with palliative care options.

Timothy Costelloe, archbishop of Perth, asked in a letter whether it was ever ethically permissible to deliberately end ones own life, to ask another person to help you do so, or to intentionally assist another person to do so?

In this context, Fleming reminds readers that the right to life is an inalienable right and that the survival of our civilisation depends on maintaining the moral rule that one does not kill. The slippery slope created by the political class is a harbinger of the moral collapse of Western civilisation.

Since the 1970s, there has been a relentless march to permanently change the moral standards that for hundreds of years held our societies together. This march is exemplified by the abortion industry, transgender rights, and VAD legislationnow enacted everywhere in Australia, except New South Wales and the territories.

Pro life demonstrators are seen outside the Victorian State Parliament, Melbourne, Australia, on June 18, 2019. (AAP Image/James Ross)

These developments assume that people have the right of full autonomy over their bodies, while at the same time, defying centuries of tradition that sought to preserve the sanctity and inviolability of life.

Social commentator Paul Collits, in his review of Flemings book, said it was a work of immense scholarship, broad interdisciplinary research, political awareness and razor-sharp focus, leavened with a practitioners worldly wisdom and political nous. Flemings conviction, above all, is that good arguments matter in critical debates, even in this age of superficial soundbites, cliches, and focus-group-driven politics.

A reading of the book confirms the veracity of Collits assessment.

Indeed, the publication of Flemings book is an important and timely event that highlights the devastation wrought by the de-Christianisation project.

The book should be promoted and read widely. It is a timely reminder that Western civilisation, scarred by many decades of continuing moral decay, has created a slippery slope that generates an irreversible demand for the business of assisted dying.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
The Fable of the Trans-Pacific Trade Pact

Commentary

The story of trade in our world is an ongoing fable of successes and failures, even as the setups to facilitate it are usually invariably designed to bring happily prosperous outcomes.

Like all fables, there are lessons to be learned. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) began as an expansion of the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPSEP or P4) signed by Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, and Singapore in 2005.

In 2008, additional countries joined the discussion for broader agreement, including Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the United States, and Vietnam, bringing the negotiating countries to 12 by the time a new agreement was inked Feb. 4, 2016.

Under former U.S. President Donald Trump, the United States was withdrawn in January 2017. The latest U.S.-less iteration has been renamed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), including 11 nations.

Given that a World Trade Organisation (WTO) is ready and willing to facilitate lawful ease of trade, some might inquire as to the motive for creating a new economic circle in any event?

The headquarters of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is seen in Geneva, Switzerland, on Dec. 11, 2019. (Robert Hradil/Getty Images)

What could be the unspoken rationale for the CPTPP? Since its formation in 1995, the goal of the WTO has been to help producers of goods and services, international exporters, and importers, smoothly and constructively conduct their business.

Indeed the WTO has attained these goals already? Certainly, its membership of 164 nations covering 96 percent of all trade would suggest a resounding yes.

The emerging question, given the recent interest by China in joining the CPTPP, is this: has the WTO ever opened its doors to accept member states that were disinclined to comply with its guidelines unless it suited their own interests, and who would be prepared to abuse the WTO regulations to force out other member states (even those compliant with WTO rules for dispute resolution)?

All present CPTPP members are acutely conscious of the rap sheet the Peoples Republic of China carries.

This aspiring member makes them all nervous, but no nation wants to point out it as a potential pariah publicly. All member states are members of the WTO, but none of the member states dares to directly accuse China of failing to abide by WTO guidelines, including even the United States. While Australia has itself been pettishly burnt by Beijing over such items as barley, wine, seafood, and coal.

So far, countries have avoided direct confrontation with the economically-rising China. The only person who dared to bluntly criticise China was the former U.S. President Donald Trump, who aptly withdrew the United States from the then-TPP.

Bottles of Australian wine are displayed at a supermarket in Hangzhou, in eastern Chinas Zhejiang Province, on Nov. 27, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

No country in the CPTPP would currently want to engage in a direct war of words with China. It is awkward; theres no doubt about that. But even as trade relationships matterrules also matter, and countries are now realising, following the negligent handling of a devastating global pandemic by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), that trust and respectful relationships matter most of all.

China could, of course, create a new trade zone on its own and invite its close partners such as North Korea, Iran, Cuba, and now Afghanistan, and so on, to form its economic circle, and play across a new world in full swing, such as its activities in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Wouldnt that be nirvana for Beijing?

However, Beijing does not want to be perceived as isolated from the good guys, the trusted movers, and shakers.

The CCP wants to enter the CPTPP, and given it has already obtained huge benefits from the WTO while willfully failing to abide by its regulations, it is not willing to give up the opportunity to enter the CPTPP.

Among the CPTPP member states, Singapore and Malaysia have already expressed their welcome to Chinas entry. It is also believed New Zealand will accept it, Canada will follow up, and the trio of Central and South American countries will not strongly oppose it. Vietnam will not support it but will not strongly or openly oppose it. Japan will implicitly oppose it, and only Australia will frankly oppose it.

Australias reason for opposing Beijings accession should not be the present trade friction with China but should be based on the fact that China has never implemented WTO rules properly.

In view of this, Australia has sufficient reasons to vote a firm negative for the CPTPP to trial China and to veto China from joining and undermining the rules of the CPTPP.

The CPTPP should not be a purely economic vehicle that fails to consider the significance of the development of civilisation in the region and the world. Acknowledgement and respect for human rights represented tangibly in a political and legal system that protects them must be considered a prerequisite. With this prerequisite, China can be quite naturally and without fanfare, excluded.

Meanwhile, Taiwan has also applied to join the trade pact, which should be encouraged and promoted. The high entry threshold does not impede Taiwan. Taiwan meets the conditions regardless of economic, political, social, and cultural issues. Taiwans accession can also stop China, and it can be beneficial towards containing Chinas accession and prevent the future degradation and destruction of the CPTPP.

Taiwans national flags flutter beside Taipei 101 at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei on Oct. 7, 2012. (Mandy Cheng/AFP via Getty Images)

Further, U.S. President Joe Biden has indicated a willingness to combine with allies, so Australia should consider inviting the United States to re-join, surfing the wave of goodwill created by AUKUS. The participation of the United States would magnify the voice of the democracies involved.

Australia is currently looking to grow its strength in the organisation, and it is supported by key backer Japanwhich shares its interests. There is no doubt they bring benefits to other members and the outfit itself. This sensible order of priority enriches the current members and protects their interests should easily foreshadow Taiwan and the United States joining.

For several reasons that do not even need enunciation, any consideration of China joining ought to fall far lower in the priority queue, with the option of it being quietly jettisoned kept as a distinct possibility.

Far better than end up being fiercely stung, as the hapless frog in Aesops fable, who bewilderedly asked why the scorpion had stung him (after the frog had kindly given him a ride across the river): Its because I am a scorpion, thats what I do.

Far better for the CPTPP to go into the task of considering new members alert and on guard than to be stung later and wonder why.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
The Story of Evergrandes Founder and What It Means for the Companys Future

Commentary

What would appear to be an American-dream, rags-to-riches story may not have a happy ending for the founder of Evergrande, Chinas largest real-estate developer. After rating agency Fitch lowered the companys rating to near default, the founders history of high-leverage business investments may have finally run the company dry.

As the company appears to fail on its debt payments, observers have speculated whether the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will bail out the company. However, with the CCPs policy of housing for living in, not for speculation, Evergrandes leverage-driven policy that its founder followed for over two decades may also be its downfall.

Xu Jiayin, 62, founded Evergrande in 1996. By 2018, it was the most valuable real-estate company in the world, according to the Chinese mouthpiece Xinhua. Xu built the companys success on leveraging, dipping the company into deep debt that it couldnt repay at the moment, then counting on rapid sales to pay back lenders in time.

Before he discovered the world of real-estate sales, Xus business experience began by shipping rice, straw, and coal from village to village in his home province of Henan. He got to keep the profits from sales, according to an interview he gave to Chinese media Sohu in 2014.

Xu later attended college in Wuhan city and graduated in 1982. Following Chinas communist command economy, he was assigned to work at a local iron and steel mill back in Henan. Chinese financial website 163 reported that Xu had to leave the factory in 1992 after he was investigated for selling the factorys scrap metal and distributing the proceeds to his colleagues.

Although China was open to the West at that time, the hinterland of China was still following the communist system. Xu had slim chances of becoming wealthy in Henan. So he moved to Shenzhen city, Chinas first Special Economic Zone (SEZ). SEZs are areas where market-driven economic policies are implemented.

Due to Shenzhens close proximity to Hong Kong, the CCP chose to develop it from a fishing village into an experimental economic zone. Former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping used Shenzhen as a testing ground for an open market capitalist economy.

At that time, people in Shenzhen did not have to obey many regulations as long as they made money for the regime. There, Xu found the right platform to expand his wealth.

Real Estate Boom

The same year that Xu was forced out of his factory job, he started his career by working for a real estate company in Shenzhen in 1992. He earned his boss over $10 million within three years, according to Sohu.

In 1994, he set up a branch company for his boss, which also proved highly profitable. One project alone for a branch in neighboring Guangzhou city made over $30 million. Despite his outstanding contributions, according to Sohu, his boss paid him only $464 every month.

If my boss had paid me $15,000 as my annual income, maybe I wouldnt have quit, Xu told Sohu. In 1996, Xu left his boss and set up his own property companyGuangzhou Hengda Industrial Company Limited, the predecessor to Evergrande.

Xus model was also favorable to the local government. Land sales are a primary form of income for the Chinese government, according to a report (pdf) from the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School.

Xu created a positive feedback loop by buying large amounts of land and quickly selling the new houses.

His first project served as a model for his later property development projects, his company was propped up on loans he was unable to repay and he bet it all on future success, according to 163.

He managed to obtain a piece of land in Guangzhou for $15.5 million. He then signed an agreement on conditional use of the land with the landowner, then proceeded to obtain a loan of $930,000 for a building project.

After paying the landowner $775,000 as a down payment, Xu divided the remaining amount among the designing company, construction companies, and his own staff. But he still owed money to each division.

Police officers and security personnel gather outside the headquarters of China Evergrande Group in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China, on Sept. 30, 2021. (Aly Song/Reuters)

He needed to collect cash quickly. His first property project in Guangzhou used small-sized apartments at affordable prices to target young adults. His presale was so successful that the whole project was sold out in less than half a day.

We began to sell our property at $433 per square meter, which was below our cost, but all the apartments were sold out in two hours, Xu was reported to say later on the 20-year anniversary of Evergrande, according to Chinese media Guandian. Our turnover amounted to $12.3 million in such a short time, which was the precious first bucket of gold for the company.

Xus first project garnered him both support and attention, according to a 163 report from August. Three years later, in 1999, Evergrande was among the top 10 real estate companies in Guangzhou.

With strong leveraging tactics as his go-to business model, Xu repeated the model from his first project by first obtaining land, then borrowing money from domestic financial institutions, and later financing through international investors. Evergrande is best known for its strategy of high debt, high leveraging, high turnover, and low cost.

Many Chinese developers have been following Xus model. They use borrowed money to acquire land, collect cash through presales to new tenants, and then borrow more money to invest in new projects. The banks, local governments, and developers get their share of interest in this practice.

But Xus rapid expansion caught up with him.

The main problem with Evergrande is over-expansion and over-banking from too many different institutions, Reuters quoted an unidentified risk control official from a state-owned bank in 2020.

The net gearing ratio, a measurement of debt to net worth, of Evergrande was 240 percent as of June 2017, Reuters reported in September.

Earlier than that, in April 2015, The Epoch Times reported that Evergrande used accounting tricks to classify some of its debt as equity to cut its debt to equity ratio from 292 percent to 85.9 percent in 2014.

However, the CCP watches the domestic housing market, as the real-estate market makes up about 30 percent of Chinas GDP and over 75 percent of its assets, according to Bloomberg. And housing prices have mostly been trending upward for the last 10 years, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China.

The regime fears the social unrest that would come after the potential crash of the housing bubble. The CCP has thus begun a crackdown on the Chinese property market by issuing new policies and rules, saying that housing is for living in, not for speculation. It has also tightened its grip on financial institutions.

Evergrandes lifeline of borrowing has now been cut off, and employees and investors alike are pressing it for repayment. The company has more than $300 billion in total liabilities, which is 2 percent of Chinas GDP.

Despite housing being a massive part of Chinas domestic economy, the CCP will likely not provide a bailout for Xu and Evergrande. The regime has stated that it does not want housing to be a speculatory market, something that Xu has thrived on.

Further, the CCPs only concern toward its citizens is that they are not preparing to revolt. Housing and stable finance have become a generational goal for the average Chinese citizen, and allowing real-estate speculators to drive the market is not a form of control the CCP will readily hand over.

Keeping the average Chinese family burdened with debt is favorable to the CCP. However, the two extremes of housing becoming too expensive for families, or the housing bubble bursting, would both lead to social instability. The former for families no longer being able to develop forward, and the latter for families losing generations of investments.

In the end, Xu will likely have to face his lenders, and the CCP will find a way to act as the unblemished savior of the people, swooping in on the aftermath and dividing up the remaining assets of Evergrande after it defaults.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
People march as they protest against NYC's COVID-19 vaccine mandate that went into effect today for public school employees in New York City on Oct. 4, 2021. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Thousands of Unvaccinated New York City Teachers on Unpaid Leave: Union

Thousands of unvaccinated New York City teachers were placed on unpaid leave after a citywide mandate went into effect, according to the United Federation of Teachers.

About 97 percent of teachers and other school staff represented by the union got the vaccine, the United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew confirmed in a news conference on Monday afternoon.

Under 4,000 of about 121,000 workers represented by the United Federation of Teachers were missing from city schools as of Monday, Mulgrew said in response to a question about how many teachers were taken off the payroll due to the citys vaccine mandate. He said that individuals who receive the vaccine in the near future can return to work immediately.

Some of those unvaccinated teachers have lost their livelihood, Mulgrew said, although he stressed that staff should get vaccinated. Mulgrew also stated he is concerned about a lack of school safety officers and staffing issues, namely in District 75 in Staten Island and other areas.

Classes resumed in person on Monday after New York City gave an Oct. 1 deadline for teachers to get the vaccine. Mulgrew said that about 1,000 teachers and school staff got the shot over the past weekend and are now in class as of Monday.

Every adult in our schools is now vaccinated. Thats going to be the rule going forward. Thats the way to keep kids safe, Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, said during a briefing on Monday. Ninety-five percent of all full-time [Department of Education] employees are vaccinated, 96 percent of all teachers, 99 percent of all principals, he added

In Brooklyn, numerous teachers gathered to protest in front of the Department of Educations office against the vaccine mandate on Monday.

JUST IN: Crowd protest outside New York City Department of Education over vaccine mandate, chants the system is corruptpic.twitter.com/gA4bgU0a5K  Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) October 4, 2021

I just think this should be a personal choice, one longtime Brooklyn special education teacher told the New York Post. The most distressing thing is that we were told we were essential last year and now were just nothing.

City schools chancellor Meisha Porter told CNN last week that she doesnt expect the mandate to trigger a teacher or staffing shortage.

We have more subs that are vaccinated than unvaccinated, teachers and our superintendents have been working with our principals to develop plans to ensure our students get the education and continue to get the education they deserve in person, Porter said.

A similar mandate for teachers and school staff is scheduled to go into effect in Los Angeles on Oct. 15.

A group of teachers and other employees filed a lawsuit against the citywide mandate, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. However, Justice Sonia Sotomayor denied the request on Oct. 1.

COVID-19 is the illness caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.
Within the marketing tools, the slogan is one of the most powerful, as it helps to increase the levels of recall in consumers and differentiate yourself from the competition.

Its origin comes from a Scottish Gaelic word that means  battle cry.

For a slogan to be successful, you must be clear that it will represent a constant reminder of what your business does. The success of a slogan is seen when customers or prospects repeat it over and over again.

A good slogan must contain a maximum of eight words, must clearly identify the product or service, and highlight the benefits that make it special. It is a phrase that captures, defines, and synthesizes in a few words the conceptual idea of your product or service.

Here are some tips when thinking about your new slogan:

Highlight Your Properties Compared to the Competition

Think about what are the elements that the products or services of the competition do not have? and create a phrase that represents it.

Original and Concise

Use metaphors, images, rhymes, rhythms, and other elements to create a slogan that is hard to forget.

A good resource is word games. You can also use popular phrases and give them a twist, to adapt them to your product.

Consider that from a marketing point of view, a long slogan does not generate the desired impact, because it increases its linguistic and syntactic complexity. Therefore, if it is not short and memorable, it is not a slogan.

Make the Brand Rhyme With the Slogan

It is a technique that has been very successful, it is called an incorporated brand rhyme, and it consists in that the product brand rhymes with the phrase.

The Brand as an Implicit Concept

In this case, the slogan goes without an incorporated brand and is implicit in the brand. A good example is: Breakfast of Champions (Kellogs Corn Flakes)

Summarize What the Brand Does

If its Bayer, its good is a slogan that represents exactly what the brand does and even describes the target benefit that is promised.

Do not forget that to develop a successful slogan you must have extensive knowledge of the business you want to promote, handle the advertising language well, and the direction in which you move.

Check out the competition and other great catchphrases that will better help you create your own.
(L - R) David Julius, PhD professor and chair of University of California, poses in his office at in San Francisco. (UCSF/Steve Babuljak/Handout via Reuters); Professor Ardem Patapoutian of the Department of Neuroscience at Scripps Insitute. (Ardem Patapoutian/Handout via Reuters)

2 Americans Win Medicine Nobel for Discovering Receptors for Heat and Touch

The 2021 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to two U.S.-based scientists for the discovery of receptors for temperature and touch, it was announced on Oct. 4.

The findings of California-based scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian focused on the field of somatosensation, more commonly known as tactile sense, or the bodys ability to sense.

The groundbreaking discoveries  have allowed us to understand how heat, cold, and mechanical force can initiate the nerve impulses that allow us to perceive and adapt to the world around us, The Nobel Assembly at Swedens Karolinska Institute said in a statement announcing the winners.

BREAKING NEWS:

The 2021 #NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded jointly to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch. pic.twitter.com/gB2eL37IV7  The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 4, 2021

The duos profound discovery may have paved the road to new ways of treating pain or even heart disease.

This knowledge is being used to develop treatments for a wide range of disease conditions, including chronic pain, the assembly said.

Julius, who works at the University of CaliforniaSan Francisco, utilized capsaicin, the active component in chili peppers that induces a burning sensation, to identify the nerve sensors that allow the skin to respond to heat, according to the assembly.

Patapoutian, who works at a research institute in La Jolla, California, used pressure-sensitive sensor cells that respond to mechanical stimulation in the skin and internal organs to discover a novel class of sensors.

The findings have led to a rapid increase in scientists understanding of how our nervous system senses heat, cold, and mechanical stimulation, identifying critical links that were missing in the perception of the complex interplay between our senses and the environment around us.

David Julius  awarded this years #NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine  utilised capsaicin, a pungent compound from chilli peppers that induces a burning sensation, to identify a sensor in the nerve endings of the skin that responds to heat. pic.twitter.com/GInY2q6RlD  The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 4, 2021

2021 #NobelPrize laureate in physiology or medicine Ardem Patapoutian used pressure-sensitive cells to discover a novel class of sensors that respond to mechanical stimuli in the skin and internal organs. pic.twitter.com/6T7661lRPq  The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 4, 2021

I mean, pain, that is very closely connected to the sense of temperature and touch. And we know that these systems are for sure involved in pain transduction, said Thomas Perlmann, secretary-general of the Nobel Committee. And there is also an activity, quite intense activity at certain places and in some companies to develop new drugs that could play a role in painchronic pain, for example.

In 2020, U.S.-based scientists Harvey J. Alter and Charles M. Rice along with British-born scientist Michael Houghton jointly won the Nobel Prize for medicine for their discovery of the hepatitis C virus, a major source of liver disease that affects millions of people worldwide.

The prestigious Nobel award comes with a gold medal and prize money of 10 million Swedish kronor (more than $1.14 million). The money comes from a bequest left by the prizes creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1895.

The award is the first Nobel Prize to be awarded this year. The other prizes are for outstanding work in the fields of physics, chemistry, literature, peace, and economics.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

From NTD News
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak speaking at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, England, on Oct. 4, 2021. (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

UK Chancellor Not Ruling out Tax Hike Amid Warning of Hitting The Limit

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak refrained from ruling out future tax rises on Monday as ministers face pressure from their own party to put a lid on taxes.

After Prime Minister Boris Johnson declined to rule out tax rises in the upcoming budget last week, senior Conservative Party members have warned the government that the size of the tax burden is becoming unreasonable and its hurting the Tories credibility as a low-tax party.

Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference on Monday, Sunak did little to dispel the prospect of further tax rises as he highlighted the need to put public finances on a sustainable footing.

The finance minister said a prosperous future has to be built on strong public finances, which doesnt happen by accident.

I have to be blunt with you. Our recovery comes with a cost, he said, adding that the UKs national debt is at almost 100 percent of its GDP.

Whilst I know tax rises are unpopular, some will even say un-Conservative, Ill tell you what is un-Conservative: unfunded pledges, reckless borrowing, and soaring debt, Sunak told the conference, stressing that the UK cant keep borrowing and expect the financial situation to simply sort itself out.

Yes, I want tax cuts. But in order to do that, our public finances must be put back on a sustainable footing, he concluded.

Speaking to broadcasters in a round of media interviews earlier, Sunak defended the governments massive spending spree during the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic, saying the country suffered the biggest economic shock in 300 years.

Sunak said despite the economic impact of the pandemic, the government still wants to deliver its commitmentswhether its on the NHS, whether its more police officers, whether its levelling up around the country.

We want to make sure we can deliver on those, which is why weve taken these decisions, but weve been upfront with people about it and why were doing it, doing it in what I believe to be a fair way, he told LBC radio.

Sunak declined to rule out either a tax rise or a tax cut before the next election, saying he couldnt speculate about future budgets.

Johnsons government is under pressure over household budgets, which will be hit by increasing energy bills and a cut to Universal Credit while many prices in the shops are going up.

Family finances are set to take a further hit from next April when National Insurance contributions rise by 1.25 percent to pay for the governments investment in the NHS and social care.

In a passing reference to the current crisis, Sunak said that tackling the cost of living isnt just a political soundbite, its one of the central missions of this Conservative government.

Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg arrives at Downing Street, London, on Sept. 15, 2021. (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the House of Commons and lord president of the council, said on Sunday that he doesnt believe a tax rise will be productive.

We are at the upper reaches of the reasonableness of the tax burden, the Cabinet minister said at an event hosted by the TaxPayers Alliance pressure group.

Even when tax rates have been considerably higher, the tax take has not been much higher, he added.

Why on earth would you think higher rates in the 2020s would have a greater effect than they did in the 1960s and the 1970s?

The Conservative MP said he believed the UK is about at the limit of what taxation can raise.

Asked if that was an argument for lower taxes, he responded, Thats a very strong argument but its all about balance.

Sir Graham Brady, Conservative MP and chair of the 1922 Committee, said the party needs to be critically aware of the rising living cost as it becomes very important concerns.

The top Tory backbencher also warned against pre-election wheezes following reports the prime minister had reached a deal with the chancellor to cut taxes before the next election in return for balancing the books now.

If we want to go into the next general election with a credible reputation as the party that believes in the lowest taxes that can possibly be achieved in the circumstances, then we cant, to quote Lynton Crosby, you cant fatten a cow or a pig on market day, he told his Tory colleagues at the party conference.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson waves as he leaves Media City in Salford, Greater Manchester, England, on Oct. 3, 2021. (Jacob King/PA)

The prime minister on Sunday defended his governments record on the public finances, saying Margaret Thatcher would have backed his approach.

We have had to look after the British people with 407 billion [$554 billion] of protection for their jobs, for peoples livelihoods, Johnson told the BBCs The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday.

Asked to rule out further tax hikes, Johnson said theres no fiercer and more zealous opponent of unnecessary tax rises than him, but his government had had to deal with a pandemic on a scale which this country has not seen before in our lifetimes and long before.

Johnson said neither he nor Sunak would want to raise taxes if they can possibly avoid it.

Margaret Thatcher would not have borrowed more money now, Ill tell you that much for free, he added.

PA contributed to this report.
The U.S. Department of Justice is seen in Washington, on June 11, 2021. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

US Charges Canadian Man, Alleging Hes an ISIS Fighter, Propagandist

WASHINGTONU.S. prosecutors on Saturday said they charged a Saudi-born Canadian man for aiding the ISIS terrorist group, alleging he tossed grenades in battle and worked with propagandists who publicized the beheading of hostages including U.S. journalist James Foley.

The Department of Justice described the man, identified as Mohammed Khalifa, as a leading figure in the English-language media unit of ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

The department said Khalifa narrated English-language recruitment videos and was a battlefield fighter before he was captured in 2019 by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, a militia group that controls parts of Syria.

He was recently arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and on Saturday, charges against him were unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

ISIS gained global notoriety after releasing videos in 2014 of the beheading of U.S. journalists Foley and Steven Sotloff, and of British aid workers Alan Henning and David Haines. U.S. prosecutors allege Khalifa worked in the unit that publicized the videos.

If convicted, Khalifa faces up to life in prison.
U.S Marines from MRF-D (Marine Rotaional Force Darwin) participate in an Urban assault as part of Exercise 'Talisman Sabre 21' on July 27, 2021 in Townsville, Australia. Exercise Talisman Sabre 2021 is the largest bilateral training activity held every two years, forces undergo complex warfighting scenarios between Australia and the United States. This year it includes forces from Canada, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. (Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)

US Expands Footprint in Indo-Pacific With New Base and Troop Rotations

The United States is seeking to expand its military footprint in the Indo-Pacific region to counter Chinese Communist Party (CCP) adventurism. As part of the effort, Australia has agreed to host more American aircraft and military personnel on its soil, and the United States is further seeking to build new military bases in the region.

Following the unveiling of the AUKUS security pact, defense leaders from Australia and the United States announced at a joint press briefing that their nations would work together to expand rotational deployments of all types of U.S. aircraft to Australia, as well as the associated crew required to man and maintain them and provide logistical support.

More American Troops to Australia

Experts say that the increased number of American aircraft and personnel operating in Australias Northern Territory will improve cohesion between the two countries and foster greater American influence in regional security issues.

The more the U.S. military is in an area, the more influence it has, said Grant Newsham, a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy, in an email. And the more it plans, trains, and operates with a local military the more influence it hasand the benefits are both operational and political.

It takes a commitment from both directions to bring a foreign military to another country and operate as partners, Newsham said. As for Australia, its important to not just view northern Australia as a good training area, but also as a place from which to operate outward into the region.

The United States currently bases about 2,500 Marines in Australias Northern Territory, and it is expected that the new units will improve allied response times to emerging crises across the Indo-Pacific.

Increasing American military access and presence to bases in Australia strengthens the bi-lateral security relationship and demonstrates U.S. commitment to the Indo-Pacific region, said James Fanell, a government fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy in Switzerland and former director of intelligence and information operations for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, in an email to The Epoch Times.

At the operational level, Australian bases provide U.S. forces much closer access to the South and East China Sea, the most likely targets for PRC [Peoples Republic of China] military attacks and invasions.

Fanell explained that operating from bases in Australia would dramatically reduce response times for U.S. military forces that would otherwise have to deploy from U.S. soil or elsewhere in the Pacific.

In a worse-case scenario, an established U.S. presence from Australian bases increases the ability of U.S. forces to reach the fight faster and to win, Fanell said.

Moreover, Fanell said that the increased joint training that will accompany the boost will provide the benefits of improving interoperability between both nations forces and reinforcing international commitment to regional allies such as India and Japan.

New Bases to Secure the Pacific

In a similar effort to expand its military footprint in the region, the United States is building a new base in the Federated States of Micronesia, an archipelago in the western Pacific consisting of more than 600 islands. It is also eyeing the possibility of more bases in Palau, which lies 900 miles southwest of the Philippines; and the Marshall Islands, located between Hawaii and the Philippines.

Fanell said that investing in a geographically wider distribution of military infrastructure in the region would help toward deterring PLA (Peoples Liberation Army) aggression by denying it the ability to easily select potential targets of value.

One of the key challenges to U.S. forces in the western Pacific is the limited number of bases the U.S. has access to and their location within the threat envelope of the PLAs Rocket Force [PLARF], Fanell said.

One way to degrade and deny the PLARFs targeting plan is for the U.S. to disburse its force structure across more of the Indo-Pacific, Fanell added. By helping nations like Micronesia, Palau, and even the Marshall Islands to build new bases, the U.S. will compound the PLARFs targeting problem.

The United States is able to build military installations and house troops and other assets in the region, because it maintains funding agreements with Micronesia, Palau, and the Marshall Islands in treaties known as Compacts of Free Association.

These compacts grant the United States rights to military basing and training in the region in return for economic and security benefits, including granting those nations citizens the right to live and work in the United States and providing for defense.

The United States currently has missile defense systems and airstrips in all three countries and Palau President Thomas Remengesau Jr. previously requested new American military installations be built there in response to growing economic coercion by the CCP.

There is some indication that CCP authorities are fearful of increased American presence in the area, and the state-owned Global Times recently began targeting Palau in its propaganda, saying that the island nation was just a pawn in global machinations.

Newsham explained the importance of developing military assets in the region by considering what would happen if China pursued the same course of action.

Imagine if the Chinese had bases in this region and consider the difficulties that would cause us, Newsham said. Once again, not just operational but political as well. Its essential that the Americans finally get a widespread and constant presence in the central Pacific and surrounding areas. That we do not have one is criminal.

Both Newsham and Fanell noted that new bases would effectively hinder PLA efforts to expand Chinese military reach beyond the first island chain, that is, to the string of islands between the Philippines, Japan, and Guam.

New bases in the Pacific Islands makes it much harder for the CCP to have confidence in their ability to execute the PLAs counter intervention strategy for keeping the U.S. military from being able to get into the fight and defend allies like Taiwan, Japan, and the Philippines, Fanell said.

A Contested Future

In all, Fanell and Newsham hoped that the United States increased presence in the Indo-Pacific, both on allied soil and with new bases, would improve the security of the region and ensure the continued freedom of the high seas and of international trade in the wake of CCP adventurism.

To that end, Fanell expressed a desire that the American people and like-minded others throughout the world would come to understand the severity of the threat posed by the Chinese military in the Indo-Pacific, and the contested nature of the domain.

My number one wish is that the people of America, and our friends in the Indo-Pacific, really understand the threat from the PRC and the PLA, Fanell said. The PRC represents a true existential threat that cannot be ignored or wished away.

America has a vital national security interest in the principles of freedom of navigation and free access to markets  to capitalism, Fanell added. The only way to confront and deter the PRC from ending this system that has benefited Americans, and billions around the world, is for all like-minded nations banding together to refute the PRCs grand strategy for the Great Rejuvenation of China.

Likewise, Newsham said that the window of opportunity for the United States to prevent a further explosion of Chinese influence in the region was narrowing, and that time was of the essence in securing the Indo-Pacific.

If youre not there, youre not interested, Newsham said. To their credit, the Chinese are all over the place in the Pacific and all the time. Theyve not moved in their military, but they will.

We had better hurry.
Vermont Woman Fired, Denied Unemployment for Refusing Vaccine, Becomes Homeless and Flees to Florida

'It Was Simply Because I Stood Up to This Vaccine Thing'

Karen Kay Sea Skau is a single mother of two adult children, Zachary (23) and Colby (21) who was living in Vermont. She had applied for a job at JK Adams in Dorsetmakers of kitchen cutting boards and serving trays and sellers of a wide variety of assorted kitchen accoutermentsand was hired just before Thanksgiving in November of 2020. Having survived a physically abusive marriage and stage four endometriosiswhich required multiple surgeries and left her unable to workshe was proud to finally be standing on her own two feet.

This was my first job after 10 years so it was a huge deal to me, Skau told The Epoch Times. As a mother of two, going back into the workforce after a horrible illness, was a big deal to me. I had just gotten my first apartment by myself because I was going through a divorce so this was a huge step toward independence. My marriage was extremely abusive so it took a long time for me to get over all of that and to build myself up with my confidence and everything.

Skau loved her new job. She said the company was large enough to where there was a good number of people but still small enough where you had that sense of family. She worked in shipping and receiving, which she described as very physical work. But she didnt mind.

When I work I work, Skau said. I love to work. Im a hard worker.

In a very short time, Skau even earned a raise. However, it wasnt long before office politics began to cast a shadow on her contentment.

People werent super nice to me because I wasnt from Vermont, Skau recalled. If youre not born there they discriminate against you.

As Vermont is a solid blue state, her native co-workers also took umbrage with her political views.

They knew I was conservative, Skau said. I didnt hide it but I also didnt shove it in their faces, and they knew how I felt about masks and that stuff.

As an employee of JK Adams, Skau described how she was required to answer health questions every morning before being allowed to enter the factory. Once inside, she said someone who is not qualified would take her temperature with a thermometer that was completely inaccurate every time.

Some days I was told my temperature was like 94 degrees and I would look at them and say you know thats hypothermia right? Skau said, and theyd say, no, thats okay. Youre alright. It was all smoke and mirrors.

Because of the physical demands of her job, Skau chose to wear a neck gaiter form of mask as the thin cloth was less restrictive on her breathing. When she entered the factory she would wear the mask just over her mouth. When she got to my station and no one was around she would pull it completely down.

Im not going to breathe in my own germs all day, she said. Its super physical and youre sweating all day.

Karen Kay Sea Skau (to the right of the arrow, back row) poses with fellow masked employees in a group photo at JK Adams facility in Dorset, Vt. (Courtesy of JK Adams Facebook Page)

Even though many of her coworkers did the same thing, Skau said she was subjected to daily commentary and ridicule because she wasnt following the mask rules. Then came the pressure to get vaccinated.

Even though Skau had never said out loud she was not vaccinated, she believes they assumed she wasnt because they knew shes conservative. According to Skau, there was only one other woman in the factory who had not been vaccinated and the others pressured the two of them daily, reminding them they would not be able to go anywhere without getting a vaccine passport.

It was like every day they would give me their passive-aggressive comments, Skau recalled. Even people like my boss were making comments around me and it was so obvious and I started dreading going into work because I was getting so sick of the comments. But it didnt matter what they said, they werent going to bully me into something I dont believe in.

While the daily gossip, comments, and snubbing made it clear her coworkers did not approve of her positions on masks and vaccination status, Skau believes it was her position as a conservative and the activities she was involved in outside of the workplace that irritated them the most.

In fact, Skau believes it was her support of conservative principles, and not her vaccination status, that ultimately led to her termination.

Karen Kay Sea Skau is attended by paramedics after being assaulted at a Vermont Liberty rally at the Vermont State House on May 15, 2021. (Courtesy of Karen Skau)

As it turns out, Skau had been assaulted after attending a Vermont Liberty rally held at the Vermont State House on May 15. After having been struck twice in the face with an open hand, and again with a folded political sign and then pepper-sprayed in the eyesSkau stayed home the following Monday to recover from her injuries. A local news outlet had covered the incident.

As she recuperated at home, Skau received word of an email. The email, obtained exclusively by The Epoch Times, was sent to All Employees by JK Adams Chief Executive Officer Daniel Isaac.

In the email, Isaac said that, while Vermont Gov. Phil Scott had relaxed the mask mandate for fully vaccinated individuals, JK Adams decided to remain precautious before making any final decision. Therefore management was now asking all fully vaccinated employees to show us your vaccination card.

A May 17, 2021 email from CEO Daniel Isaac of JK Adams in Dorset, Vt., requesting all fully vaccinated employees to voluntarily show their vaccination card. (Courtesy of Karen Skau)

This is not required but enables us to determine if we here at JKA have herd immunity, Isaac assured. This information will be confidential and used only for statistical purposes. You can see Mary or Lisa with your vaccination card, and they will make note of the dates. Again, this information will be kept confidential.

Despite reminding employees that the governor had relaxed the mask mandate for fully vaccinated individuals, Isaac informed all employees that here at JKA you must continue to wear your mask.

While the email implied the request was not mandatory, Skau said the pressure was there and for her, the request itself was the line in the sand.

I wasnt doing this. I wasnt going down that road. I wasnt playing their games anymore. When they start asking people for vaccine information, I have a problem with that.

Despite her fears, Skau went to work on the morning of May 18, knowing she would be forced to make a stand. She went in without answering the required daily health questions and bypassed getting her inaccurate temperature taken and, while they didnt seem to notice for a while, it wasnt long before the supervisor came by wearing his double masks and telling her he had to take her temperature.

She told him she wasnt doing that today and she remained at her station and kept working. Soon after, the higher ranking manager called Skau into his office asking whats going on?

Skau told him it wasnt right that they were demanding vaccine information and that she wasnt willing to comply anymore. She told him he knew the masks didnt work and that none of this was right and she reminded him of how many times he had told her she was one of the best workers he had. She told him she was willing to work, but she was not going to give him any health information as she didnt believe it was any of his business.

After the discussion, Skau went back to her station. Three hours later, she was called to the office of Daniel Isaac, the chief executive officer for JK Adams.

He basically gave me a long lecture telling me how he was disappointed in me and this was how it has to be, Skau said.

She told him her health information was none of his business.

It was then that Isaac handed Skau a piece of paper.

A predated May 18, 2021 Termination form issued by JK Adams CEO Daniel Isaac in Dorset, Vt., given to Karen Skau when she returned to work, implying she was being fired for refusing to comply with the company mask policy. (Courtesy of Karen Skau)

On May 18, 2021, the curiously predated statement began, Karen Skau refused to comply with JK Adams mask wearing policy as directed by the state of Vermont Executive Order No. 01-20. This is agreeing to this statement, the form concluded above the signature line, not admitting any wrong doing.

After refusing to sign the form, Skau was summarily fired. Upon returning home, Skau immediately filed for unemployment. For three months she was assured by the unemployment office that everything was fine, until two weeks ago, when she was informed her benefits were being declined.

They said you dont qualify because it was your fault you got fired, Skau said. So, because I stood up against the vaccine mandate, they arent going to give me unemployment.

Thats why Im in Florida now, Skau said.

In an effort to pay rent, Skau said she was forced to find menial jobs that were off the books. But she eventually lost her apartment. Then her car broke down. Finding herself homeless and without transportation, Skau fled to Florida where she and her two cats are now living in a bedroom at her boyfriends mothers house, all because of this.

This was my chance in life, to get on my own and live independently, Skau lamented. You know, I did my job to the best of my ability and they kept telling me how good I was doing at my job. So it wasnt because I was a bad employee. It was simply because I stood up to this vaccine thing and said, no more.

The Epoch Times reached out multiple times to Isaac for a statement but was told JK Adams Company Inc. does not comment on personnel matters, or internal policies and procedures.
A medical worker collects samples to be tested for the Covid-19 coronavirus in Xiamen, Fujian Province, China, on Sept. 18, 2021. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Visitors Constrained in Xinjiang After a Regional COVID-19 Outbreak

Travelers in Chinas far-western Xinjiang region are currently confined to hotels and awaiting nucleic acid tests amid a regional COVID-19 outbreak.

The Xinjiang Health Commission confirmed on Oct. 4 that two asymptomatic individuals tested positive for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, in Khorgas of Ili prefecture, a city bordering Kazakhstan.

The reported number of infections may not accurately reflect the total, given the Chinese regimes record of underreporting its true case numbers.

Flights and trains connected to Ili prefecture have been halted since Sunday evening, the state-backed Beijing Youth Daily reported on Monday, citing the panel tasked with preventing and controlling pandemics in Ili prefecture.

People who travel to Ili during the seven-day holiday cannot leave the prefecture and must wait for the nucleic acid tests, the report said. It didnt mention when the restriction would be lifted.

The sudden travel ban and strict containment measures left many people stranded at the train station. Currently, [we] suggest they find accommodation, not to go out, and wait for further notice, a staff member told Beijing Youth Daily.

Two residents in Khorgas told NTD, an affiliate of The Epoch Times, that the authorities have placed the whole city under lockdown since Sunday. Travelers and local residents are quarantined at home as well.

A hotel staff member surnamed Wang told NTD that many travelers are currently living in the hotel due to the lockdown.

Another hotels owner surnamed Zhang said guests in his hotels are also trapped here.

All the shops are closed, and you wont see anyone on the street, Zhang told NTD.

Flights from several other cities in Xinjiang were also affected, according to Umetrip, the countrys popular flight information app.

The regime is mass testing the entire city, with 192 close contacts being placed under quarantine on Sunday.

A week-long holiday starting Oct. 1 to mark the anniversary of the CCPs one-party rule is traditionally one of the busiest times for domestic travel.

Xinjiang, the home to Chinas Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups, is among the countrys most popular destinations for its unique cultures and beautiful natural scenery. The international community has accused the communist regime of carrying out mass detentions and human rights abuses in the region.

Topics related to authorities barring tourists from leaving Xinjiang topped trending hashtags on Sunday evening on Chinas Twitter-like Weibo.

Meanwhile, people who had traveled back from Ili prefecture after Sept. 19 were told to report to local authorities immediately, following orders to receive nucleic acid tests and go into quarantine, according to a notice from central Zhengzhou city on Monday. Several other cities across the country released similarly worded notices.
A person receives a COVID-19 vaccine at a drive-thru clinic at Richardson Stadium in Kingston, Ont., on May 28, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Lars Hagberg)

Washington State Agencies Sending Separation Notices to Employees Who Have Not Shown Proof of Vaccination

Agencies in Washington state have begun sending out separation notices to employees who have not yet shown proof that they are vaccinated against COVID-19.

Department of Licensing spokesperson Nathan Olson told The Seattle Times that it had sent out 66 separation letters on Friday to workers who have not yet submitted proof of vaccination or applied for a vaccine exemption. Department of Labor & Industries spokesperson Matt Ross told the Times that his agency had sent out 140 letters on Saturday and planned to send out more on Monday.

Other large agencies, such as the Washington State Patrol, Department of Corrections, and the Department of Social and Health Services, are also trying to establish which of their employees have not yet been inoculated.

The Department of Corrections said it had previously sent out about 1,000 early notices to workers to confirm whether or not they have been vaccinated. The agency has approximately 8,600 employees who operate the states 12 prisons.

Spokesperson Jacque Coe told the Times that most of the departments employees who received these early notices were represented by a union and so would go through an investigative process before a formal notice of separation can be sent.

The separation notices come after Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) mandated in August that all state workers, onsite contractors, and volunteers must get one of the three COVID-19 vaccines by Oct. 18, or be terminated.

The requirement applies to employees working in higher education, childcare, K-12 education employees, and most health private health care and long-term care settings as well as teleworking state employees. Inslee later updated the measure to include an expansion of statewide mask mandates to all individuals, regardless of vaccination status.

Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee in Seattle, Wash., on March 11, 2020. (John Moore/Getty Images)

Inslee said at the time that employees who refused to be vaccinated would be subject to non-disciplinary dismissal from employment for failing to meet the qualifications of the job. Employees with a valid medical or religious exception would not be subject to dismissal. He added that the mandates were being implemented to prevent business and school lockdowns, Inslee said.

The employee vaccine mandate is one of the strictest across the United States and has been heavily criticized by opponents, including a group of nearly 90 Washington state troopers, firefighters, and other employees who last month filed a lawsuit against Inslee, claiming that his mandate exceeded the authority of his office and violated the rights of state workers guaranteed by the states constitution.

Other states and local governments have allowed employees to choose to have weekly COVID-19 testing as an alternative to getting vaccinated.

Governor Inslees order affects roughly 60,000 state employees in Washington state but when asked by the Times about the potential to lose workers, Inslees spokesperson Tara Lee said that warning notices are just that, warnings.

This is a snapshot in time and not what the final numbers will be, Lee said. We remain hopeful that more state employees will choose to get vaccinated and remain in the workforce.

The spokesperson also noted that The Department of Corrections and other agencies have worked on contingency plans to ensure government services still continue as normal.
Western Australia Leader Laments Lack of Appreciation for China From Eastern States

Western Australian (WA) Premier Mark McGowan has lauded the states relationship with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) while lamenting the lack of appreciation from Australias eastern states for the countrys trading ties with China.

His comments come amid ongoing tensions in the Australia-China relationship due to Beijing-instigated foreign interference, industrial-scale cyberattacks, and economic coercion.

It has been a large part of the economic success and the cultural success of our state and our country for 50 years, and in particular over the last two years, he said at an Oct. 1 event commemorating the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the CCP hosted by the China Australia Business Council in Perth.

Also present was mining magnate and billionaire, Andrew Forrest.

Where would the country have been, but for our strong economic performance here in Western Australia? he said, according to the ABC. And I think that perhaps that needs to be better appreciated in the eastern states of Australia.

McGowan also touted WAs role in supporting the national economy during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was hit hard by lockdowns, health restrictions, and border closures.

A large amount of our exports to go to China, in fact, the majority, and we are the nations biggest exporting state, he said, noting that WA kept key export industries open during the pandemic. For other states that dont export much, they dont really get that.

Chinese Consul General to WA, Long Dingbin, said that in the six months since he arrived in Perth (in April), he witnessed McGowans strong leadership for bringing the pandemic under control.

And I am very glad to see that we are having a strong relationship between China and Australia, he told attendees.

I think all of us should do something for the 50th anniversary, he said. Lets join hands together with endless effort for a smooth and healthy development of the China-Australia relationship, which is beneficial for both of us, as well as the Asia Pacific region.

Around 54.7 percent of WAs exports go to China, making it the states largest trading partner by far, outstripping the second-largest trading partner Japan, which only received 8.4 percent of exports.

Chinas demand for iron ore, and the escalating price of the mineral, has been a boon for the states coffers, which in turn, has helped to keep Australias economic performance looking firm amid ongoing COVID-19-related restrictions.

It has also instilled confidence in the McGowan government to continue pursuing an elimination or zero-COVID strategy to deal with any virus outbreaks, including immediately closing the border off to travellers from states where infections arise.

The strategy, and rhetoric, have proven populartapping into the states secessionist tendenciesand partly contributed to the Labor governments landslide victory in the March elections.

McGowans latest criticism comes as the federal government toughens its stance against CCP aggression in the region, including a military build-up in the South China Sea and in the Taiwan Strait.

Federal ministers, including the prime minister, defence minister, and foreign minister, have worked to shore up foreign alliances with the newly minted AUKUS deal and continuing work with the Quadrilateral Security Alliance.

Meanwhile, the governments of the largest eastern states of New South Wales, Queensland, and Victorian governments have had limited activity in the realm of foreign policy, except for Victorias Belt and Road Initiative with Beijing.
A computer keyboard lit by a displayed cyber code in this illustration picture taken on March 1, 2017. (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)

White House Plans 30-Country Meeting on Cyber Crime and Ransomware

WASHINGTONTop U.S. national security advisers will gather officials from 30 countries this month with plans to combat the growing threat of ransomware and other cyber crime, President Joe Biden said on Friday.

An online session hosted by the White House National Security Council will also be aimed at improving law enforcement collaboration on issues like the illicit use of cryptocurrency, Biden said in a statement.

The Biden administration has elevated the response to cybersercurity to the senior-most levels of the administration following a set of attacks this year that threatened to destabilize U.S. energy and food supplies.

The meat producer JBS SA paid $11 million to end an attack on its systems that halted production and was believed to have originated from a criminal group with Russian links.

Colonial Pipeline paid a hacker gang believed to be based in Eastern Europe nearly $5 million to regain access, some of which was later clawed back by U.S. law enforcement.

Both companies paid the ransoms in bitcoin.

Ransom software works by encrypting victims data. Typically hackers will offer the victim a key in return for cryptocurrency payments that can run into hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.

The Biden administration hopes that their new informal group, which theyre calling the Counter-Ransomware Initiative, will bolster their diplomatic push that has included direct talks with Russia as well as the NATO alliance and Group of Seven (G-7) wealthy nations.

The administration has increasingly focused on blocking what it calls the Chinese regimes malicious cyber activity, charges which Beijing has denied.

It was not immediately clear which countries would participate or when exactly the meeting would take place.

One White House official said they are particularly eager to address the misuse of virtual currency to launder ransom payments and intend to investigate and prosecute ransomware criminals, many who are anonymous and attack institutions in other countries.
A commercial airplane at the Hamid Karzai International Airport a day after U.S. troops' withdrawal in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 31, 2021. (Stringer/Reuters)

Would Sticking to Trumps Afghan Withdrawal Timeline Have Mitigated Disaster?

News Analysis

When President Joe Biden delayed the Afghanistan withdrawal timeline from May to September, some observers were left scratching their heads.

After all, its well documented that summertime is traditionally the peak fighting season in Afghanistan. According to a study from the Small Wars Journal, this trend exists for two main reasons.

The first and most obvious factor is that harsh Afghan winters make travel challenging. In 2017, for instance, Afghanistan received five feet of snow within 24 hourskilling more than 100 people as a result.

The confluence of extremely difficult terrain, limited improved road networks and substantial snowfall make overland travel next to impossible in parts of the country, the Small Wars Journal stated.

Second, many Afghan fighting forces fund their efforts via harvesting opium poppy. Once this cultivation finishes in early spring/late winter, fighting increases, according to the Small Wars Journal.

The Taliban rely on the cultivation and trafficking of opium poppy to finance their insurgency, the Small Wars Journal stated. As such, fighting occurs around opium poppy cultivation cycles.

Rep. James Langevin (D-R.I.) asked Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin about this issue last week during the House Armed Services Committees (HASC) hearing on the withdrawal.

What was the military rationale for leaving by the end of August, when the Taliban are in their strongest during the fighting seasonas opposed to waiting to the winter months when its more of a lull in the Taliban fighting season, when theyre at their weakest? Langevin asked.

Austin emphasized that the decision to withdraw by the end of August was made by Bidenthough he did say Biden delayed to give the military more time for an orderly withdrawal.

Obviously a number of things went into his decision calculus, but we came onboard. The agreement that had been made was that we were going to depart by May 1. We were able to work to get more time to ensure that we could conduct a deliberate and safe and orderly retrograde, Austin said.

But again, the president made the decision that we would leave in the summer as opposed to going into the next year. And Ill leave it at that, sir, pending any more questions.

Others are skeptical that the withdrawal date would have made much of a difference. U.S. combat veteran Dr. Omar Hamada said the disaster was due to hownot whenthe withdrawal was conducted.

I would have said March instead of May if theyre using the fighting season as an argument. But I dont think it was necessarily the timeline or the effect of getting out. I think its the way it was done, said Hamada, who was deployed to Afghanistan in the early months of the war following 9/11.

Instead of focusing on getting troops out, we should have focused on getting people out. And then the equipment, and then the troopsleaving a small footprint to support the Afghan police, Hamada told The Epoch Times.

On this latter point, Austin has laid blame at the feet of the State Department. The defense secretary told the HASC last week that State Department officials decided not to withdraw their assets because they thought doing so would lower the morale of the Afghan government.

Again, the call on how to do that and when to do that is really a State Department call. Their concerns were, rightly, that they were being cautioned by the Ghani administration that if they withdrew American citizens and SIV [special immigrant visa] applicants at a pace that was too fast, it would cause a collapse of the government that we were trying to prevent, Austin said.

But again, we provided our input, and we certainly would have liked to see it go faster and sooner. But they had a number of things to think through as well.
STAMFORD  Even for a gaggle of politicians, the hustle of Interstate 95 never stops.

Despite the cars rumbling above and trains whizzing by, federal and state officials gathered beneath a bustling highway overpass to stress the importance of a federal bill that deals with both the physical and human infrastructure, despite persistent roadblocks obstructing that goal in Washington.

I think youre going to find that after all these many years, now is the time to do more than a state of good repair, which is what we do under our existing program, Gov. Ned Lamont said over the din of traffic, surrounded by a swath of high-profile faces including U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal; U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, both D-Conn.; state Transportation Commissioner Joseph Giulietti; state Sen. Will Haskell, D-Westport; and state Reps. Ryan Fazio, R-Greenwich, Caroline Simmons, D-Stamford, Matt Blumenthal, D-Stamford, and David Michel, D- Stamford.

Connecticut is set to receive $5.3 billion for highways, bridges and everything in between from the federal infrastructure package, but a topline number on the final federal package, which could push forward expansions to health care, child care, infrastructure and education, is still in flux.

Though the specific future of the federal funds remains uncertain, the state has a litany of site-specific projects shovel-ready for when funding comes in, according to Giulietti, especially along I-95. Improvements include adding an additional northbound lane to the highway from the state line to Exit 9.

The improvements arent limited to the interstate highway, either. Giulietti said adding an extra lane on Interstate 84 near Danbury could ease another vehicular chokepoint for local drivers.

That will take care of that entire pinpoint that occurs and the fact that all those people in Danbury have to use the highway to get through the city, he said.

Once federal funding comes through, Connecticut will need to match the money. The state may be asked to match 40 or 50 percent  up to $461 million  of what the federal government ultimately provides, according to Haskell, who is the state Senate Transportation Committee Chair.

Lamont put forth a litany of ways the state could pay for its match, including the recently-passed Highway User fee, which he said could generate between $90 and $100 million over time. Theres also bonding, he said, but that strategy means tighter purse strings in other parts of the budget.

We can bond for that  thats what people like to do, he said, albeit he was quick to bring up the downsides of bonding. That means a little bit less affordable housing. That means a little bit less (for) schools.

After weeks of negotiations in the federal seat of power over which infrastructure plan becomes law, officials at the press conference reaffirmed their commitment to getting something done and underscored how important physical infrastructure is to Connecticut, which has 248 bridges and 2,100 miles of highway that the White House deemed to be in poor condition in April.

But getting past a state of good repair is more complicated than it sounds. Though $1.1 trillion in infrastructure spending cleared hurdles in the U.S. Senate, its future relies on what 10-year spending plan  also known as a budget reconciliation plan  the U.S. House of Representatives agrees to pass.

A vote Friday fell through on the bipartisan infrastructure deal after the House failed to reach a consensus on reconciliation.

The House of Representatives was under scrutiny last week because were doing what is known as the sausage making process, Himes said Monday.

I wouldnt put too much consequence on the negotiations and the back and forth and all the media that occurred last week, he said, before suggesting that the infrastructure saga could conclude by the end of October. Democratic Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer also put forth that deadline in a letter to his caucus Monday.

I am confident that sometime around the end of this month, were delivering the resources and well make this, once again, an essential artery for the economy in this region, Himes said.

veronica.delvalle@hearstmediact.com
NORWALK  For some of the more than 300 Afghan refugees arriving in Connecticut in recent and upcoming weeks, Norwalk is expected to become home to some seeking asylum.

While we do not have an exact number, we would expect a portion of those refugees to be resettled in Fairfield County and in Norwalk, city spokesperson Josh Morgan said Monday.

To prepare for the refugees, Norwalk paired up with a Bridgeport-based resettlement agency, the Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants, over the last couple weeks to ensure needs and resources are ready.

The citys Community Services Department and the Family Navigator Program will likely be at the frontlines of any resettlement effort, but it will be a community endeavor, Morgan said.

In the days following Gov. Ned Lamonts announcement of Connecticut receiving Afghan refugees, Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling pulled together more than 20 community providers and nonprofit organizations to discuss potential refugee resettlement.

The message from this amazing group was clear: This is what we do, this is who we are, and we have the resources available to support our new neighbors, Morgan said.

Lamont announced on Sept. 15 he received word from the White House that Connecticut will welcome about 310 Afghan refugees fleeing the country after the Taliban regained control.

The Department of Homeland security ensured all individuals arriving from Afghanistan were vetted and received the appropriate vaccinations, including the vaccine for COVID-19, Lamont said. The governor called on the states Department of Social Services to round up local, state and federal groups and providers to prepare for the refugees arrival.

Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, a nonprofit resettlement agency based in New Haven, will receive at least 200 refugees and possibly another 100 later on, according to Ann OBrien, the director of community engagement at IRIS.

Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants will take in 100 refugees, according to CIRIs director of external affairs, Ashley Gaudiano.

Lately, CIRI receives 24- to 48-hour notice when refugees arrive in their jurisdiction and need shelter, Gaudiano said. Prior to being resettled, the refugees are housed in eight military bases across the country.

We settled a family a week and a half ago and we are anticipating some more, but dont know when we will receive them, Gaudiano said. Weve been told we could receive about 100 refugees in the next three to four months.

The family settled over a week ago was placed in Bridgeport, where CIRI is headquartered and traditionally many of their clients were placed, Gaudiano said.

Bridgeport is really easy for people to walk to locations, its more pedestrian and walkable friendly, she said. Whats different now is a much larger volume of people from Afghanistan or beyond. In 2020, we resettled about 34 refugees. This year, were looking at upwards of 300. As a result, we need to find housing and set up services downtown. Were looking at Norwalk and Stamford.

Gaudiano said CIRIs positive relationship with Norwalk and its public schools led the organization to the city.

CIRI is seeking funds and donations of both supplies and monetary support for the Afghan refugees in the area. Those interested can learn about the various forms of contribution at cirict.org/donate.

abigail.brone@hearstmediact.com
HARTFORD  More than 10 percent of executive branch state employees were not complaint with a mandate they get vaccinated by Monday night, Gov. Ned Lamonts office said Sunday.

As of 4 p.m. Sunday, about 23,000 or 74 percent of executive branch state employees are fully vaccinated; about 5,000 or 15 percent will receive weekly testing; and about 3,000 or 11 percent are not in compliance, according to Lamonts office.

Non-compliant status means the employees have not provided proof of vaccination or have started weekly testing.

Last week, Lamont asked the Connecticut National Guard to prepare to be activated as the state anticipates staff shortages from workers unwilling to comply with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Those who are not compliant as of the deadline could be placed on unpaid leave as early as Tuesday, but no later than Oct. 11, officials said

On Sunday, Lamont said the state has made significant progress in compliance with the executive orders requiring either COVID-19 vaccination or weekly testing among executive branch state employees.

The administration continues to expect that most of the remaining non-compliant employees will submit the required documentation to the state by Monday evening, Oct. 4, and that there should be minimal impact to operations as a result, Lamont said in the release.

The state employee vaccination and testing requirement only covers the executive branch and does not apply to the legislative or judicial branches, the release said.

Editors Note: This story has been updated to reflect there are 11 percent of executive branch employees who were non-complaint with the COVID vaccination mandate as of Sunday.
ATHENS, Ga. (AP)  Former NASCAR driver John Wes Townley was shot to death over the weekend during a dispute that involved a hatchet after showing up at a house occupied by his estranged wife and another man, police said Monday.

The 31-year-old Townley, who raced eight seasons, had the weapon at some point before he was fatally wounded by Zachary Anderson, 32, of Dunwoody, Georgia, the Athens-Clarke County Police Department said in a statement. Laura Townley, 30, was shot and wounded, it said.
Southington Police / Contributed Photo

SOUTHINGTON  A 63-year-old man had broken ribs, a broken clavicle and a laceration to his head after getting hit by a car while working on his lawn Saturday, police said.

The motor vehicle accident took place at Minthal Drive and College Avenue around 3 p.m, according to Southington police.
Attorney General William Tong called on the executives behind the video platform TikTok to come to Connecticut and meet with educators and parents, citing the apps harmful impact on children and educators.

Tong addressed TikToks chief executive Shou Zi Chew in a Monday letter that expressed concern over what Tong called unprecedented vandalism and behavior challenges among students.

Tong said Connecticut has seen a rash of recent incidents at schools across the state where students participate in trends that go viral on TikTok, prompting safety concerns from educators who have reported stolen school property and vandalism.

Families and educators are already coping with the unprecedented social and emotional fallout of the pandemic, Tong said in the letter. The last thing anyone needs right now is for children to be inundated by targeted social media encouraging lawlessness, self-harm and reckless, dangerous pranks.

He pointed to a New Britain High School incident last month, where school officials briefly closed the campus down days into the first week of school after expressing safety concerns related to students participating in TikTok trends. Tong said there is now a new Slap a Teacher trend that may put Connecticut educators at risk.

Viral TikTok videos have resulted in youth overdosing on medications, disfiguring their bodies, and engaging in a wide variety of physically dangerous acts, Tong said. With new reports of the Slap a Teacher challenge, it is clear that TikTok is unable to control the spread of harmful content. Simply put, whatever TikTok has been doing to enforce its terms of service has not been working and merits serious review and reform.

To prevent misuse, the company should share its policies and procedures against abuse of the platform, as well as analyze the success of existing anti-abuse measures, Tong said.

He was also asking Chew to publicly commit to making any necessary changes to prevent further trends that could lead to harmful behavior, along with meeting with parents and school officials to hear their account of the platforms impacts.
TOKYO (AP)  Newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he will dissolve the lower house next week in preparation for Oct. 31 elections as he seeks a fresh mandate to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, the sagging economy and security threats from China and North Korea.

Kishida was formally elected by Parliament earlier Monday to replace Yoshihide Suga, who resigned after only one year in office. Suga's support had plunged over his handling of the pandemic and insistence on holding the Tokyo Olympics as the virus spread.

Our fight against the coronavirus is continuing," Kishida told his first news conference Monday night after taking office. COVID-19 measures is the urgent and top priority, and I will handle the problem taking into consideration the worst-case scenario. He said he will review the past virus handling and seek to set up a crisis management unit.

He also pledged to push through a large-scale recovery package to support those hit by the pandemic.

In order to take large-scale COVID-19 measures, I need to get the people's mandate, Kishida said, adding that he will pass up attending G-20 and COP-26 climate meetings in-person.

A former foreign minister, Kishida, 64, used to be known as a moderate but turned hawkish on security and more conservative on gender equality and other issues, apparently to win over influential conservatives in his Liberal Democratic Party. His victory in last week's vote to replace Suga as the party's leader was seen as a choice for continuity and stability over change.

Kishida replaced all but two of Suga's 20 Cabinet members, and 13 will hold posts for the first time, according to the lineup announced by new Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno. Most of the posts went to powerful factions that voted for Kishida in the party election. Only three women are included, up from two in Sugas government.

Veteran female lawmaker Seiko Noda, one of four candidates who vied for the party leadership, became the minister in charge of the nation's declining birthrate and local revitalization. Another woman, Noriko Horiuchi, became vaccinations minister, replacing Taro Kono, the runner-up in the party leadership race.

Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi, who is former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's younger brother, were retained, ensuring continuity of Japans diplomacy and security policies as the country seeks to closely work with Washington under the bilateral security pact in the face of Chinas rise and growing tensions in the region, including around Taiwan.

President Joe Biden spoke with Kishida about those issues after he took office. They affirmed the strength of their bilateral alliance and Biden noted that he looks forward to strengthening the relationship, given their common vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region, according to a White House statement describing their conversation.

Kishida supports stronger Japan-U.S. security ties and partnerships with other like-minded democracies in Asia, Europe and Britain, in part to counter China and nuclear-armed North Korea. He pledged to beef up Japan's missile and naval defense capability.

Kishida acknowledged the importance to continue dialogue with China, an important neighbor and trade partner, but said that we must speak up against China's attempt to change the status quo in the East and South China Seas.

Kishida created a new Cabinet post aimed at tackling the economic dimensions of Japan's national security, appointing 46-year-old Takayuki Kobayashi, who is relatively new to parliament.

Finance Minister Taro Aso was shifted to a top party post and replaced by his 68-year-old relative, Shunichi Suzuki.

Kishida said he is open to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un without preconditions to resolve the issue of Japanese citizens abducted to the North decades ago. He said he will cooperate with President Joe Biden in resolving North Koreas nuclear and missile threats.

Kishida also faces worsening ties with South Korea over history issues even after he struck a 2015 agreement with Seoul to resolve a row over the issue of women who were sexually abused by Japan's military during World War II.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Monday sent a letter to Kishida, congratulating him and offering to work together to improve ties.

An urgent task at home will be turning around his partys declining popularity, hurt by Sugas perceived high-handedness on the pandemic and other issues.

He'll also have to ensure Japan's health care systems, vaccination campaign and other virus measures are ready for a possible resurgence of COVID-19 in winter, while gradually normalizing social and economic activity.

Voters welcomed new, and slightly younger, faces in the government.

A 28-year-old designer Karen Einaka said she hoped the new government takes into consideration younger peoples opinions and allows younger politicians to play important roles.

At least, Kishida looks more energetic than Suga, said business owner Makoto Okubo.

___

Associated Press journalists Chisato Tanaka in Tokyo and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.
COLLINSVILLE  There were costumes, authors, discussions about topics ranging from religion to space elevators and other activities at this years Archon, the St. Louis regions fan-based sci-fi/fantasy convention based in Collinsville.

But it was, in many ways, a much more subdued event than normal, with attendance at about half, a reduced number of vendors and a constantly shifting schedule.

For those who made it, Archon was a much-needed break from their mundane world.

This is where we find our tribe, said Snail Scott, a St. Louis-based sculptor who described her costume as Post-Apocalyptic Plague Shaman

This is the place for a great many people to expand the world, she added. For some people this is seen as a refuge from the outside world. But this is where we build our own worlds.

Alan DeVaughan, co-chair of the convention, said it appeared attendance around 1,000 people, or about half the normal crowd. Part of that was due to caution on the part of many regular convention goers and several high-profile events, such as the annual Masquerade  an elaborate costume contest that draws participants from around the country.

He also said scheduling was somewhat up in the air because of last-minute cancellations. One person who was to appear in more than a dozen panel discussions tested positive for COVID-19 two days before the convention.

It is also an all-volunteer event. Unlike some of the larger conventions, Archon is fan-run  something participates are quick to point out.

Its never been about movie starts and actors; its not about commercial vendors with fancy booths, Scott said. Its about fans for fans. The people who are the superstars here are the writers and artists and the people who create the science fiction and the fantasy and the art we are all here to honor.

Started in the mid-1970s as a literary convention, Archon has developed into a general interest convention  or con  with multiple tracks of programming such as costuming, real science, writing and literature and general science-fiction, as well as a separate childrens programming track.

Canceled by COVID-19 last year, this years Archon was held Friday through Sunday at the Gateway Convention Center in Collinsville. COVID still left a mark, the most obvious masks worn by everybody, though it is not uncommon for almost everybody to wear a mask at Archon.

For some, incorporating masks into the costume was important.

Scott had an elaborate helmet and costume made completely out of repurposed materials. Two two fender guards were welded together to form a helmet. Tuna cans attached to her mask to form a gas mask, with adornments made out of soda can pop-tops and small used CO2 canisters.

Everything single thing, including the textiles, are second-hand reclaimed salvage, she said.

Scott said she developed her costume while teaching online about using what is available. She has been involved in fandom since she was a teen in the late 1970s, then got away from it. After moving to the St. Louis area, she started attending Archon about 10 years ago.

I love the freedom of costuming in this environment because I can build the world of the outfit the same way an author builds a world when they create an alien planet or future civilization, she said.

For a number of attendees, this is the first or second major public event they have been to since the pandemic shutdowns last year.

Jeannie Lin, a St. Louis author specializing in historical romance and historical fantasy, was with her twin children, Daniel and Mae Linh.

This is the first one weve been to since the pandemic, she said. It seems a little quieter, a little more subdued.

In addition to publicizing her work, she said her children like the event for the costumes.

The kids get to wear their costumes for Halloween and the con, she said. Ive wanted to be able to dress up and wear my hair like this since I was a little girl, and its too weird to do on a normal basis. You have an excuse to act out a little; its cool.

Daniel Lin, dressed as one of the multi-verse versions of Spider-Man, said it is a sneak peak for Halloween and he also gets to see how the costume feels.

You get to look around at everybodys costume, and you get to show off your costume, Mae Linh said.

Elizabeth Donald, of Edwardsville, another author and long-time Archon participant, said it was good to come out and connect with fans. A member of Literary Underworld, a writers co-op with a number of members in the Metro East, she said COVID has been a body blow for small press authors.

So many of us rely so heavily on the convention circuit and personal appearances to get our work out there, she said, adding it is difficult for small press authors to get into bookstores or on Amazon.

Were glad the world is coming out, she said. This is how we get our work out there and reach new readers. You can try to build your reputation solely on social media, but good luck. They want to see the book, they want to hold the book, they want to see the back cover.

There is something about readers being able to meet the writers themselves and ask questions. They feel a more personal connection to the story, she said.

On Saturday she said sales had been good and they were having a wonderful time.

There are fewer people, but that seems to help with social distancing, and everybody is obeying the mask rule, she said. Surprisingly, were still selling very well  about what I would expect at this point in the convention. I think everybody missed us; we certainly missed them.

Donald said part of the dilemma events such as Archon is working through the pandemic.

I think a lot of conventions and public gatherings are reaching the point where they realize COVID is going to be part of our lives for a very long time, she said. Theyre going to have to find a way to make these things happen, or they go away entirely. Some are making that choice, theyre just going away.

While many of the participants were old hands at Archon, there were some new faces.

Tim Clarkson, of Columbia, Illinois, came for the first time this year. He was dressed in a post-apocalyptic costume, a popular theme. His COVID mask was incorporated into the costume under another mask.

I love it, he said. This is actually the first time Ive ever been to any kind of con. Im liking it so far. Im seeing a lot of like-minded people and I love it.

Elizabeth Lund, of St. Louis, another first-timer, was dressed as a half-elf and was having her photo taken for a costume contest. She is a member of Solarian Adventures, a LARP (live-action role-playing) group based in the St. Louis region.

Especially after the pandemic, I think its nice to see people celebrating culture and activities they really love, she said. You can do whatever you want. Its fun, its fantasy. If you have an idea you can probably make it work, and you get to hang out with a bunch of really cool people while you do it.
ATHENS, Greece (AP)  Greek counterterrorism police on Monday arrested an asylum-seeker in central Athens who is suspected of membership in the Islamic State group, authorities said.

A police statement said the 34-year-old man's arrest followed cooperation with Greece's EYP intelligence agency and information provided by foreign agencies.
On Friday, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Housing Development Authority announced that more than $443 million in emergency rental assistance has been paid on behalf of 49,100 households through the Illinois Rental Payment Program (ILRPP). With 90% of the more than $500 million in available ILRPP funds paid to households in need, Illinois continues to be one of the highest providers of rental assistance in the country in terms of households assisted and dollars disbursed, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

"Last year amidst one of the most difficult years of our lifetime, IHDA designed, implemented and launched one of the largest emergency housing assistance programs in the nation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. And today, we remain a national leader at getting relief into the pockets of landlords and homeowners," Pritzker said in a statement. "Having a roof over your head is the foundation of a thriving life, and Illinois is fiercely combatting the pandemics destabilizing effects on that foundation by keeping our residents on their feet."

Launched in May 2021, ILRPP provides up to $25,000 in emergency rental assistance to cover up to 12 months of past due rent and up to three months of future rent payments for tenants suffering a financial hardship related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Payments are made directly to the landlord on behalf of the tenant, but only if the landlord does not pursue eviction.

This initial funding for ILRPP was provided through the federal Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 and additional rounds of assistance for both rent and mortgage payments will be announced later this fall from the American Rescue Plan Act.

This news comes as other states have decided not to appropriate money from the latest federal pandemic relief act. Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has outlined just one proposal a $400 million plan for broadband in the state, opting not to call a special session for appropriating pandemic funds, according to the AP.

Parson's administration has said they will present more ideas to lawmakers during the regular session in January. Until then, the state should have enough money left from a previous federal relief law to cover the costs of fighting the virus, budget director Dan Haug told the AP.

"We want to try to find things that are going to benefit Missouri not just next year or the year after, but 10 or 20 years down the road," Haug said. "That takes some thought and some planning."

Missouri was one several states that waited to request its initial allotment. Five other Republican-led states  Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas  waited so long that they werent required to file reports by the Treasurys Aug. 31 deadline.

To date, IHDA has received nearly 99,000 joint ILRPP applications from renters and landlords in each of Illinois' 102 counties. The department has reviewed all completed applications, approved more than 49,100 applications and paid out $442.2 million on behalf of renters experiencing pandemic-related hardships for an average of $9,021 per household. Renters in 99 of Illinois 102 counties have been assisted with ILRPP funds.

"Thanks to the coordination and outreach efforts from IHDA, the Department of Human Services and our network of community-based partners throughout Illinois, ILRPP assistance is reaching renters in every part of the state," said IHDA Executive Director Kristin Faust. "Our goal is to fund as many eligible households as possible as quickly as possible while being responsible stewards of these federal funds. Our staff is reaching out directly to renters and landlords to collect any missing information and we remain committed to giving every household the time and support they need to complete their application."

By reaching this milestone, Illinois may be eligible to receive additional rental assistance funding from the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Per the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, beginning Sept. 30, 2021, the Secretary of the Treasury began the process of recapturing excess funds not obligated by a grantee and the Secretary will reallocate and repay such amounts to eligible grantees who, at the time of such reallocation, have obligated at least 65% of the amount originally allocated and paid.

Combined with the funding allocated to the Illinois Department of Human Services, the State of Illinois has reached the threshold to receive additional rental funds, should they be made available. Pritzker sent a letter to the Treasury Department formally requesting additional emergency rental assistance funding.

Roughly $61 million in funding remains to be distributed, and IHDA continues to ramp up efforts to correct applications that are missing documentation required by federal rules. Missing federally required documentation is the most common reason for delays in approval and getting funds to households in need, and IHDA is working closely with tenants and landlords to collect the information needed to approve funding. More than $145.8 million in emergency rental payments have been made on behalf of 15,300 renter households who successfully remedied their incomplete application. Application approvals and payouts will continue as IHDA finalizes the review of completed applications.
MANILA, Philippines (AP)  The popular mayor of the Philippine capital registered his candidacy for the presidency in next years elections on Monday, promising to ease coronavirus outbreaks, fix the countrys battered economy and heal deep political divisions.

Mayor Isko Moreno is one of several aspirants in what is expected to be a crowded and politically hostile race to succeed Rodrigo Duterte. Senator and retired boxing star Manny Pacquiao filed his certificate of candidacy Friday, and Duterte's daughter is among others likely to seek the presidency in the May 9 elections.

The 46-year-old Moreno, who grew up in Manilas slums and at one point scavenged for food as a child, is expected to bank on his rags-to-power life story, movie star looks and widely praised projects in Manila, including restoring order in its chaotic streets and public markets.

But hes up against formidable politicians and celebrities, including whichever candidate Duterte and his ruling party will endorse.

We are too divisive and indecisive (and) that caused the stomping of our economy on top of the pandemic, Moreno told reporters. My countrymen, give me a chance to heal our country for a bright future.

Dutertes successor stands to inherit enormous problems led by the pandemic, which caused the countrys worst economic recession, long-entrenched poverty and decades-long communist and Muslim insurgencies. The next leader will also take over in a politically charged atmosphere with Duterte facing a possible array of legal cases from his brutal anti-drugs crackdown that has left more than 6,000 mostly petty drug suspects dead. The International Criminal Court is investigating the killings.

The ailing Duterte, 76, announced Saturday he was retiring from politics and withdrew from an earlier plan to run as vice president under the ruling PDP-Laban party. That decision opened an option for his daughter, southern Davao city Mayor Sara Duterte, to run for the presidency.

Sara Duterte has said she and her father have agreed that only one Duterte will run for a national office next year. She has registered to run for reelection as mayor but speculation remains rife that she will decide to seek the top post.

Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard said Dutertes exit from politics should not mean that his role and responsibilities for the widespread drug killings would end too.

His political retirement should, in fact, strengthen the possibilities and avenues for accountability, Callamard, a former U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, told The Associated Press. What I do hope is that whoever follows on his bloody steps will fully reverse the bloody policies he conducted against the poor, the sick, the addicts.

Duterte has denied authorizing extrajudicial killings although he has repeatedly threatened drug suspects with death in public speeches human rights activists say foster impunity among law enforcers.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Monday a recent government review of police records found more than 150 officers could be criminally liable for abuses in dozens of anti-drug raids. He said there will be further investigation.

The campaign against illegal drugs could be successfully waged within the bounds of the law and without the use of excessive force," Guevarra told the AP. Any law enforcement agent who oversteps these bounds or abuses his authority shall be held accountable,."

Only a handful of officers have been convicted for wrongful killings of drug suspects since Duterte launched the bloody campaign in 2016. Human rights groups have called for an independent investigation and welcomed the International Criminal Court probe, but Dutertes spokesman has said the Philippine leader will die first before he faces foreign judges.

___

Associated Press writer Jim Gomez contributed to this report.
3 1 of 3 Courtesy of the Glen Carbon Police Department Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Courtesy of the Glen Carbon Police Department Show More Show Less 3 of 3





GLEN CARBON  Mayor Bob Marcus swore in the villages newest police officer Tuesday, Zachary Walters, during the board of trustees meeting at village hall.

After posing for more photos in the chamber, Walters joined his fellow officers for a group shot on the village hall steps with Police Chief Todd Link.
HONG KONG (AP)  Shares in troubled real estate developer China Evergrande Group and its property management unit Evergrande Property Services were suspended from trading in Hong Kong on Monday as investors awaited the next steps in the saga of its debt crisis.

Cailian, a Chinese online news service affiliated with the state-run newspaper Securities Times, said another developer, Hopson Development Holdings, was planning to acquire a majority share in Evergrande Property Services Group.

Hopson suspended trading of its shares in Hong Kong on Monday. The suspension was pending the release of announcement(s) in relation to a major transaction of the company under which the company agreed to acquire the shares of a company . . . listed on the stock exchange," it said in a filing.

Hopsons public relations department said the company would not comment on market rumors.

Evergrande Property Services said in its announcement to the Hong Kong exchange that its shares were suspended from trading pending an announcement related to a merger or takeover.

Phone calls to Evergrande's PR office in Hong Kong rang unanswered and the company's offices elsewhere in China were closed for a holiday.

Evergrande has been struggling to avoid defaulting on billions of dollars of debt. The company owes billions to banks, customers and contractors and has been selling off assets to resolve its cash crunch.

Analysts say the Chinese government was reluctant to be seen as bailing Evergrande out at a time when authorities are pushing companies to reduce debt levels. A takeover of the company's property management arm would be one step in restructuring it by splitting it into smaller entities, said Francis Lun, CEO of Geo Securities in Hong Kong.

The central government might ask local governments in turn to provide funding for Evergrande to finish its many incompleted projects so that they can be delivered or sold to buyers, enabling the developer to pay its contractors, he said.

As far as the Chinese governments concerned, this is the best way forward. And of course, in doing so, I think some creditors will be hurt, mostly overseas creditors, Lum said.

Evergrande is one of Chinas biggest private sector conglomerates, with more than 200,000 employees, 1,300 projects in 280 cities and assets of 2.3 trillion yuan ($350 billion). It owes creditors some 2 trillion yuan ($310 billion).

The company ran up billions of dollars in debt building apartment complexes, malls and office towers over the years. Its situation worsened after August 2020, when Beijing tightened controls on financing for Chinas 12 biggest developers, forcing them to reduce corporate debt loads that are seen as a threat to the economy.

Evergrande has been selling off various assets to try to alleviate the problem. Last week, it sold its $1.5 billion stake in Shengjing Bank to cover its debt to the state-owned lender based in northeastern China.

China Evergrande Group's shares have lost more than 80% of their value this year and ratings agencies say it is at risk of defaulting on its debts.

Like Evergrande, Hopson, based in Guangdong adjacent to Hong Kong, is one of China's biggest property companies. Reports show it has a much lower debt to equity ratio than its larger rivals.

Jitters over a slowdown in China's economy and potential turmoil in its vital property industry have rattled world markets in the past few weeks.

The fear is that a default by Evergrande could cascade throughout the Chinese economy and even world financial markets.

I think the government is really close to a resolution over the Evergrande problem because it cannot drag on forever, it will hurt everybody involved," Lum said.

Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng index dropped 2.2% Monday on heavy selling of real estate companies and banks.

___

Wu contributed from Taipei. AP researcher Henry Hou in Beijing and AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach in Mito, Japan, also contributed.
CLEVELAND (AP)  Retail pharmacy chains contributed to a deadly and expensive public nuisance in two Ohio counties where the opioid crisis continues to rage, an attorney for the counties said in an opening statement Monday in federal court in Cleveland.

It was the first day of trial in the lawsuit filed in 2018 by Lake and Trumbull counties outside Cleveland against retail pharmacy companies CVS, Walgreens, Walmart and Giant Eagle.

Theyre going to say, Were not any part of the problem, attorney Mark Lanier said. Theyre going to blame everyone but themselves.

The cost of abating the crisis is $1 billion each for each county, one of their attorneys has said. Around 80 million prescription painkillers were dispensed in Trumbull County between 2012 and 2016  400 for every county resident  while 61 million pills were dispensed in Lake County during that five-year period  265 pills for every resident.

This is the first time pharmacy companies have gone to trial to defend themselves. The trial, which is expected to last around six weeks, could set the tone for similar claims against retail pharmacy chains by government entities across the U.S.

U.S. District Judge Dan Polster is presiding over the trial. Close to 3,000 lawsuits filed in federal courts have been consolidated under Polsters supervision.

Attorneys for the four pharmacy chains have argued the companies didn't manufacture the drugs and that their pharmacies were filling prescriptions written by physicians for patients with a legitimate medical need.

Pharmacists fill the prescriptions, they dont tell doctors what to prescribe, Kaspar Stoffelmayr, an attorney for Walgreens, said in an opening statement.

The rise in physicians prescribing pain medications such as oxycodone and hydrocodone coincided with recognition by medical groups that patients have the right to be treated for pain, Stoffelmayr said.

The problem, he said, was that pharmaceutical manufacturers tricked doctors into writing way too many pills.

Lanier, in laying out the counties' case, said the companies to save money did not not hire enough pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to prevent the diversion of pain pills. He said the companies failed to implement effective systems to flag suspicious orders or to train pharmacists and give them the tools they need to prevent the illegal diversion of pain pills.

"They are the last line of defense to prevent diversion because these are people who are putting the medicine on the street," Lanier said.

Lanier told jurors about the interstate pipeline that people from Ohio and other states traveled to buy pain pills from doctors who ran unscrupulous pill mills. He said the opioid crisis, which has lead to more than 500,000 overdose deaths in the last two decades, has been costly for Lake and Trumbull counties in terms of how it affects babies born to addicted mothers, the courts and law enforcement.

Attorneys for CVS, Walmart and Giant Eagle are expected to give opening statements on Tuesday morning with the counties putting on their first witness, a CVS employee, later in the day.

Rite-Aid settled with the Lake and Trumbull two counties in August. The company paid Trumbull County $1.5 million. The amount paid to Lake County has not been disclosed.

The trial will be the fourth in the U.S. this year to test claims brought by governments against part of the drug industry over the toll of prescription painkillers. Verdicts or judgments have not been reached in the others thus far.

___

This story was first published on October 4, 2021. It was updated on October 5, 2021, to correct the spelling of Stoffelmayr's first name to Kaspar, instead of Casper.
ISTANBUL (AP)  Turkish troops have captured a major base belonging to Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, Turkeys Defense Ministry said on Monday.

Twelve members of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, were neutralized in the operation, the ministry said in a tweet. It uses the term to describe opponents that are killed, wounded or captured.

The operation took place close to the Turkish border in a region where three Turkish soldiers were killed in August.

The ministry said the eastern headquarters of the PKK were captured in what it called a powerful blow against the group, which is listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and EU. There were no details when the operation happened.

Turkey launched its latest air and ground campaign in northern Iraq in April in a bid to limit the PKKs ability to mount cross-border attacks in Turkey. Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the PKK began its armed campaign in 1984.
LONDON (AP)  A British nurse in a neonatal ward on Monday denied charges of murdering eight babies and trying to kill 10 more in the hospital where she worked.

Lucy Letby, 31, appeared for a brief hearing at Manchester Crown Court by video link from prison. She answered not guilty to eight charges of murder and 10 charges of attempted murder between June 2015 and June 2016 at the Countess of Chester Hospital, south of Liverpool in northwest England.
Photos: govisland.com

Mayor de Blasio announced in the past week that Governors Island will be staying open year-round, beginning this fall. NYC Ferry will be adding service via the South Brooklyn route, meaning Lower East Side residents will be able to travel to Governors Island via the Corlears Hook landing.

City leaders had always dreamed of the island becoming a 12-month-a-year recreational and cultural destination. But until now, it was only accessible May through October.

Local elected officials praised the move. U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez said, I am thrilled that regular weekday ferry service will be provided through a NYC Ferry route from Lower East Side Corlears Hook and three key Brooklyn locations, DUMBO/Fulton Ferry, Pier 6/Atlantic Avenue and Red Hook/Atlantic Basin to allow more Lower East Siders and Brooklynites than ever quick access to all that Governors Island has to offer and more open space recreational options.

At the same time, the move serves the citys long-term development interests on Governors Island. As the mayors office noted, there are plans to create a Center for Climate Solutions on Governors Island, as well as to attract, an anchor university and research institution through a Request for Expressions of Interest. Having regular transportation to the island will, of course, be necessary to accommodate this vision.

The new ferry service will supplement daily ferries run by the Trust for Governors Island from Lower Manhattan. NYC Ferry has not yet announced a schedule or launch date.
Man escapes as car plunges into lake

PHUKET: A 23-year-old man escaped from his car without injuries after it plunged into a tin mine lagoon in Koh Kaew yesterday afternoon (Oct 3).

accidentspolicetransportSafety

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Monday 4 October 2021, 10:58AM

Capt Kruefa Phongsapan of the Phuket City Police said she was notified of the accident, on Route 3030, which joins Thepkrasattri Rd in Koh Kaew with the northern area of Kathu, at 1:50pm.

Police and rescue workers arrived at the scene to find the driver Thanapoom Hukhiao, 23, a resident of Phuket Town, standing safely nearby.

Mr Thanapoom told police that he was driving to Koh Kaew to meet a friend when the front left wheel started shaking, causing him to lose control of the car, a Toyota Vios, which veered off the road and into the lagoon.

He managed to escape via the car door before the car sank, Mr Thanapoom said.

Mr Thanapoom said he believed he was saved by his amulet of Thao Wessuwan hanging around his neck, which he clutched while making his escape from the sinking wreck.

Rescue divers from the Kusoldharm Foundation took about 15 minutes to locate the sunken vehicle in the water, which ranged from three to five metres deep.

A white spoiler was found in the shallow water by the edge of the lake and the cars windscreen was broken, presumably by its impact with the water, Capt Kruefa said.

A tow truck team was called, who took more than two hours to retrieve the car from the water. The car was then taken to Phuket City Police Station.

Police have yet to conclude their investigation to determine whether Mr Thanapoom would face any charges, Capt Kruefa said.
Southern Pines, NC (28387)

Today

Rain likely. Thunder is possible early. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Rain likely. Thunder is possible early. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%.
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Ian Ostroff is a writer/reporter who resides in Montreal. He is passionate about getting to know the people and places that make his hometown so great. In his spare time, you can find him at the gym, eating ice cream, or working on his novel(s).
ALTON  More than $92,000 will be shared by 90-plus fire departments through Illinois American Waters 2021 Firefighter Grant Program.

Since the program was created in 2010, more than 770 grants totaling more than $760,000 have been awarded to fire and emergency organizations serving customers in Illinois American Waters service area.
EDWARDSVILLE  The highly anticipated trial of Timothy M. Banowetz, who is accused of murdering prominent Edwardsville attorney Randy L. Gori, began Monday with jury selection.

Opening statements and the presentation of evidence are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday. Circuit Judge Kyle Napp will preside over the trial.

Gori was found dead Jan. 4, 2020, in his Edwardsville home after police received a 911 call at about 9 p.m. Banowetz and Goris 2020 Rolls Royce were located between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 5, near a wooded area about 1,200 feet from the home.

Investigators have called the murder a heinous and senseless crime.

Banowetz, now 30, of Wentzville, Missouri, faces three charges of first-degree murder, all Class M felonies; three charges of armed robbery, all Class X felonies; aggravated offenses relating to motor vehicles, a Class 1 felony; and three counts of aggravated unlawful restraint, all Class 3 felonies.

He is being held without bond.

The theft and unlawful restraint charges involve two children at Goris home in the 4500 block of Mooney Creek Road. At the time of the arrest, then-Madison County States Attorney Tom Gibbons said Gori took heroic actions to save the lives of others at the home, but he declined to be more specific.

On Monday, Banowetz was seated next to his defense team in plain clothes and without shackles. During the jury selection process, he appeared to be talking to his attorneys and paying attention to how potential jurors answered questions.

After questioning potential jurors, attorneys for the prosecution and defense agreed on seven men and five women to be seated. Two men were chosen to be alternate jurors.

Judge Kyle Napp ordered the jurors to avoid watching the news, not tell anyone they are jurors in the trial and not to do any research on the case.

Charges against Banowetz allege he robbed Gori and stabbed him with a knife. Charges also allege Banowetz ordered Gori and two juveniles to the floor and bound their hands. He allegedly took cash and cell phones before leaving and hiding in a wooded area near the victims home, where he was arrested.

Chief Judge William Mudge on Friday told the Madison County Boards Judiciary Committee the trial could last more than a week and that he is seeing unprecedented media interest in the trial.

Madison County Public Defender Mary Copeland is representing Banowetz, working with Assistant Public Defender Delani Hemmer.

The case is being prosecuted by the Madison County Assistant States Attorney Jacob Harlow as the lead prosecutor. He is working with Assistant States Attorney Lauren Maricle, chief of the offices violent crimes unit.

The trial is taking place at the Madison County Criminal Justice Center in Edwardsville. Attendance will be limited to court staff, the defendant, his attorneys, prosecutors, two members of Goris family, two members of Banowetzs family and designated media representatives.

The public can watch the trial on closed-circuit TV in one or two courtrooms set aside in the Madison County Courthouse.
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Patrick Parenteau, Vermont Law School and Rachel Stevens, Vermont Law School

(THE CONVERSATION) The Biden Administration has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help Puerto Rico transition to a greener and more resilient energy future, but its on the verge of making a multibillion-dollar mistake.

Since Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, many residents and environmental advocates have called for new clean energy sources for the island. Currently Puerto Rico gets more than 97% of its electricity from imported fossil fuel. Power is expensive and unreliable.

Puerto Rico adopted laws that called for generating 15% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020, 40% by 2025, 60% by 2040 and 100% by 2050. But the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which controls relief funding for the island, appears ready to underwrite a rebuild of the old fossil fuel system.

As environmental lawyers and professors of law, we are surprised to see FEMA move forward on a path that runs directly counter to the White Houses energy and climate policy. President Joe Biden has called for a governmentwide approach that promotes clean energy, protects public health and the environment, and advances environmental justice.

In our view, FEMAs actions dont support those goals. They also ignore legal requirements for federal agencies to carefully weigh the environmental impacts of major actions.

Rebuild or replace with a more resilient green system?

In September 2017, Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico with sustained winds of 155 mph. It tore a diagonal 100-mile swath across the island, demolishing tens of thousands of homes and washing away roads and bridges.

The storm toppled transmission and cell towers, snapped concrete power poles, battered power plants and plunged the island into darkness. It killed an estimated 3,000 people and caused over US$90 billion in damages.

In response, Congress authorized some $23 billion in disaster aid, including at least $10 billion to restore or replace Puerto Ricos electricity grid. It also passed the Disaster Recovery Reform Act to promote a more flexible energy system that could withstand and recover quickly from climate disruptions.

FEMA, which administers the funds, has allocated $9.4 billion for rebuilding Puerto Ricos electricity system and will start approving projects after it receives more details explaining how the work will be performed. So far, none of this money has been earmarked for renewable power, except for a small sum to repair a hydroelectric dam that provides less than 1% of the islands power.

The organizations making decisions in Puerto Rico are the Commonwealths Electric Power Authority, known as PREPA, and Luma Energy, a private company that received a 15-year contract in 2021 to manage power transmission and distribution on the island. PREPA and Luma have proposed hundreds of projects for the coming decade, but none include federal funding for rooftop solar, community solar, battery storage or microgrids. Advocates say that this kind of small-scale local generation would make the islands electricity cheaper, cleaner and more reliable.

A 2015 study by the nonprofit Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis found that investing in solar and wind power and energy efficiency could transform Puerto Ricos electrical system into a resilient grid. And in 2020, the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimated that rooftop solar power in Puerto Rico could generate roughly four times as much electricity as residents currently use.

Federal law requires weighing the options

Spending almost $10 billion to rewire an island with 3 million residents is clearly a major federal action with significant environmental impacts. Under the National Environmental Policy Act, agencies undertaking such actions must prepare an environmental impact statement that takes a hard look at alternatives and invites meaningful public input.

PREPA and Lumas proposed plan includes reconstructing and hardening nearly all of Puerto Ricos transmission lines and building at least two new natural gas-fired power plants. Burning more natural gas will affect air and water quality and contribute to climate change. Natural gas is shipped to Puerto Rico in liquid form, so using more of it also means expanding import facilities and pipelines.

Instead of producing a full-scale environmental impact statement, FEMA produced a superficial programmatic environmental assessment  a narrower study that did not weigh other options. It concluded that there would be no significant impact from rebuilding Puerto Ricos fossil fuel-based energy system. The study did not mention climate change, which scientists widely agree is making hurricanes larger and more destructive.

Beyond a pro forma invitation for public comment, FEMA made no effort to engage with overburdened communities of color that have disproportionately suffered from pollution and climate change under Puerto Ricos energy system. This directly contradicts Bidens order to place environmental justice at the center of federal energy and climate policy.

The National Environmental Policy Act also requires agencies to study, develop and describe appropriate alternatives to recommended courses of action. FEMAs environmental assessment only considers rebuilding and hardening the existing grid, and does not mention renewable energy. When some public commenters criticized this omission, FEMA responded that it was not responsible for considering alternative means of generating electricity.

Advancing the public interest

Both PREPA and Luma are proponents of an energy strategy that centers on importing natural gas. Federal law requires FEMA to take a broader approach and ensure that it spends federal money in ways that support U.S. environmental goals.

[Over 110,000 readers rely on The Conversations newsletter to understand the world. Sign up today.]

Courts have held that environmental justice is not simply a box to be checked. In our view, the law clearly requires FEMA to give Puerto Ricans  who have lived with a creaky power system for four years  a seat at the table before it starts writing checks for projects that affect their lives.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/puerto-rico-has-a-once-in-a-lifetime-chance-to-build-a-clean-energy-grid-but-fema-plans-to-spend-9-4-billion-on-fossil-fuel-infrastructure-instead-169124.
On Friday, a car chase that began in the 8200 block of Alabama Ave. in St. Louis continued through Granite City and other parts of the Metro East area. Multiple Illinois agencies assisted with traffic control and successful spike strip deployments, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department reported.

"As officers in their marked unit conducted a U-turn, a white Cadillac Escalade Truck pulled off the curb erratically," Evita Caldwell, public information officer with the SLMPD, wrote in an email. "Officers followed the vehicle as the Cadillac truck continued to run several stop signs at a high rate of speed. Officers deployed spike strips deflating the front passenger tire of the Cadillac truck."
VW Pics/VW Pics/Universal Images Group v

Over the last four years, 4 Hands Brewing Company and 1220 Artisan Spirits in St. Louis have been working on a new brand of whiskey called Withered Oak. This new brand will release a 5-year straight bourbon whiskey and a 5-year rye whiskey and will also feature a 4-year blended rye, aged in "unique" finishing barrels launching this winter, the company announced in a press release.

"Our initial intention with Withered Oak was to identify an interesting selection of barrels for a 4-year blended rye whiskey," said 4 Hands Brewing Co. and 1220 Spirits Founder and Owner Kevin Lemp in a statement. "While working through the barrel inventory, we identified select barrels that were really special and warranted a single barrel release. It was somewhat of a happy accident, but were thrilled with the end product of not only our blended rye, but our bonus 5-year bourbon and 5-year rye whiskey."
EDWARDSVILLE  Local schools again can receive some extra support from the Scott Credit Union Community Foundation through its With You grant program.

Too often, educators have great ideas that would benefit their students, but they just dont have the funding to make these projects a reality, said Frank Padak, President and CEO of Scott Credit Union. Thats where the With You program comes in. Weve set aside $25,000 to be awarded to a variety of school initiatives that will positively impact the young people of our community.
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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With the fuel delivery crisis still rumbling on and petrol prices expected to rise by around 5p-a-litre in the coming days, more drivers are reportedly considering buying an electric vehicle.

The latest EV due to hit the market next year is Citroen's diminutive Ami, which is as long as a standard UK parking space is wide and has a range of just 46 miles.

The French maker, having confirmed that it will sell the tiny battery model in Britain from 2022 just a fortnight ago, says it has already taken over 1,000 reservations online.

In-demand diminutive EV: Citroen says it has already taken over 1,000 reservations for its tiny Ami electric car, which has only be available to pre-order since the end of September

A total of 1,130 pre-orders have been placed on the car company's UK website, which requires a 250 deposit that is refunded if the driver changes their mind.

These reservations were on top of the 14,000 individuals who have registered their interest in the Ami for when it arrives in the UK next spring.

Citroen has referred to it as 'a daring response to the challenges faced in today's cities and urban environments', though it could also be seen as an appealing prospect for anyone who drives daily short distances as forecourts continue to experience shortages of fuel.

The Ami uses a 5.5kWh battery that recharges in three hours from a conventional domestic socket.

This provides a top speed of just 28mph and a claimed range of 46 miles.

At only 2.4 metres long and 1.4 metres wide, it could - in theory - be parked sideways in a UK bay (2.4 metres wide by 4.8 metres long), though the tiny dimensions means there only enough room for driver, passenger and a small item of luggage.

Ami's zero-emissions also means it is Congestion and Ultra-low Emissions Zone charge exempt, with the latter due to extend across London in a matter of weeks.

A total of 1,130 pre-orders have been placed on the car company's UK website, which requires a 250 deposit that is refunded if the driver changes their mind

The 1,130 reservations are on top of 14,000 individual 'registrations of interest' for the Ami for when it arrives in the UK next spring, the French brand says

While UK pricing has yet to be confirmed, it is expected to be priced from around 6,000.

In France, the basic Ami costs 6,990 (5,945) rising to 8,350 (7,119) for a range-topping model.

Car share and rental options are also being explored, as is already the Ami's main use in Paris, where it can be hired in the city in a range of flamboyant colours.

In France it is bought entirely online and can either can be delivered to your home or collected from a pick-up point, with the mantra: 'Ordered from your sofa, delivered to your home.'

That is also likely to be the case for UK customers.

All customers are reminded that Ami will be adapted for the UK market, but will remain left-hand drive.

'One significant benefit of AMIs left-hand drive configuration when being driven in the UK, is that it will allow for a kerbside exit from the vehicle for the driver when parking at the roadside in a city centre,' says Citroen.

At only 2.4 metres long and 1.4 metres wide, it could - in theory - be parked sideways in a UK bay, though the tiny dimensions means there only enough room for driver, passenger and a small item of luggage

The Ami uses a 5.5kWh battery that recharges in three hours from a conventional domestic socket. This provides a claimed range of 46 miles

Motorists have for over a week faced struggles to fill their cars with petrol and diesel as panic buying across the country has sparked fuel shortages at filling stations.

Online motor retailers say that for some the fuel crisis could be the 'tipping point' to ditch their internal-combustion-engine cars and get behind the wheel of EVs.

Online searches for electric vehicles exploded by an incredible 1,500 per cent last week.

The nation's biggest used car retailer, Auto Trader, reported a 'huge spike' in demand for electric cars said it had seen a 61 per cent rise in electric vehicle searches in the first weekend of the crisis and also saw a huge uplift in the number of people sending enquiries to retailers, with one sent every two minutes,.

Ian Plummer, Auto Trader's commercial director, said this suggested that 'people aren't simply flirting with the idea of electric but have been encouraged to actively pursue a purchase.'

Britain's motorists face a second week of fuel crisis as people panic buy petrol and diesel over concerns about HGV driver shortages

Motor sales platform carwow also claims to have experienced an 'unprecedented boom' in people looking to switch to electric vehicles.

Sepi Arani, carwow's director of trade, said: 'The fuel supply crisis and the scenes of panic at the pumps could prove to be the most influential switching event ever, with more people than ever considering switching to electric.'

He added: 'What's more, with second-hand car prices rocketing, there's really never been a better time to sell your car and make the switch to electric  you'll get a great price for your current vehicle, you'll be more than ready for the NetZero changes that are inevitably coming, and you'll never have to worry about a fuel shortage again.

'We've also seen a huge spike  94 per cent compared to last week  of people researching EV ownership and reviewing our electric vehicles advice hub, researching the range of vehicles, finding out about home charging and searching for their local charging points.'

The reports of growing demand for EVs comes as environment minister Zac Goldsmith this weekend said the ongoing petrol crisis is a 'good lesson' in the need for the dependence on fossil fuels to end.

In an interview with The Independent, Lord Goldsmith said queues at petrol stations amid current shortages should serve as a reminder of the need to accelerate the switch to electric vehicles.

Military drivers will be deployed to deliver fuel to forecourts from today as the crisis at the pumps continues.

Almost 200 military personnel, including 100 drivers, have been training at haulier sites and will start deliveries to help relieve the situation at petrol stations, which ministers insist is stabilising.
Swiss police have raided Credit Suisse's offices over the bank's links to the collapsed financing house Greensill Capital.

Credit Suisse was a Greensill creditor and had around 7.4billion tied up with the group, which was set up by Australian entrepreneur Lex Greensill and was advised by David Cameron.

Police seized documents in the raid after the Zurich public prosecutor launched a criminal investigation into Greensill's activities and Credit Suisse funds.

Probe: Credit Suisse was a Greensill creditor and had around 7.4billion tied up with the group

Greensill lent money through supply chain financing to companies including Sanjeev Gupta's GFG Alliance, which ran into trouble.

Greensill went bust in May.

Although Credit Suisse has recouped most of the cash it had tied up with Greensill, around 1.7billion may be harder to recover.

Credit Suisse confirmed its offices had been raided, but said the bank was not a party to the investigation.
French Connection has been sold to a consortium including its second-largest shareholder in a deal valuing the fashion chain at 29million.

The struggling business said it has accepted a 30p per share offer from Apinder Singh Ghura, who already owns around 25.4 per cent of the group, as well as Amarjit Singh Grewal and KJR Brothers.

That's a 30 per cent premium to the stock's price when the approach was revealed last month.

Sold: French Connection has been bought by a consortium of investors

Founder Stephen Marks, who has been looking to sell his 42 per cent stake for years, will retire from his role as chairman once the sale is completed, the company said.

The 75-year-old, who set up the business in 1972, is set to take home around 12million from the deal.

It comes as French Connection had put itself up for sale in March after years of losses, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Possible offers were floated by Gordon Brothers International and Spotlight Brands, and another from Go Global Retail, but none ultimately decided to bid for the group.

Then last month, the consortium led by Ghura, a little-known Newcastle businessman, put in the 30p-a-share offer.

Shares in French Connection rose 18 per cent to 28.25p in morning trading - short of the offer of 30p, implying that investors are unsure whether the deal will go ahead, despite the backing of Marks.

French Connection, once a successful business, has struggled to keep up with competition over the past decade.

At its peak in 2004 French Connection was worth around 500million, but it later fell out of favour with younger shoppers as rivals such as Zara and Topshop gained steam.

It has not been profitable for a decade.

The pandemic hit sales harder and losses widened to 12million in the year to January from a 3million loss the year before.

Shares have gone from a peak of around 480p in 2004, to around 80p a decade ago and to just 28p now.

Marks said the company had made 'significant' progress in its plans to return to profit over the last five years.

'The price we have negotiated is at a significant premium to the share price prior to the commencement of the Offer Period and demonstrates the potential offered by the French Connection brand,' he added.

'The French Connection Board is unanimous in recommending the acquisition to shareholders.'

Ghura said: 'We are pleased to have reached an agreement with the French Connection Directors on this recommended acquisition.

'We are looking forward to working with French Connection's management to execute and implement MIP's strategic plans to facilitate the future growth and profitability for the business.'
The latest in New York politics This article was featured in the Capitol Confidential newsletter. Sign up here to get it each morning.

Six years after New York's Enough is Enough Act was signed by then-Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, it's unclear to what extent the law has been implemented, whether it has made college campuses safer or if it has improved survivors' access to justice and emotional support. (TU)

A deep dive into a child's death in Schenectady that has drawn scrutiny in Family Court with a rare glimpse into the secretive world of forensic evaluations  influential reports written by mental health professionals that have long roiled New York's troubled Family Courts. (TU)
Nest anniversary fete set

The Nest in Schenectady will celebrate its first anniversary with a special brunch and dinner on Saturday, Oct. 16. The a-la-carte brunch, available from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., will include food and drink specials, photo booth and DJ. The four-course dinner, priced at $100 per person, includes luxury items such as oysters, foie gras and prime-grade beef in addition to The Nest's signature fried chicken. Vegetarian options available. Seating is from 4:45 to 9:30 p.m.

Reservations are strongly recommended for brunch, required for dinner; call 518-672-3018. The Nest is at 512 State St.

Banh Mi 47 in Albany among first with Impossible Pork

Just a few weeks after opening, the little downtown Albany sandwich shop Banh Mi 47 has joined the likes of celebrity chef David Chang to be among the first to serve Impossible Foods' new plant-based "pork" product.

It is available as Xiu Mai Chay, with Impossible Pork-based meatballs served with pickled vegetables and cilantro on a half-size banh mi roll (cutely called a banh mi-ni). The price is $5. The second dish is Cha Gio Chay, Impossible Pork-stuffed spring rolls with a vegan dipping sauce. They cost $5 for three. Daily quantities of both are limited until the supply chain ramps up. "Chay" is Vietnamese for "vegetarian."

Mike Nguyen, who owns Banh Mi 47 with his wife, Stacy, said his sales rep from Impossible Foods told him Banh Mi 47 is the first restaurant in the country serving the company's pork as banh mi and also the first in the Capital Region to carry Impossible Pork. Impossible Pork was introduced Sept. 23 at Changs New York City restaurant Ssam Bar.

Banh Mi 47 is at 74 N. Pearl St., one of the street-level storefronts in the redeveloped Kenmore complex. Online ordering is now available through its website, banhmi47.com. Hours are 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Saturday, closed Sunday.

Jake Moon closing Sunday

After nearly 13 years in business, Jake Moon Restaurant and Cafe in Clarksville will close after service on Sunday, Oct. 10.

Chef-owner Dan Smith said he has sold the building, and, in a note to patrons, he wrote, "This is a positive change for us. ... With the support of our loyal customers, we survived the pandemic and everything else the world has thrown at us. And yet there are things to do that can't be done while running a restaurant, and priorities are being redirected there." Jake Moon is named after Smith's great-great-grandfather, a legendary Catskills woodsman.

Opened in January 2009 after the closure of a country diner called June's Place, Jake Moon quickly became a destination restaurant 12 miles south of Albany that deftly balanced rustic, casual ambiance with a fresh-local-seasonal culinary ethos practiced by many big-city restaurants. As a result, Jake Moon drew new fans from among his rural neighbors as well as those familiar with Smith's work during his dozen years as executive chef of the former Nicole's Bistro in Albany. Smith liked to joke that a contingent of his customers often wore caps with the word "NAPA" on them  half from the auto-parts store, half from California wine tours.

For its final week, Jake Moon will be open 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. The address is 2082 Delaware Turnpike. Call 518-768-2570.

Smith said the building's new owners also run Maple on the Lake in East Berne and will be opening a takeout-focused restaurant.

Compiled by Steve Barnes. Items to be considered for publication should be submitted to sbarnes@timesunion.com. 518-454-5489. Twitter: @Tablehopping. Facebook: SteveBarnesFoodCritic.
Some farms design corn mazes to attract paying crowds. Others expand their orchards appeal with a cidery, or invite a few guests to spend the night for an authentic farm stay.

But a Dutchess County community is split on whether a large agritourism concept is the right solution for a farm in the Town of Dover, particularly given its proximity to environmentally sensitive areas like the Appalachian Trail.

On Sept. 20, the Town of Dover Planning Board held its first public hearing on a proposal by the Harlem Valley Homestead (HVH), a 250-acre property in Wingdale, to add lodging for 129 guests and the ability to host events for up to 450 to the farm.

The planning board has scheduled a second public session for Monday, Oct. 4, inviting residents once again to voice their concerns or support at 7 p.m.

In advance of the meeting, a file of letters for and against the proposed development were placed on the towns website. The majority of those letters, including one from the environmental group Housatanic Valley Association, is asking the planning board to seek further or careful review of the project. A petition in support of the project was also part of the record; a petition demanding further environmental review was not.

Adding overnight and event guests to the farm would help visitors gain a better appreciation of where their food comes from, and financially sustain the farm, says co-founder Josh Viertel, former president of Slow Food USA and a onetime Dover town board member.

We should be embracing the change they want to bring, wrote Wingdale resident Shayna Brabender. Another resident, Ildy Orlando, wrote that HVH has been going through town reviews like this for 4 years. I feel that it is time to let the project move forward and be finished.

Opponents of the project warned of the potential environmental and personal impacts. Wrote HVH neighbor Roger Ericksen, who also spoke out at the meeting: This is not a low impact operation being proposed. No farm needs huge septic fields and stormwater management, outdoor lighting and parking lots for 100s of cars. The farm appears to be used as a way to avoid closer scrutiny, and entertain the guests.

If the project is to proceed, critics would like a more in-depth environmental review  not the ones supplied by the farms hired environmental engineers and consultants.

When is a farm a farm, and when is it a hotel?

At the Sept. 20 meeting, which was recorded and shared on YouTube, a member of the towns Conservation Advisory Council, Stancy DuHamel, alluded to the fact that the proposed cabins and large events at the 250-acre property were conceptualized as a way to thwart a potential developer from purchasing the land and turning it into residential homes.

"The last thing I personally wanted to see was a subdivision. Other neighbors felt the same way, she said.

Viertel confirmed by email that he and a group of neighbors, including DuHamel, began meeting together in 2014 to discuss a potential agritourism project. Though he served on the town board two years after those initial meetings, he said this posed no conflict of interest since the planning board and town board operate independently.

Concerned about what might happen to the land when it came on the market, Viertel said we worked together to develop a plan for how to get it back into real agricultural production, while using it as a place for bringing people together to experience the farming in a hands-on way, so they could know the story behind their food.

Some caution, though, that this agritourism versus subdivision argument is a red herring.

Just because theres X number of acres doesnt mean that you would get Y number of houses, Charles Gottlieb, a lawyer representing residents who would like a full environmental review, said by phone. You have to think about roads, and wells and septic systems, and impacts to resources  No matter what project is proposed on that site, it has to comply with the zoning codes, and it has to have all of the environmental impacts studied.

To call it an agritourism project is also misleading, he said, in that its not a typical one like a farm brewery that meets certain thresholds governed by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

Farms are permitted pretty much everywhere because were trying to protect them, but theyre not going to allow farm owners to build a hotel on a farm, and still call it a farm.

The project in question is not a hotel per se, but it would operate like one, with room for 129 people to spend the night at over 30 cabins and buildings.

This hospitality project was the most environmentally conscious use for the farm, while also falling in line with community efforts to promote Dover as a destination by marketing our natural, cultural, and historic resources, DuHamel said at the Sept. 20 meeting.

Toward that end, she said, We talked, we strategized about how to market the property to a conservation investor and  we all said, Josh, you have this experience in farming, you have to do this. And one of our members was lucky to find a conservation investor, Michael Armilio, and together he and Josh bought this farm and planned this project and it has saved one piece of Dover from development. Its a beautiful spot, and we can all enjoy it.

The impact on local and national resources

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While the lands beauty seems undisputed, the prospect of many people enjoying it overnight or celebrating a wedding on the site spurred Dovers fire chief to write a letter to the planning board dated Sept. 14 voicing his concerns.

During extreme and severe flooding of Old Forge Road, the fire department will not have immediate emergency access to the proposed project area, he wrote, citing the major evacuation concerns it asked to be mitigated during the SEQRA process, referring to the State Environmental Quality Review Act that requires towns to assess the environmental impacts on a proposed development.

Another resident, Anne Huibregtse, questioned how the project could proceed without further review when it was less than two miles away from a Critical Environmental Area (CEA). The designation is given to exceptionally natural settings or ecologically sensitive lands. In her opinion, the last stretch of the Tenmile River alongside the HVH property merits our towns consideration as a CEA, too, she wrote in a letter dated Sept. 20.

Keystone species are here, and natives and migrating birds depend on it. If we chase them away, where can they go? she asked.

Wingdale resident Adam Hade said he asked that the town consider designating his property and its surroundings, including the HVH site, as a CEA. In 2017 he initiated the conversation in an email to DuHamel, who was then chair of the towns CAC, but says he never received a response to that or subsequent follow-ups. DuHamel did not respond to requests for comment.

Balancing the towns needs with its own plans

Just one potentially adverse impact to the land and its surroundings is reason enough to warrant a full environmental review known as an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

This lengthier review process involves repeated public input and transparency, starting with a 30-day comment period and a Draft Environmental Impact Statement. The follow-up hearing on Monday is meant to help the planning board decide if one is needed, communicated by either a negative or positive declaration in the SEQRA process.

A neg dec would allow the project to proceed based on the reviews submitted by the farms environmental engineer, and a pos dec would prompt an EIS.

But Viertel called this either/or decision a red herring.

The real question is, do we want to project like this in our community?  We used to have 16 dairy farms in our town. Now there's only 18 in the whole county. So farm viability, job creation and having people connect with the grand landscapes, agritourism  those are really big deals and are critical for our town, he said.

Gottlieb, meanwhile, is hoping Dover's planning board will honor the language in the town's comprehensive plan, which says that the town should follow the SEQRA process to the fullest extent.

This is the time to do it by issuing a positive declaration and requiring an EIS.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  Iran wants you to put politics aside and marvel over its ornate carpets. Syria wants you to forget about its brutal war and learn about the worlds first alphabet. Yemen, on the brink of famine, is very excited about its honey and coffee.

Welcome to Dubais Expo 2020, the first worlds fair in the Middle East that boasts over 190 participating countries  except Afghanistan, whose new Taliban rulers are a no-show.

Dubai has gambled billions to make the built-from-scratch Expo village a triumphant tourist attraction and symbol of the United Arab Emirates itself  a feast for the eyes designed to be devoid of politics and built on the promise of globalization. But even as nations use their pavilions as benign infomercials, the political turbulence of the wider world manages to intrude.

We had one bullet to shoot, said Manahel Thabet, Yemeni pavilion director. We wanted to present Yemen in a different manner  to demonstrate the people and not any political agenda.

But the winding journey the exhibit's handicrafts took from the nation's rebel-held north to the sleek Emirati-funded pavilion betrays a very different Yemen. Merchants described harrowing nights trekking with Expo-bound sacks of stones, spices and honey through the battlefields of Marib, Yemen's last government stronghold now under siege by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

The pavilion for Myanmar, where the army's seizure of power has spiraled into a bloody conflict, displays a golden chariot and beckons visitors to its pagoda-studded plains.

The previous government, which was toppled by a coup in February, had appointed a leading Burmese philanthropist to direct and sponsor the showcase years ago.

But a person familiar with pavilion's operations, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said Myanmar's military junta in recent weeks had been trying to overhaul the philanthropist's exhibit and change the event schedule, with hopes to host nationalist, military rallies over the fair's six months. Expo organizers, the person added, were trying to prevent the takeover, but the pavilion's fate remains uncertain.

After the UAE announced it would normalize relations with Israel last year, infuriating the Palestinians and upending a long-standing Arab consensus, the Palestinian Authority declared it would boycott Dubai's Expo.

And yet just a two-minute stroll from Israel's mirrored arch, Palestine's pavilion stands tall, its vast exterior painted with Arabic calligraphy reading: Yesterday it was called Palestine. Today it is called Palestine.

The exhibit creates a full sensory experience, inviting visitors to touch handmade ceramic jugs, watch vendors slicing knafeh, a syrupy cheese-filled pastry, and smell oranges from Palestinian farms.

However, the Palestine pavilion has not officially opened to the public, as employees described a litany of headaches trying to get approval from Israeli authorities to get certain goods out of the occupied West Bank. When asked what prompted the about-face on Palestine's participation, staffers said it was decided that a Palestinian absence at the massive world's fair would be worse.

While many countries received invitations to participate in Expo almost immediately after Dubai won the bid in 2013, Syria said it was invited just two years ago  not long after the UAE reopened its embassy in Damascus in a sign of improved ties with President Bashar Assad following years of devastating civil war. It was the last nation to begin construction.

Staffers at the black box theater, replete with inspiring slogans like we will rise together and lengthy explanations of ancient Mesopotamia's written alphabet, lamented the last-minute scramble and lack of funds. Noting that Assad was focused on rebuilding Syria's shattered cities, pavilion designer Khaled Alshamaa said the government provided largely moral support."

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Illustrated wooden tablets sent in from 1,500 ordinary Syrians around the world blanket the pavilion's walls. But visitors won't find references to death or displacement  something that staff insists is a happy coincidence, not proof of free speech restrictions. Miniature portraits of Assad and his wife Asma stare down from the mosaic. Other postcard images show musical instruments, flower bouquets and sprawling Syrian breakfasts.

The war is over, Alshamaa said. Even though there are sanctions, we are alive. This is the message we want to show you.

A large mirror at the pavilion bears a more cryptic message: What you see isn't all there is."

Other politically sensitive pavilions have struggled even to show up.

North Korea is nowhere to be found. The pavilion for Libya, which slid into violent chaos after a NATO-backed uprising toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, still reeks of fresh paint. Display cases sit empty but for layers of thick dust and TV screens flicker between children's cartoons and static scenes of Tripoli's beaches.

Signage points toward Afghanistan, but its pavilion appears closed  nothing more than a sparse showroom for office furniture. The country's previous government had arranged the pavilion before the Taliban overran Kabul in the final days of the U.S. troop withdrawal on Aug. 15, forcing President Ashraf Ghani into exile in the UAE and scrapping plans for an Expo showcase, among other things.

At the exhibit for the Islamic Republic of Iran, a female staffer beams at visitors, gushing that her trip to the surreal theme park is her first time out of the sanctions-hit country. Although the booth features portraits of Irans past and current supreme leaders, the showcase for the Shiite powerhouse makes no mention of religion, nor the nation's other sources of pride like its contentious ballistic missile and nuclear programs.

Instead, Iran went for a hard-core handicraft spiel, pitching Persian carpets with no reference to the American sanctions crippling the trade. Merchants sell saffron candy. Chefs gently spice kebab. Businessmen extol economic free zones.

Perhaps the Iranian pavilion presents the most fitting metaphor for Expo. In one room, visitors must peer through tiny holes in the wall to view real-life scenes from Iran, where nameless people dig vast copper mines, stroll calmly along village roads and weave colorful textiles. The brief, optimistic glimpses offer nothing more or less than what the country wants you to see.
BALLSTON SPA  A former Saratoga County deputy sheriff who repeatedly sexually assaulted two young girls and used his law enforcement status to intimidate the victims was sentenced Monday to 16 years in state prison.

Steven Willetts of Malta, whom prosecutors said abused the girls beginning when they were 8 years old, will be supervised after he exits prison for the maximum of 20 years.

Before the sentence was imposed by Saratoga County Court Judge James A. Murphy III, Willetts' victims tore into him  describing the 42-year-old as a controlling and twisted predator who abused them emotionally and sexually.

Willetts had asked one of the girls  who was 12 at the time  how she would feel if he killed himself, she told the court.

I was a child, and he gaslit me into forgiving him and apologizing for the abuse he put me through, the victim said.

My whole life felt manipulated, and I felt so trapped, the victim continued. The sexual abuse, mental abuse and emotional abuse wore me down over the years and caused more damage than I realized.

For years, Willetts had told the victims that law enforcement eyes were watching them at school and elsewhere in an effort to intimidate them into silence, the victims and a prosecutor told the judge.

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Saratoga County Sheriff

I was uncomfortable even talking to my teachers, one victim said in a statement read by Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Buckley, who prosecuted the case with Assistant District Attorney Terry Northrup. (Willetts) would even say the officers that worked the day shift would tell you what I was doing if they saw me out.

There was no evidence of any surveillance by other officers. The girls eventually told their horrific ordeal to a sheriff's deputy who let them know Willetts was not worthy of his badge and not one of us, prosecutors said.
The Nature Conservancy and state officials are in discussion over the future of Follensby Pond, the historical site of Ralph Waldo Emersons philosophers camp and one of the largest privately owned tracts left for possible acquisition in the Adirondack Park.

In 2008, the Nature Conservancy purchased the 14,600 acres near Tupper Lake for $16 million. The land includes about 10 miles of shoreline along the Raquette River and borders the High Peaks Wilderness Area. The tract includes the 970-acre Follensby Pond where in 1858 Emerson, James Russell Lowell and Louis Agassiz engaged in philosophical discussions. It was also one of New Yorks main sites for its American bald eagle restoration project in the 1970s and 1980s.

We are in discussions with The Nature Conservancy with respect to this parcel, said Haley Viccaro, senior advisor for communications to Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Sheila Webb-Halpern, associate director of policy for strategic communications at the Nature Conservancys New York chapter, also said the organization was in discussion with the state. It is not clear when an announcement about the propertys future might be made, though Viccaro said they were in the early stages.

There are a few ways a deal could happen, and some worry options could include closing Follensby Pond and several other water bodies to the public. Follensby Pond is a deep water lake with a native strain of heritage trout. After the state purchased Little Tupper Lake in 1998, bass somehow got into the lake. The bass outcompeted the native species. That incident is also one of the main reasons why John Hendrickson, widower of philanthropist Mary Lou Whitney and owner of approximately 36,000 acres in Long Lake, has said he does not want to sell his property to the state.

Bob Glennon, attorney and former executive director of the Adirondack Park Agency, said he does not think Follensby Pond will go to the forest preserve. He believes the state will pursue a conservation easement. In that case, the state and Nature Conservancy could work out an agreement regarding public access. If the state purchases it outright, it would have to be public lands added to the forest preserve, Glennon said.

David Gibson, managing partner of Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve, said there are a few statutes on the books the state could try to use to keep the public from forest preserve lands. Some of those exceptions include growing and cultivating trees. The statutes are unconstitutional, Gibson said, but have never been challenged in court.

Id be very surprised if DEC relied on any of those statutes, Gibson said. Getting them off the books is something I probably should have done in my career, one of many things left undone.

He could see the DEC using a legal option called reserved right where the property wouldnt be full forest preserve for a certain length of time. The DEC used that option in the Debar Wild Forest for the Adirondack great camp there. Most all buildings are not allowed on forest preserve, but the state had used the reserved right to keep Debar Lodge in private ownership for several years before the whole parcel reverted to forest preserve. Now, the future of that building is in question as historical preservationists wish it to be saved while most environmentalists believe the building should be removed.

Its always best to have an easement and private land, and thats the cleanest, Gibson said.

Peter Bauer also believed the state would pursue an easement that would keep the majority of the property, including Follensby Pond, closed to the public. The executive director of Protect the Adirondacks said an easement would allow management details to be worked out in secret. Even though public monies would be used to pay for the land, the public has virtually no say over what happens on the property.

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Bauer said he has heard the Nature Conservancy is concerned about the future of the lake trout fishery. Bauer said it was ironic that The Nature Conservancy does not have the confidence in the state to manage Follensby Pond if it were to be forest preserve, considering it supported the state and its building of community connector snowmobile trails. Bauers organization recently won a legal battle in the states highest court against the DEC over the tree-cutting of certain snowmobiles trails in the park.

What is also unclear is how much the property may now cost. In 2011, Rob Davies, director of DECs Division of Lands and Forests, had told Adirondack Explorer that the property was appraised a few years prior at $20 million.

We cant tell Nature Conservancy, no, you cant sell it. Its their property, said Mike Kilroy, Harrietstown supervisor. I would think that the town would like to have that open to the public.

Bauer said towns cannot veto the states purchase of this land, either. It is one of about two dozen properties identified in the states Open Space Conservation Plan that it could purchase outright. Whitney Park is also on that list.

Weve always held out the hope and have envisioned an Adirondack Park where Follensby Pond was part of the forever wild forest preserve, Bauer said. Its a stunningly beautiful place that we always believe the public, the people of the state of New York, should have a right to visit.

A version of this story first appeared in the Adirondack Explorer.
HONG KONG (AP)  Shares in troubled real estate developer China Evergrande Group and its property management unit Evergrande Property Services were suspended from trading in Hong Kong on Monday as investors awaited the next steps in the saga of its debt crisis.

Cailian, a Chinese online news service affiliated with the state-run newspaper Securities Times, said another developer, Hopson Development Holdings, was planning to acquire a majority share in Evergrande Property Services Group.

Hopson suspended trading of its shares in Hong Kong on Monday. The suspension was pending the release of announcement(s) in relation to a major transaction of the company under which the company agreed to acquire the shares of a company . . . listed on the stock exchange," it said in a filing.

Hopsons public relations department said the company would not comment on market rumors.

Evergrande Property Services said in its announcement to the Hong Kong exchange that its shares were suspended from trading pending an announcement related to a merger or takeover.

Phone calls to Evergrande's PR office in Hong Kong rang unanswered and the company's offices elsewhere in China were closed for a holiday.

Evergrande has been struggling to avoid defaulting on billions of dollars of debt. The company owes billions to banks, customers and contractors and has been selling off assets to resolve its cash crunch.

Analysts say the Chinese government was reluctant to be seen as bailing Evergrande out at a time when authorities are pushing companies to reduce debt levels. A takeover of the company's property management arm would be one step in restructuring it by splitting it into smaller entities, said Francis Lun, CEO of Geo Securities in Hong Kong.

The central government might ask local governments in turn to provide funding for Evergrande to finish its many incompleted projects so that they can be delivered or sold to buyers, enabling the developer to pay its contractors, he said.

As far as the Chinese governments concerned, this is the best way forward. And of course, in doing so, I think some creditors will be hurt, mostly overseas creditors, Lum said.

Evergrande is one of Chinas biggest private sector conglomerates, with more than 200,000 employees, 1,300 projects in 280 cities and assets of 2.3 trillion yuan ($350 billion). It owes creditors some 2 trillion yuan ($310 billion).

The company ran up billions of dollars in debt building apartment complexes, malls and office towers over the years. Its situation worsened after August 2020, when Beijing tightened controls on financing for Chinas 12 biggest developers, forcing them to reduce corporate debt loads that are seen as a threat to the economy.

Evergrande has been selling off various assets to try to alleviate the problem. Last week, it sold its $1.5 billion stake in Shengjing Bank to cover its debt to the state-owned lender based in northeastern China.

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China Evergrande Group's shares have lost more than 80% of their value this year and ratings agencies say it is at risk of defaulting on its debts.

Like Evergrande, Hopson, based in Guangdong adjacent to Hong Kong, is one of China's biggest property companies. Reports show it has a much lower debt to equity ratio than its larger rivals.

Jitters over a slowdown in China's economy and potential turmoil in its vital property industry have rattled world markets in the past few weeks.

The fear is that a default by Evergrande could cascade throughout the Chinese economy and even world financial markets.

I think the government is really close to a resolution over the Evergrande problem because it cannot drag on forever, it will hurt everybody involved," Lum said.

Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng index dropped 2.2% Monday on heavy selling of real estate companies and banks.

___

Wu contributed from Taipei. AP researcher Henry Hou in Beijing and AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach in Mito, Japan, also contributed.
CLARKSVILLE  After nearly 13 years in business, Jake Moon Restaurant and Cafe will close after service on Sunday, Oct. 10.

Chef-owner Dan Smith tells me he has sold the building, and, in a note to patrons, he writes, "This is a positive change for us. ... With the support of our loyal customers, we survived the pandemic and everything else the world has thrown at us. And yet there are things to do that can't be done while running a restaurant, and priorities are being redirected there." Jake Moon is named after Smith's great-great-grandfather, a legendary Catskills woodsman.
TSB Realty Closes Sale of Villas on Rio, New Ultra-Luxury Student Housing Property Near the University of Texas at Austin
Burkina Faso's government says at least 14 soldiers were killed and seven injured by extremists at the Yirgou military barracks in Burkina Fasos Sanmatenga province
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[October 04, 2021] Bell Let's Talk launches BIPOC mental health podcast series

Health experts and guests with lived experience discuss the impacts of racism on mental health MONTREAL, Oct. 4, 2021 /CNW Telbec/ - Bell Let's Talk is introducing a new mental health podcast series, From Where We Stand: Conversations on Race and Mental Health, hosted by CTV's Your Morning's Anne-Marie Mediwake, iHeartRadio Canada's CHUM 104.5 co-host of Marilyn Denis and Jamar, Jamar McNeil, and broadcaster and comedian, Candy Palmater. Starting on October 6 and over the next 6 weeks, the series will explore mental health issues affecting culturally diverse communities throughout Canada and feature mental health experts and guests from Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) communities. "Bell Let's Talk is pleased to launch this new mental health podcast series to put a spotlight on mental health in culturally diverse communities," said Mary Deacon, Chair of Bell Let's Talk. "By taking part in these podcast conversations, this informed, diverse group of mental health experts and people with lived-experience will help advance mental health and wellness in new and necessary ways." The podcast series will feature guests sharing their personal stories and mental health journeys, alongside mental health experts from BIPOC communities who can help Canadians understand the impacts of racism and injustice on mental health. Weekly episodes will explore a wide range of topics, including intergenerational trauma, first generation immigrant experiences, language barriers and how stigma affects men's mental health. "I am honoured to be hosting this important new Bell Let's Talk podcast series alongside my co-hosts, Jamar McNeil and Candy Palmater," said Anne-Marie Mediwake. "These conversations are already happening among racially marginalized friends and families across the country. This podcast gives them a place to come together to offer help, healing, and insight into the struggles faced by Canadians living with racism and the unique way it impacts mental health. We're not just hearing stories, we're providing expert help and resources. I invite all Canadians to join us for these important conversations." To subscribe to the From Where We Stand: Conversations on Race and Mental Health podcast series, please go to iHeartRadio, Amazon, Apple, Google or Spotify. The series will also be available to radio stations for broadcast from Orbyt Media: info@orbytmedia.com.



On cause podcast on Noovo Moi

Earlier this year, Bell Let's Talk ambassador Joanie Gonthier also hosted a mental health podcast series which is available on the Noovo Moi platform. On cause features special guests discussing a variety of mental health topics and sharing their personal stories. A second series of podcasts is currently in production. "Discussing the challenges of mental health with others has allowed me to better understand their personal experiences and help reduce the stigma that too often stops us from seeking help," said Joanie Gonthier. "Thanks to Noovo Moi, I am pleased that the On cause podcasts have brought together so many people to remind them that they are not alone."

Bell Let's Talk Diversity Fund

The Bell Let's Talk Diversity Fund supports the mental health and well-being of BIPOC communities across Canada. Since its launch in 2020, the Diversity Fund has distributed $2.25 million in grants to support organizations working to improve access to mental health care for members of BIPOC communities in Canada. About Bell Let's Talk

The largest-ever corporate commitment to mental health in Canada, Bell Let's Talk is focused on 4 key action pillars: Anti-stigma, Care and Access, Research and Workplace Leadership. Since its launch in September 2010, Bell Let's Talk has partnered with more than 1,300 organizations providing mental health supports and services throughout Canada, including hospitals, universities, local community service providers and other care and research organizations. To learn more, please visit Bell.ca/LetsTalk. Media inquiries Jacqueline Michelis

613 785-1427

jacqueline.michelis@bell.ca

@Bell_LetsTalk

@Bell_News SOURCE Bell Canada

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[October 04, 2021] Converge Technology Solutions Corp. Acquires LPA Software Solutions

TORONTO and GATINEAU, Quebec, Oct. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Converge Technology Solutions Corp. (Converge or the Company) (TSX:CTS) (FSE:0ZB) (OTCQX:CTSDF) a software-enabled IT & Cloud Solutions provider, is pleased to announce it has acquired business data analytics firm, LPA Software Solutions, LLC (LPA).

Headquartered in Rochester, NY with personnel in Upstate New York, Dallas, Houston, Charlotte, Boston, Pittsburgh, and Columbus, LPA provides business analytics solutions and professional services in analytics, data science, artificial intelligence, financial performance management, data governance, data integration, location analytics, and data sets. Designated as one of the full-service IBM Platinum Partners that sells, understands, and implements IBM Business Analytics software, LPA proudly supports hundreds of clients and numerous successful implementations across ten major industries. LPA Software Solutions looks forward to joining the Converge family of companies to expand the capabilities, skills, and products we will be able bring to our existing and new clients stated Scott Hopkins, President and CEO of LPA Software Solutions. The extensive reach and experience of Converge combined with LPA Software Solutions many years of deep expertise will provide clients with broad, industry-based analytics capabilities. Converge is excited to add LPA Software Solutions to our ever-expanding team and array of solution capabilities, stated Shaun Maine, CEO of Converge. With 20+ years experience serving clients in the analytics space, were looking forward to folding in LPAs advanced analytics knowledge nd skills to our current offerings and are excited to grow Converges business intelligence, data, and AI practices alongside their team. LPA will enable us to continue to scale and grow our advanced analytics practice across North America.



LPA marks the twenty-fourth acquisition completed by Converge since October 2017. Converges family of companies also includes Corus Group, LLC; Northern Micro, Inc.; 10084182 Canada Inc. operating as Becker-Carroll; Key Information Systems, Inc.; BlueChip Tek, Inc.; Lighthouse Computer Systems, Inc.; Software Information Systems LLC.; Nordisk Systems, Inc.; Essex Technology Group, Inc.; Datatrend Technologies, Inc.; VSS, LLC; Solutions PCD, Inc.; Unique Digital, Inc.; Workgroup Connections, Inc.; Vivvo Application Studios LTD.; Vicom Computer Services, Inc.; CarpeDatum LLC; Accudata Systems, Inc.; Dasher Technologies, Inc.; ExactlyIT, Inc.; REDNET AG; Vicom Infinity, Inc.; and Infinity Systems Software, Inc. About LPA

LPA Software Solutions, LLC (LPA) provides consulting and professional services for AI, Business Intelligence (BI), Location Intelligence, Predictive Analytics, IoT, Geomapping, Data Prep, and Data Cleansing. LPA is a distinguished IBM Platinum Business Partner, assisting clients with software and services for Cognos Analytics, Planning Analytics for Financial Performance Management, Location Analytics, and IBM SPSS for Predictive Analytics. LPA helps organizations harness the power of data and information by developing solutions that ease the acquisition, sharing, and flow of data across the enterprise. LPA solutions help take the guesswork out of decision-making by arming executives, managers, and end-users with the insights they need to make fact-based assessments.

About Converge

Converge Technology Solutions Corp. is a software-enabled IT & Cloud Solutions provider focused on delivering industry-leading solutions and services. Converges regional sales and services organizations deliver advanced analytics, cloud, and cybersecurity offerings to clients across various industries. The Company supports these solutions with managed services, digital infrastructure, and talent expertise offerings across all major IT vendors in the marketplace. This multi-faceted approach enables Converge to address the unique business and technology requirements for all clients in the public and private sectors. For more information, visit convergetp.com. For further information contact:

Converge Technology Solutions Corp.

Email: investors@convergetp.com

Phone: 416-360-1495



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[October 04, 2021] CSL Services cuts engineering time by an average 25% on wastewater studies with FlowWorks I&I Analysis Tool from Carl Data Solutions

Engineering services firms of 50-250 employees is the FlowWorks sweet spot. They rely on Carl Data Solutions software expertise gained in over 70 municipal water utilities across North America VANCOUVER, BC, Oct. 4, 2021 /CNW/ - Carl Data Solutions Inc.'s (CSE: CRL) (FSE: 7C5) (OTC: CDTAF) ("Carl Data Solutions") New Jersey-based customer CSL Services Inc. has stated that the FlowWorks I&I Analysis Tool is an invaluable component of its toolkit for temporary water treatment flow studies that typically last from 60 days to 6 months and can use as many as 50 or more flow meters. Since its inception, CSL Services has logged over two million meter-days and established itself as one of the leading flow monitoring and pipeline inspection companies in the United States. For Bill Dawson, Vice President of New CSL Services Inc. with responsibility for the U.S. southeast, "FlowWorks has allowed our engineers to become much more efficient in generating these analyses," adding that his engineering time on flow monitoring studies has decreased by an "average of 25% with the FlowWorks I&I Analysis Tool, and up to 50% on larger projects involving 20 or more meters." CSL is a 50-employee engineering field services company that specializes in wastewater collection systems flow monitoring and condition assessment. CSL is known for customer satisfaction, and a significant percentage of its work is repeat business. Dawson joined the company in 2009, having previously worked with CSL's Founder and President Bruce Cohen. "Before the FlowWorks I&I Analysis Tool came along we would manually load I&I data into Excel spreadsheet templates we created," said Dawson, who fully understands the strategic value of accurate I&I data. This is why he "keeps the FlowWorks I&I Analysis Tool in my hip pocket." "CSL Services is in what we call the 'sweet spot' of our North American partner network of engineering services firms," said Jean Charles Phaneuf, CEO of Carl Data Solutions. While we have much larger reseller partners, engineering services firms with 50-250 employees require an innovation edge, and rely on our software expertise and years of understanding the data requirements of over 70 municipal water installations across North America. We are very proud of their succes with FlowWorks."



Dawson said he "discovered the FlowWorks I&I Analysis Tool five or six years ago." The Inflow and Infiltration tool is part of FlowWorks, a powerful Software-as-a-Service ("SaaS")-based application for collecting, monitoring and analyzing all types of environmental data. It collects data from any sensor or monitoring hardware, integrates with other monitoring systems, and utilizes historic and public data sets. All forms of data merge into a single platform that performs graphing, reporting and machine learning enabled analytics. Inflow & Infiltration (I&I) quantification begins with accurate, reliable, and repeatable sewer flow data. I&I sources change both spatially and temporally, depending upon a range of local conditions including soils, pipe condition, materials and construction practices, storm drainage and presence of cross-connections, age of systems and climatic conditions. Uncontrolled I&I in sanitary sewer systems can have detrimental effects on social, economic, and environmental aspects of urban areas. Excessive flows as a result of I&I can result in health risks associated with sanitary overflows, increase operation and maintenance costs, and may limit capacity otherwise reserved in the existing sanitary sewer system to serve future populations.

Flexible, affordable and easy-to-use compared to competing software packages, water industry professionals often refer to FlowWorks as "a data Switzerland" for its unique ability to be an independent third-party software platform where smart water utilities can implement any data-driven solution they need to solve problems in their facilities. The FlowWorks I&I Analysis Tool feature set includes an automated dry weather pattern generator and an automated storm event group finder for faster, more accurate analysis. An RDII (Rainfall Derived Inflow and Infiltration) chart provides a powerful, quantitative view of the collection system's wet weather response. A correlation report provides a linear regression between rainfall and RDII to assist in forecasting wet weather impacts on the collection system. With the FlowWorks I&I Analysis Tool, the user has the ability to export both graphs and the underlying data to include into a report. "This is a competitive differentiator for us," said Dawson. "In many cases we work for engineering firms. Since they don't do this kind of analysis every day, they hand that responsibility to us. We do this all day long with FlowWorks, so they're happy for us to get it done for them. It seems to work well, and knock on wood, anybody we've ever done flow monitoring studies for with FlowWorks comes back to us again." Dawson stated that savings is measured in engineers' labor cost, but emphasized there are bigger benefits involving the ability to easily scale over and analyze large datasets. He also said CSL Services is interested in seeing what else the FlowWorks platform can do for his company. "I know there's more to discover there." Customer support is another high point for Dawson. "I have a Project Engineer that crunches the numbers on our flow monitoring studies," he said, "and I get copied on all the emails. I know we always get a quick response and effective solutions to any little wrinkles with uploading the data or using the FlowWorks software. That's why our companies have had a productive multi-year relationship." About Carl Data Solutions Inc.

Carl Data Solutions Inc. (www.carlsolutions.com) is an Industrial IoT (IIoT) and Big Data as a Service (BDaaS) company that provides next-generation collection, storage and analytics solutions for data-centric organizations. Through its subsidiaries Astra Smart Systems Corp. and FlowWorks Inc., Carl Data Solutions helps clients analyze and model environmental data through a robust end-to-end network of custom sensor arrays combined with SaaS-based monitoring, reporting, and predictive modeling applications. Carl Data Solutions works with new cloud-based mass storage services and machine learning (AI) analytical tools to provide the scalability required to effectively monitor vast amounts of data collected by both government and industrial customers. The Company's software solutions save customers time and money by aggregating information from any sensor or source to create a real-time decision support system with deep insights into protecting infrastructure and assets. SOURCE Carl Data Solutions Inc.

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[October 04, 2021] Delaware Funds by Macquarie municipal income funds announce dividends

Today, the following three municipal income funds, all closed-end management investment companies, declare their monthly income dividends: Delaware Investments Colorado Municipal Income Fund, Inc.; Delaware Investments National Municipal Income Fund; and Delaware Investments Minnesota Municipal Income Fund II, Inc. (together, the "Funds"). The investment objective of Delaware Investments Colorado Municipal Income Fund, Inc. and Delaware Investments Minnesota Municipal Income Fund II, Inc. is to provide current income exempt from federal income tax and from the personal income tax of its state, if any, consistent with the preservation of capital. The investment objective of Delaware Investments National Municipal Income Fund is to provide current income exempt from regular federal income tax consistent with the preservation of capital. In addition, each Fund has the ability to use leveraging techniques in an attempt to obtain a higher return for the Fund. Currently, each Fund has outstanding a series of variable-rate preferred shares as leverage. The following dates apply to the above dividend announcement: Declaration date: 10/04/2021

Ex-date: 10/21/2021

Record date: 10/22/2021

Payable date: 10/29/2021 The dividend distributions are as follows:







FUND Dividend per share Delaware Investments Colorado Municipal Income Fund, Inc. (VCF) $0.0425 Delaware Investments National Municipal Income Fund (VFL) $0.0450 Delaware Investments Minnesota Municipal Income Fund II, Inc. (VMM) $0.0350

About Macquarie Investment Management Macquarie Investment Management, a member of Macquarie Group, is a global asset manager with offices in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia. As active managers, we prioritize autonomy and accountability at the team level in pursuit of opportunities that matter for clients. Macquarie Investment Management is supported by the resources of Macquarie Group (ASX: MQG; ADR: MQBKY), a global provider of asset management, investment, banking, financial and advisory services. Advisory services are provided by Macquarie Investment Management Business Trust, a registered investment advisor. Macquarie Group refers to Macquarie Group Limited and its subsidiaries and affiliates worldwide. For more information about Delaware Funds by Macquarie, visit delawarefunds.com or call 800 523-1918. Other than Macquarie Bank Limited (MBL), none of the entities referred to in this document are authorized deposit-taking institutions for the purposes of the Banking Act 1959 (Commonwealth of Australia). The obligations of these entities do not represent deposits or other liabilities of MBL, a subsidiary of Macquarie Group Limited and an affiliate of Macquarie Investment Management. MBL does not guarantee or otherwise provide assurance in respect of the obligations of these entities, unless noted otherwise.  2021 Macquarie Management Holdings, Inc. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005980/en/

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[October 04, 2021] Delix Therapeutics Named One of Fierce Biotech's "Fierce 15" Companies of 2021

Preclinical neuroscience start-up honored for developing a platform of novel CNS compounds known as psychoplastogens to treat mental disorders at scale BOSTON, Oct. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Delix Therapeutics (the Company) is honored to have been named by Fierce Biotech as one of 2021s Fierce 15 biotechnology companies, designating it as one of the most promising early-stage biotechnology companies in the industry. Delix is rapidly advancing its orally-bioavailable, fast-acting, take-home medicines capable of producing long-lasting beneficial re-wiring of neural circuitry to potentially treat depression and other psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders at scale  without the risk and safety liabilities inherent to first- and second-generation predecessors such as ketamine, psilocybin, LSD, 5-MeO-DMT, and MDMA. Fierce Biotech evaluates hundreds of early-stage companies, across all therapeutic areas, from around the world for its annual Fierce 15 list. Winners are selected based on a variety of factors, such as the strength of their scientific approach, leadership, technology, partnerships, venture backers, and scale of unmet needs they are solving for. Prior winners such as Moderna Therapeutics, Acceleron Pharma, Foundation Medicine, AveXis, and AbCellera Biologics, have become industry leaders with substantial contributions to the field of medicine. Being recognized among the Fierce 15 alongside some of the worlds top emerging companies across oncology, cell therapy, protein degradation and other disciplines, is a testament to Delixs groundbreaking neuroscience research, said Mark Rus, Delix Therapeutics CEO. We are honored by Fierces highlighting of our disovery and classification of a unique set of neuroplasticity-promoting compounds capable of producing sustained therapeutic effects in the central nervous system. Delix has built upon this discovery to establish a platform of over 1,000 novel compounds including several potential clinical development candidates that show great promise in offering a new way to help those suffering from mental health conditions.



Added David E. Olson, PhD, Delix Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer, Our innovative platform enables Delix to preserve the ability of first-generation psychedelics to re-wire the brain while eliminating hallucinatory responses and other safety liabilities. As our company grows, we are eager to expand our team with those who share our vision to advance efficacious, safe, and scalable compounds with the potential to reverse cortical atrophy  the root cause of many brain disorders. Widely published in such scientific journals as Cell, Nature, and Frontiers in Psychiatry, Delix Therapeutics recently closed a $70 million Series A financing round to fund the advancement of its two lead candidates through Phase 1 clinical trials, further expand its drug discovery platform, and rapidly grow its world-class team. The financing round was led by ARTIS Ventures, RA Capital Management, and founding investor OMX Ventures, with participation from a diverse syndicate of life sciences and psychedelic investment funds.

About Fierce Biotech

Fierce Biotech is the biotech industry's daily monitor, an email newsletter and web resource providing the latest biotech news, articles, and resources related to clinical trials, drug discovery, FDA approval, FDA regulation, patent news, pharma news, biotech company news and more. More than 300,000 top biopharma professionals rely on Fierce Biotech for an insider briefing on the day's top stories. Signup is free at www.fiercebiotech.com/signup. About Delix Therapeutics

Delix Therapeutics is a neuroscience company focused on harnessing the power of psychoplastogensnovel neuroplasticity-promoting therapeuticsto better treat mental health disorders at scale. The company's compounds are easily manufactured small molecules capable of rapidly inducing structural and functional neural changes in targeted areas of the brain. Many of these molecules are inspired by psychedelic compounds and preserve their efficacy-promoting mechanisms while avoiding their hallucinogenic properties and other safety liabilities. Delix is rapidly advancing these compounds through preclinical and clinical development to bring patients FDA-approved, take-home medicines that will serve several unmet needs. Headquartered in Massachusetts, Delix is building a world-class biotechnology company by combining an experienced team with innovative treatment strategies and scientific rigor to address the significant and growing mental health challenges impacting society. www.delixtherapeutics.com CONTACTS:

Investor Relations:

Timothy Regan

KCSA Strategic Communications

Delix@KCSA.com Media Relations:

Abby Berger

KCSA Strategic Communications

Delix@KCSA.com



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[October 04, 2021] DPI Raises One of the Largest Africa Funds at US$900m to Invest in Innovation-Led Companies

Development Partners International (DPI), a premier investment firm focused on Africa, today announced that African Development Partners III Fund (ADP III), has exceeded its US$800 million target, and is set to hold a final close at US$900 million, with an additional US$250m of dedicated co-investment capital. This brings a total of US$1.15 billion for investments on the continent. The fundraising establishes ADP III as one of the largest funds dedicated to investing global capital in Africa. ADP III will invest in established and growing companies in industries that benefit from Africa's fast-growing middle class and the increasing digital transformation of the continent. All investments have the highest standards of impact and environmental, social and governance ("ESG") work. In doing this work DPI is using its proprietary DPI Management System ("DPIMS") toolkit to deliver impact in line with 10 of the UN Sustainable Development goals, as well as driving the highest standards of ESG. Runa Alam, co-founder and Chief Executive of DPI commented: "Africa remains an exciting investment destination with positive demographics, rising adoption of technology, and rising consumer and business spending. Against this backdrop, DPI has continued to generate top quartile returns by leveraging our team's deep-rooted local expertise across the African continent. "As we look towards the future with our ADP III fund, we will focus on innovation-driven companies leading the digital transformation of the economies in which they operate. In addition, our deep integration of impact and ESG initiatives in the investment life cycle has been widely recognised and ensures we are known as a trusted partner." ADP III secured capital from a broad range of leading pension and sovereign wealth funds, development finance institutions, endowment and foundations, insurance companies, fund-of-funds, asset managers, and impact investors. The global investor base represents 20 countries across North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa. In addition to strong support from existing investors, DPI welcomed over 25 new LPs into its investor base. This is testament to DPI's track record and ability to create institutional-grade investment opportunities in Africa, while continuing to deliver sustained environmental and economic impact. Joanne Yoo, Managing Director at DPI, said, "The strong support for ADP III validates our strateic focus, creative approach and investment discipline. We are grateful for the trust that our investors have placed in DPI, and we are confident that our talented team will continue to deliver competitive returns and impact."



ADP III has made four investments to date, including: Channel VAS, a leading global fintech business providing mobile financial services;

SICAM, a leading Tunisian tomato producer, in one of the largest private equity transactions undertaken in the country;

Kelix Bio, a biopharmaceutical platform broadening access to speciality generic drugs across Africa; and

MNT-Halan, Egypt's leading fintech ecosystem. Additionally, DPI has a significant pipeline of investment opportunities across the continent, focused on key sectors of the economy such as financial services, healthcare, agri-business, education, and telecom infrastructure.

DPI places an emphasis on promoting best in class standards in ESG through its investments, with the aim of creating institutionalised high-performing companies at exit. Working with its portfolio companies, DPI seeks to contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals by implementing its proprietary Impact and ESG Management System based on three key impact themes: Job Quality, Climate Change, and Gender Balance. ADP III was the first African fund signatory to the Operating Principles for Impact Management ("Impact Principles"), an international market standard for impact investing and the first to be granted 2x Flagship Fund status, as part of the 2x Challenge, a gender-lens initiative. PJT Park Hill acted as advisor and placement agent for ADP III, and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP served as legal adviser for the Fund. Notes to Editors About DPI DPI is a premier investment firm focused on Africa, that has successfully advised funds through "up" and "down" cycles. Its first two funds, African Development Partners I and II (ADP I and ADP II), are ranked in the top quartile for performance by Cambridge Associates. DPI has US$2.8bn in assets under management across its funds and committed co-investments. The ADP funds' strategy is to build a diversified pan-African portfolio of private equity investments in established and growing companies benefiting from the continent's fast-growing middle class, innovation, and digital transformation Since DPI's founding in 2007, its funds have invested in 23 portfolio companies across 29 African countries and 17 industries. ADP portfolio companies employ over 49,000 people. During DPI's investment, 18,000 jobs have been created. In 2020, ADP III became the first 2X (News - Alert) Flagship Fund, as part of the global 2X Challenge, committing to integrate a gender lens into its investment process, and reflecting DPI's long-standing commitment to gender equity. DPI has a female co-founder and CEO, one-third of the partners are women, and 50% of the firm are women. As a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and the Operating Principles for Impact Management, DPI promotes high ESG and Impact standards and seeks to contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This includes the development of an innovative Impact and ESG Management System focusing on the following key impact themes: Job Quality: SDG 8

Climate Change: SDG 13

Gender Balance: SDG 5 Follow us on the web or LinkedIn. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211003005093/en/

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[October 04, 2021] European Electric Two-Wheeler Market to Grow with Massive CAGR of 27.6% Through 2025: P&S Intelligence

NEW YORK, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite a target of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 20% by 2020 from the levels recorded in 1990, emissions in Europe during 20152019 were above 2014 levels. This has been mainly attributed by the European Union (EU) to the increase in emissions from the transport sector. A big problem for a long while, Europe has been working hard to reduce these emissions, for which, apart from the Euro emission standards, several favorable initiatives to boost the purchase of electric vehicles (EV) have been implemented. P&S Intelligence cites both these reasons while projecting an increase in the European electric scooters and motorcycles market size to $758.5 million by 2025, at a 27.6% CAGR between 2020 and 2025. As most of the trips taken on vehicles in Europe are for short distances, replacing cars with two-wheelers, specifically electric ones, could help reduce emissions massively. In addition, Italy and Spain have always had a rich scooter culture, which could create big potential opportunities for electric two-wheeler manufacturers. Get the sample pages of this report at: https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/europe-electric-scooters-and-motorcycles-market/report-sample This is also why e-scooters have witnessed higher sales than e-motorcycles in the continent till now. Moreover, scooters are cheaper and available in more models, which helps boost their sales. However, scooters have less-powerful batteries and motors, which restrain their adoption to some extent. This is why sales of electric motorcycles are expected to pick up rapidly in the region in the years to come. Plus, with many of the highways in Europe, such as Germany's Autobahn network, not having any practical speed limit, hig-power electric motorcycles will appeal to the youth.



Browse detailed report on Europe Electric Scooters and Motorcycles Market Revenue, Industry Size and Growth Forecast to 2025 France held the largest share in the European electric scooters and motorcycles market in 2020 because of the strong government efforts to raise the usage of EVs for reducing the emission of GHGs. In the coming years, the highest CAGR is projected to be seen in Spain, where automakers are rapidly establishing manufacturing plants, drawn by the increasing public awareness on EVs and government efforts to drive their adoption. Moreover, the demand for electric two-wheelers in sharing services is growing in the country as people are taking efforts to make the urban traffic congestion problem less severe.

Browse More Reports Electric Scooter and Motorcycle Market Asia-Pacific is the most-productive electric scooter and motorcycle market, on account of the rising per capita income, rapid urbanization, and strong government support for EVs. Europe Electric Two-Wheeler Sharing Market In Europe, the demand for electric two-wheeler sharing services was observed to be the highest in Spain during the last few years. This was due to the existence of a vibrant scooter culture, especially in Barcelona. Market Breakdown Based on Product Scooter

Low-Powered Motorcycle

High-Powered Motorcycle Based on Power <1.5 kW

1.55 kW

615 kW

>15 kW Based on Voltage 48 V

60 V

72 V

100 V and Above Based on Cooling System Natural Convection

Forced Air Convection

Liquid Based on Maximum Speed <40 km/h

4080 km/h

>80 km/h Based on Battery Type Sealed Lead Acid

Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) Based on Battery Charging Mode Removable

Non-Removable Based on Charging Time <4 h

46 h

>6 h Based on Battery Capacity < 1 kWh

12.5 kWh

> 2.5 kWh Based on Range <50 km

50100 km

101150 km

>150 km Geographical Analysis Austria

Belgium

France

Germany

Italy

Netherlands

Spain

Switzerland

U.K.

Rest of Europe Based on OEMs Analysis Manufacturers Product Offerings and Their Specifications

Market Share Analysis of Key Players

Competitive Analysis of Key Players

Strategic Developments About P&S Intelligence P&S Intelligence is a provider of market research and consulting services catering to the market information needs of burgeoning industries across the world. Providing the plinth of market intelligence, P&S as an enterprising research and consulting company, believes in providing thorough landscape analyses on the ever-changing market scenario, to empower companies to make informed decisions and base their business strategies with astuteness. Contact:

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[October 04, 2021] The Future of Engineering Virtual Conference is Almost Here

The Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE) proudly presents Canada's largest engineering, diversity, recruitment and professional development conference on October 6 & 7, 2021 TORONTO, Oct. 4, 2021 /CNW/ - The Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE) proudly presents The Future of Engineering virtual conference, bringing engineers together with government, industry and academia to present and discuss the latest opportunities, challenges and innovations in engineering, and what must be done in Ontario and Canada to remain competitive. OSPE presents Canada's largest engineering, diversity, recruitment and professional development virtual conference.



Who: More than 2,000 attendees including government agencies, engineering employers, academic institutions and special guests

What: Technical presentations, panel discussions, virtual booths and one-on-one video networking

When: October 6 & 7 2021, 8:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Where: Online at www.engineeringconference.ca Learn from the brightest

Professional engineers and subject matter experts will discuss the latest in artificial intelligence, sustainability and innovation, the engineering workforce and equity, diversity and inclusion in the profession. All sessions will provide ample time for live Q&A sessions.

Canadian icon and CBC's Dragon's Den star Arlene Dickinson will provide a keynote address, sharing insights into her success as an entrepreneur. Her live presentation will also include Q&A with the audience  what is the best piece of advice Arlene has ever received? What business practices does she believe are here to stay post-pandemic? Connect with the best

Don't miss the opportunity to connect with more than 60 of Canada's top engineering employers and organizations that are actively recruiting. Network and connect with renowned industry experts and stakeholders in government and academia. For the full event agenda and to register today, visit www.engineeringconference.ca. About the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE)

As a member-driven professional association, the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE) brings the engineering community together to contribute knowledge, skills and leadership to help create a better future for the profession and society as a whole. OSPE supports engineers through advocacy, valued member services, networking and ongoing learning. OSPE envisions a diverse and inclusive profession where engineers lead within organizations and collaborate with government, industry and academia to solve Ontario's problems with evidence-based, innovative solutions. For more information about OSPE, please visit www.ospe.on.ca. SOURCE Ontario Society of Professional Engineers

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Hexion Joins the United Nations Global Compact

Hexion Inc., a leading producer of adhesives, coatings and composite resins, today announced that it has joined the United Nations (UN) Global Compact, the world's largest voluntary corporate sustainability initiative.

The UN Global Compact challenges companies to conduct business responsibly by aligning their operations and strategies with the UN's Ten Principles which pertain to human rights, labor, environmental practices and anti-corruption. It also commits companies to take actions to advance broader social benefits, in accordance with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

With more than 14,000 companies in over 160 countries participating, the UN Global Compact holds members to the highest sustainability standards.

"We are proud to join forces with the United Nations Global Compact in an effort to further accelerate our sustainability efforts," said Craig Rogerson, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. "Many of Hexion's sustainability goals have been developed to trategically align with the UN SDGs. With this membership, we plan to continue implementing practices that align with these objectives for the betterment of our communities and the environment."







Participation in the UN Global Compact requires signatories to report yearly on their commitment to the universal sustainability principles and development goals. Hexion's annual Sustainability Report will outline the company's ongoing efforts and progress. To learn more about the UN Global Compact, visit https://www.unglobalcompact.org.

About the Company

Based in Columbus, Ohio, Hexion Inc. is a global leader in thermoset resins. Hexion Inc. serves the global adhesive, coatings, composites and industrial markets through a broad range of thermoset technologies, specialty products and technical support for customers in a diverse range of applications and industries. Additional information about Hexion Inc., its products and sustainability is available at www.hexion.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005090/en/
[October 04, 2021] HST Pathways Welcomes New Chief Financial Officer Susan Kane to its C-Suite Executive Team

HST Pathways, a leading provider of end-to-end software solutions for the ambulatory surgery industry, today announced the addition of industry expert Susan Kane to its executive team as the new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for the company. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005104/en/ Susan Kane is the new Chief Financial Officer for HST Pathways, a leading provider of end-to-end ambulatory surgery solutions (Photo: Business Wire) Kane brings over thirty years of healthcare technology experience to HST Pathways, including previously serving as the CFO for Censis Technologies and Lakeland Healthcare Group. Her areas of expertise include SaaS (News - Alert) , physician practice management, home healthcare, and managed care plans, in addition to her specialties relating to her CFO role including finance, medical coding, payor contracting, credentialing, and medical billing, among others. "We are delighted and grateful to welcome Susan into the HST Pathways family," said David Thawley, Chief Executive Officr of HST Pathways. "Her impressive track record of success as a CFO in the healthcare tech world is a great benefit to both our existing customers, our firm, and our rapidly expanding footprint in the ASC (News - Alert) industry. Additionally, Susan brings to HST Pathways deep and extensive experience leading financial operations for healthcare technology businesses, which will be a tremendous asset for our team as we execute upon our vision to deliver a peerless end-to-end ASC management platform."



Kane will be joining a growing c-suite at HST Pathways that includes industry leaders with long-standing, stellar reputations for ambulatory surgery center (ASC) innovation and excellence. "HST Pathways' solutions play an important role in patient outcomes, and was a great match with my previous CFO experience," said Kane. "I love working in high growth environments where strategic thinking, extraordinary teams, and collaboration significantly impact the performance of the business. I am looking forward to working with Dave and the rest of the HST Pathways team to help bring the company to the next level."

Kane received her Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from Middle Tennessee State University and is a Certified Public Accountant in Tennessee. In 2020, Kane was honored as "Nashville CFO of the Year" in the Small Private Company category by Nashville Business Journal for her achievements at Censis Technologies. About HST Pathways HST Pathways, a Bain Capital Company, is the leading provider of a suite of products under the "HST One" membership offering, including practice management software, care coordination, revenue cycle optimization, supply chain management, case costing, patient engagement and communication, an electronic health record system, and data analytics. See why more than 1,300 clients are choosing HST Pathways by visiting www.hstpathways.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005104/en/

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[October 04, 2021] INTERSWITCH partners with INTERSTELLAR to develop Blockchain-powered Infrastructure Services and Solutions

Lagos, Nigeria, Oct. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Interstellar and Interswitch have been working together over the last two years, carrying out blockchain technology research. As part of the partnership, Interstellars Blockchain technology stack called STARGATE will be integrated with Interswitchs industry-leading payments and digital commerce technology. This will advance the shared vision of the businesses to drive greater financial inclusion and prosperity across the continent.

Both companies have been preparing for the blockchain revolution in the African market with several ongoing initiatives including a Pan African Payment Ecosystem (PAPE) powered by a private permissioned blockchain network which includes a consortium of Banks and Fintech players. Ernest Mbenkum, Founder and CEO at Interstellar, commented, We are delighted to have established this strategic partnership with Interswitch, one of Africas most valuable fintech businesses. This marks the genesis of an innovative and collaborative partnership aimed at delivering impact-focused and enterprise grade blockchain-powered services across the African continent. Interswitch has been at the forefront of major innovation milestones in payments in Nigeria for the last 20 years, garnering recognition along the line as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in Africa (Deloitte Fast-Growth 50) and gaining acclaim as the first homegrown African Fintech Unicorn following a minority investment by Visa in late 2019. Today, Interswitchs current business footprint covers more than 26 countries in Africa. Akeem Lawal, Divisional Chief Executive Officer for Transaction Switching and Payment Processing at Interswitch commented, em>We are excited to partner with Interstellar on this journey and we look forward to the amazing things we will achieve together in the African market. This new alliance underscores the directional evolution of our blockchain innovation strategy which is premised on 3 core pillars:



Strategically developing a native, proprietary enterprise-grade distributed ledger technology stack that is practically tailored to the African context.

Progressively digitizing multiple industry value-chains across African markets

Supporting the actualization of the Pan African Payment Ecosystem (PAPE), riding the wave of opportunities created by such initiatives as the AfCFTA ( African Continental Free Trade Area ).



The adoption of distributed ledger technology applications in Africa offers significant potential for advancing socio-economic growth, empowerment of communities, digitization of industries, lowering the costs of local and cross border payments, localization of emerging technology and the development of African tech talent.

Looking at recent trends, the African continent has been seen to be progressively embracing contemporary innovation in digital currency, with Central Banks and other payment service providers actively championing some of these interventions. These trends present multiple advantages and opportunities for deepening payment systems across the continent, and this timely partnership between Interswitch and Interstellar represents another significant milestone in the journey. ABOUT INTERSTELLAR Founded in 2017, Interstellar is a technology company that powers critical blockchain infrastructure for digital payments and financial institutions across Africa. It was instrumental in the development and rollout of the Bantu Blockchain , the first Africa-led blockchain infrastructure and protocol. Interstellar works with startups, enterprises, and public sector institutions to build and manage the best Decentralised Finance (DeFi), cross-border, and peer-to-peer applications. As more organizations continue to adopt Blockchain technology, Interstellar has developed a robust yet simple service transition and delivery model. This has enabled Interstellars clients to seamlessly transition from their legacy systems with minimal business disruption. The Interstellar team is currently spread across Cameroon, Canada and Nigeria. ABOUT INTERSWITCH Founded in 2002, Interswitchs broad network and robust payments platform have been instrumental to the development of the Nigerian payments ecosystem and provide Interswitch with credibility to expand across Africa. ? It operates as an integrated technology company with digital payments, transaction processing and e-commerce capabilities and provides technology integration, advisory support, digital payments, digital commerce, financial inclusion, payment infrastructure and healthtech services across Africa. Interswitch remains a leading player with critical mass in Africas rapidly developing financial ecosystem and is active across the payments value chain, providing a full suite of omni-channel payment solutions. ? Media contact: Company: Interstellar Inc. E-mail: media@interstellar.cm Website: https://interstellar.cm Company: Interswitch Group E-mail: gmcc@interswitchgroup.com Website: https://www.interswitchgroup.com





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[October 04, 2021] INVESTOR ALERT: Law Offices of Howard G. Smith Announces Investigation of Owlet, Inc. (OWLT) on Behalf of Investors

Law Offices of Howard G. Smith announces an investigation on behalf of Owlet, Inc. ("Owlet" or the "Company") (NYSE: OWLT) investors concerning the Company's possible violations of federal securities laws. On October 4, 2021, Owlet revealed that it had received a warning letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA"), which stated that "the Company's marketing of its Owlet Smart Sock product . . . renders [it] a medical device requiring premarket clearance or approval from FDA." Owlet has not obtained such clearance or approval. Moreover, the FDA "requests the Company cease commercial distribution of the Smart Sock for ses in measuring blood oxygen saturation and pulse rate where such metrics are intended to identify or diagnose desaturation and bradycardia using an alarm functionality to notify users that measurements are outside of preset values."



On this news, the Company's stock price fell as much as 23% during intraday trading on October 4, 2021, thereby injuring investors. If you purchased Owlet securities, have information or would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Howard G. Smith, Esquire, of Law Offices of Howard G. Smith, 3070 Bristol Pike, Suite 112, Bensalem, Pennsylvania 19020 by telephone at (215) 638-4847, toll-free at (888) 638-4847, or by email to howardsmith@howardsmithlaw.com, or visit our website at www.howardsmithlaw.com.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005921/en/

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[October 04, 2021] IsZo Capital Pleased by Dismissal of Nam Tai's Appeal of March 2021 Court Ruling That Voided the Company's $170 Million Private Placement

IsZo Capital Management LP (together with its affiliates, "IsZo" or "we"), which beneficially owns approximately 15% of the outstanding shares of Nam Tai Property Inc. (NYSE: NTP) ("Nam Tai" or the "Company"), is pleased that the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal (the "Court of Appeal") has dismissed Nam Tai's appeal against the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court's (the "Court") March 2021 decision to void the Company's October 2020 $170 million private placement with Kaisa Group Holdings Limited's (HKG: 1638) ("Kaisa") wholly-owned subsidiary, Greater Sail Limited ("Greater Sail"), and West Ridge Investment Company Limited. The Court of Appeal's three-member panel unanimously decided to dismiss Nam Tai's appeal. The decision from the Court of Appeal follows the Court finding that Nam Tai's Board of Directors (the "Board") acted for an improper purpose when initiating the highly-dilutive private placement last year. Nam Tai told shareholders at the time that it initiated the transaction in order to "mitigate meaningful risks to our financial stability," but the Court rightly found that it was initiated in order to maintain Kaisa's de facto control over the Company and undermine IsZo's efforts to reconstitute the Board at a requisitioned meeting of shareholders (the "SpecialMeeting").



The Special Meeting is now set to be held on November 30, 2021. Brian Sheehy, Founder and Managing Member of IsZo, stated:

"IsZo believes the Court of Appeal's dismissal of Nam Tai's appeal is an extremely positive outcome for shareholders unaffiliated with Kaisa. After spending nearly 18 months combatting the Kaisa-controlled Board's anti-shareholder actions and overt entrenchment maneuvers, IsZo now sees a clear path for shareholders to elect ethical and experienced directors at the November 30th Special Meeting. Our slate, which has significant experience operating in China and navigating commercial property markets, has a plan for immediately improving governance, maintaining financial strength and deepening relationships with local stakeholders. We firmly believe our slate has the right strategy for realizing the tremendous value trapped within Nam Tai's shares." When the Court of Appeal's written decision is made available, IsZo plans to upload a copy to www.FixNTP.com. IsZo will be monitoring all other case-related developments, including Greater Sail's appeal this week, and will provide additional updates as available. *** Shareholders interested in learning more should contact our solicitor, Saratoga Proxy Consulting, at info@saratogaproxy.com or (212) 257-1311. We also encourage shareholders to learn more about our slate and sign up for important updates by visiting www.FixNTP.com. *** View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005781/en/

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[October 04, 2021] Legal Service Organizations Sue Biden Administration to Demand Transparency in Processing of Unaccompanied Children Under "Remain in Mexico" Policy

The Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project (GHIRP), YMCA of Greater Houston, International Services (YMCA), and Justice Action Center (JAC), represented by Bracewell LLP, filed on Friday, October 1st, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit demanding the federal government provide transparency in its processing of unaccompanied children at the southern border. The suit demands that the Biden administration provide documentation pertaining to any immigration proceedings that these unaccompanied children may have previously been subjected to with their families under the Trump-era "Remain in Mexico" policy, also known as MPP. Despite the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announcing last week that it is planning on issuing a new memo to end the policy, the agency acknowledged that "terminating MPP will not take effect until the current injunction is lifted by court order." Public reports estimate that there have been at least 700 to 800 children who have presented at the border "unaccompanied," but since they had been previously processed through "Remain n Mexico" with their families, they are being denied the same rights as other unaccompanied minors. As a result, these children experience delays and confusion when attempting to reunite with family or sponsors. In some cases, some of these children have even been deported overnight without due process in violation of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), which categorically guarantees all unaccompanied children the right to seek asylum through child-centric, non-adversarial proceedings.



"All unaccompanied children seeking asylum should be afforded the same standards and protections, regardless of any previous contact with immigration officials they may have had with their families," said Jane Bentrott, counsel at JAC. "We hope this lawsuit leads to much needed transparency around DHS' processing of unaccompanied minors, which has thus far been shrouded in secrecy and has resulted in significant harm to children and their families." "US immigration law explicitly mandates certain protections for unaccompanied children arriving at our borders, including the right to seek asylum," said Chiqui Sanchez Kennedy, Executive Director, GHIRP. "Through MPP, immigration authorities have blocked unaccompanied minors from accessing the courts and protection in the US. To advocate for immigrant youth, we need to know the legal justification for these enforcement policies which violate longstanding immigration laws and put children in harm's way."

"Unless we have transparency, we, as advocates, cannot do our jobs," said Nicole Sam, Senior Program Director, YMCA International Services, Immigration Legal Services. "Our hope in filing this lawsuit is that we will gain a better understanding as to the legal justifications surrounding these policies that continue to negatively impact the unaccompanied minors we serve." The FOIA lawsuit can be viewed here. GHIRP is a nimble, independent project focused exclusively on immigration legal services, litigation, and partnerships in the Galveston-Houston area. GHIRP's legal services model - profound client-centered services combined with direct representation - promotes lasting reform in the immigrant justice system. Visit our website at ghirp.org. Justice Action Center (JAC) is a new nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting for greater justice for immigrant communities by combining litigation and storytelling. JAC is committed to bringing additional litigation resources to address unmet needs, empower clients, and change the corrosive narrative around immigrants in the U.S. Learn more at justiceactioncenter.org. YMCA International Services is a unique center of the YMCA of Greater Houston that addresses the legal, social services, and educational needs of newcomers, vulnerable immigrants, and youth in the community. YMCA International Services is committed to providing holistic case management and legal services to support clients as they move towards self-sufficiency and independence. Learn more about our agency at ymcahouston.org/locations/ymca-international-services. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005784/en/

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[October 04, 2021] Life Clips Subsidiary Belfrics Fully Up And Operational On Offering Crypto Derivatives and Leveraged Forex Instruments On Its Platform

Belfrics is 100% operational offering crypto derivatives and leveraged forex instruments https://tradefx.belfrics.io/belfricsweb11/Account/Login

AVENTURA, Fla., Oct. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Life Clips, Inc. (OTC Pink: LCLP) (the Company), is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary Belfrics International Limited (Labuan) Malaysia, which holds a money broker license from Labuan Financial Services Authority, is fully operational offering crypto derivatives and leveraged forex instruments on its platform. Belfrics clients are now trading crypto derivatives and leveraged forex instruments. About Us Life Clips is the parent company of Belfrics Global and Cognitive Apps Software Solutions Inc. Belfrics Global is a Malaysian based blockchain provider and cryptocurrency exchange and platform that is licensed and regulated by Labuan Financial Services Authority (LFSA), Malaysia. With 10 operational offices in 8 countries, Belfrics multi-feature trading platform offers digital assets, cryptocurrencies, and crypto derivative contracts to its clients. Belfrics blockchain has been recognized by Gartner as being a top 10 blockchain in terms of real-world projects and has received a patent for its Belrium KYC verification System (BKVS) by the Nigerian patent authority. Cognitive Apps is disrupting the space of mental health with its speech-based, AI-powered mental health analytics platform that empowers businesses to measure, understand, and improve the mental well-being of their employees, patients, and customers. Aiki delivers CBT and IPT therapies using a chatbot which and includes the Yuru voice analysis solution that takes in other health data from Apple and Google HealthKit to make amore accurate analysis of ones mental health. Aiki was developed to capitalize on the trend towards artificial intelligence platforms utilized by employers to raise awareness of employees mental health. Cognitive Apps Yuru is a 3-in-1 tool developed by a team of licensed psychotherapists that makes use of vocal biomarkers to screen for early signs of mental health conditions, such as stress and depression. Yuru is available on Apples App Store.



For more information on Life Clips visit www.lifeclips.com For more information on Belfrics Global visit www.belfricsgroup.com

For more information on Cognitive Apps Software Solutions visit https://cogapps.com Forward-Looking Statement Disclaimer This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. 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 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: (i) the initiation, timing, progress and results of the Companys research, manufacturing and other development efforts; (ii) the Companys ability to advance its products to successfully complete development and commercialization; (iii) the manufacturing, development, commercialization, and market acceptance of the Companys products; (iv) the lack of sufficient funding to finance the product development and business operations; (v) competitive companies and technologies within the Companys industry and introduction of competing products; (vi) the Companys ability to establish and maintain corporate collaborations; (vii) loss of key management personnel; (viii) the scope of protection the Company is able to establish and maintain for intellectual property rights covering its products and its ability to operate its business without infringing the intellectual property rights of others; (ix) potential failure to comply with applicable health information privacy and security laws and other state and federal privacy and security laws; and (x) the difficulty of predicting actions of the government and its regulations. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date of this press release. The Company assumes no obligation to update any written or oral forward-looking statement unless required by law. For Media and Investor Relations, please contact: David L. Kugelman

(866) 692-6847 Toll Free - U.S. & Canada

(404) 281-8556 Mobile and WhatsApp

dk@atlcp.com

Skype: kugsusa

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidkugelman/



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[October 04, 2021] Love Pharma Makes Public Debut in Emerging Sexual Health, Wellness, and Psychedelics Markets

NEW YORK, NY, Oct. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Love Pharma Inc. (CSE: LUV), formerly Glenbriar Technologies, Inc., is a new-age pharma/nutraceutical company that specializes in the global sexual health, wellness and psychedelics markets by licensing and distributing psychedelic and cannabis-infused products. The company ushered in a new era of health and wellness as it began trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange last week under the new name and ticker symbol. As Love Pharma sets out to bring psychedelic therapies, pharmaceutical alternatives, and sexual enrichment products to market, it will immediately propel its current CBD-infused brands, Bloom and Auralief, into the marketplace while it continues to develop a host of additional patent-protected products in the companys pipeline. https://love-pharma.com/products Love Pharmas Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Zachary Stadnyk, a long-time corporate finance advisory professional, is no stranger to launching companies in the public arena. And he and his team have positioned the company to compete in three fast-growing marketstwo are widely popular, the global CBD market, and the global sexual health and wellness market, while the other is an emerging but rapidly increasing market, the global psychedelic market, aka, the shroom boom. To that end, Love Pharma acquired BC-based Kick Pharmaceuticals, a specialized health and wellness company, and with the acquisition gained the exclusive rights and licenses to produce, market, package, sell and distribute six pharmaceutical and therapeutic products throughout Europe, North America, and the United Kingdom. Love Pharmas vision is to develop products that target both mental and sexual health to improve the quality of everyday life for all individuals. The sheer popularity of the markets, in which Love Pharma will compete, offers myriad opportunities for expansion in North America and on the global stage with an array of high-demand products. First, when developing nutraceuticals, the company focuses on pharmaceutical-alternative substances with physiological benefits, such as CBD and THC, which can be found in both of its initial products. Love Pharmas first nutraceutical products, include Bloom, a topical gel infused with CBD and/or THC, that increases blood flow and sensitivity, and Auralief CBD oral strips, the companys discreet cannabis-infused oral strip that speeds-up and enhances the desired effects of THC and CBD. One market advantage that Love Pharma will enjoy over many of its competitors during its development process is the companys demand for clinical validation. Love Pharma supports its products with as much research and clinical data as possible. For instance, Bloom is clinically proven to increase the number, intensity, and speed of orgasms in women, and Auralief is supported by a recent human trial that demonstrated a greater than 30% increase in efficacy and speed to performance of THC and CBD. Additionally, FSD, a female sexual dysfunction supplement in the companys product development pipeline, is supported by a clinical trial demonstrating an overall reported increase in desire, satisfaction, and orgasms in women. Timing is everything and Love Pharma has chosen exactly the right time to join the extremely popular cannabis industry, and more specifically, the CBD market. According to analysts at Fortune Business Insights, the global CBD market is projected to grow from approximately $3.7 billion in 2021 to about $55.8 billion in 2028 at a CAGR of 47.49% between 2021 and 2028. The firm attributes the substantial rise in CAGR to demand and growth within the CBD market, manufacturers focusing on formulating new product offerings infused with CBD to provide consumers with easy access, and the market returning to pre-pandemic levels once the coronavirus pandemic subsides. Meanwhile, the growth in the CBD products market has been so monumental that leading cannabis researchers, BDS Analytics and Arcview Market Research, are projecting that the collective market fo CBD sales in the U.S. alone will surpass $20 billion by 2024. Another report by Data Bridge Market Research, a leading global market research firm, analyzed the CBD-infused edible market and projected it will grow at a CAGR of 25% in its forecast period of 2020 to 2027.



The CEO has the company focused on generating revenue and growing market share with its patent-protected product portfolio by maximizing global distribution channels, including direct-to-consumer, retail brick and mortar, online shops and MLM markets. Love Pharma has partnered with popular CBD distributor Love Hemp to launch its brands outside of North America, and because Zachary Stadnyk is very familiar with the ballooning CBD market in the U.S., Love Pharma has proactively partnered with Potent Ventures to launch both Bloom and Auralief to reach the growing number of CBD consumers in the U.S. market. Next, in the psychedelic space, Love Pharma is currently developing a biosynthetic psilocybin-infused oral strip. The company is using the same proven and existing intellectual property for its psilocybin-infused product that was used to develop the muco-adhesive strip found in Love Pharmas CBD oral strips.

Psychedelics, like psilocybin, may be an emerging market, but according to a report from Research and Markets, its an exploding market. In its report, the firm estimates the size of the psychedelics market to reach $10.75 billion by 2027, up from just $4.75 billion last year and growing at a CAGR of 12.36% during the report period of 2021-2027. Finally, Love Pharma is set up for success with its entrance into both the psychedelic and cannabis-infused markets, but its unique approach should segue nicely into the lucrative sexual health and wellness market too. Sexual health and wellness can encompass a wide range of products from sexual enhancement to sexual dysfunction to lubricants. Love Pharma has developed and continues to develop intimate enhancement products to increase circulation while providing anti-inflammatory benefits. The global sexual health and wellness market is estimated to grow rapidly according to a report published by Research and Markets last month. In the report, Research and Markets stated that amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for sexual health and wellness, estimated at $30 billion in 2020, is projected to reach a revised market size of $41.6 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 4.8% over the analysis period 2020-2027. The report highlights the U.S., China, Canada, Japan, and Germany as noteworthy fast-growing geographic markets in the industry. Love Pharma is ideally situated to grow and to grow quickly as it competes in three separate markets that are each enjoying their own incredible growth. The extreme popularity of the products that the CBD, psychedelic, and sexual health and wellness markets attract show no signs, whatsoever, of slowing, and are ideal for Love Pharma to move into and establish their own footprint within each of these industries. To learn more about Love Pharma Inc., visit https://love-pharma.com or email investors@love-pharma.com About Love Pharma Inc. Love Pharma Inc. is a Canadian Securities Exchange-traded company. The new-age pharma/nutraceutical company is specializing in global sexual health, wellness, and psychedelics markets. Founded in 2020, Love Pharmas mission is to bring innovative products to market that enhance sexual health and wellness while providing an improved quality of life. Love Pharma holds exclusive licenses to produce, market, package, sell, and distribute patent-protected therapeutic and pharmaceutical products throughout Europe, the United Kingdom, and North America. Love Pharma anticipates increasing value for its shareholders through continued mergers and acquisitions that complement its strong portfolio of intellectual property. About Stock Market Media Group Stock Market Media Group is a news and media content development IR firm offering a platform for corporate stories to unfold in the media with press releases, feature news articles, research reports, corporate videos, and radio-style CEO interviews. This article was written based on publicly available information. Stock Market Media Group may, from time to time, include our own opinions about the companies, their business, markets and opportunities in our articles. Any opinions we may offer about any of the companies we write about are solely our own and are made in reliance upon our rights under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and are provided solely for the general opinionated discussion of our readers. Our opinions should not be considered to be complete, precise, accurate, or current investment advice, or construed or interpreted as research. Any investment decisions you may make concerning any of the securities we write about are solely your responsibility based on your own due diligence. Our publications are provided only as an informational aid, and as a starting point for doing additional independent research. We encourage you to invest carefully and read the investor information available at the web site of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov . We also recommend, as a general rule, that before investing in any securities, you consult with a professional financial planner or advisor, and you should conduct a complete and independent investigation before investing in any security after prudent consideration of all pertinent risks. We are not a registered broker, dealer, analyst, or advisor. We hold no investment licenses and may not sell, offer to sell, or offer to buy any security. Our publications about Love Pharma are not a recommendation to buy or sell a security. Should Stock Market Media Group and its management own shares in the profiled company, they may benefit from any increase in the share price of the profiled companies and hold the right to sell the shares bought at any given time including shortly after the release of the companys profile. Section 17(b) of the 1933 Securities and Exchange Act requires publishers who distribute information about publicly traded securities for compensation, to disclose who paid them, the amount, and the type of payment. Under the Securities Act of 1933, Section 17(b), Stock Market Media Group discloses that it was remunerated one-thousand, two hundred dollars paid for by a third party via bank wire, to produce this content related to Love Pharma. Stock Market Media Group and its management do not own any shares in Love Pharma and never accepts compensation in free-trading shares for its marketing services of the company being profiled, however third parties that have compensated Stock Market Media Group may hold free-trading shares of the company being profiled and could very well be selling, holding or buying shares of the companys stock at the same time the content is being disseminated to potential investors; this should be viewed as a definite conflict of interest and as such, the reader should take this into consideration. If Stock Market Media Group ever accepts compensation in the form of free trading shares of the company being profiled and decides to sell these shares into the public market at any time before, during, or after the release of the companys profile, our disclaimer will be updated accordingly to reflect the current position of any free trading shares received as compensation for our services. For more information: www.stockmarketmediagroup.com

Contact: Stock Market Media Group info@stockmarketmediagroup.com

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[October 04, 2021] Madwire Lands Spot on D.A. Davidson's annual The Herd Top 100 Private U.S. Tech Companies

FORT COLLINS, Colo., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Madwire is thrilled to announce their inclusion on D.A. Davidson's annual The Herd Top 100 Private U.S. Tech Companies. The Herd highlights 100 of the top private technology companies in the United States, ranging from startups to late-stage funded giants. Companies that made the list stand out for their exciting innovation, growth, and market positioning. The selections were made based on growth rate, market awareness, scale, capitalization, and other proprietary analytics generated by D.A. Davidson. This year's list incorporates a highly diverse group consisting of names across cloud, collaboration, fintech, human capital management, infrastructure, sales and marketing, security, and vertical software. More than 50% of the companies were founded within the past 10 years. "It's a tremendous honor to be included on such a prestigious list of privately held companies in the U.S.," said Jerry Kelly, Madwire CMO. "The last year and half hasn't been easy, but we are proud of our continued and sustained growth and will continue to fulfill our mission of helping small businesses grow through our powerful technology, Marketing 360." Companies in The Herd have seen impressive growth in all areas, even over the past year and a half, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The median employee count of The Herd companies is more than 750. Madwire is joined by two other Colorado companies who also made the list  Weltok out of Denver and brightfin out of Centennial. The full list can be foud here .



About Madwire

Madwire is a technology company that provides business management and marketing software and services for SMBs and franchises through its technology platform, Marketing 360. The Marketing 360 platform gives SMBs everything they need to manage and grow their business from a singular platform, including the ability to  build a professional website, accept and manage payments, manage leads and customers, book appointments, monitor reviews, manage social media, syndicate business listings, manage content marketing, run multi-channel digital advertising campaigns, and more. Marketing 360 was founded in 2009 with the mission of enriching communities by helping small businesses grow, and is headquartered in Fort Collins, Colorado, with offices in Austin, Texas. Learn more about Madwire at www.madwire.com. About D.A Davidson Companies

D.A. Davidson Companies is an employee-owned financial services firm offering a range of financial services and advice to individuals, corporations, institutions and municipalities nationwide. Founded in 1935 and headquartered in Montana, with corporate offices in Denver, Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle, the company has approximately 1,400 employees and offices in 28 states.

Subsidiaries include: D.A. Davidson & Co., the largest full-service investment firm headquartered in the Northwest, providing wealth management, investment banking, equity and fixed income capital markets services, and advice; Davidson Investment Advisors, a professional asset management firm; D.A. Davidson Trust Company, a trust and wealth management company; and Davidson Fixed Income Management, a registered investment adviser providing fixed income portfolio and advisory services. For more information, visit dadavidson.com. Contact:

Farra Lanzer

970-541-3284

320260@email4pr.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/madwire-lands-spot-on-da-davidsons-annual-the-herd-top-100-private-us-tech-companies-301391454.html SOURCE Madwire

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[October 04, 2021] MedCraft Healthcare Real Estate Partners with Yale New Haven Health System to Finalize the Purchase of Vacant Macy's Store at Meriden Mall in CT

MedCraft Healthcare Real Estate, a leading healthcare real estate firm that provides advisory, development and financing services to health systems and physician practices, facilitated the acquisition for Yale New Haven Health System (YNHHS) - Connecticut's leading healthcare system offering more than 100 medical specialties. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005688/en/ (Graphic: Business Wire) The previously unoccupied 179,285 square-foot Macy's store attached to the Meriden Mall at 460 Lewis Avenue in Meriden, CT, is now fully owned by YNHHS and will be repurposed as a retail health facility. YNHHS partnered with MedCraft to locate, assess and facilitate the acquisition of a new site to expand its ambulatory care services in a key market.



"We're thrilled that YNHHS chose MedCraft as a strategic advisor to identify, evaluate and negotiate the acquisition of a location of this complexity, scale and importance," said Steve Bruckeridge, Development Principal with MedCraft. "We brought an experienced, multidisciplinary team to conduct a comprehensive analysis of potential sites that could meet YNHHS' criteria based on market location, functionality, cost and constructability. With our retail redevelopment expertise and collaboration with the YNHHS team, the City of Meriden, Macy's and Namdar Realty Group (the Meriden Mall owner), we were able to find the optimal site." One Location, Multiple Benefits

The vacant Macy's property provides YNHHS with the opportunity to create an innovative, consumer-focused facility with numerous advantages, including: Complementary services and amenities for patients and visitors

A highly convenient, visible and well-known location for patients, accessible from key interstate highways

A building configuration that can be repurposed for YNHHS's clinical program and future expansion plans

A cooperative city committed to facilitating investment and healthcare expansion into the community Learn More Download MedCraft's article - "Repurposing Retail Space: Top Consideration for Renovating Big- Box (News - Alert) Structures" - here. About MedCraft Healthcare Real Estate, LLC MedCraft Healthcare Real Estate is a national leader in the development, financing, and management of ambulatory care and medical office buildings. MedCraft focuses solely on healthcare real estate projects and has partnered with healthcare systems and physicians in more than 85 projects totaling $3.5 billion throughout their 37-year operating history. Visit www.MedCraft.com. To schedule an interview with MedCraft, contact abbey@outlookmarketingsrv.com. For any media inquiries involving YNHHS, contact Vincent.Petrini@ynhhs.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005688/en/

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[October 04, 2021] mPrest mDERMS and mTHM Now Available in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace

TEL AVIV, Israel and BOULDER, Colo., Oct. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- mPrest, a leading developer and provider of distributed asset orchestration and optimization software for the energy market, today announced its Distributed Energy Resource Management (mDERMS) applications suite and its Transformer Health Management (mTHM) applications suite are now available in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, an online store providing applications and services for use on Azure. mPrest customers can now take advantage of the scalability, high availability, and security of Azure, with streamlined deployment and management.

mPrest has built its mDERMS system from the ground up, creating a solution that is less rigid in architecture and enables companies and users to scale, not replace, their existing distribution management systems (DMS) and advanced distribution management solutions (ADMS). mDERMS uniquely acts as a system-of-systems, integrating not only with SCADA software, DMS and ADMS systems, but also with third-party distributed energy resources (DERs), virtual power plant (VPP) operators, and microgrid management systems. mDERMS is designed and built in a micro-services architecture that is suited to leverage the Microsoft Azure hosting environment. Reduced time to market, rapid deployment and streamlined support, all made possible by Azure, creates operational efficiency and lower cost. This suite of applications revolutionizes the way energy companies, distribution and transmission utilities and energy retailers manage their energy systems.



In parallel, mPrest has built mTHM, which empowers energy companies to monitor the health of their transformers, leveraging advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms. mTHM provides real-time monitoring, powerful analytics, highly accurate predictions, and alerts regarding the condition of transformers and other critical assets. The system collects data from multiple transformer sensors, incorporates historical data and performs advanced analytics to detect abnormalities  even when they occur between thresholds  and enable real-time predictive maintenance. By combining standards-based transformer testing with advanced analytics and predictive capabilities, mPrest helps you avoid unplanned downtime, lower maintenance costs, and extend transformer lifetime. The energy revolution, spearheaded by decarbonization, decentralization, and digitization, is creating new challenges and opportunities for energy companies (utilities and new emerging energy providers) that drive the need for integration between existing legacy systems and new technologies, said Andrew Bennett, CEO of mPrest Inc. As a Microsoft partner, we share a common goal of shaping the future of energy while fulfilling demand with new renewable energy sources.

Jake Zborowski, General Manager, Microsoft Azure Platform at Microsoft Corp. said, Were pleased to welcome mPrest and its mDERMS and mTHM applications to the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, which gives our partners great exposure to cloud customers around the globe. Azure Marketplace offers world-class quality experiences from global trusted partners with solutions tested to work seamlessly with Azure. Learn more about mPrest and its mDERMS and mTHM applications in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. The Azure Marketplace is an online market for buying and selling cloud solutions certified to run on Azure. The Azure Marketplace helps connect companies seeking innovative, cloud-based solutions with partners who have developed solutions that are ready to use. About mPrest  Empower Digital Transformation. Now.

Leveraging its unparalleled experience and expertise in real-time mission-critical command and control software, mPrest has developed the world-leading distributed asset orchestration and optimization software. mPrests micro-services based, real-time orchestration and optimization platform brings the power of AI and IoT to the digital transformation of various industries, from energy and smart cities, through oil & gas, connected cars, water, defense and other industry 4.0 applications. mPrests applications suite, including Distributed Energy Resources Management Systems (DERMS) and Asset Health Management (AHM) are deployed on premise or in the cloud in record time in the most forward-looking and efficient organizations worldwide, including some of the worlds largest energy companies. mPrests vendor-agnostic product suite interfaces with millions of sensors, devices, machines, assets, subsystems, IT and OT applications, creating a system of systems that provides end-to-end visibility and control over complex and distributed operations. Visit us at www.mprest.com For more information, press only:

FischTank PR

mprest@fischtankpr.com



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NTT DATA Launches Smart Back to Work Application to Support Government and Business COVID-19 Requirements

NTT DATA, a digital business and IT services leader, today announced the launch of a Smart Back to Work Application designed to help government organizations and private employers comply with vaccine mandates. The Biden Administration recently announced multiple initiatives to strengthen safety protocols across the federal government and private sector, including issuing two executive orders requiring vaccinations for federal employees and many federal contractors.

Additionally, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is developing a rule that will require private sector employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated or require any workers who remain unvaccinated to produce a negative test result on at least a weekly basis before coming to work. With approximately 9.1 million federal government workers, complying with this recent executive order will require advanced data, analytics and the ability to seamlessly enable workers and employers to implement safety protocols required by these mandates.

NTT (News - Alert) DATA's Smart Back to Work Application is easily accessible from a mobile phone, tablet or computer. Within a few minutes, employees can upload proof of vaccination, attest to their vaccination status, or upload COVID-19 test results-effortlessly and quickly.

"In times of crisis, technology companies have to be nimble to respond to changing client needs and priorities," said Tim Conway, Group President, Public Sector, NTT DATA. "NTT DATA's Smart Back to Work Application enables government entities and private sector businesses to seamlessly track status and compliance with requirements, provides peace of mind and removes the complexity for all."

Through a convenient dashboard, adminisrators can assess compliance securely and expeditiously. The application has been used effectively to help test for and manage COVID-19 exposure at colleges and universities. The expanded version of the application builds on successful implementations and allows flexibility for future changes based on developments in the COVID-19 pandemic.







Colorado State University at Pueblo was recently awarded the 2021 Excellence and Innovation Award for Campus Pandemic Response from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, leveraging NTT DATA's COVID-19 application as a key component of their effort. The application allows users to conduct daily self-assessment and health monitoring for students and employees as well as advanced reporting of a robust on-campus testing program administered by Spartan Medical.

The secure Smart Back to Work application uses a tool from AWS Premier Consulting Partner, Cloudticity to manage real-time compliance with the technical requirements of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) SP 800-53, NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) and HITRUST Common Security Framework (CSF) and HIPAA/HITECH Code of Federal Regulations (CFRs). The application is hosted on Amazon Web Services (News - Alert) (AWS) and available in AWS GovCloud for public sector clients.

For more information on NTT DATA's work with federal and public sector organizations, please visit: NTT DATA Public Sector Services.

About NTT DATA

NTT DATA is a leading IT services provider and global innovation partner with business operations in over 50 countries. Our emphasis is on long-term commitment, combining global reach with local intimacy to provide premier professional services varying from consulting and systems development to outsourcing. For more information, visit www.nttdata.com.

About NTT DATA Services

NTT DATA Services is a recognized leader in IT and business services including cloud, data and applications. A division of NTT DATA headquartered in Texas, the company leverages consulting and deep industry expertise to help clients accelerate and sustain value throughout their digital journeys. Visit nttdataservices.com or LinkedIn to learn more.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005569/en/
[October 04, 2021] Offerpad Now Serves Ohio Home Sellers and Buyers

Offerpad (NYSE:OPAD), a leading tech-enabled platform for buying and selling residential real estate, has expanded into Columbus, Ohio, the company's fourth service territory in the Midwest. Offerpad's 2021 expansion nearly doubles the company's geographic footprint as Offerpad now serves home sellers and buyers in nearly 1,500 cities and towns within its 21 markets across the country. In the first nine months of the year, Offerpad expanded to Denver, Nashville, Indianapolis, Kansas City, St. Louis and Columbia, South Carolina. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005511/en/ Offerpad now serves home buyers and sellers in Ohio (Graphic: Business Wire) Offerpad's availability in the Columbus area covers 106 cities and towns in central Ohio including Marysville, Delaware, Lancaster and Newark. "We look forward to helping people in the Columbus metro area with Offerpad's easy and convenient home selling and buying solutions, including our EXPRESS instant cash offers and FLEX listing services," said Brian Bair, Offerpad's CEO and Chairan. "Offerpad is known for its personalized customer service, and with the many customizable options available through our exclusive Real Estate Solutions Center, residents can now enjoy a stress-free experience from start to finish. Our team of real estate experts here in Ohio is available to help them every step of the way with invaluable local insights to meet their unique and diverse needs."



For a complete list of Offerpad's current markets nationwide, visit offerpad.com/locations. About Offerpad

Offerpad's mission is to provide the best way to buy and sell a home. Period. We use technology-enabled solutions to remake the home selling and buying experience by offering customers the convenience, control and certainty to solve their housing needs. We combine our fundamental real estate expertise with our data-driven digital "Solutions Center" platform to give users a holistic, customer-centric experience, enabling them to efficiently sell and buy their homes online with streamlined access to other services including mortgage, listing, and buyer representation services. Visit Offerpad.com for more information. Forward Looking Statements Certain statements in this press release may be considered forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or Offerpad's future financial or operating performance. For example, statements regarding Offerpad's market expansion plans, are forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "pro forma," "may," "should," "could," "might," "plan," "possible," "project," "strive," "budget," "forecast," "expect," "intend," "will," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe," "predict," "potential" or "continue," or the negatives of these terms or variations of them or similar terminology. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based upon estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by Offerpad and its management, are inherently uncertain. Nothing in this press release should be regarded as a representation by any person that the forward-looking statements set forth herein will be achieved or that any of the contemplated results of such forward-looking statements will be achieved. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. Offerpad does not undertake any duty to update these forward-looking statements. #OPAD_Expansion SOCIAL FB/LI Moving into our newest market in Columbus OH today means Offerpad is now in ~1,600 cities and towns within 21 markets across the US, nearly double the number of locations we served last year! Find out how we're making it easy for people in Ohio's capital city to experience your best way to buy and sell a home. Twitter (News - Alert) Opening in our newest market in Columbus OH today means Offerpad is now in ~1,600 cities and towns within 21 markets across the US, nearly double the number of locations we served last year! More expansion news here. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005511/en/

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[October 04, 2021] Passionate, Powerful, Dynamic: Yadea Becomes Official Partner for Germany's XLETIX Challenge Berlin

BERLIN, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Yadea, the world's leading electric two-wheeler brand, has signed on as the official partner for the XLETIX Challenge Berlin, a German outdoor extreme obstacle course. As part of the partnership, Yadea will showcase its electric two-wheeler vehicles at the most recent XLETIX Challenge in Berlin from October 2 to 3. Yadea has signed on as the official partner for the XLETIX Challenge Berlin from October 2 to 3. "Yadea is honored to be the official partner of the XLETIX Challenge Berlin. Over the years, we have cultivated a brand image that is passionate, powerful and dynamic. We believe this is a great fit with the XLETIX Challenge, which celebrates the outdoors, movement, and team spirit," said Aska Zeng, General Manager of Yadea. The XLETIX Challenge is an extreme obstacle course where participants must overcome mental and physical boundaries to reach the finish line. An indication of strength, endurance, courage, willpower, and teamwork, each route includes unique challenges, such as the Short Splash, Wonder Wall and Super Swing. The challenge is held in iconic cities and locations across Germany and attracts thousands of participants every year. As the event's partner, Yadea showcased its C1S and G5 electric two-wheeler vehicles along the XLETIX Challenge Berlin 2021 obstacle couse. With the refined sporty design and ability to adapt to different environments and terrains, both vehicles encapsulate the spirit of XLETIX Challenge, which are fearless to overcome Xtreme obstacles in Xtreme locations to reach goals. Participants and spectators took advantage of the opportunity to enjoy a hands-on experience with Yadea's products, interact with Yadea staff, and express their enthusiasm for the electric two-wheeler vehicles.



Yadea's partnership with the XLETIX Challenge Berlin further cements the brand's commitment to expand into the European market. In recent years, Yadea has been hard at work building its presence throughout the region and has continued to observe to the travel preferences and demands of consumers, both in Germany and the broader European market. In April 2021, Yadea officially kicked off the "Era of Green" and launched its international brand via its "Electrify Your Life" global press conference. The company then announced an official collaboration with Austria-based design studio, Studio F. A. Porsche in July, to bring a more design-oriented product to consumers and provide an improved high-end driving experience. Most recently, Yadea unveiled its latest innovations and products at its New Tech Launching Event in September, which included its cutting-edge Graphene 3.0 Battery.

All events have been well-received by the international community, as well as garnering widespread attention from the industry and media. With its passionate, powerful and dynamic brand image, Yadea continues to empower more users to go further and enjoy freedom without limitations, just like XLETIX Challenge that provides platforms to those who want to challenge and go beyond themselves. Looking ahead, Yadea aims to bring its smart manufacturing to more riders around the world and electrify more lives with the power of e-mobility. About Yadea Yadea is a global leader in developing and manufacturing electric two-wheel vehicles including electric motorcycles, electric mopeds, electric bicycles and electric kick scooters. To date, Yadea has sold products to 50 million users in over 80 countries, and has a network of 35,000+ retailers worldwide. Sales from Yadea products have helped save 9.07 million tons of petrol and eliminate 31.06 million tons of CO2 emissions  the equivalent of planting 31.06 billion trees. With a mission to help people "Electrify Your Life", Yadea continues to invest in R&D, production and global expansion to build a shared and sustainable future for mankind. For more information, visit our:

Official Website: https://www.yadea.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Yadea.Official

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/YADEA.GLOBAL/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/YadeaGlobal SOURCE Yadea

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[October 04, 2021] Revo Capital Becomes Turkey's Largest VC Fund With the Final Closing of Oversubscribed Fund II at 90M

Originally starting the fund raise process with a target size of 60 million Euros, Revo Capital ended up closing an oversubscribed second fund at 90 million Euros, making it Turkey's largest VC fund to date. The continued interest and support that Revo Capital has drawn from institutional and global investors reflects the trust in Revo's strategy and the success of its first fund. Thanks to the financial returns of its first fund, Revo Capital ranks in the top decile among the same vintage VC funds globally. Revo managed to finalize 3 exits, 3 new investments in the last 3 months in tandem with Fund II closing. As the largest VC fund in Turkey, Revo Capital will continue making investments in Turkey, Eastern Europe and Baltics. Revo Capital was proud to onboard returning cornerstone investors IFC and EBRD and welcomes premier institutional investors Turkish Growth and Innovation Fund (TGIF) as advised by European Investment Fund (EIF), German Investment Corporation (DEG), Turkey Development Fund, as well as several prominent local corporate investors, family offices and entrepreneurs. Koray Bahar and Ahmet Bilgen, founders of Foriba (a Revo Fund I portfolio company exited to Sovos Inc) contributed to Revo's second fund, proving very positive circular impact of financing great entrepreneurs, strengthening the development of the ecosystem. Revo Capital to continue its proven investment strategy in Fund II "We are proud of the everlasting support we received from our long-time LPs IFC and EBRD, and the interest from ne long-term LPs EIF and DEG," said Cenk Bayrakdar, Revo Capital's Founding Partner. "The last decade was laying the foundation of our belief that providing capital and operational/growth support to fast-growing software and tech-enabled startups from Turkey, Eastern Europe and Baltics will help them become industry and global leaders. As the first fund investing in Turkish unicorn Getir, we have firsthand experienced how its success strengthened the Turkish startup ecosystem, motivating entrepreneurs as a role model to build global category-defining products and services. As Revo Capital, we invest in certain select verticals and the latest developments have proven us right about these verticals. We work hand in hand with entrepreneurs and look forward to continuing our proven investment strategy with Fund II."



Revo Capital invests in Series A and B rounds of startups with a proven product-market fit and potential for global market disruption. Revo Capital's close relationship with its vast investment network enables easier access to capital for its portfolio companies as they scale up to overseas markets. Revo Capital has already made 5 investments from its second fund: CY Vision, Massive Bio, Getir, Akinon and Vivoo. Revo Capital's target verticals are fintech, SaaS (News - Alert) , marketplaces, B2B cloud, Martech, Big Data and AI, and (as a new vertical for Fund II) Health IT. "The rapid pace of digitization in the last couple of years has brought these sectors into focus and we believe that they will see tremendous growth going forward," Bayrakdar said.

The second fund continues the success of the first fund, which saw 6 profitable exits, among them many stars of the Turkish digital ecosystem such as Foriba, Parasut and Getir. Raising its reputation among the leading investors in Turkey, Central and Eastern European regions thanks to the success of its second fund, Revo Capital will keep on utilizing its hands-on approach to create international funding opportunities in the follow-up rounds for its new investments. Cenk Bayrakdar added: "We are perfectly placed to act as a catalyst to accommodate the new wave of ambitious local founders who want to target global markets. Through our collaborative approach and international network, we can help bridge them to larger investors and open them up to capture growth opportunities globally." For more info, you can visit: https://www.revo.vc/ View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005359/en/

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[October 04, 2021] Steelworkers Humanity Fund Provides $25,000 to Support Communities Affected by Natural Disasters in Haiti

The Steelworkers Humanity Fund (SHF) is contributing $25,000 in emergency relief for Haiti following the August 14 earthquake and August 16 tropical storm that both affected the southern part of the country. The emergency funding is being provided to Institut culturel Karl Levesque (ICKL) and Confederation des travailleurs(euses) des secteurs public et prives (CTSP) to assist communities in dire need of support. To respond to the needs created by the earthquake, SHF will support its local partner ICKL with $20,170 in order to build on their existing project with peasant communities of Cavaillon and Maniche. This project will support victims with the purchase of material to shelter themselves from the elements, and support local economic recovery efforts (through the purchase of livestock and seeds). Along with other Canadian unions, the SHF wll also contribute $5,000 through local affiliates of the CTSP, the largest Haitian union confederation. Funds will aim to respond to emergency needs and support local economic recovery affected by Tropical Storm Grace in the areas around Corail, Cayemites, Nippes and Jeremie.



"With the commotion caused by the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise and the insecurity that prevails in the country, these natural disasters have not received as much attention as the situation deserves," said Ken Neumann, United Steelworkers union National Director and President of the SHF. "This an opportunity to support two trusted organizations that have close ties to Canadian unions, at a critical time for Haitian society," Neumann added.

The Steelworkers Humanity Fund is a registered charitable organization that promotes respect for human rights and contributes to development projects and emergency aid in developing countries through working with organization partners around the globe. It also supports Canadian communities in crisis. United Steelworkers union members contribute to the fund through clauses negotiated into their collective agreements. In some cases, employers make matching contributions. <sru-sdr, cope-sepb 343> View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005717/en/

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[October 04, 2021] Swedish Rail Equips Train Staff with Body-Worn Cameras from Motorola Solutions

As citizens start travelling again, SJ AB has equipped its train staff with VB400 body-worn cameras from Motorola Solutions to enhance safety and security across the Swedish rail network. With 1,500 departures across 400 stations each day, including international trips to Norway and Denmark, SJ AB requires visibility of what is happening across its entire operations at all times. "We have a responsibility as a transport operator to do everything possible to ensure our employees and passengers travel safely by train," said Birgitta Angard, head of onboard personnel at SJ AB. "Train workers manage a multitude of circumstances throughout the work day - ranging from the everyday events of busy commuter trains to increasing safety measures when platforms are quiet, to addressing critical incidents such as passengers in need of medical attention. Motorola (News - Alert) Solutions' body-worn cameras deliver an extra layer of operational visibility, enhancing transparency and protection for everyone travelling with us." "Safety is front of mind for the entire public transport sector, which has been particularly hightened during the pandemic," said Pedro Simoes, vice president, international sales, Video Security & Access Control at Motorola Solutions. "SJ AB is deploying body-worn cameras to make rail journeys safer and ultimately more comfortable for all of its passengers and employees."



The rugged VB400 body-worn cameras provide an intuitive recording function and an extended battery life that lasts beyond the typical work shift with up to 12 hours of operation. The device can be securely assigned using an employee's ID badge at the start of the shift and is easily activated by the wearer. Swedish Rail is deploying the body-worn cameras with Motorola Solutions' VideoManager evidence management software to seamlessly upload and manage the recorded video as part of SJ AB's everyday workflows. Motorola Solutions will also be providing SJ AB with 24/7 technical and maintenance support, including software updates to introduce new features and advancements to the body-worn cameras as they become available.

About Motorola Solutions Motorola Solutions is a global leader in public safety and enterprise security. Our solutions in land mobile radio mission-critical communications, video security & access control and command center software, bolstered by managed & support services, create the most integrated technology ecosystem to make communities safer and help businesses stay productive and secure. At Motorola Solutions, we're ushering in a new era in public safety and security. Learn more at www.motorolasolutions.com. Follow @MotoSolutions on Twitter

Follow @MotorolaSolutions on Instagram

Follow @MotorolaSolutions on LinkedIn

Like @MotorolaSolutions on Facebook View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005062/en/

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[October 04, 2021] U-Haul Closes Kargo Repair Shop in Midwest City after 32 Years

MIDWEST CITY, Okla., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The U-Haul-owned Kargo Repair Okla. City shop at 7525 SE 29th St. in Midwest City will cease operations today. The maintenance shop had serviced U-Haul equipment since 1989. U-Haul will maintain ownership of the property and use the 10,500-square-foot building for self-storage expansion at U-Haul Moving & Storage of Midwest City. U-Haul equipment in the region will now be serviced at Oklahoma City Repair at 5500 SE 59th St. "We outgrew the shop space at the Midwest City location and decided to use our sustainable adaptive-reuse practice to convert the building into additional self-storage," said Scott Brackin, U-Haul Company of Oklahoma City president. "Having the ability to expand, and relocate our maintenance branch to a new location, translates into convenience and more product options for our customers." Local U-aul Companies are always exploring opportunities for growth as they pursue means to better meet the needs of customers, but sometimes find it necessary to close or relocate facilities, or cease certain business operations at locations. Reasons for closures can include: long-term strategic plans; physical plant limitations; shifts in demographics; trends in migration; expansion of the U-Haul neighborhood dealer network; and proximity to new or existing U-Haul stores or shops.



Twenty-two Team Members will be let go as a result of the Kargo Repair closing. As an essential service provider, U-Haul continues to serve communities during the COVID-19 recovery while offering contactless business programs and enhanced cleaning protocols, including added steps for sanitizing equipment between customer transactions. U-Haul products are used daily by First Responders; delivery companies bringing needed supplies to people's homes; small businesses trying to remain afloat; college students; and many other dependent groups, in addition to the do-it-yourself household mover.

About U-HAUL

Since 1945, U-Haul has been the No. 1 choice of do-it-yourself movers, with a network of more than 23,000 locations across all 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces. U-Haul Truck Share 24/7 offers secure access to U-Haul trucks every hour of every day through the customer dispatch option on their smartphones and our proprietary Live Verify technology. Our customers' patronage has enabled the U-Haul fleet to grow to approximately 176,000 trucks, 126,000 trailers and 46,000 towing devices. U-Haul offers nearly 825,000 rentable storage units and 71.6 million square feet of self-storage space at owned and managed facilities throughout North America. U-Haul is the largest retailer of propane in the U.S., and continues to be the largest installer of permanent trailer hitches in the automotive aftermarket industry. U-Haul has been recognized repeatedly as a leading "Best for Vets" employer and was recently named one of the 15 Healthiest Workplaces in America. Contact:

Andrea Batchelor

Jeff Lockridge

E-mail: publicrelations@uhaul.com

Phone: 602-263-6981

Website: uhaul.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/u-haul-closes-kargo-repair-shop-in-midwest-city-after-32-years-301392063.html SOURCE U-Haul

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[October 04, 2021] Veteran US Army Ranger Vincent Vargas Joins The North Group as Chief Growth Officer

MILFORD, Mich., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The North Group (TNG), a top-tier private security and risk management company, announced today the appointment of former US Army Ranger and current entrepreneur, actor, writer, and producer, Vincent Vargas. In this role, Vargas will facilitate growth and increase sales by leading TNG's business development, marketing, and standard operations strategy and execution. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Vargas spent his military career in the Second Battalion of the elite 75th Rangers Regiment, serving three combat deployments during his tenure. After four years of active-duty service, Vargas joined the US Army Reserves, where he continues his service. In 2009, he became a Federal Agent with the Department of Homeland Security  serving extensively on the US border  and also served as a Medic with the Special Operations Group. Today, you may recognize him as 'Gilly' on the #1 cable tv series "Mayans MC" on FX. "TNG is proud to continue our legacy of hiring highly-experienced veterans such as Vince," said Steven Hernandez, CEO of The North Group. "He proved himself to be an asset even before he came on board when he developed a highly-robust security protocol  while on location/at a movie shoot in Mexico  that we have since implemented and expanded upon to create one of the most intensive, well-rounded protective protocols in existence. Having him as a member of our team only serves to further solidify our arsenal of highly-intelligent risk management professionals who are, quite simply, the best in the business." Vargas added, "Since filming in Mexico, I have been closely observing security and the different mindsets in Hollywood. I felt there was a need for someone to be able to provide a more well-rounded approach to safety mitigation and risk management, which leads me to where Iam today. I am excited to be working with TNG to help them solidify and create a standard operating system for risk mitigation in high-profile scenarios like Hollywood. I hope that we can bring comfort to production companies and that high-profile individuals can get the comfort they deserve in their personal and professional lives."



Headquartered in southeast Michigan, TNG offers custom security and risk mitigation solutions at both the individual and organizational levels. While most security companies service only one need, TNG manages complex projects with global teams of highly specialized individuals. TNG service offerings include: Protective Services: Executive protection, workplace security, security drivers, residential security, venue/event security, global crisis management, asset transport, protective surveillance, tactical surveillance countermeasures (TSCM)

Executive protection, workplace security, security drivers, residential security, venue/event security, global crisis management, asset transport, protective surveillance, tactical surveillance countermeasures (TSCM) Analyst Services: Due diligence, travel assessments, country briefs, secure travel planning

Due diligence, travel assessments, country briefs, secure travel planning Cybersecurity Services: System analysis and penetration testing, social media monitoring, cursory digital footprint validation, concentrated monitoring, digital forensics

System analysis and penetration testing, social media monitoring, cursory digital footprint validation, concentrated monitoring, digital forensics Crisis Mitigation: Threat assessments, red teaming, business continuity planning, emergency preparedness planning and training

Threat assessments, red teaming, business continuity planning, emergency preparedness planning and training Special Projects: Security system integration, crisis response, drone detection, electronic tracking, aviation support, specialized vehicle support TNG operates worldwide with US management and offices in Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Texas, Utah, and California. To learn more about The North Group, or to schedule a free consultation, visit tngdefense.com.

About The North Group (TNG)

The North Group is an intelligence-driven, security and global risk management firm headquartered in southeast Michigan. TNG offers elite-level protective and intelligence services, complete with crisis mitigation, strategic analysis, cybersecurity, special projects and custom security resources to both corporate and individual clients. Their team consists of first-class field experts with highly-specialized military, law enforcement, private security and intelligence agency backgrounds. TNG operates worldwide, with US management offices in Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Texas, Utah, and California. To learn more about The North Group, or to schedule a free consultation, visit tngdefense.com MEDIA CONTACT:

Devon Bradley

517-474-1573

DevonB@EpicBlueOfficial.com View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/veteran-us-army-ranger-vincent-vargas-joins-the-north-group-as-chief-growth-officer-301392041.html SOURCE The North Group

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[October 04, 2021] Wallbox to Trade on NYSE Under Ticker "WBX"

Wallbox, a leading provider of electric vehicle (EV) charging and energy management solutions worldwide, today announced it has completed its business combination with Kensington Capital Acquisition Corp. II (NYSE: KCAC), a special purpose acquisition company. The business combination was approved by Kensington stockholders in a special meeting held on September 30, 2021 and formally closed on October 1, 2021. Wallbox shares will start trading today on the NYSE under the ticker symbol "WBX" and warrants will trade under the ticker symbol "WBX.WS". Wallbox offers EV charging and energy management solutions for residential, semi-public and public use. The company's product line-up includes Quasar, the world's first DC bidirectional charger for home use; Supernova and Hypernova, DC fast and ultrafast chargers for public use; and a suite of AC charging solutions and smart energy management software. Ahead of budgeted expectations, Wallbox closed the first half of 2021 with more than 300% YoY revenue growth, propelled by its global expansion, an array of strategic alliances and steadily growing market tailwinds for EVs and charging infrastructure worldwide. With nine offices across three continents and a presence in more than 80 countries, Wallbox has sold more than 200,000 charging units since its founding in 2015. One of the only truly global players in its industry, Wallbox operates a vertically integrated supply chain, managing its production internally. This has allowed Wallbox better gross margins over its peers in the EV charging market, and has enabled the company to sustain production despite COVID and global chip shortage-related supply challenges. The company currently manufactures its products in Europe and China, and recently announced the addition of a U.S. manufacturing facility in Arlington, Texas, which is slated to begin production in 2022. "Entering the public markets was a natural next step for our company, as the demand for EV charging and energy management infrastructure is growing steadily around the world," said Enric Asuncion, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Wallbox. "The transaction grants Wallbox the necessary resources to fund our continued global expansion and further advance the innovation of both existing and new solutions for private, public and corporate use. While this is a great milestone, our mission remains the same - accelerating the transition to greener energy consumption worldwide." The transaction will result in gross proceeds of approximately $252 million to Wallbox. Funds from the transaction are expected to support the company's strategic growth initiatives, including accelerated expansion in the U.S. by increasing investment in the product development and certifications, while also maintaining its path to profitability. "We take great pride in our focus on investing in automotive innovation, and we are thrilled to reach the completion of our business combination with Wallbox, which we feel has a truly unique value proposition, technology advantage, and steadily growing market traction across EV charging and energy management," said Justin Mirro, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Kensington II. "As governments, consumers and businesses around the world continue to push for the widespread adoption of electric vehicles and more sustainable energy use, Wallbox is positioned to become a leading supplier of solutions to bring about the future of energy and transportation." Hughes (News - Alert) Hubbard & Reed LLP served as legal advisor to Kensington and Latham and Watkins LLP served as legal advisor to Wallbox. Houthoff and Loyens & Loeff advised Kensington and Wallbox, respectively, on matters of Dutch lawand Cuatrecasas, Goncalves Pereira, S.L.P. advised Kensington on matters of Spanish law. UBS Securities LLC, Stifel Nicolaus (News - Alert) & Company, Incorporated and Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated served as financial advisors to Kensington and Barclays Capital Inc. and Drake Star Partners served as financial advisors to Wallbox. UBS Securities LLC and Barclays Capital Inc. served as joint placement agents on the PIPE offering.



About Wallbox Wallbox is a global technology company, dedicated to changing the way the world uses energy. Wallbox creates advanced electric vehicle charging and energy management systems that redefine users' relationship to the grid. Wallbox goes beyond electric vehicle charging to give users the power to control their consumption, save money, and live more sustainably.

Wallbox offers a complete portfolio of charging and energy management solutions for residential, semi-public and public use in more than 80 countries. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Barcelona, the company now employs over 700 people in its offices in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. For additional information, please visit www.wallbox.com. About Kensington Kensington Capital Acquisition Corp. II (NYSE: KCAC) was a special purpose acquisition company formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, stock purchase or similar business combination with a business in the automotive and automotive-related sector. The company was sponsored by Kensington Capital Partners ("KCP") and the management team of Justin Mirro, Bob Remenar, Simon Boag and Dan Huber. The company was also supported by a board of independent directors including Tom LaSorda, Nicole Nason, Anders Pettersson, Mitch Quain, Don Runkle and Matt Simoncini. The Kensington team has completed over 70 automotive transactions and has over 300 years of combined experience leading some of the largest automotive companies in the world. For additional information, please visit www.autospac.com. Caution About Forward-Looking Statements The information in this press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements, other than statements of present or historical fact included in this press release, regarding the benefits of the transaction and the combined company's future financial performance, as well as the combined company's strategy, future operations, estimated financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management are forward-looking statements. When used in this press release, the words "are designed to," "could," "should," "will," "may," "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "expect," "project," the negative of such terms and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and assumptions about future events and are based on currently available information as to the outcome and timing of future events. Except as otherwise required by applicable law, Wallbox disclaims any duty to update any forward-looking statements, all of which are expressly qualified by the statements in this section, to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof. Wallbox cautions you that these forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the control of either Kensington or Wallbox. In addition, Wallbox cautions you that the forward-looking statements contained herein are subject to the following uncertainties and risk factors that could affect Wallbox's future performance and cause results to differ from the forward-looking statements herein: Wallbox's ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the business combination, which may be affected by, among other things, competition and the ability of Wallbox to grow and manage growth profitably following the business combination; risks relating to the outcome and timing of the Company's development of its charging and energy management technology and related manufacturing processes; intense competition in the electric vehicle charging space; risks related to health pandemics, including the COVID-19 pandemic; the possibility that Wallbox may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; the possibility that the expected timeframe for, and other expectations regarding the development and performance of, Wallbox products will differ from current assumptions; the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could give rise to the termination of the business combination; the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against Kensington or Wallbox, the combined company or others following the announcement of the business combination; the inability to complete the business combination due to the failure to obtain approval of the shareholders of Kensington or to satisfy other conditions to closing; changes to the proposed structure of the business combination that may be required or appropriate as a result of applicable laws or regulations; the ability to meet stock exchange listing standards following the consummation of the business combination; the risk that the business combination disrupts current plans and operations of Kensington or Wallbox as a result of the announcement and consummation of the business combination; and costs related to the business combination; changes in applicable laws or regulations. Should one or more of the risks or uncertainties described in this press release, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results and plans could different materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning these and other factors that may impact the operations and projections discussed herein can be found in the proxy statement/prospectus of Wallbox N.V. in the registration statement on Form F-4 filed with the SEC (News - Alert) . Kensington's and Wallbox N.V.'s SEC filings are available publicly on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005387/en/

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[October 03, 2021] Oceana: Oil Spill Devastating California's Coast, Killing Marine Life

On Sunday, reports surfaced of a major oil spill disaster currently unfolding off the California coast. The city of Huntington Beach reported that the 126,000-gallon oil spill is causing "substantial ecological impacts occurring at the beach and at the Huntington Beach Wetlands." Oceana released the following statement from Chief Policy Officer, Jacqueline Savitz: "This is the legacy of the fossil fuel age, in which the oil and gas industry pushed their product until we were addicted. We need to break that addiction by shifting to clean energy. It's time for the age of oil and gas to be history. This is just the latest of many tragedies caused by the oil and gas industry. The reality of our reliance on oil and gas is on full display here. "In Southern California, the oil has already made its way onto our coasts, covering our beaches in oil and suffocating wildlife, and most of the oil now in our ocean will never be recovered. When we drill, we spill. It's well past time to prevent future oil spills by permanently protecting our coasts from offshore drilling. The devastating social, economic, and ecological consequences of offshore drilling are, sadly, on full display in Southern California right now. It's time for President Biden to deliver on his campaign promise to end offshore drilling and we need California's Senators to ensure this gets done immediately." Oceana recently released an analysis detailing the economic benefits of banning new offshore drilling in California. Specifically, the analysis looks at data for ocean-dependent jobs and revenue from fishing, tourism, and recreation along the California coast. The analysis found that ending new leasing off the coast of Califrnia will safeguard California's clean coast economy, which collectively supports around 654,000 jobs and over $50 billion in GDP. Nationwide, the U.S. clean coast economy supports around 3.3 million American jobs and $250 billion in GDP.



Oceana's analysis also found that ending new leasing for offshore oil and gas in the United States could prevent over 19 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions as well as more than $720 billion in damages to people, property, and the environment nationally. Oceana is calling on President Biden to permanently protect our coasts from offshore drilling to ensure the future of our coastal economy that depends on a healthy ocean and help address the growing climate crisis. As of today, opposition and concern over offshore drilling activities includes:

Every East and West Coast governor, including Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, California, Oregon, and Washington

More than 390 local municipalities

Over 2,300 local, state, and federal bipartisan officials

East and West Coast alliances representing over 56,000 businesses

Pacific, New England, South Atlantic, and Mid-Atlantic fishery management councils

More than 120 scientists

More than 80 former military leaders

Commercial and recreational fishing interests such as Southeastern Fisheries Association, Snook and Gamefish Foundation, Fisheries Survival Fund, Billfish Foundation, and International Game Fish Association

California Coastal Commission, California Fish and Game Commission, and California State Lands Commission

Department of Defense, NASA, U.S. Air Force, and Florida Defense Support Task Force For more information about Oceana's efforts to stop the expansion of offshore drilling, please click here. Oceana is the largest international advocacy organization dedicated solely to ocean conservation. Oceana is rebuilding abundant and biodiverse oceans by winning science-based policies in countries that control one-third of the world's wild fish catch. With more than 225 victories that stop overfishing, habitat destruction, pollution, and the killing of threatened species like turtles and sharks, Oceana's campaigns are delivering results. A restored ocean means that 1 billion people can enjoy a healthy seafood meal, every day, forever. Together, we can save the oceans and help feed the world. Visit www.oceana.org to learn more. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211003005082/en/

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[October 03, 2021] Eka Global Increases Production Capacity by 15%

BANGKOK, Oct. 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- With the world still battling the COVID-19 pandemic and driven by the "New Normal" lifestyle, Eka Global, Asia's No. 1 longevity packaging producer, has been inundated with an increasing demand for its proven rigid-barrier plastic packaging products. This led to a newly installed 10th production-line, enabling the company to increase its production capacity by 15%. The additional production line, which is fully commissioned and commenced commercial operations in September 2021, will add another 350 million units to Eka Global's current production capacity of 2,500 million units per annum. This will boost the overall production output to 2,850 million units per year. Chaiwat Nantiruj, Eka Global's Group CEO, said, "Te COVID-19 pandemic has changed people's way of life. Self-quarantine and food delivery have become an integral part of our "New Normal" lifestyles. The global food-delivery industry has seen a significant increase in business, leading to a greater demand for our longevity packaging that promotes food safety and provides greater convenience for the consumers."



Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic brought much if the world to a virtual standstill in 2020, Eka Global has been operating at maximum capacity. The company continues to receive ever increasing orders from customers across the Asia Pacific, the USA and Europe. To be well prepared to meet this uptrend in the future, the company felt it feasible to expand its production capacity with this latest investment. "Demand for longevity packaging will continue in the future with or without COVID-19," said Chaiwat. "Visionary food producers, exporters and local SMEs have also realized this and are looking for high quality longevity packaging."

Together with its commitment to becoming an innovative leader in the longevity packaging market, Eka Global also cares about the environment. The company believes that environmentally friendly packaging is a critical tool to enable Thai SMEs to expand their business overseas and enhances their competitiveness in the global market. "We aim to minimize the impact of our business on the environment," said Chaiwat. "The Circular Economy concept is key for business development to achieve sustainable growth. We have introduced a 360-degree waste management policy. Our products are already 100% recyclable but we are not yet fully satisfied." "Our R&D team has been working very hard to come up with more environmentally friendly innovations. Among other research projects that we are working on is using plant-based raw materials to replace petroleum-based products. Our goal is crystal clear, that is to allow consumers to enjoy a New Normal lifestyle with food safety while sharing the responsibility for a Clean Environment." SOURCE Eka Global

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[October 04, 2021] Argo Group Announces Sale of Brazilian Business

Argo Group International Holdings, Ltd. (NYSE: ARGO), an underwriter of specialty insurance, today announced an agreement to sell its Brazilian operations, Argo Seguros Brasil S.A. ("Argo Brazil"), to Spice Private Equity Ltd. ("Spice PE"), an investment company focused on global private equity investments, for a purchase price of 160 million Brazilian Reais1, subject to the terms of the purchase agreement. Spice PE's investments are managed by GP Advisors (Bermuda), Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of GP Investments, Ltd., a leading private equity and alternative investments company, with a long and successful history of investing in Brazil. Closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to occur by the end of 2021. "Argo Group launched Argo Brazil in 2011 with a local team of insurance executives to build a new insurance brand in the Brazilian insurance market," said Andy Borst, Interim President of International Operations. "This sale is n important milestone in the evolution of Argo Brazil and supports the Argo Group operating strategy to focus on U.S.-based specialty insurance risks."



Seneca Evercore acted as financial advisor, and TozziniFreire Advogados acted as legal counsel to Argo Group in this transaction. ABOUT ARGO GROUP INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS LTD.

Argo Group International Holdings, Ltd. ("Argo") (NYSE: ARGO), is an underwriter of specialty insurance products in the property and casualty market. Argo offers a full line of products and services designed to meet the unique coverage and claims-handling needs of businesses in two primary segments: U.S. Operations and International Operations. Argo and its insurance subsidiaries are rated "A-" by Standard & Poor's. Argo's insurance subsidiaries are rated "A-" by AM Best. More information on Argo and its subsidiaries is available at argogroup.com. ABOUT SPICE PRIVATE EQUITY LTD. Spice Private Equity Ltd. ("Spice PE") is an investment company focused on global private equity investments. Its investments are managed by GP Advisors (Bermuda), Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of GP Investments, Ltd. a leading alternative investments firm known for its operationally oriented approach and active management model. Spice Private Equity Ltd. is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the ticker symbol SPCE. 1 As of October 4, 2021, 160 million Brazilian Reais is equivalent to approximately $30 million U.S. dollars. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005284/en/

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[October 04, 2021] Global Fitness Brand Unveils New LES MILLS+ Omnichannel Fitness Platform

LONDON, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Les Mills has today (October 4th) launched LES MILLS+ , the first global omnichannel fitness offering that bridges the gap between digital and live workouts to provide the ultimate fitness experience. Featuring digital Les Mills workouts that users can also seek out in 21,000 gyms globally, the LES MILLS+ app has been designed to meet modern demands for both convenient digital workouts and thrilling live experiences. After months of isolation, fitness fans are flooding back to gyms for the added motivation and social connection of live fitness experiences, but the COVID-driven boom in digital fitness looks set to continue, with new research* showing the majority of exercisers now favor a 60:40 split between gym and home workouts. LES MILLS+ replaces the company's previous digital platform LES MILLS On Demand (LMOD), which saw rapid growth during the digital fitness boom, with a 900% increase in downloads in 2020 alone. Recognizing the need for an upgraded app that can meet growing demand and shifting consumer preferences, LES MILLS+ arrives with a range of enhancements. In addition to 1,000+ world-leading workouts including BODYPUMP, BODYCOMBAT, and BODYBALANCE, LES MILLS+ now features: Class-finding functionality that connects users to live workouts in their local area

Personalized workout dashboards and tracking technology

Tailored user journeys including starter guides, challenges, and workout plans

Wellness content covering nutrition, stretching recovery, mindfulness, and breathwork



THE AGE OF OMNICHANNEL "We're entering the age of omnichannel fitness, with research showing the majority of consumers worldwide want a 60/40 split between in-studio and digital workouts," says Les Mills CEO Clive Ormerod.

"With consumers keen to blend live and digital experiences in pursuit of better overall wellbeing, we've created LES MILLS+ to put world-class gym workouts in the palm of your hand and help you augment this with incredible live experiences." "LES MILLS+ transports you into the middle of the greatest group workouts on the planet  from anywhere. Our fitness masterclasses are powered by science to maximize results, crafted to incredible music and presented by some of the world's leading instructors, to motivate you and transform your body, mind, and life." HISTORIC, AUTHENTIC, AND SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN As the world leader in group workouts, Les Mills is uniquely placed to give customers an unbeatable omnichannel experience by combining the blockbuster production values its digital content is famed for, with its unparalleled network of 21,000 gym partners and 140,000 certified Instructors across 110 countries. Created with elite teams of physiology experts, fitness trainers, and musicians, each Les Mills workout is scientifically designed to maximize results and inspirationally crafted by the world's leading choreographers to incredible music. The classes are cinematically filmed by award-winning production crews and presented by a huge selection of the world's best instructors. Of the new launch, Clive Ormerod goes on to explain: "We deliver group fitness classes to over six million people per week globally. What started as a small family-run local gym in Auckland, New Zealand has evolved into a (still family-run) global business in 110 countries, working with 21,000 of the world's leading gyms and an army of 140,000 Instructors. "Our mission is to create a fitter planet and we hope the launch of LES MILLS+ can break down barriers, helping more people to start their fitness journey and reap the rewards of an active lifestyle." ACCESSIBLE AND AFFORDABLE LES MILLS+ is presented by the world's best Instructors and is supported by expert training guides. There are 13 different programs to suit all fitness levels, from high intensity to low intensity, equipment or no equipment. Classes range from 15-minute to full-hour sessions. LES MILLS+ is available as a mobile app for phones and tablets, and can be streamed from any Internet browser and via popular TV platforms including Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, Apple TV, Roku, and Xbox. Existing LES MILLS On Demand users can access both LMOD and LES MILLS+, app and website platforms, with their existing log-in details. *Les Mills 2021 Global Fitness Report VISIT THE PLATFORM: www.lesmills.com/plus LES MILLS+ LAUNCH VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWcs4cyGyb8 Media requests: press@lesmills.com ABOUT LES MILLS Watch the Les Mills Story: https://youtu.be/pTZ8apUJnA0 Les Mills is the global leader in group fitness and creator of 20 programs including BODYPUMP and BODYCOMBAT. Les Mills workouts are delivered by 140,000 certified Instructors in 21,000 gyms across 100 countries, as well as via the LES MILLS On Demand streaming platform. The company was founded by Les Mills  a four-time Olympian and head coach of New Zealand's track and field team  who opened his first gym in 1968 to bring elite sports training to the masses. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1640789/Les_Mills_Omnichannel_Fitness_Platform.jpg

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[October 04, 2021] EQT Infrastructure and Stonepeak to acquire DELTA Fiber

EQT Infrastructure and Stonepeak to acquire DELTA Fiber, a leading owner and operator of fiber-to-the-home telecom infrastructure in the Netherlands

EQT Infrastructure and Stonepeak are committed to investing significantly into the continued digitization of the Dutch society by accelerating nationwide fiber-to-the-home connectivity to B2C and B2B customers in suburban and rural areas of the country

DELTA Fiber will benefit from EQT and Stonepeak's combined expertise in digital infrastructure and a strong industrial board. Together, the parties are committed to support DELTA Fiber and its management's ambition to connect two million Dutch households to fiber by 2025 STOCKHOLM, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- EQT and Stonepeak are pleased to announce that EQT Infrastructure V ("EQT Infrastructure") and Stonepeak have agreed to acquire DELTA Fiber (the "Company") from EQT Infrastructure III. Following the closing of the transaction, each party will hold a 50 percent stake in the Company and co-control DELTA Fiber through a strong industrial board. Headquartered in Schiedam, the Netherlands, DELTA Fiber provides high-speed broadband, TV and fixed and mobile telephony to Dutch households and businesses connected to its superior fiber-to-the-home ("FTTH") network. DELTA Fiber owns and operates approximately 50,000 km fiber-based network infrastructure that connects approximately 900,000 households and businesses across the Netherlands. The Company employs approximately 600 people and was established as DELTA Fiber in 2018, following a combination of DELTA and CAIW, which were acquired by EQT Infrastructure III in February 2017 and January 2018, respectively. With 20,000 new connections per month, DELTA Fiber today is one of the largest and fastest growing fiber companies in the Netherlands and is on its way to reaching one million connections by the end of 2021. DELTA Fiber benefits from a rapid growth in data consumption and an increased demand for fast and stable internet. The Company's new network rollout will be based on the latest fiber technology (XGS-PON) that enables speeds up to 10 Gbps. This is the prelude to its 25G-PON technology that enables speeds up to 25 Gbps. DELTA Fiber will benefit from EQT's and Stonepeak's significant combined expertise in the digital infrastructure sector and vast track record in fiber rollout across the Netherlands and Europe. Both parties are committed to investing significantly in the continued digitalization of the Dutch society by accelerating nationwide B2C and B2B FTTH connectivity in suburban and rural areas. Moreover, the Company's fiber broadband is more sustainable and energy efficient than the legacy networks, with approximately 40-60 percent lower energy consumption. Together, EQT Infrastructure and Stonepeak will support DELTA Fiber and its management team in its ambition to reach a footprint of two million fiber connections by 2025, thereby covering a quarter of the country. The Company will also be supported by a strong advisory board with seasoned industry experts who possess broad expertise within digital infrastructure and FTTH rollout. Matthias Fackler, Partner within EQT Infrastructure's Advisory Team, said, "We are deeply impressed by DELTA Fiber's management and employees' strong performance over the past few years. EQT Infrastructure is excited to support their continued journey of digitizing the Netherlands by providing high quality broadband infrastructure to Dutch households and businesses. EQT Infrastructure shares this vision with Stonepeak whose vast experience in the digital infrastructure space makes them an ideal partner to support DELTA Fiber in its next phase of evolution and growth." Brian McMullen, Senior Managing Director at Stonepeak, said, "Stonepeak has long recognized the mission critical nature of broadband in today's society and we look forward to working with Marco and the team to accelerate the additional rollout of DELTA Fiber's network across the Netherlands. We are delighted to partner with a like-minded peer in EQT Infrastructure on this transaction, which will accelerate DELTA Fiber's ability to connect households throughout the country with reliable broadband." Cyrus Gentry, Managing Director at Stonepeak, added, "DELTA Fiber, with its unique asset base and industry-leading management team, represents a compelling investment opportunity that will complement Stonepeak's existing global portfolio of residential broadband-focused platforms." Marco Visser, CEO of DELTA Fiber, said, "Two leading international investors joining DELTA Fiber confirms our success in recent years. That EQT is choosing to invest in our company again, together with Stonepeak, shows confidence in our ambitious plans for the future. Together they provide us with a solid foundation for further growth." The transaction is subject to customary conditions and approvals. It is expected to close in December 2021. With the acquisition of a stake in DELTA Fiber, EQT Infrastructure V is expected to be 60-65 percent invested (including closed and/or signed investments, announced public offers, if applicable, and less any expected syndication). Contacts EQT Press Office, press@eqtpartners.com, +46 8 506 55 334 Stonepeak, Kate Beers, beers@stonepeakpartners.com +1 646-540-522 This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/eqt/r/eqt-infrastructure-and-stonepeak-to-acquire-delta-fiber,c3426375 The following files are available for download:







https://mb.cision.com/Main/87/3426375/1476565.pdf Press release EQT Infrastructure V, Stonepeak, DELTA Fiber, 211004 https://news.cision.com/eqt/i/delta-fiber,c2963190 DELTA Fiber



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[October 04, 2021] First Sustainable Finance Summit - More than 20 financial players in Quebec are joining forces in an effort to tackle the climate emergency and social inequalities

MONTREAL, Oct. 4, 2021 /CNW/ - More than 20 financial players in Quebec representing over $900 billion in assets under management are joining forces to unveil today the Statement by the Quebec Financial Centre for a Sustainable Finance. This initiative is launched on the occasion of the first edition of the Sustainable Finance Summit, a major event bringing together over 1,200 leaders and organized by Finance Montreal, the financial cluster of Quebec. In the wake of the report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and on the eve of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), the Quebec financial sector commits itself to strengthening the sustainable finance ecosystem and to make Quebec a center of excellence in this field. The signatories thus provide themselves with a common ambition and the necessary tools to tackle the climate emergency and reduce the gaps created by the pandemic. This statement, a first in North America, aims to affirm Quebec's historic leadership in sustainable finance and to position financial institutions and their commitment to sustainable finance and ESG (environmental, social and governance) principles. "A very strong signal is going out today. Quebec's financial sector has a game plan to support a green, just and responsible transition for the Quebec and Canadian economies. This important engagement will help position Quebec as a centre of sustainable finance excellence in North America," said Jacques Deforges, Chief Executive Officer of Finance Montreal, who invites all financial ecosystem players to join the movement and sign the Statement in the coming months. A mobilized sector: the financial community's commitments To accelerate this shift towards sustainable finance, the signatories of the Statement agree to undertake, pursue or accelerate concrete initiatives related to the following areas, according to their capacity and their specific contexts: Develop a local expertise in sustainable finance and investment

Promote the establishment or growth of local teams and business units in sustainable finance in Quebec

Support the local development of sustainable finance products and services

Promote the growth of funds managed by locally established managers with leading-edge expertise in responsible investment

Strengthen disclosure and transparency in sustainable finance

Strengthen the integration of ESG factors into signatories' operations, internal processes and practices, and encourage our partners to integrate ESG factors The implementation of these initiatives will be monitored periodically by Finance Montreal and made public. Quotes from signatories and endorsements

"We're facing a climate emergency. We need to act together to speed up the transition to a low-carbon economy. Desjardins is standing with other stakeholders in Quebec's financial sector to sign the Declaration of the Quebec financial Centre for Sustainable Finance. Our organization has committed to provide training in sustainable development to the majority of our 52,000 employees by the end of 2023, to support transparency and reporting in sustainable finance, to promote the development of Montreal's sustainable finance sector through our network of over 4,000 Desjardins advisors and professionals, and to continue integrating ESG factors into all of our operations. These commitments, combined with our ambitious action plan which aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2040, will help Quebec and Canada meet their provincial and federal targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions,"Guy Cormier, President and CEO, Desjardins "The financial industry has a key role to play in addressing climate change and social challenges. Both our clients and employees are concerned about the environment, poverty and social exclusion, and that's why we want to do even better. By 2025, we plan to direct $5 billion in assets to local fund managers to stimulate activity, innovation and the recruitment of talent in sustainable finance."Laurent Ferreira, Chief Operating Officer and President and CEO designate of National Bank "As a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment, iA Financial Group is committed to strengthening the integration of ESG factors in its investment strategies, processes and operations and is actively contributing to positioning Quebec as a centre of excellence in sustainable finance. It is important for us to encourage and fully participate in collaboration with various members of the industry to promote disclosure and adherence to sustainability and ESG management. Denis Ricard, President and CEO, iA Financial Group 'All stakeholders need to go from commitments to actions if we want the economy to make a successful transition. To make tangible changes on the ground, we will support our portfolio companies in incorporating ESG matters into their business practices. Our goal is to work together to build a more sustainable and just future.'Charles Emond, President and CEO, CDPQ 'For the past 25 years at Fondaction, we have chosen to use financial leverage to contribute to the positive transformation of society to make our economy more equitable, inclusive, green and powerful. A signatory of the Statement, Fondaction has made several commitments, including to triple the value of its impact investments by 2025 and reinforce the impact investment team it formed in 2020 by constantly seeking to connect it with the best expertise available.'Genevieve Morin, President and Chief Executive Officer, Fondaction "We are committed to strengthening disclosure and transparency in sustainable finance. We will ensure that we always publish our governance policies and make available the minutes of our discussions with the management teams of the companies we own."Sylvain Boule President and Chief Executive Officer, Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. ''The next decade will be crucial and in order to face the multiple challenges posed by climate change, the contribution of everyone is needed, including thefinancial sector. There cannot be finance and sustainable finance. Finance must be sustainable, period. In ensuring Quebec's regulatory and normative framework development, the AMF undertakes to support financial sector efforts to comply with best practices in sustainable finance and equip investors and financial consumers with tools to accurately assess emerging risks and opportunities associated, in particular, with the transition to a green economy."Louis Morisset, President and CEO, AMF



"Sustainable finance is at the heart of the Fonds Climat du Grand Montreal (FCGM) mandate. We welcome this concrete commitment from the financial sector in Quebec with enthusiasm. As a catalyst for financial innovation in Greater Montreal, the FCGM is committed to providing financial support to projects with great potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, scale-up and well-being for communities."Marie-Claude Bourgie, Executive Director of the Greater Montreal Climate Fund "For close to 40 years, the Fonds de solidarite FTQ has been investing in Quebec's socio-economic development. We are proud to commit ourselves towards the development of local expertise in sustainable finance. Our investment policy now formally includes our desire to favour local managers and the share of assets managed here."Janie C. Beique, President and CEO, Fonds de solidarite FTQ

"At Beneva, our business decisions are guided by our mutualist roots and our unwavering commitment to ensuring the community's well-being. This is why we were the first Canadian insurance company to be signatory of the UN's Principles for Responsible Investment. We stand behind Finance Montreal's statement and will continue to make tangible efforts, like reducing our portfolio's carbon footprint, which is already 13% below the industry benchmark."Jean-Francois Chalifoux, President and CEO, Beneva, created by the coming together of La Capitale and SSQ Insurance "At KPMG, we practice what we preach: that is why we are aiming to be carbon-neutral by 2030 and we are committed to developing a Quebec-based centre of expertise to support our national business community to integrate ESG factors and develop sustainable finance solutions."Benoit Lacoste Bienvenue, Managing Partner, Quebec Region, KPMG Canada "Present throughout Quebec as well as in the Ottawa and Edmundston regions with more than 100 offices and a team of over 2,700 professionals, Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton has been helping to build strong communities for more than 70 years through the strength of its advice. In its efforts to remain a market leader with a distinctive, personalized, quality offering, the firm is committed to propelling the responsible growth of organizations with an enhanced service offering that better responds to corporate social responsibility and sustainable financing issues."Emilio B. Imbriglio, President and CEO, Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton. "As a certified B Corp and one of the country's largest clean technology investors, it was only natural that BDC support this sustainable finance initiative and become a signatory to the Statement. We support the Paris Agreement's goals for a cleaner, more sustainable future by 2050, and we are committed to supporting small and medium-sized businesses in this transition to a prosperous, inclusive and green economy. At BDC, we are working toward quantifying our ecological footprint and that of our investments at a granular level to further reduce our environmental impact. For example, we are committed to reducing the carbon footprint of our operations to net zero by 2025."  Isabelle Hudon, President and CEO, BDC "CH&Co is fully convinced of the urgency of environmental and societal transitions and that the financial industry plays a major role in addressing these issues. By providing a team of specialized experts, CH&Co. is committed to support the stakeholders partaking in the Quebec financial ecosystem so that, in the near future, we no longer speak of sustainable finance but, quite simply, finance."  Alexandre H ovette, Senior Partner, Chappuis Halder&Co (CH&Co.) Montreal "With this Declaration, Jarislowsky Fraser reaffirms its commitment to sustainable investment and the Quebec financial ecosystem. Our firm is committed to increasing collaboration with Quebec's academic and financial communities with the objective of deepening the understanding of ESG risks and opportunities, particularly in the areas of governance and climate change."Maxime Menard, President and CEO, Jarislowsky Fraser Limited "As an established Montreal firm with a growing global presence, Fiera Capital is committed to promoting Quebec as a hub of excellence in sustainable finance and investment in North America, and to work proactively towards the goal of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 through our investment strategies. In signing this Statement and joining hands with the industry, we are contributing positively to the finance of tomorrow."Jean-Philippe Lemay Global President and Chief Operating Officer, Fiera Capital "Investissement Quebec supports the Finance Montreal statement without reservation. We plan to play an active role, in particular by providing financing solutions and an industrial environmental performance diagnostic through our Competivert initiative to encourage our clients and partners to join the transition to a responsible and sustainable economy that offers promising avenues for making the most of their competitiveness."  Guy Leblanc, President and CEO, Investissement Quebec "BNP Paribas in Canada is proud to support the advancement of sustainable finance in Quebec. This initiative is a decisive step in the financial sector's mobilization in the defense of our climate. In line with our global commitment to fight climate change, in April 2021, BNP Paribas joined the UN Net-Zero Banking Alliance bringing together international banks dedicated to aligning their lending and investment portfolios with net-zero emissions by 2050. We look forward to contributing to new opportunities and solutions adapted to a changing world."Sonja Volpe, CEO, BNP Paribas in Canada "As part of our responsible management philosophy, we believe that the proactive management of ESG factors positively impacts value creation for business and society. Power Corporation is thus proud to participate in the Finance Montreal initiative, alongside other key actors of the Quebec financial sector, and is committed to supporting the development of expertise in enhancing ESG-related practices in order to foster a strong, responsible investment ecosystem."  R. Jeffrey Orr, President and CEO, Power Corporation of Canada "PSP Investments has a long-standing commitment to responsible investing as a means of better managing risk and generating the long-term returns needed to achieve our mandate. As a global investor and capital allocator, we invest with an ESG lens, integrating climate change factors into our investment decisions and asset management processes. We use our influence to encourage companies to put sustainability and inclusive growth at the centre of their operations and we promote strengthened disclosure and transparency. In addition to publishing our own annual responsible investment report that includes disclosure of portfolio carbon emissions, PSP Investments also works with industry partners to support data and KPI standardization for our industry. We are proud to support the Statement by the Quebec Financial Centre for a Sustainable Finance by collaboratively sharing our expertise in the space and learning from the Statement signatories."Neil Cunningham, President and CEO, PSP Investments " Sustainable investing and ESG factors have become priority criteria for global investors and asset owners. Montreal Exchange, Canada's derivatives exchange, is committed to finding innovative new ways to help participants capitalize on opportunities and manage risks associated with sustainable finance investment, including our benchmark ESG indices and ESG index futures. We are very proud to sign on to this important initiative and look forward to working in close partnership with our industry stakeholders and the broader Quebec financial ecosystem to push the evolution of sustainable finance markets."Luc Fortin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Montreal Exchange and Global Head of Trading, TMX Group "Societe Generale Canada fully supports the commitment of Quebec's financial sector actors to promote finance based on the principles of responsible investment. Societe Generale has strengthened its position as a leader in the ecological transition by joining the UNEP-FI Net-Zero Banking Alliance as a founding member in April 2021, and undertakes to align its portfolios with trajectories aiming at carbon neutrality by 2050 with the ambitious goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. At Societe Generale Canada, we look forward to contributing toand throughQuebec's eco-system to help stakeholders in achieving their transition for an equitable and sustainable future for all." - Francis Repka, Chief Executive Officer Societe Generale Canada " HEC Montreal's support for the Statement shows our conviction that Quebec has all the assets to become a world leader in sustainable finance. In this sense, we will reinforce our role in responsible management. We will train leaders who are committed to a prosperous, sustainable, and fair economy. "  Federico Pasin, Director, HEC Montreal "In order to support Finance Montreal's objective of making Montreal a center of excellence for sustainable finance, BLG commits to build, with the assistance of our national experts, a local expertise to help promote and support this fast growing field of activity"  Andre Dufour, Regional Managing Partner, Montreal, BLG To view the Statement by the Quebec Financial Centre for a Sustainable Finance , visit:

https://www.finance-montreal.com/en/declaration To learn more about the Sustainable Finance Summit , visit

www.sommet-financedurable.com/en/ About the Statement by the Quebec Financial Centre for a Sustainable Finance

The Statement by the Quebec Financial Centre for a Sustainable Finance is a commitment from Quebec financial sector players to responsible finance principles. All players in the Quebec financial sector are invited to join the movement by becoming signatories to the Statement and proposing ambitious measures that will help position Quebec as a centre of sustainable finance excellence and innovation in North America. About Finance Montreal

Created in 2010, Finance Montreal, Quebec's financial cluster, is dedicated to making Montreal a world-class financial hub and fostering cooperation among its member institutions to accelerate industry growth. The organization conducts international business development activities to attract foreign financial firms, in addition to managing the FinTech Station Montreal, a development centre for companies working in the FinTech sector. To learn more about Finance Montreal, visit www.finance-montreal.com . SOURCE Finance Montreal

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[October 04, 2021] Software AG Offers New Ways to Automate the Connected Enterprise with webMethods

Software AG (Frankfurt MDAX: SOW) today announced new ways for customers to automate their connected enterprises through its webMethods platform for APIs, integration and microservices. Through its new DataHub, Developer Portal and Managed File Transfer (MFT) tools, and hundreds of connectors and integration recipes, companies can simplify and automate key steps to becoming a connected enterprise. webMethods (News - Alert) customers will now be able to make quicker business decisions by analyzing the data flowing though their integrations in near real-time as well as automating and programmatically building out an API management strategy. This helps them to connect their enterprises as they seek to modernize their business and create great customer experiences. Dr. Stefan Sigg, CPO at Software AG, commented: "Companies are becoming more connected today, through both choice and necessity. The complexity that comes along with this is a real challenge. Through webMethods, we're helping companies to overcome those challenges so that they can focus on innovation and great customer experiences." The latest updates to webMethods include the following new capabilities: webMethods DataHub: With the new webMethods DataHub, users can now access near real-time data insights using analytics, to make live business decisions. Users not only reduce their time to access data, but they can also do so through their choice of leading industy BI tools such as Microsoft (News - Alert) Power BI, Tableau and others. This new offering will eliminate batch downloading and serve up data faster without involving complex IT approvals and coding.







With the new webMethods DataHub, users can now access near real-time data insights using analytics, to make live business decisions. Users not only reduce their time to access data, but they can also do so through their choice of leading industy BI tools such as Microsoft (News - Alert) Power BI, Tableau and others. This new offering will eliminate batch downloading and serve up data faster without involving complex IT approvals and coding. webMethods.io MFT: As part of the multi-function iPaaS, Software AG is now adding MFT capabilities to current integration, B2B, API and IoT capabilities to webMethods.io. With the addition of cloud MFT for internal and B2B file transfers, Software AG continues to enhance its industry leading iPaaS.



As part of the multi-function iPaaS, Software AG is now adding MFT capabilities to current integration, B2B, API and IoT capabilities to webMethods.io. With the addition of cloud MFT for internal and B2B file transfers, Software AG continues to enhance its industry leading iPaaS. webMethods Developer Portal: A new lightweight, embeddable portal that is fully API-enabled makes it easy to create an API marketplace for developers that is branded with a company's look and feel. Full headless capabilities enable simplified automation. Insightful dashboards and intuitive customizations enable businesses to create a collaborative space for developers.



A new lightweight, embeddable portal that is fully API-enabled makes it easy to create an API marketplace for developers that is branded with a company's look and feel. Full headless capabilities enable simplified automation. Insightful dashboards and intuitive customizations enable businesses to create a collaborative space for developers. Connector Development Ecosystem: With the new Connector Development Program, ISVs, OEM partners, resellers and customers can partner with Software AG to build, test, certify and publish connectors to webMethods.io. This makes more connectors and integrations available on-demand for webMethods.io users, speeding up the integration process without extra burden on internal teams. The Connector Development ecosystem enhances already available, hundreds of Software AG connectors and recipes. Suraj Kumar, GM of API, Integration and Microservices at Software AG, commented: "Today, companies are looking for ways to connect all their technology, whether it's legacy or cutting edge. Our customers continue to face the pressure of performing at the 'speed of business' while trying to democratize their IT investments. From global banks to retailers, we are responding to companies that need real-time business insights, automate their integrations and deliver hybrid cloud solutions without abandoning existing systems." To hear more about the latest from Software AG, attend the conXion event, October 5-7 or on-demand afterwards.

About Software AG Software AG is the software pioneer of a truly connected world. Since 1969, it has helped 10,000+ organizations use software to connect people, departments, systems and devices. Software AG empowers truly connected enterprises using integration & APIs, IoT & analytics and business & IT transformation. Software AG's products establish a fluid flow of data that allows everything and everyone to work together. The company has more than 4,700 employees across more than 70 countries and annual revenue of over 800m, with the aim of exceeding 1bn by 2023. For more information, visit www.softwareag.com and follow on LinkedIn and Twitter. 2021 Software AG. All rights reserved. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005103/en/

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[October 04, 2021] "Bleach: Brave Souls" Fall Bankai Live 2021 Airs Tuesday, October 5 and Features Special Voice Acting Guests

TOKYO, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- KLab Inc., a leader in online mobile games, announced that its hit 3D action game Bleach: Brave Souls, currently available on smartphones and PC, will host a special Fall Bankai Live from 8 pm on Tuesday, October 5 (UTC+9). See the original press release ( https://www.klab.com/en/press/release/2021/1004/bleach_brave_souls_fall_bankai.html ) for more information. This special live broadcast will feature Yoshiyuki Hirai from America Zarigani, a popular comedy duo based in Japan, as well as Azusa Sekine from the Japanese idol group Up Up Girls (Kakko Kari) as MCs. It also features an impressive display of talent from the Bleach anime series, including Masakazu Morita, the voice actor for Ichigo Kurosaki, and Ryotaro Okiayu, the voice actor for Byakuya Kuchiki. In addition to the familiar special guests, the cast will be joined by Asami Tano, the voice actor for Ninny Spangcole, and Yuina Yamada, the voice actor for Noel Niihashi from Burn the Witch the latest work by Tite Kubo, the creator of Bleach. Fall Bankai Live 2021:

https://www.bleach-bravesouls.com/en/news/210930/ Bankai Livestream URLs YouTube Live:

(EN) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCwuOu29y6k

(JP) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7Lmz79qIgI Twitter Live:

(EN) https://twitter.com/bleachbrs_en

(JP) https://twitter.com/Bleach_BS Facebook Live (EN Only): https://www.facebook.com/BleachBS.en/ EN: Japanese audio with English commentary.

JP: Japanese audio only. Viewers will also be able to participate in a retweet campaign for a chance to win an autograph from the cast members on the livestream and a hashtag campaign to win original merchandise. Be sure to tune in and participate. Overview of Bleach: Brave Souls







Smartphone Support: Android 4.4+, iOS 10.0+ PC (Steam) Support: Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 Genre: 3D Action Price: Free-to-play (In-game purchases available) Supported Regions: Global Official Website: https://www.bleach-bravesouls.com/en/ Official Twitter Account: @bleachbrs_en Official Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/BleachBS.en Official Instagram: @bleachbravesouls_official Official Discord: https://discord.com/invite/bleachbravesouls Copyright:  Tite Kubo/Shueisha, TV TOKYO, dentsu, Pierrot

 KLabGames

Download here App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1003168863

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.klab.bleach

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1201240/BLEACH_Brave_Souls View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bleach-brave-souls-fall-bankai-live-2021-airs-tuesday-october-5-and-features-special-voice-acting-guests-301391558.html SOURCE KLab Inc.

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[October 04, 2021] Lunchbox Unveils New Logo, Visual Identity and Website

NEW YORK, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Lunchbox , the next-gen online ordering platform for restaurants, today unveils a new logo, visual identity, and website to empower the restaurant industry. The new rebrand is the result of work from independent branding and digital design studio, Studio Freight. It features original photography from Jenna Gang, motion design by Chris Koelsch, music produced by Jeremy Claudio, and bespoke typography, original illustrations, and web design elements (including the identity's primary yellow color with the HEX code #FEED01.) The website highlights the suite of Lunchbox products, including online ordering tools for food halls, marketplaces, and ghost kitchens, and Lunchbox Studio, an in-house creative agency offering professional design and marketing services for Lunchbox clients. The website's new Resource Hub features new original articles, research, ebooks, videos, podcasts, and tools built to educate the industry on restaurant marketing best-practices, online ordering trends, food tech news, and thought leadership. The first line of ode for Lunchbox was written in November 2018. The fully-remote company now has nearly 230 employees across North America. In March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Lunchbox launched HelpMainStreet.com, a website that allows customers to donate, purchase gift cards, and order online from restaurants. In October 2020, Lunchbox raised a $20M Series A led by Coatue.



"This new brand is a love letter to our industry and our customers. Lunchbox is a company born out of the idea that restaurants deserve as many tools and resources as possible to succeed in post-pandemic times," said Zach McCurdy, Creative Director at Lunchbox. "Today we're proud to unveil not only a new brand identity, but also bring new focus to our products built for everyone in the industry: large chains, ghost kitchens, and everyone in between." "We are thrilled to see the new Lunchbox brand go live," said Aaron Marks, Partner and Design Director at Studio Freight. "It was designed to represent the intersection of Lunchbox's technology and unapologetic point of view  own it all yourself and be yourself. We can't wait for the industry to discover and explore what's possible now."

The Lunchbox website is now live and ready for you to experience at Lunchbox.io. About Lunchbox

Lunchbox empowers brands with an enterprise next-gen online ordering engine that drives sales and engagement through powerful growth marketing tools to help create stronger relationships with their guests. Lunchbox works with industry-leading restaurants like Bareburger and World Famous Chef David Chang's Fuku to build the best-in-class digital ordering experiences that drive returns and sales, all while moving guests away from third-party sites. To learn more, visit www.lunchbox.io . Media Contact:

Corinne Watson, cwatson@lunchbox.io View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lunchbox-unveils-new-logo-visual-identity-and-website-301391309.html SOURCE Lunchbox

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[October 04, 2021] Oracle Promotes Responsible Use of AI in Financial Institutions

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent World Economic Forum survey1 found that 85% of financial institutions have implemented AI, but some still have concerns about its use. To help financial institutions apply AI responsibly, Oracle has added new AI governance capabilities to its Oracle Financial Services Compliance Studio application. With a new visualization canvas that fosters more inclusive machine learning model creation, alerts for potentially sensitive issues, and new in-memory sandboxes to more easily create and refine models, banks can help weed out bias and uncertainty in applying the power of AI to fight money laundering and other financial crimes. These new model management and governance capabilities will also soon be implemented with PwC's Model Edge solution. Oracle Financial Services Compliance Studio is an advanced analytics application for financial institutions that supercharges anti-money laundering and anti-financial crime programs for more effective, efficient customer due diligence, transaction monitoring, and investigations. As part of the broader Oracle Financial Crime and Compliance Management suite, it offers built in AI, machine learning, graph analytics, and data management capabilities. "There is clear consensus across financial institutions that AI and machine learning have tremendous potential to increase the effectiveness of anti-money laundering and other financial crime detection programs, and deliver higher efficiencies in the investigative process," said John Edison, group vice president, software development, Oracle Financial Services. "However, there are hurdles to ensuring that AI is ued responsibly and ethically in a way that is fair, transparent, and easily understood. The new capabilities in Oracle Financial Services Compliance Studio provide the right governance and controls required to meet these objectives."



Current compliance processes for adopting AI within financial crime are often disconnected, error prone due to manual steps, and resource-intensive. With the new updates to Compliance Studio, banks can eliminate these obstacles to better address their governance and regulatory obligations. New features include: A visual canvas for building machine learning models: A visual, drag and drop interface provides a task library so data scientists can quickly and easily build machine learning models that reflect company values and help address regulatory guidelines. The pre-trained models and data sets also allow non-data scientists to more easily analyze and consume the machine learning insights. The visual representations of models are easy to interpret and explain to regulators.

A visual, drag and drop interface provides a task library so data scientists can quickly and easily build machine learning models that reflect company values and help address regulatory guidelines. The pre-trained models and data sets also allow non-data scientists to more easily analyze and consume the machine learning insights. The visual representations of models are easy to interpret and explain to regulators. Interactive model testing: The visual canvas of Oracle Financial Services Compliance Studio allows users to interactively test and edit models, making it easier to pinpoint and help address issues of bias or fairness. The visual canvas enhances decision-making by providing context in an easy-to-understand format.

The visual canvas of Oracle Financial Services Compliance Studio allows users to interactively test and edit models, making it easier to pinpoint and help address issues of bias or fairness. The visual canvas enhances decision-making by providing context in an easy-to-understand format. Model monitoring and alerts: Active model monitoring and drift reporting provide immediate alerts on areas of concern so corrective action can be taken.

Active model monitoring and drift reporting provide immediate alerts on areas of concern so corrective action can be taken. Easy to create sandboxes for business users and citizen modelers: Business users and administrators can create and use multiple in-memory sandboxes to bring data from multiple sources and test models without disturbing the production environment.

Business users and administrators can create and use multiple in-memory sandboxes to bring data from multiple sources and test models without disturbing the production environment. Fast point and click model deployment: New and updated models can be deployed straight from the application in minutes without taking systems offline. "While many financial institutions are already using artificial intelligence to help detect money laundering and fraud, the management and governance of AI models tends to be manual and cumbersome, which leads to errors and inefficiency," said Vikas Agarwal, Financial Crime Unit and Risk Products Leader at PwC. "Financial institutions need technology that helps make this ongoing process seamless and that provides a holistic, quantifiable picture of model risk through various dimensions. We look forward to working with Oracle and combining their model management and governance capabilities with our PwC product, Model Edge. Bringing this technology combination to the market will help ensure AI is used responsibly, documented well per model governance guidelines, and that any potential biases in models are identified and addressed."

To learn more about Oracle Financial Crime and Compliance Management solutions visit our website at https://www.oracle.com/industries/financial-services/aml-and-financial-crime-compliance/. About Oracle Financial Services

Oracle Financial Services provides solutions for retail banking, corporate banking, payments, asset management, life insurance, annuities, and healthcare payers. With our comprehensive set of integrated digital and data platforms, banks and insurers are empowered to deliver next-generation financial services. We enable customer-centric transformation, support collaborative innovation, and drive efficiency. Our data and analytical platforms help financial institutions drive customer insight, integrate risk and finance, fight financial crime, and address their regulatory requirements. To learn more visit our website at https://www.oracle.com/industries/financial-services. About Oracle

Oracle offers integrated suites of applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at oracle.com. Trademarks

Oracle, Java, and MySQL are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation. 1 World Economic Forum and Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance: Transforming Paradigms, A Global AI in Financial Services Survey  January 2020 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/oracle-promotes-responsible-use-of-ai-in-financial-institutions-301390122.html SOURCE Oracle

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[October 04, 2021] GLS introduces refreshed brand identity

Brand refresh embodies the company's ambitions with an exciting and dynamic look AMSTERDAM, Oct. 4, 2021 /CNW/ - GLS, a leading parcel service provider, reveals its updated brand identity today. The brand refresh builds upon what has made GLS successful in the fast-changing world of parcel services and supports the company's growth ambitions. At its core, GLS makes every parcel delivery personal with its seamless solutions. The refreshed brand identity reflects the company's undertaking with a fresh, dynamic and digital-friendly look. The brand refresh catches the eye with a striking blue and yellow. The yellow arrow that has long represented the company is incorporated into the letter G wth a more compact design, punctuated by a dot symbolising GLS's expertise, point-to-point mission and connection with its customers in the digital age. The polished look is strengthened by clear language with a fun, witty tone and style.



The brand refresh comes at a time of great change for the company. Customers are increasingly looking for easy, transparent and sustainable shipping solutions. In response to this growing need, GLS has been tailoring its network and services for more international, convenient, digital and sustainable solutions. The company aims to reinforce its cross-border leadership with a focus on growth in B2C services, whilst maintaining the company's strong footprint in B2B. Because of its dedicated cross-border network with significant local market knowledge, GLS is confident in reaching its growth goal by 2025. "At GLS, we have been delivering the most personal and seamless service for more than 30 years and have built a strong foundation with our people and customers. As customers' needs and the parcel market are changing rapidly, it is time for us to change as well," says Martin Seidenberg, CEO of GLS Group. "The updated brand identity reflects our work and ambition in a brighter and more leading-edge way. It's dynamic, bold, modern, vivid and personal. It reflects perfectly who we are and who we will be."

The updated brand will be rolled out gradually across all markets in Europe and North America, with an official start on 4 October. About GLS Group

GLS Group is a leading cross-border parcel service provider. The company provides reliable, high-quality and personal parcel services to customers in 41 countries, complemented by freight and express services. Thanks to the company's expansive cross-border network and strong local market knowledge, customers can expect the same seamless, flexible and personal service across Europe and beyond. GLS also operates through wholly-owned subsidiaries in Canada and on the USA's West Coast. The GLS network consists of 71 central and regional transhipment points and about 1,500 depots, which are supported by approximately 31,000 final-mile delivery vehicles and 4,000 long-distance trucks. GLS employs around 21,000 people. In 2020/21, GLS generated record revenues of 4.5 billion euros and delivered 840 million parcels, despite global challenges. SOURCE GLS Canada

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[October 04, 2021] B2C2 Rolls out Options Trading, Rounding out Full Service Offering

B2C2, the counterparty of choice in the institutional crypto markets, today announced the launch of options trading. B2C2 will initially offer BTC/USD and ETH/USD OTC vanilla options, with bespoke expiry dates and strikes, to institutional counterparts. The new product, which rounds out the firm's integrated spot and Delta one derivatives offering, is designed to meet heightened demand for sophisticated alpha generation and hedging instruments. Rather than mirroring expiries on options exchanges, B2C2's bespoke options contracts offer any strike and any expiry out to three months, enabling users to more precisely meet their hedging and investment needs. The options trading business will be run by Brad Nagela, global head of options trading, who is based in Chicago and Johannes Woolard, head of options trading in Europe, who is based in London. Brad Nagela, global head of options trading at B2C2, said: "This is an exciting time for us at B2C2. We believe that we're uniquely positioned to provide counterparts with the products they need, backed by deep pools of liquidity. Product innovation, excelence in risk management and efficient trade execution and settlement are a winning combination for us and we look forward to building out a full suite of derivative products, much like those you'd find at an investment bank."



B2C2, which was acquired by innovative Japanese financial group SBI in December 2020, represents a natural entry point for financial institutions seeking to trade crypto with a reliable counterparty. With 500+ clients, B2C2 is relied on by aggregators, brokers, hedge funds, exchanges and OTC desks. The growing number of cryptocurrency investors, and the recent bitcoin flash crash, has placed an even greater premium on fully electronic, uniquely scalable trading platforms. While many exchanges were overwhelmed by the market volatility and trading volumes on May 19th this year, B2C2 was able to continuously serve clients with quotes and settlements throughout a record-breaking day of 1 million+ trades executed and 1 billion+ dollars settled. - Ends -

About B2C2 B2C2 is the counterparty of choice in the institutional crypto markets. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in the UK, with offices in the Americas and Asia Pacific, B2C2 is relied on by aggregators, brokers, hedge funds, exchanges and OTC desks globally to provide 24/7 liquidity. In 2020, B2C2 was acquired by Japanese financial group SBI. B2C2 OTC Ltd. is authorised and regulated by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 810834). For more information, please visit https://www.b2c2.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005416/en/

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[October 04, 2021] Coviant Software Release of Diplomat MFT SFTP Server to Addresses Need for Reliable, Affordable, Automated Secure File Transfer

SAN ANTONIO, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Coviant Software, the San Antonio developer of award-winning managed file transfer (MFT) technology, announces the release of its Diplomat MFT SFTP Server, engineered to support automated, secure file transfers for sensitive and regulated data. "The demand for secure, reliable, and firewall-friendly file transfer automation continues to grow. However, thanks to the recent acquisition of companies like JScape, Globalscape, GoAnywhere, and Ipswitch, options for MFT servers have diminished, costs have increased, and customer support has suffered," said Gregory Hoffer, CEO, Coviant Software. "In response, Coviant Software now offers an SFTP server that supports secure, automated file transfer with all the performance and features larger enterprises demand, at a price that makes sense for organizations of every size." Many organizations are turning to do-it-yourself file transfers using cheap, cloud-based tools. That approach is error prone and raises questions about data ownership. Diplomat MFT SFTP Server is engineered with nearly two decades of expertise to meet the needs of organizations of any size with minimal customization, and a simple, intuitive interface. Key features include: Automatio out-of-the-box;

out-of-the-box; Security through integral SFTP and PGP encryption;

through integral SFTP and PGP encryption; Web-based administration with a simple, intuitive user interface; and,

administration with a simple, intuitive user interface; and, Scalable to support organizations of any size.



Coviant Software, or through its network of resellers, at less than half the cost of other MFT Serversand a lot simpler to use. "At a time when threats are on the rise and regulations are growing more stringent, too many organizations rely on options that are manual, error-prone, and unsecure. Our suite of MFT products is secure, automated, reliable, auditable, and easy to use," Hoffer added.

Coviant Software makes the award-winning secure, managed file transfer platform Diplomat MFT, recognized as the industry's value-leader. Diplomat MFT is a cross-platform software solution that runs on-premises, in the cloud, or in a hybrid deployment. Diplomat MFT takes less than an hour for customers to install and configure for their first automated file transfer. If you are interested in obtaining a free license for Diplomat MFT, you can visit us at www.coviantsoftware.com/ contact, send an email to 320112@email4pr.com, or call us at 781-210-3310 x100. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/coviant-software-release-of-diplomat-mft-sftp-server-to-addresses-need-for-reliable-affordable-automated-secure-file-transfer-301389740.html SOURCE Coviant Software

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[October 04, 2021] Absorb Analyze Allows LMS Users to Dive Deep into the Impact of Learning with New Business Intelligence and Ad Hoc Reporting Tool

CALGARY, AB, Oct. 4, 2021 /CNW/ -- Absorb Software, provider of the Absorb Learning Management System (LMS), Absorb Infuse and Absorb Create, today announced the release of a new self-serve Business Intelligence (BI) and ad hoc reporting tool named Absorb Analyze. Absorb Analyze is the next generation of business intelligence and reporting solutions for Absorb LMS. With the ability to dive deep into your data...administrators can see how learning is driving business outcomes. This notable tool provides business stakeholders with a better understanding of what's happening with their training programs and how their user base is performing through powerful, easy-to-use reporting options. Ultimately, giving them the ability to measure the impact of learning. Absorb Analyze enables users to: Drill Down into Their Data: Access a set of BI widgets (maps, gauges and charts) with complete customization options to create intuitive, all-in-one dashboards for administrators, providing immediate access to ad hoc reporting and long-term analysis.

Access a set of BI widgets (maps, gauges and charts) with complete customization options to create intuitive, all-in-one dashboards for administrators, providing immediate access to ad hoc reporting and long-term analysis. Establish Performance Alerts: Obtain automated alerts to specified report viewers when key thresholds are hit through the Pulse feature. L&D professionals will be able to identify where their training program can improve and measure its effectiveness.

Obtain automated alerts to specified report viewers when key thresholds are hit through the Pulse feature. L&D professionals will be able to identify where their training program can improve and measure its effectiveness. Analyze Future Opportunities: Observe trends and use forecasts to understand possible future scenarios for learning engagement and other relevant business metrics.

Observe trends and use forecasts to understand possible future scenarios for learning engagement and other relevant business metrics. Unlock Data Driven Insight: Automatically generate narratives, or text summaries, that provide an easy way to understand data. With Absorb Analyze, administrators can get the answrs they need to improve their training programs and operations.

Automatically generate narratives, or text summaries, that provide an easy way to understand data. With Absorb Analyze, administrators can get the answrs they need to improve their training programs and operations. Make the Report Their Own: Branded dashboards and themes allow professionals to create effective reports while visualizing their data with predefined fields, groupings that match the unique corporate brand.



"At Absorb, continuous innovation and our commitment to clients are paramount to our success. Putting easy-to-use BI into the hands of our clients is just one way we're delivering on that promise," said Craig Basford, EVP of Product at Absorb Software. "With the ability to dive deep into your data for reporting and analysis purposes, administrators can see how learning is driving business outcomes. Absorb Analyze's customization and powerful featureslike dashboards for quick insights on learning programs or ROI analysisgive our clients an edge in today's competitive landscape."

Read more on Absorb Analyze and other innovative features at www.absorblms.com. About Absorb Software Absorb Software, backed by market-leading equity firm Welsh Carson Anderson Stowe (WCAS), is a learning technology company based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, with global offices in London, Dublin, Shanghai, Sydney, Boston and Tampa. Absorb LMS, the company's flagship product, is an industry-leading and award-winning Learning Management System trusted by businesses, governments, healthcare providers, educators and non-profit organizations worldwide. The company's line of results-driven eLearning products also includes Absorb Infuse, the first true in-the-flow learning experience, and Absorb Create; a cloud-based course builder offered as both a standalone product and a seamless Absorb LMS integration. To learn more about Absorb Software, its products, and the "Learn Everywhere" mantra that inspires them, visit www.absorblms.com or follow the company on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/absorb-analyze-allows-lms-users-to-dive-deep-into-the-impact-of-learning-with-new-business-intelligence-and-ad-hoc-reporting-tool-301391805.html SOURCE Absorb Software

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[October 04, 2021] Kingston Technology Remains Top DRAM Module Supplier for 2020

Kingston Technology Company, Inc., a world leader in memory products and technology solutions, today announced it has been ranked top third-party DRAM module supplier in the world, according to the latest rankings by revenue from analyst firm TrendForce (formerly DRAMeXchange). Kingston retains its number 1 position with an estimated 78.02% market share on $13.2B (USD) revenue. TrendForce states that Kingston increased revenue by 2.03% YOY marking the 18th consecutive year that Kingston has held the top spot. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005080/en/ Kingston Technology ranked #1 third-party DRAM module supplier in the world for the 18th consecutive year, according to latest rankings by revenue from analyst firm TrendForce. (Photo: Business Wire) Kingston maintains its competitive advantage by working closely with its suppliers, partners, and customers to remain flexible and adapt to ever-changing needs and market conditions. A driving force to Kingston's success is their working attitude of 'Kingston Is With You'. As one of the leading buyers of DRAM chips in the world, Kingston saw an early need for memory chips in certain markets and took a proactive approach to secure additional components needed for the potential demand such as purchasing component inventory that was bogging down their partner's warehouses. The popular thought in early 2020 was that the technology sector would slow down due to the pandemic, but Kingston took the initiative to be prepared for those segments that would require additional DRAM; work from home PCs, gaming memory, and server farms that needed more memory for the onslaught of online purchases and activity. The chart below shows the top 10 DRAM module suppliers rankings provided by TrendForce: Additionally, with the next generation of DDR fast approaching, Kingston is primed to provide customers with the cutting-edge speeds of DDR5. Kingston's strong relationship with Intel (News - Alert) will help ensure "stride for stride" solutions with Intel's latest product launches. "TrendForce's findings reflect the company's continued growth and flexibility to tackle a challenging business climate," said Yo Chen, VP DRAM business unit, Kingston. "Our leading position in the market allows us to collaborate closely with our partners and vendors, and to provide education and guidance on new technology, like 16Gbit modules and the upcoming DDR5 launch, to our customers." For more information visit kingston.com. Kingston can be found on:







YouTube Instagram Facebook LinkedIn Twitter Kingston Is With You

About Kingston Technology Company, Inc. From big data, to laptops and PCs, to IoT-based devices like smart and wearable technology, to design-in and contract manufacturing, Kingston helps deliver the solutions used to live, work and play. The world's largest PC makers and cloud-hosting companies depend on Kingston for their manufacturing needs, and our passion fuels the technology the world uses every day. We strive beyond our products to see the bigger picture, to meet the needs of our customers and offer solutions that make a difference. To learn more about how Kingston Is With You, visit Kingston.com. Editor's Note: For additional information, evaluation units or executive interviews, please contact PR Team, Kingston Technology Company, Inc. 17600 Newhope Street, Fountain Valley, CA (News - Alert) USA 92708, 714-435-2600 (Voice). Press images can be found in Kingston's press room kingston.com/company/press/ Kingston and the Kingston logo are registered trademarks of Kingston Technology Corporation. IronKey (News - Alert) is a registered trademark of Kingston Digital, Inc. Kingston FURY and the Kingston FURY logo are trademarks of Kingston Technology Corporation. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005080/en/

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[October 04, 2021] Barbara G. Novick Joins New York Life Board of Directors

New York Life, America's largest1 and most admired2 mutual life insurer, today announced that Barbara G. Novick has joined the company's Board of Directors, effective October 4, 2021. Ms. Novick is a co-Founder of BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world. She will join the Board's Insurance & Operations and Investment Committees. Ted Mathas, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of New York Life, said, "Barbara's impressive and extensive understanding of the financial markets, public policy, and investment strategies and practices meaningfully deepens the expertise on our Board. New York Life will greatly benefit from her insights and experience as we continue to build on our legacy of delivering long-term benefits to our policy owners and clients." From the inception of BlackRock in 1988 to 2008, Ms. Novick headed the Global Client Group and oversaw global business development, marketing and client service across equity, fixed income, liquidity, alternative investment and real estate products for institutional and individual investors and their intermediaries worldwide. In 2009, Ms. Novick established BlackRock's Global Public Policy Group to provide a voice for investors. From 2018 to 2020, she additionally oversaw BlackRock's Investment Stewardship team. She transitioned from Vice Chairman to Senior Advisor in February 2021. Ms. Novick serves on the board of the American Financial Exchange and on the advisory board of Growth Curve Capital. In addition, Ms. Novick serves on the boards of several non-profits related to the financial servics industry.



Ms. Novick has received numerous awards recognizing her contributions to asset management and to the professional development of women in finance, and her active involvement in her community, including UJA Federation's Gustave Levy Award, Chief Investment Officer's Pioneer Award, 100 Women in Hedge Fund's Effecting Change Award, and Women in Finance's Trailblazer Award. Ms. Novick earned a BA degree, cum laude, in economics from Cornell University. ABOUT NEW YORK LIFE

New York Life Insurance Company (www.newyorklife.com), a Fortune 100 company founded in 1845, is the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States1 and one of the largest life insurers in the world. Headquartered in New York City, New York Life's family of companies offers life insurance, retirement income, investments and long-term care insurance. New York Life has the highest financial strength ratings currently awarded to any U.S. life insurer from all four of the major credit rating agencies3. 1 Based on revenue as reported by "Fortune 500 ranked within Industries, Insurance: Life, Health (Mutual)," Fortune magazine, 6/2/2021. For methodology, please see http://fortune.com/fortune500/. 2 As reported by "Fortune 2021 World's Most Admired Companies ranking within Insurance (Life and Health)," Fortune magazine, 2/1/2021. For methodology, please see https://fortune.com/franchise-list-page/methodology-worlds-most-admired-companies-2021/. 3 Individual independent rating agency commentary as of 9/30/2021: A.M. Best (A++), Fitch (AAA), Moody's Investors Service (Aaa), Standard & Poor's (AA+). View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005143/en/

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[October 04, 2021] Ricoh Canada introduces RansomCare - a final line of defense against ransomware attacks

New ransomware containment solution stops the spread of ransomware encryption, helps keep data secured, safeguards against financial loss and reduces recovery time MISSISSAUGA, ON, Oct. 4, 2021 /CNW/ - Ricoh Canada Inc. today announced the launch of its new ransomware Containment Service that leverages RansomCare (RC) powered by Bullwall. Ransomware attacks are one of the top security threats to businesses in Canada and around the world through their increase in frequency and impact. RansomCare is a revolutionary final line of defense providing multi-layered security detection to identify, contain and isolate ransomware outbreaks at the entry point. "With the proliferation of successful ransomware attacks in Canada it has become paramount that businesses of all sizes rethink their cybersecurity strategies and defenses. Ransomware attacks have become incredibly easy to execute and can cost corporations not only millions of dollars, but also damage to their reputation and brand." said Scott Charlton, Director Innovation & Alliances Marketing, Ricoh Canada. RansomCare is a vital element to an in-depth defense security strategy and acts as a last line of defense to stop n attack in near real-time."



With the capacity to infect up to 10,000 files per minute, per infected device, ransomware is a form of malicious software, or malware. It encrypts files and documents, holding computers and data files hostage, while drastically impacting downtime that can contribute to data loss and network downtime and bring businesses to a halt. RansomCare ensures that business data is protected from cyberattacks with advanced, integrated tools for comprehensive data protection, including:

Active file monitoring to detect known and unknown ransomware variants and immediately alert security administrators of threats;

Quick response to infected devices to halt illegitimate encryption, preventing mass spread to files and reducing risk of expensive recovery efforts;

Informed recovery of impacted files, simplifying backup restoration and logging attack details for additional insight;

Detailed reporting and exported incident reporting for key stakeholders and data authorities. Ricoh's RansomCare, powered by Bullwall, monitors networks in near real time using multiple detection tactics to instantly detect the signs of ransomware at work. RansomCare responds by isolating and quarantining the compromised user and quickly identifying encrypted files to restore them from backup while automating necessary incident reporting. For more information on RansomCare, click here or follow along and engage on Facebook , LinkedIn and Twitter . | About Ricoh | Ricoh is empowering digital workplaces using innovative technologies and services that enable individuals to work smarter from anywhere. With cultivated knowledge and organizational capabilities nurtured over its 85-years history, Ricoh is a leading provider of digital services and information management and print and imaging solutions designed to support digital transformation and optimize business performance. Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group has major operations throughout the world and its products and services now reach customers in approximately 200 countries and regions. In the financial year ended March 2021, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 1,682 billion yen (approx. 15.1 billion USD). For further information, please visit www.ricoh.com  2021 Ricoh Canada Inc. All rights reserved. All referenced product names are

the trademarks of their respective companies. SOURCE Ricoh Canada Inc.

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[October 04, 2021] vipHomeLink Announces Partnership with Xanatek, Inc.

MORRISTOWN, N.J., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- vipHomeLink is proud to announce our latest partnership with Xanatek, Inc., a leading Agency Management System headquartered in South Bend, Indiana with a location in Colorado Springs, CO. Under the partnership, Xanatek will provide vipHomeLink's Digital Home Management Solution to all 1200+ agency clients of Xanatek, who will offer the homeowner solution to their insurance policyholders at a discounted rate. Xanatek was founded in 1995 by Brent Shepparda former insurance agentwho realized there was an opportunity to create an easy-to-use management system for small and mid-sized agencies and bundle it with customer support and training at a value-based price. Today, the company, helps independent agents better run their businesses with their advanced, cloud-based agency management system. Agency staff can access critical client data, process new policies, and service clients easily and fficiently.



Brent Sheppard stated, "We are thrilled to be partnering with vipHomeLink, a leading insurTech solution for homeowners, and adding their solution to our suite of products. Through this partnership, Xanatek's agency partners can benefit from improved customer engagement and reduced loss ratios over time. vipHomeLink's solution simplifies homeownership and helps policyholders 'prevent the preventable' claims around their home." Geoff Martin, President and Co-founder of vipHomeLink, added, "Together with Xanatek, a leader in the AMS segment, we can help improve client engagement for their valued agents, and in turn, help make their clients' homes safer and more enjoyable, while protecting the things they value most!"

About Xanatek, Inc.

Xanatek offers a variety of software programs designed for the insurance industry. Its primary program is called Insurance Management Solutions (IMS)a powerful, innovative system that offers comprehensive agency management and document imaging capabilities. Designed by insurance agents, IMS helps to increase your office productivity through: Improved Customer Service, Enhanced Office Communication, Increased Sales, and Reduction in Paper Storage. Xanatek is based in South Bend, Indiana. About vipHomeLink

vipHomeLink is a digital home management solution that helps homeowners maintain, organize and improve their homes. The Company partners with insurance carriers and agencies to drive engagement with homeowners, prevent home claims, and improve home safety by building awareness of the home, providing customized reminders and home recommendations, and by sharing expert, multi-channel content with members. vipHomeLink is based in Morristown, New Jersey. Contact:

Geoff Martin

President, vipHomeLink

(917) 691-5901 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/viphomelink-announces-partnership-with-xanatek-inc-301391415.html SOURCE vipHomeLink

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[October 04, 2021] Wipro Limited to Announce Results for the Second Quarter Ended September 30, 2021 on October 13, 2021

Wipro (News - Alert) Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO), a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company, will announce results for the second quarter ended September 30, 2021 on Wednesday, October 13, 2021 after stock market trading hours in India. The results will be available in the Investors section of the company's website at www.wipro.com/investors/ At 7:15 PM IST* (9:45 AM US Eastern time) following the results announcement, the senior management will discuss the company's performance for the quarter and answer questions sent by 6:30 PM IST* (9:00 AM US Eastern time) to: iyer.aparna@wipro.com or abhishekkumar.jain@wipro.com The audio from the conference call will be available online through a webcast and can be accessed at https://links.ccwebcast.com/?EventId=WIP20211013 Dial in details for the conference call are as below







Time 7.15 PM - IST* (9:45 AM-ET#) Click here for the diamond pass link



Diamond Pass is a Premium Service that enables you to connect to your conference call without having to wait for an operator. If you have a Diamond Pass click the above link to associate your pin and receive the access details for this conference, if you do not have a Diamond Pass please register through the link and you will receive your Diamond Pass for this conference. Primary Access Toll Number +91 22 6280 1120 +91 22 7115 8021 US Toll Free Number US Standby Toll Number 1 866 746 2133 1 323 386 8721 UK Toll Free Number UK Standby Toll Number 0 808 101 1573 44 203 478 5524 No passcode Required

Please dial any of the above numbers five to ten minutes ahead of schedule. The operator will provide instructions on asking questions before and during the call. The replay of the call will be available two hours after the end of the call on following numbers Call Playback Numbers: Phone (News - Alert) Number Passcode / Conference ID Replay Dates India Toll +91 22 71945757 +91 22 66635757 Access Code: 947765# 13-Oct-21 to 12-Nov-21 International Toll +1 8554360715 Access Code: 947765# 13-Oct-21 to 12-Nov-21 About Wipro Limited Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO) is a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company. We harness the power of cognitive computing, hyper-automation, robotics, cloud, analytics and emerging technologies to help our clients adapt to the digital world and make them successful. A company recognized globally for its comprehensive portfolio of services, strong commitment to sustainability and good corporate citizenship, we have over 200,000 dedicated employees serving clients across six continents. Together, we discover ideas and connect the dots to build a better and a bold new future. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005581/en/

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Talkdesk Transforms Government Benefits Program Delivery

Talkdesk Inc., the global customer experience leader for customer-obsessed companies, announced the launch of Talkdesk Citizen Engagement, an end-to-end customer experience (CX) solution that provides a better way for government agencies to administer benefits, communicate with applicants and recipients, and modernize their contact center operations.

While different in many ways from private sector organizations, government entities are subject to the same consumer demands of today's digital age, where fast, frictionless, and intelligent interactions have become expected in all areas of life. Whether grocery shopping, buying insurance, visiting the doctor, or applying for government benefits, the CX stakes have never been higher. This is especially true for government agencies, as citizens rely on them during crises and for assistance with vital services. In fact, many U.S. states and municipalities reported record-breaking interaction volumes last year as their crisis services hotlines were inundated with citizen inquiries related to the pandemic.

Designed with that in mind, Citizen Engagement offers a well-timed solution for helping state and local governments alleviate common pain points associated with supporting key programs like Medicaid, unemployment insurance, SNAP, housing assistance, and more. The solution streamlines and simplifies the benefits process, giving government organizations the capabilities they need to deliver the service citizens want. Solution highlights include:

Improved access - Enables citizens to easily find program information, understand how to apply, fulfill eligibility requirements, and obtain application assistance on the communication channel of choice. Bots, multi-language features, and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered self-guided options further simplify the program enrollment process and accelerate access to benefits.

Reduced inbound call volumes - Proactively notifies applicants throughout the enrollment and benefits disbursement journey to reduce citizen effort, status check inquiries, and inbound call volumes. Complex inquiries can be seamlessly transitioned to the right live agent without long hold times. Systems of record and identification tools can also be effortlessly integrated for fast verification.

Modernized contact center operations - Allows operations to adapt to evolving program requirements and scale as necessary to meet fluctuating demands without the need for complicated coding or overloading IT resources. The solution's AI-infused capabilities also make agent onboarding and ongoing training more efficient, empowering agents with suggested next best actions in real-time.

"The pandemic and recent disaster relief efforts placed added pressure on state and local government agencies, which were already burdened by disparate, legacy systems," said John Bastin, vice president, industry strategy - public sector, Talkdesk. "Recognizing yesterday's technology can't meet the demands of today, these organizations are now reenvisioning the contact center and proritizing CX. Talkdesk Citizen Engagement helps put them on the path to modernization, giving them a better way to support social service delivery and foster greater trust and transparency."







The Citizen Engagement solution is compliant with Section 508, which requires federal, state, and local agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities.

Citizen Engagement is part of a portfolio of Talkdesk products and solutions tailored to meet industry-specific needs, enabling enterprises and government organizations to unlock the promise and potential of great customer experiences. In addition to the introduction of Citizen Engagement, the company also just announced Talkdesk Insurance Smart Service. Learn more about the full range of Talkdesk contact center solutions.

Additional Resources:

Social Networks

About Talkdesk

Talkdesk is a global customer experience leader for customer-obsessed companies. Our contact center solution provides a better way for businesses and customers to engage with one another. Our speed of innovation and global footprint reflect our commitment to ensure businesses everywhere can deliver better customer experiences through any channel, resulting in higher customer satisfaction, cost savings and profitability. Talkdesk CX Cloud is an end-to-end customer experience solution that combines enterprise scale with consumer simplicity. Over 1,800 innovative companies around the world, including IBM, Acxiom (News - Alert) , Trivago, and Fujitsu partner with Talkdesk to deliver a better way to great customer experience. Learn more and request a demo at www.talkdesk.com

Talkdesk is a registered trademark of Talkdesk, Inc. All product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Use of them does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005587/en/
[October 04, 2021] CyGlass Named Cloud Security Product of the Year by Computing Magazine

LITTLETON, Mass., Oct. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CyGlass , developer of the leading SaaS-based Network Detection and Response (NDR) platform, has been named cloud security product of the year in the network category by Computing Magazines Cloud Excellence Awards 2021 .

A cloud-native service built specifically for resource-constrained IT and security teams, CyGlass Network Defense as a Service (NDaaS) is being deployed as a cost-effective NDR solution at mid-sized organizations worldwide, notably in UK public sector organizations requiring visibility across cloud and network-connected devices. This latest award features a project by Waverley Borough Council for 24X7 visibility into activity on the councils network, network-based ransomware detection, continual monitoring, and automated remediation. This is accomplished without additional hardware, software, or people. Computing is the UK's leading business technology publication for IT leaders. The Computing CyGlass Cloud Excellence award follows recent CyGlass wins as Best SME Security Solution and a Finalist in the category for Best Behavior Analytics/Enterprise Threat Detection at the SC Awards Europe 2021 and the IDG CSO50 Award recognizing organizations for security projects and initiatives that demonstrate outstanding business value and thought leadership.



CyGlass NDaaS protects the hybrid cloud networks of mid- and small-sized organizations. It uses AI to learn and analyze user, service, and device behaviors wherever they emerge: the cloud, Active Directory, VPNs, firewalls, and network traffic. NDaaS can be used to detect anomalies caused by ransomware, account compromise, insider threat, and other advanced threats. As one U.S. bank found , the platform is easy to install in as little as 30 minutes without adding staff and can be easily integrated with firewalls and other applications, making it non-disruptive to adopt. As cloud services such as Azure and Office 365 create new risks and threats, the latest version of CyGlass NDaaS can identify anomalous activities and correlate risks and threats across users, devices, and services on the network or in the cloud.

This award highlights how CyGlass customers are expanding their defensive capabilities to include network and cloud visibility and defense despite the universal challenges of battling potentially costly cyberattacks and hiring cybersecurity expertise, said Ed Jackowiak, President of CyGlass. While some say it is unrealistic to expect smaller teams to defend themselves against highly sophisticated criminals, a growing number of organizations are using cloud-based, AI-driven network defense as a service across public and private sectors to show that, yes, they can. For more on CyGlass NDaaS Hybrid Cloud read our case studies and download the whitepaper , Expanding Network Detection and Response to the Cloud. ABOUT CYGLASS CyGlass is a leading provider of network-centric, threat detection solutions that allow mid-market customers to uncover, pinpoint, and respond to advanced cyber threats that have evaded traditional security controls. CyGlass mission is to provide organizations with a new level of intelligence to defend against the most sophisticated cyber-attacks. Its asset oriented, risk-based approach to threat detection and mitigation focuses attention on the emerging attacks which pose the greatest risk. CyGlass is part of the Nominet UK group. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/969f7fad-011e-4859-97cf-6e622649885d

Contact: Betsy Kosheff Betsy.Kosheff@CyGlass.com 413-717-1410

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Keysight Unveils Industrial Visibility Solutions for Electric Utility Market

Keysight Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: KEYS), a leading technology company that delivers advanced design and validation solutions to help accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world, announced a new series of Industrial Visibility solutions, which include a network packet broker and taps that enable electric utilities to meet North American Electric Reliability Corporation ( NERC (News - Alert) ) Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) monitoring requirements.

Operational technology (OT) systems, including industrial and control systems (ICS) that support the core operation of utilities, gas, oil and critical manufacturing companies, are targets for cyberattacks. Ransomware, extortion, and financially motivated cybercrimes top the list of threat vectors that concern respondents according to the SANS 2021 ICS Survey Report issued by the SANS Institute (News - Alert) .

"While the threat of cyberattacks have kept IT security teams awake for the past forty years, the Ukraine power plant hack in 2015 was the first real wake up call for OT teams around the world," said Taran Singh (News - Alert) , vice president, Enterprise Solutions at Keysight Technologies. "OT networks are increasingly interconnected with IT networks expanding the OT attack surface. As cybersecurity attacks escalate against critical infrastructures, industrial operators, such as electric utilities, need technology to monitor the cybersecurity of both their OT and IT environments."

Keysight's new Industrial Visibility solutions enable industrial asset operators and owners to monitor their IT and OT infrastructure for threats while meeting NERC CIP security standards and similar regulations for high-voltage electric transmission and power generation. These standards, including CIP-005, CIP-007, CIP-008, and CIP-010, require utilities to collect and archive network traffic at the plant and substation level.







Keysight's new Industrial Visibility solutions include:

Copper Tough Taps, which are purpose-built 10/100/1000Mbps taps, provide fail-to-wire access to network traffic in extreme operating temperatures that support Power over Ethernet (PoE) pass through and are physically air gapped to monitor ports for intrusion protection.

Copper Tough Tap Power Solution, which offers fully redundant power source supply (dual-redundant) that is Trade Agreements Act (TAA) compliant and can power up to 16 copper Tough Taps.

Flex Tough Taps that provide inline access to network traffic, have no IP address, do not drop packets, and add no additional overhead or management burden to network devices.

Vision T1000 Packet Aggregator is a network packet broker that provides network visibility into remote sites with harsh environments.

Keysight's Tough Taps and Vision T1000 meet extended temperature ranges, withstand shock and vibration, and have optimized copper and fiber 10/100, 1G and 10G ports. In addition, these products have been certified for the International of Electrical and Electronics Engineers standards IEEE1613 for safety and IEC 61850 for communication protocols for intelligent electrical devices.

Keysight's Industrial Visibility Solutions (News - Alert) will be demonstrated at the upcoming EnergySec Conference in Anaheim, California from Oct. 4-6, 2021 and the GridSecCon virtual conference Oct. 18-20, 2021. Keysight's Eric Floyd will present a session at the EnergySec Conference entitled "You can't protect what you can't see: network visibility provides the foundation for industrial security", on October 5th at 2:15 pm PT.

About Keysight Technologies

Keysight delivers advanced design and validation solutions that help accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world. Keysight's dedication to speed and precision extends to software-driven insights and analytics that bring tomorrow's technology products to market faster across the development lifecycle, in design simulation, prototype validation, automated software testing, manufacturing analysis, and network performance optimization and visibility in enterprise, service provider and cloud environments. Our customers span the worldwide communications and industrial ecosystems, aerospace and defense, automotive, energy, semiconductor and general electronics markets. Keysight generated revenues of $4.2B in fiscal year 2020. For more information about Keysight Technologies (NYSE: KEYS), visit us at www.keysight.com.

Additional information about Keysight Technologies is available in the newsroom at https://www.keysight.com/go/news and on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005596/en/
[October 04, 2021] The I LOVE DAC Campaign Opens for the 58th Design Automation Conference

Cliosoft, Empyrean Technology and Menta are sponsoring the 13th annual free three-day pass to the 58th Design Automation Conference (DAC). For 13 years, the "I LOVE DAC" pass provides access to four keynotes, the DAC Pavilion, Design on Cloud Pavilion, and exhibits. This year DAC is proud to co-locate with the RISC-V Summit and SEMICON West. The complimentary I LOVE DAC pass gives attendees access to all three exhibition areas. The 58th DAC will be a hybrid event in December. The ILOVE DAC pass allows attendees to attend the in-person event being held at Moscone West Center in San Francisco, CA (News - Alert) , December 5-9, 2021. DAC is the premier conference devoted to the design and automation of electronics and system on chip. The conference offers outstanding training, education, exhibits and networking opportunities for designers, researchers, tool developers and vendors.



The I LOVE DAC exhibit badge includes complimentary entry to the exhibits on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (December 6-8, 2021) plus entry into the four keynotes, the DAC Pavilion, which includes SKYTalks (mini-Keynotes), Tech Talks, and industry panel discussions along with the Design on Cloud Pavilion. In addition, the I LOVE DAC badge offers entry into the SEMICON West expo and the RISC-V Summit exhibits along with outstanding networking opportunities at the evening receptions from 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I LOVE DAC registration is open now through October 31, 2021. "The I Love DAC program is the perfect opportunity for design engineers who may not have previously attended DAC to experience what the show has to offer. The three-day free pass provides attendees with an opportunity to network, listen to industry experts, and share ideas," said Yoan Dupret, Managing Director at Menta. "We look forward to being back in San Francisco and continuing the sense of community among customers, partners and technologists through the I LOVE DAC campaign."

"Supporting the I LOVE DAC program has become a tradition for us, and with good reason," notes Simon Rance, vice president of marketing at Cliosoft. "With the scope of DAC programming broadening with each passing year, there's never been a better time to see for yourself why so many semiconductor professionals from all sectors of the industry love this show." Jason Xing, President/CEO of Empyrean Technology North America, said "The I LOVE DAC program is a great way to allow attendees free access to the exhibits, Keynotes and DAC Pavilion talks. The pass allows attendees to explore the latest technologies and visualize the direction of the next wave of technology, all under one roof. We are pleased to be part of this program offering free passes for all of those who want to experience DAC firsthand." The 2021 edition of the collectable I LOVE DAC button can be picked up at the following booths: Cliosoft #1531, Empyrean Technology #2537, Menta #1346 or the DAC Pavilion. About DAC The Design Automation Conference (DAC) is recognized as the premier event for the design of electronic circuits and systems, and for electronic design automation (EDA) and silicon solutions. A diverse worldwide community representing more than 1,000 organizations attends each year, represented by system designers and architects, logic and circuit designers, validation engineers, CAD managers, senior managers and executives to researchers and academicians from leading universities. Close to 60 technical sessions selected by a committee of electronic design experts offer information on recent developments and trends, management practices and new products, methodologies and technologies. A highlight of DAC is its exhibition and suite area with approximately 200 of the leading and emerging EDA, silicon, intellectual property (IP) and design services providers. The conference is sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ( IEEE (News - Alert) ), and is supported by ACM's Special Interest Group on Design Automation (ACM SIGDA) and IEEE's Council on Electronic Design Automation (CEDA). Design Automation Conference acknowledges trademarks or registered trademarks of other organizations for their respective products and services. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005035/en/

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[October 04, 2021] VIVA Investor Partners becomes a property entrepreneur and investor

Ecosystem Economics at the FTE Mykonos How Property, Eco-living, Architecture & Design are being disrupted and enabled by Entrepreneurs MYKONOS, Greece, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- VIVA Investment Partners (VIP), the host of the 12th annual Follow The Entrepreneur (FTE) Investor Summit kicking off this weekend at the Royal Mykonian Hotel, Mykonos' top hotel, predicts the transcendence and trajectory of the property market on Mykonos, similar to that of London in many respects. VIP has acquired property and is in the process of acquiring property and land in the Cyclades from which it will build out a number of ventures, ranging from its flagship Keannaisance platform based in Kea, a 50m property fund focused on Mykonos, a variety of infrastructure projects to encompass roads and drones, medical facilities, children's summer camps, and eco-living. Heralding these initiatives, the FTE Summit will host the following Entrepreneurs and Investors from the property ecosystem: Miltos Kambourides, Founder and Managing Partner of Dolphin Capital, a private equity-backed developer of integrated resorts offering a complete experience to global travellers. Dolphin has raised over $1 billion, investing in six countries. Miltos is positive on the prospect for Greek property and is working with The One & Only in the development of a resort on Kea, Greece.



Christos Vachios, Architect and Developer is a renowned leader within the Greek residential design community. He marries a modern, minimalist perspective with a respect for traditional stone structures that maximise light, often with a sea view. He is known for bio-climatic architecture and a focus on sustainability. Ellie Perlman, Founder and CEO of Blue Lake Capital, a real estate investing firm specialising in multifamily acquisition and management. At Blue Lake Capital, Ellie helps investors grow their wealth by investing alongside her in multifamily deals. Blue Lake has over $500 million in Assets under Management.

Said Dr. Julie Meyer MBE, CEO of VIP and host at FTE. "Everything starts with a great location and Greece is blessed geographically. VIVA Investment Partners sees the risk and uncertainty going out of the market, bringing the confidence that will attract institutional investors to Greece. We are early but then, I have always been early to spot the next wave. We know that Greece is the future, and we are doubling down big on Greece as a platform for living, innovating and building." Ecosystem Economics is the investment strategy of VIVA Investment Partners. For Further Information: Julie Meyer MBE, CEO and Member of the Board

Julie.meyer@vivapartners.net Kate Makuen, Marketing Advisor

kate@vivapartners.net

+44 (0) 7748 561375 Scott Fulton, Investment Director

scott@vivapartners.net View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/viva-investor-partners-becomes-a-property-entrepreneur-and-investor-301391943.html SOURCE VIVA Investment Partners AG

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[October 04, 2021] BlockFills Launches "Phoenix," the Most Advanced SaaS Crypto Platform

BlockFills, a fast-growing global cryptocurrency and digital asset technology company, today announced the release of Phoenix, a first-of-its-kind SaaS (News - Alert) crypto interface designed for institutional clients to access the company's proprietary cryptocurrency trading technology and liquidity. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005701/en/ Phoenix arms institutions with the technology they need to enter the digital asset and cryptocurrency space at an accelerated pace with unmatched security, functionality and reliability. Unlike retail exchanges, the new platform enables digital market participants to access BlockFills' deep, executable liquidity 24 hours a day, seven days a week. "Phoenix is the future of institutional digital asset investing. It gives institutions access to the most advanced technology platform available, allowing them to make secure, efficient and accurate investments with confidence 24/7," said Nick Hammer, co-founder and CEO of BlockFills. "Our team noticed a gap in the technology available - other crypto platforms frequently crash, provide subpar customer service, execute orders at different price points, or generally have poor tech design. Based on our decades of experience in institutional trading, we knew there could and should be a better option. So, we launched Phoenix." With the new platform, investors have access to the following capabilities: Desktop, Mac-native, web and mobile-friendly platform versions, so investors can trade on any device, anywhere, 24x7

Virtually limitless choices of studies, drawing tools, and a completely customizable user-interface

Volume-weighted average price (VWAP), volume profile, order flow, real-time market cap, correlation matrices, heatmaps and more On-chart trading and advanced trading capabilities such as server-side OCO ("order-cancel-order") commands

Real-time on-chain network data such as difficulty and hash rate, analytics, and detailed data export capabilities

Deep liquidity supported by battle-tested infrastructure

All the bespoke technical services that BlockFills is known for industry-wide



Vision" and "Zephyr," allowing institutional trading businesses to enter the digital asset market efficiently and reliably. While many traditional institutions and enterprises are preparing to build capabilities to trade and invest in crypto, the Chicago-based startup is on a mission to be the go-to digital asset firm for institutional clients looking to adopt cryptocurrency or implement digital asset management as part of its service offerings.

"Already, hedge funds, asset managers, proprietary trading groups, investors, brokers and corporations have realized the power of Phoenix, and for any institutions looking to make cryptocurrency investments or manage digital assets for the first time, Phoenix is ready to help," added Hammer. Phoenix is currently available to new and existing BlockFills customers. To contact BlockFills about Phoenix or other business opportunities, please email trade@BlockFills.com, or for more information, visit www.BlockFills.com. About BlockFills

BlockFills is a disruptive financial technology firm dedicated to the provision of end-to-end solutions for global crypto currency market participants. The company has successfully built and deployed a cutting-edge multi-asset technology platform that solves major liquidity fragmentation problems in the marketplace. The platform provides price discovery, price aggregation, electronic order matching, smart order routing and trade reconciliation solutions for institutions in the digital spot and derivatives markets. In addition, BlockFills provides software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions that simplify all aspects of the trade lifecycle for institutions in the sector. Based out of Chicago and founded in 2018, BlockFills' digital asset technology is already serving over 600 institutional clients across 50 countries. RISK DISCLOSURE AND IMPORTANT INFORMATION

This press release is not an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any security in any jurisdiction where such an offer or solicitation would be illegal, nor shall there be any sale of any security in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of that jurisdiction. All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of all of the money invested. As with any investment strategy, there is no guarantee that investment objectives will be met and investors may lose money. Diversification does not ensure a profit or protect against a loss in a declining market. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005701/en/

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[October 04, 2021] Paytronix Report: Loyalty Programs Boost Visits and Spend By 18-30%

NEWTON, Mass., Oct. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Paytronix Systems, Inc., the most advanced digital guest experience platform , today published the first annual Paytronix Loyalty Report, which found that most Paytronix loyalty programs consistently boost visits and spend by 1830% per enrolled member. The first annual Paytronix Loyalty Report examines restaurant and convenience industry trends across the loyalty landscape, including trends in visits, spend, member demographics, and program types.

Download the full report: 2021 Paytronix Loyalty Report Key insights from the Paytronix Loyalty Report include: Loyalty members checks were an average of 6% more than non-loyalty members over the course of the year.

The top 10% of loyalty members accounted for more than half of all loyalty spend at their favorite brands for eight months of 2020.

Ice cream and coffee brands had a banner year in 2020 despite the pandemic, realizing on average a 7% increase in visits and a 26.5% increase in spend.

Convenience stores saw a 10% increase in average spend per visit despite a decline in fuel sales.

Spend per visit increased across convenience stores and all restaurant segments.

During a tumultuous 2020, loyalty programs shone through as one of the key survival tools for brands in the restaurant and convenience industries, saidAndrew Robbins, CEO of Paytronix Systems, Inc. The best programs are those that look beyond simply enticing customers with offers and leans into the idea of personalizing the customer journey. In this way a loyalty platform is part of a broader guest engagement strategy that touches all parts of the guest experience, whether thats digital, physical, or a combination of both.



The Paytronix report finds that critical mass for a loyalty program is reached at about 15% penetration, the baseline that brands should strive to achieve one year after launching a program for the first time. At this level, the program is producing material results: enough to make a noticeable difference on the top line. Excellent performance falls between 25% and 35%, while top-tier brands can reach impressive penetration rates of 50% or even 70%. Panera Bread represents one of these exceedingly successful brands: the fast-casual giant has a 50% penetration rate and 40 million loyalty members  twice as many loyalty members as Starbucks, despite the brands significant size difference.

The Paytronix Loyalty Report is part of a series of data-driven analysis that includes the Paytronix Order & Delivery Report and the Paytronix Gift Card Report. Methodology

The 2021 Paytronix Loyalty Report references data from the Paytronix database of in-store and online transactions between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2020 unless otherwise noted. While restaurant data in this report goes back to 2018, the convenience store data covers 2019 and 2020. Paytronix Systems, Inc.

Based in Newton, Massachusetts, Paytronix is a provider of SaaS customer experience management (CXM) solutions for restaurants and convenience stores. Through its innovative software design and integrations with more than 30 widely used point-of-sale systems, Paytronix empowers more than 500 brands across 30,000 locations, giving them the flexibility to deliver unique, revenue-enhancing guest experiences. Through one-to-one engagement with more than 285 million guests via Order & Delivery, Loyalty, CRM, and Stored Value, Paytronix generates Big Data consumer insights that motivate increased visits and spend. For more information, visit www.paytronix.com.

Media Contact: Chuck Tanowitz Paytronix Systems, Inc. ctanowitz@paytronix.com 617-871-2319

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[October 04, 2021] TD Ameritrade Investor Movement Index: IMX Rises in September

The Investor Movement Index (IMXSM) moved higher to 8.66 in September, up from 8.38 in August. The IMX is TD Ameritrade's proprietary, behavior-based index, aggregating Main Street investor positions and activity to measure what investors actually were doing and how they were positioned in the markets. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005774/en/ TD Ameritrade September 2021 Investor Movement Index (Graphic: TD Ameritrade) The reading for the five-week period ending September 24, 2021 ranks "High" compared to historic averages. "After seeing record highs across all indices recently, we saw a September slump hit the markets at the end of the month," said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist, TD Ameritrade. "While market volatility was elevated compared to recent levels, TD Ameritrade clients used this volatility to help make their investment decisions. As we hit new highs to start September, clients saw this as an opportunity to sell equities and the ensuing pullback as a buying opportunity." Equity markets were highly volatile over the September period, driven by global economic concerns and continued supply chain issues. Investor concerns had been slowly building up leading into September and finally led to strong selling across the three major indices. All major sectors moved lower over the month except the energy sector, which benefited from a rise in the price of crude oil amid supply concerns. After selling off initially, the S&P 500 attempted to rally back only to make another gap lower. This drop snapped a seven-month streak of positive gains, leaving the potential to finish positive for the 3rd quarter. TD Ameritrade clients were net buyers of products overall during the September IMX period, inceasing their holdings of equities and fixed income assets. Some of the popular equity names bought during the period were:



Apple Inc. (AAPL)

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA)

Ford (News - Alert) Motor Co. (F)

Nvidia Corp. (NVDA)

SoFi Technologies Inc. (SOFI) TD Ameritrade clients took advantage of rising prices to sell some equities during the period, including: Tesla Inc. (TSLA)

Netflix Inc. (NFLX)

Amazon.com (News - Alert) , Inc. (AMZN)

American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL)

Delta Air Lines, Inc. (DAL)

Bank of America Corporation (BAC) About the IMX

The IMX value is calculated based on a complex proprietary formula. Each month, TD Ameritrade pulls a sample from its client base of funded accounts, which includes all accounts that completed a trade in the past month. The holdings and positions of this statistically significant sample are evaluated to calculate individual scores, and the median of those scores represents the monthly IMX. For more information on the Investor Movement Index, including historical IMX data going back to January 2010; to view the full report from September 2021, or to sign up for future IMX news alerts, please visit www.tdameritrade.com/IMX. Additionally, TD Ameritrade clients can chart the IMX using the symbol $IMX in either the thinkorswim or thinkorswim Mobile platforms. Inclusion of specific security names in this commentary does not constitute a recommendation from TD Ameritrade to buy, sell, or hold. All investments involve risk including the possible loss of principal. Please consider all risks and objectives before investing. Past performance of a security, strategy, or index is no guarantee of future results or investment success. Historical data should not be used alone when making investment decisions. Please consult other sources of information and consider your individual financial position and goals before making an independent investment decision. The IMX is not a tradable index. The IMX should not be used as an indicator or predictor of future client trading volume or financial performance for TD Ameritrade. About TD Ameritrade TD Ameritrade provides investing services and education to self-directed investors and registered investment advisors. A leader in U.S. retail trading, we leverage the latest in cutting edge technologies and one-on-one client care to help our clients stay on top of market trends. Learn more by visiting www.amtd.com. Brokerage services provided by TD Ameritrade, Inc., member FINRA (www.FINRA.org) / SIPC (www.SIPC.org), a subsidiary of The Charles Schwab Corporation. TD Ameritrade is a trademark jointly owned by TD Ameritrade IP Company, Inc. and The Toronto-Dominion Bank.  2021 Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. All rights reserved. Source (News - Alert) : TD Ameritrade, Inc. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005774/en/

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HdL Companies Joins Forces with the North Texas Innovation Alliance to Support Public Sector Innovation

Today, HdL Companies, a leader of auditing, operations, and revenue management solutions for public agencies, announced its partnership with the North Texas Innovation Alliance (NTXIA), a 501(c)3 consortium of key cross-sector stakeholders working collaboratively to drive innovative solutions at the intersection of community, data, and technology. The NTXIA's mission is to create the most connected, smart, and resilient region in the country.

Founded by local government leaders, HdL assists agencies nationwide with a unique government perspective and dedication. The HdL Texas team, operating since 2007, optimizes operational efficiency and maximizes revenue with sales and use tax reporting, auditing, hotel tax administration, economic development, and indirect cost recovery. "We are excited to partner with such a forward-thinking group. We are confident we can provide access to economic trend information, data analytics and reporting that will allow local governments to maximize their revenue streams," remarked Richard Fletcher, Vice President of Operations and Client Services.

In partnering with the NTXIA, HdL joins nearly three dozen city, county, agency, economic development, academic and private sector members, working collaboratively on programs that advance new solutions to large-scale challenges - one of the most critical being financial models and revenue generation.

"Today, there is tremendous opportunity for the public and private sector to work together to improve infrastructure, operations and services to ensure the future prosperity of North Texas, but it requires a best-minds approach and a true spirit of partnership," commented Jennifer Sanders, Executive Director, North Texas Innovation Alliance. "HdL brings true best-in-class expertise in revenue recovery and financial counsel, we are so grateful for the team's support and cannot wait to see what will be achieved together."

As local governments nationally continue to adapt to evolving resident expectations, budget shortfalls, aging infrastructure, and emerging technology to improve service delivery, North Texas is emerging as a leader to stay on top of trends and committed to adopting innovative, research-based solutions. New solutions and business models are emerging that give governments new avenues to partner with the private sector to deliver new or improved services or revenue streams.

The NTXIA will enhance economic vitality and highlight a culture of innovation that supports municipalities, agencies, companies and academic institutions across North Texas. In addition to the consortium addressing both current and evolving challenges of efficiencies, sustainability, economic growth and quality of life, the NTXIA will also focus on regional standards, policies and models that will facilitate faster deployment and results.

About HdL Companies

HdL Companies is dedicated to supporting local governments across the U.S. with revenue enhancement, technology and consulting services that enable cities, counties and special districts to better serve their constituents. Founded in 1983, HdL Companies' comprehensive approach to revenue management is trusted by over 500 local governments. The company has successfully recovered over $3 billion in revenue for client agencies and maintained a 99.6% client retention rate since inception. For more information, visit www.hdlcompanies.com or follow on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.







About the North Texas Innovation Alliance

The North Texas Innovation Alliance (NTXIA) is a 501(c)3 consortium of key cross-sector stakeholders working to build and implement a smart region strategy for North Texas. The mission of the NTXIA is to build the most connected, smart, and resilient region in the country. NTXIA was launched to collaboratively utilize data, technology, and community to address the most pressing topics to create solutions that will improve quality of life, drive inclusive economic development, and promote resource efficiency. For more information, please visit www.NTXIA.org, or follow on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.

The founding members of the North Texas Innovation Alliance include: Addison, Allen, Arlington, Coppell, Corinth, Dallas, Dallas County, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Dallas Innovation Alliance, Dallas Regional Chamber, Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, Frisco, Garland, Irving, North Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG), McKinney, McKinney Economic Development Corporation, North Texas Commission, Plano, Richardson, and the Texas Research Alliance, with support from Pivotal Partners Cisco and NexGen Lighting Solutions, and partners Jones Day, Chrysalis Partners, Connected Cities Integrators, and Marketplace.city. The NTXIA is a member of Mastercard's City Possible network, a community dedicated to advancing inclusive and sustainable development through collaboration.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005801/en/
[October 04, 2021] PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. Announces Extension of Consent Solicitations for Each of Its 5.375% Senior Notes due 2025 and 4.250% Senior Notes due 2029 and Increase of Consent Fee for its 4.250% Senior Notes due 2029

PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. (NYSE: PFSI) (the "Company") today announced that it has extended the expiration date of its previously announced solicitation of consents (the "Consent Solicitations") from the holders of its (i) 5.375% Senior Notes due 2025 (the "2025 Notes") and (ii) 4.250% Senior Notes due 2029 (the "2029 Notes" and together with the 2025 Notes, the "Notes") for the adoption of proposed amendments (the "Proposed Amendments") to the indentures governing the Notes (the "Indentures") to conform the restricted payments covenant and the "permitted investments" definition included in the applicable Indenture to the restricted payments covenant and "permitted investments" definition, respectively, contained in the indenture governing the Company's 5.75% Senior Notes due 2031, which were issued on September 16, 2021. The Consent Solicitations, which were previously scheduled to expire at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on October 5, 2021, will now expire at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on October 7, 2021, unless further extended (as so extended, the "Extended Expiration Time"). In addition, the Company announced that the consent fee for the Consent Solicitation in respect of the 2029 Notes (the "2029 Notes Consent Solicitation") will be increased so that holders of the 2029 Notes will receive a cash payment equal to $10.00 per $1,000 principal amount of 2029 Notes in respect of which such consents to the Proposed Amendments have been validly delivered prior to the Extended Expiration Time and not validly revoked by such holder. Except as provided herein, all other terms, provisions and conditions of the Consent Solicitations remain unchanged. The terms of the Consent Solicitation are detailed in the Consent Solicitation Statement, dated September 27, 2021 (as amended, supplemented or otherwise modified, the "Consent Solicitation Statement"). No consent fee will be paid to any holder of Notes for which the requisite consents have been obtained unless such holder delivers a consent in accordance with the terms of the Consent Solicitation Statement prior to the Extended Expiration Time. Holders of the Notes who have previously delivered consents do not need to redeliver such consents or take any other action in response to this extension and, with respect to the 2029 Notes Consent Solicitation, increase in consent fee. Other holders of the Notes may deliver their consents in accordance with the instructions provided in the Consent Solicitation Statement at or prior to the Extended Expiration Time. Subject to applicable law, the Company reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to (i) extend, terminate or withdraw the Consent Solicitatios at any time, (ii) extend the Extended Expiration Time for one Consent Solicitation without extending the Extended Expiration Time for the other Consent Solicitation or (iii) otherwise amend the Consent Solicitations in any respect, including waiving any or all of the conditions to the Consent Solicitations set forth in the Consent Solicitation Statement, at any time and from time to time. The Company further reserves the right, in its sole discretion, not to accept any deliveries of consents with respect to the Notes. The Company is making the Consent Solicitations only in those jurisdictions where it is legal to do so.



Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC is acting as solicitation agent for the Consent Solicitations and can be contacted at Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Attn: Liability Management Group, Collect: (212) 325-2476 or U.S. Toll Free: (800) 820-1653, with questions regarding the Consent Solicitations. Copies of the Consent Solicitation Statement are available to holders of Notes from D.F. King & Co., Inc., the information agent for the Consent Solicitations. Requests for copies of the Consent Solicitation Statement should be directed to D.F. King at +1 (866) 745-0269 (toll free), +1 (212) 269-5550 (collect) or PFSI@dfking.com.

Neither the Consent Solicitations nor any related documents have been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, nor have any such documents been filed with or reviewed by any federal or state securities commission or regulatory authority of any country. No authority has passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of the Consent Solicitation Statement or any related documents, and it is unlawful and may be a criminal offense to make any representation to the contrary. The Consent Solicitations are being made solely on the terms and conditions set forth in the Consent Solicitation Statement. Under no circumstances shall this press release constitute an offer to buy or the solicitation of an offer to sell the Notes or any other securities of the Company or any of its affiliates. The Consent Solicitations are not being made to, nor will the Company accept deliveries of consents from, holders in any jurisdiction in which the Consent Solicitations or the acceptance thereof would not be in compliance with the securities or blue sky laws of such jurisdiction. This press release also is not a solicitation of consents to the Proposed Amendments to the Indentures. No recommendation is made as to whether holders should deliver their consents with respect to the Notes. Holders should carefully read the Consent Solicitation Statement because it contains important information, including the various terms and conditions of the Consent Solicitations. About PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. is a specialty financial services firm focused on the production and servicing of U.S. mortgage loans and the management of investments related to the U.S. mortgage market. Founded in 2008, the company is recognized as a leader in the U.S. residential mortgage industry and employs approximately 7,300 people across the country. For the twelve months ended June 30, 2021, PennyMac Financial's production of newly originated loans totaled $252 billion in unpaid principal balance, making it the second largest mortgage lender in the nation. As of June 30, 2021, PennyMac Financial serviced loans totaling $473 billion in unpaid principal balance, making it a top ten mortgage servicer in the nation. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, regarding management's beliefs, estimates, projections and assumptions with respect to, among other things, the expected timing and consent fees for the Consent Solicitations. Words like "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "promise," "project," "plan," and other expressions or words of similar meanings, as well as future or conditional verbs such as "will," "would," "should," "could," or "may" are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof. Although the expectations in the forward-looking statements are based on the Company's current beliefs and expectations, caution should be taken not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements because such statements speak only as of the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements or any other information contained herein, and the statements made in this press release are current as of the date of this release only. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005806/en/

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[October 04, 2021] Teekay LNG Merger Investigation: Halper Sadeh LLP Announces Investigation Into Whether the Sale of Teekay LNG Partners L.P. Is Fair to Shareholders; Investors Are Encouraged to Contact the Firm - TGP

Halper Sadeh LLP, a global investor rights law firm, is investigating whether the sale of Teekay LNG Partners L.P. (NYSE: TGP) to Stonepeak for $17.00 in cash per common unit or common unit equivalent is fair to Teekay LNG shareholders. Halper Sadeh encourages Teekay LNG shareholders to click here to learn more about their legal rights and options or contact Daniel Sadeh or Zachary Halper at (212) 763-0060 or sadeh@halpersadeh.com or zhalper@halpersadeh.com. The investigation concerns whether Teekay LNG and its boar of directors violated the federal securities laws and/or breached their fiduciary duties to shareholders by failing to, among other things: (1) obtain the best possible consideration for Teekay LNG shareholders; (2) determine whether Stonepeak is underpaying for Teekay LNG; and (3) disclose all material information necessary for Teekay LNG shareholders to adequately assess and value the merger consideration. On behalf of Teekay LNG shareholders, Halper Sadeh LLP may seek increased consideration for shareholders, additional disclosures and information concerning the proposed transaction, or other relief and benefits.



Halper Sadeh encourages Teekay LNG shareholders to click here to learn more about their legal rights and options or contact Daniel Sadeh or Zachary Halper at (212) 763-0060 or sadeh@halpersadeh.com or zhalper@halpersadeh.com. Halper Sadeh LLP represents investors all over the world who have fallen victim to securities fraud and corporate misconduct. Our attorneys have been instrumental in implementing corporate reforms and recovering millions of dollars on behalf of defrauded investors.

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005844/en/

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[October 04, 2021]

Xplornet Communications Inc. Completes Financing of $1.5 Billion

Xplornet has Refinanced and Expanded its Debt Facilities, Enhancing the Company's Financial Flexibility to Accelerate its Fibre-to-the-Home and 5G Wireless Broadband Plan

WOODSTOCK, NB, Oct. 4, 2021 /CNW/ - On October 1, 2021, Xplornet Communications Inc., Canada's largest rural-focused broadband provider, closed on a term loan financing transaction that encompassed a seven year first-lien facility of US $995 million and an eight year second-lien facility of US $200 million, totaling approximately CDN $1.5 Billion. In addition to the two term loans, Xplornet will have a C$160 million revolver due 2026, that is undrawn at close.

Proceeds of this financing will be used to finance the successful acquisition of 3500 MHz spectrum in the recent Canadian auction, refinance the company's existing first-lien term loan, and for general corporate purposes.

By taking advantage of low borrowing costs and actively managing its medium-term maturity profile, Xplornet has enhanced its ability to accelerate the rollout of its fibre-to-the-home and 5G wireless broadband network. This step is consistent with Xplornet's strategy to proactively invest in next generation broadband technology and accelerating its deployment plans to bring fast, reliable and affordable Internet service to rural Canadians.

"We are pleased with the outcome of this financing process. It supports our fibre-to-the-home and 5G wireless broadband expansion plans for the benefit of our rural customers in Canada," said Kurban Khanbhai, Chief Financial Officer of Xplornet Communications Inc.

Credit Suisse lead the deal and the arranger group included BMO Capital Markets, Banclays, Natixis Canada and Morgan Stanley.

About Xplornet Communications Inc.

Headquartered in Woodstock, New Brunswick, Xplornet Communications Inc. is one of Canada's leading broadband service providers. For over a decade, Xplornet has been providing innovative fixed and mobile broadband solutions to rural customers at work, home and play across Canada. Today, Xplornet offers voice and data communication services through its unique fibre wireless and satellite network that connects Canadians to what matters.

SOURCE Xplornet Communications Inc.
[October 04, 2021] Talend Named a Leader in 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Quality Solutions

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Talend , a global leader in data integration and data integrity, today announced it has once again been recognized by Gartner, Inc. as a Leader in data quality solutions as described in the 2021 Magic Quadrant for Data Quality Solutions[1]. This is the fourth consecutive time that Talend has been positioned in the Leaders quadrant. For a complimentary copy of Gartner's complete report, click here . According to Gartner, Inc., "The discipline of data quality assurance ensures that data is 'fit for purpose' and trusted by users in the context of existing business operations, analytics and emerging digital business scenarios. Data quality has traditionally been mandated to fulfill compliance and governance requirements and to reduce operational risks and costs. Increasingly, data quality also becomes a necessity when amplifying analytics for better insights and for making trusted, data-driven decisions. Data quality is a competitive advantage that data and analytics (D&A) leaders must continuusly engage with in order to achieve those goals."



In the report, Gartner notes: "By 2022, 60% of organizations will leverage machine learning-enabled data quality (DQ) technology for suggestions to reduce manual tasks for data quality improvement. Through 2024, 50% of organizations will adopt modern data quality solutions to better support their digital business initiatives." "Clarity and decisiveness in data-driven decision making requires having healthy data in place, which builds from a solid data quality foundation," said Krishna Tammana, CTO, Talend. "We believe this recognition from Gartner validates our pervasive, strategic end-to-end approach to data quality and the value it brings to customers."

Talend helps businesses accelerate to a modern, healthier data environment. The unified Talend Data Fabric is the only platform that seamlessly combines an extensive range of data integration and governance capabilities designed to manage the health of corporate information. In its most recent release, the platform continues to advance analytics, security, and collaborative governance across the enterprise, supporting greater confidence and the ability to get more value from an organization's data. [1] Gartner, "Magic Quadrant for Data Quality Solutions," Melody Chien, Ankush Jain, September 29, 2021. GARTNER and MAGIC QUADRANT are registered trademarks and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. About Talend



Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, is changing the way the world makes decisions. Talend Data Fabric is the only platform that seamlessly combines an extensive range of data integration and governance capabilities to actively manage the health of corporate information. This unified approach is unique and essential to delivering complete, clean, and uncompromised data in real-time to all employees. It has made it possible to create innovations like the Talend Trust Score, an industry-first assessment that instantly quantifies the reliability of any data set. Over 6,500 customers across the globe have chosen Talend to run their businesses on healthy data. Talend is recognized as a leader in its field by leading analyst firms and industry media. For more information, please visit www.talend.com and follow us on Twitter: @Talend. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/talend-named-a-leader-in-2021-gartner-magic-quadrant-for-data-quality-solutions-301392087.html SOURCE Talend Inc.

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[October 04, 2021] TikTok and Parent Company ByteDance, Inc. Hit with $92 Million Settlement for Users' Privacy Issues, According to FeganScott

A federal court in Chicago granted preliminary approval of a $92 million class action settlement on behalf of users of the TikTok app, and its predecessor application Musical.ly, over claims the social media company wrongfully collected users' biometric information and private data, according to FeganScott. The social media company then allegedly disclosed users' private data and information to third parties violating the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), the federal Video Privacy Protection Act, and other consumer and privacy protection laws. Biometric identifiers are physiological traits such as fingerprints, facial patterns, or voice cadence. They can be used to verify a user's identity and are thought to be more reliable than other forms of identification. This is against the law in Illinois. The settlement includes a $92 million fund to be distributed to class members, a requirement for TikTok to make disclosures to consumers under certain circumstances, and for the company to initiate a newly designed data privacy compliance training program for all TikTok employees and contractors. "A decade ago, we were concerned about companies like TikTok collecting email addresses and data on shopping behavior," said Beth Fegan, managing member of the FeganScott Law Firm. "Now, the level of sophistication these companies employ has increased exponentially - they collect billions of user attributes ranging from eye color and facial expressions, to how a person moves or gestures." The court provisionally certified two settlement classes: Nationwide Class: All persons who reside in the United States who used the App- the TikTok video-sharing application (or its Musical.ly predecessor) distributed in the U.S.- prior to September 30, 2021.

Illinois Subclass: All persons who reside in the State of Illinois and used the App in the State of Illinois to create videos prior to September 30, 2021. Katrina Carroll, a partner at Carlson Lynch, argued the case in Illinois Federal Court with the Honorable Judge John Z. Lee presiding. Carroll said, "In a world where social media apps track our locations, record our conversations and surreptitiously log our preferences, we need to ensure customers are aware of how their data is being stored, used and sold for profit. Our hope is that this settlement will focus attention on the need for informed consumer consent before their biometrics are collected, and incite other states to enact laws similar to Illinois." The Illnois subclass recognizes the state is one of the few in the U.S. that has enacted strong, pro-consumer privacy laws through the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). BIPA mandates that companies that seek to collect biometric data must first obtain informed consent. Further, BIPA provides for statutory damages.



Ekwan Rhow, a partner at Bird Marella, affirmed that "this settlement is one of the largest ever achieved, in a consumer BIPA case, and one of the largest settlements in privacy class action." He continued, "It serves as a reminder, to corporations, that privacy is important and that they will be held accountable for violating consumers' rights." Members of the Illinois subclass will receive six pro rata shares of the settlement fund in recognition of BIPA, while members of the nationwide class will receive one pro rata share of the settlement. The value of those shares, or the amount of compensation to each class member, will be determined by the number of those who submit claims.

After claims are submitted and statements in support of or in opposition to the settlement are received, the court will hold a final fairness hearing on May 18, 2022. For more information about the settlement or deadlines, and to submit a claim, TikTok and Musical.ly users should visit the settlement website at www.tiktokdataprivacysettlement.com. The consolidated cases are led by class counsel appointed by the court, including Elizabeth Fegan of FeganScott LLC, Katrina Carroll, Carlson Lynch LLP, and Ekwan Rhow, Bird Marella, Boxer, Wolpert, Nessim, Drooks, Lincenberg & Rhow, P.C. About FeganScott LLC: FeganScott is a national class action law firm dedicated to helping victims of sexual abuse, discrimination, consumer fraud, antitrust violations and more. The firm is championed by acclaimed class action and veteran attorneys and has successfully recovered $1 billion for millions of victims nationwide. FeganScott is committed to pursuing successful outcomes with integrity and excellence, while holding unjust parties accountable. To learn more, visit www.feganscott.com. About Carlson Lynch: Founded in 2004, Carlson Lynch has earned national acclaim for complex litigation for plaintiffs in cyber security, anti-theft and consumer protection. The firm's philosophy is to provide the same quality of representation to consumers and other individual plaintiffs as the nation's largest defense-oriented law firms provide to their clients. The result is a practice that is both tough and sophisticated, advising diverse clients against some of the most aggressive legal teams in the country. Carlson Lynch has offices in Pittsburgh, San Diego, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia. www.carlsonlynch.com About Bird Marella, Boxer, Wolpert, Nessim, Drooks, Lincenberg & Rhow, P.C Established in 1981 and based in Los Angeles, Bird Marella is one of America's premier litigation boutiques. The firm and its team of experienced trial lawyers handle complex high-stakes - and often high-profile - civil litigation for both plaintiffs and defendants nationwide, as well as white collar criminal litigation for corporate and individual defendants. The common theme in Bird Marella's cases is not the underlying legal issues but the sophistication of the challenge and the need for innovative and insightful representation through trial. To learn more, please visit www.birdmarella.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005856/en/

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[October 04, 2021] Florida Poly president three-peats as one of Florida's most influential leaders

LAKELAND, Fla., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Randy K. Avent, president of Florida Polytechnic University, has been recognized as one of Florida's most influential business leaders for the third consecutive year by Florida Trend magazine. The publication released its annual Florida 500 list today, highlighting the state's top leaders in several economic sectors. "I am honored to receive this distinction because it reflects the strides we've been making and the impact Florida Poly has on the state," Avent said. "As our graduates secure high-wage, high-demand jobs, we are cementing Florida Poly as a leader in engineering and technology education while also helping build Florida's high-tech economy." Avent's third inclusion on the FloridaU.S. News & World Report's recent rankings, and climbing to become the number 26 public engineering college without a Ph.D. in the nation.



The University is experiencing significant growth. The fall 2021 class of incoming students is the largest in Florida Poly's history. These students will soon push their educational exploration to the limits in the new Applied Research Center, an eye-catching 90,000-square-foot research building that will open in spring 2022. As Florida Poly's founding president, Avent has worked to shape the University into a leader of STEM education. He navigated the University through accreditation and ongoing growth, and is leading the vision of creating a vibrant research park surrounding campus with companies establishing close relationships with faculty and students. The first step in realizing this vision was achieved recently when it entered a public-private partnership with Fortune 500 company International Flavors & Fragrances to explore building a high-tech research facility on campus.

The annual Florida 500 list is based on categories used by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis, including education, agriculture, hospitality, and law. Final determinations were made by the Florida Trend editorial department. "Rising to the top job at a big company won't get you on the list. Longevity matters and visibility doesn't necessarily mean influence," Florida Trend said in a statement accompanying the Florida 500 list. "We look for individuals who appear to be the kind of people who others in their communities or industry sectors look to for leadership." View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/florida-poly-president-three-peats-as-one-of-floridas-most-influential-leaders-301392149.html SOURCE Florida Polytechnic University

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[October 04, 2021]

TFO and MonAvenir band together for a confident first school year!

"Ma premiere rentree", a platform offered by TFO, in collaboration with the Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir, ensures that parents and their children have a confident first day of school.

TORONTO, Oct. 4, 2021 /CNW/ - The first day of school is a milestone for children and parents alike. This is why IDELLO , in collaboration with the Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir, has designed the Ma premiere rentree (My first day at school) website. With more than 100 activities and resources for families, this new platform helps parents and all those involved in the educational success of beginner students prepare for this important life step.

With an array of engaging content, Ma premiere rentree facilitates the early school years for young learners and allows for a smooth transition to kindergarten, preschool or the first grade.

Original and certified resources

Videos, articles, tips, downloadable tools... All the resources of Ma premiere rentree are aligned with the Ontario curriculum and designed to support the Kindergarten Program. Every day, these resources support little ones so they can blossom, develop their curiosity and learn while having fun.

"We are very proud to offer the Ma premiere rentree platform to families, thanks to this beautiful collaboration with our partner the Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir. With this initiative, Groupe Media TFO confirms its commitment to school boards, teachers, early childhood educators and parents by creating new quality educational content in French to support them on a daily basis. As the new generation of the Kindergarten Kit, which was previously distributed by TFO to all French schools in our province, Ma premiere rentree goes even further by offering more fun and educational activities that allow young children to learn in French, in a fun, educational and ever-evolving context."





- Julie Caron, Vice President, Learning Continuum, Groupe Media TFO.

This collaboration with the Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir offers a new collaborative space to foster learning and creativity for Francophones and Francophiles. Ma premiere rentree aims to foster the acquisition of transferable skills, prepare the next generation of learners to succeed in French-language schools in Ontario, and strengthen the sense of belonging to the Francophone community from an early age.

"We are delighted with this collaboration between the Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir and Groupe Media TFO, with whom we share the mission of serving the Franco-Ontarian community by providing rich, (Ontario-curriculum) appropriate education in French. It is essential that we equip parents and teachers with quality content that is adapted to each age and grade level. It was a pleasure to participate in the development of new francophone resources for our families, but also for all future new families who will enroll in French-language schools. Going back to school can be stressful; that's why we encourage you to visit the Ma premiere rentree platform, which is full of advice and tips as well as fun and educational activities for parents and children!"

- Andre Blais, Director of Education, the Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir.

Developing skills for an informed future

Divided into four key areas , the content of Ma premiere rentree allows children to develop skills that will enable them to become responsible and active citizens and to contribute to the ever-changing society of the 21st century.

The Kids' Corner offers an engaging learning program built around curiosity and the desire to explore, play and investigate. It allows children to acquire new knowledge and to develop their autonomy.

The Parents' Corner provides tips and practical information to prepare for this transition or to set up new routines.

Families at the heart of Ma premiere rentree

Available in both official languages, Ma premiere rentree also aims to support exogamous families who have chosen French-language schools for their children and who wish to actively participate in their children's school life.

Groupe Media TFO and the Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir support the first months of students, step by step, to ensure they get the best possible start to their year. With Ma premiere rentree , teachers, education partners and parents get tools based on the Ontario curriculum to help them support their students or children on a daily basis.

About IDELLO

IDELLO is the digital learning platform of Groupe Media TFO. Proud of the mandate entrusted to it by the Ministry of Education of Ontario, Groupe Media TFO has been supporting French-language education in Ontario for over 30 years. It provides families, teachers and educators with a range of resources that support children's learning from kindergarten to grade 12.

About Groupe Media TFO

Groupe Media TFO, stories that shape our tomorrows

Groupe Media TFO is a Franco-Ontarian public media company offering an interconnected discovery experience across its educational, cultural and current content in French. Audiences lie at the heart of Groupe Media TFO's omnichannel mission and vision, where they see themselves growing alongside its innovative and award-winning creations. By its educational mandate, on television, on digital platforms and through its initiatives and applications, Groupe Media TFO puts knowledge within arm's reach. At the forefront of digital learning, the company reflects the vitality and diversity of the community it serves and prepares the next generation for the world of tomorrow.

About the Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir

The Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir includes over 17,000 students in its 62 schools: 47 elementary schools, 1 middle school, 1 virtual school, 11 high schools and 2 elementary and secondary schools located in an area of over 40,000 square kilometres stretching from the Niagara Peninsula to Peterborough and from Lake Ontario (Toronto) to Georgian Bay. Our large French-language Catholic school network allows each student to feel as though he or she is part of a big Francophone school community based on faith, and to enjoy a high quality education in a rich, fair and inclusive environment.

Media Contact

Melanie Grenier

Corporate Communications Lead, Groupe Media TFO

T: 416 968-8321

C: 416 527-2212

mgrenier@tfo.org

Mikale-Andree Joly

Executive Director, Corporate Relations, Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir

T: 416 397 6564 ext. 73130

mjoly@cscmonavenir.ca

SOURCE Ontario French Language Educational Communications Authority (TFO)
[October 04, 2021] NETSTREIT Corp. Announces Third Quarter Earnings Release Date and Conference Call Information

NETSTREIT Corp. (NYSE: NTST) (the "Company"), a nationwide owner of high-quality, single-tenant net lease properties, announced today that it will release its third quarter 2021 financial and operating results on Thursday, October 28, 2021, after the close of markets. NETSTREIT will host its conference call on Friday, October 29, 2021 at 10:00 AM ET. The webcast will be accessible on the "Investor Relations" section of the Company's website at www.NETSTREIT.com. To listen to the live webcast, please go to the site at last fifteen minutes prior to the scheduled start time to register, as well as download and install any necessary audio software. A replay of the webcast will be available for 90 days on the Company's website shortly after the call.



The conference call can also be accessed by dialing 1-877-451-6152 for domestic callers or 1-201-389-0879 for international callers. A dial-in replay will be available starting shortly after the call until November 5, 2021, which can be accessed by dialing 1-844-512-2921 for domestic callers or 1-412-317-6671 for international callers. The passcode for this dial-in replay is 13723474. About NETSTREIT

NETSTREIT is a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) based in Dallas, Texas that specializes in acquiring single-tenant net lease retail properties nationwide. The growing portfolio consists of high-quality properties leased to e-commerce resistant tenants with healthy balance sheets. Led by a management team of seasoned commercial real estate executives, NETSTREIT aims to create the highest quality net lease retail portfolio in the country with the goal of generating consistent cash flows and dividends for its investors. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005867/en/

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[October 04, 2021] Asensus Surgical Announces Board Chair Transition

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 that Paul LaViolette, who has served as the Company's Board Chair since 2013, will step down as Chair in late October, and intends to leave the Board before the end of the year. Mr. LaViolette has informed the Board of his intention to leave the Asensus Board due to his other professional commitments. The Board intends to appoint David Milne, an existing Board member, as the Company's Chair after Mr. LaViolette steps down. Mr. LaViolette will work closely with Mr. Milne to ensure a smooth transition of the Chair role. "We are very excited that David has agreed to succeed Paul as Chair of our Board. David has a deep understanding of the Asensus business strategy and our potential to revolutionize digital surgery as well as an established track record of successfully leading growth initiatives within medical technology companies. I look forward to working closely with David moving forward," said Anthony Fernando, Asensus Surgical President and CEO. "On behalf of the whole organization, I want to thank Paul for his thoughtful leadership. During his tenure as Chair, we became a public company, completed two strategic acquisitions and reset the strategic direction of the Company, culminating with our rebranding as Asensus Surgical. We greatly appreciate his guidance over the years and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.'' "It has been a remarkable journey being a part of this organization over the last 8 years and I have valued my time spent on the board," said Mr. LaViolette. "The company has evolved multiple times and is now in a position to revolutionize the way surgery is being performed. I'm confident the team will deliver on the promise of Performance-Guided Surgery through the continued development of Senhance. wish David, Anthony, and the rest of the organization the best."



Mr. Milne has been a board member since 2013. He currently operates a consulting practice, focusing on high growth companies in the medical device and healthcare industries. Previously he was a Managing Partner and led the medical technology practice for 13 years at SV Healthcare Ventures, a venture capital group with over $2.5 billion in assets under management. Before entering venture capital, Mr. Milne spent over 20 years as an operating executive in several medical technology companies including Boston Scientific, Becton Dickinson and SCIMED Life Systems. He has had a broad range of leadership positions in business development, marketing, product development and sales. David has been engaged with over 20 private and public company boards over his career including several in which he was a founding board member and/or a Chair of the Board. He currently advises several CEOs in industries focused on medical technology and data science. David has an MBA in Marketing from New York University and a BS in Biology from Rutgers University. "I am honored to be named Chair of the Board at Asensus during this critical time in its market development and commercialization efforts," said David Milne. "I have been highly engaged with the Company for many years and truly believe Asensus Surgical's technology is very well placed to usher in a new era of digital surgery for surgeons, hospitals and patients.''

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. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005293/en/

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[October 04, 2021] American Equity Schedules Third Quarter 2021 Earnings Release, Conference Call and Webcast

American Equity Investment Life Holding Company (NYSE: AEL) announced today that it will release third quarter 2021 earnings after the close of market on Monday, November 8, 2021. The third quarter earnings release and financial supplement will be posted on the American Equity website at www.american-equity.com at that time. American Equity will hold a conference call on Tuesday, November 9, at 8:00 a.m. CT to discuss its third quarter financial results and its financial condition, business, investments, operations, and strategy. The call may also include forward-looking statements regarding future performance using terms such as believe, expect, intend, may, plan, strategy, will, or similar words, as well as specific projections of future results. These statements will be based on assumptions and expectations that involve risks and uncertainties, including the "Risk Factors" the ompany describes in its U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The Company's future results could differ, and it has no obligation to correct or update any such statements.



Conference Call Information Interested parties may listen to the call by dialing one of the following numbers:

855-865-0606 (Domestic)

704-859-4382 (International)

Passcode: 6635087 Webcast Information Interested parties who wish to listen to the call on the Internet may do so at www.american-equity.com. Audio Replay Information An audio replay will be available shortly after the call through November 16, 2021 by dialing one of the following numbers: 855-859-2056 (Domestic)

404-537-3406 (International)

Passcode: 6635087 ABOUT AMERICAN EQUITY American Equity Investment Life Holding Company, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, is a leading issuer of fixed index annuities through independent agents, banks and broker-dealers. American Equity Investment Life Holding Company, a New York Stock Exchange listed company (NYSE: AEL), is headquartered in West Des Moines, Iowa. For more information, please visit www.american-equity.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005913/en/

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[October 04, 2021] Entravision Announces Participation in the Deutsche Bank 2021 Leveraged Finance Conference

Entravision Communications Corporation (NYSE: EVC), a leading global media and marketing technology company, today announced its participation in the Deutsche Bank 2021 Leveraged Finance Conference to be held October 4-6, 2021. Christopher Young, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, will present at 3:15 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, October 6, 2021 and host meetings throughout the day. The presentation will be webcast live over the Internet, and a link to the live webcast and replay will be available on Entravision's Investor Relations website at investor.entravision.com. About Entravision Communications Corporation Entravision is a diversified global media, marketing and technology company serving clients throughout the United States and in fast growing population centers in more than 30 ountries across Latin America, Europe and Asia. Our dynamic portfolio of services includes digital, television and radio offerings. Digital, our largest revenue segment, is comprised of four core businesses: Entravision Digital, Smadex, Cisneros Interactive and MediaDonuts. Entravision Digital provides branding and performance digital solutions to clients and small- and mid-size businesses throughout the world, including the U.S., Latin America and Europe. Smadex provides cutting-edge mobile programmatic solutions and demand-side platforms which enable advertisers to effectively execute performance campaigns using machine-learned bidding algorithms. Cisneros Interactive provides unique digital marketing solutions representing major global publishers and ad-tech platforms in Latin America, while also managing the leading digital audio network and solutions player Audio.Ad. MediaDonuts provides digital marketing performance and branding services in the Southeast Asia region and maintains unique commercial partnerships with some of the world's leading digital publishers and social media platforms. Beyond the digital space, Entravision has 54 television stations and is the largest affiliate group of the Univision and UniMas television networks. Entravision also manages 47 primarily Spanish-language radio stations that feature nationally recognized, Emmy award-winning talent. Shares of Entravision Class A Common Stock trade on the NYSE under ticker: EVC. Learn more about all of our innovative media, marketing and technology offerings at entravision.com or connect with us on social on LinkedIn and Facebook.



View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005902/en/



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[October 04, 2021] DigitalBridge Appoints Peter Hopper as Managing Director

DigitalBridge Group, Inc. (NYSE: DBRG) ("DigitalBridge" or the "Company") today announced the appointment of Peter Hopper as Managing Director, DigitalBridge Investment Management. Mr. Hopper brings more than two decades of dealmaking and transaction experience in digital infrastructure to DigitalBridge. He previously co-founded and served as CEO of DH Capital, an industry-focused investment bank that provides capital placement, mergers and acquisition and direct investment services for growing internet infrastructure and SaaS (News - Alert) businesses across the digital ecosystem. In this new role, he will work alongside the existing investment team with a focus on strategic assets in the data center and fiber segments of digital infrastructure, as well as lend his expertise to provide ongoing support for the Company's existing investments in the space. "I am pleased to welcome a talented professional of Peter's caliber to the DigitalBridge team," said Marc Ganzi, President and Chief Executive Officer of DigitalBridge. "Having worked with Peter for the last two decades, I can say with great certainty he is one of the most experienced dealmakers in the digital infrastructure environment today; he will be an incredible addition to our industry-leading family as we execute our fully digital strategy." "I have admired the DigitalBridge team and their long-term vision and history of execution creating the leading investment platform in digital infrastructure," said Mr. Hopper. "I am thrilled to join Marc and the exceptional team at DigitalBridge at such an exciting time as the Company completes its digital rotation and look forward to leveraging my experience and network to identify new opportunities." About Peter Hopper Mr. Hopper has more than 20 years of experience assisting growing businesses in the digital infrastructure ecosystem. He most recently served as a Partner at Abry Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm, where he focused on investmets in the data center industry. Previously, Mr. Hopper co-founded and served as CEO of internet infrastructure-focused boutique investment bank DH Capital from 2001 until 2020. Since its founding in 2001, DH has completed over 190 M&A transactions totaling more than $30 billion in value for clients. Prior to founding DH Capital, Mr. Hopper founded and served as President and CEO of DURO Communications, one of the largest privately held ISP/CLECs in the U.S., where he oversaw the completion of nearly 50 acquisitions. Before launching DURO, he led New Business Development for Helicon Cable, where he directed the company's ISP, paging and private carrier businesses and oversaw the launch of Helicon's cable modem service. Peter holds a B.S. in Finance from Lehigh University.



About DigitalBridge DigitalBridge (NYSE: DBRG) is a leading global digital infrastructure REIT. With a heritage of over 25 years investing in and operating businesses across the digital ecosystem including cell towers, data centers, fiber, small cells, and edge infrastructure, the DigitalBridge team manages a $35 billion portfolio of digital infrastructure assets on behalf of its limited partners and shareholders. Headquartered in Boca Raton, DigitalBridge has key offices in Los Angeles, New York, London, and Singapore.

Cautionary Statement regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements relate to expectations, beliefs, projections, future plans and strategies, anticipated events or trends and similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "intends," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," or "potential" or the negative of these words and phrases or similar words or phrases which are predictions of or indicate future events or trends and which do not relate solely to historical matters. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control, and may cause actual results to differ significantly from those expressed in any forward-looking statement. Factors that might cause such a difference include, without limitation, the timing and pace of the Company's digital transformation, including the Company's ability to rotate the balance sheet and redeploy capital into digital infrastructure, whether the Company will realize any of the anticipated benefits of such transformation, and other risks and uncertainties, including those detailed in DigitalBridge's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2021 and June 30, 2021, and its other reports filed from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (" SEC (News - Alert) "). All forward-looking statements reflect the Company's good faith beliefs, assumptions and expectations, but they are not guarantees of future performance. DigitalBridge cautions investors not to unduly rely on any forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. DigitalBridge is under no duty to update any of these forward-looking statements after the date of this press release, nor to conform prior statements to actual results or revised expectations, and DigitalBridge does not intend to do so. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005965/en/

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[October 04, 2021] SSC Security Services Corp. Launches New Identity with Shareholder Update

New: Company name, ticker symbol, share price, website, corporate presentation REGINA, SK, Oct. 4, 2021 /CNW/ - SSC Security Services Corp. (formerly Input Capital Corp.) ("SSC" or the "Company) (TSXV: SECU) (US: INPCF) is pleased to present the following letter to shareholders from our Chairman, President & CEO Doug Emsley. Dear Shareholders; If you have looked at your brokerage account since October 1, you will have noticed that our Company now has a new name, trades under a new ticker symbol on the TSX Venture Exchange (SECU), that our share price is 3x higher than it was on September 30, and that you own 1/3rd as many shares of the Company as you did prior. These are all a result of recent initiatives we have undertaken to change the direction of our Company. That's what this letter is about, and I'd like to take this opportunity to tell you more about your Company and where we are headed. Input Capital is now SSC Security Services Corp. We started a new fiscal year on October 1, so it is fitting that this also marks a fresh start in the direction of the Company. What was previously Input Capital Corp. ("Input") is now SSC Security Services Corp. ("SSC"), a leading provider of physical and cyber security services to corporate and public sector clients across Canada. Two Acquisitions Completed in the last Eight Months These changes are the culmination of a lot of work undertaken by our team over the last year. Part of that work includes two acquisitions that are now completed: On February 1, 2021 , we acquired privately-held SRG Security Resource Group Inc. ("SRG"), which has a long profitable history offering physical and cyber security services to corporate and public sector clients across Canada . At the time, SRG had about 415 employees, primarily in Western Canada , but spread across the country from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island.

, we acquired privately-held SRG Security Resource Group Inc. ("SRG"), which has a long profitable history offering physical and cyber security services to corporate and public sector clients across . At the time, SRG had about 415 employees, primarily in , but spread across the country from to Vancouver Island. On July 10, 2021 , we funded SRG's acquisition of the regional operations of privately-held Impact Security Group, adding about 215 employees to SRG's physical security division, bringing our total headcount to about 625 employees today.

, we funded SRG's acquisition of the regional operations of privately-held Impact Security Group, adding about 215 employees to SRG's physical security division, bringing our total headcount to about 625 employees today. These are just the first of what we hope will be several more acquisitions in the months ahead. Stay tuned! Wrapping Up the Legacy Agriculture Business While those acquisitions were going on, our long-standing Input team was also busy wrapping up many contracts related to our legacy agriculture business, converting them into cash. This process has gone so well that even though we used cash to complete the acquisitions above, to pay for ongoing operating expenses, to make significant repayments against our long-term debt, and to keep paying our regular quarterly dividend, our cash position has continued to increase and improve, providing us with excellent liquidity. This means we can fund our own receivables rather than turning to banks or factoring firms to finance working capital, which is often what smaller less-well-capitalized companies in this industry do. I commit to you that we will always maintain a strong cash position to go with our strong aversion to debt as we set SSC up for a successful future. We still have more ag contracts to wrap up, but there is every indication that this process will continue to progress smoothly and profitably as we complete our exit from the agriculture industry. As our legacy agriculture business becomes smaller and smaller, you will notice that we talk less and less about it, and more and more about security. Our Backstory I know that many of you think of our team as being agriculture specialists. Which might make you wonder what we know about the security industry and running security companies. You will be reassured to know that I have been in the security business since 1988, when I co-founded a predecessor company to SRG with Blair Ross, our Chief Operating Officer. Blair and I have been business partners in the security business since that time, building that first company up to over 1,000 employees before selling it to the largest security company in the world. We ran the Western Canadian operations of that large company for a couple of years, leaving to pursue other opportunities. That's when Blair and I started SRG, building a new security company from scratch. And around tht same time, I got involved in the agriculture business with Brad Farquhar, our Chief Financial Officer, and with Gord Nystuen, Vice President. After we sold the first ag business to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the same team ramped up Input into what it eventually became.



Last year, when we determined that an exit from the ag industry was the right thing for the Company. We concluded that putting Input's balance sheet together with SRG and growing in the security business would be the right thing to do. The resulting company would have a strong, cohesive leadership team that has worked together for decades, and a large balance sheet that could support an ambitious plan to build a strong national physical and cyber security company both organically and via acquisition. It made sense then, and it makes even more sense today. Our Plan

The security business is a highly fragmented business. There are some big international public companies like the one Blair and I sold to about 20 years ago. There are some mid-sized national firms like SRG, most of which are also privately held. And there are a large number of smaller companies, many of which are owned by their founders and their families. Blair and I know many of these owner/operators from our long history in the security industry, and we believe there are many opportunities for us to acquire some of them as the owners look to move on or plan for retirement. Our stated goal is to use SSC as the public holding company that will acquire and/or fund the growth and development of a number of wholly-owned operating companies, products and brands in the security business over the next 3-5 years. In that time, we believe we can become a group of companies with $200 to $300 million in annual revenue, producing $15 to $20 million in annual EBITDA. Growing our earnings and EBITDA will enhance our ability to grow with internally generated resources, as well as to increase our ability to pay dividends over time. Our Value The market capitalization of our Company is less than the value of our cash and tangible legacy assets (which are converting to cash very quickly), which means that buyers of the Company's shares are getting our 625-employee security company for free! With a very tangible book value of about $3.75 per share, I believe our shares are deeply undervalued, and it doesn't take too much imagination to conclude that our growth plan will produce substantial benefits to all of us as shareholders. You should know that we don't run the company as a hired managers. Rather, we run it as if we own it  because we do. Our management team, board and employees own approximately 33.8% of the shares of the Company. And every head office employee and management team member automatically buys more shares every payday. I believe our Company is the best capitalized security company in the country, and we are poised to deploy that capital into growing significantly larger over the next several years. The following numbers are approximate because we haven't closed the books for the Sept 30 year end yet, but they help you understand our financial strength and how well we are positioned to grow: Cash = $28.8 million (and growing rapidly)

Ag Assets = $20+ million (and turning to cash rapidly)

Long-Term Debt = $2.8 million (and declining rapidly) Plus, we own a multi million-dollar security company with over 600 employees that is profitable and throwing off strong cash flow. Our Dividend Some of you have asked about our dividend policy going forward. On August 17, 2021, we announced a cash dividend of $0.01 per common share for the quarter ending September 30, 2021. The dividend is payable on October 15, 2021 to shareholders of record on September 30, 2021 (based on pre-consolidation share holdings). After the dividend is paid on October 15, we plan to maintain our dividend at the same level (but adjusted for the consolidation, of course). This means that the quarterly dividend payments will become $0.03 per post-consolidation common share ($0.12 annualized) beginning with the dividend payable to shareholders in January 2022. In a well-capitalized security company, we generate cash and our dividend is easily sustainable. I invite you to come with us on this journey. Whether you own 10 shares or 1 million shares of SSC, we're all partners in this enterprise, and we will own a much larger company together in just a few years. What Else is Ahead? We often get calls from investors in the United States who are frustrated by their brokers not making smaller TSX Venture Exchange companies available to them. Over the next few months, we will be taking steps to enhance the availability of our shares to US investors of all sizes. Gaining access to more investors should be good for us all as shareholders, providing greater liquidity and access to the largest pool of capital in the world. In the past, we have won awards for Investor Relations. While we haven't had a lot of exciting news to talk about over the past few years, that has now changed. We now plan a renewed investor outreach program, getting back to some of the kinds of IR activities that served us well in the past, as well as some new ideas. Conclusion So, as you can see, we're not sitting still. We have big plans for the company and the path is now open for us to execute on our plans. We believe good things are ahead and look forward to going on that journey with you. Sincerely Yours, Doug Emsley

Chairman, President & CEO PS. Stay in Touch & Keep Current You can track our progress by receiving our press releases and updates via email. If you haven't already subscribed, be sure to do so at: https://securityservicescorp.ca/subscribe/ We have a new website located at www.securityservicescorp.ca, where you will find more information about the Company and links to the websites of our operating subsidiaries like SRG. I also invite any shareholders with questions about anything regarding the security business, or our strategy, to give me a call. My phone number below rings straight through to my desk, and I always like talking to shareholders. ABOUT SSC SSC Security Services Corp. is a leading provider of physical and cyber security services to corporate and public sector clients across Canada. Our leadership team has decades of experience in the security industry. Combined with our very strong balance sheet, we plan to rapidly grow into a much larger security services firm via incremental organic growth, by acquisition, and via expansion into new service lines within the security sector. On February 1, 2021, we acquired SRG Security Resource Group Inc., and in July 2021, we funded SRG's acquisition of a regional security business. As of October 1, 2021, SSC and its subsidiaries have approximately 625 employees across Canada. For more information, please visit www.securityservicescorp.ca. 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 This release includes forward-looking statements regarding SSC and its business. Such statements are based on the current expectations and views of future events of SSC's management. In some cases the forward-looking statements can be identified by words or phrases such as "may", "will", "expect", "plan", "anticipate", "intend", "potential", "estimate", "believe" or the negative of these terms, or other similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this release may not occur and could differ materially as a result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting SSC, including risks regarding the security industry, the agricultural industry, economic factors and the equity markets generally and many other factors beyond the control of SSC. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Forward-looking statements and information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statement or information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements or information. Except as required by applicable securities laws, forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and SSC undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. SOURCE SSC Security Services Corp.

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[October 04, 2021] Loop Energy Announces Resignation of Chief Financial Officer

Loop Energy (TSX: LPEN), a developer and manufacturer of hydrogen fuel cell solutions, today announced that Mr. Darren Ready has resigned as the Company's Chief Financial Officer effective November 30, 2021 to pursue other opportunities. As announced previously, the role of Corporate Secretary was transferred from Mr. Ready to Ms. Wendy Bach on September 13. "Darren has been an invaluable member of the senior leadership team over the last several years. His entrepreneurial drive has been instrumental in helping the company get to this point and I am confident that this will continue to serve him well in his future endeavors. The board and entire senior management team thank him for his contribution and wish him all the best," said Ben Nyland, Chief Executive Officer. "We have commenced a formal search process and we are confident we will be able to onboard a new CFO in the near future who will bring financial leadership and public company experience to successfully help navigate our next stages of growth." "Snce joining the company, it's been my goal to help position the company for the next phase of its business plan and utilize its patented eFlow technology in the heavy-duty motive markets," said Darren Ready. "I am proud of what we have achieved to date and I am excited to watch the company as it continues to grow in this exciting energy transition market."



About Loop Energy Inc. Loop Energy is a leading designer and manufacturer of fuel cell systems targeted for the electrification of commercial vehicles, including light commercial vehicles, transit buses and medium and heavy-duty trucks. Loop's products feature the Company's proprietary eFlow technology in the fuel cell stack's bipolar plates. eFlow was designed to enable commercial customers to achieve performance maximization and cost minimization. Loop works with OEMs and major vehicle sub-system suppliers to enable the production of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles. For more information about how Loop is driving towards a zero-emissions future, visit www.loopenergy.com.

This press release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities legislation, which reflect management's current expectations and projections regarding future events. Forward-looking information is based on a number of assumptions and is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control and could cause actual results and events to vary materially from those that are disclosed, or implied, by such forward-looking information. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the ability of the Company to execute on its strategy and the factors discussed under "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Information Form dated March 30, 2021. Loop disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005946/en/

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[October 04, 2021] Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP, a Leading Securities Fraud Law Firm, Announces Investigation of Owlet, Inc. (OWLT) on Behalf of Investors

Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP ("GPM"), a leading national shareholder rights law firm, today announced that it has commenced an investigation on behalf of Owlet, Inc. ("Owlet" or the "Company") (NYSE: OWLT) investors concerning the Company's possible violations of the federal securities laws. If you suffered a loss on your Owlet investments or would like to inquire about potentially pursuing claims to recover your loss under the federal securities laws, you can submit your contact information at https://www.glancylaw.com/cases/owlet-inc/. You can also contact Charles H. Linehan, of GPM at 310-201-9150, Toll-Free at 888-773-9224, or via email at shareholders@glancylaw.com to learn more about your rights. On October 4, 2021, Owlet revealed that it had received a warning letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA"), which stated that "the Company's marketing of its Owlet Smart Sock product . . . renders [it] a medical device requiring premarket clearance or approval from FDA." Owlet has not obtained such clearance or approval. Moreover, the FDA "requess the Company cease commercial distribution of the Smart Sock for uses in measuring blood oxygen saturation and pulse rate where such metrics are intended to identify or diagnose desaturation and bradycardia using an alarm functionality to notify users that measurements are outside of preset values."



On this news, the Company's stock price fell as much as 23% during intraday trading on October 4, 2021, thereby injuring investors. Follow us for updates on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.

Whistleblower Notice: Persons with non-public information regarding Owlet should consider their options to aid the investigation or take advantage of the SEC (News - Alert) Whistleblower Program. Under the program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Charles H. Linehan at 310-201-9150 or 888-773-9224 or email shareholders@glancylaw.com. About GPM Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP is a premier law firm representing investors and consumers in securities litigation and other complex class action litigation. ISS Securities Class Action Services has consistently ranked GPM in its annual SCAS Top 50 Report. In 2018, GPM was ranked a top five law firm in number of securities class action settlements, and a top six law firm for total dollar size of settlements. With four offices across the country, GPM's nearly 40 attorneys have won groundbreaking rulings and recovered billions of dollars for investors and consumers in securities, antitrust, consumer, and employment class actions. GPM's lawyers have handled cases covering a wide spectrum of corporate misconduct including cases involving financial restatements, internal control weaknesses, earnings management, fraudulent earnings guidance and forward looking statements, auditor misconduct, insider trading, violations of FDA regulations, actions resulting in FDA and DOJ investigations, and many other forms of corporate misconduct. GPM's attorneys have worked on securities cases relating to nearly all industries and sectors in the financial markets, including, energy, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, real estate and REITs, financial, insurance, information technology, health care, biotech, cryptocurrency, medical devices, and many more. GPM's past successes have been widely covered by leading news and industry publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times (News - Alert), Bloomberg Businessweek, Reuters, the Associated Press, Barron's, Investor's Business Daily, Forbes, and Money. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005950/en/

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[October 04, 2021] Lost Money in Amplify Energy Corp.?

Shares Amplify Energy Corp. plummeted 44% on Monday, October 4, 2021 after publicly announcing on Sunday, October 3 that its pipeline was the source of a catastrophic oil spill causing widespread ecological devastation and beach closures in Southern California that could last for months. Huntington Beach mayor Kim Carr said the 126,000 gallon spill was "one of the most devastating situations," a "potential ecological disaster." Gibbs Law Group is investigating a potential Amplify Energy Securities Class Action Lawsuit on behalf of investors who lost money in Amplify Energy Corp. (NYSE: AMPY). To speak with an attorney regarding this class action lawsuit investigation, click here or call (888) 410-2925. This oil spill from an Amplify Energy pipeline off the coast of Huntington Beach is described by the Associated Press (News - Alert) as "one of the largest oil spills in recent Southern California history." According to The Guardian, local residents first reported an oil sheen and sell on Friday evening, October 1, and Houston-based company Amplify Energy says it notified the Coast Guard of an employee-witnessed oil sheen on Saturday morning, October 2, before issuing a press release the next day.



In response to the oil spill, Roth Capital suspended its price target on the stock in a Monday note, according to Reuters (News - Alert) . "Until we are able to have a discussion with management to confirm this is from an AMPY property, the extent of the spill, the estimated cost of clean-up and any insurance coverage that may apply, we are temporarily suspending our target price, our estimates and moving our rating to Neutral," the note, seen by Reuters, said. Orange (News - Alert) County communities including Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach and Newport Beach were forced to close miles of beaches, closures that could last for weeks or months. Orange County health officials list potential health impacts of oil spills as headache, vomiting, and eye and skin irritation, and residents are advised to seek medical attention if needed.

Following news of the major oil spill, Amplify Energy's stock price plummeted 44% on October 4, 2021, causing significant harm to investors. What Should Amplify Energy Investors Do? If you invested in Amplify Energy, visit our website or contact our securities team directly at (888) 410-2925 to discuss how you may be able to recover your losses. Our investigation concerns whether Amplify Energy has violated federal securities laws by providing false or misleading statements to investors. About Gibbs Law Group Gibbs Law Group represents investors throughout the country in securities litigation to correct abusive corporate governance practices, breaches of fiduciary duty, and proxy violations. The firm has recovered over a billion dollars for its clients against some of the world's largest corporations, and our attorneys have received numerous honors for their work, including "Best Lawyers in America," "Top Plaintiff Lawyers in California," "California Lawyer Attorney of the Year," "Class Action Practice Group of the Year," "Consumer Protection MVP," and "Top Women Lawyers in California." This press release may constitute Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004006006/en/

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[October 04, 2021] Orbit Fab to Publish Satellite Refueling Interface Designs

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Orbit Fab, the first company to launch a commercial fuel depot in space, announced the release of the RAFTI Open License, offering a standard refueling interface design for all satellites in LEO, GEO, and cislunar space. RAFTI stands for Rapidly Attachable Fluid Transfer Interface, and the RAFTI Open License defines the mechanical, electrical, and functional specifications. Orbit Fab intends to share its intellectual property with the commercial space industry by offering an Open License for RAFTI. Orbit Fab has attracted significant financial support including US defense giants Lockheed Martin (through its venture arm Lockheed Martin Ventures) and Northrop Grumman Corporation. Orbit Fab is working with industry leaders to provide RAFTI as a common interface for refueling satellites in space. The RAFTI Service Valve was first demonstrated on Orbit Fab's Tanker-001 Tenzing Fuel Depot, which launched to low Earth orbit in June 2021. Orbit Fab recently announced that it will soon be launching the first hydrazine propellant tanker to geostationary orbit. The RAFTI Service Valve builds on NASA Goddard technolgy, and was designed for the harshest orbital regimes and for refueling the largest space assets. RAFTI enables on-orbit refueling simply by replacing the fill/drain valve on satellite propulsion systems.



CEO Daniel Faber commented, "Orbit Fab is working with industry leaders to provide RAFTI as a common interface for refueling satellites in space. No one wants vendor-lock. We just want to sell fuel. Dozens of commercial customers have lined up to use RAFTI. Collaboration is the key to enabling a bustling in-space economy." Orbit Fab continues to solicit input from stakeholders in the US Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, and the commercial space industry. In addition to the Open License, Orbit Fab will enroll RAFTI Certified Partners to manufacture the RAFTI Service Valve and the RAFTI Ground Coupling.

James Bultitude, Orbit Fab's Chief Engineer, commented "It's not enough to define the client side of the interface. A robust specification includes both plug and receptacle, as well as the functional, safety and security requirements." Several companies are currently in discussions with Orbit Fab including Lockheed Martin, Altius Space Machines, Astroscale U.S. and Orbion Space Technology. Eric Brown, Senior Director, Military Space Mission Strategy at Lockheed Martin, commented, "As Lockheed Martin supports the buildout of the on-orbit sustainment and logistics ecosystem, we applaud Orbit Fab's decision to release its RAFTI specifications publicly. We can't afford to have an environment where companies are holding proprietary IP around interfaces. To that end, Lockheed Martin intends to release the ICDs for our ASPIN docking port as well  where we are exploring integration of RAFTI  to the community before the end of the year. This approach will permit companies to begin planning the emergence of a servicing economy." "We applaud Orbit Fab for their decision to release the RAFTI Open License," said Charity Weeden, Vice President of Global Space Policy and Government Relations at Astroscale U.S. "Commercial standards such as this can accelerate adoption and advance the on-orbit services economy." Jonathan Goff, VP On-Orbit Servicing at Voyager Space Holdings, said, "Our subsidiary, Altius Space Machines, has a lot of experience with power-data connectors and cryo connectors. RAFTI is a great solution for storable propellants and we're excited to consider building it under license." Greg Orndorff, Orbion Space Technology's VP of Sales, shared, "We have already had a customer formally ask for the RAFTI Service Valve in order to take advantage of the long life our Aurora electric propulsion solution provides on orbit." Orbit Fab is working towards a future where satellites are no longer restricted to the fuel they are launched with. The company will deliver fuel where and when it is needed, to enable business models never before thought possible. About Orbit Fab: Orbit Fab believes a bustling in-space economy is a precondition to permanent jobs in space. By providing a ubiquitous supply of satellite propellant in Earth Orbit (branded Gas Stations in Space), the company improves existing space business models (communications and Earth observation) and helps open new industries like space tourism, manufacturing and mining. Orbit Fab has racked up a number of world-firsts: the first ever commercially available in-space refueling port (RAFTI), the first ever private company to resupply the International Space Station with water, and the first ever satellite fuel depot. The future for satellites is no longer restricted to the fuel they are launched with. Orbit Fab delivers the fuel and other materials that are needed, where and when they are needed, to enable business models never before thought possible. The company recently announced that it is moving its headquarters to Colorado. www.orbitfab.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/orbit-fab-to-publish-satellite-refueling-interface-designs-301392335.html SOURCE Orbit Fab

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To unblock the process of a prisoner exchange, Russia demands that Ukraine must recognize the terrorist formations DPR and LPR as a party to the conflict.

The stumbling block is the Kremlins desire to pretend that they are not a party to the conflict and to do everything possible for Ukraine to recognize the so-called republics as one of the parties to the conflict. Thats all. There is no other stumbling block, Oleksiy Arestovych, a spokesman for the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group, said on the air of Dom TV channel, Ukrinform reports.

He noted that the lists for the exchange had been prepared: They are well known to both sides. And the OSCE mediators know that. Charlotta Relander, Coordinator of the Humanitarian Working Group, is doing a lot to make the exchange happen and the entry-exit checkpoints work. But she stumbles upon the same stance of the Kremlin, the representative of the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG added.

Arestovych stressed that the Ukrainian side was ready for an exchange.

Ukraine is taking steps in the humanitarian area to normalize the situation, open the entry-exit checkpoints, and exchange prisoners. But Moscows position remains the same: you have a conflict there in Ukraine, so solve everything directly with the so-called DPR and LPR, Arestovych summed up.

As a reminder, the last prisoner exchange took place on April 16, 2020. Ukraine returned 19 citizens from occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, 14 people were transferred to the occupied territory, four more refused to go there.

In May, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova stated that 285 Ukrainians, including 44 service members, held captive in the occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, were on the exchange list.

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Ukraine and the European Union discuss various options for further cooperation, including the launch of the EU military training mission in Ukraine.

As Oleg Nikolenko, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, said in a comment to Ukrinform, Ukraine and the European Union maintained a regular dialogue in the context of the EU's Common Security and Defense Policy.

Nikolenko noted the European Union Advisory Mission for Civilian Security Sector Reform in Ukraine (EUAM) had been launched in Ukraine in December 2014 within the framework of this policy.

Ukrainian and European sides are currently discussing various modalities of further cooperation. One of the possible options is to launch a European Union military training mission in Ukraine, Nikolenko said.

According to him, such a mission could cover areas not currently within EUAM scope, primarily the educational sector, professional advancement of Ukrainian service members. Discussion is ongoing.

The Ministry believes that the launch of the military training mission is in the strategic interests of both Ukraine and the EU.

As reported, on September 3, European Council President Charles Michel said 2022 should be the year of European defense.

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Ukraine prepares a meeting of the heads of government of the Lublin Triangle countries and a joint visit of the prime ministers of the Associated Trio members to Brussels.

"We continue to develop our regional alliances. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal recently met with his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki. We will make efforts to organize a meeting of the heads of government of the Lublin Triangle countries," Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said at an online briefing, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

In addition, Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova prepare for the sixth Eastern Partnership summit on December 15 within the framework of the Associated Trio, another format created by Ukraine.

"We are also working to ensure that the three prime ministers of the Associated Trio visit Brussels together. I am convinced that we will be able to do that," said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

Kuleba also informed about the progress of the UkraineTurkey Quadriga format.

"In October, my Turkish colleague and friend Mevlut Cavusoglu will visit Ukraine. We will coordinate the future plans of Quadriga activity and specific projects that will be implemented under the auspices of this format," the minister said.

As reported, the Quadriga political and security consultation platform is based on the implementation of the agreements reached by the presidents of Ukraine and Turkey in Istanbul on October 16, 2020.

The Associated Trio is a trilateral format of the enhanced European integration cooperation between Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova, which was launched during the joint visit of the foreign ministers of Moldova and Georgia to Ukraine on May 17, 2021.

The Lublin Triangle is a trilateral platform for political, economic, cultural, and social cooperation between Ukraine, Lithuania, and Poland, founded on July 28, 2020. The purpose of the platform is to support Ukraine's integration into the European Union.

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President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky believes that his face-to-face meeting with President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin could be effective.

"As for a meeting with the President of the Russian Federation. I reiterate that we are ready for this meeting. I think this is the right step. I would like to meet with the President of the Russian Federation. It is clear to me that a face-to-face meeting could be quite substantive. It is clear to me that the Russian side, the entourage of the President of Russia, does not want him to hold this meeting precisely in the face-to-face format as such a meeting may bring unexpected results," President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said at a press conference in Truskavets on October 3, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

At the same time, he stressed that he was ready for a meeting in the Normandy format.

"In principle, I am ready for any meeting because I believe that any meeting at this level will help Ukraine in resolving the tragedy in Donbas and the issue of Crimea," Zelensky said.

He expressed confidence that a meeting in the Normandy format would take place.

As reported, on April 20, 2021, Zelensky addressed Putin, inviting him to meet "anywhere in Ukrainian Donbas where the war is going on."

In June, Zelensky said that the ball  arrangement of his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin  was now in Russia's court. "Our administrations discussed the agenda, the date, and the place of a meeting," the President of Ukraine said.

On June 30, commenting on a possible meeting with Zelensky, Putin said that the proposal made no sense as all issues on Ukraine were allegedly "resolved in Washington, Berlin, and Paris." Zelensky responded that any statements about the so-called "external governance" of Ukraine were just a propaganda mantra for the domestic consumer in Russia.

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The return of Mikheil Saakashvili, chairman of the Executive Committee of Ukraine's National Reform Council, to Ukraine will be discussed at the diplomatic level and the level of the governments of Ukraine and Georgia, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

He said this at a press conference in Truskavets on Sunday, October 3, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"Mr. Saakashvili is a citizen of Ukraine. Therefore, this also applies to him. All institutions - the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, our embassy operating in Georgia, at the level of the Georgian ambassador working in Ukraine, at the level of talks between our Cabinets of Ministers, and at the level of talks between the prime ministers - we will all be dealing with this issue," Zelensky said.

He stressed that the authorities should take care of Ukrainian citizens, including resolving the issue of their return to Ukraine if they get into trouble.

At the same time, Zelensky said he was surprised by Saakashvili's decision to travel to Georgia.

"As far as this interesting person, Mikheil Saakashvili, is concerned, I didn't know that he went to Georgia. I was very surprised. I learned about it in the press," Zelensky said.

He said that as president, he should think about him as a citizen of Ukraine. "And why he [Saakashvili] did so [...] probably, he thought it was a political step," Zelensky said.

At the same time, he described this step by Saakashvili as incorrect because all risks had to be taken into account.

Saakashvili early on Friday, October 1, posted a video on Facebook in which he said that he was in Batumi. However, Georgian Deputy Interior Minister Aleksandre Darakhvelidze later said that Saakashvili, who had announced his return home, had not left Ukraine. At the same time, in the evening, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said that former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was detained in the country on October 1.

The Ukrainian President's Office said it was closely following reports on Saakashvili's detention in Georgia.

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Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba will make a working visit to Poland on October 4-5 to take part in a meeting of the Lublin Triangle and hold talks with Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has reported.

In Warsaw, Kuleba will take part in a Lublin Triangle meeting with Rau and Lithuanian Deputy Foreign Minister Mantas Adomenas, where the parties will discuss security in the Baltic-Black Sea region, countering Nord Stream 2, and Ukraine's integration into the EU and NATO.

In addition, Kuleba will hold separate talks with Rau, with their key topics being the strengthening of the political dialogue between Ukraine and Poland, growth in trade and investment, strengthening energy cooperation, and coordinating positions in the context of Poland's 2022 OSCE chairmanship.

Kuleba will take part in the Warsaw Security Forum and speak at a panel discussion on "From the Baltic to the Black Sea: Unlocking the Strategic Potential of the Region." He will also hold a series of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the forum.

Kuleba is also to make a trip to Lublin to meet with the Ukrainian community in Poland, visit the memorial to the soldiers of the Ukrainian People's Republic, and honor the victims of the Nazi concentration camp Majdanek.

The Lublin Triangle is a trilateral platform for political, economic, cultural and social cooperation between Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland, founded on July 28, 2020. The purpose of the platform is to support Ukraine's integration into the European Union.

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Ukraine believes that Nord Stream 2, Ukraine's military security, and the situation in Donbas are directly related issues, so insists on discussing them in the Normandy format.

"Negotiations in the Normandy format are currently being held exclusively at the level of advisers to the leaders. After Merkel's visits to Moscow and Kyiv, two rounds of consultations and two video conferences took place. The topic of gas was not discussed at them, though it directly puts pressure on the negotiators," Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine, Ukrinform reports.

"Ukraine believes that Nord Stream 2 and Ukraine's military security, the situation in eastern Ukraine are directly related issues, so we advocate linking these issues and discussing them," Kuleba said.

The minister noted that advisers in the Normandy format currently strived to organize a summit, which Angela Merkel wants to hold and is ready to hold as the Chancellor of Germany.

My German and French colleagues, Heiko Maas and Jean-Yves Le Drian, wanted to hold the Normandy format meeting at the level of foreign ministers during the UN General Assembly in New York. I immediately agreed. But Sergey Lavrov, as always, did not find the time and opportunity. Therefore, the situation is uncertain. If we had a meeting of ministers, I would definitely take the opportunity to raise the issue of how the gas crisis affects the security situation in Ukraine and in Europe in general," he said.

The Ukrainian foreign minister noted that the gas crisis was created in manual mode, "so people understand that this is not a set of factors that have come together, and this tangle must be solved."

"Everyone understands the source of the crisis, how it was created. Obviously, there is an opinion in Europe that a solution will be found with Russia and the issue will stabilize. Western European politicians or entrepreneurs cannot imagine even in their worst dreams that Russia may let them down and freeze their houses, factories, and plants," he explained.

We all see an artificial gas crisis in Europe, Kuleba noted.

"It overlaps with the acceleration of the green transition in Europe. We see an extraordinary situation in China, which is also officially explained by the green transition, the reduction of coal production. I do not rule out that the problems of our pipeline may be only a small element of the global energy crisis. Nord Stream 2 has not been launched yet, it must be taken into account. And it is still unknown when the gas will go via Nord Stream 2, despite all the victorious reports of Gazprom and Russia," the minister added.

As reported, Ukraine wants to hold the Normandy format meeting with the participation of incumbent Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel.

Kuleba stressed that the decisions of the Normandy format summit with the participation of Merkel would be relevant for the new Government of Germany.

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European integration is a tool for strengthening Ukraine, which makes Ukrainians more resilient, strong and close to the Western world, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said.

He said this in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine, Ukrinform reports.

"We need to change the perception of European integration in Ukraine. This is not a question of whether they give us membership or not. European integration is now a tool for strengthening Ukraine, not a goal," Kuleba said.

Kuleba said Ukraine should continue its European integration course even if the country is denied membership in the European Union.

"Even if someone comes out in Brussels tomorrow and says that Ukraine will never become an EU member, it does not mean that we should curtail reforms, stop implementing European rules and move towards closer integration with the European space, because these rules and integration are strengthening Ukraine from within, making us more resilient, strong and close to the Western world, which has entered into a fierce confrontation with the Chinese world," he said.

Furthermore, Kuleba expects several concrete breakthrough decisions on Ukraine's practical integration to be made at the Ukraine-EU summit on October 12. He said he was convinced that this integration will bring concrete economic benefits to Ukrainian businesses and citizens.

"We are definitely putting pressure on the EU, demanding that they give us a European [membership] perspective. But I think we should realistically assess the end of the struggle and the EU's readiness to include this provision at the summit on October 12. Nevertheless, we will fight for it," Kuleba said.

This year's Ukraine-EU summit will take place in Kyiv on October 12.

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Georgian authorities do not intend to hand over arrested ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili to the Ukrainian side.

"Extradition to Ukraine from Georgia takes place only when a person whose extradition is demanded by the other party is prosecuted there. I don't think, at least I don't know, that Saakashvili is prosecuted in Ukraine. Therefore, talks about extradition are legal nonsense," Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Culture, Sports, and Youth Thea Tsulukiani said, News-Georgia reports.

Tsulukiani, who served as Georgia's justice minister in 2012-2020, says there are no legal grounds for Saakashvili's extradition to Ukraine.

She also rules out that Saakashvili will be handed over to Kyiv so that he can serve the prison term, for which he was sentenced by a Georgian court, in Ukraine.

"If we are talking about transferring Saakashvili to Ukraine so that he can serve the prison term given to him by a Georgian court in Ukraine, we have no desire to do this. There is no legal expediency for this," Tsulukiani said.

As reported, on Friday morning, October 1, Saakashvili posted a video on Facebook, in which he said that he was in Batumi.

In the evening of the same day, Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili announced that Mikheil Saakashvili had been detained on October 1. In turn, the former president went on a hunger strike, saying he considered himself a political prisoner.

Mikheil Saakashvili was the president of Georgia in 2008-2013. After losing the 2013 election, he left the country. Several criminal cases were instituted against him in his homeland, within some of which he was sentenced to imprisonment in absentia.

In 2015, Saakashvili was deprived of Georgian citizenship and has been a citizen of Ukraine for almost six years. He currently heads the Executive Committee of the National Reform Council of Ukraine.

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Ukrainian consul visited Mikheil Saakashvili in a penitentiary institution in the Georgian city of Rustavi, his health status is satisfactory.

"Today, the Ukrainian consul visited Ukrainian citizen Mikheil Saakashvili in a penitentiary institution in the city of Rustavi in Georgia. Mikheil Saakashvili's health status is satisfactory, he did not complain about the conditions of detention," Oleg Nikolenko, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, said in a comment to Ukrinform.

He added that the Foreign Ministry and the Embassy of Ukraine in Tbilisi would continue to provide Saakashvili as a Ukrainian citizen with consular and legal assistance. The consul also keeps in touch with his lawyers.

As reported, on Friday morning, October 1, Saakashvili posted a video on Facebook, in which he said that he was in Batumi.

In the evening of the same day, Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili announced that Mikheil Saakashvili had been detained on October 1. In turn, the former president went on a hunger strike, saying he considered himself a political prisoner.

Mikheil Saakashvili was the president of Georgia in 2008-2013. After losing the 2013 election, he left the country. Several criminal cases were instituted against him in his homeland, within some of which he was sentenced to imprisonment in absentia.

In 2015, Saakashvili was deprived of Georgian citizenship and has been a citizen of Ukraine for almost six years. He currently heads the Executive Committee of the National Reform Council of Ukraine.

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Mr Vice-Chairperson, dear Salim,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Also on behalf of the Deputy High Commissioner, the Assistant High Commissioners, our directors and colleagues, welcome to the Executive Committee.

And I would be remiss if I didnt start by sending wishes of prompt recovery to our Chair, Ambassador Farani Azevedo, so that she can be well and up and running as soon as possible.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we live in a difficult period. One where multiple crises erupt or worsen every day.

We see this with COVID-19, which has left no corner of the world untouched, showing, starkly, the interconnectedness of individuals. Where the health of someone on the other side of the earth affects mine. Yet in spite of knowing that it is in our own self-interest, we have failed to truly share vaccines.

We see it in the climate emergency, where our personal choices, our habits as individuals, as communities; where our consumption and production to feed an insatiable appetite for more is destroying the one planet we share. Yet, despite the urgency, we see insufficient action.

And all of us  and we at UNHCR in particular -- see it in a world where men fight men: and at what cost, in particular to women and children? How do we accept that every day children are maimed; women are raped; families are forced to flee; not by an act of God, but by the barrel of a gun? A conscious decision to shoot; to bomb; to destroy; to displace - with effects that shatter communities, countries, and regions.

Any one of us can see that we are heading in the wrong direction. All indicators are telling us to cooperate to prevent it. And yet we seem unable  or unwilling  to step off the paths we are currently on. Egoistic politics prevail. The approach based on me first; my country first has been phenomenal in helping win elections, and catastrophic in forging effective and global responses to global threats -- and today it undermines the very ideals espoused in the United Nations Charter that seek to improve the lives of we the peoples.

From our vantage point  that of forced displacement, of humanitarian and refugee crises  every day we see and feel the human consequences of these actions  or inactions  on millions of uprooted people and the communities hosting them: those which the me first, my country first slogans marginalize, stigmatize and exclude.

We see -- from our very specific perspective -- how the failure to deal equitably with the pandemic has left us in a world divided between inoculated and exposed, with disastrous consequences for people on the margins of society. Those working in informal sectors, as refugees do, were the first to lose their jobs, and poverty rates skyrocketed. Women suffer the most with increased reports of gender-based violence and countless girls unable to return to school. In Lebanon, for example, around 55 per cent of refugees were living below the extreme poverty line before the pandemic. Today around 90 per cent are  and 45 per cent of their Lebanese hosts have also fallen into poverty.

From our perspective we also see some of the dramatic consequences of decades of inaction to address the climate emergency, and the growing, multiple overlap between climate change and forced displacement. Some 90 per cent of refugees under UNHCRs mandate and 70 per cent of internally displaced people are from countries most vulnerable to the climate emergency.

And of course we see how unchecked and unresolved conflicts drive a devastating rise in the global number of forcibly displaced  a number that has doubled in the last decade. One million children (as we heard in the video) have been born into exile in the past three years alone and countless others on the other end of lifes journey are denied the simple dignity of dying at home.

If these trends are not reversed by robust conflict resolution efforts, I fear the question will not be if we will reach 100 million forcibly displaced; but rather when.

Mr Vice-Chairperson,

Let me stay with conflicts for a moment, since this continues to be our greatest problem. The failure to make peace and find solutions aggravates the plight of the displaced.

Millions of Afghans have been uprooted for more than 40 years, and recent developments have created new challenges. I visited Afghanistan just last month. You have heard me (and many others in the aid communities) say that large-scale, unconditional humanitarian assistance must be mobilized now, immediately; and that meanwhile solutions need to be found quickly to prevent an implosion of public services and of the economy, while engaging constructively with the Taliban on key issues of rights, including women and minority rights. Failure to urgently implement these solutions  and were talking of weeks, not much longer  will aggravate the crisis. And though I am always very prudent in making predictions regarding population movements, I believe that such a deterioration will almost inevitably cause large internal and possibly external displacement.

I share the deep concern of neighbouring countries in this respect  especially Iran and Pakistan, whose hospitality of generations of Afghans is stretched to the limits after more than four decades, and of countries further afield, especially Turkey, which already hosts more than 300,000 Afghan refugees in addition to well over 3.5 million Syrian refugees. While I continue to count on these countries generosity and support in case of fresh population movements, I join them in their plea that everything possible be done to prevent another massive Afghan refugee crisis from happening -- and to ensure that they  the host countries  receive more international assistance to strengthen their responses and preparedness.

Two other examples show how unresolved conflicts magnify situations of forced displacement and challenge the capacity of humanitarian organizations.

If the complex links between development, good governance, climate action and security are not addressed simultaneously, along with increased humanitarian assistance, people in the Central Sahel will continue to suffer the harsh consequences of a growing crisis, including forced displacement.

If the parties to the conflict in Ethiopia do not abandon a useless, devastating military confrontation in favour of political negotiations, the humanitarian crisis in Tigray and other regions will spiral out of control, with more forced displacement occurring inside and outside the country, in a context in which aid personnel face increasing obstacles and unacceptable difficulties, as proven by recent expulsions.

And in other places the absence of avenues towards solutions trap civilians in conflict, in desperate situations which humanitarian aid can alleviate but not solve - like in Yemen, or in the Democratic Republic of Congos eastern provinces.

Mr Vice-Chairperson,

Instead of giving refuge to those fleeing wars caused by no fault of their own, we have  in some parts of the world  seen rejection: in the form of walls and violent pushbacks; in the refusal of powerful countries to rescue people at sea; in increasingly restrictive laws; in more detention, including of children; and in dangerous xenophobic rhetoric. I am very troubled, in this respect, by proposals to externalise or outsource asylum obligations to other countries, in fundamental breach of basic responsibility-sharing commitments. And we observe other worrying trends that put innocent lives at risk, including instances where States encourage refugees and migrants to move to other countries through dangerous means for purely political purposes, unrelated to their need for protection.

Dont get me wrong. I appreciate that so-called mixed movements are highly complex phenomena (we see it first-hand in places like Libya or Central America), and that States can - and must - manage their borders. Yet, the indiscriminate rejection of people crossing borders, including on public health or security grounds, is incompatible with the 1951 Refugee Convention and international norms. Well managed borders and access to asylum are not incompatible  quite the contrary. Good management does not preclude asylum claims from being heard in a fair and fast system; or those in need of international protection from being admitted and helped. And those found not in need of international protection or deserving of other humanitarian considerations can be returned in full compliance with their human rights and dignity.

It is complicated, but not impossible. There are good options on the table. The Pact proposed by the European Commission presents a framework for European Union member states on how to address refugee flows and mixed movements. Certainly it is not perfect and will need constructive compromise, but it is possibly Europes last chance to agree on a common system.

It is equally important to pursue that discussion concerning movements from and within Central America and Mexico. Our regional platform, MIRPS, offers one forum to craft responses and seek solutions and I thank States that participate and support it, while we continue our strong engagement with countries in the region, including the United States, on strengthening (and facilitating access to) asylum systems, stabilizing displacement flows, creating legal pathways and ensuring that international protection is granted to those who need it.

Mr Vice-Chairperson,

In previous years, I have reported on our efforts to seek solutions even when peacemaking may still be work in progress. The quest is also important in consideration of the heavy responsibility that hosts continue to bear in protecting and assisting refugees; this is the case for example with the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, the Burundian refugees in Tanzania and other countries, or the Somali refugees in Kenya and elsewhere. Stronger support to host countries must be coupled with redoubled efforts to find just, dignified and durable solutions at their source  in Myanmar, Burundi and Somalia in these cases.

Another example is provided by the Syrian refugee crisis. Many Syrian refugees tell us they are not yet ready to return, but some -- and a large number of displaced people -- have returned or are returning to their areas of origin in Syria, where the support they receive is minimal. Others hesitate to return because they do not wish to bring back their families to situations of poverty and deprivation. I appreciate the political complexity, but I would like to reiterate my plea for more humanitarian assistance and greater support to critical services and infrastructure like health and education to be provided inside Syria to those returning and to their communities. And we will continue to work with the Syrian Government to help remove other obstacles to return, including in the vital areas of safety, security and rights. In the meantime, I cannot overstate the importance of donors staying the course in supporting refugees and host communities in order to improve their lives and enable the continued generosity of countries that have protected and hosted Syrians for more than a decade, especially Turkey, Jordan Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt.

In some contexts, we have made progress. This is the case in South Sudan and Sudan where -- even if the situation remains fragile -- under the leadership of the two governments and IGAD, along with the support of the World Bank, the European Union and others, we are stepping up our response to enable solutions for more than seven million refugees and displaced people in and from these two countries  voluntary return but also, in some cases, local integration. I recently visited Juba and Khartoum and was happy to observe the two governments commitment to make progress on solutions, as enshrined in respective peace agreements  commitment that has already translated into national strategy and which must now extend to States in the region and to other partners and donors.

In other places, we have pursued temporary solutions in countries of asylum, pending voluntary repatriation or other permanent outcomes. They may be time-limited but they allow for protection and dignified lives in exile, strengthen social cohesion with host communities, and provide stability and opportunities.

That is what has been so exemplary about Colombias decision to grant temporary protection status to over 1.7 million Venezuelans. While the benefits  right to stay, right to work, right to access social services like education and health  are obvious for Venezuelans in Colombia, the Colombian government has also highlighted the benefits to the State in terms of security and positive contributions to the national economy. And it is extremely encouraging that other countries in the region are now working to regularize or offer temporary protection to Venezuelan refugees and migrants  Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Peru, the United States and Uruguay. Meanwhile, IOM and UNHCR will continue to support them and other host States through a platform which now includes more than 300 partners, and in growing cooperation with international financial institutions.

It may sound like a paradox  but I do not believe it is  that I am advocating strongly for solutions to forced displacement at a time of multiple crises. In fact, I was happy that the report of the Secretary-Generals High Level Panel on Internal Displacement has a strong focus on solutions. There are opportunities in places like Colombia, Mozambique and Iraq. UNHCR stands ready to provide its expertise and resources to pursue this important goal.

And we should not forget resettlement -- another solution which has been at painfully low levels in past years. For this reason, I welcome the US Administrations intention to further raise their resettlement quota to 125,000 refugees from next year. I am also grateful to those that have stayed the course, and maintained or increased lifesaving resettlement programmes, including Canada, Sweden, and Norway. I encourage all States to increase quotas and expedite departures, also as a gesture of responsibility sharing.

Many States have implemented other third country solutions or complementary pathways. For example, Mexico and Italy (amongst others) welcome students, and Canada athletes. Australia, the United Kingdom and others enable skilled refugee workers to be paired with employers to access work permits. And the Dutch government pioneers remote processing of family reunification applications, enhancing the ability of refugees to integrate and thrive in their new communities. Much more is needed and possible. We are at the disposal of States to scale up these and other win-win opportunities for refugees and host countries.

I would be remiss, in speaking of solutions, if I did not note progress in the elimination of statelessness, as we mark 60 years of the 1961 Convention. I warmly welcome both Iceland and Togos accession to the conventions and the work recently undertaken by other States like Chile, Kenya, Namibia and Uzbekistan to eradicate this preventable problem that continues to plague millions of people.

Ultimately, however, Mr Vice-Chairperson, the greatest opportunity for solutions comes when peace is achieved and countries of origin and asylum work together to find solutions for the displaced.

I am therefore grateful for the example set by the government of Cote dIvoire as well as those of Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania and Togo, which have demonstrated political will to implement a comprehensive roadmap for solutions for Ivorian refugees, some of whom have been displaced for decades. The aim is to promote further voluntary repatriation and reintegration of Ivorian refugees, and support the acquisition of permanent residency by (or naturalisation of) those wishing to stay in host countries.

This regional effort deserves the applause of the entire international community. And in light of the fundamental and durable changes in Cote dIvoire, Mr Vice-Chairperson, I am pleased to recommend a general cessation of refugee status for Ivorian refugees to take effect on 30 June 2022. Et merci a la Cote dIvoire.

Meanwhile, of course, UNHCR will continue to stand with Ivorians, and strengthen our support to States in the region as they implement the solutions strategy and cessation clauses, including helping them ensure that the required documentation is made available. I recommend strong donor support, including by development actors, for all countries concerned.

Mr Vice-Chairperson,

The Global Compact on Refugees was a critical moment in galvanising more and different help for refugees and their hosts. Since then we have seen the whole of society approach come to fruition in a number of areas, including in the more than 1,400 pledges made at the Global Refugee Forum in 2019, of which we will take stock at the High Level Officials Meeting in December.

Many outcomes of the Forum have been positive. The three regional platforms, for example  the MIRPS, which I have mentioned; the Solutions Strategy for Afghan Refugees; and the IGAD Support Platform in the East and Horn of Africa  have proven useful in taking a regional approach to refugee responses and the search for solutions (including in times of crisis, such as in Afghanistan). They will be joined soon by a fourth platform which we are setting up to address the displacement situation related to the Central African Republic.

Most importantly, and no doubt also as a result of the Global Compact on Refugees, displacement is more firmly featured on the development agenda. The inclusion of refugees in the programmes and interventions of development organizations has become increasingly relevant to realizing their own mandates for economic growth and poverty reduction. This has important consequences for our work because development actors, more and more, play an important role in meeting the medium and longer-term needs of refugees and host communities, which humanitarian assistance alone is ill-suited to address. It has also helped us improve data collection and evidence-based analysis of trends in forced displacement through the Joint Data Centre established in partnership with the World Bank.

This cooperation has helped the inclusion agenda  a centrepiece of the Global Compact and a key driver of pledges at the Forum. Governments which have accepted to receive displacement-related development assistance have been able to better include refugees in national programmes and services until durable solutions are found. These investments, in turn, have lifted the living conditions not just of refugees, especially in protracted crises, but also of host communities, often helping develop remote areas and invest in infrastructure that will remain once refugees return home.

The World Bank alone has committed more than US$4 billion in its IDA-18 and 19 rounds. The InterAmerican Development Bank has brought sizeable resources in support of countries hosting Venezuelans. The African and Asian Development Banks are engaged in supporting countries hosting refugees in their respective geographical areas.

And it should be clear that these are additional resources, which complement humanitarian assistance and the important interventions of our UN partners in strengthening the resilience of displaced populations (like WFPs food aid for refugees, or the Blueprint joint project with UNICEF). Neither do they detract from development aid destined for any specific country. And here I make a special plea to development actors  please increase (as the World Bank has done) the share of grants made available to refugee hosting countries so that both host communities and refugees can be included in socio-economic support packages. All have suffered the consequences of COVID-19 and require support to help them and protect social cohesion.

Another remarkable feature  also stemming in several ways from efforts made through the Compact and the Forum  is the unprecedented growth in support from the private sector and private individuals, in spite of COVID-related challenges. Not only do we increasingly benefit from the expertise and know-how of businesses, but around 11 per cent of our income last year came from private donors, exceeding US$535 million. The number of private individuals who gave to UNHCR has doubled since 2015 and now stands at nearly three million donors. This is a remarkable demonstration of solidarity and a clear message to governments as well  you do have, among your citizens and voters, many who care for refugees!

This important funding complements that of governments who have continued to provide support to UNHCR. Last year, we reached close to an unprecedented US$5 billion in total income, for which I am grateful, especially to our largest donors, first of all the United States of America, as well as the European Commission and Germany.and to donors who continue faithfully to provide unearmarked donations.

And there are other, significant examples of Forum-related successes. For instance, States, development actors, educational institutions and other partners have come together to support the access of refugees to tertiary education. I am particularly pleased to report that -- in spite of the pandemic -- we have seen an increase from one per cent  only one per cent  of young refugees enrolled in higher education just a few years ago to five per cent in 2021. While we are far from our goal of 15 per cent enrollment, this rapid increase shows not only what can be quickly achieved through partnerships but also why we must not lose momentum in investing in refugee education.

Mr Vice-Chairperson,

While we have been responding to COVID-19 and the consequences of conflict, we have not relented in better responding to -- and preparing for what will inevitably cause increased displacement: the climate emergency.

For years we have been witness to climate displacement. Not only due to extreme weather events like floods or cyclones, but also desertification, reduced or erratic agricultural production and other events which lead to tensions -- and often conflict -- over scarce resources, with predictable consequences for those who have done the least to harm the planet and yet pay the biggest price.

To better structure our engagement, UNHCR published its first Strategic Framework on Climate Action in April, articulated in three pillars:

First, support States with law and policy on climate related displacement.

Second, strengthen operations  both to respond to adverse effects of climate change, and to do so through more environmentally friendly responses that at the same time help the displaced and their hosts resist climate shocks, and ensure that we better anticipate and prepare for future, climate-induced population movements.

And third, reduce our own carbon footprint.

Work is already underway. For example, we contribute to reforestation in Cameroon, Ethiopia and Bangladesh. We use new shelter products that are better for the environment and more appropriate for local preferences (and local procurement): like in Yemen  a project we have worked on with this years Nansen Award winner - and in Bangladesh. We have expanded solar solutions and found that, for example, initial costs for solarizing boreholes in Chad will be recouped in savings on diesel costs in just one and a half years. And we use new predictive technologies to better prepare us and the broader aid system for future displacement, like in the Sahel.

We are also taking innovative steps to reduce our own emissions and are working with the private sector to supply clean and cheap energy to offices. Thanks to Swedens SIDA and Germanys BMZ, we have established the innovative Green Financing Facility -- 60 per cent more efficient than traditional grants in enabling a transition to renewable energy. This will allow us to meet our ambitious goal of moving all our 530 field offices to clean energy by 2030. We will also transition much of our global fleet of 6,000 vehicles to electric cars by the same year. I strongly encourage other donors to join this effort.

Mr Vice-Chairperson,

We have continued to focus as well on internal matters, including -- as a priority -- those concerning integrity. Fighting sexual exploitation and abuse remains critical for UNHCR and for me personally, as does stamping out sexual harassment. They are part of a larger discussion inside UNHCR regarding other, important dynamics surrounding our efforts to achieve gender parity, promote diversity and inclusion in our workforce, and avoid any form of racism and discrimination.

And while regionalization was a very visible component of our transformation, with geographical bureaux moving to their respective regions just before the pandemic, much work also has been done on reforming processes and systems, which are key to efficient decentralization and effective operations.

Decision making is being therefore decentralized as close to the points of delivery as possible, while being coupled with better risk management and oversight.

A suite of improved interfaces will link human resources, finance and other systems together to better support operations. Other reforms are gradually lessening the time UNHCR personnel and partners -- especially NGOs -- spend on paperwork so they can focus on substantive work.

The UNHCR data and digital transformation is a whole of organization effort, helping inform decision making, including as part of the improved planning and budgeting processes, which are now driven from the ground up in order to ensure better linkages between resource allocation and impact.

Which brings to me to my last point.

Nearly five years ago, I launched UNHCRs five Strategic Directions: protect, respond, empower, include, solve. They helped spell out more clearly how we deliver on our mandate.

Their original span extends until the end of 2021. They remain effective in defining the implementation of the mandate, so we will renew them for another five years in a document which we plan to issue before the end of year. The evolution of current challenges, however, calls for greater investments in a number of specific areas, which we will describe in the same document and which will help us better guide our planning, budgeting, monitoring and reporting. We will reach out to you and other partners for further discussions in this respect.

Mr Vice-Chairperson, ladies and gentlemen,

As you know, UNHCR is used to working in crises. Throughout our 70 years, we have been on the frontlines of many emergencies, standing with refugees, the displaced, the stateless. We have always strived to protect and assist them, and find solutions to their plight.

I would like to pay tribute to UNHCR colleagues  past and present  who have given so much in this service. This has often come at great sacrifice -- in recent months, tragically, we have had to mourn the loss of 18 colleagues to COVID-19 alone. And I would be remiss, of course, if this tribute did not include our close partners working for UN agencies, the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, national and international NGOs, and especially an increasing cadre of community-based and often women-led and refugee-led organizations. In spite of todays challenges, and with your support, we will not be deterred from our mission and the ultimate goal of preventing displacement and helping the displaced return to their homes or build new ones.

As I said at the start, we face terrifying challenges. We sometimes feel powerless and besieged. But we must not lose heart, and take inspiration instead from the courage and resilience which uprooted people continue to show -- think of the refugee athletes who triumphed over every adversity and competed at the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games; think of the sacrifices that parents in exile make to give an education to their children; think of the displaced mothers who often risk their lives to protect their babies during flight.

They are living examples of why we must not give up. Of why we must address the challenge of forced displacement -- and all other global challenges -- patiently, persistently, systematically: as the UN Charter says, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods.

None of us can do this alone. But if we work together -- together! -- with courage and humility, and in a true spirit of solidarity, putting the common good before individual and national considerations, then we have a chance to succeed.

Thank you.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi delivers a speech at the 72nd annual Executive Committee meeting at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.  UNHCR/Mark Henley

GENEVA  The number of forcibly displaced people worldwide will top 100 million without greater international cooperation to address multiple crises that erupt or worsen every day around the world, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees warned at a high-level meeting today.

Any one of us can see that we are heading in the wrong direction, Filippo Grandi told UNHCRs annual Executive Committee gathering in Geneva. All indicators are telling us to cooperate to prevent it. And yet we seem unable  or unwilling  to step off the paths we are currently on.

All indicators are telling us to cooperate."

Grandi highlighted how a failure to equitably distribute vaccines to curb the COVID-19 pandemic has created a world divided between inoculated and exposed, with disastrous consequences for people on the margins of society, among them refugees working in the informal sector who were the first to lose their jobs as poverty rates skyrocketed.

At the same time, decades of global inaction to address the climate emergency has had dramatic consequences for refugees, 90 per cent of whom are from countries most vulnerable to its impacts.

Meanwhile, unchecked and unresolved conflicts across the world have led to a doubling in the last decade of the numbers of forcibly displaced, which reached a record 82.4 million at the end of last year.

If these trends are not reversed by robust conflict resolution efforts, I fear the question will not be if we will reach 100 million forcibly displaced; but rather when, he told the opening session of the 72nd session of the Executive Committee, which runs through Friday.

Grandi singled out the plight of millions of Afghan refugees who have been uprooted for more than 40 years and others inside the country who now face fresh uncertainty. He stressed that large-scale, unconditional humanitarian assistance must be mobilized now to prevent an aggravation of the crisis and the implosion of public services and the economy.

And though I am always very prudent in making predictions regarding population movements, I believe that such a deterioration will almost inevitably cause large internal and possibly external displacement, he said.

Turning to other situations of unresolved conflict, Grandi warned that if the parties to the conflict in Ethiopia do not abandon a useless, devastating military confrontation in favour of political negotiations, the humanitarian crisis in Tigray and other regions will spiral out of control, with more forced displacement occurring inside and outside the country. He noted a context in which aid personnel face increasing obstacles and unacceptable difficulties, as proven by the recent expulsion of humanitarian staff from the country.

Amid rising forced displacement, the High Commissioner also called out powerful nations in some parts of the world who, instead of giving refuge to those fleeing wars caused by no fault of their own, have kept them out with walls and violent pushbacks, by refusing to rescue people at sea, and through increasingly restrictive laws.

Filippo Grandi: Greater international cooperation needed to solve "multiple crises"

Grandi said proposals to externalize or outsource asylum obligations to other countries were in fundamental breach of basic responsibility-sharing commitments. He also highlighted a worrying trend ... where States encourage refugees and migrants to move to other countries through dangerous means for purely political purposes, unrelated to their need for protection.

Well-managed borders and access to asylum are not incompatible  quite the contrary, he said. Good management does not preclude asylum claims from being heard in a fair and fast system; or those in need of international protection from being admitted and helped.

Despite a challenging global outlook, Grandi highlighted progress in supporting peace efforts in South Sudan and Sudan, under the leadership of the two governments and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD. With World Bank support, solutions are being sought for more than seven million refugees and internally displaced people from the two countries.

Cooperative efforts have also created temporary solutions for millions of forcibly displaced Venezuelans. Grandi highlighted the exemplary role of Colombia in granting temporary protection status to over 1.7 million Venezuelans, allowing them to stay, work, and access social services like education and health. The move, which also allows displaced people to contribute to the country hosting them, is being taken up by other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, he said.

"If we work together with courage and humility, and in a true spirit of solidarity ... then we have a chance to succeed.

The High Commissioner also highlighted progress stemming from the Global Compact on Refugees and the follow-up Global Refugee Forum in December 2019, where more than 1,400 pledges have led to policies and investments from public and private sources.

These investments, in turn, have lifted the living conditions not just of refugees, especially in protracted crises, but also of host communities, often helping develop remote areas and invest in infrastructure that will remain once refugees return home, Grandi said.

While the world faces terrifying challenges, Grandi urged delegates not to lose heart, but to take inspiration from the courage and resilience which uprooted people continue to show.

The refugee athletes who triumphed over every adversity at the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games in August are living examples of why we must not give up. Of why we must address the challenge of forced displacement  and all other global challenges  patiently, persistently, systematically.

None of us can do this alone. But if we work together  together!  with courage and humility, and in a true spirit of solidarity, putting the common good before individual and national considerations, then we have a chance to succeed.
The #IBelong Campaign was launched by UNHCR in 2014 as a global effort to end statelessness within 10 years.  UNHCR

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, applauds Togo's accession to the two UN Conventions on Statelessness.

Togo has now become the latest country to join the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, helping to advance the global fight to end statelessness.

Statelessness, the situation of people who are not recognized as citizens by any country, is a global phenomenon that continues to affect millions of people worldwide, leaving them marginalized and highly vulnerable.

In depositing instruments of accession to both treaties on 14 July, Togo signaled its political will to tackle the root causes of statelessness as well as its support for UNHCRs #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness by 2024.

The move comes as the international community marks the 60th anniversary of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and as UNHCR is stepping up advocacy efforts on the issue generally.

I congratulate Togo for acceding to the two UN statelessness conventions, said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi. This step demonstrates Togos strong commitment to improving the lives of stateless people throughout the country and helping to eliminate statelessness around the world.

Togos accession builds on the great momentum in West Africas fight against statelessness.

Togo and other West African States had previously adopted the 2015 Abidjan Declaration of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Heads of State on the eradication of statelessness in West Africa, and the 2017 Banjul Plan of Action to Eradicate Statelessness.

Its accession last week to the two UN conventions is in line with its commitments to the ongoing reform of the Togolese nationality code to make it consistent with international standards that prevent and reduce statelessness, including by ensuring equal nationality rights to women when it comes to their ability to acquire, retain, and confer their nationality.

Notes to the editor:

There are at least 1.6 million stateless people or people of undetermined nationality, across West Africa, according to information provided by countries in the region.

Worldwide, UNHCRs statistical reporting counts 4.2 million stateless people in some 94 countries. Given that most countries do not collect any data on statelessness, the actual figure is believed to be substantially higher.

Stateless people are often unable to access documentation and critical services, ranging from education, health care and vaccinations, among many others. Their lack of status can negatively impact all aspects and phases of their lives, from birth to death.

For more information on this topic, please contact:
Under normal circumstances, small boats criss-cross the Logone River, which marks the border between Cameroon and Chad, in both directions. But over the past three weeks, 11,000 Cameroonians, 98 per cent of them women and children, have taken a one-way trip to Chad.

Cameroons Far North region has just experienced the deadliest intercommunal violence in its history between Choa Arab herders and Musgum fishermen and farmers. Since 10 August, 19 villages have been torched and 40 villages have been abandoned by their fearful residents. At least 45 people have been killed and 74 others injured.

Another 15 people have gone missing and are feared to have died while trying to cross the Logone river to Chad.

"I saw dead people, right in front of my eyes."

Jean-Pierre Semana, a 52-year-old Choa Arab Cameroonian, crossed safely with his wife and six children to Oundouma, a village on the Chadian side of the river. "It was the war that brought me to Chad," he said. "I was forced to flee. During my flight, I saw dead people, right in front of my eyes."

The population of Oundouma has tripled in a fortnight with the arrival of 3,000 refugees. The rest of the refugees are scattered in seven villages along the Logone river.

The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, and its partners have distributed basic necessities, set up community kitchens to serve hot meals and erected four communal shelters, but the need for more food, water and shelter remains urgent with many refugees still sleeping under trees amidst frequent downpours.

"We are in the middle of the rainy season and malaria is affecting 76 per cent of the population, refugees and host communities alike," said Iris Blom, UNHCR's Deputy Representative in Chad, who visited Oundouma recently.

She added that UNHCR has set up mobile clinics and distributed medication and mosquito nets, but the heavy rains have made the roads leading to the isolated villages where refugees are sheltering almost impassable.

Despite the difficulties caused by the rains, it is their absence that is the root cause of the clashes that drove the exodus from Cameroon.

Climate change is a reality in this region of the Sahel where temperatures are rising 1.5 times faster than the global average and the UN estimates that 80 per cent of farmland is degraded. Over the past 60 years, the surface of Lake Chad, of which the Logone River is one of the main tributaries, has decreased by as much as 95 per cent.

Faced with this situation, the Musgum fishermen and farmers have dug vast trenches to retain the remaining river waters so they can fish and cultivate crops. But the muddy trenches create traps for cattle belonging to the Choa Arab herders. On several occasions, their cattle have become stuck in them and even broken their legs trying to get out.

It was one such incident that triggered the clashes that broke out on 10 August. Traditional weapons including bows and machetes were taken up and the dispute quickly escalated.

Amina was heavily pregnant when she fled the violence in Cameroon. She gave birth just two days after arriving in Chad with the help of a local midwife.  UNHCR/Aristophane Ngargoune

Amina Moussa, a 20-year-old Musgum woman, was heavily pregnant when the violence forced her to flee. She felt her first contractions while she was still travelling.

"I had to rest every 100 metres," she recalled from the home of a local family in Oundouma where she has found refuge. "My delivery was facilitated by a village midwife two days after I arrived here.

Amina left her husband behind and has received no news of him since arriving in Chad.

Cameroon has deployed security forces and undertaken disarmament operations and mediation to put an end to the clashes. Although relative calm has been restored, many of the refugees and 12,500 people displaced within Cameroon will not return immediately, especially those whose homes were burned down.

Farmers have been unable to tend to their crops for several weeks in the middle of the rainy season, a crucial time when crops require a lot of care. Much of the harvest is now lost.

UNHCR and its partners are supporting the Cameroonian and Chadian authorities to respond to the emergency but finding longer-term solutions to the impacts of climate change is a more complex challenge.

A large-scale infrastructure project named Transaqua to divert water from the Congo River basin to Lake Chad through a 2,400 kilometre-long canal has been under consideration for decades, but the first dig is not yet in sight. If and when it goes ahead, it would replenish only the Chari River, the Lakes main tributary, but would have limited impact on water levels in the Logone River.

In the meantime, resources to deal with the humanitarian impacts of the climate emergency are limited. Chad already hosts 510,000 refugees and Cameroon 450,000 and as of 1 August, UNHCR's operations in both countries were severely underfunded with less than half of the financial requirements for 2021 covered. Additional funding is urgently needed to respond to the needs of the forcibly displaced in both countries.

Additional reporting by Moise Amedje Peledai and Helen Ngoh Ada in Cameroon
DUBAI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 04th Oct, 2021) During September, the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) once again registered a high monthly Average Open Interest (AOI), amounting to 154,629 contracts.

Open interest is an indicator of the total number of futures contracts held by market participants at the end of the trading day  and the significant increase over the last few months reflects a growing appetite from market participants.

Following trends from the preceding month, the DGCX Group saw renewed interest in its Hydrocarbons asset class during September - with its West Texas Intermediary (WTI) Futures Contract registering a year-on-year (Y-O-Y) Average Daily Volume (ADV) growth of 37 percent, compared to the same period last year.

The DGCXs Currency portfolio also recorded a spike in trading activity during the month, reflecting increased investor interest in currencies as an alternative asset class. DGCXs G6 Currencies Portfolio traded a combined total of 1,434 lots valued at USD 80 million. Additionally, the newly launched Pakistani Rupee (PKR) Futures Contract continued to grow in demand, registering a combined value of USD 108 million.

Elsewhere, the exchanges precious metals portfolio also continued to attract interest from market participants with the Shariah Compliant Spot Gold Contract the standout performer, trading a total of 20 lots valued at USD 1.14 million.

Septembers trading volumes also included block trades with a total trade value of USD 1.

07 billion. Through block trades, DGCXs members and market participants can pre-negotiate a trade with another party; enabling them with the ability to execute a large value transaction at a reasonable price.

September also saw the DGCX continue to expand its core expertise and offerings to the African region, a key market for the exchange. The DGCX Group signed a MoU with Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX)  a subsidiary of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE)  to provide VFEX with technical support, knowledge, and skills, with the aim of establishing an international commodities exchange in Zimbabwe.

The agreement marks the second MoU in the African market over recent months, with the DGCX also signing an agreement with the Financial Markets Regulatory Authority (FMA) in Sudan to strengthen bilateral cooperation towards the trading of gold between the United Arab Emirates and Sudan.

Les Male, CEO of DGCX, said:"The DGCX continues to focus on driving growth by enhancing the strength of our offerings to market participants, as well as growing, innovating, and scaling our services. We are therefore pleased to have signed an agreement with VFEX during the month of September, as part of our strategic expansion into the African region, a rapidly growing market with enormous potential. As a globally regulated exchange, we are proud to lend our expertise in other markets and continue to look at ways to expand our range of services, as well as offer market participants with effective ways to hedge risk."
(@FahadShabbir)

Paris, Oct 3 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd Oct, 2021 ) :Bernard Tapie, the French business magnate, actor and politician whose swashbuckling career earned him millions of fans despite a litany of legal convictions, died aged 78 on Sunday after a four-year fight with stomach cancer.

"Dominique Tapie and his family have the immense sadness to announce the death of her husband and their father, Bernard Tapie, this Sunday," they said in a statement to La Provence newspaper in Marseille, in which Tapie was a majority stakeholder.

His death prompted condolences from politicians across the political spectrum, with President Emmanuel Macron hailing an "ambition, energy and enthusiasm that were a source of inspiration for generations of French people".

"This man, who had a combativeness that could move mountains and take down the moon, never gave up," his office said in a statement.
Manchester, United Kingdom, Oct 4 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Oct, 2021 ) :The UK government on Monday said it stood ready to abandon a post-Brexit trading accord for Northern Ireland "soon", unless the EU agreed to wholesale changes.

Addressing the annual conference of the ruling Conservative party, Brexit minister David Frost said: "The long bad dream of our EU membership is over.

"The British renaissance has begun," he said, insisting that Brexit was working in terms of recapturing UK sovereignty despite an ongoing supply chain crisis roiling the economy.

But for Northern Ireland in particular, trust in the tricky compromises worked out with Brussels had "collapsed", Frost said, blaming the EU's "heavy-handed actions".

The EU had yet to formally reply to UK proposals made in July to reform the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol, he noted.

"But from what I hear, I worry that we will not get one which enables the significant change we need.

"So I urge the EU to be ambitious. It's no use tinkering around the edges. We need significant change," Frost said.

"But we cannot wait for ever. Without an agreed solution soon, we will need to act, using the Article 16 safeguard mechanism, to address the impact the protocol is having on Northern Ireland." The protocol formed part of the UK's drawn-out divorce from the EU, and was designed to prevent unchecked goods heading into the bloc's single market via the UK's only land border with the EU to Ireland.

But pro-UK unionists in Northern Ireland are opposed, arguing that border checks on goods from mainland Great Britain -- England, Scotland and Wales -- effectively creates a border in the Irish Sea, compromising the province's place in the wider UK.

Brussels insists that the protocol is not up for renegotiation, and could trigger trade reprisals should the UK invoke its Article 16, which would suspend the pact owing to extraordinary circumstances.

"That may in the end be the only way to protect our country -- our people, our trade, our territorial integrity, the peace process, and the benefits of this great UK of which we are all part," Frost warned.
FAISALABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd Oct, 2021 ) :The measles rubella campaign will start in the district from November 15, 2021.

This drive will continue up to November 27 during which 3.3 million children between the ages of 9 months to 15 years will be vaccinated against measles rubella.

This was informed during a review meeting heldon Sunday with Deputy Commissioner Ali Shehzad in the chair. Representatives of UNICEF, WHO, District Health Officer Dr. Bilal Ahmed and others were also present on the occasion.

District Health Officer Dr. Bilal Ahmed informed that rubella vaccine was being introduced for the first time and after this campaign it will become part of the EPI routine vaccine and then vaccinations against 12 diseases will be given to the children.

He said that just as measles and polio were dangerous, the rubella virus was also serious. Earlier it was not vaccinated but now its vaccine had been added. He informed that 2500 vaccinators would perform duty during the campaign and children would be vaccinated at fix center, hospital, dispensaries too.

Deputy, Commissioner asked the health authorities to make the campaign successful and all resources should be utilized for this purpose. He said that district administration would also provide support for the success of this drive.
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LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd Oct, 2021 ) :Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has directed the relevant authority to complete the process of filling up the vacant posts of college principals as soon as possible and said that merit should be ensured in the appointment of controllers and secretaries of education boards.

He said this while presiding over a meeting which reviewed the matters related to the Higher Education department.

He said that a university in every district would provide better opportunities for higher education to the students especially the female students adding that establishment of Indus University in Rajanpur would fulfil the long standing demand of the people of the area.

Universities would also be established in Muzaffargarh, Layyah, Bhakkar, Hafizabad, Bahawalnagar, Sheikhupura, Kasur, Attock, Gujranwala and other districts, he added.

He said that University of Taunsa and Women University in DG Khan would remove the sense of deprivation among the people of the area.

CM was briefed about the progress of setting up of 15 new universities in the province. During the meeting the public-private partnership and joint venture in establishing new universities in Punjab were also discussed.

The meeting also decided to introduce the concept of Smart University in the province besides giving principle approval to make further recruitment of College Teacher Interns (CTIs) across the province.

Usman Buzdar was further informed that 197 higher education projects would be completed at a sum ofRs 15 billion across the province. The process of transfer of land for 21 new colleges out of 88 had been completed.
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Spanish rescuers found 11 bodies floating in the sea off the Balearic Islands on Monday, pulling another three people to safety, a government spokesman said

Madrid, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Oct, 2021 ) :Spanish rescuers found 11 bodies floating in the sea off the Balearic Islands on Monday, pulling another three people to safety, a government spokesman said.

"Three people were rescued alive and 11 bodies have been recovered," a government delegation spokesman said, after initially saying that 17 bodies had been spotted floating in the water just west of the island of Cabrera.
World leaders meeting later this month for a UN climate summit must offer solutions to an "unprecedented ecological crisis", Pope Francis warned on Monday

Rome, Oct 4 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Oct, 2021 ) :World leaders meeting later this month for a UN climate summit must offer solutions to an "unprecedented ecological crisis", Pope Francis warned on Monday.

"COP26 in Glasgow represents an urgent summons to provide effective responses to the unprecedented ecological crisis and the crisis of values that we are presently experiencing, and in this way to offer concrete hope to future generations," Francis said.

The leader of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics, who is hoping to attend the UN talks, issued the plea in writing to members of a Vatican-hosted conference called Faith and Science: Towards COP26.

It brought together scientists and religious leaders ahead of the landmark two week summit that kicks off on October 31 in Scotland.
The European Union is discussing various support measures for Ukraine, European Commission spokeswoman Nabila Massrali told Sputnik on Monday, asked about the possibility to establish an EU military training mission in the country

BRUSSELS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th October, 2021) The European Union is discussing various support measures for Ukraine, European Commission spokeswoman Nabila Massrali told Sputnik on Monday, asked about the possibility to establish an EU military training mission in the country,

German daily newspaper Welt am Sonntag reported, citing an internal EU document, that the bloc is considering the possibility of creating a military training mission in Ukraine to express solidarity amid Russia'a alleged military activities close to the Ukrainian borders.

"The EU has been looking into ways how to enhance Ukraine's resilience and discussions on possible support measures are ongoing," Massrali said.
German police said Monday they detained hundreds of migrants at the border with Poland over the last three days, many who the EU believes were prompted by Belarus to cross into the bloc

Berlin, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Oct, 2021 ) :German police said Monday they detained hundreds of migrants at the border with Poland over the last three days, many who the EU believes were prompted by Belarus to cross into the bloc.

The number of migrants from Iraq, Yemen or Syria crossing from the Polish border into Germany reached a "new weekend high" in the first days of October, Federal police said.

Thousands of migrants have been trying to cross from Belarus into European Union members Latvia, Lithuania and Poland in recent weeks, an unprecedented number for the region.

Brussels accuses Belarus of deliberately orchestrating the influx in retaliation against EU sanctions over the Moscow-backed regime's crackdown on dissent.

Germany shares a border of over 460 kilometres (285 miles) with Poland.

Police in the eastern German state of Brandenburg reported that 251 people sought to slip into the country since Friday.

Their colleagues in Saxony state a little further south along the Polish border said they caught 76 migrants seeking to travel in.

Officers in the northeastern state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state meanwhile uncovered 55 migrants.

During a visit to Warsaw in September, German Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed to Belarus to help migrants instead of trying to send them across the border into the EU, branding these attempts "hybrid attacks".

Poland has sent thousands of troops and built a razor-wire fence at the border with Belarus to halt the influx.

Non-governmental groups have warned of a humanitarian crisis for migrants crossing the border as temperatures begin to dip and have asked for access to provide medical assistance.

Germany was at loggerheads with Poland after the 2015 refugee crisis when Warsaw refused to take its share of migrants under an EU-wide scheme.
The Pandora Papers have unveiled evidence of Serbian Finance Minister Sinisa Mali fraudulent acquisition of 24 luxurious apartments in Bulgaria worth $6.1 million, which he long denied, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) said

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th October, 2021) The Pandora papers have unveiled evidence of Serbian Finance Minister Sinisa Mali fraudulent acquisition of 24 luxurious apartments in Bulgaria worth $6.1 million, which he long denied, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) said.

In 2015, the minister, who then served as Belgrade's mayor, said that he owned only one such apartment in response to reports about his alleged involvement in a real estate fraud. Mali said that his name was in documents related to the other 23 properties because he assisted a client in a business deal. With his official annual income not exceeding 34,000 Euros ($39,000), the official could not have afforded such a large purchase. However, President Aleksandar Vucic rallied for Mali, denying any corruption claims.

"But now, six years later, KRIK (Crime and Corruption Reporting Network, based in Serbia) and OCCRP have uncovered definitive proof that Mali owned the apartments despite his protestations. The evidence was found in documents from the Pandora Papers, a massive leak of documents from 14 offshore service providers, including one used by Mali," a statement issued late on Sunday read.

The Serbian minister used "a notorious offshore haven used by the wealthy to shield their assets from public scrutiny" to carry out the acquisition. According to a two-stage scheme, as described by the OCCRP, the Trident Trust set up two companies for Mali in the British Virgin Islands, which, in turn, bought two Bulgarian companies owning most of the apartments.

The journalistic investigation concluded that Mali was the sole shareholder of the first two companies several years after the scandal emerged, according to the OCCRP.

The minister has not commented on the group's findings.

On Sunday, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published the so-called Pandora Papers, a dossier of more than 11.9 million leaked financial documents, exposing over 35 current and former world leaders, as well as more than 330 politicians and officials worldwide, who allegedly committed various kinds of financial wrongdoing through offshore companies.
WARSAW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th October, 2021) Poland is ending all negotiations with the Czech Republic over coal mining at the Turow mine, Polish deputy foreign minister Marcin Przydacz said on Monday.

On September 20, the European Court of Justice ruled that Poland must shut down the coal mine, which Prague believes is disrupting its water supply, and pay the Czech Republic $581,777 every day until it does so. A week later, Poland offered to compensate the Czech Republic for not closing the Turow coal mine located on the border between both countries.

"At this time, we do not see any point in continuing talks because they have not brought any positive outcome," the official said on Telewizja Polska state broadcaster.

Poland did everything in its power to work out an agreement with the Czech side, the deputy foreign minister averred. Polish negotiators visited Prague 17 times thus far and provided the Czech side with a number of proposals; however, Warsaw concluded that the Czechs were not interested in resolving the issue, the minister went on.

Przydacz noted that Poland will now concentrate "on a European direction" to resolve the matter.

"If the Czechs do not see the possibility for an agreement, then this will negatively affect Polish-Czech relations," he added.

The argument over the mine may affect neighborly relations, the official said.

In May 2021, the European Court of Justice ordered Poland to fully stop mining operations at the Turow coal mine. In its suit, Prague cited the potential environmental damage that Turow may cause to the population of the border areas, including a shortage of clean drinking water. The Polish government refused to obey the verdict, saying it could undermine the country's energy security.
(@FahadShabbir)

WARSAW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th October, 2021) Poland is ending all negotiations with the Czech Republic over coal mining at the Turow mine, Polish deputy foreign minister Marcin Przydacz said on Monday.

On September 20, the European Court of Justice ruled that Poland must shut down the coal mine, which Prague believes is disrupting its water supply, and pay the Czech Republic $581,777 every day until it does so. A week later, Poland offered to compensate the Czech Republic for not closing the Turow coal mine located on the border between both countries.

"At this time, we do not see any point in continuing talks because they have not brought any positive outcome," the official said on Telewizja Polska state broadcaster.

Poland did everything in its power to work out an agreement with the Czech side, the deputy foreign minister averred. Polish negotiators visited Prague 17 times thus far and provided the Czech side with a number of proposals; however, Warsaw concluded that the Czechs were not interested in resolving the issue, the minister went on.

Przydacz noted that Poland will now concentrate "on a European direction" to resolve the matter.

"If the Czechs do not see the possibility for an agreement, then this will negatively affect Polish-Czech relations," he added.

The argument over the mine may affect neighborly relations, the official said.

Later on Monday, Czech Republic's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Eva Davidova said that Poland's proposal to sign a two-year agreement with Prague on the mine when it will continue to operate for another 23 years unacceptable.

"In international law, there is nothing unusual about the fact that when protecting national interests, contracts are signed for a long period of time. It is unacceptable for the Czech Republic that the Polish side at the final stage of negotiations came with a proposal to terminate the mine agreement after two years, while coal mining under the current permit will continue for another 23 years," Davidova said.

In May 2021, the European Court of Justice ordered Poland to fully stop mining operations at the Turow coal mine. In its suit, Prague cited the potential environmental damage that Turow may cause to the population of the border areas, including a shortage of clean drinking water. The Polish government refused to obey the verdict, saying it could undermine the country's energy security.
Father Silvano Galli, SMA, says the Togolese are praying and hope for political dialogue and a better 2021.

Vatican News English Africa Service

There is cautious optimism in Togo as economists see the country slowly emerging from recession A challenging 2020.

A challenging year

The year 2020 just ended, was difficult and complicated for many people in Togo. For most of the last three years, there has been the ubiquitous military presence in most cities.

Starting from the (2020) contested elections that saw the confirmation of President Faure Gnassingbe at the helm of the country, to the onset of COVID-19, the people have done all they can to survive the year, Father Silvano Galli, a priest of the Society of African Missions recently told Agenzia Fides.

Ironically, the COVID-19 emergency somehow also had the effect of slowing and silencing the countrys political crisis.

Political dialogue

In 2017, major protests rocked Togo in support of the oppositions demands for the reinstatement of presidential term limits. In 2019, the two-term limit was reinstated in Togo though it does not apply retroactively. President Faure Gnassingbe, who won a disputed fourth term mandate in 2020, can still run for a fifth term in 2025.

The Togolese hope that the paralysed political situation will lead to a dialogue between the protagonists and usher-in a period of serenity. Without dialogue, the possibilities of unrest remain high.

Encouraging economic prospects

Togo is one of the smallest countries in West Africa and has 7.5 million inhabitants. Notwithstanding challenges, economists remain optimistic about prospects. Economic growth in 2021 is projected to reach 5.5% driven mostly by good performance in agriculture. Similarly, the creation of a free zone at the Port of Lome is turning Togo into a busy regional hub.
Young African professionals engage in dialogue and reflection on being agents of change inspired by Pope Francis call for economic justice and an economy that leaves no one behind.

By Benedict Mayaki, SJ

Young professionals from across Africa gathered together in Nairobi, Kenya, for a meeting aimed at developing a common vision for a future where the dignity of all is recognized and no one is left behind, inspired by Pope Francis invitation to give a new soul to the economy.

The three-day youth forum, organized by the Jesuit Ecology Network Africa (JENA) in conjunction with the Economy of Francesco organization and the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, saw the presence of young economists and entrepreneurs from eight African countries.

The Encounter in Nairobi held from 27  29 September took place as part of efforts toward the 2021 Economy of Francesco Global Event in Assisi which took place on 2 October.

Commitment to change

Drawing from the diversity of their cultures and experiences, the participants at the meeting committed themselves to becoming catalysts for change in the world, in spite of socio-economic and political challenges.

In a message from the Nairobi regional gathering to the global Economy of Francesco, the participants pointed at the root causes of some of the challenges faced by the African continent, including the exclusionary effects of colonization, the destruction of ecosystems, corruption and a lack of investment in knowledge production that would be by and for Africans.

In the face of these difficult challenges, the young professionals called for solidarity and support for a renewed economy that gives life in order to promote integral human development that is worthy of the dignity that we all share.

A space for changemakers

Dominic Chai, SJ, a Jesuit economist working at the Vatican Covid-19 Commission and co-host of the gathering, explained that the vision of the Economy of Francesco is to provide a space for young changemakers to gather in their local communities to share their hopes for the economy of tomorrow, one which according to Pope Francis should be one that fosters life and ensures that nobody is left behind.

Chai added that towards that end, the Encounter in Nairobi brought together young economists and entrepreneurs together, in a spirit of synodality, to discern on what local communities can do to bring the Economy of Francesco vision to life.

Similarly, the Director of the Jesuit Justice and Ecology Network Africa (JENA) and co-host for the gathering in Nairobi, Fr. Charles Chilufya SJ, highlighted the importance of the encounter as an opportunity to listen to one another in a spirit of charity.

The Jesuit priest also stressed that Africas young changemakers will only be able to bring their vision to life by working together and drawing on their diverse talents and experiences.

Common call to service

Speaking further on the importance of the Nairobi gathering, JENAs Policy and Advocacy Officer, Fernando Saldivar SJ, noted that the young professionals were animated by the spirituality of Laudato si', and reflected individually upon the journey that brought them to the encounter and how best they could answer the common call to service that the group discerned together.

Sharing some of the ideas from their common reflection, Wendy Omanga, one of the participants from Kenya stressed the need for world and local leaders to give opportunities for youth voices to be heard in terms of the humanity of the world and the conservation of the environment we live in.

Emmy Otim from Uganda invited African youths to leverage on technology to build synergies across the world in order to have more sustainable ways of dealing with our problems and to create solutions that work for everyone.

Another participant, Chalo Mwansa from Zambia, drew from the African philosophy of Ubuntu, the idea that I am because we are, which he hopes will inspire us to build back better and move ahead as a community.

Pope urges young people to work with creativity

During the Economy of Francesco global event held on Saturday, Pope Francis, in his address to the over 200 young entrepreneurs, economists and activists gathered in Assisi, encouraged them to continue to work with creativity and inspired by the Gospel to change the present economic paradigm as the world continues to struggle with the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Holy Father also reminded everyone that we are stewards, not masters, of the goods of the earth which have been entrusted to us by God, and we are called to take care of and to distribute them so that no one is excluded.
On the final day of his Apostolic Journey to Slovakia, Pope Francis pays a visit to the town of Sastin which is known as a pilgrimage site where people come to venerate the statue of the Our Lady of Sorrows.

By Lydia OKane

During the Sunday Angelus on 5 September, Pope Francis reminded the faithful that he would be making a pilgrimage the following week to Budapest and Slovakia. In particular, he noted that the visit would conclude with the great popular celebration of Our Lady of Sorrows, Patron saint of that country. (Slovakia)

The Pope is known for his ardent devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and makes a trip both before and after an Apostolic Visit to the Basilica of St Mary Major in Rome to pray before the icon of Our Lady, under the title, Salus Populi Romani.

History of the Shrine

The origins of the Shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows at Sastin dates back many centuries: to the year 1564 to be exact.

At that time, there was a local aristocrat who constantly behaved badly towards his wife. The wife, a woman named Countess Angelika Bakic, had prayed to Our Lady for years so that her husband would change his ways.

One day her husband got into an argument with her while riding in their carriage and pushed her out onto the road.

That same day she made a promise to have a statue erected to the Virgin Mary if her husband would change his behaviour.

From that day on, he came back for her, changed his behaviour, and asked her forgiveness.

The statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary was then built on the side of the road where the countess had been pushed out. The spot became a popular place of pilgrimage and soon a small chapel was built there.

The Basilica of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows, Sastin is one of the places where the Virgin Mary of Seven Sorrows in Slovakia is venerated. The church was consecrated in the presence of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband Emperor Francis I Stephen of Lorraine. The national shrine was promoted to a minor basilica by Pope Paul VI in 1964.

Miroslav Janak is Media Manager at the Shrine for the Popes visit. He says that there are many stories, experiences and personal miracles achieved after visiting this place dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows.

Listen to the interview

Pilgrims

Pilgrimages to the Shrine draw tens of thousands of people every year. There are around 200 domestic pilgrimages to the Shrine at Sastin and around 40 foreign pilgrimages to the shine every year. We have pilgrimage groups from Spain, even from Mexico in 2019. Altogether there are almost 200,000 pilgrims a year, says Mr. Janak.

Papal visit

Speaking about the Papal visit, the Media Manager says that it is a great honour to have Pope Francis come to Slovakia and visit the Shrine, which, he adds, is something that happens once in a generation.

However, he underlines that this Apostolic Visit comes amid difficult times for Slovakia.

Slovakia is a wonderful country; it has all the conditions for a good life; if there would be Jesus visiting Slovakia today, he would not find a united nation.

Facing the last two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, he emphasizes, has left the country polarized and divided by issues such as anti-vaccination campaigns. Some people say he (the Pope) can bring us to peace. Well, I would say lets hope he can bring peace to us.

Mr. Janak notes that due to the current situation in the country, many people are praying for guidance and they are praying that Our Lady can make us united. 

I think this is a unique connection, this visit of the Pope and the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows (15th September) and it connects the idea of being able to accept the help of Our Lady, he says.

Preparations

Asked about preparations for the Popes visit, Mr. Janak says that there are many people preparing to visit the shrine, and there are a great number of volunteers giving of their time.

He says the preparations have been running smoothly and the numbers of volunteers in Sastin alone stand at 1,500, adding that he believes the visit will be a wonderful moment, not only for Slovakia but for all the people watching it and all the people of goodwill.

The Media Manager is also keen to point out that it is important that people prepare personally for the Popes visit as if he was coming to their home, Lets just prepare, not just technically, not just professionally, lets prepare also personally because it is probably the most important thing.
Pope Francis has sent financial aid to South Sudanese affected by devastating floods and to residents in areas of Greece where fires destroyed vast swaths of territory.

By Devin Watkins

The Pope has continued his spiritual and humanitarian outreach to people whose lives have been touched by tragedy.

The Vaticans Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development announced on Monday that Pope Francis has recently expressed his care and concern for people in Greece and South Sudan.

In a press release, the Dicastery said the Pope sent US$ 75,000 to South Sudan.

The aid comes on the heels of heavy rains and devastating flooding in August, which displaced over 12,000 people and destroyed around 6,000 homes.

Flood-struck areas

The UN estimated that nearly 400,000 people were affected by the flooding across six states.

Unusually heavy seasonal rains caused rivers to overflow their banks, inundating vast areas and settlements along the Nile river valley and other wetland areas.

Pope Francis financial assistance is being sent to the Diocese of Malakal through the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development.

The funds will assist in emergency management and go to supporting programs for those affected in the diocese.

Fire-ravaged land

The Pope sent another tranche of financial support to people in Greece, where fires tore through several areas in August.

A severe heatwave set off a wave of fires in several parts of Greece. The northeastern island of Evia, the Peloponnese Region, and the Attica peninsula were particularly hard hit.

Over 100,000 hectares were destroyed, and at least 3 people were killed.

Pope Francis sent his support to those affected in the form of financial support for Caritas Hellas.

The Greek arm of the Churchs humanitarian outfit will benefit from 50,000 Euro sent by the Pope.

Spiritual nearness

According to the press release, the donations are meant to express Pope Francis feelings of spiritual closeness and paternal encouragement to the people and territories affected.

They accompany prayer and are part of the aid that is being activated throughout the Catholic Church, which also involves numerous charitable organisations.
Pope Francis prays for over one hundred victims of a battle between gangs in a prison in Ecuador.

By Francesca Merlo

After the recitation of the Angelus prayer on Sunday, Pope Francis turned his thoughts to the tragedy that occurred last week inside one of Ecuador's prisons.

"I am deeply saddened", said the Pope, by the "terrible outbreak of violence between inmates belonging to rival gangs". Over one hundred people have been killed and many more injured, he noted.

"I pray for them and for their families", continued the Pope. He prayed that God may "help us to heal the wounds of crime that enslave the poorest, and to help those who work every day to make prison life more humane".

A battle between gangs in Litoral Penitentiary in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on Wednesday killed at least 116 people and injured 80 in what authorities are calling the worst penitentiary massacre in Ecuadors history. At least five dead were reportedly beheaded, according to officials.
Port infrastructure varies region to region in Vietnam. Here, Vietnam Briefing compares port infrastructure in three key economic regions so that investors can make an informed choice about where to place their business.

Vietnams 1,900 miles of coastline and 320 ports increasingly serve an important role in global trade. In the first half of the year, Vietnams container traffic rose three percent year-on-year, while Hong Kongs dropped eight percent.

With the high number of supply chain shifts to Vietnam, it makes sense that shipping demand is increasing in the country. But Vietnams long-term economic trajectory is likely to see this demand continue for years to come.

The government wants the countrys seaports to handle 200 million tons of cargo by 2020 and double that amount by 2030. While this planning develops, investors that need ports for imports or exports should consider the regional variation in the quality of port infrastructure before setting up.

Vietnams ports competitiveness

In the last 10 years, economic growth in Vietnam has led to a significant increase in freight traffic, highlighting the importance of ports for companies that invest in the country. While this trend suggests that the countrys ports are able to manage increased demand, it also highlights the need for further investment in infrastructure to keep pace with growth and reduce logistics costs for business.

According to the World Economic Forum, Vietnam ranks 80 among 139 countries on the quality of port infrastructure, with an average score of 3.80 on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 7 (highest) between 2006 and 2018. This means Vietnam ranks lower than countries such as China, India, Thailand, and Sri Lanka.

Vietnam has 44 seaports with a total capacity of 470-500 million tons per year. The major ports in Vietnam include Hai Phong, Da Nang, Qui Nhon, and Ho Chi Minh City. However, Vietnam has a number of smaller ports as well, which takes the total number of ports in the country up to 320.

The Vietnam Port Association (VPA) states that 80 percent of container exports and imports go through smaller ports and ships, a process known as transshipment. The VPA also noted that goods owners have losses of approximately US$2.4 billion each year due not using deep-water ports.

Here, we highlight major ports in the north, central and southern parts of the country that foreign investors can start to look at. While the government continues to expand port infrastructure, we give an insight into the most developed ports for investors to begin assessing a site location.

Northern Vietnam

Hai Phong and Vung Ang are major ports for international container traffic in north Vietnam, but neither are deep-water ports. In May 2018, however, the Haiphong International Container Terminal (HICT) deep-water port in Hai Phong opened.

The HICT is capable of accommodating large container ships, reducing the need for transshipments in northern Vietnam. The port allows for direct shipping between northern Vietnam and the US and EU markets. The second phase of the port is expected to be completed by 2020.

Previously, containers heading for Hai Phong or Vung Ang required transshipments, typically using ports in Singapore or Hong Kong, where the containers were loaded into smaller container vessels, and then transported to northern ports in Vietnam. Avoiding Hong Kong or Singapore means saving about one week in shipments as well as international freight transport costs.

The new port is particularly helpful for foreign businesses operating between Hanoi and Hai Phong. The port is connected to the Hanoi-Haiphong expressway and the Tan Vu Lach Huyen Bridge, and its close proximity to China will help companies that use northern Vietnam as a China+1 destination.

Northern Vietnam has become a hub for the electronics, automobiles and machinery sectors. The Deep C industrial zone near the port has already attracted 80 companies. The new port will augment northern Vietnams growth further.

Central Vietnam

The major ports in Central Vietnam are the Quy Nhon and Da Nang ports, the latter being a deep-water port. In addition, the region has nine minor ports as well.

The Da Nang port handles the majority of the traffic in the central region, which links Vietnam to Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos. The ports proximity to the central city of Da Nang is an added advantage; the citys infrastructure is developing rapidly as it has become a hub for high-tech industries.

The Quy Nhon port is mostly used for transporting goods from Mekong Delta and western Vietnam, along with transhipping goods heading for Cambodia. The port infrastructure in the central region does not currently match the northern and southern regions, but it is poised for further development.

Southern Vietnam

The Ho Chi Minh City area consists of a network of ports around with the Saigon port currently the 26th biggest container port in the world and the fifth biggest in ASEAN. This follows the Port of Singapore, Malaysias Port Klang and Tanjung Pelepas, and Thailands Laem Chabang in ASEAN rankings.

Ports in Ho Chi Minh City are the main gateway for the region, accounting for 67 percent of the total throughput of all Vietnamese ports.

The Cai Mep-Thi Via Port (Cai Mep) is a deep-water port located around 80 km south of Ho Chi Minh City. Cai Mep mostly handles goods for Dong Nai and Binh Duong, which are major production centers in the region, and is popular on routes to the US and EU because of its deep-water capabilities.

Despite being a deep-water port with seven terminals, Cai Mep functions at only 30 percent capacity, due to a large number of smaller ports in the region.

For example, Cat Lai, one of the biggest and most modern container terminals in Vietnam, situated in Ho Chi Minh Citys port area, is preferred over Cai Mep due to its proximity to Binh Duong, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Dong Nai, and Ho Chi Minh City. Cat Lai is primarily used mainly on Asian routes, but because Cat Lai is not a deep-water port there are higher transshipment costs.

Industry challenges

The major challenge faced by the biggest ports in Vietnam is the use of smaller ports and vessels, which account for approximately 80 percent of container imports and exports in the country. Some ports also suffer from being over-burdened with shipments, which has led to congestion and significant delays.

For example, Cat Lai is preferred over Cai Mep despite the latter being a deep water port that can accommodate vessels with a capacity of 18,000 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs). Transshipments through Cat Lai can lead to delays and increase costs by around 30 percent. In addition, the increasing use of Cat Lai has led to gridlock issues due to delays in weigh stations and road intersections.

In addition, road and rail infrastructure has not been able to keep up with economic growth. The rail and road network around ports remains underdeveloped, leading to increased costs. Due to the lack of a rail network connecting the various ports, freight currently must be transported by road adding to shipping rates.

Businesses in the country are also known to complain of instances where freight has been held at ports due to customs procedures, resulting in an increased number of containers lying at ports without anyone to claim them. The government will need to streamline customs procedures so that Vietnam does not lose to rivals such as Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia.

Increasing port capacity

The government not only needs to invest in increasing the existing port capacity, but also construct new deep-water ports to reduce transportation costs and increase efficiency, especially in the Mekong Delta.

The government has introduced a master plan related to the development of seaport systems by 2020 and 2030. It focuses on achieving a cargo clearance target of at least 1 billion tons by 2020 and 1.2 to 1.6 billion tons by 2030. However, the government will need to consider issues such as port placement, connectivity with economic hubs, and proximity to international maritime routes in their plan.

Developing inland waterways

Vietnam has over 42,000 km of inland waterways, mostly in the Mekong and Red River deltas, which have the potential to increase connectivity and reduce costs for the transportation sector. Currently, however, they suffer from the lack of connectivity to major production centers and inland ports. The development of waterway transport should be a priority for the government to increase market access, connectivity, and efficiency.

Future growth

With a large-scale port development in the north and south, foreign investors from Japan and the Netherlands have shown interest in developing port projects in the central region around Da Nang. The government is also keen on the development of ports to meet its masterplan to public-private partnerships.

Since international trade is conducted mainly via sea-based transport, increasing the number of value-add ports, and adding capacity of existing ones, will be critical for the government as well as manufacturers to speed up transport and reduce costs. Cargo volume throughput at Vietnams ports has increased by 20 to 30 percent a year.

Ultimately, Vietnams ports, if developed efficiently, will help aid Vietnams growth in the next decade. Businesses that are keen to manufacture and trade in Vietnam should consider the regional differences in Vietnams port infrastructure and seek to locate in a region that best suits their activities.

Note: This article was first published in May 2018 and has been updated to include the latest developments.
Cash-strapped Southeast Asian countries should look beyond China and its Belt and Road Initiative for economic help as Beijing is seen focusing more domestically, analysts say.

Regional governments have looked at the BRI to bolster their economies in coming years, but analysts have told VOA that Chinese generosity and foreign investment have limits and that Beijing is more concerned with shoring up its own economy than with new initiatives to promote post-pandemic growth elsewhere.

In recent years we have to say that the development of BRI, for example, the trade like investment, are slowing down. Its not as robust as, lets say, five years ago, Kaho Yu, principal analyst in Asia politics and energy at Verisk Maplecroft in Singapore, said.

He said pandemic lockdowns had worsened already significant delays in building infrastructure projects, with geopolitical tensions and anti-Chinese sentiment also affecting investment.

The BRI

Launched in 2013 by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the BRI is the centerpiece of Chinese foreign policy, with investments in 70 countries as well as in international organizations.

According to the American Enterprise Institute, signed BRI contracts totaled $46.54 billion by last year  with Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries taking the lions share of 36%  to be spent on infrastructure projects ranging from highways and ports to railroads and dams.

Decades of strong growth ended with the pandemic, though, and all countries suffered steep economic contractions in 2020. A much-vaunted rebound failed to materialize this year as the delta variant took hold.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi toured Indochina last month after ASEAN country ministers held an online BRI summit to discuss new initiatives needed to promote post-pandemic growth.

Analyst Yu said BRI would remain a cornerstone of Beijings foreign policy for the foreseeable future and ASEAN, given its proximity to China, was better positioned to win investment dollars than countries in other parts of the world.

However, having said that, it is unlikely to see those megaprojects which we have been seeing over the last few years, he said.

Problems at home

Beijings problems at home have been highlighted by the case of China Evergrande, which has $305 billion worth of liabilities, and regulators warning of a systemic risk to the Chinese economy if its second-largest property developer fails to meet debt obligations.

David Totten, managing director of Emerging Markets Consulting, said the pandemic had resulted in Chinese companies taking a big hit in terms of delays to their implementations of planned projects and in terms of their financial situation.

So probably a very good time to consolidate, focus on what theyve got, execute, make them successful projects, and expanding into further, more peripheral locations in newer projects perhaps should take a backseat for the time being, he said.

Beijing has also announced it will cease building coal-burning power plants abroad. The decision could affect 44 coal plants totaling $50 billion earmarked for Chinese state financing, Global Energy Monitor, a U.S. think tank, told Reuters.

I think youre going to see some rocky periods ahead as Chinas industrial development, economic development is retooled, analyst Keith Loveard said.

The statement that they will not fund overseas coal-fired power stations, he said, is quite a game-changer for Indonesia, a country for which coal remains a major foreign exchange earner.

Need to diversify

In August, ASEAN granted dialogue partner status -- meaning higher-level access to the groups summits -- to Britain, which is redefining itself after Brexit. Britain is the first country afforded that privilege in 25 years, joining 10 others, including Australia, China, Russia the European Union and the United States.

The Biden administration has bolstered U.S. efforts in Southeast Asia, in part, as a means of countering China, and could move forward on the US-ASEAN Expanded Economic Engagement Initiative to promote increased trade, investment, and economic cooperation.

Initially launched in Cambodia in 2012 it was part of then-U.S. President Barack Obamas pivot to Asia policy, as he sought to make this region a higher strategic priority.

The sensible thing for ASEAN would probably be to diversify their international relationships, perhaps hope that the recent change at the White House in America opens up further opportunities for them to build those partnerships, Totten said.

However, the blocs relevance is being challenged by outside alliances as relations between China and Western nations hit their lowest ebb since the Cold War amid Beijings South China Sea claims.

That includes a revised Indo-Pacific strategy with groups like the Quad  Australia, India, Japan and the US  emerging to further counter expanding Chinese interests, which Beijing would like to see protected by its chief ASEAN ally, Cambodia, when Phnom Penh assumes the ASEAN chair next year.

Analysts said that puts ASEAN countries in a difficult position where they will have to balance their own interests between China and the West as everyone emerges from the pandemic.

Obviously ASEAN has taken a big hit with COVID but I think generally everybody looks forward to a resolution of that situation but in the meantime, its been economically very expensive for them all, Totten said.
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Authorities in Cameroon say weapons traffickers arrested last week in Nigeria have been arming Cameroon's Anglophone separatists.

Cameroons military said Thursday that some of the 40 arms traffickers arrested by police in Nigeria last week are regular suppliers of weapons to rebel groups in Cameroon.

The 40 were arrested in the Nigerian border town of Ikom and charged with various crimes, including supplying guns, ammunition and explosives to separatists.

Separatists have been fighting to create an English-speaking state in the western regions of Cameroon, a majority Francophone country, since 2017.

Frank Mba, the Nigerian Police Force public relations officer, said some of the weapons intercepted were destined for the separatists.

"The suspect, in this case Ntui Lambert, was arrested in Ikom in Cross River state while trying to smuggle or traffic these explosives to Cameroon. He is believed to be working with some secessionist groups in Cameroon. This is not his first time supplying them with dynamites and other arms-related items," Mba said.

In an interview broadcast by Cameroon state television, Mba said 13 AK-47 rifles, 750 rounds of AK-47 ammunition, and 58 packages of explosives suspected to be dynamite were seized.

He said criminal gangs and separatist groups in Cameroon and Nigeria use dynamite to attack government troops.

The 40 suspects have been charged with terrorism funding, arms trafficking, cybercrimes and abductions.

Thirty-six-year old suspect Ntui Lambert told local media he is a trafficker. He said his father is Cameroonian and his mother Nigerian.

"I was arrested in possession of dynamites, explosives and live ammunition of AK-47, with a Thuraya phone. They arrested me alongside three others. The people [police] that arrested me transferred me to Owerri and from Owerri, they [the police] sent me to Abuja," he said.

Lambert did not say whether the weapons were destined for Cameroonian separatist groups.

Authorities suspect the arms were meant for the main separatist group, the Ambazonia Defense Forces.

ADF deputy defense chief Capo Daniel said the group is not intimidated by the arrests.

"If the Nigerian government and the Cameroonian government think that they are going to stop us from trafficking weapons and affect our ability to liberate and defend our people, this collaboration between Cameroon and Nigeria will fail woefully," Daniel said.

Cameroonian and Nigerian authorities who met in the Nigerian capital Abuja last week agreed to jointly fight armed separatists in both countries.

Officials from the two countries said Anglophone separatists in Cameroon and the Indigenous People of Biafra, a group that wants a breakaway state in southeast Nigeria, are joining forces to fight for the independence of their respective regions.
A woman walks alone past bombed-out windowless buildings in Gaza, black high heels on gray rubble. This image of life during conflict was one of several captured by a young Palestinian photojournalist in May.

The striking set of images has earned Fatima Shbair the 2021 Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award, bestowed by the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF).

At 24, Shbair is the youngest journalist to be awarded the honor, which was named for a German Associated Press photographer who was killed in 2014 while on assignment in Afghanistan.

Shbair's photos center on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in May 2021. More than 200 people, including dozens of children, died during the 11 days of fighting. The United Nations said at the time that the Israeli airstrikes might constitute a war crime, and it also condemned tactics used by Hamas.

Shbair, who lives in Gaza City, said that when the airstrikes began, she picked up her camera and continued doing her job: documenting daily life.

"As photojournalists, it's our job to focus on the little details that might not be apparent for anyone outside the city," she told VOA.

Shbair documented everything she saw, including scenes of mourning and commutes across the city, in her poignant photo essay "11 Days of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict."

"Everything happening there deserved to be documented. It doesn't matter how dangerous it is," she told VOA.

Judges praise work

The body of work, shot under tough conditions, caught the attention of the IWMF judges.

Members of the judging committee "were really impressed with how she captured these incredibly beautiful images among the wreckage of an ongoing bombardment that she was also living through herself," Elisa Lees Munoz, executive director of the IWMF, told VOA.

"The fact that she was part of this conflict and really trying to survive as a civilian, in addition to trying to survive as a photojournalist, was pretty telling," Munoz said.

Shbair studied journalism in college but taught herself photography while documenting what she calls "different" daily life in Gaza in 2019. By 2020, she was working as a freelancer and selling images to international agencies such as Getty Images.

But the conflict this May presented new challenges.

"I left my home and my family for 11 days. I went directly into the field, moving from one office to another," she said. "I just stayed there in the streets, running toward what was happening. It was not easy, but in some way, I did it."

Inspiring images

The IWMF's annual award recognizes photography that inspires viewers or helps them better understand the world. Each awardee is given $20,000 and has her work showcased.

Honorable mentions this year were given to Kiana Hayeri, an Iranian Canadian photojournalist based in Afghanistan since 2013, and Adriana Zehbrauskas, a Brazilian documentary photojournalist who covers immigration and the drug trade across borders with Mexico.

On Thursday, one day after she was named an awardee, Hayeri posted a humble thank you on Instagram, alongside a photo of an older Afghan woman taken in April.

"As I'm posting this, I'm sitting at my gate, waiting to catch one last plane to go back to #Kabul with a chest filled with contrasting feelings," Hayeri wrote.

The award's namesake, Niedringhaus, also extensively covered events in Afghanistan. She was the recipient of a separate IWMF Courage in Journalism Award in 2005, the same year her team won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the war in Iraq.

"(Niedringhaus) is among us with her images," 2021 awardee Shbair said. "Despite all difficulties, I hope that we will be efficient in continuing her journey to always highlight the truth."


Boko Haram insurgents have taken over multiple communities in Nigeria's north-central Niger state, offering villagers money and incorporating them in their ranks to fight the government, a local government official and the state's information commission told Reuters.

The Islamist group is typically concentrated in the northeast of Africa's most populous nation, and its presence in Niger state, which borders the federal capital territory, could indicate a concerning spread at a time when the military says its counter-insurgency efforts are working.

Suleiman Chukuba, chairman of Shiroro local government area in Niger state, which borders Abuja, said Boko Haram fighters were now present in at least eight wards out of a total 25.

"Shiroro local government has an uncountable number of Boko Haram fighters," Chukuba said.

Boko Haram, whose name roughly translates as "Western education is forbidden," has waged an insurgency since 2009, joined more recently by its offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province. The fighting has killed almost 350,000 and displaced millions, according to a United Nations estimate.

Shiroro has a population of 331,000 people and spans 4,700 square kilometers, according to Niger state's official website.

Niger state information commissioner Muhammad Sani Idris confirmed that Boko Haram fighters, who were initially thought to be armed bandits, had made inroads in the state. But Idris said that the state government and security agencies have been able to curtail the spread.

"We are doing whatever it takes as a state," he said. "And we will combine the methods of our security personnel and our local vigilantes."

The army said last month close to 6,000 fighters from Boko Haram had recently surrendered, attributing the development to the military's counter-insurgency efforts.

Chukuba called on the federal government to send more troops to the area to fight the insurgents.
The death toll from Cyclone Shaheen rose to 13 on Monday while other fishermen from Iran remained missing as the storm moved further inland into Oman and weakened.

Authorities in Oman said they found the body of a man who disappeared when floodwaters swept him away from his vehicle. On Sunday as the storm made landfall, they said a child similarly drowned and two foreigners from Asia died in a landslide. The country's National Committee for Emergency Management announced Monday afternoon seven additional deaths from the storm, without elaborating.

In Iran, the state-run IRNA news agency said rescuers found the bodies of two of five fishermen who went missing off Pasabandar, a fishing village near the Islamic Republic's border with Pakistan. Earlier on Sunday, Iranian deputy parliament speaker Ali Nikzad said he feared as many as six fishermen had been killed because of the cyclone.

Iran's Sistan and Baluchestan province also saw 122 people go to the hospital Sunday after a dust storm spun up by the cyclone caused them to suffer from eye, heart and lung problems, said Abbasali Arjmandi, governor of the city of Zabol. Eighteen needed to be hospitalized for further care, he said.

India's Meteorological Department, the top forecasters for cyclones that sweep across the Indian Ocean, said winds from Shaheen now gust up to 90 kph (55 mph) and would continue to weaken. It predicted the storm would weaken into a tropical depression in the coming hours. Shaheen made landfall with winds reaching up to 150 kph (93 mph).

Omani state television broadcast images of flooded roadways and valleys as the storm churned deeper into the sultanate, its outer edges reaching the neighboring United Arab Emirates. The Emirates, home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, had issued warnings to residents that the storm was coming. Winds had picked up in the country from Sunday, sweeping across the grounds of Dubai's newly opened Expo 2020.

A cyclone is the same as a hurricane or a typhoon; their names only change because of their location. Hurricanes are spawned east of the international date line. Typhoons develop west of the line. They are known as cyclones in the Indian Ocean and Australia.
Tensions have flared in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh after eight people, including four farmers, were killed Sunday while demonstrating against controversial farm laws.

The incident marks an escalation in Indias long-running farm protests that have festered for almost a year amid an impasse between the government and farm leaders.

The protestors alleged that two farmers were killed when a motorcade linked to Indias deputy home minister, Ajay Kumr Mishra, ran over them on Sunday in Lakhimpur Kheri district. They said the ministers son was driving the car that plowed into the protestors.

The minister has denied the charge and said that farmers pelted stones at the vehicle, which resulted in the driver losing control and ramming into the protesters.

The police said they are investigating whether the ministers son, Ashish Mishra, was in the car that struck the protesters.

In clashes that erupted, three members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, and a driver, who were in the car were killed, according to officials. Videos on social media showed a car on fire.

Uttar Pradesh is one of three northern states whose farmers are spearheading protests to demand the repeal of three laws that open sale of farm produce to private companies. The government says these market-friendly reforms will modernize the agriculture sector but farmers fear that corporations will depress crop prices and ultimately force them to sell their land.

Political analysts say the latest violence underlines the need for the government to reengage with the farmers.

It is a wake-up call to the government to take a new initiative to resolve the farmers issues, political analyst Neerja Chowdhury told VOA. Chowdhury further pointed out that the government has made no effort to negotiate with the farmers since talks broke down earlier this year. You cannot push it away and let it drift. After all, people dont just sit on the streets in such large numbers like that.

While most of the farmers have been squatting on highways leading to New Delhi, protests have gained momentum in Uttar Pradesh ahead of elections due to be held in the state in February.

The latest incident will deepen anger among farmers say analysts and pose another challenge for Prime Minister Narendra Modis Bharatiya Janata Party as it prepares for polls in the key battleground state, where victory for his party is considered crucial.

Opposition leaders said they were stopped from visiting the scene of the protest. Priyanka Gandhi, Congress Party leader was detained while on her way to visit the families of farmers who were killed.

The prime minister says ours is a vibrant democracy. But stopping opposition leaders from going to Lakhimpur doesnt really strengthen our democracy, Akhilesh Yadav, the head of the main opposition Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, told reporters, Farmers, who are the backbone of our economy, cannot be treated like this.

Violence had also marred the farmers protest when a group broke through barricades during a rally in January to storm the historic Red Fort in the Indian capital.
The European Union's drug regulator has approved the use of booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for those 18 and older but left it to individual countries to decide whether or not to recommend the shots for widespread use.

The European Medicines Agency said in a statement Monday that a booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine "may be considered at least 6 months after the second dose for people aged 18 years and older."

"Decisions for boosters will be taken by public health bodies at the national level," it added.

The agency said people with a severely weakened immune system should be given a third dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine at least 28 days after they have received their second shot.

The guidance comes as some EU member states have already begun administering booster shots, while others are still debating how broadly to use boosters in their populations.

New Zealand's elimination strategy

In another development Monday, New Zealand announced that it would abandon its COVID-19 elimination strategy.

"This is a change in approach we were always going to make over time," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday. "Our delta outbreak has accelerated this transition. Vaccines will support it."

The arrival of the highly contagious delta variant made it difficult for the country to repeat its accomplishment last year of reducing the number of COVID-19 cases to zero. Authorities reported 29 new cases on Monday.

The majority of New Zealand's COVID-19 cases were in Auckland, which has endured a 50-day lockdown.

"It's clear that a long period of heavy restrictions has not got us to zero cases. But it's OK ... elimination was important because we didn't have vaccinations," Ardern said during a news conference. "Now, we do. So, we can begin to change the way we do things."

The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center has recorded 4,383 COVID-19 infections in New Zealand.

Global cases

There have been 235 million COVID-19 cases worldwide and nearly 5 million deaths since the start of the pandemic, Johns Hopkins reported Monday.

In New York City, a COVID-19 vaccination requirement took effect Monday for everyone who works in the city's schools.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said 95% of public school workers had received at least one vaccine dose as of Monday morning, in line with the vaccine mandate.

School staff who do not show proof of vaccination are being placed on unpaid leave.

"Every adult in our schools is now vaccinated, and that's going to be the rule going forward," de Blasio said.

The New York City school district is the largest in the United States.

In Indonesia, officials said the country would reopen the resort island of Bali for some international travelers beginning next week.

Israel said Sunday that only people who have received two COVID-19 vaccinations and a booster shot or who have recently recovered from COVID-19 will be considered fully vaccinated on their digital vaccine passports. Officials hope the new measure will prompt Israelis to get their booster shots. Without a third dose recorded on their vaccine passport, people will not be allowed into indoor venues.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.


A U.S. journalist who has spent more than four months in pretrial detention in military-ruled Myanmar has been charged with a second criminal offense, his lawyer said Monday, while authorities refused to disclose the reason behind his arrest.

Danny Fenster, managing editor of the Yangon-based online news and business magazine Frontier Myanmar, has been charged under the Unlawful Associations Act, said lawyer Than Zaw Aung.

Fenster, 37, already was charged with incitement, also known as sedition, for allegedly spreading false or inflammatory information. That offense is punishable by up to three years in prison.

It is not known what Fenster is accused of doing that led to his arrest on May 24 as he was preparing to board a flight at Yangon International Airport to go to the Detroit area in the United States to see his family.

Asked last week about the reason for Fenster's arrest, government spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun responded: "As for journalists, if they do only journalist's work, there is no reason to arrest them. Danny Fenster did more than just what a journalist does."

Fenster is one of about 100 journalists detained since the military's February takeover. More than half have been released but independent media are generally forced to operate underground or from outside the country.

Than Zaw Aung said a judge announced the new charge Monday during Fenster's hearing at the court in Yangon's Insein Prison, where he is being held. He said he was not given further details.

The new charge says anyone who is "a member of an unlawful association, or takes part in meetings of any such association, or contributes or receives or solicits any contribution for the purpose of any such association, or in any way assists the operations of any such association" may be punished by two to three years' imprisonment and a fine.

Fenster's lawyer and colleagues have denied any wrongdoing on his part. The U.S. government and international media organizations have called for his release. Fenster is one of a handful of foreign journalists who have been arrested and the only one still in custody.

The charge of unlawful associations has largely been used against ethnic rebel groups seeking greater autonomy. Sympathizers and even journalists contacting such groups have also been prosecuted.

The list of designated groups includes popular opposition organizations representing the ousted elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The National Unity Government and the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), or parliament, were declared illegal after their formation following the army's seizure of power in February.

Suu Kyi's government while in power also carried out prosecutions under the law, including against journalists.

"The Unlawful Associations Act has an unsavory history of being used to prosecute political activists and journalists reporting on opposition groups," Linda Lakhdhir, Asia legal adviser for Human Rights Watch, said in March. "By making the CRPH illegal, Myanmar's junta is raising the stakes not only for its members, but for anyone supporting, writing on, or even just contacting the group."

Lawyer Than Zaw Aung said Fenster, whom he saw in the Insein Prison court, was in good health despite his previous assertions that he feared he was infected with COVID-19. The lawyer said he filed a bail application for Fenster in the incitement case.


Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his family are among the world leaders said to have hidden away billions of dollars in secret offshore accounts.

Records obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists show the Kenyatta family has a half-billion-dollar fortune tied up in at least seven foundations and tax havens in various countries, including Panama and the British Virgin Islands.

The family enlisted the services of one of the largest banks in Switzerland, Union Bancaire Privee, to register and establish a foundation in Panama to manage and shelter its wealth, which it began building under its patriarch, Jomo Kenyatta, who became Kenyas first president in 1964 after it gained independence from Britain.

The ICIJ cites a United Nations backed commission that found that one sixth of all properties once held by Europeans in the colonial era were cheaply sold to Kenyatta, his family and allies, including Daniel arap Moi, Jomo Kenyattas vice president and the man who succeeded him when the elder Kenyatta died in 1978.

The Kenyatta family thrived during Mois authoritarian rule over the next two decades, founding a dairy that has expanded across East Africa and is now Kenyas largest milk producer, as well as acquiring large stakes in other domestic enterprises, including a major bank and upscale hotels.

The Pandora Papers also reveal that the Kenyattas secretly owned a number of offshore shell companies in the British Virgin Islands. One of the companies, owned by Uhurus brother Muhoho, had a bank account that held an investment portfolio worth $31.6 million in 2016. From 1999 to 2004, Uhurus mother, Ngina and his two sisters held shares in a BVI company they used to buy an apartment in an upscale London neighborhood.

Forbes magazine ranked Uhuru Kenyatta as Kenyas richest person and the 26th wealthiest in Africa in 2011, two years before he was elected president as a self-described anti-corruption crusader.
More earthquakes rattled the Spanish island of La Palma on Monday, as the lava flow from an erupting volcano surged after part of the crater collapsed.

Officials said they didn't expect to evacuate any more people from the area, because the fiery molten rock was following the same route to the sea as earlier flows.

Spain's National Geographical Institute said it recorded two quakes early Monday that measured more than 3.0 magnitude, two weeks after the volcano erupted on what is one of the Canary Islands off northwest Africa.

It's not over yet, we don't even know how long there is to go, the Canary Islands' regional president Angel Victor Torres told public broadcaster RTVE. We're in nature's hands.

Most of La Palma, where some 85,000 people live, has been unaffected by the eruption. Swift evacuations helped avoid casualties from the eruption.

But the lava is causing significant damage to property, public infrastructure and farmland.

It has so far partially or completely wrecked more than 1,000 buildings, mostly homes, destroyed almost 34 kilometers of roads and entombed 400 hectares of land, according to a European Union satellite monitoring agency.

Local authorities prepared to distribute drinking water to homes after the lava flow broke public supply pipes.

The Canary Islands volcanic emergency committee ordered emergency workers and scientists to pull back from the area around the volcano due to poor air quality.

The seismic activity and flow of lava have been uneven, fluctuating from day to day.
Malaysia's foreign minister warned on Monday that Myanmar may be excluded from a summit of Southeast Asian leaders this month if it refuses to cooperate with the bloc's special envoy in resolving the military-ruled country's deepening crisis.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes Myanmar, picked Brunei's Second Foreign Minister Erywan Yusof in August as their special envoy and mediator following a military takeover in February that toppled the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi. He is reportedly still negotiating with Myanmar's military on the terms of a visit.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said he expressed disappointment during a meeting Monday with his ASEAN counterparts that Myanmar's authorities have not cooperated with Yusof.

"Unless there is progress, it would be difficult to have" Myanmar's military leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing at the ASEAN summit later this month, he tweeted.

Yusof said last month he is seeking full access to all parties including Suu Kyi and other officials detained since the February 1 takeover.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned in a report last week that the opportunity to prevent the army from entrenching its rule could be narrowing. He welcomed Yusof's appointment but with ASEAN's slow progress, he called for unified regional and international action to prevent the crisis from becoming a large-scale conflict and multifaceted catastrophe in Southeast Asia and beyond.

Myanmar's military-installed government claimed with scant evidence that the general election Suu Kyi's party won last November in a landslide was marred by widespread fraud.

Security forces used deadly force to try to quash the peaceful protests, killing more than 1,100 people, according to the detailed tallies of the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners and human rights groups. Opponents of military rule have turned to armed self-defense, sabotage and killings of soldiers and officials on a near-daily basis.

The military leader has pledged to hold fresh elections in two years and cooperate with ASEAN on finding a political solution.
New Zealand is abandoning its COVID-19 elimination strategy.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday, This is a change in approach we were always going to make over time. Our delta outbreak has accelerated this transition. Vaccines will support it.

The arrival of the highly contagious delta variant made it difficult for the country to repeat its accomplishment last year of reducing the number of COVID-19 cases to zero. Authorities reported 29 new cases Monday.

The majority of New Zealands COVID-19 cases were in Auckland which has endured a 50-day lockdown.

Its clear that a long period of heavy restrictions has not got us to zero cases. But its okay ... elimination was important because we didnt have vaccinations, Ardern said during a news conference. Now we do. So, we can begin to change the way we do things.

The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center has recorded 4,383 COVID-19 infections in New Zealand and 27 deaths early Monday.

There have been 235 million global COVID-19 cases and nearly 5 million deaths, the center reported Monday.

The New York City Department of Education mandate that everyone who works in the citys schools must be vaccinated against COVID-19 goes into effect Monday. School officials are bracing to see how many substitute teachers and other staff members may need to be hired to replace employees who have not complied. School staff who cannot show proof of vaccination Monday will be placed on unpaid leave.

I would urge every mayor in America: Do it now, get those vaccine mandates in place ahead of the cold weather, when things are going to get tougher, Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a television interview.

The New York City school district is the largest in the U.S.

Israel said Sunday that only people who have received two COVID-19 vaccinations and a booster shot or who have recently recovered from COVID-19 will be considered fully vaccinated on their digital vaccine passports. Officials hope the new measure will prompt Israelis to get their booster shots. Without a third dose recorded on their vaccine passport, people will not be allowed into indoor venues.

Russia reported its highest one-day coronavirus death toll since the pandemic began: 890 deaths on Sunday, its national coronavirus task force said. It was the fifth day in a row that it reported a new daily record for coronavirus deaths.

The task force also said the number of new coronavirus infections reported Sunday was the second highest of the year: nearly 25,800.

Since the pandemic began, Russia has reported nearly 205,000 deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, the most in Europe, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The country has a population of about 146 million and has recorded nearly 7.5 million coronavirus infections, according to Johns Hopkins. The United Kingdom, with a population of about 67 million, leads Europe with 7.9 million cases since the pandemic began.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
Police confiscated the computer equipment of a journalist working for a leading newspaper in Poland which has carried out investigations of the country's right-wing government.

The seizure of the equipment of Piotr Bakselerowicz, a reporter for the liberal Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper, took place on Saturday in Zielona Gora, a city in western Poland 450 kilometers (280 miles) from Warsaw. The raid and seizure of the equipment was done on orders from police in Warsaw.

Roman Imielski, the paper's deputy editor, said the police incursion took place without a warrant and "strikes against the fundamental right to journalistic secrecy in a democracy."

He said in an article published on the paper's website Saturday that the editors have "no doubts" that the police raid is "to intimidate the journalists" of the newspaper, citing other moves by the ruling authorities against independent media.

Warsaw police said the reporter wasn't specifically targeted. It said that offensive messages containing threats had been sent to Polish lawmakers, who reported the threats to the police.

The messages were then traced to an IP address that led to that of a "little-known local journalist."

Bakselerowicz denied having sent any threatening emails.

"I have never threatened anyone. To me, it is a provocation or an attempt at revenge for writing inconvenient articles," Bakselerowicz said.

Meanwhile, the editors of the newspaper vowed to use all legal means to protect its journalists "from harassment by the authoritarian authorities."

"We declare that we will not bow to repression and will not allow ourselves to be intimidated. Criticizing all power and exposing its abuses is our civic and democratic duty. Even when the abuse of power affects our journalists and ourselves," they said.

The ruling party has also sought recently to pass a law that would strip the U.S. company Discovery Inc. of its ownership of TVN, a Polish television network.

TVN believes that the main aim is its evening news program Fakty, which offers critical coverage of the authorities and is watched by millions daily.
Russia reported its highest one-day coronavirus death toll since the pandemic began. According to Russia's national coronavirus task force, there were 890 deaths on Sunday. It was the fifth day in a row that it reported a new daily record for coronavirus deaths.

The task force also said the number of new coronavirus infections reported Sunday was the second highest of the year at nearly 25,800 infections.

Since the pandemic began, Russia has reported nearly 205,000 deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, the most in Europe, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The country has a population of about 146 million and has recorded nearly 7.5 million coronavirus infections, according to Johns Hopkins. The United Kingdom, with a population of about 67 million, leads Europe with 7.9 million cases since the pandemic began.

Russian officials say they have no plans to impose a lockdown, strictly enforce mask-wearing regulations or require proof of vaccination. About 30% of Russias population is fully vaccinated, according to Johns Hopkins, despite the country having developed its own vaccine, Sputnik V.

Saliva test

A British company says it has developed an easy-to-administer, saliva-based test that can detect whether a person is infectious enough to pass along the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

The company, Vatic, said in a statement that its test is extremely accurate and has not returned a single false positive result in its test group. This is so important for getting life back to normal, the company said.

Vatic said its mission was to design a test that people wont mind using multiple times a week.

Tests results are available in 15 minutes, the company said.

The test is not available to the public yet while it undergoes more trials. Vatic is seeking approval for its sale directly to the public.

Life expectancy

A report in The Economist says COVID in 2020 has brought an abrupt halt to the steady rise of life expectancy in much of the world.

Researchers in Britain, Denmark and Germany said that between 2019 and 2020 life expectancy dropped in all but two of the 28 countries surveyed. Life expectancy

rose in Denmark and Norway and for women in Finland. Meanwhile, male life expectancy fell by more than a year in Italy, Poland and Spain and fell by more than two years in the United States.

Another report in The Economist says that the death rate from COVID in the U.S. is about eight times higher in America than in the rest of the rich world due to vaccine hesitancy and other factors. The report said, Americas antipathy to vaccines and continued resistance to other interventions, particularly among Republicans, is worrying. YouGovs poll indicates that, among those who voted for [former U.S. President] Donald Trump in 2020, 31% say they will not get vaccinated, 71% strongly disapprove of President Joe Bidens vaccine mandate and nearly 40% never wear a face mask. That remains a deadly combination.

The pandemic has destabilized societies, economies, and governments. It has shown that there is no global security without global health security, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said about COVID-19 in a recent address to ambassadors and representatives to the European Unions political and security committee.

The fastest and best way to end this pandemic is with genuine global cooperation on vaccine supply and access, Tedros said. The longer vaccine inequity persists, the longer the social and economic turmoil will continue, and the more opportunity the virus has to circulate and change into more dangerous variants. We need a global realization that no country can vaccinate its way out of this pandemic in isolation from the rest of the world.

The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported Sunday it had recorded 234.6 million global COVID infections and nearly 5 million deaths.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
Like many others, Azra Ozdemirs parents sent her off on the first day of school with the usual sage advice about doing well so she could get into a good college.

That was her first day of kindergarten.

I knew three words in English: Yes. No, and the letter P to indicate the need to use the facilities. But by the end of that first year, the teacher was already telling my parents that I was talking too much in class.

Now a law student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Ozdemir speaks for others who might encounter language, cultural or financial barriers. She has been working in the Las Vegas Misdemeanor Clinic at the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law.

A misdemeanor charge usually indicates a lesser infraction, like a driving violation, and carries a penalty of less than one year in jail. Misdemeanors can include endangering the welfare of a child and sex crimes, like prostitution.

Based on arrest data from the FBI and other statistical reports, legal scholar Alexandra Natapoff of Harvard University estimates that 80% of all arrests are misdemeanors, according to her website. Punishment Without Crime: How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps the Innocent and Makes America More Unequal, is the title of her 2018 book on the subject.

While misdemeanors have decreased in the past decade, Blacks and Hispanics are arrested at much higher rates than whites, according to the Data Collective for Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. John Jay College is part of the City University of New York.

Ozdemir says growing up, she saw other immigrants also at a loss for where to find legal help, particularly for lesser charges like misdemeanors.

I just saw so much of the hardship in my community and just how hard it was to get a good immigration lawyer, even in my own family, she said. There was nobody we could talk to, you know. Nobody knew.

Now that shes part of the legal community in Las Vegas, Ozdemir said she realizes that many resources are available.

I wanted to really just pick a career where I could just be a part of this community that helps with the people in need, and to me the best way to do that was to be a lawyer, said Ozdemir, who also credits hours and hours of watching court television while waiting after school in her fathers car repair shop.

Although misdemeanors will be reduced in Nevada from criminal charges in 2023 when the law will lessen their legal impact, until then a motorist could be offered community service or be sent to jail for rolling through a stop sign, she said, if the person misses a court date or fails to pay a fine.

If you have to spend a night or two in jail to pay off a ticket, what about your work? What about your employment? A lot of people in that situation are already having a hard time with making ends meet. So, what are we expecting them to take time off of work? she asked.

Jails are crowded. Not everyone incarcerated may be in the best of health, physical or mental. There might be needs at home that imperil family members -- child or elder care -- without the jailed person present.

Ozdemir and UNLV classmate Mia Bacher work with the courts to find a solution that works for both parties.

We're like, Hey, this is really what the issue is, and oftentimes, we really hope that the judges or the courts are understanding and accepting. Sometimes they're not and then we need to get creative with solutions. So, it's an interesting situation.

Azra and her parents came to the U.S. from Turkey on a family sponsorship in 1996 when she was five years old. Her aunt had married an American, and other family members followed. Education was always paramount, she was told. UNLV, she said, offers experiential learning that gives students hands-on exposure to their field beyond the classroom.

It's an incredible opportunity for everybody involved that we get to work really closely with our clients, and we really get to know them and interview them and really see what their specific needs are, Ozdemir said. It's probably one of the best things I've done so far in my education.
Suspected jihadis killed 14 soldiers Monday in an attack in northern Burkina Faso, the defense ministry said, in the latest bloodshed to hit the region plagued by Islamist violence.

"The military detachment of Yirgou" in the Centre-Nord region's Barsalogho department was "the target of a terrorist attack" around 0500 GMT on Monday, junior defense minister General Aime Barthelemy Simpore said.

"Fourteen soldiers were killed during the fighting and seven wounded were evacuated," he said in a statement, with the death toll higher than the nine given earlier by security sources.

"Several terrorists were neutralized during the response," he added, praising the soldiers' "great fighting spirit."

A ground and air counteroffensive was immediately launched to "neutralize the attackers," he added.

A security source told AFP an enormous amount of equipment was lost, with some burned and some taken away by the attackers.

Burkina Faso has seen regular, deadly jihadi attacks since 2015, mostly in the northern and eastern regions close to the Mali and Niger borders.

But on Saturday, it was the south that was hit, with two soldiers killed by a makeshift bomb in Larabin near the Ivory Coast border.

Back in the north, five soldiers were killed during a reconnaissance mission in Mentao last Wednesday, also by a makeshift bomb, the armed forces said.

In mid-September, a suspected jihadi attack killed six gendarmes escorting fuel tanks for a mining company.

Such attacks, normally blamed on jihadi groups affiliated to the Islamic State or al-Qaida, have killed around 2,000 people and forced more than 1.4 million to flee their homes.
China dispatched at least 56 fighter jets into Taiwan's air defense zone on Monday, the island territory claimed, as it scrambled its own air force for the fourth straight day to ward off the intruding aircraft.

Self-governed Taiwan, which China claims as its own, has objected to Beijing's overflights for more than a year. But since Friday, when China celebrated its national day, it has dramatically ramped up the number of flights, often in the southwestern part of the Taiwanese air defense zone close to Taiwan-controlled Pratas Island, as was the case on Monday.

Monday's mission included 34 J-16 fighters and 12 nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, Taiwan said. Monday night, authorities in Taipei reported that they had seen four more Chinese J-16 fighters over their airspace.

The news was met with sharp words Monday from the White House.

"We urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic and economic pressure and coercion against Taiwan, and we have an abiding interest in peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait," said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. "Our commitment to Taiwan is rock-solid and contributes to the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and within the region."

Psaki said the administration has "been clear privately and publicly about our concern." But in response to a question from VOA, she said President Joe Biden had not spoken recently to his Chinese counterpart, but that "high-level" officials from Washington were in touch with Beijing.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying fired back Monday at the U.S. statements.

"Taiwan belongs to China, and the U.S. is in no position to make irresponsible remarks," she said. "The relevant remarks by the U.S. side seriously violate the one-China principle and the stipulations of the three China-U.S. joint communiques, and send an extremely wrong and irresponsible signal."

The U.S. has maintained a strong cultural, commercial and unofficial relationship with Taiwan after Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, and last year sent $5.1 billion in military aid to the Taipei government.

The U.S. Defense Department has warned against the Chinese flights into Taiwan's air defense zone, saying Monday the military activities were "destabilizing and increase the risk of miscalculation."

"Our commitment to Taiwan is rock-solid and contributes to the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and within the region," the Pentagon added.

China has yet to comment on its latest military operations near Taiwan. It has previously said such flights were to protect its sovereignty and aimed against "collusion" between Taiwan and the United States, the island's most important international supporter and arms supplier.

The island territory has described China's activities as "gray zone" warfare, possibly aimed at wearing down Taiwanese forces and to test their abilities to respond.

While claiming Taiwan as part of its territory, the Chinese Communist Party has never governed the democratic island of about 24 million people. But Chinese President Xi Jinping has refused to rule out military force to capture Taiwan if necessary.

Ken Bredemeier and Anita Powell contributed to this report.Some material in this report came from Reuters.


U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will brief the Security Council on Wednesday regarding Ethiopia's recent expulsion of seven senior U.N. aid officials.

It is the second council meeting in less than a week on Ethiopia, where the federal government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced on September 30 that the aid officials had 72 hours to leave the country.

"The expulsion of these aid workers is one more step in what is a momentum that is going in the wrong direction in terms of deterioration," said Ireland's U.N. ambassador, Geraldine Byrne Nason, who requested the meeting on behalf of her government.

Byrne Nason said it is important the aid officials be restored to their positions and the relationship between the United Nations and the Ethiopian government be mended.

"It is a critical relationship," she told reporters. "This is not the position we need to be in right now. We need to see, if anything, a scaled-up humanitarian effort, not one where there is any dispute."

Ethiopia alleges that the officials meddled in its internal affairs and leveled other charges, including that they diverted aid and telecommunications equipment to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which the government has been fighting in the north of the country for nearly a year.

The officials who were declared "persona non-grata" include the U.N. deputy humanitarian chief, the deputy humanitarian coordinator, and the U.N. children's agency (UNICEF) representative.

On Monday, the United Nations confirmed the officials were no longer in the country.

"They have been moved from the country to ensure their safety," U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters, noting that the U.N. depends on the host country for staff safety.

The U.N. says the officials have done nothing wrong, and that Ethiopia does not have a legal basis to expel them. U.N. staff are protected under immunity conventions and the U.N. Charter. The organization maintains that such expulsions can only happen on a country-to-country basis.

Millions in need

The Ethiopian federal government has been engaged in an armed conflict with TPLF forces in the northern Tigray region for nearly a year. The government announced a unilateral cease-fire and withdrew its forces from the region in June, but the conflict has spilled into the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar.

Of the 6 million people who live in Tigray, the U.N. says 5.2 million need some level of food assistance. More than 400,000 people are already living in famine-like conditions, and another 1.8 million people are on the brink of famine.

On Tuesday, the World Food Program said it had completed its first round of food aid distributions to people impacted by the spread of the conflict into Afar and Amhara.

"WFP says anecdotal reports from Tigray, Afar and Amhara provinces suggest that food insecurity is rising as families flee from their homes and have their livelihoods destroyed," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

The U.N. has said for months that it has encountered difficulties in reaching the people of Tigray. One hundred aid-filled trucks are needed daily to meet the soaring needs, but since mid-July, only 637 have been allowed into the region. Fuel and cash are also scarce.

Last Wednesday, U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said that after 11 months of conflict and three months of a de facto government blockade, the humanitarian crisis in Tigray is spiraling out of control.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Griffiths said the humanitarian crisis there is a "stain on our conscience," as civilians starve because aid workers are being blocked from getting enough supplies to them.

The next day, the government in Addis Ababa said it was expelling the seven high-ranking U.N. staffers.


Cui Tiankai, the 69-year-old career diplomat who has served as Chinas ambassador to the United States since April 2013, is getting ready to go home.

American analysts mostly give Cui high marks for how he represented his country  or at least its government  during his eight-year tenure. But they also question the degree to which he or any Chinese diplomat has been able to influence decision-making in Beijing.

Winston Lord, former U.S. ambassador to China, and Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund in Washington, are among those who say Cui has been a highly effective diplomat.

Ambassador Cui Tiankai has done an outstanding job in my view, during a very difficult period, Lord said in a phone interview from his home in New York.

Skilled, respected

The fact that Cui remained in his post for so long attests to his skill and the respect in which he is held, Lord said. Hes been very strong in defending Chinese interests, of course, but hes always done so with a sense of trying to encourage some sort of dialogue, even though weve got some sharp disagreements.

Glaser attended some events Cui hosted at the Chinese Embassy. When asked about the senior diplomats mannerisms at those functions, she recalled that sometimes he was gracious, sometimes he used tougher language when that was appropriate  hes a very good diplomat, and he adjusts his messaging based on the prevailing situation in the U.S.-China relationship.

When Cui took up his post, he spoke of China as the largest developing country and the U.S. as the largest developed one. He said the relationship was driven by the ever-expanding converging interests between our two countries and the common responsibility that we share in safeguarding world peace, promoting sustainable development of the global economy.

Eight years later, relations between the two countries have reached their lowest ebb in decades as Beijing adopts a more aggressive posture around the world  sending out a new breed of diplomats described as wolf warriors.

Even though people would admire [Chinas] economic progress, the wolf warrior approach to diplomacy, the repression at home, [hostile] actions abroad have meant a decline in how China is viewed around the world, Lord said.

However, neither he nor Glaser sees Cui as part of that new breed.

Three responsibilities

Traditionally, ambassadors have three main responsibilities, no matter which country you represent, Lord said in the phone interview. In addition to representing the home country and its interests, an ambassador is tasked with reporting on developments in the host country and making policy recommendations.

A Chinese ambassador in Washington is expected to give officials in Beijing a real feel for the American scene; thats very important, said Lord. But, he added, it may be difficult for Cui or any Chinese diplomat to be entirely candid.

I think the American ambassador has a somewhat easier time than the Chinese ambassador, he said. If our ambassador sends home frank views  for example, disagreeing with what Washington is doing, or perhaps saying that the Chinese point of view is reasonable  that will be respected; hes expected to be candid. He shouldnt need be overly belligerent or overly rosy in his views of his host country. All hes got to do is be honest.

The Chinese ambassadors, meanwhile, probably are going to have a more difficult time, he said. Its a lot more difficult politically for the [Chinese] ambassador here to go back to Beijing and say, Look, youre making a mistake, or that the American point of view is not unreasonable.

David Stilwell, who served as the U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs from June 2019 until January, said Cuis dilemma has its roots in the political culture in Beijing.

I feel sorry for Ambassador Cui; hes been between a rock and a hard place for the last eight years, Stilwell said in a phone interview from Honolulu. As the man on the ground in D.C., he was responsible for telling Beijing what to expect from the new administration. Stilwell was referring to hardened stance towards the Chinese government adopted by the administration led by President Donald Trump.

Criticism 'not tolerated'

However, suggesting that General Secretary Xi [Jinping] needed to change course, to compromise, would be tantamount to criticism, Stilwell continued. In the cult of personality that surrounds Xi Jinping, criticism is not tolerated.

Stilwell said that he imagined Cui saw the train wreck that was coming but couldnt do anything to stop it, nor could he get out of the way. By train wreck, Stilwell said he was referring to the perception in Beijing of the drastic downturn in bilateral relations.

From where I sat, it was long overdue course correction, he said.
The international community is renewing its focus on Afghanistans mineral wealth, believed to be worth more than $1 trillion, lying untapped within its often-hostile geography.

This comes as the newly formed Taliban government faces a looming economic crisis in the country. The mineral deposits could potentially be a source of income the group is looking for.

The Taliban had been aware of the financial potential of the minerals well before the U.S. withdrew from the country.

According to a June 2021 United Nations report, one of the main sources of the Talibans income was mineral exploitation.

The report said that in 2020, the Taliban had earned an estimated $464 million from the countrys mining sector as part of their strategy for financial independence.

The militant groups leaders pursued greater financial independence for the Taliban, in part by focusing efforts on controlling unexplored mineral-rich areas of Afghanistan, the report said. Before the Afghan government collapsed, the Taliban were already in control of 280 out of 710 mining zones.

Global Witness, a London-based corruption monitoring group, reported in June 2016 that armed anti-government elements including the Taliban earned up to $20 million annually from the illegal mining of lapis lazuli.

Afghan minerals and China

Analysts are waiting to see whether China will play a role in investing in and extracting Afghanistans natural resources. China was already investing in some of Afghanistans minerals before the Taliban takeover of the country.

China Metallurgical Group (MCC), a Chinese state-owned company, was awarded a contract in 2007 to develop the Aynak copper mine field in Afghanistans Logar province, about 32 kilometers southeast of Kabul.

According to the then-Afghan government, MCC was to invest $2.8 billion in developing the field, a project that included building an electric power plant and railroad and employing 5,000 people, mostly Afghans led by a few Chinese experts.

MCC, however, has not been able to extract any copper because of the insecurity in the country.

After Kabul fell to the Taliban, the company said it was willing to resume work on the project, with some conditions.

We would consider reopening it after the situation is stabilized and international recognition, including the Chinese governments recognition of the Taliban regime, take place, an unnamed official of MCC told the Global Times, a Chinese state-run newspaper.

Chinese officials have called on the international community to engage with the Taliban, but they have not yet recognized the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan.

The Taliban said they welcome Chinas participation in the rebuilding of the country.

"China is a big country with a huge economy and capacity  I think they can play a very big role in the rebuilding, rehabilitation, reconstruction of Afghanistan," Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen told a Chinese state media outlet.

Security an issue

Experts, however, do not expect China to invest in Afghan minerals immediately.

I do think it is too soon to tell whether China will be able to truly exploit Americas withdrawal to gain access to all these minerals, said Craig Singleton, a fellow at Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

The security situation remains dire in Afghanistan, he said, adding that even the best-laid investment plans can go awry when the host country cannot guarantee a safe and stable security environment.

China will be pragmatic and hold off on making any major moves until they have a better sense about the Talibans plans and intentions, Singleton said.

Rod Schoonover, a scientist and security expert who founded the Ecological Futures Group, told VOA he did not think the Taliban would be able to guarantee China the security and stability it needs to extract minerals in Afghanistan.

China does not have a long history, as I understand it, of going to highly unstable countries and working there, he said.

Afghan mineral potential

Estimating that the mineral wealth of Afghanistan could be worth from $1 trillion to $3 trillion, Afghan officials in 2010 had hoped the mining sector would not only help to eliminate poverty but also end the decadeslong conflict in Afghanistan.

A New York Times article in June 2010 reported that a team of Pentagon officials and U.S. geologists discovered in Afghanistan $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits, which were considered much larger than any previously known and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself.

A 2019 report by the former Afghan governments Ministry of Mines and Petroleum said Afghanistan has world-class deposits of iron ore, copper, gold, rare-earth minerals, and a host of other natural resources.

According to the report, Afghanistan is expected to hold more than 2.2 billion metric tons (MTs) of iron ore, 1.3 billion MTs of marble, almost 30 million MTs of copper, 1.4 million MTs of rare-earth minerals, and 2,700kg of gold,

The reserves were not the largest in any category at the global level, but the country could become a significant player across many markets, the report said.

Even with the potential financial gains from the reserves, Afghanistans lack of infrastructure is one more challenge to accessing the minerals in the countrys mountainous terrain. There is also the question of how efficiently mining can be conducted.

There is a big difference between what is under the ground and what is utilized, said Schoonover. Chinas engagement in the extraction of minerals could benefit both China and the Taliban, but he is "skeptical" that it will benefit the people of Afghanistan.

Schoonover said that in the absence of strong governance, he sees the natural resources curse manifest itself, meaning that ordinary people in many resource-rich countries do not necessarily benefit from the profits.
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Today in La Spezia the Minister of Defense Lorenzo Guerini inaugurates SeaFuture 2021, the military-naval exhibition sponsored by the main war industries. In the lead Fincantieri ("strategic sponsor"), Leonardo ("platinum sponsor") and Mbda (European joint venture in which Leonardo has 25%) which participates as "gold sponsor".

The "Future" has already been outlined in the "Directive for the industrial policy of Defense", issued by Guerini on July 29: Italy must "have a military instrument capable of expressing the advanced military capabilities that the country needs to protect its national interests", which ensures "its membership in the circle of technologically and economically advanced countries". The Directive, overturning Article 11 and other constitutional principles with the silent consent of Parliament, establishes that Italy must increasingly arm itself.

At the same time it establishes that Italy must maintain and strengthen "the strategic relationship with the United States, to ensure the involvement in technological innovation that finds in the U.S. one of the main incubators, to facilitate access of Italian companies in the American market and to better position Italy in the European context.

The line traced by the Directive has already been operational for some time. Suffice it to recall: the boarding on the aircraft carrier Cavour, the Navys flagship, of the US F-35B short take-off and vertical landing fighter aircraft, for which the ship was certified at Norfolk in Virginia; the decision to arm Italian submarines and frigates with Cruise missiles with a range of at least 1,000 km; the decision to arm the Reaper drones, which Italy has purchased from the US. These and other armaments, with which our armed forces are equipped, are not for defense but for attack.

The Cavour armed with the F-35B becomes an advanced military base that, deployed in distant theaters of war, can attack and invade a country; the submarines and frigates can strike a country from a great distance with cruise missiles that, flying at very low altitude over the sea and along the contour of the land, escape anti-aircraft defences; the Reaper drones, remotely controlled from thousands of kilometres away, can strike human "targets" with Infernal Fire missiles and laser or satellite guided bombs. Italy is thus arming itself to participate in other wars under US/NATO command.

The "strategic relationship with the United States", established by the Directive, is getting stronger every day. The Fincantieri group, 70% controlled by the Ministry of Economy, has three shipyards in the USA, where it is building ten multi-role frigates for the US Navy and four similar warships for Saudi Arabia. Leonardo - the largest Italian military industry, which derives over 70% of its turnover from armaments - supplies products and services to the US armed forces and intelligence agencies, and in Italy manages the Cameri plant for Lockheed Martins F-35 fighters. The 30% of the shareholding of the Leonardo group belongs to the Ministry of Economic Development.

For this reason, at the military exhibition in La Spezia, alongside Minister Guerini of the PD, Minister Giorgetti of the League participates. Described as an "expert in accounts", he is in charge of managing the 30 billion euros already allocated by the Ministry of Economic Development for military purposes and the other 25 required by the Recovery Fund. The 26 billion euros spent annually by the Ministry of Defence are no longer enough. It is necessary to pass to at least 36 billion per year, as requested by NATO and reiterated by the US.

Just to make a few figures, the aircraft carrier Cavour cost 1.3 billion euros, the 15 F-35Bs for the Navy cost 1.7 billion, and to these are added another 15 F-35Bs and 60 F-35As with nuclear capability for the Air Force. Then there are the operational expenses: one day of navigation of the Cavour costs over 200 thousand euros and one hour of flight of an F-35 over 40 thousand euros. Always with public money subtracted from the social species, invested in weapons and wars to "protect our national interests and belong to the circle of economically advanced countries.
Scenes from a Marriage The Illiterates Season 1 Episode 4 Editors Rating 4 stars * * * *  Previous Next Photo: HBO

When you marry or attend a wedding, at least in America, the legal dimension to whats happening is inconspicuous. Marriage is a celebration of the commitment two people can buy from each other with the love between them; the contract is confetti. You put it in a folder somewhere. Id need a couple of hours to find mine.

But when Jonathan and Miras marriage breaks down, the legal contract becomes urgently significant. The vows are already undone; they live in separate homes. This sheet of paper they glanced at every few years is the last knot of their shared life. Marriage starts with rings and passed hors doeuvres and ends with a ream of pages, some to be signed and some only initialed  a decade of love erased by a ballpoint pen.

The couples divorce seems amicable enough so far. Tonight, Jonathan and Mira are divvying their stuff following the settlement negotiated by their lawyers. Theres no neutral party present to referee; the aggrieved trust themselves alone with each other. Mira starts the episode across the street, as far from the house as weve seen her. If the house is the center of gravity for this marriage, its telling that showrunner Hagai Levi keeps enlarging her orbit. The journey home is getting longer. Soon, the same route wont even be a journey home.

When Mira arrives, the packing is finished, and Jons on the phone with the movers. Mira is on the phone with Ava, who is screaming about her dolls getting lost. Mira knows her anger is normal because Avas therapist told her so. Between Jonathan and Mira, the mood is friendly. He calls Mira his wife; she calls him honey. This is the liminal space Jonathans lived in for the two years since Mira left, but hes determined that they sign the divorce papers tonight before he heads to Europe for lectures. Professionally, hes hot shit right now.

But Miras distracted. Rather than affecting her trademark aloofness, shes too exhausted to care. She hasnt read the contract; it doesnt matter what the house is worth. Take it all, Jonathan. Take whatever. He reminds her that American divorce is comparatively easy. If they were obtaining a Jewish gett, there would be a three-judge panel and performative declarations, the most important of which is this: You are hereby permitted to all men. Vicious, perhaps, but Jonathan sees some logic to it. Youre either in or youre out, and if youre out, theres no going back, he says.

Mira flirtatiously asks if they could marry again, post-gett, because thats the kind of thing Mira is wont to ask. Her MO hasnt changed. Theyre sitting beside each other on the plastic-wrapped green settee that they both want. They hug, then they caress, then they fuck, doggy-style. Everyone has fun, but it doesnt look like love. It looks like sex. Not getting-back-together sex, not good-bye sex. Maybe its primal: the last time their bodies will belong to each other. Mira kisses Jonathan tenderly, and they get ready for a quick dinner before the movers arrive. Jonathan washes exclusively his groin with a handheld showerhead. Maybe its nothing, or maybe its symbolic. Mira giggles as she slides her heels back on. Maybe its optimism, or maybe its nothing.

Jonathan re-emerges with the divorce papers, and Mira again refuses to sign. The argument grows slippery. Its about divorce; its about the extortionate cost of dance class. Its about how much Ava hates her mother. Mira thinks we should teach kids that love ends so that divorce can be less painful. Personally, I think she shouldnt have had an affair so that divorce could be less painful. But thats the illiteracy the episode title alludes to  we dont have the language for the end of loves life cycle. We dont have norms and rituals to match loves beginning. But Jonathan is done being philosophical. His pain is his uncertainty. If hes not going to be married to Mira, he needs to be divorced from her. Just sign the papers, please.

But Mira cant. She cant afford to lose more parts of herself. She got fired earlier in the day. Im really sorry that happened to you, Jonathan tells her, but Mira perceives something adversarial in the platitude. The accusation feels uncharitable but, turns out, she knows him a lot better than we do. Jonathan confesses that her sob story evokes nothing in him. Hes not trying to be callous; the callous is just there around his heart now. Its been accreting so slowly hes surprised by it. Its a cold admission, especially so soon after sex, but that too, he says, was devoid of emotion for him. He can live without Mira. No, its more than that. He doesnt want to live with her.

They fight in the manner of all their fights. Theres name-calling and recriminations. Mira mocks Jonathan for going to therapy. He basically tells her she deserves to be fired. She rattles off words he used to find profane  cock, pussy  like a teenager desperate to rile her parents. Jonathans religious hang-ups around sex made her feel depraved, she says in a tirade of resentment. She denied her sexuality for fear hed find it grotesque. His hang-ups became hers, which, if true, is a terrible and unkind reversal.

But Jonathan says it isnt true, and hes never left Mira high-and-dry, so Im inclined to believe him. What if there was never anything that wrong with him? What if some women dont care if you wash your balls after sex? Mira made Jonathan feel aberrant and exploited his inexperience. They dont dispute the facts, but their meanings. Theyre talking about sex, but their incompatibilities lurk around every corner of the house. Now, theyre in the kitchen, Mira pretending that she might sign the divorce settlement. If shes not going to sign it, Jonathan needs her to say so.

Mira can only whisper an answer. I want to come home. MIRA, MIRA, MIRA. She and Poli broke up weeks ago because she refused to have his kid. Its her turn to play the narcissist, spewing her feelings. She knows it would be different this time around, but Jonathan disagrees. Even if it was different for her, hes not in love anymore. Im sober; Im inoculated. Thats it. Its brutal to listen to, even if its fair. Miras made so many decisions; shes not sure which ones were mistakes. She wants to press reset. He used to want it, too.

They fill the space between them with pineapple vodka, the most accessible alcohol among the boxes. Jonathan lights a cigarette off the gas stove and opens a window even though it will be someone elses house tomorrow. He asks Mira to be happy for him and herself. It could be a really exciting time for you, he says. But Mira doesnt want anything new. Shes already sampled it, and look what it got her: a kid that hates her guts, a soulless condo in the sky, unemployment. When she tells him, all I want is what I used to have, it sounds like the truth.

Unhappy Ava calls again, and Jonathan, sympathetic, tells Mira they can worry about the divorce settlement another day. The Mira who negotiated the settlement isnt the fragile person here now. But because theyre the least compatible people on Earth, she suddenly needs to know why it was so important to begin with. He tells her hes thinking of having a child with his colleague  elective co-parenting. He wants more kids more than he wants a wife, and its cleaner to enter that arrangement fully divorced. Shockingly, given what we know about Mira via the abortion in episode one and her admission here that she didnt want to have a child with Poli and that she left her husband two years ago, she asks Jonathan if he considered having the kid with her. She wants a kid! They should have a kid.

But, of course, they should not have a kid. They can barely have a conversation. Mira accuses Jonathan of wanting a child outside a romantic relationship so he can do whatever he feels like, which is egregiously unfair and not founded in anything weve seen. Offended, he moves to leave. On second thought, Mira can deal with the movers herself.

What happens next takes seconds or minutes, and no one will ever be able to remember the exact choreography of who did what and how and, worst of all, why. Mira doesnt want Jonathan to go, for their last night in the house of their marriage to end so loud and aggressive, ugly and scrappy. He tries to push past her, but Mira locks them in the house and hides the key. She just wants to talk. Jonathan moves for the key, and she pushes him and hits him. He shoves back, I think, still searching for it. She returns the shove, and he hits her in the face. Mira throws Jonathan to the ground, and he hits his head on the way down. She throws books at him. She throws anything she can grab at him. They collapse, bloody, more pained than ever.

Wordlessly, they sign the papers on the floor, the Boston cold creeping under the front door. Jonathan prepares to go. Shouldve done that a long time ago, he says menacingly. The sentence lacks a subject. They should have signed the papers? They should have hit this ugly, irrevocable low? Or worse, he should have hit her? Should he have let his contempt for her be so manifest in the world that she couldnt miss it? The words will echo in his mind; shell think of them as the bruise across her face starts to yellow. When it fades completely, the words will be whats left of the violence. Nothing they just did to each other shouldve been done. Jonathan leaves as the movers arrive. Hes finally the one to escape the pull of the house.

When they signed it, Jonathan and Miras marriage contract was backed by so much love that it hardly needed to exist as an actual object in the world. It was confetti, or it was something at the bottom of a drawer. Now, its maybe in one of those cardboard boxes earmarked for a storage unit. Its an artifact of a past civilization. Its trash.
The Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering received a million-dollar donation from a leading financial company. The partnership with Deloitte will allow the school to expand its reach and impact more students across the state.

The ASCTE is focused on giving students hands-on experience before entering the workforce. The school's president, Matt Massey, said the million-dollar donation and partnership with Deloitte will help them do just that, plus much more.

Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering receive donation from Deloitte Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering receive donation from Deloitte

It gives us access to Deloittes subject matter experts and gives our instructors resources to lean on and also experiences for our students, but also cash towards our school," he said.

Part of the donation will help fund building innovative labs for students. The managing director for Deloitte, Carey Miller, said it will also allow them to find well-qualified students from across the state.

We offer them support for that recruiting process, finding motivated and aspirational students from across the state, and we really try to work closely with them to identify whatever needs they have and help meet them with the strengths of Deloitte," said Miller.

Massey said the partnership with Deloitte and the school's other partnerships will help close a critical opportunity gap. It will help students learn about the companies and help industries fill a workforce gap.

"Were going to help fill that, and they can see its relevant what theyre doing in the classroom and in the real world," said Massey.

Miller and Massey each said the partnership is improving the futures of all ASCTE students.

Its really an investment in our future," said Miller.

Our students are going to be able to tap right into that, and its going to be an incredibly unique experience for our students as they get ready for the workforce," said Massey.

Massey said the partnership is giving their students industry connections from across the country.
Shares in Evergrande were suspended Monday amid reports that a rival Chinese real estate developer was preparing to buy its property management business  a move that could inject much needed cash into the ailing conglomerate.

Cailian News, a Chinese state-run financial news outlet, reported Monday that Hopson Development was planning to assume control of Evergrande's property management arm by buying a stake of about 51% in a deal that could be worth more than 40 billion Hong Kong dollars ($5.1 billion).

Chinese state-run tabloid Global Times also covered the expected deal, referring to various "media reports" the same day.

Shares of Evergrande's property management business and Hopson were also suspended from trade in Hong Kong on Monday. In a stock exchange filing, the Evergrande subsidiary cited "a possible general offer for the shares of the company," while Hopson said in its own filing that an announcement was "pending," and would be related to a major acquisition.

In a separate statement to CNN Business, Hopson said that it would "not comment on market rumors," while reiterating that it would make an "official announcement." The property developer bills itself as one of the largest in mainland China, and is based in both Beijing and Guangzhou, according to its 2020 annual report. The company focuses on mid-to-high-end residential projects, according to its website for investors.

Evergrande did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Evergrande has been hunting for buyers for some of its businesses as it battles to survive a cash crunch. The conglomerate is China's most indebted developer, with more than $300 billion in debt. It has likely missed two bond payment deadlines in recent weeks, and its stock has crashed 80% so far this year.

Last month, the company disclosed in a stock exchange filing that it had tried  and failed  to find bidders for parts of its property services and electric vehicle businesses, as well as its office tower in Hong Kong.

Evergrande and its associates owned almost 61% of Evergrande Property Services, the unit Hopson is said to be buying, as of May, according to a stock exchange filing.

Analysts had been expecting a relatively quiet period of news this week, as mainland China celebrates Golden Week, a major public holiday. But markets are open in Hong Kong, where Evergrande's shares and some of its bonds trade.

Jeffrey Halley, a senior market analyst for Asia Pacific at Oanda, said in a note to clients on Monday that "there still remains very little visibility from the Chinese government over Evergrande's fate, although a slow and steady dismantling of the company appears to be the favored course right now."

 CNN's Beijing bureau contributed to this report.

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Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall released an opinion piece Monday afternoon unleashing his anger over the death of Sheffield Police Sgt. Nick Risner and the process that allowed his accused killer to be free.

The policymaking in this state is completely and utterly detached from what law enforcement and prosecutors see day in and day out, Marshall writes.

The piece also revealed Brian Martins rap sheet during the time he spend behind bars for a manslaughter charge related to the killing of his father. Marshall said Martin got into a fight and seriously injured another inmate, and that he was caught with drugs twice.

Despite that, he was awarded "good time" and served three years and two months after entering prison for pleading guilty to manslaughter in his father's death.

Marshall said if Martin had served his entire 10-year sentence, he would have been behind bars instead of in the Walmart parking lot Friday where Risner was killed.

Heres Marshalls full piece:

With the death of Sergeant Nick Risner this weekend, our state has lost ten law enforcement officers in ten months and twenty-four officers in five years.

Sergeant Nick Risner was killed by a man whose name isnt worth mentioning. That man had killed beforein fact, he killed his own father. In 2013, the man was sentenced to ten years in prison for manslaughter. A mere two-and-a-half years after entering prison, he was given the benefit of a parole hearing. His parole was denied.

While in prison, the man racked up a lengthy rap sheet. Records indicate that he got into a fight and seriously injured another inmate. He was disciplined for disobeying a correctional officer. He got caught with drugs in his possession, twice. Naturally, the man was awarded good time, provided for in statute, for this stellar behavior while incarcerated. As a result, the man served three years, two months, and fifteen days of his ten-year sentence. He was released from prison in May of 2016. Had he served the full length of his sentence, he would have been in prison, not in the Walmart parking lot, last Friday afternoon when Sergeant Risner was shot.

When the news of Sergeant Risner hit the wires over the weekend, politician after politician tweeted their support for law enforcement and their sympathy for the victims. But only days before, at the end of a five-day legislative session, a new law was enacted mandating that all inmatesincluding violent ones with histories just like this shootersbe let out of prison up to one year early to be supervised before the formal end of their sentence. Twenty-three house members and only six senators thought this was a bad idea.

Had this law been in effect when Sergeant Risners killer was initially sentenced, his ten-year sentence would have been reduced to a little over three years with automatic good time, and his paltry three years behind bars wouldve been further reduced to only two.

Consider, too, that just six months ago, the legislature enacted yet another law that would reduce time served in prison under the Education Incentive Time Act. As introduced and passed unanimously by the Alabama Senate, rapists and murderers were to be considered for parole up to twelve months early for taking advantage of educational programming while in prison. Despite being publicly chided by a Republican member of the legislature for getting involved, my Office successfully fought to have most violent offenders removed from this legislation.

Each time, the same tired rhetoric is used as justification for passage: our prisons are overcrowded and the inmates are eventually going to get out anyway. The current population of Alabamas prisons is 81 percent violent. The population that is non-violent does not serve any appreciable time inside the prison walls. As evidenced by the reforms pushed last week, we are at a point where any further reforms will benefit primarily violent offendersthere is simply nobody else to reform.

Im glad weve all agreed that we need to build prisons, but strangely, I seem to be alone in the view that most of our current prison population ought to stay locked up. The policymaking in this state is completely and utterly detached from what law enforcement and prosecutors see day in and day out. There must be a reckoning for the real-life consequences of these decisions. It is time that the Alabama public speak up and speak out about this dangerous, and seemingly endless, trajectory of criminal justice reform.

Your state leaders are not listening.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency says one man was killed in a Lauderdale County crash Sunday morning.

Officials say the two-vehicle crash happened approximately 5 miles east of Waterloo on Lauderdale County Road 8. Noel Robertson, 68, of Waterloo was killed when the 2007 Chevrolet Trailblazer he was driving crossed the center line and struck a 2005 Chevrolet Tahoe driven by Jonah Gray, 23, of Florence.

Robertson was transported to North Alabama Medical Center for treatment but later died from his injuries, officials said.

Troopers with the ALEA's Highway Patrol Division are investigating the crash.
A community paused to show respect to a fallen officer Monday as his body was brought back to the Shoals from Huntsville.

Local students, teachers and families lined up along the route to pay their respects to Sheffield Police Sgt. Nick Risner, who was killed in the line of duty.

WAAY 31 talked to a volunteer firefighter who installed a 20-foot-tall American flag from the top of a ladder truck. The firefighter said its really all they could do to honor a man who gave it all to protect his community.

"Im glad to see the firetrucks out here paying their respects, because theyre doing what they can, and the public can do what they can by pulling over and paying respects to a man who gave it all in service of his city, Officer Jeff Redcross with the North Courtland Police Department said.

WAAY 31 also talked to students and teachers from the local school in Courtland, which made the quarter-of-a-mile walk out to Alabama 20 to wave American flags and pay their respects.

Its important for me to be here. It really is," Courtland resident Laverne Smith said. "Because they serve and protect us, and you know its only fair that we support their families.

As the procession passed by, first responders stood at attention.

Courtlands fire chief said their agency understands this pain all too well, because they lost two firefighters in the line of duty in the past and can still remember that overwhelming feeling of love and support from the first responders who showed up in Courtland in their time of need.

They said they are honored to be here to do the same for Sheffield Police Department.
The recent death of Sheffield Police Sgt. Nick Risner brought back a lot of emotions for Huntsville police officers.

"It just really hits home," Huntsville Police Capt. Michael Johnson said. "This is something we do. This is not something we expect, but it's something we will get through."

Just two years ago, they lost one of their own. STAC Agent Billy Clardy III died after being shot during a drug raid operation in 2019.

"We really understand how this family, the Risner family, how this agency's brothers and sisters in this agency feel," Johnson said. "They're probably going through the same exact things. They want to know what happened, what they could have done to prevent what happened  a lot of different officers probably wishing they could have been there, wishing they could have done something to help Sgt. Risner."

Now, Huntsville Police wants to be that shoulder to lean on.

"It is a duty. It's something we must do. It's something we want to do," Johnson said.

Huntsville Police Chief Mark McMurray has been in constant contact with the Sheffield Police Department to find out what their needs are  even if it's just being there for support. Johnson said they want to do what they can to honor a hero and fellow brother in blue.

"He died a hero," Johnson said. "He was in a gunfight, and we have to give credence to that. We have to show the community, our state officials, our state citizens and the country what this Alabama police officer meant for us."

Several Huntsville police officers joined other law enforcement officers across North Alabama in escorting Risner back home Monday afternoon. They also draped their badges to show their support and grief for the community.
As a community and a family are all still reeling with the loss of Sheffield Police Officer, Sgt. Nick Risner's death, we are learning just how impactful he was to others.

"We are not going to let his memory die. We are going to uplift his family, we're going to uplift his sisters & brothers in blue and we're going to uplift all of the officers, paramedic and firemen that worked that scene on Friday," said Kristy Dover, a friend of Risner.

WAAY-31 spent the day talking with people who knew Sgt. Risner, just like Kristy Dover, who knows him as more than an officer, but as a friend and confidant.

Several local communities are wearing blue Monday to show their support for Sgt. Risner and his family.

One woman told us she knew him from working with the charity group, Shoals Angels, and says his legacy will live on forever.

"Nick always told me it's okay to get down, just don't stay there," said Kristy Dover.

This is how Kristy Dover will remember her friend Nick Risner.

He dedicated a lot of his time to charity group, Shoals Angels, where he helped families in need by giving them Christmas gifts.

Dover told WAAY-31 Risner would spend hundreds his own money to help because that's just the type of person he was.

"Anything that was important to these kids that nick helped, it was important to nick because that was just the type of person that he was," she said.

On Friday, when everyone heard the news about what happened in Muscle Shoals, Dover told us it had she and others, in complete shock.

She says she understands the job police officers have can be dangerous, but she said with Nick's passing, it truly hits home.

Dover also says even though their community is still hurting and trying to heal, everything will be done in Risner's name.

Now, she along with several other businesses, are raising funds to try and help the Risner family during this difficult time.

Dover hopes you never forget Sgt. Nick Risner and the sacrifices he made.

"We will never ever, ever, let the good that he did in this community and surrounding communities, go," she said.

Dover told WAAY-31 no amount is too small and she thanks everyone who's come together over the last few days for their friend, Nick Risner.

To donate, you can visit Vertillo Pizza & Grill, Alabama Super Pawn or Reach out to Shoals Angels.

If you want to do everything online you can cash app to $ShoalsAngels, Venmo to @JennyPeden or Paypal to jen_fletcher18@yahoo.com.

Dover says she will wear her blue ribbon for a long time and hopes you will show your support for the blue on Monday as well.
The suspect in the shooting death of Sheffield Police Sgt. Nick Risner was out of prison because he finished his sentence, the Alabama Bureau of Pardons & Paroles announced Monday.

Brian Lansing Martin has been identified as the suspect in the deaths of Risner and William Clare Mealback Jr.

Muscle Shoals police say Martin killed Mealback on Friday afternoon before getting into a chase with law enforcement, eventually shooting Risner and Lt. Max Dotson in their vehicles. Risner died Saturday. Dotson was treated and released after bullets were stopped by his vest.

Martin was also shot. He received medical treatment at the scene from officers before being transported to Huntsville Hospital.

Martin previously served time for manslaughter in the killing of his father in 2011. Martin pleaded guilty to the crime and was sentenced in 2013 to 10 years.

According to the parole board: He ended his sentence in 2016 after three years and two months, with six years and 10 months for good behavior.

Because he was not paroled, he was not supervised after his release, the state said.

Bureau Director Cam Ward said this in the new release: I am keeping the friends and family of Sgt. Risner in my prayers, as well as the community of this heroic officer who died in the line of duty.
Several North Alabama school systems encouraged students and staff to wear blue on Monday in Sgt. Nick Risner's honor.

Central High School was one of the first to post to Facebook about the idea. Risner is a Central High alum.

Photo courtesy of Ally Burnett Hooks Photo courtesy of Ally Burnett Hooks

Once they posted the idea, many other schools in the area followed suit.

"The Shoals is one community. Even though we have multiple cities inside our community, we rely on them, they rely on us," said Tuscumbia City Schools Director of Instruction Russ Tate. "So any type of support we can give to a sister city is just immeasurable."

Not only was wearing blue Monday about supporting Risner, but teaching students a life lesson.

"This is just another way of saying there's a lot about life that's not reading and math," said Russellville City Schools Superintendent Heath Grimes. "And we need to make sure we do a good job of teaching that and we need them to hopefully understand that and have them be a part of something bigger than themselves."

All day long, people posted their photos to social media with the hashtag, #BlueforNick.

Here's a list of some of the participating schools and districts:

Central High School

Colbert County Schools

Florence City Schools

Muscle Shoals City Schools

Russellville City Schools

Tuscumbia City Schools

Waterloo High School

If you wore blue for Sgt. Nick Risner on Monday, send your photo to share@waaytv.com and we'll add you to this story and possibly show you on air.
The Alabama A&M University Board of Trustees voted 7-4 today to name Daniel K. Wims as the 12th president of the university.

In-person interviews were held Saturday with two presidential search finalists, followed by the vote. The 11th president, Andrew Hugine Jr., is set to retire Dec. 31.

Wims currently serves as provost and vice president for academic affairs and for research, as well as a professor of agricultural sciences at AAMU. He has more than 20 years of "progressive administrative experience in various governmental and higher education organizations, according to AAMU, including time as the executive vice president and the vice president for academic affairs at AAMU, plus as a professor of agricultural sciences at Fort Valley State University in Georgia.

Wims said in a release that his presidency at AAMU will stress artificial intelligence in cybersecurity, push data analytics, improve coding capabilities among a wider range of students and stress recruitment of faculty in bio- and alternative energy.

He also plans to focus on a campus-wide commitment to student retention, a renewed focus on community college transfers, investment in placement and institutional advancement, growing the university and increasing state and federal support.
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New school desks had been commissioned for social distancing.

Italy is recalling single-seat desks from schools - commissioned last year to facilitate social distancing - for not meeting fire safety regulations, reports Italian newspaper Il Tempo.

The desks were hailed initially as a crucial element in reducing the spread of covid-19 in schools, by then education minister Lucia Azzolina and former coronavirus commissioner Domenico Arcuri, appointed by ex-premier Giuseppe Conte.

The 13 companies who won the tenders to supply Italy with millions of desks and chairs with wheels included the Portuguese firm Nautilus - reports Il Tempo - which signed two contracts: one worth 7.3 million for 110,000 single-seat benches, and another worth 2.2 million for 70,000 chairs.

"We do not know if, in the end, they were all delivered," writes Il Tempo.

Arcuri's successor General Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, appointed in March by premier Mario Draghi, has ordered the withdrawal of the Nautilus furniture from 136 schools for failing to comply with regulations on fire safety.

The cost of recalling the furniture is 173,000, on top of the roughly 9 million already spent, according to Il Tempo.

The desks were widely viewed as a flop from the outset, with many school principals putting them in storage over complaints that they took up too much space in already cramped classrooms.
Confindustria gives approval to extension of Green Pass but says state must pay for workers' covid tests.

The scope of Italy's covid Green Pass "will soon be extended", the health minister Roberto Speranza said last night, as part of efforts to "strengthen the vaccination campaign."

The move comes amid ongoing discussions between the government and trade union leaders over extending the requirements of the Green Pass to the workplace, reports news agency ANSA.

What is the Green Pass?

The Green Pass is a digital certificate showing that people have been vaccinated, tested negative or recovered from covid-19, and is required for dining indoors in restaurants, long-distance travel and a host of cultural and leisure activities in Italy.

Green Pass in the workplace

The mandatory Green Pass for public sector employees and workers in sectors where it is already obliged for customers will come into effect in early October, according to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, which identifies "restaurateurs, managers of gyms and swimming pools, long-distance transport operators" as the "first to have to comply" with the new rules currently being fine-tuned.

Italy's minister for public administration Renato Brunetta confirmed that the government is working to make the Green Pass mandatory for public employees, telling state broadcaster RAI News24: "The Green Pass is a license for freedom", adding that he would like to see the obligation extended to "the whole world of work, both public and private."

Confindustria

Carlo Bonomi, president of Confindustria (the main association representing Italy's manufacturing and service companies) gave his approval to making the Green Pass compulsory in the workplace but said the cost of covid testing must be borne by the state, not workers or businesses.

This view was also expressed by the leaders of the Cgil, Cisl and Uil trade unions, who stipulated however that the move must not result in the firing of any employee, "even those who do not take the covid test," reports Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore.

Local transport

The government is not expected to extend the Green Pass requirement for users of local public transport networks, however, due to the logistical difficulties involved in checking commuters.

Schools and universities

Teachers and staff in Italy's schools and universities, as well as college students, are obliged to have the Green Pass under new rules that came into force on 1 September.

Third dose of covid vaccine

Seperately, Minister Speranza confirmed last night that "the third dose will take place in Italy, we will start as early as September with fragile patients such as cancer patients or transplant recipients" before deciding to continue with the over-80s as well as residents and staff of nursing homes.

G20 Pact of Rome

Speranza was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the meeting between G20 health ministers in Rome on Monday. Italy holds the presidency of the G20, or group of 20 rich countries, this year.

At the end of the two-day summit ministers unanimously approved the 'Pact of Rome' which included a political agreement to increase support for poor nations and send them more coronavirus vaccines, Reuters reports.

Compulsory vaccination

The eventual prospect of compulsory vaccination in Italy is also being discussed by the government.

Italy's deputy health minister Pierpaolo Sileri told Corriere della Sera on Sunday that the move must be kept as a "last resort" but warned that there are "3.7 million Italians over 50 who are not yet vaccinated."

Details about the Green Pass can be found - in Italian - on the Certificazione Verde website while for official information about the covid-19 situation in Italy - in English - see the health ministry website.

Photo credit: MikeDotta / Shutterstock.com.
Vatican reportedly suspends three other Swiss Guards until they get vaccinated.

Three members of the Swiss Guard, the small army responsible for protecting the pope, have quit their prestigious posts for refusing to comply with the Vatican's covid-19 protocols.

The "voluntary" departure of the three soldiers, who chose to abandon the small papal army rather than get the covid-19 vaccine, was confirmed by Swiss Guard spokesman Urs Breitenmoser to Swiss newspaper Tribune de Geneve, reports Crux.

The news comes after Pope Francis ushered in a new order, effective from 1 October, requiring Vatican employees to either be vaccinated or provide a negative covid test every 48 hours.

However due to their work in close proximity to the 84-year-old pope, the Swiss Guards are obliged to receive the covid vaccine, according to Crux.

The Associated Press reports that the Vatican has suspended three other Swiss Guards until they are fully vaccinated.

As of 1 October those who enter the Vatican must have the covid Green Pass, issued by the Vatican or the EU, "or a foreign covid-19 green pass attesting to vaccination or recovery" from covid.

Access is also granted to those who have a negative molecular or antigenic covid test, reports Vatican News.

The only exception to entering the Vatican for events without the Green Pass are liturgical ceremonies and Masses celebrated in St Peters Basilica and the parish of S. Anna, and the Sunday weekly Angelus in St Peter's Square, Crux reports.

Pope Francis, a strong advocate of covid vaccines, said in mid-September that everyone in the Vatican is vaccinated "except a small group that we are working out how to help," adding: "Even in the College of Cardinals there are some vaccine deniers."

The pontiff, who is vaccinated, went on to say there was a cardinal "hospitalised with the virus, poor fellow," an apparent reference to conservative US Cardinal Raymond Burke, a noted vaccine sceptic who recently spent several days on a ventilator in intensive care after contracting the coronavirus.

In October last year, 11 Swiss Guards tested positive for covid-19 and were placed in isolation.

The 132 current Swiss Guards belong to the world's oldest standing army which celebrated its 515th anniversary earlier this year.

The guards must be male and of Swiss nationality, as well as being Catholic, unmarried and aged between 19 and 30.

Photo credit: A.J. Olnes / Shutterstock.com.
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More surprising: AI has also been falling short in healthcare, an area which has held some of the most promise for the technology. Earlier this year a study in Nature analyzed dozens of machine-learning models designed to detect signs of COVID-19 in X-rays and CT scans. It found that none could be used in a clinical setting due to various flaws. Another study published last month in the British Medical Journal found that 94% of AI systems that scanned for signs of breast cancer were less accurate than the analysis of a single radiologist. Theres been a lot of hype that [AI scanning in radiology] is imminent, but the hype got ahead of the results somewhat, says Sian Taylor-Phillips, a professor of population health at Warwick University who also ran the study.
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Online health directory HealthEngine has spent the past year connecting thousands of Australians to COVID-19 vaccines, but the business, which launched with the goal of competing with Google in the healthcare space, now has prescription medicine delivery in its sights.

HealthEngine, which was founded in 2006 by Marcus Tan, Adam Yap and Darius Wey, has had an eventful 18 months. In August 2020, it was ordered by the Federal Court to pay $2.9 million for misleading and deceptive conduct for sharing patient information with insurance brokers and publishing misleading ratings of practices on its platforms.

By March 2021, the Telstra Ventures and Seven West Media-backed company had convinced the department of health it had overhauled its systems and was awarded a $4 million federal government contract to build a national COVID-19 vaccine booking platform.

HealthEngines Marcus Tan says the company wants to be much more than a bookings directory.

Dr Tan said the court action against the company was painful, but the situation came about because of outdated business systems rather than any malicious behaviour. Confronting the errors and overhauling its processes put HealthEngine in a better position to win contracts like for vaccine bookings.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Canvas tents billow in the hot wind as the mercury nudges 35 degrees and eddies of brown dust rise and fall. A trio of white men waltz through the crackling dry bush as if they own it, firing gunshots into the air and threatening the local blacks. Down the ridge, a Chinese settlement buzzes with activity. Its the gold rush, Jim, but not as we know it  its the set of New Gold Mountain, SBS first foray into home-grown historical drama, and Yellow Gum Park, a patch of native bushland on the Plenty River in the outer-north of Melbourne, is doubling for the Victorian goldfields circa 1857. Here, the Chinese camp  all timber poles, canvas sheets and commerce  has been beautifully crafted by production designer Paddy Reardon and his team. But for booming Ballarat, the show has made use of a tourist attraction 130 kilometres away, just outside the town itself. We actually wrote the series based around the locations at Sovereign Hill, says executive producer Kylie Du Fresne of Goalpost Pictures (who also produced The Invisible Man, the sci-fi thriller starring Elisabeth Moss). How else are you going to get a Ballarat-in-the-1850s ready-made town? Shing (Yoson An) is a man with one foot in the Chinese world and the other in that of the whites. Credit:SBS Du Fresne happily confesses to having an obsession with Deadwood, the mud-blood-and-lots-of-swearing American gold rush epic created by David Milch for HBO, and wondered why we didnt have a comparable tale here. Probably the last time the story was told was the ABCs Rush in the 1970s, she says. One answer, of course, is money. While Du Fresne found in SBS a like-minded broadcaster with a pile of research on the era to show it was serious, its drama budgets are a fraction of HBOs. In fact, just building the set of an 1850s town would have cost more than the entire series did. Which is where Sovereign Hill, the so-called living museum of the goldfields, entered the picture  and riding right beside it was the pandemic.

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One of the very small silver linings of the COVID world is that they were closed, so we basically had our own back lot, which was amazing, says Du Fresne. If we were shooting this outside of COVID, we would have been working around their opening hours, a couple of hours a day after 5pm. It would have been very challenging. One other benefit was that the inevitable delays  production was meant to start in February 2020, but was pushed to November  meant more time to develop the scripts, with Du Fresne and director Corrie Chen able to work with writer Peter Cox for an additional six months, finessing characters and storylines. Loading And that was just an absolute gift, says Du Fresne. So often were rushing into production, were still writing as we go, were trying to work out logistical impacts at the same time as youre trying to bed down the story. And we didnt have any of that. We had it completely unencumbered, just the writers, Corrie and myself, for six months, going whats the vision, and actually looking at it like a big film. It was such a gift, in fact, that she says Goalpost is looking at ways it can factor in a similarly extended development phase for all future projects. What sets New Gold Mountain apart, though, isnt the Deadwood-size aspiration, or the shutdown-gifted development period. Its that it tells the story of the gold rush  which is arguably one of this resource-dependent nations great foundational tales  through the eyes of Chinese and, to a lesser degree, Indigenous and female participants as well as the white men typically at its centre. In many ways, I feel like Ive been preparing for this show my entire life and career, says Taiwanese-Australian director Chen. The gold rush has always been something thats had a special place and obsession in my heart because its simply the Chinese-Australian story thats been waiting to be told. And in many ways, its the origin story in all its complicated ways, the birth of multiculturalism. Opportunities like these only come around once a career really.

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The story opens with the murder of a white woman, and while the evidence seems to point to the involvement of the Chinese, headman Leung Wei Shing (Yoson An) is determined to find an alternative explanation in a bid to avoid the racial violence he fears will erupt if he cant. Its so raw, says An of the dynamics that exist between the various ethnic groups  Irish, English, Chinese, Indigenous  in the show. Theres not a whole lot of room for wanting to understand one another, not a lot of room for compassion or acceptance, because everyone is in survival mode. Shing strolls through the Chinese camp with Zhang Lei (Mabel Li), who represents the interests of the shadowy and powerful Brotherhood. Credit:SBS That includes Shing, a character loosely based upon the real Fook Shing, a Chinese immigrant to the goldfields in the 1850s who was headman in a camp near Bendigo before becoming the first Chinese detective in the Victorian police force (a position he held until the 1880s, despite his prodigious opium habit). And it includes Belle Roberts (Alyssa Sutherland, from Vikings), a widow who has inherited a goldfields newspaper and teams with Shing to produce a Chinese-language version. Shes a concoction, and sort of representative of a white female at the time, says Sutherland. Belle is recently widowed, she was in an abusive marriage, theres a lot of mixed feelings about the husband passing away. I think its pretty scary to begin with for her to have to make a go of it. For Mulan star An  who was born in China, moved to Australia as a child, but largely grew up and lives in Auckland  an Asian actor taking the lead in SBSs first historical drama is a fact worth celebrating. And the fact Shing is far from a clear-cut hero makes it doubly so. I think its great that I play such a morally ambiguous and complex character. Its important for any actor to play a character thats three-dimensional, thats outside of the model minority type of characters, because at the end of the day its all about the human experience. And Shing being morally ambiguous at times, its a very human trait, regardless of whether Im Asian, white or black.

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In the ongoing discussion around diversity and representation, its not just the stories that matter. Its also who gets to tell them. And for Chen, having someone from a Chinese cultural background directing New Gold Mountain wasnt just a nice aspiration, it was critical. When I first heard about this project, the overwhelming emotion I felt was desperation, she says. I was desperate to see a Chinese-Australian direct this story, it didnt even have to be me, I just wanted someone who could bring a level of personal authenticity that this era deserves. I know what it feels like to be Chinese in this country, I know what it feels like when you step down the street and start speaking with an accent and the way people look at you. Its not an intellectualised experience or aesthetic to me, and for this story, on this show, I really wanted that to happen. And, she adds, I think the desperate energy I put out into the universe allowed it to be so. New Gold Mountain, SBS October 13, 9.30pm. Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.
Faces were blank. There was little to show that this was the place where I might find the ways and means of enhancing my sons sex life. I scurried into the workshop to find a place, not right at the back where I wanted to hide, but in a middle row where there was a seat available right on the aisle. This would be good enough for a discreet exit  I thought  should I want to flee. A reassuring sight was the presenters  a thin, pale man in jeans and a windcheater, and a plump woman in leggings and a striped A-shaped top, up front, persevering with the customary electronic glitches of a PowerPoint presentation. Loading Eventually they projected a title slide that boldly shouted EMPOWERING DISABILITY RIGHTS WITH TOOLS FOR SEXUAL FULFILMENT. Inspired, I wanted to call out, Give me clues about the ethics and mechanics of procuring an appropriate prostitute for my son! Many workshop attendees (me included) were yawning and fidgeting. A photograph popped up of a clear-eyed, smiling woman with a pixie haircut. This was Elizabeth Hastings, public servant and disability self-advocate. In 1993 she became Australias first Disability Discrimination Commissioner when the Keating Labor government passed the Disability Discrimination Act. Our presenter announced, This was the first federal legislation to protect the civil rights of people with disabilities, laying open the way for them to demand their sexual rights.

A new speaker motored his wheelchair to the front of the room. He introduced himself as Dr George Taleporos. He was not a medical doctor, he said, but he had just been awarded a PhD based on research into body image and sexuality and how they are affected by physical disability. Could this be relevant, I wondered, to Julians experience as a person with more of an intellectual than a physical disability? Had Julians self-esteem been damaged by his arrested sexual exploration with Toula? I had further pause for thought when Dr Teleporos launched into an account of sexual facilitation. This is where a support person sets things up for a person with a disability to engage in sexual activity. As far as I knew, Julian was sufficiently physically competent to be able to reach orgasm without assistance. The sort of sexual facilitation he required was of a social nature. The vexed question for me was how could I, as Julians mother, set him up for sexual activity? An answer of sorts came in a tool kit of sex aids distributed by the next presenter. She was a representative of Sexyland, a shop she described as a play centre for adults. She described how sex toys could be adapted to suit people of all abilities and sexual preferences. She spoke about such things as pneumatic aids and switches that would assist people with disabilities to pleasure themselves. Meanwhile, various dildos and other flesh-coloured rubbery devices moved quickly from hand to hand along the rows. I passed them on, avoiding eye contact with the man who took them from me. As the workshop covered the ways and means of technical facilitation of sexual biofeedback loops, I fell into a foggy mood of vague unhappiness. Sexual spontaneity was beginning to seem impossible for a person with a disability. The most intimate relationship a person might have would be with their attendant carer or support worker. But, of course, there were strict rules around how that person could facilitate  but not participate in  sex acts with their client. There was always the risk of the sexual abuse of vulnerable people. Rather than a persons sex needs being kept as private as most of us might prefer, it was a factor of safety to have a number of people around a person with a disability who knew of his or her options and choices for sexual satisfaction.

Loading The next presenter was a sex worker who told us that she specialised in working with people with disability. It hit me that this was the service that might be right for Julian. A slim blonde with a husky voice, she was otherwise unremarkable, dressed neatly in a pale pink shirt tucked into loose brown trousers. Her name was Rachel. She had a degree in psychology and a diploma of massage. Her specialty was house calls to people with disabilities, appointments sometimes made by their parents. Immediately my mind presented obstacles. One would have to wonder about the cost of sexual service provision. How many sessions would it take for the closeness to take effect? And, once effected, how frequently would the encounters be repeated? From Julians reported enthusiasm for Toula, it occurred to me that he might not need so much of the preliminary session. On the other hand, what if he came to like Rachel too much? What if he wanted to see her every day? When he discovered a new computer game or a video, he tended to obsess over it. We learnt that it was fine to let him indulge in the new thing to his full; in a few weeks his interest would wane to the extent that he/we could get his life back into balance. Could we afford for him to follow this pattern with a sex worker? I like the fact that my job is always about pleasure. I take it slow, the first time with a special client. We might talk a little, hug a little; we might spend all of the first time just getting used to closeness. I foresaw another problem. Once sexually ignited by a worker employed for that purpose, he might start to see any female support worker as sexually accessible. I was sure he could be brought to understand the difference, but it would be painstaking, involving lots of reassurance and reinforcement.

I wasnt ready to face the stress and social risks of putting my son in a position where he had to learn how to differentiate sex from other types of human services. Loading I like the fact that my job is always about pleasure, Rachel said. I take it slow, the first time with a special client. We might talk a little, hug a little; we might spend all of the first time just getting used to closeness. People with disabilities yearn to be touched. Many of them receive handling by care-staff assisting them with personal hygiene. But that is not the same as sensual touch. I come into their bedroom with the signal that I am there for the special private purpose of making love. I drew a breath. I hadnt expected the love word. It had my mind whirling. I thought making love was essentially a euphemism for sexual intercourse, something that need not involve love. Yet Rachel the sex worker deliberately favoured use of the phrase making love for her approach to meeting the sexual needs of the vulnerable. She said she brought a tender touch and love  as kindness and sensitivity  to her transactions for their sexual relief.
It was an unexpected moment of raw emotion that cut through the mundanity of another daily coronavirus press conference and encapsulated the tragedy of the pandemic better than any politician ever could.

As she spoke to journalists at the Treasury Theatre late on Sunday morning, Royal Melbourne Hospital nursing manager Michelle Spences voice wavered, her eyes filled with tears.

Dressed in navy-blue scrubs, the senior nurse paused to compose herself and apologised to reporters after being overcome by emotion as she recalled the lonely deaths of those succumbing to coronavirus.

We have had people die in our [intensive care units] by themselves, and we held their hands while their families have to be at home, Ms Spence said. That is absolutely not what this should be about. Loved ones deserve to have their families with them when they die.
A City of Perth council candidate has received planning approval for a two-storey CBD nightclub that would feature a robotic cocktail machine on a rooftop bar.

But the idea for the Hay Street venue, dubbed 11:45, has left some Perth residents concerned about anti-social behaviour, though the owners will consider chartering patrons via buses to nearby train and bus stations if granted a closing time extension of 6am on Sundays.

The proposed 11:45 nightclub with His Majestys Theatre just nearby.

The nightclub licence application at 853 Hay Street was given planning approval on August 5 under the City of Perths preferred use zoning criteria. It did not require consultation with residents and business owners, nor approval from the Perth City Council or CEO.

CBD resident Rob Philbrick, who lives directly across from the proposed nightclub, supported a vibrant Perth but believed nightclubs open until 6am went against the councils strategy to fix anti-social behaviour.
The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption has become the James Comey of Australian politics  announcing an investigation into alleged historical misconduct at the worst possible time, thereby forcing the exit of a powerful female leader the state needs.

Fortunately, we live in a parliamentary democracy and the exit of premier Gladys Berejiklian is not going to lead to the election of a Trump-like replacement. But it is going to deprive the state of steady, experienced leadership, which we trust, at a difficult time. One week before freedom day is not when you want a new leader in charge of public health decisions.

Gladys Berejiklian annouces her resignation as NSW Premier on Friday. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

So why couldnt the ICAC have waited before making its investigation into Berejiklian public? Berejiklian says the COVID-19 crisis made it irresponsible for her to merely stand aside while the investigation was pending, so she resigned. Some might say she could have stayed but that would have been a regrettable weakening of her own high standards for ministers in this context.

There are three reasons that might point against the ICAC choosing to delay an investigation: first, the seriousness of potential alleged misconduct (if a person in public office stole billions of dollars, we would want it investigated promptly). Second, the likelihood of re-offence. And third, the right of the public to make electoral judgments informed by knowledge of potential misconduct.
On the whole, once the under-12 set is taken into account, 85 per cent of the countys total population is fully vaccinated. But in the summer, the population nearly doubles as seasonal residents roost in second homes and caravan parks, some vacationing while others take up seasonal jobs. Then, theres what Gallegos described as the tsunami of tourism  the daily influx of people arriving on the historical railroad from Durango and the dusty jeep trails through the mountains. Many of those visitors are of unknown vaccination status. The countys two-week incidence shot up in August to the highest rate in the state, and stayed there for most of the month. Even though that spike amounted to a grand total of about 40 known cases, it was nearly as many as the county had logged during the entire pandemic  and cases spilt into the vaccinated as well. Any number of cases would be a big deal in a small place without a hospital. We are all one-man bands just trying to make it happen, Gallegos said. The countys public health director, Becky Joyce, for example, does everything from contact tracing and COVID-19 testing to putting shots in arms. And when the county restarted its mask mandate, it was Gallegos who designed the signs and spent her weekend zip-tying them around town. The biggest concentration of COVID-19 cases happened at a caravan, or recreational vehicle (RV), park and a music festival driven indoors by rain.

It makes sense that coming out of three or four weeks of just jamming tourism, people were starting to get sick who work in the restaurants, at the RV parks, Gallegos said. And then you bring all the locals condensed together for a couple of nights of concerts and it was just the trifecta. Dana Chambers, who runs the hardware store in Silverton, was vaccinated as soon as possible. She said returning to a mask mandate felt in some ways like a step back. But, she said, businesses like hers need the summer tourism rush to survive the quiet winter, when just a few hundred tourists come, largely to jump out of helicopters onto ski terrain. If we have to wear the mask, thats what well do. Julia Raifman, a Boston University School of Public Health epidemiologist who is following state pandemic policies, isnt surprised COVID-19 can attack a place like San Juan County despite high vaccination rates. Data shows the vaccines protect against death and hospitalisation due to COVID-19. But even effective vaccines are no match for the transmissibility of delta. Even in the best-case scenario  if vaccines reduce transmission by 80 per cent  youre actually twice as likely to get COVID-19 now than you were in July, Raifman said, due to the viruss recent proliferation. Its impossible statistically to achieve herd immunity with the delta variant.

Meanwhile, many local and national leaders, including in Colorado, continue to focus on the vaccines almost exclusively as the path forward. Talia Quandelacy, an epidemiologist with the University of Colorado-Denver and the Colorado School of Public Health, said the concept of herd immunity in this pandemic has been oversimplified and over-relied-on. Its a useful guide to have some sort of target to aim for, she said. But usually, if we hit a certain metric, that doesnt mean that transmission or the pandemic is just going to disappear. Loading Many scientists agree that, especially with most of the world still unvaccinated, COVID-19 is likely here to stay, eventually morphing into something more like the common cold. Its probably going to be a matter of a couple of years, Quandelacy said. But that seems to be the trajectory that we are on. For that reason, the finish line language used by many politicians has frustrated Anne Sosin, a policy fellow at the Nelson A Rockefeller Centre for Public Policy at Dartmouth College studying COVID-19 and rural health. The vaccines are doing what theyre supposed to do  keeping people from getting really sick, not keeping them from ever getting infected  but that hasnt been communicated well. The messaging around this has not been very nuanced, she said.

She pointed to the experience of an epidemiologist who wrote in August in The Baltimore Sun that hed caught COVID-19 at a house party where all 14 guests and the host were vaccinated. The host had infected him and nine others. As miraculous as they are in keeping people out of the hospital and alive, we cant rely on them alone to prevent infection, Sosin said of the vaccines. The state of Colorado gave away five $US1million cheques in a vaccine lottery to motivate people to get vaccinated. Credit:AP And public health experts said San Juan County shows that measures such as masks, ventilation and distancing are also needed. They are circulating the Swiss cheese model of COVID-19 defence, in which each prevention measure (or layer of cheese) has holes in it, but when stacked together they create an effective defence. Sosin said rural places, in particular, may need those layers of defence because residents are often tightly connected, and disease travels quickly within social networks. Loading Joyce, the public health director, who declined an interview request, wrote on Facebook in August that the countys recent experience proved the vaccine creates a line of defence but does not make us invincible to this disease or the variants.

Raifman views that realisation  paired with San Juans ensuing indoor mask requirement  as a success at a pivotal moment. The month-long mandate was then lifted September 10, as the county had dropped back to a low COVID-19 transmission rate. At the time, it was the only county in Colorado with such low transmission. This is the moment where we kind of define: How are we managing the virus over the longer term? Raifman said. So far, were defining that we dont manage it; we let it manage us. Students wear face coverings as they head into the building for the first day of in-class learning since the start of the pandemic in Denver, Colorado. Credit:AP Even after lifting its mask mandate, the Facebook page of the countys public health department urges residents to wear masks and pay attention to the COVID-19 situation just as you pay attention to the weather. McClatchy
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  Three more Minnesota men were arrested Monday for allegedly participating in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., charged 62-year-old Robert Westbury, his 19-year-old son Isaac Westbury and another man, 35-year-old Aaron James, with crimes ranging from assaulting Capitol police officers to disorderly conduct, the Star Tribune reported. The three men, from Lindstrom, were arrested about six months after another son of Westburys, 26-year-old Jonah Westbury, was also charged in connection with the riot.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)  Law enforcement and education leaders in North Carolina are joining in a campaign it hopes will keep students from being exposed to online pornography and adult sex predators.

The N.C. State Bureau of Investigation, the state Department of Public Instruction and the nonprofit group The Third Talk have partnered on an internet safety video telling middle school and high school students about the dangers of online pornography, The News & Observer of Raleigh reported. Students will see the video in school.
State workers who failed to agree to COVID testing or vaccinations will have at least a couple more days on the job before they risk unpaid suspensions.

And even after suspensions begin, Gov. Ned Lamont said Monday, it is extremely unlikely that any agencies, including the state police, would need assistance from the Connecticut National Guard to do their jobs. Lamont last week placed the Guard on standby in case it was needed.

Lamont cited employee computer problems on Monday when he said he would delay any suspensions. But he admitted a desire to soft pedal the mandatory inoculation and testing programs for tens of thousands of state workers under the executive branch.

Lets see how it sorts out in another day or so, Lamont told reporters.

On Friday, the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) asked for a 20-day grace period, which the governor rejected. Well start keeping you really safe in another 20 days? Thats not the way I work, he said. I dont think its necessary and I dont think its the right thing to do. Weve worked very closely with people, given them time, making sure they get their paperwork in place. The overwhelming number of them are vaccinated. Thank you Connecticut.

Despite Lamont downplaying concerns about unvaccinated state workers, a coalition of state employee unions scheduled a news conference Tuesday about the impending crisis.

Unsafe staffing levels that were already present prior to COVID-19 have since been aggravated by the Lamont Administrations implementation of the vaccine and testing mandates. If not properly addressed, chronic understaffing will continue to threaten the health and safety of state workers and the people they serve, the SEBAC announcement said.

Its unclear whether any state employees are off the job as a result of the vaccination mandate.

Cases of COVID-19 continue to show a decline in Connecticut. On Monday, the state Department of Public Health reported a testing rate of 1.8 percent positivity since Friday, although hospitals saw their count of admitted patients with COVID-19 increase by four, bringing the total to 241. For the seven days going back to Sept. 28, there were 2,986 positive COVID tests out of 152,409, for a 1.95 positivity rate.

Under Lamonts order, as of midnight Monday night, regular state executive branch employees in departments such as transportation and social services, had to document that they were vaccinated, or that they would agree to weekly testing. Similar orders were in effect for thousands more employees in the state court system, in the colleges and universities system and in the legislature.

The governor also downplayed anecdotal reports that the state police and Department of Correction are bastions of unvaccinated state workers.

I dont think its concentrated in any one or two, Lamont said, adding that some employees who are noncompliant may think their managers already know they are inoculated, or thought they had filed their information but did not.

Some of those are inadvertent and we treat them with leniency, Lamont said. Some of those are defiant and just wont do it, and they have got to go home.

Lamont reported Monday night that more than 23,000 of the more than 30,000 executive branch employees  76 percent  are fully vaccinated. More than 5,000  about 17 percent  have agreed to weekly testing and 2,200 are not compliant. This does not mean they had refused vaccinations and testing, although there may be some in that group who refused both, and they would eventually be suspended. Much of the problem was a delay in record keeping, Lamont said Monday.

I think youll find there was a lot of user error, Lamont said. Some of these things are sort of complicated. Youve got to get the right ID number in there and such. Look, its not easy for everybody, especially those of us of a certain age.

Separately, the Judicial Branch, with 3,729 employees, reported 95 percent compliance on the vaccination-or-testing order, with more employees expected to file forms electronically by the midnight Monday deadline. A breakdown of that group was not available. The Legislative Branch has several hundred employees, while the higher education system reported Monday that of the 10,724 faculty and staff, 8,346 have been vaccinated, about 77.8 percent, and 669 have agreed to weekly testing.

But the higher education system received only 9,015 total responses as of Monday night, meaning as many as 1,709 more higher education workers were in danger of missing the compliance deadline.

Lamont, in comments Monday in Stamford and East Hartford, oscillated between a tough stance on employees not complying  saying they had had enough time to be vaccinated  and a softer position on actual suspensions. He said he wanted to avoid suspending anyone trying to comply but who may have had trouble with the reporting system.

The governor last week warned the heads of state agencies to prepare for staff shortages. He also asked Maj. Gen. Francis Evon, the head of the Connecticut National Guard, to prepare for activation so soldiers can fill critical roles until replacement employees can be hired or the workers placed on leave come into compliance.

Also Monday, Lamont said the situation was stable with school bus drivers, many of whom are employees of private companies but are under similar orders. Fears of a widespread driver shortage due to noncompliance have not occurred, he said.

Staff writer Veronica Del Valle contributed to this report.
WESTPORT  A Stamford woman was charged with a DUI following a traffic stop in Westport on March 24.

Around 2 a.m., an officer watched a vehicle exit Interstate 95 onto the Sherwood Island Connector and turn right, heading toward Sherwood Island State Park, which was closed, police said. After the officer observed the driver reverse the car at a high rate of speed, the officer pulled over the vehicle.

In speaking with the driver, Andrea Loaiza, an officer smelled an odor of alcoholic beverage and asked Loaiza to exit the car and perform standardized field sobriety tests, which she failed, police said.

Loaiza, of Morgan St., was arrested and taken to headquarters where a breath test found her to be over the legal limit, police said.

She was charged with operating under the influence of drugs/alcohol and released after posting a $500 bond. Loaiza is scheduled to appear in Norwalk Court April 2.
BRANFORD  A police officer will now be at Board of Education meetings to discourage possible threatening behavior, according to board Chairman John Prins.

The move comes while improving communication has been a recurring theme for the nine-member Board of Education and the panel voted this week on revised board bylaws. The bylaw change modifies a prohibition of disruptive public behavior to include verbally abusive behavior.

We dont serve on this board to be intimidated or threatened. Prins said.

Police Chief Jonathan Mulhern said there havent been any problems at the meetings that hes aware of.

It was a request that came in months ago from the superintendent, Mulhern said. My understanding is that was at the request of some of the board members.

Having police officers at meetings is common in some communities, although its not done in others, he said.

Were there simply for safety and security, Mulhern said.

Board Member Tim Raynor, a proponent of two modifications the panel made, said the board finds itself in a very interesting place. The school board did not give specific examples of incidents it was concerned about.

Raynor said, There is a level of aggression. Courtesy seems to be a thing of the past  I think the fact that we need law enforcement at board meeting showcases the point that courtesy and dialogue seem to be gone in public meetings.

He called the police presence a layer of protection to ward off what other boards in other parts of the country have experienced in recent months.

Prins said his definition of threatening behavior includes speakers who make unsupported or disparaging comments about board members or staff or who approach the board table. He did not immediately respond to an email seeking further comment Friday.

On Thursday the National School Board Association weighed in on school board meeting disruptions that have been taking place nationwide.

It told President Biden in a letter that public education and its leaders allegedly are under an immediate threat and asked for federal law enforcement and other assistance to deal with threats of violence and acts of intimidation occurring across the nation. The letter did not name any incidents in Connecticut.

Local school board members want to hear from their communities on important issues and that must be at the forefront of good school board governance and promotion of free speech. However, there also must be safeguards in place to protect public schools and dedicated education leaders as they do their jobs, the group wrote.

Engagement

In another change made by the Branford board, by a 6-2 vote  with board members Ellen Michaels and Joanne Borrus voting no and Prins not voting  the board decided not only to hear from the public during its regular business meetings but to allow responses to what is said.

Recently, the board also had agreed to allow a dialogue with the public during Communication Committee meetings.

Up until now, comments made by the public during board meetings have been a one-way street. The board and district personnel listen, but rarely responded immediately to questions or comments

Parents had sought better communication while grappling with the pandemic last winter and it was a top recommendation in the school superintendents recent evaluation.

Board member Peter Berdon said he agreed with the proposed bylaw changes, calling them a great idea.

Borrus called it a step backwards. She said making the dialogue optional opened the possibility that only select members of the public would get responses.

Michaels said she wanted to see how the practice plays out in the Communications Committee before expanding it to full board meetings.

I am afraid if we open it up we will be here until 11 or 12 (a.m.), Michaels said.

It concerns me that a board member would verbalize and say that I am concerned the public is going to talk to me too much and we will be there really late, Raynor responded.

Raynor called parent comments, even uncomfortable ones, part of the process.

Since speakers are limited to three minutes each, several board members argued meetings wouldnt go off the rails by allowing board and staff responses to comments.

Superintendent of Schools Hamlet Hernandez warned there are times he might have the answer to every question on the spot.

Prins said he didnt want to see the board thumb its nose at best practices.

Most school boards in the area that he polled on the issue dont respond to public comments during meetings, he said.

He said he also wondered about the structure of exchanges.

Who responds? he said. The first, the loudest?

Board Member Meredith Gaffney said the bylaw change became necessary because of Prins strict rules discouraging responses.

At this weeks meeting there were only a handful of speakers, some in person, one online.

Jennifer Orlando, thanked the board for adding dialogue to public comment.

It is important to the community, Orlando said. We worked hard for that.

She said there also may be some board members who cant distinguish between threats and frustration parents feel when they dont get their questions answers. It is why, she said, they come to speak, meeting after meeting.

Mark Zaretsky contributed to this story.
While many associate October with pink ribbons and breast cancer awareness, the month is also putting a focus on another problem.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, shedding light on a nationwide epidemic that also plagues our Tri-State communities.

But it's not one many organizations are working to fight, and when it came to repeat offenders, one local officer noticed a glaring problem.

"I thought there was a little, maybe an injustice in the way that the domestic violence charges were there," Sergeant Matt Karges with the Evansville Police Department said.

Sgt. Karges has held several positions with EPD over the years, but when reading officer reports as a motor patrol supervisor, he noted the gap between existing laws and enforcement, ultimately leaving victims more vulnerable.

"I'd recommend, ''Hey, I'll get a protective order; help keep this guy from you' and I don't know how many times I've heard 'Oh, that's just a piece of paper'," Karges said. "We're telling people that hey, they've gone out of their way to get this protective order to try and protect them to try and keep this person away from them, and when the actual fear came to fruition, they got abused or battered or hurt, the protective order didn't do anything extra for them."

It was an injustice he wanted to correct so he reached out to local State Representative Wendy McNamara. She represents District 76 which includes portions of Posey and Vanderburgh counties.

"It's those victims who find themselves in unconscionable situations of domestic violence," Rep. McNamara said. "I want to do everything we can to make sure we try and do the best we can to keep that person safe," Rep. McNamara said.

With help from Indiana Senator Michael Crider, Senate Bill 0079 was signed into law in the last legislative session.

Previously just a misdemeanor, the law now raises the crime of domestic battery to a Level 6 felony if the victim has a protective order against the suspect or if the court has issued a no-contact order, and that means potential jail time.

A Level 6 Felony carries a sentence weight of 6 months to 2 1/2 years.

"We'll see that the penalty matches what the victimization is," McNamara said. "As Chair of Courts and Criminal Code, I have a lot of legislation that comes to this particular committee in regards to crimes against women, against men and knowing that we have an advocate in the EPD to recognize situations like this as far as many others, I am very thankful that I have them as a partner in doing a lot of this work."

So far this year, as of Friday, EPD has received 4,417 domestic-related calls, including Family Disputes, Domestic Violence (Dv) in Progress and Dv Reports, though Karges said that number probably doesn't paint the whole picture.

He's hoping however, the new law will help to usher in some change.

"To know that hey, maybe now we'll be able to use this out on the streets; being a policeman, seeing some other policemen will get to put the charge on someone that deserves it," Karges said.

Domestic crimes are some of the most common our officers see. Karges said EPD gets calls on a daily basis.

So, while the calls may, unfortunately, never stop. It's enough to know his efforts will make a difference.

"It's against all the bad elements and it's all across the state so I think it's pretty cool, pretty neat," Karges said. "Hopefully things like this will keep picking up steam and become law in other states as well."

The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence reports 1 in 4 women and 1 in 9 men experience severe intimate partner physical violence at some point in their lives.

The Evansville Police Department's Domestic Violence Unit is located at Hollys House. Vanderburgh County residents seeking to file a protective order, unless they have a pending divorce or legal separation in another court, may file at the Vanderburgh County Clerks Office. There is no charge to file a petition for a protective order.

There are several other local sources for help, including the Albion Fellows Bacon Center and Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
Today

Becoming mostly cloudy with a spotty shower late at night.

Tonight

Becoming mostly cloudy with a spotty shower late at night.

Tomorrow

Mainly cloudy, brisk, and not as warm with a shower or two or some patchy drizzle.
A coalition of more than 20 environmental and climate activist groups has launched a campaign calling for a ban on fossil fuel advertising and sponsorship across the European Union, similar to bans on tobacco advertising. More than 80 Greenpeace activists blocked the entrance to Shells oil refinery in the Dutch port of Rotterdam on Monday to draw attention to the launch of the European Citizens Initiative calling for the advertising ban. The action comes less than a month before the start of the United Nations climate summit, COP26, in Glasgow. Activists used floating cubes emblazoned with fossil fuel-linked advertisements to block the port's entrance, along with the protest ship Beluga, with the words Ban Fossil Fuel Advertising strung between its masts.
Catalonias former separatist leader has walked out of a Sardinian courthouse victoriously after a judge delayed a decision on Spains extradition request and said he was free to travel
The Supreme Court has affirmed a lower court ruling that said District of Columbia residents are not entitled to voting representation in the House of Representatives
Polands influential Catholic Church has appealed for humanitarian assistance for migrants from Iraq, Syria and elsewhere who have been seeking to reach Europe by crossing from Belarus into Poland
Allentown, PA (18103)

Today

Becoming mostly cloudy with a spotty shower late at night. .

Tonight

Becoming mostly cloudy with a spotty shower late at night.
How To Dress Like James Bond: Get the Look from "No Time to Die"
New Study Confirms That A Commonly Used Acid-Reducing Drug Does Not Interfere with the Absorption of A Novel Liquid Levothyroxine Formulation
Survivors of a 2013 capsizing have joined residents of a tiny Italian isle to honor 368 migrants who perished on the anniversary of the offshore tragedy
A new musical steered by the director and choreographer of Come From Away, with tunes from a Bon Jovi band member and lyrics by Tony Award-winning musical Memphis: seems like a pretty palatable offering, right?

Wrong  but the credentials behind the Diana musical, which has been, for some unfathomable reason, launched on Netflix before it hits the Broadway stage later this year (it was taped during lockdown last summer) are relatively chunky. There are a lot of theatre awards and top-notch creatives behind the project, which leaps onto the Royal bandwagon with unapologetic glee.

The question is  is the musical bad because it handles the subject of Diana Spencer poorly, or is it simply a bad production full stop? The answer to both, it's relatively unpleasant to state, is yes: there's probably a reason why this show wasn't sent to critics before its unceremonious dumping on Netflix on Friday (it's taken a weekend to digest, so excuse the lateness of this review).

The plot, which charts Diana's courtship through to her arrival at superstar status after the collapse of her marriage (tastefully the events that come later are only alluded to), is basically what you'd get from someone writing an entry on SparkNotes after watching season four of The Crown on 2x speed at 10am on a Sunday while nursing a monster-level hangover. The evil photographers, the unreciprocating prince, the Machiavellian Camilla are all present in this bloated, poorly-lit experience, with mundane, repetitive choreography, tacky two-dimensional sets, underwhelmingly artificial costumes and instantly forgettable tunes.

Funnily enough, having gone over and re-watched it (though perhaps sacrilegious to admit) Diana is actually significantly better if you do watch it at a faster pace using Netflix's speed function, where it ends up like some gawky British attempt to replicate Hamilton ("Darling I'm holding our son, so let me say 'jolly well done'".)

It's all an underwhelming, unpleasant endeavour that has little to say and far too long to say it in. One number, focussing on Diana's wedding, seems to just be the words "I Will" repeated over and over again.

Launching a musical about such a high-profile subject matter was never going to end well  and placing it in front of the largest audience imaginable online may simply draw longer and a larger flock of knives. So the question comes back to: "why?"

What's sad is that with the pile-on the Netflix release has received, already the wider musical theatre community is seemingly tarred by the same brush. "I've always said musicals, as an art form, should be banned from society and this has only hardened my stance", one BBC reporter splurges onto Twitter.

Like a barking puppy, the best course of action is just to ignore it: so please, rather than watching Diana, go, look and pay for new musicals either online or on stage  those full to the brim with fresh ideas ready to reinvent the form. They aren't hard to find, we cover them every day. Alternatively/additionally, hang fire for the new film version of Jonathan Larson's tick, tick...boom!, being released on Netflix next month.

They'll be so much more interesting than this royal mess. "We dare you to look away", one lyric states. It should be a recommendation.
Williamson, WV (25661)

Today

Thunderstorms this evening, then skies turning partly cloudy after midnight. Areas of patchy fog developing. Low 62F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms this evening, then skies turning partly cloudy after midnight. Areas of patchy fog developing. Low 62F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP)  Captain Kirk is rocketing into space next week  boldly going where no other sci-fi stars have gone.

FILE - In this May 6, 2018 file photo, actor William Shatner takes questions from reporters after delivering the commencement address at New England Institute of Technology graduation ceremonies, in Providence, R.I. Star Treks Captain Kirk is rocketing into space this month  boldly going where no other sci-fi actors have gone. Jeff Bezos space travel company, Blue Origin, announced Monday, Oct. 4, 2021 that Shatner will blast off from West Texas on Oct. 12. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, file)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP)  Captain Kirk is rocketing into space next week  boldly going where no other sci-fi stars have gone.

Jeff Bezos space travel company, Blue Origin, announced Monday that Star Trek actor William Shatner will blast off from West Texas on Oct. 12.

Yes, its true; Im going to be a 'rocket man!' the 90-year-old tweeted. He added: Its never too late to experience new things.

Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is a huge fan of the sci-fi series and even had a cameo as a high-ranking alien in the 2016 film Star Trek Beyond." His rocket company invited Shatner to fly as its guest.

Shatner will become the oldest person to go to space. Hell join three others  two of them paying customers  aboard a Blue Origin capsule. He'll wind up being the second actor to reach space this month: Russia is launching an actress and a film director to the International Space Station on Tuesday for almost two weeks of moviemaking.

Shatner's flight, by comparison, will last just 10 minutes and reach no higher than about 66 miles (106 kilometers). The capsule will parachute back to the desert floor, not far from where it took off.

FILE - In this 1988 file photo, William Shatner, who portrays Capt. James T. Kirk, attends a photo opportunity for the film "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier." Star Treks Captain Kirk is rocketing into space this month  boldly going where no other sci-fi actors have gone. Jeff Bezos space travel company, Blue Origin, announced Monday, Oct. 4, 2021 that Shatner will blast off from West Texas on Oct. 12. (AP Photo/Bob Galbraith)

With flights short or long, space tourism is picking up steam fast.

Virgin Galactic carried founder Richard Branson to the edge of space with five others in July, followed nine days later by Bezos' space hop. Elon Musk's SpaceX, meanwhile, launched its first private crew last month  a Pennsylvania entrepreneur who bought the three-day flight and took along two contest winners and a cancer survivor.

Virgin Galactic's ship launches from an airplane and requires two pilots. Blue Origin and SpaceX's capsules are fully automated, but the passengers must pass medical screenings and, among other things, be able to quickly climb several flights of steps at the launch tower to get to the capsule  or out of it in an emergency.

This will be Blue Origins second launch of a crew.

Bezos was on the debut flight on July 20. He took along his brother, an 18-year-old from the Netherlands and 82-year-old aviation pioneer Wally Funk  the youngest and oldest to fly in space. Shatner will break that upper threshold by eight years.

"Ive heard about space for a long time now. Im taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle, Shatner said in a statement.

Shatner played the role of the USS Starship Enterprise's commander for three seasons, from 1966 to 1969. He also portrayed Captain James T. Kirk in seven movies, directing one of them. He's currently the host and executive producer of a History Channel show, The UnXplained.

The ashes of two other Star Trek powerhouses  creator Gene Roddenberry and actor James Doohan, who played Scotty  rocketed into space years ago following their deaths.

Also launching with Shatner: a former NASA engineer who founded a nanosatellite company and the co-founder of a software company specializing in clinical research. The two took part in the auction for a seat on the first flight. That seat cost $28 million; Blue Origin isn't divulging any other ticket prices.

A fourth seat on the flight is going to Blue Origin's vice president of mission and flight operations, who used to work for NASA as a space station flight controller.

A Blue Origin spokeswoman said Shatner, like the others, met all the company's health and physical requirements.

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Last week, more than 20 current and former Blue Origin employees accused the Kent, Washington-based company of having a toxic work environment and not adhering to proper safety protocols. Blue Origin said it doesnt tolerate harassment or discrimination and stood by its safety record.

Bezos' company is also challenging a NASA contract award to SpaceX for providing a lunar lander that will return astronauts to the moon in a few years. Blue Origin was unsuccessful in its bid for the job.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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This story has been corrected to show that Shatner will be oldest to go to space by eight years, not six.
VATICAN CITY (AP)  Defense lawyers are questioning the legitimacy of the Vatican tribunal where 10 people are on trial on finance-related charges, arguing their clients cant get a fair trial in an absolute monarchy where the pope has already intervened in the case and where prosecutors have failed to turn over key evidence.

FILE - In this Friday, Sept. 25, 2020 file photo, Cardinal Angelo Becciu talks to journalists during a press conference in Rome. Defense lawyers are questioning the very legitimacy of the Vatican tribunal where 10 people are on trial, including Becciu, on finance-related charges, arguing their clients cant get a fair trial in an absolute monarchy where the pope has already intervened in the case and where prosecutors have failed to turn over key pieces of evidence. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)

VATICAN CITY (AP)  Defense lawyers are questioning the legitimacy of the Vatican tribunal where 10 people are on trial on finance-related charges, arguing their clients cant get a fair trial in an absolute monarchy where the pope has already intervened in the case and where prosecutors have failed to turn over key evidence.

In defense motions ahead of the trial's resumption on Tuesday, lawyers have alleged numerous procedural violations by prosecutors that they say should nullify the indictment. They have questioned what redress they have, since the Holy See has never signed any international convention guaranteeing fair trials or providing recourse to the European Court of Human Rights.

"These are harmful to the right of the defense that affect the right to a fair trial," said Fabio Viglione, attorney for Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the lone cardinal on trial.

The trial concerns the Holy Sees 350 million euro investment in a London property deal but has expanded to include other alleged financial crimes. During the preliminary hearing in July, defense lawyers had balked that they had only had a few days to read the 28,000 pages of evidence gathered by prosecutors over two years to understand the accusations against their clients. Key documents were either missing or couldnt be accessed.

The tribunal president, Giuseppe Pignatone, ordered the popes prosecutors to make the documents available as well as a key missing piece of evidence: the videotaped interrogations of the prosecutors prime suspect-turned-star witness, Monsignor Alberto Perlasca. He was the Vatican official most intimately involved in the London real estate deal that lost the Holy See tens of millions of euros, much of it donations from the faithful, spent on fees to Italian brokers who are accused of defrauding the pope.

Perlascas five spontaneous declarations were so important to the prosecutions case that they apparently spared him indictment and formed the basis of several charges against the defendants. One led to a witness-tampering charge against Becciu.

But the prosecutors refused to abide by Pignatones order to produce Perlascas videotaped testimony, citing his right to privacy. The defense has only seen a summary of Perlascas account, and Beccius legal team only learned of the witness-tampering accusation when the indictment was handed down on July 3.

In a defense memo submitted last week and obtained by The Associated Press, lawyers representing another defendant, Cecilia Marogna, said such behavior by prosecutors to refuse an order of the tribunal president would never be tolerated in an Italian court.

"In a normal situation, in all countries having a judicial system that could be considered autonomous and impartial and structured in a way to safeguard a fair trial, the refusal would have been immediately sanctioned," said the memo by international law expert, Riccardo Sindoca.

On Sept. 21, prosecutors also informed the defense and the tribunal that, due to "internal organizational problems," they couldnt meet Pignatones deadline to provide forensic copies of data from cellphones, laptops and other electronic devices that had been seized from the defendants.

Sindoca's motion also argued that the tribunal judges cant be considered truly impartial or independent since Pope Francis hired them and can fire them, and that they took oaths to be "loyal to and obey" the pope, not the law as is the case for judges in Italy. As an absolute monarch, Francis wields supreme legislative, executive and judicial power in Vatican City.

The defense is not alone in finding structural problems in the Vatican tribunal. In June, the Council of Europes Moneyval evaluators faulted the Vaticans reliance on part-time, temporary prosecutors and judges who also practice in Italy, warning that they might have conflicts of interest.

AP asked the prosecutors office in January about possible conflicts of interest, and was told the question was "totally specious and devoid of any technical basis." Saying there had never been a conflict, the prosecutors said their work in Italy as registered lawyers "is only evidence of the professionalism they have achieved."

Francis, for his part, has insisted that the Vatican judiciary has "become more independent" in recent years and has pointed to the trial as evidence that his financial transparency reforms are working. Yet Francis also boasted that he personally intervened to encourage the two Vatican officials who raised red flags about irregularities in the London deal to make formal complaints to prosecutors.

In his zeal, Francis then issued four separate executive decrees during the two-year investigation giving prosecutors sweeping powers to investigate even "where necessary to derogate from" existing laws, to conduct wiretaps and to suspend Vatican confidentiality rules for documents.

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Defense lawyer Luigi Panella, representing the Vaticans longtime money manager Enrico Crasso, argued during the opening hearing that such interference from the executive power, and the carte blanche Francis gave prosecutors to disregard existing laws, amounted to the creation of an ad hoc "special tribunal," which is expressly outlawed in Italy.

Prosecutors, for their part, insisted that the defense rights had all been respected, defended the legitimacy of the trial and Francis' executive decrees and reminded lawyers that the church's canon law forms the basis of Vatican law, not Italian legislation. Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi acknowledged during the July hearing that if there were procedural errors, he was ready to remedy them.

Backing him up, attorney Paola Severino, who is representing the Secretariat of State as an injured party in the case, called for the defense motions to be dismissed.

In addition to the executive decrees, Francis has also intervened personally in the case. He essentially declared Becciu guilty last year when he forced his resignation as head of the Vaticans saint-making office, citing a 100,000 euro transfer of Vatican money to a diocesan charity run by his brother.

Becciu is now on trial for that transfer, but Francis recently told the COPE broadcaster of the Spanish bishops conference he hopes "with all my heart," that Becciu is found innocent.

"He was a collaborator of mine and helped me a lot," Francis told COPE. " My wish is that it turns out well."
PARIS (AP)  An independent commission examining sex abuse within the Roman Catholic Church in France believes 3,000 child abusers  two-thirds of them priests  have worked in the church over the past 70 years.

PARIS (AP)  An independent commission examining sex abuse within the Roman Catholic Church in France believes 3,000 child abusers  two-thirds of them priests  have worked in the church over the past 70 years.

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The estimate was given by the commission president, Jean-Marc Sauve, in an interview published Sunday in the newspaper Journal du Dimanche. The commission has been investigating for 2 1/2 years. Its full findings are scheduled to be released on Tuesday.

In the interview, Sauve did not give a figure on the number of sex abuse victims but said the report does include a new estimate.

Asked about the commission's work investigating child abusers, he said: We evaluated their number at 3,000, out of 115,000 priests and church people since the 1950s. Two-thirds are diocesan priests."

He said 22 cases have been forwarded to prosecutors for alleged crimes that can still be pursued. More than 40 cases of alleged crimes that are too old to be prosecuted but that involve suspects who are still alive have been forwarded to church officials, Sauve said.

From 1950 to 1970, the church is completely indifferent to the victims: They don't exist, the suffering inflicted on children is ignored, the newspaper quoted him as saying. The periods that followed were different.

He added: Our objective is to furnish a concrete diagnosis of all the abuses, to identify the causes and draw all of the consequences."
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP)  Officials investigating one of Californias largest recent oil spills are looking into whether a ship's anchor may have struck an oil pipeline on the ocean floor, causing heavy crude to leak into coastal waters and foul beaches, authorities said Monday.

An aerial photo shows the closed beach after oil washed up on Huntington Beach, Calif., on Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. A major oil spill off the coast of Southern California fouled popular beaches and killed wildlife while crews scrambled Sunday, to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP)  Officials investigating one of Californias largest recent oil spills are looking into whether a ship's anchor may have struck an oil pipeline on the ocean floor, causing heavy crude to leak into coastal waters and foul beaches, authorities said Monday.

The head of the company that operates the pipeline said company divers were inspecting the area of the suspected leak that was discovered Saturday, and he expected that by Tuesday there would be a clearer of what caused the damage.

A anchor from a cargo ship striking the pipeline is "one of the distinct possibilities" behind the leak, Amplify Energy CEO Martyn Willsher told a news conference. He said divers have examined more than 8,000 feet (2,438 meters) of the pipeline and were focusing on "one area of significant interest."

Lifeguards ready to post signs warning that water contact may cause illness, as they close the beach after an oil spill in Huntington Beach, Calif., Sunday., Oct. 3, 2021. The closure stretched from the Huntington Beach Pier nearly 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) south to the Santa Ana River jetty amid summerlike weather that would have brought beachgoers to the wide strand for volleyball, swimming and surfing. Yellow caution tape was strung between lifeguard towers to keep people away. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

Cargo ships entering the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach routinely pass through the area, Coast Guard officials said. Backlogs have plagued the ports in recent months and several dozen or more of the giant vessels have regularly been anchored as they wait to enter the ports and unload.

"Were looking into if it could have been an anchor from a ship, but thats in the assessment phase right now," Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Jeannie Shaye said.

The spill sent up to 126,000 gallons (572,807 liters) of heavy crude into the ocean, contaminating the sands of famed Huntington Beach and other coastal communities. The spill could keep beaches closed for weeks or longer.

The Orange County district attorney, Todd Spitzer, said he has investigators looking into whether he can bring state charges for the spill even though the leak occurred in waters overseen by the U.S. government.

Cleanup contractors deploy skimmers and floating barriers known as booms to try to stop further oil crude incursion into the Wetlands Talbert Marsh in Huntington Beach, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021. One of the largest oil spills in recent Southern California history fouled popular beaches and killed wildlife while crews scrambled Sunday to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

Spitzer also said Amplifys divers should not be allowed near the pipeline without an independent authority alongside them.

Other potential criminal investigations were being pursued by the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Central District of California, the Coast Guard and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, officials said.

Safety advocates have pushed for years for federal rules that would strengthen oil spill detection requirements and force companies to install valves that can automatically shut down the flow of crude in case of a leak. The oil and pipeline industries have resisted such requirements because of the high cost.

"If the operator had more valves installed on this line, theyd have a much better chance at having the point of failure isolated by now," said Bill Caram with the Pipeline Safety Trust, an organization based in Bellingham, Washington.

Oil is shown washed up in Huntington Beach, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021. One of the largest oil spills in recent Southern California history fouled popular beaches and killed wildlife while crews scrambled Sunday to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands. At least 126,000 gallons (572,807 liters) of oil spilled into the waters off Orange County, according to a statement from the city of Huntington Beach. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

The pipeline was built using a process known as electric resistance weld, according to a regulatory filing from the company. That welding process has been linked to past oil pipeline failures because corrosion can occur along seams, according to government safety advisories and Pipeline Safety Trust Director Bill Caram.

Annual reports filed with federal regulators in 2019 and 2020 showed inspections for the inside and outside of the pipe revealed nothing requiring repairs.

On Sunday as the extent of the spill was being revealed environmentalists had feared the oil might devastate birds and marine life in the area. But Michael Ziccardi, a veterinarian and director of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network, said only four oily birds had been found so far. One suffered chronic injuries and had to be euthanized, he said.

"Its much better than we had feared," he said at a news conference Monday.

Cleanup contractors get ready to work in the Wetlands Talbert Marsh after an oil spill in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. A major oil spill off the coast of Southern California fouled popular beaches and killed wildlife while crews scrambled Sunday, to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

Ziccardi said hes "cautiously optimistic," but its too soon to know the extent of the spills effect on wildlife. In other offshore oil spills, the largest number of oiled birds have been collected two to five days after the incident, he said.

Amplify operates three oil platforms about 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) off the coast of California, all installed between 1980 and 1984. The company also operates a 16-inch pipeline that carries oil from a processing platform to an onshore storage facility in Long Beach. The company has said the oil appears to be coming from a rupture in that pipeline about 4 miles (6.44 kilometers) from the platform.

In a 2016 spill-response plan submitted to federal regulators, the company said its worst-case spill scenario was based on the assumption of a "full guillotine cut" of the pipeline occurring 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) inland from one of its platforms. But an outside consultant concluded that a spill of that size was "very unlikely" at that location because the line is 120 feet deep and beneath a shipping lane where ships do not normally anchor.

The Beta oil field has been owned by at least seven different corporations since it was discovered by Royal Dutch Shell in 1976, records show. A corporate predecessor of Amplify bought the operation in 2012.

Crews continue to clean the oil in the Wetlands Talbert Marsh after an oil spill in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Huntington Beach, Calif., on Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. A major oil spill off the coast of Southern California fouled popular beaches and killed wildlife while crews scrambled Sunday, to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

The Amplify subsidiary known as Beta Operating Co. has been cited 125 times for safety and environmental violations since 1980, according to a database from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the federal agency that regulates the offshore oil and gas industry. The online database provides only the total number of violations, not the details for each incident.

The company was fined a total of $85,000 for three incidents. Two were from 2014, when a worker who was not wearing proper protective equipment was shocked with 98,000 volts of electricity. The worker survived. In a separate incident, crude oil was released through a boom where a safety device had been improperly bypassed.

In 1999, an undersea pipeline running between two platforms sprang two leaks totaling at least 3,800 gallons of oil, causing tar balls to wash up on beaches in Orange County.

The cause of of the leaks was determined to be corrosion that caused pin-sized holes in the steel walls of the pipeline. The owner of the oil field at the time, a partnership between Mobil Oil Corp. and Shell Oil Co. called Aera Energy LLC, was fined $48,000 by federal regulators  a penalty environmental groups criticized as a slap on the wrist.

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Before the spill, Amplify had high hopes for the Beta oil field and was pouring millions of dollars into upgrades and new "side track" projects that would tap into oil by drilling laterally.

"We have the opportunity to keep going for as long as we want," Willsher said in an August conference call with investors. He added there was capacity "up to 20,000 barrels a day."

Investors shared Willshers optimism, sending the company's stock up more than sevenfold since the beginning of the year to $5.75 at the close of trading on Friday. The stock plunged 43% in trading Monday.

The company filed for bankruptcy in 2017 and emerged a few months later. It had been using cash generated by the Beta field and others in Oklahoma and Texas to pay down $235 million in debt.

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Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker in Washington, Bernard Condon in New York, Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, and Amy Taxin in Huntington Beach, California, contributed to this report.
NEW YORK (AP)  A COVID-19 vaccine requirement for teachers and other staff members took effect Monday in New York City's million-plus-student public school system, in a key test of the employee vaccination mandates being rolled out across the country.

FILE - Teachers protest against the COVID-19 vaccination mandates in New York on Wednesday Aug. 25, 2021. New York City teachers and other school staff members are supposed to be vaccinated against COVID-19 when the bell rings Monday morning, Oct. 4 in one of the first districtwide mandates requiring school employees to be inoculated against the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

NEW YORK (AP)  A COVID-19 vaccine requirement for teachers and other staff members took effect Monday in New York City's million-plus-student public school system, in a key test of the employee vaccination mandates being rolled out across the country.

The city had planned to bring in substitutes where needed, with Mayor Bill de Blasio warning that unvaccinated school employees would be placed on unpaid leave. But 95% of the citys roughly 148,000 public school staffers had received at least one vaccine dose as of Monday morning, including 96% of teachers and 99% of principals, de Blasio said.

Our parents need to know their kids will be safe, the mayor said. They entrust us with their children. Thats what this mandate is all about. Every adult in our schools is now vaccinated, and thats going to be the rule going forward.

Schools Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter said she did not know exactly how many employees had declined the shots and been put on leave.

Implementing the mandate smoothly could be a test for de Blasio, a Democrat who boasted of the citys record of keeping school buildings open during most of the last school year when other districts went to all-remote instruction. New York City is not offering a remote option this year.

FILE - A girl passes a "Welcome Back to School" sign as she arrives for the first day of class at Brooklyn's PS 245 elementary school, Monday, Sept. 13, 2021, in New York. New York City teachers and other school staff members are supposed to be vaccinated against COVID-19 when the bell rings Monday morning, Oct. 4 in one of the first districtwide mandates requiring school employees to be inoculated against the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

The nation's largest school system is one of the first in the country to require inoculations for all its staffers. The system's mandate does not include a test-out option, but does allow for medical and religious exemptions. A similar mandate is set to go into effect in Los Angeles on Oct. 15.

Some 43,000 doses have been administered since the mandate was announced Aug. 23, de Blasio said.

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona hailed the vaccine mandate, saying New York City is doing it right."

FILE - Students are greeted by faculty as they arrive at PS811 in New York, Monday, Sept. 13, 2021. New York City teachers and other school staff members are supposed to be vaccinated against COVID-19 when the bell rings Monday morning, Oct. 4 in one of the first districtwide mandates requiring school employees to be inoculated against the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

Students need to be in the classroom. They need to be safe and we need to make sure were doing everything possible to let our staff get vaccinated and make sure that our schools are as safe as possible," Cardona said.

Vaccination rates rose in every school job category after the mandate was announced. District Council 37 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents some 20,000 city Department of Education employees, said 93% of those workers had provided proof of at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose as of Sunday, up from 68% at the beginning of September.

Under a deal worked out with the city, unvaccinated District Council 37 members who want to apply for a medical or religious exemption have until 5 p.m. Tuesday to do so, union officials said in a news release.

A school bus passes through a steam vent on a morning route, Monday, Oct. 4, 2021, in the Manhattan borough of New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

The mandate was supposed to go into effect last week, but was delayed when a federal appeals court granted a temporary injunction sought by a group of teachers. An appeals panel reversed that decision three days later. A request to the Supreme Court for an injunction was also denied.

Roxanne Rizzi, who teaches technology at an elementary school in Queens, waited until Friday to get her first coronavirus vaccine shot.

I had to do it for the finances of my family, she said.

Students wear protective masks as they arrive for classes at The Lang School, Monday, Oct. 4, 2021, in the Manhattan borough of New York. New York City teachers and other school staff members are supposed to be vaccinated against COVID-19 when the bell rings Monday morning, in one of the first school district mandates in the country requiring employees to be inoculated against the coronavirus. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Rizzi, 55, had resisted the vaccine because she contracted COVID-19 in November and believed natural immunity would protect her. She said she would continue to protest the mandate.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people should get vaccinated even if they have already been infected by the virus. The agency says COVID-19 vaccines offer better protection than natural immunity and help prevent getting infected again.

Some people vocally opposed to vaccine mandates did protest Monday. Video posted to social media showed demonstrators marching in locations around the city, including outside a Department of Education building in Brooklyn, carrying signs saying things such as: Resist Medical Tyranny!

Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, a New York City teachers union, takes questions from reporters during a news conference, Monday, Oct. 4, 2021, in the Manhattan borough of New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Another video on social media showed people overturning a COVID-19 testing facilitys tent and table as the protesters marched passed it.

Many students and parents support the vaccine mandate as the best way to keep schools open during the pandemic.

Its safer for our kids, said Joyce Ramirez, 28, who was picking her three children up from a Bronx elementary school last week.

Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, a New York City teachers union, speaks during a news conference, Monday, Oct. 4, 2021, in the Manhattan borough of New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Cody Miller, a 15-year-old sophomore at a high school in Manhattan, said teachers should all be vaccinated. I think they should, said the teen, who got vaccinated himself as soon as the Pfizer shot was approved for people 12 and up. Its so many kids, its a big environment, you know?

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But Mally Diroche, another Bronx parent, had mixed feelings. I kind of feel like thats a decision they should be able to make on their own, said the mom of three boys between 3 and 12. Diroche, 29, said she feels that masks and other precautions can check the spread of the virus within schools.

The COVID-19 vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. were tested in tens of thousands of people and proven to be both safe and effective at dramatically reducing the risk of serious disease and death. The vaccines now have been given to more than 200 million Americans and that real-world use plus extra government safety tracking have made clear that serious side effects are extremely rare  and that any risk is far lower than the risks posed by COVID-19.

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This story has been corrected to show that 43,000 is the estimated number of vaccine doses administered since Aug. 23, not the number of employees who have been vaccinated.

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Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz and Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.
DETROIT (AP)  Canada invoked a treaty with the United States and asked a judge Monday to suspend litigation over Michigan's effort to shut down a Great Lakes oil pipeline.

DETROIT (AP)  Canada invoked a treaty with the United States and asked a judge Monday to suspend litigation over Michigan's effort to shut down a Great Lakes oil pipeline.

Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau made clear that his government is backing Enbridge, the Calgary-based company that operates Line 5.

Canada said it requested negotiations with the U.S. about the pipeline. It cited a provision in a 1977 treaty that says no public authority in either country can take steps to interfere with the flow of hydrocarbons.

For more than 65 years, Line 5 has been the safest way to transport Canadian hydrocarbons from western Canada to central Canada, helping provide energy that is essential for heating homes and powering Canadas economy, Garneau said.

Line 5 moves about 23 million gallons (87 million liters) of oil and natural gas liquids daily between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario, traversing parts of northern Michigan and Wisconsin.

A section of the pipeline runs on the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, which connects lakes Huron and Michigan at the top of Michigans Lower Peninsula. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel, both Democrats, say Line 5 is a grave threat to the Great Lakes and should be closed to prevent spills.

In a federal court in Michigan, an attorney representing Canada said the treaty's dispute settlement process must trigger a pause in any litigation.

Whitmer said she was disappointed by Canadas decision to invoke the treaty.

Rather than taking steps to diversify energy supply and ensure resilience, Canada has channeled its efforts into defending an oil company with an abysmal environmental track record, Whitmer said, noting a Enbridge pipeline rupture into a southwestern Michigan river in 2010.

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A mediator had been working with Michigan and Enbridge to try to reach a settlement about Line 5, but the talks ended Sept. 9 without an agreement.

We greatly appreciate the efforts of 'Team Canada, from the government of Canada to the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and Saskatchewan, for their commitments and efforts to keep Line 5 open, Enbridge said Monday.

Before Whitmer took office in 2019, Enbridge had reached a deal with Republican Gov. Rick Snyder to protect the pipeline by building a tunnel by 2024.

Garneau said Canada supports that plan.

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OTTAWA - Canada is formally invoking a 1977 pipeline treaty with the United States in a bid to prevent Michigan from turning off the taps to Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline.

Fresh nuts, bolts and fittings are ready to be added to the east leg of the pipeline near St. Ignace as Enbridge prepares to test the east and west sides of the Line 5 pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac in Mackinaw City, Mich., on June 8, 2017. Canada is formally invoking a treaty on pipelines with the United States in a bid to prevent Michigan from turning off the taps to Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Detroit News - Dale G Young, *MANDATORY CREDIT*

OTTAWA - Canada is formally invoking a 1977 pipeline treaty with the United States in a bid to prevent Michigan from turning off the taps to Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline.

Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau said in a statement Monday that the transit pipeline treaty "guarantees the uninterrupted transit of light crude oil and natural gas liquids between the two countries."

Line 5 carries 540,000 barrels of light crude and natural gas liquids between Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ont., which the company and other proponents say are a critical energy source in the U.S. Midwest, as well as Ontario and Quebec.

But almost a year ago, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer revoked an easement granted to the pipeline in 1953 which had allowed it to run through the Straits of Mackinac, a water body connecting Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

Citing potential catastrophic environmental consequences if the aging pipeline ruptures, Whitmer gave Enbridge six months to shut off the flow. Enbridge challenged the order in court, and the two sides have been engaged in court-ordered mediation talks for months.

Those talks are now at a standstill, with Michigan indicating last month it had no desire to continue.

Canada had already argued in a brief submitted to the court last spring that the case should be set aside to allow Canada and the United States to negotiate a solution under the transit pipeline treaty.

With the mediation talks now not moving, Canada has formally requested the dispute process of the treaty to begin, and its lawyer asked the U.S. federal judge to halt further court proceedings pending the outcome of the treaty talks.

"In response to Michigans efforts to shut down Line 5, Canada has raised its significance for Canadian economic and energy security at the highest levels of the U.S. federal government," Garneau said.

"We have also stressed the importance of fully respecting and implementing the international agreements that are in place between our two countries."

The dispute mechanism first calls for negotiations between the two federal governments. If those fail, either side can request binding arbitration, a process that could take six months just to get the arbitrators in place.

Whitmer said in a statement she was "profoundly disappointed" by Canada's move, and asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to reverse the decision. She said she expected more from Canada, "a nation that prides itself on its commitment to environmental protection" and accused it of bowing to the bidding of the company responsible for the 2010 oil spill in the Kalamazoo River.

That rupture of Enbridge's Line 6B spilled more than 3.8 million litres of diluted bitumen into the river in one of the largest inland oil spills ever seen in the U.S.

"I remain confident that Michigan will prevail in its legal efforts with respect to Line 5, regardless of todays action, and I will continue to fight to get the pipelines out of the water," said Whitmer.

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Canadian environmental groups were on Whitmer's side.

Michelle Woodhouse, the water program manager at Environmental Defence, said the pipeline "poses an unacceptable threat to the Great Lakes," including to the way of life of Indigenous Peoples in the region. She also said Canada has not done the research to prove the true importance of the pipeline to Ontario and Quebec.

"Yet Canada seems to be accepting Enbridges claims about this dangerous pipeline unequivocally, while downplaying the risks posed to the Great Lakes and to climate," she said. "We know alternatives exist  an independent analysis shows the existing pipeline system has capacity to meet most of the regions energy needs without Line 5."

Ontario Premier Doug Ford backed the Canadian move, as did Enbridge. In a statement the company said the pipeline has operated safely for 68 years and provided a "much needed source of energy."

"To have that threatened by a single governmental entity creates concerns about energy security as winter approaches and the economy as the region looks to re-emerge from the pandemic," the company said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2021.
Former U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, a conservative Missouri Republican whose comment that women's bodies have a way of avoiding pregnancies in cases of legitimate rape sunk his bid for the U.S. Senate and became a cautionary tale for other GOP candidates, has died. He was 74.

FILE - In this Nov. 5, 2012, file photo, Todd Akin, then a Missouri Republican Senate candidate, campaigns in Florissant, Mo. Akin, whose "legitimate rape" comments during the 2012 U.S. Senate campaign were roundly criticized has died. He was 74. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

Former U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, a conservative Missouri Republican whose comment that women's bodies have a way of avoiding pregnancies in cases of legitimate rape sunk his bid for the U.S. Senate and became a cautionary tale for other GOP candidates, has died. He was 74.

Akin had cancer for several years, his son Perry said in a statement. He died late Sunday at his home in Wildwood, a St. Louis suburb.

FILE - In this Aug. 16, 2012, file photo, Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., and his wife Lulli, talk with reporters while attending the Governor's Ham Breakfast at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia, Mo. Akin, whose comment that women's bodies have a way of avoiding pregnancies in cases of "legitimate rape" sunk his bid for the U.S. Senate and became a cautionary tale for other GOP candidates, has died. He was 74. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner, File)

As my fathers death approached, we had people from all different walks of life share story after story of the personal impact he had on them, Perry Akin said in a statement to The Associated Press.

He was a devout Christian, a great father, and a friend to many. We cherish many fond memories from him driving the tractor at our annual hayride, to his riveting delivery of the freedom story at 4th of July parties dressed in the full uniform of a colonial minuteman. The family is thankful for his legacy: a man with a servants heart who stood for truth.

Akin represented a Republican-leaning eastern Missouri district that included St. Louis-area suburbs for 12 years, giving up a safe seat to run for the U.S. Senate in 2012. He emerged from a crowded GOP primary to challenge then incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, only to seriously hurt Republicans' chances of recapturing a Senate majority less than two weeks later.

Akin, a strong abortion opponent, was asked during an interview by a St. Louis television station whether he supported allowing abortions for women who have been raped. He answered that from what I understand from doctors that such pregnancies are really rare.

He added: If its a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.

FILE - In this Nov. 5, 2012, file photo, Missouri Republican Senate candidate, Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., gives two thumbs up as he enters a Republican campaign office to visit with supporters in Florissant, Mo. Akin, whose comment that women's bodies have a way of avoiding pregnancies in cases of "legitimate rape" sunk his bid for the U.S. Senate and became a cautionary tale for other GOP candidates, has died. He was 74. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

His comments sparked an outcry. The Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, immediately rebuked Akin and said his campaign would allow abortions in such cases.

Criticism of Akin's remarks clouded his U.S. Senate bid until the end, making him a symbol of how Republicans could fumble away races they had a good chance of winning with a candidate deemed too far to the right. Akin's campaign initially said he misspoke, and Akin later said he was wrong.

Akin faced pressure from the national GOP to withdraw and allow the state party to pick a replacement. He refused and ended up losing the race by nearly 16 percentage points, receiving 39% of the vote. Yet other Republican officials and officeholders across the U.S. occasionally echoed his remarks  signaling how conservative some of the party's base had become on the issue.

Two years later, Akin published a book, Firing Back, in which he accused GOP leaders of abandoning him and letting McCaskill win and labeling news organizations as bullies. In the book, he also retracted his public apology for his legitimate rape remark.

FILE - In this Nov. 3, 2012, file photo, Republican U.S Senate candidate Todd Akin addresses supporters during a campaign event in Kansas City, Mo. Akin, whose comment that women's bodies have a way of avoiding pregnancies in cases of "legitimate rape" sunk his bid for the U.S. Senate and became a cautionary tale for other GOP candidates, has died. He was 74. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

Akin never ran for office again, though early in 2015, he briefly fueled speculation about a 2016 primary challenge to GOP U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt with remarks that tea party Republicans wanted new blood.

Akin was born July 5, 1947, in New York City, but grew up in the St. Louis area. He received a bachelor's degree in engineering and management from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts in 1970, served in the U.S. Army and worked for IBM. He worked in corporate management at the St. Louis-based Laclede Steel Co.

He won a seat in the Missouri House in 1988 and served in the Legislature for 10 years. He won Missouri's 2nd Congressional District seat in 2000 and was reelected five times. He also served on the board of the anti-abortion group Missouri Right to Life.

Republican U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner, who has represented Missouri's 2nd District since winning election in 2012, said in a statement that Akin was a man of great faith and an unwavering conservative. He was deeply devoted to God, his Country, and Family.

Another Republican congressman from eastern Missouri, Blaine Luetkemeyer, called Akin a dedicated husband, father, grandfather and public servant, serving the Show-Me-State for decades at both the state and federal level.

In the 2012 U.S. Senate primary, Akin faced two formidable opponents, former State Treasurer Sarah Steelman and businessman John Brunner.

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Many Democrats thought McCaskill's best shot at winning reelection would be with Akin as the GOP nominee. Her campaign aired television ads suggesting Akin was too conservative, Brunner was not a reliable conservative and Steelman represented more politics as usual.

Republicans took the ads as McCaskill's attempt to help Akin win the GOP primary. An autobiography that McCaskill published in 2015 said she also tried to boost Akin's campaign by urging it through back channels to resume airing a television ad featuring an endorsement from former conservative GOP presidential candidate and ex-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

McCaskill's moves paid off. Akin prevailed in the eight-person GOP field with only 36% of the vote.

Funeral information has not been announced. Survivors include Akin's wife, Lulli Boe Akin, his mother, Nancy Bigelow Akin, four sons, two daughters and 18 grandchildren.

___

Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas. Salter reported from O'Fallon, Missouri.
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP)  The estate of Henrietta Lacks sued a biotechnology company on Monday, accusing it of selling cells that doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took from the Black woman in 1951 without her knowledge or consent as part of a racially unjust medical system."

FILE - This April 26, 2007, file photo, shows the exterior of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., in Waltham, Mass. The estate of Henrietta Lacks sued a pharmaceutical company on Monday, Oct. 4, 2021, that it says has been selling cells that doctors at Johns Hopkins took from the Black woman from Maryland in 1951 without her knowledge or consent. The federal lawsuit filed Monday in Baltimore says Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., of Rockville, Maryland, knowingly mass produced and sold tissue that was taken from Lack. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, File)

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP)  The estate of Henrietta Lacks sued a biotechnology company on Monday, accusing it of selling cells that doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took from the Black woman in 1951 without her knowledge or consent as part of a racially unjust medical system."

Tissue taken from the woman's tumor before she died of cervical cancer became the first human cells to be successfully cloned. Reproduced infinitely ever since, HeLa cells have become a cornerstone of modern medicine, enabling countless scientific and medical innovations, including the development of the polio vaccine, genetic mapping and even COVID-19 vaccines.

Lacks cells were harvested and developed long before the advent of consent procedures used in medicine and scientific research today, but lawyers for her family say Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., of Waltham, Massachusetts, has continued to commercialize the results well after the origins of the HeLa cell line became well known.

It is outrageous that this company would think that they have intellectual rights property to their grandmothers cells. Why is it they have intellectual rights to her cells and can benefit billions of dollars when her family, her flesh and blood, her Black children, get nothing? one of the family's attorneys, Ben Crump, said Monday at a news conference outside the federal courthouse in Baltimore.

Johns Hopkins said it never sold or profited from the cell lines, but many companies have patented ways of using them. Crump said these distributors have made billions from the genetic material stolen from Lacks' body.

Another family attorney, Christopher Seeger, hinted at related claims against other companies.

Descendants of Henrietta Lacks, whose cells, known as HeLa cells, have been used in medical research without her permission, say a prayer with attorneys outside the federal courthouse in Baltimore, Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. They announced during a news conference that Lacks' estate is filing a lawsuit against Thermo Fisher Scientific for using HeLa cells. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)

Thermo Fisher Scientific "shouldnt feel too alone because theyre going to have a lot of company soon, Seeger said.

The lawsuit asks the court to order Thermo Fisher Scientific to disgorge the full amount of its net profits obtained by commercializing the HeLa cell line to the Estate of Henrietta Lacks. It also wants Thermo Fisher Scientific to be permanently enjoined from using HeLa cells without the estate's permission.

On its website, the company says it generates approximately $35 billion in annual revenue. A company spokesman reached by telephone didnt immediately comment on the lawsuit.

HeLa cells were discovered to have unique properties. While most cell samples died shortly after being removed from the body, her cells survived and thrived in laboratories. This exceptional quality made it possible to cultivate her cells indefinitely  they became known as the first immortalized human cell line  making it possible for scientists anywhere to reproduce studies using identical cells.

The remarkable science involved  and the impact on the Lacks family, some of whom suffered from chronic illnesses without health insurance  were documented in a 2010 bestselling book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Oprah Winfrey portrayed her daughter in an HBO movie about the story. The lawsuit was filed exactly 70 years after the day she died, on Oct. 4, 1951.

The exploitation of Henrietta Lacks represents the unfortunately common struggle experienced by Black people throughout history, the suit says. Indeed, Black suffering has fueled innumerable medical progress and profit, without just compensation or recognition. Various studies, both documented and undocumented, have thrived off the dehumanization of Black people.

Shobita Parthasarathy, a University of Michigan professor of public policy who has researched issues around intellectual property in biotechnology, said the lawsuit comes at a time when Lacks family is likely to have a sympathetic audience for their claims.

We are at a moment, not just after the murder of George Floyd but also the pandemic, where we have seen structural racism in action in all sorts of places, she said. We keep talking about a racial reckoning, and that racial reckoning is happening in science and medicine, as well.

A group of white doctors at Johns Hopkins in the 1950s preyed on Black women with cervical cancer, cutting away tissue samples from their patients cervixes without their patients knowledge or consent, the lawsuit says.

Johns Hopkins Medicine says it reviewed its interactions with Lacks and her family over more than 50 years after the 2010 publication Rebecca Skloots book. It says it has never sold or profited from the discovery or distribution of HeLa cells and does not own the rights to the HeLa cell line, but it has acknowledged an ethical responsibility.

Crump, a Florida-based civil rights attorney, has risen to national prominence representing the families of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd -- Black people whose deaths at the hands of police and vigilantes helped revitalize a national movement toward police reform and racial justice.

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Seeger, a New Jersey-based corporate litigator, has represented thousands of former NFL players in a class action settlement over concussions and was a lead negotiator of Volkswagen's $21 billion diesel emissions settlement with car owners.

Thermo Fisher Scientific's website says the company generates revenue from four business segments: life sciences, analytical instruments, specialty diagnostics, and laboratory products and services.

One of Henrietta Lacks grandsons, Lawrence Lacks Jr., said at Mondays news conference that the family is united behind the case.

Its about time, said another grandson, Ron Lacks. Seventy years later, we mourn Henrietta Lacks, and we will celebrate taking back control of Henrietta Lacks legacy. This will not be passed on to another generation of Lackses.

___

Associated Press reporter Aaron Morrison in New York City contributed to this report.
TOKYO (AP)  Japan is focusing on its neighbors in Asia as it hopes to take a leadership role in the growing push to reduce emissions, having earmarked $10 billion to help the region speed up the move away from fossil fuels.

TOKYO (AP)  Japan is focusing on its neighbors in Asia as it hopes to take a leadership role in the growing push to reduce emissions, having earmarked $10 billion to help the region speed up the move away from fossil fuels.

The Economy and Industry Ministry hosted the first "Asia green growth partnership meeting Monday, bringing together more than 20 nations, including Thailand and India, as well as the U.S., Australia and countries in the Middle East.

There are a variety of energy transition pathways in each country. It is most effective to make efforts according to each countrys economic, social and energy situation and technological capabilities, said Hiroshi Kajiyama, the outgoing minister, with the Cabinet reshuffle being held about the same time as the meeting.

He stressed the importance of various options, "such as nuclear power, hydrogen and ammonia, to promote energy transitions in a realistic way.

The meeting was held online because of COVID-19 restrictions. Japan hopes it will be an annual gathering, with the goal of helping nations meet the Paris accord on climate change. The goal of the Paris accord is to cap global temperature rise at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) by 2100.

A ministry official told The Associated Press the effort to get Asia on board helps Japans energy transition in the long run because that would mean a bigger market in that sector, which Japan sees as critical. Asian nations will be free to develop their own solutions, he said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

The minister's statement that there is no single pathway to carbon neutrality echoes the views of the International Energy Agency, based in Paris, which also took part in Mondays meeting.

China was invited but is not taking part, citing the recent national holidays.

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Japan has among the worlds highest per capita emissions, although experts say it holds potential in making a shift to renewable energy because of its natural environment and technological prowess.

Japan remains more than 80% dependent on fossil fuels but ranks third in the world in solar power generation capacity after China and the U.S., according to IEA data.

Experts are warning the world continues to heat up, despite various nations emissions targets. Last year, Japan pledged to become carbon neutral, achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Resource-poor Japan includes nuclear power in its energy mix plans, although some nuclear plants remain offline after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

___

Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
A new report sheds light on how world leaders, powerful politicians, billionaires and others have used offshore accounts to shield assets collectively worth trillions of dollars over the past quarter-century.

FILE - Jordan's King Abdullah II speaks during a media conference prior to a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at NATO headquarters in Brussels, in this Wednesday, May 5, 2021, file photo. Hundreds of world leaders, powerful politicians, billionaires, celebrities, religious leaders and drug dealers have been stashing away their investments in mansions, exclusive beachfront property, yachts and other assets for the past quarter century, according to a review of nearly 12 million files obtained from 14 different firms located around the world. The report released Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021, by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists involved 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 countries. Jordan's King Abdullah II is one of 330 current and former politicians identified as beneficiaries of the secret accounts. (Johanna Geron, Pool via AP, File)

A new report sheds light on how world leaders, powerful politicians, billionaires and others have used offshore accounts to shield assets collectively worth trillions of dollars over the past quarter-century.

The report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists involved 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 countries. Its being dubbed the Pandora Papers because the findings shed light on the previously hidden dealings of the elite and the corrupt.

Hundreds of politicians, celebrities, religious leaders and drug dealers have been hiding their investments in mansions, exclusive beachfront property, yachts and other assets, according to a review of nearly 12 million files obtained from 14 firms located around the world.

FILE - Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is shown ahead of a meeting at the EU Charlemagne building in Brussels, in this Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019, file photo. Hundreds of world leaders, powerful politicians, billionaires, celebrities, religious leaders and drug dealers have been stashing away their investments in mansions, exclusive beachfront property, yachts and other assets for the past quarter century, according to a review of nearly 12 million files obtained from 14 different firms located around the world. The report released Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021, by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists involved 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 countries. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is one of 330 current and former politicians identified as beneficiaries of the secret accounts. (Stephanie Lecocq/Pool via AP, File)

The more than 330 current and former politicians identified as beneficiaries of the secret accounts include Jordans King Abdullah II, former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, Czech Republic Prime Minister Andrej Babis, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso, and associates of both Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The billionaires called out in the report include Turkish construction mogul Erman Ilicak and Robert T. Brockman, the former CEO of software maker Reynolds & Reynolds.

Many of the accounts were designed to evade taxes and conceal assets for other shady reasons, according to the report.

The new data leak must be a wake-up call, said Sven Giegold, a Green party lawmaker in the European Parliament. Global tax evasion fuels global inequality. We need to expand and sharpen the countermeasures now.

FILE - In this Nov. 19, 2020 file photo, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan speaks during a joint news conference with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani (not shown) at the Presidential Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan. Hundreds of world leaders, powerful politicians, billionaires, celebrities, religious leaders and drug dealers have been stashing away their investments in mansions, exclusive beachfront property, yachts and other assets for the past quarter century, according to a review of nearly 12 million files obtained from 14 different firms located around the world. The report released Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021 by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists involved 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 countries. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is one of 330 current and former politicians identified as beneficiaries of the secret accounts.(AP Photo/Rahmat Gul, File)

Oxfam International, a British consortium of charities, applauded the Pandora Papers for exposing brazen examples of greed that deprived countries of tax revenue that could be used to finance programs and projects for the greater good.

This is where our missing hospitals are," Oxfam said in a statement. This is where the pay-packets sit of all the extra teachers and firefighters and public servants we need. Whenever a politician or business leader claims there is no money to pay for climate damage and innovation, for more and better jobs, for a fair post-COVID recovery, for more overseas aid, they know where to look."

The Pandora Papers are a follow-up to a similar project released in 2016 called the Panama Papers" compiled by the same journalistic group.

The latest bombshell is even more expansive, relying on nearly 3 terabytes of data  the equivalent of roughly 750,000 photos on a smartphone  leaked from 14 different service providers doing business in 38 different jurisdictions in the world. The records date back to the 1970s, but most of the files span from 1996 to 2020.

FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting via video conference at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, in this Monday, Sept. 27, 2021, file photo. Hundreds of world leaders, powerful politicians, billionaires, celebrities, religious leaders and drug dealers have been stashing away their investments in mansions, exclusive beachfront property, yachts and other assets for the past quarter century, according to a review of nearly 12 million files obtained from 14 different firms located around the world. The report released Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021 by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists involved 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 countries. Russian President Vladimir Putin is one of 330 current and former politicians identified as beneficiaries of the secret accounts. (Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

In contrast, the Panama Papers culled through 2.6 terabytes of data leaked by one now-defunct law firm called Mossack Fonseca that was located in the country that inspired that project's nickname.

The latest investigation dug into accounts registered in familiar offshore havens, including the British Virgin Islands, Seychelles, Hong Kong and Belize. But some of the secret accounts were also scattered around in trusts set up in the U.S., including 81 in South Dakota and 37 in Florida.

The investigation found advisers helped Abdullah, the king of Jordan, set up at least three dozen shell companies from 1995 to 2017, helping the monarch buy 14 homes worth more than $106 million in the U.S. and the U.K. One was a $23 million California ocean-view property bought in 2017 through a British Virgin Islands company. The advisers were identified as an English accountant in Switzerland and lawyers in the British Virgin Islands.

Abdullah denied any impropriety in a comment Monday by the Royal Palace, citing security needs for keeping the transactions quiet and saying no public funds were used.

Czech Republic's Prime Minister Andrej Babis attends a TV debate ahead of the upcoming general election in Prague, Czech Republic, Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

The details are an embarrassing blow to Abdullah, whose government was engulfed in scandal this year when his half brother, former Crown Prince Hamzah, accused the ruling system of corruption and incompetence. The king claimed he was the victim of a malicious plot, placed his half brother under house arrest and put two former close aides on trial.

U.K attorneys for Abdullah said he isnt required to pay taxes under his countrys law and hasnt misused public funds. The attorneys also said most of the companies and properties are not connected to the king or no longer exist, though they declined to provide details.

Blair, U.K. prime minister from 1997 to 2007, became the owner of an $8.8 million Victorian building in 2017 by buying a British Virgin Islands company that held the property, and the building now hosts the law firm of his wife, Cherie Blair, according to the the investigation. The two bought the company from the family of Bahrains industry and tourism minister, Zayed bin Rashid al-Zayani. Buying the company shares instead of the London building saved the Blairs more than $400,000 in property taxes, the investigation found.

The Blairs and the al-Zayanis both said they didnt initially know the other party was involved in the deal, the probe found. Cherie Blair said her husband wasnt involved in the purchase, which she said was meant to bring the company and the building back into the U.K. tax and regulatory regime. She also said she did not want to own a British Virgin Islands company and that the seller for their own purposes only wanted to sell the company, which is now closed.

FILE In this file photo taken on Thursday, March 16, 2017, Head of Russian First Channel Konstantin Ernst attends a meeting in Moscow, Russia. Hundreds of world leaders, powerful politicians, billionaires, celebrities, religious leaders and drug dealers have been stashing away their investments in mansions, exclusive beachfront property, yachts and other assets for the past quarter century, according to a review of nearly 12 million files obtained from 14 different firms located around the world. The consortium of journalists revealed Putin's image-maker and chief executive of Russia's leading TV station, Konstantin Ernst, got a discount to buy and develop Soviet-era cinemas and surrounding property in Moscow after he directed the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Ernst told the organization the deal wasn't secret and denied suggestions he was given special treatment. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

A lawyer for the al-Zayanis said they complied with U.K. laws.

Khan, the Pakistani prime minister, is not accused of any wrongdoing. But members of his inner circle, including Finance Minister Shaukat Fayaz Ahmed Tarin, are accused of hiding millions of dollars in wealth in secret companies or trusts, according to the journalists' findings.

In a tweet, Khan vowed to recover the ill-gotten gains and said his government will look into all citizens mentioned in the documents and take action, if needed.

The consortium of journalists revealed Putin's image-maker and chief executive of Russia's leading TV station, Konstantin Ernst, got a discount to buy and develop Soviet-era cinemas and surrounding property in Moscow after he directed the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Ernst told the organization the deal wasn't secret and denied suggestions he was given special treatment.

In 2009, Babis, the Czech prime minister, put $22 million into shell companies to buy a chateau property in a hilltop village in Mougins, France, near Cannes, the investigation found. The shell companies and the chateau were not disclosed in Babis required asset declarations, according to documents obtained by the journalism groups Czech partner, Investigace.cz.

A real estate group owned indirectly by Babis bought the Monaco company that owned the chateau in 2018, the probe found.

Babis has denied any wrongdoing.

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I dont own any offshore, I dont own any property in France, and all the money I loaned then I got back, he told the Czech public television on Monday. Let the police investigate that.

Babis said the report was meant to harm him ahead of the Czech Republic parliamentary election being held on Friday and Saturday.

Its nasty, false accusations that are meant to influence the election. Thats all, he said.

The Czech polices organized crime unit said it would launch an investigation into the report.

___

Liedtke reported from San Ramon, California, and Mattise reported from Nashville, Tennessee. Associated Press writers Karel Janicek in the Czech Republic, Frank Jordans in Berlin, Josef Federman in Jerusalem, John Rice in Mexico City, Kathy Gannon in Islamabad, Pakistan, and Felicia Fonseca in Phoenix contributed to this report.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP)  A medical glove manufacturing facility promising to employ nearly 2,500 people is coming to southwest Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Monday, calling the news the biggest job-creation announcement in the struggling region in a generation.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP)  A medical glove manufacturing facility promising to employ nearly 2,500 people is coming to southwest Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Monday, calling the news the biggest job-creation announcement in the struggling region in a generation.

Backed by significant federal spending, the project in Wythe County, 250 miles west of the state capital, is expected to create a number of jobs per capita equivalent to Amazon's new headquarters in Arlington, according to the governor's office.

In an interview with The Associated Press ahead of a formal announcement Monday afternoon, Northam called the project a big win for southwest Virginia and said the pandemic and associated supply chain problems had shown the need for more on-shore production of personal protective equipment.

Two companies, Blue Star Manufacturing and American Glove Innovations, have agreed to form a joint venture and invest $714 million to create both a nitrile butadiene rubber manufacturing facility and nitrile glove production operation, according to a news release. The facilities are expected to occupy more than 200 acres at an industrial park near the junction of interstates 77 and 81.

The project will increase the raw material production and manufacturing of gloves now primarily made in Asia, Northam's office said. The company aims to sell the gloves to distributors and large end users, like health care companies.

The announcement comes after one of the LLCs that is part of the venture was awarded a $123.1 million Department of Defense contract to increase the production capacity of nitrile butadiene rubber in May, federal spending records show.

Virginia competed with Tennessee and Texas for the project, which state officials said was expected to result in 2,464 new jobs within the next three to five years.

In order to secure the project, the commonwealth agreed to pay for $8.5 million in water infrastructure upgrades to the industrial site, called Progress Park.

An Associated Press review in 2019 found that despite hefty spending, many of the states industrial parks were sitting empty. Local officials said in the news release that Monday's announcement showed their previous investments in Progress Park had paid off.

The Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission, the entity created to spend and invest Virginia's portion of the national tobacco settlement, also approved $1.02 million from the Tobacco Region Opportunity Fund to support additional public infrastructure, Northam's office said.

A legislative commission created to tighten the oversight of economic development initiatives signed off on the $8.5 million water infrastructure investment, according to the news release. The project is also eligible to apply for state benefits from a rail access program and a workforce services initiative.

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GOP Rep. Morgan Griffith, who represents southwest Virginia's 9th congressional district, called the announcement tremendous news for the region.

It will provide opportunity for our citizens, economic growth for local communities, and tax revenues to support public services, he said in a statement.

Northam said the project would create good-paying jobs. The news release did not specify the average wage.

Wythe County is located about an hour's drive southwest of Roanoke. For over a decade, its unemployment rate has trended higher than the state as a whole, according to state data, though in 2020 its rate was lower than the national average.

Southwest Virginia has been on a long economic decline as coal mining jobs dried up and many manufacturing jobs moved overseas. The region has also been losing population. An initiative examining how the state can provide economic transition support to the coalfields is currently underway, with a report expected later this year.

The Northam administration has also sought to improve broadband access and transportation in the region, including rail access.
NEW YORK (AP)  With the expansion of its Newsy service this week, the E.W. Scripps Co. is betting that consumers have an appetite for more news, instead of just talk about news.

This Oct. 1, 2021 image provided by Newsy/Scripps shows the Newsy control room in Atlanta. With an expansion and relaunch Monday, Oct. 4, 2021 the Scripps Networks service Newsy is betting that consumers have an interest in more news and less political talk. Newsy has been primarily seen online and through streaming services but is debuting a free, over-the-air television service with the goal of around-the-clock newscasts.(Newsy/Scripps via AP)

NEW YORK (AP)  With the expansion of its Newsy service this week, the E.W. Scripps Co. is betting that consumers have an appetite for more news, instead of just talk about news.

Newsy, primarily seen now online and through streaming services, is expanding its programming to 17 hours a day with an eventual goal of operating around-the-clock and, for the first time, will be available as an over-the-air television service.

The pitch from Kate O'Brian, head of the Scripps Networks' news group, and Newsy boss Eric Ludgood is simple: an unflashy service that goes beyond headlines to look at the breadth of news in some detail and without a political bias.

Its motto: Be informed, not influenced.

It's a little bit of going back to the future, what television news used to be, said O'Brian, a longtime producer and executive at ABC News.

O'Brian and Ludgood have spent the past few months doubling their staff to more than 200 people. Newsy began in 2008 as a syndicated news service in Columbia, Missouri, with the staff largely from the nearby University of Missouri journalism school. The service was bought by Scripps in 2014.

Its lineup will be populated by fresh faces to most news consumers. The prime-time lineup will feature anchor Natalie Allen, formerly of CNN, and the Washington-based Chance Seales and Christian Bryant.

Americans have been underserved by cable news networks CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC, with their constant picking at the nation's polarized politics, O'Brian said.

Its time for news organizations to look at the country in all of its many facets, not just red and blue, she said.

Newsy will operate 14 news bureaus across the country, including expected hubs like New York, Washington and Los Angeles. But Newsy also sought bureaus in locations that O'Brian felt needed more coverage from a national news team, like Seattle, Phoenix and Missoula, Montana. It is opening a bureau in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to hire a reporter based there with an expertise in indigenous people.

As an illustration of its menu, a Newsy newscast last week contained stories on a vaccine being developed to counter opioid addiction, about birds facing extinction and the hottest and coolest markets for home sales.

There's a reason, however, that cable news competitors have largely evolved into opinionated political talk networks, particularly in prime time. People may say in surveys that they want more non-biased, straight news, but they're more inclined to dial in Tucker Carlson or Rachel Maddow and not leave, even with ratings dropping during the Biden administration after last year's peak.

ABC, CBS and NBC nightly newscasts remain strong. But some recently-touted new efforts at promoting straight news approaches offer cautionary tales. A three-hour NewsNation prime-time newscast on WGN America that began last September has largely failed, and former Fox anchor Shepard Smith's CNBC newscast gets relatively little attention.

Unlike NewsNation and Smiths newscast, Newsy is an already-existing service and not a start-up, OBrian said. Once fully operational, Newsy will be the only free, 24-hour news service available for television and streaming.

I dont compare what were doing to anybody else, she said, because what were doing is very different in terms of platform and in terms of content.

Most competitors, however, are easily found by channel surfers clicking a cable remote. Newsy will take effort, and it's yet to be seen whether that will be a handicap to getting established. Newsy had been available through cable in 35 million homes, and now that is being eliminated.

Newsy can be found on most streaming services, online and through its own app. To get Newsy through television not equipped with streaming services, users will need an antenna and must rescan their TVs to receive the signal. Scripps is running an ad campaign to instruct interested viewers how to do this.

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It's a distribution system Scripps believes is more geared toward the future.

Newsy debuted its new service on Monday.

While television news has many established players that can make it difficult to break in, that's not the case for streamed news services, said Mark Whitaker, a veteran executive who has worked at CNN and NBC News. The major players in this realm have yet to be determined: one of the reasons why CNN is busy building a subscription streaming service due to begin early next year.

That's where Newsy's big opportunity lies, Whitaker said.

It may actually change what people are looking for and what succeeds in what we still think of as TV news, Whitaker said.

Eric Ludgood serves as head of Newsy.
NEW YORK (AP)  The CEO of Ozy Media on Monday said it had been premature to shut down the company and that he wants to keep operating, despite a scandal-ridden week that exposed Ozy as an outlet without much of an audience.

This Monday, Oct. 4, 2021 image shows part of the OZY.com website. On Monday, Carlos Watson, the CEO of Ozy Media, said it had been premature to shut down and that he wants to keep operating, despite a scandal-ridden week that exposed Ozy as a media company without much of an audience. (AP Photo)

NEW YORK (AP)  The CEO of Ozy Media on Monday said it had been premature to shut down the company and that he wants to keep operating, despite a scandal-ridden week that exposed Ozy as an outlet without much of an audience.

Carlos Watson, a former former cable-news commentator and host who founded Ozy in 2013, told CNBC that he met with advertisers and investors over the weekend and that he wants Ozy to continue.

In an emailed statement Monday, the company characterized the troubles of the past week as a bump in the road that it is committed to getting past," saying we are excited to reopen and expect to start resuming operations over the next few days." Ozy is trying to get employees to come back and said newsletters would resume this week and video production at the end of the month.

Ozy's board of directors said Friday that the company was ceasing operations. The shutdown came less than a week after a New York Times column raised questions about the media organizations claims of millions of viewers and readers, while also pointing out a potential case of securities fraud.

The story triggered canceled shows, an internal investigation, investor concern and high-level departures at the company before it shut down Friday.

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The Times story also said Ozys chief operating officer and co-founder, Samir Rao, impersonated a YouTube executive on a call with Goldman Sachs while attempting to raise money from the investment bank. Regarding that call, Watson said: I don't know. I wasn't there. He then went on to say that they eventually figured out what happened," but did not explain further. Look  it's heartbreaking, its wrong, its not good, its not OK, Watson said. I love Goldman, I worked there, I've got a lot of friends there.

Mountain View, California-based Ozy, which had raised more than $70 million from investors as of late 2019, according to the website Crunchbase, has long been suspected of inflating its audience size. Watson claimed last week that Ozy had 25 million subscribers to its newsletter and 30 million YouTube views. The New York Times, with a much bigger brand presence, says it has 15 million newsletter readers. The newspaper reported that fewer than 500,000 people went to Ozys website in June and July, according to Comscore data. Ozy was seemingly paying for much of its audience rather than building a real base of readers and viewers.

To restart, the company would have to reestablish trust with employees, advertisers and investors. It shut down abruptly, distressing workers. It has been caught in several dishonest situations apart from traffic. It reportedly told people who worked on its interview series, The Carlos Watson Show, that it would be on cable TV, but then episodes were just uploaded to YouTube. Watson interviewed celebrities like Bill Gates and Matthew McConaughey for the online show. On CNBC Monday, Watson said We originally conceived the show with A&E, and then shifted to YouTube," and there was lots of miscommunication in that.

On Thursday, Marc Lasry, the hedge-fund billionaire and Milwaukee Bucks co-owner who had been named Ozys chairman in September, resigned, citing Ozys need for someone experienced in crisis management and investigations. He remained an investor. A high-profile employee, former BBC anchor Katty Kay, had resigned earlier in the week, and an early investor, a venture capital firm, gave up its Ozy shares. The board had reportedly hired a law firm to review Ozys business activities.

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Matt Ott contributed to this report.
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP)  Officials investigating one of Californias largest recent oil spills are looking into whether a ship's anchor may have struck an oil pipeline on the ocean floor, causing heavy crude to leak into coastal waters and foul beaches, authorities said Monday.

An aerial photo shows the closed beach after oil washed up on Huntington Beach, Calif., on Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. A major oil spill off the coast of Southern California fouled popular beaches and killed wildlife while crews scrambled Sunday, to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP)  Officials investigating one of Californias largest recent oil spills are looking into whether a ship's anchor may have struck an oil pipeline on the ocean floor, causing heavy crude to leak into coastal waters and foul beaches, authorities said Monday.

The head of the company that operates the pipeline said company divers were inspecting the area of the suspected leak that was discovered Saturday, and he expected that by Tuesday there would be a clearer of what caused the damage.

A anchor from a cargo ship striking the pipeline is "one of the distinct possibilities" behind the leak, Amplify Energy CEO Martyn Willsher told a news conference. He said divers have examined more than 8,000 feet (2,438 meters) of the pipeline and were focusing on "one area of significant interest."

Lifeguards ready to post signs warning that water contact may cause illness, as they close the beach after an oil spill in Huntington Beach, Calif., Sunday., Oct. 3, 2021. The closure stretched from the Huntington Beach Pier nearly 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) south to the Santa Ana River jetty amid summerlike weather that would have brought beachgoers to the wide strand for volleyball, swimming and surfing. Yellow caution tape was strung between lifeguard towers to keep people away. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

Cargo ships entering the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach routinely pass through the area, Coast Guard officials said. Backlogs have plagued the ports in recent months and several dozen or more of the giant vessels have regularly been anchored as they wait to enter the ports and unload.

"Were looking into if it could have been an anchor from a ship, but thats in the assessment phase right now," Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Jeannie Shaye said.

The spill sent up to 126,000 gallons (572,807 liters) of heavy crude into the ocean, contaminating the sands of famed Huntington Beach and other coastal communities. The spill could keep beaches closed for weeks or longer.

The Orange County district attorney, Todd Spitzer, said he has investigators looking into whether he can bring state charges for the spill even though the leak occurred in waters overseen by the U.S. government.

Cleanup contractors deploy skimmers and floating barriers known as booms to try to stop further oil crude incursion into the Wetlands Talbert Marsh in Huntington Beach, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021. One of the largest oil spills in recent Southern California history fouled popular beaches and killed wildlife while crews scrambled Sunday to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

Spitzer also said Amplifys divers should not be allowed near the pipeline without an independent authority alongside them.

Other potential criminal investigations were being pursued by the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Central District of California, the Coast Guard and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, officials said.

Safety advocates have pushed for years for federal rules that would strengthen oil spill detection requirements and force companies to install valves that can automatically shut down the flow of crude in case of a leak. The oil and pipeline industries have resisted such requirements because of the high cost.

"If the operator had more valves installed on this line, theyd have a much better chance at having the point of failure isolated by now," said Bill Caram with the Pipeline Safety Trust, an organization based in Bellingham, Washington.

Oil is shown washed up in Huntington Beach, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021. One of the largest oil spills in recent Southern California history fouled popular beaches and killed wildlife while crews scrambled Sunday to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands. At least 126,000 gallons (572,807 liters) of oil spilled into the waters off Orange County, according to a statement from the city of Huntington Beach. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

The pipeline was built using a process known as electric resistance weld, according to a regulatory filing from the company. That welding process has been linked to past oil pipeline failures because corrosion can occur along seams, according to government safety advisories and Pipeline Safety Trust Director Bill Caram.

Annual reports filed with federal regulators in 2019 and 2020 showed inspections for the inside and outside of the pipe revealed nothing requiring repairs.

On Sunday as the extent of the spill was being revealed environmentalists had feared the oil might devastate birds and marine life in the area. But Michael Ziccardi, a veterinarian and director of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network, said only four oily birds had been found so far. One suffered chronic injuries and had to be euthanized, he said.

"Its much better than we had feared," he said at a news conference Monday.

Cleanup contractors get ready to work in the Wetlands Talbert Marsh after an oil spill in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. A major oil spill off the coast of Southern California fouled popular beaches and killed wildlife while crews scrambled Sunday, to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

Ziccardi said hes "cautiously optimistic," but its too soon to know the extent of the spills effect on wildlife. In other offshore oil spills, the largest number of oiled birds have been collected two to five days after the incident, he said.

Amplify operates three oil platforms about 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) off the coast of California, all installed between 1980 and 1984. The company also operates a 16-inch pipeline that carries oil from a processing platform to an onshore storage facility in Long Beach. The company has said the oil appears to be coming from a rupture in that pipeline about 4 miles (6.44 kilometers) from the platform.

In a 2016 spill-response plan submitted to federal regulators, the company said its worst-case spill scenario was based on the assumption of a "full guillotine cut" of the pipeline occurring 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) inland from one of its platforms. But an outside consultant concluded that a spill of that size was "very unlikely" at that location because the line is 120 feet deep and beneath a shipping lane where ships do not normally anchor.

The Beta oil field has been owned by at least seven different corporations since it was discovered by Royal Dutch Shell in 1976, records show. A corporate predecessor of Amplify bought the operation in 2012.

Crews continue to clean the oil in the Wetlands Talbert Marsh after an oil spill in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Huntington Beach, Calif., on Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. A major oil spill off the coast of Southern California fouled popular beaches and killed wildlife while crews scrambled Sunday, to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

The Amplify subsidiary known as Beta Operating Co. has been cited 125 times for safety and environmental violations since 1980, according to a database from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the federal agency that regulates the offshore oil and gas industry. The online database provides only the total number of violations, not the details for each incident.

The company was fined a total of $85,000 for three incidents. Two were from 2014, when a worker who was not wearing proper protective equipment was shocked with 98,000 volts of electricity. The worker survived. In a separate incident, crude oil was released through a boom where a safety device had been improperly bypassed.

In 1999, an undersea pipeline running between two platforms sprang two leaks totaling at least 3,800 gallons of oil, causing tar balls to wash up on beaches in Orange County.

The cause of of the leaks was determined to be corrosion that caused pin-sized holes in the steel walls of the pipeline. The owner of the oil field at the time, a partnership between Mobil Oil Corp. and Shell Oil Co. called Aera Energy LLC, was fined $48,000 by federal regulators  a penalty environmental groups criticized as a slap on the wrist.

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Before the spill, Amplify had high hopes for the Beta oil field and was pouring millions of dollars into upgrades and new "side track" projects that would tap into oil by drilling laterally.

"We have the opportunity to keep going for as long as we want," Willsher said in an August conference call with investors. He added there was capacity "up to 20,000 barrels a day."

Investors shared Willshers optimism, sending the company's stock up more than sevenfold since the beginning of the year to $5.75 at the close of trading on Friday. The stock plunged 43% in trading Monday.

The company filed for bankruptcy in 2017 and emerged a few months later. It had been using cash generated by the Beta field and others in Oklahoma and Texas to pay down $235 million in debt.

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Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker in Washington, Bernard Condon in New York, Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, and Amy Taxin in Huntington Beach, California, contributed to this report.
TORONTO - Sun Life Financial Inc. has signed a deal to buy DentaQuest, a provider of dental benefits in the United States, for $3.1 billion.

The Sun Life Financial Inc. logo is shown at the company's annual general meeting in Toronto on Wednesday, May 6, 2015. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TORONTO - Sun Life Financial Inc. has signed a deal to buy DentaQuest, a provider of dental benefits in the United States, for $3.1 billion.

The company says DentaQuest will become part of is Sun Life U.S. business which offers dental benefits through employers for employee benefit plans.

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Sun Life says DentaQuest will more than double the size of its U.S. employee benefits business by revenue.

DentaQuest has more than 33 million members in 36 states and about 2,400 employees.

Sun Life CEO Kevin Strain says the acquisition of DentaQuest is consistent with its strategy of focusing on health and group benefits in the United States.

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of next year, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2021.

Companies in this story: (TSX:SLF)
CLEVELAND (AP)  Retail pharmacy chains contributed to a deadly and expensive public nuisance in two Ohio counties where the opioid crisis continues to rage, an attorney for the counties said in an opening statement Monday in federal court in Cleveland.

Attorneys and staff associated with a federal trial of pharmacies, CVS, Walgreens, Giant Eagle and Walmart, leave the Carl B. Stokes Federal Courthouse in Cleveland, Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. The pharmacies are being sued by Ohio counties Lake and Trumbull for their part in the opioid crisis. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

CLEVELAND (AP)  Retail pharmacy chains contributed to a deadly and expensive public nuisance in two Ohio counties where the opioid crisis continues to rage, an attorney for the counties said in an opening statement Monday in federal court in Cleveland.

It was the first day of trial in the lawsuit filed in 2018 by Lake and Trumbull counties outside Cleveland against retail pharmacy companies CVS, Walgreens, Walmart and Giant Eagle.

Theyre going to say, Were not any part of the problem, attorney Mark Lanier said. Theyre going to blame everyone but themselves.

Attorneys and staff associated with a federal trial of pharmacies, CVS, Walgreens, Giant Eagle and Walmart leave the Carl B. Stokes Federal Courthouse in Cleveland, Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. The pharmacies are being sued by Ohio counties Lake and Trumbull for their part in the opioid crisis. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

The cost of abating the crisis is $1 billion each for each county, one of their attorneys has said. Around 80 million prescription painkillers were dispensed in Trumbull County between 2012 and 2016  400 for every county resident  while 61 million pills were dispensed in Lake County during that five-year period  265 pills for every resident.

This is the first time pharmacy companies have gone to trial to defend themselves. The trial, which is expected to last around six weeks, could set the tone for similar claims against retail pharmacy chains by government entities across the U.S.

U.S. District Judge Dan Polster is presiding over the trial. Close to 3,000 lawsuits filed in federal courts have been consolidated under Polsters supervision.

Attorneys for the four pharmacy chains have argued the companies didn't manufacture the drugs and that their pharmacies were filling prescriptions written by physicians for patients with a legitimate medical need.

CORRECTS NAME TO CARL B. STOKES U.S. COURTHOUSE INSTEAD OF LOUIS B. STOKES FEDERAL COURTHOUSE - Vehicles pass the Carl B. Stokes U.S. Courthouse in Cleveland, Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. Opening statements are scheduled for Monday afternoon in a federal court trial to determine whether retail pharmacy chains created a public nuisance in how they dispensed addictive painkillers in two Ohio counties. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

Pharmacists fill the prescriptions, they dont tell doctors what to prescribe, Kaspar Stoffelmayr, an attorney for Walgreens, said in an opening statement.

The rise in physicians prescribing pain medications such as oxycodone and hydrocodone coincided with recognition by medical groups that patients have the right to be treated for pain, Stoffelmayr said.

The problem, he said, was that pharmaceutical manufacturers tricked doctors into writing way too many pills.

Lanier, in laying out the counties' case, said the companies to save money did not not hire enough pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to prevent the diversion of pain pills. He said the companies failed to implement effective systems to flag suspicious orders or to train pharmacists and give them the tools they need to prevent the illegal diversion of pain pills.

"They are the last line of defense to prevent diversion because these are people who are putting the medicine on the street," Lanier said.

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Lanier told jurors about the interstate pipeline that people from Ohio and other states traveled to buy pain pills from doctors who ran unscrupulous pill mills. He said the opioid crisis, which has lead to more than 500,000 overdose deaths in the last two decades, has been costly for Lake and Trumbull counties in terms of how it affects babies born to addicted mothers, the courts and law enforcement.

Attorneys for CVS, Walmart and Giant Eagle are expected to give opening statements on Tuesday morning with the counties putting on their first witness, a CVS employee, later in the day.

Rite-Aid settled with the Lake and Trumbull two counties in August. The company paid Trumbull County $1.5 million. The amount paid to Lake County has not been disclosed.

The trial will be the fourth in the U.S. this year to test claims brought by governments against part of the drug industry over the toll of prescription painkillers. Verdicts or judgments have not been reached in the others thus far.

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This story was first published on October 4, 2021. It was updated on October 5, 2021, to correct the spelling of Stoffelmayr's first name to Kaspar, instead of Casper.
MANCHESTER, England (AP)  All of Britains electricity will come from renewable sources by 2035, the governing Conservatives announced Monday, saying the move would help end the countrys reliance on imported fuel.

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a mug, during a visit to a construction site in Manchester, England, Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. (Phil Noble/PA via AP)

MANCHESTER, England (AP)  All of Britains electricity will come from renewable sources by 2035, the governing Conservatives announced Monday, saying the move would help end the countrys reliance on imported fuel.

Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the only way to strengthen Britains energy security is zero carbon power that is generated in this country.

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, right and Chancellor Rishi Sunak walk, during a visit to a construction site in Manchester, England, Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. (Phil Noble/PA via AP)

Prime Minister Boris Johnson also said he believed the U.K. could get to get to complete clean energy production  including renewable sources and nuclear power  by the middle of the next decade.

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Britain gets a big chunk of its energy from renewable sources such as wind and sun, and has largely ended the use of coal power, but remains heavily reliant on natural gas. Surging gas prices worldwide are driving up energy bills for millions of people in Britain.

The advantage of that is that it will mean that, for the first time, the U.K. is not dependent on hydrocarbons coming from overseas, with all the vagaries in hydrocarbon prices and the risk that poses for peoples pockets, Johnson said in Manchester, where the governing Conservatives are holding their annual conference.

Johnson is eager to burnish Britains green credentials before a major U.N. climate summit that is due to open in Glasgow, Scotland, on Oct.31. Johnson, as host, is trying to get other world leaders to increase their carbon-cutting pledges so the world can keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Doug Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace U.K., welcomed what he called the British governments realization that gas needs to be taken out of the electricity system, but said he was disappointed by the government's continuing commitment to nuclear energy.

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Read all AP stories on climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-change
GJOA HAVEN, Nunavut - When he was about eight years old, Charles Qirngnirq took an interest in fixing things like snowmobiles and enjoyed hunting around his Nunavut community  skills he learned from his grandfather.

The hamlet of Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, is seen on Friday, Oct. 1, 2021. A coroner's inquest into the death of 21-year-old Charles Qirngnirq is to begin Monday in Gjoa Haven, five years after he was shot and killed by RCMP. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Emma Tranter

GJOA HAVEN, Nunavut - When he was about eight years old, Charles Qirngnirq took an interest in fixing things like snowmobiles and enjoyed hunting around his Nunavut community  skills he learned from his grandfather.

When he grew up, Leona Qirngnirq said, her son became the one she leaned on.

He was my only supporter. He was my hunter. He was my mechanic," she told the first day of a coroner's inquest Monday.

"Losing a child after ... raising them, its really difficult," she said through tears, sometimes covering her face with a tissue.

Five years ago, Charles Qirngnirq, 21, was shot and killed by an RCMP officer outside the airport in the remote Nunavut hamlet of Gjoa Haven.

The inquest into his death is being held this week to determine where, when and how he died and to make recommendations to prevent similar deaths.

Gjoa Haven airport is shown in Nunavut on Sunday Oct. 3, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Emma Tranter

A six-person jury, coroner's officer and counsel gathered in a gymnasium-like room in Gjoa Haven's community hall, where an Inukshuk figure made of black panels scales a back wall. The roar of all-terrain vehicles often made it difficult to hear some of the testimony.

Leona Qirngnirq told the jury that her son's girlfriend came to her house the morning of Dec. 19, 2016, and asked for the couple's son, who was about two years old at the time. Qirngnirq said she reluctantly handed over the child.

She said her son later showed up and was upset.

"He was pretty angry. He told me that I should have never handed his son to his mom.

Witnesses testified that Qirngnirq then went to the airport on his snowmobile. His girlfriend was planning to fly out with their child. Qirngnirq shouted at them to stay. He was told to leave.

Witnesses said he returned to the airport carrying a rifle.

"I thought he was going to shoot us," said George Sallerina, who was working at the airport that day. Sallerina is also a cousin of Qirngnirq.

Sallerina said he did not see Qirngnirq raise the rifle and that he was holding it down at his side "like when going hunting."

Two RCMP officers stationed in the community drove down the dirt road to the airport and confronted Qirngnirq as he walked over the tundra and away from the airport toward the hamlet.

The inquest heard that Qirngnirq was shot by one of the officers and fell to the ground. Six people carried him to a vehicle.

He was taken to the community's health centre and a medevac plane was called. He died from his injuries before takeoff.

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In opening statements, both the coroners lawyer, Sheldon Toner, and the Qirngnirq familys lawyer, Nikolai Sittmann, said they will argue that the death was a homicide.

Magnolia Unka-Wool, the RCMPs lawyer, said she will ask jurors to declare the death a suicide.

The inquest is set to run until Thursday or Friday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2021.

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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
MONTREAL - It's too soon to say what caused a plane pulling a marriage proposal banner to crash near Old Montreal over the weekend, but there are "certain dangers" that come with towing banners by air, an ex-pilot said Monday.

A member of the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) inspects the wreckage of a plane at a crash site in Montreal, Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021. The small plane crashed on ile Sainte-Helene, near Montreals Old Port on Saturday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

MONTREAL - It's too soon to say what caused a plane pulling a marriage proposal banner to crash near Old Montreal over the weekend, but there are "certain dangers" that come with towing banners by air, an ex-pilot said Monday.

Julien Placa, who still flies recreationally, said in an interview from Montreal that most crashes are due to a "combination of factors," adding that there's rarely one single reason why a plane goes down.

Flying, he said, relies on two factors: power from the engines and lift from the wings.

Towing banners, he explained, means engines have to work harder to maintain minimum speeds, putting them at risk of losing lift and stalling, and because the planes fly low, there is little time to react if things go wrong.

"We're within speeds that are very low, so we're always at the limit of what we call a plane that can stall, that's not flying fast enough," he said.

A passenger died and the pilot was seriously injured in Saturday's crash, which occurred around 6 p.m. near Old Montreal and near the site of a busy music festival.

The Transportation Safety Board said Monday the plane's engines would be sent to a lab in Ottawa for analysis, adding that it was still too soon to determine what caused the crash.

While Placa said towing banners is safe under "well-managed" conditions, he said it's still riskier than flying the plane alone.

Without knowing the circumstances, he said a number of things could have caused the plane to get into trouble: too much humidity in the air, which can cause ice to build up in the carburetor; engine trouble; human error; too much weight in the plane; or a low cloud cover, which would require the aircraft to fly closer to the ground to make the banner visible.

"Accidents happen, and they happen from a combination of circumstances," Placa said. "It's rarely just one reason that causes an accident."

Montreal La Presse and other media outlets have identified the pilot as Gian Piero Ciambella, owner of the aerial advertising company Aerogram.

Placa said Ciambella was the one who taught him to fly planes pulling banners about 15 years ago, and he said his former mentor has decades of experience and was always safety conscious.

"The way he taught me about banners, it was always in terms of safety above all, and also thinking about the safety of people on the ground," he said.

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While the two haven't spoken in close to a decade, Placa said Ciambella has an "excellent" reputation among pilots. But accidents can happen, especially when it comes to the added challenge of towing, he said.

"It's still a flight with certain dangers," he said, adding that the first thing pilots learn when something goes wrong is to detach the banner they are pulling.

The plane involved in the crash was a Cessna 172, which Placa described as a popular plane that is very easy to fly.

He said that in all his years of flying, with and without banners, he's never had to make a forced landing  unlike Ciambella, who made headlines in 2006 when he was forced to land a plane on a busy Montreal street.

Despite the risks, Placa maintains that flying is a safe activity  "safer than crossing the road on foot or taking a car," he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2021.
FREDERICTON - Another sharp jump in COVID-19 cases in New Brunswick forced more than a dozen schools to close Monday, following reports on the weekend indicating the latest surge in infections was showing no signs of letting up.

This electron microscope image made available and colour-enhanced by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Integrated Research Facility in Fort Detrick, Md., shows Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 virus particles, orange, isolated from a patient. Research released on Thursday, May 28, 2020, shows how dangerous the coronavirus is for current and former cancer patients. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-NIAID/National Institutes of Health via AP

FREDERICTON - Another sharp jump in COVID-19 cases in New Brunswick forced more than a dozen schools to close Monday, following reports on the weekend indicating the latest surge in infections was showing no signs of letting up.

Public Health in New Brunswick reported 75 new cases on Monday and two more deaths, bringing the overall total to 68. Those numbers followed 93 new cases and two virus-related deaths reported on Sunday. Health officials said New Brunswick is now dealing with 767 active cases, which is more than triple the number in neighbouring Nova Scotia.

On Monday, New Brunswick's Opposition Liberals issued a statement saying the province should offer rapid testing at the province's schools.

"Schools are being closed across the province, children are self-isolating or waiting at home to hear from contact tracers," said Liberal education critic Benoit Bourque.

"Frankly, the situation is getting out of hand.  Regularly testing children, especially those under 12 who cannot be vaccinated, will have the most impact on the spread of the virus."

Bourque said the province obtained 1.15 million rapid tests and has used just over half of them.

Meanwhile, New Brunswick is also reporting a rising number of hospitalizations, with 49 people in hospital with COVID-19 and 21 in intensive care. On Saturday, New Brunswick reported its highest single-day increase for COVID-19 infections, with 140 new cases recorded and an additional four deaths attributed to the virus.

In Nova Scotia, health authorities reported 86 new cases over the weekend, with 77 per cent of them reported in the central zone, which includes Halifax. New cases were also reported in the province's other three health zones.

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The 67 new cases in the central zone were linked to community spread, primarily among unvaccinated people aged 20 to 40 who are taking part in social activities, the province said.

As well, seven Nova Scotia schools were notified of COVID-19 exposures on the weekend. No schools have been closed, but about a dozen have imposed limits on non-essential visitors, extracurricular activities and movement within buildings.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, health officials reported 15 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, 13 of them in the central region.

Almost 90 per cent of the province's active cases were in the central region, where an investigation has been underway since Sept. 20. Clusters have been detected in Baie Verte, Twillingate, Bishop's Falls and Botwood.

Among the province's 160 active cases, 14 involved people recovering in hospital, including seven in critical care.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2021.
MIRAMICHI, N.B. - Rodney Levi, an Indigenous man killed by the RCMP in 2020, said police would have to shoot him if they wanted him to drop his knives, an officer testified Monday at a coroner's inquest.

MIRAMICHI, N.B. - Rodney Levi, an Indigenous man killed by the RCMP in 2020, said police would have to shoot him if they wanted him to drop his knives, an officer testified Monday at a coroner's inquest.

RCMP Const. Scott Hait, who shot and killed Levi on June 12, 2020, was the first officer on the scene in Sunny Corner, N.B., after police received a complaint about a disturbance in a home. Hait told a coroner's jury in Miramichi, N.B., that while driving to the scene, he was told there was an unwanted person at the residence who had knives and that so far, no one had been hurt.

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. A coroner's inquest into the RCMP fatal shooting of an Indigenous man in New Brunswick has heard the 911 calls and police transmissions from June 12, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Kevin Bissett

Hait said he was also told the unwanted person was Levi. Hait said he had not met the man prior to that day but had recognized the name because Levi had been involved in a recent case about a break and enter.

The officer said when he arrived, Levi, 48, was standing on a deck at the home wielding two knives. He said he asked Levi if he wanted to harm himself or was suicidal.

"He said yes," Hait told the five-member coroner's jury.

The officer said he told Levi he would be able to get him some help and told him to surrender the two knives. He said Levi responded that he had found the knives on the side of the road.

Hait said Levi was responding to his questions, but that every time the conversation moved to the knives, Levi stopped answering.

A second officer, Const. Justin Napke, arrived to the scene and also instructed Levi to drop the knives. Hait said the man refused.

He said Napke deployed his Taser, but it had no effect. Hait said Napke tried to electroshock the man again. Hait said he drew his pistol, and he said Levi began holding the knives in front of himself.

He said Levi then blurted, "You're going to have to put a bullet in me."

Levi was given a third jolt from the Taser, Hait said. The man flinched, dropped one knife, then picked it up and started to hold both of them in a threatening manner, Hait said.

"He started to step toward me," Hait told the inquest. "I was fearful for my life and those of the people around me."

Hait said he fired two shots, three to five feet away from Levi. Testimony from a coroner last week said those shots were fatal.

Napke told the court he was badly shaken by the incident and only returned to active duty two weeks ago.

Neither officer was wearing a body camera.

Earlier Monday, the inquest heard the 911 calls and police transmissions from the day of the shooting.

Two members of the MacLeod family, who lived at the home where the shooting occurred, are heard telling a 911 dispatcher that Levi appeared to be under the influence of something and was armed with two kitchen knives.

The inquest also heard police radio transmissions of an officer saying "shots fired, shots fired" and "we need medics here now."

The shooting was investigated by Quebec's police watchdog, the Bureau des enquetes independantes, which submitted a report to New Brunswick prosecutors in December. The BEI probed the killing because New Brunswick doesn't have an independent police watchdog.

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New Brunswick prosecutors determined the officers on the scene believed Levi was using force against them and were justified in shooting him.

On Monday, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia announced they had reached an agreement in principle that would allow Nova Scotias Serious Incident Response Team (SiRT) to act as the police oversight body for both provinces. SiRT is an independent agency that has a mandate to investigate matters such as death, serious injury and sexual assault involving the police.

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.

The inquest is expected to wrap up Thursday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2021.
Two Alberta First Nations say they're not convinced the federal government needs to be part of an environmental review for a large thermal coal mine expansion proposal in the province.

Federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson makes an announcement in Calgary on Tuesday, July 20, 2021. An Alberta First Nation says it continues to doubt the need for a federal environmental review of a proposed thermal coal mine expansion in the province.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Two Alberta First Nations say they're not convinced the federal government needs to be part of an environmental review for a large thermal coal mine expansion proposal in the province.

And both the Ermineskin and Whitefish Lake First Nations say they're concerned the review promised by federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson won't consider the economic impact that turning down the planned expansion would have.

"The scope of consultation must include (Whitefish Lake's impact and benefits agreement)," said a letter to the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada from Darryl Steinhauer, Whitefish Lake'sconsultation coordinator.

"In response, Canada has been clear that consultation on the reconsideration will not address the (agreement) or directly related matters."

The statements come after Jonathan Wilkinson said Friday that First Nations had dropped their objections to federal involvement in a review of Coalspur Mines's project, which would create North America's largest thermal coal mine in the Rocky Mountain foothills west of Edmonton.

Wilkinson was announcing the reinstatement of a federal review, which is considered to be more rigorous than strictly provincial reviews. He had originally announced the review in 2020, after concluding the mine's footprint was large enough and its production big enough to cross federal thresholds.

But Ermineskin and Whitefish Lake support the project for its economic benefits and argued their treaty rights were violated when Wilkinson failed to confer with them. They took the federal government to court, requesting a judge order the minister to rethink his decision.

After the court suspended Wilkinson's decision and ordered him to reconsider, a series of meetings were held with affected First Nations. On Friday, Wilkinson said their concerns had been answered.

"We consulted very extensively with Ermineskin (First Nation) and Ermineskin has actually sent us a letter essentially withdrawing their objection to us going through the designation process, he said from Milan, where he was attending a climate conference.

But Carol Wildcat, the band's consultation director, said in a letter to the Impact Assessment Agency that Ermineskin still doesn't think Ottawa is needed.

" (Ermineskin)s position is that a review of the (project) by the Alberta Energy Regulator is sufficient and that a review under the Impact Assessment Act is not necessary," she wrote. " (Ermineskin) neither supports or opposes a federal review of the projects."

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But she also said any review must consider the band's financial concerns.

" (Ermineskin) will expect the (agency's) consultation process to address the potential impacts of (its) decisions about the projects on (the band's benefits agreement)."

A federal spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Wilkinson has said several times that new thermal coal projects don't fit with Canada's climate change policies and any new projects will have to surmount a high bar for approval.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2021.

 Follow Bob Weber at @row1960
To step into Manitobas longest-running halal store is to feel all your senses go off at once.

To step into Manitobas longest-running halal store is to feel all your senses go off at once.

Colourful spices lining the shelves, hookahs of every size and variety, signage above each aisle in English and Arabic, the smell of warm samosas. On a small television a video of Muslim worshippers in Mecca with prayers overlaid plays, above one of the stores tightly-packed lanes.

At the heart of it all, 70-year-old owner Yusuf Abdulrehman is somehow the most vibrant aspect of the store.

Seemingly unable to stop moving, he paces through the aisles of the Halal Meat Centre, located at 206 Maryland St., fixing products just so, talking to suppliers on speaker phone, but always stopping to greet customers, many he knows by name. Its no wonder that many in Winnipegs Muslim community fondly refer to the store as simply "Yusufs."

When Abdulrehman immigrated to Winnipeg from Tanzania 40 years ago, there was nowhere to buy halal food, much less specialized halal stores. Today, shops dot the city  but none as historic as the Halal Meat Centre, first opened by Abdulrehman and his wife Roshanara nearly 35 years ago.

Its a point of pride.

SHANNON VANRAES / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Yusuf Abdulrehman opened Halal Meat Centre, Winnipegs first halal sore, nearly 35 years ago.

"Im the oldest store, and thats what I am," Abdulrehman said. "And my way of doing business is different than what theyre doing."

Halal food simply means food that was prepared under the guidelines put forward in the Quran  the word means "permissible" in Arabic. Halal certification has many caveats, but some of the basics include that it cant contain any pork (even in trace amounts, like gelatin) or alcohol, and animals must be slaughtered under specific guidelines often considered more humane than mass meat production.

This can put Muslims who observe these guidelines in a tough spot  even foods that may seem fine, like pie crust or candy, may not be halal, and pork products are a staple in many Canadian meals. At Halal Meat Centre, everything from the bacon (made from chicken) to the sweets (made from pork-free gelatin) is halal.

Its a point of comfort for their Muslim clientele, Abdulrehman said, that they can come in and know their needs are being put first  but people coming in, and his suppliers, are from all walks of life, including meat from Hutterite colonies and local farmers.

"When I started this business, it was initially aiming for Muslim community. Now thats not the case, Ive got more other clientele than the Muslim community," he said.

That focus on the Muslim community had an impact on how the citys Muslim community formed  Manitoba Islamic Association president and customer Idris Elbakri said he remembers the store as the only place to get halal food when he arrived in Winnipeg from Palestine 16 years ago.

Halal stores are often a hub for newcomers to the city  not just for familiar foods, but for the resources they provide outside of their products.

SHANNON VANRAES / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Halal stores serving as a safe space for newcomers might seem like a heavy responsibility to some, but Abdulrehman waves it off. Creating a safe space for everyone is just part of the job, he said

"Its often a place where people go not just to buy products but to get information, to get help," he said.

"They become an informal information-sharing network, an informal assistance network, where through the owners or the employees of these stores, people learn things about the community, about the city, and get help from other members of the community.

"I think they play a very important role."

Today, there are multiple halal stores  a representation of just how much the local Muslim community has grown in a short time, Elbakri said  but the services they provide to newcomers remain the same. Often, he said, Muslim families who have lived in Winnipeg for a while will go to halal stores before newcomers arrive in the city and put together packages of food from their country of origin in hopes of reminding them that their culture has immigrated with them.

"I think it just kind of helps people feel less homesick, and maybe take a step forward into integrating in their new environment," he said.

Halal stores serving as a safe space for newcomers might seem like a heavy responsibility to some, but Abdulrehman waves it off. Hes a natural entrepreneur  before the shop, he worked in sales of everything from cars to stationary  and creating a safe space for everyone is just part of the job.

"To be very honest to me, it doesnt matter," he said. "Whether youre Muslim or if youre not a Muslim, you are in my store, it is my responsibility to take care of you."

SHANNON VANRAES / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Halal food simply means food that was prepared under the guidelines put forward in the Quran  the word means "permissible" in Arabic.

He credits both the stores longevity and its diverse customer base to service  the double-edged sword of halal food reaching mainstream attention in Winnipeg means big-box stores will often have some halal products priced in a way that alienates mom-and-pop operations like Abdulrehmans, but, as he puts it, they never have the care he puts into his work.

"Its very important, how you run the business. You have got to take care of your customer. You got to protect your customer," he said. "Thats what theyre here for."

And its worked  the store has maintained a steady success over the past three decades, including clientele who drive in from Saskatchewan and North Dakota to browse his wares.

Abdulrehman is 70, and his three sons, who all work in the medical field, arent interested in picking up the family business. The future of Halal Meat Centre is uncertain, but hes still spry  after speaking with the Free Press, he gets right back to work, pacing through the aisles again, fixing items just so, on the phone with suppliers.

"I will carry on as long as I can, unless somebodys willing to wear my shoes. Then Ill give him my shoes and let him carry on," he said.

"Other than that, I will continue myself as long as I can, because I enjoy doing what Im doing."

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_

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As a pink-streaked blue sky faded into twilight over Oodena Circle, Brenda Watt led a prayer for all ancestors who've gathered here.

As a pink-streaked blue sky faded into twilight over Oodena Circle, Brenda Watt led a prayer for all ancestors who've gathered here.

Candle flames flickered in a semi-circle around the monument as nearly 100 people gathered for the sunset ceremony that drew to a close the fourth annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Awareness Day. Each one of them has felt a loss that brought them to this spot, Watt said. The knowledge keeper from Selkirk said she drew love and support from the bittersweet turnout.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Anastasia, 5, sister of Eishia Hudson, who was shot by police, holds a candle during MMIWG day in Winnipeg, Monday.

"I'm happy the awareness is out there, but I'm sad at the same time, because we're all gathering on account of that we lost a loved one," Watt said after the ceremony, as she surveyed the dispersed crowd with sage in hand.

"When I was praying, I imagined the love that everybody has here, I imagined that love going to the universe."

As she held a candle in honour of her cousin Christine Wood, who was killed in Winnipeg in 2016, Kaydi Robertson said the day was a reminder that people need to stand united to protect and honour women and girls.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS People gather for a vigil at the Forks during MMIWG day in Winnipeg Monday.

"For me, it's just the support and the teaching and learning to be together. That's the only way anything's ever going to happen, is if we are there for each other," said Robertson, who is from Norway House.

Janet Petrie said the ceremony brought her a sense of power, "to actually stand up and take my power back."

"It really freed my spirit. It gave me peace," she said.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Bev Jones sings an eagle song at a sacred fire at City Hall.

The unsolved slaying of her grandmother prompted Petrie to take her first name. Petrie joined in the sunset ceremony, and a preceding five-kilometre walk, for Janet French, who was from Roseau River and died more than 30 years ago in Winnipeg.

"That broke our family, same as the residential schools prior to that affected my grandmother," Petrie said. "So I just wanted to walk for her, so I can get that healing that I need, and I wanted to walk for all our sisters and brothers, and be supportive."

Petrie said she is still mourning the death of her three-month-old daughter Violet, who died in CFS care.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Elder Carolyn Moar places a tobacco tie in a sacred fire at City Hall.

The vigil capped off a day of memorial events that began at sunrise in honour of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people.

"(It's) an opportunity to carry the conversation a little deeper," said Sandra DeLaronde, who co-ordinated much of the day's programming, which included the five-km walk in Winnipeg, sacred fires and events across Manitoba.

"The whole issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women is a... direct result of residential schools (and)... the ongoing genocidal policies of government," DeLaronde said.

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MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Red dresses hang in the courtyard at City Hall.

If even one person gains awareness and works to create change, the day's events will have been successful, she said.

"That's the only way change takes place, is one person at a time."

The events in honour of the murdered and missing continue Tuesday, when Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata and MKO are set to host a noon-hour webinar on reclaiming power and place. Red dresses hang outside Winnipegs city hall and libraries and will remain through the month of October as a reminder of the missing. City employees donated 73 dresses.

Oct. 4 has been Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Awareness Day in Manitoba since 2017. The proceedings Monday come after Canada's first-ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation last Thursday.

 with files from Gabrielle Piche

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Arianna Ducharme holds a photo of her aunt (a homicide victim) at the sacred fire at City Hall.
The nearing return home to Pauingassi and Little Grand Rapids First Nations wont just cure homesickness  it will save lives, First Nation members say.

The nearing return home to Pauingassi and Little Grand Rapids First Nations wont just cure homesickness  it will save lives, First Nation members say.

More than 1,500 people between the two northern communities are set to exit Winnipeg beginning today. Theyve been living in the citys hotels since July, when forest fires triggered evacuations. Downed Hydro poles from the fires extended the stay.

Manitoba Hydro confirmed Saturday that power is restored.

"Its not healthy coming out here," said Sheldon Keeper, a 35-year-old Pauingassi First Nation member who stayed near the airport. "All of us need to go back home. Itll be happier over there."

Theres been violence, Keeper said  stabbings, fights. Gangs have targeted the First Nation group.

"Sometimes they think were in a gang, but were not," he said.

He and his family have been deliberate with their clothing choices. Picking the wrong colour could be dangerous.

"I tried to dress (in) red before, but my mom told me not to," Sheldon said.

Corey Keeper, Sheldons nephew, sported a blackened left eye Sunday  hed gotten into a fight on the street.

Corey has lost three aunts to alcohol consumption since entering Winnipeg. "Its hard to express," he said of the losses.

Alcohol is much cheaper in the city than at home, Sheldon said.

"Out in Pauingassi, its like $160 a bottle to buy," he said.

He and Corey were told theyd board a plane north next weekend. Theyre hunters and eager to get back to it.

"Thats what we all miss," said Priscilla Keeper, a Pauingassi First Nation member who isnt related to Sheldon and Corey.

"First thing Im gonna do is jump on a boat and... go hunt a moose," she said.

She echoed Sheldon and Corey, saying her community needs to leave the city as soon as possible.

"Im going to have a hard time hunting because (of) the fire," Corey said, adding hes unsure of the forests state.

Setting snares will be difficult and animals may have fled, Sheldon said.

Wildfires scorched approximately 800,000 hectares of land east of Lake Winnipeg, a provincial spokesperson said in August. Manitoba Hydro reported forest fires had damaged 91 poles and 35 structures servicing Little Grand Rapids and Pauingassi First Nations.

The outage led members of the northern communities to stay in Winnipeg hotels for months while evacuees of other First Nation communities, including Bloodvein and Berens River, returned home.

Samantha Bushie will leave for Little Grand Rapids Monday morning. Then, its back to work at the local school, teaching computer courses.

She and her mother stayed at a Best Western.

"It was good," she said, adding shes excited for a return to normal.

The Canadian Red Cross has been aiding evacuees, offering health supports, setting up hotels and meals, and offering hygiene kits and recreational activities, among other things.

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"I can confirm that the Canadian Red Cross is already co-ordinating flights to the communities for the members in preparation for the return home process," Michelle Palansky, a spokesperson for the organization, said in an email Sunday.

More details will come this week, she said.

Restoration took extra time because of difficult terrain, like poles mounted on rock outcrops, Manitoba Hydro said.

It had warned of potential delays in August, when it began restoration work.

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and First Nations leaders had called for a state of emergency in hopes of faster restoration.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com
Members of Winnipegs Jewish community are welcoming the publication of new research by Mennonite Central Committee into its entanglement with National Socialism before and after the Second World War.

Members of Winnipegs Jewish community are welcoming the publication of new research by Mennonite Central Committee into its entanglement with National Socialism before and after the Second World War.

"Im pleased and impressed with MCCs honesty, purposefulness and willingness to come to grips with its past," said Daniel Stone about the research published in Intersections, MCCs quarterly newsletter.

Stone, a retired University of Winnipeg history professor, was also impressed by the high calibre of the research.

"They have very high standards," he said of the researchers, "and are willing to say what happened."

Belle Jarniewski, executive director of the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada, feels the same way.

"I really applaud MCC for the research," she said, adding "it is important for it to reckon with its past."

Among the 12 essays in the newsletter is "MCC and Nazism, 1929-1955," by Ben Goossen, a historian at Harvard University.

In it, Goossen noted that MCC "at best, kept silent" about its involvement with Nazis during that period, and "at worst, was involved in coverup and denial."

During that time period, "MCC leadership made conscious decisions at many points to work with Nazis where they didnt have to, and downplayed collaboration with Nazis by some Mennonite refugees," he said.

Later, it developed a narrative about the rescue of about 12,000 Mennonite refugees from the former Soviet Union that "claimed Jewish suffering, that Mennonites had suffered like the Jews," he said.

This prevented MCC from taking an honest look at its past, he went on to say, adding that prevented it from "wrestling in any meaningful way" with the Holocaust.

By evaluating the decisions of previous generations of MCC leaders, the organization can develop tools to navigate ethically challenging situations today, he said.

"Responding to evidence of institutional antisemitism within MCCs history will benefit the organizations engagement with Jews, specifically, and it will more generally strengthen MCCs work in a variety of interfaith contexts," he added.

In her essay, "Defining the deserving: MCC and Mennonite refugees from the Soviet Union after World War II," Aileen Friesen noted that defining which refugees were deserving back then was "based on MCCs own moral framework."

Although "seemingly without intention to cover acts of atrocity committed during the Nazi period, MCC gave licence for Soviet Mennonites to minimize or erase the different ways they had collaborated with and benefited from the Nazis," said Friesen, who teaches Mennonite studies at the University of Winnipeg.

By taking a hard look at MCCs wartime past, the agency can "fully address" things that were once hidden and brushed over, she said, adding "We dont have to be afraid of our past... covering it up is more detrimental."

Friesen acknowledged for some, Mennonites and Jews alike, "these are painful memories from a painful time."

But, she said, it can be an opportunity to discover what that experience means for today, and to develop good relations between the Mennonite and Jewish communities.

For Alain Epp Weaver of MCC, who edited the special issue about MCC and the Holocaust, the organization is "very grateful to the historians for helping us understand how MCC was entangled with National Socialism."

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Through their work some "sobering facts have emerged and been heard," he said, adding the organization is committed to being "open and transparent" about this episode in its history.

This includes how Mennonites at that time were "bound up" in the broader Christian experience of antisemitism.

MCCs goal now, he said, is to assess what it can learn from that episode in its history, at the same time emphasizing it "firmly opposes antisemitism alongside all forms of racism."

The organization is committed "to continued examination of its history and to discerning how to respond to this history in ways that are faithful to its grounding in the gospel of reconciliation."

Some of the research was presented Sept. 30-Oct. 2 at the MCC at 100 conference at the University of Winnipeg. The full report by the researchers can be found at http://wfp.to/H2J

faith@freepress.mb.ca
The first woman engineer hired by Manitoba Infrastructure has died.

Manitoba Infrastructure announced the sudden death Monday of assistant deputy minister Ruth Eden.

"It is with a heavy heart that we must say goodbye to a beloved member of our staff," Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler said in a news release.

It did not say how Eden died, nor her age.

In 1988, she joined the department's technical services and operations division, and was involved in the design and construction of bridges and structures throughout the province for more than 30 years.

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"Her dedication to her work can be seen throughout the province and she leaves a lasting legacy through the many lives she touched," Schuler said. "As minister, I know I speak for all of Manitoba Infrastructure that Ruth Eden will be sadly missed but fondly remembered."

She was one of five women to graduate from the civil engineering program at the University of Manitoba in 1988.

In 2019, to mark the 30th anniversary of the murders of 14 women, almost all of whom were engineering students, at what is now Polytechnique Montreal, women who were engineering students across Canada around the time of the massacre and pursued their careers were honoured, including Eden.

"On days like today, I cant help but wonder what the 14 women wouldve accomplished with their careers and the difference they wouldve made," Eden said in a UM Today story.

"I made the choice to stay in engineering even after what happened because I love what I do. To all the women here today, follow your heart, even if its sometimes difficult."

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Restaurant operators across Canada are struggling to find enough staff to run their operations. This labour crisis has been highly publicized by Canadian media as a labour shortage.

Opinion

Restaurant operators across Canada are struggling to find enough staff to run their operations. This labour crisis has been highly publicized by Canadian media as a "labour shortage."

A recent survey by Restaurants Canada found 80 per cent of food-service operators were finding it difficult to hire kitchen staff and 67 per cent were having trouble filling serving, bartending and hosting positions.

Prior to the pandemic, Canadas food-service sector employed 1.2 million people, and according to Statistics Canada it currently needs to fill 130,000 positions to reach pre-pandemic levels. That said, the Canadian restaurant industry has been struggling with hiring and retention problems for many years.

Should the chronic hiring struggles of Canadian restaurants be referred to as a labour shortage, or can it be more accurately portrayed as a retention issue fuelled by a lack of decent work? Does the use of the term "labour shortage" take the onus off of restaurant operators for creating these shortages, and instead place it on Canadian job-seekers?

First job for many Canadians

A 2010 Canadian Restaurant and Foodservice Association report found 22 per cent of Canadians worked in a restaurant as their first job  the highest of any industry. The study also found 32 per cent of Canadians have at one point worked in the restaurant industry.

These statistics show millions of Canadians have been introduced to restaurant work, and the industry has enjoyed a seemingly endless supply of labour for decades. So why is it that the restaurant industry is burning through so many people?

Our research on restaurant work conditions shows that working in a restaurant is difficult, requiring the sacrifice of work-life balance due to long hours and unpredictable schedules. While restaurant work can be rewarding and fun, it can also be low-paying, stressful and physically demanding, all of which can have a negative impact on mental health.

Many restaurant workers spend at least eight hours a day on their feet, with no time for breaks or meals. Workers are also required to forgo their social and family life by having to work late nights, weekends and holidays. Many restaurant workers almost never know precisely when their shifts will end, and tend to be placed on unpredictable split shifts or "on call" shifts to save labour costs.

Toxic work environment

The restaurant industry has also been rampant with sexual harassment, abuse and toxic work environments.

A Statistics Canada study found hospitality workers have the worst job quality out of any industry. This was largely due to low earnings, the inability to take time off, no paid sick leave, a lack of training opportunities and no supplemental medical and dental care. This same study found 67 per cent of hospitality workers work in jobs with conditions that fall below decent work levels.

So what exactly is "decent work?" Its a concept established by the International Labour Organization and is linked to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Decent work establishes universal conditions of work that are central to the well-being of workers.

These conditions are considered to be minimum labour standards that include living wages, work hours that allow for free time and rest, safe working environments and access to health care. Decent work is considered a human right, but based on the conditions of restaurant work, it appears the Canadian restaurant industry is struggling to provide it to all of its employees.

Exodus of workers from the industry

Through our research on restaurant work, and via conversations with many restaurant employees across the country, weve learned that many are fleeing the industry because the work is a grind. Whats more, they dont see any future in a job that will continue to hinder their well-being.

The pandemic allowed workers time to find jobs in other industries that provide more stability and feature regular work schedules, vacation time, higher pay and benefits. These workers often felt neglected, and that their employers did not believe they were worth investing in.

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While there are certainly good restaurant employers, the industry as a whole has failed to improve working conditions because historically, there were always new people to fill roles. That raises the question: could the continuous reference to a labour shortage in the restaurant industry actually be creating a lack of urgency in addressing longstanding issues of work quality?

If restaurants want to operate at full staff in the post-pandemic future, they need to invest in their employees because, after all, its impossible to run a restaurant without people working in it.

The restaurant industry has always spent money, time and resources to attract customers and increase revenues. Its long past time for restaurant operators to consider their employees internal customers, and put as much effort into providing great experiences for them as they do for their external customers.

A good place for operators to start is by providing decent and dignified work for all that provides decent wages, benefits and healthy working conditions.

Bruce McAdams is an associate professor in hospitality, food and tourism management and Rebecca Gordon is a graduate student at the University of Guelph.

This article was first published at The Conversation Canada: theconversation.com/ca.
At noon on Saturday, Oct. 2, electricity was restored to the homes of citizens of Little Grand Rapids First Nation and Pauingassi First Nation, after Julys wildfires burnt down nearly a hundred powerline poles and forced a mass community evacuation to Winnipeg.

Opinion

At noon on Saturday, Oct. 2, electricity was restored to the homes of citizens of Little Grand Rapids First Nation and Pauingassi First Nation, after Julys wildfires burnt down nearly a hundred powerline poles and forced a mass community evacuation to Winnipeg.

Starting today, 1,500 citizens will begin to return home after two and half months of living under terrible conditions in city hotel rooms. Little Grand Rapids will go first, with Pauingassi expected to follow soon after.

I wrote a story on this Sept. 16, days after Manitoba Hydro informed community members it would take until mid to late October to replace the poles.

As I wrote: if power went out in any non-Indigenous Manitoba community, this would be fixed in days.

For some reason, First Nations are expected to wait months.

Its no coincidence Manitoba Hydro stepped up after public pressure and to meet the deadline of Sept. 30  Canadas first national holiday for Truth and Reconciliation.

Its also proof that anti-Indigenous racism, in all of its varying forms in this province, is being less and less tolerated.

This is a place where, after all, protests and marches in support of Indigenous rights and land claims are a near weekly occurrence.

This is a place where cabinet ministers cannot simply get away with spouting off incorrect nonsense about residential schools.

And this is a place where a premier is forced to resign due to his ignorant and divisive views on Indigenous peoples.

This place has come a long way since Canadas "national" reporters decreed were more racist than everyone else in this country  a preposterous claim that only proved Canada is the place with a racism problem; its just seen more in Winnipeg due to our population and context.

Frankly, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver have racism problems far more entrenched, less talked about and addressed. People there are still debating if racism even exists.

Most in Manitoba accept that racism exists, Indigenous peoples suffer the most from it, and racist attitudes and beliefs reside in systems, policies and everyday practices here.

If you want proof: one year ago, Probe Research published a study that found that 70 per cent of Manitobans agree that racism is a serious problem and eight in 10 agreed that the divides between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples is a serious issue.

This past week, though, Probe Research released another poll  with this one focusing on Indigenous perspectives of Manitoba.

It found that hope among Indigenous young people is the highest its been since polling started (in 2004) and more than two-thirds of Indigenous young people expressed confidence they will enjoy a better quality of life than their parents.

Manitoba, you are a changing.

Last Thursday, at this countrys first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we saw a coming together of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in ways not seen since the vigil in honour of the lives of Tina Fontaine and Faron Hall seven years ago.

Unlike that fateful event, though, this day wasnt just to honour lost lives but join together to walk, talk, and wear orange shirt and ribbons in allyship.

Thursday was a day to remember survivors and the more than 5,000 unmarked graves of children who died at residential schools, but it was also a day to listen, learn and commit to action.

It was a day where a sunrise ceremony led by Indigenous traditional people occurred at The Forks, an event that would have resulted in jail for all only six decades ago.

It was a day where walks for unity met in Winnipeg, including a nearly 1,000-kilometre journey started by citizens from Fox Lake, York Factory and Tataskweyak and ended by meeting their relations in the south.

It was a day when 10,000 Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples met in St. Johns Park to hold a powwow, honour survivors and leaders and commit to a path forward  the largest gathering in this country on its first national holiday for Truth and Reconciliation.

Manitoba, you done good.

This past week I saw more hope and change than I thought I would see in my lifetime.

I also saw a prime minister who decided surfing in Tofino is more important than putting on an orange shirt for a few hours.

There is obviously more work to do, particularly in areas overly obsessed with problems in places like Manitoba than focusing on their own backyard.

When citizens in our province commit to one another and live up to the visions our ancestors committed to via treaties, gifts, and promises to share, take care of one another, and live in peace, anything is possible.

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Sometimes it takes standing up to racism with pressure and resistance. Sometimes it takes removing premiers. Sometimes it takes putting on an orange shirt and walking together.

If last week was a step, though, it was a good one, and Im damn proud of us.

All of us.

Sept. 30 was a step. Lets do more every day.

niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca
A massive new leak of offshore financial records has exposed thousands of secretive shell companies used by the global elite  including world leaders, CEOs and criminals  to move trillions of dollars into tax havens with impunity.

TANIA PEREIRA COMPOSITE - GETTY, PARLVU (Clockwise from top left) Lawrence Stroll, Elvis Stojko, Joseph Tsai and David Tassillo are among the Canadians named in a massive new leak of offshore financial records.

A massive new leak of offshore financial records has exposed thousands of secretive shell companies used by the global elite  including world leaders, CEOs and criminals  to move trillions of dollars into tax havens with impunity.

Nearly 12 million documents leaked to the Washington D.C.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) were shared with more than 600 reporters in 117 countries, including journalists at the Toronto Star and CBC in Canada.

It marks the biggest journalistic collaboration in history and pulls back the curtain on the shadowy world of offshore tax havens where secret assets, covert deals and hidden fortunes siphon off hundreds of billions of dollars in government tax revenue that could otherwise be spent for the public good.

Among the global cast of prominent businesspeople, celebrities, fugitives, judges and tax officials unmasked in the leak are hundreds of Canadians, including the co-founder of one of the worlds largest porn companies, a billionaire fashion mogul, the countrys second richest man and a former figure skating world champion.

The secret documents expose offshore dealings of 35 former and current world leaders, including the King of Jordan, the presidents of Ukraine and Kenya and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, along with more than 330 politicians and public figures and more than 130 billionaires.

The leak also reveals Canadas status as an international laggard when it comes to investigating and prosecuting those who exploit offshore secrecy to pay bribes, evade taxes and launder the proceeds of crime.

The Canada Revenue Agency has calculated that as much as $3 billion in tax revenue is lost annually to offshore accounts held by wealthy Canadians. Add to that as much as $11.4 billion in tax lost to corporations use of offshore subsidiaries, and tax havens cost Canadians almost $15 billion each year.

Thats more than enough to have free tuition at all the universities and colleges across Canada. Its more than enough for a national childcare program, said Toby Sanger, executive director of Canadians for Tax Fairness.

Globally, at least $11.3 trillion (U.S.) is held offshore, according to a 2020 study by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The leak  dubbed the Pandora Papers  builds on the 2016 Panama Papers investigation, which shocked the world with leaked details of how corrupt politicians can steal from their people, sophisticated criminals can stash their ill-gotten gains and wealthy businesspeople, with highly paid help, can find legal ways to avoid paying a penny in tax.

Establishing a corporation in an offshore tax haven is legal. And there are justifiable reasons for doing so, especially if the owners have a presence in the country and conduct business there.

But tax havens pose a fairness issue, as their complex structures require the services of specialized accountants and lawyers, rendering the domain  and its tax benefits  accessible only to the richest people and largest corporations, said Sanger.

The biggest companies have done very well during the pandemic and made it hard for mainstreet businesses to compete. And part of the reason why is they take big advantage of the tax havens, he said. That also applies to individuals. Weve had vastly increasing inequality at the top end and thats connected to the use of tax havens.

The booming offshore industry has also come under intensifying fire from financial experts for providing corporate anonymity that can undermine the public interest.

As former U.S. President Barack Obama said at the time of the Panama Papers leak, The problem is that a lot of this stuff is legal, not illegal.

We shouldnt make it legal to engage in transactions just to avoid taxes, rather we should embrace the basic principle of making sure everyone pays their fair share, he said.

Sanger adds that when you cut through the financial jargon, leaks of offshore documents present an ethical question, not a legal one.

These things might be considered legal, but I think most Canadians would say theyre immoral. Its unfair that people can avoid paying taxes in such ways, he said.

Over the next several days, the Star will be reporting on some of the players who inhabit this offshore world, ranging from a convicted fraudster to an alleged arms dealer to an accountant who secretly managed the growth of a Middle Eastern kings luxury real estate portfolio through offshore accounts.

In some cases, records reviewed by the Star appear to show breaches of offshore transparency laws that were created after publication of the Panama Papers.

The motivations for establishing companies in secret offshore havens are often not transparent and the use of offshore tax havens often doesnt breach the letter of any specific law.

Proving illegality  which requires a law preventing the conduct, enforcement and successful prosecution  remains treacherous as complex pieces of evidence lie sprinkled across borders, jurisdictions with different laws and corporate registries that were built to keep secrets.

In this area, the law is so squishy and there are so few experts who are qualified to make a determination about whats legal, its almost as if youre going into confession and if you pay enough money for the indulgences you can make any sin acceptable, says James Henry, a leading American economist and attorney who specializes in tax issues including the impacts of tax havens.

The difference between legal and illegal is in the eyes of the wishful beholder.

What the newly leaked records clearly reveal is the voracious demand for corporate anonymity among the worlds wealthy, and the armada of international lawyers and accountants meeting that demand by making companies  and their true owners  invisible.

David Tassillo

Bogus corporate directors and shareholders play an important role in obscuring the identities of the real owners of offshore wealth.

So-called nominee directors are people paid a small fee to represent companies on paper in place of their actual owners. They are, essentially, signatures for sale.

One offshore law firm whose documents are contained in the leak says using nominee directors helps to, preserve privacy by avoiding the identity of the ultimate principal ... being publicly accessible.

This is legal.

David Tassillo, who co-owns Pornhub, one of the worlds largest pornography websites, utilized nominee directors and shareholders, cloaking his identity in several tax haven corporations, the documents show.

The co-owner of Mindgeek, corporate parent of Pornhub, has been accused of profiting from videos depicting sexual assaults, rape, revenge porn and nonconsensual images on one of the most popular websites on the internet.

The new leak reveals Tassillos name on two companies registered in Delaware  considered a domestic tax haven in the U.S.  as well as tropical tax havens Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands.

In all four cases, the records show he purchased nominee directors and shareholders.

He is the sole beneficial owner of Delaware-registered Appscrutiny LLC and Appiation Management LLC, the records show. In both cases, he paid a corporate registration firm about $2,500 (US) including fees for nominee directors and nominee shareholders.

The two offshore tax haven companies Tassillo registered in the documents are Singleron Ltd., registered in Anguilla in October 2017, and a British Virgin Islands company called Teckkix in June 2017.

In a written statement to the Star, Tassillo said the companies were created as part of a pilot program with a U.S. firm he did not name that was intended to use the companys proprietary bot detection technology  software that identifies and eliminates fake online accounts.

To support the business, we established companies in Delaware, like many Fortune 500 companies, as well as Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands, the statement reads.

It says the project, which concluded in 2018, earned $100,000 which went to a Delaware company. All taxes were paid in full, the statement says, and every facet of the business, including tax obligations, was handled in accordance with the law.

The statement did not respond to questions about why Tassillo chose to register the companies in tax havens or why he used nominee shareholders and directors.

According to U.S. expert James Henry, the use of nominee directors is often about hiding your activities from journalists and the government.

In June, 34 women filed a U.S. lawsuit against MindGeek, Tassillo and other company executives, alleging the company is a classic criminal enterprise carried out through wide-ranging criminal activities including human trafficking and child pornography.

The lawsuit alleges MindGeeks owners have developed a network of hundreds of sham shell companies scattered throughout the world ... This shell game existed exclusively to implement and mask the enterprises criminal schemes, evade taxes, launder money, and insulate enterprise members from culpability.

The allegations, which remain before the courts and have not been proven, are denied by Pornhub.

The allegations ... that Pornhub is a criminal enterprise that traffics women and is run like The Sopranos are utterly absurd, completely reckless and categorically false, reads a statement from the company responding to the lawsuit. Pornhub takes seriously every complaint regarding the abuse of our platform.

A Pornhub spokesperson who asked not to be named said any connection between offshore shell company allegations in the class action suit and those appearing in the new leaked documents is false and inaccurate.

Tassillos written statement says the offshore structure identified by the Star was the first and only I have ever set up on behalf of MindGeek, and the transactions and structure were entirely appropriate.

Elvis Stojko

The karate-chopping figure skater won hearts with his edgy and gritty Olympic podium performances, but the prize and endorsement money from his success wasnt bad, either.

The leaked files show that in 2007 Stojko transferred Canadian assets worth up to $6.5 million into an offshore trust in Belize.

Stojko told Pandora Papers partner the CBC this was done on the advice of his longtime lawyer and he was only vaguely aware of what was transpiring.

Tax experts told the CBC that its quite likely such a transfer of wealth to a tax haven was legal and had no tax consequences for Stojko.

Even so, Stojkos Canadian lawyer emphasized that the skaters name should not be disclosed to anyone, for any reason.

Kindly keep these records in safekeeping with your records and in complete discretion and confidence, not open to any public inspection or, indeed, any inspection whatsoever, except by the insured, Mr. Stojko, wrote lawyer Anthony Malcom.

From a young age, I made significant personal and physical sacrifices to represent Canada, Stojko told the CBC. Nearing a breakdown and filled with self-doubt, I moved to Mexico to look after myself and try to heal.

Some years later, when my longtime lawyer recommended that I set up a trust ... I did not question his advice, and I trusted him to act in a manner which was both in my best interests and in compliance with the law, Stojko wrote.

The trust was closed in 2012.

Joseph Tsai

In some cases, the leaked records reveal businesspeople using offshore companies to conduct hidden transactions behind very high-profile companies.

Joseph Tsai  described by Forbes as Canadas second wealthiest person  has become a prominent figure in the business world, especially after his recent purchases of the NBAs Brooklyn Nets and a $157-million Manhattan penthouse.

The Taiwanese-Canadians estimated $14.5-billion net worth is mostly based on his stake in Alibaba Group, the Chinese e-commerce giant.

The leaked records detail control of a network of offshore firms by Tsai, who is considered Alibaba co-founder Jack Mas right-hand man.

Tsais name shows up as director or shareholder of at least a dozen companies registered in offshore tax havens including the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and Bahamas.

While Tsai is the second-largest shareholder of Alibaba, the Canadian citizen is not allowed to make a direct investment in the Chinese firm as China restricts direct foreign investment in tech, media and other sectors. Instead, he is able to hold Alibaba shares in its subsidiary firms incorporated in the tax havens, said Doris Fischer, chair of China business and economics at the University of Wurzburg in Germany.

Alibaba is among many Chinese businesses that have set up holding companies in tax havens through a corporate structure known as variable interest entities (VIE) which opens a back door for foreigners to invest in Chinese companies.

The VIE structure falls into a legal grey area in China.

Fischer, who reviewed the documents at the Stars request, said they provide new insights into the significant role Tsai has played in building the complex offshore business structure underpinning Alibaba.

Its quite obvious he was using these constructions and using these opportunities that the tax havens offered for doing this type of task that he was doing for Alibaba, IPOs and so on, Fischer said.

Among those companies are MFG Limited which was incorporated in the British Virgin Islands in 1999  the same year as the Alibaba Group. Corporate ledger documents detail how Tsai used MFG to hold millions of Alibaba shares which moved through a network of offshore firms and individuals connected to him.

On Dec. 15, 2003, for example, Tsai transferred more than three million Alibaba shares from MFG Limited as a gift to another BVI-based company called PMH Holding, the leaked records show.

Two years later, Tsai would be named sole director of PMH.

Five years after that, in 2010, MFG purchased nearly the same number of shares from PMH.

While the purpose behind shuffling assets between the two offshore companies is unclear, millions of shares issued by MFG for free could have been used to compensate those who worked for the company, including Tsai himself, said Craig Geoffrey, a professor of finance at the University of Toronto who reviewed the records. Normally shares are issued in exchange for cash, he added.

Tsai did not respond to questions about the purpose of his offshore portfolio of companies and the movement of wealth between them.

Lawrence Stroll

Lawrence Stroll, a Canadian billionaire, fashion industry mogul and part-owner of the Aston Martin Formula 1 Team featured in a recent Netflix series, appears in the leaked documents as a shareholder in Superwit Profits Limited.

Stroll shares the BVI-based firm with a roster of fellow ultra-wealthy businesspeople, including Hong Kong fashion billionaire Silas Chou, Hong Kong fashion designer David Tang and French-born billionaire investor Nicolas Berggruen.

Jonathan Dudman, personal financial adviser to Stroll, responded to questions from the Star saying Superwit Profits was a small business originated by Strolls friend Tang in 1998.

The BVI firm is part of a complex offshore corporate structure through which wealthy shareholders like Stroll held interest in separate offshore companies.

Stroll shows up in the documents as holding about 15 per cent interest in Superwit through a decades-old family trust called Polo Trust registered in Liechtenstein, another known tax haven.

This is legal.

Trusts have existed for a thousand years, said Dudman. People create trusts to own assets and to establish and manage and administer those estates. Theres nothing spectacular or special about it.

Chou, who is listed in documents as protector of the Polo Trust  a role in which he is to supervise the trustees  has a history with Stroll dating back to 1989 when the duo founded a fashion company that would acquire and reinvigorate the then-failing Tommy Hilfiger brand.

The bulk of Strolls fortune reportedly comes from selling his shares in Michael Kors after masterminding the American brands successful turnaround in 2011 with Chou.

In 2018, Stroll led a consortium of investors including Chou and Dudman to acquire Force India Formula One Team for 90 million pounds (about $152 million Canadian at the time).

Strolls son Lance joined the team  now called Aston Martin  at the age of 20 the following year, becoming one of the youngest members to compete in Formula One.

In one recent episode of the Netflix series, Stroll appears commanding a boardroom meeting of staff who stutter as they report their plans to him.

Ive always won in the businesses Ive run, Stroll later deadpans to the camera. I plan on winning here.

World leaders

The Pandora Papers investigation has uncovered the secret financial dealings of politicians, including some who have spoken out against offshore tax havens.

Every public servants assets must be declared publicly so that people can question and ask  what is legitimate? Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta told a BBC interviewer in 2018. If you cant explain yourself, including myself, then I have a case to answer.

The leaked records listed Kenyatta and his mother as beneficiaries of a secretive foundation in Panama, the ICIJ and partners found. Other family members, including his brother and two sisters, own five offshore companies with assets worth more than $30 million (U.S.), the records show.

Kenyatta and his family did not reply to requests for comment.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, one of his countrys richest men, rose to power promising to crack down on tax evasion and corruption, once telling voters that he wanted to create a country where entrepreneurs will do business and will be happy to pay taxes.

A review of the leaked records by the ICIJ and partners found that, in 2009, Babis injected $22 million (U.S.) into a string of shell companies to buy a sprawling property, known as Chateau Bigaud, in a hilltop village in Mougins, France, near Cannes. A year later, French records show, he acquired, through another Monaco shell company, seven properties near the chateau, including a two-storey villa with a pool and a garage.

Babis has not disclosed ownership of these shell companies and homes in the asset declarations hes required to file as a public official, according to documents obtained by ICIJs Czech partner, Investigace.cz. In 2018, a real estate conglomerate controlled by Babis bought the Monaco companies that owned the chateau and the villa.

A spokesman for the conglomerate told ICIJ that the company complies with the law. He didnt respond to questions about the acquisition of Babiss properties.

Babis didnt respond to requests for comment.

Tony Blair

For decades, former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair has talked about how the rich and well-connected shirk paying their share of taxes.

For those who can employ the right accountants, the tax system is a haven of scams, perks ... and profits, he said during a speech last February. We should not make our tax rules a playground for revenue avoiders and tax abusers who pay little or nothing while others pay more than their share.

The Pandora Papers show that in 2017, Blair and his wife, Cherie, became the owners of a $8.8 million (U.S.) Victorian building by acquiring the British Virgin Islands company that held the property. The London building now hosts Cherie Blairs law firm.

By purchasing the company shares instead of the building, an ICIJ analysis suggests the legal arrangement saved the Blairs from having to pay more than $400,000 (U.S.) in property taxes.

Cherie Blair said that her husband was not involved in the transaction and that its purpose was bringing the company and the building back into the U.K. tax and regulatory regime.

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She also said that she did not want to be the owner of a BVI company and that the seller for their own purposes only wanted to sell the company. The company is now closed.

With files from Zach Dubinsky, CBC, Pavla Holcova, Hana Capova and Zuzana Sotova, Investigace.cz and Simon Goodley, The Guardian.

The Pandora Papers is a global collaboration between the Toronto Star and the nonprofit International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. If you like journalism like this, please make a donation to ICIJ to support it.

Robert Cribb is a Toronto-based investigative reporter for the Star. Reach him via email: rcribb@thestar.ca

Marco Chown Oved is a Toronto-based investigative reporter for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @marcooved

Sheila Wang is a municipal politics and general assignment reporter for YorkRegion.com and its sister papers. Reach her via email: swang@metroland.com
Palliative care and Covid-19: A patients quality of life and dignified death are paramount

Calls to permit nurses in South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania to prescribe morphine to help ease patient's suffering and give them a dignified death.

Human beings have a right to live a life with dignity which is free of suffering, pain and stigma, no matter how short their life may be. When it comes to people who are living with a serious condition or illness the question is, how can quality of life be ensured?

The reality is many seriously ill patients, particularly in Africa, struggle with ever-increasing pain, finally dying without relief while immediate carers, often loved ones, stand by helpless and emotionally broken. This suffering is as a result of limited access to oral liquid morphine, a situation exacerbated by the lack of knowledge on how to administer pain-relieving medicine. It is unfortunate that governments overlook the fact that greater access to pain relief and wide training of healthcare workers would mean that, for people who are seriously ill, pain relief, control of symptoms and a good quality of life are possible.

In southwest Uganda, things are a little different. Patients with advanced illness are served by a palliative care unit at Kitagata Hospital reaching a catchment population of almost 40,000 people in greater Bushenyi District.

Between April and May 2020, when the global Covid-19 crisis struck, hospital services were disrupted worldwide. For the newly established palliative care unit, inpatient palliative care consultations were interrupted, and visits to patients at home severely limited or even discontinued. Appointments were postponed due to the risk of infection, so patients could not come to hospital and could not send family members or carers to collect drug refills.

Mukazi battled breast cancer alone

This is the situation faced by 48-year-old Brigit Mukazi (not her real name), who has advanced breast cancer.

Mukazi lives in Ntungamo District, which is outside the hospital catchment area. For more than five days she called for pain relief and was cut off from palliative care assistance at the hospital due to the high cost of hiring special transport during Covid because there was no public transport available due to the restrictions. Mukazi was facing the prospect of ever-worsening quality of life with escalating pain, increasing symptoms of her breast cancer and within a few months, the inevitability of a miserable, painful end to her life.

This situation is the reality for most seriously ill patients in developing countries across the world today.

What happened to Mukazi?

To answer this question we have to go back to the years before Covid-19 struck, when the Palliative Care Association Uganda (PCAU) sent a nurse to be trained in palliative care. Once qualified this nurse, Catherine Nakasita, set up the first palliative care unit at Kitagata Hospital. The hospital management provided a double-entry cupboard system for the palliative care unit to store oral morphine, and also allowed Nakasita access to the national medical stores which ensures a continuous supply of morphine and other essential palliative care drugs.

When Covid-19 struck, palliative care unit services were severely disrupted and Nakasita witnessed a crisis of need unfolding. The calls for drug refills, by patients and their carers, fell on deaf ears. When Nakasita contacted the district officials for help, she was told the government only supported pregnant mothers, leaving cancer patients to languish in pain without support. Mukazi was one of these patients (Read The Right way to say goodbye: Quintons Story (2018) and Why are we failing to protect the rights of children like Kivumbi? (2019).

Nakasita knew there were hundreds more like Mukazi and could not ignore their suffering. She initiated the process by using her personal cellphone and her vehicle, and also contacted bodaboda (motorbike) drivers to deliver drugs to patients and bring critically ill patients to hospital  essential during a severe lockdown.

Collaboration and cooperation meant care continued

Because she knew her funds were insufficient to reach the many patients in need of pain relief and transport, Nakasita wrote to the Palliative Care Association Uganda for further support. She knew there were many children and adults living with cancer who, after chemotherapy, needed follow-up visits to hospital but they lacked the financial means to make the trip.

Nakasita was aware of this silent suffering hidden away in homes, across many districts, so she raised the alarm. The association recognised her call for help and provided her with the necessary financial assistance to deliver drugs and pay drivers to transport patients to and from hospital. Support from the association and others, such as District Health Authority, meant that the holistic approach to palliative care and access to this service could continue uninterrupted during the pandemic.

It was Nakasita who initially set up the palliative care unit at Kitagata Hospital and who personally travelled five hours to reach Mukazi in a remote area in Ntungamo District, bringing her oral morphine and antibiotics. Without a trained palliative care nurse such as Nakasita, the many patients in Mukazis position would have been forgotten.

Nurse prescribes morphine

As a qualified palliative care nurse, Nakasita was allowed to administer morphine in place of a medical practitioner.

Nakasita is recognised in Uganda as a nurse prescriber because of a progressive law enacted in 2004. A further law was passed, the Narcotic and Psychotic Substance Act 2015, which threatened the role of nurse prescribers in Uganda. However, due to the efforts of a number of key stakeholders and government (read The right of palliative care for the most vulnerable in Africa is everyones responsibility), nurse prescribing is still recognised today.

In order for Nakasita to legally access morphine for her patients, she must keep accurate records which justify the further ordering of morphine. In addition Nakasita must send quarterly reports to the National Medical Store (NMS) thus ensuring the collection of data reflecting the needs for pain relief and the response. The NMS gathers and analyses data to establish the true extent of the problem. Through this analysis there is a potential to develop plans tailored to meet local needs of communities.

At a more personal level, Nakasita also cleaned Mukazi s wound and offered emotional support to the family, this same support or similar support was provided for 600 more patients and families in the Greater Bushenyi District. Through both the work and the compassion displayed by Nakasita the dignity and rights of patients such as Mukazi are ultimately realised and upheld.

Palliative care improves quality of life

Palliative care is important because it affords patients pain relief and symptom management, thus improving a patients quality of life while still pursuing curative measures. Palliative care not only controls a patients distressing symptoms, but also addresses and supports a patients emotional, psychological and spiritual needs whilst also offering care for their families.

As a nurse Nakasita found the palliative care training worthwhile because she learned to manage the patients pain and other distressing symptoms of a life limiting illness. Previously she thought morphine weakened patients, which is a common misconception shared among many of her fellow health workers. As a result of her training she realised this misconception meant patients were not offered the pain relief they so desperately needed.

In countries such as South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania, nurses are not permitted to prescribe morphine. This can be attributed historically to laws introduced through colonialism which resulted in the criminalisation of opioid use thus impacting the accessibility of pain relief drugs (Read Decolonizing Health Governance: A Uganda Case Study on the Influence of Political History on Community Participation).

These early laws continue to drive suspicion and fear, including many in the medical profession, about the utilisation of opium as a form of pain relief, which denies the right of many to adequate health care and to a dignified end to life. Ugandas nurse prescribing has shown that with safeguards in place, including secure morphine storage, and adequate record-keeping by nurses, there have been no recorded cases of drug misuse.

Viruses and pathogens will come and go but as human encroachment on the environment, and on wildlife, increases, so too will the frequency of these new diseases. As scientists accept the reality of future pandemics and develop tools to predict these threats, global health experts will have limited time to find innovative remedies to these pandemics of the future.

This is the time, as leading scientists and innovators scurry to respond to the call for relief, where people with palliative care skills like Nakasita, are a necessity. Health practitioners and carers, with palliative care training, are already in place to provide the necessary and humane care for those many who are suffering.

Unfortunately, while in the storm of a pandemic, humane and gentle medicine often goes unrecognised and the rights of many patients are undermined. In the haste to stop the spread or cope with increasing numbers of patients, inclusive healthcare is non-existent with many older or seriously ill patients being left to die alone (Read: Dying Alone Due to Covid-19: Do the Needs of the Many Outweigh the Rights of the Few  or the One?).

If palliative care is not included in pandemic preparedness, when the next pandemic rolls around, many more will die in unnecessary suffering, watched over by their helpless traumatised families, who will be scarred forever. Pandemics by their nature cause death but we can at the very least relieve suffering prior to death. Health systems that continue to chase cures for each future pandemic, and continue to ignore palliative care that relieves suffering, do their citizens a huge disservice.

Dr Desia Colgan is a senior law lecturer at the University of Witwatersrand. She oversaw the Wits Street Law programme for over 20 years, working extensively on social justice issues and the rights of children. For the past 14 years she has been involved with palliative care for adults and children. Nicola GunnClark previously worked at the National Hospice Association in South Africa (HPCA) on legal projects including publication of Legal Aspects of Palliative Care (2012) which led to the rollout of law training to hospices, and linked indigent hospice patients & families to pro bono legal help, and later was appointed advocacy officer to HPCA. For six months she worked at the national childrens palliative care network, Patch SA assisting to set up a high-level meeting with government highlighting the need to implement the national policy on palliative care particularly so childrens right to palliative care can be realised, and for palliative care to be integrated into the health system. Her day job is in conveyancing in the United Kingdom. Emmanuel Kamonyo Sibomana is a member of Quebec Bar (Membre du Barreau du Quebec) who previously worked as Health Rights Officer for Open Society East Africa. Sibomana is a strong proponent for justice and has been involved, for many years, in supporting strategies that advance the health and human rights of all marginalised people.

The authors would like to acknowledge Catherine Nakasita for her input and feedback during the writing of this article. Without her help this article would not have been possible. For questions on this story please contact the co-authors: Dr Desia Colgan desia.colgan@wits.ac.za; Nicola GunnClark gunnclarknicky@gmail.com; Emmanuel Kamonyo Sibomana healthrightseafrica@gmail.com.

This article was first published in Daily Maverick/Maverick Citizen.
Former presidents rise to the #Wits100 challenge

Wits SRC president pledges USD100,000 to aid students, challenges others to #WitsForGood challenge.

Student leaders from 1968 to 2021 convened on 9 September to discuss how they could rise to the #Wits100 challenge and give back, for good. Over 13 presidents, including former justice and Wits Chancellor Justice Richard Goldstone and Professor Max Price, former Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences attended the momentous occasion. This gathering was timely as the University forges closer bonds with graduates, students and partners ahead of its centenary in 2022.

Professor Zeblon Vilakazi, Wits Vice-Chancellor and Principal welcomed the diverse group of presidents describing them as a cohort of great Witsies who despite their eclectic mix of skills and attributes have one thing in common and that is living true to the values of Wits University. Vilakazi said that it is heartening to learn that these leaders want to serve Wits beyond their student years.

Price embraced the convention and advised that more student leaders get involved. He also asked how former student leaders and Witsies could get involved through projects that would strategically advance the #Wits100 campaign, and the University in the long-term.

Linda Vilakazi, the first black president of the SRC also welcomed the challenge stating, it is worth it. She committed to galvanise former student leaders to support the #Wits100 campaign, including those from the Black Student Society.

I am putting my hand up and I am definitely going to go all out, for this challenge said Vilakazi, who is also co-founder of the South African Student Solidarity Foundation for Education (SASSFE), a network for all universities alumni to support students in need.

Current student challenges

The outgoing 2021 Wits SRC President, Mpendulo Mfeka, raised a number of issues that confront students, including the lack of accommodation, financial exclusions, hunger and mental health, the latter exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Food is a real crisis and there are students who do not know from where they are going to get their next meal, said Mfeka. This issue has escalated as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, where many families have lost employment and businesses.

The 2020/2021 SRC, under Mfekas leadership raised R4 million to assist students.

A Challenge to SRC Presidents

The socio-economic plight of students touched Rex Heinke, the 1971 SRC President, and a member of the Wits Fund Board in the USA. He subsequently pledged $100,000 in aid of student support and challenged other presidents to support the campaign.

I recently learnt about some Wits students not having enough food to eat and no sufficient place to live. It pained me enormously to hear that and I had to do something to help. My wife and I will be contributing this year and next year to ease the hunger and housing shortages of Wits students, he explained.

The appellate counsel has used the donation as a challenge to other former SRC presidents to give towards a joint fundraising goal to commemorate the Wits centenary in 2022.

We hope that you will do the same and that you will encourage your friends to make contributions. We urge each of you to contribute whatever you can. Even if your contribution is small, it is important that as many SRC Presidents contribute to demonstrate our commitment to Wits that could encourage others to follow our lead.

As a proud Witsie, Heinke has a great affinity to the institution. He said that in 1971, during the height of apartheid, Wits was a beacon of light and hope and exposed him to the atrocities of the oppressive undemocratic system. Through his challenge, he hopes to shine a light in students lives.

Addressing meeting attendees, Heinke said: Wits needs your help now to build a new generation of South African leaders to fulfil the dream of a free and democratic South Africa. You showed your commitment and your leadership by becoming an SRC President. Now it is time for you to again commit and lead Wits, and to become part of the #Wits100 anniversary campaign.

Heinkes contribution will be channelled towards the Wits Food Bank and the Wits Covid-19 Relief Fund, established last year. The Wits Food Bank, established in 2013, assists approximately 5 000 students per year.

Read more about how you can get involved in the #Wits100 campaign: https://wits100.wits.ac.za/ Wits.For Good
Wits celebrates 99 years of excellence

Wits launches global appeal, former Wits SRC President donates $100,000 to support students

The University of the Witwatersrand celebrates 99 years of academic and research excellence, social activism, and the advancement of the public good, on Monday, 4 October 2021.

Wits was born out of the School of Mines and was formally inaugurated on 4 October 1922. The University will celebrate 100 years of excellence in 2022 through the Wits Centenary Campaign, and invites all staff members, students, alumni, donors, and members of the extended Wits community, both local and global, to participate in events, reunions, fundraising drives, a homecoming weekend and other activities in the coming year.

We stand on the shoulders of over 200 000 illustrious graduates who have made their mark on society, says Wits Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Zeblon Vilakazi. We remain the home of talented scholars, staff and students, and look forward to shaping the next 100 years. We invite all friends of Wits to participate in our celebrations, and to support our activities, including the Wits Global Appeals which will launch soon.

R3 billion Centenary Campaign

One component of the Wits Centenary Campaign is to raise R3 billion to fund academic and research activities, infrastructure, and students. The University has raised approximately R2 billion to date, and is grateful to the donors who have come on board in recent months to contribute to the campaign through various projects. Some of the major donations include:

Former SRC President donates $100,000 to help students

Former Wits SRC President (1971), Rex Heinke pledged $100,000 to aid students and challenged other presidents to support the campaign.

Priority Areas

Wits is fundraising for projects in eight priority areas: digital transformation, global health and sustainability solutions, entrepreneurship and innovation, governance and social justice, future proofing our national treasures, funding the next generation of staff and students, and finding support through our local and global alumni. There is also close collaboration with Wits fundraising offices in the US, UK and Australia and many Schools already have their own Wits100 plans underway.

Global Appeal

Wits alumni around the world, together with staff, students, parents, and friends of Wits, can play a significant role in ensuring the success of the Centenary Campaign through small, affordable donations. Alumni can make monthly, annual, occasional or once-off donations to a discretionary endowment fund for student support; teaching, research and innovation; and campus infrastructure and improvements here.

Its your campaign

Read more about how you can get involved in the #Wits100 campaign: https://wits100.wits.ac.za/ Wits. For Good.
UTICA, NY - One of the biggest events for Catholics in Central New York returned to Utica this weekend, the Family Rosary Crusade.

After not being able to attend last year's crusade in person - because of the coronavirus - over 800 Catholics filled St. Joseph-St. Patrick Church on Columbia Street Sunday.

This year's guest speaker was Father Ronan Murphy, chaplain of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima.

Free rosaries, scapulars, and blessed miraculous medals were given out to those who wanted them.

These things that are going on in the world are a reminder that we have to rely on a higher being, a higher power than just ourselves, says David Piacentino, Program Coordinator for the crusade. So that's where our lady, our blessed mother comes in and the holy family. We need them. We have to turn to them.

This was the 39th year for the Family Rosary Crusade.
UTICA, NY - A local Ukrainian Catholic Church held a special ceremony Sunday to celebrate a very special anniversary.

The ordination of its pastor.

Father Michael Bundz, the pastor of St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Catholic Church of Utica was ordained 40 years ago back in 1981.

Bishop Paul Chomnycky officiated at a special church service. That was followed by a dinner and reception.

Family, friends, parishioners, along with numerous clergy from the Upstate area attended the event to let Father Mike know just what he's meant to the Ukrainian Catholic Church community in Utica.

A lot of people who are experiencing difficulties turn to him, said Zyn Jackiw a church trustee. We've opened up the church hall to some people who are having some issues. We're helping them out in any way we can, and this is all spearheaded by Father Michael who's been really important in getting these things done for us."

Happy 40th anniversary Father Mike.
TIPPECANOE COUNTY (WLFI)  Indiana's corn and soybeans are anticipated to reach record yields this year, according to the USDA.

While farmers are continuing to harvest, there are a few factors that could affect the expected record yields.

"Were having a few issues with harvest because the beans just dont look quite as good as you might anticipate, said Purdue Extension Soybean Agronomist, Shaun Casteel. What I mean by that is theyve got this green stem on them, so its a little tougher to harvest even though the beans themselves are dry.

Casteel says "Green Stem Syndrome" is just like it sounds. The stem remains green, but the beans are testing at the correct moisture.

"Whenever we harvest soybeans we look for 13% moisture. That's kind of our target and we lose out on yield essentially if we harvest below that," said Casteel. "So a lot of these fields are green stemmed but the seeds themselves are 10% or 11%, so basically we lose out on selling water and because they're dry."

Casteel says green stem syndrome can make it tough to harvest the soybeans and it could lead to yield loss.

When you look at what the green stem syndrome theres various causes that go into that," said Casteel. "It can be a number of factors like a disease, to insects and to dry conditions that have just limited that pod load.

Casteel says within the last five to ten years green stem syndrome has become more common. He believes it could impact the potential to reach the expected record breaking yields.

"In August and in September they're forecasting 60 bushels for the state average, which would be a record yield for us," said Casteel. "Our previous record yield was last year in 2020 with 58 bushels, so this is a couple of bushels higher than we would have typically seen. I think it'll be hard pressed to reach that level but we'll see as the combines start to roll now."

As for corn, record breaking yields are also anticipated.

"So the September crop report they were predicting 197 bushels per acre.," said Purdue Extension Corn Specialist, Dan Quinn. "That's about eight bushels above the state record yield, which was in 2018."

Quinn says corn is pretty variable across the state due to the conditions we've seen.

"The USDA still predicts a state record corn average, or yield average for the state, of Indiana but I think with the conditions weve had Ive heard yields that are pretty high approaching 300 bushels per acre, but yields that arent as high as people expected," said Quinn. "So I really think its part of the variable weather conditions weve had and also some of the disease weve had across the state.

Quinn says tar spot has continued to cause damage to corn crops throughout the state and the weather conditions impacted the crops as well.

"The southeastern part of the state got really dry on us and we had corn fields that were starting to shut down," said Quinn. "I think they lost a lot of kernel weight in those aspects and two tar spot. Tar spot has been a hot top for farmers."

The USDA will release the October crop production report on Tuesday, October 12. Quinn and Casteel agree the numbers might be hard to reach, but time will tell as harvest season continues.

"Whether we have a record yield average, only time will tell. I think it's going to be very variable across the state due to variable conditions and variable disease levels," said Quinn. "Some farmers probably are looking really good, but a lot of farmers I'm starting to hear that maybe it's not as good as what they hoped."
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI)  The Indiana Chamber od Commerce has released the results of its latest Employer survey.

Apparently a worker shortage is posing serious challenges to businesses.

Jason Bearce from the Indiana Chamber says the survey's findings show a trend that existed before the pandemic.

But COVID-19 has brought the problem front and center.

Bearce said some people are making career path changes, but others are leaving the workforce altogether. The large amount of jobs available could be a good thing. It could signal an economic rebound because businesses are making enough money to hire more people.

But prospective employees' expectations have changed. Some employers aren't providing the benefits people now need from a job.

About a quarter of employers surveyed said one of the leading issues with getting and keeping workers is childcare benefits.

"You know, what is the role of the employer in this space when it comes to these kind of wraparound support benefits that historically have not been the role of the employer," Bearce said. "Childcare, housing, transportation. I don't think that there's an expectation that employers themselves have to solve this problem, but I think that it's becoming abundantly clear that employers need to be part of that solution."

Bearce said the Chamber's survey found that many of the workers who are struggling to be employed in a productive way and care for their children are women.

With the lack of available people to staff their businesses, some companies are getting creative with how they are getting jobs done.

They are using artificial intelligence.

"We're also seeing that employers are looking for opportunities to, you know, introduce new technology or automate job functions," Bearce said. "Recognizing that, in some cases, they may not be long term able to find individuals to do every job role that needs to be done in a given company."

Bearce says although some jobs will no longer be performed by humans in the long term, jobs will be created to design, construct and maintain those machines.
The Delaware River is a major river in United States that originates in New Yorks Catskill Mountains and flows for 674 km before reaching the Atlantic Ocean close to Delawares Cape Henlopen and New Jerseys Cape May. The river actually rises in two branches and drains an area of 35,070 sq.km, in the four US States: Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The tide-water meets the waters of the Delaware River close to the meeting point of the borough of Morrisville in Pennsylvania and the capital city of Trenton in New Jersey. The waters of the river drain into the Atlantic Ocean at Delaware Bay and excluding the Bay, the length of the river with its two branches is about 624 kilometers. Remarkably, the Delaware River is recognized by Americas Great Waters Coalition as one of the nineteen Great Waters.

Course Of The Delaware River

A view of the Delaware River bend near Hawks Nest at Catskill Mountains on a summer day.

Also referred to as the Mohawk Branch, the 140km long West Branch of the Delaware River rises at an elevation of 575m close to Mount Jefferson. The river then flows in a deep trough through the plateau in the southwest direction and enters the Delaware County passing through the towns of Delhi and Stamford. In the southwestern part of Delaware County, the river flows in the southwest direction in a winding course through the Catskill Mountains. An important aspect of this West Branch of the Delaware River is that it forms the Cannonsville Reservoir which began serving New York City in 1964. After flowing over halfway through the reservoir, the river water then flows through a 71km long tunnel in the town of Tompkins and reaches the 137km Delaware Aqueduct. In Deposit town, the West Branch flows parallel to the New York State Route 17.

Aerial view of Delaware Water Gap on the border of the US States of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The 121km long East Branch of the Delaware River rises from a small pond in the southern part of the Grand Gorge hamlet in the Roxbury town. The river then flows in the southwest direction and creates the Pepacton Reservoir which is the largest reservoir that supplies the New York City. In the southern part of the village of Hancock, the East Branch joins with the West Branch to form the main Delaware River. The Delaware River then flows between the northern part of Pennsylvanias Poconos Mountains to the lower shale beds in the northern part of the Catskills Mountains. The Delaware River flows in the southeast direction and reaches the Shawangunk Mountains and the city of Port Jervis. From Port Jervis, the river is deflected into the Minisink Valley, where it flows in a bed of glacial till. The river then flows between Philadelphia and New Jersey until it becomes a broad inlet of sea, entering the Delaware Bay. Some of the major tributaries of the Delaware River include Pequest River, Musconetcong River, Christina River, Lehigh River, etc.

RiverLink Ferry provides transportation across the Delaware River between Camden, New Jersey and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the summer months. Editorial credit: Helen89 / Shutterstock.com

The tidal section of the river is navigable and serves as a vital route for shipping and transportation, boosting the economic and industrial development of the cities of Trenton, Camden and Philadelphia. Given its rich history, cultural and economic significance, the Delaware River is deemed a Wild and Scenic River under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968, which aims to preserve rivers like the Delaware River. It is one of the few remaining free-flowing rivers in the United States, having no dams or impediments on the rivers main branch. However, the river is heavily used since its watershed provides drinking water to approximately 17 million people, which is equivalent to 6% of the entire population of the United States.

Etymology

The Delaware River had several older names before acquiring its latest name. The first inhabitants of the basins of the Susquehanna River and Delaware River during European colonization were called the Lenape Native Americans. This tribe named the river Lenapewihittuk or Lenape River. The Native American name meant that the Delaware is the largest river in that part of the country. Later on, during the Dutch and Swedish settlements along the lower section of the river, the river was called South River, relative to the Hudson River which was the North River back then. After the Dutch were expelled by the English in 1664, the river was renamed to Delaware after Sir Thomas West, third Baron De La Warr, who defended the colony during the First Anglo-Powhatan War and also served as the first Royal Governor of the Colony of Virginia.

Brief History

An oval 1908 chromolitho reproduction of Emanuel Leutze's painting (1851) of George Washington's surprise crossing of the Delaware River on December 26, 1776 in the Battle of Trenton.

The Delaware River was a strategic point for several campaigns during the American Revolutionary War. One of the most prominent events was George Washington crossing the Delaware River with the Continental Army on the night of December 25-26, 1776. This crossing eventually led to a successful attack and victory against the Hessian Troops that were then occupying Trenton of New Jersey. Moreover, the shores of Delaware witnessed the Battle of the Red Bank and the Siege of Fort Mifflin that were conducted by the American and British navies.

Economic Significance Of The Delaware River

The cityscape of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania along the banks of the Delaware River.

In addition to providing drinking water to more than 17 million people, the Delaware River has significantly contributed to the economy from recreation, hunting and fishing, ecotourism agriculture and port benefits. For example, the Delaware River port complex is one of the largest shipping areas of the United States, supporting 135,000 direct or indirect jobs. The port is the largest importer of cocoa beans, fruit and approximately 70 percent of the oil shipped to the Atlantic Coast passed through the Delaware estuary.

Biodiversity In The Delaware River Basin

A Great Blue Heron on the banks of the Delaware River on the border of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The clean waters of the upper Delaware regions support more than 90 fish species, making the river a fishing hotspot. Fishes include the Eastern Brook trout, striped bass and the migrating river herring. Some of the notable animals that are found in the river basin include beavers, white-tailed deer, otters, muskrat, mink, etc. More than 250 travelling birds also depend on the Delaware River basin for resources. Most importantly, the Delaware houses the endangered American Eels, which can thrive in Delaware because it is the longest undammed freshwater river east of the Mississippi. Unfortunately, the impacts of development and industrial activity still pose a threat to the river system despite some successful conservation efforts along the river.
PHARR, TEXAS - JUNE 30: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott listens to former President Donald Trump's address during a tour to an unfinished section of the border wall on June 30, 2021 in Pharr, Texas. Gov. Abbott has pledged to build a state-funded border wall between Texas and Mexico as a surge of mostly Central American immigrants crossing into the United States has challenged U.S. immigration agencies. So far in 2021, U.S. Border Patrol agents have apprehended more than 900,000 immigrants crossing into the United States on the southern border. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
This summer, there have been 4,000 COVID-19 deaths in Spain, with 2,800 in August alone. These horrific figures are the result of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE)Podemos governments ending of all social distancing before the summer.

Much of the recent wave has been triggered by the reopening of bars and nightclubs in Spain. Youth were encouraged to return to these venues under the false pretext that they are safe and that there is a low chance of a new surge of the virus. Minimal social distancing measuresmasking, curfews, limiting the number of people who could meet, and the banning of potential super-spreader events like concerts or music festivalswere junked to reopen the economy, especially for tourism.

Maestro Padilla school in Madrid, Spain, on September 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

The PSOEPodemos government let the virus spread massively: this summer ended with more than 1.1 million infections in Spain. However, it covered its policy with claims that vaccination, now reaching 70 percent of the population, will by itself halt infections. In fact, despite this vaccination rate, there are still more than 130 deaths and nearly 10,000 infections each day. Another 600 to 700 deaths are expected this week.

Spains 14-day incidence rate of COVID-19 stands at 210 per 100,000 inhabitants, well over the 150 per 100,000 Spanish authorities call high risk. All Spains major urban areas are over 150; provinces like A Coruna, Alava, Badajoz, Bizkaia, Caceres, Toledo and Seville are over 250.

These numbers will only mount as students return to schools, where incidence rates have skyrocketed. Among adolescents aged 12 to 19, the incidence is 400 per 100,000 inhabitants. In this age group, only about one-third (32.2 percent) are fully vaccinated.

On Monday, schools in Madrid, Cantabria and Melilla started. In coming weeks, more regions will follow. In total, 8.2 million children will return to school to face a virus that has claimed more than 1.1 million lives across Europe since last year.

Last Wednesday, Education Minister Pilar Alegria demanded maximum presence in schools. Calling vaccinations an effective tool, she insisted the new school year will not resemble the previous one at all. First of all, because of the experience we have acquired.

In reality, infections are mounting. According to the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, in the three weeks from July 26 to August 15, 82,587 children and adolescents aged between 5 and 19 were infected.

The PSOE-Podemos governments reckless reopening of schools consciously ignores what is happening outside Spains borders. In America, more than 500,000 children tested positive for COVID-19 from August 5 to 26, according to state data collected by the American Academy of Pediatrics. At least 203,962 of those cases were reported in the week of August 19-26 after schools were reopened. At the end of June, a reported weekly figure was just under 8,500.

In Britain, the week to August 28, there were more than 300 COVID cases per 100,000 among 5- to 15-year-olds. In neighbouring France, Pasteur Institute estimates that in France alone, there could be 50,000 infections of children each day by late September.

The PSOE-Podemos government, however, is covering itself with claims of the alleged success of its school reopening policy last year. According to the Ministry of Health, last school year closed with 6,631 outbreaks that affected some 37,500 students.

As the government authorities know, this was before the Delta variant became predominant. Its spread will be facilitated by the PSOE-Podemos governments decision to slash minimal social distancing measures that existed last school year. While masks will remain compulsory for all children above age 6, social distancing, nominally still maintained, has been reduced to only 1.2 metres. Moreover, teacher-to-student ratios have returned to pre-pandemic levels, with a deficit of 17,000 teachers according to the Central Sindical Independiente y de Funcionarios (CSIF) union.

The virus especially threatens 8 million people who have not yet received the full vaccination schedule. To these are added 6 million children under 12.

As the WSWS has insisted, vaccination alone will not stop the pandemic. Claims to the contrary ignore the character of the Delta variant, which is scientifically proven to be too transmissible and capable of infecting vaccinated individuals for vaccinations alone to halt the pandemic.

The World Health Organisation has warned that it expects 236,000 deaths in Europe this autumn. If proven scientific policies are adopted to stop the transmission of COVID-19 and eradicate the virus, however, these deaths and the related tens of millions of infections can be stopped.

Yet scientific policies face determined opposition across the entire European political establishment, who place corporate profits and the wealth of the super-rich above workers lives. To save lives, workers must clearly understand the necessity to fight for an independent, scientifically grounded policy to eradicate the virus. This can only be carried against the capitalist system and its political accomplices.

In Spain, this means above all a struggle against the staggering indifference to human life of the left populist Podemos party. Having promised radical change and an end to austerity, Podemos has become the PSOEs chief co-conspirator in the ruling elites pandemic policy. It has covered for the governments claims to have finished with the virus, arguing that in-person schooling is safe and covering for the austerity measures linked to the EU bailout fund.

Spains trade unions have played a key role in letting the PSOE-Podemos enforce these measures. They have all defended the false line that returning to schools and reopening of factories and offices are safe, if only some limited measures are taken, like wearing masks.

Just days before schools re-opened, the Stalinist Workers Commissions (CCOO) union called on the government to contract 40,000 teachers and cut class sizes to 20. The CCOO did not call any protests, let alone strikes to enforce this demand, however.

Podemoss political satellites are also intervening to cover for the PSOE-Podemos governments policies. The Spanish Morenoite Workers Revolutionary Current (CRT) refuses to explain that closing schools is a matter of urgency. Last year, its online publication Izquierda Diario defended reopening schools even while acknowledging that the safety of teachers and students cannot be guaranteed. This year, they have not even published one article on the back-to-school campaign, focusing instead on calling for in-person education in universities.

In an article titled Semi-in-person education will be the norm again this year, posted yesterday, Izquierdadiario.es states: After a summer in which most of the population has been vaccinated (it is already over 70 percent with two doses) and in which a large part of the restrictions on leisure have disappeared, the students do not understand the recent news that universities will start the course with a semi-in-person system.

Citing CRT members in the student body, it then declares, the underlying problem is not so much in-person [or not] (on which students themselves take different positions) as the lack of democracy in the university, which prevents students from having any voice in decision-making, despite being the majority of the university community. 

Such phrase mongering aims to ensure that working class opposition does not overflow the union bureaucracies, and also aims to tie workers and youth to the PSOE-Podemos government.

The way forward for educators in Spain and across Europe is to oppose school and university reopenings, taking strike struggles out of the hands of the union bureaucracies and turning them into a fight against the ruling classs pandemic policy. This entails building rank-and-file workplace safety committees to fight for the closure of schools and nonessential industries, as part of an international, socialist struggle against the pandemic and the capitalist system.
The Biden administration has responded to pressure from a right-wing minority among House and Senate Democrats by slashing its proposed social spending increase nearly in half.

Biden delivered the news to a closed-door meeting of the House Democratic caucus Friday afternoon, telling them the overall cost of the reconciliation bill would come down from the $3.5 trillion proposed by the White House to between $1.9 trillion and $2.3 trillion, far closer to the $1.5 trillion ceiling backed by West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin.

Manchin and Arizona Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema have opposed passage of the social spending legislation by means of the reconciliation procedure, which allows the Democrats to bypass a Republican filibuster in the closely divided Senate. The procedure can only be used on a spending bill, and only once in a fiscal year.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., walks at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The House Progressive Caucus, which comprises nearly half the 220 Democrats in the House of Representatives, has blocked passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, approved in August by the Senate, until the two right-wing Senate Democrats reach agreement with the White House on the reconciliation package.

Their opposition forced House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to push back a planned September 27 vote on the infrastructure bill, agreed to with another small right-wing faction of Democrats in the House, first until October 1, and then until October 31, a decision she announced in a letter made public Saturday.

Biden made his in-person visit to the Capitol, his first since delivering a nationally televised address last April, to discuss the deadlock with the Democratic caucus. He brought something for both factions: a fig-leaf concession on procedure to the progressives and a near-total victory on substance to the right-wing.

Biden endorsed Pelosis delay in the infrastructure vote, despite grumbling from some of the House right-wingers, explaining that it was necessary to reach a deal with Manchin and Sinema on the reconciliation bill so the two pieces of legislation could be passed in tandem. But he went much more than halfway towards Manchin on substance, giving him an effective veto over the top-line number.

This cave-in to a small minoritytwo out of 50 Democrats in the Senate, eight out of 220 in the Housecannot be explained by parliamentary arithmetic in a closely divided Congress. The power of Manchin, Sinema and their counterparts in the House is explained by their voicing most clearly the demands of corporate America, particularly in their opposition to tax increases on the wealthy and big business, as well as any significant expansion of the social safety net.

The decision by the White House to accept a much lower price tag for the social spending bill now sets in motion a Hunger Games-style competition between the various social programs that were components of the reconciliation bill: making the child tax credit permanent; adding vision, hearing and dental care to Medicare; expanding Medicaid in states where Republican governors have blocked it; providing paid home health care for the elderly; expanding Head Start through universal pre-kindergarten for three- and four-year-olds; one week of paid family and medical leave; initiating a policy of free tuition for community colleges; and spending on a number of programs to combat climate change.

There is reportedly now debate in the White House and among congressional Democrats involving whether to fully fund some of these programs and eliminate others, or to fund some of the programs for less than the full 10 years provided in the original bill, or some combination of the two methods. Manchin has proposed means-testing some of the programs, although this is supposedly not under consideration.

The whole shrinking of the pie pits Medicare recipients against poor families against home care workers against victims of climate change, Faiz Shakir, former campaign manager for Bernie Sanders, told the Washington Post. It makes the working class of America fight over the scraps.

Shakirs former boss, however, was enthusiastic about Bidens intervention and praised it to the skies in several appearances on the Sunday television interview programs. Interviewed on Meet the Press on NBC in his capacity as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Senator Sanders said that he did not believe Biden had given any specific number in his remarks to the House Democrats.

What he said is theres going to have to be give and take on both sides, Sanders said. Im not clear that he did bring forth a specific number. But what the president also said, and what all of us are saying, is that maybe the time is now for us to stand up to powerful special interests who are currently spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to prevent us from doing what the American people want.

On the ABC program This Week Sanders said, Three and a half trillion should be a minimum, but I accept that theres gonna have to be give and take. He then went on to make an extraordinary tribute to the Democratic leadership, headed by Biden: We are not just taking on or dealing with Senators Manchin or Senator Sinema. Were taking on the entire ruling class of this country. Right now the drug companies, the health carethe health insurance companies, the fossil fuel industry are spending hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to prevent us from doing what the American people want. And this really is a test of whether or not American democracy can work.

One would think that the red flag had been raised above the White House! Joe Biden was a six-term senator who protected the interests of the credit card industry and the corporations headquartered in Delaware, while Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has long been known as the Senator from Wall Street for his close ties to the stock exchange and major banks. To claim that they are taking on the entire ruling class is to lie without scruple or remorse.

The former co-chair of the Sanders campaign, Representative Ro Khanna of California, was equally effusive in his embrace of Biden. Appearing on Fox News Sunday, he said he relied on the White House to sort out which social policy proposals would survive the reduction from $3.5 trillion to $2 trillion or even less. Ultimately the president is an honest broker, he said. Hes going to bring all of the stakeholders together. And I trust his judgment to get a compromise.

Asked whether blocking the infrastructure bill constituted opposition to the White House, he replied, I would not have contradicted the presidents vision. What I have saidconsistently what most progressives have said is we want to do what the president wants.

Perhaps the most abject display came from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), who told CBS that the Democrats were already beginning to sort out how to implement the cuts in proposed social spending needed to meet the demands of senators Manchin and Sinema. I think its unfortunate that we have to compromise with ourselves for an ambitious agenda for working people, she said, then urged people to reach out to their elected officials to let them know what programs they want to make sure are kept.

Asked about her statement last year that in any other country she and Biden would be in different parties, she said, I think that President Biden has been a good faith partner to the entire Democratic Party. He is in fact a moderate and we disagree on certain issues. But he reaches out and he actually tries to understand our perspective, and that is why I am fighting for his agenda with the Build Back Better Act.

The contempt with which the real powers in the Democratic Party regard their left-talking colleagues was expressed in another comment on Meet the Press, by Jeh Johnson, former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in the Obama administration, the enforcer of mass deportations and counter-terrorism policies.

Host Chuck Todd asked him about the headline on the Democratic Party crisis in Sundays edition of the New York Times, Biden Throws In With Left, Leaving His Agenda in Doubt. Johnson dismissed the newspapers claim that Biden siding with the progressives. Lets not forget that the bill the progressives are pushing for is Biden's bill, he said. Its his domestic agenda.

Johnson continued, Its not as if its some wild-eyed far-left socialist piece of legislation. This is Joe Bidens Build Back Better domestic agenda. And the progressives are carrying his water on Capitol Hill and appear to be doing it rather effectively right now.

Water boys (and girls) for Biden and the Democratic Party: A fitting political epitaph for Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and their DSA and pseudo-left cheerleaders.
Steven Donziger, an attorney who won a $9.5 billion lawsuit in Ecuador against Chevron in 2011 on behalf of 30,000 farmers and indigenous people, was sentenced on Friday to six months of imprisonment by a US court.

US District Judge Loretta Preska imposed the sentence following her ruling of guilty on six counts of criminal contempt last July, stemming from Donzigers refusal to turn over his computer and other electronic devices to the court in relation to a case brought against him by Chevron.

In handing down the sentence, Judge Preska said, It seems that only the proverbial two-by-four between the eyes will instill in him any respect for the law.

Steven Donzinger. (Image credit: Screenshot/FreeDonzinger.com)

In August 2019, Donziger was charged with contempt and Judge Preska placed him under house arrest. He has been confined to his New York City apartment for more than two years on the grounds that he poses a flight risk.

Judge Preskas sentence came one day after an opinion by a working group of independent United Nations experts was submitted to the court by Donzigers lawyers that found his home confinement to be a violation of international human rights law.

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) is a body of five international jurists and human rights experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. The WGAD analysis concluded that this Courts extended pre-trial detention of Mr. Donziger is arbitrary under international human rights standards and therefore unlawful.

The group found very serious violations of numerous articles of the International Covenant on Civil Political Rights along with appalling violations of the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers. The WGAD statement said that the remedy required by international law is to release Mr. Steven Donziger immediately and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations.

Finally, the working group requested that the US government ensure a full and independent investigation of the circumstances surrounding the [case] and engage in specified follow-up procedures.

None of this fazed Judge Preska in the slightest. The prejudicial sentencing of Donziger is the latest episode in a political vendetta against him by the US judicial system on behalf of Chevron, the oil industry and US imperialist interests in South America.

In August 2020, Donziger was disbarred by New York Appellate Judge Judith Gische for egregious professional misconduct. At that time, Donziger said, No doubt, the serial polluters at Chevron who have spent billions to try to demonize me are dancing in their corporate suites. But the battle is far from over. The company still faces enormous risk from its toxic legacy in Ecuador and other countries which will haunt its business operations for decades to come.

Even though federal prosecutors had refused to bring criminal contempt charges against Donziger, in an extraordinary abuse of the legal process, US District Judge Lewis Kaplanwho had investments in funds with holdings in Chevrondeputized a private law firm to pursue him for contempt of court.

Donziger has been targeted because he has waged a decades-long battle against Texaco, which was acquired by Chevron Corporation in 2001, for polluting the Amazon rainforest and contaminating the water at the Lago Agrio oil field in the Ecuadorian province of Sucumbios.

Beginning in 1993, Donziger and a group of other lawyers brought a class-action lawsuit against Texaco, on behalf of over 30,000 farmers and indigenous people, charging that the companys oil drilling in the Amazon had resulted in massive contamination. After a visit to the region, Donziger said what he saw at the time was, what honestly looked like an apocalyptic disaster, including children walking barefoot down oil-covered roads and jungle lakes filled with oil. Due to the work done by Donziger, the region became known as the Amazon Chernobyl.

The class-action case was originally brought in New York City, where Texacos headquarters were located. Since the plaintiffs were propertyless, funding for the lawsuit was provided by the Amazon Defense Coalition and others who would receive a small portion of any settlement. Following the merger, Chevron argued that Texaco had already cleaned up its operations in Lago Agrio and that its local partner Petroecuador was responsible for the remaining contamination.

Chevron then convinced the US court that the jurisdiction of the case was in Ecuador. In exchange for this arrangement, the US court exacted a promise from Chevron that it would accept the decision of the Ecuadorian courts.

When the case was moved, Donziger launched a public education campaign to inform the Ecuadorian public about the pollution in the Amazon region. Donziger argued that the indigenous people would never get a fair trial in Ecuador if they did not illuminate what had happened to them and get public support. The details of the case and the work of Donziger are recorded in the 2009 documentary film Crude.

In 2011, a provincial Ecuadorian court found Chevron guilty and, following three appellate court appearances, including before the highest National Court of Justice, damages of $9.5 billion were awarded. In order to avoid paying up, Chevron proceeded to move all of its assets out of Ecuador, forcing the plaintiffs to pursue their compensation through courts in Canada, Brazil and Argentina. In all three cases, the courts rejected Donzigers petition for confiscation of Chevrons assets.

After the legal maneuvering of the global petrochemical corporation, a counter-litigation campaign was launched against Donziger by Chevron and the US judicial system. In 2011, Chevron filed a civil RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) lawsuit against Donziger in New York City and accused him of bribing an Ecuadorian judge, ghostwriting the damages judgment and fixing environmental studies. The federal RICO law was enacted in 1970 and originally used to pursue mafia outfits.

In 2014, Judge Kaplan ruled that the Ecuadorian class-action judgment was invalid because Donziger achieved it through criminal activity, including racketeering, wire fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice, bribery, coercion, witness tampering and extortion. Kaplan also ruled that Donziger had to pay Chevron $800,000 as part of the RICO settlement.

Judge Kaplans case was largely based upon the testimony of Alberto Guerra, a former Ecuadorian judge, whom Chevron had relocated to the US in 2013 for safety reasons. Guerra claimed that Donziger paid the Ecuadorian judge who ruled in favor of the plaintiffs $500,000. In 2015, Guerra recanted in an international tribunal and said he had lied about the bribery; however, subsequent appeals court hearings have refused to consider his admission and upheld the core of Kaplans ruling against Donziger.

It was also during the appeals process that Kaplan demanded that Donziger submit his computer, phones and other electronic devices to Chevron so it could search for liquid assets. Donziger refused to comply and Kaplan responded with the contempt charges.

In predictable fashion, the Wall Street Journal hailed the imprisonment and violation of Donzigers rights as deserving for his attempted looting of Chevron for spurious environmental crimes in Ecuador which ranks as among the biggest legal scams in history. However, Donziger has massive support internationally for his courageous defense of the rights of Ecuadorians and stand against one of the most powerful corporations in the world.

Rock musician and political activist Roger Waters has consistently spoken out against the persecution of Donziger and praised his fight for the rights of the indigenous people of Ecuador. Waters spoke at a rally outside of the federal courthouse in New York City on Friday and denounced Judge Preska for her guilty verdict and demanded that Donziger be released immediately.

Last March, Donziger condemned the criminal case by a Chevron-connected judge and prosecuted by a Chevron-connected lawyer? Its just wrong. This is all part of a plan concocted by Chevron to dismantle my life. They want to do this to avoid paying up and to turn me into a weapon of intimidation against the whole legal profession.
The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is suing Detroit-based automaker Ford Motor Company for pregnancy discrimination, stemming from its alleged refusal to hire a woman after she disclosed that she was pregnant, according to a press release on the EEOCs website. The lawsuit was filed in the District Court of the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division on Monday.

This alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which makes it unlawful to discriminate against applicants or employees because of their sex, including pregnancy, the EEOC press release said.

According to the lawsuit, Edwina Smith was qualified to work at the Ford Chicago Stamping Plant in Chicago Heights, Illinois and was given a conditional offer of hire by Ford in June 2019 subject to passing a physical, drug test and background check. A Ford physician administered a pre-employment physical in August 2019, during which she disclosed that she was pregnant, and the physician still cleared her for hire. Ford never scheduled her for her first day of work in spite of its own physicians approval, the lawsuit alleges.

Smith pursued Ford for weeks to get answers to when she could begin working at the stamping plant, according to the lawsuit, but was continually given the run-around until October when the company answered that Ford was no longer hiring. The lawsuit also alleges that other workers were hired and sent for orientation during the same time period, demonstrating that Smith was discriminated against based on her disclosure of pregnancy.

The press release does not name the parties involved with Ford with whom she was in contact, but it is clear that neither the company nor the United Auto Workers union (UAW), which supposedly represents workers at the plant, did anything to ensure that she was given an equal opportunity for employment.

If the allegations of the lawsuit are proven, it will show that Ford is in violation of the 1978 US Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which forbids discrimination based on pregnancy for any aspect of an individuals employment, including hiring, pay, termination, job assignments and benefits.

The US has also signed, but never ratified, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1980. The Convention was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979 and prohibits dismissal on the grounds of maternity or pregnancy and ensures the right to maternity leave or comparable social benefits.

This is not the first sexual harassment lawsuit brought against Ford by workers. In 1997, 14 women who worked at Ford in the US filed a class action lawsuit against the company for sexual harassment. In November 2014, more than 30 workers, all who were women, filed another class action lawsuit against Ford, alleging routine sexual and racial harassment on the job by both management and United Auto Workers union officials at the Ford Chicago Assembly and Stamping plants. The allegations in the 2014 suit ranged from suggestive comments and unwanted touching to attempted rape.

In both aforementioned lawsuits, the EEOC has played a particular role in making sure that Ford did not face serious repercussions. The EEOC created a Conciliation Agreement with Ford in response to the 1997 lawsuit, which required workplace monitoring for three years. The essentially toothless agreement did nothing to stop the rampant abuse against workers at Ford plants across the US, as workers soon found out in the years that followed.

In 2017, Ford settled harassment claims brought by workers with the EEOC for $10.1 million, a drop in the bucket compared to its annual profits. Ford tried to cite the EEOC case settlement in an attempt to brush off the 2014 lawsuit, which was separate from the 2017 EEOC case. Keith Hunt, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the 2014 lawsuit, referred to the EEOC settlement as an attempt by Ford to circumvent the class-action process.

Workers of all genders and races face harassment by company managers and union officials alike, according to workers at the Ford Chicago Assembly plant who spoke to the World Socialist Web SiteAutoworker Newsletter about the 2014 allegations.

Its more than sexual, because theres a lot of men here that have been harassed. Their jobs have been manipulated, their overtime has been manipulated and threats made against them, one worker recounted in 2015.

The worker continued, Theyre manipulating people, period. If they cant get what they want from you, they totally manipulate you. If its sex they want, and youre not giving it, theyre going to manipulate your job. Youre not going to get any overtime, youre going to get the hard job.

The conditions that workers are faced with today are similar to, and in some ways are worse, than those that autoworkers in the 1930s faced. Before rank-and-file workers carried out the historic sit-down strikes in Flint, Michigan, which led to the formation of the United Auto Workers, the exploitation of women workers by management ran rampant. In one department of an AC Spark Plug plant, all of the women workers had to go to the hospital to be treated for a sexually transmitted disease that was traced to one foreman. Men who worked at these plants suffered as well, and were threatened with their jobs if they tried to individually stand up for the women that managers exploited.

Workers at both Ford Chicago Stamping and Ford Chicago Assembly plants have spoken to the WSWS about the ways that management and the union foster a hostile working environment to maintain control over the workers and suppress any organized opposition by the workers against the sweatshop conditions in the factories. Workers are routinely written up and threatened with their jobs for minor attendance infractions, given little to no protection from safety hazards (including the spread of the deadly COVID-19 infection) and targeted for retaliation when they speak out against their conditions.

What the lawsuit shows is not just the abuses of management, but that they are allowed to run rampant by the UAW. The UAW has completely turned its back on its history as a workers organization built to protect workers from exploitation at the hands of management. It now either ignores harassment that goes on before its very eyes, or directly engages in it along with management, and the two are nearly indistinguishable from one another in their treatment of workers.
Last Fridays global school strike, initially called for by British parent Lisa Diaz, met with widespread support around the world, indicating the enormous opposition within the international working class to the ruling elites murderous herd immunity policies. Throughout the week leading up to and including the strike, hundreds of thousands of people viewed tweets with the primary hashtag for the event, #SchoolStrike2021. There were over 26,000 tweets with this hashtag, including more than 11,000 on October 1 alone when it was trending for hours.

On the day of the school strike, dozens of video statements were posted on Twitter expressing solidarity from parents, students and teachers in the UK, France, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and from workers in many other countries. The strike also met with a great response in Germany. Many of those affected posted video statements and shared pictures on social media.

Joshua, a student from Nuremberg, organized a protest action together with fellow students and friends, and expressed solidarity with the strike in a video statement:

German student Joshua Seubert: No to the infection of children and adolescents!

Joshua stated, I stand completely behind this strike call. Like millions of other children and young people around the world, I am in danger of being infected when in school. Today, with the ending of mask-wearing, the last bastion of protection against the virus has gone.

He added, None of the establishment parties fight for the protection and health of we pupils, children and young people. We must take the fight to defend our health and safety into our own hands. If we dont do something, then nobody else will do it. Thats why I stand in solidarity with todays school strike in Britain and call on everyone to support it.

Other students expressed similar sentiments. Laura, who attends 13th grade at a high school in Saxony-Anhalt, wrote on Instagram, Against politics that puts the interests of business above the protection of people. #SchoolStrike2021. Her self-made poster reads, Life not profits! Stop the politics of herd immunity! Your future, your fight. #ParentStrike2021.

Laura

Tamino, a 12th grade student from Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, produced the following video statement:

TaminoSupport the global school strike on October 1 | #schoolstrike2021

Tamino stated, I am a student from Baden-Wurttemberg, and I stand in solidarity with todays school strike in the UK and the protests worldwide. Just like there, here in Germany, school openings are accompanied by a massive increase in infections among students. Especially with the Delta variant, the situation among children and young people has worsened enormously. Nevertheless, all protective measures in schools continue to be dismantled. With this dangerous profits-before-lives policy, governments worldwide are placing the lives of students, teachers and parents at risk. Thats why we ourselves must take the initiative to force through safe education and school closures with a European-wide school strike, as part of a strategy to eradicate the virus.

Teachers and other workers also actively participated in the strike, sending solidarity greetings.

Elementary school teacher Anna posted a picture of her childrens satchels along with the text, These satchels stay home! Until something is done for the children! My children, my decision!

Post by Anna

Moritz Strohm sent his message of solidarity directly to WSWS, which posted live updates during the strike.

Moritz Strohm

Moritz stated, I am an IT worker (software developer) and want to express my support for todays school strike. Children deserve safe and good educational facilities instead of schools where they are at high risk of being infected with a deadly virus. Children are not responsible for the coronavirus pandemic. Why are they being punished anyway?

My solidarity goes out to all workers, parents and their children who will no longer allow them to be on the front lines of the battlefield against the virus. Children need protection, not COVID infections! #SafeEdForAll #ZeroCovid.

Andy Niklaus, a bus driver in Berlin and a member of the Transportation Workers Action Committee for Safe Workplaces, expressed his full support for the call for the school strike in a video.

Andy stated, I think this is the right way for a long-term strategy to achieve ZeroCovid, namely to organize a global school strike. Especially here in Berlin, where up to one thousand children have been infected in the last five weeks, that is, since the end of the summer vacations.

Here, the red-red-green government, i.e., consisting of social democrats, greens and the pseudo-left Left Party, covered for by the GEW education union and the other trade unions, wants to lift compulsory mask wearing for pupils from the 1st to the 6th grade. This is criminal, this has to be stopped and this can be stopped, by our own independent actions that we take as workers, parents and students. Namely, to bring forward this global resistance that is now emerging. Thats why Im especially supportive of the school strike today. Thanks again Lisa in the UK.

Martin, an educator from Saxony, explained in another video statement, Im standing in front of a Berlin primary school, the incidence level per 100,000 in this age group is around 200. Nevertheless, the state government decided to halt the requirement to wear masks and is sabotaging the quarantine rule. Thats why I warmly support the October 1 international strike call to protect children and against their infection.

Kindergarten teacher Martin from Germany supports the #October1st school strike

Martin added, I come from Saxony, where the incidence level in the same age group is over 200, and even 300 in kindergartens where I work. It shows that whether its here in Berlin, with a supposedly left-wing government, or in Saxony where its a right-wing government, all the establishment parties are implementing a policy of the mass infection of children. They are sabotaging the simplest measures such as quarantining, sacrificing the health of millions of children, in the economic interests of the banks and corporations. After millions of people have died in the pandemic around the world, now its children that are being sacrificed to the money-grubbing of the financial markets and corporations.

From the start, scientific advice was not listened to, but instead a contradictory irrational pandemic policy was pursued. This was limited to doing only the bare minimum and never what could be really effective in eliminating the virus and to protect all lives. At the same time, the social consequences and burden were put on the shoulders of ordinary people, while the finance markets and corporations received billions in rescue packages. This meant they made gigantic profits.

The balance sheet after nearly two years of the pandemic shows the bankruptcy of the entire political establishment worldwide. It shows the absolute necessity that we, not just educators but parents and workers, must join together all over the world to end the pandemic in a social and democratic way.
While governments and media outlets the world over have proclaimed the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, the reality is starkly different. The pandemic is continuing to wreak havoc on health services across the UK, as the decades-long cutbacks that have crippled the National Health Service (NHS) bite ever deeper.

The impact of COVID, the vaccine rollout and backlogs across the system are resulting in increased demand on a National Health Service already barely able to cope. The crisis in primary care services, in which General Practitioners (GPs) play a vital role, is having a crippling effect. Last month the Guardian quoted Prof Martin Marshall, Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) who said, The fact that general practice is under such enormous pressure means it cant deliver the patient-centred services that it wants to. Many GPs are even finding it challenging to maintain a safe service.

Marshall was referencing the 4.5 percent decline in GPs across England. In 2015, the Conservative government pledged an increase of 5,000 GPs by 2020. In 2019, then Health Secretary Matt Hancock admitted the target would not be reached. The latest assurance of an additional 6,000 GPs by 2025, under conditions in which the latest fall in GP numbers is 1,307, confirms this promise is worthless.

People waiting outside at a GP surgery in Bournemouth to have the Covid-19 vaccine (credit: WSWS media)

This decline continues the year-on-year decline in GP numbers since the initial pledge was made. According to a September 14 British Medical Association (BMA) report, the GP workforce has actually shrunk by 1,904 since 2015.

Marshall warned that GPs are finding it increasingly hard to guarantee safe care to their patients, noting, The chances of making a mistake in a diagnosis or a mistake in a referral decision or a mistake in prescribing are all greater when youre under stress. And if youre working 11-, 12-hour days, seeing 50, 60 patients the chances of you making a mistake, we all know, are higher.

He made these remarks as pressure mounted over the inability of patients to access face-to-face appointments, something that NHS England instructed GPs to ensure were being offered since May of this year. Many patients preferred the move to remote consultations, not only for fear of catching COVID and passing it on, but in order to protect the NHS and ensure those requiring immediate treatment got it. But the right wing press has revelled in the failure of GPs to meet the renewed demand for face-to-face appointments.

The Daily Mail began a September 21 piece with the headline, Your doctor won't even talk to you now.

A causal link between the lack of face-to-face provision and some deaths has been established, as found by the senior coroner of Greater Manchester, Alison Mutch. In response, the right-wing press is doing all it can to blame GP surgeries and to conceal the difficulties faced by GPs in attempting to re-open for face-to-face appointments.

Such vitriol has opened GPs up to a vicious backlash. GPOnline reported on an attack on September 17 against a GP in Manchester, which resulted in a fractured skull for the GP and deep lacerations suffered by members of staff. While the specific circumstances of the attack were not detailed, recognition of anti-GP rhetoric and the increase in abusive and violent behaviour were considered to have an impact.

The strain is set to worsen still, with the booster jab programme of COVID vaccines, which began September 16. GPs have been responsible for issuing close to two-thirds of the 92 million vaccination jabs that have been administered across the UK. The booster programme also comes into effect during the flu jab season, which has already been hampered due to supply issues.

The British Medical Association (BMA) wrote in a September 15 article, The number of COVID vaccinations delivered by GP practices has been falling since its peak of 8 million appointments in May, but still amounts to 2.1 million appointments. GP practices have been at the forefront of the NHSs response to the pandemic, but COVID appointments take up practice capacity  including COVID appointments. The overall appointment count for July 2020 is nearly one million higher than pre-pandemic levels (July 2019).

On September 20, the Local Medical Committee (LMC) of Kernow in Cornwall, England issued a statement declaring that local GPs were on the brink of crisis. The statement highlighted outpatient capacity issues at regional hospitals having a knock-on effect on the local surgeries who were picking up these cases. The statement stressed, These issues are compounded by longstanding GP and practice nurse shortages after years of under-resourcing nationally.

A BBC News article highlighted the strain on practices in parts of Wales. It noted that the Community Health Council (CHC) declared there was a crisis of access to GPs, with many people left waiting in excess of an hour to get through on the phone. Appointments were often fully booked for the day, even 10 minutes after lines opened at 8 a.m. Health boards said that demand was up as much as 20 percent in certain parts of the country. Geoff Ryall-Harvey, of the North Wales CHC, said, Part of the problem goes back before the Covid pandemic. There has been a steady decline in the number of GPs working in Wales.

These local instances are repeated across the country because of a systematic neglect of the NHS by successive governments over decades, dating back to the Thatcher Tory government, throughout the Labour years, the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition, and the most recent years of Tory social counter-revolution.

Barely a year after the initial promise for more GPs, a letter was leaked highlighting the real attitude towards GPs--the demand that they be allowed to fail and wither. The letter from a senior National Health Service England official exposes plans that could result in the closure of up to 800 vulnerable General Practices. The WSWS warned, The central aim of the policy that GP practices be allowed to fail and wither is nothing but creating the most favourable conditions for private companies to profit from patient care services.

This warning has been vindicated. As we drew attention to in May, over 100 billion worth of NHS contracts had been handed to the private sector in the previous decade. One example was the 37 GP surgeries bought out by a US insurance company.

The BMA held an emergency meeting with Health Secretary Sajid Javid over the issue of the abuse GPs are currently facing, but made only a mealy-mouthed demand for more action to enable practices to expand their workforce and for the Government to deliver on its commitment of 6,000 more GPs.

These are bankrupt pleas to a government that has conducted a homicidal policy of herd immunity, at the expense of the lives of many healthcare professionals, and which has systematically dismembered all parts of the NHS over a decade of austerity.

The only way to defend the NHS from privatisation is through the formation of new rank-and-file organisations of workers struggle, independent of the unions and the Labour Party. NHS Fightback, initiated by the Socialist Equality Party, supports the call by the International Committee of the Fourth International for an International Workers Alliance for Rank and File Committees and urges workers within the NHS to join this fight.
Jorja Halliday, a 15-year-old girl from Portsmouth in southern England, tragically died due to COVID on September 28 at the Queen Alexandra hospital. Jorja had tested positive for the virus just four days earlier. The day she died Jorja was due to have her COVID vaccination.

Jorja Halliday (family handout)

Tracey Halliday, Jorjas mother, told the press that her daughter did not have any underlying health conditions and had developed flu-like symptoms before she took the PCR test that gave a positive result, leading to her isolating at home. A matter of hours later Jorja was struggling to eat on Sunday (September 26) and by Monday September 27, she was unable to eat at all due to her throat hurting.

After being given antibiotics for her worsening condition, Jorja was admitted to hospital due to her heart rate being double what it should have been.

Tracey told the Portsmouth News, They realised how serious it was and I was still allowed to touch her, hold her hand, hug her and everything else. They did allow me that. Im at the point where I cant comprehend that its happened. I was with her the whole time. They tried to put her on a ventilator to give her body a chance to recover. Her heart rate didnt stabilise. Her heart couldnt take the strain. They worked as well as I think they could medically but were unable to save her.

Preliminary results found that Jorja had myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle. Symptoms associated with the diagnosis include chest pain, shortness of breath and the feeling of a rapid heart rate or pounding in the chest.

Tracey explained, 'She was going to have the jab on Tuesday [September 28]. But because she tested positive on Saturday she was isolating. When her isolation period was over she was going to get it. The day that she passed away was the day that she would have had it done.'

Jorjas death leaves a mother and father without a daughter and four young children, Daisie, Kallum, Julie and Oscar, without a sister. Tracey said Jorja was loved all round, she was a loving girl and she had lots of friends. She was very active, she liked to go out and spend time with her friends and loved spending time with her brothers and sisters. Growing up she turned into a beautiful young lady, always wanting to help others, always there for everybody when they needed them. Its heart wrenching because your kids are always meant to outlive you, and thats the one thing I cant get over.

Jorja was a talented kickboxer and an aspiring musician. Hers was the 10th known child death in September in the UK, under conditions in which cases among 12-17 year olds are at their highest in England since the pandemic began. At least one in every 20 children are infected, equivalent to at least one in every classroom in the country. Despite the deaths which have taken place in the few weeks since the reopening of schools from mid-August in Scotland early September in England and Wales, schools remain fully open with no mitigation in place and a slow implementation of the vaccine.

Portsmouth Academy School which Jorja attended had 102 positive cases in September. According to the SafeEdForAll campaigning group, 86 students, 10 teachers and six non-teaching staff confirmed positive. In the last academic year from September 2020 to May 2021, 30 students, four teachers and 5 non-teaching staff tested positive.

With virtually no mitigations in place in any school, that so many cases have ripped through Portsmouth Academy school in just a few weeks is not surprising. In November 2020, after the school informed parents that it was going to ensure that children were safe, they were forceddue to the spread of COVID among children and staffto send home the entire Year 10 on November 19/20 and then had to also send home Year 8 from November 23 for the week.

The massive increase in cases is entirely the responsibility of Prime Minister Boris Johnsons Conservative government and its herd immunity policy pursued from day one of the pandemic, resulting in the mass infection of over 7.6 million people and the deaths over 160,000.

By the end of September, child UK Covid fatalities stood at 88. To the Johnson government they are just collateral damage as they demand schools stay open so that their parents can go to work and create profits for the corporations.

In a COVID advice letter dated September 22 and posted on the Portsmouth Academy website it states, Please be reassured that for most children, coronavirus (COVID-19) will be a mild illness. The setting remains open and your child should continue to attend as normal if they remain well.

Many children and young people are asymptomatic and by the time symptoms have developed they will have infected dozens of others.

The principal of the school sent out a letter stating, Our school community is united in our grief and in deep shock.

With the preventable death of another child, what is truly shocking is that with cases so high in all education settings is that the school remains open.

The loss of a popular student in a secondary school, where a sibling attends, will be heartfelt by many. But as government officials bombard the public with feigned concern over young peoples mental health, little or no consideration is given to the impact of covid on families such as Jorjas and their communities. The school is situated in one of the most deprived areas of Portsmouth.

Jorjas death has impacted on hundreds of parents, doctors and educators who tweeted their concern. Twitter user Hadenuff said, Jorja Halliday was 15 and healthy. Mass infection is never the way forward. Whos child will be next in covid Russian roulette?

Many have congratulated Jorjas mum for speaking out and encouraging children to get vaccinated. Senior doctors have expressed their concerns that the vaccination roll out is going far too slowly. The Guardian reported Dr Helen Salisbury, a GP in Oxford and a member of the Independent Sage committee, which has criticised aspects of the government COVID policy, saying that while it made sense to deliver COVID vaccinations through schools, the programme started late compared with other countries and that many schools could struggle given recent cuts to school nursing and medical services.

Salisbury said the combination of half-hearted endorsement of the vaccine in the age group and stretched services risked further delaying vaccinations in teenagers. Sending children back to school without masks, extra ventilation, bubbles and isolation policies was a total recipe for ensuring everybody gets exposed, she added. I dont understand why we are not getting on with it. It seems urgent. Urgent to protect these children, and to protect their families, and to protect their education. We should have started this in the summer.

The vaccination programme is being carried out by NHS Community Teams who are already overwhelmed with current COVID demand and flu vaccinations. In August a school nurse wrote to the Nursing Times to sound the alarm over planned cuts to Hampshire nursing services of 2.09 million a year, meaning a cut of 47 nurses or 12.5 percent of the workforce.

Selena Brash, a clinical team leader with the East Hampshire school nursing team, launched a petition earlier in the summer calling for increased funding to protect the provision of school nurses. She warned that the impact of the coronavirus pandemic had intensified the need for support, with the petition stressing that services needed increased funding, not cuts.

Health workers and educators who have been on the frontline of the pandemic, including parents and grandparents, have been thrust into intolerable circumstances.

Jorjas death and the outpouring of sympathy for her case is evidence of widespread opposition to unsafe schools. To ensure that that there are no more deaths among children, educators and in the wider population, a struggle must be conducted for the ending of the pandemic through the eradication of COVID.
On Saturday, around 1,000 people joined a protest by far-right Christian groups, outside the War Memorial Museum in Auckland, New Zealands largest city, against the Labour Party-led governments lockdown. Smaller events were held in Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Gisborne and Nelson.

Like anti-lockdown protests in the United States, Australia and other countries, the Auckland event received blanket media coverage. Its main demand dovetailed with calls from the corporate media and the opposition National Party for the government to abandon its stated goal of eliminating COVID-19 from the community.

The anti-lockdown rally in Auckland. (Source: Freedom & Rights Coalition Facebook page)

New Zealand is one of a small number of countries that has so far avoided mass deaths from the virus. The country went into a level 4 lockdown (the most stringent level) on August 18, following an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant of COVID-19. The lockdown is now limited to Auckland and on September 22, in response to pressure from businesses, and against the advice of health experts, the government eased the restrictions to level 3.

Today, another 29 cases were announced, following 33 yesterday, bringing the total to 263 known cases active in the community. The city of Hamilton and several nearby towns were placed in a level 3 lockdown yesterday, after the discovery of two cases in the regionhighlighting the danger that the outbreak had spread beyond Auckland.

Saturdays protest was led by Destiny Church and supported by others, including City Impact Church, in a front organisation called the Freedom and Rights Coalition (FRC). In addition to opposing the lockdown, the FRCs Facebook page contains anti-vaccination messages, including one describing the vaccinefalselyas medical or scientific experimentation.

Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki declared on Facebook in August that he would not get vaccinated, because he believed in Gods protection against plagues and pandemics.

Tamaki, an admirer of Donald Trump, frequently rants against Muslims, immigrants and LGBT people, as well as socialism. Following the March 2019 terror attack, in which fascist Brenton Tarrant killed 51 people at two Christchurch mosques, Tamakis followers staged a provocative anti-Muslim rally in the city. Soon afterwards, Destiny Church received an avalanche of media attention, when it founded a political party. In the 2020 election, it received just 4,236 votes, 0.1 percent of the total.

Destiny Church recruits members from heavily-exploited layers of the working class, including Maori, and demands steep tithes to fund the Tamakis opulent lifestyle. Maori and Pacific Island people are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, due to poor health, often associated with poverty.

In the lead-up to Saturdays rally, the New Zealand Herald prominently reported that Tamaki had held a meeting with Police Commissioner Andrew Coster, who personally approved the protest, provided that masks were worn. The media covered the event in detail, and reported many of Tamakis unhinged statements.

In a rambling half-hour harangue, Tamaki denounced director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield as Hitler and compared pandemic restrictions to Nazi Germany. Tamaki cynically sought to exploit the financial and mental hardship caused by job losses and pay cuts, during the lockdown. Hundreds of thousands of people were in despair about their income, their families and their future, he said. This is the result of grossly inadequate government support for workers and small businesses.

Most placards demanded freedom for businesses and some opposed vaccine mandates (which the government has not introduced).

University of Auckland public health expert Dr Colin Tukuitonga, epidemiologist Michael Baker and COVID-19 modeller professor Michael Plank all publicly expressed alarm at the rally, saying it could help to spread the Delta virus. Those present included vulnerable elderly people and children who cannot be vaccinated.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told the media the gathering was morally wrong, and illegal, while opposition National Party leader Judith Collins told Radio NZ it was very dangerous.

Notwithstanding the universal denunciations of Tamaki and Destiny Church, from media pundits and politicians, the far-right protesters were undoubtedly emboldened by the growing clamor from big business, media and sections of the political establishment, that people must learn to live with COVID-19.

On September 26, all major newspapers published an op-ed by former National Party Prime Minister John Key (now chairman of ANZ Bank) accusing the government of ruling by fear, pursuing the North Korean option, and turning New Zealand into a smug hermit kingdom. This rhetoric is not fundamentally different to that used by Tamaki. Key called for a faster reopening of borders and urged the government to promote the message that living with the virus is possible, as long as youre vaccinated.

In fact, while vaccination is essential, it is not enough to protect everyone from death and serious illness, as long as the virus continues to circulate in the community. Singapore and Israel, which both have over 80 percent of the adult population vaccinated, are experiencing increasing numbers of cases and deaths after lifting restrictions. In New Zealand, the risks are even greater, since only 46 percent of people aged over 12i.e., 39 percent of the total populationhave received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

COVID-19 modeller and government advisor, professor Shaun Hendy recently warned that with a vaccination rate of 80 percent for over-12s, New Zealand could still experience 7,000 deaths from the virus, and more than 58,000 hospitalisations over the course of a year. This took into account the use of mitigation measures such as masking, testing, tracing, and the isolation and quarantining of individual cases.

In fact, the situation could be worse, because such an influx would overwhelm the rundown and grossly understaffed public health system. Hospitals have struggled to cope with just a few dozen COVID-19 hospitalisations in Auckland over the past few weeks.

On September 29, National leader Collins released a plan to replace the elimination strategy with one of so-called vigorous suppression. The plan calls for an end to nationwide lockdowns, once just 7075 percent of the eligible population is vaccinated.

A growing number of media pundits are furiously urging the government to ditch lockdowns. Herald business commentator Fran OSullivan lashed out at Hendys projections on Twitter, describing him as a bogus modeller (she later deleted the Tweet and apologised). Fellow columnist Kerre McIvor wrote yesterday: If were not out of Level 3 this week Ill bloody well be signing up to Tamakis next protest.

On September 30, responding to claims by COVID-19 Minister Chris Hipkins, that the government was still aiming to reduce case numbers to zero, Newstalk ZBs right-wing host Mike Hosking said: No one believes you. He suggested the government should wave the white flag and join the rest of the world, adding that Britain had reopened and was having a good time.

Britains lifting of restrictions, in line with Prime Minister Boris Johnsons criminal policy to let the virus spread and the bodies pile high, has led to a catastrophe, with around 800 to 1,000 deaths now being reported per week.

Stuff columnist Luke Malpass declared: For too long, all the parties have lined up behind the style of government-by-epidemiologist. Now, factors other than health will be more broadly canvassed, and trade-offs around the risk of Covid versus other risks will start to be debated more openly. In other words, the demands of big business for an end to any barriers on profit-making must be prioritized, ahead of workers health and lives.

In response to this pressure, the government is offering assurances to the business elite that it will remove restrictions next year, once an unspecified level of vaccination is reached. Hipkins told TVNZ on September 26 that actually many of the things John Key is arguing are already happening now, including plans to move away from nationwide lockdowns, and fewer restrictions at the border.
The following is the second in a series of discussions with leading photographers, and others about Minamata, a new drama directed by Andrew Levitas. The 115-minute movie is about the industrial poisoning of fishing communities in Minamata, Japan by the Chisso Corporation and the struggle during the early 1970s by acclaimed photo-essayist W. Eugene Smith (Johnny Depp) and his wife Aileen Mioko Smith (Minami Bages) to expose this corporate crime.

Minamata has been released in several countries, where it has received overwhelmingly positive reviews, and will start screening in French cinemas this week. Its Japanese premier was held late last month in Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture, and in the first four days of its national release was watched by over 41,000 people.

Minamata released in Japan (Image source: Twitter)

While MGM purchased the films North American distribution rights following the latters international premier at the Berlin film festival in early 2020, the studio has not released Minamata in any North American cinemas.

Last July, company executives told director Levitas that the company was burying the film because it was concerned about the possibility that the personal issues of an actor in the film [Depp] could reflect negatively upon them. Depp has been subjected to poisonous #MeToo allegations in the Murdoch media and elsewhere and recently accused Hollywood studios of boycotting him.

While MGM claims that Minamata, completed in late 2019, is on a list of forthcoming releases, it refuses to indicate when such a release might take place. This is an outrageous attack on all those involved in the films production, including Aileen Mioko Smith, who was co-author of the book on which it was based, as well as the victims and families of those poisoned by the Chisso Corporation.

Jack Picone, a multi award-winning Australian-born, Bangkok-based documentary photographer, is one of many photographers angered over MGMs suppression of this passionate and intelligent film.

Picone worked for about three decades in various war zones, covering eight wars in the 1990s, including Armenia, Yugoslavia, Somalia, Rwanda, Palestine, Iraq, Liberia, Sudan, Angola and what was then Soviet Central Asia. He is a co-founder of Australias REPORTAGE photography festival and his work has been published by Time, Newsweek, Liberation, Der Spiegel, LExpress, Granta, the Independent and the Observer.

Jack Picone

In 2013, the REPORTAGE festival was censored by Destination NSW, the New South Wales tourist authority, which blocked the planned public projection of images onto two large screens near the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. The show contained images by many high-profile international documentary photographersJames Nachtwey, Jodi Bieber, Francesco Zizolla and many othersas well as local photojournalists. The tourist authority management ruled that the images were too distressing and not family friendly and should not be shown.

Picone recently spoke with the WSWS by phone from Thailand and began by discussing Minamatas artistic strengths and its contemporary significance. This is an edited version of our conversation.

Jack Picone: A lot of films about journalists and photojournalists are over-romanticised and one-dimensional. Minamata wasnt that at all and was as close to reality, within the creativity and artistic license of making a dramatic film, that any documentation of that story could be.

Richard Phillips: What resonated the most for you?

JP: I was a bit concerned that it might smack of the great white saviour going into an Asian culture to save them, but it was nothing like that.

Im a bit sensitive to that sort of thing because I covered the Rwanda genocide in 1994 and, in 2019, went back and a documentary [Rwanda: Beyond the Swamp, directed by Fiona Turner (2020)] was made about my return. The filmmakers were award-winning people, and it was an objective filmit didnt have any of this white saviour stuffbut they couldnt get anywhere with it. The rejections were based on this idea that it was about an old white guy in Africa telling his story. This was the general reaction and it couldnt get a screening anywhere.

As you know, the original Minamata story was a collaboration, and the film shows that it was really Aileen who approached Smith and gave him the idea to pursue this story when his career was receding and in a difficult place. These sorts of collaborations are the best because they bring different cultures and sets of ideas to the table so the story can be developed in a more three-dimensional way.

Johnny Depp, as Smith, wasnt a hero as such in the story and the film shows him as a troubled character who had to be convinced to involve himself in the project. There was a collaborative dynamic, with the common goal of telling the story and holding corporations like Chisso accountable for what they did. I knew the original story quite well, having read about it early in my career, and then later studying it in depth for my PhD. I also loved the way it was filmed, the desaturated colour, like old colour film negative.

RP: You worked many years in war zones. Were those flashback scenes convincing?

JP: Yes, and the blue filter effects and flashbacks had an acuity of reality, but were quite minimal. It could have easily gone in a cliched direction and been all about Depp playing the war trauma that Eugene Smith suffered. [Director] Levitas could have heavily concentrated on this, but he didnt.

Of course, this issue shouldnt be minimised. I suffered the same thing after Rwanda for years and nearly drank myself to death because of the stuff I saw and photographed. Its real, but the film kept its balance and concentrated on the bigger story, which was the plight of the people in Minamata.

Thats why I think the issue regarding Depp and MGMs failure so far not to release the film in America is wrong. I feel Johnny Depps alleged improprieties are misplaced and not as big as the corporate industrial pollution that caused incalculable pain and claimed a multitude of lives in Minamata. Similar crimes are still happening today.

If you join the dots between when the Minamata story happened in the early 70s and 2021, corporate malfeasance and destruction continue to this day. This is bigger than a marriage breakup between a man and woman.

We dont even know what went onit happened behind closed doorsand even if it was really bad, is that reason enough to kill this story? Depp hasnt been found guilty of anything. How is that a reason for what MGM is doing? Do they have another agenda? Is it #MeToo or something even more nefarious?

RP: You mention the ongoing industrial pollution by major corporations. The film ends with a rolling list of such crimes.

JP: Yes, in some ways that had a bigger impact on me than the whole film. It wasnt like someone just pricked my skin with a pin, it was like they put a knife through my heart. The corporations are still doing itthe same lies, the same greed, the same nefarious behaviour, all in the name of making more money and at any cost.

The Chisso company was polluting the sea around in Minamata and, as we know, the ocean is a thermostat for the whole world. When you pour in all this crap, it alters the delicate, complicated balance of the ocean and increases the temperature, which in turn is directly linked to global warming. Now we have agrochemicals, plastics, mining and other things ending up in the worlds oceans.

Picone's mercury poisoning series for Mare magazine [Source: Mare]

I did an assignment in Sulawesi [Indonesia] for Mare, a German magazine, in 2002. It was about illegal gold mining going on in the mountains of Manado, with alarming amounts of mercury being used in the processing. The conditions for the miners were appalling. The mercury was being put in cesspits, but it leaked into the water table beneath those and then into mountain streams. It didnt result in the sort of birth defects seen in Minamata, but there were many poisonings and deaths and miscarriages.

RP: Eugene Smith speaks about photography being a small voice, but one that can sometimes bring about progressive change.

JP: He was right. Documentary and photojournalism during the civil rights movement in the US was instrumental in mobilising people for Martin Luther Kings speech in front of the Abraham Lincoln memorial in Washington. Researchers have also established that the images from the Vietnam War were a catalyst, not singly but in agency with other journalism, and turned popular opinion against the war.

The other quote in the film that I really liked was Smiths statement about Native Americans who believed that if you took their photograph then you captured their soul. Of course, I knew this, but loved the way Smith extends this and says that it also takes a part of the photographers soul.

Many photographers suffer incredible trauma when put into war situations or something like Minamata. Not everyone doesPhilip Griffith Jones was a bit dismissive of itbut James Nachtwey told me that he suffered badly. It exists and people often forget that. Ive been told that the camera is like an emotional shield, but not for me. In fact, the camera was like a microscope into the hurt and pain that I was documenting, tattooing it into your memory and recalling it at the worst possible times.

Aileen Mioko and W. Eugene Smith in Minamata [Source: Takeshi Ishikawa Copyright 2019]

RP: Minamata also establishes and revives the idea of what a serious photojournalist should be.

JP: Eugene Smith worked in a very immersive way. There was a power balance between him and those he was photographing, he was very ethical in his approach.

Aileen Mioko, of course, is the reason the whole Minamata project happened. She had a lot of creative input and was co-author of the original story. She gave birth to it. Its almost as if shes the architect and Eugene Smith was the draughtsman, and a very good one at that.

While photojournalism is for various reasons hugely compromised today, Smiths approach is still possible as long as you can find a way to finance it.
Stevedoring company Qube Ports is stepping up a vicious campaign against workers at its terminals in the Port of Fremantle and Kwinana in Western Australia who are fighting for improved working conditions in a dispute over a new enterprise agreement (EA).

Qube Ports is a multi-billion dollar stevedoring and freight handling company with facilities at 29 ports across Australia, including in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle, as well as in smaller key regional centres. Its subsidiaries include P&O Automotive and General Stevedoring, Northern Stevedoring Services and Australian Amalgamated Terminals.

The 121 workers at the companys WA terminals were locked out in early August, almost immediately after they began a campaign of limited industrial action that included sporadic four-hour stoppages, a series of work bans and a 24-hour halt to unloading ships newly arrived in port.

A pair of container ships in Fremantle Inner Harbour (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Workers voted unanimously for the campaign in April, after Qube rejected all 42 claims tabled by the Maritime Union of Australias (MUA) WA branch. The company has insisted throughout 15 months of negotiations that present working conditions be maintained and rolled over into the new EA. The company is offering a paltry 2.5 percent pay increase that is well below the recently announced CPI increase of 3.8 percent over the twelve months to June 2021.

Under the old union-brokered EA the workers, including permanents, have no fixed rosters and are only informed by text message at 4 p.m. on the day prior if they have to work the following day and on which shift. Workers are continually required to work consecutive runs of excessive hours, resulting in fatigue issues that impact on safety.

Among the changes rejected by the company was an extra two-hour lead time for notification of shifts to allow workers some leeway to organise family and life activities. When, as part of the industrial action, workers began refusing to report for duty unless management allocated work schedules by 2 pm the day before, the company responded with a lockout.

Since the lockout, the company has mobilised managerial staff in a scabbing operation to carry out work at the WA terminals. This is not the first time Qube had used such aggressive tactics. In April 2018 it flew in scabs by helicopter during an industrial dispute at its Webb Dock West terminal in the Port of Melbourne.

Earlier this month, the company launched yet another provocation in a further attempt to intimidate the Qube workers and force them to accept its dictates by blaming them for the possibility of redundancies at the companys other terminals, supposedly as a consequence of their dispute.

On September 13, the MUA reported it had been informed by Qube that global shipping line Wallenius Wilhelmsen, the companys largest client, was considering cancelling its contract and moving its business to rival operator Linx due to concerns over the impact of the dispute. The companys response to this news was to threaten sackings at its Brisbane, Melbourne and Port Kembla ports. While the MUA press release claimed Qube had outlined to the MUA the numbers of jobs to be made redundant, the union did not report the figure.

Since the lockout, MUA officials have made a series of public statements claiming the union has been organising widespread support for the Qube workers. MUA national president Christy Cain proclaimed in August, we (unions) are united across Australia in this struggle.

Such assertions are nothing but empty posturing. In reality, the MUA has not organised a single day of solidarity industrial action by any of its 16,000 members across the Australian waterfront to back the Qube workers, even at the companys other terminals around the country.

Moreover, the MUA has not lifted a finger to prevent Qubes scabbing operation at the WA terminals. To hose down any concern that the operation may have sparked among its members, the union has issued bulletins playing down the seriousness of this dirty operation on the grounds that the scab force is taking longer to discharge cargo than the regular workers.

At the same time, the MUA has swiftly wrapped up a raft of EA disputes at other stevedoring companies to prevent the possibility of any unified action by port workers. Even as Qube was escalating its attacks on the WA workers, the MUA hurriedly called off all industrial action in a dispute at the Fremantle Port Authority (FPA) claiming there had been a bit of movement in high level negotiations.

While the MUA has touted support for the locked out workers from other unions in Australia and overseas, this amounts to nothing more than a few donations and puerile protests that have no impact whatsoever on Qubes operations.

The Maritime Union of New Zealand announced it was sending a donation and its national secretary, Craig Harrison, declared the union would deliver a letter of protest to the captain of the Thermopylae, a Wallenius Wilhelmsen ship, when it docked in Auckland.

Qube claimed earlier last month that the union had been contacting Qube clients and threatening them with black bans if they continued to give work to the stevedoring company. Demonstrating that the very suggestion of international action against Qube was anathema to the MUA, the union rushed to dismiss the claim as garbage, declaring that such action would be working against our own interests.

The MUA is employing the same tactics it has used in dispute after dispute. Behind the inane slogan our members will go one day longer and one day stronger than Qube, the MUA is isolating the locked-out workers and leaving them to face the well-resourced logistics giant on their own.

The MUAs aim is to wear down the Qube workers resolve to clear the way for a return to the negotiating table to stitch up a deal in line with the companys requirements. The MUA has already accepted the companys miserable pay offer, with MUA WA branch secretary Will Tracey stating, the dispute with Qube, incredibly, is not about wages.

As in every dispute, the MUAs concern is not that the company is insisting on the retention of onerous working conditions. These conditions were in fact the outcome of work agreements negotiated by the union itself and pushed through onto its membership.

In 2015, the MUA allowed the elimination of seven-weeks-on, one-week-off rosters at Qube, selling to its members the companys worthless guarantees that it would revert to the former schedule when trading conditions improved.

The framework for the protracted assault on dock workers conditions was laid by the MUAs betrayal of the seminal Patrick waterfront strike in 1998, when the union ratified the elimination of 650 waterfront jobsalmost half the stevedores workforcethe ever-greater use of casuals and the continuous tearing up of working conditions.

The unions main preoccupation in the present dispute, as in the past, is not the welfare of the Qube workers. Its overriding concern is maintaining its position as an industrial policeman to suppress worker opposition to management and as a labour bargaining agency to deliver company demands. These joint roles are the source of the privileged position and lifestyles of the union officialdom.

In every dispute, the MUA has ruthlessly enforced the provisions of the draconian Fair Work laws, introduced in 2009 by the Rudd Labor government with the support of the union, which prohibit virtually all strike action except during EA bargaining and make any form of solidarity action illegal.

Workers must draw the lessons from this record of betrayal. For the struggle to defend and improve conditions to go forward at Qube, the fate of workers cannot be left in the hands of the MUA.

Workers must fight for the formation of an independent rank-and-file committee to reach out to port workers and other sections of the working class to organise a genuine industrial and political struggle as part of establishing a counter-offensive to company-union attacks across the entire waterfront.

This needs to be based on a socialist perspective that rejects the dictates of the profit system and aims for the establishment of a workers government that will place the ports, shipping and other basic industries, along with the banks, under public ownership and democratic workers control.
Today marks fifteen years since WikiLeaks was founded by Australian publisher Julian Assange on October 4, 2006. In the years since, the small media organisation, founded on a shoestring, has become synonymous with the courageous exposure of government and corporate crimes, as well as the ever-more ferocious attempts of state agencies and the ruling elites to censor the internet and suppress independent journalism.

As with all recent anniversaries related to WikiLeaks and its founder, Assange is unable to celebrate todays milestone with his colleagues, friends and family. Instead, he is in Londons Belmarsh Prison, a maximum-security facility dubbed Britains Guantanamo Bay, where he has been detained for more than two years, most of that time without having been convicted of any offence.

Julian Assange

The cause of Assanges imprisonment, an extradition request submitted by the Trump administration, remains in force under his successor President Joe Biden. Both the Democrats and the Republicans are committed to prosecuting Assange, under the draconian Espionage Act, for WikiLeaks publishing activities, including its exposures of war crimes, human rights violations and global diplomatic intrigues.

Despite having blocked Assanges dispatch to the US in January on the grounds that he would likely die in American custody, the British judiciary has allowed an appeal which will be the subject of High Court hearings later this month.

The US prosecution has always been a transparent attempt to destroy Assange, finish WikiLeaks and suppress press freedom. The appeal hearings, however, will be held under conditions in which the US case has been fully exposed as a criminal enterprise, involving the most egregious violations of international law and the US Constitution.

Last month, Yahoo News published a detailed report, revealing that beginning in early 2017, the Trump administration and its then CIA director Mike Pompeo had plotted to kidnap Assange while he was a political refugee in Londons Ecuadorian embassy, and even to murder him. Former officials told the publication that both Trump and Pompeo had been at meetings where Assanges assassination was discussed. The possibility of murdering other WikiLeaks staff in Europe was also canvassed.

The plans for an extraordinary rendition or a CIA hit were explicitly developed in response to the WikiLeaks publication of truthful and newsworthy information, as was the subsequent pseudo-legal attempt to extradite and prosecute Assange.

The immediate trigger for both was WikiLeakss 2017 exposure of CIA documents, exposing the agency as the biggest purveyor of malware in the world. The Vault 7 material, as it was known, revealed some of the CIAs most closely-guarded dirty tricks, including techniques to attribute its own hacking activities to foreign powers, such as Russia, mass surveillance through smartphones and TVs, and attempts to develop the capability to take over car computer systems.

In response, Pompeo branded WikiLeaks a hostile non-state intelligence agency. The definition was aimed at allowing the US state to deploy its full arsenal of repression against Assange, because the American authorities knew their own claims that WikiLeaks worked with Russian intelligence were a sham. Instead, they settled on the new category, one which essentially equated publishing organisations that fell foul of the American government as the equivalent of terrorists.

While the discussions about Assanges assassination may have been conducted in secret, the plans for extraordinary measures to be taken against WikiLeaks were carried out in plain sight. Indeed, the new definition of the organisation as a hostile non-state intelligence agency was adopted by the US Congress and Senate in the Intelligence Authorization Act for fiscal year 2018, with the overwhelming support of Democratic and Republican representatives.

In the weeks since Yahoos report, its veracity has been all but confirmed by those implicated in the crimes it detailed. Pompeo has publicly declared that pieces of it are true, while demanding that the 30 former officials who were Yahoos sources be prosecuted for speaking about classified activity inside the Central Intelligence Agency.

When asked about the revelations last week, Bidens press secretary Jen Psaki refused to make any comment, directing the journalist to instead inquire with the CIA. The response from the British authorities, who are implicated in the assassination plot, has been radio silence, while Australian politicians have also remained mum or have dubiously professed ignorance.

For its part, the corporate media has downplayed or completely buried the story, despite it going to the heart of press freedom and the rights of the press. The revelations, more sensational than those that triggered Richard Nixons removal, have been treated as a minor news item. The general trend is summed up by the state British Broadcasting Corporation, which didnt even publish a report on the Yahoo claims, except for an item on its Somali-language page.

The response is yet another demonstration of the central role of the official press in Assanges persecution. Having relentlessly smeared the WikiLeaks founder for years, contributing to the conditions for his illegal arrest in 2019, they have since dropped the story, all the more so as the criminal character of the US campaign is revealed. Far from being a result of a personal dislike of Assange, the corporate medias treatment of him is a marker of its transformation into an arm of the state, and a willing accomplice in the escalating drive to war and the accompanying assault on democratic rights.

WikiLeaks was established as an antithesis of the state and corporate-controlled media and its routine censorship of information that clashes with the interests of the powers-that-be.

Shortly after founding the organisation, Assange wrote a 2007 statement which summed up its mission. He wrote: Authoritarian regimes create forces which oppose them by pushing against a peoples will to truth, love and self-realization. Plans which assist authoritarian rule, once discovered, induce further resistance. Hence such schemes are concealed by successful authoritarian powers until resistance is futile or outweighed by the efficiencies of naked power.

In more popular terms, Assange outlined the same mission statement, when accepting the Sydney Peace Foundations Gold Medal in 2011. He explained:

I always keep in mind something that was said by the great poet and novelist May Sarton: you have to think like a hero in order to act like a merely decent human being

We are objective, but we are not neutral. We are on the side of justice. Objectivity is not the same as neutrality. We are objective about the facts when it comes to reporting and not distorting facts. But we are not neutral about what kind of world we would like to see. We want to see a more just world.

For my staff and me, WikiLeaks will always strive to be an intelligence agency of the people. And we will alwaysas long as whistle-blowers are willing to act as heroesact like merely decent human beings.

To further these aims, WikiLeaks introduced pioneering innovations, which have since been taken up more broadly, including by corporate outlets, but usually without attribution. This included the development of a digital dropbox for the receipt of leaks, and a model of collaboration involving multiple journalists and media organisations around the world examining material submitted by whistle-blowers and preparing it for publication.

In the years since 2006, WikiLeaks has fulfilled its mission statement, breaking more explosive revelations than perhaps any other publication. The full scope of the organisations publications spans millions of documents and dozens of releases, touching on political and economic life in every corner of the globe.

Among the most significant are those for which Assange has been charged. They include the Iraq and Afghan war logs, which revealed thousands of hidden civilian casualties and exposed the US-led invasions as the most brutal neo-colonial operations since the crimes of the Nazis.

Hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic cables revealed American imperialisms involvement in coup-plotting, political corruption and anti-democratic conspiracies the world over.

Detainee files from the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay lifted the lid on a global dragnet, involving torture and the imprisonment of those whom the American government knew to be innocent of any crime.

WikiLeakss impact matched the significance of its publications and helps to explain the determined efforts of the American state and its allies to crush the organisation. The Collateral Murder video, showing US troops in an Apache gunship mowing down civilians and journalists, came to symbolise the criminality of the Iraq war. The diplomatic cables, providing an unprecedented picture of capitalist politics as it plays out behind closed doors, helped to trigger the revolutions that swept Egypt and Tunisia in 2011.

The ever-greater persecution of WikiLeaks and its founder corresponds with, and is one of the sharpest expressions of, a broader turn towards authoritarianism and dictatorship by governments around the world. As Leon Trotsky once explained: Under the impact of class and international contradictions that are too highly charged, the safety switches of democracy either burn out or explode. That is what the short circuit of dictatorship represents.

Assanges case has demonstrated in spades that there is no constituency for the defence of democratic rights within the political establishment. All of the official parties in the US, Britain and Australia support his persecution, while the trade unions and pseudo-left organisations which once feigned sympathy abandoned him long ago.

This underscores the bankruptcy of those, such as the official Dont Extradite Assange group, who call on people fighting for Assanges freedom to limit their efforts to polite moral appeals to the likes of Trump and Biden.

In reality, the fight for Assanges liberty is inseparably connected to the struggle against imperialist war, authoritarianism and the outmoded capitalist system that underlies both. The working class, as it enters into struggle against the criminal herd immunity policies of the ruling classes and the onslaught on social conditions, needs to recognise that the fight for their own democratic rights is bound up with the fight for Assanges freedom.
(CNN) -- An oil pipeline off the coast of Southern California has spewed more than 100,000 gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean, coating local wildlife habitats, shutting down a swath of popular beaches and potentially harming human health.

The leak appears to have stopped and oil removal efforts are underway, officials said Sunday.

The breach, reported Saturday, occurred about 5 miles off the coast of Huntington Beach in Orange County, spilling the equivalent of an estimated 3,000 barrels -- or 126,000 gallons -- of post-production crude, local officials said.

Divers have been inspecting the 17-mile pipeline, hoping to find its exact source. The leak's cause remains unknown.

By Sunday night, about 3,150 gallons of oil had been removed from the water and over a mile of oil boom -- floating barriers designed to contain an oil spill -- were deployed, the US Coast Guard said at that time.

"Fourteen boats conducted oil recovery operations Sunday afternoon," the Coast Guard said. "Four aircraft were dispatched for overflight assessments. Shoreside response was conducted by 105 government agency personnel."

Because of the spill, Orange County health officials advised residents to avoid recreational activities on the coastline and recommended that people who may have encountered the oil seek medical attention. Effects of oil or dispersants on people could include eye and skin irritation, headache and vomiting, with children and older people more at risk, an area health agency said.

The city of Laguna Beach announced Sunday evening that all beaches would close to the public beginning at 9 p.m., while Newport Beach issued an advisory warning people to avoid contact with ocean water and areas of beach impacted by oil.

Already, dead birds and fish were washing up on the shore, Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said Sunday.

"The oil has infiltrated the entirety of the (Talbert) wetlands. There's significant impacts to wildlife there," she said. "These are wetlands that we've been working with the Army Corps of Engineers, with (a local) land trust, with all the community wildlife partners to make sure to create this beautiful, natural habitat for decades. And now in just a day, it's completely destroyed."

Sections of the shoreline at Huntington Beach were closed on Saturday, with Mayor Kim Carr on Sunday describing the spill as a "potential ecological disaster."

"In a year that has been filled with incredibly challenging issues, this oil spill constitutes one of the most devastating situations that our community has dealt with in decades," Carr said. "We are doing everything in our power to protect the health and safety of our residents, our visitors and our natural habitats."

Cause of leak under investigation

The pipeline is owned by the Houston-based oil and gas company Amplify Energy, its president and CEO Martyn Willsher said at a news conference Sunday afternoon.

The company was working with local, state and federal agencies on recovery efforts, Willsher said.

"Our employees live and work in these communities, and we're all deeply impacted and concerned about the impact on not just the environment, but the fish and wildlife as well," he said. "We will do everything in our power to ensure that this is recovered as quickly as possible, and we won't be done until this is concluded."

The company notified the Coast Guard on Saturday morning when employees were conducting a line inspection and noticed a sheen in the water, Willsher said.

The facilities operating the pipeline were built in the late 1970s and early 1980s and are inspected every other year, including during the pandemic, he said.

The pipeline has been "suctioned at both ends to keep additional crude out," Willsher said, adding that he doesn't expect more oil to be released.

"We are still assessing to look for the source and figure out," Eric Laughlin, California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesperson, said Sunday at a news conference. "It doesn't appear there's further fuel leaking, but we're still working on identifying that."

The federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement was assisting in Coast Guard-led response to the oil spill, the agency told CNN. Its role was to assist "in identifying the location and source of any spills and provide technical assistance to the Unified Command in stopping the spillage," it said Sunday in a statement.

The National Transportation Safety Board was sending investigators to gather information and assess the source of the oil leak, it said Sunday on Twitter.

Impacts on human health

Human health impacts from excessive exposure to oil or dispersants could include skin, eye, nose and throat irritation, headache, dizziness, vomiting or shortness of breath, the Orange County Health Care Agency said in a health advisory.

"Even when an oil sheen may not be visible, dispersed and dissolved oil contaminants may exist in the water," County Health Officer Dr. Clayton Chau said.

Anyone experiencing adverse symptoms should contact their doctor, Chau said.

"Inhalation of toxic oil vapors or other aerosolized oil compound particles from wind-blown waves can cause these side effects. The elderly, children, and folks with respiratory diseases such as asthma will be more susceptible to adverse side effects from inhaling the oil vapors," the agency said.

Correction: A prior version of this story incorrectly spelled Eric Laughlin's last name.

The-CNN-Wire

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(CNN) -- Taiwan's Defense Ministry said 52 Chinese warplanes made incursions into its air defense identification zone on Monday, the highest number since the island began publicly reporting such activities last year.

The previous record was posted on Saturday, when 39 Chinese military planes flew into the zone.

In a statement, the Taiwanese Defense Ministry said the 52 Chinese aircraft included 34 J-16 fighter jets, 12 H-6 bombers, two SU-30 fighters, two Y-8 anti/submarine warfare planes and two KJ-500 airborne early warning and control planes.

A map released by the ministry showed all the 52 incursions staying at the extreme southwestern part of Taiwan's ADIZ. In response, the ministry said radio warnings were issued and air defense missile systems were deployed to monitor the activity.

In the radio warnings, the Taiwanese air force could be heard ordering the aircraft to "turn around and leave immediately" upon their entry into its ADIZ. All 52 incursions were made during daytime hours on Monday.

The incursions did not violate Taiwan's sovereign airspace, which extends 12 nautical miles from its coast. The US Federal Aviation Administration defines an ADIZ as "a designated area of airspace over land or water within which a country requires the immediate and positive identification, location and air traffic control of aircraft in the interest of the country's national security."

Since the beginning of October, Taiwan has reported 145 incursions by Chinese warplanes into the ADIZ, statistics from the Defense Ministry showed.

After Taiwan reported record-breaking incursions over the weekend, its air force released a promotional video on Facebook which said it is determined to defend its airspace.

"When faced with our enemy's aggression and provocation, we will never compromise," the video said. "The determination to defend our sovereignty is unwavering."

China has yet to respond to these incursions, but an article in the state-run Global Times on Sunday said the People's Liberation Army (PLA) was conducting "expanded drills" near Taiwan.

Taiwan and mainland China have been governed separately since the end of a civil war more than seven decades ago, in which the defeated Nationalists fled to Taipei.

However, Beijing views Taiwan as an inseparable part of its territory -- even though the Chinese Communist Party has never governed the democratic island of about 24 million people.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has refused to rule out military force to capture Taiwan if necessary.

In the past, analysts have said the flights likely serve several purposes for China, both demonstrating the strength of the PLA to a domestic audience and giving the Chinese military intelligence and skills it would need in any potential conflict involving Taiwan.

But even with the latest surge in Chinese flights near Taiwan, analysts say actual combat is unlikely.

"China needs levers to deter Taiwan from taking undesirable courses of action, especially independence-leaning initiatives," said Lionel Fatton, a professor at Webster University in Switzerland. "For these levers to be potent, China must (1) have the (military) capabilities to activate them if needed, and (2) the threat to do so must be credible in the eyes of Taipei."

"The recurrent air exercises are dedicated to send a clear message in this regard," Fatton told CNN on Sunday.

"As long as Taiwan doesn't take irreversible steps toward independence/greater autonomous presence on the international scene," combat is unlikely, he added.

The-CNN-Wire

 &  2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.
The COVID-19 patients health was deteriorating quickly at a Michigan hospital, but he was having none of the doctors diagnosis. Despite dangerously low oxygen levels, the unvaccinated man didnt think he was that sick and got so irate over a hospital policy forbidding his wife from being at his bedside that he threatened to walk out of the building.

Dr. Matthew Trunsky didnt hold back in his response: You are welcome to leave, but you will be dead before you get to your car, he said.

Such exchanges have become all-too-common for medical workers who are growing weary of COVID-19 denial and misinformation that have made it exasperating to treat unvaccinated patients during the delta-driven surge.

The Associated Press asked six doctors from across the country to describe the types of misinformation and denial they see on a daily basis and how they respond to it.

They describe being aggravated at the constant requests to be prescribed the veterinary parasite drug Ivermectin, with patients lashing out at doctors when they are told that its not a safe coronavirus treatment. An Illinois family practice doctor has patients tell him that microchips are embedded in vaccines as part of a ploy to take over peoples DNA. A Louisiana doctor has resorted to showing patients a list of ingredients in Twinkies, reminding those who are skeptical about the makeup of vaccines that everyday products have lots of safe additives that no one really understands.

When patients tell Dr. Vincent Shaw that they dont want the COVID-19 vaccine because they dont know whats going into their bodies, he pulls up the ingredient list for a Twinkie.

Look at the back of the package, Shaw, a family physician in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Tell me you can pronounce everything on the back of that package. Because I have a chemistry degree, I still dont know what that is.

He also commonly hears patients tell him they havent done enough research about the vaccines. Rest assured, he tells them, the vaccine developers have done their homework.

Then there are the fringe explanations: Theyre putting a tracker in and it makes me magnetic.

Another explanation left him speechless: The patient couldnt understand why they were given this for free, because humanity in and of itself is not nice and people arent nice and nobody would give anything away. So theres no such thing as inherent good nature of man. And I had no comeback from that.

People who get sick with mild cases insist that they have natural immunity. No, youre not a Superman or Superwoman, he tells them.

He said one of the biggest issues is social media, as evidenced by the many patients who describe what they saw on Facebook in deciding against getting vaccinated. That mindset has spawned memes about the many Americans who got their degrees at the University of Facebook School of Medicine.

I am like, No, no, no, no, no. I shake my head, No, no. That is not right, no, no. Stop, stop, just stop looking at Facebook.

Dr. Stu Coffman has patients tell him they are scared about vaccine side effects. They dont trust the regulatory approval process and raise disproven concerns that the vaccine will harm their fertility. He said the most unexpected thing someone told him was that there was actually poison in the mRNA vaccine  a baseless rumor that originated online.

He is confounded by the pushback.

If youve got a gunshot wound or stab wound or youre having a heart attack, you want to see me in the emergency department, he said. But as soon as we start talking about a vaccine, all of a sudden Ive lost all credibility.

He said the key to overcoming hesitancy is to figure out where it originates. He said when people come to him with concerns about fertility, he can point to specific research showing that the vaccine is safe and their issues are unfounded.

But he says theres no hope in changing the minds of people who think the vaccines are laced with poison. Im probably not going to be able to show you anything that convinces you otherwise.

And he thinks he could change peoples minds about the vaccine if they could follow him around for a shift as he walks past the beds of the sick and dying, almost all of whom are unvaccinated.

Dr. Ryan Stanton recently had a patient who began their conversation by saying, Im not afraid of any China virus. From that point on, he knew what he was up against in dealing with the patients politics and misguided beliefs about the virus.

Stanton blamed people like far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for spreading some of the misinformation that has taken root among his patients. Among them is that the vaccine contains fetal cells. Another said it is a simple fact that the vaccine has killed millions.

In fact, he said, that couldnt be more wrong.

Its tough to watch, especially after living through the early surges. On his worst shift last fall, an elderly nursing home patient arrived, close to death. She hadnt seen her family in months, so staff wheeled her outside in the ambulance bay so her relatives could say their goodbyes from 20 feet away. He snapped a picture of the scene so he could remember the horror.

There was hope after the vaccines arrived, but then came the delta variant and a slowdown in immunizations.

Really it amazes me the number of people who have this huge fear, conspiracy theory about vaccines and will honest to God try anything, including a veterinary medicine, to get better, said Stanton.

For Trunsky, the vaccine pushback grew so intense that he turned to Facebook to describe the ire he confronts on a daily basis at his hospital in Troy, Michigan. The post listed eight encounters he had in the two previous days alone in which COVID-19 patients explained misinformation-fueled reasons for not getting vaccines or made demands for unproven treatments.

Example No. 5 was a patient who said hed rather die than take the vaccine. Trunskys response: You may get your wish.

He has heard a litany of misinformation about the vaccine: They say its not proven and only experimental when in fact it is not. Others tell him the vaccine is a personal choice and that the government shouldnt tell me what to do. He also has heard patients tell them they are too sick and didnt want to risk the side effects of the vaccine. One young mother told him she wasnt vaccinated because she was breastfeeding, although her pediatrician and obstetrician urged her it was safe. She had to be hospitalized but eventually got a shot.

Others, though, take out their anger on health care providers. Some threaten to call attorneys if they dont get a prescription for Ivermectin, commonly used by veterinarians to kill worms and parasites. The drug can cause harmful side effects and theres little evidence it helps with the coronavirus.

He estimates that he has cared for 100 patients who have died since the pandemic began, including the man who threatened to walk out of the hospital.

Dr. Carl Lambert hears lots of wild misinformation from his patients. Some comes from the Bible interpretations; some originates from the rapper Nicki Minaj.

Some of it is the stuff of internet conspiracy theories, like theres a chip in the vaccine that will take over their DNA.

Impossible scientifically, says the family physician in Chicago. He also hears patients tell him that the vaccine will weaken their immune systems. He responds: Immunology 101. Vaccines help your immune system.

Recently he received a flurry of messages from patients who were worried about damage to their testicles  a rumor he ultimately traced back to an erroneous tweet from Minaj alleging that the vaccine causes impotence.

And I was like, Thats outlandish. Thats a bit outrageous. So a lot of just kind of counseling that I did not expect to have to do.

Some of the misinformation is delivered from the pulpit, he said. People have sent him sermons of preachers saying the vaccine is ungodly or theres something in it that will mark you, a reference to a verse in Revelation about the mark of the beast that some Christians cite in not getting vaccinated.

Theres a mixture of like almost fear ... and saying, Hey, if you do this, maybe youre not as faithful as you should be as, say, a Christian.

Most common, though, is patients just wanting to wait, uneasy with how quickly the vaccine was developed. But he warns them, Please do not try to wait out a pandemic. A pandemic will win.

He said his job is a lot of just dismantling what people have heard, answering their questions and reassuring them that vaccines work like this just like when we were kids.

He has had some luck lately in changing minds. Ive had patients that maybe four months ago said You are wasting your time. Dr. Lambert, I dont want to hear you talking about it. And theyll come back and say, Hey, you know what? Ive been watching the news. Ive seen some stuff. I think Im ready now.

When Dr. Elizabeth Middleton talks to COVID-19 patients about why they arent vaccinated, they often cite fear of side effects. But as they get sicker and sicker, a different sort of fear sets in.

They sort of have this sinking look about them, like Oh, my God. This is happening to me. I should have been vaccinated, said the pulmonary critical care doctor at the University of Utah hospital in Salt Lake City.

She hears often that the vaccine was developed too quickly. Who are you to judge the speed of science? she wonders.

Also frustrating is the idea among some patients that there is a secret agenda behind getting vaccinated.

There must be something wrong if everyone is forcing us to do this or everyone wants us to do this, patients tell her. And my response to that is, They are urging you to do it because we are in an emergency. This is a pandemic. It is a national and international crisis. That is why we are pushing it.

Getting through to patients and their families is a delicate line, she says. She tries not to disrupt the patient-doctor relationship by pushing vaccines too hard. But often the people who have been on ventilators need no convincing.

They are like, Tell everyone that they have to be vaccinated. I want to call my family. They need to be vaccinated.
WABASH VALLEY, Ind. (WTHI) - The Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs launched an awareness campaign about the state's Military Family Relief Fund.

The fund is designed to help veterans experiencing financial hardship.

The money can be used for things like housing, utilities, food, and medical services.

Legislative changes recently signed into law removed some eligibility requirements, increasing access to more Hoosier veterans.

Grants are provided on a case-by-case basis. They may not exceed a lifetime limit of $2,500.

Veterans can apply here.
EMMITSBURG, MD, (WTHI) - A former Terre Haute firefighter is being honored during the nation's 40th Annual National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Ceremony.

This weekend, national leaders and families from across the nation came together in Maryland to honor and celebrate the lives of our nation's fallen firefighters, including one of Terre Haute's very own.

John Schoffstall served as a Terre Haute firefighter for more than a decade. In April 2020, he passed away due to complications from Covid-19. But now, Schoffstall and hundreds of other fallen heroes are being honored.

On Saturday, thousands of people gathered for an emotional Candlelight Service. During the ceremony, a plaque bearing the names of fallen firefighters was added to the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial. Schoffstall was one of 215 firefighters added to the memorial.

The ceremonies continued on Sunday, where families gathered at the memorial to honor their loved ones. Schoffstall's wife and son were presented with an American flag flown over the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial and the US Capitol.

Schoffstall will now forever be remembered and have a permanent place at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Maryland.

To learn more about the 40th Annual National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Ceremony, click here.
News 10s Heather Good spoke with Tim Maniscalo of the Better Business Bureau to discuss a scam involving fake restaurant websites.

Posted: Oct 4, 2021 7:34 AM
VIGO COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - Local residents had the chance to step back in time over at Fowler Park this weekend!

The 49th annual Pioneer Days took place both Saturday and Sunday.

Many people gathered at the 19th century log cabin village in Fowler Park.

Visitors had the oppurtunity to experience the way of life lived by pioneers of Indiana during the 1830s-1840s.

There were children's activities, live music, authentic foods, vendors, presentations, and much more!

Organizers say the rain couldn't put a damper on their event.

Especially, after not being able to host it last year!

"It's great to be able to get the public out and get them involved...and give a chance to people to get outside and get back out in their parks and see what the parks have to offer," Special Event Coordinator Sean Sluyter said.

Be sure to be on the look out for the park's next event coming in late October -- which is Fowler Park after dark!

You won't want to miss out on all their spooky season specials!
DUCK HILL, Miss. (WTVA) - Police found a 31-year-old man dead early Saturday in Montgomery County.

Duck Hill Police Chief Tyler Winter said someone shot Michael Ringold, 31.

Officers found his body near a club on the corner of Martin Luther King and Carrollton streets.

The club had already closed, Winter said.

Someone previously assaulted Ringold with a sledgehammer in July, Winter recalled. Ringold filed charges in the case. A judge recently bound the case over to a grand jury.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  Mississippi is the only state without a law requiring equal pay for equal work by women and men, after Alabama enacted one in 2019.

Efforts have fallen short in Mississippi in recent years, but Senate Labor Committee Chairman John Hohrn, a Democrat from Jackson, promises to make another push for equal pay legislation in 2022.

Opponents have said there's no need for a Mississippi law because of two federal laws  the Equal Pay Act of 1963 signed by President John F. Kennedy and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 signed by President Barack Obama. Some also say they don't want the state to put new regulations on businesses.

A 2017 report by the Mississippi University Research Center showed women earned 27% less than men for fulltime work in Mississippi, compared to a 19% wage gap nationwide. The study said some of the gap could be explained by factors such as types of jobs women and men were working, but the unexplained wage gap remained about 18% in Mississippi and about 15% nationwide.

The report said a portion of the unexplained gap in Mississippi may be due to discrimination," but other factors such as the choice of college majors or decisions about work-life balance may be in play.

If women are willing to take lower pay so that they can work hours more suitable to their familys needs, then discrimination is not at play, the report said. "However, if employers assume all women are willing to take lower pay for more flexible hours and therefore do not offer women other options, discrimination could exist.

Cassandra Welchlin, executive director of the Mississippi Black Women's Roundtable, told the Senate Labor Committee on Wednesday that women comprise 49% of the Mississippi workforce but 67% of the minimum-wage workers. She said that over a 40-year career, a Black woman in Mississippi stands to lose more than $849,000 because of the wage gap.

It's time for Mississippi women to share in the protection that women in other states experience, Welchlin said.

Welchlin said Mississippi needs an equal pay law that does not require people applying for jobs to disclose their salary history because such disclosure often ensures that women remain on track for lower earnings.

Senators on Wednesday also heard from Ledbetter, whose legal battle over equal pay went to the U.S. Supreme Court. Ledbetter worked 19 years at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. in Gadsden, Alabama, and sued in 1998 after learning she had been paid significantly less than male colleagues in the same job. A jury awarded her $3.8 million, but the Supreme Court reversed the decision in 2007. Justices said she waited too long to sue, and did not rule on whether discrimination occurred.

Speaking to Mississippi lawmakers by videoconference, Ledbetter said earning less money for equal work affects the type of houses people live in, the kind of food they eat and the kind of retirement they will have.

I know what its like to dig and scratch out a living, Ledbetter said, noting that many in Alabama and Mississippi are in the same position. "And its time that women can stand up with dignity for their education and their training and earn a good living.

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, the first woman elected to that job, is among supporters of equal pay legislation. A deputy attorney general, Whitney Lipscomb, spoke to the Labor Committee on behalf of Republican Fitch, saying it's a bipartisan issue that affects everyone.

Equal pay is an opportunity for the state to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty and strengthen our economy, Lipscomb said.

She said a law should require equal pay for equal work in the same job that requires equal skills, effort, education, experience, responsibilities and performance under similar working conditions. She also said it should provide exceptions based on seniority systems or merit systems that are based on quantity or quality of production or differentials based on factors other than sex.

Passing a state equal pay law will not impose any new obligations on employers, Lipscomb said.
JACKSON, Miss. (WTVA) - Special agents with the Auditors Office arrested the former sheriff of Yalobusha County.

Mississippi State Auditor Shad White demands Lance Humphreys repay $10,867.30.

Humphreys was indicted for embezzlement for allegedly stealing nearly $5,000 from the countys Inmate Canteen Account. The sheriffs office uses the account to provide education and recreational resources to county inmates.

He is accused of transferring money from the account directly to his personal bank account. The alleged transfers were made in 2018.

Humphreys lost re-election in 2019.

He faces up to 20 years in prison or $5,000 in fines.
NEW ALBANY, Miss. (WTVA) - Local health care workers said getting a flu shot is just as important as it is to get the Covid-19 vaccine.

Baptist Memorial Hospital-Union County in New Albany will host a drive-thru flu shot event on Wednesday, Oct. 6.

Sign promoting flu shots at the hospital in New Albany, Mississippi. Photo Date: Oct. 4, 2021. Sign promoting flu shots at the hospital in New Albany, Mississippi. Photo Date: Oct. 4, 2021.

Anyone who wants to get a flu shot will need to fill out a brief consent form before getting the vaccine.

The shot is free. Anyone 18 years and older can get the shot.

Participants should drive to the hospital's front entrance and follow the posted signs to the event tent.

Every year we would like to provide our community with free flu vaccines, nurse Stefenie Hodges said. The flu [shot] is just as important as the Covid vaccine. The flu is still out there. We want to provide protection for our community.

The drive-thru event will be held from 2-4 p.m.
JACKSON, Miss. (WTVA) - A former hospital worker in Yalobusha County received a demand to repay $100,966.

Special agents with the State Auditors Office arrested Katherine Brown, Auditor Shad White announced on Monday, Oct. 4.

A grand jury indicted Brown for embezzlement.

According to the auditor, she allegedly embezzled more than $70,000 from Yalobusha General Hospital by issuing and cashing checks addressed to multiple hospital employees.

Brown faces up to 20 years in prison and $25,000 in fines.
Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires Brings Strategy and More 1 vs 1,000 Battling in 2021
When Alexis Somers, formerly Alexis MacNeill, felt in her gut that her well-respected father killed her mother, she embarked on a quest for justice.

Lifetimes new movie The Good Father: The Martin MacNeill Story is based upon this true and horrific tale.

The real Somers  played in the movie by Anwen ODriscoll from Left for Dead: The Ashley Reeves Story  grew up admiring her father Dr. Martin MacNeill, a beloved physician in their Utah community.

Her whole life she looked up to her father, the movies executive producer Nancy Grace told Oxygen.com. She went so far as to go to medical school to walk in his footsteps. How awful that must have been to then suspect that your father who you love and look up to may have had a hand in the murder of your mother.

Shelly Green Ltk 211

As the movie depicts, MacNeills beauty queen wife Michele underwent a facelift in 2007 after she began suspecting that her husband was cheating on her. But rather than turn her marriage around, her husband took advantage of his status as a doctor to kill his wife during her recovery from the surgery.

He convinced the plastic surgeon to prescribe her all sorts of medication she did not need, Grace told Oxygen.com. Somers, then a medical student, took care of her mom as she was recovering, but Michele died suspiciously the day after she returned to medical school.

While her father maintained that it was an accidental drowning in the bathtub, Somers gut told her something wasnt right. Somers was one of eight children mourning their mother, four biological and four adopted, and eventually they began questioning her fathers actions.

At first, nobody would listen to them.

I'd try to go to the authorities. I'd go to the governor's office," Somers told ABC News in 2011. "I went to every single newspaper in Utah, trying to get someone to listen. [...] I cannot understand why no one would listen. My mother was murdered []and no one cares."

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Grace said that despite the constant hurdles, Somers never gave up trying to get justice for her mother.

Alexis had a gut feeling that her mother did not die the way that the medical examiner said and thats a lot for a medical student to take on, to challenge a medical examiner, she said.

MacNeill was ultimately convicted of murder and obstruction of justice in 2013. The following year, he was sentenced to 15 years to life for murder as well as an additional 15 years on the obstruction charge, the Washington Post reported in 2017. In a separate trial that year, MacNeill was also found guilty of sexually abusing Somers.

This case would never have been solved if it had not been for Alexis, Grace told Oxygen.com. Other siblings, like Rachel MacNeill, also helped their mother get justice.

MacNeill died by suicide behind bars in 2017.

Dr Martin Macneill G

Martin MacNeill interacts with his attorneys in court during the opening day of his trial on October 17, 2013 in Provo, Utah. Photo: Getty Images

Tom Everett, who plays the murderous doctor in The Good Father called MacNeil evil.

He told Oxygen.com that footage of MacNeill in court was hard to watch because of his obvious lack of remorse.

Grace said that she feels like MacNeill would have even killed his daughter to protect himself if he could have.

If he had realized that Alexis could somehow get to the truth I think he would have killed her, she said.

While looking into her dad's actions, Alexis had learned that his deceit had gone on for his whole life.

He faked his way into medical school and law school and everything about him is a lie, Grace said.

Somers, however, legitimately finished medical school and fulfilled her lifelong dream of becoming a doctor. She adopted three of her sisters and had three children of her own with her husband, according to the Cinemaholic.

She was in touch with Grace for the duration of this project.

The story is told intentionally through the eyes of Alexis because I will never forget covering the case and speaking to her, Grace, who covered the story as it unfolded, said. She made a profound impression on me and she impacted my life and I think she will to anyone who sees this Lifetime movie.

For more info on the case, check out Oxygen's Deadly Power."
Stanley Tucci is detailing the "horrible" experience of treating his tongue cancer, and how he has struggled to enjoy one of his favorite pastimes  eating  in the years since.

The Devil Wears Prada star, 60, revealed in his new book, Taste: My Life Through Food, out Tuesday, that he was diagnosed with cancer about three years ago, after doctors found a tumor at the base of his tongue. As Tucci underwent high-dose radiation and chemotherapy to eliminate the tumor, he had to be strapped to a board with a specially-made surgical mask over his face and a bite block in his mouth with just a small opening for him to breathe.

Stanley Tucci

D Dipasupil/FilmMagic Stanley Tucci

"It was horrible," he told The New York Times.

RELATED: Stanley Tucci Reveals He Had Cancer Three Years Ago: 'More Afraid and Less Afraid at the Same Time'

Through the weeks of radiation, Tucci lost his appetite, developed vertigo and ulcers in his mouth and started having trouble tasting his food. Anything he consumed started to taste like cardboard "slathered with someone's excrement," Tucci said, and he worried he would never be able to taste again, even more than he feared dying.

"I mean, if you can't eat and enjoy food, how are you going to enjoy everything else?" he said.

At one point in his recovery, Tucci cooked risotto Milanese for actor Colin Firth as they filmed the 2020 movie Supernova. Firth told the Times it was the best version of the dish he'd ever had, but Tucci "was convinced it tasted awful and was mortified."

RELATED: Ryan Reynolds Calls Stanley Tucci a 'Snack' as Actor Shows Off His Pasta Making Skills

"He simply wasn't tasting what we were," Firth said. "One was left to imagine how distressing this was, because most of the time he put on a very brave and matter-of-fact face."

Tucci, who is now in remission and has said his cancer is unlikely to return, did regain his sense of taste. Years later, though, he still has issues swallowing, which Tucci was dealing with as he filmed his hit CNN series Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, in which he ate his way through different regions of his grandparents' home country.

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"It was hard because I could taste everything, but I couldn't necessarily swallow," he said, remembering a time he struggled to eat steak Florentina. "I had to chew it for 10 minutes to get it down my throat." And in some cases Tucci could never get his food down, and he "just had to get rid of the food."

RELATED VIDEO: Anne Hathaway & Stanley Tucci on Reuniting for The Witches 14 Years After The Devil Wears Prada

There have been some benefits  Tucci found that since his radiation treatments, he can digest lactose and sugar again, which he had struggled with since his 20s. But some teas make his "mouth so dry, it's like eating chalk," and foods like steak, sushi and pad thai are too difficult to bother eating.

Tucci first shared that he had cancer in a September issue of Virgin Atlantic's inflight magazine Vera, and said that the experience changed his outlook on life.

"[Cancer] makes you more afraid and less afraid at the same time," he said. "I feel much older than I did before I was sick. But you still want to get ahead and get things done."
Image via Getty/Sean Rayford

Former president and former Twitter user Donald Trump is asking a federal district judge to mandate the social media platform to restore his account.

Trump, who was indefinitely banned from the platform on Jan. 8, lost his privileges on Twitter following a reported violation of the companys policy and the risk of further incitement of violence.

Plaintiff Donald J. Trump respectfully moves for a preliminary injunction directing, inter alia, Defendant Twitter, Inc. and all persons acting in concert with Defendant, to reinstate Plaintiffs access to Defendants social media platform(s), the filing reads, as reported by the Washington Post.

The filing from the former presidents legal team adds that Twitter is censoring Trump, and that it exercises a degree of power and control over political discourse in this country that is immeasurable, historically unprecedented, and profoundly dangerous to open democratic debate.

Trumps ban was initially 12 hours over repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy, but was later made long-term two days after the violent Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, where hundreds of Trump supporters violently broke into the building in an attempt to invalidate the legitimate results of the 2020 election, an act that resulted in five deaths.

Trumps office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the publication while Twitter declined to comment.

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EXCLUSIVE: Azita Ghanizada will return for season 2 of United States of Al and has been upped to recurring.

Roht/Sweet Bread  Al meets Ariana (Azita Ghanizada), an Afghan woman he wants to date, but is dismayed to learn she has a negative opinion of Afghan interpreters who worked for the U.S. - Credit: CBS

CBS

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Ghanizada will continue to portray Ariana, a first-generation Afghan-American who shares Als (Adhir Kalyan) passion for their homeland, but their divergent worldviews often put them at odds. She is also described as Als fiercely independent love interest.

The series is about the friendship between Riley, a Marine combat veteran struggling to readjust to civilian life in Ohio, and Al, the Interpreter who served with his unit in Afghanistan and has just arrived to start a new life in America.

Its second season, which began production in August, had shot one and a half episodes when the U.S. announced its withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Executive Producer Maria Ferrari explained during Warner Bros. TCA panel last month that the experience shifted the storyline to include a dive into the Afghanistan crisis and its subsequent fallout.

Ghanizada, who was born in Kabul, entered the United States as a baby with her parents; all of whom sought political asylum. She actively speaks out in support of Afghan causes, womens rights, and shares resources for organizations and individuals via social media.

She is the founder of MENA Arts Advocacy Coalition, an organization that fights for the advancement and visibility of Middle Eastern, North African, and South Asian writers, creatives, and performers on-screen in film, television, and streaming platforms.

Ghanizada most recently recurred in Freeforms Good Trouble and HBOs Ballers on the small screen; and in the films, Complete Unknown, The Friend, and We Broke Up.

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She is repped by Buchwald and Atlas Artists.

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Well Go USA has nabbed North American rights to Row 19, a thriller from director Alexander Babaev, which is being sold by Central Partnership.

The film centers on a young female doctor and her 6-year-old daughter, who board an overnight flight in a violent storm. When passengers on the half-empty plane inexplicably begin to die, the womans grip on reality weakens and she is forced to relive her worst childhood nightmare. The film, which is slated for release in Russian cinemas on Nov. 11, has also sold to Latin America (BF Distribution), South Korea (Cinema Black), Italy (Minerva Pictures), and the Middle East (Phars Filmco Motion Pictures).

More from Variety

Row 19 is a spine-tingling new entry to the genre that will prove quite capable of keeping audiences around the world at the edge of their seats, and were thrilled to team up with Central Partnership to bring the film to horror fans throughout North America, said Doris Pfardrescher, president and CEO of Well Go USA.

Row 19 is a high-quality genre film which keeps the viewer glued to the screen until the end, added producer and Central Partnership CEO Vadim Vereschagin. It will be equally spine-chilling and entertaining for audiences in any country, and we expect more global deals by the end of the year.

Pic is a Film Studio KIT, Central Partnership, Monumental Pictures, and Red Media production. It is produced by Vereschagin (Billion, Text, Son of a Rich), Rafael Minasbekyan (Furious, Frontier, Mermaid: Lake of the Dead), Dzhanik Fayziev (Furious, Frontier, Mermaid: Lake of the Dead), Paul Heth, Michael Schlicht and Roman Stolyarsky.

Babaev is a film and TV veteran whose directing credits include the 2016 haunted house thriller Bornless Ones and the 2019 horror Hospice.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's list of countries where Americans should avoid travel because of "very high'' COVID-19 cases grew again Monday, with Barbados and Croatia the most notable additions.

Other countries raised to level 4, the agency's highest travel health alert level: Austria, Armenia, Latvia and New Calendonia. All had been at level 3, which indicates case counts are "high."

More than 80 countries are now on the ever-changing list of countries travelers should avoid, including Jamaica, Aruba, Belize, the United Kingdom, Greece and other popular tourist destinations.

The CDC also lowered travel alert levels for several countries from 4 to 3.

They are:

France

Iceland

Portugal

Argentina

Morocco

Nepal

South Africa

Lesotho

The CDC's travel alerts, like those from the U.S. State Department, are recommendations, not restrictions. Travelers may continue to fly to the destinations subject to the countries' COVID-19 restrictions and must provide proof of a negative coronavirus test to board international flights back to the United States, even if vaccinated.

'Give us a date': International tourists want to know when in November US will reopen

Which EU countries are open to tourists? What travelers need to know

The CDC assesses COVID-19 risk based on each destination's new cases and case trajectory. The Travel Health Notice level can be raised if a large increase in COVID-19 cases is reported or a destination's case count meets or exceeds the threshold for a higher level for 14 straight days. Level 4 destinations have more than 500 new cases per 100,000 people over the past 28 days or more than 500 cases total period if their population is smaller than 100,000.

Traveling to Central or South America: Here are the travel restrictions

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: CDC adds Barbados, Croatia to 'avoid travel' list due to COVID cases
Off the Map Travel has a new tour that will have you looking toward the heavens.

The company's latest experience, known as Stars of Scandinavia, takes visitors to two locations in Finland that are well-known for exceptional Aurora viewing. Though the night sky is most certainly the main attraction, the tour also includes a few incredible accommodations as a bit of icing on the cake.

Daytime view from Kammi Suite

Courtesy of Tundrea

The six-day tour begins in Tromso, Norway, where travelers will set off to the first stop in Kilpisjarvi, Finland. There, they will spend a night in the new two-story Wow House, which is an "igloo" cabin that faces north for optimal viewing of the Northern Lights. Just 30 miles from the Arctic Ocean, Kilpisjarvi is a place with virtually no light pollution, and a population of a little over 100 residents, making it the prime spot to find complete solitude and silence as you lay back and stare at the stars.

Kammi suite cabin at night during northern lights

Courtesy of Tundrea

From here, travelers will head to Rovaniemi, Finland, the capital of Lapland, to spend time in the Lappish Kammi Suites. The eco-accommodations are designed to provide clear viewing of the Aurora. The igloo-style design extends to a full glass dome over the bedroom on the mezzanine level, so guests can lie on the luxe queen-sized bed and stay warm while experiencing the magic of the Northern Lights. Rooms have also been specially outfitted with low-level red lighting to enable guests' eyes to adjust to the night sky.

View of glass dome roof in cabin during northern light

Courtesy of Apukka

But, that's not all. On the tour, guests will take part in plenty of daytime activities as well like dog sledding, a fat bike tour over the frozen tundra, and snowmobiling to the border point of Norway, Finland, and Sweden to meet members of the Sami culture, which have called the region home for hundreds of years.

The six-day, five-night tour begins at $2,454 per person based on double occupancy. The price includes some meals, all transfers, four-star accommodations, and all activities. The tour is available from December 2021 through March 2021. See Off the Map Travel for full itinerary details.
ORLANDO, Fla.  For his 50th birthday, Seminole County Tax Collector J.R. Kroll received a six-day vacation to Iceland as a gift from his wife, Holly.

I thought: Wow, this sounds like a great trip, Kroll said.

But the venture was far from pleasant thanks to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Kroll found himself alone for nearly 11 days quarantined inside a cruddy government-run hotel room and being served three cold meals a day.

You were not allowed to open the door. And if I left, I would be arrested, Kroll said Friday, a day after he arrived home from the north European country.

He spent most of his days pacing the 12-foot-by-15-foot hotel room, doing pushups, taking naps, browsing the Internet on his cell phone or staring out the second-story window at the landscape of small, squat houses. The television broadcast mostly shows in Icelandic, with only one or two channels from Great Britain, he recalled.

The guy in the room next to me, it sounded like he couldnt take it anymore, because one day you could hear him start smashing things, Kroll said.

It all started Sept. 5, the day after the couple arrived in the capital city of Reykjavik when Kroll developed a mild fever, a runny nose and fatigue.

Iceland mandates that all vaccinated visitors must show a negative COVID-19 test that is no more than 72 hours old before leaving the United States. The Krolls met the requirement and have been fully vaccinated since April.

Still, Kroll decided to get a COVID-19 test. He logged into a government-run website and was immediately texted a bar code and told to report to a testing facility. There he was given a nose swab test. Hours later, he received a phone call at his hotel room that he tested positive and that he needed to stay put.

I thought; Oh, no! he said.

A small van with the driver fully covered in medical scrubs picked him up at his hotel and transported him to the government quarantine site. Meanwhile, his wife  who tested negative  quickly bought a plane ticket to return to the U.S. the next day. She feared that if she tested positive then she also would be quarantined.

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Every breakfast, it was the same thing: a honeydew melon, a hard-boiled egg, bread with jelly and butter, a Danish, said Kroll, recalling the hotel service. Everything was cold. I would have killed for a microwave. ... I was definitely starting to get agitated after seven days.

After finally being allowed to leave the hotel room last Wednesday, he ordered a large breakfast of pancakes, bacon and coffee at a nearby restaurant.

That was phenomenal, he said. Kroll then took a bus to the airport.

But even though Kroll was disappointed he had to spend his vacation in a tiny hotel room, he doesnt blame Iceland for the strict quarantine system.

Their system is working, he said. It is keeping their COVID (hospitalization and death) levels ridiculously low.  But we couldnt do it here in the U.S.  Here in the U.S., people wouldnt accept that. But theyre doing what they have to do to keep their numbers low.

With a national health care system and about 372,000 residents, Iceland is ranked as one of the worlds most vaccinated countries with more than 72% of its population fully inoculated, according to the World Health Organization.

But the number of positive cases began to climb this summer as Icelanders began visiting nightclubs and many started traveling abroad again. On Aug. 9, the U.S. State Department issued a travel advisory recommending that Americans not travel to Iceland because of a very high level of COVID-19. World health experts, however, say most Icelanders that are testing positive have mild symptoms because they are vaccinated.

As of Friday, the country has had 11,404 total infections and 33 deaths, including three over the past month, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Kroll never experienced anything more severe than allergy symptoms, he said.

But its now unlikely the Sanford couple  who have long enjoyed taking trips to the far corners of the world  will travel abroad any time soon, fearing he may be quarantined again.

As long as COVID is around, there is nowhere I would go, Kroll said. It was quite an experience.


Eviction Drive Protest In Kolkata

A boy holds a placard during a massive protest in Kolkata, India on Sept. 25 against the killing of two Muslims in Assam. Credit - Sukhomoy Sen/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Indian leaders love to talk up Mahatma Gandhi when they travel abroad. It plays well to the popular notion of India as a land of peace and love, and boosts its moral authority as a responsible democracy on the world stage. So, Gandhi and his ideas came up a lot as Prime Minister Narendra Modi stepped out of India recently for the first time in about one and a half years.

Meeting Modi at the White House on Sept. 24, President Joe Biden said Gandhis message of non-violence, respect, and tolerance matters today maybe more than it ever has. In his own speech to the United Nations, Modi rued that the world faces the threat of regressive thinking and extremism, and underlined his countrys democratic credentials. To reinforce his point, he even coined a new sobriquet for India: the mother of all democracies.

More from TIME

No one knows what that means, least of all one Indian mother still trying to make sense of the death of her 12-year-old boy. He was felled by a stray police bullet in the northeastern state of Assam at the same time as Modi was pontificating in America.

Read More: Indias Anti-Immigrant Crackdown Is Breaking Assam Families Apart

They killed my son, a dazed Hasina Bano kept repeating between sobs when journalists visited her at a remote village on the banks of the Brahmaputra river. The boy, Sheikh Farid, was hit when police opened fire at Bengali Muslim villagers protesting the forced eviction from their land that the government now wants to give to Assamese Hindus, whom it calls the indigenous community. Ironically, moments before Farid died, he had collected from the post office a national biometric identification card establishing his own indigeneity.

The death of a child in such a manner should be the stuff of national disgrace. But the same eviction drive resulted in even more horror when a neighbor of Farid charged at the police with a stick, in a blind rage after they dismantled his home along with those of 5,000 others. The heavily armed policemen, who far outnumbered Moinul Hoque and could have easily subdued him, instead shot him dead at point blank range.

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Villagers on Sept. 27 take shelter with their belongings after their house was demolished during an eviction drive, at Gorukhuti in the Darrang district of Assam, India Anuwar Ali Hazarika/Barcroft Media via Getty Images

It was all captured on a widely circulated video [Warning: Graphic and distressing scenes]. The images show police raining baton blows on him even as he collapsed, taking turns with Bijoy Baniya, a Hindu photographer accompanying the police team. As Hoques life ebbs away, Baniya fiendishly jumps and stomps on his motionless body in an act of performative depravity.

Baniya is merely the latest face of Indias state-driven Hindu radicalization. In a country where 84% of the population is Hindu, and just 14% Muslim, Modis Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has achieved the astonishing feat of creating a deep sense of Hindu victimhood, stoking the othering of Muslims via disinformation, hate speech, opening old religious wounds, manipulating a servile media, silencing progressive voices, and empowering Hindu supremacist vigilante groups. Hindu khatre mein hain (Hindus are in danger) is a right-wing refrain that resonates deeply today.

As a result, many Hindus have now been persuaded to believe that Indias biggest problem is its Muslims. Before Modi took over in 2014, most citizens thought their chief concerns were poverty, insufficient economic growth and corruption. He rode to power on the promise to fix all that. But as the economy has continued to worsen, and unemployment and poverty have risen under him, the BJP has increasingly fallen back on supremacist politics to deflect attention and evade responsibility. To keep winning elections, it needs to keep polarizing Hindu voters against Muslims, and spinning ever more outrageous campaigns to demonize Muslims.

Read More: How Long Will Biden Pretend That Modi Is a Democratic Ally?

Muslims apparently lust after Hindu women, procreating rapidly with the aim of overtaking the Hindu population and establishing an Islamic state, and necessitating new laws against love jihad. Similar regulations against religious conversions and the slaughter of cows, which are sacred to Hindus, have encouraged vigilantism. Muslim hawkers and workers have come under increasing attack from Hindu supremacist groups calling for a boycott of Muslim businesses.

Indian social media today is filled with videos of self-appointed protectors of Hinduism calling for the lynching of Muslimsan act so common that it hardly makes news anymore. High-profile Hindu supremacists are seldom booked for hate speech. Muslims routinely face random attacks for such crimes as transporting cattle or being in the company of Hindu women. Sometimes, the provocation is simply that somebody is visibly Muslim. As Modi himself has told election rallies, people creating violence can be identified by their clothes.

The persecution of Muslims in Assam is just the beginning



But Baniyas malevolence has a history longer than Indias descent into the abyss of hate. Assam, the setting for his ghoulish death dance on the body of a Muslim, is where this construct of the Muslim as the unwanted, dangerous outsider has been honed and mainstreamed. The fear of being overrun by outsiders has almost been genetically encoded there over centuries, dating back to the time the British started clearing the states lush forests for tea and other plantations. The clearances triggered the inward migration of Bengali peasants from densely populated adjoining regions in search of easily obtainable fertile lands.

Much to the discontent of the ethnic Assamese, the migrations have continued in recent decades as a result of the violent partition of the subcontinent, economic hardship, political instability and wars in what is now known as Bangladesh. Climate-related factors have also driven a steady exodus out of flood-prone, deltaic Bangladesh into Assam.

Read More: Facebooks Ties to Indias BJP Are Under Scrutiny Over Hate Speech

With the rise of Modi, historical Assamese resentment towards non-Assamese speakers has mixed with the politics of Hindu nationalism in a dangerous brew of xenophobia and patriotism. Stomping on a Muslim corpse now has a gloss of patriotic righteousness to it, which is why it is flaunted on camera. Bigotry is now a badge of honor. In his head, Baniya was protecting India and policemen are seen hugging him in the video after Hoques death. His behavior says much about the way Modi has weaponized history and valorized and incentivized hate.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a public rally for the West Bengal Assembly Election on April 12, 2021 in the North 24 Parganas district, India. Samir Jana/Hindustan Times via Getty Images

Assam is Modis grand laboratory, where he is putting Muslims to the litmus test of a citizen verification driveseparating the trueborn from the chaffbefore taking it national. The BJP says it simply wants India to be rid of Bangladeshi migrants, but it uses it as a code for Indian Muslims. Nearly two million people have been disenfranchised in the state, with no clarity as to what is to happen to them. The closest regional parallel to such large-scale, government-dictated statelessness in recent times was the 1982 mass disenfranchisement of the Rohingya in Myanmar, before the massacres and exodus years later.

And it is only the beginning. In neighboring Bihar, the government is asking people to report suspected illegal migrants and officials have been ordered to create awareness of the issue on an urgent basis. The states high court has demanded a detention center to house migrants, reminding the government that deportation of illegal migrants is of paramount importance and in the national interest. Bihars 17 million Muslims are on edge about their future. In next-door Bengal, which borders Bangladesh and is home to nearly 25 million Muslims, the BJP has been promising an Assam-like citizenship verification drive if it comes to power in the state.

Read More: Narendra Modi Looks the Other Way as New Delhi Burns

The chief minister of Indias biggest and most politically important state, Uttar Pradesh, recently blamed Muslims for cornering government-subsidized food. Uttar Pradesh, along with Assam, has introduced a two-child policy blaming Muslims for a supposedly runaway population growth that officials say accounts for the backwardness of these states. The claim is not rooted in reality. Fertility rates among Muslims have in fact been falling rapidly.

But reality is no longer important. It bends to the requirements of the ruling partys dehumanizing narrative against Muslims. As Jews in Nazi Germany were called rats and Tutsis in Rwanda in the 1990s were called cockroaches, so BJP members now refer to Indian Muslims as termites eating away at Indias resources, denying Hindus what is due to them in their own land.

Indian Muslims holding candles and posters as they participate in a protest against the mob lynching of Tabrez Ansari in the Jharkhand state, in Ahmedabad on June 27, 2019. SAM PANTHAKY/AFP via Getty Images

The destruction of Gandhis legacy



The foundations of the secular republic that Gandhi died defending are thus being hollowed out ever more frantically. While Modi pays ritualistic homage to Gandhi, BJP leaders openly glorify Gandhis killer, who was a Hindu fanatic. Modis ministers and legislators freely call on people to shoot traitors and start pogroms, and are promoted rather than penalized for their actions. Modi himself partly owes his fan following and ascent to his lack of remorse over the 2002 pogroms in Gujarat in 2002, when he was chief minister. Hundreds of Muslims were killed and thousands rendered homeless.

Noticeably, not only did the current chief minister of Assam not apologize for the police excesses, he in fact trivialized the deaths of Hoque and Farid, calling Hoques death just 30 seconds of a three minute video. He also carried on with the eviction drive and even proudly tweeted photos of the rubble of the four mosques destroyed in it.

While the Bidens of this world still talk about Gandhi, Indias role models have changed. So have the standards of acceptable discourse in public and social life. Genocide is now openly demanded at public rallies. The need for ethnic cleansing can pop up in casual conversations on politics among friends or family. Death threats are used like punctuation marks in debates on social media.

On Oct. 2, Gandhis birthday was celebrated with much fanfare as the International Day of Non-Violence. Two new books on his assassination in 1948 were launched. In Karnataka, meanwhile, a 25-year-old Muslim man was found beheaded for his affair with a Hindu girl, allegedly by a local Hindu vigilante group.

Gandhi continues to be killed in a million ways in todays India. Bijoy Baniya just added a flourish to it.
Correction: An earlier version of this column mischaracterized who ran in the 1968 California Democratic primary.

The recent recommendation by the two members of the California Parole Board to release Sirhan Sirhan, the Palestinian militant who in 1968 assassinated Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, incensed many Americans. As well it should.

However, Sirhans fate ultimately rests in the hands of Gov. Gavin Newsom. Having survived last months recall vote, Newsom should reward his supporters by doing the right thing: denying Sirhan his freedom.

Sirhans parole eligibility is the result of a statutory quirk of history. Back in the 1960s, few states, particularly those with the death penalty, had life without parole eligibility as a sentencing option. For capital crimes, it was either life (with the possibility of parole) or death.

Sirhan Sirhan reacts during a parole hearing in 2016 in San Diego.

Sirhan was indeed condemned to die. But when capital punishment was temporarily eliminated in the early 1970s, his sentence was changed and he automatically became parole eligible. Today, every state but one (Alaska) maintains life without parole as a sentencing option, regardless of whether the death penalty is on the books.

Every few years, Sirhan has been reviewed for parole release and denied. Most people expected that he would eventually perish in prison just like Charles Manson, another of the California cohort of condemned prisoners who automatically became parole eligible in the 1970s. In certain cases, parole eligibility should be nothing but an empty gesture.

Notwithstanding my position against Sirhans release, I am actually a strong proponent of the parole system. I believe in second chances as incentive for rehabilitation and lament the fact that the United States is far more punitive than other Western nations. We need not keep convicted felons behind bars after they are no longer a threat to society. Still, there remain a select few murderers whose crimes are so reprehensible or have such a detrimental impact on our society that life without parole should be the norm.

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One of the core principles of punishment  keeping society safe from dangerous individuals  does not justify the lengthy sentences that are routinely handed out in American courts. However, another key principle of punishment  expressing outrage and demanding justice for especially heinous crimes  clearly suggests keeping Sirhan locked up until he dies.

Much of the news reporting on this matter has centered on disagreements among members of the Kennedy clan about whether their relatives assassin should ever see the outside of the prison walls. However, unlike most murder cases that primarily affect those who lost a loved one, the impact and pain caused by Sirhans crime extended way beyond the Kennedy compound.

As a champion of liberal causes, Kennedy was revered by a diverse coalition of working-class white people, impoverished Black people and anti-war youth. Although a late entrant into the presidential race, Kennedys populist candidacy quickly gained momentum, capped by his surprising victory in the California primary.

When Sirhan Sirhan gunned down Bobby Kennedy half a century ago, reflects Larry Tye, a Kennedy biographer, it wasn't just a life that ended, but a romantic vision for America that made RFK a rare optimist in an era even more politically riven than ours today.

More than a million Americans of all ages, races and social strata lined the tracks from New York City to Washington, D.C., to view the funeral train carrying their fallen hero to his final resting place. They stood with signs of prayer in their hands and tears in their eyes, grieving for the man and for what could have been. Regardless of the electoral outcome, Kennedys untimely death robbed the nation of a charismatic agent of change.

The devastating effect that Kennedys assassination had on the nations spirit and psyche was partially because it followed the fatal shootings of President John F. Kennedy (which happened five years earlier) and Martin Luther King Jr. (that was just months before). However, as Thurston Clarke noted regarding the response to his book about RFKs inspiring presidential campaign, many felt the loss of Bobby Kennedy more keenly even than the loss of John F. Kennedy. ... They felt the country would have been even more different had Robert Kennedy been president than if John F. Kennedy had lived.

The legal technicality that enabled Sirhan to become parole eligible is easily overlooked by many Americans. They would only see the release of a convicted assassin as a sign of undo leniency in the criminal justice system and would bolster their demand for the death penalty as the only sure-fire way of preventing such a miscarriage of justice.

To avoid giving death penalty proponents a powerful argument for reversing the waning support for capital punishment in this country, Sirhan must not be paroled. He must not become the latest poster boy for retaining or even expanding the archaic penalty of death.

James Alan Fox is the Lipman Family Professor of Criminology, Law and Public Policy at Northeastern University and a member of the USA TODAY Board of Contributors. Follow him on Twitter: @jamesalanfox.

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: RFK murder devastated nation. Deny parole for Kennedy killer.
Michael Van Gerwen was knocked out of the World Grand Prix in the first round after losing in straight sets to fellow Dutchman Danny Noppert.

Van Gerwen, bidding to win the annual double-start tournament for a sixth time, lost both legs 3-2 in a heated encounter at the Morningside Arena in Leicester.

Three-time world champion Van Gerwen went agonisingly close to pulling off the first nine-darter to finish on a 170 in PDC history in the opening leg of the second set, but missed the bull.

  !  Danny Noppert has dumped five-time champion Michael van Gerwen out of the 2021 World Grand Prix after a straight sets success! Another huge name falls at the first hurdle!     Jose de Sousa v Glen Durrant pic.twitter.com/8WwN4TgnSB  PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) October 4, 2021

Noppert then produced a 103 checkout to take the second set to a decider and at 2-2 Van Gerwen was made to pay for missing too many trebles.

In his post-match interview on the PDCs official Twitter account, Noppert revealed there had been some angry exchanges between the pair during the match.

Im really happy with this win and my own performance, it was really good, Noppert said. But after the first set we had some troubles with each other.

Every time I was on a double, he was stamping on the floor and after the first set we met each other backstage and had words with each other.

 "After the first set, we had some trouble. We had words backstage"   @Dannynoppert admits there was heat with Michael van Gerwen tonight  but it didn't impact his game! 2-0 win, well done!#BoyleSportsWGP #Darts @OfficialPDC @BoyleSportsSK @ModusDarts180 pic.twitter.com/44uLhdjpiz  BoyleSports (@BoyleSports) October 4, 2021

It was my feeling about it, but Im happy with the win. I just kept going.

Story continues

Jonny Clayton celebrated his 47th birthday with an impressive 2-0 win against Callan Rydz, landing six doubles from 10 attempts and losing just one leg.

Premier League champion Clayton, the world number 14, averaged over 95 and landed a 170 checkout on his way to the last 16.

Clayton said in his post-match interview on the PDCs official Twitter account: I havent stopped shaking to be honest, but job done, I had a tough opponent.

  !  That was a magnificent performance from Jonny Clayton there who averages over 95 in a 2-0 win over Callan Rydz!     Vincent van der Voort v Gabriel Clemens pic.twitter.com/bnaTjXB4O2  PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) October 4, 2021

I had my Nandos, I love my Nandos, but nobody bought it for me on my birthday, I had to pay for it myself! I can relax though now for a day or two.

In a clash of former world champions, Rob Cross came out on top in a 2-0 victory against Peter Wright.

Cross rattled off three legs on the spin after losing the opener to win the first set.

Second seed and reigning World Matchplay champion Wright had his chances in the second set, but Cross proved too clinical.

  He's had chances in this but Peter Wright finds himself a leg away from exiting the World Grand Prix in the first round! pic.twitter.com/0ntDW5WAco  PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) October 4, 2021

Cross said on the PDCs Twitter account: I played well. I was better in the first set, second set a little bit sluggish and never got away.

In a tournament Ive probably struggled in, Ive got to be grateful. Peters a great player and been round many more years than me, but Ill take the win and move on.

Former World Grand Prix runner-up Gary Anderson fell at the first hurdle, losing 2-1 in a tense affair to Ian White.

White sealed victory with his ninth match dart in the deciding leg after Anderson had levelled it up at 2-2 with the help of two 180s.

Im happy to go through, but I dont think it was a classic, White said. The two of us are good friends. We go fishing together, so it was hard work.

Krzysztof Ratajski secured his first win at the World Grand Prix at the third attempt after coming from a set down to defeat world number 10 Nathan Aspinall 2-1.

Ratajski said: Im very happy. It was one of the hardest matches in my career. It was really hard for me and Im glad that I won.

Nathan Aspinall is a class player. Hes one of the best players in the Premier League, so Im happy.

  !  Krzysztof Ratajski finally gets a win at the World Grand Prix coming from a set down to defeat Nathan Aspinall 2-1! A superb tie that, just edged by 'The Polish Eagle'      Gary Anderson v Ian White pic.twitter.com/Df5opkjgrz  PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) October 4, 2021

Darius Labanauskas won through to the second round on his tournament debut, beating 2011 finalist Brendan Dolan 2-1, and Vincent Van Der Voort overcame German Gabriel Clemens 2-0.

In the evenings final match, Portugals Jose De Sousa raced to a 2-0 win against Glen Durrant, who struggled throughout and won only one leg.
Children and teens are making up a larger proportion of people who have recently contracted COVID-19 in Yakima County. School staff and health officials have also noticed an increase in the demand for testing for school-age kids.

During a Wednesday meeting of the Yakima County Health District, Chief Operating Officer Ryan Ibach said that in the previous two weeks, school-age children made up about a quarter of all COVID cases in the county. Thats up significantly from earlier in the pandemic, when children and teens generally made up around 13% to 17% of cases, he said in an interview.

Lower grades where no students are eligible for COVID vaccinations are being hit particularly hard. Grades kindergarten through five accounted for about 40% of cases in schools in the past two weeks. Cases used to be more randomly dispersed across the grades, Ibach said in the Sept. 29 meeting.

In the Yakima School District, the countys largest, elementary school students make up the majority of those in quarantine, according to its online data dashboard.

The delta variant is affecting a lot younger populations, or were seeing more of the younger populations hospitalized and getting COVID, Ibach said in an interview.

Record for hospitalizations

The county recently broke its record for the greatest number of people 19 years old or younger hospitalized, county Director of Disease Control Melissa Sixberry said in a recent health district meeting.

In September, 13 children and teenagers were hospitalized, surpassing the previous record of six in July 2020, according to health district data. In total, over 200 people were hospitalized due to COVID-19 in Yakima County in September.

Since the start of the 2021-22 school year, over 600 students and staff in districts across the county have tested positive for COVID-19, according to data from the Yakima County Health District. The vast majority of those cases involved people who were exposed to the virus outside of school. Seven classrooms have had to temporarily close this school year.

Amy Norton is director of health services for the Yakima School District and a member of its COVID response team. She said that this school year, case numbers and transmission rates are higher, partly due to the delta variant.

She also said it is taking longer to screen for symptoms and more people have to be notified in contact tracing efforts.

Its very, very labor- and manpower-intensive to deal with COVID right now, Norton said.

Ibach said the demand for testing of people under age 18 has increased since the start of the school year.

Parents looking to get their students tested for COVID have a number of options. The county operates free community testing sites at Yakima Valley College and Sunnyside Community Center. A full list of testing sites is available online.

Though tests are in high demand, Ibach said the county-run sites have not had trouble keeping COVID tests in stock.

Some school districts are offering onsite testing for people exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms.

Rapid tests

In the Yakima School District, rapid tests are available at the districts central office for students and staff, as well as their family members. Tests are offered five days a week in the afternoons. Appointments are available, but not required. Because they use rapid tests, results are available generally within 20 minutes, Norton said.

Were actually really proud of the system that we have in place right now, she said.

Norton has also noticed an increased demand for tests this school year.

The Yakima district recently expanded its onsite testing, Norton said. Once a week, contracted employees go to each district building to perform screening tests on students whose parents gave permission.

The district also has at-home tests

available for employees, she said.

Norton said the district partnered with BD Veritor for its testing and they have not experienced issues getting an adequate number of tests.

The Selah School District also offers onsite testing at its middle and high school, said Betty Lopez, the districts executive director of special education.

That tends to be where were seeing the need, she said.

Lopez said that the district recently secured a grant from the state Department of Health that will allow Selah to bring on additional health staff and expand its testing sites. Currently, the tests are being administered by health aides, who work under the districts nurses.

The Union Gap School District also offers onsite COVID testing for students, according to its website. East Valley School District will begin offering at-school testing for students and staff starting Monday, its website reports.

A plethora of guidelines

Schools have to follow updated guidelines this academic year when dealing with cases of COVID-19 among students and staff.

According to the K-12 requirements from the Washington State Department of Health, any students or staff who show symptoms of COVID-19 must immediately be isolated from others.

People who test positive for COVID-19 must quarantine for 10 days after they first began to show symptoms or, for asymptomatic cases, since taking the COVID test. In order to return to class after the quarantine, a persons symptoms must have improved and their fever must be gone. These rules apply to all students and staff, regardless of vaccination status.

Determining when to allow a person who was in close contact with a COVID-positive individual to return to school requires looking at a number of factors.

For schools this academic year, a close contact is defined as an adult who was within 6 feet of the COVID-positive person or a student who was within 3 feet for a total of 15 minutes or more, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Other factors such as whether masks were on and where the interaction took place are also considered.

In general, close contacts need to quarantine for at least 10 days after exposure.

In some cases, students who were close contacts can return to the classroom after seven days of quarantine if they do not show any symptoms and they receive a negative COVID test within 48 hours of returning.

The East Valley, Highland, Mabton, Selah, Toppenish and West Valley school districts allow for a truncated quarantine period, according to their websites and social media pages.

In the Yakima School District, close contacts must remain in quarantine for 10 days, YSD Health Director Norton said. The district also requires all close contacts to quarantine, regardless of vaccination status.

Were really trying to limit the transmission in our schools, so were holding firm to that 10-day quarantine for close contacts, Norton said.

The state DOH guidelines allow for people who are fully vaccinated or who recovered from COVID in the last three months to skip quarantine. But that decision is ultimately up to local health authorities.

To make things a bit easier, the state DOH has an online calculator to help determine the length of quarantine.

Ibach said that parents of school-age children can help by keeping them at home when they are sick, as well as continuing to follow other public health guidelines.
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VILLANOVA, Pa.Villanova University professor Raka Shome, PhD, professor and Harron Family Endowed Chair in the Department of Communication, has been selected as the recipient of the 2021 Distinguished Scholar Award from the National Communication Association (NCA). Given annually, the NCA Distinguished Scholar Award is the associations highest accolade. It honors a lifetime of scholarly achievement in the study of human communication. Recipients are selected by their peers to showcase the best of the communication discipline.

Shomes work focuses on postcolonial cultures, transnational feminism and media/communication cultures, with specific research interests in contemporary Hindu nationalism, Asian modernities and transnational media cultures. Her scholarship has offered critical and political perspectives with which to engage neocolonialism and racism in both the U.S. and abroad. She has modeled an innovative attention to reading coloniality not only for its oppressive capacity, but also the often-overlooked opportunities created by marginalized communities to claim space and voice.

Receiving this recognition from the National Communication Association means a lot to me, said Shome. My research that has consistently challenged western imperial and racial politics of knowledge production in the academy and the larger culture is now being honored by our discipline. With this award, I am humbled to join others who constitute this small group of Distinguished Scholars.

In 2021, Shome was elected as a fellow to the International Communication Association (ICA). Fellow status at Fellow status in the ICA is a recognition of distinguished scholarly contributions to the broad field of communication. Shome was the 2020 recipient of the Douglas W. Ehninger Distinguished Rhetorical Scholar Award from NCA, annually honoring scholars who have executed research programs in rhetorical theory, rhetorical criticism and/or public address studies. As one of the first decolonial scholars in the discipline, Shome has produced an important body of work that untangles colonial rhetorical and media practices.

Dr. Shome is a leading scholar in communication studies whose work has introduced and advanced postcolonial frames in the discipline, said Adele Lindenmeyr, PhD, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. We are delighted to see her work continue to be recognized, especially with such a significant accolade.

Prior to arriving at Villanova, Shome was a faculty member at the London School of Economics, the University of Washington, Arizona State University and served as Senior Fellow at National University Singapore. She was also an invited scholar at the Advanced Institute of Cultural Studies in Sweden. She received her doctorate from the University of Georgia.

Shome and other 2021 NCA award recipients will be honored during the NCA 107th Annual Convention on Saturday, November 20.

NCA is the largest communication association in the United States. NCA serves the scholars, teachers and practitioners who are our members by enabling and supporting their professional interests in research and teaching. For more information, visit natcom.org.

About Villanova University: Since 1842, Villanova Universitys Augustinian Catholic intellectual tradition has been the cornerstone of an academic community in which students learn to think critically, act compassionately and succeed while serving others. There are more than 10,000 undergraduate, graduate and law students in the University's six collegesthe College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Villanova School of Business, the College of Engineering, the M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing, the College of Professional Studies and the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. Ranked among the nations top universities, Villanova supports its students intellectual growth and prepares them to become ethical leaders who create positive change everywhere life takes them. For more, visit www.villanova.edu.
New Delhi: There have been multiple speculations after Ranbir Kapoor and Hrithik Roshan were reportedly spotted at the building that has Jackky Bhagnanis office on Saturday (October 2). However, it is now learnt that the two stars visited Namit Malhotras office - that is in the same building as Bhagnanis for a closed-door meeting around the epic, Ramayana with Namit, Madhu Mantena and director Nitesh Tiwari.

This was among their first joint meeting with Hrithik Roshan and Ranbir Kapoor, who play Raavan and Ram respectively. They discussed the massive vision of this project and even the tentative plans of taking it on floors sometime in the second half of next year, revealed a source to Pinkvilla. The team is yet to have an actress on board to play the role of Sita.

In an earlier interview to the web portal, producer Madhu Mantena had informed that an announcement about the cast of Ramayana will be done on the occasion of Diwali, however the source has now informed Pinkvilla that it might take some more time before the cast of the film is finalized.

Hrithik will be off to Abu Dhabi for the shoot of Vikram Vedha within a fortnight, whereas Ranbir too will gear up to complete director Luv Ranjans next, followed by the final 10-day shoot of Brahmastra. Before they get going with other projects, the creative team wanted to meet to discuss some basic stuff around Ramayana, added the news report.

If things are finalized, this will be the first time that actors Hrithik Roshan and Ranbir Kapoor would collaborate on a project.
New Delhi: The Delhi Police issued a traffic advisory on Monday due to the ongoing protest over the Lakhimpur Kheri incident. In the advisory, the Delhi Police have closed the National Highways 24 and 9.

The police requested commuters coming from Sarai Kale Khan to take Vikas Marg route to reach Ghaziabad and for Noida, divert their vehicle to Delhi Noida Direct highway.

An FIR has been registered against Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra's son and several other persons in connection with the Lakhimpur violence that left eight persons dead.

Two FIRs have been registered but details of the sections under which the cases have been registered were not immediately known.

Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Awanish Kumar Awasthi, said that "FIR has been lodged against several persons including Minister of State for Home, Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra". He said a copy of FIR was not available yet, details of the sections on which it was registered were not known.

ADG, Law and Order, Prashant Kumar, who is camping in Lakhimpur told PTI, "I am on the spot. Two FIRs from both sides have been registered in the matter. Detailed information is not available yet as the internet is not working here." "We will let the media know about it soon," he said.

Eight people were killed on Sunday as violence erupted during a farmers' protest, claiming the lives of both farmers and BJP workers ahead of a visit to Lakhimpur by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

Four of the dead were people in the cars, apparently a part of a convoy of BJP workers who had come to welcome the UP minister. They were allegedly thrashed to death.The four others were farmers, officials said.

Farmer leaders had claimed that the minister's son Ashish Mishra was in one of the cars which they alleged knocked down some protesters who were opposing the deputy CM's visit.

However, Ajay Mishra said he and his son were not present at the spot as alleged by some farmer leaders and he has photo and video evidence to prove it.

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New Delhi: In a bid to improve healthcare accessibility, the central government on Monday (October 4) launched i-Drone, a drone-based vaccine delivery model for Northeast states developed by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

i-Drone, which stands for ICMRs Drone Response and Outreach in North East, aims to facilitate vaccine delivery to tough and hard-to-reach terrains of India.

Launching the initiative, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said, India is home to geographical diversities and drones can be used to deliver essentials to the last mile. We can use drones in delivering important life-saving medicines, collecting blood samples. This technology can also be used in critical situations. This technology may prove a game changer in addressing the challenges in health care delivery, particularly health supplies in difficult areas.

Our immunisation program for COVID-19 has already exceeded all expectations. I strongly believe that this initiative will further help us achieve the highest possible immunisation coverage for COVID-19. Incorporating such drone technologies into the national programs would help deliver other vaccines and medical supplies as quickly as possible, he added.

The i-Drone has been designed to overcome these challenges by deploying Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAV) or drones to remote areas and hard-to-reach terrains. Currently, the drone-based delivery project has been granted permission for implementation in Manipur and Nagaland, as well as union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Island.

ICMR conducted an initial study in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur to test the capacity of drones to carry and transfer vaccines safely. The study was conducted in Manipur, Nagaland and Andaman and Nicobar. These studies provided promising results on the basis of which the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and other regulatory authorities granted permission to fly drones beyond the Visual Line Of Sight.

Mandaviya expressed confidence in the initiative and noted that this initiative can be helpful in delivering not only the vaccines but also other medical supplies.

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New Delhi: Around 35 Congress MLAs of Chhattisgarh returned from Delhi on Monday (October 4) with the assurance that Rahul Gandhi will meet them later when he visits the state.

MLA Brihaspat Singh said that around 10 to 12 legislators are still in the national capital and that Congress state in-charge PL Punia will hold talks with them.

Today, around 35 MLAs have returned. Our 10-12 MLAs are still in Delhi for their work. All 70 MLAs are united. PL Punia will come to Chhattisgarh and talk to us and we'll make a new strategy for state, said Brihaspat Singh.

Party has said that a meeting will be arranged with Rahul Gandhi ji when he visits the state, he added.

Earlier, Singh leveled serious allegations on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) saying that organisation was trying to destabilise the state government.

He said that the RSS workers were trying to mislead Congress MLAs, adding that they had earlier targeted the Madhya Pradesh and Punjab governments.

He also said that the RSS workers are provoking senior Congress leader and minister TS Singh Deo.

Earlier, RSS workers tried to destabilise the Chhattisgarh government. Now they are provoking TS Singh Deo. But he is an intelligent and sensible leader, he will not fall for BJP's conspiracy, said Singh.

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New Delhi: Senior Aam Aadmi Party leader and MCD in-charge Durgesh Pathak issued a statement on Sunday. In the statement, he accused the BJP of Delhi of making Delhi filthy, in stark contrast to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat Campaign 2.0.

He said that the Prime Minister has given call after call to clean cities, which is a very good idea. But the Delhi unit of his own party, the BJP is completely failing in the field of cleanliness. Their main job is to keep the country's capital clean but they have only and only done corruption in Delhi. The garbage has not been cleaned but now the properties of Delhiites are being wept away. The Aam Aadmi Party assures the public that when the Aam Aadmi Party government is formed in MCD in the next elections, it will make Delhi garbage free.

Durgesh Pathak, MCD in-charge of Aam Aadmi Party said, "I was listening to the Prime Minister. He has given a message that cleanliness should be promoted in this country. In the same episode, he launched a campaign. He said that there is a lot of filth in the cities, there are mountains of garbage in cities, which need to be cleaned. He held a meeting with all the state officials and said that now the cities have to be cleaned. This is a great idea and it should be so but Prime Minister, I want to bring some things to your attention. Prime Minister, the city where you live, the capital of India, the MCD of that Delhi is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party since the last 15 years. Their main job is to keep the country's capital clean. There should be no water logging anywhere in the capital, whatever waste is there in the capital, that waste should be processed properly. This is their main job."

He said, "Mister Prime Minister, whenever you come back from abroad, you will see that there are three huge mountains of garbage standing in Delhi. You will see that a garbage mountain is located in Ghazipur, one is located in Bhalswa and one is located in Okhla. Prime Minister, the BJP sitting in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi for the last 15 years is pretending to clean the mountains of these garbage. It is very unfortunate that the leaders of your party have completely failed in the work they are responsible for. The biggest reason for failure is corruption. In 2019, about 280 lakh metric tonnes of garbage was lying on these three mountains. The report of 2020 says that the MCD is not able to process as much garbage as it has coming in. So clearing the old garbage is a long stretch off, MCD is not able to clean even the garbage that is coming everyday."

Durgesh Pathak said, "Prime Minister, the biggest thing that we have tried to put before you many times is that the mayor, councilors and leaders of your party are carrying out huge corruption in this process. We had told earlier and today again on the basis of all the documents, we are telling that the total cost of the machine which is used to process the waste is Rs 17.5 lakhs. At the cost of 17.5 lakhs, that machine will be yours. But the Delhi unit of Bharatiya Janata Party pays 6 lakhs per month for the same machine of 17 lakhs. Which turns out to be a scam of around 300 crores. They have hired these machines for 2 to 3 years."

The MCD in-charge said, "Prime Minister, the city you live in, Delhi is the capital of the country. It is the heart of the country. How would you feel when so many big people come to meet you and they have to see these mountains of garbage on the way. These mountains are visible all over Delhi. Today there is not a single street in Delhi which is clean. There is garbage on every street. In 15 years, the Bharatiya Janata Party has ruined the whole of Delhi. Today their councilors have only one and only one job left. That is corruption."

He said, "now only 5-6 months are left. So no Delhiite thinks that now you guys will be able to do anything. For 15 years, they only spent time eating money. And now that few months are left, these people are engaged in selling the properties of Municipal Corporation and eating money. Aam Aadmi Party makes a stern promise and gives assurance to the people of Delhi, - Arvind Kejriwal does what he says and his party will make Delhi garbage free next year when the Aam Aadmi Party government is formed in MCD. We will clear the mountains of garbage and clean the streets of Delhi."

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New Delhi: Guest teachers teaching in Delhi Municipal Corporation schools have expressed their heartfelt gratitude to the Delhi government for renewing their contracts and releasing their salaries. Everyone became emotional remembering the awful behavior of the BJP ruled MCD towards themselves. They said that the BJP-ruled MCD has not paid them salary for one and a half-two years and has now refused renewal of contracts as well.

Meanwhile, they met Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, after which the Delhi government released the salary of all guest teachers from their own funds.

Senior Aam Aadmi Party leader and MCD in-charge Durgesh Pathak issued a statement on Sunday. He said, "we had told you how the BJP sitting in the MCD refused to renew the contract of about 700 guest teachers. All the guest teachers were working without salary for about one and a half years. At first the BJP did not pay them salary and when it came to renewal, it said that we do not need you now. Think what will happen to their families if they have not gotten salaries for so long and suddenly are unemployed. How will their families survive? What will they feed their family, their wife and children? But the brutal BJP will not understand this."



He said, "they reached out to the mayor and leaders of BJP with their problems, but even there they were disappointed. These people got upset and met Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy CM Manish Sisodia. And now they are all very happy as Aam Aadmi Party not only renewed their contract but also released everyone's salary from its fund. The guest teachers, happy with the support of the Delhi government, told us how the BJP's MCD harassed them time and again. I would like those people to keep their point in front of the public."



Manoj Vats, president of All Delhi Contract Teachers Association, said, "We were constantly pushing for renewal of our contract for almost two years. Due to non-payment of salary, it became difficult to run the family. We met Mayor of BJP and leaders in Municipal Corporation. No one understood our pain. He said that the Aam Aadmi Party understood our problem. Keeping in view the problem of Delhi's education system and the state of contract teachers, they renewed our contract and released the fund for our salary. That's why I and my team express my gratitude to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, MCD in-charge Durgesh Pathak ji, Chief Spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj ji and Leader of Opposition Vikas Goyal ji."



Teachers from All Delhi Contractual Teachers Association Pradeep Rathi, Mamta Tokas, Geeta Shokeen, Parul Yadav, Neeru Pal and Saba Khan said, "during Corona, we were not getting salary for the last one and a half years. We requested the BJP leaders sitting in MCD many times for salary, then every time their only answer was that we do not have money to give you. We kept requesting again and again. And finally now they have sent us a written notice that they no longer need us. Our families have suffered a lot during all this. There were even problems in getting ration in the house but our problems were not visible to the people of BJP. We are thankful to the Delhi government that they have released the fund for the salary as soon as we went to them. Chief Minister's team assured us that he will keep standing with us in our difficult times. We all heartily thank Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal ji and his team."

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New Delhi: Nine people including four farmers, three BJP workers and a local journalist were killed in violence that erupted in Uttar Pradeshs Lakhimpur Kheri district after a vehicle reportedly trampled protesting farmers on Sunday. Following the incident, the area has become a hotspot for leaders of several opposition parties who are trying to enter the area to target the government.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Monday (October 4) discussed the truth behind the Lakhimpur Kheri violence and questioned the intent of opposition leaders who are trying to corner the government on the issue.

At the root of this violence is an incident that happened on September 25. On that day, Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni had come to attend a programme in his parliamentary constituency Lakhimpur Kheri. During this, some workers of the Kisan Union here showed him black flags, due to which he got angry and told from the stage that he knows all these people who are protesting and can discipline them in two minutes.

In protest against this statement, the farmers union and some political leaders of the area announced that they would protest against the arrival of Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3.

Yesterday, the protesters crowded at the helipad where the Deputy Chief Minister's helicopter was to land. Due to the protest, Keshav Prasad Maurya reached Lakhimpur Kheri by road instead of helicopter and participated in the programme. Ajay Mishra Teni was also with him. But soon after, reports of violence started coming in.

There are three versions of the sequence of events:

According to one version, Ashish Mishra alias Monu Mishra, son of Ajay Mishra Teni, had come with three vehicles to receive Keshav Prasad Maurya and during this, his car crushed the protesting farmers. It was alleged that his car was traveling at a speed of 100 kmph due to which two vehicles overturned.

The second version is that the vehicles by which the farmers were crushed were not driven by Ashish Mishra but his driver Hariom Mishra, who was beaten to death by the farmers.

As per the third version, when the BJP convoy was going to receive Keshav Prasad Maurya, some farmers pelted stones at them, following which the vehicles lost balance and crushed protesters.

When our team examined the video footage, it was found that the vehicles did not overturn due to high speed, as is being claimed. Rather, some farmers overturned these vehicles and set them on fire. Apart from this, some people were also seen attacking the BJP workers.

A day after the incident, political leaders from opposition parties began flocking the area. Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati, Priyanka Gandhi, Jayant Choudhary and five leaders of Mamata Banerjee's party tried to visit Lakhimpur Kheri today. However, they were stopped due to the imposition of Section 144.

Priyanka Gandhi was detained by the UP police, dramatic videos of which have surfaced.

This was quite similar to what happened last year when a Dalit girl was raped in Hathras. Even then the opposition leaders were racing to reach the area to take political advantage of the situation.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has assured strict action against the culprits. The government has also announced an ex-gratia of Rs 45 lakh each to the families of those killed in the violence.

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Chennai: Chennai Air Customs officials seized 7990 Tradamol tablets (that contain a psychotropic substance) that was bound for the US from the city. The four registered parcels were booked from Chennai to the US, by a Delhi-based person and were found to contain the tablets, when examined based on suspicion. The packets contained 4790 Tramadol Hydrochloride Tablets (100mg) and 3200 Tramadol (100 mg) tablets.

Tradamol is a category of pain-killer drug that is classified as a synthetic opioid. It acts upon the Central Nervous system to relieve pain. It is mainly used to relieve pain in adults and is not recommended for those below the age of 18.

This drug can cause addiction and overdose can even lead to death. Tramadol Hydrochloride Tablets fall under the category of Psychotropic Substances as mentioned in the schedule to NDPS Act, 1985, export of which are prohibited without any export authorization issued by competent authority under rule 53 of NDPS Act, 1985.

In another case, 1.225 kg of Marijuana (Ganja) was seized from two parcels that arrived at the Foreign Post Office in the city, from the US and Canada. The substance was concealed inside yoga massage balls and vegetable salad mixer. The contraband was seized under Customs Act, 1962.

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New Delhi: Delhi University is all set to begin its admission process 2021 against the first cutoff list on Monday (October 4, 2021). DU released its first cutoff list for admission 2021 on Friday (October 1, 2021). The students need to note that the admission process on the basis of first cutoff list will end on Wednesday (October 6, 2021).

DU has released the first cutoff list for all the stream and students can check the list on the official website of Delhi University on du.ac.in. As per previous trends firstly the colleges release the cut off list followed by the varsity.

DU UG Admissions 2021: List of documents required

Class 12 or qualifying exam marksheet and passing certificate

Class 10 marksheet and passing certificate

Caste certificate/EWS Certificate (if applicable)

Transfer Certificate from school

Migration Certificate from Board

Character Certificate

OMR form of University Registration

ALSO READ | Delhi University admission 2021: Here's complete schedule of second and third cutoff lists

DU UG Admissions 2021: Admission procedure

1. The students will have to choose a college of their choice and respective course on the admissions portal dashboard after checking the first cutoff list issued by the university.

2. The students must check the cut-off carefully and see if they are eligible for the choice they are filling.

3. Once this is done, students need to complete the DU UG Admission form in all respects.

4. The forms will then be transferred to the Convenor of admissions who will then keep a check on the recommended cases for admissions, following which the forms will be sent to the principals of respective colleges for approval.

5. The students must note that the colleges can reject an application, but will have to give a reason or remark why they did so.

6. If the application is accepted, the next step for the students is to upload the necessary documents on the portal for verification.

7. The students need to be careful while uploading the documents as in case any of these documents are missing or have problems, their admissions might get forfeited by the respective college.

8. After the documents are uploaded, the students will have to pay the admission fee and save the receipt for future reference.

9. Once they have made the payment, the students will receive a confirmation from the respective college stating the status of their admission with them.

Meanwhile, roughly 3 lakh students have registered for the admissions this year in Delhi University for the nearly 70,000 seats in 63 colleges this year.

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New Delhi: Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday (October 4, 2021) hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government over the Lakhimpur Kheri incident. While en route to Lakhimpur Kheri to meet the kin of the victims, Priyanka said that the incident shows that the BJP government is using politics to mow down farmers.

"Today's incident shows that this government is using politics to mow down farmers. This country is a country of farmers, not a fiefdom of BJP ideology," she told ANI.

As per the latest reports, Priyanka has also been arrested from Hargaon. Party's youth wing national president Srinivas BV said, "Finally that happened, what was expected from BJP. In the democratic country of 'Mahatma Gandhi', the worshipers of 'Godse' have arrested our leader Priyanka Gandhi Ji who fought with heavy rains and police force to meet the 'Annadata', from Hargaon."

He added, "This is just the beginning of the fight!! Kisan Ekta Zindabad."

Srinivas BV also shared a couple of videos of Priyanka talking to the police.

     ,

    ..     ,

 - , -  ,

   -     ,

,  !   pic.twitter.com/Fzp2LkOmkx  Srinivas BV (@srinivasiyc) October 4, 2021

     ,

 ''      Proud of my leader @priyankagandhi pic.twitter.com/MFoaSC0jEB  Srinivas BV (@srinivasiyc) October 4, 2021

Earlier, Priyanka had alleged that she was being stopped on her way to Lakhimpur and had said, "I'm not committing any crime by deciding to meet victim`s kin...Why are you stopping us? You should have a warrant...?"

8 dead in Lakhimpur Kheri violence

As many as eight people have died including four farmers and four occupants of the vehicle(s) that allegedly ran over the farmers. "In the unfortunate incident of Lakhimpur, 8 casualties have been reported till now as per the district administration. ADG LO, ACS Agriculture, IG Range and Commissioner are on the spot and the situation is under control. Adequate deployment has been done to prevent any untoward incidents," the Uttar Pradesh police said.

In the unfortunate incident of Lakhimpur, 8 casualties have been reported till now as per the district administration. ADG LO, ACS Agriculture,IG Range & Commissioner are on the spot & situation is under control.Adequate deployment has been done to prevent any untoward incident.  UP POLICE (@Uppolice) October 3, 2021

Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), a coalition of over forty farmers' unions, claimed that one of the four farmers was shot dead by Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni's son, while others were run over by the vehicles of his convoy.

Ajay Mishra Teni refutes allegations

MoS Ajay Mishra Teni has refuted SKM's allegations and said that his son was not present at the spot. He added that some miscreants merged with protesting farmers and pelted stones on the car which led to the 'unfortunate incident'.

"My son wasn't present at the spot. There were miscreants who attacked workers with sticks and swords. If my son would've been there, he wouldn't have come out alive. During the Lakhimpur Kheri visit, our workers came to receive us amid farmers' protest. Some miscreants from agitating farmers started stone pelting the car and injured our driver. Due to this, our car got imbalanced and 2 people died coming under it. After this, our 3 workers were killed and cars were set on fire," Teni said.

"They've killed people and damaged and torched cars. We have video evidence," he said and added that four of his workers were killed and asserted that cases under section 302 will be lodged against the culprits.

Rakesh Tikait reaches Lakhimpur Kheri

Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait along with several supporters has reached Lakhimpur Kheri early Monday. The farmer leader said that he will first meet the farmers and villagers and discuss the situation with them.

"The future course of action will be done on the basis of the discussion with the villagers and farmers. Their decision will prevail," Tikait told reporters at Banbirpur village.

He said that he would speak about it in detail after meeting the villagers.

Samajwadi Party's National President and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary, Bhim Army supremo Chandrashekhar, among several other leaders will also visit the violence-hit district.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Monday wrote a letter to President Ram Nath Kovind demanding the dismissal of Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni from the Union Council of Ministers and constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the supervision of the Supreme Court in the brutal killing of farmers in Uttar Pradesh`s Lakhimpur Kheri.

"Union Home Minister Ajay Mishra Teni should be immediately dismissed from his post and a case should be filed against him for inciting violence and spreading communal hatred and the Union Minister`s son Ashish Mishra "Monu" and his fellow goons should be immediately booked for 302 (murder) and arrested immediately," the letter read.

The farmers union further said that the whole country is outraged by the incident of the alleged brutal killing of farmers in broad daylight by mowing them down with vehicles in Lakhimpur Kheri yesterday.

"Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Kumar Mishra Teni`s son and his goon accomplices carried out this murderous attack in a brazen manner which shows a deep conspiracy of Uttar Pradesh and Central Governments," it said.

It further said that Ajay Mishra had already built a context to this attack by giving inflammatory and derogatory speeches against the farmers.

The SKM alleged, "It is no coincidence that on the same day, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is publicly inciting his party workers to take up lathis and indulge in violence against farmers."

"It is clear from these incidents that these persons sitting on constitutional posts are using their positions for planned violence against "Annadatas" doing peaceful agitation. This is a crime as per the laws of the country, against the Constitution and the country," it said.

As many as eight people died in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident on Sunday, said Uttar Pradesh police.

MoS Teni also said that his son was not present at the spot, adding that some miscreants mingled with protesting farmers and pelted the stones at the car which lead to the `unfortunate incident`.

In the letter, SKM also said that the Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who is "inciting violence while holding a constitutional post, should be sacked from his post".

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Reiterating that his son was not present at the spot when the Lakhimpur Kheri incident took place, Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni on Monday demanded a fair inquiry and said he is ready to depose before any inquiry panel.

Addressing the reporters in Lakhimpur Kheri, Teni said, "Neither I nor my son was present at the spot when the violence broke out. Our car was diverted to a different route. I urge Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to conduct a fair probe by CBI, SIT or retired or sitting judge. I am ready to depose before any inquiry panel."

He also demanded compensation of Rs 50 lakh to BJP workers who died during the incident. Teni said, "I don`t want to make any baseless comments. An FIR should be registered and a fair probe conducted. When the BJP workers were on their way to receive UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, some anti-social elements pelted stones at our workers. And they have forcefully removed our workers from the car and beaten them to death using lathis and swords. Our cars were set on fire by the protestors. This is the information I have gathered from the video that I have received."

"Videos show some attackers asked our workers to say that I had asked them to mow down farmers. Allegations against my son are totally baseless. Had he been there, he would have been killed," said MoS Teni.

Attacking Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait, he said that Tikait is trying to create instability in the country and an FIR should be filed against him.

As many as eight people died in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident on Sunday.

Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of several farmer unions, alleged that Ashish Mishra Teni, son of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni arrived with three vehicles around the time that farmers were dispersing from their protest at the helipad and mowed down farmers and towards the end also attacked SKM leader Tajinder Singh Virk directly, by trying to run a vehicle over him. However, Ashish Mishra refuted SKM`s allegations and said he was not present at the spot where the incident took place.

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New Delhi: Congress leader Sachin Pilot on Monday (October 4) hit out at the Centre and Uttar Pradesh government for manhandling Priyanka Gandhi who was on her way to meet families of victims who were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri violence.

He said that the way she was misbehaved with showed that the Centre and state government are scared.

You saw how they behaved with Priyanka Gandhi. I feel that the manhandling with any one leader shows that the BJP governments in the state and Centre are scared, Pilot said.

When our party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi wanted to meet the family of the deceased farmers, the Uttar Pradesh administration and the police misbehaved with her, a woman leader. This reflects its mindset. We condemn this incident, he added.

Priyanka Gandhi, MP Deepender Hooda and other Congress leaders who reached the Lakhimpur Kheri border were not allowed to meet the families of the farmers who died in the violence.

He further alleged that the Yogi Adityanath-led government has the habit of operating beyond the law of the land.

He demanded a judicial probe into the killing of eight people, including four farmers.

He said those guilty should be given the harshest punishment and the families of the farmers who died should be adequately compensated.

Pilot recalled that Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi were stopped last year too when they were on their way to meet the family of the Hathras rape victim.

Even this time, Priyanka Gandhi was illegally stopped, without any order, and later detained, he said.

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New Delhi: The Yogi Adityanath government on Monday (October 4, 2021) announced to provide Rs 45 lakhs and a government job to four farmers who were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday. Uttar Pradesh ADG (Law & Order) Prashant Kumar also informed that the state government will give Rs 10 lakh to those injured in the violence and that a retired High Court judge will probe the incident.

Kumar who visited Lakhimpur Kheri said that leaders of political parties have not been allowed to visit the district because Section 144 of CrPC is in place.

"However, members of farmer unions are allowed to come here," he added.

As per the latest updates, so far nine people have died in the violence that erupted during a farmers' protest in Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday. Farmers and BJP workers are reportedly among those killed.

Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of several farmer unions, alleged that Ashish Mishra Teni, son of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni arrived with three vehicles around the time that farmers were dispersing from their protest at the helipad and mowed down farmers and towards the end also attacked SKM leader Tajinder Singh Virk directly, by trying to run a vehicle over him.

However, Ajay Mishra Teni and his son have refuted SKM's allegations.

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New Delhi: Amid huge Opposition uproar over the death of four farmers in the state, the Uttar Pradesh government on Monday (October 4) denied entry to Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channis helicopter in Lakhimpur Kheri.

The UP Home Department in its response to the Punjab governments Civil Aviation Department on Channi government seeking permission to land the CMs chopper in Lakhimpur Kheri, said, Due to imposition of Sec 144 in Lakhimpur Kheri, it's not possible to grant permission for the visit of Punjab CM and Deputy CM."

UP Home Department writes to Punjab Govt's Civil Aviation Dept on Punjab Govt seeking permission to land its CM's chopper in Lakhimpur Kheri, states, 'Due to imposition of Sec 144 in Lakhimpur Kheri, it's not possible to grant permission for the visit of Punjab CM & Deputy CM.' pic.twitter.com/IdrpWOUUHq  ANI (@ANI) October 4, 2021

Earlier today, Punjab CM Channi said, Expressing solidarity with bereaved families of farmers, I'm leaving for Lakhimpur Kheri to be with my brothers & sisters in this hour of grief. I've also sought permission from UP Govt to allow landing/taking off of chopper at the site.

Besides Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal, also said they would be sending delegations to Uttar Pradesh.

In the violence that erupted during a farmers protest in the state, eight people lost their lives on Sunday, including four farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri. The rest four who died were present in the cars, apparently a part of a convoy of BJP workers who had come to welcome Uttar Pradesh Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya.

Moreover, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel was also not allowed to visit Uttar Pradesh. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has been detained by Uttar Pradesh Police in the Hargaon area on her way to Lakhimpur Kheri.

Meanwhile, the UP government has announced a judicial inquiry in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence stating that an FIR has been registered based on farmers` complaints. Addressing a press conference, Additional Director General (Law and Order) of Uttar Pradesh police Prashant Kumar further said that farmers have allowed the police to take the victims` bodies for postmortem after being assured of arrests soon. "An FIR has been registered based on farmers` complaints under the relevant sections. A judicial inquiry will take place to probe the matter under a retired high court judge," the ADG was quoted as saying by ANI.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: Stressing on responsible travel, researchers have warned that a rise in population density driven by tourist arrivals or mass congregations due to social, religious or political events can lead to a surge in Covid infections worsening an anticipated third wave scenario in selected states.

Illustrating a scenario where population density in India has a stronger effect on transmission than in the USA, researchers said a holiday period can amplify a possible third wave peak by up to 103 per cent and cumulative incidence in that wave by 43 per cent.

It can also hasten the timing of the epidemic peak by four weeks, compared to a scenario of easing restrictions in the absence of holiday travel, they said.

The opinion piece, based on mathematical models 'Responsible travel to and within India during the COVID-19 pandemic', by Balram Bhargava, Samiran Panda and Sandip Mandal from ICMR and Nimalan Arinaminpathy from Imperial College London, has been published in the Journal of Travel Medicine.

In their study, the researchers illustrated some possible scenarios in a hypothetical state in India constructed to resemble Himachal Pradesh in the dynamics of its first and second waves, including the much lower seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 compared to the rest of the country.

"A sudden increase in population density due to incoming tourists or mass congregations due to social, political or religious reasons can worsen the third wave scenario," the researchers said in the opinion piece.

Data from Himachal Pradesh suggests that in a typical holiday season, tourism can increase the population by 40 per cent.

A recent study in the USA suggests that an increase in one unit of log population density increased R0 (the basic reproduction number/rate) by 0.16.

"Taking this into consideration, the third-wave peak can increase by up to 47 per cent during the holiday season and can occur two weeks earlier compared to a scenario of easing restrictions in the absence of holiday travel," researchers said.

India's second wave of COVID-19 was severe but showed varying impacts in different states. Smaller states with rarefied populations witnessed not only less intense spread than was apparent at the national level but also delayed attainment of the second peak, they observed.

Giving examples of popular tourist destinations such as Manali and Darjeeling, the researchers said that observations indicate increasing opportunities for transmission in areas where population-level immunity has not yet accumulated to the same levels as elsewhere in the country.

"Against a backdrop of increasing anticipation of a third wave of COVID-19 in India, it is important to recognize the potential risks associated with such an escalation in travel," they said.

Proposing 'responsible travel', researchers said mask use and observing social distancing norms by tourists can have important effects in mitigating the risk of disease transmission.

Beyond their protective effect, mandating these precautions will also serve as an important and continuing reminder of the risk of COVID-19, they said, adding conditions on travel like allowing tourists only with recent Covid-negative test report can also play a key role.

Vaccine status can also play an important role in eligibility to travel, with some caveats, researchers said.

"Vaccine passports have limitations, arising from uncertainties about how the nature and strength of vaccine-induced immunity would change over time. Also, despite being the world's largest producer of COVID-19 vaccines, India faces the challenge of having the world's second-largest population to vaccinate.

"Nonetheless, as vaccination coverage scales, vaccine status can play an increasingly important role in eligibility to travel," they said.

Immunization planning may also benefit from prioritizing the local population in holiday destinations. Maintaining surveillance in at-risk settings, ensuring that virological testing is maintained even during apparent low infection activity will be important, the opinion piece stated.

Information on genomic surveillance in other nations and vigil at international airports will be valuable for early identification of unrecognized variants, it said.

Observing that no national guideline exists on restrictions about domestic travel, the researchers said it may be helpful for holiday-destination states to get guidance on how they can best mitigate travel-related risks.

"With the possibility of a severe third wave in India still looming, it remains critical to recognize and mitigate the risks involved.

"A shared sense of responsibility, amongst visitors, residents and local authorities, will go a long way towards protecting the welfare of the country as a whole," the researchers added.

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday refused to entertain a plea seeking cancellation of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, undergraduate, (NEET UG) held on September 12, 2021 on the ground that the examination was not conducted in a fair and transparent manner.

The apex court dismissed the plea saying that cancellation of the exam cannot be at the cost of lakhs of students.

A bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao, which stopped short of imposing Rs 5 lakh cost, noted that the petitioner seeks setting aside the NEET-UG Exam and directing the National Testing Agency to conduct the exam afresh.

The basis is that CBI has registered 3 FIR's wherein it has stated that there has been impersonation of the candidates, the apex court noted.

"What kind of writs are filed under Article 32? Lakhs of people have taken these exams? When people come to you (advocate), don't you say that these will be dismissed with cost? You now want to cancel the entire exam? You argue, we'll deal with this at length and we'll deal with you specially," the bench also comprising Justice B R Gavai said.

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Advocate Ninad Dogra, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that CBI has registered three FIRs and examination papers were leaked on WhatsApp.

The top court was hearing a plea filed by 20-year-old petitioner Saloni seeking cancellation of the NEET-UG exam held on September 12, 2021, citing alleged malpractices and conducting the exam afresh.

ALSO READ | NEET 2021: Girl finds wrong photo on admit card a day before exam, late night court hearing saves the day
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate Azadi@75  New Urban India: Transforming Urban Landscape conference-cum-expo on Tuesday (October 5) at 10:30 am in Uttar Pradeshs Lucknow.

PM will digitally hand over keys of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Urban (PMAY-U) houses to 75,000 beneficiaries in 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh and will also interact virtually with beneficiaries of the scheme, the PMO said in a statement on Monday.

He will inaugurate 75 Urban Development Projects of Uttar Pradesh under Smart Cities Mission and AMRUT, flag off 75 buses under FAME-II for seven cities including Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, Jhansi and Ghaziabad, and release a Coffee Table Book encompassing 75 projects implemented under various Flagship Missions of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, said the PMO.

PM Modi will also announce the setting up of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Chair in Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU), Lucknow.

Union Defence Minister, Union Housing & Urban Affairs Minister, along with Governor and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh will be present on the occasion, said the PMO.

The Conference-cum-Expo is being organised by the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) from October 5 to 7 as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.

All States/UTs are expected to participate in the Conference-cum-Expo. The Conference-cum-Expo will be open for public for two days  from October 6 to 7.

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New Delhi: Russia's Rosoboronexport, the state agency for export and import of defense equipment is ready to train Indian specialists for the AK-203 Kalashnikov project in Uttar Pradeshs Amethi.

India and Russia in 2019 signed an intergovernmental agreement for setting up Indo-Russian Rifles Private Limited, a joint venture to manufacture the AK-203 assault rifles. The project will see the production of Russia's iconic assault rifles being produced in India with 100% localisation.

A contract has been agreed on the India-Russia joint venture and is currently awaiting signature from the Indian defence ministry. Rosoboronexport spokesperson said, Were ready to start work on the supply of equipment, training of Indian specialists and commissioning at the factory in Amethi immediately after the conclusion of the contract.

The project was announced by Indian PM Modi and Russian President in 2019. It aims to produce lakhs of these rifles that will ultimately become part of the Indian security forces essentials. The joint programme also could see the possibility of rifles being exported to other countries.

AK203 is the advanced version of the Kalashnikov assault rifle family, the first of which was the legendary AK-47. AK-203 can be equipped with accessories like sights, flashlights and has been successfully tested under extreme heat and cold conditions.

The spokesperson explained, The historical uniqueness of the AK-203 production project in India is that our Indian partners will manufacture the AK-203 absolutely independently using Indian materials and Indian equipment.

It is learnt that India will receive 100% of technology for the production of the rifles, with the project literally being a Make in India project. The cost of the assault rifle will depend on production in India.

The AK-200 series assault rifles were showcased at the Army-2021 International Military-Technical Forum in Russia earlier this year, and expectedly aroused great interest among potential customers from different regions of the world. Rosoboronexport has already signed contracts for the supply of the latest AK-200 series assault rifles.

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Vijayanagar: The administration of Karnataka's newly created Vijayanagar district is on high alert after the death toll due to consumption of contaminated water in Makarabbi village in Hoovinahadagali taluk of the state rose to 6. Considering the emergency, the district administration has stationed two ambulances in the village to shift patients quickly to hospitals in case anyone develops symptoms of diarrhoea and vomiting.

The deceased are identified as Lakshmamma, Basamma Havanooru, Neelappa Belavagi, Goneppa, Mahadevappa and Kenchamma, all from Makarabbi village. As many as 200 people who fell sick after drinking contaminated water are being treated at Ballary, Hospet, Hubballi, Haveri and other hospitals.

Two people died on September 23 and another person, a 50-year woman succumbed on October 1.

Sources said Makarabbi village where the tragedy took place has a population of more than 2,000 people. During installation of new pipeline to borewells, old pipes got damaged and sewage water got mixed up with drinking water.

More than 50 people whose health condition turned critical have been shifted to various hospitals in Hubballi, Davanagere, Haveri, Ballary and other places. Sources say that many are still in a critical state.

Taluk Health Inspector Dr Vinod said that 9 cases of vomiting and loose motion were reported first on Aug 26 and they were admitted to a nearby hospital. They responded to the treatment and recovered. A team of officers visited the village and collected three samples of water. Among these, 2 samples report showed that the water is unfit to be used for drinking purposes.

On September 23, cases of vomiting and loose motion were reported again. The district administration opened a temporary hospital at the village and two ambulances were stationed to shift the patients in case of emergency, he explained.

The action has been taken to close three bore wells and a well in the village. The water is being provided by tankers and a RO plant has also been established in the village, he explained.

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New Delhi: The Karnataka government will take a call on reopening schools for classes 1-5 after the festival season, state Health Minister K Sudhakar said on Sunday (October 3).

Further, Sudhakar said that the state government resumed physical classes not in a "hurry" but in a phased manner after deliberation with parents and experts.

"We will take a decision shortly after the festival season. Let the Dussehra vacation get over," PTI quoted Sudhakar as saying.

He added that a final decision will be taken after consultation and the Cabinet's decision. "We were to reopen schools for classes 1-5 because medically speaking immunity in children up to 12 years is highest, the state health minister said.

Commenting on a school in Bengaluru which had to be closed after children tested COVID-19 positive, Sudhakar said that reopening schools for classes 1-5 students cannot depend on one incident.

That school is shut now and many children are isolated. Two children had symptoms and they are not in a serious condition. We are keeping a watch on every school in the state," he said.

He added, "It has been more than a month that schools were reopened for classes 6-8 in the state and "we have not received any reports of concerns from schools so far."

Sudhakar assured that the state government will take back its decision if students face issues. We did not take decisions in hurry. Even now if we see children are facing problems, then we will immediately take back our decision, he stated.

Meanwhile, Karnataka logged 664 fresh COVID-19 cases and eight fatalities on Sunday, which took the infection tally to 29,77,889 and the death toll to 37,819. The state currently has 12,301 active cases, a health department bulletin said.

(With PTI inputs)

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New Delhi: Hours after the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) detained Aryan Khan and seven others in connection with the drug seizure on a cruise ship, a viral selfie of a man with Shah Rukh Khan's son went viral on the social media platforms on Sunday (October 3, 2021). However, the NCB has now clarified that the man in the picture with Aryan Khan is not their officer or employee.

"NCB categorically clarifies that the man in this picture with Aryan Khan is not an officer or employee of NCB," the investigating agency was quoted as saying by ANI.

This is to be noted that an NCB team on Saturday evening busted an alleged drugs party on a cruise ship that was on its way to Goa at mid-sea. Eight persons including Shah Rukh Khan's son were then detained for questioning. All eight were then arrested by Mumbai police on Sunday.

Subsequently, Aryan Khan and two others were remanded to NCB custody till October 4.

After Aryan Khans arrest, drug supplier taken into custody

A drug supplier has been taken into custody by the Narcotics Control Bureau following a series of raids in Bandra, Andheri, and Lokhandwala, late on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday. The NCB on Sunday had said that it had evidence suggesting a nexus between three persons it had arrested, including Aryan Khan, and suppliers and peddlers of drugs and banned narcotic substances regularly.

This comes after the NCB team, led by its zonal director Sameer Wankhede, raided the Goa-bound ship on Saturday evening based on a tip-off that a party was scheduled onboard. The sleuths seized 13 grams of cocaine, five grams of MD, 21 grams of charas and 22 pills of Ecstasy and Rs 1.33 lakh.

Suspects hid drugs in clothes, undergarments, purses

During the raid, over 20 officials of the Mumbai NCB had boarded the ship posing as customers. There were 1,800 people on the ship but after checking, all were asked to go except the eight including Aryan Khan. An NCB official said that the anti-drug agency was keeping a close watch on this event on the cruise ship for the last 15-20 days after receiving information that a drug party will be organised. He also said that the suspects had hidden drugs in their clothes, undergarments and purses (by women).

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New Delhi: Shilpa Shetty has shared a heartfelt note for her sister Shamita who has now entered Salman Khan hosted Bigg Boss 15 house.

Missing her sister Shamita she shared a Boomerang video in which both the sisters are making pout and are looking cute as always.

She wrote, All the bestest, Tunki my lil boss lady! The only consolation is I will see you more now, albeit on TV. Will missssssss you, Missy @shamitashetty_official

#ShamitaShetty #Biggboss15 #bosslady..

Earlier to this, Shamita participated in Bigg Boss OTT and became the second runner-up in the show. During her stint in the show, she was highly appreciated by her fans and loved ones.

Apart from her Bigg Boss 15 will also have our former contestants from Bigg Boss OTT which includes  Pratik Sehajpal and Nishant Bhat. Currently, they are inside the main house of Bigg Boss and have been blessed with all the privileges as they have entered the house.

Other contestants include- Tejasswi Prakash, Karan Kundrra, Akasa Singh, Donal Bisht, Umar Riaz, Sahil Shroff and Simba Nagpal among others.

This years theme of the show is a jungle and the contestants will get a survival kit for the initial days and will have to manage everything on their own.

You can catch episodes of Bigg Boss 15 on Colors TV from Monday to Friday at 10:30 pm. On Saturday and Sunday, the show will air at 9:30 pm; as every season Salman Khan will feature on the show and interact with the contestants on weekends.
New Delhi: Superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Sunday (October 4) after the officials had raided a cruise party on Saturday and procured drugs. Apart from Aryan, seven other people have also been detained in the matter. King Khan has appointed celebrity lawyer Satish Maneshinde to represent his son in the matter.

Who is Satish Maneshinde?

Satish Maneshinde is a famous criminal lawyer who has represented Salman Khan, Sanjay Dutt and Rhea Chakraborty in the past. The advocate first rose to prominence for representing Sanjay Dutt in the 1993 Mumbai blast case. Manishinde was successful in securing the bail for the actor in the sensitive case. He later was part of Sanjay Dutts legal team that defended the actor in 2007 illegal possession of weapons charges.

Maneshinde has also successfully defended actor Salman Khan in the 2002 drinking and driving hit and run case.

He has most recently represented actress Rhea Chakraborty in abetment to suicide and money laundering case filed against her by late actor Sushant Singh Rajputs family.

The 56 years old advocate started his career under the tutelage of celebrated criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani and worked as an apprentice to him for more than a decade.

Satish Maneshinde on Aryan Khan drug case

Defending his 23-year-old client Aryan Khan, Satish Maneshinde was quoted by PTI saying, No incriminating material has been recovered from him (Aryan Khan). There is no possession or evidence of consumption.

In the arrest memo issued against Aryan Khan, the star kid is accused of being involved in connection with the seizure of 13 grams of Cocaine, 5 grams of MD, 21 grams of Charas and 22 pills of MDMA and 1.33 lakhs in cash.
New Delhi: Actor Manoj Bajpayee, who recently lost his father, has thanked all those who checked in on him and sent their love to him during this tough time.

Taking to Twitter, Manoj also spoke about how his father RK Bajpayee supported him to fulfil his dream of becoming an actor.

"Thank you all for sending prayers and love on the sad demise of my father who was the sole reason and support for me to venture on such a difficult journey which got me everything that I dreamt of!! Eternally grateful to you all," he wrote.

Thank you all for sending prayers and love on the sad demise of my father who was the sole reason and support for me to venture on such a difficult journey which got me everything that I dreamt of!! Eternally grateful to you all!!  manoj bajpayee (@BajpayeeManoj) October 4, 2021

Manoj's father breathed his last at the age of 83 on Sunday. His last rites were held at the Nigambodh Ghat in New Delhi.
New Delhi: The Narcotics Control Bureau on Monday (October 4) sought custody of Shahrukh Khan's son Aryan Khan and two more people till October 13 in connection with a drug raid on a cruise ship off Mumbai case.

At least eight accused, including Aryan Khan, Arbaz Seth Merchant, and Munmun Dhamecha, were arrested after NCB sleuths raided a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast and busted a drug party on the ship which was on its way to Goa in the mid-sea on Saturday night. All eight persons were detained for questioning by the NCB in connection with the drug seizure on the cruise ship, according to NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede. All of the eight persons were later arrested on Sunday. Three accused, including Aryan Khan, Arbaz Seth Merchant, and Munmun Dhamecha, were produced before Mumbai`s Esplanade Court which sent remanded to NCB custody till October 4.

The NCB told the court that it raided the ship based on a tip-off that a party was scheduled onboard. "We had received some information, and then conducted raids. The seizure was made of Cocaine and other drugs. Further there are five more connected persons under investigation who were apprehended over suspicious transactions. The NCB has arrested one more person in connection with the case. So we need their custody to unearth the nexus. The WhatsApp chat clearly shows the nexus after which NCB conducted searches."

All known organisers of the event are now under the scanner of the NCB, an official of the anti-drug agency earlier said.

According to PTI, the NCB will now determine whether any of the organisers had any knowledge about the drugs being brought and consumed onboard during the three-day cruise in the Arabian Sea. "Three additional directors of the event management company are now under the lens of the agency," the official told the news agency.
Mumbai: Mumbai Police registered a non-cognisable (NC) offence against Bollywood lyricist Javed Akhtar on Monday over his alleged remark against the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on a complaint filed by a lawyer, a senior police officer said.

Earlier in the day, a Mumbai Police official and the complainant lawyer had said that an FIR (First Information Report) was registered against the veteran lyricist.

Later in the day, Mulund police station senior inspector Avinash Bhise clarified to PTI that an NC was registered against Akhtar and not FIR as told by the official earlier.

Complainant Santosh Dubey has made and circulated a video of himself claiming that the police had registered an FIR against Akhtar (76) based on his complaint.

The lawyer had last month sent a legal notice to Akhtar for allegedly making "false and defamatory" remarks against the RSS in an interview to a news channel, and sought an apology from him.

In the said interview, Akhtar allegedly drew parallels between the Taliban and Hindu extremists.

Dubey in his notice had claimed that by making such statements, Akhtar committed an offence under IPC Sections 499 (defamation) and 500 (punishment for defamation).

"I had earlier sent a legal notice to Akhtar and asked him to apologise over his remark, but he fail to do so. Now, an FIR has been registered against him on my complaint," the lawyer had said.

Mulund police station senior inspector Avinash Bhise said, "We have registered an NC (non-cognisable offence) under section 500 (punishment for defamation) of the IPC against Akhtar. Further investigation is underway".

In the case of a non-cognizable offence, the police cannot arrest the accused without a warrant as well as cannot start an investigation without the permission of the court.
New Delhi: Superstar Salman Khan visited Shah Rukh Khans residence Mannat at around midnight on Sunday (October 3) after the latters son Aryan Khan was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in a drug case. The 23-year-old star kid along with Arbaz Seth Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha will stay in the anti-drugs department custody till today.

Salman was seen arriving at Mannat in a white SUV car. The actor wore a plain black t-shirt and a black hat. Earlier, actress and producer Pooja Bhatt also tweeted in support of the actor. I stand in solidarity with you @iamsrk Not that you need it. But I do. This too, shall pass, read Poojas tweet.

I stand in solidarity with you @iamsrk Not that you need it. But I do. This too, shall pass.  Pooja Bhatt (@PoojaB1972) October 3, 2021

Earlier, actor Suniel Shetty spoke in favour of Aryan Khan at an event. The actor asked the media to give Aryan a breather till reports come out. When a raid is conducted at a place, many people are taken into custody. We assume that a particular boy must have consumed it (drugs). The process is on. Let's give that child a breather. Let real reports come out, the actor said.

#WATCH | When a raid is conducted at a place, many people are taken into custody. We assume that a particular boy must have consumed it (drugs). The process is on. Let's give that child a breather. Let real reports come out: Actor Sunil Shetty on NCB raid at an alleged rave party pic.twitter.com/qYaYSsxkyi  ANI (@ANI) October 3, 2021

On Saturday evening (October 2), the NCB conducted a raid on a cruise ship party and found drugs. Aryan Khan was also part of the party. And on Sunday (October 3) an arrest memo was issued against him in connection with the seizure of 13 grams of Cocaine, 5 grams of MD, 21 grams of Charas and 22 pills of MDMA and 1.33 lakhs in cash.
San Francisco: Apple is reportedly planning to hold a Mac focused event within the next month where the tech giant may launch brand new MacBook Pros with a faster "M1X" Apple silicon chip and an updated design.

In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Mark Gurman said that Apple may announce M1X powered MacBook Pros soon, reports MacRumors.

The new chip is also expected to make its way to a higher-end Mac mini "at some point".

The M1X has been developed in two different variations, according to the report. Both versions of the chip feature a 10-core design with eight high-performance cores and two high-efficiency cores.

According to industry sources, the shipments for LEDs and associated components to Apple assembly partners relating to the MacBook Pro models are on schedule as expected.

Apple`s use of mini-LED panels in its forthcoming MacBook lineups will catalyse supplier investment and push the entire industry toward adoption of the display technology.

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that Apple is already "actively looking for second suppliers of key Mini LED components", and if its mini-LED notebooks receive positive feedback, other notebook makers and their suppliers will inevitably be pushed towards adoption of the technology.

Apple is also developing a thinner and lighter version of the MacBook Air that will have thinner bezels than the current model.

Rumours suggest it will have a 13-inch mini-LED display, which will be an upgrade over the existing MacBook Air`s display.
WhatsApp, the instant messaging app, is becoming more vulnerable to hacking. A new WhatsApp scam has emerged, and scammers are now using the name Kaun Banega Crorepati to dupe people. Scammers are said to be based in foreign countries and are enticing Indians with a message advertising a Rs 25 lakh lottery. This WhatsApp message informs users that they have won Rs 25 lakh in a lucky draw. This comes at a time when In India, WhatsApp Payments is testing a 'Cashback' feature.

If you have received such a message, you should not pay any attention to it because it is fraudulent. At around 6.24 PM today, I got a bogus KBC lottery message on WhatsApp. The scammer had promised a Rs 25 lakh payout. The audio message came from a person who claimed to be a member of KBC. This WhatsApp audio included a poster message with the faces of Amitabh Bachchan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani. Also Read: WhatsApp, Instagram face global outage, users unable to send messages

Picture this, the same incident happened with a person named Raza in Mumbai who unknowingly believed that she would be able to claim her prize. To be eligible for the prize, the scammer demanded that she pay a processing fee of Rs 25,000. Raza realised she had been duped for Rs 25,000 when the scammer asked her to pay an additional Rs 45,000 rather than transferring Rs 25 lakh into her bank account. In a recent episode of KBC, actor Amitabh Bachchan warned viewers that Sony TV does not ask for money for KBC and to be wary of anyone who does.

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New Delhi: Hundreds of farmers will stage a protest at the district collectorate and in every district across the country on Monday against the violent clash in Lakhimpur Kheri in which at least eight people were killed on Sunday.

In view of the incident, a panchayat was called by Naresh Tikait, national president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), in Sisauli village of Muzaffarnagar late-night during which it was decided that a demonstration will be staged at the district collectorate on Monday. Naresh Tikait addressed the farmers and expressed displeasure over the incident. As per the information, it has been decided that the farmers will stage a protest against the violence at the district collectorate.

Reportedly eight people died in the violence, however officially four deaths have been confirmed so far. An atmosphere of tension prevails in the state since the incident. From farmer leaders to political leaders, everyone is making efforts to reach Lakhimpur Kheri. BKU's Rakesh Tikait has also reached violence-hit Lakhimpur Kheri, according to news agency PTI.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, top opposition leaders arrested

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other party leaders have reached here early on Monday but alleged they were not allowed to meet the victims of the violence that erupted during a farmers' protest and claimed several lives. The Congress party, through several tweets, claimed that Priyanka and other leaders have been "arrested" by the UP Police.

Priyanka Gandhi, who is accompanied by party leader Deepender Singh Hooda among others, had to take alternative routes to reach the destination as heavy security was deployed on the main roads amid tension in the violence-hit region.

We are waiting outside the Banbirpur village. We have been prevented by the police from entering. We have come here to meet the victims of the violence, Congress national secretary Dheeraj Gurjar said over the phone at 4.30 am.

Priyanka Gandhi's convoy was earlier briefly stopped by the Uttar Pradesh Police officials in Lucknow, where the Congress general secretary had arrived on Sunday night, within a few hours of violence being reported during a protest against anti-farm laws here.

Internet, mobile services suspended

Meanwhile, mobile internet services have been suspended in parts of the violence-hit district, where restrictions under CrPC section 144 -- which prohibits assembly of four or more people -- have also been imposed, according to officials.

The UP police took to Twitter early Monday to describe the incident as unfortunate and said eight casualties have been reported so far as per the district administration. ADG LO, ACS Agriculture, IG Range & Commissioner are on the spot & situation is under control. Adequate deployment has been done to prevent any untoward incident, it added.

Security arrangements have also been beefed up on the Delhi borders. Administrative officers also took stock of the movement site at Ghazipur.

What happened in Lakhimpur Kheri?

Farmers were staging a sit-in at Benipur village located in Lakhimpur Kheri and sat on protest at a Helipad, where the helicopter of Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Maurya was supposed to be landed. After which it was decided that the Deputy Chief Minister will reach Lakhimpur Kheri via road.

A group of unidentified persons allegedly opened fire at the farmers. Some of the farmers were reportedly even run over by a vehicle. Following this, the angry farmers retaliated by setting two SUVs on fire. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over the incident called it unfortunate.

Meanwhile, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha has claimed that one of the farmers was shot dead by MoS Home Ajay Mishra Tenis son Ashish Mishra. They have demanded a murder case to be filed against Ashish Mishra. However, the Union Minister refuted the allegations saying that his son was not present at the site at the time of the incident. He said he had video evidence to back his claim.

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Lakhimpur Kheri: Uttar Pradesh Police have registered an FIR against Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra's son Ashish in connection with the violence in Lakhimpur Kheri during which at least eight people were killed on Sunday.

Several farmer leaders, including BKUs Rakesh Tikait and Sanyukt Kisan Morcha, had demanded that an FIR be registered against MoS Mishra and his son for their alleged involvement in the violence that hit the district on Sunday.

Prodded about certain comments made by Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra in purported videos that have surfaced on social media, Tikait demanded his arrest and said the atmosphere in the region was being vitiated over the last 10 days.

However, the Union Minister has refuted the allegations saying that his son was not present at the site at the time of the incident. He said he had video evidence to back his claim.

Hundreds of farmers will stage a protest at the district collectorate and in every district across the country on Monday against the violent clash in Lakhimpur Kheri in which at least eight people were killed on Sunday.

In view of the incident, a panchayat was called by Naresh Tikait, national president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), in Sisauli village of Muzaffarnagar late-night during which it was decided that a demonstration will be staged at the district collectorate on Monday.

We will first meet the farmers and villagers and discuss the situation with them. The future course of action will be done on the basis of the discussion with the villagers and farmers. Their decision will prevail, Tikait told reporters at Banbirpur village.



Reportedly eight people died in the violence, however officially four deaths have been confirmed so far.

An atmosphere of tension prevails in the state since the incident. From farmer leaders to political leaders, everyone is making efforts to reach Lakhimpur Kheri.

The national spokesperson of the BKU, a non-political farmers' union, had started from western UP on Sunday evening and reached here early morning, with his associates blaming the delay on multiple police checks.

En route to Lakhimpur, we were stopped at multiple places by the UP Police. Somehow we have managed to reach here at Banbirpur village and Tikait ji will now be meeting the farmers here, BKU's media in-charge Dharmendra Malik said over the phone at around 5 am.

Meanwhile, mobile internet services were suspended in parts of the violence-hit district, where restrictions under CrPC section 144, which prohibits assembly of four or more people, has also been imposed, according to officials.

The UP Police took to Twitter early on Monday to describe the incident as unfortunate and said eight casualties have been reported till now as per the district administration.

ADG LO, ACS Agriculture, IG Range & Commissioner are on the spot & situation is under control. Adequate deployment has been done to prevent any untoward incident, it added.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other party leaders have reached here early on Monday but alleged they were not allowed to meet the victims of the violence that erupted during a farmers' protest and claimed several lives. The Congress party, through several tweets, claimed that Priyanka and other leaders have been "arrested" by the UP Police.

Priyanka Gandhi, who is accompanied by party leader Deepender Singh Hooda among others, had to take alternative routes to reach the destination as heavy security was deployed on the main roads amid tension in the violence-hit region.

We are waiting outside the Banbirpur village. We have been prevented by the police from entering. We have come here to meet the victims of the violence, Congress national secretary Dheeraj Gurjar said over the phone at 4.30 am.

Priyanka Gandhi's convoy was earlier briefly stopped by the Uttar Pradesh Police officials in Lucknow, where the Congress general secretary had arrived on Sunday night, within a few hours of violence being reported during a protest against anti-farm laws here.

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Lucknow: Targeting the Uttar Pradesh government, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who was allegedly arrested on her way to the Lakhimpur Kheri, and his party won`t relent and will continue fighting for justice.

"Priyanka, I know you won`t relent - they are stunned by your courage. In this non-violent fight for justice, we will make the country`s Annadata win," he tweeted.

Several Opposition leaders from various parties including Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Chhattisgarh Bhupesh Baghel and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav are also scheduled to visit Lakhimpur Kheri today.

Baghel alleged that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who was on her way to Uttar Pradesh Lakhimpur Kheri district to visit the kin of the victims, has been arrested from Hargaon.

"AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has been arrested in Sitapur on his way to Lakhimpur. Deepender Hooda is also with him. After the killing of the farmers, now the democratic rights of the people are also being snatched away," he tweeted.

Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of several farmer unions, alleged that Ashish Mishra Teni, son of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni arrived with three vehicles around the time that farmers were dispersing from their protest at the helipad and mowed down farmers and towards the end also attacked SKM leader Tajinder Singh Virk directly, by trying to run a vehicle over him.

However, Ashish Mishra refuted SKM`s allegations and said he was not present at the spot where the incident took place.

As many as eight people died in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident on Sunday, said Uttar Pradesh police.

MoS Teni also said that his son was not present at the spot, adding that some miscreants mingled with protesting farmers and pelted the stones at the car which lead to the `unfortunate incident`.

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Srinagar: National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Monday said that Uttar Pradesh has become a new Jammu and Kashmir, taking a swipe at the law and order situation in the state following violence in Lakhimpur Kheri district on Sunday,

"Uttar Pradesh is the 'naya J&K'," he tweeted, drawing a comparison with the union territory which has been scarred by terrorism and violence for decades now.

Uttar Pradesh is the naya J&K.  Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) October 4, 2021

The reaction from the former J&K chief minister came a day after at least eight persons were killed in the Uttar Pradesh district during the violence.

The Uttar Pradesh Police have lodged at least two FIRs in the case and named Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra's son among other persons.

"FIR has been lodged against several persons including Minister of State for Home, Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra," Uttar Pradesh Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Awanish Kumar Awasthi said.

According to ADG, Law and Order, Prashant Kumar, details on the FIRs were immediately not known.

"I am on the spot. Two FIRs from both sides have been registered in the matter. Detailed information is not available yet as the internet is not working here. We will let the media know about it soon," he said in Lakhimpur.

Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh government on Monday agreed to pay a compensation of Rs 45 lakh to the kin of the four farmers killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence.

A compensation of Rs 45 lakh will be paid to the families of the deceased while the injured will get Rs 10 lakh. A judicial probe will also be conducted in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence matter while one family member of the victims will be given a job.

UP Police ADG (Law & Order) Prashant Kumar said, "The government will give Rs 45 lakhs and a government job to the families of the 4 farmers who died in Lakhimpur Kheri yesterday. The injured will be given Rs 10 lakhs."

Kumar also said that an FIR will be registered based on the farmers' complaint and a retired high court judge will probe the matter.

The violence had taken place during a farmers' protest yesterday ahead of Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya's planned visit to Lakhimpur Kheri.

The dead included both farmers and BJP workers. Four of the persons who died were travelling in the cars, which were believed to be a part of a convoy of BJP workers. The workers had come to Lakhimpur to welcome the UP minister.

It has been alleged that the four were thrashed to death. Farmer leaders have alleged that the four farmers were killed when they were run over by a car being driven by minister Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra, while the protest to oppose the UP Deputy CM's visit was on.

However, Ajay Mishra has refuted claims that either he or his son was present at the spot when the incident happened.

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Lucknow: A video of Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra sweeping a room with a broom as a token of protest against the Lakhimpur Kheri violence has gone viral on social media.

According to sources, the video is of the room where Priyanka has been detained since Monday morning at the Sitapur PAC headquarters. The room was apparently dirty and the Congress leader can be seen sweeping it with a broom.

In the viral video, she can be seen cleaning the entire room by herself. Congress workers, however, slammed the police officials for not even giving a clean room to their leader.

@priyankagandhi ji herself cleaned the dirt in the room where she was kept after arrest.

The whole country is watching the filth of jungle raj, and the country is also getting to know who can clean Uttar Pradesh.#PriyankaGandhiwithFarmers @INCIndia @RahulGandhi @kcvenugopalmp pic.twitter.com/TcInpTlU1c  Revanth Reddy (@revanth_anumula) October 4, 2021

"Is this their Swachh Bharat? This is our leader who is cleaning the broom without any fuss," a local Congress leader.

Union Minister Ajay Mishra's son is among those booked in connection with the violence during a farmers' protest in Lakhimpur Kheri, officials said on Monday as multiple opposition leaders tried to make their way to the Uttar Pradesh district through the night but were prevented from doing so.

Two FIRs were registered a day after clashes claimed the lives of eight people, including four farmers allegedly run over and four people in a convoy of BJP workers who were lynched, the incident propelling Lakhimpur Kheri as a new flashpoint in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.

The Uttar Pradesh government will give Rs 45 lakh each and a government job at the local level to the family members of the four farmers killed in Lakhimpur, said Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Awanish Kumar Awasthi.

As tempers ran high and the opposition trained its guns on the BJP-led state government, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, SP president Akhilesh Yadav, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, BSP's S C Mishra and AAP's Sanjay Singh were among those prevented by police from going to the trouble spot, about 80 km from the district headquarters and 225 km from Lucknow.

"FIR has been lodged against several persons, including Minister of State for Home, Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra," Awasthi said in Lucknow.

Additional Director General, Law and Order, Prashant Kumar, who was in Lakhimpur Kheri, added that two FIRs from both sides had been registered in the incident, the bloodiest yet in the prolonged farmers' protest against the Centre's new agri laws that began last year. The details were not known immediately.

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Washington: Expressing its concerns over China`s activity near Taiwan, the US has asked Beijing to cease its military coercion against Taipei and stressed that the communist regime is "undermining regional peace and stability".

"The United States is very concerned by the People`s Republic of China`s provocative military activity near Taiwan, which is destabilizing, risks miscalculations, and undermines regional peace and stability," US State Department`s spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement on Sunday (October 3, 2021).

"We urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic, and economic pressure and coercion against Taiwan," the statement added.

Underlining that the US has an abiding interest in peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, Price emphasised that Washington will continue to continue to assist Taipei in maintaining a sufficient self-defence capability.

ALSO READ | Over 100 Chinese soldiers transgressed LAC in Uttarakhand last month: Sources

He stressed that the US will maintain its commitments as outlined in the Three Communiques, the Taiwan Relations Act, and the Six Assurances.

Washington`s commitment to Taipei is rock solid and contributes to the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and within the region, said Ned Price, adding, "We will continue to stand with friends and allies to advance our shared prosperity, security, and values and deepen our ties with democratic Taiwan."

Taiwan on Saturday had said that at least 58 Chinese warplanes entered its air identification zone (ADIZ) in the last two days of which 20 of them flew in on Saturday alone.

A total of 38 Chinese military planes, such as fighter jets and bombers, entered the area on Friday, Kyodo News reported citing the Defence Ministry.

These were said to be the biggest incursions by the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) since Taipei began publicly reporting such activities last year.

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Washington: Hundreds of world leaders, powerful politicians, billionaires, celebrities, religious leaders and drug dealers have been hiding their investments in mansions, exclusive beachfront property, yachts and other assets for the past quarter-century, according to a review of nearly 12 million files obtained from 14 firms located around the world.

The report released Sunday by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists involved 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 countries. It's being dubbed the "Pandora Papers" because the findings shed light on the previously hidden dealings of the elite and the corrupt, and how they have used offshore accounts to shield assets collectively worth trillions of dollars.

Over 330 current, former politicians identified

More than 330 current and former politicians identified as beneficiaries of the secret accounts include Jordan's King Abdullah II, former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, Czech Republic Prime Minister Andrej Babis, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso, and associates of both Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The billionaires called out in the report include Turkish construction mogul Erman Ilicak and Robert T. Brockman, the former CEO of software maker Reynolds & Reynolds.



ALSO READ | Sachin Tendulkar's name crops up in Pandora Papers

Many of the accounts were designed to evade taxes and conceal assets for other shady reasons, according to the report.

"The new data leak must be a wake-up call," said Sven Giegold, a Green party lawmaker in the European Parliament.

Oxfam International, a British consortium of charities, applauded the Pandora Papers for exposing brazen examples of greed that deprived countries of tax revenue that could be used to finance programs and projects for the greater good.

"This is where our missing hospitals are," Oxfam said in a statement.

"This is where the pay-packets sit of all the extra teachers and firefighters and public servants we need. Whenever a politician or business leader claims there is no money' to pay for climate damage and innovation, for more and better jobs, for a fair post-COVID recovery, for more overseas aid, they know where to look."

Pandora Papers vs Panama Papers

The Pandora Papers are a follow-up to a similar project released in 2016 called the "Panama Papers" compiled by the same journalistic group. The latest bombshell is even more expansive, porting through nearly 3 terabytes of data (the equivalent of roughly 750,000 photos on a smartphone) leaked from 14 different service providers doing business in 38 different jurisdictions in the world. The records date back to the 1970s, but most of the files span from 1996 to 2020.

In contrast, the Panama Papers culled through 2.6 terabytes of data leaked by one now-defunct law firm called Mossack Fonseca that was located in the country that inspired that project's nickname.

The latest investigation dug into accounts registered in familiar offshore havens, including the British Virgin Islands, Seychelles, Hong Kong and Belize. But some of the secret accounts were also scattered around in trusts set up in the U.S., including 81 in South Dakota and 37 in Florida.

Some of the initial findings released Sunday painted a sordid picture of the prominent people involved. For instance, the investigation found advisers helped King Abdullah II of Jordan set up at least three dozen shell companies from 1995 to 2017, helping the monarch buy 14 homes worth more than $106 million in the U.S. and the U.K.

Blair, U.K. Prime minister from 1997 to 2007, became the owner of an $8.8 million Victorian building in 2017 by buying a British Virgin Islands company that held the property, and the building now hosts the law firm of his wife, Cherie Blair, according to the investigation.

Imran Khan, the Pakistani prime minister, is not accused of any wrongdoing. But members of his inner circle, including Finance Minister Shaukat Fayaz Ahmed Tarin, are accused of hiding millions of dollars in wealth in secret companies or trusts, according to the journalists' findings. In a tweet, Khan vowed to recover the "ill-gotten gains" and said his government will look into all citizens mentioned in the documents and take action if needed.

The consortium of journalists revealed Vladimir Putin's image-maker and chief executive of Russia's leading TV station, Konstantin Ernst, got a discount to buy and develop Soviet-era cinemas and surrounding property in Moscow after he directed the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Ernst told the organization the deal wasn't secret and denied suggestions he was given special treatment.

In 2009, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis put $22 million into shell companies to buy a chateau property in a hilltop village in Mougins, France, near Cannes, the investigation found. The shell companies and the chateau were not disclosed in Babis' required asset declarations, according to documents obtained by the journalism group's Czech partner, Investigace.Cz.

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Kabul: The Taliban have denied reports of the foreign troops` presence at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, reported local media. Omar Mansor, a member of the cultural commission, said, "There are no foreign troops currently in Afghanistan, including Chinese", according to TOLOnews.

On Saturday night, Bagram residents had said that the lights of the base were seen, the first time since the US troops left the airfield.

However, Mansoor informed that the Taliban members had switched on lights there.

"The lights were switched on again at Bagram air force base. There were some voices heard at the base. A plane has also been seen there," TOLOnews quoted resident of Bagram district, Shamshad as saying.

Unconfirmed reports had rumoured the presence of the Chinese air force at the base. A foreign force is rumoured to be involved, with fingers pointed at China, which denied eyeing the base,` Russia Today reported.

Earlier in September, analysts had said that China was eyeing the former US airbase of Bagram in Afghanistan in order to expand its influence in the region and embarrass America.

Paul D Shinkman, writing in US News had said that China secured friendly relations with the new Taliban government in Afghanistan and is now considering new ways to expand influence and embarrass the US.

Beijing is considering deploying military personnel and economic development officials to Bagram Airfield, perhaps the single-most prominent symbol of the 20-year US military presence in Afghanistan, Shinkman said.

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